Life of Smiley

Online Radio Is Saved; SoundExchange Will Not Enforce New Royalty Rates on Sunday

Neither is the National Highway System, for that matter. A few weeks ago a NH couple made headlines for holing up in their Plainfield compound and refusing to pay taxes. Their position is that the US Constitution doesn't provide for the taxation of private citizens. This is a seductive argument which has attracted many advocates over the years for obvious reasons. The only problem is, we can't all suddenly decide not to pay taxes. This mentality is akin to that of an impatient motorist who goes whizzing by in the breakdown lane while the rest of us suckers are stuck in traffic. This tactic only works so long as most people are following the rules. If this is your justification for doing something, you're not principled, you're criminal. Contrast this with another group of people who refuse to pay taxes because they don't want to fund the war in Iraq. Unlike the couple in NH, these people choose to live on a minimal income so as not to owe any taxes (both gr...

I know I'm a little behind in my reading, but did anyone else see this quote from Tim Duncan in the June 4th SI? Duncan was reminded how lucky he was to come to San Antonio by a recent Sporting News cover that showed him in a Boston Celtics uniform, illustrating a story about how the league might have changed had the Celtics won the 1997 draft lottery. "I was fortunate -- as fortunate as the Spurs -- to land where I did," he says, citing the ownership of Peter Holt, the stewardship of Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford, even the quality of the facilities in San Antonio as positives. "It's not guaranteed if I did go somewhere else that I would have won a championship. Maybe things being different, I never get to that point, because people don't prepare, people don't draft, people don't put teams together the right way, people don't coach the right way. So I'm absolutely blessed having the situation that I'm in."

ST. LOUIS - The state Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control is renewing its investigation into whether restaurant workers knew Josh Hancock was drunk but continued to serve alcohol to the Cardinals pitcher before his fatal crash.... Hancock's father, Dean Hancock of Tupelo, Miss., filed suit last month against Shannon's, Van Matre, the tow truck company and operator, and the man whose car was stalled on the highway. I can understand suing the restaurant that served Josh the alcohol, but suing some random guy who was stalled on the highway, and the tow truck driver who was there to help him? These guys aren't responsible for Hancock's death, they're just innocent victims of a drunk driver. If Josh's father has standing to sue on behalf of his dead son, shouldn't he also be held responsible for his son's actions? It seems only fair. So what if his son is dead? He started this. I would sue his ass right back.

If you aren't already on the BronBron bandwagon, now's the time to hop aboard. Or rather, last night's game 5 was the time. Never one to shy away from hyperbole, Marv Albert called it one of the great performances in NBA history, and Steve Kerr called it Jordanesque. Not like we haven't heard that comparison before, but I guess he would know. The box score doesn't tell the whole story . I love when he drives to the hoop, glides past 3-4 defenders while somehow continuing to elevate, and finishes with a thunderous dunk. Hide the women and children! Kobe deserves consideration, but no other player has been this fun to watch since a certain other 23 hung up his Jordans. pos min fgm-a 3pm-a ftm-a off def tot ast pf st to bs pts L.James F 50:18 18-33 2-3 10-14 3 6 9 7 3 2 2 0 48

Listening to Boston sports media talking about tonight's NBA draft lottery, I can't tell if they're all willfully deluded, or if they really don't understand probability. They typically all say something like, "The Celtics have a 37% chance of getting either the first or second pick, but there's still a chance they won't get either one. What would Boston do if they didn't get either Oden or Durant?" I feel stupid even writing this, but 37% is less than 50%. That means it is unlikely that Boston will get either the first or second pick tonight. I'm guessing they'll pick fifth. On the other hand, I have run ESPN's lottery and mock draft twice, and the Celts have picked Durant both times, so maybe we'll be okay. Hmmm... I wonder if the Sports Guy hacked into this somehow....

This is so disappointing. In the latest installment of CYA politics , an Emmanuel College professor has been fired for pointing a marker at students and saying, "pow." Now, I don't know any details other than what I've just read in this article. Maybe there is more to it than that. But the article does state that most students were not offended by the demonstration. Why can't people just admit that they don't have a solution? Why not just say, "I've never encountered this situation before, and I'm not sure how to proceed. I'm open to suggestions." Would that be so inexcusable? Instead, administrators and politicians feel they must act decisively, without taking adequate time to consider whether or not they are doing the right thing. We don't know how to stop school shootings, but we can stop professors from talking about it, so we do that instead. We don't know how to stop terrorist bombings, but we can stop advertisers...

With an array of pitches as sublime and mesmerizing as haiku, $100 million import Daisuke Matsuzaka could tip the American League balance of power to the Red Sox -- and explode the old myths about pampering pitchers Over his eight seasons with Seibu, Matsuzaka compiled a 108-60 record with a 2.95 ERA while averaging a complete game every 2.8 starts . (The major league average in 2006 was a complete game every 33.8 starts.) His 13 complete games last year were more than the staffs of all but one major league team had. This guy's a bona fide superhero. Either that or Major League pitchers are even bigger pussies than I thought. If Dice-K comes anywhere near that level of productivity in the States (and if the Sox let him) he'll be worth every penny of that $103 million.

