Below is my latest installment of random observations and musings. Enjoy!

1. Christopher Hitchens, who is currently my favorite author/agent provocateur, wrote a piece for Slate that supports my theory that Al Gore would be primed for a presidential run if he wins the Nobel Prize this year. You can find his take on the matter here. Also, for those as enchanted with his prose as I, he wrote an article detailing an involved spa experience for next month’s Vanity Fair that I found quite enjoyable.

2. The relative safety and cleanliness of Tokyo continues to amaze me. For example, I had a rare homeless sighting the other day, which was striking in and of itself. What amazed me more than the fact that I actually saw a homeless person was what I saw this man do. He was rummaging through some trash that was left out along a street near my office (similar to how the trash is left along the sidewalks of NYC, though this is not common practice in Tokyo). Once he had finished with the bag, he replaced the contents that he had removed during his search and tied the bag back up, leaving it just the way he found it. Unbelievable. For someone more accustomed to the actions of the American homeless, this was a rare sight indeed.

3. The whole sense of order thing sometimes gets taken to extremes in Japan. Starbucks provides a nice example of this. Sometimes, when things are busy and there are orders in front of me, I have to wait an absurd amount of time for my grande coffee because the staff feels compelled to complete ALL bar orders in front of me before I can get mine. So, despite the fact that there are four people working two registers and pouring coffees, I have to wait for the one barista to finish making lattes, mochas and the like before I can get what somebody poured out of a canister ten minutes ago. It’s like there is a rule that only one person is allowed to actually hand the customer their drink, all the while the rest of the crew may be completely idle because there are no more customers from whom to take orders. Thusly, my coffee is relegated to its spot in line, despite the fact that it was ready for consumption almost immediately upon ordering. I very much enjoy staring at my coffee in front of the barista while he or she works on the specialty drinks that were ordered before me and as the coworkers stand around and watch. Good times.

4. I’m sure everyone has had a chance to watch that University of Florida student get tasered by campus police at a John Kerry event. What a funny scene. Though it’s beyond me why a group of six security officers could not subdue this kid long enough to put him in cuffs, thus having to resort to the use of a taser gun, I found myself laughing out loud during the clip. The point the kid was attempting to make was an interesting one, but his delivery was incredibly poor and over-the-top. Note to self, when verbally-attacking a well-known public figure in front of a crowd of people, it might be a good idea to lose the theatrics, stay on point and remain calm. The primary motivation here should be to get the people in the room – most notably the security guards – to either stay lost in a haze, to remain asleep, or to actually contemplate what you have to say, definitely not to act. You can tell this kid is intensely awkward in a social context and a spaz on top of that. I’m sure his little incident gave many a YouTuber a momentary delight and I count myself among the grateful. I also liked the fact that John Kerry wanted the security guards to lay off so he could answer the question. Well done, Mr. Senator.

5. What’s with Rudy Giuliani? He recently gave a bizarre speech to the NRA, during which he not only contradicted some of his previous gun control positions but also which he rudely interrupted by fielding a cell phone call from his wife. What an odd thing to do. Apparently, such erratic behavior is nothing new to the former NYC mayor – the NYT had a funny take on this and other oddities in a recent article that detailed his history of strangeness.

6. Who the f*@k is Sherri Shepherd? I’m not sure where the producers of The View found this woman, but she clearly sucks judging by her comments during her first few weeks on the show. First, she states that she doesn’t believe in evolution (shocker), then she proceeds to claim that she doesn’t know whether or not the world is flat. Then there was her take on the Rudy Giuliani NRA speech interruption, which provided a mental image that would make any warm-blooded man shudder. Though I would rather eat glass than watch a full episode of The View, I somehow find myself knowledgeable of the merry-go-round of hosts that has existed on the show (thanks to the far-reaching blogoshpere). For example, I found the replacement of the absolutely brutal Rosie O’Donnell with Whoopi Goldberg to be a good move. However, this newest hire is comical in its atrociousness, but at least we can look forward to many more random and idiotic comments from that group!

