For the first time in my life I was called on Saturday by one of the national polling organizations and interviewed, at length, about the issues of the day. In my case the poll was sponsored by the Washington Post and ABC News. The base for the questions are the interviewee's demographics. After talking to me, I am sure the poll is a mess.
"Are you a democrat, republican, or member of some other party?" the interviewer asked.
"I am a democrat," I responded.
The lady then asked about my views on the Death Penalty. To one question, I said that I was opposed to the Death Penalty, "generally," I added.
"Generally?" she asked.
"Well," I said, "between me and you, I worry about corrections officers who have to deal with the worst of the criminal class. Without the death penalty, how do provide any kind of legal deterent where the prisoner is already serving life without parole?" I mentioned other reservations. One of those, here in Maryland, is that our lame governor wants to parlay repeal of the death penalty by the Maryland General Assembly - something he has been ramming down the throat of State Delegates and Senators during all of the years he has held office - into a jumping off point in a presidential bid. This is the guy who looks for the political angle to visiting the latrine. But I digress.
I was asked whether I was liberal, conservative or something else.
"I am liberal." I said.
Figuring she already knew my answers, she asked how I would grade the Maryland Governor. I was given five possible answers, which, to paraphrase, were, very effective, generally effective, average, ineffective or, you know, terrible.
I chose the last possibility.
Next the lady moved to obama. The same five categories were offered. I wondered aloud if there were any choice that was on the down side of terrible. She was not amused.
"Just go with terrible," I finally said.
I was also asked about gun control. If there are two public issues that i hold conservative views on, they are gun control and abortion. I told the pollster that I was against registration of gun owners and against regulation of assault weapons. The only part of the debate I slide left on is the number of bullets permitted in clips. I told her I would favor reasonable limits on such clips.
The lady advised that these poll results would be published in the Post in about two weeks.
Leave it to Rush Limbaugh to come up with the best angle on Mrs. obama's cameo on the Academy Award telecast. She opened the envelope in the Best Picture category and announced that Argo was the winner.
Limbaugh noted that Argo is a movie about those brave souls who managed to spirit a half dozen Americans out of Tehran during the Iran Hostage Crises, a gut-wrenching international incident that occupied and overshadowed the final year of the one-term Carter administration. You'll recall that young thugs stormed the American Embassy in Tehran and took all inside hostage, a stunt that violated all tenets of international law. The hostages were held for months and months and were not released until the first hours of the subsequent Reagan administration. The six Americans that the movie was concerned with had escaped the embassy as the attack was taking place and were being hidden in a safe house inside of Tehran. The thugs, who were associated with the Muslim Mullahs who were behind the revolution that overthrew the American-backed Shah, soon discovered that the six were missing and began a systematic search for their whereabouts.
What an irony, Rushbo said. The winning movie honored the courageous people who defied the crazed thugs running Iran in those days to save the lives of six American Embassy workers. The person presenting the award is married to the person who dawdled and played while four American Embassy workers were murdered and mutilated in Benghazzi, then lied about it for weeks before the truth matriculated to the surface despite the efforts of the DNC-controlled media.
It is extremely difficult to maintain a stiff upper lip in these dark days leading up to the so-called sequestration episode set to take place in Washington. obama has hiked up taxes by unprecedented amounts, increased the national debt so much that our grandchildren and even great grandchildren will have to pay for his infantile spending of the public credit, and turned the democratic government put in place by the Founding Fathers into a budding marxist dictatorship. He made a mistake in proposing sequestration, but only in the sense that he never anticipated having it take place. The spineless GOP has merely played along with his bellicose prattle. On Friday, across-the-board budget cuts of some 44% will take place. obama has been out lieing through his teeth about the consequences of sequestration. Listen to him, these days, and you get the idea that the entire government will come to a stop. The truth is that even with the scheduled sequestration the United States will spend more in this fiscal year than it did in the last. obama is merely playing the role he had when he was a was employed as a community agitator in Chicago in his post-ivy-league days. That role entails trying to scare the public to death in the hope that his spineless opponents will capitulate again and agree to even more tax hikes.
The country is mired in a recession that might be serious enough to plunge us into out-and-out depresson. obama doesn't give a hoot. A radical marxist idealogue to his core, obama thinks that is what we deserve.
In sports...
Ryan Broekhoff poured in 21 points and Kevin Van Wijk added 15 and Valparaiso overcame a deficit that reached as many as 13 points with a stirring second half comeback as the Crusaders beat back Youngstown State, 73-64, on Tuesday night. The win clinched the second-straight regular season Horizon League championship for Valparaiso, which improved to 23-7 overall and 12-3 in the conference. By virtue of taking the regular season title the Crusaders secured home court advantage for the Horizon League Tournament, which begins Friday March 9. Valparaiso also earns a bye in the opening round of the tournament, and will play its first game in the semi-finals on Saturday, March 10, beginning at 7:30 pm. The semi-final will be on ESPNU. The championship will take place on Tuesday, March 12, at 8 pm. One of the ESPN stations will televise that game. Only the tournament champion is guaranteed an NCAA tournament bid. If Valparaiso does not win the Horizon Tournament, it would be guaranteed a bid to the NIT by virtue of its regular season title.
