Archive for January, 2009

Executive orders

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

We can expect to start seeing some executive orders from President Obama real soon now. Executive orders are strange animals. They are supposed to be instructions to members of the executive branch on how to interpret a certain law. They should only clarify existing acts of Congress. However, presidents as far back as FDR have strayed into questionable territory. Hopefully Obama won’t do that, though it would certainly keep things interesting.

It’s not entirely clear where the line is. The Supreme Court has only overturned two orders in the history of the country. One when Truman tried to federalize all steel mills, and another when Clinton tried to keep the federal government from contracting with companies that hired strike-breakers.

There have been a number of notable executive orders over the years:

  • Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
  • FDR’s confiscation of gold
  • FDR prohibiting racial, religious, and ethnic discrimination in the defense industry
  • FDR interning Japanese-Americans during World War II
  • Truman integrating the military

Posted in History, Politics | 1 Comment »

Obama so far

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Back during the campaign, I said I couldn’t support Obama because of his stance on gun control and his general economic philosophy, which extends into a wide range of issues. That hasn’t changed. However, since he was elected, Obama has gone to a lot of trouble, to the point of angering some of his supporters, to present himself as a centrist. Therefore, I don’t see him acting on his anti-gun views anytime real soon. That’s not to say he won’t eventually.

I’m not at all a fan of the bailouts. Obama’s latest plan calls for around one trillion dollars. Of course, I can’t complain too much, because I don’t believe McCain’s plan would look that different from Obama’s.

While I would rather be inaugurating someone other than Obama in two days, the beginning of his presidency will be interesting to watch. What executive orders will he sign in the first week? How will he handle the Israeli/Palestinian issue?

Also, it’ll be interesting to see how some of his less realistic supporters deal with the reality that he isn’t going to be able to fix everything in a short period of time.

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

Finally getting some exercise

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

I started working out again on Monday for the first time in a long time. I have occasionally tried to start working out, but the last time I managed to make it more than a couple of months at a time was when I was in high school, when I was essentially forced to do it for football and powerlifting. (That would be nearly ten years ago.) I hope to do a little better this time.

Right now I’m going three days a week before work. I’m doing some running and lifting weights. I would go every day, but Liam’s still getting up once early in the morning, and I hate to stick Cassie with that every morning. Hopefully he’ll stop that soon.

Back in my prime I could bench press 315 lbs. I started out with 130 lbs. on Monday. It was a lot harder than I expected. I finished up with 180 pounds. I could have probably done 220 lbs., but I didn’t push it. I used to work out with 220 lbs. Time and sloth are cruel mistresses.

Cassie has also started going to the gym. She’s going with a friend three afternoons every week. I don’t expect she’ll have much trouble keeping up her routine. Right now it’s the only regular chance she has to get away from the boys. :)

Posted in Family, Sports | No Comments »

Dr. Khayat retires

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

For those of you that don’t live in Oxford and/or live under a rock, Dr. Robert Khayat, Chancellor of the University of Mississippi since 1995, announced his retirement, effective June 30, on Tuesday. He’s done a lot to move the University forward in the 13 years he’s been at Ole Miss. It’ll be interesting to see who replaces him.

Khayat is an interesting fellow. As an undergraduate at Ole Miss he was elected to the Student Hall of Fame and played on the football and baseball teams. He led the nation in scoring by a kicker in 1958 and 1959. As catcher, he helped the baseball team win SEC championships in 1959 and 1960. After leaving Ole Miss, he played for the Washington Redskins for four years and played in the Pro Bowl in 1961. After his stint in the NFL he returned to Ole Miss for law school. Three years after graduating he was hired as a law professor.

For more information, the Oxford Eagle has a couple of good articles.

Posted in News, University of Mississippi | No Comments »

Florida wins BCS National Championship

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

Thursday night the Florida Gators defeated the Oklahoma Sooners 24-14 to win the BCS National Championship. The game was closer than the score made it sound. Twice in the first half Oklahoma drove into the red zone only to be stopped by the Gators. They were driving in the fourth quarter when one of their receivers bobbled the ball on a long pass and the Gator defender grabbed it out of the air. Both quarterbacks, Heisman winners from this year and last, threw two interceptions.

