It's good to be the QB

If you watched any of the Fiesta Bowl, I'm sure you noticed the goddess next to Colt McCoy's parents, who as you probably guessed is Colt McCoy's girlfriend. Turns out she is Rachel Glandorf, a 6'0" Baylor track athlete who also does television work, which is presumably where she met the Texas QB.

As Chris Myers would say, that deserves a "wow!"

Sometimes you forget to post, etc.

I ran across this file that I apparently put together and forgot to post, so if any of it seems dated realize that it's more than a week old.

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Pacifists and other assorted America-lasters tend to discount the threat of a nuclear Iran, often because they claim that the mad mullahs are many years from accomplishing anything. The problem with that spin is that last fall the head of the UN's nuclear "watchdog" said that Iran would need three to eight years to acquire an atomic bomb. And then this summer he said six months to a year.

My point is not to say that the threat is imminent, although it clearly could be and the UN thinks it is. My point is that we do not know, and this existential threat is one issue where we cannot afford to be left standing by while they complete the task.

Bottom line, the next president simply must stop Iran from going nuclear. Whether it is in his first month or well into his first term, it is a necessity and will go a long way toward how history judges his presidency.

And here’s a hint: pure diplomacy will not get the job done. They are not going to voluntarily give up their pursuit of the bomb, no matter how nicely we ask them, contrary to the fantasies of the wimpy foreign policy crowd.

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In beating SMU 34-7 in windy and rainy conditions last Saturday, Navy ran 77 rushing plays and 0 (ZERO!) passes. Have we seen that since the 1920’s, if even then?

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I’m shocked, shocked, to learn that the US tax system is not only more progressive than tax hells like France and Sweden, it is second only to Ireland as the most progressive in the Western world.

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Washington and Washington State are a combined 0-14 against the spread vs. 1-A opponents this year. No word on whether Barney Frank has proclaimed them to be in great shape.

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Possible fake name alert…did the Gainesville Sun really find somebody named Dick Hunter to feature in the lead for this story on a Gay Pride Festival?

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An odd rule in North Carolina could hurt Obama. When you cast a straight ticket vote in the state, it does not count for the presidential or (nonpartisan) judicial elections. It’s a rule that Democrats put in to help their state and local candidates.

Democrats created the straight-ticket law in the 1960s. More conservative than the national Democratic party, state Democrats feared that relatively liberal candidates at the top of the ticket might reduce their appeal among straight-ticket voters, so they made sure the presidency would be a separate question for voters.

This led to a presidential undervote of 18,000 in 2004, as straight-party voters who were not careful or were not aware of the law failed to vote for president (some could have done so by choice, but you would think that would be a very small percentage). It is ironic that the most liberal major candidate in history could be hurt by a law meant to protect state Democrats from exactly such a candidate. You reap what you sow.

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Assault with a deadly smelling weapon:

Fort Pierce woman accused of shoplifting, brandishing a female sanitary napkin
A 27-year-old woman accused of shoplifting cologne and trying to touch an officer with a “well-used and bloody female sanitary napkin” Tuesday is facing charges, according to an arrest affidavit released Wednesday.

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Three papers who endorsed McCain are booted from Obama’s traveling party. If he wins, the assault on free speech will be breathtaking, given how heavy-handed they’ve been during the campaign.

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You say you always wanted to sleep with a virgin? Are you sure? Positive?

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White Supremacists for Obama

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I’m agnostic (because I see such things as unknowable), but this is the kind of thing that makes you think there is a God, and He is a just God:

"Snow fell as the House of Commons debated Global Warming yesterday - the first October fall in the metropolis since 1922."

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No wonder Obama is so fond of big government – he categorically refuses to give any financial help to his own family, even though they apparently need it:

Zeituni Onyango, the aunt so affectionately described in Mr Obama's best-selling memoir Dreams from My Father, lives in a disabled-access flat on a rundown public housing estate in South Boston.

A second relative believed to be the long-lost "Uncle Omar" described in the book was beaten by armed robbers with a "sawed-off rifle" while working in a corner shop in the Dorchester area of the city. He was later evicted from his one-bedroom flat for failing to pay $2,324.20 (£1,488) arrears, according to the Boston Housing Court.

