NBA double-standard

So, the Jazz play a tasteless but essentially harmless joke on Karl Malone and arefined $15,000 - why wasn’t there a single murmur from Stern’s organization when this certain thing (ironically related to the mail”thug” again) happened at the Staples Center?

LOS ANGELES - The pregame image was anything but subtle. The postgame image was historic.

…

Before the first tip, highlights of the Lakers’ domination over the Mavericks shined on an oversized screen hanging from above the scoreboard. …

But then came the most damning clip. Hollywood couldn’t have made it any more dramatic. In slow motion, Karl Malone turns, leading with his elbow, and cold-cocks Steve Nash. The Staples Center roars with approval.

I guess classless acts glorifying violence against opposing teams’ players are not worthy of fines as are simply tasteless teasing skits. Sheesh!

It was about oil

I guess the Iraq war was about oil after all…only for the nations who were opposing it in the security council like France and Russia - MORE ON IRAQ’S OIL CONTRACTS!

Update: Here are Zeyad’s views on the story - The mother of all scandals and No Oil for blood - he seems to have a little more insider info on the subject -

And to all you infidel naysayers: “May Allah damn your moustaches”. This IS an authentic official list. My uncle who has been working at the State Oil Marketing company for over 20 years told me that yesterday, and also that these ‘deals’ weren’t all under the Oil for Food program but also by illicit oil smuggling through Turkey, Jordan, and Syria. The deputy Minister of Oil has already issued a statement about it adding that there are many more documents proving these links that have not been released to public yet.

[all emphasis in original]

Another update: Sam of Hammorabi has a list of countries and the names associated - for India, it seems to be a certain Beham Sing and the Congress Party - so who is this Beham Sing? A google search doesn’t turn up anything on the name - anybody know who this guy is? Does anyone wonder now why the CONgress Party opposed the sending of Indian troops to Iraq? Sonia Gandhi also seemed deeply concerned by the war - I guess she didn’t want her bribe-source to dry up before the elections…

This is too good!

Yahoo! News - Iraq to Probe Alleged Saddam Oil Bribes

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq plans to investigate allegations that dozens of officials and businessmen worldwide illegally received oil in exchange for supporting former leader Saddam Hussein, officials said Tuesday.

Of course, the really interesting part is a partial list of the organizations and individuals alleged to have received these bribes -

Organizations named include the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Communist Party, India’s Congress Party and the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

(link via LGF)

Amen!

I wanted to save this post by Suruj for the Blog Mela, but it was too good for me to pass up linking to it. Combine his words with this post of mine and this post of Joanne Jacobs and there are some really disturbing trends that seem to be at play here.

Who’s the Daddy

“Men - the most useless of Nature’s creatures”, declared Uma Thurman - a.k.a Poison Ivy - disdainfully, in Batman and Robin. Suzi Leather, head of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Agency (HFEA), thinks along pretty much the same lines. Single and lesbian women have the right to receive IVF treatment (at the taxpayer’s expense, of course), she declared, without having to prove the existence of a father figure in the child’s life; in fact, a father was completely “irrelevant” in a child’s life, and a bit of a “nonsense” besides. It is quite confusing, therefore, that just a couple of days earlier she had also promoted new legislation giving children from donated sperm the right to know the identities of their biological parents. The child’s right to know its father far outweighed the donor’s right to anonymity, she had declared then. Well, make up your mind, woman: do children need fathers or don’t they ?

Whoo-Hoo!

Ha hahaha! Yippee!
ESPN.com - NBA - DALLAS 108, SACRAMENTO 99

DALLAS (Ticker) — Michael Finley had the best aim in a Texas-style shootout. Finley scored 23 points, including a key jumper with two minutes left, as the Dallas Mavericks extended their winning streak to eight games with a 108-99 victory over the Sacramento Kings.

And the best entry is...

