Over the past few weeks on Facebook I had noticed one of the little ads that op up for something called the Coffee Party. At first I thought it was just some parody, but in fact it is an actual movement trying to get underway to counter the Tea Party movement. They can be found at http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/.

Heck they even have their own pseudo-political party thing already going on with their own convention to be held in September. I wish them all the luck as I fully support their mission, but I think it will never pick up the steam of the Tea party as hate is always an easier message to draw the masses to than cooperation. Be a “real” American, choose coffee over tea.

Speaking of the Tea Party, the congresswoman from my district and Tea Party caucus member Lynn Jenkins (R-KS 2nd) faces a “challenge” from her right in State Senator Dennis Pyle. Pyle’s main assertion is that Jenkins is a moderate and that element of the Republican Party is at fault for their demise.

The assertion that Jenkins is a moderate would have been true prior to her election in 2008, but there is nothing moderate about the tea party movement and those who have to follow their political game. Jenkins is one of only three women in the newly minted House Tea Party Caucus. So I don’t see much of a threat to her in the primary, but it is funny how the Tea Party always feels the need to prove they are more nuts than the other. Sadly the primary challenge will be the only real challenge for Jenkins in what usually is a competitive district, allowing Jenkins to continue her search for “a great white hope” to beat Obama in 2012 from inside the beltway and not send her packing home.

More amusing is that her reelection will make her the senior house member from Kansas as the two other Republicans are in the state’s most heated political show in another “I am more Tea Party than you!” battle between Congressmen Todd Tihart and Jim Moran. The lone Democrat from Kansas, Dennis Moore, a house member since 1990, is not seeking reelection and his wife is running instead.

An amusing side note is that tea partier Tihart’s 4th disrict seat has a decent chance of going to the Democrat this year and probably to the chagrin of the tea partiers it is the minority candidate Raj Goyle that has the best shot.

Shifting just to the west of Kansas, Colorado is getting ready once again to have a “personhood” amendment on the ballot this year. That is not the interesting thing though, it’s been something they have been doing on the ballot for a while now. However this time they have brought in Alan Keyes to do ads portraying a slave and correlating the relationship of fetuses and abortion in this country to slavery and seeking to be free.

It’s another laughable thing from the right, although it is better to take note these days as the nutjob right is more the mainstream right than the fringe. However the question I pose to them is if you are going to start declaring personhood begins at conception then that is where citizenship would also begin, right? So I guess we’ll have to start determining exactly where conception took place and if you don’t have proper documentation you are not a citizen?

And to conclude this month’s post it appears that U.S. District Court judge Susan Bolton will be the next in line of “activist judges” to be slammed by the right for going against the right’s political choice in her blocking of the provisions of Arizona SB1070 from going into effect for now. Too bad activism from the bench only counts when it is going against the grain of “conservative” thought and not to everything in general – for example the Citizens United ruling in the Supreme Court. Anyways that is all I have for this month. That’s all I have for this month on the 100th day of the gulf oil spill and until next time keep looking for those bad nuts out there. [Editor’s note: today is the 101st day of the oil spill, but The Angry Squirrel submitted the article yesterday.]

So, what do you get with Dreamhost?

Domain Registration – First, you get one free domain registration with each hosting account.  This is something that a lot of web hosts charge extra for.  As a bonus, you can opt for anonymous registration for no additional cost (which, again, many hosts charge extra for).  Additional domains can be registered for $9.95 per year with no strings attached.

Unlimited everything (well, most things, anyway) -

• You get unlimited space for your web site’s files.  Additionally, you get an additional 50 GB of backup space for non-site files.
• You can host as many domains on one account as you wish.  For example, I host The Soap Boxers, Hyrax Publications, and a personal web site – and it’s the same fixed cos for hosting (although there is a registration fee for each domain).
• You can created unlimited MySql databases.
• Unlimited bandwidth

Essentially, this means that you won’t be charged overage fees for exceeding space or bandwidth limitations – since there are no limitations.

