Pistons Slappy

The biggest moment of the Miami game last night was Ben blocking Shaq's jump shot, then deflecting the ball down court for a run out. Awesome.

Early the Pistons suffered from Williams beating Chauncy into the lane time and again; it's a familiar sight where the opposition has a slashing point guard. Later it was Duane Wade slashing at will and making defended jump shots. But each was invisible on the floor when the other was hot, and when Wade got in foul trouble Williams didn't do much at the end. Once again the Pistons won in the face of lower field goal percentage and being outrebounded by hitting more 3's and getting more free throws.

The Dodger's youth, the comparison is the Frazier-Reed-Bradley-Monroe-DeBusschere Knicks. Who won two championships during the 1969-73 era [the first without Monroe, who eliminated them in the eastern finals in 70-71; why did the Bullets give him to the Knicks? more research is needed.] The Knicks were a perimeter team, hitting the open man. It was the era of clutch and grab defense. No one could really create a shot.

[The Dodger was defeated in searching for history of when the loose ball foul was introduced, when quarter limit of fouls was reduced from 6 to 4 and the two in the last two minutes was introduced, when they stopped shooting common fouls below 4 per quarter, and when the 3 to make 2 on shooting fouls was eliminated. The best site, found below, is silent on this matter although it has a lot of other details.

http://members.aol.com/bradleyrd/apbr-faq.html

The Dodger believes it was the time of the loose ball foul, and 6 per quarter without the last 2 minute limit. Mike Riordan used to come in to give fouls in the the last two minutes.]

The Knicks basically played with 6, with Dick Barnett coming off the bench at guard. [Who started at off guard before they got Monroe?] They would work the ball deep into the clock, then take a jump shot. Reed had a bit of a low post game, but mostly pulled the other center out to the foul line by reliable face-the-basket jump shooting. DeBusschere was the power forward, but his offensive game was to spot up in the corner, shots which would be 3's today, and crash the weak side following jump shots. Bradley had a limited game, but moved without the ball and sank open jump shots. Monroe and Frazier were not particularly slash to the basket guards.

These are about the roles of the current Pistons. Ben has less of an offensive game than Willis Reed had. Rasheed is way more offensive than DeBusschere and Prince has a real slashing game compared to Bradley. Guards are pretty much similar in role.

The Knicks beat the Lakers with Wilt Chamberlain twice in that stretch.

These days Shaq seems to be the only center in the league with a back-them-down low post game.

The Dodger swears of Pistons posts, but probably will give in again soon.

Judicial Temperment

So we have these elections for judges in Michigan. No one knows much about them, and even people who work the legal system can't keep them straight. Bradfield's problems all seem to revolve around parking his car.

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Thursday, December 29, 2005

State: Suspend judge for 1 year

Mich. Supreme Court will decide punishment for Detroit jurist's many angry outbursts.

Ronald J. Hansen / The Detroit News

A Detroit district court judge with a long history of angry outbursts should be suspended a year without pay and receive more counseling before returning to the bench, the state's Judicial Tenure Commission recommended Wednesday.

Judge David Martin Bradfield's misconduct record stretches back a decade and warrants the unusually harsh recommended punishment, the commission noted. The Michigan Supreme Court ultimately will decide Bradfield's punishment for misconduct this year and in 2002.

...

On April 5, in a dispute that began over a parking space outside the courthouse, Bradfield repeatedly poked and berated Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams, husband of Judge Deborah Ross Adams, who is one of Bradfield's colleagues.

Adams was parked in a space reserved for judges but had permission from Atkins to use the space. ...

The other incident happened at the parking garage near the Gem Theater across from the courthouse in October 2002. According to the commission, Bradfield became irate at a parking attendant who told him there were no free spaces reserved for judges. Bradfield tossed a piece of paper to the ground and sped away from the garage, squealing his tires, the commission found...

In 1995, he was publicly censured after he struck with a car a security guard at Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn after a dispute with a motorist about a parking space.

Homeland Insecurity

Detroit

Nuclear search targets Muslims

December 24, 2005

BY NIRAJ WARIKOO

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Federal agents secretly monitored Muslim homes and mosques in Detroit for radiation linked to terrorist bombs, according to published reports -- a disclosure Friday that prompted disbelief and outrage in Michigan's large Islamic communities.

