Is Your Religion About Love And Service?

Fr Valle makes his usual interesting points in this week's homily. An excerpt:

Jesus tells Peter: “When you were young, you fastened your own belt and went where you pleased. When you are old , others will tie you fast and lead you where you would not go.” This is what “to feed the sheep” means; it means that we must sacrifice: sacrifice our autonomy: sacrifice our superficial desires; ultimately, sacrifice our lives. We must make these sacrifices, not to suffer for suffering sake but to make the sheep holy. This is precisely what the word sacrifice means. It comes from two Latin words: sacrum, meaning holy and facere, meaning to make.
...
There is a quote from Rabbi Hillel I read this week which really struck me. He said: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I?” I don’t know! But this much I am sure of: If I am not for others, for the lambs and the sheep, I am not a follower of Jesus Christ, no matter what Church I belong to or what creed I profess. We must not only hear the call to follow Him. We must, also, think and pray constantly on what that call means. I imagine Peter only, finally, fully understood what it means as he was being crucified up-side down on a street in Rome.

The email address to request to be put on Vallee's email distribution list is Cioran262@aol.com. To see the entire homily click on 'read more.' Search for other Fr Vallee homilies in this blog by entering 'Vallee' in the search box in the upper left hand corner or look for Fr Vallee in the Labels.

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Fr Vallee Homily -- April 18 2010

I. Soap opera?
At first glance, today’s Gospel reads like a bad soap opera with Jesus in the role of the insecure teenage girl: “Simon, Son of John, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?” You can almost feel the frustration for Simon. “Yes, Lord, I love you! But why do you keep asking the same thing?” Of course, Jesus is not am insecure teenage girl with a crush on Peter. The text is more subtle and more interesting than that.

II. No, not the same question
First of all, the question is not the same question three times. The first question is: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” Jesus may have been referring to the other disciples, after all, at the Last Supper, Peter said he would never leave if even all the others left – just before he denied him three times. This is perhaps the first and most obvious meaning of, “Do you love me?” Also, he is having Peter make up for the three denials. The second meaning may be Jesus sweeping his hand over all the stuff -- the boat, the fish, all the things they have -- and asking Peter if he loved him more than all these things. The third meaning , is for me at least, the most interesting. Peter has seen Jesus perform all sorts if miracles. In fact, he has seen that Jesus has risen from the dead. Jesus is asking Peter if he loves him more than all that power. Peter will have to make the choice that every single Christian faces – everyone from the Pope in Rome to the poorest baby baptized two weeks ago: “Is religion, for you, about love and service or about power and status?

III. Not the same command
I think this is very clear from the three-fold command that Jesus lays on Peter. Notice, like the questions, this is not a pure repetition. First Jesus says: “Shepherd my lambs.” Lambs are baby sheep. He is saying that Peter must care for the smallest, the weakest and the most helpless of his brothers and sisters. Of course, by extension, so must we all if we really want to follow Jesus. Second, Jesus says, “Shepherd my sheep.” Sheep are grown up lambs. Jesus means we are not just supposed to care for the cute little lambs who are easy to love. We must, likewise care for the sheep -- the grown lambs, the ones who are much harder to love. Sheep are smelly, noisy and not so attractive. People can be hurt, hostile and angry, We have to care for them, too. Third Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.” We must try to feed all the sheep. But what does that mean? It is not so easy to understand. So Jesus goes on to explain to Peter, and to us, what he means and what he wants of us.

IV. Another will tie you fast--
Jesus tells Peter: “When you were young, you fastened your own belt and went where you pleased. When you are old , others will tie you fast and lead you where you would not go.” This is what “to feed the sheep” means; it means that we must sacrifice: sacrifice our autonomy: sacrifice our superficial desires; ultimately, sacrifice our lives. We must make these sacrifices, not to suffer for suffering sake but to make the sheep holy. This is precisely what the word sacrifice means. It comes from two Latin words: sacrum, meaning holy and facere, meaning to make.

V. Hillel: conclusion
There is a quote from Rabbi Hillel I read this week which really struck me. He said: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I?” I don’t know! But this much I am sure of: If I am not for others, for the lambs and the sheep, I am not a follower of Jesus Christ, no matter what Church I belong to or what creed I profess. We must not only hear the call to follow Him. We must, also, think and pray constantly on what that call means. I imagine Peter only, finally, fully understood what it means as he was being crucified up-side down on a street in Rome.
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Meet the New Plantation Owner, Blanche Obama

Uh oh. The new master of the house, he ain't happy folks. Woe unto us.

"Why aren't these people thanking me"

or

"It's not about me"

The former are the thoughts of President Obama, while the latter thought paraphrases the first words in Rick Warren's mega-best-seller, The Purpose Driven Life. The thought behind those words is that the key to a leading a Christian-based life lies in our ability to focus more on others rather than ourselves. It is a beautifully counter-intuitive message; Want to guarantee your eternal salvation? OK, first stop thinking about yourself.

I thought of those words when I heard President Obama's comments in Miami regarding Americans protesting the current and coming levels of taxation [loyal blog readers will recall the blog's previous visit to the Arsht Center]. This from an AP article:

President Barack Obama said Thursday he's amused by the anti-tax tea party protests that have been taking place around Tax Day.

Obama told a fundraiser in Miami that he's cut taxes, contrary to the claims of protesters.

"You would think they'd be saying thank you," he said.

Why the connection with the Warren quote? Just a little wishful thinking on my part. After all, which thought would you prefer to be running through the head of the President of the United States?

It is odd that a man whose main source of income during the majority of his adult life has always depended -- like some politically-correct latter day version of Blanche DuBois -- "on the kindness of strangers" [i.e. Americans who own businesses or those who work for companies which try and earn a profit] would choose this topic to express his sense of entitlement. Let's just hope these comments don't mean that the President is getting in touch with his inner plantation landlord.

