SF Giants Win 2014 World Series In Seventh Game! Royals Go Down Swinging. #WorldSeries #SFGiants #Royals

Madison Bumgarner,
Greatest Pitcher Ever?

It took seven games, but the San Francisco Giants finally squeaked to victory in Game 7, winning 3-2 over the Kansas City Royals.  The Giants lost three games in this World Series, mainly because their pitching collapsed.  The Royals batters must have intimidated most of the Giants better pitchers, because those pitchers fell apart early, allowing the Royals to score many runs.  Tonight pitcher Tim Hudson disintegrated early, was replaced late in the second inning by Jeremy Affeldt who did a creditable job, until Madison Bumgarner took over pitching in the 5th.

When Bumgarner took over, the score was 3-2, Giants.  Bum kept it that way through five innings of shut-out baseball, allowing the Giants to win their third World Series in five years, and their eighth World Series in franchise history.  The Fox News announcers opined that the Giants are now a baseball dynasty, and have earned a place in sports history.  They also raved about Madison Bumgarner, who they say is one of the best pitchers to ever play the game.

The loss has to be tough to swallow for Kansas City fans.  Their team fought its way down a very long, hard road to reach the 7th game of the World Series, only to lose it all by one run.  The Royals are a fantastic team in my opinion, and I admire and respect them.  I would like to see them win a World Series soon, just not against the Giants.

The Royals last won a World Series 29 seasons ago, in 1985.  I know how that long drought feels.  Before 2010, the Giants had not won a World Series since 1954 -- a wait of 56 years.  I doubt that the Royals will have to wait that long.  They are too good of a team.

Royals Humiliate Giants in Game 6; Final Game of 2014 World Series Tonight #worldseries, #SFGiants #Royals

Back on their home turf and surrounded by dedicated, cheering fans, the Kansas City Royals looked like sure winners on Tuesday night.  They ran up a score of 10-Zip before the final out.

The major cause of their victory, however, was a dismal pitching performance by SF Giant Jake Peavy, the worst of his career (or so say the pundits).  He did terrible in Game 2 as well, for the same reason:  walking batters, loading the bases, then allowing singles and doubles to bring in the runs.

Why Manager Bruce Bochy started Peavy is odd, considering the Game 2 fiasco.  In Game 6, Peavy was pulled after 2 innings.  His replacements were not much better, allowing hits (but fewer walks), and the infield made some dubious defensive plays that allowed runners to reach base.  So Peavy was not the only problem, the entire Giants roster was lackluster.

The Royals started a young pitcher from the Dominican Republic who throws 98 MPH fastballs, and his pitching frustrated Giants batters.  The long and short of it is that the Giants crashed and burned, all to the staccato of Royals bats, who began to sound like a Japanese drum troupe as they laid down a barrage of singles, doubles and one home run.

An announcer stated that of the last World Series ten teams who were 3-2 but lost the 6th game, eight were defeated and only two survived the 7th game.  So it appears statistically probable that the Royals will win their second World Series ever this evening.  They last won in 1985.

I am hoping that the Giants will rally to win Game 7, but if I were a betting man, my money would be on the Royals.  Prove me wrong, Giants, puh-leeze.

Reflections of a Giants Fan: The World Series 2014; Hunter Pence, Hero #worldseries, #SFGiants

Hunter Pence

I've been following the major league baseball playoffs with interest this year.  My favorite team is the San Francisco Giants, because I live in the Bay Area and associate the team with home and family.  The last thing I ever did with my father, the week he died, was to watch the Giants play the Cardinals one Sunday afternoon.  The Giants won 2-0.

The San Francisco Giants are trying for their third Wold Series Win, though it will be the 8th World Series win for the franchise, if it happens.  The Giants won five World Series as the New York Giants, and have appeared in the World Series 20 times, which includes 2014.  The Giants beat the New York Yankees twice, in the World Series of 1921 and 1922.

The Giants won the World Series in 1905, 1921, 1922, 1933, 1954, 2010 and 2012.  Baseball is an American tradition dating back more than a century.  It is very American, and it is very special.

