In today's Detroit Free Press, Lauren Allen of the Warren Woods Tower High School girl's basketball team says her favorite player is Deanna Nolan of the Detroit Shock!!!

Lauren, I totally agree with you! Deanna is also my favorite, both because she is a great player and also because she is a great representative of the City of Flint where I work.

Let's take a look at tomorrow's college football. shall we?

#1 USC at #14 Arizona State-those no good SOB's from U$C have to lose sometime, and it might as well be against a ranked team on the road.

#2 Texas should have no problem with Missouri.

#3 Virginia Tech may just get a scare from West Virginia.

#4 LSU will get it done against Mississippi State...take that to the bank.

#5 Florida v. #15 Alabama will be a good game, the line of Gators by 3 1/2 sounds about right to me.

#6 Florida State, as much as I hate them, will probably rout the always overrated and underachieving Syracuse.

#7 Georgia and #8 Ohio State are idle, but then again, aren't the Buckeyes always idle???

#9 Miami of Florida, another team I love to hate, should make quick work of South Florida.

#10 Tennessee will walk all over Old Miss.

#11 Michigan State will lose, lose, LOSE to unranked (for the nonce) Michigan!!!!!

#12 California-Berkeley will roll over pathetic Arizona.

#13 Notre Lame will lose to #22 Purdue, making me even more pissed that Michigan could not beat the Irish.

#16 Texas Tech will dismiss Kansas with little effort.

#17 Wisconsin may end up losing at some point this season, but it won't be tomorrow against always-dismal Indiana.

#18 Minnesota vs. Penn State...this could be a good one. I think the resurgent Nittany Lions will take care of business at home.

#19 Virginia will edge Maryland.

#20 UCLA will pound hapless Washington.

#21 Boston College will beat Ball State, but may not cover the whopping 38 point spread.

#23 Iowa State will hand Nebraska their first loss of the season.

#24 Louisville vs. Florida Atlantic-another 38 point spread, in this case I think Louisville will cover.

#25 Georgia Tech, like their instate rivals from the U-Ga. will also not be playing this week.

Central Michigan's gonna beat Akron, oh yeah! Never mind that 11 point spread favoring Akron...Fire Up Chips!!!

And now for the I'm Out Of My Mind Upset Special...Iowa will get punked by Illinois!

Last evening, I attended a pep rally at the U of M Flint for the upcoming U of M Ann Arbor football game against Michigan State. The featured speaker at the rally was Billy Taylor, a star running back for the Wolverines in the late 60s and early 70s. This was not just any standard rah-rah speech, as Mr. Taylor has an interesting and enlightening story to tell of his own experiences.

After graduating from Michigan, his mother passed away and his career in pro football was not very successful. He ran into trouble with the law and served time in prison. Nevertheless, he furthered his education and became successful in business. Then he lost his job in a company downsizing and once again fell into despair, ending up homeless and addicted to alcohol and drugs.

But once again, Billy Taylor was able to summon up the strength that carried him through his time as a Michigan football player. He has turned his life around, earning a doctorate degree, teaching at the college level, and sharing his experiences with others as a motivational speaker.

It is these things that are truly important, no matter how much we may focus on who won the latest game or championship.

Two lessons that I take from Billy Taylor's story:

1)We all have problems and challenges to deal with...even those of us, like star athletes, who seem to have it all.

2)No matter how far we may fall in life, there is always the opportunity to "Get Back Up!" and try again. "Get Back Up" is, in fact, the title of Billy Taylor's autobiography which I have just started reading.

In downtown Flint, Michigan there is a particularly sad and forlorn building known as Genesee Towers. It is basically a multistory parking garage with a multistory office building on top of it. Neither of which are much used anymore, as the building decays from lack of maintenance and lack of tenants.

Genesee Towers was built in 1968, at which point Flint and the Midwestern Rust Belt economy was still humming along quite nicely with many thousands of blue collar workers employed by the automobile and other manufacturing industries. It would not be long however before all this began to change, and now more than three decades later things have morphed into who knows what. Also, big city downtowns seemed to become at least somewhat obsolete not long after 1968 with most retail shopping and some offices moving to suburban areas which left the old downtowns at least somewhat desolate.

