Those in favor of the bill have a simple logic.  Due to the government spending that is coming down from the White House at the moment, there is no better time to do this.  For every one dollar that the state spends, the federal government will contribute three.  My question is why is any of this necessary?

I was opposed to the high-speed rail system years ago when they were trying to make it a state-funded project.  I am equally opposed to it now.  The rails would connect Tampa, Miami and Orlando.  I honestly doubt that many people at all will use the system as a legitimate travel option.

Sure, it makes for a good excuse to say that the federal government would be paying for most of this.  However, that says more bad about our federal government than it does about the rail system.  At a time like this is a rail system really what we need to be throwing millions of dollars into?

The bill will now move on to the state senate where it will be voted on by another 40 politicians.

Ybor is the cool place to hang out for fake gang bangers and guys with way too much gel in their hair.  It is also a place where people get shot from time to time.  Sounds lovely, right?

Well, on Saturday night there was apparently a shooting in front of Empire, one of Ybor’s more infamous clubs.  The shooting happened to occur after Tampa hosted the ACC football championship game earlier in the evening.  I’m sure the chaos did great things for any tourists thinking about ever returning to Tampa again.

Ybor City has gone from being a nice, historic area of Tampa to being an eye sore that brings down the entire reputation of the city.  When people from out of town are looking for somewhere to party, they are drawn to Ybor because of its obvious title as Tampa’s nightlife district.  Things like this turn these people away and make them view Tampa as a bad place.

In fact, the St. Pete Times reported that this is the fourth major incident at Empire in the last year.  Why is the place still open?

To say that the game was disappointing is like saying that organic chemistry is kind of a tough class.  To me, the game is tied with the 1996 Fiesta Bowl as the most unbearable performance in program history.  Alabama completely dominated the Gators in every aspect of the game.  Especially coaching.

The game was promoted as a clash between two of the most brilliant minds in the game with Urban Meyer and Nick Saban on opposing sidelines.  Saban came away looking brilliant, Meyer looked like he was getting fitted for an orange and blue dunce cap.  In their biggest game of the season, Florida opened nothing up on offense.  There was no difference between their game plan for FIU two weeks prior and their game plan for Alabama.

The Crimson Tide were prepared and hungry.  The Gators were entitled and content.

Thirteen years ago, Tommie Frazier embarrassed the gators on plays that are still received with a smile in Lincoln, Nebraska.  On Saturday, Mark Ingram all but sealed his Heisman fate in a performance that will be passed around Tuscaloosa and crystalized for generations to come.

In a painful way, I almost think that many Gainesville Gator fans deserve this loss.  Much like the team on the field last night, Gator fans have felt entitled all year long.  We took wins for granted, complaining about margins of victory and trivial stats.  I can count on a couple of fingers the amount of times that The Swamp was actually a loud and mildly intimidating atmosphere this season.  Fans sat around smiling and left early far too often.

For as magical of a night as senior day was, this season has become a sad story of what could have been.  Florida did not belong on the same field as Alabama last night and that fact has lowered the Gators to a date with Cincinatti in the Sugar Bowl.  Not quite the national match-up with Texas that “Gator Nation” expected all season.

Here’s to hoping that we actually show up on New Year’s Day.

AKA he’s slept around the block…in like every major city in America.

Now there have been tons of different approaches to this story.  Some are angry, some are sympathetic.  Some think Woods’ personal life is none of the public’s business, others say that he has chosen to be a public figure for better or worse. 

The one sentiment that I honestly do not understand is the shock.  The Daily Beast had a column today talking about how there is a (gasp) underground culture in the PGA of tour groupies at every tour stop.  Imagine that! Groupies at professional sporting events!

People are speaking like they have discovered some big unknown phenonmenon when the truth has already seemed painfully obvious.  Like every other professional athlete, the golfer spends a lot of time traveling alone and has a lot of free time.  Like many professionl athletes, a lot of golfers probably cheat on their wives during these trips. Is it pretty or morally right? Absolutely not. Should it surprise anyone? I would say no.

Now the surprise for me is the type of girls that Woods is said to have been associated with.  One of them is best known as the girlfriend of “loud mouth tool” on that horrendous reality show, Tool Academy.  Really Tiger?

I guess if I was going to cheat on my supermodel wife, I’d make sure it was with a run-down New York City cocktail waitress, too…

As is the case anytime a major journalist comes into class, I obviously soaked up the information and used it to think about my upcoming career path a little bit.  However, with the semester coming to an end and decent storious becoming hard to find, I also used the speech as this week’s subject for my reporting class.

Overall, I thought the speech was pretty interesting and equally bizzare.  It was bizarre because Kneale was an off-the-wall kind of character.  He went off on crazy rants and spoke frantically but still managed to sound intelligent and thoughtful.

Some of the topics were a little odd for me as they seemed to go against some of the same things that are being pounded into our heads in reporting right now.  Kneale professed that you can’t be afraid to be wrong and almost seemed to brag that he had been wrong plenty of times at CNBC while basically guessing what was going to happen in the act of “selling hope.”

In reporting, we are basically taught the opposite.  Being wrong is the end of the world and you should absolutely know that there is no chance of you being wrong before you finish editing your story.  Kneale seemed to say that news needs to be provocative and entertaining when that should not be the goal.  It should be accurate.  If people want entertaining or provocative news, they can watch TMZ.

