A.L. Central Standings

The Tigers play in less than two hours. With a Twins loss today, a Tigers win tonight means they clinch the division. Tomorrow is their last regular season game of the year.

Detroit ........................................... --
Minnesota ........................................0.5
Chicago ............................................5.5
Cleveland .........................................19
Kansas City .......................................35

A.L. Central Standings

Sure the Tigers are in the playoffs, but wouldn't it be great if they went in after having won their division? Remember, with just six games left we still have a penant race on our hands.

Detroit ........................................... --
Minnesota .........................................1
Chicago ............................................7.5
Cleveland .........................................21
Kansas City .......................................36

The Tigers are in the Playoffs

For the first time since 1987 (19 years!!!), the Detroit Tigers have made the playoffs. The race for the division is still on for the next few days, but with a win today the Tigers assured they will at least win the Wild Card berth to the playoffs. I can't tell you how excited I am to watch my team play baseball in October for the first time since I was a small child.

The Detroit News has the story.

Sweet Action

I'm sure many of you have already seen this. For those who have not, don't delay.

Starbucks trivia

Which character in the TV show The Office often has his supplies put in Jello?

Answer

I got this one right too. Only because I watched the season premier last night.

A.L. Central Standings

Tigers lost early in the day and for a few hours they were actually tied with the Twins for first place. But the Red Sox beat the Twins at night so the Tigers are still in first place, barely.

Detroit ........................................... --
Minnesota .........................................0.5
Chicago ............................................6
Cleveland .........................................20.5
Kansas City .......................................32.5

Reader e-mail

Received this from an old friend recently. I do not vouch for the entertainment value of this video in any way.

"Hey Keesler:

In the spirit of the other videos on your blog, when I saw this one I thought you might enjoy it. If this doesn't motivate you to come for a visit to Utah, I don't know what will."

Fun with dead people

From the Associated Press:

"NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- A doctor has pleaded not guilty to stealing a hand from a New Jersey medical school cadaver and giving it to an exotic dancer, authorities said.

Ahmed Rashed, a 2005 graduate of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, was charged this week after voluntarily returning from Los Angeles, where he is in a residency program, said his lawyer, Hassen Abdellah.

Rashed, 26, is free on $1,000 bail.

The dancer, Linda Kay, kept the hand in a jar of formaldehyde in her bedroom. Friends have said she called the hand "Freddy."

Police discovered the hand, along with six human skulls, at Kay's home in July, after being called there on a report that a roommate was suicidal. The roommate was not home, but Kay was.

Kay, 31, has pleaded not guilty to unlawful disposal of human remains. Her mother has said she believed the skulls were bought from a mail order catalog.

The left hand was taken in 2002, according to an investigation. The charge against Rashed carries up to 10 years in prison."

Tigers beat third place Chicago last night. They play a make up game against Baltimore this afternoon. Minnesota beat Boston last night (which, incidentally, assured the Yankees their sixth straight penant in the A.L. East). Twins take on the Red Sox again tonight.

Detroit ........................................... --
Minnesota .......................................0.5
Chicago ............................................6
Cleveland .........................................20.5
Kansas City ......................................33

A.L. Central Standings

The race tightens even more with just 10 games left. Tigers take on third place Chicago tonight, Minnesota plays Boston.

Detroit ........................................... --
Minnesota .......................................0.5
Chicago ............................................5
Cleveland .........................................19.5
Kansas City ......................................32

Sweet Touchdown Jesus!

What does it mean if you play the number two team in the nation, on that team's home field, and blow them out? I guess we'll find out on November 18.

I had an amazing opportunity on Saturday to attend the Michigan - Notre Dame game in South Bend, Ind. I had always wanted to go to a game over there and seeing Michigan play them when the Irish were ranked number two was amazing. Adam, the new guy at work, is a Notre Dame alum - as is his wife, Maria. Adam's mother-in-law works in fundraising for Notre Dame and was able to get me a ticket. I crashed at Adam's parents' house on Friday night and tailgated with him and his in-laws on Saturday before the game. I have to say, the people I was with, as well as all of the Notre Dame fans in general, were incredibly hospitable, even though I made no secret of the fact that I wanted to see Michigan crush the home team. And they did just that.

Mitch Albom said the 47-21 win made it look like Notre Dame's number two ranking was a typo. They flat out killed them and I got to see it in person. Supremely satisfying.

Michigan - A Liberal Failure?

The National Review slams the Great Lakes State in a column today by Richard Lowry. He pulls no punches, to say the least. Observe:

• "The state represents a rough approximation of ideal liberal economic policy. It is heavily unionized, taxed, and regulated in a failed attempt to close its eyes to the dynamic forces of the market and globalization all around it."
• "Michigan was the only state in the country not hit by Hurricane Katrina to lose jobs between September 2004 and September 2005. The state unemployment rate just ticked up again to 7.1 percent, substantially above the nation’s rate of 4.7 percent. The rate of growth of its per capita gross state product is 49th in the nation; lowly Mississippi is 44th."
• "According to the free-market Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s analysis of United Van Lines data, Michigan is now the No. 1 state in the continental United States for outbound traffic. An estimated 65 percent of the moving company’s Michigan interstate traffic is families moving out of the state, headed to more economically open and vital destinations. As an official in Wyoming put it, 'Michigan has been very good for us.'”
• "The way to thrive in a globalized environment is to create a low-tax economy without the rigidities that come with heavy unionization and regulation. For those who disagree, Michigan beckons."

