ProfessorBainbridge.com

Annoying Restaurant Practices

Zagat lists what they view as the 10 most annoying things restaurants do. Over at their site, they offer their own commentary. here, I add what I think of them:

"1. Dogs in Cafes/Outdoor Restaurants." Predictably, this one doesn't bother me at all. To the contrary, I like it.

"2. Tables Ridiculously Close Together." Why is it that restaurants with lousy acoustics are especially fond of this one?

"3. Overzealous Wine Pouring. If there’s one thing we definitely don’t need help with, it’s pouring our own alcohol." Damned straight. I bought it. It's my bottle. Servers should keep their hands off it.

"4. Designer Ice" Who cares?

"5. Enormous Wine Glasses" I'd rather have a glass that is too big than too small. One trend that seems to be over is for high priced Italian places to use tumblers instead of real wine glasses. My $100 bottle of super-Tuscan wine belongs in a Riedel glass, not a water tumbler.

"6. Ketchup Snobbery" Who cares?

"7. Sparkling, Flat or Filtered Tap?" Filtered tap is better for the environment and, for my money, tastes better.

"8. Unisex Restrooms." Lousy idea.

"9. Excessive Punctuation/Lower-Case Letters in Restaurant Names, Menu Items Wh.at is up wi.th all the pe.ri.ods?" it's annoying, but it's better than the 1980s fad for adding extra "e's", as in "Ye Olde Taverne."

"10. Wood-Infused Food" Unless it's smoked BBQ, wood is not an ingredient.

Fantasy Football Roundup

So I finished in second place in the PB.com rotisserie league. I was well rewarded for taking MJD high. Drafting Rob Gronkowski in the late rounds turned out to be a strike of genius (okay, mostly luck). A mid-season trade for Matthew Stafford helped too. Just not quite enough firepower to make up the gap with the league leader.

I finished third in the PB.com H2H league. I got hammered by QB injuries towards the end of the season and wound up starting (Gawd help me) Matt Sanchez. Ray Rice deserved his first round selection. Drafting Jimmy Graham late was another stoke of genius (okay, mainly luck). If Miles Austin and Matt Schaub had been healthy all season and I had had a better RBs than DeAngelo Williams, I think I could have won this thing. Oh well.

Kudos, BTW, to Drew C who won both the OB.com leagues this year -- a first.

As for my teams in Charles' leagues, I don't want to talk about it.

Thoughts:

1. In 2012, we end the H2H fantasy season in Week 16. These week 17 games are just too unpredictable. Drew's 7-7 team beat Charles' 10-4 team mainly because Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson went nuts against a Packers defense missing Charles Woodson and Clay Matthews.
2. Aaron Rodgers is fantasy fold in roto leagues. I won the PB.com rotisserie league last year behind him (of course, having drafted Arian Foster in the 6th round helped). Drew C won the league this year behind Rodgers. 
3. Drafting an injury-prone Javid Best as my RB2 in two leagues was a very bad idea.
4. Cam Newton is going to be what we thought Mike Vick was going to be. Only better and for much longer. He's a fantasy superstar in the making.
5. Desean Jackson was my biggest bust of the year. Considering how high I drafted him, I got woeful production.
6. Ditto Mike Vick. Having both of them on the same team was a very bad idea.
7. Cam Newton and Tim Tebow were great waiver wire pickups, even if they were picked up on my Charles' league teams that otherwise sucked. Newton will be on my radar for QB1 next year. Not convinced Tebow will be starting in 2012.
8. I loved it when David Akers tossed for a TD in week 17. It didn't change any of my results, but I love it when you get that little "extra points" asterisk on your Yahoo score sheet.
9. Having Vernon Davis as my TE on the same team that had Vick and Jasckson was one more reason that team sucked.
10. It's going to be a long, dull 8 months before the next season starts.

Monday Night Football Thoughts

It's been a while since I did a football post, so here goes:

