And can I be the first person to say "it's about damned time".  I am so tired of reading about that piece of turd that I don't know what to do. 

I don't know what half the black bloggers of the blogosphere are going to talk about now.  They'll be like John Madden last night on Monday Night Football, as the homeless Saints/Vicks game got so boring that he started talking for five minutes about how he dropped some mustard on his tie.  They even showed a closeup in the booth of the tie too. 

If there is one good thing I can say about Tookie, it's gotta be about that helluva fro that kat had back in the day. 

I ain't gonna lie; I'm jealous.  F'real.  I mean that mug was like asymetrical to the tee, all jazzed and afrosheened up and everything.  And see, you can't appreciate a good fro like that until you TRY to grow one yourself.  I couldn't grow a fro that hot to save my life (pun intended).  Tookie truly set a standard that all fro growers could aspire to attain. 

A children's book?  Pssh.  That kat should have written a FRO book.  I woulda granted him clemency just off of that alone.

And we AIN'T about to start talkin about those arms.  Sick.

But anyway, he's dead.  That's a good thing.  Now lets move on to things more important, like watching paint dry.  I would say watching grass grow, but ain't no grass growing in winter.  *shrugs*

From ESPN:

MIAMI -- Miami Heat coach Stan Van Gundy, who led the team to the best record in the Eastern Conference a season ago, resigned Monday citing family reasons.

A team official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Van Gundy's resignation would be announced later Monday.

The team called a news conference for 11 a.m. ET, saying Van Gundy, team president and former coach Pat Riley and Heat owner Micky Arison would appear.

*L*  Bull.

This was a power move.  Plain and simple.  Miami, and notably Shaq, have wanted Stan out of there Shaq first went there.  Miami has gone 11-10 in 22 games, but Shaq has only played 3 games this year, and despite that the Heat was still on top of the Southeast division.  Once Shaq returned to the lineup full time (which, in all probablility, won't happen because Shaq can not handle that rigorous schedule anymore), the Heat would be a legit threat for the NBA title.

There was a lot of criticism for Kobe's behind-the-scenes actions in giving Shaq the boot in Los Angeles, and rightfully so.  But Van Gundy's firing - in DECEMBER, no less - shows that Shaq isn't beyond doing the same thing.  Thus, I never felt any sympathy for the man.

When Shaq went to the Heat, the question wasn't whether Van Gundy would leave the Heat, but when.  It was only a matter of time.  Nobody is being fooled into Van Gundy saying it was for "family reasons".  Shaq probably wanted Pat Riley to eventually return to coaching anyway, as I'm sure Riley will replace Van Gundy on the bench.

People thought the Detroit Lions were playing cutthroat when they fired Mariucci?  No....this is cutthroat.

We got three weeks left after today.  Who will step up and show they're big time, and who will fall behind the rest of the pack and just wait for a high draft pick?

First, my Panthers.  Carolina can all but lock the NFC South up with a win over Tampa Bay today.  Considering they blew them out of the water in the first game this year, I don't expect that much to be different.  As long as Foster can rumble through Tampa Bay's jurassic front four, I don't see any problems.

On to the rest of the week.  Is it me, or does it seem as if everybody in the national sports media is trying to hype up Jacksonville for their game against Indianapolis?  I mean, get real.  Jacksonville's defense normally gives Peyton Manning problems, but they've always done enough to get over the hump.  And David Gerrard isn't ready to face off against the two best defensive ends in the league.  G'luck son.

I'm expecting Chicago/Pittsburgh to be an all-out war.  We'll probably see some highlight-reel hits in that game.  You'll probably see someone being helped off the field.  It's going to get ugly at times, but it's ultimately going to come down to how many points Roethlisberger can score vs. how many Chicago's defense can score.  If the Steelers win, it's going to have to be in the air, because I don't see the Bus having enough gas in the tank to roll over that defense.

The game to watch?  Kansas City vs. Dallas.  Winner stays in the playoff hunt, loser gets January off.  Plain and simple.

