I Don't Even Hate the Knicks Anymore

The NY Knickerbockers are currently sporting a 4-8 record. A .333 winning percentage.

Watching from about age 12 - 22 was a lot of fun. They never won it all, largely because of Michael Jordan's dominance, but they were always a gritty team you could get behind.

Starting with the Patrick Ewing trade it all went downhill. Mostly because of awful cap management (seriously, Scott Layden could work in George W's budget office) but also due to draft picks like that French guy Frederic Weiss, they began a rather quick decline.

The last few years, I have found myself filled with hatred for them. Last year's early optimism was only cause for more loathing.

At this point, I'm all frustrated out. They suck. The players suck, the coach sucks, the GM sucks (and the last two are the same person) - but most of all, and most importantly the owner sucks.

They're terrible, there isn't much sign of a brighter future as long as Isiah and Dolan are there.

Marbury is an asshole, I thinkwe can all agree, and this back-court of him and Francis isn't working.

I don't even watch anymore. They're a boring and shitty team. I sort of find myself hoping they'll just be terrible this year so we can fire Isiah and get rid of these asshole, except for the second team, which is pretty fun to watch (Lee, Robinson and Balkman).

I'm at the point, where I'm not even mad anymore - and some of you probably remember my Allan Houston rant of '05.

New York Knicks, meet apathy. Apathy, New York Knicks. I hope you get along, as you will most likely be spending some quality time together.

My New Favorite Website

Is PerezHilton.com

It's a fun blog/website. Perez Hilton is, a gay spanish dude from Miami. I assume he lives in L.A. now but wherever he lives he's pretty entertaining as a mid-day procrastination tool for a few reasons:

1. He updates his site numerous times a day. It seems like once an hour or two there is a new story on there.
2. He often breaks the celebrity gossip 'news' first. The term news is used rather lightly, of course.
3. He's mean. Let's admit it, seeing someone funny make fun of someone else (assuming it's not us) is often quite entertaining. Perez, for some reason hates Jennifer Aniston, Kirsten Dunst and various other celebrities. He outs people a lot. He accuses people of using drugs and doing all kinds of stuff.
   
4. He doesn't censor himself at all. Come on, don't you want to see Lindsay Lohan's vagina? (Keep scrolling down.)
   

You looked, didn't you? Thought so.

Us Weekly, used to be my favorite gossip site, but Perez is definitely better.

Salvaging whatever manhood I have left after the above, Bill Simmons is probably the best writer/blogger around. He's dope. He'll start off talking about the Giants or whomever and go into a prolonged analytical discussion about Seinfeld or a comparison of Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. Highly interesting. Unfortunately, though, he only writes about two columns a week.

Jumping back to more conventional print, last week was John Tierney's, a columnist for the New York Times last op-ed column. He wrote the he is resigning because he wanted to go back to the Science Times section. Yeah, OK John. In any case, good riddance to him. He was horrendous. He was supposed to fill in as a conservative voice when William Safire retired. Turns out he was just a boring pussy. I'd much rather see a real conservative that makes me think, personally. I don't think they've picked a replacement yet. It will be interesting to see that choice.

Hey, John - Fucking Go Away!

Will John Kerry, please just shut the fuck up?

John, you lost. You had it handed to you on a golden platter and you voted against it, before you voted for it.

Yesterday, Kerry said something to the effect of: "Study and get good grades or else you'll end up stuck in Iraq". Now, apparently, he mangled a joke that was meant to say essentially, "Study hard or you'll end up getting us stuck in Iraq". A coworker of mine told me he heard the whole speech and there it was pretty clear as to what he meant despite the poor joke-telling. Even still, Kerry has managed to give the Republicans and Bush a sound bite to harp on just as they are poised to lost Congress. However, in this sound-bite world it really doesn't matter. This will play out in thousands of voters minds as John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for President said that soldiers are dumb."

Now, John, I know you didn't mean to do anything wrong but FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST!!!

FUCKING GROW A BEARD, GO TEACH SOME GRADUATE COURSES FOR FIVE YEARS AND COME BACK AS AN ELDERSTATEMEN!!!

John, it's over. Fucking know when to fold ' em.

Der Administration

I try to avoid posting articles on the blog, but I have to put this one up.
I have to make note of the fact this was on progressive.com but if it's basically factual, this is pretty horrendous. In the great scheme of things, this is not up there with Iraq and Katrina but just a little reminder of just how out of control our current administration is:

Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault?

