Radical Georgia Moderate

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Originally uploaded by rustytanton.

This morning, The GDGF, Joeventures and I watched the Wachovia building at 615 Peachtree implode. There’s a podcast on the way too.

Alas, conversations with my brother read like a goddamn Chick Tract now. Here’s one of my responses that I thought was choice, from after he pushed me a little too far with his failed indoctrination effort:

people like to talk about ID and evolution like they’re equal concepts….that’s like asking someone to take a pepsi challenge with a pepsi and a bucket of feces

He was being rude and he deserved that.

I’d like to sound like all this makes me happy, but it doesn’t. The people pushing this agenda are fucking disciplined and have infiltrated the culture deeply if they’ve got a generally apolitical person like my brother staying as on-point as he was. He has never been confident arguing with me, but today he was combative and pushy and never gave an inch. And he said exactly what everyone else in that movement says when they’re trying to win converts.

So…

I want to know why the secular humanist think tanks/science community/etc. don’t have an equally effective script for people to read from. The Pepsi remark is funny, but isn’t going to win any converts. How does one go about speaking to a religious person about the importance of science? How to keep it more civil than this exchange was?

Awesome! Mostly ITP, the podcast Amber and I publish on the Georgia Podcast Network, just won readers’ pick for Best Locally Produced Podcast in Creative Loafing’s Best of Atlanta 2006 contest! I didn’t see a critics’ pick anywhere on the site. I’ll update this post if I find one. Thanks so much to everyone who voted for us!

Cross-posted on my Georgia Podcast Network blog

Questions abound this week leading up to the Oct. 7 SEC East showdown between UT and UGA. Tennessee’s run game wasn’t nearly as impressive against Marshall as the final stats would indicate, LaMarcus Coker’s 89-yard touchdown run notwithstanding. Meanwhile, Georgia has a surprisingly weak run game so far despite having some highly-regarded tailbacks. Both teams appear to have talented tailbacks held back by offensive line problems.

That moves us on to other problem areas for both teams: Tennessee’s porous run defense and Georgia’s potentially toxic quarterback situation. If I were picking the game this week, I’d say it would come down to which of those two situations hurt their team less. But I’m not picking the game this week.

There’s a game for each team between now and then, and each team has a chance to work on their problem areas. Tennessee plays Memphis, which is always a scary game. Four of the last five have been close. Georgia plays a horrible, horrible Ole Miss team it should handle easily no matter which quarterback starts… even if they were to dig Quincy Carter out of the crack house.

I was having database problems all day yesterday, but they appear to be fixed now. I’ll get NCAA Picks results and the form up tonight. Sorry for the delay.

Damn, I wish I had time to write more about this. Stupid day job. Maybe I’ll write a column about it this weekend.

The gist: Wayne Mason wanted to build massive condos on land along Atlanta’s Beltline, some of which would have cast a shadow over Piedmont Park, and donate a chunk of land for green space. Atlanta wanted more green space and smaller/less dense condo buildings. Neither would budge. Compromises, including a complicated land swap deal, were suggested and rejected. Mason walks away, leaving the future of the land and the project’s viability in doubt.

The big question is “what now?” Does Mason hold on to the land and let it rot out of spite? Does he sell it off to another developer, and if so, whom, and how will they deal with the city’s specifications? How will the various theoretical scenarios affect the future of the project?

There are also questions of whether Atlanta and the area’s limosine liberals were boneheaded for giving Mason as hard a time as they did because Mason built his fortune on ugly sprawl. Or whether their grievances were legitimate, partially or totally (the shadow over Piedmont Park sounds really unattractive versus transit doesn’t work without density).

Supposing Mason sells the land, will the city be more willing to give in to developers’ wishes next time? Supposing he doesn’t, what will happen in that corridor?

Thoughts?

MARTA’s Breeze card machines run Windows 2000. I saw one rebooting this morning and almost got a photo, but the screen went blue just as I had my phone ready to shoot.

In light of Miami’s 31-7 debacle at Louisville and Notre Dame’s 47-21 embarrassment at home, a one-point loss to a top ten opponent doesn’t seem that bad for Tennessee. The Vols only dropped two spots in the polls. Given Florida’s rough schedule, it’s not impossible they can still contend for the honor of being embarrassed by Auburn in the SEC Championship game. That doesn’t make it sting any less. And that won’t happen if Fulmer and Cutcliffe don’t pull a running game out of their asses in the next two games.

Florida: 139 net rushing yards
Tennessee: 2 net rushing yards

For serious. Two fucking rushing yards.

At least the score looks respectable, unlike Notre Dame’s score.

Losing Inky hurt on the goal line play when Meyer lined up five receivers.

Ainge looked good most of the time, but I had an LSU flashback on that one throw out of the end zone. For Christ’s sake, lay on the ball when the play is blown. Or better yet, throw it away before they chase you into the end zone.

Losing Arian Foster seems to have hurt the running game, though I don’t think he would have exactly set the world on fire either tonight.

I predicted a split between Florida and Georgia this year. If that pans out, this won’t seem that bad in the grand scheme of things.

And hey, Florida didn’t cover, so it’s as good as a Tennessee win for your NCAA Picks scores.

I spaced on this one yesterday as I was writing the script to give us full NCAA Picks results. In just under the gun, here are the Xbox 360’s picks for five of today’s top games.

Michigan 16, Notre Dame 38

It was trendy this week to win a game with one explosive quarter, and Notre Dame did just that, scoring 24 in the 2nd after the first quarter concluded with Michigan up 3-0. The Michigan offense finished the game with an anemic 71 rushing yards and 151 passing yards, good for 222 total.

In a future post, I will relay a story from a book I’m reading that will make you hate Notre Dame more than you already do.

LSU 14, Auburn 41

The Tigers embarrassed the Tigers at home (I stayed up all night thinking of that one). LSU could only muster 209 yards to Auburn’s 500, with only 89 through the air. The sim doesn’t think much of Matt Flynn, apparently.

Miami 33, Louisville 38

Every bit as tight as Vegas oddsmakers thought it would be, Louisville iced this one with 24 third quarter points. The teams were near even in offensive stats, with Miami finishing with 447 yards and Louisville with 459 yards.

Nebraska 21, USC 45

Nebraska managed to tie it in the second quarter 14-14, but USC put up 10 more to put the game out of reach at half-time. Nebraska mustered only 78 rushing yards.

Florida 42, Tennessee 41

Tennessee loses a heartbreaker in Neyland, leading through three quarters before Jean Shorts University put up 21 in the fourth. Chris Leak finished with 278 yards, five TDs, and three INTs, while Ainge finished with 169 yards, three TDS, and 0 INTs. As has happened nearly every time in the series since the early 90s (minus a stolen victory for each team due to poor officiating), the team that rushed for more yards won, with UF edging UT 174-137.

Previous Results

The computer has an awful 3-7 record ATS, so there’s reason for UT fans to maintain hope yet. AND Corso picked Florida, so that bodes well. We’ll see!