December 2005 Archives

31 December 2005

A Nice Way To End The Season

Two plays mirrored OU's season (George Schroeder, Daily Oklahoman)

Two plays defined Oklahoma's 17-14 Holiday Bowl win over Oregon. Two plays that mirrored a season.

There was Clint Ingram's leaping interception near the goal line in the final seconds -- "He saved our butts," OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables said.

But if Ingram's interception showed OU's toughness and resilience, "it also showed the way we foul up a play here or there to allow it to be (close)," coach Bob Stoops said.

Because there was a reason the Sooners' backsides needed saving. Twelve minutes earlier, OU had moved within inches -- OK, a yard -- of putting the sixth-ranked Ducks away. Adrian Peterson's fumble at the goal line prevented a blowout and set the stage for Oregon's furious rally.

"That's the whole game," Stoops said. "Otherwise, it isn't a game."

That's the whole season. After a rough start, the Sooners were good enough to win, but not good enough -- or smart enough, or consistent enough, or whatever -- to win easily.

There were some other things we saw all season. Inexplicably, the replay crew did not review Peterson's "fumble" despite the fact that it appeared his forward progress was stopped. The call may not have changed, but it should have at least gotten a review. The replay system was not kind to the Sooners this year.

Also, even as the offense improved and started to show something in the second half of the season, the coaching staff had a tendency to get a lead and go into a shell at times. I can understand that with a young team, but it's hard to turn it back on when they figure out that they need more points. And Oklahoma's defense was good but not dominant this year, meaning they frequently needed more points. I suspect as the players gain a year of maturity, the offensive coaches will be inclined to take the shackles off a bit more next year.

In retrospect, Oregon may have been a little overrated. But I would also suggest that Oklahoma improved by leaps and bounds over the team that looked so terrible in its non-conference games. Rhett Bomar began to show why he should have gone through spring practices as the starter (thanks, Chuck Long), and a host of young receivers began to show some promise. And some of the new wrinkles Kevin Wilson installed for the Oregon game really fit the personnel. With a healthy Adrian Peterson, this could be a pretty fun offense to watch next season.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/31/05 10:45 | Big 12 Football | Technorati | Comments (4)

30 December 2005

Adverse Events Is One Way To Put It

Abortion Drug Adverse Events Reported: Reports Include Infection and Severe Bleeding (Salynn Boyles, WedMD Medical News, via Brothers Judd)

The FDA received reports of 607 adverse events involving the abortion drug RU-486 over a four-year period, it was reported this week.

The adverse events included five reported deaths and 68 cases of severe bleeding that required transfusions.

Late last month, federal officials confirmed that five women who died of toxic shock syndrome within a week of taking the drug to induce abortions had the same rare bacterial infection. Four of the deaths occurred in California and one in Canada. Three of these deaths were not among those included in the FDA's 607 events.

The news set off a new round of calls by abortion opponents for the FDA to remove the drug, also known as Mifeprex, from the market. Danco Laboratories -- the maker of Mifeprex -- did not respond to a request for comment in time for the publication of this story.

According to the new report, a total of eight deaths have been blamed on RU-486, which was approved for use in the U.S. in September of 2000 for the termination of early pregnancies. Since that time, more than 460,000 doses of the drug have been distributed.

In addition to the five toxic shock deaths, a woman in Tennessee died from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy after taking the abortion drug, a Swedish teen died from a massive hemorrhage, and a woman in the U.K. died for unclear reasons.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/30/05 23:18 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)

29 December 2005

No Doubt That Carr Will Be Back

New Year's resolutions (Charles Robinson, Yahoo! Sports)

Speaking of the Texans, it's highly unlikely the team is going to part ways with quarterback David Carr, who is due an $8 million bonus this offseason. But if Houston does, one NFC personnel man said he won't be out of work long.

"I don't think he will be available, but if he is, I think there would be a lot of interest from a lot of teams," he said. "We had a very good report on (Carr) before the draft. He was worthy of that (No. 1) pick. … I think a lot of teams thought highly of him and still do. It's not like (former Cleveland Browns quarterback) Tim Couch, where there is an injury. David Carr can get the ball down field, and he's still got what teams were looking for when he was drafted. What is measured (going into the draft) isn't going to change."

The Texans don't have much choice but to keep David Carr. He has all the physical tools you want in a pro quarterback and can make all the throws. If you look around the league, there aren't many guys like that. Indeed, just look up the road 200 miles at the trouble Dallas has had finding a long-term replacement for Troy Aikman. Jerry Jones is willing to spend whatever it takes to win, but the problem has been that there just aren't many potential franchise quarterbacks floating around out there.

That said, the Texans have done an absolutely terrible job developing their franchise quarterback. They should have brought in a quality quarterbacks coach to work with Carr, especially on his mechanics (say, Jerry Rhome?), and they should have made developing an offensive line a priority. Instead, the guy's been in the league four years and just seems stunted in his development. It's not his fault that Dom Capers isn't Mike Holmgren or Mike Shanahan (or even Mike Martz -- who's probably going to be available, but who probably isn't bland enough to suit Bob McNair or Dan Reeves).

Maybe a new coaching staff will be able to get Carr on track (there's no question in my mind that he'll be back). But it's going to have to be a priority. The team can't invest $8 million in the guy just to let him take sacks and make free-form throws. Quite a few journeymen qbs can do that for a lot less money.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/29/05 20:54 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)

28 December 2005

Or Not

Oil 'will hit $100 by winter': Worst-ever crisis looms, says analyst · Surging demand to keep prices high (Heather Stewart, The Observer, 07/03/2005)

Oil prices could rocket to $100 within six months, plunging the world into an unprecedented fuel crisis, controversial Texan oil analyst Matt Simmons has warned.

