This week's episode of the ANtics focuses on Ken Macha and the team's approach to shortstop Bobby Crosby's apparent fragility, in a piece titled "Crosby Wellness Clinic 101"! May we never have to create an upper division course with the same name...

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ANtics Archive: 2005/06 ANtics | PDF

I may have mentioned KavaSoft on this site before, but the one-person company just released an update to their iTunes Catalog software which dramatically improves their online cataloging features - making it appear just as you were viewing your iTunes library, and it browses your personal music as if you were at the iTunes music store.

If you have a Web site, or just want to poke around with one of the very best independent software applications for the Mac I've ever seen, check it out. And it handles large libraries just fine, as you can tell with my 3,400+ song, 18 days, 28.5 Gig demo.

http://www.louisgray.com/music/

It seems unthinkable, but in highly classified discussions about how to approach Iran's continued development of nuclear plants, presumably for weaponry rather than their said need for power, the White House administration is strongly considering preemptive attacks against production plants in Iran - and not just with conventional weapons, but nuclear weapons. This has come to light from a piece in The New Yorker, by Seymour Hersh, the same investigative reporter who uncovered My Lai in the Vietnam War, and first disclosed the treatment of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

We've already seen widespread acceptance for the concept of preemptive war - Iraq being the best example, but Hersh reports that the Bush administration's focus all along was on Iran, and that Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is seen as a potential Adolph Hitler, having already stated his belief that the Holocaust was a fable, and that Israel should be "wiped off the map". But I am surprised that the United States would discuss the usage of nuclear arms as part of a campaign to thwart a hostile country's acquisition of nuclear weapons themselves.

Given Hersh's background and reputation for accuracy, combined with the administration's history for aggressiveness in the Middle East, this is an eye opening development.

The New Yorker: The Iran Plans
CNN: Report: US Steps Up Iran Options
Google News: "Seymour Hersh & nuclear"

Listening to ''Adrenalin'', by Purple Haze (Play Count: 1)

It seems that the Democrats are mad as hell and aren't going to take it any more - finally. After years of being pushed around by the Republican agenda, voices are rising up against the administration and its lacking ethics, the ongoing war in Iraq that seems to not have an end - or progress for that matter. From Russ Feingold's call for censure to Madeline Albright's words of fury in the LA Times, you can see the fury develop. Today, former presidential candidate and current senator John Kerry sounded off with some of his strongest words yet - saying the president needs to tell the truth, fire the incompetents and find Osama Bin Laden (long time since we heard of him, no?)

His best line? "The Bush administration is wondering when Iraq will have a functioning government. I want to know when we're going to have a functioning government."
Kerry didn't sound so strong in his failed presidential bid in 2004 - known as the candidate who couldn't keep a firm position, best evidenced by his "I voted for it before I voted against it," line. Now, he's struggling to stay relevant at a time when Howard Dean is running the Democratic National Committee and Kerry is seen more as someone with a political past than a political future. In fact, the Republican spokespeople have focused on Kerry in their response rather than the issues, of course, saying he "deserves credit for continuing to take himself so seriously, despite the fact that no one else does." Ouch! Of course, they couldn't have stood behind the president's record on Katrina, Iraq, wiretapping, leaking classified information, shooting friends on hunting trips, or any other of the litany of foolish things the administration has done to damage our reputation at home and abroad.

While Kerry may not be the ideal spokesperson for the Democratic Party, it is time for him and others to continue fighting for what they know to be right. As Kerry said, more than half of the American deaths in Vietnam occurred after Washington politicos had determined we were not going to win the conflict. He doesn't want to see a similar wall for this war - or combination of wars to wherever Bush has plans to send us next.

Related Links: New York Times | Daily Kos

Listening to ''Made Of Sun (KvA Hard Dub - AvB Edit)'', by Kyau Vs Albert (Play Count: 4)