October 22, 2009

Against Pessimism

Victor Hanson recently wrote of the steep decline in popular culture. He rarely goes to movies, never listens to popular music etc. We share his overall sentiments and yet....along comes a 23 year old jazz singer who survived a near death experience and sings like an angel, or like a combination of Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Dinah Washington. We're a little late to the party, having just heard her on Jonathan Schwartz's Sunday show, but here she is, Melody Gardot, singer-songwriter, singing an eery, gorgeous, scarily seductive love song.

After listening, read of her near-death experience, loss of powers of speech, and recovery here.

September 10, 2009

WHY DEREK JETER MATTERS: THE ANTI-OBAMA

While Derek Jeter was tying Lou Gehrig as the Yankees' all time hit leader, Barak Obama was breaking all records for words uttered on one topic by a President. What a contrast: the ill tempered bloviator who trashed those he differed with as liars, vs. the peerless leader who expressed his appreciation to his opponents and said he didn't want to "disrespect" them by calling attention to his singular accomplishment.

The President who scorns his fellow citizens, those who differ with him, as the "mob", vs. Derek Jeter, the Captain, who praises his teammates and adversaries for raising the level of his game. Barack Obama, son of a mixed race marriage who played the race card masterfully to obtain the votes of guilty whites, vs. the Captain, son of a mixed race marriage, who never, ever offers excuses, never blames anyone for his own failures and never mentions skin color.

Derek Jeter matters, because he is an exemplar of a vanishing world in which honor was a prime virtue and trashing ones predecessors was unthinkable. He belongs to Lou Gehrig's world, when athletes shunned self praise and when "showoff" was a dreadful label. Can anyone imagine Jeter belittling those who came before him? Can anyone imagine Obama NOT blaming George Bush for every one of his own failures? Derek Jeter has been the same kind of player since he first donned pinstripes. He hustles on every play, always deflects glory away from himself. His consistency over the years is respected by all knowledgable baseball fans. He knows who he is and never tries to be what he isn't.

Then there's Barack Obama, the shape shifter. He learned how to put white people at ease by playing a role, pretending, never letting his pent up anger show itself, never defining himself.He is the perfect exemplar of postmodern ideas, wherein there is no fixed identity, only a narrative which can be changed to fit the circumstances. He is an actor, a self creator who can change his persona, from homeboy in the 'hood to literary poseur, to power driven political tactician. He is a charmer who can lull people into altered states of consciousness, and above all, he is utterly lacking in honor. He can casually slander the white grandmother who raised him. He can easily and callously trash doctors as money grubbers, businessmen as exploiters. He can offer an apologetic hand to mass murderers while trashing our allies. He can insist that he will protect the elderly and then blurt out that maybe an elderly woman whose life was extended by a pacemaker should have been given aspirin instead. As the country awakens from its slumbers, the charmer may lose his power because there is no core, no there there. Perhaps Derek Jeter may not represent a vanished America but the best of an America reborn.

Derek Jeter defers to the wisdom of veteran players. He is modest and self-effacing. Barack Obama's grandiosity is monumental: he loudly proclaims that he will be the last President ever to deal with the problems of health care! Really? It never occurs to him that his predecessors may have been just as smart as he and that certain problems are never, once and for all, solved. Derek Jeter knows that 7 out of 10 times he will fail to get a hit. He knows and accepts limits. He is no utopian. Within those limits he has shown real physical courage--as in his famous catch of a foul ball vs. the Red Sox where he dove into the stands and emerged with the ball and his face a bloody mess. Derek Jeter declined a scholarship to the University of Michigan. Jeter is perhaps the most intelligent player I have seen in more than 60 years of watching baseball. Jeter authored one of the greatest defensive gems in baseball history when he came out of nowhere to make a flip toss nailing Jeremy Giambi at the plate in a playoff game vs. Oakland. He was able to creatively improvise, to think beyond the conventional ideas about where a shortstop should position himself on a hit to right field. Barack Obama is an entirely conventional thinker of the PoMo variety, utterly dependent on pollsters and teleprompters to disguise the ideas of his mentors. Barack Obama attended Ivy League schools where he was flattered and cosseted and told how smart he was. His head was filled with Post-Modernist notions about constructed reality and narratological truths. In that world concepts like 'honor', 'modesty', 'leading by example', and respect for the past are merely patriarchal notions designed to oppress the "other". No wonder Obama unashamedly befriends mass murderers and tyrants, while trashing our longstanding allies.

Perhaps it is not too much to hope that the virtues embodied by Derek Jeter will once again prevail in America and America will free itself from Obamania. In the meantime, until sharia law bans baseball as an infidel sport, we can all enjoy watching D.J., a real leader of men.

"You're Derek Jeter who always wanted to be like the Yankees. Now all the Yankees want to be like you."