It gets worse: Bob Krumm notes that "The most damning part of the Obama aunt story is that once his campaign found her living in squalor they told her to not talk to the press until after the election, but they didn't try to help her."

Well, they are strapped for cash, after all.

Yes, the story is from a London paper; you know the US media is in full-blackout mode on stories unkind to Obama at this late date.

And oh yeah, did I mention she’s an illegal alien?

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I had no idea that Bill Ayers dedicated one of his books to RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan (among others). I can see why Obama chose him as a mentor; he’s such a sweet guy.

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The Massachusetts state income tax repeal initiative: change we can believe in.

Four words...

HOW 'BOUT THEM LONGHORNS!!!

Greens for coal, etc.

Environmentalism 101: "By scaring people about the tiny levels of radiation emitted during the normal operation of a nuclear plant, [William] Tucker says, greens have effectively encouraged the construction of coal plants that actually release more radiation because of the traces of uranium in coal dust."

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Genius stuff from Iowahawk: Obama’s most valuable staff member issues some demands.

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I need to start spending more time in the gym.

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I need to start spending more time in Nigeria.

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My buddy Kevin O’Neill notes:

Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech are a combined 21-1 (95.4%) against the spread this season.

Obviously, that will change this weekend, but that is pretty damned impressive anyway.

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Commentators are starting to note the current fad of “fact-checking,” which is more often opinion/advocacy journalism than actual checking of actual facts.

Thus you have to love this hilarious catch by James Taranto, where CNN fact-checks as true the same statement that ABC fact checks as false.

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Power Line calls this the greatest political cartoon ever…no disagreement here.

Dept. of amazing statistics

Texas Tech outgained Kansas State 417-132. In the FIRST HALF!

That's just wrong.

UPDATE: Another one - Georgia Tech's Demaryius Thomas caught 9 passes for 230 yards and a TD, and nobody else on the team caught a pass. I'll bet you have to go back to the days of the single wing to find that kind of thing, if it even exists.

BEAVERS!

Everybody loves Beavers...

She made the right choice, etc.

My favorite take on the Palin pick comes from Mark Swanson (via James Taranto):

I think we can all agree that Palin's pick of an experienced statesman like John McCain to head her ticket shows that she is much better prepared to be VP than Biden who is trying to thrust an unqualified youngster who was a do-nothing state legislator before being elected to the Senate where he put in a few months of attendance before going AWOL to run for president.

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If only John Edwards had been the father of Bristol Palin’s baby, it would never have made the news. Then again she would have had to sleep with John Edwards, which might be too much of a burden to take for the team.

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As for the pregnancy itself, I don’t really see it as having any effect on the election unless it turns abortion into a campaign issue. I suspect that the Democrats are smart enough to avoid that at all costs.

The only other possibility is some electoral blowback, particularly from women, over the relentless attacks on Sarah and Bristol by the mainstream media. The Dems are practiced in distancing themselves from the kooks at Kos and such, and fortunately for them only the tiniest minority of voters is aware of the over the top hate speech that is the site’s stock in trade.

But it’s a bit harder to distance from the vitriol that is coming from the editorial and front pages of most major newspapers and newsmagazines and all of the TV news organizations except Fox News. Surveys show that voters have become sophisticated enough to realize that big media is openly campaigning for Obama, and are thus likely to associate the Palin family attacks with the Democrat party.

But even with this factor, and even if Democrats overplay their hand in their newfound distaste for women with children having careers (which would be there even without the pregnancy), it’s hard to see this whole thing swinging more than a point or two on election day, which is still two months away after all.

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College basketball’s greatest rivalry spills over to the gridiron:

Two parachutists who was supposed to drop into Cahpel Hill’s Kenan Stadium with the game ball for the UNC-McNeese State game instead dropped into Wallace Wade Stadium, where Duke and James Madison were warming up, startling players and coaches. One of them almost landed on a player and the JMU coach compared it to a scene from Red Dawn.

The official explanation: “Bad weather nearly forced the skydivers from Virginia-based Aerial Adventures to cancel the leap, but the clouds opened enough for them to see a stadium, and they jumped.”

