Why is Texas Number 2?

Besides the obvious jokes the headline suggests, why the hell is Texas number two in the country? I mean, beating Division 2 Louisiana-Beauty School and looking shabby against Wyoming and then barely beating unranked Texas Tech at home by ten? Revenge? Fuck that. There's no revenge in beating an unranked team at home after allowing them to knock you out of the Title Picture last year. This Tech team has no resemblance to that team. TTU is NOT RANKED! They have no business keeping this a game into the fourth quarter, much less somehow justifying UT's farcical placement into the top of the college game. No one is pretending they even come close to last year's great team. STFU ESPN/ABC. Stop shoving this crap down our throats. You got lucky it was even a game. Texas allowed over 400 passing yards from a team that lost three starting Offensive Lineman, their starting quarterback, and one of the best receivers in the college game. Just who thinks we should buy this bullshit? Well, besides Disney/ABC/ESPN...

Kindly remove your preconceptions of what you thought would happen and base your thoughts on what you've actually seen this year. Texas hasn't beaten anyone worth anything. And somehow they are number two... WHY?! Alabama has beaten a tough Va Tech team that just beat Nebraska in a great game of ranked teams. Michigan has actually beaten a ranked Notre Dame. Miami has beaten TWO ranked teams. What gives?

Abolish the Preseason poll. Now. It is damaging the credibility of College Football. What's left of it (when's the last time a Heisman Trophy winner translated success into the NFL?). I mean, the fact they don't settle the actual championship with, ya know, an Actual Game, is crock enough. But, this who can we get more ratings with BS of a preseason poll is just an absolute mockery. It's all based on viewership and the number of alumni they have watching television. If you don't believe it, count how many undefeated teams will still be ranked below USC, who just lost to an unranked team for the fourth straight year, once the new polls come out. Why does Notre Dame get all it's games on national television?

And, to make things worse, the Longhorns don't play anyone this season except Oklahoma. Just like usual. Well, except last year when TTU caught lightning in a bottle. Sure, OK St, who just lost to HOUSTON... Kansas? Really? Mizzou? Not a great team this year. The Big 12 is worse than the SEC again, and probably the Pac 10 this year. There could be an argument for the Big 10 as well, but, with the weather the Big 12 teams enjoy, the better athletes, as a whole, will always come down here. So, I'd think from top to bottom, the Big 12 is better, since the bottom-feeders here could kick the pants off the bottom-feeders up there.

Back to the point, the goal of this farce is to keep the big boys up top, so their 100,000+ stadiums remain full, the conferences continue to cash in and the networks continue to enjoy ratings, no matter what the actual strengths of these teams are. It's all about money. Well, what isn't. But, if we are going to actually call this a competition, let's let the actions on the field mean something. Even though the teams are stupidly not allowed to settle things on the field at the end of the season anyway.

It's just a ridiculous Beauty Contest anyway. Should I even get into the fact that the month in between the last games and the second to the last games for these teams at their season's end changes everything as well? That and, besides the No. 1 vs. No. 2 game, all the other matchups are set up as a guaranteed win so the Big Dollar teams get to enjoy a "win" at the end of their seasons, so the "kids" and big money grads can continue to hand over their millions to the networks and the NCAA.

Nah, I'm tired. And forget College Football anyway. It's a joke. I've wasted too much time on it already.

/rantover

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Tax Cheese, Not Soda

If you really want to help the health of the nation, don't tax soda. Who cares. And, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have way too much money anyway. You won't win that and it doesn't make as much sense as another move that could actually help folks. Tax Cheese.

I know, I know, we all like cheese. Well, except the lactose intolerant. But, hear me out. Even the right-wingers might get on board with this one. Ya know, those dang French sure make a lot of cheese...

Seriously, though. Soda is just sugar and water and a bit of coloring. Sure, not great, but worse for your teeth than for your girth. OK, maybe not so good for either. :P Cheese, however, is pretty much just fat and calories. Sure, there's some milk proteins, but, come on, what the hell is cheese anyway? Spoiled milk? I could live without it. Well, "could" being the operative word. I do like myself some good cheese. But, I'd understand taxing it to pay for healthcare. Or maybe potato chips and/or french fries. These things really add to the unhealthiness of America. OK, soda too, but it's not as big a problem as these fried foods.

Will any food be taxed? No, of course not. It makes too much sense. Fat people pay taxes too. And buy two seats on a plane. Not like those "damn" smokers and drinkers... Maybe we should tax by the pound divided by height. lol. But really, we should do something. Why should folks who choose to be unhealthy weigh down the whole system? And there are too damn many of these bigguns. I mean, look around. See what I mean? Ya think these folks won't flip out when food is literally being taken from their mouths?

If folks would just take care of themselves and not get so fucking fat, maybe we wouldn't have so much cost in healthcare anyway. Take a page from Bill Maher and get a clue. I want to be clear here, if folks want to get fat, go ahead. Have fun. But don't expect me to be happy paying for it.

That, and let's get rid of all the paperwork bullshit. Seriously.