The officiating at the end of Monday night's Big 12 showdown between Kansas and Iowa State was about as bad as it can be. It was so bad, in fact, that the Conference leaders said on Tuesday that disciplinary action against the officials is in the offing. Two calls, in particular, were absolutely inexcusable. The game was at Iowa State, one of the loudest and rowdiest in the NCAA. And that gym is never more out-of-control than it is when conference heavyweight Kansas comes to town. Fortunately, the game on the floor was just plain wonderful, with nearly 20 lead changes, and tons of truly spectacular plays. In the final seconds the Cyclones led, 90-88, but Kansas had the ball. Jayhawk guard Elijah Johnson, who exploded for 39 points, took a pass and went flying down the lane. As he prepared to release a shot he crashed into Cyclone Freshman George Niang. Niang had perfect position and held it despite the contact he took from the hard-charging Johnson. Both players crashed hard to the floor. The shot did not go in. A second later, the ball landed next to the two prone players. Johnson crawled right over Niang and got the loose ball. He continued rolling with the ball and managed to pass it to another Jayhawk. Johnson then sprang to his feet and raced out and took a pass back to him. In one motion he spun around and launched a high-arching shot that hit nothing but net, tying the score with just over four seconds left. But it should never have happened. The contact between Johnson and Niang was about as violent as basketball contact gets. The replay showed clearly that Niang had done a truly outstanding job in getting and holding position and taking the charge. But even if you somehow believed he was a split-second too late, the point is that the whistle of the referee just a few feet away had to be blown. Somebody - be it Johnson or Niang, had committed a foul. But this referee just stood there and made no call. That is a travesty. The league has indicated that his assignments for the rest of the season will be curtailed. That is small consolation to the Cyclones.
But another call a minute earlier was just about as bad, if that is possible. The most feared player on Kansas is seven-foot-plus senior center Tim Withey. Iowa State paid so much attention to him during the game that their center fouled out with nearly five minutes left. But Withey was in foul trouble also, picking up his fourth foul not long after Iowa State's center fouled out. With about a minute and a half left Withey reached out and fouled an Iowa State player who was trying to break a Kansas press. And the referees did call the foul. But, incredibly, they assessed it against another Kansas player who was several feet away from the play. Come on, lads! There are three of you out there. When one of you blow a call that badly, why can't the other two pull him aside and make the call right? Same thing with the play at the end of the game. Make the call and then make sure you get it right. There are three of you out there and, ostensibly, you are being paid to get the calls correct. You cannot tell anybody who watched the game that some foul did not occur when Johnson crashed into Niang on the critical play. A player shooting a lay up crashes directly into a defender and both tumble to the floor. Somebody had to have been fouled, any fool knows that. In fact, the only really outrageous outcome was the one that ended up ruling the day: no call. But there has always been an arrogance among big-time basketball refs who just will not correct a call no matter how pathetic it was. Last night, apparently, the three culprits finally crossed the line. But don't expect to find out what the conference powers-that-be decide to do about the folly that occurred. The same statement that announced disciplinary action also noted that this was the very last statement that would be released about the incident.
Maryland's baseball game at James Madison, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in Harrisonburg, Virginia, was postponed due to rain. it has been rescheduled for Wednesday afternoon at 4 pm. No television of any kind is available, but an audio play-by-play is said to be available from the James Madison Athletic Department. You'll have to pay for it, however.
Maryland's men's basketball team is also in action on Wednesday. The Terps travel to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech in an 8 pm game. With four regular season games remaining - each one an ACC conference game - the 19-8 Terrapins probably need at least three wins to have a reasonable chance of obtaining an NCAA tournament bid. It is also imperative, analysts believe, for the Terps to finish at or above .500 in the ACC. They are currently 7-7 in the ACC.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
A wonderful idea: Outdoor baseball in Maryland in February; but Terps take two
Maryland's Baseball Team swept a doubleheader from Oakland University on Friday, winning the first game, 15-4, and the nightcap, 8-4. The Terps, who play a second twin bill against Oakland tomorrow, beginning at 11 a.m. at College Park, improved to 2-3. Maryland had dropped a three game set at LSU the previous weekend to open the season. Despite those losses, Maryland's pitching was impressive. The opener at LSU ended with the Bayou Bengals winning, 1-0.
Rebound!
Maryland's baseball team came home after last weekend's season opening series at No. 10 LSU without a win. The pitching was pretty darn good but not good enough when the opponent is as stacked as are the Bayou Bengals. Back at Turtle Smith Stadium in College Park, Maryland opened its home schedule with two doubleheaders against Oakland University of Michigan. The Terps won Friday's doubleheader easily, winning the opener,15-4, and the raw, cold and rainy nightcap, 8-4 (outdoor baseball in Maryland in February, where the normal high is 47 and the low 33?). The teams had originally intended to play on Saturday, also, but a forecasted day of rain was the catalyst for moving that day's games to Sunday. Maryland routed the Golden Grizzlies, 8-0 in the opener, which began at 11 am. The nightcap, however, was a different story. Oakland pushed across single runs in the second, third and fourth innings against Maryland Freshman Starter Alex Robinson, and made those runs stand up until the bottom of the eighth.
Freshman Lamonte Wade had led off the eighth with a single. He advanced to second on a wild pitch, but was still there with two outs. That's when senior catcher Jack Cleary singled to score Wade and tie the score. The Terps called on Jake Stinnet to pitch starting in the top of the ninth and Stinnet responded by retiring all six men he faced, five on infield ground outs and one by strike out. In the tenth, the Terps rewarded Stinnet with the win by pushing across the winning run. Anthony Papilo walked to lead off the tenth and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Greg Olenski. Freshman Catcher Kevin Martir, who entered the game in the ninth inning after Cleary was pinch run for, followed with the game winning single, pushing the Terps above .500 (4-3) for the first time this season.
In the opener, Brady Kirkpatrick and three relief pitchers scattered four hits, and Martir went 3-4 in the Terps' shutout win. Charles White, who stole ten bases in the four games, was 2-2 with three runs scored, and K. J. Hockaday and Kyle Convissar each drove in three runs for Maryland.
Maryland is off on Monday, but travels to Harrisonburg, Virginia on Tuesday to take on James Madison. Then on Friday the Terps begin a four-game weekend series with Princeton.
Freshman Lamonte Wade had led off the eighth with a single. He advanced to second on a wild pitch, but was still there with two outs. That's when senior catcher Jack Cleary singled to score Wade and tie the score. The Terps called on Jake Stinnet to pitch starting in the top of the ninth and Stinnet responded by retiring all six men he faced, five on infield ground outs and one by strike out. In the tenth, the Terps rewarded Stinnet with the win by pushing across the winning run. Anthony Papilo walked to lead off the tenth and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Greg Olenski. Freshman Catcher Kevin Martir, who entered the game in the ninth inning after Cleary was pinch run for, followed with the game winning single, pushing the Terps above .500 (4-3) for the first time this season.
