...and the lead is being fought out between Jeff King, Doug Swingley and Dee Dee Jonrowe. This report suggests that Jonrowe's dog team may currently be the freshest. King and Swingley have been playing a game of tactical cat-and-mouse over the last 3-4 days, with Swingley steadily cutting into King's lead. However, they have been running on a trail that has only been travelled by snowmobiles, and that will be harder on the dogs. Meanwhile Jonrowe has been keeping to her own plan, resting more frequently than King or Swingley but then running very quickly when on the trail. This has allowed her to stay in touch and also run on a trail that has already been travelled by 2 teams.
These three mushers have held a significant lead over the rest of the field, but Aliy Zirkle has now caught up to them, mainly by skipping any significant rest period at Kaltag. Jonrowe rested for 7 hours at Kaltag; Zirkle stayed for just 13 minutes. If anybody is to emerge from the pack they will need to make a significant tactical move, like Zirkle just did, in order to gain enough time. This has been done in previous years at this point in the race. One tactic that has been tried is running a team pretty much constantly for an extremely long period of up to 14 hours, blasting through 2 or more checkpoints. This might work if the team has enough energy, but it is a high-risk move; if the team does not have enough in the tank, it can backfire and leave a musher with an exhausted team.
The weather will play a significant part in the next 2-3 days. A 20-35 mph wind is blowing in this area, and the trail has a lot of loose snow that the dog teams have to fight through. At this point in the race, leaders and contenders alike will start to find out how much their dog teams have left. Sometimes teams fall off the pace because of exhaustion. Sometimes they even quit on the musher (Jonrowe had an entire team shut down on her in one Iditarod).
My remaining wildcard is Bjornar Andersen, currently outside the top 10. The big question; is he saving some dramatic tactical move for the next 2-3 days? If not, he is not a contender.

With the free-agency period less than a day old, the market is like the Christmas sales...with a lot more cap money available, teams have gone from muttering about not being able to answer the phones to installing more phones...already a lot of players have walked off to pastures new with their moves being cushioned by large sums of guaranteed moeny.
The leading players are adopting one of three approaches:

1. The Drew Brees approach - meet all of your leading suitors (Miami, New Orleans) as quickly as possible to see what deals are being offered. Expect Brees to sign with another team by midweek.
2. The Edgerrin James approach - publicly sound laconic and laid-back, making noises about "taking your time", finding "the right situation" ec. (Meanwhile, that sound in the background is your agent's cellphone catching fire...)
3. The Daunte Culpepper approach - hole up somewhere, demand a trade and then send a snarky email to the media once a week, hoping that you don't have to adopt the Drew Brees approach in 2 weeks' time when the money has all been spent.

Daniel Snyder is apparently piling on the charm in an attempt to woo free agents, with the likes of Antwaan Randle El and Adam Archuleta being offered courtside NBA seats this weekend as part of the free-agent schmoozefest.
One of the quietest clubs thus far is the Cowboys, matched by the Patriots (whose name might just have been the inspiration for the Patriot Act, judging by how little information gets revealed by them). The Cowboys appear to be taking things slowly, operating almost under the radar. Money and cap room is not a problem for that club. The main rumor swirling around in the air in Dallas is that they are still very interested in Terrell Owens, who most likely will be released by the Eagles just before his roster bonus payment is due. The Eagles appear to be unable to trade Owens, since prospective suitors know that they will release him anyway. I just hope that Bill Parcells is prepared to beat the crap out of T.O. the first time he pulls his me-me-me routine. The omens are good, in that Parcells appears to have been able to handle Keyshawn Johnson. However, T.O. seems to be a whole level above (or is that below?) Keyshawn in terms of preening, egotistical narcissism. It is at times like these that I wish they would resurrect the Leon advertisements...