Major college towns like Ann Arbor and East Lansing seemed to adjust OK, with restaurants and specialty shops catering to a collegiate crowd replacing the more general department stores, drug and grocery stores, and other businesses that mostly relocated to suburban mall areas. Some bigger cities like Detroit and Chicago were able to at least keep such attractions as museums, public libraries, sports stadiums, and other cultural/entertainment venues.

Then there are other cities like Flint that have not fared as well. There are signs of hope, though, one of which is the University of Michigan campus at which I work. Another is the "College and Cultural Area" which is somewhat outside of the core downtown but close enough to be at least somewhat associated with downtown. The university and other institutions keep people coming and in some cases living downtown or nearby, and also provide positive signs of activity and vitality.

At the university where I work, the student newspaper runs a "Public Safety Blotter" detailing the various situations the campus police and security guards have had to deal with lately. This provides an interesting look at the underside of life in These Late Capitalist Times, with the gory tales of sundry Crooks, Drunks, Morons, and Perverts.

I seem to recall one issue that mentioned a drunk person who tried to apply for a job at the University...somehow I don't think he got one!

Today's issue has several incidents of people panhandling on campus. I have occasionally been approached by people asking me for money and, even on one occasion, for some of my lunch. Perhaps some of these people are just too lazy to get a job but others probably do need help that unfortunately is harder to come by in these days of Republicrat Laissez Faire Capitalism where the Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get More Screwed.

A stolen car was abandoned on university property...that's not something we are used to seeing every day!

I am sitting at a computer on the second floor of the Graduate Library at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, looking at today's Michigan Daily for the news of the day.

"Roberts glides toward Senate confirmation" and postmodernist late capitalist Amerika slides further down the pike of Fascism, Corporate Greed, and Rank Stupidity. As I more or less figured, the lame ass Democrats offered only token opposition to Der Fuhrer Dubya's nominee. So tell me again, Dems...why should I or any other TRULY progressive person continue to support your sellout party and vote for your Republican-lite candidates?

The City of Ann Arbor is cracking down on trash in student neighborhoods! I can understand their desire for a tidy city, but really...it is just part of the Collegetown Atmosphere for there to be at least a few student houses littered with beer cans, pizza boxes, and the other flotsam of college student life.

Lynndie England found guilty of prisoner of war abuse at Abu Ghraib...she and other rank and file military personnel may well deserve punishment for this fiasco, but as usual the Amerikan System is only punishing low level personnel and only dealing with symptoms rather than root problems. The real criminals are Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, the all too loyal non-opposition Democratic Party, and the rest of the high level officials of the United States Militarist/Capitalist Ruling Class. And the root problems include the delusional thinking that turns Greedy Imperialism into some kind of noble cause.

Meanwhile, hundreds of brave people including Cindy Sheehan rallied outside the Reichstag, oops I mean the White House, in protest of the latest unjust and ridiculous United States war.

The Usual Idiots are at it again in Israel, as Palestinian and Jewish Israeli hardliners launched another round of bombing and killing. As I have said before, this conflict long ago became tedious and ridiculous, with neither side getting much sympathy from me anymore.

That's about all I am inclined to deal with right now...more to come later. As Warren Haynes sometimes likes to sing..."Sometimes to keep it together, you gotta leave it alone!"

The Green Bay Packers fell to 0-3 and 0-2 at Lambeau Field in 2005 with another close loss, 17-16 to Tampa Bay. Usually reliable kicker Ryan Longwell missed a field goal and an extra point and Brett Favre threw three interceptions. Once again, the Packer running game was not very impressive and the offensive line still does not seem to be playing well enough. Which contributes to the ineffectiveness of the running game, and puts Green Bay's great quarterback in situations where he has to force passes into double and triple coverage.

There was also a very bizarre officiating call where Tampa Bay fumbled and the Packers recovered but Tampa Bay got the ball back, because the whistle had blown when the officials thought it was an incomplete pass. So they ended up marking it as a loss of yards for Tampa Bay. Therefore the fumble did happen...I just do not understand this rule.

