Merry Christmas Everybody! 

Christmas time is here. Here is Austin as excited as can be. Although it is hard to see it, Great Grandpa is humoring Austin by allowing Austin to hang an pine cone from his ear. Hopefuly no rappers or athletes get a hold of this picture or we may start a new fashion trend. 

DEATH! Will he ver see death? Probably not. How do I feel about the juries sentence? I guess you could describe it as indifferent. We really should either revamp the way the death penalty is carried out or eliminate it. It really is pretty worthless the way it is enforced at this time. Is it a deterrent to crime? No, not in the way it is currently enforced. Could it be a deterrent to crime if enforced properly? Possibly. But the thing I really don't understand is why all of the jurors decide that they need their 15 minutes of fame after the trial comes to an end. I just hope that they don't say anything that Geragos can use in an appeal. 

Maddenisms - The best part of watching Monday Night Football is hearing what off the wall thing John Madden will come up with next. He and Al Michaels topped any of their previous work tonight when they spent five minutes talking about the worm after Johnny Morton scored a touchdown. First, they had a difficult time coming up with the name of the dance move, than once Al Michaels took a wild guess at the name being the worm he even stated he could be arrested if he were wrong. Once he recieved confirmation that the dance move was in fact called the worm, John Madden decided to tell us how Johnny Morton was into Martial Arts and that "the Worm" must be something to do with Martial Arts. Then he decided to tell us that Terrell Owens probably couldn't do the worm as well as Johnny Morton since TO is not into Martial Arts. Finally, he and Al Michaels thought they would inform us that people all across America were now doing the "Worm," in their homes and in bars. Gotta Love It! 

Santas accused of street brawl

Online University That Gave Cat Diploma Sued For Fraud

In rare case, man who has not yet been tried wants state to execute him

Police: Dealers Report Stolen Marijuana To Authorities

CHEATED! CAL, quite possibly the best team in the country, has been left out of the bogus BCS. I will agree that UTAH is deserving of a berth in the BCS as is TEXAS but two teams are not as deserving and only in because their conference has a guaranteed berth, MICHIGAN and PITTSBURGH. What should have happened is that PITTSBURGH and MICHIGAN should have went to the bowl games outside of the BCS and the more deserving CAL and LOUISVILLE teams should have recieved berths. You could even make a case that the undefeated BOISE STATE team is more deserving then PITTSBURGH. The BCS was supposed to be set up to make sure the best teams play at the end of the season, yet again this year a third team is left on the outside looking in as AUBURN will be watching USC and OKLAHOMA play for what quite possibly could be theirs, the national title. Until the NCAA steps forward and takes power away from power conferences and sponsors there never will be a true national champion in Division I college football. UTAH is stuck with the task of playing Pittsburgh because it is so much easier for the elite to justify a Pittsburgh loss then it is to justify any of the other teams losing to UTAH. Who is California really cares about seeing Michigan play Texas in the Rose Bowl, may the corporate sponsors lose lots of money on that matchup. We, now more than ever need a Division I playoff system. Take the best eight teams in the country, regardless of conference affiliation, seed them according to the final BCS standings and let the National Championship be determined where it should be determined, on the field, not based on matchups determined through a faulty system that assures all of the power conferences get to play regardless of how bad their teams may be (Big East). You could still allow the major sponsors some sort of access to the games. The remaining teams in college football could still participate in a Bowl System, but the championship needs to be determined on the field. 

Listening to Y101 the other night, which I rarely do to begin with, I was appalled when the DJ came on the air and referred to Tim McGraw not by name but just as "the Redneck" when announcing the Nelly and Tim McGraw song. How an on air personality could be so insensitive is beyond me. Okay so it's not, I have listened to Howard Stern on occassion, but I from this moment forward will not listen to Y101. Had a different DJ made the comment "that was Tim McGraw and (insert your favorite insensitive racial slur here)," you better believe me that there would be outrage.

After such a positive response to our first extreme makeover, I decided to find a high school photo of eddie to post. Everyone knows he went to the U. 

US Congress bill to criminalise commercial fast-forwarding...Now we have went too far, congress is currently considering legislation which will make it criminal to fast forward through commercials and previews that are placed on DVD's. Also being considered is removing the ability to fast forward through commercials on your TIVO. Congress really has nothing better to do than consider stupid bills which infringe upon our rights as individuals to select what we want to watch. Apparently the MPAA is pushing this legislation, it is unfortunate that special interest requests outweigh individual freedom of choice.  

You have to love Kevin and Bean. I found a link on their web site that stated Bean's new prison penpal so I followed the link. This young lady is currently residing in the area at the Chowchilla Women's Prison. Bean is already writing her but I am sure there are plenty of other inmates, both men and women looking for PenPals. Get your's today at www.prisonpenpals.com. 

Sorry for the poor picture quality, but we had a hard time finding a good quality 1970's picture of Carl Alemania, president of the Bay Area Elvis Presley fan club.  

