- Thirty-five years is a heck of a long time to wait to get a stolen car back. Of course, if your ride was worth only a few hundred dollars when it was stolen and is now worth a tidy sum of $27,000, I’d say that’s worth the trouble. In 1974, a 1965 Volkswagen van was stolen in Spokane, Washington. The car wasn’t found at the time and a claim was filed with Allstate Insurance Company. Allstate paid the original owner for the loss decades ago. That means whoever the owner is, he or she won't be cashing in on this good fortune. That payment means Allstate owns the vehicle, which is now valued at about $27,000. It was found in pristine condition along with several vintage Volkswagens in a shipping container in the Los Angeles port last month. Customs agents found the stolen whips before they were shipped out of the country to be resold. The Arizona company that was shipping the van had no idea the vehicle was stolen from a Spokane auto shop in 1974. Customs and Border Protection agents routinely run vehicle identification numbers through the National Insurance Crime Bureau database for all vehicles being loaded on ships for export and stolen rides are recovered on a weekly basis, but typically not vintage vehicles stolen decades ago. Allstate says it hasn’t decided yet whether it will sell the van, but I don’t believe that for a second. Any chance to turn a profit and pad its bottom line is something an insurance company will jump at every day of the week. You’ll have to excuse me if I’m not thrilled at the financial good fortune of an insurance company; it’s against my nature…………
- This definitely is not going to help quell the boiling tensions in Honduras. President Manuel Zelaya, ousted in a military-backed coup over the summer, said yesterday that a U.S.-brokered deal to end the nation's four-month crisis had collapsed. Honduras’ presidential elections were slated for Nov. 29, but those are in serious doubt as the ousted leader called on his supporters to boycott them and instead take it to the streets once again to make their voices heard. Obviously I’m down with that just as I’m down with anyone at any time who wants to calls for riots and protests. However, I have to wonder if my man M. Zelaya is getting a little cabin fever, having been cooped up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa since September 21. His denouncement of the deal and the country’s interim leadership comes after de facto leader Roberto Micheletti formed a new "national unity" government without Zelaya’s participation last week “The accord now has no value," Zelaya fumed. He added that there was no point continuing with negotiations because "the agreements have been constantly violated." When asked if he planned to stay holed up in the Brazilian embassy until his term runs out on January 27, Zelaya wouldn’t say for certain. This cannot be a happy development for Secretary of State Hank Clinton, who had been celebrating last week's agreement as a triumph for democracy. "We urge both sides to act in the best interests of the Honduran people and return to the table immediately to reach agreement on the formation of a unity government," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington. "We're disappointed that both sides are not following the very clear path laid out." Under the terms of the deal, Zelaya and Micheletti's camps had until midnight Thursday to set up a reconciliation government to represent both sides. The deal did not stipulate that Zelaya must be reinstated, so clearly Micheletti took that as a hint and went ahead setting up a unity government without including Zelaya ministers. In response, Zelaya is digging in his heels, refusing to honor the agreement and denouncing the November presidential polls. "I'm not ready to legitimize a fraud ... nor to whitewash this coup," Zelaya said. In the meantime, Hondurans can likely expect a continuation of the brutal repression they’ve been subjected to ever since Micheletti and Co. seized control of their country. Voices of opposition will continue to be silenced, resistance will be met with excessive force and basic rights will continue to be trampled upon. Enjoy the festivities and do your best to stick it to The Man, Honduras……….
- Thank God that’s over. We are no longer forced to include the Iowa Hawkeyes among the supposed contender’s for college football’s national championship game even though they are clearly nowhere close to being in the class of the sport’s elite. Iowa has spent the season narrowly averting disaster against Div. 1-AA teams (two blocked field goals to preserve a one-point win over Northern Iowa, a four-point thriller against mighty Arkansas State) and pulling out last-minute rallies against bad or mediocre Big Ten opponents, doing just enough to remain unbeaten and thus theoretically in the national title hunt. But after today’s 17-10 loss to thoroughly pedestrian Northwestern, Iowa is dead and gone from the title picture. Thanks to four first-half turnovers and an injury to starting quarterback Ricky Stanzi, Iowa and its whiny fans can now shut up and go away. The real contenders are still alive, with top-ranked Florida (27-3 over lowly Vanderbilt) and No. 2 Texas (35-3 over non-conference foe Central Florida) ground out unimpressive-yet-efficient wins to stay unbeaten and on track for a BCS title game meeting. Of course, Florida now has an opponent for the SEC title game in Atlanta next month: No. 3 Alabama, which beat offensively inept, ninth-ranked LSU 24-15 to clinch the SEC West and set up a big-time matchup with the Gators in December. I am also thankful top see LSU pick up its second loss because of all of the ass clowns out there who were trying to argue that if the Tigers, with an incredibly bad offense and decent defense, beat Alabama, won the SEC West and beat Florida in the SEC championship game, they should get to play for the national title. Really? Having the nation’s 67th-best scoring offense and the 100th-ranked offense in terms of yards per game makes you that good? LSU was never national-title quality and this loss reinforces that fact. Meanwhile, Iowa is one loss from frittering away not only unwarranted national title hopes, but also its Big Ten title hopes and a shot at a BCS bowl. Look for that loss to come next week, when the Hawkeyes travel to Columbus to take on No. 16 Ohio State, which pummeled No. 11 Penn State in Happy