By Matthew Rothschild

October 4, 2006

Steve Howards says he used to fantasize about what he’d say to President Bush or Vice President Cheney if he ever got the chance.

That opportunity arrived on June 16, the same day he says he read about U.S. fatalities in Iraq reaching 2,500.

“Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself, ‘I can’t in good conscience let this opportunity pass by.’ So I approached him, I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice, ‘Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.’”

Howards says he was taking two of his kids to their Suzuki piano camp in Beaver Creek, Colorado. They were walking across the outdoor public mall area when all of a sudden he saw Cheney there.

“I didn’t even know he was in town,” Howards says. “He was walking through the area shaking hands. Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself, ‘I can’t in good conscience let this opportunity pass by.’ So I approached him, I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice, ‘Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.’ And then I walked away.”

Howards says he knew the Administration has a “history of making problems” for people who protest its policies, so he wanted to leave off at that.

But the Secret Service did not take kindly to his comment.“About ten minutes later, I came back through the mall with my eight-year-old son in tow,” Howards recalls, “and this Secret Service man came out of the shadows, and his exact words were, ‘Did you assault the Vice President?’ ”

Here’s how Howards says he responded: “No, but I did tell Mr. Cheney the way I felt about the war in Iraq, and if Mr. Cheney wants to be shielded from public criticism, he should avoid public places. If exercising my constitutional rights to free speech is against the law, then you should arrest me.”

Which is just what the agent, Virgil D. “Gus” Reichle Jr, proceeded to do.

“He grabbed me and cuffed my hands behind my back in the presence of my eight-year-old son and told me I was being charged with assault of the Vice President,”Howards recalls.

He says he told the agent, “I can’t abandon my eight-year-old son in a public mall.”

According to Howards, Reichle responded: “We’ll call Social Services.” Before that could happen, however, “my son ran away and found my wife,” who was nearby, Howards says.

“First of all, I was scared,” Howard recalls. “They wouldn’t tell my wife where they were taking me. Second of all, I was incredulous this could be happening in the United States of America. This is what I read about happening in Tiananmen Square. They hauled me away to Eagle County jail and kept me with my hands cuffed behind my back for three hours.”

At the jail, the charge against him was reduced to harassment, he says, and he was released on $500 bond. The Eagle County DA’s office eventually dropped that charge.

On October 3, Howards sued Reichle for depriving him of his First Amendment right of free speech and his Fourth Amendment right to be protected from illegal seizure.

Howards and his attorney, David Lane, have not demanded a specific dollar amount.

“We will go to trial and let a Colorado jury decide what type of damages are appropriate,” says Howards. “This isn’t about anything I did. This about what I said. There is a frontal assault occurring on our constitutional right to free speech. We brought this suit because of our belief that this Administration’s attempt to suppress free speech is a greater threat to the long-term integrity of this nation than ten Osama bin Ladens.”

Reichle did not return my call for comment. Nor did he respond to The New York Times in its article on this incident.

Lon Garner, special agent in charge at the Secret Service’s Denver office, says he has “no reaction” to the lawsuit. “It’s in litigation,” he says. “We have no comment.”

Before his encounter with Cheney, Howards says he had a clean record.

“I was never arrested before,” he says. “I don’t have so much as a speeding ticket.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The court filings

Eh

A few month ago, I read about how Jessica Simpson was hooking up with some guy Dane Cook. I had no idea who he was. Turns out, apparently he's a comedian. In the opinion of many, a good one, too.
My friend Brian, recently wed, gave it his customary 'three thumbs up'. A few other people were also fairly enthusiastic about this guy.
So, when his special 'Vicious Circle' showed up on HBO On Demand - I turned it on, eager to be amused.
The name Dayne wasn't all Ron and Cook had in common. Both were built up to be dope by many but turned out to be less than that in reality.
A few laughs, but he just wasn't that funny. My impressions: everyone there screamed and cheered and seemed to be really enjoying themselves; he definitely played up to the women in the audience, who seemed to love that; he seemed to laugh at almost ALL of his own jokes but his material just wasn't that great; he (and his audience) seemed super New England-y. His whole ten minute riff on crying was kind of stupid, he basically stole the whole cheating section from Chris Rock and the whole thing about him doing "B&E"'s just seemed dumb.
An underwhelming experience. He wasn't terrible, just not that great. Maybe had he not been built up beforehand, it would have been more satisfying of a viewing.