Here's my picks:

- Pittsburgh over Chicago

- Cincinnati over Cleveland

- Tennessee over Houston

- Indianapolis over Jacksonville

- New England over Buffalo

- Oakland over Jets

- Sex Boat over the Rams

- Carolina over Tampa Bay

- Giants over Philly

- Seattle over San Francisco

- Skins over Arizona

- Denver over Baltimore

- Kansas City over Dallas

- San Diego over Miami

- Green Bay over Detroit

And on Monday Night:

- Atlanta over New Orleans

That's it.  No upsets.  Well, some would say that Pittsburgh beating Chicago would be considered one, but I digress.

Key games this week are Indy/Jax, Carolina/Tampa Bay, Dallas/Kansas City, Pittsburgh/Chicago, Minnesota/St. Louis, and Atlanta/New Orleans (actually that should be a horrible game, but the Aints played Atlanta hard last week, and a loss could knock the Falcons out of a chance for the playoffs).

Enjoy the games this week.

1940-2005.

I would post an image, but Blogdrive just changed the software layout, so I don't know how to.  Idiots.

Gee...does this make me a South Park Conservative now?

Heh.  Something tells me I'd fit right in.

Anyway, if you want to make your own South Park character, go here.

I wonder if I should put this on my sidebar?

Oh, and if you're wondering why it doesn't fit my current sidebar picture, it's because I grow my hair out in the winter.  That picture was taken last summer.

I've noticed there hasn't been too many people talking about Tom DeLay this morning, despite the fact that a judge threw out his original conspiracy charge yesterday.

That's not surprising, because there were a lot of people on both sides of the political spectrum that were ready and willing to throw DeLay under the bus once he was indicted.  Anyone with an objective mind, however, could see that the charge was bogus on its face, and that there was a serious chance that the charge wouldn't even make it to trial.  I was one of those who suspected that was the case, and I was right.

However, the judge allowed the bogus money laundering charge to stand, which was a fast-track indictment charge persued by Ronnie Earle after only four hours of deliberation by a newly formed grand jury.  Earle wanted to get that indictment in because he knew the conspiracy charge had no chance of making the charge stick.

Yesterday's ruling is here (Acrobat Reader req.).  It would be one thing if the prosecution had hard evidence that there was an explicit intent and action to shuffle money, that would be one thing, but now Earle has admitted that he didn't have the supposed note that points to the money going to several individuals.  Considering this was part of his indictment evidence, this charge should have been thrown out too.

There is still one more chance, though:  the charges by the defense of jury shopping are looming over Earle as well.  We could get a decision out of that one anytime now, and if the jury is thrown out for that, the Democrats will have a total embarrassment on their hands.

I watched the fight, and I thought it lived up to the hype.  No, it wasn't great boxing at times, but both fighters were really aggressive and you can tell they didn't like each other.

Taylor really did his homework in preparation of this fight.  He went after Hopkins, and right at the bell he showed he was not going to allow Hopkins to intimidate and bully him.  Dirty boxing is a Hopkins signature, but Taylor was never afraid to mix it up with him.

Taylor worked the jab in more in this fight, doubling up on it at times to where the only thing Hopkins could do to stay away from it was simply bend over and keep his head low.  However, I was frustrated by both fighters that they weren't following up on their punches.  There was also a lot of holding, which came into play in the later rounds.

It seemed to me that Hopkins thought he could do the same thing he did in the last fight and squeak out a win.  I didn't see anything different from Hopkins than I saw in the first fight.  However, Taylor learned a few things, and while it was still a close fight, the rounds Hopkins won were closer than the rounds he won in the first fight.

I'm glad I wasn't a judge, because that had to be the hardest fight to ever call.  There was so much going on and so little to accurately score that it was hard to judge that fight round-by-round.  And just to tell you how hard it was, Liederman had the fight for Taylor, Merchant had the fight a draw, and Jones said Hopkins was leading.  That's probably the most disputed I've seen that HBO crew.

To be perfectly honest, I would love to see Taylor/Hopkins III, and I don't recall ever wanting to see a trifecta between any two fighters.  I doubt if it will happen, but it should.  However, Taylor now has to look towards Winky Wright and a handfull of other fighters.

