Yahoo Sports: Great timing.

Yahoo Sports broke a story about alleged NCAA violations coming from UCONN in the recruitment of a basketball player. Something about an ex-student turned agent blah blah blah.. go to Yahoo and read it. No link here.

Regardless it’s about a kid who doesn’t play for UCONN and I think the timing of this sucks. Way to try to tarnish a great NCAA tournament Yahoo Sports. You couldn’t wait a few weeks??? I don’t like UCONN in fact I hate them. But I just think that this story breaking now will undoubtably have an affect on guys who have absolutely nothing to do with it who are trying to win a National Title. I won’t go so far as to say it’s tasteless but it’s pretty obvious that Yahoo Sports is trying to steal some limelight from the greatest event in all of sports.

Makes me want to rip my Yahoo fantasy league… and yeah.. maybe hate UCONN a little more.

NO DOUBT

A.O. and Co. could give the Player of the Year fits.

The Big East is by far the best conference in the land. A record 5 teams in the Sweet 16 (could have been 6 if not for a baseline blunder). My personal bracket had Louisville and Pitt in the Finals but now I see UCONN and Villanova as my front runners. I think Syracuse could be a real sleeper if they can keep the pressure on defense and continue to shoot well. Blake Griffin is a beast but I think the combo of Jackson, Onuaku, and Ongenaet could give him fits. Not to mention the 2-3 collapsing down on him. UCONN and Nova just seem to be firing on all cylinders right now. I don’t think anyone in the West matchup well vs. the Huskies. Not sure if Duke has enough horses for Villanova. Should be an interesting game but I think Nova wins by at least 6. Pittsburgh doesn’t quite look like the team that dominated all year so I’m not ready to write them in. Louisville should have the easiest road but hasn’t impressed me thus far. I think Gonzaga will give UNC a tough matchup but I think the Tarheels will triumph in that contest. Either way..call me crazy but I love seeing a Cinderellaless Sweet 16 (Arizona is not a Cinderella) and it should be a great weekend of big power matchups in the tourney. My all Big East Final Four is still intact.

Stewart v. Cramer

If you haven’t seen Stewart roast Jim Cramer, CNBC and the crooks who did this on Wall Street then you need to. Well worth it.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/62203/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-thu-mar-12-2009

Shocker!

Sarah Palin’s pregnant teenage daughter was carted out with her boyfriend during the campaign to appear as a happy young couple. It comes as no shock that they are no longer together and have effectively “split“.

It was pretty obvious to me that this was a staged relationship. They plucked that dude right out of Alaska..slapped a sharp suit on him and said “you’re gonna love this girl.. do you understand?”
How relieved was he that the election went the other way?

awkward!

Current bracket predictions are stupid

By all accounts I’ve seen that the Big Ten will get the nod and have the most teams in the NCAA tournament. They aren’t even remotely the best conference in the country. In fact I’d say that they’re maybe the fifth best behind the Big East, the ACC, the Big 12, and the SEC. Yet somehow they’re looking to get 8 bids! Why? Because “they’re the most competitive league”?
Bullshit..whoever said that is a moron.. the Big Ten sucks.. They currently have 2 teams ranked in the Top 25…The Big East has 6. Michigan St. is ranked 7th while 3 Big East teams are in the top 5. Michigan St. beat Texas early. In my opinion their only big win of the season. The rest of the ranked opponents they played were from their own crappy conference. I hope they get 8 Big Ten terams into the first round and zero into the Sweet 16.

Steroids**

I’m ready to move on from the steroid issue in baseball and I have a solution. From this point forward anyone who has played baseball in the “Steroid Era” shall have an asterisk next to their name. Anyone who USED steroids should have at least two asterisks.. or a cross next to their names.
the single asterisk is actually a good thing because it will mean you were better because you played AGAINST steroid users. While anything besides the single asterisk means you did steroids and therefore hand an upper hand against the real athletes.

double asterisk

Message to the NRDC: Stop this!

Last year I made a donation to the NRDC. My mistake. I think it was to save a forest or the polar bear. What I didn’t think would happen is I’d be cutting trees down and making more trash. That’s just what my donation did. I know of no other organization or business in the world that sends out as much mail as the NRDC. I get more letters, newletters and general junk mail from the NRDC than all the car dealers and pizza shops put together.

