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Dave MacLeod versus Dave Birkett
On a perfect June day with skylarks chorusing about the snuff-dry volcanic rock, we are the only party on England's finest, tallest cliff. High above on Scafell, a wiry figure with a bottle-brush mop of hair is climbing an overhanging 5.13 X arete, his ropes sailing into fresh air to land 20 feet clear of the base.
"Bit o' slack, please, as I cut loose over this overhang -- and, er, watch me like a hawk, eh?" is all Dave Birkett says as he starts a mazy, technical sequence up the prow. I can't quite believe he'd just trust a complete stranger like me to hold the ropes on something like this. He climbs steadily upward with controlled precision, each foothold carefully keyed with a toe, each handhold gripped with firm intent. Birkett is now gecko-ing up 30 feet above his last wire. But he dispatches the climb, Death Arete, with economy of effort and no dramatics, just careful, purposeful movement. It's a smooth and almost Zen-like performance, giving no indication that this man has just climbed one of the most serious traditional climbs in the world.
Birkett, 39, is the elite backwoodsman of U.K. climbing, performing modern miracles in a distinctly unfashionable traditional mountain setting. His predilection for his home Lake District's high mountain rock is out of tune with modern trends -- it's a venue associated in many young climbers' minds with the tweedy Victorian origins of the sport, and situated a world away from the epicenters of Peak gritstone or Welsh crags.
"I love it up here", Birkett says when asked why he continually makes the calf-sapping 2,000-foot hike to the base of Lakeland's loftiest crag. "I'm happiest when I'm hanging around on a rope in the clouds -- which is where I started, I suppose, waiting in the mist for Granddad while rounding up sheep."
Reclining on a tump of grass, he looks the very picture of a man at peace with the world, almost blending into the Cumbrian landscape with his nut-brown outdoor worker's perma-tan and his amiable border collie, Jess, by his side; a passing walker would probably assume him to be the fell shepherd he almost became. "I was raised on my grandfather's hill farm in Langdale. He had four daughters and I think it was kind of assumed I'd take over when he retired," he reminisces, "but when I got into my teens I discovered climbing and that, pretty much, was the end of that."
And in his wild and remote home fells, with no roadside audience to shout encouragement, and often reduced to practicing moves alone on a shunt, Birkett has blasted traditional grades sky-high. But he insists that's not the main motivation driving his climbing.
"Modern climbing seems to be so numbers oriented," he says. "So many folk out there have no feel for an aesthetic line."
This sentiment, although heartfelt, nevertheless sounds comically ironic given Birkett's climbing achievements over the last few years, in which Big Numbers feature rather prominently. Although long ignored or little-known by the climbing media, Birkett was one of the pioneers of modern Extreme Trad, ushering in the era of the E9 grade to Lakeland with his ascent of If Six was Nine (E9 6c/5.13 X) on Thirlmere's Lower Iron Crag as long ago as 1992. The futuristic line recently received its one and only repeat, 16 years later.
A stream of Nines followed Birkett's first foray into the grade: Impact Day (E9 6c/5.13 X) lies on the remote and exposed mountain crag of Pavey Ark, while Talbot Horizon (E9 6c/5.13 X), Welcome to the Cruel World (E9 7a/5.14 X), Just Another Lonely Day (E9 6c/5.13 X) and The Return of the King (E9 6c/5.13 X) all grace the peerless but fearsome rock architecture of Scafell.
Birkett's E8s and E9s all follow beautifully sculpted pieces of mountain rock. The slender and overhanging Death Arete provides an airy and bewilderingly exposed contrast to the gloomy chasm of Deep Gill over which it towers. In the very early morning light of mid-summer the arete, catching some ephemeral illumination that creates a dramatic chiaroscuro, reveals an intricate series of tiny crimps and slopers that only Birkett recognized as a climb. But, as in all his recent routes, the beauty comes with menace; Birkett's lines are deadly serious undertakings. It's a feature that further distinguishes his achievements from those reported from other outcrops: There are no roadside emergency services, crew of spotters or mounds of bouldering mats here. It helps explain why so few have taken up their challenge.
"Too hard and too bold," says Paul Cornforth, a frequent partner of Birkett's and one of the U.K.'s best climbers in the 1980s." Nobody wants to push the boat out like that, do they? Not at the moment, anyway. Despite the rise in standards [on sport climbs and bouldering], you need a different mental approach to do routes like his. You need to be happy in the mountains and you need to have a huge desire to do them. Otherwise you'll probably die."
A measure of Birkett's outrageous ability to keep it together was his bravura performance during the hot summer of 2003 when he onsighted James McHaffie's exhaustingly overhanging Fear of Failure (E8 6c/5.13 X) on Dove Crag in the eastern Lake District. The sustained 200-foot route, dubbed harrowing by one local activist, Steve Crowe, takes a frighteningly exposed line across a sweeping wall of shadowed rock with little respite for the arms and with a crux of strenuous pinch grips. Although pushed to the limit, Birkett contrived a painful knee-bar rest that enabled him to recover below the crux after sorting out the crucial gear. This almost overlooked achievement remains the only true E8 onsight achieved to date and possibly the hardest traditional onsight in the world.
It takes a vast inner stillness even to contemplate such a feat.
Birkett, brought up in a traditional northern English culture where "showing off" is nearly as much of a sin as wasting food or money, remains resolutely insouciant about his climbing and undemonstrative in its execution.
"I don't think I could ever get to the top of something and shout, Yeah!' I just haven't got that in me," Birkett says. "It's all kind of calm, that energy's working inward, making it nice and smooth." He climbs all routes, of whatever grade, the same way.
When the climbing filmmaker Alastair Lee asked Birkett whether he liked belayers to support him by shouting encouragement, Birkett replied, "I think I'd ask to get lowered off, and then I'd have to punch 'em!"
In a sport dominated by urban-dwellers, Birkett is also unusual for being a genuine man of the country. With his pick-up truck and unabashed penchant for old-school country music (Jolene' has got to be one of the best songs of all time!), Birkett appears the very epitome of modern rural Britain. He would easily merge into the milling crowds at the Cumberland Agricultural Show with his craggy, angular face and large, callused stonemason's hands, but might possibly look a little out of place at a bouldering competition wearing his rubber boots. Birkett's nickname among his urban climbing friends used to be Hillbilly.
He remains essentially an amateur, living with his South African-born wife, Mary Jenner, in a tiny rented cottage close to where he was raised, and generating the bulk of his income from his full-time job of building and farm-contracting work. Ironically, thanks to all the people who want their holiday homes doing up, this is probably the first time in me life I've actually earned some decent money, he says, but no matter how hard I work I'm never going to be able to afford a house in the Lakes. I'm probably going to be in my local authority rented house to the end of my days, but it could be worse. Birkett has long operated without any commercial imperative or audience.
One of the things he hasn't got, what with not being sponsored until recently, says local climber Stephen Reid, is pressure to do these routes. It's up to him, he can please himself.
Birkett's era of anonymity finally changed after he was shadowed by the filmmakers Alastair Lee and David Halsted for the biopic Set in Stone. Exhibiting both the breathtakingly serious routes Birkett climbs, and the beauty of the Lake District landscapes in which they are set, it has garnered numerous awards at mountain film festivals in the U.K. and overseas.
"Birkett," Lee says, "has the wisdom and serenity of somebody twice his age, yet the strength and sheer athleticism of somebody half his age."
Lee illustrates Birkett's laid-back approach by describing the night before his ascent of The Return of the King, a 5.13 X featuring super-strenuous crimps and overhanging wall climbing with don't-even-think-about-it protection.
Dave had been up till late the night before insisting on having a final pint before leaving the pub at midnight, says Lee. Then he was up at 6 making bacon butties for everyone before he burnt everyone off on the walk up to the hill. Lee rolls his eyes as he describes Birkett's warm-up: Just climbing up the first 20 feet of the route and down again. Then he just said: Right, let's get on with it.' There wasn't an energy drink or power gel in sight.
As to the future, Birkett still has plenty of hard lines in the pipeline. "I'm not into average' new routes," he says. "I want them all to be good quality lines." But one may yet elude him. As he confessed in Set in Stone, "There's one line on Scafell which is an awesome feature, but it's probably just too hard -- it's the next level, F9a/b French grade (V14/15) with no gear -- and I'm 39. I ain't going to get there -- which is a shame, really."
Two hundred miles to the north of Cumbria, in an equally unfashionable Scottish cragscape, lives a man who might well get there.
This is the other Dave who is setting the U.K.'s extreme trad scene on fire. Until recently Dave MacLeod was an unknown Scottish climber with no car or driver's license who also channeled his energy into climbing on his local cliffs. Unlike Birkett's home patch, however, this was no beauteous national park, but the heavily griffitied urban cliff of Dumbarton Rock, a volcanic plug of steep basalt situated in the penumbra of rust-belt towns north of Glasgow. It's a historically important place nonetheless, for its role as the capital of the former Dark Age Celtic Kingdom of Strathclyde and the point of departure for France of the six-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots -- and now as the location of the world's first, and thus far only, E11 (5.14c R/X): Rhapsody, climbed last year by MacLeod after a two-year siege.
Rhapsody initially follows the overhanging crack line of the established E8 6b (5.13b) Requiem, itself a mind-blower. But two-thirds of the way up the face, when a climber's forearms are already screaming, MacLeod's groundbreaking route powers onto overhanging, unprotectable face climbing on tiny crimps and sidepulls. The pursuit of this prize, which obsessed MacLeod for over a year, was captured with the cameras of Paul Diffley and Dave Brown from Edinburgh and resulted in the film E11, which has rapidly become an international climbing film cult classic. This is in no small part due to the repeated series of truly monster lobs which MacLeod took from the finishing holds of the route, 70-foot plummets onto an RP microwire that occasionally broke -- leading to even bigger plummets. By the time he was through, MacLeod had clocked 500 feet of airtime and had suffered numerous, fortunately minor, injuries, although on more than one occasion he came close to slamming hard headfirst into the cliff when his legs caught in the ropes. In many ways, in terms of tactics and degrees of difficulty, this was a top-end sport climb -- without the safety of sport-climbing protection.
