Slowplay.com

From USA Today:

The government on Tuesday said a controversial abortion pill is safe enough to remain on the market, despite a third death and a grieving father’s plea.

Monty Patterson, father of a teen who died after taking the abortion pill RU-486, says the government’s new safety warnings aren’t enough to protect women. Because a third death now has been linked to RU-486, the Food and Drug Administration should bar sales of the abortion pill, he said.

Newsflash: Abortion is not a haircut. This is not a value judgment on abortion. It is a simple fact that this can be a very dangerous business. It is a serious medical procedure. It is for this reason that I believe it is perfectly reasonable for states to have the right to notify women of the risks of abortion and to regulate the procedure to ensure reasonable safety measures are undertaken by the physicians. Surely this interest is compelling enough as to not cause an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to choose, even by the test laid out by the U.S. Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992).

Want to be upset? See a less-than-sympathetic reaction from a blogger (who I hope disagrees with me on everything), who calls the father of the latest casualty a “yutz” before telling him: “Dude, I realize your daughter died last year” and then calling him “stupid.”

More info:
The Court’s opinion in Casey (must scroll to page 833 of the bound volume).
The After Abortion Blog
Patriot Paradox
Washington Monthly: Abortion issues and their role in judicial nominations

There is little doubt as to which school had the better football team last Saturday night. It was just as obvious as to which school has better fans. A group of OU students, aptly named the Ruf/Neks were involved in several clashes with UN coaches and players. There were two main incidents; the first involved a student who apparently got too close to the Nebraska linemen during pre-game warm ups. I’m sorry, but if you are dumb enough to go down on the field and taunt a bunch of 300 pound linemen who eat your weight in food every day, then you deserve to have your face smashed against a brick wall. As far as the incident with coach Callahan goes, all I have to say is that would never happen at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. Nebraska fans are passionate and devoted but always respectful. I can recall several times when the stadium has applauded the visiting team after defeating our beloved Huskers. While every school has their token idiots, OU seems to have a stadium full of them. Update: OU student reportedly pressing charges.

More: “Football is taken seriously in the Big 12“

As we said right here yesterday in our recap of the American Music Awards, ABC will go to no end to hype its new hot commodity, Sunday night’s Desperate Housewives:

I can only assume that ABC put [Kobe Bryant] up there to help promote in some way the ABC/ESPN NBA package… did the boos help? It’s easy to make this assumption because ABC shamelessly used members of the Desperate Housewives cast to completely screw up the lifetime achievement award to Bon Jovi . . . ABC even mentioned the DHs’ appearances repeatedly in their ad package for the show. Where were Jim Belushi, Ted Koppel, and that guy on Lost from Lord of the Rings?

Then, just last night, ABC came through for us again, using DH’s Nicollette Sheridan in a sexy spot with Terrell Owens:

Before the Philadelphia-Dallas game, ABC showed Owens and Sheridan in an empty locker room in an attempt to spoof the network hit “Desperate Housewives.” Sheridan, who stars in the show, was wearing only a towel and provocatively asked Owens to skip the game for her. After she dropped her towel, he agreed to be late for the contest and hugged her. Then the shot panned out to two more stars of “Desperate Housewives,” Teri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman, watching the scene unfold on a television and commenting on desperate women.

Update: Colts’ coach Dungy finds Owens-Sheridan spot racially offensive

Source: ESPN.com, see also The Media Drop, for the complete transcript of the spot

Jayson Blair would be a logical selection to succeed Safire.

As part of the New York Times’ plan to get its political slant so far out of the mainstream that it can change its name to Le Monde New York, token conservative William Safire announced that he was retiring from the NYT op-ed pages. Safire is 74 years old and has had a distinguished career as the NYT’s top foil of liberals. He will write his last column on January 24, 2005. He started writing at the NYT in 1973.

