EW’s Trash Talk – JoePa Is Washed Up; Long Live JoePa!
A good deal of bloviating, hand wrenching and general tut tutting was done in the previous off season for NCAA football over Joe Paterno. He is old. He has lost it. His team is out of control. The Nittany Lions are mediocre and must move on to a new era. Blah, blah, blah.
The cognoscenti were saying that in 2004 too. So what did JoePa do? Ripped off an 11-1 season capped by an Orange Bowl victory over Florida State and rival Bobby Bowden, that’s what. Followed by two consecutive 9-4 seasons. Don’t fuck with JoePa. It just makes him mad. So what did the the self proclaimed football gurus and gods do? They fucked with JoePa. Predictable result; JoePa and the Lions are now 9-0 and just walked out of the Horseshoe in Columbus having killed the local horse, The Ohio State University. And to think, you usually have to wait for a major bowl game for Ohio State to tank. Christmas comes early this year!
Took a day off yesterday to enjoy a truly spectacular day of the kind of weather and beauty that makes one realize why they live in Arizona and why the summer heat is worth the pain. Trash it up people. Take the hammer out and hit something will ya? I find that teh Big 10 11 is always a fun place to start. Here is a sample; kind of like a sourdough starter kit for football fans, to get you going.
Wow, the Trojans sure beat down the Wolverweenies yesterday in the Big House. Oh, wait, those were just the Spartans, not the Trojans. When Michigan is making Michigan State look like USC, on the home turf in Ann Arbor, you know times are tough.
See, it’s easy!
(Today’s music video is a reminder that there just ain’t nothin like Magic Dick on the lickin stick)
We were watching the game last night and my eleven year old almost had cardiac arrest when the camera settled on someone wearing one of those JoePa masks in the stands. They really need a warning system for when they’re about to show something that disturbing.
OT, but…
We went to Obama’s Albuquerque rally last night. KOS has hi-lites. It was really something, I think a night I’ll remember for a long, long time.
The sheer magnitude of this thing (local estimates had crowd closer to 55k), the enthusiasm, it all captured the frustration & pain from & yrs. of daily laments watching BushCo 8 yr crime spree, current massive econ woes, and in particular all the many times it seemed common sense would rally US public to a reckoning only to see these guys grow another head like a hydra…
For me and I know almost everyone else I was with and around, all the details just kind’a flowed into a hugely persuasive wave of massive seachange, and a tangeable sense this wave is gon’a wash away a lot of filth in a lot of ways. Politically, the most positively overwhelming single event I’ve ever witnessed. Not just because of Obama, but the singularly harmonious unison of a crowd that made a statement no parsing pundit could undo.
Some games of interest in the National Favre League (and it’s not KC at the Jets). Biggest question: do the Titans become the first to become the dominant favorite to win their division tomorrow? I’m guessing, since it’s a home game for the Titans, Peyton will throw at least two picks.
Peyton’s brother travels to a tough destination this week, too: Heinz field. The Giants are good this year; Pittsburgh is inconsistently good. I’m guessing it’ll come down to a hard-to-kick-in-this-stadium-especially-in-crummy-weather field goal.
Dallas doesn’t look like the superbowl bound team everyone thought they’d be this year, but they are at home this week. Thing is, they’re playing the Defensive Bucs, some of whom actually remember playing with Brad Johnson back in the day. I expect he’s going to look even older than he did last week agaist the Bucs.
And the most interesting game of the day: Drew Brees against the team that ditched him–in London. randiego always tells us about how badly SD does when they travel to the East Coast–how will they hold up traveling 6 hours further? I’m guessing Brees will have some fun today.
j geils band.. i get a kick out of the connection with music and sports..
My, my, my. Some serious trash being thrown at the Big Ten here.:
Well, it’s a fair complaint–we don’t do well playing in warm climes come January.
We, as a Division. JoePa teams, however, have been known to surprise a team or two.
Yes, and to be entirely fair, Vandy losing to Duke yesterday didn’t exactly enhance the out of conference picture for the SEC, either.
And who would have thought that Cutcliffe’s Blue Devils would have won with defense? Must have been a tough Homecoming for the Commodores.
