The Pirate Mike Leach era ends at Texas Tech, Time Warner v. Fox Network and Canada's government gets a nice, long break

- The Mike Leach saga took another fascinating turn Wednesday, as Texas Tech its quirky football coach just two days after he was suspended by the school as it investigated his treatment of a player with a concussion. "I'm very sad to say there's only one person to blame for this and it's Mike Leach," Texas Tech chancellor Kent Hance stated. He was backed up by Jerry Turner, vice chairman of the university system's board of regents, who said "other things" came to light during an investigation of Leach's treatment of receiver Adam James. Leach was accused of sequestering Jones inside an equipment shed and electrical closet after the player was diagnosed with a concussion and could not practice with the rest of the team. The alleged incidents occurred on Dec. 17 and Dec. 19, as the Red Raiders were preparing for the Alamo Bowl against Michigan State. Leach was then suspended Monday and took the university to court, seeking an injunction allowing him to coach Saturday in the bowl game. Instead, the school handed a termination letter to Leach's attorney, Ted Liggett, minutes before the two sides were to appear in a Lubbock courtroom for a hearing on the coach's suspension. Liggett said Texas Tech general counsel Pat Campbell approached him outside the courtroom and told him that regardless of the outcome in the courtroom, Leach was done as Tech’s coach, effective immediately. Liggett then informed the judge that there was no need for the hearing and he instead went about issuing threats and promising to file a lawsuit on Leach's behalf against the school "soon." While speaking his best legal-ese and not giving anything up, Liggett declared, "We can guarantee that the fight has just begun." This is shaping up as a bitter battle, in no small part because of the financial aspects of the case. By firing Leach with cause, as the school is attempting to do, they would not have to pay any sort of severance on the 5-year, $12.7 million contract extension he signed earlier this year. Additionally, Leach was due an $800,000 bonus if he were still Tech’s head coach today. By firing him with cause, the school is also looking to get out from under the $400,000 per year it would have had to pony up for firing Leach any time during his new contract. If you believe the school, Leach’s firing came because he was defiant an uncooperative with the administration as it attempted to investigate his alleged mistreatment of Jones. Texas Tech's official statement said Leach's actions made it impossible for him to remain coach of the Red Raiders. "In a defiant act of insubordination, Coach Leach continually refused to cooperate in a meaningful way to help resolve the complaint. He also refused to obey a suspension order and instead sued Texas Tech University," the statement said. When Leach decided to take on the university in court "in defiance" of his suspension, that's why "we are where we are," Turner said. Leach released his own statement patting himself on the back for turning the program around, improving its graduation rate and doing an all-around great job. He then opened fire with his verbal AK-47, taking aim at the university and most everyone associated with its operations. "Over the past several months there have been individuals in the Texas Tech administration, Board of Regents and booster groups who have dealt in lies and continue to do so," the statement read. "These lies have led to my firing [Wednesday]. I steadfastly refuse to deal in any lies and am disappointed that I have not been afforded the opportunity for the truth to be known. Texas Tech's decision to deal in lies and fabricate a story which led to my firing includes, but is not limited by, the animosity remaining from last year's contract negotiations. I will not tolerate such retaliatory action. Additionally, we will pursue all available legal remedies.” The few Texas Tech players who have spoken out publicly since Leach’s firing don’t exactly sound broken up about the decision. . "I have no complaints about this decision. [Leach] put Adam [James] in a shed like an animal. Like an animal in a cage. That was bull," defensive lineman Chris Perry said. "You call other players. I think it was a good decision. We have our pep back now. We practice hard this week. We had less stress this week. You know why? Because he's gone." Yikes. Angry much, C.? But his comments don’t seem so harsh when you consider that wide receiver Tramain Swindall backed him up and said he supported the decision to fire Leach. "I do agree and I'm supporting Adam and what he's doing because it's the right thing to do," Swindall declared. "And so do most of the players. It wasn't just about Adam. It was always a negative vibe. To top it off, Taylor Charbonnet said: "The players make this team, not one coach. As Adam's friend, I didn't like it at all what [Leach] did. He was my brother and I didn't agree with it. I don't know why [Leach] did that. But I know we are fully behind [interim] coach Ruffin [McNeill]. We love him and support him." Guess these guys weren’t as down with Leach’s pirate-y ways and personality quirks like I was. Then again, I didn’t have to put up with him every single day like they did…………

- If you are a customer of Time Warner Cable and you enjoy watching any channels served up by Fox Network, this next story is one you’ll want to keep a close eye on. The two entertainment industry titans are throwing down over money – what else would it be? – and Fox refused Wednesday to agree to an offer by to enter arbitration with the Federal Communications Commission to resolve their ongoing fee dispute. These two have been locked in a battle to the death over how much Time Warner should pay News Corp. for the right to deliver Fox networks into its subscribers' homes. The deadline is the end of the day today and assuming that no last-minute miracle agreement is reached, all of the Fox-owned broadcast networks and some of its cable channels could disappear from some Time Warner Cable subscribers' televisions on New Year's Day. What a way to ring in the new year, with no anti-Obama, conservative-spin-job chicanery and hijinks on Fox News. The only way this turns out well is if this battle drags on long enough for viewers to be protected from having to witness the debacle that is American Karaoke when Ryan Seacrest and his merry band of ass clowns return…..well, whenever the world’s largest karaoke contest is scheduled to resume on Fox. A series of letters about the battle became public Wednesday, with Fox stating in its letter that the company believes "these discussions do not belong in the hands of a third party" and wants to negotiate face-to-face with Time Warner Cable. Time Warner’s own letter, dated Dec. 29, said explicitly that the cable giant would willingly submit to binding arbitration. Smack-dab in the middle of this mess is Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who wrote to both Time Warner Cable and News Corp., Fox's parent company, to urge the companies to resolve their disagreement and suggested arbitration. Looking to be the bigger “person” in this dispute, Time Warner Cable said that it would enter into an interim agreement with Fox to avoid any blackout, but Fox blew right past that offer without addressing it. Whereas a Fox Networks representative would not comment beyond what was in the letter, a Time Warner Cable spokeswoman said "we are willing to do what it takes to get the deal done, including arbitration." And as you’d expect, News Corp. is playing the role of prototypical corporate greed buckets. "We are simply seeking fair compensation for content that has helped fuel the ever increasing profit margins of the cable industry," News Corp. chief executive Chase Carey wrote in a letter to Kerry, who is the chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communication, Technology and the Internet. In other words, give us our damn money, as much of it as possible. The showdown boils down to News Corp.’s plan to charge Time Warner Cable $1 per subscriber for airing its broadcast station, Fox. In the past, providers have only had to pay that fee for cable networks and not for broadcast television. Fox has plenty cable channels -- FX, Speed, Fuel TV, Fox Reality, Fox Soccer and Fox Sports en Español – which fall under that heading. Time Warner isn't without blame here, even if they are attempting to portray themselves as fighting for the average guy and claiming that Fox is charging too much to renew the contract and that any cost increase would only hurt consumers. With no deal reached, Time Warner Cable's customers would lose access to programming like NFL Football, "House" and "American Karaoke." That anger could cause them to cancel their Time Warner subscriptions, which underscores the company’s own profit-driven motives as its key concern. Time Warner should know how to resolve this type of problem, as it faced a similar battle with Viacom last year but reached an agreement early on Jan. 1. Step it up and get a deal done, you guys……….

- Been missing a lot of self-important, moderately funny wannabe comedians living in a tricked-out house, fighting with one another and attempting to win over the losers desperate enough to watch a reality series about a bunch of self-important, moderately funny wannabe comedians living in a tricked-out house? If so, do I have good news for you! Sources at NBC confirm that the network is in talks to bring back Last Comic Standing, a show that ran for six seasons on the network. Better still, the show would return with out host Bill Bellamy, which is good because most any replacement host would be a considerable upgrade over that dude. Paul Telegdy, the brains behind NBC’s reality shows (assuming that any brain power is actually involved with reality television) wants to re-launch the franchise with a new host and some format changes as part of the network’s summer lineup. Hopefully one of those format changes is not having Carrot Top appear as a special guest on the show anymore, because while that freak is clearly ‘roided out of his mind and rocking an impressive physique these days, humor clearly is not his strong suit. Should Last Comic Standing make a comeback this summer, it would join Losing it with Jillian, featuring The Biggest Loser’s Jillian Michaels, as part of the Peacock’s lineup. As with the previous six installments of the series, the winner would receive a development contract with NBC. The show’s last run, fittingly enough, was during the summer of 2008, when it averaged 5.2 million viewers and a 7 share among adults 18-49. Perhaps that success as a summer show is what has Telegdy and his crew considering LSC for a comeback. Those ratings aren’t exactly earth-shaking, but the show does perform very well among adults 18-49 living in homes with $75K-plus and $100k-plus incomes. Why white-collar, upper-class people enjoy this show, I have no idea. Just goes to show you that having a lot of money doesn’t buy you good taste when it comes to entertainment choices…………

- Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper certainly does love creating the drama. For the second time in just over a year, Harper temporarily shut down Parliament on Wednesday. Members of opposition groups accused him of abusing parliamentary tradition for political gain, which is something I thought we here in America had established a monopoly on. Yanking the plug on an ongoing session of Parliament before starting a new one in March is not standard operating procedure in Canuck-land, so there is definitely cause for concern. Typically, only an established government several years into its reign takes this sort of step to reset Parliament’s legislative agenda, often as a to set itself up favorably for an impending election. The maneuver is a two-edged sword for Harper and his Conservative government, as it kills all legislation making its way through the parliamentary process, including bills they support. All parliamentary committees are shut down as well, which is convenient because one committee was busy digging into potentially embarrassing questions about the government’s policies on Afghans detained by Canadian troops before being turned over to the Afghan government. Several human rights groups and even a Canadian diplomat say the detainees were abused after being handed to the Afghans. Even though Harper’s government denies the allegations, many in and around the process aren’t buying what he’s selling. But there was the requisite canned explanation for the decision, delivered by Harper……in a prepared statement. “While we see tentative, early signs that the economy is emerging from recession, the recovery is still fragile,” he said. He went on to state that he shut down Parliament so that he could introduce a new economic plan in the spring. Harper did not explain why he shut the entire government down instead of introducing a new budget, but when the wise Stephen Harper speaks, I suppose you don’t question his genius. On the upside, this gives the government a chance to sit back and enjoy the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. They don’t have to worry about coming back from their break on Jan. 25 and can enjoy extra time off until March 3, when the new session begins. All in all, a very proud day for you, Canada. The American government may be inefficient, corrupt and ineffective, but at least no one person can simply shut it down on a whim, even if we’d like to do just that at times…………

