Editorial Blog
September 5 to Oct. 1, 2002
By JEFF RUSHING, Webmaster
Aargh! Just week two of the new Survivor, and my girl, Tanya, is voted out! Not only was she my favorite babe, but also a Tennessee lass (my age, too; Tanya, call me!). I'm too upset to think logically, but at the moment I don't care to watch the rest of the show. All my babes have made it to the top five before, so I just don't know what to expect from this bunch. With the first two evictions, the elder clan is pissing into the wind by keeping weak physical players like Jan and Ghandia, and deserve to lose all the immunity challenge from here on out.
Posted 09/27/02, 1:59 a.m.
I adore that the Democratic party is saying that Bush is 'warmongering' to hide supposed domestic problems, yet what they're doing is the very height of politicizing a war:
Left: "We want a debate!"
Bush: "Okay, here's our evidence, what have you to say?"
Left: "Stop forcing us to talk war and have a vote before the election!"
The ultimate being erstwhile leader Al Gore, who can't seem to make up his mind:
June 28, 2000: Headline on the BBC site says, 'Gore: Saddam Must Go' after the former VP "has told Iraqi opposition politicians that the United States remains committed to the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein."
Feb. 12, 2002, speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, according to the NY Times: Al Gore said last night that the time had come for a "final reckoning" with Iraq, describing the country as a "virulent threat in a class by itself" and suggesting that the United States should consider ways to oust President Saddam Hussein.
Sept. 23, 2002, at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, forgetting (more likely, ignoring) the support Bush received at the U.N. after our rebuke of their authority: "By shifting from his early focus after September 11th on war against terrorism to war against Iraq, the president has manifestly disposed of the sympathy, goodwill and solidarity compiled by America and transformed it into a sense of deep misgiving and even hostility."
Posted 09/25/02, 4:40 a.m.
"Islam is a Religion of Peace" update:
-- Jerusalem police have arrested Salah Elayan, an aide to the Palestinian "legislative speaker," Ahmed Qurie, the Jerusalem Post reports. Elayan allegedly threatened the life of Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh "unless he divulges the source of a story he published in Sunday's Post."
-- A week after the fact, the LA Times got around to a hate crime by members of the protected religion of choice: "Authorities arrested two suspects and are looking for 15 others who allegedly beat and kicked two men outside a West Hollywood nightclub while chanting "Kill the Jews!" officials said Friday. Booked on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and committing a hate crime were Daoud Mohammed Mavid, 19, and Mohammed Hassan Aref, 22, both of Los Angeles."
-- The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that at Concordia University, where a pro-Arab riot prevented former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking earlier this month, an unidentified Jewish student has been attacked. "I was hit in the head with a hard object, probably [a] cell phone, and punched. I fell down and while I was on my knees, this guy kept kicking me," the Jewish student recounts. "I was able to get up and face this student when I saw another Muslim student rushing over. I ran outside to the university's security office and it was then that I noticed how badly I was bleeding from my scalp. The blood was running down my neck."
Posted 09/25/02, 4:35 a.m.
I know it seems minor with all that's going on with the world, but my world is a little bit dimmer today, because local sports/talk station 680 AM/The Fan pulled my favorite ESPN radio programs, "Mike & Mike In the Morning" and "The Dan Patrick Show" from the air. Instead, the station is airing a local show from 6 a.m. - 8:30 a.m., and "The Bill O'Reilly Show" from 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. The local hosts are boring, and O'Reilly is pompous, so I guess I'll be listening to music in the morning and flip to the other sports station, 790 AM for Jim Rome's show.
Posted 09/21/02, 2:56 a.m.
No surprise: The "It's all about oil" argument against war with Iraq is surfacing from the Left. It wasn't true in 1991 - and didn't work - and it won't stop us today from doing the dirty business of the world by removing Saddam from power and toppling the Islamofascists like dominoes.
Posted 09/21/02, 2:53 a.m.
Feeling patriotic? Want to show that you love the freedom handed down from the country's founders? Head over to the National Archives and make your mark on a personal copy of Declaration of Independence!
Posted 09/19/02, 10:30 p.m.
Who didn't see this coming? Bush outlines why Saddam should be gone, the U.N. is shamed into agreeing, Saddam comes back and says he'll let in inspectors, the U.N. hems and haws and agrees to wait a year to see if Saddam has decided to stop playing the game. No surprise, this is the organization that appoints terrorist-infested Syria to head the human-rights committee (and the next head isn't any better, set to be Libya).
