Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Pregnancy in a nutshell

By Brendan Loy

WARNING: Clip contains profanity!

From Knocked Up:

Heh.

A very funny movie, that is -- especially when you're expecting. :)

Penalties galore, then and now

By Brendan Loy

USC's 16 penalties against Washington last night "was not a school record, it just felt like one," Scott Wolf points out. Well, yeah -- I could have told you that. I remember vividly when USC set its school record for penalties, which was also the Pac-10 record for penalties: 21 of 'em. It was September 25, 1999, and the #16-ranked Trojans lost to upstart Oregon, 33-30 in the first conference game of my freshman year. The Trojans would ultimately finish the season 6-6, 3-5 in conference, though head coach Paul Hackett would save his job for one more year by beating UCLA for the first time in nine tries (despite committing 16 penalties in that game as well). Only after following up that season with a 5-7 mark in 2000 (after again starting the season in the Top 25, #15 to be exact) did Hackett finally get canned.

I mention the 1999 Oregon game because you might recall me referencing it a week-and-a-half ago in my post "On being an Irish fan," as an example of me mocking the Trojans back when they were laughably bad:

[I]f I dig through my old photos...I believe I'd find a picture from the fall of 1999 of my dorm-room whiteboard after a USC-Oregon contest in which Paul Hackett's Trojans set a new Pac-10 record for penalties in a game. My reaction wasn't to wail and scream and gnash my teeth and wring my hands; I don't do teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing; it's not my thing. Instead, my reaction was mockery. I don't remember exactly what the whiteboard said, but it was something along the lines of congratulating the Trojans for their glorious Pac-10 record.

I found that photo, BTW:

Anyway... back to last night. What to make of USC's performance? Boi From Troy is happy because pretty much everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, and the Trojans still won. This sentiment was expressed last night at the college-football blog 100% Injury Rate:

The only team that can beat USC is USC. And let me tell you why. Quite simply, there is no team in college that can go on the road, commit three turnovers, have a punt blocked, commit 16 penalties for 160+ yards, and lose two great O-linemen - all against a decent opponent - and win. No one. LSU can't do that, Cal can't do that, Ohio State can't do that. USC played one of those games where they literally did everything they could to keep shooting themselves in the foot and still beat a decent Washington team. That is incredibly impressive. Of course, if USC plays like they did on Saturday against LSU, Cal or Ohio St. they'd be crushed. But the fact remains, they did everything wrong on Saturday against Washington and still won. That's pretty remarkable. USC is the only team that can stop USC. And they almost did it on Saturday.

On the list of things that went wrong, in Boi's view, was the officiating:

Tropical update

By Brendan Loy

Another tropical storm, Melissa, has come and gone this weekend while I've been too busy blogging about college football to pay attention to the tropics. Also since my last update, Lorenzo has made landfall and died over Mexico, and Karen has petered out over the Atlantic. Alan Sullivan explains:

This season is just plain strange: it has brought an exceptional number of duds. Evidently long-range forecasters like Dr. Gray were half-right. Preconditions for a real storm-fest were present, but tropical systems have been snuffed by unusual upper winds that I began to notice in May. Only Dean and Felix escaped, running straight west at very low latitude.

Sullivan also thinks the National Hurricane Center is "getting sensitive to blogosphere charges of count-padding." He notes a line in the discussion from when Karen was designated that he interprets as meaning, effectively, "Hey, guys, we didn’t even want to name this one, so back off."

The great LSU-USC debate, 2007 edition

By Brendan Loy

The new college football polls are out. In the AP poll, LSU moves ahead of USC by a meaningless margin of 2 points and one first-place vote; the Tigers and Trojans are essentially tied. USC maintains a reasonably comfortable lead in the coaches' poll. (The new Harris Poll -- which, unlike the AP, actually counts for BCS purposes -- isn't out yet.)

Frankly, I agree with the AP on this one. As I said yesterday, I'd have put LSU #1 on my ballot this week, if I had a vote. But it doesn't really matter anyway. If both teams win out, they'll play in the title game. It's only if one or both falters that the race gets interesting.

Apropos of which: Cal is #3, Ohio State #4 and Wisconsin #5 in both polls. South Florida rockets all the way from #18 in both polls to #6 in the AP poll, #9 in the coaches' poll. Boston College, Kentucky, Florida and Oklahoma make up, in differing orders, the rest of the Top 10.

The Gators clearly have the inside track to the title game among the one-loss teams, IMHO. If they win out, which would entail capturing the SEC crown and probably beating LSU twice in the process, they will certainly be ahead of any other one-loss teams in the pecking order, and possibly ahead of any undefeateds from the Big East as well (though I don't think it would be justifiable to put them ahead of USF, given the Bulls' win at Auburn). I imagine there might even be an argument about a one-loss Florida team vs. an undefeated Big Ten or ACC team, given the number of "quality wins" Florida would have to collect along the way (and given how last year turned out).

Anyway, next week's supposed marquee games will, as it turns out, feature #1/2 LSU vs. #9/7 Florida and #10 Oklahoma vs. #19/16 Texas. Looming larger now are Ohio State-Wisconsin on November 3 (though I suspect the Badgers will lose before then, possibly next week at resurgent Illinois) and USC-Cal on November 10 -- the latter a very possible #1 vs. #2 matchup, if both teams win out till then and LSU loses to Florida next week (or to Kentucky, Auburn or Alabama in the weeks that follow).

P.S. Florida's loss yesterday means one thing for sure: we won't have to deal with the nightmare scenario of LSU and Florida splitting the season series (i.e., the winner of next week's game then loses in the SEC title game), each finishing with one loss (to the other), and then arguing over who deserves a spot in the BCS championship game -- or even contending that they deserve a championship-game rematch. Now we know for sure that at least one of them will finish with at least two losses. Thank goodness.

"This is not a class in temporal logic!"

By Brendan Loy

And now, for a little change of pace from football... here's one of my all-time favorite bits of Star Trek dialogue. It's from the episode "A Matter of Time," and Captain Picard is trying to convince a time-traveler -- who claims to be a historian from the future -- to use his foreknowledge to help Picard decide whether to take a risky action that could save, or kill, millions of people on the planet below. Here it is, for your viewing and/or Brendan-mocking pleasure:

"It's not theoretical, it's not hypothetical, it's real!"

Kill the Rally Monkey

By JLR

Kill the Rally Monkey.

*Signed*: Red Sox Nation

PS: And go Indians--kill the Bronx Bastards!

Trojans survive Upset Saturday carnage

By Brendan Loy

USC survives, 27-24. Phew.

Good effort, Huskies. Way to hang in there till the end and make a game of it. As for the Trojans, it's nice to see that we can still win while playing like we're sleepwalking, committing 843 penalties for 458,629 yards (or something like that), and generally looking kinda crappy. But this sort of effort won't cut it when we travel to Oregon, Cal and Arizona State.

Meanwhile, Auburn stunned Florida, 20-17, hitting a last-second field goal to win it. Wow.

The #4 Gators join #3 Oklahoma, #5 West Virginia, #7 Texas and #10 Rutgers as losers this weekend. Again, wow. Check out next week's likely Top 4:

1. USC or LSU
2. LSU or USC
3. Cal
4. Ohio State

Holy hell!

If Florida beats LSU next week, and the Trojans and Bears win out through October and the first week of November, the Cal-USC game on November 10 could be #1 vs. #2!!!

By the way, let the record show that I was the first person who labelled today "Upset Saturday." And that was at 2:02 PM, before any of the day's Top 10 losses! :)

P.S. Auburn's win over Florida isn't just big for Auburn. It's huge for Big East co-leader South Florida, which knocked off Auburn on the Tigers' home field two weeks ago. It was starting to look like USF's win over Auburn was going to lose some of its lustre, but not anymore!

If the Bulls can run the table in the Big East, they can present themselves as serious national-title contenders. Imagine the following scenario: USC wins out and finishes #1. Florida recovers from tonight's loss, knocks off LSU next week, wins out and captures the SEC crown. The Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 don't produce any undefeated teams. South Florida, however, wins the Big East at 12-0. So... who is USC's opponent in the BCS title game? Florida, the SEC champion and defending national champ, can make a case for itself at 12-1... but what about USF? They'd be 12-0, Big East champs, and with a win over the team that beat Florida. Seems to me, the proper matchup in that scenario would be Trojans vs. Bulls.

Of course, that exact scenario probably won't happen, but in any conceivable scenario, it's very good news for USF that Auburn picked up this victory, and it'd be even better news if the Tigers seize on this win and really turn around their season.

Needless to say, any national-title talk is a long way off -- and personally, I doubt USF will win out. Based on watching them play, I don't actually think they're all that good. But it's still fun to speculate about such things. :) A more immediate question is where the Bulls will be ranked next week. They were #18 this week, but the combination of their win over West Virginia with Auburn's win over Florida, plus all the other upset losses, should allow them to move up significantly.

If I had a vote, here's what I think my ballot would look like, off the top of my head:

1. LSU
2. USC
3. Cal
4. Ohio State
5. Kentucky
6. Boston College
7. South Florida
8. Wisconsin
9. Florida
10. Oklahoma

P.P.S. The Terrific Twenty-Three is down to a Fantastic Fifteen: Boston College from the ACC; Kansas and Missouri from the Big 12; Cincinnati, South Florida and UConn from the Big East; Purdue, Ohio State and Wisconsin from the Big Ten; Arizona State, Cal and USC from the Pac-10; Kentucky and LSU from the SEC; and Hawaii from the WAC. And with three of the four participants in next Saturday's supposed Games of the Century (OU-Texas, LSU-Florida) suffering losses today, the only unbeaten-vs.-unbeaten matchup next week is Ohio State at Purdue.

P.P.P.S. If anybody's wondering why I still haven't posted the pick 'em contest standings... I've misplaced the spreadsheet that I need to calculate 'em. It must be on one of my external drives. I'll try to find it tomorrow. :) Sorry!

BEAT THE HUSKIES!!!

By Brendan Loy

Er, sorry, forgot to post a USC-Washington game thread earlier. It's a scoreless tie at the end of the first quarter, with USC looking very sloppy so far. Oh yeah, and two of our starting offensive linesmen got injured on the same play. D'oh!

Meanwhile, Auburn is beating Florida 7-0 early.

UPDATE: UW scored, USC answered, and it's 7-7. Meanwhile, Auburn's lead is now 14-0! War Eagle!

UPDATE 2: Another Trojan injury! Good grief!

Forget the third string. Could USC's all-gimp team beat Notre Dame? :)

UPDATE 3: Trojans 17, Huskies 14 at halftime.

UPDATE 4: Heeeere we go. Bring on the Pete Carroll Second-Half Magic!^TM

UPDATE 5: UW looks asleep, but USC hasn't done anything yet either. Still 17-14. Meanwhile, it's now the fourth quarter in Gainsville, and Auburn leads 17-3. Woooo!

According to Brent Musberger, if either USC or Florida loses tonight, it'll be the first time since October 11, 2003 that five Top 10 teams have lost in one weekend. I remember that day very well: it was two weeks after USC's triple-overtime loss to Cal, which had dropped the Trojans from #3 to #10 in the polls. They had climbed back to #9 the week before, on the strength of their win at Arizona State; I lived in New York City at that time, but I was visiting Becky the weekend of October 4, and we were at Sun Devil Stadium for the game -- which turned out to be the first win of the 34-game winning streak. Anyway, I was back in New York on October 11, and Dane happened to be in town, so we got together and went down to the bar where the USC alumni club was meeting to watch the Trojans play Stanford. We watched the scoreboard giddily as one Top 10 team after another lost: #3 Ohio State, #5 Florida State, #6 LSU, #7 Arkansas and #10 Nebraska. I think we may have had a few drinks to celebrate those losses and USC's win; I recall stumbling toward the subway later, marvelling at the beauty of being in a city where picking a designated driver isn't an issue. :) Anyway, as a result of those losses by previously undefeated teams, and of USC's easy win over the Farm, the Trojans climbed all the way back to #5 in the AP poll and #4 in the coaches poll the following week. It was almost like the Cal loss had never happened. October 11, 2003 set the stage for USC's eventual split championship with LSU. (In fact, if I'm being honest, the biggest reason USC was ranked #1 in the final regular-season AP poll, with LSU #2, is because the Trojans suffered their loss two weeks before the Tigers did.)

UPDATE 6: USC 24, Washington 17 with 11:01 left in the fourth quarter. This one may actually go down to the wire!

UPDATE 7: 15 penalties, 151 yards. Is this a Paul Hackett-coached team???

Also, will Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit please stop talking about irrelevant s**t and TALK ABOUT THE GAME?!? It would be different it this were a blowout, but it's a close, exciting game!! The endless headshots of the two announcers are getting extremely old, too. Show the field, show the players, show the coaches, show the fans, show the cheerleaders... show something other than two white guys sitting in a bland booth talking to each other! Ugh!

UPDATE 8: AUBURN WINS!!!! WOOOO!!!!!!

Meanwhile, it looked like Washington had intercepted the ball in their own end zone with 3:06 left down by just 7, but it now appears it will be overturned on replay and USC can go for a field goal to take a 10-point lead.

UPDATE 9: Field goal good! 27-17 Trojans.

Colorado stuns Oklahoma! [and Texas loses, too!]

By Brendan Loy

WOOOOOO!!!

HUGE win for the Colorado program, needless to say. It was 24-7 Sooners late in the third quarter, and 24-10 going into the fourth, but the Buffaloes scored 20 unanswered (17 of those in the fourth) to win it, 27-24. Wow!!

I'm super annoyed at myself for not watching. The game was televised here, but I had the TV on the Clemson-Georgia Tech game (on mute) because the OU-CU game wasn't close the last time I checked. D'oh!

Anyway, now we probably won't have to worry about any damn LSU-USC-Oklahoma controversy this year. Thank goodness. If the Trojans and Tigers both go undefeated, I'd love to have an undisputed title game between 'em. It'd put about four years of angst to rest.

I guess this means I'm rooting for Oklahoma against Texas next week. The more undefeated teams lose, the better! Not only to facilitate a possible USC-LSU battle, but also to facilitate a possible Rutgers or South Florida title-game appearance if USC is the only undefeated team left at the end of the season. (Obviously I refuse on principle to contemplate scenarios that involve USC losing. :)

P.S. Maybe I won't have to worry about Texas: they're losing 24-14 to Kansas State at halftime! Woo!!! Texas & Oklahoma suck!!! :)

UPDATE: Texas is going to lose!!! YEEEEEAAAH!!!! WOOOOO!!!!! Second year in a row they've lost to Kansas State.

But it looks like the Rutgers dream is going to die. They're trailing Maryland 27-17 with 6:45 to play. This hasn't been a good 24 hours for the Big East. First the #5-ranked Mountaineers, considered the conference's one true "elite" team, loses in conference play, and now Rutgers, the presumptive class of the conference in the wake of WVU's loss and Louisville's collapse, is losing to a middling ACC team. Yuck.

UPDATE 2: Kansas State 41, Texas 21, final. Woohoo!

So much for next Saturday's Red River Shootout having massive national-title implications. The Big 12 is now, in all likelihood, irrelevant to the BCS race. The Pac-10 and SEC have the inside track to the title game.

Wouldn't it be awesome if Auburn could stun Florida at the Swamp tonight? It would totally cap off the day. (And, um, you know what wouldn't totally cap off the day? USC losing to Washington. Yeah. Let's have none of that.)

Meanwhile, Rutgers scored a TD, and is within 3.

UPDATE 3: Maryland wins, 34-24. So much for the Scarlet Knights inserting themselves into the national-championship discussion. The remaining undefeated teams in the Big East are... Cincinnati, South Florida and UConn!

So, four Top Ten teams have been upset in the last 24 hours: #3 Oklahoma, #5 West Virginia, #7 Texas and #10 Rutgers. In addition, previously undefeated Clemson, Michigan State and Oregon lost today. So the Terrific 23 is down to 16 and counting. Still to play: #1 USC (at Washington), #4 Florida (vs. Auburn), #8 Ohio State (at Minnesota) and #24 Cincinnati (at San Diego State).

UPDATE 4: Another reason to like Colorado: their coach is a Great Big Sea fan!

Suddenly it's a ballgame!

By Brendan Loy

It's Purdue 26, Notre Dame 19 with 7:58 to go. Evan Sharpley, replacing the injured Jimmy Clausen, is looking Brady Quinn-esque all of a sudden; Tennessee's own Golden Tate is looking Jeff Samardzija-esque; and Purdue is looking Michigan State-esque, circa 2006, as they "pucker pucker pucker" away a big lead. And of course, that lead could have been bigger (like, 42-19) if they had more of a red-zone offense. On the other hand, it could have been smaller (like, 26-24) if Notre Dame could kick a freakin' field goal or extra point. Apropos of which, apparently Charlie Weis plans to go for 2 and the win if the Irish score again. Seems sensible to me, given that the kicker is 1-for-3 on PAT attempts that counted, 2-for-5 when you include the ones that were nullified by penalties. First, though, we need to stop Purdue on this drive.

GOOOO IRISH!!! BEEEEAT BOILERS!!!

UPDATE: Can someone explain to me how the F*** that was a touchdown?? His ass was on the ground!! WTF??? Why do we even have replay, if they aren't going to take extra time to look at a play like that??

Regardless, 33-19 Purdue, 5:33 left. So much for that.

UPDATE 2: Aaaand an interception in the end zone effectively ends the game.

0-8.

UPDATE 3: 33-19, final.

So, was this a "moral victory" for the Irish? Certainly, they played better in the second half than they have all year. On the other hand, Purdue was definitely puckering. From what the announcers were saying, the Boilermakers have made a habit of playing lazy in the second half this season, and they continued that habit against the Irish today. No way do the next three teams on Notre Dame's schedule let them back into the game like Purdue did. (Well, UCLA might, but only if they're having one of their Karl Dorrell Special^TM "lay an egg" games.)

On the other other hand, the Notre Dame team that took the field two weeks ago against Michigan wouldn't have taken advantage of the opportunities Purdue gave them. So yes, there's improvement. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. I agree with AlGoldenDomer that "the 1st half may have been our worst of the year" -- well, maybe not worst, but certainly worse than anything except the Michigan game -- and that matters too. I think Camarillo Brillo puts it best:

We did show some heart. Sharpley played well. Tate and Kamara came on big, and they deserve more PT. Defense stepped it up a bit in the 2nd half.

However....

We were getting our asses kicked in the first half. [Defensive coordinator] Corwin Brown's scheme for the Purdue offense was for s**t. We sat back in a passive base defense, like Minter and let Purdue shove the ball down our throat. We got very little pass rush on Painter. The wide-outs on Purdue were abusing our secondary.

Our special teams are beyond bad. Two missed PATs a missed FG, numerous poor squibs that gave Purdue great field position, terrible blocking on punt returns and kick returns.

Weis made some bad decisions. Where was Robert Hughes? Okay, he got stuffed on 4th and 1, who hasn't? Bronco F***ing Nagurski couldn't pick up 4th and 1 with this line. Tate was all over the field making great catches. Why put him on the bench? Why put Brian Smith on the field after that stupid personal foul? (two fouls if you count the uncalled one before that)?

It was a nice comeback but on the main this team is an undisciplined mess.

I'll say it again. Charlie, you are the head coach. You are the man who swaggered into South Bend and proclaimed that when it came down to Xs and Os you would not get beat very often. Charlie, it's about alot more than X's and O's right now. It's about managing the game, preparation, making smart substitutions and keeping your players in line. The reality is, Charlie, you are 0-5. That has never happened before in the history of Notre Dame. Your contract was extended after 7 games in your first season. You are getting paid millions of dollars. This is your team, these are your recruits. Fix the problem, Coach Weis.

Upset Saturday?

By Brendan Loy

A few halftime scores from around the country:

LSU 10, Tulane 9 (Tulane was up 9-7 until the Tigers got a field goal just before halftime)

Northwestern 16, Michigan 7

Illinois 21, Penn State 17

Indiana 21, Iowa 7

UPDATE: Looks like LSU is pulling away. No surprise there. But how about Duke being within 3 points of Miami in the fourth quarter? The same Miami that crushed Texas A&M last week?

UPDATE 2: LSU and Michigan won, but Illinois and Indiana pulled the upsets.

Meanwhile, undefeated Division I-AA team UMass is making it a ballgame against undefeated Division I-A team Boston College.

It's now or November: let's get a win, boys

By Brendan Loy

[Well, I suppose I can let the blasphemy below stand, but I'm going to bump this post above it, at least. :) -ed.]

*    *    *

With apologies to the Neudorffs...

GOOOOO IRISH!!! BEEEEEAT BOILERS!!!

UPDATE: We've got Erin Andrews! w00t! And apparently she's been looking deeply into Charlie Weis's eyes.

UPDATE 2: If you look deeply into Charlie Weis's eyes right now, you'd probably see... panic. It's 10-0 Purdue already, with 5:49 left in the first quarter, and the defense looks like s**t. Boilermakers moving the ball at will.

On the bright side, here's one of the many reasons I love Becky: for the last three Saturdays in a row, she's made some sort of a yummy dip for us to eat while watching football:

Mmm... vegetables.

UPDATE 3: What the hell was that? Darrin Walls just gave up on that tackle. It was like he just sort of assumed Greg Orton would go out of bounds... and as a result, Orton got loose for an extra 10 yards. Completely pathetic.

UPDATE 4: A sampling of commentary from ND Nation:

how f'n embarrassing

It cannot get worse than this.

HOLY F**K

F**k this. Good thing I have a kid's soccer game to get to.

this is just bloody awful.

Unf**kingreal.

We Are TOAST

USC will beat us by 80

UPDATE 5: I wrote earlier this week that "I feel like some of my fellow Irish fans aren't fully grappling with the enormity of the team's suckiness." Well, over on ND Nation, I think the "grappling" process is beginning. There are several comments along the lines of, "This is the worst team I have ever seen," and there's this post, which I agree with 100 percent:

We are inexplicably bad...in EVERY facet of the game. I can understand rebuilding. There is no excuse to be this bad, across the board. Yes, it's Ty's fault. But this is Weis' fault primarily. This team should be competitive by this point, and they're not even close.

The combination of our "improvement" against a very mediocre Michigan State team and our "brutal" early schedule (whose already clearly overrated "brutality" is looking even less fierce at the moment, with Penn State losing to Illinois, and Michigan -- whose big "quality win" is over Penn State -- losing to Northwestern) allowed some Domers to fool themselves into thinking that we'd be doing much better if we were playing weaker teams. Now, they're saying things like this: "The sad thing is PU isn't even good. That's how bad we are." "Nope. They're a .500 Big 11 team."

It's 23-0 with 2:50 left in the first half. Two touchdowns and three field goals. If Purdue had any kind of a red-zone offense -- if, say, we were playing USC or Boston College today -- it'd be 35-0 right now. We're lucky to be "only" behind 23-0.

Well, I was going to wait until after the game

By Trisha Neudorff

However, seeing as how Brendan has just picked on the BBD (Big Bass Drum, for you non-Purdue people), I just can't let that go.

GO BOILERS! BEAT THE IRISH!

(Yes, I realize I may have just forfeited my guest-blogger privileges, lol. It was worth it ;))

Black is white, up is down in Big East

By Brendan Loy

#18-ranked South Florida upset #5 West Virginia tonight, 21-13, in a sloppy but entertaining Big East showtown that ESPN2's Sean McDonough introduced as "the biggest game in the history of our Friday-night telecast." And the outcome makes it the biggest win in the history of USF's young football program.

With the loss, the Mountaineers join Louisville and Pittsburgh in a tie for last place in the Big East, while South Florida is tied with UConn and Syracuse for first. No, it's not opposite day: those are really the current conference standings. Who'd have thunk it? Huskies and Orange and Bulls, oh my!

