Faith, Beer, and Other Things That Interest Geoff

Billy Wagner Is Incredibly Thin-Skinned

But couldn't you have used a few minutes with the alpacas after listening to the fans in Philadelphia boo you? Those people, it doesn't matter how successful you are. I don't get it. They boo you. They scream at you. Anybody who's going to boo you when you don't hit 100 miles per hour, what does that tell you? There are some fans who are fantastic, who were very supportive, and made you feel welcome there. But, for the most part, you had the guys who just came to the ballpark to yell at you. If you're having a bad season there, forget it. You can't get out of that funk. They won't allow you to. You have to go into Philadelphia and become so thick- skinned, somebody that you're not. It's hard.

I was there when people booed when he didn't reach 100 mph. It was a joke. They weren't displeased by a 99 mph pitch. They were just happy we had a pitcher who could hit 100 mph.

How do you think you'll be received when you visit Citizens Bank Park this season? Oh, I'm going to have a big, old bull's-eye on my back. But I'm going to approach it like I do everything else. I've got three hours to spend with you. You want to spend your three hours yelling at me? Go ahead. Then I'll go home and go to sleep. You'll get to tell your grandkids that you yelled at me for three hours. If you want to stand there and yell at me -- as long as you're not saying anything about my family -- you can call me whatever you want to call me. I don't care because I think it's hilarious. I spent most of my time (in the bullpen) laughing at these people. I think Major League Baseball should have some of these fans come down out of the stands. One's going to hit and one's going to pitch and it's going to be in a big situation. Let's see how easy it is. They sit up there and tell me how easy is it. 'I could do that. You bum. You (stink).' All right, find out how it is. Come down here.

Can I have a tenth of your salary for that one game?

Let me explain Philadelphia fans for you. If you make a lot of money, they want performance. And they don't want excuses. If you don't want the pressure, give back the money and stop being a baby. At the very least, admit when you stink.

When I go to indoor lacrosse games, fans don't get on the back of the home team. Why? I think it may be because it is their second job, and the tickets don't cost a ton to pay for their salaries.

Are Phillies fans as bad as it gets? They're easier on the visiting team. I'm sure they won't be easy on me this year. But if that makes your day, if that makes it special for you, go right ahead.

We're not paying the visiting team.

Saddam's Air Force #2 Person Says WMDs Moved to Syria

Pro-Choice Doctor Finds Mental Dangers To Abortion

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this doesn't surprise me at all. Here's my theory as to why:

A person's conscience knows abortion is wrong. Self-deception being what it is, people will try to suppress this truth in order to live with what they've done. (People want to think they're good.) I would imagine a lot of mental energy is exerted by the subconscious in order to deceive oneself and avoid guilt.

Something is going to break. That will come out as mental problems.

That doesn't mean that all mental problems are due to suppressing guilt, but I would assume it is a larger factor than we imagine.

I would like the good doctor to study abortionists as well.

2006 Phillies Defensive Analysis

Ok, it isn't very in depth, but I wanted to get an idea of how Phillies players did last year defensively. I also include Polanco.

The two main stats used are Zone Rating (ZR) and Range Factor (RF). The good thing about ZR is that it protects you from your lying eyes sometimes. Stats, Inc. gives each position a zone of defensive responsibility. ZR measure how many of the balls you actually get to or make a play on. So your overall fielding percentage could be lower, but a better Zone Rating may show that you get to more balls than another player.

Range Factor is putouts plus assists divided by innings. This should give you an idea of how many plays the fielder was involved in.

I view Zone Rating as more important, but unless someone comes up with something better that's what I'll be using.

For catchers, I like to look at CERA. That's the ERA of a catcher's pitchers. This stat exemplifies why it is hard to judge performance within baseball to a high degree of accuracy. There is a lot of interdependence. Every catcher has a different pitching staff in this example. American League catchers have a DH. But I've included Todd Pratt's CERA to get an idea. If Pratt only caught for the ace (whoever that is) that would affect the differences between Pratt's CERA and Lieberthal's. For the record, Pratt was nearly a full run less than Lieberthal in CERA.

All stats were obtained from ESPN.

Remember, a double you take away with your glove is as valuable as hitting a double with your bat.

