The Concord Monitor on Mitt Romney:

If you followed only his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, you might imagine Romney as a pragmatic moderate with liberal positions on numerous social issues and an ability to work well with Democrats. If you followed only his campaign for president, you’d swear he was a red-meat conservative, pandering to the religious right, whatever the cost. Pay attention to both, and you’re left to wonder if there’s anything at all at his core. …

When New Hampshire partisans are asked to defend the state’s first-in-the-nation primary, we talk about our ability to see the candidates up close, ask tough questions and see through the baloney. If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves and the rest of the world, we’ll know it.

Mitt Romney is such a candidate. New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no.

Ouch. (Hat tip: Byron York at NRO’s The Corner. That would be the same NRO that endorsed Romney.)

Happy Festivus, everyone! Today is the day when we remind our family about how they have DISAPPOINTED us over the last year!

Oh, sweet schadenfreude…

It looked like UCLA was going to pull a stunning comeback against BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl moments ago, as the Bruins — whose kicker had previously hit field goals from 50 and 52 yards — needed only a 28-yarder as time expired to win the game. But a BYU player got a hand on the ball and it fell just short of the goal post, giving the Cougars a dramatic 17-16 win (and changing the planned title of this post from “BYU cougs it” to the headline you see above). Somewhere, Mitt Romney is cheering.

Said ESPN announcer Brad Nessler, referring to UCLA defender Bruce Davis: “He played his guts out tonight, literally.” Wow, that sounds painful. Though I suppose it’s better than being literally on a roller coaster to hell…

Anyway, BYU’s win means that 10 contestants in the Irish Trojan Bowl Pick ‘em Contest are still perfect at 5-0. It also means that Becky and Alphadog finally got one right; they were 0-4 through the first four bowls, but they both picked BYU over fUCLA. Latest standings here and after the jump.

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Back in June, when I announced that Becky and I are expecting a baby, I wrote:

One thing we will probably do is follow the lead of Glenn Reynolds and many other prominent bloggers who, when they talk about their children on their blogs, don’t use the kids’ real names, but instead use some sort of nickname. Glenn, for example, calls his 11-year-old “the Insta-Daughter.” I haven’t thought of a catchy blog-nickname yet for the IrishTrojanSon or IrishTrojanDaughter — suggestions are welcome! — but I think I will probably go that route, just to prevent the kid from being easily, instantly Google-able starting at infancy.

That “probable” decision has become a definite plan, and I wanted to mention it again, so that it’s clear to everyone as a statement of blog policy. Many of my readers will, of course, know the baby’s name in due course. However, I’m asking everyone to respect our wishes and please do not mention the baby’s name on the blog — or in any other publicly accessible Internet space, for that matter. Obviously, friends and family spreading the word via e-mail is fine. But if you’re going to put up an announcement on your MySpace or whatever, please leave the baby’s name out of it.

Of course, we need something to call her on the blog. We’ve got a couple of ideas, but I thought we’d open it for suggestions again. (Criteria after the jump.)

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Ouch:

The American Conservative, if you don’t know, is a paleoconservative mag co-founded by Pat Buchanan. They’re harshly critical of neocons — in fact, they hate Bush so much that they endorsed Kerry in 2004. They don’t much like Rudy, either, because he’s got quite a collection of neocons on his foreign-policy team.

That said, I generally suggest taking anything said by Pat Buchanan, or anyone affiliated with him, with a grain of salt.

Casey declares war on Christmas. Well, the hyper-commercialized, consumerist version of it, anyway.

The Boston Herald endorsed John McCain yesterday, making former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney 0-for-2 with his hometown’s ideologically opposed newspapers.

I didn’t get a picture of Mars at perigee on Tuesday, but here it is last night, at left, just outside a ring around the Moon:

FSU has 36 players on its roster that won’t be playing in the Music City Bowl due to injury, rule violations, or academic dishonesty.

Brendan, is it too late to change our picks? ;-)

Bowl season is barely underway, and already we have our first game-changing blown call. Sorry, Navy!

Meanwhile, after Florida Atlantic’s 44-27 win over Memphis, only 15 people are still perfect in the 3rd annual Irish Trojan Bowl Pick ‘em Contest. Both of the winners so far were underdogs, according to the contestants: 57 of 90 picked Navy over Utah, and 56 picked Memphis over FAU.

Now underway is the second-most lopsided bowl game of the year, prediction-wise: 84 contestants picked Cincinnati, while only 6 picked Southern Miss in the Papa Johns Bowl. But so far, the underdogs are (again) ahead: Southern Miss leads 7-0 with 10:08 left in the second quarter.

