[yuck] that salty taste

Here's a really good one. Follow Bob's link here back to his post, read, click on the pic until it zooms, scroll down the sitemeter readout.

Ha ha. One wonders about people.

[major league ball] umpire attacks player

Winters

How much U.S. baseball do I usually run here? But this one has to be run because it's so unusual.

You've heard of players being suspended for language, for bad tackles, for brawling and so on but have you heard of an umpire being suspended for the same?

Umpire Mike Winters was suspended by Major League Baseball for the remainder of the regular season on Wednesday because of his confrontation with San Diego's Milton Bradley last weekend. The Padres claimed Winters baited Bradley, who has a history of losing his temper. Bradley tore a knee ligament when his manager spun him to the ground while trying to keep him from going after the umpire during Sunday's 7-3 loss to Colorado in San Diego.

Bradley tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and will need surgery, which is expected to sideline him for at least six months. His injury was a blow to the Padres, who began Wednesday with a one-game lead over Colorado and Philadelphia in the NL wild-card race.

Question is - whom do you sympathize with - the bad-mouthing umpire or the hot-headed, would-be umpire attacker?

Political Blogging Guide 2007 - Other Sections

These are all the ones from my blogrolls I could find - Blogpowerers or ex-BPers are coloured maroon and in bold, as usual:

Guide to Blogging 2007 Top 100 Left of Centre Blogs

Big formatting problems on Iain's site with these:

4-2 BobPiper

12 ChickenYoghurt

[ex-BP and I hope future]

17-9 MarsHill

19 Ministry of Truth

24-14 Tygerland

29-19 General Theory of Rubbish

[whose testimonial I carry in my "About"]

30 Stumbling&Mumbling

48-12Normblog

98SomeDayIWillTreatYouGood

Guide to Blogging 2007 Top 100 Liberal Democrat Blogs

12 NEW Norfolk Blogger

Guide to Blogging Top 30 Media Blogs

4 Paul Linford 7 Melanie Phillips 8 18 Doughty Street 10 Oliver Kamm 12 Stephen Pollard 17 Bryan Appleyard 22 Clive Davis

Guide to Blogging 2007: Top Twenty Scottish Blogs

7. Freedom and Whisky (CON) 8. 1820: Rise Like Lions (SNP) 9. J Arthur MacNumpty (NON) 12. Havering On (NON)

Guide to Blogging 2007: Top Twenty Welsh Blogs

Today we have the TOP TEN WELSH BLOGS, chosen by Sandeff Rhyferys, who writes the Ordovicius Blog. So Ordo selected it but where is he himself?

Guide to Blogging 2007: Top Ten Newcomers

3. Matt Wardman (Tech) 5. Grendel (Con)

Guide to Blogging 2007: Top Ten Underrated Blogs

4. Waendel Journal (Conservative) [I count him as one] 5. Little Man in a Toque (Right wing) 8. Tygerland (Labour)

Blogging Guide 2007: Top 10 Medical Blogs

1. NHS Blog Doctor 2. The Psychiatrist Blog 3) Dr Grumble

Guide to Blogging 2007: Top Ten Religious Blogs

1. Archbishop Cranmer

Well done to all those who made these lists and to the BPers who graced them as well. Have I left any out?

[capital v labour] it never goes away

I have mixed feelings about this very political issue, which raises the late 1800s Capital v Labour spectre again:

For staff at a Melbourne call centre for internet service provider Netspace, one-fifth of a minute is considered time enough for a rest break between calls. Staff have also been told they are now only to leave their desks four times a day - during set breaks - to increase the number of calls handled.

As a former headmaster and in the light of my current work, it is clear there is a mindset which continually moans about conditions, rights and time off without considering the success and solidity of the company which provides them with their salary and benefits in the first place.

This sort of person is rife in schools and is ultra-quick to react to apparent breaches of his/her rights and knows them all off by heart. If you said there are no rights - only those you gain by securing your workplace in the market in the first place, they think you're Attila the Hun.

And don't even start me on political correctness.

On the other hand, on the face of it, Netspace appear to be out of order, running a sort of sweatshop, using young employees which it knows it can squeeze and this is the worst sort of capitalism. I don't think legislation does a lot because of three things:

1. There really are lazy good-for-nothings who want an easy wicket instead of embracing the company they work for and these are the people forever quoting regulations at you whilst sitting on their bums - in other words, malcontents, ne'er-do-wells and bludgers [naturally I never said anything like this to their faces at the time];

2. It's more effective to hurt the company in the market place over its tactics, such as this MSM article on it. They're far more likely to alter their behaviour on that basis. Legislation simply causes them to shift the problem sideways by taking on, in future, employees least likely to cause a stink.

3. When you tie up a company or an industry in a plethora of regulations and bureaucratic restrictions on every little thing, you stifle the company's effectiveness and freedom to move, i.e. it's ability to keep functioning. A company is not a big mother pig to feed off - it needs space to breathe and expand or restructure to suit prevailing conditions.

It's not a one way street and there have certainly been milestones such as the stopping of child labour and the 40 hour week but then look where unionism went with its little coteries in their cushy positions at the top, dictating to businesses with nothing to lose themselves.

A good worker is a good worker and a good boss will recognize and provide incentive for the good worker to remain. However, when you get the allegedly Alisha the Hutt type and allegedly Netscape type, the pendulum swings and they have to be stopped or exposed for the doings.

As this article said at the outset - a very political issue.

[the dale lists] perspectives

On December 9th, 2006, a small blogger said this, about the American Weblog Awards:

The whole thing is a total w—k. Worthy candidates like Norm, Samizdata, Jon Swift and one or two others aside, this poll is flawed for these reasons:

1] top blogs are left off both in terms of content and in terms of traffic;

2] it’s completely swamped by the Americans, who have five times the population. And what about tiny New Zealand or Australia?

I mean, seriously, who’s going to compete with Malkin, a most overrated blogger or with Instapundit? As I say, it’s a w—k.

He then went on:

It annoys the hell out of me to see some big names promoting themselves shamelessly [not those on my blogroll], getting major traffic and they’re truly neither quality nor well laid out. Of course, they say people visit for the expertise, to read the pearls of wisdom but this seems a very MSM thing to say. Why are they emulating the MSM? Is that what they’re trying to get into?

He then called for a collective of little bloggers to be set up. It was eventually called Blogpower. So how does this malcontent feel now that he finds himself on a 100 list?

Predictably proud, especially as it was 12 peers who did the voting, not one man. And equally proud of the little association we have called Blogpower, who featured well in the rankings and it vindicates the belief that there are some truly great blogs out there largely unsung and some of them now recognized. This is largely Dale's doing.

It's part of our job, methinks, to find them and promote them too. This is the Blogpower ethos in a nutshell. On the other hand, there seemed some anomalies but that's what happens when people vote on things.

[political blogging guide] non-aligned results

These are the ones from my blogroll and congratulations to all. Blogpower is in red:

2 NHS Blog Doctor 9 As a Dodo 10 Westminster Wisdom 12 Little Man in a Toque 22 Pub Philosopher 23 Not Saussure

Congratulations to all of these and to Iain Dale for the hard work.