Dublin in Flames!

If you haven't been keeping up with Irish news (I can not imagine why you wouldn't be), Dublin was in chaos this past weekend.

The violence started when Unionists/Protestants decided to have a "Love Ulster Day" parade right down O'Connell Street (The main drag of Dublin.) As many of you know, O'Connell street was the battle ground for Ireland's dozen or so wars of independence from Great Britain.

Sinn Fein was having their usual protests with banners and such. No big deal, I've seen these protests every time I've walked down O'Connell. They're a small group of communists wannabes. They're the ones wearing Che shirts.

As the parade began, homemade gas can bombs and paving bricks went hurling at the Orange men. Mayhem ensued. Police were badly hurt (no wonder since these potato heads have outlawed guns!) The pubs began to poor out onto the street. Windows were smashed, cars burned, looting was everywhere, and people were being carried off. The Irish still won't say who started it. The papers speculate drunk "hooligans" looking for adventure jumped into the riot just for the hell of it. Who knows, I wish I were there though.

Anyways, Michael Collins was resurrected from the dead to lead the boys to victory!

Tony's Our Man

Hail Tony Ryan!
You'll be the best and grandest marshall of all.
Hail Tony Ryan!
On March the Seventeen you'll be walkin' tall.

Wearing his sash,
And heading up the big parade.
Hail Tony Ryan!
The grandest marshall ever made.

Tony's our man.
He'll ably represent the whole Irish clan.


We salute Tony, our man!



If you ever had Mrs. Bernadette Winters as a music teacher, then you know this song. I have forgotten a few lines, but you get the point. Ryan's election is no surprise, considering he ran unopposed. He is the fourth in his family (behind his uncle, father, and brother) to be elected Grand Marshall.

BREAKING NEWS!!

According to the Worldwide Sports Leader, the Naval Academy has accused BC's own Lamar Owens of rape.

Nonsense...

I just read this on Savannahnow.com:
"Bars will close at 1 a.m. March 18, or the morning following the parade, but open to 3 a.m. on every other day."

Has it always been this way? I guess it won't matter, I plan on being too drunk to function at that point.

Sherman Had the Right Idea

The inspiration for this post came from a Facebook group at UGA named All Those in Favor of Burning Atlanta a Second Time. I usually do not hold yankees in high esteem, mainly because most of the yankees I associate with are tourists.

General William T. Sherman, on the other hand, is one yankee that I can raise my glass to. He had the foresight to burn Atlanta and preserve the city of Savannah, offering it to President Lincoln as a Christmas gift. I propose that we, at BMBS, adopt General Sherman as our Spiritual Founder. This blog was founded on the same principle on which Sherman based his march to the sea; keep Savannah and screw everone else. Also, Sherman's birthday is February 9, only two days removed from the anniversary of BMBS.

Community Service Project

Part of being an Irish Hurricane and/or BMBS blogger is a strong commitment to the community and, more broadly, society. So tonight I invite y'all to participate with me in the granddaddy of all projects. Many of you may be familiar with Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that really comes in handy the night before the due date for that 30-page paper you've had all semester to write and haven't bothered to read a single book yet. Anyway, Wikipedia is a self-editing resource, meaning it allows pretty much anyone to write on/edit any topic, but is constantly reviewed by the site's administrators, others who have edited the same article, and by the online community at large.

Anyway, I happened to search for Benedictine Military School the other day, and I was surprised to discover that someone has already done a little work for us. We're one of the few high schools in Georgia that has our own article, and that's damn impressive. But it's only a start. We need much more. The Fight Song, pictures, traditions, general history. To get an idea of what I mean, look at this article on the History of the United States, or this one on Ancient Rome. This is how long and extensive I want BC's article to be. It should cover everything from Bull Street to the Matt Baumann/John Hyche fight to the four square tournament to the time Kevin Leonard broke our lunch table freshman year, all the way up to the Herndon era. Regardless of how tempting it becomes to make up stuff, I would encourage us all to keep it half way respectable, because the people who run the site have a way of keeping tabs on who has written what through their IP address (whatever that is), and preventing people who go on there just to simply make up fake stuff. That having been said, this still shouldn't stop us from having whole entire sections dedicated to Hank or Harry Deal.

