Archive for November, 2008

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Ole Miss upsets LSU

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008

Wow. I was hopeful that we could beat LSU, but I thought I was just being optimistic. Besides, they were the national champions last year, and while they definitely weren’t having another national championship year, they were still No. 18 in the country, and we were playing at their place, appropriately called “Death Valley.” LSU’s fans have been known to register on the Richter scale. So, yes, I was being optimistic to think we would beat them.

As it turns out, we didn’t just beat them, we beat them very solidly, 31-13. It could have been worse too. At the end of the game we went to the “victory formation” inside their five yard line. We missed another good opportunity to score when we intercepted the ball on their end of the field. It was just a well-played ballgame all the way around on our part. Ole Miss football teams have a tendency to fall apart in big games like this, but we didn’t. A lot of credit for that has to go to Coach Nutt. He has a lot of big game experience. His Arkansas Razorbacks beat LSU at home, in triple overtime, last season. LSU went on to win the national championship.

Saturday’s game was the first annual “Magnolia Bowl.” Also, we are now ranked No. 25 in the country in both the AP and Coaches polls.

Assuming we beat Mississippi State next Friday, we’ll get a spot in the Cotton Bowl. I don’t see any way around it. On paper, we beat Mississippi State every time. You can never be sure about rivalry games though. We better not overlook them.

The last bowl game we went to was the 2004 Cotton Bowl. It was Eli Manning’s senior season. The Cotton Bowl is a good, quality bowl, and Ole Miss fans should be thrilled. I know I would have been happy with the Music City Bowl at the beginning of the year.

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Posted in Belmont, Oxford, Sports, University of Mississippi | No Comments »

Ole Miss defeats LA-Monroe; Becomes bowl eligible

Sunday, November 16th, 2008

Ole Miss crushed Louisiana-Monroe 59-0 yesterday, making us bowl eligible for the first time since Eli Manning took us to the Cotton Bowl after the 2003 season.

We play No. 20 LSU next Saturday in Baton Rouge for the Magnolia Bowl, and Mississippi State at home the day after Thanksgiving for the Egg Bowl. My State friends have already conceded the Egg Bowl, though you can never be sure with that rivalry. What Troy did to LSU in the first three quarters yesterday should give our players some hope. I give us 50-50 odds, which is pretty good considering we’re playing in Death Valley. LSU comes into the game having beaten us six games in a row.

Now that we’re bowl eligible, which bowl are we going to? We probably won’t know for sure until after the conference championships are finished, but we can prognosticate, which I will. Most bowls now have conference tie-ins, which makes predictions easier than it was in years past. The SEC has tie-ins with the Sugar Bowl (#1), Capitol One Bowl (#2), Cotton Bowl (#3/4/5), Outback Bowl (#3/4/5), Chick-fil-A Bowl (#3/4/5), Liberty Bowl (#6/7/8), Independence Bowl (#6/7/8), Music City Bowl (#6/7/8), and the PapaJohns.com Bowl (#9). This year, the SEC champion will most likely end up in the national championship game. That would essentially move us up a bowl game. Looking at the SEC standings, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia will all be taken ahead of us. LSU, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt have similar records to us.

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Posted in Sports, University of Mississippi | No Comments »

Big Bad Breakfast

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

I had Tuesday off for Veterans Day, and Cassie, the boys, and I took the opportunity to try out a new restaurant in town, Big Bad Breakfast. As the name implies, it’s a breakfast place, though they serve lunch too. It’s run by John Currence, the same guy responsible for City Grocery and Boure. Click on the link to see their “principles.” They use local ingredients whenever possible and smoke their own sausage and bacon at the restaurant. It’s located in Mid Town Shopping Center, about a mile north of the Square.

I had the “Big Bad Breakfast Plate.” It was quite good. Give it a try if you’re looking for something a little different for breakfast or lunch. I look forward to going back and trying one of their omelets and their andouille sausage.

On an unrelated note, I had forgotten how much fun it was to get a day off in the middle of the week. I may have to do that more often.

Posted in Food, Oxford | 2 Comments »

Obama agrees with me!

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Ole Miss was off this week, but there was a lot happening in the race for the national championship.

No. 1 Alabama beat No. 16 LSU 27-21 in overtime, in Baton Rouge; no small feat. No. 2 Texas Tech beat No. 9 Oklahoma State 56-20. No. 3 Penn State was upset by unranked Iowa 24-23, effectively putting them out of the chase for the national championship. No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Florida, No. 6 Oklahoma, and No. 7 USC (all one loss teams) won their games this weekend.

If Alabama and Texas Tech continue to win, it’d be a huge surprise if they don’t end up in the national championship. The big question is whether or not they continue to win.

Alabama finishes up the regular season with Mississippi State and Auburn. Auburn has had a very rough year, but have beaten Alabama seven years straight. It should be a good game. Also, Alabama will face No. 5 Florida in the SEC Championship game. With the way Florida has been playing since we beat them, I don’t see Alabama winning that game. It’ll be fun to watch either way.

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Posted in Politics, Sports | 3 Comments »

Obamania!

