Crazy About Bush

Oh, the schadenfreude is just over-the-top here:

Apparently, there is a link (done by a Republican, mind you) stating that the more mentally unstable a person, the more likely he or she is to like George W. Bush. I mean, I can’t even tell you how happy this makes me. Of course, this (regretfully) does not mean the flip – that someone who likes George W. Bush is mentally unstable – but this is good enough for me.

“Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader,” Lohse says. “If your world is very mixed up, there’s something very comforting about someone telling you, ‘This is how it’s going to be.’”

…

“Bush supporters had significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who supported Kerry,” the study says.

Lohse says the trend isn’t unique to Bush: A 1977 study by Frumkin & Ibrahim found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election.

Frankly, this isn't very suprising if you think hard about it, even rationally and without distaste for GWB. One of the things that many folks claimed to like about GWB was that he was strong willed. Of course, even then most rational people knew he was WRONG, but damnit he was going to stick to that wrong-headedness instead of, you know, entertaining debate and perhaps changing his mind about something. (Cause that would be flip-flopping! How dare he!)

Such wrongheadedness has led to civil war in Iraq and a complete erosion of the United States' credibility in foreign affairs, but at least he's not a flip flopper! Crazy People Unite!

Read More......

Bloggery

Here are some nice bits of info I’ve seen over the last few days.

Ethics? We don’t need no stinking ethics.

As if ethics wasn’t already a huge item on the political landscape, and as if Texas wasn’t the center of that bullseye due to the egregiously shameless Tom DeLay, now the “Texas Ethics Commission” has announced that its state politicians don’t have to report gift size, just the gift itself.

Like, for instance, “Currency” or “A Check.”

Hm…who actually thinks this is a defensible position? Only politicians who are trying to pre-emptively cover themselves. Like DeLay, or William Jefferson in Louisiana, politicians who try and create laws to allow themselves unfettered access to cash are, in short, criminals.

The ruling outraged state Rep. Lon Burnam, who sued the ethics commission in April asking that "meaningful" descriptions of gifts be required.
Monday's opinion "clearly, obviously violates the intent of the law," Burnam said. "They deliberately, I think, misconstrued it and they are showing how utterly spineless and useless they are as an ethics commission."

Word.

Save the iPod, Save the World

In foreign affairs, apparently our foreign policy with North Korea has been reduced to this – we won’t sell them iPods or plasma televisions.

I find it amusing that North Korea – and any other country who gets a lot of mileage out of talking about the evils of the U.S. (see: the most profitable McDonalds franchise...in Paris) – would actually want the output of our economy, but of course, the United States leads the world in a lot of that. (Less than it used to, and given our educational system, that’s a trend that will likely continue, but that’s a posting for another day.) I also find the following quote from Maureen Healy, the head of the trade group for the Personal Watercraft Industry Association, downright hilarious:

The Washington-based Personal Watercraft Industry Association said it also supports the U.S. sanctions - although it bristled at the notion a Jet Ski was a luxury.
"The thousands of Americans and Canadians who build, ship and sell personal watercraft are patriots first," said Maureen Healey, head of the trade group. She said it endorsed the ban "because of the narrow nature of this ban and the genuine dangers that responsible world governments are trying to stave off."

Jet skis – a luxury? Heaven forbid! Those people skirting around lakes and oceans are patriots! Well, sure…but is there an actual practical application for a jet ski? Cause if not, it’s sort of a luxury by definition. Trade group folks are lobbyists and all they say is gobbledygook.
I’m not proclaiming to know how to solve the North Korea situation, but I suspect this isn’t it.

Fristed!

Outgoing Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who may have been the only person who ever thought he was a legitimate Presidential candidate, has taken himself out of the 2008 race. I find this to be a true shame, as I would have liked the sheer waste of money that would have gone into his campaign, while the world was reminded of his video diagnosis of Terri Schiavo, his shady financial dealings and the way he was rolled over repeatedly as Majority Leader. In sad related news, apparently Joe Biden is still delusional enough to be in the mix for the Democrats.