Last night I watched the 4th game of the 2014 World Series, and when the Royals went ahead 4-1 in the 4th inning, I feared the Giants were doomed.  The Royals appeared on their way to their third win of the series, which would put the Giants' backs against the wall.  However, the Giants rallied with a flurry of hits in the 5th, 6th and the 7th, and ran up the score to 11-4, holding on to it until the game ended.  The series is now tied at two games each.  The team that wins 4 games out of a possible 7 will win the series (duh).

This series is evenly matched.  Both the Royals and the Giants make heroic hits, impossible saves, pinpoint throws and precision teamwork, with a never-say-die determination that makes each game wild and exciting.

For my money, Giants outfielder Hunter Pence is the hero of the Giants' efforts this year.  Early in Game 4, he stole 2nd base, then stole 3rd base, and finally got home to score the first run of the game.  He was determined that the Giants should score first.  Pence is from Texas.  That makes him doubly likable in  my book.  My father was from Texas, too.

UPDATE:  In Game 5 tonight, Madison Bumgarner, the ace picture of the Giants, threw a nine inning shutout of the Royals, leading the Giants to a 5-0 win and a lead in the series of 3 games to 2.  Game 6 and 7 (if needed) will be played in Kansas City on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.  The Royals need to win both those games to win the World Series; the Giants have to win only one more game to win the World Series.  The energy and momentum of the Giants makes it clear that the Royals have their work cut out for them.

What Really Happened In Ferguson? More Details Emerge #Ferguson

Source: Darren Wilson says Michael Brown kept charging at him

The emerging details continue to exonerate Officer Darren Wilson and show Michael Brown was the aggressor in the confrontation that killed him.

Hat tip:  American Renaissance

Read it here.

FERGUSON T-SHIRTS FOR THE FAITHFUL - Buy One For The Next Riot #Ferguson #NoJusticeNoPeace

Stogie, Ltd. wishes to express solidarity with the righteous bruthas of Ferguson, Missouri, as they plot and plan their next riot for righteousness.  This event is expected to occur once the Grand Jury refuses to indict Officer Darren Wilson.  As everyone knows, the curr Wilson shot a black brutha simply because that brutha had dark skin, and oh yeah, attacked Wilson, beating him in the face while trying to take his gun, and then charging Wilson with apparent intent to do bodily harm. Details, details. 

We can no longer allow such blatant racism to continue in Ferguson, Missouri!

Stogie, Ltd. announces a new T-shirt for rioting black bruthas everywhere.  

The new white T shirt bears the new international peace symbol.  This symbol has successively diminishing concentric rings of crimson, symbolizing harmonic convergence of karmic cosmology on a field of white, for purity.  Wear it to your next riot to identify yourself to your bruthas and sistas, while striking fear into the police and owners of shops and convenience stores. 

We feel certain that if the Ferguson Righteous Rioters wear this T-shirt to the next riot, the event will prove to be a huge success for peace and justice.

Price:  $500 per T-shirt, large only.  Contact our marketing director.

Radical Muslims Are The Islamic Majority: Ben Shapiro Explains (Video)

The case for massive deportations of Muslims from the west continues to grow.

 

A "No Indictment" for Officer Darren Wilson Appears Likely

An article in the New York Times has revealed that Officer Wilson reasonably feared for his life when he shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri two months ago.  Wilson said that Brown had pinned him in his police car and reached for Wilson's gun.  The gun was fired twice in the car (by whom is not clear), hitting Brown in the arm and the second shot missed.  Brown's blood on the gun and on the door panel of Wilson's car corroborates this.

The Times article made a big point out of saying that Wilson's version of events were different from those of Brown's partner-in-crime, Dorian Johnson, a thug with a record of lying to the police, and Brown's accomplice in the robbing of a convenience store just before Brown was shot.  The Times refers to Johnson as "Mr. Johnson," and treats his dubious version of events as credible.

Now the Black underclass in Ferguson are promising that "the whole country will burn" if Wilson is not indicted.  Of course, that's just a lot of bravado and braggadocio from ghetto trash.  For their sake, I do hope they are wrong.  I personally am quite fed up with the Black population's crime rate, anti-white racism, and extortionate threats of violence unless justice is perverted to favor their hatreds and delusions.

And I am armed.

Do Liberals Want You To Die?

I'm not big on conspiracy theories, and usually delight in puncturing them with facts and logic.  However, there is one conspiracy theory that may have some truth in it.  It is the theory that liberals desire a much smaller global population (true) and are willing to starve, abort and ebola-ize people to get it.