Ouch! Wyoming? That's gonna leave a mark.

By ANY Means Necessary?

More from the voices of tolerance. It seems a couple counter-protestors showed up at a pro-affirmative action rally in Lansing Saturday and were accosted by an angry mob. According to the Ann Arbor News, U of M student Dan Shuster and about nine others had to have a police escort after being accosted by the pro-affirmative action thugs.

"About 2,000 protesters rallied against Proposal 2 [which is on the November ballot and would effectively ban government imposed racial preferences in Michigan]. Shuster said neither he nor other counter-protesters tried to interfere with the rally or spoke to the protesters walking along the rally route. He said they held signs. One read: 'End the racial preferences,' he said. As the protesters passed by, Shuster said, some of them stopped to yell at his group. He said he recognized some of them from previous events as being affiliated with the pro-affirmative action group, The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action & Integration and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary, or BAMN. 'The crowd was building up,' Shuster said. 'They were definitely getting unruly. They were not happy, to be mild about it.'"

How nice.

A.L. Central Standings

What an amazing race. Tigers sure are hanging tough.

Detroit ........................................... --
Minnesota ........................................1
Chicago .............................................5
Cleveland ........................................19.5
Kansas City .....................................31.5

A Night With My Brothers and the Tigers are in a Penant Race

So I go to Novi for the second ever Ave Maria alums working in Southeast Michigan networking gathering. And the second I sit down to dinner I get a call from my brother. Both brothers and Brian's wife Abigail are on their way to the Tigers game, staring in 5 minutes, and they have an extra ticket.

Now friends, I must explain that to my knowledge I've never attended ANY baseball game in the month of September. To see a game the Tigers are playing this late in the season, in the midst of a verifiable penant race, well that is truly a rare occurrence. And to see it with my two brothers, that is the icing on the cake.

Here we are in a group photo moments after Carlos Guillen hit a walk off homer in the bottom of the ninth to break a tie and secure a Tigers win. A September win, that is. It was a moment I will remember for quite some time.

Here's the Freep photo of Guillen rounding third to win the game. Since Jeff was doing his best Beastie Boys video impression, I missed this scene in person.

And now for the standings

Detroit ........................................... --

Minnesota .......................................1.5

Chicago ...........................................3.5

Cleveland ........................................18

Kansas City .....................................32

A.L. Central Standings

Tigers are struggling a bit of late.

Detroit ........................................... --
Minnesota ........................................2
Chicago ...........................................3.5
Cleveland ........................................17
Kansas City .....................................32

The comforts of home

This one's for my lonely wife. I hope she has speakers on the computer she's been using.

A.L. Central Standings

Detroit ........................................... --
Minnesota ........................................5
Chicago ...........................................5.5
Cleveland ........................................18
Kansas City .....................................34

Where's The Cheat

I guess I just figured she was working late every night. Then I get this e-mail in my inbox today. South America? Who knew?

"Hello readers, this is The Cheat writing from Ecuador. I´m doing a medical rotation here with my friend Deepika (aka Chevere´- look it up in your Spanish dictionary). We spent the first few days in Quito, the capital city, and it was a blast. We hung out all over the city. We went to the equator and did some hiking in the Andees Mountains. When I get back, I´ll be sure to hook up the lyrical gangster with pictures of our escapades.

After a few days of goofing around, we left for Puyo which is a small city (population 20,000) that is on the edge of the Amazon Rain Forest. We came here to work in the public hospital of Puyo. The relationship with the University of Michigan is a new one and we are the first residents to come down from UM so we were a little surprised to find out that the program isn´t that organized right now and that a lot of the work initially entailed meeting with administrators to negotiate terms of the relationship with UM. That was a little stressful at first but we´re finally doing some of what we came here to do. I´ve had the opportunity to practice using Spanish in a medical setting. Many of the illnesses are similar to what we often see in the US, but it has been quite an experience to treat illnesses with limited resources. I´ve also heard some amazing stories. Today I saw a patient who was 3 months pregnant who presented to the hospital with a complaint of vomiting profusely for 2-3 weeks. You´re probably wondering why she didn´t come to the hospital sooner? Well, she lives in the middle of the rain forest. She and her husband walked 3 days to get to a place where they could radio a helicopter. Once they made that call, they had to wait one week before the helicopter was able to get to them and then they were brought to this hospital. The residents here told me these kind of stories are quite common here.

Well, this weekend Deepika and I are planning to go to Baños which is a tourist city nearby that supposedly has some great hiking. Then, I´ll only have a few more days before I come back home to the arms of the lyrical gangster!