Quick, who had four months in the betting pool?

The latest news is that Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock, never a couple who seemed to have a terribly long shelf life, are splitting up after less than four months of marriage. Between rumors that they slept with other people on their honeymoon, to the fact that they both are sexually…adventurous, to say the least, the strangest part of this news – perhaps the only strange part, in fact – is that possibly the Borat movie is to blame.

Sources claim Kid Rock, real name Bob Richie, became enraged by his wife's role in the spoof film -- in which Borat, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, travels across America to get close to the blonde beauty….
"Bob started screaming at Pam, saying she had humiliated herself and telling her, 'You're nothing but a whore! You're a slut! How could you do that movie?' -- in front of everyone. It was very embarrassing.

I’ll just leave that one on its own, but somehow I thought the fact that Pammy was a slut and a whore was part of her appeal. At least…that’s the appeal for me.
More later.

Read More......

The Blind Side

I read The Blind Side in mid-October. I think it was the last book I read before the wedding, and never had any chance to write my thoughts down, but then, as of now, my thoughts in short would be:

The Blind Side is a phenomenal book.

OK, that’s probably not descriptive enough, but it is pretty much the story. Author Michael Lewis, who has been consistently good from Liar’s Poker to Moneyball. His latest book focuses on Michael Oher,. Oher is…well, the brilliance of Lewis’ book is synthesizing all the accurate ways to describe him.

Oher is at once a lost African-American 15-year old, rummaging around the Memphis area, with no real home to speak of. His father is virtually unknown, his mother caught up in drugs and alcohol.

Oher is also a giant, over 300 lbs as a 15 year old, and none of it fat. The “blind side” of Lewis’ title refers not only to the kind of society that ignores the reality of a Michael Oher, rudderless and wasting away, but also to that position in football. The blind side protects the quarterback, most often at left tackle for right handed passers. Lewis spends some good time discussing the offensive line in football, something under valued by most casual fans of the sport. Michael Oher, likely to his own surprise, is unnaturally suited to play left tackle, the critical position on the line.

Through a story far too interesting to even recap, Oher gets taken in by a white Evangelical Christian family who take in Oher not because of his future earning potential, but because they want to see him get his degree. His high school degree. Oher is a virtual cipher, someone who has never really learned anything, because he’s never really had any teachers or role models. Eventually, as Oher works through high school and his talent becomes obvious to everyone, he becomes one of the most sought after prospects by the NCAA.

The book is fascinating, but mainly because Lewis paints such an interesting picture. Sean and Leigh Anne Touhy, the wealthy, white Evangelical Christian family who adopt Oher, are almost wholesome in their intentions – they just realize they can’t let someone like Oher get ignored by the system. Gradually, he becomes a part of their family in every conceivable way, despite the fact that their backgrounds are polar opposites.

The Blind Side is about. It’s a phenomenal story, which was also summarized in a New York Times magazine feature called “The Ballad of Big Mike.” Lewis’ book Moneyball was presumptively about baseball, but it was also about challenging conventional ways of thinking, about resisting things that are done in fashion because tradition says it’s so. In the same way, The Blind Side is not really about football, or the offensive line, or really even just about Michael Oher. It’s about class, and race, and sport,

Seriously, read the book. One of the best of the year.

Read More......

NFL: Week 12

Just a quick note here. If the Seahawks win and cover the 9 ½ point spread, Matthew Rozen – aka, my new brother-in-law and friend for going on 25 years – will win. Yes, he’s the Crap Happy Pappy. (And yes, I know the genesis of that name and it’s not nearly as sordid or amusing as you might think.) If the Packers beat the spread, it goes down to a tiebreaker between Michael Lang (“FOR WHO? FOR WHAT?”) and Mark Kershes (“KC CHIEFS 1”).

What I can tell you now is that someone whose first name begins with “M” will win. But that’s about it.

