Do You Know It's Halloween?

Monday randomness

First, some good stuff from the New York Times opinion page:

• Maureen Dowd turns her column over to Stephen Colbert
• Paul Krugman offers an explanation for the right-wing anti-Gore hysteria
• Thomas Friedman writes on how George W. Bush wasted his presidency

Came across this item in a Washington Times blog (via Pitchfork)—it looks like there's at least one Radiohead fan in the White House: deputy press secretary Tony Fratto, who said he plans to buy the new album. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe and deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel are at least aware the band exists (Stanzel called himself an "appreciator" of their music, while Johndroe is "90 percent sure" he has some Radiohead songs on his iPod...but definitely none from Hail to the Thief).

Then, there's press secretary Dana Perino: "I don't even know what that is . . . Is that a band?"

Seriously? The woman is 35 years old, which would've made her 21 when Pablo Honey came out in 1993. Meanwhile, I was an uncool 10-year-old whose limited exposure to music involved my parents' Beatles, Carpenters, and Beach Boys records, and even I had heard of Radiohead.

There's a new study out that says it's your fault if your kid's a picky eater. According to the NYT article, 78 percent is genetic and the other 22 percent is environmental.

Worst among the horror stories: parents who changed their vacation plans because they were afraid their 11-year old wouldn't like the food in Prague.

An editor at Bon Appétit magazine mentioned how his 3-year-old son will eat only "brown food," while his 6-year-old daughter is an "omnivore's dream child." It's interesting how it works that way. As a child, my favorite food was broccoli and I ate pretty much everything my parents put on my plate (although there was a month-long streak in first grade when I insisted on tuna salad sandwiches for lunch). My brother Daniel was the same way. And then came Timothy, who used to be the 3-year-old who would only eat brown food (and carbs and sugar) and is now the 15-year-old who will only eat brown food (and carbs and sugar) with the occasional lettuce leaf.

Finally—it seems like there have been a lot of pumpkin-related stories in the news (pumpkin chucking, growing giant pumpkins, 1,524-pound contest-winning pumpkin). Mmm, pumpkins. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread...I'm like the Bubba Gump of pumpkins. Can't forget pumpkin carving, either. When I was in college, I carved Conan O'Brien's face on a pumpkin...only to get it stolen right off our front porch. How dirty is that?

Take that, Oprah.

It was announced today that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and my hero, Al Gore, were jointly awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

Gore said that he would donate his half of $1.5 million prize to the nonprofit Alliance for Climate Protection.

Read the full citation here.

Blah blah blah blah

The Republicans debate. Read the transcript here—if you dare. In a nutshell: these guys are toast. Fred Thompson continued to sound like he has no idea what he's talking about. (Although to be fair, I suppose that's also true for the rest of the Republican field.)

I was just waiting for Romney to say something stupid so I could have an excuse to post this picture. And boy, did he deliver:

"We're also going to have to do a better job keeping our taxes down. [Michigan governor] Jennifer Granholm has made a big mistake by raising taxes. I was, frankly, a little nervous to—by being here tonight. I figured that she was going to put a tax on the debate before we got finished."

Ho, ho, ho. Romney, you card.

While Romney likes to claim that he didn't raise taxes when he was Massachusetts governor, he did help make up for it by raising fees and fines by $500 million. What's a governor to do when he's facing a $3 billion deficit and trying to preserve his anti-tax image for a possible future campaign for the Republican presidential nomination? Maybe try to slap new fees on services for the blind and the mentally disabled? Brilliant.

My favorite part is when Chris Matthews asked Romney if he would go to Congress to get authorization to take military action against Iran.

Romney says: You sit down with your attorneys and [have them] tell you what you have to do.

Yeah, and if you don't like what they tell you, go to the ICU and try to intimidate another one who's bedridden and semi-conscious.

So, anybody else having problems downloading the new Radiohead album?

Do you ever think about it?

Anytime I see Built to Spill I'm always hoping that they play the Neil Young song "Cortez the Killer." When Built to Spill plays the song live, it turns into a 20 minute jam, which is about the best thing you can hope for in a live concert. Unfortunately they didn't play it at the show we went to on Friday—maybe because the guy behind us yelled "Cortez the Conquerer!"—but as always Built to Spill played a solid show. A good mix of old and new, and a few short jams in there.

Here's the setlist:

Velvet Waltz

In the Morning

Time Trap

Wherever You Go

Third Uncle (Brain Eno cover)

Car

You Were Right

Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss

Made up Dreams

Big Dipper

Mess With Time

Randy Described Eternity

Carry the Zero

Encore:

Conventional Wisdom

Notes:

The Delusions opened the night, and had a solid but short performance. Their bass drum had the message "Go f— yourself Mr. Cheney" on it.

Early on in the BTS set, the mic gave some unexpected feed back, and Doug appeared frustrated at the imperfection.

Right before Carry the Zero, Doug said, "Thanks for coming out, we know Dragon Wars came out today."

Is Fresno State Back?

If you didn't know already, I'm a huge Fresno State football fan. Fresno State football and basketball are probably the only teams that I'm really a true fan of. In professional sports I tend to have preferred teams based on style and personnel, but as those things change in a team I change my opinion of them.

If you didn't see the Fresno State game against Texas A&M in College Station, you can read a recap here. If you want to read about how Fresno St. should've won the game based on the current replay rules, you can read about it here. If you don't feel like reading that one, it basically says that Fresno had nearly a sure victory, until the Big 12 replay officials reviewed and reversed a play that is by definition "not reviewable".

One of the hardest things to do in college football is go into a top 25 opponents stadium and steal a victory. By my count, it's happened 3 times this year—South Carolina over Georgia, South Florida over Auburn, Appalachian St. over Michigan. There have been 3 matchups so far where two top 25 teams have played each other. In all 3 of those games the home team came away with the victory, although the home team was also ranked better than the away team in each of those games as well. So far in the first two weeks, top 25 teams when playing at home are 33-3, and when they play away from home they are 7-5. According to these numbers, if you're playing a top 25 team at home you have a 41.7% chance of winning, but if you play a top 25 team on the road you have a 8.3% chance of winning. Obviously these numbers are somewhat skewed because a lot of top 25 teams schedule easy opponents at home at this stage (although it didn't seem to work for Michigan), but the point is it's a lot harder to beat a top 25 in their stadium than it is in your own.

When mid-major schools win a lot of games, they seem to always be ridiculed for their weak schedules. For years now, Fresno State has played one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country to try and make up for this criticism. Is it possible to completely make up for this though? Should a one loss Fresno State team be treated the same as a one loss Virginia Tech, Tennessee or Georgia team (all 3 with one loss and all 3 still ranked)? My argument is yes, they should be treated the same. But they aren't. And here's my reasoning (besides the fact that Fresno really won their game on Saturday despite what the Big 12 says). Fresno State, by the end of the season, will have played 3 top 25 teams on the road (Texas A&M, Oregon and Hawaii). Those are games that I imagine most people agree are the most difficult to win. But how does that compare to the tough SEC schedules, or Big 12 or any of the major conferences? Well, here's a list of the number of road games against top 25 teams, for the current AP top 25 teams.

USC - 3

LSU - 0

Oklahoma - 1

West Virginia - 1

Florida - 3

Texas - 1

Wisconsin - 2

Cal - 2

Louisville - 1

The Ohio St - 1

UCLA - 1

Penn St. - 0

Rutgers - 1

Nebraska - 1

Georgia Tech - 0

Arkansas - 2

South Carolina - 4

Virginia Tech - 3

Oregon - 2

Clemson - 2

Boston College - 3

Tennessee - 2

Georgia - 2

Hawaii - 0

Texas A&M - 2

That's an average of 1.6 road games against top 25 teams, so Fresno has almost double the average. South Carolina is the only top 25 school with more road games against top 25 teams than Fresno State (which makes me wonder how LSU got away with zero games, since all 4 of South Carolina's games are in the SEC). So, if Fresno ends the season with 1 or 2 losses, will they get the same treatment as these other schools? If they beat Oregon then win out in the WAC is a BCS bid possible? I doubt it, and that's not fair.