This will obviously be a work in progress, but every little bit helps. I know everyone will do their part, and I know "everyone" will basically end up meaning just me and Will. Either way, let's get to it.

One Month Left...

Again, self-explanatory.

More Bush Bashing

Except this time it's coming from the Right, and I'm all for it. Make no mistake, when it comes to domestic policy, Bush has been an absolute failure to the conservative movement and the Reagan vision. I hope this Mike Pence guy runs in '08. In many respects, I want a new president just as bad as the libs do.

Bryant Gumbel is a douche....

I'm not the biggest fan of the winter olympics, but this is rediculous. Somebody is bitter: "Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t care about them and won’t watch them ... Because they’re so trying ... Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention. Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won ... So if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, when we can move on to March Madness — for God’s sake, let the games begin."

You'd think these remarks would have received more attention than they have. (Well, maybe not.) It's just hard to imagine a Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity getting a pass on something like this. It reminds me of when Rush Limbaugh got fired for saying that stuff about Donovan McNabb a couple of years ago.

Thanks for the Memories

Many are happy to see Brackett go, but I wanted to take this opportunity to say thanks coach, for giving us October of 1997. In conjunction with the previous season, this was the high water mark of BC football post-1983. After coming off huge wins against Bradwell and Glynn, the Cadets looked unstoppable. Like the Spice Girls and beanie babies, this short-lived era of regularly being ranked in the AJC was over before we knew it. Still, it made for one hell of a freshman year. So without further adeiu, here are the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Class AAAA rankings from October 26, 1997:

1. Brookwood (8-0-0)
2. Lowndes (8-0-0)
3. Benedictine (7-0-0)
4. McEachern (7-1-0)
5. Clarke Central (6-2-0)
6. Parkview (5-2-0)
7. Valdosta (6-2-0)
8. North Cobb (7-0-0)
9. Bradwell Institute (6-1-0)
10. LaGrange (6-1-0)
11. Mays (6-1-0)
12. Shaw (7-1-0)
13. Fayette County (6-2-0)
14. Northside (Warner Robins) (5-2-0)
15. Wheeler (6-1-0)

And the weekly rankings below chronicle the Cadets' dramatic rise and fall that season:

#15 (0-0-0) 8/24/1997 Preseason
#15 (0-0-0) 9/1/1997 Week 1
#14 (1-0-0) 9/8/1997 Week 2
#13 (2-0-0) 9/15/1997 Week 3
#12 (3-0-0) 9/22/1997 Week 4
#10 (4-0-0) 9/29/1997 Week 5
#7 (5-0-0) 10/6/1997 Week 6
#7 (5-0-0) 10/13/1997 Week 7
#3 (6-0-0) 10/20/1997 Week 8
#3 (7-0-0) 10/27/1997 Week 9
#10 (7-1-0) 11/3/1997 Week 10

Courtesy of www.ghsfha.org

Greek Socialism Returns

According to the Red and Black, a handful of students met last night at the request of President Adams to discuss the "party culture" at the school and what to do about it. (First of all, I've been up here for 4 and a half years. I wasn't aware there was a problem, so I'm not sure why anything has to be done about anything, but apparently that decision has already been made for me.) Anyway, the forum consisted of about 30 students, mostly student group representatives and leaders (AKA, losers), where apparently a wide range of topics and "solutions" were discussed concerning this "problem", ranging from providing better communication between alcohol awareness groups and fraternities and sororities, to providing more funds for awareness education across the board. I could spend countless paragraphs on just how fruitless these efforts would be, but there was one quote by the president of the Panhellenic Council that really set me off:

This is beyond education. We need to fund alternatives to going downtown.

When I read this sentence it was like hearing fingernails screeching down a chalkboard.

Why more public funding? Everything has costs, and there's no free lunch, so why take more of people's tuition and put it towards something that obviously isn't in demand? The alternatives are already there. Bowling alleys, movie theaters, putt-putt, concerts, all provided thanks to the free market. What other alternatives do you want?

The reason why downtown Athens has so many bars is because people demand them. College kids are willing and able to go to them and drink because that's what college kids do. I, for example, regularly "fund" Bourbon Street and Allgood, whereas Walker Persons the Third may decide to fund Beauregard's or Gus's, and we're both happy at the end of the night. In addition, Blake the Baptist, who doesn't drink, may decide to fund Coldstone Creamery instead. We all get what we want.

