From Hercules the Strong, who is probably the best TV writer in America right now, about the ABC dramadey Brothers & Sisters:

“Brothers [& Sisters]” doesn’t otherwise much distinguish itself in the vast vast 21st century sea of scripted hourlongs.

Except in one respect. When it comes to the gay smooching, “Brothers and Sisters” makes “Will & Grace” look like “The Unit.” The show represents a breakthrough in network male-on-male spit-swapping, boasting copious Disney-sanctioned homosexual lip-lock. The show started with the openly gay Kevin, then introduced the Rob Lowe character’s gay brother. Still later in season one it is revealed that another core member of the Walker clan is secretly gay.

All this homosexuality is not entirely unexpected! “Brothers” was created by gay playwright Jon Robin Baitz. Greg Belanti, one of the homosexuals behind “Dawson’s Creek,” “Everwood” and “Jack & Bobby” (and the upcoming “Dirty Sexy Money,” one of at least two new ABC hourlongs to feature a major transsexual plotline this season), served as head writer and showrunner during most of “Brothers’” first season.

Another writer on “Brothers” is homosexual actor/playwright David Marshall Grant. Grant, some will recall, helped generate a shitstorm of viewer protest and sponsor pullout for (a pre-Disney) ABC more than 15 years ago when his gay character cavorted nakedly with another male in “thirtysomething.” “Brothers,” a 21st century ABC hourlong with a lot more homosexual content, has to my knowledge inspired no sponsor pullouts. Owing perhaps to the popularity of “Six Feet Under” and “The L-Word” and even “Buffy,” the religious right seems to have finally conceded this battle.

A very astute observation. The very fact that I haven’t seen anyone else making a similar one seems to be a sign of how completely the debate has been shifted.

Or Monica Seles? You decide.

Photo from Tennis Served Fresh

I’m basically with the Huffington Post’s Nick Antosca about the behavior of the police as they grabbed U. Florida student Andrew Meyer, wrestled him to the ground, and then tasered him. And then accuse him of the ludicrous charge of trying to “incite a riot.”

Meyer appears to be not totally balanced, but unless the videotapes are missing some important context–he has a history the officers are aware of, there’s some other action we can’t see–then this looks like terrible police work. Maybe even criminal–surely smart lawyers will be able to more accurately judge whether or not the officers crossed legal, and not just prudential or ethical, lines.

I know the conservative impulse is to laugh, since Meyer appears to be an unbalanced lefty conspiracy guy, but this is the sort of police action that should make you wary.

It’s coming to IFC this November. Set your TiVo now.

So, they are not what we thought they were. Before the season began, the three Eagles Superfans closest to my heart all predicted between 9 and 11 wins for the Birds. I scoffed, saying they looked like a 7 or 8 win team.

After last night’s home loss to the Redskins, it’s time to push the panic button. (You should hear DC sportstalk radio this morning: they think they have a “special” team. Yeah, but only because getting to .500 has been special in DC sports for the last decade.)

I’ll be mildly surprised if either the Skins or Green Bay makes the playoffs. I’d be shocked if both did. These two teams have the look of NFL mediocrity.

The Eagles aren’t even that good. McNabb looked terribly: slow and spraying the ball high on a number of passes. Tough to tell how much of that is rust, how much is the injury (remember, he’s not supposed to be near 100% until the end of the season), and how much is time catching up with him. The more worrisome aspects: the receiving corps is, as usual, an embarrassment; the coaching decisions (hey let’s call time out as the Skins are about to kick a field goal, prompting them to instead throw a touchdown pass!) were questionable. Worst of all, the defense looked completely vulnerable. Brian Dawkins, the heart and soul of this team, looked noticeably slower than he was last year. All in all, it was hard to find anything positive in last night’s game.

But it’s almost impossible to find anything positive in the remaining schedule. Go ahead and take a look. Find the wins. Detroit? They’re 2-0 and look better than the Eagles do now. They might split with the Giants, if the G-Men really start to fall apart. No chance against the Bears. They’ll probably go winless in November. If everything breaks right for them, they might win 6 games (@Jets, @Vikings, Dolphins, Seahawks, Giants, Bills). Really, how much confidence do you have that they can win all of those games?

Here’s the scary scenario: It’s entirely possible they go to the bye week 0-4 and go into Week 14 2-10, finishing the year with 4 wins. In fact, I’d suspect that’s a more likely scenario than the one that gets them to 6 wins.

Either way, this is the beginning of the end for Andy Reid in Philadelphia.

Update: From Galley Brother B.J.:

Donovan McNabb 2008 – 2009 MVP with the Chicago Bears.

Yeah, if I was the Sex Cannon, I’d be worried about my job.

Update 2: From Galley Friend B.W.:

JVL: Don’t say it, Matus.

VM: You want this, don’t you? The hate is swelling in you now. Take your Jedi weapon. Use it. I am unarmed. Strike me down with it. Give in to your anger. With each passing moment you make yourself more my servant.

JVL: I’m leaving.

VM: Two words: La. Ron.

JVL: Don’t make me look up ethnic slurs for Filipinos.

VM: Good. Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you. Soon you will be a true Philadelphian.

Update 3: From Galley Friend and Redskins Superfan P.G.:

Seriously, when did ESPN officially become the Eagles SPorts Network? Did you like the pre-game feature on 85-year old “Weapon X”, Brian Dawkins? He’s so good that he gets knocked out after a collision with Todd Yoder. If Dawkins is Wolverine, does that make Yoder Sabretooth? I was actually surprised that Kolber and Tafoya didn’t blow McNabb and Reid at halftime at the 50 yard line. Did you start to feel a little shaky when the ESPN guys all picked the Eagles, with the exception of the one guy who actually knows something about football, Tom Jackson?