Another reason the U.N. is wishy-washy over removing Saddam from power: It would then be admitting that many of the organization's leaders are on the wrong side of the Middle East conflict, meaning they side with Palestine against Israel at all costs. So we may just have to bypass the U.N. again, and with the aid of facts like the AP report that says Iraq is increasing payments to Palestinian terrorists (from $10,000 to $25,000) and even supplying weapons.
Posted 09/19/02, 10:30 p.m.
Why I'm a Republican, reason No. 203:
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have" - former president Gerald Ford.
Continuing on the theme from Ronald Reagan: "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"
Posted 09/19/02, 3:57 p.m.
It seems like the people who talk loudest about supposed wartime threats to civil liberties are also the ones who most admire Europe as a model for, and restraint on, America. Yet as Jeffrey Rosen notes in the Washington Post, Europeans are not big on civil liberties:
In the course of researching the state of liberty and security after 9/11, I've been especially struck by how restrained America's legal response appears when contrasted with that of our European allies. Although they weren't directly attacked, the countries of the European Union passed anti-terrorism measures during the past year that are far more sweeping than anything adopted in the United States.
In October, France expanded the powers of the police to search private property without a warrant. Germany has engaged in religious profiling of suspected terrorists, a practice that was upheld in a court challenge. In Britain, which has become a kind of privacy dystopia, Parliament passed a sweeping anti-terrorism law in December that authorizes a central government authority to record and store all communications data generated by e-mail, Internet browsing or other electronic communications, and to make the data available to law enforcement without a court order. In May, the European Union authorized all of its members to pass similar laws requiring data retention.
In France, the BBC reports, novelist Michel Houellebecq went on trial today "on charges of inciting religious hatred." In an interview, he opined that "the dumbest religion, after all, is Islam." He could spend a year in jail if convicted. (OpinionJournal.com)
Posted 09/19/02, 3:58 p.m.
This week's best Vents from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
– I don't care what anybody says about the Old Navy commercials. Morgan Fairchild is still hot.
– If you mix pasta and anti-pasto, is there a catastrophic explosion?
- Everyone is saying that attacking Iraq will destabilize the entire Middle East. What part of the Middle East is stable now?
- My family voted me "American Idle."
– I've decided that from now on, I'm going to be a little more lactose-tolerant.
– Why is it when I talk to God, it's called praying but when God talks to me, it's called schizophrenia?
- My last flicker of respect for Ted Kennedy died when I heard that he has a dog named "Splash."
- Maybe we need to send Jimmy Carter to monitor elections in Miami-Dade and Broward counties just like we do for other Third World countries.
- You know you've made the wrong vacation plans when Mike Slidell from the Weather Channel is heading to the same place.
- Miami-Dade and Broward Counties: Obviously, there is no such thing as a fool-proof voting machine, so your election problems can be solved only by getting rid of the fools.
– It's hard to complain with both the New York Mets and Phil Donahue mired in last place.
Posted 09/17/02, 9:12 a.m.
Want to feel good about the soldiers fighting the war on terrorism? Check out the blog of the 172nd Detachment in Afghanistan.
Posted 09/16/02, 2:52 a.m.
In this week's edition of "The Flip Side," Steven and I debate whether Augusta National should join the 21st Century or enjoy some neanderthal pleasures of old.
Posted 09/15/02, 2:35 a.m.
There was a full-page ad in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday from our "friends" in Saudi Arabia, pretending to condemn those who caused 9/11 and the thinking that inspired it. You know what I thought of that? I tore up the page, put it in the toilet and used it to absorb my urine.
Why? Because I know what they say in English, and what the state-run papers say in Arabic, and they don't match.
Posted 09/14/02, 5:55 a.m.
How come we say someone is "half-cocked" but never "whole-cocked"?
Posted 09/14/02, 5:55 a.m.
Seems there was a big hubbub Friday when some idiot Muslims decided to have fun with some Georgia yokels. CNN reports diner Eunice Stone heard a conversation among three men at a Calhoun, Ga., Shoney's "that indicated they were planning a September 13 terror attack on Miami":
"They scared me," said Stone, who was sitting with her son at a table next to the men. " 'They think they were sad on 9/11, wait until 9/13,' " Stone said she heard the man with the beard say. She took down one of the men's license-plate numbers, and an alert went out. A sheriff's deputy in Collier County, Fla., pulled one of the cars over after it tried to evade a toll just after midnight last night. "A bomb-sniffing dog responded to both cars," CNN notes. When officers saw wires sticking out of a package in one of the cars, they blew it up, but it turned out to be medical equipment.