Under the program, agents with the FBI and U.S. Department of Energy targeted a range of private Muslim institutions without court approval or warrants. Federal officials say they set up the program in Detroit and five other cities to thwart a nuclear attack from Islamic extremists, according to a U.S. News and World Report article that was confirmed Friday by the U.S. Justice Department.

...

In a 2001 decision, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that police must get warrants before using devices that search through walls for criminal activity. That decision struck down the use of a heat-sensing device without a warrant that led to marijuana charges against an Oregon man.

Roehrkasse said the Justice Department believes that case does not apply to air monitoring in publicly accessible areas.

On Friday, after the report was published, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights and advocacy group with a Michigan chapter, called upon the U.S. government to provide details on who it has been monitoring. What disturbed the group was the fact that the government appeared to only focus on Muslims.

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BrooklynDodger comments: The hidden agenda of homeland insecurity included attacking social organizations considered threatening by copocracy. [Copacracy?] Houses of religion are rarely bastions of progressive thought, but the Dodger concedes that such structures of threatened minorities should be protected from intrusion.

The Dodger's questions and would like to know whether and to what extent a nuclear device puts off enough radiation to be detected outside in the street, or outside a shipping container?

High Culture Getting High on Super Bowl in Detroit

Season ticket holders to the DSO may be on the outside, but Detroit High Culture may reap benefits - financial - from celebrities getting high. The Dodger liked the idea of the SuperBowl because it would bring a higher class of adult entertainment to downtown Detroit.

The tag to the article notes that:

"Maxim is still hiring women to work as go-go dancers, bartenders and servers. E-mail a photo by Dec. 31 to dana@auralpleasuremusic.com, and include your name, contact info and what you do."

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Arts

Maxim will host glam Super Bowl bash at the Max

December 23, 2005

BY KELLEY L. CARTER

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

It's been said that the only thing tougher than scoring tickets to the Super Bowl is getting an invite to the Maxim Super Bowl party.

The men's lifestyle magazine best known for photos of barely clothed women and snappy stories geared to twentysomething men has also earned a reputation for its monstrous, invite-only Super Bowl soiree.

The magazine traditionally has tried to keep its events' locations secret, but the Free Press has learned that the Detroit version will be at the Max M. Fisher Music Center, home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Blurring the line between sports, arts and politics

BrooklynDodger saw "Good Night, Good Luck" the other night. Competes with Crash for the best movie of the year.

It brought to the Dodger's mind the thought that despite the crushing right wing dominance of discourse these days, in those days people went to jail, were disbarred and were blacklisted from their professions. There were no media outlets permitting writers to get around the corporate dominance in movies and broadcast. That reversal of fortune happened at a time of apparent progressive strength - New Deal transformation of social welfare, an ongoing wave of industrial union organizing, much of the right discredited for Nazi sympathies, an influx of less than elites into universities, etc. Nevertheless, the Red Menace trumped quite a bit. Maybe the downward trend in progressive influence dates from before the 1968 Nixon election?

Still not to the point, David Straithern and George Clooney in 1950's suits were really on. Clooney is the new Paul Newman-Robert Redford-Warren Beatty. He can do action and he can do politics. Some critics were down on the black and white, but the Dodger thinks it put the filmed action in the same frame as the kinescopes. Tobacco addiction was fully on display.

Now to the point. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was listed as a producer. What was Cuban's name before it was Cuban. He made his dough in internet and computer services, and now is invested in movie production and owns Landmark Theaters [where the Dodger saw the film, actually.] As barriers to entry into media and film have been reduced, so has right wing corporate control been reduced from dictation to dominance.

The Dodger now has to add the Mavericks as a rooting interest in basketball, after the Knicks, the Pistons, whomever is playing the Lakers.

Glimmer of Hope on Freedom - Browser Musings

In 2002, President Bush signed a classified executive order granting permission to the National Security Agency to spy on U.S. citizens wthout obtaining warrants. Do national security needs trump privacy rights in these times?

	Yes	41.30%
	No	58.70%

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
BrooklynDodger was surprised and delighted that the Detroit News cyber poll found a substantial majority in favor of privacy rights, and against George Bush reading their mail. Although the cybersurvey voters are likely heavy on convservatives, they are likely more of the libertarian variety.

