New York Times journalist David Rosenbaum, who had worked for the Gray Lady for over 30 years, was beaten and robbed Friday night in Northwest Washington, DC. He died tonight from his injuries. He was 63.

Posted by Brian (Briandot)

Vince Young is going pro. Everyone else has a chance next season! :)

Brady Quinn just became the preseason Heisman favorite (assuming Reggie Bush also goes pro). And USC’s and Notre Dame’s national championship hopes just got a major boost — along with a bunch of other teams’ hopes. I’m not sure there is a clear-cut favorite now.

Now, who do the Texans take with the #1 pick in the draft? Bush or Young? Could be interesting.

Glenn Reynolds on gay marriage and polygamy:

The solution to all of this, of course, is to separate marriage and state. There’s no reason why the government should be involved in this sort of thing (the origin of Tennessee’s statute requiring marriage licenses, it turns out, was a desire to ensure that county clerks got fees, not exactly an overwhelming justification) and there’s no reason why people’s private living arrangements should be part of public debate. That’s my take, anyway.

Mine, too.

Becky and I woke up very early — 3:45 AM, to be exact — and drove from Ka’anapali to Haleakala to watch the sunrise from 10,000 feet on Saturday morning.

Yes, those are clouds that we’re looking down at. Very cool. We then went horseback riding into the Haleakala Crater, which was also very cool.

Naturally, I couldn’t resist doing my impression of King Theoden. But I’m afraid my horse, Bennie, wasn’t quite up to the task…

source file

Heh.

Many more photos to come, of course.

Tom DeLay isn’t coming back. But who will replace him? (Hat tip: Insty.)

After I wrote my wrap-up post on the USC-Texas game yesterday, something else occurred to me. When Matt Leinart completed that incredible game-saving 4th-and-9 pass to Dwayne Jarrett in Notre Dame Stadium on October 15, Becky (after she finished hooting, hollering, and swearing exuberantly) turned to me and said, “That’s why we’re the national champions.” She was right. And guess what? On Wednesday night, it came down to two game-deciding fourth-down plays. USC failed to convert on 4th-and-2. Texas scored the winning touchdown on 4th-and-5. That’s why they’re the national champions.

Anyway… even before the Rose Bowl, and moreso since it ended, I’ve been thinking that the “rebuilding year” USC faces next season is strikingly similar to what it faced after Carson Palmer & co. graduated. Like Palmer, I was a senior at USC in the fall of 2002, and I vividly remember wondering whether the Trojans would actually be able to improve on that awesome season, when — after three years of mediocrity under Paul Hackett, a 6-6 first year under Pete Carroll, and a 3-2 start to that very season — they finished with seven straight wins (utterly crushing UCLA, imploding Notre Dame’s Ty Willingham/Carlyle Holiday illusion, and destroying Iowa in the Orange Bowl) to go 10-2, and were playing better than anyone by the end of the year, undefeated national champ Ohio State included. And of course, considering the Trojans have lost the same number of games during the three years since I graduated as they did during that year alone, the question answers itself in retrospect. So I love the opening paragraph of Mark Beech’s preview of the Trojans’ 2006 season:

It wasn’t long ago that USC head coach Pete Carroll entered a season with unproven talent in his backfield. Anybody remember 2003? That’s when a little-known redshirt sophomore named Matt Leinart made his debut at quarterback, and two freshmen — Reggie Bush and LenDale White took their first reps at tailback. Leinart and Bush won Heisman trophies and teamed with White to lead the Trojans to 37 wins in 39 games and a pair of national titles.

Heh. We can only hope for a similarly successful run with the next batch of “unproven talent.” :)

Stewart Mandel sounds a similar theme in his early preseason Top 10, in which he ranks USC #3 — behind #1 Texas (”if Vince comes back”) and #2 Notre Dame. He, too, says 2006 “should be much like 2003, when the Trojans had to replace Carson Palmer, Troy Polamalu and all [their] significant running backs. They’ll be fine by halfway through the year, but like Cal did that season, someone should be able to knock them off early.”