Even before Florida had beaten Oklahoma, some were arguing that Utah should be the national champion. They convincingly beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and were the only undefeated team in Division I football. I don’t have much sympathy for that claim. If you look at their schedule, they only played three top 25 teams. Florida played four top 10 teams and two more top 25 teams. Could Utah beat Florida? Maybe, but we’ll never know. If they had a stronger schedule maybe we would have.

Should we have a different way of determining the national champion? Yes, we need a playoff. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon. Utah’s Attorney General has announced an investigation into whether or not the BCS runs afoul of antitrust laws. This could get interesting.

The last AP poll of the season came out today. Florida is No. 1, Utah is No. 2, USC No. 3, Texas No. 4, and Oklahoma dropped to No. 5. Ole Miss came in at No. 14, making it the fourth highest ranked SEC team. Does anyone know how we were ranked after Eli’s senior year? One of ESPN’s prognosticators has Ole Miss at No. 12 in his list for next year. Don’t get your hopes up too much, but there is a lot of promise there.

In The 29th Annual Lafayette County Bowl Pick, I placed 35th, tied with 41 other people. (They didn’t bother breaking ties past the first few people.) Not too shabby. I picked 23 of the 34 bowl games correctly. The winner picked 27 correctly and won $9,196. Even though I’ve done this before, I’m still amazed at how tough it is to pick these things. We weren’t even picking against the spread.

To all you sports haters, that should be all the football for a while. Be glad the NFL doesn’t interest me that much. College baseball does start in a few weeks though. :)

Posted in Sports, University of Mississippi | 2 Comments »

Ole Miss defeats Texas Tech

Saturday, January 3rd, 2009

As you’ll recall, I picked Texas Tech to beat Ole Miss in the Cotton Bowl. I was wrong. So where a lot of other people. Not only did we win, we did so in convincing fashion, beating them 47-34. In a poll on ESPN.com prior to the game, 94% of respondents picked Texas Tech to win the game. In the Lafayette County Bowl Pick, where surely at least 95% of participants are Ole Miss fans, only 46% picked Ole Miss to win. When your own fans don’t think you’re going to win, that’s not a good sign. The funny thing is, it could have been been a lot worse. We gave up a couple of touchdowns we shouldn’t have (after fumble and interception), and should have scored a couple that we didn’t (punt return called back and fumble on the one yard line).

Things didn’t look good right off the bat. With over five minutes left in the first quarter, we had given up a fumble and an interception, and Texas Tech was up 14-0. However, with a little more than a minute left in the first half, we took a 24-21 lead and never looked back.

Not only was this win a great way to end the season, but it’ll help us a lot going into next season too. You can’t underestimate what it’ll do for our recruiting.

But wait, there’s even more good news! Last week it was announced that Ole Miss football team was the best in the SEC, academically. We were also 13th best in the country.

I don’t try to hide the fact that I hate the University of Alabama; particularly their football team and their fans. I realize it’s not rational, but I can’t help it. I was taught to hate them from a very early age. I can remember pulling for Miami, against Alabama, in the 1992 national championship when I was only 11 years old. All that said, I had decided to pull for Alabama in the Sugar Bowl Friday night. I’m not sure why really. Perhaps it was because no one gave Utah a fighting chance? Of course Utah would stomp them. That’ll teach me to cheer for Alabama.

As for the Lafayette County Bowl Pick, I was doing great through the first twelve games. If I remember correctly, I was 33rd out of 576. However, then things went bad. I missed several picks in a row. I’ve done a little better over the last few games (despite my picking Texas Tech and Alabama), and as of tonight I’m 92nd. I’ve picked 20 out of 31 correctly. There are currently two people tied for the lead, and they have picked 24 correctly. Only five people have picked 23 correctly. Picking bowl winners is a tough business.

Posted in Sports, University of Mississippi | No Comments »