Ballplayers Get Hungry Too

Curtis Granderson on long extra-inning games:

People ask what’s going through your head once you start to approach that four or five hour mark in the game and that 13-16 inning mark.

Your body isn’t really tired as you see pitchers still come in throwing around the same velocity as before. Players still make plays, steal bases, and hit home runs to win those long games. Mentally, you are ready for it to end sooner than later though.

Sometimes, though, you just get really hungry.

Somehow, I never wondered about that. It does make perfect sense though; by that time, a player probably hasn’t eaten in 6-8 hours.

I wonder how the players with blood sugar issues deal with this.

Which reminds me of an amazing story I heard from the Ron Santo documentary “This Old Cub”. It might even be true.

Santo, a Type I diabetic, was in the on-deck circle when he started to have a blood sugar reaction. He looked out at the pitcher’s mound, and instead of one pitcher, he saw three. Also, three scoreboards in center field.

Keep in mind, this is when he is just moments away from stepping into the batter’s box to face a baseball traveling near his head at 85-90 m.p.h. Or, three baseballs, in this case

A major “uh-oh” moment. He isn’t sure what to do. So he picks the pitcher in the middle. And he got a base hit.

In fact, in his version of the story, it was two outs in the ninth inning, they were behind, and he came up with the bases loaded and hit a home run.

I tried to find the box score from this game, supposedly against the Dodgers in 1966 against Bill Singer. I couldn’t find anything matching those circumstances. Who knows what really happened, but for me the amazing part is that he got into the batter’s box at all. Think about it. Three pitchers!

More Restrictive Rules of Engagement in Afghanistan

Sounds to me like this another way of saying “we don’t want to win”:

GIs Told Not to Risk Civilian Lives

KABUL — Beginning today, American Soldiers in Afghanistan will be under orders to back down when they’re chasing Taliban fighters whenever they think that civilians might be at risk.

Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, will issue the directive as part of an effort to cut down on civilian casualties, which have enraged the Afghan government and residents. Instead of calling in air support or firing into civilian homes where Taliban fighters have sought refuge, commanders will be instructed to reach out to tribal elders or undertake other efforts to dislodge the fighters.

The order is consistent with what national security adviser James L. Jones told McClatchy Newspapers in Washington Wednesday was President Barack Obama’s concern about civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

“General McChrystal has been given instructions when he left here that, in all military operations, that we redouble our efforts to make sure that innocent loss of life is minimized, with zero being the goal,” Jones said, noting that, “In one mishap you can create thousands more terrorists than you had before the mishap.”

Nobody wants civilian casualties, obviously. It is a PR problem, it kills people who may or may not be innocent, and it stirs up local anger.

But we aren’t fighting uniformed fighters on a battlefield with tanks and planes. We are fighting insurgents, who use the fact they blend into the scenery as a tactical advantage. You could even call it a strategic advantage, especially now, with these new rules. In that world, you have to be willing to accept civilian casualties, or you might as well throw your weapons down and go home.

Plus, what is a civilian, anyway, when the local population supports the insurgency, as in a place like Waziristan? It is, essentially, Taliban-istan.

Whose interests are served by pretending there is a bright line to be drawn between civilian and militant in such a place?

We’d better be pretty careful with this question, because it will be used to our opponent’s advantage, and it will hurt our chances of success. It is perceived as weakness during a fight, because that’s exactly what it is. And in a more general sense, it has already affected our perception of who has the moral high ground, in a war against terrorists who blow up children running for candy.

We were already fighting under too-restrictive Rules of Engagement, and now we’ve gone even further in the wrong direction. Supposedly, Obama wants to win in Afghanistan. This is not how you do that.

And don’t be surprised when terrorists play us for suckers by dressing up like women in order to escape confrontation. Hey look, they already did.

First Rule of Financial Holes: Stop Digging

You have to wonder if maybe Illinois wouldn’t be in such a big budget crisis right now if the state legislature didn’t routinely, and for many years, approve new programs without funding them.

Seems a little risky, no?

In a business, or even a family, non-essential expenses are the very first thing you evaluate. It’s called “cutting the fat”, and it’s how sane people try to balance budgets.

But not in government! Governments have these wonderful ATM-like things called “taxpayers”.

Governments think taxpayers are awesome because taxpayers are too busy leading their lives to learn much about how completely they get ripped off by their governments. And the media likes taxpayers too, as long as they are kept in the dark about how markets work and what taxes do to an economy.

