Category Archives: Blog & Guest Posts

From Pac-10 to… Pac-16?

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With all the talk about potential Pac-10 expansion, Buster Sports’ Nick Daschel has an intriguing proposal: Pac-16. He proposes not simply adding 2 teams, but a whopping 6, and when you think about it, it’s a pretty great idea. He advocates wooing Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Colorado and Baylor out of the Big 12, and Utah out of the… Read more »

14 years ago this week…

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I should have posted this on Saturday, but didn’t think of it, alas. However, 14 years ago this week — February 13, 1996 — I had what you might call my first 15 minutes of fame (although, compared to the Katrina boomlet that would follow 9 1/2 years later, it was more like 15 seconds of moderate attention), when the… Read more »

In defense of the stimulus

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My liberal readers will already agree with what I’m about to quote, and my conservative readers will immediately dismiss it because the link goes to nytimes.com, so I don’t know why I bother — but for what it’s worth: Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers… Read more »

The tape-delay Olympics

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The blogosphere and twittersphere are buzzing about this Seattle Times column criticizing NBC’s endlessly tape-delayed Olympics coverage, and its complete tone-deafness about the issue. (See also this lengthy Deadspin post, featuring one angry viewer complaint after another.) I gotta say, I find that, in this instant-information age, the Olympics are rapidly being fundamentally transformed from something I watch on TV… Read more »

Insurgent amateur-hour Indiana lefty seeks “Tea Bagger” support

This is priceless. Tamyra D’Ippolito, the liberal Bloomington gadfly (and sudden right-blogosphere cause célèbre) who’s a few measly signatures away from becoming the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate from Indiana — or at least from forcing the Dems to engage in some very unseemly, and perhaps widely politically damaging, hardball tactics to prevent that scenario — is posting up a… Read more »

Post-Bayh procedural fireworks in Indiana?

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In the wake of Evan Bayh’s decision not to seek re-election, Campaign Diaries reports on a potentially decisive election-procedure wrinkle in the Hoosier State: Bayh’s retirement also sets up a very confusing situation because it comes just 24 hours from the registration deadline for statewide candidates! While Indiana’s filing deadline is on Friday, Senate candidates need to deposit 500 signatures… Read more »

CotW: In Defense of Saint Valentine and His Day

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This is a piece I ran twice when I was in college because it was a.) very popular and b.) my then-girlfriend, now wife, liked it so much I had to run it again. When I first wrote it I was single, the second time I was with Janelle. Now, obviously, I’m married. But I still stand by it. It… Read more »

USC 68, UCLA 64

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Break out the brooms, baby! In the words of one tweeter, “The football monopoly in LA ain’t over, and the basketball monopoly is alive and well too! Fight On!” Hahaha. If only I’d made a bet with Tran this year! (And if only there was some potential for a postseason payoff for the Trojans!)

CotW: JTV Decree of 2010: Know It, Use It, Love It

So a few weeks ago, I spoke of Swordfish, the most breathtaking film of 2001, and put forward the idea that making John Travolta a villain is never a bad idea. Which I am very right back. Last week, a new movie called From Paris with Love was released, and it stars Travolta, and while he’s not a bad guy,… Read more »