BrooklynDodger now is in two browsers. Firefox allows blocking and posting varieties of graphics into blogger. Internet Explorer doesn't, but IE does a better job of saving and sending webpages and downloaded pdf's. But Firefox keeps a log of the downloaded files so you can open and read the pdf's rather than have to go looking for them.

	Yes	41.40%
	No	58.60%

Pistons This Year and Last

The Dodger gives homage to http://www.82games.com/index.htm and hopes they will excuse copying two tables (something firefox will do and IE will not.).

Have the Pistons lost their touch on defense is the question? This would certainly be key in playoffs, where all teams play defense as best they can.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

2004-5 full year:

Team Statistics

Type	Pts	Poss	pPts	FG%	eFG%	FTA	FT	oReb	dReb	T/O
Offense	93.3	88	105	0.444	0.472	26.2	74%	33 %	70 %	15 %
Defense	89.5	88	101	0.430	0.461	21.8	75%	29 %	66 %	15 %

2005-6 year to date:

Team Statistics

Type	Pts	Poss	pPts	FG%	eFG%	FTA	FT	oReb	dReb	T/O
Offense	99.9	88	113	0.462	0.502	26.0	76%	31 %	67 %	13 %
Defense	91.7	88	103	0.446	0.468	21.6	77%	32 %	68 %	16 %

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The Dodger is not clear on whether the full year 2004-5 stats include the playoffs. Certainly at this time last year the Pistons were playing way below where they are this year, with the same first 6, but this year substituting Arroyo for Lindsay Hunter as the first guard off the bench. Both more defense later in year, and adding Lindsay should add defense. The second unit to date has been giving up a lot. BrooklynDodger will comment on second unit at a later time.

For all the talk about up tempo, this year and last year the Pistons were at 88 possessions a game. By contrast, Phoenix is 96, San Antonio 91 and Dallas 90.

Comparing years, the Pistons are getting a higher eFG, but also giving a higher one, they are getting fewer rebounds and giving more. They are giving fewer turnovers and getting more.

This year San Antonio is getting 97.8 (less than Pistons) and giving 90.7 a game (also less than Pistons, but the margin is less than Pistons). They are getting .513 eFG (better) and giving .444 eFg (better). However, they are giving more turnovers and getting fewer.

San Antonio, year to date:

Team Statistics

Type	Pts	Poss	pPts	FG%	eFG%	FTA	FT	oReb	dReb	T/O
Offense	97.8	91	107	0.478	0.513	22.8	70%	27 %	72 %	15 %
Defense	90.7	91	99	0.422	0.444	24.8	75%	27 %	72 %	14 %

Using the Freeway for Its Intended Purpose?

BrooklynDodger posted this first to illustrate the idea that interstate highways were also intended as landing strips for emergencies in time of war. Then, the Dodger checked the internet and found it not to be true. WaPo's post on this said the Air Force was interested in this at the time, but was disappointed.

Geography Is one mile out of every five on Interstate highways straight for emergency airplane landing strips? Absolutely not! According to Richard F. Weingroff, who works in the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Infrastructure, says "No law, regulation, policy, or sliver of red tape requires that one out of five miles of the Interstate Highway System must be straight." He says that it's a complete hoax and urban legend that the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System requires that one mile in every five must be straight to be usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. Besides, there are more overpasses and interchanges than there are miles in the system so even if there were straight miles, planes attempting to land would quickly encounter a overpass on their runway.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Plane lands on I-75, snarls traffic

Pilot blames engine trouble; FAA is investigating

Dorothy Bourdet and Oralandar Brand-Williams / The Detroit News

Elizabeth Conley / The Detroit News

Sullivan said he was at 2,500 feet when he radioed air traffic controllers at Metro Airport that he was having problems and began looking for a place to land.

ALLEN PARK-- Air and land traffic merged on one of Metro Detroit's busiest thoroughfares on Monday without anyone getting hurt.

But the afternoon emergency landing of a small single-engine airplane stopped freeway traffic for about two hours and caused a six-mile backup.

"I figured if I couldn't find the field I would try to make the freeway," he said. "I looked down and saw cars and trucks below me and I used my air speed to synchronize to a spot where I wouldn't land on someone."