Of course, the standings don't mean much at this point (everybody is either 1-0, 0-1 or 0-0 in conference play), but the more important point is that South Florida and Rutgers are now the presumptive front-runners for the Big East title (although, don't sleep on Cincinnati). McDonough even suggested that USF, which has a pretty favorable schedule outside of the Thursday-night showdown at Rutgers on October 18, could find itself in the national title discussion if it runs the table.

Methinks it would take a lot of attrition among the other members of the Terrific Twenty-ThreeTwo before most people would start seriously considering the Bulls for a title-game spot -- but hey, that does tend to happen, so it's certainly within the realm of possibility. (It would help USF's case if Auburn could turn its season around, thus making the Bulls' win at the Tigers' home stadium look more impressive. That could be especially helpful if we end up having a BCS debate between an undefeated South Florida team and, say, a one-loss Florida or LSU team.)

Personally, I don't think USF is actually good enough to be true national-championship material. In fact, notwithstanding my bias toward mid-majors and other little-team-that-could success stories, I don't think they're close. In both of their games that I've watched -- tonight's sloppy triumph, and the even sloppier win over Auburn three weeks ago -- the Bulls won largely by taking advantage of a ton of unforced errors (and a few forced ones, too, in fairness), and would have won more easily if they hadn't made a fair number of bad mistakes themselves. I suspect that'll catch up with them at some point, and they'll eventually lose a game or two.

But their rise to prominence is a great story regardless, and if they do end up running the table, they certainly deserve to be duly considered as a national-title contender out of the very competitive league that the Big East has become.

The Red Sox are the AL East champions!!!

By Brendan Loy

Woohoo!!!

Thanks, Orioles!

Yankees suck!

P.S. This is the first time Boston has won the American Leage East since 1995, and it breaks a string of nine consecutive Yankees division titles.

UPDATE: And the Cubs are NL Central champs!

P.P.S. I can say this without risking a jinx now, right? BOSTON'S MAGIC NUMBER IS ZERO!!! :)

I must say, though, I don't think the Red Sox should be stealing the White Sox's song:

BOSTON (AP) -- Jonathan Papelbon danced barefoot in the infield. Daisuke Matsuzaka smiled and bowed to a group surrounding him. And the sound system played "Don't Stop Believin'."

Huh? Anyway, the article continues:

Ecstatic fans joined in to savor Boston's first division title in 12 years -- and the end of the New York Yankees' long run on top.

More than an hour after the Red Sox beat Minnesota 5-2, the Yankees lost at Baltimore to make it official. Moments later, Boston players popped champagne corks in the clubhouse while a few thousand fans left at Fenway Park let loose, the echoes of their cheers spreading through the mostly empty stadium.

"I pulled my hamstring jumping off the couch," said manager Terry Francona, who watched the end of the Yankees game in his office with general manager Theo Epstein and owners John Henry and Tom Werner. "It's fun to see grown men act like little kids."

With Boston's win, New York's loss and Cleveland's 5-3 victory over Kansas City, the AL playoff pairings were set: The Los Angeles Angels will open at Boston, and the wild-card Yankees will start at Cleveland.

Beat the Angels!!

Beat the drum

By Brendan Loy

Jay at The Blue-Gray Sky has a Top 10 list of superstitious rituals that might help break Notre Dame's six-game losing streak. I particularly like #4:

Collect the poison of a Yellow Jacket, the tooth of a Nittany Lion, the hair of a Wolverine, and the sweat of a Spartan. Mix together in a large pot and boil for 24 hours, chanting the ancient Celtic Rite of Purification. Pour mixture in the trash and immediately shotgun 12 Keystone Lights.

Heh. #6 is good, too: "Zahm Hall shall remain celibate until the first win. Zahm is delighted to finally have an excuse."

Whatever it takes, I hope the Irish can find some way to pull out a win tomorrow against Purdue. If they don't, there's an excellent chance the November 3 home game against Navy will become a "something's gotta give" matchup, and not in a good way. I can hear the pregame commentary already in my mind's ear: Which streak will end today? Navy's 43-year string of futility against the Irish, or Notre Dame's 10-game losing streak? Somebody's gotta win! ... Yeah, that wouldn't be fun. Not fun at all. Blech.

Go Irish. Beat Boilers.

The Terrific Twenty-Three

By Brendan Loy

For the second week in a row, Friday-night football on ESPN2 features a matchup between two undefeated teams tonight. This week's showdown, West Virginia at South Florida, is a much bigger deal than last week's Oklahoma-Tulsa nonconference curiosity. Tonight's game will go a long way toward determining who wins the Big East, and the folks in Tampa are ready -- they've been ready for some time, actually -- for the biggest game in their young football program's history (not to mention their first home sellout). The visiting, #5-ranked Mountaineers, whose BCS hopes were derailed last season by a stunning home loss to South Florida, are a one-touchdown favorite.

Saturday will feature two more unbeaten-versus-unbeaten showdowns, both at 3:30 PM. In the Big Ten, Michigan State visits Wisconsin, and in the Pac-10, Cal visits Oregon. The latter, which is basically the battle to see who will challenge USC for the conference title (though Arizona State may also have something to say about that), is the ESPN GameDay game, though most of the country won't get to see it because of other ABC games airing at the same time. (Here in Knoxville, for example, we get Clemson-Georgia Tech instead. Harumph.) There's also, technically speaking, another unbeaten-versus-unbeaten showdown between Boston College at UMass at 1:00 PM, but the Minutemen are a Division I-AA team, so that doesn't really count.

There's only one unbeaten-vs.-winless game this week: Notre Dame (0-4) at Purdue (4-0). If the Irish keep losing, they could potentially face a grand total of five such games before the season is over (not counting the season-opening 0-0 vs. 0-0 game against Georgia Tech) -- vs. Penn State, vs. Michigan State, vs. Purdue, vs. Boston College and vs. USC. I wonder if that would be some kind of record? Anyway, the Irish are 22-point underdogs against Purdue.

Easily the heaviest favorite among the unbeatens this weekend is LSU, which visits a Tulane team that Vegas has pegged as a 41-point underdog. Ouch. The second-heaviest favorite is Hawaii, the lone remaining undefeated team from a non-BCS conference, which resumes its WAC schedule at Idaho -- and is favored by 25.

Outside of the three games between a pair of Division I-A unbeatens, the only game featuring one of the Terrific 23 with a point-spread of less than 14 points is the aforementioned Clemson at Georgia Tech contest; the Tigers are favored by just 3. Other than that, all the unbeatens are heavily favored -- even the runt of the group, UConn, which hosts 15.5-point underdog Akron at East Hartford's Rentschler Field. The Huskies, by the way, got three votes in this week's AP poll, courtesy of a 23rd-place vote by Doug Doughty of the Roanoke (Va.) Times. That means all 23 undefeated teams are now getting at least some recognition in the polls.

Anyway, the Terrific 23 will definitely shrink to at most 20 this weekend, thanks to the three unbeaten-vs.-unbeaten games, and a Clemson loss would drop the total to 19... but any further attrition would entail a major upset.

The full "Terrific 23" schedule is after the jump.

P.S. Stay tuned for pick 'em contest standings! Really! Tonight! (Hopefully.)

Jones to Cincy

By Brendan Loy

Demetrius Jones, who disastrously started Notre Dame's season opener at QB and then notoriously quit the team right before the Michigan game without telling anybody his plans, is going to Cincinnati instead of Northern Illinois. (Hat tip: Patrick.)

The sad thing is, that's a step up at this point. The Bearcats are 4-0 and ranked for the first time since 1976. Notre Dame... eh, you all know how Notre Dame is doing. In any event, I wish him well.

On an unrelated note, I'm really, really going to try to make time tomorrow evening to finally get the pick 'em contest online. Considering the regular season is basically one-third over, I figure it's time. :) Also coming tomorrow, hopefully: an update on the Terrific Twenty-Three (i.e., the remaining undefeated teams), and who they play this weekend. If I have time, I'll do the Egregious Eleven as well (the winless teams).

UPDATE BY DAVID K.: The South Bend Tribune is reporting that Notre Dame sophomore lineman Chris Stewart has traveled home to Texas to spend time with his family, and is considering leaving the school and the team. If he leaves, Stewart would be the third player to leave the team in the past two weeks and the 17th to leave since Charlie Weis took over the program.

(Hat tip: Timugen in comments.)

Another out-of-the-blue Gulf hurricane

By Brendan Loy

Hurricane Lorenzo is about to make landfall along the central Mexican Gulf coast. If you don't remember hearing me mention Lorenzo before on the blog, that's because I haven't: like Humberto before him, Lorenzo blew up very quickly, from a tropical depression as late as 11:00 AM today to a hurricane as of 8:00 PM. Now he's at 80 mph, and some additional slight strengthening is possible before landfall in the next few hours.

Meanwhile, out in the middle of the Atlantic is Tropical Storm Karen, struggling with wind shear and currently no threat to land. That could change eventually, but it's very hard to say at this point. Alan Sullivan writes: "If conditions were right, this would have been a mighty hurricane. As it is, we will see a feeble, sputtering tropical storm headed slowly northwest then west for days to come. The GFS model keeps Karen alive long enough to recover strength off the East Coast, recurve, and pass just off Cape Cod as a sizeable hurricane." That's just one computer model, though, and it's trying to predict something a long way off (like ~10 days), so take it with several buckets full of salt.

Apparently we've killed some bad guys in Iraq

By Brendan Loy

One of the things that struck me watching the first part of Ken Burns's The War last night on my TiVo was the focus on body counts. Whenever he would talk about a battle in the Pacific, it was always the comparitive body count that seemed to matter most: yeah, we lost X number of men, but the Japanese lost more, so it was a success! And it wasn't just Burns. One of the soldiers he interviewed talked about a failed Japanese ambush on Guadalcanal in which 900+ Japanese soldiers were killed, but only 36 Americans died. "That was really great for morale," the soldier said. And of course, I understand why -- that's a huge victory -- but at the same time, I thought, wow, it really shows how your perspective changes in war. Those 36 dead Americans undoubtedly had good friends in the unit who were devastated to lose them. And yet it was "great" for morale that they were the only ones who died.

With that in mind, I was struck by the top headline in today's issue of USA Today as I walked past a news box in downtown Knoxville this afternoon:

"19,000 militant fatalities since '03." My initial, instinctive reaction upon reading that was: "Really? 19,000? Well, hey, that puts those 3,800 American fatalities in perspective, doesn't it?" To which I think, upon reflection, that the correct answer is: yes and no. On the one hand, this is a very, very different kind of war than the mass-mobilization, fight-to-the-last-man battle that was World War II, so the cruel arithmetic of body counts doesn't have the same significance. Plus, unlike in conventional wars, we have to ask whether our presence in Iraq is breeding anger to such a degree that two new militants are popping up for every militant who dies. (I don't presume to know the answer to that question; I'm just saying it has to be asked.) But on the other hand, it is nice to know that we're more efficient at killing the enemy than they are at killing us. I mean, I think we all suspect that instinctively, but it's nice to have hard numbers to back it up.

Here's the full story. It points out that "U.S. commanders consider the number of enemy deaths a poor measure of progress in an insurgency." I sort of figured that, but even so, seeing the headline got me thinking along lines similar to the question I asked earlier this month in reference to blogger Michael Totten's account of the surge's success: "why aren't we hearing more about this sort of thing?" The subheadline on the USA Today story reads, "Military discloses stats for first time." Well, for heaven's sake, what's taken them so long?

Leaving aside the merits for a moment, and looking at this purely as a P.R. issue, it strikes me as head-smackingly stupid for the Bush Administration to not publicize these numbers. Even if they're not terribly meaningful in reality, an awful lot of people will have the same initial reaction I did -- or perhaps even a more rah-rah version of it, along the lines of Hey! We're kickin' ass! -- and many won't then retreat to the more philosophical "yes and no" answer that I eventually settled on. They'll stick with instinctual "hell yeah!" sort of response. Needless to say, from President Bush's perspective, such reactions are pure gold.

Memo to the Bush Administration: If you want people to support an ongoing war, you need to tell them we're killing the bad guys. It helps with morale. It gives people something to rally around. It prevents them from feeling like the whole effort is pointless and we're just wasting money and lives. Helping the Iraqi people build a stable democracy -- that's a worthy goal, but an esoteric one, hard to wrap your mind around. But killing bad guys: everybody understands that.

Ideally, you'd like to be able to say that we're killing the bad guys more efficiently and consistently than they're killing us. The government understood that in World War II, which is why they initially suppressed the news of how bad the death toll at Pearl Harbor was, and how poorly things were going in some early Pacific battles. They had to lie to rally support. All the Bush Administration needs to do is tell the truth! So what's taken them so long? Why aren't they shouting these numbers from the rooftops?

The article explains that the answer is at least partially a reaction to Vietnam:

The U.S. military rarely discusses the numbers of enemy dead, fearful of raising parallels with the Vietnam War when the U.S. military's reliance on "body counts" led to allegations of inflated figures because of political pressure to show results.

Well, I understand that fear, I guess, but isn't this a case of the pendulum swinging too far in the other direction? Just because you don't want to exaggerate body counts, which I certainly agree with, doesn't mean you shouldn't even release accurate ones! Especially with the media being veritably obsessed with the body count on our side, doesn't it make sense to tell 'em the count on the other side, to provide some context? Yet the military didn't even release this data of its own accord. It was "provided at USA TODAY's request."

Say what you will about the media and its biases, but one thing I know for sure is this: journalists love numbers. You give them a number that quantifies, or purports to quantify, a major news story, and they will report it far and wide. This is a reality that Rudy Giuliani understood when he refused to speculate about the death toll on 9/11, and that Ray Nagin, Kathleen Blanco and others failed to understand when they shot off their mouths about "10,000 body bags" after Katrina. (Giuliani, like everyone else, probably feared the World Trade Center toll was well into the five digits, but he knew better than to give voice to that fear, since his pessimistic estimate, based on nothing, would have been treated like gospel in the media. Instead, he said the toll would be "more than any of us can bear" -- a pitch-perfect answer, even if it frustrated the number-hungry journos. By contrast, the Louisiana officials had no such self-restraint, and the result was widespread and long-lasting overreporting of Katrina's toll.) Whether they love the war or hate it, the media would report these numbers if the administration was harping on them regularly, and the numbers would provide a valuable counterweight -- in media coverage and public perception, regardless of the realities on the ground -- to the ever-growing, always-heavily-reported "milestones" in the death toll among U.S. soldiers.

I am continually baffled and amazed by this administration's incompetence, not only in mismanaging the war in Iraq, but in mismanaging the propaganda war at home. Good grief.

Winds of change

By Brendan Loy

Those crazy liberal Al Gore-worshipping nutjobs in the Bush White House are officially on the global-warming bandwagon.

Also, I am officially a bad person for categorizing this post under "Weather." It's climate, not weather, you moron!  Yeah, but I don't have a "climate" category...

Before Mike Gundy, there was...

By Brendan Loy

...Jim Boeheim. (Warning: clip contains profanity!)

God, I love that clip. Best. Rant. Ever. I can't believe I didn't think of posting it earlier, in relation to the Gundy incident.

How did Notre Dame get so bad, so fast?

By Brendan Loy

As noted previously here and here, I've been planning for some time -- since the Michigan game, in fact -- to write a serious post about Notre Dame's struggles this season. I've been working on it mentally for almost two weeks, and I actually started typing it up shortly before the Michigan State game. I was hoping that game would render the post moot, but alas, no. So, here goes.

Admittedly, against the Spartans, the Irish showed some improvement over the previous week's performance -- going "from total ineptitude to just sucking" -- to the point where it's now at least possible to envision them beating the likes of Navy and Duke. But make no mistake, they're still horrible. In terms of quality of play, the Irish have got to be in the bottom 25% of Division I-A right now, and probably the bottom 10%. And so the question must be asked: Why? How? What the hell has happened?

I realize Notre Dame graduated a lot of good players last year. I realize there's inexperience at key positions. I realize the talent and depth are thin on the offensive line, among other places. I realize Jimmy Clausen is young, green, and getting pushed around like nobody's business. I accept all that. And believe me, I didn't expect the Irish to be good this year. But I still don't understand how they got this bad, this quickly. It simply boggles my mind.

Perhaps the boggling of my mind is not too surprising in itself. I'm not a terribly good football analysisist when it comes to the actual nuts and bolts of the game; I've never claimed to be. (I can explain to you all about the BCS, though. I'm better with the nerdy stuff than with the actual game.) But when I read the analyses from people who do know what they're talking about... I still don't get it. None of the explanations for the Irish's sudden and calamitous fall from grace seem adequate. Many seem, if I can be uncharitable for a moment, more like apologias than analyses.

I feel like some of my fellow Irish fans aren't fully grappling with the enormity of the team's suckiness. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's the feeling I get -- and as a result, their explanations ring hollow and inadequate, and leave me feeling continually confused over what the heck is going on in South Bend.

The Integer That Must Not Be Named

By Brendan Loy

Lest I invoke a jinx or hex of some kind (the "curse of the Brendino"?), I'm not going to mention any baseball-related terms that rhyme with "tragic lumber." However, the Red Sox won yesterday to stretch their AL East lead over the Yankees to 3 games, with each team having 4 games left to play. (Ahem, you do the math.)

In some ways, this divisional "race" is academic. No matter the outcome, both teams are going to the playoffs -- one as the AL East champ, the other as the wild card -- and since two teams from the same division can't meet in the opening round, we could be building toward another epic ALCS clash regardless. However, as a Boston fan, I would be much happier if it's the Sox who are the champs and the Yanks the chumps wild-card winners. Not only does it mean home-field advantage in a possible ALCS meeting, but it's a matter of pride: as I wrote previously, "We broke the Curse in 2004, and in the process we humiliated the Yankees in historic back-from-3-0 fashion, but we still haven't beaten them in the division race -- that is to say, been better than them over the course of the entire regular season -- since, like, forever." So... GO SAWX!

P.S. My Uncle Scott calls me "Brendino," if anybody is wondering where on earth that came from.

My family's "greatest generation"

By Brendan Loy

[UPDATE: Welcome, InstaPundit readers! I published this post yesterday (Wednesday) evening. However, as noted below, the referenced episode of The War can be seen this Sunday, when the first five episodes will be aired back-to-back starting at 11:00 AM.]

*   *   *

Tonight at 8:00 PM, the fourth episode of Ken Burns's documentary on World War II, The War, will air on PBS.  (It'll be rerun at 10:30 PM and 2:30 AM, and on Sunday at 5:30 PM.  The first five episodes will be aired consecutively on Sunday from 11:00 AM to 10:30 PM.)  The episode, titled "Pride of Our Nation," details the events that occurred from June through August of 1944, including D-Day and the battles of Tarawa, Saipan and Tinian.

As I've mentioned before, my Grandpa Loomer was a Marine, and he fought in all three of those battles.  Here's a photo of him -- wearing the fatigue jacket that he would later give to me -- sitting on a wrecked Japanese airplane along a captured airstrip in Tinian:

My mom, who has been watching The War with considerable interest these last two nights, e-mailed me yesterday to share some more details about our family history vis a vis World War II.  (My paternal grandfather was in his 30s by the time the war broke out, so he didn't fight.  As a result, it was on my mother's side that the war's impact was most acutely felt.)  Ken Burns's focus on the impact that the war had on ordinary people has gotten my mom thinking about how it affected her own family.  She wrote, in part:

We are from a family wrapped around World War II.  Grandpa started going out with Grandma in the summer of '42, while planning to enlist in the service as a carpenter 4th class.  When he found out how much more officers earned, he decided to do that [instead], [so] that he could support a wife, and proposed to Grandma.  They were married in Fredericksburg VA, right near Quantico VA [home of the Marine Officer Candidate School.  He was 26 years old, and she was 25.]  They had to wait to have a wedding reception when he got 30 day's leave, a month later (and they had gotten married on a 3-day pass at Christmas). 

When he shipped out it was with the 2nd Marine Division, seeing combat on Tarawa, then Saipan [and] Tinian ... He and Grandma didn't know when they would be able to start a family, with all the danger Grandpa was in, so they were married from Dec. 1942 through 1944 putting it off.  It finally reached the point where they thought if they waited any longer, they might have to wait ten years (which before the bomb seemed likely).  So when he was sent back in California (as it turned out for his last leave), in late 1944, he and Grandma stayed together there for three months, and it was then that they decided they shouldn't wait any longer.  When Grandma saw him off and took the train back home to Wisconsin, she was 1 month pregnant with Patty.  As a result, Patty was born before the end of the war (4 days before Roosevelt died).  Grandpa got posted to Japan for the occupation and didn't get home until early 1946, when Patty was 8 months old.  (That was the first time he saw her.)  But not knowing what lay ahead, their going ahead as they did was pretty brave.  Patty's best friend in high school was raised by just her mother.  Her dad had died in the war.  We knew of other families like that, young widows raising small children alone. ...

When we were little kids, there were assorted things around the house that we never thought were unusual -- a (real) Japanese kimono for a small child (for Patty), a stuffy named Zealy that Grandpa had bought in New Zealand (also for Patty - it's a rabbit).  We also had a ceremonial Japanese sword in the attic, Grandpa's full-dress uniform, his rifle and bayonet, the fatigue jacket he gave you, some really cool toy military vehicles -- scale models, very accurate and well-made.  He also had a book of photographs that had been made and published for the veterans of one of the above battles.  Lots of images like on the Ken Burns special, flame-throwers shooting into caves, burnt corpses of Japanese soldiers, battle landscape, etc.  Grandpa had a rising sun flag (red circle on white) with a lot of Japanese characters on it.  Much, much later, he decided to try to find the family of the soldier it had belonged to.  He actually did locate them (with the help of someone who could read Japanese, and a few other contacts) and sent them the flag.  They were grateful -- they had lost their son in the war and it was something of him being returned.   

As I know I've told you, Grandpa never talked much about the war to us.  I remember (idiot that I was) asking him how many Japs he had killed, but I don't remember whether he gave me an answer to that.  Once, when a relative of one of our Macomb neighbors visited who happened to have been a soldier under Grandpa's command, the two of them sat out in the backyard for quite awhile one evening reminiscing.  That's the only time I remember him talking about it.  Even the fact that he got flashbacks when he was too close under fireworks, I didn't learn until you were a little kiddo and we were spending the 4th of July in Arkansas with him and Grandma.

Grandpa was away at war when his mother died.  Of course a person can't come home for something like that in the middle of the war, but I think he never got over that.  I told Grandma once [years later, after Grandpa died] that it seemed so unfair that she and Grandpa had had to sacrifice so much as a couple -- the first four years of their marriage, delay in starting their family, getting married alone far from home, having the fear of death always hanging over them for 4 years because of Grandpa's combat -- and she just smiled and said that everybody was doing it.  I found a letter she wrote to her mother when she and Grandpa were traveling west as newlyweds to get him to San Diego, and she was telling her how exciting it was to be starting off into the big world with their whole lives before them.

Very interesting stuff, to me at least.  When I asked if it would be OK for me to blog what she had written, my mom replied, "Sure.  I think Grandma would be proud."  As well she should be, and Grandpa too.

Semper Fi.

The perils of righteous rage

By Brendan Loy

These words don't just apply to sports; they apply to blog comment-wars as well -- and many other aspects of life, for that matter:

Your righteous indignation never looks as righteous as you think. It really doesn't matter if you have a good reason to lose it. You still look like a maniac.

I plead guilty, Your Honor, to forgetting that principle every now and then, most often here on the blog but occasionally elsewhere too (like the time I went off on an insurance supervisor, or rather on his voicemail, because his company was totally screwing me over... which they were, and he had the power to fix it, and was infuriatingly stonewalling me at every turn... but nevertheless, my approach was all wrong).

