We've got TWO phone lines!!!! Call in while our guest is on. He's a VP of a local PR Firm talking about Super Bowl commercials. And, as always, we'll have Jon Bowling on as well.

Call (402) 342-1180. E-mail theweeklygrind@gmail.com.

Stream it on KOIL's website.

Participate!

Labels: The Weekly Grind

Is anyone excited to see Taken with Liam Neeson as a badass? Well this guy is. But I'm worried that if it's a shit flick, it will ruin my image of him forever and that will just be sad. But if it's good, it could cement Neeson as one of the better actors of our time.

It's not like solid actors haven't failed miserably when dipping their toes into the action genre. Check out Jodie Foster's last 8 movies if you don't believe me.

On the flipside, if I were the casting director for the Bourne series, Matt Damon sure as shit wouldn't have been my first choice. That said, he does a pretty damn good job in my opinion.

So if anyone goes to see Taken, leave a recommendation in the comments.

Thanks.

You want a good way to waste a lot of time by way of self-tourture? Read all 647 pages of the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009," brought to you by YOUR 111th Congress!

A lot of stuff is floating around in the media about the ridiculousness that is floating around in this $1 TRILLION bill (for example, $335,000,000 for STD prevention given to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention--call me crazy, but the Center of Disease Control doesn't stimulate much of anything at all, let alone the economy), but just this little item on page 11 completely floored me:

SEC. 1108. APPROPRIATION FOR GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE.
20 There is hereby appropriated as an additional amount
21 for ‘‘Government Accountability Office—Salaries and Ex22
penses’’ $25,000,000, for oversight activities relating to
23 this Act.

Yes, you read that right. $25 MILLION just to make sure the money in this bill is being spent right. $25,000,000. Twenty....five.....MILLION.

You don't think there's a consulting firm out there that could do this work for 1/8th of this amount? Not to mention that a consulting firm will not be made up of partisan appointments to the leadership and staff?

Sweet Christ, Heavy Soul would be happy to make sure the money that is earmarked is going to where it's supposed to go in a timely matter for, like, a couple of grand!

And think about it from this aspect: our government is so fundamentally flawed that even when they are spending $1 trillion (that we don't have, by the way), they know it's going to be screwed up so they go ahead and throw in an extra $25 mill just to set up yet another government office to make sure the money gets spent.

OUR GOVERNMENT DOESN'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SPEND MONEY!

Do you realize how much money is being spent here? It basically comes out to be around $10,000 per household in the United States.

There are so many flipping earmarks in this bill that a ton of this money is going towards programs and causes--that is insane.

Why don't they send this money out so it actually STIMULATES THE ECONOMY? Why can't they do something like send $500B to the states for infastructure projects, and then take the other $500B and send out tax rebates? Take $250B and send out tax rebates to the people, and take the other $250B and waive corporate taxes or something for a few months.

That's a shaky plan, sure, but I just came up with it. And that's the problem with the ARRA: so did they. And the Obama Administration is using the same damned tactics the Bush Administration used to push through their agendas--by using terrifying language that scares the shit out of everybody, which leads to "plans" like this getting shoved through without debate or concern as to what is actually hidden in this bill. Yeah, that's right, I compared Obama's administration to Bush's administration. Turns out that Obama was impressed with how Dubya got things done around Washington. "Scare 'em 'till they vote yes! And if you don't like it, you probably don't like people who have lost jobs!"

That's ultimately the point: there's certainly things in this bill that actually will do things to stimulate the economy. But more than anything, this is a vehicle--scratch that, a tank--to hammer through Obama's and the Democrat's agenda as quickly as possible with little to no debate.

I'm 11 pages into this bill, and I already want to lead a revolution. I cannot even begin to imagine what lies ahead in the remaining 636 pages.

"It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood." - James Madison

If this is the "change" that I and so many others voted for, I'm really depressed.

Labels: 111th Congress, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Anti-Stimulus, Stimulus

Please, I am begging all journalists, headline writers, bloggers--everyone--stop using "The Curious Case of...." as a headline. It is completely insane. It's not creative. And it usually doesn't even make sense.

