The Pirates win their 80th of the year, 2-0 over the Cardinals. They've won 5-straight for the first time since April.
If you're under the age of 34, the 2026 Buccos, at worst, are the 5th best Pirates team of your lifetime.
Mike Tomlin last week: "The Browns is the Browns"
Browns HC Todd Monken: "Browns are gonna Browns. F--- that!"
Tomlin today: "I love my new role. That's what I have to say for myself. You know why? Because I can provide bulletin board material with no personal consequence"
I kept this story in my pocket for a long time....
September 15th is Roberto Clemente Day.
Every year in Pittsburgh the whole organization fans out across the city. It's like Christmas. Roberto's family is there, Vera and the boys.
My first year as manager in Pittsburgh was 2011. We celebrated. We shook hands and moved on.
We didn't win.
19 consecutive losing seasons.
2012 rolls around. Same day, same celebration. We had another losing season, our 20th consecutive.
After the ceremony, Roberto Jr. walked over.
"My mom wants to talk to you."
We went into the dugout. Me, Vera, and her three sons.
She spoke in Spanish. I played four years of winter ball so I understood enough. She wasn't angry, but she was passionate. And I kept hearing Roberto's number come up.
Roberto Jr. translated.
"My mother wants you to know that there cannot be a 21st losing season. That was Roberto's number. It would be a disgrace to his legacy."
She was staring right at me.
Before I could even think about what to say, words came out of my mouth:
"I promise you, Vera. That won't happen."
Roberto Jr. looked at me and said, "You made my mom a promise. I hope you can keep it."
I said, "I hope I can keep it too."
I didn't tell my coaches. I didn't tell the players. I told my wife. That was it.
The next year, 2013, we broke the consecutive seasons losing streak. Ended it at 20.
On Roberto Clemente Day that September, Vera came walking across that field.
And I probably got one of the most meaningful hugs I've ever received in my life.
The players did all the heavy lifting. I just got the hug.
Some promises are worth making before you know if you can keep them.
@Pirates
This is insane, or better, insanely evil. An example of why Employment Division v. Smith is clearly wrong and needs reversal. As @shbarclay and I have explained, 14thA understanding of religious liberty protects religiously motivated acts of life-preserving care from government abridgment. See https://t.co/ljBdJq9csE
I reread this every year.
I cry like a baby every year.
Todd Beamer died a father, husband, and hero.
Todd: Hello… Operator… listen to me. I can’t speak very loud. This is an emergency. I’m a passenger on a United flight to San Francisco. Our plane has been hijacked.
Lisa: I understand. Can they see you?
Todd: No. There are three that we know of. They have knives — razor knives, like box cutters. Someone announced from the cockpit there was a bomb. It sounded fake.
Lisa: Your name?Todd: Todd Beamer. United Flight 93.Todd: They killed one passenger in first class. They forced most of us back. Fourteen of us here. Five flight attendants. The guy with the bomb ordered us to sit on the floor.
Lisa: Are you okay?
Todd: We’re going down… wait. No. We’re leveling off. We changed directions. We’re flying east again.
Todd: A guy named Jeremy called his wife. She told him two planes hit the World Trade Center. Lisa, is that true?
Lisa: I have to tell you the truth. It’s very bad. Both towers are gone. A third plane hit the Pentagon. Our country is under attack. I’m afraid your plane may be part of their plan.
Todd: Oh God. Lisa, will you do something for me? Call my wife and my kids. Promise me you’ll call.
Lisa: I promise.
Todd: Our home number is… You have the same name as my wife. Lisa. We’ve been married ten years. She’s pregnant with our third child. Tell her I love her. I’ll always love her. We have two boys — David, he’s 3, and Andrew, he’s 1. Tell them their daddy loves them and he is so proud of them. The baby is due January 12th. I saw an ultrasound. We still don’t know if it’s a girl or a boy.
Lisa: I’ll tell them. I promise, Todd.(Lisa patches in the FBI.)
Agent: Todd, your plane is on a course for Washington. Best guess is the White House or the Capitol.
Todd: I understand. I’ll be back.
Todd: Everyone knows this isn’t a normal hijacking. We have decided we will not be pawns in their plot.
Lisa: What are you going to do?
Todd: Four of us are going to rush the one with the bomb. Then the cockpit. A stewardess is getting boiling water. We’ll take them out.
Todd: Would you pray with me?They pray the Lord’s Prayer. Then: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
Todd: God help me. Jesus help me.Are you guys ready? Let’s Roll.
this is some of the most disgusting news reporting i have ever seen.
it’s absolutely insane to think you could be forcibly conscripted into jury duty at any time and have your entire life completely excavated by the media if you vote unacceptably.
the unanimous verdict requirement exists precisely so one person can refuse to go along.
if being that person now means risking all of your laundry being aired out to your community that can easily identify you, we’ve essentially converted unanimity to majority rule by intimidation.
