Has anyone else noticed that the Dodge Caliber commercial involving a fairy — a literal fairy, a winged female creature with a magic wand — has mysteriously changed? The line “silly little fairy” has been removed from the ad. Presumably this was in response to pressure from gay-rights groups. Timothy Kincaid was not amused by the ad, and Bob Garfield called it “hate speech in disguise.” But Cicero’s Son at the conservative site Free Republic says, “Without that line, the ad is pretty incoherent and pointless.”

Personally, I think the commercial is stupid, with or without the line.

(According to Free Republic, the “altered” version was appearing as long ago as May 1. But I can personally testify that the unedited, “silly little fairy” version was still appearing — at least on OLN — as recently as a few days ago.)

At last, the game that foul-mouthed fans and t-shirt hawkers have been waiting for: USC vs. USC, the Southern California Trojans against the South Carolina Gamecocks! It’ll be the Trojans’ home basketball opener next fall, the first game at the new Galen Center.

Can the Trojans cover the Cocks? What about the Cocks’ dribble penetration? Oh, this is going to be fun. :)

Check out the Flash graphic of Barry Bonds on CNNSI’s homepage right now. Heh.

CORRECTION: It’s an animated GIF, not Flash. If SI removes it, you can see it here.

The biggest game of the Buffalo Sabres’ season is about to begin. After a disheartening 4-0 home loss on Friday, the injury-plagued Sabres are in Raleigh with the series tied 2-2, needing to win two of the next three to reach the Stanley Cup finals. That means they’ll need to win at least one more game on the road, since tonight’s game and Game 7 (if necessary) are on the Hurricanes’ home ice. Tonight would be an excellent time to notch that needed road win. Lose, and they’ll trail a series for the first time all postseason long, and will head back to Buffalo with their backs against the wall.

There has been much talk about the Sabres’ injury problems on the defensive end. Three starters have been injured during the playoffs. After Henrik Tallinder went down in Game 3, Mark on Bfloblog wrote: “The Sabres have been able to overcome injuries all season but this injury might be too much to overcome. Tallinder has been one of the league’s top defensemen during the playoffs. It is hard to imagine any team advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals without three of their six starting defensemen.”

On the other hand, defense isn’t everything. After the 4-0 disaster in Game 4, Bfloblog’s Kevin wrote: “Did anyone notice that the Sabres were shut out last night? I don’t mean to oversimplify things here, but generally speaking you need to score at least one goal to win a hockey game. … So while having three AHL defensemen out there certainly contributed to the Sabres loss last night, I find it difficult to say it was as big a factor as many would like to make it out to be.”

Clearly, the Sabres’ offense and defense will need to better tonight. One piece of good news: Teppo Numminen, one of the three injured defensive starters, is returning to the ice. [UPDATE: Or not.] Hopefully that’ll help, and hopefully the forwards will remember that when you have a power play, shooting the puck is generally a good thing. Rarely do you score goals by passing the puck around for 90 seconds.

Anyway, the game is about to begin. GO SABRES!!!

UPDATE: You know you’re at a hockey game in North Carolina when there’s a guy in the front row are wearing not a Hurricanes shirt, but a Tar Heels shirt. Heh.

UPDATE 2: Live play-by-play here.

SI has ranked the Bush Push as the #1 greatest play of all-time in college football. (Hat tip: Mad Max.)

As much as I love the glorification of the October 15, 2005 Irish-Trojan game, I have a serious problem with this decision, because the Bush Push was neither the greatest play nor the greatest moment of that game, let alone of all-time.

The greatest play of the game, bar none, was Matt Leinart’s 4th-and-9 completion to Dwayne Jarrett, a truly perfect pass — beating perfect coverage — which rescued USC from certain doom (pretty much everyone in that stadium, myself included, thought it was over) and ultimately made the Bush Push possible.