1. The Unseen Academicals are 9-3 in the PB.com H2H fantasy football league, are in first place in their division, have clinched a playoff spot, and are in good shape to add a 10th win by the end of the night. Da Commish is in second place in the PB.com roto league, but continues to come on strong and is slowly closing the gap with the Roswell Oilers. The Cowboys Drool are 5-7 and thus in a three way tie for fourth place in the lamentably named Cowboys Rule H2H. Unfortunately, all three of us are almost certain locks to win this week, which means the tie for the final playoff spot remains unbroken. As for the LA Prawfs, they remain mired in seventh place in their rotisserie league. So I'm having a pretty decent but not stellar season.
2. I'm now convinced Tim Tebow has a viable future as an NFL starting quarterback. But what matters is what John Elway and, I suppose, John Fox think. It's hard to read what Elway says about Tebow and conclude that Elway is prepared to commit beyond the season to Tebow. In an ideal world, Elway would trade Tebow to a team that actually wants him and is prepared to utilize his skill set.
3. At this point, Cam Newton would get my vote for Offensive Rookie of the Year.
4. At this point, Aaron Rodgers would get my vote for Offensive Player of the Year.
5. Few things have made me happier than watching the Philadelphia Eagles flutter back to earth tis season.
6. I am increasingly doubtful that my beloved Washington Redskins will make the playoffs in what's left of my lifetime.
7. I hate Dan Snyder and all his works.
8. I feel really sorry for the Houston Texans. It's like watching an edifice crumble.
9. DirecTV's Sunday Ticket is probably the greatest invention since the internal combustion engine.
10. My fearless prediction: The Green Bay Packers will go undefeated and win the Super Bowl.

Cold remedies

I've been fighting a bad head cold and sore throat since Sunday night, which migrated to my chest yesterday. I think I'm finally on the mend, having thrown a veritable arsenal of remedies at it over the last few days. FWIW, here's my impression of their efficacy:

1. Hot and sour soup. Very good. Hydrates but also makes you sweat, which loosens up the mucus. Plus, it tastes really good at a time when your taste buds are subpar. Think of it as chicken soup on steroids.
2. Airborne. Highly dubious. But it tastes better than plain water and so at the very least it encourages hydration.
3. Vicks Vapo-rub. Brings back comforting childhood memories and does seem to loosen up the mucus.
4. Mucinex. Worked great when chest and coughing phase started.
5. Advil. Essential.
6. Antihistamines. Worse than useless. Hyped me up.
7. Tabasco liberally sprinkled on scrambled eggs. Like hot and sour soup, got things flowing.
8. Ricola lemon honey drops. Very temporary relief of sore throat. Nada for cough.
9. Coffee with cream and sugar. Very bad idea. Seemed to make chest congestion worse.
10. Sleep. Lots and lots of sleep. Nature's cure.

I wonder how you say schadenfreude in Texan?: Football -- real and fantasy -- notes

1. As a lifelong Redskins fan, I'll take any win, even over the hapless Rams
2. As a lifelong Redskins fan, my second favorite team is whoever is playing Dallas --- what a great game the Lions played today --- me so happy watching Romo collapse ... again --- I wonder how you say schadenfreude in Texan?
3. For the third time in four weeks, I left Cam newton on my bench in CT's rotisserie league. Never again. I am now a believer.
4. Rough weekend for me in fantasy football. Right now I'm behind in both H2H leagues and losing ground in both roto leagues.
5. I left a lot of points on the bench in the PB.com roto league by not starting Marshawn Lynch and James Starks. But who knew they'd both beat MJD and Javid Best?
6. I should have known that Frank Gore would blow up for a big game if I benched him. But I benched him anyway, starting Starks and Hightower. the latter got me a whopping 1.90 points in CT's stingy H2H league scoring system. Thanks to Vick and Calvin Johnson's big days, however, I could still squeak out a win if the Jets DST get some points and Dallas Clark doesn't get into double digits.
7. I need the Jets DST to do well if I'm going to win the two H2H leagues, but I've got Ray Rice on the Unseen Academicals (my PB.com H2H team). A big night for Ray would guarantee that I remain undefeated in that league, but could cost the Jets DST enough points that I lose in the other H2H league. The dilemma of fantasy football.
8. I can't believe Rob Ryan actually said that Calvin Johnson would be the third best wide receiver at today's game. What morons these Ryans are. I wonder of he's even smart enough to realize he's got some retracting to do.
9. Have I mentioned lately how much I hate the Dallas Cowboys, their owner, their players, their coaches, their alumni, employees, and fans?
10. Is it too early to start wallowing in schadenfreude watching the Eagles' "dream team" season go bye bye?

10 Things I Think I Think about Obama's Job Speech

NFL.com reports:

In agreeing Wednesday to reschedule his planned address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama might have placated House Speaker John Boehner at the expense of the nation's football fans.

Boehner, R-Ohio, balked at the president's original request to appear before Congress to discuss the nation's chronic unemployment problem on Wednesday, Sept. 7. That's the same day as a Republican presidential debate in Simi Valley, Calif.

Obama agreed to move his speech to Thursday, Sept. 8, which happens to coincide with the opening game of the NFL regular season, a prime time contest between the New Orleans Saints and the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers from Lambeau Field.