CF Rowand:
2nd in ZR (Lofton and Michaels combined would have been about 11th or so)
7th in RF

LF Burrell:
9th out of 18 ZR
17 out of 18 in RF

RF Abreu:
16 out of 19 in ZR
17 out of 19 in RF

3B Bell:
7 out of 19 in ZR
4 out of 19 in RF

SS Rollins:
10 out of 24 in ZR
23 out of 24 in RF

2B Utley:
2 out of 17 in ZR
9 out of 17 in RF

2B Polanco:
4 out of 17 in ZR
3 out of 17 in RF

1B Howard: Howard didn't qualify, but he would have been next to last in ZR.
All first basemen had a similar RF.

C Lieberthal: 2nd highest CERA in the National League (4.52)

C Pratt: 3.53 CERA

Summary:

Burrell seems adequate.

It's a good thing Abreu hits well.

Utley is a surprise with the glove. He may be the MVP of the team.

Howard doesn't seem good, but I doubt he'll do much harm at 1B.

Bell seems good, but his glove isn't nearly good enough to make up for his bat.

Rollins may be quick, but his Zone Rating keeps coming up as middle of the pack. Maybe his reaction time is slower and that is why he makes amazing looking plays. Maybe it is because his range isn't that great and Rollins must dive to get to some balls. I'm not saying he's bad. But the general Philly opinion is that he is great defensively. I'm unconvinced.

Besides looking forward to watching Rowand in CF this year, I'm very much looking forward to Lieberthal's contract running out. If memory serves, Gillick got a catcher who can play more this year. Hopefully, that will improve things with our pitching staff.

Rolling Stone Does a Long Article on Scientology

Looks like Paramount won't rerun the South Park which covered Scientology beliefs. Fears of lawsuits.

Scientology releases no information about its membership or its finances. Nor does it welcome analysis of its writings or practices. The church has a storied reputation for squelching its critics through litigation, and according to some reports, intimidation (a trait that may explain why the creators of South Park jokingly attributed every credit on its November 2005 sendup of Scientology to the fictional John and Jane Smith; Paramount, reportedly under pressure, has agreed not to rerun the episode here or to air it in England).

My First and Probably Last Winter Olympic Post for 2006

Is it just my imagination, or was figure skating really odd this year? I know the scoring was based more on technical performance, but the skaters seemed pretty boring. The Russian men's gold medalist did some jumps and jazz hands.

I don't really care to see figure skating for another 4 years.

Snowboarding? Maybe the next Winter X Games.

Canada Dry Vanilla Cream Soda

The Pathmark near me still carries this lovely baby. Clean taste. Best cream soda around.

This is a freaking boring blog post, but this is what I'm thinking about right now. Cream soda.

That and why Bill Goldberg is in B-Movies about Santa killing people.

TigerHawk Wants Us to Calm Down About Arabs Running Ports

I think I agree with him. But with Jimmy Carter agreeing with us, I feel weird.

Saddam and al-Qaeda

The proof has been right in front of you the entire time. Documents available on the internet, which pass the smell test and are probably genuine, show the link between Saddam and al Qaeda.

On October 11th, 2004 an online news service called CNSnews published 42 documents that they claimed came from the Iraq Survey Group. The documents supposedly came from an ISG official who claimed they were captured in Iraq. CNSnews provided this information along with testimony from experts who authenticated the documents to the best of their ability.

Hey, I Don't Know What "Fungible" Means

Today's Dilbert cartoon was classic.

Krauthhammer Links Cheney and Muhammed Cartoons

Secrecy? This was hardly an affair of state. And it was hardly going to be kept secret. Arrogance? The media laying these charges are the same media that just last week unilaterally decided that the public's right to know did not extend to seeing cartoons that had aroused half the world, burned a small part of it and deeply affected the American national interest. Having arrogated to themselves the judgment of what a free people should be allowed to see regarding an issue that is literally burning, they then go ballistic over a few hours' delay in revealing an accident with only the most trivial connection to the nation's interest or purpose.

Craft Beer Growth in 2005 is 9 Percent

Leads all segments in the alcohol industry.

Man Hasn't Slept for 30 Years

Joe Sixpack Writes a Victory Brewing 10th Anniversary Article As Well

This article has an interesting take. Ron and Bill (the founders) have German brewing interests and backgrounds, but they were pulled in different directions by the public.