Hey, I was at that game! Penn State killed the overly cocky Hurricanes. Just killed them. One of the best 48 hours of hard partying, drunken football rambles ever known to man. Flew into LA for New Years Eve, stayed up all night doing all kinds of things (managed to do our best Who impression and busted up our room at the Westin Bonaventure to the tune of about $300 they sent us the bill for), stalked the whole Rose Bowl scene outside the stadium for a few hours before the game (It is just gorgeous around the Bowl, and the party there is really unbelievably cool). Watched ASU beat up on Michigan Harbaugh and Schembechler (whiny cry baby Bo was), then caught a jet back to Phoenix, got about four hours of sleep and headed to downtown Tempe for the rest of the day and night for the Fiesta Bowl. Awesome memories. The score in the Fiesta – PSU 14-10 over Miami – is deceptive. Penn State killed them; only the score was close. Here is how so much fun was able to be pulled off; it was the first time that a huge national championship bowl game was moved off of New Years Day.
Just for the record, aside from about a billion Holiday Bowls (including the one where JoePa beat the Mormons), the most interesting bowl game I’ve been to was the 1993 Buffs-Syracuse game, where I vaguely remember getting into a bit of trouble.
HOw can you have a bowl game without selling beer in the stadium? It’s not a good idea to force people to drink little airplane bottles of tequila by the sleeveful, you know.
so you probably agree with me about hockey
I mean, come on, you give EVERYBODY a stick, and then you tell them not to hit each other, WTF ???
that’s why I like lacrosse. I don’t understand lacrosse, but I think you get points for whacking the other team with the sticks (probably scored by grading whacking styles, kinda like ice skating)
let’s all give a cheer to LINEBACKER U
and
poor vinnie
after that, it all went BAD
Ouch. Brutal. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving conference. Three yards and a bunch of big slow clods in the dust. When I was growing up, every year you would hear all freaking year about the Big 10 this and the Big 10 that. Every year the national media would prattle on about how the big Michigan-Ohio State game toward the end of the season was really a national championship because they were the two best team is in the country. Every year the winner would come on out west to the Rose Bowl where they would promptly get their ass handed to them on a silver platter. And not just by USC either. Many years the Pac-8/Pac-10 conference winner ended up being some 8-3 or 7-4 UCLA or Stanford squad. No difference; they would still obliterate the vaunted Big=10 school coming to claim their rightful throne. It was like clockwork.
amen.
(and thank you for my morning musical benediction. suspect more than a few neighbors were wondering what the heck i was doing rocking out to j geils so early in the a.m.)
Ut oh.
Condi’s talking to the 49ers.
I’d much prefer she be given a small desk in a cell in The Hague after her ‘tour’ here is done.
Thank gawd it’s not the Broncos as she had once set her aim upon…!
after a day like yesterday, Kansas is ready for Basketball season
and who decided to hold the world series in the middle of the rainy season ???
Totally OT EW, but you might find some post pickin’s in this lengthy New York Magazine piece:
The Next New Deal
The huge opportunities—and huge risks—of a possible Obama administration.
This particular part shivers my timbers:
(My Bold)
from the same article (and how can you get “off-topic” in a trash talking thread)
DUH
Hey Freep, I hear that the Phillies are pitching some young star they got in a late season trade with someone. Kid named Joe Blanton. Will the last pitcher in Oakland please turn out the lights?
fookin moneyball
that clown wrote an article in the ny times recently, about health care or economics (shows how much I cared)
on a personal note, I been concerned about your future, dude
ain’t you a lawyer ???
lately, there’s been a lot of talk about Obama being a commie
and you know what us commies do when we take over …
nothin personal though, okay
if I had my way, we’d eat the babies first. But apparently we got rules. An the rules say the first thing we do is kill all the lawyers. I’m not really sure why, but rules are rules …
btw, those rules ??? we got em from Danny DeVito in “Other People’s Money”
one thing I wanna hear come January
sorry senator loserman, the janitor says he has to store his mops in your office, it’s his closet too, you know …
I’m predicting that TCU (love those horned toads)will be rated #1, and the Pats will make a run at the Super…
Unable to get on over at the Bruce Fein thread. Would anyone do me a favor and post this question?
Mr. Fein out of the Bush administration who would be first on your Impeachment list? Do you think it is important to impeach lower level Bush administration so that they are unable to roll back into any future administraions?
What position do they think she can play? Stadium organist? [/s]
and about the national political campaign:
can we call it a McMutiny yet ???
crooks and liars has kkkarl discussing how sad it is to see
This was a good call. The time-of-possession stats for their last 4 games have been 2-1 for their opponents, including the Pats. You’re not going to win when your defense is out on the field that much – the offense has been masking serious problems with the defense.