In the opener, Brady Kirkpatrick and three relief pitchers scattered four hits, and Martir went 3-4 in the Terps' shutout win. Charles White, who stole ten bases in the four games, was 2-2 with three runs scored, and K. J. Hockaday and Kyle Convissar each drove in three runs for Maryland.
Maryland is off on Monday, but travels to Harrisonburg, Virginia on Tuesday to take on James Madison. Then on Friday the Terps begin a four-game weekend series with Princeton.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Baseball!
Over the winter, Buck Showalter, the manager of the Orioles, said that since the Grapefruit League schedule is longer this year - because Opening Day is pushed back a bit - he might pick the starting line-up for the first exhibition game out of a hat. "Maybe {Matt} Wieters (the Orioles' catcher) will lead-off," he told an interviewer. Well, that day is upon us. The Orioles open their Grapefruit League Schedule on Saturday (February 23) afternoon. WBAL radio in Baltimore will broadcast the game.
Meanwhile, up north in Maryland, where snow is forecasted for Friday and Saturday, Maryland opens its home regular season schedule hosting Oakland (Michigan) in a four game series. The original schedule called for a single game late Friday afternoon, a double-header Saturday and the series finale on Sunday afternoon. But college baseball is not pro ball, where fans have purchased tickets in advance. A forecast that called for an all-day rain or snow storm for Saturday convinced the powers-that-be to revise the schedule. The two teams played a double-header Friday and will try to play another on Sunday, with the first game beginning at 11 am. Maryland opened the season last weekend at powerful LSU and lost all three games, although the first two were very close, especially the opener on Friday night, which the Terps lost, 1-0.
Meanwhile, up north in Maryland, where snow is forecasted for Friday and Saturday, Maryland opens its home regular season schedule hosting Oakland (Michigan) in a four game series. The original schedule called for a single game late Friday afternoon, a double-header Saturday and the series finale on Sunday afternoon. But college baseball is not pro ball, where fans have purchased tickets in advance. A forecast that called for an all-day rain or snow storm for Saturday convinced the powers-that-be to revise the schedule. The two teams played a double-header Friday and will try to play another on Sunday, with the first game beginning at 11 am. Maryland opened the season last weekend at powerful LSU and lost all three games, although the first two were very close, especially the opener on Friday night, which the Terps lost, 1-0.
Most Importnt New Baseball Player?
The most important new player for the Baltimore Orioles might just be a player who isn't new at all. It's been so long since Brian Roberts played a meaningful role for the Orioles that many have assumed he retired. Fact is, he is 35, and while some players have peaked by that age, others are still going strong. Fans will forgive Roberts if Derek Jeter is one of his heroes. There is legitimate hope that Roberts will return to the big leagues with a bang this season. The reason for the hope is his health. On Monday, Roberts told MASN - the Orioles' cable channel - that this is the first spring in a long time that he feels good and is participating in drills and calisthenics pain free.
The fact is - as Roberts recalled in the interview - that the Orioles made their incredible run last season without three key players. Nick Markakis missed two large chunks of the season with injuries, including the last two months of the regular season and all of the playoffs. There was some hope that he could have been activated for the World Series had Baltimore survived until then. Nolan Reimold started last season as the Orioles everyday left fielder. In the first 16 games he hit .313, drove in ten runs and bashed five homers. Then his back gave up and he underwent season-ending surgery. And finally, there was Roberts. He has played very little in the last three seasons. Before that, he was the Orioles best player, always hitting around .300, hitting a dozen or more homeruns, and driving in sixty or more runs while hitting leadoff.
Add to that the fact that the Orioles only had Nate McClouth for the second half of the season - Roberts noted that, too - and you have the making for a huge helping of new offensive firepower. If it pans out, it will be awfully hard to stop the Orioles from being a huge contender in the AL East. Again.
The fact is - as Roberts recalled in the interview - that the Orioles made their incredible run last season without three key players. Nick Markakis missed two large chunks of the season with injuries, including the last two months of the regular season and all of the playoffs. There was some hope that he could have been activated for the World Series had Baltimore survived until then. Nolan Reimold started last season as the Orioles everyday left fielder. In the first 16 games he hit .313, drove in ten runs and bashed five homers. Then his back gave up and he underwent season-ending surgery. And finally, there was Roberts. He has played very little in the last three seasons. Before that, he was the Orioles best player, always hitting around .300, hitting a dozen or more homeruns, and driving in sixty or more runs while hitting leadoff.
Add to that the fact that the Orioles only had Nate McClouth for the second half of the season - Roberts noted that, too - and you have the making for a huge helping of new offensive firepower. If it pans out, it will be awfully hard to stop the Orioles from being a huge contender in the AL East. Again.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Looking Around for baseball, basketball and economic common sense
Seth Allen had tons of trouble playing point guard against Duke. But when he got to be the shooter, well, that was another story altogether. For his part, Alex Len has listened all season long as so-called experts described Duke's Mason Plumlee as the best big man in the ACC. On Saturday, Len forever ended that silly comparison by humiliating his much ballyhooed rival as Maryland beat No. 2 Duke, 83-81, before a crazed sellout crowd in College Park and a national television audience.