Trying to be insightful about the Pistons, another wasted evening

Pistons

DETROIT 106, MEMPHIS 104 (2 OT): Double trouble

Mr. Big Shot Billups hits another clutch winner

December 20, 2005

BY KRISTA LATHAM

FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The early season is almost like playoff basketball. With so few Piston losses, every game seems to count as the Pistons edge around team records and try to build a commanding lead for home court in the east, and compete with the Spurs for best in the league. So the Dodger is watching every game the Dodger can, rather than let the meaningless early season grind on.

So, versing the Grizzlies, how did it go? Rip had an awful night, 6-18, Rasheed was in foul trouble and canned 3-8, the Pistons were out shot from the floor 52% to 41% and were slightly below the waterline on rebounds. Chauncy, the star, was 8-18. Evans and Arroyo did little off the bench, and this fueled burning up a lead in the third and fourth quarters, for a game which started like a romp. Frankly, the team looked bored in those quarters, while the Grizz were interested.

With stats like that, where was the advantage? Turnovers were 20 to 12 for the Pistons, and team rebounds were 15 to 7. And free throws taken were 34 to 12.

SUV's as a vehicle in culture wars

So, where are the other car companies on this issue? Do Honda, Toyota and Nissan allow for domestic partner health insurance benefits?
>>>>>>>>>>>>

Friday, December 16, 2005

Group renews boycott threat against Ford over ads

Automaker broke 'good faith' pact in decision to advertise in gay media, conservatives say.

Jeff Plungis / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Ford Motor Co. faces the prospect of a new consumer boycott by a conservative group angry over the automaker's decision to resume advertising in predominantly gay media.

The American Family Association, a conservative group based in Tupelo, Miss., called off an earlier boycott after reaching an deal with the automaker over the ads.

"Unfortunately, some Ford officials made the decision to violate the good faith agreement," AFA Chairman Don Wildmon said in a statement Thursday. "All we wanted was for Ford to refrain from choosing sides in the cultural war, and supporting groups which promote same-sex marriage is not remaining neutral."

This Enemy of My Enemy Is Never Going to Be My Friend

You know you are drifting towards religion based facism when Wal-Mart is being attacked for being multi-cultural and marginally sensitive to diversity. If you read the full text, a Wal-Mart PR flack says "Holidays" because they put the banner up before Thanksgiving and take it down after New Years. She didn't mention Hannukah or, Deity forfend, Ramadan. [Actually, here's a great commercial idea. Ramadan begins September 24, 2006. They could put up the banners almost two months earlier next year, get lot's more mileage.]

The Dodger actually finds virtue in this campaign. It demonstrates that the 10 commandments campaign, the school prayer campaign, are really about establishment of religion. And not just any religion, but evangelical christian fundamentalism. Most of the time, religiosity plays in background.

It's also cool that the demonstrators come from the Church of the Divide.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Wal-Mart confronted on 'happy holidays'

December 17, 2005

• By TOM CHORNEAU

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Christian activist Dick Otterstad, left, of the Church of the Divide, is met by Linda Ostrofsky, right, as he protests Wal-Mart's decision to drop the word "Christmas" from its holiday advertising campaign, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2005, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A group of religious protesters demonstrated outside a Wal-Mart superstore Saturday, hoping to turn away customers by calling attention to the retailer's decision to use "happy holidays" rather than "merry Christmas" in its seasonal advertising.

But even shoppers who agreed with the protesters weren't willing to interrupt their quest for holiday deals.

"I believe in Christ, and I don't like the use of 'xmas' or the use of 'happy holidays,'" said Steven Van Noy, 39, as he left the store loaded down with packages. "The bottom line is that they had what I needed at Wal-Mart, so I went to Wal-Mart to buy it."

Why Did They Cheat When They Could Have Won By the Rules ?

The Patriot Act hidden agenda is to permit security forces and the military - social regressive allies of the corporate power structure - to expand power over US progressive movements. Why would Bush illegally expand their reach when he could easily have gotten court approval? Because he wanted to establish the precedent of acting illegally, rather than the precedent of legally acting in this way.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Bush secretly expanded spying in U.S. , officials say

James Risen and Eric Lichtblau / New York Times News Service

WASHINGTON -- Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to al-Qaida, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.