Hmm… well, that makes sense, sort of. But looking at the Trojans’ schedule, who are the candidates to pull an early upset? Newly minted Alamo Bowl champion Nebraska is one, but who else? Er… um… Arizona? (I know the win over UCLA was hailed as a turning point for the program, but are the Wildcats going to improve that much, that quickly?) Perhaps Wazzu? (Are the Cougars going to be any good next year?) Or maybe ASU? (But that’s already pretty close to the midseason mark.) The point being, the Trojans’ schedule is very favorable to a team that’s predisposed to peak late. Their last four games are against Oregon, Cal, Notre Dame and UCLA. Wow.

(It should also be noted that the first three of those last four games are at home, with the fourth being just across town. Nebraska and ASU are also at home. The balance of power among USC’s opponents has shifted in such a way that the Trojans have years when their tough games are almost all on the road, and years when their tough games are almost all at home. This season was one of the former; next season is one of the latter. Another good omen for a “rebuilding” team — or should I say “reloading”?)

Mandel talks a bit more about his early Top 10 in his final “Mailbag” of the season:

Waking up the morning after Wednesday night’s Rose Bowl (actually, it was closer to the afternoon) felt a lot like waking up to a brand new world.

For those of us who cover college football nationally, one storyline had towered over all others the past three years: USC, USC, USC. And while the Trojans’ return to prominence has certainly been a boon to college football, what with the nation’s second-largest city suddenly showing a renewed interest in the sport, one could argue that Texas’ dethroning of them did a service as well.

It’s no secret that, as is often the case with teams that win a lot, many pockets of college football fandom across the country had been developing a pretty severe case of USC backlash. If the Trojans had carried their winning streak into next season, it would have ensured at least nine more months of USC overload, and I’m not so sure the Mailbag’s Ohio State, Oklahoma or Tennessee minions could have handled the inevitable onslaught of four-peat stories (not to mention all the LSU fans who would be writing in to point out that the Trojans were only going for a three-peat).

As it is, college football figures to return to a more egalitarian landscape. USC will certainly remain among the sport’s elite (a bevy of high-school hot shots are expected to pledge their services to the Trojans at Saturday’s U.S. Army All-America Bowl), but now we won’t have to start every conversation about the national-title race with the words “Besides USC…”

… [B]ased on the initial research I did in compiling [my early top 10 for 2006], I can honestly say that if Vince Young doesn’t return to Texas, next year’s field could be as wide open as any in recent memory. Usually, there’s at least some discernible pecking order on paper. For instance, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to guess last August that the Rose Bowl might pit USC against the winner of the Texas-Ohio State game. [But next year, t]ake Young out of the equation, and there’s not much separating No. 1 on that list from No. 7. Heck, you could swap out about eight of those top-10 teams for eight other teams entirely.

Certainly, there’s an element of fun when everyone’s chasing No. 1, but it’s even more fun when no really knows who’s No. 1.

All right, gotta finish up this post. It’s only 8:56 PM in Hawaii, but Becky and I are headed to Haleakala to watch the sunrise tomorrow morning, so we’ll be up early. But first, I must throw in the obligatory ending to every USC-related post between now and September 9: BEAT THE RAZORBACKS!!! :)

Thanks to the endless munificence of Toni (and in this case, one of her other guests), we now have wireless Internet in the condo. YAY!!!

Speaking of which, here’s a look at the beautiful condo where we’re staying. And you can see Toni’s other rental properties here. (Hey, she’s letting us stay here, I figure the least I can do is give her some free advertising! :)

P.S. Speaking of Toni, here’s a picture of her with the BCS trophy on Tuesday night:

Here’s what she said when I asked if it was the real trophy:

Yes it was the real trophy and against all rules I touched it! The old Rose Bowl guy who was stationed near it almost fell over … but I touched it, and I said to myself as I touched it, if USC wins the touch is a blessing … if Texas wins it will be a thousand year curse!

Well, if any strange and unlucky events befall people in the vicinity of that trophy during the course of the next millennium, I guess we’ll know who to blame… :)

Marcus Vick has been kicked off the football team at Virginia Tech following his behavior at the Toyota Gator Bowl earlier this week. Vick apparently stomped on the leg of a Louisville player intentionally, but got away with it because no official happened to see it.