He was 32 years old, on a business trip, with a pregnant wife and two little boys waiting for him at home.
On September 11, 2001, Todd Beamer boarded United Flight 93, headed from Newark to San Francisco. He was supposed to come home to his family. Instead, he became part of a group of ordinary Americans who made an extraordinary decision.
After hijackers took control of the plane, Todd reached a telephone operator on the ground. He told her what was happening, asked her to pray with him, and learned that other planes had already struck the World Trade Center.
The passengers understood that their plane was likely being used as another weapon. They had a choice: remain in their seats and hope for the best, or fight back.
They chose to fight.
Todd and the other passengers and crew members organized an effort to retake the cockpit. At the end of his call, the operator heard him say:
“Are you guys ready? Okay. Let’s roll.”
Minutes later, Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. All 40 passengers and crew members were killed, but the hijackers never reached their intended target.
Todd Beamer never made it home. Neither did the other 39 innocent people aboard that plane. But their courage helped prevent another attack on American soil.
They were not soldiers. They were people going to work, visiting family, and living ordinary lives.
And when the moment came, they fought back.
(An update on the family Todd left behind is in the comments) 🐝
I avoided commenting on the Lindsay Clancy trial because its nuanced and emotional but the implications are enormous so I am going to say something now. A lot of people are calling that one juror who wouldn't join the other eleven irrational. But, that juror is probably the only one asking the right questions imo: where is the evidence that she lacked the capacity to know it was wrong or to stop herself? And, maybe, where do we draw the line on what an ostensibly insane person is allowed to do when the doubt the defense manufactured rests on nothing in the record before the killings? It seems that the entirety of the defense position rests on improbable probabilities and that's a low bar for such a heinous act.
1. Postpartum psychosis is rare, and almost always happens in the first 4 weeks. The idea that some psychiatrists extend the postpartum window to a year is true, but for depression and anxiety. The evidence isn't strong for psychosis, and its latching on to improbability
2. The strongest risk factor for postpartum psychosis is preexisting bipolar disorder or a prior psychotic episode. She had neither before her third child. The real time evidence from her doctors/providers indicate this. The bipolar label that showed up was after significant polypharmacy, and any good psychiatrist will tell you that you cannot diagnose primary disease when multiple drugs could be offending agents. Drug-induced psychosis would show better temporal correlations with her medications and should be a mitigation argument at sentencing. Again, very improbable alignment
3. The proxy for intent is planning, and she clearly planned... she sent her husband to some restaurant they don't normally go to, checked the drive time, texted a specific order at 5:07 pm... she killed her children in sequence. That's demonstrating real time decision making. I don't understand how they circumvented this. Again, very improbable that she was able to make decisions up until it becomes a liability
4. This idea of a "voice" that commanded her is so post-hoc as a defense. The ltierature on command hallucinations show most people don't obey them and the compliance occurs when the voice is familiar. This was a first time voice she only ever reported 2 weeks after killing her kids. And this first time voice asked her to... kill all her children AND she listened to this unfamiliar voice? Again... very improbable
The improbability is so stark that it's almost undeniably a sympathy verdict from the jurors conflated with a misunderstanding of postpartum disease. The easiest way to demonstrate this is to take a father with the same chart, months of documented depression, insomnia, suicidal ideation but no psychosis then strangles his kids after arranging for his wife to be away from the house. 100% guilty.
Everyone knows postpartum disease is real and important. Everyone knows she's sick and needed help, possibly much better management. You can even argue she is insane. What I see to be the most important is where we draw the line of what we allow under the "insanity" rule. Massachusetts forces a binary verdict of guilty or not criminally responsible but this is a case for the third that other states have and which is guilty but mentally ill. We have a responsibility to speak for the unheard voices of these children and future children and say we draw the line at murdering children.
Politico reports that GOP members of Congress can't find smart young conservatives to work for them.
Senior GOP congressional staffer:
“Everyone knows what the problem is: The organizations that bring young staffers to Washington, D.C. have spent the last decade prioritizing blind ideological loyalty instead of competence or intelligence. We have a generation of rabid, incompetent idiots.”
#Eagles DC Vic Fangio opening his press conference today:
“I’m gonna be like Fauci and just take the Fifth Amendment on all questions. Did you guys see that? Oh my god.” 😅
An all-time pitching performance by Jacob Misiorowski. He threw a one-hit Maddux and punched 15. The most in a >99-pitch shutout before was Tarik Skubal's 13. This is Miz finding out in real time what he can be. The velocity is mind-bending. All of it is.