Year in Review. Ian Browne looks at 2003. ... In an article praising the Red Sox for their winter moves, Michael Silverman of the Herald writes: "The Red Sox failed to win a World Series in 2003 because they did not have enough pitching, plain and simple." No. The Red Sox had plenty of pitching, but their manager knew next to nothing about how to use it. Boston had two almost completely different bullpens during the season and both of them were horribly mismanaged. Which Silverman himself alludes to in his very next sentence, referring to "one of the most notorious Red Sox blunders." There were several pitchers in that white-hot bullpen waiting to come in and carry the Red Sox into the World Series, and Idiot Loser Gump decided to save them for Game 8.

Before the invasion of Iraq, the US military tried to recruit from Canada's native population, citing as its justification a 1794 treaty that it said granted aboriginal Canadians dual US-Canadian citizenship. ... The P.U.-litzers: Norman Solomon announces his selections for the "foulest media performances of 2003."