Con mucho amor en Ecuador,
Najwa "

Street Fighting A2 Style

OK, so I stole this one from another blog, but it was way too good to leave alone. It turns out that a certain 1980's rap artist was referenced during what Ann Arborites refer to as a "street fight." Ohh. Scary. The Ann Arbor News has the details.

"Taunt of 'Vanilla Ice' precedes street fight

A University of Michigan student said someone called him 'Vanilla Ice'' and then struck him in the face as he was walking on East William Street early Monday, Ann Arbor police said.

The student said he and a friend were walking in the 600 block of East William at 2:25 a.m. when four men walked by, and one punched him for no reason, reports said. The man's friend said one of the other men called the victim 'Vanilla Ice.'' The friend said he started swinging to protect the victim and also was hit, reports said. Officers arrived, and the four men said the victim and his friend started the fight.

No one wanted to press charges"

A.L. Central Standings

Detroit ........................................... --
Minnesota ........................................4
Chicago ...........................................5.5
Cleveland ........................................18
Kansas City .....................................33.5

A.L. Central Standings

Detroit ........................................... --
Minnesota ........................................5
Chicago ...........................................5
Cleveland ........................................19
Kansas City .....................................34

Starbucks trivia

What is the second largest city in Ohio?

Answer (scroll down)

I got this one right on the first try and, thus, received ten cents off my purchase.

A.L. Central Standings

Detroit ........................................... --
Minnesota ......................................4.5
Chicago ...........................................5
Cleveland ........................................18
Kansas City ....................................33.5

Who pays what in taxes?

The next time someone tells you the rich don't pay their fair share of taxes, remember this article from today's Wall Street Journal. Remember Al Gore's repeated lecture on how the "wealthiest one percent" weren't paying their fair share? Ever wonder what percentage of all federal taxes the bottom FIFTY percent of taxpayers pay? How about 3.3%. Yeah. Here's the WSJ:

"First, the new data show that the bottom 50% of Americans in income--U.S. households with an income below the median of $44,389--paid a smaller share of total income taxes in 2004 (3.3%) than in Bill Clinton's last year in office (3.9%). That 3.3% is the lowest share of total income taxes paid by the bottom half of earners in at least 30 years, and probably ever. The majority of American families with an income below $40,000 pay no income tax at all today, and many of them also get a welfare subsidy from the Earned Income Tax Credit that effectively offsets much of what they pay in payroll taxes.

By contrast, Americans with an income in the top 1% paid 36.9% of all federal income taxes in 2004, down slightly from 37.4% at what was the height of the dot-com boom in 2000. But the top 5% and 10% of earners saw an increase in their tax share over that same period, with the top 5%'s share rising to 57.1% in 2004 from 56.5% in 2000. If this isn't the definition of a highly 'progressive,' a k a redistributionist, tax code, we don't know what is."

OK. So I'm not rich and I'm no big fan of trying to make rich people richer at the expense of the poor. But I do believe in logic. When more than half of taxpayers combine to pay 3.3% of all taxes collected, I'm pretty sure this is not a system that is designed to prop up the robber barrons at the expense of the little people.

People who make more money pay more in taxes for two reasons. First, if the tax rate was set at 15% for example, it is obvious that 15% of $10,000 is a heck of a lot less than 15% of $1 million. But many people don't realize that those with higher incomes also pay higher rates. To use the above example, if people who made $10,000 paid 15% of that, people who make $1 million would actually pay something more like 35% of their income in taxes. How is this system so unfair to poor people again?

Danny gets a haircut

My brother in law Danny has been growing his hair without cutting it since about fifth grade, as best I can tell. For some undisclosed reason he recently got a haircut. A lot of hair cut.

For comparison purposes, below is a picture when it was near its longest.

Please cast your votes in the comments section below about which hair style you like best. I will say this: he looks considerably younger with his hair shorter. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's true.

A.L. Central Standings

Detroit ........................................... --
Minnesota ......................................5.5
Chicago ...........................................6
Cleveland ........................................19
Kansas City ....................................34.5

Law School Opening Mass

At Ave we have mass every day, multiple times throughout the day. I normally don't go, but on special occasions I do. This week, the opening mass of the new school year was one of those occasions. A lot of ugly things have happened around here lately. It seems so appropriate to pray for my school at this time. I wanted to share these words from the program handed out at the opening mass. Pray for Ave if you think of it.

"As we begin a new academic year we invoke the Holy Spirit to renew in us His gifts of wisdom, understanding, right judgment, courage, knowledge, reverence, awe and wonder. It is only through God's grace that we can fully appreciate God's law for the governance of civil society and do what is required to ensure the dignity of each person made in God's image and called to eternal life with Him. Today under the Spirit's guidance we recommit ourselves to our vocation as servants of the law to do justice, love goodness and walk humbly with our God."

Amen

A.L. Central Standings

Detroit ........................................... --
Chicago ...........................................4.5
Minnesota .......................................5
Cleveland .......................................19
Kansas City ....................................34.5