Put me in the "Change the Calendar" Camp Please.

With the Kentucky Derby coming up this weekend (and the time of year that people pay a little attention to horse racing) the annual debate around changing the Triple Crown Calendar is on again.

Put me firmly in the "let's change it up" category.

First Saturday in May: Kentucky Derby

Memorial Day: Preakness

Weekend of July 4th: Belmont.

Yes, I understand that this would have an impact on later racing, but not much when you really think about it.

The biggest issue would be the timing of the "next" big race, the Grade 1 Haskell. But the Saratoga meet is several weeks and it could be bumped back some. After that the next big race is the Travers, in late August.  I see no reason why those dates cannot get shifted some. Again, the meet at the Spa is several weeks in length.

The problem with this argument is, as it has always been in horse racing, that shifting these races around would require coordination between the various racing State entities. Such as thing just does not happen in horse racing. The States are selfish, silly, and lack the capacity to take a long view of the sport. So, while the solution seems easy, it's probably going to be more difficult than it should be and eventually come way too late for it to matter.

Horse racing is whistling past the graveyard right now. Irrelevant except for one Saturday in May (and for two more races IF the same horse wins, and all but ignored the rest of the year. That's too bad of course, how many people would be a fan of horses like Skippylongstockings or White Abbario if only they knew to pay attention to them, but it's where the industry seems bent on heading.

There are many other problems in the sport, horrible gambling product being front and center, but the inability of the State Racing Commissions to work and play well with others is at the top.

And this ignores States like Texas, whose rules are designed to end the industry all together within it's borders.

News Round-Up (03/18/2026)

 What is rapidly becoming my one time per month post. (Life gets busy and in the way y'all)

Some in the World are starting to say that It's time to move on, WITHOUT the United States. OK. While I'm all for more countries pitching in and, you know, paying for things, I'm not sure you really can move on sans what is still (just) the World's largest economy.  But, good luck with that.

It's always funny when the Media thinks that they have "discovered" something that's been going on for decades. They bump their chests, perform a King Kong style celebration dance and then.....disappear when the party they prefer does the same thing. We have spent decades electing a group of horrid people to rule us. Nothing will change until that key issue is fixed.

Derek Stevens Rising He's certainly having his moment in the Sun.  He's the one casino owner who I've personally met (his brother as well) and he is a personable guy.  That said, his attitude toward gaming has certainly damaged Downtown odds, if not visitor counts.

The Hollowing out of the TSA. I'm not entirely sure this is a bad thing.  There are already private groups who do a better job, probably much cheaper.  I feel for the employees, it's not their fault that our horrid rulers won't pay them, but perhaps a rethink of airport security is long overdue?

The Public Unraveling of Lina Hidalgo is a sad watch. What's worse is that she's still (sort of) in charge of Texas largest County.  In a perfect world, yes, should would have resigned when it became clear she was not up to the job.  We do not live in a perfect World unfortunately.  Hopefully, when her term is up, she can go back to community organizing and just kind of slip out of the public eye.  I think that would be better for her mentally.

Tillman wants Caesars. To be honest, it would probably be a good thing for them. Of course, the BlackJack would suck but everything else would probably improve.

Wow, The long outlived it's expiration date Chron Ed Board is REALLY mad that Whitmire has stopped speaking to them. I do think it's fair to ask, at this point, what purpose this wheezing, outdated group really serves?  Wouldn't it be better to shut it down and redeploy the resources to news?

Mea Culpa, I quit reading the Chron's restaurant section long ago, but this story, Centering on the controversy surrounding Noma's in LA peaked my attention.  The biggest issue here is that we convinced Chefs that they were Rock Stars, and they were totally unprepared to deal with the celebrity.

The Great Sort in Real Life. Single Party States are typically poorly ran, but you do understand why people would not wish to be ruled by those who do not share their values.

College Sports seems dead-set on killing itself  and They keep finding new depths in which to dig. All of these changes, like the changes to the College Football Playoff, are designed to create guardrails to protect the large conferences.  This year there was actual debate as to whether or not 17-16 Auburn deserved a bid.  In case you are wondering, the answer is "no, they were not deserving". (They should not have even been seriously considered)

I did not have The Chron pushing for the release of sex-offenders on my Bingo card of news items this week.  But here we are.

Speaking of "on my news Bingo Card" Chris Tomlinson writing a column where he doesn't know what he's talking about is always on there.  He's ostensibly the "Business Columnist" but he seems to know very little about....actual business. (Especially not the oil and gas business, which is Houston's largest industry)

This is a tragic story that also highlights why Jasmine Crockett should be allowed nowhere near the levers of power. Notice that she takes zero responsibility for hiring this man.  Incredible.

Apparently, Harris County has "solved" it's felony case backlog. Much like former Mayor Annise Parker "eliminated" the homeless problem in Houston.  By sweeping it under the rug.  In Parker's case she just relocated them, in Teare's case he just dismissed them.

A lot of us have been sounding the warning bells about the sad state of political polling for a while now. It's good to see the media finally get a clue.

And finally.....

Houston is trash(y).

Enjoy your Spring y'all.

BadBetting: The Answer is NOT Prohibition.

Game Fixing and Rumors of Game Fixing. American Sports, it seems, is breaking, already broken or just hopelessly doomed to be caught up in scandal.

Unsurprisingly, the most oft-called for fix is prohibition.

Americans have always loved them some prohibition. There's nothing that Americans don't like that they don't petition the government to ban. Never mind that other people might enjoy it harmlessly, or that a vast majority of sports bettors partake in the entertainment relatively harmlessly, although very seldom profitably it should be noted. Nope, let's just ban it because I don't like it.

Alternatively, Trump's Big Beautiful Bill created an unfair tax burden by limiting the deductions of gambling losses to 90%. What this creates is a situation where a gambler could be taxed on "winnings" that they never actually won.

Let me explain.  Let's say you play on a slot machine and you get very lucky and win a jackpot of $2000. You are happy, the machine locks up and you have to wait, provide some identification, sign some paperwork (a W2-G usually) and then a nice slot attendant comes out and pays you $2000 in cash. They then stand there and it is customary to tip them (at least $20) for that service. If you're sitting at a bar, say, a video poker machine, then it's also customary to tip the bar staff for your win. (Irony, under the One Big Beautiful Bill those tips are not considered taxable income).

Then, you continue to gamble and, given the laws of advantage and the house edge, you continue to play but lose that $2000 back to the casino.  You go home happy because of the gambler's fallacy, you remember the win and the adrenaline rush that it caused, the congratulations of those around you as you're paid out, the rush of having the machine lock up, then you go home and go back about your life.

Then, tax day comes and you realize just much that jackpot is going to cost you. First, you have to enter that W2-G as income. $2000 worth. If you take the standard deduction, which many do, then you are pretty much shit out of luck because prior tax changes made the deduction of gambling losses below the line calculations. That means that you cannot deduct said losses UNLESS you itemize.

But, here's the kicker, when you take your losses (which will often be more than the wins that you claim) you can only take $1800 of them by law.  That means that you are taxed on $200 of income that you never really "won". Think about that for a minute, and the fairness of it.

This is a simple, and low, example but, for many gamblers, the tax on unearned income could be four, five or even six figures given volumes and win. 

Here's where things get tricky. Many Americans are OK with this unfair taxation because it's a tax on gambling which many consider to be a "sin". So, Americans have a long history of punishing things unfairly that they take personal issue with.

If the response is not to punish it (through higher taxation at times, sometimes punitive) then the playbook for the USA has historically been to ban it.

And that has not worked out well over the years.

