Daily Archives: May 15, 2004

Stros break three game skein

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The Stros showed signs of breaking out of their collective slump of over the past week as they cranked out 12 hits on Saturday night in defeating the Mets, 7-4.
Andy Pettitte won his fourth straight game since coming off the disabled list, giving up 4 runs on 6 hits with 6 strikeouts in 6 innings. While Miceli and Lidge were both strong in an inning of relief each, Dotel made things interesting in the ninth by walking the first two batters before getting the next three, two on K’s.
SS Adam Everett had a 2 run yak (his 3rd of the season) and 2B Jeff Kent also had a couple of hits and RBIs. Another positive sign for the Stros is that third baseman Morgan Ensberg continued his hitting resurgance. After posting an anemic .552 OPS (i.e., on base average + slugging percentage) during April, Ensberg has warmed up to a very respectable .951 OPS during May.
The story of this Major League Baseball season to date — The Rocket — goes for his eighth straight victory Sunday afternoon before an SRO crowd at the Juice Box. It should be fun.

Wags goes on DL

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Long-time Astros closer and fan favorite, Billy Wagner, who was traded to the Phillies during this past offseason, was placed on the 15 day disabled list yesterday (retroactive to May 7) with a pulled groin.
Wags is easily the best Astros closer of all-time. He has a 2.50 career ERA, compared to a league average of 4.31 during his career, and he has saved 104 runs more than an average pitcher would have saved in 477 games over his career. After a great season with the Stros last season, Wags is off to a good start this season with a 1.20 ERA/5 RSAA (runs saved against average) in his first 13 games.

Nortel subject of grand jury probe

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Canadian computer giant Nortel Networks, which has its U.S. base in Richardson just outside of Dallas, announced that a federal grand jury in Dallas has subpoenaed financial documents from the company as part of a criminal investigation. The SEC and Canadian securities regulators are already investigating Nortel in regard to Nortel’s restatements of its earnings dating back to 2000 and an executive bonus program.
Nortel’s announcement refused to comment on whether the subpoenaed documents were linked to the three top Nortel executives — chief executive, Frank A. Dunn; its chief financial officer, Douglas A. Beatty; and its controller, Michael J. Gollogly — who the company fired last month. Nortel’s board fired those executives after the company reported that it earned half as much in 2003 as it initially reported and that it had smaller losses in 2001 and 2002 than it stated in those years. As you might expect, the three former executives have been named as defendants in nearly two dozen investor class-action lawsuits.

Comparing images of Abu Ghraib and Nicholas Berg

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Charles Paul Freund is a senior editor of Reason, a monthly magazine on politics and culture, who has written extensively on the political manipulation of culture, the ideological use of imagery and language, modern techniques of persuasion and the process of disseminating ideas.
In this LA Times op-ed, which is a must read in its entirety, Mr. Freund makes the following salient point in comparing the responses to the recent images of the Abu Ghraib prison and the beheading of Nicholas Berg:

The Abu Ghraib pictures reveal American soldiers humiliating their prisoners in a sadistic manner (in some images, the Americans are actually smirking). It’s a painful sight because it is cruel on its own terms (we don’t even know whether the terrorized individuals are actually guilty of anything) and because we regard such sadism as unworthy of our image of ourselves.
By contrast, Zarqawi intentionally videotapes and distributes his bloody atrocity; the literal slaughter of an innocent is offered as an example of his righteousness. For Zarqawi, the question of unworthiness simply never enters the calculation; that the action is inhuman is its point.
Shameless brutality of this degree has the power to transform the shame of Zarqawi’s enemies. Zarqawi has reminded his enemies that, unlike him, they are at least capable of shame.
Zarqawi’s righteous snuff movie is an act of lunacy, a gift to his enemies, and, one hopes, an unwitting suicide note.

Hat tip to Virginia Postrel for the link to Mr. Freund’s timely piece.

Ten don’ts for appellate advocates

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This Begging the Question post provides an appellate law clerk’s handy list of reminders for appellate lawyers in what not to do in advocating your client’s position. Hat tip to Evan Schaeffer over at the Illinois Trial Practice Blog for the link to this post.
By the way, Evan’s blog is one of the best in cyberspace in providing insightful and practical information for trial lawyers. I particularly enjoy the way he has organized his posts into various subjects relating to trial work. This is a great resource for trial lawyers, and a great example of how a blog can provide specialized information in a creative and effective manner.