Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Capital Punishment vs. Abortion

In the news lately, the media often tries to pin Catholics as hypocrites in the abortion debate, especially surrounding the impending Obamacare. The media slams Catholics for denying the right to murder children, while at the same time supporting the death penalty.

The Pope, then Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, reminds Catholics the fine line between intrinsically evil acts (e.g. Abortion and Euthanasia) and acts of the prudential order (e.g. Waging War and Capital Punishment.) Acts of the prudential order's sinfulness depends on the facts and circumstances, while intrinsically evil acts are always immoral in and of itself.

Cardinal Ratzinger: "For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia."

Monday, December 21, 2009

The Showdown

I've been out of town the last few days without internet so sorry for the delay. Voting begins now and ends at 11:59 pm on New Year's Eve. Should be an interesting contest this year.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

MAR'S Nomination:Chris Connolly


Being a former winner of this prestigious award given out each New Year's eve, I wanted to make a splash in my first year nominating . So, I went to the drawing board and came up with only one name that graduated from BC, and made it to 8 Straight Proms. Yes, this would be the one, the only, Cris Connolly.
Chris was born in Savannah, GA back in 1979. He was raised Catholic, attended Blessed Sacrament and graduated from BC in 1999. His first year of college was spent in beautiful Knoxville, Tennessee as a Volunteer. After one year of living the dream away from home he returned to Armstrong to reconnect with all his friends and make new ones.
I knew Chris a little at BC, but I got to know him through Randy Gill out one night at Spanky's on River Street in the summer of 2001. Ever since then, there has been nothing but classic stories filled with improbable circumstances, finished off with some of the best quotes known to man. I know I can't share them all, but here is a glimpse of a classic:
-The Blowup Doll Summer 04: Connolly brings a blowup doll with him to the pier on Tybee. He busts out with "bitch I told you I did not want to eat there tonight" this leads the to doll being slugged onto a tybee police car....I forgot what happen after that
-Statesboro 03: Connolly gets a hatchet thrown at him by Charlie Webber. You had to be there to see how close that was from being disastrous
-Athens fall of ?: Sees a drunk guy telling a waitress "I want 10 Yeager bombs, riggggghtttt now" This would be a line he would use at the bar for many years to come.
-Proms: Attneded SVA prom from 1998 to 2005.
-Citizen Patrol: Caught someone stealing at the Stagg Shoppe and he chased him down in the Macy's parking lot. Who needs mall security when Connolly is around?
- Karaoke..... The man is relentless with a mic in in hands, belting out such classics Livin on a prayer, The Weight, Love Shack and I Touch myself.
-Classic Quote:"Bottle of Crown $27 Dollars, Burberry Scarf $110 Dollars Flossing a Scarf between your legs at the office Christmas Party, while dancing and singing to the song "Touch Myself" By Divinyls. PRICELESS !!!!!"- Connolly
Enough said!

2003: Part 1

Michael Leonard gets sucker punched in Statesboro.

BMBS MOTY: Two Shillelagh O'Sullivan

Nominated by Snuffy P. Smith at 3:17 AM on the 17th of December.

Will and Jack sing O'Sullivan's praises on the main stage at Kevin Barry's.

There's many a man that rode a horse across the western plain. There's never been one like the Irishman, O'Sullivan was his name. He never packed a shooting iron, the need he never felt, with two shillelaghs always hanging there, a'hanging on his belt.

O yippee ki yi oh, me bucko! B'gorrah an yippee ki yo! Two Shillelagh O'Sullivan, he'd give any man a go.

Har the shillelagh. You know we call it the Tipperary rifle. You never have to reload it.

This bronco-busting Irishman, from the heart of Erin's Isle, it was after living peaceful, like he always wore a smile. But when the smile was leaving him, in a fight he'd come unwound. Bad cess for any crossing him, they'd wind up on the ground.

O yippee ki yi oh, me bucko! B'gorrah an yippee ki yo! Two Shillelagh O'Sullivan, he'd give any man a go.

Why he was so strong, O'Sullivan, he could put his right hand in his own left pocket, and hold himself out at arm's length.

No man could do that.

It's O'Sullivan I'm talking about.

Oh, well he could.


At throwing the rope for branding calf, he was a mighty man. At throwing his two shillelaghs now, the fastest in the land. T'would be a sad mistake me boys, to reach for a 44. Before you could get the hammer cocked, he'd have you on the floor.

