I ran across this wonderful piece of legal code this morning while reading a newsletter.

WV Code §6-5-7. Disqualification by duelling.

Any citizen of this state who shall, either in or out of the state, fight a duel with deadly weapons, or send or accept a challenge so to do, or who shall act as a second, or knowingly aid or assist in such duel, shall ever thereafter be incapable of holding any office of honor, trust or profit in this state.

I had about an hour of sunlight left after I finished a legal project in the general area of one of my best deer hunting spots. It’s the spot where I saw the big non-typical and the 150 class 10 point in the same hunt. Anyway, I didn’t have a chance to get into the area where I figured the best finds would be, but I did find this one:

I also saw probably 1000 ducks, 100 geese, and 7 deer. Plus it was 72 degrees when I got out of my truck. What a day!

HER DIARY:

Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird.

We had made plans to meet at a bar to have a drink. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment on it. Conversation wasn’t flowing, so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk.

He agreed, but he didn’t say much. I asked him what was wrong; he said, “Nothing.” I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said he wasn’t upset, that it had nothing to do with me, and not to worry about it. On the way home, I told him that I loved him. He smiled slightly, and kept driving. I can’t explain his behavior. I don’t know why he didn’t say, “I love you, too.”

When we got home, I felt as if I had lost him completely, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. He just sat there quietly, and watched TV. He continued to seem distant and absent. Finally, with silence all around us, I decided to go to bed. About 15 minutes later, he came to bed.

To my surprise, he responded to my caress, and we made love. But I still felt that he was distracted, and his thoughts were somewhere else.

He fell asleep – I cried. I don’t know what to do. I’m almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. My life is a disaster.

HIS DIARY:

Missed a big deer today, but at least I got laid…..

I’ve posted once before about how I like Joe Posnanski. Today’s reading is a nice transcript of the arbitration hearing for Jeff Francoeur:

Arbitrator: Well, of course, I’ve heard of both of those players. This seems quite compelling to me. What do you Atlanta guys say about that?

Atlanta Braves: He sucks.

Arbitrator: I see.

Atlanta Braves: We can show you numerous charts that prove his suckiness but basically you can trust us on this. He sucks.

Francoeur People: Yeah? Well, if he sucks so much, how come he has played 86 more games than any other Braves player since July 7, 2005?

Arbitrator: Excellent question.

Atlanta Braves: It’s mostly because we kind of suck too.

Read the whole thing here.

Since I brought this to your attention a while back, I thought I’d offer a follow up. In the last couple of months there has been general outcry about the preposterously slow rate at which the parks commission was addressing the problem. There really hasn’t been any type of anti-hunting pressure at all, it mostly been reasonable people who don’t want to see a massive starve-off. An adjacent landowner hosted a limited antlerless only during the Unit 19 late season and had reasonable but not spectacular results.

After all the publicity the parks commission moved up their timeline to this April. Hopefully by next fall there will be a plan in place to allow controlled bowhunting.

Finally, head to this link and vote. It’s down near the bottom on the right.

Wow. Since the Supreme Court has indicated that punitive damages should be less than 10 times the actual damages, I expect the final verdict here will be substantially less. Still, wow.

Here’s the story.

So if you know anything about the Big 12 at all, I’m sure you are well aware that KU won the 25th of the last 26 basketball games in Manhattan last weekend. Some “rivalry” right? Last season KSU soundly beat the Jayhawks at home for the first time since early in Reagan’s first term. Led by NBA lottery talents Bill Walker and Michael Beasley, it was not a surprising outcome. They had massive talent and unusually strong fan support. After winning they stormed the floor, declared they would win in Lawrence (they didn’t) and win in Africa (they couldn’t make it to a rematch in either the Big 12 or NCAA tournaments). It was all predictably tacky, uneducated, and thugilicious.

Anyway, a lot has changed since last year’s game. KSU lost their two top players but KU had to replace their entire starting lineup plus an NBA caliber reserve. Since February is neither planting nor harvesting season, KSU filled the stadium with angry, inebriated, insecure, rednecks and they provided a great deal of energy for a team that showed a serious lack of talent in their loss at Lawrence earlier this season.

So the game is close late in the second half when a KU guard fouls K-State’s best player, Denis Clemente. It actually appeared that both players were pushing off the other and got hung up, but the foul was called against pasty little Brady Morningstar. In response to this horrible crime against humanity Mr. Clemente throws an elbow in little Brady’s back. An easy technical foul call was made and KU was awarded two shots and the ball. That was converted into 5 points for a 7 point lead and KU never looked back. After the game Mr. Clemente decided to channel all the academic skills he’s learned while in class at K-State to make this statement:

“I got my respect. You in my house. I ain’t going to let nobody punk me in my house.”

Maybe we’ve discovered the entire incoming 2 point ACT discrepancy right here. I haven’t done the math, but with 18,000 students I think Mr. Clemente would need a score of -36,000 on his test. That actually seems about right.

But that wasn’t the end of the story. After the game it was discovered that this stunning example of the Bob Huggins recruiting philosophy slapped a different pasty player in the back of the head. It went uncalled during the game, but should have resulted in an ejection. Here’s the video, watch the player who blocks out the shooter:

So the video becomes a popular topic in Kansas, particularly in light of Denis’s other thuggery during, and after, the game. What does a coach so ethically strapped that he was actually kicked out of Florida High School athletics do? Suspends him for a non-conference game against an unaffiliated team with 2 wins on the season. Of course! What a statement! Way to say that this type of behavior will not be tolerated. Next time why not just tell him he doesn’t have to run before practice? Or give him an extra allowance? The Wildcat Nation should be outraged but they’re not smart enough to be. Their massive insecurity complex forces them to ignore long term goals for questionable short term gains. Besides, planting season should get started about the time other teams are playing in the NCAA tournament.

We’re back from our trip to Philly and DC. My best friend from kindergarten through college is in his final year of residency at University of Pennsylvania. My wife and I met up with him and his wife and baby boy and headed to DC for the weekend. Both wives had never been. We hit the usual sights including the museums and monuments.

My wife and I in front of the Washington Monument:

Changing the guard at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier:

Arlington National Cemetery:

I’ll be out of town for the next few days. In the mean time, check out dn over at Tornado Slide and his analysis of new baby names. It’s still making me laugh.

I’m a faithful supporter of DU. Their magazine has solid photography and the occasional decent article, their banquets can be fun too, but mostly I donate because of all the great habitat work they do.

Anyway, I got an email from them yesterday that included a this link to their best pictures of the year. It’s worth checking out.