Isn’t it funny how none of the politicians or news stories mention any of this when the going gets tough? No, it’s all about yanking food right out of the mouths of starving children.

Gee thanks, but I’m trying to cut down on my big-government platitudes and insulting emotional appeals meant to trip my trigger and open my wallet.

The Economist notes how widespread it is :

Despite allocations of federal aid to states, services are being cut, state employees are being laid off, and taxes are being raised in order to balance the budgets of local governments constitutionally unable to run deficits. It’s not at all clear that the federal stimulus will entirely compensate for state-level fiscal tightening, which means that American fiscal policy could, on net, be contractionary.

Q: Is there anybody in the room who dares to ask the obvious? That, maybe, just maybe, we’re overspending?

A: Sadly, no. Doing that would require cutting programs that benefit special-interest groups. And the media, which frames the discussion about the role of government in our lives, believes all government spending is inherently a Good Thing.

And so on and on we go. Giving government more and more power by relying on it to fix things for us.

How’s that working out so far?

Off the Field with Randy Brown

Randy Brown hit a low point in April. A really, really low point.

He got fired from his NBA assistant coaching job with the Sacramento Kings. Even worse, all of his possessions were auctioned off in bankruptcy court.

As if all that weren’t already bad enough, among his possessions were three irreplaceable items: his three NBA championship rings from his years with the Chicago Bulls.

You can always buy another house, and more cars, furniture and clothes. It’s just stuff. And like all “stuff”, none of it really matters all that much, even though we tell ourselves that it does.

When you can buy another one pretty much any time you want, it is less valuable, by definition.

It is another thing entirely to lose a championship ring. A championship ring oozes with meaning. It symbolizes sacrifice, teamwork, and achievement. It represents something few players ever experience: the pinnacle of success for your sport. It demands respect from peers and fans alike. And it reminds you of many good memories and the people that made up one of the best parts of your life. Along with much more, I’m sure.

Brown admits it’s all his fault:

”It’s my fault. I can see how it all happened and the mistakes I made. Like others, I trusted the wrong people, people who were my best friends. Some even lived with me. I never thought of myself as being a big spender, but I did loan and give away a lot of money to so-called friends who never paid me back.”

But now, in a turn of events that would seem far too obvious for even a Hollywood screenwriter,, all of that is changing for Randy Brown. For the better.

This past Wednesday, he was named director of player development with the Bulls.

And Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Bulls, has even promised to replace those irreplaceable championship rings.

• New job with your old team: check.
• Replace irreplaceable rings: check.

Randy Brown is one lucky man.

And he has some good advice:

”I can’t wait to address the incoming NBA rookies at the next retreat. I want them to know that the wisest things they can do are save, trust the right people and be very, very careful where you invest. I learned my lessons the hard way. Thank God my wife, Tamara, and I have a chance to start all over again with our three children, Justin, Janel and Diamond.”

Tiger Woods Gives Back Quite a Bit, In Fact

Recently Jim Brown called out Tiger Woods for not giving back enough.

Well, Jim Brown can just suck it, because Tiger Woods gives back plenty to military families, who deserve it more than most: Tiger Offers Troops a ‘Fore!’ of July.

How about 30,000 free tickets to active-duty military and reservists? Allowing two wounded veterans with prosthetic arms to tee off with Tiger, and devoting a large section of the seating at the first tee to a group from Walter Reed Army Medical Center?

What the hell has Jim Brown done for anybody lately? Maybe I missed his big benefit for those who risk life and limb to defend our freedoms, and our “right” to lead cushy lives.

May God bless Tiger Woods and all he does for our military and their loved ones. They surely deserve all that, and more. And he deserves the credit for providing the leadership to make it all happen.

Whistling Past Ancient Memories?

This can’t be good.

Every time I get one of these emails announcing somebody from my high school class has joined classmates.com, I don’t remember who it is.

We only had about 500 kids in my class. Obviously, I didn’t know every single one, or even most of them. But I thought I knew at least the names of nearly all of them.

Hey … maybe the folks who’ve been joining recently are those exact same people I didn’t really know at all!

Yes. That must be it.

Oh, shut up.

Slow Down, Chumps

If you drive in Illinois, you’d better keep your speed EXACTLY at the work zone speed limit.

If you go too slow, you’ll have 20 ton semis about 6 inches from your rear bumper.