US Ignores Romel Beck Castro

If you've been following FIBA Americas tournament, you've probably heard that Team USA is the best they've been since 1992. They're more organized, more focused, playing as a team, well coached. Jerry Colangelo and Coach K must be geniuses, how did they (with most of the best basketball talent in the world) figure out how to beat countries like Venezuela, Canada (without Nash or Magloire), US Virgin Islands (without Tim Duncan) Brazil (without Varejao) and Mexico (without Najera)? Sounds exactly the same way that everyone was talking about this team when the got the bronze last year.


If you watched the Mexico game, you would've seen Kobe getting crossed over like this. Yes, that's the same Kobe that has taken the role of defensive specialist. This was by far the best play of the day in the FIBA tournament, but ESPN's and NBATV's highlights didn't show this play. Not only that but top 10 plays of the day in the FIBA tournament didn't include it. Not even in the top 10 for the day? Did Kobe pay someone off to make sure that nobody saw him almost fall over? Good thing someone was filming their TV during this game, otherwise it might've disappeared forever. Here's some numbers from the game. In the second quarter Mexico outscored the U.S. 28-20. For quarters 2,3 and 4 combined the U.S. outscored Mexico 82-77. That's a 5 point advantage for the U.S. in 3 quarters. If Mexico can keep the margin that close in 3 quarters what will Argentina be able to do in 4? Since the current U.S. team has the goal of winning the gold in Bejing, maybe the better question is what will a full-strength Argentina, Spain, Greece, Italy, etc. be able to do next year?

Tofu Tacos

As I mentioned in my last post, one of my favorite things at the Tofu Festival was the Tofu Tostada. I decided to try out the recipe for dinner tonight, slightly modified, and with tortillas instead of tostadas because we purchased an humongous bag of tortillas from Costco last weekend that we need to use up.

Tofu Tacos

In a medium bowl, combine:

• 3 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 medium green bell pepper, diced
• 3-4 tbsp cilantro, chopped
• 1 14 oz. package of extra firm tofu, diced (cook in some oil or cooking spray until slightly browned)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Juice of 2 limes
• Salt and pepper to taste

Pile filling on top of:

• Warm corn tortillas

If desired, sprinkle with:

• Cheese

and add a dollop of:

• Crema

Eat, make another one, repeat.

This recipe is pretty foolproof. You could change the proportion of ingredients according to your tastes—less onions and more cilantro, for instance—and I'm sure it'd still turn out great.

(Here's the original recipe, by the way, for you purists out there.)

From Little Tokyo with love

There is an old Chinese proverb that says, "Have a mouth as sharp as a dagger, but a heart as soft as tofu.” I don't really know what that means. But what I do know is that tofu is perhaps one of the greatest foods ever made. And that I would sit through LA traffic for only about three things, and one of those things is the LA Tofu Festival.

This was our first year at the Tofu Fest (and sadly, possibly our last, if what LAist says is true) and it did not disappoint. First of all, it had to be the most well-organized city gathering I've attended. They provided free parking and Subaru shuttles to take us from the parking lot to the festival area. Everyone was really friendly. Everything was reasonably priced (although I'd be willing to pay more if it meant bringing the festival back for another year). And as a double bonus, all the proceeds went to charity.

But back to the food. I will attempt to list the top five things I consumed (in no particular order).

• Tofu Okonomiyaki. Some call it a Japanese pancake. Others call it a Japanese pizza. I call it a fiesta in my boca.

• Tofu Tostada. So tasty, yet so simple to make. They were giving away the recipe with one purchase of a tostada, which made me happy.

• Fried Tofu with Peanut Sauce. I know what some of you are thinking. Tofu + Peanut Butter Flavor Drizzled on Top = ??? Let me solve that for you: Mmm.

• Young Coconut. Ok, technically not tofu—at all—but a nice refreshing beverage that I got to drink out of an actual coconut. With a straw, even.
  

• Tofu Teriyaki. Really flavorful. Goes well with Rooster chili garlic sauce.

We missed out on the Tofu Cheesecake, but fortunately I got hold of a recipe that I intend to try out sometime soon.

Also picked up a couple of t-shirts, a Soy What?! poster, the official festival cookbook, and a hardy plant that requires no water and thrives solely on solar power.

Overall, it was time and money well-spent.

But enough about me, let's talk about me

Although I think that all of the presidential candidates—Democratic or Republican—are narcissistic to some extent, I thought yesterday's Paul Krugman column in the NYT did a good job of analyzing the dangers of such a quality when combined with a lack of empathy (specifically, as displayed by Mitt Romney and Rudy "9/11" Giuliani).

Read the article here (TimesSelect subscribers only, unfortunately).

If you build it, they'll still come (Part II)

If you haven't read the first part, you can read it here. In this post I will continue to discuss the myths about illegal immigration.

The second myth: illegal immigrants are taking away jobs from US citizens. Many people that disagree with this myth would say that illegal immigrants are doing the jobs that Americans refuse to do. That argument is only partially true, because I don't believe that there's a job that Americans won't do, just a price that Americans won't do it for. Which is why many businesses not only hire illegals, but provide ways in which they can acquire fake papers and sometimes even have deals with "coyotes" (a term for those who guide illegals across the border). But the question at hand is whether or not illegal immigrants are actually taking jobs away from Americans. The way many people think about this is that there is some set number of jobs in the US, and since we already have a certain percentage of unemployed that bringing in more workers would make things worse. However, nearly all economists agree that immigrants (legal and illegal alike) create growth and more jobs than they take. Not only that, they have no adverse affect on the wages of native born citizens. Not surprisingly, Donald Huddle is about the only economist to disagree with this claim. Apparently, INS used his numbers for years despite his questionable methods:

[I]n 1981 he conducted a study by sending his graduate students out to three Houston area construction sites. The students counted the number of illegal aliens at the work sites, in part, by counting the number of workers wearing blue hats and labeling such people illegal aliens. From these numbers, Donald Huddle calculated how many Houston natives were displaced and then extrapolated this data for the entire U.S. construction industry.

Obviously, the color of a construction worker's hard hat is in no way indicative of their legal status. Blue hard hats aside, the idea that you can go to a construction site and observe which workers are legal or illegal is inaccurate and racist. And even if the numbers they collected were accurate, he used a sample of construction workers in Houston to describe the entire U.S. construction industry. In statistics, there are several acceptable forms of sampling, whether it be a simple random sample a stratified sample or a cluster sample. The basic idea is that any individual in the population has a chance of being selected. In this case, no construction site had any chance of being selected except those in Houston, which by statistical definition makes this study biased.

If you build it, they'll still come (Part I)

If you haven't heard, a lot of people want to build a wall between the US and Mexico. In Virginia, people who are frustrated with the federal government's handling of immigration are taking things into their own hands. These people don't like illegals coming into the US for several reasons. According to many of these people, illegal immigrants burden us with costs (hospital fees, schooling for their children, etc.) and don't pay taxes. They're taking jobs away from US citizens. They also burden us with high amounts of crime, they're responsible for most gang violence, and our prison system is filled with illegals. And we need to secure our border to protect ourselves against the terrorists, like the 9/11 terrorists that came across the Mexican border. However, it turns out that most of these claims are false and are nothing more than thinly veiled racism.

The first myth: illegals are costing US taxpayers billions of dollars by using our hospitals through Medicare, enrolling their kids in our schools, accepting welfare and many other things that they aren't paying for. The simple answer to this question is that they are paying for it. Illegals pay taxes just like anyone else. Some don't pay everything because they work "under the table" jobs, while others pay too much because they don't file their tax returns, even though they're legally allowed to. But with all these costs are they really paying enough in taxes to cover all the benefits they're receiving? According to Donald Huddle, an economist from Rice University, illegal immigration has a net cost (total cost minus total taxes collected from illegal immigrants) of $42.5 billion from 1970-1992, and $69 billion as recently as 1997. However, those numbers have been disputed by several sources, one of which is the Urban Institute, which published a study saying that through many errors of assumptions and calculations you can turn the $42.5 billion loss into a $29 billion surplus. The biggest of mistakes by Huddle was he did not include their Social Security taxes taken out as the taxes they were paying, which was about 15% of each of their paychecks. That alone would cut the $42.5 billion cost down to $12.5 billion. You can check out the other details of their report here.

