Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Was there an Armenian genocide?

By Brendan Loy

Of course there was. Will the U.S. Congress finally acknowledge it? That's a more complicated question. President Bush hopes the answer is no.

Fred Thompson doesn't care about the Constitution

By Brendan Loy

I didn't watch the GOP debate last night, but I was rather annoyed by the first line of Fred Thomspon's post-debate e-mail:

Yesterday, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani continued their partisan bickering, this time over things like the constitutionality of the line item veto. While they played politics, Fred Thompson rose above it and took his conservative, small government, tax cutting message straight to the American people.

Huh? Debating (during a debate) an important constitutional issue -- one that directly affects the president's job, no less -- is "partisan bickering" and "playing politics"? WTF? It would be different if Giuliani was questioning Romney's religion or Mitt was gabbing about Rudy's personal life, but disagreeing substantively about issues is not inherently a bad thing!!

This sort of dumbing-down of political discourse is really quite irritating. Just because people feel passionately about an issue doesn't necessarily mean they're "bickering" or "playing politics." Sometimes, "partisanship" is a good thing, and those who claim to "rise above it" are just sanctimoniously spouting vacuous nonsense. It's like what George F. Will said about the claim that Michael Bloomberg represents "post-partisanship": "If so—if he is not a partisan of any large, controversial causes—why is he needed?"

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

Two adults and three teens injured in high school shooting, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson says.

New Era rep to sue Bush, talk to NCAA

By Brendan Loy

As if this hasn't already been a bad enough week for USC, now comes word that the NCAA may finally be making progress in its investigation of Reggie Bush -- the probe that could potentially result in the forfeiture of USC's 2004 national championship, the Orwellian erasure of the Greatest Game Ever Played*, and perhaps even a retroactive nullification of one of the few bets I've ever won with Mike Tran.

Er, not that I'm rooting against the administration of justice, or anything. [whistles quietly]

Anyway, here's the full story. Excerpt:

One of the two would-be sports marketers who allegedly made improper payments to Reggie Bush while he was still at USC has agreed to meet with NCAA investigators and claims to have documentation of financial transactions between Bush and him, according to a source close to the investigation.

Lloyd Lake was also expected to file a civil lawsuit in San Diego this month. He will seek to recoup money allegedly given to Bush and his family and will ask for punitive damages, claiming the former Trojans tailback defrauded him in a deal to launch a sports marketing agency, the source said. ...

Some people close to him have contended that the young athlete and his parents were led astray by unscrupulous agents. Others have questioned the credibility of Lake, a former documented gang member and convicted felon. ...

If investigators find that Bush received improper benefits while playing for the Trojans during the 2004 or 2005 seasons, USC could be forced to forfeit games. The program could face further sanctions if it were proved that coaches or administrators knew or should have known about the alleged benefits.

Bush's status as the 2005 Heisman Trophy winner also could be in jeopardy.

Sounds like the investigation is finally getting what it's been missing for all these months: a little push. (Ahem.)

Anyway, stay tuned, as they say. In the mean time, my previous posts on Reggiegate can be found here, here, here, here, here and here.

*until this game.

P.S. If the 2004 championship is indeed forfeited, I eagerly await LSU fans' "Zero-Pete" campaign.

More mild amusement from Craigslist

By Jay Johnson

This is a somewhat interesting iPhone story. 

Heh.

Leinart out for season

By Brendan Loy

Former USC star Matt Leinart, now of the Arizona Cardinals, will miss the rest of the season due to a broken collarbone.

Whether the injury will interfere with his ability to bed various celebrities has not been disclosed. :)

Speaking of the NFL, did you see that Cowboys-Bills game on Monday night? I only caught the ending (switching over right after the Yankees lost), but good lord, what a crazy ending it was. Indeed, it had to be nuttiest Monday Night Football game since Leinart's Cardinals almost beat the Super Bowl-bound, "they are who we thought they were" Bears. Anyway, you can watch the Dallas-Buffalo highlights on YouTube here.

Old UConn Law prof nabbed in thong wrong, slave rave

By Joe Loy

(Subhead:  Future Jurists Out Elder Egghead for Tart Tort, Servitude Support  :)

In a move rather surprisingly supported by the usually-liberal Hartford Courant, the University of Connecticut School of Law has placed on temporary leave-of-absence a professor of 36 years' (!!) tenure who, in class, (a) screened a case-related film that incidentally included footage of a thong-clad woman dancing, and (b) propounded politically-incorrect questions relating to reparations for slavery.   

Excerpts (emphases added) from the latter article (the one with the Lengthiest Link Language :) , dateline October 5:

The attorney for a University of Connecticut law professor criticized for showing a film clip that included a scene of a thong-clad woman dancing suggestively said Thursday that her client was simply showing an interview relevant to the course and did not intentionally show the dancer scene.

The professor, Robert L. Birmingham, agreed to take a leave of absence for the rest of the semester and apologized to students after he showed a clip from an R-rated version of a film called "Really, Really Pimpin' in Da South."

The clip included an interview of a pimp convicted in a court case called U.S. v. Pipkins. At the end of the interview, the scene switched to the scantily clad woman briefly before Birmingham pressed the button to freeze the film, upsetting some students, law school Dean Jeremy Paul said.

[Reports that the Chagrin of Some of said Upset students was due to their Frustration at being Frozen out of viewing the Remainder of the Thong scene, were Unconfirmed. / ~ the Guestblogger  :]

"We believe it is in the best interest of the university not to escalate the situation and would like only to say that Professor Birmingham showed a relevant interview in class," said Heather Kaufmann, Birmingham's attorney. "He stopped the film at the completion of the interview. Period. The suggestion that the questionable material was shown intentionally is both troubling and dishonest."

...Several students complained about the film clip, and the issue soon became the talk on campus. This prompted the dean to hold a campuswide forum  [well of Course; what Else? / ~ the Guestblogger ;] ,  at which many students spoke in support of Birmingham, a UConn professor since 1971 known as a provocative lecturer and iconoclastic thinker.

The dean, who is investigating the matter further, said he is trying to strike a balance between academic freedom and efforts to foster an inclusive, welcoming campus.

Hey I got a good idea, Dean ol' buddy: how's about further Investigating what's the Matter with Fostering a Campus which veryinclusively Welcomes Everybody's academic Freedom?  / I mean, if Columbia can somehow contrive to survive the jihad of Ahmadinejad , can UConn not stand to String along with a freeze-framed Thong?  :>  And even tolerate a rigorous exploration ~ in "Remedies" class, mind you ~ of the basis for proposed Reparations?

Read the whole Oct. 5 thing; and the preceding day's piece too; and the Oct. 10 spineless editorial.

Bah. / And here we call ourselves The Constitution State. Phooey.