Let Drew Brees have that much time and you’re dead. The funny thing is they still have a chance at winning the division. It won’t matter much if they do.
Looks like Good Eli has decided to appear for the fourth quarter against the Stillers
I think Texas Tech will beat Texas next week, they have an explosive offense!
Tech vs Texas next week, 8pm EST. It’s the national game on ABC/ESPN. They are playing in Lubbock, so Tech may have a shot.
Hey, how come there is no Sunday Night Football game on NBC?
They don’t schedule on during the World Series.
Damned stickball.
That, and there aren’t enough good games this week to highlight.
Wuzzit you who let Good Eli out? I had stuck him in a man-sized safe but somehow he got out.
Yeah. I might have screwed up. I thought Big Ben could take him. Ooops.
Hey, while we’re talkin’ trash, why is it that in the middle of the football season, with important pros to watch, that here on a Sunday afternoon I don’t see any pro football on my teevee? I mean, just because there’s a World Series of baseball game on the toob, there are no pro football games showing?
PS howzabout yesterdays game– bases loaded in the 9th with the game tied and a 5-man infield– an infield hit but no force-out at home? Crazy stuff.
Bob in HI
No game tonight, but a doozy tomorrow night.
AFC Division matchup – Peyton v Undefeated Tennessee. That’s a great game.
Don’t look now, but the Skins are 6-2 and right on the Gints heels…
Ouch, looks like Marcy was right about that Bolts going east bit. Last year was an outlier in his career track; the real Norval Turner has resurfaced. Skins better hope that Clinton Portis doesn’t get hurt, because I am not quite sure how the rest of their offense is going to win many games without him. I don’t know why, but I think tomorrow night’s game will belong to Peyton and the Titans suffer their first loss.
See my #27 above.
Okay, so say you’re the manager of the Rays, you’re on the road and if you lose, you’re down three games to one, and you’ll still be on the road. Your starting pitcher isn’t great shakes to begin with, and he can’t seem to find home plate with a flashlight, allowing mega-runners every inning.
So what do you do? Do you go to Plan B? What, surely you had a Plan B in case Plan A struggled, right?
No, if you’re the manager of the Rays, you allow Plan A to pitch to Ryan Howard to hit a pop fly HR with two on, thereby dropping you from a run down to four runs down.
Okay so then what’s up with Fox, playing the Rocky theme between every inning? I mean, I get it – it’s Philadelphia – but there are two teams playing, no?
Whadda they play for Tampa Bay, Lawrence Welk?
Heh.
The Home Run that wasn’t:
The Phillies (Rollins?) just got a “double” to deep right field that missed being a home run by inches. But look closely at the replay: I think a fan tried to catch the ball above the top of the wall, but muffed it, causing the ball to drop short,bouncing off the wire fence on top of the wall. In other words, I think the fan disturbed the flight of the ball just enough to keep it from clearing the fence. Did you see that?
But no matter– another Phillies homer brought him home.
TB is getting killed by home runs.
Bob in HI
okay, so Plan B wasn’t much either…
CTuttle and bmaz – Texas should be able to handle Tech though it will be bonkers in Lubbock at night on natl teevee. Tech’s QB Harrell isn’t a dual threat running, and their running game is improved but not a game controller. If Texas can get pressure on Harrell with their front four and force some punts and/or turnovers, they could end up playing from behind early. i don’t see Tech stopping Texas’ offense. Texas is balanced on O and can run the clock on the ground to protect a lead. If Tech can’t stuff Texas’ offense, and Harrell is forced to watch from the sidelines, that’s game.
Being a Longhorn, I want to congratulate Oklahoma State for a great game on Saturday. They definitely played well enough to win and are every bit deserving of a top 10 rank. I think there’s a good chance they beat Tech and Oklahoma, win out, and go to a BCS bowl. Texas dodged a bullet despite bringing its A game.
.
I meant randiego and CTut.
Jeez, the Phillies sure ain’t pholding this year.
They remind me of the Cardinals a few years ago when the won the WS: They played well in all phases of the game. Of course, I’m biased (I’ve been a Cardinals fan for about 50 years.)
Bob in HI
I wonder
do the people of Philly know how to throw a proper riot to celebrate a championship ???
what am I talkin bout
it’s PHILLY
they’ll figure it out
cuz ya know the fookin cubs fans woulda wanted to go cow tipping or some crazy shit if they won the series …
thank goddess for that goat …
Off topic: New stuff re the anthrax case….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..id=topnews
Well, that article sure looks like it was written as a brief in support of the FBI’s case against Ivins. I’ll be interested to see how its reviewed by other experts.
