- Regardless of whether or not its football team has its usual flameout in the second half of the season under head coach Rich-er Fraudriguez, I think we can all agree that the good folks at Michigan Stadium should pay a little more attention to security in their remaining home games. Provided, of course, that allowing gun-toting kooks with no actual reason to be at the game isn’t something they’re okay with. But during last Saturday’s Michigan-Michigan State football game in Ann Arbor, that’s exactly what happened. The kook in question, a full-time National Guardsman, talked his way into the game and past security officials by claiming that he was a member of the color guard. Unfortunately for him, a member of the actual color guard turned him in and he was escorted out of the stadium by police. The good news is that his weapons were empty and no ammunition was found. So why was a full-time National Guardsman with empty guns sneaking into a college football game? Because he wanted to see the game and didn’t have a ticket, that’s why. Yes, this idiot was just a devoted fan who either didn’t have the money or the hookups to get a ticket. Michigan-Michigan State is a big rivalry game to be sure, but I’m guessing that more than a few of the 113,000-plus people in attendance at the contest got in using tickets they scalped, so it’s not as if this moron couldn’t have scalped one if he had the cash. Equally amazing is that Diane Brown, a spokeswoman for the university's department of public safety, stated that school officials do not believe anything was done "incorrectly or improperly by police in any of the checkpoints." If no one did anything wrong and the result of your security process is people being able to carry multiple weapons into the stadium, I’d say perhaps it’s time to revise your security procedures………
- Had I known there was a Stone Age door in "exceptional condition" buried in the heart of Zurich, Switzerland, I would have packed my excavating tools and stuck around a bit longer this summer. In fact, I would have skipped my other stops in the city and gone straight for the site where a parking lot was being built for the Zurich Opera. That’s where the artifact was found on Thursday by construction crews working on the parking lot. The door - thought to be more than 5,000 years old -- was recovered during an archaeological excavation before construction of the parking lot and apparently it’s in immaculate condition. "It is one of the oldest doors ever found in Europe," said Niels Bleicher, Zurich Monument Preservation Department's chief scientist. For now, the door will remain on the ground and workers will try to pull it up next week. From there, it will need to be stabilized before it can be preserved and find a new home in a museum. The door, which stands nearly five feet tall (hey, people were shorter back then), is as old school as old school gets. According to Bleicher, it hails from the Horgen archaeological culture and dates to the late 4th millennium B.C. "It is made from poplar wood. The technique and design are solid," he said. "The door is in an exceptional condition. Even the wooden handles are preserved." All great information and again, I wish I had known all of this because I’d have been down in the dirt with a pick and a shovel trying to find this ancient door when I was in Zurich………
- You have to be freaking kidding me. I thought I had an understanding of just how asinine the ACLU can be and the absurd, unfathomable depths they will sink to in defending causes that no one in their right mind (or wrong mind) would ever believe in or fight for, things that defy every law of humanity, decency, logic and sanity. But even for the kooks of the ACLU, this is a new low: fighting a Louisiana parish to make sure that Halloween is celebrated on a specific day of the week, Sunday in this case. Livingston Parish recently enacted an ordinance that changes the official date of Halloween when Oct. 31 lands on a Sunday. Thus, the ACLU is brawling to ensure that Halloween is always celebrated on Oct. 31. Why, you ask? Because the group wants kids to know that they will have a massive influx of candy on a given day and thus be able to rely on rotting their teeth on Oct. 31 every year? Nope. The ACLU is fighting the parish because of the reason the parish passed its ordinance in the first place: to ensure that Halloween isn't celebrated on Sundays. The ACLU of Louisiana defines Halloween as a holiday (which it is not) and on Friday delivered a letter to Livingston Parish leaders urging them to repeal the ordinance. By taking a non-holiday that shouldn’t even be on the radar of anyone over the age of 10 and trying to make it an actual holiday, the ACLU believes it can then tell the government that it has no authority to dictate its observance. "The penalty for violation of this misguided ordinance can be up to 30 days in jail," ACLU of Louisiana Executive Director/Ass Hat Marjorie Esman said in a statement. "No parent should fear jail time for taking children to a neighbor's house for candy, and no resident should fear prosecution for offering a treat to a visiting child." Way to dramatize and hyperbolize, you kook. All of this because the parish changed an ordinance that has long mandated that Halloween be observed on Oct. 31, but now reads: "Trick or treat hours shall be 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the unincorporated areas of the Parish of Livingston. An exception shall be made when October 31 falls on a Sunday. In that event, trick or treat will be held the following Monday, November 1, from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.” Council members voted unanimously to change the ordinance at special session which was called after the council received complaints from parents who did not want the observance of Halloween reset for a Monday night. Leave it to the ass hats of the ACLU to attempt to drag First Amendment rights into a battle like this over a non-holiday on the level of Arbor Day and Groundhog Day………..
