During the last Celtics game against the New Jersey Nets a fan was removed from his seat behind the Celtic bench after he heckled star Antoine Walker to the breaking point. Antoine actually stood up and turned to face the guy, and it seemed as though a fight would break out. Then another fan came down and shoved the heckler. Both were removed from the Fleet Center but the heckler has had his season tickets revoked and is banned from Celtic games now. That is just one of two instances so far this spring were fans have caused trouble. The other was the storming of the field by a drunken man in Chicago’s Comisky Park. The fan was drunk and at the game with his future wife when he left his seat, jumped the wall, and charged at the umpire. This man could have been carrying a weapon and seriously injured somebody. Instead he ran right towards the former Marine and was instantly taken down. Some people actually said that security should of backed off and let a few of the larger, bulky baseball players have a few minutes and rough him up a bit. This was the second instance in two years where a fan charged the field with the intent to cause bodily harm. It is unacceptable. Sure, everyone would laugh a few years ago when a fan would get on the field and run in circles. It was almost a game, how long he could elude security. Now, he will be lucky if he doesn’t end up in the hospital. People aren’t kidding anymore when it comes to this stuff. It is time we crack down. Maybe it is time we put up fences or nets to separate the fans. Or build a moat like in Europe; just keep the fans off the fields. Who wants to go home and explain to their kid why his or her favorite ball player is in the hospital cause he got stabbed.

You go to ball games to forget about the world’s troubles. That is why baseball came back only a week after September 11th, 2001. People needed a distraction. You don’t want to worry about a shooting or stabbing while at a game. That is why it was so great to see the President throw out the first pitch this season. He defied terrorists by going in the middle of a wide-open field surrounded by 40,000 people and threw out a baseball. Sure he was worried that something might happen. That was probably in the back of everyone’s mind but overall you feel safe when at a ballpark.

So let’s keep the ballparks safe. The only draw back from putting the moat in the ground or putting up walls of glass like they have at hockey games is that the interaction between the fan and player is gone. It is better, though, to have less interaction with the player than no player at all. If the ballparks aren’t safe players won’t play. If players won’t play, than the distraction of the sport is gone. So lets all go out to that ballgame, and forget our troubles for nine innings or four quarters.

Posted at 10:13pm by Andrew H

Can't Please Everyone
This North Korea situation is getting sticky. We can’t seem to deal with the suckers in a way that will satisfy North Korea, the public, and us. We want to stop North Korea from trafficking weapons, drugs, and getting nuclear weapons. They want full diplomatic relations, a guarantee that we won’t invade and probably billions of dollars of aid. We can’t give them the billion dollars of aid because, for those of you who live in caves, the economy is pretty bad. We also can’t give them that guarantee because they lie through their teeth and do it all to well. Then there is that diplomatic relations thing. Can’t give them that because then we show to the rest of the world that (a) the big bad United States will break down if you get nukes or are close to getting them and (b) that we went into Iraq without diplomatic relations so it helps fuel the fire that it was a personal vendetta. Then there is what we want. In a country were food isn’t seen for weeks and lights go on maybe once a month people are desperate to make a buck. The most expensive export might be drugs and guns are pretty high up there. If you got them, you can make quite a few dollars off of them. Unfortunately North Korea has them and many people do use them to get food on the table. If we blockade North Korea and manage to keep the drugs and guns in North Korea and the nukes out of it then we do a good thing. Of course all the tree huggers will scream that we are starving them. If we give in all the people who think we need to toe the line will scream about hippies running the country and just wanting to get cheap hash and not worrying about the weapons. If Michael Moore wanted to deal with this I am sure Bush would let him. It would take care of some of the headaches Bush must get from this and it would allow someone to make documentary on Michael Moore screwing up big time.

