GINA COBB

One of the Most Elaborate Practical Jokes Ever

A Phillies player is told that he's been traded to Japan.  The entire team is in on the joke, including the team manager and the player's agent.

Henry Waxman Strikes Out

Why did Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman waste Congressional time and resources investigating Major League Baseball player Roger Clemens?  And how did Henry Waxman strike out?

Why the Investigation at All?

It's not as if there aren't more important and relevant world issues for attention from Waxman's committee and Congress in general.  As Geoffrey Norman noted:

New Ferrari Will Be 'Lethal Weapon'

By DemocracyRules

From Italy's Corriere Della Sera (The Evening Courier).  First track test January 14.  Looks good, anyway.  They took out the automatic traction control, so that thing would be horrible in a Canadian snow storm.  It also has poor ground clearance, and the heater may not be up to snuff.

Search Continues for Missing Adventurer Steve Fossett

The search for adventurer Steve Fossett continues today:

MINDEN, Nev. —  A squadron of 10 airplanes and helicopters began a fourth day Thursday of a frustrating search for missing millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, whose small plane disappeared over Nevada's rugged high desert.

The pilots flew under clear skies, optimum conditions for trying to spot Fossett's single-engine plane.

"We're going to find this guy, but it's a big country," Civil Air Patrol Maj. Terry Vanzant said shortly before heading out.

Fossett disappeared Monday after taking off from a private airstrip to scout sites for an attempt at a land-speed record in a rocket-propelled car.

• Click here for photos of Fossett.

National Guard C-130s and helicopters with thermal imaging equipment searched the soaring peaks and sagebrush desert of northwest Nevada on Wednesday but failed to find anything new, Nevada Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia Ryan said Thursday.

The search across more than 1,700 square miles has covered only a fraction of the territory that could be hiding the plane. Ryan said the total area was 10,000 square miles, and finishing the fly-overs of the most likely landing spots could take another week.

What I like about Steve Fossett is his belief that he can do just about anything if he puts his mind to it.  In addition to setting many world records in aviation, he has competed in sailing (where he set more world records), swimming (he swam the English Channel), sports-car racing, and even dog-sled racing.

I love seeing excellence in all its forms, and Fossett has demonstrated excellence again and again.

As the search enters its fourth day, Fossett's friends admit to a bit of concern. 

The search will continue, but what a legacy this man has made for himself, simply by using some of his gifts.

Sunday Best

Here are some of the biggest stories and best commentary out there so far today.  Leave a comment or suggest a story if you wish, and check back for updates!

NEWS

MUST SEE  Little Green Footballs, Massive Beirut Crowd: "Death to America" (video)  What the mainstream media won't tell you -- that you really, really need to know

NEW!  Fox News, One of Three Missing Mt. Hood Climbers Has Been Found Dead  Search continues for two more climbers

NEW!  Yahoo! News, France to Pull Troops from Afghanistan  France doing what it does best

Fight Night: Ten Players Ejected Following Knicks-Nuggets Brawl  Knicks embarrassed by losing badly on their home floor decided to get physical

They Killed Osama Bin Laden  Sort of.  So why am I not happy?

COMMENTARY

NEW!  Mark Steyn, And Merry Xmas to You All  In the week when Iran hosts a well-attended Holocaust Denial Convention (which simultaneously denies the last Holocaust while gleefully anticipating the next one), this rabbi thinks it's in the interests of the Jewish people to take legal action against "holiday" decorations at Seattle Airport? Sorry, it's not the airport but the plaintiff who's out of his tree. An ability to prioritize is an indispensable quality of adulthood, and a sense of proportion is a crucial ingredient of a mature society

New!  Jules Crittenden, Boston Herald, Kerry Rewrites U.S. Foreign Policy to Fix Iraq Wisecrack  Some people seem to have an unerring instinct for the wrong side of history. You can rely on them, at critical moments, to abandon friends and accommodate evil, in the name of good

Time, Person of the Year: You  They like us!  They really like us!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things."  (Phillipians 4:8)

Death Claims Leader in Another Outdoor Sport

Just two days after a founder of the risky sport of BASE jumping fell to his death when his parachute failed to fully open, a rock climbing legend has fallen to his death in Yosemite.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A renowned rock climber and author who scaled peaks around the world fell 500 feet to his death in Yosemite National Park, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Todd Skinner was rappelling Monday after he and a partner worked on pioneering a new route near Bridalveil Fall, said Adrienne Freeman, a park spokeswoman.

