There are those who firmly believe the wave of political correctness washing across the NFL this season is the beginning of a long downbound train for the great game. It is fine and admirable for the league to place an emphasis on the diagnosis and treatment of concussions. And no one would argue about a drive toward safer game equipment, especially equipment that provides protection for the head and neck.
But by making hard hits a point of emphasis for game officials the League has planted the seeds for an erosion of its fan base. Tackling and blocking are physical acts intended to mimic violent physical contact. Coaches for years have emphasized that good football is analogous to hard hitting in tackling and blocking. Now some off-the-field types are telling the sport that it is too violent. Players are being penalized for "rough play." I actually heard a game official use those exact words.
Ed Reed, the Hall-of-Fame-bound safety of the Baltimore Ravens, has been the number one victim of the League crackdown. Today it was announced that Reed is being fined again, this time for a fourth quarter hit on Victor Cruz of the Giants. That play was so over-emphasized by highlight announcers that it became nauseating. First, you must understand that until the PC crowd got their foot in the door, that hit would have been perfectly legal and would have been shown on NFL films as an example of how hard the hitting is in the Good Ole NFL. Reed's intention was to hit Cruz hard enough to make him drop the ball, which he had gotten his hands on an instant before Reed made contact. It worked. Cruz could not hang on and the pass went incomplete. Then in came a very late flag and the Ravens were penalized. Now the penalty has been increased by adding a $55,000.00 fine to Reed's list of previous fines. The on-air announcers at first described the hit as hard and legal but then they remembered their league talking points and started mouthing that, oh yeah, his helmet did eventually hit Cruz and that made it illegal and you know, wasn't that an awful thing for Ed Reed to do.
Reed has once again been named to the Pro Bowl. He is such a dangerous and effective player that teams devise game plans around his presence. Two years ago he missed the first six games of the season due to injury and still lead the league in interceptions. Raven Coach John Harbaugh has to hold his breath, however, when Reed makes an interception because there is a 100% chance he will return the interception. Against the Red Skins he made a decisive interception in the endzone by leaping high in the air and catching the ball with both hands, then falling to the ground. Five yards deep in the endzone, flat on his back, Reed did not just lay there and take a well-earned touchback. instead, he jumped up, narrowly avoided being hit in the endzone and returned the ball out to the 25-yard-line. One of his favorite ploys is to lateral the ball to a teammate when he is about to be tackled. He has done it so often on interceptions that other defensive backs start trailing him on the returns, staying in position to take such a lateral. Once or twice this has resulted in a fumble that was recovered by the other team. Too bad; Reed won't stop doing it.
He is a great player. He has never been a dirty player. After putting the hit on Cruz he jumped to his feet and offered Cruz a hand to help him up. He always plays hurt. The NFL needs to stop gussying up to the PC crowd and remember who its fans are; i.e., who are the ones paying the bills. That would be the fans. Do you think there will be nearly as many of them if the game begins to resemble flag football?
Friday, December 28, 2012
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Winning Points
While this story might be, what, apocalyptic(?), it might be true and even if it isn't its funny and no harm can come of it. Emma Watson is the English Actress and Model who starred in all of the Harry Potter Movies. Not that it matters to this story, but she was amazing, actually growing up while playing the role without messing either up. In fact, she grew up without a hint of trouble while learning to be - and being - a superb actress. Anyway, she enrolled in and began attending Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. It's one of the Ivy League schools and an increasingly popular choice of the rich and famous. Among it's recent grads was John Kennedy, Jr., late son of the late President. She is said to be majoring in English and while she is on a "break" from the school, she has vowed to return for her senior year and graduate. In this story which takes place in an English class full of students, the Professor poses a question. Ms. Watson raises her hand and responds. The answer, apparently, is correct. At which point a fellow student exclaims, "Ten Points for Griffendor!" Ms. Watson is said to have been angered or embarrassed and stormed out.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
The GOP and the wimp factor
Everywhere you turn, some obscure or not-so-obscure member of the GOP (with the not-so-obscure racing to obscure status with amazing speed and dexterity) is "hinting" that "new revenue" will have to be part of any solution keeping the government from falling over the so-called fiscal cliff.
Tell me the name of an American member of Congress who is still adamantly opposing tax hikes. I know of one, Tim Huelskamp of Kansas. Huelskamp is angry about GOP members who are giving in during an economic meltdown that features a National Debt so large it is difficult to comprehend. Despite the humongous size of the debt, no meaningful cuts of current spending are even on the table and obama is gung-ho on spending billions more. Got that? obama wants to spend more. When the only thing that can save us is for obama to implement massive spending cuts, he is insisting on spending more. More spending. More. As the national debt skyrockets, obama says: spend more, lots more.
obama is a sinister man; the American Nero in-person. He tells this ridiculous and sinister story about the only way to save the American economy is to raise taxes on the top two percent of all money earners. And yet if you are paying even the slightest bit of attention, you will know that even if the government confiscated all of the top two percent's money it would not make even a slight dent in the national debt. It will solve nothing. What obama says is a joke and a diversion to his plan to spend more on entitlements. Entitlements for those who don't know, is welfare and other plans to give people who don't work more money. obama says it is government money, but the government, all but imbeciles know, is getting its money from you and me. obama wants to take money from the middleclass and give it to those making little. He says he isn't going to raise taxes on the middle class. But he absolutely is. He is calling attention to the idea of taxing the rich in order to pin the defense of the rich on the GOP. The GOP is too stupid and spineless to fight obama. No one, or hardly anyone, will tell obama to knock it off. No one says that taxing the rich isn't worth talking about because it won't begin to solve the problem. The only thing that solves the problem is massive spending cuts. obama won't do it. and no one will call him on it consistently and vigorously. obama is sinister and the gop is spineless. is it clear now?
Tell me the name of an American member of Congress who is still adamantly opposing tax hikes. I know of one, Tim Huelskamp of Kansas. Huelskamp is angry about GOP members who are giving in during an economic meltdown that features a National Debt so large it is difficult to comprehend. Despite the humongous size of the debt, no meaningful cuts of current spending are even on the table and obama is gung-ho on spending billions more. Got that? obama wants to spend more. When the only thing that can save us is for obama to implement massive spending cuts, he is insisting on spending more. More spending. More. As the national debt skyrockets, obama says: spend more, lots more.
obama is a sinister man; the American Nero in-person. He tells this ridiculous and sinister story about the only way to save the American economy is to raise taxes on the top two percent of all money earners. And yet if you are paying even the slightest bit of attention, you will know that even if the government confiscated all of the top two percent's money it would not make even a slight dent in the national debt. It will solve nothing. What obama says is a joke and a diversion to his plan to spend more on entitlements. Entitlements for those who don't know, is welfare and other plans to give people who don't work more money. obama says it is government money, but the government, all but imbeciles know, is getting its money from you and me. obama wants to take money from the middleclass and give it to those making little. He says he isn't going to raise taxes on the middle class. But he absolutely is. He is calling attention to the idea of taxing the rich in order to pin the defense of the rich on the GOP. The GOP is too stupid and spineless to fight obama. No one, or hardly anyone, will tell obama to knock it off. No one says that taxing the rich isn't worth talking about because it won't begin to solve the problem. The only thing that solves the problem is massive spending cuts. obama won't do it. and no one will call him on it consistently and vigorously. obama is sinister and the gop is spineless. is it clear now?
Monday, December 10, 2012
Where are the replacement refs when you need them? And a Great Coach is Noble in Defeat
Missing the Replacement Refs: By the time the so-called 'real' referees returned from their job action against the NFL in September, fans everywhere had had about enough of the screw-ups and blunders the replacements were making in virtually every game. The real refs got a brief reprieve and then got down to the ridiculous business of changing something that not only wasn't broke but was, in fact, wildly popular in its present form. With the "help" of the league office, we are witnessing the nitwit efforts to screw up a wonderful, highly competitive game that has evolved to an almost perfect form. Study the history of the game and you see the evolution in progress. Players today are equipped to reduce injury, and improvements in the equipment continue at a feverish pace. The development of the forward pass as an offensive weapon is amazing. In the early days of the game there was virtually no passing and most of the runs were right up the middle. One rule change - albeit a short-lived one - saw the entire field lined with horizontal and vertical lines. The vertical lines were parallel to the sidelines and about five yards apart. The purpose of this was to make runs of the middle illegal. When the ball was spotted before a play, the offense was prevented from running a play where the ball crossed the line of scrimmage within five yards of the spot.
Radical rule changes have been non-existent for sometime because the game was getting to a point where players and coaches had the perfect amount of latitude to prevail against another team if their plans and abilities permitted such a result. In other words, under the present scheme, the best team on any given Sunday ended up winning. But this is not necessarily true today as a wave of bleeding heartism sullies the game.
Former all-pro linebacker Stan White watched the replay again of the "helmet to helmet contact" against everybody's new darling of the gridiron, RG Griffin, III. The Ravens Paul Kruger was chasing Griffin in the Redskin backfield yesterday (December 8) as the rookie QB tried to throw. But it wasn't one of those funny chases where a big slow lineman chases a fleet QB. Kruger is big and fast and he had a plan. All-Pro lineman Haloti Ngata was moving fast into Griffin's path and Kruger elected to simply chase him right into Ngata's arms. It worked to perfection but the game ref wasn't about to chance Griffin getting injured, so he called a penalty on Ngata for helmet-to-helmet contact. Except there was no helmet-to-helmet contact. And the call was nothing short of pathetic. There is no more perfect description. It was called a bad call and a lousy call. But Stan White had the best comment. He said, "you can't play football like that." He wasn't referring to any of the players. He was referring to the referees and the idiots at league headquarters who are performing this lobotomy on the game. Everyweek you read that somebody is getting fined and suspended for rough play. Rough play? Good football is, by definition, rough play. But alas, politics has krept into the game via league headquarters. Shame is amply quantities should be dolled out to all at fault. There is plenty to go around. Last week we read that some genius wants to do away with kickoffs all together. Instead, the team that just scored will be awarded the ball on their own 30 yard line and it will be fourth down and fifteen yards to go for a first down. Going for it in that scenario is equivalent to an onside kick in this genius' mind. The reason for this new change in the game is because there are too many injuries on kickoffs, or so they say. (Who is "they?") On the play with Griffin, he threw the ball away an instant before he ran into Ngata and was penalized for intentional grounding. But the call against Ngata offset the call on Griffin and the Redskins got the down over. On that play they made a first down and went on to score in a game they eventually won in overtime. The refs weren't finished. In the fourth quarter, with the Ravens up by a single point, Joe Flacco directed a wonderful drive for a go-ahead touchdown. The big play was a breathtaking catch and run by the Ravens' wonderful receiver, Anquan Bouldin. Flacco spotted Boldin on a down and out about seven yards past the line, and threw a perfect pass against tight coverage. Boldin caught the ball on the run and then literally carried a Redskin defensive back twenty yards down the sideline. From the place where Boldin was finally forced out of bounds - near the 7 yard line - Ray Rice slashed through a narrow opening for a touchdown which, after Justin Tucker's conversion kick, put the Ravens up eight points with just over four minutes left. The refs got into the act on the ensuing kickoff, and on that play they set the table for the Redskins victory. Ravens rookie LB Courtney Upshaw laid a monster tackle on the Redskin's kick returner as he got near the 20 yard line. The ball popped out some three yards from the sideline and a very alert Raven, David Reed, pounced on the ball. Reed was sliding slowly toward the sideline as he made his recovery. But his arms were wrapped around the ball and the ball never came loose from his grip. Reed was adjusting his hands and arms to improve his hold, but there was never even one split second where Reed didn't have total control of the ball. A game official could not have been better positioned to make his call. He was one yard out of bounds and crouched down during Reed's entire effort. What's more, he was only three or four feet away from the ball during the entire process. When he signaled Ravens' ball, first and ten, no one near the play was surprised in the least. Joe Flacco and Anquan Boldin were already back on the field within two or three seconds of the call.
The rule on video reviews may as well not be on the books, because the fine folk at the Redskin park yesterday completely ignored it. The rule says that the call on the field is presumed to be correct and only irrefutable video evidence can overrule it. The official making the call was in such perfect position that he had to have had a better look at the play than any sideline camera. You make a fool out of a game official if you overrule him on such a call. But that is exactly what they did. The lads on the TV didn't even mention this. Nor did they mention that the call is presumed correct. Nor did any of them explain that controlling a fumble is not the same as catching a pass. Reed did not have to have his hands under the ball and he did not have to keep the ball off the ground. All that he had to do was "control" the ball before it went out. He clearly clearly clearly did that. But, of course, were such a call to stand, the wonderful and talented RG Griffin III would've suffered a heartbreaking loss. And the league has had about enough of that. You know?