After crude surged through $60 a barrel last week, nervous investors were pinning their hopes on a build-up in US oil-stocks to depress prices in the coming months.

But Simmons believes surging demand will keep prices bubbling well above $50. 'We could be at $100 by this winter. We have the biggest risk we have ever had of demand exceeding supply. We are now just about to face up to the biggest crisis we have ever had,' he said.

Or not.

Hubbert Peak enthusiasts like Matt Simmons and Colin Campbell always get lots of attention from journalists who don't know much about economics or the industry when they make their predictions, but rarely do journalists ever follow up and point out that they've been getting this stuff wrong for many years.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/28/05 22:39 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)

Modest?

Last-minute shopping rush boosted retailers (Associated Press)

Same-store sales for the month and for the November-December period are on track to meet a modest gain of anywhere from 3.0 percent to 3.5 percent, compared to a year ago.

I am so sick of hearing retailers whine about their "modest" Christmas sales increase year-on-year of 3 to 3.5 percent. When GDP grows by that amount annually, we call it a booming economy. So why not call it that when Christmas sales are up by that amount?

UPDATE (01-07-2006): Hey, I see that four people followed a link over here as of today. Goody! In case there are more, I'd like to invite ya'll to explain to me whether you call annual growth in American GDP of 3-3.5% "modest" or whether you think it's something beyond that?

I think it's something beyond that, and it didn't even strike me that any sensible person would find it arguable (indeed, I'd wager sensible people don't really). By extension, it strikes me that 3-3.5% annual growth of same-store holiday sales is something beyond modest, and that overall retail sales will be up by a larger amount (we saw many retailers making the move from regional to national this year, as Jim Cramer documents almost nightly, which will boost those overall retail numbers).

Now, would retailers prefer a 10% increase in y-o-y same-store sales? Well, yeah! But that's unrealistic. To suggest otherwise excellent numbers are "modest" is just spin from those retailers -- whiny spin, in my view. Your mileage may vary, especially if you ~~spend~~ waste lots of your time trying to pick stupid fights with me. Whatever. :)

Oh, and some folks need to expand their understanding of hedge funds. They're not particularly risky, and they're also not particularly good indicators of or drivers of growth. Hedge funds are akin to mutual funds, with several important differences: 1) they are largely unregulated private partnerships managed with the goal of making money through market trading -- stocks, bonds, currencies, what have you; 2) there are usually significant capital requirements for participation -- hence, the correct notion that they are instruments of the rich; 3) managers of hedge funds are typically paid according to the fund's annual profits; if the fund goes into the red for a year, the manager typically is not paid until it is back in the black -- this is THE SIGNIFICANT difference from mutual funds. Hedge funds are expected to make money for their partners in good economic times and bad; they aren't "junk" bonds or akin to junk bonds, although they may may well trade in "junk" bonds. Anyway, I'm glad we could clear that up for folks who might be confused.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/28/05 21:19 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)

27 December 2005

Post-Christmas Blar

I'm back in town after a very merry Christmas in Oklahoma.

We stopped on the way up for a little day hiking in the Ouachitas. I'm going to have to get back there more this spring. I've missed those mountains.

Since my little hiatus here:

* UH had a dreadful bowl game, raising again the same old question of how to look at this coaching staff -- are they an inept collection of high school coaches who can't beat even mediocre winning programs, or are they actually getting the thing rebuilt (two bowl games in three years) despite UH's significant limitations? Beats me.

* UH's basketball team did manage to end a two-game losing streak with a win at North Texas and a tough win tonight at Hofheinz (shots weren't falling for most of the game, so it was gritty defense that carried them through).

* The disappointment of Kevin Wilson being elevated to offensive coordinator at OU was offset a bit by Josh Heupel's return to the coaching staff, as quarterbacks coach.

* The Dallas Cowboys remain alive in the playoff hunt, and although they do not control their own destiny, more of the scenarios than one would guess actually do favor them. If Julius Jones is back to full speed, they could be a dangerous team to face in the playoffs. They're not a Super Bowl contender, but they might not be a team someone would want to play in the first round. If, of course, they even make the tournament.

* The NetRoots have decided that BlogAds with a defaced Bill O'Reilly and Sen. Hutchison are cute and effective ads for Barbara Radnofsky. I can't imagine they're anything but off-putting to most people, but that's the NetRoots for ya.

* I got one of Rick Perry's Christmas cards with a fake family. Very entertaining. I did not get a Christmas Card from Rep. DeLay, however. Very sad. Maybe it's on its way, though?

* Google Mail Mobile works GREAT on T-Mobile's T-Zones. Sadly, Google Local Mobile does not, although it does work well on Cingular's MediaNet service. Kev and Callie's roadtrips are very geeky, obviously.

* I will never again put up a live Xmas tree. I took that thing down today. What a mess. I *still* don't have all those needles up. It's so bad I ordered a Dyson. I *will* beat the pine needles.

That's all for now. I hope everyone had a good holiday.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/27/05 23:19 | Other | Technorati | Comments (7)

22 December 2005

Slow Posting

As with blogHOUSTON, posting here is likely to be slow until next week.