Len poured in 19 points and hauled down nine rebounds to lead the Terps. Allen, committed an unsightly seven turnovers (Maryland as a team committed 26), but redeemed himself with 14 critical points, including two free throws with 2.8 seconds left to give Maryland the win. Plumlee, on the otherhand, was stifled by Len and fouled out with only 4 points and a paltry three rebounds. Even more ignominious for Plumlee was the many second half minutes he rode the bench even before getting into foul trouble. Plumlee was briefly spared his fifth foul after a truly terrible call by the game officials tagged the Terps' Dez Wells with a charge even though replays showed Plumlee never came close to getting position as Wells drove to the rim in a transition play. Other calls also favored Plumlee when he didn't deserve it, but Maryland persevered and won. Maryland is now 18-7 overall and 6-6 in the ACC. They have six games remaining before the ACC tournament, four of them away from College Park. The first of these road games is Tuesday night at Boston College. The game begins at 9 pm. Maryland returns home Saturday to play Clemson in a game beginning at noon. The only other home game left for Maryland is March 6 against North Carolina. Besides Boston College, the Terps have road games left at Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Virginia. The ACC tournament is March 14-17 in Greensboro, North Carolina, with the NCAA tournament beginning the following week. As most fans can tell, the conference and national tournaments are starting several weeks later than normal this season.
Even as the Orioles and other major league clubs reported to spring training, the College Baseball season got under way for real on Friday. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana the LSU Tigers, ranked at No. 10 nationally, made a single run in the third inning stand up in a 1-0 victory over Maryland. The Tiger's Aaron Nola pitched 6 2/3 innings of two-hit baseball to earn the win. Maryland's Jimmy Reed was the very hard luck loser. Reed went five innings, striking out three and walking only one. He was charged with the only run of the game, which scored when Alex Bregnian grounded a single up the middle with two outs in the third, scoring a runner from third. Maryland relief pitchers Jaime Pashuck, a junior, and freshman Kevin Mooney combined for three innings of scoreless baseball. For the game, Maryland pitchers gave up nine hits to the hard-hitting Tigers, but minimized the consequences by surrendering only two walks. On Saturday afternoon, LSU defeated the Terps, 5-1. The two teams close out the weekend series Sunday afternoon in Baton Rouge.
obama's state of the union was anything but. Sorry, I suppose, to have to keep griping about the man in charge, but he does nothing worthy of even slight praise. For instance, unemployment is rampant, the entire economy actually shrunk in the last quarter of 2012, and a huge awful dose of more imbecilic obama laws are upon us, ramping up the tax bite for those Americans who do things like working, employing and producing.
We learn that a family of four will pay between $16,000 and $20,000 per year for the mandatory health insurance we will be forced to have under his - as I say - imbecilic health program. If you don't believe this thing he rammed down our throat was created by uber leftists like him and his functionaries, tell me when he has ever rubbed elbows long enough with any other political group to spawn a - no, I won't say it - to spawn a real awful nightmare like the thing he rammed down our throat. With the bill we can't pay comes the death panels we aren't supposed to call death panels. What will happen the first time some taxpaying American is told by some elitist panel of bureaucrats that their mom or dad can't get a pacemaker because, well, because they're too old. Mind you, the mom or dad is healthy and the doctor who wants the pacemaker put in knows his patient can handle the procedure, but obama's death panel says it's just not in the cards. So we can provide health care to illegal aliens but not tax paying citizens. Mind you, this is one liberal democrat who likes the current system where everybody gets health care whether they can pay for it or not.
There is a growing body of thinking that is trying to make sense out of a lot of conflicting data. On the one hand are national polls that show that a clear majority of Americans believe the United States is headed in the wrong direction economically and socially. Then there are other polls that show obama with an approval rating worthy of a leader who is effective, moral and honest. Yet obama is neither effective, moral or honest. So how can a failed leader - and, please, don't you dare embarass yourself and argue that point to the contrary - put a powerful nation on a downbound train that is racing into the abyss at record speed and not pay a price for that in the approval ratings polls?
You know that the answer is going to make you sick because someone who is doing what obama is doing; that is, someone who is decimating a decent nation, should be the subject of a nationwide manhunt, not the smiling heart-throb of a bunch of slobbering functionary pseudo-journalists. (Do you know that I heard a sound bite from some New York Playwrite who still talked about obama in messianic terms? Talk about living in La-La Land!
Anyway, a new theory is emerging on this conflict in the opinion polls. It centers around obama's proclivity for campaigning even when, as now, his last national race is over. Take as a given that obama's policies and legislative enactments are at the route of the current economic morass. Take as a second given that there exists: (a) a national media composed of little more than are nothing more thansslap dog functionaries for the uber left and its hero, obama; (b) a voting public that is composed of somewhere between 48% and 56% of so-called "low information" or, more candidly, stupid people, people who have no idea what is going on, or why. This reality permits obama to push ahead with far left legislation and far left dictate's - the latter clearly outside of the boundaries of the law - and then, even as his legislative initiatives and dictates decimate the national economy, he takes to the microphone and harangues and ridicules the illusory evils said to be causing the current economic and moral disasters.
Here's how it actually works: obama enacts legislation like obamamess (i.e. obamacare), cap and trade, stimulus and other debt-causing spending outrages, and executive orders such as those causing gasoline prices to skyrocket (preventing the completion of the oil pipeline to Canada, preventing and delaying oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, etc.). As a direct and forseeable result of these obama initiatives, the economy spins downward, unemployment remains higher, by far, than ever before, and virtually every economic indicator spits out dismal and downright scary numbers. But obama, directly because the national media won't pin these inevitabilities to him, goes to various national locations and criticizes the national demon of the day, be it rich folk, oil companies, senior citizens seeking tax relief (i.e., the Teaparty), small business folk, etc. These are the causes of the problems we are having, obama tells us, and I (obama) and leading the fight against them. We (obama and the voters) will get the evil ones and bring them to justice, just you wait and see.
Sadly, there are enough stupid people and the requisite bootlicking news media, to enable obama to bring these outrageous realities to our living rooms and board rooms. These are the life and times of these United States under obama. God help us all!
