Uh, just a couple of more questions if you wouldn't mind?

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The absurdity of the statist-left knows no bounds. Plus, yet more evidence of the big lie.

From CBS Los Angeles:

The next influx of UC students may be asked to state their sexual orientation.

In January, the Academic Senate recommended that upon accepting admission offers from a University of California school students should have the option of identifying themselves as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender.

The UC Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools had mixed reactions but agreed that the question would allow them to collect important statistical information. They recommended putting the question on the SIR forms instead of college applications to protect students’ privacy.

(ed. note: for what purpose is this information collected?)

The news made the front page of UCLA’s campus paper Daily Bruin and is stirring controversy across UC campuses.

Supporters say the declaration will help campuses better plan for the needs of LGBT students.

Queer Alliance Board member Luis Roman said he has spoken with university officials about the proposal, which he enthusiastically supports, because he believes it will bring badly needed services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students.

(ed. note: precisely what needs and services are required for LGBT students above that of the rest of the student population?)

Some members of that community believe it would show that there are many more LGBT students than university officials realize.

“I think the numbers are way bigger than we really imagine or know,” Roman said.

(ed. note: And? )

The sexual orientation question would likely be optional. That may mean that a sizable number of students would not respond or would do so dishonestly — skewing the results, said Raja Bhattar, the director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center at UCLA.

(ed. note: Questions: is this implying then that Bhattar thinks the inquiry should be mandatory and if so, how does making it mandatory compel the questionee from being any less or more forthright in his answer?)

The data would be collected from incoming freshmen and transfer students.

High school senior Brian Vo, who was visiting his friend Quincy Vien on campus, said he wouldn’t mind being asked.

“I think it’s fine. They’re just collecting information to kind of cater to the population. It’s not obligatory — it’s voluntary — so it’s up to you whether you want to or not.”

(ed. note: Cater? How about pander?)

That's about as much ridiculousness as can be fit into one news story. Congrats.

It really boils down to a social engineering statistical make-work program.


And with respect to the big lie: Similar to the contraception mandate and the valuable Congressional testimony given by their cute little mascot, Sandra Fluke, who decided to go public with her sex life and thinks that others should pay for the same, the statist-left's desire for the bedroom to be off-limits to inquiry and public policy proves itself to be just that... as it always has been.

With these two examples, the mask is beginning to slip in regards to the amount of privacy and autonomy the political class will allow you to have.



Addendum #1:

Via Leslie at Temple of Mut: the GOP's "war on reproductive rights" in graphical image form.

Who adds:

I think the “War on Women” is more along the lines of the film, “Wag the Dog“: Since, the president does not seem to have much of a chance of being re-elected, one of his advisers contacts a top Hollywood producer in order to manufacture a war that the president can heroically end, all through mass media.

I can imagine the discussion now: I am sure it went along these lines:

Stanley Motss: The President will be a hero. He brought peace.
Conrad ‘Connie’ Brean: But there was never a war.
Stanley Motss: All the greater accomplishment.

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We love intellect - it's the intellectuals we can't stand

"In the world we live in, you can't really separate science from politics.

The money that researchers need to do their research comes from agencies that have to generate that money on the basis of exploiting public fears."

- Professor Robert Fallon (co-director of the Air Pollution Health Effects Lab at UCI)

If you have been following along with things here in California, you may know we have our own little Climategate brewing in the Golden State.

Yesterday, we directed your attention to Leslie's post on Dr. James Enstrom of UCLA who is fighting to get his job back after he blew the whistle on what he believed was a fraudulent CARB (California Air Resources Board) study that has been used as justication for jobs-killing CARB regulations and which was authored by a CARB board member with diploma mill doctoral credentials.


Check out the Reason.tv video here for the details on this travesty and the accompanying academic thuggery.




We swiped this from the always entertaining and insightful Secular Apostate who had this to say regarding this whole sorry affair:

Thankfully, the epidemic of irrationality has not infected all scientists. That’s the good news. Here’s the bad: the scientific process has been corrupted, possibly beyond repair. The attempt to stifle debate on anthropogenic global warming by hijacking scientific boards and character assassination is a perfect example of that. And now we’re seeing it in spades in California and air quality regulation.

Do yourself a favor and check out the entire post.


The poltical class in this country has been working itself into a lather the past 2-3 years over what they perceive as an anti-intellectualism that has seized the conservative movement and the country class as a whole.

They've got it all wrong. It's not an anti-intellectualism per se but rather anti-intellecuals as in we're done listening to intellectuals spew what they perceive as intellect and science because they have become hopelessly compromised and corrupted beyond redemption.

And unlike their favorite bogeyman, the collective religious right, the fact that they sit at the levers of power means their moral scolding actually gets codified into law by vote or regulatory fiat giving them much more control over our lives than Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson could ever dream of having in their worst fever swamp nightmares.

