{"id":29749,"date":"2015-10-16T15:55:27","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T19:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=29749"},"modified":"2015-10-16T15:55:27","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T19:55:27","slug":"one-by-one-fly-into-the-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/10\/16\/one-by-one-fly-into-the-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"One by one fly into the fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u2022 The Good News: The Mets win and head to the NLCS. The Bad News: They\u2019re playing the Cubs,\u00a0and according to Back to the Future II,<\/em> the Cubs are supposed to win the World Series in 2015.<\/p>\n

See also: \u201cThe baseball gods are on peyote and throwing flaming furniture off the roof<\/a>, and there isn\u2019t a damned thing we can do about it.\u201d That\u2019s a\u00a0fine summary of\u00a0one inning in the final game of the playoff series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers \u2014 the first playoff series ever played entirely outside the borders of the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cHumans are clever. It does not take much to use just about anything<\/a> to justify something that you did or want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Pandagon is a terrific blog by Jesse Taylor, a whipsmart young writer\u00a0down the street at Swarthmore. Wait \u2026 I don\u2019t live down the street from Swat anymore, and Jesse graduated years<\/em> ago, passed the bar and passed his blogging baton to Amanda Marcotte. And now Amanda is stepping aside from Pandagon to write for Salon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I grow\u00a0old \u2026 I grow old \u2026 I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Vice President Joe Biden disappointed horse-race media<\/a>\u00a0by declining CNN\u2019s invitation to participate in Tuesday\u2019s Democratic primary debate. Biden watched the debate on TV after hosting a reunion of high school friends.<\/p>\n

\"Auks\"<\/a>I mention this mainly because it\u2019s an excuse to point out that Biden graduated from Archmere Academy, in Claymont, Delaware, where he played football and baseball for the Auks. Yes, the Auks<\/em> \u2014 and that\u2019s my main point here, that \u201cthe Auks\u201d is a really cool team mascot.<\/p>\n

(And also that Biden-speculation is a product of ratings-chasing media whose own boredom and vapid incuriosity about matters of political substance leads them to the kind of contentless horse-race election coverage that\u2019s seriously injuring our democracy. But mainly just that thing about Auks being a cool name.)<\/p>\n

\u2022 I didn\u2019t watch the debate because I was working at the Big Box. The best summary I\u2019ve read comes from Katie Herzog at Grist<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

So, who won? Well, we had a political debate where five candidates said mostly sane things. No one blamed tough questions on the moderator\u2019s period or said that vaccines cause autism. At one point, Bernie Sanders even came to Sen. Clinton\u2019s defense and said\u00a0what we were all thinking: \u201cthe American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.\u201d I\u2019d say we all won.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2022\u00a0Rep. Trent Franks \u2014 a tea partier of the \u201cFreedom Caucus\u201d at the center of the leadership\u00a0fight in the House GOP\u00a0\u2014 says his gang wants the next House speaker to be a \u201cValley Forge American.\u201d What does that mean? Erik Loomis has a good explanation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I actually dated<\/em> a Valley Forge American for a couple of years in the \u201990s. She lived just outside the park, right on 23 in the outskirts of Phoenixville. In my experience, the main distinguishing characteristic of a Valley Forge American is that they\u2019ve learned to drive 20 mph with their hazard lights flashing\u00a0when they\u2019re going through the park at dusk, because the @&#$ deer are everywhere<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So remember, kids, when you put the shift on against a lefty with a runner on first, someone needs to cover third base. Also: “The Auks” is a cool mascot name; a reasonable debate; farewell Pandagon; and “Valley Forge Americans.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOne by one fly into the fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So remember, kids, when you put the shift on against a lefty with a runner on first, someone needs to cover third base. 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