Tuesday May 27
What Goes Up Must Come Down
The New York Yankees have lost 12 of their last 13 home games -- the worst such streak in the franchise's long history. In contrast, as a group Yankee pitchers began the season 16-0. That pace may have been unsustainable, but since then Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina have each lost three times and 40-year-old David Wells is nursing a leg injury. No sooner did Derek Jeter return from a dislocated shoulder than center fielder Bernie Williams went on the disabled list with a knee injury that could cause him to be out at least a month. Oh, and the Red Sox hammered Clemens to deny him win 300 on Monday. History Not on Side of Yanks, Clemens [washingtonpost.com]. Things are just not right in Yankee-land. Is it time to panic?
Posted by glenn at From A Hawk To A Dove?
The history of the Arab-Israeli conflict is also a history of leaders moving against the grain and playing against character, like Menachim Begin -- the former terrorist who blew up the King David Hotel in the 1940s' war of Israeli independence -- embracing Anwar Sadat. Now, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who led the settlement movement, spearheded the Israeli offensive into Lebanon and, more broadly, epitomized the transformation of Israel from a besiged small democracy to a facist occupying power, has accepted "the Roadmap" to peace. [BBC News.com]. Including an independent Palestinian state.
For years, Ariel Sharon was adamant that there should be no Palestinian state in the occupied territories. 
But late in 2001, he quietly announced that he could see some sort of Palestinian state in the future. Now Sharon has persuaded his cabinet to endorse -- with reservations -- a Roadmap which aims to create a viable Palestinian state by the end of 2005. And he indicated a willingness to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza, amazingly describing Israel's military presence in the Palestinian territories as an "occupation."
Leopards can change their spots from time to time politically. See Straight Talk From Ariel Sharon [NYTimes.com]. Whether Sharon has really done so, or whether this is just another ploy to buy time and save face internationally, remains to be seen.
Thriller Broke
It's gotta be hard to blow through $500 million, but Michael Jackson seems to have done it. E! Online News - King of Pop Going Bust? So he'll have to finance his plastic surgery on credit from now on. It's a shame. And shameful. A waste of what once was a real talent.