Atlanta Falcons' qaurterback Michael Vick (7) is sacked by Carolina Panthers players Will Witherspoon (54) and Michael Rucker (93) during the second quarter in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday Dec. 4, 2005. (AP/Rick Hayner)

We'll finish the job on New Years Day.

I've been slacking on this as of late, but let me try to get this in...

As a Panther fan, today is a very big day.  Today's game with Atlanta could decide whether the Panthers lock in their spot to the playoffs.  Not technically, but I can't see them losing the rest of their games after winning this one. 

Vick's passing game has indeed improved of late, mainly because he was forced to through that knee injury.  He ran a bit on Detroit on Thanksgiving, but really....who can't?  The Lions were in total disarray in that game.

Last year, we allowed Allen Rossum to get a ton of special teams yards which set up short yardage drives for Atlanta.  We can't have that happen again.  Warrick Dunn is the key to the game.  Keep him contained and that Falcons offense rests on one leg, dependent on any kind of production Vick, Crumpler, and Finnerman can give them.

On the offensive end, whatever funk Jake Delhomme has had in the last month or so needs to cease.  He needs to step up and play a mistake-free game.  It's a crying shame that Carolina scored only 16 points in the last two games, and that's because the offense has been poorly ran as of late. 

I've also have been very disappointed in the running game.  It's obvious that Stephen Davis is a shell of his former self; thus, put him third on the depth chart.  Foster and Goings should be starting the game along with Hoover.  However, lets scrap that ridiculous three back offense - especially since the only back that can block halfway decent is Hoover - and place a tight end on the line to help block.

If we do these things, I think Carolina will win.  But we know how the Falcons pull plays out of their asses, so anything's possible.

Here's this week's picks:

- Carolina over Atlanta

- Buffalo over Miami

- Cincinnati over Pittsburgh

- Giants over Dallas

- Chicago over Green Bay

- Baltimore over Houston (Billick...your job is on the line today)

- Cleveland over Jacksonville

- Minnesota over Detroit

- Tampa Bay over New Orleans

- Indy over Tennessee

- Arizona over San Francisco

- Washington over St. Louis

- Kansas City over Denver (upset special)

- New England over the Jets

- San Diego over Oakland

and Monday Night:

- Seattle over Philadelphia

Key games are divisional games:  Carolina/Atlanta, Dallas/Giants, Bengals/Steelers, and Denver/KC.  With the exception of Denver/KC, all of them determine who leads their respective division, and might determine who actually wins it.

Have fun.

Pardon me folks, as I sit both sports and politics aside and talk about something that's really important:

Holiday cartoons.

Not just any holiday cartoon, but THE holiday cartoon.  The greatest holiday cartoon of all time even.

Wassup with CBS airing Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer in November?  Back in the day, I was expecting to watch that in like, mid-December...but every year CBS keeps airing it earlier and earlier.  It's not as if CBS has anything else that's interesting to place on tv between now and Christmas.

Look, CBS is only good for two things:  football and Rudolph.  Everything else on that network sucks (CSI lovers, I'm talking to you too).  It's bad enough that they torture us with the NFL Today crew on Sunday mornings, but now they're screwing with Rudolph.  This SHALT not stand.

I didn't even know it was coming on last night.  I mean, who watches a Christmas show on November 30th?  I was too busy doing a paper and writing some other things.  And CBS only airs Rudolph once.  That's garbage.

I mean, I can still WATCH the show...I could either buy it at Walmart or simply download it online, but there's nothing like watching it old school on CBS.  If you watched it as a kid, you know what I mean.  Part of enjoying certain holidays was to wait in anticipation for the holiday cartoon specials.

- Easter:  It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!

- Halloween:  It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! and a Garfield Halloween

- Thanksgiving:  Daffy Duck's Thanks-for-Giving Special, and a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

- Christmas:  Frosty The Snowman, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Twas the Mouse Before Christmas, When the Grinch Stole Christmas, and of course, Rudolph.

Good luck finding any of them on tv anymore.  If CBS or ABC still does, they never announce it.  I've seen the Rudolph-like promo that CBS has done for Christmas, but it never said when Rudolph was coming on.  They keep hyping it as a Christmas tradition, but they never really give it the time and attention it deserves.  It aint right.