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According to IMDB, it changed last year when it went from late March to February 29. By having it on February 27 this year, it will be the earliest in the year it's been held since the 1940s.

Actually the end of the article states there will be a 7 second delay in case Rock or someone else gets too edgy... My mistake on that part. However, in many cases the 7-second delay is never used to actually remove anything because it takes longer than 7 seconds for the censors to figure out something should be bleeped. The WWE on TNN appears to be one of the only exceptions, as the TNN censors successfully bleeped quite a few things in 2001 at the least.

The one where Letterman did the "Uma this is Oprah" bit? Yeah, that was the show. Not a train wreck as much as dull and boring.

The Letterman show was just a leaden lump... This one has the potential to be the verbal version of Janet Jackson's "Tittygate" at the Super Bowl because Rock will have a live mic all night and, AFAIK, there will be no 7-second delay. Considering how meanspirited and political Rock's last big stand-up routine was, this has the potential to get ugly quick. I like Rock and think he can be a funny motherfucker, but politics and comedy don't mix too well if it's leaning too far to the left or right.

And I wonder why I haven't watched WWE TV in a year... I think the best thing that could happen for WWE business would be HHH leaving the company permanently somehow in a manner that would completely dislodge him from the decisionmaking process. Given that it isn't going to happen short of him having a fatal heart attack or Steph walking in on him banging someone, I feel that the previous suggestion of moving Trips and most of the shitty wrestlers to Smackdown in exchange for Eddy et all would be the best method. That would let Trips have his own little sandbox full of guys he can beat until he surpasses Jerry Lawler's record of "World" title changes while all the TALENTED people could put together good matches and storylines on RAW. Yeah, this is old stuff but, frankly, they haven't done it yet and it's one of the few ways I can think of to get that over-roided piece of human cholestoral out of the main spotlight for a while. It's not THAT he sucks as much as the fact that everything revolves around him and he's stale as all fucking hell.

Unions served their purpose by breaking the slave-wages and hours of the late 1800s and early 1900s. However, they have NOT been particularly useful to their members for around 50 years or so. In that time, many have been involved with the mob (the Teamsters in particular), corrupt, and generally pricing their employees out of work. In my local area, there were at least two grocery chains, Kroger's and National, that pulled out of the city completely because of unreasonable demands by the grocery workers' unions. The Kroger's situation was before my time but in National's case, the employees held picket lines for months and then, instead of making a compromise and taking less of a pay-raise than they wanted, they refused to accept the offer and, instead, shut the stores down. The airlines are another case where the demands of the Pilots' Union, Mechanics' Union, and Flight Attendants' Union have severely limited how the companies can cut costs in order to remain profitable. While I feel that most airline management is not competent enough to run a convenience store, let alone a multi-national company, the demands of the unions do not help the situation. If you want to see some real examples of how unions can limit growth and/or destroy companies, take a look at some of the corporations within France. Due to the severance package laws that the unions pushed through in Europe, an employee fired from their job must be paid an amount equal to the sum of their entire earnings at that company. Needless to say, VERY few employees are laid off in Europe. One major French corporation went into bankruptcy rather than close down an unprofitable manufacturing plant because the severance packages for the hundreds of employees there would have been astronomically higher than continuing to run a money-losing plant.

New Orleans 'Aints- Talman Gardner WR ERFA Howard Green DT ERFA James Allen LB RFA Roger Knight LB RFA Mel Mitchell S UFA Jay Bellamy S UFA Tony Bryant DE UFA Jason Craft CB UFA Steve Gleason S UFA Lamont Hall TE UFA Sedrick Hodge LB UFA Kevin Houser LS UFA Darren Howard DE UFA Fred McAfee RB UFA Victor Riley OT UFA Most of these guys are scrubs IMHO. Gardner (WR) is expendable considering that they've got Joe Horn, Donte Stallworth, Jerome Pathon, and Devery Henderson. Howard Green (DT) is a question mark... he's a starter but they may want to sign a better DT or draft someone considering their poor defense last year. James Allen (LB) is in the same boat as Green, a starter on a sub-par defense. Roger Knight (LB) is more expendable because he's a BACKUP in a sub-par defense. Mel Mitchell (S) and Jay Bellamy (S) are question marks. These guys are listed 1-2 on the depth chart but Mitchell has almost no experience and Bellamy is getting old (11 years experience). Bellamy is probably the better choice to keep but I'd draft some stud Safety in an early round to be his understudy. Tony Bryant (DE) is a backup on a subpar defense, so he may be gone in favor of new personnel. I don't see anything that would suggest he's better than anyone else on this defense. Jason Craft (CB) is expendable because he's a backup to Mike McKenzie, who really caught on to the Saints' schemes after coming in from Green Bay. With McKenzie working out so well, the question remains whether he'd be good enough to keep as a backup instead of a rookie they could work on as a long-term project. Tebucky Jones (S) appears to be worth keeping because he's the backup for both Free Safety and Strong Safety in addition to putting up decent numbers. If they can sign him for an affordable amount, he's worth keeping. Lamont Hall (TE) is expendable because Boo Williams and Ernie Conwell are the top two TEs and did decently. Unless he's the best blocker of the three on run plays, I don't see a reason to keep him around. Sedrick Hodge (LB) is good but they need to figure out what shape his knee is in. If there will be long-term problems with it, it would be a bad idea to count on him long-term. Kevin Houser (LS) hasn't screwed up but Long-Snapper is a low-priority position. If he's affordable, they might as well keep him. If he'll cost them too much, look at alternatives. Darren Howard (DE) is an injury case. Considering that last year's draft pick, Will Smith, is playing ahead of him, Howard could be cut depending on what is done with the other backup DE, Tony Bryant. Fred McAffe (RB), while a favorite of mine, is ripe for a cut because they have both Deuce McAllister and Aaron Stecker in front of him as a RB and they already have a bunch of other guys on the depth chart as kick returners. Victor Riley (OT) is questionable. He's a starting tackle but I feel that the O-Line is one area where the Saints need to pick up some better talent. Things have gone downhill there since Pro-Bowlers Kyle Turley and Willie Roaf blew town. If they can find a better tackle, I'd consider signing them instead. Names I'd like to see the Saints look at on the FA market are Orlando Pace (OT, Unrestricted Free Agent, Rams), TJ Slaughter (LB, UFA, Ravens), Adalius Thomas (LB, UFA, Ravens), Trev Faulk (LB, Restricted FA, Rams), and Jimmy Williams (CB, RFA, 49ers). Pace is a no-brainer for any team looking to shore up their O-line. The rest are players I know from Baton Rouge, LSU, or Southern Miss who are all good at what they do.