Cirovski Stands Out Even in Defeat: Few will question the assessment that Sasho Cirovski is one of the best, if not the best soccer coach in the NCAA. His University of Maryland teams are perennially at or near the top of the college soccer world. This year was no exception. The College Cup - the name given the NCAA Division I Final Four - again included the Terps. Except this year, somebody beat Maryland in the semi-final Friday night. That team was Georgetown, a cross-town rival for all of Maryland's teams. In soccer, however, Maryland has owned the Hoyas. Until Friday, Maryland's all-time record against Georgetown was 28-0.
Swish that one around. When all was said and done, after 90 minutes of regulation and two overtime stanzas, and then after a heart-stopping penalty kick session, the Hoyas emerged victorious. {Technically, the game is recorded as a tie with Georgetown advancing in the tournament by penalty kicks. It's a nice touch and a concession to soccer fans who abhor a game being decided by a technique that has no resemblance to ebb and flow of a soccer game.)
If the all-time series record were all you knew about the Friday night match-up, what you witnessed Friday night would have stunned you. The game between 20-1-2 Maryland and 19-2-2 Georgetown was one of the great college soccer games of all time. The upstart Hoyas proved their gaudy record was no fluke as they broke on top of the young and powerful Terps, 3-1 and then 4-2, the latter lead lasting until only 17 of the regulation game's 90 minutes remained. Even worse for Maryland, Schillo Tshuma, their magnificent freshman striker, was gassed. He had scored both of Maryland's goals to that point, but he would score no more from the bench. Georgetown's Steve Neumann scored three goals in addition to converting one of the Hoyas penalty kicks in the decisive final session. The game and the entire College Cup was played in Hoover, Alabama for the second-straight year. Some have questioned why the NCAA has picked a venue in an area of the country that is not exactly soccer crazy. But the facility itself is perfect for soccer and the chances of getting good weather this far south are excellent.
That the two teams would match up well was not really a surprise. All season long both Maryland and Georgetown dominated their opponents. Friday night, they were both intent on dominating again. The raced back and forth through the midfield like a rocket ship in a hurry. Maryland's intricate passing game results in shots on goal that are bunched together. For a defense and keeper trying to defend them, it must seem like an attack by dozens of rockets fired simultaneously. You would think, also, that with a result like this one that the defenses and keepers had bad games. They did not. Maryland's All-American center defender, London Woodberry, was superb. Georgetown's keeper, Tomas Gomez, made a number of wonderful saves as Maryland pressed hard for the win after drawing even on Freshman Christiano Francois valiant effort in the final ten minutes. In fact, Gomez literally saved the game in the second overtime after a disastrous error on an attempted clear by a defender almost resulted in a goal for Maryland. On the play Maryland was again on a serious attack and a Hoya back managed to get a foot on the ball right in front of the goal. But he powerful clearing effort instead caught another defender square in the face and the ball trickled across the goal mouth where Maryland All-American Striker Patrick Mullins - who had already scored one goal - quickly moved to shoot it in. Gomez had no time to think and few options. He moved quickly also, but not to the ball. He moved to Mullins and knocked him down, apparently deciding that a penalty kick was preferable to a point-blank shot from one of the best scorer's in college soccer. To the horror of Mullins and his coach, no call was made against Gomez. Prone on the ground, the gritty Mullins managed nonetheless to get a shot off, but the ball rolled wide.
In the penalty kick session, Maryland moved into the lead, 2-1 and 3-2 after Terp Keeper Keith Cardona made a save on Georgetown's second kick. Maryland made all three of its first kicks. John Stertzer, London Woodberry and Patrick Mullins all had relatively easy times of it. But Gomez pulled himself together and saved both of Maryland's final two efforts. After the second he sprinted the length of the field with his team in hot pursuit. Even Maryland fans had to appreciate the pure joy of the sight. And even a seasoned coach like Cirovski was absolutely impressed by the pure athletic beauty of what he had witnessed. His remarks evidenced that and showed, at the same time, why his approach and perspective are so credibly noble. The Maryland Coach said:
"In today's game you see the absolute beauty of this game and you see the cruelty. I know many coaches have said that, but that's the absolute truth. Today was an incredibly beautiful game. This was a game that people will be talking about twenty, thirty years from now as one of the greatest College Cup games ever. I've been around for 25-plus years and never seen anything close to it."
Radical rule changes have been non-existent for sometime because the game was getting to a point where players and coaches had the perfect amount of latitude to prevail against another team if their plans and abilities permitted such a result. In other words, under the present scheme, the best team on any given Sunday ended up winning. But this is not necessarily true today as a wave of bleeding heartism sullies the game.
Former all-pro linebacker Stan White watched the replay again of the "helmet to helmet contact" against everybody's new darling of the gridiron, RG Griffin, III. The Ravens Paul Kruger was chasing Griffin in the Redskin backfield yesterday (December 8) as the rookie QB tried to throw. But it wasn't one of those funny chases where a big slow lineman chases a fleet QB. Kruger is big and fast and he had a plan. All-Pro lineman Haloti Ngata was moving fast into Griffin's path and Kruger elected to simply chase him right into Ngata's arms. It worked to perfection but the game ref wasn't about to chance Griffin getting injured, so he called a penalty on Ngata for helmet-to-helmet contact. Except there was no helmet-to-helmet contact. And the call was nothing short of pathetic. There is no more perfect description. It was called a bad call and a lousy call. But Stan White had the best comment. He said, "you can't play football like that." He wasn't referring to any of the players. He was referring to the referees and the idiots at league headquarters who are performing this lobotomy on the game. Everyweek you read that somebody is getting fined and suspended for rough play. Rough play? Good football is, by definition, rough play. But alas, politics has krept into the game via league headquarters. Shame is amply quantities should be dolled out to all at fault. There is plenty to go around. Last week we read that some genius wants to do away with kickoffs all together. Instead, the team that just scored will be awarded the ball on their own 30 yard line and it will be fourth down and fifteen yards to go for a first down. Going for it in that scenario is equivalent to an onside kick in this genius' mind. The reason for this new change in the game is because there are too many injuries on kickoffs, or so they say. (Who is "they?") On the play with Griffin, he threw the ball away an instant before he ran into Ngata and was penalized for intentional grounding. But the call against Ngata offset the call on Griffin and the Redskins got the down over. On that play they made a first down and went on to score in a game they eventually won in overtime. The refs weren't finished. In the fourth quarter, with the Ravens up by a single point, Joe Flacco directed a wonderful drive for a go-ahead touchdown. The big play was a breathtaking catch and run by the Ravens' wonderful receiver, Anquan Bouldin. Flacco spotted Boldin on a down and out about seven yards past the line, and threw a perfect pass against tight coverage. Boldin caught the ball on the run and then literally carried a Redskin defensive back twenty yards down the sideline. From the place where Boldin was finally forced out of bounds - near the 7 yard line - Ray Rice slashed through a narrow opening for a touchdown which, after Justin Tucker's conversion kick, put the Ravens up eight points with just over four minutes left. The refs got into the act on the ensuing kickoff, and on that play they set the table for the Redskins victory. Ravens rookie LB Courtney Upshaw laid a monster tackle on the Redskin's kick returner as he got near the 20 yard line. The ball popped out some three yards from the sideline and a very alert Raven, David Reed, pounced on the ball. Reed was sliding slowly toward the sideline as he made his recovery. But his arms were wrapped around the ball and the ball never came loose from his grip. Reed was adjusting his hands and arms to improve his hold, but there was never even one split second where Reed didn't have total control of the ball. A game official could not have been better positioned to make his call. He was one yard out of bounds and crouched down during Reed's entire effort. What's more, he was only three or four feet away from the ball during the entire process. When he signaled Ravens' ball, first and ten, no one near the play was surprised in the least. Joe Flacco and Anquan Boldin were already back on the field within two or three seconds of the call.
The rule on video reviews may as well not be on the books, because the fine folk at the Redskin park yesterday completely ignored it. The rule says that the call on the field is presumed to be correct and only irrefutable video evidence can overrule it. The official making the call was in such perfect position that he had to have had a better look at the play than any sideline camera. You make a fool out of a game official if you overrule him on such a call. But that is exactly what they did. The lads on the TV didn't even mention this. Nor did they mention that the call is presumed correct. Nor did any of them explain that controlling a fumble is not the same as catching a pass. Reed did not have to have his hands under the ball and he did not have to keep the ball off the ground. All that he had to do was "control" the ball before it went out. He clearly clearly clearly did that. But, of course, were such a call to stand, the wonderful and talented RG Griffin III would've suffered a heartbreaking loss. And the league has had about enough of that. You know?
Cirovski Stands Out Even in Defeat: Few will question the assessment that Sasho Cirovski is one of the best, if not the best soccer coach in the NCAA. His University of Maryland teams are perennially at or near the top of the college soccer world. This year was no exception. The College Cup - the name given the NCAA Division I Final Four - again included the Terps. Except this year, somebody beat Maryland in the semi-final Friday night. That team was Georgetown, a cross-town rival for all of Maryland's teams. In soccer, however, Maryland has owned the Hoyas. Until Friday, Maryland's all-time record against Georgetown was 28-0.
Swish that one around. When all was said and done, after 90 minutes of regulation and two overtime stanzas, and then after a heart-stopping penalty kick session, the Hoyas emerged victorious. {Technically, the game is recorded as a tie with Georgetown advancing in the tournament by penalty kicks. It's a nice touch and a concession to soccer fans who abhor a game being decided by a technique that has no resemblance to ebb and flow of a soccer game.)
If the all-time series record were all you knew about the Friday night match-up, what you witnessed Friday night would have stunned you. The game between 20-1-2 Maryland and 19-2-2 Georgetown was one of the great college soccer games of all time. The upstart Hoyas proved their gaudy record was no fluke as they broke on top of the young and powerful Terps, 3-1 and then 4-2, the latter lead lasting until only 17 of the regulation game's 90 minutes remained. Even worse for Maryland, Schillo Tshuma, their magnificent freshman striker, was gassed. He had scored both of Maryland's goals to that point, but he would score no more from the bench. Georgetown's Steve Neumann scored three goals in addition to converting one of the Hoyas penalty kicks in the decisive final session. The game and the entire College Cup was played in Hoover, Alabama for the second-straight year. Some have questioned why the NCAA has picked a venue in an area of the country that is not exactly soccer crazy. But the facility itself is perfect for soccer and the chances of getting good weather this far south are excellent.
That the two teams would match up well was not really a surprise. All season long both Maryland and Georgetown dominated their opponents. Friday night, they were both intent on dominating again. The raced back and forth through the midfield like a rocket ship in a hurry. Maryland's intricate passing game results in shots on goal that are bunched together. For a defense and keeper trying to defend them, it must seem like an attack by dozens of rockets fired simultaneously. You would think, also, that with a result like this one that the defenses and keepers had bad games. They did not. Maryland's All-American center defender, London Woodberry, was superb. Georgetown's keeper, Tomas Gomez, made a number of wonderful saves as Maryland pressed hard for the win after drawing even on Freshman Christiano Francois valiant effort in the final ten minutes. In fact, Gomez literally saved the game in the second overtime after a disastrous error on an attempted clear by a defender almost resulted in a goal for Maryland. On the play Maryland was again on a serious attack and a Hoya back managed to get a foot on the ball right in front of the goal. But he powerful clearing effort instead caught another defender square in the face and the ball trickled across the goal mouth where Maryland All-American Striker Patrick Mullins - who had already scored one goal - quickly moved to shoot it in. Gomez had no time to think and few options. He moved quickly also, but not to the ball. He moved to Mullins and knocked him down, apparently deciding that a penalty kick was preferable to a point-blank shot from one of the best scorer's in college soccer. To the horror of Mullins and his coach, no call was made against Gomez. Prone on the ground, the gritty Mullins managed nonetheless to get a shot off, but the ball rolled wide.
In the penalty kick session, Maryland moved into the lead, 2-1 and 3-2 after Terp Keeper Keith Cardona made a save on Georgetown's second kick. Maryland made all three of its first kicks. John Stertzer, London Woodberry and Patrick Mullins all had relatively easy times of it. But Gomez pulled himself together and saved both of Maryland's final two efforts. After the second he sprinted the length of the field with his team in hot pursuit. Even Maryland fans had to appreciate the pure joy of the sight. And even a seasoned coach like Cirovski was absolutely impressed by the pure athletic beauty of what he had witnessed. His remarks evidenced that and showed, at the same time, why his approach and perspective are so credibly noble. The Maryland Coach said:
"In today's game you see the absolute beauty of this game and you see the cruelty. I know many coaches have said that, but that's the absolute truth. Today was an incredibly beautiful game. This was a game that people will be talking about twenty, thirty years from now as one of the greatest College Cup games ever. I've been around for 25-plus years and never seen anything close to it."
