Anarchist ruins Anarchist/Counter Culture festival by disobeying the rules.

File this under, "I can't even make up shit this good", or if that file is full perhaps, "Life imitates The Onion".

It is alleged that one Paul Addis, 35, burnt the Burning Man a tad early and has been charged with being like, so completely uncool. But the thing I am most shocked with is the overall Ashcroftian like suppression of liberties that the folks at "Black Rock City" are engaging in when they throw this artist in the clink just because they don't like his form of creative expression. I mean since when did Burning Man become a Christian Coalition rally?

'elp 'elp, e's being repressed!

2009 Jaguar XF

People, and by people I mean Jaguar fans, have long held that Ford has been a bad steward for the leaping cat. I have, with the X-Type and S-Type felt that they had some strong grounds for their arguments. But now, with the release of official pictures of the new XF I realize that they were too kind. The XF looks more like a next generation Buick that it does anything involving Jaguar. Which isn't to say it's bad, per se, but it's just not Jaguar. That cat is dead.

The 2009 Bui... err... Jaguar XF.

DublinSaab's preseason top 20

1 USC
2 LSU
3 Michigan
4 West Virginia
5 Texas
6 Wisconsin
7 Florida
8 Ohio State
9 Louisville
10 Oklahoma
11 Georgia
12 Rutgers
13 Penn State
14 Tennessee
15 UCLA
16 TCU
17 Hawaii
18 Arkansas
19 Auburn
20 Boise State


On the bubble (FSU, Miami, Iowa, Nebraska, Georgia Tech, Missouri, Boston College and South Carolina)

#1 michigan wolverines

While it pains me to put the wolverines ahead of my Buckeyes I can’t help but do so. A solid veteran QB back, a veteran RB that simply does not know how to fumble and other key guys back for a 4th year in hopes of getting a win over Ohio State (and a bowl win) this michigan team is loaded for bear. And not some juvenile black in the hills of the UP but some monster Kodiak that eats Buicks.

Adding to this pressure is the fact that this should be Lloyd Carr’s last season as coach. Win it all and he leaves on a high like some drug addled dream. Lose to OSU and the bowl game, again and get shown the door. This team is tough and they really need to win.

Prediction: 11-1 (1-7)

Worst Case: 9-3 (3-5)
Lose to a hot Penn State squad and to OSU – again – and michigan sees a very dark year where most Div I teams would kill for a 9-3 record.

Best Case: 12-0 (8-0)
Lloyd gets the win against Ohio State and a National Championship berth only to lose to USC 49-24 leaving the coach to leave on a down note but a winning record against OSU ( Carr is currently 6-6, 5-1 vs. Cooper and 1-5 vs. Tressle)

#2 Ohio State Buckeyes

Having lost so much from last years National Championship game team (even though they forgot that they actually had to show up and play the game) this year’s Buckeye team should not be as good. You just can’t lose a Heisman trophy winning QB and most of your offensive talent and not experience a back slide. However the team, built around the core of a strong defense and special teams, should not be bad, at all. In fact, this team, on paper, is better than the title winning 2002 team.

So will Tressle Ball be back in full force? Get a QB that limits mistakes to a minimum, keep Beanie healthy and have a dominate defense and the Buckeyes could find themselves back in the show.

Prediction: 10-2 (6-2)

Worst Case: 7-5 (4-4)
Young talent cracking in an early west coast away game, inability to run and gun at Purdue and a lose to Wisconsin leads to a nightmare “rebuilding” year when everyone was expecting a “reload”.

Best Case: 12-0 (8-0)
Tressle makes it back to the Championship game, only to be told by everyone and their uncle that they have no business being on the same field as USC on route to a 33-27 win over the invincible Trojans.

#3 Wisconsin Badgers

Last year I scoffed at the idea of Barry Alvarez hand picking his successor at Wisconsin. And then Brett Bielema not only went 12-1 with a nice bowl win over Arkansas (though how a big slow dumb Big Ten team beat a smart fast SEC team still remains a great mystery) but he also took advantage of the asinine new clock rule to run the clock out with out giving Penn State the ball back by being offside, on purpose, during a kick off - several times in a row. Coach Joe Pa went apoplectic, Coach Alvarez said, “that’s my boy”, college fans everywhere said, “HA! Stupid rule.” and the rule got changed back this year. For that coach, you get a tip of the hat.