And forcing folks to get insurance is just wrong. If I don't want Insurance, why do I have to get it? If I get sick, I pay out of pocket or I die. Cool with me. Shouldn't I be able to choose to not go to the hospital? I haven't gone for 10 years now. And when I did that time, I used a little known thing called cash to pay for it. Why make me pay every month for something I don't use? How much would that be in wasted monthly payments? Where's that money going? Who's using it? Why make decisions for me? Am I FREE or not? Well, then again, if I'm paying taxes to cover healthcare, why am I paying taxes and monthly healthcare premiums? WTF?

And I'm what folks call a Liberal...

/rantover

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The One

Michael Jordan goes into the Basketball Hall of Fame today. No person on the planet is surprised. The Man, The Legend, The Greatest to Ever Play The Game.

Great pre-ceremony speech. Love what he said about Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, David Robinson and Jerry Sloan. What else can really be said? Bask in the wonderment of what has passed. We shall never see this moment again.

Thank you Michael for all the moments you brought us. I shall never forget the greatness I witnessed. Too Bad the Bulls got lucky and will never repeat as NBA Champions. At least not with present ownership/management.

But, Six Times ain't so bad ;)

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Did the Cubs REALLY just lose two of three to the Mets?

Yeah, They Did...

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Perhaps That Word Does Not Mean What You Think It Means

Pitching Coach.

Yeah, that's two words, but, anyone take the time away from bashing the National League to wonder, maybe the Red Sox don't really know what they're doing over there?

I mean, Smoltz goes on down I-55 to the Redbirds and pitches like a born-again superstar. Penny goes into San Fran and struts his stuff against the defending champs. And Beckett looks like he's wondering where the meds are. Mabye, just maybe, John Farrell ain't all that. Who is that guy anyway? Yeah, when the Baseball World is looking at your resume for these reasons, it isn't a good thing.

Unless you're the Cardinals or Giants that is.

Story is it took about a day for the Cards and Dave Duncan (a REAL pitching coach) to figure out what was wrong with John Smoltz. Seems he was tipping his pitches. Really?! Ya mean someone paid to know these things, seven figures most likely, doesn't know this kind of things? And I thought Larry Rothschild needed some help...

Yeah, he still does. I mean, how many complete games do the Cubbies have this year? ONE. Guess who that was. Lilly? Good guess, best bet, but, nope. Big Z? Yeah right. That'd mean he'd be earning his paycheck. Dempster? Hell, young man Wells has more IP/GS than ol Red. Wells is definitely one of the very bright spots of the year though (10-7, 2.90 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and a .358 Opp SLG, seventh best in the NL). So, I guess that means they'll either dump him in the offseason or really overpay him (reverse psychology?) Anyway, back to the quiz. It's Sean Freaking Marshall. Yeah, that's right. The guy in the pen with nine starts all year. Fantastic.

Well, it's Ryan Dempster up against some noob named Eddie Torres tonight. Wait, that's the alien from Cheech and Chong. I mean Carlos Torres. A guy who's only pitched 9.1 innings in two starts this year. He debuted in the Bigs at the end of July. Sounds like the Cubs are in trouble...

If only I were kidding.

But, Red just had his 2nd best month of the year in August. He's got a 3.69 ERA, almost 6.2 IP/GS, 37/12 K/BB, but a tepid 1.31 WHIP for the month. His season's WHIP is 1.37, so I'm guessing that's about what to expect from him. That'd be fourth on the starting staff though, above, you guessed it, Zambrano's paltry 1.43 runners per inning. YIKES (that's 39th in the NL, 69th in the League). Would this be the time to mention Z is the third highest paid starter in all of Baseball? Oh, I've said that before? OK, I won't say it this time then...

So, rants aside, will Dempster show up tonight against the White Sox and give us a win? Let's hope so. The Northsiders need to run off about 10 straight to get back in this thing. Chances of that? Especially with D Lee getting the night off.

Let's just say I'm folding to any raise. And I'm only getting my money in if I'm already blinded.

That's not all that good. :P But, I still have my cards in my hands.

Go Cubs!

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What's That Smell?

So, the Cubs are about toasted again, but still won't admit defeat. Aren't the tickets sold already? Not that I'll really care what moves they make until the headline "Soriano Sent Packing" or "Zambrano Agrees to Smaller Salary" hits the stands. Which won't ever happen.

I mean, they don't even have Newspapers anymore, do they?

So, what's a Chicago Sports fan to do? Watch the Sox at least try, and then at least be smart enough to cut payroll? Bleh. Watch Bears preseason? We talkin bout Practice?! I'm already tired of hearing about Longhorn Football in Austin, and they haven't even kicked the crap out of Louisiana Beauty School or whoever their first game's against yet. Grr..

And Maybe Next Year just ain't fun to think about. Besides, I've already done that enough. With Alfonso Soriano tied to the squad through 2014, it might just be 2015 that's our year. Maybe.

Why even torture ourselves? Let's face it. The Cubs are the Cubs. They just win enough games to sell enough beer to get enough butts in the seats to make a profit, and they dangle the shiny objects at us enough until we buy in to their devious Marketing and Lies. WHY!? Well, we're suckers, that's why.

Cub Fans love losing. If we won, wtf would we do? Well, besides most of the fans going into such a bender, they may not get out of it until 2015. Hey, at least Soriano would be gone! Who's got the next round!!

Luckily for you, I need to get to sleep, or there'd be more aimless rambling qq to go around.

Maybe the 2020's are our decade.

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