"I've no shortage of trying in me," MacLeod says with a grin, when asked if he was ever discouraged by repeatedly failing on the very last move. A short, almost slight-looking individual with a mop of unruly lank black hair and a disarmingly permanent smile plastered across his pale, boyish face, MacLeod shares the laid-back diffidence of his English counterpart Dave Birkett. But this similarly hides a steely determination to finish a job, no matter how difficult, once started.
"Basically I knew I had something special on my hands. So it was worth going all out and nailing it no matter what. At Dumbarton I had developed technique that suited the rock type extremely well from climbing there for over a decade. And once I realized it was a possibility for me to complete it and realized how it would compare to other trad routes around, it was obvious that I had to really, really go for it. If I did it, I would have a complete expression of everything I want out of climbing." Rhapsody remains unrepeated -- as do all of MacLeod's other top-end first ascents.
Dumbie,' as its aficionados call Dumbarton Rock, seems an unlikely place for an ascent of world significance. The cliffs are invariably overrun by Wee Neds: school-dodging underage drinkers. As a local teenager in the early 1990s, MacLeod too became an almost constant feature of the place, but he was attracted only to its climbing.
Against this gritty background MacLeod, usually climbing alone (no one else in his working-class Glasgow family or from school had any interest in climbing), bagged some of Dumbarton's trickiest boulder problems, and he had soon mastered V12. Boulders didn't hold him for long, though; armed with his newly honed technical skills, and a belayer at last, he headpointed formerly toprope-only routes in the area at E7 6c (5.13 X), before breaking out into the Highland mountains for the first repeats of some of the hardest routes. One was Femme Fatale (E8 6c/5.13a X), lying in the shadow of Britain's highest peak, Ben Nevis, a route that had lain unrepeated since 1984.
The angle of trajectory steepened when MacLeod became a full-time student of sports physiology at Glasgow University. Between studies he began adding new E8s and, in 2001, Scotland's first E9, Achemine (E9 7a/5.13d R), back at Dumbarton.
In one extraordinary month in 2002, he created both Scotland's second E9, Hold Fast (also the motto of the Clan MacLeod) and the first-ever repeat of a Scottish Winter Grade IX (approximately M8 with lousy gear) -- The Duel in Glen Coe. Soon he was onsighting some of the hardest winter climbs in the U.K. -- and therefore possibly the hardest traditionally protected winter climbs in the world. In 2005 he created the hardest technical climb yet made in the U.K. in winter, the first XI, 11: The Hurting, a one-pitch desperation piece in the Cairngorms' Coire an Lochain, entailing M11 style climbing above extremely poor gear with two crux sections from which groundfall would be probable. The holds are tiny -- sometimes just a tooth of a pick behind crystals in the granite. The route is hard 5.11 in summer.
The nerve and coolness required to pull off such a climb stunned the sometimes insular Scottish winter mountaineering community -- by reputation one of the hardest climbing constituencies in the world to impress. The fact that Macleod also tenaciously made the ascent in a full-blown Cairngorms blizzard only increased their respect. Scottish winter climbing is serious and poorly protected at the best of times, but th weather afflicting the sub-arctic Cairngorms can rival Patagonia in its severity.
MacLeod's ascendance as the new winter master was confirmed this year by his ascent of a multi-pitch XI, 11 on Ben Nevis. It's an achievement without precedent in Scotland. As Dave Brown, co-director of the film E11, who was roped in to second Mac-Leod on the route on a previous attempt, points out: "The prospect of seconding became quite terrifying as I waited. In theory I can climb that sort of difficulty, about M11. The reality, of course, is that Continental mixed climbing is a million miles away from the full-on Scottish experience. An M11, pre-practiced, protected by bolts -- 15 minutes to climb it. This is all quite different from the huge Scottish walk-in, blizzard conditions, onsight climbing, 12 hours on the route."
The Scottish winter grading system involves two numerals: The Roman numeral refers to overall seriousness (in much the same way the British summer trad system employs an adjectival grade), while the Arabic numeral refers to the hardest technical move on the route. At the moment the system runs from I, 1 to (you guessed it) XI, 11.
Amazingly, MacLeod has contrived to achieve all this without the use of a car. I still don't have a driving license but as I couldn't have afforded a car until very recently it probably hasn't made much of a difference, he says. Despite scraping a living as a climbing coach and through some sponsorship deals, MacLeod continues to rely on public transport and hitching lifts -- something that would be almost impossible in England.
"It's one of the reasons I've done very little in the Lake District," he says. "The public transport is rubbish and really expensive." In Scotland, with a semi-autonomous government committed to sustaining rural transport, he can get an early bus from a major city into the Highlands and spend a day working on projects in the mountains. "And I've been amazed how easy it is to hitch even with a bouldering mat -- I've rarely waited more than 15 minutes for a lift."
This frenzy of multi-genre climbing activity led to Mac-Leod appearing on the cover of U.K. climbing magazines and dubbed Britain's best all-rounder. MacLeod has put up Scotland's hardest boulder problem, Pressure (F8b/V13) at Dumbarton, and the hardest sport route, Metalcore (F8c+/5.14c) in the Highlands; and in addition to having made the U.K.'s hardest free solo, Hurlyburly (F8b/5.13d), this year he pulled off what may well be the hardest free solo in the world, Darwin Dixit (F8c/5.14b) at Margalef, Spain.
"I feel sorry for people who specialize," says MacLeod, "because I always see people go through months of down time, low motivation and no climbing. But ultimately it comes down to living in Scotland. If you want to just go out climbing a lot, you have to do what makes sense according to the conditions, which, in this country, have many different faces. Being a specialist in Scotland would be hard on the motivation unless you were very philosophical." MacLeod remains unmoved by indoor climbing and has no interest at all in competitions.
"My enthusiasm lies with Scottish cliffs in general," says MacLeod. "Grit is OK, but is obviously over-hyped. I like it, but it's just a tiny part of what's on offer. In Scotland there is more in every sense. There is more rock: bigger, higher, more dramatic, wilder. There is also more variety in the rock and the character of the experience. There is opportunity to climb new routes anywhere you go in the country. And if you see someone else at the crag it's a nice wee treat, instead of trying to avoid crowds." To many outsiders (and that includes most English climbers), Scottish climbing evokes a vision of horrendous approach marches across midge-infested bogs, streaming cliffs in obscure corries, and cold mossy rock.
"The best thing about Scottish climbing is the conditions!" MacLeod exclaims in protest. "There is no off-season for rock: you can climb at your limit all through the summer simply because it's that little bit colder -- most of Europe is a write-off for extreme climbing at that time because of the heat, but high up on places like the Ben it's nearly always possible to pull on small slopers."
Last summer, as part of the emerging wider recognition of MacLeod's talent, he was invited to participate in a live outside TV broadcast by the BBC designed to showcase their new High Definition service. The $1 million broadcast was abandoned due to predictably foul Highland weather -- but not MacLeod's project. In a short drier interlude, he climbed the most serious trad mountain route in Britain with To Hell and Back (E10 6c/5.13c X). The 270-foot route climbs a smooth vertical wall and an overhanging granite headwall on the fearsomely wild and remote Hell's Lum, one of the great cliffs in the sub-Arctic wilderness in the Cairngorms. A fall from anywhere on the second half of pitch one is unlikely to be survivable.
Says Dave, "The route overstepped the red line for me, but not in terms of personal danger, just in terms of the cost of dealing with the danger. I want to be a climber pushing my limits. But I don't want to be a climber pushing everyone else's limits as well, even temporarily." Dave was belayed by his worried wife, Claire (the two have been together since school days), who was prepared to throw herself down an ankle-snapping boulder-strewn gully in order to try to reduce the fall factor should he peel from the wet slopers. "She's saved me a couple of times already with this kind of maneuver," says MacLeod. "Claire's one of the best people I know for doing that kind of extreme belaying!"
"I'd quite willingly throw myself down if it saved his life," Claire confirms unhesitatingly. MacLeod pulled the route out of the bag, but only just. Thanks to the appalling weather having soaked the crag for days beforehand, MacLeod, utterly committed to using wet, greasy slopers above the death drop, yelled courage into himself. The reverberations of his shouts of fear echoed down the dripping walls of the sinister Hells Lum, inducing heart-stopping apprehension in his belayer and everyone watching.
As a result, MacLeod described the climb as the scariest day of my life.
"It's the most dangerous lead I've ever done. When I got there I just felt guilty for engaging with this undertaking in the first place. On a personal level it's OK. I'm up for this type of experience, full on as it is. But it's not fair on everyone else for me to be walking around for 10 days consumed in my own ugly world of fear, and blind to other people's needs. I'm massively in their debt, especially Claire's. So my next challenge is to climb something like this or harder, without my personal hell spilling beyond my own head."
Recently, he has moved even deeper into mountain territory, upping sticks and relocating to the West Highlands of Scotland under the shadow of Ben Nevis with Claire. Are we likely to see Rhapsody-style levels of extremity appearing on the big, high cliffs?
"Yes, without a doubt that is the plan!" he says excitedly. "I have done the moves on an unbelievable mountain crag project 1,100 meters up on the Ben. It's much harder than Rhapsody and at one point the climbing is unprotected. That will be my deal from mid-summer onwards. I feel I have the leading head, patience and the logistical skills for it, but I need to be climbing F9a (V14) to manage the physical difficulty. I've still got work to do there."
Beyond their contribution of extreme headpoints, the Brave Daves have done something completely unforeseen. After a decade in which the Peak District gritstone outcrops of England have dominated the hard trad headlines, the center of gravity has been pulled north back up into the mountains by a couple of unflashy working-class climbers. They've taken trad climbing by the scruff of the neck and back to its old mountain roots -- where it's been re-born fitter and fresher than ever.
Colin Wells lives in Hope, a village in the English Peak District. Surrounded by frightening outcrops, he escapes to the mountains to climb frozen choss at every opportunity.