Last week I gave out Alabama as one of my plays on college football and bellyached when they got what I thought was a raw non-call on a play in the end zone. I firmly believe they would have covered the number had the call not been flubbed. Today, the SEC supervisor of officials admitted it was a mistake, for all the good it does ‘Bama now.

Barry Bonds was just honored with his record seventh MVP award, winning National League honors for a fourth straight time, by receiving 24 of the 32 first place votes in the balloting. (Read: There are 8 voters who should be forever stripped of their ballots.)

Bonds (career stats) has hit 703 home runs in his career — just 52 behind all-time king Hank Aaron — and figures to take over the top honor in 2006, unless for some odd reason he gets a ton of pitches next year and is able to jack 53 bombs (a number he has not topped since his record-smashing 73 HR in 2001) to pull it off in late 2005. The most phenomenal, mind-blowing number of Bonds’ career, however, is .609: his 2004 on-base percentage.

There are a number of theories on the importance of certain statistics in baseball. In Moneyball, author Michael Lewis details the method (or madness?) behind Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s success as a small market GM. The crux of Beane’s strategy has been that on-base percentage is significantly undervalued in the baseball market. As a result, Beane has been able to load up on OBP, which he feels is the most important statistic in baseball, through the acquisition of inexpensive walk masters like Scott Hatteberg.

Whether one buys in to the Moneyball theory or not, the simple fact of the game is that the team that never makes an out is impossible to stop. Bonds’ .609 on-base percentage shatters his old MLB record of .582 (2002). The next best seasons ever are: Ted Williams 1941 (.551); Babe Ruth 1923 (.542); Bonds 2003 (.529). Bonds has three of the top five single season OBPs of all-time, and his .609 this season is 58 points higher than anyone else has ever accomplished. Bonds’ 2004 season is 10.5% better than any single season OBP any other player has ever achieved! (Second place this season was Todd Helton’s .469 OBP.) It is on the strength of this mind-numbing stat that I believe Bonds’ 2004 season is the best season in baseball history.

Bonds has struck enough fear in the hearts of opposing pitchers that he was walked a record 232 times this season. Compare: Babe Ruth’s career best was 170, and that was in 1923: not a Murderers’ Row season. Ruth’s walks decreased considerably once Wally Pipp gave way to Lou Gehrig. It seems safe to say, then, that Bonds, with a bunch of juggling clowns hitting behind him in 2004, has reached a level of awe from the opposition that tops anything even Ruth could muster. Bonds took a team with one great starting pitcher and no bullpen whatsoever to within inches of a winner-take-all game with the Dodgers for the NL West title. Bonds’ support staff was ugly: the pitching staff finished 11th of 16 NL teams in ERA (despite having the great Jason Schmidt as their #1 starter) and blew 28 save attempts. The Giants still finished 20 games above .500.

Bonds’ 2004 is the most impressive season ever.

More: Baseball Musings

From USA Today:

The Pentagon has agreed to warn military bases worldwide that they should not directly sponsor Boy Scout troops, partially resolving claims that the government has improperly supported a group that requires members to believe in God.

The settlement, announced Monday, came in a 1999 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which says American military units have sponsored hundreds of Boy Scout troops.

The Boy Scouts, long equated with mom and apple pie, may just be too wholesome and American for the ACLU to stomach. This is another in a long line of suits the ACLU has filed simply to prove that it has left the mainstream and abandoned its original mandate: to guard civil liberties. I fail to see how support of the Boy Scouts equates to an oppressive police department somewhere beating confessions out of under-represented citizens.

See also: Captain’s Quarters The other side: TalkLeft

President Bush is expected to nominate National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to the position of Secretary of State, MSNBC reports. The move should serve as a signal to all of the world that, in this administration, the U.S. is going to a “security first” philosophy. While Powell was more of a moderate diplomat, one who was sent to “sell” U.S. policy to the United Nations, Rice is expected to be a hard-liner. I can think of no better way for Bush to crank up national security as his top international priority than to choose his NSA for the post. The world is on notice…

On Rice: Washington Monthly On Powell’s departure: Power Line