Bob in HI
That’s how it hit me, too. I’m sure we’ll be seeing reactions soon.
That article is a whole pile of freaking nothing. Could have been written months ago. The entire conclusory premise of the Feds is that the whole gig was perpetrated by the lone gunman. Basically it boils down to this illogical logic: Whoever did it had to both have access to the RMR-1029 and have the skill to manipulate it into the attack forms, Bruce Ivins is the only individual that has both traits, therefore Bruce Ivins is the lone gunman.
Riddle me this Batman, why couldn’t one person purloin the material from Ivins’ lab (and by the way, over 100 people were authorized for access, but security was functionally non-existent, untold number of others may have had access) and deliver it to a co-conspirator who had the requisite technical skill for preparation and even a third person actually mail the letters? We have no idea why that logical possibility is summarily excluded from consideration, but excluded it is.
This is still a bunch of dung, and, I’ll say one other thing, it is not clear in the least that the “new science developed just for this case” would be admissible in a criminal court to establish guilt; upon cross examination by an attorney that knows what the hell they are doing, I am skeptical that the proper foundation for admissibility could be sufficiently established.
This article is useless BS and doesn’t move the ball one single inch if you ask me.
worthy of it’s own count of lying to the People of the United States, when the liars and clowns trying to cover this up are charged with obstruction of justice
so any of these FBI assholes have any fookin political radar at all ???
The article punches more holes in the case than it closes. Especially with this:
From what I have pieced together from multiple published reports on flask RMR 1029 regarding the volume of material and its concentration, all of the attacks could have been carried out with only about 1% of its contents. Now with the possibility that another flask was prepared and is now missing, I think Ivins disappears as a suspect. Look for the missing flask. Even if it didn’t actually exist (which I doubt), I seriously doubt Ivins kept an inventory on RMR 1029 that would have detected a loss of 1% of its contents, since he used the material for multiple experiments. Any of those 100 people could have gotten the 1% sample and carried out the attacks. Don’t believe for a minute that a lyophilizer is the only way to dry those spores. There are other, much easier methods that could be used for someone with basic microbiology skills and access to less than $1000 of equipment.
For this scenario to work, the first round of attacks would have been carried out with the RMR 1029 contents diluted with foreign material. Some reports show that B. subtilis was also present in the material in those attacks.
I wanted to know what those 253 text messages said. Can we do a freedom of information on those?
This article made it sound like Ivins was one of a very tiny population of people capable of refining the anthrax to the degree it was, yet as his emotional state declined, they kept him working there with deadly spores. I don’t understand that. And I don’t know why it seems like his great expertise is something that came up after they decided he was the suspect.
The feds are so disappointed they can’t prove their case in court. But they can, in an agreed upon fashion. Let them present their case and let Ivins’s lawyer present his, and then we’ll see where we are. It would be an interesting demonstration for a law school.
this is the “single flask – single user” line of bullshit that was discredited months back
and look at the new shiny object “Microbial Forensics”
oh
scary stuff
the article mentions “Peer Review”
I wonder if these clowns know what “Peer Review” is
let me put it this way, when you say “Peer Review”, you’re putting your job credentials on the line
if your peers don’t buy it, you crawl away in shame
and then we deal with the Obstruction of justice charges …
FYI-Fincial Times endorses Obama: Obama is the better choice
Published: October 26 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1d0b…..ck_check=1
More on newspaper endorsements: ‘In another embarrassment for McCain, the Indianapolis Star, which also supported Bush in 2004, revealed that it would not endorse this year’.
UPDATE on endorsementa:
http://www.editorandpublisher……1003877935
OT-couldn’t resist….Colo. secretary of state sued over voter purges
http://www.9news.com/news/arti…..;catid=339
based on the comments in the wapo, Peer Review ain’t gonna go so well …
these people not only lack a basic understanding of microbiology, they seem to have a lack of common sense
the fact that the to samples used in the two separate attacks was different does NOT prove that the creator had access to the vial on more than one occasion. Have you ever heard of sourdough bread, ya fookin idiots ??? Ya never heard about a “Starter Batch” ???
For TB fans everywhere:
Tokin’ with Lawrence Welk, from 1971.
(One of my earlier lessons in keeping a small slice of that probability distribution open. Are yousure these folks don’t get the joke?)