Tiger taunted, Iran's flying ship of death and Riot Watch! on the docks in Jersey

- Wow, the old Tiger Woods would not have needed a 21-year-old, up-and-coming golfer who has never won anything of note to make some arrogant remarks about the state of the No. 1 ranked player in the world’s game in order to get fired up for the Ryder Cup. But this is a new day and a new Tiger, down a few million in divorce and alimony payments, down one hot Swedish wife and nowhere near the player he once was. The last of those facts appears to have emboldened European Ryder Cup team member Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland. As the Ryder Cup approaches (it will take place this weekend in Newport, Wales at the Celtic Manor course), McIlroy has been outspoken in recent weeks about getting the opportunity to play in the Ryder Cup against Woods. "I would love to face him," McIlroy said. "Unless his game rapidly improves in the next month or so, I think anyone in the European team would fancy his chances against him." Woods didn’t seem happy when asked about McIlroy’s comments, saying only, "Me, too." Asked if he wished to elaborate, Woods said, "No." Well, then. To be fair, if the old Tiger were alive, he would have marched into captain Corey Pavin’s office, demanded to be matched against McIlroy in every possible foursome or singles match and proceeded to stomp a mudhole in the cocky Irishman and walk it dry. After all, McIlroy won the Quail Hollow Championship in May for his first PGA Tour victory, so he’s not exactly an accomplished player on the PGA Tour. But Tiger Woods in 2010 is just another decent golfer with a jacked-up swing, confidence problems and a screwed-up personal life. He might still carry grudges like no other and he might be seething about McIlroy’s hubris, but the question of whether he can actually do anything about it……not so sure. McIlroy made his remarks one week after Woods hacked it up at the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, posting his worst 72-hole tournament as a pro and finishing third from last. “So he wasn't playing too well at that time," McIlroy said. "He's obviously getting his game together, and he's working with Sean Foley and he's making a few swing changes. I said this week and last week, I don't mind who. I just want to win points against the team." Now, my pessimism about Woods’ ability to make McIlroy eat his words if and when they match up at the Ryder Cup doesn’t mean that I’m not rooting for the rumors that Woods approached McIlroy at the recent BMW Championship near Chicago to basically say, "Be careful what you wish for," to be true. I sincerely hope that they are 100 percent accurate, but the reality is that even in his prime, Woods was far from a dominating Ryder Cup player. His overall record of 10-13-2 is obviously mediocre, so how much worse will he be now that he’s a mere mortal struggling to break par like everyone else? But maybe the impossible will happen and the old Tiger will come to play this weekend, if only for a few days…………

- What are the odds? TLC introduces a new show called Sister Wives and after just one episode, police in Lehi, Utah, are knocking down the door of the show’s protagonist and launching an investigation for a possible charge of felony bigamy. Lehi police said Monday that salesman Kody Brown and his four wives had actually been on their radar before the show premiered Sunday, but having a nationally televised display of the possible bigamy probably spurred them on a bit. "At the conclusion of the investigation, the evidence will be forwarded to the Utah County Attorney's Office for review and possible prosecution," says Lt. Darren Paul. Police. Paul also acknowledged that the buzz over the show's debut propelled the case forward. May I say, as a quick aside, that TLC and the idiots involved in this train wreck of a show aren’t doing any favors in dispelling all of the stereotypes and beliefs that Utah is just a bunch of Mormon polygamists running around marrying multiple spouses and having families large enough to comprise a small army. Those stereotypes are grossly exaggerated, but many Americans simply aren’t smart or sophisticated enough to realize that one polygamist family in Utah does not an entire state of polygamists make. And just so you know, bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah even though it is rarely investigated. The show centers on Brown and his wives Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn, who have 13 children and three stepchildren as a group. They’re extremely committed to their bigamy and say that if need be, they will follow in the footsteps of David Koresh, those kooks in Heaven’s Gate and all of the other groups of whack-a-doos who have separated themselves from society and formed a cult of their own in order to live by their twisted beliefs and world views. "If we raise productive, contributing members of society who are moral and ethical, that's our final goal, whatever their path is," declared Janelle, who has six children with Kody. I think the state of Utah might have a little something to say about that, J…………