This year the Badgers are going to miss veteran QB John Stocco but the pieces are all there, as long as the new QB doesn’t make mistakes, for this team to make a lot a noise on the national level and get people talking about there being a Big 3 in the Big Ten.

Prediction: 10-2 (6-2)

Worst Case: 8-4 (4-4)
A disastrous home letdown against Iowa and a half hearted loss to Michigan after an emotional loss at OSU the week before

Best Case: 12-0 (8-0)
Wisconsin gets it done only to be shut out of a USC vs LSU National Championship game, which leads Jim Delany to hire the 47 Ronin to force all the Div I college presidents to agree to a playoff system. Which will earn Brett another hat tip.

#4 Iowa Hawkeyes

I’m probably expecting too much of the Hawkeyes this year, lacking Drew Tate a other key players the team shouldn’t be as good as last year. However missing Ohio State and Michigan from their schedule is like starting the season with 2 wins.

The offense would be as powerful as last year but the defense, with some returning talent, should be able to make up the difference. But this is still a bubble team and if Kirk Ferentz can’t get things flowing right it could be a down year.

Prediction: 9-3 (2-6)

Worst Case: 7-5 (4-4)
Iowa’s schedule is just too plane old weak for this team to not make a bowl game.

Best Case: 11-1 (1-7)
Kirk makes things happen and gets a BCS slot, along with a job offer from another school or NFL – which he’ll accept. But they aren’t going to get past Wisconsin in Camp Randell.

#5 Penn State Nittany Lions

A few years ago, with poor season after poor season, Joe Paterno’s team was threatening to become an also ran in the Big Ten. The an 11-1 season followed by a solid finish last year has got the Lion faithful thinking about things other than the nightmare horror of firing old (and I mean old) coach Joe Pa.

This year’s team looks to build upon their bowl defeat of Tennessee and make a run at not just the Big Ten title (of which Penn State has precious few – one – after announcing they would own the Big Ten upon admission to the conference) but a nation title as well.

Prediction: 9-3 (5-3)

Worst Case: 6-6 (2-6)
Losing to Wisconsin, Ohio State and a hot Purdue team are well within the realm of possibility and would leave the deflated Lion fans with the prospect of reviving FireJoePa.com up again.

Best Case: 11-1 (1-7)
PSU is BSC bound if everything comes together for them but they aren’t going to beat Michigan in the big house. Not… Gonna… Do it…

#6 Purdue Boilermakers

A few years back, with Drew Brees in the pocket, Joe Tiller’s Boilermakers were the latest challengers to the Big Ten’s established powers (Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Penn State). However, that was a few years ago. Awful in ’05 and mediocre last year the ’07 Boilermakers are (get ready for it) trying to get their steam back. (ha!)

With a dangerous passing game and effective runners Purdue’s offense should be able to keep this team in a lot of games. The big question is whether or not Tiller can find any chemistry on defense and it how good the defense is that will make or break this season.

Prediction: 8-4 (4-4)

Worst Case: 5-7 (2-6)
If the defense doesn’t show up then everyone stays home for the holidays.

Best Case: 10-2 (6-2)
The defense does show up and Joe Tiller gets to shake down the thunder… and get a contract extension.

#7 Indiana Hoosiers

Coach Terry Hoeppner was a true believer in the abaility of Indian to join the upper level of Big Ten teams and he was just the kind of threat to make this happen. Saddly for everyone he succumbed before anyone was ready, to brain cancer and leaves a team behind that was starting to believe in his energy but in the hands of a coach that doesn’t have his zealotious fire.

Yet the teams brings most if its bits back and they are going to be playing for coach (Hoeppner, not Lynch) and as such this team, that just missed getting to a bowl game last year will make it to one this year. And they’ll win it too.

Projection: 6-6 (3-5)

Worst Case: 4-8 (1-5)

Best Case: 8-4 (5-3)
Add in wins @ Western Michigan and Northwestern, a possible top 25 finish and the IU faithful will build shrines to Hoeppner… as they should.