Posted at 5:07pm by Andrew H

Bite Me
Disney Company. Founded by Walt Disney, Disney is world’s leader is animated movies. It has released such classics as Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and the Little Mermaid. It is also the creator of possibly the greatest animated character in the one, and only Mickey Mouse. The Disney Company also owns the world champion Anaheim Angels and runs two of the largest amusement parks in North America. It also owns many small film companies including Miramax. Now why is this all relevant? It is important because Miramax is financing a new Michael Moore documentary. No, it isn’t going to be about how much of a un-patriotic slime ball he is, it is going to be called Fahrenheit 911. It is going to be about the relationship between George Bush, senior and the bin Laden family. Sure it is a little awkward to have the father of the President of the United States to be involved with the bin Laden family but there are members of the bin Laden family who live in my city, does that make all of us traitors? Heck, they live in the same neighborhood as Red Sox reliever Chad Fox and he is ultra Patriotic. In fact he caught flak because he had a pro-war bumper sticker on his locker. Just because you know someone and that someone’s brother or sister is a very bad person doesn’t mean that you have the blood on your hands? Two words for Michael Moore: Sit down. Or Bite Me. Choose whichever one you like more.

Posted at 4:52pm by Andrew H

This Weeks Sign of the Apocalypse
This is priceless. A Formula One driver is arrested in France for going about 130mph in a 78mph. That's not the funny part. The funny part is his excuse is

I am used to really fast

I can picture a drunk about to get put in the can saying I am used to drinking a lot. Or a killer about to get killed saying I am used to killing. I don't think that flies. It's like that time I said to a teacher

Can I have an A? No? I pay your salary

You can imagine I didn't get the A.

Posted at 4:09pm by Andrew H

Media screws up?
In England, I guess, the newspaper publishes as it pleases. That's why a British spy had to flee from Ireland. Four British papers published stories that had the agents code name and his real name. That's an amazing way to blow some ones cover.

was reported to be in hiding after several Sunday newspapers in Ireland and Britain blew his cover.

Newspapers said British intelligence services had spirited the man, code-named "Stakeknife," out of Ireland just hours before the papers published his name.

Maybe that is why the Iranian Mullah's is cracking down even more on it's media?

Yeah, so I am in a rush, that's all for now but be sure to tune in around 3:30 (after school).

Posted at 7:08am by Andrew H

5.9.03

Sick
Sorry for the lack of posts during the past two days. I've been sick and have stayed in bed. I'm still kind of out of it right now, so I think I will take today off too and come back at 100% on Monday. Sounds good? Good.

Posted at 7:08am by Andrew H

5.7.03

Spreading SARS
A few days ago China was saying that it was beginning to come under control. Now the Prime Minister is saying that if it spreads to rural areas that the health system there is incapable to deal with SARS. The death total in China is already 219 with another 204 in Hong Kong. If it spreads to the country side the totals will be much higher in China. Just look at a map of China, the country is huge. If SARS hit every inch of China so many people will die and so many people will not have access to hospitals and not even have a chance. It is a sad state of affairs in the Worker's Paradise of Communist China.

Singapore, in related news, signed a trade deal to wipe out tariffs on the $33 billion traded daily. Doesn't that increase the chance of SARS spreading to the United States? Singapore has a death total of 27 people while the United States hasn't had one. If we start open trading with them don't you think that the chance of spreading SARS will rise as workers and products may carry the virus.

Posted at 7:24am by Andrew H

5.6.03

Crying Wolf
Rummy, Rummy, Rummy, what are we going to do with you? This truck that you think was one of the mobile labs won’t do us any good. You can’t justify a war with a "recently scrubbed truck," it just doesn’t cut it. While I believe that we were justified in going into Iraq we need to find actual weapons of mass destruction because without it looks like we went in to settle a vendetta. The reason that we need the actual weapons is that you can’t go in to a country to take their labs away but you can go into a country to take their chemical/biological/nuclear weapons away. The only reason we shouldn’t get the weapons is if we know they will be used on the French. Then we can let Chirac trace it back to Iraq and then we can say, "Told you so." Unless that scenario takes place we need to come home with a few barrels or warheads of these weapons. This will just look bad when it turns out that this truck can do nothing for us but sit in a museum. It’s just another case of crying wolf.

