Mister Pterodactyl
Monday, November 29, 2004
 
Aaaand Brett Favre takes the field for his 200th start. I've broken out the Nitschke jersey for the occasion. Updates as I feel like it.

UPDATE: so what happens? Three and out, defensive TD by a couple rookies. That's it, Brett. Spread the wealth.

UPDATE II: 36 consecutive games with a touchdown. Sweet. Passed Marino for consecutive seasons with 20+ TDs, too.

By the way, is it just me, or does Sherman look a little silly in all that yellow?

TWO MINUTE WARNING: What, are we in prevent already?

BONUS HALFTIME STATISTICAL ANOMALY: the Packers have not lost a game on the last weekend of November in 25 years. [Update: make that 26.]

Third quarter: what in the world were the Rams thinking with that fake field goal?

ABC trivia question: who caught Brett Favre's very first reception? Hints: future hall-of-famer, never caught another pass. I really should have gotten that one.

Somebody tell Martz to start reading TMQ! 6:30 (ish) left in the game, down 14 points, and the Rams punt from the Packers 37. Granted, it was 4th and 17, but come on. What have you got to lose?

Y'know, I must say I'm a little dismayed by our pass defense. Bulger is a good QB, and the Rams' receivers are at least as good as ours, but geez. It's especially glaring being the only weak spot.
On the other hand, Bulger passed for well over 400 yards but they only scored 17 points. That ain't bad.

One minute left: another defensive touchdown. Yowza.

Aaaand that's all, folks.

Green Bay is playing Minnesota at a special time (2 PM Central) on Christmas Eve. Anybody else think that game could decide the division? On second thought, nah. The Vikings'll choke before then.

Finally, for those of you who missed it (and what was so important that you couldn't watch the Packers?), the answer to the trivia question: the ball was tipped and Favre caught it himself.

- posted by Dactyl @ 8:01 PM 8 comments
Sunday, November 28, 2004
 
Some of you may have noticed that Mister Pterodactyl has suffered an attack of Bloggus Interruptus. I'm almost over it.

- posted by Dactyl @ 9:05 AM 5 comments
Friday, November 19, 2004
 
Via Tuesday Morning Quarterback
Which I just got around to reading. According to TMQ, the Buffalo Bills committed what he calls a Preposterous Punt; a punt while behind (by a lot), late in the game, facing a contender, and in opponents' territory, continuing a trend in Bills behavior over the last two years. TMQ: "As for Bledsoe, for two seasons this once-magnificent passer has meekly trotted off the field, head hanging low, as coaches send in the punting unit in opposition territory. If Green Bay coaches did the same to Brett Favre, there would be a detonation so powerful it would light up screens at the National Earthquake Information Center."

Totally.

- posted by Dactyl @ 10:39 AM 2 comments
Thursday, November 18, 2004
 
Evolution, schmevolution.
The school board of Grantsburg, WI has voted to teach “theories other than evolution” in their science curriculum. A letter signed by 43 of the University of Wisconsin System's liberal arts and science deans urges the board to reverse the policy. So does another letter, which was sent Monday and is signed by more than 300 biology and religious studies faculty members from 42 state academic institutions. The board, however, is adamant. School Board President David Ahlquist: "To promote only one view is indoctrination.”

Janet Spiewak, writing in the MJS, has some pent-up frustration regarding her evolution-only education. “What would you think of a police department that disregarded evidence to follow only one of several possible theories to solve a mass murder? You would call them foolish, and you would be right, because it’s foolish to insist on looking at only one theory when there is evidence for other possibilities…but that is what Wisconsin public schools have done for decades. They teach the theory of evolution as though it’s the only one out there.”

And about those deans and faculty members, she says “I can’t say I’m surprised. When you are suffering from terrible insecurity, the least little things seem like an enormous threat.”

She then urges that educators “give [students] the facts about all the primary viable scientific theories,” and asks “why can’t science teachers discuss scientific theories based in the Jewish and Christian scriptures without making it an issue about state-promoted religion?”