Dictionary.com defines curious as follows:

–adjective
1. eager to learn or know; inquisitive.
2. prying; meddlesome.
3. arousing or exciting speculation, interest, or attention through being inexplicable or highly unusual; odd; strange: a curious sort of person; a curious scene.
4. Archaic.
a. made or prepared skillfully.
b. done with painstaking accuracy or attention to detail: a curious inquiry.
c. careful; fastidious.
d. marked by intricacy or subtlety

For example, here is a story titled "The Curious Case of Vince Young and the Tennessee Titans." It's about how Jeff Fischer supposedly has already promised the starting spot at QB next year to Kerry Collins. How is this curious? Is this story inquisitive? A curious inquiry? Highly unusual? Uh, no. No it's not. You know why? Because Vince Young sucks at being a quarterback in the NFL, and Kerry Collins led the Titans to the best record in the AFC.

Here's another, from Time: "The Curious Case of Gran Torino." It's about "the curious case" of a movie starring a 72-year-old man that features stark realism could do $150M at the box office, and dramatically out-selling all the movies that got picked for Oscars over it. Again, I ask: is this an inexplicable event? Is the story about an event that is highly unusual? NO! IT'S CLINT EASTWOOD! What the hell do you expect? The guy is old so people have stopped almost universally loving the guy? Nope, that's not the case. That's not the case at all. And he's in a movie that doesn't suck? Shocking.

Last one: "The Curious Case of Terrance Williams." This might be the worst one of them all. I'll let the writer take it away:

No player in college basketball is more of an enigma than Terrence Williams.

Williams loves to shoot three pointers but rarely makes them, but he's
six-seven, loves to rebound, and bang around with players six inches taller.

A player who thrills the crowds at Freedom Hall with Jordanesque dunks, yet is
just as likely to miss a wide open layup.

Wow. You're not trying to tell me that a kid who is a really good athlete doesn't have the best skills at basketball, are you? Because if that is what you're telling me, than I am flabbergasted. How could I not be? This kind of player has never existed before, especially not in college basketball! I mean, it's not like the Chicago Bulls have ever wasted two Lottery picks on players that would exactly fit this description? Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah? Those guys are absolutely not like that at all. Nope, nothing to see here with those two. There's no way that a guy like Terrance Williams has ever existed, so there's certainly no way there could be two players that fit that exact description and play for the same professional team. That's not to mention that Rick Pitino would never recruit a player like that. He has never had a tall player try to play like a guard, who could leap, but not have the best basketball skills. Not Walter McCarty. Not Antoine Walker. Nope. This is indeed a "curious case," because this situation has never been seen in the sport, let alone on a Rick Pitino-coached team.

And it's not just these three I happened to notice; if you do a Google News search of "The Curious Case of," it comes back with pages and pages of stories that use that in it's headline.

Please, copy editors: don't let your writer do this to you. It is old, it is overused, it is annoying, and it is usually not even accurate.

Labels: Louisville Sucks, The Curious Case of Lazy Writing

Labels: 1180 KOIL, Barrett Ruud, Hot Shops, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Nebraska Football, Omaha, The Weekly Grind

Great Third baseman or Greatest Third Baseball.

George Brett breaks down a trip to Vegas. . .and now I am speachless and now more than ever I would love to spend a weekend with Mr Brett.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6403VV2oyu0

Labels: The Weekly Grind

Labels: 1180 KOIL, Barrett Ruud, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, The Weekly Grind

According to my colleague and blog friend Mike'l Severe, here is his take from the Rivals website (subscription required for the article), here are some snippets followed by my comments on the players Mike'l thinks will be drafted:

Marlon Lucky

Mike'l's Evaluation: Marlon catches the ball out of the backfield better than almost all of the eligible backs. Coming out of a pro offense Marlon is top shelf in pass pro. His short area quickness will be a question and I wonder out loud how he will run his short shuttle - most NU grads excel at the short shuttle. His film will both benefit Lucky's draft status and hurt him. His vision has always been a question and that will show up on tape. If you put in the 2007 Texas tape you see a back that runs hard and finishes his runs. On the other hand some of the games versus top rated teams have you shaking your head. His 40 time probably won't impress many. Depending on the underclassman in this draft, the running back spot could be much better than expected.

FINAL TAKE: (Seventh round to FA) With a good pro day, he can maybe get into the sixth round. There is not a back in this draft with better hands.

Pete's Evaluation: I don't see it. It's all about his 40 time. It's not going to matter how good his hands are if he can't run somewhere within .03 seconds of 4.5. I agree with Mike'l that his film will most likely be his worst enemy as NFL teams will see an uninspired runner with poor vision. He gets a draft pick if and only if his 40 exceeds expectations. His performance in the Shrine Bowl helps though, so I guess I predict that he gets drafted late 7th until I see that 40, then all bets are off.

