Sunday, October 31, 2004
Sour Play of the Day.
Down 21-3 in Pittsburgh, the Patriots found themselves looking at an early game deficit. Do they pound, pound and run it out on the ground? Nope, only three attempts for minus 2 yards mid-way through the second quarter. Do they try to go back to the run, despite missing running back Corey Dillon from the line-up? Pass by Tom Brady into triple coverage, interception.
4:23:00 PM
Surprise Play of the Day.
Trailing 17-7 at the start of the third quarter, Washington was set to kick off to Green Bay ... onside! Green Bay recovers, but this is an alert play call. Certainly Green Bay did not expect the onside; only by the heads-up play from cornerback Bhawoh Jue did the Packers recover.
1:45:00 PM
Friday, October 29, 2004
Week 8 NFL Picks.
Arizona at Buffalo
Baltimore at Philadelphia
Cincinnati at Tennessee
Detroit at Dallas
Green Bay at Washington
Indianapolis at Kansas City
Jacksonville at Houston
N.Y. Giants at Minnesota
Atlanta at Denver
Carolina at Seattle
New England at Pittsburgh
Oakland at San Diego
San Francisco at Chicago
Miami at N.Y. Jets
10:57:00 AM
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Week 7 NFL Pick Results.
Week 1: 9-7; 56.25%
Week 2: 9-7; 56.25%
Week 3: 10-4; 71.43%
Week 4: 8-6; 57.14%
Week 5: 8-6; 57.14%
Week 6: 8-6; 57.14%
Week 7: 10-4; 71.43%
Overall: 62-40; 60.78%
9:43:00 PM
I don't have anything substance to add to the discussion, but I would note to Ann Althouse that it's the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, not the Milwaukee State Journal or the Milwaukee Journal.
6:30:00 PM
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
I bought it. Yep, San Andreas. I haven't used any codes yet -- I'd like to beat the game without them -- but I may start a second game using them.
1:41:00 PM
Monday, October 25, 2004
Goal-line stand.
There's this from the Monday night game:
1-10-DEN 14 (6:39) R.Johnson right guard to DEN 15 for -1 yards (A.Wilson; J.Lynch).
2-11-DEN 15 (6:02) R.Johnson left guard to DEN 12 for 3 yards (D.Williams).
3-8-DEN 12 (5:24) C.Palmer pass to C.Johnson to DEN 5 for 7 yards (C.Bailey).
4-1-DEN 5 (4:41) R.Johnson right guard to DEN 5 for no gain (K.Herndon; A.Wilson).
8:36:00 PM
IGN has a preview of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, due out this week.
8:35:00 PM
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Spam, Late Sunday Edition.
It happens to all of us:
you matched my profile,
the secret is out!
No more lies:
You'll finally consolidate
The hottest mom's online strip
while husbands are away.
acclaim approved:
we have the solution
We'll train you,
This dispatch must alter your life!
Enjoy the summer breeze:
Need 10 people today
too tall for the shelf,
with hundreds of different
drug products in stock.
assess and address:
looking for some
blood splattering fest of
violence, i have tried to
make contact lucky lips.
10:47:00 PM
Pass-Wackiness.
In the Atlanta-Kansas City game, there was this series of downs:
1-9-KC 9 (12:45) M.Vick left end ran ob at KC 1 for 8 yards.
2-1-KC 1 (12:23) M.Vick pass incomplete to A.Crumpler.
3-1-KC 1 (12:19) M.Vick pass incomplete (S.Barber).
4-1-KC 1 (12:19) J.Feely 19 yard field goal is GOOD, Center-D.Rackley, Holder-C.Mohr.
Maybe they should have tried to run.
1:12:00 PM
Saturday, October 23, 2004
NFL Week 7 Picks.
Atlanta at Kansas City
Buffalo at Baltimore
Chicago at Tampa Bay
Detroit at N.Y. Giants
Jacksonville at Indianapolis
Philadelphia at Cleveland
San Diego at Carolina
St. Louis at Miami
Tennessee at Minnesota
N.Y. Jets at New England
Dallas at Green Bay
New Orleans at Oakland
Seattle at Arizona
Denver at Cincinnati
9:30:00 AM
Thursday, October 21, 2004
To Read List, Updated.
"The Post-Truth Era: Dishonesty and Deception in Contemporary Life," Ralph Keyes (Still on my list, however, I was able to obtain a copy of the book, so now I do not have to forage through my local library.)
