Thursday, November 30, 2000

Beliefs Of The Presidents

Interesting reading for election season: the religous beliefs of the Presidents. (via TU) I didn't know we had a Quaker, Hoover, or that only one was Congregationalist, Coolidge -- I don't know why I thought there would've been more (or why it would matter at all to anyone), just because I think of Congregationalists being concentrated in New England and down the Atlantic coast (I don't know if that is or ever was true) and because there would be a disproportionate number of President's from that 'hotbed' of Congregationalism, I guess.

Man, we're not going to have any readers left if the rest of the collective doesn't start posting about something interesting ...

Oh, by the way, Mega bought a car yesterday. A 2000 Accord. Be sure and ask him about the "puck" in the trunk. I think we can convince him to try to exchange it. This is the guy who won't buy a box of cereal unless the packaging is in pristine condition, never touched by human hands.

Wednesday, November 29, 2000

Do We Really Need The Electoral College?

Is a government policy or institution racist if it is designed to give one part of the population an advantage over another when the part of the country given the advantage is primarily white and the disadvanted part is largely non-white? If it were, I'm wondering if that wouldn't be an argument to do away with the electoral college, which seems to give more weight to the vote of rural voters than urban voters? I looked around online for articles about discriminatory lending policies that I thought might apply, but didn't have any luck. I found a bunch of stuff about apportionment -- a whole 'nother can of worms, but not much that seemed relevant. Finally, I did find case law (Gray v. Sanders) which addresses Georgia's version of the electoral college, the county unit system, for primary elections. Part of the decision reads:

In other words, the District Court did not proceed on the basis that in a statewide election every qualified person was entitled to one vote and that all weighted voting was outlawed. Rather, it allowed a county unit system to be used in weighting the votes if the system showed no greater disparity against a county than exists against any State in the conduct of national elections. [emphasis mine] ... We agree with the District Court that the action of this party in the conduct of its primary constitutes state action within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment.

I know we live in a republic and that institutions like the electoral college (and the senate, which also gives states disproportionate representation) have been around since day one, but still ... doesn't it just seem wrong? The Senate is balanced by the House, but in electing a President, what balances the disproportionate representation of the smaller midwestern states?

Hopefully, after suffering under 4 dismal years of the Shrub's reign, something'll change.

Tuesday, November 28, 2000

Count Them All

A David Alterman article that sums up my personal reaction to the election mess. Gore would be the winner if all the votes were counted, and all the votes actually counted, but Bush is in a position to steal the election with the complicity of the newsmedia.

Friday, November 24, 2000

Play Ollie

One UCONN player I'd like to see do well in the NBA is Kevin Ollie, who once again seems to have only a tenuous hold on a roster spot, this year it's with the Nets. I saw Kevin play for the Mav's in a preseason game against the Bucks before last season and he looked great. I'm sure he was working 10 times harder than anyone else that night trying to make the team, for all the good it did him (he eventually wound up on the bench in Philly, I think).

Rip It Up

Continuing to track UCONN players in the NBA: Rip Hamilton is getting some attention at THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE WASHINGTON WIZARDS. Averaging over 12 points a game (woo-hoo!) and handing out turkeys to the underpriviliged -- who are mysteriously referred to as the "underserved" in the article. I notice Rip is hitting treys at a .400 clip -- not too shabby -- and he's been the high scorer for the team 3 times. Still, the Wizards, like the Bulls are a crap team and he's not likely to get much, if any, national TV time, so odds are I won't get to see him play.

Khalid In The NBA

Cruising around checking out how former UCONN players are doing in the NBA, I see Khalid El-Amin hasn't scored in double digits very often (3 times in 12 games) and has been cold from the field recently. Not exactly setting the league on fire. I wasn't able to find anything written about him at the Sun-Times, they must not give to much ink to bench/role players. Elton Brand looks like the only bright spot on a pretty awful team. In Brand and Pfizer they have some good forwards going into the future, but without a center to anchor that frontcourt, they are pathetic. Too bad Voskuhl's hurt, heh.

Bushisms

J.R., this one's for you: Bushisms.

X-Men Easter Egg

X-Men DVD Easter Egg: Spider Man cameo. Instructions for how to get at it are in the review Comments section.

UCONN v. Duke (Replay)

TV pick of the night: UCONN v. Duke 1999 NCAA final is on ESPN Classic at 9pm. My vote for best college b-ball game ever played. It was supposed to be the Duke Invitational, nobody was going to challenge them. The whole time UCONN held the number 1 spot during the season, there was griping in the media about how Duke was the better team. Supposedly, nobody had an answer for Elton Brand. It turned out nobody had an answer for Ricky Moore (in the first half) or Rip Hamilton (in the second).

It was too ironic that I met a girl out at the bar watching UCONN beat Gonzaga (I was the only UCONN fan there, she was a friend of the only Gonzaga fan there) who was a huge Duke fan. Despite that, we got on pretty well and she ended up coming over to watch the final game. I don't think I was rude that night (though I did site the Rod Sellers elbow to Laettner's head as one of the greatest moments in sports history), but we never went out again ... Duke fans are so thin-skinned (and stupid). Additional evidence, I was pretty loaded that night at Damon's that night and my 'line' (if you can call it a 'line' when you use it loudly and on everyone you meet) was: "Lookit my ass! Look at it, dammit!!!" (I was wearing a UCONN warmup shirt with "UCONN" in big letters across my butt.

