NBA Playoffs & Other News

I'm having a good laugh about these playoffs. If I had to bet, I'd put quite a bit of money on the Cavs winning it all. I see that Yao Ming broke his foot. Does anyone know where David Stern was when that happened? I'm guessing that the NBA would very much like to see a Kobe-LeBron matchup in the finals. Can't let those damned Rockets get in the way. But the most interesting part has been the fouls. Rajon Rondo makes no effort at the ball, hits Brad Miller upside the head and doesn't get a flagrant foul called. Which meant a dazed Miller could only be substituted for the choice of Boston's coach and it wouldn't be two shots and the ball as if it was flagrant. The defense of the call was that it was in the closing seconds and only the most blatant should be called. Okay. Then at the end of the latest Dallas/Denver game, a Dallas player was swiping at Denver's Carmelo Anthony in the last few seconds of the game to get a non-shooting foul. Nothing was called and Anthony hit a last second three for the win. Dallas complained because they thought the foul should have been called. It was a foul, but pretty tame. Which do they want? Hold the whistle at the end of the game or not?

Thought this was interesting. The University of Missouri is requiring journalism students to have an iTouch or iPhone. They say they are doing it because by making it a requirement, students can include it on a financial aid which I think it pretty stupid. If you've got a computer, you can re-watch it on iTunes so why should the federal government be buying iPods for students? And I like my iPod, but why shaft an incoming student who has another mp3 player and isn't on financial aid by making them buy one?

And come to think of it, why do they still have journalism school? Newspapers are dying. Local TV news hires former beauty queens and network news hires former Democratic aides. I only get the paper if I feel like doing the crossword puzzle or seeing what ad specials are out for strip clubs. I used to think newspapers were declining because of the absence of Calvin and Hobbes, but now I think it's more than that. The internet is definitely taking a toll, and the newspapers weren't sure how to handle it. But I think it's more than that. The business structure sucks. The Louisville Courier-Journal has a full time reporter in Washington DC (they call him a bureau) which makes no sense because most of their national news is pulled from the AP wire. Newspapers routinely send sportswriters to cover the Final Four or Super Bowl whether or not there is a local angle. Why? Just pick up a national feed. That's just wasting money. I'm not all that concerned with the loss of newspapers. If they were smart, they'd go to fewer days of the week and be smaller to save money. Most of what's in them comes from wire services so I can read it online before it gets printed. Major local stories also hit the local TV news before they get in the paper. So, go with a three or four day a week tabloid with in-depth local news. Not that they've shown an ability to do that as it is. The Boston Globe was almost closed because it's losing millions of dollars a week. So, how did they cover a story in their own backyard? They ignored it and based the story from Kentucky. Yep, newspapers are vital for local coverage.

If you're a cop and dating an ex-con, maybe you should re-think that one. A Florida deputy threw away a 21 year career because his wife took her mother and some teenage dude on a joyride in his patrol car. Looking at his wife's picture, I'm sure he could have done better. Although she seems adept at picking up 19 year old losers.

A 15 year old girl was spray tanned naked by a man running the tanning salon. Now Indiana is in an uproar (and blaming Kelvin Sampson, I assume) because they discovered that it isn't illegal. I'm shocked. I could learn how to do that. Uh, I mean that this is a travesty and must be made illegal immediately.

Imagine that. CIA agents don't trust Barack Obama because they think releasing the interrogation memos stabbed them in the back. So, basically, they don't want to do anything they can be second guessed on. Which I'm sure will make us safer. The whole argument over waterboarding is getting ridiculous. It must not have been torture because torture is illegal. If waterboarding is torture, Obama would not have needed to sign an executive order banning it. It would have already been illegal. Or since we've heard stories that the CIA was using it several years ago, why didn't Democratic Congressmen introduce a bill directly banning it. Especially since while Nancy Pelosi is lying about it, it's pretty obvious she knew it was going on. At the very least, she thought it was legal. And do I really care about the three scumbags getting waterboarded for info? Considering who they were, I wouldn't care if they were waterboarded for fun. As for the argument that the U.S. doing that to them helped Al-Qaeda recruit, that's laughable. Al-Qaeda chops the heads off of electrical contractors for fun. Do you really think they find harsh interrogations to be offensive? If anything, telling them what they may go through if captured will spur recruitment. They know they don't have to fear anything now.