Thursday, December 6, 2012
On we go: Ben Over-Rated-Berger back in practice and the American Nero ruining a great nation
The national sports media raced to western Pennsylvania this week to document Ben Over-Rated-Berger's return to practice. He dodged the Ravens and the inevitable reinjury so he could return as a champ this week when the home team plays the inept Chargers and their so-to-be ex-coach Norv Turner.
In Washington, meanwhile, the newly re-elected American Nero; i.e., obama, was back at work using backhanded negotiation tactics and other lowbrow plans to gut the America that led the economic way for over a century and leave it little more than a third world nation. (Remember: tens of thousands of Americans fought and died to preserve our nation as it was: freedom for all, freedom from oppression and unnecessary government intrusion into our lives, freedom of speech and association, all of that. Now, obama, who is openly warm to Marxists - whom thousands upon thousands died to keep out of America - and islamic jihadists, who have been in open warfare with the west for a milenium, are, in obama's world, america's first friends, while allies who have stood with us through thick and thin are openly trashed. First to go under the new Nero-like plan the American Nero is espousing is the American Military. Once over the fiscal cliff - and this is where he was taking America all along - the military will be hit with a massive funding cut that will cause great losses of active troops, weapons and weapons development, and enlistments. The Military Academies will also be gutted soon enough and who'd be trying to get into one under obama anyway?
Radio hosts like Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Levin are spouting the cold and quite miserable reality of four more years under this sinister man. Massive tax increases for the middle class. Massive military budget cuts - because we are not threatened by those fine Muslims. (How many centuries have Christian countries been threatened, plundered and pillaged by Muslim-controlled nations? Am I allowed to even ask that question? Well, I just did. What's the answer? How long have there been Muslims?)
obama won re-election by convincing a majority of Americans, almost all of whom receive public benefits, that the life they now have would only be continued if he were re-elected. He formed this majority by telling voters that his opponent was only interested in helping rich people and cared little for the average American. The fact that these were all lies had no impact on the national press, which supported him without question and without vetting his radical and demagogic background. obama appointed a cabinet of those who did not merely ignore American traditions like freedom and the right to improve one's lot in life, but actually were hostile to it. Many of those top obama officials are openly Marxist
In Washington, meanwhile, the newly re-elected American Nero; i.e., obama, was back at work using backhanded negotiation tactics and other lowbrow plans to gut the America that led the economic way for over a century and leave it little more than a third world nation. (Remember: tens of thousands of Americans fought and died to preserve our nation as it was: freedom for all, freedom from oppression and unnecessary government intrusion into our lives, freedom of speech and association, all of that. Now, obama, who is openly warm to Marxists - whom thousands upon thousands died to keep out of America - and islamic jihadists, who have been in open warfare with the west for a milenium, are, in obama's world, america's first friends, while allies who have stood with us through thick and thin are openly trashed. First to go under the new Nero-like plan the American Nero is espousing is the American Military. Once over the fiscal cliff - and this is where he was taking America all along - the military will be hit with a massive funding cut that will cause great losses of active troops, weapons and weapons development, and enlistments. The Military Academies will also be gutted soon enough and who'd be trying to get into one under obama anyway?
Radio hosts like Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Levin are spouting the cold and quite miserable reality of four more years under this sinister man. Massive tax increases for the middle class. Massive military budget cuts - because we are not threatened by those fine Muslims. (How many centuries have Christian countries been threatened, plundered and pillaged by Muslim-controlled nations? Am I allowed to even ask that question? Well, I just did. What's the answer? How long have there been Muslims?)
obama won re-election by convincing a majority of Americans, almost all of whom receive public benefits, that the life they now have would only be continued if he were re-elected. He formed this majority by telling voters that his opponent was only interested in helping rich people and cared little for the average American. The fact that these were all lies had no impact on the national press, which supported him without question and without vetting his radical and demagogic background. obama appointed a cabinet of those who did not merely ignore American traditions like freedom and the right to improve one's lot in life, but actually were hostile to it. Many of those top obama officials are openly Marxist
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Who to blame for Ravens loss to Steelers: if you're honest, it's the bloody referees, again
Game Officials toe the company line and get Pittsburgh undeserved win. In Baltimore Monday there was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth because the Ravens lost to Pittsburgh. There is also a lot of finger-pointing. Some blame the defense. Some blame Cam Cameron, the offensive coordinator and play-caller. There are always a few who blame Joe Flacco, who shouldn't take it personally because in Baltimore there were those who blamed Johnny Unitas. For what? you ask. It didn't matter. Except when the Colts were the champs, it was somebody's fault.
As far as the Ravens-Steelers game Sunday, the blame should lay squarely on the shoulders of the game officials, who, doubtlessly having heard talking points about how well the Steelers draw on national TV and how a win yesterday and then getting Ben Over-Rateds-Berger back next week and wow what a story line.
Three things jump out at you about the way the game was called and wasn't called, and all three favored the Steelers. First, in the NFL, when Ray Rice or Maurice Jones-Drew run into the line then bounce out and go around the pack, it is what you call great athleticism and great quickness. When the Steelers' hulking Jonathan Dwyer does it time after time, what are you witnessing is wholesale holding by the offensive line. Why so? Simple. Dwyer runs into the line but there is no hole. Yet he can step back with care and saunter around the pack. By comparison, of course. But don't take my word for it, watch the replays. You'll see Ngata's arms pinned to his sides and you'll see him in a bear hug. Yet not one holding call yesterday on the runs by Dwyer or slow Charlie Batch in the pocket. Not one. Well it was just a great performance by this unduly criticized line. Sure it was. This is why the offensive holding call on an offensive linemen is pro football's tribute to pro wrestling. And those pro wrestler's are great athletes too. Especially when those gritty steelers need the win. They're so tough!
Let's look at the call on Paul Kruger. Awful. And really, embarassing. Phil Simms is the best color man on TV and this is because he won't follow the company line, preferring instead to tell the truth. Such a novel idea; maybe he could give a seminar for the lads and lassies at the New York Times. When Simms saw the replay of the call on Kruger he nearly swallowed his tongue. How many times was Flacco knocked down yesterday? And not just knocked down: he was thrown down on at least two occassions. By thrown I mean grabbed around the waist and whipped down. But it was right after he threw the ball. Sure it was. Again, watch the replay with your timer. Make a count of the seconds between Flacco's passes and his being hit and knocked down. Then time the space between Slow Charlie's pass and Kruger's love tap. You say there is more time on the hits on Flacco? Shocking! The Steelers could not have won without that extra fifteen yards on the last drive. Doesn't that answer your question. Oh and the FG would've been good from 57? For you lads at league headquarters, that is 42 (distance of winning FG) plus 15 (penalty yards assessed on Kruger).
This is the third time the Ravens have lost a game directly because game officials called a late hit that wasn't even close to being a late hit. And what ever happened to the absolute duty of game officials to avoid winning or losing games for a team in the final minutes? Sunday's boneheaded call lead directly to the wrong team winning. And by wrong team, I don't mean the Steelers as opposed to the Ravens. Say what you want, but the Ravens outplayed and outscored the Steelers for most of the game and still lost because the league office sent some talking points to the refs. (And don't you dare tell me that this doesn't happen.) Not one Steelers drive was halted because of a holding call. In fact, holding against the Steelers wasn't called, period. I suppose they just stopped holding. Right. And Flacco was knocked down how many times? And not one was just a bit late, like the one Kruger did. And after Kruger flung Batch down early in the game (he took the drama of the call away from the refs on that first quarter play by doing it when Batch still had the ball), he forgot how to rush an old warrior like Charlie Batch, so the Steelers didn't have to hold him. And, of course, all those times Dwyer ran into a road block at the line of scrimmage, not one Raven defender could reach out to grab him as he taried at the road block. Not a speed demon like Dwyer. No siree, he just out-quicked Ngata and Kruger and Suggs, because he is just that quick, quick as a turtle, that is. Right. If you watched the game on CBS you saw a closeup of Mike Tomlin in the first half berating a game official for what Tomlin called, over and over again, a "bad call." That call was pass interference, and while it was correct, it was close. There were no more such "bad calls" on the steelers, even though replays caught several that were not called. I know I wasn't the only one who saw Dennis Pitta being held on the play when Flacco was intercepted. On another occasion Tandon Doss was held, flagrantly, by his jersey, but didn't draw a call. Tomlin's derisive shouts, league talkling points, and common sense left at the airport and by gollie we have a race in the AFC North.
Valparaiso Anchors Under-the-Radar Tough Horizon League: Even as Maryland's resurgent basketball team begins corralling votes in the Top 25 Coach's Poll, enough so that if the poll were extended to a top 40, the Terps would be No. 40, there is a growing feeling that a relatively obscure league in the midwest, made even more obscure by the defection of their most prominent member, might be the best kept secret in all of college basketball.
The league we refer to is the Horizon. The defector is Butler, already back in the headlines with their stunning upset of previously undefeated North Carolina and their tough loss to Big Ten Power Illinois one night later in the prestigious Maui Invitational. The Bulldogs were in the Horizon last season, where they struggled to finish in the middle of the pack. Everyone knows that in the two seasons before that the Bulldogs played in the National Championship Game. The Bulldogs have had far more success over the last three seasons playing in the NCAA Championship Tournament than playing in the Horizon League. The teams left behind in the Horizon saw to that. Now, Butler says they have matriculated to the Atlantic 10 to play against the likes of Dayton, St. Josephs, LaSalle and George Washington.
Those "left behind" teams are the likes of Valparaiso, Northern Iowa, Cleveland State, Green Bay, Milwaukee and, of course, Detroit. It was Detroit that won the Horizon last season, coming from behind to beat Regular Season Champ Valparaiso when the Crusaders best player - and the Horizon League Player of the Year - was badly injured in the first half.
That player, Australian native Steve Broekhoff, sprained his ankle near the completion of a strong first half, a half that saw Valparaiso in front, which wasn't a surprise since Valpo had alread whacked the Titans twice before that game. Tough as nails, Broekhoff played in the second half, and somehow scored 5 points, but was a shadow of his normal self. He had scored 19 points and snared 16 rebounds in the Crusaders semifinal win over Butler. He had 8 points at half-time against Detroit, but in the second half he could neither jump or cut on the ankle and was pounded on by the Titans' huge front line. Strange thing about Valpo: you will not find a word about that injury on their website. Game after game he put up double-double numbers - not just in the laughers, mind you - but in the big games against the big front lines. Yet the 13 point performance is not explained and the game story doesn't even mention the injury. If you didn't see it yourself, you won't know it happened. I saw it. They don't make excuses at Valpo. It's called character. Detroit beat the champs that day and took the Horizon's only NCAA bid. Valparaiso played in the NIT and took the ACC's Miami to the buzzer in Florida before losing in the first round. They only had six regular players available. Broekoff was one of them and he scored 18.
This season the Crusaders are again off and running with a 5-2 record, the only losses being a two=point nail-biter at Nebraska of the Big Ten, and a 62-49 loss today at St. Louis, playing the day after their coach died of heart disease.
{Majerus had resigned suddenly before the season, and while the reason wasn't made public, news began to circulate that it was a serious cardiac disorder. A month ago the school confirmed that the leave of absence was, in fact, permanent. Jim Crews, the top assistant, is coaching in the interim, and one would expect a quality guy like Crews, a former player and assistant coach for Bobby Knight at Indiana and former head coach at Army and Evansville, would stay on at least until the end of the season. One wonders why somebody like Crews was an assistant anywhere with his credentials. But if you had to be an assistant, being one for Rick Majerus would seem like the place to be. Last season, with Majerus running the show and Crews his tip assistant, the Bilikens were 26-8 and made it to the third round of the national tournament, including a second round win over Memphis.}
Valpo was only down four with 15:44 left and still within 8 with 3:22 left, but the height and defense of the Bilikens was too much on this emotional day. After a home game this week against IPFW, the Crusaders get to play in the snake pit at New Mexico, which broke the top 25 this week.
Maryland, meantime, beat back always tough George Mason, 69-62, in the one game that still makes up the old "BB&T" Classic at the Verizon Center in DC. Dez Wells poured in 25 to lead the Terps, and he got help from Nick Faust, with 14, and Alex Len with 12 and a huge inside game. The Terps should be in the top 25 but this isn't to say they will be. On Tuesday night they pummeled UMES, 100-68. Logan Aronhalt led the Terps with 17 points and Conner Lipinski hit two free throws in the final minute to break the century mark for the Terps, now 7-1.
Soccer's Final Four includes surging Maryland: It was fitting that Patrick Mullins scored the goal that assured Maryland of another appearance in College Soccer's Final Four. Late in the second half of a one-goal game, Mullins scored to put Maryland up 3-1 over Louisville. That was also the score at the end, and the Terps play cross-town rival Georgetown in the national semi-final at 5 pm on Friday in Hoover, Alabama, a game to be televised on ESPNU.