Here's wishing everyone a very merry Christmas / Hannukah / Kwanzaa / Holiday / Secular Gift Exchange day -- or whatever else you may celebrate.

Ho ho ho!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/22/05 23:24 | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (6)

Pegasus News Debuts New And Improved Texas Gigs

I've occasionally linked over to the Pegasus News guys, who are attempting to put together a hyperlocal online news/views "thing" in Dallas.

I've also linked over to my buddy Cindy Chaffin's Texas Gigs site.

Imagine my surprise to discover that the Pegasus Folks and Cindy have teamed up to put Texas Gigs on Web 2.0 Amphetamines. Cindy's old blog is still a part of the mix, but the site is now a much bigger, interactive hyperlocal online music news/views "thing."

The Peg guys write about it here. Cindy writes about it here. It gets a mention from Poynter here.

I don't know if the new Texas Gigs will ultimately be profitable. For Cindy, it's a labor of love, so that helps. But it doesn't seem like the development costs could have been THAT much, and it's the sort of experiment that I think pushes us forward in thinking about the online experience.

I've been a little critical over at blogHOUSTON about some aspects of the new Chron.com (mainly the opinion/editorial page) because it just seems like it's come up a little short on the interactive side while still de-emphasizing the print newspaper's content. But, I realize that Chron.com is a work in progress, and Dwight Silverman, Dean Betz, and crew seem willing and eager to try different things online. I'm hoping indie experiments like TexasGigs and (eventually) Pegasus News and others will inspire even more online experiments from alternative and established media.

Incidentally, the publishing platform Texas Gigs is using looks *really* interesting.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/22/05 11:39 | Media Matters | Technorati | Comments (2)

20 December 2005

Ugly Football

Parcells sees hopes fading (Richard Justice, Houston Chronicle)

Now it's the Cowboys who'll wonder where this season is going. No Dallas team has ever missed the playoffs after starting 7-3.

[snip]

If they end up out of the playoffs, a dozen issues will come up.

Will Parcells return? He was never considered a long-term solution in the first place. He has a history of leaving abruptly.

Parcells wouldn't address any of those issues on Sunday. It was as if he wanted the game to speak for itself. Which it did. Loudly.

That was an U-G-L-Y game for Cowboys fans.

The Cowboys started off surprisingly well in the first half of the season, but have not been good in the second half. The loss of Flozell Adams hurt the offensive line, but the decline can't be pinned on one player who's had an erratic career at best. The whole offensive line seems to be regressing. The kicking game is bad (good that Parcells fired kicking coach Steve Hoffman, eh?). DeMarcus Ware has disappeared after a nice first half. Roy Williams hasn't had his number called much lately. Injuries have hurt the cornerback position, a strength in the first half of the season. It just seems like every part of the team is going backwards.

It's not likely to get better at Carolina, but who knows? I can't read this team. Maybe they'll put out a great effort. They'll need to.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/20/05 07:49 | Dallas Cowboys | Technorati | Comments (1)

18 December 2005

Is There A Page A213?

Iraqis in former rebel stronghold now cheer American soldiers (Oliver Poole, Telegraph)

In the low-slung concrete buildings of Tal Afar, a city built on dirty sand and mud, George W Bush sees the potential for military success in Iraq.

In recent weeks it has been one case study the American president has consistently cited in order to buttress the rhetoric that the insurgency, and the killing, can be ended.

Tal Afar was the site of the largest military operation of 2005, when 8,000 US and Iraqi troops reclaimed it from armed groups.

It has since been used to test a new strategy of "clear, hold, build", in which areas would be purged of insurgents and then rejuvenated to win support from local people, before being handed over to the Iraqi security forces. It is also called "ink spot" strategy, whereby one area of control would spread to another - like an ink spot spreading on blotting paper - until the entire country was covered, in a model similar to that adopted by the British in Malaya.

In Tal Afar, according to the president, military success had been followed by the restoration of law and order and the implementation of reconstruction projects to give "hope" to its citizens.

Visiting the city, nestled near the Syrian border in the north-west of the country, there is no doubt that something has been achieved.

Unlike in Fallujah, another Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold, the storming of which by US marines was the defining campaign of 2004, there is actually large-scale rebuilding in progress.

Hmm, if the election news was fodder for Page A23 of the Chronicle, I'm guessing this news isn't likely to make it into the local rag.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/18/05 21:28 | International | Technorati | Comments (0)

17 December 2005

Fun With Your Pentium M Laptop

I finally got around to doing some serious tweaking with the ThinkPad's power settings last night.

ThinkPads are known for being good at managing battery power, and of course the Pentium M/Centrino chipsets are just wonderful in that regard.

That said, most Centrino laptops and definitely the well-built Thinkpads can be tweaked significantly on the power side with the right program.

For those not afraid to play around with undervolting, the Notebook Hardware Control software (previously Centrino Hardware Control) is marvelous. I went with fairly conservative settings on both the CPU and video card in my 1.86 mHZ Pentium M/Sonoma-powered T43, and my estimate is that I've gained myself about 30 minutes on my 6-cell battery as a result (which should get me slightly above four hours at low brightness on the lcd). Also important, the software allows for detailed performance and temperature monitoring, and the undervolting has resulted in a cooler core operating temperature (good for the life of the laptop and better for the life of the battery, since heat is hard on laptop batteries).

