RYDER CUP UPDATE: So much for Tiger Woods not being able to win at the Ryder Cup...a pair of victories today, and the US and the Euros are tied going into the final day, 8-8. Since tie scores are broken in favor of the champion, if the US splits the twelve matches tomorrow (and frankly I would be surprised if the US didn't pull away in the head-to-head matches, considering our superior depth), we retain the Cup for two years.

Back when he was known as Brian Williams, and played for the LA Clippers, I saw him a couple of times on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, which, for those of you who live outside of Southern California, is a three-block long outdoor shopping, restaurant, movie theatre and sports bar paradise, and is one of the few desegregated communities in the city. At the time, I never thought much of it; the Promenade is sort of a magnet for the local basketball stars, and its not unusual to share a drink with some minor celebrity (in my case, John LeClair and William Macy). In the middle of the Promenade is a giant book store which specializes in hard-to-get political tomes, operating as a sort of fulcrum to the activities outside, and it was there that I remember seeing Williams browsing through the stalls. I suppose if I had been more astute it would have registered with me how unusual it was for a professional basketball player to be hanging in a bookstore known for its collection of hard-to-get Chomsky polemics, but then again, you usually see a lot of unusual things on the Promenade.

The U.S. and the Euros split the difference in the Saturday morning rounds of the Ryder Cup, with Europe maintaining its one match lead into the afternoon. The U.S. had a chance to tie the score, or even take the lead, but the nicest guy on the tour, Scott Hoch, missed a short putt on 16 that would have given the Americans a one-hole lead; he and Scott Verplank ended up losing to Monty (must have been some great karma to get stuck in that foursome) and his partner, Bernhard Langer. And yes, Tiger Woods finally won !!

The brother of Bison Dele, and chief suspect in his disappearance, died tonight in a California hospital. Their mother will hold a joint memorial service next week.

RYDER CUP UPDATE: US rallies to cut the Euro lead to one in afternoon play. My take is that Europe better have a big lead going into Sunday, or the superior American depth will just wear them down in match play. Tiger Woods, however, lost again; this is one competition he simply hasn't mastered yet.

(2006 Update HERE)

Blogging has been rather light this week, thanks to an increase in bankruptcies. Perhaps not the best timing, considering the recent good fortune this site has had, namely getting linked to by Eric Alterman's web site on MSNBC. Who knows how long that will last; I would be lying if I didn't admit that it's an incredible honor to have a writer I admire take notice of my work.

For those of you who may be visiting for the first time, understand that this is not primarily a political site; I have other interests, and frankly do not care a penny-farthing about who's sleeping with Andrew Sullivan, or whether Kausfiles spends too much time obsessing about the NY Times, or what the deeper significance is of Snitchens' departure from The Nation. I don't link to them anymore, so their only reason for existence in my world is to be cruelly mocked when they link to some moron like Michael Ledeen or Lucienne Goldberg. In fact, one of the great things about reading other blogs is the realization that being able to think about the world, and to write about said thoughts in a clear, accessible and provocative manner, is not the restricted province of professional journalists and academics whose names happen to be in someone's Rolodex. Anyone who visits Eschaton, or Rittenhouse, or MaxSpeak, or Matt Welch (or, for that matter, Volokh Conspiracy or Megan McArdle) knows that those writers are simply not in the same class as Kaus or Sullivan or Michael Kelly: they are far superior. Agree or disagree with them, or with writers like James Lileks or Dan Perkins, you feel like a smarter person just for reading them, more so because they treat you with respect.

Well, I'm not in their league. What I try to do here is to give you a sense of who I am, and what I believe. My weekends are pretty much devoted to the watching of sports at my favorite pub, Joxer Daly's in Culver City, so I talk about that quite a bit; it's safe to say that a lot of the opinions expressed here get fine-tuned first with my fellow publicans, over a pint of Beamish. I'm also a bankruptcy lawyer, so you're going to read a lot of posts here about my practice, and how I feel about the "reform" act currently before Congress, and the like. If the President does something to piss me off, I'll write about it too, but its not a priority; its just that lately, everything he does pisses me off. I would just as soon write about Bill James, or Phoebe Nicholls (coming soon!!), as Tom Daschle. I try not to link to other bloggers, or to quote verbatim what someone else has posted, because cut-and-pasting isn't my thing; I don't intend to be the liberal version of Instapundit. And if you have anything you'd like to say to me, the comments link is at the top right corner. Thanks for visiting.

Perhaps not the best news to wake up to...the Euros are already up 3-1 in the Ryder Cup. Among the losers this morning was one Tiger Woods, who has a simply atrocious record when playing for his country.