Speaking of reporting, I found it interesting that my lab professor for reporting also taught Kneale when he was attending UF.  Fun fact.

As a child, Oher’s father was shot and his mother was a drug addict.  He was homeless by his sixteenth birthday.  He was homeless until a well-to-do family, the Tuohy family, took him in and gave him things that he had never seen before.

While I have not seen the movie yet, I have heard from numerous accounts that it is an excellent film.  Sports Illustrated capitalized on the film’s hype by writing a feature story on Oher’s reaction to all the attention that he is getting.  The article paints Oher as being just as timid and reserved as he looks in the film’s trailer.

Oher has only skimmed through the biography that was written about his life and said that he has no plans to see the movie.  It does seem like a slightly awkward position for Oher.  Here he is, just a rookie in the NFL, a title that makes you a prisoner of seniority, and he is now being thrust into the spotlight in a way that few NFL players ever have.

Oher doesn;t appreciate the idea that things were given to him when he simply moved in with the Tuohy family.

“You read the book or see this movie and think, Aw, he has all this and all that,” Oher said.  “People don’t realize I had to work extremely hard to get where I am, and I’m working harder to get better.”

For anyone that has not opened up a Gainesville newspaper lately, the alternative rock band Weezer is going to be playing a free concert at UF.  Actually they’re not.  But maybe they are.

You see whether or not the band comes to UF is dependent on whether or not the school wins the 2009 T-Mobile Motorola CLIQ Challenge, a contest sponsored to promote Motorola’s new phone.  The concept is simple.  There are over 1,800 schools that are eligible to win the contest.  Whoever has the most votes at the end of the voting period wins the Weezer concert.

UF is curently third with 7,407 votes.  While today is the last day to vote via Facebook, the Alligator article does not mention how much longer voting in general will last. 

Ever since first seeing an article from a fellow reporting student, publicity for the “Vote for Weezer” campaign has been everywhere.  It has gotten to the point where I want to rip my paper in half and scream to the heavens that I could care less about Weezer.  They are an average band at best and have not been legitimately relevant since most students were in middle school.  It’s not like were bringing major star power to campus.

But today, the Alligator brought something to the attention of people like me who don’t care about Weezer.  While UF is third in the voting ranks, the number one school is…(nervous silence)…Florida State.

As much as I don’t care about Weezer, I would be equally happy if the 10,148 FSU students who voted with adorable hopes of bringing something exciting to their campus got shut down. 

Get on Facebook and vote people!

By kicking a field goal, FSU threw in a white towel to any chance of actually competing with the Gators.  Coach Bobby Bowden openly admitted their frustration and confusion, saying that it was the first time that he has ever been lowered to making such a move.  This was a plea for mercy in a rivalry that has become completely one-sided over the last six years.

The move did not draw a good reaction from anyone.  FSU fans dropped their heads in embarrassment, Gator fans booed so loud and passionately that their jeers cut into about half of “We Are the Boys From Old Florida.”

Kyle Maistri of the Alligator wrote in his column that the move sunk the rivalry to a new low.  Once a proud late season game with a strong national flair, this is what Florida-Florida State has become.  Until the Gators compeltely removed their starters, FSU didn’t stand up to the Gators much better than their opponent of the previous week, Florida International.

The next few months will be vital to any form of a turn-around at FSU.  If significant changes are not made, this rivalry will continue to be an annual pity party.

With the release of “New Moon,” the latest edition in the book-based, Twilight movie franchise, towns all over the world are being captured by something that looks to be a sappy love story with cheesy special effects.  Gainesville is no different.

The Alligator reported the madness that captured movie theaters over the weekend.  The film’s incredibly enthusiastic fan base littered midnight showings, adorned in their favorite character apparel (apparently there’s two dudes named Jacob and Edward?).

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I do not understand the Twilight phenomenon at all.  To me, it looks like a horribly over-acted escape for 12-year-old girls that has blown up way too much.  The hype alone makes me hate everything about it.

For my personal circle of friends, it provides us with an opportunity to make fun of our buddies who are whipped enough by their girlfriends to pre-order tickets and get dragged out to the pathetically lame vampire flicks. 

Speaking of vampires, what the hell has happened to them?

Remember when vampires were John Carpenter-style creatures that people were terrified of? They have now become glittery emo kids that melt for awkward, pastey emo girls.  What monsters are they going to turn into gutless wimps next? Zombies? Serial killers?

Wake me up when Twilight ends.

On Saturday, Florida football will honor the most successful senior class in the history of the Southeastern Conference.  The celebration is sure to be one of the most moving and memorable moments in the history of senior days.  In fact, this class is so special that coach Urban Meyer has declared this to be a “senior week.”

The story behind this senior class will be discussed heavily during this week and for generations of Gator fans to come.  This group has won two national championships, two SEC championships and is one win away from the third undefeated regular season in school history.  They are led by one of the most iconic figures in the history of the sport, Tim Tebow.

Tebow’s fairwell will likely be the most emotional and a moment that fans in attendance will remember forever.  Meyer got choked up just thinking about what the moment will be like during a press conference earlier today.  He even mentioned his hopes that Tebow can one day succeed him as head coach of the Gators.

With rival Florida State in town, ESPN College Gameday on campus and a special uniform ready to be unveiled, Saturday is sure to be one of the mroe special days that Ben Hill Griffin Stadium has ever seen.