Scots wa hae!

In the greatest Scottish victory since Robert the Bruce defeated the British at Bannockburn, Andy Murray (the best looking Scot in all of human history) defeated Serbian punk Novak Djokovic 7-6 7-6 to win his first Masters Series event ever.

Scottish eye candy y'all!!



Oh yeah, this almost makes up for the way that Rafa Nadal tanked against Djokovic in the semis. That was a disgraceful case of phoning it in. Rafa had clinched the #1 ranking (as of August 19th) and just totally tanked it.

Karma Kronicles

1. "That's how we roll in Philly". Jose Canseco got the livin' crap knocked out of him in a 97 second "fight" with ex-boxer and NFLer Vai Sikehema.

2. On their way to their ritualized, barbaric senseless slaughter, the bulls of Pamplona at least manage to wound 45 humans.

3. I can finally watch college basketball again (LOL not really, there are still only about 4 or 5 good players in division I)! Billy Packer is OUT! In the words of another overrated basketball announcer, YESSSSSSSS!!!

4. Brett meet pine, pine, Brett. You two will be spending lots of time together! The Packers finally pull the plug on the Hamlet of the NFL with a brutal 1-2 punch consisting of "Aaron Rogers is our starter" and "We will not give you your release".

Brand pulls a Boozer

Wow, say it ain't so Coach K!

Elton is now a 76er and Baron is S.O.L.

At least Boozer only burned his owner while Brand burned his boy (and one of my favorite players) Baron Davis.

I guess when it comes to dealing with Dookies you better get it in writing and get it notarized!

Like Carlos Boozer, Elton Brand signs with another team after saying he was willing to take a pay cut to make Clippers competitive. 82,000,000 clams and a sure spot in the playoffs was enough for him to leave his good friend Baron and a young, talented Clippers team. Money and Championships talk in this business son.

Sorry, Baron Davis: Elton Brand apparently is heading east. Sources told Marc Stein on Tuesday the longtime Clipper informed the 76ers he will accept a five-year deal worth an estimated $82 million.

Said one source close to the process: "Elton wants to go East."

Will the Sixers be the next Utah and the Clippers the next Caveliers? Sure feels like it as the Sixers become a solid contender in the East with a bright future. A squad of Brand, Dalembert, Miller, AI, and Young will definately make make the playoffs, and even get out of the first round and do some damage. And the Clippers are stuck with a superstar in Baron Davis and no real supporting cast in the competitive West, much the way Lebron is in Cleveland. Livingston, Gordon, and Thorton are young, Mobley at the end of his career, and in the West, they will need to win at least 50 games to make the playoffs.

For those who do not remember the Boozer controversy, here is a summary:

Boozer could have been Cleveland's in the '04-'05 season for $695,000, but the Cavaliers did not pick up their option after, the club said, Boozer had committed to re-signing for the team's full midlevel exception -- somewhere around six years and $40 million. That allowed Utah to pick him up for 6 year at $68 million

Go Bulls!!

Now that Wimbledon is over, the current international sporting spectacle is the running of the bulls in Pamplona Spain. It may not surprise KPC readers to learn that I root for the Bulls to create as much carnage and mayhem as bovinely possible. So far, they are off to a good start.

Yesterday was the first running and:

Thirteen people were taken to hospital, one of them seriously injured, on the first day of the annual bull running festival in the northern Spanish town of Pamplona on Monday, organizers said. A 37-year-old man suffered a collapsed lung, ruptured spleen and broken ribs, while two people were concussed and 10 others were treated mainly for cuts and bruises.

but what about today you ask? Well we had our first goring:

Since 1924 the bulls have managed to kill 14 humans during these events. Go Bulls!

Uribe to Farc: "I'm in ur base, freein' the hostages!!"

Wow, wow wow! Huge ups to Uribe and the Colombian military for tricking the FARCsters and freeing Ingrid Betencourt, 3 Americans and 11 Colombians without firing a shot!!

From the AP:

military intelligence agents infiltrated the guerrilla ranks and led the local commander in charge of the hostages, alias Cesar, to believe they were going to take them to Alfonso Cano, the guerrillas' supreme leader.

The hostages, who had been divided in three groups, were taken to a rendezvous where two disguised helicopters piloted by Colombian military agents were waiting. Betancourt said her hands and feet were bound, which she called "humiliating."

The pilots, she said, were posing as members of a relief organization, but "they were dressed like clowns," wearing Che Guevara shirts, so she assumed they were rebels.

But when they were airborne, she looked behind her and saw Cesar, who had treated her so cruelly for so many years, lying on the floor blindfolded.