I found the discussions on the ThinkPad forums useful, although there are probably good discussions for other brands on the Notebook Forums. If you have a Pentium-M notebook and would like to squeeze a little more battery time out of it, I'd recommend experimenting a bit. Just be sure to educate yourself via the FAQs and forums a little before jumping right in. A computer that spits out errors because of overly aggressive undervolting isn't very useful. :)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/17/05 10:51 | Other | Technorati | Comments (4)

16 December 2005

ReplayTV Blues

This week, my wonderful ReplayTV dvr has been giving me all sorts of grief.

Mainly, I've been experiencing lockup issues.

The thing is out of warranty, and out-of-warranty service is more expensive than a new/refurb unit (new units aren't being manufactured, as the parent company tries to figure out what to do with the product). So I finally hit some of the technical forums out there.... and didn't figure out much. I took the thing apart, and checked all the connectors as recommended. Nothing obviously wrong with the power or hard drive connectors. I checked all the screws holding components in place, particularly the ones for the power supply. No problem. I checked the fan, which seemed to be operating properly. I went into the secret menu on the machine, and forced a factory reset reboot -- twice, as recommended on the boards.

And I've now reassembled the thing. No lockup issues at the moment, but I've been through power recycles and gotten the lockup to stop for a while before, so the problem may return.

I suspect the problem is probably a bad power supply that's overheating, forcing a shutdown of the unit. I'll see how it behaves.

I may move on to Time Warner's DVR, but I really prefer the hackability of the ReplayTV. I could order a refurb model or even a new power supply for this unit, but at some point, a consumer-friendly electronics device that has the virtue of being hackable STOPS being so consumer-friendly if it must be hacked and repaired by me simply to function. If I didn't like the dang thing so much, I wouldn't have wasted so much time trying to coax this unit into functioning again though... Geeky quandary, huh?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/16/05 22:00 | Other | Technorati | Comments (6)

Christmas Comes Early In Norman

Long expected to take over at San Diego State (AP)

Former Iowa quarterback Chuck Long is expected to become the next head coach at San Diego State after spending four seasons as offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.

Long's hiring could be announced as early as Saturday, barring any unforeseen glitches, two people familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity because a deal was still pending.

In Norman, Sooners coach Bob Stoops said Long was in San Diego for a second interview, adding that a deal had not been finalized.

Long, 42, has been on Stoops' staff for six seasons. He'll replace Tom Craft, who was fired on Dec. 5 after going 19-29 in four seasons, including 5-7 this year.

Bob Stoops has always had nothing but praise for Chuck Long, but some Sooner fans (myself included) have never been that impressed with the job he's done with the Sooner offense. The offense improved notably as the season went on this year, but even so, it's inexplicable that the team looked so unprepared early, especially the offensive line, and that Rhett Bomar didn't get the majority of snaps in spring practices (instead of Paul Thompson, who looked overwhelmed from the start).

Stoops has twice elevated existing assistants to offensive coordinator when a coach has departed for a head coaching gig, and current offensive line coach Kevin Wilson may (unfortunately) be in line for it if Stoops goes that route. I'm not so sure that would be a great move.

UPDATE (12-17-2005): Daily Oklahoman columnist Berry Tramel has a different opinion on Long.

UPDATE (12-18-2005): Kevin Wilson gets the job. Maybe Christmas hasn't come so early in Norman. We'll see.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/16/05 21:26 | Big 12 Football | Technorati | Comments (1)

15 December 2005

Iraq's Important Day

The Panic Over Iraq (Norman Podhoretz, Commentary)

In Iraq today, however, and in the Middle East as a whole, a successful outcome is staring us in the face. Clearly, then, the panic over Iraq—which expresses itself in increasingly frenzied calls for the withdrawal of our forces—cannot have been caused by the prospect of defeat. On the contrary, my twofold guess is that the real fear behind it is not that we are losing but that we are winning, and that what has catalyzed this fear into a genuine panic is the realization that the chances of pulling off the proverbial feat of snatching an American defeat from the jaws of victory are rapidly running out.

Of course, to anyone who relies entirely or largely on the mainstream media for information, it will come as a great surprise to hear that we are winning in Iraq. Winning? Militarily? How can we be winning militarily when, day after day, the only thing of any importance going on in that country is suicide bombings and car bombings? When neither our own troops nor the Iraqi forces we have been training are able to stop the “insurgents” from scoring higher and higher body counts? When every serious military move we make against the strongholds of these dedicated and ruthless adversaries is met with “fierce resistance”? When, for every one of them we manage to kill, two more seem to pop up?

Winning? Politically? How can we be winning politically when the very purpose for which we allegedly invaded Iraq has been unmasked as a chimera? When every step we force the Iraqis to take toward democratization is accompanied by angry sectarian strife between Shiites and Sunnis and between each of them and the Kurds? When our clumsy efforts to bring the Sunnis into the political process have hardly made a dent in their support for the insurgency? When the end result is less likely to be the stable democratic regime we supposedly went there to establish than a civil war followed by the breakup of Iraq into three separate countries?

There has been one great exception to this relentless drumbeat of bad news: it occurred in January 2005, in the coverage of the first election in liberated Iraq. To the astonishment of practically everyone in the world, more than 8 million Iraqis came out to vote on election day even though the Islamofascist terrorists had threatened to slaughter them if they did. This very astonishment was a measure of how false an impression had been created of the state of affairs in Iraq. No one fed by the mainstream media could have had the slightest inkling that these 8 million people were actually there, so invisible had they been to reporters who spent all their time interviewing the discontented Iraqi Man in the Street and to cameras seemingly incapable of focusing on anything but carnage and rubble.