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'The rules are the rules': Government shuts down 11-year-old's cupcake business
The government has pulled the plug on an 11-year-old Illinois baker's oven.
A day after a local newspaper ran a story about the young and ambitious Chloe Stirling, who operated a cupcake business out of her parents' kitchen, the local health department came calling.
"They called and said they were shutting us down," Heather Stirling, Chloe's mother, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Officials told Stirling Chloe could continue selling cupcakes on the condition that the family "buy a bakery or build her a kitchen separate from the one we have."
"Obviously, we can't do that," Heather Stirling told reporters. "We've already given her a little refrigerator to keep her things in, and her grandparents bought her a stand mixer."
The elder Stirling said that she was willing to get her daughter any necessary licenses or permits to operate a business, but could not meet the health department's other demands.
"But a separate kitchen? Who can do that?" asked an astonished Stirling.
When reporters approached Amy Yeager, a health department spokeswoman, about the county's decision to shut down Chloe's business, she said that she was doing it for the sake of the public.

subset: commoncrawl


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Kanye West slams Annie Leibovitz for dropping out of photographing wedding
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Kanye West is blasting Annie Leibovitz – who photographed the rapper and Kim Kardashian for their Vogue cover — for dropping out of shooting his wedding just one day before the nuptials.
The singer even admits he then spent four days of his honeymoon perfecting the official wedding photo.
"She was afraid of celebrity," West says of Leibovitz on Tuesday during his surprise appearance at the Cannes Lions festival.
Despite the setback, the rapper refused to settle for anything but the best when it came to the picture that eventually became the most liked Instagram post in history.
"Let me tell you something about that kiss photo that my girl put up… This was pissing my girl off during the honeymoon," explains West. "She was exhausted because we worked on the photo so much because Annie Leibovitz pulled out of the wedding, because I think she was scared of the idea of celebrity."
"But I still wanted my wedding photos to look like Annie Leibovitz," he adds.
West reveals spending "like four days" fixing the picture of himself kissing his new wife in front of a wall of roses at the Forte di Belvedere in Florence because the flowers were off-color.
"Now, can you imagine telling someone who just wants to Instagram a photo, the No. 1 person on Instagram, that we need to work on the color of the flowered wall?" he asks. "But the fact that the No. 1 most liked photo has this certain aesthetic on it was a win for what the mission is — of raising the palette."
West notes that "when people think celebrity, which is the highest form of communication — we're like walking networks or TV shows or brands in ourselves — you don't think good taste."
"And I believe that bad taste is vulgar," he continues. "It's like cursing. I think the world can be saved through design. Because what is the most distasteful thing someone can do? Kill someone. So, good taste is the opposite of that."
Photo Credit Getty Images


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Mat Zo announces Damage Control bus tour support acts
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Mat Zo is about to take control with his debut artist album Damage Control and his upcoming North American headlining bus tour.
But he's not hitting the road alone. He has announced his support acts for the tour, and joining him on his Damage Control bus tour are Norin & Rad, Treasure Fingers, Nom De Strip, and Matt Lange.
In a press release, Mat says, "I wanted acts that could deliver variety but with their own unique styles. Each of the acts that will be joining me is known for individuality and doing things on their own terms rather than just following the status quo."
The tour kicks off on Halloween in Denver, and ends in Orlando December 21st, after 24 dates all over North America.
Get ready for some Damage Control. Mat's debut album will be released on November 5th, and includes his chart-topper with Porter Robinson "Easy," his collab with Chuck D. of Public Enemy "Pyramid Scheme," and his next single "Lucid Dreams."
Find out when/where Mat & crew are coming to a city near you:
Mat Zo North American Tour Dates
October 31 BETA - Denver, CO (w/ Norin & Rad)
November 01 The Depot - Salt Lake City, UT (w/ Norin & Rad)
November 02 LIGHT - Las Vegas, NV
November 05 Rise Nightclub - Reno, NV (w/ Norin & Rad)
November 06 Assembly - Sacramento, CA (w/ Norin & Rad)
November 07 Ruby Skye - San Francisco, CA (w/ Norin & Rad)
November 08 Bassmnt - San Diego, CA (w/ Nom De Strip)
November 09 Create - Los Angeles, CA (w/ Nom De Strip)
November 10 Sutra - Newport Beach, CA (w/ Nom De Strip)
November 14 Launchpad - Albuquerque, NM (w/ Matt Lange)
November 15 Plum - El Paso, TX (w/ Matt Lange)
November 16 Stereo LIVE - Houston, TX (w/ Matt Lange)
November 17 Haven - Austin, TX (w/ Matt Lange)
November 18 Heaven - Lubbock, TX (w/ Norin & Rad)
November 19 SiSu - Dallas, TX (w/ Norin & Rad)
November 21 LIV - Miami, FL (w/ Norin & Rad)
November 22 Simons - Gainsville, FL (w/ Norin & Rad)
November 23 Amphitheater - Tampa, FL (w/ Norin & Rad)
December 12 Royale - Boston, MA (w/ Treasure Fingers)
December 13 LIT - Philadelphia, PA (w/ Treasure Fingers)
December 14 Guvernment - Toronto, ON (w/ Treasure Fingers)
December 19 Ultra Bar - Washington, DC (w/ Treasure Fingers)
December 20 Pacha - New York, NY (w/ Treasure Fingers)
December 21 Roxy – Orlando, FL (w/ Treasure Fingers)


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Obama denies his Syrian 'red line' comments
President Barack Obama repeatedly denied Wednesday that he ever set a "red line" against the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and he insisted that the "world community" and Congress created the so-called red line, and should enforce the line.
"I didn't set a red line," he insisted to reporters at a press conference in Sweden Wednesday morning.
"The world set a red line when governments representing 98 percent of the world's population said the use of chemical weapons are abhorrent and passed a [1993] treaty forbidding their use even when countries are engaged in war," he said.
"Congress set a red line when it indicated that — in a piece of legislation [in 2003] titled the Syria Accountability Act that some of the horrendous things that are happening on the ground there need to be answered for," he said.
Following the Syrian gas attack on Aug. 21, Obama called on the U.S. and foreign governments to respond, or give up efforts to police rogue nations. "Are we going to try to find a reason not to act? And if that's the case, then I think the world community should admit it," he said.
"My credibility is not on the line," he insisted. "The international community's credibility is on the line, and America and Congress' credibility is on the line, because we give [only] lip service to the notion that these international norms are important," he said.
Obama's repeated denial of his red line statements comes as Congress debates whether to let him lead the nation into a limited war in Syria.


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Whole Foods: America's Temple of Pseudoscience
If you want to write about spiritually-motivated pseudoscience in America, you head to the Creation Museum in Kentucky. It's like a Law of Journalism. The museum has inspired hundreds of book chapters and articles (some of them, admittedly, mine) since it opened up in 2007. The place is like media magnet. And our nation's liberal, coastal journalists are so many piles of iron fillings.
But you don't have to schlep all the way to Kentucky in order to visit America's greatest shrine to pseudoscience. In fact, that shrine is a 15-minute trip away from most American urbanites.
I'm talking, of course, about Whole Foods Market. From the probiotics aisle to the vaguely ridiculous Organic Integrity outreach effort (more on that later), Whole Foods has all the ingredients necessary to give Richard Dawkins nightmares. And if you want a sense of how weird, and how fraught, the relationship between science, politics, and commerce is in our modern world, then there's really no better place to go. Because anti-science isn't just a religious, conservative phenomenon—and the way in which it crosses cultural lines can tell us a lot about why places like the Creation Museum inspire so much rage, while places like Whole Foods don't.
My own local Whole Foods is just a block away from the campus of Duke University. Like almost everything else near downtown Durham, N.C., it's visited by a predominantly liberal clientele that skews academic, with more science PhDs per capita than a Mensa convention.
Still, there's a lot in your average Whole Foods that's resolutely pseudoscientific. The homeopathy section has plenty of Latin words and mathematical terms, but many of its remedies are so diluted that, statistically speaking, they may not contain a single molecule of the substance they purport to deliver. The book section—yep, Whole Foods sells books—boasts many M.D.'s among its authors, along with titles like The Coconut Oil Miracle and Herbal Medicine, Healing, and Cancer, which was written by a theologian and based on what the author calls the Eclectic Triphasic Medical System.
You can buy chocolate with "a meld of rich goji berries and ashwagandha root to strengthen your immune system," and bottles of ChlorOxygen chlorophyll concentrate, which "builds better blood." There's cereal with the kind of ingredients that are "made in a kitchen—not in a lab," and tea designed to heal the human heart.
Read The Full Article On The Daily Beast
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- Spy Chief James Clapper: We Can't Stop Another Snowden
- After CNN Cancels Morgan, Larry King Says: I Could Come Back
- Teaching a Lesson to Bullies and Educators Alike
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Mitch McConnell Is Now Tea Party Enemy No. 1
Tea Party anger at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell raged from a simmer to a rolling boil Thursday as details emerged about his role to strike a deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to end the government shutdown and temporarily raise the nation's debt ceiling.
McConnell had been noticeably absent from previous Senate fights this year as he geared up for a Tea Party challenge from Kentucky businessman Matt Bevin in 2014, followed by a likely general-election battle against the state's well-funded Democratic secretary of state, Alison Lundergan Grimes. But McConnell stepped into the fray last week to broker an agreement with Democrats to reopen the government as the Republican Party sank to its lowest approval ratings in decadesand House Republicans dissolved into disarray over the best way to proceed.
McConnell told Politico on Thursday that his goal in forging the compromise was to "to punt the ball to a better place on the field without raising taxes or busting the [spending] caps." But the senator's decision to take the lead in finding a resolution to the standoff only left Tea Party activists further enraged at the man they had already targeted as Enemy No. 1 in the 2014 midterm elections.
Dustin Stockman, cofounder of the Tea Party-aligned Western Representation PAC, fired off a fundraising email Thursday morning that he titled "A Parliament of Traitors and Whores." Stockman pointed to McConnell specifically and accused him of taking a kickback in the form of a multibillion-dollar authorization for a dam system on the Ohio River in Kentucky that was included in the bill, a charge that the senator's office vehemently denied. "The Republican establishment just sold us out," Stockman wrote, in the profanity-laced email. "This is war."
In Kentucky, Tea Party activists said McConnell's role in negotiating the deal with Democratic leaders was disappointing, but not surprising. "He's catching an awful lot of flak at home for it today, which he deserves," said Scott Hofstra of the United Kentucky Tea Party, which is supporting Bevin. "It's just the kind of corruption and backroom deal that we expected of him."
Even though Hofstra lives in Kentucky, he had no praise for the authorization for the state's dam project: "That money has to come from somewhere and it's coming from other people's taxes." Hofstra added that the episode has only added fuel to Tea Partiers looking to unseat the senator. "It's created a furor in the state," he said.
Everett Wilkinson, chairman of the Florida-based National Liberty Federation, called the final debt-limit agreement "a typical Washington backroom deal" and compared McConnell and the Kentucky dam project to Judas Iscariot and the 30 pieces of silver the Bible says he took to betray Jesus Christ. "I think McConnell stabbed the Republicans in the back," Wilkinson said. "The very little spine that they had, he sabotaged."
Read The Full Article On The Daily Beast
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- The Company That Screwed Obamacare Is Doing Better Than Ever
- 'Walmart Moms' Are Furious With Washington
© 2013 Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC


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Weird Ailment Makes Guy Drunk—Without Drinking
(NEWSER) – Is it possible to get drunk without drinking a drop of alcohol? Yes, it turns out, thanks to a rare and bizarre ailment newly dubbed "auto-brewery syndrome." AsNPR explains, the case involved a Texas man who would get drunk at random times while swearing up and down that he hadn't been drinking. Doctors isolated him in a booze-free hospital room for 24 hours and, sure enough, his BAC level magically rose. Or not so magically: It seems he had a lot of brewer's yeast in his gut—he is, or was, a home brewer—and when he ate carb-rich foods, the yeast got busy fermenting.