Much like our open-border adversaries, the "intellectuals" have poisoned the well with their bad faith negotiating and junk science and finding any common ground upon which to move forward is gone until they all exit the stage.

Anti-intellectualism? Quite the opposite, really.



P.S. The video suggests that Dr. Enstrom's hearing was on April 4th. We'll keep our eyes peeled to see how it went down and will post accordingly.

Erin Brockovich...?

... eh, probably not.


You would think this was being pitched to Paramount or Miramax executives as we speak.

It's all there: whistle-blowing, speaking truth to power, pointing out fraudulent science generated by people with fraudulent credentials and fighting to keep one's job.

Unfortunately, Dr. James Enstrom is on the wrong side of the narrative. Leslie at Temple of Mut has the details, here.

Coach Wooden (UPDATED)

We could not have been more than 7 or 8 years old and we were heaving a basketball at the rim bolted to the garage of the homestead in Placentia, California while Pops shagged the misses for us.

One of our hoists unintentionally banked off the backboard and through the hoop. Though inelegant, Pops thought we had immediately grasped one of the more fundamental aspects of close-range shooting and proclaimed, "Coach Wooden would approve."

Like a bolt of lightning to our young mind that affirmation by proxy from the legendary coach of the UCLA Bruins was.
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One of the enduring ironies if you are familiar with the Los Angeles sports scene is this: for a culture that is so temporal and is entirely about "the next big thing", trendiness and glamour and which lacks substance of any kind, the three most iconic sports figures, Vin Scully, Chick Hearn and John Wooden were men of faith and family and who plied their respective trades for decades and who did it in a gracious and humble fashion in a land around them where grace and humility are considered completely foreign terms.

Coach Wooden passed away last night at the age of 99.

R.I.P., Coach





(UPDATE #1): When you go to people that speak of John Wooden, your first stop is one of his former players, Bill Walton:

“John Wooden represents the conquest of substance over hype, the triumph of achievement over erratic flailing, the conquest of discipline over gambling, and the triumph of executing an organized plan over hoping that you’ll be lucky, hot or in the zone.

“John Wooden also represents the conquest of sacrifice, hard work and commitment to achievement over the pipe dream that someone will just give you something, or that you can take a pill or turn a key to get what you want.

“The joy and happiness in Coach Wooden’s life came from the success and accomplishments of others. He never let us forget what he learned from his two favorite teachers, Abraham Lincoln and Mother Theresa, “that a life not lived for others is not a life.”

“I thank John Wooden every day for all his selfless gifts, his lessons, his time, his vision and especially his faith and patience. This is why our eternal love for him will never fade away. This is why we call him ‘Coach.’”

We so won't jinx this by mentioning it.

That Coca-Cola commercial that shows video footage of a diminutive yet lightning quick UCLA point guard hitting a right-handed runner high off the glass over the outstretched arm of a much taller defender wasn’t hi-lite footage from last night’s UCLA game it was merely the last time UCLA was a #1 seed and sleep-walked through a 2nd round game against a #8 seed from the Big 12 only to have their point guard bail them out in the last second(s). Tyus Edney… meet Darren Collison.

UCLA’s effort nearly made us look prescient. One’s got to think that the lack of offensive consistency and habit of mounting furious come-backs seemingly every week is eventually going to bite them in the arse…. no such, thus far as the Bruins snatched victory from defeat against Texas A&M last night 53-49.

Previously, we had lamented the lack of a go-to perimeter guy for the Bruins, a job that was to be Josh Shipp’s but one which Shipp has politely declined as he is in the midst of a season-long shooting slump. Our fears may be unfounded, though, as Collison seems of late to be quite capable of providing this perimeter scoring and tending to his primary play-making responsibilities.
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Maybe its because of the amount of basketball we’ve watched these past four days, but aside from the upsets and the high drama of many of the games, particularly last night (the Stanford-Marquette game is an instant classic), the thing that stands out most to us is the terrible officiating. And not at just one site or with a handful of crews…. evidence this weekend on T.V. has demonstrated that this is a nationwide epidemic.

We didn’t see this coming: We liked Washington St. against Notre Dame but we didn’t expect WAZU to hold the Domers to nearly half their scoring average and only 13 field goals (24.5% for the game) in a 61-41 victory. Ouch.

All the Pac-10 haters can go back to shoveling their driveway, scraping their windshield or whatever it is people east of Yuma do on a daily basis. After a disappointing 3-3 first round showing, the Pac-10 will have 3 teams in the Sweet 16 as opposed to possibly just 1 for the hallowed ACC (as of this post Miami is down 8 to Texas with a minute left and North Carolina plays later this afternoon).

oh, btw... UCLA won the national championship back in '95 when Edney hit that runner against Missouri. doh!

