Oh, HELL Yes.

First, the Niners bring back Tom Rathman to coach the running backs, and now the Giants have brought in The Nuschler, Will 'The Thrill' Clark as a special assistant.

Fifteen years ago, the Giants made a heartbreaking financial decision to let Will Clark go. Now he is back, and will work with young players to instill the ethic that made him so popular among fans when he played.

"It's a very proud moment," Clark said Wednesday after the Giants announced "The Thrill" has been hired as a special assistant to the front office.

Clark was a Giant from his drafting in 1985 through 1993, when he signed with the Texas Rangers as a free agent. In eight seasons with San Francisco he was an All-Star five times, a Gold Glove first baseman, MVP of the 1989 National League Championship Series and, equally important, a player of relentless intensity.

I'm no dummy -- a special assistant is a glorified way of saying you are spending money to pay a great retired player a salary for ... well, being a great player.

But I love having The Nuschler back.

Next up, the Warriors bring back Tim Hardaway and Mitch Richmond to reunite Run TMC!

This Is Quite Disturbing

I'm not sure what to make of this video of Obama during the campaign - I missed it earlier, and I hope it's out of context because it really sort of is messing with my mind about Barack. This simply can't be how he feels about this.



Read below the fold for some more thoughts.

Yeah, that's right - you just got Barack-Rolled.

Fake Outrage

On my long, long list of things that piss me off, it's false outrage. There's something so insanely cynical about pretending to be upset by something that's even worse than simply being incredibly sensitive to minor things.

In this case, I'm talking about the manufactured outrage over what I understand to be a singing, mocking sendoff to George W. Bush as he took the stage during the Inauguration. The crowd sang, apparently, "nah-nah-nah-nah, nah-nah-nah-nah, hey-hey-hey, GOODBYE!" which, if you are a sports fan, you will recognize.

To quote the interminably stupid Kathryn Jean-Lopez from NRO, via Matt Yglesias:

Wow. Well, my inaugural good feelings were definitely spoiled a bit by the “Na Na Hey Hey … Goodbye” outburst on the Mall just now. How shamefully disrespectful. Keith Olbermann even thought so!

(She later excused John Roberts for screwing up the oath of office by saying, "John Roberts is also human. As is Barack Obama. As is every man and woman having lunch in the Capitol right now — even the press reporting on it are!

I trust that if the first and erroneous reports that Obama had been the one making a mistake had actually been true, she'd have mocked him for his lack of patriotism, or had Roberts been a liberal justice, mocked him for his arrogance in trying to remember the oath without a reference. But perhaps I'm wrong. Regardless, read those few sentences again - it's like she's 10 years old. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the editor of the National Review. Not exactly Bill Buckley.)


Now, a few things:

• Anyone who watched the event realizes how many people were there. And that there's no way this was more than a handful of people - who were probably absolutely drowned out by everyone else at this moment. I'm betting there's a 99.6% chance Bush didn't even hear it, but instead a few reporters did who decided to make it into a story.


• More importantly, the folks who find this "unclassy" and "uncivil" are the same folks who found it funny that the GOP wore purple band-aids to the 2004 convention, mocking John Kerry's purple hearts, the same people who find the "Barack the Magic Negro" song to be funny, the same people who make jokes about Hilary Clinton being a lesbian, etc. In short, these are very UNSERIOUS people, and they are lying to you when they say they are offended by this.


• George Bush and Dick Cheney should hope and pray that this is the last feedback they'll get from the American people. By most legal definitions, Bush has essentially admitted to war crimes in as much as he knew what we were doing in Abu Ghraib, he sought legal counsel to try and make those things legal, etc. If all he gets is a little mockery, he's getting off with murder. (Possibly literally.)


• Finally, George W. Bush (and man, it feels good to not write President Bush) in his last press conference made reference to the "small" number of people who didn't like him, showing that his bubble was perhaps the thickest ever created. If he did manage to hear the jeers, maybe - just maybe- that bubble got pierced a bit. We can only hope.

This is, of course, a "low-class" post because I'm not affording the former Commander-in-Chief the kind of respect that folks who read the National Review and redstate.org think is important - unless, of course, that CIC is a Democrat. (Rush Limbaugh and a chief writer at redstate have already openly wished that Obama fails as President, showing exactly how patriotic they are or aren't.)

So, why not push the 'low-class' envelope?


Good riddance, you crappy, pathetic excuse for a President. May the God you pretend to worship have mercy on your soul, if you have one, and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, W.

We won't miss you.