But the mainstream media soon recovered from the shock. By October, on the morning after a second ballot in which the new Iraqi constitution was ratified by fully 79 percent of the electorate, the Washington Post ran its announcement of these inspiring results on page 13.

Today is one of those landmarks in Iraq that will be difficult to bury on Page 13.

Whatever criticism one sees fit to muster about our efforts in Iraq, the overthrow of a tyrant and replacement with some semblance of popular sovereignty is no small gift from one people to another.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/15/05 08:22 | International | Technorati | Comments (6)

13 December 2005

When Is A Broomstick Just A Broomstick?

The Lion, the Witch and the Metaphor (Jessica Seigel, NY Times)

[A] brief foray into Criticism 101 shows that the wardrobe is big enough for everyone. Symbolism, for example, is when one thing stands for another but is not the thing itself. Psychoanalysts, for instance, have interpreted "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" as Dorothy's quest for a penis - that is, retrieving the witch's broomstick. Does that symbolism - if you buy it - make Dorothy a pervert? No, because it's hidden. That's the point. Overt and covert meaning can exist independently.

Those with a fiduciary, rather than phallic bent, might prefer the theory that L. Frank Baum's Oz stories are a Populist manifesto, with the yellow brick road as the gold standard, the Tin Man as alienated labor, Scarecrow as oppressed farmers, and so on. (And surely some Jungian theory about the collective unconscious explains why both Oz and Narnia are populated by four heroic characters fighting an evil witch.)

Yes, it's allegory land, a place that strings symbols together to create levels of meaning, which a determined scholar has actually quantified as ranging from two to seven layers. (No word on why not eight.) Allegory, the oldest narrative technique, often involves talking animals, from Aesop's fox with the grapes to Dr. Seuss's Yertle the Turtle, supposedly a Hitler figure.

Does that twist the Seuss tale into a political treatise on fascism? No, it adds another level for adults, it teaches morals (even the meekest can unseat the powerful, etc.), and it's fun - when plain little Mack burps, he shakes the bad king Yertle from his throne built on turtles.

But which layer is more important - the surface or beneath? Deep thinkers specialize in hidden meanings (building demand, of course, for their interpretive expertise). An Oxford English professor, Lewis himself explored the depths in his scholarly books. But he also defended the literal, lamenting in his essay "On Stories" how modern criticism denigrates the pleasures of a good yarn - and that was 50 years ago.

While critics today call it "fallacy" to interpret a work by citing the author's intentions, Lewis left a road map for us marked with special instructions for not annoying children. In his essay "Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What's to Be Said," he denounced as "moonshine" the idea that he wrote the Narnia chronicles to proselytize the young. The lion Aslan, he wrote, bounded into his imagination from his experience as a Christian, coming to him naturally as should all good writing.

"Let the pictures tell you their own moral," he advised in "On Three Ways of Writing for Children." "If they don't show you a moral, don't put one in."

Seigel says what I tried to say in this post on blogHOUSTON in reaction to Kyrie O'Connor's imitation of Philip Pullman, but far better.

Interestingly, one could substitute "exoteric and esoteric" for "overt and covert" and have a creepily Straussian essay. Do they let Straussians comment on NPR and teach journalism? ;)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/05 22:54 | Books/Culture | Technorati | Comments (1)

Umm...

Bush plans overhaul of US foreign aid system (Guy Dinmore, FT)

President George W. Bush’s administration is drawing up plans to carry out the biggest overhaul of the US foreign aid apparatus in more than 40 years in an attempt to assert more political control over international assistance, according to officials and aid experts.

The proposed reorganisation could lead to a takeover by the State Department of the independent US Agency for International Development. USAID was established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, managing aid programmes, disaster relief and post-war reconstruction totalling billions of dollars each year.

Critics in the aid community fear the reorganisation will lead to a politicisation of foreign assistance, where aid will become subordinated to the Bush administration’s drive to promote democracy.

This isn't news. This is olds.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/05 22:40 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

12 December 2005

Spengler Cranks It Up

The gay, the bad and the Israeli (Spengler, Asia Times)

Steven Spielberg's next movie tells the touching story of two male Palestinian suicide bombers who fall in love and engage in graphic on-screen sex before detonating themselves at a Natany shopping mall. Tentative title: Blowback Mountain. I made that up, of course, but more than happenstance links Ang Lee's gay cowboy film Brokeback Mountain with Spielberg's Munich, the subject of the cover story in this week's Time magazine.

Spengler's just getting warmed up for a rip-roaring good polemic.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/12/05 23:21 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)

11 December 2005

Why I Love Houston

It's December.

We just got over a brief "cold" snap for us (i.e. the temps were around freezing).

I'm planning on grilling steaks later, and trying to track down a live Christmas tree after that.

I love the juxtaposition.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/11/05 14:52 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (5)

10 December 2005

No NFL For Carroll Next Year

Carroll likes Trojans' prospects over NFL return (ESPN.com)

With a chance to win a third consecutive national championship with his No. 1 Trojans, coach Pete Carroll told ESPN Radio 710 in Los Angeles that he will not interview for any jobs outside of USC this year.

In an interview on "The Big Show with Mason and Ireland" Friday, Carroll said:

"I'm going to have the chance to recruit eight or nine first-round draft picks. In the NFL you can get one a year. So we're really excited about the place we are, I'm happy to be here."