Two Head Cases

If you want to fault Larry Brown for last year you'd find two psycho reasons. First, the parade of technical fouls, Rasheed leading, but also Chauncy and Rip getting a bunch. Second, Ben's foul shooting, which not only was bad but looked bad. This year, R's T's seem way down. Ben's free throws are at least frequently better looking.

On the other hand, the Pistons looked awful against the Kings' zone, although that may have been the bench. Who knows what the return of Lindsay Hunter may bring.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Pistons

Rasheed gets last laugh at the Bulls

December 16, 2005

BY CHRIS SILVA

FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

• Overview: The Bulls lost, 92-79, to the Pistons on Dec. 3. Chicago played some zone defense that game, with little effect. But the Bulls' zone worked well in a win over San Antonio last Friday. The Pistons struggled Wednesday vs. the Kings' 2-3 zone.

The Chicago Bulls were irked by Rasheed Wallace's joviality and the smile he flashed nearly every time he scored in the Pistons' 92-79 victory Dec. 3 at the United Center.

And Chicago coach Scott Skiles especially took Wallace's actions to heart, saying after the game that if he were still playing, "I would have done something about it."

Darwin Award - Where is Peer Review When You Need It

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Warning Label on Darwin Sows Division in Suburbia

Parents in Cobb County, Ga., Clash Over Sticker in Textbooks

By Peter Whoriskey

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 11, 2005; Page A03

MARIETTA, Ga. -- The evolution controversy in this comfortable Atlanta suburb began with one boy's fascination with dinosaurs.

"He was really into 'Jurassic Park,' " his mother recalled. The trouble was, "we kept reading over and over that 'millions and millions of years ago, dinosaurs roamed the earth,' " Marjorie Rogers continued. "And that's where I said, 'Hmm -- wait a second.' "

"I question. It's part of my culture," says Jeffrey Selman, a parent who sued to remove the stickers from textbooks. (By Todd Mcqueen -- Marietta Daily Journal Via Associated Press)

Like others who adhere to a literal reading of the Book of Genesis, Rogers, a lawyer, believes that Earth is several thousand years old, while most scientists, basing their estimates on the radioactive decay of rock samples, say the planet is billions of years old.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The WaPo often looks south with an urban eye. A favorite of the Bush Administration in deterring regulation is peer review and the data quality act. Why doesn't this apply to accepting text books at the state level?

Climate Change Musings

The climate change conference again exposes the Bush Administrations vampire foreign policy [see illustration of the undead].

Nevertheless, the fairness issue in climate change revolves on treatment of the developing world. It's a matter of internal consumption and development versus goods and services produced for the world economy. Multinationals, and their host country contractors, should not be permitted to exploit special treatment for developing world economies to undermine life quality in the multinational's home ground. Crudely, GM and it's chinese suppliers shouldn't get one more reason to run away.

It's a little tricky to assess treatment for international corporations owned in the developing world, like Lenovo [formerly the PC arm of IBM.] Here we have some genuine competition among ruling classes, where the workers can get trampled.

Heisman or Heistman?

Polls suggest that GW Bush's poll numbers are going up. Some say it's the economy, or spin doctoring of economic statistics. The Dodger thinks it's public confusion of W with Reggie Bush.

Bush could earn Heisman in landslide

By Ivan Maisel
ESPN.com

The chills begin without warning. The muscles tense, the heart races, the body jerks forward. The victim usually barks out comments like, "Oh my God!" The episodes last no more than 15 seconds.

Epidemiologists pinpointed the first outbreak in Southern California a couple of years ago, with an increase in the last 15 months. They have confirmed cases up and down the West Coast, as well as in Miami and especially, South Bend.

The disease is known as Bush fever

White House Christmas

So the fundamentalist whackos are after Bush because the White House card says happy holidays instead of merry christmas or whatever.

The image doesn't look that far off of Doonesbury. What are those animals anyway? One looks a lot like Eeyore in the hundred acre wood.

Were President Bush and first lady Laura wrong to send out Christmas cards with a generic holiday greeting?

	Yes	64.08%
	No	35.92%

Cyber poll on Mardis Gras

The Detroit News cyber survey strikes again. The Dodger wonders if there are a lot of locations feeding in to one survey, or if there are whackos from Oregon who find, vote and post.