None of the 15 co-leaders picked the Golden Eagles, so if they win, there will be no one left with a perfect record in the contest.

Later today: the New Mexico Bowl and the Las Vegas Bowl. (GOOOOO MORMONS, BEEEEEAT BRUINS!) Schedule here.

UPDATE: Cincy wins. Still a 15-way tie for first, at 3-0.

You probably don’t want to miss the second half.

For an early season game, especially a game that’s on with a noon start time, Memphis vs. Georgetown is freaking awesome. 

This game is excellent, and I don’t know if you’ll see two better teams slugging it out on the court all year (or at least until March).

It’s #2 vs. #4, and it’s rocking at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.  Tigers lead the Hoyas 43-40 at the half.

It’s on ESPN.

GO TIGERS GO!

UPDATE:  Tigers roll in the second half, and beat G’town big, 85-71.

Now, for the second half of my college hoops day, with my #12 Volunteers taking on #24 Xavier in Cincy. 

Go VOLS!

Like Brendan’s below on the tiny Tunguska asteroid :), this story is a couple of days old but Here it is anyway.

A judge in Belfast Crown Court has ruled Sean Hoey, 38, an electrician from south County Armagh, not guilty in the hideous terrorist bombing in Omagh, County Tyrone, whereby the execrable RIRA (”Real Irish Republican Army”) slaughtered 29 innocent children, women and men in August of 1998.

Apparently the Northern Ireland police botched their evidence, and the prosecutors their presentation, so thoroughly that the charges were impossible to prove. The judge was reportedly scathing in his analysis of the authorities’ performance in the case.

None of which, quite obviously, provides any Justice to the families of the victims of the mass murder; nor can it ever tell us whether Mr. Hoey, in addition to being now legally Not Guilty, is or is not also factually Innocent of having functioned as the RIRA Bombmaker ~ which we can now only hope (as he of course claims) that he really, actually, truly did Not.

The BBC’s Kevin Connolly gives us a good overview, well worth reading in full, of the whole horrid business, including these telling passages:

…But more than anything, for the rest of us, it was the timing of the attack on Omagh which burned it into our memories.

It came just four months after Northern Ireland’s fractious political parties made a political deal which included Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA.

It tore apart a community in a province which was beginning to learn to hope after decades of despair - and it made people fear that the new dawn which had promised so much, would be quickly and cruelly extinguished.

Like the other bombings in the early part of 1998 in places like Lisburn and Banbridge, Omagh was a conscious attempt by republicans who disagreed with the political strategy of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, to destabilise Northern Ireland in that vulnerable moment of hope.

It failed - but there is a terrible irony to the way in which the campaign was halted only by the wave of revulsion triggered by the carnage at Omagh.

…The Omagh families were dignified in defeat, as they have been dignified at every stage of their fight for justice. Their campaigning will go on, but the prospect is surely receding now that anyone will ever be convicted of murdering their husbands and brothers and sisters and wives and children.

As this case fades from our memories it’s worth remembering the victims of all Northern Ireland’s atrocities for whom the pain is not fading even as the province heads into a more hopeful future.

Amen.

This story is a couple of days old, but I neglected to post it earlier. Scientists have discovered some fascinating new details about the Tunguska explosion of 1908:

“The asteroid that caused the extensive damage was much smaller than we had thought,” says Sandia [National Laboratories] principal investigator Mark Boslough of the impact that occurred June 30, 1908. “That such a small object can do this kind of destruction suggests that smaller asteroids are something to consider. Their smaller size indicates such collisions are not as improbable as we had believed.”

Because smaller asteroids approach Earth statistically more frequently than larger ones, he says, “We should be making more efforts at detecting the smaller ones than we have till now.”

Indeed. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.) More after the jump about what the scientists learned.

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LA Daily News is reporting that Oregon Coach Mike Belotti has met with UCLA officials regarding the Bruins’ head coaching position. Norm Chow, former USC offensive guru, has announced he is not interested in the job (followed by a collective sigh of relief from Trojan nation). Rick Neuheisel, the scourge of both the Colorado and Washington programs, is also still in the running.

Utah has scored the first points of bowl season, scoring a touchdown in the second quarter of the Poinsettia Bowl. Plenty of time for more action, but only 32 of the 90 contestants in the pool picked the Utes to win, a victory here would put a lot of people in second place!

UPDATE

Utah wins 35-32, holding off a last minute comeback from Navy who scored on their longest TD pass of the year and recovered the onside kick, but lost the ball on an interception when their receiver slipped. Bowl season starts off with a bang!