Plus, the NFL has a salary cap. He won't be so confined at USC. :)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/10/05 14:47 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)

08 December 2005

Bye Bye Gary

Barnett leaves Buffs with $3 million settlement (ESPN.com)

Gary Barnett is out as football coach of Colorado.

On Thursday, he reluctantly accepted a $3 million settlement, bringing to an end a tenure that was riddled by off-the-field problems but ultimately done in by recent bad results on the field.

In a news conference he wanted to be a part of, Barnett said the decision was made by athletic director Mike Bohn.

"In the last 24 hours, Mike has made a decision to change the football coach at the University of Colorado," he said. "I respect that decision, I didn't like that decision -- I didn't resign my position -- but I wholeheartedly respect the responsibility and decisions leaders have to make. Mike felt like he had to make this decision."

Barnett, who finished 49-38 in seven seasons at CU, pointed to a résumé that includes a Big 12 Conference championship, four Big 12 North titles and two AP Big 12 Coach of the Year honors.

"I would deem that a success. Other people might not," he said.

Leave it to Gary to point out what a great coach he is. I still find it hard to believe they didn't run him out of there sooner.

Tulsa's Steve Kragthorpe, mentioned in this post, is listed as a possible successor on ESPN.com.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/08/05 22:54 | Big 12 Football | Technorati | Comments (3)

07 December 2005

Big 12 Football Championship To Dallas?

Big 12 discussing permanent championship sites (John Rohde, Daily Oklahoman)

Beginning in 2009, don't be surprised if the Big 12 football championship game is held every year at the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium in Arlington, Texas, and the Big 12 men's and women's basketball tournaments are held every year in Kansas City, Mo.

When Big 12 officials have previously determined future league championship sites, they have been selected in multiple years.

However, Weiberg said when future championship sites for football and basketball are announced next spring, they likely will be for one year only (the 2007-2008 school year).

This lack of long-term commitment strongly suggests discussions soon will intensify for permanent sites in football and basketball.

Next year's football title game will be played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

This season's basketball tournaments will be held at American Airlines Center in Dallas. The 2007 tournaments will be held at the Ford Center and Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City.

After that, the Big 12 slate is open.

The Dallas Cowboys' $650-million stadium in Arlington is due for completion in 2009.

Having at least one major Big 12 championship annually in the Metroplex will help the Big 12 cast a dominant shadow over Conference USA, which headquarters in Irving.

I think the Big 12 championship game will probably wind up in Dallas (and not Houston), because I do think Jerry Jones will make a hard pitch for it.

However, I don't think the championship needs to be held in Dallas to "cast a dominant shadow over Conference USA." The Big 12 will do that regardless of where it holds its championships.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/07/05 22:11 | Big 12 Football | Technorati | Comments (6)

What Sort Of Turnover Will Lobbying Scandals Produce?

Corruption will help challengers (David Hill, The Hill)

But before you conclude that I’m saying the current round of corruption charges will have no electoral effects, let me be clear that I do expect there to be some consequences of criminal inquiries into so many members of Congress and lobbyists that mingle with them. I just don’t think the result will necessarily benefit Democrats.

Electoral responses to past scandal-ridden eras suggest that two groups will reap rewards from the present imbroglio: challengers and women. I expect more upsets of entrenched incumbents in both the primaries and the general elections. And voters will be more inclined than usual to vote for female candidates.

The impact of the present atmosphere of “corruption” will start to manifest itself in responses to the “right direction or wrong track” questions asked by pollsters. While economic views typically drive answers to those queries, in past periods of corruption I have witnessed a metamorphosis from moral concerns about leaders’ integrity to notions of a state or the nation being off on the wrong track. When wrong-track perceptions reach a critical mass, voters start tapping challengers to replace incumbents.

While Houston Chronicle editorials make it seem like one party has a monopoly on corruption, the truth is that both parties have their share of bad guys. It's hard to see how the Dems benefit unilaterally from this.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/07/05 22:00 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

05 December 2005

A Bit Of Coalescing Ahead

FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll (1 December 05, pdf)

I found the responses to two questions in this poll interesting.

7. Do you think the world would be better off or worse off if the U.S. military had not taken action in Iraq and Saddam Hussein were still in power?

34% of Democrats said worse off, 41% said better off (8% same as, 18% don't know).

78% of Republicans said worse off, 10% said better off (6% same as, 6% don't know).

29% of independents said better off, 47% said worse off (11% same as, 13% don't know).

8. Do you think Iraq would be better off or worse off if the U.S. military had not taken action in Iraq and Saddam Hussein were still in power?

29% of Democrats said better off, 40% said worse off (11% same as, 20% don't know).

82% of Republicans said worse off, 10% said better off (4% same as, 4% don't know).

57% of Independents said worse off, 22% said better off (6% same as, 15% don't know).

UPDATE (12-06-2005): Accounts of Brutality Roil Hussein Trial (Richard Boudreaux, LA Times)

In the tumultuous, daylong hearing, leadoff witness Ahmad Hassan Mohammed recalled that after his arrest he peeked through his blindfold in a torture chamber and saw a machine that "looked like a grinder" with hair and blood on it.

Jawad Abdul-Aziz Jawad, who followed him to the stand, said Iraqi troops used helicopters to fire at homes in Dujayl within hours of the 1982 assassination attempt and later sent bulldozers to destroy the palm groves and orchards that were the village's livelihood.

"There were mass arrests, women and men," Mohammed said in a rambling, tearful account often disrupted by outbursts from the defendants. He said he was taken to a field of half-buried bodies. "I recognized them," he said. "They were my neighbors."