O yippee ki yi oh, me bucko! B'gorrah an yippee ki yo! Two Shillelagh O'Sullivan, he'd give any man a go.

Did you know O'Sullivan played the Irish Harp? Oh, sure, and he did. He put 75 strings on his two shillelaghs. He'd stretch them out 24 feet, and he had four leprechauns dancing on them to make the music. Oh, the wonder of it. Sure and he would charm the coyotes out of the hills.

Across the range from morn 'til night, he rode for days and days. A'fixin' fences here and there, and a picking up the strays. A cattle spread he really built, as big
as Ireland, where he could range a million head and a shamrock be his brand.

O yippee ki yi oh, me bucko! B'gorrah an yippee ki yo! Two Shillelagh O'Sullivan, he'd give any man a go. A bit of his lip, he back of his hand, and the toe of his shoe to boot.

Now if you're ever riding through the sagebrush wilderness,and you suddenly come upon acres and acres of shamrocks sprinkled with stardust, well, you'll be after knowing, that you've just arrived at the O'Sullivan spread, known has the Lazy Leprachauns. Stop in, won't you? Sure, and they'll give you a belt of Bushmill's.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Part 2: 2002

Dave Matthews Concert in Charlotte

Not liking Dave Matthews Band anymore

R.J. Gator's restaurant in Charlotte

Mr. Deeds

Austin Powers 3 AKA worst movie in modern history

323 S. Church St.

Bourbon Street in its prime (don't worry, it still is)

Patrick Scoggins

Clemson weekend

Keg party the Sunday after the Clemson game

Alex Bates

Ross Trulock

The Irish girls

Gumby's Pizza at 4 in the morning



Trying to avoid the black religious skateboarder kid that lived next to us

Pollock's interception

Qdoba

Friedenberg not meeting us downtown because he went to go see 8 Mile by himself

Sunday night meals at the Catholic Center

Last Call

Trying to avoid Austin

Going to Ronnie B's/Bulldawg Diner every Monday night for the new BCS rankings.

Centennial Celebration on the plaza

The most painful loss of the Mark Richt era

Watching the Auburn game at the Country Day girls' apartment

70-X-Takeoff

David Greene, Michael Johnson, and others showing up at Bird Dog later that night (I think Tim already put this up)

51-7

Trying to avoid Menefee and his Arachnophile roomate

First SEC Championship in 20 years

2002: Part I

These two commercials:



Domino's in the dorm

John Mayer

Laura McKay

Bird Dog

Amanda Sullivan

Hey Musa, don't you worry. Shots are on me tonight.

Grand Opening of Bourbon Street

Those weird, religious Augusta girls who lived above Jason

Sold! To the dyke with big hands and brown hair!

Blake Mahoney

Jr. Cricket's

You Don't Like the Doors?

Philadelphia? Where they make the cream cheese?

Episode II

Summer debauchery at Southbridge

Rage Against the Bronco

Dock parties at Reardon's

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

FYI

Today is Patrick Maher's birthday.

Don't forget to add to your list that Snuffy gained approximately 45 to 80 pounds.

Also working for MacCom solutions with Edwin MacCom.

Monday, December 14, 2009

2001, Part 2

Get your nominations in but let's make sure we keep this thing going.



College Orientations

Whitledge and Haslam housesitting for the Sheehy's

The Dutch Island ghost

South Park/WWE/Adult movie nights at the Sheehy's

Battles of the sexes at the Sheehy's

White trash showing up w/ baseball bats at Reardon's

American Pie 2

O-House

Uptown Lounge



Maria (or whatever that girl who was our RA's name)

Jason

Rivermill

Drinkin' games

151

Sevens, elevens and doubles

Bolton Dining Hall

9/11

Omelet Bar at Snelling Dining Hall

Rocky Mountain

Wilson!

Doc Martin

El Centro

Connolly and Olmstead's 12-hour trip from Savannah to Athens

Connolly brought that goddamn goat...



Ashley Strickland

Leigh Ann

That Mississippi girl

P-44 Haynes

Got Any Gum?

Wesley Willis

"Your mother can't cook and neither can you so get the f--- out..."

