Fonts need work.. I know.

Via J. Lloyd, who is becoming a Deacon fan... well as long as we are not playing Kentucky.

One of the nation's top sophomore prospects, 6-7, 225 lbs., PF Kevin Swinton , Greensboro, NC, Dudley HS, last night made a verbal commitment to Coach Skip Prosser's Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

Congressmen Ron Paul, one of the few good guys left in office, offers his take on the federal debt in this piece.

After adjusting for the new debt limit, our national debt jumped $107 billion last week. It has risen $538 billion in the last year alone.

The spending problem is deeply rooted in Washington bureaucratic culture, and no administration is immune. The President can set the tone for fiscal restraint or fiscal indulgence, but ultimately Congress controls the purse strings though the appropriations process. One thing the President can do, however, is refuse to sign spending bills or debt limit increases. When neither Congress nor the administration is capable of fiscal self-control, the taxpayer is always the loser. How do you feel knowing the federal government just wrote itself a trillion dollar loan using your labor as collateral?

Why tax cuts aren't helpful until the government stops spending our money.

Now, what does it mean to lower taxes? It means that Americans should have greater access to the pool of real funding. The only way this can be made possible is if government access to the pool is reduced. After all, in similarity to all other activities, government activities must also be funded.

Thus when government decides to promote a particular activity, this means that the government will supply various individuals that are engaged in this activity with money. The received money in turn will permit individuals in that activity to access the pool of real funding.

Since government is not a real wealth generator it relies on its sources of funding from the private sector. This in turn means that the more government spends the less real funding will be available for the wealth generating private sector. Obviously this will impede the creation of real wealth and impoverish the economy as a whole. Observe that if government could generate real wealth, it wouldn't need to tax the private sector.

The effective level of tax then is dictated by government outlays. The more government plans to spend the more real funding it will divert from the wealth generating private sector. The mode of diversion of real wealth from the private sector is, however, of secondary importance. What matters is that real funding is diverted. The method of taking real funding can be through direct taxes or indirect taxes and by means of monetary printing.

Added links and comment section. Only problem is the spacing is all wacked out. Hopefully this problem will be fixed shortly. We shall see.

Kozy got a job, and no I am not even being facetious. Looks like he is Miami bound following up his illustrious investment-banking career. Sign me up for Winter Music Fest next spring. We wish Koz luck in his latest endeavor. Welcome back to the working world.

Colin -- Can we get an update on Slovakia and maybe post some pics?

Does this mean Jay is going to have a Reasonable Doubt part II or Illmatic type album... I don't know.

George (not exactly what he said) : "Birthdays are so depressing. You look around the room and start to think 'THESE are my friends?'"
Jerry : Every day is my birthday

Sammy doesn't do roids and he doesn't cork his bat. Crap, someone gave him his homerun derby bat and what do you know he went and used it. Things that make you go hmm....

CHICAGO -- Chicago Cubs star Sammy Sosa was ejected in the first inning of Tuesday night's game against Tampa Bay right when umpires found cork in his shattered bat.

ESPN's Harold Reynolds reports -- after talking to a a representative in the Cubs public relations department -- that Sosa will admit in his postgame presser that the bat he used tonight was corked.

Sosa will say the bat is usually used in home run hitting exhibitions but somehow it got mixed in with his game bats. He says he has never used a corked bat in a major league game before tonight.

Need to impress the chicks -- then try this website where you can purchase fake atm receipts according to this article. (via gawker)

ATM-itations come 24 to a pack for $3.99. The fake receipt includes the bank name of Fidelity National Bank & Savings (FNBS) with a withdrawal amount of $400 and a balance of $314,159.26.

The faux receipt is supposed to help your single life like this: You meet a hot woman (or guy) who isn't as interested in you as vice versa. As you search for a piece of paper to write down your number, you pull out the receipt nonchalantly, jot down your digits and give it to the woman who is obviously out of your league. If she doesn't readily toss it on the floor, the thinking is that she will see the large balance and be impressed. Thus, you get a phone call the next day.

Who really is this Ronald McDonald guy?

So protective is McDonald's of the character's mystique that men who play Ronald are never to admit that they do. Ronalds in costume aren't to say who they are in civilian life. That rather annoyed Craig A. Oatten, a police chief in Michigan, when a Ronald, in full red-and-yellow regalia, got into a fender bender near Saginaw a few years ago. Asked several times, the Ronald steadfastly refused to give his name for the police report.

"If we get someone who refuses to identify themselves, we'll take them to the local jail," says Chief Oatten. But, because there were no injuries involved, he says, he spared the clown a trip downtown.

Also saw DJ Tiesto at HOB (House of Blues) on Saturday night. Meredith Martin talked me into going, plus the Rajic brothers were in, so it was on. The show was decent though I was not blown away by Tiesto. Bad venue, so so sound and ok crowd (club crowds never ever are good in Chicago, but this one was a decent group of people-- ie no fights, respectful, and into the music). The major major negative was no room to dance as the firecode had to be tossed out of the windown. The 40 buck ticket price mixed with no lack of movement for dancing made the show not worth checking out in retrospect, but still good times with good people.

Watched a couple movies this weekend that need to be reviewed- -

1. 8 Mile --- This movie was ridiculous. Granted going into it, I'm a huge hiphop fan and I can't stand Em. Putting those feelings aside, I gave it a shot. The movie is basically crap with one decent rap battle at the end that sums up the movie. How did this flick get so much hype and good reviews, I will never know. Skip to the end, watch the one battle scene and take it back to the video store. Brittney Murphy looked good though. 2 props out of 10, all for Brit.

2. Ali G In Da House -- Hysterical 8 props out of 10. Ali is a funny mofo. The movie is not as good as his HBO special, but is still some funny ish. If you are over 35, pass on this film, but everyone else gets the green light.

3. Hero - Jet Li flick straight from over seas (actually all these movies I reviewed were from Asia) and it took me 10 minutes to find the english captions before I could watch the flick. Anyway this film was fantastic. A great story with an interesting ending. 7 props out of 10. Worth owning for sure.

Might have broken my hand playing hoops. It was really messed up on Friday (it happened Thursday night) and it is looking a little better. If things don't improve by Wed/Thur, I'm going to have to get it checked out. Right now I'm just hoping things improve. I also have a volleyball game tomorrow night that might be a disaster, but I am going to give it a run.

The Sports Guy breaks down the top 40 NBA players with succinct analysis such as....

29. Nene Hilario -- If they did the 2002 Draft over again, Yao would go first, Stoudemire would go second, Nene would go third, Butler would go fourth, and Nikoloz Tskitishvili would go 456th.


22. Ron Artest -- Either he's a 10-time NBA All-Star in the making, or he's the first player to commit a "Flagrant foul, Level 4: Homicide." There's no in-between. Personally, I think you win championships with guys like this. He just needs a real coach. And some Zoloft.

check out the rest for yourself...