"Your righteous indignation never looks as righteous as you think" is a good lesson to try to keep in mind -- even if doing so is difficult for us logical-and-articulate-but-occasionally-hot-headed lawyer types. :)

756*

By JLR

*The ball which was (un)fortunate enough to be the record-breaking 756th hit out of a ballpark by Barry Bonds will be branded with an asterisk.  The ball is headed to Cooperstown.

In other Bonds-related news, the team on which he has played for more than a dozen seasons has decided to cut its ties with him.  Here is an interesting post trying to figure out who might actually want the steroid-tainted-home-run-king.

Karen and proto-Lorenzo

By Brendan Loy

Tropical Storm Karen, which I first blogged about yesterday, has strengthened to 50 mph and is expected to become a minimal hurricane tomorrow before weakening due to increased shear. Karen appears to be no threat to land. Meanwhile, Tropical Depression 13 has formed in the Gulf of Mexico. It could become T.S. Lorenzo as it meanders westward toward the Mexican coast, but is unlikely to reach hurricane strength. SciGuy has more.

Hook 'em, Hitlers!

By Brendan Loy

Following hot on the heels of yesterday's proof that Bush is Hitler, now we have proof that the Texas Longhorns are evil -- or at least, that they're supported by both President Bush, who the Left believes is Hitler, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who the Right believes is Hitler! Texas: favorite team of the Little Hitlers! Mack Brown, Colt McCoy and Limas Sweed are the new axis of evil!

P.S. This post invokes Godwin's Law on the Texas football season, which means the Longhorns are now obligated to forfeit all of their remaining games. Congratulations, Oklahoma, you've just won the Big 12 South. :)

New dad killed in Iraq one day after his son's birth

By Brendan Loy

This story, out of Hendersonville, Tennessee, is the sort of thing that's liable to make Becky cry these days. Hell, it might make me cry, if I think too hard about it. It's really, really sad. Excerpt:

On Friday, Mrs. Reeves delivered her seven-pound, 14-ounce boy into this world without complications. Soon afterward she phoned Iraq to deliver the happy news. There, Spc. Joshua H. Reeves, her soldier-husband of two years, was stationed with troops from Fort Riley, Kan. ...

One day's joy turned to sorrow on Saturday as a bomb detonated as Joshua Reeves' Humvee drove down a Baghdad street. Leslie Reeves...was still in the hospital with her new baby when she learned she was a widow.

Proof!

By David K.

Chimpy McBushitler for real!!!

Obligatory disclaimer:  The above post is a joke.  Anyone who takes it seriously is also a joke.  We now return you to your regular scheduled blogging.

Auriemma slams Summitt for ending Huskies-Vols series

By Brendan Loy

Back in June, Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt announced she was cancelling the annual UConn-Tennessee rivalry series. Turns out, UConn coach Geno Auriemma is pissed at her:

"I think she should just come out and say she's not playing us because she hates my guts," Auriemma told The Courant. "And I think people would buy that. Then everyone [who seeks a reason] would be happy. She should just say that [Geno is] a dope, a smart-ass, and then everyone could say that they agree with her."

Geno added that he would never have cancelled the series: "You know what? I would never want to. This game is bigger than any individual."

"Besides," he added, "Brendan Loy just moved to Knoxville, so it's really poor timing to end the series now."

Okay, maybe he didn't say that last part. But it's true! (Hat tip: my dad.)

Scary stuff

By Brendan Loy

An attempted kidnapping on 27th Street near USC.

Becky used to live on 27th on the west side of Hoover, right near where this happened.

Minimum system requirements for OS X Leopard released

By Jay Johnson

Looks like Apple is bumping the minimum system requirements for the new OS. 

"Leopard will now require Macs with "an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 (867 MHz or faster) or G5 processor." Other system requirements include a DVD drive, built-in FireWire, at least 512MB of RAM (additional recommended), and at least 9GB of hard disk space."

Now, how long do I wait before hopping on the Leopard train?

Tropics to heat up this week?

By Brendan Loy

We're two weeks past the climatological peak of hurricane season, but still in the "active" part of the season historically, and it looks like things could get a bit more active this week. Dr. Jeff Masters says "three tropical depressions may form by Wedneday in the Atlantic."

UPDATE: One down, two to go!

MORNING UPDATE: T.D. 12 is now Tropical Storm Karen.

Two years on

By Brendan Loy

I neglected to note that, a week ago Sunday, the second anniversary of Sarah LeFoll's death came and went. I think I subconsciously knew it, though: I've thought of Sarah several times in the last week or so, and until now I wasn't sure what caused my mind to wander in her direction. But of course: it was this time of year in 2005 -- the night after the Michigan State game, no less -- that I got that awful call from Steve Kenny. I was getting ready to head out to Dmytro's "3-0" party (reconstituted as a "2-1" party after the Irish's overtime loss) when tragic news arrived via cell phone like a bolt out of the blue. Needless to say, I never made it to the party.

For Sarah's immediate family and close friends, I imagine the grief is still acute and constant. For me, "closure," whatever that means, has long since come. And yet: every now and then, I still think about her, and about what happened to her, and it makes me so sad. Death is so damn permanent. Sarah had much yet to offer this world when she died, and no trite turn of bloggy phrase can ever resurrect that potential, forever lost.

Rest in peace, Sarah. We still miss you.

Tastes like chicken... yummy, yummy chicken

By Brendan Loy

Becky just roasted her first chicken.

It was delicious.

Mmmmmmmm... chicken.

Aww, Becky is becoming all domestic and stuff. :)

There are no cats in America gays in Iran

By Brendan Loy

So says Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It would be funny, because of its blatant absurdity, if it weren't coming from someone whose government executes gays as a matter of policy.

Also, it seems Columbia President Lee Bollinger gave Mad Mahmoud quite a mouthful in his introductory remarks. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.) I haven't watched the video yet, but it sounds like a pretty awesome, and well-deserved, "string of insults," as Ahmadinejad put it later, taking umbrage just as he took umbrage at Mike Wallace daring to ask direct and forceful questions on 60 Minutes. (You'll have to forgive Mahmoud; he's not too familiar with the whole "free speech" thing.)

Less awesome is the fact that, apparently, Ahmadinejad got a good reception from some of the far-left idiots in attendance at the Columbia event. Anybody who childishly mimicks anti-Bush talking point is okay by them, I guess. Some think he's "entirely reasonable." Some even have crushes on him! And some were utterly humiliated by President Bollinger's factually accurate "insults," and cheered and applauded Ahmadinejad when he criticized Bollinger's lack of "manners." I guess some folks weren't really interested in a free and unfettered exchange of ideas, including harsh criticisms and tough questions for Dear Leader Mahmoud?

But hey, although they might not realize it, those Ahmadinejad-apologist fools are actually an unwitting testament to what's great about America: in this country, you have the unalienable right to be an idiot -- and more to the point, the unalienable right to speak out against your government, no matter how wrong-headed your views might be. Imagine if George W. Bush (or, ahem, perhaps a slightly more articulate American leader) came to speak at a university in Iran, and started reciting anti-Ahmadinejad talking points. There might be some Iranian dissidents who would cheer, but they would do so at great personal risk, as they could potentially be arrested or even killed if the government deemed them enough of a threat. Certainly, the government would do everything in its power to exclude them from the lecture hall if it could identify them in advance, thus producing a mirage of monolithic anti-American sentiment. In this country, by contrast, no such effort was made; the government did not try to "manage" the event so as to make sure the audience response was uniformly anti-Ahmadinejad. The marketplace of ideas was allowed to do its thing, unfettered and unimpeded, and thus, unlike in Iran, and unlike in the fanciful dystopia that some radical lefties erroneously believe they are currently living in -- y'know, Chimpy W. Hitler's fascist police state of Amerikka -- the result was the gloriously messy cacophony of viewpoints that can only happen in a free country. Somehow I suspect the amazing virtue of that reality will be lost on Mahmoud, but we shouldn't let it be lost on us.

Leave Steve Jobs alone!

By Jay Johnson

For those of you who've already seen the Britney breakdown of Chris Crocker on YouTube, here's one for the straight male Mac enthusiast.

Heh.

Appalachian Syracuse is hot! hot! hot!

By Brendan Loy

If the Vegas oddsmakers to be believed, the biggest upset in college-football history was not the Michigan-Appalachian State game three weeks ago; it was the Louisville-Syracuse game this past Saturday!  The Orange was a 37-point underdog to the Cardinals -- one point more than the 36-point spread in the 1985 Oregon State-over-Washington stunner that is generally regarded by gambling types as the biggest upset ever.

Appy State, by contrast, was "only a 22-23 point underdog, depending on who you listen to," according to Brian Cook.  I'm not sure where he's getting those numbers, since there is generally no "official" point spread on games between I-A and I-AA teams.  But this article says Jeff Sagarin had Michigan as a 25-point favorite.  So whatever the exact spread (or would-be spread), I think it's fair to say it was (or would have been) less than 37.

And rightfully so, I'd argue. For all the histrionics, here and elsewhere, about the Appy State upset ("This is frogs raining from heaven. This is physically impossible"), the Mountaineers are a good team that just happens to play in a lower division; they would probably finish in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten, and they might win the ACC Coastal Division. Okay, maybe not, but you take my point: whether you call them I-A or I-AA, "Bowl Subdivision" or "Championship Subdivision," the reality is that Appalachian State is better than Syracuse.

None of which, of course, changes the fact that Michigan lost to Appalachian State. HAHAHAHAHA. (Pay no attention to the 38-0 drubbing of Notre Dame behind the curtain!)

Anyway, the broader question this brings to my mind is: how many more milestone games can college football possibly give us?  The last three seasons have been a veritable goldmine!  We've seen the biggest upset ever by point spread (Syracuse over Louisville, 2007), the first-ever Div. I-AA win over a ranked Div. I-A team (Appalachian State over #5 Michigan, 2007), the most consequential and utterly thrilling David-over-Goliath upset in bowl history (Boise State over Oklahoma, Fiesta Bowl, 2007), the biggest comeback in history (Michigan State over Northwestern, 2006), the biggest comeback in bowl history (Texas Tech over Minnesota, Insight Bowl, 2006), arguably the greatest championship game ever played (Texas over USC, 2006), and arguably the greatest game ever played, at least until the Boise-Oklahoma game (USC over Notre Dame, 2005) on arguably the greatest day in college-football history (October 15, 2005).  It's really getting a little excessive at this point.  Can college football possibly keep up this insane level of excitement?  Or are we in for a few boring years ahead, as karmic retribution?

WDVX draws a crowd

By Brendan Loy

Blue Plate Special hosting Grammy winners Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there's a huge crowd to see such a big act perform for free. I should have gotten here sooner!

Cue the world's smallest violin

By Brendan Loy

The phrase "it sucks to be a lawyer" isn't going to get much sympathy from non-lawyers, but nevertheless, it seems there are more and more lawyers making less and less money, according to the Wall Street Journal:

A law degree isn't necessarily a license to print money these days.

For graduates of elite law schools, prospects have never been better. Big law firms this year boosted their starting salaries to as high as $160,000. But the majority of law-school graduates are suffering from a supply-and-demand imbalance that's suppressing pay and job growth. The result: Graduates who don't score at the top of their class are struggling to find well-paying jobs to make payments on law-school debts that can exceed $100,000. Some are taking temporary contract work, reviewing documents for as little as $20 an hour, without benefits. And many are blaming their law schools for failing to warn them about the dark side of the job market. ...

A slack in demand appears to be part of the problem. The legal sector, after more than tripling in inflation-adjusted growth between 1970 and 1987, has grown at an average annual inflation-adjusted rate of 1.2% since 1988, or less than half as fast as the broader economy, according to Commerce Department data. ...

On the supply end, more lawyers are entering the work force, thanks in part to the accreditation of new law schools and an influx of applicants after the dot-com implosion earlier this decade. In the 2005-06 academic year, 43,883 Juris Doctor degrees were awarded, up from 37,909 for 2001-02, according to the American Bar Association. ...

Many students "simply cannot earn enough income after graduation to support the debt they incur," wrote Richard Matasar, dean of New York Law School, in 2005, concluding that, "We may be reaching the end of a golden era for law schools."

Some of the things that are making life harder for lawyers -- such as tort reform and malpractice reform legislation -- are good things for society at large, even if they're bad for me and my classmates. Still, it would have been nice to graduate from law school a little bit earlier in the "golden era." :)

Mike Patrick's important question

By Brendan Loy

If you're a college-football announcer, what better time could there possibly be to start randomly talking about Britney Spears -- confusing the hell out of everyone else in the broadcasting booth -- than in overtime of the Georgia-Alabama game, right before the game-winning touchdown?

Thanks to Georgia QB Matthew Stafford and WR Mikey Henderson, I guess we'll never know to answer to the question, "What is Britney doing with her life?" (Hat tip: Stewart Mandel.)

Also thanks to Stafford and Henderson, Alabama is no longer among the ranks of the unbeaten... and somewhere, some crazed Crimson Tide fan is thinking about registering FireNickSaban.com. :)

Anyway, the Thrilling Thirty-One is down to a Terrific Twenty-Three. After the jump, a look at how all 31 teams that entered the week undefeated fared.

Heeeere's Jerry!

By Brendan Loy

Subtropical Storm Jerry has formed, way out over the Central Atlantic. He is no threat to land.

Once again, Alan Sullivan is unimpressed, declaring Jerry a "marginal designation" and the latest symptom of the National Hurricane Center's "zeal to pin a name on any storm in the Atlantic Basin." In an earlier post, he wrote of Jerry's formation, "Such storms can occur at any season in the North Atlantic. If NHC gets in the habit of designating them, it will be scaring the public with hurricanes in winter."

Of considerably more potential significance are Invest 94L in the Gulf of Mexico, Invest 97L east of the Lesser Antilles, and Invest 96L way out in the Cape Verde region. Dr. Jeff Masters and Eric Berger have more on 94L; Sullivan has more on 96L and 97L.

No huge numbers this time (just in case)

By JLR

I won't post a gigantic number this time, nor will I add to the curse Brendan believed I may have started.

I'll just say this: the Sox are in the playoffs!!!!  The first team to clinch a playoff berth in the Majors, Boston's magic number to clinch the AL East now sits at 6.

USC 47, Washington State 14

By Brendan Loy

...final. 302 passing yards, 207 rushing yards, 6 touchdowns, and 1 rainbow:

Booty was 28-of-35 for 279 yards and 4 touchdowns. (Stanley Havili and Chauncey Washington rushed for the other two Trojan TDs.)

Elsewhere in the Pac-10, Oregon has taken the lead after trailing Stanford (!) for a while... Washington and UCLA are tied at 10... and Oregon State is leading Arizona State, 26-20. All three games are in the third quarter.

UPDATE: In the end, the favored teams -- Oregon, UCLA and ASU -- all pulled away to win by wide margins. The Ducks and Devils remain unbeaten, as does Cal. (And USC has to play at all of them.)

Next week's game of the week -- not just for the Pac-10, but for the whole country -- is Cal @ Oregon. I have to believe ESPN GameDay will be in Eugene. (The ABC evening game, i.e. the Kirk Herbstreit game, is USC @ Washington. Often times, GameDay goes to the ABC evening game. But after UW's loss tonight, I can't imagine they'll be going to Seattle to see #1 USC play a team on a two-game losing streak.)

Israelis, with U.S. blessing, seize North Korean nuclear material in Syria (!)

By Brendan Loy

Can someone explain to me why this isn't making bigger headlines?

Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem.

The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say.

They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

(Hat tip: InstaPundit, who wins the understatement-of-the-year award for saying, "This seems like news.")

Aw, kitties

By Brendan Loy

After the humiliation of losing to Appalachian State, the Michigan fanatics at MGoBlog turned to kittens to dull the pain of it all. Perhaps it'll work for my fellow Domers reeling from the Irish's unprecedented 0-4 start (and the prospect of coming into the Navy game 0-8)? Let's see:

No? Oh well, it was worth a try.

Goooo Irish, Beeeeeat Boilers. (Please?)

P.S. Perhaps, instead of kittens, we'll feel better if we think back on happier times? Like, for example...

...and...

"What the hell are you doing in the shotgun in a monsoon? You’re asking Drew Stanton to run the option in Hurricane Katrina!"

Ah, those were the days.

And a big F you very much to ABC too

By dcl

At least in the DC metro area the [redacted] at ABC just pulled the plug on the USC game to give us some crap between Iowa and Wisconsin...

Selling stuff

By Brendan Loy

Anyone want to buy an aquarium or a saxophone? :)

Appalachian State upset

By Jay Johnson

No, this isn't a rehash of the story from a couple of weeks ago where the Mountaineers went to Ann Arbor to pull the upset of the century in college football.

Today, ASU was the upset victim. The brave players from Boone saw their 17 game winning steak snapped at the hands of....WOFFORD?

Oh well, all good things must come to an end, I guess.

FIGHT ON, TROJANS!

By Brendan Loy

BEAT! THE COUGARS!

UPDATE: It's 27-7 Trojans with 3:03 left in the second quarter. Live, free audio broadcast at kscr.org.

Thanks goodness ABC is showing us the thrilling Iowa-Wisconsin game -- the Hawkeyes lead 3-0 late in the second quarter -- instead of the Trojans. Harumph.

UPDATE 2: Still 27-7 at halftime. Unlike in the Nebraska game, USC has been focusing on its passing game today. Booty is 19-for-25 with 191 yards and two touchdowns through two quarters. (He was 19-for-30 with 144 yards and two touchdowns in the whole game against Nebraska.)

In other news, UConn is crushing Pitt! Wow! On the flip side, Baylor beat Buffalo, 34-21. :(

UPDATE 3: The list of undefeated teams has shrunk from 31 to 24 thus far. Texas A&M lost on Thursday (to Miami), Tulsa lost on Friday (to Oklahoma), and today has seen losses by Texas Tech (to Oklahoma State), Indiana (to Illinois), Penn State (to Michigan), South Carolina (to LSU) and Air Force (to BYU). Among those in action now, Wisconsin is trailing Iowa 10-7 at halftime and Alabama is trailing Georgia 17-10 in the third quarter. Everyone else either won or is winning comfortably, except Hawaii, Arizona State and Oregon, who play later or are just starting, and Rutgers, who is idle.

And, scene

By Brendan Loy

Michigan State 31, Notre Dame 14 with 2:45 left in the third quarter. The Spartans just scored the killer TD on a 4th-and-2 play from the 30 that started with a fumbled snap and ended with a wide-open receiver running into the end zone after a perfect pass. Ugh. As noted on ND Nation, "0-8 is lookin more likely," if not "damn near inevitable."

P.S. Of course, Notre Dame has rallied from 17-point fourth-quarter deficits against the Spartans before. But somehow I don't think it's going to happen again, unless Brady Quinn flies in from Cleveland and suits up. And perhaps brings the Browns' offensive line with him.

UPDATE: Michigan State 31, Notre Dame 14, final.

The Irish are 0-4 for the first time ever, and F***in' Sparty has won six straight games at Notre Dame Stadium. (The first time any visiting team has just done that.) They've also lost six straight games by 17+ points.

ND looked inconsistent, but with flashes of brilliance competence, in the first half. The second half was horrible. Overall, though, I think Four Leaf Domer put it best: "[T]his was actually a major step forward today. We went from total ineptitude to just sucking."

That said, I don't agree with him that "it took us a long time to get this bad." It seemed to happen pretty much overnight. Last season, good. This season, godawful. I've yet to see any successful attempt to adequately explain it.

Here's a debate on whether Irish fans should be jumping off the Weis bandwagon at this point.

Speaking of which, did the NBC sideline reporter just call Weis "Ty"?

UPDATE 2: Also on ND Nation, mkovac asks, "How much of this 0-4 season is on Charlie?" and says, "in my mind, he's lost me, just like Willingham lost me when SC beat ND so badly in the Coliseum in 2002, followed by a bowl loss and a 38-0 drubbing at the hands of Michigan in Ann Arbor." He proceeds to lambaste the Irish for "incompetent play" and then wonder aloud if Notre Dame has "so successfully downgraded its program" that it "has turned itself into an Ivy League team."

They're underway in Buffalo

By Brendan Loy

GO BULLS!!! BEAT BAYLOR!!!

UPDATE: 10-0 Bears. D'oh!

UPDATE 2: Touchdown Buffalo!! 10-7 Baylor with 3:13 left in the first half.

UPDATE 3: Dammit. 24-7.

The Bridge to Nowhere is going nowhere

By Brendan Loy

Some regular readers might recall that, back in 2005, I lambasted Congress for replacing the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" appropriation with a "Blank Check to Nowhere," giving Alaska $454 million and letting them decide how to spend it -- which initially seemed to mean that the bridge would still be built, wasting a huge amount of taxpayer money on an utterly unnecessary pork project.

But, almost two years later, there's good news! Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who succeeded the corrupt Frank Murkowski in January after beating him in the GOP primary last August, is doing what the federal government refused to do: demanding fiscal responsibility. Imagine that!

"Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer," Gov. Sarah Palin said in a prepared statement.

She directed the state transportation department to find the most "fiscally responsible" alternative for access to the airport.

(Hat tip: Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President, via InstaPundit.)

GOOOO IRISH

By Brendan Loy

BEEEEAT SPARTY!!!

UPDATE: Whose idea was it to run a Reggie Bush commercial during a Notre Dame game? Is Adidas trying to convince Domers to wear Nikes?

UPDATE 2: Spartan fumble! First and goal from the 9! If they don't score a touchdown here...

UPDATE 3: TOUCHDOWN! Travis Thomas.

Really, that shouldn't count as an "offensive touchdown." The defense (with the help of the special teams) gave them the ball inside the 10, for heaven's sake. But still: finally! 7-0 Notre Dame.

UPDATE 4: Aaaaaand Michigan State scores two touchdowns. 14-7 Spartans. They're already giving up over on ND Nation. I feel much the same way -- this feels like the Tulsa-Oklahoma game yesterday, when the Golden Hurricane took an early lead, but you could very quickly tell from watching the teams play that it ultimately wasn't going to be close; Oklahoma was clearly better, and was going to pull away. Barring a whole bunch of lucky breaks (e.g., MSU fumbles, big special-teams runs for the Irish, etc.), this is going to be an other ugly result for ND.

UPDATE 5: Hey, there you go! Notre Dame just scored a legitimate offensive touchdown! An 80-yard drive! Nice! 17-14 Spartans, with 10:41 left in the half.

In other news, Florida held on against Ole Miss, and Nebraska barely held on against Ball State, but Syracuse stunned Louisville. Also, Duke, after snapping its long losing streak last week, almost started a winning streak... but Navy outscored them 14-0 in the fourth quarter to win 46-43.

Now, Air Force -- one of the two remaining undefeated non-BCS teams, and a future Notre Dame opponent -- is struggling. They trail BYU 17-0 at halftime.

UPDATE 6: And a good defensive sequence! Hey, maybe the Irish have a prayer after all!

UPDATE 7: 17-14 MSU at halftime.

Let the record show that ND Nation's football board has not been "nuked," as it was last week. So apparently that was an act of censorship, not a routine action designed to divert traffic over to the gameday board, as a commenter suggested.

BYU's lead over AFA is 24-6 near the end of the third quarter. Also late in the third, Wofford is beating Appalachian State, 28-17! Upset special!

Any given Saturday

By Brendan Loy

Syracuse -- ranked #128 in the current Sagarin ratings, two spots below Buffalo -- is beating Louisville, at Louisville, 31-14 late in the third quarter. WTF?

What is it SEC fans always say about how there's never an off-day in SEC play, even the bottom-feeders can beat you, etc.? Well... looks like that's true in the Big East, too! (Er, in some instances, at least. On the other hand, West Virginia is beating East Carolina, 41-0.)

Speaking of SEC bottom-feeders being competitive, Ole Miss is keeping it close against Florida, so far.

Also, Nebraska is struggling with Ball State.

Sparty sucks

By Brendan Loy

I hate Sparty.