Next up is a Monday night game at Carolina. Last season the Packers beat Carolina on the road on a Monday night in the season opener before losing four in a row. Even though it is still early in the season, this is a must win game for Green Bay. The offense needs to be more productive, with the line being an area that must improve in order for the team's talented ballhandling players (Favre, running back Ahman Green, WR Donald Driver, etc.) to be able to do what they do well. The defense has generally been better than expected but still could stand to improve.

Michigan football blew a 10 point lead and lost to Wisconsin 23-20. So the 2005 Wolverines are now 2-2 and 0-1 in the Big Ten. This was yet another typical Lloyd Carr era loss, where a more talented Michigan team was hamstrung by coaches who are stuck in the past and unable to make in-game adjustments.

Among the many strategic blunders was the inexplicable choice to kick a field goal on third down late in the first half. And as is so often the case when Michigan had a lead, the offense got very conservative and vanilla in the second half and failed to do much save for a long touchdown pass on a flea flicker play. So, they did get creative that one time but that was about it.

And the defense, which has for the most part done somewhat better than expected, failed when the game was on the line late in the fourth quarter. They not only allowed Wisconsin's quarterback to walk in for the TD but also allowed the Badgers to milk most of the clock in the process. And then of course the offense was unable to even get into field goal range.

Lloyd Carr and his staff need to go at the end of this season. Michigan has as much player talent as any team including Southern California, but stodgy coaching keeps them from achieving what they could.

Who knows what will happen the rest of this season? Undefeated Michigan State is next, at East Lansing. This could get ugly for Michigan, or maybe they will get motivated and beat Michigan State or just end up winning now that the national championship is definitely out of reach and the Big Ten championship is less likely than it would have been with a win over Wisconsin.

I am thinking three or four regular season losses and a win in some rinky dink Weed Eater-type bowl. Do they even have the Weed Eater Bowl any more? They used to, but the naming rights have probably changed hands at least once since then.

We will see what we will see...

The Green Bay Packers made too many mistakes and were too ineffective on both sides of the ball in a 26-24 loss to Cleveland at home. This drops the Pack to 0-2 on the 2005 season.

The running game has not done much in the first two games, possibly due to the Packers having to replace both starting guards this season. This puts more pressure on Brett Favre and as great a player as he is, football is a team sport and there is only so much one player can do...even one who had his ticket to Canton punched several years ago.

The defense appears somewhat better than last season, which is not saying a lot because they basically stunk last season. Still there are too many penalties (especially pass interference) and two long touchdown passes by Cleveland yesterday put the kibosh on Green Bay's chances.

We will see what we will see...last season the Packers looked much worse than this at times yet still managed ten wins and the NFC North title.

Which brings me to the rest of the NFC North which looks not much better than the Packers after two weeks.

The Supposedly New And Improved Detroit Lions appear to be neither, as the woeful Chicago Bears sent them home to Motown with a 38-6 pounding. The Detroit papers have the by now routine gloom and doom headlines and this is all looking too familiar to Lions fans. The Bears probably are not as good as the Lions made them look.

Finally there are the Minnechoka Crykings, as I love to call them. They, like the Packers, also fell to 0-2 but put up much less of a fight than Green Bay. The Cincinnati Bengals pounded the hapless Crykings 37-8, with Minnechoka's only score coming late in the fourth quarter after Cincy had tallied all 37 of theirs. And recall my preview of a few days ago when I predicted at least one touchdown for the Bengals' T.J. Houshmandzadeh? Well, the Player With the Longest Last Name in the NFL had not just one but TWO TD's against Minny!

Bottom line is that the NFC North is pretty much up for grabs as far as I can tell, and if the Packers can just get their act together they have as good a chance as any of the other three teams.

In other NFL news, Philadelphia routed San Francisco 42-3, just another chapter in the decline of the once-proud 49er franchise. Pittsburgh also looked good in a win over Houston...could we possibly have an all-Pennsylvania Super Bowl in Detroit this coming January?

Michigan put up double nickels and pitched a shutout against Eastern Michigan, in other words the Wolverines won 55-0. What this proves is, well, probably not much more than this is what happens when a top tier Big Ten team plays a bottom dwelling Mid American conference team. We will find out much more about the football Wolverines the next two Saturdays when they travel to Madison and East Lansing for tough road games against the Badgers and Spartans.