Well-made German beers are often overlooked, but that's not always the case. I think a lot of people who are hop-starved have to explore that area for a while. And then do the Belgian thing, because they are so different.

Lessons of Counterinsurgency

From Captain's Quarters:

Understanding that the key to counterinsurgency is focusing on the people, not the enemy, he said he changed the standing orders of the regiment to state that in the future all soldiers would "treat detainees professionally." During the unit's previous tour, a detainee was beaten to death during questioning and a unit commander carried a baseball bat that he called his "Iraqi beater."

"Every time you treat an Iraqi disrespectfully, you are working for the enemy," McMaster said he told every soldier in his command. He ordered his soldiers to stop using the term hajji as a slang term for all Iraqis, because he saw it as inaccurate and disrespectful. (It actually means someone who has made the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.)

One out of every 10 soldiers received a three-week course in conversational Arabic, so that each small unit would have someone capable of basic exchanges with Iraqis. McMaster, who holds a PhD in history from the University of North Carolina and is an expert on the Vietnam War, distributed a lengthy reading list to his officers that included studies of Arab and Iraqi history and most of the classic texts on counterinsurgency. He also quietly relieved one battalion commander who didn't seem to understand that such changes were necessary.

Lew Bryson Interviews Victory Brewing for Their 10th Anniversary

Definitely one of the best breweries around.

There are good comments regarding the momentum behind craft beer:

Question, then. You’ve got High Falls suddenly deciding that craft is the way to go, you’ve got The Lion all of a sudden making a decision that craft is the way to go, 7% growth for the segment in 2004, 9% in 2005: are we looking at a tipping point?

Yes, we are hitting the tipping point, but it isn’t going to be a rapid change.

No! But I think it’s accelerating.

Yes. Here are my benchmarks. Find a supermarket that doesn’t have a bakery in it. Go back 15 years ago, and how many did? Same story for coffee. 20 years ago we bought our coffee in 2-pound cans and it was already ground and said things like Chock Full O’ Nuts on it. Now that portion of the shelf is minimal. I think beer and other food products are affordable luxuries in a world that is starting to learn better.

The Rise and Fall of Europe

It's often noted that the European Union has a combined gross domestic product that is approximately the same as that of the United States. But the EU has 170 million more people. Its per capita GDP is 25 percent lower than that of the U.S. and, most important, that gap has been widening for 15 years. If present trends continue, the chief economist at the OECD argues, in 20 years the average U.S. citizen will be twice as rich as the average Frenchman or German. (Britain is an exception on most of these measures, lying somewhere between Continental Europe and the U.S.)

People have argued that Europeans simply value leisure more and, as a result, are poorer but have a better quality of life. That's fine if you're taking a 10 percent pay cut and choosing to have longer lunches and vacations. But if you're only half as well off as the U.S., that will translate into poorer health care and education, diminished access to all kinds of goods and services, and a lower quality of life. Two Swedish researchers, Frederik Bergstrom and Robert Gidehag, note in a monograph published last year that "40 percent of Swedish households would rank as low-income households in the U.S." In many European countries, the percentage would be even greater.

In March 2000, the EU's heads of state agreed to make the EU "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy by 2010." Today this looks like a joke.

Intelligence Committee to Air Tapes With Saddam Planning to Use WMDs

If Saddam thought he had WMDs, could someone from the Bush-lied crowd explain how Bush lied exactly?

Boston Globe Article on Russian Imperial Stouts

No matter how cold and snowy it is around here in February, it's a sure bet that it's colder and snowier in St. Petersburg. The Russian winter has been known to defeat armies. So it would take an awfully strong beer to withstand that landscape. That's what brewers in England figured in the late 1700s when they were formulating a recipe to export to the Baltic. The brew had to be rich and warming and strong enough to compete with the heat of Russian vodka.

The Brits called their creation imperial stout. With a deep brown, almost black color, a complex taste full of roasty, smoky, and dried fruit notes, and alcohol by volume ranging from around 7.5 to 12 percent, it's enough to make a Cossack dance.

Many American brewers have their own interpretations of the style, variously called imperial stout, imperial Russian stout, or Russian imperial stout.