Wow! I have just witnessed something like I have never seen in professional sports. Athletes making $3 million dollars a year or more to play a game that they hopefully enjoy are now entering the stands to confront fans. In no way is the behavior of the fans acceptable, however at the same time the athletes need to show some restraint when dealing with the situation. It is not acceptable nor appropriate for an athlete to enter the stands to assault a fan nor is it acceptable for fans to be on the court. I am sure in this situation we will see arrests, as well as suspensions and lawsuits, for a situation that could have been avoided simply by using common sense. The fan should have never thrown the drink and at the same time Artest should have never entered the stands. I have an even harder time listening to the commentators who seem to be excusing the behavior of the athletes who should have had restraint. The most unfornate thing but also at the same time most obvious fact is that Ron Artest is once again at the center of an NBA conflict. This is the same Ron Artest who has previously led the league in Technicals and has missed numerous games due to various suspensions, The same Ron Artest who less than one week ago asked for time off so that he may work on promoting his rap album. Once again the fans bevavior while inappropriate and uncalled for does not justify a player entering the stands. Players recieve millions dollars a year to play this game and must be under control. 

A little late posting this, but this is a picture of Austin from Halloween. He was so cute in his Buzz Lightyear costume, it was funny watching him go to the doors because he would forget what to say and was just so cute trying to remember. 

Could boxing get any worse then Ruiz-Golota this past weekend? A literal foul fest, boring and out of control. Golota "the foul pole" was actually the boxer who did not have a point taken away from him in this one. Ruiz lost a point, had his trainer ejected, and was knocked down twice and still managed to escape with a narrow victory despite being out jabbed and out punched both in quantity of landed punches and connect percentage. Of course this was another great Don King production. People wonder why there is no excitement in the heavyweight division, first you have three champions, why is boxing the only major sport to feel it is neccessary to have three champions? First let's unify the boxing organizations so that there will be only one clear champion at every weight class. We do not have three World Series champions nor three SuperBowl champions so why the need for three boxing champions? They cleary can not all three be the best fighter at their weight class, there is only one best. Second, look at the three heavyweight champions who currently hold the major belts, first is John "one punch and hug" Ruiz, he has to be the most boring fighter I have ever watched. On top of being boring to watch he also regularly commits fouls which makes him easy to dislike, he will never gain overwhelming public support or approval. Second is Chris Byrd, while undersized for a heavyweight at 215, he is also very boring to watch as most of his fight plan is typically focused on playing defense and landing an occassional punch. He also lacks the knockout power that we as fans of the sport desire in our heavyweight champions. Many of us watch the heavyweights to see thunderous punching, not to see boxing strategy, if we wanted to see that we would watch the much quicker, more exciting middleweights. Finally is Vitali Klitschko who quite honestly could be the best of the heavyweight champions at this time, although if you watched the Don King promoted fight the other night you would not know this, since you almost got a feel of him being talked down since he is not a Don King promoted fighter. Klitscko is a big man, a little slow, but has shown heart, a chin, and punching power. That brings us back to the Don King factor. Don King is what is wrong with boxing, especially at the heavyweight level where he has the greatest influence. I heard a comment that Chris Byrd had to sue Don King to get his full guaranteed paycheck for his fight against McCline on Saturday night. Obviously this is not the first time King has been sued by boxers and either lost in court or settled out of court. This has become a habitual problem yet fighters refuse to take a stand and say, I will not fight for you Don King. So he continues to steal money from the actual fighters, give us bad fights that we really do not want to see, and always leave us with the feeling that the fight we just watched was fixed. Don let us see the fighters we want to see in the ring fighting each other, Don will not allow his two champions to fight each other nor we he allow either to fight Klitschko, as long as his fighters hold 2/3 of the important titles he controls the heavyweight division. If he puts Byrd or Ruiz in the ring against Klitschko he loses his control of the division.

Guilty! First Degree Murder, Second Degree Murder and Special Circumstances. Making him eligible for the death penalty. Now we must enter the sentencing aspect of the trial which will be a very trying time for the family of Laci Peterson. However I beg the question, do we even need to present the death penalty to the jury as an option? Since 1977 over 600 men and women have been sentenced to death in California. However, in the same time span only 10 inmates on death row have actually been executed, for an average of one every 2.7 years. While I am a supporter of the death penalty and feel that it would be a deterrent to crime if executed in a swift manner, the current state of enforcement on California's death row has changed my mind. At the rate we are currently executing people on death row 99% of them will die in prison before being executed, so let's just commute their sentences to life without parole and save some money in the process. This way we could cancel the new death row construction at San Quentin and move these criminals back into regular prisons. We should also be able to reduce some burden off of the court system by doing so and save money in legal fees.

As a matter of fact - In response to various media outlets, celebrities, and cynics who think that winning the popular vote by 3% does not qualify a president to lead our country I counter that each of the following presidents recieved less than 50% of the vote in their respective elections, clearly meaning they as well were never given a mandate to lead.

William Jefferson Clinton
Richard Milhous Nixon
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Harry S. Truman
Thomas Woodrow Wilson
Stephen Grover Cleaveland
James Abram Garfield
Abraham Lincoln
James Buchanan
James Knox Polk

What is your favorite spelling of the name Madison?

Give your opinion Madison Madisyn Madisen Madysen

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Here she is, little Madisyn Mckenzie Denelle Donovan (we're still discussing the spelling). Anyways just wanted to share the picture. 

I swear I am in this picture, right side, approximately 4 rows up, wearing a white shirt. Anyways the picture was taken at Selland Arena in Fresno, CA where I saw Korn play last night. It was the 10th and final time I will see them live as I have realized the inevitable, I am getting too old for these types of things. I must say that it was an excellent show to go into retirement with. Thank you Korn for finally coming back to Fresno for the first time since opening for Metallica in December of 1996, having to travel to see you guys was becoming a little much, it was nice to leave a concert of yours and be able to be home shortly afterwards. Thank you for putting on the best live show of any of the bands I have ever seen.