It’s reported today that the Denver Nuggets have traded Andre Miller, Joe Smith and two 2007 first-round picks to the 76ers for Allen Iverson.

Allen Iverson is one of the greatest basketball players of all time and next to MJ might be the most exciting player to watch play the game. In addition, I believe that he may be one of the greatest athletes of all time; the guy has super fast twitch muscle fibers
and I really enjoy watching him ball.

Having said that, I think this was a very bad trade. Who’s going to play the point for the Nuggets now? Boykins? Earl Boykins is not a point guard. Anyone who looks to shoot first and pass second can’t be your point guard. So that means AI will have to be your point guard. It’s not that AI can’t be the one guard, but I think he’s better in the two spot. But unless you want to stunt J.R. Smith’s growth, you can’t play him at the two.

You also gave up TWO FIRST ROUND picks in the 2007 draft. One of the deepest drafts in years. Good luck getting Greg Oden now.

Lastly, you now have three major bank players: K-Mart is so expensive Donald Trump wouldn’t touch him. Next you have Carmelo Anthony; well at least Melo is worth the money; when he’s not serving a suspension. And now you have AI, who is going to make $17 million this year, $19 million next year and $20 million in 2008. This leaves the Nugs little room to acquire anyone else in the future.

If you wanted to fill seats then this was a good move, if you want to win a championship then this was a bad move. Oh well, I guess I will just sit back and watch AI do his thing like everyone else.

Tomas, over at ‘The Closet Entrepreneur‘ has blog tagged me and well, I don’t want seven years bad luck, or whatever the penalty is for breaking the chain. So here are 5 little known (or not so known) facts about me.

1. The perfect day (according to me) would start at around 5:30am with a nice mocha latte. I would get in a round of 18 on the golf course, either Fossil Trace or Arrowhead would be real good.
Later that night the wife and I could meet some friends for some good mexican food and cervezas. And Finally, end the night at a jazz club listening to some cats play. Ah, that would be heaven to me.

2. The best book I ever read, ‘Ishmael‘ by Daniel Quinn. Favorite movie, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life‘. To me this movie just symbolizes life. You never know what impact your life has and who it effects until God unfolds it all for you in the end. Favorite album, Bob Marley ‘Exodus‘; this is a masterpiece of an album.

3. I am currently working on revamping my website ‘Search-This‘. I am moving it over to a WordPress CMS instead of the one I rolled several years back. So look for it in Q1 2007.

4. I have been married eight years and now have a lovely 6 month old daughter Sofia. She is the greatest thing to ever happen to me in my life. Yes, even better than my iPod.

5. I make my living at a small retail software company where me and two other guys are building a kiosk application. Hopfully, our application will get installed in 2007!

I guess that makes 5 things, so I’m done, if you want more it will cost you

I now will tag: Ben, Hubs, and Steve.

Elton John in an interview published Saturday said, “From my point of view, I would ban religion completely. Organized religion doesn’t seem to work. It turns people into really hateful lemmings and it’s not really compassionate.”

While Sir Elton John’s statements may surprise many, they don’t surprise me. I have heard nonbelievers point out all the horrible atrocities done in the name of religion many times before. It’s an easy target. History is littered with men cloaking themselves in religion and using it as a conduit to achieve their own objectives. You see it everyday on the news.

What the news rarely shows and what most people never see is all the good the church does. I am willing to bet that if the media actaully did take the time to look, they would see that no other organization gives more and to more people than the American church. No other organizaion, not the government, not the Red Cross, not Bono, not comic relief, nobody, has given more to aid the victims of hurricane Katrina than the American church.

When 9/11 hit my church had a blood drive the next week to get blood to the people who needed it. I’m sure that churches across America did the same. But, there was no mention of it. Again, I’m sure that the contribution the American church made to the victims of 9/11 would dwarf all those made by all other organizations combined.

Churches around America right now are raising money and putting together Food Drives to ensure that less fortunate people have food for Thanksgiving and Christmas and clothes and blankets for the winter ahead. And all those Salvation Army stands you walk by on the way to the mall; well the Salvation Army is an evangelical Christian organizaion founded in 1865.

Most of the ‘Rescue Missions’ around the cities of America, like The Denver Rescue Mission are Christian organizations designed to provide food, shelter, counseling and hope to those that are less fortunate. In fact, almost all of the shelters that take in the homeless, that provide meals to the hungery, that provide counseling for the addicted and hope for the hopeless are all backed by the American church.

So while many people are quick to point out where the church has failed no one and I mean no one has ever pointed to the church as the place that does good. You may not believe in God, but trust me, you don’t want to see a world without those that do.

“A Russian woman has won a suit against the soft drink giant Coca Cola in Moscow after her defense lawyer succeeded in persuading the court that his client’s chronic ailment was brought about by consumption of beverages produced the by U.S. firm.”
…
“Koshuba said she began to buy more soft drinks after the company launched a campaign urging customers to collect lids from soft drink bottles so as to exchange them later on for prizes. As a result, the woman consumed 2 to 3 liters of soft drinks daily in the course of five years. ”

2 to 3 liters a day!! My God, I would be living in the bathroom.

[ more here ]

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

- John Stuart Mill

Religions of the World chart

Where are the Jedi Knights