Federal sources involved in the investigation said the three men - all U.S. citizens - were playing a stupid joke on another restaurant patron who gave them a suspicious look. All three were on their way from Illinois to take medical training in South Miami. According to investigators, all three men -- a Lebanese, a Jordanian and an Iranian - are U.S. citizens - one U.S. born.
Rod Dreher of National Review Online jibes the father of one of the Muslims who said "'I don't know what the lady in the restaurant heard or assumed. She must have had some kind of prejudice.' What is this world coming to when a group of Muslim men in their 20s can't sit in a diner on September 11 and make wisecracks about a terrorist attack in the near future?" Jonah Goldberg seriously continues, "I'm baffled to understand how these guys are victims of some outrageously unfair government action. These three idiots allegedly sat there in a Shoney's and talked about how they were looking to murder a bunch of people in a terrorist attack. ... They think it's a symptom of racism and bigotry? What a crock. ... How is it that law enforcement did anything wrong? How is this an example of government bigotry as these people are claiming?"
I think we should give Eunice Stone an award for being alert in this tense period surrounding Sept. 11's anniversary. It doesn't matter that in the end, the event is akin to a few stupid teens yelling "fire" in a crowded theater, which has consequences if you're caught by the law. Try that in an airport, and the law says to lock you up. The feds should lock these Muslim jokesters up in a cell with a few of our American 'pranksters' and see just how funny their gag was. Ha, ha, guys, enjoy your weekend with Bubba.
Posted 09/14/02, 5:52 a.m.
Leadership, or lack thereof, is a big reason why the U.S. and Canada are NOT the same, as was made very clear by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien in a just-aired July interview. Apparently feeling closer to his French constituency, Chretien declared: "You cannot exercise your powers to the point of humiliation for the others. That is what the Western world -- not only the Americans, the Western world -- has to realize. Because they are human beings too. There are long-term consequences. . . . And I do think that the Western world is getting too rich in relation to the poor world and necessarily will be looked upon as being arrogant and self-satisfied, greedy and with no limits. The 11th of September is an occasion for me to realize it even more."
How come those who accuse us of being arrogant and selfish are the ones who sound the most arrogant, condescending and self-serving when making statements bemoaning their 'wealth'? We can't declare war on Islamofascists because they feel humiliated? Such silliness will hopefully be turned away by Canadian voters at their earliest convenience.
As much as it pains me to do it, I'm actually going to refute Chretien by using quotes from former president Jimmy Carter: "Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease," and "If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement."
The Toronto Sun actually does a better job criticizing their leader:
"That Chretien resents America and President Bush may well be because they make him look weak and petty.
"Chretien can't inspire others, except those who depend on him for favours. He has disarmed Canada, made us utterly dependent on America for security, and resents it."
Posted 09/14/02, 1:50 a.m.
With the rest of the U.S. concerned about national defense and the economy, the leftist elites are far more bemoaning of the fact that their social lives are duller in D.C. with the Bush administration running things. Seems they dearly miss the parties by Clinton's crew, and the celebrities who were frequently in town schmoozing with the shysters of that administration.
Columnist Liz Smith of the New York Post writes about how the Bush clan circles the wagons enjoys quiet evenings with cookouts rather than elaborate state dinners. Susan Watters of the publication W (which does NOT stand for Dubya) has written a piece titled "The Big Chill," stating that "two years into Bush's first term, Washington's social scene is near death - and the natives are restless."
Smith adds that the Bush clique simply doesn't want to party, get dressed up in black tie, meet new people or lure fabulous famous types to big state dinners. The result, according to the capital's reigning hostess, Sally Quinn is "Washington, as we know it, is over . . . the social scene has come to a screeching halt."
Posted 09/14/02, 1:45 a.m.
Ah, the spoiled lives of presidential candidates' children. Oh, not the Bush twins. I'm talking about Al Gore's kid, Albert Gore III. He was arrested on Aug. 12, 2000, by the North Carolina Highway Patrol when clocked driving 97 mph in a 55 mph zone. Last week, he was arrested near the Pentagon by U.S. military police and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, reckless driving, and possession of alcohol by a minor.
