How sick is Vick?

Michael Vick - All I can say is wow. What kind of moron risks his NFL career because he likes watching dogs fight? If he did half the stuff he's accused of, then he's one sick freak and I hope they throw the book at him. Here is one disturbing accusation: 83. In or about April of 2007, PEACE, PHILLIPS, and VICK executed approximately 8 dogs that did not perform well in "testing" sessions at 1915 Moonlight Road by various methods, including hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground. (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0717072vick1.html)
The real question is, do I still draft Alge Crumpler in my Fantasy Football league now that Vick most likely won't be playing anymore?

Labor of Love - Two weeks ago, some friends and I took it upon ourselves to fix what our local government wouldn't, a sand volleyball court. My friends and I would usually meet on Thursday nights or Sunday mornings to play our favorite sport, volleyball. Unfortunately, the city recently renovated the kids play area and reworked the volleyball court. Once everything was finished, the court was worse than before. There were all kinds of crap in the court, pieces of concrete, tons of rocks, some rebar, and giant chunks of hard dirt instead of soft sand. What the hell? For weeks several members of the group who uses the court contacted the city to ask if they could fix the court. With little to no help coming from the city, we decided to take matters into our own hands. We met at the court on Sunday morning at 0800 with tools in hand. After the first 30 minutes, it was clear that with our hand tools alone, it would take several days to complete the task. Thankfully, one of our buddies showed up with a roto-tiller. Between the roto-tiller and our hand tools, we removed the bulk of offending items and turned the existing sand over into a playable surface. It took about two hours with six of us working on the court until it was ready. We threw up the net and started playing around 1000 and had a great time. I had a great time playing and I'm not sure if the level of enjoyment was due to the game I love, the hard work before, the perfect weather conditions, or the beer, but it was a fine day indeed.

New oven - DO NOT heat newspapers in your oven. Huh?

News for profit today and old newsmen seen as objective?!?! Please, even back in the day when news was not for profit, every newscaster from murrow to cronkite slanted their coverage based on their ideologies and beliefs. Now it's just out there and people have a better understanding what motivates the newscasters. I wish more of them would simply put out their beliefs and then the viewers can decide who they want to watch and what they choose to believe. A great example of this debate was when Leslie Stahl interviewed Lou Dobbs and was shocked, yes, shocked that he has opinions and tells his viewers. I know that I for one was glad to hear Lou express his views and I think he's more honest than Stahl will ever be. She couldn't tell anyone with a straight face that her reporting on the Bush administration is unbiased.

Scooter...

Scooter's Clemency - Interesting that he only commuted his prison sentence rather than granting a full pardon that would restore all of his rights. Libby will still be on probation, pay his fine, and remain a felon. Knowing all the fallout that Bush will take for doing anything, I'm surprised he didn't just go all the way. While Article II of the Constitution does grant the President the power to pardon, it would seem like there would have to be a very strong argument before one is issued. President Bush made an interesting point in his statement (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070702-3.html) about the fact that in the end, the no one was ever charged with the original accusation even though they knew who did it early on in the investigation which I can't understand. I think I'd be more inclined to say that the commutation is wrong if the Special Prosecutor also indicted someone with the original charge. Your thoughts?

Ouch...

River rafting…Things to remember: use sun block on your legs and wear a hat. I went down the full South Fork on Sunday and had a great time. Not only did we get a great day on the water, but we had three more surprises in store after we finished. On our drive back, the right rear tire blew on the van and scared those of us in the last row of seats. We pulled off and the tire was completely shredded. Thankfully, a few members of our group are not only mechanically inclined, but also inventive (think MacGyver). The tool to lift the jack was missing so one guy pulled out and used a street sign as a fulcrum to lift the truck up and another person raised the jack by hand. We changed the tire just as the second van arrived to help and then noticed the second surprise, a massive fire on the mountain to our left. Almost the entire mountainside had already been burned and there were no less than three air assaults and a ton of trucks heading up the road to fight the fire. As we drove home we stumbled upon our third crazy encounter, a smashed Honda that slammed into a trailer. I was keeping my eyes open for the locust to begin swarming…ha-ha. There will be pictures in a few weeks, but for now I thought I'd post the map of our trek.