Red Sox Win Game One
Despite some pitiful defense, the Red Sox offense has them up in the first game of the series that will end forever "The curse of the Bambino." Remember you read it here.
#229 (04-78)
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Red Sox Win 7th Game and ALCS

"Other sports dream of a great rivalry like this. Now there is a new twist to the old story. The Red Sox have staged the greatest comeback in the history of postseason baseball.
"For the tormented region called Red Sox Nation, what makes this feat roughly 10 times sweeter is that they did it to the Yankees. They did it to their rivals."
(George Vecsey, The New York Times, 10/21/2004)
#228 (04-77)
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"A dead chicken"

(Letter to the editor, The Chicago Tribune, by Stuart Shea, published October 20, 2004)

"Why even bother trying to explain your endorsement of President Bush? The Tribune would endorse a dead chicken for president if it were running Republican."

#227 (04-76)
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Red Sox victory must be noted
The Red Sox victory over the Yankees last night in game six of the ALCS is a baseball milestone. No team in history ever come back from three games down in a seven game series to force the seventh game. It is a remarkable baseball event and must be noted here. A win tonight will be - for me - almost as good as winning the Powerball lottery.
#226 (04-75)
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Endorsement
The New York Times (Kerry) and The Chicago Tribune (Bush) have each endorsed a candidate for president, so it is time for me to chime in. For me it is an easy choice. I believe as Senator John Kerry does that: America is strongest when we seek out and work with allies around the world; the country was rushed to war in Iraq and had no plan (and has none) to secure the peace; parts of the Patriot Act diminsh our personal freedom and rights; Social Security ought not to be privatized and trimming the deficit is an absolute must. Also, Senator Kerry went back for and saved Jim Rassman's life in Vietnam, honoring the principle set by General Sherman who once wrote to General Grant that if he were in trouble on the battlefield he was confident Grant would come for him. This kind of courage goes a long way with me. I urge a vote for Senator Kerry on November 2.
#225 (04-74)
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Watch Charleston's Newest Bridge Grow
Curtesy of C. Frank Starmer at Medical University in Charleston, you can click on this link: http://monitor.admin.musc.edu/~cfs/bridge/ and watch the growth of Charleston's latest bridge spanning the Cooper River. A truly magnificent series of pictures which hopefully will continue until the bridge is built.
#224 (04-73)
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Google Scores Again
Today Google released its Desktop Search Engine. I have downloaded, installed and used it already. It is a remarkable (and free) product that will index the e-mail and files on your personal computer and permits you to search for anything you need. I found it to be a carbon copy of the wider known Google search program that does for your personal data what Google does for the rest of the cyberspace universe. You can get the program at www.desktop.google.com . Compared to another program I have been using, Google is light years ahead. PCWorld magazine came today and has an article on desktop search engines but does not mention this Google product. Try this before spending money.
#223 (04-72)
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Comments on the last two comments...
You are absolutely right on both. (A lady in S.C.)

Thank you for the note...you'll forgive me my impertinence by respectfully disagreeing, however. After all, but for "foreign born" still being Constitutionally barred from running for president...just think, the genius of the administration of that greatest of presidents, Richard M. Nixon (my hero)...the legendary Dr. Henry Alfred Kissinger, could one day finally get his due and finally be addressed as, "Mr. President", instead of "Your Exalted Excellency"!!! (A man in Maryland/Virginia area.)

Well, I disagree on this one -- our parents weren't born here. And I remember thinking Henry Kissinger would have made a good president, if only he could have run. But I do agree about the shopping carts! (A lady in S.C.)
#222 (04-71)
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Be born here...
If you want to be President you ought to have been born here. The current hearings in the U.S. Senate on legislation to amend the Constitution to make foreign born citizens eligible for the highest office in the land ought to go for naught. Save something for the native born.
#221 (04-70)
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Want to be....
A good Christian, Muslim or Jew? Put the damn shopping carts back in the corral in the parking lot instead of leaving them sitting around blocking parking spaces and or potentially damaging arriving autos.
#220 (04-69)
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Archibald, Gandhi and Graham Greene
We share the same birthday, October 2. I am pleased as punch to be here and hope to stay for a long time.
#219 (04-68)
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The Winner
Well, I believe John Kerry was the clear winner in the debate on September 30.
#218 (04-67)
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Pharmaceutical Companies
How true this is:
An American car company can move its factories to Mexico and claim it's a free market.
An American toy company can outsource to a Chinese subcontractor and claim it's a free market.
A major American bank can incorporate in Bermuda to avoid taxes and claim it's a free market.
We can buy HP Printers made in Mexico.
We can buy shirts made in Bangladesh.
We can purchase almost anything we want from many different countries.
BUT, heaven help the elderly who dare to buy their prescription drugs from a Canadian pharmacy.That's called un-American! You think the pharmaceutical companies don't have a powerful lobby? Think again!
#217 (04-66)
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Well wishes for President Bill Clinton
Your autographed picture hangs on the wall in our den. You hang in our heart and we wish you well with the upcoming operation. Thank you for eight great years.
#216 (04-65)
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Medicare increases - part 2

