The drunken librarian who wont shut up.

So someone described the internet. I had a drunken librarian experience today.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth century in England, suffrage was very limited, and property holdings were one criteria for the right to vote. The landed aristocracy had control of the upper house and a prevailing influence in the lower. They passed laws they thought to be in their own interest.

Laws of enclosure allowed them to expel tenant farmers from their lands and bring more efficiency to agriculture, making the land owners wealthier. The tenant farmers were forced to move to the cities where they lived in slums and provided cannon fodder for then British army of the empire, and eventually the work force for the factories as the industrial revolution progressed (which gave rise to the commercial class that eventually surpassed the land-rich aristocracy in wealth and influence)

Later they passed the corn laws which put high import tarrifs on grain imports, insuring high profits for them and higher costs for everyone else. Opposition to the corn laws and to limited suffrage were the causes of the reform movements in the first half of the nineteenth century.

So that's what I was reading about when I googled enclosure laws and got a reference to this article which is an essay in support of home schooling. Kind of interesting and featuring quotes from Intimations of Immortality and Tintern Abbey. I was seduced by a drunken librarian.

We didn't exactly celebrate Mother's Day,

but Janett seems pretty happy. We were driving back from a visit with Lauren and Noah and it was rainy and windy, so talking on the phone with Kim we cancelled plans for a cook-out at her house.

So Steffie wouldn't be too disappointed, we stopped at Meijers on the way home and brought her a broiled chicken and some fixin's, so she could have a nice Mother's Day dinner at home. Today, Steffy told Janett she got the white meat, Mark got the dark. Malachy told Mark he was scary. Did you think your Daddy was scary when you first saw him chewing meat off bones?

Then Janett and I went home and relaxed. We ended up having bacon and eggs for dinner even though Lauren had made a yummy bacon quiche for breakfast before we left Champaign. Then we watched a nice Masterpiece theatrer presentation and some news while Janett fiddled with one of her graphics programs.

So, that was a nice day coming on top of a nice visit. Lauren and Noah are doing well. They've both got new lap tops, and were having fun, Except for the couple hours Noah spent very frustrated trying to download drivers to go with Linux. My cousin John inspired him to renounce Bill Gates and all his works, especially Vista. I helped him personalize his laptop by going to the mall with him where he picked out a nice "hello Kitty" sticker to slap on the lid.

I'm OK with XP but like any good conspiracy theoristI wonder what all those applications I never use and can't find an explanation for our really doing.


I used the word so 4 times in that post. So, what do you think?

No, No, Noooo

Absolutely No. If Hillary were his vice-president, Obama would not survive his first term.

It's a lovely day,

sunny and approaching 70 degrees. It's Sunday but Janett and I were up at 6:30. We had coffee and dressed and drove to Lombard to pick up Kim. Ross was sleeping in but Kim joined us for the ride to the Convent of the Sacred Heart on Sheridan Road, for a memorial mass for Aunt Dean. The ride up Lake Shore Drive was beautiful with Lincoln park to our left and the lake on the right, with boats in the harbors at Monroe, Fullerton and Belmont streets. We arrived before the appointed hour, and stopped at a coffee shop down the street and had coffee and croissants before walking over to the Convent. More time to chat.

Jason and Dee and Noah and Lauren joined us at the chapel. Fr George Lane SJ presided at the Mass, and Sister Curry eulogized Aunt Dean. It was also an alumnae weekend at the convent and there were many folks there who remembered Dean from their time there, and it was very nice. Sister Curry was of the next generation of religious from Dean in the order, and I don't believe Fr Lane ever had occassion to meet Dean, although he had family ties to Sacred Heart and Barat. It was one of those times when you felt you had more to share than to learn about the person being remembered. But it was very generous of Sister Curry to invite us all to attend, and generous of Fr Lane to give of his time, as he may be one of the busiest men in Chicago. Five out of eight of my brothers and sisters were there, some with their children,(and their childrens' children)and we were all happy to be together.

The day made one nostalgiac for the times in the first half of the last century when the finest of the Irish Catholic families would produce children who at the age of eighteen or twenty would know they loved Jesus more than the world and would enter orders like the Sacred Heart or the Society of Jesus.

And yesterday Jason and Dee's son Joey made his first Holy Communion. Steffy and Kim and Ross and Lauren and Noah were there with us, and Jason's friend Jim from high school and of course all of Dee's family. Joey was handsome in his navy blue suit, with one of the those white arm garters,(pennants?), little Italian boys wear for their first communion. Dee's mom had gotten it for her grandson, Dom, fifteen years ago, and it had been packed away. It was touching because it evoked the presence of Dee's Mom at the event, and because Dom was there, handsome in uniform, now a staff sergeant in the first armored division. Then Dee treated us to a feast at Pescatore's in Franklin Park. I told Dee afterward it was becoming my favorite restaurant based solely on the parties her family throws there.

So, this weekend glows, and it feels like one of those moments I wouldn't mind living forever.

Oh, here it is

Mickey Kantor: You decide

Responsibility in Posting

Clinton's people are saying the tape was doctored.

Maybe Cantor called Carville a useless white nigger and somebody switched it around.

Also when reviewing the results from Indiana, he did not say Those people are shit, he said Those people are shitting, and someody cut off the last syllable.

Also, at last report, the clip has been removed from YouTube.

Hillary Crashed YouTube

Before I could link to her top campaign adviser Mickey Cantor, sitting in a meeting with Carville and Stefanopolis, calling people from Indiana "useless white niggers"
I wonder if she can keep it down past Tuesday

If something happens at 3AM

Clinton threatens to 'obliterate' Iran if Israel attacked

Maybe we should let her sleep

Adults Only

Check out this blog. When you get there read a couple of posts to catch his drift.

I heard this fellow (Bruce Gagnon) on NPR today. With everything I have to worry about, and all the things I've given you to worry about, now we revisit the military industrial complex and its aspirations for space.

It's too heavy a topic to deal with briefly. I'll just mention a few points.

Shooting down that satellite last month was a test of our anti-satellite technology, which congress had banned the pentagon from testing.

Every year the proposal is brought to the United Nations to ban weapons in space, and every year the measure is vetoed by the US.

If the US can achieve dominant weapons in space the rest of the world is ultimately defenseless.

Space weaponry is so expensive the US will have to cut social security and Medicare to afford it, which is what it's advocates recommend we do.

He poses the question, what is America's role in the world? Guarantor of peace and freedom? Please. We are no longer a leading manufacturer or even innovator. Banker to the world? That myth is being dispelled before our eyes. The only identity we have left is military power.

Once the means are at hand it is always easy to create a justification for attacking someone, and as we face unending war the people will be called on to continually surrender more of their material well being, their liberties and constitutional protections.

Big defense contractors are among the biggest campaign contributors. It's a win-win for the politicians. They can take the big money, and vote for obscene appropriations pretending to be concerned for America's "secutity".

50 years ago Eisenhower warned against the military industrial complex. Well, it's here and its ugly.

I'm not sure this article is in good taste

so I'm not going to paste it here, except for the first few lines:

Benedict Meets With Notre Dame Abuse Victims
By SMQ
Posted on Fri Apr 18, 2008 at 12:31:32 PM EDT

Tragedy here "of immense proportions," pope says.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Pope Benedict XVI came face to face Thursday with a scandal that has left lasting wounds on the American church, holding an unannounced meeting with several Notre Dame players who claim they were abused by opposing teams.

President Rev. John I. Jenkins, who organized the meeting and attended, gave the pope a notebook listing some 65 players who had been abused by Southern California alone going back several years, a Vatican official said.

"It was a moving, healing experience," cornerback and victim spokesman Terrail Lambert told reporters afterward. "It was very emotional. There were a lot of tears

Irish Ruggers

They do pretty good on what must be the national anthem (because in its in Gaelic), but they really get into The Soldiers Song, Answering Ireland'S Call.

Blue Gold

The spring game is Saturday, but I'm not going. It would be nice to see the new and developing talent, but there's some stadium repair going on and seating might be tight. Also, I think on both sides of the ball they're going to be very vanilla.

But come the fall, I'd like to go to see the opener on Sept 6 vs San Diego State or the Purdue game three weeks later.

Alright, you mugs,

I see some coments, see, or the kitten gets it.

Malachy Ross and Poppo (stolen from John)

Aaah, Ya got me

The Dark Irish

The term generally refers to Irish with dark complexions and black hair. I heard it theorized once that they descended from sailors from the Spanish Armada who swam ashore and stayed in Ireland. I think it's the Celtic strain, the old Irish from before the fairer Gaels and later the Vikings invaded. Even though the Celts were spread all over modern Europe 2500 years ago the bloodline and culture remain purest in the remote corners of the continent, Galicia in Spain, the Vendee in France and in the west of Ireland. The music and dance of these regions suggests a common heritage.