Speaking of the Spartans, they managed to go to Notre Dame and hang 38 points on the Irish in regulation time and won 44-41 in OT. Which makes me even more angry at Michigan's inability to score points AT HOME against the same Notre Dame team that MSU had no problem scoring against. More than ever I think that it is time for the coaching regime in Ann Arbor to change. Lloyd Carr is a good guy and a loyal Michigan person, so I would kick him up to assistant athletic director and groom him to replace Bill Martin. I'd kick the rest of the current coaching staff to the curb and start with new people and fresh thinking. Michigan has too much talent to lose two or three games every year, year in and year out with the exception of 1997. I do not expect Michigan to win every game every season, but I expect better than we get all too often.

My other favorite college team did not do so well as Penn State beat Central Michigan 40-3. I guess I was in fact out of my mind for thinking that the Chippewas could cover the spread.

Perhaps my least favorite (or most hated) college team, the Southern California Hollywood Pretty Boyz (oops I mean Trojans) had little trouble with Arkansas. I hope that someone can beat U$C soon because, did I mention I really hate these pretty boys, Los Angeles/Hollywood in general, and all that they and it stand for?

The pain, suffering, and chaos continues in Iraq, thanks to the George W. Bush led Demublican/Republicrat United States ruling regime. Many are now calling it a civil war caused by the U.S. occupation, as various ethnic and religious factions carry out murder, torture, and other sundry atrocities. The "election process" overseen by Uncle Sam has only aggravated matters, as many Iraqis see the elections and the resulting government as merely a farce controlled by the United States. As was the government of Saddam Hussein at one time, for let us not forget (as much as the U.S. government and its corporate media would like us to) that ol' Saddam was once one of "our S.O.B.'s" as Franklin Roosevelt once referred to the brutal thug Nicaraguan dictator Somoza.

The struggle continues in South Africa, where despite the ending of apartheid a little over a decade ago, much of the black population still lives in poverty due to the same global inequalities in wealth (backed by the military muscle primarily of the United States) that keeps the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan going, that keeps idiotic and fascist domestic policy like the "War on Drugs" going, and that generally makes it difficult for progressive social change to happen. Nevertheless, from Soweto to Ann Arbor and everywhere else, people of conscience carry on and this gives me hope for a better world.

Organized labor in the United States limps along in these Postmodernist Late Capitalist Times, with a few scattered victories but a lot of stagnation and collaboration with corporate capital. Also, much of Big Labor continues to support the all too often weak and worthless (or maybe just plain as sold out to Capital as the Republicans) Democratic Party and its candidates. While there may still be a few Democrats left worth voting for, more and more the differences between the Big Two Parties are merely rhetorical as both fall ever deeper into the clutches of the corporations. I held my nose and voted for Kerry last time, but from now on I will be voting for Green Party candidates across the board.

And from Germany we have the following newsblip: "No smiling for passport photos!" Apparently it is just a technical concern, as a picture of an unsmiling face supposedly works better with facial recognition systems. Still I could not help but think of the lyric from the Grateful Dead's "The Other One:" "...the heat came round and busted me for smiling on a cloudy day!"

The Three Ring Circus Known as the United States Government is going through another bullshit charade, this time regarding the appointment of John Roberts to the Supreme Court to replace the recently croaked William Rehnquist. It is looking like more of the typical, ridiculous spectacle of "politicians throwing stones" to quote one of my favorite Grateful Dead songs.

Neither faction of the One Corporate Party (formed in a merger of the Demublican and Republicrat Parties) seems to be saying anything of any real substance which is par for the course from these clowns.

With each passing year, the Amerikan Government at all levels becomes more and more corrupt, fascist, and useless to anyone and anything but the Worst and the Richest. Nothing but a bunch of empty suits blathering on and on about nothing and desiring nothing but to keep getting re-elected or appointed. Not much different from any other Third World Banana Republic, or Old Soviet Bloc country.

On a related note, I am sending in my annual renewal for membership in the Green Party of Michigan and plan to get more active in attending meetings and so on. This is the one hope that we have, to get involved in alternatives like the Green Party and in efforts to reform the political system such as instant runoff voting and REAL campaign finance reform.

The Michigan women's basketball schedule is out for 2005-06, so I thought I'd take an early look at it and see what might happen.