FWIW, I think:

1. There are no coincidences in DC. Obama timed the speech to step on the GOP debate. He also wanted the Congress--especially the House GOP--as living props for what is really going to be a campaign speech. He's lucky they're even going to let him speak.
2. Boehner won. Again. Where's Obama's spine?
3. As a TV viewer, I'd prefer that he preempt the GOP debate than football.
4. It's a sad state of affairs when the fourth and final game of football's preseason is likely to make more compelling television than a POTUS debate.
5. I don't dislike any of the GOP contenders as much as I dislike the Dallas Cowboys, but it's close in some cases. As between Obama and the Cowboys, it's a coin flip.
6. Neither Super Bowl champs nor Presidents should come from Texas.
7. If asked to choose between Barak Obama, Jerry Jones, Al Davis, and Danny Snyder as leader of the free world, I'd be hard pressed to choose the lesser of the evils on offer.
8. I always thought it said something about Obama as a person that he prefers basketball to football.
9. Since I pick second in a 10 team PPR league this weekend, it would be helpful if Obama gave us an update on Adrian Foster's job status in his speech.
10. Obama says that he will “lay out a series of bipartisan proposals that the Congress can take immediately to continue to rebuild the American economy by strengthening small businesses, helping Americans get back to work, and putting more money in the paychecks of the Middle Class and working Americans, while still reducing our deficit and getting our fiscal house in order." After which, he and Congress will leap tall buildings in a single bound and run faster than a speeding bullet. How about a program of NOT doing stuff. Like not raising taxes, not flushing money down a stimulus rat hole, and not imposing new regulations that cost business money and create uncertainty? And if you must do something, how about repealing all the new laws and regulations Obama's created that cost business money and create uncertainty?

It's almost fantasy football season, so here's 10 things I think I think

It's that time of year again. School started. Days are getting shorter. And an old man's thoughts turn to things like average draft positions and mock drafts.

I'm currently in 4 fantasy football leagues this year. All more or less PPRs. Smaller leagues this year than I'm used to. One 8, two 10, and one 11 team leagues. I'm looking for an auction draft league. First draft this weekend.

I stand prepared to be corrected on any of the following (and it's just possible that I'm putting out disinformation to confuse the opposition), but here's 10 things I think I think (as always, apologies to the great Peter King):

1. The Chris Johnson holdout scares me. Not only could he miss time, but holdouts always seem vulnerable to injuries. Having said that, if he's available when I draft at # 7 in my 11 team league, I'd probably have to gamble.
2. The Peyton Manning situation seems to have everybody spooked. I saw him go in the sixth round of a mock draft the other night. In all my years of fantasy football, I've never seen him go lower than the third round. Frankly, however, I'm more worried about what his health might mean for Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark. I'm bumping them down a bit.
3. How do you win an 8 team league when everybody's going to have studs at every position?
4. Antonio Gates' continuing feet and toe problems scare me.
5. I love the Washington Redskins, even though I expect them to finish last in their division ... yet again, but there's only one or two players on that team I might even consider drafting. And, no, John Beck isn't one of them. Oddly enough, however, the same thing's true of the Patriots, even though I like them to win their division and maybe the AFC.
6. I'm a big Josh Freeman fan, but he's got a much tougher schedule this year than last. It'll be interesting to see how he does. I'm inclined to let somebody else find out, however.
7. Which individual better epitomizes the red state--blue state divide in the US today? Barack Obama or Tim Tebow?
8. In one of my leagues, the scoring system is such that I'm going to wait to take a QB until pretty late. In another, however, I might go QB in the first round.
9. Every time I get excited about a possible sleeper, he gets dinged up.
10. I'm going to let somebody else find out if Peyton Hillis and Steve Johnson are one hit wonders. Given the chance, however, I'd be happy to find out whether ________ will be a one hit wonder.

I know the Dean and various other UCLA bigwigs read my blog sometimes, so I want to assure them that I only work on fantasy football at home, in the middle of the night, and after doing tons and tons of teaching, research, and service. I never tweak my pre-draft rankings during a faculty meeting, for example, or check the waiver wire before class. Honest.

Ten Game of Thrones Thoughts

So I've been watching HBO's adaptation of George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One (See all Literature & Fiction Books) and rereading the book at more or less the same pace. Herewith some random thoughts, offered FWIW. POSSIBLE SPOILERS WARNING