But, the phrase to me brings to mind the darker side of the Irish psyche. The inclination to wish ill to the prosperous, to suspect that their misfortunes result from conspiracies against them and betrayal, and to turn bitterly on their fallen heroes.

In light of these recognized tendencies, I'm going to concentrate on how the ND hockey team has risen to the pinnacle of their sport this year and been the Cinderella team of the championship series knocking off the number one cede New Hampshire, last years champs, MSU, and all time championship leader Michigan, before falling to the Boston College Eagles. I'm not going to dwell on the bad calls inflicted on the Irish in the game. the fact that the team's captain and best player was out due to injury, or the fact that the Irish held the puck too long and didn't rush the net and couldn't score on one of six feckin power play opportunities. Oooops.

If I couldn't be me I'd like to be

this guy

Bein'Bad

More Hockey

ND beats Skunkbears in overtime in hockey semi-finals



Here's the UTube clip

Championship game vs BC tonight on ESPN.

Eh?

The Notre Dame ice hockey team plays Michigan in the semi-finals of the ncaa championship next week. The other three teams are Michigan who we really dont like, Boston College who we really don't like and the Fighting Sioux of North Dakota, who as you may or may not know told the NCAA to kiss their ass when the NCAA said they couldn't use an indian tribal name for an athetic team. The cool thing is the fighting Sious also use the overlapping ND monogram.

The irish will have to play tough defense to advance to the finals, so let's see what a really fired up defense can do. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Hanson brothers.

A helpful Utility

Need a screen cleaner? This puppy will help.

I'm tired

I haven't been under a lot of pressure at work the last couple weeks, my bosses have been distracted by other priorities. So I've had time to do the things I need to do instead of answering questions and providing analyses. I feel good about that, because the undone things would have caught up with me sooner rather than later.

I've got some tax returns to finish, but no real problems in that area.

I drove Kim and Ross to the airport at noon. They were leaving on their honeymoon after spending the last week getting their new house all comfy and neat. I'm sure they'll have a wonderful time.

Then Janett and I went grocery shopping with Steffo and Malachy. That was fun, but Malachy likes to continue the monster and alien role play on our outings. So we were walking weird up and down the aisles, Malachy making strange noises and I was responding in a growling voice. He called me his monster buddy and I called him my little alien friend. Well you know in Elgin there's a whole lot of Mezo-Americans, and they shop where I shop. I just had to hope they'd know Mally was portraying the other kind of alien with his eccentric behavior.


My little alien friend


We got home and I fell asleep on the couch. Steffy called to say Kim had emailed that they'd made it to Phoenix and would make their connecting flight to Cabo San Lucas. We'd been a little concerned over whether the flight would be uncomfortable for Kim who'd been struggling with an undiagnosed ailment this week. She had a doctor's appointment this morning at which time the doctor was going to tell her it was or was not OK to fly. Kim called the doctor's office on the way to the airport to say she was sorry she'd missed her appointment, but she was feeling fine and would call when she got back. So here's hoping it all goes well.

Then Janett's friend Missy called inviting us to out for a spaghetti dinner tomorrow afternoon. Janett was prepared to decline the invitation, knowing I had work on my desk, but I told her we could go, saying she should get out more. Maybe I'm secretly craving the Chianti. Today at lunch, I asked the waitress if they could make a bleu cheeseburger, and this week I had a persistent thirst for a double scotch on the rocks, as yet unsatisfied. It's like, when you're dragging a little bit, you try a few uncommon treats in the hope of a boost.

That's kind of a chatty post, and I know many of you connect to get insights on what's happening in the world, so here's a link where there's some background and informed speculation on Maliki's attack on the Sadrists this week. Was it just coincidence that it came a week after Cheney's "surprise" visit to Baghdad?

OK, heres one from the wedding.

Isn't she beautiful?

Here's a picture,

but it's not from the wedding. It's from Halloween. I like it because Kim looks so grown up, and because Ross is making her laugh, not uncommon.

Here and there

Kim's wedding was a wonderful event. I think everyone's enjoyment was heightened by their happiness for Ross and Kim, who were themselves gleeful. I'll go to the girls sites and steal a couple pictures. In the mean time, here's somw market wisdom from Bozo

A Timely Article from Market Watch.com

The Fed cost me money again today, offering banks the opportunity to borrow 200 billion using the junk bonds the banks are gagging on as collateral. When those bonds become non-performing as well as unsellable, will the Fed issue margin calls?
Probably not, since the Fed's intention (hope)is to keep major banks from going bankrupt. Then, sinde the Fed is a private corporation, will it go bankrupt when it writes down all these mortgage backed securities on it's books and can't recover the loans from the banks? Probably not. They've probably got a deal with the Treasury to indemnify them against losses. And who authorized the Treasury to make this deal with the Fed? I didn't read of any cogressional action to authorize a deal like that.

As annoying as the Fed's manipulations on behalf of the big banks are, I have to smile at the mental image of Bernanke as the little Dutch boy trying to plug leaks in the dike, and quickly running out of fingers and reach).

If you believe the Fed is doing this to promote lower mortgage rates so folks caan buy homes, or keep the ones they've got, you haven't been paying attebtion. Giving away hundreds of billions each month is very - what do you call it?..Oh yeah, inflationary. And now class, what does inflation do to long term interest rates?
That's right - it makes them go up.

Oh and don't worry about my losses on the puts today, I made it back on my Gold Corp warrants - but I like it better when they both go up.



What will Fed try next to slay credit-crunch dragon?

Holding mortgage-backed securities on its balance sheet seen possible
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The Federal Reserve's battle with the credit-crunch dragon has been fierce and could go on for a while.

The Federal Reserve's principal weapon, cutting overnight interest rates, takes months to work. In order to buy time until the rate cuts and fiscal stimulus package can boost economic activity, the Fed has been creatively trying to use other alternative policy weapons to relieve strains in financing markets that have led to a virtual paralysis of lending.
Fed watchers believe the central bank still has other options up its sleeve.
The goal is not to avoid a recession. Rather, it is to keep the financial turmoil from creating a vicious downward spiral where a cutback in lending pushes down growth, which in turn leads to further lending cutbacks.
After Fed chief Ben Bernanke promised more "vigorous" efforts to combat the risk of a credit crunch, the Fed has announced a series of actions to inject cash into money markets.
At the same time, the Fed is constrained by the size of its balance sheet, the need to keep some of it in reserve, and the legal authorities it has.
The Fed still has plenty of room to operate. And already it's promised to provide up to $400 billion in short-term loans to a crippled system in a series of moves dating back to August.
The Fed has several programs to provide short-term funds and liquidity to its main clients: the big money-center banks and the primary dealers in the bond market. Typically, the Fed lends cash or high-quality Treasurys to the private sector, either overnight or for short periods of up to 28 days. The banks or dealers pay interest on the loans and they must provide high-quality collateral to the Fed. Repurchase agreements work in a similar way, with the Fed buying and selling securities, which are then repurchased by the borrower after a short period.
The Fed has added to its arsenal in recent months, expanding current programs to provide greater sums for longer periods in an effort to shake up the market's psychology. Most recently, last Friday, the central bank increased the size of its auctions to banks to $100 billion. It also said it would start $100 billion in term repurchase agreements with the Fed's primary bond dealers and accept agency mortgage-backed securities as collateral. See full story.
Finally, on Tuesday morning, the Fed announced a new lending program to allow participants in the bond markets to swap the private-label mortgage-backed securities that they can't currently sell for highly liquid Treasurys that they can. The new plan injects another $200 billion into the system and allows the central bank to lend Treasurys for 28 days instead of the previous overnight period. See full story.
Using its full authority
Fed watchers, worried about the central bank's stamina in the battle, believe the Fed has other options up its sleeve.
Several believe the next step could be for the Fed to purchase mortgage-backed assets and permanently hold them on its balance sheet.
Congress has already given the Fed the authority to buy securities issued by Fannie. But the power has not been used for anything other than short-term repurchase operations - like the program announced Tuesday -- in which the borrower eventually buys back the securities.
"The Fed has authority to buy high-quality mortgage-backed securities," said Lou Crandall, economist at Wrightson ICAP, in an interview. "That would be a huge step for them in terms of the institutional culture."
He noted that in the past when the Fed agreed to take mortgage-backed securities for repurchase agreements, the central bank only approved it on a temporary basis and that it took another three years to approve it on a permanent basis.
"I hope it doesn't come to that (purchasing mortgage-back securities) because circumstances would have to be more dire than they are today," Crandall said.
David Greenlaw, economist at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a note to clients, that the proposal to add mortgage-backed securities to the Fed's balance sheet "could receive serious consideration" at next week's FOMC meeting on March 18.
Crandall said a lesser step for the Fed would be to lengthen the maturity of its repurchase agreements with the primary dealers to an even longer period -- to three months from 28-days. Firms are still facing considerable difficulty in financing beyond 28 days.
"Twenty-eight day credit is nice, but three-month money would be better," Crandall said.
Other ideas that are floating around Wall Street include the Fed making direct loans to non-bank firms.
But Crandall downplayed this possibility, noting that the power hasn't been used since the 1930s.
"The perception issues would outweigh the modest benefit of direct funding," Crandall said.