It was not immediately clear why Skinner, who claimed on his Web site to have set climbing records in 26 countries, fell.

"We don't know whether it was a climbing harness failure or a problem with his equipment or an error," said Steve Bechtel, Skinner's former climbing partner and friend. "He's a larger-than-life climbing hero and it's a great loss to the entire community of climbers across the world."

Skinner, 47, of Lander, Wyo., was celebrated for having climbed hundreds of rock faces from Canada's Yukon Territory to the Himalayas using a technique called free climbing, in which climbers ascend upward using no artificial aid to climb -- only a rope to protect against falls.

"He was the first person to think it was possible to free climb," said Ann Krick, a friend who hired him as a motivational speaker. "He always said that the most dangerous thing was to pick was an easy mountain. As a climber he said he needed to pick hard enough climbs because those are the walls where you'll learn the most."

In terms of danger, rock climbing can be risky (rappelling has its recognized dangers, along with the dangers of weather, rock falls, dehydration, and more), but usually rock climbing is not as dangerous as BASE jumping.  Consider the World Base Fatality List and some of the many things that can go wrong for BASE jumpers.

All things considered, you're better off staying home wrapped in bubble wrap. 

Some days, anyway.

Murphy's Law Catches Up With BASE Jumper

One of the early leaders in the risky sport of BASE jumping -- parachuting off bridges and other high places -- fell to his death in West Virginia on Saturday.

FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. - Thousands of people watched a pioneering parachutist jump to his death from a bridge during a festival Saturday when his chute opened too late, a sheriff said.

Brian Lee Schubert, 66, died of injuries suffered when he hit the water 876 feet below the New River Gorge Bridge during West Virginia's annual Bridge Day festival, said Fayette County Sheriff Bill Laird.

Schubert, from Alta Loma, Calif., had been well known in the sport of BASE jumping since 1966, when he and a friend became the first people to jump from El Capitan, a nearly 3,000-foot-tall rock formation, in California's Yosemite National Park.

The sport's acronym stands for the places jumpers usually leap from: buildings, antennae, spans and earth.

Lew Whitener, a newspaper photographer covering the annual Bridge Day festival for the Register-Herald of Beckley, said it appeared Schubert's chute didn't start to open until he was about 25 feet above the water. The crowd gave a collective gasp, he said.

"It was everybody kind of held their breath then an eerie silence afterward. Everybody kind of looked at each other and said 'Wow,'" Whitener said.

A large rock obscured the crowd's view of the man's body hitting the water, Whitener said.

The fatality is the first since 1987 at Bridge Day, a popular event that typically draws an estimated 100,000 spectators and about 400 parachutists to the southern part of the state.

For one day a year, the National Park Service allows people to parachute off the world's second largest single-span bridge to the national river below. The bridge, a well-known icon in West Virginia, is featured on the back of the state's quarter.

To qualify to jump off the bridge, applicants must have skydived at least 50 times.

Flashback: 2000 West Virginia Bridge Day

I am not generally a fan of sports in which mistakes, although rare, are likely to be fatal.

But if you insist on engaging in risky sports like this, please consider:

1.  Yes, the unthinkable can happen to you. 

2.  Have you made out your will?  Designated guardians for your children?  Cleaned out your garage?  Paid all your bills? 

3.  Hey -- wait a minute!--If you have kids, what are you thinking?

4.  Do you really, really have to do this for your life to be complete?

5.  Have you really, really planned for every contingency and doublechecked all your equipment?

6.  Have you said your goodbyes?  Are you at peace with everyone?

OK -- if you still want to go -- GO.  Have fun. 

You'll probably come back alive. 

Unless you don't.

____________________________________

Update 10/25/06:  Are you still thinking about BASE jumping?  Maybe you'd like to check out a website listing BASE jumping fatalities and review a list of some of the many things that can go wrong for BASE jumpers.

Everest Climbers Put Humanity Above Personal Glory

Dan Mazur deserves special mention for rescuing another Mount Everest climber who had been given up for dead.

Lance Armstrong Cleared

Seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong has been cleared of doping charges.  Little Green Footballs has the details.