Posted at 7:17am by Andrew H

5.5.03

Did the Man in the Mountain Fall or get a Face Lift?
Why can’t they just let the natural wonder and beauty of the live on? They have to keep trying to recreate the original. As Solomon said over at his blog

Puh-lease...let the old man rest in pieces would you? The whole point of the thing was that it was a natural formation. It was bad enough that they were starting to have to hold it together with wires and epoxy. Let us have our memories! I can see it now, "We can re-build him...we can make him better than before...The 6 BILLION DOLLAR MAN! The old Old Man was inferior, this new one will be visible from all directions!"

I have an even better idea, let him be and point out the new face that is apparent in the rock. Below I have two pictures of the location where the face once stood. They are the same; only on the right I highlighted the eyes, nose and mouth. Take a look and tell me you don’t see a face there.

Posted at 6:27pm by Andrew H

Pratice Doesn't Make Perfect, but Close
They say that practice makes perfect but what do they know. You can practice a football a hundred times and execute it flawlessly but when you are on the field up against a defense it never goes as well as it did on the practice field. That goes for anything. You can spend two years planning an invasion of a country, but once soldiers are on the ground and engaged in firefights your plan might not work at all. What planning does do, though, is it prepares you enough so that you can give your full attention to fighting with the enemy instead of executing the plan. So when I read that the government is spending $16 million on a five-day exercise on combating terrorism I was a little surprised and upset. I was thinking that this is a $16 million exercise that (a) would never pay off if we are lucky and (b) may not work once we are up against actual terrorists and actual weapons. Then I thought it would at least provide a good idea on what the commanders need to do and help then learn to adapt to changing situations.

The exercise is actually a two-city terror attack. Seattle gets hit with a crude nuclear device, or as the media calls it, a "dirty bomb". Chicago, meanwhile, has a pneumonic plague problem. The symptoms of the plague all so appear in Canada so the exercise will help with communication with foreign governments like Canada or Mexico (by the way, happy Cinco de Mayo). All in all, I think that this is a well-spent $16 million when it comes to preparing our nation to face a combination of terror attacks at the same time.

Posted at 5:47pm by Andrew H

What ever you say Colin
Rumsfeld: Let them out of Guantanamo Bay?

Powell: Yeah, it is hurting our image, so let a few of them go.

Rumsfeld: How many?

Powell: Just enough to make the press.

Rusmfeld: You got it Colin.

So now we are letting between 12-15 of these people go and I think we are doing it for all the reasons. These people were cooped up in Cuba for over a year now because they needed to be "thoroughly questioned before release. Sometimes a local cop has 15 minutes to question a suspect and he still gets more out of him then the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency can in a whole year? Does that make sense to you? It really shouldn't take one year to figure out whether or not someone is hiding information or whether they are simply innocent people we picked up by accident. We should have realized that some were not terrorists long ago and should of released them then instead of right now. It makes no sense to do it now after we have known for so long. And if a High School student like myself can figure this out don't you think everyone else will. Especially when the BBC says:

US Secretary of State Colin Powell complained in writing to the Pentagon last month about the detentions, which he said were undermining international support for the US war on terror.

Now can you see the puzzle fitting together?

Posted at 4:31pm by Andrew H

Syria is Getting Smarter
The United States captured the interestingly dubbed Mrs. Anthrax today. It is a step in the right direction because the United States has only two more main objectives left. Find those Weapons of Mass Destruction and to set up a new democratic government. The fact that we nabbed Mrs. Anthrax might help guide to these hidden caches of weapons. We can only hope, though. And with all the tortures that Saddam did to his own people, she might be hard for our intelligence services to crack.