Email – You can set up email in a variety of different ways.  I have mine configured to use Google as the email provider.  I have my own custom email address (kosmo@observingcasually.com), but use Google’s POP server to check mail through my desktop email client.  I can also choose to go to Google’s web site to check my mail.  The web-based mail through Google is just gMail customized to use your own domain name.

One-click installs – Dreamhost has “one click” installs for a variety of software packages.  I have used the one-click install for WordPress a number of times, and also have used it for Zen Cart on the Hyrax Publication site.  That’s the tip of the iceberg, though – the option also exist for these software packages: Gallery, PhpGedView, Pligg, dotProject, Moodle, Joomla, phpBB, MediaWiki, WebCalendar, Advanced Poll, and Trac (note: I don’t use any of these other software packages, so I can’t vouch for how well they are integrated).  You still have to configure the software, of course – so you may need more than one click to get started.  It’s a good feeling knowing that you’re not going to run into a weird installation error when you try to install a software package.

Overall ease of use – I’ve used a lot of web hosting services over the years.  Most of them tend to use CPanel.  I’m really not overly fond of CPanel and was happy to see that Dreamhost doesn’t use it.  You can use the Dreamhost panel to use FTP and MySql, but you can also access these functions natively.  It’s also a cinch to do things like add sub-domains (blog.mydomain.com, photos.mydomain.com, topsecret.mydomain.com, etc).

Social responsibility – Dreamhost offers free hosting to non-profits (501(c)(3) organizations) and also touts being a green organization.  Some of the environmental friendliness they claims is a result of purchasing renewable energy credits or offsets.  Of course, this doesn’t really reduce the energy a company uses (which Dreamhost admits), but does provide funding for green projects.  Beyond the purchasing of credits, Dreamhost does make an effort to use power-efficient processors and take other steps to reduce energy usage.

Upgrades – In addition to the base plan (which costs $9.95 per month if you sign up for one year, or as little as $5.95 monthly if you sign up for ten years), you can purchase upgrades such as private servers and static IP addresses.

Surely there are some problems with Dreamhost, right?  A few months ago, there were some issues with a few outages.  They weren’t particularly long (an hour or so), but could be frustrating when they occurred.  This is something that every hosting company is going to experience at some level, of course – nobody has 100.00% uptime.  On the bright side, there hasn’t been an outage in quite a while.

Interested in signing up with Dreamhost?  Sign up using this link (or by clicking the ads), and you’ll get the first year of service for just $3 per month ($36 for the first year).  Yep, I do get an affiliate commission if you sign up.  If you’ve been waiting to jump in the water and create your own blog (or other site), take this opportunity and take the first step toward success!

However, I have been surprised at the amount of backlash against not only LeBron, but the NBA’s new Holy Trinity as a whole.  If you listen to some radio shows, it sounds like LeBron, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosch coming together is a great sin against humanity.  We simply can’t have all of the NBA’s stars gravitating to a handful of teams, can we?

This strikes me as very odd.  The ultimate goal in team sport is to win a title.  These three players put themselves in prime position to win a title.  If there are no other teams that can challenge them (at least in the East), is this their fault?

In an era where players (and agents) seem to enjoy squeezing every last dollar out of their teams, it’s worth noting that the three players did not sign the “max contracts” they could have signed under the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement.  They sign for a bit less (albeit still for stunning amounts) to allow the Heat a bit of flexibility to sign a few more players and still stay under the NBA’s salary cap.  It’s not as if the Heat could throw unlimited money at the three players – they still had to creatively work them under the cap.  Among the deals they made was jettisoning 2008 #2 overall pick Michael Beasley for a relative pittance to free up cap space.