Michigan had a very difficult (and that's being kind) season in 2004-05, winning only five overall games and only one in Big Ten play. So it can't get much worse, the question is how much better is it likely to get? The rest of the Big Ten will be tough as it usually is, with Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue and Minnesota the likely top four. Iowa is knocking on the door of this group, may finish higher than fifth, and will probably not end up much lower. Michigan will probably be fighting it out with Wisconsin and Illinois for the sixth through eighth spots. Penn State is going to take a big fall and I for one am overjoyed about it. PSU, Indiana, and Northwestern will bring up the rear of the conference in one order or another.

OK, so what about the Michigan schedule? Coach Burnett's crew travel out west to start the season in a tournament at the U of Oregon. They play Temple in the first game, then either the host school or St. Francis of Pennsylvania. All three of these teams are 20-plus game winners last season so Michigan will do well to get one win and one loss here. Two wins are possible, but not as likely.

Next up is a trip to South Bend to face the perennially good Notre Dame team. The Irish were 27-6 last season so this will be a very tough test for Michigan. Maybe they can pull off the upset and avenge the recent Michigan football loss to ND, but it will take a very well played game.

I think Michigan will get one win out of these first three and be 1-2 going into the home opener.

The last ten days of November 2005 find Michigan at home to play three average to less than average MAC teams...Miami of Ohio, Toledo, and Central Michigan. These are all winnable games that Michigan must win, so I will pick them to take all three and go to 4-2.

A rematch with Maine is next, and while Maine is a good team I think Michigan will get the win. They should not have much problem with Maryland-Eastern Shore.

At Washington could be a bit more tough, and I am afraid this might be a loss for the Wolverines...leaving them with 6 wins and 3 losses.

Their remaining three nonconference games all look winnable, at home against Fordham and Nebraska and on the road against St. Bonaventure. So, the Wolverines would then be 9-3 going into the Big Ten slate.

Michigan opens conference play at Illinois. The Illini have beaten Michigan more often than not lately but they are not a consistent team and Michigan needs to get the win here. The Wolverines will not be so lucky in East Lansing. Although I would be overjoyed to see them go to Ms. Sparty's House and get a win, I realize it is not likely this season. So Michigan goes to 1-1 in the league and 10-4 overall. Incidentally that would be as many Big Ten wins as they had last year and twice the overall wins with half of the regular season to go.

Iowa and Purdue at home...Michigan nearly beat Iowa at Crisler Arena last year and will get it done this year. Purdue will be much tougher to beat but Michigan needs to defend their home court and pull off at least some upsets of the better teams...so I think they will take this one as well to go to 3-1 Big Ten and 12-4 overall.

Ohio State on the road...again I'd love to see a Michigan win but it is not likely this time around. Minnesota at home will also be tough, and the Wolverines will fall to 3-3 Big Ten and 12-6 overall.

Next up is a run of four absolute must-win games for Michigan, against teams that are likely to be in the middle or bottom of the conference. First up is Indiana, the only Big Ten team Michigan beat last year. Northwestern is a team Michigan should have beat last year, and will this year. Ditto for Wisconsin. Which brings me to Penn State. I am way beyond frustrated with Michigan losing to this team and their whiney, nutcase, allegedly anti-gay coach Rene Portland. PSU has only nine players this year and they are not a particularly experienced group. Michigan will get their revenge, and on PSU's home court no less. These four wins will raise Michigan's record to 7-3 Big Ten and 16-6 overall.

It will get tougher the rest of the way. Minnesota on the road is a likely loss, as is Ohio State at home. Purdue and Iowa will probably get revenge on Michigan at their homes. This would drop the Wolverines to 7-7 Big Ten and 16-10 overall.

Michigan State at home...Michigan gets revenge for the earlier loss and also gets Coach Burnett her first win in the rivalry. Michigan then completes the season sweep of Illinois to take a 9-7 Big Ten and 18-10 overall mark into the postseason.

9-7 should place Michigan about sixth in the Big Ten which is where I picked them some time ago. Based on my other picks for the regular season, here's how I see the Big Ten tournament playing out:

First round: Wisconsin croaks Penn State (ha-ha, Rene!!!), Northwestern upsets Illinois, and Michigan beats Indiana.