Prohibition of alcohol led to a massive underground market that was controlled by the mafia. Prohibition of drugs led to the rise of the cartels. Prohibition of sports gambling (prior to the Supreme Court's PASPA decision) led to the rise of massive offshore gambling rings that still operate today. Even the legalization of sports gaming however did not end the illegal market. In fact, in many ways, the underground betting market has thrived since sports betting became "legal".

Clearly then, the answer is not as simple as a sports betting prohibition. Nor is it as clear-cut as legalization in all 50 States. The problem is not that sports gambling exists, it's HOW the books are allowed to operate, and the regulatory agencies (State Gaming Control Boards) that are in place to govern them.

Dennis Miller once had a great line regarding prohibition. "You can outlaw all of the bad things in the world and people will still spin around on their lawn until the see God." The key is not prohibiting things we don't like. it's ensuring that legal things with the potential for harm, are regulated in a safe, simple, meaningful way.

I understand that, for people of a certain political ilk, regulation is viewed as a "bad thing" which should be avoided at all cost and, for people of another political ilk, there's no such thing as "too much" regulation even if said regulation is nonsensical and messy.

But I believe that good regulation can happen, provided it's done thoughtfully and designed to be implemented simply.  Here are a few ideas on how to start* fixing this issue.

1. Advertising restrictions.  We currently have restrictions on the advertisement of a host of things. From alcohol to cigarettes to almost whatever else you can think of. Putting guardrails around how and when a sports book can advertise seems a reasonable step that's pretty easy to enforce.

2. A stop to predatory practices. If you're a bartender you have an obligation to not overserve your clientele and let them get into a car. If you're a sports book you should be under the same obligation to not overserve your clients. Unfortunately the model for modern sports books is "block or bankrupt" where they plan to just limit or refuse the bets of bettors who might win, and bankrupt the poor souls who cannot. They do this through VIP services and retention bonuses for those who try and step away. Putting a stop to this practice would not be difficult.  I will say this however, limiting or banning is a stickier wicket. by outlawing that practice books would be forced to reduce their betting menus which would be horrible for bettors, reducing choice and limiting lines where weaknesses can be found.

3. Implement gaming control boards who are more than just rubber stamps for the books. Almost every week there is a new story of a book refusing to honor a bet or cancelling wagers because they claim it was "an obvious error". In many cases however these errors were not obvious until after the fact. In some cases the books just don't want to pay out grossly negative outcomes. In almost all of these cases the local gaming control agencies side with the books and allow them to void the bets, or not pay out. Strengthening the mission of the Gaming Control Boards to include gambler's rights could go a long way in preventing this.

4. A more robust tracking system for problem gaming. This should go without saying. With all of the AI and algorithms these books use identifying potential problem gamblers is not difficult. It's time to stop allowing these books (and casinos FWIW) to pay lip-service to responsible gambling and forcing them to start taking it seriously.

Of course, there are several other steps that could be taken which I'm not going to go in here, as I said earlier, the above suggestions are just a "start*" not a full on subscription for a fix. The problem people have is thinking that you can just ban something and the issue goes away. If anything, now that people have started gambling, if you outlaw legal gambling the illegal problem will get worse.

The issue with that? In MOST (not all but most) cases the alleged improprieties and fixing has been discovered through internal investigations of unusual betting patterns, self-reported by legal sports books. Illegal books, or bookies, would be highly unlikely to report the same, leaving the bad actors unreported and, in many cases, undiscovered. They would just move on to another unregulated shop to continue the scam.

Sports betting is something that needs to be fixed to the extent possible, not prohibited. Sadly, there will always be people who have their lives ruined by it, just as there are those whose lives are ruined by alcohol, drugs, junk food you name it. The key is to limit the damage as much as possible, and have resources available to help those that want out.

News Round-Up (01/07/2026)

To start, Happy New Year!!  With 2025 (thankfully) in our rearview mirrors hopefully the New Year brings us less shittery than we witnessed last year.  I doubt it, but one can hope.  Not a promising start however......

Restaurants you never heard of, and will probably never visit, continue to open and close in Houston Heights - Most of the time the phrase "exciting new concept" can be met with a yawn and a 1-2year lifespan expectation.

Houston Sports Bar Loft18 closes citing crime as a factor. - Houston is crumbling. I went to Loft18 once and it was, to be fair, pretty busy. Changes in leadership are the obvious solution but too many keep voting in the same cast of idiots.

So, the Ed Board thinks that the "solution" to the bodies in the Bayous problem is to appoint a Czar. No, just no. Yet another log on the "Shutter the Ed Board" smoldering fire.

The media's EV delusion still continues to amaze me. Tesla, despite Elon Musk's political divisiveness, continues to do OK, but the future is going to be in the Hybrid space. The Chron's growing army of Child Reporters seem incapable of performing this type of market analysis.

Calling the Texans defense "once elite" based on one game where the Colts scored primarily against the backups is rich. The Texans still have an elite defense, battling the Seahawks for the best in the league. Certainly they are the best in the AFC. The Texans offense on the other hand.......

Nebraska signs former UNLV QB Colandrea - Colandrea announced that he was entering the Portal only two days after saying he was going to stay in Las Vegas. His announcement came before the Portal opened, suggesting that someone had tampered with him. Was it Nebraska? Who knows, because they did pivot to him after losing out on the former Notre Dame QB. Still, College Football is a wasteland right now and their are really no rules because they're not being enforced.

MOAR Police on patrol. Houston's roads are rules optional right now. Almost as bad as College Football. Red Lights are suggestions, spatial awareness is all but gone, and line-cutting is at epidemic proportions. Never mind the uninsured drivers and unsafe vehicles littering the road. Dedicated Traffic Divisions could help, but not solve, this problem.

Chris Hollins is running his pre-campaign through the media. - He thinks shenanigans like this paint him in a positive light. They don't.

I, for one, will be glad to see this "Dry January" trend come to an end. - If you want a drink, have a drink. If you don't, then don't. Simple.  As for me, I'm off to have a bourbon tonight.

And finally....

'We're the Government and we're here to help" - All your base are belong to us ha ha ha.

Cheaters calling cheaters....Cheaters!!!! (The State of College Football in 2025)

 Sherrone Moore is out. (And in jail)

It's been quite the wild 24 hours in Ann Arbor and the surrounding communities. Former Coach Moore has been fired with cause, and he's been arrested, accused of assault in a case where the details are still, admittedly, somewhat sketchy.

The alleged affair with the staffer seems to be fairly cut and dried and, if you can believe what some in the media are reporting, somewhat known for some time now? It's possible that a lot in the media knew about this, and remained silent. It's not like it doesn't happen in media across the land. To the point now that the media openly admit it. Then use it after the fact to try and gain engagement bait and clicks. Such is the media landscape in which we live.

And then there is the schadenfreude, other schools' fans pointing and laughing, breathless exclamations that "Michigan is the dirtiest program of the last 5 years" (Uh, OK. Only if you ignore several other goings-on at certain schools) and people just having a good old time pretending that their programs are lily white in an age where almost everyone is covered in a deep-dark layer of soot.

LSU is apparently already tampering. With LSU alum Mathieu openly courting Michigan QB Bryce Underwood to come to his alma mater. And I'm sure there are many other schools approaching Michigan players using back-channels and mutual agents etc. College football these days is the Wild West after all. You might not want to look to closely under the hood of the school you root for is what I'm saying.

Lost in all of this, in the fervor to heap scorn on Michigan, is that Moore's wife and 3 children are being ran publicly out into the square to be displayed as trophy victims. It's horrible for the family that this is going on. They didn't do anything wrong.