1. Peter Dinklage is stealing the TV series. He brings to the part of Tyrion precisely the right amount of Napoleonic swagger and, dare I say it, impishness. Perhaps it is my knowledge of what follows in future books, but one can see in Dinklage's performance the potential for Tyrion to turn on his family and eventually become one of the good guys. It's great that such a wonderful actor has finally gotten such a major star vehicle.
2. Catelyn Stark comes off as much less of a bitch in the TV series than in the books, but in either case she remains one of my least favorite characters.
3. I guess it's now conventional wisdom that Jon Snow will turn out to by Lyanna Stark's son. I used to think that Robert Baratheon was his father, but I've come around to the view that Snow is really Rhaegar Targaryen's son. It makes Ned's squeamishness about killing off Targaryen children much more plausible. It also fits with Ned's ruminations on the promise he made Lyanna. A promise to bury her in the North just wouldn't carry all that weight, IMHO. Plus, we know that Rhaegar raped Lyanna "hundreds of times," but I don't think we have any evidence that Robert bedded her before she died. Robert was more likely to have whored around than to seduce the daughter and sister of important allies like the Stark family.
4. I figure Snow and Daenerys end up together (it is, after all, a son of fire and ice). If Jon Snow is Rhaegar's bastard, it fits the Targaryen pattern of intra-family marriages.
5. The kid playing Arya makes her character seem much less annoying. In the books, I find her rather whiny.
6. Conversely, the kid playing Prince Joffrey has precisely the right tone of evil little sh*t for the role.
7. Lena Headey doesn't work as a blonde for me.
8. For a guy who we're told won the war in the south alone, Ned Stark sure makes a lot of dumb tactical decisions.
9. Turning Drogo and Daenerys' wedding night from a tender moment (in the book) to a virtual rape (on TV) seemed unnecessarily salacious, especially given all the other sexual chicanery the story contains.
10. I feel sort of sorry for Sean Bean. His two biggest roles--Boromir and Ned Stark--both get killed off in the first movie. Maybe someday he'll get a role that lets him stick around to the end?

Top 10 Greatest Presidents

A pre-President's Day Gallup poll ranks America's Greatest Presidents as chosen by those polled:

This got me to thinking about how I would rate the top 10. I decided to focus solely on what they did as President. Hence, while I totally honor him for it, Washington's service as commander-in-chief and in the Constitutional Convention don't count. They make him a Great American, but they don't affect his greatness as President. Accordingly, I start my list with Lincoln.

1. Abraham Lincoln: Preserved the Union. Emancipation Proclamation. Set stage for reconciliation. Homestead Act. National Banking Act.
2. George Washington: Defined so many of the President's roles. Avoided foreign entanglements. Put down rebellion. Jay Treaty. Kept balance between Hamilton, Adams, and Jefferson, no small task. Bill of Rights on his watch. 
3. Thomas Jefferson: I've lost most of the hero worship I developed for Jefferson while attending his University and reading Dumas Malone's magisterial biography (Jefferson the Virginian (Jefferson and His Time)). His failures re slavery and his sympathy for the French revolutionaries appall. Conor Cruise O'Brien's superb biography The Long Affair: Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution, 1785-1800 was a useful corrective. Still, he helped John Adams set the precedent for peaceful transition of power between Presidents of differing parties. Lewis & Clark. The Louisiana Purchase. Barbary pirates dealt with. Foundation of US Navy. Ended external slave trade on time.
4. Theodore Roosevelt: Possibly ranked too high. Must admit to admiring his out-sized personality. But I think he actually had a lot of very significant accomplishments: Panama Canal. Great White Fleet. US starts to become Great Power. Trust busting. Food and drug regulation. Conservation. National parks.
5. Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Pains me to rank him this highly. The bad: Created modern regulatory state. Court packing scheme. Keynesian economics. Allowed Japanese internment. Corporatism in the early New deal (esp. NIRA). But there is also so much good: Lend-lease kept UK in war. Managed coalition warfare among the Allies. Won the war. Set stage for post-war American dominance. Ended racial discrimination in federal government hiring and thus helped set the stage for successful civil rights movement.
6. Ronald Reagan: My favorite President. Tax cuts and reform. Military buildup bankrupted Soviet Union. Won the Cold war. Arms reduction. Morning in America after Carter malaise. Would rank higher if he had actually done more to cut the size of government. Starving the beast didn't work. Only gave lip service to pro-life movement. Put Swinging Sandy O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy on SCOTUS, thereby preventing emergence of a solid conservative majority.
7. Dwight D. Eisenhower: Ended Korean War. Balanced budget 3 out of 8 years. Interstate highway system. Civil Rights Act of 1956.
8. John Adams: At this point, you start getting into the territory where candidates have some serious warts. E.g., the Alien & Sedition Act. On the plus side, he managed the crisis with France despite a telling lack of support from either major party or his own cabinet. And he helped set the precedent for peaceful transition of power between Presidents of opposing parties.
9. James Polk: Reduced tariffs. Managed the Fifty-four forty or fight crisis to a peaceful resolution. Won the Mexican war, annexing Nevada and California. Second only to Jefferson in the amount of territory he added to USA.
10. Andrew Jackson: Speaking of warts, the Indian Removal Act remains a blot on the national escutcheon. On the plus side, there was the veto of the rechartering of the Bank of the United States. Squashed South Carolina's secessionist tendencies for a couple of decades. Managed the Nullification crisis and the Texas revolution. Expanded the voting public.

