Swear on the Bible?

There is a controversey erupting over the plans of Rep. Keith Ellison (D) to take his oath of office using a Koran instead of a Bible. I don't get it. What's the beef? Hell, I'd have a problem with him swearing on the Bible. After all, the purpose is to promise in the name/presence of God not to violate the trust placed in you. What good would it be to swear in the name of someone else's God, or version of God?

Does Sen. Lieberman swear on the Christian Bible? Or does he use just the Old Testement? Or perhaps the Torah? How about Sen. Reid? Does he use the Bible or the Book of Mormon?

Why should anyone else care?

Monday Night Football 11/27/06

OK...is anyone else getting as fed up with Kornheiser as I am? That little turd keeps making snide remarks to/about Theisman (not one of my favorite people by the way...but he and his ankle paid their football dues) and it's pissing me off.

When Joe made the observation that Alexander was suited to run in this weather (snow) because he ran with his feet under him (a perfectly sensical descriptive football remark if you know anything about football) Kornheiser replied "where else would his feet be?"

When Joe talked about the difficulty in looking up into the snow for the receivers, Kornheiser made another crappy remark.

I don't know if they are trying to create an edgy, adversarily relationship but if they are, it's not working.

Dump Kornheiser..bring back Dennis Miller or find someone who's not a total jerk.

Two Year Anniversery

Today marks the beginning of the third year of my blog. It's really more of a private journal considering the amount of traffic I receive, but then I am doing this for me anyway.

I also go back to work today after a four week vacation. I was pretty burnt in October, hopefully the second trimester will go better.

What Kind of Reader Are You?

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Literate Good Citizen
Fad Reader
Book Snob
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

Woo Hoo!

I am the champion !

Fight On!

Well that was an impressive victory over Notre Dame. When you consider what USC lost to graduation and the NFL, then what they have lost to injury this year (they are on their fifth string fullback, a converted linebacker, right now) against what Notre Dame carried over from last year, this should have been a tough game.

Instead, except for a five minute period after a blocked punt and two consecutive interceptions at the end of the first half, Notre Dame was never in this game. USC only has to get by UCLA next week for another invite to the championship game.

This would be USC's third straight appearance in the championship game, and many (including me) still think USC should have been in the championship game in Jan. 2004, (the year USC won the A.P. championship and LSU won the BCS championship) which would make this four straight appearances.

This will be Ohio State's second appearance in the BCS championship game and USC's third since the system was put into place. When you consider that most of USC's stars will be returning next year. with the notable exceptions of Steve Smith, (possibly) Dwayne Jarrett and a few senior linemen and linebackers; USC will definitely be one of the pre-season favorites again next year. Throw in freshman QB Mark Sanchez , freshmen RBs Moody and Gable, Soph. WR Turner and lots of young talent on the defense, and USC could keep this dynasty going for a while. True football fans know that Pete Carroll is one of the best recruiters around, as well as a dominate coach. USC needs to keep him very happy with his contract.

The Draft

A lot of people are hyperventilating about Rep. Rangel's threats to re-instate the draft.

First of all, it is never going to happen. The Democrats are stupid, but they aren't that stupid.

Rangel's reason is supposedly so that the upper class elites (read: whitey) will have to share the "burden". Most people in the armed forces do not consider their service a burden, they consider it an honor. It has also been proven by independent studies that the armed forces are more white, and more educated than the general population. The canard that the military is full of the poor, minority and uneducated is extremely outdated.

Second, the MSM (not surprisingly) and most bloggers (which surprises me) are all talking like 18 year old boys are going to have to start registering. They are already supposed to be registering. The "draft" or more accurately the Selective Service already exists. Registration was re-instated in 1980 by Pres. Carter. (surprise surprise...another Democrat) However, only males are required (or even allowed) to register. I can't wait to see Rep. Pelosi or Sen. Clinton start talking about drafting young women.

What would change is that they would start holding lotteries again, and bring back conscription. The military would absolutely hate this.

Now I would go Rep. Rangel one step further, and institute compulsory service. Drafties would have the option of serving in the military, the Peace Corp or a domestic version of the Peace Corp. I think youth should serve society in some way, and it would teach our youth something about discipline, self discipline and responsibility; lessons that most of them sorely need to learn.

SEC V USC

SEC fans are already bitching again about the BCS. They claim that they are being unfairly treated. They think that Florida and Arkansas deserve to be in the BCS games as much as, or more than USC, Notre Dame or Michigan. (The only three teams that stand a chance to play Ohio State in my opinion.)