And yes, the staffer with whom the alleged affair occurred has been outed and is now a meme, although I will admit to feeling a little less sorry for her, having known full well she was with a married man and all.

But the vast majority of the blame, should all of this be proven true, lies on the shoulders of Sherrone Moore full stop. That's not to say there is some ancillary blame to be passed around. Michigan should take a hard look at Athletic Director Warde Manuel for instance, as he made the decision to hire Moore without interviewing other coaches or, apparently, conducting anything that would constitute due diligence. If nothing else that raises questions of negligence to one's job responsibilities.

Then there are the players, who now have to prepare for a bowl game against UT-Austin under now-interim head coach Biff Poggi (who's been the IHC before, when Moore was suspended for two games due to recruiting violations) and are already receiving (probably) dozens of texts and unsolicited offers to leave the Big House and go play elsewhere next season.

At the end of all of this Michigan Football will be OK. Eventually. Yes, they have some rot that they need to cut out from their program and they need to rebuild some integrity and goodwill with the fan base. Don't worry about rebuilding with the rest of the Nation because, eventually, they are going to have their own scandals to deal with and, to be quite frank, they don't care.

All that the rest of the College Football World cares about right now is that it is not their school in the cross-hairs of scandal. So they're going to keep piling on, even after their school gets caught because that is what people do. Michigan could hire Jesus Christ as their next coach and Ohio State would accuse him of using his omnipotence to illegally predict plays. That's how College Football fandom works.

Michigan DOES need to pick the right coach in this hire however, because not doing so will mean another decade in the wilderness and falling further behind a B1G Conference that is starting to gain some serious momentum. Especially the rival, Ohio State.

College Football is broken. The CFP is as close to a sham as you can get, the Bowl System is wheezing along and looking more and more likely to collapse soon, and the powers that be seem to be clueless on how to do anything about it. Everyone is cheating, only the dumb get caught.

And that is where Michigan finds itself today. They are not the "dirtiest" program over the last 5 years, they are the dumbest. Because they keep getting caught where others are better at hiding their transgressions.

But there's not, and there should not be, any coverup of a coach that, again allegedly, cheated on his wife with a staffer and then got arrested on suspicion of assault. That has little to do with the rot of the program and more to do with the personal failing of the man. A man that probably never should have been the Head Coach of one of the prestige programs in College Football.

That his wife and children have to suffer publicly for this is the greatest travesty of them all.

Social Media "Influencers" are the worst people in the world.

 In short: She lied

There was no 'hungry baby' and there was no food crisis. So what she did was take up time and resources from those people who might actually need something for clicks.

And this is influencers today.

When they're not hawking scammy Memecoins they're putting on performance art designed to flame outrage from people who have a very low cognizant ability to detect bullshit. They want free shit, attention and, to be honest, I'm not really sure what else.

Full Disclosure: I don't have the Tik Tok app on my phone. I'm aged out of that demographic.  Fortunately there are Youtube channels built solely around mocking these people and going down that rabbit hole is a descent into mild insanity.

Did you know that there are Tik Tok influencers who make videos telling women how to use men to get them to dump their entire "fortunes" (for lack of a better word) on them before dumping them and moving on (only to do it again)? It's called the "Sprinkle, Sprinkle" movement and it's disgusting.

While doing some research for this post I watched some of these videos and what I found was a) disgusting, b) mildly disturbing and c) pretty damn depressing. The Boss (My wife for those of you who don't follow me on Xitter) and I watched a couple together and her takeaway was "Shit, I'm glad we're married" and that was my feeling as well.

Social media influencers have made dating a hellscape for both men and women. Far beyond what is termed The Incel Movement by the Left is a generation of young men who have just......given up. They've quit on the dating and relationship world and they've largely done it in response to women who, driven by these influencers, go out with men with the express intent of milking them dry and then moving on, if they don't film an instant reaction video mocking them for being desperate, for the simple act of say, complimenting them on their looks that evening.

It's not a Battle of the Sexes if one side has just thrown in the towel and given up, and a LOT of young men have.

Of course, now the Influencer discourse has moved to anger. Anger that young, available men aren't approaching them any more, not complimenting them, not offering to buy drinks. Men are pushing back on women who demand to be taken to five-star restaurants on the first date and ordering the most expensive thing on the menu. (Supposedly, to test how much the man "cares"). The reaction videos of these angry people after their date just up and walks out (which seems to happen frequently) are treated as funny but they're really not. They're sad.

I've often stated, not on here, but to friends and on Xitter, that the Pandemic has broken society. From drivers running red lights or ignoring traffic laws, to line cutters on the highway, to just general anti-social behavior, COVID broke things that I'm not sure can ever be fixed. I believe that influencers are an extreme symptom of the disease. While on lockdown they immersed themselves in the Kardashians* and came to view it not as entertainment, but as an instruction guide for life. Never mind that Kim & Co are extremely toxic and very unlikely to be very duplicative. 

In other words, you're not going to be the Kardashians, have their wealth, their fame, and their overpriced product lines. Instead you're going to have a Tik-Tok or Instagram channel and some deep regret at the end of it all when your 15 minutes of fame runs it's course.

This is not to defend Lakewood Church (an institution which with I have several issues, both theological and practical) but the fact is this lady did not call into the proper channels. I did some checking and Lakewood does have Benevolence arms, they do charitable work. The correct place to contact would have been one of the ministries they support who provide this aid. What this influencer basically did was set the Church up to fail. She did not do it as some grand experience on Religion, she did it for clickbait. She did it to probably try and extend her 15 minutes of fame which is rapidly expiring.

And shame on the media for providing her with a platform, never forgetting that "Click2Houston" was also doing this for clicks.

The only way to solve this issue is to just start tuning out. Remove the politics and other items from it and starvation is the best, and only solution to the problem. The principles of free speech say that these influencers are allowed to spew their venom but they also give us the ability to ignore them and let them die on the vine.

Until we do this, the harm to society is going to continue to grow.

Update: Houston's Middling Regional Daily weighs in.

At least they provide some context, allowing the Church to admit that the operator did make an error not directing her to the food services and charities that they support who would have formula available immediately.

This is much like calling the corporate office for a restaurant chain and demanding a reservation at a specific location instead of directly calling the restaurant in question. Of course they're not going to be able to do that, nor would they have specific information about availability at any one specific location for any given evening. This should be called out but......OUTRAGE!!!!!!

*FWIW: I've proudly never watched a second of the Kardashians show, nor any of their spin-offs, and I don't really know all that much about them except for what I've read 2nd hand from other sources. 

The Biggest Political Lie that You Believe

As the Government Shutdown Grinds on and Federal Employees Continue to not Receive Paychecks......

Well, not your Congressional Representatives and Senators, THEY continue to get paid, the media continues to allow one of the biggest political whoppers, typically uttered by sub-par Congressional members, to continue apace.....

“It would be very strange for the American people to have weighed in, in support of Democrats standing up and fighting for them, and within days for us to surrender without having achieved any of the things that we’ve been fighting for,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. (Emphasis mine)

They're not "fighting". Full stop. No politician "fights". They bloviate, they sit together and eat caviar and drink sparkling wine, they go to fundraisers masked as dinner parties, they stroll around D.C. laughing with their families and friends, but they don't 'fight'.

The myth of the brave, fighting Pol is one of straight fantasy. And it leads us to poor government and even poorer representation. It draws focus from statesmanship and quality leadership to silly things like red tennis shoes. And the creaking, aging media eats it right the eff up. Honestly, they love this shit. It gives them the vapors.

But the uneducated, useful idiot loves it. From further down in the article....