Comparing my list to the Gallup poll, Clinton comes in way too high on the latter. I'd put him somewhere around 15 or so. If only he could have kept his pants zipped.

Kennedy is even more overrated. I get the mystique. All that Camelot crap. But his positive record's pretty thin and there's a ton of negatives.

It's way too soon to draw conclusions about Obama, but my guess is that he'll end up in the bottom third.

W should be somewhere in the bottom quintile. The war of choice in Iraq still seems like a mistake, all things considered. The failure to catch Osama. Massive deficits. Huge growth in entitlements. The corruption of the K Street Gang.

Jimmy Carter goes into the bottom quintile too. Gave away the Panama Canal. Pardoned the draft dodgers. Fumbled Iran. The hostages. The malaise speech. Stagflation. It was the worst presidency of my adult life.

Richard Nixon is a most interesting case. He was a liar and a cheat. Given half a chance, he might have become a usurper as well. His efforts to ape Disraeli's progressive toryism mostly turned into left-liberal programmatic victories. Massive expansion of the regulatory state. Harry Blackmun was an awful SCOTUS choice. Wage and price controls flopped, as one would expect. Adopted Keynesian economic policies. Yet, he also did a lot of really good stuff, especially in foreign policy. Relations with China. Detente. SALT I and II. Saved Israel's bacon in the 1973 war with Operation Nickel Grass. Got us out of Vietnam quagmire, albeit by throwing the South Vietnamese under the bus. Took us off the gold standard. Doesn't get enough credit for efforts in areas of school desegregation and civil rights generally. William Rehnquist and Lewis Powell were great SCOTUS choices. How does one grade such a mixed bag?

What is really shocking abut the whole exercise is the number of nonentities, mediocrities, and flops who have made it to the Oval office. With the exception of Polk and Jackson, the Presidents who served between Monroe and Lincoln were almost all mediocrities, at best. The list between Lincoln and Teffy Roosevelt is equally uninspiring. In the modern era, you've got oddities like Carter, Gerald Ford, Bush 41 and 43, and Obama.

Surely we can do better.

Ten Random Questions

1. The Vince Young-Jeff Fisher fight got me wondering: Why is Jeff Fisher the longest-tenured head coach in the NFL? No Super Bowl wins. Only 6 postseasons in 16 years. Why's Bud Adams so loyal to him? Does Fisher have incriminating photos of Adams consorting with domestic animals?
2. Is Norv Turner a better example of the Peter principle than Wade Phillips?
3. Has Chuck permanently lost The Intersect? Did Ellie get one tonight?
4. What Hollywood moron thought an American version of Top Gear was a good idea? Clarkson, May, and Hammond can't be duplicated. Especially Jeremy Clarkson.
5. If you're a Republican and the choice you have for President in the 2010 primaries is Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, or Mike Huckabee, will you join me in seeking solace in mass quantities of adult beverages?
6. If you had inside information (i.e., a hot stock tip), would you trade on the basis of it?
7. Should the Vikings bench Brett Favre?
8. What's the deal with Charlie Sheen and hookers?
9. Is Miley Cyrus the next Lindsay Lohan? Or just the next Britney Spears?
10. Are you following me on Twitter yet?

Discuss.

Ten Things I Wonder

1. In re Jack Conway's attack ad on Rand Paul, is it possible to be both a devout Catholic and an Objectivist? Gut reaction: No.

2. In re last night's episode of Chuck, is it possible for a person to be a MacGuffin? So far that's about all Alex seems to be.

3. Why did Jeff Fisher leave Chris Johnson in the game when the Titans were twenty points ahead? It cost me losses in two fantasy leagues.

4. Is Alex Tabarokk wrong when he claims that "Insider Trading is Legal for Congressional Insiders." Well, duh, yes. In fairness, it seems he relied on Bloomberg rather than yours truly. An all too common error.

5. How many more Dallas Cowboys losses will it take before Jerry Jones' head explodes?

6. Is Obama an intellectual snob? If so, it might be his one likable trait.

7. Who's going to win the NFC this year? Gut feeling: Atlanta Falcons

8. Was Andy Garcia's haircut and mustache on this week's Top Gear hysterically ugly? Final answer is Yes.

The picture really doesn't do it justice.

9. Was what Jeremy Clarkson did to poor Lauren McAvoy's hairdo on this week's Top Gear hysterically funny? Final answer is Yes.

