General

Dodged A Bullet, Again

But by a wider margin.

It looks like Ivan is headed into the Gulf. It may still affect Florida, but the most probably target is the Panhandle, and both weather.com and accuwearther.com have taken southeastern Florida out of the target zone. That’s good, because we didn’t need another one, particularly so soon, but it may be hard on people in the panhandle, or the Gulf Coast in general. Send them your best wishes, and donations.

General

Pathetic

I know, you think that’s my one-word description of those idiots continuing to defend the memos.

It is, but the purpose of this post was to describe the play of the Wolverine offense against Notre Dame throught the third quarter.

The play calling is atrocious, and when it’s good, the execution sucks. They only seem to have two pass plays–a low-percentage long ball down the field, or a short play almost deliberately contrived to avoid being caught beyond the first-down marker. The Irish O-line is making Michigan’s look like schoolgirls. Unable to score a touchdown, they may still win this, but they sure don’t deserve to. And if they do, it will be the defense and special teams (at least the field-goal kicking unit, and ignoring the guy who tripped Breaston for the fumble) who will be responsible, not the offense.

[Update]

Talk about dumb play calling. Why didn’t Notre Dame go for two, after that gift of an interception? Now Michigan can (at least in theory) win it with another field goal (the only offense they’re capable of today).

[Update]

A draw play on third and nineteen? A draw play on third and nineteen?!!!!!

Sure, why not.

They deserved that blocked punt. Why not give them the gift of another TD? I mean, it’s not like they had any plans to score any more this game anyway.

[Update]

Clearly, the offense needs a lot of work. They are not going to win this game. The only chance at this point is a returned interception.

It’s nice to excuse them because they lost Underwood early, but if your offense becomes totally ineffective because you lose your best runner, you don’t have much of an offense. Losing Underwood would explain a couple touchdowns in the margin, but not the inability to get into the end zone completely. At least not for a team with the bench depth that Michigan should.

[Update

OK, so they’ve scored again, off another turnover. Why not?

You can’t blame the defense for this (you can rarely blame the defense for a Michigan loss). They’re worn out. They’ve been on the field for far too much of the time, because the offense is…what was the word again? Oh, yeah, up in the post title.

[Update]

OK, as usual, they tease, getting a TD two and a half minutes before the end of the game. Of course, just to tie, they have to get two points after, and repeat the feat…

[Update]

OK, they get the two points, but miss the on-side kick. Now, of course, I have to watch to see if the defense can make a last stand.

[Wrapup]

As I said, the offense lost this game. The Dee did as well as possible under the circumstances, but the O came alive a few minutes too late.

This isn’t the end of the season, but it’s probably the end of any hopes of a (mythical) national championship for the Woverines this year (unless they go the rest of the season undefeated, and Notre Dame ends up number one at the end of the season).

Carr has to take his O coach to the woodshed, and perhaps even considering replacing him. As I said in the post title, this was a pathetic performance on the part of the Michigan offense.

Political Commentary

Three Years Later

I’ve little to say on this third anniversary, except to note with sadness that much of the nation still doesn’t seem to realize that we’re at war. Moreover, many of those lacking that realization include much of the so-called mainstream press (as exemplified by the latest fraud and shenanigans at CBS News), and much of one of the major parties, including its candidate for president. In the midst of watching Islamic fanatics slaughter schoolchildren and take down airplanes in Russia, he proposes a Department of Wellness.

As I’ve said many times, I have many problems with the currrent administration, even including at many times its execution of the war in which we’re unwillingly engaged, and wish that there were a realistic alternative to it–I’d vote for it in a heartbeat. But in nominating John Kerry (and being congenitally unable to nominate a serious wartime candidate, like Joe Lieberman), the Democrats leave me little choice, because as long as we haven’t addressed the root causes of the events of three years ago (and no, they’re not poverty, or American imperialism, cultural or otherwise), I will not feel safe with anything resembling today’s Democrat Party in power.

A general once said that war consists a bunch of shitty choices. Apparently that often applies to politics as well, at least in a two-party system. As such, my choice will have to remain the man who stood amid a pile of rubble almost three years ago, and told us that he heard us, and that soon those who had created that pile would be hearing us too.

[Update]

Unsurprisingly, Glenn has some thoughts as well, with some pictures that are a sobering reminder of that day.

Technology and Society

A Latter-Day King Canute

We discussed various means of mitigating hurricanes in the comments to this post, but now comes a southern Florida businessman with a different idea.

Color me extremely skeptical. My confidence is less than buoyed by his association with Ed Mitchell, definitely one of the wackier Apollo astronauts, but hey, it’s his money, and if by some miracle it works, great. Of course, we won’t ever really know if it works, at least for this particular storm, because there’s no control on the experiment (i.e., we’ll have no idea what would have happened if he hadn’t done anything).

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!