- This time it really is true for car dealers: EVERYTHING MUST GO! INSANE DISCOUNTS THIS SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY (and pretty much every other day of the week). General Motors, it of the hefty government bailout and mild success resulting from it, are looking to put the final bullets in the forehead of its defunct Saturn and Pontiac brands. What better way to do that than to initiate a massive fire sale featuring large incentives offered to auto dealers to move Saturn and Pontiac vehicles? The resulting sales will drastically discount the cars' sticker prices, with a GM spokesman saying the automaker sent letters to dealers earlier this month detailing a plan to pay them $7,000 for each Saturn and Pontiac brand car they can get off their lots. The plan technically makes dealers the first owner of the cars in order to receive the incentives, then allowing the dealer to sell the "used" vehicles to customers at a steep discount. However, the deal expiries Jan. 4, so dealers MUST ACT SOON! TIME IS LIMITED, SO DON’T WAIT!! GM’s approach to the situation is certainly unique, as the company would have had to wait for buyers to come into the showroom and take the deal if it had offered the $7,000 as a customer incentive. By using the factory-to-dealer incentive plan, the company is able clear the inventory off its books right away. In other words, they dumped their pile of crap on the dealers and made it their responsibility to talk people into buying vehicles from discontinued lines. But I suppose these are the types of moves you make when you a) are the largest U.S. automaker and b) filed for bankruptcy and reorganized. I have talked to a few people who are sad to see Pontiac go, as cars like the Firebird were once staples of the muscle car scene. On the other hand, I have yet to hear from anyone who is sad to see Saturn go. The Saturn line was supposed to help GM gain market share on smaller, imported cars, but the lineup failed miserably at that (and every other) goal over the years and GM announced in October that the 2010 models would be Saturn's last. Only about 15,000 Saturn and Pontiac vehicles remain in inventory throughout the country, so selling them off isn't as monumental a task as it might seem. So if this sounds like your kind of deal, yo, get down to your local GM dealer ASAP and take one of these cars off their hands, er, um, get a super-great deal on an American-made car…………

Wasting time with surveys with obvious results, pissing off Pink Floyd fans and wildfires rage in Western Australia

- I hate it when “scientists” and researchers waste time and money conducting moronic polls designed to “expose” so-called truths that everyone with an IQ above 42 already knew and accepted as fact. You know, stupid sh*t like people like food that tastes better, hate being sick and are generally lazy. Conducting a poll on whether college football fans want to scrap the current Bowl Championship Series and replace it with a playoff system that's similar to college basketball falls directly under that heading. Yes, these Mensas surveyed of 1,849 adults, 948 of whom consider themselves to be very interested or somewhat interested in college football, and 63 percent of those polled favor getting rid of the current system, while 26 percent want to keep it. Aside from ordering immediate psychological and IQ testing for that 26 percent who want to keep the current system, this poll does nothing but inspire complete and total indifference for me. I knew that people hate the BCS system because it caters to a select few and inevitably dicks over the vast majority of college football fans. Unless you are a fan of a premier team in a power conference, you’re not getting a sniff of the national championship game – ever. The BCS is designed solely to make money for the schools and administrators of the six BCS conferences and it does a wonderful job of that – and only that. So what kind of idiot wastes time, effort and resources on this sort of poll? People like Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, that’s who. "College football fans are not in love with the current system in which two teams that play for the national championship are picked by computers, sportswriters and coaches," Brown said. "Settle the question on the field, voters say more than two-to-one." Thanks for that shocking revelation, Pete. When you and your colleagues released your great new national poll on Tuesday, it was a thorough waste of everyone’s time. Researchers also asked participants what solution they would favor in dealing with the menace that is the BCS and once again, the results were painfully predictable. While more fans may favor a playoff system, 48 percent believe it is a bad idea if federal lawmakers force college football to start a playoff system. So half of those surveyed don’t like the idea of government involvement in college athletics? Heck, half the country hates the idea of the government being involved in much of anything, so that’s no shocker. Of course, Congress doesn’t bother listening to the will of the public, so they are plowing ahead with anti-BCS legislation anyhow. Earlier this month, a House subcommittee approved legislation aimed at forcing college football to switch to a playoff system to determine its national champion. The bill would make it illegal for the criminals running the BCS to promote a national championship game "or make a similar representation," unless it results from a playoff. It will now go to the full committee, but temper your excitement because there is no Senate version of the bill. President Barack Obama is one record as saying there should be a playoff system, but how much do you trust a politician to live up to his word if given the chance? The poll that started this rant has a 2.3 percent margin of error, while questions asked of fans have a 3.2 percent margin of error. Do what you will with that…………

- Pink Floyd fans are not a difficult group to piss off. Most of them are old, they are cranky and they are of the firm belief that no good music has been made in the past 25 years. Having said that, it is no surprise that many die-hard Pink Floyd fans aren’t happy about a remake of one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, “Dark Side of the Moon,” by the Flaming Lips. For the musically clueless out there, the Flaming Lips are an awesome psychedelic alternative rock group whose music is alternatingly meandering, hard-rocking and bizarre. I’m certain that the Lips knew there would be a vitriolic reaction from Pink Floyd fans when they set out to remake “Dark Side of the Moon,” but they made it anyhow. They attempted to recreate the surreal, trippy vocals heard on the Pink Floyd record by bringing in Canadian electro-pop singer Peaches and singer and spoken-word artist Henry Rollins. The album hit stores Dec. 29, although the digital version has been available on iTunes since December 22. Almost the instnt the album dropped online, Pink Floyd fans flocked to the Flaming Lips' own Web site to express their outrage. They labeled the remake a “generic & a complete & total flop” and lamented its “Souless & underwhelming” nature. Bitter much, Pink Floyd fans? Most of you would hate a remake of any Floyd album even if it were compiled by the Stones, Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, AC/DC and Nirvana, featuring a suddenly-back-from-the-dead Kurt Cobain. These same disgruntled Floyd fans will probably not be buying tickets to the New Year’s Eve show featuring the Flaming Lips and Star Death and the White Dwarfs performing the album at the Cox Convention Center in their hometown of Oklahoma City. The album itself should come as no surprise; Pink Floyd covers have cropped up in Flaming Lips performances before. As long as it was a song or two at a festival show, Pink Floyd fans didn’t seem to mind. But attempting to make over the signature album from their favorite band is clearly a cause to riot – at least online. Having heard only bits and pieces of the album, I don’t have a huge beef with any of it. Of course, I’m not listening to it completely stoned out of my mind, which is the accepted way to listen to any Pink Floyd album. As such, my advice to Pink Floyd fans is to turn off the computer, back away from the screen and light up a fattie. It will relax you, we won't have to listen to your b*tching any more and we’ll all be happier……or at least calmer and mellower…………

- Never has a reality television show caused such a repulsive, “distance yourself at all costs” reaction quite like MTV's Jersey Shore. Within two weeks of its premiere episode, advertisers were jumping ship at breakneck pace and politicians and activist groups were openly condemning the show and demanding that MTV shut it down. At the heart of this outrage is Jersey Shore’s its stereotypical portrayal of Italian-Americans. To quickly recap, the show features eight self-proclaimed "guidos" and "guidettes" during their summer stay in Seaside Heights, N.J. These are completely self-absorbed, appearance-obsessed idiots who do things like naming their pectoral muscles. Two episodes were enough for three advertisers - Domino's, American Family League and Dell – to pull out. Condemnation came raining down from UNICO, the largest Italian-American organization in the U.S., the New Jersey Italian American Legislative Caucus and other state legislators. But up to this week, we had not heard from anyone directly involved with the show or the town in which it is set. Consider that problem rectified, as the Borough of Seaside Heights, N.J. is distancing itself from Jersey Shore as much as possible. .
"The governing body wants it to be known that they did not solicit, promote or participate in the filming of this show," John Camera, borough administrator, said in a statement. "The production company that filmed the show did obtain a shoot permit to film in Seaside Heights, but these permits must be issued as it is a first amendment right to film in public places. Furthermore, the Borough does not condone any discriminatory remarks against Italian Americans, domestic violence or the promiscuous and otherwise bad behavior portrayed on the show." Camera added that the behavior portrayed on the show is "not indicative" of the majority of its residents. What, you mean all the locals aren’t like The Situation (the dude who named his pecs)? And of course, the show continues to draw strong ratings (2.5 million for the most recent episode), meaning MTV is not inclined to cancel it any time soon……….