In more positive news, all the BUSH street signs in San Francisco were changed this morning...Even though I live north of the city, it's still MY city, and pictures like this are one big reason why:

Update

I undoubtedly will have more about this historic, moving day once I actually digest the fact that smart, forward-thinking people are in the White House now, and people who meet the opposite of that description are on their way back to Crawford and whatever small, humorless root cellar Dick Cheney calls home. (A man can dream.)

But a month or so ago, I wondered more banally what would happen to my Bush Countdown Clock today. So, here's your answer:



I was hoping for music, maybe a smiley face, but this will work.

Note that the site these were sold from now have two images saying the same excellent thing:



Our national nightmare will soon be is over.

We are the change we have been waiting for.

What Bush Wrought

I've thought about a post like this for awhile, but Dan Froomkin does a pretty good job of illustrating the carnage that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have set in place with this country. Complete with links!

Some things just aren't gonna change, no matter how much time passes. Here is Bush's legacy, in part:

He took the nation to a war of choice under false pretenses -- and left troops in harm's way on two fields of battle.

He embraced torture as an interrogation tactic and turned the world's champion of human dignity into an outlaw nation and international pariah.

He watched with detachment as a major American city went under water.

He was ostensibly at the helm as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression took hold.

He went from being the most popular to the most disappointing president, having squandered a unique opportunity to unite the country and even the world behind a shared agenda after Sept. 11.

He set a new precedent for avoiding the general public in favor of screened audiences and seemed to occupy an alternate reality.

He took his own political party from seeming permanent majority status to where it is today. [Editors note: Thanks for this one!]

And he deliberately politicized the federal government, circumvented the traditional policymaking process, ignored expert advice and suppressed dissent, leaving behind a broken government.

Heckuva job, Bush! Only four days left to make a bigger mess!

I Must Have Hit My Head

Because I swear I think that the Arizona Cardinals are in the NFC Championship.

After the 49ers, I root for my old hometown Philadelphia Eagles, and I also happened to pick an all-Pennsylvania Super Bowl in my totally legitimate, non-gambling pool. But the Cardinals?

I've already gotten long past the Tampa Bay Buccaneers being good and their baseball counterpart, the Rays, lost to the Phillies in the World Series. Bad teams can become good. But the Cardinals? They're like the Clippers of the NFL. (If the Clippers win the NBA title this year, all bets are off.)

Should be a fun Championship weekend, but that's some crazy stuff happening in the NFC.

The Book List

I just looked over my recent post about the books I read last year, I realized the post itself was ridiculously long, and therefore - because I am, apparently, this kind of person - I'm going to clean this up.

What's This Page All About?I read a lot. And I get caught up sometimes in obsessive little tasks, like for instance, keeping track of what I've read. So here it is, starting from about October 2005 forward.

Books marked with blue are ones I really enjoyed.

Those marked in orange are titles I didn't even finish, for one reason or another.

The rest...somewhere in between.

The book lists are below the fold.


The books I read this year (or last year if I haven't finished a book yet) are in the table below.

Here are all the books I read in 2007.

Here are all the books I read in 2006.

