- 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………
No comments:
Post a Comment