Freddy Krueger Bedtime Links

Folks in the U.K. are PISSED!  First it was London, then Birmingham (not THAT Birmingham…but would you be surprised if it was), and now we can add Liverpool to the list of English cities have that devolved into chaos.  This has got to make the IOC feel great about the 2012 Summer Olympics slated for London.

Does anyone know if they stop at 4:00 each afternoon for T.E.A.?  We need a BlogHawgs Nation correspondent in London.

If only we’d listened to Sarah…   Turns out she predicted the S&P downgrade.  I’m particularly impressed with that prediction, personally.  I had no idea she predicted the gross overvaluation of the yuan, the dangerously strong yen, the Euro Zone meltdown from Greece to Ireland to Spain to Italy – not to mention the extreme drought, abnormally violent weather patterns across the Midwest, and cataclysmic natural disasters in east Asia.  Perhaps we have underestimated her.  Or maybe she’s just full of shit.

Asian markets are about as stable as … well … U.S. markets.

Mr. President, when Dana Milbank doesn’t have your back you need to re-evaluate your strategy.

It’s not exactly fair to blame Obama for the rout: Almost certainly, the markets ignored him. And that’s the problem: The most powerful man in the world seems strangely powerless, and irresolute, as larger forces bring down the country and his presidency.

You Will Never Be Happy

And neither will I….

Very interesting read about why no one is ever really happy.

Now, I don’t honestly believe that I will NEVER be happy.  But the article brings up all kinds of interesting thoughts.  One that really sticks out is the notion of how vacations affect your mind.  It makes a lot of sense, especially when you think how few vacations ever met your expectations.

But get this — when doing a study of vacationers, the happiest people were the ones in the weeks leading up to a vacation. It was all about anticipation. Again, it looks like our brain rewards us more for working toward a goal than for actually arriving there. The study actually suggests taking more frequent, shorter vacations. You know, so you can spend more time anticipating them.

 

Pater-NOOOOOOO

Football’s elder statesman – by a longshot – took a shot today at Penn State’s morning football practice.  Joe Paterno has an injured shoulder and – yup, you guessed it – hip after today’s collision.  According to ESPN.com the 84-year-old coach was blindsided by soon-to-lose-his-scholarship Devon Smith, a junior wide receiver.  Because he’s the man, JoePa walked off the field under his own power.

Cowboy Up

Apparently God told Rick Perry to shine up his spurs and strap on his shitkickers.  According to Talking Points Memo, the Texas governor plans this Saturday to announce his candidacy for President of the United States.  Recent polling suggests Gov. Perry would immediately be considered a front-runner along side former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Hm… A conservative Texas governor with huge political skills and a weak primary field…. What could possibly go wrong?

The Lies of Texas

It’s heating up down in Texas, and the outside temperature has nothing on the boiling feud between the University of Texas and its Big XII brethren.

Very quietly – at least nationally – the pressure has been building on Texas to reveal the details of its deal with ESPN.  As you no doubt recall, Texas entered into a 20-year, $300 million deal with The Mothership to launch the Longhorn Network.  The LHN would broadcast one non-league UT football game, a handful of hoops games, and other live programming like baseball, track, women’s volleyball and basketball, etc.  In short, it would be the most boring network in the history of television – even to insufferable Longhorn fans.

Turns out there’s more to the initial reports of that deal.

It’s been widely reported lately that LHN wants to broadcast high school football games this season.  The teams involved in these games would feature key recruits the Longhorns have targeted.  All of this is nice and legal, of course, since the coaching staff and administration at Texas wouldn’t be directing which teams would be covered (wink, wink).

Now comes word from an Aggie blog that good ol’ Texas has big designs on expanding that network – and its own independence.

The most embarrassing section of the contract makes both Texas and ESPN look like ridiculous, petulant prep school kids:

…(T)he University of Texas has the ability to fire any ESPN on-air talent that doesn’t represent the university in the best light. Texas gets to determine it’s “quality and reputation” to all who view the network by threatening pink slips to those anchors who wish to express perhaps an honest opinion.  Don’t turn on the network and not expect a very slanted view of what is actually happening.  5-7 football team a year before?  Don’t worry, a Top 25 team in the preseason polls the next season.  Anyone who disagrees is shown the door.  But ESPN hasn’t been interested in telling viewers the whole or honest story at least since the Mike Leach and Adam James incident have they Mr. Joe Schad?

If Texas gets its own “state run” sports channel, what would other schools think of it?  Obviously they’d be looking for alternate routes.  All the money flows to Austin with no profit sharing for the other 9 league institutions.  The school would get to highlight targeted recruits’ high school games (via ESPN, of course, not the school itself), and it would ultimately get to broadcast more football games – taking even more money out of the total television package split among the league.

I’ve heard from folks in Aggieland that a decision could come as soon as this week or as late as the end of the football season that would place the Aggies in the SEC.  Even more rumors suggest Texas Tech has a deal in principle to join the Pac-12.  Oklahoma surely is looking into alternative plans should the rift ultimately destroy the league.

Of course, we’re dealing in rumors right now.  No one can say anything on the record.  It appeared last summer that the Aggies would jump into the SEC after Nebraska and Colorado announced their plans.  Texas conned everyone into sticking it out, but their LHN deal appears to contradict their stated goals of making the Big XII a fair, equitable playing field for all members.

The Lies of Texas, indeed…

The Texas/ESPN agreement, as pulled thanks to an Aggie FOIA request, can be found here.