George W. Bush is the devil? No, Hillary Clinton is the devil! Worse than the devil, actually.

On the bright side, at least Jerry Falwell isn’t the president of a country.

odds are good

As those who pay attention to the countdown thingy at left are already aware, Shannon’s baby is due tomorrow! When I texted her a few minutes ago to ask if Logan has been born yet, she wrote back, “Not yet! God I wish!” She said that if she hasn’t gone into labor by tomorrow, the doctors will set a date to induce. (She also said it was OK for me to blog all this.)

It’s mildly surprising that Logan hasn’t been born yet, considering Shannon was already having Braxton Hicks contractions back in August when we visited her (and when the above picture was taken). But then again, as Shannon’s mom said, it would have been a cosmic oddity if the baby was born early, considering Shannon is always late for everything. Hehe.

Anyway, stay tuned!

A leaked classified government report produced by the National Intelligence Council and is based on a consensus view of 16 government intelligence agencies concludes that the Iraq War has actually made the global terror situation worse.

At the same time former President Clinton has been fighting back against critics of his administrations handling of terrorism and bin Ladin specifically, and a group of retired military officers is being highly critical of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s handling of the war.

It's one of those transcendently beautiful fall days at Notre Dame, with the bluest sky you can imagine and a whiff of autumn in the crisp air that follows a rainstorm. I guess Mother Nature is
celebrating the Irish's big win over Michigan State, too. :)

Heh: “U.S. military sources report that Osama Bin Laden has been killed. Bin Laden apparently died after eating E.coli tainted spinach that had been given to him as part of a cunning assassination plot spearheaded by the CIA.”

(Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

In a related story, Popeye the Sailor Man is reportedly in critical condition.

On a more serious note, Saudi Arabia says there is no evidence Bin Laden is dead, and there is some speculation that the leaked reports of his death may be an attempt to flush him out:

A leaked intelligence report of Osama bin Laden’s death has met scepticism from Western and Muslim governments but may increase a clamor from his followers to show himself on video for the first time in nearly two years.

One theory surrounding the mysterious French leak is that it was designed precisely to flush the al Qaeda leader into the open, prompting him to release a new tape that might give a clue to his whereabouts and state of health.

“Western intelligence, the Americans, the Saudis want bin Laden to appear,” said Diaa Rashwan, an expert on Islamist groups at the al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.

“Perhaps they’re trying to agitate him to appear by video to try to fix some information about his real (location).”

Just in time for my planned trip to Connecticut during Fall Break next month, the TSA is finally making long-overdue common-sense security changes:

A Homeland Security Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made, said that most liquids and gels that air travelers purchase in secure areas of airports will now be allowed on planes.

That means that after passengers go through airport security checkpoints, they can purchase liquids at airport stores and take them onto their planes, said the official. Announcement of the new rules was being made at an 11 a.m. EDT news conference at Reagan National Airport.

Woohoo! Finally!

You can take my shoes, but you can never take my bottled water! Well, actually, you can. But I’d prefer you not.

Fellow weatherblogger Margie Kieper has posted the final installment in her excellent series on the devastation all along the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coastlines from Hurricane Katrina’s massive storm surge. While the manmade disaster in New Orleans has gotten the lion’s share of the media attention, the “invisible coastline” is still picking up the pieces after a calamity that was “on the order of a 500-year storm,” surge-wise, according to a new study.

Speaking of Katrina… tonight on Monday Night Football — in a rare event combining two of this blog’s favorite topics (hurricanes and football) and raising the question, “Brendan, why didn’t you apply for a press pass to this game? If Al Jazeera can get one, surely the Irish Trojan could too!” — Reggie Bush and the New Orleans Saints host the Atlanta Falcons in the first game at the Superdome since the hurricane. The Saints are 2-0, although their wins have come against “the Browns and Packers, the Rice and Temple of the NFL.” The Falcons are also 2-0. The game is on ESPN at 8:30 PM.

Hot on the heels of the first Eragon trailer, 20th Century Fox has released an “international” version of the trailer that inspires CanMag to say: “This trailer looks so much better than the feature trailer from Fox I can’t believe that it wasn’t this one that they decided to premiere.” You can watch it here.