On the subject of Drew Brees....the end of his relationship with the Chargers has been marked by some unseemly squabbling today over what contract terms Brees was offered to stay with the Chargers. Brees' agent Tom Condon claims that the Chargers withdrew the incentive offer portion of the contract in the last 2 days. The Chargers claim that never happened, although they admit that they did warn Condon that if Brees delayed accepting an offer from the Chargers, they might be forced to modify the incentive terms in the contract because that money would have been committed to signing or rewarding other players.
The spat is amusing but somewhat moot, because Drew Brees will not be playing for the Chargers next season. The Philip Rivers experiment is about to commence. (For the sake of the Charger supporters' blood presure, let us hope that Philip Rivers does not become the Second Coming of Rob Johnson...).

Elsewhere...the Packers McKenzie saga of 2 seasons ago, is repeating itself over again with Javon Walker. Walker is so unhappy that he has stated in recent days that he would rather retire or give back signing bonus money so that he does not have to play for the Packers again. The problem for the Packers is that Walker is not even 100% fit yet after tearing up his knee at the start of last season, and he may yet turn out to be permanently affected by the injury (Jason Sehorn of the Giants was never the same player after he tore his ACL on a kickoff return). However, Walker has seemingly grown tired of being short-changed on his contract when he has the best recent numbers of the Packers receiving corps, and if the Packers learned one thing with the Mike McKenzie affair, it is that a highly pissed-off player tends to stay pissed-off, to the extent that the club would be better off without him. The problem for Green Bay is that Walker currently has zero trade value, because of his knee injury, so they either keep him (and hold him to his contract) or cut him. The biggest contributor to the current mess was the personal criticism of Walker by Brett Favre, who really should have said nothing. By publicly slamming Walker, Favre pretty much ensured that Walker would become permanently disaffected. Both Favre and the Packers could have handled the situation much better. They ended up throwing fuel on the fire of the dispute, and the relationship between Walker and the Packers is probably irreperably damaged as a result.

Next season will be interesting since a lot of "marquee" players will be playing for different teams. However, remember that one of the key determinants for success is continuity. Teams that acquire a large number of free agents may yet hit problems in fielding balanced, cohesive teams. An additional factor that may also cause problems is the number of free agents who will net large amounts of guaranteed money during this free-agent period, then playing alongside team-mates who find themselves to be much less well-rewarded. With the cap scheduled to rise to $109m in 2007, players who become free agents at the end of next season may also do well. The challenge will be if you are a player whose contract does not expire next season and you are on a rookie contract or a contract with little or no guaranteed money (the new CBA conspicuously did nothing about forcing clubs to guarantee player contracts, unlike the NBA, MLB or NHL). I expect to hear a lot of mutterings next season from the agents for some of those players along the lines of "Fred is outperforming his contract....need to renegotiate...fair market value...." etc. etc.

Link: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/14062835.htm

...and writes a blistering response to a local teacher (who also appears to be a pastor in her spare time) who has unleashed another collection of anti-homosexual pronouncements.
Frankly, the only way in which some measure of tolerance is going to be restored to modern American life is by more people standing up and reminding us that intolerance is not a "family value", or any other positive value-of-the-day, and that the Old Testament is not a quote-mine, to be selectively used to further narrow opinions and views.
If certain theocratically-inclined people wish to live their lives according to any extant version of the Bible, then fine, but let's see some consistency here. I assume that those people would not suggest that they get to decide which modern laws to obey, so they can they kindly stop quote-mining the laws that they like and either live by all of them. Maybe if they don't like all of them they might like to actually develop their own value system.
Oh, and another thing...just because I don't like something doesn't automatically give me the right to prevent others from doing it. That's not freedom (despite what some people would have you believe), it's merely another form of tyranny.
If this is the direction in which certain groups of people want to take the United States, and enough people either acqueisce in that direction or fail to vote against it, then I predict that a significant number of intelligent, creative people will leave the USA and go live elsewhere. I relocated to another country once in my life already, and I'm prepared to do it again in order to avoid having to tolerate the institutionalization of the sort of bigoted, hypocritical, intolerant crap that the Miami Herald columnist is writing about.