 
10.Is the following my favorite Top Gear review of all time? A tentative yes.

Bonus Question: Would I watch a news show anchored by Fiona Bruce? Religiously.

Take home question: Would I be higher on Brian Leiter's list of most cited professors if I didn't spend time wondering about stuff like this? Probably, but who cares? Life would be so boring if all one thought about all day was one's next law review article.

Opening Weekend

It was great to have real football back on Sunday, so here's my opening 10 Things I Think I Think (with apologies to Peter King):

1. Absolutely loved the old school Redskin burgundy and gold uniforms. They should become the norm.
2. It was an ugly Redskin win in many respects, but any win over Dallas is okay by me. Game ball should go to Alex Barron. What a bonehead. Plus, what was Romo thinking at the end of the first half?
3. It was a pretty good fantasy weekend. I'm in good shape in both H2H leagues and a pretty solid #2 in the points league. But with two games on tap tonight, I'm not counting my chickens yet.
4. Starting Arian Foster and Hakeem Nicks were both very good ideas. Benching Wes Welker to start Percy Harvin was a very bad idea.
5. I really want the Vikings to just give the ball to Peterson time after time after time. Otherwise, I'm going to spend the whole season fretting over whether to start Harvin in two of my three leagues.
6. A QB controversy in Philadelphia? Where one of the candidates is a felon dog abuser? How lovely. Couldn't happen to a nicer team and its fan base, except maybe Dallas. Seriously though, I wonder if the Philly fans are starting to regret the McNabb deal.
7. McNabb needs some receivers. I don't usually approve of Danny Snyder's penchant for trading picks to sign high priced veterans, but Vincent Jackson would look awfully good in burgundy and gold.
8. Houston-Indy was the best game of the day. I like Indy, but found myself rooting for Houston as they finally dominated their nemesis. You put a real running attack together with the Schaub-Johnson-Daniels passing team and an emerging defense and they could be a contender.
9. Norman Chad's right that fantasy football changes the experience of the game. Because Dallas is my DST in one of my fantasy leagues, I spent last night rooting for the Redskins to win without scoring a lot of points against the Dallas defense. Hence, for example, my joy at the TD off Romo's boneheaded play at the end of the first half. So it does change your priorities. OTOH, I now follow a lot of games in which I previously would have had no interest. E.g., Giants versus Carolina (because I own Nicks and DeAngelo Williams). And because I own Schaub and Foster I watched most of what turned out to be a great game between Indy and Houston that I might otherwise have missed. Overall, I think fantasy has been a really positive contribution to what was already my favorite sporting event.
10. Helen and I are going to New Orleans in November to see the Saints play the Seahawks. If the latter's performance yesterday was no fluke, that could be a very exciting game.

5 Things Tom Coburn Said that I Liked

I'd love to see a transcript or video of Senator Tom Coburn's town hall meeting from last Friday. As reported, he blasted both left and right, saying some things with which I find myself in near complete agreement:

• "If the conservatives in Congress gain control and don't live up to expectations," he said, "the Republican Party will be dead." 

And deservedly so.

• The problem is, we have allowed the military-industrial complex to make things unaffordable. ... When the cost of an F-35 triples during development, something's wrong." 

I don't know how much money it takes to defend America, but surely there's got to be ways of doing so more efficiently

• Newt Gingrich is "the last person I'd vote for for president of the United States. His life indicates he does not have a commitment to the character traits necessary to be a great president." 

Damn straight. Of course, in my book, the same thing can be said -- albeit in each case for various reasons -- of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin, and Mitt Romney, just to name a few.

• He said schools "are no longer about kids, they are about teachers' unions,"

Yep.

• Coburn also repeated what has become a popular line among conservatives - that "no one has ever been hired by a poor person" - to support tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations.

I guess it ill-behooves me, as someone who has suckled at the government's teat for most of his working life, to concur. But I'll concur anyway.

20 Worst Americans

John Hawkins asked a bunch of right of center bloggers to list the "20 Worst Americans of all time," from which he compiled the following list. The comments are mine. Personally, I find the collated list pretty much of a joke. It reflects the partisan passions of the moment, not anything resembling a serious verdict of history.

