Timing poor as Barry Bonds hits homer number 715

Barry Bonds finally passed up the legendary Babe Ruth in career home runs when he hit his 715th four-bagger in San Francisco today off of pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim of the Colorado Rockies.

Ironically, the Babe's last home run was also a late May blast, although no one knew at the time it would be his final homer.

Meanwhile, the investigation of Bonds and BALCO continues.

I remember watching Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run in 1974. It was an exciting event, the game was nationally broadcast during prime time on NBC with the hope that Aaron would deliver. He did, and fairly early in the game--before most people turned in for the night. Bonds 715th happened with only local TV covering the shot, on a holiday weekend, and on the time-zone challenged West Coast. So a lot of people didn't see the homer.

Good.

Technorati tags: Barry Bonds steroids Baseball MLB Colorado Rockies san francisco giants Babe Ruth Hank Aaron

Mr. Right has his new caption contest up

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and some congressman from South Carolina named James Clyburn are the targets of this week's photo caption contest put on by fellow White Sox fan Mr Right. Sharpen your daggers and enter the contest here.

Technorati tags: humor Politics Current Affairs Harry Reid San Francisco Nevada South Carolina

A bikes-only morning on Lake Shore Drive

The annual City of Chicago "Bike the Drive" has held this morning. Media reports estimated 25,000 cyclists took part in today's ride. Chicago's world famous Lake Shore Drive was closed to cars, only cyclists were allowed.

I took the photo with my Motorola RAZR phone from the North Avenue footbridge between Lincoln Park and North Avenue Beach during my morning run.

Technorati tags: chicago Illinois metblogs Photos cycling Bicycle Motorola razr

Pete Townshend responds to "Won't Get Fooled Again" being named the greatest conservative rock song

It's not just Beatles' songs that get interpreted, reinterpreted, or in some cases, misinterpreted.

Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who is one of those songs, says the man who wrote it, Pete Townshend.

From that skinny bloke's web site:

I am just a song-writer. The actions I carry out are my own, and are usually private until some digger-after-dirt questions my methods. What I write is interpreted, first of all by Roger Daltrey. Won't Get Fooled Again - then - was a song that pleaded '….leave me alone with my family to live my life, so I can work for change in my own way….'. But when Roger Daltrey screamed as though his heart was being torn out in the closing moments of the song, it became something more to so many people. And I must live with that. In the film Summer of Sam the song is used to portray white-boy 'street' idiocy; a kind of fascist absurdity, men swinging their arms over air-guitars and smashing up furniture. Spike Lee told my manager that '…he deeply understood Who music….'. What he understood was what he himself - like so many others - had made it. He saw an outrage and frustration, even a judgment or empty indictment in the song that wasn't there. What is there is a prayer.

Later today I'm going to post some lyrics from a Who song which I don't think I'm misinterpreting.

Hat tip to The Corner on National Review.

Technorati tags: The Who National Review Conservative Music Rock

This weekend in Chicago: International Mr. Leather contest UPDATED!

Before I do what I presently do for a living, I was employed in sales and convention services at several downtown Chicago hotels. I worked with a lot of off-the-beaten-track organizations during my 13 years in that business.

One that stood out among that distinct group was International Mr. Leather. IML is centered on the contest that annually anoints a lucky leather clad male as that year's International Mr. Leather. Last year, Michael Egdes who entered the event as the 2005 Mr. Ramrod, walked away with the champion's leather sash. It's pretty much run like a beauty pageant, although the IML guys don't like it being called that.

They have a trade show, called the Leather Market, where whips and chains, sex toys, gay porno videos, handcuffs, muzzles, and even a human cage are available for purchase.

IML is not held in a back alley or some sleazy bar, the world famous Palmer House Hilton and Towers--yes, a Hilton property, hosts the event. The picture was taken Thursday night in the lobby of the Palmer House.

Sunday night at the Chicago Theatre Mr. Leather 2006 will be chosen.

Related Hilton post: Hilton Corp. not renewing lease of pro-troops restaurant

UPDATE May 29: And we have a winner! Some guy from Montreal named Bo, pictured here, is the 2006 International Mr. Leather.



Technorati tags: Hilton Hilton hotels Travel Gay bdsm Chicago Illinois metroblogging

King Tut exhibit: BCE trumps BC

Hmmm....Yet another King Tut post, the fourth in three days.

