MR. X'S CONSPIRACY THEORY
My favorite gambling degentleman “Mr. X” was proudly sitting on a nicely hedged Final Four winner of a bet: Ty Lawson as Final Four MOP at a tasty 6.5-1.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner?
Um no....
Mr. X picks it up from here...
F'n Wayne Ellington? Please.
Anyone who knows diddly knows Lawson controlled those 2 Final Four games. Stats? Yeah, folks are always swayed by "stats" in "MVP" votes.
But Lawson beat him up everywhere!
Points – Lawson 21-19.
We shold stop right there. Lawson does many things, but scoring isn’t what he needs to do to make his team win. Ellington is a shooter. And still Lawson outscored him.
Rebounds? 4-4 tie, which actually means “edge to the p-guard”.
Assists, 6-0 Lawson.
Steals, 8-0 Lawson.
Only 1 TO for Lawson.
The 1 dimensional Ellington doesn’t win a single stat.
What’s worse – the Villanova game was all Lawson. The tenacious Villanova defensive pressure - Lawson handled it so easily they stopped pressing late 1st half – as it was pointless.
Both games:
Lawson wins points 43-39.
Ellington reb by only 13-11 (again, actually a plus for the PG).
Lawson assists 14-0!
Steals 10-0.
Only 1 reason for it to be Ellington. I had Lawson for a ton at 6.5 to 1!!!!!!!!!!
And, the line on Lawson was the only one that moved. Opened at 6.5, yet crept down to 4.5 as all the action was on Lawson.
Am I f'n nuts, or was this a conspiracy to find someone else to give it to?
REACT: No, Mr. X. You are dead on, on all fronts. If there were a Sports Gambling Commission that could investigate these kind of things, then this one would be fast tracked in my opinion. It makes zero sense, and I wish they would disclose the voting, as matched up by each writer.
SECOND THOUGHT: Okay, this is nuts, but it makes as much sense as anything. Remember when Lawson said he won $250 playing craps (legally) at a downtown casino last week? Hmmm. I bet (pardon the pun) the NCAA didn't take too kindly to that, now DID THEY?? Hmmm. Score settled. As good a theory as any.
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YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON THE FRENCH.... TO SUCK!
From Rich Lowry's column....
Obama pleaded for more troops in Afghanistan, arguing correctly that terrorists emanating from that region pose a more direct threat to Europe. French President Nicolas Sarkozy responded with no additional troops, 150 MPs, and an offer to take one Gitmo detainee when the detention facility closes. At that, he pronounced himself much pleased to be working "with a US president who wants to change the world and who understands that the world does not boil down to simply American frontiers and borders."
REACT: Thanks for the 150 Inspector Clouseau's, Nic! 'Preciate it.
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FILE AND SAVE
A friend of mine who used to run a PGA Tour event and knows the current economic paranoia amongst big corporations says get ready for a “pending implosion” of the PGA Tour's prize money gains under the Tiger Woods era once 2010 comes to a close.
My guy says you can kiss goodbye all but a few $1million plus winner's checks.
Which, frankly, isn't going to make anybody in America weep, I admit. But the irony here is that current Commish Tim Finchem is a staunch Democrat, amongst a tour full of Republican independent contractors.
Is it's Finchem's fault the ecomony imploded? Hardly. But does it help that Democrats like Obama and Barney Frank are calling out any company who dares to take clients to a big event, or to sponsor a golf tournament?
Too bad ol' Finchy can't call Capitol Hill and say: “You know, if a company wants to do it, there's nothing wrong with putting their name on a golf tournament. Especially if they didn't suckle from the federal bailout teet.”
Good luck, Tim.
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KILL THE CORPORATIONS!
It is also important to remind corporate bashers that while shit might run downhill in the cubicle world, so does money.
When Obama took a huge chunk out of Las Vegas' convention business by slamming Citi bank and others for junkets to Sin City, who ended up getting hurt worst?
Not Steve Wynn, he's still filthy rich!
It was the hundreds of Service Employees International union workers who got pink slipped because there were no hotels to clean.
Now the same dynamic comes to the Masters....
AUGUSTA, Ga. | Corporate customers at the Masters normally keep chef Karl Kwoka busy all week prepping gourmet dishes like Angus beef filets with bleu cheese fritters and crepes de mer with lobster cream sauce. Catering to elite fans and their top clients during the April golf tournament typically accounts for a quarter of his income.
This year, the unpalatable economy has piled Kwoka's plate with more cancellations than customers. Four large corporations that in past years hired Kwoka to prepare private meals have backed out, leaving him with a single company to cook for, not enough to justify hiring the usual 30 extra workers. Kwoka estimates the cancellations cost him more than $70,000, and the temporary staff is missing out on big money, too.
