Oregon football's burgeoning tradition of felonious behavior, weekend movie news and disrobing en route to Vegas

- It is quite a program that University of Oregon head football coach Chip Kelly is building. Sure, his Ducks won the Pac-10 this past season and played in the Rose Bowl, but ask any non-Oregon fan what they will remember most is Ducks running back LaGarrette Blount sucker-punching Boise State player Byron Hout following Boise’s opening-game win over Oregon. The punch occurred on the field as the two teams were converging to shake hands and after initially suspending Blount for the rest of the season, Kelly ultimately welcomed him back to the team for the final two games. Little did anyone know at the time, but that was merely a precursor to what the Ducks would pull once the offseason began. First, quarterback Jeremiah Masoli was accused of lifting two laptops and a Guitar Hero game system from a campus fraternity house. Just three weeks after that incident, freshman running back LaMichael James was arrested after his girlfriend said he grabbed her neck during an argument and pushed her to the ground. That’s two prominent players committing two serious crimes (allegedly) and yet things were only getting started. Now, Oregon kicker Rob Beard has gotten in on the (criminal) act. Beard took part in in a Jan. 24 street fight that left him seriously injured and last week, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of physical harassment. Beard went out and got so drunk (underage drinking, what a shocker) that he doesn’t even doesn't remember shoving a woman to the ground. He picked the wrong woman to assault because two of her male friends stepped in and delivered a beatdown to Beard, who was unconscious by the time the attack ended. The two men, Kirby Hawkins and Maurice Peterson, each pleaded guilty Friday to misdemeanor assault and were sentenced to 18 months probation. Lane County Circuit Court Judge Maurice Merten then sentenced Beard to one year of probation and 100 hours of community service, which on top of getting your ass kicked to the point of unconsciousness would seem to be a fairly solid punishment. But the specific crime Beard committed isn’t the point; the rampant criminal activity within the Oregon football program is. Sure, I’m on record as saying that no program can call itself elite without its share of criminals, thugs and gangstas, but I’m not the one making decisions in big-time college athletics. Athletic directors and school administrators tend to get kind of pissed off after a few arrests. Hit a half dozen of them and you could find yourself in serious jeopardy of losing your job…..unless you keep racking up BCS bowl bids, that is………….

- Generally, people tend to lose their clothes and other valued possessions by gambling once they land in Las Vegas. They show up with a “system” to win big, end up blowing their entire wad of cash and scrambling for ways to scrounge up extra cash in a futile attempt to win it all back. That’s not the approach an unidentified man on a Southwest flight coming into McCarran Airport in Las Vegas Friday evening took for his Vegas run. No, this kook didn’t wait to go nuts until his feet were firmly planted on the soil of Sin City. While the plane was still in the air, the man began removing his clothes, much to the horr-a of his fellow passengers. Witnesses said the man suddenly began disrobing and flight attendants responded to his actions by ushering him to the back of the plane. Southwest did not say why the man began removing his clothes, but he apparently was not contentious when confronted about his actions and Transportation Security Administration agents interviewed the man when the jet landed and released him a short time later. Now this is just me and I’m thinking out loud here, but what are the odds that we eventually find out that this fellow has a history of mental problems? Let’s hope that was his problem and that he wasn’t some sort of nudity terrorist looking to hijack the plane merely by showing off his unappealing physique. Having said that, a fellow passenger taking off his or her clothes is probably still less irritating than many of the über-annoying passengers I’ve had the misfortune of flying next to in my lifetime, so perhaps I should stop complaining and just move on…………

