Of the thousands of major league baseball games every season and over a hundred seasons, less than 20 have been "perfect", meaning that not a single opposing batter gets to first base for any reason, including walks, errors, or hit batter. Dallas Braden, pitcher for the Oakland A's, pitched one today against Tampa Bay. What makes Braden's accomplishment even more remarkable is the fact he has a losing record over four seasons in the majors, winning only 17 games overall.
Lena Horne: RIP
FCC Makes Unwise Intrusion into Broadband
In my April 6 post, I mentioned the issue of net neutrality, which I oppose. Basically, the Internet has been largely unregulated, and, in my opinion, has resulted in remarkable growth and innovation. The backers of "net neutrality" believe that the government needs to intercede to ensure nondiscriminatory treatment of web content and services; they want the government to regulate information services the same way it has traditionally regulated telecommunications services. In practice, the issue hasn't been a question of filtering websites or their content; it has to do with service providers (e.g., Comcast) wanting to restrict things like network resource hogs file-sharing applications which can adversely affect other customers and the network as a whole. They also want to market premium services which competitors fear will have a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Last month a court of appeals ruled that the FCC had exceeded its mandate in ruling against Comcast. At that point, there were some broad hints that the FCC would attempt to skirt the court ruling by redefining information services under a regulated classification.
In fact, last Thursday FCC Chair Genachowski outlined a 'third way' (i.e., light regulatory) approach, which he asserts will be restricted to goals outlined under the National Broadband Plan and not get involved in traditional regularity actions like pricing review and infrastructure sharing. Even though I'm relieved that the FCC is promising to go light from a regulatory perspective, I don't believe that the FCC is empowered to assert said authority and would oppose Congressional action to enable such policies. I think that innovation in the marketplace is served by the status quo, the FCC is pushing on a string, and there would be unintended consequences to a regulatory foothold in information services.
Kagan to SCOTUS?
CNN is reporting tonight that an Obama Administration source is saying that Obama will announce Solicitor General Elena Kagan as retiring Justice Stevens' replacement. I predicted Kagan would be selected as early as my April 9 post. Obama has been giving broad hints as to the nature of his picks; for instance, before the selection of Sotomayor, he was pushing the theme of "empathy"; for Justice Stevens' replacement, he has particularly focused on "an independent mind". Kagan has no prior judicial experience, has a brilliant legal mind as the former dean of Harvard Law School, and has a reputation for being inclusive across the judicial ideological divide. Kagan is clearly not a jurist whom aspires to traditional conservative ideals like judicial restraint, but she's perhaps the best a conservative can hope for under this President.
Political Cartoon
Steve Breen reminds us when federal revenues in a good year are $2.5T, a federal debt amounting to almost $13T (and climbing), in a world where sovereign debt (e.g., Greece) is increasingly pressuring global markets, our children will likely end up getting the bill in an increasingly more challenging global economy.
Quote of the Day
The soldiers fight and the kings are heroes.
Hebrew proverb
Musical Interlude: "Midnight" Songs
The Grass Roots, "Midnight Confession" (all-time favorite)
John Barry, Theme from "Midnight Cowboy"
Gladys Knight & The Pips, "Midnight Train to Train"
Maria Muldaur, "Midnight at the Oasis"