My guess: they just wanted to meet Sonny Jurgensen.

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Random stat: According to the CBO, a 15% cut in CO2 emissions would raise the average household’s annual energy bill by $1300.

I’m sure they won’t mind…

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The Copenhagen Consensus estimates that merely lowering trade barriers would increase global output by $3 trillion per year, well over 5%. And that more than 80% of that gain would go to poor countries.

The breakdown of the Doha trade talks was a severe blow to those living in poverty. We can mitigate some of the damage by signing as many smaller free trade agreements as we can negotiate, but something that everybody buys into would be a great thing for all of the world’s citizens.

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I’m not sure which is funnier:

- That there is a town called Intercourse, PA
- That it has a newspaper called the Intercourse News
- Or that Intercourse is in Amish country, of all places

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The more government has gotten into the college financial aid business, the more college costs have gone up. Funny how that works. Thomas Sowell has a great alternative to the usual “government confiscates assets from taxpayers, wastes a significant portion on administration, distributes what’s left over haphazardly” manner of subsidizing college expense, as well as keep parents from having to run up huge amounts of debt.

Allow students to sign contracts with lenders who would pay their college expenses in exchange for a set percentage of their future earnings over some period. It would essentially be a system of students selling stock in themselves. The competition of lenders shopping for the best students and students shopping for the best deals on lenders would benefit all concerned. And even the poorest of students would find college within their reach.

As with most of Sowell’s ideas, it’s brilliant but so simple that you wonder why it hasn’t already been done.

Scattershooting

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Chuck Nevitt:

Trivia I would never have been able to answer: Name the only two NCAA Division I colleges who have won a national championship in football (mythical, since the NCAA does not crown a champion at the highest level), basketball or baseball in each of the last four decades.

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Bob Novak brings us the sad story of how the Democrat leadership in the House, when forced to make a choice between saving US lives or increasing billable hours for trial lawyers, chose…well, you can guess.

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If the Lakers are invited to play Celebrity Jeopardy, it might be a good idea to leave Lamar Odom at home. After their February 6 loss in Atlanta Phil Jackson said his team was disjointed. When asked if he agreed with that assessment, Odom said “I don’t even know what disjointed means.”

Given Lamar’s past, he probably guessed it means it’s time to re-up.

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Have you noticed that every mass shooting happens in a “gun-free zone” – schools, post offices and the like? And that on those rare occasions when they are stopped it’s because they run into somebody else with a gun? There’s a lesson in there somewhere…now what could it be?

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Jason Kidd will be happy to get back to Dallas for so many reasons, but don’t overlook the fans. Earlier in the season, when asked why the Nets play harder on the road he replied "Maybe more people in the seats?"

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It was nice to see activist Bob Geldof effusively praising President Bush and our policies in Africa, a reminder that the wailing about how the perception of the US has dropped throughout the world is based more on the success of anti-American propagandists getting their message out than on reality. Usefully illustrating the point, major American papers ignored the story (as they do with pretty much any news that reflects positively on the US and/or the president), with only Investor’s Business Daily in addition to the linked Washington Times article even mentioning it.

Thankfully, there is a thriving alternative media out there. The bad news is that you have to work a little to find it, with most passively having their worldview shaped or at least influenced by anti-American elites.


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One more reason college basketball is a joke: Drake beat Iowa in Iowa City for the first time in 40 years due in no small part to the fact that Iowa shot 0, that’s zero/zip/nada, free throws.

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Trivia answer: Oklahoma (1974-75-85 football, 1994 baseball, 2000 football) and Cal State Fullerton (1979-84-95-2004 baseball).

The world's least prolific blogger returns

I send out my best wishes to Greg "The Hammer" Williams. Hang in there buddy, we're thinking about you and we miss you.

Lest you think the world’s bookmakers are all-knowing, on November 14 lines were dealt and bets taken on a college hoops game (741-742 on published schedules) between Cornell and Drake. Betting was eventually suspended and refunds issued when they figured out that the Cornell in question was not the Ivy League Cornell Big Red but the Division 3 Cornell Rams from Mount Vernon, Iowa and the always powerful Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

I can’t remember why I’m posting this link.