In my opinion, a degree of humility and good politics would seemingly dictate that the president be especially deferential in this area [taxing Americans who work]. That he felt emboldened enough to chide us [working Americans] is very telling either about the man's ego or his political philosophy. The political equivalent would be for Clinton to joke about draft dodgers or Bush II to joke about nepotism.

My only explanation is that the concept of humility is as foreign to this president as the concept of working for a living outside of government. I'm not against the concept of thanking the president, but when it comes to taxes and this 'Cesar,' rendering thanks unto a leech [taxfully speaking] strikes me as too 1984-ish.

Update: Tom Bevan from Real Clear Politics points out that Obama may not be so amused about tax protesters come November:

Maybe President Obama should stop doing fundraisers. Or maybe he should at least keep them closed to the media. Because it seems when President Obama is in front of a group of friendly Democrats, he just can't help himself from playing the Comic-in-Chief and ridiculing his opponents. It's good for a laugh from the partisan crowd, sure, but it often comes across to average folks (and, of course, to the opposition) as petty and/or unpresidential.
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Obama may have fun mocking the Tea Party activists today,but if the political winds keep blowing the way they have recently (Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts) he probably won't be nearly as 'amused' in November when they go from turning out at Tax Day protests to turning out at the polls.

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A Child's Life May Depend On It

Jorge Plasencia, co-founder and chairman of Amigos For Kids, highlights the need for all of us to be proactive about possible child abuse or neglect which we may become aware of.

An excerpt from his column in the Miami Herald:

According to the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, 41 percent of child fatalities, because of abuse or neglect, occur to children less than a year old. Seventy-five percent are children under the age of 4. These are not children who can escape their abusers. These are not children who can simply call 911 or file a restraining order or run away from home.
...
Please, please get involved. A child's life could depend on you. Know some of the signs of abuse or neglect. Keep an eye out for: nervousness around adults, aggression toward adults or other children, inability to concentrate, dramatic changes in personality, interest in sexual activities that are not appropriate for the child's age, frequent or unexplained bruises or injuries, low self-esteem and poor hygiene.
...
If you suspect abuse or neglect, report it! You can reach the Florida Abuse Hotline at 1-800-96-ABUSE (1-800-962-2873), or dial 911 to reach the police department if you sense a child is in immediate danger.

Article referenced is copied in full at end of post.

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A child's life could depend on you

BY JORGE A. PLASENCIA - amigosforkids.org

April 9, 2010

Each year in the United States, almost one million children are abused or neglected by those most close to them. Almost 2,000 of these children die. In 1990, the grim reality of this abuse confronted our community.

The small body of Lazaro Figueroa, known as Baby Lollipops, was found beaten and malnourished in a cherry hedge on Miami Beach. Lazaro's story inspired us to create Amigos For Kids, in 1991, an organization dedicated to preventing child abuse.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Amigos For Kids spearheads awareness efforts in our community, partnering with numerous entities including Miami-Dade County Public Schools. It is encouraging that we, as a community, designate this month to remind us to protect those who are most vulnerable and defenseless, though it is indeed tragic such a need exists.

The Department of Health and Human Services reports that the majority of abused children face neglect; the remainder withstand physical, sexual and emotional abuse. More than half of those children are abused by people whom they trust. Abusers can be parents, relatives, babysitters, teachers or coaches.

Child abuse does not discriminate and transcends gender or race. According to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, four children die each day as a result of neglect or abuse. Of the children who do not suffer fatal injuries at the hands of their abusers, many grow up to become, themselves, abusers -- violence begetting violence in a cycle that many in America are all too familiar with.

According to the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, 41 percent of child fatalities, because of abuse or neglect, occur to children less than a year old. Seventy-five percent are children under the age of 4. These are not children who can escape their abusers. These are not children who can simply call 911 or file a restraining order or run away from home.

Be their voice

These are children who depend on us, their neighbors and teachers and bus drivers and friends, to be a voice for them when they cannot speak. They depend on us to protect them, to recognize signs of abuse and take action to end this injustice.

Each week in this country, child-protection agencies receive more than 50,000 reports of suspected child-abuse cases. Child-protective agencies like Florida's Department of Children & Families tell us that more than two-thirds of those reports provide sufficient cause for an investigation to be performed. But if we are reporting every case of child abuse, why do 2,000 American children still die at the hands of their abusers? Because we look the other way. We are busy. We do not want to get involved or overstep boundaries or tell someone else how to parent their child.

Please, please get involved. A child's life could depend on you. Know some of the signs of abuse or neglect. Keep an eye out for: nervousness around adults, aggression toward adults or other children, inability to concentrate, dramatic changes in personality, interest in sexual activities that are not appropriate for the child's age, frequent or unexplained bruises or injuries, low self-esteem and poor hygiene.

If you suspect abuse or neglect, report it! You can reach the Florida Abuse Hotline at 1-800-96-ABUSE (1-800-962-2873), or dial 911 to reach the police department if you sense a child is in immediate danger.

While reporting suspicions is imperative to halting child abuse, I firmly believe that we can do more to prevent it from occurring in the first place. We can call or write our elected officials to educate them about the abuse issues in our community. We can work with our school districts and faith-based communities to support programs for new parents. We can reach out to the families in our communities. We can keep a watchful eye out for families that abuse drugs and alcohol, have difficulty controlling anger or stress or appear uninterested in the care, nourishment or safety of their children.

We can provide a sympathetic ear, offer advice to those who turn to us, and, above all, trust our gut instincts. This is what Amigos For Kids works tirelessly to accomplish.

Save a life

Every child deserves to grow up in a happy home with loving and supportive caretakers. I was at a dinner a few years back in Washington, D.C., honoring Nancy Reagan. She was asked why she championed drug-free kids and made this her legacy with the ``Just Say No'' campaign.

She replied, ``I felt if we made one child not try drugs, it was all worth it.''

