Dews Thursday Round-up

I will get to the news of the day, but I thought I might lead off with a little run-down of the random goings on and wisdom I've had the chance to pickup along the way...

Things Dews has learned on his time away from the blog:
1. Some people do not know that you shouldn't flush paper towels.
2. If you are from New England make it very clear that you are not a Pats fan when talking sports in DC (if you really aren't), as your chances with women drop dramatically if you do not make that clear.
3. Non-Dairy creamer is EXTREMELY flammable/combustible.
4. Micheal Barret was the catcher the Cubs dealt to the Padres (thanks MoDews).
5. Be sure to collect all 10 Planned Parenthood "Protect yourself from John McCain" condoms as they make excellent conversation pieces at parties.
6. God hates the San Diego SUPER Chargers now (probably because they live/play in paradise) and has moved on from hating the Saints.
7. Air mattresses are surprisingly comfortable.

Now then, on with the news...

Morgan Stanley may sell a large stake of its holdings to China, thus continuing our rapid slide into "has-been" superpower:

Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest independent U.S. securities firm, may sell a
larger stake to China Investment Corp. and is in talks about a possible merger with Wachovia Corp., a person familiar with the matter said.

Morgan Stanley pared its loss on the New York Stock Exchange after the person said China's state-controlled fund may buy as much as 49 percent of the New York-based investment bank. The person declined to be identified because the talks aren't public and may end in no agreement.

This is going to get far far worse before it gets any better I'm afraid...

Josh Howard proves just how clean-cut and bright those wonderful folks in the NBA are while at a Charity function with this wonderful nugget of info from Josh Howard:

In a video posted on YouTube, the swingman is shown at Allen Iverson's charity
flag football game in July. When the national anthem is being sung, various participants are shown mugging for the camera. When the camera gets to Howard, he says: " 'The Star-Spangled Banner' is going on. I don't celebrate this [expletive]. I'm black."

I think we see the next player's labor leader here. Truly an outspoken and underutilized orator for the ages.

And finally an interesting proposal from the same guys that brought you "Freakonomics", a proposal to tax sexual activity:

I'll give them this, its a solid logical argument, but having said that, I sure as hell wouldn't be voting for any politician supporting any such thing. I have my reasons.

That is all.

Five for Friday

First out, an interesting column from former Phillie, Cub, and Ranger Doug Glanville on how quickly a baseball player goes from green horn to wise old vet. But, I think there's a subtext here that we can apply to the 2008 election. Writes Glanville:

These inspirational anomalies make us understand that experience and time are not one and the same. You could have sat in major league locker rooms for decades and still not have the impact of a one-person movement. And when that kind of universal and era-free player comes knocking, we have to answer the door and let him in.

Second, if you're in the Vermont dating scene like me, watch the eff out.

Third, back to baseball. Anyone catch Justin Masterson's line yesterday? 6 IP, 2H, 1ER, 4BB. Not bad for a 23-year old making his debut against a lineup that includes Torii Hunter, Vlad the Impaler, and the AL hits leader, Chone Figgins. Also, Masterson is the first Jamaican-born player to make it to the bigs. Not bad at all Mr. Masterson. He's been lights-out in AA, with a 0.95 ERA so far. Can't wait to see what he can do in the rotation full-time.

Fourth, and I'm super pumped about this one: Guillermo del Toro is going to direct the forthcoming Hobbit movies. In my opinion, the man is a genius. They are going to be spectacles to behold.

Last, on the international scene, the NYT ran a feature on Vladimir Putin and his cronies essentially making the Russian Orthodox Church the official religion of Russia, or at least the official Christian church of Russia. There's a ton that you can read into this article, but I think that the most striking, in my opinion, is how illustrative this is of the lengths Russia still needs to go to become a modern democracy. It's not just that there is no practical freedom of religion in Russia; its that the people interviewed in this article don't seem to understand the concept. The article displays some cognitive dissonance: they are intellectually in favor of religious freedom, but on a day to day basis support hegemony and state-sponsored religion in the name of preserving Russian-ness. There simply isn't a practical understanding by the Russian people as a whole of what this means, or so this article demonstrates. It's truly sad.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Dews Slow Monday...

Quite a lot going on in the world, as per its usual, but some truly disturbing news from Tibet as the protests against the Chinese government have spread to multiple provinces. Its looking more and more like China will be allowed to effectively exterminate any resistance in Tibet without any foreign journalists at this point as well:

In a sign that authorities were preparing for trouble, AP and other foreign journalists were ordered out of the Tibetan parts of Gansu and Qinghai provinces by police who told them it was for their safety."