The college football game between North Texas and Arkansas State was moved from Saturday 11/17 to Thursday 11/15 so as not to interfere with the start of deer season in Arkansas. I had always wondered how folks like the Clintons could come to power, now it’s suddenly making sense to me.

Fun fact: There are currently 32 closed-circuit TV surveillance cameras located within 200 yards of the flat where 1984 author George Orwell lived.

You would have guessed that the Patriots were the most overachieving football team of this season, but Kansas was 10-0 against the spread leading into their showdown with Missouri. And doing it with much more class, I might add.

I don’t know whether to credit or blame my friend Joe Duffy for this, but…Does Ann Arbor get a new Carr with Les Miles?
Rock me!

Anybody who's ever thrown out that idiotic "Every game's a playoff game" line in defense of college football's indefensible system of determining a mythical champion without playing games, say congratulations to Hawaii, who has already won the national championship by your criteria.

Scattershooting

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Mike Smrek:

Just when you thought that (unlike in 2004) the Democrats might run somebody who takes only one side of a binary issue, Hillary debated herself into Mexigate. Ah, well, better to have a 50-50 chance of doing the right thing than 0, I suppose.

Name that college football dynasty: Their last significant win was over Michigan. Their several year home winning streak ended last month. With two losses, their chances of winning another conference championship are all but dead. Answer later.

Seen on the cover of the October 21 issue of Parade, the Sunday newspaper insert magazine: “Is Hugo Chavez Friend or Foe?”
Note to self: If you’re looking for anything deeper than the latest Paris/Lindsay/Britney news, avoid Parade. Next week’s cover story could be “Cancer: Good or Bad?”

The Colts have a kick returner named Craphonso Thorpe. Do you think he has a brother named Shithomas? Turdonald?

Department of Redundancy Department: State report says Texas has too many reports
"The Texas State Library and Archives Commission is declaring there are too many state reports.
It says so in a 668-page report.
The project took 18 months"
And that, my friends, is the perfect example of government in action.

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess I’ll never again win a bet on a team that gives up 74 points. But that was the case with my November 10 play on North Texas +16, which came in on a 74-62 loss to Navy. Navy outscored UNT 35-28 and outyarded them 400-220...IN THE SECOND QUARTER! Since each team had scored in the last minute of the first, they combined for 11 touchdowns in under 16 minutes. It was truly anti-soccer.

The Clinton machine has still got it – NY Governor Eliot Spitzer has scrapped his attempt to give driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. I wonder if it was the horse’s head that convinced him?

From a (ESPN NBA Insider) John Hollinger chat, this nicely sums up the quality of most online fan content:
Area Sports Fan (USA): Why can't you just accept the supremacy of my Area Sports Team? After all, their proximity to me and others like me make them a clear #1.

Name that college football dynasty answer: Appalachian State.

A milestone you won’t see in the New York Times: the 10,000th attack by Islamic terrorists and militants since 9/11 occurred last week. It turns out that some of the news isn't fit to print - when it deviates from the anti-American narrative.

That’s good, I’m not a fan of McNuggets: Cows Rounded Up After Escaping Truck in McDonald's Parking Lot. And you thought all the smart cows did Chick-fil-A ads.

I know Seattle is pretty far left, but this play from the 49ers-Seahawks game on November 12 is ridiculous:
1st and 10 at SEA 16 (13:50) (Shotgun) M.Hasselbeck Aborted.

Okay, I'm out

I'm not much of a college sports fan - I wouldn't even consider trading a future Orioles World Series win or Lakers NBA Championship for even five Aggies Mythical National Championships. And even to the limited degree that I care, I'm not one of those fans who is always calling for the coach's head. That said...it's time for Franchione to go.

This was a season when the Aggies were starting as a top 25 team but had to fight through a murderous schedule with five brutal road games. The first of those, the easiest of the five, on national TV all by themselves, was last night in Miami in what has suddenly after seven decades become known as "The OB" for some reason. It was the kind of game that could springboard them to winning another tough game or two and getting to 9-3 or 10-2, or doom them to another nondescript 7-5 season and a trip to the Gas-X Power Fart Bowl or somesuch.