Now I agree with them that the BCS sucks. But being unfair to the SEC is not one of the reasons. I wrote a couple of posts on as blog called The Irish Trojan explaining why.


1) The SEC teams can either stop bitching about the voters/rankings taking strength of schedule into consideration, otr they can stop scheduling “Helen Keller School for the Blind” type teams.
2) Year in, year out I will stack USC’s strength of schedule against anybody’s. They never schedule the Western Carolinas.
gahrie — Monday, November 20, 2006 @ 4:00:45 am



Furthermore, I think having “elite” BCS teams consistently scheduling “speed bump” teams is bad for football.
1) First, I said consistently. There is nothing wrong with rewarding a Boise State, or a Rutgers with a home and home every once in a while. Teams like this have earned the exposure on the football field, and are at least potentially competitive. But look at some of this years SEC opponents. These are two of the opponents of the top two teams in each of the SEC’s two divisions:
Florida V Central Florida (3-8 in Conference USA) 42-0.
Florida V W. Carolina (2-9 in the 1AA Southern Conference) 62-0
Georgia V W. Kentucky (6-5 in the 1AA Gateway Conference) 48-12
Georgia V Alabama-Birmingham (3-8 in Conference USA) 34-0
Alabama V Louisiana-Monroe (2-8 in the Sun Belt Conference) 41-7
Alabama V FIU (0-10 in the Sun Belt Conference) 38-3
Arkansas V SE Missouri State (4-7 in the 1AA Ohio Valley Conference) 63-7
Arkansas V Louisiana-Monroe (2-8 in the Sun Belt Conference) 44-10
Not only are they scheduling speed bumps, they’re scheduling bad speed bumps. Only one of those opponents had a winning record at 6-5.
2) Second, I believe scheduling the Western Carolinas and FIUs of the world is incredibly bad for football.
A) It is bad for the “speed bumps” because they are basically hiring themselves out as tackling dummies. They get a big payday and some exposure, the BCS team gets a patsy to beat up on.
B) It is bad for the BCS teams because they aren’t matching themselves up against competitve teams, and thus suffer in the polls and rankings. Which leads to …
C) It’s bad for football because it almost forces the BCS teams to run up the scores on the “speed bumps” in an attempt to win favor from the voters so they’ll hopefully forget the fact that they were playing such an uncompetitive team.
This type of scheduling leads directly to the Miami-FIU incident. The Miami players get all cocky and aggressive because they know they are the clearly dominant team, and the FIU players get aggressive because they know they are being disrespected and dismissed by the Miami players. Then the score begins to get run up, somebody says or does something stupid, and a fight erupts.
gahrie — Monday, November 20, 2006 @ 4:59:28 am



There are 12 SEC teams. They play a 12 game schedule.
1) 1 team (Vanderbilt) played 6 away games. No one played more.
2) 6 of them played 5 away games. All 5 of Georgia’s away games were SEC games.
3) 5 of them played 4 away games. For 4 of them, all 4 away games were SEC games. Florida played 3 SEC away games, and Florida State away.
4) That means the SEC as a whole played an average of less than 5 away games, and 5 of them played no non-SEC away games.
5) They played a total of 8 non-SEC away games, and Vanderbilt played 2 of those.
6) Between them they played 8 games against 1AA teams.
Tell me again how tough the SEC teams have it.
gahrie — Monday, November 20, 2006 @ 7:48:07 am



SEC East Champ: Florida
4 away games, 3 SEC + FSU 4 Non-SEC games: Southern Miss. (Conference USA East Champ 7-4), Central Florida (3-8), W. Carolina (1AA 2-9), FSU (6-5)

Sec West Champ: Arkansas
4 away games, 4 SEC 4 Non-SEC games: USC (Pac-10 Champ 8-1), Utah State (1-10), SE Missouri State (1AA 4-7), Louisiana-Monroe (2-8)

Pac-10 Champ: USC
6 away games 5 Pac-10 + Arkansas 3 non PAC-10 games: Arkansas (SEC East Champ 10-1), Nebraska (Big 12 North Champ 8-3) and Notre Dame (10-1)
gahrie — Monday, November 20, 2006 @ 8:15:53 am

(there are a couple of minor editing changes)

Update 11/25/06: I just saw Urban Meyer complaining that Florida is not being given the respect they deserve in the BCS again. He was complaining about the issue of style points. "If that's what's making the decisions - style points, which I imagine that's what it is - we've got a problem. It's called winning and losing and playing a difficult schedule." Bullshit. Screw the style points. Florida had a cupcake schedule.

