Today I got a phone call from the library.  They told me Brian Anderson's book, "South Park Conservatives" was ready for me to pick up.

I've read the intro and part of the first chapter.  If I don't procrastinate, I should have the book done by the weekend.  Once I do, I'll write up a lil report.

Men In Black is still on hold, though.  I won't get that until mid-May.  I might go ahead and buy it.  Are there any other books I should keep an eye on?

   - If you checked the scoreboard at the top of this page this morning (that's if they haven't updated to tonight's games), two games that should have grabbed your interest in the NBA was the Cavs win over Boston 100-86 and the Nets beat the Wizards 109-101.

These teams are vying for the last spot in the NBA Playoffs, and both have one game left.  The Nets have the tiebreaker advantage, which means they only need to beat Boston and they're in.  Cleveland needs to beat Toronto at home and then hope for the Nets to choke.

   - I watched the Cavs/Pistons game over the weekend, and it was obvious to everyone in attendance and watching it on television that Lebron James isn't happy with the situation in Cleveland.  You really can't blame him.  They got rid of his help in the frontcourt with Carlos Boozer, they got rid of a decent coach in Paul Silas in order to keep Jim Paxson happy only to end up firing him, and he's pretty much doing everything on the court by himself.  On the last play of the game everyone stood around waiting for Lebron to make a play.  No one stepped up to get the ball, or to set a pick, or do anything.

Lebron is a pretty cool guy, so he isn't going to trash his team like other primadonna superstars would.  It also wouldn't make any sense because they still have a chance to make the playoffs.  But I don't see Lebron staying in Cleveland after next season if they don't get him some help and show some kind of competence in their front office.  If he leaves, he'll probably head to the Knicks, where he'll make even more money off of his endorsement deals (I recall Jay Mariotti saying he has a top market clause on that $94 million dollar Nike contract of his which will make him even more money)and they're willing to get him what he needs to contend for a NBA title.  I wouldn't be surprised if Isiah Thomas hasn't started talking to Lebron already.

850 The Buzz, the sports radio station in the Triangle, is reporting on their blog that Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, and Sean May - the nucleus that led North Carolina to the National Championship - will enter the NBA draft.  According to sources at the ACC Sports Journal, Felton and McCants (McCants announced last week) will sign with an agent, making them ineligible for college play.  May hasn't yet.

Felton and McCants aren't big surprises.  Everyone knew they were leaving this year.  However, I am very disappointed with Sean May, who said he was staying for his senior season on championship night, at the rally at the Dean Dome the day after, and throughout the season.  I guess the money had more credibility than his word.

As for the Tarheels, this marks the first time in NCAA history that the national champion will lose their top seven scorers for the draft:  three seniors and four underclassmen.  Roy Williams will have to start from scratch next year.  I expect 2006 will be a rough year for the Tarheel Nation.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a German which was considered the frontrunner from the start, has been elected Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

If you don't know the legend of Ron Mexico, here's how it goes...

Michael Vick was sued by a former girlfriend last month for knowingly giving her herpes.  According to the suit, she contracted the disease back in 2003, and found evidence showing that he knew he had it way before then.

According to the court documents, Michael Vick used the alias "Ron Mexico" in order to check into a clinic.  And the name has stuck.  People are getting into the Ron Mexico craze so much that the NFL banned the name from being used in their online Pro Shop.  No matter; because someone created RonMexico.com, and I'm sure they're making a killing through selling t-shirts and all kinds of merch via CafePress.

OkayPlayer found a "Ron Mexico" name generator that's pretty cool too.  Put your full name in the box and let it rip.

My name was Rock Nauru.  Good.  This might come in handy if I ever need to go to the clinic.  Well, you know; to go witness to the heathens and stuff. ;-D

Starting in 2006, the football tradition known as Monday Night Football will move to ESPN after 35 seasons on ABC.  ESPN, ABC's sister station, will pay $1.1 billion to the NFL over the next eight years.  Meanwhile, NBC brought the rights to Sunday Night Football, which will keep a feature football game on broadcast television and brings football back to NBC.

<sarcasm> This was brilliant.  After all, it worked for the NBA, right? </sarcasm>

Personally I am sick of ESPN, and I'm sure others are as well.  While it may get a decent booster at first, I bet the ratings after a year or two won't be any better than Sunday Night Football's ratings are now.  I understand ABC was losing serious money on the game every year, but it could have been saved.  I guess nobody's ever heard of signing a lower contract.  I'd rather have the show moved to CBS or NBC on Monday nights rather than to cable.

So, will Theisman, McGwire, and Patrick move to NBC, or be out of a job? (I'm sure Michaels and Madden will move to ESPN).  My guess is they'll be out of a job.  It's unfortunate, because I find them entertaining.  NBC shouldn't be TOO bad, or at least they can't do a worse job than CBS is doing right now.  It should be interesting to see if they keep the tried and true method they had before they gave up their NFL rights to CBS.  And I'm sure Dick Enberg has already gotten the phone call and is ready to go into the booth.