Hate.

Go Irish.

[Bumped. -ed.]

Fred Thompson Facts

By Brendan Loy

Frank J.'s Fred Thompson Facts are pretty funny. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.) Yeah, it's basically the same thing as Chuck Norris and Jack Bauer jokes, but still, funny. Scrolling down, I found the Harry Potter edition of Fred Thompson Facts, from back in July. Heh.

Um, yeah

By Brendan Loy

So, um, Tulsa... this year's Boise State... yeah, not so much. Oklahoma 62, Tulsa 21.

Simpson arrested in Boston

By Joe Loy

Star Out on Bail, Faces Disorderly Conduct Rap:  But Was It Art?

:)

From The MIT Tech (emphases added):

Star A. Simpson ’10, wearing a circuit board that lit up and was connected to a battery, was arrested at gunpoint at Logan International Airport this morning and was charged with disorderly conduct and possession of a hoax device. Simpson was released on $750 bail earlier today; her pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Oct. 29, 2007 at 9 a.m. in East Boston District Court.

Simpson (a former Tech photographer) was wearing the device, which included green light-emitting diodes arranged in the shape of a star, during yesterday’s MIT Career Fair. Her defense attorney said she was at the airport to pick up her boyfriend who arrived at Logan this morning.

Simpson approached an information booth in Logan’s Terminal C wearing the light-up device, Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Wayne Margolis said during Simpson’s arraignment today. Margolis also said that Simpson had been wearing the art for at least a few days.

(Well I don't wanna Say anything but I think I'd Detect that something doesn't quite pass the Smell test, right there / ~ the GuestCSI :)

She “said it was a piece of art,” Margolis said, and “refused to answer any more questions.” Jake Wark, spokesperson for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, said that Simpson only described the LED lights after she was “repeatedly questioned by the MassPort employee.” Simpson then “roamed briefly around the terminal,” Wark said. Margolis said this caused several Logan employees to flee the building...

...Simpson had five to six ounces of Play-Doh in her hands, State Police Maj. Scott Pare said in a press conference this morning. The Play-Doh could have been mistaken for plastic explosives.

(More after the blast break :)

Can Buffalo beat Baylor?

By Brendan Loy

Perennial Big 12 doormat Baylor pays a visit to perennial Division I-A doormat Buffalo tomorrow at 6:00 PM. The game will be broadcast via streaming Internet audio here and streaming video here.

Do the Bulls stand a chance? Vegas thinks so: Baylor is favored by just three points. Three points! Without looking it up, I feel pretty damn confident in saying that that's the closest UB has ever come to being favored against a BCS-conference team. And no wonder: the Associated Press says Buffalo is "playing arguably its best football in eight years." In the last two weeks, they've crushed Temple 42-7, and then kept Penn State close for most of the first half (and scored three garbage-time touchdowns to achieve a respectable-for-Buffalo losing margin of 45-24). Plus, tomorrow's game is the Bulls' home opener, and the stadium is expected to be a "sea of blue."

The delusional dedicated fans on ubfan.com are predicting scores like 38-24 and 42-17... in UB's favor. They're veritably giddy with excitement about the possibility of a "statement" win for the Buffalo program. Yeah, yeah -- it's Baylor. But there's no question it would be the biggest win in UB's Division I-A history, if they could pull it off.

GO BULLS!!!

No Jerry for you!!

By Brendan Loy

Tropical Depression Ten is coming ashore near Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Earlier this afternoon, it made the transition from subtropical to tropical, but it did not, and now almost certainly will not, strengthen into Tropical Storm Jerry. So forget "proto-Jerry" -- that will be some other storm, some other time.

Beat the Sooners!

By Brendan Loy

David strikes first, after Goliath throws an interception! Tulsa 7, Oklahoma 0. Go Golden Hurricane!

UPDATE: And now a rockin' three-and-out defensive stop! Yes! Tulsa gets the ball in Oklahoma territory after a punt from inside the end zone! w00t!

UPDATE 2: They're pulling out the Boise State-ish trick plays early. Not to mention their timeouts (they've used all three, and there's still 6:50 to go in the first quarter). I predict a second-half flameout. But that doesn't mean I won't totally get all excited now. 4th and 1 from the Sooner 28. Go for it!

UPDATE 3: Dammit. Stuffed 'em.

UPDATE 4: Er, or perhaps a second-quarter flamout... or late first-quarter. Suddenly, Oklahoma is looking unstoppable, and Tulsa is looking lost. 7-7 with 3:20 to go in the quarter. D'oh.

UPDATE 5: Yup. This one isn't going to be close. 14-7.

Waving the white flag

By Brendan Loy

Call me crazy, but I don't think this is the best idea.

Couldn't agree more

By dcl

So I'll link to iLounge's article on the subject customers ask is Apple going rotten and encourage people to continue to call Apple out for being @$$#*([$ in all four categories listed.

In Communist China, government reincarnates YOU!

By David K.

Are you a Tibetan lama?  Want to re-incarnate?  Better make sure you have all your permits in order!

In a move to tighten its grip on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, the Chinese government is attempting to crack down on allowing the traditional searches for reincarnated lamas within Tibet, at least without an official OK from Beijing.  This move seems to be specifically aimed at the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, who has been living in exile in India since the Chinese occupied Tibet nearly half a century ago.  The Dalai Lama has stated that, should he die while the Chinese still occupy his country, he will be reincarnated outside of Tibet, setting up a possible schism between the Lama in exile and a Chinese-approved Lama from within the country.

Proto-Jerry: what is the deal?

By Brendan Loy

Subtropical Depression Ten has formed in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. It could become "Jerry" as it moves westward toward -- gulp -- New Orleans.  But it's very unlikely to become anything serious.  In Eric Berger's words, "this low-pressure system is running out of time to turn into anything more than a minimal tropical storm as it moves toward New Orleans. It seems unlikely to cause significant damage." However, Berger also opines:

The bottom line is that tropical systems are incredibly unpredictable. Any system in the Gulf is a threat to lots of people because we simply don't know, for sure, where the bad weather will go, nor how bad it will get. It's possible, although unlikely, that this depression could pull an Humberto and strike New Orleans as a Category 1 hurricane tomorrow. Probably not, but we just don't have the knowledge to forecast these things with certainty even a day in advance.

For his part, Alan Sullivan is distinctly unimpressed:

You ever heard of [a subtropical depression] before? In the past these systems were (with some hestitation) given names when and if they got as strong as tropical storms. This one is a joke. ... This is lame, lame, lame. What is happening at NHC? It has become an instrument of alarmism.

The official NHC discussion straightforwardly admits calling this storm a Subtropical Depression "probably strains the definition a bit," given the relative dearth of convection. But they're designating it anyway "because of the potential for additional development right along the coastline." In other words, for fear of Humberto Part Deux.

Anyway, "lame" or not, Tropical Storm Warnings are up from Apalachicola, Florida west to the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, including New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. But there's no need to "get the hell out" this time, unless perhaps to "get the hell out...to a convenience store and buy yourself an umbrella." Though even that may not really be necessary, according to Dr. Jeff Masters: "with the storm expected to move inland by Saturday afternoon, it does not appear [S.T.D. 10] has time to generate the kind of tropical rains that would make it a serious flood threat."

And then there were 30

By Brendan Loy

The Thrilling 31 is one team down after Miami's blowout of Texas A&M last night. And it'll be down to 29 by the end of tonight. But who will be the victim of the weekend's first battle of unbeatens: Oklahoma or Tulsa?

The obvious answer is Tulsa, the "David" in this David vs. Goliath matchup, a whopping 23-point underdog at home. But "obvious answers" have been wrong before. (See, e.g., Ohio State vs. Florida.) And Stewart Mandel says Tulsa "is quickly becoming one of the scariest mid-majors in the country -- a possible Boise State in the making."

Boise State: now there's a team Oklahoma may have heard of once or twice before. Anyway, Mandel thinks it's "entirely possible" the Golden Hurricane could pull the stunner. Others are unconvinced:

 #4 Oklahoma at Tulsa: One sports writer [presumably referring to Mandel -ed.] actually tried to make this out to be a potential surprise (but not quite a trap) for OU. That’s BS: OU is going to pummel the Golden Hurricanes. From what I hear, these games end up like Sooner home games anyway (since tickets are cheaper and its close to Norman).

Tulsa is one of just three remaining undefeated non-BCS teams in the country, and neither Air Force nor Hawaii has as good an opportunity for a "statement" win as the one the Golden Hurricane could get tonight. (Air Force could get the nation's attention, sorta, with a win at Notre Dame in November, but beating a sub-.500 Irish team isn't exactly the same thing as beating Oklahoma. Same goes for Hawaii against Washington.)

So, can Tulsa do what TCU, this year's pre-season mid-major darling, failed to do against Texas two weeks ago, and raise itself up into the nation's consciousness (and BCS-bowl contention) by beating a Big 12 power with national championship ambitions?

Surely the Sooners will be ready for the challenge. After last year's Fiesta Bowl, they ought to know not to take mid-majors with chips on their shoulders lightly. I'll be rooting for Tulsa, but somehow I doubt "this year's Boise State" will climb to glory on the backs of the very same team as last year's Boise State. That would just be too perfect for this Sooner-scorning Trojan fan.

I bet Tulsa beats the spread, though. They scored 55 points on BYU last week (and allowed 47), so I predict a shootout. Unfortunately, Oklahoma's got the bigger guns. My prediction: Oklahoma 52, Tulsa 35. (Because clearly my predictions are worth paying attention to. My "Notre Dame 6, Michigan 5" last week was spot on. Heh.)

As an aside, kudos to Oklahoma for scheduling this game. I constantly complain about teams from college football's upper echelon packing their schedule with non-conference patsies, so it's refreshing to see a "name" team like Oklahoma actually willing not only to play a decent mid-major like Tulsa, but to play them on the road. Same goes for Texas, which hosted TCU and visited Central Florida in consecutive weeks, both legit programs that almost pulled off upsets. (Though admittedly, I might be giving Texas too much credit, since Central Florida probably didn't seem so "legit" back when Mack Brown & co. scheduled that game.) If more teams would do what the Sooners and Longhorns have done this season, college football would be much fairer to the "little guy." And I say that despite generally loathing both UT and OU. But y'know, credit where credit is due, and all that rot. Mandel has more on this point.

Oh, and about the weekend's other unbeaten vs. unbeaten matchup: good news for South Carolina. LSU's new mascot, a Siberian tiger named Mike VI, won't be in attendance.  So if the Gamecocks are going to get mauled Saturday night, it won't be by a jungle cat; it'll be by the LSU defensive line. Which, come to think of it, is probably a more frightening prospect anyway, so nevermind.

Disown the Juice?

By Brendan Loy

Boi From Troy asks: Should USC disown O.J. Simpson?

Search engine hit of the day

By Brendan Loy

Someone just found my blog after searching for "Romulan Woman Having sex." (Scroll down; this post is #10 on the list.)

Heh.

Loonie passes dollar

By David K.

Today for the first time in over 30 years the Canadian dollar passed the American dollar.

Just another sign that the American economy is continuing to thrive right?

Hat tip: Daring Fireball

The Thrilling Thirty-One

By Brendan Loy

Last year, throughout the college football season, I had a weekly feature here on BrendanLoy.com called "The Unbeatens," in which I would list Division I-A's remaining undefeated teams, along with their opponent for the next week. I started it after Week 3, when there were 29 unbeatens remaining. We're at that point again -- indeed, Week 4 technically starts tonight, and Miami vs. Texas A&M involves one of the Thrilling 31 -- so I guess I'd better get crackin'. 

This year, there are two more unblemished records than last year at this time: 31. That number will decrease to no more than 29 after this weekend, though, as there are two games between fellow unbeatens: Oklahoma at Tulsa tomorrow night, and South Carolina at LSU on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, there are four games Saturday between an undefeated team and a winless team: Kansas vs. Florida International, Texas vs. Rice, Cincinnati vs. Marshall, and (ahem) Michigan State vs. Notre Dame.

Anyway... what is the significance of this list? Well, at least for the teams from BCS conferences (28 of the 31), being on this list means your hopes of an undefeated run to the national championship have not yet been extinguished. For some of these teams, those hopes are a realistic possibility (e.g., USC, LSU, Oklahoma), while for others, they are a ridiculous pipe dream (e.g., UConn, Indiana, Kansas). For most, they're somewhere in between those two extremes. But regardless, in every one of these fan bases, you know there are a bunch of fans -- delusional fans, perhaps, but fans nonetheless -- asking the question: "What if? What if we won all our games?" And that's the beauty of college football: it affords everyone (well, er, except the non-BCS teams) the opportunity to dream big... and then affords everyone else the opportunity to laugh their heads off when those dreams are cruelly extinguished (e.g., when UConn visits Pitt on Saturday).

Anyway, without further adieu, here is the list...

WTF??

By Brendan Loy

I just checked TVGuide.com, and, um... ABC is showing Iowa-Wisconsin at 8:00 PM Saturday in Knoxville, instead of USC-Wazzu?? Are you kidding me??

I thought I'd escaped the torture of missing games I cared about in favor of lame-ass Big Ten crapfests when I moved out of the Midwest!! Not that Wisconsin is crappy, of course, but c'mon: how is #7 Wisconsin vs. an Iowa team that just lost to Iowa State the "national" game, instead of #1 USC vs. a decent Washington State squad (whose only loss is to... you guessed it... Wisconsin)? Good grief.

Hey, fellow Knoxvillians (Knoxvillites? Knoxvillagers?), can you recommend any non-smoking sports bars? Does such an animal even exist? I have a pregnant wife to think of here...

On being an Irish fan

By Brendan Loy

A classmate with unimpeachable Domer credentials sent me this blog post, which he thinks is pretty funny, and I agree. Excerpt:

SOUTH BEND, IND (AP)–Notre Dame Athletic Director Kevin White announced the signing of a contract extension to head football coach Charlie Weis this morning, inking the third year head coach to an unprecedented three hundred year contract extension worth an estimated 1.4 billion dollars in salary and benefits.

Heh. Read the whole thing. Mer-people are mentioned.

This comment by Stewart Mandel, written in the form of an open letter to White, is also rather amusing: "I'm sure when you handed over that Fort Knox-sized contract extension to Charlie Weis a couple years ago, you were expecting a slightly bigger return on your investment than, say, zero offensive touchdowns through three games. It's too bad you didn't structure the deal so that he'd be paid per rushing yard. That way, he'd owe you money right now." Heh.

Apropos of which: it has been suggested that I'm taking Notre Dame's horrendous start a little too lightly, and that my light-hearted attitude demonstrates, once and for all, that I'm not a real Irish fan.  That's a contention that some of my Domer detractors have been trying to prove for over three years now, but this particular incarnation of the argument is, on its face, better than most of the ones that have been raised before -- and this time, some of the people raising it are actually doing so in good faith. So I thought it deserved a more complete answer than "shut up, you Trojan-hating idiots."

Here's the thing. As some of my regular readers surely have noticed, I take a light-hearted attitude toward almost everything. Even when it comes to stuff I feel strongly about, I'll still joke around mercilessly. (My jokes aren't always funny, but that's a separate issue.) I have practically no sacred cows. I'll make fun of whomever, for whatever reason. For instance, I think global warming is real and a very important issue that we need to address, yet I routinely make fun of Al Gore and his fellow crusaders. I very strongly believe in gay rights, yet I crack jokes about gay issues all the time. Perhaps most relevantly, I'm a big Gonzaga fan, and that loss to UCLA two years ago was one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever seen, but I'll totally make fun of Adam Morrison for crying on the basketball court, because dammit, it's funny.

The same goes for Notre Dame. Am I happy that they're 0-3? Do I enjoy watching the utter meltdown that has occurred in South Bend? Of course not. I'd be much happier if they were unexpectedly 3-0, and we were building up for another colossal clash of titans between the Irish and Trojans. I'd be much happier if this season was like the last two, when I would routinely spend my Saturdays watching consecutive resounding victories by "my" teams. But that's not the reality. The reality is, the Irish suck right now, and they suck so badly that's it's, objectively, rather funny. I mean, c'mon: snapping the ball over the player's head on the first play of the Michigan game? That's worthy of the '62 Mets! Notre Dame -- Notre Freakin' Dame -- being ranked last in every offensive category? The irony alone is comedy gold! And for heaven's sakes, no offensive touchdowns in three games? WTF??

If USC was this bad, I'd laugh at them too.  Really, I would.  It's a big part of how I deal with disappointment, at least when we're talking about topics that are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, like sports.  Of course, I can't prove to you, based on the archives of this blog, that I'd laugh at USC too if the Trojans were comically bad, because the Trojans have never been comically bad -- they've never been bad, period -- since I started this blog!  But if I dig through my old photos (and I'm of no mind to do that right now), I believe I'd find a picture from the fall of 1999 of my dorm-room whiteboard after a USC-Oregon contest in which Paul Hackett's Trojans set a new Pac-10 record for penalties in a game.  My reaction wasn't to wail and scream and gnash my teeth and wring my hands; I don't do teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing; it's not my thing.  Instead, my reaction was mockery.  I don't remember exactly what the whiteboard said, but it was something along the lines of congratulating the Trojans for their glorious Pac-10 record.  Mockery is always, or nearly always, my first resort in such situations.

No gay marriage in Maryland

By JLR

Maryland's highest court has declared that the Constitution of my adopted home state does not allow room for the marriage of homosexuals within its borders.  The US Supreme Court will not and cannot hear this case, since it is a matter of state law that is in question.  The reason?

the prohibition on same-sex marriage promotes the state's interest in heterosexual marriage as a means of having and protecting children.

So let me ask this question to all of the law experts in the Brendansphere.  If a man or a woman is physically unable to produce children (due to menopause, castration, or for any other reason), should they not be allowed to marry in this State?  Should we ban married couples from buying contraception?

IMHO, there is absolutely no reason for the Court of Appeals to decide this.  The legal ground on which it rests is shaky at best.  Furthermore, the majority of the 4-3 decision agreed that the State General Assembly (the legislature) could (and should!) write a law allowing gay marriage in Maryland.  The last governor, Robert Ehrlich (R), vetoed a civil union bill that had passed the General Assembly in 2005.  The current governor, Martin O'Malley (D), would support a civil union bill.

But my opinions of civil unions (and how they're no better than white-only lunch counters) make up another rant all together.

Good grief

By Brendan Loy

Ugh: "The Yankees have shaved 13 games off the Red Sox lead since May 29, and now sit just 1.5 back after a 2-1 win over the Orioles."

Boston's magic number is 9, where it's been stuck ever since Josh's oversized post on Saturday. (Not that I'm blaming you, Josh. Maybe I'm the one who jinxed it, by moving your giant number "after the jump.") Meanwhile, the Yankees' magic number, which was 20 on Saturday, is now 12 after four straight Yankee wins and four straight Red Sox losses. As I said: Ugh.

Pope-pourri

By JLR

Though unofficial, it looks like Pope Benedict XVI will likely visit Washington, DC when he visits the US in April.  Also likely on the schedule: Mass in Central Park plus a visit to Ground Zero and a trip to Boston.

Maybe the message of peace he delivers to the UN will resonate with some of those folks in our nation's capital.

Court rules, France Yale surrenders; Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia

By Brendan Loy

Yale Law School officials announced yesterday that the school "will end its policy of not working with military recruiters following a court ruling this week that jeopardized about $300 million in federal funding." (Hat tip: InstaPundit.) Some of my NDLS classmates will remember this issue from moot court, but for those unfamiliar with the controversy, here's a quick summary:

Yale and other universities had objected to the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that allows gay men and women to serve in the military only if they keep their sexual orientation to themselves. Yale Law School had refused to assist military recruiters because the Penatgon wouldn't sign a nondiscrimination pledge.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Yale on Monday, rejecting its argument that its right to academic freedom was infringed by federal law [i.e., the Solomon Amendment -ed.] that says universities must give the military the same access as other job recruiters or forfeit federal money.

"The fact is we have been forced under enormous pressure to acquiescence in a policy that we believe is deeply offensive and harmful to our students," said Robert Burt, a Yale law professor who was lead plaintiff in the case.

While I disagree strongly with the military's "don't ask don't tell" policy, I believe the law schools were wrong on the merits of their legal case, and thus this decision is the correct one -- at least, assuming the issues are similar to what they were in the previous incarnation of the case that we argued. (Admittedly, I haven't followed the evolution of this controversy over the last two years; I'm not even sure how it ended up back in a circuit court after SCOTUS ruled on it in 2006.) I had to argue the government's side in moot court, which was a random crap-shoot, but I ultimately came around to the view that it's the correct side, as I wrote in a previous post. If these policies -- either the underlying military policy toward gays, or the policy cutting off funding to universities that don't give equal access to military recruiters -- are to be changed, that change needs to originate in the legislature, not the courts.

In other news from the world of academia, it seems that while Larry Summers isn't welcome to be a dinner speaker at the University of California, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an honored guest at Columbia. (Hat tip: Becky.) Well, that makes perfect sense to me. Ahmadinejad may be a murderous, oppressive tyrant bent on destroying Israel, dominating the Middle East, opposing America at every turn, and potentially hastening the apocalypse and the arrival of the 12th imam -- but hey, we should listen to what he has to say, right? Only closed-minded bigots and crazy right-wing warbloggers (but I repeat myself!) would say no to an "opportunity for faculty and students to engage the President of Iran." Free exchange of ideas, understanding the "other," and all that sort of thing. Summers, though -- Summers questioned feminist orthodoxy! Tolerance only goes so far, people. The free exchange of ideas extends to Holocaust denial, but it doesn't extend to suggesting the possibility that men and women might not be biologically identical. There are some things you just don't say.

(I hope the sarcasm in the above paragraph is sufficiently dripping. ... And yes, I know, UC and CU are different institutions on different coasts. Perhaps Columbia would welcome Summers, too. But I do think this is indicative of a pattern, as illustrated so well in that David Bernstein column that I linked yesterday, albeit in pirate-speak.)

Speaking of right-wing warbloggers, they're organizing a welcome party for Mahmoud in New York on Monday. (Hat tip, again: InstaPundit.) Anyone in the area want to go there and liveblog it for me?

LOL

By Brendan Loy

Kids say the darndest things!

By David K.

Daddy stabbed mommy in the back!

Ahoy there!

By dcl

Even though it be Talk Like A Pirate Day, remember, there are some things ye just shouldn't say like a pirate.

Here be a handy guide.

Erwin and Larry

By Brendan Loy

Now listen here, lads and lassies, for this be a good article:

The saga of controversial liberal law professor Erwin Chemerinsky's on-again, off-again deanship at the new UC Irvine law school was highly unusual in two ways. First, the pressure to enforce political orthodoxy at Chemerinsky's expense came from the right, not the left, and second, academic freedom and 1st Amendment values won a resounding victory when Chemerinsky was ultimately rehired. ...

The Chemerinsky episode, disturbing though it was, should not distract us from the primary challenge facing academic freedom in American universities: the rise of an academic far-left establishment that seeks to use universities as a base for political activism, and is perfectly willing to violate accepted standards of academic freedom to achieve that goal. Anyone concerned with the future of American higher education has the duty to defend the values of scholarship and open debate against authoritarian political correctness.

Read the whole thing, me hearties. (Tip o' the hat: InstaPundit.)

There be nothin' brewin' in the tropics

By Brendan Loy

[UPDATE, Friday morning: Arrrgh, I should know better than to say "nothin' brewin' in the tropics" before readin' what Dr. Jeff Masters has to say on the topic, m'lads! Yesterday, Dr. Masters believed that the system near Florida was a threat to the Gulf Coast, but today he says the threat is diminishing. Arrr! Well, that be good news, at least. Shiver me timbers!]

Ahoy, maties, it be a good day for piratin', for Calypso has not seen fit to unleash her fury upon the seas, though it be the climatological peak of hurricane season, arr.