The right-leaning (although they claim to be bi-partisan) Center for Immigration Studies has claimed that illegal aliens cost the US $10 billion, they pay $16 billion and use $26 billion in services. My first concern with this study is, since they are linked to Republican Party immigration restrictionists on Capitol Hill, how fair can their numbers be? Did they use some of the biased techniques used by Donald Huddle? Even if their study is completely fair, they admit themselves that "with nearly two-thirds of illegal aliens lacking a high school degree, the primary reason they create a fiscal deficit is their low education levels and resulting low incomes and tax payments, not their legal status or heavy use of most social services." Which means that if they are costing us money, it's because they're poor and therefore pay less taxes, not because they're using our schools or on welfare. By the way, no illegal immigrants are on welfare. They can't get approval for that with their illegal status. If they're raising a child that is a US citizen then they can get funding for the child but not for themselves. Yet, CIS considers this $1.9 billion cost a benefit received by an illegal rather than a citizen. In fact, many of the other costs they consider are for their children that have citizenship. Even so, if we're criticizing the illegals because they cost us money, and the reason they cost us money is because they're poor, we might as well ship all of our poor people to Mexico, legal or not, Mexican or not, because they're such a drain on the government. Plus, it sounds like the legal poor are costing us a lot more than the illegal poor, because they actually know how to use the programs and are not scared of deportation.

Confused by the series of tubes that is the Internets

Here's Romney trying to explain YouTube during a campaign stop in Iowa:

"YouTube is a website that allows kids to network with one another and make friends and contact each other," Romney explained. "YouTube looked to see if they had any convicted sex offenders on their web site. They had 29,000."

Uh, Mitt? I think that's actually MySpace. YouTube is that thing where people upload and share thousands of videos . . . you know, videos like the ones for that debate you're so opposed to participating in?

Please . . . step down now before your other circuits start to malfunction.

I'm Not A Snowman

I was going to create an animated snowman to ask Romney why he thinks it's ok to discriminate against all snowmen (just like Geico and cavemen), but I decided instead to ask this question.



If you think this question should be answered (or not answered) you can vote here.

World's hottest chili

Came across an article in the New York Times today about India's beloved bhut jolokia, the world's hottest chili:

A chili's spiciness can be scientifically measured by calculating its content of capsaicin, the chemical that gives a pepper its bite, and counting its Scoville units.

And how hot is the bhut jolokia?

As a way of comparison: Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units. Your basic jalapeno pepper measures anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000. The previous record holder, the Red Savina habanero, was tested at up to 580,000 Scovilles.

The bhut jolokia crushed those contenders, testing at 1,001,304 Scoville units.

My nose is running just thinking about it. Also, who knew that there was a scale for the measure of a chili's spiciness? How great is that? Before, my spiciness threshold was probably at the level of a poblano. But thanks to TJ, it's now at least a serrano.

Kurtz takes a jab at Romney

Howard Kurtz's Media Notes is probably my favorite Washington Post column ever. Anyway, I just caught Howard's latest Media Backtalk discussion and there's a mention of Romney and the YouTube debate:

Alexandria, Va.: Do you believe Fox News -- namely Roger Ailes -- is encouraging GOP Presidential candidates to duck out of the CNN You Tube debate? If so, isn't that quite a hypocritical stance to take? I mean, if you can't face real questions on YouTube, how can you stand up to terrorists?

Howard Kurtz: I haven't seen any suggestion that Ailes has had anything to do with it; nor do I think the candidates would necessarily take his advice. CNN says the debate is in the process of being rescheduled, but it's pretty clear that some of the GOP contenders are wary of answering questions from YouTubers. Mitt Romney says presidential candidates shouldn't have to answer questions from a snowman. To which I say: Governor, how are you going to deal with Osama bin Laden if you can't deal with a snowman?

Oh, snap.

Mitt Romney lost the snowmen vote

We just got back from a long weekend in Fresno, so I missed out on some interesting news last week...namely, that Mitt Romney may or may not skip out on the GOP version of the CNN/YouTube debate:

Asked about the format, which featured video questions submitted by the public, Romney said "There is a degree of respectfulness that ought to be associated with the process for selecting a nominee. From what I've heard, that level of respectfulness was breached."

Romney took special exception to a question about global warming, posed by a snowman in one of the video questions. "I don't know that it makes sense to have people running for president answering questions posed from snowmen."

And:

"I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman," he said in an interview yesterday.

Uh, maybe Romney should be the one holding the presidency at a higher level by not employing staffers who think they're Jason Bourne.

Seriously though, I think Romney blew it on this one. He apparently has no problem using YouTube as a medium to promote his campaign, but he does have a problem with participating in a YouTube debate? And it's funny how he talks about "respectfulness" while coming off as an arrogant jerk who's above answering questions from the American public. Hate to break it to you, Mitt, but the global warming question didn't really come from a snowman. And forget about the snowman, what about the lady with cancer who can't get decent health care? Or the father who lost a son in Iraq?

Looks like someone's trying to avoid the tough questions . . .

Birthday surprise

I came home after a long day's work to find a birthday package from Lynda hidden behind the kitchen shutters (that UPS guy is so smart). Here's what was inside:

I Like Food, Food Tastes Good: In the Kitchen with Your Favorite Bands.

How did she know?! I've had my eye on this book for a while now. It's my two favorite things (food and music) rolled into one.

Thanks, Lynda!

The final countdown

So Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows goes on sale at the stroke of midnight, and some people are completely losing it over the fact that some newspapers, including the New York Times, published a review of the book ahead of its release date.

In a Huffington Post entry titled "Harry Potter And The Fact That I Hate The New York Times," Rachel Sklar writes:

How on earth could you run a review of the last Harry Potter? To do so, you had to break an industry-wide embargo -- and not just any embargo, an embargo that is almost tantamount to a public trust at this point, given the worldwide hype about Harry Potter and the excitement and intense emotion generated by -- finally -- the end to this epic series. . . .

But, hey, you're the New York Times, boldly going etc. Why should you care about honoring a book that's been over a decade in the making just for the sake of getting a two-day jump on the competish?

Competish? What are you, TMZ?

The book reviews also drew the ire of J.K. Rowling herself:

I am staggered that some American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children.

Honestly, I don't see what the big deal is. I mean, this isn't the Pentagon Papers we're talking about here. If you're a diehard Potter fan and are truly wary of spoilers, is it really that hard to turn the page or not click on the link? I read the NYT review—it doesn't give away any crucial plot points about Harry dying or anything. Instead, much of it seems to focus on the literary achievements of the book and the series as a whole (doesn't anybody care about anything besides what happens at the end?) It merely assured me that I should buy the book and that I'm in for a good read. If I were Rowling and her publishers, I'd be ecstatic that my book got such a great review from such a respected newspaper.

As for this embargo nonsense, BStu put it nicely over at Shakesville:

While someone violated an embargo, it wasn’t the New York Times or Baltimore Sun. The embargo here is specifically on retailers. A few obviously failed to uphold their part of that bargain and the publisher can take appropriate action against them for violating their contract.

Embargo has a very specific meaning in journalism, though, and neither the Times or the Sun violated an embargo. Basically, if the publishers had allowed those papers an advance copy of the book with the agreement that the review would not be printed until the book was released commercially, then the papers would have agreed to an embargo. As it stands, they were no party to such an agreement and bound by no ethical code to refrain from printing the review.

There you have it. Can everyone just relax now?

CNN/You Tube Debate

If you haven't heard, YouTube and CNN have come together to host a debate between the Presidential candidates. The Democratic debate is currently accepting questions on YouTube, so we went ahead and submitted one. The debate is on Monday July 23rd, so tune in to see if they actually choose our question. It seems unlikely since we brought up Kucinich, and networks have tried to keep him out of debates completely in the past. See here.

Also, if you want to vote for my video on Community Counts go here. Click "Answer" if you think it should be answered by the candidates and "Ignore" if you think it shouldn't.

Palapa

I was just sitting here at work, bored and hungry, when I started thinking about Palapa, which is probably my favorite Mexican restaurant ever. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

• Live mariachi band on Friday nights
• Fish tacos are muy delicioso
• You can choose between red rice and green rice
• ...and between beans and grilled vegetables
• Nice selection of refrescos and liquados
• Sitting on the outdoor patio makes you feel like you're at a real fiesta
• On Saturdays, a nice lady will bring you a freshly cooked, homemade tortilla filled with cheese as a free appetizer
• Has the distinction of being the only place where I have seen TJ defeated by the level of spiciness in his dish (they don't call it camarones a la diabla for nothing)

Obviously, how can anyone not love this place, right? Out of curiosity I checked out the customer reviews on santabarbara.com. One person complained about his taco being full of salsa and cilantro (psst, maybe you should stick to Taco Bell) and someone else was bothered by the restaurant's "seat yourself" policy. Just when I thought people couldn't get any more ridiculous, I came across this gem:

I found it insulting and rude to have a Mexican flag stuck in my food

Yeah, the nerve of this Mexican restaurant to use a Mexican toothpick flag as a garnish on Mexican food. Is this guy serious?

