Purple Flag on Saturday

NCAA Forces Sweet Sioux Into Retirement Today

Politically Incorrect, My Ass!

Pirates Update and Football Picks

Update on the Somalian pirates: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081121/ap_on_bi_ge/piracy

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Sure, healthy, wealthy and wise... I am 43-44-2 as we launch week 12. Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances.

Army @ Rutgers –17
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, comes in at 5-5, the Black Knights of Army are 3-7, 1-3 on the road. Rutgers has had a very average season against much better opposition than the Army has faced. 17 looks a little tall on the spread, but you gotta play to win.
Illinois –2.5 @ Northwestern
The book kicks the ‘Cats in the pride once again. NU is 8-3, the Illini are 5-6. The Sweet Sioux Tomahawk is on the line, Illinois needs another win to become bowl eligible (not necessarily bowl worthy) and Northwestern needs the win to get a better bowl. The Illini are more up and down than anyone in football, and they’re due for an up. Cheer for the Wildcats, bet on the Illini.
Pittsburgh +5 @ Cincinnatti
Here I go again, another ride on the Wannie coaster. Pitt is undefeated on the road, Cincinnatti is undefeated at home. Something’s gotta give, and since I’m leaning Cinci, I’m betting Pitt. It’s the Wannie factor.
Tennessee +3 @ Vanderbilt
“The Vanderbilt Commodores”. Sounds impressive and snotty, doesn’t it? Tennessee is 3-7 with no road wins. Vandy started their season 5-0, then lost four in a row before beating Kentucky last week. Vandy’s not that good, but I think Tennessee is less better, maybe more worse.
Syracuse @ University of South Bend –19.5
The Manatee’s group will, for this Saturday, ring down the thunder (pause) from the sky and quell all the buyout rumors. Syracuse stinks, South Bend will be rockin’, as it celebrates the beginning of six months of winter in northern Indiana. Reminisce about that.
Texas Tech @ Oklahoma –7
This is going to be a great football game. The Sooner Schooner is one of the coolest mascots in the world, and they have contortionist cheerleaders. I’m taking Oklahoma, OK.
Michigan State +14 @ Penn State
I have problems predicting Penn State. There’s going to a several million people in the stands at Happy Valley, it’s going to be cold, Michigan State has a history of losing big games, JoePa is a legend, everything says Penn State. I say MSU.
Boise State –6 @ Nevada
Boise State needs to rock somebody's world without the blue field.
Idaho @ Hawaii –23.5
Two Gun Pete made this a Pete’s Perfect Pick. Go with it!

Divine Caroline

There's a website, Divine Caroline, that has a guide to interpreting one's body, called What Our Features Say About Us. This guide says that physical characteristics can indicate personality traits. Here's a sample of Divine Caroline's outlook, and a slightly more pragmatic approach.

Eyes--Caroline Says: Look at the space between your eyes--can you imaging another eye fitting there? No? Narrow, you are closed minded. Yes? You are open minded and averse to authority. Perfect fit? Good judgement, balanced view of the world.

Eyes--I say: When I was a kid, I spent a summer working in my uncle's machine shop. One of the employees was Crazy Richie, whose eyes never looked in the same direction simultaneously. He could stand on the corner facing southwest and look east on 51st Street and north on Damen Avenue at the same time. Never knew if he was talking to you, the guy next to you or to himself. Richie could have used that third eye to balance things out, it would have been his "straight ahead eye", kind of like a Bose system, where the bass sounds come from the center speaker. Remember the Creature from the Black Lagoon? One eye, center stage, freaky.

Nose--Caroline says: Big nose, could get caught up in money. Small nose, shy, timid. Wide nose, emotional, laid-back. Thin nose, tightly wound, tempermental.

Nose--I say: If your parents did their job, you learned to keep your nose out of other people's business or risk ending up with a big, wide beezer to help you remember. By the way, did you know that Abraham Lincoln's nose on Mt. Rushmore is 21 feet long? Divine Caroline doesn't talk about that, now does she, or that a big nose makes you personally aerodynamic.

Fingers--Caroline says: Long fingers, deep thinking, logical. Short fingers, goes by gut, sensible.

Fingers--I say: The guy on the highway yesterday had one real long finger and I don't think he was a deep thinker.

The Feet--Caroline says: Podomancy is the study of feet as a means of divination.

The Feet--I say: there is a whole area of fetishism devoted to people who are really into this. It's simple. Some people have really f***ed up feet, all gnarled up and nasty. Some don't. Podomancy my arse.

For more weird Caroline, go to http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22264/59849-features-say-us

That is all.

Pirates, Somalia and WikiTravel

I'm sure that you've seen the stories about modern day pirates that have become more prominent over the last few years. Most of the stories involve piracy on the seas near Somalia. Reading these news stories finally prodded me to find out about Somalia, home of the modern day pirates.


First off, I had to find out where the place is located. It is on the east side of Africa, in the horn. The accompanying map will clear it up for you if you are geographically vague, as I am about much of the world. It is slightly smaller in land mass than our state of Texas.


On its northwest to eastern borders are the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden (where the problems are concentrated), and the Indian Ocean.
Across the Gulf of Aden are Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

There have been 199 incidents and attempts at piracy across the world this year. 63 out of those 199 events have occurred in the Gulf of Aden.
From whom are they stealing ? 90% of India's foreign trade volume goes through this region.


How did this get started? In 1991, the last "permanent" government of Somalia imploded, and along with it went Somalia's military. The waters around Somalia are rich in tuna. Absent a deterrent force, illegal plundering of the waters began. Somalia's fishing industry took matters in its own hands and went to sea to combat the illegals, and the pirate nation was born.