Tropical Storm Ingrid -- the storm that that the skipper of this here blog was so eager so see named "Humberto," so that it could terrorize stripeys and waisters alike with the fearsome name "Hurricane Humberto" -- came to naught, as howlin' wind shear tore her right apart and sent her to Davy Jones' Locker on Monday mornin'.  And naught has followed on Ingrid's heels.  It's slim' pickin's in the latest Tropical Weather Outlook:

FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARRRRIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...

A WEAK SURFACE LOW PRESSURE AREA ALONG THE FLORIDA EAST COAST AND AN UPPER-LEVEL LOW NEAR THE FLORIDA PENINSULA BE PRODUCIN' A LARGE AREA OF DISTURBED WEATHER OVER THE WESTERN ATLANTIC...THE CENTRAL AND NORTHWESTERN BAHAMAS...PORTIONS OF THE FLORIDA PENINSULA...AND THE EASTERN GULF MEXICO.  YE LANDLUBBERS IN FLORIDA CAN BE EXPECTIN' SHOWERS...SQUALLS...AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAINS DURING THE NEXT DAY OR TWO.  YE CAN ALSO BE EXPECTIN' THE LOW TO MOVE INTO OR REDEVELOP OVER THE EASTERN GULF OF MEXICO DURING THE NEXT DAY OR SO...WHERE A SUBTROPICAL OR TROPICAL CYCLONE COULD FORM.

DISORGANIZED CLOUDINESS AND THUNDERSTORMS EXTENDING FROM NORTH OF THE LEEWARD ISLANDS NORTHEASTWARD FOR NIGH A HUNDRED LEAGUES ARE ASSOCIATED WITH THE REMNANTS OF INGRID AND AN UPPER-LEVEL TROUGH, BUT NEVER FEAR, ME HEARTIES.  UNFAVORABLE UPPER-LEVEL WINDS BE KEEPIN' INGRID CONFINED TO HER WATERY GRAVE.

ELSEWHERE...YE OUGHT NOT TO BE EXPECTIN' ANY TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IN THE NEXT 48 HOURS. ARRR.

Walk the plank, Al Gore, you scurvy scum! There be no hurricanes to speak of!

But nay, it still be too early yet to be talkin' about a less active hurricane season than what we was expectin'.  There be a good five or six weeks yet for Calypso to send more storms our way, and we'd best be watchful!  Keep a weather eye on the horizon satellite images, and don't be fooled by the calm! She could unleash another Dean or Felix on us, and then we'll be sorry we rejoiced early, aye!!

Now stop reading this blog and get back to work, you mangy bilge rats!

130 degrees? More like 150. Arr.

By Brendan Loy

Aye, it be hot in Iraq, and don't let those bloody MSM scalawags tell y' different! (Tip o' the hat: Cap'n Glenn of the Good Ship InstaPundit.)

Guy declared dead on the scene, lives

By JLR

In Venezuela, a man was in a car wreck and declared dead on the scene.

He woke up in the morgue while they were performing the autopsy.  Hmm, inside the chest cavity we find... HIS STILL-BEATING HEART?!?!

Apparently, the man woke up screaming from the pain on the autopsy table.

And his wife showed up to identify the body.  Hi, Honey!  Yes, that's my husband.

This says two things.

1.  Don't go to the hospital in Venezuela, you might be declared dead.

2.  Someone feels like a moron.

Hoist the Jolly Roger, maties! It's Pirate Day!

By Brendan Loy

Arrr! Avast, me hearties, it be International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Shiver me timbers!

Now gather 'round the YouTube, ye lily-livered landlubbers, and listen to Ol' Chumbucket and Cap'n Slappy explain the difference between pirates and ninjas:

Arr! Ninjas suck! Arr!

Aye, and let it be known, all across the seven seas, that neither today, nor this Saturday, nor any other day this fall, will the Pirates of Troy be surrendering the Booty! Arrr! Beat the Cougarrrrrrrs!

Also, Go Irrrrrish, Beat Sparrrrrrtans!! Make a block, ye mangy O-Line bilge rats, or walk the plank! It'll be Davy Jones' Locker for Charrrrrlie if we don't win soon, and that be no lie!

So, in conclusion: Arrrrr!

P.S. Guestbloggers are encouraged to use as much pirate-speak as possible in anything they post today. :)

TV review: K-ville

By Jay Johnson

Since this blog (or at least some incarnation of this blog) largely made its national name during Hurricane Katrina, I thought it might be appropriate to provide my thoughts on the new series on Fox this fall, K-ville.

As you might be able to gather, K-ville is shorthand for Katrinaville, not an affectionate nickname for Knoxville.  The show is set in current day, two years post-Katrina New Orleans.

On the surface, it seems to be your garden-variety cops vs. bad guys drama, focusing primarily on officer Martin Boulet (Anthony Anderson).  Officer Boulet is a resident of the Ninth Ward, where he is the gung-ho leader of the "Let's Rebuild It" movement.  Unfortunately for him, he seems to be the only one interested.

During Katrina, his partner punked out on him in the middle of crisis, and he's been twisted because of that, too.  I'm shocked, really.  A cop, with a lot of stress and problems, in a TV series.  How novel.

His new partner Trevor Cobb (Cole Hauser) is an ex-military man from Cincinnati.  Needless to say, this raises red flags with Boulet.  Talk about adding coals to a fire.  Give a man with trust issues someone new that he has to trust and let's see what happens.

The initial story in the pilot is one that isn't exactly new, either.  Evil corporate types trying to keep the Ninth Ward from actually being built back, so they can profit from the cheap prices on the dirt.

From a cinematographic perspective, the show looks a lot like Blackhawk Down or Syriana, with a gritty, grainy quality that makes it truly seem like a battlefield.  The scenes of NOLA in the show are clearly focused on the destruction from Katrina that remains uncleared.   

There are a number of opportunities to take jabs at FEMA et al., and in that way it ham-handedly makes its political statement.  This, like so much of K-ville, seems very forced and contrived.  I know it's a work of fiction, but it just tries too damn hard to get to where it's going for my taste.

Lots of shoot-em-up scenes, interspersed with post-Katrina wreckage, capped off with the personal trials of Boulet, pretty much takes the whole hour.  It could be an OK cop drama, but I don't know that it's going to hang around long enough to evolve into something really good.

Overall, it's something like a C+ at best. 

Uranus at its biggest and brightest this week

By JLR

I couldn't resist...  That's the actual title of the article found here.

The worst part of this article, though is when the author refers to Uranus as the "second most distant planet in our solar system."

Pluto is not amused.

Tennessee basketball: where marriages go to die

By Brendan Loy

Following on the heels of Pat Summitt's divorce from her husband of 27 years, now Bruce Pearl is getting a divorce from his wife of 25 years.

I know I shouldn't make fun, as these are doubtless sad and trying times for the coaches and their spouses, but I can't resist: Bruce and Pat, sittin' in a tree?? Maybe he liked her singing, and she liked him shirtless, more than we realized!

At least one Vols coach is safe. Michael Silence writes: "If success in UT athletics means marital problems, Phil Fulmer has nothing to worry about." Heh. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

Arr.

By Brendan Loy

Tomorrow is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Quote of the day

By Brendan Loy

Becky, complaining to her mother about a $3.99 "sale" on chicken at Kroger's:

"That's not a sale price! That's extortion! This is chicken, not gold!"

It's back!

By Brendan Loy

...with a new hard drive, motherboard and keyboard. w00t.

Chemerinsky re-hired

By Brendan Loy

He's back, baby!

UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake and Erwin Chemerinsky have reached an agreement that will return the liberal legal scholar to the dean's post at the university's new law school, the university announced this morning.

With the deal, they hope to end the controversy that erupted when Chemerinsky was dropped as the first dean of the Donald Bren School of Law.

Drake traveled over the weekend to Durham, N.C., where Chemerinsky is a professor at Duke University, and the two reached an agreement about midnight Sunday, sources told The Times.

In a statement, Drake and Chemerinsky said: "Many issues were addressed in depth, including several areas of miscommunication and misunderstanding. All issues were resolved to our mutual satisfaction."

Drake's decision to dump Chemerinsky last week set off a national debate about academic freedom and sparked a revolt by faculty at UCI against Drake.

Cool.  Now Chemerinsky needs to do something really outrageous, so he can get himself re-fired. C'mon Erwin, you know you want to be the Billy Martin of academia!

Anyway, about that whole "end the controversy" thing... well, as Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend!" (Suddenly I have this mental picture of Corso, sitting on the GameDay set with a crowd of cheering UC Irvine students behind him, putting on a larger-than-life replica of Chemerinsky's head after "picking" him to win the showdown with Drake... heh. Someone needs to Photoshop this!) An anonymous tipster sends along this e-mail from the chair of the UC Irvine Academic Senate, sent out at 10:59 AM PDT today:

Dear colleagues,

Recent events related to the appointment of the Dean of the Law School have raised concerns about academic freedom and the Chancellor's leadership of the campus. We are encouraged by the joint announcement of Chancellor Drake and Professor Erwin Chemerinsky that Professor Chemerinsky has been offered and has accepted the position of Dean of the UCI School of Law. However, it is important that the UCI faculty discuss the issues and concerns raised by recent events.

The Senate Cabinet has called an emergency meeting of the Divisional Senate Assembly for Thursday, September 20, 2007, 2:00-5:00 p.m. in 1100 Bren Hall (Bldg 314 on the UCI map). All faculty are invited to attend this meeting.

The agenda for the meeting is the Chancellor's leadership of the campus and our commitment to academic freedom.

Tim Bradley, Chair, UCI Academic Senate

This could be ugly, folks. You know what they say about academic feuds.

More here. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

Booty Booty Booty!

By Brendan Loy

Via Boi From Troy at AOL Fanhouse, the Trojan Marching Band's new Booty Rap:

In a related story, while the USC Trojans are clearly rather good at this whole football thing, they're not so good at losing coin tosses.

Two lunchtime polls

By Brendan Loy

Vizu.com - Opinion Polls & Market Research

E.C. article update

By Brendan Loy

My pragmatic defense of the Electoral College has been linked on Rick Hasen's Election Law Blog.

Speaking of which: it seems that, if my paper does get an offer of publication from a law review or journal, I'll have at least a little bit of time to revise and edit it before making my final submission. And of course, as I mentioned before, if it doesn't get an offer, I'll be revising it extensively and then re-submitting in the spring. So, for those who wanted to be "beta-testers," your input is still most welcome. Same goes for anyone else with suggestions, criticisms, etc. You can download it from SSRN, or if that doesn't work for you, e-mail me at irishtrojan [at] gmail.com and I'll be happy to send you a copy.

O.J. Simpson arrested

By Brendan Loy

Let the search for the real armed robbers begin!

The good, the bad & the ugly

By Brendan Loy

The good: USC 49, Nebraska 31.

The bad: Michigan 38, Notre Dame 0.

The ugly: Utah 44, UCLA 6.

Duke wins!

By Brendan Loy

One week after Washington beat Boise State to end Division I-A's longest active winning streak, Duke just wrapped up a 20-14 win over Northwestern, halting at last its NCAA-worst 22-game losing streak.

Coincidentally enough, Northwestern holds the all-time record for the longest losing streak, with 34 straight defeats from 1979-1982 -- and if Duke had continued its losing ways, the 34th loss would have been next year against Northwestern. But the Wildcats couldn't keep the Blue Devils' streak alive tonight, despite a 1st-and-goal in the game's final minute.

Oh well, at least we don't need to worry about Duke ending the streak against Notre Dame...

Anyway, the ignominious distinction of longest active losing streak now falls to Florida International, which lost its 15th straight to Miami tonight. (Thankfully, there was no brawl this time.)

Trojans-Huskers update

By Brendan Loy

It's USC 21, Nebraska 10 at halftime.

Conquest Chronicles has an open thread.

UPDATE: Now it's 35-10 USC. w00t! That's 28 unanswered points for the Trojans, who are winning this by running the ball down Nebraska's throats. Fight on!

Meanwhile, Alabama upset Arkansas with a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback, culminating in a game-winning touchdown with 8 seconds left.

UPDATE 2: 42-10! And still 5:03 left in the third quarter.

I think this ought to convince the pollsters to keep USC ranked #1. :)

UPDATE 3: Justice Thomas in the hizz-ouse!

UPDATE 4: And homestanding Kentucky upsets Louisville in an in-state rivalry thriller!

Today's game is brought to you by the Letter B and the Number 9

By JLR

After a 10-1 drubbing of the Bronx Bastards...

The magic number for Boston to clinch the AL East is...

Utah 44, UCLA 6...

By Brendan Loy

...final.

WTF? LOL! WOOOO!!

This would be the same Utah team that came into the game with an 0-2 record, having lost 24-7 to Oregon State and 20-12 to Air Force. And yes, tonight's game was at Utah's home stadium, but so was the Air Force game, so it's not like the Utes are invincible at home. The Bruins just came in and laid a giant egg.

Fire Karl Dorrell?

Anyway, if the Trojans beat Nebraska, it'll be what some USC fans call a "perfect day," meaning a day on which USC wins and both UCLA and Notre Dame lose. Obviously, as a Notre Dame fan except when they're playing 'SC, I don't personally hope for such days (unless it's the day of a USC-ND game), nor are they actually a good thing from a BCS perspective -- but still, there will be a lot of very happy people in Trojan Nation tonight if USC wins and completes the trifecta.

Compare and contrast

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame's first play from scrimmage: a wild snap by the 5th-year senior center, which sailed high up into the air and almost resulted in a safety, pinning the Irish at the half-yard line.

USC's first play from scrimmage: a 50-yard run by a redshirt freshman, made possible by an awesome block by the freshman center.

(They scored a touchdown three plays later. 96 yards in 4 plays. 7-0 Trojans. Fight on!)

A reader poll

By Brendan Loy

Vizu.com - Opinion Polls & Market Research

Football update

By Brendan Loy

Central Florida just fumbled away a chance at stunning Texas. Bah.

Speaking of Florida: Florida 59, Tennessee 20, final. Yikes. UT was within 28-20, but Florida finished the game on a 31-0 run, including 24-0 in the fourth quarter

Meanwhile, UCLA is trailing 17-6 in the third quarter at Utah. [UPDATE: Make that 24-6!] ... I know that's bad for the Pac-10, but: WOOOOO!!!! UCLA sucks!!!!

USC and Nebraska get underway at 8:00 PM on ABC. Fight on, Trojans!! Beat the Cornhuskers!!

Comedy of errors

By Brendan Loy

It's been a nightmare beginning for Notre Dame. They got the ball first, and their first offensive play was a horrible snap that almost led to a safety, and ultimately allowed Michigan to get the ball back around the Irish 40. After the Domer defense held the Skunkbears to a field goal, QB Jimmy Clausen fumbled the ball away inside the 25, and Michigan scored a quick touchdown to make it 10-0. The offense's third time on the field, there was another botched snap and another fumble (albeit one the Irish recovered), and Michigan got it back again. They didn't score, though, and Tom Zbikowski returned the punt into Michigan territory -- only to have it called back on a clipping penalty. A couple of plays later, the Irish again fumbled it away inside their own territory... and Armando Allen was injured on the play. So, pretty much a worst-case scenario so far.

UPDATE: 17-0. And the Irish have "gained" a total of -19 yards so far.

Meanwhile, Florida leads Tennessee 14-3 and Ohio State is up 3-0 over Washington.

UPDATE 2: And Clausen throws an interception. Michigan again gets the ball in Irish territory.

"I don't see how they could possibly be playing any worse. ... This is shockingly appalling." --Becky

UPDATE 3: 24-0, with 11:28 left in the first half. Over at Blue-Gray Sky, their heads are exploding. There is talk of a 140-0 USC margin, and of losing to Navy. Can we still depend on beating Duke?

UPDATE 4: Washington just scored a touchdown with three seconds left in the second quarter!! Huskies lead Ohio State 7-3 at halftime.

Meanwhile, a few choice comments from BGS:

"Dejavu. After I had lunch today I made a deposit in the toilet that looked just like the ND offense."

"0-12 is not a fantasy... we're well on our way, y'all."

"days like this are difficult since i quit drinking. maybe i'll get some heroin."

"I've decided to just listen to the game on the radio. In my car. In my garage. With the engine running. And the windows down. It's better like this."

"I'm turning Protestant after this game"

UPDATE 5: 31-0 Michigan, with less than a minute left in the first half.

I daresay I'll be watching a lot more of the second half of UW-tOSU than of ND-UM.

Oh, and it's 28-6 Florida over Tennessee. So yeah: Huskies-Buckeyes it is. Go Dawgs! Go Pac-10!

UPDATE 6: Things have gotten bad enough that ND Nation has apparently shut down its football message board. Also, while the general-interest board The Back Room is still open, football-related posts are apparently being deleted from it. [UPDATE: Confirmed. There was a response to this post saying, "He was running from the Michigan defense." It has disappeared.]

The folks who run ND Nation get all censorious like this occasionally, when they deem that people are getting too angry and disloyal to Notre Dame in their furious comments. They did it when the Irish lost Urban Meyer to Florida, and they're doing it now. I think it's quite lame.

UPDATE 7: After a 96-yard interception return for a Tennessee touchdown, the Vols are within 28-20 of Florida. ...

... But, literally just as I was typing that sentence, Eric Ainge "pulled a Clausen," fumbling the ball deep in his own territory, and a Florida player picked it up and ran it in for a TD. So, 35-20 Gators. Damn.

UPDATE 8: One of the announcers on ABC just said something about Penn State's "impressive victory over Buffalo" earlier today. Huh? Is it possible for a Top 25 team to have an "impressive victory over Buffalo"? And even if it is, would a 45-24 win count?

UPDATE 9: Sharpley's in. Clausen was 11-of-17 for 74 yards... and was sacked eight times.

UPDATE 10: Michigan 38, Notre Dame 0, final.

Ohio State and Florida are both going to win, too. So all of the teams I was rooting for in this afternoon's "big three" games, lost.

Now I'm watching Central Florida vs. Texas on ESPN2. George O'Leary's team is threatening to stun the Longhorns... and Texas losing always makes me happy. Go Knights!

UPDATE 11: ND Nation's football board has reopened... and a quick glance at the posts makes clear that, if Charlie Weis's honeymoon with Irish fans wasn't definitively over after the first two weeks, it is now.

UPDATE 12: According to a commenter, I'm wrong about ND Nation:

Brendan and others, FYI: NDNation has a policy all this season of closing the football boards during games. This is to concentrate play-by-play discussion on the Game Day boards. They do this for all nationally televised games in any ND sport on its respective board.

However, nothing appears on the Game Day board from prior to 6:43 PM, which is around the same time they re-opened the regular football boards. So unless they routinely delete everything that's posted there immediately after the game, I still think they were being censorious because of the nature of today's loss. Especially considering that, over on the Back Room, they were threatening to ban anyone who commented about football.

Blue skies smilin' at me

By Brendan Loy

After some much-needed, Humberto-fueled rain yesterday, it's an absolutely gorgeous day here in Knoxville. It's almost a shame to spend it inside watching football. Almost. :) On tap at 3:30:
ND-Michigan, Tennessee-Florida, and UW-tOSU.

From lolcats to lolbabies

By Brendan Loy

Look, honey, how cute! We can raise our child to be illiterate!

Oregon Duck suspended for fighting

By Brendan Loy

Heh!

Fan video from the stands here. WARNING: Profanity!

Goooo Irish, Beeeeat Skunkbears

By Brendan Loy

A symbolic representation of the uphill battle that both Notre Dame and Michigan face this afternoon:

I stand by my prediction: Notre Dame 6, Michigan 5. :) The Curse of Bo Schemblechler strikes again.

Demetrius, we hardly knew ye

By Brendan Loy

Demetrius Jones, who started at quarterback in Notre Dame's season opener against Georgia Tech with disastrous results, didn't make the trip to Michigan with his teammates, and will apparently transfer to another school -- specifically, Northern Illinois. (Hat tip: kcatnd and BGS.) He'll be the second of the four Irish QBs from last spring's Blue-Gold Game to transfer. Zach Fraser went to UConn.

Friday night football, South and North

By Brendan Loy

There was a big-time high-school football grudge match just down the road from us this evening, as West Knoxville archrivals Farragut and Bearden played their annual game. The traffic was insane, and there were cars parked all over the place; the game apparently draws thousands. I didn't go, but it seems the home team, Bearden, lost a heartbreaker in overtime, 35-28. Farragut has now won eight consecutive games over the Bulldogs, dating back to 2001. (That includes two playoff games.)

Speaking of high-school football, back in Connecticut, Newington won its opener tonight, 30-12 over Hartford Public. Nice!

The start of the Indians' season got me thinking -- and I know anyone reading this who graduated from NHS in the late '90s or early '00s will find this just as mind-boggling as I do -- this year's crop of NHS seniors have never seen the Indians have a losing season. Never! To them, Newington has always been a winning team!

(After ten straight losing seasons from 1994-2003, including a whopping 3-38-1 record during my four years there, Newington has gone 9-2, 7-3 and 6-3-1 the last three years. And now they're 1-0 and counting. Go Indians!)

Fight on, Trojans!

By Brendan Loy

No, not those Trojans. The Troy Trojans. They're leading Oklahoma State, 27-10 with 3:56 until halftime, live on ESPN2.

Here's hoping they hold on -- for one of two Trojan victories over a Big 12 team this weekend!

Viva la Electoral College!

By Brendan Loy

Don't miss the post below about my newly released article defending the Electoral College, "Count Every Vote -- All 538 of Them."

(It's gotten a bit buried since I posted it at 12:39 AM this morning, so I figured I should plug it again.)

This post will remain on top for a while; new stuff will appear below.

Oh $#!^

By dcl

No really... WTF!!!... looks like another year of losing to UCLA...

Re-hire Chemerinsky? Also, go Red Sox!

By Brendan Loy

With regard to Erwin-gate*, NRO's Victor David Hanson says UC Irvine Law School should re-hire Chemerinsky. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

Personally, I think they should re-hire him, and then re-fire him, just for kicks. It'll be like George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin for the ivory-tower set. Fun times all around!

Speaking of which, it's now mid-September, which means it's time for this purported baseball fan, i.e. me, to start actually paying attention to my Red Sox. (I know, I know: bandwagon, etc. But dammit, 162 games is too long. My A.D.D. can't handle it. Hence my tendency to "tune in" sometime in September.) Conveniently enough, there's a Red Sox-Yankees series this weekend to get me back into the swing of things. As Mgoblog says, "Your Hate Makes You Strong." (That reminds me: Michigan sucks!!)

The series is at Fenway, and really, Boston mostly just needs to avoid suffering another sweep. The Yankees have been on quite a roll lately, but the Sox are still 5 1/2 games up in the AL East, their biggest lead this late in the season since 1986, so even, say, losing two of three to the Bronx Bastards would leave Boston with a reasonably comfortable 4.5-game cushion with 12 games to go (13 for the Yankees) when the series -- the last Boston vs. New Yawk showdown of the regular season -- is over. On the flip side, winning two of three would mean a 6.5-game lead, and a Red Sox sweep would give the good guys a virtually insurmountable lead of 8 1/2 games -- and would put the Yankees back in danger of not getting the wild card. So that'd be nice.

Anyway, GO SAWX! We broke the Curse in 2004, and in the process we humiliated the Yankees in historic back-from-3-0 fashion, but we still haven't beaten them in the division race -- that is to say, been better than them over the course of the entire regular season -- since, like, forever. So let's wrap that up this weekend, shall we?

P.S. Boston's magic number is 11. Each win this weekend reduces it by 2.

* A.k.a. L'Affaire Chemerinsky. (Hat tip: Glenn, again.)