Remember a generation ago when Michael Jordan was playing for signficantly below his market value so that the Bulls could sign and retain players who could help them win a title – such as the ever-colorful Dennis Rodman?  Of course, the much-loved Jordan was glorified in the press for doing this – another sacrifice by the ultimate team player.  If baseball’s Albert Pujols signs an extension with the St. Louis Cardinals for less than his stratospheric market value, he too will be portrayed as a team player who is doing his part to help the Cardinals get back to the World Series.  Even in the NBA, we see aging stars sign cheap deals toward the end of their careers in an attempt to chase a ring.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that LeBron handled his departure gracefully.  The ESPN special was a bit much, even if it did raise money for charity.  Can you imagine Albert Pujols or Peyton Manning doing this?  Of course not.

Cavaliers owner  Dan Gilbert could have chosen to take the high road, but decided to get his hands dirty with an open letter than was extremely critical of James, including allegations that he gave up during the playoffs.  Other observers were equally appalled that Gilbert dared to use the Comic San Serif font for his letter (yes, I’m serious).  In any case, Gilbert’s letter served to further stoke the fires.  Gilbert may not have liked LeBron’s exit, but the fact of the matter is that LeBron was within his rights to leave – that’s the essence of the concept of free agency.

You can choose to dislike James for his decision – but don’t dislike him for working with his friends to form a super team.  They are simply trying to achieve the ultimate team goal.  It’s not impossible for another team to challenge the Heat with a similar super trio – they simply need to find a few stars hungry enough for a title that they can sacrifice a few bucks along the way.

So, should she have been fired?  I have no idea.  But now we have a new flash news story, where the instant media is demanding action.  Apparently, the British head of British Petroleum (BP, the guys with the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico) is alleged to have been part of the negotiations to release the Lockerbie bomber.  For this, the press is demanding that he be fired.  I find this as bizarre as the firing of a USDA official.  If he was involved in the discussion, why not a public outcry when it happened?  Why wait until now when some in the government and many in the media want to punish BP for the oil rig accident?  (Editor’s note – Peter Rabbit wrote an article condemning the release last year – but indeed, the BP connection was not mentioned).

So what do we, as average people, know?  First we know that Tony Hayward is the CEO of BP and was in BP upper management at the time the Lockerbie bomber was released.  Second, we know (?) that BP was given drilling privileges off the cost of Libya after the release.  Third we know that BP officials (maybe Hayward) testified before the Scottish parliament for the release.  From this, he needs to be fired.  And the firing need to happen right now, with no trial or questions asked.

I truly fear that our society has no attention span, and no ability to discern logical cause and effect.  We are an instant gratification society.  We want the fastest internet -getting the news storey up first is more important than getting it right - and even the fastest food.  We complain about being fat, so we need instant weight reduction (no long term commitment or high effort), and we still eat fast food.  Perhaps we are just spoiled.  We expect and get fresh food all year long, we get 120 stations and TiVO so that we can watch anything we want instead of waiting for a show we want to watch.

In the end, let’s go back to the source of this rant.  Should these people be fired?  I don’t know.  Is it any of our business?  I say emphatically, NO!

My personal thought on this is that children are not entitled to an inheritance.  I’ll make an exception for young children left under the guardianship of others when you die.  In this case, it would definitely be good if you were able to leave some money (such as life insurance proceeds) to cover the cost of raising the children.  But if your children are grown, married, and established in their careers, should they really be leaning on you for financial support?  Probably not.  They should really be flying under their own power at that point.

Some people seem to be under the impression that financial assets are the most important thing parents can leave to children.  I sincerely hope that I am remembered for more than a financial bequest after I die.  I’m hoping my children will be able to look back at life skills they have learned from me and memories of times we spent together.  If money overshadows the non-financial gifts, I’d consider that a colossal failure.

For those of you who are worried about spending yours kids’ inheritance – don’t worry about it.  It’s your money, earned by decades of hard work.  You’re certainly entitled to spend it to enjoy your retirement years.  Take that trip to Europe you’ve always dreamed of (or whatever it is you’ve always dreamed of).  You may be pleasantly surprised to find out that your children actually prefer that you spend the money on yourself.