(Photo:  Yahoo's The Contender Page)

After Juan De la Rosa pulled out the very sloppy victory against Tarick Salmaci last week, we start with Juan in the ring worried about the cut over his eye.  Sugar Ray told him it wasn't a deep cut, but Juan was coming up with excuses, saying he was a slow healer, and he didn't think he'd be able to continue in the Contender. 

When Juan returned to the training house, he was saying the same things to the guys, and they could tell he was exposed and worried after the Salmaci fight.  When Juan woke up the next morning, he complained about everything hurting.  When Juan received his boxing glove pendant at the reward ceremony, he admitted he was frustrated at some of the things Tarick threw at him and had to change his style a bit.

We already knew the next fight, which were the remaining two who haven't fought yet, Jimmy Lang vs. Joey Gilbert.  This was experience vs. heart matchup, as Jimmy had fought 24 pro fights while Joey had only fought eight times.  Both are roughly the same age, as Jimmy was 29 and Joey was 28.  Joey is a lawyer from Reno, NV (well, not all these guys have the Rocky stories).  Jimmy is a family man, with wife Katie, and children Angelo, Jack, and Talia, and he lives off of his boxing earnings.

We got a chance to see both fighters' families, as Joey was able to see his father for the first time since he returned from serving in Afghanistan.  Jimmy talked a little about his wife and family, and how he was worried about the fight because everyone figured he would walk through Joey because they felt Joey was not mentally prepared as well as inexperienced.

Fight time came pretty early in the show, as they usually show it at the end.  In the first round Jimmy started out well, staying busy and working the combinations.  For a while it seemed as if he may be frustrating Joey, and Joey seemed to get more and more agitated as the round went on.

Then it happened.  Joey unleashed with a flurry of punches that got Jimmy in trouble, and once Joey started, he didn't stop until the bell.  He looked as if he hurt Jimmy pretty good with a lot of those shots.  No doubt Joey's flurry gave him the first round.

The second round went almost the same way.  Joey threw a couple of jabs at the start of the round.  Jimmy threw what he had, but then Joey threw some back and they were hurting Jimmy.  Jimmy didn't look good at this point, and Joey seemed too strong and was imposing his will on Jimmy when he wanted.  Second round went to Joey as well.

In the third round, the tide changed suddenly.  Joey has had problems with his hamstring, and after he took a lunging shot at Jimmy, that leg went out on him.  All of a sudden he was only hopping around on one leg and couldn't really move from the spot he was in.  Jimmy took advantage of it by bobbing and weaving away from Joey's punches and hitting him at will.  Although Joey tried to pretend as if Jimmy's punches weren't bothering him, it was easy to tell that he was in trouble.

Round 4 didn't get any better for Joey.  Jimmy was the wrong one to have as an opponent with this kind of injury.  Jimmy's technique was crisp, as he was bobbing under Joey's punches and hitting him with some huge shots that would have probably brought other men down.  On top of that, Joey seemed dejected before the round, as he kept telling his corner that he had no legs due to the injury.  This was easily Jimmy's round.

Stallone went over to Joey's corner and gave him some motivation.  It's real simple; the winner of this fight is the winner of the fifth round, and the winner of the fifth round was the one who wanted it the most.

Well, it was Joey who found the will to win.  Jimmy came out and worked the body again, but wasn't able to get off any big shots.  All of a sudden, Joey comes out of nowhere with a good counterpunch, and then just goes after Jimmy with everything he had.  Jimmy could do nothing but try to cover up, and Jimmy fell to his knees at the end of the round.

Joey won by unaminous decision, of course.  Every round had a clear winner, and I'd bet Joey got a 10-8 decision by the judges for the final round.  However, this is similar to the De la Rosa/Salmaci fight where the winner will not win their next fight.  Joey is hurt, and he reaggravated that injury in the fight.  If you don't have legs, you can't move.  If you can't move, you can't dodge punches nor can you go after your opponent.  In other words, you're no better than a punching bag.  Joey probably won't quit the show, but I don't think he'll be able to handle the remaining fighters.

A dejected Jimmy simply didn't have the punching power to stand in there and trade shots with Joey.  Joey is a natural athlete, and sometimes brute force will beat technique.  But Jimmy was much like Brent Cooper; good technique but couldn't punch his way out of a wet paper bag.  Nor did Jimmy know what to do in order to neutralize Joey's flurries.

After celebrating, Joey comes back to the training house, where all of the fighters welcome him back with open arms.  None of them really gave him a chance to beat Jimmy, and doing it while injured didn't help things either.  They gave him his props, and told him he showed true heart by pulling the upset in those circumstances.

The next morning, an examiner checked out Juan's "injuries" - the cut over his eye, the wrist, and his neck - and told him they wouldn't heal fast enough for the next fight.  Then the examiner asked Juan did he really want to fight.  It was apparent from Juan's attitude after his fight in the last episode that he didn't want to fight anymore, and he claimed he had to look out for his boxing future.  The examiner suspends him for 45 days, but it was apparent that he only did that so Juan could save face.