Second round: Ohio State over Wisconsin, Purdue over Northwestern, Minnesota over Iowa, and yes, MICHIGAN OVER MICHIGAN STATE!!! Am I out of my mind with that last one? Maybe, but the future has yet to be written and I may be vindicated after all.

Semifinals: Purdue over Minnesota and Ohio State over Michigan. I can't really push my luck much more than I already have, after all.

Ohio State over Purdue for the tournament title and automatic NCAA bid. Purdue, Michigan State, Minnesota, Iowa, and Michigan (at 20 wins and 11 losses) will also make the Big Dance. Illinois and Wisconsin (if they end up .500 or better overall) will make the NIT.

I see Michigan winning in the first round of the NCAA before bowing out. And I could be totally out of my cotton pickin' Maize and Blue mind to think that a team could go from five to 21 wins in one season. Perhaps 16 or 17 is a more reasonable guesstimate. But we will see what we will see, now won't we???

GO BLUE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL!!!

Some early calls on this coming weekend's football, for what it's worth:

Michigan vs. Eastern Michigan-take Michigan and give the 30 1/2 points...the Wolverines are going to be at their best after a tough loss to Notre Dame and therefore the Hurons, oops I mean Eagles have no chance.

Penn State vs. Central Michigan-the Mighty Chips will keep it under the 23 1/2 point spread! I must be out of my mind! But no, really, I think they can do it! We will see what we will see, eh?

Notre Dame vs. Michigan State-Oh how I hate both of these teams! With overtime in college FB we will never again have a 10-10 tie in this matchup like in 1966. It is ND's home opener and they have won their first two against better competition than MSU, so I'd take the Irish and give the seven points.

Southern Cal vs. Arkansas-USC is good but are they really 31 points better than the Razorbacks? I'd take Arkansas and the points.

Nebraska vs. Pittsburgh-Nebraska is favored by 10 1/2 but them ol' Cornhuskers ain't what they used to be. Pitt will win this one outright, forget about the spread.

Texas vs. Rice-the Horns are very good and Rice is very, well, not good. Still I have to wonder if Texas will cover the 40 point (!!!!!) spread. That's a lot of points. Still, I think I would take Texas to cover.

Ohio State vs. San Diego State-the line is 27 1/2 and this is one of those games that could be closer than expected. On the other hand, Ohio State like Michigan is coming off a disappointing loss, so I think the Bucks will cover the spread.

Miami of Florida vs. Clemson-wow, the line is closer than I'd think on this one, only Miami by seven and a half. Clemson always seems to choke in big games, so as much as I hate the Convictcanes I see them winning by more than the line.

UCLA vs. Oklahoma-UCLA is favored by seven at home, but I think the Sooners will win for real.

Detroit Lions vs. Chicago Bears-Lions got a quality win over Green Bay and should have no problem with the Bears, who of course Still Suck. The line is Lions by 2 and a half and they will easily cover it.

Green Bay Packers vs. Cleveland Browns-the Pack will be fired up after the loss at Detroit, so take Brett Favre and Company and give the seven points. This one will not be close.

Indianapolis vs. Jacksonville-take Jax and the nine points, they may win this one outright over the Overrated Colts and Overrated Choker Peyton Manning.

NY Giants vs. New Orleans-take the Saints to win this one, over another team led by a Whining, Overrated Jackass named Manning.

Cincinnati vs. Minnechoka-the Crykings will drop to 0-2 with a loss to the Bengals. The Guy With the Coolest Name in the NFL (Cincy's T.J. Houshmandzadeh!) will score at least one TD!

For the second straight day, one of my favorite football teams lost. On Sunday it was the Green Bay Packers, and their loss to the Detroit Lions was in some ways eerily similar to the Michigan Wolverines' loss to Notre Dame.

In both cases, my teams (Packers and Wolverines) were supposed to have good or even great offenses and suspect at best defenses. In both cases over this past weekend, the defenses played better than expected while the offenses played worse than expected. Even the final scores were almost the same...Notre Dame 17-Michigan 10, Lions 17-Packers 3.

