Some Links

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3322266 The College All America Team. Absolutely no way that if you entered this team in the Olympics this summer they don't win the gold medal. There is absolutely no reason for USA Men's basketball to lose a single game this summer. Alright, so maybe there is no way we would get a bunch of unpaid college players risking getting hurt to play in the Olympics (oh wait, isn't that what the Olympics are all about?) But, even if we can't get college players, I have another idea. After the disaster in 2004, there was a lot of talk about sending an NBA team (without any foreign players) and how much better they would do than the national team. How about this for an Olympic Squad: KG, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Sam Cassell, Big Baby, etc.


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/15635751/the_ethanol_scam_one_of_americas_biggest_political_boondoggles
A little over the top, but makes some good points. Did you know that it takes more oil to make ethanol, than if you just use the oil? Believe it.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/preview08/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3320120 Jayson Stark, one of the most knowledgeable baseball people, picking the Braves to win it all this year. And Buster Olney, who I have more faith in than any baseball writer, picked the Braves to win the East. Looks like it might be a good year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendall_Gill
Not only was he on "My Brother and Me", but he's now a professional boxer. Turns out he is my favorite mid-90's scrub basketball player for a reason.

http://www.lostpedia.com
If you are interested in Lost, and haven't been here, you should. DON"T GO IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE NEWEST EPISODES.

Gimmee back my onions

So, I picked up my Taco Bell tonight and brought it home to eat it. When I opened up my Nachos Supreme, I was very disappointed to find, still no green onions. Now, Taco Bell food, while delicious, never really looks that appealing to begin with, but the nacho dishes look even less so without the little splashes of mouth watering green onions (I was going to call them scallions, but I'm not even sure if that is the right word and am too lazy to wikipedia it). Well, I got all ready to complain about how its been long enough since those onions caused an e.coli outbreak; I mean, come on, they reopened Whitewater like a week after Walt Weiss' son got sick; but I decided to do a little research before I did. So, I find a questions and answers section from the FDA on the matter, and I find out that this happened almost a year a half ago; by far long enough for them to bring back the onions. Then, lo and behold, I get down a little further and what do I find....

Does FDA know what caused the E. coli O157:H7 infections linked to some Taco Bell Restaurants in several Northeastern states?

Shredded Iceberg lettuce has been implicated in the current E. coli O157:H7 outbreak....

WHAT? "I thought it was the onions(or scallions, maybe)"-You might say, stunned.

Are onions and green onions safe?

Early reports that green onions were implicated in this outbreak were inaccurate. There is no indication that any type of onions, including green onions, are unsafe or are connected in any way with this outbreak

Wow, so all this time I thought I couldn't have my onions because of e.coli, but it turns out it is just because Taco Bell doesn't want to fess up to the fact that it was the lettuce. I mean, I guess if they had to get rid of lettuce at the Bell, their Tacos would be 3/4 empty. Anyway, I'm furious. So write an e-mail, sign a petition, call your congressman, or whatever; lets just get these onions back.

The Grocery Store

Every time I go to the grocery store I lose a little more faith in humanity. What is wrong with people. Do people not realize what idiots they are? I have a solution though. From now on, people should have to wear signs on their back when they get near the checkout line. You know, something like, "I'm going to pay with a check", or "I'm going to request paper bags for my 4000 pounds of groceries". How about "I'm going to use my food stamp card for part of my groceries, but my Discover Card for my Alcohol, and then argue with the cashier over whether or not EBT covers Slim-Fast", "Either I can't count or I'm a complete A-hole so I have 23 items in the 10 items or less line", or my personal favorite "I not only live in 2008 and probably have a job that forces me to use a computer and I chose to use the self checkout line, yet somehow I am really going to struggle with scanning my own groceries, so you probably don't want to get behind me in line". I think I might stop shopping until I can buy all my groceries on-line.

The Power of Sports*

*disclaimer-I've been thinking about getting back in the blogging business for a while, and this isn't going to be a sports blog, but since sports are a big part of my life, obviously a large number of post will be sports related. If you don't like it, you can geeeeeeet out.

I knew I needed to be asleep. It was midnight, I was leaving for Vegas the next day, and I hadn't slept enough that week already. If Lost hadn't come on that night, I probably would have already been asleep anyway.
I had given up on Georgia basketball this year sometime around the middle of December, you know after two of our best three players got kicked off the team. I was done with Georgia basketball until they changed; got at least a little competitive or at least got a new coach. Dennis Felton just wasn't working. By all accounts he is a pretty good guy, but I though his way just wasn't going to work at a big-time SEC school like UGA. Besides, UGA had handed me all the basketball heartbreak I could stand over the years. I decided to watch anyway. I figured I owed it to Sundiata and Dave Bliss, the only two pieces left of what once looked like the renaissance of Georgia Basketball. I even had it all planned out, the blog post I was going to write on my new blog about all the reasons Felton needed to be fired. I had it all planned out to talk about how low the program had been and how it looked like we might be ready to come back a little bit, but then all of a sudden the bottom fell out. A funny thing happened though; sports.
I went to bed excited about Dave Bliss' bank shot game winner. Then the tornado happened. Then three of my favorite UGA basketball games ever, which I got to watch in the sports book a The Mirage happened. (By the way, the sports book in a Vegas casino is hands down the most underrated part of the Vegas experience; Tons of huge screens with sports, the ability to put down a sports bet in a second, tons of comfy leather chairs, all the free drinks you can drink, plus chariot racing. Plus any place where you can put down a bet on the New Orleans Voodoo is my kind of place). Anyway Sundiata led the Bulldogs to the tournament, a little national fame, and a chance for me to get a 2008 Georgia SEC Basketball Champions Shirt. See, thats the funny thing about sports, you never know. Maybe Felton isn't the right coach for UGA in the long haul, but he and Sundiata and Dave Bliss and Terrance Woodbury and even assistant coach Jay Macauly were perfect for a few days in March. And that is why I love sports.