Trey Aimar and Shannon Hunt

Starr's Mill

Lord of the Rings at the IMAX (huge waste of time)

Underage drinking bust at Outpost Upper Deck concert

Snuffy's MOTY Nomination

...will be made on Thursday. Commissioner Holland, I ask that the nomination period be extended to Thursday.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Patrick's Nomination: Coach Curley

Everyone knows the past few years have spelled turbulent times for our beloved alma-mater. I won't get into the details regarding the faculty and administrative changes, and I'm not even going to attempt to "take sides" because I can't even pretend to know anything about the real reasons behind those controversial changes.

But there's one thing I do know: we here at BMBS salute Coach Bill Curley, freshman English teacher and freshman football/basketball/varsity baseball/cross-country/everything coach, for being a strong anchor that pins down and holds together everything that is right about the school in the choppy waters it currently finds itself charting through.

Middle-aged and hailing from Connecticut, Coach may not look like your typical nominee on the surface. But this man's unyielding commitment to BC athletics and Catholic education clearly makes him MOTY material. Strangely enough, what we love most about Coach is that he is not only a die-hard defender of all things BC, but that he's not even from Savannah.  I have never seen this man miss a home football or basketball game. Hell, I've never seen him miss any away games come to think of it. And it takes a LOT being one of those liberal, pinko, commie yankees Coach Yeckley warned us about to come to the Deep South and come to love and respect it, and to be able to earn its respect in return.

What has Coach done this year specifically? To be honest, I have no clue. I left that campus 8 years ago so I couldn't tell you. But if his past attitudes toward coaching, teaching, and life in general that I have come to know are any indication, I'm sure he's done some great things. How about we focus less on a 12-month period and broaden things to a 12-year span instead: the man has coached virtually every sport outside of the chess club. In the classroom, he actually makes his students do this daunting stuff called homework, begins every class by leading his students in saying a Hail Mary, and consistently preaches and practices the tried and true virtues of integrity and discipline.

True, Coach is not some legendary Savannah/BC-native institution, but if you took away his Yankee accent you wouldn't be able to tell. His teaching and coaching styles are just as old school as Cannon's or Owens'. And at the same time, he goes out of his way to keep up with and mingle with all of the young alumni that have had the pleasure of knowing and learning from him. In this way he is both an authority figure but also one of us. You'll run into him on St. Patrick's Day morning at Pinkie's or at Spanky's after a basketball game and he'll want to have a beer with you.  

This man's nomination is long overdue: vote for Coach Curley for man of the year.

MOTY?

So far nobody has been nominated for the 2009 BMBS Man of the Year. Nominations are due by Tuesday. As the three-time reigning Nominator of the Year, I was going to sit this year out. However, I do have an ace up my sleeve and I will use it if I have to.

The List, Part II-a

Whitemarsh Huddle House

Seriously. How many man-hours have been wasted at this establishment waiting for sub-Waffle-House quality shit/food?
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Saturday, December 12, 2009

2001, Part 1

Drinking tall boys before/after Tuesday night BC away basketball games with Will, Joe, and my dad in his Taurus.

Owens vs. Leonard racquetball showdown

Lee McCurry fouls out against Savannah High in 2 minutes

The XFL

Monstuh Boigah

Yeckonomics

Finding Forrester

Miracle of life video

Mark Richt

Play It Again Sports

Michael Griffin

Temptation Island

Jeff Disk asking me if I still have that fake tooth

Mr. Maclean

LTC Owens speeches to Relay 4 Life team captains in the cafeteria

Will's 3rd quarter AP English grade

Country Day track meets

Logistical suppawt....

RFI

Hey! Must be the money!

St. Simon's Spring Break

NHS Jekyll Island convention

Honor Roll breakfast featuring honorary guest speaker Nurse Mokray

Prom at the Marriot

Tybee Straits

TC & Smirnoff Ice

Fayette County soccer game

Carpe Diem

Meinrad's resignation letter

Pearl Harbor

Graduation

Tiny Dancer

Find your dream, reach out, and just grab it

Girls throwing up at Mark Haslam's house

Cancun

Cancun on Abercorn

Video Heat

Lady Marmalade

Freddy Got Fingered

The Hjortsberg's house

Thursday, December 10, 2009

2000, Part 2



Joe and Stephen go missing on July 3rd

The Patriot

Blaze Haze

Trevor Wachsman

Catch-22

Elian Gonzalez

Who Let the Dogs Out

Danaher-Neher-Mahoney-Crumley

Paying Joe $100

Kevin Leonard and Brittany Howard after the Johnson game

Ms. Dolan

Mark Haslam's house

Holly Ruf

The Sopranos

The Beach game

Captain Morgan's/Chicken McNugget Overdose

Commissioning

Mistah Ray-man, make mine a doctuh peppuh, cuz

Crossfire

Kenny O'Neal

The Camden game

Brandon Mell

"Probably not gay..."