And Finally: A poll of journalists who cover the Atlantic 10 had Dayton finishing eighth. Don't bet on it. Tuesday night the Flyers went south to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to play the University of Alabama's powerful Crimson Tide. And Dayton took it to them. Don't be fooled by the closeness of the final score, 81-76, because the Flyers led by double digits for most of the second half before a storm of three point shots from the desperate Tide cut the lead to respectable portions at the end. Going in, the Tide's defense was hailed as the best in the nation and teams were scoring under 60 per game. Dayton showed the undependable nature of these early season stats by lighting up the Tide with great guard play and wonderful rebounding. Senior guard Kevin Dillard scored 25 points for the Flyers, and got lots of help from 6'9" Senior Forward Josh Benson, who had 21. This is the same Dayton team that held a decent Northern Illinois team to five first half points on December 1. That is the lowest number of points scored in a half since the NCAA started using a shot clock, and the fewest number of points ever allowed in a half by a Dayton team in the "modern era," that is, since 1917. Overall the Flyers are 6-2, and they play an incredible schedule, with very few, if any, patsies.
As far as the Ravens-Steelers game Sunday, the blame should lay squarely on the shoulders of the game officials, who, doubtlessly having heard talking points about how well the Steelers draw on national TV and how a win yesterday and then getting Ben Over-Rateds-Berger back next week and wow what a story line.
Three things jump out at you about the way the game was called and wasn't called, and all three favored the Steelers. First, in the NFL, when Ray Rice or Maurice Jones-Drew run into the line then bounce out and go around the pack, it is what you call great athleticism and great quickness. When the Steelers' hulking Jonathan Dwyer does it time after time, what are you witnessing is wholesale holding by the offensive line. Why so? Simple. Dwyer runs into the line but there is no hole. Yet he can step back with care and saunter around the pack. By comparison, of course. But don't take my word for it, watch the replays. You'll see Ngata's arms pinned to his sides and you'll see him in a bear hug. Yet not one holding call yesterday on the runs by Dwyer or slow Charlie Batch in the pocket. Not one. Well it was just a great performance by this unduly criticized line. Sure it was. This is why the offensive holding call on an offensive linemen is pro football's tribute to pro wrestling. And those pro wrestler's are great athletes too. Especially when those gritty steelers need the win. They're so tough!
Let's look at the call on Paul Kruger. Awful. And really, embarassing. Phil Simms is the best color man on TV and this is because he won't follow the company line, preferring instead to tell the truth. Such a novel idea; maybe he could give a seminar for the lads and lassies at the New York Times. When Simms saw the replay of the call on Kruger he nearly swallowed his tongue. How many times was Flacco knocked down yesterday? And not just knocked down: he was thrown down on at least two occassions. By thrown I mean grabbed around the waist and whipped down. But it was right after he threw the ball. Sure it was. Again, watch the replay with your timer. Make a count of the seconds between Flacco's passes and his being hit and knocked down. Then time the space between Slow Charlie's pass and Kruger's love tap. You say there is more time on the hits on Flacco? Shocking! The Steelers could not have won without that extra fifteen yards on the last drive. Doesn't that answer your question. Oh and the FG would've been good from 57? For you lads at league headquarters, that is 42 (distance of winning FG) plus 15 (penalty yards assessed on Kruger).
This is the third time the Ravens have lost a game directly because game officials called a late hit that wasn't even close to being a late hit. And what ever happened to the absolute duty of game officials to avoid winning or losing games for a team in the final minutes? Sunday's boneheaded call lead directly to the wrong team winning. And by wrong team, I don't mean the Steelers as opposed to the Ravens. Say what you want, but the Ravens outplayed and outscored the Steelers for most of the game and still lost because the league office sent some talking points to the refs. (And don't you dare tell me that this doesn't happen.) Not one Steelers drive was halted because of a holding call. In fact, holding against the Steelers wasn't called, period. I suppose they just stopped holding. Right. And Flacco was knocked down how many times? And not one was just a bit late, like the one Kruger did. And after Kruger flung Batch down early in the game (he took the drama of the call away from the refs on that first quarter play by doing it when Batch still had the ball), he forgot how to rush an old warrior like Charlie Batch, so the Steelers didn't have to hold him. And, of course, all those times Dwyer ran into a road block at the line of scrimmage, not one Raven defender could reach out to grab him as he taried at the road block. Not a speed demon like Dwyer. No siree, he just out-quicked Ngata and Kruger and Suggs, because he is just that quick, quick as a turtle, that is. Right. If you watched the game on CBS you saw a closeup of Mike Tomlin in the first half berating a game official for what Tomlin called, over and over again, a "bad call." That call was pass interference, and while it was correct, it was close. There were no more such "bad calls" on the steelers, even though replays caught several that were not called. I know I wasn't the only one who saw Dennis Pitta being held on the play when Flacco was intercepted. On another occasion Tandon Doss was held, flagrantly, by his jersey, but didn't draw a call. Tomlin's derisive shouts, league talkling points, and common sense left at the airport and by gollie we have a race in the AFC North.
Valparaiso Anchors Under-the-Radar Tough Horizon League: Even as Maryland's resurgent basketball team begins corralling votes in the Top 25 Coach's Poll, enough so that if the poll were extended to a top 40, the Terps would be No. 40, there is a growing feeling that a relatively obscure league in the midwest, made even more obscure by the defection of their most prominent member, might be the best kept secret in all of college basketball.
The league we refer to is the Horizon. The defector is Butler, already back in the headlines with their stunning upset of previously undefeated North Carolina and their tough loss to Big Ten Power Illinois one night later in the prestigious Maui Invitational. The Bulldogs were in the Horizon last season, where they struggled to finish in the middle of the pack. Everyone knows that in the two seasons before that the Bulldogs played in the National Championship Game. The Bulldogs have had far more success over the last three seasons playing in the NCAA Championship Tournament than playing in the Horizon League. The teams left behind in the Horizon saw to that. Now, Butler says they have matriculated to the Atlantic 10 to play against the likes of Dayton, St. Josephs, LaSalle and George Washington.
Those "left behind" teams are the likes of Valparaiso, Northern Iowa, Cleveland State, Green Bay, Milwaukee and, of course, Detroit. It was Detroit that won the Horizon last season, coming from behind to beat Regular Season Champ Valparaiso when the Crusaders best player - and the Horizon League Player of the Year - was badly injured in the first half.
That player, Australian native Steve Broekhoff, sprained his ankle near the completion of a strong first half, a half that saw Valparaiso in front, which wasn't a surprise since Valpo had alread whacked the Titans twice before that game. Tough as nails, Broekhoff played in the second half, and somehow scored 5 points, but was a shadow of his normal self. He had scored 19 points and snared 16 rebounds in the Crusaders semifinal win over Butler. He had 8 points at half-time against Detroit, but in the second half he could neither jump or cut on the ankle and was pounded on by the Titans' huge front line. Strange thing about Valpo: you will not find a word about that injury on their website. Game after game he put up double-double numbers - not just in the laughers, mind you - but in the big games against the big front lines. Yet the 13 point performance is not explained and the game story doesn't even mention the injury. If you didn't see it yourself, you won't know it happened. I saw it. They don't make excuses at Valpo. It's called character. Detroit beat the champs that day and took the Horizon's only NCAA bid. Valparaiso played in the NIT and took the ACC's Miami to the buzzer in Florida before losing in the first round. They only had six regular players available. Broekoff was one of them and he scored 18.
This season the Crusaders are again off and running with a 5-2 record, the only losses being a two=point nail-biter at Nebraska of the Big Ten, and a 62-49 loss today at St. Louis, playing the day after their coach died of heart disease.
{Majerus had resigned suddenly before the season, and while the reason wasn't made public, news began to circulate that it was a serious cardiac disorder. A month ago the school confirmed that the leave of absence was, in fact, permanent. Jim Crews, the top assistant, is coaching in the interim, and one would expect a quality guy like Crews, a former player and assistant coach for Bobby Knight at Indiana and former head coach at Army and Evansville, would stay on at least until the end of the season. One wonders why somebody like Crews was an assistant anywhere with his credentials. But if you had to be an assistant, being one for Rick Majerus would seem like the place to be. Last season, with Majerus running the show and Crews his tip assistant, the Bilikens were 26-8 and made it to the third round of the national tournament, including a second round win over Memphis.}
Valpo was only down four with 15:44 left and still within 8 with 3:22 left, but the height and defense of the Bilikens was too much on this emotional day. After a home game this week against IPFW, the Crusaders get to play in the snake pit at New Mexico, which broke the top 25 this week.
Maryland, meantime, beat back always tough George Mason, 69-62, in the one game that still makes up the old "BB&T" Classic at the Verizon Center in DC. Dez Wells poured in 25 to lead the Terps, and he got help from Nick Faust, with 14, and Alex Len with 12 and a huge inside game. The Terps should be in the top 25 but this isn't to say they will be. On Tuesday night they pummeled UMES, 100-68. Logan Aronhalt led the Terps with 17 points and Conner Lipinski hit two free throws in the final minute to break the century mark for the Terps, now 7-1.
Soccer's Final Four includes surging Maryland: It was fitting that Patrick Mullins scored the goal that assured Maryland of another appearance in College Soccer's Final Four. Late in the second half of a one-goal game, Mullins scored to put Maryland up 3-1 over Louisville. That was also the score at the end, and the Terps play cross-town rival Georgetown in the national semi-final at 5 pm on Friday in Hoover, Alabama, a game to be televised on ESPNU.
And Finally: A poll of journalists who cover the Atlantic 10 had Dayton finishing eighth. Don't bet on it. Tuesday night the Flyers went south to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to play the University of Alabama's powerful Crimson Tide. And Dayton took it to them. Don't be fooled by the closeness of the final score, 81-76, because the Flyers led by double digits for most of the second half before a storm of three point shots from the desperate Tide cut the lead to respectable portions at the end. Going in, the Tide's defense was hailed as the best in the nation and teams were scoring under 60 per game. Dayton showed the undependable nature of these early season stats by lighting up the Tide with great guard play and wonderful rebounding. Senior guard Kevin Dillard scored 25 points for the Flyers, and got lots of help from 6'9" Senior Forward Josh Benson, who had 21. This is the same Dayton team that held a decent Northern Illinois team to five first half points on December 1. That is the lowest number of points scored in a half since the NCAA started using a shot clock, and the fewest number of points ever allowed in a half by a Dayton team in the "modern era," that is, since 1917. Overall the Flyers are 6-2, and they play an incredible schedule, with very few, if any, patsies.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Sports Notes
The national media folk following football have what, for them, is an irresistible urge to hero worship. Sometimes it is downright nauseating. My case in point is the Steeler's oft-injured QB Ben Roethlisberger. I have no difficulty conceding that Roethlisberger is a fine QB. The results speak for themselves. But he is not a great person. Those results are also speak for themselves. Does that mean he cannot redeem himself? No. He can and presumably has at least started down that path. My complaint is that the sportswriters and broadcasters have this urge to make him some sort of god. After Sunday night's game in Pittsburgh, some reporter actually asked the Steeler's coach, Mike Tomlin, if having Roethlisberger cheering on the sideline was special for the team. Tomlin suffers fools poorly. It's why many people like and respect him. He could barely contain himself on this question and answered something to the effect of "are you for real?"
It was said of Johnny Unitas that he displayed his real raw ability and toughness during those years in the 1960's when the talent around him wasn't what it was when the Colts won back-to-back NFL titles in 1959 and 1960. When the talent wasn't there, Johnny Unitas was. When the offensive line gave way, he was tougher than ever and still performed at peak efficiency. Roethlisberger is pretty tough too, but his performance these last two years isn't what it was when the Steelers were loaded with talent. Quick hits: Leading the charge for the suddenly rejuvenated Raven defense Sunday night was the enigmatic Paul Kruger, who is tall and quick and increasingly strong and is finally taking to his role on the Ravens. After the Ravens drafted him out of Utah, he spent two years on the bench and on special teams. Only last season did he land a regular role, joining those defenders who came on the field on passing downs. His job was to rush the QB and he got pretty good at it. Turns out he is quicker than most offensive linemen and with his size (6', 4") and long arms, he was a mobile lineman and a fast lineman and increasingly, as the season wore on, he was a force on the Ravens already solid defense. Then, in the offseason, the Ravens lost outside linebacker Jarret Johnson to free agency. Then they lost the defensive player of the year, Terrell Suggs, to a torn achilles. Courtney Upshaw, a high draft choice out of Alabama, was the Ravens pick to fill in for Suggs, and Kruger was their choice to take over for Johnson. It wasn't a smooth transition. Upshaw was hurt in the preseason and his recovery has been slow. But he, too, is showing signs of what the Ravens thought he would be when they drafted him out of Alabama. Kruger had hardly played in cover position during the first three years and it was not easy to learn on the fly. Things have improved quickly, however, partly because Kruger has learned and partly because the Raven's defensive coordinator, Dean Pees, has developed a rotation that calls for a lot more rushing the QB duties for Kruger.