The greatest moment of the game — and the closest analogue to the Cal-Stanford play (which, c’mon, really should be ranked #1 regardless) — was the chaos portrayed in this video clip, after Leinart fumbled the ball out-of-bounds at the 1 yard line, the clock prematurely ran out, the crowd rushed the field honestly believing Notre Dame had won one of the biggest victories in its storied history (”We won for 10 seconds, and no one can ever take that feeling away from me. It was the best 10 seconds of my life, and even though it set me up for a terrible letdown, it was amazing.” –Kelly Green), then the crowd rushed off the field almost as quickly when the public-address announcer told them Notre Dame could be penalized if they stayed. (I swear, if he had said, “The National Guard will descend on the field and shoot you on sight,” no one would have moved. But “Notre Dame will be penalized”? POOF! They were gone like that.) The 4th-and-9 play that preceded it, and the Bush Push that followed it, are both big parts of the reason that moment was so historic, amazing, and downright “great” — the storied rivalry, the incredible pre-game hype, and the pins-and-needles competitiveness of the entire game are also big parts of it — but to single out the Bush Push as the single greatest play/moment of that game (and of all-time) totally misses the point. After the whole crowd-rushing/Bush-pushing sequence of events was over, I said to Becky, “You do realize, we just witnessed one of the most amazing moments in college-football history, right?” And I stand by that.

Absent the surrounding context, the Bush Push was a relatively ordinary play. But both the 4th-and-9 pass and the premature field-rushing were truly amazing plays/moments whose greatness is only enhanced, rather than basically created, by the context in which they occurred.

Barry Bonds hits homer No. 715, passing Babe Ruth for second place on the all-time home run list. Visit CNN for the latest.

It’s not too unusual for Christopher Shays, the Republican congressman from the ritzy 4th District of deep-blue Connecticut, to be at odds with the GOP leadership. But it’s rarely because his position is more conservative than theirs. On illegal immigration, however, Shays is speaking out against President Bush’s proposed “path to citizenship”:

Shays, one of the few vulnerable House Republicans open to a broad compromise with the Senate, said strong protests from his constituents this month prompted him to speak out for the first time against citizenship for undocumented workers. “It would be a huge mistake to give people a path to citizenship that came here illegally,” he said.

Shays isn’t alone. According to the Washington Post, nearly every vulnerable Republican in the House — regardless of geography, demography and ideology — is taking a hard-line stance on immigration because of constituent pressure. This remarkable trend would seem to indicate a rather broad-based grassroots movement opposed to concessions on illegal immigration. (There aren’t too many Southern racist redneck hicks in Connecticut’s 4th District.) It also tends to make one wonder whether the representatives who support a Bushian compromise are really representing their constituents. If the only congresspeople who support a compromise are the ones in “safe” districs — i.e., the ones who have no fear of the voters — doesn’t that perhaps imply that maybe, just maybe, this is something the voters don’t want? Just asking!

Mind you, I’m not saying that I personally am opposed to a “path to citizenship,” or what Mickey Kaus calls “semi-amnesty.” (I’m not sure quite what I believe, but my gut feeling is that citizenship should be an option once the law-breakers have paid a sufficient penalty. What’s a “sufficient penalty”? I don’t know! As I said, my opinions on this issue are rather uncertain and murky. Although, I don’t think a speeding ticket is a terribly apt analogy.) However, regardless of what I personally feel, this apparent trend really makes me wonder. No matter what the biased-language MSM polls might tell us, if Chris Shays, of all people, is coming out against a “path to citizenship” because he feels he must do so in order to win re-election, that makes me think the political tide is NOT turning toward concession, compromise and semi-amnesty.

P.S. For excellent commentary on (among other things) the media’s blatant bias on the immigration issue, see Kaus’s blog.