Red Sox will send Papelbon back to bullpen Papelbon is coming off a sensational rookie season in which he had 35 saves and an 0.92 ERA. The 26-year-old right-hander was slated to be part of a strong starting rotation, but the Red Sox need a reliable closer because the 41-year-old Timlin has a strained side muscle and isn't going to be ready to start the season. Couldn't that last sentence be rewritten as, "the Red Sox need a reliable closer because the 41-year-old Timlin is their closer?"

Manny Ramirez: JENN-AIR Grill Hi, I`m Manny Ramirez. I bought this AMAZING grill for about $4,000 and I used it once... But I never have the time to use it because I am always on the road. I would love to sell it and you will get an autographed ball signed by me =] Enjoy it, Manny Ramirez.

Pete Bo Sizelove, 30, of Sacramento was arrested Saturday at Roseville Lincoln Mercury after he tried to break into the car he wanted to buy with a crowbar and then climbed aboard its roof with a Samurai sword and a sledge hammer.

Apparently you can get a free flight voucher by peeing in an air-sickness bag.

This story makes Baltimore sound like a really fun place.

Tatyana McFadden has always battled the odds. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, with spina bifida, which left her paralyzed from the waist down, she was abandoned by her birth mother. Tatyana arrived at her first high school road meet last spring as a curiosity: the racer in the wheelchair. But by the time she reached the finish line in the 400 meters -- first -- fans saw her as a legitimate athlete and responded with cheers. McFadden and her mother, Deborah, have been fighting for nearly a year to compete against students without disabilities. The objection: officials say her racing chair creates a safety hazard and gives her an unfair advantage. (The best wheelchair racers tend to be faster than able-bodied runners in longer races; McFadden usually finishes at or near the top in everything except sprints.) Tatyana's story , while tragic, in no way entitles her to bring a wheelchair to a footrace. You might think I enjoy picking on handicapped athletes , but it seems like everyone ...

In December Mickey DeLorenzo, a computer programmer in Philadelphia, hypothesized that he could lose weight by playing the Wii for 30 minutes a day. He lost nine pounds in six weeks and is on his way to becoming the next Jared of Subway fame. In January DeLorenzo signed a book deal, tentatively titled The Wii Workout and teamed up with Traineo.com, a social networking site for dieters and fitness buffs, to feature his new regime. "It's becoming something like a Richard Simmons show," says DeLorenzo, who's received dozens of fan emails. "People will write, 'You've inspired me to buy a Wii and start working out.'" I can't decide what makes me feel dumber: that I just wasted my time reading this story , or that I'm not cashing in on this ridiculous trend. Hey! Media! I just took a dump and lost two pounds in fifteen minutes! Write a book about me! What sport is this?

Why Smart Cops Do Dumb Things Or, Why We're All F'd Boston, Jan. 31: As part of a guerilla marketing campaign, a series of amateur-looking blinking signs depicting characters in Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a show on the Cartoon Network, were placed on bridges, near a medical center, underneath an interstate highway and in other crowded public places. Police mistook these signs for bombs and shut down parts of the city, eventually spending more than $1 million sorting it out. Authorities blasted the stunt as a terrorist hoax, while others ridiculed the Boston authorities for overreacting. Almost no one looked beyond the finger pointing and jeering to discuss exactly why the Boston authorities overreacted so badly. They overreacted because the signs were weird. If someone left a backpack full of explosives in a crowded movie theater, or detonated a truck bomb in the middle of a tunnel, no one would demand to know why the police hadn't noticed it beforehand. But if a weird device ...

Soldier admits murdering Iraqi detainees The soldiers first told investigators they shot the detainees because they were attempting to flee -- a story they now say they made up -- and that commanders had given them orders to kill all military-age males on the mission. See, this is why we're never going to "win" a war on terrorism. Because you just can't do stuff like this. And yet, if you're determined to fight a conventional war against an unconventional enemy, it's probably the only thing you can do. An Unpopular Opinion?

It's been just over seven years since Shawn Fanning introduced the world to the Napster file sharing protocol, signaling the beginning of the end for the music industry's traditional brick-and-mortar business model. Now, after 18,000 lawsuits (?!) and undisclosed millions paid to lawyers, the record labels may finally be coming around to the realization that they have only two choices: join us or die. Ironically, this may also cause heartburn for the company that has been most successful in pioneering on-line music sales. Remember, the fundamental enabling technology for digital music sharing was not P2P networking, but MP3 encoding, which enables the compression of music files to about one tenth of their original size with no appreciable loss in sound quality. Apple's iTunes currently uses a proprietary AAC encoding format with built-in digital rights management (don't get me started ). For the record, I love iTunes and I buy music on a regular basis. As I type thi...

Hunt for planet same as ours Search is vital, says Hawking Today: “Is it entirely fanciful that human beings might find another home out there somewhere and, if so, should we be planning for it?” Prof Hawking: “The long-term survival of the human race is at risk as long as it is confined to a single planet. “Sooner or later disasters such as an asteroid collision or nuclear war could wipe us all all out. “But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies our future should be safe." Good idea, Dr. H. Too bad Project Genesis won't be complete for another 280 years or so....