CNN commentator says something like, “Supporters of Terri Schiavo’s parents took their case to the steps of the Supreme Court today.” An image of the Supreme Court building appears on the screen, complete with various protesters milling about. Clearly visible in the distance is a sign — the only legible sign in the picture — that says, “Don’t take away my TiVo!”

Heh.

Think America has an unhealthy attitude towards professional sports? Ha! We don’t even come close!

After a last-minute goal by the Togo national team, supporters of the Mali team, the country in which the game was being played, stormed the field to start yet another soccer riot. Oh, but this was no ordinary riot, oh no. It spilled into the city, where rioters robbed passers-by, lit tire fires, blocked the main avenue of the city, cutting off the east side from the west, and burned down the building that housed the local Olympic committee.

Oh, but it gets better. The government of Mali, including the Prime Minister, is blaming the soccer team for all of it because they lost the match.

Like I said, messed up.

According to a new study, 72 percent of American college professors are self-described liberals, compared with just 15 percent who are self-described conservatives. That’s almost five left-wingers for every right-winger.

In response to these damning (if not startling) numbers, Jonathan Knight, director of academic freedom and tenure for the American Association of University Professors, attempts (rather implausibly) to argue that it doesn’t matter. Knight says he is unaware of “any good evidence” that professors’ political views are affecting campus policies. “It’s hard to see that these liberal views cut very deeply into the education of students,” he opines.

Funny — if faced with a disparity this drastic in the area of race or gender, methinks most PC-conscious liberals and academicians would argue that the numbers speak for themselves, and that some form of affirmative action is obviously necessary to correct the situation. Indeed, I suspect they’d be outraged by anyone saying, “It’s hard to see that the overwhelming whiteness/maleness of the professoriate cuts very deeply into the education of students.” They’d probably think to themselves, “What a ridiculous thing to say! Anyone who says that must be a closet racist/sexist!!” After all, the value of “diversity” is a self-evident truth, right?

But alas, it seems that doesn’t apply to ideological diversity. In the eyes of the liberal/academic establishment, diversity of skin color and of genitalia are somehow more important than diversity of ideas. Go figure.

The AP reports:

Tsunami experts could not understand why Monday’s forceful earthquake off Indonesia failed to produce massive waves similar to those generated by the Dec. 26 quake that killed at least 175,000 people in the same region. …

“I’m baffled an earthquake this size didn’t trigger a tsunami near the epicenter,” said Robert Cessaro, a geophysicist at the [Pacific Tsunami Warning Center].

I don’t usually seek out religious explanations for scientific mysteries… but maybe God decided the region had suffered enough.

I, ahem, missed Contracts this morning, but the following was reportedly said by Professor Kaveny after she announced a change to the syllabus:

“You should tell Brendan to put it on his website…”
[polite laughter]
“…if you can wake him up.”
[way more laughter]

Then, probably referring to this post, she added something along the lines of, “That’s the problem with having a blog. People read it.”

Heh.

Todd Stigliano could clinch his second Living Room Times women’s pool championship tomorrow — or he could be mathematically eliminated.

Stigliano, the 2001 women’s pool champion, will clinch victory in the 2005 pool if #1 Michigan State beats #2 Stanford and #3 Rutgers upsets #1 Tennessee in tomorrow’s regional finals. But if the exact opposite happens — if MSU and Rutgers both lose — Stigliano would be eliminated from contention to win the pool. (If either Michigan State or Rutgers win, but not both, Stigliano would remain alive to win the pool but would not clinch it.)

Matt Thomsen, Danny Pilz, Andrew Long, Arash Markazi, Chris Pearsall and Paul Zak are the other six contestants who still have a chance to win. Thomsen, like Stigliano, is a member of the long-dominant Newington High School Class of 1999 and a past pool champion (men’s pool, 2000); Pilz, a sophomore at NHS, is one of the defending co-champions from last year’s women’s pool; Long is a 2002 graduate of USC; Markazi is a 2004 Trojan alum and a writer for Sports Illustrated; Pearsall is a Notre Dame 1L; and Zak is a University of Florida alum and cousin of Becky Zak.

Here are the elimination scenarios for tomorrow’s games:

If Michigan State and Tennessee win: Stigliano, Pearsall, Zak still alive
If Michigan State and Rutgers win: Stigliano clinches pool
If Stanford and Tennessee win: Markazi, Long, Pilz, Thomsen still alive
If Stanford and Rutgers win: Stigliano, Thomsen still alive

(more…)

Though it fell late in the month of April in 1916, still by the Pope’s liturgical calendar (naturally enough :) today has marked the 89th Anniversary of the Easter Monday Rising in Dublin ~ a locally-unpopular & militarily-hopeless expedition, whose prompt Squashing by the forces of the Crown opened up, in characteristic Irish paradox, the path to national Independence (well - of three-quarters-of-A-Nation-Once-Again, anyway ;) for what would become the Poblacht na hEireann.

If you like, here’s more in both song (speakers On, lassies & boyoes :) and poem.

This is just wrong.

Good news for Todd Stigliano and Matt Thomsen, bad news for Dan Dinunzio, Alex Ho, Rick Boeckler, Larry Caplin, Mike Wiser, Jackie Wilson and Mike Tran: Baylor is absolutely destroying North Carolina, leading by 19 points with 10 minutes to go.

UPDATE: Baylor wins, 72-63. So Stigliano and Thomsen stay on course for a new points record, and the 7 above-listed pool contestants are mathematically eliminated, leaving 13 still alive. That’ll be down to either 11 or 7 in a few hours. Updated Duke-LSU elimination scenarios after the jump; updated standings here and after the jump.

(more…)

A 23-year-old Phoenix resident was arrested in Hartford, Michigan, a town roughly 50 miles north of South Bend, for smuggling 13 undocumented Mexican immigrants, apparently traveling from Nogales to New York via Michiana.

Just as I feared, it appears the death toll in this morning’s Sumatra earthquake is going to rise rapidly. Authorities are now saying that hundreds of people may have been killed in collapsed buildings. One official is predicting up to 2,000 deaths.

As for the resulting tsunami, it was a 10-centimeter high mid-ocean wave that hit the Cocos Islands (between Sumatra and Australia) and a 40-centimeter tsunami washing ashore on the Australian coast. The December 26 tsunami was five times higher at the Cocos and Australia, and of course, much higher elsewhere. So the Indian Ocean definitely dodged a bullet this time.

4,558 hits today, and counting. Thanks, Glenn!

If either Todd Stigliano or Matt Thomsen correctly predicts all seven of the remaining games in the NCAA women’s tournament, he would break the record for most points in the ten-year history of Living Room Times men’s and women’s pools.

Rick Boeckler set the record with 421 points in the 2003 women’s pool. A perfect bracket from here on out would give Stigliano 428 points, Thomsen 426.

(more…)

The women’s Elite Eight begins tonight with #1 North Carolina vs. #2 Baylor at 7:00 PM, and continues at 9:00 PM with #1 LSU vs. #2 Duke. (Both games are on ESPN.) Here’s a look at tonight’s scenarios in the eighth annual Living Room Times women’s pool. What will it take for each contestant to stave off mathematical elimination?

(more…)