P.P.S. As long as we’re on the topic of immigration… I had the misfortune of catching a portion of Fox News’s “Beltway Boys” the other day, and was treated to the sights and sounds of Fred Barnes bloviating about how illegal immigration is a crisis — a CRISIS!! — and voters are so exercised and outraged, this is the single biggest domestic issue of the last decade. To which I could only reply: Huh?!? Yes, the immigration issue is a big deal, but c’mon: if you asked the average voter what he/she cares about more, immigration or health care, what do you think the answer would be? Or for that matter, immigration vs. education? Or immigration vs. economic/pocketbook issues? And if we’re judging not by the “average voter,” but by the passion of the grassroots (on both sides), how about immigration vs. abortion? Or immigration vs. gay rights? Or immigration vs. church/state issues? Illegal immigration is a big deal and a big political issue, absolutely, but it’s hardly the single defining domestic political issue of our age, as Barnes seems to think.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had their baby on Saturday in Africa. It’s a girl, and her name is Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt. (They couldn’t have at least given her a “normal” middle name?)

X-Men: The Last Stand made $44 million on Friday, placing it second all-time behind Revenge of the Sith for all-time opening days, and third for any single day (behind Sith’s opening day and Shrek 2’s fourth day).

UPDATE: If you adjust for inflation, judging by the estimated number of tickets sold instead of the amount of money made, it’s still #2 behind Sith for opening days, 7,814,700 tickets to 6,890,600, but with Spider-Man (6,782,600) and Spider-Man 2 (6,512,500) close behind. It’s #4 on the all-time-any-day list, behind Sith’s opening day, Spider-Man’s second day (7,508,100) and Shrek 2’s fourth day (7,213,700).

P.S. Incidentally, I can tell you that one of those 6,890,600 tickets belonged to a toddler in a stroller whose parents inexplicably dragged him out to a 9:00 PM show at Harkins Arizona Mills last night, even though he looked to be about 2 years old and, as soon as Becky noticed him, she became incensed and said, “That kid is going to start crying during the movie.” Sure enough, the kid started crying loudly in the middle of a dramatic scene, and after several minutes, the usher mercifully forced the father to take him out of the theater. Now, leaving entirely aside the issues of bad parenting and total lack of consideration for everyone around you, even from a purely selfish perspective I don’t understand what the hell those parents were thinking. It was utterly and completely predictable that the kid would start crying during the movie — you can’t realistically expect a 2-year-old to remain quiet for 2 1/2 hours while surrounded by strange people and loud, scary noises when it’s already several hours past his bedtime — and thus it was utterly and completely predictable that one of the parents would have to leave the theater in the middle of the movie, either voluntarily or by order of the ushers (the latter only becoming necessary once the parents demonstrated a total failure to understand that they aren’t actually more important than the several hundred other paying customers in the theater whose moviegoing experience was being ruined by one toddler, or more accurately, by two imbicilic parents). The point is, it was apparent from the beginning that there was a much better than 50-50 chance that the parents would be unable to watch the movie in its entirety, given that they were attending it with their toddler at 9:00 PM. So, leaving aside that it’s grossly ridiculous for them to subject their kid to a scary, violent, PG-13-movie in the middle of the night, and also that it’s grossly ridiculous for them to subject the rest of the theater to their kid, what really baffles me is not their selfishness, but their stupidity. What exactly did they hope to accomplish? Did they really want to watch half a movie? I sympathize with the difficulties of being a parent, I really do, and I’m sure there was probably some distressing sob story behind the whole thing: they’re big X-Men fans, they’d been planning this for weeks, but then their babysitter backed out at the last minute, yada yada yada. Fine. That sucks. But at that point, you have to adjust your plans, because it was so painfully obvious that their unadjusted plan simply wasn’t going to work! Sheesh. Some people are so freakin’ dumb.