From the initial "fines" that were levied on the illegal fishing boats, the pirates have upgraded over the years to seizing multi-million dollar cargo shipments and demanding multi-million dollar ransoms. Late in September of this year, Somali pirates seized a Ukranian ship loaded with $30 million worth of military equipment. They have offered it up for a $20 million ransom.

Somali pirates are currently holding 12 ships and 200 crewmen for ransom. Armed with grenade launchers and rockets, the pirates have become quite brazen, recently doing a thirty minute phone interview with the New York Times.


Somalia was formed in 1961 when Italy and Great Britain each renounced their holdings of parts of the territory. A Somali government was put in place and stayed there until 1969, when the president was assasinated. Maj0r General Mohamed Siad Barre seized the presidency, a position he held until 1991, at which time he abdicated. The following year was marked by civil war and a severe drought that claimed 300,000 lives. American troops went in in 1992 to protect humanitarian shipments and became themselves victims of the violence, exiting for good the following year. The film Black Hawk Down was based on events of this time period. Since 1991 there has been a succession of failed governments.

Facts about this unfortunate place:

• Population is estimated at 9.5 million. The population is nomadic and subject to relocation in response to the country's ongoing internal violence, so an accurate count is impossible.
• The prevalent religion is Sunni Muslim
• The literacy rate is about 38% overall, 50% for males and 26% for females.
• The legal system is a mixture of English common law, Italian law, Islamic Sharia, and Somali customary law.
• There is no formal banking system. Money exchanges have emerged in its absence.
• Exports include livestock (65% of total export earnings), hides, bananas, fish and charcoal.
• The capital city is Mogadishu. Here is an excerpt from the WikiTravel posting for Mogadishu:

WARNING: Mogadishu is regarded as the most lawless and dangerous city on Earth. It is not safe for leisure or toursim. If you are planning a visit for international aid work, etc., you will need expert advice and planning.

• Despite the absence of a government and the endless fighting, the country has a healthy "informal" economy.
• In Mogadishu, hotels continue to operate. They are protected by private militias.
• There is virtually no industry today. Most of of the machinery was looted and sold for scrap.
• There are, nationwide, -0- AM radio stations, 1 FM station, 3 TV stations, a half million radios and 150,000 TV sets. I wonder if they get I Love Lucy reruns...
• There are 3 internet service providers and a few hundred internet users.
• There are about 1,500 miles of paved roads.
• There are 60 airports in Somalia. 7 of them have paved runways.

That is all. Yar!

The Fighting Illini

The home state's football team, actually all their teams, are known as the Fighting Illini. Given the high profile of the banned Chief Illiniwek mascot, many people assume that the Illini were the native tribe of the area that became the state of Illinois.

Not so fast, all you braves and squaws in your orange t-shirts.

The Illini were a group of tribes native to this area. The largest of those tribes were the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Tamaroa, Cahokia, and Michigamea. Apparently they had once been a single tribe and had been divided as their numbers grew large, but they remained close. The drawing is of Keemorania, a Peoria chief.

The Illini were congregated along the Mississippi River and the Illinois River valley. This was prime real estate, good for agriculture and hunting. There were even buffalo herds in Illinois at the time. The Illini numbered somewhere between 10,000-12,000 at their most prolific, around the year 1680. The tribes that lived adjacent to the Illini were not the most desirable of neighbors: to the south were the Chickasaw, to the north were the Fox, Winnebago and Sioux, and to the east the nastiest group, the Iroquois.

There were five Iroquois tribes: the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, and the Seneca. The Iroquois were in the beaver pelt business, trading the pelts to the Dutch settlers in New York state. The Dutch paid for the pelts with modern warfare tools: steel knives and steel hatchets, guns, powder and ammunition. While it would take a few years to play out, the beaver pelt business assured that the Illini were going to catch a major whippin'.

The Iroquois depleted the beaver stock and moved west to find more, headed toward the good old Illini. The Illini were still using prehistoric quality tools, stone hatchets and bows and arrows, and they got whipped pretty badly, this in the late 1600's.

A couple of decades later, the Illini warred with the Fox, doing better in the battles, but still paying the price of attrition. Next, the Illini signed on to fight with their ally, the French, against the Chickasaws. The Chickasaws were blockading French trade traffic on the Mississippi River, traffic that was trying to link up to the French settlements in Louisiana. That war ended up with no clear victor, but the Chickasaw became the enemy of the Illini forever.

Now, when you select an ally, you really hope to pick a winner. The Illini had chosen the French. The British and the French warred, and the French lost, with the final bell being rung in 1763. Obviously, that left the Illini squarely behind the 8-ball. The worst enemy was still to come, and it wasn't the Brits.

Progress was coming. Settlers, and the United States Government.

The continual warring over the many, many years had left the Illini pretty well decimated. In keeping with the spirit of the times--and what would mark U.S. policy toward native Americans--the government struck a series of treaties with the Illini. The short version:

Treaty of Greenville: Illini gave up Chicago River delta, Illinois river delta, and parcels on the Ohio River and Mississippi River, plus 150,000 specified acres. Illini got $500.

Treaty of Vincennes: Illini gave up 9,000,000 acres. Illini got $12,000 and 1,500 acres.

Treaty of Castor Hill: Illini gave up the rest of their land in Illinois and Missouri. Illini got land in southeastern Kansas, near the Shawnee reserve.

This was 1832, and the fighting Illini were gone from Illinois.

Federal recognition of the Illini was not restored until 1978. With a current enrollment of nearly 2,000 and 39 acres of tribal land, the Peoria Tribe of Oklahoma is located in Miami, Oklahoma.

That is all.