Posted 09/13/02, 10:03 p.m.
I get a little annoyed by pundits or lefty elites who don't like the president's diction. I find it quite endearingly homespun that Dubya pronounces nuclear as "nook-u-ler."
Posted 09/13/02, 3:13 a.m.
On the day of 9/11 tributes, a reminder that Islam may not mean "peace" after all.
Across the pond, as most Brits mourn with us and Prime Minister Tony Blair stands by Pres. Bush in his efforts to oust Saddam Hussein, a group of Islamofascists met in London to praise Osama bin Laden. Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed of the radical group Al-Muhajiroun said the meeting at Finsbury Park Mosque, titled "Sept. 11, 2001: A Towering Day in History," argues that the attacks were justified because Muslims must defend themselves against armed aggression.
Even better news for England, Al-Muhajiroun says its goal is to make Britain an Islamic state.
Great, I'm sure the English can't wait to hold public executions, stone women who have sex outside marriage and end pesky freedoms of religion and the press. Maybe then England can learn the proper way to live!
Further south, the "peaceful" Muslims called Palestinians were planning to celebrate Sept. 11. OpinionJournal.com points out an Associated Press photo of Palestinians stepping on an American flag as they arrive for a pro-Saddam rally in Gaza yesterday, and The Jerusalem Post reports that "a booklet that anticipates the destruction of the US by 2004 has become a best seller" among Palestinian Arabs.
Posted 09/12/02, 1:50 a.m.
The geniuses running elections in Florida are at it again. Gov. Jeb Bush ordered polls to stay open late because the local officials couldn't figure out how to work the electronic voting machines that were put in place to prevent more fiascos like that in 2000. Would it help if I told you that the problems surfaced mainly in six of the seven counties sued after the 2000 presidential election? Naturally, though, it's the Republicans fault, as many blamed Gov. Bush for acting in a conspiracy to keep him in office by making sure Janet Reno wins (she's actually trailing) the Democratic primary, ensuring an easier road to victory this November. Here's a hint, guys, maybe it's the voters and the dimwit officials who should be looked at!
There is some good news out of this, however. Opinionjournal.com happily reports that "the lovely Katherine Harris, Florida's former secretary of state and the Dems' bęte noire in the 2000 election dispute, won a Republican House primary with 68% of the vote."
Posted 09/12/02, 1:43 a.m.
What is going on between the ears of former U.N. arms inspector Scott Ritter? From here on out we must call him Baghdad Scott, because his speech denouncing the U.S. the other day in the Iraqi capital was close to treason on par with Hanoi Jane Fonda.
But Ritter comes across as a loon, not even reading his own material. As Brit Hume pointed out on Fox News the other day, after the U.N. was kicked out of Iraq for good in 1988, Ritter asserted "Iraq retains the capability to launch a chemical strike," and that "six months is a very reasonable time scale for Iraq to resume weapons capabilities...If people do not change course, the end result will be that Iraq will be able to retain these capabilities."
What could have happened in the meantime for him to turn so quick against U.S. efforts to oust Saddam? Did they play golf together and Saddam let Ritter win? Did Saddam convince him that it was all a big misunderstanding and he really just wants a peaceful coexistence, using chemical weapons only for clearing weeds out of the garden?
Posted 09/12/02, 1:33 a.m.
Sore loser and sore statesman Billy McKinney, father of Jihad Cindy - a.k.a. Cynthia McKinney - lost his primary battle to another Democrat in Atlanta on Tuesday. Problem is for McKinney, his opponent was white and thus Billy was a victim of some conspiracy. Before his daughter lost he said she was being targeted by "J-E-W-S." On Tuesday, McKinney actually blamed his own race:
"I did not expect this because I expected black folks to turn out for me," said McKinney. "They did not turn out for me. They wanted a Klansman, a son of the Confederacy."
The Confederacy dig is a reference to his opponent's membership in Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Sounds like Billy could work for Loyola College in Baltimore in his retirement. They think someone not just act black enough, though, but look it as well. Denys Blell, who has a master's degree in African and Afro-American history, applied for a job as "assistant vice president for academic affairs and diversity" but the college turned him down for not being "visibly black." You see, Blell's ancestry is African and Lebanese, thus he wasn't sufficiently dark in skin tone and not actually "African-American." In a lawsuit Blell claims he was told "that race and skin color were important issues because 'Baltimore is predominantly black and the state of Maryland has a significant black presence.'"