Greg Robb is a senior reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.

PS.

But Janett can do this:




PPS

Watch for Notre Dame in the Big East Tourney. I think it starts the 12th.

Sporatic posting

I'm OK.

Posting is becoming a week-end thing, and here it is 10PM Sunday. I'd better get busy

Major item is KIm;s wedding is now less than a week away. So far the closest we've come to a meltdown was Friday when Kim and Ross visited the place where the wedding and the dinner party are to be held. Kim had reserved the place for the whole day even though her wedding is at 5PM. She didn't want the hassle of pushing people from a prior event out the door while her wedding was setting up. But the lady says thru some kind of misunderstanding the facility was rented for a "morning" event. She promises to have the place ready for Kim's set up by 3PM. Kim was a little upset, but from her retail experience knows little would be accomplished by screaming and throwing things (My specialties)

Noah and Lauren were in town today, but hung out in Beverly for the South Side Irish St Patricks Day Parade. Lauren's uncle throws a great party every year. I got to go to one several years ago. I'm pretty sure I could still finagle an invitation, but taking Janett to a St Paddies day bash makes about as much sense as taking her to a Blackhawk's game.

Maybe I'm being a little parochial now, but I remember as a boy going to the South Side Parade when it really was on the South Side. That would have been in the mid fifties ant I think the location was around 79th and Commercial. That's when there was still an Irish working class. Thinking about it brings back memories of my Chicago Cardinals jacket. In those days the Cardinals played at Comiskey making them the Sout Side team, while the Bears were at Wrigley on the Nort Side.

In Beverly the Irish are all cops, firemen, lawyers, judges, and executives. They're still Catholics, and they're still Democrats, but a lot of them send their kids off to Boston College and their devotion to ND is more of a middle-class affectation than a true commitment.. Well as long as they still get liquored up once a year, sing, and fight with the guy who insulted their brother's wife ten years ago, there's still some hope.

Choose Your News

Choice for today

New Link

I've dropped my John Edwards link. Sorry, John.

But the good new is I've provded a new link - to Tim Knight's options trading blog site, The Slope of Hope. Guaranteed, gold plated, lead pipe cinch strategies to make you rich, or at least less poor.

I was all over gold a couple years ago, but it's approaching 1000 now. Gold will still go up, but will be sensitive to fluctuations in the commodities markets, as people alternatively worry about inflation and deflation. That kind of volatility makes futures trading difficult.

Look at Tim's blog. Maybe I'll write a little intro to the options markets.

Fed Chairman Bernanke

is coming around to my point of view:



I think Sen Obama ought to be thinking about his appointee as Attorney General. Normally, political loyalty is the key qualifier for that office. I think he'll want a kick ass prosecutor, maybe FitzGerald or Cuomo Jr. The president is going to need a series of show trials, maybe a major indictment every couple of months to protect himself from blame as the economy hits rock bottom.

One market note, the Europeans are beginning to disinvest in the US. Not only did they get burned on junk mortgages, they're losing money on equity investments, and they're losing money holding anything denominated in dollars while the dollar falls in value vs. the Euro.

That's alright, Americans will invest more of their savings in the markets as prices fall to "bargain basement" levels. What? They have no savings? and they're pulling money out of their 401K's to pay their credit cards? The credit card bills they're running up on gas and groceries? - Never mind.

One more

If an ND fan owned a ski resort...click here

Deterrence

A couple of images from Rock's House:


Coach Tenuta

"Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy the FEAR to attack. And so, because of the automated and irrevocable decision-making process which rules out human meddling, the Doomsday machine is terrifying and simple to understand...and completely credible and convincing."


Dr Strangelove

No news is good news

Not posting could imply nothing's going on or too much is going on. Kim's wedding is less than a month away. Everything seems on track. I dropped in at the "family" shower Sunday long enough to meet Ross's mom, Connie. Steffie and Janett may be posting a few snapshots of the event, and from the friends shower a week ago.
Steffie is pretty pregnant and she's pretty pregnant, but we're all so cranked up for the wedding, Steffie's not getting quite the attention she should. We should rent her a copy of Sixteen Candles, and then hurry to make up after the wedding




I should go check the etiquette rules. Steffie, Dee, and Lauren really threw some good parties. I didn't attend but I feel like an expression of appreciation would be in order. Also, Dee's sister, Michelle invited us to a gala event celebrating her son Pete's graduation from Iowa State and her husband, Tomasso's 50th birthday.
The fete was held at a really nice restaraunt with banquet rooms, and a DJ played popular Italian/American music from the last fifty years. Some of the folks danced.

I had calamari (squid?) and grilled octopus - yummy. And the food just kept coming. The drinks too, based on reports of our son Jason's exploits after Janett and I had left for home. I asked Dee about it and she just kind of rolled her eyes, and I haven't sent Michelle a thank you note yet either.

And my sister Ann sent great gifts for Christmas, and I haven't sent her a thank you note either.

I'm a boorish ingrate.

Or maybe I'm just depressed. You heard, didn't you, about NBC cancelling Friday Night Lights. I assume we can look forward to a great new show about a half dozen a-holes living in house, on an island, at a fat farm, or rehab clinic. Or maybe a bunch of gay guys going around telling people how to be stylish. Oh wait, never mind. Way to buck the trend Mr Fred Silverman. You're a paragon of discernment.

Google Hyksos

Although I was a under graduate history major, there are lare gaps in my knowlege of things real historians know. One such area is pre-classical. I don't know one Egyptian kingdom from the next, much less one dynasty from another. One thing that vexes me is who were the Hyksos?

Since I already admitted I don't know, you shouldn't place much reliance on what I have to say about them. Historically, they were described by the Egyptians as marauding invaders. I think I somewhere that they overthrew a weak Egyptian dynasty, and established through inter-marriage a dynasty of which Tutankamon was a descendant. But nobody seems certain who they were (where they came from). Some say they were an Asiatic people, migrating down from Central Asia, and using war chariots, which the Egyptians soon copied. Were they part of a Semitic group that also included the Hebrews? But I thought I read somewhere that the etymology of the name suggests they came from the sea.

This mystery came to mind again this week as I read reviews of the book, The Black Athena. The title seems a little sensational to me because I don't think the author posits that sub-Saharan Africans impacted Greek culture in it's formative stages. Rather, I think he's saying that it was those darned Hyksos again. He makes the interesting point that marauders don't impose their own culture on conquered lands, they bring along the superior culture from previous conquests. He points out that the Normans brought French, not Viking culture to England.

Written twenty years ago the book was at first ignored then rebuked by the classical European establishment. The book's author, Bernal, suggests that ethno-centric European historians preferred to theorize that migrants from the north (Aryans) got to Greece, settled in and the Hellenic culture blossomed. I like Bernal's theory because I never understood how Northern Europeans who had migrated into Greece could have brought with them the seeds of Hellenic culture. A pre-Phoenician, semitic people from the coast of the Levant (nowadays Lebanon) could have transmitted the cultue of Asia Minor and the near east around the Mediterrenean (circa 1,600 BC). Question is how they would have changed from war chariots to ships navigating the Mediterrenean in just a hundred years.

Historical evidence to support this hypothesis might in part be scarce, because marauders don't leave a lot of historical records, and when the Romans conquered the Phoenicians (Tyre Sidon and Carthage)in the Punic wars they were pretty thorough about destroying any cultural or historical artifacts that might have provided clues to the pre-phoenician peoples of the region. But I don't know.

So I guess it's time to Google Hyskos (again).

In a better world

we'd all be reading a good book this gray February morning.

Here's a couple of lists of best fiction since 1900. To make it fun, try to choose a book or two or three from the short list to replace the same number of books on the long list.

PS I linked rather than copied the lists because if you go to the original site the titles are linked to sites where you can purchase the books and from there to short reviews.

It's been a week since I posted

So, I thought I'd report in, but I don't have too much to say. Does anyone else want to spell week with an "h" in it? I'm kind of sick; a little feverish and my neck hurts so I cant turn my head. I stayed home from work but called in to a phone conference.

I've been pretty busy, bringing work home a couple evenings. One night I got home at eight with work to do, but by ten I hadn't gotten to it, so I went to bed and got up at four in the morning. That worked pretty well, but it involved the risk that I wouldn't be able to complete the work in a couple hours, and having to go to the office unprepared. I guess the bet was that I'm more effective after six hours sleep than at the end of a long day. Like I say, it worked out OK, but I don't like having to make that kind of choice.

