Just one of the many reasons I love sports

Here is a fun year end wrap-up from Sports Illustrated. Best quotes from 2005.

My favorite?

"That kid grew up so far out in the country, he had to go toward town to hunt."
-- Cowboys coach Bill Parcells on rookie defensive end Demarcus Ware, who's from Alabama

Slowly but surely...

coming back online.

Going to stay away from all the partisan gunslinging for now (snoop-gate and the like).

Here is a very interesting update on the Jose Padilla case. Just to refresh your memory, Padilla is the so-called 'dirty bomber', an American citizen, arrested on American soil and held without being charged for 3 1/2 years. Just before his request for appeal was to go to the Supreme Court (remember, the 4th circuit upheld the Bush Administrations holding of Padilla), the Bush Administration asked that the case be transferred to civilian courts.

To say the least, the 4th circuit court was not amused by this request; and apparently, neither was conservative darling (and possible Supreme Court nominee) Judge Michael Luttig.

Actually, come to think of it, this case is very topical in that it touches on expansion and/or limitation of government and executive power. Someone who enjoys discussing these governmental power issues is fellow blogger Dave Justus.

Doing my part...

to get this story out there.

The short story? Police perform a 'no knock' raid on an apartment in a bad section of town in Mississippi. A young black man living in the duplex (with no record) fires at what he supposes is an intruder and ends of killing the white son of the police chief. Turns out that the young black man wasn't specified in the warrant, had no prior criminal record and lived in the apartment with his infant daughter. Please go read here for more details on the case.

This man was convicted of murder by a white jury and sentenced to death. He is on death row in Mississippi.

Just a quick post

I had to break work and post because this (via Sullivan) made me laugh and also pretty much sums up how I feel right about now.

Most of my readers know that I do not favor a pull out of troops from Iraq, and I never have. I was against the war from the beginning (I was in Washington for the protest before the war began), however we are there now and must finish the job. I haven't had any time to comment on the latest rumblings from both Democrats or Republicans regarding 'defeatists' or withdrawal.

I think it takes just as much suspension of reality to say 'Bush deliberately lied in order to take us to war' as it does to say 'Democrats want us to lose in Iraq'. Both of those statements imply an actual overt 'evil-ness' that I don't think either group qualifies for. However, I do believe intelligence was manipulated and exaggerated -- some maythink for good reason, but it is still not right -- and its obvious to me that the Democrats will gain politically from bad news from Iraq.

Calls for immediate troop withdrawal I think are simplistic and honestly irresponsible. One needs to look no further than Afghanistan to see what happens when we bolster a people against an enemy and then leave them flat with no support.

Anyway, on to the funny. Mr. Dave Barry:

"The Democrats seem to be basically nicer people, but they have demonstrated time and again that they have the management skills of celery. They're the kind of people who'd stop to help you change a flat, but would somehow manage to set your car on fire. I would be reluctant to entrust them with a Cuisinart, let alone the economy. The Republicans, on the other hand, would know how to fix your tire, but they wouldn't bother to stop because they'd want to be on time for Ugly Pants Night at the country club."

Lack of Posting

Just want to apologize to all my faithful readers out there who've been wondering where all my posts are....helloooooooooooooo.....

I've been super busy with school and work and haven't had much time. Posting most likely will resume after finals and around the holidays. Hopefully the tone of all of our conversations will be greatly improved by then.

As always, check the blogroll for some interesting reads on the right and left.