There was a story awhile back questioning whether a boob job will help lawyers get ahead. I don't think it'd help men too much, but it probably wouldn't hurt women. Now, we get some woman in Australia who had her legs broken in four places so they could be stretched and she'd gain three inches of height. She thinks that will help her legal/political career. I'm not so sure since it's come out that she did that. I broke my arm once. In one place. I didn't like it. I don't think I'd be so quick to hire a nutsack like that.

Ah, England. They released a list of people banned from traveling to their politically correct country. It had skinheads, hamas leaders and radio host Michael Savage. Now, I'm not a Savage fan. I find his voice to be grating and he intentionally stirs up stuff, but so what? I've never heard him advocate going around killing people. What makes it worse is that he wasn't even planning to go there so some bureaucrat just decided arbitrarily to keep him out. Actually what makes it worse is that person just got dinged for expensing her husbands porno movies. Wait. That's not right. The absolute worst part is these are the people they let come in and stay. Frankly, I don't find Michael Savage to be that dangerous. But we are talking about a country that has become so retarded that arresting a 10 year old for using a playground insults results in more criticism of the judge for letting him go than for the idiots who arrested him.

When talking about the Somali pirates recently, I expressed concerns about the present administration following up with action against the pirates. And it looks like I was right. A Navy vessel was attacked by some pirates. And ran. Shouldn't the Navy be engaging pirates who attack them?

At a DC food bank, Michelle Obama was seen wearing a pair of $540 sneakers. Now, I don't really care what she wears. Hell, I became a cynic when I was in college volunteering at a meal center. I'm wearing a pair of Converse sneakers (not Chuck Taylors which go in and out of style but the cheapo sorta leather ones) and serving free food to someone wearing a pair of Nike Air Jordans. But I can imagine how different the reaction would have been if Laura Bush had shown up to help the poor wearing those things. Actually, my first thought is what the Hell makes those things worth $540?

Why can't Johnny read? It's a question I've tried to answer many times. And I keep getting new reasons. The latest is the LA school system where firing a teacher is almost impossible. Surprisingly the LA Times had a long article that actually seemed to oppose teacher's unions on this. Basically, a teacher has to do a lot to get fired and not be reinstated on appeal. The part that really got me was where they investigated some instances where a teacher's firing was overturned. One of them was fired for keeping "pornography, marijuana and vials with cocaine residue at school." And reinstated. Why wasn't he in jail?

The Count of Monte Cristo would be proud. A woman decided to get revenge against some woman whose daughter got into a fight with her daughter or something. Since it was between 9 year olds, this was obviously the mature action. She set up a sex ad on Craigslist and directed the people who sent an email to call the other woman who apparently wasn't happy about getting so much action. The problem is that she must have done it from her home computer and got caught. Idiot.

Ah, who says dumpster sex isn't the best sex? A man and woman were caught doing it in the bottom of a dumpster. I thought I was cheap. And if they couldn't afford a room, couldn't they do it behind the dumpster? I'm very disappointed in the police who responded. They let the woman go. I don't really care about her behavior, but if she'd been arrested, there would be a mug shot and we could see what kind of woman agrees to have sex in a dumpster.

I'll be traveling for work in the coming weeks so I may not get my Preakness predictions in. Unlike a lot of Preaknesses, several Derby horses are entering it. Gee, I wonder why. I'm taking the filly. Assuming Rachel Alexandra makes it into the field. The owner of Mine That Bird was going to enter another horse just to keep her out (gee, I wonder why) and freely admitted it. Then he changed his mind. Probably because he realized what a gutless douche he was being. Or more likely didn't really want to pay the entry fee for his second horse, and D. Wayne Lukas was going to drop his second horse if it kept Rachel Alexandra out. Oh well, maybe he can just bribe someone instead.