jmowreader
jmowreader's JournalOscars nominations: Where did they screw up and what did they get right?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oscars-nominations-2024-academy-awards-list/My view:
Best Picture: Obviously both movies in the Barbenheimer duo had to be nominated, and so they were. Past that I have no objections.
Actor in a Leading Role: Ryan Gosling in "Barbie" should have been nominated in this category rather than Best Supporting Actor; in a movie as female-centric as Barbie was he was as close to being a leading man as they got. I think Cillian Murphy will get the award for "Oppenheimer."
Actress in a Leading Role: Margot Robbie should have been given a nomination, but other than that...no real objections.
Actor in a Supporting Role: Strangely enough, if I was going to pull a Best Supporting Actor nomination out of "Barbie" I would have gone with Will Ferrell. Who the hell knew he could credibly play a villain?
Actress in a Supporting Role: The only issue here is Danielle Brooks for "The Color Purple." That movie was a big enough bomb the Air Force has dropped it on the enemy at least once. If they HAD to have a second black woman in the hunt to solve a sociopoltical need, Issa Rae's President Barbie was awesome. There is no issue with choosing two nominations for the same movie; "What Was I Made For" and "I'm Just Ken" from Barbie both got nods for Best Song.
Best Director: Greta Gerwig? HELLO?
Best Score: This is another "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" moment. When that movie was up for Oscars consideration they chose "Blame Canada" for Original Song - it didn't win - but didn't nominate the whole score for that award. In this case, "Barbie" had a strong score; they should have put it in this category and left the songs out of the "Best Song" one.
Production Design: If "Barbie" only comes home with one Oscar it needs to be this one.
Everyone prepare for the apocalypse. The world is about to end.
The Detroit Lions, who for decades have been considered the Benchmark for Disaster and the Shittiest Team in the NFL, are going to the NFC Championship Game.
To do it, they had to get by two of the last three Super Bowl champions - the Los Angeles Rams in Super Wild Card Weekend, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Divisional Round. The team who won it last year is in the other conference and they just won their way into the AFC Championship Game.
To get to the Super Bowl they've got to get past the 49ers, who went to the Har-bowl with Colin Kaepernick under center in 2013 and who last won the game in 1990.
Now that it's time for the Super Bowl, what teams would be best in it?
And by "what teams would be best," I mean "which two teams are going to piss off Trump's minions the worst if they make the Big Game?"
In the AFC, four teams are still in the hunt: the Houston Texans, Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills.
Let's go with Buffalo for two reasons: they deserve to win one finally - from 1991 to 1994 they went every year and Mr. Lombardi has never left one of his trophies in their house; and Trump freakin' HATES the Bills because the NFL turned him down flat when he tried to buy them.
In the NFC, the Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions are still in it. MAGAts hate San Francisco worse than Detroit but they can't stand Detroit either. There are three teams in the playoffs this year who've never been to the Big Game, and the only NFC team in the batch is the Lions, so it's time they got out of that column. Also, the Lions were so bad for so long that a trip to Vegas would be a great way to prove they've finally got their act together.
As to who wins it? Y'know, in a contest of perpetual underdogs either way would be fine, but Lions over Bills by two touchdowns would be a hell of a fine thing.
Do we need a new baseball statistic?
No, but I invented one anyway.
I was recently asked, "why didn't they just walk Babe Ruth every time so he never got a chance to play?" That sounded a little...irrational to me so I asked myself, "how good was Babe Ruth at scoring runs if he got on base?"
Enter On-Base Conversion, the stat that answers the question, "why not just walk Babe Ruth every time?"
The formula is:
OBC = (R-HR) / (H-HR) + BB + HBP
First, we remove all home runs from the equation. When a player hits one, he is credited with a home run, a hit, a run and an RBI for himself. RBIs are of no consequence in this formula so we ignore them. We ignore home runs because you don't "get on base" after hitting one; you go around all four bases on the same trot.
So, on the left side of the table is all the runs the player scored except the ones scored because he put the ball into the cheap seats.
On the right side are all the ways a batter can get on base - hits (minus the ones credited because of home runs), bases on balls and Hit by Pitch. We don't have to add intentional walks to the total because they're already in the Bases on Balls stat.
Since the question was about Babe Ruth, let's look at Ruth's 1924 season.
He got 143 runs, of which 46 were home runs.
He got 200 hits, of which 46 were home runs.
He was walked 142 times. Talk about Ruth's prowess with the bat aside, they walked the man a whole shitload.
He was beaned only four times.
So...
(143-46) / (200-46) + 142 + 4 = OBC of .323. His OBP was .513.
Let's take another season: Ichiro's 2004 season, when he made 101 runs, got 262 hits but only hit eight homers, was walked 49 times and was hit by a pitch four times.
(101-8) / (262-8) + 49 + 4 = OBC of .305. His OBP was .414.
Or examine Shohei Ohtani's 2023 season, when he hit 44 home runs, got 151 hits and 102 runs, was walked 91 times and was hit three times
(102-44) / (151-44) + 91 + 3 = OBC of .289. Ohtani's OBP was .412.
OBC answers the question, "is it a good idea to walk this man?" A guy like Ruth or Ichiro is too dangerous to walk because if they get on they get home at a high rate. In 1928 it was especially ugly: Ruth converted at a .421 rate. On the other hand, Ohtani only converted 58 times on base to runs all season - yes, a lot of it was due to the fact the Angels in 2023 were Ohtani, Mike Trout and 24 guys they drafted straight out of Little League, but the guy has a dramatic difference between his getting on and his getting across home plate. You can walk Ohtani safely.
