Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

The costs of a loss over the long run

By Dave Anderson:


I have become a Pirates quasi-fan by osmosis. It is hard to beat 9 bucks for a decent major league game in the cheap seats, cheap beer, and cheap food. At that price point, a baseball game is a direct substitute for a movie night as the movies are ten bucks to get in, expensive food and also roughly 2.5 hours of entertainment. As a quasi-Pirates fan, I am used to losing. I'm actively looking forward to "Futility Day" when the Pirates clinch their record setting 17th straight losing season.


The Pirates are able to lose close games, they are able to lose big, they are able to lose creatively, and they are able to lose conventionally. When the Pirates have played several games in a row that have eaten up their bull-pen due to either starter ineffectiveness, high pitch counts, or extra innings and then face a good team that jumps out to a 7-1 first innning lead. This happens fairly frequently. At that point, the correct decision is to think about the future, and keep the starting pitcher on the mound for as long as possible even if he is ineffective. The goal at that point is to save the bullpen, and allow for the higher probability of future wins because the bullpen is fresh. The short term consequence is a burned-out starter and a loss, but that loss was highly likely anyways.


What is the consequence of the US declaring victory in Afghanistan, as we accomplished one of the original objectives of disrupting and/or destroying the training camps run and supported by Al-Quaeda as well as force their leadership into hiding or continual promotion and propogation of more #3 guys? What happens if the Taliban, and Pashtun tribal militias assert their dominance in their heartland and pay continual lip-service to any government in Kabul that they do not dominate? Does taking a short term "loss" of face improve long run US security probabilities? I think this is a possibility that we need to debate.



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