If you’re one of the kids who worry that your parents are spending money that is “rightfully yours” – I’d recommend spending 99 cents to buy the song The Will by Mark Chestnut.  Listen to it a few times and maybe your perspective will change.

In the beginning, the site was a lone Casual Observer (kosmo) expounding on topics that interested him.  Over the past 18 months, the staff has grown, and we have people jumping up on their soap boxes to talk about all sorts of topics.  That’s not exactly what I had in mind when I started the site.

What was I to do?  I had no choice.  The Casual Observer is dead.

However …

In its place, rising like a phoenix from the ashes, is The Soap Boxers.  All of the existing content from The Casual Observer has been carried forward to The Soap Boxers and the site’s design is remaining largely unchanged.  If you notice any problems with the site, let me know.  Please update your bookmarks.  We will be re-directingt traffic for a little while, to

RSS subscribers and email subscribers should not be affected.  I use a 3rd party (Feedburner) and handle the underlying RSS feeds, and I should just be able to redirect content from The Soap Boxers to be delivered to the subscribers.  However, if you noticed that you don’t receive anything new for a few days, this may indicate a problem.  In this case check the web site for a status. I don’t expect any problems, though.

How will the content change?

It won’t.  We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing now.  If you loved The Casual Observer, you should love The Soap Boxers.

Why The Soap Boxers?

One of the things I disliked about the old site was that the formal name of the site differed from the URL, due to my inability to get the corresponding .com address.  Because many of us are often on our virtual soap box, I kicked around a few related terms before settling on TheSoapBoxers.com.

You may notice that I’m using the term “soap box” instead of “soapbox”.  Why?  Because our writers don’t pull punches – they are Soap Boxers!  Using the two word variation of the term allows us to use both meanings

We will be back to the regular schedule on Monday.  Remember – update your bookmarks and tell all your friends.

The White House claims it didn’t know all of the facts when it acted, requesting that she be canned. Come on, now. We’re supposed to believe that? This coming from the same White House that waited how many days to make a statement regarding the oil rig explosion and spill? So we can wait to comment on something we can see, but have a knee jerk reaction to something else? Not buying it, Gibbs.

What amuses me is the media reaction to all of this. First of all, the story comes out and they all jump on it. Then, when it’s discovered that the entire video was not released, the Tea Party and Fox News is to blame. Rachel Maddow (not quite sure why I even watch her as she always makes my blood pressure go up) claimed that Fox News was to blame for “poor reporting”. Um, sure. That’s why they cream you in the ratings week after week after week. Because they are poor reporters. Rachel also made comments about the “fake ACORN scandal” that Fox News reported on. Hey, Rachel, it’s not fake. Now who is the poor reporter here?

It has been reported that Deputy Under Secretary Cheryl Cook called Sherrod on Monday and asked her to resign for FEAR that Glenn Beck might go after her. FEAR of Glenn Beck. Wow. Those “poor reporters” sure have zero influence.

And I’m sure that all of this media hullabaloo has nothing to do with the fact that the NAACP recently passed a resolution urging the Tea Party to disassociate themselves with racism. I don’t consider myself a member of the Tea Party, but I think I know their intent well enough to know the Party is not based on race.

The President, Ben Jealous, of the NAACP criticized Sherrod for her comments and has since apologized for that. But here’s the kicker. HE WAS AT THE EVENT. HE WAS THERE WHEN HER COMMENTS WERE RECORDED. So wouldn’t he know if they were taken out of context? I understand how it is at events. Some speakers you listen to and sometimes you’re busy visiting with others etc. But if you’re going to publicly criticize someone for comments made at your event, I would be sure to “go to the tape” and re-watch the entire speech BEFORE going to the media.

I apologize if this rant doesn’t make sense as I gave birth to a healthy white male two weeks ago. I intend on raising him in my “crunchy conservative” manner. So I guess that makes me part of the problem, doesn’t it Rachel?

