The arrival of the Droid thrills tech dorks, college football action and when/how to ban tight pants

- The Droid is almost here, tech dorks. Verizon Wireless customers will soon be able to fork over $199 for the much anticipated Google Android phone called the Droid. Verizon and Google unveiled the Droid this week and as with most smartphones of its class, the phone will cost with a two-year contract. Tech dorks can buy the Droid starting November 6, but pre-register for the device now. The Droid’s most-hyped features include voice-activated search that allows users to speak a query and access to the Google-powered search engine, which will deliver Web results or results from the device such as contacts, music, and photos. It will also work hand-in-hand with Google Maps to provide turn-by-turn directions. For example, users can say “gas station” and their phone will pinpoint their location and give them directions to the nearest gas stations. Many Android apps will also be loaded onto the phone and users will have access to the more than 10,000 applications available in the Android Market. However, the Droid does not have many of Verizon's branded services, including Verizon's VCast music service and VZ Navigator. The specs for the phone aren’t exactly a surprise, as they were leaked online over the past few weeks. The phone features Android 2.0, a 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, a Webkit HTML 5 browser, a 550MHz processor and a 1,400mAh lithium ion battery offering 6.4 hours of continuous talk time. The device measures 4.6 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and weighs 6 ounces with a 3.7-inch, 16:9 touch screen with 480x854-pixel resolution. For plug-ins, it has a headphone jack, mini-USB port and comes with a 16GB micro-SD card. It remains to be seen whether the Droid can compete with the iPhone, but it will receive the backing of Verizon’s largest marketing campaign ever. Like the iPhone, Droid users will be able to sync their unprotected iTunes music or other MP3 music to the device – but they must do so manually. Users can also chip off a few extra bucks for an accessory that mounts the phone in the car, which I’m sure Motorola and Verizon are hoping will sell big. iPhone users are generally a devoted group to their smartphone of preference, so I have my doubts that Verizon and Google will be taking over the market any time soon………

- Great news for all of you Chuck fans out there, of whom I am proud to call myself one. When Chuck returns after the Winter Olympics in March, it will do so with six additional episodes. That addition was came as NBC announced that it will be canceling Trauma after its original 13-episode run. After a fan-led campaign to save Chuck when it appeared in danger of cancellation after last season, the renewal without public outcry is a welcome sight. The additional six episodes could also mean that Chuck will be back in January, prior to the Vancouver Olympics. The 19-episode season will be the third for the spy comedy, while Trauma becomes the third casualty of the fall season. Designed to fill the Peacock’s medical-drama void after the retirement of ER, Trauma never pulled in the big numbers. When NBC announced full-season orders for Mercy, Parks and Recreation and Community last week, no proclamation was made on Trauma’s future. Oddly, the network did commit to airing three more episodes of Trauma in an announcement made earlier this week. That brings the show up to 13 scheduled episodes, but that will be all. As always, NBC has ideas for several new shows in the hopper, including an as-yet-untitled legal drama with Idris Elba as executive producer and a drama about a crime-solving magician from NCIS scribe Dan Freeman. To be honest…..both of those shows sound either really bad or like a total retread of things we’ve already seen, but let’s all just focus on the longer season for Chuck and block out the rest of it……….

- Things got largely back to normal in the world of college football today. The so-called elite teams actually played like they were elite and terrible bad and mediocre teams played down to their normal level of play. The nation’s top team, Florida, had a grudge match against Georgia and b*tch-slapped the Bulldogs 41-17. These two teams have never liked each other, but that dislike was exacerbated and elevated into burning hate two years ago when, during a win, Georgia coach Mark Richt had his entire team rush onto the field following Georgia’s first touchdown to celebrate. That earned them an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and the eternal loathing of the Gators. In turn, Florida has looked to obliterate the Bulldogs each of the last two years and succeeded both times. This year, the Gators defense forced three second-half turnovers and the Florida offense was efficient and effective. The same could be said for No. 3 Texas, which jumped out to a 41-7 lead and ultimately won 41-14 over Oklahoma State, a team that normally gives them trouble. UT also got two interception returns for touchdowns and won by 27 despite only having two more first downs than the Cowboys. The day’s biggest eye-opener had to be in Eugene, Oregon, where No. 10 Oregon not only beat No. 4 USC, but handed them the worst loss during coach Pete Carroll’s tenure with the Trojans in a 47-20 thumping. The Ducks used the running and passing of quarterback Jeremiah Massoli, the running of LaMichael James and 613 yards of total offense to run the Trojans right off the field. It’s stunning loss not only because of the margin of victory, but also because it all but assures that USC will not win the Pac-10 for the first time in seven season. With two conference losses to Oregon’s none, USC is out of the conference, Rose Bowl and national title pictures. The Oregon win also has interesting implications for No. 7 Boise State, which handed the Ducks their only loss in the season opener for both teams. That 19-7 win in Boise looks better and better as the season goes on, but it also poses an interesting problem. Because Boise State’s schedule outside of the Oregon game is relatively weak, critics say the Broncos have no shot at playing in the national championship game. However, those same analysts seem to think that Oregon, with plenty of strong wins, could be worth of that same national title game if a couple of the undefeated teams ahead of them lose. Bottom line here: Oregon CANNOT play in the national title game ahead of Boise State. The Broncos won on the field in a game where both teams had all of their players and no one had yet been lost for the season to injury. They won by 12 in a game they dominated physically and the only way Oregon should play for the national title is if Boise State is their opponent. But right now, Boise State is still behind No. 6 TCU in the BCS rankings among non-automatic qualifier conferences. The Horned Frogs boast a rugged defense and an underrated offense, so don’t underestimate them. They won 41-0 against UNLV, keeping their record perfect. Meanwhile, Michigan played down to the low level of performance that it established last year, losing in embarrassing fashion to lowly Illinois, 38-13. The Fighting Illini rushed for 377 yards and had two touchdown runs of 70 yards or more to hand the Wolverines a third conference loss, dropping coach Rich-er Fraud-riguez’s team to 5-4, 1-4 in Big Ten play. After going 4-0 to start the season with multiple comeback wins, UM has crashed back to Earth and showed that perhaps they aren’t back to an elite level. Lastly, how about that North Texas-Western Kentucky shootout? Sure, the two teams had a combined one win coming into the game and Western Kentucky is esteemed by many to be the nation’s worst D-I team, but that doesn’t mean these two couldn’t put on a show. That they did, torching the scoreboard for 117 total points as North Texas kept Western Kentucky winless on the season with a 68-49 verdict. All told, the Hilltoppers and Mean Green combined for more than 1,000 yards of total offense and each team had five rushing touchdowns. It may not have been the best game of weekend, but it sure was exciting. All in all, it was a Saturday where college football made sense and teams played mostly like you’d expect them to………..

- When I hear about statewide or nationwide sweeps by law enforcement that snare dozens and even hundreds of fugitive sex offenders, I’m always torn. On the one hand, taking perverted, disturbed scumbags like that out of society is always a positive. But on the other hand, the fact that there are dozens and often hundreds of sex offenders to arrest means that these people exist in the first place. Bearing that in mind, I’m tepid about news that Operation Shepard, a four-day sweep for fugitive sex offenders in Colorado, has led to 106 arrests by the U.S. Marshals Service. All of these scumbags stand accused of something heinous, ranging from failure to register as a sex offender to sex assaults against children, incest and child prostitution. U.S. marshals combined forces with other state, local and federal law enforcement agencies and took to the streets in ten-person teams. These teams are basically bounty-hunting posses, knocking on doors, chasing lead and using government databases to track their quarry. According to the Marshals Service, most of the freaks on the wanted list have been convicted of a sex offense and have been released on parole but have failed to register as sex offenders or have failed to meet some other conditions of their parole. Some of the wanted individuals have been on the run for years, while others have only been at large for a few months. The influx of cold weather in Denver actually aided the search because as one agent put it, "Cold weather keeps them home. Just like hunting." The search teams go any place their prey might visit, including homes of old girlfriends, places they used to work and old hangouts. Often the sex offender will flee across the country and law enforcement agencies end up sharing information back and forth in their quest to capture these reprehensible douche bags. "We have located and arrested fugitives as far as Washington state," says Robert Rodriquez, sex offender investigations coordinator for the U.S. Marshals Service. "Additional leads have been sent to other parts of the country." As disturbing as the knowledge of how many truly sick wackos exist in this country is, I’m going to go ahead and give the thumbs up to this news even if it does creep me out a bit………

- I see what you’re doing, Muslim leaders in Indonesia, and I like it – a lot. Your decision to ban Muslim women would be banned from wearing tight pants in a devoutly Islamic district of Indonesia's Aceh province is a good one even if your reasoning for the decision isn't that great. You may be making this call in an effort to promote strict moral values in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, but sometimes it is the end result that we need to focus on an not the means it takes to get there. Fact is, there are a whole lot of ladies out there in every single nation of this wide world who, well, just do not need to be wearing tight pants any time, ever. Here in the United States, these un-fit ladies display their terrible physiques in all sorts of inappropriate garb, including: spandex, tight jeans, short skirts and too-small bathing suits. If only someone could come up with a reason to tell these chicks that their unflattering apparel was not allowed…..a guy can dream. Doesn’t matter if it’s based on religion, politics, social standards or just sheer humiliation – get it done. Want to wear spandex shorts in public, chick who is 90 pounds overweight? No, you may not. Force people to get a license to wear this sort of apparel for all I care, just make it happen. As for the Indonesian law, the proposed regulations that would take effect Jan. 1. The penalty for violating the law isn't severe; those violating the ban, which also prohibits shorts for men, will be told to put on government-issued full-length skirts or loose pants. The law will be enforced by wandering Shariah, or Islamic police. "Wearing tight jeans exposes their bodies, which is strictly banned under Islam," said Ramli Mansur, head of West Aceh District. Mansur is unquestionably behind the new law, to the point that he has suggested that civil servants to go beyond the rules and refuse government services to women wearing the banned clothing. I go back to my idea of applying these clothing bans to obese women (and even men) in the United States and the idea of refusing government services to people who violate the rules and to be honest, it’s a freaking awesome idea. Never mind that polls show that a majority of Indonesians oppose the restrictions on dress and behavior and believe that they are being pushed by a small fringe of hard-liners in the secular democracy. Aceh isn't a place known for its tolerance; it’s a semiautonomous region that made headlines last month when its parliament passed a Shariah law making adultery punishable by stoning to death and imposed prison sentences and public lashings against homosexuals and pedophiles. Those things notwithstanding, I like the idea of banning tight pants for certain people and encourage every government around the world to consider my idea………