September 05, 2009

FOREVER YOUNG: THE WORDSMITH INTELLECTUALS

Old age and the frailty of the human condition are affronts to the narcissim of our perpetually adolescent Liberal governing class. Yale Kramer drives a stake through the heart of Liberalism's attempt to alter human nature, this time by taking control of health care away from the individual and his doctor. Remember the Golden Oldies, Dr. Emanuel.

September 03, 2009

Hitler Comments on Inglourious Bastards

Poor Hitler! Well, Pat Buchanan still loves him.

August 25, 2009

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT...

Quentin Tarantino's movie Inglourious Basterds, in this psychoanalyst's opinion does more for the collective Jewish psyche than anything since the Six Day War. When Eli Roth as the "Bear Jew" takes his baseball bat to the skull of a Nazi soldier I only wished my dead ancestors, killed by the Nazis, were alive to see it. An added bonus is the tribute to Ted Williams as Roth's bat connects with the skull. No doubt the lefty Jews who identify with their victimizers will howl with rage--but that's part of the cleansing therapy Tarantino administers. Jews need not appease their oppressors, they need to strike fear into their hearts. The climactic scene where the Nazi leadership is annihilated in a fiery inferno is stunning, brilliant and beautiful to watch. The only thing that might have made this movie better would have been including the Nazi loving Mufti of Jerusalem in that final inferno.

May 08, 2009

BETTER THAN HIS BROTHER JOE...

Growing up in the Bronx in the 1940's, Joe DiMaggio was God. Years passed, God turned out to be a flawed and rather disagreeable man, stingy, paranoid and friendless. His brother, a member of the enemy team, the Boston Red Sox, turns out to have been a fine family man, superb teammate, generous human being and all around good guy. His death reminds us of a ditty we heard in childhood.

Who hits the ball and makes it go?
Dominic DiMaggio.
Who runs the bases fast, not slow?
Dominic DiMaggio.
Who's better than his brother Joe?
Dominic DiMaggio.
But when it comes to getting dough,
They give it all to brother Joe.

April 17, 2009

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT...OPENING DAY AT THE NEW YANKEE STADIUM

The new Yankee Stadium should be called the Yankee Shopping Mall. Baseball is secondary to buying, as the "fans" at Opening Day made clear. Oh well, they were certainly following the President's advice to consumers to resume spending. Once the game started, very few of these so called fans watched it. They seemed far more interested in being there than in actually watching baseball.

Anyone doubting the obesity epidemic should go to a game at the Stadium. Catering to the overweight are a variety of bars, Japanese noodle shops, sushi bars, Italian and Latin sandwich makers (pulled pork or chicken anyone?)Jewish delis and, for the high rollers, exclusive restaurants charging really big bucks. For $6 you can still get a lukewarm Nathan's hot dog, but real baseball fans would prefer all ballparks be like Wrigley field where a hot dog and beer pretty much exhausts the food possibilities.

The Yankees, for all their current failings, still know how to do ceremonial occasions. The high point of Opening Day, preceding the sloppily played game, was the performance by the West Point band of the Sousa marches that were played at Opening Day in 1923 by Sousa himself. The rollout of the American flag during the singing of the National Anthem and the spectacular jet flyover, as well as John Fogerty's guitar-sync, lip sync version of Center Field were all highlights. Then the game began.

The Yankees look to this long time Yankee fan like a team with too many long term contract guys who do their jobs without passion. An exception has been Nick Swisher, who is batting about 200 points over his lifetime average and who has the enthusiasm of a kid. If he hadn't been on a soon to end roll, their anemic batting, inconsistent bullpen, and lack of intensity would look even worse.

April 07, 2009

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT...

C.C. Sabathia looked like a 309 lb. injury waiting to happen on Opening Day. Maybe his collapse at the end of last season was meaningful. Another Barry Zito, anyone?

Our President's groveling apologies in Europe, coupled with his praise for all that Islam has done for the USA, (name one thing, please) makes us long for the return of Jimmy Carter. At least Carter's anti-Semitism was not disguised by effusive praise for an anti-Semitic religious ideology that openly calls for death to the Jews.

I half expect Obama to return from his magical mystery tour proclaiming that he brings 'peace in our time'.

When sharia law comes to America, no doubt jazz will be banned. We can still, however, celebrate the birthday of Billie Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915. The tragic story of her life cannot tarnish the greatness of her art. To my ear, her best and most innovative singing came in the '30's with backing by great swing musicians like Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson and Lester Young. As the Wikipedia entry notes, "..Holiday's amazing method of improvising the melody line to fit the emotion was revolutionary..." I would argue that she has never been equalled; there have been jazz singers with far greater technical abilities, like Ella Fitzgerald, but one listen to the early Holiday recordings and you know that she expressed feeling like no other. My selection for the greatest female vocal of the 20th century would be her version of Without Your Love, accompanied blissfully by Lester Young on sax. None of the early performances are available on video, but here's a beauty.