While we sadly cannot ensure a happy home and loving parents for every child, I believe that after reading this, if one person decides to report a case of child abuse or neglect, we saved another life. After all, there is no excuse for child abuse.

Jorge A. Plasencia is cofounder and chairman of Amigos For Kids.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/09/v-print/1570449/a-childs-life-could-depend-on.html#ixzz0kjJXhoxO
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Renyel Pinto: The Fredo Corleone of Relievers

At the risk of incurring great personal scorn, on this blog I have defended Fredo Corleone and the overall lack of GF knowledge rampant in our society.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more ...

Renyel Pinto had a tough game in the Marlins win against the putrid New York Mets on Wednesday. He was predictably getting killed on the morning talk shows. The best line I heard came on the ESPN Deportes station [1450 AM] - Desayuno Deportivo - a caller said that he wanted he wanted Pinto to go far in MLB, ... far away. Knowing that fans, like popular emails which are constantly forwarded, are almost never accurate, I wanted to get into the numbers.

There were 95 relief pitchers in the National League which logged more than 40 innings. Here is where Pinto ranked in various categories against those other pitchers:

• Games pitched: 73 - 16th place
• Strikeouts per 9 innings: 8.51 - tied for 30th place [with Tim Byrdak]
• ERA: 3.23 - tied for 39th place [with Tim Byrdak]
• Innings pitched: 61.1 - tied for 39th place [with Tim Byrdak]
• HR's allowed: 4 - Tied for 39th with numerous others [but not Tim Byrdak]
• Pitches Per Plate Appearance: 4.05 - 73rd place [tied with Tim Byrdak]
• Walks & Hits per innings pitched [WHIP]: 1.61 - 87th place

Of those 95 National League relievers who pitched more than 40 innings, only 19 were lefties. Here is where Pinto ranked in various categories against those lefty pitchers:

• Games pitched: 73 - 8th place
• Strikeouts per 9 innings: 8.51 - tied for 9th place [with Tim Byrdak]
• ERA: 3.23 - tied for 11th place [with Tim Byrdak]
• Innings pitched: 61.1 - tied for 5th place [with Tim Byrdak]
• HR's allowed: 4 - Tied for 6th with numerous others [but not Tim Byrdak - who inexplicably gave up 10]
• Pitches Per Plate Appearance: 4.05 - 11th place [tied with Tim Byrdak]
• Walks & Hits per innings pitched [WHIP]: 1.61 - 17th place

As usual, getting into the numbers led to something even more interesting, Pinto and fellow lefty Tim Byrdak practically had the exact same season in 2008.

Pinto's WHIP is the one critical area where Pinto is as bad as local fans think he is [especially after a bad outing]. However, if Pinto's control were to improve -- he issued the most walks of any lefty NL reliever -- he likely moves up from being an average reliever pitcher to one of the better ones. Better to have a pitcher who needs to improve his control rather than his 'stuff.'

One other additional factor in Pinto's favor. His age, he is 27. The average age for the lefty relievers was 30.5. Only five of the 19 lefty relievers were younger than Pinto. For two of those, D Herrera [CIN] & C Zavada [ARI], 2008 represented their first year as a full-time reliever. Another one, J O'Flaherty [ATL] missed most of 2008 with an injury. For W Wright [HOU], 2009 represented his 2nd year as a full-time reliever, as compared to 3 years for Pinto and S Burnett [PIT], the other younger lefty reliever.

Overall Renyel Pinto was an average reliever in 2008. Being a lefty, he has more value that an average right-handed relief pitcher and has showed good durability -- between 58 and 64 innings pitched for the past 3 years. In addition, the fact that lefty relievers are typically older -- indicating that pitchers need a lot of experience to handle that role properly -- Pinto's relative youth gives him even more of a comparative advantage.

Bottom line, Renyel Pinto is a valuable left-handed relief pitcher with excellent prospects for improvement given his age. So go ahead and boo, flog and request that he be traded every time he goes to a 3-1 count, but understand that you do so out of frustration rather than any appreciation about how pitchers develop to succeed in that role.

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The Moral Relativism of the DeWolf Perry Family

James DeWolf Perry VI - a Harvard University Ph.D. candidate concentrating on the Rhode Island slave trade - traveled to Cuba recently and saw "pure evil." Alas, it had nothing to do with the Castro regime's treatment of political dissidents or their abuse of Las Damas en Blanco. No, Mr. James DeWolf Perry VI saw pure evil in the 19th-century slave trade of his ancestors.

You see the DeWolf's are making a movie and the price for filming in Cuba is to turn a blind eye to current events. Apparently, recognizing irony is not part of the Harvard Ph.D. program, so let's spell it out for them.

To paraphrase the Bible, don't point out the evil 19th century slave trader in your family's history when you are making your own pact with another version of evil -- a 21st century Gulag. At least we know what James DeWolf Perry XII will be doing. Documenting the sheer evil of his fellow traveling 21st century ancestors who sold out for the attention the academic equivalent of a Jerry Springer family throw down would bring [Incestuous twins bare all!].

Update: Posted April 9th: Mr. Perry [you will not be surprised] has a blog and responded [you should be surprised] to my post. He was kind enough to allow me to respond at length on his blog. Read the exchange, to date, here.

The Yahoo article referenced is copied in full at end of post.

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US family finds traces of slave-trade past in Cuba

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer Will Weissert, Associated Press Writer
Mar 31, 2010

LA MADRUGA, Cuba – James DeWolf Perry VI's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather used African slaves to grow coffee on this rocky hillside outside Havana, and to him its thorny weeds and small sugar plots feel haunted.

"Do you feel the ghost of James DeWolf out here?" asks Katrina Browne, Perry's distant cousin.

"Yes," he replies, drawing out the word in a long, awkward breath.

Both are descendants of the DeWolfs of Bristol, Rhode Island, who became the biggest slave-trading family in U.S. history, shipping well over 11,000 Africans to the Americas between 1769 and 1820. It was a business that made the family patriarch, James DeWolf, America's second-wealthiest man.