A new euphemism for being slutty, a Smallville recap and a government in Malaysia inspires me with a great idea

- We’ve found another great euphemism for being a trashy slut and it’s inspired by something unusual: the World Series. Susan Finkelstein is a Philadelphia resident who, like many Philadelphians, is clearly pumped up about the Philadelphia Phillies being in the Series for a second straight year. The Phils are the defending world champions and because they don’t have home-field advantage in the World Series against the New York Yankees, the maximum number of home games they can have in the series is three. Having only three home games means that tickets to those games become an even more valuable commodity among fans and that’s where Finkelstein comes in. She is a married University of Pennsylvania graduate student who wanted to take her husband to a World Series game. Unfortunately, the limited number of tickets that are available on various ticket retailing Web sites are absurdly expensive and most people simply cant afford to throw down $4,000 for a couple of seats. That harsh financial reality was not lost on Finkelstein and in lieu of cash, she decided to use one thing she has an ample supply of: horniness. She went to the place where all morality-deprived scumbags go when looking to trade their honor and self-respect for cash: Craigslist. She threw her ad up on the site, describing herself as a "buxom blonde" willing to basically trade sex for tickets. Her attorney, William J. Brennan, says might have dropped double entendres in her Craigslist ad but never explicitly offered sex. Instead, Brennan insists that Finkelstein is "a nice lady overcome with Phillies fever." Unless your translation of “nice lady” is trampy slut and “Phillies fever” is a euphemism for being really, really horny, then I don’t agree. Apparently this isn't the first time Finkelstein has scored tickets online before, but from what I can gather, this is her first time offering to pimp herself out for World Series ducats. Regardless, she was arrested Tuesday after meeting at a suburban bar with an undercover police officer responding to the ad. I’ve heard of guys pulling this sort of crap, allegedly offering up their girlfriend or wife for a night in exchange for hard-to-get tickets, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a woman taking the initiative and whoring herself out. Sorry “buxom blonde” Finkelstein, but it looks like you won't be attending any World Series games this year…………

- Tonight’s Smallville was infused with an unexpected dose of Good Morning Metropolis. Because she apparently needs a second career, Lois decides that she’ll audition to be one of the morning show’s new co-hosts. Clark tags along to help Lois audition to make up for standing her up on their recent date to the monster truck rally, but when the lights go on and the audition cameras roll, CK chokes and can’t keep up with Lois. Still, their banter when the cameras stop rolling catches the eye of the executive producer and she offers them both jobs hosting the show. The first assignment is a story on Internet dating, with each of the two set up with a date online and having the date filmed on camera. Clark fills out his dating profile in 10 minutes, while Lois pores over hers and puts tremendous effort into each answer in order to attract the “right” kind of guy. When Clark’s date rolls around, Lois is convinced his profile will attract either a country bumpkin or a cougar. Instead, the date turns out to be Catherine, a smokin’ hot blonde just back from traveling aboard and currently pursuing a double major in sociology and social justice. The date goes well for both Clark and Catherine, leaving Lois more than a little jealous. To make her own date better, Lois seeks out help from her ex, Oliver Queen. She stops by his penthouse apartment to ask him what her “red flags” are so she can avoid a bad date. Instead, she happens into an awkward scene that doesn’t look good for Oliver. Despite giving up his self-destructive, alcoholic ways, Ollie is still attending underground fight clubs for some reason and at one fight, he is impressed by a hot girl named Mia who absolutely demolishes a guy twice her size. However, her night comes to an abrupt end when a scary-looking dude dressed in all black accosts her and drags her off, accompanied by two similarly scary friends. The scene catches Oliver’s attention and he somehow manages to track Mia down the next day as she’s standing on a sidewalk, offering her services as a hooker. Turns out that the scary dude from the night before was her pimp Rick, but Oliver has a mind to help her out of her current lifestyle. First, he allows her to drive his expensive sports car and along the ride, he offers to train her as a fighter and help her get out of life as a hooker. That takes them back to his apartment, where Lois drops in, finds Mia clad in only a towel following a sparring session and stint in Oliver’s steam room and gets the wrong idea. But Oliver continues trying to help Mia, going so far as to buy her a new wardrobe and making her a sort of personal assistant. He also decides to help Lois for her filmed-for-TV blind date and stops by the locale for the date, the Ace of Clubs, to pay off her date and step in as his replacement. The date is problematic from the start, as Lois is obviously rattled by Oliver’s presence. He admits that he’s here to set the record straight about Mia and what he was about to say to Lois before Mia walked into the room at his apartment. When he confesses that the thing he loves most about Lois is that she’s still in his life, she pulls the plug on the date and yanks him off camera for a chat. Clark, as Lois did during his date, must listen to the whole scene unfold as he sits in the on-site production truck. But when Lois and Oliver go out onto the club’s balcony, Lois removes her mic. She tells Oliver that she still loves him, but only as a friend. There’s someone else and that someone is Clark, who actually was about to ask her out on a second date over the comm link in her earpiece before Oliver showed up. Oliver takes the rejection surprsisngly well and even says he’s happy for Lois. As he departs and exits the club into the alley where Mia is waiting with his car, Lois follows. She tells Oliver that as his friend, she won't let him go down any more dark alleys alone. He insists that all is well and even offers to formally introduce her to Mia. Unbeknownst to Ollie, Mia has paid Rick a visit during the past hour and tried to settle her debt with him by giving him Ollie’s car. Rick, unwilling to allow his top earner to just walk away, demands that Mia help him rob Oliver. Rick is lurking in the alley when Oliver approaches the car and pistol-whips him from behind. Oliver is knocked out, but Lois and Mia fight back. Mia gets control of the gun and points it at Rick, but she can’t pull the trigger. He rips the gun from her hands and is about to shoot Lois when Ollie gets up off the ground and joins the fight. Together with Lois, he manages to escape but with Rick in pursuit, toting an automatic weapon. The chase leads to the club’s roof, where Rick corners his prey and fires off multiple shots. Clark, having heard the ruckus over the comm link from Lois’ earpiece that fell out in the alley, super-speeds to the scene and stops the bullets while also using his heat vision to blow up Rick’s gun. Lois sees none of it because Oliver is shielding her, ostensibly from the bullets. Clark stops the last bullet just inches from Oliver’s face, then vanishes from the scene as fast as he appeared. Still, the sight of Lois and Oliver together doesn’t sit well with him. As he chats with Chloe shortly after the incident, she challenges him to stop being so selfless and to go after what he wants. CK takes the advice and at the Daily Planet the next day, he walks right up to Lois and drops a kiss on her, which she clearly enjoys. Neither of them seems too concerned that Good Morning Metropolis has replaced them with Catherine, Clark's blind date, as the show's new host - at least not after the kiss. As for Chloe, she finds herself locked in a war with Stuart Campbell, Tess Mercer’s tech genius. Chloe is trying to hack LuthorCorp’s records to help Clark trace the appearance of Kandorian symbols all across the globe, but Stuart throws up one firewall after another to stop her. In the end, she breaks through the 100^th firewall and finds Stuart on a live video feed, mocking her. She turns his mockery back on him by doing a screen capture on a picture of his hand, then running his fingerprints to find out who he is. Armed with all of the information and all of his records, she sets up a back-alley meeting and basically blackmails Stuart into coming over to her side in the fight with Tess. Miss Mercer has her own battle to fight in the meantime with Zod, who confronts her at the Luthor Mansion while she’s hosting a company gala to introduce her new project, the world’s first-ever self-sustaining solar tower. Zod reveals that he is chairman of RAO, the company with which LuthorCorp is partnering for the project. After the event ends, Zod informs Tess that he knows it was her who had the blood of the individual known as the Blur destroyed when the Kandorians tried to have it tested following its use to produce a vaccine for the virus the infected Metropolis with. Zod demands that Tess give up the identity of the blur and instructs one of her bodyguards, who is actually one of his men in disguise, to torture her until she either gives up the info or dies. Evidently Tess is more badass than a Kandorian warrior, because the next day Zod is sitting at a café in downtown Metropolis when an envelope appears on his table. Instead if the dog tag with the Kandorian jewel of the warrior he sent to torture Tess. It is covered in blood and as Zod examines it, Tess waves to him from the other side of the street. Message sent, but she vanishes from view as a truck passes in front of her and she’s gone. All told, a very good episode and a good job of balancing all of the show’s main characters into interesting storylines. The kiss between Lois and Clark ended the episode, so it will be interesting to see where that leads next week. Until then……….