23) Saul Alinsky (7)--a bad guy, to be sure, but top 20?
23) Bill Clinton (7)--GOPers still mad because he beat the crap out of them; sour grapes
23) Hillary Clinton (7)--I don't like her, but I think she's making a good Secretary of State
19) Michael Moore (7)--agree
19) George Soros (8)--maybe top 40
19) Alger Hiss (8)--the traitors are way to low on this list
19) Al Sharpton (8)--eh
13) Al Gore (9)--depends on whether global warming is as bad as he thinks it is
13) Noam Chomsky (9)--annoying to be sure, but not in top 20
13) Richard Nixon (9)--fair enough
13) Jane Fonda (9)--has been much less annoying in recent years
13) Harry Reid (9)--he's effective and wrong but not evil
13) Nancy Pelosi (9)--annoying? yes. one of the worst? no.
11) John Wilkes Booth (10)--finally somebody I wholeheartedly agree with, but should be higher
11) Margaret Sanger (10)--nope
9) Aldrich Ames (11)--yes, but should be higher
9) Timothy McVeigh (11)--yes, but should be higher
7) Ted Kennedy (14)--higher than the worst domestic terrorist? no
7) Lyndon Johnson (14)--ditto
5) Benedict Arnold (17)--too low
5) Woodrow Wilson (17)--huh?
4) The Rosenbergs (19)--good
3) Franklin Delano Roosevelt (21)--give him some credit for managing the winning coalition in WW II
2) Barack Obama (23)--way too high, even if socialized medicine ends up being his legacy
1) Jimmy Carter (25)-- being feckless and sanctimonious doesn't make him a bad guy

All in all, I have to agree with Jim Geraghty that:

I’m no fan of most of the Democrats on the list, and there are some good picks. But most of the modern political figures look ridiculous when we compare their actions to some of America’s most really notorious figures.

I agree with a lot of his alternatives too.

Anyway, I was one of the bloggers Hawkins polled, but as you'll see my list differs in a number of respects from the norm. Mine's in alphabetical order, BTW.

1. Aldrich Ames--traitor
2. Benedict Arnold--traitor
3. John Wilkes Booth--killed our greatest President, contender for #1 on my list if rank ordered
4. James Buchanan--feckless President whose inaction allowed the Southern rebellion to get off the ground
5. Aaron Burr--traitor and murderer of Hamilton
6. Robert Byrd--KKK member and the worst pork politician in history, plus an insufferable prig
7. Jefferson Davis--leader of the traitorous Southern rebels
8. Louis Farrakhan--race hate monger
9. Nathan Bedford Forrest--treasonous Rebel general, caused or condoned the mass murder of black soldiers at Fort Pillow, founder of the KKK, contender for # 1
10. Rutherford B. Hayes--President who threw Reconstruction under the bus to steal election
11. Paris Hilton--personification of the celebrity obsessed culture
12. Alger Hiss--traitor with really annoying apologists
13. Jim Jones--mass murderer and race hate monger
14. Ted Kennedy--Chappaquiddick, probable rapist, almost certainly a rape abettor, and progenitor of what might become socialized medicine
15. Bernie Madoff--worst financial swindler
16. Timothy McVeigh--worst domestic terrorist, probably # 1 on my list if rank ordered
17. Michael Moore--he just oozes evil
18. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg--atomic bomb traitors
19. Roger Taney--Chief Justice who decided Dred Scott and Ex Parte Merryman
20. Morrison Waite--Chief Justice whose decision in United States v. Cruikshank effectively disabled the federal government from protecting the freed blacks from white southern terrorists during Reconstruction

As you see, I focused mainly on traitors, since it is in some ways the worst of social crimes. Few crimes affect all of society in the way that treason does. Since I believe the Southern rebellion was the worst act of collective treason in our history, I gave it high priority. Since I believe the failure of Reconstruction is one of the great tragedies of our history, it deserved recognition too.

And then there's just a couple of folks who really annoy the crap out of me. But I tried to keep them to a minimum. And I really think you can make a case for Byrd and Kennedy deserving to be at least in the top 100. In their own ways, they each personify and symbolize some of the worst aspects of our political life. So I'd argue that only Hilton and Moore are real reaches on my part.

The one person who slipped my mind, but whom I probably would have found room for if I had thought of him in time is L. Ron Hubbard as our worst religious false prophet.

Update: Tyler Cown comments:

It's also hard for me to see how Bainbridge ends up with Paris Hilton and Michael Moore in his list of the worst and he seems to acknowledge this oddity toward the end of his post.

I did acknowledge that they were both a reach. Having said that, let me run the following defense of including them up the flag pole to see if anybody salutes:  Moore and Hilton--like Byrd and Kennedy--may not deserve to be on my list on their own demerits, but they personify and symbolize--indeed have become icons for--things that really bug me about our culture:

• Byrd for runaway pork barrel spending
• Kennedy for the arrogant licentiousness of some many of our political elites
• Hilton as one of the earliest examples of how it is now possible in our culture to be famous merely for being famous without having any significant merit or worth
• Moore for the coarsening of our political discourse and the legitimation of propaganda as entertainment

These are all bad things, even if they aren't all bad people. Since I wanted somebody to symbolize them, these 4 seemed plausible candidates.

