How 'Bout Them Tigers? Not.

Gene Wojciechowski, writing at ESPN.com:

Incredibly enough, the team nobody picked to win this thing, well, might win this thing. Even the Cardinals can't ignore the possibilities.

"I'd be lying if I said no," said Looper. "But you really try not to think about it. You sit there and you think, 'Well, we're two games away. Two more games, which doesn't sound like much, but against a team like Detroit, it's a lot."

Is it? The Tigers are playing as if they'll be charged a late fee if the Series lasts seven games. Carpenter handcuffed them to the bedpost and noogied them to death, allowing just three hits, issuing no walks and striking out six. He was more efficient than a Swiss train schedule.

At the moment, the Tigers -- and how do you put this delicately? -- suck.

What he said. To say that last night’s game was a major disappointment is to engage in massive understatement. I haven’t been to the Detroit News or the Free Press’s web sites (yet), but I can imagine what’s being said. Detroit fans love their teams like no others. But it’s a tough love. The fans simply don’t forgive underperformance or sloppy play. And we’ve seen too much of both in this series, so far. (Kenny Rogers excepted, of course) It ain’t out of reach, but the Tigers need to raise their level of play a lot to beat these Cards.

From the New York Sun (“Western Press Ignores Iran’s Hate-Filled Quds Day”):

President Ahmadinejad gave a series of speeches leading up to and on Quds Day. At an Iftar address on October 14, he discussed his "connection with God" and said: "The president of America is like us. That is, he too is inspired ... but [his] inspiration is of the satanic kind. Satan gives inspiration to the president of America."

Mr. Ahmadinejad delivered his Quds Day speech under a banner that read, "Israel must be wiped off the face of the world." He described the holiday as "a day for confrontation between the Islamic faith with the global arrogance."

In another speech, he said Israel was "doomed" and promised that the Israeli "regime will be gone, definitely."

The words "the Zionist regime is a cancerous gland that needs to be uprooted" were written in a communiqué from the Iranian Foreign Ministry in honor of the holiday.

[…]

A who's who of the Iranian leadership marched in the main Quds Day parade before crowds chanting "death to Israel" and "death to America." The marchers included a former Iranian president, Mohammed Khatemi, and a spokesman for the parliament presidency board, Mohsen Kouhkan, who predicted a quick "final and total defeat of America and the Zionist regime."

Read the whole thing and then consider the following question: The Dems would have us “talk” with these people directly? What’s to talk about? Terms of surrender? How Tel Aviv will be partitioned between Hamas and Hezbollah? You can’t “talk” to crazy people. Period.

This is worth the read… Dean Barnett’s Absolute Moral Authority Revisited. Here are the opening paragraphs:

Allah yesterday uncomfortably alluded to an Ann Coulter theory that the left was devising a strategy where it would rely solely on spokespeople that you couldn’t argue with. While I, too, deplore Ann’s bomb throwing, when she’s right, she’s right. The left’s strategy is to have absolute moral authority figures like the Jersey Girls or Cindy Sheehan carry its message. The messengers would also necessarily be victims so if you got down ‘n’ dirty with them, you would automatically qualify as a cretin.

I learned this firsthand over the past couple of days when I questioned Michael J. Fox’s actions during this campaign season. My inbox filled with vituperative semi-literate screeds, while on the internet blogging imbeciles inferred from my post that I was “mad that I can’t attack handicapped people.”

Much as Glenn Greenwald heaves one of his virtual despairing sighs when neither he nor any of his alter egos can achieve a productive dialogue with his right wing critics, I now face the temptation to walk away from this matter. Alas, sadly, there is more to say. Markos Moulitsas has coined the Michael J. Fox offensive the real October surprise. Thus, it must be dealt with.

This, of course, is all about the brouhaha concerning Fox’s political ads supporting the Democrat Senate candidate in Missouri and Maryland Senate candidate Ben Cardin. Rush Limbaugh came down on Fox for the Missouri ad, to the outrage and subsequent outcries of the Left. The Left presumes victims cannot be criticized or taken to task for their views because they’re, well, victims. People in polite society do not point, mock, laugh at, or otherwise draw attention to the disadvantaged. That’s a given. But when a “victim” assumes an arguable partisan position and draws attention to himself and/or his condition, then all bets should be off. Especially if and when that victim uses his disability to advance his argument. I find it extremely ironic that those who espouse moral relativitism when it comes to radical Islam and other multi-culti issues claim people like Sheehan and Fox have “absolute moral authority” on their specific issues. You can’t have it both ways, Guys.

Today’s Pic: Another of my favorite pics of SN3, this time at the Kennedy Space Center, April, 2003.