And if you go too fast, even by just ONE MPH, you risk a $375 fine mailed to you as a result of photo enforcement that goes into effect tomorrow, July 1.

Of course, slowing down every driver in every work zone in the entire state will cost us all more time and money. More time, obviously. And more money, because gas mileage is always worse at 45 m.p.h than at 55 or 65. And gas prices are already higher in the summer, because demand is higher … because there are already more of us on the road. A perfect time to insist on slower driving.

And I won’t even get into the possibility that some of the speed trap photo enforcement equipment will be poorly calibrated, resulting in fines for innocent drivers. That would be unhelpful.

I also won’t get into the risks of adding time to an already-long drive which can cause drowsiness later. Again, unhelpful.

But as a benefit, we might get some unknown level of slightly reduced risk. Maybe. So, YAY!

Enjoy your summer! Get out there and travel — the economy needs you!

Best Use of Government Money EVER

Iranian protesters avoid censorship with Navy technology

Iranians seeking to share videos and other eyewitness accounts of the demonstrations that have roiled their country since disputed elections two weeks ago are using an Internet encryption program originally developed by and for the U.S. Navy.

Designed a decade ago to secure Internet communications between U.S. ships at sea, The Onion Router, or TOR, has become one of the most important proxies in Iran for gaining access to Web sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

The system of proxy servers that disguise a user’s Internet traffic is now operated by a nonprofit, the Tor Project, that is independent from the U.S. government and military and is used all over the world.

According to the Tor Project, connections to TOR have gone up by 600 percent since mass protests erupted after the June 12 vote, which gave a purported landslide victory to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“Over the past two weeks, we have seen a doubling to tripling of new client connections,” Andrew Lewman, executive director of the Tor Project, told The Washington Times Thursday. “We are up to a thousand new clients a day.”

Read the whole thing.

The Internet is good for lots of things. And, it has a downside or two, as well.

But the fact that it allows development of advanced technology like this, which can then be leveraged to fight oppression by freedom-seeking people, is the best part of all.

I supported Bush’s war in Iraq, because I knew that a primary goal was to establish freedom in the Middle East in order to put pressure on the oppressive governments in Iran and Saudi Arabia, in particular. Maybe, looking back, a project like this would have been just as effective, without the downsides of fighting a war. Iraq was considered the low-hanging fruit, although that assessment proved to be incorrect.

In any case, kudos to us for exporting technology to fight oppression. We do lots of things right, but rarely get any credit for doing anything right.

Via one of my newest daily reads, Danger Room.

Stupid Is as Stupid Does

And Waxman-Markey thinks YOU are stupid enough to support this dumb idea:

Now Congress is trying to pass a new law called ‘Cap and Trade,’ which is really just another new energy tax. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the new tax could cost you between 61 cents and $1.60 for every gallon of gas you buy. Economists think this could cost the average family $3,100 a year. I’m working hard to defeat this new tax.

Funny how that huge tax increase on everybody who drives doesn’t seem to resonate in the media. Huh.

I have a feeling it would resonate with the consumer.

That passage above is from this link at the site of my congressman, Peter Roskam (Ill.). I sent him an email today requesting that he vote no on that legislation, before I knew how strongly he already opposed it. He doesn’t like the Waxman-Markey bill. He is a smart man.

You can also find this graphic at that link, reflecting the cost of gas in Chicago, which already pays the highest prices in the nation, and which could increase by up to $1.60:

http://roskam.house.gov/Issues/Issue/?IssueID=4291

Thanks, but no. Sorry … I’m really trying to cut down.

Getting Wise Down Under

Good Beer and Demanding Evidence: Two Qualities to Admire in a Country

Australia, at least, is starting to ask serious questions about the “science” behind global warming. Heaven and Earth, a book by Ian Pilmer, is credited with starting that global warming backlash in Australia.

Quoting Rick Moran at the American Thinker piece linked just above:

Cap and trade is not about saving the planet. It is about enriching government at the expense of private industry. Obama expects that selling of carbon credits will bring in hundreds of billions of dollars that will finance his health insurance power grab and other schemes. They are not interested in the science. They are interested in the dollars.

And the American family – to the tune of at least $1300 in increased energy bills – will pay for it.

Exactly right. Same as it ever was.

Read the whole thing.

Our governments are lying to us and treating us like idiots while they prepare to forcibly take our money to pay for a “solution” that won’t work.

Putting aside for a moment all the highly-charged emotion about this … why would anybody want that?