Air Force stuns TCU

By Brendan Loy

Has TCU gone from "this year's Boise State" to "this year's Fresno State"? The Horned Frogs, once considered the most likely non-BCS-conference team to crash the big-bowl party in 2007-08, followed up its drubbing at the hands of Texas with a stunning loss to Air Force last night. The Falcons rallied from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to win 20-17 in overtime. They improved to 3-0; TCU is now 1-2, and 0-1 in the Mountain West conference. I daresay the Frogs' coach is probably cursing his team's schedule right now: in retrospect, visiting Texas on a Saturday and then playing at Air Force on the following Thursday may not have been the best idea.

(Re: "this year's Fresno State," I refer, of course, to the post-USC-game Bulldogs, not the 8-1 squad that almost stunned the Trojans at the Coliseum on November 19, 2005. That team looked BCS-worthy, but since then, they've been an enormous disappointment, going 5-13 in their last 18 games starting with that loss.)

P.S. In comments, Randy predicts that Air Force will be "the Boise State of this college football season." Hey, it could happen! If they can win at BYU next Saturday, the rest of their schedule looks pretty reasonable... and now I'm debating whether to say "except for the game at Notre Dame on November 10." Frankly, winning at home against UNLV and Wyoming might be bigger challenges this year than beating the Irish... though hopefully ND will be much improved by November, and it is at Notre Dame Stadium. But I daresay Notre Dame's "easy" last four games may have just gotten a little less easy.

A cheater at the helm of the Golden Dome?

By Andrew Long

[Andrew guestblogging.]

Whether they realize it or not, Notre Dame's season just got a little uglier -- and they haven't even lost to Michigan yet.  As part of the unfolding scandal now surrounding Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, Paul Zimmerman reports an interesting nugget rife with implications:

Marinelli was the defensive line coach in Tampa Bay when the Bucs beat the Patriots in the 2000 regular season opener and did a good job controlling New England's offense. After the game the Patriots' offensive coach, Charlie Weis, was overheard congratulating the Bucs' defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin.

"We knew all your calls, and you still stopped us," Weis said. "I can't believe it."

He couldn't believe it because the Patriots had videotaped all of the defensive signals in their last preseason game, which was against the Bucs.

Now, I'm not suggesting Charlie Weis still participates in such blatant attempts at cheating (all bitterness of Weis' poor gamesmanship ruining Desmond Reed's career aside), however, it does lead to a few questions:

• Did Charlie Weis earn his "offensive genius" tag from Domer homers and media sycophants at least partially on the basis of Patriots' game plans developed with illicitly obtained information?
• Is not the entire Belichick era at New England, and ergo Weis' success as an offensive coordinator there, now tainted with the same kind of doubt and suspicion that hangs over baseball players Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds as a result of their alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs?

I think the answers to the above two questions are terribly obvious, and this must be disconcerting for Domers.  The evidence mounts that not only is Weis not the great coach he was cracked up to be, he also isn't the most ethical role model for Notre Dame.

Obviously Urban Meyer was Notre Dame's real target when the Golden alumni turned on Ty Willingham after the 2003 season and sabotaged his recruiting efforts with over-the-top threats, demands, and innuendo, but even though Domers congratulated themselves on getting the "genius" Weis after whiffing on Meyer, did they shoot themselves in the foot even worse than even their biggest detractors imagined?

There's no way Domers will admit how badly they treated Ty after the rough transition year in 2003, when Davie's option system and personnel were finally being flushed out for brand-new personnel for the still-emerging West Coast Offense and a bunch of new starters on defense.  And without a doubt, the ten-year, $40 million contract Weis has means the current coach will not be expeditiously run out of town like Ty was.  But we can hope that Ty's current success -- and the latest revelations about Weis and Belichick -- will once again teach Notre Dame to put personal integrity, morals, and academic commitment above greed and the yearning to return to the glory days when Notre Dame could rely on its built-in advantages (money, media exposure, and religion) to win national titles.  There is still time before the Golden Dome is tarnished much further.

I'm a 6th generation Irish-American

By Brendan Loy

My mom has been doing some genealogical research, and has apparently found the answer to a question I've long wondered about: just how many generations ago did the Irish side of my family (the McNamaras) emigrate from the old country and come to America? It seems the answer is six. My dad is a fifth-generation American on the McNamara side, and I'm sixth-generation.

According to my mom's research, my great-great-great-grandfather, John McNamara, was born in Ireland in 1822.  His wife Mary, my great-great-great-grandmother, was also born in Ireland, in 1828.  I don't know when they got married, but it seems they had their first child in 1855 or thereabouts, in Connecticut. Their fifth child, born in 1863 (also in Connecticut), was Daniel, a second-generation American and my great-great-grandfather. Dan McNamara begat Joe McNamara, who begat Helen McNamara Loy, my paternal grandmother. And the rest, as they say, is history. (Though as Nana Loy would point out, "What the hell do they know? They're a bunch of horse's asses anyway." Or words to that effect. :)

My understanding is that the McNamaras always claimed that they had come over before the Great Potato Famine, but we've never been sure if that claim was accurate. It has been speculated that certain proud members of the family might have wanted to separate themselves from the riffraff, if you will, by pretending they weren't forced to come here because of starvation, as so many other "shanty Irish" were. Well, now we finally have some dates, and let's see: if we assume that John and Mary were married in Ireland, and that she was at least 18 when they got hitched, that would mean they left Ireland sometime between 1846 and ~1855.

The famine was from 1845 to 1849. Ahem. You do the math.

So my ancestors, it seems, were quite likely refugees of the Great Potato Famine. Interesting.

UPDATE: Belatedly, it occurs to me that my logic vis a vis the timetable may not be entirely airtight. All we know, I think, is that John and Mary were both born in Ireland; we don't actually know that they emigrated together, as adults, as opposed to emigrating separately, as children, and then meeting and marrying in America. The latter is also possible, and it would not be at all surprising if two first-generation immigrants met in this country and married each other; immigrant communities were very tight-knit in those days. If that were the case, it would mean the McNamaras did indeed come over here before the famine.

Of course, the other thing that's odd about this whole train of thought is that, although I talk about these great-great-great-grandparents as "the McNamaras" because they are the ones who carried the name McNamara, the reality is I'm really only talking about a small sliver of the Irish ancestry from the "McNamara side" of my grandparentage (i.e., from my Nana Loy). One-eighth of it, to be exact. John and Mary McNamara were Nana Loy's great-grandparents; they represent a mere 12.5% of her bloodline. Yet she was 100% Irish. That means seven-eighths of Nana's (and my) Irishness came from other ancestors, who may have emigrated at other times, under other circumstances.

Regardless, I find this sort of stuff fascinating. I wish I knew more about my ancestors; I'd love to read their life stories, if they were written down anywhere. Even little snippets of information, though, make me feel more connected to these long-ago ages past. For my Immigration Law class at Notre Dame last fall, we had to write a brief paper about our own "immigration history," and in the course of researching it (again mostly via my mom), I learned all sorts of stuff I'd never known before, like how the Loomers (my maternal grandfather's side) are really a very old family in this country, dating back to the mid-1600s, as I recall. They didn't come over on the Mayflower, but they weren't that far removed from it either. ... Alas, very very little is known about the Loys. We don't even really know where they came from, or what the origin of the name is.

Count Every Vote -- All 538 of Them

By Brendan Loy

Regular readers may remember my various posts last spring about my in-progress paper defending the Electoral College on pragmatic/procedural grounds. Well, it's finally done, and I've uploaded it to SSRN, where it's now  available for download.

Here's an excerpt from the introduction:

In the minds of many observers, the 2000 presidential election was the ultimate argument against the Electoral College.  For the first time since 1888, the popular-vote winner lost the electoral vote, and the people's second-favorite candidate became president.  Adding insult to injury, the electoral vote was itself extremely close, and the decisive state was even closer.  Thus, for the first time since 1876, an inversion between the electoral and popular votes coincided with a protracted dispute over the Electoral College winner—and for the first time ever, the dispute was settled not by Congress or a congressionally appointed body, but by the United States Supreme Court.  All things considered, the 2000 election became Exhibit A in many arguments for the elimination of the Electoral College.

It is possible, however, to take precisely the opposite view: that the 2000 presidential election was the ultimate argument for retaining the Electoral College.  This position is not sexy or politically correct; it is rooted in bald practicality, not democratic idealism.   Yet it has considerable merit.  A national popular vote system may be a good idea in theory, but in reality, it would become a nightmare in a close election.  And the interstate-compact system, a bizarre extraconstitutional hybrid that is neither a true popular-vote election nor a functional Electoral College, is even more nightmarish than direct popular-vote plans.  ... [I]t creates unclear lines of decision and a high likelihood of lengthy and unpredictable legal disputes when the winning candidate's margin is narrow.

These problems cannot be ignored, because without question, margins will sometimes be narrow.  In 2000, for example, Al Gore's popular-vote margin over George W. Bush  was barely one-half of a percent of the votes cast, which would be close enough to trigger a recount in some states.  Judge Posner acknowledged this point in a review of the Bush-Gore dispute, noting that "if Presidents were elected by popular vote, a nationwide recount might have been unavoidable in 2000 because Gore's margin was so small."   Yet that race looks like a landslide compared to Kennedy's 0.16 percent advantage over Nixon in 1960,  a hairbreadth edge that would have been very difficult to accept as final without the availability of a national recount to confirm the result. Even closer was the election of 1880, in which James Garfield defeated Winfield Hancock by just 9,070 votes, or 0.098 percent.   

In all three of these elections, and every other close vote in American history, the Electoral College isolated any controversies to individual states.  But under an interstate-compact or direct-election plan, such an eventuality would create controversy and legal wrangling on an almost unimaginable scale.  Every alleged anomaly, everywhere, would become the subject of potential legal action, because it would no longer matter whether a specific state was itself close.  And the incentive to look for anomalies would be extremely high: as Posner wrote in reference to the 2000 race, "There is little doubt that if Bush's people nosed around heavily Democratic precincts throughout the nation they would come up with colorable arguments about voter and tabulation error that might have determined the election [if the president were elected by popular vote]." 

It is worth recalling that Florida was hardly the only state where voting and vote-counting anomalies may have occurred in 2000. There were alleged anomalies in many other states,  but they were generally not litigated because those states were won in landslides, so the possible discrepancies did not matter to the candidates.  In a national popular-vote system, by contrast, the concept of "winning" a state would be meaningless; any close presidential election would be a nationwide free-for-all.  Every state and county courthouse in the country would become the front line in a pitched battle over a razor-close vote. 

Worse, the "final" resolution might not be so final, thanks to the likely thicket of legal challenges.  In an interstate-compact system, these could include a to the overall structure of the compact system itself. In a true direct-election system, finality could be an even bigger issue, as there would be no built-in mechanism to definitively end it all — no meetings of the electors at which the 538 votes that matter are finally cast, no congressional tally of those votes to conclusively choose the president and vice president. Without such a mechanism, challenges could drag on indefinitely, with state and federal judges extending deadlines in the name of "counting every vote."  What if "every vote" is not counted to everyone's satisfaction by January 20? What if differing interpretations of the vote count produce different "final" results, perhaps with different winners?  Which "winner" is inaugurated?

If the dispute over Florida's election in 2000 proved anything, it is that accurately measuring the will of millions of voters is very, very difficult.  Again quoting Judge Posner, "the counting of millions of ballots by any method is liable to error."  And yet Florida's vote total was just under 6 million;  the difficulties would become far greater if we needed an accurate national count of more than 100 million votes.   Many steps can and should be taken to improve the accuracy of our voting system, regardless of whether the Electoral College is retained.  But we must be realistic: there will always be the potential for disagreement about the result when the vote is close enough, and our electoral system must be robust enough to retain its legitimacy, functionality and timeliness even when such disputes occur.

As measured against the national popular vote, the Electoral College will very occasionally, in a very close election, give us the "wrong" president.  But it always gives us a president, and does so in a reasonably timely fashion, well before the January 20 inauguration. It may be unfashionable to defend a system that sometimes fails to accurately reflect the national popular will, but as long as inversions of the electoral and popular vote remain rare and limited to very close elections — ones in which the popular will is hardly overwhelming, and may indeed be quite unclear — this admittedly imperfect system is vastly preferable to the alternative.  Whatever its abstract merits, the practical reality is that direct election by national popular vote could, in a razor-close election, produce a true legitimacy crisis that would threaten to seriously undermine the presidency itself.

I've submitted the paper (or, ahem, "article") to a whole bunch of law reviews, law journals, etc., hoping to get it published. Whether I get any nibbles remains to be seen. If I fail, I'll make some revisions and try again in the spring. But I wanted to give it a shot now.

I'm told it's okay to post the article on SSRN while it's under consideration for publication elsewhere. Apparently law journals, in contrast to some other types of publications, don't generally care about that -- and indeed, apparently an SSRN posting can occasionally generate enough buzz to make it more likely that a paper will get published. I'm not expecting that, however. I mostly wanted to post it there so that y'all, my blog readers, can finally look at the darn thing, considering how many of you asked back in April and May when you'll be able to read it. :)

Many thanks to Professor Mayer, who has been incredibly helpful throughout this whole process. A footnote on Page 1 thanks him, and also thanks my dad, "Joe Loy, a retired elections administrator in the state of Connecticut, who instilled in the author a lifelong interest in elections and a healthy understanding of the importance of procedure." :)

Anyway, here's another excerpt, from pages 51-56, outlining several of the key problems with a direct popular-vote system:

A direct election system would strip away several all-important safeguards, inherent to the Electoral College system, that ensure a timely resolution and prevent a constitutional crisis—and all in the name of choosing the “right winner,” which is impossible to do with any certainty in a close election anyway, even if one accepts the dubious proposition that “the right winner” means nothing more than “the guy who got the most votes.”

One of the most important lost safeguards, and one that cannot be recaptured by any possible permutation or amendment of a direct election proposal, is the loss of the current system’s invaluable tendency to “quarantine” election disputes to individual states.  Even in the wildest imaginable Electoral College scenario, only a small handful of states would ever be truly “in play” and relevant to the determination of the winner.  In 2004, the only such state was Ohio; 2000, it was Florida; in 1960, Texas and Illinois; in 1888 and 1880, New York; in 1876, South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida and Oregon.  Outside of these states, any discrepancies or irregularities in those elections simply did not matter, either because they happened in a state too small to affect the national outcome or (more often) because the winning candidate’s margin in the state in question was too large to be seriously threatened.  In a direct election system, by contrast, each state’s individual margin does not matter; the state tallies only matter as part of a larger whole, so the difference between, say, a 1,000,000-vote lead in a given state and a 1,005,000-lead in that same state is of equal significance to the difference between a 2,500-vote lead and a 2,500-vote deficit.  In either case, the difference is 5,000 votes out of the national total.  This portends an enormous increase in the numbers of challenges and lawsuits in the event of a close election.  …

Moreover, because the challenges to a national popular election would originate in different state court systems, and probably the federal court system as well, it would be very difficult to streamline these lawsuits into a single case or small group of cases working their way up the appellate chain toward a single final resolution, as occurred in Florida in 2000.  Jurisdictional issues would likely prevent such streamlining, and even if not, consolidating cases from multiple states would create a nightmarishly complex set of facts for any court to analyze and adjudicate.  Simply put, the state-by-state electoral “quarantine” created by the Electoral College is the only thing holding back the floodgates of judicial chaos in the event of a close election.  A tight race under a direct election system would lead to a torrent of litigation that would make Florida 2000 look like an exercise in litigious restraint.  The end result could be paralysis and constitutional crisis, seriously undermining the system’s ability to fulfill the “undisputed and timely winner” purpose of presidential elections.

Another lost safeguard is the 200 years of history and precedent that underlie the Electoral College system and imbue it with legitimacy.  No matter how well-drafted a constitutional amendment creating a wholly new system might be, it is impossible to anticipate every conflict that could potentially arise.  Thus the courts will inevitably be drawn into adjudicating issues that have never been considered before, and while courts are routinely called upon to do that in other areas of the law, there ought to be a strong presumption against “reinventing the wheel” when it comes to the method of choosing the president of the United States, the most powerful official in our government.  The long history of the Electoral College creates public confidence that the system will be able to successfully navigate close elections, and that same history guides the courts and Congress as they consider how to follow procedures and resolve disputes.  We know what the rules are, we know how they have historically been interpreted, and we know they are not just going to change in mid-stream.  Essentially starting from scratch would create considerable uncertainty, and again, disrupt the certainty of an undisputed and timely winner. 

Yet another problem with a true direct election system is the elimination of the mid-December and early-January deadlines—which are, as noted earlier, more than mere deadlines, but are in fact beginning and ending dates of wholly independent stages in the election process.  This multi-stage aspect of the Electoral College system creates the aforementioned “instant replay” effect: once a new play starts, the old play can no longer be reviewed.  Once the electors have voted, and especially once Congress has counted and certified their votes, challenges to close elections in individual states become irrelevant, thus preserving the integrity of the result and preventing a legitimacy crisis if disputes arise later.  A true direct election system might have more malleable deadlines, as it would likely be a much more linear process.  Even after the “final” certification of the national vote tally is announced, it is not difficult to imagine it being revisited in the name of “counting every vote” if a late development threatens to change the result.  A state or even a federal court might adopt the logic of the Florida Supreme Court, which extended a statutory deadline on the basis of a legal interpretation that rested in part on its overarching belief that “the will of the people, not a hyper-technical reliance upon statutory provisions, should be our guiding principle in election cases.”  The point here is not to lambaste the Florida court or rail against judicial activism, but simply to point out that the battle cry “count every vote” is a compelling one, and well-meaning judges may be sorely tempted to follow its call even when important deadlines stand squarely in the way.  This may appeal to strict majoritarians, but the consequences for timeliness and certainty would be disastrous. 

A good example of what could occur in a fairly linear direct-election system, devoid of the sort of truly ironclad deadlines that characterize the Electoral College system, is the 2004 Washington gubernatorial race.  As noted earlier, vanquished Republican candidate Dino Rossi did not concede until he was defeated in a final court challenge on June 7, 2005—fully seven months after the election and five months after Gregoire’s inauguration.  Consequently, his election contest morphed into a “five-month legal effort to remove her” from office.  When the courts finally forced Rossi to give up, a spokeswoman for Gregoire—by this point roughly 10 percent done with her four-year term—said the decision “brings an end to a long campaign. This is a moment that will allow her and the state to move forward in addressing all of the pressing issues before us.”  It should go without saying that a similar scenario would be devastating on the national level.  The impact of such a cloud hanging of the president’s legitimacy would be far-reaching and crippling.  Thus, in an extremely close election, timeliness and certainty easily outweigh any “right winner” benefit, since the scenario in question could only occur in an extraordinarily close election, where the “right winner” is essentially a flip of a mathematical coin anyway.

Again, if you want to read the whole thing, just go to its SSRN page and download it.

Viva the Electoral College! :)

P.S. To those who volunteered to be "beta-testers" for the paper, I apologize for never sending you a copy. My plan was to make my "final" revisions earlier in the summer, then get input from the "beta-testers," make whatever changes might result from that, and then submit it to SSRN and the law reviews. But I didn't finish my revisions till much later than I hoped, and with deadlines approaching, I had to skip over the "beta" phase and pull the trigger on the submissions.

Ingrid

By Brendan Loy

Tropical Depression Eight, the storm I wanted to be Humberto, has finally earned the name Ingrid, strengthening to minimal tropical storm status as of 11:00 PM. It lost the "race" by a whopping 33 hours.

Ingrid will probably strengthen slightly in the next day or so, but after that, there's a lot of wind shear in the storm's path, so weakening is likely; indeed, Ingrid may be "completely torn apart" before she can ever amount to much of anything.

Meanwhile Humberto, the storm I wanted to be Ingrid -- because I anticipated it being an "unexciting storm" that I didn't want a "great name" like Humberto to be "wasted on" -- turned out to be anything but "unexciting." On the contrary, it was historic. Cue Forecaster Franklin's 11:00 AM discussion about Humberto's unexpected rapid strengthening:

BASED ON OPERATIONAL ESTIMATES...HUMBERTO STRENGTHENED FROM A 30 KT DEPRESSION AT [11:00 AM] YESTERDAY TO A 75 KT HURRICANE AT [5:00 AM] THIS MORNING...AN INCREASE OF 45 KT IN 18 HOURS. TO PUT THIS DEVELOPMENT IN PERSPECTIVE...NO TROPICAL CYCLONE IN THE HISTORICAL RECORD HAS EVER REACHED THIS INTENSITY AT A FASTER RATE NEAR LANDFALL. IT WOULD BE NICE TO KNOW...SOMEDAY...WHY THIS HAPPENED.

Eric Berger says Franklin's comment is humbling, a reminder that "we understand relatively little about the fundamental physics of hurricanes despite the avalanche of data we collect about them." Alan Sullivan, for his part, has a theory about what happened. And Dr. Jeff Masters says we were lucky: "If Humberto had had another 12-24 hours over water, it could have been a major hurricane that would have hit without enough time to evacuate those at risk."

P.S. Brian Neudorff has a whole post about this issue. In it, he quotes AccuWeather's Joe Bastardi, who seems to think the apparently rapid wind increase is more a result of measurement inaccuracy than anything else, and who concludes, "The true measure of increase in energy was the 15 mb pressure drop from 1001 to 986 in only 12 hours ... This is not that astounding at all in a developing system." Neudorff also quotes former NHC director Max Mayfield, who writes on his blog:

National Hurricane Center forecasters have repeatedly stated that one of their greatest concerns is intensity forecasting. This has been listed as the No. 1 priority to the research community for years. Humberto’s rapid and unexpected strengthening is an example of the need for improved guidance on intensity forecasting. None of the models used as guidance by the NHC indicated such rapid strengthening. ...

One hates to think about the impacts if people had gone to bed expecting a Category 1 and ended up experiencing a Category 3 or higher hurricane. Without improved intensity guidance, one of these days this will happen and the result will be devastating.

P.P.S. In another post, Neudorff notes that Ingrid's formation means 2007 has tied 2006's named-storm total... and we only just passed the climatological peak on the season on Monday.

Orange ribbons at Kroger's

By Brendan Loy

If yellow ribbons are for the troops and pink ribbons are for breast cancer, what are orange ribbons for? The speedy and complete recovery of Eric Ainge's pinky finger? :)

Bye-bye (again), PowerBook :(

By Brendan Loy

I'm about to go to DHL to ship my laptop to Apple. As I mentioned last month, my manifesto caught the eye of the "God level" tech support people, and I'll be getting a new hard drive and motherboard.

Passing of a legend

By David K.

Discussions around sports are often heated and contentious -- you need not look further than the comments on some of the posts on this very blog to see that.  It can be frustrating at times, but it's part of what draws people to sports as well.  Sometimes, however, in amongst the heated discussions, we miss something: the impact the game has on coaches and the players, especially the younger players.  College football clearly evokes passion, and the pros has its place, but in many ways I think high school football is the heart of the game and high school coaches are especially important.  In most cases, the coaches who work at that level do it not for the money, but for the passion.  Admittedly, there are some coaches at the high school level who are well compensated, but for most it's a little extra money that, spread out over the time spent, has them working at minimum wage...or less.

Yesterday morning Terry Ennis, one of the greatest high school coaches in the state of Washington, passed away after a five year battle with cancer.  The most amazing part is that he was doing what he loved up until the very end.  This past Saturday, Ennis coached the Wildcats of Archbishop Murphy High School to a 49-7 victory in a non-conference game.

Ennis is remembered not just for his football talent and focus on discipline and hard work, but as an inspiration for players and fellow coaches.  With a 287-87 record built over 35 seasons, he is the second winningest coach in Washington high school football. He won three state championships during his career, once with Cascade High School and two with Archbishop Murphy, a school that didn't have a football program until he started it in 2000.