Well, after a hard-fought battle between JK and Ravikiran for the best entry in the Blog Mela award, the winner has finally been determined out of 117 votes cast - and the winner is…(drum roll)…JK with his post for John Laxmi! Congratulations, JK - please don’t buy the “verbal terrorist’s” books with the certificate ;)

You know...

If you are Howard Dean, you know you are in trouble when TNT’s residential “basketball analyst” Charles Barkley plays your speech at half-time and threatens to sic you on the Lakers if they lose to the Mavs ;)

In all fairness to Dean though, when I saw the video as opposed to just listening to the clip of his scream, it seemed like he was trying to smile after it and didn’t look all that mad as he sounded…

p.s. Btw, we are going to have our 100,000th visitor to the site sometime today :)

20 years of David Stern

When he is not busy making up fantasy trade scenarios in which the Dallas Mavericks trade Michael Finley, Antoine Walker and Antawn Jamison for Eddy Curry or Tyson Chandler, Sam Smith has put together a list of hits and misses from the 20 years of David Stern era in the NBA - ESPN.com - NBA - Smith: Stern’s greatest hits and misses - an interesting miss not present in the list? Stern’s and NBA’s refereeing woes and the lack of responsibility and accountability from the referees to the players and the teams as is often brought up often and ad nauseum by Mark Cuban.

Evolving...

I have been a pretty ardent Hindu for most of my life, especially in the period when I was in India living with my parents. I believed in God and I prayed pretty religiously - followed everything that was required of me and even felt good about it. That was one phase of my life and that was how I kept happy and sane, so I am not saying there was anything remotely bad about it.

Once I moved to the US though, there was no need for an escape for me and there was no obligation either to perform things I didn’t feel like doing - I still kept up with a few things, mainly out of nostalgia and to keep a little of what I left behind in India alive in my memories. I did a few things, missed a lot more, but ultimately didn’t feel guilty about either of the things.

The final reckoning came to me recently, when I was questioned by my sister about a few matters of faith and my pregnancy. I started thinking about how I was going to bring up my boy, but before I got there, I needed to hash out with myself what I believed in or did not anymore, so I wouldn’t confuse the young mind. I think I can finally say I believe in no one but myself and look to no one else human or God for anything.

I am not really sure if I count as an atheist yet - I am looking into myself as honestly as I can to figure out, but all I can see so far is that I am completely apathetic to religion. I have lost the passion that I once had for the subject. I don’t believe or disbelieve anymore. I know I am going to be required to do certain rituals to please my parents and in-laws concerning my boy and I will do them - not because I believe they will somehow help, but because I don’t want to offend the happy grandparents. For now, I guess I am going to bring my baby up to be a skeptic - not just towards religion and God or atheism, but everything. I think I will let him explore things in his own way and not hardwire anything into his brain. I think I will let him evolve his own set of beliefs and spirituality and not impose anything on him from my side.

Blog Fest 2004

Well, they are not as inclusive as us Blog Mela people, but it seems like an interesting contest for the many IIT alumnus and students (Hi, Gaurav!) can take part in. The cash prize is definitely higher, though I am not sure if ballot-stuffing and negative-campaigning is allowed :p Check out the URL below for more information on the contest.

Sulekha Saarang Blogging contest

Welcome to the All India Sulekha Saarang Blog Fest competition - the first of its kind!

Are you a student studying in any institution around the world or an alumnae member of any of the IITs, you’ve hit the right place. Blog everyday on any of the subjects given below in more than 400 words and win GREAT PRIZES! There are prizes to be won everyday! What’s more, there is no limit to the number of entries you can make.

Your blog can be as witty as it can get, or a serious idea, a thought or a plot, a story or a strategy — could be anything that reflects your opinion, the way you look at things… SO start now and happy blogging!

*Contestants are requested to post their college name and city at the end of their blog.

Public Service Blog

For the person who came to this blog looking for the Shaq, Greg Ostertag fights video, here is the link - it is hilarious, though the music that the video is set to might not exactly be workplace or kid-friendly.