Len poured in 19 points and hauled down nine rebounds to lead the Terps. Allen, committed an unsightly seven turnovers (Maryland as a team committed 26), but redeemed himself with 14 critical points, including two free throws with 2.8 seconds left to give Maryland the win. Plumlee, on the otherhand, was stifled by Len and fouled out with only 4 points and a paltry three rebounds. Even more ignominious for Plumlee was the many second half minutes he rode the bench even before getting into foul trouble. Plumlee was briefly spared his fifth foul after a truly terrible call by the game officials tagged the Terps' Dez Wells with a charge even though replays showed Plumlee never came close to getting position as Wells drove to the rim in a transition play. Other calls also favored Plumlee when he didn't deserve it, but Maryland persevered and won. Maryland is now 18-7 overall and 6-6 in the ACC. They have six games remaining before the ACC tournament, four of them away from College Park. The first of these road games is Tuesday night at Boston College. The game begins at 9 pm. Maryland returns home Saturday to play Clemson in a game beginning at noon. The only other home game left for Maryland is March 6 against North Carolina. Besides Boston College, the Terps have road games left at Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Virginia. The ACC tournament is March 14-17 in Greensboro, North Carolina, with the NCAA tournament beginning the following week. As most fans can tell, the conference and national tournaments are starting several weeks later than normal this season.
Even as the Orioles and other major league clubs reported to spring training, the College Baseball season got under way for real on Friday. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana the LSU Tigers, ranked at No. 10 nationally, made a single run in the third inning stand up in a 1-0 victory over Maryland. The Tiger's Aaron Nola pitched 6 2/3 innings of two-hit baseball to earn the win. Maryland's Jimmy Reed was the very hard luck loser. Reed went five innings, striking out three and walking only one. He was charged with the only run of the game, which scored when Alex Bregnian grounded a single up the middle with two outs in the third, scoring a runner from third. Maryland relief pitchers Jaime Pashuck, a junior, and freshman Kevin Mooney combined for three innings of scoreless baseball. For the game, Maryland pitchers gave up nine hits to the hard-hitting Tigers, but minimized the consequences by surrendering only two walks. On Saturday afternoon, LSU defeated the Terps, 5-1. The two teams close out the weekend series Sunday afternoon in Baton Rouge.
obama's state of the union was anything but. Sorry, I suppose, to have to keep griping about the man in charge, but he does nothing worthy of even slight praise. For instance, unemployment is rampant, the entire economy actually shrunk in the last quarter of 2012, and a huge awful dose of more imbecilic obama laws are upon us, ramping up the tax bite for those Americans who do things like working, employing and producing.
We learn that a family of four will pay between $16,000 and $20,000 per year for the mandatory health insurance we will be forced to have under his - as I say - imbecilic health program. If you don't believe this thing he rammed down our throat was created by uber leftists like him and his functionaries, tell me when he has ever rubbed elbows long enough with any other political group to spawn a - no, I won't say it - to spawn a real awful nightmare like the thing he rammed down our throat. With the bill we can't pay comes the death panels we aren't supposed to call death panels. What will happen the first time some taxpaying American is told by some elitist panel of bureaucrats that their mom or dad can't get a pacemaker because, well, because they're too old. Mind you, the mom or dad is healthy and the doctor who wants the pacemaker put in knows his patient can handle the procedure, but obama's death panel says it's just not in the cards. So we can provide health care to illegal aliens but not tax paying citizens. Mind you, this is one liberal democrat who likes the current system where everybody gets health care whether they can pay for it or not.
There is a growing body of thinking that is trying to make sense out of a lot of conflicting data. On the one hand are national polls that show that a clear majority of Americans believe the United States is headed in the wrong direction economically and socially. Then there are other polls that show obama with an approval rating worthy of a leader who is effective, moral and honest. Yet obama is neither effective, moral or honest. So how can a failed leader - and, please, don't you dare embarass yourself and argue that point to the contrary - put a powerful nation on a downbound train that is racing into the abyss at record speed and not pay a price for that in the approval ratings polls?
You know that the answer is going to make you sick because someone who is doing what obama is doing; that is, someone who is decimating a decent nation, should be the subject of a nationwide manhunt, not the smiling heart-throb of a bunch of slobbering functionary pseudo-journalists. (Do you know that I heard a sound bite from some New York Playwrite who still talked about obama in messianic terms? Talk about living in La-La Land!
Anyway, a new theory is emerging on this conflict in the opinion polls. It centers around obama's proclivity for campaigning even when, as now, his last national race is over. Take as a given that obama's policies and legislative enactments are at the route of the current economic morass. Take as a second given that there exists: (a) a national media composed of little more than are nothing more thansslap dog functionaries for the uber left and its hero, obama; (b) a voting public that is composed of somewhere between 48% and 56% of so-called "low information" or, more candidly, stupid people, people who have no idea what is going on, or why. This reality permits obama to push ahead with far left legislation and far left dictate's - the latter clearly outside of the boundaries of the law - and then, even as his legislative initiatives and dictates decimate the national economy, he takes to the microphone and harangues and ridicules the illusory evils said to be causing the current economic and moral disasters.
Here's how it actually works: obama enacts legislation like obamamess (i.e. obamacare), cap and trade, stimulus and other debt-causing spending outrages, and executive orders such as those causing gasoline prices to skyrocket (preventing the completion of the oil pipeline to Canada, preventing and delaying oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, etc.). As a direct and forseeable result of these obama initiatives, the economy spins downward, unemployment remains higher, by far, than ever before, and virtually every economic indicator spits out dismal and downright scary numbers. But obama, directly because the national media won't pin these inevitabilities to him, goes to various national locations and criticizes the national demon of the day, be it rich folk, oil companies, senior citizens seeking tax relief (i.e., the Teaparty), small business folk, etc. These are the causes of the problems we are having, obama tells us, and I (obama) and leading the fight against them. We (obama and the voters) will get the evil ones and bring them to justice, just you wait and see.
Sadly, there are enough stupid people and the requisite bootlicking news media, to enable obama to bring these outrageous realities to our living rooms and board rooms. These are the life and times of these United States under obama. God help us all!