7. There is some sort of chiming that takes place everyday at 5 PM in Tokyo. It’s reminiscent of church bells though clearly not the same. I’m not exactly sure what it is or where it originates, but it may very well be a way to signal the end of the workday in Japan – or it’s a reminder to the average salaryman that he still has another five hours to make it look like he’s working before he is forced to hit the bars with the boss.

8. Alex Beam, a writer for the Boston Globe, recently wrote an article that struck a chord with me given my recent obsession with crossword puzzles. I’ve done them on occasion for quite some time, but I’ve just recently begun actively seeking new puzzles out from various sources just to get my fix. Things really started picking up when I found them a nice distraction during my many travel downtimes. I’ve also grown quite fond of sudoku, whose numeric-based puzzles provide a nice complement to the crossword ones.

9. Anyone who is a fan of pranks absolutely must check this one out. It’s brought to us by the folks at collegehumor.com, where a prank war between two employees has been raging for a while. This latest prank may be the end all, be all.

10. I need to learn how to play poker and golf. I’ve had several friends suggest that I would be good at both if I gave them a shot, for which I have yet to find time. It is worth noting that about eight years ago people also told me that I would be good at fantasy sports, which I clearly am not. My fantasy football team is 0-3 after this weekend and, like the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, there appears to be no relief in sight.

11. Last but not least, I wanted to say that I very much enjoyed all the fuss that went into Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia University earlier this week. Many observers were denouncing the university’s decision to allow him to speak. I, on the other hand, loved it. While I agree that Iran is by no means a beacon of righteousness in the world, I happen to view the university’s decision as an example for why America is so great. We happen to allow for the freedom of speech and assembly (in most cases, at least), which is decidedly absent in places like Iran. One can’t help but wonder if Bush would be afforded the same freedom to openly express his views at the University of Tehran. I also enjoyed the opening remarks given by the university’s president, Lee Bollinger, who pulled no punches (as is often done in staid political discourse) in saying that Ahmadinejad “…exhibit[s] all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator…you are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.” Here, here. I would say he’s a combination of the two. His continuous denial of the holocaust is clearly an attempt to appeal to his fanatic base (and the clerics who pull his strings), but he has also said it so many times that maybe he has somehow convinced himself that it never happened. His claim that there are no homosexuals in his country was off-the-wall outlandish. While highly unrealistic, one could make the argument that a lack of such individuals may be due to the state’s covert and overt persecution of them. Whatever the case, I like the fact that this moron was allowed to speak at one of our universities. While many of his supporters will rejoice at the fact that he stood up to the American intelligentsia, the joke is actually on them, for they are missing the true irony of the situation.

Friday Night Lights, whose second season is due to begin in early October on NBC, is one of the finest shows on television. It brilliantly combines that wonderful sport of football with the little dramas that dominate high school life. Adolescent angst is deftly portrayed and the obsession of Texas with high school football is masterfully captured. The acting is solid, the writing is superb, the directing is first rate and the music fits perfectly. Plus, the chicks are all super hot and the action sequences are among the best (i.e. most realistic) that I’ve ever seen in a sports production (small screen or large). Moreover, the critics love it. The NYT said last year that “this new drama about high school football could be great — and not just television great, but great in the way of a poem or painting…”, and the Washington Post called the pilot “[e]xtraordinary in just about every conceivable way.” Even London’s The Guardian likes it, calling the show “accomplished and engaging”, and TV Guide called the season one finale “predictably flawless”. Anyone who reads the Sports Guy on ESPN.com knows how highly he rates the show, and he recently wrote an impassioned plea to his readers that I couldn’t agree with more. It is a shame that a high quality show such as this finds itself on the razor’s edge, with many expecting it to fail in only its second season due to insufficient viewership. What a sad commentary on American taste. Allowing yet another great show to follow in the footsteps of shows like Deadwood and Arrested Development is a travesty for anyone interested in certifiably-great television programming. If 30 Rock finds itself on the trash heap of television history as well, I may have to abandon all hope in my fellow Americans. FNL has a very vocal fan base that has created several websites devoted to saving it from cancellation, including fightforlights.com and savefridaynightlights.com. It is my sincere hope that these efforts succeed and that we are treated to many more seasons of Dillon Panther football. “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!”