...which will allow normal service to be resumed. Episodes of the soap opera known as the NFL Off-Season will resume, starting Saturday.
While all of the CBA extension excitement was occurring, Duante Culpepper has been busy proving that (a) if you're going to fire your agent, you should at least have a replacement lined up, (b) trying to be your own media adviser puts you in the position of having a fool for a client. Culpepper is doing God-knows-what in terms of media relations right now, sending snarky emails to the media now that he has finally figured out that the Minnesota Vikings aren't that interested in having him back. (This much had been obvious a long time ago, since the Vikings have been shopping him for weeks). The chances of Culpepper lining up under center for the Vikings next year are currently somewhere between zero and none. He is now demanding that the Vikings trade him or release him. He is likely to get his wish, since no team is likely to give up any significant compensation for a QB rehabbing 2 busted knee ligaments with a misdemeanour trial pending.
If Culpepper had his head screwed on correctly, he would have cut a plea bargain of some sort on the charges, taken his lumps, and got it out the way. Instead, he seems to have morphed into some sort of Don Quixote figure, tilting at all sorts of perceived bad guys left right and centre. He won't talk to the media except to send one-way messages, he is pissed at the Vikings, he has no agent and his job prospects are uncertain. His head seems to be internally mal-adjusted right now.
Elsewhere, the agent for Drew Brees appears to be trying to get suitors to form an orderly queue, with the Dolphins reckoned to be at the front of the line. Back in Chargerland, team president Dean Spanos has apparently had to sit Marty Schottenheimer and A.J. Smith down for a "now cut it out children" headmaster speech. Those two don't get along, but they look to be stuck with each other for the time being. Spanos had better hope that Philip Rivers can play in the NFL, or he might yet become known as the team owner who presided over 2 quarterback busts in San Diego.
With the cap rising to over $100 million, there may be a chance for some teams to re-sign veterans instead of letting them walk. However, watch for a lot of changes of teams by players this offseason, which to some extent reflects coaching changes. Not only are there a number of new head coaches, but there have been a lot of co-ordinator changes. This will generate movement as co-ordinators seek to hire players who know "their" system. One weakness in the NFL is that more talented players are often ignored in favour of less talented players who are presumed to fit into "the system".

Link: http://www.cabelasiditarod.com

...and 4-time winner Doug Swingley still leads at the halfway point. However, for the next 2 days the real race positions will be obscured by mushers taking their mandatory 24 hour layover. Most mushers take the layover shortly after the halfway point. Taking that layover will move you down the order, but you will then move back up as other mushers have to take their layovers. A handful of leading mushers (most notably Lance Mackey) have already taken their 24 hour rest, but most of the other leaders will take theirs in the next 48 hours. When all that is complete, expect Mackey to be a lot higher than his current position.
The race rules mandate 1 24 hour layover and an 8 hour layover (to be taken anywhere on the trail) and an 8 hour layover which must be taken at White Mountain.
Dee Dee Jonrowe is still in second, and her dogs look happy and fresh, judging by some of the pictures available on the public internet sites. The real threat lurks back several places in the form of Bjornar Anderson, the lead representative of Team Norway, who finished fourth last year as a rookie (the highest ever rookie finish by a country mile) despite running the #2 team behind countryman and winner Robert Sorlie. Anderson has been moving steadily up the order since the start.
Rachael Scdoris, the legally blind musher, is making steady progress on the trail with Dean Osmar as her guide. After scratching last year, she is already running much better this year.

Following the decision by the South Dakota legislature to enact a draconain abortion ban, I will not be visiting or spending any money in South Dakota. I also intend to check my credit card accounts to see if any of them are managed out of South Dakota. If they are, I may close those accounts also.
In a truly capitalist economy, one of the key power levers is economic power. I intend to use that lever to directly or indirectly penalize any organization that is attempting to either circumscribe individual rights or undermine the protections laid out in the Constitution. That is why I will also not be visiting Kanab UT until they repeal their "natural family" ordinance.