Saturday's entry into the King Tut journal documents the strangling weed smothering our society, political-corrrectness.

The dates accompanying the artifacts in the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs at Chicago's Field Museum use the designations BCE, short for Before Common Era. Instead of BC--Before Christ.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

The changes -- showing up at museums, in academic circles and in school textbooks -- have been touted as more sensitive to people of faiths outside of Christianity.

The terms BC and AD were created in the 6th century by the Roman Catholic monk Dionysius Exiguus.

The use of BCE and CE have rankled some Christians. In 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention criticized the use of BCE and CE, calling them "the result of secularization" and "political correctness."

A Field spokeswoman said the museum uses both the old BC and AD and the new BCE and CE designations in other exhibits.

Keep in mind that BC has been used for centuries, the full designation, Before Christ, is almost never written in full or spoken out loud.

Political correctness run-amok again.

Related post: Political correctness at Chicago's Adler Planetarium

Technorati tags: Egypt Chicago Illinois King Tut Field Museum Museums political correctness

National Review has the 50 greatest conservative rock songs ever

John J. Miller of the National Review--who wrote a great story about the Thomas Klocek case last fall--writes to a different beat this time, as he picks the 50 greatest conservative rock songs ever.

From NRO:

What makes a great conservative rock song? The lyrics must convey a conservative idea or sentiment, such as skepticism of government or support for traditional values. And, to be sure, it must be a great rock song. We’re biased in favor of songs that are already popular, but have tossed in a few little-known gems. In several cases, the musicians are outspoken liberals. Others are notorious libertines. For the purposes of this list, however, we don’t hold any of this against them. Finally, it would have been easy to include half a dozen songs by both the Kinks and Rush, but we've made an effort to cast a wide net. Who ever said diversity isn’t a conservative principle?

Number one is an excellent choice by one of my favorite bands, The Who, Won't Get Fooled Again.

From Miller's article:

The conservative movement is full of disillusioned revolutionaries; this could be their theme song, an oath that swears off naïve idealism once and for all. “There’s nothing in the streets / Looks any different to me / And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye. . . . Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.” The instantly recognizable synthesizer intro, Pete Townshend’s ringing guitar, Keith Moon’s pounding drums, and Roger Daltrey’s wailing vocals make this one of the most explosive rock anthems ever recorded — the best number by a big band, and a classic for conservatives.

(Links go to Amazon where you can find the album the song is on).

The Beatles' Taxman, Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama, and the Beach Boys pop classic Wouldn’t It Be Nice round out the top five.

Of course the fun part about lists is to add your own picks, which I'm going to do right now.

Bob Dylan's Neighborhood Bully. A pro-Israel rocker about fighting for what is right. Neo-con before there were neo-cons. That bomb factory was a Saddam Hussein nuclear plant that was believed to have been able to eventually produce weapons-grade plutonium.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad.

Get Back in Line by the Kinks: From 1965-1969, the Kinks were banned from performing in the United States because they offended the American Federation of Musicians. This song describes union abuse of power:

'Cause that union man's got such a hold over me
He's the man who decides if I live or I die, if I starve, or I eat
Then he walks up to me and the sun begins to shine
Then he walks right past and I know that I've got to get back in the line

Cheap Trick's Scent of a Woman. Women aren't just for sex says a man's man band:

Well a man is a man is a hell of a man
A man ain't a man in a one night stand
A man just don't stack up next to a woman
A man can't see what a woman can do

The Man Comes Around, Johnny Cash: Country music left Johnny Cash sometime around 1980, this 2002 rocker about the rapture probably encouraged a few trips to the confessional booth.

There's a man going around taking names and he decides
Who to free and who to blame
Everybody won't be treated quite the same
There will be a golden ladder reaching down
When the Man comes around

Joe Jackson's Cold War nugget, Evil Empire:

There's a country where no one knows
what's going on in the rest of the world
There's a country where minds are closed
with just a few asking questions

Like what do their leaders say
in sessions behind closed doors
and if this is the perfect way
why do we need these goddamn lies

Hat tip to Backyard Conservative.

UPDATE Sunday May 28 12:00AM: I don't know how I overlooked it, but Dylan's Neighborhood Bully is on the NR list.