I read a CNNSI article today that backed up what I said in my previous post about the past recruiting issues coming back to plague this year’s Irish squad.

Also, Matt Hayes at the Sporting News had something interesting to say about the Irish and Weis:

The honeymoon is over for Charlie Weis at Notre Dame. This is beyond comical. I actually heard one of the television bobbleheads say “Ty Willingham never went 0-3 to start a season.” He failed to mention that Willingham made Brady Quinn look like Anthony Quinn — and that two years later Weis made Quinn an All-American and a first-round draft pick. Weis also took underachieving players from Willingham’s bad recruiting classes and somehow went to two BCS bowls with a defense that couldn’t stop your local Pop Warner champion. Now, when Weis is playing catch-up with a freshman quarterback and an offensive line in shambles, we hear this hot seat nonsense. I’m not sugarcoating it; things are bad right now. But it’s not about the X’s and O’s, it’s about the Jimmys and Joes. This team is young and fast at the skill positions, and quarterback Jimmy Clausen is going to be fantastic.

Back to the OL and recruiting issues, I’d like to point out that Tyrone Willingham recruited a grand total of seven offensive linemen during roughly four recruiting cycles at ND. By comparison, Charlie recruited ten during his first two recruiting cycles and has another three lined up this year with one or two more still possible.

One final thought. Out of a roster of 75 players at ND, only 26 are upperclassmen. Michigan State has 42. BC has 17 fifth year seniors alone.

Oh well. The Irish situation is what it is. All I know is that my buddies and I will be in South Bend in all our glory this weekend, supporting the Irish regardless of result. I’m hoping we’ll at least be treated to Jimmy’s first TD pass (of many) at ND, but I’ll settle for even the slightest hint of improvement in this team’s effort overall, even if the scoreboard would suggest otherwise.

Disgraceful. Disturbing. Degrading. Detestable. All words that effectively capture this year’s version of the Fighting Irish. There are plenty more words to choose from – that’s just the “d’s”. However you describe it, these first three weeks have been painful for a lifelong Irish fan like myself. I certainly expected this year’s rebuilding effort to have its fair share of struggles, but the shoddy display of football that we’ve seen thus far is beyond compare in its inferiority. This is worse than the days of Davingham (the abyss that was the Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham experiment). It’s worse because we actually had reason to believe. Sure Ty did the university a massive disservice by golfing instead of recruiting during his final two years at ND, leaving the Irish with an atrocious set of upperclassmen, and forcing Charlie to press into service a disproportionate number of underclassmen in his third year, but still. We thought that coaching could actually win out in the end, that Charlie and his three Super Bowl rings would trump talent between the lines. After all, it was Charlie himself who promised his players that they would have “a decided schematic advantage” over their opponents each Saturday. Apparently not.

The experience of the first three weeks leads me to believe that talent trumps everything else in college football. In the NFL, I genuinely believe that coaching can actually provide a team with an edge over what would perhaps be a more talented opponent. Parity exists in the NFL in the sense that the stepdown in talent from superstars to benchwarmers isn’t as great as it is in college between first-stringers and scout teams; or, better yet, between DI and DII. The Pats are consistently good, no matter who they have lining up at WR or DB each year. They are good because they have one of the greatest coaching minds in the game. In college, things are decidedly different. No person in their right mind would ever say that Lloyd Carr is a better tactician than Charlie Weis. However, judging by the 38-0 ass-kicking the Wolverines handed the Irish this weekend, and the clear physical domination displayed by the Michigan athletes, I would argue that talent won out on Saturday. The Wolverines basically had their way with an inferior (upperclassmen) and inexperienced (underclassmen) group of Irish players, and the scoreboard duly reflected that reality.