No, really. :} I mean it’s even in the journal “Science” (which hopefully is being somewhat more Selective ~ ? ~ than was the journal Nature recently; see Comment #13, hi Perfesser Mike, this latest one’s Outside of your Speciality but Feel Free anyway if the Muse moves you. :)

Of course at This stage the physicists are just sort of Schematicizing the requisite Technology but still, they seem to be making Great progress. :) Now as for the actual Warbird, I have no idea Who is getting the Contract. :) Hi, [redacted: classified :].

The AP’s operative simile, though cute, seems rather less Apt than the Above analogy (which is Scarcely original to Me btw :) ~

Imagine an invisibility cloak that works just like the one Harry Potter inherited from his father.

Researchers in England and the United States think they know how to do that. They are laying out the blueprint and calling for help in developing the exotic materials needed to build a cloak.

The keys are special manmade materials, unlike any in nature or the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. These materials are intended to steer light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation around an object, rendering it as invisible as something tucked into a hole in space.

“Is it science fiction? Well, it’s theory and that already is not science fiction. It’s theoretically possible to do all these Harry Potter things, but what’s standing in the way is our engineering capabilities,” said John Pendry, a physicist at the Imperial College London.

Details of the study, which Pendry co-wrote, appear in Thursday’s online edition of the journal Science.

Scientists not involved in the work said it presents a solid case for making invisibility an attainable goal.

(> “Solid”, indeed. :> Tricksily Translucent [circumnavigalucent? :] if yez ask me. ;> But just wait ’til They get around to the Transporter beam. I gotchyer Solid right Here, Mister Particlepants. / ~ the guestblogger :)

…A cloak made of those materials, with a structure designed down to the submicroscopic scale, would neither reflect light nor cast a shadow.

Instead, like a river streaming around a smooth boulder, light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation would strike the cloak and simply flow around it, continuing on as if it never bumped up against an obstacle. That would give an onlooker the apparent ability to peer right through the cloak, with everything tucked inside concealed from view.

…The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency supported the research, given the obvious military applications of such stealthy technology.

While Harry Potter could wear his cloak to skulk around Hogwarts, a real-world version probably would not be something just to be thrown on, Pendry said.

“To be realistic, it’s going to be fairly thick. Cloak is a misnomer. ‘Shield‘ might be more appropriate,” he said.

Shield! :> And here I’d have thought That would have to wait for Later. “Shields Up, Mister Sulu!”

Whole thing. Also again with the journal “Science” (internal links therein) but ya gotta Pay to go beyond their little Trailers.

And, of course: the AOL Poll :) ~ respondents evidently Missing the Point re the Harry Potter Inapplicability :) ~

Would you want invisibility cloaks to be real?

Only for me 46%
Yes 30%
No 24%

Total Votes: 43,041

Now, whatever could they Mean? ;}

Protects it against Criminalization, that is ~ not against prohibitive Policies and Licensing rules ~ when the student is legally Of Age to Consent.

[Note re constitutional consistency: why NOT also against such Lesser provisions? Isn’t state action, State Action? / Legalscholarly answer: “Listen, Earl Warren, we know we’re defending some just-Slightly-unpopular Predatory scumbags here, we can only go So far before getting Tarred & Feathered & Run out of town on a Rail.” :]

Hartford Courant:

A former high school teacher facing sexual assault charges says his arrest on suspicion of having sexual relations with a student violates a fundamental right guaranteed by both the state and federal constitutions.

Matthew Glasser, a former music teacher at Northwest Catholic High School, was arrested last year under a provision of the state’s criminal code that makes having sex with students a crime, even if the student has reached 16 - the age of consent.

But in a motion filed in Superior Court in Hartford, Glasser claims the statute infringes on his constitutional right to privacy, which, he argues, includes engaging in a sexual relationship with another consenting adult. Glasser was 29 when the relationship is alleged to have taken place; the girl was 16.

“We believe that the statute infringes on a fundamental right to sexual privacy and therefore does not hold up under constitutional scrutiny,” said Jeremy Donnelly, one of Glasser’s lawyers.