The cousins came to Cuba this week as part of a visit by the U.S. replica of the 19th-century slave ship Amistad — which on Wednesday wrapped up a 10-day educational mission to the island.

For Perry and Browne it's been a journey into their family's troubling past that is far more personal than scouring genealogy records or government archives.

Between 1790 and 1821, more than 240,000 enslaved Africans were brought to Havana, according to customs data, including the 53 captives who rebelled aboard the original Amistad in 1839, seizing the ship and sailing up the U.S. East Coast. The Supreme Court eventually granted them freedom — an inspiring end to a shameful chapter in America and Cuba's shared history.

Perry and Browne visited the sugar-growing, cattle-raising town of La Madruga, 30 miles southeast of the capital, hoping to find vestiges of what was once a family plantation called "Mount Hope."

"To gaze at these hills, to be in his fields, on the land that was his holdings, it's another way to make a tangible connection," Perry, a Harvard University Ph.D. candidate concentrating on the Rhode Island slave trade, said of James DeWolf.

"There's no hiding the reality when you see the land."

Browne, who made a documentary of her ancestors' rum-for-slaves business, noted how the royal palm trees swaying in the hot breeze matched drawings in the diary of one of the family's overseers.

"It's sheer evil," she said.

Some of what likely encompassed Mount Hope is now land controlled by Cuba's armed forces. But a dusty back road, deeply rutted by tractors and horse-drawn carts, leads to stony highlands described in family records.

There isn't much there now, apart from scarecrows guarding cane fields and banana trees, and an occasional cow. A nearby village is known today as "La Esperanza," or "Hope," though locals are unsure whether the name has anything to do with the DeWolfs.

James DeWolf owned Mount Hope until his death in 1837. He represented Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate, and though the state outlawed the slave trade in 1787, it continued to profit enormously for decades afterward — belying the popularly held belief that slavery was strictly a southern phenomenon.

Most of the DeWolfs' African captives were sold at auction in South Carolina or Havana. If prices in the U.S. fell, the family would work the slaves on at least five Cuban plantations producing coffee, sugar and molasses until they could fetch higher prices.

Perry said the Cuban operations were a key source of income, but mostly served as a side business to stoke the DeWolfs' U.S. slave trade operation.

The U.S. banned the slave trade in 1808, but Browne said family letters indicate the DeWolfs continued dealing in African captives until the 1840s by going through Cuba. They also got help from a DeWolf brother-in-law, who served as a customs inspector in Bristol — thus ensuring family slave ships continued to come and go.

Browne wrote, co-directed and co-produced "Traces of the Trade," a 2008 documentary detailing how her ancestors used a Bristol distillery to make rum, which they traded for African captives.

She learned of the DeWolf past 14 years ago, when her 88-year-old grandmother compiled a family history. Browne began digging and found she had been exposed to her family's ugly secrets as a child. A favorite family nursery rhyme "Adjua and Pauledore," she discovered, was really about child slaves James DeWolf gave his wife for Christmas one year.

"Everything I learned just got worse and worse," she said, "and flew in the face of my image of my family as good, sensible northerners."

For her documentary, Browne contacted 200 DeWolf descendants. In 2001, she, Perry and eight other cousins retraced the so-called "Slave Triangle," traveling from Rhode Island to the coast of Ghana and then to Cuba.

While on the island, they used machetes to hack through jungle south of Havana, reaching ruined walls and other relics of another family plantation called "Noah's Ark."

For that trip, Browne hired a Cuban producer who put together a film crew, obtained necessary government permits and scouted locations.

This time, the communist government was even more cooperative — as it often is on U.S. historical projects, especially those exploring unsavory aspects of America's past.

Authorities granted Browne and Perry special access to archives, and the pair was featured on state television. That support helped them search customs books for records of Bristol-registered vessels at Cuba's National Archives and to screen her documentary. When shown the film, some Afro-Cubans choked back sobs.

Perry and Browne, both 42, say they did not inherit proceeds from the slave trade because family records indicate James DeWolf's immediate descendants squandered the fortune within two generations.

"To that, I say, 'Thank goodness.' I would not want to find out that I grew up wealthy because of that," Perry said.

Still, he said there is no doubt his family name and roots opened educational and professional doors. Other branches of the family did receive large inheritances, and establishing whether any of DeWolf's thousands of descendants got slave proceeds is difficult.

Browne said 140 of the 200 relatives she contacted for the documentary didn't respond. Many who did expressed concerns, including worries activists might demand reparations.

Browne supports payments to Americans of African descent to "level the playing field," not "out of guilt, but grief," though she is not in favor of cutting personal checks to individuals.

"The idea is 'repair'," she said. "And that is best done through more systemic efforts — public and private — to help people access the American dream."

While both she and Perry have worked to uncover their family's role, they say no Americans — even those whose descendants came to the U.S. after slavery was abolished — should feel unaffected. The early U.S. economy so relied on slavery that it fueled a boom, making America an attractive destination for immigrants, they maintain.

"None of us," Perry said, "are untouched by the legacy of slavery today."
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Unholy Currents

The current President of the United States is Barack Hussein Obama.
The current MLB champions are the New York Yankees.
The current NBA champions are the Los Angeles Lakers.
The current NCAA basketball champions are the Duke Blue Devils, who feature a coach who is simultaneously profane and sanctimonious.

Even The Book of Revelation is not this gloomy.

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Gaby Sanchez vs Johan Santana

Looking for a bright spot in the loss to the hated and gratefully-seemingly-cursed New York Mets, I found it in Gaby Sanchez's at bats against Johan Santana.

As a Dodger fan long ago, I remember reading in Bill James 1985 Abstract about Orel Hershiser. Although he didn't make it to the majors until he was 25, in his 2nd year he had a consecutive scoreless innings streak of 34 in 1984. Easy to see now that it was a predictor of things to come, with Hershiser setting the MLB record for consecutive scoreless innings of 58 in his glorious year of 1988.