I happen to like the little Mexican flags.

Sicko

We went to see the Michael Moore documentary Sicko over the weekend. And just to be "fair and balanced" we also watched some Fox News to see what Sean Hannity had to say about health care.

When conservatives talk about universal health care, they usually talk about the wait time in countries like Canada. People are put on waiting lists for certain surgeries, and they report that some people may even die waiting for an essential operation. I'm sure someone has died in Canada while waiting for a surgery, but the numbers show that a lot more people are being killed by the American health care system. So how could anyone support this American system? If choosing between two programs, why would you want to support the one that is responsible for more deaths?

In Canada and Europe, a small number of people may need to wait to have essential surgeries. In the United States, there is no waiting list. Instead, most of those people needing surgery are simply told by their insurance company that they can't have it done. I'm sure if you ask these people, they would much prefer to be on a waiting list than told they can't have it done.

Under the U.S. system, many people are suffering from lack of care. However, none of these people could be considered rich. In Canada and Europe, rich people may have to wait just as long as poor people to receive their care. They also may not be able to receive all of their unessential surgeries as quickly as they desire. Rich people don't want universal health care because they want to get their liposuction done whenever they want, even if it'll cost the life of someone poorer than them. And of course the insurance and pharmaceutical companies are making tons of money on not providing service to their customers.

Best 4th of July ever

Just got back from our 4th of July trip to the nation's capitol. We had a BBQ on the banks of the Potomac River at Bolling Air Force Base, where we could see the main fireworks show in the District on the other side of the river. Close, but not too close.

Other than the thunderstorm, the tornado warning, the high winds, and the police telling everyone to evacuate the waterfront and take cover, it went pretty well. The weather cleared up in time for the fireworks, which was awesome. Because if there's one thing the U.S. knows how to do, it's how to blow stuff up.

Nooo...

Another flashback to my childhood, but this time in a sad way.

Don Herbert, better known as Mr. Wizard to nerdy kids like me, has died at the age of 89.

I loved Mr. Wizard. I remember watching one episode in which he used mirrors to make the lower half of a kid's body invisible. It blew my seven-year-old mind.

Maybe I'll make some soap-powered paper boats in his honor.

D-D-D-Do you have it?

I've decided that the Nickelodeon GAS channel is the best thing to happen to me since Paris Hilton got sent back to jail and the Game Show Network decided to air reruns of Press Your Luck.

I'm convinced that this station was launched for the sole purpose of entertaining people like me who grew up watching television in the early 90s. Why did I never realize back then how much Mike O'Malley hated his life?

One of my all-time favorites has to be Legends of the Hidden Temple. This show had everything. A giant talking Aztec head, that silver monkey statue nobody seemed to be able to put together... and then to watch the kids have no idea what to do once they entered the temple at the end...so priceless. And the prizes. Oh, the lame, lame prizes. I mean, come on...I know they got ousted in the first round, but all they get is a can of Nestle Quik? Or a bag of Blow Pops? (Say from Charms! What? Cut, cut...)

And then of course, there is Nickelodeon GUTS, which is basically American Gladiators for kids. I nearly died laughing when I saw the treacherous Aggro Crag for the first time in 15 years. Tell him what he's won, Mo! Why, he's won a trip to SPACE CAMP! And a pair of BK British Knights!!

I've yet to see an episode of Nick Arcade (the nerdy, nonathletic version of GUTS) on this channel. Who can forget the Video Zone? It was only the hardest final challenge of any kids' game show ever.

Oh, the memories...

Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer = my new hero.

I'm kind of ashamed to be getting so much enjoyment out of a story about Paris Hilton, but wow. The woman is 26 years old and she's crying and screaming for her mommy like she just got handed the death penalty.

I know, I know, this is exactly the kind of thing that's wrong with society—the media and everybody going nuts about some shallow, vapid celebrity—but is this not the greatest thing ever? Redemption for the the American justice system, at least? It brightened my day.

I read the news today...

Today is my little (not-so-little) brother's 15th birthday. You probably won't read this, but happy birthday anyway!

Today is also Sgt. Pepper's 40th birthday. There is really nothing else about the Beatles that hasn't been said already, but here's a fun op-ed from the Washington Post about the timelessness of their music: It Was 40 Years Ago Today.

And because the world apparently needs more Beatles covers, the BBC is celebrating the anniversary by recruiting a bunch of bands to re-record songs from the album using the original 4-track method. It airs on BBC Radio 2 tomorrow and features bands such as Oasis, Travis, the Kaiser Chiefs, and the Magic Numbers. Oh yeah, and the Killers, who will probably be confused when they encounter a real melody for the first time.

I'm not predicting anything amazing (this was already done in the 80s, and probably better, with the likes of Sonic Youth, Billy Bragg, and the Fall), but it might be worth a listen. And hey, at least there's no Avril Lavigne or Green Day involved.

Reader's Forum Roundup

It's the moment you've all I've been waiting for: the BYU Newsnet Reader's Forum Roundup! Except they now call it Letters to the DU Editor, but whatever. It's been years since Bricks changed its name to Club Sound...or In the Venue...or something...but I still insist on calling it Bricks.

Heather Sabin from Federal Way, Washington, writes:

Students at BYU need to be more friendly! I didn't think friendliness made a difference until a friend told me that mine made her think twice about suicide. She is creatively endowed, but in other areas lacks ability and grace. She seemed satisfied with her poetry and galactic novels, but was really depressed. The severity of the situation eluded me until I learned she had planned to commit suicide. She told me my kindness and friendliness made her think twice.

Ok, before you knock yourself out talking about how kind and friendly you are, take a second to think about what you just wrote: She is creatively endowed, but in other areas lacks ability and grace. Uh, thanks for pointing that out. I hope your roommate doesn't read the editorial page.

And speaking of not reading the editorial page, Jeff Hill of Centennial, Colorado, writes:

To all of those that are having problems with the required religion classes, I have a few suggestions. First, if you haven't been able to receive an A grade in every religion class you've ever taken, maybe a university education isn't the best option for you. Second, if you don't like the religion classes, maybe our church isn't the best option for you. And last, if you don't like the editorials being written, maybe reading the editorials isn't the best option for you.

Thanks for clearing that up. I knew I should've dropped out of school after I got that B in Old Testament...

And finally, from Paul G. Jaehnert, the voice of reason from Vadnais Heights, Minnesota:

The largest contributing factor in high drug prices is advertising and promotion - about 37 percent of the price we pay. Costs of research and development for new drugs doesn't even approach that percentage, since a huge part of the research going into the development of new drugs is performed by our National Institutes of Health (NIH). About $25 billion of taxpayer money goes to the NIH each year, much of which is spent on research for new drugs. It's the pharmaceutical industry's advertising, promotion and excessive profits, not research and development, that drives up costs. . . . It's time to rein in the pharmaceutical industry drug cartel and their congressional co-conspirators.

Ever notice how drug commercials always have really attractive people holding hands and laughing and flying kites on the beach? Who can watch those without thinking, "Wow, cancer is the greatest disease ever!" And if that's not enough, the pharmaceuticals also try to convince you that you need a drug for everything. Do you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning? Hate your job? Can't cook a decent omelet? Well, we have a drug for that! Instant profit.

You're so special

So a coworker of mine was telling me how she's going to Tucson this weekend to attend one relative's high school graduation, and another relative's middle school graduation.

Wait a minute, I said. Did you just say middle school graduation?

The concept is foreign to me. Since when did leaving eighth grade count as some kind of amazing achievement? I mean, you don't even get to leave your parents' house like you do when you graduate from high school, or get to have your own place like you do when you graduate from college. You just get to move from one school building to another one across the street. No one should get a diploma for that.

Sure, it's great to encourage your kids and help them build confidence...but middle school graduation? It's things like this that contribute to the whole culture of praise, entitlement, and inflated self-worth that surrounds kids these days. They also deserve to eat peanut butter whenever they want and send text messages to their friends whenever they want. What's next? Here's a reward for getting out of bed in the morning?