Steffie's having a shower for Kim on Sunday. I think it'll be real nice. Janett's been preparing hors d' ouvres, and it looks pretty good for chick food. Kim and Ross went to church then out to breakfast with Julie and Louie and me Sunday. It was nice being with them. I tell myself I don't see much of them because Kim want's Ross's attention for herself, but she's probably trying to avoid me embarrassing her.

Coah Weis said in his press conference today that he'd be turning play calling over to offensive coordinator Tom Haywood this year. ND fans like that because they like the running game (memories of Lou Holts's great teams), and they think Haywood will find it easier to emphasise the run than Coach Weis could. With the quarterbacks, running backs, and receivers coming up at ND over the next couple years we should be able to do pretty much what we damn well please on offfense. But it all starts with line play. Coach Latina has been coaching offensive linemen 25 years and I think he's pretty good at it. The poor showing last year had a lot to do with lack of depth and experience. Reportedly, practices weren't very physical because they couldn't afford to get people hurt in practice.

Well this spring and fall I bet there's a lot of hard contact, and scrimmaging against coach Browns defense with Tenuta's schemes, they'll be ready when the season opens.

See Ya

Tenuta

EDSBS (Every Day Should be Saturday) is the best college football blog. Here's their recounting of Jon Tenuta's interview with Charlie Weis...as you may infer Jon Tenuta is a coach who loves to Blitz. and now he's at Notre Dame


Scene: Charlie Weis’ office in South Bend, Indiana. Weis is about to hire Jon Tenuta as defensive backs coach and assistant coach, but wants to see the goods first. If he can ever get off the chirp…

Weis: (talking into Nextel) “Reg, seriously, I will take that under consideration.”

Nextel: (CHIRP!) “Seriously, Charlie. No one’s run the wishbone in years! It’ll be Greek to everyone, and Clausen will love it!”

Weis: “Sure, Reg. Sure. I’ll take that very carefully into consideration. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an interview with–”

The door flies open. A large man with gray hair, a wild look in his eye, and an ill-fitting grey suit stands in the doorway. Jon Tenuta enters carrying the shoulder of a fly-ridden deer carcass and a play book.)



Tenuta: YOU CALL NUMBER ONE TAH-NOO-TAH?

Weis: Yes. We’re looking for a new defensive backs coach, and possibly someone to help give some more bite to our defense. I called around, and your name seemed to come up quite a bit.

Tenuta: HAW HAW HAW TAH-NOO-TAH KNOWN FAR AND WIDE! HIS NAME MAKE PEOPLE PEE AND CRY SAME TIME! HAW HAW HAW! (takes bite of deer carcass.)

Weis: Did you…did you kill that your self?

Tenuta: NOT THIS TIME. BOUNTY OF HIGHWAY KEEP TAH-NOO-TAH FED AND HAPPY TODAY.

Weis: Well, that’s….anyway, I wanted to ask you a few questions. Talk about defensive philosophy and what you’d suggest we do to make our defense even better than it was last year.

Tenuta: YOU NEED GET WHITE SAFETY OFF FIELD OR MAKE BLITZ!–

Weis: –yes, he’s gone, so don’t worry about him.

Tenuta: TAH-NOO-TAH LAUGH AND CRY SAME TIME WATCH HIM PLAY PASS COVERAGE!!! (takes huge bite of deer carcass.)

Weis: –yes, yes, well, he’s graduated, and Tom did a lot of good things for our football team.

Tenuta: ME ALWAYS TAKE WHITE SAFETY AND BLITZ, BECAUSE WHITE SAFETY NO RUN. POLYNESIAN, MAYBE. BUT WHITE—

Weis: Um, perhaps you could show me what you would show and do against an Ace, 2-tight formation, Jon?

Tenuta: TAH-NOO-TAH NO SCARED! ME BLITZ!







Weis: My, that’s…aggressive. I almost like it. Is that…

Tenuta: TOTAL BLITZ! NO FEAR TAH-NOO-TAH SHOW!!!

Nextel: (CHIRP!) Charlie, have you thought about getting the guys to train with this new Wii Fit thing they’ve got now? My grandkids just love it, and even Joy and I have gotten into it. I’ve lost three pounds just messing around with this thing! Imagine what it’ll do for Clausen–

Charlie: (Picks up nextel) Reg, little busy here, but I’ll take that under consideration–

Tenuta: YOU WANT ME SHOW OTHER SCHEME?

Weis: Sorry about that. Yes, please show me an I formation set-up, and how you’d line up against it.







Tenuta: ME NO FEAR I-FORMATION! BLITZ BLITZ BLITZ BLITZ!!!!

Weis: Again, aggressive. I like it. Now, for recruiting. If I want you to describe your philosophy about recruiting–

Nextel: (CHIRP!) Charlie, this is Regis. How about those PowerBands I’ve seen? Feldman’s been using them, and he’s ripped. RIPPED, I TELL YOU! For a gay producer, that is, but still–

Weis: –Reg, please, I just need a minute here.

Tenuta: TAH-NOO-TAH FEAR NO RECRUIT! DIAGRAM EXPLAIN!!!





Weis: Again, very aggressive, Jon. I like the way you think.

Tenuta: HAPPY COACH WORDS MAKE ME! YOU WANT BITE? (Tenuta takes another huge bite of the deer carcass, consuming skin, hair, and bone in muscular bites.)

Weis: No, um, thank you. Speaking of, would you like to eat–

Tenuta: TAH-NOO-TAH ANTICIPATE THIS QUESTION AND PREPARE SLIDE JUST FOR OCCASION. TAH-NOO-TAH SAY YOU LOOK!





Weis: Agreed. Tony’s subs it is. Let’s go and work on the details of your hiring.

Tenuta: YOU HIRE TAH-NOO-TAH COACH DEFENSE?

Weis: Sort of.

Tenuta: MONEY? NO MORE SCROUNGE FOR FLATMEATS?

Weis: No, no more bounty of the highway for you. We’ll pay you in money.

Tenuta: HAPPY YOU HAVE MADE ME FAT MAN.

Weis: Glad to have you on board. And just leave the rest of that deer thing here on the floor. Phyllis will clean it up.

Tenuta: TAH-NOO-TAH TAKE WITH FOR SNACK. (Flies buzz around the deer.)

Weis: Fine. Just save some for me!

Tenuta: TAH-NOO-TAH ALWAYS SHARE WITH FRIEND!

Weis: I’m just kidding. Even I’m not touching that with a ten-foot pole, man.

Nextel: (CHIRP!) Seriously, Charlie! The wishbone! Just imagine it! And don’t forget Wii fit!

Weis: I’m taking that into consideration, Reg. Off to lunch!

Nextel: (CHIRP!) The Baked Lay’s this time, Charlie! The baked ones!

We're pretty happy.

I worked till nine last night, and had to get up early to catch a train to Chicago for a meeting this morning, so when the meeting broke up around 2, I felt entitled to bolt, which I did. I also felt entitled to stop on the way home at the Butera's and shop for stuff I like. I got some El Ranchero "mild hot" tortilla chips, a bag of chocolate cookies out of the cookie bin, hot dogs and buns, beer sausage and cheddar cheese for sandwiches and the piece' de resistance, a couple pounds of barbecued baby back ribs.

When I got home, Janett and I stood in the kitchen and shared tha ribs. I guess we were hungry. And we didn't get any dishes dirty. Lucky for me the ribs were lean and yummy, and Janett didn't say once "you're not saving money shopping at Butera's if we end up throwing food away."

Apologies to any vegan who drops in and finds things like hot dogs, sausage, cheese, and ribs really disagreeable. Alicia Silverstone is a vegan and I like her, Chad Pilcher is a vegan and I like him, but I think they are both a little too thin.

Post modernity

I was riding in my car listening on the radio to NPR and the guest on the show was California's poet laureate. He was saying tnat he never bought into the modern or post-modern identity which he found to be too dark. Modern, post-modern, generations x and why are we so self obsessed that every ten years we have to redefine ourselves culturally and philosophically?

Because in fact we are still in the existential period, and have fixated on the need to question who we are. So let's just call it that, existentialism, and forget all those other cliches. And let's try get over the self obsession. Self examination is OK, but need not and should not be so introverted as to reject anything larger than ourselves to meaure ourselves against.

Assuming there is a God, we can not assume creation was purposeless. The divination of and devotion to that purpose is enlightenment. Assuming there is not a God is foolish in light of the spiritualization of matter which has progressed through aeons and epochs. Clearly God is calling, pulling us toward him. Whether we try to hasten or impede or declare our indifference to the redemption of the world is the criteria which we best use to define our condition.

There, I hope that helps.

The rest of the story

This morning's post was up to my usual high standards, timely, informative and richly amusing. But in keeping it pithy, I left out a little background information which would have helped to set the scene.