The "Climate Change" hoax has advocated draconian governmental intervention into the world economy.  Denying electricity and carbon based fuels to impoverished third world countries would, some say, result in widespread starvation.  Through-the-roof energy prices also cripple an economy, reducing more people to poverty.  Abortion, of course, eliminates millions of potential human beings, and keeps population numbers lower than they otherwise would be.

I have often wondered why the leftist intelligentsia cannot see the human misery that their policies cause -- do they want humanity to be impoverished?  No,  They want humanity to be substantially reduced.  Some fear that the Ebola threat will be used to accomplish this end.

Below are some quotes from leftists who see humanity itself as "the enemy."

“A total world population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.” Ted Turner, in an interview with Audubon magazine

“There is a single theme behind all our work–we must reduce population levels. Either governments do it our way, through nice clean methods, or they will get the kinds of mess that we have in El Salvador, or in Iran or in Beirut. Population is a political problem. Once population is out of control, it requires authoritarian government, even fascism, to reduce it….”“Our program in El Salvador didn’t work. The infrastructure was not there to support it. There were just too goddamned many people…. To really reduce population, quickly, you have to pull all the males into the fighting and you have to kill significant numbers of fertile age females….” “The quickest way to reduce population is through famine, like in Africa, or through disease like the Black Death….” Thomas Ferguson, State Department Office of Population Affairs

“In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill…. But in designating them as the enemy, we fall into the trap of mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself.” Alexander King, Bertrand Schneider – Founder and Secretary, respectively, The Club of Rome, The First Global Revolution, pgs 104-105, 1991

“A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people…. We must shift our efforts from the treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer. The operation will demand many apparently brutal and heartless decisions.” Stanford Professor ” Paul Ehrlich in The Population Bomb

Quotes are reprinted from "Before Its News."

Rush Limbaugh Is IGNORANT of American History and the Civil War; My Rebuttal

Rush Limbaugh really showed his ignorance of American history and the Civil War today.  He voiced some feel-good myths that are easily refuted, and should be.

Here are his statements and my correction:

1.  The Founding Fathers only allowed slavery at the formation of the United States to appease the Southern states and encourage them to join the union.  The Northern states opposed slavery and hated it and wanted to get rid of it.

Horse feathers.  MOST of the Founding Fathers were slave owners or slave traders, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Patrick Henry.   Of the 55 men at the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention of 1777, no less than 30 were slave owners.

Twelve of the thirteen original colonies were slave states.  There was no significant opposition to slavery by the Northern states.  In fact, the Northern states were enthusiastically getting rich through slave trading.  For every slave they sold to the South, they sold 20 more to Cuba, Brazil and the West Indies.  Massachusetts, that great bastion of abolitionism, enslaved the Pequot Indians and sold them into slavery outside the continent.  Rhode Island built and maintained an impressive fleet of ships designed and used specifically for slave trading.  Northern textile mills used Southern cotton, planted and harvested by slaves, without any moral objections whatsoever.

Slaves were used in the North just as long as they were needed, and were then sold to the South once immigrants (like the Irish) were plentiful enough to replace slavery.

2.  Fifty thousand soldiers died in the Civil War to abolish slavery.  Not even close, Rush.  Over 600,000 soldiers died in the Civil War (estimates put the number at around 640,000).  At least 300,000 were Union soldiers. They did not fight to free the slaves, they fought to force the South back into a political union that they no longer wanted, for the usual reasons:  to maintain the ability to tax and rule.  For more details, see the scholarly essay by a university professor who actually knows what he is talking about:  Why the Civil War Was Not About Slavery, by Donald Livingston, Emory University.  The "fighting to free the slaves" myth was created after the war to give a false veneer of righteousness to Northern aggression.

So Rush, as someone who listens to you regularly, I must advise you to SHUT UP with regard to the Civil War and the Southern states, since you are wrong on the facts, and since you are alienating many Americans who are Confederate descendants, many of whom are conservatives.

BY THE WAY, Rush, I have defended you against liberal attacks on several occasions.  But when you are wrong, I will refute you.

Taking Stock: the World According to Stogie

Fall Weather and Flapping Duck Wings
I like to spend the morning sitting in my canvas-top gazebo, drinking coffee, reading the news on my laptop, and enjoying the fall weather.  This morning I saw two large V formations of ducks flying overhead, quacking happily amid a sea of flapping wings.  It was such a lovely fall scene.