Valley by a 24-7 count. And as usual for OSU, erratic quarterback Terrell Pryor completed less than half of his passes yet his team managed to win in spite of him. Perhaps the most impressive performance came from No. 6 TCU, which b*tch-slapped San Diego State 55-12 in exactly the type of performance that fellow aspiring BCS buster Boise State needs to start putting on if it harbors any real BCS hopes. TCU has the nation’s best defense and used it to throttle the Aztecs, while Boise State had the national stage to itself Friday night and had to battle to the bitter end for a road win against sub-.500 Louisiana Tech 45-35. The most exciting game of the weekend was Cincinnati, relying on the many talents of backup quarterback Zack Colleros, outlasting a game Connecticut team 47-45 to remain unbeaten and in position to inch up the BCS leaderboard as teams above them fall off one by one. The Bearcats hung more than 700 yards of total offense on UConn, yet had to hang on as the Huskies mounted a ridiculous fourth-quarter rally to close within two before falling shot on a two-point conversion to tie the game. A close runner-up for game of the weekend was the barn-burner between No. 15 Houston and Tulsa. Houston trailed 45-37 with less than a minute left before a touchdown pass from Heisman Trophy candidate Chase Keenum pulled them to within two at 45-43. Their two-point try failed, but the Cougars managed a miraculous onside kick recovery followed by two key passes by Keenum and a 51-yard Matt Hogan field goal to win and keep their Conference USA title hopes alive. The day was not nearly as pleasant for No. 22 Notre Dame, which was stunned at home by Navy, 23-21, the Fighting Irish’s second home loss to Navy in three years. That kills any BCS dreams for coach Charlie Weis’ squad and if Notre Dame doesn’t run the table in impressive fashion and win its bowl game by a wide margin, this could be the loss that load the gun, pulls the trigger and kills his career at Notre Dame for his critics. To cap this off, how’s about a look at the continued misery of two once-proud programs now floundering in the mud of college football mediocrity (or worse)? As much as Bobby Bowden likes to remain indignant and pretend that he can continue coaching at Florida State as long as he’d like, a 40-24 loss at Clemson to drop his Seminoles to 4-5, 2-4 in ACC play, is further evidence that he needs to turn in his whistle and go home for good. Michigan coach Rich-er Fraud-riguez should suffer a similar fate even though he’s only been at UM for two seasons and Bowden has led FSU for decades. After a 4-0 start that included a win in their first conference game, the Wolverines have gone a hearty 1-5, with their lone win in that stretch over D 1-AA Delaware State. Last week, they were pulverized by unranked Illinois 38-13 and this week, Rich-er’s team blew a 24-10 halftime lead to lose at home to Purdue for the first time since 1966, 38-36. I’m not someone who ranks or rates college football weekends with a star rating or letter grade, but overall this was a solid weekend of action and provided a lot of satisfaction and validation for me. Let’s go ahead and score it as a success…………
- Cue that freaky, yelping loser Chris Crocker, because he cannot be happy right now. Crocker is the girly-voiced freak who posted the infamous YouTube clip lashing out at those who mocked Spears after one of her forgettable lip-syncing performances (they all run together, but this one was MTV-related, I think), concluding with the knockout line, “You’re lucky she even performs for you BASTARDS! Leave Britney alone!” So I have to imagine that whatever rock he’s been hiding under, Crocker is working on a little something for the Australian government over its recent treatment of his hero. Just one show into her Australian tour (sorry Aussies!), Spears is in the crosshairs of controversy as the government weighs in on her lip-synching act that caused angry fans to storm out of Spears' first performance. Spears took to the stage at the Perth Burswood Dome and slogged through all of three songs before fans were so turned off by her pretending to sing to pre-recorded vocals and dance clumsily and off-beat that they exited en masse. Just a suggestion for the insane Ms. Spears, but if you are going to be the most blatant lip-syncer of all-time, maybe you don’t want to throw up massive video screens on stage to magnify the issue. Of course, making the video screens impossible for many fans to see because of their poor placement is a nice way to combat that problem. It does defeat the purpose of having the screens up to begin with, but you can’t win ‘em all. "We are really big Britney fans, but it was crap," fan Josh Blee. "I thought after the music awards she would make up for it with a wicked concert, but she has let us down." Josh, my man, I feel bad for you. Clearly you have no musical taste whatsoever and even horrible, lip-syncing MTV awards show performance wasn’t enough to clue you in to what an absolute hack job Spears is. You and your fellow Aussies ponied up anywhere between $183 and $1,378 to see this train wreck. Sure, it’s Spears' first tour of the continent, because just because it’s the first doesn’t mean you need to be part of the disaster. If the swine flu was making its first appearance in your town, would you buy a ticket to be exposed to it just so you could say you were there when it happened? And yes, I just compared Britney Spears’ music to the swine flu and if you ask me, I probably owe the swine flu an apology. As for the government’s involvement, the country’s leaders recently called calls for full disclosure from celebrities and especially musical artists. Virginia Judge, the minister for fair trading for the Australian state of New South Wales, announced this week that she was considering requiring artists such as Spears to include a disclaimer on tickets if parts of their show would be pre-taped. "It is Britney's 'prerogative' to lip-sync, and it is my job to make sure consumers know what they are paying for up front," Judge said in a statement. "Australians would not tolerate a 'Mickey Mouse performance.” Ouch. Judge just hit Spears with a Mickey Mouse blast and for that I am sorry….Mickey. This could all be solved if Spears would just go away and stay away, but of course she’s not smart enough to do that……….
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