Should New Orleans celebrate Mardi Gras when so much of the city is in ruins and many citizens have not returned?

	Yes	35.32%
	No	64.68%

Posted: Thu. 12/8/05 04:35 PM
From: stoney
City: southern, OR USA
Subject: No_time_to_party
Comments: Posted: Thu. 12/8/05 03:21 PM From: Preacher City: Suburbs, MI USA Subject: No_time_to_party Comments: People still don't understand why New Orleans was pratically destroyed. God was disatisfied with all of the gay parades, the mardi gras, the voodoo, the gambling along the gulf coast...and He leveled the entire region. Want more? Continue in your sins and The big "squeazy" will get more. And let this be a warning to everyone who is lost in their sins and living without Jesus Christ.

Pew Trust Attitude Questions

http://typology.people-press.org/typology/results.php

The Pew Trust website has really interesting polling data on all sorts of things.

This was fun to take. There's not much question about where BrooklynDodger readers will score, but below are BD's results

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Liberal

Based on your answers to the questionnaire, you most closely resemble survey respondents within the Liberal typology group. This does not mean that you necessarily fit every group characteristic or agree with the group on all issues.

Liberals represent 17 percent of the American public, and 19 percent of registered voters.
Basic DescriptionThis group has nearly doubled in proportion since 1999, Liberals now comprise the largest share of Democrats and is the single largest of the nine Typology groups. They are the most opposed to an assertive foreign policy, the most secular, and take the most liberal views on social issues such as homosexuality, abortion, and censorship. They differ from other Democratic groups in that they are strongly pro-environment and pro-immigration, issues which are more controversial among Conservative and Disadvantaged Democrats.

International Labor Rights

Today's post from the WaPo points to the complexity of international labor standards and international labor rights. The Chinese contractor described here, likely suppying US or EU markets, has contracted further to Vietnam. Vietnam is described as deficient to China in H&S protections.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

China Ventures Southward

In Search of Cheaper Labor, Firms Invest in Vietnam

By Peter S. Goodman

Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 6, 2005; Page D01

HANOI Before he left his native China two years ago, Li Shaoxing was losing money at his plastic-bag factory in the center of the country. Though his homeland had become synonymous with plentiful cheap labor and limitless manufacturing spoils, he was grappling with rising wages, energy shortages and flat prices for his goods.

So, much as capitalists have always done, Li went looking for an easier place to profit. He ventured south of the border, putting up a factory here in a new industrial park in northern Vietnam, where wages are roughly one-third cheaper than at home and where workplace safety and environmental standards are in scant evidence.
...

Pistons Update

Today the Dodger celebrates importing a table from a website. Actually, importing a table of any kind.

The site is 82games.com, and specifically http://www.82games.com/0506/0506DET3.HTM
for the Pistons.

The treatment of Larry Brown on one of the Detroit sports talk stations incensed BrooklynDodger. The commentatory took off on Larry for disrespecting "Mr. Davidson." "Mr. Davidson" is an evil old dude, who has mistreated coaches and hourly employees in the past. He mistreated Larry. Davidson turned against Larry over the hip surgery, pressured him over the bladder problem consequence of the surgery, and the Dodger believes Davidson decided he wanted Saunders and wanted rid of Brown. Larry got Davidson to pay him to go away.

Somehow, no one spoke about Isaiah Thomas working for the oppostion.

Anyway, the Pistons extended the playoff atmosphere - number 1 in the conference, number 1 in the league - by beating the Nets and holding off the Knicks. Frankly, the Knicks look like a playoff team when Larry figures out the starting lineup and rotation.

So back to the Pistons. Most of 82 games is about relative worth to a teams. The table below tells something about Pistons relative to opposition.

Pistons are a perimeter team. Their proportion of shots from perimeter is 8% higher than opposition [presumably the rest of the league]. Their shooting percentage and assist fraction are way higher for outside shots than opposition. Way less of their shots and points come from inside. According to the table Pistons are up 13 from perimeter and down 8 from inside. Add an up 2 for dunks and it comes to up 7 for field goal points over all.

This analysis doesn't account for free throws.