So the Ravens are now 8-2 and two games ahead of the Steelers with a rematch planned in Baltimore in two weeks. In between Baltimore must travel of San Diego while the Steelers will take a trip to Cleveland. In this season, neither game will be easy. Even though the Chargers are struggling, they will be a severe threat to the Ravens because of the effects of a long flight and because Phillip Rivers is Phillip Rivers. The last two times the two teams played in California the Ravens won one and the Chargers won one. The Ravens managed a narrow victory because Ray Lewis somehow charged right through the offensive line of the Chargers on a fourth and short play in the final minute deep in Ravens territory and tackled the halfback as he was taking the handoff. Rivers had marched the Chargers relentlessly, but needed a TD because his team was down four. In the other game, last season, the Chargers crushed the Ravens.
Without Roethlisberger the Steelers won't be a decided favorite to beat anybody. The Browns are improving - they outplayed the Cowboys Sunday, leading for most of the game, only to lose when the Cowboys rallied late to force overtime, and then won in overtime - but the question will be whether they can score on the Steelers still-proud defense. Charlie Batch, the third-stringer, will start at QB for Pittsburgh, and the Steelers have signed another QB, Brian Hoyer, because QB No. 2, Byron Leftwich, was injured in the Ravens game and has been scratched from the Browns game. A field goal either way will decide this game.
The other team from this division to make the playoffs last season was the Bengals. But they stumbled badly out of the box, getting crushed in Baltimore on opening weekend and going downhill from there. They appear, however, to have righted the ship and after ten games are at .500. They probably can't catch the Ravens but they can catch the Steelers. Even now, the 5-5 Bengals are only one game behind Pittsburgh. If the Steelers stumble in Cleveland and then lose again to the Ravens, it will be the Bengals who have a chance to walk through the open door and into the wild card hunt. Over the next two weeks the Bengals are home against the Raiders and at San Diego. The second one will be a tougher game, obviously, but they will be getting the Chargers one week after the Ravens beat up on them. Things could be worse.
An Iowa lad playing at tiny Grinnel College in Iowa threw up over 100 shots Tuesday night against equally small Faith Bible College. A whole lot of those shots went in the bucket. His team, however, surrendered over 100 points and one player on Faith Bible, David Larson, poured in a mind-numbing 70 points on 34-44 shooting. The sad part of this story for Faith Bible is that Larson's incredible performance barely got a mention on ESPN. The reason: despite scoring 104 points and despite Larson's performance, the team lost to the Grinnel Pioneers by 75 points! Huh?
You score 70 points, your team scores 104 points and you lose by 75 points? Grinnel and their amazing scorer, Jack Taylor, scored early and often in a 179-104 rout of Faith Bible. Jack Taylor has 138 of those points to break an all-time NCAA record. And Taylor didn't just break the record, he crushed it. The previous record was 113, set in 1953 by Bevo Francis of Rio Grande in a game against Hillsdale College. Francis actually had a better game, scoring 116 in a game the following season, but it came against a junior college and didn't count against the record. The only other triple figure game in college came in 1954 when Frank Selvy of Furman scored exactly 100 against Newberry. In the NBA everyone, almost, knows that legendary center Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 in a game in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a venue Chamberlain's Philadelphia 76'ers played in from time-to-time. Kobe Bryant had 81 points in one game.
The Division I NCAA soccer tournament moves now to the round of 16. The University of Maryland hosts under-the-radar power Coastal Carolina Sunday at 5 pm. (Wouldn't you know it, the game is at the same time the Ravens play in San Diego.) The Terps advanced with a thrilling win over Brown, a team that was bigger and just as fast and quick as Maryland and led the game for much of the first half. Patrick Mullins, the Terps leading scorer, sent a 100-foot rocket-of-a-shot past the Bruins' superb keeper, Same Kernan-Schloss, with just three minutes left before the half to tie the game, 1-1. The second half was 45 minutes of superb soccer, played on a cold and windy night in Maryland. Despite excellent opportunities, neither team could score until the final minute. Then, Junior Helge Leikvang's scintillating free kick from some 100 feet away found the foot of a streaking Dan Metzger just in front of the Brown goal, and Metzger one-touched into the net. Leikvang, who came on to the pitch early in the first half and never came out, added needed stability to the Terp midfield. His kick started from well right of the Bruin goal and seemed destined to sail wide left, but curled beautifully to the turf at point blank range, where Metzger met up with it.
Coastal Carolina edged Wake Forest, 2-1 in overtime in the second round after beating Elon in the first round. They were not seeded in the 48 team field even though they were ranked most of the season in the coach's poll.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Making sense of purely depressing news; resolving to push ahead
Of all the news from the election, the morsel that is the hardest to stomach is that Gov. Romney drew over three million fewer votes than did Sen. McCain four years ago. On the other side of the ledger, obama attracted over ten million fewer votes than he did four years ago. But that makes sense. He had four terrible, destructive, depressing years. His foreign policy was vapid and amateurish. His monetary policy, to the degree it made any sense at all, was marxist in nature. If you read a high school primer on radical far left policy, you would have a very good insider's look into obama and his administration. Most people, having attained obama's age, have begun to weed out the pure nonsense, but obama and his functionaries aren't there yet.
But Romeny getting three million fewer votes than McCain?
I strongly suspect that quite a few of those voters lived in blue states that had no chance of turning red, and just didn't care enough to make it to the polls just to be window dressing. The electoral college, for all of its positives, has this effect on people. If your man just cannot win, there is lesser incentive to vote. Ohio voters probably felt more important than the typical voter. In fact, they were. But how about folk who might've voted for the Governor if he had a chance, but since they were in Maryland or California or New York or Connecticut, they just stayed home.
If that possibility suggests where three million voters were on election day - and we won't know for sure until we can check turnouts on a state by state basis - what explains a majority of American voters choosing a man who was an utter failute in every conceivable respect, and might actually have wanted to be such a failure because he wanted to enfeeble his country as payback for what he perceived as past "crimes?"
One popular suggestion on the day after the vote was that obama had succeeded in galvanizing those voters who are on the take from their country. The idea is that there are millions upon millions of Americans who are receiving government checks or other lucrative benefits on a regular basis - that is, they are living off the country's payouts - and they are merely voting for the party who is promising to continue such payments. As really awful as it sounds, there is no question that the Dems are intent upon building a solid voting block of citizens who are on the proverbial dole.
It is such a depressing thought. Are there really a majority of Americans who are so, well, what word will offend the fewest number of people, maybe, "misdirected" that the only thing guiding their vote is who will pay them the most to do nothing? Sadly, the answer is apparently. They are not alone. Many European nations are on the same downbound train. A whole generation of people are being paid money by the state for doing nothing. The same government scheme also provides each citizen with an extensive vacation; not the two weeks Americans typically take, but four and five week 'sabaticals.' Really, it's no wonder that factories in China and Indonesia are thriving while industry and economies in the west founder. The far left is doing its level best to create that life here. With obama's re-election, they probably have succeeded. Americans in droves are signing up for food stamps and welfare since obama scrubbed away those pesky work requirements. The aim is to create a majority of voters who receive benefits from the government. Once that majority is in place - and if they can be convinced to vote as a block - they can keep a leftist regime in place and keep themselves on the dole. The minority that will be left perpetually frustrated at the voting booth will be the producers, the workers, the risk takers. They will be asked to pay ever higher amounts of tax by those receiving the benefits.
Swish that one around for a bit. Which one of those two groups will be the one getting bigger and which one will get smaller? Would you rather work 40-plus hours while getting less and less in your pay, or will you choose to receive the higher and higher amounts of public assistance that the leftist governments will have to pull together to maintain such an obscene system? And, of course, there is this vexatious question: how long can such a system last? If you are among the workers being asked to pay higher taxes and fees to keep your neighbor and his family housed and fed, will you be happy? Or might you be thinking of how you can slip into the receiving group? How long will it be before the workers get a bit surly? How long will it be before the happy receivers start demonstrating for higher benefits? How long will it be before the government finds it must somehow limit admission into the receiving group? Do you think such a move will be accepted by those still in the working group? What will happen when the working group wants to cut taxes and keep more of their money? In the Dems working model, that will not be possible because the producers will have become the voting minority. Everybody nods when obama and others on the far far left (uberleft) say they want to raise taxes on everyone making $250,000 or more. But then that cut off figure will drop to $200,000. Soon, it will be $100,000, and then $50,000. Soon, everybody working will be paying 50% of their income to the government to keep the 50% that aren't working in their above-average lifestyle? How long will all of this take? What happens when one of the groups starts up in the streets like, say, in Greece? Hasn't the "occupy" crowd already started down that road?
I am not a right-winger. I believe that the government has an absolute duty to care for the sick and provide for the impoverished. But it takes a disciplined government and a responsible electorate to avoid what is going on now. Access to government benefits must be limited to the really sick and the actually impoverished.
It doesn't take a genius to come up with new ways to take people's money. But it takes a special kind of leader to look the average citizen straight in the eye and say enough is enough. If we are going to survive as a nation that is the envy of all mankind, we are going to have to learn to do the right thing as a matter of course. There isn't enough real money anywhere in the world to provide middle class lives for people who are not producing. This is especially true when the non-producers are out-numbering the producers. Then, the non-producers might have a majority, but what good will it do them?
More importantly right now is how close is America to the situation described in the last sentence, the situation when the non-producers outnumber the producers? Is there any effort by anyone near the power structure to avoid such a scenario?
{One of my pet peeves with the uberleft is their absolute determination to avoid revelations of their actual intent. During the fall campaign, did obama tell you what he had in mind for the second term? Of course not, because if he did he would have lost. Do you think he would have beat Hilary four years ago if he told the country about obamamess? How about running up the national debt to such astronomical proportions? Do you think for a minute that obama would be president at all if he let on that mindset that allowed Bengazzi to take place? I mean, what bald face lying and subterfuge and for what? To keep America from finding out that Al Qaada didn't disappear when obama did in osama? Did anybody but obama actually think that had happened? How screwed up is obama's thought pattern if he thought that killing osama had eliminated Al Qaada? If the voting public knew any of this before the vote in 2008 would obama have spent his time helping hilary get reelected?}
Where, exactly, is out country at this moment in history? A regime has just been reelected that hates capitalism, feels warm and cuddly about marxism and socialism, and is intent on continuing its planned wealth redistribution even though the country's economy is so bad that many observers feel that an total economic collapse could occur at anytime and certainly within the next eighteen months. To put it another way, the country just put an administration back in power for another four years even though it was a 100% total failure in every possible category of governing. It was an administration with a record of total incompetence in economic policy and management, foreign policy, diplomacy, anti-terrorist policy and planning, and every other category. But the country voted them back in anyway. In doing so, for the second consecutive national election, they have refused to empower a candidate from the other national party who was clearly and inarguably better qualified, better prepared, better able to govern and better able to follow recognized national priorities. Both gentlemen nominated by the GOP - McCain and Romney - were also better able to keep the country safe. They were also more moralistic, and more American in their values and ethics. They were also better people. But they lost.
But Romeny getting three million fewer votes than McCain?
I strongly suspect that quite a few of those voters lived in blue states that had no chance of turning red, and just didn't care enough to make it to the polls just to be window dressing. The electoral college, for all of its positives, has this effect on people. If your man just cannot win, there is lesser incentive to vote. Ohio voters probably felt more important than the typical voter. In fact, they were. But how about folk who might've voted for the Governor if he had a chance, but since they were in Maryland or California or New York or Connecticut, they just stayed home.
If that possibility suggests where three million voters were on election day - and we won't know for sure until we can check turnouts on a state by state basis - what explains a majority of American voters choosing a man who was an utter failute in every conceivable respect, and might actually have wanted to be such a failure because he wanted to enfeeble his country as payback for what he perceived as past "crimes?"
One popular suggestion on the day after the vote was that obama had succeeded in galvanizing those voters who are on the take from their country. The idea is that there are millions upon millions of Americans who are receiving government checks or other lucrative benefits on a regular basis - that is, they are living off the country's payouts - and they are merely voting for the party who is promising to continue such payments. As really awful as it sounds, there is no question that the Dems are intent upon building a solid voting block of citizens who are on the proverbial dole.