…Glasser - while not admitting he had sex with the student - contends that the statute is inconsistent with years of legal precedent upholding the constitutional right to privacy.

The brief, which has yet to be argued before a Superior Court judge, contends that privacy rights cannot be infringed upon unless there’s a “compelling state interest” in doing so. The brief goes on to say that the statute falls short of defining such an interest. A similar motion in the case of a New Haven teacher is pending before the state Supreme Court.

The legal challenge, Donnelly said, takes on only the criminalization of relationships between teachers and students, not school board policies or state licensing requirements that might prohibit such relationships. In Connecticut, public school teachers can lose their licenses over such relationships.

“There’s nothing wrong with a school board saying this kind of conduct is impermissible under their policy; it’s just the criminal aspect that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny,” he said.

…”I think it’s appalling. It’s sick,” said Terri Miller, president of Sesame, a national organization that works to prevent sex abuse by educators. “To make a claim like this shows you how sick this person is, that they think they have some kind of constitutional right to take advantage of children.”

Miller praised Connecticut for recognizing the difference between teachers and others who have authority over children, and other professions. Connecticut is one of more than two dozen states to criminalize sexual relations between teachers and students.

…In [the other] case, former New Haven high school teacher Van McKenzie-Adams is challenging his conviction on sexual assault charges after two former students complained that they had consensual sex with him on several occasions…

Richard Emanuel, McKenzie-Adams’ attorney, claims that the state’s sexual assault statute unfairly makes it illegal for teachers and other school officials to take part in sexual relationships that would be legal for people in other walks of life.

In particular, Emanuel notes in one legal brief, the statute prohibits teachers from having sex with students even if they are not in their class, or enrolled in the school where they teach. Emanuel notes that a teacher could be arrested under the statute even if the teacher meets the student outside of school, and is unaware that the student is a student.

Perhaps, Your Honor, that Latter argument might be Better adjudicated in a case wherein Those are actually the Facts? / ~ the guestprosecutor :}

Read the rest. Prediction: No Way is this defense gonna Fly. Even the Connecticut Supreme Court still reads the Election Returns. (Apologies to Finley Peter Dunne & Mr Dooley. :)

Again with the awful Indonesian earthquakes:

At least 1,325 people have been killed and thousands more injured by a strong earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Java, officials have said.

The quake, measuring 6.2, flattened buildings in a densely-populated area near the city of Yogyakarta on the southern coast of Java.

I fear the death toll will rise. In that part of the world, it always seems to.

Just got back from X3. WOOHOO!!! Oh, it had its flaws… some ham-handed dialogue, some loose ends in the plot and lackluster character development, some scenes where the necessary suspension of disbelief was a bit much… but very enjoyable, very cool, definitely worth the price of admission. Ian McKellen rocked, as always. And I especially liked the Dark Phoenix subplot — really more of a co-plot — and the portrayal, both visually and acting-wise, of Jean/Phoenix. (Mind you, I say this as a casual fan, not a “fanboy.” I have no idea what the comic-book geeks will think.)

At Rotten Tomatoes, it’s getting mixed reviews. Most critics seem to think it’s not as good as the first two. I’m initially inclined to agree, but I’ll withhold judgment on that point until I’ve seen it one more time — seems only fair, considering I’m seen the first two at least a half-dozen times each. :)

Anyway, if you go see it, be sure to stick around for the “bonus scene” at the end! (Hat tip: Andrew Hiller.)

It’s not looking good for the Sabres right now. With a win, Carolina would tie the series 2-2 and retake home-ice advantage.

UPDATE: Hurricanes win. The Sabres are now 0-3 in Game Fours in these playoffs. Here’s hoping they can prove their road mettle once again and improve to 3-0 in Game Fives, or else they’ll be in serious trouble.

Capitol Police say the apparent gunshots that sparked a Capitol shutdown were likely caused by workers using tools. Visit CNN for the latest.

UPDATE: Blame Saxton. :)