Virginia is for Lovers

A celebratory Democrat James Webb holds up his Marine Corps son's combat boots during an election victory rally in Arlington, Va. Photo by Bill O'Leary - The Washington Post

From The Washington Post:

Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) today conceded the election to Democrat James Webb, cementing Democratic control of the Senate.

As of this morning, Allen trailed Webb by 7,484 votes. Republican sources said Allen had concluded that no amount of recounting would change the outcome, but members of the senator's campaign staff would not publicly confirm his intentions.

The concession spared the country from a recount that could have left control of the U.S. Senate in limbo for weeks. And it makes official what many have been saying since late Wednesday: that Webb will become Virginia's junior senator, giving Democrats a 51-seat majority and complete control of Congress for the first time in more than a decade.

With the vote tally so close, Allen noted that he had the legal right to ask for a recount, a procedure he said could drag on until Christmas.

Yay! The misogynist beat the racist! Woo hoo! It's a great day.

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Keith Hernandez

I was up late Saturday night with the baby, and as I often do when the Yankees aren't on, I was watching the Mets game.

The Mets announcers frankly suck. Don't get me wrong -- most baseball announcers suck. The Yankees announcers have their own set of problems. First of all, there are too many of them (about eight at last count). They also have a tendency to be smug (Michael Kay) or amateurs (Dave Justice, John Flaherty, etc.).

But back to the Mets. Their announcers tend to be depressing or negative and the team really isn't bad enough to merit that. This is not Tampa Bay or Kansas City. This is a big market team with some exciting young rookies and they're probably going to make the playoffs -- so lighten up already.

Keith Hernandez in particular never misses an opportunity to point out how the current players can't play the game or to say something generally obnoxious. On Saturday he went the "generally obnoxious" route. Mike Piazza, now with the Padres, hit a homerun. Mike goes into the dugout where he's congratulated by the other players and team personnel, one of whom happened to be a woman.

Well, Keith wasn't havin' none of that.

"There's a GIRL in the dugout! There aren't supposed to be any GIRLS in the dugout!"

He was quickly informed that the "girl" was a massage therapist (no, not that kind) and part of the training staff for the Padres. She had every right to be there.

Well, Keith wasn't havin' none of that. He drops this gem:

"I'm not saying girls should be in the kitchen, but they shouldn't be in the dugout."

What a dick. And he continued to repeat variations of this statement throughout the rest of the game.

It especially bothers me that someone of Spanish descent would say something stupid like that, but I guess sexist machismo runs deep. What if someone said, "I'm not saying that Latinos should be picking lettuce, but they shouldn't be in the broadcast booth."

That would be wrong, right?

Good Novels & Bad Novels Part 2

I found the original list for the exercise I mentioned yeaterday. Below are the things I left out.

Elements of Novels I Like

• Characters who are shamed in some way.
• Descriptions of beauty.
• Injustice.
• Growth, negative or positive.
• Fear.
• Realism.
• Emotion.
• Dialogue. At least one quoteable line.
• Flawed people.
• Societies in conflict.
• Parents and (adult) children.
• Complex family dynamics.
• Well-researched settings.
• Fairy tale motifs.
• War.

Elements of Novels I Don't Like

• More prose than dialogue.
• Characters with no doubts.
• Characters with unreasonable doubts.
• Borrowed settings and/or characters.
• Racist or sexist authors.
• Flaws in logic.
• Bad science.