huh?

Safe to say that 2010 might have been the weirdest year to date for professional baseball. All sorts of weird stuff occurred throughout all aspects of the game. Take for instance some offensive strangeness. Ichiro Suzuki led the American League in hits again. Nothing strange about that. Here's where it gets weird. He scored less runs than the man who got the fewest hits in the National League and qualified for the hitting title. Yeah. Ichiro had 74 runs on 214 hits. Mark Reynolds had 79 runs on 99 hits. Astro Michael Bourn was caught stealing third and stole third on back to back pitches. How you say? Atlanta's Tommy Hanson sniffed out the first attempt but dropped a throw when Bourn was in a run down, allowing him to get back to second. Score that CS/E1. Next pitch Bourn does it again. And makes it. Wha? Bengie Molina hit for the cycle this year. A player does it every year pretty much. Thing is, Bengie is statistically the slowest runner in the MLB. The cycle requires one to hit a triple, which he did in his last at bat of the game. The one and only time that year out of 416 at bats for Bengie. Yeesh.

33-year old rookie John Lindsey finally made his debut in the Major Leagues after a 16 year minor league career. He was announced as a pinch hitter, but the other team switched pitchers. Joe Torre then sent up Andre Ethier instead of Lindsey. He waited 16 years to make it to the show, and never played. Only in baseball. Avid Eckstein struck out nine times in his first 226 at bats of the season. Rick Ankiel struck out nine times in a row in one month. In one Pacific Coast League game, Royals prospect Mike Moustakas had as many homers (three) and RBIs (eleven) as Rusty Ryal had in 101 games and 222 plate appearances for the Diamonbacks. Carlos Gonzalez had an extra base hit 10 games in a row. Brandon Wood had an extra base hit in six games on the year. Sweet swingers Joey Votto and Buster Posey didn't hit an infield pop up all year. Holy bejeezus.

Only in baseball.

Well that's weird.

So a story surfaced recently. Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox expressed "extreme interest" in a 1970s criminal investigation of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for illegal campaign contributions. Then-FBI director Clarence M. Kelley relayed Cox's concerns in a memo back in 1973, sent to the bureau's Cleveland office, saying that agents needed to make sure the probe received "the same, immediate and preferred handling" as other criminal cases then growing from the Watergate scandal. The memos were released along with 400 pages of Steinbrenners FBI file. Most of the material concerned Steinbrenner's illegal contributions to President Nixon. Associated Press and other news organizations requested the file under the Freedom of Information Act following Steinbrenner's death in July. There are references to Steinbrenner's pardon later by President Reagan as well but nothing about his career as the Yankee's "Boss."

Among other things mentioned, the FBI was investigating whether employees were told they would be reimbursed by the company for campaign contributions, another violation of campaign finance laws. Steinbrenner was indicted in 1974, and two weeks after Nixon's resignation in August of that same year, the Boss pleaded guilty and was fined $15,000. Executives in Steibrenner's American Shipbuilding Co. told FBI officials in signed statements that they received bonuses after making contributions to Nixon's campaign. What can we say. The Boss knows how to get stuff done.

Non omnis moriar.

So it turns out that the founder of the "whistle-blowing" site, WikiLeaks, has a back up plan. In case of the shut down of his website, Julian Assange has circulated throughout the internet an encrypted file cache that is suspected to include information on British Petroleum and Guantanamo Bay. The "poison pill" is what it's called. One file was identified this week by The Sunday Times, called the "insurance" file, has been downloaded by tens of thousands of supporters from all over the world. Assange has issued a warning that should any government attempt to stop his activities, they risk triggering a new deluge of state and commercial secrets. Military papers on Gitmo have yet to be published, and were supplied by Bradley Manning, Assange's primary source until his arrest. Other files that Assange possess include aerial footage of a U.S. airstrike that killed Afghan civilians, BP confidential files, and Bank of America documents.

One of the files that is available for download from WikiLeaks is entitled insurance.aes256. As its name suggests, it is encrypted with a 256-digit key. Experts say its most likely unbreakable. The United States' Department of Defense says that it is aware of the site's insurance file, but it has been unable to confirm the contents of the package. Assange has warned that should he be detained of if the website should be permanently removed from the internet, he will release the files. It has been suggested that the files are unredacted, posing a possible security risk for coalition partners. Amazon, the host of the website, refused WikiLeaks access to the servers last week, and EveryDNS.net, the site that provided WikiLeaks with its domain name has also cut them off from service. They are now existing through a domain provided by the Swiss Pirate party, which champions internet freedom.

For shame.

The "whistle blower" blower website WikiLeaks released a fresh batch of stolen diplomatic papers today. Some of the papers show revelations that are more than just potentially embarrassing about views on the United States' allies, as they also include developments among foes of the U.S. and competitive nations. The details were released from a crop of 250,000 cables that were illegally taken from the State Department's records and include discussions on the United States being unable to stop the selling of Syrian arms to the known terrorist group Hezbollah, and the hacking of American computers by the Chinese government. Other communications passed on to several newspapers by the website also reveal talk about individual leaders.