Arya sends Saphira’s egg to safety…

…and Eragon finds it.

Margie Kieper was blogging about hurricanes, and a round of adorable Saturday catblogging broke out.

UPDATE: Southern Girl offers Sunday catblogging.

When yesterday’s college-football action kicked off, there were 29 undefeated teams in Division I-A. By the end of the day, 19 still stood. Knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten: Alabama, Arizona State, Boston College, Kansas State, Michigan State, Navy, Oklahoma State, South Florida, Wisconsin and — oh, the joy it brings me to say this — UCLA. :)

Whereas there were three games yesterday between a pair undefeated teams, meaning someone was guaranteed to lose their first game (er, barring a tie, I suppose), next week’s action features just one battle of unbeatens: #1 Ohio State at #14 Iowa. But there are quite a few other games which also pit undefeated teams against quality opponents on the road. At least two undefeateds will be considered underdogs: 4-0 Purdue at 3-1 Notre Dame and 4-0 Houston at 1-2 Miami. Rutgers, ranked for the first time in 30 years, will take its newfound credibility on the road against 3-1 South Florida, which stunned Louisville last year. #2 Auburn travels to South Carolina; #3 USC travels to Wazzu. Michigan must win at Minnesota to finally make it through September undefeated for the first time this millennium. Oregon travels to ASU, which will be looking to bounce back from an awful loss to Cal. Boise State heads to Utah for a big intraconference mid-major showdown. And a few teams face tough tests at home: Virginia Tech hosts Georgia Tech, Texas A&M hosts Texas Tech and Florida hosts Alabama.

On paper, we should see just three or four unbeatens lose, but I wouldn’t be surprised if six or more take a tumble. There are definitely some potential “upset specials” on next week’s slate. Full details after the jump.

(more…)

When I got to campus last night (er, very early this morning), the reportedly wild postgame celebration was mostly over (or had moved inside, to the dorms/bars). But the Dome itself appeared to be celebrating. The fog overhead and the lights illuminating the Dome made it look like there was a “V” for Victory right above Mary:

Pretty cool.

Last night’s game reminded me of nothing so much as the UCLA-Gonzaga basketball game in the Sweet 16, except that this time, my team was on the winning end of the impossible comeback. Just like in the final minutes of that heartbreaking Zag loss, everything happened so fast in last night’s closing minutes that it was almost impossible to comprehend: one moment, the Irish were headed to certain defeat, and the next, they had won. Won! It all went down in a flash, leaving fans simply flabbergasted, mouths gaping wide open, wondering what the hell had just happened. I think I know roughly what it felt like to be a Spartans fan last night, because it’s how I felt as a Gonzaga fan back in March.

Also, like the Bruins did against the Zags, the Irish deserve credit for playing just well enough and hanging around just long enough that they were able to take advantage of the Spartans’ incredible choke-job — but that’s about it. The fact remains that the Spartans lost that game more than the Irish won it. I hate to say that, but it’s the truth.

That said, just because one acknowledges that Notre Dame didn’t play well enough to win last night — and that, taken together with the previous week’s game against Michigan, the inexorable conclusion is that this team most certainly does not appear to be championship-caliber — doesn’t mean one can’t simultaneously hold the following, seemingly-contradictory-but-not-really thought in one’s head: Notre Dame will probably arrive in L.A. on November 25 as a national-championship contender. This point was debated idiotically on ESPN last night, with Lou Holtz basically taking the position that clearly, the Irish are probably Glendale-bound, and Mark May taking the position that Lou is full of crap and the Irish have no chance whatsoever of climbing back into the title discussion. Thing is, they’re both obviously wrong. Even if Notre Dame is precisely as bad as Mark May thinks they are, he’s an utter hack if he can’t see through his low opinion of them to recognize that what I wrote last week is still true, and now a week closer to fruition:

In all reality, Notre Dame should win its next [seven] games with relative ease, and arrive in L.A. riding the wave of four consecutive blowouts against Navy, North Carolina, Air Force and Army. The “return to gloryâ€? talk will have started up again, the Irish will be in the Top 5 again, and the dreams of a national championship will be very much alive when Charlie’s boys show up at the Poodle’s house. … All the pundits and fans will believe in the Irish again, having been re-convinced of Charlie Weis’s brilliance by eight consecutive victories, most of them blowouts, albeit over weak-to-mediocre opponents. The “swaggerâ€? will be back. The hype will be at a fever pitch. The Michigan game will be all but forgotten.