Now it's Gephardt's turn to be shocked, shocked to discover Bush is playing politics with national security. In any event, this is perhaps the best explanation for the dramatic turn of affairs on Capital Hill the last couple of days.

I've never downloaded a song off the internet in my life, but I can't imagine a more pathetic class of victims than the recording industry. Music consumers should boycott the songs of all groups and singers who continue to whine over this issue.

Finally. Angels 10, Rangers 5 (F)...the next attempt to exorcise the ghost of Donnie Moore shall begin in the Bronx next week. At the very least, it should be fun to visit the Matt Welch site the next couple of weeks.

Investigators now believe that Bison Dele, his girlfriend and the boat's captain were killed first, then tossed overboard, as far back as July 7. The most likely suspect remains comatose, but his family has already decided to terminate life support, perhaps as early as today.

A reminder to those of you who live within a 200-mile radius of Los Angeles: get your collective asses down to Joxer Daly's this Saturday to see the greatest bar band in all of christendom: the Samurai Homeboys. I can't promise you that the lead singer will walk into a ceiling fan and continue singing without missing a beat, like he did last time, but they will give you four solid hours of rock and soul.

For those of you who haven't cancelled your subscriptions to Salon yet, there is a pretty interesting takedown in Spinsanity on the chickenhawks' use of a certain term to describe opponents of their Iraq policy: appeasement. By the way, the term has gotten a pretty bad rap over the years, thanks to Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin, but wasn't that also Great Britain's policy towards a certain nation in the Western Hemisphere, from about 1814 to 1917? From the Monroe Doctrine to "54:40 or Fight" to kidnapping British envoys on their way to meet leaders of the Confederacy, Her Majesty's Government was always willing to look the other way whenever the US presented a causus belli, a policy which ultimately paid rich dividends. To summarize: appeasement with dictators, bad; "constructive engagement" with emerging democracies that allowed legalized slavery and tolerated genocidal policies towards aboriginal natives, good.

OK, I admit I'm starting to be a little concerned about the Angels....

The Senate is now making noises about drafting its own resolution concerning Iraq, rather than rubber-stamping W's. When even a conservative Democrat like Ben Nelson is questioning Bush's policy, it stands to reason that the support in the "homeland" is only an inch thick on this issue. His hissy-fit on the German election, his changing rationales and flip-flops on why we need to bomb Baghdad, the level of mendacity on issues of policy exceeding that of Clinton's on the issue of interns, together with the tanking economy, paint a very unpleasant picture of a man not fit to be Commander in Chief.

"Michael Kelly" or Neal Pollack: you make the call !!

It seems Zell Miller can't even get the backing of his fellow faux-Democrats in the Senate. Just days after Miller announced his support for a "compromise" bill co-sponsored by Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, the White House had to helplessly watch as the Democrats, with the backing of Senators Breaux, Lieberman, and Nelson, agreed to pass their own version of the Homeland Reorganization bill, which contains more protections for workers than the President's bill did. Not only was Miller unable to bring along other members of his "party", but GOP Senator Lincoln Chafee abandoned the White House as well. Although the President has promised a veto, it is mainly a face-saving gesture; unless he wants his grand domestic proposal to go the way of the bankruptcy reform act, the final version of the bill will be much closer to what the Democrats are proposing than the one passed by the House. Part of being an effective leader is not only knowing when to compromise, but whom to compromise with.

After a three-year wait, the Ryder Cup competition is renewed this weekend. Just a reminder, in 1999, the US came from way back on the final day to edge Europe, with Justin Leonard nailing a long putt on 18 to edge Jose-Maria Olazabel, leading to a mob celebration; for obvious reasons, the Euros were none too happy. It was scheduled to be played last year, but was postponed a year due to September 11. Although the teams are supposed to represent the best players from the US and Europe over the past year, the line-ups were frozen from the year before, which as circumstances developed, favors the US. ESPN already has the likely American teams for the first two days. Tee time is midnight Friday P.S.T.

ED--My mistake: Leonard hit his long putt to clinch the Ryder Cup at the 17th hole, not the 18th. By the way, if the Euros have a similar celebration this year, here's hoping that it happens near Scott Hoch's lie.

The Angels' Rally Monkey now has its own website. We rule !!!

Those of you who wish to read the full transcript of Al Gore's speech yesterday(complete with applause lines and laughter cues) can go here. It really is an astonishing speech, a rare moment of courage at a time when Congressional Democrats seem more concerned about November than their responsibilities as a party in opposition. More importantly, the People's Choice makes a compelling argument attacking the Ashcroft Doctrine abrogating due process, especially the high profile but increasingly bogus arrests of "suspected terrorists", at a time when almost all the 2004 hopefuls are silent on the issue. As I said before, if Lieberman is the nominee next time, I vote for Nader.