"All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime," William Rehnquist
"Atlas Shrugged," Ayn Rand
"The Politics Presidents Make," Stephen Skowronek
"Presidential War Power," Louis Fisher
"No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days," Chris Baty
"Who Let the Blogs Out? : A Hyperconnected Peek at the World of Weblogs," Biz Stone
"Choice: The Best of Reason," ed. Nick Gillespie
11:07:00 AM
Oh my.
I have lost my mind, and with it, any semblance of sanity. Forgotten in all this mess is my commitment to finish my third National Novel Writing Month in a row.
The entire site has been remodeled, even the forums. And even Blogger is getting into the act by hosting Na-No-Blog-Mo, the mother blog of NaNoWriMo, hosting links to all those who feel compelled to share their NaNoWriMo -- or perhaps just thoughts about the process -- to the world.
Good luck to everyone; I'm going to need it.
10:26:00 AM
A Sad Week in Fantasy Football.
Week 5: 0-3
Overall: 6-12; 33.33%
Re-draft: 3-3; 50%
Keeper: 0-6
Dynasty: 3-3; 50%
9:00:00 AM
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Reason magazine editors and writers detail their recent presidential voting records here.
9:17:00 AM
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
NFL Week 6 Pick Results.
Week 1: 9-7; 56.25%
Week 2: 9-7; 56.25%
Week 3: 10-4; 71.43%
Week 4: 8-6; 57.14%
Week 5: 8-6; 57.14%
Week 6: 8-6; 57.14%
Overall: 52-36; 59.09%
8:42:00 AM
Monday, October 18, 2004
Thank you, Marc Bulger and Torry Holt.
Your early TD combination in the Monday night game put me at 0-3 for the week, fantasy football wise.
8:18:00 PM
Sunday, October 17, 2004
The Football Gods Shall Smite Mike Sherman.
Up 31-10 in the middle of the fourth quarter, the Packers were driving on the Detroit Lions. The drive started late in the third and the Packers were going rush-heavy, calling six rushes compared to four passes, including one incompletion. Packers face 2-9 on the Detroit 20. A rush, right? Nope, halfback pass from Ahman Green to Donald Driver, TD, and the game is all but clinched.
However, the way the Packers were rushing, it was likely that they'd get the TD without trickery, run down the clock and not appear as if they are running up the score.
As a Packer fan, I'm ashamed.
2:52:00 PM
Why Are You Passing?
There was this series in the Kansas City-Jacksonville game, with KC leading 16-14:
Jacksonville Jaguars at 04:40
1-10-JAC24 (4:40) (Shotgun) B.Leftwich pass to J.Smith to JAX 33 for 9 yards (S.Fujita).
2-1-JAC33 (4:05) (Shotgun) B.Leftwich pass incomplete to K.Brady.
3-1-JAC33 (3:56) (Shotgun) B.Leftwich pass incomplete to F.Taylor (V.Holliday).
4-1-JAC33 (3:52) (Shotgun) B.Leftwich pass incomplete to J.Smith (D.McCleon).
2:48:00 PM
Spam From All Angles.
Fix those negatives,
sniff out The Yes People.
Please let me know,
is it funny?
Store everything in a
steel building; Are you
battling Fashion that fits?
Serenity will improve your
moods; A circle of love and
respect shines some light
on the party.
The first to visit good times;
would you like to Rock her world?
yay there here; before you quit:
I hate it!
1:55:00 PM
Glenn Reynolds points to the full text from a speech given by Alan Nelson of The Command Post to a gathering of the Associated Press Managing Editors.
1:45:00 PM
Saturday, October 16, 2004
CNN's transcript of Jon Stewart's appearance on "Crossfire" is full of some great gems.
CARLSON: Kerry won't come on this show. He will come on your show.
STEWART: Right.
CARLSON: Let me suggest why he wants to come on your show.
STEWART: Well, we have civilized discourse.
(LAUGHTER)
CARLSON: Well, here's an example of the civilized discourse.
Here are three of the questions you asked John Kerry.
STEWART: Yes.
CARLSON: You have a chance to interview the Democratic nominee. You asked him questions such as -- quote -- "How are you holding up? Is it hard not to take the attacks personally?"
STEWART: Yes.
CARLSON: "Have you ever flip-flopped?" et cetera, et cetera.
STEWART: Yes.
CARLSON: Didn't you feel like -- you got the chance to interview the guy. Why not ask him a real question, instead of just suck up to him?
STEWART: Yes. "How are you holding up?" is a real suck-up. And I actually giving him a hot stone massage as we were doing it.