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Superbowl Winners and Other Losers
The Ravens won the Superbowl for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, they won because their offense was better than the 49ers offense, no matter what anybody in the national press says to the contrary. Joe Flacco was unflappable throughout the playoffs, and especially in New Orleans. His deft touch on passes deep into the 49er secondary kept the NFC winner from ever being able to consistently stop the Ravens. He benefitted greatly from the superb offensive line play. Michael Oher, the superb 315-pound tackle to Flacco's right, Marshall Yanda, the all-pro 315-pound guard next to Oher, Matt Birk, the 310-pound center with over a decade of experience (and a degree from Harvard), Kelechi Osemele, the 345-pound rookie left guard still listed as a tackle on the Ravens' official roster, and Bryant McKinnie, the 354-pound left tackle who came to training camp last summer way over weight and out of shape, then worked like there was no tomorrow to regain his starting job, were configured in their playoff positions at the start of the playoffs. They protected Flacco so well that he was only sacked once and was rarely hurried or harassed. They also blocked so well on the running plays that offensive coordinator Jim Caldwell called that the 49ers were forced to abandon their game plan of concentrating solely on the Ravens' passing game.
Then there are the Ravens' receivers. As a group they are the best in the game. Start with former University of Maryland star Torey Smith, whose speed and great hands force opponents to stretch their defense so far apart that Flacco seems always able to find somebody open. He was a huge factor in every one of the Ravens' four postseason wins. In the win at Denver in conditions reminiscent of the Arctic, the Broncos tried to cover him one-on-one with all-pro corner Champ Bailey. But Smith torched him twice in the first half on long touchdown throws, Anquan Boldin, the other wide-out, is the toughest receiver in the game. As Phil Simms joked during the CBS telecast, even when Boldin was covered, he was open. He and Flacco brazenly challenged even the best defensive backs throughout the playoffs, hooking up for completions countless times even when the DB was virtually standing in the same exact spot on the field that Boldin occupied. He has the strongest hands of any wide receiver, and more courage than any receiver, linebacker or any other player you can name. When Flacco threw the ball to Boldin, Boldin caught it. Then there is the Ravens' third wide out, a lad by the name of Jacoby Jones. During the regular season, Jones caught enough passes to remind people he was there, but not enough to get the kind of attention he deserved from defenses. Talk about a result no one could have imagined. All Jones did in the playoffs is win games. He was the receiver who raced past Denver's deep safeties to catch Flacco's hail Mary pass in the final minute of regulation, enabling Baltimore to come from behind to tie the game. They won in overtime. Against San Francisco, Jones pulled the same stunt, racing past the stunned deep backs in the final minutes of the first half to catch another Flacco bomb. He made that catch falling down. As he lay on the ground near the 49er 10-yard-line, two defensive players jumped over him. One just missed him. But Jones was alert enough to realize he had not been touched. So he sprang to his feet and then cut and zigged and zagged around three 49ers before diving into the endzone for a huge TD. Thanks to that play, the Ravens led 21-6 at the half. To start the second half, the 49ers kicked off. The line drive kick forced Jones to the back of the endzone. But he got back quickly and caught the kick moving forward. Up ahead, Raven fullback Vonta Leach was leading the first wave of blockers, and they bashed a narrow lane right up the middle of the on-rushing 49ers. Jones ran up that lane in a flash and then glanced up at the scoreboard screen to see that he was now in the clear. He turned on the overdrive and ran away from his pursuers. Now the score was 28-6, Baltimore. Many argue that Jones was the real MVP. They have a point, but Flacco was pretty damn valuable, too. If you pick co-winners you leave out Boldin. Three co-winners? No argument here. If we stopped here, you would miss the reason that the Ravens offense is so tough to control. They have two tight ends that terrorize defensive coordinators. Ed Dickson is actually the nominal starter. In the Superbowl he had two huge reception for big yardage. He is a deep threat and possesses very good hands. At he end of last season he went through a stretch of the drops, as in dropped passes. He denied losing confidence but if he didn't he wouldn't be human. It is only in the last games of the regular season and the playoffs that he has regained Flacco's confidence. His two monster catches on the second TD drive were instrumental in the score. And, as you know, every single score was instrumental in the win. The other tight end is Dennis Pita. He and Dickson were drafted at the same time only one round apart. He went to Brigham Young where he caught so many passes he lost count. He has become Flacco's personal friend and seemingly his favorite receiver. But the truth is, the offensive scheme is what makes Pita the target so often. He shares one important trait with Boldin: they both catch passes over the middle and in traffic, and they both hold onto passes after being crushed by linebackers and defensive backs.
And no roll call of receivers would be complete without mentioning Ray Rice. His ability to catch and run out of the backfield is astounding. No one will forget his stunning play against the Chargers that led to a Raven win They were behind the Chargers by three points and it was 4th down and 28 yards to go. Flacco waited long enough with the ball to allow the Ravens' wide outs to get far downfield. Once they were, he threw a short pass over the rushing linemen to Rice, who managed against all of the odds to cut and weave his way to a first down. He made it by inches. On 4th and 28, he made a first down by inches. It was at that point that the Ravens - and their fans - started to believe they were a team of destiny. Rice is one of the best receivers in the game. There are more than a few times that the Ravens split him out as a wide receiver. Some of his touchdowns are on catches.
The press has created the myth that the 34-minute power outage that followed changed the momenturm. It just isn't true as a look at the many game replays that the NFL network is providing will show. After the Jones heroics, the Ravens forced the 49ers into yet another three and out. Flacco then led the Ravens on a short drive that started deep in Baltimore territory. Torey Smith made a fine catch on a deep down and in to gain some 20 yards. When that drive did stall, Sam Koch backed the 49ers up with a fine punt. To make a long story shorter, the truth is that the Ravens still led, 28-6, with 7:30 left in the third quarter. That's four full minutes after the power outage. Once Kapernick got started, however, there was no lead that looked safe. If the 49ers scored a touchdown after Ray Rice's fumble, the outcome might have been different. But that's why the Ravens won. They didn't cave in. Throughout the playoffs, including road wins in Denver and Foxboro, the Ravens played red zone defense like there was no tomorrow. Jimmy Smith resurrected his whole career during some of these stands and Cary Williams played so well that the Ravens almost have to sign him to keep from losing him to free agency. And then there is Ed Reed. Not many realized this certain Hall of Famer has never earned a ring or even played in a Super Bowl. Of all the Ravens, he seemed about the happiest, which is saying something. He hurt his knee making a bone crunching tackle on former Terrapin star Vernon Davis in the first quarter, but only missed one series. When he realized the fourth down pass to Crabtree was incomplete - he was right with Crabtree after Jimmy Smith fell off him - he began to jump and clap, a rare sight if ever there was one. A lot of people talk about Ray Lewis as well they should, but it is Reed that opponents fear the most when they play the Ravens. His mere presence changes game plans.