They played four away games in a 12 game schedule - 3 SEC games and FSU because they have a home and home agreement with them. Of their four non-SEC games, only one opponent finished with a better than .500 record (So. Miss at 8-4). They played a 1AA team (and a bad one at that)

And as for their SEC schedule, well see my analysis above. The SEC has one of the weakest combined non-conference schedules I have ever seen, and certainly must have the fewest road games ever scheduled, especially when you take the in conference away games out of consideration. SEC football is the most overrated conference in all sports.

Basically, Florida's schedule was a joke, they don't deserve to be ranked as high as #4, and you have to be truly delusional to believe they deserve a shot in the championship game. Florida is not even as good as Arkansas, and is probably going to lose the SEC championship next week anyway.

Lou Holtz is sitting here on ESPN's College Football Final talking about how difficult the SEC is. Rece Davis and Mark May are agreeing with him. The very next thing they do is talk about how historically bad FSU's season was, a team Florida could barely beat!

If You Have to Lose.......

There was one kind of interesting thing in yesterday's two big games: USC V Cal and Michigan V Ohio State.

Both winners are probably going to play in the BCS Championship game at the Fiesta Bowl, and both losers are probably going to play in the Rose Bowl.

(assuming USC wins out)

That's one reason why the BCS sucks right there...the Rose Bowl gets the SECOND place teams of the Big-10 and the Pac-10, instead of the conference champs like it used to.

USC V Cal

The game is about to begin. This should be each team's toughest game so far this season. USC is playing for a chance at the BCS Championship, Cal is playing for the Pac-10 title, and a berth in the Rose Bowl.

Go Trojans!

Update 9:28 1st quarter: The first big play, and first big review goes USC's way, negating an 82 yd fumble return for a TD by Cal. USC kicks a field goal and leads, 3-0.

Update 14:12 1st Quarter: USC gets an interception, and then on the next play there is a blocking break down that results in a USC safety. 3-2

Update 3:28 2nd quarter: Cal is driving after the free kick...the QB is sacked and fumbles, USC ball.

Update 11/19/06: Well that was a good game, a fun game. I would have loved to have played in that game, lots of good hitting, lots of big plays (on offense and defense for both teams). For once (especially in the Pac-10) the refs (including replay) had a good game.

I like the whole thing with having Maguire on the camera cart. (by the way, did you catch the kink in one of his fingers? What's the matter? Couldn't they set broken fingers in the 1960's?)

And So It Begins......

There was good news today in Congress. First, "cut and run" Murtha was defeated in his quest for power as majority leader. This was good for the American soldier, the Iraqi people and the American taxpayer.

Second, "madame botox" Pelosi spent some of her political capital in support of Murtha and lost. That can only be good.

Third, the blue dog Democrats flexed their muscles and discovered that they are the true source of power within the Democrat caucus. Hopefully this will embolden them.

Fourth, Huffington, Kos and the rest of the nutsroots suffered a setback. We are already seeing the beginning of a struggle for the party between the nutsroots and the DLC. We can only hope the Clintons are successful in throwing Dean overboard at the DNC, then things will get really entertaining.

I may have been a touch too pessimistic earlier...the Democrats might be too incompetent and divided to be as dangerous as I first thought.

That's News To My Teachers.......

You paid attention during 97% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

Predictions 2006 - Results Pt. 2

13) The Houston Texans will trade the first pick in the NFL draft. Reggie Bush will be drafted #1 by New England.
Nope and nope 5-8

14) The Los Angeles Dodgers will not finish over .500; The Anaheim Angels will win their division.
Nope and nope 5-10

15) The Yankees will win the world series.
Nope 5-11

16) The Clippers will finish with a better record than the Lakers, both will make the playoffs.
Yep and yep 7-11

17) Detroit Vs San Antonio in the NBA finals, San Antonio wins.
Completely wrong 7-13

18) Young returns for Texas, and White returns for USC next year, both teams compete for the national championship again.
Wrong on the returns...both teams were in the top 10 the first week of nov...USC still has a shot at the championship 7-15

19) Brady Quinn wins the Heisman next year.
still possible 7-15

20) There will be violence along the U.S.-Mexico border, it will involve drug cartels, U.S. Border Patrol and the Mexican Army
Not yet 7-16

21) Castro, Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales will form an anti-American pact.
Not officially yet..but I'm going to call this a draw 7-16

22) Canada will have a coalition government led by the Conservatives
Spot on 8-16

23) The U.S. government will reveal the existence of a space plane program and kill the space shuttle program
Not yet 8-17

Predictions 2006 -Results Pt. 1

1) Oscar for best movie - Walk the Line
Too soon to tell 0-0

2) Congress - Republicans will hold on to control of both houses, but will lose seats.
Wrong 0-1

