WHAT HENLEY SAID: Go read the Cogent Provocateur on Iraq and WMDs. "You've been had, John Q. Public, and it's for your own good!"

YOUR INITIAL NBA REF HATE LINK: Tim Kraus on Steve Javie and "Knick" Bavetta.

JACKIE STILES WATCH: The Topeka Capital-Journal gives you the story of Jackie Stiles, the all-time NCAA basketball scoring leader, former WNBA rookie of the year and now an afterthought, taken by the Sparks in the Portland dispersal draft. An excerpt:

The dream went pro in the spring of 2001, when the Portland Fire made her the fourth pick in the WNBA draft. She received a two-year, $110,000 contract, and began her career as a professional without missing a step, averaging 15 points and becoming the league's rookie of the year.

But sometime during that first year, it all began to unravel. After the adrenaline wore off from a late-season game against the Los Angeles Sparks, Stiles noticed pain in her right wrist. A lot of pain. There were bone spurs and scar tissue and ligament damage and, well, "there was a lot wrong," she said.

She underwent surgery on Sept. 11, 2001, but it didn't take. She was damaged goods from the very start of the 2002 season. Her normal range of motion had been 90 degrees. After surgery, that was reduced to 40 degrees or less.

Her pristine jump shot lost its follow-through. She lost her edge.

"Mentally, I wanted to do everything, but, functionally, I just couldn't do it," she said. "The team expected me to score, and I had no idea where the ball was going when it left my hand."

Not much at all about Stiles in the LA Times, by the way, but you can't slam anybody too much for not caring about the WNBA. I say this a lot, but the WNBA has got to cultify itself if it's going to survive. Which is probably their only choice at this point; the mass-marketing has clearly failed.

LITTLE BIT ON THE DIXIE CHICKS I LIKED: From Capital City Kyle on the DVDVR Board:

[I]f you are going to bash them, it is because the chubby one is a pussy. Anyone can go across seas and bash our elected leader in front of a supportive crowd. But do you think she'd ever say that to a crowd in Texas? I don't. That is what annoys me. She is a coward. If she did, then I'd think she had nuts and I'd be very impressed.

An intriguing analysis--almost as intriguing as the she-male phone ads in the back of Club. Wait....

NBA PLAYOFF POST #5: All praise to the CNNSI scoreboard.

PACERS 83, CELTICS 101: Hey, the Celtics play with a ton more energy than the Pacers. I know I said I wanted them out quick before, but when they are on--or when Paul Pierce is on--they are good to watch.

NETS 103, BUCKS 101: This series, like all Eastern series, is kind of pointless, but it was neat to see Rodney Rogers clank two free throws and then get the rebound and a quick two for the win. The best part of the game was George Karl afterward, blaming the refs for the loss, saying that they missed Kenyon Martin beating up poor little Anthony Mason under the basket before Rogers got the ball. It was amusing when they showed Karl's comments right after showing Mason saying it wasn't any big deal. George Karl, as a coach....he's not so hot.

WOLVES 114, LAKERS 110: During this game you just got the feeling the Lakers didn't want to win--they didn't want to play at a high level and match the Wolves and win on their superior talent. They just looked tired and beat out there. Lakers in six.

YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR GOURD: "In addition, the State Department warned that Haiti has become "a staging point" for non-Haitians, including Pakistanis and Palestinians, to enter the United States. That raised new fears of a possible terrorist threat." Our government gets goofier by the second. And I become a stronger supporter of Candidate Not Bush in 2004.

KEEP UP WITH YOUR CULTURE: Know who The White Stripes are. If somebody asks at a party, or something.

FIRST THREE 2003 NBA DRAFTEES NOW KNOWN: Carmelo Anthony declares for draft. Go out on top if you can, I guess.

MILLER LITE AD UPDATE: The latest one has the unfortunate girlfriends completely in control of the fantasy, as it now has two handsome males resolving their differences via the free and open expression of emotions--which is, of course, the exact female equivalent of the original catfight. In the end both gentlemen take off their shirts, thus fulfilling the (secondary) female need for eye candy. God bless Miller Lite and this whole fine, goofy campaign. Even though I wouldn't ever buy their product in a million years, these ads have been fantastic.

NBA PLAYOFF POST #4: Let's get to it:

HORNETS 85, SIXERS 90: Thank you for playing, New Orleans Hornets. No Mashburn and no Baron Davis means no fun for the Hornets, especially if the rest of the Sixers are going to step it up when AI isn't quite as hot.

MAGIC 77, PISTONS 89: The Pistons proved their point--that they weren't going to get beaten easily by a number 8 seed. I still think the T-Mac onslaught will prove to be too much in the end.

BLAZERS 99, MAVS 103: Welcome to Blazers First Round Exit Number 27. That team is such a symbol for high-level mediocrity--eternal playoff team, never a playoff winner or a team with a breakout season. I think they need to have a crappy season so they can get in the lottery and start again.

