Regular season winding down, championships and bowl games on the horizon.

UCLA sorta made a game of it last night in the Pac-12 championship game, Oregon 49 UCLA 31. Kinda like I sorta made a passing grade in organic chemistry (49).

So close.

Ranked action today includes Southern Miss (24) against Houston (7), Georgia (12) at LSU (1), VA Tech (5) against Clemson (21), OU (13) vs. Okla. St. (3), and Wisconsin (15) at Mich. St. (11).

Texas coming off their big win against A&M last Thursday night will play Baylor in Waco. Turnovers and penalties will decide it, supposed to be rainy and messy all day.

Don't miss Gabe's Bedlam post later tonight, around gametime, OU and OSU. Earlier he made the case for OSU and the BCS game. I predict, frustration.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 08:00 AM | Comments (98)
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Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as "bad luck."

-R.A. Heinlein

Posted by: Open Blogger at 03:50 AM | Comments (431)
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I know we all hate how the BCS is set up for College Football. Now imagine if we used the BCS formulas to determine the rankings for WWII. BCS Declares Germany The Winner Of World War II.

"Germany put together an incredible number of victories beginning with the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland and continuing on into conference play with defeats of Poland, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. Their only losses came against the US and Russia; however considering their entire body of work--including an incredibly tough Strength of Schedule--our computers deemed them worthy of the #1 ranking."

Questioned about the #4 ranking of the United States the BCS commissioner stated "The US only had two major victories--Japan and Germany. The computer models, unlike humans, aren't influenced by head-to-head contests--they consider each contest to be only a single, equally-weighted event."

Posted by: CDR M at 06:00 PM | Comments (768)
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It's coming down to this?

Or this?

Really? more...

Posted by: andy at 03:55 PM | Comments (405)
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Bellwether, schmellwether.
There is one consistant pattern that has lasted since both parties existed and nominated candidates for President.
more...

Posted by: CAC at 03:14 PM | Comments (185)
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Not an endorsement, she says, but a clarification to the record: Mitt Romney didn't flip-flop on gay marriage, she says, and is not responsible for its passing the legislature in Massachusetts.

Did I say passing the legislature? Of course that's not what happened; the Supreme Judicial Court imposed it, despite the fact that Massachusetts' constitution specifically states that laws of marriage are up to the legislature alone.

Posted by: Ace at 12:38 PM | Comments (217)
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Huntsman has already declined to participate, tweeting that he'll be eating popcorn as he watches Gingrich and Romney suck up to Trump.

Now Trump says, essentially, candidates will in fact be competing to be named the Political Apprentice.

"I will be probably endorsing somebody right after the debates."

I think that's probably a step too far, aggrandizing Trump at the expense of men (and one woman) who probably don't wish to be emasculated on live tv, since they're running to be Commander in Chief, and all.

Plus it just turns it into a chintzy game show.

I imagine Huntsman won't be the only one dropping out.

And didn't he do this to the Democrats in 2004?

Posted by: Ace at 11:54 AM | Comments (177)
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Mother Jones attempts to sour social cons on Gingrich with a headline titled "How Newt Gingrich Saved Porn."

The article is about him blocking a massive censorship regime in the earliest days of the internet (back in 1995, 1996) that could have penalized someone who simply wrote one of the "seven dirty words" with two years in jail and a $100,000 fine.

Obviously, Mother Jones should be thanking Gingrich, as the leftist Mother Jones is obviously hostile towards that idea.

But of course Gingrich is the Designated Villain, as Gabe says, so the article gets an over-the-top hit-piece headline.

"Barbarian pornographers are at the gate and they are using the internet to gain access to the youth of America," warned Sen. Jim Exon (D-Neb.).

To fend off the barbarians, Exon introduced an amendment to the Communications Decency Act criminalizing the transmission of "indecent" materials over the internet. In case any stone remained unturned, it went after internet service providers as well: Email or distribute nude photos—or even just type one of the "seven words you can't say on television"—and you could face a $100,000 fine or up to two years in prison.

To illustrate the danger of internet porn, Exon compiled an album of graphic images he'd found on the web—including one of a man engaging in intercourse with a German shepherd—in a blue binder with a red "caution" sticker, and invited his colleagues to take a look.

Exon's measure passed the Senate with 86 votes. The appeal was clear: No elected official wanted to be seen as voting for smut. The Contract With America—Republicans' promise to voters in advance of their landslide win in the 1994 elections—had even contained a provision vowing to crack down on child pornography.

That's where Gingrich came in.

To the House speaker, the debate presented a clash between his desire to prepare America for the 21st century and his conservative values. Gingrich, by his own description, was a "conservative futurist." He envisioned honeymoons in space and laptops in every classroom; the Exon amendment, by casting such a wide net, threatened that future.