It was a crazy week in the NFL, kicked off by three Thanksgiving Day games. Nothing quite beats the inanity of Vincent Jackson spiking the ball after not being hit – except for the refs not calling it a fumble. Just shoddy, shoddy work there. And I’m more than a little bummed that the 49ers didn’t seal up that victory against the Rams, which they could have (and did, in the sense that Torry Holt made a ‘football move’ with the ball, meaning it was a fumble that the 49ers recovered for a TD that got overturned.) But the 49ers are back, and a competitive team now in football, and frankly that’s a good thing.

Condolences to Steelers fans everywhere. More later.

Read More......

Holiday Cheer

This might get me labelled as a softie, but hey - that's nothing new.



Just a fine way to get rid of the doldrums.

Read More......

Bed and Breakfast Coaching

This is stunning. Simply stunning.

Owner Al Davis continues to stand by coach Art Shell, who continues to stand by offensive coordinator Tom Walsh and his last-place scheme. And all of them continue to ignore how ridiculously outdated and overmatched the Raiders' offense has become.

After the Raiders lost to the Broncos 17-13 in Week 10, Jordan revealed that the team went into that game with only three running plays.

As writer Nancy Gay wrote, that's less complicated than Tecmo Bowl. If it's even remotely true, it's just the latest example of why this team is useless. The offensive coordinator, Tom Walsh, literally was running a Bed & Breakfast for the last few years, totally out of football.

It shows.

I'm sure the man makes a nice yogurt parfait, and I assume the rooms at his B&B are stocked with lovely ceramic squirrels and flowered bedspreads, but this is not NFL style coaching.

God, I'm glad I'm not a Raiders fan.

Read More......

Reason #10974

That's Reason #10974 (or thereabouts) why I'm glad I'm not a management consultant anymore. The list is lengthy, and also fictional, but regardless the profession has a lot of downside to it.

The perks? Among them, frequent flier miles up the proverbial wazoo.

And here is my problem - I left consulting in 1999 and have used some of those miles since. But not nearly as many as I'd like. Why?

Because they are never, ever, usable.

The biggest case in point I have is the annual trip I take with some of the GSB boys to Myrtle Beach, SC. Both United Airlines and Continental either fly there or work with partners that do.

I've called seven months in advance or earlier each year for the last three years and never -- ever -- been able to redeem those miles. Sometimes, they'll offer up the "chance" to use 50,000 miles for a coach seat. It's clear what the airlines game is here. They have a huge liability out there with these miles. So they do what they can do either reduce the financial impact of that liability by making it virtually impossible for folks to use, or to reduce that liability by essentially always charging twice the "rate" for a domestic flight.

This year, the United woman I spoke with told me that the trip was on a difficult weekend because it was Spring Break.

The trip is April 26-29. That's barely even SPRING, let alone Spring Break. I just had to laugh.

Fortunately, I can find fares cheap enough to make it not too rough, but it's a serious joke to me. I couldn't even use them internationally for the honeymoon. I honestly don't know what to do with the miles, and if anyone has suggestions about how to turn them into something I'd actually appreciate it, I'm all ears.

Read More......

You'd like to think...

...that the Democrats of new aren't as incompetent at leading as their record might suggest. I really do think that the country has sent some nice, new people to at least TRY and make a real difference.

But then you hear that Barney Frank wants to review the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in the military as soon as January. And that Charlie Rangel is proposing a draft - not because he is in favor of the war, but the opposite.

Both of these moves are stupid. They are well-intentioned, but virtual layups for anyone with a shred of political sense (and the GOP has well more than a shred, it's their bread and butter) can manipulate. The Democrats want to draft your children so they can work side by side with "The Gays". There. I just did it.

I can only hope that the leaders like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, who showed a great ability to keep the party in line when it came to, say, Social Security, can enforce just as much discipline with the new Congress.

Josh Marshall puts it much better than me:

You start with broadly popular and critically needed changes. That allows you to build up the electorate's confidence in your governance and gains you political capital to tackle more difficult problems. This isn't about following a timorous legislative agenda that will offend no one. There is a war going on. Two actually. Our military faces a readiness crisis in the very near future. We are in a soldier-slaughtering drift in Iraq. These are complicated questions requiring bold solutions.