Wednesday, November 22, 2000

Turkeys

ESPN.com's Turkeys of theYear. Rocker heads up the list, but I would've gone with the US men's 4x100 relay team, who made #2 on the list. Rocker made an jerk of himself on the US baseball stage, the relay team utilized the world stage for their antics.

Tuesday, November 21, 2000

Not Even For Tom

Saw a preview for the D&D movie -- forget what I said earlier, it looks like crap on a stick. I'll pass.

Hope For Gore?

Get ready for the Republican moaning and groaning to reach a crescendo. The Fla. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of allowing the vote counting to continue. Based on what's been reported (and we all know how reliable that can be) Gore's gaining ground and may take the lead.

Four The Elf

Looking for a reason to see the critically drubbed "Dungeons & Dragons" when it comes out? Tom Baker (the fourth Doctor) as the Elf King is reason enough for me.

Monday, November 20, 2000

Can Caron Rip It Like Rip?

Kiss that #12 ranking good-bye: UConn lost to Dayton, 80-66. Calhoun says: "With Caron and Souleymane we might have only lost by eight or 10." I hate to say it, but this has all the earmarks of a rebuilding year: no starpower with Khalid gone and no indication Mouring is going to step up to be a leader on the team. They'll win when Ajou Deng and Souleymane are hot and we'll just have to wait and see if Caron Butler can fill the Rip Hamilton/Ray Allen role.

Thursday, November 16, 2000

Husky News Source

McD's UConn Huskies Hoops News: College basketball is gearing up. I'm sure most of you have this bookmarked by now, but I thought I post it just in case ...

Election 2000

Speaking of robotic feces hurling simians, do we know which guy is our next president yet?

Monkey-Controlled Robots

I wasn't excited about this article when I saw the headline at the Drudge Report, but when I actually went to it and saw that it was monkey brain waves (!) controlling the robot ... well then I knew that science was finally doing something productive. Imagine the possibilities of monkey-controlled giant robots ...

Instead of paying attention in class, I'm thinking of a scenario:

Scientist -- "Organic monkeys are not bad at throwing their feces, but really ... why settle for relatively small, inaccurately thrown feces balls when we could have giant robotic monkeys hurling giant robot feces with the force of a cannon and the precision of Pedro Martinez?"

Gov't Official -- "You're mad! Mad, I say. How can you be sure you'll keep control of the monkey robots?"

Scientist -- "We can't be sure, or even realistically expect it, but the march of progress demands we ignore the peril and complete the process just because we can. Bring me Koko the Gorilla and fire up the Robototron 2000 ..."

Wednesday, November 15, 2000

ProjectCensored.org

ProjectCensored.org: exploring and publicizing the extent of censorship in the corporate media. Their resource guide is a good list of alternative media.

Not Nader's Fault

An article by Doug Ireland (not from Salon.com, anticipating Eleni's concern) arguing Nader shouldn't be blamed for Gore's loss. A complement to the most recent Boneyard article.

Excelsior

The Official Excelsior Campaign Website: George Takei needs work. (link courtesy Mark V.)

Tuesday, November 14, 2000

I've Been Warned About D'Souza

Sci Fi Wire -- Buffy Reveals Spike's Origins: decent way to spend a rainy Tuesday night.


p.s. Thanks for the alerts on that Dinesh guy, I should've known better than to take a book review in the WSJ at face value.

WSJ Reading Reco

Note to self: add to reading list "The Virtue of Prosperity" by Dinesh D'Souza.

Monday, November 13, 2000

In What Alternate Universe Does George Will Live?

George Will is certifiably insane. In what world did he live in where there was a "powerful media bias" for Gore? The media did everything it could to prop up the Bush campaign which, by the way, should have toppled under the weight of his scandalous background and mind-boggling stupidity.

Wednesday, November 8, 2000

Way To Go, Dead Guy!

Not to be disrespectful, but when a dead guy wins an election ... what do they do? Stick a battery up his ass and put some extra makeup on him before he makes an appearance? Or is it like one of those Weekend at Bernie's movies where his aides prop him up, wave his arms for him, etc.? Say, if a dead guy ran for president and won the electoral college vote, would he still be entitled to secret service protection?

Electoral College, Can We Do Away With It Yet?

Will Gore declare open season on the Electoral College system if he loses despite the popular vote?

Tuesday, November 7, 2000

Monday, November 6, 2000

Quick Hitter Reviews

Quick hitter reviews -- The Simpson's: bad. (Halloween ep. was good though.) Charlie's Angels: good. Forgetting basic rules of grammar like when to use "who" vs. "whom": bad.

Blinkered Vision

The Economist is endorsing the Shrub. They believe he's less likely to become protectionist in the event of an economic downturn. That's an awfully narrow focus to take when determining whom to endorse.

Wednesday, November 1, 2000

Chicken Entrails And Such

An article about those "quirky" non-poll based election predictors. They're split on Bush v. Gore: the direction of the market favors Gore, the Redskins home loss to the Titans points to Bush.

Yo La Tengo Coming

Check it out kids: Yo La Tengo will be in the area soon! (The area being Providence.) That Dec 1 date at Lupo's is looking pretty good.

Gore 1, Bush 0

I know the polls are tight, but I'm standing by my prediction -- Gore will win. If the polls are correct and the race is really as tight as it appears (and I think the margin of error is inflating Bush's numbers), I think the Nader vote is going to evaporate on election day when the fear of a Bush planet seizes his supporters and Gore will inherit their votes. That's my hunch.
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