- As someone who is not big on New Year’s resolutions and other end-of-the-year gimmicks, I was not part of during the third annual Good Riddance Day this week in Times Square -- the unofficial holiday on which tools lamely attempt to rid themselves of the ending year's setbacks and prepare for a better future. "We decided that people should have time to get over any regrets before New Year's Eve, so a day like this makes sense," said Lori Raimondo, the vice president of marketing for the Times Square Alliance and creator of the event. "We hope one day it becomes a national holiday.” And I hope someone punches you in the face every day for the next 20 years, Raimondo, but I doubt either of those things happen. As I said, year-ending gimmicks are lame to the core. So someone decided that our year begins on January 1 and ends on December 31? That’s pretty freaking arbitrary. It could just as easily be April 1 and March 31. So why wait until the artificial end of the year to make resolutions and changes? Sounds phenomenally stupid to me. Yet there were hundreds of locals and tourists, flocking to Times Square on Monday. These idiots were handed black markers and white sheets of paper emblazoned with "I want to say good riddance to," and asked to write down their problems. Some of these people came prepares with old credit card bills or pictures of fizzled out flames. Everyone threw the sheets and papers and photos into an industrial-size paper shredder to symbolize a cleansing of their life and the possibility of a better new year. "There's something about writing problems down and releasing them," said Rama Mandel from the Bronx. "There's a freedom you feel that just puts you beyond the things holding you back." The event pumped up its attendance by the usual means - Facebook and Twitter alerts. And to think that I considered all of the people who jammed into Times Square on New Year’s Eve to attend the celebration hosted by that teeth-bleaching, man-blouse-wearing ass clown Ryan Seacrest were idiots………

- Life in Western Australia is not good right now. Officials there declared a natural disaster Wednesday after bushfires roared across the state, destroying more than 30 homes. No official cause has been determined, but authorities suspect that downed power lines may by to blame. The most-damaging outbreak to property was around Toodyay – about 46 miles northeast of the capital, Perth. Nearly 11 square miles burned in the blaze and 37 homes lost. "I can say that the fire has started in the vicinity of power infrastructure," Fire and Emergency Services Authority spokesman Craig Hynes explained. As the fires spread, authorities had issued a handful of warnings across the state by Wednesday afternoon. People in Coolgardie, Wiluna and Laverton were all issued warnings, with the fire danger listed as potentially catastrophic in some areas. : "This is a sad and tragic event for many families. The state government is doing what it can to fight the fire and help people who have lost property. There are hundreds of firefighters, volunteer firefighters, police and staff of the shire of Toodyay who are doing an excellent job of protecting the community and facing harsh and difficult conditions," said Colin Barnett, premier of Western Australia. Residents of Toodyay reported difficulty breathing, burning eyes and an inability to see as black smoke came rolling in. Over in Badgingarra, 38 square miles of bush went up in flames. No homes were lost there, but damage was estimated to be in the millions of dollars. Not a good way to finish out the year, but hopefully no lives will be lost in these fires and those affected by them will be able to start the rebuilding process as soon as possible…………

Conspiracy theory fun, trouble for everyone's favorite pirate-loving football coach and Tyra Banks is finally going away

- What’s better than a conspiracy theory? An international conspiracy theory, of course. I loves me some conspiracy theory action and when you have two international heavyweights like Iran and Russia squaring off and throwing accusations back and forth, you’ve got a surefire recipe for fun. As you probably know from reading this space, there are currently anti-government protests raging in Iran. That is nothing new, but what is new is Iran accusing Russian of being was involved “in the internal political processes in Iran.” I’m not sure exactly what Iran is alleging, but it really doesn’t matter. They are being besieged with riots from their own people and they’re looking to deflect blame on someone else – for once, someone that isn't the United States to boot. No sooner did those allegations come flying out of Tehran than the Russian Foreign Ministry fired back by steadfastly declaring that Russia is not meddling in Iran's internal affairs. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Monday denying the allegations and taking a politically correct tact. “We believe the most important thing in such a situation is to show restraint, and seek a compromise on the basis of the law, and also to take political efforts to prevent a further escalation of the confrontation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry statement said. “We are convinced that this is the work of those opposed to Russian-Iranian cooperation.” Not that I’m taking sides here, but I should point out that Sunday’s riots took place during the Shia Muslim ceremonies for Ashura, which is the anniversary of the martyrdom of the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Imam Hussein (PBUH). Oh, and there’s that whole matter of the election a few months ago that your totalitarian dictator rigged, so people may also be upset about that. Blaming other countires for inciting your riots is wrong for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that when you are fortunate enough to have riots break out, you need to enjoy them and not focus on dishing out blame. I may make an exception in this case because you may be sparking a major international controversy with your bizarre conspiracy theory involving Russia, but don’t make a habit of doing this, Iran. If Russia says it had nothing to do with your riots, I’m going to agree with the Communists and leave it at that……….

- I certainly hope that what’s being alleged of Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach isn't true. I say that not just because I have always been a big fan of the kooky Leach, a man so enamored with pirates that he has a talking animatronic pirate in his office and has his parking space painted up in pirate fashion. Nor am I hoping it’s untrue because he hosts his own local radio show on which he once dispensed dating advice for a Tech student and said during an interview for another radio show that a car wash with a Mexican restaurant in Southern California was a great place for a first date. No, I’m mostly hoping the allegations aren’t true because they are so freaking offense. Basically, Leach is accused of twice forcing receiver Adam James, who was unable to practice because of a concussion at the time, to stand in a small, dark place for hours while the team practiced. A source speaking on the condition of anonymity said that James was injured Dec. 16 and the next day was diagnosed with a concussion by team doctors. This source claimed that James was sequestered at two consecutive practices, the first coming on Dec. 17, when James said Leach told trainers to put him "the darkest place you can find." He was sent to an equipment shed near the practice field, where a member of the athletic staff checked on James to make sure he did not lean against anything or sit on the floor. James alleged that Leach told him that if he came out he would be kicked off the team. Two days later, the team returned to practice and James said Leach told trainers to "find the tightest, darkest place" for him. James, in his street clothes, was put in an electrical closet inside the football stadium for hours, again monitored by a member of the athletic staff. And if you became sick to your stomach reading those past couple sentences, know that you’re not alone. If true, they are a revolting, vile example of an egomaniacal coach taking the notion of discipline to a disturbing extreme. It’s one thing to make a guy run until he pukes or do sit-ups until he’s so sore he can’t even move. Taking a guy who had just suffered a concussion and subjecting him to that sort of torture is inhumane and insensitive. Leach has been suspended while the school investigates the allegations and will not coach when Texas Tech plays Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl on Jan. 2. James is the son of former NFL player Craig James, now a television sports analyst for ESPN. Following the second practice incident, the James family contacted the university. They also issued a statement Monday saying their "son had been subjected to actions and treatment not consistent with common sense rules for safety and health." Through his attorney, Ted Liggett, Leach disputed the account. Liggett attempted to pain Adam James as “a disgruntled student athlete that like many were not happy with their playing time.” He went on to contradict James’ story, saying that the player "was placed in an equipment room as it was much cooler and darker" than the practice field. On the day of the second incident, Liggett said James was placed in a "press room with air conditioning and a stationary bike he could use." Those are wildly different stories than James is telling, so clearly someone is lying. This can't be one of those situations where something happened and two people involved tell somewhat divergent tales of what went down. Either James or Leach is outright lying and either one should be in deep sh*t if they are proven to be the liar. It’s been a difficult season for Texas Tech, as Leach berated players after a loss to Texas A&M in October for listening to "their fat little girlfriends," and thinking the Aggies were a pushover. The coach also banned his players from having Twitter pages in September after linebacker Marlon Williams posted a tweet that asked why he was still in a meeting room when "the head coach can't even be on time." This isn't how most coaches celebrate signing a five-year, $12.7 million deal, as Leach did in February, but whatev. A final bit of delicious irony came when Craig James was originally scheduled to announce the Alamo Bowl for ESPN. He has since been switched to a different bowl game, but that would have made for one awkward broadcast. While Leach is suspended, defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill will be the interim coach. McNeill confirmed that Leach arrived with the team in San Antonio and that Adam James also was with the team, but not practicing. All in all, just an ugly situation that is probably going to get uglier before anything is resolved…………

- The world of daytime talk shows has taken another hit, but once again it’s a good thing, not a bad thing. Just a few weeks after Oprah Winfrey announced that she will end her talk show in 2011, the ever-expanding, IQ-limited, loud-mouthed Tyra Banks has decided to end her oft-bizarre, typically inappropriate talk show, 'The Tyra Show,' next year. Banks is on television far too much, as she also hosts helms 'America's Next Top Model' and 'True Beauty', so this decision is a good one for a lot of reasons. Don’t confuse Banks providing plenty of easy jokes for other TV talk and commentary shows because she’s loud, emotionally unstable and convenient target with her show being good. The woman has an emotional meltdown because unflattering pictures of her sporting quite a few extra pounds she’s pakced on since her modeling days pop up online. Her shows often featured Banks talking right over guests, trying to bring every interview and conversation back to her own agenda and the host making ridiculous, indefensible comments that neither made sense nor informed anyone. But to be fair to Tyra, let’s give her a chance to speak about her decision. "This will be the last season of The Tyra Show," Banks said. "I've been loving having fun, coming into your living rooms, bedrooms, hair salons for the past 5 years. My next huge steps will allow me to reach more women and young girls to help us all feel as fierce as we truly are." How humble of you, T. Your next “huge steps” are going to reach many more women and girls? Bad news for you, girl, but you haven’t done that up to this point, so why start now? Again, you becoming a punchline and a source of laughs for the world at large doesn’t mean you’re changing the world. The next girl or woman I meet who says her life was changed or revolutionized by a Tyra Banks television show will be the first. The final episode of “The Tyra Show” will air in the spring, after which Banks will focus her attention on the launch of Bankable Studios, a production company that aims to get positive images of women to the big screen. What makes this announcement even more comical is the fact that Banks was allegedly strengthened to make her decision by seeing Oprah make hers. Like it took a huge amount of courage for Banks, who is filthy rich, to announce that she was leaving her talk show and will now only have two shows on the air. Thanks for that inspiration, T………….

- There is apparently a serious fire starter in Northampton, Massachusetts, and local officials are scrambling to figure out who this individual is before he or she strikes again. Local and state authorities in are investigating nine suspicious fires that have killed two people and left residents of Northampton badly shaken. The climax of the fires came in a one-hour period Sunday, when five structures -- including a single-family residence -- burned, in addition to "numerous cars." District Attorney Betsy Scheibel held a news conference that included fire and police officials and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, but very few answers were forthcoming. This is truly a tragic story, as two people were found dead on the first floor of a residence that burned down. Identities of the victims are being withheld pending autopsy results, but this is a terribly sad story no matter who those people were. "We know this community is deeply shaken by this series of suspicious fires," Patrick said. "I want the public to know that every resource at the local [and] at the state level is being applied to deal with this to bring comfort and safety to the community.” The five Sunday fires were reported between 2 a.m. and 3:15 a.m., which is obviously one of the worst possible times for a fire to occur because most people are asleep at that time. Of course, that also makes it an ideal time for a homicidal pyromaniac to go around torching buildings. A joint task force of local, state and federal fire officials has been formed to investigate the circumstances under which the fires started, but once again, there are no substantial leads and from where we now stand, it looks like a tough search is ahead. There will undoubtedly be a lot of clues and evidence to sift through from these nine fires and investigators will look for common threads among them in order to tie them together or determine that they are not related. In the mean time, here’s hoping that no one else in Northampton is injured or killed by this lunatic who is going around turning buildings into burning infernos………….

