Gone Slackin'
I write from the little shore town of Beach Haven, New Jersey, where I have decamped for six days of oversleeping, beer drinking, and other forms of advanced inactivity. Thus, blogging probably will (continue to) be light.

Perhaps woken up by the fact that half the team has been disabled, the Phillies are playing their best ball since June. Happily, our beach place is in the Greater Philadelphia broadcast area, or something, so I was able to watch Brett Myers absolutely dominate the Dodgers in yesterday's 4-1 win. Young Nuke, as I like to call him, threw a fiendish curveball and consistently located his 92-93 mph heat, shutting down a fairly good Los Angeles lineup on a day when the Phils fielded what looked a spring training lineup--half good (Rollins, Utley, Abreu, Thome), half 'scuse-mes (Perez, after Bell left with back spasms, Collier, the resurrected Marlon Byrd, and Pratt). With the win, the Phils took five of their last six on a grueling road trip that started with the (latest) wipeout in Florida, and Myers continued his domination of a Dodgers team he shut out back in May. For the year, Brett has thrown 17 scoreless innings against LA, which makes his overall 5.03 ERA look that much worse... now the Phils have a ten-game homestand, and they need to keep it up if they're to stay within striking distance of the wild-card leading Cubs until the cavalry--Burrell, Madson, Wagner, Millwood?--comes over the hillside in two or three weeks.

As for politics, I'm trying to take the week off... but I do have to pass this one along, as it illustrates just how clueless Bush can look when he's not sufficiently "handled" and has to speak outside his comfort zone. It remains astonishing that this severely limited thinker ever came to power, and chilling that there's still a decent shot he might retain it.