Steven Hawking On College Basketball

I watched the first two episodes of Steven Hawking's Universe on DVD this weekend which really got me thinking about religion again. I'm gonna wait 'til I finish the series before I say anything else on that topic. Strangely enough, my segway into the next months worth of stuff to talk about starts with another man in a wheelchair.

Tonight I watched the paraplegic mayor of Vancover, BC wave the Canadian flag the 8 times traditionally required to pass the Olympic torch from this years host to the 2010 host, officially signaling the end of the games...thankfully. Sam Sullivan was paralyzed in a skiing accident when he was 19. He joked that Canada ought not send their worst skier to represent them in Torino. You gotta have mad respect for a good sense of humor (as I learned this weekend). The close of the Olympics had Germany beating the USA, in the medal count, by 4 of those CD looking things. Canada was still 2nd, 2nd best. More importantly, the end of this ancient exhibition of courage, endurance, and "sisu" (and Ad revenue) means Spring Training and March Madness are upon us.

Aside from this weekend's 3-day bender (*wink*), I've been studying up a storm in anticipation of the counless hours of bracket breakdowns and spring reports I'll sift through in the coming month(s). See, this is what education's all about. Two years ago, I never would thought about studying ahead, one year ago I woulda thought about it and never done it, this year -- boo-ya-ka-sha! done and done.

Early predictions (i.e. before fact finding and observations): Astros win the World Series, Longhorns win the Tourney. Just a guess.

Oh yeah, and Congrats to the Collective 3L Class for the 1st annual Jammie in Attendance. I know I, and many others like me, worked hard not to go to class. Special thanks to Ruth and Antonin for hosting.

Update

So a friend found the link to the church that is protesting, rather celebrating, the death of American soliders as punishment from God for supporting a homosexual agenda. Here is the web site: www.GodHatesFags.com Doesn't get anymore "real" than that.

I hate to rant, but this is the kinda shit that makes me skeptical of religion. Let me be more clear, organized religion. Baseball, to me, is religion. But it ain't organized. The Catholic church, well they were so organized they pretty much owned the world for several hundred years, and then proceeded to cover up and spin stories about priests having sex with little boys. God's will my ass (no pun intended).

Undoubtedly organized religion can serve some just and laudable purposes. Feeding the homeless, providing companionship for the elderly, and brainwashing the youth are just a few. The problem with organized religion is that they are held accountable by a higher being. There are no checks and balances, no one is there to lay down the law, per se. In fact, I could just say that God told me to do this or that and call it a mandate. Actually thats funny, I think thats how we ended up at war in Iraq.

Harley Davidson v. Religious Fanatics

This is just amazing to me. First, I've always suspected that the extreme religious right was just a bit off their rocker. Well, religion in general I suppose. Maybe not off its rocker, but not exactly genuine. I grew up in a place where religion was clearly a business. Religion was more important that politics where I grew up. You couldn't be cool unless you were part of a youth group. At any rate, this left a bitter taste in my mouth for religion. I'm a big fan of God and am very spiritual, but religion is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I saw a great bumper sticker that said: "Religion: its the reason why the poor don't murder the rich." Like many bumper stickers, this one has some unfortunate complex truth to it.

Second, I'm a big fan of bikers. Maybe it was the "Easy Rider" VHS tape I had as a little kid, or the chill bikers who used to hang at Joe's and listen to blues music with me. Either way, I've always had an unspoken respect for bikers. They live by their own rules, drink like Irish priests, and always have respect for good music. Now they are traveling from funeral to funeral to shield the families of fallen American soliders from the bigotry of religion gone awry (something that, unfortunately, happens more often that not in my humble opinion).

So: Hells Angels = 1, Perverters of God's Word = 0

Democrats Push For Gun Legislation

In the wake of the Cheney hunting fiasco, top Democratic leaders have authored a bill that would make it illegal for members of congress and the executive to shoot guns.

"We have a responsibility to our citizens to protect them from gun-happy politicians who can't tell the difference between a bright orange jacket and a white dove. This is about homeland security," noted Sen. Kerry (D-MA).

2008 Presidential hopeful Sen. George Allen (R-VA) noted, "Sen. Kerry is just mad becuase he looks like a total dork trying to shoot a gun. This wimpy piece of legislation is merely an attempt by Democrats to prevent their manly Republican counterparts from demonstrating their masculinity with hunting photo-ops. If is really about homeland security, then maybe we should prohibit members of the legislative branch from riding bikes too?"

A statement release early Monday by Cheney's staff stated, "This attempt by the liberal devils to take our freedom will not stand. We cannot and will not allow the democratic axis of evil to pry our constitutional rights from our cold dead hands. To ensure the safety of the American public we may have no choice but invade Congress to disarm the filibuster of mass destruction and wiretap every office. These steps will prove to be essential to protect our freedom."