And we humbly ask why the cost of Medicare is raising 17 percent:

"The display in Rosemont, Illinois, (a five foot cutout of President Bush with a muslimsforbush.com) was funded by Muhammad Ali Hasan and his mother, Seeme, who recently created the group "Muslims for Bush." Seeme Hasan said in a phone interview that she and her husband Malik, a Colorado physician who earned his wealth in the health care industry, have donated more than $1 million to Bush and Republican causes since the 2000 campaign."

The foregoing was put on the wire today by Rachel Zoll, religion writer for the Associated Press.
#215 (04-64)

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Medicare increases
The increase in Medicare premiums, announced late in the afternoon by an administration spokesman hoping no one would notice over the holiday weekend, will not escape the attention of most senior citizens. The raise is 17 percent, or about $12 per person. For a family of two this is $24 a month; $288 a year. This increase in insurance premiums is accompanied also by an increase in the deductible seniors and others in the Medicare program will have to pay if they go into the hospital. These increases are greater than the rate of inflation. On a personal level, the increases will not turn us out of our house and force us to live under a bridge, but for millions of Medicare subscribers already living on the edge, this could be the back-breaking straw. Some will undoubtedly be forced to opt out of the program and take their chances. There are many questions; here are just a few: why are critical drugs in America priced so high? why must Americans even think of sending prescriptions off to Canada to save a little? are insurance costs for medical practitioners justified by insurance payouts? why does an aspirin in a hospital cost $5 when you can buy 100 in a bottle at Wal-Mart for less than $4?
#214 (04-63)
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Guantanamo Bay Trials
The Greatest Generation tried Hermann Goering and Rudolph Hess at Nuremburg for being co-architects (along with Hitler et.al.) of the Third Reich. The current generation is trying Salim Ahmed Hamdan at Guantanamo Bay for being Osama bin Laden’s car driver. What has happened to us?
#213 (04-62)
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A touch of class
(My e-mail to the editor of The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC, August 21, 2004)
Today, I believe The Post & Courier showed a touch of exceptional high class, character and fairness in starting prominently on the front page that well written story from the New York Times News Service about the anti-Kerry group's ties to Bush family aides. I did not expect this from a paper that consistently writes, publishes and supports the Republican view in a city and state that leans heavily Republican. The space devoted on the inside of the section also demonstrates the willingness of the publisher and editors to truly serve the reading public. Well done. Thank you.
#212 (04-61)

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Middle Class Americans Pay More in Taxes than wealthiest Americans

August 17, 2004 (Excerpted from Newsday)

President George W. Bush spouted a familiar refrain on the stump Saturday: "If you pay tax, you ought to get relief - it seems like to be the fair way to do things instead of trying to pick winners and losers," he said. But pick them or not, with the Bush tax cuts, there are winners and there are losers.

Since 2001, tax cuts have shifted the federal tax burden away from the wealthiest Americans (the winners) and to the middle class (the losers).That's not partisan, election-year spin. It's the conclusion of the respected, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, run at the moment by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former chief of Bush's own Council of Economic Advisers.According to a CBO report released Friday, the top 1 percent of earners - average annual income $1.1 million - saw their combined share of federal tax payments fall to 20.1 percent this year, from 22.7 percent in 2001.

For the top 20 percent of earners - average annual income $182,700 - the decrease was to 63.5 percent this year from 65.3 percent in 2001. At the same time, middle America - average annual income $75,600 - saw its share of the federal tax burden increase from 18.5 percent to 19.5 percent.That's fundamentally unfair.

#211 (04-60)
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Where we eat
A web site for the Republican convention has dropped Rudy Giuliani's list of the top-10 NY restaurants; the owner of No. 1 was identified in court proceedings as a "made" man in the Bonanno crime family.
#210 (04-59)
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