The Packers, like the Wolverines, blew lots of opportunites to score points. The Packers also suffered from some very biased towards Detroit officiating. The Packers ended up with 14 flags to only four for the Lions. Some of these were legitimate pass interference calls on the Green Bay defense, but at least two calls were very questionable and robbed the Packers of scoring chances. One was on a long punt return by Antonio Chatman, the other on a long pass reception by Javon Walker. By the way, Walker is out for the season with an injury suffered on that very play.

These officials are truly either the most incompetent or the most crooked ever. Jeff Triplette, Scott Dawson, Mark Baltz, Jeff Seeman, Duke Carroll, Greg Meyer, and Greg Steed are the names of the idiots who officiated yesterday's game. I hope they are happy with whatever payoff they got from the Lions staff. They should be immediately investigated by the NFL and drummed out of the officiating corps.

As always we will see what we will see...

I will put aside my disappointment at the Detroit Shock being out of it and make some comments on the WNBA playoffs.

Connecticut beat Indiana in two straight games and Sacramento did the same to Houston. So this sets up a finals matchup between Connecticut and Sacramento with Connecticut having home court. This season for the first time, the WNBA finals will be five games instead of three.

Both of these teams are good so I see a close series...and I think Conn. will take advantage of the home court and win in five.

Things were supposed to be different this season for Michigan football...a returning starter at quarterback, all three non-conference games at home, yadda yadda blah blah...

So why is the result looking all too familiar, as supposed number three in the country Michigan totally tanked on offense and lost to underdog Notre Dame 17-10?

Once again, Michigan was outcoached and outplayed by a team they should have beat. Once again the Wolverine faithful are in the position of hoping that Michigan can somehow win the rest of their games and have enough other things happen for Michigan to have a national championship shot.

Of course, Michigan has also tended (in addition to losing a non-conference game) to also blow at least one Big Ten contest in any given season with the exception of the magical 1997 national championship run. And of course, two losses basically eliminates you from the national race.

More and more I am inclined to believe that the Michigan football program needs a Regime Change. I like Lloyd Carr as a person, but he and his staff appear to be stuck in the 1950s or 1970s at best in terms of their strategy and game planning. They just keep doing the same things that stopped working decades ago and wonder why these things do not work consistently anymore.

The program had another period similar to this one, from the late 50s to 1968 when Bump Elliot was head coach. Then in 1969 they looked outside the program and hired a guy by the name of Schembechler who revived Michigan's fortunes. Since then the program has hired from within and in my opinion has once again become stale and stagnant.

I would like to see Lloyd Carr stay around as an assistant AD or maybe (if Bill Martin is ready to step down) as AD. But it is becoming more and more clear that the football program needs new leadership with fresh thinking.

It has been a few days since my last post because of a vacation during which I did not have access to a computer. Some sports stuff to start with.

Michigan football managed to beat Northern Illinois in the 2005 season opener despite horrible defense, a problem that has persisted since 1998.

I am not allowed to say this in certain places but I will say it here...Michigan defensive coordinator Jim Hermann is a totally worthless sack of crap who should have been croaked a long time ago. I am also less and less happy with head coach Lloyd Carr, who seems too stuck in the mud too much of the time. He may be a nice guy but with the talent Michigan has they should not be losing as many games as they do.

And speaking of coaches who need to resign or be fired, why have neither of these things happened to Bill Lame-beer yet?

The Miami of Florida Convictcanes and Florida State Criminoles played their annual game, another of those (like Michigan State-Notre Dame and Southern Cal-UCLA) where I wish that both teams could lose because I cannot stand either. I think the Criminoles won the latest Battle of the Florida Scumbag Teams.

Some more postmodern musings...I was in Grand Haven, Michigan on the aforementioned vacation and saw a manifestation of something I remember from the theory I have read. This regards the tendency of places that once were sites of production (like factories) becoming sites of consumerism (shopping malls). In downtown Grand Haven they have a shopping mall that once was the Story and Clark piano factory. The fading painted signature of the piano company can still be barely read on the bricks on the outside of the building. There are many old photos of the inside and outside of the factory on the walls of the now-shopping mall, including one that I believe must be from sometime in the 1950s. I came to this conclusion from the background of the photo which shows what appears to be a makeshift baseball scoreboard with New York and Brooklyn as the teams. Which, from my knowledge of sports history, I know was a fairly regular World Series matchup (New York Yankees vs. then-Brooklyn Dodgers) in the 50s.