Eye on the ball, people. Eye on the ball.

Read More......

When Reality collides with Fox

It doesn't happen often, but I found this news particularly satisfying, since the publicity they got won't result in sales.

After a firestorm of criticism, News. Corp. said Monday that it has canceled the O.J. Simpson book and television special "If I Did It."

"I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project," said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. "We are sorry for any pain that his has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson."

Seriously, thank goodness for some reason finally elbowing its way into this broadcasting decision. I can only imagine what the response was for them to pull it, but regardless, I'm glad I won't have to hear about this much longer.

Read More......

NFL Week 11: What in tarnation?

I went to Candlestick - call it what you will, but it's Candlestick Park - yesterday and watched my beloved 49ers beat the NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks. Now...that's pretty big stuff. Surely, Seattle is a pale imitation of what it was last season, and the 49ers capitalized on that - but that's their third win in a row, and the team is now 5-5, just one game out of the lead in the NFC West. That's so impressive for a team no one really expected anything out of this season.

The game was great, from start to finish the 49ers looked poised, determined and they took advantage of several mistakes by Seneca Wallace, who is not looking like a Wally Pipp to Matt Hasselback anytime soon. (And...is Wallace white? Man, I could have sworn he was African-American but it didn't look like it from our section. And yet, I digress.) Jerry Rice retired officially during halftime, and I'd say that this pumped the team up but they were already up 20-0. Yes, they shutout the Seahawks in the first half completely. The score could have even been higher. And I'll just say this - Frank Gore is a frickin BEAST. He runs downhill and runs angry, and those are two pretty important things in a running back. He's here to stay.

I'm not buying tickets to the Super Bowl, or even the post-season, just yet - but it's nice to see a team improve, instead of falling into a perpetual cycle of patheticness. See: Raiders, Oakland or Cardinals, Arizona.

In the meantime, our Pick 'Em is a real barn-burner today. Jenn Cuthill's Ben Toothlessberger has been putting up big points week after week and she has the lead going into tonights' game. However, three teams are one game behind and all have picked the Giants (while Jenn chose the Jags) - those are Todd Shriber's Team T, his wife Amy Shribers Mommy and Me, and Jeff Mester's children MesFamKidz. Let the record show that the rest of the league was lapped by two chicks*, a team comprised of two children under the age of 10 (maybe younger) and a guy named Todd with calves the size of a small rural state. We should all be a bit humbled.

In any case, more later, but it was a good weekend.

*Chicks being, of course, a loving name for two of my favorite people.

Read More......

Battle Royale

The next time someone tries to pin down my taste in books, I’ll have to remember to point out that I followed up John Adams’ biography with Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale, and enjoyed it about as much.
Battle Royale caused a big ruckus in Japan when it came out, and it’s understandable why. The plot is this – at some point in post-war Japan (and that war is WWII), the country is isolated and presumably as much of a superpower as any other country. They have a policy called The Program, or Battle Royale.

In a nutshell, The Program is this – ninth grade students are taken to a remote island and randomly given weapons, tracking devices and a set of rules. The basic premise of the “game” that they are in is that they have to kill each other – until only one student remains alive.

Literally.

The novel is insanely graphic, to the point of being so over-the-top as to be numbing, much in the way that Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films were. The Program is reported on throughout the country, and while some reviews of it refer to it as ‘the ultimate in realty television,’ that part of the book is really not discussed.
It’s more about the horror of realizing that, suddenly, mere children are forced to be horribly violent and kill their friends, their girlfriends and boyfriends, in order to survive themselves. It’s also, of course, a commentary on the government itself, and how it wages fear among the country through programs such as this.

But most of all, it’s sheer entertainment. Battle Royale is not for everyone, but for those who don’t mind taking a huge leap of faith and reading a lot of graphic violence, it’s really enjoyable. Of note is that this was also broken down into a series of graphic (manga) novels, but what I read was the original translated novel.
Rating: 7.5/10.0

Read More......

O.J.

