Unqualified Offerings

By Thoreau
There are many, many arguments to offer against indiscriminate wiretapping.  Here’s one that fiscal conservatives might find persuasive:  It’s so expensive that the government can’t afford it.
Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau’s repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.
A Justice Department audit [...]

By Thoreau
Yesterday’s LA Times featured an op-ed by Michael Kinsley, critiquing libertarianism and explicitly mentioning Ron Paul.  He goes over some pretty standard critiques of libertarianism, and those who want to are of course welcome to enjoy one more round of rehashing old arguments.  He even manages to work in a reference to the New [...]

By Thoreau
Not news: Prisoner breaks out of jail, later caught.
News: Prisoner makes second escape attempt.
Blogworthy: He’s suing the jail because he hurt himself during the second escape attempt, and he thinks they should have made it harder for him to escape his cell and reach the roof, from which he fell while [...]

By Thoreau
Rumor has it that the wiretap bill won’t be revived after all.
If this is officially announced by Reid, I will call his office to congratulate him on that decision.  It’s important that decisions be met with feedback.

Watching Chargers-Colts and I just saw the coolest block ever on the first play from scrimmage. Peyton Manning dumps the ball off to the running back. Downfield, Dallas Clark engages, and holds for several seconds, a kind of backwards block. He “fronts” the guy who was covering him like a basketball forward posting up, and [...]

Downblog, Brett gives me an excuse to procrastinate on some office work I have to finish today. I made a really nice table in Excel from the last 10 years of NFL team stats. WordPress munges the table when I try to paste it into the post. There’s a plug-in out there that I’ll have [...]

Last few weeks it’s been the fashion to pick the Patriots to lose because they’ve “looked beatable.” There will be one or two more opportunities to follow this logic shortly. As a reminder, in those situations you have the choice between two teams:
Patriots – Have looked beatable.
Opponent – Have been beaten.
17-0 is a trend.