Zach Potter

Mike'l's Evaluation: It's one of the top truths in sports: you can't teach size. Zach Potter has that in spades. We speculated for a couple of weeks that he would be invited to the combine, and we found out Thursday that he did get that invite, and will play in the Texas vs. the Nation game. Zach started at Nebraska with a lot of critics, saying he didn't have a passion for the game of football. Potter says learning under Adam Carriker and then Carriker leaving, inspired him. As a tall defensive end, Zach has to worry about keeping his base low on the drive. And then play tall once he has reached his limit to the quarterback. His hand play has gotten so much better since '07. He credits his footwork to playing basketball in high school.

FINAL TAKE: (Fifth-Sixth Round) 6-foot-7, 290-pound players just don't fall off the tree. He will test good enough to get a couple of teams interested and that is all it takes. Potter says he will surprise people when running his 40. If he runs in the 4.8's and does as well as I think he will in the drills, Potter could get into the 4th round. I honestly think Zach can play in both the 3-4 and 4-3. I like him keeping his weight at 280. It is an average year for defensive ends.

Pete's Evaluation: I like Potter in the NFL. I think he goes in the fourth or fifth round. All NFL teams can use a big DE to stuff the run at the goal line, block kicks, maybe move inside in passing situations. I feel that Potter will be suitable at all of those tasks. He's not making a starting lineup in my opinion, but he will be in the league for at least five years. Solid in the fourth, a steal in the 5th.

Nate Swift

Mike'l's Evaluation: Nate has had an amazing season. If Swift can run in the low 4.5's he could enhance his draft status by a couple of rounds. His hands have improved this season and he blocks in the open field. That is something you won't see on the tape of many college receivers. Swift is a good route runner but would have to play in the slot at the next level because of his struggles getting off press coverage. If Swift runs an expected 4.57- 4.60, the late rounds or undrafted free agency should be expected.

FINAL TAKE: (Seventh Round): I think Swift will run well at his pro-day. If he runs low 4.5's he could go as high as the 6th round. The punt return ability will help Swift. Beside a tenth or so off his 40 and an inch in height, I don't think there is that much difference between Swift and Jordy Nelson.

Pete's Evaluation: There is a pretty big difference between him and Jordy Nelson. Jordy Nelson weighs 220 lbs and can beat press coverage, Swift cannot. This may sound like I don't think Swift will get drafted. I actually do. I think he will be faster than 4.57 and teams will like film of his punt returns. I agree that he is not going to be much of a threat but with teams carrying five or six receivers he will get a look. I think he goes in the 7th but makes a team, unlike Lucky.

Labels: expert scouting, Marlon Lucky, Nebraska Football, unsportsmanlike conduct

I can't be the only person that is beyond tired with close-ups of Ray Lewis praying and being emotional, can I? I truly don't understand how these announcers still--still!--gush and go on about how much Ray Lewis cares, and how hard he's praying, whatever.

The guy was part of a fight where two guys DIED. By stab wounds. In other words, they were MURDERED.

Prosecutors had testimony lined up indicting Lewis, but it all changed at the trial, mob-style. And then Lewis paid off the families of the two people who died.

Yet just 9 years later, we're told that he's a "spiritual leader." We see him leading team prayers. We see him praying on the field when his teammate is down. Not to mention we see him on every flipping NFL promo ever.

And the NBA is supposedly full of thugs...at least the NBA doesn't trot out someone who may have MURDERED two people out for all their promo material.

Anyway, good day of football. The Arizona flipping Cardinals against the Petesburg Steelers.

Who you got? I think that Arizona's offense is legit, but the Steelers' defense is so unbelievably tough. I've got the Steelers by 6.

Labels: Killing People, Maybe the media should find good people to focus on, Ray Lewis

Labels: 1180 KOIL, The Weekly Grind

OK, last one: first of all, I've always felt that Scott Van Pelt--along with Kenny Mayne--is the best ESPN has to offer, for many reasons. He is self-depreciating and humble, and has shown so with messages to Deadspin, on the radio, etc.

