Playoff Predictions

I had a message from Patriots Guy Sunday morning that said only, "Sixteen and oh. Ha, ha."

Granted, I don't like the Patriots much, but if there is a football team in history that I like less than the Pats, it is the 1972 Dolphins. With their little champagne celebrations and entitlement mentality towards the undefeated season as a record, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be rid of them forever.

If the Patriots win the Super Bowl, never again will football fans have to be afflicted with the obligatory mid-season story about the '72 squad toasting itself as the last undefeated team falls from the ranks. I envision the Pats as more graceful in victory and certainly less smarmy as historical figures.

My post-season predictions are:

Week one
Jacksonville over Pittsburgh
San Diego over Tennessee
Washington over Seattle
Tampa Bay over New York

Week two
Indianapolis over San Diego
New England over Jacksonville
Green Bay over Tampa Bay
Dallas over Washington

Week three
New England over Indianapolis
Green Bay over Dallas

Super Bowl
New England over Green Bay

This Guy Has No Patience

As much enjoyment as I get out of the fact that it was reporters in Huckabee's cross hairs, this is just stupid:

At one point, Huckabee’s party turned toward a cluster of reporters and cameramen and, when they kicked up a pheasant, fired shotgun blasts over the group’s heads.

He couldn't hold his wad long enough for a bird to clear? One can only wonder at what kind of leadership the country could expect.

Mother of Miscalculation

While literally at the outskirts of the Confederate capitol of Richmond Virginia, and upon hearing that Robert E. Lee would be replacing General Joe Johnston (wounded on May 31, 1982), Union General George McClellan had this to say:

"I prefer Lee to Johnston. The former is too cautious and weak under grave responsibility. Personally brave and energetic to a fault, he yet is wanting in moral firmness when pressed by heavy responsibility, and is likely to be timid and irresolute in action."

Like mine about last Sunday's T-Jack performance, McClellan's prediction about Lee's behavior could not have been more off. Less than a month later, Lee launched a series of bold attacks that, over a seven day period, drove McClellan east and south of Richmond. Ultimately the Army of the Potomac found itself cornered against the James River, albeit protected by gunboats.

Further evidence there was nothing timid about Lee, he then left McClellan there and took his Army of Northern Virginia north to threaten D.C., which forced McClellan to abandon his peninsula campaign and come to its defense. Following another bold ass-whuppin' at the "second battle of Manassas," Lee crossed the Potomac on Sept. 3 and invaded the north, which ended in defeat for him at Antietam, largely because McClellan had Lee's battle plans in his possession (they had been mislaid and discovered by a Union officer wrapped around some cigars).

Antietam remains to this day the single bloodiest day in American military history (including both sides). That's what it took to defeat Lee. And, although he retreated back to Virginia, Lee wasn't done humiliating Union commanders, like at Fredericksburg in December, and Chancellorsville the following Spring.

Lee proved to be the exact opposite of McClellan's perception. Perhaps that is why, three years later at the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, Lee was still around while McClellan had long since been cashiered.

"It Knows If You've Been Bad or Good..."

Global warming's "silver lining:"

...the future political map of America is likely to look as different as the much shrunken geographical map, with much of the so-called “red” state region either gone or depopulated.

Imagine all those helpless conservatives standing at the water's edge, paralyzed as global warming creeps forward by fractions of an inch per year, too stupid to get out of the way.

Totally unhinged lunatic author Dave Lindorff even accounts for evolution. Sooner or later, unless global warming happens like it does in the movies, conservatives are at least likely to figure this problem out, pick up stakes, and simply move. Says Dave: Don't let them in! No illegal global warming immigration!

There will be much work to be done to help the earth and its residents—human and non-human—survive this man-made catastrophe, and we can’t have these future refugee troglodytes, should their personal disasters still fail to make them recognize reality, mucking things up again.

Disguised as an innocent liberal victim of denialist policies, I'll be going to Lindorff's home town of Philadelphia, and I'll be BRINGING GLOBAL WARMING WITH ME!

BOO!

Merry Christmas

Via Instapundit, a 7-year old girl asks Mike Hukabee his favorite author, hilarity ensues:

Mr. Huckabee paused, then said his favorite author was Dr. Seuss.

In an interview afterward with the news media, Aleya said she was somewhat surprised. She thought the candidate would be reading at a higher level.

Merry Christmas all.

Nothing New Here

In keeping with the civil war theme started last week, it was just days ago Tom D. and I were discussing the political similarities between the civil war and today's struggle. As Shelby Foote noted, "treason" became a very common word after hostilities commenced in 1861.

Coincidently, Power Line is posting on the Democrat Party's platform for the 1864 presidential race, which pitted General George McClellan against Republican Abraham Lincoln. There are spooky similarities between the platforms of today and yesterday, which Scott Johnson encapsulates thusly:

The Democrats are saying 1) The war is lost; 2) Let's negotiate; 3) The Constitution is trashed; 4) They steal elections; 5) We support the troops.