Rather humorously, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was noted to be "accompanied everywhere by a 'voluptuous blonde' Ukrainian nurse." The Guardian also noted that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was referred to as an "alpha-dog" (though I hardly think that's uncalled for when referring to the pseudo-dictator). The Afghan President Hamid Karzai is "driven by paranoia" (surprise, surprise), and German Chancellor Angela Merkel is one who "avoids risk and is rarely creative."

More importantly, the cables suggest that the United States had planned on using its network of embassies in global espionage. The material shows secretaries of State Clinton and Rice telling officials to collect personal details of political leaders such as iris scans, DNA samples, and vehicle descriptions. Listen. I'm all for freedom of the press and all those shenanigans, but this is absurd. Obama has said that he supports an open and transparent government, but there's a reason certain documents are confidential. This isn't freedom of information, this is anarchy. And quite frankly, if that founder of WikiLeaks turns up dead some day, don't expect anyone to be surprised.

That's just a baaaad idea.

A disturbing thing has been discovered recently, though it should come at no surprise considering we're talking about North Korea. Turns out, the country most heavily under the effect of small-nation syndrome have been working on a sophisticated uranium enrichment plant in an attempt to go nuclear. The discovery has been described as "stunning" and an "act of defiance." The plant was first witnessed by U.S. scientist Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory. U.S. officials have long suspected North Korea of having such capability, and have regularly raised it with them directly and with global partners. According to them, it validates a long standing concern they've have with respect to North Korea. As a follow-up, they state that clearly North Korea and its dictator feel free to destabilize the region.

According to Hecker's report, released Saturday in the New York Times, North Korea recently completed 2,000 centrifuges needed for making uranium required in a nuclear reactor. Hecker also said that the North told him it was producing low-enriched uranium. However, he was not allowed to take photos or reveal the plant's location, however the U.S. reportedly has been watching the area he visited by satellite. The plant has not been reported as producing plutonium needed for a bomb but the uranium used in an energy reactor could easily be converted, especially in the facility which has been described as "astonishingly modern." The senior administration official said if the details were true, then North Korea is in violation of its pledges and commitments. Too assume that the U.S. didn't know about these things earlier is somehwat stupid though. It is North Korea after all. And with luck, maybe they'll blow themselves off the face of the earth.

Who doesn't love a fixer upper.

Following the Republicans hearty trouncing of Democrats in the congressional, gubernatorial, and state races, many political experts weighed in on what Obama's first order of business should be. Some decided that he should scale back his heavily liberal agenda and attempt to appeal to the middle-ground independent voters, and to bring in some new staff for some fresh and untainted blood. For others, they believed that the answer was much simpler. He needs to appeal to his own party again. He's fallen out of favor with the people that got him to where he is now and it's showing negatively.He has almost completely ignored his original voter base for the last two years and has some serious damage to heal. Even if he some how manages to command the indpendent voters, he will have absolutely no chance of victory in 2012 if he doesn't hae a vast number of Democrats behind him. Because let's be honest, a great deal of the country is pissed off at him.

For starters, he completely shut down his high-end donors. Following their extremely generous donations, they were looking at Obama and his administration give them the perks that have become expected for wealthy donors. And Obama basically told them not to hold their breath, because he didn't give a damn. Sure, that's great for public image when people are struggling in a tough economy to know that they aren't being passed over for the wealthy. Unfortunately for Obama, when elections come by again and he needs donations to pay for the voter initiative materials, guess who doesn't want to pay? That's right. Even Obama's attempt to use religious influence failed miserably, as his Catholic voter base decided to bail out for the Republicans. That really sucks. Time to pay attention I guess? Yeah.

Love him or hate him.

Say what you want about former President George W. Bush, but the guy has a certain aura about him that denotes him as a man's man. Whether people agree with him or not, they all know where they stand with him. Recently, he has become a prime example of how to turn the other cheek and act stay clear of with humility. But in order for one to truly turn the other cheek as a legitmate option, they must also be able to do otherwise. Take, for instance, something like, say... Canada. They like to say that they foreign affairs and wars overseas because they "turn the other cheek," as if they know better. Nuh unh. They're not turning the other cheek. They're pulling a Sweden circa World War II. They don't have the military might to choose any other option outside of remaining uninvolved. Now as stupid as this sounds, a prime example of true power is the continued existence of Canada. yeah.

The fact that Canada exists isn't an example of their power. Quite the opposite. The fact that they exist demonstrates the power of the United States. Hear me out. The United States would heavily benefit from conquering a region so rich in natural resources. But we don't. Instead, the U.S. decides to make relationships beneficial to both countries. That's real power. Obama repeatedly points to G.W. Bush as if he is everything that is wrong with the world. Instead of coming out and pointing out all of Obama's shortcomings, Mr. Bush instead decides to remain silent. That's a show of true power. What a stud.