It's like that cell phone commerical I hate—the one with the mom who has to dress up like a taco for a job she clearly despises so her lazy kids can keep on sending dozens of text messages every day? Don't worry, kids, instead of taking away your cell phones or asking you to contribute to the cell phone bill every month, we'll just sign up for this new plan that will add an extra $50 to an already hefty expense. Give me a break.

2 Questions for David Stern

I guess it's more like 2 topics to discuss with Stern, since each will likely end up having several questions that I think fans of the NBA deserve to have answered.

First topic: What is the league doing to prevent NBA teams from putting some unimportant player in a game to start an "altercation" to get important players to take a few steps off the bench? I read one ESPN columnist suggest that if that happened, it would be really obvious and the NBA would sniff it out and punish the team accordingly. My response to that would be: it just happened. No punishment for the Spurs and they got exactly what they wanted. In a league where the head coach has an extremely high salary and extremely low job security, there's a lot to benefit from having a couple of important guys on the opposing team sit out. Especially when winning a series may mean that a coach gets to keep his job. Also, it'll always be easy to find someone in America who's willing to accept a $1 million per year pay check to be a professional fan who's willing to start altercations on call. So what is the NBA doing? I see nothing being done and that's a problem.

Second topic: How can a player be punished for another player's action? David Stern's initial response to this would be that Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were punished for their own actions because they got off the bench. That's true, but that's not entirely why they are being punished. So I would have to start off with the incident involving Duncan in the 2nd quarter. If Jumaine Jones would've punched Elson in the face after they got tangled up, would Tim Duncan have been suspended? If the answer is no, I would call Stern a biased Spurs fans that's using his power to give his favorite team the best chance at winning. If the answer is yes, I would say why is Duncan being punished for the actions of Jumaine Jones? Duncan didn't do anything differently, but if you can call it an altercation, he gets punished. The same thing goes for Amare and Diaw—they were running to help Nash when it was a flagrant foul, not an altercation. When it became an altercation, they ran back to the bench. So why are Amare and Diaw being punished because Horry and Bell and other players on the court escalated it to a so-called altercation?

If he can't answer those questions well enough to satisfy the fans, he should be removed from his duties as NBA commissioner and he can take Stu Jackson with him. The NBA is headed for a downward spiral, and eventually some star in their prime will get frustrated enough to sign with a European team that's willing to pay NBA money for the recognition they'd get.

Way to be consistent, David Stern.

I wanted to criticize David Stern before this suspension came out, but I wanted it to be official. Horry gets a 2 game suspension, and Amare and Diaw each get one game. The NBA, several years ago, decided to come up with this rule that basically states that if you're on the bench and a fight breaks out and you step onto the court, you get an automatic one game suspension.

First, let me give you the prevailing argument for the suspension, then I'll explain why it's wrong. People say that you need to be consistent with suspensions. If you let Amare off the hook, how could you suspend someone later for coming off the bench? I understand that argument, but it's not accurate, it's not fair, and they need to change this rule, or at least the way they enforce it.

How do you enforce it in a future incident if you don't suspend Amare? That's easy. If players have a normal reaction to a fight, then remember (or have coaches help them remember) the rule and go right back to the bench without escalating the conflict or having any contact with players on court, then don't suspend them. Otherwise, you have the right to suspend them (assuming you actually want to keep this rule at all, which I don't).

Now let me tell you why this decision can potentially hurt the NBA. In playoff basketball, when you play the same team several times in a row, it would be beneficial to have a non-contributing player with no other purpose than to start fights. If some unimportant player on your team, (aka Robert Horry), decides to toss a player to the floor and can get a 3 second reaction from any player on the opposing bench (aka Amare and Diaw) then you win. The opposing team loses two good players for one game and your team loses one crappy player for two games. I know most head coaches aren't smart, but they can all figure this one out. I'm not saying this is what Horry or the Spurs had in mind with this play, but I can't completely rule it out either. That's beside the point, though. The point is, the team that was clearly in the wrong is being rewarded.

This goes way beyond sending in a "goon" to start a fight with the opposing team's best player, because in that circumstance, the player being attacked would have to throw a punch or participate in the fight in some way to warrant an ejection. These guys have been punished, essentially, for taking 3 more steps than they should have. According to the league, those 3 steps are worse than kicking an opposing players Achilles or kneeing the opposing player in the nuts.

During a similar situation in the second quarter, when a player from the Spurs dunked and landed on a player from the Suns, they got tangled up and it looked like it could escalate, Tim Duncan got up from the bench and took a few steps onto the court. How can you punish Amare for taking a few extra steps and not Duncan? Probably for the same reason that if Duncan gets ejected for laughing about a call, the ref gets fired. But if a ref ejects Baron Davis for clapping at no one in particular there's no punishment for the ref. I'm not saying that Duncan should be suspended, and I'm not saying that the ref that ejected him didn't deserve what he got. What I am saying is, Amare should not be suspended either, and the ref that ejected Baron Davis should've been punished.

GS Warriors are the Swampcoolahs

There's plenty of reasons to like the Golden State Warriors. For one, they just accomplished the greatest upset in NBA history. They also play a fast paced, entertaining style that's easy to enjoy. Their star player has an amazing beard. They have a player who consistently shoots free throws like this. The fans where bright yellow shirts that say "We Believe." They have no center and up to 4 guards on the floor at any given time. Charles Barkley hates them.

During game 2, I realized the real reason why so many people like them. And that is because they are the Swampcoolahs. Reggie Miller pointed this out during the game after Baron Davis threw up a pretty crazy shot that went in somehow. Miller said, "There's no such thing as a bad shot when you're a Golden State Warrior."

From the words of Reggie Miller's mouth, the Golden State Warriors are the Swampcoolahs.

Jesus Camp

Last night we watched Jesus Camp, a documentary about an Evangelical summer camp that teaches kids to love Jesus and hate liberals. At first glance it's easy to talk about how crazy and brainwashing the Evangelicals are. After all, the leaders screamed at the kids to feel the healing blood of Christ so their sins would be washed away, then encouraged them to yell out jibberish while in some scary emotional high, which left most kids in tears. They also taught them that evolution is not based on science, but is a belief that the liberal school system was drilling into their heads, as if every day at school they are being told that creationism is stupid.

After thinking about some of the things that I saw, I realized that many of the problems I have with Evangelicals, I also have with Mormons. I'm not sure why this crossover exists, but for some reason many Mormons and Evangelicals have the same faulty logic. One focus of the Evangelicals in the documentary is that we are at war, specifically with the Muslim religion and we have to train our kids to fight against this. I also have heard this same line of thought with Mormons, and I think it's racist and wrong to think of Muslims as our enemy. Another thing that was brought up several times was they inferred that this generation of kids is some sort of chosen generation, saved to fight evil in these last days. Mormons had been spreading similar rumors around, even attaching names of general authorities to made-up quotes, until the First Presidency came out and told people to stop doing it. This kind of goes along the same idea that we're at war--the Evangelicals seemed to relish the idea of war and loved to think of themselves as being strong enough to fight it. This kind of attitude seemed completely contradictory to any of Jesus' teachings in the Bible. The next resemblance is the attitude of Evangelicals that the way to make yourself better is to pray, read the Bible and go to church. Not to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and accept others even if they're different than you. When I was young, I knew that any question in Sunday school could be answered by saying, "Pray, read your scriptures and go to church," when none of those things actually directly help anyone. So my problem is, Christianity is raising a generation focused on doing things that aren't actually helping anyone except for, arguably, themselves. The sick aren't being healed, the homeless aren't being sheltered, the mentally ill aren't being accepted or treated, the poor working class aren't being represented. With all these major problems going on in the world and billions of people needing aid of some sort, the Evangelicals decided to focus their efforts on protesting abortion in Washington by putting red tape with the word "life" written on it over their mouths. They prayed fervently for a righteous government that would turn over turn Roe vs. Wade. They desperately want these unborn children to have a chance at a life. Once given this chance at life however, Christians seem to be the last to help those who are born into poverty or other hard circumstances. They reject a nation that supports welfare and will fight to keep these poverty stricken people from having access to any form of birth control. Big businesses that they support through their conservative votes will gladly take advantage of the poor working class, using loopholes and lobbyists to keep wages and benefits ridiculously low. But the liberals are the evil ones because they are abortion supporting murderers.