Never mind the ‘if you disagree with me, it must be due to your ignorance/stupidity/insecurity’ attitude. Never mind the ‘teaching theories that are grounded in religious doctrine isn’t promoting religion’ thing (although there is so much wrong with that). But if evolution isn’t the only viable scientific origin theory, name another. Now name a third one. See my point? [If you said ‘creationism’ and ‘intelligent design,’ you cheated.] Repeatedly referring to ‘other possibilities’ and ‘all the viable theories’ is just a dodge.

Finally, if a writer is going to refer to “logical, scientifically based evidence for intelligent design,” is it too much to ask that they actually offer some of that evidence? Has anybody ever seen any? I haven’t.

Mister Pterodactyl will be researching this problem. In the meantime, via Roger Simon: "Georgia schools to stop teaching law of gravity."

- posted by Dactyl @ 9:24 AM 10 comments
Saturday, November 13, 2004
 
Save a buck
Stopped by the local Quik-E-Mart to get a paper today. Somehow amongst the small talk, the proprietor thought I asked for a lottery ticket.
I never play the lottery. My reason is this: the odds of winning are 1 in 120,526,770, or 0.0000000008297. Since, by buying a ticket, the odds of winning increase by this infinitesimal amount, I figure that my odds aren't really that much worse if I don't buy one. Brilliant, right?

- posted by Dactyl @ 1:34 PM 20 comments
Friday, November 12, 2004
 
I have been remiss...
...in not following up on this story:

Four decades after he disappeared into the mists of the cold war, a frail 64-year-old U.S. Army sergeant pleaded guilty here on Wednesday to desertion and aiding the enemy, North Korea.
The sergeant, Charles Robert Jenkins, was then demoted to private, stripped of four decades of back pay and benefits, and given dishonorable discharge and a 30-day suspended sentence.
After listening to Jenkins's testimony about his life in North Korea, a U.S. Army judge apparently accepted the defense lawyer's argument that "he has already suffered 40 years of confinement."
Under this sentence, Jenkins will not be required to leave Japan.

The charges of encouraging American soldiers to desert and encouraging disloyalty were dropped in a plea agreement.

I wonder how his confinement would compare with life in North Korea. I also wonder how he'll make a living in Japan. Better get working on that book!

UPDATE: In the comments, Steve asked how Jenkins got out of NK. I replied that the link on his name above had that information. That was incorrect. Sorry. Jenkins was permitted to fly to Indonesia, with his daughters, to meet his wife (with the 'understanding' that he would return; suckers) and receive medical treatment. Indonesia has no extradition treaty with the U.S. That was the official reason for the choice.

- posted by Dactyl @ 9:55 AM 5 comments
Saturday, November 06, 2004
 
So busy gloating I forgot to blog...
Well, we haven’t witnessed the unhinging I’d hoped for, but I’m still having a good time. Krugman has kind of let me down; I was looking for something like this (from the Getting Our Excuses in Early Dept.). This was still a decent effort, though. [Apparently he wants the Dems to work harder to get out their base. Over 115 million votes cast and they didn’t motivate their base? How’s that?]

MoDo is her normal incoherent self. [Women who are pregnant, may become pregnant, or have ever been pregnant should not click. People with heart conditions, low blood pressure, high blood pressure, or dementia should consult their doctors before clicking. Side effects may include, but are not limited to, headaches, nausea, decreased sex drive, broken monitors, and memory loss.]

Other reactions include this guy: “We're telling the world that we endorse the last four years…” Hey, that’s what I voted for. “…and give thumbs up to more evil. Sick.” That part’s just a fringe benefit.

And then there’s this guy: “The problem is just this: Slightly more than half of the citizens of this country simply do not care about what those of us in the ‘reality-based community’ say or believe about anything.” Well, yeah. [The ‘reality-based community’ is apparently taken from something an unnamed government official said back in 2002. Get over it, already.]

The new storyline of the left is so far coalescing in two ways. The first holds that Bush supporters are just stupid: “The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry. I suppose the good news is that 55 million Americans have evaded the ignorance-inducing machine. But 58 million have not… ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states.”

The second has it that we’re actually evil, intolerant, bible-thumping bigots. This, it seems, is being raised in response to exit polls in which the most popular answer to “most important issue” was “moral values.” Lacking a more detailed explanation of what that outrageously vague phrase stands for, a number of people have decided that it means a specific stance regarding certain social issues; e.g. abortion, stem cells, etc but especially gay marriage rights. Only 22% of respondents gave that answer, by the way.

