- Nothing makes your political point more emphatically than destroying the studios of the nearest TV station. Storming the building and ransacking it is a profound way of declaring that you are angry, you are dangerous and you are powerful enough to attack a group of people with no military training, no advance warning of an attack and no means to defend themselves against such an attack. As such, big ups to the band of right-wing activists who ransacked an Indian television station in Mumbai on Friday. The attackers called the assault was an act of retaliation against the channel's "bias" against the veteran leader of their party. Observers labeled the attack on the IBN Lokmat as a result of militant politics in Maharashtra state, home to Mumbai. Only seven people have been arrested so far in conjunction with the attack, but 15 to 20 people more are expected to be taken into custody, said Rajkumar Vhatkar, a deputy commissioner of police in the city. They, along with those already apprehended, will be charged with assault, rioting and criminal trespass, among other counts. All of the suspects are members of the regional Shiv Sena party, which fights federal and state elections. The part has already confirmed that they are members, nor are they backing down from the attack. "We are not denying it. They were angry," said Sanjay Raut, a federal lawmaker from Shiv Sena. The incident seems to stem from a perceived insult by the TV station against the Shiv Sena party head, Bal Thackeray, a temperamental Maharashtrian leader. Don’t expect the attacks to abate any time soon, as they have been a staple of the Indian political scene for years and groups like Shiv Sena have targeted Bollywood films, Valentine's Day celebrations, non-Maharashtrians, and non-Hindus as means to make their point. I guess you could give this particular group of attackers credit for not killing or seriously injuring anyone during their mini-assault, I guess…….
- Overall, this was not a good Saturday for college football. That would be in large part because the two supposed elite SEC teams, the piece of sh*t cowards at Florida and Alabama, filled voids in their respective schedules with Div. 1-AA teams that didn’t belong on the same stadium. Rather than play a quality non-conference foe, Urban Meyer and confirmed liar Nick Saban pu**ied out and scheduled games against Florida Atlantic and Chattanooga, respectively. This is a whole other tangent, but my contention continues to be that NO Div. 1-A team should be allowed to play a Div. 1-AA team ever, for any reason. So rather than quality games against opponents capable of keeping it within four touchdowns, we were treated to 62-3 (Florida) and 45-0 (Alabama) curb-stompings. Personally, I’d deduct one win from each team’s record for such pathetic, weak scheduling. At the least, disqualify all players from Florida and Alabama from the Heisman race for this indefensible scheduling. Third-ranked Texas may have issued a beatdown of their own, but at least their rout was mandated by the Big 12 conference, which sent a troubled Kansas team to Austin for a 51-20 ass-kicking that should definitely make life easier for obese coach Mark Mangino. Easily the most impressive win by a top-five team was No. 4 TCU, which traveled to Laramie and pummeled a 5-5 Wyoming team, holding the Cowboys to less than 200 yards of total offense and allowing no offensive touchdowns. The Horned Frogs are showing week by week that they belong among the nation’s elite and I would absolutely love to see them take down the schedule pu**ies at Florida or Alabama in the BCS championship game. This was also rivalry weekend, meaning that it was time for Ohio State to once again grind Michigan into a hapless pile of dust. The final score was 21-10, with the outcome fueled by five freaking UM turnovers, all by freshman quarterback Tate Forcier. The loss drops Michigan to 5-7 on the season, eliminating them from bowl contention, handing coach Rich-er Fraud-riguez back-to-back losing season to start his tenure with the Wolverines, the first coach to accomplish that feat. OSU has now beaten Michigan six straight times, which is more than a little embarrassing for the maize and blue. Speaking of embarrassing….um, what the hell was that, Notre Dame? With coach Charlie Weis’ job on the line, the Irish were anything but Fighting and they were beaten at home in double-overtime by a Connecticut team that entered the game under the .500 mark and having not won in a month. The 33-30 defeat should put the final bullet in the head of Weis’ career at ND, paving the way for a coach who might actually have a clue how to turn the Irish into an elite program once again. A rivalry game that won't get a ton of attention because it’s a Div. 1-AA game is Harvard-Yale, i.e. The Game. Being played for the 127th time, the contest was a true classic at the Yale Bowl. The smart kids from Yale dominated the smart kids from Harvard for three-and-a-half quarters, building a 10-0 lead with a solid running game and a suffocating defense. However, Harvard hung tough and after a 41-yard touchdown pass from Collier Winters to Matt Luft with 6:46 left in the game, the Crimson climbed right back into the game. Yale basically handed them the win with just over three minutes left in the game. Facing a 4th and 22 at their own 25, the Bulldogs inexplicably elected to run a fake punt rather than an actual one. Predictably, the fake punt failed, gaining only 15 yards and handing the ball to Harvard at the Yale 40 with 3:14 left. From there, it took three plays for the Crimson to reach the end zone, accomplished on a 32-yard Winters-to-Chris Lorditch TD pass. Final score: Harvard 14, Yale 10 and a bunch of dejected Yalies left to drown their sorrows in cheap bear Saturday night. Joining them in their misery were the smart kids at Stanford, who saw their beloved Cardinal drop a 34-28 heartbreaker to archrival California despite four more touchdown runs from should-be Heisman Trophy winner Toby Gerheart. Stanford had a legit chance to win, but redshirt freshman quarterback Andrew Luck tossed a lethal interception with just over a minute remaining in the game to seal Stanford’s fate. I guess, looking back, it wasn’t that bad a day of football, thanks entirely to the non-elite and even non-D-1 teams who played exciting rivalry games and made me remember why I love college football. Thanks for that, guys……..
