TMQ was oddly silent last week about Kansas City. TMQ is oddly silent this week about Dallas. TMQ loves him some Patriot offense.
We actually watched last night’s game at the home of some friends. (Those friends shall remain nameless to protect their privacy, but thank you, nameless friends for hosting us!) We have not seen a Monday night game since the contract moved to ESPN, and we were amazed at just how awful the commentary was. We were also amazed at how much time was spent talking about Every. Single. Little. Aspect. Of the New England Patriots (especially Brady) and how little time was spent discussing the Texans.
We’re not that upset the Texans lost. A win would have been nice, but 11-2 is pretty good, and it isn’t like they lost to an incompetent team.
Additional note: as we write this, news is breaking that Paulie Tags has thrown out the New Orleans Saints player suspensions. We’re not sure what to make of this, or how this is going to play out. We need some time to think about it.
After the jump, this week’s TMQ….
“Right now, the New England offense rules the NFL.” But their starters are mostly undrafted free agents. Plus: “New England offensive linemen never stand around doing nothing.” Additionally: “Brady has a near-perfect three-second mental clock.”
We’d give our eye teeth to see this notebook.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they always give the Heisman to quarterbacks or running backs. Keep <plucking> that chicken, TMQ.
Sweet: Colt – Titans, Bengals – Cowboys, 49ers – Dolphins, Carolina – Atlanta. Sour: Bills – St. Louis. Mixed: Washington – Baltimore, Philadelphia – Tampa Bay.
…the world’s adults weigh a combined 287 million tons, which works out to the weight of 17,000 Ohio-class submarines.
Working the numbers backward, they do seem to work out to the correct weight of an Ohio-class submarine. If we use demographic figures from Wikipedia (and count anyone 15 and over as an adult, which is fudging a bit, but the best we can do with Wikipedia) we come up with an average adult weight of about 111 pounds, which seems reasonable to us. And thanks to TMQ for linking to a debunking of the “food desert” theory.
Tebow. (It isn’t too late, Jaguars.)
We don’t have a lot to say about this week’s wasteful spending on bodyguards, per se. We were all set to snark on MUA, but the menu sounds pretty good to us (except for that “mac and cheese”. Ugh.) We kind of wanted to snark on Governor Moonbeam, but really, but what can we say? We wouldn’t wait 45 minutes for dinner, either.
“But why were the Seahawks throwing deep in the fourth quarter, leading 51-0? Why did they throw deep to the end zone on fourth-and-23 with a 51-point margin?” Because, TMQ, as we’ve said before, the second and third string guys are expected to play just as hard, if not harder, than the first string. They’re auditioning for jobs next year, or possibly even promotions this year.
Wow. Just…wow. We don’t like talking about our religion very much, but we’re going to make an exception in this case. We have always believed that the Bible is the inspired word of God and an accurate record of events…filtered through the mind of mortal man, translated from various languages into other languages, and heavily influenced by both religious history and religious politics. We think Biblical literalism is a dangerous thing – perhaps best left to people with a deep theological background, but, at the very least, something that should be done with caution.
“If God is omnipotent, there’s no barrier to a very rapid creation.” What about those fossils that date back millions of years? How do explain that with a literal six day creation? Or does TMQ side with the creationist theory that God created those in situ just to fool scientists?
We’re frankly kind of baffled by how worked up TMQ seems to be by Rubio’s and Obama’s answers, which strike us as quite reasonable. Then again, we’re baffled by a lot of things TMQ does. Hence, this column.
Lasers. Eight o’clock. Christmas Day. We’d buy one of these. If we had more money than sense. And were going bald. And wanted to grow our hair back. (Sometimes, our hair gets annoying enough that we think going bald is a swell idea.)
RGIII is the first quarterback to defeat the defending champions on Monday Night Football. The Packers running the ball? Is the Mayan apocalypse really upon us?
