Once more

Sorry, but I have to report one more story on the crisis in Zimbabwe. Here's a story by a NY Times reporter who recently went to jail in Harare for the crime of "committing journalism."

Oh, and though anecdotal and perhaps exaggerated, here's a WaPo story recounting some of the most recent abuses of opposition voters.

Things that annoy me

I know I've been lax of late, but things have been busy. During my time off from blogging, though, I've been amassing a list of things that annoy me. Actually I had one thing I wanted to rant about, but others popped into my head as I logged in. So:

First, I hate celebrities who think their "fame" qualifies them as experts in other areas. I could write a book on this topic, but a newspaper story from last week particularly irked me. Greg Biffle, a fairly prominent NASCAR driver, was in Decatur last week on a promotional visit and he granted an interview to the Daily. [I would provide you with the link, but my local paper decided to go behind the "pay wall" a month or so ago.] They talked about the NASCAR season; the new, uniform car that all drivers use; and car racing in general -- all areas where Mr. Biffle has some expertise. Then he launched into a rant about gas prices. I don't have the actual quotes in front of me, but basically Mr. Biffle said he's pissed off about the price of gas. Gas, he said, really should only cost about $1.50 or $1.60 a gallon. Furthermore, the government has to do something to make the price go down to the "right" level. Finally he gave some tips about how to conserve gas and force them to lower the price.

There are so many things I want to comment on, I just don't know where to start. First, how did he arrive at $1.50 or $1.60 as the right price? Maybe the reporter did a poor job, but I saw no references to market analysis or anything similar that would support his sage conclusion about the "right" price. Second, does he really want the government deciding prices? That kind of leads to my final "I can't believe he said that." How cheeky is it for a NASCAR driver to offer tips on how the general public can conserve fuel?!?! First, they could stay home and not drive hours in their motor homes to NASCAR races. Second, they could urge the government to shut down auto racing and redistribute that fuel to "the people". Do you think that's what Biffle meant when he suggested the government "do something"? Me neither. Yeah I know he was just ranting on a subject that irritates everyone, but c'mon; why should we care what Greg Biffle thinks of gas prices?

Other things that annoy me: South African President, Thabo Mbeki. His inaction on Zimbabwe is despicable and morally bankrupt. I'll spare you another Zimbabwe rant today though.

The state Democratic party. I'll admit to disliking the state dems slightly more than I dislike the state repubs, but mainly that's because the dems have had the stranglehold on power in the state almost forever and that gives them more chances to do things that irritate me. I'll save my list of grievances for another time.

Finally, local political candidates really make me want to go all "Walden" and just drop out of the modern world. This morning, for instance, I heard a radio ad for a county commission candidate. After telling us what a good Christian he is, he then promised he'd be PHYSICALLY responsible with out tax dollars if elected! While I'd like someone to guarantee the safety of our tax money, I don't think we need a commish sleeping on top of money bags with his shotgun at hand. I'd be more likely to trust a vault or even an insured bank account for that. Heck, if that's the approach he's taking, he should have stressed his size and strength rather than his religion. That whole "turn the other cheek" thing might not be an asset if someone tried to take the county's money bags! C'mon, the word is FISCAL, not PHYSICAL. Geesh!

Okay that's about it. I'll try to come up with a cheerful post next time.

Aww, a compliment

Teaching the same old stuff to students who don't care as much as I do sometimes gets old. Every once in a while, though, something good happens that picks me up.

Right now I have a particularly good student who is "dual enrolled." That is, she's a high school student, but she's taking some classes here to get a head start on college. Well this young lady went on a campus visit to an unnamed Ivy League school earlier this week and she got to sit in on a principles class up there. Today she was telling me about it and she claimed that the class there wasn't nearly as enjoyable or as informative as the class she's taking from me! [This is where you're supposed to say, "AWWW!"] Now she could have just been sucking up, but it was still a nice thing to hear. I might bring that up when it's time to sign next year's contract.

Baseball and philosophy

While browsing the great big web, I've run across some discussion of a recently (?) discovered letter from the great American philosopher, John Rawls. Unbeknownst to me, Rawls was an avid fan of baseball and (correctly in my opinion) believed it to be the greatest game.