Rakes of Mallow says next week’s showdown with Purdue — Notre Dame’s fifth straight undefeated opponent — looms as a possible “trap game.” I agree. UCLA could be a mildly tough out, too. But both games are at home, and certainly, the Irish should win them; they just need to show up and play, say, their B+ game. The other five pre-USC opponents should be pushovers; the Stanford game, in particular, will most likely be a blowout of epic proportions. The same probably goes for North Carolina. I expect that at least one of the service academies will give us a good game into the late third or early fourth quarter (Air Force almost beat Tennessee, recall, and Army almost beat Texas A&M… and Navy has a tendency to play Notre Dame surprisingly tough sometimes), but ultimately those should be three fairly easy W’s.

When Nov. 25 dawns, there will be at least one title-game spot still potentially open for a one-loss team (either Ohio State or Michigan may have finished their season undefeated by that point, but any other unbeaten teams will still have games left), and there is simply no way a 10-1 Irish team won’t be in the national championship discussion. Notre Dame is still Notre Dame.

But the reason Holtz is wrong in getting all optimistic about Notre Dame being Glendale-bound is because there are three very big letters standing in the Irish’s way: U, S and C. :) Notre Dame may be an overwhelming favorite to arrive in Los Angeles with a 10-1 record, but they’re an overwhelming underdog to leave with anything other than a 10-2 record. And rightfully so. I’m sorry, but I simply cannot believe that a Notre Dame team which got utterly destroyed at home by Michigan, and which played the way it did yesterday against Michigan State until the final few minutes, has any chance of beating the Trojans. Fact is, USC is good… very good. They’re not anywhere near their potential yet, and they’re already beating decent teams by large margins. The only way I can see Notre Dame beating them is if the Irish bring their A game and the Trojans bring their C game. And there’s no way Pete’s boys are bringing anything other than their A game to the Coliseum in November.

My prediction: Notre Dame will start November 25 as a national-championship contender. They will not finish it that way. The only real question is whether they’ll get beaten so badly that they’re knocked out of the BCS picture entirely (like in 2002).

Anyway, here are some reactions from around the Domersphere to last night’s crazy, crazy win:

The House Rock Built: “I am so cold and wet and probably have pneumonia and just got home at 5:30AM and I’m cold and freezing and wet but happy, so happy, oh so happy. What ridiculously idiotically stupidly heart-breakingly moronically crappy depressingly insanely phenomenally irritatingly outstanding and awesome and terrific game. Hallelujah, holy s**t. Rack me.”

Her Loyal Sons: “When all hope for ND was lost, that’s when that b*tch, Karma, snapped up and bit Sparty in the ass. Revenge truly is a dish best served cold.”

Rakes of Mallow: “There is no such thing as luck, only opportunity meeting preparation. That being said, we were really freaking lucky, and I’m taking it.” Also: “Jeff Samardjiza, welcome back. Rhema McKnight, not too shabby. John Carlson, I’m pretty sure I love you.” And: “I think we just have to realize that Brady Quinn is not an elite, all-world quarterback. He’s a really good quarterback who upon getting into a rhythm can do some amazing things. I’m happy to have him running the team, but I just hope NFL scouts don’t confuse him with some surefire prospect come April. Proud of the guy for hanging in there and making some big-time throws, although his receivers did a lot of the damage.” And finally, as alluded to earlier: “If you wanted to paint a picture of a trap game, it would look exactly like Purdue next weekend. We better come out with more fire than we’ve had so far this season. The final game of a brutal September will be key to any sort of BCS hope.”

Classic Ground: “A quick note from my doctor to Coach Weis: ‘Dear Coach Weis — please do not let your football team fall behind by so many points again this year. Paul’s blood pressure, heart, and emotional stability seem to be suffering from all the stress. Thank you. Sincerely, Dr. –.’”