Georgia beats Tennessee

Dollar delivery charge for double stacks

Matty Dotson

The Glynn game

Razor Scooters

Kimani showing up at Kelly Sheehy's house



Loose ass

Region champs

Kimani showing up at Meg Mamalakis' house

"Heavy Things"

Senior free's

Kwami Brown

Flores!  Flores para los muertos!

The 6th Man

Meet the Parents

Things Fall Apart

Castaway

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

"The List": Decade Edition -- 2000, Part 1

Anyone who lived on 323 S. Church street knows the importance of "the list."  Well, this time around, for sentimental purposes, I thought it would be appropriate to "list" the decade and its events.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, you soon will.  Basically what we'll do is split each year into halves, where "part 1" encompasses January - June, and "part 2" means the rest.  I will then list inside jokes, catch phrases, people, songs, sports events, bars, and more inside jokes that were relevant at the time (chronologically, if possible).  I need everyone's help in adding to the list to flesh things out as much as possible, because everyone has different but valuable perspectives/memories from the same time periods.   

I know most of ya'll are thinking all this reminiscing is a childish and gay idea, especially for someone who's almost 3 years away from being 30 years old.  Well guess what, don't really care.  I don't think any of us have matured at all these last 10 years so now is no time to start.  

Anyways, enough talk. Let's go ahead and kick things off with Part 1 (January-June) of the Year 2000.  Here we go...

Y2k

Piggly Wiggly

Sir Dunks A Lot

What A Girl Wants

Silly Mad CD's

Larry Schmidt 3-pointer against Jenkins

Kyoto Express/YMCA football half-days

If ya wowna gowta jawga...

Spring Break #1

Ring Day 

Spring Break #2

"Sweet"

More Cowbell

Chief Carl

The Fields

Who Wants to be a Millionare

Chief, how can I sign up for Honors JROTC IV

Ms. Harris

Survivor

Rhett Colleran

Thong Song

Blue Light Rain

Scarlett Letter

American Psycho

Relay For Life

Prom at the Westin

Tybee Straits

Smith for treasurer

Bye, Bye, Bye

Natural Light

Charlie's Cheesesteaks

Porto-tipping

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Best Albums of the 2000's

This was prompted by the Debbie downers commenting in the previous post that the music of the past decade was "awful."  "MAR" went so far as to say "music sucks big time today."  Whatever, man.  There have been some great tunes released these last 10 years, but you obviously don't know where to look or are just content to remain stuck in the past.  So please sit back while I educate you on the best 6 albums of the 2000's. 

6.  REM - And I Feel Fine...: The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 (2006)

Before Michael Stipe actually started pronouncing his lyrics, REM was probably the greatest rock band of the 1980's and maybe even of the entire post 1960's era.  Their raw but eclectic sound was impossible to define but it was really awesome.  They're terrible now but last time I checked this compilation was released in 2006 so it's allowed on our list.   

5.  The Beatles - Help! (Remastered edition, 2009)

I was estatic when this was finally released a few months back.  The reason this CD is so great is because I didn't even have to buy it: it sounds exactly like the same one released 44 years ago which I already own.  So it's just as good.  Which means it's great.

4.   The Drifters  - The Millenium Collection:  The Best of the Drifters (2000)

Save the Last Dance For Me, Sand in My Shoes, Up on the Roof, Saturday Night at the Movies.  All conveniently placed into one CD that will make those hour-long July drives to Tybee go that much faster.  And all originally recorded in the 1950's and 60's. 

3The Temptations:  The Millenium Collection: Best Of The Temptations, Vol.1 - The '60s (2000)

When I first heard this CD I thought "Man!  This sounds just like the songs from my parents' old CD's!"  For this reason it easily gets the #3 spot. 
 
2.  The Beatles - Rubber Soul (Remastered, 2009)  

I immediately fell in love with this album upon its release.  And then I figured out why:  I already owned it.  Rubber Soul marked a turning point in the direction of rock music and I'm not really sure why I like it so much because I think it's evident by now that I'm not a huge fan of much of the music that has come after this turning point.   