- Tech dorks, have you been anxiously awaiting the release of Mozilla’s Firefox 3.6 update and its major update, version 4.0? Prepare to wait a little longer. Mozilla admitted Monday that it won't make a 2009 deadline for releasing and is giving itself more time to complete version 4.0 as well. The organization behind the open-source Web browser had predicted a final release of Firefox 3.6 this month, but the Mozilla Web site now includes "ship Firefox 3.6" as a goal for the first quarter of 2010. That’s nothing compared to Firefox 4.0, which had been due in 2010, but now is "aimed at late 2010 or early 2011." For the early adopters among you, there should be a beta version of Firefox 4.0 to test out in the summer of 2010, according to Mozilla. A delayed release date is nothing new for software, but with other browsers popping up like weeds and Google looking to seize market share with its new Chrome browser and operating system, this delay could be costly. Apple’s Safari is also pushing Firefox, as is Opera and even those incompetent tools at Microsoft attempting to improve Internet Explorer. "We've always been more quality-driven than time-driven, but we understand timing in the market matters to our users and our competitiveness," said Mike Shaver, Mozilla's vice president of engineering. Anticipation for version 3.6 is high because it will supposedly incorporate the Personas plug-in that lets people easily customize the browser's appearance. That’s the one I am particularly interested in, although the upgraded version is also supposed to speed up the browser's launch time and improve security. Up to this point, Mozilla has released five beta versions of Firefox 3.6, but that doesn’t mean a release is coming any time soon. All the organization will say is that its programmers are "done with all blockers," bugs or other problems that stand in the way of a release. One issue I see with all of this is that the majority of the upgrades in versions 3.6 and 3.7 are only is for Windows and Linux, not Mac OS X. That’s a problem because for those of us smart enough to no longer use a PC, there won't be a huge benefit. As for version 4.0, expect some significant user interface changes. Rumors had Mozilla mimicking some of Chrome's design, with tabs across the top of the browser and a location bar below and a menu bar replaced by some drop-down menu buttons that take up less room. That idiotic design of tabs at the top of the browser window was also in the beat version of Safari 4, but Apple had the good sense to change that and hopefully Mozilla will also. Who knows where this will end up and what other changes Firefox 4.0 will undergo before its release? All I know is that I’m sticking with Safari and that’s fine with me…………

Rich, disgruntled athletes, riot-blockers in Egypt and more BlackBerry outages - good times

- Welcome to the disgruntled athlete portion of our day, where we bring you the tales of two extremely well-paid athletes receiving incredibly bloated salaries and still managing to find reasons to be unhappy with their respective teams. First, let’s check in with Washington Redskins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, who signed a seven-year, $100 million contract with Washington during the offseason and has been injured or ineffective for nearly the entire season. Even as he’s battling back from his latest injury setback and his team is stumbling through a four-win season, Haynesworth isn't exactly focused on being a solid teammate and on-field contributor. Instead, he’s lashing out at his team's defensive game planning and the coordinator who oversees it. Haynesworth fumed that that he couldn't "survive another season in this system if it stays the way it is." Apparently $41 million in guaranteed money doesn’t make a person happy like it used to, because Haynesworth sounds pissed. . "If they keep this system the way it is, then they would label Albert Haynesworth a bust who didn't live up to the contract," Haynesworth stated. "Everybody would say he just took the money and ran off. And I'm still playing as hard as I possibly can. But you can only do so much within the system that's put around you. The players have been great. I couldn't ask for any better guys. I'm talking about the system. And [the coaches] can say whatever they want about that [the reason he was sent home Friday]. The main thing it's coming from is what I said after the game about leadership and about the team." For some odd reason head coach (for now) Jim Zorn wasn’t down with Haynesworth’s comments and sent the mountainous defensive tackle home Friday for what the coach called “disciplinary reasons.” What? Just because dude threw defensive coordinator Greg Blache right under the bus doesn’t mean you have discipline problems…..right? Maybe Zorn was referring to the fact that on Thursday, Haynesworth was fined $10,000 by the NFL for an altercation with Giants running back Brandon Jacobs late in New York's 45-12 victory at Washington on last Monday night. Actions like this aren’t going to help Haynesworth’s paranoid beliefs that the coaching staff is out to get him. "They're all against me or whatever," Haynesworth declared. "But I know what I'm saying is right because I've been in a scheme that works." I have to believe that this is not what the Redskins had in mind when they battled several other teams to sign Haynesworth during the offseason. Not were they expecting him to make little to no impact on a defense that is ranked right in the middle of the pack statistically, which is what he has done. But ol’ Albert isn't alone, because he has his pal (not really) Tracy McGrady of the Houston Rockets to keep him company in his discontent. McGrady is making a comeback from microfracture knee surgery after missing all of last season and despite him having has the highest salary ($23.2 million) of any player in the NBA, the Rockets don’t seem very eager to get him back out on the court so he can at least attempt to earn some of that money. After returning to the court a couple weeks ago, having missed the first month-plus of this season in addition to sitting out last year, McGrady played short stints of 7 or 8 minutes in each of Houston's next six games, then asked that his workload be increased. Coach Rick Adelman informed him that despite his request, his playing time would not increase. T-Mac didn’t take that well and with the team’s permission, he left them on their current road trip and returned home. The team stated that the situation will be addressed this week as it returns to Houston following from a back-to-back set against New Jersey and Cleveland. "That's what I'm trying to figure out: Where do we go, and still keeping the rest of the guys moving forward?" Adelman said. "It's kind of a balancing act in trying to figure it all out, and I do not have the magic answer. I wish I did.” Exacerbating McGrady’s concerns is undoubtedly the fact that he is in the final year of his contract and wants to prove that he can still play at an elite level. If nothing else, other teams expected the Rockers to showcase McGrady for a possible trade. So I can see where he would be frustrated, both from the standpoint of wanting to play for the sake of competition and also the chance for another team to see where he’s at health- and skill-wise in advance of a possible trade. "I'm a player, man," McGrady said. "I don't make these decisions. I just abide by whatever they bring to me. That's the plan. I'm not going to argue and fight with them -- just run with it. I felt it was time [to increase the routine of playing seven to eight first-half minutes].” As for the team’s point of view……I don’t know if they are merely being cautious with McGrady or if they worry that taking playing time away from other guys to boost his minutes would negatively impact the chemistry of the team, which is 18-13 and in seventh place in the Western Conference. What I do know is that the two sides need to figure out something quickly because this is an ugly situation that isn't going to improve until someone takes action. So there you have it, two disgruntled, high-priced athletes who just can’t get happy despite their fat bank accounts…………

- It may not have been the top earner heading into the weekend, but James Cameron’s Avatar ($75 million) rallied well to edge out newcomer Sherlock Holmes (no. 2, $65.4 million) for the top spot on the first of two straight holiday weekends. In third place was another new release, the animated Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, with $50.2 million. There was a sizeable drop-off to the fourth-place finisher, It’s Complicated ($22.1 million), which earned about $22.2 million more than it should have. Up in the Air ($11.8 million) rounded out the top five by adding 1,720 new theaters to its limited release, giving moviegoers nationwide a chance to see if the Oscar buzz for George Clooney and crew is actually justified. The weekend was not so kind to musical Nine, which proved once again that people are never as excited about the chance to see characters break into song constantly and communicate solely through singing as everyone would like to believe. Nine brought in a mere $5.5 million, which is less than expected by most observers. Its $3,926 per-site average is pedestrian at best, so keep an eye on this one to see if it continues to disappoint in the weeks ahead. Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus also debuted over the weekend in limited release and was solid, posting $130,000 at four sites. Overall, Christmas Day was the single best day in the history of the box office. The weekend’s largely unimpressive slate of movies racked up a record-setting $278 million overall haul, which is typically indicative of people not having anything else to do rather than the actual quality of the movies they are going to see. Still, congrats on your big day, Hollywood, now see if you can’t use that financial windfall to churn out a few movies that don’t totally suck………

- Have you ever asked yourself where young male deer do their grocery shopping? I can't say as this is true everywhere in the country, but in Pinellas County, Fla., the answer appears to be the Publix in Palm Harbor. According to reports, the deer made its way into the Publix at 500 E. Lake Road after running into a glass door of a nearby shop. "I was headed to the check out and I was right by the front door. And all the sudden I like got knocked into and something stepped on my foot," said shopper Caroline Harned. "And there was this deer that was like running by me slid and fell down." Perahps the deer heard about a great special on canned green beans and cereal and just couldn’t wait to get inside, I don’t know. Now some would have you believe that this deer, a male estimated to be about one year old, merely made a wrong turn on that sun-drenched Wednesday afternoon and ended up in the wrong place. I’m going with my explanation of the scene, but the most important thing is that after bumping into the glass door and browsing the aisles of the Publix, the deer was finally subdued by Publix staff and when sheriff’s deputies arrived, they blindfolded the deer to keep it calm. They then secured the animal's legs with duct tape in a move that surely will anger those freaks at PETA. Utimately, no one was injured and the Suncoast Animal League picked the animal up from the store. It was examined and released into Brooker Creek Preserve, where it likely came from. The only battle scar the deer incurred from its brush with the civilized world was a possible concussion, although Rick Chaboudy of the Suncoast Animal League theorized that the deer may have been hit by a car. "Hopefully, a good night's sleep and come tomorrow morning he's up and around and he remembers he's a deer," Chaboudy said. And hopefully he tells all his deer friends about the great deals they have down at the local Publix…………

- I have a real problem with you, Egyptian authorities, and we’re going to throw down right here, right now. You should not be banning hundreds of protesters from traveling across the Sinai Desert to the Gaza Strip to join in on the protesting goodness currently going on there. About 1,300 international activists are currently stuck in Cairo, riot-blocked by Egyptian authorities. The activists are still hoping to march to and through the Egyptian border with Gaza for a protest against Israel's ongoing blockade of the tiny enclave. But these hearty social dissidents aren’t taking their detainment lying down; many of them have also begun a hunger strike as part of their protest. This week marks the one-year anniversary of the date when Israel began bombing Gaza, a war it says was justified to stop the launch of missiles by Palestinian militants into southern Israel. I am absolutely not commenting on the bombings, their legitimacy or the war raging between Israel and Palestine. That’s a powder keg of emotions, politics and rage with so many layers and nuances that no one fully understands and appreciates it unless they are a part of it. However, what I can get with and support fully is the right of these 1,300 activists to march across the barren wasteland that is most of Egypt, cross the Sinai Desert and join in on the protests going on in the Gaza Strip. Stop detaining the people when it’s not even your country they want to demonstrate in, let them go free and allow them to get their inner social dissident on. I don’t think it’s asking all that much and it’s time for these Egyptian officials to step their game up…………