Two Things I Didn’t Know Yesterday

After hearing some of the lyrics to a few songs by “Peaches”, I’m glad she is no longer an elementary school teacher.

Australians call their high-alcohol, fruity style of Shiraz “leg spreaders”.

Carry on.

You Deserve … Well, SOMETHING Today. Not Sure What Though.

Since Monday is also known as “Free Coffee Monday” at McDonald’s, I decided to stop in on the way to work this morning and grab one.

Small, and black. Like Flip Wilson.

Surprise #1: “That’ll be $1.18, please”. What happened to Free Coffee Monday? Still not sure, because the cashier’s answer was inaudible.

Surprise #2: So I tried to hand her $2. She took $1, and gave me back 46 cents. No, I didn’t get it either. Maybe it’s some new Impromptu Whiner’s Discount.

Surprise #3: After sipping the coffee a couple of times, it tasted a little odd, so I took off the lid. It had cream in it.

So my free black coffee became a 54-cent coffee with cream. Maybe McDonald’s itself could use a little jolt of Free Coffee Monday.

Fight Back, or Get Used to Sending More of Your Money to the IRS to Slay Imaginary Dragons

In a stunning development, we have learned that Congress is right now crafting legislation that is not just useless, but dangerous and expensive too.

Which, like, hardly ever happens!

It’s called the Waxman-Markey bill. You might not know about it, but you should, because it is just the latest example of how government deceives you in order to take your money. It’s what they do.

It presumes a global warming crisis that is actually unraveling as we speak, as new, compelling evidence emerges nearly every week that we are now entering a historic cooling period.

It assumes that even if this climate crisis did exist, it is best fixed by … collecting money. Really. This is what Congress does: think up ways to waste our money on mostly ineffectual and sometimes downright dangerous “solutions”. When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

And even if you buy into all that silliness, the proposed solution hasn’t worked very well in Europe.

Summing up then:

1. A crisis that doesn’t exist,
2. used to coerce you and me into paying more money into our government,
3. to fund a solution that won’t work.

A perfect storm of pandering.

I know global warming is the current “hot button” issue of the day, and lots of people view it as a crisis that needs our attention. But it doesn’t take very long to discover that the “science” behind it is extremely shaky; in fact, it is not science at all. That’s why they use words like “global warming denier”: it’s a belief system.

Usually, investing your faith where it doesn’t belong is a pretty bad idea. Render unto Caesar, etc.

And we don’t need lies in order to pursue reasonable energy and environmental policies. There were already plenty of good reasons to support the “green” lifestyle. For years, I’ve supported recycling, fuel conservation, and research into new sources of energy. I could support things like wind farms if there was any hope that such a thing could work in a huge country like the United States. And we need to re-open drilling in places like ANWR in Alaska and offshore. The caribou and the godforsaken mosquitoes in ANWR  won’t mind, and other countries are drilling off our shores already, so what do we gain by sitting it out?

But what we don’t need is fear-mongering based on half-baked theories, and taxation that couldn’t fix it anyway. Plus, of course, the meddling in economic markets, which didn’t work out too well with the mortgages.

And even worse, all the social divisions created by all of it. You risk being called ridiculous names by “scientists” if you dare to question their methods and conclusions. Really?

Cute documentaries with polar bears is one thing; turning the junk science behind it into a demand for tax revenue is quite another.

We don’t need the Waxman-Markey bill, or anything remotely like it.

This is Just Bizarre. And When I Say Bizarre, I Mean B-I-Z-A-R-R-E

Former WSCR sports radio personality Mike North was fired Friday from his Internet radio startup chicagosportswebio.com, along with his wife BeBe and another man. They were fired for inquiring about recent bounced checks for some of the employees, including broadcasting legend Chet Coppock.

Hold on, it hasn’t even begun to get weird yet.

Yesterday, the CEO of the company, David Hernandez, who is also the prime investor in North’s show “Monsters in the Morning” on Comcast SportsNet, called a meeting and announced the company was still in good shape, and that he would make good on the bad checks. He left and said he’d be back at 1:30. He never returned.

Then the employees learned Hernandez is being sued by the SEC for running a Ponzi scheme with his companies NextStep Financial and NextStep Medical Services (the prime sponsor of “Monsters” on Comcast).

Last night, Hernandez’ wife — also named in the SEC suit — reported him missing to the Downers Grove police.