"The chief of the operation said, `We're the national army. You're free,'" she said. "The helicopter almost fell from the sky because we were jumping up and down, yelling, crying, hugging one another. We couldn't believe it."

The operation, Santos said, "will go into history for its audacity and effectiveness."

"We wanted to have it happen as it did today," added armed forces chief Gen. Freddy Padilla. "Without a single shot. Without anyone wounded. Absolutely safe and sound, without a scratch."

This is huge, people. Now more than ever, I think Uribe's government can by and large eliminate the FARC!

Jon Wertheim joins the club

The Angus Anti-Djokovic Club:

You just can't call out the five-time defending champ and then go out in straight sets on the third day of the tournament. I thought Djokovic played a lazy -- dare we even say cowardly? -- match. Bad body language, little tactical adjustments, a symbolic double-fault on match point.

Full article is here.

a big KPC thank you to Marat Safin

who administered a severe beatdown to the fuzzy headed, gum flapping, arrogant, Serbian idol Novak Djokovic today at Wimby.

I like how the AP put it: Novak Djokovic was upset in straight sets by Marat Safin in the second round at Wimbledon on Wednesday, ending the Serb's chances of testing his theory about Roger Federer's vulnerability.

Post match, Novak showed his usual charm:

Safin is a player who is known as a big talent, but again, he makes a lot of unforced errors," he said. "I had opportunities, but I just made some unforced errors, which were really uncharacteristic, without any sense.

"Safin still has his ups and downs, and is known for his mental instability in some ways, but he's still a great player. He wants to step it up again. (Today) he was mentally there."

Maybe Marat is inspired by the great play of his sister Dinara. I'd love to see him make a deep run in this tournament, but I thank him for getting this fool Djokovic off the radar.

Two views of Roger Federer

One is from a fuzzy headed punk who likes to do imitations of other pros and is convinced that his effluvia smells like roses, viz. Novak Djokovic:

“Some things are changing. I think he’s a little bit shaken with that loss and mentally he has been struggling in the last couple of months,” Djokovic said Wednesday. “It’s normal to have ups and downs after four years of absolute dominance on the men’s tour.

“New names are coming, fresh talented players who believe more they can win against him and I am one of them,” Djokovic said. “Suddenly he is worried a little bit.” (full article is here)

The other, slightly different, view is from 14 time grand slam champion Pete Sampras:

“There is a burning desire in Roger to break my record, and when he does it I would like to be there,” Sampras said Thursday. “I said to Roger, ‘Just make sure it’s in New York or London. Australia is a long way to go. (But) if it worked out like that, I would fly there.’

“I would just let him enjoy it as his moment but (I would want to be there) just to respect the record and what he was able to do and to just say, ‘Congratulations.”’

Despite Federer’s loss to No. 2-ranked Rafael Nadal in the French Open final, Sampras is confident the Swiss star will bounce back at the All England Club.

“He’s created this monster of winning so many tournaments and so many majors and doing it with ease,” Sampras said in Sao Paulo, Brazil. “As great as Roger is, he’s going to have his losses and his bad days. It’s just human nature to go through some lulls.”

That doesn’t mean he has lost his edge, Sampras said.

“In the majors, he’s still the guy that’s most likely to win them,” Sampras said. “He’s lost a couple and, if anything, that’ll do him some good. It’ll get him going and fired up. He’ll be just fine.” (full article here)

Wow, you could hardly see a better distinction between no-class and class, eh? For the first time in my life, I'll be rooting for Federer to win Wimbledon and the US Open.

Texas Barbeque Ratings: Kreuz's is #2?

The current issue of Texas Monthly rates "The Top 50 BBQ Joints in Texas". T. Cowen fave Kreuz Market comes in second.

However, all is not well in the BBQ kingdom:

the biggest change over the past five years is that the gas-burning commercial smoker is gaining ground (for an explanation of how it differs from a traditional pit, see PITS). To give the devil his due, this contraption has brought acceptable barbecue to areas where it hardly existed, like the Rio Grande Valley. The danger is that it will replace traditional pit-smoking, as fewer and fewer people are willing to get up at three in the morning to sustain this labor-intensive craft. The smoker has also enabled giant, mediocre chains like Dickey’s and Bill Miller (about 70 locations each statewide) to proliferate like houseflies. With so many children cutting their teeth on institutional barbecue, one fears for the future.

And so we issue this call to arms: Perfect pit-smoked meats rank with the finest expressions of culinary art anywhere, and we must not allow them to disappear. It is incumbent upon all Texans to celebrate and support our state’s uniquely sooty, fat-besotted heritage. The cost will be a measly $7.95 or so a plate, including sides, a small price for the satisfaction not only of preserving our history but of ingesting a masterpiece.