There are plenty of things that need fixing, but I believe that most of them are capable of being remedied in the near-term. For example, for all its faults over the past few years, the defense is on the rise. It’s become fashionable to blast the Irish D – and let’s be honest, there’s been plenty of ammunition for the diatribes – but I genuinely believe that Corwin Brown will turn this unit into a perennial top-25 bunch by the time he moves onto a head coaching gig somewhere. Why? More than formations and stunts, it all comes down to the horses, and Corwin has helped tremendously in recruiting top-flight defensive talent to South Bend. Next year’s recruiting class is on track to be among the nation’s best. And for the first time in a long, long time, much of the reason for that is the quality of the defensive haul. Five-star linebackers, defensive ends, nose tackles and defensive backs comprise part of the 19-strong group that has orally-committed to ND thus far. Combine that with the solid talent that Weis managed to corral during his first two years, including Darrin Walls, Kerry Neal, Raeshon McNeil, Toryan Smith, Ian Williams and Harrison Smith, and things should be looking up defensively in the next couple of years. Offensively, the Irish should be fine. Armando Allen is going to be a stud. As is Golden Tate. Duval Kumara will explode onto the scene in due course and will prove to be a more polished version of Maurice Stovall. Robert Hughes will provide a great complement to Allen, and he will combine with Luke Schmidt to introduce an old school style of smashmouth that has long been missing in South Bend. Plus, the Irish have a bevy of highly-talented tight ends to throw into the mix at any given time, with blue chippers falling over themselves to play for Tight End U. Then there’s Jimmy…

Poor Jimmy Clausen. The kid goes 42-0 in high school, is compared to Lebron James in his utter dominance at the high school level, then gets thrown to the wolves (or Nittany Lions, to be more precise) in just the second game of his freshman year in college. Welcome to the big time, kid. Now he’s at the helm of what has become the laughingstock of college football. Most surprising to most is the fact that the ineptitude stems from the offensive impotency that the Irish have displayed, and everyone naturally looks to the QB for answers. Of course, plenty of fingers will be pointed Clausen’s way as the Irish stumble through the first half of their schedule, but I wholeheartedly believe that he’ll be just fine. The real problem here is the absolutely atrocious play of the offensive line. Glory is rarely lavished on the unsung heroes that man the trenches in football, but the reality is that solid offensive line play makes all the difference in the world. Disclaimer – I am currently reading The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, so I might be slightly biased. Nonetheless, you look at any successful team in football, and odds are they have significant talent and experience up front. I read a Slate article about this recently, and the author had two of the top three most important positions in football going to the offensive line. Unfortunately, this year’s group of offensive linemen are just that – offensive. They have combined to resemble a human sieve, which explains in large part the inability of the offense to muster anything in the way of positive yardage. ESPN’s Ivan Maisel put it perfectly when he described the offensive line’s play the following way: “Notre Dame’s offensive linemen are sort of like bungling bouncers at a nightclub. They let in way too many big, ugly guys.” Poor Jimmy appears clueless back there at times because he constantly has to worry about a rabid linebacker bearing down on him at warp speed – unencumbered, mind you. Free shot at the rookie Golden Boy! Woohoo! Let’s tee off! He has been sacked a redonkulous 15 times so far this year, which is extraordinary for being just two full games in for him. This line really sucks. No two ways about it. There was one play on Saturday when four – yes, four – Michigan defenders combined for a sack on Clausen. The telecasters took the pleasure to replay the wreck in slow motion for everyone to see, and what we saw truly epitomized the problem plaguing the Irish this year. Four ND linemen laying horizontal while four large Michigan linemen made their way to the freshman QB, snot bubbles and all. One of those attempted “blocks” came from fifth year senior John Sullivan, the center who is supposed to be the glue that holds everything together. His block – if you want to call it that – consisted of a half-hearted, halfway-executed cut block directed towards the nose tackle, which looked more like Sully was attempting not to get kicked in the head rather than slow (or prevent, maybe?) his opponent’s dash to the QB. The game started, with all its hope and unfounded promise, with an exciting proposition. Armando Allen standing alone in the backfield, about to field a shotgun snap and open the floodgate of an open Irish attack for which everyone has been eagerly awaiting. Instead, Sully snaps the ball five feet over Allen’s head, who had no choice but to smother the fumble on the Irish’s own one yard line. Here we go again! Clausen spent the rest of the game not knowing whether to prepare to test his vertical leap to reach another one of Sully’s overshoots or cover his balls from the incoming, misaligned missile of a snap from a center whom it would appear has never worked out of the shotgun before. Sully sucks – bottom line – and this is a serious problem for a young offense struggling to find its identity.