- Great, this is going to help us all tremendously. Well, either that or it’s going to embolden idiot drivers who shouldn’t be out on the road by implying that their terrible performance behind the wheel isn't their fault. Researcher Steven Cramer, a neurology professor at the University of California Irvine, has just completed a study into driving habits and discovered that people with a certain gene variant performed more than 30 percent worse on a driving test than people without it. The study, published recently in the journal Cerebral Cortex, found that 30 percent of Americans have the variant. Under normal brain function, when a person performs a task, a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is secreted to the area of the brain that is associated with that activity. The protein facilitates communication among brain cells and helps retain memory, but people with the gene variation Cramer studied have limited BDNF secretion. "These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away," Cramer said. Armed with that knowledge, Cramer and his research team applied their findings to driving by recruiting 29 people to drive 15 laps on a simulated course with difficult curves and turns. Of the 29 participants, 22 did not have the gene variant; seven did. On the first day of the study, they were asked to do their 15 laps and four days later, they repeated the test. The basic idea was to see how effectively the participants learned to navigate the twists and turns in each subsequent lap. Those with the variant did worse both times and also retained less the second go-round. "I'd be curious to know the genetics of people who get into car crashes," Cramer said. "I wonder if the accident rate is higher for drivers with the variant." So you may be asking what the heck we can do with this information and if we can use it to weed out the IQ-deprived tools out there who drive five miles per hour below the speed limit in the left lane and cant remember to signal before turning or changing lanes. The answer is no, because a test to determine whether someone has the gene variant is not commercially available. However, those of you who are terrible drivers can now claim that you have this gene variant and that’s why you drive like you are handicapped mentally, emotionally, physically and psychologically……….

- Let’s just say that Malaysia is not an especially tolerant place these days. When a country’s government is seizing more than 15,000 Bibles in recent months because they referred to "God" as "Allah," that doesn’t speak well of your open-mindedness. That particular translation of the Bible has been banned in the Muslim-majority country, which is decidedly unfriendly and repressive to people from other faiths. The Bibles were imported from neighboring Indonesia, but they never made it to their intended target. The seizure should be powerful fuel for religious minorities in Malaysia who have frequently lamented the restriction of their right to practice their faiths freely. That stands in stark contradiction to the country’s reputation as a harmonious multiethnic nation that practices a moderate brand of Islam. The Rev. Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, explained that authorities seized 5,100 Bibles, imported from Indonesia, back in March and then seized a consignment of 10,000 copies sent from Jakarta to Kuching in Sarawak state on Sept. 11. The reason for the seizures was because the Indonesian-language Bibles contained the word "Allah." Because Indonesian language is similar to Malaysian language and both languages use "Allah" as translation for God in both Islamic and Christian traditions, it makes sense that Allah would be used. That still doesn’t fly with the Malaysian government, which has banned non-Muslims from using the word "Allah" in their texts, saying the word is Islamic and may upset Muslims. Honestly, this sounds like exactly the approach that African-Americans take to the “n” word, but the two terms could not be more different. While the “n” word is an incredibly offensive and racist term, especially when used by non-blacks, Allah is an actual religious term in Islam and not in any way a profanity or racist term. In a country where 25 percent of the people are ethnic Chinese and 8 percent are Indians and many of the Chinese and Indians are Christians, this sort of persecution of their faith in the name of Islam is indefensible at best. The Roman Catholic Church leading the fight in challenging the "Allah" ban in court, saying it is unconstitutional and discriminates against those worshipping in Malay language. However, the government is clearly in no hurry to adjudicate the case, which has been stuck in preliminary hearings for almost two years. If and when the case is heard, the church will argue that Allah is not exclusive to Islam but is an Arabic word that predates Islam. Win or lose the case, don’t expect the Malaysian government to back off its stance and become more tolerant any time soon………

- I know what the ass clowns who are proposing the idea of a reality series pairing reality parasites Jon Gosselin and the freak show that is Nadia Suleman are after. They think that by combining two of the biggest blights on society today, individuals that are universally loathed and devalued by society, they are going to come up with a winning show that millions of people will tune in for. By the grace of God, I hope they are wrong and that any network asinine enough to air this potential show is swallowed whole by the Earth the second the first episode begins to air. But you can already see that these a-hole producers are overestimating their wares because they are calling Gosselin and Suleman the "two biggest media sensations of our generation." Yes, bigger than Jay-Z, Kanye West, LeBron James, the Pope, Survivor and Twitter combined, I’m sure. A leaked copy "Jon - Kate = Jon + Octomom" reads: "Mohammed and the Mountain started a religion. Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris started a Yankee dynasty. Lennon and McCartney started a music revolution. Now Jon and Octomom start a whole new reality in the world of Reality TV." Are you f’ing kidding me? This idea isn't good, it’s not creative or innovative; it’s merely a shameless stab at generating controversy using two people that we’re all tired of and wish would go away and never come back. The word on the street is that Suleman has had a thing for Gosselin for some time now, which is actually very appropriate. This brain-dead, IQ-less piece of crap would clearly be reaching far above her level in life if she went after any guy other than a scumbag like Gosselin, so in that sense she’s right on the mark. Unfortunately for the producers, their belief that the show is so revolutionary it will rival "American Idol" in the ratings and that "there will be no rival in the shocking nature of this pairing" is so far off base that it makes predictions of a Grammy for William Hung look brilliant by comparison……….

Why Tom Cruise may be pissed, meth + tennis = interest and a contrast in quality on Tuesday night television

- Tom Cruise is going to be pissed. Hearing that acclaimed film director Paul Haggis has decided to leave the Church of Scientology is going to have the diminutive, couch-jumping kook that is Cruise ready to storm Oprah’s studio and bounce up and down on her comfy couch for hours on end. A private letter written by Haggis to the church's spokesman, Tommy Davis, was released and in it, the director expressed anger at the Church of Scientology of San Diego's alleged public support of Proposition 8, which eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry in California. "I called and wrote and implored you, as the official spokesman of the church, to condemn their actions," said the letter. "I told you I could not, in good conscience, be a member of an organization where gay-bashing was tolerated." Haggis himself has not commented on the story and his publicist explained that he won't be doing so any time soon, as he is currently in Pennsylvania directing a film starring Russell Crowe and Liam Neeson. Haggis’ de-Scientologizing isn't a big stunner because he hasn’t been an active member for many years. "The church's refusal to denounce the actions of these bigots, hypocrites and homophobes is cowardly," the letter says. "I can think of no other word. Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent.” The local church in San Diego contends that it was incorrectly listed in some materials as supporting Prop 8 and the church's name was eventually removed. Davis insists that his organization is "absolutely not anti-gay" and that its doors are open to everyone. "As a church we don't take active stances on political issues," Davis said. "Being a minority, we are absolutely all for civil rights and the rights of any minority. We have a pretty complete understanding of what it is like to be persecuted or marginalized...being a minority religion ourselves." Blah, blah, blah. Look, I have my own beliefs on the issue and I believe that homosexuality is morally wrong, but that’s not the issue here. No, what I want to know is whether this is going to be enough to spark a heated red-carpet faceoff between Cruise and Haggis in which T. Cruise uses his Level 24 Scientology powers to Jedi mind trick Haggis into stepping in front of a speeding limo. If you’re unfamiliar with Haggis’ work, he wrote the Academy Award-winning "Million Dollar Baby," co-wrote and directed "Crash” and has been a part of several other big-name films. To Messrs Cruise and Haggis, I say this: In the words of the immortal Mills Lane, Let’s get it on………

- I would watch a lot more men’s professional tennis if there were more stories like this. If Andy Roddick or James Blake were to become a meth addict, I can safely say that my interest in men’s tennis would skyrocket immediately. But sadly, the meth head in question is former ATP player and legend Andre Agassi, who has written an autobiography, to be released next month, in which he admits to using crystal meth while he was playing professional tennis. Excerpts from the book became public this week and the allegations of meth use were confirmed by the director of media relations at Knopf, a division of Random House which is publishing the book. According to reports, the meth use took place in 1997, when Agassi failed an ATP drug test and claims that he immediately sat down to write a letter to tour officials about why he had tested positive. According to Agassi, he blamed his positive test on an assistant he identified as “Slim” (no joke) who liked to spike his drinks with meth. In the letter, Agassi lied and said he had accidentally taken a drink from Slim’s cup and thus gotten the crystal meth into his system. He also stated that Slim had since been fired and that the problem was taken care of, claims Agassi now admits were false. Who knows why an über-successful athlete who had won multiple majors, an Olympic gold medal in the 1996 Atlanta Games and had millions of dollars in the bank and endorsement deals out the wazoo would turn to crystal meth, the drug of your average trailer park junkie. Perhaps the pressure of not having won a major that year was getting to him, I don’t know. What I do know is that having a meth addict involved in your sport is going to earn my interest every day of the week. I couldn’t care less about the non-sport that is auto racing, but when NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield was revealed to be an (alleged) meth addict, I seriously considered taking up in interest in auto racing. The bottom line here, as always, is that if your sport is suffering from a lack of interest and needs to do something to get itself back on the sports map, having someone develop a meth habit is always a good place to start………