“Moderate Senate Democrats who are looking for an off-ramp right now are completely missing the moment,” said Katie Bethell, political director of MoveOn, a progressive group. “Voters have sent a resounding message: We want leaders who fight for us, and we want solutions that make life more affordable.” (Again, Emphasis mine)

Of COURSE you do Ms. Bethell.  Because you're stupid, shallow and don't understand that they're not "fighting" for you, they're working to increase their power base, regain control of the Houses of Congress and maybe score some choice committee positions that will help them attain their true goal of rewarding their political patronage.

Yes, you want "solutions" that will make life more affordable. Yet you probably supported the pandemic subsidies that (in part, not in whole) led us into this mess in the first place. You want affordability without having a basic understanding of how things work. You want Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, filibustering so hard that he passes out on the Senate floor. What you get instead is Chris Murphy, with his hairdo and make-up applied for the camera, regurgitating words that some staffer gave him to say.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: We get the government that we ask for, and we get it good and hard. In this case we get it without lubrication.

I've no doubt that, eventually, this government shut-down is going to end. The end will not come, however, as the result of some brave "fight" put up by a milquetoast. It will come when both sides start to feel the wrath of an electorate that's had enough and then one side or the other will choose to just stop "fighting" (read: showboating for the cameras) and will be forced to capitulate.

The other side will then claim victory and will cast their "opponents" (read: co-conspirators) as weaklings who lacked the strength of courage to continue keeping on. They will then all congratulate themselves on a job well done and retire to wherever it is that they meet up to smoke cigars and sip Brandy.

Of course the media will eat this up and the cycle will continue.

News Round-up (11/06/2025)

 Kind of a hodge-podge in my return to this thing......

ESPN Bet is no more. DraftKings and FanDuel continue to take over the sports betting world.  Look, ESPN Bet was a bad, really bad book.  But DraftKings and FanDuel are the worst. Losing competition in the space is going to be bad for bettors as the "Bankrupt or Ban" method of bookmaking becomes commonplace.  If you're a serious bettor you should continue to keep rooting for, and patronizing Circa.

I feel for the TSA agents, I really do. I also feel for the flight controllers. But this mess is just another reason to go ahead and grit your teeth and sign up with Clear. (It's also an argument for privatizing airport security.)

Supermoons are cool. I do wonder this however: If crime rises during a full moon, does it rise even more during a Supermoon?

Beware the tendency to read too much into low-turnout elections. Outdated institutions that should be shuttered LOVE to do this.

I'm not sure how much of this is legitimate "analysis" and how much of it is wishful thinking. One thing I do know, Tomlinson is another resource the Chron should jettison and replace with news reporting resources.

Wild Goings on at Couchatta. Greed, shots fired (and, tragically, a minor's life put in jeopardy) and a whole bunch of shenanigans. Damn.

Sound cameras? As with any proposal to try and fix a societal ill through "simple" technology I find that the proposed solution is neither simple, nor is it a grand slam that it will be effective.

Menefee makes the CD 18 run-off despite having the WORST political ad in recorded history. What was he burning in that grill? Legal briefings?

Nancy Pelosi announces she's (finally) done. Well......bye.  The problem is that now the historical revisionism will commence and she'll eventually have some obscure airport in California named after her.

Tomorrow starts Flightmageddon. Supposedly both Houston airports will be affected, as will most of the major hubs in the US.  If you don't have to fly right now, probably a good idea to not. On the bright side it appears most major airlines will offer refunds.

And finally....

Jordon Bennington trying to hide the puck from Ovechkin's 900th goal is the funniest thing you'll see today.

The Chron self owns on the heels of yesterday's election. (Sad trombone)

 Why did so few Houstonians vote yesterday?

According to this Chron article it's because they couldn't find much about the election on the social medias.

Ouch.

Not that the Chronicle did not provide enough coverage (although, I would still argue that it didn't, at least not quality coverage) or that the Editorial Board did not endorse (they did, on some of the races). Nope, the reason (primarily younger) voters decided to skip this election is that they overwhelmingly did not feel educated enough on the issues at hand.

Granted, that's not why I did not bother to go vote. I haven't voted in years. I've lost full confidence in our political system and believe that voting is one of the more useless rights we currently retain. It doesn't matter who you vote for, you're going to get the same level of suck, just in different areas. There are far more important places to put your focus and energy these days than America's late-stage Republic.

But this article should be worrisome for the Chron, part of a failing institution that's wheezing along like a car with 200,000 miles whose check engine light came on at 120,000. Because this article clearly shows that younger people no longer care about what's printed in the pages, or online for the Chronicle and, in fact, they're not even looking at it.

I've long stated that the value and importance of the Chronicle Editorial Board is long past it's shelf life. The expiration date for that wheezing institution has long passed. It's past time to shutter the relic and redeploy those resources to actual news gathering functions, and (gasp!) maybe an expanded social media team.

The fact is, a fact that's lost on Newspapers FWIW, young people (and even most older people to be totally honest) don't give a crap what the opinions of some life-long J-school graduates are on any issue. They have no practical experience in the fields or issues on which they are opining, just I have no practical experience in journalism.

Which is why I believe the Chron should focus on where they actually might have (a little) experience. Reporting news. Print it online (I would actually get rid of the hard copy paper since it's irrelevant these days) and then have your social media teams go to work. Broadcast actual journalism on the socials, and start to train a new generation on coming to your website to read the long-form should it peak their interest and they wish.

Of course, the second part of this is that your journalism should be factual and as free from bias as is possible given human limitations.  It is impossible to eliminate all bias of course. We all have certain filters through which we view the World, and that's not really a terrible thing. However, that doesn't mean that you cannot work around that by acknowledging, and openly admitting your bias so that people can understand the viewpoint that you are writing from.

For example: I am an Oil and Gas professional in my mid-50s who is fairly fiscally conservative who believes in a smaller government that focuses on shoring up the things people NEED (roads, public works, etc.) rather than spending money on things politicians WANT (stadiums, light-rail, etc.). I believe in reducing the regulatory burden while ensuring that the regulations that are in place clear, concise and that they actually ensure businesses are operating within the law. I believe in Conservation not Environmentalism, and I believe in a legal system that is fair to all, but which also serves (primarily) to protect the public.

See, it's not that hard. Obviously I have other beliefs but that little paragraph above pretty much sums up my political philosophy from an economic viewpoint. Social matters are a different issue of course, and much more nuanced.  But, for most reporters just a simple acknowledgement of their party affiliation would let readers know from where they are coming. I will admit that I'm a little bit harder to pin down because I no longer have a political affiliation. (At one time, I was Republican, but that was a LOOOOONG time ago.)

If anything, the linked article below illustrates just how bad things are getting for newspapers these days. It also shows the lack of self-awareness that current exists in the media that they run this article without understanding what it means for them and their future.

Which is why I don't think they are ever going to turn things around.

News Round-Up (03/18/2025)

It's been a while.......

Southwest Airlines has become just like every other airline. Except without a true Business Class, terrible perks and an awful route structure.  Not a huge fan of theirs anyway, but they did sometimes fill a need. Something they no longer do.  No reason to fly them now.

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally coming home. I've been watching the SpaceX launches on YouTube, good for them. While some people are wondering about their mental state they are happy they got to spend more time in Space.  They are not wired like the rest of us and that's a good thing.

Arctic Scientists Gone Wild.

Hey Alexa, Can you NOT share all of my data with your parent company? No? Seriously? Well, OK then.

Harris County is a mess. There is sure to be a lot of finger pointing but it's pretty easy to track the decline, and who was in charge when it accelerated.

Letting a politician ruin your life is a special kind of stupid. We get the governments we deserve.