Not just Texans, people!! Go forth and eat!

And this helped you exactly how???

In 2004, well known coach choker Latrell Sprewell spurned a 3 year 20 million $ plus contract from the Minnesota T-Wolves as woefully insufficient saying that "I have my family to feed" (you can buy the t-shirt here).

He has been out of the league since the end of that season.

Today, karma came calling again with the news that Spree's house is being repossessed. His 70 foot yacht was sold off at auction back in January.

This is pretty close to Darwin award behavior, innit?

Hat tip to TC

What I do in my spare time

Collect art.

Here are the artists we are currently collecting at Chez Angus:

Souther Salazar
Billy Woolway
Joe Garcia
Manuel Castro Leñero
Floyd Kuptana
Maudie Ohiktook
Antoine Oleyant
Lynda Barry

Here is the latest piece we got; it's by Joe Garcia:



Here is how I collect art:

"hey honey, have you seen this piece? It's only $XXX. What do you think? What if I could get them down to .8*$XXX? Well what about this one? Who do you like better? Shouldn't we get them both? What do you think?"

Markets in everything: Dromedary Edition

Some things just go together, like roads and serfdom, like Mungowitz and Cheetos, and as KPC readers know, like India and camels!

And now, thanks to soaring oil prices, the bond between Indian and Dromedary is tighter than ever!

Camel demand soars in India

By Jo Johnson in New Delhi

Farmers in the Indian state of Rajasthan are rediscovering the humble camel.

As the cost of running gas-guzzling tractors soars, even-toed ungulates are making a comeback, raising hopes that a fall in the population of the desert state’s signature animal can be reversed.

“It’s excellent for the camel population if the price of oil continues to go up because demand for camels will also go up,” says Ilse Köhler-Rollefson of the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development. “Two years ago, a camel cost little more than a goat, which is nothing. The price has since trebled.”

Market prices for these “ships of the desert”, which crashed with the growing affordability of motorised transport, are rising again as oil prices soar.

A sturdy male with a life expectancy of 60-80 years now fetches up to Rs40,000 ($973), compared to Rs5,000-Rs10,000 three years ago, according to Hanuwant Singh of the Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan, a non-profit welfare organisation for livestock keepers. Entry-level tractors cost around $4,000.

“It’s very good news,” says Mr Singh, whose organisation aims to dispel the image of backwardness associated with camel ownership and tries to promote higher economic returns for breeders. “We had started to see camels, even female ones, being slaughtered for their meat. Now they are replacing the tractor again.”

Ah yes, Mr. Singh, that is very good news indeed.

"the league for pastoral peoples"? "even-toed ungulates"? "little more than a goat, which is nothing"?


People, India and Camels is comedy gold.

He may be the Maestro, but he's no Paul Volcker

Great column yesterday by Caroline Baum on how Volcker is standing tall while Al keeps shrinking, despite his increasingly desperate attempts to shore up "the legacy thing".

an excerpt:

Volcker is tall; Greenspan isn't. Volcker is a man of few words; Greenspan won't shut up. Volcker retired as Fed chair and avoided the limelight; Greenspan is doing everything possible to make sure the light shines on him.... What really separates the two men, however, is the legacy issue. Volcker is content to let his record speak for itself: He inherited inflation of almost 15 percent and bequeathed a rate of 4 percent to posterity. It took two recessions to get there, but he did the heavy lifting on inflation. Greenspan is desperate to deflect the blame for a credit crisis he called ``the most wrenching'' in 50 years. He can write his autobiography, which he did last year, but he can't write his epitaph.

Well, actually, I wouldn't put it past him!

and a side of Rice.....

I have a bad confession to make. I read the New Yorker every week. Pretty much cover to cover. Sorry.

Anyway, in last week's issue I found an intriguing idea: Condi Rice for the second spot on the Republican ticket.

an excerpt:

To deal first with the obvious: Rice may be “only” the second woman and the second African-American to be Secretary of State, but she is indisputably the highest-ranking black female official ever to have served in any branch of the United States government. Her nomination to a constitutional executive office would cost McCain the votes of his party’s hardened racists and incorrigible misogynists. They are surely fewer in number, though, than the people who would like to participate in breaking the glass ceiling of race or gender but, given the choice, would rather do so in a more timid way, and/or without abandoning their party. And with Rice on the ticket the Republicans could attack Clinton or Obama with far less restraint.