This generation of Christians seems to be more focused on putting themselves above other people because they have the truth, rather than helping anyone in any way. In my opinion, Christianity, and maybe organized religion as a whole, needs to be completely revamped or completely abandoned. I spend three hours at church every Sunday and the only people that may get helped from it are members of the Mormon church because I pay money to a fund to help members. Other than that there's not much that my time or efforts at church or church activities go to actually helping people, which is what I always thought Christianity was supposed to be about.

Biggest upset ever!

Not only did the Warriors upset the #1 seed, they did so in a seven game series (never before done by an 8 seed) and they won the clinching game on their home floor (also never before done by an 8 seed). There have only been two previous 8 over 1 upsets in NBA history since they moved to the 16 team format in 1984. The first was Denver over Seattle in 1994, which likely could've been the Sonics' back-to-back championships instead of Houston's if they had a best of 7 first round like they do now, but I guess we'll never know. The second one barely even counts because it was in the shortened season due to the lock-out in 2000. In both of those cases, they came down to the last possession of game 5 to be decided, in the first case there was an OT in game 4 that Denver edged out to force game 5, then another OT game in to allow Mutombo to scream on the floor holding the ball. The other one was decided by Allan Houston's shot that seemed to bounce around forever as the buzzer sounded.

This series was much different. Not only did the Warriors beat the Mavericks 4 times instead of 3, but they seemed to look like the team that had 67 regular season wins. No time in this series did I ever think, "Dallas is really the better team here." I don't blame it on Don Nelson's big brother syndrome (you know, the big brother always wins no matter how much better the younger brother is) either. I do give Don Nelson a lot of credit, even though I've complained about him ruining the Warriors forever in the mid-90s. He's completely redeemed himself in my mind--just by treating his players better he gets better production from them. Read what Matt Barnes has to say about his coach. So not only did Golden State beat the Mavs with a game buffer (4-2 in the series) but they did so in a 111-86 blowout. This will mark the first time that an MVP will have to take a break from vacation to receive his award since the 16 team playoff format started (assuming Dirk gets MVP).

I also think something should be said about the officiating in this series. Mark Cuban has been known to complain about the refs, but I don't think he can say with a straight face that the refs favored the Warriors. Just looking at the first half of this game, it seemed to obviously favor the Mavs. In the only two games that the Warriors lost the refs seemed to favor the Mavs. Baron Davis got thrown out of game 2 for a combination of two bogus technicals. The first was for trying to play peacemaker in a mild confrontation between the two teams. And the second was for clapping, not saying a word, just clapping. Then in game 5 Baron Davis was given his 6th foul while GS was only down by 1, because the ref thought Davis was trying to foul. But when you look at it, Davis didn't even touch the Mavs player. The refs getting rid of the leader of arguably the most dependent and emotional team in competitive games is the only reason the Mavs got a win.

Nobody gave the Warriors a chance going into the series even though they proved they could beat the Mavs. Even after a surprising game 1, many still predicted the Mavs in 5. After proving they belong and going up 3-1, still people were saying the Mavs would show they are the superior team and come back to win in 7. Now the Warriors move on and the Mavs go home for a long summer.

Indie rock music is the new pornography

During TNT's coverage of Game 4 between the Warriors and Mavericks, Charles Barkley once again demonstrates his struggles with geography:

I love Baron Davis, love Don Nelson . . . [but] Golden State as a city sucks.

Anyone remember when they gave Barkley a map of the world and a list of countries to identify? I can't recall the exact details, but he did something like place Bolivia in Europe.

Anyway, the NBA has come a long way since its lame-o "NBA Cares" Rob Thomas days now that they have the New Pornographers as the voice of the playoffs. Maybe Carl Newman figured that it couldn't be any worse than selling out to the University of Phoenix. Which can't be any worse than selling out to the Outback Steakhouse (Of Montreal), Mitsubishi (Flaming Lips), M&Ms (Iron & Wine), Nissan (Modest Mouse), UPS (Postal Service), or Cesar dog food (Magnetic Fields). And no, I'm not making the last one up.

I guess I don't really mind, since we all have to make a living somehow. It's just kind of weird.

(By the way, Carl explains the whole University of Phoenix thing in a pretty amusing interview with Pitchfork that you can read here.)

Adding insult to injury

As if inviting Dick Cheney to speak at commencement wasn't bad enough, BYU decides to give him an honorary doctorate for public service. What exactly is their idea of public service? Starting a bloody mess in Iraq on false pretenses and saying it's about fighting terrorism and spreading democracy and protecting Americans when it's really about oil? I'm horrified.

Reader's Forum Roundup

Oh, BYU Daily Universe opinions page, how could I have neglected you for so long? You're like a one-stop shop for all of my needs for ignorant, racist, sexist commentary. Here's a sampling from the April 16 and April 18 editions:

Richard Garn of Coldwater, MN, on the BYU anti-Cheney protests: Recently I had heard news accounts about BYU professors protesting the Vice President coming to BYU to give a commencement address. The school must come to grips with this situation. The school allowing this to happen and to make quiet a good and honorable person is unacceptable. The effort by the academic community across the country to quell free speech is unacceptable.

Ok, any efforts to take this guy seriously immediately disappeared when he called Cheney a "good and honorable person." And apparently, Cheney is the only person in this whole controversy who is entitled to free speech.

Jason Miller of Provo, UT, on Virginia Tech: The shootings of Monday were a terrible tragedy and unfortunately as long as universities like BYU continue to ban legal licensed citizens from carrying guns on their campuses these types of tragedies will continue to take place.

Of course, guns aren't the only thing at issue here, but if we lived in a society that made it harder for certain individuals to buy guns, isn't it obvious that average citizens wouldn't need to be armed?

David Blackmer of Draper, UT, on the recent suspensions of two BYU football players on breaking and entering charges: [Head coach Bronco Mendenhall] may have had a swift reaction, but I do not see any swift action (or any action at all for that matter) to clean up the team. . . . I think the problem is we are recruiting and pampering players who do not care about BYU values. . . . I don't even care if we lose a few games as long as I don't have to be afraid of some of the people walking around campus.

Why don't you just come out and say it: you think BYU should stop recruiting those scary-looking non-Mormon minority athletes and stick to the clean shaven, returned missionary variety. Because we all know that Bronco Mendenhall can tell exactly which of his potential recruits will be BYU honor code following, law abiding citizens just by looking at them.

Matthew Crandall of Twin Falls, ID, on girls who wear sweatshirts to class: I heartily disagree with the letter "Unrealistic expectation" (April 13). Shame on you for encouraging casualness and sloppiness. To all the girls who wear make up, high heels and who care about how they look, I say thank you. It is people like you who make this world a prettier place to live in.

Right, because the main reason girls attend class is to look pretty for people like you.

Hollinger gives Nuggets/Warriors some credit

John Hollinger from ESPN, who originally gave the Denver Nuggets and Golden State Warriors almost a zero percent chance of advancing past the first round based on his prediction model, admits now that his data might have been a little skewed.

Hollinger, who makes his career by doing bad statistics with bad assumptions (which in turn creates bad models), always acknowledges that his models are based on assumptions, and things such as injuries, streaks and "tanking" may not correctly reflect the true odds. However, his correction is still not accurate according to his logic. He throws out all data points for the Nuggets and Warriors if they had a significant player injured, if they didn't need to win or if the team they were playing didn't need to win or may have been trying to lose. But he didn't do this for their playoff opponents, which means the Nuggets/Warriors records get inflated because of bad situations and the Spurs/Mavs don't get this same benefit. Although those numbers would greatly improve Denver and Golden State and only mildly improve (if at all) Dallas and San Antonio, which means his corrected numbers are a lot better than his old ones. The point is, his logic is always a little misguided.

My main problem with Hollinger is his famous PER, which supposedly is the tell-all of how good a player is based on efficiency. Of course he doesn't publish his formula, except in a his book that he expects me to buy. Having said that, I don't know what he emphasizes in his PER, and I haven't really tried to figure it out, but I do know that there are several things wrong with it. The most glaring error is Steve Nash, who's having his best season and one of the most efficient seasons I've ever seen as an NBA fan. Steve Nash is apparently the 12th most efficient player in the NBA according to Hollinger's numbers. If you base this on offensive efficiency, Nash should easily be number one. His fg% is .532, which of the 11 people in front of him, only Duncan, Gasol and Boozer are better, and these are guys who spend a lot of time under the basket getting easier shots. Not to mention that in true shooting % (which factors in that 3-pointers are worth more) Nash is at .654, which is a lot better than anyone in front of him. In fact, he's number 2 overall in that category behind Brent Berry, who basically only shoots wide open three pointers and doesn't exactly have any pressure to create offense. So basically Nash is the most efficient shooter in the NBA, and as far as other offensive stats go, there would be assists (which Nash dominates) and turnovers. The turnovers for Nash can be easily factored into an assist to turnover ratio, which is 3.08 for him, much better than anyone ahead of him on the list. The only major category which Nash isn't relevant is rebounding.