It is such a depressing thought. Are there really a majority of Americans who are so, well, what word will offend the fewest number of people, maybe, "misdirected" that the only thing guiding their vote is who will pay them the most to do nothing? Sadly, the answer is apparently. They are not alone. Many European nations are on the same downbound train. A whole generation of people are being paid money by the state for doing nothing. The same government scheme also provides each citizen with an extensive vacation; not the two weeks Americans typically take, but four and five week 'sabaticals.' Really, it's no wonder that factories in China and Indonesia are thriving while industry and economies in the west founder. The far left is doing its level best to create that life here. With obama's re-election, they probably have succeeded. Americans in droves are signing up for food stamps and welfare since obama scrubbed away those pesky work requirements. The aim is to create a majority of voters who receive benefits from the government. Once that majority is in place - and if they can be convinced to vote as a block - they can keep a leftist regime in place and keep themselves on the dole. The minority that will be left perpetually frustrated at the voting booth will be the producers, the workers, the risk takers. They will be asked to pay ever higher amounts of tax by those receiving the benefits.
Swish that one around for a bit. Which one of those two groups will be the one getting bigger and which one will get smaller? Would you rather work 40-plus hours while getting less and less in your pay, or will you choose to receive the higher and higher amounts of public assistance that the leftist governments will have to pull together to maintain such an obscene system? And, of course, there is this vexatious question: how long can such a system last? If you are among the workers being asked to pay higher taxes and fees to keep your neighbor and his family housed and fed, will you be happy? Or might you be thinking of how you can slip into the receiving group? How long will it be before the workers get a bit surly? How long will it be before the happy receivers start demonstrating for higher benefits? How long will it be before the government finds it must somehow limit admission into the receiving group? Do you think such a move will be accepted by those still in the working group? What will happen when the working group wants to cut taxes and keep more of their money? In the Dems working model, that will not be possible because the producers will have become the voting minority. Everybody nods when obama and others on the far far left (uberleft) say they want to raise taxes on everyone making $250,000 or more. But then that cut off figure will drop to $200,000. Soon, it will be $100,000, and then $50,000. Soon, everybody working will be paying 50% of their income to the government to keep the 50% that aren't working in their above-average lifestyle? How long will all of this take? What happens when one of the groups starts up in the streets like, say, in Greece? Hasn't the "occupy" crowd already started down that road?
I am not a right-winger. I believe that the government has an absolute duty to care for the sick and provide for the impoverished. But it takes a disciplined government and a responsible electorate to avoid what is going on now. Access to government benefits must be limited to the really sick and the actually impoverished.
It doesn't take a genius to come up with new ways to take people's money. But it takes a special kind of leader to look the average citizen straight in the eye and say enough is enough. If we are going to survive as a nation that is the envy of all mankind, we are going to have to learn to do the right thing as a matter of course. There isn't enough real money anywhere in the world to provide middle class lives for people who are not producing. This is especially true when the non-producers are out-numbering the producers. Then, the non-producers might have a majority, but what good will it do them?
More importantly right now is how close is America to the situation described in the last sentence, the situation when the non-producers outnumber the producers? Is there any effort by anyone near the power structure to avoid such a scenario?
{One of my pet peeves with the uberleft is their absolute determination to avoid revelations of their actual intent. During the fall campaign, did obama tell you what he had in mind for the second term? Of course not, because if he did he would have lost. Do you think he would have beat Hilary four years ago if he told the country about obamamess? How about running up the national debt to such astronomical proportions? Do you think for a minute that obama would be president at all if he let on that mindset that allowed Bengazzi to take place? I mean, what bald face lying and subterfuge and for what? To keep America from finding out that Al Qaada didn't disappear when obama did in osama? Did anybody but obama actually think that had happened? How screwed up is obama's thought pattern if he thought that killing osama had eliminated Al Qaada? If the voting public knew any of this before the vote in 2008 would obama have spent his time helping hilary get reelected?}
Where, exactly, is out country at this moment in history? A regime has just been reelected that hates capitalism, feels warm and cuddly about marxism and socialism, and is intent on continuing its planned wealth redistribution even though the country's economy is so bad that many observers feel that an total economic collapse could occur at anytime and certainly within the next eighteen months. To put it another way, the country just put an administration back in power for another four years even though it was a 100% total failure in every possible category of governing. It was an administration with a record of total incompetence in economic policy and management, foreign policy, diplomacy, anti-terrorist policy and planning, and every other category. But the country voted them back in anyway. In doing so, for the second consecutive national election, they have refused to empower a candidate from the other national party who was clearly and inarguably better qualified, better prepared, better able to govern and better able to follow recognized national priorities. Both gentlemen nominated by the GOP - McCain and Romney - were also better able to keep the country safe. They were also more moralistic, and more American in their values and ethics. They were also better people. But they lost.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
No Straws to Grasp At
None of the interesting numbers held. By 12:30 am the carried away prognosticators were vindicated by the actual results.
Grasping at Straws #2
It is now 12:07 am Eastern Time. As stated in recent post, all major networks, including Fox, have "called" election for obama. This is based on his win in Ohio, which they have also called. But on a night when Romney leads the popular vote, he has grabbed a 20,000 vote lead in Ohio with 78% of all precincts reporting. Since I'm following numbers on Fox website, I'm not watching to see if others who jumped the gun have pulled back. Fox hasn't yet.
Grasping at Straws
Here on the Atlantic Coast, in Maryland, it is about midnight and the election has been "called" for obama. The call was made because the networks called Ohio for obama. But now, Romney leads in Ohio. He isn't close to leading. He is leading. If that holds - and it is a huge if - obama won't have enough electoral college votes yet. For this to mean anything, Romney will have to win Florida and Virginia. After leading all night in Virginia, he has slipped behind obama, and this in a state that has elected a democratic governor tonight. Stay tuned...
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Hoping (against hope) for humility
It would be nice to think that today or even tomorrow obama would be man enough to stand before the nation and say something to the effect that he has been extremely honored, and humbled, to have served this great nation as President for the past four years. It would be also be heartening if he would add that while he has tried mightily during his term to live up to the expectations he created, he realizes that he has failed.
He would also add, in a decent world, that the criticism that he has rained down on his predecessor, President Bush, has been unwarranted. He knows now that President Bush had a monumental task thrown on his table almost immediately after he took office, when the Twin Towers toppled and the Pentagon burned, and his performance under the microscope of world opinion was nothing short of heroic. He didn't always agree with President Bush - indeed, there were times when he made his job all the harder (especially when he joined with all the other left-wing idiots in Congress in screaming "Bush Lied, People Died.") - but in retrospect, it is clear that he was, in even his worst hour - trying to protect the nation from a blood-crazed and vicious enemy.
In closing, he would say that while he hoped and prayed that he would be granted another term, he was prepared to accept the decision of the electorate, the same electorate that placed him in office four years ago. If he wins, he promises to move forward recognizing that some of his ideas are not practical in the real world, and assuring the nation that the next four will encompass ideas that empower all Americans. He won't attack the things that make America great, including its economic system, its military and its private sector. Instead, he will work within the confines of that system - if, in fact, they are confines at all - to do everything in his power to assist and enable the poverty-stricken, the immigrant and the disabled, to realize all that America offers.
He would also add, in a decent world, that the criticism that he has rained down on his predecessor, President Bush, has been unwarranted. He knows now that President Bush had a monumental task thrown on his table almost immediately after he took office, when the Twin Towers toppled and the Pentagon burned, and his performance under the microscope of world opinion was nothing short of heroic. He didn't always agree with President Bush - indeed, there were times when he made his job all the harder (especially when he joined with all the other left-wing idiots in Congress in screaming "Bush Lied, People Died.") - but in retrospect, it is clear that he was, in even his worst hour - trying to protect the nation from a blood-crazed and vicious enemy.
In closing, he would say that while he hoped and prayed that he would be granted another term, he was prepared to accept the decision of the electorate, the same electorate that placed him in office four years ago. If he wins, he promises to move forward recognizing that some of his ideas are not practical in the real world, and assuring the nation that the next four will encompass ideas that empower all Americans. He won't attack the things that make America great, including its economic system, its military and its private sector. Instead, he will work within the confines of that system - if, in fact, they are confines at all - to do everything in his power to assist and enable the poverty-stricken, the immigrant and the disabled, to realize all that America offers.
Friday, November 2, 2012
The Storm
BALTIMORE - A monster storm creeping up the Atlantic Seaboard seemed so out of place in late October. It is, by far, the most beautiful time of the year here. The days are warm but not hot. The evenings are cool but only right at dawn are they cold. The leaves are breathtaking and they linger on the trees for weeks. A row of 50-foot trees by the south entrance to the Maryland School for the Blind turn brilliant orange by the second week in October, and stay that way until well into November. A line of red-orange trees in the median of Roland Avenue turns that beautiful road picturesque in early October, and it grabs and holds your attention every time by. Fall mums, treated often to soft autumn rains, hold their blooms for weeks. It's hard to imagine the following season when this season is so beautiful.
While a frost usually hits by mid-month, it is often not the hard frost that kills the flowers and other summer plants. it's really hard to get your arms around the idea of a hurricane coming when the conditions outside are dominated by the cool crisp airs of fall. Were it merely a gale endangering ships at sea, it would be autumn on the coastal plain. But this was no gale. It was a hurricane that morphed into a "northeaster" and it combined the staggering power of both.
Rain finally started around the Chesapeake toward sundown Sunday. Driving to a concert Sunday night one was struck by the abandoned feel of the streets. People living around here give up their vehicles with great and obvious reluctance. For them to be hunkering down this far in advance is a testament to how well the forecasters have driven their message home. By Monday morning the rain is steady and the wind sharp. It isn't hard enough to scare you, yet, but it is odd enough in its persistence to serve as a warning of things to come. Our babysitter Governor is on the TV and on the radio and anywhere else he can get some facetime. He warns that "people are going to die today." He really did say that. I know I felt better.
Now there was talk that the hurricane was a far different sort than usually skirts by these parts in late summer. Those storms are openly and obviously tropical in there formation, and they quickly blanket the coast in warm, close, cloying air, air so full of moisture that you feel you need a shower to get rid of it. This storm lost its race with a mid-fall cold front, so by the time it arrived the temperature had left the station in a down-bound train. By Monday morning it was cold and raw; by Tuesday it was cold, just cold. The government types told everybody to stay off the roads, and Baltimore's Mayor made her request mandatory Monday night, warning everyone off the street until noon Tuesday. Outside the City limits, though, Monday afternoon found the roads crowded and the stores all open. A Starbucks in Perry Hall posted signs saying they were gone by 2 pm. The Giant, however, showed no signs of closing and they had their shelves packed with all of the things people tend to hoard in storms like this. The only thing that everybody sold out of quickly was flashlights. You had to be a detective to find one of these.
By sunset Monday the TV folk said the storm had made land somewhere in New Jersey. The wind was howling but not so much so that it sent chills down your spine. in fact, my house, so susceptible to power outages in even the most tame of weather episodes, never saw the lights go out. One time they flickered, but that was it. Last summer, when that freak line of thunderstorms roared all the way across the country one Friday night in the middle of an early July heatwave, we lost power for the better part of a week. Thoughts of that very long week were in a front row seat. I hoped not to view that show again. My parents, who live about six miles west of here in the county seat at Towson, lost their power at the same time last summer, and they had the bad luck again. Just before 11 pm Monday their lights went out and they stayed out until 10 am on Thursday. My dad is 85, but he is ready to bury his electric lines himself. Two of those lines spent several days laying in his back garden anyway.
I read where obama was acting presidential during a trip to New Jersey to view ground zero in the Sandy Epic. That was nice, seeing the president acting like a president for a few hours. Sadly, his term was four years. Two good hours won't due it. His spokespeople in the media felt all warm and cudly after the visit. The coverage made it seem like all now was well and good. Then they hopped a plane and left the devastation behind. But all was not well and good. Within 24 hours a nervous and worried Mayor of Hoboken made a desperate plea for fuel oil and other necessities. It will take a long long time to put this terrible mess behind. One wondered whether some will ever rebuild, what, with new environmental regulations and tougher building codes.
It was a beautiful autumn. The Maple Tree in my front yard did not keel over. Many others did.
While a frost usually hits by mid-month, it is often not the hard frost that kills the flowers and other summer plants. it's really hard to get your arms around the idea of a hurricane coming when the conditions outside are dominated by the cool crisp airs of fall. Were it merely a gale endangering ships at sea, it would be autumn on the coastal plain. But this was no gale. It was a hurricane that morphed into a "northeaster" and it combined the staggering power of both.
Rain finally started around the Chesapeake toward sundown Sunday. Driving to a concert Sunday night one was struck by the abandoned feel of the streets. People living around here give up their vehicles with great and obvious reluctance. For them to be hunkering down this far in advance is a testament to how well the forecasters have driven their message home. By Monday morning the rain is steady and the wind sharp. It isn't hard enough to scare you, yet, but it is odd enough in its persistence to serve as a warning of things to come. Our babysitter Governor is on the TV and on the radio and anywhere else he can get some facetime. He warns that "people are going to die today." He really did say that. I know I felt better.
