Giant Cell Sarcoma of the Uterus

My wife was diagnosed with Giant Cell Sarcoma of the Uterus some time ago. She is being treated for it with chemo and other drugs. She is supposedly one of less than ten people in the world who have been diagnosed with this form of cancer. I have searched the internet many times for information on this disease and have found nothing about it. So, if anyone out there stumbles across this post and knows something about it or knows someone who has it, please respond.

Brittney, Oprah, Pawlenty, Klobuchar, Mauer et al

In order to increase the readership of this blog to more than one (i.e. me) I am tempted to start typing out random words that might attract potential readers. Things like Oprah, Brittney, and Angelina. Tempted, but I still have some pride. So I'll resist. For now. However, if some of you out there don't start reading this tripe soon, I'll bombard you with stupid words. Words like Pitt, Cruise, Klobuchar. Klobuchar? Sorry, I claimed that this site would have some political discussions, so I have to put in this word. I'm not getting paid for it though.

As you can tell, this is a slow day. My imagination is a gaping void. I'm in the dumps for a number of reasons, some too painful to discuss here. But I can mention the Twins loss to lowly K.C. on a day when they could have overtaken Detroit. A hugely wasted opportunity which can be laid at the feet (arm) of Carlos Silva. On the positive side, Joe Mauer got two more hits and is maintaining his lead over the deadly Yankee duo for the batting title.I'll try to cheer up soon, and say something interesting. Oh yeah... Pawlenty.

The French Defense Blues

I've been playing chess for over 40 years. In my "youth" I played in a number of state tournaments, and the U.S. Junior Open. I played in several postal chess tournaments in the 70's and 80's as well. So, I got the bug again last year, and I played in the GlobalChess Challenge in Minneapolis. There were about 1600 players there, and it was quite the event. Having not played tournament chess for 25(!) years, I hoped to at least get 1 point out of a possible 9. I was pleasantly surprised to have 3 1/2 points after 6 games. Then, disaster struck. I lost 3 games in a row. In 2 of those games I had white against the French Defense. I've had little experience against it, and I felt totally lost. It almost seemed like I was playing some foreign kind of game. My positions became so suffocated that I was crushed.

So, what is it about the French? Have other players out there had similar experiences? Any suggestions?

If You Are Willing to Go to War, You Are Willing to Torture

I'm trying to make sense of some of the rules regarding torture, etc., of prisoners of war. For example, apparently the Geneva Convention says do not torture captured soldiers. Torture causes pain, disfigurement, psychological damage, and other personal devastation. But so does war, usually to a much greater extent.

So, if we capture someone whom we have great reason to believe holds information that may prevent the slaughter of hundreds (or, with nuclear weapons in play, millions) we apparently cannot use torture to obtain the information. Yet, we claim that we should be able to engage in acts of war (such as invading Iraq) to prevent dictators, governments, or others from using weapons of mass destruction. In committing these acts of war, we would probably kill thousands of people, maim many more, and cause long-lasting psychological damage to the survivors.

Thus, to prevent a (remotely?) possible attack on our country, we can do great damage to a wide range of people. But we are not allowed to do great damage to one person whom we are certain has information that could prevent a devastating attack. This makes no sense to me. I guess that's what happens when you try to set rules for something as ruleless as war.

One of the chief arguments against Bush's plan to perhaps redefine the terms of the Geneva Convention and surrounding treaties is that to do so would endanger American soldiers. However, one blogger (it may have been Captain's Quarters) has issued a challenge to the public to identify any American soldier who has benefitted from the Geneva Convention and treaties when held by renegade regimes (such as North Vietnam), al Qaeda, and middle East terrorists. It seems to me that if those parties don't honor the treaties, we should carefully consider whether we will do so. Treaties should be a two way street.

Twins and Bush win

The Twins pulled out another one, 7-5, over the A's. Pretty amazing. They looked like they were sunk. Their pitching was questionable. But the pirhanas came fighting back and beat the A's, staying just 1 1/2 games behind Detroit. Wow!
I also noticed that President Bush defeated Matt Lauer. His victory was much more dominant than the Twins. You can see the massacre at http://youtube.com/watch?v=G2JGTFI2PPM

I'd Love to See a Lawsuit

The Democrats have apparently threatened, or at least hinted at, government action against ABC if they proceed with their 9/11 movie. It thought we had something called the 1st Amendment in this country. I also thought that it is illegal to intentionally conspire to deprive people of their civil rights. I suppose that only applies to "protected classes." If that's the case, maybe the protection should be expanded. I'd much rather see a defamation lawsuit against a network than have what amounts to a prior restraint against them.