So Ben doesn't pound the ball inside, and Rasheed takes a lot of wing and 3 pointers, McDyess likes the jumper from the wing. Pistons 4-5 generates first option outside on set plays and then crashing after jumpers. The 1-2-3 is supposed to be outside.


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Shooting Details

	Offense					Defense
Shot	Att.	eFG%	Ast	Pts		Att.	eFG%	Ast	Pts
Jump	68%	.458	66%	49.8		60%	.391	58%	37.0
Close	24%	.516	63%	19.7		34%	.512	52%	27.7
Dunk	7%	.837	68%	9.6		5%	.963	63%	6.9
Tips	2%	.368	0%	0.9		2%	.458	0%	1.5
All	100%	.498	65%	80.1		100%	.459	55%	73.1

More on Elite College Admissions

The Dodger notes this is about the fifth time this book has been reviewed or summarized, starting with Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker and working through the WaPo, Times book review, now the times.

This publication is important because of the struggle over race conscious efforts by university admissions policies to reflect the diversity of the American population.

This time, the reviewer appears an asian rather than a Jew. Although the main force of the policies of the 20's was to exclude Jews, there is certainly a current effort to exclude asians.

The review is a series of quotes from the book, less than great. All reviewers have complained that Karabel includes too much data, making for boring reading. [Had he skimmed it over, he would probably be racked for no documentation.]

That said, the Dodger liked this quote:
Mr. Karabel reports that on the eve of President John F. Kennedy's election, the three schools were "still de facto segregated institutions - less than 1 percent black and, in the case of Princeton, enrolling just 1 African-American freshman in a class of 826." And while anti-Semitism was officially taboo, he notes, "Harvard rejected three-quarters of the applicants from the Bronx High School of Science and Stuyvesant that year (compared to just 31 percent from Exeter and Andover) while Yale limited the Jewish presence in the freshman class to one student in eight."

The Dodger gives personal testimony to the accuracy of these numbers, but it's super to have some numbers. Further quotes from the review say Karabel affirms that things have changed radically. The Dodger concedes that letting women in, a change of the later 70's, and some better recruitment among African Americans has changed the atmosphere some from the old boys club.


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Books of The Times 'The Chosen'

The Course of Social Change Through College Admission

By MICHIKO KAKUTANI

Published: November 25, 2005

Houghton Mifflin

Jerome Karabel, author of "The Chosen."

The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale and Princeton
By Jerome Karabel
Illustrated. 711 pages. Houghton Mifflin. $28.

In his informative but often vexing new book, Jerome Karabel, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, looks at the admissions process at the so-called Big Three and how the criteria governing that process have changed over the last century in response to changes in society at large. His book covers much of the same ground that Nicholas Lemann covered - a lot more incisively - in his 1999 book "The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy," and it also raises some of the same questions that Jacques Steinberg, a reporter for The New York Times, did in his 2002 book, "The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College."

Mr. Karabel reports that on the eve of President John F. Kennedy's election, the three schools were "still de facto segregated institutions - less than 1 percent black and, in the case of Princeton, enrolling just 1 African-American freshman in a class of 826." And while anti-Semitism was officially taboo, he notes, "Harvard rejected three-quarters of the applicants from the Bronx High School of Science and Stuyvesant that year (compared to just 31 percent from Exeter and Andover) while Yale limited the Jewish presence in the freshman class to one student in eight."

...

"By the mid-1970's," Mr. Karabel writes, "the formula - that is, the new admissions criteria and practices - used by the Big Three had been fully institutionalized: need-blind admissions, no discrimination against women or Jews, and special consideration for historically underrepresented minorities as well as athletes and legacies."

...

Although Mr. Karabel's narrative becomes mired, in its later pages, in a Marxist-flavored philosophical questioning of the very idea of meritocracy, his account of changing admissions policies at Yale, Harvard and Princeton serves a useful purpose. It puts each school's actions in context with the others' and situates those developments within a broader political and social context. While at the same time it shows, in minute detail, how the likes of Nick Carraway, Oliver Barrett IV and Amory Blaine went from being typical students at the Big Three to being members of just one segment of coed, multicultural and increasingly diverse student bodies - if, that is, they could even manage to be admitted today.