But now Miss Panhellenic wants to take me, Walker, and Blake's money and put it toward something that none of us need or want, all in the name of her ardent crusade of fighting alcohol abuse, which will fail miserably anyway because it's completely out of touch with reality. Kids are going to drink. There will always be irresponsible toolbags who will take it too far. That's not my problem, nor is it my fault. Please stop trying to throw more of our dollars at problems that don't exist. The money will be much more efficiently spent when it's in our own hands anyway. Finally, stop knee-jerkingly turning to government, the most inefficient thing ever created, to plan, create, build, and fulfill your utopian dream where everyone drinks Sprite and plays free pinball at the Tate Center on Friday nights.

Welcome home, Bob.

Now go win us some games!

You Heard it Here First

Herndon will be the next head coach. Looks like I'll be paying for my own prize.

Free Advice

The Red and Black reports that $2 million will be donated for an "Alcohol Education Center," to be built next year, in response to the rise in drinking-related deaths on campus. UGA is also considering implementing alcohol education and awareness classes for undergraduates.

Well I've been doing some research, and I've decided to go ahead and save the community this $2 million dollars by educating everyone right here, right now. This might take a while to read through, but I really want everyone to be thoroughly educated. Ok, here goes:

Don't drink too much, it's not good for you. Use common sense and take responsibility for your actions.

Actually, that's it. There's nothing else. Cutting-edge research has statistically shown that one of the best ways to avoid drinking too much is by...not drinking too much. Anyway, next week I'll cover how to avoid using illegal drugs. I'm researching this stuff right now as we speak. Should be interesting. Class dismissed.

Waste of a Human Being

Sorry, I'm gonna pull a Dixie Chicks here and let everyone know that I'm ashamed that our 39th president is from Georgia.

The other day, I was watching clips of the Coretta Scott King funeral, and minutes after Bush spoke, good old Jimmy gets up there and takes a political cheapshot, at a funeral of all places, saying he felt sorry for Mrs. King and her husband because they were subject to government wiretapping in the early 1960s. He then criticized the administration's response to Katrina. The AJC, along with countless other news outlets praised Carter for his "brave" remarks. Keep in the mind this is all at someone's funeral.

For the past 3 days I've sat back and waited for someone to actually disagree with this viewpoint. Finally, I watched O'Reilly tonight. I usually agree with about 75% of everything he says, but he hit this one on the head. He asked a simple question: what if Bush said, during his speech, that it was a shame government wiretapping was used on people like Mr. and Mrs. King by the Democratic Kennedy Administration, but that today we should be thankful to have organizations like the NSA, which only gives the government the legal authority under the constitution to wiretap those who are a direct threat to our security, like suspected terrorists? Can you imagine how the Atlanta Journal would have responded then? They'd have called it political exploitation of worst degree. But no, not when Jimmy talks. He builds houses for poor people so they won't feel the need to work for them. He teaches Sunday school. He sits next to Michael Moore at political conventions. He meets with Fidel Castro, a mass-murderer, and talks about how he envies Cuba's healthcare system. He's our Jimmy, he's fighting the good fight.

Add that to the fact that he sat back and let the Soviet Union invade Afghanistan. Or gave in to the Iranians when they took American hostages. Or signed a million arms limitations agreements that meant absolutely nothing because the Russians never followed them. The press always talks about how Jimmy may not be remembered as the best president, but they praise him for his greatest, centerpiece achievement: the initiation of the Middle East Peace Process at Camp David. Yeah, that really worked out well.

In 1979, everybody was convinced that it was just a matter of time before the Soviets took over the world. You had to wait 3 hours in line to get gas because of price controls, and the federal reserve was printing more and more money, keeping inflation as high as 15%, all in attempt to achieve "full employment," whatever that means. All Jimmy would tell the people is to wear cardigans, turn down their thermostats, and start conserving, because America's best days were behind her. I don't think this country could have taken another day of this man in the White House. Thank God communism's worst nightmare succeeded him.