But in the spring of 1985, Hershiser had his doubters. In the type of analysis which would make Bill James ... Bill James, he warned [I paraphrase as I could not find my 1985 BJBA, no doubt pilfered by close friend and book hog / wanna-be E-bay vendor, J. Garcia] those doubters that the list of pitchers who had tossed more than 30 shutout innings in the history of MLB was very short indeed. In effect, average players rarely accomplish things which are rare in MLB history. The James style was to state that if Hershiser turned out to be an average pitcher, that would be unusual.

While Gaby Sanchez -- pride of Belen Jesuit [a fine school, but no Christopher Columbus] -- did nothing rare in yesterday's game, but he did do something unusually good for a young player given the circumstances.

Playing in the season opener in New York, in front of a big crowd and facing one of the best pitchers in MLB in his first 2 at bats, Sanchez had the following results:

• 3rd inning vs Santana, 11 pitch at bat with six foul balls and ended by hitting a sharp single up the middle.
• 5th inning vs Santana, 8 pitch at bat with three foul balls and ended by hitting a fly ball to right.
• 7th inning vs Nieves, doubled to left on the 3rd pitch of the at bat.
• 9th inning vs Rodriguez, 5 pitch at bat with 1 foul ball and lining out out to center.

The at bat in the 7th is also interesting because it came after the Marlins defensively disastrous bottom of the 6th, in which Sanchez was also charged with an error. So after showing great patience and plate discipline with Santana, Sanchez showed that he could be aggressive if the situation allowed and that he did not allow his fielding miscue to affect his at bat.

My point is not that yesterday's game means that Sanchez will be a good MLB hitter, it is to say that players who are not good MLB hitters rarely have the type of hitting game Gaby Sanchez had yesterday.

By the way, speaking of short lists. The list of MLB pitchers with 40 or more consecutive scoreless innings have the following characteristics [see list below]:

• Streak has been accomplished 19 times in MLB history
• Streak has been accomplished only 7 times since 1967
• Streak has been accomplished only 3 times since 1969 [did MLB hitters wear black armbands as a protest in 1968?]. Those pitchers are:

1. Orel Hershiser in 1988
2. Brandon Webb in 2007
3. Luis Tiant in 1972

• Number of pitchers to appear on the list twice: Two

1. Walter Johnson
   
2. Luis Clemente (Vega) Tiant
   If you haven't seen it, please check out the Farrelly brothers documentary about Tiant
   The Lost Son of Havana

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The Estefan's Crossover Timing

January 2010: Scene at the Washington offices of Smooth & Glib Consultants, LLP [formerly the Academy of Tobacco Studies].

Gloria Estefan: Look, I don't care how this gets done, but I want it done. If I ever have to ask another adult about reindeer's, I at least want one of us to be in a sanitarium.
Nick Naylor - President and Founder of S&G: You're upset and you should be.
Gloria Estefan: Emilio, please ask him to stop talking.
Emilio Estefan: Just listen to him please. We're paying him enough.
Nick Naylor: He's right you know.
Gloria Estefan: [Gives Naylor a dirty look].
Nick Naylor: Look, you're here because both of you, quite properly I believe, live in fear of offending your somewhat maniacally loyal hometown fan base. So we have to offset two competing desires; the desire to speak your mind, even when your politics have diverged from your those of your loyal fans and the desire to start your car without any remote control devices.
Gloria Estefan: That's a stereotypical cheap shot.
Nick Naylor: No doubt. By the way, is there another reason my Outlook calendar reads 'meet Mr & Mrs Juan Valdes?'
Emilio Estefan: Just get to your point please.
Nick Naylor: You need cover on this. Look even Jack Bauer doesn't run into any building without first having Chloe O’Brien send him the schematics first.
Gloria Estefan: So what's our cover, what's your idea?
Nick Naylor: The reason you're paying me so well, and you are, is that I'm the guy who let's you know that making up a cover will backfire. I'm the guy who tells you to sit tight until the right moment comes, even if your petulant little heart doesn't like it. While reindeer's maybe one of the few things you are actually qualified to discuss with the President of the United States, given enough money, I will put you in a position to discuss much more. For now we wait.
Gloria Estefan: That's it? We wait?
Nick Naylor: Yes. When it's time, it will be so obvious, it won't even look planned. By the way, I can validate that for you, Mrs Valdes.

Recent Miami Herald headlines:

• March 24 2010: Obama toughens his stance over Cuba's crackdowns
• March 25 2010: Tens of thousands join Gloria Estefan in Calle Ocho march for Ladies in White
• March 27 2010: Gloria Estefan at intersection of art, politics
• April 2 2010: Emilio and Gloria Estefan to host President Obama

While I clearly don't share the Estefan's domestic political agenda, I think the fund-raiser is something everyone who cares about a free Cuba should understand and even appreciate. The worst possible scenario for those of us who care about a free Cuba is having whoever is in the White House thinking they have no chance to win over Cuban-American votes or having no chance of winning Florida even with Cuban-American votes. If the Estefan's weren't doing this of their own accord, we should organize a telethon and put them up to it.

In the end, the prospects of a free Cuba trumps current US domestic political concerns with respect to engaging President Obama. The cause of a free Cuba can no doubt be aided by having a US President with some ties to our exile community. Heck one of the inherent reasons we all are so happy to be Americans is that US politics are typically not conducted at the 'patria o muerte' wattage level [except for the whole Civil War thing].

So I hope their fund-raiser is a big success and that the Democrats lose big in November 2010 and 2012. I believe that like Tessio, the Estefan's have made a smart move for themselves and that our exile community can benefit in the process. Then again, things kinda backfired on ol' Salvatorre.

The most recent Miami Herald article referenced is copied in full at end of post.