- Tuesday night, I was struck by an incredible contradiction as I sat down to watch television. On the one hand, there was NBC kicking off prime time with its hit weight-loss reality show The Biggest Loser. It’s two hours of inspiring television featuring morbidly obese people leaving their normal lives, going to live on a ranch in sunny Southern California and literally losing hundreds of pounds as they save their lives in every sense of the word. These are people who often have truly tragic stories of losing people they love, having loads of medical problems because of their immense weight and literally facing a life-or-death battle to lose weight. They travel to Southern California and spend as long as three months there, working out, learning how to eat better and shedding pounds. In the process, they gain self-confidence and shed loads of emotional baggage. After two hours of uplifting television, viewers can then switch their televisions over to MTV where they can see……well, TV that isn't uplifting. Suffice it to say, The Hills and The City are not only not uplifting, I can literally feel my soul dying watching vapid, spoiled, clueless rich people b*tch fight at their beach parties, worry about who talked to whom at last night’s Manhattan charity event and who has the better Mercedes or Christian Dior handbag. In truth, The Hills is worse in terms of vapidity, shallowness and sheer lack of any redeeming social value. I don’t know how to fully describe the depths to which this show sinks, but just look at those two talent-less tools Heidi and Spencer and know that they are a) great representations of what’s wrong with the show and b) aren’t even the most vapid, dislikeable people on the show. The City is basically the same show, only with the beaches and sun of SoCal exchanged for the skyscrapers and pavement of Manhattan. As much as Biggest Loser uplifts you and makes you feel good, these two MTV reality TV hatchet jobs bring you down just as much. It’s a truly jarring juxtaposition and it’s only Tuesday nights on a television near you……………

- Far too much was made of New York Jets quarterback getting caught on camera Sunday eating a hot dog on the sideline during the Jets' 38-0 victory against the lowly Oakland Raiders. Guys who have played the game or are active NFL players disapproved of the act because they viewed it as disrespecting an opponent by basically saying, “This game is such a joke that I can get my grub on sitting on the bench before it’s over.” I disagree for a number of reasons, mostly because Sanchez explained that he wasn’t feeling well before the game, didn’t each much prior to kickoff and was simply looking to get something into his stomach. "I want to apologize for that," he said. "I wasn't feeling very good and didn't eat much before the game, so I was feeling a little queasy. Toward the end of the game, I probably should have eaten one of those bars or something, but someone offered [a hot dog], so I grabbed it and tried to be discreet about it, but obviously not discreet enough. So I shouldn't have done that, and it won't happen again." But I’m not here to chat about the incident any more because it’s already been done ad nauseum. Instead, I’m happy to see that Sanchez, the team and his agent have found a way to turn Hot Dog-Gate into an opportunity to help the less fortunate. Sanchez has bought 500 hot dogs and 500 hamburgers, along with buns and rolls, through A&P supermarket, and donated them to the Community Soup Kitchen of Morristown, N.J. Make no mistake about it, this is something that the team’s PR rep and Sanchez’s agent helped set up, although he probably had some input. Regardless, having fun with this whole situation and turning it into a way to provide food for people who very much need it is a worthwhile ending to any controversy, no matter how large or small it may be. Props to Sanchez and Co. for making it happen…………

- You’re not helping your argument that you are not a repressive, fascist dictator Zimbabwean dictator Bob Mugabe, you’re hurting it and you shouldn’t be barring U.N. special investigators on torture from your country, man. Special investigator (man, I want that title) Manfred Nowak learned that his mission had been canceled after he arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, en route to Zimbabwe. He was to make an eight-day trip to look into alleged attacks against opposition party members, but Mugabe’s (illegitimate) government shut it down. Their claim is that the mission was canceled to allow for consultation with southern African leaders over the country's power-sharing agreement. Uh-huh, sure it wasn’t. Nowak said the right tings about be happy to see the consultation planned for Thursday in Harare, but he rightly said it was not a valid reason for the government to cancel his mission. No, more than likely the cancellation came because Mugabe and his posse don’t want their horrendous, abusive and oppressive treatment of the country’s opposition groups exposed. Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the two leaders in the parties involved in this showdown, have been at each other’s throats once again after a short period of relative calm. In truth, the uproar over Zimbabwe’s disputed presidential election has never died down and the so-called unity government that formed in its aftermath has bickered constantly since it was formed in February. That’ll happen when one party in a coalition accuses the other of repeated human rights violations. A sticking point for Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party is the ongoing case against Roy Bennett, a key MDC official facing charges of possessing weapons for sabotage, banditry and terrorism. While he is jailed and awaiting trial (although out on bail now), Bennett’s nomination for deputy agriculture minister is on hold. Of course, Mugabe vehemently denies that the charges are politically motivated, which is clearly a ginormous lie. The dictator also declared that Bennett would be appointed only if he were cleared of all crimes, which is rich because Mugabe is the one who is wrongly pressing these charges against Bennett to begin with. U.N. officials did not say if or when Nowak’s mission would be rescheduled, although the need for them to visit Zimbabwe is clearly still present. "Allegations that MDC supporters and human rights defenders have been arrested, harassed and intimidated in recent days underscore the urgent need for an objective fact-finding mission by an independent U.N. expert," Nowak said. Agreed and agreed, but that statement being true doesn’t mean that the Zimbabwean government will let any U.N. investigator in. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. The fact that there is a clear need for a U.N. visit in order to expose human rights violations is the very reason that investigators won't be allowed across the border any time soon…..or ever……..

Blake Griffin gets Clippered, Hugo Chavez channels his inner Spielberg and non-conformity v. the U.S. Army

- Blake Griffin, you have just been Clippered. No, not clipped, I said Clippered. As the top pick in this year’s NBA draft, one might assume that Griffin, his new NBA salary and life in sunny Southern California would make for a happy guy. That might be the case if not for one tragic fact: Blake Griffin doesn’t play for the Los Angeles Lakers, he plays for their ugly stepbrother, the L.A. Clippers. Ever since leaving Buffalo a couple of decades ago and heading westward to become the Clippers, this franchise has been a train wreck of bad coaching, terrible personnel decisions, freak injures and general ineptitude that has sunk them and their fans into a morass of losing that they cannot escape. The Clippers have never won and NBA title or played in the Finals since moving to L.A., so when Griffin and his considerable talents were drafted by the Clippers, it was not a question of if he would be Clippered, but when. Whether it was slipping getting in or out of the showed, getting clipped by someone on a moped walking down the sidewalk outside the Staples Center or being struck down by a falling asteroid while driving his car down the road, you knew it was only a matter of time. That it actually happened on the court during the Clippers' final exhibition game against New Orleans last Friday may actually be the most surprising part of the story because it makes this a normal sports injury. But I suppose every now and then, the sports gods must throw us a curveball and give us something we totally didn’t expect, i.e. a normal sports injury for a Clippers player. Griffin fractured his left kneecap on a dunk and now will miss as many as six weeks of action at the start of the year. He had to watched from the bench in street clothes as his teammates took on their Staples Center co-tenants, the Lakers, in the season opener last night. It’s another blow for a Clippers fan base already beaten down by the dual incompetence of coach Mike Dunleavy Sr. and general manager Mike Dunleavy Sr., who manages to consistently suck at two positions instead of just one. Griffin, had a solid preseason, averaging 13.7 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, but he is expected to miss most or all of the 20 games the play in their first six weeks of the regular season. He also suffered a strained right shoulder that prematurely ended his rookie league season this summer, so clearly the infection that is the Los Angeles Clippers has already infected him and it’s only a matter of time before it does him in for good………

- Can we stop paying attention when NASA postpones the launch of a space shuttle or rocket and only take note when they actually launch something on schedule? Because of the delicate nature of shooting something that costs tens of millions of dollars into outer space, I understand that the conditions need to be exactly right to launch something, but at times the continual postponements border on the absurd. The latest delayed launch came Tuesday when NASA was unable to launch its unmanned test rocket Ares I-X because of cloudy, windy weather. The launch was rescheduled for today, when NASA engineers will once again attempt to launch the 327-foot rocket -- currently the world's largest -- from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Ares I-X is a key part of the Constellation Program, which is focused on developing new vehicles that would replace space shuttles, which will be phased out in 2010. That’s good because space shuttles are so 2008. Launching this rocket is part of NASA's mission to someday return astronauts to the moon and later travel to Mars. But as with so many things in science and technology, the culmination of this project is a long ways off. Even if the Constellation Program moves forward, the Orion capsule atop the Ares rocket will not be ready to take astronauts into space until at least 2015. That’s bad news for the United States because it would leave a gap of at least five years in which the only way the United States would be able to put humans in orbit would be by bumming a ride with the Russians, i.e. the Communists. The Ares mission will also feature a test for three massive main parachutes -- measuring 150 feet in diameter and weighing one ton each -- the largest rocket parachutes ever manufactured, which are a primary element of the rocket's deceleration system. The parachutes open simultaneously after the rocket is successfully launched to “provide the drag necessary to slow the descent of the huge solid rocket motor for a soft landing in the ocean," the agency says on its Web site. At 130,000 feet, the two segments of the rocket parts ways and the top of the rocket, known as the upper stage, continues its ascent until gravity forces its return to Earth, where it will fall into the Atlantic Ocean. NASA needs a successful result for this mission given the fact that an independent committee reviewing the future of space flight recently reported that the U.S. space program appears to be pursuing goals that exceed current funding. If those goals are to seem within reach and thus worth additional funding, the Ares I-X needs to do its thing and do it well…………

- You’ll have to excuse me if I can’t muster up any excitement at this point; I’m just devastated at the news I’m about to share. On Sunday, Alicia Keys announced – gasp - via her twitter page that her upcoming album has been pushed back two weeks. Noooooooo! Not Alicia Keys, don’t tell me that her new album is being delayed by tw-…….all right, all right, stop. I can’t keep this charade up. Among all of the overrated artists in music right now, Keys is one of the highest on the list. She’s not up there with a guy like Prince, but I’ve just never been down with Keys and her music. Sure, she has amazing vocal talents, but so does Celine Dion and her music is crap-tacularly bad to the nth degree. Look, Alicia Keys is clearly a favorite of Jay-Z’s and if H.O.V.A. gives you his stamp of approval, you’re pretty much golden in the music business. I just don’t care for Keys’ brand of R&B just like I’m not big on anyone whose music is piano-driven. Keys has already debuted the latest single from the album, "Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart," during a lecture and performance for New York University students. on the heels of that performance, she tweeted the news that instead of being released on Dec. 1st -- World AIDS day -- "The Element of Freedom" will now be available on Dec. 15th. "Luv having the freedom to create beautiful music, so I'm pushing the album back to DEC 15th. So many more amazing songs!!!" Keys tweeted about the J Records release. The album’s first First single, "Doesn't Mean Anything," is currently No. 15 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. So for those who don’t share my awesome tastes in music and still like Alicia Keys’ music, Dec. 15 is now the day for you to look forward to……….

