This barely-sports-related story out of Delaware kinda left a bitter taste in my mouth (on the bright side, I finally know how you mom feels after all these years). State troopers showed up at a guy’s driveway recently, not because he was beating his wife or cooking meth or ripping the tags off his mattresses, but because he had a basketball hoop in front of his house.

DelDOT said the hoops violated Delaware’s “Clear Zone” law, which prohibits trees, shrubs, hoops and other objects from being within seven feet of the edge of the pavement in subdivisions.

This hoop, which her husband said had been up for 60 years, fell under state scrutiny, along with seven other hoops, after an anonymous letter from someone in the neighborhood complained.

–The Consumerist.

This is just sad. No, I’m not talking about the state just seizing property while law enforcement officials point to some archaic law while just “doing their jobs.” I meant that it’s sad that people in Delaware still think that they’re good at baskeball. Jeez, Delaware. Get with it. Read the rest of this entry »

The Community Youth Athletic Center in southern California is standing between some San Diego-area developers and a new condominium project. The gym was subject to eminent domain–meaning that the local government could declare the building “blighted” and assume ownership of it–after the local government of National City shot down an initial challenge to the entitlement.

The process for challenging eminent domain in California is full of short deadlines and finicky procedures. One of these is that when you challenge the authorization of eminent domain, you have to publish a notice in the newspaper about the lawsuit. That newspaper notice must give a date by which other people can join the suit and oppose the city’s plans.[..]

The notice said Friday when it should have said Monday. No one attempted to join the suit on either Friday or Monday, so the error affected absolutely no one. Nevertheless, based on that technicality, the trial court dismissed the CYAC’s entire case.

–Institute for Justice.

The mayor of National City (how awesome would that be, running around screaming I’M THE MAYOR OF NATIONAL CITY!) says they would never, ever take over the property. Actually, no. He said that the city hasn’t yet. Read the rest of this entry »

Not to get all political here…again…but picking a winner for the NFC Championship Game based on the tax burden of each team’s home state is a little goofy. But NBC Chicago’s Edward McClelland

Quarterback Jay Cutler will earn $7.6 million in 2011 (still not enough to put him in a good mood). He’ll keep a lot more of that money as a Bear than he would as a Packer. After deducting $2,000 for the personal exemption as a single man, Cutler has a taxable income of $7,598,000. At a 5 percent tax rate, he’ll owe $379,900.

Now, imagine Cutler were traded to Green Bay. He’d have $7,599,300 in taxable income (because Wisconsin has a lower exemption), and, at Wisconsin’s top rate of 7.75 percent, he’d owe $588,945.75 — a difference of over 200 grand. I don’t know what Cutler does for fun — or whether Cutler ever has fun — but $200,000 can pay for a lot of it.[..]

High taxes may provide a high standard of living, but they don’t bring out the best on the gridiron. Look at Texas. They don’t even have a state income tax, and the Cowboys have won five Super Bowls.

–NBC Chicago.

Athletes get hosed on taxes, especially football players. An NFL player usually has to pay taxes his home state, plus in whatever state he happens to be playing. So maybe tax burden isn’t such a bad way to measure football prowess after all. Whatever. It’s still better than anything the Keynesians would have configured.

In light of the recent events in Tucson, Arizona on Saturday, North Carolina Congressman Heath Shuler has made an interesting public statement. Shuler played quarterback at Tennessee, and then for the Washington Redskins, before being elected to represent North Carolina’s 11th district in 2006.

Shuler says he’ll now make it a practice to carry the permitted handgun when he is away from Capitol Hill, where lawmakers rely on Capitol Police for security.

Shuler says his staff members have also gone through the training and background checks needed for the legal permit to carry concealed handguns.

–WTKR.

I’m not espousing my personal beliefs here, but it’s interesting that as some people are calling for tighter gun control legislation, one Congressman is making a point to show that he actually feels safer carrying one. But when one considers Shuler’s 49 percent career completion percentage, he certainly wouldn’t be in as much danger as those standing near his targets. That’s a joke, people. Don’t email me.

I think even the pinkos and evangelicals alike can agree that cable companies are the spawn of Satan, and I bring you further evidence of that. And a panda. But let’s get to it: there’s a little spat happening between NewsCorp (which owns the FOX networks) and Cablevision (which provides service to areas of the New York City and Philadelphia markets). Basically, FOX wanted more money from Cablevision, they said no, blah blah blah, and so FOX’s coverage of the NLCS has been blacked out.

The Federal Communications Commission, instead of doing its job and mediating this dispute, decided its ridiculously broad authority would be put to better use by live-Tweeting updates of the game. How does this help anyone? This is the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing it. Nice job, federal government. At least the Tea Partiers could have drummed up some half-assed re-enactment. I’d love to see what they would have done with Tim Lincecum.

via The Consumerist.

Remember when Roger Clemens swore up and down in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he had never taken steroids or used performance-enhancing drugs while playing professional baseball? And remember how his trainer Brian McNamee ratted him out to that same committee? Yeah, Clemens might be royally screwed now.

The former New York Yankees pitcher has been indicted by federal authorities on six charges of perjury and obstruction after allegedly lying his pock-mark-riddled ass off to the House committee in 2008. Clemens and McNamee famously bickered in front of elected government officials with nothing better to do than hold hearings on PED use in baseball, eventually leading to the decision to investigate Clemens for perjury. Tough luck, Roger. Let’s hope nobody throws their bat at you in prison.

Don’t drop the soap, New York Times:

Read the rest of this entry »