He went into the living room with the other fighters and informed him that he was pulling out due to injuries.  They didn't fall for it, particularly Sergio and Anthony.  Anthony straight up called him a coward for quitting, which is ironic because his teammates called him a coward for ducking Jimmy Lang and fighting Brent Cooper.  Sergio said if he's 18 years old and can't heal, there's a problem.  It was apparent to most of them that Juan knew he was going to lose his next fight no matter who it was, and so he took himself out of the competition to keep his undefeated streak.

After Joey received his boxing glove pendant, the boys took Stallone's charter fight to Las Vegas to Caesar's Palace, to see where the final bout would be held.  Two of them would make it there to fight for $1 million dollars.  And Sly actually showed them 1 million dollars in cash, protected by security guards.  Next, Sly allowed the boxers to each pick one card.  Someone drove up with a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck.  Whoever had the ace got the truck, and the winner was Sergio.  Afterwards the guys had a night on the town after being given a $1,000 each by Sly.

The next day was crucial. After getting back to the training house, they had to deal with Juan quitting the show.  That meant they had to vote on a replacement.  They only had five choices, however - Ahmed, Jonathan, Miguel, Tarick, and Jimmy.  The other four were not medically cleared to fight.  After what many from the West saw as a blunder by voting Peter back into the house, they definitely wanted to make sure they didn't bring back a potential threat.  They would cast their vote secretly, with no discussion.

So who did they bring back?  Well, you'll have to find out next week.  See ya then.

My Other Contender Posts:

1.  The Contender Quarterfinals:  Ishe vs. Sergio
2.  The Contender, Episode Eight:  Jimmy vs. Joey
3.  The Contender Episode Seven:  Juan vs. Tarick
4.  The Contender Episode Six:  Anthony vs. Brent
5.  The Contender Episode Three:  Ishe vs. Ahmed

From UFC 52 last night:



I couldn't believe it when I heard about it.  Although it's considered an upset, the fact is when you face a knockout artist like Liddell anything can happen.  I would have liked to seen this fight go longer than what it did to see if Couture could repeat his performance from the last fight, but one punch can change that entire outlook.

Check out Sherdog and The Wrestling Observer to see the full results from UFC 52.

After months of hearing the claims about the Education Department's payments to Armstrong Williams being illegal and unethical, a report cleared both Williams and Paige of any illegal mischief.  The report is online here, in both Acrobat and MS Word.  Considering that I checked the Washington Post early this morning, I haven't had a chance to read the report in full, so I'll hold off my opinion about it until this afternoon.

Most of the report criticized the Education Department for essentially wasting money.  HELLO, it's the government.  That's what governments do best.  There was no question that this money was wasted by the Education Department.  That isn't news, especially when Armstrong Williams has never been considered a big name media figure to promote anything by any means. 

For Higgins - the inspector general of the Ed Department who investigated this matter - and Spellings to lay the blame exclusively at the Education Department's feet might work for someone who doesn't keep up with the goings on within government.  This has never been a problem exclusive to the Education Department; it's widespread throughout the federal government.  It's not something that's exclusive to this administration; the administration is simply like all of the others.

Hopefully this will quiet the knee-jerk reactionaries that have been calling for the heads of both Paige and Williams, but I doubt it.  It'll be interesting to see who speaks up, and who doesn't.

And note:  this comes a day after Congressman George Miller accused the Bush Administration of "stonewalling" the investigation by not allowing White House officials to be interviewed by Higgins.  The problem with that is the inspector generals are only obligated to interview people within the respective department they are in, and White House officials are totally optional.  He was allowed to interview one official, which happened because he temporarily worked at the Education Department.

On Wednesday, I told you about the law that was proposed in the NC House that would give in-state tuition fees to illegal aliens.

Well the opposition to it came fast and hard.  In fact, I don't recall a time where people were more outraged and stirred up because of a bill in the state legislature.  And because of the open opposition to the bill, four legislators who had previously supported the bill pulled out.

Leading the charge is talk radio, particularly WPTF 680 AM in Raleigh.  Their two local talk show hosts, Bill LuMaye and Kevin Miller (who's also the news director), have received hundreds of emails and fielded several calls by people that can't believe their elected officials would pull a stunt like this.  I think this bill was the last straw, and there is a growing wave that's rising against illegal immigration taking shape not only in North Carolina, but all over the country.

And what's helping to make the opposition stronger and more active is the fact that we have a Republican president who doesn't seem interested in protecting this country's borders.  Quite the contrary; he wants to make it more accessible for illegal aliens to cross.  The fact that he is a Republican president makes it worse, because the conservatives that are against illegal immigration now feel they have to take matters into their own hands before change can happen.  Sooner or later, something's got to give.

I bet NC legislators will think twice before they try to pull a stunt like this again.  My bet is that this bill is DOA.  Very few legislators outside of the urban areas would dare vote for a bill like this.