You get 72 virgins for that?

You mean to tell me Islam states you get 72 virgins for blowing up commuters in a subway? No wonder hundreds of young men (and women) are signing up to be suicide bombers.

A couple of thoughts on Britain's 7/7 and this week's follow-up attacks:

1. What is the purpose of blowing up the Tube? Twice? I get the WTC (al-Qaeda had a hard-on for that one for years), the Pentagon, Washington DC... But the London subway? Twice?

2. If this is a holy crusade (such as it is), then what is the purpose? There are only three reasons to go on a holy war: A) Conversion, B) Defense, or C) Eradication. Don't see a whole lot of A or B in 9/11 and 7/7.

3. I am an open-minded guy who doesn't think my religion is the only way to eternal salvation, but I am having a really hard time with the Islamic extremists. I mean, if a Christian nut-job attacks an abortion clinic, at least the attack is targeted to the actual place where the affront to the religion is taking place. Exactly how is the Tube a threat to Islam?

4. Along those lines, I don't get why the Islamic leaders refuse to come out in condemnation of these type of attacks. I truly hope Mohammed Atta and the 9/11 hijackers showed up at the door of Heaven, whereupon Allah said, "What the hell were you thinking?" And then, instead of 72 virgins, they were given 72 Virginians. Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Robert E. Lee, and the rest of the boys could then do a little dance on his face.

5. England survived Hitler. They will certainly press onward from this annoyance.

Another thought on the 24/7 Sports Monster

So I was thinking about the concept of this all-inclusive, all-knowing world of sports (and news) in the cable and internet world, and it started me thinking - is the proliferation of high schoolers being drafted by NBA teams a result of the 24/7 sports monster?

In 1974, Moses Malone was drafted straight out of high school into the ABA. Known for their gimmicks, many thought the ABA was just offering up another gimmick with Malone. Still, two high schoolers put their names in the next year's NBA draft and were selected. One of them, Daryl Dawkins, went on to a solid NBA career, and the other, Bill Willoughby, lasted 8 seasons. Still, it would be another 20 years before a high schooler tested the NBA draft waters again.

In 1995, Kevin Garnett was drafted number 5 overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves. The next year, Kobe Bryant and Jermaine O'Neal were selected in the first round. Garnett was a well-known commodity, but had expressed a desire to go to college if he had the test scores. Bryant, on the other hand, was the son of a veteran NBA player, spoke three languages, and had a 1300 SAT. Reasons aside, most of the early high schoolers who declared for the draft were big men, with Kobe being the obvious exception.

It wasn't until the late 1990s that this concept of high schoolers jumping to the NBA exploded, about the same time as, oh, huge internet coverage of sports and of prospects.

Up until the late 1990s, weren't most NBA scouts scouring the colleges for that small-college gem like Scottie Pippen or Dennis Rodman, with one eye to Europe for a Vlade Divac of Drazen Petrovic. But the proliferation of internet sites devoted to college recruiting opened a whole new door. In a culture where "recruiting analysts" rank kids as early as 5th grade, is it too far of a step to imagine that it opened up a whole new world to NBA scouts?

Wasn't the entire high school career of Sebastian Telfair open for all to see? Was there any doubt he was going straight to the league? The numbers on high schoolers aren't all that great - about a 30% success rate of even being a contributor, but teams are still hoping for the next KG, Kobe, T-Mac, or Lebron , and ignore the lessons of Taj McDavid, Kwame Brown, and Korleone Young.

The 24/7 Sports Monster

Pardon the interruption, but I'm the Doc-tor.

Gosh, what intelligent sports fan doesn't love "Pardon the Interruption", or want to do that for a living? How cool must it be to have a professional life like either Mike Wilbon or Tony Kornheiser?

Still, the summer doldrums of the sports world started me thinking - has the cable and internet-driven 24 hour a day, 7 day a week monster that has devoured the news industry spilled over into sports?

The news industry finds itself in a quandary - there is more access to news through cable and the internet, which creates a greater demand for news. But sometimes, there just isn't enough news to justify 24/7 coverage.

The result is wall-to-wall coverage of Scott Peterson, or Michael Jackson, further sensationalizing otherwise grisly tales of murder and pedophilia. But what the heck else are you going to put on the air 24/7?

Even the cable news channels are going toward more entertainment-driven shows in the guise of news (Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Headliners and Legends). Sometimes there isn't enough of that to program 24/7, so you catch the occasional infomercial on MSNBC.

Which leads us back to sports programming. In the dead of summer, when baseball is the only thing going and NFL training camp hasn't started, what do these sports outfits do for coverage? There is a proliferation of sports talkers on TV nowadays: PTI, Around the Horn, Best Damn Sports Show, etc. Not to mention the challenge of keeping SportsCenter fresh.

I watched PTI this week, which felt it had to air a July 4th show with two hosts nobody had ever heard of, and for the 147th time this year, PTI debated the merits of the careers of Danica Patrick and Michelle Wie. Enough already!

But then I thought, this is the 24/7 monster applied to sports. In the dead of July, what else are you going to put on? And heaven forbid watching "Around the Horn" and "PTI" back to back, unless you want to hear the same 5 or 6 topics debated over and over.

We are a sports-obsessed culture, but there is only so much sports to go around. CNN/SI found out the hard way. It's time to cut out some of the worthless sports talkers and go find some more original sports programming to feed the 24/7 monster.

Anybody else miss the CFL, Strong-man competitions, and Aussie rules football that used to be shown?

A Big Kentucky Fried Chicken Eatin' Mother...

Luther Vandross is dead. Damn.

For those of us who found our first love in the 80s, Luther (no last name required) provided much of the soundtrack of our teenage years. He also had a strong dance/R&B side that made a Luther album good at a party - something to dance to, and something to romance to.

"If Only For One Night" may have been the anthem of my fumbling teenage romantic angst, while "Wait for Love" made it onto many high school mix tapes.

"Here and Now" and "Always and Forever" became cheesy wedding ballads, but the voice was unmistakable, and his duet with Mariah Carey on the remake of "Endless Love" even topped the Lionel Richie/Diana Ross original.

Luther was a pop icon in the 80s and early 90s, even working his way into Eddie Murphy's stand-up act as a "big Kentucky Fried Chicken-eating motherf*%#er". But his career waned as he battled health problems in the latter part of the 90s. Known for his girth (thus the Ediie Murphy reference), his weight fluctuated wildly as diabetes and hypertension ravaged him.

He made a big comeback with two huge singles, "Can I Take You Out Tonight" and "Dance With My Father", even as he fought through a debilitating car accident and a stroke. He never seemed to really recover from the stroke, complications of which claimed his life yesterday.

Some musicians seem phony, or plastic, or shallow. There was something about Luther that seemed genuine, that really touched people. You will be missed, you big KFC-eating mother...