All of these struggles are compounded by the fact that the Irish play a brutal schedule. Despite what the Irish-haters say, the ND schedule is routinely among the most difficult in the nation. It’s a front-loaded, top-heavy rotation of solid programs, each of which is hellbent on beating Notre Dame, no matter what the rest of their respective seasons look like. If ND had the luxury of starting off with cupcakes to ease into things – e.g. Michigan vs. I-AA Appalachian State, wait…what the? – then perhaps the Irish could’ve managed to salvage this rebuilding year. Instead, they are forced to endure a weekly beatdown by strong programs salivating at the chance to kick them while they’re down. With MSU, Purdue, UCLA, USC and BC waiting in the wings, the Irish are staring down the barrel at an 0-8 start. And Duke just got its first win in 23 attempts, so you never know how the balance of the schedule plays out…

But the situation is what it is. The Irish are getting their clock cleaned, and a disturbing trend has developed. They’ve lost their first three games by a combined 89 points. They’ve scored a combined 13 points in those games, the worst point total over three games since 1933. Worst of all, and (again) representing what I believe to be the crux of the problem, they’ve allowed an absurd 23 sacks (five more than any other DI team), which has cost them 167 yards in total offense and helped them to average an embarrassing -5 yards rushing per game. They’ve had 41 plays go for negative yards. They’ve scored ZERO offensive touchdowns, something which I’m sure no Charlie Weis offense has ever had to stomach. They are bad. Plain and simple.

Going back to last year, things look even more depressing. Taking into account their loss to USC (now an annual event you can set your watch to) and their bowl game debacle against LSU, the Irish have lost by a combined 187-51 over their past five games, which makes for an average score of roughly 37-10. Not pretty. They’ve given up 30 or more points for five straight games for the first time ever and their combined offensive production in those games would make even Bob Davie look like an offensive guru by comparison.

This year’s Irish are knocking on a door of mediocrity that has never been opened before at ND, and it will be interesting to see how they respond. My guess is that things stay roughly the same over the next few games, but that we see little signs of progress as we proceed through the season. Things will begin to click, schemes will start to take, and teams will let their guards down by taking the Irish lightly. There will be little consolation victories here and there, but the end result will be a season to forget. What makes me keep the faith with Charlie & Co. – and why he should never be compared to the mistake that Tyrone Willingham was – is the latent talent at ND, and the incoming quality that I hope he manages to hold onto amidst this disaster of a season. If Charlie can sell next year’s freshman class on early playing time, along with the prospect of combining with this year’s freshmen and sophomores, and keep them from decommitting, then I think we’re onto something. Like I said, talent wins out in college football, and Charlie is working on his third straight class of top ten recruits, whose seasoning I am confident will make ND a perennial BCS contender in due course.

