Edwin MacPhisto

The SEC is not as good as you maintain, Kotz. This year it appears to have one juggernaut, two very close contenders in Georgia and Tennessee and some very good but problem-addled teams in Florida and LSU. Its basement teams are as shitty as they've ever been, and everyone else is middle of the pack. Admittedly, it's still the most impressive conference overall this year. But with NC State and Virginia Tech starting to find their stride and A&M and Oklahoma State looking better than expected, the gap has closed substantially.

RZA's the worst by far in my book, but that's okay since he's principally served as the beatmaker. GZA and Raekwon for me, Ghostface and Deck right after. Method Man is right in the middle.

I prefer his work with Trillville.

Decent, but still too much love for the mid-majors. Undefeated is excellent for sure, but I think the AP poll is right to leave Utah behind most of the elite 1-loss squads. Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee, and FSU deserve the higher spot. Utah's comfortable A&M win certainly looks really good now, but A&M's become a much, much better team over the weeks following. As for the "exposed" thing for both Oklahoma State and Virginia: they each got their asses handed to them by very good teams playing near-perfect games. I'd wait another week before entirely dismissing them. We matched Minnesota collapse this week; when these teams do the same thing, then I'll call them exposed. For now they're on probation.

There's always an unfunny girl with AIDS who thinks she's hilarious.

That's what it looks like. The second number is your ranking as far as picks made. As far as total correct picks go, it looks like you're only behind Gert, myself, and Bored.

After creaming #6, FSU should take the #5 spot quite handily. Wisconsin gets into the top 10 for sure, Texas slides up, Michigan creeps a little closer, and UVA and Purdue both drop, the latter probably to the edges of the top 10 and the former somewhere in the top 15. Oklahoma State is probably out of the poll or just on the edge, Ohio State is surely gone, and a few uncertain teams beginning to distinguish themselves (like Texas A&M and NC State) start to slide into the mix.

Virginia got clobbered, moreso than I had expected. The Noles played the best game they've played in 2 years, I think. Complete shutdown. What I'm more worried about are the seeming injuries to both Marques Hagans and Elton Brown. With them, my 9-2 preseason pick still seems about right. Without, yikes.

Complaining aside, look for highlights from the Michigan St./Minnesota game. Great touchdown run from 43 yards out, and damn, Michigan State is up 21-3 in the first quarter.

They don't exist, unless K-State decides to give OU a game. It's a blessing for me: I'm finally going to get some work done on a Saturday.

"Shame on a Nigga" and "Dog Shit" will always keep a warm place in my heart for ODB. The Wu-Tang may be my all-time favorites for rap. GZA's king. Eminem isn't bad. He's also not TOTALLY AWESOME. The Slim Shady LP is excellent, and Marshall Mathers, though following a very similar structure and having plenty of down moments, is loaded with good tracks and superb production. Eminem Show is not. Yikes, what a disappointing album. He's stretched into self-parody at this point, and not in the good way. Oh, and Cena's Writer deserves to have his "it's my opinion" license revoked after lumping Jay-Z with G-Unit and Nelly. Someone who believes that Jay "raps about the same shit" is doing exactly what he criticizes the rest of the world doing: listening to 3 singles and making a ridiculous assertion.

Who cares? I prefer "aware" rap, but Nelly makes party music, which has always been a big part of hip-hop. He's ridiculous and amusing and I don't begrudge him that.

And it's a stupid job. Like Stewart said, it would be wonderful if they actually debated. But they don't. Begala takes some anti-Bush piece and runs with it, and Carlson hits him with a zinger. Then, holy shit, Carlson rants about something and it's BEGALA'S TURN for a zinger. There is no give and take, nor discussion of the issues. It gets even worse when they bring on a guest, because then you've got four people shouting instead of two. The worst pundit shows misrepresent facts and present their opinions as something worth considering in your political viewpoint. They are tremendously disingenous. Stewart's show is fake news. They tell jokes and make fun of stuff, and that's about it.

It's often funny as shit, though it's fallen a bit since Stephen Colbert has begun to contribute less frequently. It's entertainment. The fact that it's on Comedy Central should tip you off to that. Shit like Crossfire or Hannity and Colmes pass themselves off as being important to political discourse and the dissemination of news. Apples and, shit, not even oranges. Fucking potatoes, man.

