Back To Work

• What I'm Watching/Listening To/Reading:
• I read The Innocent Man, John Grisham's 2006 non-fiction work about false convictions and their relationship to the death penalty, while I was away. It's really a heck of a book, as compelling as most of the fiction he's written. I used to be unabashedly pro-death penalty, but as I've read things like this book and watched things like Penn and Teller's episode on the topic, I've changed my mind a bit. I don't know that it's a deterrent, but I do favor the dealth penalty under one condition. Only if you can guarantee me that nobody with even the slighest chance of being innocent would be put to death. There are people working to ensure that, but I don't know that we're there yet.
• Hamels dominated, as expected. Nothing's must-win until an elimination game, but the Rays could use one tomorrow or else they may have effectively lost three, with Hamels set to go Game 5 in Philadelphia. The Phillies better start hitting, especially Rollins and Howard, and the bottom of their lineup really is pathetic. Be interesting to see if they use Stairs as DH tomorrow. I was struck by how silly Lidge made Pena, Longoria, and Crawford look in the ninth. You'd think Pena and Longoria could at least finish their swings.
• Random Thoughts/Links:
• How good is hot apple cider?
• If you haven't seen any of the Chuck Todd craziness from Hardball this afternoon, it's here. He's been one of the most straight-laced and impartial news figures this year (which is saying something when he's on MSNBC), so for him to say these things means that times are bad and probably on their way to getting a lot worse.
• Daily Rant:
• The Jewish holidays are over. Boo!