TMQ asserts that The Leading Indicators
Bret Bielema, Butch Jones and Tommy Tuberville are weasels. We won’t defend Bielma and Jones, as we don’t keep up that closely with college programs. However, we have a close relative who is a major-league Texas Tech fan, and we discussed the Tuberville situation briefly with her over the weekend. According to her, the consensus of the (at least the more vocal) fans is that Turberville was a bad fit for the program and didn’t respect Tech history and tradition. In short, he may be a weasel, but nobody at Tech is unhappy about him leaving.
Serious question: are we totally missing TMQ’s point here, or does TMQ not understand the concept of translation?
Serious question 2: does TMQ believe that angels speak (spoke?) Greek or Latin in their interactions with humans? Does TMQ actually believe that angels speak at all; that they are physical manifestations with a larynx and vocal cords, rather than immaterial beings that communicate, say, telepathically?
“…the Washington Wizards, worst team in the NBA, beat the Miami Heat, best team.” Any given Sunday, Gregg. “Coverage not available everywhere.” Technically, Gregg, T-Mobile could have continuous coverage in a narrow band, say from New York to California along the fortieth parallel
(By the way, we like John McPhee a whole lot, and think that’s a wonderful book. If we didn’t already own it, it would be on our Christmas list. Consider this an endorsement.)
Speaking of endorsements, TMQ likes Love’s Winning Plays
Look, we’re skeptical about space tourism as well. But there are some things that we think TMQ overlooks or glosses over:
- “Today, more knowledge about space flight exists than in the 1960s, which might reduce costs.” Might?
- Advances in materials science and computerization – some of those actually driven by NASA – should also reduce costs.
- That $40 billion includes a lot of NASA/government overhead. Would any private space program need as many people today as NASA needed in 1968-1969?
- Golden Spike‘s website sucks. But we’re not sure that “the company lacks a rocket”. They seem to be stating that their plan is to use existing off-the-shelf technology. We’d really like to find more detail on what exactly they plan to use, but can’t, as their website is frustratingly vague; if anybody can tease that out, please leave the information in comments.
We think skepticism of Golden Spike and their plan is justified, at least at the moment. At the same time, conflating Virgin’s sub-orbatal plan and GS’s plan in the same item dilutes TMQ’s point. The other problem here is that TMQ’s pro-big government views seem to be leading him down a path of assuming that only government can run a space program. We have close ties to NASA (one of our family members worked for NASA when we were young, and a good friend of ours works there today) but we are unwilling to tie our future in space to the government. Getting off this planet and out to the stars is too important to be left in the hands of any one group.
“Turnovers are great…” Yes, yes they are. The Chargers played well, but is that enough?
Creep. “On the list of Most Disappointing is ‘Prometheus,’ which was so poorly done there’s nothing to be gained by making fun of it.” Hey, “Prometheus” had problems, but “so poorly done there’s nothing to be gained by making fun of it”? TMQ seems oddly sheltered.
“The NFL said last week it might ‘contribute’ some capital to construction of a new stadium for the Raiders.” The NFL? Money? Raiders? New stadium? Excuse us while we laugh manically.
Okay. We’re back. “Set aside that the league might issue tax-free bonds, so even what appeared on paper to be free-market funding would be subsidized. Funding for the Forty Niners’ new field under construction in Santa Clara appears to be private capital but actually is tax-exempt bonds backed by a California stadium authority.” Once again, TMQ confuses “letting people keep the money they rightfully earned” with “tax subsidy”.
“But a publicly funded stadium should be viewed as a public space, analogous to a park, where images created cannot be owned.” We kind of agree with TMQ’s point here, but his idea is an interesting interpretation of intellectual property law, and one which we are not sure is supported under current law. “Game images” may be public domain under TMQ’s plan, but would distribution of those images be covered under trademark law?
Bad officiating: Bengals and Lions. We thought there were several questionable calls in last night’s game, too, but TMQ doesn’t mention any of those.
Chicken-<salad> kicks: Baltimore. Refugio High lost in the playoffs. Wow: a high school team is using accelerometer equipped helmets? Reader mail: “Last Resort” and Bush v. Gore.
Saint Thomas of Minnesota 28, Wisconsin Oshkosh 14. Georgia Southern 49, Old Dominion 35.
Tune in next week, when we’ll see if and what TMQ has been saving up.