Now y'all know I love the game of baseball, but I do agree with the Boston Globe writer who says, "Aside from trout fishing, baseball suffers most from the tender mercies of intellectuals." I wish I had written that. Anyway, Rawls' letter recounts a long ago conversation he had with Harry Kalven (a U of Chicago legal scholar) about the perfection of baseball. According to Rawls' recall, Kalven came up with 6 reasons baseball is the greatest game. Briefly:

1. The rules are in equilibrium. Essentially he argues the dimensions of the field are "just right" in the sense of leading to wonderfully exciting plays that would not occur if the dimensions were tweaked. Red Smith said this much more simply when he opined something like, "90 feet between the bases is as close to perfection as man can get."
2. Any size or shape person can play baseball -- unlike, say, basketball.
3. Baseball uses all body parts [ed., something common to many other sports as well]. 4. The action is open to view, unlike, for example, the interior line of a football game.
5. Baseball is (almost) the only sport where scoring occurs without the ball. In other words, the defense controls the ball.
6. Finally, Rawls celebrates the lack of a set time period. Hence, the game may fly by or it may drag on nearly eternally. Either way, no baseball team ever lost a game (except maybe for weather-shortened contests) because it ran out of time. Outs yes, time no.

Now I'm not going to parse every one of these claims, but I do want to add a few words of my own. First, I find a lot of those claims to be patently ridiculous. #1 is just silly and though many people have celebrated point #5, why/how is that evidence of baseball's superiority? I've never understood that. That said, I most emphatically agree with the final point. The lack of a time clock is one of the two things that really does make baseball a beautiful game. Yes I know there are games where one team is "out of it" from the first inning, but I also remember a 2005 game when the Cards were trailing the Reds 9-3 in the 9th inning -- with 2 outs -- and they came back to win 10-9!

What I found most interesting about Rawls' list, though, was that he, and apparently Kalven as well, failed to mention the most beautiful aspect of baseball. It is the ultimate symmetric game. Each team has 9 players and each player has to play offense and defense. [Don't even bring up that abomination known as the DH. I'm talking about BASEBALL, not the bastardization known as the American League!] Hence, baseball forces tradeoffs. You've got some big lumbering ox of a power hitter who has to have a mirror to see his toes? Well you've got to find somewhere to hide him on defense where he won't kill your team. You've got some slick-fielding wizard with the leather who just happens to get the bat knocked out of his hands when he's at the plate? Tough, you've got to stick him somewhere in the batting order. Don't believe me about the pain this inflicts on a team? Ask any fan of the Boston Red Sox how painful it sometimes is to watch Manny Ramirez stumble around in left field.

Further, when you do make a substitution to minimize the risk one of your player's presents to the team, you cannot later undo that change. Do you "pinch run" for the lumbering ox late in the game? If so, you may end up REALLY regretting it if the game goes extra innings and your strongest hitter is out of the game. [I don't want to get into a "my sport is better than your sport" argument, but I should mention one thing about soccer. Soccer (or football if you prefer) has substitution restrictions as well, but from a casual observer point-of-view it seems to be much easier to keep a scorer on the field without being penalized for his poor defense (or a stellar defender who is no scoring threat) in soccer than baseball.]

As I said, I don't want to denigrate anyone else's favorite sport, but it is the time of year to celebrate baseball and I thought I'd take the opportunity to do just that. So if there's a minor league park near your house, go have a dog and a drink and watch a game. Even better, take someone who doesn't know the game that well. You might be amazed, once you start paying attention, at how many little things go into almost every play. It really is a great game!

P.S. If you're interested, here's a link to Rawls' letter. Play ball.

Which came first?

This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend the AL Chicken and Egg Festival in Moulton. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of spending a lot of time in Moulton let me set the stage for you. Moulton is the county seat of Lawrence County (AL). Though it has a population of only about 3000, it really is the big town in Lawrence County. Furthermore, seeing as how the poultry industry is so important to Lawrence County's economy, the Chicken and Egg Festival seems like a natural fit. Personally I just love those hokey small town festivals, so I've been meaning to go check it out for a few years. This year, though, they had the cherry on top that got me over the hump and actually drew me to Moulton on Saturday.

Yes as with most all these festivals, they have entertainment -- almost always acts that are "past their primes", but entertainment none the less. Well this year the headliner at the AL Chicken and Egg Festival was none other than the Pure Prairie League! [Hit song was Amie. Trust me; you know it. Check it out on Amazon or iTunes if you don't believe me.] Now when I was a teen I was a HUGE Pure Prairie League fan. Even though they were "past their prime" even then, I just couldn't get enough of them. Hence, when I saw they were coming to Moulton, well I knew I had to go. Oh, and the best part ... One of my students works for a bank that was a C&E sponsor so she had free tickets to give away. Saved me $2!