Interestingly enough, the war would be over within a year of the 1864 election, a smashing victory for the north. In fact, it was all downhill, albeit slowly, for the south after the decisive victories of Vicksburg and Gettysburg in the summer of 1863. The union was restored, slavery abolished, and the Constitution survived quite nicely, thank you very much.

Reading the entire platform though, adds new depth to the phrase "going back to the old playbook."

Managing Expectations

A week ago T-Jack was unquestionably the Vikings quarterback of the future. The guy has one bad game and the ship jumping begins. Writes Boz:

I had a feeling TJ was going to have a bad nite. Jesus, he looked HORRIBLE. Seriously, Pat i am NOT sold on this kid. I just dont see him getting much better. 2 of those INT's were SO bad. Everyone else on the Offense looked pretty good, the recievers are still making great blocks downfield, the line did as well as can be expected against Da Bears even considering they have lots of injuries. Ap still needs to learn how to block though.

Looking beyond the atrocious grammar, clearly Mr. I-Could-Do-It-So-Much-Better is unsatisfied with the young Vikes QB, who,with all of 12 starts under his belt, was, until Monday night's exposure as a fraud, poised to general the Vikings to a 2007 Super Bowl championship, I guess.

Sure Jackson struggled, but he wasn't getting much help either. Contrary to Boz's "the O-line can do no wrong" groupie devotion, our husky stalwarts did not have a good game. Birk got man-handled all night, and failed to notice a blitzing linebacker twice, despite the fact that Urlacher was all but whispering in his ear.

Aside from the two picks (the third was Ferguson's fault), T-Jack had a career night with 249 yards, produced over 20 first downs despite our running backs barely producing 100 yards, and controlled the ball for 35 minutes.

So, if not for the bumbling of TJ, we would have smoked Da Bears. Granted a win is a win, but we didnt win, the bears lost. Can you imagine what we could do if we had a QB??!! If we could get Mcnabb next year we would be unstoppable.

McNabb? You have got to be freakin' kidding me. Without his running ability, McNabb is an only slightly improved version of Byron Leftwich. Trade our young, bound to improve quarterback with a great arm for the aging Chunky Soup guy? Boz. Dude. Wonder no longer at the injustice that you are not an NFL head coach.

Personally, I thought the Bears had their best defensive game of the year, and it was probably because it was do or die for them. Even with the Bears backs against the wall, the Vikings offense produced 372 total yards. Not bad against a defense that can make just about anybody inept when it feels like it.

I would like to give Tj another chance, but I just dont see it. I could be and hope I am wrong because we will NOT go after another QB next year, and TJ will be our starting QB. Anyways, guess we'll have to see how he does next week.

Prediction: Next week T-Jack, with the national stage jitters old news and a week to look at the film, will have a much improved game, and I will get an e-mail from Boz titled "We're going all the way baby!"

She's Got a Knife!

Ten-year-old uses knife to cut meat, is arrested:

"She did not use it inappropriately. She did not threaten anyone with it. She didn't pull it out and brandish it. Nothing of that nature," explained Marion County School Spokesman Kevin Christian.

Nevertheless, two teachers without a single ounce of common sense called the cops and the girl now faces a felony charge. There is no word if the school district plans to bring in grief counselors for the meat.

Virginia 1861

Finding it frustrating how many details I had forgotten about my favorite subject, the American civil war, I have decided to once again work my way through Shelby Foote's (his passing was noted briefly here) "The Civil War - A Narrative." I hope to post the occasional excerpt from this singular document of America's greatest and most terrible moment.

Here's what Foote had to say about Virginia as it was in the closing days of 1861:

Soon now, that hundred miles of Virginia with its glittering rivers and dusty turnpikes, its fields of grain and rolling pastures, the peace of generations soft upon it like the softness in the voices of its people, would be obscured by the swirl and bank of cannon smoke, stitched by the fitful stabs of muzzle flashes, until at last, lurid as the floor of hell itself, it would seem to have been made for war as deliberately as a chessboard was designed for chess.

For Want of a Whirligig

Joseph Laconte addresses the incredibly lame effort the U.N. has made in stopping the horror that is Darfur:

Perhaps better U.N. leadership would not have led to six months of fruitless negotiations with Jordan for helicopters ultimately deemed inadequate for the mission. Perhaps if the United Nations hadn't squandered billions of dollars in its Oil-for-Food scandal in Iraq, Ban wouldn't now be trolling for contributions for U.N. peacekeepers. Instead, we have the spectacle of the U.N. Secretary General begging for helicopters from states such as China--the Security Council member that arguably has done the most to block meaningful action to stop the bloodletting.

"We are at a critical point. Time is running out," Ban said last week. Ah, yes, the ticking clock: Two days later the Secretary General flew to Bali for a conference on climate change with Al Gore. The people of Darfur could wait.

Then again, Darfur might be bad, but the "earth has a fever. And the fever is rising." What could be worse the specter of "carbon summer."

