My preferred indulgence is a nice Irish Whisky. I was raised Catholic, so Jameson's is my choice of irish. You can drink it straight, but I find that on the rocks adds a bit of water that enhances the taste.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day weekend, here's an impromptu sampling of The Chieftains' work with the following recording artists:

• Roger Daltrey, "Behind Blue Eyes" (Live);
  
• Diana Krall and Art Garfunkel, "Morning Has Broken";
  
• Van Morrison, "Shenandoah" (From the 1998 PBS documentary Long Journey Home: The Irish in America);
  
• Mark Knopfler, "Lily of the West";
  
• Vince Gill, "The Bard of Armagh / The Streets of Laredo" (from Long Journey Home: The Irish in America)
  
• Alison Krauss, "Molly Ban" (Live);
  
• Sinead O'Connor, "Skibbereen" (From Long Journey Home: The Irish in America)
  
• Joni Mitchell, "The Magdalene Laundries";
  
• Ziggy Marley, "Redemption Song";
  
• Marianne Faithfull, "Love Is Teasing";
  
• Sinead O'Connor, "He Moved Through the Fair" (From the 1996 Neil Jordan film Michael Collins);
  
• Ry Cooder, "The Coast of Malabar";
  
• Diana Krall, "Danny Boy";
  
• The Rolling Stones, "Rocky Road to Dublin";
  
• Elvis Costello, "The Long Journey Home" (from Long Journey Home: The Irish in America).

But that said, the player from UNC-Charlotte definitely committed the initial dead-ball foul when he used his arm to hook his Richmond opponent in the paint in an obvious attempt to box that opponent out while positioning himself for a prospective rebound -- and the aforementioned official is standing right there, staring at both players the entire time.

Since he chose to let the first foul go on Charlotte, he should never have called the second on Richmond. It all went very quickly south from there.

While it doesn't happen nearly as often as countless frustrated fans over the generations would have otherwise liked to believe, in this instance the officials' compounding errors during the final 4.7 seconds of the game were definitely the difference between one team winning and the other losing.

That entire officiating team should be suspended by the A-10 conference for that end-time meltdown, which gave Charlotte a series of wholly undue benefits that cost Richmond the game.

And it could've only gotten worse for those officials, had the 49ers not lost to St. Louis today, and had somehow go on to win the conference tournament in an upset -- which you know during this one-and-done time of year is always a possibility.

Over in the WAC, No. 1 seed Louisiana Tech (25-6, 16-2) and No. 2 Denver (22-9, 16-2) were both upset in their opening round games yesterday, falling successively and in rather shocking fashion to the two absolutely worst teams in the conference, No. 9 UT-San Antonio (10-21, 3-15) and No. 7 Texas State (12-21, 3-15), respectively.

Is it only republicans that can be too rich or is there a cap on how rich you can be?

This is not a snarky question.   Romney was raked over the coals for his wealth and taxes but there are scores of examples of democrats living wealthy lifestyles and not paying taxes.

Here's the original "quote" (in Spanish):

"Buenos Aires, 4 de junio (Télam) - El arzobispo de Buenos Aires, cardenal Jorge Bergoglio, afirmó que "las mujeres son naturalmente ineptas para ejercer cargos políticos", refiriéndose a la candidatura presidencial de la Senadora Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. "El orden natural y los hechos nos enseñan que el hombre es el ser político por excelencia; las Escrituras nos demuestran que la mujer siempre es el apoyo del hombre pensador y hacedor, pero nada más que eso".

This quote was apparently put out by a commenter named Bumper Crop on "Yahoo Answers" for the purpose of smearing the Cardinal and to make it appear that he was attacking Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Especially those impertinent and downright sacrilegious nuns...kinda makes me wonder what the "Nuns on the Bus" - think about this - especially since their mission seems to be very much in line with what the new Pope's interests are.  Granted, they don't hold political office - but heck, they aren't even allowed to be more than nuns.

Perhaps they would be seen less as upstart and impertinent and more as dedicated servants of God, but honestly, how can women, especially Catholic women, accept this position?

How could he have ever said that?

The mega-donor Foster Friess is best known as the moneyman behind Rick Santorum's socially conservative presidential campaign, the self-described born-again Christian takes a far more moderate position than his candidate on gay issues -- because, he said, of a personal connection, his gay brother-in-law.

"When you talk about the party, that's the problem because there isn't any unified message," Friess said of the Republican Party's position on gay issues Thursday in an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday. "You've got people who are gay-bashers, who forget that these are human beings that need love just like all of us need love. We have to be sensitive to that."

As with many conservatives who profess a level of support for gay rights, Friess first focused on the international scene for his attention.

"I've said before, the number one thing that we have to work on is protecting the gay community from sharia law. Now, in the United States, it's probably not a big issue right now, but my brother-in-law is gay and his partner and I would like them to be able to travel any place in the world without them risking harm," Friess said. "In Iran, they basically hang them or behead them. So, my number one issue is: How do we support them and rally behind the gay community to make sure it's safe for them, just, to live?"