- I cannot speak to its governing effectiveness, but the People's Justice Party of Malaysia is clearly proficient when it comes to kicking out its members for ideological differences. For the fourth time in the last few months, the PJP has evicted one of its members over ideological conflicts and this time the victim is my main man Zulkifli Noordin, a lawmaker who has repeatedly clashed with other opposition officials and recently filed a police complaint against his own colleague for stating that non-Muslims can use the word "Allah" as a translation for "God." Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's three-party alliance has been on unstable grounds for weeks because of concerns that nearly a dozen opposition legislators might switch sides and enable the ruling coalition to regain the two-thirds parliamentary majority it lost in 2008 elections, so anyone perceived as a liability is going to get his or her walking papers at this point. When Noordin broke ranks with his party in the dispute over the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims, he essentially fired himself from the PJP. The tension has been fueled by a January High Court decision to strike down a government ban on the non-Muslim use of the word. That decision caused immense anger among the ethnic Malay Muslim majority and led to Christian churches being attacked with firebombs and paint. Anwar's multiethnic opposition party says non-Muslims should be able to use the translation. Noordin will remain in the legislature as an independent lawmaker and took time to rip his former party's decision to fire him, saying it marked "the start of the downfall and destruction" of the party. "There is no reason for me to remain in the party,” Zulkifli said in a statement. "Indeed, I would be ashamed in front of Allah and the Islamic community to stay on." A mighty high opinion you have of yourself, N. Saying that getting rid of you is the “start of the downfall and destruction of the party” takes some juevos, my friend. Still, I do find it remarkable that in the span of a month, Anwar's party has lost four federal legislators, all of whom turned independent because of personality and ideological conflicts. All of this inner turmoil could spell disaster for the opposition, which made major strides in national polls two years ago but now is fracturing as the National Front party, which controls 137 of the 222 seats in the legislature, is just 11 seats shy of regaining the majority it needs to secure the power to change the constitution. Oh, and did I mention that Anwar himself is preparing to stand trial on accusations of sodomizing a male former aide? That probably isn’t going to help stabilize his deteriorating coalition, especially not if he is convicted and sentenced to as much as 20 years in prison. In his defense, Anwar claims Prime Minister Najib Razak's administration fabricated the charge and while no one loves a conspiracy theory as much as me, I’m not high on Anwar’s chances in this case nor on the future of his coalition……………

- Johnny Depp is still freaking box office gold and he proved it this weekend by leading Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland to a romp at the box office, raking in an estimated $116.3 million, the highest grossing weekend ever for a spring release. The 3-D blockbuster starring Depp as the Mad Hatter was strong enough for IMAX to pull Avatar from all its screens in exchange for Alice. That move proved to be a wise one as IMAX earned its highest weekend gross ever, $11.9 million in only 188 theaters. Coming in a distant, distant second was the R-rated cop drama Brooklyn’s Finest, which grossed an estimated $13.5 million. Close behind in third place was Shutter Island, Leo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese making an estimated $13.3 million. Ranking fourth for the weekend, about 50 spots higher than it should be, was the Warner Bros. “comedy” Cop Out, which fell 50 percent and made a paltry $9.1 million for a two-week gross of $32.4 million. In fifth place was Avatar, which held onto 695 of its 3-D screens but finally saw a significant drop-off (44 percent) since it opened three months ago but banked $7.7 million to put its 12-week domestic take at $720 million. The rest of the top 10 included: The Crazies (No. 6 with $7 million after a 56 percent drop ), Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (No. 7 with $5.1 million and a total box office of $78 million), Valentine’s Day (in the top ten for a fourth weekend with $4.2 million and cumulative total now above the $100 million mark),the Fox Searchlight flick Crazy Heart ($3.3 million for the No. 9 spot and a cumulative tally of $29.5 million) and Sony Pictures’ Dear John (No. 10 with $2.8 million and a total gross of $77 million). Next weekend, the star power of Matt Damon in Green Zone and the hunky vampire-ness of Robert Pattinson in Remember Me will challenge Alice in Wonderland for the top spot, but something tells me Tim Burton hangs on at the top of the heap for at least another week…………

- Count Sony in as one of Apple’s competitors in the field of tablet computers. Even though everyone I know loathes the iPad and its many drawbacks (hey, even apple drops a dud every now and then), for some odd reason everyone I hear discussing tablet computers still seems to think that the iPad is some sort of revolutionary device that must be challenged before it takes over the tablet market entirely. Sony will soon be joining the fray, as word has leaked that the Japanese computer maker is preparing a challenger to the iPad that will have all the capabilities of a netbook, a Sony Reader and a PSP. Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda spoke at a news conference in Tokyo and although he didn’t offer any details, he did express his company’s desire to compete with the iPad, due in stores next month. "That is a market we are also very interested in. We are confident we have the skills to create a [great] product," Oneda said. "Time-wise, we are a little behind the iPad but it's a space we would like to be an active player in.” Additionally, Sony is in the process of creating a new smartphone featuring Sony Ericsson mobile technology and capable of playing PSP games to compete against another Apple device - the iPhone. Both the new smartphone and the yet-to-be-created tablet computer are expected to work with Sony Online Services, an online store due to launch in March and sell music, movies, books, and other downloadable applications for mobile products. Although no details of the smartphone or tablet have been made official by Sony, both products are expected to launch sometime in 2010. Challenging Apple, while typically ill-advised (ask PC makers), is a potentially lucrative endeavor, as it sold 8.7 million iPhones in the last three months of 2009 and should sell quite a few iPads despite the device’s many drawbacks. Will Sony be any different than Dell or other computer manufacturers that have announced intentions to take on Apple? I’d say no, but the reality is that one of these companies has to have some success in the tablet market, so perhaps it will be Sony…………