More and more people are fleeing Harris County. Which is a smart idea.

Al Green spent the majority of his political career doing nothing. Then he did something silly and people are treating him like some kind of hero.  The bar is on the floor.

Brief, interesting, science aside. 

Do better people. Ruining shit, especially the shit of others, is not winning hearts and minds. Bad humanity all around.

And finally......

It takes a special kind of stupid to lose money owning a casino.  The corporations on the Las Vegas Strip seem to be trying to find bottom.

News Round-up (02/4/2025)

Love is (Not) in the air........

They say that the only way to make money in a casino is to own the casino.  The current large corporate owners of Las Vegas Casinos are on the verge of proving this wrong. From a myriad of fees to declining resort quality to a race-to-the-bottom customer service culture the current owners of Las Vegas Casino Resorts are sucking the value out of the City and, increasingly, turning people off from visiting.  Amazing.

Two of Lina Hidalgo's buddies are getting their criminal charges dismissed. What this means is open to some debate.  It's certainly good for them, and possibly good for Ms. Hidalgo but who knows really?  Paxton always seems to dance to the beat of his own drummer.

It's probably past time for the increasingly politicized "Doomsday Clock" to go the way of the Dodo. The Media loves them some of this though, like they love several other silly things.

The Return of the "Resistance" *sigh* Time is a flat circle.

Reminder:  Food Halls are just Food Courts with better marketing.  and this one is just a glorified strip mall.

Don't expect DEI to go quietly into that good night. There are a LOT of people who have a LOT of money on the line through kick-backs and consulting fees. They have a lot to lose.

Congrats to Beyoncé for finally grabbing Album of the Year at the Grammys.

The political sniping over the price of eggs ignores the fact that viruses have no party preference. It's neither Biden, nor Trump's fault, despite what the talking heads are saying.

There are several things that you can disagree with Republicans on, but DOGE should not be one of them. Reducing the size of our leviathan governments should be a priority for all. If the rent is too damn high, then the governments are too damn big.

Punxsutawney Phil don't know shit.

Always remember to take these stories from non-profit, "activist" news sites with a grain of salt. If their mission statement is to 'influence policy' then they are not a "news" organization, they are an activist site.  That doesn't mean they are wrong, but they do have an agenda.  From another perspective however, at least they, unlike legacy media, admit said agenda so there's that.

This is a bad idea. While I'm sympathetic to (some) of the arguments against mail-in ballots and other recent schemes to make voting easier (and easier to defraud the system) this is overreach and will do nothing but make it harder for many people to vote.

And finally.....

THE 2025 BIG XII FOOTBALL SHEDULE IS OUT!!!!!  First thoughts: Kansas' schedule is good, for them, as they get a lot of their big games at home. For the entire conference however the out of conference schedule closely resembles a cupcake factory.  Still, it's college football stuff in February. Yay!!!

Happy (Belated) New Year (Random Thoughts)

Welcome to 2025.

I hope your 2024 was OK, and that you and yours are doing well.  Obviously, I've been a little silent here for the last couple of months. And yes, there is an explanation for that other than just being lazy. The wife had a medical procedure and I've been working from home and doubling as caregiver. A full time job both.

Since we last wrote a LOT of sportsy stuff has happened.

1. The First (expanded) College Football Playoff has been, as expected, somewhat of a dud. Fans of the SEC have argued that the reason for this is the exclusion of 9-3 SEC teams from the playoffs in favor of teams from other conferences with better overall records.  This argument totally ignores the fact that almost all of the semi-final games of the 4-team CFP were also crap. There were years that the SEC was arguably the most dominant conference in College Football. That has not been the case these last two years and the CFP Committee did a pretty good job IMO.  Altering the formula to include more SEC teams going forward (which is the SEC's goal, not getting the "best" teams) will only weaken the CFP going forward.  We're getting closer and closer to the B1G and SEC leaving all of the other conferences behind anyway, so this is probably all a moot point. 

On another note: It could help to decouple the CFP from ESPN and spread the games around between ESPN, Fox and CBS.  Not going to happen for a while due to contracts, but the CFP should consider it.

2. Strangely, the Wild Card Round of the NFL playoffs also was, largely, a dud. Clearly the answer is that they should have invited more SEC teams....

I kid here but the real problem, for the NFL, is that they have a very evident top tier of teams, and then some good teams, and then everyone else. Kansas City, Detroit, Buffalo, Baltimore are clearly the top tier. Houston and LA have proven themselves as the cream of the 2nd tier, with the remaining playoff teams falling in line.  Then you have Cincinnati and Miami(?) along with a handful of other teams that could compete if they shore up some things.  Then everyone else.

Regardless, in today's NFL you need a coach and a quarterback or you have nothing. Granted, you have to put together other pieces to be really great, but if you don't have those two things in place (and, possibly, a top flight-running back) then you are not going to be very successful.

3. Golf is back. (good) So is Tomorrow's Golf League (pending). I watched the premier of the TGL and was a little unenthused. Maybe Tiger playing tonight will add some buzz? Having a competitive matchup might help as well.  That said, watching the green undulate and change is only going to go so far, as are the weird-assed hole designs that they created.

In the end, exciting golf (I know, it sounds like an oxymoron but it's not) is about shot making. Great shots make for great golf. Another thing they're going to be missing is Mother Nature herself. Bad lies, wind, rain, the elements, all make for challenging golf courses which is something the TGL is never going to be able to replicate.  From what I can see, there will be no awful lies in the TGL and that's a problem for them.

4. College Basketball is much better than NBA basketball right now and it's not close.  The Association has a problem. I'm not going to say much about this right now but might have more to say later. Let's just leave it at this: NBA basketball is a slog right now with a few notable exceptions. TV ratings are backing this up.

5. In the debate over "junk fees" it appears that the resorts are winning. Politicians have made some noise about them, but most of the ones who got riled up lost the last election cycle.

6. Speaking of 'junk'. I saw an ad last night, running in Texas, calling for an election related to "allowing destination resorts in Texas." It shows just how bad things are for casino resorts that they cannot even call themselves what they are. Even worse, Texas already has "destination resorts" in the form of the Gaylord, Great Wolf Lodge and Kahlahari. What Texas does not have, and I don't believe they're going to get as long as the current leadership is in place, are "Casino Resorts". That said it's not going to do any favors to the casinos to continue to try and hide what they are. Normalizing the debate around this means that, first, you must admit what you are. The continued subterfuge just adds credibility to the naysayers arguments that the casinos cannot be trusted.

7. I would be remiss if I did not add a note of condolence and encouragement to the people of LA who are currently living out a real-time Dante's Inferno. From the horrific images to the tragic loss of life to the first responders who are doing everything they can despite being hamstrung by prior public policy decisions.  Y'all hang in there and we'll be praying that you get some dying winds and sustained rain soon.

8. RIP to Jimmy Carter. He was a devoted husband and father by all accounts. Here's wishing his loved ones peace and comfort.

9. After watching the NFL Wild Card games I noticed a few items that went unaddressed by the pundits on TV.  First, the Houston Texans defense was much improved, probably, because of the return to active play of Al-Shaair. That seemed to be a bigger issue than people thought.  Second, NFL officiating has been just about as bad as it's ever been all year long. It got worse in the playoffs.  Something needs to be done to address this. Third, if we're going to really make use of reviews the decisions need to be removed from the officials on the field. Have the command center make the final decisions.

With that, we will end this. I wish all of you, or the few of you still reading this, good health, wealth and happiness during this new year.

News Round-Up (11/12/2024)

 Promising to be an "election free" zone....

