- This might be the right time for college football coaches to ask pollsters not to rank their team in the Top 5 or Top 10. Normally coaches want their team to be highly ranked and respected, even if they insist publicly that the rankings don’t mean much to them. They want high rankings for lots of reasons, not the least of which is that it shows their team is respected and recognized. However, given the fate of the alleged top teams in college football so far this season, the Top 5 doesn’t seem like a safe place for teams to reside. Another weekend of action, another #1 team goes down. This time it was LSU, losers of a heartbreaking 43-37 3OT contest at Kentucky. It was a back and forth affair that finally ended in the third overtime when Kentucky got a huge fourth-down stop to secure the win. That loss would have opened the door for #2 Cal to take over the top spot in the polls, including the first BCS poll of the year (released today), and it did…..for all of an hour or two. That’s because shortly after LSU lost, Cal suffered a loss of its own, 31-28 to the unranked Oregon State Beavers. OSU eked out the win and ended Cal’s national title dreams, opening the door for another OSU, Ohio State, to grab the top spot in all the polls. The Buckeyes did just that with a 48-3 thrashing of in-state rival Kent State, a game that wasn’t even as close as the 45-point margin indicates. Oh, and props to KSU coach Doug Martin for kicking a field goal when trailing 48-0 with 2:35 left in the game, glad to narrowed that margin from 48 to 45, that really made a difference, you tool. Joining Ohio State at the top of college football for now are two unlikely teams, South Florida and Boston College. While I still can't figure out why a school located in Tampa is called South Florida, my beefs with the upstart Bulls end there. USF has beaten Auburn at Auburn and also taken down West Virginia, so they’re gaining legitimacy and respect bit by bit. Still, they and Boston College could have a hard time fending off one-loss teams like LSU, Oklahoma and even USC simply because the often-undeserved yet always present genuflection of poll voters and computer rankings to those big-name schools and their power conferences could well vault them ahead of a team from a lesser conference like the Big East or ACC, even if those Big East and ACC teams are unbeaten. Some of the off-the-map games on Saturday were great as well, including Northwestern playing a 40-plus-point, overtime game for the second consecutive week and winning once again, this time 48-42 over Minnesota. The lone Sunday night game of the weekend was even more of a shootout, with the 69-67 4OT win by Boise State over Nevada tying a record for the most points even scored in an NCAA Division I football game. Also of note on Saturday was Nebraska getting flat-out embarrassed on its home field in a 45-14 loss to lowly Oklahoma State. That the loss happened with legendary NU coach and current Sen. Tom Osborne on the sidelines with members of the 1997 Nebraska national championship team further compounded the embarrassment, as did losing to the ranting, raving, mentally-unstable lunatic that is Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy. Elsewhere in the Big 12, Kansas remained one of the most unlikely unbeatens in college football by thrashing Baylor 58-10. Staying with them in the ranks of the unbeaten was Arizona State, which annihilated Washington by a 44-20 count. I doubt very seriously that either KU or ASU will finish the season unbeaten, but the more unbeaten teams there are at year’s end and thus the more unbeaten teams shut out of the national championship game, the more foolish the BCS looks, and that’s good for everyone who wants what college football truly needs – a playoff system. Here’s hoping…..
- So does this mean that global warming exists and that it’s not just some mystical theoretical concoction cooked up by liberal scientists or a figment in the collective imagination of trees huggers and environmentalists? Former Vice President Al Gore, a man who invented the Internet but after such a prodigious accomplishment refused to rest on his laurels, has won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his relentless crusade against global warming. While our stupid-as-a-box-of-rocks leader W. tries to pretend that global warming isn't real and pressures government scientists into changing their findings to get in line with this ignorant point of view, Gore has been tirelessly circling the world, campaigning for countries to take steps to halt global warming and mitigate its growing effects. For those efforts, he’s won this award along with a United Nations-sponsored scientific group on climate change. In addition to his film An Inconvenient Truth (200X), the Al-ster has also founded the Alliance for Climate Protection, an organization to which he will donate his half of the $1.5 million award that goes along with the Nobel Prize. He’s still ducking the question of whether he intends to use this positive momentum to propel him into the 2008 presidential election, but I would use the same rule for evaluating his potential candidacy that I’m using for any Democrat wishing to run for the White House in this or any other year: Anyone other than Sen. Hank Clinton is aces in my book. Congrats on winning just about the most prestigious award you can win in this world, Al, whether or not you choose to run for president. Since our current Idiot-in-Chief has his head in the sand on global warming, we need you to keep pushing this issue as much as possible.
- For residents of Myanmar looking to topple their nation’s fascist regime, the biggest problem could well be India and North Korea. That may seem odd, but those two nations are happily continuing to supply weapons to the 400,000-man army in Myanmar, even as most of the world condemns a regime with a despicable human rights record and a blatant disregard for its citizens. Economic sanctions and trade embargos have been dropped on Myanmar by the United States and many other nations, but as long as countries like India and North Korea are willing to keep selling them weapons, the military regime that has killed protestors, arrested Buddhist monks and instituted a suffocating martial law-type environment in the capital city of Yangon, the problems in Myanmar aren’t like to be solved any time soon. Most of the arms transfers to the country are perfectly legal and some are even reported to the United Nations. In light of the restrictions by the U.S. and most European countries, Gen. Than Shwe, the ruling military junta in Myanmar, has sought out the nations that are willing to stock his military and become a regular client. Since the embargoes on selling equipment to Myanmar are self-imposed, there aren’t many available avenues to pursue in trying to totally cut off the sale of arms to the country. Even then, there are lots of black market weapons to be had for the right amount of money, and if you’re looking to maintain a brutally oppressive regime and its near-total control over a country, there ain’t a price too high to pay for your guns, tanks, missiles and rockets.
- Amsterdam used to be the cool place to go for potheads, stoners, tweakers, etc. Drugs of all shapes, sizes and uses were legal and the liberal drug policies of the Netherlands drew druggies of all nationalities. However, those liberal policies that made the country such a great place to visit are now becoming stricter as a result of the fallout from the death of an intoxicated teenage girl. In response to the tragedy, the Netherlands will ban the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, although if you want to B.Y.O.H.M., you might be able to sneak them across the border. It was bound to happen eventually because if you allow that liberal of drug usage to so many people, you’re bound to have a few troubled individuals (as with this girl) or people who are just plain idiots (not including this girl in this category) who are going to f’up things for everyone. However, if you’re looking for a good business venture, the black market for ‘shrooms in the Netherlands is about to go through the roof. Of course, a pot and cocaine have been illegal here in the United States for a long time and a whole lot of people still use them, so I don’t know that this ban on ‘shrooms in Holland (pick one name or the other, dammit, either Holland or the Netherlands) is going to have that much of an impact.
- I’m never sure whether to cheer massive crackdowns on kiddie porn freaks or be horrified that there are so many twisted, perverted freaks in the world. This past Monday, a massive crackdown on child pornography in France netted 310 pervs, with the effort netting more than 2 million photographs and 28,000 videos. By the time the week ended, nearly half of the pieces of crap arrested in the crackdown had confessed to being kiddie porn freaks. Although confessing to a crime and not fighting the charges normally leads to more lenient sentences for criminals, I think kiddie porn is one offense that we can all agree doesn’t deserve anything less than the maximum sentence allowable under the law. Not that the French have ever been renowned for their toughness and brutality, but just taking away these losers’ croissants and smelly cheeses isn't enough. Bring down the iron fist of justice on these pervs, Frenchies, if you have it in you.
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