We get a LOT of spam comments at The Casual Observer.  What is the point?  When people leave a comment, they can include a link to their own site as a “thank you” for commenting.  Spammers are trying to boost the number of links to their sites in order to boost the search engine rankings.

Thanks to our spam filter (Akismet), you rarely have to see any of them.  Some of them are pretty funny and/or weird – so todayI’ll share some with you.  The spam comments are in italics, my editorials are in bold.

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Well, how about Bungee Basketball to make it a real success?

Take a look at Casino Party Pennsylvania! You be able to lease Bungee Basketball for nice prices!

Have fun at your upcoming Summer party, Lincoln

Bungee basketball? That sounds like fun.

Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, we think strongly this and love learning much more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, can you mind updating your weblog along with an increase of information? It is very useful for me.

Uh, but the article was 10 Things About Jamie Moyer.  I have no idea what they “learned” from a tongue-in-cheek article.

Percocet 93-490….

Percocet addiction recovery. Percocet. Percocet vs vicodon. Percocet extract how to shoot….

OK, the title of the article was Sick and Tired – but not that sort of sick.

Ihr habt eine schoene Webseite hier, und vielciht schaut Ihr euch auchmal meine an, ok Sex im Internet ist nicht jedermans Sache, aber eben meine erste Homepage. Danke und macht weiter so!

OK, it’s  been a few years since I took German in high school, but I can muddle through enough of this to figure out that it’s a very odd comment to leave on an article about baseball

Howdy, just a short note to say that i am new to your site however I am definitely the latest fan. Oh also to CHEER ON BRAZIL FOR WORLD CUP 2010!! GO BRAZIL!!

Swell, but this is relevant how?  Not only have we given the World Cup very little coverage (sorry) but this was left in response to an article that chronicled a day in the life of a chef.

These are the best of the comments, unfortunately.  The vast majority are simply lists of URLs to sites that sell prescription drugs.

 An INFIELD FLY is a fair fly ball (not including a line drive nor an attempted bunt) which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort, when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before two are out. The pitcher, catcher and any outfielder who stations himself in the infield on the play shall be considered infielders for the purpose of this rule.

When it seems apparent that a batted ball will be an Infield Fly, the umpire shall immediately declare “Infield Fly” for the benefit of the runners.  If the ball is near the baselines, the umpire shall declare “Infield Fly, if Fair.”

The ball is alive and runners may advance at the risk of the ball being caught, or retouch and advance after the ball is touched, the same as on any fly ball. If the hit becomes a foul ball, it is treated the same as any foul.

If a declared Infield Fly is allowed to fall untouched to the ground, and bounces foul before passing first or third base, it is a foul ball. If a declared Infield Fly falls untouched to the ground outside the baseline, and bounces fair before passing first or third base, it is an Infield Fly.

Rule 2.00 (Infield Fly) Comment: On the infield fly rule the umpire is to rule whether the ball could ordinarily have been handled by an infielder—not by some arbitrary limitation such as the grass, or the base lines. The umpire must rule also that a ball is an infield fly, even if handled by an outfielder, if, in the umpire’s judgment, the ball could have been as easily handled by an infielder. The infield fly is in no sense to be considered an appeal play. The umpire’s judgment must govern, and the decision should be made immediately.

When an infield fly rule is called, runners may advance at their own risk. If on an infield fly rule, the infielder intentionally drops a fair ball, the ball remains in play despite the provisions of Rule 6.05(l).  The infield fly rule takes precedence.

Got it?  No?

The basic gist of the rule is that an infielder cannot allow a ball to drop in order to gain an advantage.  If an infield fly is called, the batter is automatically out, and the runners can advance at their own risk (but normally just return to their base).