Have you ever heard of Municipal Bond Insurance? Don't feel bad. If you had it probably would have gone in one ear and out the other.

Say the water department in some little town in some unimportant state wants to build a new filtration plant for ten million dollars, they can issue tax free bonds (usually referred to as muni's, short for municipals)to raise the money. That is, the interest earnings are tax free to the buyer of the bonds. To give you an idea how that works I stole the following explanation somewhere:

"...Lets assume you are receiving a yield of 4% from a municipal bond and you want to understand the equivalent yield that you would need to receive from a treasury bond to compensate for the tax advantage that the munis offer. For the sake of the calculation, let's also assume you are in a 28% tax bracket. The calculation would be written as so:

Taxable equivalent Yield = .04/(1-.28) = .0555 = 5.56%"

So since the muni's equivalent yield is higher, this tax free status allows state and local authorities and agencies to finance projects more cheaply. Sounds good so far.

Well, for the issuer to get the lowest interest rate on these bonds, a rating agency like Fitch, S&P or Moodies' has to award them a AAA rating. To get their AAA rating the water department can buy insurance that if they default on the bond the insurer will pay off the bondholders That's easier on everyone involved than having the rating agency come out to the little town in the unimportant state and do a thorough audit of the water departments projected revenue stream and it's credit worthiness. Plus the insurance is cheap, I think it's been just a little over one percent of the insured amount. So everybody's happy.

The big insurers reported profits in recent years as nearly 50% of revenue. They began to feel so good about their abilities they decided to branch out and expand further into insuring - you guessed it - CDO's, That's right "Collateralized Debt Obligations" those big bundles of junk bonds and sub prime mortgages. Why would they do such a thing? Hubris and Greed. The Hubris: We're making so much money we must be really smart. The Greed: The CDO market is getting bigger than the Muni market and we can charge higher premiums.

The borrowers began to go south, and the rating agencies belatedly realized the insurers have inadequate reserves to cover the losses they were facing. Remember a couple months ago I wrote about counter party risk. Well, this is it. "I brought a lot of junk so I bought some insurance. Now I should be fine - unless my insurance is junk too". So the rating agencies issued a credit warning to the biggest insurers, and one agency lowered an insurer's rating to AA from AAA. Realistically these insurers should have their ratings lowered into the B or C range, but therein lies the rub. If the insurers ratings drop then the ratings on all the bonds they insure should also drop, and all the insurance companies, mutual funds, and pension funds that are required to invest only in "investment grade" securities (BBB or better: AAA AA A or BBB not BB or lower)would have to divest themselves of these bonds. Divest as in sell, but who would buy and for how much? Answer: I don't know but for a lot less than they were purchased for. So big losses are in the cards for the financial companies that pretended that they were investing only in risk free securities.

And then, of course, you've got the hedge funds. They'd buy crappy investments with triple A ratings, and use the crappy investments as collateral to borrow more money to buy more crappy investments, and then do it again, and again. They're so highly leveraged that a small drop in the market value of these crappy securities will have a multi fold impact on their liquidity. As the value of their collateral securing all those loans goes down they'll get margin calls and have to come up with more collateral, and they can't deliver. Pretty soon everybody will be selling everything except the furniture in their swanky digs which will have been repossessed.

So even though most of us could live our whole lives without thinking once about Municipal Bond Insurance, it will prove to be one more nail in the coffin of the economy that the Bushes, Clintons and Greenspan have shaped for us - but their friends at Goldman Sachs will probably be OK.

Anyway that's the kind of thing that's got Bernanke so nervous that he has one finger on the panic button at all times.

Fed Faux Pas

Last weekend the French bank Societe General discovered they had a problem. One of their employees had been making unauthorized trades, and had lost a couple of billion dollars in the previous two weeks. SG sold a lot of stock on Monday getting out of the losing investments and raising cash to cover the losses. Unfortunately for them it was a bad day in the market because Asian markets already had recorded big losses due to concern about a recession in the US. That's the way it is in a nervous economic environment. Traders in London get skittish about a down day on the Mumbai stock exchange. Big losses on the Mumbai? Please spare me big losses on the Mumbai. By the time S G completed their selling on Monday the two billion loss had turned into a seven billion loss Their selling, on top of the bad news from the Asian markets had driven the markets down 5% in Europe.

So Tuesday morning, everyone was all up in the air about where the US markets would open, It appeared they would open 5% lower, and continue down from there. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's phone must have been ringing off the hook with calls from Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and all the other "investment bankers", saying he had to do something big, so he did. He cut rates by 3/4%, the biggest cut in 25 years. The market rebounded, especially stocks in financial companies, which I happened to be short at the time. So he cost me a few hundred dollars, but that's OK, and that's not really the point.

The point is the Fed's mission is to control the money supply to avoid inflation, and cutting rates at a record pace is just the opposite of controlling inflation. Well, Ben would explain, the Fed also needs to insure orderly markets. Thing is, orderly markets sometime go down, and I dont guess Ben would have seen the need for intervention if the market looked like it was going to open up 5%.

The episode is embarassing for the Fed and may be recalled in the future as one of the institution's darkest days. (and there's a lot of competition for that honor).
The fed used the biggest arrow in it's quiver to deal with the consequences of some French guy losing a couple billion in unauthorized trading.

Two other observations, one amusing, one not so amusing. The European central bank knew what was going on at Societe General amd didn't respond with precipitous action. They take their job of controlling inflation seriously. They also didn't bother to give Ben a jingle and clue him in. Seems like that would have been the neighborly thing to do for a respected fellow central banker - which I guess he isn't.

The not so amusing part was the panic in the pits which prompted Ben's over-reacton.
Ask yourself, friends, don't brokers make money buying and selling? As long as they're getting paid why should they care if the market's going up or down? Well, it's because for trades to occur to earn commissions on, there has to be money in the market to trade. And market declines mean somebody is losing money, and they're afraid, very afraid, that some of their biggest customers, the hedge funds, are running out of money. Rumors circulated Friday of a big hedge fund in trouble. We'll wait till Monday to see. But a word of caution to Ben - you can only cut rates by 3/4% so often before you're paying people to borrow. Oh wait, when you factor in the real inflation rate, that's what we've been doing for several years.
Well anyway, you don't want to look any sillier than you already do.

Dana Jacobson, ESPN, and Jesus

Don't read this.

A couple weeks ago ESPN's hostess and commentator, Dana Jacobson, showed up drunk at a celebrity roast and continued to get drunker during the taping as she hit on a bottle of vodka she was carrying with her. Eventually she was booed off the dais and escorted from the premises, but not before she was heard to say "F__k Notre Dame" and "F__k Touchsown Jesus" and as reported by the website that first published a narration of the event "F__k Jesus". For a week there was a deafening silence from ESPN's headquarters in Bristol Conneticut. They had the only tape, and it was never going to see the light of day.

As reports of Jacobson's outburst began to circulate, ESPN announced Ms Jacobson had sent apologetic emails to Charlie Weis and Mike Golik, ND alumni who had been present at the roast, referring to her "inappropriate behavior" in the most general of terms. This week as the story gained wider circulation, ESPN announced that Ms Jacobson had been suspended for a week.

My interest in the story has less to do with my identification with the university than with my annoyance with the fact that a jewish person, a member of the media, representing a network at a public event can loudly and obscenely profane the name of our Lord - not just with impunity, but with the connivance of the network in the cover up.

Now here comes the politically incorrect part: for mentioning the fact that Ms Jacobson is jewish, I will probably be described as anti-semitic. Wouldn't it be more accurate to describe Ms Jacobson as anti-Christian? And, in light of the cover up, wouldn't it be legitimate to question whether the management of the network shares her bias?

But he answered and said unto them, ‘You see all of these things, do you not? Truly I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down’” (Matthew 24:1-2).

At the time of his betrayal and execution Jesus prophesised the destruction of the temple. Within a generation the temple was destroyed, Jerusalem was laid to waste and most Jewa were expelled, many having been sold into slavery by the Romans.

With the temple destroyed the dispersed jews lost their connection to the Torah (what Christians refer to as the Old Testament) and became devotees of the Talmud, which is the writings of the very same scribes and pharisees whom Jesus had denounced for abandoning their devotion to God and promoting devotion to the law. The law having been handed down from Moses supposedly in an oral tradition over thousands of years, but just then being written down. Reportedly, the Talmudic writings as they were codified and expanded in the centuries following Christ's death were not kind to Jesus or his followers.

So I would hopefully suggest that this recent incident could provide an occasion for Ms Jacobson, the management of ESPN, and others who hold to the jewish tradition to soften their hearts, put their prejudices behind them, and grow in tolerance for the Christian community.

What's going on

I just was at the Notre Dame web page, Cartier Field. Not too much happening there, but one funny thing. Most of the comments about the Packer-Giant game focused gleefully on how uncomfortably cold Jimmy (the pork faced satan) looked. They're so immature, but they sure know how to hold a grudge.