- Freaking Hugo Chavez, you are a beauty. Already South America’s biggest douche bag dictator, my boy Hugo is now looking to become the Steven Spielberg of Venezuela. When he’s not starting international brawls and partnering up with other fascist dictators ‘round the world in the League of Fascism™, Chavez is busy building a sprawling glass-and-concrete structure called La Villa del Cine—"Cinemaville"— that is the headquarters for the fight against what he decries as the "tyranny" of Hollywood. Located in the foothills just east of Caracas, the state-owned film studio is being praised by Chavez’s sycophantic followers as a "platform" to "revolutionize consciousness." The more cynical portions of the Venezuelan populace call it Hugowood. Either way, the Venezuelan dictator clearly views it as a key piece of what he calls the fight for "21st-century socialism." If by 21st-century socialism he means appointing himself lifetime dictator ruling with an iron fist and crushing the fundamental human rights of anyone who opposes him, then I agree. How else do you explain splurging on a state-run film studio with multiple edit bays, a costume department and sound stages? Sadly, an electrical fire earlier this year knocked out most of the studio's work-stations, forcing producers, editors, seamstresses, carpenters, and engineers to relocate. Another problem is Chavez’s reported tendency to start projects with gusto and then drop them mid-project. Most Venezuelans don’t expect much from Hugowood and I cant say I blame them. Any reputable filmmaker in Venezuela stays as far away from this debacle as possible, although some do ultimately agree to work for Chavez because they need the money. "Because they need the money, and because Chávez has plenty of it, filmmakers are a highly blackmailable class," says art critic Fernando Rodríguez. Hugo Chavez is obviously not the first fascist dictator to embrace the power of the cinema, as legendary dictators like Adolph Hitler have used the medium in a shameless attempt to spread their reprehensible propaganda. Plus, there is something of a media vacuum in Venezuela, what with Chavez and his posse having shut down most independent press or bullied them into submission. That doesn’t mean that I don’t gag over the hypocrisy when I read the official slogan for Hugowood: "Lights, camera, revolution!" Never have words rang more false and hollow, mis amigos. This debacle is being kept afloat by the ever-flowing stream of oil revenue, allowing for the production of 13 original propaganda pieces, er, original films so far, 12 more in the works and a reported budget of $16 million for 2009 alone. What cracks me up is that there are supposedly romantic comedies among the 13 films Hugowood has produced. Right, because who doesn’t want to see a Hugo Chavez-led romantic comedy? “Love me or I’ll throw you in prison and burn your home to the ground!” The studio’s executives insist that their work is not politically motivated. "Our job here is not about politics but to seduce the viewer by making the best picture we can," says Armando Silva, the studio postproduction manager. Keep spouting the party line, A. For one, you’ll be fired, shot and buried in a shallow grave if you don’t. But mostly I want you to keep it up because the sheer hypocrisy you and your cohorts display keeps the comedic absurdity of this whole endeavor at the highest possible level…………

- One of my chief beefs with the U.S. military has long been its ironclad insistence on conformity, especially when it comes to personal appearance. Never once in my life have I desired to have a crew cut, wear an identical uniform to that worn by hundreds of other people I am with, stand in a straight line and have an angry drill sergeant bark in my face about how my shoes aren’t properly shined. Thus, I welcome the news that the U.S Army has granted a member of a religious minority permission to keep his turban, beard and uncut hair while he serves in the military. Even though I do not share any religious beliefs with Capt. Kamaljit Singh Kalsi, a Sikh, that doesn’t mean I don’t support his right to adhere to the principles of his chosen faith, a faith that calls on its followers not to shave or cut their hair. Back in the spring, Kalsi filed a for an accommodation to follow the principles of his religion. In typical bureaucratic fashion, the Army took its sweet time considering the request before finally granting it this week. The Pentagon public affairs office later confirmed that Kalsi would be allowed to keep his turban, beard and uncut hair while cautioning in a letter to Kalsi that, "This accommodation is based solely on the facts and circumstances of your case," the letter said. "This accommodation does not constitute a blanket accommodation for any other individual." Whatever you say, Army. You have to add that caveat because if you didn’t, everyone with any sort of religious beliefs that could conceivably allow them to wear their hair or facial hair long would be lining up asking for their own exception. Kalsi was understandably excited after learning of the decision, which will allow him to continue serving his country and also keeping in line with his chosen faith. "Like the many Sikhs who fought before me, I know I will serve America with honor and excellence," he said in a written statement. It is worth nothing that Kalsi is not the only Sikh asking permission to keep his hair, beard and turban while serving in the Army. Capt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan, a dentist, applied at the same time as Kalsi, but sis case has been deferred until he receives the results of his dental board examinations. The Sikh community is relatively small in the United States, currently numbering in the vicinity of 500,000. Strike a blow for non-conformity for once, something that you can seldom say about the military…………

Recapping this season's penultimate episode of Greek, beef strewn across a highway and Larry Johnson proves athletes and Twitter like idiots too

- Thanksgiving came early on last night’s Greek. Leading up to next week’s season finale, it was a long holiday weekend for everyone at Cyprus-Rhodes U. Everyone prepared to head home for the holiday, but of course those plans didn’t go as planned for everyone. As her fellow Zeta Beta Zeta sisters left, Casey was preparing to do the same until she stopped by her brother Rusty’s apartment to pick him up for the trip to the airport. He delivered the bad news that their parents had ditched them to spend Thanksgiving in Hawaii, something she would have known if she’d listened to any of the five voicemail messages her mother left her. So Casey is stuck on campus for the holiday weekend and thinks she has the ZBZ house to herself until Rebecca Logan interrupts her off-key singing of a Katy Perry song while dancing on her bed. Rebecca claims her flight was canceled and so the two of them are stuck together for the weekend. But the old ZBZ house proves a little creepy at night when it’s nearly empty and a freaked-out Rebecca decides to bring her humidifier and ambient noise machine with her and sleep in Casey and Ashleigh’s room. The next day is Thanksgiving and Casey plans to spend the early part of the day volunteering with a group called Moveable Meals to deliver Thanksgiving dinners to the elderly. Rebecca initially wants to write a check for $10,000 to charity instead of volunteering, but she ends up tagging along because she has no other plans. The volunteerism is short-lived, however, as the Moveable Meals people have all the helpers they need. The leader of the group says that a check would still be welcome and Rebecca hands over her generous donation, looking like a hero in the process. Still in search of something to break her string of bad karma lately, Casey searches for something else to do the trick. In a strike of inspiration, she decides to have an impromptu Thanksgiving meal at the ZBZ house and to invite all of the MM volunteers. In lieu of turkey, the group dines on pizza topped with turkey sausage and drinks “cranberry sauce,” a mixture of cranberry juice and leftover booze. The meal goes well until a drunk volunteers wanders upstairs, steals an ugly sweater from Casey and Ashley’s room and sprints out of the house with Rebecca in pursuit. After the party, Casey ends up talking with Evan and confessing that she had been planning on hooking up with her old boyfriend Derek while home for the weekend, but that plan went out the window when her parents ditched her. He seems to want to fill that void for her, but Casey isn't looking for that from him. She does still have Thanksgiving dinner at Rusty and Dale’s apartment later in the day after they invited her, but those plans end up going down in flames – literally. Both Rusty and Dale have made plans to cram their long weekend full of work on their respective research projects, with both of them having a shot at a prestigious engineering grant. Dale and his sponsor, Dr. Larson, have made the grant a priority. Rusty’s sponsor, Dr. Hastings, suggests it only after Rusty comes up with a new idea for a self-healing polymer wire. So while they try to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving feast, both guys are also spending time at the lab working on their projects. Dr. Hastings takes exception when Dale tags along with Rusty, reminding his young protégé that, “There are no friends in the lab.” That lesson proves true when Rusty’s project continues to make progress while Dale’s suffers a bad setback, literally going up in flames. With the double-whammy of his faltering project and news that Rusty has a real shot at winning the grant, Dale becomes so tense that he calls of Thanksgiving dinner and instead sneaks into the lab, where he spies on Rusty’s research in an attempt to gain an edge. When Rusty walks in on him, the sh*t hits the fan. Rusty accused Dale of looking down on him, not being honest with him and not being a true friend. Dale has no defense and the next time the two see one another in the lab, they don’t even say a word, not even after Rusty makes another huge leap forward in his project. Two guys who are making friendship work are Cappie and Evan, who make plans to play some Thanksgiving golf because neither is going home for the holiday. Evan promises to call with a tee time once he gets off work, but when he is running late and Cappie has the chance to do something else, he takes it. That something else is the annual Kappa Tau turkey hunt, which consists of a KT brother who is leaving for the weekend leaving behind clues for those brothers stranded on campus to hunt a turkey. When Wade, Heath and Beaver beg him to join in and show complete ineptitude in following the first few clues, Cappie joins the turkey hunt. The hunt takes the group to different rooms of the KT house and ultimately to the Omega Chi house, where Wade, Beaver and Heath want to also pull a prank, perhaps trashing Evan’s room. When Cappie shoots down the idea, they are shocked. He explains that it’s a KT tradition to cease hostilities with their enemies on Thanksgiving and when he brothers remark about how nonchalant and un-Cappie-like he’s been lately, he explains that his fallout with Casey after the “End of the World” party is to blame. Wade, Beaver and Heath encourage him to try again, even if it means potential heartbreak, so that he can be with the love of his life. With the turkey hunt completed, the KT’s head back to their house for the KT Thanksgiving dinner. Rusty is also on hand and he’s invited Casey, who in turn invites Rebecca and Evan, with whom she’s hanging out when she gets Rusty’s text. Evan’s presence causes predictable turmoil with the KT’s, him being the president of their hated rival frat and all, but Cappie makes the decision to let him in (and his brothers agree) because Evan comes bearing gifts: alcohol .The motley crew gathers around a table in the backyard and enjoys a “meal” that consists of nothing more than snack foods, candy and alcohol. When Wade finally announces that it’s time for turkey, the turkey turns out to be a bottle of Wild Turkey and not actual food. Rusty takes his cue to leave and head back to the lab, while Casey also decides to leave and Cappie offers to walk her home. At the ZBZ house, he escorts her inside but confesses that he has something he needs to say. Casey suggests they talk tomorrow when they are a little more sober, but Cappie insists on talking now. He pours out his heart, admits he should have came after her when she confessed her feelings for him at the KT “End of the World” party and says that he wants to be with her now. They kiss and she admits that she wants to be with him too, so happy ending, right? The previews for next week’s season finale would seem to indicate not, so be sure to tune in for that……..

