Noting For The Record

5:36 pm EST October 28th, 2007 | News | 37 Comments

The Redskins are NOT playing well against the Patriots (currently they’re down 24-0) and I don’t know why. The Patriots aren’t doing anything special, but the Skins aren’t showing up to play. That said, the Redskins headsets mysteriously stopped working, disrupting communications between the coordinators and the players.

It’s not the first time.

“At one point we had a good drive going against the Patriots,” said one Lion who doesn’t want his name involved in this mess, but was willing to talk about it. “Mike Martz really had ‘em going. They were getting fouled up, lining up wrong, we were moving the ball. Then boom, the headset from the sidelines to the coaches’ booth goes out.

“Next possession we were moving the ball again and the same thing happened. You know it only takes two or three plays to mess up a drive.”

Matt Millen, the Lions’ GM, says he was talking to another team’s head coach at the league meetings. He started telling him the story.

“Yeah, I know,” the coach said. “Headset went out. It happened to me in Foxboro, too.”

UPDATE: 38-0. I knew there was a reason I support assisted suicide.
UPDATE 2: Ok, Bill Belichick, you go for it on 4-1 up by 38, on the 10yard line? Congratulations, your poor sportsmanship makes you the new Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees. I hope the Colts light your asses up.

Topic: NFL

OS X Leopard: Upgrade?

11:35 pm EST October 27th, 2007 | Uncategorized | 13 Comments

My main home machine nowadays is mostly a Macbook. I haven’t looked up the info very strongly, but is there really a compelling reason to upgrade to OS X Leopard? I tooled around for it a bit at the Apple Store today, but I couldn’t see anything cosmetic worth $100+ dollars. No, universal “cover flow” doesn’t do it for me. I’m really wary of unnecessary OS updates that slow down your system that’s working just fine (Microsoft I’m looking right at you) and I don’t have the high-end Macbook with all the RAM and horsepower of the Pro.

So anyone think it’s a worthy upgrade?

(I’m planning in the next 6-8 months to replace my HP desktop with one of the new tricked-out iMacs, though if anyone wants to gimme a Mac Pro with a gigantic cinema display for free I’m down with that as well)

Topic: Technology

More “Phony Soldiers” Talk About Iraq

3:02 pm EST October 27th, 2007 | News | 12 Comments

Time to send in Michelle Malkin to go harass the mothers and children of these clearly un-American guys. How dare they insult America like this!

“When we first got here, all the shops were open. There were women and children walking out on the street,” Alarcon said this week. “The women were in Western clothing. It was our favorite street to go down because of all the hot chicks.”

That was 14 long months ago, when the soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, arrived in southwestern Baghdad. It was before their partners in the Iraqi National Police became their enemies and before Shiite militiamen, aligned with the police, attempted to exterminate a neighborhood of middle-class Sunni families.

Next month, the U.S. soldiers will complete their tour in Iraq. Their experience in Sadiyah has left many of them deeply discouraged, by both the unabated hatred between rival sectarian fighters and the questionable will of the Iraqi government to work toward peaceful solutions.

Asked if the American endeavor here was worth their sacrifice — 20 soldiers from the battalion have been killed in Baghdad — Alarcon said no: “I don’t think this place is worth another soldier’s life.”

But remember kids, we’re “winning”… according to some right wing blog somewhere that gets everything wrong.

Citizen Journalist^TM John Cole is on the case to correct the media bias of this story.

Topic: Iraq

The Latest In The Washington Post’s Long History Of Hard Nosed Investigative Journalism

2:52 pm EST October 27th, 2007 | Media | 5 Comments

“There he was, amid the charred remains of some formerly upscale neighborhood, embracing the weary and the dazed victims of the fire. He made a little speech as one of the unfortunate locals was snuggled up to his side, his arm clinching her close. The gesture suggested strength, solidarity, compassion. The resident looked almost reassured.”

The president is a hugger. News at 11. Thank you “liberal media” for screwing us again.

Kim Kardashian Moment Of Weekend Gold-Fringed Zen

2:39 pm EST October 27th, 2007 | Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Kim Kardashian is going to be in Playboy, but in an era of celebrity sex videos and the like, isn’t that sort of “eh”?

Topic: Women

Maryland: Vote For Slots

1:42 am EST October 27th, 2007 | News | 4 Comments

I say yes.

Topic: Maryland

State Department Employees Win The Lottery

1:38 am EST October 27th, 2007 | News | 7 Comments

And by “win” I mean “horribly lose”.

The State Department will order as many as 50 U.S. diplomats to take posts in Iraq next year because of expected shortfalls in filling openings there, the first such large-scale forced assignment since the Vietnam War.

On Monday, 200 to 300 employees will be notified of their selection as “prime candidates” for 50 open positions in Iraq, said Harry K. Thomas, director general of the Foreign Service. Some are expected to respond by volunteering, he said. However, if an insufficient number volunteers by Nov. 12, a department panel will determine which ones will be ordered to report to the Baghdad embassy next summer.

Who wants to go to Iraq?
“Not it!”

Topic: Iraq

Mickey Kaus Is A Douchebag

12:07 am EST October 27th, 2007 | News | 5 Comments

Jamison Foser explains with less salty, more mature language here.

Colbert & Campaign Finance Law

6:59 pm EST October 26th, 2007 | Politics | 4 Comments

This lawyerly look at the legalities of Stephen Colbert’s run for the White House via South Carolina makes me think more and more that increased regulation aka “clean elections” will remain a pipe dream. Every time the system has been regulated, or attempted to be regulated, there’s always a loophole found (ie. McCain Feingold begat Republican and Democratic friendly 527s with even more cash to slosh around). The campaign finance reform folks are striving for a system where its not a war among the richest.

But it is already. (via grumpy old man august who remembers when things were better, you know, before.)