Finally, to be fair, I will say that Clinton's speech was good. No cheapshots and no political swipes, even though he had plenty of opportunity because he was in front of his favorite audience: black people. But no, just a solemn speech about Mrs. King and her contributions. As much as I hate Clinton, I'd still vote for him any day of the week and twice on Sunday over sorry-ass, out-of-touch Jimmy Carter.

Plan B

A confirmed source at GAVSV has reported that BC offered the job to Paul Standard of St. Pius on Monday, who subsequently turned it down. According to the source, the committee had no contingency plan and is now up Shit's Creek without a paddle.

The only two viable candidates left are Bob Herndon and John Pate, former GSU assistant. Herndon is an alum and will probably be called on next, but one must wonder if he will accept the job after being overlooked in the first round. My personal choice would be Pate. He is an excellent motivator; it has been said that players would run through a brick wall for him. He has turned down head coaching offers in the college ranks to stay at GSU. And he obviously has a lot of respect for BC's program since, out of all the vacancies in the area, this was the only job in which he expressed interest. I hope that we get one of these two guys.

Hang it up, Mic

That freight train of a rock band know as the Rolling Stones are amongst controversy once again. Supposedly, during their performance at the Super Bowl on Sunday, Mic Jagger's microphone volume was lowered when he came to lyrics involving sex. This has "outraged" the Rolling Stones and their overrated shriveled up frontman. I mean come on Mic, this isn't the Ed Sullivan show in the late sixties when it was cool for you and Jim Morrison to be badasses by disobeying the censors and saying what you wanted. You were informed of this way in advance and now are attempting to get any type of publicity for your career that wore out its welcome about 25 years ago. How about you worry less about the censors and worry more about putting on a good half time show. I mean seriously, I was offended by that sorry excuse for a performance. Towards the end, I was praying for a Salt-N-Peppa medley. The Rolling Stones are a band that needs to put themselves out of their misery. They have enough money, and they have not made a decent album in years. Just don't put me through that shit again.

Happy Birthday, BMBS

It's been a good year. We've ignited an intellectual firestorm of ideas in the blogosphere. Many are now beginning to question the validity of socialism, Hollister, energy drinks, and "Date My Mom." The Truman Parkway, for all intents and purposes, is finished. Two new conservative justices have joined the Supreme Court. State Line Cabaret's prices are lower today than they were a year ago. BC is about to hire its new head coach. The Bojangles on DeRenne Avenue is pretty much done. Unemployment is down to 4.7%. For six consecutive months, Chris Connolly has managed to not get kicked out of a bar.

But we still have work to do. Carey Hilliard's continues to raise its prices. More and more parents are sending their kids to Savannah Christian. There are no longer any oldies stations in Savannah. There remains a culture of corruption in our government and at our public universities. Kids are still using hair gel, even in the South. Cargo shorts are ubiquitous. I saw a kid yesterday in front of the library with a mesh "Vote for Pedro" hat turned to the side, talking in his usual fast-paced, high-pitched cadence to a hot girl. This has to come to an end. I have no idea who Pedro is, and neither does he. Yet another one of those tongue-in-cheek jokes that nobody even gets.

One of the most popular songs of the past year was "Golddigger" by Kanye West. Listen to the song and you'll soon realize that just about anybody in America, at least any black man, can do what Kanye does: talk. Actually, mumble is probably the better word. Somehow, he gets paid millions of dollars for doing it. Kanye makes it look so easy, because it is so easy. Yesterday while listening to the radio I heard Ray Charles' classic "Georgia on my Mind" start playing. Well hot damn, I thought, they're actually going to play an entertaining song by somebody who can sing good and play piano, someone with actual talent. Wrong. Within 5 seconds of Charles' melodic intro, rapper Ludacris breaks in and starts talking really fast about stuff I don't even understand, and have no desire to understand. I can hear all of you now: "oh come on Patrick, you're such an old man. Ludacris is talented. It's the 90's, wake up." How is Ludacris talented though? Does he sing, does he dance, does he play anything? I just don't understand how having a mouth makes someone talented. Yet millions of college/high school kids love this stuff, love to buy/download this music, and they have every God-given right to. But I have a God-given right to make fun of these people, too.

Anyway, we've only just begun. We've layed the foundation for what I hope will result in a political and social revolution among the disillusioned masses, i.e. people not from Savannah. We must never lose our optimism. May God bless us, and may God continue to bless Beach Music and Boat Shoes.

