Ethics

Democrats attack Riley re-election ad

Apparently, Riley is running an attack ad against Lucy Baxley, which in itself is news what with his twenty-point lead in the polls. Why would you do that to begin with? Why get in the mud if you don’t have to?

Anyway, one of the people Riley uses in the ad turns out to be a former aide to a Birmingham city councilman, an aide who — oops! — was involved in a scandal in 2004 for using a city-issued cell phone to make personal calls. Lots of personal calls. Like 4 1/2 hours a day.

Well, I’m glad that’s over

Auburn clears athletic officials in academic investigation

Yes, nobody at Auburn did anything wrong. The NCAA and SACS don’t have to investigate, their internal investigation shows that everything is just dandy.

The claim is that athletes, football players in particular, were not “steered” to the directed-reading “classes” of Prof. Thomas Petee. But a little math… 7.5 percent of those taking Petee’s “courses” were football players. There are 85 players on scholarship, 105 on the roster, at any given time. The total enrollment at Auburn last year was 23,333. Hence football players make up .45 percent of the student body. 7.5 percent is a lot more than .45 percent. I don’t have the statistical software on this computer, but I would say that this is probably a significant result.

Auburn’s Interim President for Life, Ed Richardson, says that, “Our academic reputation is far more important than all the athletic programs put together.” BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

Petee and another professor have resigned their administrative posts but remain professors. Now, I know professors, and this is not a punishment. This is a reward. I have never yet met a professor who liked administrative work.

Liquids

CNN.com – U.S. flyers must face second security check – Aug 11, 2006

Here’s one for you… I like to bring on a bottle of ice. (Just take a bottle of water and stick it in the freezer.) Now, technically, this is a solid, not a liquid. Am I allowed to bring this on a plane?

Doesn’t count

CNN.com – Typhoon kills at least 83 in China – Aug 10, 2006

Sure, it’s the strongest typoon to hit China in fifty years, but it’s not an Atlantic hurricane so can’t be used as evidence that tropical weather is getting worse as a result of global warming (there’snosuchthingasglobalwarming). Only Atlantic hurricanes count, and really only if they hit the US mainland.