The stock market is bad crazy. American markets are closed for MLK day, and around the world markets are plunging 5% to 7%. For the uninitiated, that's what you might call a bloodbath. 5% on the Dow would be like 600 points. Even my bear friends are gnashing their teeth. Expecting a bounce after last week's declines many took profits Friday and closed out their short positions. One of my gurus was so convinced there'd be a bounce he went long some indexes. Now they're sitting helplessly waiting for the market to open way down tomorrow, having missed some big profit opportunities, or in the case of the guys who got long looking for a bounce, facing big losses.

Me? I'm short Regions Financial and Capitol One Financial. Capitol One is the credit card company. Any day now folks are going to realize its even easier to stop paying your credit card bills than to stop paying your mortgage. Aside from trying to get you on the phone to question your inner core of integrity what can they do - garnish your unemployment check? And Regions, well they were my last mortgage lender, and they were annoying. Somehow, I don't think all those hurricaine/flood victims down on the gulf are hurrying to the mailbox every month with their loan payments.

Janett's doing really well with her computer graphic arts applications. There's some pretty trippy stuff at her blog site. And from there you can go to her UTube site and see other cool stuff. It's fun to read the really complimentary comments.

downtown

I went downtown today for a business meeting. I was in an office overlooking the northern portion of Grant Park. Lil Hizzoner has loaded that park with crap.
Maybe it looks better from ground level, but what part of "park" doesn't he understand.

All this talk about a mass transit funding crisis - hey, I paid $2 bucks for my six block ride from the train station. Seems a fair price. They ought to be able to scrape by on $2 fares. How come they're broke? Running buses at two o'clock in the morning with nobody on them? Sending specially equipped vans to handicapped peoples homes to take them where they need to go? Overpaying for supplies to politically connected suppliers? I don't know. But it did make me think of the street cars that used to run around town when I was a kid. They had tires and didn't run on tracks but they had poles on top reaching up to electrical wires overhead. Getting rid of them was Big Hizzoner's idea. I wonder how much they'd be saving on fuel and how much less they'd be polluting if they'd kept those things.

A comment on the financial markets: taking the same route forty years ago I would have passed a half dozen ground floor brokerages with electronic stock tickers in the window. Today I looked out the bus window for a brokerage with a market ticker in the window, just to see what the Dow or S&P were doing. Nada, not a one. Which tells me the retail trade is dead. People invest in mutual funds through their 401K at work, or an IRA through their bank. They're at least two steps removed from the action. Those old brokerage houses used to have a couple of benches where guests could sit and watch the action on big electronic tickers. Gave the old geezers sometning to do. Maybe it's a security thing, a ground floor retail office would make it too easy for an investor who just lost his job, his house, his kid's college fund and his retirement money to walk in and start shooting account executives.

I guess I'll have to learn how to get that kind of info off a cell phone, if I start carrying one.

It sucks to be Omar

Omar Hunter, a big 4 star defensive tackle, from Georgia committed to ND last June. Then last week, a month before the signing date, he "un-committed" and is talking to Urban Meyer about a scholarship to Florida.
Urban Meyer was on the short list for the ND coaching job and he used that leverage to jack up his contract value at Florida where he was already secretly committed to go, because his wife likes Florida better than Indiana and because he "could win there sooner."
Well, Coach Meyer favors a recruiting method known as poaching. He waits until a recruit commits to another school, then a month or two later, starts "recruiting" the kid's best friend on his high school team. He has the friend start in on the desired player. "Hey, you ought to talk to these guys. They got a great program. And they told me some bad shit about ND you ought to hear before you finally decide." The appeal of this approach for Coach Meyer is that it's easier to lie about one school, than lie about a half dozen. Even an eighteen year-old would realize all those schools he thought he liked couldn't be that bad.

Anyway, Omar showed up for the Under Armor High School All Star game yesterday and had a very bad day, thanks to Braxton Cave, another ND commit playing offensive center for the opposing squad.



That's Braxton.






Thats Braxton spoiling Omar's day.

And when he came off the field he had to deal with Jamortis Slaughter, another ND commit giving him that "You'd best not even think about looking at me, bitch"
stare.



The 2008 ND recruiting class, currently the highest ranked in the country are vocal about how tight they are as a group, and how eager they are to make their presence felt at ND. I guess they didn't like Omar falling for Urban's bull-shit.

PS Omar's probably a really nice kid.

Thanks to BlueandGold.com for the snapshots.

If you got time on your hands

here's a link to a U Tube "friend" Of Janett's. He's likable and could be UTube's answer to Steve Irwin, except with border collies instead of crocodiles.

Obama Mama Jama

I would have preferred for Edward's and Obama's results to have been reversed in Iowa, but I;m glad Hillary took a beating. Obama will have another big win in New Hampshire, a big win in South Carolina, a big win in Michigan - by the time super whateve day comes around it won't matter what kind of money or organization she has, she's a goner.

I guess we have to wait and see about Obama. He doesn't have much of a record to judge him by. Senator Durbin of Illinois was campaigning for him in Iowa, and seemed sincere in his praise, and I like Durbin. Kucinich surprised me and semi-endorsed him in Iowa, telling his supporters to support Obama if they couldn't muster 15% at the caucuses. Right now he's riding a very big wave. It would take a big time scandal to hurt his momentum. I expect they'll dig up something, but I doubt it'll be enough.

The bad job numbers today removed any possible doubt, it's going to be a very bearish market for some time. If you own any stocks, sell them. If you dont own any stocks, borrow some and sell them.

I've got a nasty cold, so I don't have the energy to organize my thoughts very well. I'll talk to you later.

New Years Resolution

Always remember Southern Cal is a rival. Michigan is an enemy. This history is reposted at Rock's House from time to time.

Notre Dame and Michigan - A History

It is well this week to reflect on relations between Notre Dame and Michigan: how they began, how they developed, why they are the way they are and what forces impel Michigan to be the way it is. Let us review and remember all that Michigan really stands for.

Chapter One - Seeds of Smallness - The Yost Legacy

Fielding Yost is by far the most influential person in the history of Michigan athletics. A review of his tenure vis-a-vis Notre Dame is instructive of how and why Notre Dame and Michigan view each other the way they do.

"The two most powerful conference members athletically and politically were Chicago and Michigan. Both would become the staunchest athletic foes of Notre Dame. In 1898 Michigan voted to deny Notre Dame membership in the (then) Western Conference."

"In June 1901 Michigan and Chicago orchestrated the conference's banning of Notre Dame from the initial I.C.A.A. track meet"

1909 - Notre Dame defeats Michigan for the first time. After the game Notre Dame player Red Miller goes to shake Fielding Yost's hand. "When Shorty Longman introduced me to Mr. Yost, who had been my idol for years, I was thrilled beyond measure. . . To my utter amazement, he greeted me by saying 'Miller you were guilty of the most unsportsmanlike conduct that I've ever seen in all my days.'" Yost was angry because Miller had waited several times until the last minute to signal fair catches on punts and Michigan had been flagged twice for interference. "The fair catches were perfectly legal" as officals later confirmed.

Later that year despite, having a worse record and losing to ND, Michigan was voted "Champions of the West" by some Western Conference sportswriters and Yost claimed the split championship was just. "Of course we are champions. They have a good team down there, but you must recognize the fact that we went into that game caring little whether we won or lost. Practice was what we wanted."

1910 - 24 hours before Notre Dame and Michigan are to play, Yost cancels the game. The two teams do not play again for thirty-two years.

1911 - A general policy of blackballing of Notre Dame by Michigan and Western Conference schools begins. Jesse Harper writes to ask Michgan to schedule a game: "I am very sorry you could not think it best to schedule a game for next fall. If at any time you should find that your schedule is not working out to suit you and that you would like to play Notre Dame, I would be very glad to hear from you."

1913 - ND begins playing schools outside the midwest as a result of the boycott. Army, Texas, Penn State and Syracuse are added to the schedule. The 1913 Army game -- only scheduled due to the Michigan boycott -- becomes one of the most famous in ND history as Gus Dorais and Knute Rockne use the forward pass to upset the top team in the then-dominant East.

1914 - Yost to his AD "Do not favor Notre Dame game. It would be a hard game. Not much money or prestige if we won."

One senior football player of the class of '14 bears particular ill will towards Yost and Michigan for blackballing Notre Dame. Also, despite his pass-catching ability as displayed in the game against Army, Yost works to keep this player off of All American teams. The young player swears to friends that he will ensure that Notre Dame not only never needs the Western Conference, Yost or Michigan again, but that she will eclipse them across the nation.

Rockne viewed Yost as "a hillbilly who was forever grinding a religious ax against Notre Dame, who was crooked as a dog's hind leg, who was selfish and vain beyond comprehension, who was blindly jealous of Rockne's own success and ascension to national stardom and who coached boring, neanderthal football."