(LAUGHTER)
CARLSON: It sounded that way. It did.
STEWART: You know, it's interesting to hear you talk about my responsibility.
CARLSON: I felt the sparks between you.
STEWART: I didn't realize that -- and maybe this explains quite a bit.
CARLSON: No, the opportunity to...
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: ... is that the news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: So what I would suggest is, when you talk about you're holding politicians' feet to fire, I think that's disingenuous. I think you're...
CARLSON: "How are you holding up?" I mean, come on.
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: No, no, no. But my role isn't, I don't think...
CARLSON: But you can ask him a real question, don't you think, instead of saying...
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: I don't think I have to. By the way, I also asked him, "Were you in Cambodia?" But I didn't really care.
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: Because I don't care, because I think it's stupid.
CARLSON: I can tell.
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: But my point is this. If your idea of confronting me is that I don't ask hard-hitting enough news questions, we're in bad shape, fellows.
(LAUGHTER) This was a good exchange, too:
CARLSON: Well, I'm just saying, there's no reason for you -- when you have this marvelous opportunity not to be the guy's butt boy, to go ahead and be his butt boy. Come on. It's embarrassing.
STEWART: I was absolutely his butt boy. I was so far -- you would not believe what he ate two weeks ago.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: You know, the interesting thing I have is, you have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.
CARLSON: You need to get a job at a journalism school, I think.
STEWART: You need to go to one.
2:01:00 PM
Wonkette, Kos and Powerline bloggers are set to speak today at Moravian College which, I presume, is located somewhere in Pennsylvania.
1:49:00 PM
NFL Week 6 Picks.
Carolina at Philadelphia
Cincinnati at Cleveland
Green Bay at Detroit
Houston at Tennessee
Kansas City at Jacksonville
Miami at Buffalo
San Diego at Atlanta
Seattle at New England
San Francisco at N.Y. Jets
Washington at Chicago
Denver at Oakland
Pittsburgh at Dallas
Minnesota at New Orleans
Tampa Bay at St. Louis
1:43:00 PM
Fantasy Football, Week 5.
Week 5: 1-2; 33.33%
Overall: 6-9; 40%
Re-draft: 2-3; 40%
Keeper: 0-5
Dynasty: 3-2; 60%
1:37:00 PM
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Bone ... in color?
10:19:00 PM
Mary Fitzgerald of the Washington Post reports on a loan bill just passed without opposition by Congress:
Democrats and student loan watchdog advocates have criticized as inadequate legislation passed by Congress to address loopholes that allow student loan companies to collect huge subsidies from the government. The bill ending the federal guarantee of a 9.5 percent rate of return to student loan lenders was passed Saturday without opposition by the Senate. The House passed it Thursday, also without opposition. Later in the article, there was this:
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said the legislation failed to address what he called the "full interest rate gouging" that loan companies had engaged in. "What the Congress has done is only a down payment, because it does not close the entire, notorious 9.5 percent student loan loophole, and because even this reform will expire after one year," Kennedy said in a statement. "We will be back through on the first available vehicle to shut down this wasteful corporate subsidy once and for all." However, what really piqued my interest was this sentence (emphasis mine):
The bill, supported earlier by the administration, expires in one year, with sponsors pledging to find a permanent solution when the higher education law is renewed next year.
8:35:00 AM
Week 5 NFL Pick Results.
Week 1: 9-7; 56.25%
Week 2: 9-7; 56.25%
Week 3: 10-4; 71.43%
Week 4: 8-6; 57.14%
Week 5: 8-6; 57.14%
Overall: 44-30; 59.46%
8:16:00 AM
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
To Read List.
"The Post-Truth Era: Dishonesty and Deception in Contemporary Life," Ralph Keyes.
"All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime," William Rehnquist
"Atlas Shrugged," Ayn Rand
"The Politics Presidents Make," Stephen Skowronek
"Presidential War Power," Louis Fisher
8:34:00 AM
Monday, October 11, 2004
I really want to enter this contest. Too bad I'm already registered.
9:06:00 AM
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Why Are You Celebrating?
The Minnesota Vikings are at the Houston Texans with a 21-0 lead with 6:58 left to go in the third quarter. Newly groomed Texans QB David Carr passes to Andre Johnson for a 2-yard TD pass. Johnson is knocked to the ground, but stands up, spreads his arms and then jumps into the first row of endzone seats.
Mr. Johnson: Your team is losing by two touchdowns; why are you celebrating?