We may argue, we may disagree, we may fight, but above all we should remember that we do it because we love the game.  And for a lucky few, like Ennis, they get to be a part of that game we all love until the very end.

Rest in peace Coach, you will be missed, but what you have taught us all will not be forgotten.

Hurricane Humberto!!

By Brendan Loy

It's official! Against all odds, Humberto has managed to become a hurricane and, if you will, earn his alliterative stripes. So Texas is about to experience the first U.S. hurricane landfall of the 2007 season -- indeed, the first since Wilma in 2005 -- and it's from a hurricane with a cool-sounding name, to boot.

Here's the live radar view.

Now watch, T.D. Eight will never actually become a hurricane, and my "race for Humberto" post will look utterly foolish.

UPDATE: Humberto made landfall at 3:00 AM EDT as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, all confined to the north side of the eyewall. Here's a radar image of the storm making landfall, and you can clearly see that strong north side where the hurricane-force winds were occurring:

Here's an archived animated radar loop of Humberto coming ashore. And here's the current radar loop.

P.S. I wrote yesterday that "'Hurricane Humberto' has a certain ring to it, like 'Hurricane Hugo,'" but I neglected to mention -- because I had forgotten -- that "Humberto" is in fact the replacement for "Hugo" on list of hurricane names, which rotates every six years.

The name "Hugo" was retired after the devastating 1989 hurricane, which was the first and only storm to bear that name. It was replaced on the list by "Humberto," and in 1995, the first Hurricane Humberto formed, becoming the basis for my Spanish-class name but otherwise remaining rather unmemorable, as it strengthened to Category 2 status but remained out at sea, never threatening land. The second Hurricane Humberto, in 2001, was also a Cat. 2 "swimmer." So this is the third (and weakest) "Humberto," but the first to make landfall. Hopefully it won't cause enough damage to be retired, and we'll have another "Humberto" in 2013.

The next name on this year's list, Ingrid, is a replacement for the retired "Iris."

Rudy and Romney and Fred, oh my!

By Brendan Loy

The New Republic's John B. Judis looks at the odds of a brokered GOP convention. Wouldn't that be fun?

Humberto may just become a hurricane!

By Brendan Loy

It appears that Tropical Storm Humberto is bound and determined to erode my undeserved reputation as a clairvoyant hurricane prognosticator. :) Less than 12 hours ago, before Humberto had a name, I confidently wrote that "the Gulf system will never become a hurricane." Once it got the name "Humberto" (rather than "Ingrid," which it would have been named if Tropical Depression Eight in the Central Atlantic had become a tropical storm first), I lamented the fact that there would be no alliterative "Hurricane Humberto": it was, I said, "a great name wasted on an unexciting storm."

Well, think again, Katrina Boy! Humberto has put on an impressive burst of intensification, and its winds are now up to 65 mph as it approaches the Texas coast. Hurricane strength starts at 74 mph. Humberto's probably got one more NHC advisory over open water (2:00 AM), and will probably just be making landfall around the time of the 5:00 AM advisory. Will it get to be a hurricane for, er, three hours or so? Maybe:

SOME ADDITIONAL STRENGTHENING COULD OCCUR BEFORE THE CENTER MAKES LANDFALL EARLY ON THURSDAY...AND WINDS COULD BE APPROACHING HURRICANE FORCE OVER A SMALL AREA NEAR HUMBERTO'S CENTER WHEN IT REACHES THE COAST.

It doesn't really matter, though. Humberto's main threat will be flooding rains. Eric Berger looks at the sitaution in already-saturated Texas.

Meanwhile, proto-Ingrid (a.k.a. the aforementioned T.D. Eight) is not strengthening yet. But Alan Sullivan is continuing to worry.

Oil at $80 a barrel

By Brendan Loy

As Fark.com would say, EVERYBODY PANIC.

This just in: apparently Erwin Chemerinsky is a liberal

By Brendan Loy

Duke law professor Erwin Chemerinsky, formerly of USC, almost of U.C. Irvine, has been fired for being too liberal:

Just days after he signed a contract to become the first dean of UC Irvine's new law school, Erwin Chemerinsky was told this week that the deal was off because he was too "politically controversial."

Chemerinsky said in an interview today that UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake had flown to North Carolina on Tuesday and told him at a hotel near the airport that that he did not realize the extent to which there were "conservatives out to get me." ...

The professor said Drake told him that he thought there would have been a "bloody battle" among the regents over the appointment.

I'm with InstaPundit on this one, on all counts:

Hiring and firing Erwin Chemerinsky in one week? Because it turns out he's too liberal? First of all, who doesn't know about Erwin's politics? Certainly anybody who managed to hire him without knowing his political leanings would have to have been grossly negligent in their evaluation. Second, he's a nice, fair guy regardless of his politics -- which aren't that liberal by law school standards -- and which just shouldn't matter anyway. Perhaps there's more to this story than we're hearing, though I'm not sure what it could be, but it makes absolutely no sense as reported. Anyway, I have to agree with Brian Leiter that this is going to make it very hard for them to recruit anyone of comparable stature for the position now.

Glenn just posted an update.

Today in Russia...

By Brendan Loy

Vladimir Putin dissolved his government...

...the military announced the creation and testing of "The Dad Of All Bombs"...

...and a bunch of people had sex.

Somehow, I'm sure these events are all connected. And the connection probably involves vodka.

Civics class?

By dcl

It would seem that not being able to find their country on a map is only the tip of the iceberg for "US Americans..." No, really! If people are this daft on the first amendment, I'd imagine they wouldn't know the ninth if it smacked them in the face.

The race for "Humberto" is on!

By Brendan Loy

At 11:00 AM EDT, the National Hurricane Center designated not one but two tropical depressions: T.D. Eight in the Central Atlantic, 1,130 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, and T.D. Nine in the Gulf of Mexico, 85 miles SSW of Galveston. (Given the simultaneous designations, I don't know how they decided which would be #8 and which would be #9.)

Now the race is on: which T.D. will become Tropical Storm Humberto, and which will become Tropical Storm Ingrid? (Assuming, of course, that T.D. 9 actually reaches T.S. status before landfall, which is not a given. But the forecast says it will: Tropical Storm Warnings are up along the Texas and Louisiana coastlines.) This question is of special significance to me, since my "Español name" in Mrs. Betters's freshman-year Spanish class at Newington High School -- picked during the then-record-setting 1995 hurricane season, two full hurricane name cycles ago -- was "Humberto." (There's no Spanish-language equivalent for "Brendan," so I picked the name of the hurricane, which was active on the first day of school.)

Personally, I'm rooting for Eight to become Humberto and Nine to become Ingrid. "Hurricane Humberto" has a certain ring to it, like "Hurricane Hugo" -- and the Gulf system will never become a hurricane and will make landfall within 24 hours, whereas we'll be most likely hearing about the Central Atlantic system for a good week or two.

So, where are these storms going? T.D. Nine "will drift ashore before it can turn into anything worse than a weak tropical storm," but after landfall its track (or the track of its remnants) is uncertain, and it could create a "serious flooding event" for Texas.

As for T.D. Eight, it's "far too early to say whether the storm will affect the United States" -- but Alan Sullivan, who is in vacation while a friend watches his boat in south Florida, is worried:

It seems less likely that the atmosphere will sustain continuous westward movement through the whole length of the Caribbean, as it did for Dean and Felix. The present slow motion is indicative of a trickier forecast. The season is getting more advanced. Frost in Fargo, ten days early! The storm, whatever name it gets, will take a more northerly track. Will it run Yucatan Channel into the Gulf? Will it cross the Greater Antilles to threaten South Florida, Carolinas, even New England? An island crossing means a weaker storm, at least for awhile. Or will it wobble WNW enough to stay in the Atlantic and approach Florida via the Bahamas? This is the course I fear most. Models mostly do aim this storm NE of Puerto Rico. Historically, Florida’s worst hurricanes have come westward from the open Atlantic. (Wilma was a freakish exception.) I shall breathe easier if this system gets into the Caribbean.

The other big question is how much Eight (proto-Humberto? domo arigato...) will strengthen, and how fast. Cue Eric Berger again:

This system should continue passing across warm seas and is under low wind shear right now, so there's no reason to believe it won't develop further.

How much? The models aren't as aggressive strengthening this system as they have been with other storms this year, such as Dean and Felix. Why? Because this wave -- probably a tropical storm by week's end -- is forecast to move under 25 mph or greater wind shear by Friday or Saturday, which will give it a very hard time.

Still, Dr. Jeff Masters says T.D. Eight "has the potential to become a large and dangerous major hurricane next week."

UPDATE: D'oh! Tropical Depression Nine -- the one near Texas -- just became Tropical Storm Humberto, as of 2:00 PM EDT. Harumph! A great name wasted on an unexciting storm! So, it'll be (eventually) Hurricane Ingrid churning up the Atlantic and giving Alan Sullivan heartburn in the coming days. Doesn't sound nearly as fearsome as "Hurricane Humberto" would have, but I suppose we'll get used to it.

CNN Breaking News

By Brendan Loy

Two powerful earthquakes reported in Indonesia with preliminary magnitudes of 7.8 and 8.0. Tsunami alert issued.

UPDATE: There was only one earthquake, according to the USGS, and it had an initial estimated magnitude of 7.9. Details here. This is the second time in the last month that a CNN Breaking News alert has said there were multiple major earthquakes, when in fact there was just one big quake plus aftershocks.

Anyway, an "Indian Ocean-wide tsunami watch" has been issued. "SEA LEVEL READINGS INDICATE A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. IT MAY ALREADY HAVE BEEN DESTRUCTIVE ALONG SOME COASTS." It's pretty much impossible to assess the strength of an active tsunami in the Indian Ocean, though, due to the lack of a comprehensive sensor network. The fact that "a tsunami was generated" could mean some people are in for a world of hurt, or it could mean there'll be a barely noticeable increase in sea level and then things will return to normal. We'll just have to wait and see, and hope and pray it's the latter. Further tsunami bulletins will be posted

It should be noted that a 7.9 quake on the moment magnitude scale would be, if my calculations are correct, approximately 125 times less powerful than the 9.3 magnitude quake that caused the 2004 tsunami. It's a logarithmic scale, y'see, and a steep one at that.

UPDATE 2: CNN is reporting that "[t]he earthquake has triggered a small tsunami."

UPDATE 3: Now the USGS is saying it was an 8.2 quake, which is three times stronger than a 7.9 and "only" 45 times less powerful than the 2004 quake.

However, the head of Indonesia's meteorological agency says there have been no reports of tsunamis. "But we have not withdrawn the tsunami alert until we are certain that the danger has passed."

Hot hot hot! Appalachian is #33

By Brendan Loy

Following up on my previous post about the Associated Press allowing Division I-AA teams into its poll for the first time ever this week: Appalachian State -- victor over the victors valiant, conqueror of the conquering heroes -- is, alas, not ranked. They are, however, in the "others receiving votes" category, right between Auburn and Cincinnati. If you count back from #25, they are effectively ranked #33 in the country. (For the record, Sagarin puts them at #53... just behind #52 UConn, well ahead of both #63 Notre Dame and #69 Michigan.)

And hey, if those hot, hot, hot Mountaineers can keep winning -- they've got Northern Arizona next on the schedule, followed by trips to Wofford and Elon -- maybe they can work their way up into the Top 25 through attrition.

Speaking of which, Rece Davis says that LSU and Oklahoma should be #1 and #2, ahead of USC: "If you're a pollster and those aren't your top two, what you're saying is that your preseason prediction is more important than what you've seen on the field. Unfortunately, too many people seem unable to break that habit."

Anyway, back to Notre Dame and Michigan. They're both in ESPN's Bottom 10 for the second straight week. What an honor! Alas, someone will almost have to ascend out of the rankings this Saturday... and Mike Hart guarantees it'll be the Skunkbears. (Though he may not have used that particular term.)

If the Irish don't improve these offensive statistics, then I'm afraid Hart will be right. However, I'm betting on the Curse of Bo Schembechler to pull us through. Official Fearless BrendanLoy.com Prediction: Notre Dame 6, Michigan 5! (You know our offensive line is totally capable of giving up a safety.)

By the way, the post with the statistics also contains another detailed discussion -- with, you know, facts and stuff -- about the whole "Ty vs. Charlie" debate. Not like that topic isn't already consuming 95% of the (virtual) oxygen in the comment section. :)

The Blue-Gray Sky has a good post, too, about ND's current predicament.

Finally, speaking of predicaments: D'oh! USC has suffered its first season-ending injury, to defensive back Josh Pinkard.

Not antiwar, just... an insane killer

By Brendan Loy

I like Glenn Reynolds, and I think he's usually pretty fair-minded. But to the extent he's being serious with this post, I have to take him to task for it. It reads:

NOT ANTIWAR, just on the other side: "Disturbed anti-war protester can't find soldier, kills civilian with axe instead."

"Not antiwar, just on the other side" is something of a catchphrase, generally used to point out particularly egregious instances of bad behavior by the most radical of the antiwar crowd. For example, giving money to Iraqi insurgents, or chillin' with suicide bombers, or suggesting that coalition soldiers are legitimate targets. In those sorts of cases, it's an appropriate moniker, the point being that these traitorous idiots are claiming the mantle of "antiwar" and if the real, legitimate antiwar crowd -- the loyal opposition -- doesn't want its good name smeared, it should condemn them in no uncertain terms.

In this case, though, I think Glenn has gone rather too far. The story he linked is about an obviously deranged person whose actions clearly have nothing to do with politics and everything to do with either psychological illness or sociopathic evil -- with politics being nothing more than an excuse or a trigger. I'm no psychologist, but that's fairly obvious, isn't it? I mean, he walked into a train station and killed some random guy with an ax. That's not really what I would call a political act. There is no indication that he's involved with any antiwar group, nor that his actions are in any way consistent with others in even the most radical extremes of the antiwar crowd. So I think it's a rather significant stretch to use the "not antiwar, just on the other side" label on this particular story. It would be a bit like saying, nine years ago:

NOT SO PRO-LIFE after all: "Sniper Kills Abortion Doctor Near Buffalo."

That would be highly inappropriate, and so is this. There's some serious guilt-by-association smearing going on here, and I guess I just draw the line at holding political groups (of whatever persuasion) implicitly responsible for the depraved acts of deranged murderers.

Now, in Glenn's defense, maybe he's just having a little fun (albeit with regard to an event that isn't terribly funny, but hey, I like dark humor as much as the next guy) and isn't trying to make a serious point, and I'm reading too much into his post. That's certainly happened to me before, so I can sympathize if that's the case. However, given how he and others have used the phrase "not antiwar, just on the other side" before, I think he needs to be careful, because that phrase means something very specific in the right-blogosphere, and so people are going to assume that's how he's using it in this case too.

9/11

By Brendan Loy

Never forget.

(This post will stay on top all day; new posts will appear below.)

Millionare moratorium

By Brendan Loy

Diane just told me they asked her to ask me not to blog anything about what happened in her appearance on Millionaire. Of course, being me, I already had. :) But I've now taken down the earlier post.

That's really terrible management on Millionaire's part, not to tell the "phone-a-friends" about the confidentiality requirement (or request, really) when they had us in a conference call this morning. I certainly would have adhered to it from the beginning, if someone had told me about it, but in the absence of any such guidance, of course I went ahead and blogged. Of course, most people aren't like me, but still, in this age of YouTube and blogs, it's prudent to assume that everyone is blogging everything unless and until they agree -- in advance -- not to.

Certainly, having blogged it, I was under no obligation to take it down, but I did so because I don't want Diane to get in trouble. Still, the way they managed it makes me miffed at ABC; why should it be the contestant's job to tell her phone-a-friends, after-the-fact, that they're supposed to keep things confidential? That's a really dumb way of managing things.

But anyway, to those who saw my previous post, please don't leave any comments revealing what you know. Such comments will be deleted. I'll re-post the original post when the show airs (sometime in January, from what I gather).

Flags at half-staff for 9/11

By Brendan Loy

Outside the courthouse.

CNN Breaking News

By Brendan Loy

President Bush will announce this week plans to cut U.S. troops in Iraq by about 30,000 -- to pre-'surge' levels -- by next summer, a senior administration official confirms to CNN.

Phone-a-Loy

By Brendan Loy

My fellow Nutmegger and lifelong friend Diane Krause, formerly Diane Huffman (she got married over the summer), will be in New York City tomorrow for a taping of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? -- and she's asked me to be one of her phone-a-friends! I guess they don't do the "fastest finger" thing anymore, so Diane will definitely be on the "hot seat" at some point between 11:00 AM and 7:30 PM tomorrow. From my perspective, the only question is whether she'll call me or one of her other two phone-a-friends. It'll depend on the topic of the question. Anyway, the show will air sometime in January.

Oh, and speaking of Millionaire, NDLS 1L Jaclyn Sexton will be on it this Friday and next Monday. (Hat tip: Lee Ann McGinnis.)

In other NDLS-related news, the late Ryan Rudd gets a mention in this article about an American Cancer Society benefit concert, Cure-A-Palooza.

Oops, she made a fool of herself again

By Brendan Loy

Britney Spears is embarrassed. Meanwhile, TMZ is issuing an R.I.P. for her career. More here.

Meanwhile, the AP looks at the catty commentary about Britney's figure and asks:

Did Spears, lest we forget a mother of two, deserve to be held up against the standard of her once fantastically toned abs, sculpted by sessions of 1,000 tummy crunches? Or was she asking for it by choosing that unforgiving black-sequined bikini?

More profoundly, in an age where skinny models and skeletal actresses are under scrutiny for the message they're sending young girls, what does it say that we're excoriating a young woman for a little thickness in her middle?

I'll admit, some of the commentary on her appearance did make me squirm. That she would be called "fat," or "lard," or "like a house" -- I don't know if I'd call it "unfair," I'd just say its inaccurate. Utterly factually inaccurate. She's not "fat." Good grief! ... That said, whether she can pull off that particular outfit is an entirely different question, to which I daresay the correct answer would be a resounding "no."

The more pertinent issue, IMHO, is that she sucked. Sucked monkey balls, in fact (as the Loy family's resident Britneyologist, Becky, would say).

The surge is working

By Brendan Loy

John McCain and Joe Lieberman:

The Bush administration clung for too long to a flawed strategy in this war, despite growing evidence of its failure. Now advocates of withdrawal risk making the exact same mistake, by refusing to re-examine their own conviction that Gen. Petraeus's strategy cannot succeed and that the war is "lost," despite rising evidence to the contrary.

The Bush administration finally had the courage to change course in Iraq earlier this year. After hearing from Gen. Petraeus today, we hope congressional opponents of the war will do the same.

Some of that "rising evidence to the contrary" can be found in Michael Totten's absolutely fascinating first-hand account from Ramadi, a city once written off by the Marines as irretrievably lost, but now reclaimed thanks to the surge. It's the most convincing account I've read of the success we're (finally) having in Iraq, and frankly, I don't understand why the hell it's being left to individual conservative bloggers to write accounts like this. Where is the media? Where is the Bush Administration's vaunted propaganda machine? Seriously, why aren't we hearing more about this sort of thing? If we were, I think it would go a long way toward convincing Americans that there actually is a purpose to remaining in Iraq, that there are real, attainable goals we can achieve by continuing the fight -- that we can still win, and that "victory" actually means something real and tangible.

Anyway, whatever you think of the war, Petraeus, or the "surge," Totten's article is excellent and I highly recommend it. (Double hat tip: InstaPundit.)

CORRECTION: In comments, Totten himself writes, "for the record, I am neither a liberal nor a conservative." Well, I for one certainly know what that's like. :) I stand corrected, and I apologize for the error.

Coming soon to a law school near you...

By Brendan Loy

The Law of "24"! (Hat tip: Joe Mama.)

I think this brilliantly conceived Georgetown Law class could start a trend at universities nationwide. Study of "24" could become a major, or at least a minor, all unto itself. Imagine the possibilities: The Theology of "24." (Is Jack Bauer a god, or merely a demigod?) The Philosophy of "24." (Who are we? Why are we here? How did Jack Bauer get to be such a freakin' badass?) The Biology of "24." (How does Jack Bauer's body sustain itself despite being constantly tortured and mutilated?) The Physics of "24." (Why don't the laws of physics apply to Jack Bauer?) Etc., etc.

What should I auction off to raise money for the environment?

By JLR

How about a Hummer H2?  Nothing says "environmentally-conscious" like a gas guzzler that gets 2 miles to the gallon!

Blame Charlie? Blame Ty? Blame Canada?

By Brendan Loy

Her Loyal Sons on the Irish offensive line's, well, offensiveness -- and who's to blame for it:

Obviously, the crackling, eroding foundation to all of our offensive problems is the offensive line play. That’s just about all that ND fans can agree upon right now. The cause, however, seems to be dividing ND fans into two camps: Those who blame Charlie and those who blame Willingham. They’re both right. They’re both wrong. I do know one thing, if you argue “in 3 seasons, Charlie has never had a good offensive line,” and then think that, in and of itself, shows that Weis and Company can’t coach an offensive line, you’re failing to look at the cause of our symptoms. The previous 2 years, we had almost no depth at offensive line thanks to Willingham’s mistaken belief that offensive linemen don’t need recruiting. Good luck coaching that up. Rumors abound about how “entrenched” a few offensive linemen felt last year. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that every ND player gives a “Rudy effort,” every day in practice. It just doesn’t happen. Now, this year, we’ve got some real talent at OL, not just with the starters, but with the back-ups. But the starters are all very inexperienced, and the backups are even more inexperienced, not to mention even younger. So our offensive line traded one set of big problems for a new set of big problems. I expected Charlie to do a better job of overcoming this new set of problems. To be sure, I’ve been very disappointed, but I also think I understand it. Mental errors will happen with this squad. I can sort of live with that. What I can’t live with is guys on the OLine not making hustle plays, not going out and hitting someone in the mouth when they do know which guy they’re supposed to hit. Still, even that may play into a tentativeness resulting from lack of experience. Still, there are 2 guys on that offensive line with more than a dozen starts and a lot of talent. They, at least, need to start looking like it. And that plays into the coaching we have today. I expect this coaching staff to take that set of big problems and overcome them with a few bumps and scratches. Thus far, however, there’s been almost no overcoming of anything.

The really funny thing about problematic offensive line play is that it often involves really big guys making small mistakes that add up to huge problems. And that’s what we’ve seen a lot of in these first 2 games. Things like picking up a double team when you should be picking up a blitzer, or failing to realize that the DE on the TE side is going to use a speed technique if the TE releases without challenging the DE, or just failing to have your head on a swivel. Those are correctable, but it’s about time for this coaching staff to correct it or bench someone.

Britney's back

By Brendan Loy

...and skankier than ever. (Not to mention, lip-sync-ier than ever.)

If you're watching the VMAs on MTV, you know what I'm talking about. If not, I'm sure it'll be on YouTube in like 5 seconds.

UPDATE: Here we go. Umm, NSFW? [UPDATE 2: The video has been yanked offline, presumably for copyright reasons. TMZ has a shorter clip; dunno how long it'll last.]

Here's a photo and some commentary.

The fastest Windows notebook

By Jay Johnson

Is, well, the MacBook Pro.

But really, why would one want to run Windows on it?  I tried XP with Parallels for a little while.  Then I deleted it.

[Hat tip: Insty]

I, for one, welcome our new iOverlords

By Brendan Loy

Is Apple the new Microsoft?

UPDATE: Rebuttal here.

