The World’s Most Expensive Camera

A 0-Series Leica, one of only 25 made in 1923. It sold at auction for $ 2.16m euros, or $3.3 million dollars Canadian/US.

You Don't Have The Right To Handle The Truth

For those of you that are interested in US foreign and covert policy history, this is of import. From The Boston Globe…

“A federal judge has ruled that a final volume of the CIA's three-decade-old history on the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba can remain shrouded in secrecy because it is a draft, not a finished product. The CIA characterized the volume in court papers as "a polemic of recriminations against CIA officers who later criticized the operation."

[…]

“The CIA said the volume is protected from disclosure under the deliberative process privilege, an exemption in the Freedom of Information Act.”

In short, because the CIA was successful in ensuring that it fell under the auspices of the deliberative process privilege, the American people have been denied the right to learn what those involved in that disastrous affair 51-years-ago had to say about it – more specifically, their input regarding their superiors and those responsible for the promotion of the operation.

One thing to keep in mind is that some of the content could include mention of ongoing US covert operations against the Castro government, and other Latin American operations, leading to further scrutiny of the Agency’s continued operations for years afterwards.

The last thing that they want is for the American people to be handed solid proof that they employed what, in this day and age, would be unequivocally termed “terrorist tactics” using Latin American assets, such as Luis Posada, who was not only involved in the Bay Of Pigs operation, but would go on to bomb a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing 73 people, as well as playing an active role in Iran-Contra and the terrorist bombings in Cuba in 1997.  

When it comes to individuals like Posada, there is absolutely no questioning his long-standing relationship with the US intelligence community. In 2005, Posada was held in Texas for “illegal presence on national territory”. The charge was dismissed and he was not deported to Venezuela, nor would the United States send him back to Cuba – as both nations would have immediately tried him for past crimes, and possibly result in Posada cutting a deal in exchange for information regarding US covert activities. Ultimately, the Justice Department, in a move some naively viewed at the time as a sliver of justice, urged that he be jailed given his involvement in those afore mention terrorist activities. The irony, of course, is that by keeping him in jail in the US they were actually protecting him, not looking to hold him to account as that would have involved exposing the extent of his relationship with the CIA. Elimination, given the circumstances, was also not an option. In short, after four years of legal maneuvering, he was acquitted of all terrorism related charges in April of 2011 and now lives in Miami.

The suit against the CIA was brought by the National Security Archive, a group founded by journalists and academics in 1985 which is located at George Washington University's Gelman Library.

Von Dooley

The Department Of Defense will, of course, maintain the position that it didn’t know what Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley was teaching his students at the Joint Forces Staff College in Virginia. Despite the fact that the materials used in his course have been made public, he has not been removed from his position. Those materials, obtained by Wired, and on display for all to see, outline a very straightforward ideology…

“The U.S. military taught its future leaders that a “total war” against the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims would be necessary to protect America from Islamic terrorists, according to documents obtained by Danger Room. Among the options considered for that conflict: using the lessons of “Hiroshima” to wipe out whole cities at once, targeting the “civilian population wherever necessary.”

Some might be shocked that the military “wasn’t aware” of what Dooley was teaching. In truth, it shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise. The US Department Of Defense is, after all, the world’s largest employer, corporate or otherwise, and keeping track of “every little thing” can be tough at the best of times.

“We have now come to understand that there is no such thing as ‘moderate Islam,’” Dooley noted in a July 2011 presentation (.pdf), which concluded with a suggested manifesto to America’s enemies. “It is therefore time for the United States to make our true intentions clear. This barbaric ideology will no longer be tolerated. Islam must change or we will facilitate its self-destruction.”

That sounds somewhat like another person that’s been in the news lately - Anders Behring Breivik.

The Pretext Of Civility

This is a photograph of two women being arrested in North Carolina. The crime committed? An application for a marriage license in violation of that State’s law banning same-sex marriage and their refusal to leave the government office because it was denied them.

They’re referring to it as an act of “civil disobedience”. I prefer to think of it as two women that are the victims of intolerance hiding behind the pretext of civility.

The Sultzbach Effect

While many know that I am an ardent football fanatic, my passion for baseball runs a close second. While baseball historians have numerous views regarding the development of the sport, its primary evolution took place in the narrow streets and alleys of Brooklyn and New York, unknowingly undertaken by kids who bastardized Rounders, Town Ball, and Old Cat. The first game played using organized rules – those being Alexander Cartwright’s “Knickerbocker Rules”, took place on the nineteenth of June, 1845, in Hoboken, New Jersey, at a place called Elysian Fields, where the Knickerbockers played The New York Nine for four innings, losing 23 to 1.

Between battles during the Civil War, it was the foremost pastime of soldiers on both sides. It was played everywhere – in the streets, in lots, in fields, in parks – anywhere a bat and ball and whatever could constitute a base, or bases, existed. It was, despite its organization by adults, a game of children, and it was the interjection of their spirit that would ultimately catapult it into the American consciousness.

Like all great products of imagination, its myths outnumber its realities, and because of that, it has always presented unlimited possibility. Baseball has been responsible for the creation of America’s greatest heroes, some of its greatest villains and disappointments, and everything in between. But what has never been lost is the magic produced when that tightly packed yarn covered leather ball leaps with an immaculate crack from ash or hickory. It is a sound of universal singularity, setting in motion one of the greatest dances known to us.

Despite the sport’s history, which is checkered without question, it has thankfully evolved to encompass all those that are drawn to its allure – no matter race or gender. Babe Ruth, for example, while unquestionably a magnificent talent, would have been overshadowed by a man that most have never heard of, that being Josh Gibson. A catcher for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords in the Negro Leagues, Gibson’s record ranks him as one of the greatest power hitters in the history of baseball, with his lifetime batting average believed to be as high as .380, surpassing the record still held by Ty Cobb at .366 (of those with more than 1,000 career at bats, which includes Joe Jackson and Lou Gehrig, who both had truncated careers).

This rather long and sentimental preamble leads me to the subject at hand - Paige Sultzbach.

Sultzbach is a freshman that plays second base for Mesa Preparatory Academy in Arizona – who are now, unfortunately, Arizona Charter Athletic Association State Champions. I say ‘unfortunately’ because Mesa Prep didn’t get the opportunity to play the game that would have made them legitimate champions because their opponents, Our Lady of Sorrows Academy, forfeited the championship game because Sultzbach refused to do what she had done on the two previous meetings between the schools, bench herself out of respect for their utterly backward beliefs.

Despite the fact that Mesa Prep won both of those games with Sultzbach on the bench, the fact that her teammates and coach refused to allow her to be benched for the State Championship game resulted in Our Lady of Sorrows, a fundamentalist Catholic school in Phoenix, forfeiting because their internal school policy prohibits co-ed sports.

I would like to be able to say that the players on the Mesa Prep team can take solace in the fact that they went undefeated this year. But having been in that position myself as a kid, even though we would ultimately go on to lose in heartbreaking fashion, it’s not about what’s come before, but knowing that, no matter the outcome, you gave it your all and you played.

There are women players out there that, I have absolutely no doubt, could play major league ball were major league ball not the political fiasco that it is. As we’re all aware, time erodes boundaries, and so the day will hopefully come when the gender barrier will collapse, just as the racial barrier did when Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson and drafted Roberto Clemente.