Two more quick Irish thoughts. First, for all his hot air, and despite my desire to hate his condescending manner, Mark May has been spot-on in his assessment of the Irish for the past three years. He called them BCS pretenders during their past two BCS bowl games, in which they were subsequently trounced, and he predicted they’d start this season 0-8. You gotta give credit where it’s due. Second, not sure if Demetrius Jones has officially enrolled at NIU or not, but Double D, we hardly knew ya!

I’ve watched a few movies/shows recently that are worth highlighting. I saw Breach and Spider Man 3 on one of my flights recently, mainly for lack of anything interesting offered on board a United Airlines flight. Speaking of which, has UA signed some sort of agreement with Hollywood where they agree to purchase (at fire sale prices, I presume) and air the lowest box office grossers? Seriously, the monthly lineup of video options is downright silly in its quality, something the Denver Post once referred to as “…a veritable smorgasboard of only the most mind-numbingly horrific crap available.” In any event, I actually found Breach to be somewhat bearable. The story is an interesting one, and despite Ryan Phillipe’s standard horrific attempt at acting, the movie is pretty well done. Plus, the underrated Chris Cooper is great as always. Spider Man 3 sucked. I actually liked Spider Man 2, but this third version effectively put the nail in the Spider Man coffin. Just terrible from start to finish, and Tobey Maguire was brutal. My how he has fallen since the days of Cider House Rules.

I’ve also gotten hooked on Prison Break. Though slightly unrealistic at points, it does well in sticking to a “close enough” sense of reality, it often answers my inevitable questions of “what about…?”, and the storyline (though kind of lame) is nuanced enough to hold my interest. Plus the directing and writing is pretty solid, so I’m sold. I’ve also been watching Mad Men, which is a great new series on AMC created by one of the writers for The Sopranos. It’s about a group of advertising professionals during the 1960s and it’s solid gold. I find the writing brilliant and the show does a great job of capturing the look and feel of smokey 1960s boardrooms.

On to music. I’ve been listening to three albums religiously lately – Boxer by The National (thanks BW), Our Ill Wills by Shout Out Louds, and Challenger by The New Pornographers. Each of them bring something different to the table, but each is great in its own right. I highly recommend the trifecta here.

Here are some other random tidbits with which to close. First, what’s with rich people leaving obscene amounts of money to their dogs? Seriously people. This is getting out of hand. Second, not sure if anyone had a chance to see Mos Def make a complete fool of himself on last week’s Real Time with Bill Maher, but I’ve taken the liberty of posting part of his performance here. His kicker comes in towards the end of the clip. Though one of his comments was admittedly funny, most of what he says, to the extent that you can actually make out what he is saying, is absurd. I love how these guys take a topic like 9/11 and islamic extremism and turn it into a discussion of the racial plight of African Americans. Silly stuff. Third, Kanye West is a total and complete douchebag. Fresh from laying a goose egg at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, he threw yet another tantrum, crying like a little child that didn’t get his way. Lucky for us, this one was caught on film. He sucks. I know he and 50 Cent are battling head-to-head with their new albums, which is why MTV put them on the stage together, but I was really hoping 50 Cent would revert to his mean (being legitimately from the streets) and pummel Kanye to a pulp on the stage. That would have been so awesome. Fourth, Stephon Marbury’s inexplicable behavior on recent talk shows has been talked about for a while, but I had never taken the time to actually watch the video. Thankfully, I took the time to fix that, and I am mighty happy I did so. Watch this video. Fantastic stuff. Watch the thing in its entirety. It is so worth it. “I wanna see the spit on your mouth!” Then there’s this video, brought to us by JJ, which shows a clearly insane woman (she-male?) flipping out at the mass media for poo-pooing Britney’s comeback performance at the VMAs. Wow. We’ll file that one away in the mildly disturbing category. Finally, I wanted to leave everyone with a recent example of Darwin’s theory at work, just because it shows that it is sometimes better to simply let nature take its course. That’s all for now folks. Forgive the long Irish rant. It’s my favorite time of the year, but this year’s football season is shaping up to be a tough one for me. My fantasy squad is off to an 0-2 start, thanks to a one-point loss this week made possible by my decision to leave Jamal Lewis on the bench, and I went 1-4 in my weekly pick five. At least my Cowboys are looking like a legit playoff contender. Go ‘Boys!