By choosing Rice, McCain would shackle himself anew to Bush’s Iraq war. But it’s hard to see how those chains could get much tighter than he has already made them. Rice would fit nicely into McCain’s view of the war as worth fighting but, until Donald Rumsfeld’s exit from the Pentagon, fought clumsily. And it would be fairly easy to establish a story line that would cast Rice as having been less Bush’s enabler than a loyal subordinate who nevertheless pushed gently from within for a more reasonable, more diplomatic approach.

Rice is already fourth in line for the Presidency, and getting bumped up three places would be a shorter leap than any of the three Presidential candidates propose to make. It’s true that her record in office has been one of failure, from downgrading terrorism as a priority before 9/11 to ignoring the Israel-Palestine problem until (almost certainly) too late. But this does not seem to have done much damage to her popularity. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken when opposition to the Iraq war was approaching its height, she enjoyed a “favorable-unfavorable” rating of nearly two to one. The conservative rank and file likes her.


Does anybody besides me think this is a great idea? Or are y'all hankering for flip-flop Mitt?

Happiness: yer doin' it wrong!

At least if you're running Bhutan you are. The impoverished Himalayan nation's king has been promoting the importance of Gross National Happiness as a goal of the nation. So far the only concrete policy steps taken to raise it are (1) a smoking ban, (2) a dress code, and (3) setting limits of how much of the country can be developed.

But now the king wants to take it to the next level. How? Well he's appointed a "happiness commissioner" and the country is being surveyed about their level of happiness with an instrument "comprised of nearly 300 questions" that "take(s) several hours to complete."

Aaargh!! I'm from the government and I'm here to help you!! Run!!!

Here's some excerpts from the WSJ article linked above:

Developed in the 1980s by Bhutan's fourth king, Gross National Happiness, or GNH, is a Bhutanese twist on Gross Domestic Product. Up till now, it has not represented an actual dollar figure, but rather, a fuzzy set of principles on the environment and culture. It has produced unique policies, such as a smoking ban, strict limits on deforestation and a dress code....
its leaders want to prove that they can achieve economic growth while maintaining good governance, protecting the environment and preserving an ancient culture. To do that, they've decided to start calculating GNH. It means coming up with an actual happiness index that can be tracked over time.

"We are in the midst of great changes," Mr. Tshiteem says in an interview. The Happiness commissioner wears a red checkered Bhutanese robe, called a gho, and munches on betel nut as he looks ahead to his country's collision with the modern world. "If we are going to manage this change, we have to be able to measure it," he says.

Being right next to India, Mr. Tshiteem has developed negative views toward industries that could help soak up Bhutan's young, unskilled workers and fuel growth. On outsourcing, he says: "Stay up all night, sleep all day, I wouldn't want to see my kids in a job like that."

And on fast food and McDonald's, he wonders whether possible health problems and the impact on Bhutan's culture would outweigh the benefits of job creation and potentially higher prices for farmers. "Maybe," ventures the Happiness commissioner, "Bhutan can be a small island, free from the golden arches."

OUCH! Dude, that hurt.

All Hail Mungowitz!

Chillipunk'd no more, Mungowitz will stride the stage like a colossus at the final NC Gubernatorial debate this October. This is huge, people. We will see things we have never seen before. My advice? Get your tickets early!

Moko for President

From New Zealand comes the story of Moko the rescue dolphin. Two "pygmy sperm whales" repeatedly grounded themselves on a sandbar and rescuers couldn't seem to get them turned around and out to sea. It seemed like curtains for the hapless cetaceans. Then along came Moko:

Rescuers worked for more than one hour to get the whales back into the water, only to see them strand themselves four times on a sandbar slightly out to sea. It looked likely the whales would have to be euthanized to prevent them suffering a prolonged death, Smith said.

"They kept getting disorientated and stranding again," said Smith, who was among the rescuers. "They obviously couldn't find their way back past (the sandbar) to the sea."

Along came Moko, who approached the whales and led them 200 meters (yards) along the beach and through a channel out to the open sea.

"Moko just came flying through the water and pushed in between us and the whales," Juanita Symes, another rescuer, told The Associated Press. "She got them to head toward the hill, where the channel is. It was an amazing experience. The best day of my life."

Anton van Helden, a marine mammals expert at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, said the reports of Moko's rescue were "fantastic" but believable because the dolphins have "a great capacity for altruistic activities."

And when his work was done??

After the rescue, Moko returned to the beach and joined in games with local residents.

Wow!

Spanish for Your Nanny

You have probably seen this.

But....I laughed. Fuerte.

And, all too true. The whole nanny gig is pretty rough.

(Nod to Neanderbill)