Iraqi Everyman Faces Off With Hussein (Borzou Daragahi, LA Times)

Mohammed's testimony was filled with tearful moments, accusatory crescendos and punctuating silences.

He said he was 15 when the Iraqi security forces came for him and his family a day after the assassination attempt on Hussein. Authorities took him and his family to nightmarish prisons in Baghdad and Abu Ghraib before they were banished to the desert for years, he said.

"The mask they put on my face was falling because I was so little," he said. He added, almost in passing, that he was beaten.

"They were torturing women in front of me," he said. "It's OK if they torture me or my brothers. But why do you take my mother and sisters?"

40% of Democrats, 22% of Independents, and 10% of Republicans think Saddam's rule was better.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/05 22:41 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

Crazy Voters

And the Voters Act Surprised by Duke Cunningham? (Froma Harrop, RCP)

Randy "Duke" Cunningham was more than a criminal. He was a head case. And the astounding thing about the California Republican's career is that federal prosecutors had to take him down. The voters didn't have the self-regard to do it themselves.

Any number of politicians could have this conservative congressional district in and around San Diego. The people didn't have to be represented by a total screwball.

Some might forgive, even enjoy, crusty candor in a decorated Navy pilot, which Cunningham was. But the man's outbursts overshot any rough charm and landed in lunatic city. That his constituents now express shock that he could do bad things makes you wonder.

Where do we start with Randy Cunningham? How about the time in 1998 when, while visiting a hospital, he gave the finger and threw the "F" word at an elderly cancer patient? It seems that the patient, a World War II veteran, had challenged Cunningham's assertion that the defense budget was too low. In 1984, Cunningham had dared Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., to a fistfight for opposing one of his pet pieces of legislation. But for all his tough-guy bluster, Cunningham fell apart at the smallest sign of dissent.

He also loved to make menacing statements, and not just to Democrats. "Your son is dead meat," he told Rep. Nick Smith in 2003, after the Michigan Republican voted against the Medicare drug benefit. Smith's crime was turning down a $100,000 bribe that the Republican leadership had offered him for voting "yes." Smith's son was running for Congress, and the money would have gone into his campaign. The son, Brad Smith, lost in the GOP primary.

"I have flown an F-14 over this Capitol with a 20-millimeter gun that could shoot 6,000 rounds a minute," Cunningham told Congress, while purportedly discussing an assault-weapons ban. "I could disintegrate this hall in half a second." In 2004, he made a similar comment to a high-school history class in Encinitas, Calif. "I could've disintegrated this whole school in half a second," Cunningham said.

One month later, the voters elected him to an eighth term.

We voters, frankly, can be quite the nitwits. That's how popular sovereignty goes sometimes.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/05 22:28 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)

Pretty In Pink

Dean: US Won't Win in Iraq (WOAI)

Saying the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.

Dean made his comments in an interview on WOAI Radio in San Antonio.

"I've seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, 'just another year, just stay the course, we'll have a victory.' Well, we didn't have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening."

Dean says the Democrat position on the war is 'coalescing,' and is likely to include several proposals.

"I think we need a strategic redeployment over a period of two years," Dean said. "Bring the 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops home immediately. They don't belong in a conflict like this anyway. We ought to have a redeployment to Afghanistan of 20,000 troops, we don't have enough troops to do the job there and its a place where we are welcome. And we need a force in the Middle East, not in Iraq but in a friendly neighboring country to fight (terrorist leader Musab) Zarqawi, who came to Iraq after this invasion. We've got to get the target off the backs of American troops.

Dean didn't specify which country the US forces would deploy to, but he said he would like to see the entire process completed within two years. He said the Democrat proposal is not a 'withdrawal,' but rather a 'strategic redeployment' of U.S. forces.

"The White House wants us to have a permanent commitment to Iraq. This is an Iraqi problem. President Bush got rid of Saddam Hussein and that was a great thing, but that could have been done in a very different way. But now that we're there we need to figure out how to leave. 80% of Iraqis want us to leave, and it's their country."

Permanent commitment? The drawdown begins in a few weeks, although arguably Iraqification has moved more slowly than some of us would have liked (and some folks on the right don't like the idea at all, seemingly preferring empire and MORE troops). Dean sounds so contentious to have just endorsed what is just about to start happening.

He does look good in pink though, doesn't he?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/05 22:04 | International | Technorati | Comments (0)

04 December 2005

Coach Leach Makes The New York Times

Coach Leach Goes Deep, Very Deep (Michael Lewis, New York Times)

Schwartz had an N.F.L. coach's perspective on talent, and from his point of view, the players Leach was using to rack up points and yards were no talent at all. None of them had been identified by N.F.L. scouts or even college recruiters as first-rate material. Coming out of high school, most of them had only one or two offers from midrange schools. Sonny Cumbie hadn't even been offered a scholarship; he was just invited to show up for football practice at Texas Tech. Either the market for quarterbacks was screwy - that is, the schools with the recruiting edge, and N.F.L. scouts, were missing big talent - or (much more likely, in Schwartz's view) Leach was finding new and better ways to extract value from his players. "They weren't scoring all these touchdowns because they had the best players," Schwartz told me recently. "They were doing it because they were smarter. Leach had found a way to make it work."

