I refuse to provide any commentary because there is simply no reason to be partisan or ideological here; it is far more productive to analyze the Pew Research Center’s latest report on the political habits and nature of the American people from as many angles as one can derive.

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UPDATE: Actually, when I originally Googled for this post, I meant to link to this report on media consumption but got distracted by some older studies (the above one was from last year).

Israel plans to call up thousands more reservists after Cabinet approved expanding ground war in Lebanon, Reuters reports quoting Israel Radio. Visit CNN for the latest.

Actor Mel Gibson enters rehab following his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, his spokesman confirms. Visit CNN for the latest.

NOTE: Due to a technical glitch, this breaking-news alert did not actually appear on the blog until 10:29 PM on July 31. I have adjusted the timestamp to more accurately reflect when the alert was originally published.

Okay, I’m posting this on a lark, to see if there are any interested parties reading my blog who would be willing to trade Notre Dame football tickets with me. Please note, I’m not scalping anything. I’m just trying to find a mutually beneficial ticket trade, such that I end up going to the games I want, and you end up going to the games you want. This gets a little complicated, so bear with me.

WHAT I WANT:
* 2 guest student-section tickets to either Penn State or Michigan. This means you would need to be a Notre Dame student, and would need to be willing to wait in line some September weekday morning to exchange and “upgrade” your student ticket to a non-student guest ticket which would allow my non-student friends legal admission to the student section. Don’t worry, they’ll be rooting for the Irish. :)
* 4 non-student-section tickets, together, to either Purdue, Army or North Carolina. That one’s pretty self-explanatory, I think. I want to attend a game with my parents, but not in the student section. I don’t really care where in the stadium, so long as it’s not, like, the visiting team’s section.

WHAT I HAVE TO TRADE:
* 2 guest student-section tickets to Stanford. Becky and I will be out of town that week, and I am perfectly willing to wait in line and exchange our tickets so that you can use them, give them to friends, etc.
* 2 guest student-section tickets to whichever game I get 4 non-student-section tickets to (Purdue, Army or North Carolina). Since Becky and I will be sitting with my parents in non-student seating, we won’t need our student tickets to this game, so again, I’m perfectly willing to wait in line and exchange them so that you can use them.
* Some combination of the following, totalling 4 tickets: up to 4 Georgia Tech tickets together; or up to 2 Army tickets together; or up to 2 North Carolina tickets together. I realize that sounds complicated, but see, I’m in the process of working out another ticket trade, so depending on what you need, I can adjust that trade accordingly. Incidentally, the Georgia Tech game is in Atlanta; all the other games I mentioned are in South Bend.

I realize that nobody, except married students like me, actually has two student-section tickets to trade. That’s fine — I’ll trade for just one, provided I can find someone else who’s also willing to trade away their one ticket to the same game.

I also realize, of course, that people don’t physically have their tickets in hand yet. I certainly don’t have mine. But I’ll be buying season tickets next month, and so will you. We’re talking about trading for the right to ultimately claim the tickets in question.

Anyway… any takers? People potentially interested? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Please e-mail me at bloy [at] nd.edu if so.

Feel free to e-mail me with conditional offers, e.g., “If the game you attend with your parents is Purdue, rather than Army or North Carolina, then I’d be interested in trading my Michigan student ticket for your Purdue student ticket… but I don’t have any interest in an Army or North Carolina student ticket.” Or whatever the case may be. Tell me where you’re at and what you’re willing to trade, and I’ll try to make it all work out somehow.

This post previously contained information regarding an accusation of alleged misconduct that has been made against a particular Notre Dame basketball player.

I continue to feel completely confident in the well-sourced and verified information that was presented here. However, I have recently discovered that a Google search for the first and last name of the player in question brings people to this page. That makes me uncomfortable, because although I was extremely clear that all I know is that an accusation has been made and an investigation is underway, and I have no idea whether the accusation is actually true (just that it has been made), I’m afraid that people who were otherwise totally unaware of this situation are now going to find my post and jump to conclusions about the character of the player in question. That was never my intention. I do not want to contribute to the character assassination of a man who is innocent until proven guilty. I simply wanted to clarify, for my own readers and for people who were already aware of this story from the message boards and elsewhere, what is sourced fact vs. what is mere unsourced rumor. I acknowledged all along that there was a delicate balance between setting the record straight and contributing to a firestorm of spreading unproven accusations, and now I have concluded that the scales are tipping in the latter direction.

To be clear: I am not retracting my original story. All the information contained therein remains accurate to the best of my knowledge, and I continue to believe that I was fully justified, both legally and journalistically, in pubilshing it when I did. I am simply removing the post now because of new concerns about propriety — not accuracy or ethics, but simple propriety — that have arisen in my mind.

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A comment by David on the Middle East crisis reminded me, as so many things do, of a quote from The Lord of the Rings. So, after leaving a reply comment, I got out my copy of the Extended Edition of The Return of the King and watched the scene in question — and I found it surprisingly applicable to the current situation. Just imagine either an Israeli or a Lebanese official in King Theoden’s place, and replace his list of Saruman’s atrocities with either Hezbollah’s terrorist atrocities or Israel’s perceived atrocities, and I think this video clip represents pretty well how both sides, rightly or wrongly, feel at this point:

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The same goes doubly for the Israelis and Palestinians. And alas, that’s why I fear we probably won’t have true peace in the Middle East anytime soon… unless, heaven forbid, it’s brought about by the Derbyshire method.

P.S. Bernard Hill rocks.

P.P.S. But, that scene was even better in the book. :)

Is the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict “a futile little war“? Gregory Djerejian at The Belgravia Dispatch thinks so, and hey, maybe he’s right. Just because I feel strongly that Israel’s reaction is a legitimate and justifiable act of self-defense — and that tragic civilian casualties proximately caused by terrorist human-shield tactics is the terrorists’ fault, not Israel’s — doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to consider the possibility that what the Israelis are doing might, although justified, ultimately prove to be ineffective or even counterproductive. In fact, as I wrote here, I think the whole situation is probably just doomed to get worse and worse, and at best, Israel’s assault on Hezbollah, while unlikely to succeed, is slightly less unlikely to succeed than the even worse alternative of doing nothing. Anyway… the article is interesting and worth reading. Thanks to Aaron for pointing me (again) in Djerejian’s direction.