- How about some more proof that famous people – athletes, actors, musicians, etc. – are just like the rest of us, that they have the same problems and shortcomings as the common man? Let’s welcome in Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson to help me illustrate this point. My man LJ is a member of one of the NFL’s worst teams, the 1-6 Chiefs. On Sunday, Johnson and his teammates were on the wrong end of a 37-7 home beatdown by the San Diego Chargers. Johnson didn’t exactly tear it up in defeat, tallying a mere 49 yards on 16 carries. However, that didn’t stop him from joining the millions of idiots around the world who manage to take a simple social networking site like Twitter and turn it into their own personal stupidity magnifier. Just like the tool with a mullet, vintage Guns N’ Roses concert t-shirt and rusted-out 1986 Ford Bronco down the street from you who gets all liquored up and posts some idiotic, grammatically stunted messages on his MySpace or Twitter page, Larry Johnson knows how to open his mouth and jam his foot halfway down his esophagus. Following the game Sunday, Johnson took to Twitter to slam his rookie head coach, Todd Haley. LJ posted that Haley has "nuthn" when it comes to NFL-quality credentials. "My father got more creditentials than most of these pro coaches,” Johnson wrote. He followed that with a Tweet saying that: "My father played for the coach from "rememeber the titans". Our coach played golf. My father played for redskins briefley. Our coach. Nuthn." Wow…..just wow. First and foremost, are you kidding me? As always, if you have a problem with the coach, go talk to him. If nothing else, maybe your frustration comes out after the game when you’re talking to the media. That’s not the right means of expressing yourself, but at least someone is in your face, bugging you for answers and you can say that you snapped and lost your cool. By going on Twitter and posting your own message, you’re showing a clear intent to take a hacksaw to your own coach’s reputation. Secondly, did Larry Johnson ever go to class while at Penn State? Furthermore, how the hell did he ever get admitted in the first place? My man, you absolutely butchered the words credentials, remember and briefly. Yes, those are multi-syllabic words, but anyone who attended even one day of college in their life should be able to spell them. If the story ended here, it would already be bad enough for Johnson. But wait……there’s more. After the Tweets I just mentioned, one of his Twitter followers took exception to his comments and shot back with a dig about the incident a couple of years ago in which Johnson allegedly spit his drink in a woman’s face at a club. That provoked a rant in which Johsnon “be-downgraded” the follower, touting his own talents, wealth and status as an NFL player and telling the follower to, "Make me regret it. Lmao. U don't stop my checks. Lmao. So 'tweet' away." To top it off, Johnson hit the follower with a three-letter homophobic slur. Nicely done LJ, nicely done. Now, you not only need to apologize to your head coach, you’ll also be issuing an apology that someone elser writes for you, er, from your heart to the entire gay and lesbian community for using a word that is incredibly offensive to them. Once again, thanks for showing that just because you are rich and famous doesn’t mean that you are any smarter or better than the rest of us………

- Thanks for ruining an American legend, researchers at The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR). For decades, we’ve bought into the story that legendary aviatrix Amelia Earhart crashed into the ocean while attempting to fly around the world. She died in a blaze of glory, doing what she loved to do – or so we thoughts. According to these party-pooper researchers, Earhart most likely died on an uninhabited tropical island in the southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribati. To refresh your memory, Earhart disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937 in a record attempt to fly around the world at the equator. Ever since, her final resting place has been the stuff of legends and no one has ever definitively determined the answer. People like Richard Gillespie, TIGHAR's executive director and author of the book "Finding Amelia," and his crew have been searching the Nikumaroro island for evidence of Earhart. The island is actually a tiny coral atoll located 300 miles southeast of Earhart's target destination, Howland Island. TIGHAR has recovered several artifacts which suggest that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, made a forced landing on the island's smooth, flat coral reef. "We know that in 1940 British Colonial Service officer Gerald Gallagher recovered a partial skeleton of a castaway on Nikumaroro. Unfortunately, those bones have now been lost," Gillespie said. Those bones were found in a remote area of the island, in a place that was unlikely to have been seen during an aerial search. Along with the bones, researchers have also found a woman's shoe, an empty bottle and a sextant box whose serial numbers are consistent with a type known to have been carried by Noonan. All of the items were found near the site where the bones were discovered. "The reason why they found a partial skeleton is that many of the bones had been carried off by giant coconut crabs. There is a remote chance that some of the bones might still survive deep in crab burrows," Gillespie said. Okay, now that sounds far-fetched at best, Richie. Giant sand crabs carrying off human bones and burying them at the bottom of their burrows? I’m going to need much stronger evidence if I’m going to subscribe to your half-baked theory and ruin the image of Earhart crashing into the ocean and going instant legend in the process. There have been some great theories about her fate over the years, including suggestions that she was a spy, that she was captured by the Japanese, that she died in a prisoner-of-war camp, and that she survived and returned to live her life as a New Jersey housewife. Of course, if Gillespie’s theory is true and we knew it to be so a few years ago, we could have avoided the crap-tacular Earhart biopic starring starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere, but that would be about the only good thing to result from the theory being proven true………

- It was a vegetarian’s nightmare early Monday morning at the Weston toll plaza on the Massachusetts Turnpike. State troopers aren’t sure what the cause was, but they know that the end result was a chain-reaction tractor-trailer crash that left sides of beef strewn across the roadway, a toll booth damaged and at least one driver hospitalized. First and foremost, best wishes to the injured driver for a full recovery. But the aspect of this that I’m more enthralled with is the sight of hundreds of slabs of been strewn across the highway in what could only be described as University of Kansas football coach Mark Mangino’s dream scenario. The spilled beef came from a refrigerated tractor-trailer carrying hundreds of pounds of meaty goodness which then rear-ended several other big rigs at the Weston tolls about 2:30 a.m. A third truck and a car were also hit in the accident. The beef truck wasn’t the only food carrier involved in the accident, as a truck carrying tomatoes was also caught up in the accident. Troopers believe that the truck carrying beef rear-ended a truck carrying a load of styrofoam cups on board, which in turn hit the car and tomato truck. The optimist in me looks at this and sees two thirds of a delicious hamburger (beef and smashed tomatoes, i.e. ketchup), but the sight off those sides of beef scattered across the highway is nearly as awesome. The cause of the accident, which occurred about 15 miles west of Boston, is unknown at this point. The one thing troopers are adamant about is that driver fatigue does not appear to be the cause. "I saw him coming behind me. No way I could get out of the road. He didn't even stop: the guy with the meat," the driver of the truck carrying the styrofoam cups said of the meat truck driver. "Ran into me, knocked me over this way, and I ran into the back of this." The accident actually proved quite beneficial to motorists who came through the toll plaza during the seven hours it took authorities to clean up the mess. Turnpike officials decided to wave most drivers through without requiring fares in order to keep traffic moving. The real loser in all of this was the beef, all of which was condemned by the state Board of Health even as front-end loaders were brought in to remove it from the road. Next time, if there’s going to be an accident causing a spill of a massive quantity of food products, let’s make it something disgusting and unappetizing, something that most of us hate anyhow, perhaps mayonnaise or sour cream………

