Apparent gunfire slightly damaged one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines, prompting calls for revenge and even suicide attacks.

Uh oh. "Apparent gunfire" may have "slightly" damaged a shrine. A shrine that the insurgents are fighting from, storing weapons in, and using to plot attacks against the U.S. I feel so bad for those who had a holy site "slightly" damaged.

I'm not sure what I could equate it to here, but come on, you can't seriously expect to be given refuge in a place of worship, which under whatever convention we're following (does Geneva apply here too?) is not to be attacked, after you store munitions and fire from within the walls.

URL: My Way News

There really is no way to describe the absurdity of last night's game. The Lakers pulled out the win after blowing a 16 point lead and the Spurs have filed an official protest. I guess I'll just leave it up to ESPN.com:

After Kobe Bryant sinks a jumper from the wing with just under 12 seconds left ... and then Tim Duncan answers with a go-ahead rainbow prayer over Shaquille O'Neal that nearly pops the disbelieving eyes out of Duncan's head ... and then Derek Fisher wins it with a turn-and-heave that swishes through with zeros on the clock ... well, we don't think anyone should make predictions about Game 6.

And then there was Shaq's comment after the game, "One lucky shot deserves another." Luckily, the lucky shot that won it was made by Derek Fisher and gave the series to the Lakers.

URL: ESPN.com - NBA/PLAYOFFS2004 - Stein Line: Freaky May 13th strikes again

When most baseball fans read this article without seeing the game last night, they'll think what Amezaga did was dirty and done on purpose, however, that is completely false. While trying to turn a double play, Amezaga, trying to throw a runner out on first dropped his arm down a bit to a sidearm position and hit Posada in the face when he released the ball. However, what you don't get out of the article, and you'll never know without seeing the actual play, is that Posada was outside of the imaginary base line, he was running full-bore at Amezaga and he had yet to slide, even though he was near the base.

Is it completely Posada's fault? No - the play at first would not have been close, so Posada really couldn't have done much, except hope to cause Amezaga to completely throw it away, which is a good tactic to use. Is it completely Amezaga's fault? No - he did drop down a bit too far when releasing the ball, but almost all shortstops do that as they come across second base as they show the ball to the runner, trying to get him to slide and/or get out of the way. However, Posada did not slide immediately, he continued running for Amezega, and when the ball was released, it bounced off Posada's shoulder and got him on the nose.

At the time, it was a close game and Posada was just doing his job trying to take out Amezega and Amezega was just doing his job trying to complete the relay - however, with the way the game ended (11-2 Angels win), one can only think that both Posada and Amezega would have played that one differently if given a second chance.

Oh yeah, congrats to the Dodgers, now tied statistically with the Angles for best record in the majors.

URL: ESPN.com - MLB - Posada's nose broken

Good thing the liberals finally got an outlet on the radio (we all know they've been given absolutely no media time on television), it looks like they're finally putting it to good use.

...

Rock bottom came when she compared Bush and his family to the Corleones in the "Godfather" saga. "Like Fredo, somebody ought to take him out fishing and phuw," she said, imitating the sound of gunfire.

During a day of torture by radio, I heard ads for Hewlett-Packard, Greyhound and, especially, General Motors. I asked GM why it appeared in such shows.

Ryndee Carney, GM's manager of marketing communications, said the ads were wrongly picked up from an earlier deal with WLIB. She said the station was ordered to "cease and desist" yesterday, and added: "GM will not advertise on any Air America affiliates."

At least some advertisers have the right idea as they pull their ads from airing alongside these sort of antics. Though why they would offer initial support without actually hearing the shows that would air (as it sounds like the deal was) is beyond me.

And yes, I am aware that the same things are probably going on on the other side of the aisle with Rush, Savage, etc., but all of the hateful "comedy" featured in the article below took place during just one day of listening by the author. I might try and tune in tonight to hear what Garafolo has to say as this station is now carried on Sirius (alongside "Sirius Left"), but forgive me if I forget to turn on liberal ranting instead of watching the Angels game or trying to get an unbiased view on world events somewhere else.

URL: New York Daily News - News & Views Columnists - Michael Goodwin: Liberal radio is airing bad jokes and worst taste

I guess if you're going to be court martialed, it's probably better to get your side of the story out there first, however, if you really don't know what you're talking about, perhaps keeping your mouth shut would be the best option.

Army Pfc. Lynndie England, seen worldwide in photographs that show her smiling and pointing at naked Iraqi prisoners, said she was ordered to pose for the photos, and felt "kind of weird" in doing so.