Wifey has begun harvesting our persimmons, which are ripening earlier than usual.

Marriage and Merriment
Our youngest son is getting married on November 1st, in Los Angeles.  We are happy for him, and getting ready for the trek South to see him, his bride, his new in-laws, and many relatives and mutual friends.  This week I bought a new dark blue pinstripe suit for the wedding, which will also serve me well in the tax season.

Bay Area Sports
Professional sports are a small item in the Great Scheme of Things.  I won't lose any sleep if the San Francisco Giants baseball team loses to the St. Louis Cardinals, nor if the San Francisco Forty-Niners lose the rest of their football games.  Nevertheless, I really enjoyed seeing (hearing, rather) the Giants beat the Cardinals 5-4 in ten innings last night.  On Monday, I enjoyed seeing the Forty-Niners stomp the St. Louis Rams.  Nothing personal, St. Louis, and I wish you well otherwise.

Islam Sucks and So Do Liberals
Since Islam is one of the greatest evils that western civilization has ever faced, naturally liberals love it, defend it, rationalize for it, and want more of it.  Fortunately, the American public is becoming more aware of just how awful Islam really is, and are less and less tolerant of its hostility to western values, like the right to be a non-Muslim and still keep your head.  I suspect that the public's tolerance of Islamic intolerance will diminish as Islamic atrocities increase within our borders.  And they will.

The Natives Are Restless in Ferguson, Missouri.  Oh was that racist?  Tough shit.  This week a crowd of blacks in Ferguson expressed their racial hatred of white cops by harassing shoppers in a mall, demanding "Justice,"  By "justice," they mean that white officers who shoot attacking black thugs are to be prosecuted regardless of a lack of evidence that they did anything wrong.  The New Black Panthers (who are more skunk than panther) are demanding the murder, not only of police officers, but of white people in general.  Note to Black Skunk leader:  we are armed, and we shoot back.  Further, there are a lot more of us than there are of you, and we are quite fed up with your bullshit.  Don't push it.

I understand that they are still investigating the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, and have not yet reached any decision to indict and prosecute police officer Wilson.  I wish they would hurry up and come to a conclusion.  If it is to not indict, some black leaders have sworn to riot and rampage in protest.  Others blacks are pissed that the Ferguson stores that they burned down have not yet been rebuilt so they can shop locally.  They are vowing to riot again if the stores are not rebuilt.  Not sure what they are going to burn down next, however.

If I lived in Ferguson or St. Louis, I would definitely arm myself with a pistol and a shotgun, and practice shooting at a shooting range.  As a matter of fact, I should put that on my to-do list, even though I live elsewhere.  You should too.

All three of my sons are well armed and know how to use their firearms.  I raised those boys right.

Playing Bass: A Moment of Personal Satisfaction

I played well at my last big band practice of last Thursday.  I finally have my amplification problem solved, and I have plenty of volume, great tone, and no feedback.  I was the first one to arrive, and had my bass all tuned up and ready to go by the time the bandleader arrived.  Faris, the bandleader, started playing jazz standards on the piano while the rest of the band was arriving.  He played "Brother Can You Spare a Dime," a depression-era song.  The chord progression was easily discernible, and I joined in on bass.  I could tell he was pleased with the result.

Now that the band can actually hear the bass, they seem to like it.  After the practice, one of the trumpet players told me "I really like the bass!"

As I departed for home after practice, I felt I had turned a corner, that my musical goals were becoming a reality.  It was a great feeling.

Obama's Latest Failure: Bombing Campaign of ISIS Fails.

Obama's plan to stop the aggression of the Islamic State terrorists with bombs only, no boots on the ground, has failed miserably.  ISIS is now expanding its reach into Syria and Iraq.  Obama's presidency is one giant, unfolding failure.  The U.K. Independent reports:

America's plans to fight Islamic State are in ruins as the militant group's fighters come close to capturing Kobani and have inflicted a heavy defeat on the Iraqi army west of Baghdad. The US-led air attacks launched against Islamic State (also known as Isis) on 8 August in Iraq and 23 September in Syria have not worked. President Obama's plan to "degrade and destroy" Islamic State has not even begun to achieve success. In both Syria and Iraq, Isis is expanding its control rather than contracting.

