Irish Trojan in Tennessee

U.S. House honors Tommy Makem

By Brendan Loy

The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution yesterday honoring Tommy Makem and declaring him "one of the greatest Irish-Americans of the 20th century." The resolution was co-sponsored by, among others, John Larson of my parents' district, John Larson -- pandering to the Hartford Irish :) -- and Joe Courtney, also of Connecticut.

As regular readers will recall, I posted a ton of stuff about Makem when he passed away back in August. You can read of all of it here, in reverse chronological order. If you only want to read one post, make it this one: "Tommy Makem, 1932-2007 … and what he means to me."

Anyway, after the jump, the full text of H. Res. 768 honoring Makem.

P.S. As you'll notice if you read the resolution, it is now an officially recognized fact, according to the U.S. House of Representatives, that when Tommy Makem split up with the Clancy Brothers, he "left the band amicably." Heh. Not so sure about that, but hey, if the House says it, it must be true! ;)

P.P.S. I meant to post these back in August, but never got around to it: two videos from New Hampshire news media covering Makem's funeral.

UPDATE: Video clips from the House discussion on the resolution can be found here and here.

Huckabee? No.

By Brendan Loy

Stephen Bainbridge makes the case against Mike Huckabee. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

If Huckabee wins the nomination -- and he's now not only leading in Iowa, but surging nationwide -- then, well, remember all that stuff I said about Giuliani winning? Yeah, pretty much the opposite of that.

UPDATE: Another reason to be anti-Huckabee: he is opposed to the Law of Conservation of Energy. Luckily, I don't think any president or Congress, nor even liberal activist judges, can invalidate that law...

(Hat tip, again: InstaPundit, who quotes a commenter on the linked post saying, "In this election we obey the laws of thermodynamics!")

Heh.

By Brendan Loy

Seen on Main Street, Knoxville. Alas, Megan Fox is nowhere to be found.

Nothing like a jackhammer to help you concentrate

By Lisa Velte

Apparently the construction company that's building the new ND Law School and the Law School administration have had, shall we say, a failure in communication.  Yesterday was the last day of classes in the Law School, and today and tomorrow are study days, with finals beginning on Friday and continuing through next Friday.  The construction workers have also decided to follow that same schedule--for jackhammering.  Beginning Friday and continuing through next week, they will be jackhammering right next to the Law School.

Oh, and it gets worse.  Due to the jackhammering, rooms 120 and 121 will be unusable, since apparently they will be shaking as if there were a 7.0 during the work.  For those of you unfamiliar with the law school, 120 and 121 are the two largest lecture halls where many, if not most, students sit for their exams.  So where will they be taking their exams instead?  In the Main and East Reading Rooms of the Library.  I'm not even going to begin to talk about the many reasons this is an absolutely ridiculous and insane idea.  Nevermind the fact that this also displaces anyone wishing to study on the main floor of the Library.  After all, who would want to study during finals?

UPDATE:  An email was sent out from Dean O'Hara to all students explaining the insane room juggling that will be happening during finals.  According  to the email, the law school has arranged for students to use other rooms on campus during exams:

Third, during each exam, we have arranged for the use of what we are calling “back-up rooms” elsewhere on campus.  After eliminating the use of Rooms 115, 120, and 121 for exams, we fully expect the remainder of the exam rooms in the Law School to be suitable for use during exam week.  We have nonetheless arranged back-up rooms for each day of exams....We intend the back-up rooms to be available for students who conclude that the normal background noise from construction is intolerably disruptive.  Such students will still pick-up their exams in the assigned room at the Law School, but will have the option of moving to the back-up room at the beginning of their exams or moving there during an exam should they decide that they need to do so....The back-up rooms will be at different locations on campus depending on the date and times of the exams in question, but will generally be located either in the Jordan Hall of Science or the Mendoza College of Business.

I wonder why the law school couldn't simply arrange for all exams to be taken in other buildings.  I imagine the "normal background noise from construction" is going to be at a higher-than-normal level with jackhammering occurring.  It's going to be pretty disruptive to students if they are unable to concentrate and then have to pack up all their things and move to another building in the middle of the exam.  I'm not even sure how that would work with the new Electronic Bluebook software that's now being used by those typing their exams on their laptops.

Julie needs you!

By Brendan Loy

Julie Moffitt, of SoCal VoCals/Total Eclipse of the Heart fame (previous post here), still needs your help! It's crunch time in the FameCast Singer-Songwriter Finals, and Julie's in the running for the $10,000 prize... but she needs votes. Lots of votes! The polls close at noon EST tomorrow, so now's the time to vote for Julie!

(You must be registered to vote. Registration is free. One vote is allowed per account per day.)

Here, by the way, is what Rolling Stone reviewer Gary Graff had to say about Julie's performances on the linked page:

The smartest thing you do here is give us a real sense of range with two very different songs played, no less, on two different instruments. It's great to hear a piano song, and "Bound to Fail" is an exceptional song -- even though there are things you can, and should, do to it when it's recorded, like speeding it up a bit, particularly in the bridge. But it's a song that will definitely benefit from a full band arrangement, and your vocal here is well nuanced, mixing pathos and playfulness. "Oh Hell" is a lot of fun and lets you sing in a completely different way -- and show some instrumental chops, too, since it's hard to do those barre chords on a 12-string acoustic. You are ready for prime time, so let's hope others cotton on to that real soon.

Also, she has a new puppy. Which means she needs that $10,000 for dog food. So get out the vote already! :)

Dorrell to Duke?

By Brendan Loy

Heh.

That reminds me, I saw a UCLA Bruins football calendar selling for $0.49 at a Knoxville store yesterday. Seemed like a pretty fair price to me. I was sorely tempted to buy it and send it to Mike Tran, with the price tag still attached. ;)

I can has Iwa cawcuss?

By Brendan Loy

Is this the first InstaPundit lolcat?

(Well, okay, technically there's no cat involved, but he's using the syntax, anyway. Though really, the phrase in question originated with Ann Althouse, and is a reference to this embarrassment to the Hillary Clinton campaign.)