- How are you enjoying the BlackBerry that is perpetually affixed to your ear or hand, millions of RIM Blackberry users worldwide? Twice in the last week, you’ve suffered through complete email and text service outages. On two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, complaints flew fast and furious in all directions from frustrated CrackBerry users, who were unable to use their prized RIM smartphones. For people who are as dependent on their smartphones (and as addicted to them) as anyone in the world, it had to be a tough stretch for the BlackBerry users out there. he service losses began around 1:45 pm Eastern time on Tuesday, got worse around 6:30 pm and were getting better by around 11:30 p.m. However, service wasn’t fully restored until Wednesday afternoon, Canadian company Research in Motion, manufacturers of the Blackberry devices, explained. The cause of the outages seems to be a system-wide software upgrade, according to Research In Motion. Personally, as one of the five people in America without a cell phone, I had a lot of fun listening to the b*tching and complaining from all my friends with BlackBerries who were unable to either send or receive e-mails and instant messages. How they survived only being able to use their BlackBerries for phone calls, I will never know. In true big-business fashion, RIM would not disclose exactly how many subscribers were affected. Compounding users’ woes was the fact that this outage came on the heels of a similar problem last Thursday and these two service outages come after several similar outages earlier in the year. For a phone that has built its image on being reliable and consistent, these outages certainly aren’t helping matters. On top of that, RIM has built its company largely in the smartphone market and seeing its market share there diminish because users can't rely on consistent service would be a huge hit. The iPhone and Android are both making headway in the market and I can't remember anyone talking about the reliability of service for those two devices, at least not to the extent that there have been problems with BlackBerry. Step it up, RIM, or users could soon be stepping out on you in favor of an iPhone or Droid………

Acetaminophen has a new use, a first in college football and China continues its world takeover

- Acetaminophen: It’s not just for headaches anymore. Researchers at the University of Kentucky have discovered that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, may not only ease physical pain, but the pain of social rejection as well. According to Psychologist C. Nathan DeWall, physical and social pain appear to overlap in the brain and even rely on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms. For that reason, treating physical pain with acetaminophen could also help psychologically. For his first experiment, DeWall and his team gave 62 healthy volunteers 1,000 milligrams daily of either acetaminophen or a placebo. Each evening, participants were asked how much they experienced social pain using a measurement tool accepted as a valid measure of social pain. Surprisingly, social pain and emotional distress decreased in those taking acetaminophen, while no change was observed in subjects taking the placebo. In the second part of the experiment, 25 healthy volunteers took 2,000 milligrams daily of either acetaminophen or a placebo. They took their respective pills for three weeks, then participated in a computer game engineered to create feelings of social rejection. Functional magnetic resonance imaging used during the game revealed acetaminophen reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions associated with the distress of social pain and the affective component of physical pain. On the flip side, the control group experienced the same feelings of hurt and rejection they would normally experience. However, temper any enthusiasm for this revelation with the knowledge that long-term or high-dosage use of acetaminophen has been linked to serious liver damage. If you would like to read more about this study, the findings are published in the journal Psychological Science………….

- In case you missed the Little Caesars Bowl on Saturday afternoon (and I cannot fathom why you would do such a thing), you missed a little piece of football history. Sarah Thomas made history in the matchup between Ohio and Marshall by becoming the first woman to officiate a bowl game. That’s astonishing for several reasons, not the least of which is the absolute glut of bowl games (34 this season), meaning that there are more than 200 officials working a bowl game on an annual basis at this point. Thomas served as the line judge for the game, making history just as she did when she became the first woman to be an official for a major college football game in 2007. On top of that, Thomas is on the NFL's list of officiating prospects – again, something I had no idea existed. But apparently the NFL scouts officiating talent and Thomas has caught their eye, meaning the married mother of two young sons from Brandon, Miss., could officiate an NFL game some day. In her day job, she is a pharmaceutical representative (just like Survivor winner Natalie White). Since White broke the gender barrier in 2007, other female officials have joined the collegiate ranks and there are now five women officiating in major college football, counting Thomas. Terri Valenti became the first woman to officiate a pro game, although it wasn’t in the NFL. She was the head linesman earlier this year in a United Football League game, which I am not certain counts as a professional game based on the level of play and the fact that no one gives a rat’s ass about the UFL and no one watched or attended the games played in the league’s inaugural season. But either way, a great day for all the ladies out there for whom gender equality is a perpetual rallying cry……….

- If you thought the Chinese were kidding about taking over the world, here’s more proof that it’s no joke. On Saturday, China unveiled what it claims is the fastest rail link in the world -- a train connecting the modern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan at an average speed of 217 miles an hour. The 664-mile journey now takes a mere three hours, down more than seven and a half hours from the previous time for the commute. The unveiling of the new train marked the culmination of four years’ worth of work. The train is part of a grander plan to expand a high-speed network aimed at eventually linking Guangzhou, a business hub in southern China near Hong Kong, with the capital Beijing. "The train can go 394.2 kilometers per hour, it's the fastest train in operation in the world," Zhang Shuguang, head of the transport bureau at the railways ministry. Final testing for the new real service began earlier in December, but it wasn’t until when the first scheduled train left the eastern metropolis of Wuhan on Saturday that the link officially went into service. Just to give you a frame of reference for how fast this train (allegedly) travels, the average for high-speed trains in Japan is 243 kilometers per hour. Should this new high-speed train prove successful, it should add fuel to Beijing’s fire to continue developing its rail with the goal of increasing the national network from the current 86,000 kilometers to 120,000 kilometers, making it the most extensive rail system outside the United States. The inspiration for China’s first high-speed line was the Beijing Olympics in 2008, which resulted in a service linking the capital with the port city of Tianjin (two different cities, both terminally polluted and with basically unbreathable air). Back in September, officials said they planned to build 42 high-speed lines by 2012. Even as the global economy takes a collective nose dive, the Chinese are bound and determined to overhaul their transit system in the hopes that it will spur economic growth. Having the United States pay a chunk of portion of its massive debt that the Chinese own would also help, but we all know that ain’t happening. In the end, the Chinese will have to settle for a groundbreaking high-speed train developed with international firms such as Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom. Enjoy your new toy, China…………

- Normally I wait until the end of the weekend to tally up the movie box office carnage, but being a holiday weekend and all, how’s about a bonus edition of our movie watch? I bring it up only because Sherlock Holmes debuted with a single-day record for the holiday with a $24.9 million domestic take. It certainly helped that Christmas fell on a Friday this year. The second-highest earning film on the day was James Cameron’s Avatar, which kicked off its sophomore weekend by declining a mere 12 percent from last week, bringing its cumulative total to $160.8 after eight days. In third place was Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, slid to third place with $14.5 million. In fourth place was a movie I am thoroughly sick of by this point and cannot see any of the hype and praise for, the Meryl Streep-Alec Baldwin comedy It’s Complicated. For one, I am not a big Alec Baldwin fan and think he is wildly overrated, by and large. Streep is a great actress, but that doesn’t mean her movies are always great. Oh, and who wants to see a movie about a couple of 60-something divorcees hooking back up? No thanks. Rounding out the top five was the George Clooney comedy Up in the Air, which finally debuted in wide release after incrementally expanding its screen presence for the past several weekends and made $3.6 million at 1,873 sites. We can also recap the movie scene for the entire weekend, but that can wait for a day. Until then…………

- January 26 is going to be a big day for you, fans of good computers. For Microsoft fans, this would be something you should view as a chance for enlightenment. For Apple fans, that date marks the unveiling of Apple's new touch-screen tablet device. Apple is a company known for purposefully and deliberately leaking certain product details, so when the company’s public relations arm delivered a heap of neatly wrapped rumors on Christmas, it was no surprise. Specifics about the tablet computer were in short supply, but one Apple insider said that company president Steve Jobs is “extremely happy with the new tablet.” Those in the know say that if you have an iPhone, you’re basically carrying around a mini version of an early Apple tablet. Ironically, some of the in tablet designs that Jobs had previously rejected ended up in the iPhone. To make its big announcement, Apple has rented the big stage at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for “a major product announcement.” Some developers have reportedly been told by Apple to prepare apps for onstage demonstration at the event. Those developers have been told select developers that as long as they build their apps to support full screen resolution — rather than a fixed 320×480 — their apps should run well on the new device. As for the tablet computer’s on-sale date, industry experts predict that will happen before the end of March. Circle the date on your calendars now, the future of tablet computers is about to debut…………

An accurate weekend riot forecast, a good liquor store-prestigious college scandal and the ongoing train wreck that is MTV's "Jersey Shore"