- And the fight is on. In one corner, the new kid on the block, Google TV. In the other corner, broadcast networks threatened by the newfangled concept of Internet TV. While Google TV purports to offer viewers all of their favorite shows but with the added benefit of being able to access online content through the same medium, shows on the Web sites of broadcast networks CBS and ABC are currently being blocked when Google TV users try to access those sites. NBC is also blocking streams to Google TV users and has admitted as much. The blocked shows appear to be only full-length episodes available on the Web sites of those companies. The blocking does not affect the viewing of those shows through the broadcast TV part of Google TV, just the streaming of those shows to Google TV. If that sounds convoluted…..it’s because it is convoluted. "We're in the early phases of Google TV and already have strong partnerships with Best Buy, Logitech, and Sony, among others. We are excited about the opportunities our new platform creates for both established media companies like Turner and HBO, and tens of thousands of content creators large and small,” Google said in a statement that succeeded in addressing not one square inch of the issue. With or without the blocked shows, Google TV enables access to all the Web content you already get today on your phone and computer, but the decision to restrict or allow content ultimately rests with the content’s owner. Funny, but I didn’t hear a word about this potential problem when everyone was rushing to anoint Google TV as the next big thing in the world of entertainment. Logitech and Sony have already jumped on board and released devices running the software earlier this month. Plus, you’d think that networks would be pumped about viewers being able to watch regular old broadcast television while pulling up a series of Internet-based applications and Web sites. More exposure for their shows is a good thing……right? Plus, users can get used to Internet video while also having the old standby of broadcast television to fall back on. Some broadcasters, such as TBS, are actively working to accommodate Google TV and have agreed to optimize their streaming-video Web sites for the software. But as with anything in life, you’re never going to make everyone happy in any situation………
- Need another reason to hate Los Angeles Lakers forward Sasha Vujacic, guys? After all, the guy has the quintessential greasy, slicked-back soccer hair he keeps out of his face with a headband that looks more like a dirty shoelace than any headband I’ve ever seen. He wins NBA championship after NBA championship riding Kobe Bryant’s coattails and does little to nothing to contribute to those titles. on the court, he’s the ultimate agitator and the guy that opposing fans and players love to hate. But this……this takes his hateability to a new high. Vujacic has officially bagged the hottest player in all of women’s tennis and in my opinion, the hottest chick in women’s sports period, Russian tennis beauty Maria Sharapova. Vujacic reportedly proposed to her at his home in Manhattan Beach, Calif. with a massive engagement ring and since Sharapova has already been spotted out and about wearing the ring, it seems safe to assume that she said yes. Ironically, the engagement comes as Vujacic is doing what he usually does for the Lakers: nothing. He’s riding the bench and has been for several games now while recovering from a concussion. No word on whether he’ll be ready to go once the regular season begins, but I guess you can forgive the guy if he’s not all that stressed about getting back out on the court too soon, what with the nice consolation prize he can come home to……..
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