Posted 09/12/02, 1:28 a.m.
Eerie coincidences this Sept. 11:
On the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks, the evening numbers drawn in the New York Lottery were 9-1-1.
The September Standard & Poor's 500 futures contract closed Tuesday at 911.00.
Posted 09/12/02, 1:22 a.m.
Congressional Democrats are trying to hide from the Iraq debate, saying there shouldn't be a vote on any invasion until after the mid-term elections this November. Forget them. You know why they want to wait? Because many are against any action, and are afraid of losing votes as a result. Republicans should force a vote on the issue on Nov. 3, giving Americans a good idea of the wusses on the Left who would rather not get involved in fighting the War on Terrorism. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is backing Pres. Bush more than any of these libs to overthrow Hussein ASAP, as are the American people. So let's show voters just how out of step the Dems are. Remember, it went down to the wire before Dems even approved of the Gulf War in 1991, so don't count on them supporting a pre-emptive move against Saddam anytime soon.
Posted 09/11/02, 1:55 a.m.
This week's best Vents from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
- If you can't beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing.
- You know the drought is serious when the kudzu starts turning brown.
- Of course my gums are bleeding, doctor! You're poking them with a sharp metal hook!
- Man is incomplete until he is married. Then he is finished.
– Why don’t drive-through fast food places have a third window you can pull up to when you realize they screwed up your order?
– There was only one puddle in my driveway this morning and the paper delivery boy managed to find it. Greg Maddux should have such control.
- It's beyond refreshing - it is exhilarating - to see that the Augusta National has more than just golf balls.
- Sign in our church men's room: "Please stand closer to the lavatory. You may not be as blessed as you think."
– If you add enough Hershey’s syrup to Slim-Fast, it tastes like a milkshake!
– When my wife and I play Scrabble, it’s her word against mine.
Posted 09/09/02, 4:38 a.m.
In light of fat guys suing fast food restaurants for "making them fat," the web site of public interest group Consumer Freedom came up with a Lawsuit Fabricator to help you find someone to blame them for all ills.
I decided I needed to sue for my lack of social life, selecting "I Can't Get a Date." Here’s who I should file motions against: 1)Deoderant Manufacturer, 2) "Star Trek" and their patriarchal, male dominated conventions, 3) Makers of Dungeons & Dragons, 4) Hair Club for Men or 5) Stupid mail-order bride company and its 'standards.'
If I decide I don’t like owing money, I can also select "I'm in Debt": 1) Ebay for encouraging my beanie baby obsession, 2) 'The Man' for keeping me down, 3) The mailman for delivering all those tempting catalogs, 4) Overpriced Internet porn, 5) Miss Cleo and her faulty stock predictions.
Posted 09/09/02, 4:35 a.m.
To over-eager college boosters: Before you give illegal spending money to recruits, make sure they have the common sense to hide it. Case in point, Derek Watson started showing off a $60,000 Cadillac Escalade shortly after signing to play football for South Carolina. Real smart, Derek. Why not cruise the harbor in your yacht next?
Posted 09/09/02, 4:30 a.m.
As we’re told that conservatives will go overboard in supressing freedom of speech during this War on Terror, word comes that it may be the Left who is truly afraid of what people have to say.
Do you remember the benefit at Madison Square Garden for 9/11 victims last fall, show live by VH1? When Hillary Clinton walked on stage, she was booed heavily by the blue collar audience. That’s just unacceptable to libs. ABC’s Libertarian reporter John Stossel revealed in a July "20/20" special on media distortions that when the music network put together the DVD of the concert, the booing was replaced with cheering and applause. It must be nice for the former First Lady to have so many people watching over Hitlary to prevent dissent.
Posted 09/09/02, 4:30 a.m.
ABC may have inadvertantly given Bush the best out from initiating war with Iraq, as Saddam may instead declare war on us after an interview airs with a former mistress. From the Drudge Report, reporter Claire Shipman interviewed Parisoula Lampsos, who says she saw Hussein on almost a daily basis for years before leaving Iraq a year ago.
According to Lampsos, Saddam needed to use Viagra to properly increase his dictator status, and no one would say no to him, “Because...you are afraid, you are afraid to say no.... I was with him because I was afraid of him... “
But what may really provoke the insane leader is Lampsos’ revelation that Saddam is a girly man, that he uses an herbal relaxation mask to try to reduce wrinkles, dyes his hair and likes to wear suits by Pierre Cardin. Perhaps in an attempt to be manly, though, Lampsos tells Shipman how Saddam's favorite movie is The Godfather, and his favorite song is "Strangers in the Night."