Say it ain't so, Joe: NRA chief LaPierre resigns for "reasons of ill health"
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/wayne-lapierre-resigns-nra-leader-days-start-civil-trial-rcna132553In 2020, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a civil suit against four "current and former" NRA members, including Vice President Wayne LaPierre, alleging that they violated New York's laws governing nonprofit organizations and diverted millions of dollars in NRA funds to finance their lavish lifestyles. This is believed to have led directly to the NRA losing $64 million in three years. Trial begins Monday, January 8, 2024.
The specific officers on trial are:
Wayne LaPierre, NRA Executive Vice President and actual leader of the organization - the "president of the NRA" is usually a long-time and famous supporter of the Association and has no real power.
Wilson "Woody" Phillips, who formerly served as the Association's treasurer and chief financial officer.
Joshua Powell, who formerly served as the Association's chief of staff and executive director of general operations.
John Frazer, the current corporate secretary and general counsel.
The trial will be held before a six-member jury in Manhattan and presided over by Supreme Court Judge Joel Cohen. Just so you know, the New York court system is organized a little differently than in other states. There, the highest appellate court is the Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court is a statewide trial court. For minor matters like traffic tickets counties can establish County Courts, but the Supreme Court is their court of general jurisdiction. Judge Cohen is a jurist in the Commercial Division, so he's seen cases like this before. And to be blunt, this is going to be a tricky case to seat a jury for because people in New York City don't like the NRA all that much.
"Juror Candidate 3257, if Mr. LaPierre is found guilty in this court do you think he should be hanged by the ankles, the balls or the neck?"
"What's wrong with all three? We could...well, move him around on a weekly basis."
Liberty suffers worst drubbing in the history of the Fiesta Bowl
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/oregon-vs-liberty-score-ducks-qb-bo-nix-ends-prolific-career-with-most-lopsided-win-in-fiesta-bowl-history/live/Liberty University scored on its first drive in the Fiesta Bowl.
Bo Nix, quarterback of the Oregon Ducks, said "I don't think so."
Mr. Nix, a transfer from Auburn, threw five touchdown passes to five different receivers in his final game as a Duck. In the process, he broke Marcus Mariota's single-season records for touchdown passes and passing yards - both of which were set the year Mr. Mariota won the Heisman Trophy. Oregon's sixth touchdown was a running play completed by running back Bucky Irving. Mr. Nix also broke the 15,000-yard career passing milestone and broke the NCAA record for single-season completion percentage.
The previous record for futility in the Fiesta Bowl, Nebraska trashing Florida by 38 points, stood for 28 seasons.
More entertaining is that at the start of the game, Liberty was one of the three remaining undefeated teams in all the Football Bowl Subdivision. The other two are Michigan and Washington, both of which are in the College Football Playoffs. Michigan defeated Alabama - the only Southeastern Conference team in the Playoffs - by seven points in the Rose Bowl; the Sugar Bowl, featuring Texas versus currently-undefeated Washington, was tied in the second quarter as I write this. The fourth undefeated team heading into the bowl season, Florida State, apparently said the hell with it and lost the Orange Bowl to Georgia on December 30 by a mind-boggling 60 points.
What I want posted in every classroom in America
The Hard Right wants every classroom to have a copy of the Ten Commandments, because Jesus or something. Apparently a kid who’s being beaten and starved by his garbage parents is going to be motivated to excel by being told to honor his mother and father.
The Honor Code of the Military Academies reads, “a cadet will not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do.” Change “cadet” to “student” and it’s perfect.
If Trump is in prison in the second half of 2024, how is he gonna campaign?
I can’t imagine any prison warden believing that running for president is an appropriate jail job, so you know they’re not going to give him permission to leave jail for rallies. Trump’s entire campaign strategy relies on rallies. So…if he’s sitting in the Georgia State Penitentiary how does he expect to rabble-rouse?
Let's talk about Trump's belief in his immunity
https://constitution.findlaw.com/article2/article-ii--presidential-immunity-to-criminal-and-civil-suits.html#:~:text=The%20President%20is%20immune%20from,actions%20arising%20from%20unofficial%20conduct.The esteemed Mr. Trump, whom we all know, seems to have adopted the “yeah, I did it but I was president when I did it so you can’t do anything to me because presidents have immunity from prosecution.”
Hold ‘er up there, Hoss, and answer this simple question: if a president can do whatever the hell he wants and get away with it, why did Gerald Ford have to pardon Richard Nixon to keep him out of prison?
Presidential immunity means a president can’t be sued or prosecuted for acts relating to his official duties. As a simple example, the Republicans can’t throw President Biden in jail over the thirteen deaths that happened during the Army’s withdrawal from Afghanistan - and believe you me, they would if they could. Nor can they chuck him in the stockade over the East Palestine derailment, which they’d do even though the government doesn’t run the railroad responsible. (Just so you know, the government owns a railroad - the Army runs it - but it was not the one involved in East Palestine.)
Immunity does not extend to criminal acts or actions taken outside the scope of a president’s official duties. Mr. Trump stands accused of committing 91 separate felony-level offenses. His immunity can’t save him from facing judgment, and it’s an atrocity that Jack Smith is being lowered to asking the Supreme Court to tell him that.
Regarding the Kate Cox abortion affair...
As has been thoroughly discussed here, one Kate Cox of Texas is currently in the midst of a non-viable pregnancy which needs to be ended. On December 7, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ruled that she should be allowed to have one and signed an order - which was stayed by the Supreme Court of Gilead - allowing the procedure to take place.
I am starting to fear that Commander Waterford, attorney general of Texas, is going to try to get Judge Gamble removed from the bench and disbarred for doing what she did.
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