Texas, pay-for-play, Michelin Guide is being revealed. Although you probably did not get an invitation to the roll-out.  My reaction is a huge "meh".  Although I was surprised to see tiny BBQ joint Brisket and Rice included in the mentions.  Have to go by there some time.

There was a time when nutritional science did discourage consumption of seed oils.  That was obviously before the "wrong" people started speaking out against them. It's amazing how politics infects seemingly everything. (And the depths to which "science" has devolved)

Just a quick reminder that we're not yet out of Hurricane Season.

For some reason I'm having a hard time getting fired up about the DC Reboot. Maybe it's because James Gunn is running things? I'm not sure.

That said. I'm not that enthusiastic about the upcoming Marvel stuff either. Disney just doesn't know what to do with it now.

I liked the Big Bang Theory, except for the horrid ending.  Yes, I would like to see a follow-up special that fixes that, but I don't think it's going to happen given the career arc of the actors. Sometimes you just have to let things be.

I am, actually, looking forward to Landman. Almost enough to get a subscription to Paramount+

I'm starting to think the Houston Texans are not all that good.  I'm also starting to think that some teams might have dodged a bullet in Bobby Slowik. They are also seemingly trying to get CJ Stroud killed.

This just in. Willie Fritz is a good coach.

It's not that he's lacking in results (he's not, HISD is actually improving) but Mike Miles might be in the running for most unlikable political leader in Houston.

If you own a home in Harris County your property taxes are going to go up, a LOT. You don't need this calculator. Rodney and Lina are going to tax you until your eyes bleed.

Sigh.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. (SPORTS!!!!)

Now that we have the election nonsense behind us we can return our focus to sports, and sports gambling, which is the focus of this little corner of blogging and what I enjoy writing about the most.  I'm just going to touch on a few things today that have happened while I was out in Las Vegas and relatedly, while I was sick with the travel crud afterwards.

1. The CFP early ranking remain crap. Nothing against them really, but they don't mean shit at this point. The only thing that we really learned from them are two things. First, the CFP committee understands their marketing obligations to the B1G and the SEC. They are in love with brands, not teams. I don't think this will change any in the future. Second, I'm not as upset about Boise State being close to BYU as most people are. While I feel for Indiana, they have it all in front of them. But if Boise State and BYU played on a neutral field I feel the former would be favored.  Who I feel for is Army, who might be the best of the Group of 5 teams but who might not get a chance to show it.  The CFP committee says that they "watch all of the games" but that is certainly not true. Otherwise the rankings would look far different than what they do.

2. The NFL is top-heavy this year. Kansas City, Baltimore, Detroit, Buffalo. Those are the 4 teams right now that seem like they are Super Bowl Contenders. Teams that we thought might be good (Houston, San Francisco, Tampa Bay) don't seem to be all that good. There are other teams out there with winning records but they don't seem to really have a shot. The fact is the NFL is not very entertaining this year. Most games are poor, the officiating is borderline awful, and the fact that you only get three games per day without paying for a package that's not available unless you subscribe to a certain service makes Sundays must-miss TV.  And no, NBC, we are not waiting all day for Sunday Night, we're using that time to get ready for work on Monday.

3. College basketball is BACK. There have already been upsets, the return of Calipari and a handful of teams that looked REALLY good so far. This is going to be a REALLY good season, and Big XII Men's Basketball is going to be fire.

4. The NBA is back.  Zzzzzzzzzz.  Call me when the playoffs start.

5. The NHL is starting off hot. Scoring is up, there are some amazing things happening on the ice, there's a new(ish) hockey team in Utah. Oh yeah.

We're currently in the best time of the year, a time where football is on TV 7 nights per week. There's not day without a football game until almost Thanksgiving. Yes, some of it is bad, really bad, but it's a needed reprieve from the noise that surrounds the world right now. And, if you don't like the football games, there's basketball and hockey on if you're looking for something to do.

Since I was in Las Vegas and then down with the travel crud there will be no discussion of sports gaming this week. I honestly have not had the energy or time to re-run my numbers but I'm going to get them updated Sunday morning so I should be ready to go next week.

Good luck this week however you choose to play. 

This is no longer a political blog. (Election Day 2024) [Updated, the morning after]

But I will leave you with one, rather important, political reminder as you go out and cast your ballot today.

It matters not they who vote. What matters is they who are counting the votes. 

Remember that as events unfold over the next few days/weeks/months.

In my attempts to be pithy I undersold some pretty important things:

1. The meltdown of the Democratic Party last night and this morning has been a sight to behold. It's almost as if their attempts to hide Biden's declining mental capacity, thwarting the will of their primary voters during the run-up to Harris' "nomination" (coronation) and their terrible campaign strategy had nothing to do with the loss blindsided them.

2. Make no mistake about it, Harris was a terribly flawed candidate. I imagine that, after the emotion is finally spent, Democrats will (in their quiet places) admit to this. That said I doubt they have the self-awareness to really understand the voter's message here.

3. Speaking of self-reflection: Will the pollsters, especially in Texas, take a good, hard look at how they got everything so, so terribly wrong?  Doubtful.

4. More importantly, will the media have the ability to take an honest looked at where they effed all of this up?  Again, doubtful.

5. In an election where one party ran on "we don't like him" it's no surprise that the voters sent mixed-messages. Apparently being told you're awful is a powerful reason to vote against, even IF you agree with many of the proposals.

What a world.

College Football look back Week 7 (And a look ahead to Week 8)

 My apologies for the radio silence last week, life got in the way.

After last week's game of the Century (of the week, again) we get ready for what ESPN is breathlessly calling "Possibly the BEST weekend in College Football HISTORY!!!!")

Meh.

I mean, Georgia v. Texas is probably going to be pretty good, and Alabama v. Tennessee is very promising, in the early window Indiana v. Nebraska has much potential but, after that, there are some good games but not many that I look at as right out bangers.

You do have to understand ESPN's position here however. They're trying their damndest to sell a still skeptical public on the joys of a 12 team playoff. Convincing us at every turn that the expansion of the playoff has not deemphasized the regular season.

Except that it has.

UGA lost to Alabama and yet their still right in it. Even IF they lose to Texas this weekend they're probably not right out of it because (rightly or wrongly) they'll still be viewed as one of the top teams in the Country because of the committee's SEC bias. A two-loss Georgia team is certainly still in the mix,

Who shouldn't be? Probably Alabama. Who, since beating Georgia, has looked bad. LSU who is definitely not great, and Ole Miss, who are overrated and continue to be despite their offense looking terrible over the past few weeks.

My thought was always that the SEC was overrated this year, and the non-conference results proved it. Outside of UGA destroying a not-too-good Clemson team, the SEC's OOC results were sub-par. I'm not saying the teams suck (they don't) but having them dominate the top 10 is a little ridiculous at this point. It's reputational rankings, not results-based rankings and I've a feeling this is exactly how the committee is going to view things when they finally have a say.

Perhaps the best story of the college football season are Army and Navy both sitting undefeated at 6-0. Both have good teams and are not there by means of a fluke. Army has been one of the most watchable teams of the season so-far and Navy looks strong. Notre Dame may want to rethink some of those "traditional rivalry" games that they used to feat on to pad their record.

As I said though, there's a LOT of watchable shit on TV this Saturday. There are some lines I believe are still vulnerable as well.

Utah (-4.5) over TCU - The Horned Frogs have NOT been good this year and, despite Cam Rising being out for the year (Sorry Cam, you deserved better) the Utes play strong defense and I cannot see TCU scoring any at all here.

Iowa (-5) over Michigan State - Michigan State is rebuilding, Iowa suddenly can play offense. I think the Hawkeyes win big here, but I also think that it's time for Kirk Ferentz to go.