Well, after giving Kentucky's Rivals site a shout on SportsCenter tonight, he posted the following on Kentucky's free board:


var postUser123372548=795288;
DrawHeaderNew (93, 'Ellicott1', 795288,'','',4885,'',1,123372548,1383,'You fine people are bananas',123372548,888,'#ffffff','','','');
Ellicott1Post #4885MyFanPageAdd Buddy
You fine people are bananas
Reply
....I had to mention you on the show because I saw there were 5,000 + of you on here. Love the passion.I recall how bitter you were when we lead the show with VMI. As I think I explained that night, you all will ALWAYS be news because of who you are.We weren't "anti-Kentucky" that night or "on the bandwagon" tonight.You are KENTUCKY which, as I said on the show, puts you on the short list with UCLA, Kansas, IU, Duke and Carolina for all time programs. When something like VMI happens, we are going to lead with it. When a player establishes a new scoring record at a school with all your history, we are going to lead with it. Pretty simple.As a hoop fan, I enjoyed it because I think Meeks is fantastic and I love how he carries himself.SEC is wide open ..good luck the rest of the way.I'll drop in from time to time to say hey - I know ESPN sucks, or so I read, but I have developed a think skin. I know it's all rooted in a passion for sports that I share.Y'all be easy. SVP

That's about as cool as it gets.

Labels: ESPN, Scott Van Pelt, SportsCenter

OK, I really wanted to leave "The Weekly Grind" at the top of the blog. And I have also tried hard to spare everyone of Kentucky Basketball propaganda.

That said, I just watched the greatest individual performance in college basketball I have ever seen, and I cannot help it.

Jodie Meeks--a junior who missed 20 games last season due to injury, and never had hardly anything you could say was a "good game" in the 2007-08 season--just scored 54 points AT Tennessee. The Vols and Bruce Pearl's ridiculous orange sports coat got their asses handed to them, 90-72. The Vols were 6 point favorites, and had won 16-straight SEC home games! (The last home SEC loss: I'll let you guess who that was, but I'll give you a hint: Tubby Smith coached them.)

54!!!!

In the words of Jim Rome: Jodie...FREAKING...Meeks. Do you guys understand what 54 points is in a college game? That's like 70-80 in an NBA game. He broke Dan Issel's--a basketball Hall of Famer, and considered the greatest player in the history of the greatest college program of all-time--39-year-old single-game record of 53.

Not to mention he broke his and Tony Delk's--perhaps the greatest 3-point shooter in NCAA history--single-game 3-point record, hitting 10 (!) 3's.

That was a stunning display of shooting. I mean, that was Michael Jordan-hot. Brad Nissler said that in 19 years of calling college basketball for ESPN, that was the best performance he had ever seen.

54!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And did I mention that it was at Tennessee?

God bless Jodie Meeks.

Labels: Bruce Pearl sucks even more, Jodie Meeks, Kentucky, Kentucky Basketball, Tennessee Sucks

Well kids, we have a major announcement to make.

Before making said announcement, let me just say this: of all the random blog posts in the history of Heavy Soul, this has to be the most random. That said, we're pretty excited about it.

Starting this Saturday--January 17th--Pete, B from Exit 177, and myself will be hosting a talk radio show on Omaha's 1180 KOIL--sister station to 1620 The Zone and 1290 KKAR. 1180 KOIL recently switched formats to talk radio, and includes a daily lineup including Dennis Miller, Bill Bennett, Neal Boortz, and others. They will also be carrying broadcasts of the Omaha Royals and Creighton Baseball.

It is called "The Weekly Grind presented by Beer & Loathing in Dundee," and will be a show about Omaha news, politics, and sports--from the "young professionals" perspective.

I'm not kidding.

In fact, B and I were at the station recording promos for the show this afternoon. They will be airing all week on 1180 KOIL and 1290 KKAR.

It is pretty crazy how this all came about, and that story is probably for another post and another time. Let's just say it involved an impromptu Scotch tasting, a random meeting of a local radio host, and crazy kids with crazier ideas.

All that said, we're pretty excited about the format and the possibilities. This week, we will be discussing various topics in the news, focusing on the new College World Series stadium and the apparent other new stadium in Sarpy County. Our guest will be Neil deMause, author of the book Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private Profit. The book--totally coincidentally--was published by the University of Nebraska Press. Mr. deMause has written for the Village Voice, New York Newsday, Baseball Prospectus, and The Guardian. Here is his blog. Here is some praise for the book:

“A thoughtful and comprehensive examination of the curious issue of love and money in sport.”—Frank Deford, Senior Contributing Writer at Sports Illustrated and author of The Entitled

“Field of Schemes is a superb work of investigative reporting and righteous indignation. The fan pays twice: once for the stadium and again for the ticket to get into the stadium. If enough fans read it, we could break this cycle.”—Allen Barra, sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal and author of The Last Coach: A Life of Paul “Bear” Bryant

So there you have it. We've got a radio show. We impossibly booked a really good guest.

The show will be on every Saturday from 10am - 11am (Central), and for you out-of-towners, you can stream it live on the interwebs here.

Here you'll find our new The Weekly Grind blog.