I don't know how Hollinger got his numbers, but it just seems to me that the best shooting player in the league who also leads the league in assists and who might be in the top 5 all-time efficient players, should probably be higher than number 12 in the 2006-07 PER.

13yo is txt msg champ rofl!!1! <3 <3

In today's news of the obvious, a 13-year-old girl from Pennsylvania won a cell phone texting contest by typing "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from "Mary Poppins" in 15 seconds.

And what does she plan to do with the $25,000 in prize money? Save it for college, maybe? Help her parents pay off the 8,000 freaking text messages she sends to her friends every month? No, she's "going to go shopping and buy lots of clothes."

And if that isn't bad enough, let's check in on the runner-up:

So dedicated is she to the art of the text message that Tirosh apparently unwittingly uses abbreviations such as BTW (by the way), TTYL (talk to you later) and LOL (laughing out loud) in her normal speech.

Seriously, WTF. What is this world coming to? Why does this contest even exist? On one hand, you're rewarding a spoiled brat who apparently has nothing better to do with her life than annoy the crap out of her friends by sending them hundreds of text messages everyday. And on the other, you're encouraging a 21-year-old law student who can't even use actual words or sentences in normal conversations. Please, the legal system has enough problems as it is. Put down the phone, go back to English class, and get a hobby. Read a book. Go outside.

Ahoy, mateys

During my lunch break today I spotted an item in the LA Times about a just-announced TV series that combines two of my greatest passions in life: pirates and reality shows.

“Pirate Master” will send 16 modern-day pirates on a high seas adventure where they will live as buccaneers and travel around the Caribbean island of Dominica in search of hidden treasures worth $1 million. Over the course of 33 days, these pirates will live aboard a massive 179 foot, square-rigged barque which carries 12,500 square feet of sail.

Unfortunately, the rest of the description makes the format sound really similar to Survivor, which I hate (and which also makes sense, since both shows are produced by the same guy). But I really want to like this show. I mean, it's pirate themed, for one. Plus, what else am I going to watch between the end of Amazing Race and the beginning of Project Runway? Baseball? I don't think so. Unless it involves someone getting hit in the face with a pizza.

Tragedy at Virginia Tech

More details from yesterday's shooting at Virginia Tech emerge. Several of the 32 victims have been named and the gunman was a student from Centreville, a city about 30 minutes away from where I lived growing up.

Reading news reports as the events unfold has been disturbing. It gets worse when you read about some of the people who lost their lives: the world-class biomechanics researcher who was also kind and dedicated to his family; the 75-year-old aeronautics professor who blocked the classroom door with his body to save his students; the 22-year-old student who was known by his friends for always smiling and being a good listener. It's sad to think that they are gone. They were the kinds of people we need in the this crazy, messed up world.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that Virginia Tech had become a popular college destination for kids from the D.C. suburbs. I don't have any direct ties to the school, but I know several people who do. Probably half of my high school applies there every year. *I* applied there. My best friend's brother went there. Forget the Cavaliers, it's the Hokies I cheer for during rivalry week. It's so terrible and bizzare to me. I can't even imagine how it feels for those who survived the mayhem or who lost friends and family when the madness was finally over.

And of course, there is already the inevitable talk about things like gun control and media violence, and I don't like it. I personally hate guns and don't care much for images of death and destruction on my TV screen, but please, barely a day has gone by with little facts or motives to speak of and we're already going to try and politicize what just happened?

I don't know. I'm still just trying to wrap my head around the whole thing.

The ship just keeps on sinking

Right on the heels of the new Watergate scandal:

The Justice Department identified five Bush administration insiders as replacement U.S. attorneys almost a year before most of the prosecutors were fired, contrary to repeated claims that no such list had ever been drawn up, according to documents released today.

E-mails sent to the White House in January and May of 2006 by D. Kyle Sampson, then chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, list potential replacements for U.S. attorneys in San Diego, San Francisco, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Little Rock, Ark.

The replacements on the list were all high-level administration insiders, including two who have gone on to different U.S. attorney postings: Jeff Taylor, now chief prosecutor in the District, and Deborah Rhodes, now U.S. attorney in Alabama. The others were Rachel L. Brand, currently head of the Office of Legal Counsel, and Daniel Levin, a former senior Justice and White House official, the memos show.

Read the full article here.

This comes two weeks after Sampson, testifying under oath, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had no one in mind to replace any of the dismissed prosecutors.

Considering this administration's past record, I can't say that I was totally surprised.

Noooooo

Apple just pulled a Microsoft and announced it will delay Tiger for 4 months.

In its statement, Apple cited the need to divert its team of programmers to the challenge of introducing the iPhone, which it said was still on track for shipment in “late June.”

Four months is so far away! Stupid iPhone.

Jackie Robinson Day

So I was watching ESPN today, and they were talking about how all of the Dodgers and anyone else in Major League Baseball that chooses to do so, will wear Jackie Robinson's number 42 on Sunday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of his MLB debut. Baseball is probably one of the only sports where you could get away with everyone having the same number. This idea came from Ken Griffey Jr. and was approved by Bud Selig. Sounds like a respectable tribute to remember a very important figure of the civil rights movement. Nobody could disagree with that, right? Well, apparently at least one MLB player disagrees, and surprisingly, it's an African American player.

Torii Hunter (yes, that's really how he spells his name) was on PTI and SportsCenter, explaining that he doesn't think everyone should be allowed to wear number 42 because some people will be wearing it "to look cool" without understanding what Jackie did for baseball. He also went on to say that people don't understand that Jackie played in games where fans yelled out racial slurs at him, and that many of his teammates and other players in the league harassed him. Now, I'm white and I don't even like baseball, but I know at least as much as Torii does about the Jackie Robinson story (or at least as much as he explained in his interview). Torii continued to dig himself into a bigger hole and was about one step away from saying that only African American players should be allowed to wear Robinson's number.

Later on, some ESPN baseball experts were talking about the decline of African American baseball players in recent years, mentioning that inner-city kids typically think that baseball isn't as cool as football or basketball. One guy even mentioned that Jackie Robinson is rolling over in his grave because of how few African American baseball players are in the MLB today. I have a problem with this conclusion. First of all, Jackie Robinson was doing more than just paving the way for African Americans to play baseball in the MLB. He opened the door for both football and basketball to accept African Americans (the first to be allowed to play in the NBA happened in 1950) so I don't think Jackie Robinson would be upset that inner-city kids choose to play basketball instead of baseball. From what I can understand from Jackie Robinson's story, he would be very happy to see that everyone has the chance to play any sport of their choice and should be just as happy to see Tiger Woods dominate golf. To compare what the world was like in 1972, when Jackie passed away, and what it's like today, I see progress and he would be proud of his legacy. We just had a Super Bowl with two African American head coaches going head-to-head for the first time. There are several African American coaches and even an African American owner in the NBA. We even have an African American with a good chance to become our next president.

I guess what I'm saying is that Jackie's legacy should not be tainted by the fact that African Americans would rather play football or basketball instead of baseball. The fact that they can choose to play baseball or any other sport and be given a fair chance is exactly what Jackie Robinson was fighting for. Sunday should be a day to remember him and what he has done, and I think this tribute is an appropriate way to remember his legacy.

Chain Reaction on GSN

Bwahaha. First of all, this show probably has the hardest final round format of any game show I've ever seen. Two team members have to help a third team member (who is blindfolded) guess seven hidden words in 90 seconds by building sentences made of alternating single word clues.

That explanation probably doesn't make any sense if you haven't seen the show. But I am a nerd who has seen it plenty of times, and never in my life had I witnessed any team good enough to win the final round.

Until tonight.

You're sitting there amazed, watching the two guys building really great clues for the guesser and basically tearing through the round. And then they get to the point where the hidden word is frog.