- Never let it be said that Metallica doesn’t care about its fans. Well, it didn’t seem too concerned about them when Lars Ulrich was going in front of Congress, leading the charge to persecute and prosecute people who downloaded music for free from Napster, but at least in this instance the band is concerned with the well-being of one of its followers. On Oct. 17, Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington attended a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia. During the show, Harrington called her friends inside to say she was outside the arena and would find her own way home. She explained that she had gone to the restroom and somehow ended up outside John Paul Jones Arena on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville. Security wouldn’t allow her to re-enter the arena, so she apparently decided to head home. That’s the last anyone heard from her and the next day, her phone and purse were found in a parking lot near the arena. Friends and family say she never went anywhere without her phone, so finding it in the parking lot was a disturbing sign. In the week since her disappearance, those close to Harrington have been feverishly searching for her and now they are receiving help from Metallica. The famed rockers are participating in the search, adding $50,000 to the reward for information leading to Harrington’s whereabouts. Her parents, Dan and Gil (pronounced “Jill”) Harrington, have been keeping a high public profile to keep their daughter’s story in the public eye. They live about 35 miles from the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, so they’re not far away. The day of the concert, Morgan Harrington spent the day at home planning with her mother what she was going to wear to the show, so this was clearly something she was looking forward to. Lt. Joe Rader of the Virginia State Police wasn’t exactly a beacon of sunshine and hope when asked about Harrington, although you can’t exactly blame him. “We have a purse and we have a cell phone. We have a missing girl,” Rader cryptically stated. “We do not know whether if she is alive or has met some ill fate.” The FBI is working with the state police in the search for Williams, who is described as a5-foot-6, 120-pound blonde with blue eyes. All humor aside, I would encourage everyone out there in and around Virginia to keep an eye out and an ear open for anything that might help find Morgan Harrington……………

Isaiah v. Magic heats up, a Heroes recap and Nebrakans need to man up

- The story of former friends Magic Johnson and Isaiah Thomas turning into the Magic v. Isaiah hate-fest is both intriguing and disheartening. In case you missed it or simply aren’t a big NBA fan, Magic and Isaiah were basically best friends during the legendary, hall-of-fame careers to the point that during the 1988 NBA Finals, they greeted one another with a kiss on the cheek prior to every game. They had supposedly remained friends after their playing days ended – at least until last week, when excerpts from a book that Magic co-wrote with Larry Bird and author Jackie MacMullan, When the Game Was Ours, leaked. The quotes from the book alleged that among other things, Johnson believes that Thomas questioned his sexuality after Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991 and that Johnson, Michael Jordan and others banded together to have Thomas blackballed from the 1992 Olympic Dream Team. "Isiah killed his own chances when it came to the Olympics. Nobody on that team wanted to play with him. ... Michael didn't want to play with him. Scottie [Pippen] wanted no part of him. Bird wasn't pushing for him. Karl Malone didn't want him. Who was saying, 'We need this guy?' Nobody,'' Johnson is quoted as saying in the book. Those are pretty strong accusations and allegations to make against one of your best friends and Thomas was predictably hurt. "I'm really hurt, and I really feel taken advantage of for all these years,'' said Thomas. "I'm totally blindsided by this. Every time that I've seen Magic, he has been friendly with me. Whenever he came to a Knick game, he was standing in the tunnel [to the locker room] with me. He and [Knicks assistant coach] Herb [Williams] and I, we would go out to dinner in New York. I didn't know he felt this way.'' Right there is where I have a problem with Johnson, because whether the allegations are true or not, if he didn’t go directly to Thomas and confront him the instant he became aware of what Isaiah had supposedly done, then Johnson is at fault. A guy is your best friend in basketball and you hear that he’s going around questioning your sexuality so you decide a) not to ask him about it and b) tuck it in your back pocket, wait nearly two decades and then pull it out to help generate interest when you want to write a book (available at a retailer near you on Nov. 4!)? The kicker is that the book is supposed to be about the rivalry between Bird and Magic, yet it’s the blindside attack on Thomas that is receiving the most attention. Thomas correctly pointed out that Johnson should have dealt directly with him if there was a problem, saying, “I wish he would have had the courage to say this stuff to me face to face, as opposed to writing it in some damn book to sell and he can make money off it.” To be fair, MacMullen stated that she did attempt to contact Thomas six months ago for his comment on the allegations, but he declined through his publicist to speak with her. However, that was still nearly 20 years after the fact and an author calling him to clue him in to the fact that his former best friend was about to trash him in a book isn't the way Thomas should have found out about all of this. Of course, that’s assuming Thomas is being forthright in what he’s saying now. There is obviously the possibility that he knew all of what Johnson is alleging in the book years ago. If that’s the case, then Thomas is the one who is a disingenuous douche bag. The accusation that seems to have stung Thomas the most is that he was out there spreading rumors about Johnson’s sexuality after Magic contracted HIV. "What most people don't know is, before Magic had HIV, my brother had HIV,'' Thomas said. "My brother died of HIV, AIDS, drug abuse. So I knew way more about the disease, because I was living with it in my house. Magic acted and responded off some really bad information that he got. Whatever friendship we had, I thought it was bulls--- that he believed that. Let me put it to you this way: If he and I were such close friends, if I was questioning his sexuality, then I was questioning mine too. That's how idiotic it is.'' I wholeheartedly concur that someone is acting like an idiot here, but I don’t yet know if it’s Magic Johnson or Isaiah Thomas………..

- Tonight’s Heroes was all about being dark and dangerous – well, that and not having a ton of the show’s key characters on screen. But you already knew it would be that way because that’s how Heroes rolls these days. Rather than make you wait, here’s who wasn’t around this episode: Peter Petrelli, Angela Petrelli, Mohinder Suresh, Hiro Nakamura, Ando, Emma, Edgar and Micah. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, on to what remains. The forced lesbian tension between Claire Bennet and her roommate Gretchen continues, with both unable to sleep after Gretchen planted an unexpected (and forced, plot-wise) kiss on her roomie last episode. Neither of them could sleep and so at 4 a.m., they decided to stop trying to get to sleep and talk it out. Claire admits that she really just wants to live a normal life after all the craziness that she’s been through and that she values Gretchen very much as a friend. However, she stops short of saying that she would have no interest in being more than friends. The conversation is interrupted when Becky Taylor and sisters of Claire and Gretchen’s new sorority, Psi Alpha Chi, barge into the room to kidnap Claire and Gretchen to kick off Hell Week. The sisters toss their new recruits into the trunk of a car and speed off to an undisclosed location. Of course, that provides the show’s writers another chance to put the two girls together in an awkward lesbian moment (let’s just create an acronym and call them ALM, because I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of them going forward) and as they are face to face, body to body, they renew their conversation about being friends or more than friends. And just when it seems that there’s a chance for another lesbian kiss, the car stops and the ride is over. Gretchen and Claire are blindfolded and led into an old slaughterhouse along with two other pledges. The sisters leave them all behind after issuing a challenge: follow the clues, find a prize and you win the right to skip Hell Week. Claire and Gretchen are on one team, the two other pledges on another team. All four girls wander through the slaughterhouse and find a set of lockers with their next clue. Claire deciphers the clue, painted on the wall, and opens the correct locker door to reveal a bag with bottles of water for all four of them. From there, the girls split up and try to find the next clue. As Gretchen and Claire trek around, they continue their conversation and Gretchen reveals that she’s had both boyfriends and girlfriends previously, while she realizes that Claire is still a virgin. As they walk and talk, it becomes clear that someone is following them, as we can see from footprints in puddles of water on the floor behind them. Of course, those footprints are from Becky, who has the power of invisibility. Becky uses her power to sneak up and send a meat hook flying Gretchen’s way, but Claire dives over, pushes Gretchen out of the way and they tumble to the ground, ending up on top of one another in another ALM (told you). But they manage to get up off the floor without getting it on and continue chasing the next clue. That leads them to a prep room deep inside the building, where Claire suggests that this doesn’t seem to be any sort of hazing or challenge, but more like someone really does want to kill one of them – Gretchen. In spite of that, they manage to find the last of the clues and the prize. But by now, Claire has also figured out that someone else is following them and her suspicions are confirmed when a cable dangling from the ceiling wraps around Gretchen’s throat and begins choking her. Thinking quickly, Claire grabs a metal tool and slices the cord, freeing Grethcen. But then, invisible Becky throws Claire across the room, impaling her on a metal rod. Claire can heal from anything, of course, so she’s still able to grab a metal hook and sensing Becky behind her, she slashes Becky in the shoulder. Being wounded shakes Becky from her invisibility, but it also presents an impossible situation when the two other pledges hear the commotion and come running. They are stunned to see Becky there and even more stunned when she turns invisible again and flees from the room. The astonishment goes up another notch when they see Claire impaled on the metal rod, then see Gretchen free her and Claire instantly heal. “What are we gonna do now?” Gretchen asks. Good question, G. Another good question is what was the point of H.R.G.’s field trip to Cainan, Georgia. Sure, last week he went there to find Jeremy, a boy with the power to heal others and also the power to take life from them. Peter Petrelli took that power to go help Hiro, but H.R.G. stayed behind to help Jeremy. That didn’t happen, as his plan to rig the heater in Jeremy’s home to make the murder of Jeremy’s parents seem like an accident failed. The police took Jeremy into custody anyhow because he has a history of suspicious activity on account of his power. H.R.G. works to have him released by the sheriff refuses, saying he’ll only release the boy once his investigation is done and even then, only to the next of kin. H.R.G. puts in a call to his new friend Tracy Strauss, who comes to town posing as Jeremy’s aunt. That isn't even enough to get him released once the sheriff finds Jeremy’s backpack and notebooks full of writings about death and learns from other kids in town about Jeremy’s habit of killing animals. Tracy is forced to call in a favor from a high-ranking political friend to secure Jeremy’s release, but as her phone call ends, she’s confronted on the street by Samuel Sullivan. Samuel does his magic trick of somehow bringing his carnival of misfits to anyone, anywhere at any time and Tracy instantly finds herself walking around the Sullivan Bros. Carnival. Samuel pleads with her to bring Jeremy there and even to come join “the family herself.” It’s where they belong, he insists. Tracy isn't convinced and demands to go back, although some of Samuel’s words do seem to rattle her. He calls over Lydia to show her back to Cainan, but not before giving her the same spinning compass we saw him send Edgar to retrieve earlier this season. It will help her find her way back, he promises, as she’s been feeling lost of late. Back in Cainan, Tracy’s favor comes through and Jeremy is set to be released. H.R.G. and Tracy explain that he will move to Washington, D.C., live just down the hall from H.R.G. and have a new identity: Jared Mitchell. The plan stays intact for about five minutes. On the way out of the police station, a throng of cameras are waiting to get in Jeremy’s face and an angry man rushes up to him, telling him that he’s getting away with murder. Unable to control his power amidst all the chaos, Jeremy loses it and the man dies while grabbing him as the power to take life wins out over Jeremy’s power to heal. H.R.G yells that he can still fix it by healing the man, but shell-shocked Jeremy retreats back into the prison under the orders of the sheriff. He doesn’t last long there, as one of the sheriff’s deputies decides to take justice into his own hands. He kidnaps Jeremy, takes him out to a back street and after begging the boy to give him a reason to shoot him, the deputy instead ties him to a chain linked to the back of a pickup truck. One of the deputy’s friends speeds off, dragging Jeremy through the streets until he dies. Tracy and H.R.G. finds him the next morning, dead and mutilated in the middle of the street. A distraught Tracy laments how the situation went from her simply coming to sign Jeremy out of police custody and ended with his death. H.R.G. admits that he was wrong and that he failed Jeremy. Tracy is heartbroken, having forged a bond with Jeremy, and demands that H.R.G. never call her again. She asks H.R.G. if he believes that people with powers can still live freely and safely in the world and he admits that after today, he doesn’t. She gets into her car, pulls out Samuel’s compass and when it stops spinning and points in one direction, she begins to follow it. The third storyline of the episode centers on Matt Parkman and his battle to get Sylar out of his mind, where the über-bad guy still resides because Parkman used his mind control powers to force Nathan Petrelli’s memories and mind into Sylar’s body. Sylar continues to haunt Parkman and has even shown that he can assume control of Parkman’s body. In fact, he does so one night and controls Parkman’s body as he has sex with Janice, Matt’s wife. When it becomes clear that he’s not in control of his own body, Parkman sends Janice and their infant son away so he can figure out how to get rid of Sylar once and for all. Once Janice leaves, Matt calls Mohinder Suresh (finally), but that’s the extent of Mohinder’s involvement in the episode. We don’t see him on camera and the call goes straight to voicemail. Left to his own devices, Parkman stumbles upon a possible solution while downing a beer. He notices that with each sip, Sylar winces and is in more discomfort. Somehow, his getting drunk weakens Sylar and so Parkman pounds beers, shots and wine until a) he’s totally trashed and b) Sylar is weakened to the point where he literally begins to fade away. One final swill of wine makes him disappear completely and Parkman thinks he’s won. To his surprise, Janice is back and she’s brought a friend – one of his friends from the police force and the departmental support group he’s been attending as he has tried to stay “sober” from using his powers. Janice and this guy show up, but Parkman passes out as soon as they arrive. When he awakes, his friend from the sobriety group hands him a sobriety chip and tells him that he can start new from here, one day at a time. Parkman excuses himself to shower, but as he walks around the corner he turns into Sylar In the next room, Sylar/Parkman runs into the actual Parkman, whose body he has now taken over. Sylar explains that he’s now in control and he’s the one making the rules. With a diabolical laugh, he laws down the law. The episode ends back in Cainan, where Samuel has returned with one thought on his mind: revenge. He waits in the street outside the police station and once the deputy who killed Jeremy walks inside, Samuel uses his power to control the earth to collapse the entire police station, killing everyone inside. As the building crumbles, he turns and walks away from the hurricane of debris behind him, a look of purpose etched on his face. So that’s it until next time…………

