www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8fhbJilcfI

So what do we call ourselves?  The Big 10 is taken, and the Big 14 is still a couple of backroom deals away.

Texas and the Texettes? The Texas Ten?

Howsabout we keep it simple and refer to it as the Texas Invitational Conference (the TIC)?

It’s true that we all seem to be on that longhorn teat, but I’m not inclined to be bitter, as there’s so much obvious relief throughout the KU and K-state coaching staff and leadership.  They are all pretty clear, this is a good thing for all of us, at least through 2020.

And of course, I am enjoying the schadenfreude of watching Missouri beg the Big 10 to come and get them only to be rejected and have to run back hat-in-hand to the protective shade of the Big 12 where they will continue to get beaten like ugly step children.  In fact, they’ll get it worse now that there’s no B12 North in football — they won’t be competing for any more “division championships.”  The D-North championship is called third place, now.  So suck on that, Slavers.

And now that we can do home and away schedules in basketball, as well as play all 9 teams every year in football, the meaning of the conference championship just got a little bit bigger, which I love.  The NCAA tourney and bowls are obviously the glamorous events, and the big money, etc., but I like the idea that the conference championship matters — it makes each individual game more important than just seedings or invites.

Football has had that right for a long time, because in order to be #1 you basically have to go undefeated.  If you are challenging at that level, the individual games are huge.  Basketball, not so much.  1 through 3 (maybe 4) your seed is mostly just for bragging rights, and since the NCAA tourney is the big prize in every fan’s dreams, those other 30+ games you have to play a year to get there just don’t seem as important as they should.

Basketball season just got a lot tougher, and a lot more fun without the two worst teams in the league.

So apparently it’s all about ‘Merican Football and it’s big TV money, and therfore nobody really gives a shit about secondary revenue sports like basketball.  My most cherished hope is that KU will end up in the Big East or ACC, but the Mountain West (who? … exactly) looks the most likely according to the local rumor mill.

Ugh.

We used to raid our main rival Missouri and kill motherfuckers.  Who will I hate next year?  Can you imagine Rangers getting split off from Celtic?  Galatasaray from Fenerbahce?  River Plate from Boca Juniors?  Shrewsbury Town from Wrexham*?  Those Missouri fuckers burned my town to the ground once.  BYU are just creepy and weird.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

—–

*Not an actual example.

“According to Chafee, the recent series of right-wing primary campaigns against centrist Republicans is a major source of weakness for the party, especially given that these campaigns often target lawmakers in blue states where only moderate candidates have a chance in the general election. But even if the more moderate incumbents survive the challenge, they’ll only be weaker against the Democratic candidate later on.”

via the Daily Beast

Current Affairs Lesson #1: Don’t make a land-for-peace deal with the Taliban, and

Current Affairs Lesson #2: Don’t mortgage your party to the Religious Right (the Missouriban).

That’s John Brown taken from the mural that adorns the Kansas capital building, except here he has his National Championship trophy in place of a Bible.

Below is another angle that showcases this brilliant collage in its full and proper context. Imagine you’re a degenerate Slaver, trying to repress the latent guilt of signing for Missouri, while you shoot free throws into the face of John Brown’s righteous fury, framed by a halo of National Championship banners. Rough.

Baby Caligula managed not to spray too much spit as he assured supporters:

"Central are going to get out of this situation," he said. "We are going to move forward. We are going to kill the players, coaching staff and anyone else.

"If Rosario Central was going to fall I will kill all those sons of bitches, be they players or coaching staff.”

Tense agreement aside, this is a great approach. Utilizing the massacre method, you don’t have to worry about existing salary requirements or termination clauses when you’re recruiting new players and coaches to take the place of all the dead players and coaches.

"Wow, the training facilities look great, sir. But . . . what happened to all your players and staff?"

"How should I know? Fuggedaboutit. Don’t worry about them. It was an accident. I wasn’t even in the country."

(Except for Missouri)

Edited to add:

Missouri Men’s Basketball made their final road trip of the 2007-2008 season this weekend, as the Tigers traveled to Norman Oklahoma where they allegedly gave Oklahoma a basketball game before allegedly losing 75-66.

Details are still unclear, but a hearing to review the loss has been scheduled for their return to Colombia.

"The latest defendant is Allen Kauffman, 63, who resigned as mayor of Collins and pastor of Temple Lot Church after he was arrested January 11 at home in his small town about 110 miles southeast of Kansas City."

Generally speaking, the more self-righteous the person is, the bigger the skeletons that come out of his closet. It’s funny that Ted Haggard in Colorado got busted buying gay sex, but in the end, who really gives a fuck? It’s two adults having consensual sex . . . granted, for money, but you know . . . whatever. It’s really only even newsworthy because one of the consenting gay men is a giant hypocrite who uses his podium to preach anti-gay rhetoric while giving rim-jobs to his crank dealer behind his congregation’s back.

But this Missouri guy preys on kids. He got busted trying to solicit sex from a 60-year old man posing as a 13-year old girl online. omg lol k im laghing @ him i hope cops beat hm up lol

He’s a scumbag, check. But, adding pathos to all this skeeve, he’s a religious scumbag who tells other people how to live their lives and preaches about morality and "family values."

From the Temple Lot Church website (emphasis mine):

"The (Temple Lot Church) is… the true Church restored in the last days by Christ himself to prepare the world for His final return . . . the Church of Christ posesses true priesthood authority and spiritual gifts given by Christ for the purpose of spreading His Gospel to all ‘kindreds, nations, tongues and people.’"

These are the kinds of dumb rabbit-holes literalist religion sends you down into. So Christ himself gave Chester the Molester "true preisthood authority"? Really? Gee, wouldn’t that would make Jesus a fucking moron?

And is "true priesthood authority" as good as "real ultimate power"? Because if not, I’m OUT, bible boy.

The more of this stuff I hear about, the more I think that the people who are bible-literalist Christians only come in two categories: hiding something, or trying to cover up some personality flaw. Get some therapy, let go of any literal interpretation of metaphor (it’s only going to lead to neurosis), have a glass of wine, some consensual sex (with ADULTS, you freaks) and get on with being limited, human, ignorant and a tiny, tiny speck in an otherwise unimportant part of a massive universe that is 100% without any meaning at all.