More
Contact
Submit
Premium
Emily Blunt, who was the reason Matt Damon wouldn't simply follow the plan laid out for him in "The Adjustment Bureau" (interesting premise, not that great of execution). The moral of that story, of course, is that if you run into a girl as hot as Emily Blunt in the men's bathroom, and you're an attractive, single up-and-coming politician, you should probably go ahead and take advantage of that situation. At least that's what I got out of it.Yes, we took a break from the Morning Head, because the month of July kind of sucks when it comes to sports and I didn't want to deal with it on a daily basis. Early August isn't exactly October or April, but we have a baseball team in a division race and football is oh so close, so we're back. Plus, I like starting things on nice round numbers, and what's better than Aug. 1 and a Monday?
Speaking of that division race, the Tigers stretched their AL Central lead to 2.5 games over the Indians with a 3-2 win against the Angels, in what was probably the most entertaining game of their regular season. You had the rarest of the rare occurrence: home runs by Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen in the same game. Of course, this led to Guillen posing and admiring his shot -- tough to blame him, he doesn't get many chances these days -- which pissed off Jered Weaver, who yelled at Guillen then threw at Alex Avila's head to get kicked out of the game. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of taunting (well, sometimes I am), but I don't know if I'll ever understand how throwing a baseball at someone's head equals taunting after a home run. Hurting someone's pride is a little different than possibly physically harming their head. But whatever, this game was truly about Justin Verlander, the American League's best pitcher, and I'm not even sure you can make an argument against it anymore. Verlander took a no-hitter into the eighth, and I really think that if he had been able to get over the silly unwritten rules and stopped worrying about Eric Aybar's bunt attempt, he might have finished it off. But we've reached the point with Verlander where it's a disappointment if he doesn't take a no-no into at least the fifth inning (he's done that four times this year) or hit triple digits on the gun in the eighth inning. It's not often you get to watch a truly dominant athlete at the top of his game, but we're fortunate enough to have that this summer, and it's awesome. (DetNews)
The Detroit Lions continue to make *gasp* smart moves in free agency, signing linebacker Stephen Tulloch to a one-year deal worth $3.25 million. Tulloch was the second-leading tackler in the NFL a year ago, and playing behind Ndamukong Suh, Nick Fairley and company should only make him better. No, the Lions didn't sign a flashy cornerback, but with a strong front seven, spending a lot of money on corners seems silly. A corner's best friend, after all, is a great pass rush, and the Lions figure to have that squared away. (Freep)
Plaxico Burress will be a Jet this season. On the list of free-agent moves that will impact the standings in the NFL, this ranks pretty low. Burress is in his mid-30s and missed the last two seasons because he wasn't smart enough to realize that a gun in the waistband of your sweatpants isn't all that safe. If he catches 500 yards worth of passes this year for the Jets, I'll be surprised. (NY Times)
Unlike their NFL counterparts, NBA players have a bit of leverage in the lockout talks. That leverage is "fuck you, I'm going overseas." Kobe Bryant is apparently talking with teams in China to play next season, as the NBA doesn't look very close to getting a deal done and starting this year on time. Kobe will score 100 points in a game in China, I guarantee that. (Yahoo!)
Congress and the White House have come to a deal on the debt ceiling, which is apparently hated by everyone. This, of course, shouldn't have taken this long to hammer out and really shouldn't have even needed hammering out. The answer to the question, "should we pay off our outstanding debts" should always be a resounding yes, but there was a chance to play some political games, so why wouldn't we take advantage of that. And make no mistake about it folks, the reason this took so long was there's a significant enough faction of Tea Party members in Congress who decided what they wanted and weren't going to budge. They, along with everyone else in Washington, will justifiably take shit for this, because if we can't agree on simple things like whether or not we should pay bills that we've already approved the spending for, chances are not much is ever going to get done. (TPM)
Today's Amazingness is Foster The People, "Pumped Up Kicks":
