I'm a big fan of baseball, but I'm not a big fan of wealth transfer from tax payers to private corporations via subsidy. So naturally I'm deeply opposed to the deal between Major League Baseball (motto: "slightly less incompetent than the National Hockey League, but we make up for it with nastiness") and the city of Washington, D.C., in which DC would put up all of the money for a new stadium and the baseball team's owners would keep all of the profits. The fig leaf, that the money was coming from a new business tax, isn't worthy of being spit at. Are you telling me that businesses will submit to a tax for a stadium but not for schools?

I was pleased to hear a mainstream news source (NPR) finally mention on air what's been known for over a decade: that stadiums and arenas provide negligable or even negative economic benefits to their neighborhoods, and are therefore terrible ways for governments to spend money. But I'm even more pleased to find that the City Council has rallied behind dissident Councilmembers to defy MLB and their lapdog the mayor (motto: "Making you nostalgic for former mayor and crack addict Marion Barry") and demand at least 1/2 private financing. One half! The audacity. Let's hope this starts a trend of local governments standing up to extortion by sports teams and other companies demanding public funding in exchange for the pleasure of their company.

The Impossibility of God, edited by Michael Martin and Ricki Monnier
A collection of philosophy essays presenting logical proofs that God can't exist. For what they are, many are interesting, but this is not a general-purpose entry in the dialog between theists and atheists. The proofs include such classics as, A) an omnipotent being can do anything. B) God is omnipotent. C) An omnipotent being can move anything. D) An omnipotent being can create a thing which cannot be moved. Since A-D cannot all be true, God does not exist. Woohoo. I'm convinced.

I suppose that the essays fill a niche in the thought process, and help to uncover inconsistencies in how we use god-related words and concepts. Lacking a specific interest in this precise niche, though, I wasn't able to muster more then a series of skimmings.

Closed Chambers, Edward Lazarus
A very detailed story by a former Supreme Court clerk (to Blackmun, 88-89), which sheds a lot of light on the functioning of the Court. In particular, Lazarus explains the legal issues thoroughly, clearly, and readably, and ties them to the actors and to a broader context. Reading this is enough to turn one into a Court junkie. I am skeptical of Lazarus' thesis that the Court worked better "before" and is on a barely reversible slide to dysfuction and to a role indistinguishable from partisan politics. It's not that I don't think that's where the Court is (cf. Bush v Gore), it's that I doubt that there ever was a golden age for the Supreme Court, when all of the justices were brave and smart and judicious. Even the Warren Court, a highlight for many of us liberals, did its work on as shaky legal foundation. Anyway, a great read, both entertaining (in a legal sort of way) and education (same).

The Secret Life of Dust, Hannah Holmes
A complement to The Secret House, but much more specifically focussed on dust. Where it comes from, what it's made of, how it moves around in the atmosphere, what effects it has on the climate and on people, and so forth and so on. Some key points: there's a lot of dust, all the time, everywhere. There has always been a lot of dust, going back millions of years. Some of the dust has become much more poisonous in the last few hundred years. Altogether dust (and, specifically, man-made pollution) are probably a key factor in many or most respiratory deaths and heart-related deaths, and in many other deaths. Cigarette smoke is makes just about everything worse, and just like the cloud of fecal matter/water vapor droplets that hang in the air of your house for hours after each #2 flush, cigarette smoke pervades everywhen even when you can't see it or even smell it.

While reading this book, I had to put it down a few times to remind myself that I wasn't dead or dying, and that human beings do in fact live for many decades despite inhaling a lot of dust. The author seemed to lose sight of that from time to time. Notwithstanding that caveat, and the complaint that there weren't any pictures, it was a good, informative, and readable science book.