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Monday night, J.R. Smith of the Nuggets stood at the free throw line with 6.5 seconds remaining. The Nuggets were down three. He had three free throws.
Big time players make big time plays. Their teams win close games.
J.R. Smith made one shot. The Nuggets lost.
You know, if you are going to get arrested for something like that, I really think you should be more specific.
From USAToday:
By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAYWASHINGTON — Both Democratic presidential candidates, who promise to curb the influence of corporate lobbyists in Washington, helped enact narrowly tailored tax breaks sought by major campaign contributors.Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign has accepted $54,350 from members of a law firm that in 2006 lobbied him to introduce a tax provision for a Japanese drug company with operations in Illinois, according to public records and interviews. The government estimates the provision, which became law in December 2006, will cost the treasury $800,000.
In 2002, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton introduced legislation at the request of Rienzi & Sons, a Queens, N.Y., food importer, according to company president Michael Rienzi. The provision, which became law in December 2004, required the government to refund tens of thousands of dollars in duty charged on imported tomato products, Rienzi told USA TODAY.
Rienzi gave $110,000 to committees set up to support Clinton's 2000 Senate race, records show. Rienzi family members contributed an additional $52,800 to her campaigns since 2000. Michael Rienzi also said he donated to Bill Clinton's presidential foundation, but he declined to say how much.
Call it whatever you want. Justify it however you want.
It is corruption.
Clinton accepts money from lobbyists, but she recently has stepped up her criticism of what she called, in a Feb. 14 speech, "a government of, by, and for the special interests."
Obama touts his refusal to take donations from Washington lobbyists though he accepts money from their co-workers who are not registered to lobby. Speaking after the Feb. 12 primary, he decried a "Washington game" where "lobbyists write check after check and Exxon makes record profits."
Call it whatever you want. Justify it however you want.
It is hypocrisy.
Molly Ringwald turned 40 today.
Somehow, that knowledge makes me feel older than I did when I turned 41 last September.
The Denver City Council is considering a ten cent tax on all grocery store bags, both plastic and paper.
The idea is to get people to bring in their own reusable bags so garbage is reduced.
It won't work, at least on a local level. For one thing, the tax would not apply outside of Denver. A large portion of the Denver population lives, shops or works near a grocery store in a suburb.
People can shop outside of Denver, and they will.
I bet the Aurora Chamber of Commerce is behind this idea.
It looks like it’ll be Obama v. McCain.
Given that matchup, I predict Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States.
McCain will have not have the hardcore support of the Republican conservatives. He doesn’t have it now, and he ain’t gonna get it later.
In a battle of personalities, Obama will beat McCain like Mike Tyson beat Hurricane Peter McNally.
People vote for people they like. Obama is more likeable.
Yes, there are people that will not vote for Obama because his father was from Africa. I think he will overcome that.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, Entertainment Weekly has an online feature about the best fictional “lovers” of all time.
For instance, Pam Beesly and Jim Halpert from The Office are included. Marge and Homer Simpson make the list, as do Heathcliff and Clair Huxtable.
They are all deserving of the attention.
I was taken aback, however, by one such pairing by EW.
Listed among these true love relationships, EW mentions Miss Piggy and Kermit.
WHAT?
Kermit NEVER loved Miss Piggy. EVER. Her attention toward Kermie was misplaced and dreaded by Kermit. The Pig may have loved the Frog, but the Frog did not want anything to do with the Pork.
I just felt it necessary to set the record straight.
* Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) really went to town on Brian McNamee. At one point, Burton responded to one of McNamee's answers by asking "are you kidding me?" McNamee replied that he was not.
Burton made it clear that he thinks McNamee is lying.
* Roger Clemens' wife is sitting behind him during the hearing. She is holding a yellow flower. What is that all about?
* I wonder if the phrase "a palpable mass on his buttocks" has ever been spoken during a committee hearing prior to today.
* Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA) has so far asked the toughest questions of Clemens. He brought up the mass on Clemens' buttocks with documentation of the mass.
* An outside doctor reviewed an MRI of a mass on Clemens' buttocks, and concluded that it was more compatible with an injection of winstrol (a steroid) than B12, as Clemens claims.
* Clemens' lawyers had another doctor report that gave another conclusion about the mass on hs buttocdks. As a lawyer, I know you can find an expert to say anything. Or, I should say, pay an expert to say anything.
* I loved the moment when the questions got tough and one of Clemens' attorneys interrupted and asked if he could answer a question posed to his client. Henry Waxman said, "no."
* The Vice-chair of the committee kept asking stupid questions. He would state that person "A" said "X" and then ask McNamee why person "A" would say such a thing. There is no way a person can answer that.
I can not truly know why another person does anything. I can only know that they did it.
* There is a recurring problem with this hearing - the Committee keeps assuming that different accounts of something (a party at Jose Conseco's house) that occurred years and years ago necessarily means that someone is lying about that event.
It is very easy and happens often that someone is just wrong. Being wrong is not the same as being a liar.
* John L. Mica (R-FL) has HUGE hands. When he strokes his chin he almost covers his entire face. And he is wearing a pinky ring on his right hand that matches the wedding ring on his left hand. What's up with that?
Mica has not been listening, either, because he asked McNamee questions that he already answered.
* One guy in the front row behind Clemens and McNamee looks like Stephen A. Smith's brother. Another guy looks like Scott Bakula.
* Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) is wearing about two pounds of costume jewelry around her neck. She looks like a Junior League Mr. T.
* So, Clemens' nanny was at the Canseco party, and she told the Committee that Roger was there. Rep. Henry Waxman brought this out. Clemens contacted her in between the Committee asking for her name and giving her name to the Committee.
One might question as to why he needed to talk to her before letting the Committee talk to her.
Clemens' main attorney Rusty Hardin jumped up at this point and acted all disgusted with the questioning. He should tone it down.
* Oh sheesh. McNamee has a Ph.D. from an online diploma mill. Even worse, he actually called himself a "Dr."
* They are spending way too much time on the party at Jose Canseco's house. Whether or not Clemens was there is irrelevant to whether or not he took steriods. It's like arguing over what a bank robber had for breakfast on the morning he robbed the bank. Who cares? He still robbed the bank.
* Virginia Foxx (R-NC) is from North Carolina. Virginia is from Carolina. That is confusing. I wonder if she is related to Redd Foxx? She has that extra "X" in there.
* So Chuck Knoblauch took the juice, too. Is the inability to make a throw to first base a side effect of HGH?
* The Vice Chair of the Committee is Tom Davis (R-VA). Didn't he used to coach the Iowa basketball team?
* Roger had to be gavelled down when he interrupted Waxman's final statement. Waxman said "this is not your time to argue with me."
Cool.
* Why were there IRS agents there? I can understand the FBI. They are investigating illegal drug activity. But the IRS? I do not see any allegations of unreported income in this matter.
Danica Patrick is a professional race car driver in the Indy Racing League. She has not yet won a race, but she competes for wins in the IRL. She is a good, competitive driver.
Women have problems being taken seriously in the sports world. Some people dismiss them as novelty acts, only there because they bring in ratings. Especially if the woman is attractive.
Danica is very attractive. I think she would rather focus on her driving ability than her looks.
By playing up her looks, she feeds into the stereotype that she gets the breaks because she's a hot chick.
She is in the recent Sports Illustrated "swimsuit" edition. I have no poblem with that by itself. My problem is when she poses provocatively, thereby feeding into that stereotype that she gets her attention because of her looks and her sexuality - and not her driving ability.
I wish she would focus on her driving, and not her sexuality.
A bill pending before the Colorado legislature would make it easier for new cab companies to operate in Denver. Right now, only three companies are allowed to exist.
As one might imagine, with restricted entry into this industry, the service provided by the industry sucks.
Of course, the three existing companies do not want their protected status challenged.
Representative Alice Borodkin (D-Denver) was quoted in the Rocky Mountain News:
"I'm an ex-New Yorker, and I know about cabs. They can't be deregulated.
"Can you imagine what this place will look like if the cabs are deregulated?" she added. "Thousands of cabs, and nobody will make any money."
Borodkin demonstrates a basic misunderstanding of what it means to be a public servant.
The point should be to protect consumers, not business. With thousands of cabs, the public would have more options, at lower prices with better service.
And why would a Democrat think it necessary to protect a private industry at the expense of the consuming public? I do not know. But I can guess. Perhaps she is less a public servant than a servant to those that give her money.
The RMN article points out that "Disabled customers say service is abysmal, in part because cab companies, which are guaranteed income from leases and other fees paid by independent-contractor drivers, have no financial incentive to serve the disabled, elderly and other low-paying, short-trip passengers."
The disabled are correct. Deregulation helps everyone but the cab companies currently protected from competition.
It's called the free market. Borodkin should give it a try.
They ruled. They ruled the entire earth.
No longer.
Now, they are extinct. They could not adapt. And they died. All of them.
Dead.
Deader than door nails. Deader than rocks. Deader than Joe Piscopo’s career. Dead like a bag of hammers. Deader than Lazarus. (Lazarus was resurrected. Dinosaurs were not. And will not be.)
Dinosaurs were replaced. By new creatures. By different creatures.
By creatures with brains bigger than a peanut.
Which brings us to Robert Montgomery Knight. He, too, is a dinosaur. He too, and others like him, are extinct.
He has retired. Or, as those less kind would say, he has quit.
No matter how you describe it, Knight no longer roams the earth.
Now, he roams his living room. Maybe he roams East Texas, shooting birds flying over other people’s houses.
He no longer roams the basketball world.
His time is over. Like Woody Hayes. Like Bo Schembechler. Like Bear Bryant. Each was hugely successful. Each, like the T-Rex, was legendary. Each, like the T-Rex, is extinct.
The Cretaceous Period ended 65 million years ago.
The era of the Hard-Ass Coach ended yesterday.
It is called evolution. And it is necessary for advancement.
Good night, Knight.
Personally, it is editing. I don't have an editor.
Reading some of my old posts is embarassing. Sheesh.
Even Ernest Hemingway had an editor. So did William Shakespeare. I, certainly, could use one.
Check out Mile High Sports Radio Thursday morning from 6-9 a.m. Mountain Time and hear me, Dave Williams.
(That's 8-11 eastern time, where civilization thinks it lives.)
Click on the link in the upper right hand corner if you can't hear it on AM 1510 or AM 1570.
A new and improved website will be up soon. Or eventually. It's kinda like building your own house, you know what you want, but getting it takes longer than planned.
