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Saturday, April 26, 2003The latest rumor is that the New England trade is dying, but that Dallas wants to trade up to take Robertson. This also makes sense for Detroit, since Houston likes Andre Johnson over Charles Rogers, and the Jets do not like Rogers (though they'd take Johnson if Houston changes its mind). So if the trade goes through, Detroit would probably still be able to get Rogers at #5. If he goes to Houston and the Jets grab Johnson (oops, that sounds dirty), Detroit can select Terence Newman or trade him for the Saints' two first rounders to rebuild the defense (see below). Sounds like a good risk/reward scenario to me. Also, at #5 Rogers might be more signable than if he were selected at #2, which might factor in the decision. posted by Nate on 11:34 AM link Four hours until the NFL Draft. I probably won't be blogging from the couch during it, since I am not cool enough to own a laptop and wireless network card (Shit, I run Linux and have an eighty pound server case; what do you people want from me?). I'll do a writeup for the Articles section later. Following the Bears/Jets trade yesterday, the rumor is that my Lions will give the Patriots the second pick overall for pick #14, pick #19, a second rounder, and a third or fourth round selection. Sounds good to me, since Detroit has a lot of holes to fill, and I'm not 100% sure Charles Rogers has the size to fight through press coverage yet. Maybe if he spends the offseason chugging Beefcake 4000. If the Lions trade down, they could get a defensive tackle (and trade the disgruntled Sean Rogers for another second rounder?), and either OLB Boss Bailey or guard Eric Steinbach (if we miss Bailey, maybe draft LBs Nick Barnett or Pisa Tinoisamoa in the middle second round). In round two, I'd grab a tall free safety like Rashean Mathis or Julian Battle, who can move to cornerback whenever Randy and the Vikings come to town (Andre Goodman and Dre Bly should be a solid pair against most teams, but they're undersized compared to the 6'4 Moss.). Then I'd use the Patriots' two for a big possession wideout like Penn State's Bryant Johnson or Missouri's Justin Gage. Round three nets us a running back. Lee Suggs? Chris Brown? Onterrio Smith? Huggy Bear, Jr.? Mooch has been able to win with a good but not great runner (Garrison Hearst), so any of these guys should work. In this trade scenario, the Lions might miss out on the big play receiver, but they get to rebuild the defense. That's the way Mariucci rebuilt the Niners after Steve Young retired; get a young defense and let them play together for a few years until they gel. And next year, they can draft a huge, gamebreaking wideout like Roy or Reggie Williams, or a smaller speed receiver like Wisconsin's Lee "Rhymes with Gimp Knee" Evans. posted by Nate on 8:16 AM link Friday, April 25, 2003This is interesting: a Yale Political Science grad student is trying to get libertarians to move to one lightly populated state. There they can influence the populace and have a greater say in the government. It would certainly be interesting to see a Libertarian government in action (or, a Libertarian government inaction). My uncle lives in Vermont, and says that pretty much the same thing happened there twenty years ago, only with leftists instead of libertarians. Since the bulk of the electorate doesn't bother to vote or votes on name recognition, Vermont is getting increasingly welfare statey. Example A: price controls on dairy products. Example B: Howard Dean. posted by Nate on 12:20 PM link Andrew Sullivan devoted his blog yesterday to the Rick Santorum fallout. Like the readers who e-mailed Mr. Sullivan, I also am ashamed that the Republican party can have people like this in high ranking positions. Then again, my voting preferences have always reflected the duality of the party: I vote for Republicans nationally due to foreign policy and economics, but not in local races, since local Republicans are usually crusty conservative law and order types like, well, Rick Santorum. Like it or not, Democrats and Greens still have the high ground on civil liberties, which is important at the local level; I sure don't want an overzealous prosecutor going after "sexual deviants" or pot-smoking teenagers or people who stay up past their bedtimes. And at the local level, the left-leaning parties can't do a damn fool thing like nationalize health care or raise taxes to confiscatory Jimmy Carter levels. Plus, if the Green party candidate wins, I mean, free drugs. Woot! posted by Nate on 12:06 PM link Thursday, April 24, 2003I got the web log archives up; they should appear towards the bottom of the week's posts. Now you can look at the posts from the previous Three Weeks of Amazing Splendor that has been this website. Thanks to Phil Ringnalda, who wrote the javascript generator I used. This should work for those of you with javascript-enabled browsers (most everyone, unless you're a fanatical UNIX geek who uses lynx or something ("We don't need no steenking images!")). posted by Nate on 6:35 AM link In an excellent article, the incomparable Jonah Goldberg proposes we institute a Swiss-style government in Iraq. I agree; in fact, it bothers me that the Bush administration keeps talking about making Iraq a democracy, when what they presumably mean is a republic, with checks and balances on the powerful. The act of voting isn't some Harry Potter plot device that makes everyone happy forever and ever: the protection of the minority and the rule of law are more important. As the quote says, "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner," and given Iraq's ethnic and cultural makeup, Goldberg's idea for an ultra-Federalist Swiss flavored system is a Very Good Idea (TM). posted by Nate on 4:56 AM link Wednesday, April 23, 2003Not only is ESR back blogging, but now Greg Easterbrook, the Tuesday Morning Quarterback, has an ESPN column out. On the NFL Draft, no less. What random act of kindness did I do today to deserve this wonderful bounty? While on the topic of sports, The Minnesota Wild defeated the Colorado Avalanche in game seven overtime. Who woulda thunk that instead of a Detroit/Colorado second round matchup, The Minnesota Wild and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks would advance? posted by Nate on 1:41 AM link After a few months working on other things, Eric S. Raymond is back blogging again, this time with an essay on the Spanish Revolution and Fascism in general He's a really interesting guy, one of those people you know is always analyzing the world instead of passively taking it in. I saw him speak on Linux and Open Source Software when I was in school and was very impressed; I'm not a big fan of Richard Stallman or the GNU Public License, though many of Raymond's points-- especially about the culture and social structure of computer programmers-- resonated with me. It was one of those talks where the tangents were exceedingly thought-provoking, and I've been a fan of his ever since. posted by Nate on 1:32 AM link Tuesday, April 22, 2003I spent the morning writing a new article for you, My Favorite Rabbits. It's about Easter, only not. posted by Nate on 4:09 PM link Today is the tenth anniversary of Mosaic, the first graphical web browser. Designed by students at National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the program and the NCSA html server essentially opened up the World Wide Web to the general public. Several of the creators used their work on the project to start a little company called Netscape, and the http server became Apache, which serves 2/3 of web sites. Here is the NCSA's page on commerorative events. posted by Nate on 1:50 PM link Monday, April 21, 2003I'm not a huge fan of Ann Coulter, but she has an interesting opinion piece on the Achille Lauro hijacker, whom we captured in Iraq last week. posted by Nate on 11:25 PM link
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