Of course, any mention of any brutal tactics of the Chinese Government results in a site being banned in China, so hopefully we'll be added to that list soon enough.

This brutality that China has shown in dealing with dissent is really just amazing though in that nobody in the world stage feels like they can say a damn thing about it. Really sad stuff to see them commit what is essentially "cultural genocide" (to quote the Dalai Lama).

More strangeness out of Jersey as former Governor Jim Mcgreevey's driver has come forward with claims that "Dina Matos McGreevey (Wife of Jim) must have always known her husband was gay - because he was the other man in bed with them."

Hey, I mention it purely for the "wtf?" impact, not because I enjoy delving into the always strange sexual lives of politicians (in fact, I'm always reminded of the good Senator Pat Geary that was owned by the Corleone family in "The Godfather" when I think of politicians "other" lives).

Finally, the Supreme's (DC's version, not the Diana Ross kind) are about to take up a possible landmark type battle over DC's gun law, as well as possibly far reaching rules on "profanity" within media.

The case concerns a Federal Communications Commission policy that allows for
fines against broadcasters for so-called "fleeting expletives," one-time uses of
the F-word or its close cousins.

Fox Broadcasting Co., along with ABC, CBS and NBC, challenged the new policy after the commission said broadcasts of entertainment awards shows in 2002 and 2003 were indecent because of profanity uttered by Bono, Cher and Nicole Richie.

Should be an interesting story to follow, but I am not by any means the expert in this area (that would be our very own legal counsel Dewey, or "DC&H"), but will be interested nonetheless in how this all shapes up.

Strange wacky stuff...

Or better yet, what else can governments spend tax-dollars on?

I know! Lets fund a nasa project to determine the feasibility of sexual positions in space!

Oh you think I'm kidding?

"The issue of sex in space is a serious one," he says. "The experiments carried out so far relate to missions planned for married couples on the future International Space Station, the successor to Mir. Scientists need to know how far sexual relations are possible without gravity."

Twenty positions were tested by computer simulation to obtain the best 10, he says. "Two guinea pigs then tested them in real zero-gravity conditions. The results were videotaped but are considered so sensitive that even Nasa was only given a censored version."

I wish I could come up with stuff like this on my own, but as they say, reality is always stranger then fiction...

I mean, honestly, who wasn't at least really curious about this? Be honest...

Did not think I'd be reading an article about sex today that included the phrase "were found possible without mechanical assistance", but all in a days work I suppose...

Worried about Fertility?

I somehow missed this golden nugget of info for my round-up, but our wonderful neighbors across the pond (no, not China, the "Other" pond) in England have discovered that having sex daily actually increases fertility in men.

In a contradiction of conventional wisdom on the subject, research has shown those who do not have sex often produce sperm of lower quality than those who do so daily.

This is thought to be because sperms DNA becomes more damaged the longer it remains in the body, cutting the chances of fertilisation and raising the risk of a miscarriage in the first weeks of pregnancy.

Really fascinating news, but at the same time it all kind of makes sense. I mean, the longer the lil fellas have to not go anywhere, the more chance they'd have of getting bored, hitting up the bars, or just doing something stupid, so it makes total sense to get rid of em as soon as possible right?

And yea, I have no idea what this pic was for originally, nor am I going to find out, I just felt like I had to use it.

No no, stay home, have sex, its cool...

(Stock photo of happy Russian couple)
Those wacky Russians may be on to something here...

They apparently want to counteract a shrinking population problem from immigration (as well as that whole AIDS thing), by encouraging people to stay home and make babies!

The governor of a central Russian province urged couples to skip work on Wednesday and make love instead to help boost Russia's low birth-rate.

Now, I am almost 100% behind this concept. The part that gets me is the whole having to have a baby part though.... Not really sure if they'd be cool with this if you were on the Pill, or some other form of birth control, but at least its something!

As a side note to this post, taking the Pill (the most wonderful creation ever) has recently shown to lower women's risk of cancer later in life! Provided, I guess, they keep taking it?

The study found that overall cancer risk was up to 12 per cent lower for women who took the Pill for less than eight years. But, for the minority of women who took it for more than eight years, the news was less good: for them, the risk of cancer increased by 22 per cent.

Well, you take the good with the bad I guess?

I got it bad SO bad...

...I'm hot for teacher.

Love that song, but with it Barry has posted a link to a site that lists female teachers who have been busted for sleeping with their students.

I know many of you get a kick out of it, and the list is HUGE.