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Arcadia, CA, March 28 -- Compelling rivalries have always produced great drama in horseracing, and the unforgettable rivalry that evolved between legendary Hall of Fame stars, Sunday Silence and Easy Goer, will be the subject of a two-part special unveiled by HRTV's award-winning documentary show, Inside Information.
Inside Information: The Rivalry, part one, will premiere this Sunday, March 31 at 8:30 p.m. ET, and part two will air on Sunday, April 28 at 8:30 p.m. ET.
In 1989, the clashing of Sunday Silence and Easy Goer on the track was undoubtedly the culmination of what many believed constituted a "perfect" rivalry.
The two were owned by prominent owners in the sport's history -- Arthur Hancock, in partnership with Hall of Fame trainer Charlie Whittingham, and Dr. Edward Gailliard (Sunday Silence), and Ogden Phipps (Easy Goer). Each was trained by legendary Hall of Famers -- the aforementioned Whittingham guiding Sunday Silence, and Shug McGaughey adroitly prepping Easy Goer.
A coast-to-coast rivalry quickly ensued with Easy Goer perceived as an "East Coast" horse, while Sunday Silence commandeered the attention of those on the West Coast.
Part one of "Inside Information: The Rivalry" special focuses on the early portions of both horse's burgeoning careers, and sets up the collision course for the first Saturday in May, which resulted in Sunday Silence's resounding Kentucky Derby win over Easy Goer.
Part two will include the succeeding three epic battles between the two, including Easy Goer's derailing of Sunday Silence's Triple Crown bid in the Belmont through Sunday Silence's gritty neck victory in the ultimate showdown in the Breeders' Cup en route to "Horse of the Year" honors. It will also dissect each's legacy, and chronicle their post-racetrack careers, which included an oustanding stud career in Japan for Sunday Silence, and Easy Goer's tragic, premature death.
The shows offer interviews with many key figures of the rivalry, including: McGaughey, Pat Day (Easy Goer's jockey),
Patrick Valenzuela (Sunday Silence's jockey), Peggy Whittingham, Chris McCarron (who rode Sunday Silence in the Breeeders' Cup), track announcer Trevor Denman, prominent turf writer Bill Finley, Hancock, and many more.
About HRTV
HRTV, The Network for Horse Sports, is a television-based multimedia network dedicated to equine sports. HRTV's programming features horseracing from top U.S. and international racetracks, as well as a wide range of world-class English and Western horse competitions, news, original programming and award-winning documentaries covering the world of horse sports. The live stream of HRTV is available on a subscription basis to high-speed Internet users worldwide at www.tvg2.com <http://www.tvg2.com/> . In the U.S., the HRTV television network is available via telco, cable and satellite in over 19 million homes.
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Now Is Not the Time for New Gun Laws
Monday's horrific mass shooting at the Washington, D.C. Navy Yard left 12 victims (plus the shooter) dead and more than a dozen people wounded. It has raised immediate, impassioned, and understandable—if ultimately misguided—calls for increased levels of gun control now.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a longtime proponent of assault-weapons bans whose effectiveness is questionable at best, announced that the killer was armed with a "military-style assault weapon" and asked, "When will enough be enough?" She argued for restricting sales of AR-15 rifles even though the shooter was not armed with that weapon.
Joining Feinstein in specifically denouncing the AR-15 was CNN host Piers Morgan, who said on his show that the Navy Yard installation had been "infiltrated by a man with a legally purchased AR-15, who just committed the same kind of atrocity as we saw at Sandy Hook and Aurora." After learning that Aaron Alexis had in fact been unable to purchase such a weapon due to existing laws, Morgan tweeted, "Lots of confusion over exactly what guns Wash Navy Yard shooter used. But do you think it matters to the victims? #GunControlNow"
Feinstein's and Morgan's imprecise reactions suggest exactly why legislation shouldn't be crafted, much less passed, in the heat of a crisis. Whether it's truly awful drug laws pushed in the wake of high-profile celebrity deaths, national-security measures rushed unread through Congress after the 9/11 attacks, or transformative bailouts to the banking and auto industries essentially cobbled together over a long weekend, laws should be the product of serious and dispassionate deliberation. We feel with our hearts, yes, but we should govern with our minds.
Any calls for new gun legislation need to be squared with two long-term trends that are directly relevant to the unspeakable crime at the Navy Yard. The first is that mass shootings are not increasing. Northeastern University's James Alan Fox, co-author of the 2011 book Extreme Killing, defines mass killings as those in which four or more people die and says there is no increase in such events in recent years. As he told Bloomberg, "Our tendency is to go overboard and overreach in terms of trying to increase levels of security…[but] this is not an epidemic."
Read The Full Article On The Daily Beast
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Aaron Alexis Was Hearing Voices a Month Before His Rampage
Elizabeth Warren Takes a Victory Lap
The Obamacare Swindle (It's Not What You Think)
© 2013 Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC


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Amid 'Circus' Scene, Texas Senate OKs Abortion Bill
(NEWSER) – Texas' Senate passed its contentious abortion bill last night in no uncertain terms, reports theHouston Chronicle, voting 19-11 to send the legislation to Gov. Rick Perry for final approval. Perry has left no doubt that he'll sign "our historic effort to protect life," and yesterday praised legislators who "tirelessly defended our smallest and most vulnerable Texans and future Texans." The Chronicle notes that "a circus-like atmosphere" dominated the Capitol, with thousands of the bill's orange-clad opponents facing off against its blue-clad supporters as legislators dangled baby shoes and sonograms, and security reportedly confiscated glitter, tampons, jars of urine, and the like. One guy's orange T-shirt summed up the testy mood, adds the New York Times: "@TXLEGE: U R dumb."
Read the full story at Newser.com


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The U.S. Army Gets Tough on Tattoos in a Reversal of Policy
Tattoo-covered soldiers, their ink showing even in uniform, became a common sight over the last decade, reflecting both changing styles and the relaxed standards used to boost enlistments, but with the wars almost over and the Army preparing to downsize, body art is on the way out.
Almost immediately after taking his post in 2011, Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond Chandler began talking about tightening the Army's uniform and grooming policy. Those changes, which have been a source of speculation and debate among soldiers since they were first announced, have just been confirmed by Chandler to include restrictions on tattoos that will roll back the more lenient guidelines used during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The incoming policy will prevent new soldiers who have tattoos that reach below their elbow or their knee or above their neckline from enlisting.
The initial wave of reaction on military blogs and social media has been largely negative. Many commenters cite the tattoo standard as antiquated and a poor indication of a soldier's ability to perform the job. Others say body art has become a large part of the Army's own culture, resurrecting an argument that surfaced when rumors of the new tattoo policy started circulating in 2011.
While the changes are unpopular with some, they have not come as a surprise. Chandler has stated his ideas openly and encouraged discussion. When he asked for feedback on his Facebook page In 2011, many wrote in to voice their support, singling out neck tattoos in particular as looking unprofessional and citing the need for uniformity of appearance.
The most divisive aspect of Chandler's original proposal in 2011 concerned the fate of soldiers who had been allowed to enlist with tattoos that would be prohibited under new restrictions. At the time, the possibility that those soldiers might be forced to remove their ink or leave the Army was not ruled out. But the new rules take a more moderate position on the issue, in what may be a concession to the negative reaction within the ranks at talk of combat veterans being penalized or forced out for having tattoos that were allowed when they signed up.
Read The Full Article On The Daily Beast
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© 2013 Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC


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WATCH: Sesame Street does hilarious 'Hunger Games' parody
Cookieness Evereat is back to play in the Hungry Games. Can Cookieness and her friends, Finnicky, Tick Tock Lady, and Pita escape from the poking monkeys and tickling winds? Find out in The Hungry Games: Catching Fur. May the cookies be ever in your flavor.


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Air Algerie Plane Has Crashed: Official
(NEWSER) – A flight operated by Air Algerie and carrying 116 people from Burkina Faso to Algeria's capital disappeared from radar early today, and an Algerian aviation official now tells Reuters the plane has crashed, though no further details were given. Air navigation services lost track of the Swiftair MD-83 about 50 minutes after takeoff from Ougadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, at 1:55am GMT (9:55pm Eastern last night), the official Algerian news agency says. That means that Flight 5017 had been missing for hours before the news was made public. Swiftair, a private Spanish airline, confirms it has not been possible to make contact with the plane.