It was almost ridiculous going into this season that so few people took the Ravens seriously. Anyone who watched the game that ended the previous season - the agonizing loss in New England when their clutch drive in the waning seconds imploded on a dropped touchdown pass and a missed chip shot FG - had to know that pros like Lewis, Reed and Flacco were determined to have another shot at the title. Their three-game slide in the second half of this season made their playoff road extremely difficult. They had to defeat the surging Colts while Denver waited for them at Mile High. They had to rally in the waning seconds to tie Denver and Peyton Manning, then intercept the legendary QB in overtime to win a second round game, just to get back to New England. But once they did, the story started to come together beautifully. Flacco and company destroyed Brady and the Patriots in the rematch, which earned them a two-week rest to get ready for the big show. They didn't disappoint.
Then there are the Ravens' receivers. As a group they are the best in the game. Start with former University of Maryland star Torey Smith, whose speed and great hands force opponents to stretch their defense so far apart that Flacco seems always able to find somebody open. He was a huge factor in every one of the Ravens' four postseason wins. In the win at Denver in conditions reminiscent of the Arctic, the Broncos tried to cover him one-on-one with all-pro corner Champ Bailey. But Smith torched him twice in the first half on long touchdown throws, Anquan Boldin, the other wide-out, is the toughest receiver in the game. As Phil Simms joked during the CBS telecast, even when Boldin was covered, he was open. He and Flacco brazenly challenged even the best defensive backs throughout the playoffs, hooking up for completions countless times even when the DB was virtually standing in the same exact spot on the field that Boldin occupied. He has the strongest hands of any wide receiver, and more courage than any receiver, linebacker or any other player you can name. When Flacco threw the ball to Boldin, Boldin caught it. Then there is the Ravens' third wide out, a lad by the name of Jacoby Jones. During the regular season, Jones caught enough passes to remind people he was there, but not enough to get the kind of attention he deserved from defenses. Talk about a result no one could have imagined. All Jones did in the playoffs is win games. He was the receiver who raced past Denver's deep safeties to catch Flacco's hail Mary pass in the final minute of regulation, enabling Baltimore to come from behind to tie the game. They won in overtime. Against San Francisco, Jones pulled the same stunt, racing past the stunned deep backs in the final minutes of the first half to catch another Flacco bomb. He made that catch falling down. As he lay on the ground near the 49er 10-yard-line, two defensive players jumped over him. One just missed him. But Jones was alert enough to realize he had not been touched. So he sprang to his feet and then cut and zigged and zagged around three 49ers before diving into the endzone for a huge TD. Thanks to that play, the Ravens led 21-6 at the half. To start the second half, the 49ers kicked off. The line drive kick forced Jones to the back of the endzone. But he got back quickly and caught the kick moving forward. Up ahead, Raven fullback Vonta Leach was leading the first wave of blockers, and they bashed a narrow lane right up the middle of the on-rushing 49ers. Jones ran up that lane in a flash and then glanced up at the scoreboard screen to see that he was now in the clear. He turned on the overdrive and ran away from his pursuers. Now the score was 28-6, Baltimore. Many argue that Jones was the real MVP. They have a point, but Flacco was pretty damn valuable, too. If you pick co-winners you leave out Boldin. Three co-winners? No argument here. If we stopped here, you would miss the reason that the Ravens offense is so tough to control. They have two tight ends that terrorize defensive coordinators. Ed Dickson is actually the nominal starter. In the Superbowl he had two huge reception for big yardage. He is a deep threat and possesses very good hands. At he end of last season he went through a stretch of the drops, as in dropped passes. He denied losing confidence but if he didn't he wouldn't be human. It is only in the last games of the regular season and the playoffs that he has regained Flacco's confidence. His two monster catches on the second TD drive were instrumental in the score. And, as you know, every single score was instrumental in the win. The other tight end is Dennis Pita. He and Dickson were drafted at the same time only one round apart. He went to Brigham Young where he caught so many passes he lost count. He has become Flacco's personal friend and seemingly his favorite receiver. But the truth is, the offensive scheme is what makes Pita the target so often. He shares one important trait with Boldin: they both catch passes over the middle and in traffic, and they both hold onto passes after being crushed by linebackers and defensive backs.
And no roll call of receivers would be complete without mentioning Ray Rice. His ability to catch and run out of the backfield is astounding. No one will forget his stunning play against the Chargers that led to a Raven win They were behind the Chargers by three points and it was 4th down and 28 yards to go. Flacco waited long enough with the ball to allow the Ravens' wide outs to get far downfield. Once they were, he threw a short pass over the rushing linemen to Rice, who managed against all of the odds to cut and weave his way to a first down. He made it by inches. On 4th and 28, he made a first down by inches. It was at that point that the Ravens - and their fans - started to believe they were a team of destiny. Rice is one of the best receivers in the game. There are more than a few times that the Ravens split him out as a wide receiver. Some of his touchdowns are on catches.