The festival itself was kind of a letdown. Partly, though, that was my fault. Seeing as how I wanted to see the PPL and they didn't start until 8:30, well I saw no reason to go to Moulton earlier than 5:00 or so. Waiting that late, though, meant that I missed the chicken clucking contest, the egg toss competition, and the Colonel Sanders look alike contest. See, stuff like that is what I most enjoy about these festivals. Without that it's just a grassy field populated with vendors selling overpriced funnel cakes. Regardless, I made my choice because I really did want to see the PPL.

I fully expected them to be a little older and slower -- and they were. I didn't, however, expect them to have such a sense of humor about their situation. At least two of the current members are holdovers from their "glory days" and they realized just how far they've fallen since the time of Amie. Heck, even in the mid-80s I saw them play a sold-out show with Poco at the TN Performing Arts Center in Nashville. Now they're playing the C&E Festival in Moulton, AL in front of a crowd of maybe 500?!?! They made lots of self-deprecating remarks that showed they understood they were not superstars, but they seemed to appreciate that someone still was willing to pay them to make music. The funniest thing -- I really enjoyed their set. They had good rapport with the crowd, they took turns on vocals and no one tried to hit the long high notes, their playing was good, and they sang all the most important songs -- including my personal favorite, "I'll Change Your Flat Tire, Merle" (a sort of tribute to Merle Haggard).

All-in-all, I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Two things, though, made me realize just what a small world it is. [Well 2 things other than the fact that my absolute favorite Southern rock band from my teen years ends up playing a chicken and egg festival 25 miles from my house.] First, though I figured I was the only legitimate PPL fan in the crowd, I was proven wrong. Some woman behind me kept yelling out requests for some "deep cuts." Wow. Second, one of the band members had a bum shoulder so he wasn't able to play the bass. Instead they called upon one of their buddies to fill in. Know where they got the sub? From Poco -- the band I saw them with at TPAC in the mid-80s. Actually the Poco connection is even funnier, but I don't have time to go into the full story right now. Let me just say it freaked me out to see the PPL and Poco still linked together 20+ years after that show in Nashville.

Regardless, I deem the AL Chicken and Egg Festival a success and I hope to return next year. I will, though, make sure I'm there for the clucking contest next time! Anyone who wants to go with me should get in his/her reservation now. I'm sure space will be at a premium!

It worked!

Okay here's the big news: I can watch Major League Baseball again!

I won't launch into full rant mode, but last year MLB did something stupid and as a result I lost the ability to buy the MLB Extra Innings package that would have allowed me to watch my beloved Cardinals on a regular basis. This year Dish Network and MLB were still at odds, so I had to switch to Charter Cable.

The guy was scheduled to come between 3:00 and 5:00 yesterday, but it was after 7:00 by the time I got my cable. So far I must say I'm underwhelmed by the Charter system, but I'm sure it'll grow on me -- AND I can watch baseball again! Of course the Cards lost last night, so maybe they'd rather I didn't watch. Nah, just a coincidence. Oh man, I wasn't even wearing my lucky shirt last night; no wonder they lost.

Anyway, that was my big news. Sorry to let you down, Stella, but it was big to me.

UPDATE: As I said above, I'm kind of missing some of the features of DISH. Today, though, I had to call DISH to cancel my service and, perversely, I'm missing them now more than ever. Of course I had to punch my way through an automated menu, but once I finally got to a "punch this number to speak to a representative" option, my call was answered within 15 seconds. Furthermore, when I told the guy I wanted to cancel my service, the most amazing thing happened. Of course he had to ask why, but when I told him he simply said, "Okay," and that was that. There wasn't any pressure to stay with DISH or anything like that. I was amazed. As I said, I doubt I'll get that kind of service from my new company. Sigh.

News?

I don't want to jinx it, but there may be an announcement of some good news on this site tomorrow. [No it's not THAT big, but it's important to me.] Tune in tomorrow.

Saw this one coming

Not surprisingly, Robert Mugabe is not going to fade away peacefully. Here's the latest from Zimbabwe:

President Robert Mugabe's government raided the offices of the main opposition movement and rounded up foreign journalists Thursday in an ominous indication that he may use intimidation and violence to keep his grip on power.