- There just are not enough good scams involving both prestigious colleges and liquor stores these days. Only people like former New York University staffer John Runowicz are keeping this venerable tradition alive and they cannot do it alone. Heck, Runowicz can’t do it because he was arraigned Wednesday in Manhattan District court and is facing multiple charges stemming from what authorities say was an attempt to swindle the school out of more than $400,000. What is his supposed crime? Well, apparently dude was going down to the local liquor store (approximately 4.2 of them on every block in NYC), scavenging around in the trash for discarded receipts and attaching them to NYU reimbursement request forms. Oddly enough, submitting discarded liquor store receipts and claiming they were used for departmental purchases and "other functions" is illegal. Who knew? During the time of his alleged scam, September 2003 until January 2009, Runowicz worked as an administrator for the NYU chemistry department and submitted requests for petty cash based on the receipts. District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau alleged that Runowicz's scheme involved more than 13,000 receipts over five years and ultimately scammed New York University out of $409,000."None of those receipts reflected legitimate business expenses," said the District Attorney's Office. Take a minute and drink those numbers in…..13,000 receipts. Wow. It’s quite an effort and had Runowicz quit after, say, 10,000 receipts, he may have gotten away with it. Unfortunately he got greedy and now he faces numerous criminal charges, including falsifying business records in the first degree and second degree grand larceny, which could land him in prison for 15 years if convicted. Wonder if the NYU chemistry department is regretting its choice to make Runowicz responsible for "managing lab resources." Maybe you should know a person a little bit better and have substantive evidence of their fiscal responsibility and trustworthiness before handing them supervision over the chemistry department's budgetary matters, expense reimbursements, and supply requests. What also baffles me is that this scam has been going on since 2003, but it wasn’t until an internal audit this past summer that Runwicz’s alleged scheme was discovered. You don’t do audits every year? NYU spokesman John Beckman said in a statement that "the university is deeply disappointed that one of its employees would abuse the trust of our students, faculty, administrators and staff in this way." You might be disappointed, but since this scam doesn’t affect me directly, I’m going to sit back and enjoy it for as long as I can…..liquor stores and colleges, back together again…………

- Did you enjoy the slate of five NBA games on Christmas? If Orlando Magic coach Stan “Ron Jeremy” Van Gundy, a.k.a. The Master of Panic, has his way, you won't see a similar schedule in the Association ever again. "I actually feel sorry for people who have nothing to do on Christmas Day other than watch an NBA game," Van Jeremy said. The Magic were one of ten teams playing on Christmas, hosting the Boston Celtics for a 2:30 p.m. tip time. That clearly irked their coach, who said he understands the high-priced TV contracts generate money for the league and it would be difficult to stop such games. However, Van Jeremy wishes the NBA would bite the bullet and stop Christmas Day games, or at least have fewer games on the holidays. His point of view is undoubtedly influenced by the fact that the Magic play games on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day this season. "I think we get a little carried away with ourselves with sports thinking we're more important than everything else," Van Gundy said before the game. "But that's the way it is. There's nothing more important than the NBA on Christmas Day." Personal concerns also appear to be steering SVJ’s thoughts, as he talked about waking up early but managing to spend only about 15 minutes with his wife and four children and not having a chance to open his family's gifts before the game. Apparently he’s not a fan of Christmas Day NBA games no matter who is playing. SVJ said that the only time he could recall watching a Christmas Day game was when his brother, Jeff, was coaching one of them. He also showed how truly un-American he is by blasphemously saying that he doesn't watch NFL games on Thanksgiving. "Christmas to me, obviously basketball is very important to me, but there are some days of the year where it's got to take a back seat to something," he said. A sympathetic ear could be found on the opposing sideline during Friday’s game, as Celtics coach Doc Rivers backed up his rival’s comments. "As a kid, you wanted to be on [Christmas]," Rivers said. "Then when you get to the league, you don't want to be on any more. You're like, 'No, I changed my mind.' But it's going to happen, so why try to fight it? I tend to look at it as a reward," Rivers explained. I can honestly see where these guys are coming from and while I can't back their ideas, I would agree that no NBA team should play on more than one of the three major holidays (Christmas, New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving) that occur during the season. But before we finish, how’s about one more absurd idea from The Master of Panic? “If I had my way, we'd take a five-day break at Christmas. I mean it," SVJ postulated. How nice. Would you also like milk and cookies after games, a 20-minute rest break between quarters and games no more frequently than once every three days during the rest of the season? Get real, SVJ……….

- Depending on who you are, MTV’s new reality train wreck Jersey Shore is either the best thing ever or the most offensive thing ever. The show is basically The Real World, only if it were populated by eight overly groomed, self-absorbed, muscle-bound Italian Americans with no sense of dignity or self-respect. The show, as the title would imply, is set at a Seaside Heights, New Jersey beach house and centers on eight self-proclaimed "guidos" and "guidettes" as they do their thing. There is, from what I know, a cast member who refers to his pectoral muscles as “The Situation.” There is another cast member, a girl named Snookie, who was punched in the face by a man at a club during the show, although the punch didn’t air in any episode. It was used in a teaser for the show, but was pulled from the actual episode when an uproar resulted. With a show this spectacularly ridiculous, the effects on viewers and observers have been predictably polarizing. On the on hand, Jersey Shore's controversy has driven ratings from 1.3 million viewers for its debut to 2.5 million viewers for the show's most recent episode. That should be great news for MTV, as higher ratings should theoretically mean the network can charge advertisers more for commercial time. However, it’s difficult to charge more for commercial time when advertisers are fleeing the show like L.A. Dodgers fan streaming out of Dodger Stadium in the seventh inning to avoid traffic. In just a few short weeks, Jersey Shore — has already lost three advertisers Domino's Pizza, American Family Insurance and Dell. On top of that, state legislators in New Jersey are calling on MTV to pull the plug on the series. . The New Jersey Italian American Legislative Caucus says the show is "wildly offensive" and promotes derogatory ethnic stereotypes. New Jersey state Sen. Joseph Vitale, a Woodbridge Democrat and the caucus' chairman, sent a letter Tuesday to Viacom, MTV's parent company, requesting that Jersey Shore be taken off the air immediately. Vitale and his fellow state legislature members have also called on advertisers to boycott the show. They are joined by UNICO, the largest Italian American service organization in the U.S., in asking MTV to cancel the series since before its Dec. 3 premiere because of its negative portrayal of Italian Americans. So far, the network has shown no inclination to accede to these demands and with the ratings going up instead of down, don’t expect it to happen any time soon………

- I love it when a forecast is accurate. Of course, I’m not referring to weather forecasts, because those are never, ever accurate. Bearing that in mind, I’ve turned my focus toward other, more reliable forecasts, such as the forecast for riots in the Middle East. Heading into this weekend, a nice cocktail of events and occurrences had set up the very likely possibility that there would be protests, riots and general unrest in Iran. Some riot forecasts I saw put the chances of social dissidence at nearly 87 percent, which is astonishingly high. But that’s what happens when a day of mourning for the most prominent cleric to oppose the country’s totalitarian regime coincides with the major Shiite holy day of Ashura. Sunday marks a week to the day since the death of Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, a key figure in the 1979 Iranian revolution, and when stacked on top of Ashura, it was basically a mortal lock that there would be riots. And so it was on the tense, uneasy streets in Tehran on Saturday. Clashes erupted between riot police and opposition protesters as hundreds of people solemnly took part in Ashura observance. There were hundreds of riot police deployed at every major intersection along a six-mile route through the city and they came face to face with demonstrators who showed up in Imam Hussein Square and Azadi Square/Freedom Square in central Tehran. Witnesses said that there were more riot police than demonstrators, but any good rioter doesn’t give a rat’s ass about those ratios. A good rioter isn't scared off by security forces on motorcycles making a beeline for them any time they chant anti-government slogans. Ironically, it was security forces who were spotted engaging in most of the violence. Eyewitness testimony had police wielding batons, clubbing protestors, smashing car windows and making forceful arrests. Best of all, Saturday was merely the opening act. The holy period of Ashura reaches its climax Sunday and that’s when widespread protests are expected. These demonstrations are merely the latest in a series of outbursts that have erupted in Iran since June, when fascist dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole a second term in office via a rigged election. Protesters were out in the streets en masse all during the election process and the scene was violent, chaotic and bloody. Saturday’s protests weren’t merely confined to downtown Tehran; one witness reported clashes between security forces and protesters in the Nivaran area of northern Tehran, with dozens of security forces riding in tandem on motorcycles charging and attacking about 500 protesters. The scene was accentuated by bumper-to-bumper traffic, car horns honking, anti-government chants and at least one canister of tear gas fired to disperse crowds. In response, rioters lit piles of street-side debris on fire, a practice occasionally used to diminish the effects of tear gas. The bottom line here is that a riot forecast painted a positive picture for the weekend and for once, the action on the streets backed up those promises. In my book, that makes the weekend a tremendous success………

- Wi-Fi is nearly everywhere these days, so why not in affordable passenger vehicles? Ford is looking to bring wireless Internet to its customers by turning its cars into mobile Wi-Fi hot spots. Using its Sync in-car entertainment and information system, Ford will make Wi-Fi available to drivers by incorporating a USB mobile broadband modem to establish a secure wireless connection capable of supporting several devices simultaneously. The feature will be available in the next generation of Sync, which will be offered next year on selected models -- no word yet which ones. What we do know is that you won't need a subscription or hardware beyond the modem. "While you're driving to grandma's house, your spouse can be finishing the holiday shopping and the kids can be chatting with friends and updating their Facebook profiles," said Mark Fields, Ford president of the Americas. "And you're not paying for yet another mobile subscription or piece of hardware because Ford will let you use technology you already have." Ford is not the first auto maker to offer Wi-Fi in its vehicles and Japanese drivers have been using it since 1997, but it is not nearly as common as might be expected. BMW features an Internet-connected iDrive system in its whips and Chrysler's Uconnect Web in-vehicle mobile hotspot is also available. Oh, and the luxury-car drivers among you can look forward to in-vehicle Internet applications -- including web browsing, vehicle software updates and VOIP -- on a prototype 4G network that Mercedes recently revealed it has tested successfully. Ford’s system is different because it allows allow consumers to plug in their own USB modem to get connected. General Motors promised last week to make in-car connectivity available in seven models of trucks and SUVs, but its a dealer-installed system called Chevrolet Wi-Fi by Autonet Mobile creates a Wi-Fi hot spot 300 feet in diameter around the vehicle, and GM claims the 3G network achieves speeds of up to 1.5 mbps. It costs $199 after the $200 mail-in rebate, and the service costs $29 a month. Ford’s system will obviously cost much less and will theoretically be much more user-friendly. Now it’s a matter of seeing it Ford can actually deliver on its promises………

Bad news for beef, Pac-Man v. Mayweather on the ropes and potential weekend riots in Iran