1923 Big Ten track and field meet to which ND is invited. At a meeting of athletic directors Yost makes a comment in front of all listeners that Rockne is a "Protestant holdout at a Catholic school" and urges Big Ten schools to boycott Notre Dame in all sports. During the meet one of Michigan's hurdlers stumbled and lost. Yost inisted the hurdles had been placed wrong and demanded the race be re-run. Illinois, Wisconsin and other schools withdrew and Notre Dame joined in support of their protest. Yost then approached Notre Dame's captain and told him to tell Rockne that he was a quitter and that he and his "dirty Irish" would never play on Ferry Field again.

Rockne wrote Yost "The Western Conference could put in a regulation that all coaches had to join the Ku-Klux-Klan but that certainly does not apply to us any more than some of the other freak regulations they may have. Now if you personally don't want to meet Notre Dame, that is your business, no holler from this end. . . But I dont think it is fair for you to carry out a campaign against us. I have always been a loyal booster and admirer of yours and I always hope to be. However, I am no quitter. I will not sit by quietly and have my school knocked even though I am not of its faith [this was before Rockne converted]"

1926 - In a note to the Big Ten Commissioner, noting that Notre Dame had won its last twelve games against Big Ten teams Yost urges all to join Michigan's renewed boycott, "one can readily see how the Conference is helping Notre Dame."

1929 - After years of false assertions by Yost against Notre Dame, Michigan's longstanding unethical tactics are exposed in a study by the Carnegie Report on college athletics. The report cited Michigan as "among the least fortunate" of 100 schools investigated in the manner in which both the University and its alumni clubs provided loans, jobs and other forms of aid to athletes. That same year, the Big Ten Commissioner denounced the report and called Michigan "an ideal" for other college athletic programs regarding ethics.

Rockne's system, involving the famed Notre Dame Shift caught other teams off balance and was the rage in football. Yost begins a national campaign to get the shift banned and resort to old-style less fluid football not involving shifting or as much passing - in other words, a return to the rugby-style that earlier had led to many deaths and led to President Theodore Roosevelt calling for reforms in the game. Eventually, the rule was modified to require a "complete stop" - Rockne coached his players to do so - briefly - and still used his motion offense to win a national championship in 1924. Yost was outraged. Next, Big Ten officials began flagging Notre Dame on a consistent basis for its "slick" plays and quick shifts and reverses. In a game at Northwestern, Michigan alum and Big Ten official Meyer Morton penalized Notre Dame 95 yards, NW zero, leading to the famous Rockne quote to the official "Looks like a Big Ten suckhole out there to me." Rockne was also outraged that Yost had a say on which Big Ten officials called ND games against Big Ten teams, even though Michigan was not playing Notre Dame. Even with the new rules designed by Yost and his allies to impede Rockne, Notre Dame went undefeated in 1929 and 1930 and won two more national championships.

At the end of the day Rockne has become the prototype of coaches and an American cultural icon, the winningest coach in the history of football with towns, buildings, stamps and famous movies named after him and the most legendary of all team exhortations to his credit. Yost's name is generally known only to Michigan fans.


Chapter Two - The Crisler Legacy - "They Say Hail Mary's"

Finally, in 1942, after thirty-two years, a game was played between Notre Dame and Michigan. Michigan won 32-20. The next year, the game was played in Ann Arbor. The teams were ranked 1 and 2 in the polls and it was a huge game. Notre Dame won 35-12 on the way to the national championship. The star of the game was Creighton Miller, son of Red Miller who Yost had attacked in 1909. As after Notre Dame's first win over Michigan, Notre Dame's second win provoked a cessation of relations for another thirty years.

In a gesture of goodwill in order to strengthen relations between the schools, Coach Fritz Crisler was extended an invitation to the Notre Dame football banquet in 1943. He told a friend to graciously say he was deeply disappointed he could not attend and that "No one but you need know that I have my tongue in cheek when I say that."

A Michigan official told Crisler that if asked about the Notre Dame series he would say its a great series, we are looking forward to more of the same. Crisler told him "I would back you in public for any quotes and then chew you out in private for going beyond your authority." Crisler thereafter politely put off all requests for a game in 1944, 1945 or 1946. In 1946 he instituted a policy requiring that aside from conference games, Michigan only play three other games of which one must be Michigan State, one must be an eastern team and one must be a western team, effectively elimintating any chance of playing Notre Dame without having to admit that was what was being done. Frank Leahy won five national championships at Notre Dame and constantly wrote letters to Crisler begging for him to play a game. Crisler never responded to those requests, but did work behind the scenes in an attempt to have Leahy censured by the coaches association for "faking injuries".

Crisler remained AD until 1968 and never scheduled Notre Dame for a football game. Moose Krause, ND AD during the period, would call Crisler every year to seek a game and was declined for twenty straight years. Said Krause, "I think he didnt want to play us because we were the power in his own backyard. If Michigan lost to Army, well, they were back East. We were too close."

Crisler often said he just did not want to distract from the Big Ten focus of the program. Others thought Crisler harbored anti-Catholic sentiment and feared that Catholics in Michigan might root for Notre Dame. A Detroit News writer, Pete Waldmeir, who covered Michigan for decades says the excuse of not wanting to jeopardize the importance of the conference was a smokescreen. He opined "That's the party-line bullshit. It wasnt that at all. Fritz didnt give a damn about the Big Ten. And you can quote me on that. He told them what to do in football. He had his people placed all around the Big Ten." In 1956 Crisler told Waldmeir, "You know, its tough. Every Saturday morning from every pulpit in town, they're praying for Notre Dame in Ann Arbor." Even Michigan's later athletic director Don Canham all but admits his predecessor's anti-Catholic bigotry: "Fritz didnt have a deep-seated hate of Catholics or anything like that. But, you know, in those days they figured if a Catholic ran for President he couldnt win. . . . I mean it was a different world. And thats what you have to realize when you look at it with today's perspective."

Bump Elliott, Michigan's coach from 1959-1968 also endorsed the "religious threat" reasoning for not scheduling Notre Dame, noting that when he was an assistant at Iowa, some of their Catholic alumni rooted against the Hawkeyes and for Notre Dame. Father Edmund Joyce, Vice President of Notre Dame, said that the only two schools that ever used Notre Dame's Catholic affiliation as an excuse for not scheduling Notre Dame in football were Ohio State and Michigan. Said Joyce, "I always thought the two of them were together on this. I never believed it." Continued Joyce, in the neatest summary of what the Big Two are all about: "Ultimately, Woody Hayes was a little more honest about it. He said he didnt want to play Notre Dame because the Michigan game was the only big game on their schedule, whereas if they played Notre Dame it would detract from the Michigan game. In other words what he was saying was they dont like to lose. Those guys all had great egos and they didnt want to lose." Said Elliott, "I think Crisler felt our schedule was tough enough without playing Notre Dame."

Indeed, Crisler loaded up Michigan with home games, as many as seven in a nine game season and even today, Michigan's historical record is incredibly slanted with a large majority of games having been played at home. From 1943 to 1958 Michigan played Indiana fifteen times, all in Ann Arbor. They played MSU eleven of thirteen games in Ann Arbor from 1945 to 1957. Despite such favorable scheduling and a boycott of Notre Dame, Michigan did not win any national championships from 1948 through the resumption of the series with Notre Dame, while ND was winning championships in 1949, 1953, 1966, 1973 and 1977. And Michigan's light schedule may have had much to do with its lack of success against good teams for decades. In the 1970's, while Notre Dame was winning three Cotton Bowls, a Sugar Bowl, an Orange Bowl and a Gator Bowl, defeating undefeated Texas twice, undefeated Alabama twice, as well as Houston and Penn State, Michigan was 0-6 in bowl games.

One time, Crisler was assured by an alumnus that he could always count on support from Michgian alumni in his efforts to avoid scheduling Notre Dame and preventing other Big Ten schools from scheduling them, telling Crisler he could depend on "a public opinion sufficiently non-Democratic and non-Catholic." Perhaps the mentality and admirability of the second-most signifcant figure in the history of Michigan sports can be summed up in this quote from him about Notre Dame "You know, before the game they march them all off to church and they say their Hail Mary's,"

Chapter Three - The Canham Years - Michigan and The Big Ten Want ND's Money.

While figures such as Yost and Crisler didnt like Catholics or Irish, their successors did like green, the color of money. And money was precisely what led to Michigan realizing the greater spirit and glory of sport that a resumption of games with Notre Dame would serve. Businessman extraordinaire Don Canham became athletic director in 1969 and quickly looked for avenues to increase revenue. Notre Dame was one.

Canham quickly got the deal done and Notre Dame always had the utmost respect for him as he did for Notre Dame. Said Canham. "You have to give Notre Dame credit. Any sport you name Notre Dame goes after the best competition. Thats why they're Notre Dame." The class and largeness of spirit exhibited by Canham was a break with Michigan's heritage and one not to be followed by those around him.

