Arguably the most acclaimed movie of the year has come under fire from many of its participants after they realized they had been duped.

In "Borat," comedian Sacha Baron Cohen portrays his Kazakhstani alter-ego, a character he created for his UK Channel 4-turned-HBO series "Da Ali G Show." In his "adventures" across America, Borat interviews and pokes fun at people all across the country. Two of the people who participated in the movie were a pair of frat brothers who "made drunken, insulting comments about women and minorities" in front of the cameras. These young men are now suing the studio behind the production of "Borat," 20th Century Fox. I completely agree with the studio spokesmen when he says the the lawsuit "has no merit." If these guys could be so easily convinced to go out drinking, sign waivers to be put on camera, and say inappropriate things that are now being heard by audiences all over the country, I have a feeling this isn't the first time they've made comments that most would consider socially unacceptable. All of a sudden people see them being assholes on a big screen and now they come out and say they were basically "tricked" into getting drunk and acting like idiots. I find it hard to believe that these guys don't routinely go out drinking and certainly on occasion make tasteless comments regarding women or minorities. These two guys aren't being seen out of character, it's only because someone chose to put it in a movie for other people to see that they realize what kind of people they are and want retribution for the "defamation" that took place. It wasn't defamation, however, just a case of two people being called out in public for being complete jerks.

You know what really grinds my gears? The fact that the college basketball season starts earlier and earlier every year.

I love college basketball as much as the next person, but it seems as if the season now starts before even a clear championship picture is painted in college football. Of course money now controls the game, so in order for all the top teams to participate in various season-opening tournaments, games must be played starting right at the beginning of November. A more logical starting time would be waiting until after Thanksgiving, instead of Halloween, but then many different groups would lose the millions of dollars that come out of playing these early season games. Maryland (my primary rooting interest) started their season on the 7th, playing in the 2K College Hoops Classic. The "Classic," which has been around since only 1996, is set up to have four power schools host four-team mini-tournaments with the winning schools advancing to play in a championship round in New York two weeks later. The organizers pack these mini-tournaments with enough cupcake teams that the winners of the mini-tournaments (Maryland, Michigan St, Texas, and St Johns) won their respective mini-championship games by an average of 23 points. The other teams who agree to participate in this event are accepting the fact that they are supposed to lose because sponsors and TV executives don't want to see smaller schools playing in a meaningless event that needs high profile teams to draw any kind of attention. At least some people will watch Maryland versus St Johns, even though it's being played in mid-November. Why would these less talented teams play in this event, when it was designed for them to lose? Money, of course. The fact that schools are getting money for playing such lopsided games shows what has become of college sports. It's the same principle that has mid-major college football teams repeatedly travelling to Division I powerhouses like USC or Texas and getting beaten by 4+ touchdowns.

Maryland and the other teams scheduled to play later this week would probably get more out of being at practice than they do preparing for and playing in games that are practically decided before they're even played. These pre-season tournaments should be cut from the college basketball schedule and the season should start with meaningful games after the Thanksgiving holiday. Of course this will never happen as it's now the financial leaders that control the game. As the old sports proverb states: It's not whether you win or lose, it's the revenue you generate off the game.

It's been a really long time since my last post, but I thought I should get back into the blog; I haven't been doing enough writing lately through school, so this should be a good outlet.

The biggest item of national news recently has been the results of the midterm elections taking place throughout the country. I'm certainly excited that the Democrats have taken control of both houses of Congress, it's way too early know is any significant changes will take place. This new Congress needs time to enact new ideas and new legislation to bring some strong liberal principles back into the American political spectrum.

Closer to home, for me, there were two very important races in Maryland, both of which went to the Democratic candidate. When Paul Sarbanes announced his retirement after 5 terms in office, many people were looking to get their foot in the door as Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski had been Maryland's Senators since 1986 when I was born. Michael Steele, the incumbent Lieutenant Governor, stepped in as the clear leader for the Republican candidate. In a hot contest for the Democratic candidacy, two men came out as the leaders for the position, Kwasi Mfume and Ben Cardin. Mfume has led an extraordinary life in the national spotlight, with high profile positions such as the leader of the NAACP. Cardin, meanwhile, has been a local elected official for nearly 20 years and led a strong campaign all over the state to take the Democratic candidacy and the Senate seat.

The governors race has been brewing in Maryland since virtually the day Bob Ehrlich took office in 2002. His win in '02 sent a shock through the system of many Democrats in Maryland, as a Republican had become governor in what is generally considered a strong blue state; granted he was running against a complete moron who only rose to the position she was in because of her last name. I'm slightly, or very, biased toward Martin O'Malley because of multiple relationships with him and his family. In addition to working on his second campaign for mayor over one summer and spending significant time in his company and his closest political associates, my next door neighbor is his sister-in-law. After 2 terms as the mayor of Baltimore, it was clear that expanding to the state level was the next step in his growing political career. There have been numerous controversies revolving around this race, most notably with the Ehrlich administration being forced quiet in it's relationship with The Baltimore Sun. When November 7th finally rolled around, it was a day that had been long anticipated and ended as a very successful showing for Maryland Democrats and a very sweet victory to see Martin O'Malley ready to become the next governor of the state of Maryland.

Here's a good article from the aforementioned Sun about the O'Malley victory and notes his close support system running his campaign, including Brian Hammock, my boss on the O'Malley mayoral campaign who was and is a great leader with a strong future behind the scenes in politics.