Update: While we are talking NBA, congratulations to Michael Finley for being chosen the Western Conference Player of the Week! Antoine Walker must have come a pretty close second with his two back-to-back triple-doubles and then back-to-back double-doubles, but Fin’s superlative play won out in the end. I am thankful that Fin and Dirk are back to hitting their stride and in the process leading the Mavs to some pretty good victories in the last week.

More on illegal immigration

Dean Esmay has another angle to add on the illegal immigration discussion we have been having for a few days now - he agrees with me on a few and disagrees on a lot. Check it out…

There is one comment in the post’s discussion that provides this useful URL for calculating costs of illegal immigration - very interesting!

The campaign heats up!

No, not the one for the US Presidential race - the one for the Blog Mela winning entry :) The main contenders are going all out to ensure a turnout from their contingencies - since the race is essentially between two people right now, we have decided to shorten the voting time for the entries. Voting closes 6:00PM CST on the 23rd of Jan. Winner will get the voucher within the next two hours. This sure looks like it is going to be fun!

Kerry wins Iowa caucus

Looks like John Kerry won the Iowa caucus tonight with Howard Dean coming in a surprising third! Blog-mommy being who she is, seems to have called it way before the event… Seems like the voters made a sound choice here, by choosing a reasonably centrist Democrat instead of angry extremist like Dean. If anyone can give the Republicans a run for their money in the elections, it would be a calmly reasoning opponent - not a foaming-at-the-mouth rabble-rouser like Dean.

Update - love the way Scrappleface puts it - Dean Flop Threatens Internet, Bloggers Hardest Hit

Blog Mela

Hello, everybody! Here it is - the first blog mela of the year in a new & improved format.

It is a close race since we have only three nominees this week -
First and foremost is Jayakrishnan Nair with his defense of NRIs to John Laxmi of SAJA who berates NRIs and their contributions to the development of India.

Secondly, there is Suruj Dutta who turns a critical eye towards the recent peace talks between India and Pakistan, and woders if there can be peace in our time.

Lastly, there is Ravikiran’s “The Death of a Law”, in which Ravi describes how a little law with good intentions was changed over and over again to “make it better”, in the process killing the original thought process behind the law and making it something it was not supposed to be.

Check out all the three posts and the vote on them starting tomorrow - the winner will get a $10 Amazon gift certificate :)

Guess my husband wins...

We are going to have a baby boy! He is absolutely normal and healthy as far as we could tell - weighs 373 grams and is expected into this world about May 31st :) He is very rambunctious as I can tell from all the times he keeps kicking at me from inside, so I better stock up on plenty of Ritalin (just kidding!).

Beating boys up!

As someone who is going to have a brand new baby girl/boy, this article sure put into words my fears about having a boy instead of a girl - Boy bashing: Some say girl power movement may have gone too far. Here is the deal - boys are the politically correct gender to make fun of, while girls are pandered to, whether it is affirmative action or Title IX in question. It is sexist to say something mean about a girl, but it is allegedly funny to say hurtful things about boys (read article above). This scares me about the prospect of brining up a boy in such a society.

Just as I would feel having a boy is a safer choice in a patriarchal society, I feel having a girl is a better choice in the USA these days, given not just the policy of female empowerment, but the tendency in teachers and others in the boys’ lives to label the least bit of rambunctiousness as ADHD and dope them up on Ritalin.

I can see around me how boys are not allowed to be boys - they cannot run around the school burning up their energy, since that is “disruptive” behavior. They cannot play with toy guns or action figures before someone gets alarmed by the “violent” fantasies they are indulging in. I am not saying that girls have it perfect here - I am worried that boys have nothing going their way at all. I don’t think it is fair at all to try to imprison children of both genders into rules that are obviously easy for one gender to follow than the others. This really makes me wonder if I have a boy, can I bring him up right? Will the society let me?