March 28, 2009

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT...

Two cheers for President Obama's declaration that our aim in Afghanistan is the defeat of our enemies--period. No nonsense about building democracy amongst the savages. Let them spend another 10 centuries killing one another in the name of Mohammed.

Make that one cheer, because the President will continue supplying billions to Pakistan, most of which will flow to those who wish to kill us.

I'd rather watch Jacques Pepin making Creme Brulee, than Larry David making a fool of himself.

Greg Gutfeld's latest addition to the Red Eye cast, the talking New York Times puppet, is side-splittingly funny. The voice of Pinch Sulzberger, Greg's liberal sidekick Bill, perfectly captures the self satisfied, cant-spewing quality of the 'paper of record'.

Baseball predictions: C.C. Sabathia will win 8 games for the Yankees and blow out his shoulder by July.

A-Rod will return from surgery and after going hitless for 4 games will quit baseball to study kabbalah.

Derek Jeter will hit 45 home runs by September and then confess that his fathers's anti-drug foundation supplied him with HGH.

Danny Meyer will announce that he has bought out the Yankees and will convert the Stadium into 12 restaurants where Yankee fans can reminisce about the good old days, while eating tuna tartare.

March 22, 2009

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT...

The spectacle of our political class expressing faux outrage is a reminder that we live in a therapeutic age, where "feelings" trump ideas. The idea doesn't occur to congressional solons that slapping confiscatory taxes on businesses may make them reluctant in the future to work with govt. Or if it occurs, who cares, what matters is emotional catharsis. The emoter-in-chief is busily channeling collective anger, directing it away from himself, while at the same time showing how empathic he can be towards any and all dictators. He's so sensitive that he apparently removed the American flags from the Happy New Year video he sent to the Iranian tyrants.

The bursting of the sports economy bubble may be a good thing for real baseball fans who've been effectively screwed by corporations willing to ante up enormous sums for luxury suites and season boxes. Creative destruction could mean that capitalism will return baseball to its true supporters--baseball fans.

Youtube more than makes up for all the nonsense of the blogosphere. Here's the great Dave Mc'Kenna, the man who seemed to have 3 hands going, playing 42nd Street.

March 11, 2009

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT...

Wahabbi University (Columbia) has outdone itself by appointing Michelle Moody-Adams Dean of the college. Here is part of her Wikipedia entry:

"...Moody-Adams responded to the September 11 attacks by asserting that "Vengeance is not the answer here," and that the result of an American military response could be the end of everything worth fighting for, "even the end of the species." [4]
In February, 2009, Moody-Adams co-sponsored with university funds a controversial student protest on the Cornell campus by the Islamic Alliance for Justice consisting of signs and 1300 flags representing dead Palestinians..."

The Jihad wins on Morningside Heights without a shot being fired.

March 03, 2009

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT...

Matt Mc'Carthy's baseball memoir shows he is a well educated Ivy Leaguer, taught to believe that "narrative truth" trumps factual truth. Is this what we want in a physician?

February 26, 2009

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT...

Watching Nancy Pelosi jumping up and smiling inappropriately at Barack Obama's every banality, I thought if she didn't exist, Mark Twain would have invented her.
"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself."
---Mark Twain

After 6+ decades of Yankee fandom I now enjoy baseball despite the Yankees.

Barack Obama's budget represents the triumph of hope over experience. It assumes our war with radical Islam will wind down in coming years, hence our defense expenditures will decline. Perhaps he believes that George Bush's war on terror has been won?

February 20, 2009

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT...

Our bold and courageous Attorney General Eric Holder ("America is a nation of cowards") just got his head handed to him by a girl. See Heather MacDonald in City Journal

February 18, 2009

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT...

It's time to grow up. Baseball is played by human beings, not by fictional heros.
List of ways to "enhance performance" in baseball (not including Viagra):

1) steal signs
2) steal bases
3) tip off batters as to what pitch is coming.
4) cork bats
5) scuff the ball
6) put vaseline on the ball
7) spit on the ball
8) pretend to tag a runner
9) come off the base to take a throw
10) scuff the ball with sandpaper
11) "Accidentally" throw at the head of the batter
11) cut the ball with a razor blade
12) hidden ball trick
13) pretend to be hit by a pitch
14) amphetamines
!5) steroids
16) anti-depressants
17) booze
18) HGH
19) new designer drugs.
20) Tommy John surgery.

The greatest moment in baseball history, Bobby Thomson's "shot heard round the world" was on a pitch he'd been tipped to expect.

Here's our check on the utopian moralists: ask a group of young athletic physicians if they would take HGH or steroids to give them a chance to play major league baseball, knowing the health consequences. I've done this. If they're honest they'll almost all say 'Yes'.

Here's the great jazz guitarist John Pizarelli doing Take Me Out To The Ballgame.: