Irish Trojan in Tennessee

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.