Obama's reign has shown a spotlight on a profound truth:  liberal policies are miserable failures when applied to either the economy or foreign policy.  They don't work.  They never work.  They make things worse.

Where will we be in two more years?  It is a frightening thought.

Ben Afflack's Ignorance of Islam

Recently, Ben Afflack had an outburst in defense of Islam on HBO's Real Time.   He showed just how clueless and illogical are liberal ideas on the world's most violent religion.

Read all about it here, plus a stirring rebuttal of Afflack's delusional apologetics.

Bananas for Big Band Bass

Lately I am obsessed with learning to play jazz on a double bass (also called string bass, stand-up bass or acoustic bass).  I give not a scatological expression for anything else.  I get on these kicks, where I want to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can, about a subject that interests me.  So I listen to jazz music, paying particular attention to the bass, I read articles on how to play jazz bass, I play exercises, I read musical scores, and I play along to backing tracks.  Lately I have even used a free musical notation program to write my own bass lines from the chord sequence of a song, e.g. "Blue Monk."

Today I finally understand what a 1-6-2-5 chord progression is.  There are many other chord progressions with similarly strange numeric descriptions.  The 1-6-2-5 is used in basic blues progressions known as "rhythm changes," in such songs as "I Got Rhythm."

In other words, when it comes to double bass, I am attacking on all fronts simultaneously.

Ultimately, after digesting a ton of music theory, you have to actually sound good.  So lately I have emphasized playing to backing tracks or the recordings of actual songs.  I don't want to just ad lib, I want to play the chord sequences in clever but accurate ways.  Sounding great on bass is the one overriding goal.  All the rest of it, i.e. the theory, just supports that goal.

I am in my second semester of Beginning Big Band class.  The band leader is a gigging jazz trombonist who really knows jazz and swing, and he is leaning on me to improve (he seems to like me, though).  He is always telling the brass section to "Listen to the bass!  Listen to the bass!"  The bass lays down the rhythm and chord changes that keeps the rest of the band on track.  If I screw up, the whole band can get lost, especially the soloists.  That's a lot of pressure on me not to screw up (i.e. losing my place in the song's bar sequence).

I have learned a lot in the past few months, but there is so much more to learn.

Vintage Babe Mitzi Gaynor in "Anything Goes," 1956

Mitzi Gaynor

Last night I watched "Anything Goes" for free on Google, a musical comedy made in 1956.  It starred Bing Crosby, Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, Zizi Jeanmaire and Phil Harris.  The film was in gorgeous technicolor and appeared unfaded by the passage of 58 years.  Maybe they restored it, I don't know.

Most impressive was Mitzi Gaynor.  She was one very gorgeous young woman, and she is still alive in 2014, now age 83.  I was impressed with her uniquely beautiful face, her voice, and most of all, her sizzling hot legs.  Pardon me while I howl.

Zizi Jeanmaire was a ballet dancer and French actress.  She was okay, but I was not blown away.  She is still alive at age 90.

Unfortunately, the great Bing Crosby and the talented Donald O'Connor are no longer with us.

1956 is one of my favorite years.  Yes, I remember it, though I was only 11 years old.  The musicals of that time generally had a lot of sophomoric slapstick humor that wasn't funny, and "Anything Goes" was no exception.  There was usually a dream sequence, where one of the dancing artists pranced and danced around the stage, insulting our intelligence more than entertaining us.  Zizi Jeanmaire gets the task in this film, and the number was awful. The ending dance number featured all the stars and a troop of dancers, all dressed in unisex black, tight fitting suits, each one with a black derby with white wings on the crown, like the god Mercury.  The men looked silly and the women about as sexy as a drain pipe.  What on earth were they thinking?

Mitzi "Legs" Gaynor

In spite of the silliness, the four stars did a credible job of acting. The best song and dance number was the opening one, with Mitzi Gaynor dancing and singing the song "Anything Goes."  The rest are forgettable.

One of the best aspects of the film, for me, was the fashions of 1956.  Men in suits and ties, fedora hats.  Donald O'Connor looked quite spiffy in a powder blue sweater over his shirt and tie.  The ladies' fashions were generally beautiful, especially the decolletage of the lovely Mitzi Gaynor.