Author: Austin Vegas

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Spring Equinox brings… snow?

It’s the first day of spring where there’s equal time to the day as there is to the night (am I building a theme here?). The first sound I heard rolling out of my cubbie hole bed, is the scraping of snow shovels on the sidewalk below: It’s snowing.

The flurries didn’t last long nor will they stick as it warms to the 40s today but I’m happy enough from an evening of watching the tourny last night. Two of my upset predictions didn’t happen, but at least the ULCA and VCU game was worth the watch.

All this bullshit about Obama not spending enough time “helping the economy” (picking brackets, and going on Leno) needs to relax. I’m stressed and over worked and a night out last night to have beers with friends and break away is much needed for everyone.

Today in history, in 1997 Liggett admits cigarettes are addictive. I’m thinking about this fact after walking bar to bar last night, passing groups of smokers on the street at various times and wondering why I too might have a secret urge to puff. Was it because my mother smoked? or some of my friends do? or I’m just board and just want an excuse to meet new people (but do I really need more smoker friends?).

I’m not a smoker and with the turn of 2009 to more daylight, I should spend more time exercising than thinking about more ways to kill my life span earlier. Life can be short, if anything the unexpected death of Natasha Richardson can show us all.

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2009 NCAA Men’s Tournament Bracket

I’ve been so busy with work, I haven’t had a change to watch much ball these last few months. I’ve caught a few Kansas, Gators, Pitt, UConn, UCLA and Memphis games but I almost missed the deadline to get in a bracket. I spent time analyzing blogs, radio shows and ESPN and came up with the NEO bracket. Then from there did two more variants for two other “leagues”.

My Round 1 Upsets are (based on the NEO research):
Siena over Ohio St. : Siena is a sleeper for sure. They went big last year and I think will give Louisville a run

USC over Boston College : BC is streaky (4 game loss streak including Harvard at home?). USC won the Pac-10 championship going through Arizona St., Cal, and UCLA.

Texas A&M over BYU : These two have meet before and BYU hasn’t won in the first round in 6 years. The Aggies will make that 7.

Northern Iowa over Purdue : The is my only stretch 5-12 upsets because I still think Purdue is a sleeper to go to 16s if they do beat UNI. The Boilermakers haven’t been full strength all season and if UNI keeps it close it will go their way. (in my other two bracket’s I’ve taken Purdue).

Maryland over California : Cal has great three point shooting with Randle, Christopher, and Robertson. The ex-Stanford coach, Mike Montgomery has tournament experience but these guys aren’t that big. I’m still a Bear’s fan secretly hoping I’m wrong in this pick. The Terrapins can turn up the D, like they did beating Wake Forest and UNC so I’m picking them in this one.

Tennessee over Oklahoma St. : I know nothing about these two, but I have read terrible stats about Tenn. and the Cowboys suck at D. This is just one of those fluke wins where Oklahoma fails more than Tennessee steps up.

VCU over UCLA : Yes, UCLA has been in the final four the last three years and have Collison and Shipp but history doesn’t matter: it’s what happens on the court this year. VCU though won the Colonial Athletic Association tournament. Maynor leads the team in scoring (22.4) and with Sanders’s size they’ll be disruptive to UCLA. It’ll be a great game to watch.

Western KY over Illlinois : This is my strong 5-12 upset prediction. WKY beat Drake with a buzzer beater last year and this year they’ll hit the headlines again beating Illinois. They beat Louisville early on and have been crushing the competition lately by winning 15 of their last 17 games.

Michigan over Clemson : Clemson made it into this tournament with their defense and turn over conversion but unfortunately for them Michigan has sticky fingers which won’t give them any advantage. With Clemson coming off losing four of their last five, they are down and soon to be out.

I think the BIGGEST upset on my bracket is LSU taking out North Carolina in the 2nd round. The X factor here is Ty Lawson who isn’t expected to play today and if he can go on Friday, I don’t expect him to be effective, putting UNC at a disadvantage and hopless as LSU blindsides them with a win.

My Final Four are: Louisville, Memphis, Pittsburgh and Syracuse with Pitt and Memphis meeting in the National Championships and Memphis taking the title. Here’s my brackets:

NEO Bracket:

QFunk Bracket

A6 Bracket

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New York Pole Tax Proposed

Felix Ortiz, a Brooklyn Democrat assemblyman introduced a bill on March 11th, that would require patrons of any NY State strip club, to pay and extra $10 cover charge, oops I mean “tax”, every time they enter the club or topless joint. Felix claims the new tax could raise as much as $500 million for victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, sexual abuse and child prostitution.

So it’s a NY style government shake down???

For one, I’ve found these type of taxes very unreasonable for several reasons. The Gov has no transparency so there’s really nothing public that can be used to track this tax back to the very programs he’s proposing. I see this as yet another “tax” generated by the NY state assemble and primarily pushed by Gov. Paterson, to minimize the state’s $14 billion budget deficit which ultimately will be forced upon New York City residents. Also been proposed are taxes on internet downloads such as mp3s and movies, including those in the Adult entertainment business.

Apparently states have increasingly turned to the adult-entertainment industry, this and the booze industry, which are the only ones still making money, to help close budget gaps in recent years.

NY isn’t the first, Texas lawmakers pitched a bill which would require a $5 “pole tax” which was later found to be unconstitutional by a state judge. Judge Scott Jenkins wrote that the fee, “while furthering laudable goals, violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and is therefore invalid.”

“The bottom line is, we have to protect people who have been victimized by unscrupulous individuals, and we cannot continue, especially in this economy, to have government pay for everything,” Ortiz said.

Fuck you Ortiz! Entering a strip clubs is a protected First Amendment activity. There hasn’t been any evidence provided that combining alcohol (or zero alcohol for full nude clubs) with topless erotic dancing correlates to sexual assaults, domestic violence or contributes to child prostitution. Where is the straight line from child porn/prostitution to adult entertainment? He’s just proposed taking more money away from law abiding citizens (both the patrons and the dancers as this would effect how much a participant contributes to the activity) so essentially the govt CAN pay for unrelated services.

Stripping may be politically unpopular, it is a guaranteed right for the citizens of the state and the US. Even if the state were to get by the constitutionality of the tax, there is no plausibly good reason that tax code should be a substitute for the criminal code. No one would object to contributing to educating and preventing sexually related crimes, however, I would hope communities locally and societies everywhere would want to fund such programs generally.

T-Pain – I’m in Love with a Stripper
[audio: http://www.box.net/shared/static/fuae6uqog0.mp3]