It's true that O.J. Simpson's trial is one of the defining moments in cultural history in the last 25 years or so. Just like everyone in my parents generation remembers where they were when JFK was shot, everyone in or around my generation remembers where they were when they heard the verdict.

I remember, when news of the murders first broke, vehemently defending O.J. - he was the Juice, one of my childhood heroes. Then he took off in the Bronco with Al Cowlings, and that was pretty much the end of my delusion. Frontline did a great piece on this recently, and the impact on race relations, etc.

I mention this because apparently O.J. Simpson is coming out with a book tentatively titled: "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened". This is so insanely insulting that I blinked a few times to see if that article was published in the Onion. But no, it's the New York Times.

So, in short, fuck Orenthal James Simpson. He not only got away with spousal abuse and murder, but now he's planning on profiting from it.

(And, in oddly cheery news, the book is being published by Regan Books, headed by Judith Regan. If that name sounds familiar, it might be because she made other headlines as someone who got caught having an affair with Bernie Kerik, the NYC Police Commissioner that President Bush unsuccessfully nominated for the head of Homeland Security. He's in tight with Rudy Giuliani, who just announced that he's going to run for President in 2008.)

Read More......

Little Children

Back after the debacle of the 2004 election, when Bush and Rove decided to use their “vast political capital” to steamroll the privatization of Social Security, I remember first wondering if perhaps they’d gotten seriously off-message. Not so much because Social Security has been called the ‘Third Rail’ of politics, in that anyone who tries to touch it gets electrocuted (and, I’d have to say, that record still looks about right). But because they tried to sell it using a tactic that could only really appeal to those with zero conscience.

Here’s what I mean – in talking to seniors, President Bush would always, smirkingly, say that for them, nothing would happen to their Social Security. He seemed incredulous when this didn’t sell the plan. In fact, one startling example that their plan was as crappy as it turned out to be was that on this roadshow, where only pre-screened, Bush advocates are let in the door, people started asking tough questions.

It struck me then, as it does now, that this administration is so selfish, so focused on what is good for them (and their peers), that the idea that some people would vote on what is good for the country is just hard to swallow.

Because when you say, “…we’re not going to be changing your benefits at all…” the end of that sentence simply HAS to be, “…just your children’s and grandchildren’s benefits.” At the very least, doesn’t this just sound like something you’d be a bit leery of?

I thought of this today when noticing that Bush has, in addition to the loathsome and non-confirmable UN Secretary John Bolten, re-nominated Ken Tomlinson to the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Tomlinson, you’ll remember, was the guy who spent his time taking notes on programming on PBS, trying to portray it as overtly liberal. He’s also about as qualified for this job as Mike Brown was for the head of FEMA.

Just a week ago, the press praised our president for speaking about bi-partisanship after getting “thumped” on Election Day. Those are good words, and he certainly sounded far less snotty and pissy than one might expect. But by re-nominating Bolton and Tomlinson, the president is hoping that those Senators who lost last week will send a big “fuck you” to the Democrats who unseated them by supporting this insanely unpopular president. It’s not a tactic likely to work, as (sad as it is to say) many of those Senators have a bit of personal pride and are unlikely to have their last moments in office spent carrying water for a president with a 31% national popularity.

But Rove and Bush don’t think that way. They think about what they would do if they had just lost their seat. They’d be spiteful, malicious, and try to screw over the person who “took” their seat. It’s sad, really.

This is why I think the next two years will truly be political gridlock. Both because the Democrats are unlikely to be wizards in getting sweeping legislation passed, and just as equally because the White House will not change course at all, regardless of what they tell the press. Naturally, this will be reported as a failure on the part of the Democrats (which is another reason why the WH won’t budge on their policies), and not a reflection of the inflexibility of the administration.

It’s not going to be fun to watch.

Read More......

Logrolling In Our Time

Long ago, there was a brilliant publication called SPY magazine. It was way too snarky for the time, and folded up before the internet even got rolling, but it was the kind of magazine that really was FUNNY. I mention the internet because it could never find a large enough audience to succeed in a print-only business model, but I suspect that they would have thrived, or at least stayed afloat, in a world where online resources can often be a cheaper delivery channel.