Did I Say That?

It's not every day you're quoted in City Pages:

"Harris," he says flatly, "has become a punch line."

"Veteran" reporter no less. I'm moving up in the world.

Unimpressed

Hillary, dissed by her contemporaries:

For many, it's visceral. While they struggled to break through institutional barriers in the workplace, Clinton hitched her star to her man and followed him to the top. When his philandering imperiled his political career, she not only pulled him out of the fire but helped orchestrate attacks against his accusers.

Welcome to Hockeytown!

After concluding that Detroit, with poor attendance at Red Wings games, no longer deserves the moniker "Hockeytown U.S.A.," Sports Illustrated's Michael Farber analyzed three cities, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and St. Paul, to find a city deserving of the title. The decision to go with St. Paul should hardly be a surprise, but Farber notes that St. Paul is Hockeytown for much more than simply its devotion to the Wild:

The Wild has sold every ticket to every game since it entered the NHL as an expansion team in 2000, but it has never tried to bigfoot hockey in a city that was home to America's iconic coach, Herb Brooks; the No. 2 U.S.-born career NHL scorer, South St. Paul's Phil Housley; the only cartoonist to draw a Zamboni-driving bird, Charles Schulz; and the leading state high school tournament in the nation.

This is the unwritten hockey schedule in the Twin Cities: boys' hockey Tuesday night, girls' hockey Thursday night, the University of Minnesota Friday and Saturday nights. Boys and girls also play on Saturday afternoon. It is no coincidence that the Wild often plays on Wednesday and Sunday. This is a franchise respectful of the game, aware of its niche and almost obsequious in its treatment of fans.

Ya, as much as I love the Wild, nothing pisses me off more than when the Gophers get bumped on a Friday.

Kudos to Farber for recognizing what is apparently obvious to just about everybody, except the Twin Cities own Sid Hartman, who insists the Twin Cities is now basketball country.

Hey Sid, how's attendance at those Wolves games?

That's what I thought. Basketball town my arse.

Cut the Fat, Not the Meat

NBC's feeling it:

NBC boss Jeff Zucker is expected to make big cuts on the newsgathering and operational side of the company's news division, including eliminating an entire level of MSNBC's management team, in a bid to save between $20 million and $40 million, The Post has learned.

Sources inside or close to NBC yesterday claimed the cuts, which are expected to come down this week or next, will be weighted evenly between NBC News and MSNBC.

Now for the good news:

...the shows hosted by Chris Matthews, (and) Keith Olbermann...are sacrosanct and won't be affected by any of the cuts.

Whew.

The Intel Was Wrong Right

All this hand wringing over the Iran NIE is hilarious. One minute American intelligence agencies are incompetent (Iraq) and the next they are geniuses (Iran). Am I the only one with the feeling that Democrats weigh the value of intelligence strictly by inherent political value?

Joe Biden's heavy breathing takes the cake. Bush is a liar! He knew! He's an incompetent liar! What a joke.

Somebody tell Biden that intelligence does change from time to time, especially intel this sensitive and difficult to acquire. Someone might also tell Biden that national intelligence agencies might be a tad gun shy about making solid conclusions after Iraq intel failures were politicized so. This line, from an IHT article, would seem to bolster that conclusion:

...at the same time officials were airing ... dire warnings, analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency were secretly concluding that Iran's nuclear weapons work halted years ago and that international pressure on the Islamic regime in Tehran was working. (Emphasis mine)

Harry "I'm My Own Punchline" Reid reaches this conclusion:

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, portrayed the assessment as "directly challenging some of this administration's alarming rhetoric about the threat posed by Iran."

Let's be clear: Iran is still enriching uranium, is still estimated to have a nuke in the next decade, is still providing arms and insurgents in Iraq, and threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Nothing to be alarmed about there. No sir. Time to start singing Kum-bay-yah while we dance around the May pole.

It would seem to me that the NIE is excellent news, if it is correct. Israel is taking it with a grain of salt and even believes Iran's nuke program has been reconstituted. Who knows? But suggesting that, since there is no immediate nuke threat from Iran, it is somehow benign, is just ridiculous.

Sure to Enrage Reality-Based Community

Many are getting enjoyment out of the fact that Jack Murtha has admitted he was dead wrong about the surge. Frankly, I'm surprised whenever a Democrat admits it, and would never have imagined Murtha would make that admission.

But that he has only makes Harry Reid, who, as recently as this week continued to insist the surge has not worked, look even sillier than usual.

Not that making Harry Reid look silly takes much effort.

All Inclusive

What would Christmas be without some lunatic running around protecting a tiny minority of people from being offended by the word "Christmas?" Well, it wouldn't be Christmas, that's for sure.

The Arquette sisters have a solution sure to make easily offended Wisconsin atheists happy:

Change Christmas to If-Only-Mary-Had-A-Choice-Nine-Months-Earlier-Mas