Police raided a hotel used by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and ransacked some of the rooms. Riot police also surrounded another hotel housing foreign journalists and took away several of them, according to a man who answered the phone there.

''Mugabe has started a crackdown,'' Movement for Democratic Change general secretary Tendai Biti told The Associated Press. ''It is quite clear he has unleashed a war.''

Sigh.

Please, by all that is holy

tell me this is just a rumor: Madonna wants to remake Casablanca! Surely it's a particularly bad April Fool's joke?!?!

Hope for Zimbabwe?

According to many published reports (here, here, and here for example), there may be hope for Zimbabwe. The evidence continues to mount that President Robert Mugabe lost the recent election and will, finally, step down and end his almost 30-year reign.

President Robert Mugabe's grip on power continued to loosen Tuesday as a range of informal contacts began between his inner circle of advisers and opposition figures over how to break a stalemate resulting from last weekend's election, sources said.

With evidence increasingly clear that Mugabe came in second, behind opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, news reports and other sources said members of the president's camp have reached out to the opposition in search of a deal that would allow him to step down gracefully, while avoiding prosecution for any crimes committed while in office.

Okay that's an interesting piece of international news, but why am I bothering to blog about Zimbabwe of all places? Especially when my attention should be focused on the start of the MLB season? Well Zimbabwe is such a "train wreck" it's hard not to watch. Seriously, the economy is so messed up that we use it all the time as a worst case scenario in my macroeconomics classes. I won't bother with the whole list of things, but most estimates put the OFFICIAL inflation rate at over 100,000% and the unemployment rate at more than 80%.

That first statistic is almost unimaginable so bear with me for a minute. Think about it: 100,000% inflation. That means a $1 soft drink purchased from the drink machine just down the hall from my office would cost more than $100,000 a year from now! Of course that leads to all kinds of other problems. For instance, how do you carry that much cash around? You don't, of course; the government just prints larger denomination bills. I read recently that Zimbabwe had just started printing a $10 million dollar bill -- which wouldn't even buy a loaf of bread in Harare (the capitol city), if you were lucky enough to find a store with bread for sale.

See last year Zimbabwe's version of the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced it was unable even to compute the consumer inflation rate because its statisticians couldn't find enough items for sale in local stores to measure inflation. Seriously; it's one messed up country. How did this happen? The easy economic answer is Zimbabwe lost control of its money supply. (See the quantity theory of money if you don't remember your basic long-run macro models.) I also blame Zimbabwe's neighbors, mostly South Africa, for failing to pressure Mugabe into some semblance of sanity. No, instead they took the "don't criticize a hero of the liberation struggle" approach and turned a blind eye to the incredible suffering in the country.

How bad is the suffering? Even more chilling than the economic statistics is this little factoid: According to the World Bank and the U.N. average life expectancy in Zimbabwe was 63 years in 1990 but only 37 years in 2005! And remember this is not a country beset by civil war or foreign occupation or terrorist warlords. No this has all been accomplished under a steady, secure government.

So now maybe you see why I care enough to talk about Zimbabwe rather than Opening Day (a proper noun in my world). Of course while the signs are positive for change in Zimbabwe, I'm still skeptical Mugabe will step down peacefully. The government is taking its own sweet time in releasing voting results and I read last week that it wouldn't matter if the government did "lose" the election because the military had already indicated they'd stage a coup if anyone replaced Mugabe. In a country that poor and messed up, the military likely is the only organization capable of seizing control so I'm not real optimistic. On the other hand, I did notice this claim in the NY Times report about negotiations for a change in government:

“The chiefs of staff are talking to Morgan [the opposition leader] and are trying to put into place transitional structures,” ... “The chiefs of staff are not split; they are loyally at Mugabe’s side,” Mr. Makumbe said. “But they are not negotiating for Mr. Mugabe. They are negotiating for themselves. They are negotiating about reprisals and recriminations and blah blah blah. They are doing it for their own security.”

So it seems the rats may be fleeing the sinking ship. I truly hope so. Of course getting rid of Mugabe won't immediately fix Zimbabwe's problems, but it's a necessary first step. Some say if Mugabe steps aside peacefully he may be able to salvage his historical legacy. I hope for the opposite. I hope that when he finally leaves his neighbors finally will be able to admit how "misguided" they were in supporting him for the last 10+ years of his reign and they'll begin to atone by helping Zimbabwe rebuild.

I'm hopeful, but I'm not convinced Zimbabwe has yet seen the last of Mr. Mugabe.