I'm not a Purist

Expand...Expand!! As March Madness approaches the arguement always comes up as to if the tournament should be expanded. Now basketball purists would say no, but I don't even know what a basketball purist is (is this someone who wants the guys to still be throwing a rubber band ball into a peach basket?) So here's my proposal, nothing huge, just an addition of 7 more teams into the tournament (note that the tourney is currently 65, so this would mean 72 teams). Yes just 72 teams, and that would be it. Listen I understand that the tournament is fine as is, but I do believe that there is consistently 3-4 teams that don't get in because of the auto bids from the meaningless confereces (without looking it up, what does MEAC mean). So how does 72 work you ask, basically all 15 and 16 seeds in the tournament of 64 are determined by play in games. Since one 16 seed is already determined by a play in game, you would add 7 more play in games for the remaining 15 and 16 seeds, thus opening 7 more seeds in the torunament. Think of it, you would actually then have even more competetive 2-15 matchups and probably get your first 1-16 upset, and all these teams that have winning records in conference play plus 20 wins would most likely be in (which appears to the the standard of arguement). Instead of being played in sketchy Ohio, all the play in games would be played the Tuesday and Wednesday before the tournament (thus having almost a full week of tournament action) with all the games being played at classic arenas (I propose the Palestra, as this is one of the most historic and intimate playing environments). So there you go, the best solution to expansion that I have heard. Now I like the tournament as is, but sometimes it kills me to see a 17-12 Central Connecticut get an auto bid over 22-9 Michigan State.

In: Carnitas, Carnitas, Carnitas. Yes, slow cooked pork on a corn tortilla is where it's at, and you can pretty much find Carnitas at all legit Mexican places in addition to some none Mexican places picking up on the craze. If done right, a good carnita will melt in your mouth with some light garlic, lime, and cilantro flavors, oh man do I miss a good carnita. So in celebration of this post, I have decided to make homemade carnitas, they are cooking right now, I will give you an update when they are done. By the way, for a chain, Chipotle has a lot going on, and their carnitas are really good (not melt in your mouth good) but they are an awesome complement to the ingredients in their burritos.

Out: Media coverage of people hating Bush. Just in case you didn't know, there were people around the world that didn't like Clinton and they protested when he came to their country (how soon we forget what a role the US played in bombing Yugoslavia, the symbols used in this link are eerily similar to those being publicized all over the internet for anti-Bush protests). I know that he has made some really bad decisions and I know that there are many people in the world that don't like him, but half of those people don't like the US in general so its unfair to point the finger all at Bush. I mean the media never showed the protests of Clinton when he was travelling (umm let me think why), so let's get off of it, anti-Bush media is very old news (I know its agenda setting for 2008), but if you're going to do it, point out the fact that the Senate voted on this war and the Senate continues to approve funding for the war (I don't think the Senate is all Bush supporters).