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

Major newspapers are unable to keep up with demand for today’s issue. The New York Times printed 225,000 extra papers and still ran out. Papers are going for up to $200 on eBay.

Bidding for my Oxford Eagle starts at $100. :)

Posted in News, Politics | 1 Comment »

Obama wins

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. Of the states that voted for Bush in 2004, Obama took Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, and New Mexico. Montana, Missouri, Indiana, and North Carolina are still too close to call. Obama ran an excellent campaign, McCain didn’t. You just can’t do that when the deck is stacked against you.

I fear that Obama’s beliefs are pretty far to the left, despite the moderate image he tried to project during the campaign. History says I’m wrong. Most candidates move toward the center after they are elected. I hope I’m wrong and history is right. I’m willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt for now. Time will tell. It will be interesting to watch him assemble his cabinet and see which issues he decides to tackle first.

It’ll be interesting to see who the Republicans nominate four years from now. I suspect it’ll be someone we haven’t heard much about.

The good news for conservatives, and possibly even some moderate Democrats, is that the Democrats will not get their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. That will help me sleep a little better at night.

Mississippi went 57/43 for McCain, as expected. We still have two Republican Senators. Wicker beat Musgrove 55/45. There was never much doubt Cochran would win. The representative for Northeast Mississippi will be Travis Childers, a Democrat. He beat Greg Davis, the former mayor of Southaven, 55/43, which was not unexpected.

Posted in News, Politics | No Comments »

Bob Barr for President

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

As I mentioned a while back, I’m not a big fan of the two-party system we have in place in this country. I think we deserve better choices than we get year in and year out. As you know, I also have pretty severe libertarian tendencies. I think the government should get out of the way and let us run our own lives. Finally, Mississippi will almost certainly go Republican in the presidential election, and if we don’t, it means Obama has won in a landslide. Therefore, I have decided to vote for Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate for President.

For the record, I’m not a member of the Libertarian party. I’m just a generic libertarian. The Libertarians tend to be extreme on some issues, which is one reason they never get anyone elected. Looking at Barr’s web site, he’s managed to stay away from some of those extreme areas.

Barr himself is a flawed man, not unlike Obama and McCain. Also, until around 2004 he was the antithesis of a libertarian. You can read about all that on his Wikipedia article.

Here are a few of Barr’s stances I agree with:

  • Drastically reduce government spending
  • Quit trying to manage the free market
  • Eliminate ethanol subsidies
  • Reduce America’s foreign military presence
  • Reduce foreign aid
  • Reform the tax system
  • Respect the Fourth Amendment
  • Better schools through competition
  • Respect the Second Amendment
  • Immigration reform

If any of those things sound good to you, head over to Barr’s web site and consider voting for him.

Posted in Politics | 10 Comments »

McCain’s chances

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

I believe McCain is going to lose tomorrow. Polls are imperfect, but things are looking pretty bleek for McCain right now. Even if he had a chance to win, the media has convinced most people (including me) that the election is already over. That will probably suppress the McCain vote to some degree.

McCain was dealt a bad hand from the very beginning. Bush is one of the most hated presidents in a long time. The economy decided to take a dive around the time the election was really getting in gear. The Republicans are getting a lot of the blame for that, rightfully or not.

Even with all that though, I think McCain could have won. The old McCain (from the 2000 election) could have honestly said he disagreed with the mainstream Republicans on lots of issues. Instead, this time, McCain decided to pander to the right and made himself look more like a Bush Republican than he really is. Also, he ran a very negative campaign and harped on issues that most Americans didn’t seem to care about.

Yes, even with all that, I agree with him on far more issues than I agree with Obama.

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments »

Wicker pays for Musgrove endorsement ad

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

Tonight when I got home I had a message on my answering machine. It was from Barack Obama, urging me to vote for Ronnie Musgrove, the Democratic candidate for US Senator. Sort of.

My first thought was “Why is Musgrove doing this? This is political suicide.” Mississippi is a very red state when it comes to national elections. Democrats still rule the local elections (strange, I know), but we haven’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Carter. The only way Musgrove had a shot at winning was to avoid being connected with the Obama and Pelosi crowd. Why would he approve this phone call?

Turns out, he didn’t. The call was actually a Wicker ad. Wicker is Musgrove’s former roommate and Republican opponent. The audio at the beginning of the call was from a radio ad that Musgrove was using somewhere in the state. My guess would be the Delta. I think it’s the only majority Democrat area in the state.

It’s strange that a candidate’s own ad can be used against them.

Posted in Mississippi, Politics | No Comments »

Excellent political discussion in the comments

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

In case you’ve missed it, there’s some excellent political discussion going on in the comments of a previous post. The comments are in response to this post. Yes, I had to beg for comments, but it worked.

It’s mostly Derek and I going back and forth, but I think it’s good stuff. I find it interesting than Derek and I agree in principle on most issues, but can still find so many things to disagree about. :)

I found another good article on the differences between the candidates regarding oil company taxes. According to it, the oil companies already pay a higher tax rate than most corporations. Apparently they also have a lot of loopholes they can use to get out of those taxes. It doesn’t say how their effective tax rate compares with that of other corporations.

Posted in Politics, Web Site | No Comments »

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