From Boortz

I hope everyone here watches FNC instead of CNN

A STUDY IN MEDIA HYPOCRISY
Would you think that any major American media outlet would be more willing to offend the world's Catholics than those practitioners of the wonderful, peaceful religion of Islam? Naw ... not in this country, right? Well, you're wrong. Let's take CNN as an example. For the first part of this lesson in hypocrisy I'll direct you to a story that appeared on CNN.com on September 28, 1999. The headline reads "Exhibit controversy makes coffee-table book a hot item." This is a story about an eight-pound coffee table book that was flying off the shelves of New York City bookstores. Why? Because of a controversy over one picture in the book .. a picture of a work of "art" in the book titled "The Holy Virgin Mary." The piece was done with elephant dung. Catholics were less than amused. So, what did CNN do? It published the story complete with a picture of the offending piece. Here's your link to check it out. Now .. we move to February 6, 2006 and another CNN.com story titled "Danes feel threatened in cartoon row." This story, of course, is about all of those peaceful Muslims rioting and threatening death and mayhem because someone drew a cartoon of their pedophile-prophet Mohammed. Here's your link for the story about these peaceful Muslims. Now ... scroll down to the bottom of the story. You'll see the notation "CNN has chosen not to show the cartoons out of respect for Islam." Well, isn't that special. Go ahead and show a painting of the Virgin Mary created out of elephant poo, but withhold the pictures of these cartoons that are causing carnage around the world. We don't want to insult Muslims, do we? Catholics? Well, apparently they're on their own.

Ohhh Billary...

Doesn't she know to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer?

Courtesy of Dennis B. Leonard

A Leonard Saved is a Leonard Earned

23 years ago today, the world's best and brightest future accountant was born in Savannah, Georgia. One of the original loyal contributors here, Stephen is a Catholic with a Protestant work ethic. He has always taken a no holds barred approach, fighting the good fight against frat guys, bible-beaters, laziness, bouncers at bars (after they discover the hidden flask), fat girls, extravagance, the Second Vatican Council, prodigality, restaurant tabs, sleep, overzealous cops, and people that don't believe the water in Augusta is cherry-flavored. You really have to have a lot of respect for a guy that, within the next 5 years, is going to be either killing Muslims or doing their taxes. Here's to 23 more years of running, pimento cheese, theft, Catholicism, Church's Chicken, frugality, industry, and intolerance.

'Preciate It, Tommy

These are Coach Cannon's words to me after I officiated BC's JV game against South Effingham last night:

Come back by the school sometime. Maybe we can get you in a PE class and teach you how to ref basketball.

Thanks for caring, Coach.

Are Justices Alito and Roberts Liberal?...

NO! I found a good case as to why.

From andrewcusack.com

The media claimed Roberts was breaking with conservatives because he refused to strike down a lower court's ruling that an Oregon physician-assisted suicide laws were constitutional. The Associated Press, meanwhile, judged Alito as "splitting with conservatives" for "refusing to let Missouri execute a death-row inmate contesting lethal injection". Because the media are generally in the same liberal camp as the judicial activism proponents they think like judicial activists and a judicial activist would think "Gee, Alito's conservative so he opposes physician-assisted suicide so he'll rule against it." But that's the point, you ninnies! The job of a Supreme Court justice is to interpret the Constitution not to usurp the legislative authority of Congress by deciding to follow our own whims, fancies, and personal beliefs. The Supreme Court justice must not say whether a law was right or wrong, or whether he would've voted for it, he must ask "Does this law contravene the Constitution of the United States" and if it does not then he is obligated to rule as such and to let the law stand regardless of his personal opinion of the law. Legislative power is appropriately invested in Congress, not the Supreme Court nor the President, and the seperation of powers is fundamental to the continued success of our Constitution.

Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito have ruled according to the law rather than to their own respective whims. This is to be commended, and could set the tone for the Roberts court as a return to normalcy after the white squall of Holmesian jurisprudence and spark a concurrent deemphasis of federal power. We can only hope and pray it will be so.

Just Get Out of the Way

Larry Kudlow has yet another great post on his blog today. Read here.