Hernandez, as it turns out, declared bankruptcy three times in the last 5 years, and served time in jail in the late 90s.

So now chicagosportswebio.com is probably kaput, though Coppock plans on one more broadcast today at 3:00. THAT ought to be interesting.

And the future of “Monsters”, without its prime sponsor, is up in the air as well.

I always kind of wondered about the sponsorship deal with NextStep and “Monsters”. Seemed a little too good to be true: a single company sponsoring a TV show? When does that ever happen?

Never, apparently.

Related:

• Mike North Era at “The Score” is Over

Letterman Finally Offers Real Apology to Palins

Good for Dave. He seems to understand why this was a problem for many people, and he also seems contrite about it. And it’s been accepted, so we can all move on now.

Frankly, I always thought he was better than this, better than the raging loon we’ve been seeing on TV these last eight years or so. Maybe he’s been sucked in by all the other raging loons that inhabit that strange city.

But I’m still not sure people “get” what this is all about.

I think the accepted storyline in the eyes of at least some people is “Letterman made fun of touchy conservatives who then threatened a boycott like a bunch of spoiled children, so he finally had to give in and apologize”.

In truth, the takeaway from this is that Letterman made a joke about conservatives that he would never make about liberals, and he did this because conservatives aren’t viewed as fully human in the eyes of the media establishment, so you can get away with it. They aren’t real people, so who cares?

It’s pandering to the audience they clearly prefer, and nothing more.

“Tolerance: It’s Just a Word We Like to Throw Around!”

The climate that allows it to happen in the first place has to change. And until it does, nothing is really changed.

My earlier post is here: So . . . This is Where We Are Today? Really?

Like a Giant IQ Test … That Much of the World is Failing

Thomas Sowell, discussing Angelo Codevilla’s new book “The Character of Nations”:

While nations differ, particular kinds of behavior produce particular kinds of results in country after country. Moreover, American society in recent years has been imitating behavior patterns that have produced negative— and sometimes catastrophic— consequences in many other countries around the world.

Among these patterns have been a concentration of decision-making power in government officials, an undermining of the role of the family, a “non-judgmental” attitude toward behavior and a dissolution of the common bonds that hold a society together, leading to atomistic self-indulgences and group-identity politics that increasingly pits different segments of society against each other.

It would appear that stupid ideas have bad consequences. Who knew?

A little more awesome news for those of who think that those patterns are the wrong way to go:

Those among the intelligentsia who say that we should “learn from other countries” almost invariably mean that we should imitate what other countries have done. Angelo Codevilla argues that we should learn from other countries’ mistakes, especially when those same mistakes have repeatedly produced bad results in many countries and among many very different peoples, living under very different political systems.

Putting ever more economic decisions in the hands of those with political power is just one of those mistakes with a track record of painful repercussions in many countries around the world. These repercussions have included not only serious economic losses but, even more important, a loss of personal freedom and self-respect, as ever wider segments of the population become supplicants and sycophants of those with the power to dispense largess or to make one’s life miserable with legalistic or bureaucratic harassment.

Other than all that bad stuff, though? Puppies and rainbows for everyone!

That bolded text above, in a nutshell, explains why I don’t pay much attention to the “news” any more: it’s because the “news” actively pushes back from the other side on every one of those points in bold above by Mr. Sowell and Mr. Codevilla. It isn’t “news” at all, it’s activism. And it’s on the wrong side of history.

Global Cooling = Very Very Bad

While politicians and other silly people prattle on about global warming, the smart money is on disastrous cooling which could kill crops and people. But “green” is big business today, so that’s the important thing!

Read all of this excellent post at EU Referendum: The road to starvation.

The climate may be changing, all right, but not in the direction you might think.

We live in truly scary times.

Doing LOTS of Harm, in Fact

Remembering:

This month marks a strange anniversary of sorts for me.  It was 2 years ago this month that I was sitting in a chair looking at my unborn baby in 4D.  She was precious!  We had previously found out that our baby had several “markers” for down syndrome and had enlarged kidneys which may have required surgery upon birth.  Thus we were monitored more carefully and had a ton more ultrasound shots at a hospital.  This was the first level 3 ultrasound with this pregnancy (I had had one with my 3rd with no problems).  I got to gaze upon my baby for almost a full hour – it was wonderful!  I was there alone as my husband was out of town.  The specialist doctor called me in after the ultrasound to go over the findings.  The first words out of his mouth to me were “Well you will have to come in tomorrow for your abortion because of how far along you are.”  I was utterly shocked and devastated.  All I could do was mutter “What??????”  He then proceeded to tell me that my baby had more “markers” for down syndrome and it didn’t look good.  I was more shocked that his automatic assumption was that I would abort my baby.  I almost couldn’t comprehend what he was telling me in that office.  All I wanted to do was run as far away from that man as possible.