The incident was apparently the last straw for VT’s administration, Vas ick has had numerous prior troubles both on and off the field.

A press conference is scheduled for Saturday to address the incident.

Guestblogger: David Kreutz

The NHC has issued the final advisory on Tropical Depression Zeta. As of 4pm EST on Jan. 6, 2006, the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, the busiest and costliest ever, is finally over. Appropriately enough, it is the latest ending ever. Happy New Year. :)

Adding one final record to its remarkable mother lode of records, the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season has now lasted longer than any other Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history. Tropical Storm Zeta, which formed on my wedding day and became only the second cyclone ever to span two calendar years, is still clinging to life, albeit as a weakening tropical depression, as of 10:00 AM today:

…ZETA WEAKENING AND BECOMING DISORGANIZED OVER THE CENTRAL ATLANTIC OCEAN WELL AWAY FROM ANY LAND AREAS…

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 35 MPH… 55 KM/HR…WITH HIGHER GUSTS. ADDITIONAL WEAKENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS… AND IT IS POSSIBLE THAT ZETA COULD DISSIPATE LATER TODAY OR TONIGHT. …

THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT 5 PM AST.

When that next advisory (4pm EST) is issued, Zeta will have lasted 15 hours longer than the previous record-holder, Hurricane Alice, did in 1954-55.

Zeta probably won’t last much longer, though. The 4pm advisory, or perhaps the one that follows at 10pm, could very well be the last, according to the discussion:

THE COMBINATION OF STRONG NORTHWESTERLY WIND SHEAR AND VERY DRY AIR AHEAD OF THE [APPROACHING MID- TO UPPER-LEVEL LOW-PRESSURE] SYSTEM SHOULD BE ENOUGH TO…FINALLY…BRING THE 2005 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON TO AN END…POSSIBLY AS EARLY AS THIS AFTERNOON OR EVENING.

The Storm Track writes, “See ya latah Zeta.”

The final polls are out. Texas is #1 (I actually accidentally typed “USC is #1″ and then had to change it — force of habit, heh), USC is #2, Penn State is #3 and Ohio State is #4 in both the AP and coaches’ polls. The AP has West Virginia at #5 and LSU at #6; the coaches have LSU #5 and West Virginia #6. Both have Virginia Tech at #7. The AP’s #8-11 spots go Alabama, Notre Dame, Georgia, TCU. The coaches go with Alabama, TCU, Georgia, Notre Dame. (There’s that pesky pro-Irish bias in the coaches poll again… [/sarcasm].)

Meanwhile, ESPN’s Pat Forde takes a crack at the 2006 preseason rankings. He has Texas #1, on the assumption that Vince Young returns, and USC #5, presumably on the assumption that both Bush and White do not. Between the ‘Horns and the Trojans are #2 Ohio State, #3 West Virginia and #4 Notre Dame. Penn State, which plays at Notre Dame in the Irish’s Sept. 9 home opener, is #13.

I know I haven’t said much on the blog (as opposed to the comment section) about the Trojans’ loss to Texas. That’s partly because of technical difficulties, partly because I’m on my honeymoon, and partly because I don’t know quite what to say. There are nitpicky things I could gripe about, like the wasted timeouts, bonehead penalties, questionable play calls, and apparent inability to grasp the concept that perhaps we should put a defender on Vince Young. (Also, why the hell wasn’t Reggie Bush — the freakin’ Heisman Trophy winner — even on the field on 4th and 2??? Even if you’re not going to use him, at least scare Texas by putting him in there!!! Gawd, I officially miss Norm Chow.) But what’s the point of talking about any that? Both teams made some mistakes, but both teams played great, and Texas won fair and square. (Yes, there was bad officiating, but the bad calls went both ways. The bad officiating is a serious issue in its own right, one that needs to be addressed and fixed — it was a problem in several big bowl games this year — but it had nothing to do with the result of last night’s game.)