I thought about Spy this morning as I read the below information about Nelson DeMille and Dan Brown. Spy had a segment called "Logrolling In Our Time" where they would show blurbs on various books where Author A raved about Author B, and then coincidentally Author B would have equally lavish praise for Author A's work. It was not even close to their funniest bit, but one that stuck with me.

In any event, I thought of it here. Nelson DeMille was recently quoted about Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code (perhaps you've heard of it) as saying:

Some time ago, he said, he was asked to comment on the manuscript of “The Da Vinci Code.” Mr. DeMille did not predict the eventual fuss. “I said, ‘This is ridiculous! It makes no sense,’ ” he recalled. “And, well, we all know what happened with that.”

Well, a closer look at the cover of The DaVinci Code reveals the following:

"Dan Brown has to be one of the best, smartest, and most accomplished writers in the country. The Da Vinci Code is many notches above the intelligent thriller; this is pure genius." -- NELSON DEMILLE, #1 New York Times best-selling author.

Hm. Thanks to the Fine Books Blog for pointing this out.

As a side note, per the Wikipedia entry on SPY Magazine, they recently published an anthology of the magazine called SPY: The Funny Years which I think I might have to check out at some point.

Read More......

Van Buren is the Killer

Congratulations to Bryan Dorfler, owner of the Van Buren Killers, who nudged out a win due to last night's MNF. Bryan, like Russ Launer, got 11 picks correct - but his total points were almost spot on, with Bryan guessing 37 to the actual 34 scored. (Russ chose 45 total points.)

Yep, that's former president Martin Van Buren to your left, posted in honor of Bryan. Some of you may not realize this, but Bryan is a historical scholar and is set to publish the authoritative work on President Van Buren, including some especially revealing information about his sexual habits, fondness for broccoli, and the fact that he had Native American heritage.

OK, none of that is true - Bryan is a Seinfeld fan, and if you don't get that reference, check out your television sometimes. Seinfeld reruns are on approximately eight hours a day, I should think.

Anyhow, checks will go out this week for the last month or so. In the meantime, keep those picks a-comin...

Read More......

Zadie Smith on Reading

From Bookworm, courtesy of Stephen Schenkenberg, here is a quote by the lovely Zadie Smith about reading:

But the problem with readers, the idea we’ve been given of reading is that the model of a reader is the person watching a film, or watching television. So the greatest principal is, 'I should sit here and be entertained.' And the more classical model is the idea of a reader as an amateur musician. An amateur musician who sits at the piano, has a piece of music, which is the work, made by somebody they don’t know who they probably couldn’t comprehend entirely, and they have to use their skills to play this piece of music. The greater the skill, the greater the gift that you give the artist and the artist gives you. That’s an incredibly unfashionable idea of reading. And yet when you practice reading, and you work at a text, it can only give you what you put into it.

Amen.

Read More......

NFL Week 10: Rounding the Corner

So, I'm finally back and able to catch my breath and post. Yes, the
honeymoon (Capri and the Amalfi Coast in Italy) and wedding were amazing - I do hope to have photos to post by this week. As mentioned below, I also started what appears to be a great job last week as well, so it's been hard to catch my breath and play around with iPhoto, etc.

But yesterday, I essentially took the day off (from...um, responsibility, I suppose) and watched a full slate of football, aside from the evening game. Let me tell you - while I loved the wedding and Italy, I did miss the National! Football! League!

The story, I suppose, is that in two games - Cincy vs. SD and Pitt-NO - four allegedly good defenses allowed a preposterous amount of yardage and points. That's very true. Suprising and true, and god only knows who the elite teams are these days. Marty Schotteheimer did everything possible to lose that game, but despite Carson Palmer's heroic day (and yes, I traded for him in fantasy football on Thursday), the Bengals couldn't seal the deal. I blame Chris Henry, my teams' namesake, for dropping a TD in the endzone. Curse you, Chris Henry!


(Memo to Marty Schott - this is your All-Pro tight end. USE HIM.)