- It’s Ponzi scheme time, y’all! My general rule is that those not smart enough to avoid Ponzi schemes deserve to lose whatever they lose to the proprietors of these ridiculous, unbelievable scams. After weighing the following situation carefully, I’m going to uphold that rule here. Let’s meet Bill Chaucer of Ponchatoula, La., a financial investor who was arrested Thursday and charged him with 80 felony counts. The State Attorney General's Office Chaucer ran a Ponzi scheme and stole more than $11 million dollars from more than 200 investors. Most of the victims reside in Tangipahoa Parish, but others come from St. Tammany, New Orleans and Baton Rouge. "Chaucer had been in business for a number of years, without any complaints and something happened, where he was diverting this money he was raising, and this was, we believe, nothing more than a Ponzi scheme operated in the context of a finance business," Tangipahoa District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said. Perrilloux reiterated that Chaucer's investment business operated legally for years, then turned illegal. For those unfamiliar with Ponzi schemes, they basically lure investors in with the promise of ridiculously high returns, deliver those returns for an extremely temporary period of time (a month or so), long enough to sucker them in. The problem is that the profits are not really profits, but rather payments made from the money invested by those lured into the scam after the investor who is receiving payment. Chaucer used his profits from the scam to finance an extravagant lifestyle, including Mardi Gras krewe memberships, plastic surgery, jewelry and for his wife’s participation in senior beauty pageants. "Let me just put it to you this way," said Tangipahoa attorney Sam Dileo, "I've been to lots of parties in my life, even a party at the White House or two occasionally, I've never seen parties like this. Very expensive champagne, very expensive liquor. Everything monogrammed. Gifts when you went in, gifts when you went out." Hopefully that lifestyle was worth it, because Chaucer is now charged with 60 counts related to securities, which include unregistered sales and making misrepresentations, and 20 counts of felony theft. Those charges could result in more than 500 years in prison if Chaucer is convicted, albeit in a federal prison where he likely would not be incarcerated with what you’d consider hardcore criminals. The state, led by the Attorney General's Public Corruption Unit, will try to find and seize Chaucer's assets, but it is believed that he may not have much left at this point. "Unfortunately, in this case, as in a lot of the other cases the answer that you have at the end of the day is not a very happy, not a very happy ending," AGCPU director David Caldwell said. No, but as I said at the top, anyone dumb enough to be lured in by the absurd promises of a Ponzi scheme doesn’t really deserve a happy ending anyhow………
- Way to show your true colors, soccer fan. Nothing is more ingrained in the nature of soccer fans worldwide than acting like drunken, classless a-holes before, during and after matches, whether they are “friendlies” with other countries, league championship games or major international showdowns. Big ups to hundreds of angry soccer hooligans in Egypt who brawled with police near the Algerian Embassy in Cairo early Friday. The clashes resulted from tensions over Algeria's victory over Egypt in a World Cup qualifier soccer match and earlier fights between soccer fans in the North African countries. This was a fairly kick-ass riot, even by soccer standards. An estimated 39 security forces were injured in the riot and cars and stores were damaged in Zamalek, an island in Cairo on the Nile River. In the aftermath, officials flooded the area with truckloads of riot police and more than 1,000 security forces. Best of all, the outbreak of brawls between Egyptian and Algerian soccer fans also has led to a diplomatic row between the two North African countries, with Egypt recalling its ambassador to Algiers on Thursday. There is nothing more awesome than a bunch of drunk, idiotic soccer fans getting so out of control over a stupid game that they cause a major international incident. The recall of the Egyptian envoy to Algeria was done "for consultations," according to Husam Zaki, a spokesman for Egypt's Foreign Ministry. It came after an incident Thursday in which Algeria refused to allow an Egyptian plane to land. The aircraft was dispatched to evacuate Egyptian citizens from Algiers, where press reports said Egyptians have been harassed by Algerian fans. To kick things up another notch, the Algerian government decked Egyptian telecommunications giant Orascom with a nearly $600 million bill for alleged back taxes this week. All of this because Egyptian fans stoned the Algerian team's bus upon its arrival in Cairo and injured several players, are you freaking kidding me? Look, I know you all are a little too pumped up about the chance to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, but even for soccer fans this is a little ridiculous. Fights broke out after the Egyptian team's 2-0 victory in Saturday's match, then escalated even more following a Wednesday night playoff, which Algeria won 1-0. Thanks for showing us that while many things in this world are in a constant state of change, you, soccer fan, are, were and always will be totally ridiculous………
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