REACT: Bottom line: let businesses conduct their business. Everybody hates corporations until they fire you, or stop brining their massive chunks of business your way.
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BEST SEINFELD EPISODE EVER?
If there's a better one than when Kramer 'retires' to Del Boca Vista, I haven't seen it.
Saw this gem last night, and it included the following legendary story threads.
Costanza saying “let's get nuts” and driving out to the Hamptons.
Kramer crushing the oldies in table tennis.
Elaine trying to figure out if her boyfriend Jerome is indeed black.
What I didn't realize fully, however, until I stared at it for a while, was that the episode came in a pristine 16x9 true HD flavor!
It wasn't cropped. It wasn't stretched. It wasn't manipulated at all!
It was GLORIOUS! Almost like the studio filmed the show in a widescreen format, cropped it in 4x3 in order to show it on analog TV, but preserved the original films. Now they have (seemingly) been upconverted to HD!
Why wasn't I told about this!? Where can I buy the entire set on Blu-Ray? (Hold that thought. They'll probably charge $492 for each season, those Blu-Ray Nazi's!)
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HIS REALLY PUT THE “LAST” INTO LASTINGS
Mark Zuckerman's “National's Insider” piece in the Washington Times had this heart warming nugget.
Sunday was Milledge's 24th birthday. The last thing he probably wanted to do to celebrate was go to Dolphin Stadium for a pre-Opening Day workout and team meeting. But that's what every Nationals player and coach was required to do. No exceptions.
Milledge, who has a history of showing up just before the mandatory reporting time and isn't ashamed of it, didn't quite make it on time Sunday. Manager Manny Acta had instructed everyone to be in uniform and in the clubhouse by 4:30 p.m. for his annual season-opening team meeting.
Milledge called to say he was running late, but he still walked in after Acta already had begun addressing his players. The manager had no choice but to fine him.
You can debate whether this is a big deal. In some regard, it's really not. But for a young player who has been afforded plenty of opportunities in his brief baseball career, this was perhaps the latest sign Milledge still needs to grow up.
Upon being named the new leadoff hitter last month, Milledge spoke about how he wasn't going to change his hitting approach just because he was penciled into a new spot in the lineup. He was going to remain aggressive.
Is that the kind of mature approach to hitting the Nationals were looking for? Isn't it the leadoff man's primary job to work the count, give his teammates a chance to see what the opposing starter has got and hopefully reach base in the process?
After countless hours spent working on his defensive skills this spring with coaches Marquis Grissom and Devon White, shouldn't Milledge have been expected to position himself better and get a better jump on Emilio Bonifacio's fourth-inning drive to deep center field? What could have been a harmless flyout - or at worst a double - instead turned into a highlight that was sure to be replayed on ESPN all night: an inside-the-park home run.
REACT: Good times, good times. Only 161 more games to go. Hang in there, Nats Town!
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The new head of Citi Group has had the courage to say what many others won't: “Everybody's got their hand in the mortgage mess.”
HONOLULU (AP) - Citigroup Inc. (C) (C)'s new board chairman, Richard Parsons, said financial institutions are being targeted for creating the nation's financial crisis, but they aren't the only ones responsible.
"Everybody participated in pumping up this balloon. Now the balloon has deflated," he said Monday. "Everybody, in reality, has some part of the blame. But it's much more in the culture to find a villain and vilify the villain."
Besides banks, there was reduced regulatory oversight, loans to unqualified borrowers were encouraged and people took out mortgages or home-equity loans they couldn't afford.
"We had a big party in this country," said Parsons.
REACT: He's right. Many people with no income, no jobs, and no business getting massive mortgages lined up and lie their assess off to get the money. Many others tried to become Donald Trump Jr. and buy up every condo on Florida's southeast coast.
To them, they deserve financial ruin, not a bailout.
But I must disagree with Parsons in one major regard. We were just the ants at this picnic. The big investment banks, Fannie and Freddie, and others put out all the free food. And they did it with perhaps 80% certainty that they were all “too big to fail.”
From my amatuer financial analyst couch, the most fucking CRIMINAL thing that was done, was the bond rating agencies slapping AAA labels on these bundled loans, knowing that they were loaded with complete shit.
It would have been one thing for big ass banks to go belly up with a bunch of $729,000 jumbo mortgages to no-doc Swedish nannies in Long Island. But the bond rating agencies took this financial Agent Orange, loaded it up on a sprayer plane, and proceeded to crop dust everybody's 401k and other investments with it.
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