35 years ago tonight, in the middle of Monday Night Football, Howard Cosell announced there had been an "unspeakable tragedy in New York City." John Lennon had been shot twice in the back outside his apartment building in New York City. He was declared dead upon arrival at the hospital. (Video here.)

There are millions of people in this world whose lives were enriched by John Lennon, his persona and his music. He told his truth and it was the truth of an entire generation. His death was a tragedy, but his life was an inspiration. His legacy is timeless. [More...]

Your turn. All topics welcome.

Al Baghdadi and Donald Trump are on Time Magazine's shortlist for Person of the Year.

They are two peas in a pod in some ways -- one insists everyone practice his preferred brand of Islam, while the other finds any kind of Muslim entering the U.S. to be unacceptable.

As for Person of the Year, since all Trump has done is talk about himself on the campaign trail, I'd give it to al Baghdadi, who has actually done something even if it's a negative: He's instilled fear in the heart of every Western Government and many civilians in his neck of the woods, which includes great swathes of Iraq, Syria, and soon to include Libya. He took on al Qaida and beat them to the Caliph punch, leaving them way behind in second place. Al Baghdadi has also created a governing state in many provinces --Trump has no such governing experience.

Oscar Pistorius has been granted bail pending the outcome of his new appeal and should that fail, his sentencing. His next court date is in April. He is appealing the recent appeals court decision changing his manslaughter conviction to murder to the Constitutional Court.

From reporters covering the hearing on Twitter: He will remain on house arrest, but is free to leave the house between 7 am and midnight. He will be allowed to travel within 20km of (his uncle's house in Waterkloof, Pretoria.

The Judge said, ""I am of the view that it would not be in the interests of justice that the applicant should not leave the house at all" [More...]

John McCain and Lindsay Graham have an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling for the U.S. to put 10,000 ground troops in Raqqa, Syria, to defeat ISIS. And then they want more troops in Iraq, Libya, and anywhere else ISIS is gaining a foothold in the region.

Shorter version: The world is our colony, let's start acting like it.

Missing from their op-ed: Not a single mention of al Qaida or al Nusra in Syria or elsewhere. What are they, chopped liver? Or are al Qaida and al Nusra now okay in their book because on occasion they side with the (non-existent) Syrian rebels we're training and equipping? [More...]

Has Donald Trump come completely unglued? He's calling for a total ban on Muslims entering the U.S. He wants the ban to last:

until the nation’s leaders can “figure out what is going on” after the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, California

He's so ignorant. But maybe he just shot himself in the foot. Having already alienated Black, Latino and female voters, he's just added Muslim voters to the list of votes he'll never get in a general election, should Republicans be foolish enough to nominate him.

While there may not be enough Muslim voters in New York and California to make a difference, according to a report on the 2012 election, there are enough of them in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, Florida and Ohio to have an impact.

At the press conference on San Bernadino today, the FBI was emphatic:

At the news conference, Mr. Bowdich said that at this point, the authorities did not believe that forces beyond the nation’s borders had been involved in orchestrating the attack.

“I want to be crystal clear here — we do not see any evidence so far of a plot outside the continental U.S.,” he said. “We may find it someday, we may not; we don’t know. But right now we’re looking at these two individuals.”

Shhh....don't tell Donald Trump. It will probably ruin his day.

Also, apparently authorities no longer view the wife was the primary radicalized one. They say Syed had been radicalized long before he met her. [More...]

Update: Best line of Obama's speech: "Freedom is More Powerful Than Fear."

Shorter version: No boots on the ground (with a moving definition of what constitutes boots -- boots now seems limited to hand to hand combat, not troops on ground.) "What we should not do" is allow ourselves to "be drawn into long and costly ground war in Syria and Iraq."

We can expect more kill missions (whatever happened to the capture part? It seems gone.) Asks Congress to pass authorization for use of force against ISIS. Just a few references to assault rifles. Asks Congress to pass a bill preventing those on the no-fly list from buying them. We can't stop every mass killer but we can make it harder for them to kill.

From Foreign Policy Magazine: Ten truths about terrorism:

• No. 1: We can’t keep the bad guys out.
• No. 2: The threat is already inside.
• No. 3: More surveillance won’t get rid of terrorism.
• No. 4: Defeating the Islamic State won’t make terrorism go away.
• No. 5: Terrorism still remains a relatively minor threat, statistically speaking.

[More...]

President Obama said today the San Bernadino shooters were not affiliated with a specific terrorist group or part of a bigger cell.

The President's team also affirmed that they had as of yet uncovered no indication the killers were part of an organized group or formed part of a broader terrorist cell.

Obama will address the nation on the shooting and our response to terror threats tomorrow night.

Yesterday, an unofficial ISIS news account praised the couple as supporters. Today, ISIS official radio station, al Bayan, referred to them as supporters in Arabic. The English audio version refers to them as "soldiers of the Khalifah" (available here at 3'20" in.) The French version says sympathizers. If supporters rather than soldiers is correct, which most analysts on Twitter seem to think is the case, the attacks may have been inspired by ISIS but not directed by ISIS (or al Qaida.)

[More...]

For the first time since the 1920's, the New York Times is featuring an editorial on the front page of the paper. It calls for gun control.

It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency. These are weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection. America’s elected leaders offer prayers for gun victims and then, callously and without fear of consequence, reject the most basic restrictions on weapons of mass killing, as they did on Thursday. They distract us with arguments about the word terrorism. Let’s be clear: These spree killings are all, in their own ways, acts of terrorism.

[More...]

I did good last week, hitting my 2 big plays and many others. Let's keep it going! the picks:

Michigan State @ Iowa +4 (5 units), North Carolina +5 (5 units) @ Clemson, USC +4 (4 units) @ Stanford, Air Force +7 (3 units) @ San Diego State, West Virginia -6 (3 units) @ Kansas State, Florida +18 (3 units) @ Alabama, Southern Mississippi +8 (4 units) @ Western Kentucky, Texas @ Baylor -21 (4 units).

Go Gators!