- OH NO! The Iranians have done it! First, they fire up a nuclear reactor under the pretense of creating a new energy source for their nation and next thing you know, they’re launching flying boats. Don’t believe me? Just ask the Iranian news agencies reporting that despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Co. unveiled three squadrons of new flying boats on Tuesday. The Bavar 2 (not Babar the cute, cuddly cartoon elephant that kids love) comes equipped with a machine gun and carries surveillance cameras, so it’s actually something of a flying death machine/spy craft. "Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the few countries which managed to design, build and use flying boats in a short time," said Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, who was there to oversee delivery of the aircraft at the Bandar Abbas naval facility on the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz. The unveiling coincided with the celebration of Iran’s Week of Sacred Defense, which honors the country’s bitter, bloody and successful eight-year-long resistance to the 1980 Iraqi invasion. The boats bear a striking resemblance to a craft Iran used during Persian Gulf war games in April 2006 and footage from those games includes a video of a flying boat taking off. At the time, pundits poked fun at the flying boat and mocked it as something that looked like an oversized model boat anyone could buy from a magazine ad or their local toy and hobby store. But who’s laughing now, caustic pundits? Iran and its flying ships of death could soon be hovering over your neighborhoods and you may not think it’s so funny then………

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! We haven’t had enough good, solid American protests and riots of late and I don’t want to be a guy who forgets where he’s from and ignores American social dissidence when it occurs. So it’s time to salute the brave and bold workers also blocked the entrances at cargo ports in Staten Island, Brooklyn and Bayonne and left freighters loaded with cargo sitting idle on silent docks as shipping into and out of New York harbor came to a halt Tuesday. Thousands of dockworkers, members of the International Longshoremen's Association, defiantly walked off the job in order to show solidarity with union members from Camden, New Jersey. Workers there are angry because of rumors that the Del Monte fruit company plans to unload its ships at a cheaper port despite millions of dollars in union concessions. To save their jobs, the Camden union members walked off the job and have now been joined by their union brethren in New York harbor, leaving truckers with nowhere to drop their cargo, circling the harbor and fuming all the while. The shipping association that runs the harbor’s operations made no bones about its feelings on the strike, saying in an official statement that, "We feel strongly that these actions by the ILA, in refusing to cross a non-bona-fide line, are a violation of the no-strike clause of our current collective bargaining agreement.” Whatever you say, shipping association. Workers like Kevin O'Hara, one of the dockworkers who stand to lose their jobs in the Del Monte dispute, and longshore worker Maryellen Reilly have to stand up for their livelihood and back one another up. Here’s hoping they and their fellow union members defy an order by a district court judge agreed that the striking workers to return to their jobs. So what if the work stoppage left 12 ships waiting to be unloaded in the ports of New York and New Jersey? The working man and working woman need to make their voice heard and sometimes life has to grind to a halt in order for that to happen……..

- Have you been told that your mouthwash can take inches off your waistline, get you in the best shape of your life, cure the common cold, add six inches to your height and make you infinitely more attractive to the opposite sex? If so, the Food and Drug Administration has a message for you. On Tuesday, the FDA warned Johnson & Johnson, CVS and Walgreen to stop making "unproven" claims about their mouthwash products. Now, the actual claims to which the agency was referring centered on these mouthwashes being effective in removing plaque or preventing gum disease, but there could well be a mouthwash manufacturer out there making the outrageous claims I laid out as well. The FDA fired off a terse letter to each company, specifically targeting Johnson & Johnson's "Listerine Total Care Anticavity Mouthwash", CVS's "CVS Complete Care Anticavity Mouthwash" and Walgreen's "Walgreen Mouth Rinse Full Action." The letter spelled out exactly what concerns the agency has with the claims being made about the mouthwashes and how those claims might mislead consumers. "These mouth rinse products contain the active ingredient sodium fluoride. The FDA has determined that sodium fluoride is effective in preventing cavities but has not found this ingredient to be effective in removing plaque or preventing gum disease," the agency said in a statement. "It is important for the FDA to take appropriate enforcement action when companies make false or unproven product claims to ensure that consumers are not misinformed or misled," added Deborah Author, director of the Office of Compliance with the FDA. Federal law prohibits companies from claiming their product successfully treats a disease unless the FDA has reviewed and approved those claims. All three companies now have 15 days to take "appropriate action" to fix the violations or else the FDA could begin seizing product and/or imposing other civil or criminal penalties. All three companies acknowledged receiving the letter from the FDA but declined further comment. For Johnson & Johnson, it’s just another fire burning in their kitchen that needs to be put out. Already preparing for a hearing Thursday before Congress related to a string of recalls of its non-prescription drugs such as Tylenol, Benadryl and Motrin, the company now has the government on its ass for something else. The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has been investigating the case since May, when it held the first hearing on the matter. During that delightful (for Johnson & Johnson executives, anyhow) powwow, lawmakers revealed that McNeil (Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical arm) attempted to conduct a secret recall of more than 88,000 Motrin tablets in June 2009 for a possible defect in the drugs. Johnson & Johnson CEO William Weldon, who did not testify at the May hearing, might want to consider showing up this time around…………