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Emilio and Gloria Estefan to host President Obama

Posted on Fri, Apr. 02, 2010

BY LESLEY CLARK
lclark@MiamiHerald.com

President Barack Obama conveyed his harshest rebuke yet of Havana's government last week and, hours later, Gloria Estefan protested repression in Havana from the streets of Miami.

Now, they'll be together again when the Cuban-born singer and her husband, Emilio, host Obama at their Miami Beach home April 15 for a Democratic National Committee fundraiser, when the president comes to Florida to talk about cuts to the NASA space program.

The $30,400-a-couple cocktail reception is the Estefans' first political fundraiser, said Democratic consultant Freddy Balsera, who advised Obama's campaign on Hispanic issues and is close to the couple. The Estefans -- who were traveling and unavailable Thursday for comment -- orchestrated a massive march through Miami's Little Havana in support of Cuba's Damas de Blanco, or Ladies in White, peaceful dissidents who were attacked by government security forces in Havana.

``They're both at a place in their lives where they believe giving back is important and patriotism is important,'' Balsera said. Obama will also attend a fundraiser at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami that same day. Tickets for that event start at $250 and $1,250.

Though they've kept a low political profile, the Estefans are no strangers to the White House. Gloria performed at the inaugural festivities for President George W. Bush in 2005, following Bush's 2002 appointment of Emilio to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the President's Advisory Committee on the Arts.

Emilio met with Obama at the White House last May, according to the Washington Times, which reported at the time that Emilio hoped to have Obama over for dinner to talk about U.S.-Cuba relations.

``We just want freedom,'' he told the newspaper.

In September, Obama appointed Emilio to a commission to study the feasibility of a National Museum of the American Latino, and Gloria Estefan -- along with Marc Anthony, Jose Feliciano and others -- performed at the White House in October as it celebrated Hispanic music. The president quoted Gloria in his welcoming remarks, noting that in her words, ``the most beautiful things in this country have the flavor of other places.''

Gloria also scored a pre-Christmas interview with Obama for Univision.

The pair chatted about Santa and reindeer, with Estefan prompting Obama to deliver a holiday message in what he jokingly called his ``flawless'' Spanish.

Obama's reception in Florida may not be entirely celebratory. He's convened a conference on the Space Coast that day to defend his plans to cancel a NASA space exploration program -- a decision that has prompted howls of protest from Florida's congressional delegation.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/01/v-print/1559519/star-power-estefans-to-host-obama.html#ixzz0k9OPJUzb
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Garden Variety: Eden, Gethsemane & Arimathea's

Have you ever reflected on the role gardens play in our Christian faith? I hadn't thought of it until I read this homily by Fr Valle. An excerpt from his Easter homily:

It is very interesting that Mary ends up in a garden looking for Jesus. After all, this whole lovely and terrible game of sin and salvation began in a garden way back in Genesis. John Paul II tells us that if we understand the first three chapters of Genesis, we understand the entire history of sin and salvation. While a pope who many call great, doesn’t need me to tell him that he is right, the Pope is exactly right. What began in the garden of Eden comes full circle in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea, where they buried the body of Jesus in an empty tomb.

The email address to request to be put on Vallee's email distribution list is Cioran262@aol.com. To see the entire homily click on 'read more.' Search for other Fr Vallee homilies in this blog by entering 'Vallee' in the search box in the upper left hand corner or look for Fr Vallee in the Labels.


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Fr Vallee Easter 2010 Homily

I. John Paul II
It is very interesting that Mary ends up in a garden looking for Jesus. After all, this whole lovely and terrible game of sin and salvation began in a garden way back in Genesis. John Paul II tells us that if we understand the first three chapters of Genesis, we understand the entire history of sin and salvation. While a pope who many call great, doesn’t need me to tell him that he is right, the Pope is exactly right. What began in the garden of Eden comes full circle in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea, where they buried the body of Jesus in an empty tomb.

II. Where are you?
Chapter three of Genesis gives a perfect picture of what exactly went wrong with sin or what is precisely wrong with sin. Notice the last verse of chapter two: "The man and woman were both naked and yet they felt no shame." This is an interesting passage. Nakedness and sexuality are both innocent. Adam and Eve feel no shame before one another and before God because there is nothing of which to be ashamed. Shame comes with disobedience and sin in chapter three. But that is a small point. Here is the main point: After the Fall, God walks in the cool of the garden and calls out, “Adam, where are you?” Adam replies, "we heard you walking in the cool of the garden and we hid ourselves for we were naked." God replies, "who told you that you were naked, did you eat of the fruit of which I told you not to eat?" Adam then blames Eve, Eve blames the snake, and so it goes.

III. The Hebrew You
The blame game aside, here is what is interesting. Hebrew is more like Spanish or French, than like English, in one specific sense. In English there is only one word for "you." If I am talking to the president, it is "you." If I am talking to my niece, it is still just "you." In Spanish, if I am talking to the President, it is usted. If I am talking to my niece, it is tu. Hebrew, however, has not two but 32 different forms of the pronoun you, each signifying different degrees of intimacy and formality. This makes perfect sense. We have one word for snow. The Eskimos have many words for snow. The Jews were a tribal people, hence the question of the other’s precise relationship to me is of crucial importance. When God says, "where are you, Adam?" He is using the most intimate possible form of you. When Adam replies, "We heard you walking in the cool of the garden," He uses the form of you one would use with a judge, something like, We heard you, "Sir."

IV. Got to get ourselves back to the garden...
If you know about Jewish theology, you know that this an amazing phrase and is almost sui generis [JC: unique]. The Jews held that you were not even allowed to speak or write down the name of God. Yet here in Genesis, Adam and God speak with utter intimacy. This is the whole point. The deepest and most deadly effect of sin is loss of intimacy with our God. Because of sin, human beings and God are no longer on a first name basis. Adam, after sin, calls God, "Sir," not "daddy." We no longer stand face-to-face with God in the garden and call one another by our first names. Loss of intimacy with God is the result of sin. And the whole history of salvation is nothing but an attempt, in the words of the Joni Mitchell song, "to get our ourselves back to the garden."

