the random musings not worthy of new thread thread

[Diomedes]

"The world distrusts us not because we are rich and free. Many of us are not rich, and some of us aren't especially free. They distrust us because we are deaf and blind, because too often we don't understand and make no effort to understand."

Cardinal Francis George

[Diomedes]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/30/mosque.pig.ap/index.html

KATY, Texas (AP) -- A man unhappy with an Islamic association's plans to build a mosque next to his property has staged pig races as a protest during afternoon prayers.

Craig Baker, 46, sold merchandise and grilled sausages Friday for about 100 people who showed up in heavy rain. He insisted he wasn't trying to offend anyone with the pigs, which are forbidden from the Muslim diet.

"I am just defending my rights and my property," Baker said. "They totally disrespected me and my family."

Muslims don't hate pigs, they just don't eat them, said engineer Kamel Fotouh, president of the 500-member Katy Islamic Association in this Houston suburb.

"I don't care if he races, roasts or slaughters pigs," said Yousef Allam, a spokesman for the group.

The dispute began when the association asked Baker to remove his cattle from its newly bought land. The association plans to build a mosque, community center, athletic facilities and a school.

Baker agreed to move his cattle but thought the Muslims also wanted him off the land his family has lived on for more than 100 years.

Earlier this month, Baker conceded that the Muslims probably aren't after his land, but he said he had to go through with the pig races because "I would be like a total idiot if I didn't. I'd be the laughingstock now because I've gone too far."

All the same, Baker plans to continue the weekly pig races until interest dwindles.

The association never meant to imply it wanted Baker to move, Allam said.

"If we somehow communicated that to him, then we apologize," he said.

Resident Susan Canavespe said the pig racing wasn't mean-spirited -- "It's just Texas-spirited."

These are Bush's people.  They are not true Americans. 

Texas spirit = racism.

[MDS]

Well no shtein, sherlock. Ignorant rednecks live in Texas. Wow, thanks for telling me.

[PhillyGirl]

wonder which sports writers are gone?

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

wonder which sports writers are gone?

Sheridan could be fired, and they could just use Spadaro's articles instead.

[PhillyPhanInDC]

Excellent

[PhillyGirl]

wonder which sports writers are gone?

Sheridan could be fired, and they could just use Spadaro's articles instead.

No way, they are NOTHING alike. Sheridan will actually write about a team sucking and how much it sucks that they suck. Spadaro will just find some shred of a silver lining in the poop, lick it off and write about it.

[Butchers Bill]

No way, they are NOTHING alike. Sheridan will actually write about a team sucking and how much it sucks that they suck. Spadaro will just find some shred of a silver lining in the poop, lick it off and write about it.

I swallowed a dime once.

[Susquehanna Birder]

My dog pooped one.

[PhillyGirl]

Aldridge got the boot. He's been there the shortest amount of time.

[MDS]

He also has a gig at TNT, doesn't need the money.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Aldridge's last column today:

David Aldridge | Cheeks should understand Iverson's anger
By David Aldridge
Inquirer Columnist

DENVER - Even though he was in his 30s, he was still one of the best guards in the Eastern Conference, and in the league, when he was traded out West. And he was angry about being dealt, when he'd done things the right way in his own mind, and he couldn't understand why he'd been treated so cavalierly.

More than 17 years later, Maurice Cheeks is over it. Mostly.

"As I moved on in my career, I obviously realized that organizations trade for a reason," the 76ers coach said yesterday. "I guess I remembered being 32 years old. We had just lost to the Knicks in the playoffs, 3-0... . As I got older, I realized later on that organizations have to do what's best for them, not necessarily for that particular player. I think when you first get traded, you're thinking more about yourself."

The key word in that paragraph being later.

It'll be a long time before Allen Iverson gets there, if last night was any indication.

There was neither warmth nor fuzziness as Iverson faced his former team for the first time since being dealt to Denver on Dec. 19. Despite scoring a game-high 30 points, with nine assists, he performed unevenly, and was tossed by referee Steve Javie late in the fourth quarter of the Sixers' 108-97 victory.

"I just said [to Javie] I thought it was personal," Iverson said afterward. "I feel like it's been personal between me and him since I got in the league, and this was the perfect game for him to try and make me look bad."

The key word being personal.

Everything was personal for Iverson yesterday, from the morning shoot-around, when he acknowledged he still felt bitterness toward the Sixers, to the end. He protested much too much that this game didn't mean anything special to him, but there was no reconciliation with Cheeks, no visit to the team hotel beforehand.

All day, Iverson said he didn't want to be "fake" in his dealings with his old mates.

"Just acting like everything's all right, 'cause it's not," Iverson said. "Just acting like everything was handled well that last month I was in Philadelphia, 'cause it wasn't. And I'm not going to act like it was. Honestly, I hope it goes away, but every time we play the Sixers, I know it's going to come back."

No doubt, there are those of you out there who have The Litany on your lips, the laundry list of Iverson misdeeds over the years, both to team and town, and care nothing about his hurt feelings.

But your anger and disappointment don't compare with his. Not on this subject.

When you're sent packing by an employer, no matter the reason, if you have a brain and a heart, it cuts you to the quick. See, everyone thinks he or she is a model employee - even those who miss mandatory meet-and-greet sessions with fans and think practices are mostly optional.

Anyone who's been fired, or laid off, or taken "early retirement," or gotten the Ziggy, to quote Dick Vitale, or whatever euphemism is used, should understand the anger in Iverson, no matter the $17 million he's getting, the way that being dispatched twists the good memories into unrecognizable mush and pushes the bad ones to the front.

I remember it as if it were yesterday. Remember what I had for breakfast, what I was wearing, and the absolute shock that went through my brain when told my services no longer were required. It must have been what fighters go through in the seconds after a KO. And the numbness that lasted for days, weeks.

Chris Webber still wants to kill the Warriors, who traded him to Washington in 1995, not to mention the Kings, who traded him to the Sixers two years ago.

"The other day, only playing 13 minutes at Golden State, playing in garbage time in Sacramento, that was probably the most frustrating point in my career," Webber said yesterday. "It never goes away... . Sacramento, that was a place I helped build. And A.I. was - is - Philly. They're going to have to retire his number. Nobody's going to ever wear 3 [again]."

And if anyone knows what Iverson is feeling, it should be Cheeks, who was famously informed by a TV reporter, and not the team, that his time as one of the Sixers' greatest guards ever was over.

But that meeting will have to come another day. Iverson is charged up about (eventually) playing with Carmelo Anthony and competing for a playoff spot. The Sixers are winning on occasion - maybe too much, if the ultimate goal is Greg Oden or Kevin Durant or whoever will be at the top of the lottery.

Each going his separate way, nostalgia now a four-letter word.

[MDS]

Wahh. He should know how that business works. It's based on seniority, not really on talent. Once you're in, you're in. He, despite his career in the business, was a young pup at the Inqy and in an expendable position, thus...he got the axe. Other jobs will be there.

[Diomedes]

He ought to be grateful to be gone from the Inqy...a once good paper being systematically reduced to just another corporate run rag.

[MDS]

Jim Lampley beat up his girlfriend and got arrested