Should Barry Bonds be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame?

[Source: Wikipedia]

Considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time, Barry Bonds holds many major league hitting records, including most career home runs [762], most home runs in a season [73, set in 2001], and most career walks [2,558].
He also received eight Gold Gloves for his defense in the outfield.

In 2007, Bonds was indicted on four charges of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to the grand jury during the federal government's investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative [BALCO].

On February 14, 2008, a "typo" in court papers filed by federal prosecutors erroneously reported that Bonds tested positive for steroids in November, 2001, a month after hitting his record 73rd home run.
The reference was meant instead to refer to a November 2000 test that had already been disclosed and previously reported.
The typo sparked a media frenzy.

The perjury charges were eventually dropped.

On April 13, 2011, he was convicted on the obstruction of justice charge for giving an evasive answer to a question under oath.
The conviction was initially upheld by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2013, but a larger panel of the court voted 10-1 to overturn the conviction on April 22, 2015.

In 2018, Bonds was not elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his sixth of ten years of eligibility.


Despite extensive media coverage of Barry Bonds' role in the steroid scandal and BALCO, there is one important thing that the media has missed, which, in my opinion, is an important factor in determining whether or not he should be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Back in 2001, while he was setting the all-time record for most home runs in a single season, foreign terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on September 11.
Everything stopped..including all air traffic (except for the jets that carried the Bin Laden family out of the country, much to the chagrin of the FBI)
Our nation was in shock, and, Republicans and Democrats alike, we all mourned the deaths of the nearly 3,000 innocent victims of the attacks, including 343 New York City firefighters and more than 60 NYC police officers.

Everything stopped - including major league baseball.
There were no baseball games for more than a week.
Then, after major league baseball resumed, Barry Bonds continued to hit home runs.

In my opinion, he did more to "heal" our nation in that time of great crisis than anyone else.
While most of us were still in mourning over the 9/11 attacks, Bonds resumed his quest to set the major league record for most home runs in a single season.
He eventually hit 73 homers that year, giving America something to cheer about for the first time since the 9/11 attacks.
I think he deserves some credit for that; and I also think he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame...but that's just my opinion.

Post a few of your favorite short stories

I have two co-favorite short stories:

- "Driving in the Spikes" by Harlan Ellison
- "The Horror on the # 33" by Michael Shea

Other short stories that I love include:

- "The Dead Woods" by Larry Tritten
- "The Three Most Important Things in Life" by Harlan Ellison
- "Three Bananas" by Larry Tritten
- "Gopher in the Gilly" by Harlan Ellison



A great short story that you can read for free is called;
"Raft" by Larry Tritten
(It can be found easily by doing a Google search)

What's your favorite western?

The question is "What is your favorite western?"
and since I only get 10 slots to fill, I did the best I could.
If your favorite western isn't among those listed in the poll, please post it in a reply, and, if it gets multiple votes, maybe we can include it among the poll choices.
["Treasure of the Sierra Madre" is considered a "neo-western" so I didn't include it, and
"Blazing Saddles' is a "spoof" of westerns, so it is considered to be a "comedy" more than a western]

Republicans Have a Sinister New Way of Cutting Social Security

Alternet
February 9, 2018


They're a cunning lot, these elected Republican officials.
In their latest plot to revoke the fundamental benefits that have saved millions of seniors from falling into poverty, Republicans are now looking for ways to bribe Americans into foregoing their government-guaranteed retirement security.

Case in point: Ivanka Trump and Marco Rubio recently unveiled their plan to provide parental leave to Americans who choose to postpone retirement age and forgo Social Security payments.
It's a clear attempt to chip away at Social Security - a long-standing target of the GOP.

Nancy Altman, president of "Social Security Works," expressed dismay with the plan, saying, "It's well past time for our country to join the rest of the world in providing workers with paid family and medical leave.
But we should not undermine our retirement security to achieve it."

This isn't the first time Republicans have suggested Americans cut into their future Social Security benefits to pay for immediate needs.
Rep Tom Garrett's (R-VA) similarly ridiculous proposal to "solve" the student debt crisis would allow young people struggling with college loan debt to stall their Social Security benefits until later in life in exchange for loan forgiveness.

More:
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/ivanka-and-marco-rubio-parental-leave-plan-just-cut-social-security

John Kelly Is More Proof There Are No Good Apples in the Trumpian Bunch

Alternet
February 9, 2018


Every day is a lesson with the Trump administration, and every day the lesson is the same:
there are no secretly decent people working in this White House.
Everyone helping further the Trump agenda took the job because they are as immoral as the man they signed up to work for.
The righteous Trump advisor discreetly Jedi-mind-tricking honorable decisions from a dishonorable man is a media-conjured fantasy.
Still somehow, when he took on the role of Trump's chief-of-staff, John Kelly was dubbed the "adult in the room" by a press endowed with an endless capacity for wishfull thinking.

The title didn't even jibe with Kelly's performance in his most recent job, a six month stint as the head of Homeland Security.
While leading the department, Kelly proved Trump's trusty anti-immigration collaborator, demanding ICE agents criminalize immigrants to scaremonger support for raids: proposing children be ripped from their parents; and seething through a speech in which he advised politicians critical of his ramped-up deportation policies to "change the laws" or "shut up."
And after presenting Trump with a ceremonial saber at a Coast Guard event, a hot mic caught Kelly joking that the president could "use that on the press, sir."

This week he pulled a twofer, vigorously nodding to racist stereotypes by labeling Dreamers "lazy" - twice- then publicly defending a Trump aide he had long known was accused of sexual abuse by multiple women.

More:
https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/john-kelly-more-proof-there-are-no-good-apples-trumpian-bunch

Let's Impeach the President

Neil Young wrote "Let's Impeach the President" in 2006 about then-president George W. Bush.
It was performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Although some of the lyrics are "dated," I think.the following lyrics do apply to the current occupant of the White House.


LET'S IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT

Let's the President for Lying
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door

Who's the man who hired all the criminals?
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
They bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war

Let's impeach the President for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones

Let's impeach the President for hijacking
Our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving poor people neglected



https://impeachdonaldtrumpnow.org/

Do you have a favorite sketch from In Living Color?

My favorite recurring sketch was "Homey D. Clown"
My favorite one-time sketch was "An Elvis Sighting" ["Elvis is charging!"]

What a great show!

Know any good "walks into a bar" jokes?

A rabbi walks into a bar with a frog on his shoulder.
The bartender says: "Where did you get that?"
The frog replies: "Brooklyn..There's hundreds of 'em"

Name a song with "Great" in the title or lyrics

The Great Pretender - The Platters

What's your favorite John C. Reilly movie?