I agree with Bob Knight

Bob Knight, the controversial basketball coach of Texas Tech (and former coach of Indiana), is someone I have no problem finding problems with. He may be the winningest coach in NCAA Division I basketball history, but his temper and attitude are too often too much.

However, I wholeheartedly agree with some recent comments he made on the NBA's new rule that requires players to be at least a year removed from high school before they can enter the NBA draft. This, of course, virtually forces them into playing in college.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The new rule that says players must be at least one year removed from high school before entering the NBA is "the worst thing that's happened to college basketball since I've been coaching," says Texas Tech coach Bob Knight.

"Because now you can have a kid come to school for a year and play basketball and he doesn't even have to go to class," Knight said Monday. "He certainly doesn't have to go to class the second semester. I'm not exactly positive about the first semester. But he would not have to attend a single class the second semester to play through the whole second semester of basketball.

"That, I think, has a tremendous effect on the integrity of college sports."
...
"It's just a tremendous disservice, the way that it's structured, to the integrity of college sports."

Again, I completely agree with Knight. Either make them play for two or three years or don't make them play at all. As it is, they can fill up their schedule with Phy. Ed. courses for their first semester and then pretty much just quit going to classes for your second semester.

What happened to the "student" in student-athletes?

Should I believe Giuliani?

Giuliani says he'd support a pro-life judge for the Supreme Court.

RICHMOND, Va. - Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, who favors abortion rights, said Friday if elected in 2008 he wouldn't hesitate to appoint anti-abortion conservatives such as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia or Samuel Alito to the federal bench.
...
"They share the kind of overall judicial philosophy that I have," Giuliani said....

Giuliani said he helped select U.S. attorneys and federal marshals during his service in the Reagan administration. People who filled those positions were "strict constructionists" in their approach to constitutional law, he said.

"What I mean by strict constructionist, or using the plain language or meaning of the Constitution, is judges should try to interpret the Constitution, not make it up to fit their social preferences," Giuliani said.

I tend to believe him. Unlike Mitt Romney and even John McCain, I don't get the impression that Giuliani will renege on his word.

Am I just being naive?

Serious hiccup problem

This is nuts!

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Jennifer Mee can't stop hiccuping. For more than three weeks now, the 15-year-old St. Petersburg teen has hiccuped close to 50 times a minute — despite the best efforts of doctors and home remedies.

I don't hiccup often, but this makes me just a wee bit scared to ever hiccup again.

My Presidential Prediction

Republican nominee: Rudy Giuliani

Democratic nominee: Barack Obama

Election Day results:

Rudy Giuliani, 51%
Barack Obama, 42%
Jim Gilchrist, 7%

The conservatives' glory years are over. Abortion is still legal and more conservatives are realizing that. Bill Clinton did not take our guns away and more conservatives are realizing that. In short, more conservatives are less conservative.

I give Gilchrist, the founder of the Minuteman Project, which seeks to put civilians on the Mexican border to curb illegal immigration, 7% because I think there are enough conservatives who will be unwilling to vote for Giuliani, who is publicly a social liberal. I think a number of conservatives will vote for Giuliani as a better choice than Obama, but there will be a number - just as the liberals who voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 - who won't give in and will choose someone more conservative. Gilchrist doesn't have a chance, but he probably has more name recognition than any other third party or independent candidate - certainly than any other conservative third party or independent candidate.

I'm not excited about the race this year. However, I will follow it. I'll keep a running list of all candidates running in the right column of this blog. They are listed in order of who I think has the best chance to win.

Come back for more if you're interested in my take on '08.

Duke is down!!

I'm a diehard North Carolina Tar Heels fan, thanks to my dad's roots in NC. Most of you know this; the rest of you will learn this eventually if you hang around me for more than a few days.

I got to enjoy watching the Tar Heels beat Duke on the road at Cameron Indoor Arena last week.

Now, after losing four straight, Duke is out of the Top 25 poll for the first time in 10 years.

That makes me smile :)

Obama slipped up

REALLY slipped up.

During his first campaign trip this weekend, the Illinois senator told a crowd in Iowa: "We now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted."

That could be enough right there to sink his campaign. I thought (and still tend to think) he'd win the Democratic nod. That could really hurt him later on though.

I understand what he "meant." But the fact is that people by and large don't care about what you meant. They care about what you said. A lot of people feel that this war was a waste. However, calling a life a waste isn't going to sit well with a lot of Americans.

Job hunting again

Not for me, but for my fiancee. I've pretty much decided that job-hunting is the most cruel thing that humanity has provided us with. With all of the jobs out there on all of those sites, there's got to be something, right?

Well, you'd think....

She's awesome and she'll get a great job, but the road getting there is no fun at all.

2 hours, 20 minutes

That was the length of my commute this morning.

Oakdale to Minneapolis. 2 hours, 20 minutes.

Did people forget how to drive in a few inches of snow?!?

Get down with DDR...in school

West Virginia decided that to battle its ranking as the state with the most obese children, it will implement Dance Dance Revolution in all public schools.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - West Virginia, which has the worst childhood obesity problem in the United States, is stepping up plans to use Konami Corp.'s "Dance Dance Revolution" to battle the bulge in its schools.

The state, which plans to put the popular dancing video game in every one of its public schools, said on Wednesday research suggested that it helped put a halt to weight gain.
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Murphy West Virginia plans to develop after-school clubs for playing the game.

"It's going to allow kids to be active in an after-school activity that's not sports," she said.

I'm speechless.

Don't chase a thief in Minnesota

I'm not saying that this guy made the best decision, but I definitely support him.

CAMBRIDGE, Minn. - A farmer who chased down a thief and held him at gunpoint until authorities arrived now faces a more serious charge than the thief himself.

Kenneth Englund, 74, was charged with second-degree assault, a felony. The thief, who the sheriff said admitted stealing about $5 worth of gasoline from Englund's neighbor, was charged with misdemeanor theft.
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More than 350 people attended a fundraising dinner for Englund last month and a petition has circulated supporting him.

Bradford Township, about 45 miles north of Minneapolis, does not have a police force, and Englund said criminals can escape by the time a deputy arrives from Cambridge, 15 miles away.

Good grief.