Book Title	Author	Rating (out of 10.0)	Thoughts
2008	2008	2008	2008
The Brass Verdict	Michael Connelly	8.0	First, there's a nice twist in that his main character, Harry Bosch, is a secondary character instead of the narrator. Then, a very entertaining and compelling mystery with an additional twist at the end that promises more. Can't ask for that much more.
People Of The Book	Geraldine Brooks	9.0	A great, riveting novel about a Haggadah found in Sarajevo, and it's trace through history -- all told in a casual, modern fun story about the woman tasked with restoring it. I feared this might be dry but it was anything but. Makes me want to read more by this Pulitzer Price winning author.
A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around The World	The Japan Foundation (collected)	6.0	I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but this does contain some interesting articles about Haruki Murakami, a great collection of international book covers ... and some academic papers that I really had no interest in reading.
The New Kings of Nonfiction	Ira Glass (editor)	7.5	Largely really good previously published essays and articles by some of my favorite writers (Malcolm Gladwell, Chuck Klosterman, Michael Lewis). Small points off for a few misses plus one or two I realized I'd already read elsewhere.
Good People	Marcus Sakey	7.0	Sakey's least satisfying effort, it's still a good suspenseful novel and enjoyable.
The Elephant Vanishes	Haruki Murakami	6.5	A somewhat uneven collection of stories, including what evolved into the first chapter of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, it's enjoyable but obviously done prior to hitting his stride.
Travels In The Scriptorium	Paul Auster	5.5	A disappointment from one of my favorite authors, Auster is overly cute here and worse yet, not all that interesting. Next!
The God Delusion	Richard Dawkins	N/A	Did Not Finish -- as much as I wanted to like this, Dawkins is pretty boring and proud of himself and it's not a great read. Oddly, the only book I started but didn't finish in 2008.
Nixonland	Rick Perlstein	9.5	Absolutely fascinating account of American politics from 1964-1972 in particular, with Richard Nixon paving the way for the morass that things have largely become. Full review here.
At The City's Edge	Marcus Sakey	9.0	Fantastic second novel by Sakey, a mystery thriller set in Chicago. Sakey is right up there with Lehane, Pelecanos and Connelly in terms of being the best in this kind of novel.
The Crying of Lot 49	Thomas Pynchon	4.5	Probably worth reading, but well past it's prime and far too clever for its own good. But I'm glad to notch this one as being finally read.
The Nine	Jeffrey Toobin	8.0	Really interesting non-fiction account of the Supreme Court, notably the last thirty years or so. Well worth reading.
The Complete Persepolis	Marjane Satrapi	9.0	Brilliant graphic novel (now a film) about a young woman growing up in and out of Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
The Blade Itself	Marcus Sakey	9.0	Phenomenal. If you like gritty crime novels, Sakey immediately jumps into the landscape here. Just a shockingly good book that is impossible to put down.
The Ha-Ha	Dave King	7.5	An uneven but overall beautiful story about an adult male who lost the power of speech and writing in Vietnam, and how his life changes over a short period of time almost 30 years later.
Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to Foie Gras	Jeff Henderson	7.0	Certainly an interesting life (from crack dealer to gourmet chef) but that should be slightly more compelling than it was. And the foodie in me wanted more details about the cooking.
Rigged	Ben Mezrich	7.0	As always, Mezrich is very "readable" but this was my least favorite of his. But I want to go to Dubai.
In Defense of Food	Michael Pollan	7.5	Not nearly the level of "Omnivore's Dilmena" it is still very good and a sad account of what has happened to our food and the way we eat it.
The Design of Everyday Things	Donald A. Norman	9.0	Review
The Wisdom of Crowds	James Sureowicki	7.0	Reading it five years after it was written, its insights aren't as new to me as it would have been back then. But still, interesting tings to say about how we learn and operate.
Sputnik Sweetheart	Haruki Murakami	7.0	While enjoyable, it's probably my least favorite Murakami. It felt a bit sophomoric and undeveloped. Still very good, though.
Drama City	George Pelecanos	7.0	Straight ahead crime story - sad, honest truth about D.C. ("Drama City") from a great author.
Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions	Ben Mezrich	8.0	Quite good account of Western bankers running rampant in Southeast Asia in the 1980s and 1990s. Mezrich is unbelievably readable.
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln	Doris Kearns Goodwin	9.0	Review
Jennifer Government	Max Barry	7.0	Not as good as Company, still a biting satire about our corporate culture.
Exile	Richard North Patterson	4.5	Review
The Year of Living Biblically	A.J. Jacobs	7.5	Not nearly as engaging as The Know It All, this memoir of Jacobs trying to live by the literal rules of the Bible is still quite entertaining.
Bridge of Sighs	Richard Russo	8.5	Outstanding - which seems to be par for the course for Russo. Woefully underrated author.

A Step In The Right Direction

Yeah, I LOVE this move by Mike Singletary:

One of the links to the team's glory years, Rathman came in Wednesday morning for an interview with coach Mike Singletary for the position of running backs coach. By late afternoon, Rathman had agreed to terms on a multi-year contract, reportedly to be signed today.

...


In 11 seasons as an NFL assistant, Rathman built a strong reputation as a running backs coach with experience and expertise in the West Coast offense. With the 49ers, Rathman will have a three-time 1,000-yard rusher in Frank Gore but little behind him.

Rathman has always been one of my favorite all-time 49ers, and he's done a decent job coaching running backs in his eleven years as an assistant. There was suggestions he was being looked at for the offensive coordinator job, which seemed a bit excessive and thankfully isn't the case. But it's nice to have #44 back in the fold.

Warren Buffett rules my world

I've always liked the guy, and the fact that he doesn't take the conventional "rich guy" approach of wanting to hoard his money (he's giving most of it away, and supports politicians who don't cater to the wealthy).

But what's more, I like that he made billions by investing in things he understood. He never jumped on board the tech wave because he claimed he didn't "get it," and one suspects he's been largely untouched (relatively speaking) by the recent financial implosion.

Towards that, his quote here is simply fantastic:

It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked.

Wow.

Larry Fitzgerald just might be the best wide receiver in all of football right now.