Smoothies, etc

Following up on an earlier item, our long national (err, New Jersey-an) nightmare is over…the Brazilian wax is back in the Garden State! I love his comment: “The last thing we needed were back-alley bikini waxes.”

So it’s again safe to vacation in New Jersey…assuming Cleveland is booked or something.

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Stan Van Gundy was right to be bitter about a three second violation called on Dwight Howard - with less than 10 seconds left in a game in Cleveland that the Magic trailed by 2 – which led him to say, “You won't see that call again. That, I guarantee you. You will not see, with the game on the line, a 3-second call in the last 10 seconds. That's part of the reason they're 30-1 at home. They're a very good team, and when you get calls like that [expletive], you're in pretty good shape.”

It turns out that in around 10,000 games since 2002, there has never been a three second call in the last minute of a game that is 3 points or closer. In fact, there have only been 22 three-second calls even in the final minute, and all but three of those were from games in which a team had a lead of at least seven points.

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Trade war update:
“When the U.S. closed the southern border to Mexican trucking last week -- in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement -- Mexico promised to retaliate. Yesterday it did, releasing a list of 89 U.S. products that will face new tariffs of 10% to 45%.”

Putting the interests of the Teamsters ahead of the American people, and in particular California/Oregon/Washington (and, oddly enough, Wisconsin) citizens…great plan! I’m sure they can afford any job losses that result from decreased exports.

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The green vision: a leading environmental adviser to British PM Gordon Brown says that half of Brits need to die. For the good of the planet, you know.

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The great Thomas Sowell on the economic crisis:

“…our present economic crisis has developed out of politicians providing solutions to problems that did not exist— and, as a result, producing a problem whose existence is all too real and all too painful.

What was the problem that didn't exist? It was a national problem of unaffordable housing. The political crusade for affordable housing got into high gear in the 1990s and led to all kinds of changes in mortgage lending practices, which in turn led to a housing boom and bust that has left us in the mess we are now trying to dig out of. “

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Dwight Howard has 10 games of 15 rebounds and 5 blocks this year. The rest of the league combined has 4.

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I did not see this play, but from KD’s description it sounds like a classic:

[Sebastian Telfair] was also credited with an offensive foul (and, by extension, a turnover) for fouling Chris Paul while he was passing.

I'll repeat, and expound. Sebastian Telfair made a two handed kick-out pass from the left elbow, part of his arm grazed Paul, and Telfair was called for the foul. I've never seen that, at any level. He fouled him, while passing the ball.

It may have been the worst call I've ever seen. And I have a film projector that plays a clip of Scottie Pippen's "foul" on Hubert Davis in my darkened den, 24 hours a day. Silently.

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The Kings were 0-28 against the Eastern Conference before somehow sprinting out to a 15-0 lead over the Knicks in the Garden and going on to blow them out 121-94 (they subsequently lost to Philly at home to finish the year 1-29). They are a reasonable 14-26 against the West.