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About Mosel-Saar-RuwerView a map of Mosel-Saar-Ruwer wineries
Notable FactsRiesling is the grape of the Mosel – the combination of this grape with the slate soils is what makes Mosel wines so breathtakingly delicate. Common descriptors of the Mosel Rieslings include steely acidity, wet stone and delicate texture. Lower in alcohol and high in acidity, the wines are still balanced with the rich flavors of Riesling and the slate-y flavors from the soil. Two districts (or Bereiche) that you find most often on Mosel labels are Bernkastel and Zell. Both are good producers of wine from this region. Many other good wines are coming from the area – just look to make sure the bottle says "Riesling" on the label – that's a sign of quality.
About Germany
White Wine GuruWith some of the steepest and northernmost vineyards in the world, as well as the coolest climate, Germany produces some of the best white wines in the world, mainly Riesling. Delicate, age-worthy, intense and elegant are the typical descriptions for these wines. Note that "sweet" is not a common descriptor because the idea that most German wines are sweet is just not so. In fact, the majority of wines made in Germany are dry and more recently, the country is exporting value wines that are easy to drink, extremely food friendly and, luckily for some, containing labels that are easier to read!
The classification system of Germany is somewhat confusing. Like the rest of the old world, there's some hierarchy to it all. The categories are: Tafelwien (table wine), Landwein (land wine, similar to France's Vin de Pays) and the first "Q" level, QbA. QbA wines are easy-drinking and inexpensive – the only requirement being that the wine must come from one of Germany's thirteen official wine growing regions. The final level is QmP, which is the strictest level of German wines. The qualification consists of 6 levels, based on ripeness level at harvest, though that does not always translate into sweetness level.
Here are a few definitions to help in picking out a German QmP wine:


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Beyonce honors Trayvon Martin with moment of silence during concert
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Beyonce is honoring Trayvon Martin following the not-guilty verdict that came in for George Zimmerman on Saturday night. According to music blogger Dave Paulson from "The Tennessean," the superstar held for a moment of silence for Martin at her concert that night in Nashville.
Beyonce decided to honor the 17-year-old who died in the 2012 Florida shooting during the last moments of her sold-out show, just minutes after it was announced that Zimmerman had been cleared of all charges.
She followed up the moment of silence with a cover of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" and told the crowd at the Bridgestone Arena that it had been "a really special night."
Beyonce is also chiming in on the controversial verdict on social media. On her Tumblr page, the star posted a photo of the word "Martin" hand-written, and also a Martin Luther King Jr. quote reading, "True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice."
Photo Credit Getty Images


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Tom Hardy to play Elton John on film
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Actor Tom Hardy has been cast to play Elton John in an upcoming movie about the pop music legend.
"Variety" says Focus Features has also come on board to give the biopic, titled, Rocketman, a major U.S. release.
John will reportedly re-record many of his hit songs for the movie. Production on the film is expected to begin next year.
Hardy played Batman villain Bane in last year's blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises. Star Trek: Nemesis, Inception and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy are also among his credits.
Next year, Hardy will also star in the fourth installment of the "Mad Max" movie franchise titled Mad Max: Fury Road.
Do you think they did a good job casting Elton?
Photo Credit Getty Images


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Dim the lights and break out the…eggs? These 10 foods will kick your sex drive into high gear.
15 signs that it's more than just the blues
Keep yourself healthy with just 10 minutes.
From your diet to your medication to your mindset, here are 13 culprits of low libido.
Banish belly rolls for good with these easy moves to sculpt strong, sexy abs
Avoid these 8 hard-on-your heart foods.


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Crowds Exploded Under Pope Francis
(NEWSER) – Pope Francis drew more than 6.6 million people to his audiences, Masses, and other Vatican events in 2013, more than twice as many as his predecessor Benedict XVI did in his first year as pope in 2005—2.85 million. The statistics released yesterday cover only events held at the Vatican starting from Francis' March 13 election, meaning the estimated 3.7 million who attended his final World Youth Day Mass in Rio, among other events, don't count toward that total. Further, the Vatican saw 2.35 million visitors in 2012, per Quartz, which points out nearly three times as many visitors showed up in just the last 9.5 months.


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Pharrell Williams explains his Grammy hat
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Pharrell Williams is sharing the specifics of the eye-grabbing hat he wore to Sunday's Grammy Awards.
[PHOTOS: Who Wore it Best? A Tribute to Pharrell's Hat]
The high-crowned headware quickly caught viewers' attention and even got its own Twitter account.
@Pharrell we're killin em tonight
— Pharrell's Hat (@Pharrellhat) January 27, 2014
Following the show, the hit-making producer told The Grammys YouTube channel that the brown Buffalo hat was made by Vivienne Westwood and designed by Malcolm McLaren.
[PHOTOS: Best and Worst Dressed at the Grammys]
Apparently, Pharrell wasn't looking to make any sort of fashion statement when he donned the hat and decided to sport it because he "just liked it."
Pharrell was one of the big winners at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. He not only earned prizes for his "Get Lucky" collaboration with electronic music duo Daft Punk, but he also earned the golden gramophone for Producer of the Year.
Photo Credit Getty Images


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Panasonic LUMIX G X VARIO PZ 14-42mm ReviewFriday February 10 2012
We are starting here a new series of reviews of the best micro-four-thirds lenses from Panasonic and Olympus. Let's begin with the Panasonic LUMIX G X VARIO PZ 14-42mm / F3.5-5.6 ASPH.
Further readings for the Panasonic LUMIX G X VARIO PZ 14-42mm Review
To provide photographers with a broader perspective about mobiles, lenses and cameras, here are links to articles, reviews, and analyses of photographic equipment produced by DxOMark, renown websites, magazines or blogs.
Not too long ago, people assumed that choosing a micro 4/3 camera was the same thing as choosing a more versatile compact camera. Then the happy owners would start thinking about getting a zoom lens for this small camera and discover that… the zooms were nowhere near as compact as their camera. What they ended up with was not as pocketable as they hoped, but unfortunately, there are scientific optical laws that can't be changed. The lenses tested here are good examples of just how compact lenses with large focal ranges can be.


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Kacey Musgraves shares her Grammy prep
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Kacey Musgraves is making plans for the Grammy Awards.
The country star tells "People" she'll be bringing her mom as her date to the event. But her boyfriend will be with her as well, since he's a member of her band. She also calls him and the group her good luck charms, explaining that they "keep each other calm."
Kacey is a four-time nominee heading into the event, but she's not sure if she'll write a speech ahead of the ceremony. The singer believes that would be pointless, because anything prepared in advance will probably "go right out the window" if she gets to accept an award.
Musgraves adds that after the ceremony, no matter what happens, she'll be celebrating with "something bubbly." The 56th annual Grammy Awards will take place in Los Angeles and air on CBS on January 26th.
And Kacey just might have more on her mind than the Grammy Awards. She's been tapped to open select shows on Katy Perry's upcoming tour. The pop star's "Prismatic" trek will begin in Raleigh, North Carolina on June 22nd. Musgraves is currently an opener on Lady Antebellum's "Take Me Downtown" tour, which runs through the end of May.
Photo Credit Getty Images


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Magic Tree House
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Random House
A comprehensive database of all school and library awards, from your own state's awards to national awards.
Books given these prestigious awards, including the John Newbery and Randolph Caldecott Medals, are staples of libraries and classrooms nationwide and they stand the test of time. Take a look at the Random House titles, new and old, that are part of the ALA Award family.
Here is what the children and young adults across more than 45 states have been reading! Check out Random House titles that have been named to various State Award Nomination and Master Lists, and are being widely read across the country. Those designated as Winners were chosen by the children of that particular state as their favorite book.
Here are the Random House books that have been recognized by influential organizations including the Children's Book Council, the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Cooperative Children's Book Center.


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Follow every kick as Brighton and Hove Albion take on Portsmouth in the The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON
on 08-Jan-2011, kick off time 15:00
Brighton and Hove Albion v Portsmouth Live
Source: DSG
Source: DSG
It is being widely reported that Leicester City are the favourites to sign Manchester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho, and if
Last week Wayne Rooney completed his return to boyhood club Everton, writing the final chapter in a fairy tale career.
Wayne Rooney has returned to Everton after 13 years at Manchester United.
Germany defender Antonio Rudiger has joined Chelsea from Roma on a five-year contract.
Wayne Rooney has closed the chapter on a Manchester United career that featured a raft of honours across 13 years.
Wayne Rooney has returned to Everton after a record-breaking career at Manchester United.


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Ted Cruz Releases Birth Certificate
(Washington, DC) -- U.S. Senator Ted Cruz is releasing his birth certificate to prove he's an American citizen. The Texas Republican was born in Canada in 1971 but experts say because he was born to an American mother, he's a citizen of the United States. It's rumored Cruz released the birth certificate today to head off speculation about his citizenship if he were to run for president in 2016. Similar questions about President Obama's birth location dogged him throughout his 2008 presidential victory.