Charles Rich: “The funniest and painfully honest moment in the game was when Kirk Herbstreit just said what everyone in the Big 11 seems to have known forever — I’m going from memory, so if anyone Tivo’d this, feel free to correct me — ‘This is what Michigan State does. It’s why you never felt a game was out of reach against them.’ A harsher assessment of a program and its history may never be uttered by a national commenter. He essentially called the MSU program a historical choke.”

Brian Cook: “You have no idea the rage that possessed me when my laptop battery shut down in the dying minutes of the Michigan State-Notre Dame game, as it robbed me of an opportunity to describe… that. Whatever the hell it was. I don’t know. Do you? A Drew Stanton pass thrown to absolutely no one. Missed extra points. Blown coverages. Another interception that pinballed off three players before finally coming to rest on top of a Michigan State wide receiver’s posterior. All in a vicious rainstorm. It was a game only Michigan State could lose and only Notre Dame could win, over about six different times but for the vast Spartan incompetence that gave the Irish a window they exploited.”

Since Notre Dame clearly didn’t play well enough to beat Michigan State yesterday, I offer the following explanations for the Irish’s impossible comeback:

• The rainbow

• Karma, b*tches

• Mascot superiority
>

• John L. Smith is a crazy mo-fo

• The rain scrambled the Robot Genius’s circuits… and made him INVINCIBLE!!!

• The curse of Becky
This is, by far, the most important one. Becky has some sort of a flu bug, so she was feeling like crap yesterday and, uncharacteristically for someone who really likes college football, she went to bed during the fourth quarter when USC’s win was still slightly in doubt — and Notre Dame’s impending loss seemed certain. The Irish were down by 10, well into the fourth quarter. But then, just minutes after she went to bed, Chinedum Ndukwe (Becky’s favorite Irish player) recovered a Spartan fumble, and the comeback was on. She was sound asleep by the time Notre Dame completed the miracle. So I think it’s now official: Becky is a curse.

P.S. Becky elaborates here:

The flu saved Notre Dame from the curse of Becky last night. If I was joking before, I think that I’m a believer. I curse ND.

You see, last night, I was feeling seriously under the weather and since I was falling asleep on the couch, I figured it wasn’t worth my time to stay up late to watch ND get its ass kicked by MSU. USC was up 10 points on UA, so I wasn’t concerned about the outcome of that game. I gave Brendan a cranky look and stumbled off to bed, solidly asleep about three minutes after my head hit the pillow.

I didn’t hear Brendan jumping around like a monkey that just sat on a pricker bush. I didn’t see the interception that bounced off the football stands, off the scoreboards, off the MSU player’s ass and into ND’s waiting hands. And I certainly didn’t see the Irish play like a team that had the tiniest bit of fight left in them.

Anyone have any suggestions about some sort of, uh, rain dance-like ritual that we could do that might lift the curse? A pagan sacrifice, perhaps? Or maybe just lighting a candle at the Grotto? Becky will be at the Purdue game on Saturday, and well, Becky’s first ND loss was the Purdue game in ‘04, so perhaps the Purdue game in ‘06 can be the one that finally breaks the curse. But we gotta do something to help the process along…

Weird Al’s latest album comes out on Tuesday and in anticipation of the debut he has released two music videos of songs on the CD which can be viewed below. The first is particularly appropriate for this blog given Brendan’s history as the reporter who covered the USC/Metallica music sharing case involving Napster back in our freshman year.

Ladies and gentlemen, Don’t Download this Song:

But wait, it gets better! Weird Al actually DOES have a song for you to download on his website! After recieving permission from James Blunt to parody his song “You’re Beautiful”, Blunt’s record label apparently decided they didn’t like that idea. Although there is likely nothing legally they could do to prevent him from releasing the parodied song, especially with Blunt’s blessing, Al’s label didn’t want to get into a prolonged fight, and Al didn’t want to put Blunt in a bad position with his label. So instead the song is available for download for free from Weird Al’s website.

Also funny is the other music video released last week, White and Nerdy

source file
MP3 File