3) U.S. Supreme Court - Alito will be confirmed, no attempt to filibuster. Another Justice will leave by the end of the year.
Correct 1-1

4) Rose Bowl - USC will beat Texas by at least 13 points.
Wrong 1-2

5) SuperBowl - Denver VS Seattle, Seattle wins
Close....It was Pittsburgh V Seattle and Pittsburgh won 1-3

6) Sen Clinton is re-elected with better than 60% of the vote
Yep...67% 2-3

7) When the election is finally held, Mayor Nagin loses in New Orleans
Sadly, wrong 2-4

8) The U.S. economy will continue to thrive, and the mainstream media will continue to ignore it.
This is clearly correct. 3-4

9) Both France and Germany will enter a recession.
Extremely low growth, but no recession 3-5
Update 11/15/06: France stagnant in the 3rd quarter, Germany up .6% and the Eurozone (countries using the Euro) up .5%. The U.S. had it's GDP rise by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter, and it was described as a "slump".

10) The U.N. will continue to ignore the Oil for Food Scandal, Bolton will continue to make the UN institute incremental reforms.
Yep 4-5

11) Israel will bomb Iran. The UN will condemn them and Israel won't give a shit.
Not yet at least 4-6

12) There will be more rumors of a coup in North Korea, but they will be false.
Yep 5-6

Happy Veteran's Day!

Happy Veteran's day to all of our veterans out there. Thanks Dad, and thanks to all the rest of you. All ways remember that most of us understand the sacrifices you have made, and honor you for it.

The President's Press Conference

Oh my God , this is a disaster.

First the substance, dumping Rumsfield overboard. What is he thinking? The Islamic fanatics and the moonbat Democrats will both see this as a victory. He is weakening himself enormously the day after the election. He is a lame duck as of right now.

Second he is replacing him with a former head of the CIA! What is he thinking? The CIA has been stabbing him in the back for six years! The CIA has been incompetent for the last 30 years!

Next the style. He looks and sounds weak. Defeated. Mark my words, the Democrats are going to roll him, and the press has already begun savaging him. The next two years are going to be very ugly. The press is being openly disrespectful, rude and hostile to him.

I give him credit for standing there and taking the punches the press is throwing, and occasionally attempting to counter-punch. It shows personal courage. But he isn't doing himself, or anyone else (especially the Republican party) any favors.

From the Web...

From a blog called Not So Confidential:

One other comment - have you noticed that since the Dems won there are no complaints about voter fraud from them? Even though it was very close. Does anyone doubt that had it gone the other way there would be dozens of complaints and allegations and conspiracy theories about how the GOP stole the election? But the GOP loses and instead of complaining about cheating they are looking inward to see what they did wrong. It says so very much about the two parties - and the people in them.


Yeah, some of us have noticed. And I agree with you completely. The other thing I have noticed is the complete lack of graciousness in victory that much of the left has. They are being just as snide, rude and sarcastic as they were in defeat. There is an old football saying concerning players who behave poorly and with a lack of sportsmanship: "Act like you have been in the end zone before." Clearly much of the left didn't play football.

Update 11/8/06: I want to be sure to distinguish Harold Ford Jr. from my earlier remarks. His concession speech last night was a class act. He did everything that Kerry and Gore should have done. My estimation of him has gone up several notches.

The Legacy of 2006

Oh what have we done? America I know the Republicans had gone soft, and been captured by Washington D.C. The Republicans deserved to lose the House. I get it. But the Senate too?

You may have thought you were electing Conservative Democrats, and for the most part you were. But the problem is, the Democratic leadership couldn't be more liberal, some down right moonbatty.

These next two years are probably going to be ugly, and not just for the U.S.

I) Iraq

A) The Democrats have to pull us out of Iraq, their base will demand it. They will spout the usual nonsense, the same tired promises we gave Vietnam in the 70's. But the Islamic fanatic will know the truth. Let's be honest, once the troops are gone, they're not going back in, and no one in the region is going to allow us to station our troops in their country.

B) Shortly after we pull the troops out, Iraq will descend into a three way civil war.

1) The Democrats will immediately say "see, we told you so", being either unwilling, or too blind to see that our pullout is what caused the civil war.

2) Tens of thousands of Iraqis and Kurds will be killed in the fighting and reprisals.

3) Iran, Syria and Turkey will probably dismantle Iraq, (in the name of stopping the civil war) and divide the pieces between them, and no one will do anything about it.

a) Turkey has been struggling to preserve its young western democracy. This will fall. The only question is whether or not the military is still strong enough to install a military dictatorship, or if the Islamic fundamentalists will take over.