Tune in, and hear a real, live trainwreck on the radio!

Labels: 1180 KOIL, Talk Radio, The Weekly Grind, We Can't Believe It Either

Get down on it, Mr. Suh, for the following reasons:

1. You're staying with The Big Red for your senior season.
2. You have a remarkable ability to destroy offensive tackle football players.
3. Your name means "House of Spears." My name means "Pete".
4. You just made our Skers the preseason Big 12 North favorite (or possibly Kansas).
5. You could potentially decapitate Blaine Gabbert.

Labels: Great news for all of us, Houses of Spears, Nebraska Football

...and hopefully be the first person to make fun of myself.

Mangini looking to add Callahan to Browns staff

Labels: ill-fated attempts to stay out of my life by Billy C, Seriously just kill me, why god why?

...or howls uncontrollably, which would probably be more accurate.

From the Drudge Report today:

"Sarkozy, Merkel, Blair call for new capitalism"

"Merkel said the International Monetary Fund has not managed to regulate global capitalism, and she called for the creation of an economy body at the United Nations, similar to the Security Council, to judge government policy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, leading the two-day conference with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, blamed financial speculators for encouraging a system fueled on debt. He called financial capitalism based on speculation "an immoral system" that has "perverted the logic of capitalism."

"It's a system where wealth goes to the wealthy, where work is devalued, where production is devalued, where entrepreneurial spirit is devalued," he said.

But no more: "In capitalism of the 21st century, there is room for the state," he said."

Jesus. Because the United Nations does such a spectacular job in everything. And because it would be smart to have the United Nations "judge" economic policy.

All of this, not to mention the scariest thing: these people are pushing strongly for a "New World Order." I don't care if that sounds conspiracy theory-y or not, it is frightening how casually these Euros are just throwing ideas like this around. This cannot happen.

I think even my more liberal friends will find this a terrible idea...right?

Labels: New World Order, Terrible Ideas, Why is it so easy for leaders to forget that we're still the most prosperous people ever to live on this planet

This was forwarded along to me by Toffer by way of Chris Onken in Chicago...it is unbelievable how closely the Blagojevich/Burris controversy sounds exactly like an episode of Seinfeld. Here's the e-mail I received in full:

I'm guessing not everyone (or anyone) is getting as much press coverage on the Obama Senate seat, but since there are quite a few Seinfeld fans, I thought you guys might appreciate this. I'm not sure how much Roland Burris watches Seinfeld, but it seems to me he's pulling a George by showing up today amid the controversy. Thanks to Jim's script link, I've changed the names and only a couple other references:

Rod Blagojevich: That's funny . You're very quick. I feel like I, like I don't have to explain every little thing to you. You understand everything immediately.
Roland Burris: I enjoy understanding.
Blagojevich: I want you to have this job. Of course...
Secretary: The FBI is on line 2.
Blagojevich: Thanks. I've got to take this call. Listen, I'm really glad that you came in.

At Monk's

Burris: I want you to have this job. Of course...
Jesse Jackson: Yeah?
Burris: That's it.
Jesse: What do you mean that's it?
Burris: He never finished the sentence. He got a call, that was the end of the interview.

A Few Days Later

Burris: So I still haven't heard about that job.
Jesse: Yeah that's a tough one. What are you going to do about that?
Burris: I have an idea.
Jesse: Yeah?
Burris: I show up.
Jesse: What do you mean you show up?
Burris: I show up. I pretend I have the job. The guy's going to jail. If I have the job, it's fine. If I don't have the job, by the time he is aquitted of any wrongdoing, I'm ensconced.
Jesse: Hmm. Not bad.
Burris: What's the worst thing that could happen?
Jesse: Well, you'd be embarrassed and humiliated in front of a large group of people and have to walk out in shame with your tail between your legs.
Burris: Yeah, so?

Just give him the Pensky file . . .

**UPDATE: Thanks to The Politico for the link!

Labels: Illinois Politics, Rod Blagojevich, Roland Burris, Seinfeld and Politics Who Knew

# posted by GA Hill : 9:37 PM  3 comments

In Omaha news: Club Nico closes February 16th. Pour out some liquor for the lamest place in Omaha. Unless you like Goth Parties:



















Yikes. What will Omaha do without their "Wicked Goth Balls?"

(By the way, the answer to that would be "become a better city.")

Apparently their MySpace page says they aren't closing, but that's not what their vendors are saying.


Pete, where are you going to take Steve Francis next time he's in town?

Labels: Club Nico, Douche Bags