1.  The Beatles - 1 (2001)
 
Easily the decade's best album for the simple reason that these songs sound identical to the ones already on Beatles albums.  Somehow or another, McCartney and Lennon were able to come together and recreate the same songs from their original time together.  I thought Lennon was dead but apparently not because you can clearly hear his voice on here.  The songs are so identical to the ones originally released in the 1960's it's almost spooky.  What the producers were able to do by taking the original recordings and simply copying and compiling them onto a new disc is nothing short of amazing.    


Honorable Mentions:  Jackson 5 - The Millenium Collection (2000), Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway (2004), Various - Power Hour Blues (2004), Marvin Gaye - The Millenium Collection (2000), Various - 25 Beach Music Classics (2003)

Monday, December 07, 2009

Best Inventions of the 2000's

Hard to believe we're about to see this decade come to a close. It seems like only last night we were at Joanna Curry's house on Wilmington Island counting down to Y2k. Here are the top 6 (weird number, I know) inventions of the last ten years:

6. Wireless Internet: We all take this for granted now but it wasn't too long ago you had to deal with a million different cords and connections and still pay $40 per month to hobble back and forth between the TV screen and your computer to look up lines, place bets, listen to the BC sports network, watch naked girls do unspeakable things to each another, etc.

5. Fox News: FNC actually debuted in '96 but did not reach its full prominence until around 2001-2002. For the first time ever, a non-liberal TV news organization. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe for a second that Fox is fair and balanced, but neither are any of the other bazillion media outlets/newspapers/universities that liberals have dominated for the last half-century. Finally we get to have a voice.

4. The Self-Scan at Grocery Stores: These came about a good while back but we can't leave them out. If you're like me and you've worked at a grocery store and/or you hate dealing with people (both apply here), the self-scan is definitely for you. The wait is usually a fraction of what it takes to get checked out at a normal register, you don't have to talk to anybody, and it helps the economy by allowing grocery stores to become productive with less employees, which means lower prices for the consumer.

3. The Ipod: Like most people on here, I was skeptical of MP3 players when they first arrived on the scene at the beginning of the decade, and remained so until a couple years ago. Nothing aggravated me more walking around campus in Athens seeing metro-ATL douches with their earplugs and their "I'm in my own world right now because I don't have people skills" attitude. Which is why you'd never see me with one of these things outside. But for driving purposes and especially long road trips through areas that do not have oldies stations, the ipod is now a must.

2. Carey Hilliard's Wing Zings: but only when they're half price (during the entire month of September!!).

1. Coke Zero: Our #1 product debuted in the fall of 2005. I never drink any non-Coke soft-drinks (except Dr. Pepper because it is from Texas, the greatest state in the union), so I was happy when Coke Zero arrived. Don't get me wrong, Coke tastes great and remains my favorite all-around soft-drink, but after you drink it you sometimes get that sugary feeling that coats your teeth and it's real annoying. The only alternative pre-2005 was Diet Coke, which isn't all bad but certainly doesn't live up to its prototype. Enter Coke Zero, which tastes just like Coke but isn't bad for you.

Honorable mentions: Hi-definition TV's, GPS, the yellow line first-down marker, blogs, Carabba's.

Happy Gannam Day


Thursday, December 03, 2009

What a bitch

Barbara Boxer is.

Bachelor of the Year

Back in Business



It's official. We're in 5A. Just like the good old days. Thank you Snuffy, Coach Stroud, Ms. Youngblood, and anyone else who had any influence in the making of this decision. I can take the poll down now.

Unfortunately, Camden is staying in region 3, and we're not splitting subregions with them. But hey I'll still take this any day over what we've had the last 6 years. Plus it gives the region at least some legitimacy. It is also interesting to note that for the first time in history, St. Vincent's Academy will not follow BC and will remain in AA.

The New Region 3 AAAAA:

Div. A
Beach
Benedictine
Camden County
Groves
Savannah Arts Academy

Div B
Bradwell Institute
Jenkins
Johnson
Savannah
Windsor Forest

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Tuesdays With Connolly

Chris Connolly is leave Tiger Woods alone all the guy did was mess with Strippers and drink Vodka. He's worth a Billion Dollars, I would do the same thing if i had 1000 dollars.20 minutes ago ·

·

December

Man of the Year/Decade nominations must be submitted between now and Tuesday the 15th.

Past recipients:

2006 - Tom Powers
2007 - Michael Reardon
2008 - Jack Holland
2009 - ????