Four games into the season, in this key game they have been pointing to since spring practice, they:

* still can't pass the ball, leading them to run an offensive scheme that looks like it was drawn up by Woody Hayes in 1957

* still can't defend, even against directional Louisiana schools, down and out WAC teams or 1-AA fodder

* committed what had to be half a dozen false starts, most on first down

* went for it on 4th and 16, a couple of minutes after refusing to go for it on 4th and 5 from the same part of the field and with the game still at least theoretically winnable

* took almost 15 seconds to get a time out called halfway through the 4th quarter, when time is critical, then came out of the timeout to run a quarterback sneak

* I'm sure there's more, but you get the idea.

This from a team that also not long ago scored while down 16 midway through the 4th quarter of a tough road game at Clemson, and did not go for 2, leaving them still two scores down as they had been before the touchdown.

The athletes are there, they have been in the top 10 or 20 every year except one in the recruiting rankings, this thing just comes down to being very, very poorly coached on the field. It's time to get out the checkbook and get somebody else in here.

They're not all thugs and boors

College football has always been pretty sleazy, from the rampant cheating to the players committing crimes to the obnoxious fans. So it's worth nothing a couple of notes from my friend Kevin O'Neill's weekly newsletter:

* Most kids with a live shot to play in the NFL don’t look at the opportunity and say “I’m not interested.” But Texas A&M linebacker Mark Dodge isn’t a kid. He’s 27 and came to A&M after a stint in the Army. Despite earning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors twice last season Dodge is not interested in playing in the NFL. “I don’t want to be that guy with a cane when I’m 35 and not able to pick my kids up,” explains the wise Aggie.

* As we’ll see when the Big Red people applaud USC as the Trojans enter and leave the field this weekend, it is hard to argue with the contention that Nebraska fans are the classiest in college football. So no surprise that Nebraska fans who bought Wake Forest season tickets to assure themselves a seat at the Huskers/Deacs game have made sure their tickets for the rest of the season go to soldiers at Fort Bragg and organizations such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

Politically incorrect

Saw while surfing New Year's Day bowl games that Tennessee has a running back with the unfortunate name of Arian Foster. And no, he's not white. If Miller reassigns the Men of the Square Table from Man Law to Black Law, I'm thinking this has to be a violation.

Tonya Harding Award

Can't win the punting job? Stab the starter in his punting leg!

A disguised University of Northern Colorado reserve punter on the football team stabbed the team's first string punter in the thigh of his punting leg, officials say.

Mitch Cozad, a sophomore punter, has been suspended from UNC and arrested for investigation of second degree assault in the stabbing of Rafael Mendoza, said Evans police Lt. Gary Kessler.

"I think that would strike anybody as a weird way to get ahead," Kessler said.

Cozad allegedly ran up behind Mendoza in the parking lot of the Crescent Cove Apartments in Evans at 9:30 p.m. on Monday and stabbed Mendoza in the right thigh, Kessler said.

Witnesses saw the suspect, wearing a black hooded sweat shirt, jump into a black Dodge Charger and speed away, he said.

Mendoza, who did not recognize his attacker, was taken to the North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley where he was treated and released, Kessler said.

Shortly after the stabbing, a black Charger pulled into the parking lot of a liquor store in Evans.

The clerk watched as the driver wearing a black hooded jacket, get out of the car and pull tape off of his license plates, Kessler said.

"That's what struck the clerk as quite odd," he said.

The clerk called police and gave them the license plate number of the suspicious vehicle, which turned out to be Cozad's car, Kessler said.

The police still didn't have enough information to arrest Cozad, he said.

But when detectives spoke with Cozad's friends and teammates Tuesday morning, he asked them to provide an alibi.

"He said if police ask, they should tell them that he was with them," Kessler said.

Police arrested Cozad, but he asked for an attorney and they could not interview him about the stabbing, he said.

Great moments in math

Iowa QB Drew Tate:

"We were 7-5 last year. If you take away two plays, we'd be 10-2."

One of those plays must have been a doozy...

The Bomar scandal...in January

A good Ag was all over it.

Boomer Bomar, Boomer Bomar

You would think this would have given them a hint that something was wrong.