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Who Does the GOP Really Have To Run Against Hillary in 2016?
As a Republican hoping that my party will retake the White House in 2016, I watched with intense interest as New Jersey Governor Chris Christie talked and talked and talked his way out of "Bridgegate."
The general consensus is that Christie did a decent job bemoaning his circumstances and keeping his cool, considering that the damaging political/ legal issues have only just begun.
But it was Christie's "I am not a bully" persona that reminded me just how truly weak the entire bench of Republican presidential hopefuls is for 2016.
Sure, before "Bridgegate" and just after Christie's victory in New Jersey there were a few national polls that showed Christie either tied or slightly leading Hillary Clinton. Indeed, dealing with Bridgegate could even make Christie a stronger candidate. However, national polls mean nothing three years before a general election. (Just ask the 2006-2007 presidential "front runner" Rudy Giuliani how that early status worked out for him.)
The problem for the GOP in 2016 goes so much deeper than whether Christie can overcome his first big crisis. (Sorry, unlike some Republicans I do not count Christie's embrace of President Obama during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 as a hurdle that he needs to overcome.)
But what I am referring to is the Herculean task set before Christie of winning the 2016 Republican nomination given that the conservative wing and primary-controlling base voters are ferociously anti-Christie for numerous political and policy reasons, among them Medicaid expansion and gun control just for starters.
Here is a representative comment written by your average right-leaning Republican on RedState, the influential conservative website, in response to thisnegative piece about Christie's prospects in 2016:
We don't need another McCain/Romney that's what Christie is in fact, he's further to the left than either of them. If Christie is the nominee then its time for a 3rd party because the base of the party isn't being represented.
Thus, here are the some possible Christie scenarios for 2016:
Christie manages to win the nomination and the GOP civil war officially begins.
Christie's nomination launches a breakaway third party.
Christie's nomination is the reason the base stays home.
Therefore, you can add "and Hillary wins" to the end of each sentence.
So if Christie runs and fails to get the nomination or decides against running at all who is left (I mean right) who can defeat Hillary?
The first name that comes to mind is Senator Rand Paul.
He has been working non-stop gaining national stature, dropping hints about running in 2016, but he is only a freshman senator and is also up for reelection in 2016. (Red flag alert: Freshman senator running for president.)
Under Kentucky state law Senator Paul can not run for both the U.S. Senate and president. Therefore, he must make a decision whether to run for president no later than early in 2015 -- in order to give another GOP Senate candidate time to launch a bid. But then, if things don't work out on the presidential primary trail, Senator Paul –rather Dr. Paul— will be back practicing medicine under Obamacare.
A safer bet would be for Senator Paul to run for reelection, build up his "brand" both in the Senate and across the nation and then wait another four or eight years.
Then there is Ted Cruz of Texas, who won his Senate seat in 2012 and not up for reelection until 2018.
Cruz, although a laughing stock in the mainstream media, is extremely popular among primary base voters. So conceivably he could win the nomination and then the Democrats would likely "Cruz" to a Johnson vs. Goldwater-style landslide.
We're not through with Texas yet because the word is Governor Rick Perry is planning on making a serious run for the 2016 nomination (at least more serious than his abysmal 2012 campaign.
Do not underestimate Governor Perry, because he has a record to run on that sings a real song of hope, change, and job creation. You can't help but admire Perry as he touts his big Texas economic success story. However, my 2016 forecast for Perry is cloudy with a 10% chance of winning.
Read The Full Article On The Daily Beast
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- The Insanely Profitable Federal Reserve
- Paul Ryan's Proposed War on Poverty Is Hobbled by Conservative Ideology
- Obama Will Lose Recess Appointment Case, but Will Other Presidents Lose Their Power?
© 2013 Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC


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Britney Spears attends sister Jamie Lynn's wedding
Listen to Britney Spears on iHeartRadio
Britney Spears is taking a break from her Las Vegas "Piece of Me" show to watch her little sister Jamie Lynn walk down the aisle. Photos have surfaced of pop superstar wearing a sparkling silver cocktail dress while attending Jamie Lynn's Friday nuptials at the Audubon Tea Room in New Orleans.
"E! News" says the 32-year-old was there with her boyfriend David Lucado, as well as her two sons who were in the ceremony as ring bearers. Britney sent a special message to Jamie Lynn on Twitter, telling her the wedding was "magical" and she was "so happy [she] could be a part" of her big day.
Yesterday was magical :) So happy I could be a part of my little sister's big day. Congrats @jamielynnspears!!
— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) March 15, 2014
Jamie Lynn tied the knot with her boyfriend James Watson. It was her first wedding, but she was previously engaged to the father of her five-year-old daughter Maddie.