What is almost as nice is the fact that Syria got the idea and are handing over Iraqi leadership. Providing we can find the leadership. The deal works pretty much like this... We find the Iraqi person we want, we call up Syria, tell them where the Iraqi is, the Syrians go over and pick him, and then we go and get from Syrian custody. The plan probably isn't what we wanted but it is a step in the right direction. At least the President of Syria, Mr. Basshar Assad, has smartened up and realized that we can do the same thing we did to Iraq to Syria. And I have to give the guy some credit, he understands that the Syrian armed forces stand less of a chance then the Iraqi's did. This is what Powell said about Basshar's stance and what we need to do, respectfully:

"(Syria has) no interest in serving as a haven for any of these individuals."

"So I think if we can give him information and give him specific names and anything else we can say about these people, I think he would try to respond."

I can't say we aren't moving along nicely.

Posted at 4:16pm by Andrew H

May 5^th, 1980

23 years ago today, the world got its first look at SAS in action as they raided the Iranian Embassy ending a five-day siege. It was a great event for the British military as they showed everyone why their best unit, the SAS, should be feared.

Posted at 7:09am by Andrew H

5.2.03

Cover Up?
Keeping the tradition of Communism alive, China still keeps things under wraps. When SARS broke out in China, the government there said only a few were sick but when the WHO went they said over 2,000 had SARS. Now to add on to the bad name China is getting they lost a submarine today. A Ming Class submarine had, what they call, "Mechanical Malfunctions" that cost 70 men their lifes. The submarine was towed into port which is suspicious. That most likely meant that it had its "accident" on the surface.

"For an accident to have been so catastrophic when the submarine was on the surface, I find it a very mysterious thing,"

-Michael McGinty

He also adds that the deaths were caused by some sort of gas leaks, in his opinion. But your on the surface of the ocean, you have all sorts of instruments that tell you when their are dangerous chemicals in the air, so why didn't they get out on the deck of the submarine and breath fresh air? Something about it just isn't feeling right. Of course, China wouldn't be the first country to lie (read: Russia). Then again, it might just be that the submarine wasn't leaking gas and something else happened. Such as a torpedo room exploding. A submarine with only 70 crew members can't be that big so if an explosion took place it would probably kill everyone. We can keep on guessing or we can wait thirty years until the clapse of communist China and see all the files on this sort of thing. I call first dibs on the move script. I will call it K:18, the Chinese Widow Maker.

Posted at 4:32pm by Andrew H

"Lets get together and feel alright."
I guess that is the theme song of politics right now. We've got Israel and Palestine trying to follow this new road map to peace and now Pakistan and India are trying to be diplomatic again. The two sides have been feuding for decades and now they are restoring diplomatic relations with each other. The two sides both think that everything is moving so fast and that they hope to peacefully co-exist now. Heck, even the leaders of both countries are getting together. Next thing you know Germany and France will come to their senses and beg forgiveness.

I can hope, can't I?

Posted at 4:11pm by Andrew H

Lose Lose Situation
Israel killed the leader of Hamas last night. They surrounded his house and ordered him out. When he didn't come out a gun fight started and he, two of his brothers, and 10 others died. One of those ten people was a two year old and another was only 13 years old. This, in my opinion, isn't in violation of the Road Map to Peace accords and is actually a good test to see how the Palestine Authority reacts. I think that the Palestine Authority won't be as up in arms about this sort of thing than they have been in the past. I do think that the Palestine Authority should be a little ticked off because the target of the operation was these three men and 10 people ended up dead and 40 wounded. Israel is looked at as this very good military, but every time they get involved in a shoot out like this they always wound about 20 or more people than they need to.

"The Israeli government should have responded when they received the road map with words and not bullets," said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat. "We condemn these Israeli attacks that claimed the lives of ... Palestinians, including children. We urge the [Middle East] 'quartet' to immediately begin the implementation of the road map."

I think that Mr. Erakat is wrong here because he is saying that he wouldn't go after the terrorists in a sense. That is a violation of the accords. They state that the Palestine Authority has to crackdown on these groups. If the Palestine Authority's plan is to talk the terrorists down than they are obviously setting themselves up to fail. Today was a lose lose situation. We will see what tomorrow brings us in Israel and Palestine.

Posted at 7:21am by Andrew H