Why I Fear Spineless Europeans More: Because They Are Enablers

The cartoons' published in a Danish paper have triggered protests across the Muslim world, including violent attacks on Western diplomatic offices.

"The government has a responsibility to prevent these things from happening. They should have stopped it, not just in Syria or Iran but all around," Mr Annan said on Monday.

"Not having stopped it, I hope they will pick up the bill for the destruction that has been caused to all the foreign countries."
...
The European Union and a group of Islamic countries said they backed UN action to stop "defamation of religion".

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference is lobbying for the UN to include language against blasphemy in the tenets of a new human rights body. The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said he supported the idea.

"We agreed to take different measures including at the level of the United Nations to guarantee these acts will not be repeated," the OIC's secretary-general, Ekmelettin Ihsanoglu, said. The head of the 57-nation body was speaking at a press conference with Mr Solana in Jeddah, the birthplace of Islam, at the start of a Middle East tour to calm the uproar over caricatures.

"We have been talking today on how we can send a message to the people in both communities, the Islamic and European, that we need this not to happen again … We strongly hope that people will be now sensible to understand that," Mr Solana said.

In Denmark, a Muslim member of parliament urged followers to "move on" after holding talks with the Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

"The majority of Muslims may feel offended by the cartoons as they link Islam with terrorism, but let's take it easy and move on now," Naser Khader said.

Ghostbusters and Other Things From My Youth

As I rapidly approach 30, I am thinking about things from my youth. Whether it is the endangered video store clerk or Superman: The Movie, I'll probably be thinking about it for another month or so.

One of the good things about digital cable is all the free movie channels. Die Hard, Predator and other excellent, fun, non-high brow films from long ago pop up.

And one of my all-time favorites, Ghostbusters, is now playing. I have many memories about this film. I saw it with my best friend (Chris). Got scared out of my wits, which is another story. Saw it in San Francisco with my dad in the theaters. My dad shelled out 90 dollars to get it for me on videotape for Christmas (remember when videos cost that much pre-Batman?).

Well, one of the cops is the guy from Family Matters and Die Hard. How many cops has that guy played over the years?

Cruchy Conservatives

To quote only partly from the book's very long subtitle, Dreher, a former New York Post columnist, thinks "Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas" and others "plan to save America (or at least the Republican Party)."

Importer Cutting Off Supplies of Beamish

The importer of the creamy, dark stout, one of the few Irish alternatives to Guinness, has shut off the faucet to America. Unless the tiny Cork brewery - Ireland's oldest - comes up with a way to sidestep the cutoff, we'll be hitting the bottom of the keg within a month or two.

That's disastrous news for a handful of independent-minded Philadelphia tavern owners who have been boycotting Guinness for the past six years because of the brewery's suspected ties to a number of Irish-themed tavern chains.
...
What will boycotting owners put on their nitrogen taps if Beamish can't return?

Murphy's Irish Stout, made in Cork by Heineken, is a logical alternative, though Mooney said, "I can't get anyone to drink that stuff."

He and Mullins said they'd switch to O'Reilly's Stout, made by Sly Fox Brewing, in Phoenixville.

"It's just as good," said Mullins. "But the big problem is it's not made in Ireland, and that's what a lot of customers want."

But he added, "I will not go back to Guinness, not as long as they support places like Fado and Kildare's," another area Irish-theme bar chain.

Jimmy Carter's Administration OK'ed Warantless Evesdropping

Maybe he was talking about himself during the King funeral.

Da Vinci Code Movie Embracing Critics

This is a great idea on their part.

Should the studio try to mollify the critics who say the "Code" is blasphemy, with its plot describing a church conspiracy to cover up the truth that Jesus married and never rose from the dead? Or should it ignore the complainers, sit back and watch the controversy boost ticket sales?

Instead, Sony has decided to hand a big bullhorn to the detractors of "The Da Vinci Code."

The company is putting up a Web site today — well ahead of the movie's release on May 19 — that will give a platform to some of the fiercest critics of "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown, the book that is the movie's source.

The site, thedavincichallenge.com, will post essays by about 45 Christian writers, scholars and leaders of evangelical organizations who will pick apart the book's theological and historical claims about Christianity.

