One more dig ...

And then I'll quit, I promise.

But Adam Lucas of TarHeelBlue.com nails it:

The biggest fallacy about this whole Carolina-Duke rivalry is the 8-mile thing, as if proximity somehow indicates similarity. It's like assuming East and West Germany must be comparable since they were close to each other.

Duke fans believe spending 196 hours in a tent indicates passion and devotion. Carolina fans believe 196 hours in a tent indicates a telling lack of other social engagements.

The undergrads inhabiting Tent 1 in Krzyzewskiville staked their claim on Dec. 26, 47 days ago. Added over four years of college life, that's 188 days--over half a year--in a tent to watch four losses. The good news is that all that time in a tent did enable them to have a great view of history: Carolina's 101-87 victory was the first time an opponent surpassed 100 points in a regulation game at Cameron since the Tar Heels did it in 1983.

Duke has 6,340 undergrads. Assuming a fourth of them are seniors, that makes a class of 1,585 that will graduate in May without ever seeing a home victory over Carolina.

The rest of the article (http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/021209aaa.html) is good too. Now I'll go back to leaving Dookies alone.

Too good not to share ...

Thanks to TarHeelFanblog reader: “Yo mama sleeps with Teague” for this.

Oh and thanks to 101-87.

Money in misery ... and stolen kids.

An interesting article from a GREAT magazine about a problem near and dear to my heart (especially the part about children and international parental child abduction).

It's probably a topic for another post, but I think with The Economist you probably get the most unbiased and thoughtful reporting on the American political front.

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13057235

Afro Samurai: Art for art's sake?

Got around to watching "Afro-Samurai: Resurrection" the other night and was almost completely blown away. It's out on video and if you have the slightest enjoyment of anime, or action cartoons, or samurai movies, you owe it to yourself to see this film as soon as possible. Uncle Skippy flat out loved it. I have nits to pick, of course, but for the vast majority of the 90 minutes or so that the movie runs, I was in total awe of the cinematic experience.
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For me, the best part of the movie was not the plot, which was a little draggy and repetitive, or the characters (not Lucy Liu's best work), but the art. Oh, the glorious art! The beauty of drawings and the ink and the coloring in this film reminded me of how my love of comic books transcended from just being enthralled by the great heroic stories and developed into a more mature relationship where I appreciated each panel for the work of art that it could be. For me, way back then, it was examplified by my love of the X-Men and having my taste develop beyond the John Byrne X-Men and into more heady stuff like the Wolverine graphic novels. The art from Afro Samurai reminded me of high school friends and the hours we spent pouring over each panel and arguing about who the best comic book artists were. It didn't matter who won, of course, because we were appreciating art for art's sake. Afro Samurai reminded me of how I grew to love comics in the first place.
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Pretty heady stuff for nerdy 15 year olds.
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Anyway, Afro Samurai not only transported me back to those times, but also wrapped me in a compelling storyline and entertained me with over-the-top gory cartoon violence. Samuel L. Jackson's work on this series continues to be excellent as he voices both the title character and Afro Samurai's interior monologue personified in the outrageous Ninja Ninja.
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I had been looking forward to getting enough time to sit down and watch this movie and, for once, I was not disappointed.
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Did I mention I also saw "Hotel for Dogs?"

I like to think I'm pretty liberal ...

But some days, the thinking of conservative economist makes a lot of sense to me. Consider this Wall Street Journal opinion piece on the downside of a foreclosure "bailout." http://http//online.wsj.com/article/SB123336541474235541.html

I don't think that politically the current administration will be able to avoid providing foreclosure relief. But the author of the WSJ piece thoughtfully considers the long term effect of being trapped in that house, that really, you couldn't afford before the credit market crashed, and you won't be able to afford even once housing prices stabilize again.

I know, I know. I'm just bitter because I didn't buy a huge house that I couldn't afford and now I won't be getting any help from the government keeping it. I have a heart of stone.

The Tax Lady is Ruining my Life

Okay. She isn't really ruining my life, but she is raising my blood pressure. Check out her ad, linked below, and tell me if you don't agree. I'm certainly okay when little guys unable to defend themselves get help in dealing with the IRS. That isn't what bothers me.
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But if you've run up a tax debt of $150K, or $250K, or as the last "actual client" in the clip says $3,000,000, that means you MADE A BOATLOAD OF MONEY!!! Shut up and pay your fair share! The fact that Roni, the Tax Lady, helps them weasel out of their fair share ...
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Well, it annoys me.

http://www.ronideutch.com/video/IRSIsRuiningMyLife60_TAX-LADY.wmv

Size inflation.

Don't know whether this is Coca Cola corp's response to the hard economic times, but they've re-introduced the 16oz soda at the price of $.99. It's a good move, and I always thought that 20oz sodas were too big anyway, and just an excuse to make us spend $1.29 or more when we really didn't even want that much soda.
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But it was weird, to pick up that 16oz bottle, which not so long ago seemed really big, and think "Huh, this is kind of a small bottle of Coke."
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It really isn't, but Coca Cola corp wants you to think that it is.