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Second-year Indians manager Manny Acta summed up the life of former Indians pitching great Bob Feller rather poignantly when he adressed the media Thursday before the Indians workout prior to Friday's season-opener against the Chicago White Sox.
"It's too bad that a big majority of the young people in our country don't know what Bob Feller actually meant to America and to baseball," Acta said after attending Feller's public memorial service earlier in the day. "Bob Feller gave his life, his soul to the Cleveland Indians, Major League baseball and most importantly, to America. I don't know how many athletes in any sport - you name it - at 23 years of age would volunteer to go right now to Afghanistan for four years in the middle of their prime."
The Indians obtained minor-league outfielder Bubba Bell from the Red Sox for cash considerations.
Bell, 28, batted .293 with 17 doubles, six home runs, 46 runs and 49 RBI at Triple-A Pawtucket in 2010. He was a 39th-round pick in the 2005 draft out of Nicholls State and has been assigned to Columbus.
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: The Indians made four more cuts to trim the major-league camp to 33 players.
Nevertheless, they have picked their 25-man roster, and the only chore remaining is to clear spots on the 40-man roster to make room for non-roster players who made the club.
This morning moves mean that Lou Marson will be the backup catcher, Frank Herrmann, Justin Germano and Vinnie Pestano will join the bullpen and that Adam Everett will be the utility infielder, specializing in shortstop.To read more or comment...
GLENDALE, ARIZ. Spring training is almost over. The Indians' deep thinkers should know who they want on the team, so why haven't the final announcements been made?
Will it be Lou Marson at backup catcher and Adam Everett at the utility infield spot? How about the bullpen? Will Frank Herrmann, Vinnie Pestano and Justin Germano fill out the bullpen?To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: For one of the few times spring, Josh Tomlin had problems retiring batters, as the Indians lost to the Giants 8-5 Saturday night.
Tomlin extricated himself from a bases-loaded jam in the first and retired the side in order in the second but gave up a two-run homer to Brandon Belt in the third. After an uneventful fourth, Tomlin got in trouble in the fifth, allowing a two-run homer to Roger Kieschnick and a bloop RBI single to Belt.
Altogether, Tomlin gave up five runs, eight hits and one walk, striking out five and throwing two wild pitches in five innings. Late last week, Tomlin was officially named to the rotation. Did he have a letdown after his intensive drive to win the job? Nobody knows for sure.To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: The Indians announced that Travis Buck and Shelley Duncan officially have made the team as reserve outfielders and that Jack Hannahan would open the season at third.
The Tribe also reduced the training camp roster to five, leaving 38 players. Left-hander David Huff, right-hander Jeanmar Gomez and outfielder Ezequiel Carrera were optioned to Columbus. Right-handers Anthony Reyes and Doug Mathis were re-assigned to the minor-league camp.
Reyes' bid to win a job in the rotation hit a snag because of a sore elbow. He has returned to the mound but did not have enough time to contend for the 25-man roster. Mathis, signed to a minor-league contract, has an out-clause in his deal. He will take a day or two to decide whether he wants to accept the assignment to Triple-A or become a free agent.To read more or comment...
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ.: David Huff pitched five shutut innings against the Giants Thursday night, but his impressive performance probably was too little, too late in his quest to win a job in the Indians' rotation.
Manager Manny Acta announced earlier in the day that he would reveal the identity of the pitcher who will fill the only vacant spot in the rotation. The overwhelming favorite is Josh Tomlin.To read more or comment...
The Cleveland Indians announced the launch of the club's social media strategy for the 2011 Major League Baseball Season. In 2011, the Tribe will build upon a successful social media foothold established in 2010 to further engage fans and promote the Indians brand, the game of baseball, Progressive Field and the City of Cleveland.
Quickly becoming one of "MLB's most Twitter-friendly teams" according to ESPN the Magazine, the Indians plan to offer increased access to members of the organization in 2011 via social media platforms and interactive events. The Tribe's strategic plan also includes a physical enhancement at Progressive Field to capitalize on the Tribe's social media success in 2010 and the launch of a new innovative social media ticket offer.To read more or comment...
The Cleveland Blues Base Ball Club is proud to host this year's official Vintage Base Ball Association (VBBA) Convention.
This weekend, almost 60 players will represent more than 40 teams from across the country. Dressed in period attire, teams will face-off in 1800's-era, bare-handed base ball matches at Cleveland's historic League Park.
On Saturday from 1:30 until 3:30 p.m., "hurlers" and "behinds" will report to League Park. Fans – or "cranks" – are invited to tour Cleveland's legendary ballpark and view vintage base ball matches as they would have been played over a century ago. Games will be held rain or shine. Street parking is available and lawn chairs are permitted.
Attendees at this year's VBBA Convention will hear from radio 100.1's "Ed in the Morning," author and baseball historian Scott Longert and more. The VBBA is now entering its 16th year of operation. The organization has grown from 13 clubs to over 70 during that time.
As a direct result of the efforts of the VBBA, the game of vintage base ball has grown, by some estimates, to over 250 clubs in North America. Visit www.vbba.org for more information.
This year's VBBA Convention is brought to you by the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cleveland Blues Base Ball Club, League Park Society, Cleveland Indians, City of Cleveland, Greater Cleveland Sport Commission, Positively Cleveland, The Clevelander Bar & Grill, Bertman's Ballpark Mustard and many more.
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: Jensen Lewis cleared waivers this morning and was outrighted to Columbus, ending his bid to capture a spot in the bullpen.
When he came to camp, he was one of the favorites to win one of two jobs as a reliever, but in his last two appearances he struggled to get anyone out. The final straw with his bosses probably was giving up two, three-run homers in the same innings in a game against Milwaukee last week.
""He's had some success in the past, and we need to get him back on track,'' manager Manny Acta said. ""Maybe he can help us down the road. Plus we can't be unfair to the other guys who are throwing the ball well.''
SURPRISE, ARIZ.: According to an internet report, Jensen Lewis has been placed on waivers, which is no surprise if it is true.
Lewis has struggled in his past two outings and seems to have put his spot in the bullpen in jeopardy. Because he is out of options, the Indians cannot send him to Triple-A unless he clears waivers. Moreover, the club can find out if a team is willing to make a deal for Lewis if his name is on the waiver wire.To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: Outfielder Nick Weglarz is back in Cleveland to get a second opinion after tearing the meniscus in his left knee last Thursday while he was running the bases.
Doctors here made the initial diagnosis. Weglarz will see Dr. Rick Parker at the Cleveland Clinic to determine the treatment, which could include surgery. Weglarz, 23, is a promising power hitter who hit 13 home runs (combined) at Akron and Columbus in 87 games last year.
Grady Sizemore tested his surgically repaired left knee in a game for tghe first time since May 16, 2010, when he led off as the designated hitter and grounded to second base.
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: After Jason Donald continued to experience pain in his left hand, he underwent a C-T scan that showed a crack in the bone of his middle finger.
""Jason had residual symptoms during his minor-league (defensive) work a few days ago,'' head trainer Lonnie Soloff said this morning. ""A C-T scan showed a small crack at the base of his long finger. He will have no baseball activity for seven days, at which time he will return to hitting.''To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: The Indians cut three more players from the spring roster, including promising reliever Josh Judy.
Judy was optioned to Columbus, and right-handers Joe Martinez and Yohan Pino were reassigned to the minor-league camp. Forty-four players remain in camp.
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: The Indians hammered 10 hits, including six for extra bases, in Friday night's 12-6 win over the Rangers at Goodyear Ballpark.
Asdrubal Cabrera contributed a solo homer and a two-run double; Shin-Soo Choo ripped a bases loaded triple and a double, and Matt LaPorta doubled twice, drove in two runs and scored three.To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: If they were still in the competition to become the Tribe's No. 5 starter (they probably were not), Jeanmar Gomez and David Huff did nothing to help themselves this afternoon in a split-squad game won by the Royals 6-5.
Gomez started and gave up three runs, four hits and two walks in four innings, raising his spring ERA to 6.43. Huff followedand allowed three runs ande six hits in 2 1/3 innings, lifting his ERA to 8.25. Neither pitcher has been able to keep pace with Josh Tomlin, the likely winner in the battle to round out the rotation.To read more or comment...
The Aeros will play an exhibition game against the Indians Triple-A affiliate Columbus at Canal Park Monday, April 4 at 6:05 p.m.
All tickets will be $5 and seating will be General Admission for this exhibition game against the Clippers.To read more or comment...
Joe Smith, sidelined with a strained ab muscle, doesn't know when he will be able to return to the mound.
""I played catch a couple of days ago, and I still felt it,'' he said this morning. ""I'm supposed to try again over the weekend.'' The injury occurred when Smith threw a pitch.To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: Kenny Lofton returned to camp for the second time this spring to help educate players on the art of playing the outfield and running the bases.
The former Tribe All-Star was here earlier and spent a week instructing players and telling stores. Lofton will remain in camp through Sunday.To read more or comment...
The Akron Aeros have spent much of the off -season developing unique food items such as the "WonderDog", the "Eighth Wonder of the World", the "Nice 2 Meat You" Burger and "3 Dog Night".
Now, the club is pleased to add the "Farmer's Market" concession stand, with multiple healthy food options, to the Canal Park menu this season.To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: The Indians trimmed seven more players from big-league camp, including third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall.
Right-hander Zach McAllister and outfielder Nick Weglarz were optioned to Columbus; right-handers Zach Putnam and Alex White, catcher Juan Apodaca, second baseman Jason Kipnis and Chisenhall were reassigned to the minor-league camp.To read more or comment...
PEORIA, ARIZ.: Jason Donald's bruised left hand will keep him out of the lineup until at least Wednesday. By that time, Anthony Reyes will be back on the mound.
Donald was scratched from Saturday's game and has been told to limit his baseball activities to throwing and playing catch for three days.To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: Grady Sizemore will begin the final test of his surgically repaired knee on Sunday, when he runs the bases.
""If everything keeps progressing, he will play in games some time between the 20th and 30th,'' said manager Manny Acta, purposely trying to be vague. More than likely, if Sizemore suffers no setbacks, it will be much closer to the 20th than the 30th.
Even when Sizemore begins to play center field or be the designated hitter in exhibition games, you won't see him playing nine innings.To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: Nick Johnson, who has been in the Phoenix area for five months trying to stay in shape, reported to the Indians' camp this morning with his right wrist immobilized.
He underwent a fourth operation to repair the wrist last month at the Cleveland Clinic, so don't expect him to be out taking batting practice any time soon.
Asked when he might be able to play, Johnson said, ""I don't klnow. I had the stitches out today. Now, I need to get my range of motion back and get the stiffness out, then I can start swinging. They took the tendon out of the wrist, so hopefully there won't be any more pain.''To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: Jason Donald (bruised hand) took batting practice this morning and expects to play third base in Thursday's game against the Cubs. Anthony Reyes (elbow soreness) will throw his third bullpen session Friday and hopes to cleared to pitch in a game after that.To read more or comment...
With the Aeros 2011 season at Canal Park less than one month away, single-game tickets will go on sale Saturday, March 12 at 9 a.m.
Single-game tickets for the 2011 season will be available for purchase at 9 a.m. through the Aeros website (www.akronaeros.com). Aeros single-game tickets will go on sale by phone (330.253.5153) at 10 a.m. Canal Park's box office and Infield Outfitters (the Aeros Team Shop at Canal Park) will be open from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, March 12 for in-person ticket purchases.To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: Trevor Crowe has begun taking dry swings in the batting cage and might start a throwing program next week.
Neither of those activities is likely to allow him to compete for a backup spot in the Indians' outfield before the end of spring training. But at least surgery remains a distant option for now.To read more or comment...
GLENDALE, ARIZ.: As expected, the Indians signed veteran first baseman Nick Johnson to a minor-league contract this afternoon, but the talented and oft-injured ex-Yankee won't be seeing the field for awhile.
Since last May, the 32-year-old has undergone three operations on his right wrist, the most recent in February at the Cleveland Clinic. He has a career .401 on-base percentage and .270 batting average with New York, Washington, and Florida. The wrist injury limited him to 24 games in 2010.
Johnson will report to big-league camp next week to continue his rehabilitation.
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: The Indians announced the signing of 25 players to one-year contracts, leaving only three holdouts on the 40-man roster.
Michael Brantley, Carlos Carrasco, Ezequiel Carrera, Trevor Crowe, Kelvin De La Cruz, Jason Donald, Shelley Duncan, Jared Goedert, Nick Hagadone, Frank Herrmann, David Huff, Josh Judy, Corey Kluber, Matt LaPorta, Lou Marson, Justin Masterson, Zach McAllister, Jayson Nix, Vinnie Pestano, Hector Rondon, Tony Sipp, Mitch Talbot, Jess Todd, Luis Valbuena and Nick Weglarz all agreed to terms.To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: Jason Donald's sore left hand turned out to be only a bruinse.
After the Indians' third baseman was struck in the hand in the second inning with a fastball thrown by White Sox starter Gavin Floyd, he stayed in the game to play third but was removed for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the third. He was taken for X-rays, which showed fracture to any of the bones in the top of the hand.
""It was a heater from Floyd that got me pretty good in the hand,'' Donald said. ""But X-rays were negative, thankfully. Hopefully, in a day or two I can play again.''
GOODYEAR, ARIZ.: Jason Donald got hit in the left hand with a Gavin Floyd fastball in the second inning of today's game between the Indians and White Sox.
He stayed in to play third in the top of the third but was removed for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the third and was taken for X-rays, the results of which are not known yet.To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, Ariz.: A blaze broke out in the laundry room when a clothes dryer caught fire at Goodyear Ballpark about 6 this morning.
There was little damage beyond the room, except for standing water near an indoor batting cage. Nobody was injured, and todays' game was to be played on schedule.
SURPRISE, ARIZ.: Depite giving up a combined three runs and eight hits in five innings, manager Manny Acta praised the workmanship of Mitch Talbot and Josh Tomlin in the Indians' 11-9 loss to the Rangers today.
""I liked the way Talbot threw first-pitch strikes,'' Acta said. ""Only one guy was ahead 1-and-0. I also liked the way Tomlin went to his curveball the last inning. It's a good pitch, and he needs to throw all his pitches.''To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, Ariz.: The trade that sent Aaron Laffey to the Mariners in exchange for a minor-league second baseman was consummated mostly to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Chad Durbin.
""We had to make a difficult decision for our roster,'' General Manager Chris Antonetti said this morning. ""Ultimately, we were able to place Aaron on a team that had room on its 40-man, but primarily it was to clear a spot for Chad Durbin.''
Laffey was one of five nominal contenders to be the Indians' fifth starter, but his chances of beating out Josh Tomlin, Jeanmar Gomez, Anthony Reyes and David Huff were slim.
GOODYEAR, Ariz.: While Indians fans might be prone to hand-wringing and frustration at the plight of Grady Sizemore, the club's heaed trainer, Lonnie Soloff, is pleased with the outfielder's progress after undergoing microfracture surgery to his knee last summer.
Asked whether Sizemore is behind or keeping up with the rehab schedule, Soloff said, ""He's where we hoped he would be.''To read more or comment...
GOODYEAR, Ariz.: The Indians made the Chad Durbin signing official, but he won't throw in games for seven to 10 days, because he has not been in a spring training camp.
The next issue is who gets lopped off the 40-man roster to make room for Durbin. It appears that Luis Valbuena is the most vulnerable.
The Tribe is well-covered at second base, and Valbuena has declined as a hitter the past two years. Another possibility: Aaton Laffey might be expendable, but he is left-handed, can start and relieve and is more tradeable than Valbuena.
GOODYEAR, Ariz.: What has long been suspected about Grady Sizemore was stated officially by General Manager Chris Antonetti this morning.
""There is still a possibility, but it's less likely than more likely he'll be ready for the start of the season,'' Antonetti said. ""We're hoping it will be close to the start. Whether it's a few days or a few weeks, we don't know yet.''
GOODYEAR, Ariz.: Indians outfielder Austin Kearns revealed this morning that he was arrested on a DUI charge in his hometown of Lexington, Ky. on Feb. 12, a few days before coming to spring training.
An off-duty Lexington police officer made the arrest, and a March 10 court date has been set for a hearing.To read more or comment...