But when Schwartz studied videotape of the Texas Tech offense, what he saw unsettled him. The offensive linemen positioned themselves between three and six feet apart - on extreme occasions, the five linemen stretched a good 15 yards across the field. At times it was difficult to tell the linemen from the receivers. Strictly speaking, they were not a line at all, just a row of dots. "The offensive line splits - you look at them, and you're just shocked," Schwartz said. "It scares people to see splits that are that wide."

The big gaps between the linemen made the quarterback seem more vulnerable - some defenders could seemingly run right between the blockers - but he wasn't. Stretching out the offensive line stretched out the defensive line too, forcing the most ferocious pass rushers several yards farther from the quarterback. It also opened up wide passing lanes through which even a short quarterback could see the whole field clearly. Leach spread out his receivers and backs too. The look was more flag than tackle football: a truly fantastic number of players racing around trying to catch passes on every play, and a quarterback surprisingly able to keep an eye on all of them.

This offense was, in effect, an argument for changing the geometry of the game. Schwartz didn't know if Leach's system would work in the N.F.L., where they had bigger staffs, better players and a lot more time to prepare for whatever confusion the offense cooked up. On the other hand, he wasn't sure it wouldn't.

This is a truly outstanding feature story on the most innovative offensive coach at any level of football today, Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach.

Here's an excerpt sure to make Aggies happy:

As his team raced onto the field, he gazed into the stands filled with screaming fans and wondered about the several thousand "cadets" from Texas A.&M. clustered in one end zone. They wear military uniforms and buzz cuts, holler in unison and stand at attention the entire game. "How come they get to pretend they are soldiers?" he asked. "The thing is, they aren't actually in the military. I ought to have Mike's Pirate School. The freshmen, all they get is the bandanna. When you're a senior, you get the sword and skull and crossbones. For homework, we'll work pirate maneuvers and stuff like that."

Oh my.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/04/05 20:23 | Big 12 Football | Technorati | Comments (5)

Sweet

Hofheinz was a pretty sweet place to be tonight, as the Coogs held off Arizona. The students storming the floor may have been a bit much, but I guess we're entitled after the Alvin/Clyde/Ray drought. The students who were wearing the Tom Penders wigs were hilarious.

And the Armadillo Palace was a pretty sweet place to be tonight too, as soon as No Justice cranked up the sound and drove all the celebrating Shorthorns out of the place. One thing I like about No Justice is that they are LOUD, so they tend to win out over annoying Houstonians who think it's fun to talk over bands. It cannot be done with NJ. They win.

So, do the Coogs crack the top 25 this week? I can't imagine they wouldn't....

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/04/05 00:42 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (2)

02 December 2005

Eagles: JJ Wasn't Tampering After All

Eagles drop tampering complaint against Cowboys (Associated Press)

The Philadelphia Eagles have withdrawn a tampering complaint against the Cowboys filed after Dallas owner Jerry Jones suggested on a radio show that his team is often interested in players such as suspended wide receiver Terrell Owens.

"At the time, the Eagles were concerned that the nature and timing of the comments could affect the outcome of the arbitration hearing involving Owens," the team said in a statement Friday.

"We have now had the opportunity to review the full transcript of the interview and in light of the fact the comments obviously had no effect on the outcome of the hearing, the Eagles have since contacted the National Football League in order to withdraw their request to have the league pursue this matter."

That tampering complaint was lame. The Eagles aren't accustomed to being in such dire shape at this point in the season, and they seem to be gripping.

Earlier, I dismissed the notion that TO might wind up in a Dallas uniform, thinking it wouldn't be a great fit with Parcells. Now, I'm wondering if Parcells didn't hint that he might be interested to both Peter King and Chris Mortenson. They both have separately suggested that the Cowboys might have interest.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/02/05 16:07 | Dallas Cowboys | Technorati | Comments (1)

01 December 2005

Just A Pinch Between The Cheek And Gum

Chewing Qat Blamed for Yemen's Poverty (Paul Garwood, AP)

The writer winked conspiratorially, shifted the golf ball-sized bulge in his left cheek and tapped his temple gently.

"Qat is good for the mind. I can't stop writing once I start. But the next morning I read what I wrote and tear it up straight away," chuckled 35-year-old Hatem Bamohriz, nibbling yet another leaf of the mild narcotic.

To many government and aid officials, qat has ceased to be funny: Yemen's government is making another push to cut the use of the rubbery green leaf with amphetamine-like qualities that is blamed for many of this country's ills, from widespread poverty to growing health problems.

But there is little progress. Up to 90 percent of Yemeni men are now believed to chew qat daily, and growing numbers of women and children are also chewing, the
World Bank says.

It's a nation of qatheads.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/01/05 22:30 | International | Technorati | Comments (0)

If Viktor Doesn't Want A Coalition With Her...

A Ukrainian revolutionary charts a comeback (Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune)

In Ukraine, where resignation and economic paralysis have replaced the hopes of the Orange Revolution of a year ago, the controversial and flamboyant former prime minister, Yulia Timoshenko, is planning her political comeback for parliamentary elections next March.

Only two months after President Viktor Yushchenko sacked her as prime minister, a more subdued but still determined Timoshenko is hoping to establish an alliance of convenience with the co-leader of the Orange Revolution, in order, she says, to prevent old rivals from regaining power and to restart the process of change.

"I want to have a coalition with Yushchenko but not with these odious people around him," said Timoshenko, 45, who frequently clashed with Yushchenko during her eight months in office, criticizing him for failing to curb the power of the oligarchs or stamp out corruption.

I just love that quote. Timoshenko is a badass.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/01/05 22:26 | International | Technorati | Comments (6)

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