Said no go? He's pointing out that the highly partisan blather that the commentators spit out is retarded. Right to their faces, to the audience that's watching them. What better venue than showing up to the show when invited? Stewart wasn't doing the same thing that they do. I can't believe you're actually trying to defend political talking head shows. What service do they render to anyone except people who don't care to find out about issues by paying attention to the news?

His point was that it's not a debate show. It's a dick-waving shouting match, like just about all the other pundit-loaded politics-fests that the cable networks use to pad out news coverage. Begala and Carlson baffled, just sitting there, is a fantastic image.

I'm sure he's sold it by now.

Saw it tonight. It was all right. Certainly sublime. After a great first half hour or 40 minutes, the novelty of the puppets wears off, and the jokes start falling flat. I'm more impressed with the bravado of doing this retarded marionette stuff for 100 minutes than I am with the actual jokes/message. The songs were the best part, by far. And the panthers. Oh, and "Come on everybody, we've got quilting to do!" Yet while I'm always happy to sit down with the South Park movie, I doubt I'll ever care to see this again.

By providing, according to Kerry, the IDENTICAL stand on gay marriage? For the millionth time, supporting partner benefits is a tremendously different stand than endorsing a ban any sort of homosexual marriage or union. Sure, it's still not supporting gay marriage, but is it about 1,048 rights closer to it. I'm going with KERRY'S own words on the subject. Get your fingers out of your ears. Kerry is for partnership rights. He supports civil unions. This is one issue that no amount of bullshit spin can cover.

By providing, according to Kerry, the IDENTICAL stand on gay marriage? For the millionth time, supporting partner benefits is a tremendously different stand than endorsing a ban any sort of homosexual marriage or union. Sure, it's still not supporting gay marriage, but is it about 1,048 rights closer to it. I really don't give a shit about the Mary Cheney thing. Really? It's not evil. I guess if you consider bringing a person's family into a campaign in any scenario, it is. There's absolutely nothing wrong with pointing out the fact that somebody who is out is gay, and the reaction that Kerry did something distasteful seems to just be underscoring the belief of many that homosexuality is distasteful. Kerry's already said that he meant no offense and wanted to illustrate the loving relationship between the Cheneys and their homosexual daughter, who is in fact a person deserving of rights. Why is it so hard to believe Kerry, yet have no problem believing Cheney when he chooses to clarify his vague statements about voting for Kerry possibly leading to a terrorist attack? Give these guys some credit.

I'd pay $20 for Violator, so I think you did well.

Yes, that's in order. USC has faced challenges and a wider variety of teams, and they've handled them all. Close wins, sure. Good football? Definitely. I put Auburn over OU right now simply because they've done the same damn thing as SC, plus beaten teams I consider to be better than who Oklahoma's had to run up against. They're a more impressive total package. Right now I think those 3 teams are in the top class of college football, and everyone else is in a few steps behind.

WEDNESDAY West Virginia THURSDAY Miami FRIDAY UAB SATURDAY Notre Dame Boston College Rutgers UNLV N.C. State Ohio State USC Auburn Wisconsin Louisiana Tech San Diego State California Florida State (Since the beginning of the year I've said this is one of 2 we'll lose. Prove me wrong, boys.) Tennessee Hawaii Tiebreaker #1: How many total points will be scored in the TCU/UAB game? 48 Tiebreaker #2: How many receiving yards will Louisville's J.R. Russell have against Miami? 86

Me too, but I wish it started at 4:30. I'm going to have to the channel-swap thing for the final hour since the UVA/FSU game starts at 7:45. Or maybe I can find two TVs... Unusually interesting Wednesday and Thursday match-ups this week as well.

I think that sort of thinking is cute, and Cal did look really great, but c'mon. Cal might be more balanced overall, especially now that USC's lost another key player, but the ultimate problem is that they didn't win. We'll see if the season pans out as expected. For the record, I'm putting in my guess now that OU or USC will get to the Orange Bowl. But not both. My top 5 right now is probably USC, Auburn, OU, Miami, and maybe Cal or Wisconsin. The Badgers are looking like Ohio State from a few years back, except without all the nailbiting close calls.