This got caught up in my publishing system somewhere and I had to kick it loose this morning. Forwarded to me via virtual carrier pigeon over the internets….(HT: Bob)

The Ten Reasons Beer is better than Jesus:

10. No one will kill you for not drinking Beer.

9. Beer doesn’t tell you how to have sex.

8. Beer has never caused a major war.

7. No one forces Beer on minors who cannot think for themselves.

6. When you have a Beer, you don’t knock on people’s doors trying to give it away.

5. Nobody’s ever been burned at the stake, hanged, or tortured over his brand of Beer.

4. You don’t have to wait 2000+ years for a second Beer.

3. There are laws saying Beer labels can’t lie to you.

2. You can prove you have a Beer.

1. If you’ve devoted your life to Beer, there are groups to help you stop.

So, you don’t think there is too much in common? What if I asserted that the relative beliefs were 99% common? You’d say “Mike, you must be smoking some wacky tabacky out there in California.” Read the list below.

This a list of over 600 various gods, non-believers do away with the whole list. See, it’s just a small step from disbelieving in all gods but one to simply disbelieving in gods period. 99.8% commonality. We can close the gap.

Another Top 10 team, the same result. A loss. At least it wasn’t a blowout like last year. There was a lot to be proud of in this game, though the Trojans scored 18, the defense really is accountable for 11 of them, a TD, 2-pt conversion, and a field goal. The first TD was totally on the offense with the for all intents and purposes pick-six. Without that, there’s a win.

Special teams were AWESOME in this game. Great punting, great returns, great return coverage, and great placekicking. They showed up.

The offense was not consistent in the least. I think the hits Pryor took in the first quarter might have hurt him physically, but certainly hurt his confidence and judgment. The lack of a bell cow back like Beanie Wells also showed up. Nothing against Boom, he runs hard and provides maximum effort – which is all you can ask – but he’s not going to get those tough yards between the tackles with an opponent like USC.

The O-line was pretty good for all the grief it takes over time. I thought play calling was pretty sound in the first quarter as well. But somehow, we got away from the misdirection and started running Dave again. And again. And again. On 1 yard conversions, I’d think someone might say “Hey, we’ve got a 6’6″, 230 lb quarterback. Why don’t we simply sneak it behind 500 lb benchpress Boren to convert?”

But no, Dave would be the best answer. Pull the guard, have the fullback whiff on his block and the back gets chopped down at or behind the line of scrimmage.

All of the losses hurt when it’s the team you root for – but this one somehow is worse. This one was winnable and slipped away, much like the Texas game last year. At some point, the offense is going to have to join the same team and perform consistently and score touchdowns, not field goals. Eight points were left on the board tonight. That would have amounted to a win too. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. If my aunt had balls she’d be my uncle as they say. This was a needless loss.

Now, as for the rest of the season, we’ll see what happens next week on the road in Cleveland vs. Toledo which put up 54 points this week. If we come out with fire and passion, this could be an 11-1 season. If we’re still funky, Toledo could win. Seriously. That would suck.

Here is what we should have learned from 9/11. Yet, we haven’t. In pictures:

The University of Southern California (USC) will play Ohio State in a night game at the ‘Shoe tomorrow evening. If you read anything about this game, you’ll know the Buckeyes have absolutely ZERO chance of winning. They ought not even show up. After all, they lost in LA last year 35-3 (ouch!) and have lost their last 4 big, non-conference games.

I’m a Buckeye fan and thus am not objective in this, but I like this game. I like the setup. I like that no one believes they will win. I like that their Freshman starting quarterback is talking smack. I like that they are -7 point ‘dogs at home. I like that nothing but mild respect is coming from Ohio State about this game. I like that the game last week against Navy was a tougher challenge than anticipated. I like that USC beat the snot out of a horrible San Jose State team building their confidence.

Yep, I betting I’m going to like the final score which will look something like this: 23-12 Buckeyes. And if I’m wrong, I’m wrong. But I believe the perfect storm is brewing and that the big game beatdown predicted won’t happen, at least in the way the pundits are predicting. GO BUCKS!