But the worst part of it is since getting their mail I’m getting donation requests for up to 5 other environmental groups…Sierra Club, WWF, etc.

They’re all sending me large amounts of mail. Tons of paper. There’s no excuse.

Reprehensible

Whenever someone tries to sell you something and at the same time tells you not to ask any questions… “just buy it you need it”.. it’s pretty likely that you’re going to get screwed.

This is the case with the financial bailout. As we see companies like Merrill Lynch paying early bonuses of nearly $4 billion dollars. My bonus was cut in half this year and we had an decent year. What are these bonuses for? Obviously not for making the company money or they wouldn’t be in such a dire situation needing to sell to Bank of America. It’s obscene. There have been stories of redecorating offices.. Bank of America spent millions on sponsoring the Super Bowl this year.

The trouble in the financial markets has had no affect on the people who have gotten us into this mess. So far over $300 billion dollars have been paid out and as far as I can see there hasn’t been more lending.. there hasn’t been any job creation and people are still losing their homes.

This money would have been better served elsewhere.

As for Bernie Madoff. I think he deserves the death penalty. His scam has put countless lives in financial ruin. He stole from charities and pensions. There are at least two suicides that I know of that he is at the very least indirectly responsible for.
Why this man isn’t in prison is beyond me. It’s picture of American injustice. If you have money..you can stay out of jail. I say we burn him at the stake. If not death penalty.. I think someone who he cheated will have his number.
Serves him right.

Enough is Enough.

I’m no longer sympathetic to Israel. They are the big over-sized brother in the region that needs it’s mother (the US) to tell it to “knock it off”. I understand that cities near the border of Gaza are under constant threat of terrorist activity – and let’s be clear; random rocket launching is terrorist activity. You cannot justify killing this many civilians (including an alarming number of children). It’s disproportionate and absurd and I’m outraged. Just as I, as an American, cannot justify the killing of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan. YOU CANNOT CARPET BOMB FUCKING CITIES! You cannot drop ordinance on residential buildings. Especially in a region that has been forcefully isolated such as the Gaza Strip. Where is the humanity? God knows it has left the region.

Israel is obviously taking advantage of current US politics in the respect that we have a lame duck President that isn’t going to do shit and a President-elect who may not do shit initially for fear of setting a precedent for the rest of his administration. IT PISSES ME OFF. My answer would be to to threaten to turn off the spigot of US weapons and funds to Israel. We give them too much money that would be better served here anyway. Obviously a pipe dream under the current administration who unequivocally supports everything and anything Israel does to it’s neighbors. It’s in my opinion that Israel would like nothing more than to drive the Palestinian people into the Mediterranean Sea (which is what we’re watching today).

The Palestinian people are being persecuted. Where do they go??? Escape through tunnels into Egypt? There will NEVER be peace in that region. Children there who live through this horror (on both sides) won’t forget this.. and those who have lost so much will want nothing more than revenge. It’s a never ending cycle of hatred and violence.

It’s in my opinion that these people will never know peace.. namely because they know not what peace is.

UPDATE:
Apparently Israel is now declaring war on the UN and attacking refugees.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli forces shelled the United Nations headquarters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, setting fire to the compound filled with hundreds of refugees as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was in the region on a mission to end Israel’s devastating offensive against the territory’s Hamas rulers.

Utah Utes are my National Champion

Yes the BCS got it wrong this year and the Utah Utes are the national champion.
What about USC you might ask? Well, USC lost to Oregon State..Utah beat Oregon State so that argument is out the window. What about the BCS title matchup between Oklahoma and Florida? Both of those teams have one loss. Oklahoma lost to Texas who lost to Texas Tech who got beat up by Ole Miss in the Cotton Bowl.. and Ole Miss beat Florida.

Utah looked far better against ‘Bama than Florida did in the SEC title game.

So whatever.. Utah is undefeated and they’re number one. They played a decent schedule and beat a number of ranked teams. If they don’t get a large number of votes in the AP it’s a sham.

College football sucks without a playoff system. Who cares who wins on Thursday? Those teams are beaten.. Utah is the only unbeaten.

So congrats to the Utah Utes.. my 2009 National Champion!