Thanks to the CNNSI scoreboard.

YOUR GREATEST SEARCH THAT FINDS MY WEBLOG POST OF THE DAY: Number 3 for "spongebob squarepants" and "marxism". Ah yes, the eternal dialectic of starfish overthrowing their spongine oppressors...

STATUE STORY: Here's Jesse Walker today:

In Serbia, for instance, university students in 1998 created a non-violent resistance movement, Otpor ("resistance" in Serbian). Its central mission was to peacefully undercut Milosevic. Sometimes this just meant mocking him — the group's "He's Finished" stickers popped up everywhere. Members spray-painted their symbol, a clenched fist, or "Otpor" on walls and distributed thousands of copies of Sharp's strategies for non-violent opposition. As the movement grew, Milosevic's government became less sure that its soldiers and police would obey if ordered to crack down on the rebels.

Clearly, no such popular movement existed in Saddam's Iraq, even though Iraqis had plenty of good reasons to hate their government. It's not because Saddam was especially more oppressive than Iran's rulers: When democratic ferment began in Iran, it faced one of the world's most repressive regimes. And it's certainly not because ordinary Iraqis are incapable of asserting themselves.

One major difference between Iran and Iraq: U.S. sanctions against Iran are much less severe than the ones against Iraq. Except in the Kurds' northern zone, the sanctions rendered Iraq's citizens more dependent on Saddam's government, and thus — perversely — helped crush the independent institutions needed for a real revolution. The end result was symbolized when Saddam's statue came down. In Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, jubilant crowds tore down the hated dictatorships' statues themselves. In Iraq, a much smaller crowd needed Uncle Sam's tanks.

Iraqi civil society is weak; even a completely well-intentioned occupation government will have a hard time transferring power to it. In Iran, however, the population should be able to throw off its oppressors and govern itself when the tipping point comes.

That's worth remembering as Americans mull Iraq's lessons and eye the region's other dictatorships.

"FOR THEM TO WIN AN NBA TITLE WOULD DEFY EVERYTHING THAT EVER HAPPENED IN THE HISTORY OF THE NBA": Bill Simmons on the Dallas Mavericks.

DON'T BLAME THE NADER VOTER WATCH: Green Party muckety-muck responds to Chuck Taylor's slander. There's not enough Clinton-hating in her letter for my tastes, but a lot of Gore-hating, which is fine with me. Again: next time, Al, carry your home state.

NBA PLAYOFF POST #3: Thanks to the CNNSI scoreboard.

BUCKS 88, NETS 85: MUTOMBO need more playing time! Smaller players INFERIOR to LARGEST PLAYER, MUTOOOOOMBO! MUTOMBO key to every victory IN HISTORY OF NBA!

WOLVES 119, LAKERS 91: I don't really expect this to happen again--Troy Hudson can never be this unstoppable again in his entire life. Unless he is. And the Lakers missed too many open threes that would've changed everything and given the Wolves more of an opportunity to wilt. So the first two games are a wash, with the Associate Lakers being on fire in Game One and Troy Freaking Hudson and Rod Strickland being on fire in Game Two. I expect both teams to resume normality in the next four games and for the Lakers to slowly grind this thing out. I mean--it would be crazy to get my Laker-hating hopes up at this point.

WELL THAT'S PRETTY GREAT: Minnesota Wild defeats Colorado Avalanche in Game Seven. Always good to see Patrick Roy out of the playoffs.

PALEOCONS, TRANSFORM, AND FORM....LINCOLNIUS MAXIMUS!: Brief reports from the paleocon-neocon fight from Richard Poe and Jeff Taylor.

STILL SPEAKING OF BEER: Negro Modelo really rules. I like me some Red Stripe sometimes too.

SPEAKING OF BEER: The latest Miller Lite ad has one of the mischievous lads writing himself into the catfight fantasy. He receives his comeuppance in the end, as one of his unlucky dates adds a final twist to the dreamscape, turning it into a nightmarish combat between pasty fratboy and overweight, underloved middle-aged male. I guess with all the outcry about the original ad the Miller Lite higher-ups couldn't let them just have their goofy fantasy. A shame, really. Or not.

REPORT FROM THE PABST BLUE RIBBON FRONT: Fritz Schrank says that PBR never had the reputation of being swill--it was always finer than that. Pabst in fact had its own private Old Milwaukee back in the day--Red White & Blue beer, which I vaguely remember but I haven't seen anywhere in years--and the only place I ever saw it was grocery stores in west Michigan. Again, though, I don't think the gist of that Post story was that PBR is crap and that's why the kids like it; the kids like it because it's somehow a product uncorrupted by marketing in a commercialized society. Like, it's more legit now as a working class beer than say Bud is, because Bud's working class image is a product of its commercials and the way it advertises, whereas the unadvertised, unremarked Pabst simply is. You can't argue with it.

Weisblogg has more. I'd tell you where, but Marc would have to have permalinks for me to do that.