Returning the City to Wilderness

BrooklynDodger recently reported siting a coyote down by the Detroit riverfront. There is vacant land in Detroit on which stuff is now being built. But other areas are returning to prairie, or whatever was here before settlement.

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Metro Detroit

Natural lands flourish with GM as the gardener

Habitat council certifies sites in Detroit, Warren

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER BY HUGH McDIARMID JR.

The Wildlife Habitat Council recognized General Motors Corp. for creating natural habitats such as these native grasses along the RiverWalk in Detroit. At the Renaissance Center, the certification applies to the front and rear of the building complex. (Photos by MANDI WRIGHT/Detroit Free Press)

They are havens from the concrete jungle, sanctuaries of softness in a hardened landscape and a way station for bugs, birds, bees, picnickers, walkers and anglers.

Two patches of newly restored natural lands on General Motors Corp. properties -- in Warren and alongside the Renaissance Center in Detroit -- were certified this month by the Wildlife Habitat Council for fostering ecological diversity.

They expand to 40 the number of council certifications in Michigan. They include places like BASF Corp.'s Fighting Island in the Detroit River and several lands owned by DTE Energy and GM rival Ford.

Times v. WaPo on the Personal Cost of War

So on the same Saturday, the NYT features the psychological impact of war, even on people who don't get shot, while the WaPo touts a veteran who lost his leg and feels better for it. Lately the Times has become contrite over shilling the war and then Judy Miller covering up for the Administration's campaign of character attack on Joe Wilson. Meanwhile, the WaPo, which was cleaner running up to the war, shows no contrition about Woodward covering up his part in the access journalist's circle.

So the Times covers the costs, and the WaPo the benefits.

BrooklynDodger in another context reads the public health literature. Whether it's called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or something else, it's clear that some variety of depression becomes fixed among combat veterans. It's inevitable, and should be factored into costs of going to war the same as using up the bullets.

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New York Times:

Coping With Combat

The Struggle to Gauge a War's Psychological Cost

By BENEDICT CAREY

Published: November 26, 2005

It was hardly a traditional therapist's office. The mortar fire was relentless, head-splitting, so close that it raised layers of rubble high off the floor of the bombed-out room.

Since returning home to Madison, Wis., after a tour in Iraq, Abbie Pickett has struggled with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Abbie Pickett, of the Wisconsin National Guard, served as a medic. Stationed near Tikrit, Iraq, she treated heavy combat casualties in October 2003.

Capt. William Nash, a Navy psychiatrist, sat on an overturned box of ready-made meals for the troops. He was in Iraq to try to short-circuit combat stress on the spot, before it became disabling, as part of the military's most determined effort yet to bring therapy to the front lines.

His clients, about a dozen young men desperate for help after weeks of living and fighting in Falluja, sat opposite him and told their stories.

One had been spattered with his best friend's blood and blamed himself for the death.

Another was also filled with guilt. He had hesitated while scouting an alley and had seen the man in front of him shot to death.

"They were so young," Captain Nash recalled.

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WaPo:

From Wounds, Inner Strength

Some Veterans Feel Lives Enlarged by Wartime Suffering

By Michael E. Ruane

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 26, 2005; Page A01

As Hilbert Caesar told his harrowing war story one night recently in the living room of his apartment, he patted the artificial limb sticking from a leg of his business suit. "This, right here," he said, "this is a minor setback."

Eighteen months after Caesar's right leg was mangled by a roadside bomb near Baghdad, and after weeks of coming to terms with what he thought was the end of his life, the former Army staff sergeant believes he has emerged a richer person -- wiser, more compassionate and more appreciative of life.

More on how the right to life ends with birth

From Click on Detroit comes this toxic polling result. Checking state records, found at http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=186, Texas leads with 355, Virginia is second with 94. Ohio is the first recognizable "northern " state with 18. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Do you support the death penalty?
Choice	Votes	Percentage of 3606 Votes
Yes.	2870	80%
Yes, but only for terrorism-related offenses.	172	5%
No.	564	16%

U.S. Prepares For 1,000th Execution Since 1976

POSTED: 10:16 am EST November 24, 2005

UPDATED: 10:24 am EST November 24, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Robin Lovitt might make history next week. If his execution goes as scheduled, he could be the 1,000th person executed in the U.S. since the ban against capital punishment was lifted in 1976