- Oprah is not going to be happy about this. Ms. Winfrey has had her battles with the beef industry and although I’m not certain where that relationship stands, I have to believe that she can’t be excited about a major beef recall that is under way in a half-dozen states involving possibly contaminated products from the Oklahoma company National Steak and Poultry. The bad beef is believed to be responsible for a cluster of illnesses involving the E. coli bacteria in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Washington state. U.S. Agriculture Department officials linked the cases with beef the Owasso, Oklahoma, company. The meat was produced in October, prompting the government to direct a Class I recall, indicating the highest risk of illness if the products are consumed. More than 248,000 pounds of beef products are involved in the recall, which is being conducted by National Steak and Poultry and U.S. Agriculture Department officials. These products were marketed under the company’s name as well as under names that include Carino's Boneless Beef and Moe's Beef Steak. A consumer hotline has been set up at the company and greets callers a recorded message noting "this is the first recall in our company's nearly 30-year history." In keeping with the business-speak approach, National Steak and Poultry did not acknowledge any contamination in its beef processing or packaging facilities, but the recording said the firm "will err on the side of being cautious" with the recall. Gee, how magnanimous of you, NSP. You’re not accepting any blame or responsibility for possibly sickening dozens of your customers, but you’re willing to be so kind as to recall your products (believed to be responsible for those illnesses) and take the resulting financial hit. What a giving gesture during this, the holiday season………

- Now I’m just getting annoyed with Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Their megafight, tentatively scheduled for March 13 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, has been a contentious mess from the start. Negotiations for a contract were tense and prolonged and even with a deal signed, the camps for the two fighters can’t just make nice and keep things going on a smooth path. The current issue up for debate is how to handle drug testing for the fight, a debate that has spiraled so out of control that the potential biggest money fight in boxing history is reportedly in serious jeopardy. Basically, Mayweather wants Pacquiao to agree Olympic-style testing conducted by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, whose inflexible protocol calls for random urine and blood testing throughout training camps, fight week and even the day of the fight, with the ability to test any time, day or night. Both fighters would be subject to the same kind of testing. In the past, Mayweather’s camp has accused Pac-Man of using performance-enhancing drugs, a claim that has angered Pacquiao to the point that he is threatening to file a defamation lawsuit against Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions in addition to pulling out of the fight because of the drug-testing demands. "Enough is enough. These people, Mayweather Sr., [Mayweather] Jr. and Golden Boy Promotions, think it is a joke and a right to accuse someone wrongly of using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs," said Pacquiao. "I have tried to just brush it off as a mere pre-fight ploy but I think they have gone overboard." Pacquiao has never failed a drug test of any kind, so he would seem to have validation there. But that hasn’t stopped Floyd Mayweather Sr., the fighter's father, from repeatedly accusing Pacquiao of taking illegal substances to fuel his rise through seven weight divisions to win titles in a record seven divisions while maintaining his speed and power. "I have instructed my promoter, Bob Arum, head of Top Rank Inc., to help me out in the filing of the case as soon as possible because I have had people coming over to me now asking if I really take performance-enhancing drugs and [if] I have cheated my way into becoming the No. 1 boxer in the world," Pacquiao said. Arum has made ominous statements about the fate of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight the past few days while also making plans for an alternative bout for Pacquiao to defend his welterweight title on March 13 against former junior welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi. Given his reasons for not wanting to fight Mayweather now, Pacquiao’s choice of a potential replacement opponent is exceptionally ironic. Malignaggi has also repeatedly accused Pacquiao of using PEDs. Even noted boxing fan and part-time United States Sen. John McCain is weighing in on this dilemma. His attempt to mediate the drug-testing dispute was originally embraced by the camps but later shot down by Pacquiao. That wasn’t good enough for Arum, who then suggested that the Nevada State Athletic Commission oversee the testing. "Manny is pissed off but I think I can bring him back into the fight by having Nevada do it," Arum said. "He's fought in Las Vegas many times and is comfortable with the people on the commission." At the heart of Pacquiao’s resistance to the USADA testing method is a reported aversion to having his blood drawn repeated times leading up to the fight because of concerns over such a process weakening him. Pacquiao prefers the more flexible agencies that oversee testing for American professional sports leagues. His trainer, Freddie Roach, wants a definitive endpoint for any blood testing and also opposes random unannounced tests. HBO, which will televise the fight on pay-per-view, is also involved in trying to save it and thus protect its impending payday. "We're not giving up on this fight," HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg said. "We'll just keep the lines of communication open. That's all you can do." Clearly Pacquiao and his camp believe that more can be done, hence the threatened lawsuit against Mayweather. Pac-Man also has a message for Floyd Jr.: "Pretty Boy Floyd, face me instead on March 13 in Las Vegas and not in some talk show forum or in press releases written for you by people who don't even know me. Face me in a fight where I get to punch back. To Floyd, despite all these accusations, may your Christmas be merry and I will see you in court, soon, too." Way to include that Merry Christmas dig, Manny. Hopefully all of this bluster about canceling the fight will blow over and we’ll get to see a great bout in March…………

- Big news for you, American salsa music fans…..all four of you. Grammy-winning Cuban band Los Van Van are celebrating 40 years of salsa with a long-awaited return to the United States…..or so I’m told. I know nothing about salsa music or 
 Los Van Van, but I am told they are often referred to as the 'Rolling Stones of salsa' and that when the group performs in Key West, Florida on January 28, it will be a big deal. The group’s absence from the United States has been caused by tense U.S.-Cuban relations, especially during the W. administration. But that hasn’t don’t anything to dampen the furor or lessen the cult following for
Los Van Van among salsa fans, who credit them with reinventing salsa time and again since their debut in 1969. They are part of a wave of Cuban artists making a return trip to the U.S. since the beginning of the Obama regime. More and more Cuban musicians are being granted visas to perform at U.S. venues, bringing their sound from their Communist-run island to the civilized world. Los Van Van's Key West show will whet fans’ appetite for a 70-concert U.S. tour starting in April. Band leader and bassist Juan Formell is looking forward to the tour and hopes it’s the polar opposite of the group's last U.S. appearance-- a 1999 show in Miami where U.S. anti-riot police had to keep angry Cuban exile protesters from harassing concert-goers. “I was in Miami recently and nobody treated me poorly. On the contrary, people wanted to have pictures taken with me, they asked for autographs," he said. "Miami has changed a lot ... there is a new, younger generation that thinks differently.” They do, but there is still plenty of anti-Cuban sentiment out there and there will undoubtedly be a few whackos who show up for the concert in Miami to protest against Los Van Van’s performance and what they believe it signifies. For the rest of you, especially any of this country’s four salsa fans currently reading this, I hope you enjoy the “Rolling Stones of salsa”…………

- Well played, U.S. military, well played. That new policy calling for punishing soldiers in northern Iraq for becoming pregnant or impregnating another soldier has been dropped after less than a week. That provision was part of a new overall discipline policy and it generated enough controversy and criticism for the military to drop it like a freaking hot potato. The rule would have court-martialed any soldier who became pregnant or impregnated another soldier, but an updated version of the policy "does not include a pregnancy provision," said Maj. Joe Scrocca, spokesman for U.S. Forces-Iraq. Additionally, any unit must get the permission of the commander of U.S. Forces-Iraq before creating new rules restricting the activity of troops. The man directly responsible for this sh*t storm was Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo, who created the rule about pregnancy. Now, the 22,000 people under his command in northern Iraq, including 1,682 women, are free to get knocked up or to knock someone up. But take solace, Maj. Gen. Cucolo; the spirit of your rule can live on. You wanted your soldiers "think before they act" and I’m sure these few short days with this rule will make them do just that…..or not. Predictably, Cucolo had no immediate response and was reportedly spending Christmas Day visiting soldiers. His reception should be much warmer based on this decision, as dude surely wasn’t going to win any fans by sticking with his moronic policy. I can see where he might want to enforce a new rule on this topic, as there have been eight cases of women getting pregnant while deployed under his command. Of those eight, four were given letters of reprimand that were put in their local files, which means the letters wouldn't end up in their permanent files and they wouldn't be a factor under consideration for promotions. Cucolo admitted that he expected some controversy for his stupid new rule. "But I was also willing to deal with this attention because this is important," he said. "I am responsible and accountable for the fighting ability of my task force. I've got to take every measure to preserve my combat power, and that's the reason." Whatever you say, Maj. Gen. Just glad you saw the wisdom in caving in, er, restructuring your policy before you created an even bigger problem………

- Know what makes my holiday weekend even better? The threat of impending violence in…..well, pretty much any place in the world. But if we’re betting on riots and protests flaring up in any one corner of the world, who among us isn't voting for the Middle East? Exactly. Well, needless to say I was thoroughly excited to hear that Iran could see widespread protests this weekend as a day of mourning for the most prominent cleric to oppose the regime coincides with the major Shiite holy day of Ashura. Ashura is always an emotional day in Iran, but this year it falls on Sunday -- which happens to be a week to the day since the death of Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, a key figure in the 1979 Iranian revolution. Sounds like the perfect recipe for a riot to me! It’s been a week since one of the government's most vocal critics passed away and if that’s not a great time to riot, then I don’t know what is. Yes, I realize that the seventh day after a death is a traditional time for mourning in Islam, but it also seems like a perfect day to speak out against your country’s explicitly Shiite Muslim leadership. In many parts of the world, religion doesn’t play a huge role in the riot/protest/march scene, but it clearly does in Iran. For that reason, having a double-whammy of religious justification bodes well for this weekend’s riot potential. If you are culturally uninitiated, Ashura is a holiday commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, who died in 680 fighting to lead the religion based on the teachings of his grandfather, the prophet Mohammed. That battle was one of the defining points in the split between the two main branches of Islam, the majority Sunnis and the minority Shiites. Shiites are the majority in Iraq and Iran, unlike the rest of the world. Seeing them mark one of the biggest days on their calendar with protests, riots and clashes with police…..it would warm the heart, to say the least………