Jon Swift has his own list of 50 conservative rockers. Obviously he's a big Kinks fan, he's got the obscure but precious Village Green Preservation Society on his list. Animal Farm from the same album is also fits in this category.

Marathon Pundit exclusive: Chicago Marathon to close registration at 5pm

A tipster who wishes to remain anonymous informs me that the Chicago Marathon has reached its cap of 40,000 entrants and will close registration for the October 22 race at 5pm CDT tonight.

Marathon Pundit has run every Chicago Marathon since 1990, and I'm entered in this year's 26.2 miler.

Technorati tags: running Marathon Run Chicago Marathon

Dozens of Coptic Christians protest outside Chicago King Tut exhibit: UPDATED!

Yesterday, in my second Egyptian post of the day, I made the point that protesting outside the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs exhibit about the plight of jailed Egyptian blogger Alaa was definitely fair game, since the government of Egypt is collecting about half the gate receipts from this lucrative show.

As I was typing that post, a group of Coptic Christians were outside Chicago's Field Museum drawing the attention of the plight of the members of their faith in Egypt.

From the Chicago Tribune, free registration may be required:

Discrimination and human rights abuses against Coptic Christians remain widespread in Egypt, according to a report released this month by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Copts face societal intolerance, and Egyptian authorities have been accused of being lax in protecting their rights.

No Christians serve as governors, presidents or deans of public universities, and very few Christians hold positions in the upper ranks of the security services and the armed forces, Coptic community leaders said. A 14th Century law bars Christians not only from building new churches, they said, but also from performing necessary maintenance on structures without government approval.

Recent violence in Coptic churches in Egypt has renewed fears of escalating religious strife. In April, a Muslim man was accused of knife attacks at three Coptic Christian churches in Alexandria that left one man dead and about a dozen others wounded. The incident unleashed three days of rioting on the same weekend Christians were observing Orthodox Palm Sunday.

Anissa Essam Hassouna, an official with the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs and part of the Egyptian delegation visiting Chicago, said Thursday that the government has "neglected" the issue of how Copts are treated in Egypt but "is trying to do better."

Well, Egypt has to do a lot better. Besides the mistreatment of the Copts, last month Egyptian blogger Alaa was jailed while attending a peaceful protest. He's still incarcerated.

People shelling out at least $31 per ticket to see the King Tut exhibit (again, about half goes back to Egypt) deserve to learn about Alaa.

Related posts: Egypt, King Tut, and blogger Alaa

Alaa in prison: Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review #4 follow-up

UPDATE May 29: TigerHawk found one of the few MSM articles to cover Alaa's plight. Along with Sandmonkey, TH has been aggressively following this story.

Technorati tags: Egypt Chicago Illinois King Tut Field Museum Museums Alaa Free Speech human-rights blog Middle East مصر Christianity Coptic

No gender equality at Chilean president event in Washington

Could you imagine the uproar if a bunch of men tried to put on an all guys function for a world leader?

From Thursday's Washington Post:

No boys allowed! It's "women only" at a dinner next month honoring Chile's new president, Michelle Bachelet. Invitations to the June 8 gala at the Ritz-Carlton are nontransferable -- and the only guests are women.

"She wanted to meet with the women of the U.S.," says Irene Klinger of the Organization of American States, a longtime friend of Bachelet. "The men are a little bit upset. They have been accustomed to [being] included for the past thousand years. We're saying, 'This one is not for you.' It's interesting to see their reaction."

"A Celebration of Women's Leadership" is hosted by the White House Project, an advocacy group for alpha females. The dinner for 200 is chaired by Sen. Susan Collins and Rep. Jan Schakowsky and features "Commander in Chief" actress Geena Davis.

Jan Schakowsky, (D-IL) is my congrescritter. Around the time of the Bachelet reception, Jan's home will also be man-free for a few months. That's because her husband, former political consultant Robert Creamer, will begin serving his sentence for bank and tax fraud.

I wonder who's going to bring up that bit of irony to Jan when she stands in the receiving line with the Chilean president at the "girls only" party.

Technorati tags: Michelle Bachelet Chile Política Robert Creamer Jan Schakowsky Schakowsky crime Chicago Politics Illinois Feminism Susan Collins Maine