Now there was talk that the hurricane was a far different sort than usually skirts by these parts in late summer. Those storms are openly and obviously tropical in there formation, and they quickly blanket the coast in warm, close, cloying air, air so full of moisture that you feel you need a shower to get rid of it. This storm lost its race with a mid-fall cold front, so by the time it arrived the temperature had left the station in a down-bound train. By Monday morning it was cold and raw; by Tuesday it was cold, just cold. The government types told everybody to stay off the roads, and Baltimore's Mayor made her request mandatory Monday night, warning everyone off the street until noon Tuesday. Outside the City limits, though, Monday afternoon found the roads crowded and the stores all open. A Starbucks in Perry Hall posted signs saying they were gone by 2 pm. The Giant, however, showed no signs of closing and they had their shelves packed with all of the things people tend to hoard in storms like this. The only thing that everybody sold out of quickly was flashlights. You had to be a detective to find one of these.
By sunset Monday the TV folk said the storm had made land somewhere in New Jersey. The wind was howling but not so much so that it sent chills down your spine. in fact, my house, so susceptible to power outages in even the most tame of weather episodes, never saw the lights go out. One time they flickered, but that was it. Last summer, when that freak line of thunderstorms roared all the way across the country one Friday night in the middle of an early July heatwave, we lost power for the better part of a week. Thoughts of that very long week were in a front row seat. I hoped not to view that show again. My parents, who live about six miles west of here in the county seat at Towson, lost their power at the same time last summer, and they had the bad luck again. Just before 11 pm Monday their lights went out and they stayed out until 10 am on Thursday. My dad is 85, but he is ready to bury his electric lines himself. Two of those lines spent several days laying in his back garden anyway.
I read where obama was acting presidential during a trip to New Jersey to view ground zero in the Sandy Epic. That was nice, seeing the president acting like a president for a few hours. Sadly, his term was four years. Two good hours won't due it. His spokespeople in the media felt all warm and cudly after the visit. The coverage made it seem like all now was well and good. Then they hopped a plane and left the devastation behind. But all was not well and good. Within 24 hours a nervous and worried Mayor of Hoboken made a desperate plea for fuel oil and other necessities. It will take a long long time to put this terrible mess behind. One wondered whether some will ever rebuild, what, with new environmental regulations and tougher building codes.
It was a beautiful autumn. The Maple Tree in my front yard did not keel over. Many others did.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Benghazzi: The horror story gets worse; obama again implicated
More stunning revelations about the massacre at Benghazzi on September 11, 2012 has left even the most grizzled Washington observers slack-jawed and speechless. Even as the main stream media continues efforts to divert attention away from the story, the story itself apparently has enough energy to run right by the cover-up and barge headfirst into America's living rooms.
Today it was learned that repeated calls for military help on the day of the massacre were turned down by officials in Washington. These calls came from Americans on the ground in Libya, and apparently included calls for help from the besieged ambassador and the other three Americans, including two Navy Seals, pinned down by Al Qaada terrorists in Benghazzi. It had been revealed yesterday that the four Americans offered resistance for between five and seven hours, and that at least two Americans were alive until well into the final hour of the siege. Another report today revealed that American Military assets were ready, willing and able to intervene and even went so far as to request permission themselves to intervene. They were turned down. CIA sources said that permission was denied agents seeking to intervene several times during the siege. The siege itself was caught on video, which was being shown in real time at the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and at Langley, Virginia where the CIA is headquartered.
It is unknown how much, if any, of the video was viewed by obama, who was busy preparing to fly to Las Vegas for a fundraiser. It is still unknown when obama met with top White House advisers to concoct the "spontaneous demonstration turned deadly" story that they used for ten days to two weeks to coverup their role in the catastrophe. obama and his top functionaries apparently believed that they could pull off the coverup with the expected help of the main stream media, which has played a compliant and active role in his re-election bid. The coverup included the jailing of a California man who was a key figure in creating a short film about islam that obama has publicly blamed for the four deaths. obama knew before making the charge the first time that it was not true. He made it anyway.
Today it was learned that repeated calls for military help on the day of the massacre were turned down by officials in Washington. These calls came from Americans on the ground in Libya, and apparently included calls for help from the besieged ambassador and the other three Americans, including two Navy Seals, pinned down by Al Qaada terrorists in Benghazzi. It had been revealed yesterday that the four Americans offered resistance for between five and seven hours, and that at least two Americans were alive until well into the final hour of the siege. Another report today revealed that American Military assets were ready, willing and able to intervene and even went so far as to request permission themselves to intervene. They were turned down. CIA sources said that permission was denied agents seeking to intervene several times during the siege. The siege itself was caught on video, which was being shown in real time at the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and at Langley, Virginia where the CIA is headquartered.
It is unknown how much, if any, of the video was viewed by obama, who was busy preparing to fly to Las Vegas for a fundraiser. It is still unknown when obama met with top White House advisers to concoct the "spontaneous demonstration turned deadly" story that they used for ten days to two weeks to coverup their role in the catastrophe. obama and his top functionaries apparently believed that they could pull off the coverup with the expected help of the main stream media, which has played a compliant and active role in his re-election bid. The coverup included the jailing of a California man who was a key figure in creating a short film about islam that obama has publicly blamed for the four deaths. obama knew before making the charge the first time that it was not true. He made it anyway.
Sequestration and an end to Bush Tax Cuts are obama's second term promises
Just days after promising he would not implement sequestration on the defense budget, obama has told the Des Moines Regester that that is exactly what he is going to do. This economic plan will cut an estimated $1 trillion from the defense budget, a figure many say will devastate the military and force it to reduce troop strength, weapons developement and maintenance, and leave it barely able to defend the domestic borders. In the meantime, he has also told the liberal Iowa paper that he will completely end the Bush Tax Cuts, meaning all wage earners will get a huge tax increase.
obama told the Regester this during what was originally said to be an off-the-record interview conducted by the paper as part of its endorsement process. But the paper came under fire when it was learned that its plan to endorse obama as the candidate most serious about dealing with the budget deficit was based on an interview readers could not access. Others had speculated that these were in obama's plans all along but that he would not reveal them prior to the election. Rush Limbaugh was one who claimed obama would use the sequestration to radically cut the defense budget. However, at Monday night's debate obama said he would not implement sequestration. Eventually, obama placed his plans on his reelection web page. and the Regester printed the interview verbatim on its website.
obama told the Regester this during what was originally said to be an off-the-record interview conducted by the paper as part of its endorsement process. But the paper came under fire when it was learned that its plan to endorse obama as the candidate most serious about dealing with the budget deficit was based on an interview readers could not access. Others had speculated that these were in obama's plans all along but that he would not reveal them prior to the election. Rush Limbaugh was one who claimed obama would use the sequestration to radically cut the defense budget. However, at Monday night's debate obama said he would not implement sequestration. Eventually, obama placed his plans on his reelection web page. and the Regester printed the interview verbatim on its website.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
The awful truth of Benghazzi
The more the truth of Benghazzi is learned, the more the behavior of obama looks like the behavior of someone who put his own self-interest above the lives of the four Americans, including our ambassador to Libya, who died a terrible terrible death while obama did nothing. What's worse for obama, it looks more and more that obama did nothing when there was plenty of life-saving steps at his disposal, plenty of military assets able to carry those steps out, and plenty of time to order action to save lives.
New information today shows that the attack that killed the four Americans lasted from five to seven hours and that at least two of the Americans were still alive well into the final hour of the well-orchestrated Al Qaada assault. Other information shows that Hilary Clinton, the Secretary of State, contacted LIbyan authorities to inform them that American Military assets might be brought to bear on the situation in Benghazzi in order to save American lives. What the response was of the LIbyan "authorities" is still unknown. A president acting to save lives wouldn't allow that response to hinder a decision to act.
With each passing day the administration takes steps to quash the budding controversy and, even as it appears they are succeeding, new revelations by sources within the State Department and Military add new details making the administration's coverup more difficult. Pundits such as Rush Limbaugh believe the revelations are coming from persons who are not willing to be part of the coverup, especially if obama loses the pending election. There is also growing evidence of fracturing among the so-called mainstream media, most of whom, until the Benghazzi incidents, were acting as virtual DNC assets working openly for obama's re-election. obama continues to be heartened that the people holding the top positions in the media - the publishers of the New York Times and the top authorities at the leading television networks - continue to strangle the story at the precipice of publication. Even while the dispatches of CBS reporters covering Benghazzi continue to poke holes in the administration's desperate coverup, top CBS officials prevented the network news from using a portion of a videotaped interview with obama broadcast on 60 minutes very early in the coverup from being used. But in the field, certain reporters, a growing number, apparently, are not willing to play a part in the coverup of actions which well may be illegal or of the sort the still prevents those thought to be "guilty" from holding positions of authority.
This is the story that is emerging from Benghazzi and other locations where people in authority are charged with dealing with such incidents. On the day of the incident, but before any attack started, the American ambassador and three others moving with him, were already greatly concerned about their ongoing safety. Intelligence told of planned actions against American-controlled locations such as the American Consulate in Benghazzi. Despite the intelligence, repeated requests for enhanced security; i.e., military protection, had been forcefully rejected by Washington. The three people with the ambassador included a computer expert and two Navy Seals who volunteered to accompany the ambassador when no other official security was available.
When the attack started, armed Libyan guards accompanied the ambassador and the other three Americans to a safe house. The guards then told Al Qaada where the Americans were holed up.
All sources, both identified and unidentified, assert that obama's story about the attack being something that morphed out of a spontaneous demonstration is completely false. All of these sources say that there was no demonstration for the attacks to morph out of.
Not long after Al Qaada redirected its attack to the location where the Americans were "hiding," requests went out for help. American military sources say a special operations unit was sent from bases in central Europe to another US facility in Italy, just one hour away from Benghazzi. Sources also say that among the military assets put on alert for immediate action were fighter jets and helicopter gun ships with crews trained to disperse gatherings of humans, such as Al Qaada fighters surrounding a US consulate.
The Secretary of State contacted the Libyan government in Tripoli to alert them that the USA was actively contemplating military action to save the pinned down Americans.
But with the American military poised to act, no one in a position to launch the life-saving action would give the go-ahead. Instead, obama's plans to fly off to Las Vegas for a fundraiser, and then for an appearance on David Letterman and at a party hosted by rap star JayZ, went ahead as planned. In fact, obama did fly off to Las Vegas, he did appear on Letterman and he did show up at the party hosted by JayZ.
He did not authorize the life-saving military mission, nor did he order a reprisal action. Instead, after returning from his social outings, he helped orchestrate the coverup which was built around the concocted story about a spontaneous demonstration sparked by supposed outrage over an old Amerian film. There never was a demonstration in Benghazzi. More and more it appears absolutely certain that obama and his top functionaries were aware in real time of the five to seven hour assault, but never seriously contemplated taking action to save the ambassador and his three associates.
New information today shows that the attack that killed the four Americans lasted from five to seven hours and that at least two of the Americans were still alive well into the final hour of the well-orchestrated Al Qaada assault. Other information shows that Hilary Clinton, the Secretary of State, contacted LIbyan authorities to inform them that American Military assets might be brought to bear on the situation in Benghazzi in order to save American lives. What the response was of the LIbyan "authorities" is still unknown. A president acting to save lives wouldn't allow that response to hinder a decision to act.
With each passing day the administration takes steps to quash the budding controversy and, even as it appears they are succeeding, new revelations by sources within the State Department and Military add new details making the administration's coverup more difficult. Pundits such as Rush Limbaugh believe the revelations are coming from persons who are not willing to be part of the coverup, especially if obama loses the pending election. There is also growing evidence of fracturing among the so-called mainstream media, most of whom, until the Benghazzi incidents, were acting as virtual DNC assets working openly for obama's re-election. obama continues to be heartened that the people holding the top positions in the media - the publishers of the New York Times and the top authorities at the leading television networks - continue to strangle the story at the precipice of publication. Even while the dispatches of CBS reporters covering Benghazzi continue to poke holes in the administration's desperate coverup, top CBS officials prevented the network news from using a portion of a videotaped interview with obama broadcast on 60 minutes very early in the coverup from being used. But in the field, certain reporters, a growing number, apparently, are not willing to play a part in the coverup of actions which well may be illegal or of the sort the still prevents those thought to be "guilty" from holding positions of authority.
This is the story that is emerging from Benghazzi and other locations where people in authority are charged with dealing with such incidents. On the day of the incident, but before any attack started, the American ambassador and three others moving with him, were already greatly concerned about their ongoing safety. Intelligence told of planned actions against American-controlled locations such as the American Consulate in Benghazzi. Despite the intelligence, repeated requests for enhanced security; i.e., military protection, had been forcefully rejected by Washington. The three people with the ambassador included a computer expert and two Navy Seals who volunteered to accompany the ambassador when no other official security was available.