Picking apart the numerous factual flaws of the book and movie will not be hard. A secular History Channel show did a good job showing the main claims come from some practical joke from some Frenchman.

Being Made Fun of by South Park/Simpsons vs. Will & Grace

"Cruci'fixins" originated from a joke on the Simpsons. When the Simpsons or South Park makes fun of Christians, I frankly don't mind. There is a lot of stupid things we, as a group, do to warrant a little humor.

Will & Grace? I mind. Am I a hypocrite or do I have a basis for this?

The Simpsons make fun of everyone. So when they make fun of you, it's no big deal. Other shows give me the impression that they are making fun of you out of an underlying hostility.

Liberal Danish Politician Understands Militant Islam

And my rule number one about understanding terrorism.

Danish Liberal MEP Anders Samuelson has called on the EU to stand firm or risk signalling weakness.

“If we back down on freedom of speech, it would be a negative sign to ‘aggressive’ forces in the Middle East,” he said.

“It’s a situation that is out of control; it is impossible in a democracy, for a [Danish] government to apologise on behalf of a newspaper.”

The Patent System Is Broken

You make think this is boring, but this is important.

Re-Opening the Iraq Case on WMD

Russian Scientist Predicts Mini-Ice Age

He bases his predictions on something most people fail to use: the Sun.

A Russian astronomer has predicted that Earth will experience a "mini Ice Age" in the middle of this century, caused by low solar activity.

Khabibullo Abdusamatov of the Pulkovo Astronomic Observatory in St. Petersburg said Monday that temperatures will begin falling six or seven years from now, when global warming caused by increased solar activity in the 20th century reaches its peak, RIA Novosti reported.

Around the Cartoon Controversy Horn

A protester is quoted by the BBC:

"They want to test our feelings," protester Mawli Abdul Qahar Abu Israra told the BBC.

"They want to know whether Muslims are extremists or not. Death to them and to their newspapers," he said.

Liberal Philly Inquirer columnist Trudy Rubin notes that the Muslim world doesn't understand that we don't have sharia:

But the assumption by many ordinary Muslims - and even Muslim leaders - that Western governments should censor such drawings is a nonstarter. As the newspaper France Soir, which reprinted the cartoons, wrote: "We had no desire to add oil to the fires as some may think. A fundamental principle of democracy and secularism is being threatened." This is a principle many Muslims apparently don't understand.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, perhaps reflecting the sentiment of angry constituents at home, reportedly called for a limit on press freedom. Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai said that "an act like this must never be allowed to be repeated." And, according to the Financial Times, Saudi Arabia's Interior Minister Prince Nayef suggested the Vatican should intervene to stop the spread of the cartoons. Apparently, the prince thinks the Pope can dictate personal behavior in the manner of the late Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini, who issued a fatwa condemning novelist Salman Rushdie for blasphemy.

I would also hope that hate crime/European anti-Holocaust denying laws which the Muslims are appealing to give liberals pause.

I, along with the entire conservative world, will point you to Mark Steyn's very good column:

Meanwhile, back in Copenhagen, the Danes are a little bewildered to find that this time it's plucky little Denmark who's caught the eye of the nutters. Last year, a newspaper called Jyllands-Posten published several cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed, whose physical representation in art is forbidden by Islam. The cartoons aren't particularly good and they were intended to be provocative. But they had a serious point. Before coming to that, we should note that in the Western world "artists" "provoke" with the same numbing regularity as young Muslim men light up other countries' flags. When Tony-winning author Terence McNally writes a Broadway play in which Jesus has gay sex with Judas, the New York Times and Co. rush to garland him with praise for how "brave" and "challenging" he is. The rule for "brave" "transgressive" "artists" is a simple one: If you're going to be provocative, it's best to do it with people who can't be provoked.

Thus, NBC is celebrating Easter this year with a special edition of the gay sitcom "Will & Grace," in which a Christian conservative cooking-show host, played by the popular singing slattern Britney Spears, offers seasonal recipes -- "Cruci-fixin's." On the other hand, the same network, in its coverage of the global riots over the Danish cartoons, has declined to show any of the offending artwork out of "respect" for the Muslim faith.

Which means out of respect for their ability to locate the executive vice president's home in the suburbs and firebomb his garage.