I'll have more on that later. For now, allow me to make a suggestion to the Democratic party: assuming that ignorance and bigotry are the only possible reasons for others to disagree with you is no way to change their minds.


- posted by Dactyl @ 8:52 AM 7 comments
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
 
I was wondering what would happen to my election-countdown calendar after Nov. 2. I think I'll just leave it up there for a while.

By my figuring, 1462 days until the next one. Better get started. But (apologies to all of those who are calling for reconciliation) I'm going to do just a little gloating. Soon.

- posted by Dactyl @ 2:47 PM 3 comments
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
 
And the POLLS are CLOSED!
No further thoughts. Took an election night timeout to watch a movie. Dawn of the Dead. Appropriate.

Okay, one. The last phone solicitation came at 7:09 PM. It was Jesse Jackson.

I did not get a single call from the Republicans. Not one.

Y'know, I never did get around to TMQ today. Maybe later.

- posted by Dactyl @ 7:59 PM 5 comments
 
I got my votin' hat...
I note with some horror that the talking heads are still spinning. Guys, it's over.

I was thinking of doing some kind of liveblogging tonight (because the world needs one more person doing that), but I doubt that I can stay sober long enough. Gonna be a long night.

But that's not important. What is important is the comment Omni left me a few days ago: "[w]ouldn't you like to know how many votes, if any, were influenced by what people had on their blogs?" So how about it? Did blogs influence your vote? I'll start.

Short answer, no. If anything, reading blogs strengthened my support for Bush by adding depth to what I was seeing in the MSM. I did waver on another race because of a blog. I was planning to vote for Russ Feingold but then had to think about it; I read somewhere (sorry, can't remember where) that voting straight Republican would lend Bush greater support for his foreign policy, and since that's the main reason I want him back the idea gave me pause. However, in the end I stuck to my original plans. That's a subject for another post.
As far as the other races, Paul Ryan's opponents for the House didn't make a peep the whole time. I found the Democrat's website but wasn't impressed. For State Assembly, I ditched the incumbent for the Libertarian. Why? TABOR. I tried to hate it, I really did.

So leave me a comment and tell me whether blogs affected your decision. Especially those of you that don't comment much; I wanna hear from you.

- posted by Dactyl @ 4:42 PM 4 comments
 
I ain't got time to blog, I gotta go vote!

UPDATE: Mmmm, democracy.

I got there around 8:15 AM, maybe ten cars in the lot. I saw one Bush bumper sticker and one Kerry, plus a bonus Feingold. More people inside than usual. Three or four standing at the entrance. Line? Nope. "Hi, are you registered?" "Yes." "Go on up to the table." Six women at the table, three busy apparently registering new voters (I did see a driver's license on the table), three free. "Name? Address?" Two of them start looking through their Big Book of Registered Voters. It's a race! The one on my left finds it, marks it and gives me my ballot.

Wisconsin's ballots: find your candidates, fill in the arrows next to them, feed the form to the beep machine. Electronic counting, paper trail. I was voter # 110, District 1, Ward 2.

- posted by Dactyl @ 7:59 AM 3 comments
Monday, November 01, 2004
 
Sportscenter’s highlights of the Packers/Redskins game were hilarious. They led into it with a bunch of teasers about how the Pack helped Kerry out. [And oh, how sick I am of hearing about that. As Steve commented earlier, the freaking Red Sox WON THE WORLD SERIES. It’s a portent. Use your heads, people.]

But the show itself was great. After each touchdown or turnover, a clip from a campaign speech; Kerry for GB, Bush for Washington. And during Clinton Porter’s final ‘touchdown,’ “Clinton helping Bush? What?”

By the way, that guy was clearly still moving when the ball was snapped. Good call.

Speaking of calls, Brett Favre and Bart Starr have both recorded phone calls asking people to vote Republican. They mentioned yesterday’s game; must have made two versions. I have not received these calls, however I have heard from Bill Clinton twice.

- posted by Dactyl @ 10:17 AM 3 comments

Powered by Blogger