Update 4: P.G. again:

I’ve been dead-on with my Eagles predictions (but wildly inaccurate with my Skins predictions) for the past 2 seasons. I seriously think they won’t win 7 games this year. I’ve never quite understood how everyone thinks Reid is a genius. The good news is that Parcells or Cowher will be available. The bad news is that your front office might be too cheap to pay them. Seriously, you guys should back the Brinks truck up at Cowher’s door, he’s a perfect fit for you guys. Blue collar guy for a blue collar town and team. No more passing 50 times, run the ball and let McNabb manage games.

Reid is a genius–at cap management. As you arrive at the Linc, the first thing you notice are the five glorious cap trophies lining the main entrance by the concourse. A lot of people say that they’re just as good as Lombardi trophies.

But seriously, I think Reid has also been a great temperamental presence for the Eagles. His game management and playcalling have always been suspect, but he seems to do a great job preparing the team during the week and has so few back-to-back losses during his tenure that he’s clearing doing something right in terms of putting his players in position to succeed.

All of that said, I also think that a bottom-out season, the end of which sees McNabb looking elsewhere, combined with Reid’s off the field family troubles, will make it an attractive time for him to leave Philadelphia.

And then, if they don’t hire Cowher, we can jump off the roof.

Update 5: From Galley Friend and Eagles Superfan T.R.:

1) The season is NOT over. But it is on the brink. As are AR and Donovan’s tenures in Philadelphia;
2) WHY WON’T THEY RUN THE $#@! FOOTBALL? It was the only thing that worked – and it was working WELL. Westbrook averaged over 5.5 per carry. Did the last six games of last season never happen?
3) And why do they run it only to the (usually clogged) left side? What about Shawn Andrews? Almost criminal negligence.
4) They attempted 48 passes and ran the ball 18 times. What else can I say except, Andy, when you say “I have to do better job putting the offense in the right position to make plays” you are exactly right. It’s a disgrace.
5) The offense looked unready, uninspired, and unimaginative (not overwhelmed or undertalented) – that, in a word, is coaching.
6) A lot is being made about McNabb sucking. Justifiable, but keep a couple things in mind: He ALWAYS drills a few balls into the turf, and always will; The hallmark of over-the-hill QB’s is that they lose velocity – McNabb was a cannon; His accuracy and touch were awful… how much does that have to do with a knee injury… and how much might it have to do with coaching, hand-holding, and getting reps?
7) Let’s face it – Coaching in today’s NFL is a 24/7 job. Is that fair? I don’t know – but that’s the fact. And that is NOT what we have been getting;
8) Oh yeah, he’s also the GM.

Update 6: Remember this?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HJXa481NqE]
I posit that this was the high-water mark for the Reid-McNabb era.

Dean Barnett asks that question. The answer has to be, Depends on how you define “dominance.”

Different sports have different capacities for dominance. Basketball, for instance, has a very high capacity for it. Players like Bill Russell and Michael Jordan were able to total strangle the sport for years at a time. Tennis has a similarly high capacity, where a single player can sometimes win three of the four majors in a year. Football and baseball have almost no capacity for dominance because they involve so many players–the best QB or pitcher in the history of the games can’t do more than get their teams to a couple playoff appearances by themselves.

Until Tiger, gold appeared to be a sport with a relatively low capacity for dominance for a different reason: the fickleness of the game, which meant that no player could really hope to beat the field every time out. Too many things can go wrong in a round of golf.

So it depends. Has Tiger been more dominant than Roger Federer? No. Than Jordan? No. But because he’s doing what he’s doing in a sport that has never been dominated, then surely that counts for something. Thoughts?

Just a quick aside:

Am I missing something, or did Patrick Ruffini just call Hugh Hewitt a liar?

Ruffini today: “Anyone who argues that this isn’t jump ball between some permutation of Giuliani/Romney/Thompson is probably lying to you.”

Hugh Hewitt last week: “The third quarter fundraising is coming to an end, and so has Fred Thompson’s honeymoon, leaving one of three people as George Bush’s successor–Senator Clinton, Mayor Giuliani, or Governor Romney.”

Last year Brad Meltzer, the guy who got me back into comic books with his outrageously good Identity Crisis, rebooted DC’s Justice League of America series. Like Identity Crisis, it was jaw-droppingly good. The stories were interesting and the characters were written more intelligently than you have any right to expect in a comic book. One of the plots, for instance, dealt with Solomon Grundy who, it turns out, fears death, even though he knows he will be reincarnated every time. Couldn’t ask for better stuff.

Now Meltzer has left Justice League and been replaced by a writer named Swayne McDuffie. I’d come across McDuffie’s work only once before with his malicious, anti-American contribution to a 9/11 comics anthology. But his new Justice League is even worse: In a single issue he tears down all of Meltzer’s structure and turns the book into Super Friends. All of a sudden the League lives in the Hall of Justice. Lex Luthor (in the stupid Super Power green armor) assembles the League of Injustice. They have Hall of Doom headquarters–looks exactly like the one the Legion of Doom used in the animated series–which is concealed underneath the water in a swamp.

Awesome. Brad Meltzer made me remember why I loved comics. McDuffie reminds me of why I left them.