Almost exactly two years after Dick Cheney shot his friend, Harry Whittington, Dick Cheney has broken ranks with the rest of the Bush Administration and decided to oppose the DC gun ban.

I just thought the timing of his announcement was a little ironic :-)

Wow, I can’t believe I beat Brendan to this.

The newest book in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle (to follow Eragon and Eldest, for the uninitiated) will be entitled Brisingr.  The book will go on sale at 12:01 AM on September 20, 2008.  (Brendan: I expect a countdown in the "Upcoming Events" section of this blog…)

In yesterday’s Washington Post, there was a decent article examining the pros and cons of a playoff system for college football.  I’ve already explained my position, and I’ve heard numerous arguments from the Brendansphere.  However, with a 2-loss "champion," I need to say it again: the BCS system sucks.  If App State can figure out how to have their students take their final exams even though they have playoffs, why can’t Virginia?  (UVA purposely declined their invitation to the Champs Sports Bowl because it would have conflicted with exams).

And now I need to stop and look at what I wrote.  I’m a teacher, for chrissake … A teacher who sometimes resents ploys arguments like this from athletic departments.  Somefeel the stress is too much … maybe.

Some of the Appalachian State football players felt that way, crammed into the ballroom some 48 hours before playing the most important game of their season. Afterward, though, they also agreed the stress was worthwhile. Years from now, unlike whichever team wins tonight [OSU. or LSU -ed], the merits of their national championship will not be questioned.

I was a student athlete in high school (though not in college, I’ll admit).  Classwork comes first.  If there was a conflict, I went to the teacher and worked something out.  Period.  Almost every teacher I know would be willing to give students other opportunities to make up work (or an exam) if they had a legitimate reason for missing class–and I think playoffs would qualify.  True, it might be tough, but isn’t that what being a student athlete is about?

With the arrival of Loyette at 2:13 PM on December 31, 2007, I can now proclaim the winner of the first ever Irish Trojan Baby Pool to be…

me.

All of you people who scoffed at picking Loyette’s actual due date must feel pretty silly right now.

After the jump are the predictions, which show me to be the winner; the prediction was today at 11:59 PM, a difference of 9 hours and 46 minutes.  In second place was Mike’s brother Matt with a prediction of 12:11 AM tomorrow; he missed the actual mark of 2:13 PM by just under 10 hours.

So, congratulations to our winner, but bigger congratulations to Becky (& Brendan, I suppose) for the birth of their little girl.  From the Jewish contingent of the Loyosphere, I wish you a hearty Mazel Tov, and wish you all the best in the coming years.

And if I may editorialize briefly, that baby has got to be one of the cutest things I have seen in a long time (I’m actually writing this post later than the time stamp, so that Brendan’s announcement stays on top of this post).  But brown hair?  C’mon, Becky, you can’t let your kid have the same color hair as her daddy?  Seriously, though, she’s absolutely precious.

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

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? ;-)

Even if you don’t believe in Jesus.

Just awful. Huckabee’s Merry-Chirstmas-whether-you-believe-in-Jesus-or-not makes my stomach churn. I don’t know if I’m getting sick right now because (a) Huckabee doesn’t even mention that there are some people in the country who might not celebrate Christmas, (b) the message is sponsored by his campaign, and since Huckabee has taken public funds for his campaign, public dollars went to fund this ad, (c) the only thing Huckabee has going for him right now is his Jesus-invocation, so he thinks that this will make him more popular, (d) he somehow thinks that this is better than all of the other televeision campaign ads because he’s saying “Merry Christmas,” or (e) the only thing that “really matters” in December according to his ad is celebrating the birth of Christ.

… And now you all can tell me how wrong Jew-boy JLR is.

I’ll probably have a post later on today (unless Brendan or someone else beats me to it) about the Mitchell Report and Bud Selig’s response to it, but for right now, let me just mention the two biggest deals of the last couple of days. 

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As Brendan noted earlier, Baby Loy is now a "full term" baby.  In recognition of this milestone, I am taking this opportunity to post everyone’s predictions in the Irish Trojan Baby Pool.

It’s interesting to note–only one person (me!) actually picked the baby’s due date!  To quote Brendan (in an e-mail to me):

You’re the only person who predicted the baby will be born on her actual due date?  LOL! 

I wanted to point out that, yes, I am the only one to pick 12/31.  You’ll also note that I picked 11:59pm–a nod to the fact that Brendan and Becky get a tax break for all of 2007 even if Baby Loy comes a minute before the year ends.  I’d probably have picked this date and time even if Becky was due on 12/25 or 1/5 :-P

And just a reminder: we’re not playing The Price Is Right–whoever is closest to the actual birth time will be declared the winner.  So, if the baby is born at noon on 12/31 or midnight on 1/1, I still win the pool by virtue of the fact that I’m closest to the right answer. 