Boof Comes Through

The Twins needed some big help in the pitching department today against the first place Tigers. They got that help from a somewhat unexpected source-- Boof Bonser. Boof had come through in his last outing, but that was against hapless Tampa Bay. This time he proved he could pitch against the big guys. 6 innings, 5 hits, and 1 run given up. Not bad! So now the Twinkies trail by only 3 games in the division. Unfortunately, the White Sox won too, so they are only a 1/2 game behind. Tomorrow it's Santana to the mound. He's been only the best September pitcher in the majors for the last 3 years. Sounds promising.

OJ and America's Popularity Overseas- A Parallel

A friend of mine moved to southeast asia a while ago. Recently, he sent me an email commenting on how much the U.S. (and especially George W. Bush) is disliked overseas. He says that strangers approach him and blast Bush. I'm sure he finds it kind of ironic to take heat for Bush, since he never liked him and would never vote for him. He asked me how I feel about the matter. I suspect that he's looking for confirmation that I, too, am disheartened by what Bush has done to our image overseas.

Actually, it got me to thinking about OJ. I've concluded beyond any reasonable doubt that OJ killed Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. The jury verdict was a travesty. Yet, after the verdict was announced, there was open rejoicing amongst a significant number of people, largely in the African-American community. Despite the overwhelming evidence in the case, many people wanted OJ to walk. They chose to ignore the issue of justice and the evidence, and instead focused on "their" side winning the case. They chose to be ignorant of the facts, and let their prejudices rule the day.

Does the fact that a significant number of people believed OJ to be innocent mean that he is innocent? Do the prosecutors owe OJ an apology for charging him and bringing him to trial? Obviously not. Yet, using the same rationale (lots of people sided with him so they must be right) many Bush critics claim that Bush must be wrong, or Bush is an idiot, or worse. They claim that Europeans or Asians or other nations' peoples hate us, so we must be evil or in the wrong. But, as in the case of OJ supporters, having a large group of people ardently support a position does not prove that the position is correct.

My friend probably did not question the people who lambasted the US. He probably did not ask what their news sources are; what their attitude towards the US has been in the past; whom they think caused the Towers to fall on 9/11 (many overseas claim it was a jewish plot); whether radical Islamism presents a much more potent danger to the world than capitalism, etc. The US should not be overly concerned with being "popular" overseas. One of the biggest mistakes Gil Garcetti (the District Attorney whose office prosecuted OJ) made was moving the case to downtown LA. He apparently did this to satisfy the cries of those who demanded political correctness. The result was a disaster.

Our leaders should base their decisions on what they believe to be right, based on the best information available to them. If they base their major foreign policy decisions on a desire to be popular, then we are headed for disaster. When the OJ verdict came in, many people were dancing in the streets. If we place popularity above pragmatism, those who hate us may be dancing on our graves.

Wish I'd Seen It

60 Minutes apparently had an interesting story last night about gays. Unfortunately, I missed it! So I have to go by reports from my wife and from CBS's web site. Apparently there is more support for the theory that gays are born that way. Studies with twins, which I always find to be fascinating, show that there are some identical twins out there where one is straight and the other gay. This would seem to indicate that something more than genes is playing a part. The best guess at this point is that hormones might have something to do with it. Specifically, exposure to the mother's hormones or even anti-bodies. Take a look at the story. It's really quite fascinating. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/09/60minutes/main1385230.shtml

Go Boof!

Boof Bonser managed to pitch decently well, giving up just one run (a homer, naturally) over 6 innings as the Twins pulled out a 2-1 win over hapless Tampa Bay. Rondell White (!) hit the game winning 2-run homer for the Twins.
Tomorrow, Santana will be pitching and we should be able to prevail. Chicago lost to the Red Sox, so we have a 1/2 game lead in the wild card race. We should still have at least that after tomorrow's game.

This is one of my favorite pics I took during a vacation to Britain. It shows the Beachyhead Lighthouse in Surrey. The views there are incredible.

Welcome

Welcome to Inside Slider. The blog's name reflects the blogger's interest in baseball. Specifically the Twins. The little team that could. Maybe. If injuries don't totally derail them. But this blog will be about much more than baseball. Current events, psychology, human relations, chess (!), politics (with limitations), and the law are all fitting topics.
Let's see what happens. It could be fun. Or at least mildly interesting!