Sell by date anyone?

So I ask, "Do you have a fire extinguisher?" and the owner answers that she most certainly does. I hen ask where it is located so that I can get a picture of it and she says that she knows exactly where it is as it wouldn't do her much good if she couldn't find it when needed. I agreed with her as she lead me to this...



Please take note of the date the extinguisher was last charged up.



That's April, 1962. Her fire extinguisher was last topped off during the bloody Kennedy Administration! 45 years ago! Yes in deed, you'll want to be sure to know exactly where this is located so that in the event of an actual fire you can remove it to safety as we wouldn't want to see an artifact of the past like this going up in flames, would we?

#8 Michigan State Spartans

I’d like to have a moment of silence to mark the firing of John L Smith. We will all miss him on the side line in East Lansing. We will miss his kookiness, his explosions, his self flagellation, his freaky answers during the post game news conferences, his second half of the season implosions and most of all his ability to saw defeat from the jaws of victory.

First year coach Mark Dantonio (via Cincinnati and Ohio State) will not be the exciting court jester that that Smith was and his teams won’t suffer from year end collapses. However, I don’t think there is all that much to work with talent wise as the new coach will be breaking in a lot of new players.

Projection: 5-7 (3-5)

Worst Case: 3-9 (1-7)
The curse of JLS causes losses to Indiana and Penn State for a nice 0-6 2nd half after a tempting 3-3 start.

Best Case: 8-4 (4-4)
Mark makes an immediate impression on the young team and Spartan fans get to go bowling.

#9 Illinois Fighting Illini

Illinois will be much improved over last year’s 2-10 record. But they aren’t yet ready to go bowling. Zook will now be on his second big recruiting class and the fans are going to start demanding results. The improvement will be there but questions remain as to whether or not he can actually coach the talent that he is able to bring in. However, it is easy to recruit when you can guarantee Freshmen a starting spot vs. being on the practice squad at a upper level program.

That said the Illini will play better and closer than last year but come up with nothing to show for it as the schedule (Michigan, Wisconsin and @ Iowa and Ohio State) is weighted against them.

Projection: 5-7 (2-6)
Wins over Western Illinois, Ball State, Northwestern and @ Syracuse and Minnesota.

Worst Case: 2-10 (0-8)
Rinse and repeat.

Best Case: 7-5 (3-4)
Add in wins against Missouri and @ Indian and you get a December bowl game, that you’ll probably lose.

#10 Northwestern Wildcats

Pat Fitzgerald has a lot of the good pieces from last year’s 7-5 team back. Yet somehow I am not convinced. I have a lagging feeling that last year’s team sort of over achieved due to the sad death of coach Walker.

Returning 17 starters should entail growth from last years bowl team but I just don’t hold out to that assumption. The motivation of winning one for Walker is gone and this squad is going to end up being more traditional Wildcat material that the fans would like to see.

Projection: 5-7 (2-6)
Wins over North Eastern, Duke, Minnesota, @ Eastern Michigan and Indian.

Worst Case: 3-9 (1-7)

Best Case: 7-5 (3-4)
Picking up wins against Nevada and @ Illinois getting young Pat Fitz to be 2 for 2 in bowl appearances in his young career.

#11 - Minnesota Golden Gophers

There is little to get excited about at Minnesota this year, aside from listening to all the new excuses that new head coach, Tim Brewster will be coming up with to make the Gopher faithful not freak completely out about not winning the Big Ten Championship in the first year after having shown Glen Mason the door.

Brewster is trying to change everything on a team that has a drought of talent at the moment. Their best player, Amir Pinnix, will be fun to watch as he chews up yards but the new spread offense will be otherwise shaky and the defense porous.

Projection: 3-9 (0-8)
With wins over Miami (OH), North Dakota State and @ Florida Atlantic.

Worst Case: 0-12 (0-8)
Yes, it’s that bad.

Best Case: 6-6 (2-6)
Picking up wins over Bowling Green, Illinois and @ Indiana. In this dream like 6 win scenario the Gophers manage to make a bowl game that they have no business being in against some 9-3 mid major that will make quick work of them and lead them off to a long dark winter.