T.S. Gabrielle nears North Carolina

By Brendan Loy

I haven't been blogging much about Gabrielle -- which officially became a tropical storm, rather than subtropical, at 5:00 PM Saturday -- because I've been busy watching football, and because frankly, I don't have much to say about it: it's a weak tropical storm that's going to swipe North Carolina and then head out to sea. What's to say? It is, as Alan Sullivan says, a "pitiful system." If anyone is hyping this thing on cable news (I'm not watching, so I don't know), shame on them. Hype should be saved for the storms worth hyping; otherwise people become confused and complacent, unable to differentiate the real threats from the faux-threats. Gabrielle is a faux-threat. She will bring a bit of rain and some gusty winds to the Outer Banks... and that's about it. Which is, after all, a good thing. Tomorrow is the climatological peak of the hurricane season, and yet the Atlantic remains fairly quiet. The odds of an ultimately below-average year increase with each passing day. Politics aside, that's something we should all be grateful for.

UPDATE: Gabrielle made landfall at 11:45 AM, according to the NHC. The heaviest rain is still offshore, though. ... Yawn. Alan Sullivan says, "At this point Gabrielle looks like a single enormous thunderstorm."

But out in the deep tropics, Sullivan says there are a couple of waves worth watching. Dr. Jeff Masters has more.

"Rocky Top" as it's meant to be sung

By Brendan Loy

I like singing "Rocky Top" at The Backer in South Bend. I like yelling "whooo!" with my fellow Domers at the appropriate moment in the chorus. It's fun. It's silly. It's inexplicable. (Why do ND fans have such a soft spot for the UT fight song? I have no idea.)

I also like listening to "Rocky Top" on my iPod or in my iTunes. It's cute, it's catchy, I can tap my feet to it. Almost can't help doing so, actually.

But I daresay this is what "Rocky Top" is supposed to sound like:

More videos to come. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: The clips are below, but first, check out this panoramic picture of Neyland at night that I stitched together from five different shots taken with my wide-angle lens:

You really have to view the larger version of the photo to get the full effect. Er, and pay no attention to the "ghost" Tennessee players. They're artifacts of the photo-stitching process.

Anyway, here's a video of the team running out onto the field:

As usual with crowd videos, it doesn't do justice to the absolute explosion of sound that occurred when the players started coming out of the tunnel. But wow. 106,311 people can make a lot of noise when they want to. :)

Here's a clip of Tennessee's go-ahead touchdown and extra point in the second quarter, as seen from our seats in Section X15 of Neyland Stadium:

Man, that is one orange stadium. That's one thing I'll give UT over ND for sure: the fans know what damn color to wear. None of this trying to decide if our color is blue, or green, or gold, or what. No. It's orange. Everybody knows it's orange. So everybody wears orange. Everybody.

Er, except me:

Heh.

Someday, we'll show that picture to our kid, and tell her this was her first college football game. In a manner of speaking, at least. :)

Anyway, yeah. We had a great time. If you've never been to a football game in a stadium that seats 100,000+, I highly recommend it. It's very cool. Rocky Top, Tennessee!

P.S. Here are some photos by another blogger who appears to have been sitting in the same section as us, a handful of rows down.

P.P.S. Did I mention the stadium is really orange? Here's another one of my pictures, proving the point:

Appalachian State may be ranked next week

By Brendan Loy

The Associated Press announced Thursday that it will allow Division I-AA teams in its Top 25 poll, if people vote for them. (Hat tip: TrojanWire.) This is in contrast to the previous policy that only I-A teams were eligible. Some voters had expressed interest last week in voting for Appalachian State, but were told they couldn't. Now they can. And after following up last week's HOT HOT HOT win over then-#5 Michigan with a 48-7 drubbing of Division II Lenoir-Rhyne yesterday, it certainly seems likely that Appy State will get some votes this week. But will they make the Top 25? Who knows? #17 Auburn, #19 TCU and #22 Boise State will probably be dropping out of the poll, so there'll be room for the Mountaineers to move up, if the voters are so inclined, without bumping anybody. Of course, the voters need to make room for Oregon, South Carolina and maybe South Florida... and Washington will be knocking on the door, among others... so it's hard to say. But it'll certainly be interesting to see where Appalachian State falls.

Da Bulls

By Brendan Loy

After watching the South Florida Bulls' ugly upset over Auburn just now, it occurred to me that it was the second unlikely victory by a team called the "Bulls" today. The first, of course, was the University at Buffalo Bulls' 42-7 win over Temple. As awful as Temple is, the equally awful Bulls of UB were a three-point underdog, probably because the game was at Temple. And so they went out and won by thirty-five. Raise your hand if you saw that coming. Yeah, me neither. For that matter: raise your hand if you thought UB would have more wins at the end of Week 2 than Michigan and Notre Dame combined. Heh.

A stinker at Jordan-Hare Stadium

By Brendan Loy

Sometimes, you watch a game where both teams play so well, with so much heart and guts, that you feel like it's a shame somebody has to lose. USC-ND '05 comes to mind, as does the Rose Bowl between USC and Texas later that season.

Other times -- less frequently, but it does happen -- you watch a game where you feel like neither team deserves to win. Such a game is being played right now in Auburn, Alabama, and televised in all its ugliness on ESPN2. That network is sometimes called "The Deuce," and let me tell you, this game is a big, fat "deuce."

You only need to know two statistics to understand how painful this game is to watch. Statistic #1: Auburn has surrendered 5 turnovers, 4 of them in the second half. Statistic #2: South Florida has scored zero points off of those turnovers. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

How do you, as an up-and-coming "little guy" team trying to prove itself, go into the home stadium of the #13-ranked team in the country, get that many freebie opportunities, and waste them all? And then, having wasted them all, how are you still in the game??

Tennessee wins

By Brendan Loy

Tennessee 39, Southern Miss 19, final. When they scored toward the end of the first half to go up 17-16, I had a feeling they might be taking the lead for good, and I was right. I got that TD on video, too. I'll post that, and a couple of other clips, shortly.

In other news, alas, Texas pulled away late and beat TCU 34-13. Between the Horned Frogs' loss and Washington beating Boise State, the chances of a mid-major qualifying for a BCS bowl took a serious hit today. If Hawaii loses in overtime to Louisiana Tech, that'll be even more true.

P.S. What kind of odds could somebody have gotten on a preseason bet that, at the end of Week 2, Michigan and Notre Dame would both be 0-2, while Washington would be 2-0?

UPDATE: Hawaii wins!

Question for trivia buffs

By David K.

Today's Husky game was held in Seattle at Husky Stadium, today's Cougar game was held in Seattle at Qwest Field (the Seahawks' home field). I'm assuming two games in the same city on the same day is a rare occurance, but I was wondering if there were other instances anyone can remember in recent history. And no, USC and UCLA home games don't count: UCLA plays in Pasadena, not L.A.

Saturday football update

By David K.

The Pac-10 is more than making up for Oregon State's blowout loss to Cincinnati on Thursday. So far today, the Pac-10 is 5-0, with the latest win coming from the WSU Cougars, who clobbered the Aztecs of San Diego State, 45-17.

Earlier in the day, Oregon dominated Michigan as Brendan pointed out below. The 39-7 loss is the worst that the Wolverines have suffered in almost 40 years. That coupled with Penn State's crushing of Notre Dame means that for the first time ever, both Michigan and Notre Dame have started out 0-2 in the same season. The streak ends for one team next week though, as they will face each other.

Another streak ended today in Seattle, as Ty Willingham's Huskies broke Boise State's 14-game win streak, previously the longest active streak in Division I-A college football, downing the Broncos 24-10 in front of a crowd of over 70,000 fans. Rookie Husky QB Jack Locker had a hot and cold day, throwing for over 190 yards with 1 TD, and rushing for over 80 including another TD, but turning the ball over once each on the ground and in the air.

#13-ranked UCLA led the Cougars of BYU early, 20-0, but managed to let the Mormons get within 3 before winning their game 27-17. #10 Cal held off Colorado State to improve to 2-0 on the season.

Elsewhere in college football, #3 LSU is manhandling #9 VA Tech with a 24-0 lead in the 2nd quarter. Texas came out swingign in the second half and leads TCU 34-13 in the 4th quarter. Irish Trojan hometown favorite Tennessee beat Southern Miss by 20. Today's only top 25 upset (so far) comes from USC, no not Southern California, but South Carolina, who upset Georgia in typical SEC fashion, scoring 16 points with only one touchdown and a handful of field goals. Georgia's 12 points came entirely from field goals. YAWN.

Toilet Bowl at the Big House: ND vs. Michigan

By Brendan Loy

Between the baby shower last Saturday and the Tennessee game today, I haven't had the "pleasure" of watching very much Notre Dame football so far this season -- but based on the beef's comment and some text messages I received from BK [UPDATE: and this post on ND Nation, and this one and this one and this one and this one], I have a feeling that today's debacle in Happy Valley represents the moment when your average ND fan starts to turn on Charlie Weis. Whether that trend continues depends on how things go, of course, but it's awfully hard to see where on the schedule the Irish are going to pick up a win between now and November. Against Michigan State? At Purdue? Maybe. But the offense is going to need to start scoring touchdowns if we're going to have a chance against anyone.

Anyway, Michigan and Notre Dame are both 0-2, the first time that's ever happened. And they play each other next week! And Chad Henne is injured! Man, talk about a game that has lost all its luster in just two weeks. The two winningest programs in college football history meet, and they come into the game with a combined record of 0-4. Who'd have thunk it? Indeed, as texasyank points out, they've now lost a combined eight consecutive games... and most of them haven't been close. (The only close ones were the OSU-Michigan game and... heh... the Michigan-Appalachian State game.) It's a good thing Notre Dame has an NBC contract, otherwise this game might not even be televised. So, what will happen? Will the curse of Bo Schembechler continue? Will Notre Dame finally score an offensive touchdown? Will the game end in a 0-0 tie? What do you think?

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Vols up, Irish down... way down

By Brendan Loy

UT up 17-16 at the half. We had to leave early cuz Becky wasn't feeling well, so we should get home in time to catch the end of the ND game... which Penn State now leads, 31-10. :( But TCU is up 10-0 on Texas!

Update

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame trails 17-10 in the third quarter. Here, it's 16-10 Southern Miss in the second. Elsewhere, Texas A&M beat Fresno State in 3 OTs. No score between Texas & TCU in second.

The Curse of Bo Schembechler continues!

By Brendan Loy

Michigan trails Oregon late, 39-7. That'll be four straight losses for the Skunkbears. HA HA!! :) Meanwhile, Washington beat Boise State! And ND is tied 7-7 with PSU. Here at Neyland, we've got 10
minutes till kickoff.

Quack!

By Brendan Loy

My feeling on the Michigan-Oregon game has been that Michigan would probably come out firing all cylinders, wanting to redeem themselves after the Appalachian State debacle, and would probably win -- unless they have a rough start, commit some turnovers, etc., and fall behind early. In that case, I figured, resolve could fizzle to demoralization, memories of Appy State could loom large, and Oregon could win big.

Well, on the opening drive, Michigan QB Chad Henne threw an interception in the end zone. Now Oregon is driving toward the end zone. Gamecast here.

Becky and I are about to leave and head toward UT for the Vols game, so you can consider this a general college-football open thread, at least until I post something via cell phone later. Go Ducks! Go Vols! GO IRISH!

Best Heisman campaign ever

By Brendan Loy

Booties for Booty! Heh. (WARNING: Some pics NSFW!)

(Hat tip: EDSBS.)

Upset watch

By Brendan Loy

Akron 2, Ohio State 0, 10:32 in the first quarter. Heh.

More seriously: Marshall 10, West Virginia 6, late second quarter... and they're threatening to score again before halftime. ... UPDATE: 13-6 Marshall at halftime. Could have been 17-6, but on 1st and goal with 20 seconds left, the Thundering Herd's coach made the p***y move of not even trying for a touchdown, instead running to the middle of the field and then taking their last timeout with 2 seconds left. Good grief, take a couple of shots at the end zone first!!

UPDATE: Ohio State 3, Akron 2 at halftime. "Sounds like an SEC game." -Becky. Heh!

Meanwhile, it's WVU 27, Marshall 23 early in the fourth quarter. You think Marshall's coach wishes he'd gone for that touchdown?

Oh, and it's Buffalo 21, Temple 0 in the first quarter. w00t!

WVU and tOSU both eventually won big. Meanwhile, USC's next opponent, Nebraska, barely held off Wake Forest, with an assist from a controversial interference/holding no-call in the final minute. Oklahoma destroyed Miami. And Buffalo is crushing Temple in the third quarter! Yes!!

Hello, Gabrielle

By Brendan Loy

Subtropical Storm Gabrielle has formed off the East Coast, and Tropical Storm Watches are up for much of the Carolina coasts. The official forecast calls for Gabrielle to become a mid-range tropical storm and swipe North Carolina's Outer Banks late Sunday or early Monday before recurving out to sea. The computer models are in pretty good agreement about that scenario, though of course they disagree about the exact track. Meanwhile Matt Drudge, who has a bad habit of failing to update his hurricane-related stories until long after they're obsolete (most memorably, he was still talking about Katrina making landfall in the Florida panhandle on the Saturday afternoon before it hit, at which point it was abundantly clear to everyone except him that New Orleans was the real story, not Florida), is still apparently convinced Gabrielle is going to hit New York City:

Not gonna happen. The scenario was at least arguably plausible a couple of days ago, when I mentioned it in my Pajamas Media post, and when Drudge first put up that headline, but it looks very unlikely now. Drudge, however, can't be bothered with such minor details as the actual facts; he apparently doesn't recognize that weather changes quickly, so you can't just leave up a headline for 72 hours and expect that it will remain accurate. Ugh. (Hat tip: Alan Sullivan.)

Ha ha ha

By Brendan Loy

Ha ha ha ha ha.

R.I.P., Madeleine L'Engle

By Brendan Loy

Madeleine L'Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time and the rest of the Time Quartet, has died. She was 88. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

I read the books in middle school, but to be honest, I don't recall much about them -- though I do remember liking them. And I remember how one of them was centered around "mitochondria and farandolae." When I subsequently learned that there actually are such things as mitochondria, I was fascinated... and disappointed that farandolae are fictional. :)

22 games in 14 weeks: a college football odyssey

By Brendan Loy

Remember my post about the ultimate college football roadtrip, detailing my hypothetical four-month itinerary of cross-country stadium-hopping? Well, USC football blogger Jonathan Tu is living the dream:

[M]y current odyssey [is] a 14 week, 25 state (plus District of Columbia!), 22 game (or so) road trip that will take me to stadiums involving all six BCS conferences and a number of mid-majors ... I revel in thy jealousy.

Dude. Revel away. I'm so jealous.

Rocky Top, here I come

By Brendan Loy

My first official job perk here in Knoxville: I totally just scored free tickets to tomorrow's Tennessee-Southern Miss game from one of the judges! Nice!! (And yes, I have permission from my judge to blog this. :)

For the iPhone cheapskates

By Jay Johnson

As most of you should know by now, Steve Jobs announced the price reduction of the iPhone down to $399 earlier this week, and the elimination of the 4GB model.

Well, if you're a cheapy-cheap, and want the tech but don't need the storage, the Apple Store (at least the online variety) is offering the 4GB iPhone for $299.

Big Orange Nation

By Brendan Loy

There is an inordinate number of people in downtown Knoxville this afternoon wearing orange. You think maybe there's a home football game tomorrow or something? :)

Cincinnati crushes Oregon State

By Brendan Loy

D'oh! Bearcats 34, Beavers 3: "As great a day as it was for the Pac-10 when Cal beat Tennessee last Saturday, this one was a big black eye for the conference."

So... 'twas a bad Thursday for the Pac-10. But what will Saturday bring? Assuming Cal, Arizona State, Arizona and Washington State hold serve (against Colorado State, Colorado, Northern Arizona and San Diego State, respectively), the big games tomorrow for the Pac-10 are Boise State at Washington (a reasonably close loss by the Huskies would suffice, for conference-pride purposes), BYU at UCLA (though you'll forgive me if I don't start up a chorus of "Goooo Bruins, Beeeeat Mormons"), and of course, the big game in the Big House, Oregon at Michigan.

Will the Wolverines circle the wagons, come out of the tunnel angry and eager, and start their long, slow climb back to respectability after the Appy State debacle? Or will they pull a Michigan State, curl up into a ball after a demoralizing loss and watch their season die? The Ducks (and the Domers, who play 'em next) would love it if it's the latter. Vegas, however, thinks it will be the former. Personally, I think the Curse of Bo Schembechler might be the tiebreaker. The Wolverines are 0-3 since the legendary coach died on the eve of the Ohio State game last year.

USC, by the way, is idle this week. Notre Dame, which doesn't want to hear anything about "0-3" right now, travels to Happy Valley to face Penn State at 6:00 PM EDT tomorrow. GOOOO IRISH, BEEEEAT JOE PA!

Incidentally, here's a handy list of nationally televised games (though if people would stop pretending that games on ESPNU, ESPN360, "the mtn." and the Big Ten Network are "televised," that would be great).

I shot my husband...

By Jay Johnson

and now I get to be on TV with Oprah!

Apple offers $100 credit to early iPhone suckers buyers

By Brendan Loy

Apple's announcement yesterday that it would slash the price of iPhones from $599 to $399 less than ten weeks after the gadget's much-hyped debut stirred angry cries of protest from early adopters who shelled out the extra $200 to buy the "Jesus phone" when it first hit store shelves in July. Many of them felt used, disrespected and ripped off. That's not a surprise. This is:

[W]e have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store.

Kudos to Apple for doing right by its most loyal customers. It's certainly true, as Steve Jobs says, that "there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever" (having bought my current PowerBook just before the MacBook Pro's debut, I know all about that), but this was a rather extreme case of that phenomenon, and a case in which there were an awful lot of "someones," many of them fanatical Apple fans... precisely the people the company doesn't want to piss off too badly. I think this offer of $100 -- even though it's only half the price difference, and even though it's store credit, not a cash rebate -- will go a long way toward softening the blow. If the comments on Macworld are any indication, it looks like most people are pretty happy.

New Bin Laden video for 9/11?

By Brendan Loy

So says ABC News and the AP: "Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden plans a new video addressing the American people regarding the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, terror monitoring groups said Thursday."

Also, it seems that Bin Laden has dyed his beard.

Where's Waldo Mitt?

By Brendan Loy

This is neat: I just got an e-mail about a website called Map the Candidates, which has created a Google Maps "mashup" to track where the presidential candidates are campaigning, what happened at their events, etc. They're integrating YouTube clips, local media coverage, etc. A cool idea, says I.

Tee hee

By Brendan Loy

If you haven't seen Team America, you won't get it. If you have... enjoy:

Heh. That movie is really good, by the way. (The Bourne Ultimatum, I mean. Though Team America is good, too. Heh.)

Felix hit Puerto Cabezas hard

By Brendan Loy

I've updated my Hurricane Felix wrap-up on Pajamas Media to reflect the worse-than-I-expected destruction in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, reported today by Dr. Jeff Masters:

Nearly every structure in Puerto Cabezas sustained at least roof damage, and many buildings were destroyed. Along the Moskito Coast of northeast Nicaragua, flooding and mudslides were reported, destroying many homes and blocking highways. The Government of Nicaragua declared the northern Caribbean coast a disaster area. At least 39 people have been reported dead—38 of them in Nicaragua, and one in Honduras (in a motor vehicle accident caused by heavy rain and landslides). However, dozens are missing (mostly at sea), and communications are difficult to impossible in many areas. At least 40,000 people have been affected and 9,000 houses destroyed, most of them in…Puerto Cabezas.

I'm not sure how to square that with this NOAA map, which shows the purported weakness of Felix's wind field on the south side, where Puerto Cabezas was:

The city is, according to Yahoo Maps, located near where the number "50" appears in the greenish-colored area on the south side of the storm. That means it should have experienced sustained winds on the borderline of gale force (58+ mph), but not hurricane force (74+ mph) except in gusts. Yet it sounds like the damage was indicative of widespread hurricane-force winds. Perhaps the NOAA map was in error... or perhaps the buildings there are just really poorly constructed. I dunno.

Flight of the nukes

By Joe Loy

Numerous overlapping investigations :> are being (you should pardon the expression)  Launched concerning exactly how it came to pass that  (emphases mine; internal links the WashPost's) ~

An Air Force B-52 bomber flew across the central United States last week with six cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads that were mistakenly attached to the airplane's wing...

The Stratofortress bomber, based at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, was transporting a dozen Advanced Cruise Missiles to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Aug. 30. But crews inadvertently loaded half of them with nuclear warheads attached.

Air Force officials said the warheads were not activated and at no time posed a threat to the public. But a timeline of the episode supplied by the Air Force yesterday to House and Senate lawmakers indicated that the missiles in question sat on a runway in Louisiana for nearly 10 hours before workers noticed that the nuclear warheads were inside.

Military officials also said they were concerned that the warheads were unaccounted for several hours while the missiles were in transit. The missiles never left Air Force control, they said.

Well,  it's reassuring to learn that the Boomers weren't actually "activated" (though I think we might Know it if they Were ~ well, Some of us might, anyway...)  and that their Control wasn't inadvertently transferred to the Shriners or somebody. :|  But to resume:

Two defense officials said it is unclear how stringent safeguards for the handling of nuclear weapons were skirted...Air Force officials said the mistake was a serious breach of rules and that an investigation began immediately.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the panel's ranking Republican...requested an investigation of the incident by the Pentagon's inspector general.

The aircraft's pilots and other crew members were unaware that they were carrying nuclear warheads, officials said. "Essentially, this is an issue of a departure from our very exacting standards," said Lt. Col. Edward Thomas, an Air Force spokesman at the Pentagon, who declined to confirm that nuclear warheads were involved. "The Air Force maintains the highest standards of safety and precision, so any deviation from these well-established munitions procedures is very serious, and we are responding swiftly."

(Continues after the Drop Jump :)

Congressional candidates nominated

By Joe Loy

Niki Tsongas, widow of the late great U.S. Senator Paul Tsongas, has won the Democratic primary in Massachusetts CD 5, for the special election to fill the House seat which Marty Meehan vacated to become chancellor of UMass Lowell.  Jim Ogonowski won the Republican primary, and will wage the uphill battle against the popular Democrat with the married name that's magic in the Merrimack Valley ~ perhaps in hopes that enough of the voters who attend his rallies out of Curiousity to See one of these rare Republicans :}  will end up Converting to his cause ;>.  Several other candidates are also running, including a bricklayer from Lowell named Patrick Murphy, concerning whom I believe I have a Folksong but nevermind about that now :].

Congressman dies

By JLR

Congressman Paul Gillmor (R-OH-5) was found dead in his home yesterday morning.  Though he maintained a low profile during his 10 terms in office, he was known as a good man and a "decent lawmaker."

More on Congressman Gillmor here and here.

Thompson finally announces

By Brendan Loy

Apparently some guy named Fred Thompson is running for president. Who knew?

Blame Canada the airport

By Brendan Loy

Heh:

Supporters of Sen. Larry Craig with the American Land Rights Association are calling for a boycott of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport. ...

The association says the airport should apologize to Craig for what it calls "ambushing" the senator.

Commentary would be superfluous.

Pavarotti dies

By Brendan Loy

Luciano Pavarotti is dead. He was 71.

Dude, you're getting a...AUGH IT BURNS, IT BURNS!!

By David K.

I think its safe to say that this guy's computer problems trump the ones Brendan was having.

Meet the best iPods ever

By Jay Johnson

Or at least according to Steve Jobs.

Seems like a large revamping of the iPod line from Jobs today, with the Nano getting a serious overhaul that makes it look completely different, but handle video and also uses cover flow.  The traditional iPod has a new name "iPod Classic" and seems like top capacity has been bumped to 160 GB.

Of course, the one that everyone's been jonesing for is the iPod Touch, which looks exactly like the iPhone, but without the phone portion.  It'll sell in 8GB and 16GB models for $299 and $399.

Seems like the iPhone has an improvement, as the 4GB model is a thing of the past, and the price on the 8GB model (now the only model available) has been SLASHED from $599 to $399.  Of course, no word as far as I can tell on a 3G model.

Also, a new Wi-Fi iTunes store as well.