V. Abba in Gethsemane
Let’s fast forward to another garden, the Garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus faces torture and death. Notice his prayer in that garden. He prays, "Abba, let this cup pass me by, yet not my will but your will be done." Abba is a very interesting word. It is an Aramaic word and it is a baby’s word. It means dada or papi. Jesus realizes, as he bares the full weight of our sins, even though he himself does not sin, that loss of intimacy with his Father is the most terrible thing he must face. On the cross he will cry out "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" Foreseeing that most horrible moment, Jesus cries out, Abba, daddy, papi. Be with me as a father is with his little baby.

VI. The Garden of the Tomb
We come, now, to the final garden, the garden of the empty tomb. I have always loved the Gospel text from St. John. Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene but she does not recognize him, she thinks he is the gardener. It is a lovely passage. Jesus almost seems to be teasing her. I mean he knows very well who she is looking for and why she is crying. Still, he asks: "Woman, who are you looking for?" Mary, then, kind of falls apart. She is somewhat hysterical: "Please, Sir, tell me where you have taken his body, so that I can go and be with him." Finally, it is as if Jesus cannot stand to tease her any longer and he breaks the tension with a single word: "Mary." With that word, her name, Mary recognizes her Lord.

VII. Full circle
With that one word, we have come full circle from Genesis. Jesus Christ by his Passion, death and rising, restores what was lost at the Fall. Now Mary Magdalene, a human being, stands face to face with her God in the garden and they call each other by their first names -- playfully, tenderly, with utter intimacy. John Paul II is saw it so clearly. If you understand the first three chapters of Genesis, you understand the entire history of sin and salvation. What was lost in a garden is regained in a garden, human beings once again stand face to face with God and whisper tender endearments ... Christ has conquered death by death. And the result of that victory is that God is once again "daddy, papi, abba."
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Bill Gates & Copyright Infringement ConcernsNot Even Death Do Them Part

Bill Gates takes copyright infringement so seriously, he can't even let it go when he has literally buried his opponent.

H. Edward Roberts, credited by Bill Gates as the inventor of the PC and a native Miamian, passed away recently. See his obituary in the NYT and WSJ. Mr Roberts invention - the Altair 8800 - created the key opportunity for Paul Allen and Bill Gates entry into the the fledgling computer industry. The relationship between Mr Roberts and Gates and Microsoft had a falling out - excerpts from the NYT obituary:

Over the years, there was some lingering animosity between the two men, and Dr. Roberts pointedly kept his distance from industry events.

But in recent months, after learning that Dr. Roberts was ill, Mr. Gates made a point of reaching out to his former boss and customer. Mr. Gates sent Dr. Roberts a letter last December and followed up with phone calls, another son, Dr. John David Roberts, said. Eight days ago, Mr. Gates visited the elder Dr. Roberts at his bedside in Macon.

“Any past problems between those two were long since forgotten,” said Dr. John David Roberts, who had accompanied Mr. Gates to the hospital. He added that Mr. Allen, the other Microsoft founder, had also called the elder Dr. Roberts frequently in recent months.

Allow me to translate. Mr Roberts was entrepreneurial and innovative, but just missed out on capitalizing on the mega-wealth creation his innovation spawned. Bill Gates did not. Despite his debt to the man and his clear dominance in the industry, Gates pressed his advantage to the point of alienating a person whose innovation Gates so obviously benefited from.

Mr Gates was moved enough to share his remembrance of Mr Roberts in the WSJ. In that remembrance, Mr Gates wrote the following:

So MITS was the pioneer of a lot of things - helping to create computer clubs, getting a software library going, lots of new additions to their personal computer including the disk. Ed kept a firm hand running the company but was frustrated by some of the complexity. He decided to sell the company and reached a deal with PERTEC, a California company that did magnetic tape stuff mostly.

I was surprised when Ed decided to move back to Georgia and give up working in the computer field. Microsoft had a dispute with PERTEC where they interpreted our license with them as giving them an exclusive on our BASIC and that went to arbitration as the contract called for and we won that on many different grounds.

I didn’t see Ed many times after that. I knew he was first a farmer in Georgia and then a doctor. There were a few reunion things and I went to one of those. Six months ago I heard that Ed got pneumonia and went into the hospital. After three months in the hospital he was still not getting well I wrote him a letter talking about his great contributions.

After two more months his situation wasn’t great so I arranged to go see him and I spent several hours with him and his son at the hospital last Friday. Ed was sick enough that he barely knew I was there but I recounted some of these old stories to his son which I hope he understood. In any case his son will have those to pass along to Ed’s five other children and all of the grandchildren.”

My interpretation again. Sure Ed came up with the Altair, but he was quickly in over his head [complexity]. They tried to wet their beaks [interpreted], but we don't do compromise and wiped the floor [many different grounds] with them. Ed was pissed and I didn't [I was surprised Ed moved] care.

When I heard he was sick I felt bad. When it was clear he wasn't getting better, I dropped him a note. When I realized that he would die, I figured I should go. I got there too late to truly speak with him before he passed, but at least I went.

I pray that the reason Mr Gates remembrance took such a petty tone is that is that the Microsoft legal team did the last rewrite. Pending said disclosure, it's settled then, money can't buy you everything, i.e. class or compassion. Just one more thing Mr Roberts could have taught Mr Gates. Hey, maybe they'll meet again? In whose shoes would you rather be at that meeting? Cheer up Bill, it can't be as bad as the one between Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne.