South Florida (-13.5) over UAB - The hiring of Trent Dilfer might have been the worst head coaching hire of the off-season. The Blazers deserve better than this mess of a team.

Northern Illinois (-3) over Toledo - Yes, I realize that Northern Illinois has been inconsistent since beating Notre Dame and becoming the G5 Belle of the Ball, but Toledo has looked even worse since their 41-17 shellacking of a pretty putrid Mississippi State team. I liked this much better at -2.5 when I took it, but it still seems OK at -3.

South Carolina (+1.5) over OU - The Gamecocks being underdogs to OU is amazing to me here. I got this line at +3 which seems like a steal right now. The Sooners are reeling, they have almost all of their offensive production on the sideline, and the Gamecocks can play defense. I'm tempted to double down on the ML here to be perfectly honest.

Unlike two weeks ago, which I neglected to write about, I think there will be some upsets this week but it's not going to be the Top 15 blood bath that it was then. I think Michigan is very vulnerable to the Illini and I think Indiana might be in for tougher than they think against Nebraska.  That said, unlike in previous weeks there seem to be competitive games that could warrant watching in every window. It should be a fun game of College Football.

PSA: We're getting very close to the CFB Playoff Committee issuing their first rankings of the season. As a reminder, these rankings are crap, they do nothing but serve to fuel TV talk fodder and are about as useless as PAC-12 officials. Ignore them, and focus on the season, not the fake rankings designed to give First Take some content.

Enjoy the weekend and good luck however you decide to play these games.

College Football Look-Back Week 5 (And a look-ahead to week 6)

Do you remember, way back (OK, around 5-6 weeks ago) at the beginning of the season when I said that all of these early season Top 25 polls are pretty much useless?

Today we give you the 3rd Number 1 team in all the land in three weeks.  Welcome to the Party Alabama. Long may you reign (until the next game of the season, of the month, of the week that is). That said, at this point, I would argue that Alabama does have the best win of the season to date and has been adjusted to number one in my power rankings, but that doesn't mean that any of that matters at this point. What IS going to matter are the CFP Committee rankings, and even then those are worthless until the last poll, which, really, is the only one that matters.

That doesn't mean that the polls are not good for something.

That something being sports talk show fodder and milestones for teams like UNLV which has found itself ranked for the first time in school history. Regardless of my feelings on in-season polling, that's somewhat of a big deal for them. Congratulations Rebels.

I had also stated earlier that I thought Missouri and Ole Miss were two of the most overrated teams in the Country.  I was proven correct on Ole Miss, Missouri is likely to continue to be overrated and will win this week against equally (albeit lower in the rankings) UCF which will drive them even higher.

I'm starting to buy-in to Tennessee, begrudgingly, they still haven't played a top team, but I'm not a believer in Michigan, as that USC win is looking more and more like "meh".

Another area where I think people are getting it wrong is in the Heisman race. To my mind, there are only three players who really should deserve serious discussion right now.  Boise State's Jeanty, Colorado's Hunter & Alabama's Milroe.  I get that the flavor of the year has been Cam Ward so far, but he's not even the best player on his own team, that honor probably goes to Reuben Bain.

We're not going to go a long way towards unwinding this mess this week either. The most telling game might be Mizzou at aTm, Kyle Field is a rough place to play but the Aggies are unranked and have issues trying to rebuild from the Jimbo Fisher error. BYU will get a huge test at home versus Arizona. The Wildcats can be dangerous, although inconsistent on offense with QB Fifita but they have been inconsistent this year on both sides of the ball. Ohio State seems to have a speed advantage over Iowa but the Hawkeyes have actually been.....decent? on offense this year.  I kind of lean over in that one.

From a betting angle I'm really liking UNLv (-6.5) over Syracuse. What the Rebels looked like last week against a solid Fresno State team was impressive.

I'm also a fan of some undogs this week. Some to cover, some to win outright.

Michigan State +24 vs. Oregon. Look, they held in there for a bit at Ohio State and Oregon is NO Ohio State.

Missouri (ML) @ aTm. I've said above, Kyle Field is a tough place to play. I think Mizzou is that much better than Aggie.

North Carolina (ML) @ Pitt  The Tarheels have been one of the most snake-bitten teams in college football this season, and it feels like this on is the one that Mack Brown should hang it up. That said, my numbers have a pretty good lean toward North Carolina and I just feel like the old guy has one more upset left in him.

Army (-11.5) vs. Tulsa. This one is pretty simple. My numbers have Army by 17 here. Army is good, Tulsa is not. Sometimes you just have to trust your numbers and don't overthink it.

West Virginia vs Oklahoma State (u65.5). Neither offense has been even all that good this season and my numbers have this at around 56.5. I just can't see an offensive explosion here.

Florida (ML) vs. UCF.  The Gator faithful are just about to run Billy Napier out of town. UCF came into the season with a lot of buzz but the "quality" wins they have had (Houston, TCU) are feeling less and less quality as the weeks drag on. The Knights loss to Colorado was ugly as they got boat-raced out of the Bounce House (and even let Colorado run the ball successfully, which is almost unpossible if you're a good defensive team. I think Florida's young QB looks better This line opened at -1.5 Gators at home, which I thought was about right. when it switched to UCF -2.5 I jumped on Gators ML.

And finally....

Michigan (ML) vs. Washington. I know, I know, I know. I have a rule against betting on teams I root for.  This one is a pure analytics play. I have Michigan as being much better than Washington. That Michigan is an underdog makes zero sense based on what I'm seeing.  The Wolverines with Orji in at QB have been much better than when he's on the bench.  I had to take a little shot. Since I have broken my unwritten rule though you should probably fade this bet since I'm almost guaranteeing they are going to lose.

The Country the Missus has chosen for our College Football Cooking Spectacular is Germany.  I'm planning on Beer Broiled Brats, a Gluten free Schnitzel and all the gluten free beer and Schnapps she can drink.

Have fund this weekend.  Two, pretty good, small school games tonight and a full 5 games on  Friday.

Thursday:

Texas State @ Troy - 6:00PM CDT (ESPNU)

Sam Houston @ UTEP - 8:00PM CDT (CBS Sports Network)

Friday:

Jacksonville State @ Kennesaw State - 6:00PM CDT (CBS Sports Network)

New Hampshire @ Harvard - 6:00PM CDT (ESPN+ ONLY)

Houston @ TCU - 6:30PM CDT (ESPN)

Michigan State @ Oregon*** 8:00PM CDT (Fox)

Syracuse @ UNLV*** - 8:00PM CDT (FS1)

*** I have action on these games.

News Round-up(10/2/2024)

 Wars and rumors of wars.......

Saying the quiet part out loud. - It's never been about stopping climate change. It's always been about a redistribution of income from wealthy nations to NGOs and other quasi-governmental firms who will then tell the poor what to do.

That's quite the increase. When you  have elected leaders who truly believe that property ownership is theft from the government then you get results such as these.  If you don't already have a plan for an exit strategy out of Harris County you should start planning one.

As a matter of fact, a Texas exit strategy might not be a bad idea. The problem, and their are many, with Texas Democrats right now is that they have been out of power for so long that they are angry, and are going to overreach and are going to make life miserable.  The best thing for Texas right now would be some balance. I do not think we're going to get that, and I think the reversal is going to be stunning. Mostly because of a lack of adults in any room in government.

The biggest news story people are not paying enough attention to. This could be a big deal. In large part because the head of the union appears to be a low-functioning idiot who cannot even remember his 3 main talking points without having people remind him of what they are. I don't begrudge them their pay requests, but fighting against technological upgrades is akin to an old man hollering at the clouds. For this to get resolved the union is going to have to appoint a leader who can speak into a microphone without spitting on the first three rows.

