Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Partisan grandstanding reaches new lows

By Brendan Loy

Some of you -- or at least one of you -- want to know what I think about Limbaugh-gate. Did he call all anti-war troops "phony soldiers," or is this a phony controversy? Should he be commended or condemned?

My answer is... um... I don't care?

Why the hell are we even talking about this? Why is the U.S. Congress wasting its time, again, condemning things that its members are, for transparently political reasons, pretending to be outraged about? Don't we have a war to win (or lose, whatever)? Don't we have a budget to balance? Don't we have a homeland to defend? Have all of America's problems been solved, such that our elected leaders' time is now most valuably spent on... debating whether to condemn talk-show hosts and New York Times ads?

Good grief!! Is it any wonder Congress's approval ratings are at historic lows? At a time of turmoil and uncertainty, they're wasting their time -- check that, they're wasting our time, wasting the nation's time -- on stupid, irrelevant nonsense.

Get back to work, you blithering idiots.

We are... Memphis

By Brendan Loy

A day after learning that a teammate had been murdered on campus, the Memphis Tigers have decided to play football tonight rather than canceling their long-scheduled Tuesday-night ESPN2 date with -- of all teams -- Marshall. (Now there's a football program that knows a thing or two about tragedy.) The Memphis players voted on whether to play; the decision was a unanimous yes.

Notwithstanding Memphis coach Tommy West's words -- "There's going to be a 3 1/2-hour block where we have to have our minds on business, as hard as it is" -- I daresay tonight's game will mean a lot more to the participants than an ordinary football game would. (If you're Marshall's coach, what does your pep talk sound like? Sheesh.) Nevertheless, for what it's worth, here's the football significance: this is an important game for two Conference USA East teams trying to salvage something from what has been a miserable season so far. Marshall is 0-4 and ranked #6 in ESPN's Bottom 10; Memphis is 1-3 and tied for last place in the division at 0-1.

The game is at Memphis. It starts at 8:00 PM EDT, preceded on ESPN2 by College Football Live at 7:30. I imagine the ratings will be substantially higher than would normally be expected for a weeknight game between two C-USA teams with a combined record of 1-7.

UPDATE: Memphis won, 24-21. Good for them.

It's playoff time!

By JLR

It took a while (especially given the 13-inning one-game playoff for the NL Wildcard), but the 2007 MLB playoffs are set:

vs

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Update: Phillies logo fixed, I hope.

McCain: new banner-holder for the Christian Right?

By JLR

Guest-blog by Josh Rubin

Whatever happened to the moderate John McCain who ran in the 1996 and 2000 elections?  By all accounts, he's dead (though, I must point out, Mandela isn't).

This was further cemented by an interview the aging Senator and Presidential hopeful gave to BeliefNet.com.  My favorite part?

But I think the number one issue people should make [in the] selection of the President of the United States is, 'Will this person carry on in the Judeo Christian principled tradition that has made this nation the greatest experiment in the history of mankind?'"

If this is the number one issue, maybe we haven't progressed much since the Spanish Inquisition.

[I don't know how to embed movies, but you can see the whole thing here or read the transcript here]

Of course, Jews and Muslims alike have voiced their displeasure--so he apologized.

Grammar nerds unite!

By Brendan Loy

Here's a blog devoted to mocking the unnecessary and inappropriate use of quotation marks. Here's one devoted to apostrophe abuse. Here's another. And here's a blog that makes fun of people who misuse the word "literally." That particular error literally drive's me up the "wall."

(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan.)

Thousands murdered in Burma

By Brendan Loy

Here's a roundup of the government atrocities in Myanmar/Burma. Reportedly, thousands are dead, including many monks. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)