Celebrating Festivus, loving Brett Favre's misery and more Aerosmith drama

- Come one, come all. It’s time to celebrate our nation’s best holiday, one that unites people of all faiths, religions, ethnicities and socioeconomic statuses. Yes, I’m speaking of Festivus. For those who don’t know, Festivus began as a fictional holiday creating on the hit sitcom Seinfeld by Frank Costanza, father of George Costanza (Jason Alexander). Frank Costanza was inspired to create Festivus after brawling with another parent for the last doll on the shelf at a toy store, a Christmas gift for his son George The concept is simple: the only decoration is an aluminum pole, unadorned. “No tinsel. I find tinsel distracting,” Frank explained. The day was marked by a Festivus dinner in which a person gathered their family and those they loved around the table….and held the Airing of Grievances, which consisted of telling those you had gathered all the ways they had disappointed you over the past year. “I’VE GOT A LOT OF PROBLEMS WITH YOU PEOPLE,” Frank bellowed at his assembled Festivus guests. Following the Airing of Grievances, it was time for the Feats of Strength, which culminated in one person having to wrestle and pin the head of household. Yes, it’s quite a holiday, especially since it sprung from the mind of a Seinfeld writer and only became known to the world in a 1997 episode of the famed sitcom. Now, people around the world celebrate what began as a fake holiday and December 23 (yesterday) was the day for it. There is even a book titled, "Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us." What is great about Festivus is that no one is excluded for any reason – all are welcome. There are Festivus gatherings in dive bars, campus squares and corporate boardrooms. Some ardent supporters have petitioned to raise Festivus poles beside public nativity scenes. There are the requisite Facebook groups and Web sites -- like festivusbook.com and festivusweb.com – serving as go-to places for those who want to share the cheer. At many parties, people engage in their own Airing of Grievances about anything chafing their hide in life and often trade lame gifts from other occasions that they don’t want. There is even a stairway railing company in Wisconsin called Wagner that is getting in on the Festivus craze by thought cutting up pipes to make aluminum holiday poles. Tony Leto, who heads sales and marketing, says he's received orders from troops in Afghanistan and people living in Australia. In 2005, Wagner sent Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle a Festivus pole and he put it up in the executive residence. Today it appears in the state's historical museum. Hopefully you didn’t miss your chance to celebrate Festivus this year and if you did, now is a great time to start planning for next year…………

- As an avowed Brett Favre hater, I am watching the scene currently unfolding within the Minnesota Vikings organization with unbridled glee. Seeing the tension between Favre and coach Brad Childress is, to put it mildly, awesome. From what we’re now hearing, the scene Sunday night when Childress attempted to pull Favre from what ended up as a 26-7 loss to the Carolina Panthers because The Ol’ Gunslinger was getting pummeled and the offense was stagnating, was merely the culmination of a situation that had been escalating for a while. Apparently there was building tension because of a disagreement over how much influence each should expect to have in running the offense during games. Childress is known for keeping a tight rein on audibles during games, while Favre is notorious for pulling plays out of his ass, occasionally with disastrous results. He seems to feel that even though he bypassed all of training camp because he was too lazy, er, was deciding whether to stay retired or make his 75th comeback from retirement, he knows the team’s offensive system well enough to make changes at the line of scrimmage any time he feels like it. So with that undercurrent swirling, Childress broached the subject of pulling T.O.G.S. (The Ol’ Gunslinger) from the game even though the Vikings were leading just 7-6. That didn’t go over well and the two had a heated argument on the sideline, with NBC’s cameras catching all of it. It is reportedly not the first time Childress has debated pulling Favre from a game, but it’s clearly the first time he’s spoken directly to Favre about it during a game. Perhaps he should reconsider that approach, as this attempt ended with Childress being emasculated and embarrassed when Favre, supposedly under his authority as coach, plainly told his coach that he would not be coming out of the game and would continue playing. Well said, T.O.G.S. Because while the coach is in charge of most teams, clearly Favre is running this show and Childress looks like a chump in the process. Of course, he’s looked that way since he drove his own SUV to the airport to pick up Favre after T.O.G.S. signed with the Vikings this summer and basically declared himself to be a sycophant for Favre for as long as he plays in Minnesota. In the aftermath of their argument on the sidelines, both Favre and Childress have done the supremely predictable by making repeated public professions that their argument is settled and that, in truly clichéd fashion, that it was blown out of proportion. Childress said they had a "good talk" on Monday and Wednesday about their disagreement. "He and I talked, as we have all year," Favre said, adding that given the team's recent slump, "the frustration is gonna show. It's gotten blown way out of proportion.” Whatever you say, T.O.G.S. We all know you’re lying and that you and your coach are still pissed at one another. However, I’m probably enjoying this more than anyone else because Favre is still the most self-centered, egotistical a-hole in professional football and perhaps incidents like this will shed some light on his true character for the legions of fans who following him so blindly and mindlessly no matter what kind of crap he pulls……….

- This holiday season, you should be sending out a big thank you to a certain Democratic representative from California: Rep. Anna Eshoo. Along with her House colleagues, Ms. Eshoo (bless you) decided to tackle the menace this is the ever-escalating volume of television commercials. You may have noticed that when you watch your favorite shows, the volume invariably ratchets up several notches once commercials start. I don’t notice it so much because I mute the volume, change the channel or leave the room to do something else when the commercials come on. But for those who do watch commercials, the volume is a problem. For those people, the House is working on putting the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM, into place. The measure mandates that TV commercials be no louder than the programs in which they appear. In one of their rare smart moves and moments of cooperation, representatives unanimously passed the bill last month and sent it to the Senate for consideration. As passed by the House, the measure directs the Federal Communications Commission to develop regulations preventing ads from being "excessively noisy or strident" or "having modulation levels substantially higher than the accompanying program." Additionally, the bill addresses "average maximum loudness." According to representatives who have spoken about the bill, the issue of volume in commercials is a frequent complaint. Eshoo said she's been besieged with mail (from old people), e-mail and phone calls from people who have thanked her for the bill. If passed by the Senate, advertisers and production houses would have one year to adopt technology that modulates and sets sound levels and apply it to TV commercials. The FCC will be responsible for monitoring the status of this process and ensuring that advertisers don’t just comply for a few months and then attempt to go back to their old way of doing business……….

- And the Aerosmith saga continues. Just a month or so ago, Joe Perry was making posts on his Twitter feed about the band looking for a new lead singer because he and lead singer Steven Tyler were having another b*tch fight and couldn’t work together anymore…..again. Tyler had fallen off a stage during a concert in August, breaking his shoulder. All in all, Aerosmith was nearly as big a mess as it was during the band’s heavy drug-using days in the ‘70s. That’s a fitting analogy because this week it was revealed that Tyler has entered a rehab facility for pain management and an addiction to prescription painkillers resulting from 10 years of performance injuries. "With the help of my family and team of medical professionals, I am taking responsibility for the management of my pain and am eager to be back on the stage and in the recording studio with my bandmates Joe Perry, Joey Kramer, Tom Hamilton and Brad Whitford," Tyler said in a statement."I love Aerosmith; I love performing as the lead singer in Aerosmith. I am grateful for all of the support and love I am receiving and am committed to getting things taken care of." The trip to rehab comes on the heels of several orthopedic injuries Tyler has suffered over the past decade. The injuries that have left him with "severe chronic pain" and will require additional surgeries on his knees and feet, said his physician, Dr. Brian McKeon, Assistant Clinical Professor of Orthopedics at Tufts School of Medicine. "Managing and controlling his pain has been challenging, and despite our use of alternative therapies and the creation of custom shoes built by a team of engineers from Timberland, Steven's pain has progressed," said McKeon. "The balance between managing his pain and avoiding addiction is tenuous and difficult and his bravery in persevering through rigorous touring is admirable. As with many athletes, Steven put his performance first as he struggled with acute pain for years." Well, that and he was a raging drug addict for a few of those years and I’m guessing that hasn’t helped his body at all. But at least this time he was hooked on painkillers and not the devils that are cocaine and heroin. As you might expect with a bandmate heading to rehab, the other members of Aerosmith are saying the right things about supporting Tyler and wanting him to get better. "I think that he needs help and that attention needs to be put to his health," drummer Joey Kramer said. I’d echo those wishes and hopefully we’ll see Steven Tyler back on the stage some time in the future………

- Wow. Just wow. That’s my first (and final) reaction to news that quarterback Michael Vick has won the Ed Block Courage Award, voted on by his teammates on the Philadelphia Eagles. Each team in the NFL awards one of its own with this honor, so Vick is one of 32 recipients this year. The Ed Block Award honors players who exemplify commitment to the principles of sportsmanship and courage. For Vick, it’s a special honor because he’s coming back to the league after spending 18 months in a federal prison for his role in a dogfighting ring. For his detractors, the award is an example of how the NFL and its players are just as clueless as ever. The animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, issued a statement blasting the Eagles for giving Vick the award. "The Philadelphia Eagles fumbled when they gave Michael Vick the Ed Block Courage Award, which was named after a man who advocated in behalf of abused children," the PETA statement read. "Michael Vick should not be the person anyone points to as a model of sportsmanship, even though he has now exchanged dogs for touchdowns after serving time for extreme cruelty to animals. We wish him well in educating others, but this is not appropriate and does not mark a joyous moment in NFL history." Thanks for the perspective, PETA freaks. Now allow me to finish the last bite of my nice, juicy steak, set aside my chicken fingers, take off my leather coat, put on my alligator-skin shoes, get up off of my plush, leather couch and sit down on my bear-skin rug and reply. Honestly, I don’t have a huge beef with winning the award. If his teammates, who are with him every day, think he deserves the award, then fine. However, I do have a serious beef with Vick’s perspective in receiving the award. While recipients from other teams have done loads of charity work or, in the case of Jacksonville Jaguars recipient Richard Collier, been confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life as the victim of a drive-by shooting, Vick has gone through nothing that he did not bring upon himself. His woes are of his own making, yet dude seems to view himself as some sort of hero for spending a year and a half in prison then coming back to a $1.6 million job in the NFL. "It means a great deal to me," Vick said Wednesday. "I was voted unanimously by my teammates. They know what I've been through. I've been through a lot. I've overcome a lot, more than probably one single individual can handle or bear," Vick said. "You ask certain people to walk through my shoes, they probably couldn't do. Probably 95 percent of the people in this world because nobody had to endure what I've been through.” What you’ve been through is your own fault, you jerk. It’s good to see someone go to prison, have the light go on and realize that they need to change their life, but that doesn’t make you a hero. Quit lionizing yourself, quit trying to act like you have been any sort of victim and accept this award with humility. Continue spending time working with the Humane Society of the United States, speaking to school and community groups about the mistakes you’ve made and stay away from microphones and TV cameras until you add a few IQ points and a heavy dose of perspective……….