2:07:00 PM
Saturday, October 09, 2004
The Washington Post reports that the House of Representatives has adopted legislation that makes it illegal to record a movie in the theater and then circulate it outside, particularly on the Internet.
The bill is dubbed the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2004.
As an interesting side note:
But when it came time to vote, lawmakers did a little editing of their own and added language to the measure that would give federal protection to a special type of DVD player that can play cleaned-up, family-friendly versions of popular Hollywood movies. The DVD player comes from a small Utah-based company called ClearPlay. Using the $70 player, it's possible to rent or buy a DVD such as "Cold Mountain" and watch it with the kids, without having to squirm through the scenes with sex or violence in them. ClearPlay's software filters contain a list of such scenes in certain movies and command the player to simply skip over them. At its Web site, ClearPlay lists hundreds of movies that the company has filtered in this way.
10:03:00 AM
Week 5 NFL Picks.
Cleveland at Pittsburgh
Detroit at Atlanta
Miami at New England
Minnesota at Houston
N.Y. Giants at Dallas
Oakland at Indianapolis
Tampa Bay at New Orleans
Buffalo at N.Y. Jets
Jacksonville at San Diego
Arizona at San Francisco
Carolina at Denver
St. Louis at Seattle
Baltimore at Washington
Tennessee at Green Bay
9:51:00 AM
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Don Wycliff at the Chicago Tribune laments on past cases in which news media -- newspapers in particular -- published verbatim news, such as the Watergate documents and Ken Starr's self-titled report. He proposes to re-enact this meme of news reporting:
It's no secret that we in this business have a credibility problem. You could fill a good-size bookshelf with the reports that have been produced over the last decade or so by scholars and journalism organizations on how to restore our credibility.
To be completely truthful, the solution to this problem is only partly within our control. There is a cynicism abroad in America nowadays that is as thick as the clouds of smoke and ash that have been issuing the last few days from Mt. St. Helen's. And on the basis of some of the phone calls and e-mails I routinely receive, it's clear that a certain highly vocal percentage of Americans is cynical because they like being cynical--it's what they do, it's who they are.
But some of what hurts newspapers' credibility is clearly within our control, and our retreat from verbatim presentations of important public statements is part of the problem and symbolic of the whole.
And so, a modest proposal: Why not try it once a week? Take a page in some part of, say, the Sunday paper, label it "Verbatim" or "For the record" or some such thing, and print there the text of one or more major speeches or reports or documents that were in the news the previous week.
And I agree. I think this would be a great feature for print media to begin anew. Certainly it would work well as a tie-in to more diverse on-line content, although it would be great to fit as much into print as possible.
1:27:00 PM
Fantasy Football, Week 4.
Week 4: 1-2
Overall: 5-7
Re-draft: 2-2
Keeper: 0-4
Dynasty: 3-1
8:58:00 AM
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Two Spams in One.
Think big with
your own retort:
be the first in
your area
to go off
the beaten path.
Light up her
life; no need to
be embarrassed.
Your opportunity has
arrived.
Will you accept it,
a dream come
true?
11:36:00 AM
Tuesday Spam.
Make more stank:
A brilliant blood splattering
fest of violence.
gainage of male
part naturally;
Scientific breakthrough
or dumb luck?
its the day
For good girls only!
Looking for someone,
chairman;
can we catch up?
Give the girl
what she needs:
Breaking news.
11:06:00 AM
Monday, October 04, 2004
Week 4 NFL Pick'em Results.
Week 1: 9-7; 56.25%
Week 2: 9-7; 56.25%
Week 3: 10-4; 71.43%
Week 4: 8-6; 57.14%
Overall: 36-24; 60%
Not too bad.
11:11:00 PM
Saturday, October 02, 2004
Steven C. Munson at Commentary magazine reviews The Rape of the Masters: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art.
His book examines eight examples of contemporary art-historical revisionism, tracing its roots to the writings of the French philosophers Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. Kimball also offers useful insights into how one should think about art. Above all, his book stands as a record of protest against intellectualism run amok. (Link via ArtsJournal.)
9:38:00 AM
NFL Week 4 Picks.
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh
Indianapolis at Jacksonville
New England at Buffalo
N.Y. Giants at Green Bay
Oakland at Houston
Philadelphia at Chicago
Washington at Cleveland
Atlanta at Carolina
New Orleans at Arizona
Denver at Tampa Bay
N.Y. Jets at Miami
Tennessee at San Diego
St. Louis at San Francisco
Kansas City at Baltimore
9:22:00 AM
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