Will lawyers' blogs be regulated out of existence? Eugene Volokh thinks maybe, and his enormous brain is almost never wrong, except when he disagrees with me.

Lucky for me my "law practice" is limited to pontificating!

Fun fact for football fans this weekend: the University of Florida had some t-shirts printed for this season.  Doubtless trying to be "classy," they wanted this year set forth in Roman numerals -- but they used 26 (XXVI), not 2006 (MMVI).

A witty and spirited defense of the error can be found at Every Day Should Be Saturday, which notwithstanding its authors' Gator credentials should be required reading for all college football fans:

Link...

My family and I recently dined at the Steak 'n' Shake in Turkey Creek.  The service was incompetent and surly, the fries are like toothpicks, the burgers were mediocre, the prices were unreasonable and the after-effects were like a methane plant. 

It was the farthest thing possible from a blessed day.  Good shakes, though.  Next time, we'll stick to those.

Commenters, please feel free to speculate on (a) how we got there, (b) how far we had to drive, (c) how many pieces of Vols clothing each of us was wearing, (d) how many "W" stickers were on our vehicle, and (e) whether we gassed up at Pilot on the way and, if so, whether we also bought a scratch lottery ticket.  Oh, and also whether (f) we hate America, (g) we care about the environment, and (h) we take ourselves too seriously, or not nearly seriously enough.

In the endorsements thread, the argument has been raised that Lee Martin's children being in private schools is a good reason to question his school board candidacy.

I respectfully disagree, and would offer a better reason: he openly advocates teaching creationism.  Martin has every right to send his kids to private school, but his unabashed desire to turn our public schools into parochial ones is deeply troubling and deserves more attention.  (Follow the jump.)

This week's edition of the Brian Conley Quasi-News Organ includes a specious endorsement of Mike Moyers for Chancellor penned by Joe Sullivan, who donated $500 to Moyers's campaign according to the italicized disclaimer at the piece's end.

That's hilarious enough -- and while I'm no election lawyer, you have to wonder whether Moyers's campaign should disclose the advertisement it effectively got as another contribution. But it gets better. [Follow the jump.]

Chancellor Weaver's ruling makes it clear that there were massive systemic failures at every juncture of the Knox County charter process: inception, preparation, filing, administration.  Had the charter been properly written and filed, or had someone been diligent and caught the errors and fixed them in an appropriate manner, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in today.

So who's responsible for this?  (More after the jump.) 

All our heroes have feet of clay.  Let's hope Jim Bob can work off this suspension before September 2.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060605/SPORTS0601/60605005/1035

Recommended to anyone who cares about media in general, and newspapers in particular, is this speech by John Carroll, former editor of the LA Times, Baltimore Sun, and Lexington Herald-Leader.  There are several interesting points, but one is Carroll's observation of local movements to buy daily newspapers back from corporate owners and return the papers' focus to journalism and community service.  If only someone would do that here...

Carroll Speech

Number9's sustained screed at the "glass dome" post and Sandra Clark's column about Cas Walker, etc. in the most recent Halls/Powell newspaper have me wondering: Are we the most self-loathing populace around?

David Foster Wallace's probing and trenchant article on conservative talk radio from the April 2005 issue of The Atlantic just won a national magazine prize.  To celebrate, The Atlantic's website has temporarily re-posted it, and it is well worth the considerable investment of your time it will take to read it.  (Do click on the phrases in the colored boxes for what amount to his footnotes -- some of the funniest stuff is there.)

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The official NCAA Blog has posted a lengthy (18:49) audio interview with Sue Donohoe, the vice president for Division I Women’s Basketball.  I guess it qualifies as a "podcast."  If you have the time, it's a fascinating listen. 

I am still unconvinced that the geographic rationale offered for the Lady Vols' seeding, which is discussed at some length, is the whole story for our team's 2-seed.  (Fast forward to the 11:00 mark if you want to hear the specific Cleveland Bracket/Lady Vols discussion.)  But this is as close as you're likely to get to being inside the room with the Selection Committee.

Link...

Knoxville-itis is a particularly stubborn strain of complacency, characterized by prompt demonization of anyone who challenges the accepted way of thinking about or doing things.  I believe its roots lie in the fundamental insecurity of our populace, and that it's fostered by TPTB in the local GOP/GOB power structure who like it better when the masses stay insular -- because then they're more easily manipulated.  (I also believe lots of places suffer from insularity and complacency, and I've lived long enough in enough different places to make an informed judgment about that.)

But it's also a somewhat selective phenomenon.  Consider the two men, not only not from around here but ethnically "diverse" to boot, who rode into town last year seeking to inject new life and thoughts into our area: Ex-Fire Chief Carlos Perez and UT Men's Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl.

There's a lot of talk about Tennessee's "RPI" or Ratings Percentage Index ranking being in the top five nationwide, and how that bodes well for our seeding in the NCAA men's basketball tournament.  Currently, we're second only to Duke.

The RPI is complex and I won't pretend to grasp it, but the bottom line is it measures strength of schedule, among other things.  If you want to drill down on it, head to www.rpiratings.com.

This is no small feat.  But why is Tennessee's RPI score is so good?  It's because of the non-conference schedule we played.  And while the high-profile win at Texas was surely huge, look how well most of the other, lower-profile schools we played are doing:

Buried in the middle of Sandra Clark's column in Monday's Halls Shopper [http://www.hallsnews.com/columns/clark.htm] was a brief discussion of the race for Knox County School Board, District 7, between incumbent Diane Dozier and challenger Rex Stooksbury.  What's interesting about this is that the main justification for voting for Stooksbury seems to be "he's a good guy," while the main justification for Dozier is that she can bring home the bacon.  No one appears to be asking any questions beyond that level.

Today is National Signing Day, when high school senior football players sign NCAA forms called "letters of intent" to attend the college of their choice.  This culminates for some a years-long recruiting process that is alarming in its breadth, depth, and expense.

I'd like to make my inaugural post about Sports, specifically about the hottest thing in town, Tennessee men's basketball.  Predictions for tomorrow night's game, anyone?

FWIW, I fear an inevitable letdown from the run they've been on, but I've also seen that our new coach can navigate lots of dire straits.  So I say Vols win 64-61 in a ragged but eventually right effort.