The Grant Catton Blog

The following is a wrap-up of recent current events and my brief opinions on them.

Wolf-O and the World Bank

So Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, has come under fire for alleged special treatment he gave to his girlfriend, who worked at the World Bank when he became president. Supposedly, she was given a bigger promotion than she deserved, and was given a plum assignment at another department. Now, some of the European partners in the World Bank are calling for Wolfo's resignation and also standing in his way as he tries to push new initiatives through.

This is to be expected. Wolfo was an exteremly unpopular nomination to head the World Bank. He is one of the main "architechts" of the Iraq war, and is seen by the world as just another extension of the Bush administration. So, the world wasn't exactly happy to see him run the World Bank in the first place. Now, throw in some accusations of double-dealing, favoratism, cronyism, what-have-you, and now the world…

Anyone else out there pleasantly surprised (read: shocked) by A-Rod so far this season? The man has (as of this minute) 9 HRs and 19 Hits in 13 Games, for a .365 average. He has hit safely in every game so far this season. At this pace (which is almost unthinkable) he would have 112 HRs and 236 Hits by the end of the season. The home run thing is ludicrous--unless he starts going to the same chemists as Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, et al.--but as for the hits, he could do it. He hit 213 in 1998 for Seattle, and the record is 262 by Ichiro Suzuki in 2004. But that's not the point...

The point is A-Rod is making it happen. My memory isn't good enough to say whether he's jumped out to great starts like this in prior seasons, but I know he's jumped out to far, far worse ones. He's earning his keep, enough for two players, so far this season. The real test will come in two months, three months, FOUR months, to see if he can keep up the torrid pace and re-endear himself to New Y…

It's been over one month since I've posted anything on this blog. In that month a lot of weird, bizarre, and tragic events have happened. I can't even add them up in my head, there are so many.

But, I will try to make sense of some of them here in the next few weeks. I'll cover some old topics, adress some new ones, but...I'm back.