C) This will be the final straw. After Vietnam, Somalia and Iraq, no one will trust American assurances and promises anymore. (Would you?)

1) South Korea and Japan will go nuclear. Taiwan will try to do so also. North Korea with the bomb and American fecklessness are just too dangerous for them.

D) Afghanistan will descend back into tribalism and lawlessness, and either the Taliban or a military dictatorship fronting for the Taliban will take over.

E) Pakistan will either become a military dictatorship or be taken over by the fundamentalists.
Either way, the tensions between Pakistan and India will rise, and conflict could erupt. Which could be extremely dangerous, since both have nuclear weapons.

F) Worldwide terrorism will arise, and we will be attacked at home and abroad.

G) The morale of our armed forces will plummet. Soldiers who have been proud of what we have been doing will start to question their sacrifices. Recruitment will drop. We can only hope things don't go as bad as they did in the 70's after the betrayal of our military and the South Vietnamese.

II) Immigration

A) There will be an amnesty bill, and a guestworker program. Pres. Bush and the Democrats agree on this issue.

1) We will begin a process that will see at least 15 million illegal immigrants given legal residency, and a minimal path to citizenship.

2) There will be about 10 million more Mexicans living in Mexico that will be given residency and/or citizenship through legacies (parents, spouses, children).

3) By 2008 there will be at least 5 million more illegal residents waiting for the next amnesty.

4) By 2008, Mexico will be receiving $30 billion or more a year in remittances from the US. Most of this money will come from the underground economy, and so will be untaxed, and directly siphoned off from the American economy.

B) The fence just authorized by Congress will never be built.

C) There will be waves of immigrants from Haiti and Cuba also.

1) there will probably be a repeat of the Mariel boatlift in Cuba, as Cuba empties its prisons, and when the current Cuban regime topples, all bets are off.

III) Washington D.C.

A) The lawyers are going to get fat. There will be countless hearings and investigations.

1) There is at least a 30% chance the Democrats will try to impeach Pres. Bush. There is a 100% chance that articles of impeachment will be filed. Hell, some already are.

2) There is a bigger chance that the Democrats will try to impeach V.P. Cheney.

3) Def. Secretary Rumsfield and his high level subordinates will spend most of the next two years testifying in front of Congress.

4) The Democrats will hold hearings over using Haliburton, ignoring the fact that it was the Clinton administration that began awarding it government contracts.

5) There will be hearings in Congress dealing with the CIA, in which the moles who have been leaking classified documents the last six years will testify about how awful things have been during the Bush Administration. The State Department will send their share before Congress also.


Maybe I am being unduly pessimistic. I hope I am. But history, and human nature, tells me otherwise.

Election Results

Well, looks like the Dems have won control of the House. However when compared to historical 6th year norms, the Dems still haven't performed as well as expected.

It also needs to be stressed that most of the Dem gains are by Conservative Dems, not the moonbat Kossacks. In fact the main Kossack candidate, Lamont went down in flames. It will be interesting to see how well the new Conservative Dems work with their leadership.

So..we'll have to put up with the children running amuck for two years. But on the bright side, people like Pelosi, Conyers and Rangel will never be able to control themselves.....and the American people will throw them out in 2008.

Update (early AM 11/8/06):

Well it looks like the Democrats have taken the Senate also. Congratulations. The American people have made their choice. Unfortunately I don't think it was a wise one. We will see.

The question now is where does the Republican Party go? There is no Reagan on the horizon to lead them back to their base and into power. The worst thing that could happen would be to turn the party over to the McCain types.

The next two years will be interesting times, and you know what the Chinese say about interesting times.....

Helen Fire/News Coverage

I'm sitting here watching the LA News channels covering the Helen fire, and it is amazing how awful the coverage is. Apparently no one at any of the channels knows the area. The fire started at the 15 freeway, and almost exactly on the border of Rialto and Fontana. One side of the fire advanced down Sierra Ave into Fontana, and the other side advanced down Riverside Ave into Rialto. For instance at one point they are interviewing the Fontana USD superintendent about school evacuations, while showing footage of schools in the Rialto School District, and incorrectly saying that they had been evacuated.

If network TV is going to survive they need to get their act together.

Two Great Things That Go Well Together

The music of the Bee Gees and making fun of John Kerry together. As those two Guiness guys would say: "Brillant!"

H/T: The Riehl World

Election 2006

Just for the record, I am predicting that the Republicans will hold onto the House and Senate.


Update 11/4/06: This guy feels exactly like I do, and for almost exactly the same reasons.