Chalk up another “W” for big business. In what strikes me as an incredibly unfair development, NBC has decided to pull its television programming from the current suite of iTunes offerings. I don’t know if this is effective immediately – Apple said yes, NBC said its shows would be available until December – but my life as an expat will change dramatically. Still fresh in my celebration of the conquering of Apple TV, which allows me to watch my iTunes shows on a regular television, I find myself somewhere between dumbfounded and whatever Colin Powell must have felt when the reality of Iraq came crashing down on him. NBC claims that Apple is selling its shows for too cheap, that Apple is running roughshod over the content providers so that it can provide consumers with an attractive (read cheap) online download service. According to Apple, NBC wants a variable pricing policy rather than $1.99 that is applied universally to all shows (just as $0.99 is applied to basically all songs). Rumor has it that NBC wants to be able to charge as much as $4.99 per episode, which brings the term “highway robbery” immediately to mind. They apparently think that shows should be priced on popularity and length rather than fall victim to uniformity.

Allow me a moment to cry foul. Granted, in a market-based system, NBC could (and should) probably get away with charging $4.99 per episode for some of its more popular hit programs. Hell, I’d probably be willing to ignore the fact that they want to charge me, oh I don’t know, let’s call it $50, for a full season of The Office when I could just go to Amazon and buy the DVD set for $24.99. In that sense, I am probably their target market for this proposed markup. As an expat with a decent job and lack of solid local programming, I can safely be considered price agnostic (inelastic in my demand, for you econ nerds). That is, basically no matter where the price moves for the shows, I will likely be willing to pay it (within my twisted sense of “reason”). That’s just how desperate (and profligate) I am these days. Those of you have had the chance to suffer through local Japanese television programming probably agree with me. However, increasing the cost per episode 2.5x is egregious and wreaks of corporate greed. If the pricing system employed by Apple is so unjust, why haven’t we had the same issues with the other major networks, including ABC, CBS, and Fox? Or is this the first salvo in a network war with iTunes, where the major content providers don’t want Apple to have the same stranglehold on TV broadcasts as it does on music (iTunes accounts for 74% of online music downloads). It will be interesting to see how this plays out, especially considering NBC accounts for 40% of digital video downloads on iTunes.

So the clock is ticking on my ability to enjoy such fantastic shows as The Office, the massively underrated yet brilliant 30 Rock, the hands-down greatest sports soap since….well, basically ever…in Friday Night Lights, and one of my new favorite comic book shows, Heroes. The question is, do I go ahead and watch whatever shows they put on iTunes for now, knowing that they will be yanked before I have a chance to finish the season? Or do I just write it off and try to: a) illegally download the shows because I now hate NBC; b) try to watch the shows on the NBC website, in clear conflict with my newfound hatred of the network; or c) rely on my handy Sling Box to fill this newfound gaping hole in my multimedia entertainment. Whatever I decide, it is now safe to assume that I despise NBC and all it stands for, so you should as well.

In other news, I trust everyone is fully engulfed in Hillarymania these days. That’s right, folks, it appears Mrs. Clinton is the frontrunner to become our next president. This no doubt is a disconcerting piece of news for many of you out there; however, let’s put partisan bickering aside and make a bipartisan observation: Hillary was actually quite hot back in the day! Does anyone else see this? Check out the photo to the right. I’m not sure about you, but she certainly looks the part as far as I’m concerned. Solid – in a very, very surprising kind of way. Given her tendency to err on the side of fake – as is the case with most politicians, mind you – I find myself wincing at the thought of her, but I must admit she had it going on back in the day. And that mischievous smirk?!?! I love it! Well done, Bill! That’s all I have to say on that topic.

