Saturday, May 09, 2009

Perry Mason episode inspired possible Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor to be a judge

Here is update on possible Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor...this report came from the Huffington Report:

With the retirement of Supreme Court Justice David Souter, President Obama has a space on the high court to fill. One of the top prospects is Sonia Sotomayor.

A Puerto Rican woman with 16 years of court experience who currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, Sotomayor is a graduate of Yale Law and an editor of the Yale Law Review. She shares a biographical footnote with Souter: they both were appointed by George H. W. Bush -- Sotomayor to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1992. Sotomayor was elevated to the appeals court by President Clinton.

Sotomayor spent five years as a prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney before going into private practice as a commercial litigator. During that time she also served on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the New York City Campaign Finance Board, and State of New York Mortgage Agency, where she helped provide mortgage insurance coverage to low-income housing and AIDS hospices.

She left for the U.S. District Court in 1992. At the time, Sotomayor told the New York Times that she was inspired to become a judge by an episode of "Perry Mason."

"I thought, what a wonderful occupation to have," Ms. Sotomayor said. "And I made the quantum leap: If that was the prosecutor's job, then the guy who made the decision to dismiss the case was the judge. That was what I was going to be."

Sotomayor has been considered as a potential Supreme Court Justice by both Republican and Democratic presidents.

Curtis Granderson robs Grady Sizemore of game winning home run

You have to watch this clip of Detroit's Curtis Granderson robbing Cleveland's Grady Sizemore of a game winning two-run home run in the botton of the ninth...the Tigers led 1-0 behind Justin Verlander's outstanding performance on the mound...but in the ninth, with a man on, Verlander gave up a game winning homer to Sizemore, until Granderson saved the day...this may be the play of the year in baseball because of its impact...

Chuck Daly - leader of the Bad Boys dies

Chuck Daly, former head basketball coach of the Detroit Pistons and head coach of the 1992 USA Olympic Basketball team died early Saturday morning...Daly was 78-years-old...

Before hitting it big with the Pistons, Daly had a humble start in coaching...he was a high school basketball coach for seven years at Punxsutawney High School in Pennsylvania before becoming an assistant coach at Duke University...Daly got his first head coaching gig when he took over at Boston College...in 1971 he left BC for the head coaching job at Penn...he led
the Quakers to four Ivy League titles and four consecutive 20 win seasons...

In 1978 Daly moved to the NBA as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers...his first NBA head coaching position came in the middle of the 1981-82 season when the coached the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers to a 9-32 mark...he was fired after the season and rejoined the 76ers as a radio broadcaster...

In 1983 the Pistons gave Daly a second shot at an NBA job...in nine seasons with Detroit, Daly led the Pistons to three NBA Finals, winning back-to-back titles in 1989 and 1990...the Pistons were known as the Bad Boys with their lockdown, jaw-rattling defense...

In 1992 he coached the original Dream Team as the U.S. marched to a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics...after leaving Detroit, Daly coach for two years at New Jersey and another two years at Orlando before retiring at the end of the 1999 season...

Below are two articles about Daly...

Krista Jahnke of the Detroit Free Press writes about the death of former Pistons head coach Chuck Daly... "Chuck Daly, the Detroit Pistons coach who led the Bad Boys to the back-to-back NBA titles and was nicknamed Daddy Rich for his snappy dressing style, died this morning." ...
  • Krista Jahnke


  • Ken Shouler of the Basketball Encyclopedia wrote this tribute about Daly on ESPN.com... "He knew the league's rhythm was upbeat, as NBA teams topped 110 points per game. He also realized that teams shrank the court come playoff time and made half-court skirmishes the norm. "If you have to play that way in the playoffs, why not just do it in the regular season?" he wondered. "Why play one style for 82 games, then change it all around for the playoffs?" ...
  • Ken Shouler
  • Friday, May 08, 2009

    Why can't men flush the urinal?

    Zach over at The Big Picture does a segment called "Grinds My Gears" in which he basically vents about shit that pisses him off...today Stiles Points is going to do some venting...well, it's more like being puzzled by stupid lazy human beings...

    - I hate when I go to take a leak at a urinal and find old piss still sitting at the bottom...how hard is it to get the back of your hand and push down the lever to flush your piss down the drain?????...in-fucking-credible...I hate smelling someone's stale piss that may have been sitting there for hours...

    - With all this swine flu crap going around, I cannot believe the number of people who do not wash their hands -- especially after using the bathroom...once again, are some people so fucking lazy that they cannot take 20 seconds to put some soap on their hands and scrub them under warm water???...I'm not a germaphobe, like my one friend, but there are hygiene standards that must be followed by all in a civilized society...

    - Now that the weather is getting warmer, I hate having to hear every Tom, Dick, and JoJo who drives by with their car stereo thumping and booming and rattling...I don't want to hear your music!!!...do these people think it cool to be driving around with their car rattling...well it's not!!!...

    - I have no problem with motorcycles...I do have a problem with people who rev up their motorcycle which makes that stomach-ripping noise that takes time off your life...what is it with cyclists who sit at a stop sign or red light and rev up their engine???...does this provide some type of sexual stimulation for them???...does it make them more of a man because their motorcycle makes more noise???...

    Thursday, May 07, 2009

    Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court

    Sorry I haven't blogged in a couple of days but my work has taken me away...Stiles Points returns today, but not with a sports related issue...instead the topic deals with Barack Obama's nominee to replace Justice David Souter (photo, left) on the Supreme Court...

    I have a penchant for following the make-up of the Supreme Court since my master's thesis dealt with this judicial body...talk has been rampant that Obama will select a woman as Souter's replacement...currently, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is the only woman on the high court...

    Through all my studies, I personally believe the Supreme Court should be comprised of men and women of various races and creeds - not that of a select few...but that has never happened...as president, Obama will more than likely have the rare opportunity in selecting three new Justices on the Supreme Court...it is assumed that Ginsberg will soon be retiring and Justice John P
    aul Stevens is in his late 80s...

    With this opportunity, Obama can be the first president to have a truly diverse Supreme Court...historically, white males has been the choice...there has been two black males and two white women...the time has come to expand...

    Obama needs to select a Hispanic person for this post...many don't realize the Hispanic population is this country's largest minority, even more than African-Americans...that is why he should nominate Sonia Sotomayor, Justice, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit...

    Sotomayor grew up in a Bronx housing development...she was diagnosed with diabetes at age 8...she earned her A.B. from Princeton University in 1976, where she won the Pyne Prize, the highest general award given to Princeton undergraduates...she then obtained her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1979, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal...Sotomayor should win over conservatives as she once worked to "put away the bad guys" as New York County Assistant District Attorney...

    At this time the Supreme Court needs another female perspective...and it needs another "minority" other than African-American...Sotomayor more than fits this bill and should breeze through the process...

    In the future, Obama must consider nominating an Asian-American and a Native-American...but that is for another day...