The best way to sum this up is: I live in the 21st Century. I have no desire to visit or support places that are trying to live in the 19th Century.

....and for the next 2 weeks I will be bringing you snippets of coverage from the world's most famous sled dog race. Here is the route map for the race.
There are 83 mushers taking part in this year's race. Here is the entry list. Once again, a lot of focus will be on "Team Norway", the informal grouping of Norwegian mushers who pool their dogs and training approaches and have been rewarded with 2 wins by Robert Sorlie in recent years. This year, Team Norway will run 3 teams - 2 front-line teams and a learning team.
The official Iditarod site is nowhere near as good as the Alaska Daily News site, which is where I will be getting most of my information and photos from.
Tomorrow I hope to write about some of the rules for the race.

Link: http://www.profootballtalk.com/rumormill.htm

...in Friday's NFL rumor mill column, which quotes remarks made in a recent interview by Birk.
Matt Birk has become the Robert Smith of the current NFL generation - an intelligent, articulate guy with a good BS detector who calls it as he sees it. He had a number of pointed things to say about how the Vikings (mis)handled the boat trip incident last Fall, and has apparently fallen out with Daunte Culpepper over his comments, but, like Robert Smith, he cares not a jot what other people think. His remarks, of course, will not be welcome to the ears of people who like to dissemble and keep other folks in the dark.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060301/ap_on_re_us/catholic_town

People reading my aviation blog will notice that I have pledged not to visit Kanab, Utah again until the town repeals a a resolution (seemingly lifted almost verbatim from the Sutherland Institute) that was passed in Janaury 2006. I have visited Kanab several times in the past few years for aviation fly-ins.
Now, I found this article about the plans by the founder of Domino's Pizza to create an entire city and associated business district in Florida which will apparently be run on strict Roman Catholic principles (the article makes no mention of whether the city's Roman Catholic priests might also uphold the old Catholic tradition of helping themselves to the altar boys).
I have no problem if this multi-millionaire wants to set up a city to reflect and perpetuate his value system. If liberty is to mean anything in modern America, then he has every right to spend his money as he sees fit, and he can probably find some people who want to live in a civic implementation of a theocracy. However, I forsee big long-term viability for this project. Most likely, creative people will not want to live in the area, which will restrict the sort of businesses that will want to move there. Although the founder is very wealthy, nobody can bankroll a city for ever. Eventually it will need to stand on its own two feet. This is essentially a project to manufacture a town. My experience from the UK is that manufactured towns have all of the character of a dead tree-stump, and the best part of them is usually the road out of town.
This project will only survive until the money runs out, or malfeasance takes over (one observable reality is that religious people tend to be pretty defective as civic stewards once they allow theocracy to take the place of pragmatic civic governance).

Link: http://www.observer.com/20060306/20060306_Rebecca_Dana_pageone_nytv.asp

...in which Nancy Grace, an frontsperson for CNN, who has a "take no prisoners" reputation when talking to people with whom she disagrees, is shown to have (a) misremembered key details of an unpleasant incident earlier in her life, when a boyfriend was murdered, and (b) has, er, forgot that her reputation as a prosecutor did include several incidents where she was found to have performed in a less than satisfactory manner...unfortunately Ms. Grace appears to not want to fess up to either of these problems.
Surprised? When the current occupants of the White House can cheerfully brush off the inconvenient fact that they have been breaking the law when engaging in surveillance, I guess that another TV anchor engaging in deception could be seen as small beer. However, it's yet another instance of public figures playing fast and loose with the facts and their own past. Personally, thse kinds of revelations tend to make me place Nancy Grace in the same sentence as words like "credibility" and "squat"...