When the attack started, armed Libyan guards accompanied the ambassador and the other three Americans to a safe house. The guards then told Al Qaada where the Americans were holed up.
All sources, both identified and unidentified, assert that obama's story about the attack being something that morphed out of a spontaneous demonstration is completely false. All of these sources say that there was no demonstration for the attacks to morph out of.
Not long after Al Qaada redirected its attack to the location where the Americans were "hiding," requests went out for help. American military sources say a special operations unit was sent from bases in central Europe to another US facility in Italy, just one hour away from Benghazzi. Sources also say that among the military assets put on alert for immediate action were fighter jets and helicopter gun ships with crews trained to disperse gatherings of humans, such as Al Qaada fighters surrounding a US consulate.
The Secretary of State contacted the Libyan government in Tripoli to alert them that the USA was actively contemplating military action to save the pinned down Americans.
But with the American military poised to act, no one in a position to launch the life-saving action would give the go-ahead. Instead, obama's plans to fly off to Las Vegas for a fundraiser, and then for an appearance on David Letterman and at a party hosted by rap star JayZ, went ahead as planned. In fact, obama did fly off to Las Vegas, he did appear on Letterman and he did show up at the party hosted by JayZ.
He did not authorize the life-saving military mission, nor did he order a reprisal action. Instead, after returning from his social outings, he helped orchestrate the coverup which was built around the concocted story about a spontaneous demonstration sparked by supposed outrage over an old Amerian film. There never was a demonstration in Benghazzi. More and more it appears absolutely certain that obama and his top functionaries were aware in real time of the five to seven hour assault, but never seriously contemplated taking action to save the ambassador and his three associates.
With Debates Over, candidates hunker down for home stretch;Romney's leads by a working margin
It is often thought that the debates between the the GOP nominee and the Democratic nominee were the one pre-planned and built-in opportunity for a presidential candidate to alter the course of an election campaign. There are, of course, a number of ways that a campaign can change course, but only the debates are planned in advance and shine forth on the calendar as a possible turning point. And it is not a figment of some campaign manager's imagination because we all can recall several times when elections and campaigns turned on something said in a debate. Remember Michael Dukakis' cold answer to the question about how he would react if his wife was raped? Do you recall, still, Gerald Ford's admission that he wasn't aware that Poland lay behind the Iron Curtain? How about Al Gore's incessant smart ass answers and the treatment he gave George Bush? How many votes did Gore lose by failing to keep his ego and 'know-it-all' personality in check. In the Carter-Reagan debates, there wasn't a single moment that jumps out at you. But taken as a whole, Reagan showed America just how human he was and how logical and full of common sense his approach to national government was. Those debates were one of the cornerstones for his landslide victory. Now it is 2012 and the country - for the first time since the War of 1812 - actually has its future and continued existence hanging in the balance. One candidate wants to take the country out of the superpower category and leave it, when he is done, among those countries that play but bit parts on the world stage. Even if that were a legitimate goal of a president, it is not that simple. The US churns the world economy and the world economy "needs" the engine of prosperity to keep it in balance, working, and vibrant. Take the USA out of world markets and the world economy fails, crashes, and sends the whole Earth, along with all four corners of it, plunging into economic oblivion.
Now the debate time has passed for this election cycle. Did they affect the coming election? There is every chance that they did. Prior to the first debate the polls were close but many of them, most of them, to be honest, had obama in the lead. They also had obama with a significant lead in a few of the most important swing states. Then came the first debate, the one when Romney skunked obama. It was so bad that obama joked later that he had slept through it. Many people think that summary is way too mild. Many think obama was revealed, or, to put it into today's jargon. "outed." Outed? Outed as a what? obama was outed as an impostor to the country's highest office. His answers were not the kind of thing that come from the mouth and mind of a president. obama look tired, disinterested, even, heaven forbid, burned out. But he also looked put upon, angry that he had to be there, irritated that he had to debate with "that kind of person." In short, obama acted like no one had a right to question him. in a democracy? In the USA? Romney had a right and a duty to be there. The audience at the debate didn't seem to mind that obama wasn't acting like a president. They came to see the president debate and they did, more or less. On this night, the man who would be president sounded an awful lot like somebody who should be president and is ready to hit the ground running come January. His answers were thoughtful, well-reasoned, and grounded in reality. He wasn't blaming other people for the problems he wants to fix. I will bet you $100 that Romney will never blame obama for the problems he confronts. How nice will that be? Hearing the president speak and not hearing him blame President Bush for all his failures. I know that growing up a Christian I was taught that you don't blame others for your shortcomings. I guess obama missed that lesson. Missed it? Hell, he used a chainsaw to cut that lesson out of the growing up curriculum.
Well, anyway, the second and third debates were of a different ilk. It was as if the two candidates weren't playing the same game anymore, or maybe they were playing the same game but with different rules. obama spent debates two and three trying to make up for the catastrophe that was debate no. 1 (for him). He had a ton of lame one-liners and worn out punchlines. Romney, on the otherhand, was determined not to get into the kind of gutter brawl that would only benefit someone familiar with the genre. He displayed an almost mind-boggling breadth of knowledge about almost every topic thrown at him. It seemed that every focus group and every undecided voter interviewed said they were stunned at Romney's ability to explain the economy and its current problems in a succinct, fascinating and understandable manner. And be sure, that spell-binding explanation included a stinging indictment of obama's policies and decision-making methods. It is a gift to be able to do what romney did when you are the only speaker on the stage and you have no real time limit. But Romney did it in a debate with the president, and the president and his functionary in the moderator's chair were constantly interrupting him and, in the case of Ms. Crowley, pushing the flag toward obama with absolutely no hesitation or pangs of conscience. Many of the people interviewed said, in so many words, that Romney looked like a president. obama didn't. By the end of the first debate the languid polls, weighted down all summer by ridiculous over-sampling of democratic voters, began to boil. First one, then another, suddenly reported that Gov. Romney was picking up steam, picking up support. From a few points behind nationally, Romney lept into the lead and actually carved out a working lead in most polls. In key swing states that were reporting - in some cases - a double-digit lead for obama, new poll results showed the obama lead gone and the race either tied or tilting toward Romney. Supporters of obama were more heartened by the second and third debates. They interpreted obama's interuptions, "zinger" lines and taunts of Romney as signs he had won a great victory. They proclaimed it loudly until fresh poll results came in. The country, it seemed, did not share their opinion of the outcome. The thing that these insiders were missing was the substance of the policies they were debating. Romney was proposing plans that had a history of success. Many are the same ones President Reagan used to lead the country out of the economic malaise of the Carter years. Well, interest rates were ridiculously high. That was good if you were getting 9% and 10% on your passbook savings account, but terrible if you were borrowing money for an on-going business, terrible if you were a bank trying to pay that interest every day to each customer even though your investments weren't quite so dependable. Unemployment was very high - not as high as it is now, of course; it's never been this high during my lifetime. The markets were in the doldrums, and these doldrums seemed so interminable that some believed this is how it was going to be. Sound familiar? How often have we heard that 8% unemployment is the "new norm." Bush's unemployment rate was about 5%. How terrible. Everything was Bush's fault. During the Carter years (there were only four of them, but many remember them being longer. That's not a joke; it is merely true.) we were introduced to a new economic kind of misery. They were called "gas lines." In gas lines, people lined up bumper to bumper at the gasoline station, waiting for their turn to pump gasoline. People got surly in those lines. Nobody blamed the ones losing their tempers. Everybody loses their temper when they have to wait hours to pay way too much money for something. The Carter years also introduced us to runaway petroleum prices. When President Carter took office in the years immediately after Watergate, the gasoline prices at that time were below $1 per gallon. It didn't last long. Along with the lines came the wildly higher prices. Suddenly, 100% increases were commonplace.
So a lot of people are recalling Carter in the wake of the debates. For obama and the functionaries, this is not good. if they recall Carter in the debates, they recall the end of the Carter presidency and the landslide defeat.
Now the debate time has passed for this election cycle. Did they affect the coming election? There is every chance that they did. Prior to the first debate the polls were close but many of them, most of them, to be honest, had obama in the lead. They also had obama with a significant lead in a few of the most important swing states. Then came the first debate, the one when Romney skunked obama. It was so bad that obama joked later that he had slept through it. Many people think that summary is way too mild. Many think obama was revealed, or, to put it into today's jargon. "outed." Outed? Outed as a what? obama was outed as an impostor to the country's highest office. His answers were not the kind of thing that come from the mouth and mind of a president. obama look tired, disinterested, even, heaven forbid, burned out. But he also looked put upon, angry that he had to be there, irritated that he had to debate with "that kind of person." In short, obama acted like no one had a right to question him. in a democracy? In the USA? Romney had a right and a duty to be there. The audience at the debate didn't seem to mind that obama wasn't acting like a president. They came to see the president debate and they did, more or less. On this night, the man who would be president sounded an awful lot like somebody who should be president and is ready to hit the ground running come January. His answers were thoughtful, well-reasoned, and grounded in reality. He wasn't blaming other people for the problems he wants to fix. I will bet you $100 that Romney will never blame obama for the problems he confronts. How nice will that be? Hearing the president speak and not hearing him blame President Bush for all his failures. I know that growing up a Christian I was taught that you don't blame others for your shortcomings. I guess obama missed that lesson. Missed it? Hell, he used a chainsaw to cut that lesson out of the growing up curriculum.
Well, anyway, the second and third debates were of a different ilk. It was as if the two candidates weren't playing the same game anymore, or maybe they were playing the same game but with different rules. obama spent debates two and three trying to make up for the catastrophe that was debate no. 1 (for him). He had a ton of lame one-liners and worn out punchlines. Romney, on the otherhand, was determined not to get into the kind of gutter brawl that would only benefit someone familiar with the genre. He displayed an almost mind-boggling breadth of knowledge about almost every topic thrown at him. It seemed that every focus group and every undecided voter interviewed said they were stunned at Romney's ability to explain the economy and its current problems in a succinct, fascinating and understandable manner. And be sure, that spell-binding explanation included a stinging indictment of obama's policies and decision-making methods. It is a gift to be able to do what romney did when you are the only speaker on the stage and you have no real time limit. But Romney did it in a debate with the president, and the president and his functionary in the moderator's chair were constantly interrupting him and, in the case of Ms. Crowley, pushing the flag toward obama with absolutely no hesitation or pangs of conscience. Many of the people interviewed said, in so many words, that Romney looked like a president. obama didn't. By the end of the first debate the languid polls, weighted down all summer by ridiculous over-sampling of democratic voters, began to boil. First one, then another, suddenly reported that Gov. Romney was picking up steam, picking up support. From a few points behind nationally, Romney lept into the lead and actually carved out a working lead in most polls. In key swing states that were reporting - in some cases - a double-digit lead for obama, new poll results showed the obama lead gone and the race either tied or tilting toward Romney. Supporters of obama were more heartened by the second and third debates. They interpreted obama's interuptions, "zinger" lines and taunts of Romney as signs he had won a great victory. They proclaimed it loudly until fresh poll results came in. The country, it seemed, did not share their opinion of the outcome. The thing that these insiders were missing was the substance of the policies they were debating. Romney was proposing plans that had a history of success. Many are the same ones President Reagan used to lead the country out of the economic malaise of the Carter years. Well, interest rates were ridiculously high. That was good if you were getting 9% and 10% on your passbook savings account, but terrible if you were borrowing money for an on-going business, terrible if you were a bank trying to pay that interest every day to each customer even though your investments weren't quite so dependable. Unemployment was very high - not as high as it is now, of course; it's never been this high during my lifetime. The markets were in the doldrums, and these doldrums seemed so interminable that some believed this is how it was going to be. Sound familiar? How often have we heard that 8% unemployment is the "new norm." Bush's unemployment rate was about 5%. How terrible. Everything was Bush's fault. During the Carter years (there were only four of them, but many remember them being longer. That's not a joke; it is merely true.) we were introduced to a new economic kind of misery. They were called "gas lines." In gas lines, people lined up bumper to bumper at the gasoline station, waiting for their turn to pump gasoline. People got surly in those lines. Nobody blamed the ones losing their tempers. Everybody loses their temper when they have to wait hours to pay way too much money for something. The Carter years also introduced us to runaway petroleum prices. When President Carter took office in the years immediately after Watergate, the gasoline prices at that time were below $1 per gallon. It didn't last long. Along with the lines came the wildly higher prices. Suddenly, 100% increases were commonplace.
So a lot of people are recalling Carter in the wake of the debates. For obama and the functionaries, this is not good. if they recall Carter in the debates, they recall the end of the Carter presidency and the landslide defeat.
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