I don't think too many people will be that much more endeared to her after she said she only felt "kind of weird" posing for the pictures. How about "disgusted," "apalled" or "horrified"? How about showing some outrage for the obvious unethical treatment of the prisoners? Oh wait, she was told to do it by someone else.

England, 21, repeatedly insisted that her actions were dictated by "persons in my higher chain of command."

Regardless of whether or not her actions were dictated by someone higher in the chain of command, which they most likely were, that doesn't make it right. It doesn't preclude you from questioning what you are doing, and even though I've never been in the armed forces, I feel fairly confident that I would be able to disobey my commanders if they made me do something I objected to - if they made me hold a prisoner on a leash while posing for a photo. But apparently, if you are told do something morally reprehensible by someone above you in the chain of command, that makes it just fine.

"To all of us who have been charged, we all agree that we don't feel like we were doing things that we weren't supposed to, because we were told to do them. We think everything was justified, because we were instructed to do this and to do that," England said.

URL: CBS News | Female GI In Abuse Photos Talks | May 12, 2004

It's good to see everyone in the media and across the world show extreme outrage and disgust at the beheading of an American citizen by those claiming to be Al-Qaeda.

W A S H I N G T O N -- Horrified by the "disgusting" images of a defenseless American prisoner having his head cut off on videotape, Arab and Muslim leaders throughout the world went on Al Jazeera to apologize for the "abhorrent" abuse.

"I am sickened by the images I saw," said Bashar Assad of Syria. "I want to know precisely who is responsible for the failure in command here. And I don't care how high up the chain of command we have to go for justice."

...

In related news, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that they had successfully granted a 200-pound sow the power of flight. "We just grafted four pairs of condor wings on to the pig," said Henry Fields, project manager of the Winged Wilbur project. "You should see that pig fly. It's something to behold, I'll tell you. And we're going to need flying pig technology in the future, given the widespread effects of global environmental change. The latest reports of the temperatures plummeting in Hell should be a warning to us all."

(or not...)

URL: Ace of Spades HQ: al-Zarqawi Apologizes for Beheading American Civilian Prisoner

More photos from Iraq.

(the ones not being shown in the mainstream media)

URL: SMASH's FotoPage - Fotopages.com

And for once, they were actually on the front page of the Baseball page at ESPN (they're not going to get front page billing on ESPN.com - that's reserved for my Lakers after their demolition of San Antionio earlier today)...

With most teams, it's three outs and you're done. But the Angels now have five out (Guillen, Erstad, Anderson, Salmon and Donnelly), and keep on ticking. Anaheim zapped the Devil Rays 8-4 on Sunday, notching its ninth straight win.

URL: ESPN.com - Baseball Index

I'm not really sure if I believe what I saw earlier, but Sportscenter actually did a piece on the California teams. They talked about the Angels, the Dodgers and the Padres and how well they're doing this year and then they went to Harold Reynolds of Baseball Tonight to see who would still be winning come playoff time and he picked...drumroll please...the Angels!

So, speaking of the Angels, we already had two stars on the DL - Garret Anderson and Tim Salmon. Then yesterday, Darin Erstad went down with a hamstring problem that he has been fighting for the past couple seasons, and to make matters even worse, today, Jose Guillen went down sliding into second with what is being reported as a sprained knee and ankle, thought it looked a lot worse. And all of this as the Angels ride their 9 game win streak into New York and Baltimore. We'll just see how they can handle playing on the East Coast - which sucks for us West Coasters as not everyone can get off work at 4:05 to watch games Tuesday & Wednesday and then there's a 10:05am game on Thursday and then again on Friday, 4:35pm (the one day I work late every week) - having a real job really sucks.

P.S. Thank you Blogger for finally fixing the quirk of shorter entry boxes in Firefox - I can now see a full box rather than one that was only 10 lines tall. And if you don't use Firefox yet, DOWNLOAD IT!

P.P.S. When spellchecking, they actually told me that Blogger is not a word. Shouldn't Blogger be in the dictionary at Blogger.com?

And in case you're wondering, the Angels are still #1 in baseball with the Dodgers now in a surprising #2 spot. The teams from Texas still round out the top 4, but San Diego slid a spot to 6th while Boston moved up from 7th. But still - having three teams in the top 6 in baseball from Southern California is pretty nice. Now, we just need the Angels to beat the hated New York Yankees three times in a row Tu-Th and the Lakers to beat San Antionio three times in a row for all to be right in the world.

URL: ESPN.com