Oh, and this little thing that may have some affect: Drudge reports that the Lampsos will tell how Hussein met Osama bin Laden on two occasions and gave money to the al Qaeda leader in 1996. You know, if it matters.
Posted 09/09/02, 4:25 a.m.
Martha Burk, head of the National Council of Women's Organizations, will have to think of another strategy to keep her name in the headlines if she thinks pressuring players will help her force Augusta National to admit women members.
"If I got into Augusta, I would play," John Daly said. "It's a major. It's a tournament we dream as little kids of winning. Women protesting it shouldn't take it out on us for playing in it.''
"Am I some bad person because I don't absolutely adhere to their side of the story?'' former Masters champion Mark O'Meara said. "It has to be their way or no way. That's not the way you do business....If it was exclusive to men only, and no women were allowed there, it might be more of an issue. Women can play golf there. I don't understand what their point is.''
Besides allowing women to join, we need to focus on others excluded from the group, namely those who don't have boatlands of money. Why can't we mandate that low-income golfers join Augusta National at a lower rate?
While we're at it, we need to discuss this anti-male discrimination. I think men should be allowed to join sororities. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution happily talked about an all-female boxing class. Why can't men join? What about all-female colleges? Seems if a guy wants to attend, should it be required? Better yet, should we get a mandate that men be allowed to join the National Council of Women's Organizations? They represent six million members, yet none male? Seems that there's a large constituency banned. Cough it up, Martha. If you don't like us sperm donors, how about guys who dress as women? Or transvestites? Are they allowed to join women's groups?
Posted 09/07/02, 7:05 a.m.
A growing number of Miss World contestants are withdrawing from the pageant this year held in Nigeria in protest of the country's "Sharia" laws, or Islamic laws that among other things sentence women to death for adultery.
However Miss Sweden, Sophia Hedmark, will be using the platform in Nigeria to protest against the harsh Sharia punishments.
"There is nothing to be gained by not going to Nigeria... but I plan to protest against the ruling in interviews with journalists," she said.
Hey, what do ya know, maybe they are more than pretty faces!
Of course, some may be pulling out for personal protection reasons, as the pageant is under threat from militant Islamic groups in Nigeria, which call it a "parade of nudity" and threatened to disrupt it.
Posted 09/07/02, 6:58 a.m.
I don't plan on watching much coverage of the one-year anniversary of 9/11 next week. Why? Because too much of it will be focused on how depressed everyone was, showing so many tears and emotion, without focusing enough of the actual attacks and those with whom we're at war. Instead, I want 12 hours of people marching down the streets, calling for an end to Islamofascism, with signs proclaiming the perfect slogan for the country's feelings: "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition."
Posted 09/06/02, 11:03 p.m.
If there's any good to come out of the U.S. losing on consecutive nights to Argentina and Yugoslavia in the World Basketball Championships, ending a 58-match winning streak by our pros, it's that youngsters in this nation will see that it takes skills to make it, not showboating and dunking. I haven't enjoyed watching the NBA for a decade, frustrated by players' inability to make a jumpshot and the focus on showing off with fancy passes and dunks by guys who don't have one-fiftieth the talent of Michael Jordan or Jason Kidd. Thus, I say, "Bring on the influx of international players to the NBA," who may shake up the league and prove that basketball can be a beautiful game again.
Posted 09/06/02, 11:00 p.m.
Besides their normal business, apparently bears also recognize crap in the woods:
A grizzly bear attacked a group of animal-rights activists hiking near (West Yellowstone, Mont.) Sunday, mauling a 38-year-old man.
He was reported in fair condition Monday. Gallatin National forest officials closed the area to hiking and tent camping.
The victim, who was not identified, and the three others are members of Buffalo Field Campaign, an activist group that protests the killing of bison from nearby Yellowstone National Park to prevent the spread of disease in Montana.
The four surprised a grizzly sow and two cubs Sunday afternoon. One hiker said the lead hiker dropped to the ground, but another ran and the bear attacked him. (Associated Press)
And the best part is, the bears picked the right guys to attack. The activists will only conclude that the bears were in the right since it is the natural habitat and humans should be kept away.
Posted 09/06/02, 9:55 p.m.
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