Erin Go Bragh!

VCU -- the big school nobody knows

It's bigger than either Virginia Tech or the University of Virginia, and is almost the size of Ohio State, which is a medium-sized city. But because it's a 'city' school, with offices, buildings and classrooms spread around and about Richmond, with a resulting 'campus' that couldn't contain a pitch-and-putt golf hole, VCU isn't exactly picturesque, and basketball recruiting has been second-tier at best.

Enter new VCU basketball coach Shaka Smart. (Who?), a razor-sharp, good-looking kid out of Kenyon College, a top-ranked, tiny academic college in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio. A magna cum laude graduate, four-year basketball starter and three-year captain, 1999 All-USA academic team, Shaka was building basketball street cred from day one. Click on his name for the whole story, and get pumped for the Rams' chances.

This Cinderella story could end early. VCU plays USC tonight, and if they win -- Vegas says they won't -- they get to play Georgetown. This may not be their year, but if you're looking to fit a glass slipper on somebody...

Is it time for Robin Hood again?

For liberals and Democrats, the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president was supposed to signal an end to the excesses of a near-decade of Republican rule and a return to glorious days of yesteryear when Chevys ruled the highways, Converse All Stars were the sneakers of choice and Americans played golf on the frigging moon!

It now appears as if it was all a bad dream. While Obama has had good intentions, we all know what road gets paved with those stones, and we have sadly borne witness to the�inescapable�fact that the two-party system of government that once was the backbone of a free American electorate has deteriorated into an oligarchy of super-rich fat cats, �Democrats and Republicans alike, who care about little save their own power and pelf. (Great word, pelf; it means wealth, especially the kind you should be ashamed of)

Adding grease to the wheels of this downward middle-class death dive has been our vaunted fourth estate, once a bastion of journalistic bravery and truth, now the lap dog of an infotainment industry essentially run by a cartoon company and a light-bulb manufacturer.

With the world going to hell on all fronts, with the Earth itself ripping apart at the seams, is there no hope? Are we doomed to inherit a world that dances to the Koch brothers' tune? �Well, waddaya know? Maybe not. Maybe, just maybe... (Insert cavalry bugles here)

There's a literary addendum to all this; click on 'read more' to expand your knowledge!

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A giant step toward economic recovery

Read all about it here, or click the headline.