I think there is a bigger lesson to be learned in the cartoon mess. I don't want to offend Muslims. But I think this incident should show us a few things: 1) some Muslims won't be happy unless the whole world is Muslim. In other words, terrorism at its root isn't always something about Israel. 2) It's not the newspaper's fault that these people are willing to riot and murder.

The Jerusalem Post seems to get it:

The Vatican condemned the cartoons as offensive; so did the US State Department (though the White House denounced subsequent anti-Western violence as "outrageous").

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw counseled self-censorship: "There is freedom of speech... but... not any obligation to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory."

There are those who would argue that the controversy does not reflect a clash of civilizations. Yet it is precisely this persistent refusal to acknowledge the obvious that weakens the cause of tolerance and liberty. Must "understanding" invariably result in the abdication of Western values?

From Little Green Footballs

Wing Bowl Video

I didn't go this year. How could this year be any better? Here's last year's recap of my experiences. (Look for the posts under February 4th, 2006-I believe.)

What's Going on With McNabb?

McNabb said the following in an interview with ESPN:

“It was like, it’s unreal,” McNabb said. “That’s like me going out and saying, ‘Hey, if we had Steve Largent. If we had Joe Jurevicius. It was definitely a slap in the face to me. It was a slap in the face because, as deep as people want to go into it, it was black-on-black crime.”

Not long after that, an NAACP leader criticized McNabb for “playing the race card” in explaining why he didn’t run the ball as often as he used to.

In November, the Eagles suspended Owens for the remainder of the season for his repeated criticism of the team, McNabb and several other issues. The team recently gave Owens permission to seek a trade, and this week he visited the Denver Broncos.

On Wednesday, McNabb brought up some of the criticism he had taken through his career, and said Owens was simply piling on with his statement.

“It’s different to say, ‘If we had Michael Vick or Daunte Culpepper or Steve McNair or Byron Leftwich,” McNabb said of four black starting quarterbacks. “But to go straight to Brett Favre, that kind of just slapped me in the face like, ‘Wow ...”’

What? Of all the things going through T.O.'s mind, I don't think it was "I need a white quarterback." Owens was just responding to Irving, who he respects.

It is becoming apparant that McNabb views quarterbacks as white quarterbacks and black quarterbacks. Could it just be possible that Owens views Favre as a great quarterback?

European Papers Upset Muslims By Running Cartoons

Now, this is an interesting story. For those who read many blogs, this one will be old.

Here are the details as I know them: a bunch of papers in Europe have been running anti-Muhammad cartoons in a show of solidarity with a Danish paper (as far as I recall). They show Muhammad as a terrorist.

And lacking the appreciation of irony, many Muslims want to kill over this.

Saw the following cartoon which reiterates my number one rule regarding Muslims terrorism: they don't respect weakness.

To be honest, my weakling stereotype of Europeans would never expect them to do something like this. Kudos.

There could be much to say about this, and others are, but I thought I should give a heads up.

Former Senator Danforth Doesn't Like Christian Conservative Influence in Politics

I'm a Christian. And I'm conservative. I can give you a Christian-based critique on the "Religious Right" and some mistakes I think they make. But Danforth has a more theologically liberal critique:

As a mainline Episcopal priest, retired U.S. senator and diplomat, Danforth worships a humbler God and considers the right's certainty a sin. Legislating against gay marriage, for instance? "It's just cussedness." As he sees it, many Republican leaders have lost their bearings and, if they don't change, will lose their grip on power. Not to mention make the United States a meaner place.

So Danforth is certain that certainty is a sin.

Theism Undergirds Science

In a recent newspaper article I found the following quote:

Historically, he says, it's religion that has motivated people to study science. "We wouldn't have science as we know it today if it weren't for monotheism," he argues, reeling off references to Newton and Mendel and their belief in divine plans. "Dawkins says religion is the root of all evil. Well, even if that were true, it's also the root of all science."

The belief in a God who establishes the universe, orders it, and sustains it led to people getting serious about science.

But it goes much deeper than that. The laws of physics are unchanging. And if you don't believe in God, who created and sustains the universe, you have no reason for believing the laws of physics will be the same tomorrow. Just because they've always been the same doesn't mean they'll keep being the same. In other words, no basis for doing science.