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Reviewed: 06 August 2012
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A source close to the situation said that the Miami Heat will decline to match the offer the Cleveland Cavaliers made to forward Jamario Moon.
The team signed Moon to an offer sheet earlier this week and Miami has declined to match it.
Moon, who averaged 7.2 pointsand 4.6 rebounds per game in 2008-09, will give the Cavs some depth on the bench. But the forward adds defensive presence on the perimeter as well.
The Cavs currently own a 0-3 record in the NBA Summer League. Considering that's the equivalent of watching the Washington Generals play, that's worthy of a collective "yawn."
What it is good for, however, is getting a look at players who are currently on or could be on the Cavs opening day roster.
So far Tarence Kinsey (14 ppg), Jawad Williams (12.2 ppg) are making an impact and after a rough first outing Christian Eyenga (9.3 ppg) is showing something along with fellow rookie Danny Green (10.3 ppg). From all reports, Eyenga is still very raw, but no one is really expecting him to add anything this year and probably not even next.
Green scored in double digits in his first two games, but had an 0-5 shooting effort Tuesday.
Green had a couple of decent offings to start
Update: By now you've probably heard Varejao's contract is worth up to $50 with incentives and the sixth year isn't fully guaranteed. Based on that, the contract makes much more sense.
ESPN reports that the Cavs have come to terms with Anderson Varejao on a six-year $50 million deal.
That's over $8 million per year, giving Varejao a significant raise over the $6.2 million he opted out of for the coming season.
Given how contract negotiations went the last time the two parties bumped heads, this is akin to Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers making nice. The last negotiations were contentious to say the least.
Varejao had his best year as a pro, starting in 42 games in place of an injured Ben Wallace and Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
From former colleague Brian Windhorst - the Cavs are on the verge of signing free agent wingman Anthony Parker from the Toronto Raptors.
The move adds depth on the bench. Although Parker started for the Toronto Raptors at shooting guard, he probably won't start in place of Delonte West.
Parker averaged 10.7 points, four rebounds and 3.4 assists while playing 33 minutes per game for Toronto last season. His defense is solid and he can shoot from the perimeter.
The world came to an end today when LeBron James got dunked on by Xavier's Jordan Crawford during a meaningless pick-up game at the LeBron James Skills Academy.
You might notice that no tapes of the incident have surfaced because allegedly tapes from two cameramen were confiscated so that the incident wouldn't go viral on YouTube.
How about a little perspective? LeBron James gets dunked on plenty of times during the course of a season. So what if it was a college kid.
But if James did have the tapes confiscated for that reason, he shouldn't have even cared that much. Crawford would have gotten his 15 minutes. James would have been kidded about it, done deal.
What's lacking? Perspective.
Because when it comes right down to it, the dunk didn't win a game or an NBA champioship game.
Amazing what becomes ridiculously interesting during the summer when little, if anything, is going on in the sports world.
The Detroit Pistons are in the process of picking off one of the Cavaliers top assistants according to reports.
Several websites are reporting that John Kuester, Coach Mike Brown's chief lieutenant, is heading to Motown as head coach of the Detroit Pistons.
Kuester was widely given credit for the improvement in the Cavs' offense this past year. He will be returning to the Motor City for a second stint after serving as an assistant under Larry Brown from 2004-06.
Kuester's name had also been linked to the Philadelphia 76ers opening earlier this spring. He's been an NBA assisant since 1990. He initially joined the Cavs staff in August of 2007.
Welcome to As the World Turns. Chris Broussard now reports that James is denying Ariza's comments. Back to holding your breath Northeast Ohio.
It would be odd for James to deliver such a promise when he's allowed himself wiggle room in past statements.
Had he done that, he loses any leverage he has with the team going into free agency.
Original post:
According to Chris Broussard of ESPN.com, LeBron James told Trevor Ariza in a meeting that he plans to be in Cleveland after 2010.
If true, the most significant news coming out of this year's free agency period has to deal with next year's most coveted player.
It could have all be a recruiting ploy to Ariza to sign here, but many have long speculated that James had little interest in the bright lights of New York or other places as long as the Cavaliers organization was doing what was necessary to build a championship caliber team around him.
Of course things can change and the one thing that's always been obvious in James' answers when he answers questions about his future is the fact that he leaves himself some wiggle room.
Only time will tell on this one.
You tell me, does it make sense?
The Plain Dealer reports that the Cavs are hot on the trail of Channing Frye and will be meeting with him.
In light of recent developments, he's a viable option. He showed plenty of promise coming out of Arizona way back when (2005-06) and made the NBA's All-Rookie team (averaging 12.3 points and 5.8 rebounds per game) before being dealt by the New York Knicks to Portland to wallow on the bench behind LaMarcus Aldridge.
He's still young (26-years-old) and if the Cavs' coaching staff can tap into that potential he's a viable option in the interim.
Still looking on the power foward a league insider suggests that the despite the fact that he opted out of his contract, the Cavs will pursue Anderson Varejao. The free agent forward and Quicken Loans Arena favorite hasn't drawn a ton of interest in his pursuit of a more lucrative contract.
Varejao is someone who remains integral to the team's success, the source said, although the native of Brazil took a risk passing on $6.2 million payday for the season.
One entirely plausible scenario has the team interested in Anthony Parker formerly of the Toronto Raptors, who averaged 10.7 points and four rebounds this past season.
One league source said that the team might even have interest in Josh Childress, the former Atlanta Hawk who bolted the NBA for millions in Greece to play for Olympiakos who can play guard or small forward. Given the nature of that situation, that would seem unlikely. Childress is a restricted free agent and he has a lucrative contract with his Greek team that pays him $20 million over three years.
The Cavs would more than likely have to work out a sign-and-trade deal with the Atlanta Hawks, the team that still own his rights, to get him there. He has until July 15 to opt out of his contract in Greece.
GM Danny Ferry's pulled off significant trades before. Perhaps he can once again. What's looking pretty clear, however, from this free agency period is that he's looking for the right fit for the right money that won't blow 2010.
Any of these moves appealing to Cavs nation? Discuss.
Yet another free agent, who might have been of some help to the Cavaliers, comes off the board.
The Boston Celtics apparently got Rasheed Wallace to agree to terms - at least orally - last night.
For the Cavs it represents a case of being able to add some depth to the bench, despite the fact that Wallace apparently believes he should still be a starter.
How serious were the Cavs? Apparently not very, according to a source with knowledge of Wallace's negotiations.
That brings us to Ron Artest, who despite a reported face-to-face meeting with LeBron James ended up going to the Los Angeles Lakers, a fact that didn't surprise one league source who said that Artest, who own a house in L.A. was always interested in playing there should the chance arise.
Artest said on FOX Sports Radio Sunday that things never really got that serious between he and the Cavs:
Ken Berger at CBSSports.com reports that Ron Artest will sign with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Apparently, the Lakers will let Trevor Ariza go and will sign Ron Artest - another free agent that the Cavaliers had been making a heavy push, according to reports.
Reportedly Artest even had a face-to-face meeting with LeBron James this past Tuesday, but it looks as if Artest prefers the bright lights of Los Angeles to the cold winters of Cleveland.
If this indeed proves to be the cases, the Cavs' free agent prospects are becoming limited quickly. Reports out of Boston have the Boston Three Party - Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce - along with coach Doc Rivers and team president Danny Ainge reaching out to Rasheed Wallace in Detroit. Wallace's agent was traveling and could not be reached for comment.
Artest would have been a good fit for the Cavs. His 17.1 points and 5.2 rebounds would have been valued, but his lockdown defense would have been more of an asset.
If this pans out the Los Angeles Lakers have to be considered the favorite to repeat as NBA champions next season.
UPDATE: Is it me or is the Western Conference incestuous? Artest goes to live happily ever after with Kobe. Trevor Ariza, feeling disrespected, goes to the Houston Rockets, Artest's apparent former team and the Cavaliers are left shadow dancing for now.
SI.com reports only that Wallace is receptive to the Celtics offer. He's going to leverage his hand to the fullest. He knows that Boston would love to have him as a backup and that the Cavaliers along with the San Antonio Spurs would love to have his services as well. San Antonio finds itself in the same situation as Boston in Cleveland - working with the mid-level exception which is worth $5.6-5.8 million this year.
Logically speaking this is going to come down to the number of years that a team is willing to offer for 'Sheed's services.
It didn't take long for the Cavs to flaunt Shaquille O'Neal's arrival.
Season ticket holders reported getting a video email from the Cavs' new center thanking them for their support. They also reported getting robocall greetings as well.
Impressive indeed.
One thing that became evidently after Shaquille O'Neal sat down to give Cleveland a formal hello was that the upcoming NBA season won't be a dull one.
The Big Diesel arrived with sense of humor in tow and didn't disappoint in that area, but he also made it completely clear that while there will be fun to be had in the upcoming season, this is just as much about business as well.
Sporting a black suit, with pink shirt and matching tie O'Neal knows that GM Danny Ferry traded for him to help get this team over the hump this season.
''Expectations are very high and we want them to be high,'' O'Neal said.
When asked about future matchups, O'Neal said that's not a big issue for him.
''I'm not going to waste this year talking about possible matchups,'' he said before going on the record and saying facing the Lakers could be intriguing.
But talk of the here and now, didn't stop him from dropping hints about the future. In his eyes, he's got three years left in him and said so, in the process sounding open to the idea of extending with the Cavs.
Given that even on the downside of his career that he averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, there's little reason to dispute that.
For those of you lounging around at home, Shaquille O'Neal's introductory press conference will held at 1 p.m. at Cleveland Clinic Courts. FS Ohio will carry it live.
If you're stuck in the office and want to listen on WTAM (AM 1100) or streamed at their website.
Several outlets are reporting that the Cavaliers are making a strong play for Houston Rockets swingman Ron Artest.
In the process, LeBron James reportedly met with Artest Tuesday while in Los Angeles, according ot the Plain Dealer.
Artest made $7 million last year and wants to be with a team that could win a championship, giving the Cavaliers an advantage considering the Houston Rockets, the team he played for last season, may have little shot of that because of a career-threatening injury to center Yao Ming.
But the other advantage may come in the fact that Mike Brown was on the coaching staff while he played for the Indiana Pacers. Brown said more than once during the regular season how much he admired the way Artest played the game.
That could be invaluable in courting a player who was involved in the infamous Detroit brawl, but who has maintained a low, controversy free profile for the past two seasons.
As for how to get him here? The likelihood that the Cavaliers will play for the mid-level exception of approximately $5.8 million, but the Rockets do covet Anderson Varejao raising the possibility of a sign-and-trade deal.
The Cavaliers may also be on the list of Los Angeles Lakers swingman Trevor Ariza, according to ESPN.com.
The Detroit Pistons aren't wasting anytime in rebuilding their team, reportedly reaching a deal with former Chicago Bull Ben Gordon, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Teams cannot officially announce deals until July 8. In the first day of free agency, Gordon and unrestricted free agent Charlie Villanueva both made visits to the Pistons and nailed both their guys, according to Ken Berger of CBSSportsline.com.
Gordon apparently got a five-year deal worth $55 million with Villanueva's contract still be worked on.
What's this mean for the Cavs, if Villanueva has agreed to terms with the Pistons, it seems less likely that the Pistons would keep both Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess their two power forwards.


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