Senator Kennedy (D-MA) was too hungover to comment as this article went to press.

I Hate JJ Redick

I hate Duke. Not so much the school or Coach K (I have tremendous respect for Coach K), but its basketball program. I guess I'm a proverbial fan of the underdog. For instance, Northwestern's upset win over Big10 leader Iowa is a classic in my book.

At any rate, Duke always gets its ass kissed by the powers that be. Dicky Vitale, the worlds most annoying announcer, is always on Duke's nuts. The only impartial commentator on the "great" ESPN is Jay Bilas, who actually played at Duke and went to law school there. While he may be biased, it makes it a point to pick the team apart every chance he gets in order to increase his credibility...and it works.

So with Duke's mythical status comes top recruits and favorable officiating. In fact, the commish of the ACC recently suspended a ref for a bad technical foul in the Florida St. game and admonished several others for missed calls at the end of the game. Hopefully this will put refs on notice to call games unbiasedly, but for years this driven me, and every TarHeel fan, absolutely crazy.

For me the Dukies are the Yankees of NCAA, the Tarheels are the Red Sox. I dislike them both, but I hate the Dukies sooooo much more. It, of course, doesn't help that the Dukies ripped the Longhorns by 30 in December. But thats because JJ Redick dropped a Kobe-like 41. I chalk that performance up to cocaine.

But it's performances like that, and his 35pt explosion against UNC (along with a national "shocker"), that make virtually every college basketball pundit in the country lick his nuts and tag him as the "best college basketball player in the country." He's good, no doubt. He'll be a top-10 pick. Coach K has really brought him along. He's a completely arrogant ass, so he'll fit in well in the NBA. But incase you haven't really been following college basketball, the best player in the country is Adam "The Mustache" Morrison.

Drawing unfair comparisons to the likes of Larry Bird, Morrison is the epitome of clutch. He leads a team with no other legitimate stars. And while he might play against inferior competition, he is a fierce competitor day in and day out. Plus, he doesn’t play for Duke and has a “killer stash.”

So…as March madness roll into town, remember: No one likes a Duke fan, everyone loves The Stash!

P.S. sorry for the random post....lots going on. Here is some of JJ's poetry! Unintentionally hilarious.

Update: Also, watch him pick his nose.

Pop Psychology

So it's been a while since I've written, I know. I should have emulated Eastern's tact and said something, I know. But seeing as how this random spot on the internet is my favorite form of procrastination, my lack of "talking" is a symptom of me actually doing shit which is even more troubling. Something should be said for sticking to your strengths.

At any rate, I’ve got plenty ‘o story to tell, but none that would be interesting enough to everyone without some significant character development. I’m lazy, so you can simply assume they were debaucherous, embarrassing, and alcohol induced.

Few things I do want to talk about.

1.) Gray’s Anatomy. This show continues to impress me (and clearly others). A show with diverse characters, both ethnically and dimensionally. Written by the only black women writing and producing primetime television shows (or so I’ve been told, and Oprah doesn’t count). Great soundtrack. And only borderline cheesy (meaning only sometimes, rather than all time on TV).

This weeks episode, cleverly designed to woo the male audience after the super-bowl with a nice 3F-on-1M shower fantasy, had some incredibly salient moments. One that was particularly relevant was the conversation b/w hot model Dr. Izzy Stevens and dopey-underdog guy Dr George O'Malley about there being two types of people in the world: Do’ers and Watcher’s. Now be default I resist the creatively destructive use of dichotomies, but every now and then I’ll let one by. This is one of them.

That, tied in with the struggle b/w fear for ones own life and risking it for another; of having a sense of duty; created a nice little carpe diem taste in my mouth.

For that reason, I will be attending all my classes this week. As Ruth has eloquently pointed out, by pure fortune of PVDD, I have a good chance of getting lucky by just showing up. Ok, neither probably will happen. But fuck it, we only live once. Be a do’er (no pun intended at all), not a watcher (that’s just creepy).

2.) Fact Pattern: If hypothetical person A, Jane, TiVOed Grey's Anatomy but failed to get the complete show, and as a result d/l-ed the episode using third generation peer-to-peer networks in order to catch the last 24 min of the episode; how strong is Jane's fair use/time shifting argument? Just hypothetically, as a thought exercise?

3.) Is privacy legislation going to become an issue on the table in the next election? Maybe, depends on who gets to frame the debate and whether anymore things like this end up in the media-sphere.

4.) The Astros are going to be good this year, even though they haven’t done much of anything in the off-season and lost a Hall-of-Famer with 7 Cy Young’s. Bagwell is the heaviest issue and well determine whether they are great or just better than average. That’s a whole discussion in an of itself.

Anyways, I will be doing a lot of writing (in addition to theoretically attending class) over the next few days. Whether it’s the shit I’m supposed to be working on or this blog remains to be seen (as a sign of serious procrastination). Just in case, y’all are on notice.