Click, please, to read the rest.

So . . . This is Where We Are Today? Really?

Letterman last night made a disgusting joke about Sarah Palin’s fourteen-year-old daughter.

Naturally, like any sensible person, James Lileks nails Letterman to the wall.

Letterman, over the years, has become one of the biggest tools in the entertainment industry. And that is saying ALOT.

What is the matter with people today? So it’s funny now to make jokes about kids of famous people, just to score urban liberal street cred? Wow. That is a hell of a way to make a living. Proud to look in the mirror in the morning, are you?

What a sad, sorry little bunch of whiny jerks. It isn’t enough, I guess, that people are allowed to dislike Sarah Palin and her politics. No, they have to demonize her and her family to make themselves feel better about how awesome their taste in politicians is.

Every time I think we have hit bottom, some idiot comes along and finds a new bottom. Today, Letterman is that idiot. Congrats, Dave!

Too bad I already fired Letterman years ago. Can you fire somebody twice? Hey … just did!

UPDATE: James Lileks expanded the above into a New York Post opinion piece for Sunday June 14, which you can read here.

Re-Open TWA800?

Jack Cashill says “Reopen the TWA Flight 800 Case”.

Pretty good idea. Not going to happen.

I’ve always been fascinated by this case, and never bought the TWA 800 explanation about a spark in the fuel tank.

First of all, how many billions of air miles have been flown in the last 80 years? And this happens exactly once? Sorry, not buying that. Even an exceedingly rare occurrence, requiring many variables to be just so, happens more often than that.

Second, aerospace engineers go to great lengths to 100% guarantee that a spark could never occur anywhere near a fuel source. If they screwed up, well, once again, we are back to the “just once?” argument. Design failures occur more than once every hundreds of millions of trials.

Third, there is credible eyewtiness testimony from 270 people who say they saw something else happen, and evidence that some witness testimony was doctored or completely made up to support the conclusion that it was due to a spark.

Well, that’s when I say hold the phone.

Two hundred and seventy people. Not just one person, or three, or seven. And not all in one place. They didn’t even know each other. But they all looked into the night sky and saw something bright flying UP from the horizon, turn at an angle, and fly into something else and cause an explosion.

Two hundred seventy examples of this kind of independent eyewitness testimony is awfully tough to explain away. And when you read the way their testimony is twisted into something else, well, what does that tell you?

I don’t claim to know what happened, but I have heard the theories, and all are frightening.

1. Shoulder-fired SAM from terrorists in a small boat in the ocean
2. U.S. Military training accident
3. Submarine-fired missile

None would shock me, and all make more sense to me than a spark in a fuel tank.  

But I do know this: there was more than enough means, motive, and opportunity for shadowy government influence on both the investigation and the official conclusions.

I’m not going to go into tons of detail here. Read the above (including the comments, some very interesting), read Cashill’s book “First Strike”, read the twa800.com site. Examine it yourself. Make up your own mind. Remain open to theories that fit facts. That’s what I do.

Remember, though, that investigations are not perfect. They are subject to meddling, malfeasence, and ineptitude. This is the government we’re talking about. The same goverment that can’t decide if eggs are good for you or not. The same government that included corrupt and overtly political leadership at DOJ, which controls the FBI, and which used that FBI to investigate political enemies of the Clintons.

To pre-suppose that Truth often results from any investigation by that group into an “accident” with a distinct terrorist flavor is to live in fantasy land.

Governments have every motivation to cover up military accidents or terrorist operations run by other nations. Because they are not just embarrassing, they reflect potential national security flaws. And in the face of admitting “yes, some losers dressed in rags sat in a boat a few miles off our shores, and used arms we sold them to shoot down a defenseless civilian airliner”, a government may well try to steer the investigation to a more comfortable conclusion. To the extent that information can be controlled and manipulated, it may well be. None of that should shock us. 

Powerful interests intersect here. Covering up truth, rather than revealing it, is often the whole point.

Again, I don’t have the answer here. But I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a spark in a fuel tank.