P.S. Texas just beat Miami. Its now up to North Caroling to salvage ACC pride against Arkansas.

LAST, click, LAST, click, LAST, click, LAST, click, LAST, click....

From 2:30 P.M. to 3:15ish, that was the button on the remote getting the workout of its life as both the UCLA Bruins (at Arizona) and the Lakers (at home against the Dallas Mavericks) were locked-up in tight ones and we were going back and forth between the two in frantic fashion.

The 4th-ranked Bruins hung on 68-66 against the Wildcats for their 7th straight victory against them. Story from SI.com here. (By the way, our man, Billy Packer was kicked out west to broadcast this game for CBS. At this very moment, Packer is well into a 4-5 hour in-flight harangue of his broadcast partner Jim Nantz over how this Sunday afternoon game will put them back in New York 3 A.M. EST and how that will just shoot to hell the entire Monday work day and why couldn't they do a Saturday game instead and.... bitch, bitch, bitch....)

The Bruins have been getting a lot of love nationally as both Jay Bilas and Andy Katz of ESPN have called UCLA the best team in the nation. UCLA’s ability to lock-down teams with their pressure man-to-man and ability to create turnovers out top with guards Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook remain their strong suit.

We worry though at times that as good as the guards are on defense, they play a little out-of-control on offense, a cardinal sin come tournament time. Also, Josh Shipp, a junior, who is/was supposed to be that go-to guy in the Bruin offense…. that guy they could look to get them a bucket or go to the rim to draw a foul and get to the line in crunchtime in the same manner Aaron Afflalo was the past two seasons for the Bruins, is experiencing a crisis of confidence right now. He scored only 7 points on 3-7 shooting and didn’t look comfortable doing it. Whatever is ailing him, hopefully he gets it worked out soon.

We’re going to keep a close watch on things because as much as we like this team, the sometimes skittish guard play and Josh Shipp’s apparent regression has us worried.

Now about these Lakers… They won 108-104 in OT against the Mavs with Kobe Bryant dropping 52 points. They have now won 11 of their last 12 and as of this posting are a ½ game ahead of the Spurs in the West who are playing the Nets this afternoon.

Barring catastrophe, Kobe appears to be the favorite to win the MVP this year. If he does so, we will file the achievement under “irony” as he probably should’ve won it in any of the 3 prior seasons. Kobe actually has some players around him this year like Pau Gasol and emerging young talents like the injured Andrew Bynum, Jordan Farmar and Ronny Turiaf.

You know, the Lakers just might win an NBA championship if they can find a way to contain Lamar Odom’s room temeperature basketball I.Q. In the last :30 of regulation, Odom missed two free throws that would’ve stretched the lead to 3, completely lost Dirk Nowitski allowing him to drain a three to tie the game when everyone in the house knew he was going to get the ball and finally, with 2 seconds left, tie ballgame and Laker ball at midcourt, Odom threw a horrible inbound pass to Kobe which was easily batted away by Jason Kidd forcing OT.

Phil Jackson needs to be held accountable for that decision, though. Upon seeing Odom trot to the sideline to take the ball to inbound it, we figured there was a 50-50 chance that the ball wouldn’t even reach its intended target.

When Bynum makes it back from his injury, we foresee some lineup changes that will probably result in less playing time for Lamar. His physical abilities are phenomenal but the guy drives us absolutely nuts with his mental execution or lack thereof.

All in all, not a bad day of hoops here in SoCal.

It Helps that these Bruins are Worth Watching

(...this is what happens when you sit on a post. We were ready to run this last week - it was in the can, ready to go but it kind of got lost in the shuffle of some other stuff we wanted to get to and look what happened. UCLA winds up losing to arch-rival USC over the weekend. Our bad, Coach Howland. Sorry.)

Despite his 97 years, ex-UCLA coach and the greatest college basketball coach ever, John Wooden has been a regular at UCLA games since he retired over 30 years ago. And because of his legend and the model human being he is, his autograph has always been highly sought after by fans…. during the game. Story from L.A. Times, here.

Wooden’s family has requested, though, that the Wizard of Westwood be left in peace to watch the game without having to satisfy autograph requests. After having to sit through the games of the terminally hapless Steve Lavin-coached Bruins, we suppose that signing autographs for fans was a welcome diversion from being forced to watch the train-wreck out on the court. To a program that was chronically talented yet underachieving, Coach Ben Howland (Cerritos High School, ‘76) who came from the University of Pittsburgh 5 seasons ago, has brought a Big East grittiness and a quality of play that has resulted in two straight Final Four appearances and which we’re sure the Coach admires and appreciates. Now if all you autograph hounds would kindly take your seats, the Coach would like to take in some good hoops. Enjoy the games again, Coach!