Canham was ahead of the game for the Big Ten in reaching out to Notre Dame. In the late nineties, Big Ten officials hotly courted Notre Dame to join the conference -- for money not love. Notre Dame wisely demured. In an ironic twist of history largely and predictably ignored by the media, Notre Dame was being asked to join the regional institution whose many earlier rejections of Notre Dame had forced it to seek a national schedule and thus become the national athletic institution it was. Moreover, the institution that had done the most to attempt to destroy, undermine and thwart Notre Dame athletics was aghast and insulted at its rejection when it came begging for Notre Dame join it so that it could monetarily profit from the name and brand ND had built up over the years.

Chapter Four - Bo and Lloyd - Pettiness Personified

Sound familiar? "I dont know whether [playng Notre Dame] is in the best interests of Michigan because Michigan should be pointing to Iowa or Michigan State or Ohio State. It had just got to the point where if I had remained there as athletic director and Notre Dame continued to manipulate the position of the game and to do some of the things they were doing, I'd have dropped Notre Dame." Yes, it is Bo. He also resented that his players didnt agree with him. "When you're setting your goals in your first meeting, Notre Dame always pops into the picture. And you say 'Okay men, we're going to shoot for Notre Dame, but I'm going to tell you something, Notre Dame is a non-conference game, and we'll always play it as that. There are only so many games you can really get your team up to a fever pitch." Bo was 4-6 against Notre Dame.

Bo's frustration undoubtedly stems in part from the fact that during his tenure at Michigan, three different Notre Dame coaches won national championships while Bo never got close. And throughout Lou Holtz's tenure, Notre Dame won five major bowls and played in four others while Michigan was going 2-3 in the Rose Bowl and not making any other major bowl games. Bo, who had the worst record against top-ten teams of any coach who ever won over a hundred games, had some of his most galling and embarrasing defeats at the hands of the Irish, including three straight losses to Holtz to close his career, Harry Oliver's 51-yard boot, Bob Crable's blocked field goal, Ricky Watter's punt return helping catapult Notre Dame to a national championship in 1988 and Rocket's two kick returns in 1989. So Bo's desire to avoid Notre Dame is understandable. His class and Michigan manner were recently displayed yet again when in true statesman of the game style he proclaimed "To hell with Notre Dame."

Lloyd Carr has picked up many of the same tendencies as his predecessors. He frequently talks about how it might be a good idea to end the Notre Dame series. Also, he went ballistic over a perceived "injustice" when Notre Dame played Kansas before playing Michigan in 1999. He claimed there was a gentlemans agreement that neither school would play a game before this one. Krause was conveniently dead. Unfortunately, the then-alive Canham opted to tell the truth and denied any such agreement. Carr's dissembling was further undermined by the fact that Michigan played games before playing Notre Dame in 1978-82, 1991, 1993 and 1994. As former Michigan athletic director Jack Weidenbach points out, "We can move our games around too" and had done so to get a game before Notre Dame for years before Carr's Yostian tirade.

Carr's hostility to truth is also displayed in his recruiting efforts to play the race card. Carr frequently uses Notre Dame's Catholic affiliation [sound familiar] and location away from a large city to attempt to convince African-American players not to attend Notre Dame. Carr's tactics are especially unworthy considering that African-American athletes going to Notre Dame almost uniformly earn degrees while an African-American football player at Michigan for most of the last two decades is most likely to serve his time in the fields at Michigan Stadium and around the Big Ten and then leave school with no degree. Carr's average of three-losses a season with what is generally considered unlimited recruiting resources and limited academic demands on his players has placed him squarely in the Michigan mold. Consistent winning with few outstanding seasons.

In the end, much of the Michigan-Notre Dame relationship comes down to smallness and jealousy. Notre Dame has won far more national championships, more Heisman Trophies, has more All Americans. Its games are more highly-rated, its team more closely followed nationally than Michigan. It has its own network contract and every year that polling is conducted Notre Dame is chosen as America's most popular college football team. While Notre Dame has been consensus national champion nine times since the polls came into effect in 1936 and number two four times, Michigan has won a championship in 1948 and a half of one in 1997, and has finished second twice. Never has Michigan defeated an undefeated or number one or two ranked team in a bowl game to win a national championship as Notre Dame has done repeatedly. While Notre Dame has won bowl games against undefeated opponents seven times, Michigan has never won a bowl game against an undefeated opponent. And Notre Dame is the only school to have a winning record against Michigan over the last fifty years. Indeed, even failures such as Bob Davie and Ty WIllingham have a combined .500 record against Michigan, with Ty having a winning record against Carr! Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that the average Notre Dame undergrad far outshines the resume of his Michigan counterpart, having finished in the top ten percent of his high school class and scoring much higher on standardized tests. Even by the ludicrous standards of the U.S News and World Report survey by which large universities such as Michigan live, Notre Dame outranks them. All of this is galling to Michigan, whose worldview is one conditioned on absolute superiority to the Big Ten schools it regularly dictates to politically, defeats on the field and over whom it presumes intellectual superiority.

Nowhere is Michigan's "Notre Dame complex" more apparent than in the hostile, ugly treatment of Notre Dame fans at Michigan Stadium. Michigan and other fans routinely comment on how friendly and refreshing a trip to Notre Dame is for a game - a trip back to days of real college football sportsmanship. Michigan, on the other hand, while constantly publicizing its committment ot sportsmanship and the values of intercollegiate competition embarrassingly was forced to send an official apology to Notre Dame for the vulgar and violent treatment of Notre Dame's students and fans at Michigan Stadium in 2003. Unable to have a constructive, mature relationship with a school that sees itself as more than its equal, Michigan's relationship with Notre Dame has always been one of animus and pettiness, fueled at various points by historical prejudice against Catholics and envy of Notre Dame's unique place in the history of American sport and its success against the odds, all achieved outside the narrow confines of the conference walls Michigan so obsessively built and maintains.

* Sources: Kryk, "Natural Enemies: The Notre Dame- Michigan Football Feud", Sperber, "Shake Down the Thunder" and "Onward to Victory"; Notre Dame and Michigan Media Guides.

Iowa

It's looking good for Edwards.

When he planned his 2008 campaign he figured half the folks wouldn't vote for Hillary, but he didn't figure on Obama. So it's been a struggle. I continue to think that he's on the right track; anti-corporate and anti-war, and his policy papers have been the best on health care and trade policies.

His political strategy has been sound, too; paying a lot of attention to the less populous districts in the western part of the state. From a recent Newsweek article.

"For months, Edwards has been rounding up support in the state’s rural precincts where the front runners have paid less attention. While Obama and Clinton have drawn crowds in the thousands in places like Des Moines and Ames, Edwards has been winning over people in tiny towns like Sac City (population: 2,189). That’s important, the strategists say, because under Iowa’s arcane caucus rules, a precinct where 25 people show up to vote gets the same number of delegates as a place that packs in 2,500. In other words, even if he loses to Obama and Clinton in the state’s bigger cities, he can still win by wrapping up smaller, far-flung precincts that other candidates have ignored. “The bulk of our support is in small and medium counties,” says Jennifer O’Malley, Edwards’s Iowa state director. O’Malley says Edwards has visited all 99 counties in the state; the campaign has so far trained captains covering 90 percent of all 1,781 precincts. Rural voters are sometimes reluctant to caucus, so the campaign has been enlisting respected community leaders to encourage first-timers to get past their apathy or fear."

Another part of his strategy is to be everybody's second choice. If you're an Iowa caucus goer, and your candidate doesn't have the support of 15% of the people who show up, you can switch to another candidate or go home. If Edwards gets 65% of the 15% who support second tier candidates (can't get over the 15% threshhold) those additions would add up to 10% of caucusers to his column. Nice guys don't always finish last.

Populist Party

Too bad we don't have one. If we did we'd be choosing between Kucinich, the radical populist; Paul, the laissez faire populist; Huckabee, the fundamentalist populist; Edwards, the establishment populist; Obama, the new populist; and Clinton, the make believe populist. That would leave Giulliani, Romney, and McCain vying for the republican nomination - not a bad cross section. And Joe Biden, Dodd, and Richardson would be the Democratic contenders, all good folks. Of course Hillary would admit she doesn't really even know what a populist is, and slip back into the democratic fold - where her chances improve. The problem, of course is that there is such disparity among the populists. Could a Kucinich populist be persuaded to support a Paul candidacy? That's where party discipline comes in - and without a party we'll never know. The other part of the answer is that the republicans and democrats should merge into the corporate party. That would make the populist identity more binding, in spite of diversity of orientations. I'm less than half serious. But apres l'deluge, there will be redefinition and realignment

Janetts telling me we have to go get Mally. See Ya.