A few of the highlights from Mr Roberts interesting life:

• Born in Miami, September 13, 1941 [exactly 20 years before my family arrived].
• Father was a household appliance repairman and his mother was a nurse.
• In preparing to be a doctor, he helped build electronics for an experimental heart-lung machine at the University of Miami.
• Inspired by his work at the University of Miami, he eventually studied electrical engineering at Oklahoma State University.
• Served as an officer in the Air Force, based in Albuquerque, N.M., and was trained as an engineer.
• In 1969 founded MITS Inc., in Albuquerque.
• MITS created the the first inexpensive general-purpose microcomputer - the Altair 8800.
• The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured the Altair 8800 on its cover.
• The Altair 8800 inspired Paul Allen and Bill Gates to travel to Albuquerque and begin working for and with Mr Roberts.
• In 1977, Mr. Roberts sold MITS and as a condition of the sale, agreed not design computers for five years.
• Invested in farmland in Georgia.
• Decided to follow up on his first dream, to study medicine, earning his degree from Mercer University in Macon 1n 1986 - Mr Roberts was 45.
• Moved to rural Cochran, Ga., where the town's only doctor had recently died. He set up a clinic with a modern laboratory.

Bill Gates remembrance of Henry Edward Roberts is copied in full at end of post.

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Bill Gates Remembers Personal Computer Pioneer

April 2, 2010, 5:40 PM ET

Bill Gates, co-founder and chairman of Microsoft, on Friday sent the Wall Street Journal this remembrance of Henry Edward Roberts, who died Thursday at the age of 68. Gates, who argues that Roberts deserves to be called the father of the personal computer, discusses the origins of Roberts’ company, MITS, how Gates and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen came to write software for the early machine, and visiting Roberts in his final days.

“Ed Roberts was in the Air Force and ended up at the base in Albuquerque. In his spare time he started a company to sell kits for things you would put on rockets–something to take the temperature when it gets to the top or take a photo. He called the company Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems and it did a small amount of business. Then he came up with a kit calculator and that sold in significant volume and made money.

Then Bowmar (and later Texas Instruments) came out with an assembled calculator that was cheaper than Ed’s kit calculator. MITS (they had renamed it to just the initials at that point) had ordered a lot of parts and had enough costs that it looked like they wouldn’t be able to repay their debts. So Ed looked into the Intel microprocessor and together with an engineer Bill Yates created a kit computer called the Altair 8800.

The name was chosen because the Editor of Popular Electronics liked that name and they wanted to get on the cover. In fact the January 1975 issue (which came out in December 1974) had the Altair on the cover. It sold for $360 which was the same price as just buying a single 8080 chip from Intel so some people wondered if the parts were genuine and high quality. They were since MITS got a good discount on the chip. The kit could not do much once you put it together. If you didn’t have a teletype (think of a typewriter that can send character to the computer and receive commands to type from the computer) all you could do was make the lights flash with simple programs you have to enter in with the switches.

Paul Allen and I saw the Popular Electronics article and called to say we were doing software. They thought that was interesting. We worked hard and a month later we called back to ask what instructions to use to connect to a teletype. They said we were the first people who had asked that so maybe we did have something. We had used a simulator on a PDP-10 to create the BASIC interpreter which ran in 4K bytes. It is hard to believe how little memory these machines had.

Paul flew out to MITS with the paper tape and Ed met him at the airport. Paul figured out how to load the BASIC and it ran the first time on one of the few kits MITS itself had ever assembled. Everyone was amazed. This was in April 1975.

I went on leave from Harvard in June and negotiated the license agreement with MITS in July. Microsoft got a royalty for each BASIC sold. Then we wrote fancier versions of the BASIC - 8k Basic, Extended Basic and Disk Basic. Paul actually worked for MITS as VP of Software although I did not. We got a software library going and wrote regular articles for the Altair newsletter that David Bunnell was hired by MITS to create. I gave my first speech at an Altair convention. MITS got a big GM van and went around the country helping to set up computer clubs.

The Altair was the first personal computer by most definitions of the term. It was before the Apple 1 or any other machine people know. A company in Canada sold a few machines and MCM in France sold a few machines but they were a bit after MITS and not aimed at low price high volume. MITS sold over 10,000 of the Altairs and had to hire people to deal with the volume. Ed deserves to be called the father of the personal computer.

Ed was a strong personality and people were a bit intimidated by him. When they thought he was doing something wrong in the company they sometimes tried to get me to talk to Ed since I was also a strong personality and the least intimidated by him.

Ed was a good entrepreneur. MITS moved into doing assembled machines with far more power and adding an 8 inch floppy disk and building a dealer network. Some competitors came along - people no one knows today like Imsai, Processor Technology, Sphere, Ohio Scientific, Billings,…. One problem was that one generation of memory chips - the 4k RAM turned out to be unreliable and that messed up the whole industry particularly MITS since customers had problems with their machines. This was NOT MITS’ fault at all - I spent 2 months writing test programs to figure out which chips were failing and how.

So MITS was the pioneer of a lot of things - helping to create computer clubs, getting a software library going, lots of new additions to their personal computer including the disk. Ed kept a firm hand running the company but was frustrated by some of the complexity. He decided to sell the company and reached a deal with PERTEC, a California company that did magnetic tape stuff mostly.

I was surprised when Ed decided to move back to Georgia and give up working in the computer field. Microsoft had a dispute with PERTEC where they interpreted our license with them as giving them an exclusive on our BASIC and that went to arbitration as the contract called for and we won that on many different grounds.

I didn’t see Ed many times after that. I knew he was first a farmer in Georgia and then a doctor. There were a few reunion things and I went to one of those. Six months ago I heard that Ed got pneumonia and went into the hospital. After three months in the hospital he was still not getting well I wrote him a letter talking about his great contributions.

After two more months his situation wasn’t great so I arranged to go see him and I spent several hours with him and his son at the hospital last Friday. Ed was sick enough that he barely knew I was there but I recounted some of these old stories to his son which I hope he understood. In any case his son will have those to pass along to Ed’s five other children and all of the grandchildren.”
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