Chapter 41.5: Yes, Please, I’d Like Some More

Quickly, before I hit the sack: Delgado and Wagner? Yes, nicely done Omar et al. Now we need a catcher. I can even tolerate having Kaz Matsui start the season at second, though it’s not my preference. But we need a catcher. Ramon Castro is not the full-time answer.

Chapter 41.4: Exposing My Ignorance

Ok, there’s lots of ignorance to expose, I admit. This particular example is in regard to my appalling lack of understanding of ancient Roman history. I’ve been watching the HBO series “Rome” and have enjoyed it for the most part. It’s not “Six Feet Under” or “The Sopranos” in terms of the writing or the acting, but enjoyable nonetheless, despite some incredibly gory moments. (The fight scene from last week was perhaps the most grisly television fight I’ve ever seen.)

My point in bringing this up at all is I spent the entire season anticipating the murder of Julius Caesar. And it arrived without much premonition; there was no “Beware the Ides of March” announcement. It passed without a word between Brutus and Caesar at that crucial final moment; no spoken “Et tu, Brute.” Yet, the phrase “Thus always to tyrants,” the same words spoken in Latin by John Wilkes Booth after he shot Abraham Lincoln, arose from the Senate floor after Caesar died. I suspect I’ve been lulled into false knowledge – that perhaps those scenes were created by William Shakespeare rather than drawn from Roman historians. I do not know; perhaps I’ll read more about it.

One other point: after the dismembering and decapitations from the previous episode, the stabbings by the senators upon the body of Caesar looked more like bee stings in comparison. Deadly ones, I’ll grant (and some laudable Foley artistry throughout the series, I might add), but I found the contrast quite interesting. Overall, not quite the death or the drama I expected, but I don’t feel I completely wasted my Sunday evenings for the past three months.

Chapter 41.3: Wrong Again

As usual, my ruminations on things political have turned out to be incorrect. Even though Mr. Alito, the recent Supreme Court Justice nominee, is from New Jersey, I know nothing about him beyond what I've read in the news. To add my one-cent worth, however, if I had to make a worthless prediction, I'd say he'll get approved by the Senate. He's got a history and the Republicans have a majority. Of course, there has been some controversy about whether he's conservative enough for some in the GOP, but short of some discovery of malfeasance, I doubt he has much to worry about, no matter how loud his opponents become.

I'm more intrigued by the Senate rule imbroglio, when Minority Leader Reid invoked "Rule 21" and brought about a closed-door session to discuss why an investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (chaired by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas) has not moved to "Phase Two" of a report on the use and abuse of Iraq WMD intelligence before the war. The second phase reportedly was to focus more specifically on those in the White House and close to the President and whether that WMD intelligence may have been misused. Reid's move could be viewed as a political stunt, to be sure, but hopefully there's more to it than that, because if it was only a stunt then that's a lot of rancor to create over a ploy.

The White House may have wanted the focus to shift away from the Plame Leak issue (associated with the WMD discussion), but Reid's move effectively brought the discussion of Scooter Libby and Karl Rove back into the media's focus and away from Judge Alito. Now that Alito's hearing has been scheduled for early January, I suspect we'll continue to hear more speculation about Rove and Libby and possibly even Vice President Cheney. Merry Christmas, everyone.