Week of 2006-07-15 17:00 to 2006-07-22 16:59

There are conflicting stories about what went down in Toronto with Shea Hillenbrand, manager John Gibbons, GM J.P. Ricciardi, and various team mates — who either think he was awesome or a cancer, depending on who you ask. But whatever went down, and putting obvious team dysfunction aside, the rumor mills have Hillenbrand likely heading out west.

LA Times

Trading Izturis would require acquiring another third baseman, and the Dodgers have reportedly expressed interest in Shea Hillenbrand, who has been designated for assignment by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Hillenbrand is batting .301 with 12 home runs, and the Dodgers could use a potent bat after scoring only 15 runs in their last eight games. However, he is a below-average fielder let go by the Blue Jays because he was a problem in the clubhouse.

NJ Star-Ledger

You know that “Simpsons” episode where Homer tells of Mr. Burns, gets in his car, drives over a little wooden bridge, gets out of the car, sets the bridge on fire, then gets back in the car and drives away? Well, that’s basically what Hillenbrand did Wednesday night in Toronto, and it got himself designated for assignment quicker than you could say … well, “designated for assignment.”

All three Southern California teams are looking for corner infield help, and the Twins need a bat as badly as they need sweaters in the off-season. Hillenbrand could be a Dodger, Angel, Padre or Twin by the start of next week. Or a Tiger. Or something. Just really, really not a Blue Jay.

And finally, the Toronto Sun

Ricciardi already was fielding calls from a number of interested teams yesterday for the disgruntled veteran, who was designated for assignment Wednesday.

While Ricciardi did not name the interested parties, the Sun’s Bob Elliott has learned those showing interest include the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, the San Francisco Giants, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and the San Diego Padres.

Ricciardi said he would like to get a player in return who could help the club this year, but he doesn’t sound overly concerned one way or the other.

Update

Well, looks like the rumors were correct — the Giants picked him up. Still waiting to hear what they gave up for him. Given the Dodgers’ emphasis on “character” this year and their reluctance to give up their prospects, I’m not surprised they passed on Hillenbrand.

On the subject of postcolonialism and the appropriation of “Western” modernist thought by various anti-modernist romanticist groups (Young Earthers, Intelligent Design propagandists, Vedic Physicists, etc.)…

In David Brin’s addendum to a guest post (by Blake Stacey) on his blog:

Human nature would destroy the Enlightenment, if it ever gets a chance, and snuff it out far LONGER than those same forces kept Pericleanism quashed, the first time. 2500 years of darkness. It happens so easily! The French wing of the Enlightenment got lured back into Platonism - believing you can attain truth through incantation.

Even American modernist ikons like Frank Lloyd Wright and Robert Moses gave into the temptation to become tyrannical gurus, in the wizardric tradition, rather than collaborative modernist pragmatists. Modernism barely survived their antics and the NAME was driven into the wilderness.

What a slender thread is the trail that leads from Pericles, through scattered candles of light, to John Locke and Adam Smith and Ben Franklin, who pointed us down a new path.

One that is under attack even as we speak.

India’s Rails, Moving Billions Each Year

Since 1853, when the first of India’s trains rolled down the tracks, commuters across the country have relied on their rail system—a legacy of British rule. Even the most rural of villages is rarely more than a day’s walk from a rail station.

Ride along on the rails that carry four billion passengers every year across nearly 38,000 miles (60,000 kilometers) of track.

It’s like the whole country galloping head first toward a brick wall. Over and over. With the resulting repeated reduction in mental capacity. Not content with quelling dissent, the Right is also intent on devolving our ability to think. Yes, the fight in Kansas continues with elections this year, but the fight is terribly one-sided.

Will the Kansas school board be intelligently redesigned?

Over the past few years, the state school board in Kansas and science education have had a rocky relationship. Less than a decade ago, the board pulled evolution out of the science standards entirely, only to be removed from office in the following election. At least part of that history seems to have repeated itself in recent years, as a newly elected school board held a mock trial of evolution, and followed it by adopting new science standards. These new guidelines not only included specious criticisms of evolution, but redefined the entire activity of science to allow consideration of non-natural causes. This action led the National Academies of Science to issue a critique of the standards and caused Kansas to be rated as worse than a failure in a survey of science education.

One assumes Senator Richard Ryder is pretty gleeful at the direction our country is headed.