Speaking of the coarsening of our political disclosure, kudos to Brad DeLong for being his usual classy self.

It's getting to be embarrassing to be a conservative

These days it's getting increasingly embarrassing to publicly identify oneself as a conservative. It was bad enough when George Bush 43, the K Street Gang, and the neo-cons were running up spending, fighting an unnecessary war of choice in Iraq, incurring massive deficits, expanding entitlements, and all the rest of the nonsense I cataloged over the years in posts like Bush 43 has been a disaster for conservatives.

These days, however, the most prominent so-called conservatives are increasingly fit only to be cast for the next Dumb and Dumber sequel. They're dumb and crazy. 

Conservative pundit David Kilnghoffer has a great op-ed in today's LA Times that nicely captures what I'm on about:

Once, the iconic figures on the political right were urbane visionaries and builders of institutions — like William F. Buckley Jr., Irving Kristol and Father Richard John Neuhaus, all dead now. Today, far more representative is potty-mouthed Internet entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart, whose news and opinion website, Breitbart.com, is read by millions. In his most recent triumph, Breitbart got a U.S. Department of Agriculture official pushed out of her job after he released a deceptively edited video clip of her supposedly endorsing racism against white people.

What has become of conservatism? ... With its descent to baiting blacks, Mexicans and Muslims, its accommodation of conspiracy theories and an increasing nastiness and vulgarity, the conservative movement has undergone a shift toward demagoguery and hucksterism. Once the talk was of "neocons" versus "paleocons." Now we observe the rule of the crazy-cons. ...

Conservatism wasn't just a policy agenda, a set of partisan gripes or a football team seeking victory on the electoral field. Above all, it was a satisfying, sophisticated critique of modern, materialist culture, pointing a way out and up from liberalism.

Let's tick off ten things that make this conservative embarrassed by the modern conservative movement:

1. A poorly educated ex-sportwriter who served half of one term of an minor state governorship is prominently featured as a -- if not the -- leading prospect for the GOP's 2012 Presidential nomination.
2. Tom Tancredo calling President Obama “the greatest threat to the United States today" and arguing that he be impeached. Bad public policy is not a high crime nor a misdemeanor, and the casual assertion that pursuing liberal policies--however misguided--is an impeachable offense is just nuts.
3. Similar nonsense from former Ford-Reagan treasury department officials Ernest Christian and Gary Robbins, who IBD column was, as Doug Marconis observed, "a wildly exaggerated attack on President Obama’s record in office." Actually, it's more foaming at the mouth.
4. As Doug also observed, "The GOP controlled Congress from 1994 to 2006: Combine neocon warfare spending with entitlements, farm subsidies, education, water projects and you end up with a GOP welfare/warfare state driving the federal spending machine." Indeed, "when the GOP took control of Congress in 1994, and the White House in 2000, the desire to use the levers of power to create “compassionate conservatism” won our over any semblance of fiscal conservatism. Instead of tax cuts and spending cuts, we got tax cuts along with a trillion dollar entitlement program, a massive expansion of the Federal Government’s role in education, and two wars. That’s not fiscal conservatism it is, as others have said, fiscal insanity." Yet, today's GOP still has not articulated a message of real fiscal conservatism.
5. Thanks to the Tea Party, the Nevada GOP has probably pissed away a historic chance to out=st Harry Reid. See also Charlie Crist in Florida, Rand Paul in Kentucky, and so on. Whatever happened to not letting perfection be the enemy of the good?
6. The anti-science and anti-intellectualism that pervade the movement.
7. Trying to pretend Afghanistan is Obama's war.
8. Birthers.
9. Nativists.
10. The substitution of mouth-foaming, spittle-blasting, rabble-rousing talk radio for reasoned debate. Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Hugh Hewitt, and even Rush Limbaugh are not exactly putting on Firing Line. Whatever happened to smart, well-read, articulate leaders like Buckley, Neuhaus, Kirk, Jack Kent, Goldwater, and, yes, even Ronald Reagan?

Update: Patterico says the foregoing are "reasons that conservatives should not support the Republican party," not reasons for being embarrassed about being a conservative. Fair enough. I'd accept that as a friendly amendment, but we're not friends.

I am reminded of Russell Kirk's great essay on Republican errors, in which he wrote that "in my lamenting of the present state of Republican leadership in Washington, I am more moved by sorrow than by wrath." Unfortunately, the present GOP leadership in Washington continues making many of the same errors of which Kirk complained 20 years ago. As such, sorrow begins to give way to wrath.