No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for March 20th, 2008

Round 1, day 1

by @ 23:13. Filed under Sports.

This will be bumped as necessary, so there may or may not be newer posts below. I’m getting this started at 1:50 pm 3/20/2008.

1:50 pm – So far, not too much damage. Kansas simply crushed Portland State; not unexpected so no real commentary there.

Xavier came back to beat a very game Georgia; that final doesn’t reflect just how in control the Bulldogs were most of the game.

Unfortunately, there was some damage. Michigan State survived an ice-cold Neitzel to knock off Temple to take out one of my 12-5 upset specials. At least I wasn’t stupid enough to have Temple surviving the weekend.

6:12 pm – Unlike previous years, I didn’t wait until Day 2 to have my bracket become number 2. I lost my Cinderella (badly), and none of my other upset specials (Kentucky, Baylor) survived. At least Pittsburgh didn’t disappoint.

8:38 pm – About the only good thing is I don’t have to extend the Suicide Watch to North Carolina and the patriarch Ham (it’s already been issued for MK). There’s also the fact I’ve yet to lose an Elite Eight team, though I’m already missing a Sweet 16. That was very close to an 0-3 early-evening performance, as Belmont gave Duke all they could handle, the Aggies gig BYU, and K-State gives us the first actual upset of the tourney.

11:13 pm – Who said it was a down year for the Big Ten, and why did I listen to them? The Badgers and Purdue make the Big Ten 3-0 in the tourney so far, and I missed two of those. The Boilermakers were the last game I missed tonight, as UCLA almost tripled up on poor Mississippi Valley State, my first 7-10 split came in with West Virginia, and the Golden Domers take out last year’s Cindy.

10-6 on Day 1, one of my Sweet 16 teams toastified. Not my usual Day One performance, but considering my 2008 performance to date, not too bad.

Ahmadinejad – Obama’s other crazy Uncle?

by @ 15:18. Filed under Politics - National.

I read the transcript of Barack Obama’s speech on race.   As I was reading it, I was struck that this speech while intended to address race relations,  gave great incite as to how Obama would handle international relations, especially with countries like Iran.  

In his speech , Barack Obama said about Jeremiah Wright’s abominable comments:

Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country — a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America, a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Rev. Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems — two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

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The Fed…Ready, Fire, Aim

by @ 12:15. Filed under Business.

I spent a large part of my business career in the wireless industry.   When I started, it was a very new industry with few standards and  no history or parallels to draw on.    Throw in  extremely fast growth and we found that many times  the need to make quick significant decisions didn’t  allow us the luxury of  completely analysing and  understanding all the implications of a specific move.   Sometimes it was more necessary to “do something”  rather than “doing nothing” because detailed information wasn’t available, either because  we didn’t have the history  or things moved so fast that  to study and plan for all the implications would make any determined action too late.   Often, we would make an educated guess, implement our decision and have to adjust, or in some cases, clean up later.   Rather than “Ready, Aim, Fire,” we often found ourselves doing “Ready, Fire, Aim.”   I look at the Feds  action regarding Bear Stearns as a “Ready, Fire, Aim” situation.

I’ve read numerous articles this week decrying the Feds action to save, support, bail out (pick your favorite descriptive) of Bear Stearns.   The complaints range from the capitalism purists who want the market and only the market, to determine the winners and losers without outside influence, to those who see the Feds action as more corporate welfare that gift wrapped a lifetime of Christmas and birthday gifts in one pretty package  for JP Morgan.   I don’t think either of these perspectives are accurate.   In fact, I don’t the the Fed’s action had anything to do with “Bear Stearns” the company at all.
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Let’s bounce the mozzarella

by @ 9:09. Filed under Sports.

Selected highlights (soon to be lowlights) of the Bouncing Mozzarella bracket:

– You heard it here first; Wisconsin 63, Memphis 62 in the championship.
– Sorry, Hams (Georgia) and Care Bears (Marquette), for the first-round exits.
– The yearly 7-10 splits: Butler (#7), Davidson (#10), St. Mary’s (#10), West Virginia (#10)
– The first #1 gone; Kansas missing the Sweet 16 to the benefit of this year’s weak Cinderella, Kent State.
– Sorry, Bruce Pearl. We still love ya in the land of cheese and beer, but the road to a Bucky championship goes right through you in the national semi-final.
– There will be 5 opportunities to chant, “Beat (UC)LA!”
– The highest seed to drop in the first round: Vanderbilt.

There’s still time to try to beat me. The Bar and The Morons still have room in their brackets, and they close at tipoff at 11:20 (probably a few minutes early).

The folly of Kelo v City of New London

by @ 8:25. Filed under Business, Politics.

(H/T – Jon Ham)

Remember the Kelo decision almost 2 years ago, giving the city of New London, Connecticut and developer Corcoran Jennison carte blanche to force out a bunch of homeowners for the sole purpose of gentrifying the Fort Trumbill area? It looks like that gentrification won’t happen anytime soon, even in a reduced role:

Faced with a tight lending climate, the Corcoran Jennison company has asked the Federal Housing Authority to back an $11.5 million loan to fund the long-delayed construction of housing on the Fort Trumbull peninsula.

Corcoran Jennison applied for the mortgage insurance last Friday, said Kristine Foye, spokeswoman for the New England Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The request was filed three months before a crucial May 29 deadline for the Boston-based developer to secure financing and sign a construction contract for an 80-unit complex of rental apartments and townhouses.

City officials and residents have closely watched the progress of the project, which would be the first new construction since eminent domain cleared portions of the peninsula for redevelopment.

Newsbusters notes the New London Day (the source of the blockquote) couldn’t bring itself to remember Sue Kelo. Between the legal bills and the extended time the land has sat vacant, I wonder if that apartment complex will ever replace the tax money that Kelo and her fellow former residents were paying.

I know it’s not quite the same, but I have a question for the folks at Milwaukee City Hall; how’s that Park East footprint looking? Do we have any construction going on that land?

The Morning Scramble/Open Thread Thursday – 3/20/2008

by @ 7:51. Filed under Open Thread Thursday, The Morning Scramble.

I really need to thank Mary Katharine Ham for putting music in her linkage posts. Mea culpa maxima for not tipping my hat yesterday.

It’s spring, so it’s flood season (at least if you’re not in Wisconsin, where we’re getting more snow starting tonight). That means it’s time for some blues while you pop through the abbreviated linkage here and hopefully provide some things I miss on a regular basis in the comments.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWLw7nozO_U[/youtube]

– I’ll be on this one in more detail in a bit, but Jon Ham points out why the Kelo decision was so bad.
– Eric doesn’t care about CAIR.
– Todd Lohenry talks change.
– The Emperor has the Smackdown of the Day™.
– Jim Lynch reports there is some sanity left in Philadelphia. Hey AB, next time you and the Big Pilot decide to do a $100 lunch at Geno’s, let me know.
– Rusty says the latest M-m-m-m-m-max bin Laden audiotape is more evidence Osama is dead. Since M-m-m-m-max bitched about the Mohammed cartoons, it’s time to put them back up…
jyllands.jpg

There’s a lot more out there, but it’s time to do some bracketology. That mozzarella doesn’t bounce by itself, you know.

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