In other random, sadly funny, mildly depressing news, I’ve got a few links for you. First, it looks like our country has officially turned in its tough card. Apparently, some super lame school has decided to outlaw tag on its playground, claiming it leads to too much conflict. This from a nation that doesn’t keep score at kids’ sporting events anymore because kids shouldn’t feel like they lost when they tried their best. Brutal. Our sense of competition is going the way of the VHS cassette, which will have dire consequences for future generations. Something tells me that the Chinese keep score at their youth soccer matches; granted, they bury their first born alive if they turn out to be female, but nonetheless!!

Second, Iran’s absolutely insane president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has somehow convinced himself not only that the Holocaust never happened, but also that the U.S. will not attack his country. This moron, in all his infinite wisdom, has “calculated” (drawing on his background as an engineer) that the odds are against an American preemptive strike. Of course, there are some fatal flaws in his analysis, which should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with this idiot’s antics. For one, he uses the word “reason” when describing how he arrived at his conclusion, a word that clearly has been removed from the Bushie lexicon. Anything that involves Bush and bombs requires that reason and rationality be thrown out the window very early on, which would clearly make Mahmoud’s calculation null and void. Garbage in, garbage out. Second, he combines his ability to reason with the claim that he believes what God says (who, naturally, says that there will be no strike; whew! that was close!). Combining the words “reason” and “God” in the same sentence should lose about 99% of the population that retains the ability to discern between make believe and reality. Sadly, it does not, but that’s a story for another day.

Finally, for us jet-setters who often are forced to deal with maddening bouts of frustration while dealing with an outdated and overworked air traffic system back home, you might be interested to know that things could certainly be weirder, at least when it comes to the solutions department. According to this report, aviation officials in Nepal sacrificed two goats to the Hindu sky god to fix a mechanical problem on a Boeing 757 recently. Yep, that’ll do the trick! So when you’re sitting there for 17 hours waiting for paperwork to be completed after the ground crew had to replace a sticker on the side of the plane, just think about how sending two goats to premature deaths could have sped things up!

The day I have been eagerly anticipating for about seven months went out with a whimper. My beloved Irish were trounced by Georgia Tech yesterday, done in by impotency on both sides of the ball, brought on by a better coached, better prepared Yellow Jacket squad. This might have been the worst loss ND has suffered in years. To come out and lay an egg at home during the season opener can level a devastating blow, particularly for a team that had no identity entering the season. What was most troublesome for me was not just the ineffectiveness of the players themselves, but the apparent lack of confidence and vision. The ineptitude was pervasive – the defense appeared completely lost at times and it looked like the offensive line had never seen a blitz before. Everyone and their mother knew Jon Tenuta (GT’s defensive coordinator) loves to blitz, yet they still managed to get to the Irish QB almost ten times during the game.

I had a sneaking suspicion that the Irish would lose this game, but I certainly didn’t expect a blowout loss as ugly as this one. Seriously, -9 rushing yards?? So as the diehard Irish fan that I am, I’m left with an overwhelming sense of uncertainty. I’m not really sure what to expect for the balance of the season, and any lingering sense of optimism that existed prior to September 1st has been extinguished. As much as it pains me to say, Mark May could be proved right in his prediction that the Irish go 0-8 to start the season, which would certainly make 2007 a season to forget for Irish fans. I just hope that the stellar recruiting class that Weis & Co. have lined up for next year don’t waver in the face of a substandard product filling their television screens this year. We shall see. The only solace I can take from the weekend is the fact that Michigan lost to 1-AA Appalachian State in the Big House. Otherwise, this was a brutal opening weekend for me. I know that the Irish will steadily improve throughout the course of the season, but they will certainly take their fair share of lumps along the way.

Luckily, I found this little clip to brighten my day.