(link courtesy Joanne Jacobs)

It is almost half-time

Well, there is plenty of interesting stuff going on (if you actually care) on the baby side, so here is a totally unnecessary update :) I will be at 20 weeks next Tuesday, so we are almost at that half-way mark and will be haiving the ultrasound and finding out the gender of the baby on the 14th. My husband wants a boy and me, a girl (big surprise there!), so we will see who wins :)

I can feel the baby kicking around pretty often these days, but don’t look very pregnant owing to the fact that I still haven’t put on a single pound that I lost in the first trimester. The nausea is gone (Thank God!), the heartburn is here - the weirdest part is my craving for Dal these days. I refuse to eat anything but dal these days and cannot stand the sight of non-vegetarian food - this is really strange since I couldn’t stand dal my whole life and chicken is my favoritest food in the whole world :o

Watch this space for an update on the 14th about who my baby is going to be - a boy or a girl!

Illegal immigration

Andrew Sullivan is very approving of Bush’s policy of granting legal status to illegal undocumented workers in the USA. I am sorry, but I really cannot see anything good in this, as an immigrant to the country myself. If anything, it is absolutely galling and seems like a slap in the face to me, since I have jumped through every single hoop and paid through my nose to be where I am right now - legally. By granting amnesty to the fence-jumpers, you are telling me and people like me who are willing to play by the rules that I am somehow equivalent to someone who gate-crashed instead of patiently waiting in the line for their turn.

This kind of turning a blind eye to illegality not only succeeds in encouraging it more, but also depresses the law-abiding citizens who have it tougher to maintain legal status than the ones who are already without a status.

Too true!

This has been one of the main reasons why I have mostly kept out of politics for a while now. The shrillness and the mouth-foaming really gets me.

Op-Ed Columnist: The Era of Distortion

There’s something else going on, too. The proliferation of media outlets and the segmentation of society have meant that it’s much easier for people to hive themselves off into like-minded cliques. Some people live in towns where nobody likes President Bush. Others listen to radio networks where nobody likes Bill Clinton.

In these communities, half-truths get circulated and exaggerated. Dark accusations are believed because it is delicious to believe them. Vince Foster was murdered. The Saudis warned the Bush administration before Sept. 11.

You get to choose your own reality. You get to believe what makes you feel good. You can ignore inconvenient facts so rigorously that your picture of the world is one big distortion.

And if you can give your foes a collective name - liberals, fundamentalists or neocons - you can rob them of their individual humanity. All inhibitions are removed. You can say anything about them. You get to feed off their villainy and luxuriate in your own contrasting virtue. You will find books, blowhards and candidates playing to your delusions, and you can emigrate to your own version of Planet Chomsky. You can live there unburdened by ambiguity.

Improvements in information technology have not made public debate more realistic. On the contrary, anti-Semitism is resurgent. Conspiracy theories are prevalent. Partisanship has left many people unhinged.

Welcome to election year, 2004.

Whoa!

ESPN.com - NBA - Knicks acquire Marbury, Hardaway from Suns

The Knicks and Suns finalized a blockbuster trade Monday that will return Stephon Marbury to his hometown. New York acquired Marbury and Penny Hardaway from Phoenix for Antonio McDyess, Howard Eisley, Charlie Ward, the rights to Milos Vujanic, two first-round draft picks, and cash, ESPN.com has learned.

New & Improved Mela

Here is the deal, fellow bloggers!
1. From now on, Blog Mela will be a monthly affair, and is posted on the 15th of each month.
2. Nominations will taken from posts written between the 15th of last month and the current month. For this month’s Mela being hosted here, please submit your entries dated between Dec 15th 2003 and Jan 14th 2004.
3. From the 15th to the last day of the month, the Mela entries are going to be put up for voting and the winning entry gets a $10 Amazon gift certificate (or anything within $10 USD if the winner so desires), sponsored by me regardless of the host.
4. All posts must have an Indian theme or an Indian author.

So go ahead and start submitting your entries as responses to the post or email them to me.