Y'all may want to find that Camp Chaos cartoon of Dick Vitale from 3-4 years ago called, appropriately, "Dick Vitale Goes Ape-Shit". It would be considered over the top for anyone BUT Vitale to be parodied in such a manner. http://www.campchaos.com/show.php?iID=147 To give a brief synopsis, Dick continues to jump around like a 4-year old on a sugar high while he gets a scythe stuck in his head, gets hit in the balls by a sledgehammer-wielding midget, and a LOT more done to him.

There were some pretty funny moments, mainly when the dad did the purse-snatching routine, the IKEA in Iraq bit, and the son riding the mascot. However, there were some pretty big stretches in there and the alien's voice just didn't seem right. (It seemed right as Cleveland's voice in Family Guy but, for anyone other than a big black guy, it just sounds too gay)

In all fairness to Canseco, he and Ken Caminiti WERE two of the guys who broke the silence on steroids and baseball before it became such a huge story. However, Caminiti wasn't trying to cash in on it.

The Superdome is about 30 years old and has few luxury boxes and suites compared to other stadiums. Considering that the Superdome is in much better shape than most other domed stadiums from the 70s or 80s, the luxury box issue appears to be Benson's largest argument.

That Saints one is in limbo right now... Governor Blanco, who I usually disagree with, has rightfully challenged owner Tom Benson's claims that the state needs to foot most of the bill for the stadium. Blanco is demanding to see the Saints' books before she agrees to anything more than a renovation to the Superdome. The fact that the Saints' corporation just bought Benson a new multi-million dollar yacht helps Blanco's argument that the Saints can afford to foot more of the bill themselves.

To those of you who wondered why Vitamin X and Winter Of Our Discontent aren't "members" right now, keep in mind that bitching about moderator decisions is limited to Site Feedback, which is the PROPER place for those discussions. If said bitching occurs anywhere else, you're free game. Thank you, drive through.

Another random thought- I'm thinking this may be a good time for me to play with my new TiVo and DVD recorder in order to get some unclipped PPVs from the early years of the WWE. I can't wait until September and November, when they break out the old-school Survivor Series and Summerslam goodness.

I was reading the Monday Night War description and it says the program contains "insightful commentary by Michael Cole". I thought "insightful commentary" and "Michael Cole" were mutually exclusive unless Tazz gets involved...

Nash is obviously the most important player on his team right now. If the Suns continue playing so well while he's healthy, he should be the top choice. If the Suns fall apart down the stretch despite Nash being healthy, Shaq should get heavy consideration because his mere presence turned the Heat around overnight.

Exactly... it's a real-life Chewbacca Defense argument to explain the origin of AIDS. "That does not make sense! Look at the monkey, look at the silly monkey!" - Johnny Cochrane

Meltzer has posted a special update at the WON site... It's a one-sentence update saying that Smackdown has NOT been cancelled.

"Tyler Gargles Pearly White Man Juice"... That qualified as it was unique AND annoying, but it was too long. (It cut off right after the J).

I only changed it again because the first one was cut off... I had to find something shorter.

In Louisiana, people scared of getting the death penalty plead down to LWOP (Life WithOut possibility of Parole) or a straight 50-year sentence. Having that kind of law on the books means that someone would likely have their death sentence reduced to life rather than a life sentence commuted to time served due to semantics.

More reasons to keep the death penalty on the books...

I think that Fox needs to license the old Billionaire Ted skits from Vince...

New Orleans 'Aints!

Morten Anderson should be under heavy consideration. Power- Has hit a 60 yard FG, one of the longest in NFL history. (Tied for #3, with 63 being the longest by both Tom Dempsey and Jason Elam.) He's also hit a 59 yard FG to tie him at #5. He also has the record for most 50+ yard FGs in a season (8) and in a game (3). Consistency- Has a lifetime PAT success ratio of 98.8% and a field goal success ratio of 79%, despite the fact that 45% of those kicks have come from 40 yards are longer. Longevity- He has played in the league for TWENTY THREE years. Granted, he's a kicker, but that's still VERY impressive. He is #3 in PAT attempts, PAT successes, and Field Goal attempts, is #2 in Field Goal successes, and within another year should be #2 or #1 in all these categories. He should be a first-ballot HOF candidate, but people may be prejudiced against kickers.