To be honest, I’m not as crushed by the loss as you might think. A 34-game winning streak is a pretty damn good run; Wednesday night was only the second time the Trojans have lost since I graduated, for heaven’s sake! It’d be simply greedy to think it could go on forever (all the moreso for me, as a Red Sox fan and a UConn basketball fan… it’s been an embarrassment of riches lately!). The streak had to end eventually, and while it would have been nice to squeeze out a third (yes, THIRD) straight national championship, I’d rather have the streak end at the hands of an exceptionally good team like Texas — an equal — instead of some upstart like Fresno State or, worse, a rival like UCLA or Notre Dame. :) In other words, the Longhorns were a worthy adversary, and I tip my hat to them. Hell, I’m even happy for them. Hearing the jubilant Texas fans singing “I’ve Been Workin’ On The Railroad” at the top of their lungs was really quite cool.

To be honest, what bums me out about the loss more than anything else is that it slightly diminishes the cosmic significance of that incredible October 15 game between the Trojans and the Irish which I was privileged to be able to attend. Don’t get me wrong — it was still an undisputed game for the ages, and one that I’ll tell my grandkids I was at. But if USC had won last night, that 4th-and-9 pass from Leinart to Jarrett would have literally made the difference between the Trojans winning the championship and not winning the championship. Oh, well.

I guess the main reason I’m not too devastated by the loss (aside from the fact that it’s hard to be devastated by anything when you’re in Maui on your honeymoon with your beautiful wife) is that I’m confident the Trojans will rise again. I think #5 in the preseason polls is about right, given the loss of Leinart and, almost certainly, Bush and White. But I have the utmost confidence that this team will rise to the occasion next season. They may not go undefeated, but then again, they very well may. They certainly won’t lose more than a game or two. I expect them to win the Pac-10 championship and make a run at the national championship. And man, that November 25 game at the Coliseum is going to be fun.

In case you’re wondering, last night was only the fourth Trojan loss in the entire history of the blog — and two of those losses came in 2002, when I hadn’t really developed the “sports blog” aspect of BrendanLoy.com yet. But I did mention the Kansas State loss, though not the Washington State loss. A year later, sports had become a more regular feature, and so I certainly did blog about the Cal loss.

I went to the following week’s game, the victory over Arizona State — LenDale White’s break-out game, and win #1 of the 34-game winning streak that ended last night. I also went to win #3 (over Notre Dame), #8 (over Oregon State), #28 (over Notre Dame) and #33 (over Fresno State). And I made an appearance, sort of, at win #14 (over Cal) — I didn’t actually get tickets to the game, but I flew to L.A. for ESPN GameDay before watching the game from sports bar out in SoCal.

Anyway… congratulations to the Longhorns, their coach and their fans on a well-deserved championship. And to the Trojans, thanks for the memories, and congratulations on an amazing run. BEAT THE RAZORBACKS!!!

There’s nothing like an awesome whale-watching tour to take your mind off a heartbreaking football loss. :) Becky and I went looking for Pacific humpbacks on board the Ocean Explorer this afternoon, and we were lucky enough to run into a “competition pod” of males vying for a female’s attention (sort of like what you see on any given night at The Backer). That meant lots of fun whale antics, which made for great pictures. The gorgeous rainbow in the background didn’t hurt, either…

Standard caveat: stay tuned for more photos, and higher-resolution versions of the above photos, probably after the honeymoon is over. Same goes for other honeymoon pics, and wedding pics. This is just a preview of the yummy photographic goodness to come! :)

Good old Mechanical Lever machines. / Very reliable. Very sturdy. Very old. Very very Heavy. But Enough about Me. :) By God, maybe I’ll just Unretire & go back to work at CTSOTS. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. / Joe Loy, guestgloating. :)

My former Employer says that the Electronic voting system that meets our persnickety Yankee standards ~ apparently hasn’t been Invented yet. :> (Of course our current Old Clunkers now violate federal law all over the place but that’s OK, our beloved state Career AG Dick “Sue the Bastards” Blumenthal says The Feds are being very Nice about the whole thing:

Connecticut gave up Wednesday on meeting a federal mandate for using a new generation of voting machines in 2006 that must protect against fraud and be accessible to disabled voters.

Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz said the state will use its mechanical lever machines one more time, because no vendor offered a replacement that meets state and federal requirements.

…Her decision was praised by local voting officials and some academics who claimed that Connecticut’s efforts to procure new voting technology was biased toward computerized voting machines.

…The secretary of the state had been expected Wednesday to announce her selection of a new computerized machine that would comply with the federal Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, which renders obsolete the lever machines used by generations of Connecticut voters.

Instead, she disclosed that state officials learned on Dec. 21 that her tentative choice for a new machine was not certified as compliant under HAVA.

“We were misled by the finalist company, because they said they could meet all the requirements,” Bysiewicz said.

Bysiewicz said she is reopening the search for voting technology that is reliable, easy to use and meets requirements…

HAVA requires the states to buy machines that can be used without assistance by the disabled and that guard against fraud by leaving an audit trail. Connecticut’s mechanical machines fail on both counts.

The U.S. Department of Justice has not formally waived the 2006 deadline, but it has indicated by letter that federal officials will work with Connecticut.

“It is in no way threatening or coercive. It is an invitation to additional cooperation,” Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said. “In summary, it draws no lines in the sand. It threatens no enforcement action.”

Ah, me. :) ElectionProcess Nerds, read the whole thing.

Of course the big Problem with the voter-friendly Optiscan-tally paper-ballot systems is precisely that they are TOO voter-friendly. I.e., because they all must employ some form of Paper Ballot which is, in Whatever fashion, directly Marked by Hand by the Voter, they can do relatively little ~ much less than the pre-programmed Touchscreens (Direct Recording Electronic, aka DRE’s) can ~ to Prevent or Deter the single biggest cause of flawed election results: Voter Error. (OTOH the Optiscans do have this Huge advantage over both the New DRE’s AND the Old mechanical lever devices: they seamlessly accomodate the Absentee ballots, which are essentially identical to the in-person Regular [also sometimes styled the “Legitimate” :] ballots, and thus are electronically Countable by the same Scanners.)

Note: first Commentposter to Comment “Why don’t we just have all Hand Counting?” gets the prize: a lovely framed photo of that Florida 2000 Recount Guy scrutinizing the Paper Punchcard ballots with his magnifying glass. :)

Apparently Pat Robertson must have felt that his call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and telling the citizens of Dover Pennsylvania not to ask for God’s help in their time of need was not enough in his apparent quest to be labeled the Stupidest Man Alive ™. Now he has said that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke was God’s hand striking him down for splitting up the Holy Land. Sharon as you may recall called for the historic withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, fully turning control over to the Palestinian government.

Guestblogger: David Kreutz

Tropical Storm Zeta — the storm that formed on my wedding day, and has now extended the cold, dead hand of the historic 2005 hurricane season well into 2006 — is still out there, still alive and kicking, and still breaking records. It briefly weakened to a tropical depression at 4:00 AM EST today, but regained tropical-storm strength at 10:00 AM, and the 4:00 PM advisory stated:

…TENACIOUS ZETA STILL HANGING ON TO TROPICAL STORM STATUS OVER THE CENTRAL ATLANTIC OCEAN…

Zeta is only the second tropical cyclone in recorded history to span two calendar years, the other being Hurricane Alice of 1954-55, which also formed on December 30. And now, Zeta has officially maintained tropical-storm status deeper into the new year than Alice did, making it the “latest” tropical storm in recorded history. (Alice weakened to a tropical depression at 7:00 AM on January 5, 1955, according to Unisys, and never regained tropical-storm status.)

Alice didn’t dissipate entirely — losing even tropical-depression status — until 1:00 AM on January 6, 1955. Zeta will break that record, too, unless the next advisory, the 10:00 PM EST, is the final one. If there’s a 4:00 AM advisory on Zeta, it will be the deepest into the new year that an Atlantic hurricane season has ever been extended by a rouge, out-of-season cyclone.

One thing is certain: when Zeta dissipates, the 2005 hurricane season will finally, really and truly, be over. The next tropical cyclone to form — whether it’s in January, June or whenever — will be considered part of the 2006 hurricane season, and it will be named Alberto.