Guy #1: What
Guy #2: is
Guy #1: opposite
Guy #2: [looks confused] of
Guy #1: toad
Guy #3: [hits buzzer really fast] Frog

I laughed so much, and I don't even know why. I mean, it makes perfect sense, right? The opposite of toad is frog. Like the opposite of alligator is crocodile, or the opposite of Coke is Pepsi.

Still can't touch the Family Feud hamburglar incident, though...

So it goes.

I was scanning the headlines for something stupid and/or political to write about, when I discovered that Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday at the age of 84.

It makes me sad to think that we just lost someone who had so much moral vision.

What would James Dobson say?

Yesterday's global warming debate between Newt Gingrich and John Kerry took a bizzare turn:

Before Kerry got a word in, Gingrich conceded that global warming is real, that humans have contributed to it and that "we should address it very actively." Gingrich held up Kerry's new book, "This Moment on Earth," and called it "a very interesting read." He then added a personal note about saving vulnerable species from climate change. "My name, Newt, actually comes from the Danish Knut, and there's been a major crisis in Germany over a polar bear named Knut," he confided.

The warm and fuzzy Gingrich surprised Kerry, who jettisoned prepared remarks that accused the former speaker of "marching in lock step with the climate-change deniers." Instead, Kerry found himself saying: "I've always enjoyed every dialogue he and I have ever had." He added that "your statement is very, very important" and gushed: "I frankly appreciate the candor."

The debate ended. They shook hands. Kerry put an arm around Gingrich. Gingrich put an arm around Kerry. For a brief but terrifying moment, they appeared to be on the verge of a hug.

Alright, so Newt did offer a bit of a reality check when he proposed tax incentives as the answer to the warming problem. But seriously, cue the Twilight Zone theme. First Geraldo, and now Gingrich? Is someone trying to run for office somewhere?

No news day

Recent news stories I liked (aka not about Don Imus or Anna Nicole's baby):

• In a social experiment devised by the Washington Post, musical virtuoso Joshua Bell goes incognito to play six classical masterpieces on a rare violin worth $3.5 million in a Metro station during morning rush hour. No one really notices.

• Durian, a spiky fruit native to Southeast Asia also known for its abilities to hatch a Yoshi egg, has the kind of odor that one food writer describes as similar to "a bunch of dead cats." A Thai government scientist figures out a way to make it odorless by crossing 90 varieties of the fruit. Durian purists are not happy.

And that's pretty much it...

Indie for the masses

You know those Now That's What I Call Music! compilations of top 40 songs? I guess there's like 30 volumes now. Well, Pitchfork reports that we could be seeing the first Now That's What I Call Indie Music! compilation. Vice, Sub Pop and Matador have allegedly teamed up to start this CD series. Vice is supposedly releasing the first one, although it will include artists from several labels, not just Vice artists.

This most likely won't sell to indie purists, because many of them already own the albums they want. Why would they buy a compilation of songs they already have? They will also argue that this disrespects the art of the album, which Lauren posted earlier is being threatened anyway.

Obviously this is an attempt to make money off the recent popularity of indie music. I guess they are hoping that young high schoolers will think it's cool and buy it. Either that or hipsters will buy it for their friends who are still listening to top 40 radio, but it seems like they'd just make their own mixes for friends...

Touching Chris Kaman

We just got back from the Clippers game down at the Staples Center against the Denver Nuggets. It was a reunion game of last year's altercation between Reggie Evans and Chris Kaman, which you can see here if you really want to (warning, it involves nuts getting grabbed).

One thing that's pretty amazing about NBA games is the amount of advertising involved in a single event. The time outs, the dance team, the halftime show, the game where you shoot a lay-up, free throw and a three pointer are all brought to you by different sponsors. Good thing Union Bank forked over a few thousand dollars, otherwise we wouldn't have had the game ball.

Another thing is that the Clippers have a really annoying on-court announcer that shows up during breaks in the game. When we walked in he was interviewing three Clippers fans that were obviously not prepared for the questions. He asked one of them, "If the Clippers make the playoffs, what do you think of their chances to move on?" The guy seemed almost disgusted with the question, then he responded "I don't know, I wouldn't put any money on it." Probably not the pre-game pump-up-the-crowd response people were hoping for. This announcer also sounded like a voice from a haunted house every time he said "Cuttinooo Moooobley." He was almost spooky enough to do the Monster Mash with these guys.

We had seats 24 and 25 of a row with 26 seats, which left one open seat to my left. We were there a little early, and I was thinking, is it possible somebody bought this seat and is coming to the game alone? Then I thought, if someone does have this ticket, it's probably going to be a pretty interesting person. Shortly after that, a man wearing blue Army fatigue-style pants with a Clipper Nation shirt and a leather jacket comes walking up by himself, looking at his ticket and trying to figure out where his seat was. I almost wanted to point to the seat next to me to let him know where to find it.

He didn't say anything until we heard the announcer say, "Now introducing the visiting Denver Nuggets." We then heard "boooooo" coming loudly from the left of us. I soon realized that this guy is one of those guys who talks as if he's best friends with everyone on the team. Saying things like, "C'mon Cat, you gotta make this technical unlike your last one," or "Q needs to get the ball into Chris in the post," or "Chris, show me that baby hook." When referring to anyone on the Clippers team, he was on a first name/nickname basis. Who he was talking to, I never quite figured out. I was the closest person to him, but I never spoke to him directly. Although sometimes it seemed like he was responding to things I would say. One example, after Corey Maggette made a pretty amazing off-balance shot, I said to Lauren, "Wow, I don't know how he made that shot." To which this guy responded, "Yeah, that shot was Kobe-esque." It seemed that his favorite player was Chris Kaman, because he seemed to say "bad shot (insert another Clippers player's first name here) you need to get that to Chris" a lot.

After watching Tang-tsu-wu at halftime (I don't know if that was really their name), which was about 200 martial arts students acting like they were fighting, we tried to search for some Dippin' Dots. We ended up getting a caramel apple, which was surprisingly good. I guess I didn't have much confidence in the Staples Center concessions.

The game ended with Iverson taking over in the 4th quarter, by scoring 17 of the 30 Nuggets' points and getting the game-clinching steal and free throws. Chris Kaman ended up going 4-13 after starting the game 3-3, which makes me wonder why everyone else had bad shots except for Chris.

Even though I wanted to see Denver win, in the end I felt sad for my new friend, the dedicated Clippers fan who comes to games by himself to cheer on his team.

Wedding pictures

Thought we'd post some wedding pictures for anybody who hasn't gotten to see them yet.

Showdown at Fox News

After watching the closing minutes of Olbermann a little while ago, I've felt like I entered the Twilight Zone. Go Geraldo? What am I saying?

Basically, the 'Stache destroys Bill O'Reilly for trying to insist that a tragic drunk driving incident had something to do with illegal immigration.

Mensaje para Newt Gingrich

I have no idea how I missed this, but Newt Gingrich posted a video on YouTube on Wednesday to say he's sorry for essentially calling Spanish "the language of living in a ghetto."

Nice try, Señor Gingrich. Even if you aren't racist, you're still a hypocritical scumbag.

Watch the video. The guy makes Bush sound like a Spanish-speaking genius.

Low + Wilco = best show ever

Pitchfork says that Low is opening for Wilco during the North American leg of Wilco's world tour. Of course, none of these places are anywhere near California:

6/13 Davenport, IA - Adler Theater
6/15 Indianapolis, IN - Murat Theate
6/19 Atlanta, GA - Chastain Park Amphitheatre
6/20 Charlotte, NC - Ovens Auditorium
6/22 Red Bank, NJ - Count Basie Theater
6/24 Northampton, MA - The Pines
6/25 New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom
6/28 Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavilion
6/29 Shelburne, VT - The Green at Shelburne Museum

I think it's safe to say that Drums and Guns is the best new album I've listened to so far this year. I don't think I'll ever look at a chocolate cake the same way again.

And the worst album so far? Some Loud Thunder by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Right out of the gate, someone got the genius idea of muddling up what could've been a perfectly enjoyable pop song by drowning it in distortion. As for the rest of the album? Not all of the songs are bad. But for the most part, maybe they thought that if they covered everything up with noise and sound effects no one would notice how tired and stale it sounds. It definitely doesn't have the energy of the last one, but hey, at least we can count on the vocals on being as whiny as ever.