Gingrich was right that Exon's bill was extremely broad. As Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) pointed out in a particularly inspired floor speech, the law could even have criminalized the online distribution of Gingrich's first novel, 1945, in which a "pouting sex kitten"—who is also a Nazi—seduces a White House aide in order to extract classified information. It would also have prohibited most non-Will Smith forms of hip-hop.

"[The amendment] is clearly a violation of free speech and it's a violation of the right of adults to communicate with each other," Gingrich said at the time. "I don't agree with itÂ…" In an interview with British journalist David Frost, he elaborated on his position. "I think there you have a perfect right on a noncensorship basis to intervene decisively against somebody who would prey upon children. And that I would support very intensely. It's very different than trying to censor willing adults."

That was previously a controversial position. That, too, has changed.

Posted by: Ace at 11:36 AM | Comments (128)
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"Science."

The alleged revelation by a female teacher happened during a geography class Tuesday at George W. Miller Elementary School.

When the 7-year-olds told her they knew about the North Pole because of its white-bearded inhabitant, she reportedly responded that Santa did not exist and that Christmas presents were bought by their parents.

The alleged incident has touched off a commotion in the small school district. All day Thursday the school and district offices fielded questions about the incident.

And it's going on in London, too.

The arrogance.

And the falsity, of course. Obviously Santa exists. NORAD tracks him on Christmas Eve, after all.

The blunder came after the Year 5 pupils were given seasonal worksheets containing various festive classroom exercises.

One began by informing the children that 'many small children believe in Father Christmas'.

It then went on to explain that thousands of letters sent by these children to Santa every year are actually answered by the Post Office.

The youngsters were then asked to write a pretend letter from the Post Office to a child explaining why their requests for presents had been refused.

And this is actually the second outburst of what I like to call Santa Denialism in a week:

Last week a primary school teacher was sacked for telling her young class that Santa does not exist.

The supply teacher apparently decided the pupils - some as young as nine - were too old to believe in Father Christmas.

The teacher, who has not been named, is believed to have told the class at Boldmere Junior School, in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands: "All of you are old enough to know there is no Father Christmas or fairies.

If you ask your parents to tell you they will say there is no such thing.

Amanda Piovesana, whose daughter is in Year 5, said: "I am upset because it has taken away a magical part of Christmas for my daughter and a teacher should not have the right to do that. My little girl was very upset."

Some teachers seem to overestimate their exact place in the childrearing chain of command.

And In Chicago... a news-reader proclaims his Santa Denialism on-air as well.

Posted by: Ace at 10:37 AM | Comments (448)
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She's talking about Sarah Palin, knocking her, and saying that Michele Bachmann is the thinking man's Palin.

I don't care what she says. As Newt Gingrich might say, "And you are...?"

What I care about is how she says it.

“I famously said a statement earlier where I said Michele Bachmann was the poor man’s Sarah Palin. I am completely wrong. This is the thinking man’s Sarah Palin.”

"I famously..."

It wasn't famous. The word you're looking for, bubble-head, is "notoriously," I guess, except no one except you would believe that statement gained any notoriety.

The word you probably actually mean is "once." Like, "I once said."

But your brain skips over the right word, even though it's the easy, obvious word. Because you babble like a baby.

"...said a statement..."

What? I am literally laughing out loud.

What language are you speaking?

Right before giving this interview, did someone shoot you in the head with an Idiot Gun?

You "said a statement"?

You "famously said a statement"?

Wait, you're a paid professional writer and commentator, right? I mean, you're not just some guy collecting bets in a cockfighting bar, right? You're paid specifically to string English words together into sensible patterns, right?

"I am completely wrong."

This is more subtle, but the proper way any native English speaker would say this is "I was wrong," as she's referring, of course, to a previous belief, no abandoned and repudiated; obviously she thinks she's currently right.

This is what a non-native speaker of English might say, and then you'd explain it to him, and he'd say "Ah yes, I see I see."

There are millions of people who can't speak or write in America. Including supposedly native speakers.

But you don't see them as paid analysts on TV very often. Or as paid columnists.

And the funny thing is, her big rap on Palin is that Palin hasn't earned the outsized influence she's been granted.

Or, as Meghan McCain might say, I famously once said a statement that Meghan McCain is a sillyass goof and a half.

More: I didn't even see the rest of the horror show.

“I think she’s… this is going to get me in trouble, but I actually think she’s just more smarter,” explained McCain.

“I think that she’s more um, you know, on foreign policy, I mean I just think all the things she’s done, the debates, I’ve been very impressed,” continued McCain, “and I just think she’s older and more established, and you know, she’s been a member of Congress for a very long time.”

JWF dryly adds:

Bachmann has been in Congress since 2007.

Anytime someone proclaims you "more smarter," well, I consider that accolade to be on the plane of the Nobel Prize.

Meghan McCain is like the Jigsaw of sensible expression. She puts words into grueling death traps of perverse design and you're on tenterhooks wondering which parts of the language will survive.

Posted by: Ace at 10:03 AM | Comments (290)
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