You can see the actual guesses after the jump.  Some people have the baby being born as early as next week, and others say it won’t happen until the middle of January.  Again, to quote Brendan:

someone needs to familiarize Alasdair, Wobbly and Sandy with the concept that most doctors will not let a woman go more than a week past due before inducing labor…

There, Brendan, it’s done.  Congrats again to the two of you, and we, the entrants in your pool, wish you both (and Baby Loy) all the best of luck in the future.

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In a trade that makes Detroit a force to be reckoned with, the Tigers have traded six minor-league prospects to the Marlins for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis.

I only have two words for this trade: oh, crap.  Detroit is going to be AWESOME next season.

The Tigers have managed this off-season (and it’s only December) to acquire some great names, Cabrera and Willis to name two.  Cabrera will be in a lineup with Polanco, Sheffield, Ordonez, Guillen, Renteria, Granderson, and Pudge Rodriguez.  Tell me that this team doesn’t have hitting power.  And the pitching, though not of the same caliber as the hitting, should earn Detriot a spot in the postseason, if not the World Series.  Willis, whose 10-15 record with the struggling Fish is less likely to repeat itself.  Not to mention he will be joined in the rotation by Justin Verlander, Kenny Rogers, Jeremy Bonderman and Nate Robertson.  Sure, some of those guys have seen better days, especially Rogers, but backed up by a great defense–and getting signals from Pudge–I think Detroit will probably be the team to beat next year… At least, as of December 5th.  More trades, injuries, and free agent signings will definitely have an effect on this prediction.

And by the way, if you hadn’t heard, the Posada re-signing is official–he’ll be a Yankee for the next four seasons and make more than $50 mil in the process.

As Brendan has posted repeatedly over the last 48 hours, the whole BCS process sucks the sweat off a dead man’s balls. (Kudos to you who get the reference…)  But I thought I’d take my power as a guestblogger to make this a post.  Not that I’m actually expecting the NCAA to take notice of this post, or actually care what college football fans want or anything, but I feel it needs to be said quite explicitly.

The BCS Bowl system for Division I-A football sucks.

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Now that Becky is entering the last month before her due date, I am calling on her friends and family who have not already done so to enter the Irish Trojan Baby Pool today!  I am cutting off all entries at 12:00 midnight (Eastern) tonight. 

Why am I doing this?  Since the due date is usually only a "best guess," the baby is most likely to arrive a couple of weeks early, a couple of weeks late, or anywhere in between.  After talking to Brendan a month or so ago, we agreed that today would be the LAST day for entries.

Also note, guesses placed on this entry’s comments will not be counted.  Please click here (again, that’s here) to enter.

[NOTE: This post will stay on top of the homepage for the rest of the day. New posts will appear below it. -ed.]

Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss) has announced his retirement, effective sometime in December or January.  Though his temporary replacement will be nominated and placed by Republican Governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, this is a stunning turn for Republicans in the Senate.  As the #2 Republican in the Senate (and formerly the #1 Republican and Majority Leader), Lott made himself a lot of friends and made himself a lot of enemies–especially after his comments about how it would have been great if a segregationist candidate (Strom Thurmond) had won the 1948 presidential race.

What’s my take?  Anytime a powerful conservative decides to leave either house of the Congress, I’m perfectly happy.  Of course, chances are good that Arizona Senator John Kyl, who is loads more conservative than most of the Republicans in Congress, will take over as minority whip.  Then again, it’s possible that someone else might overtake him.  It’s also possible that either Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) or Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), both of whom are more moderate than Kyl, might run for the #3 spot. 

In all, though, it probably won’t matter much between now and–at the very least–2009 when the new Congress takes over.  As long as Democrats maintain a majority, it seems much less likely that this change will have a major effect on legislation.  True, a conservative leadership on the Republican side of the aisle would make bipartisanship more difficult (just as a liberal leadership on the Democratic side would).  However, the immediate impact would not be as large as it would have been if the Republicans still controlled the Senate.

Torii Hunter, long the only jewel in the struggling Twins’ offensive lineup, has jumped ship to Anaheim (I refuse to call them the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim"–Aside from being geographically incorrect, it’s a mouthful to say, and quite annoying).

What does this mean?  Now Vlad Guerrero will have another bat to back up his own, and the Angels will have a fourth spectacular outfielder.  This may lead to platooning a DH, or it might lead to a trade (in the article, there’s talk about sending Gary Matthews, Jr. to Baltimore for Miguel Tejada–I just hope that Peter Angelos tries get more from the Angels than just Matthews–not that Matthews is bad, but that Angelos sucks the sweat off a dead man’s balls when it comes to owning and operating a baseball team, so they need all the help they can get).

Also, defensively-strong utility player (though he mostly plays 2B) for the Padres, Geoff Blum, adds his glove to the field in Houston, which lost Craig Biggio to retirement this year.

Happy Thanksgiving, all, and remember: just because it’s cold out doesn’t mean that baseball is over.  Baseball is never over.  Just remember that while you watch Green Bay and Dallas slaughter Detroit and New York today.

The National League named Jimmy Rollins (SS-PHI) the NL MVP for 2007, following the American League’s naming of Alex Rodriguez (3B-NYY) their MVP on Monday.

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