Did you watch the VP debate last night? I did not. Nor did I watch either of the two Presidential debates. Kamala is a tool, Trump is a narcissist. No matter who wins, America loses.

BadScience People can say whatever they want to say when there are no repercussions. 

Will the last business to leave California please turn off the lights? The problem with government by boogeyman is that you, eventually, will run out of boogeymen to blame all of your problems on.  Eventually the people will look to you as the culprit.  Of course, by then they're probably too poor and there are no jobs left to matter anyway.

I really hope that this is the last we hear of Anna Delvey

RIP Dikembe Mutombo One of the great Basketall big men and ambassador's of all time.  And one helluva commercial star.

RIP Pete Rose. One of the most controversial baseball figures of all time. Both one of the greatest hitters and, apparently, one of the worst betters to ever grace the game.  In an age where games are sponsored by FanDuel and DraftKings it's time to relent and put the man in the Hall of Fame. at this point the hypocrisy is through the roof.

And finally...

One of the reason's we continue argue about climate change is that the arguments of the climate warriors are based on lies and logical fallacies. No one involved in carbon capture is suggesting that it is a silver bullet that will 100% solve the problem, yet that is what the climate warriors are attesting. 

In fact, the world HAS made some progress on carbon reduction and, China, India and some other nations notwithstanding, the Western World has taken steps to reduce their carbon omissions. But the climate warriors want stupid goals like "zero carbon now" and "just stop oil" which would plunge the world into economic chaos, kill Billions, and knock us directly back to the dark ages. Perhaps they do want a return to the days with the Catholic Church was the font of all knowledge and truth?  Of course, this time around it would not be the Church, it would be the United Nations.

Think about how scary that thought is.

College Football Week 4 (And a look ahead to Week 5)

Over the last week College Football was less defined by what happened on the field, outside of Michigan's upset of USC it was a fairly benign week, than it was what happened OFF the field.

Realignment: News that 4 schools would be defecting from the Mountain West Conference to head for the PAC was a head-scratcher to some. For one, there's little evidence to suggest that membership in a shrunken, G6 version of the PAC will be any more than even with the MWC. For another, what we're left with now are smaller conferences battling to get to 8. Both the PAC and the MWC now are in desperate need of teams. Both are looking at Texas State, among others. I don't see 8 team conferences being viable for the small schools.  But egos get in the way which is preventing a merger and expansion.  a 16-team Mountain Pacific Conference seems much more viable long-term to me than do two 8-team conferences hoping for table scraps.

NIL: The first issues with the current NIL system reared their ugly heads when UNLV QB Paul Sluka became the first athlete to shut it down for the season, declare his intent to red-shirt and transfer due to not making the type of money he states he was promised. Of course, there are two sides to this story with Sluka claiming he was promised $100,000 while only receiving $3,000 while the University states that after wins over Illinois and Kansas Sluka came to the coaches and demanded more cash.  Since all of this was supposedly a "verbal agreement" it's nothing more than a he said/he said issue now and we'll probably never know the truth. Also, there is a USC Defensive End that's decided to redshirt and transfer as well as the 4th string RB for UNLV. Both of those appear to be related to playing time rather than money however.  Still, until a workable framework is decided upon we might start viewing Week 4 as "shut it down" week as players are only allowed to play in 4 games before losing their opportunity to redshirt.

It's a mess and I'm not sure the NCAA can fix it. My feeling is still that the P4 programs, or the BIG and the SEC are ultimately going to form their own league that closely resembles NFL Lite. This will effectively destroy college football as we know it, but I also predict it will be immensely profitable, and popular.

Looking ahead to week 5 the biggest story might be Hurricane Helene. She's currently barreling toward Florida and could impact the Southeast and Midwest greatly. For everyone in their path, hunker down and good luck.

As for the betting, I've got some plays that I really like but none of those lines are still available, and I don't like where they sit currently so I'm just going to say good luck wherever you are sitting.

College Football Week 3 (And a look-ahead to Week 4)

Well, well, well.

Coach Sark and the Longhorns are the new number one team in all the land while Georgia, who struggled mightily against a live Kentucky underdog, slips to number 2. Tennessee is being overhyped as a strong contender despite not playing much of anyone and Florida State is still struggling and desperately looking for their first win.

Meanwhile, UNLV continues it's improbable winning streak now boasting a win over 2 Big XII teams, with a beatable Syracuse of the ACC still on the horizon and Colorado actually looked competent against the Rams of Colorado State.

On the betting front, I had something happen last week that has not happened in a while. I went 5-0 for the week raising my season bet tally to 12-3. Of course this happens when I abandon the weekly five. Whatever, I'm winning and I'm up 10.4 units so I'm happy.

About the Longhorns. I've said before that top 25 rankings at this point in the season are brunch for the debate shows. That's it, that's all they are.  Sure, some schools can make them into some milestones (for example, UNLV being ranked 25 in the Coaches Poll is the first time the school has been ranked in it's history) but for the most part they're just to allow the screaming heads an opportunity to scream at each other. Is Texas the number 1 team in all the land? Well, we probably still don't know. They have looked the most impressive on a week to week  basis so far, but outside of Michigan (who I still don't think is any good this year) they haven't exactly played a murderer's row of opponents.  Let's let some more games play out before we say that "Texas is back baby". They might be, but we've seen this happen early in the season before only to realize that they're not. I still am keeping the Bulldogs number 1 in my power rankings but Texas is gaining ground.

Looking ahead. If you're going to be partially distracted on Saturday this week seems to be a prime time to do so. There are not any games that I look at which make my teeth sweat with anticipation. That being said sometimes weeks that don't look too strong on paper tend to provide some of the better games of the season. In the early window I think Houston @ Cincinnati has potential, as does Kansas @ West Virginia. The 2nd window feels a little sparse but Utah @ Oklahoma State has some serious potential as a defensive gem and TCU @ SMU could be a rivalry sizzler (see what I did there?)

From a betting perspective I have another five teams that my numbers REALLY like. 

Kansas (+111) to pull the mild ML upset over West Virginia.

Central Michigan (-6.5) to win big over Ball State.

California (+106) to win over poor Florida State

Utah @ Oklahoma State (u51.5) to be a defensive battle (even IF Cam Rising plays)

NC State (+20.5) @ Clemson to keep it close against a Clemson offense that is not good.

As the usual caveat, I took most of these bets on either Sunday or Monday when the lines opened, so you might not be able to get the numbers above if you tried.  But I'm happy with what I have.

Finally, for those of you who don't know, probably because you're not following me on X, Mrs. TPM and I are doing the Great College Football Country Cooking Challenge this year.  The rules are simple: Mrs. TPM picks a country off of the big-assed map that we have on our living room wall.  My job is to create a (gluten-free, because Mrs. TPM is Celiac) menu based on dishes from that country, or inspired by their cuisine. So far, we've done the following:

1. Italy - Italian sausage/pesto flatbreads, charcuterie plate and pasta with marinara sauce.

2. Texas (because it's a country y'all) - Jalapeno poppers, smoked Spare Ribs and BBQ sides.

3. Mexico - Queso Blanco and Chorizo tacos with Mexican rice and beans.

This week she's chosen Cuba.

My menu is going to be gluten-free Cuban sandwiches and Ropa Viejas with rice for dinner. My struggle is, obviously, the Cuban sandwiches because there's really no gluten-free Cuban roll.  So I'm going to have to figure that one out.

Good luck to you this weekend no matter who you root for.