So then , why does the rule exist?  Imagine if the bases were loaded with nobody out and there was a lazy pop fly to the third baseman.  If the ball is caught, the runners must return to their base.  If the ball is not caught, the runners must run to the next base.  Generally, the runners are going to stay near their base.  If the third baseman were to let the ball drop, he could step on third base for a force out, throw to second base for another, and have the second baseman throw to first base for the final out.  If the runners suspect that he’s going to do this, they could cheat toward the next base … but then they would have time to get back to their base if the fielder catches the ball.  It’s a real catch-22, and the infield fly rule attempts to level the playing field.

A few things to note about the rule:

• The fly ball does not have to be on the infield, but rather is a fly ball “which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort“.  This means that balls that are a few steps onto the outfield grass are included.  Even if the outfielder actually makes the play, the ball may be considered an infield fly if an infielder could have caught the ball with ordinary effort.  Foul pop flies that are caught are also governed by the infield fly rule.
• It’s also important to note the phrase “ordinary effort“.  If the infielder would have to race halfway across the diamond and dive to make a spectacular catch, this is not an infield fly.
• The ball is still live after an infield fly is declared.  If an infield fly is declared and the infielder accidentally kicks the ball into the outfield, the runners can run the bases at their own risk.

I’m a fan of the rule – without it, anarchy would exist.  Remember the play near the end of the All Star game where David Ortiz was thrown out at second base because he didn’t know if Marlon Byrd was going to make the catch?  Without the infield fly rule, infielders can create this sorts of situations on a regular basis (the Byrd/Ortiz play itself would not have been an infield fly, for a variety of reasons).  Truly, the infield fly rule is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Want to learn more about the rules of Major League Baseball?  Grab a copy of the official rule book.

Major League Baseball Official Rules

In the classic film, there were plenty of times where literally nothing was going on.  This allowed you to recover from previous action or think about the previous scene before leaping into the next event.  Remember the Doctor Zhivago is set during World War I and the Russian revolution, so there are battle scenes and explosions, it is not just a love story.  Iron Man 2 also attempts to have a love story entwined with the action, so there are similarities.

Doctor Zhivago is also a truly feature length film of over 3 hours.  Modern films seldom pass the two hour mark.  (Dr. Zhivago actually has an intermission for bathroom breaks that is even on the CD with music and there is a prelude with music as you get yourself situated in the theater.)

Many would say I shouldn’t complain.  If I don’t like the modern methods, I should not go to see the movies.  Well I do like the latest releases from the film industry, it just seems that they are concentrating on the visual only right now.  There are movies made for the full spectrum, but those are not widely distributed.  The Last Station is a good example.  It is the story of the last days of Leo Tolstoy and was not available in my home town until it came out on CD.  I do not believe that our local video store would have gotten a copy if my wife had not specifically requested it.

The last general consumption movie that I remember that had the whole package from my point of view was Silverado, at least the opening scene was panoramic.  It is easy to pick on some films, which are concentrating on the special affects to the detriment of all other facets of film making.  Transformers is one such movie, where there are spectacular battle scenes that just suddenly happen.  If you have not watched the cartoon, you don’t even know who the participants are.

I believe that Hollywood can merge art, action and special affects.  The original Star Wars films had magnificent music to set the mood of every scene.  Even the latest Star Wars and Star Trek films are still filling the story before leaping to the next event.

I once complained to my grandmother that there were no good movies like when she was young.  She assured me that on the good ones were replayed now and she had seen plenty of losers in her day.  I am sure that is true today.  If there are only 2 good movies each year, that is 50 good movies just since I was a teenager.  And I am sure that there have been more that 2 good movies produced each year.  Here is a short list on movies I think would be on that list, add your own if you please.

• The Thin Man Series (6 films) – actually made before I was born
• The Quiet Man
• The Princess Bride
• Hopscotch
• Silverado
• Patton
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Midway
• True Grit
• The Star Wars Series (6 films)
• The James Bond Films (most of the 17 films)
• The Lord of the Rings (both live action and animated)
• The Star Trek Series (most of the 11? Movies)
• Most Mel Brooks films
• Driving Miss Daisy
• The Last Station
• Young Victoria
• Most Pixar Films
• The Bourne Series