- Prepare for health care in a tent, Nebraskans. With the flu and swine flu raging across the country, people are flocking to their local hospitals and health care providers at the slightest hint that they might be the tiniest bit sick. Never mind that you’ve had the flu a half dozen times in your life and felt exactly like you feel now; dammit, this is serious! Problem is, our nation’s health care system is not fully equipped to handle that sort of widespread panic. For an illustration of that, look no further than Nebraska, where hospitals are considering putting up tents to handle the swell of patents and urging anyone who feels flu-like symptoms but is not having complications or isn't part of a high-risk group to just stay home. "A test won't help them," said Lori Snyder-Sloan of Sloan/St. Elizabeth Medical Center. "They probably won't get medication unless they're in a high-risk group anyway. So there's no real advantage to coming to the hospital." Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy insists that hospital bed space is currently plentiful and the idea of tents or trailers is just a contingency. Not if your citizens continue to act like a bunch of fear-ridden hypochondriacs, Lt. Gov. Sheehy. Just listen to Cheryl Rourke of Bryan LGH East. "On average, (we see) anywhere from 30 to 60 additional patients a day," Rourke said. City health officials in Lincoln are among those saying they could be forced to set up flu tents or special clinics, which would likely be provided by Lancaster County Emergency Management Office. The LCEMO has heated decontamination tents and trailers that could be set up in parking lots, which could isolate sick people from regular emergency room traffic and screen out patients who really need help. I see that idea and it has merit, but setting up tents and trailers could also have an added benefit: keeping people home. If they know that they’re going to have to go to a tent or trailer set up outside in the often-chilly Nebraska fall/winter weather, maybe people will examine their condition more closely and decide that perhaps they aren’t so sick after all. Way to show what a bunch of panicky, overreacting wusses you are, America…………

- In the month’s leading up to last summer’s Olympics, it was public knowledge that China has something in the neighborhood of three-fourths of the spots locked up on the list of the world’s 20 most polluted cities. There was talk of visiting athletes wearing surgical masks to protect themselves against the toxic, smog-riddled air. With the reality of their air-quality problem still looming over them both literally and figuratively, the Chinese are going to work to clean up their air. They are taking these steps largely because of concerns that climate change could worsen the flooding that plagues the country's low-lying coastal regions, including Shanghai, and cause water shortages in western areas as glaciers in the Himalayas melt away. There are also economic benefits to be had, so of course a government is going to look to capitalize on those. China now views energy efficiency and renewable energy as ingredients for the type of modern economy it wants to build, in part because it would make the nation's energy sources more secure. "We think this is a new business for us, not a burden," said Gan Zhongxue, who left a job in the U.S. to head up research and development at ENN Group, the Langfang company that made its fortune as the primary natural gas distributor in 80 Chinese cities. At its sparkly new research center outside Beijing, about 250 engineers and researchers from the ENN Group are hard at work on a compound that includes a massive greenhouse, dozens of solar panels and chunks of earth, carved out of Inner Mongolia, that have been trucked (not exactly the most enviro-friendly endeavor, seems like harming the environment in order to find a way to help it) in to test for new methods of gasifying coal underground. All of this is well and good, but if I could speak to the Chinese government for a moment, just mano a government, I’d say this: How about getting around to imposing a ceiling on your emissions of the gases that most scientists blame for climate change? After all, you do produce the most carbon emissions in the world. China has some notable advantages in this quest, as on average, a Chinese person emits one-fifth as much greenhouse gas as an American. Also, the majority of Chinese don’t own cars and that gives them another leg up on more advanced countries. So far, the Chinese government has taken a few promising steps in its quest to stop f***ing over the environment, including the removal of subsidies for motor fuel and establishing a fuel-efficiency standard of 36.7 miles per gallon for new urban vehicles, a level the United States will not reach for seven years. It will certainly take a lot of work and a long time to make up for the incredible depth of damage that the Chinese have done over the years, but at least now they appear to give a crap. That’s a good start and a nice change……….

- It was inevitable. Any time Facebook or any social networking site with more than two users makes a change to its layout or format, you can bank on a certain segment of the user base reacting with outrage and anger to the changes. It happened last fall when Facebook changed its entire site design and for weeks on end, users created Facebook groups (using the medium you are hating on to organize against the same medium, that’s rich) denouncing the new Facebook and demanding that Mark Zuckerberg and Co. give them their old Facebook back. Now it’s happened again after Facebook launched a new version of its news feed on Friday, prompting the same sort of incensed reaction from users. For the uninitiated, the news feed is on the home page that Facebook users see when they first log into the site. The new design features a toggle view between a main view, featuring the top stories from their friends list based on their Facebooking habits, and a "live feed" featuring real-time updates from the whole network. "When the user wakes up in the morning, you go to Facebook and you see [the] news feed," product manager Peter Deng explained. "You see the stuff that you missed, the best of the previous day, to basically catch you up on what your friends have been up to." The revisions continue on efforts that began this spring, when Facebook tried to gravy train Twitter’s streaming setup by converting its home page news feed into a feed of live updates and relegated "highlights" to a small column on the right side of the page. The response was loud and hostile from users and Deng seems to believe that the new design will appease Facebook fans because it “responds to a lot of feedback along the way." Based on what I’ve seen so far……that’s not true. People hate these changes just as much as they’ve hated previous changes, no question about it. Facebook groups are being formed, status updates are being used to denounce the new live feed and I have yet to see a single message from anyone who likes it. In the new live feed, birthday and event alerts are more prominent, and stories that stopped appearing when Facebook launched the stream-inspired feed in the spring - relationship status news, photos added and tagged, etc. – are back. But fear not, Facebook users who want the look of your old home page back. To return to the way things used to be, simply click on the “More” link on the menu at the upper left of your home page, drag “Status Updates” to the top of the list and click on it. You’ll be back to your old home page appearance in no time and you can forget all about this ugly incident….until the next ill-advised Facebook overhaul, that is…………