The other story could be that the 49ers have now won two games in a
row, largely on the strength of their defense. That's a bizarre
sentence to write these days, so it's worth repeating. The 49ers have
now won two games in a row, largely on the strength of their defense.
Sure, the Lions and Vikings have problems but they are - at the least
- two average offenses, if not better. And the 49ers, especially the
emerging Brandon Moore, shut them both down. That's GOOD stuff. I'll
be at the Stick (call it what you will, but it's the Stick) on Sunday
to watch them retire Jerry Rice's number. Sure, with the Seahawks in
town and a returning Shaun Alexander and Matt Hasselback, it's a tough chore, but the crowd should be very much into the game. Looking forward to it.

And yes, I know all about the 49ers proposed move out of SF. I'm
obviously not happy about it, but the NFL is a business. If John York
wants to screw over fans that badly, he should be allowed to do so.
BUT, if he moves the team south of, say, Palo Alto, he can't call them
the "San Francisco" 49ers. That's my rule. And I will get vocal about
it. I know the Giants and Jets play in New Jersey - that's NJ and NY's
problems for letting that happen. I don't know what the A's are going
to be called in Fremont, but if Oakland lets them go by Oakland, then
they are wimps. If the 49ers have to change their name to something
pathetic like "Northern Californian 49ers" or even San Jose 49ers, (no
offense to San Jose - okay, a little offense) then perhaps this is
what should give them pause about the 'logic' of such a move.

OK, off the soapbox.

An interesting thing here - going into tonight's game, Bryan Dorfler's
"Van Buren Killers" and Russ Launer's "Hail to the Skins" both are
tied with 10 wins and both picked TB to beat the sperad. That's not so
interesting except that I hate them both for getting so many wins.
What is interesting is that Russ literally picked every underdog.
Across the board. And he's at the top of the standings. So for
everyone who poured over their picks this week, yes, we should all
feel like we wasted those minutes of our lives.

Real quickly, here's who won weeks I haven't commented on:

Jon and Karen Montbach's Mooncusser won Week 7.
Scott Schwartz's Judge Ito won Week 8.
Jenn Cuthill (on fire of late)'s Ben Toothlessberger won Week 9.

Folks, I'm going to shoot out checks to all of you shortly. More later...

Read More......

Whew!

So, it's been a full month since I've posted - but I think I have a pretty good excuse. That is, a few good excuses. Let's see...

• I got married.


• I went on a two-week honeymoon (see a few pics below).


• I watched the Republican party complete a full collapse, just two short years after proclaiming a non-existent Conservative revolution. (Oh, the schadenfreude is SWEET.)


• I watched Donald Rumsfeld resign. (See above regarding Schadenfreude.) Also, because I can, here is a gem quote from the Onion:
  

  WASHINGTON, DC—After nearly six years of much-publicized service as Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld announced his resignation Wednesday afternoon, saying that he had "proudly accomplished everything [he'd] set out to bungle." "Years ago, I decided to bog this great nation down in an extended, grueling foreign occupation, and I'm happy to say that's exactly what I've done," said Rumsfeld in a farewell address at the White House, during which he urged Americans to continue waging the ill-conceived, mismanaged, and evidently unwelcome fight for democracy in the Middle East. "Each of my actions—from undersupplying troops with body armor to focusing on capturing Saddam Hussein while Osama bin Laden remained free—has led America inexorably toward our current state of extreme crisis. Well, anyway, goodbye!" President Bush expressed confidence that Robert Gates, his new nominee for Secretary of Defense, will be able to "fuck everything up the rest of the way."

  
  
• I completed a three-week stretch of picking no more than five teams right in my Pick 'Em, which is just as humiliating as it sounds.


• Oh, and I started a new job at Alibris.com, which is really excellent so far and is already keeping me quite busy.

So yeah, not so much time to post.

But I will be back, and I'll be sending folks checks for their Pick 'Em wins, posting photos and stories from the wedding and honeymoon and generally getting back to speed. Once the jet lag subsides, that is...

Read More......