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…………