I figure the factory workers were listening to a World Series game (or maybe even watching it on TV?) and keeping track of the score.

Stupid ads I just heard while sitting here...

Another in the Charmin "bears doing you know what in the woods" series accompanied by a very annoying jingle. This jingle and ad concept needs to be croaked immediately. It was dumb and annoying to begin with and has not aged well at all.

The Wendy's "ranch tooth" ads also got on my nerves right from the get-go.

Deanna Nolan (the Pride of Flint) had a great game with 23 points, but it was not enough to overcome the coaching incompetence of Bill "Wayne Fontes Jr." LAME-beer as the Detroit Shock lost to Connecticut to end a second straight season of mediocrity. The 2003 "worst to first" championship run is fading in the rear view mirror just like the "World's Biggest Tire" as one drives down Interstate 94 near Detroit. This is way beyond tiresome, and a coaching change needs to be made or else the Shock has a front office even more stupid and clueless than that of the Detroit Lions. Which is something I never thought could even be possible.

In other Friday night sports news, my undergrad alma mater (Central Michigan) came up just short in a 20-13 loss to Big Ten school Indiana. But if you picked the Mighty Chippewas on the betting card and took the eight points the Hoosiers were giving, congrats...you are a winner!

Minnesota beat Tulsa 41-10 on Thursday, so looks like I was right on that one not being close.

On the other hand, maybe Eastern Michigan is not as pathetic as I thought, as they only lost by two to Cincinnati.

According to the Flint Journal, Central Missouri beat Lincoln (MO) 83-0. Maybe this is a typo, maybe not?

Arizona State 63-Temple (still sucks) 16...did I mention that Temple still sucks?

In the news the last few days, the devastation of New Orleans and surrounding areas by Hurricane Katrina. Much has been said about the human suffering and losses, and I feel I can't add much more but can only hope for the best for everyone involved.

Much has been made about the governmental response...has it been good enough and if not, how could it be made better? I am on the one hand confident that emergency personnel are doing the best they can with the resources they have at hand. Which brings me to what could and should be better. Government at all levels of the United States currently wastes millions on dubious and destructive policies such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the homefront "war on drugs" which is really nothing more than fascist repression and criminalization of certain groups of people including people of color and white counterculturalists such as the hippies. This is money that could and should be used for more constructive purposes such as health care, education, and, yes, also for relief, rescue, and rebuilding when natural disasters such as hurricanes occur.

Speaking of vehicles, gas prices, and Moron Amerikans...I have to wonder how stupid all the Hummer Driving Jackasses of Amerika must be feeling now with gas up over $3.00 a gallon?

Is it really worth having that very expensive penis extension now that it is even more expensive to keep it running?

On the way to work today, I was for a while behind a pickup truck with the all too common "Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes peeing on something" sticker.

In this case, Calvin was wearing a "USA" ballcap and was peeing on the words "Gas Prices and OPEC."

Typical lumpenprole conservative Amerikkkan ignorance. The driver of the truck in question probably votes for Republicans like George Bush, or at best for might-as-well-be-Republicans like most Democrats. He probably thinks Amerikkkan based corporations like General Motors are wonderful. And so he blames "them A-rabs in OPEC fer keepin' gas prices so high!"

And he and his kind will go off to Vietnam, Cambodia, Central America, Afghanistan, Iraq and send their sons and daughters to do the same...all the while supporting a government (the Amerikkkan one) and a Capitalist System that cares not one bit about them even if its figureheads like Dubbya pretend to.

The pain and suffering continues unabated in Auburn Hills, as the Detroit Shock blew their playoff opener against Connecticut. They now have to go to Connecticut and win two games to advance in the WNBA postseason. Detroit started out ice-cold on offense and was never quite able to put enough points on the board to stay ahead for long.

Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Bill Lame-beer has got to go! Along with perhaps one or two (or maybe more) of the current players.

Sacramento beat Los Angeles in game one at La La Land, so all Sacto has to do is win one of two at home to advance.

The same holds true in the other two first round series, as Indiana topped New York and Seattle downed Houston.

We will see what we will see...