The press has created the myth that the 34-minute power outage that followed changed the momenturm. It just isn't true as a look at the many game replays that the NFL network is providing will show. After the Jones heroics, the Ravens forced the 49ers into yet another three and out. Flacco then led the Ravens on a short drive that started deep in Baltimore territory. Torey Smith made a fine catch on a deep down and in to gain some 20 yards. When that drive did stall, Sam Koch backed the 49ers up with a fine punt. To make a long story shorter, the truth is that the Ravens still led, 28-6, with 7:30 left in the third quarter. That's four full minutes after the power outage. Once Kapernick got started, however, there was no lead that looked safe. If the 49ers scored a touchdown after Ray Rice's fumble, the outcome might have been different. But that's why the Ravens won. They didn't cave in. Throughout the playoffs, including road wins in Denver and Foxboro, the Ravens played red zone defense like there was no tomorrow. Jimmy Smith resurrected his whole career during some of these stands and Cary Williams played so well that the Ravens almost have to sign him to keep from losing him to free agency. And then there is Ed Reed. Not many realized this certain Hall of Famer has never earned a ring or even played in a Super Bowl. Of all the Ravens, he seemed about the happiest, which is saying something. He hurt his knee making a bone crunching tackle on former Terrapin star Vernon Davis in the first quarter, but only missed one series. When he realized the fourth down pass to Crabtree was incomplete - he was right with Crabtree after Jimmy Smith fell off him - he began to jump and clap, a rare sight if ever there was one. A lot of people talk about Ray Lewis as well they should, but it is Reed that opponents fear the most when they play the Ravens. His mere presence changes game plans.
It was almost ridiculous going into this season that so few people took the Ravens seriously. Anyone who watched the game that ended the previous season - the agonizing loss in New England when their clutch drive in the waning seconds imploded on a dropped touchdown pass and a missed chip shot FG - had to know that pros like Lewis, Reed and Flacco were determined to have another shot at the title. Their three-game slide in the second half of this season made their playoff road extremely difficult. They had to defeat the surging Colts while Denver waited for them at Mile High. They had to rally in the waning seconds to tie Denver and Peyton Manning, then intercept the legendary QB in overtime to win a second round game, just to get back to New England. But once they did, the story started to come together beautifully. Flacco and company destroyed Brady and the Patriots in the rematch, which earned them a two-week rest to get ready for the big show. They didn't disappoint.
Some quick remarks
An awful loss for Terps: Maryland led for most of the second half at Florida State, but three plays gave any observer a bad feeling for Maryland's end-of-game chances. First, Nick Faust - who otherwise played a wonderful game covering for P'Shon Howard at point guard, missed two free throws at the start of the final stretch run. Then, he missed the front end of a one-and-one. Then, Alex Len missed a jam with 12 seconds left that would've put the Terps up three. Was Len fouled on the play? He was. But anyone who thinks Maryland is going to get that call better wake up before a maple tree jumps in front of your car. After Michael Snare hit an open three to put Florida State up two with 1.1 seconds left, the Terps nearly pulled it out anyway. They set up a play where a pick was set for the inbounds passer, who, without anyone in his face, was able to fire a strike to Des Wells, who dribbled once, turned and shot from about 40 feet. It looked real good leaving his hand but it sailed just over the rim, sealing Maryland's fate. Wells had played exceptionally well down the stretch. Earlier in the second half, the play of Luke Aronhalt had carried Maryland while Wells rested.
For obama, solving an immigration problem isn't in his party's interest, so instead of leading, the American Nero plays the race card as only he can. Immigration is no longer a problem to be solved; it is a problem to be used as a political bludgeon, a bludgeon to perpetuate a lie. Even though most Americans would be unable to say with any degree of specificity what it was in the panoply of economic realities what exactly had "recovered" during the "economic recovery" that allegedly took place during obama's first term, the harsh reality for America is that even this "recovery" is played out. Sure, the crowd of Democratic functionaries in the media assured us that a recovery had been "ongoing." Now, even that absurdity is in danger of coming to an end with the revelation that the economy actually shrunk during the last quarter of 2012. You will want to read John Hinderaker's post on Powerline that delves into this new reality:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/01/is-the-worst-recovery-in-history-coming-to-an-end.php
No longer will the sporting lads at NBC have to grit their teeth and report that the "economy continued to grow" last quarter, even though the so-called growth was at the annual rate of 1% (If you're one of the apologists who say growth is growth, imagine what the democratic media would be saying if the growth rate under President Bush, even in the quarter immediately after 9-11, was ever so pitifully paltry). With baited breath, now, we all turn to the White House to see what obama and other anti-capitalists will pull out of their bag of marxist tricks. Some say it will be more stimulus. The Good Lord knows that worked well the first, second and third times it was tried. Well, maybe not. I know that the new plan will begin with the reminder that this was all George Bush's fault.
It wasn't. Anyone with half of a brain knows that. But they'll say it anyway. They always do. Anti-Americans like obama and his mob just cannot help themselves. One guesses that if you caught them with their guard down they'd say that Bush knew about 9/11, too, but we're not supposed to say that.
The sad reality is that obama could care less. Right now he is busy, and the media is busy, bludgeoning the spineless GOP on the issue of immigration. Sen. Rubio and others in the the "Gang of Eight" are playing it straight, trying to solve a vexing problem. They have a common sense solution that really is owed a serious vetting. Yesterday, the lucid and decent man promised that if the Dems think they can ram anything through Congress that doesn't have a meaningful and expressly implemented border enforcement aspect, they are kidding themselves. But if that necessity is included, amnesty might come along with it. Many on both sides would be unhappy but it is a bridge that is going to have to be built if the issue is ever to be solved. Rubio might be just the man for the leadership job. So what does the American Nero do? He gives a speech that apparently takes meaningful enforcement off the table. It seems obama wants things his way or he doesn't want them. Yet it is the GOP that is the tough guy. Really? You can almost hear the campaign rhetoric now: the GOP hates Hispanics. They want them all deported. Or something like that. Solve the problem and take away the campaign issue. obama can't have that.
For obama, solving an immigration problem isn't in his party's interest, so instead of leading, the American Nero plays the race card as only he can. Immigration is no longer a problem to be solved; it is a problem to be used as a political bludgeon, a bludgeon to perpetuate a lie. Even though most Americans would be unable to say with any degree of specificity what it was in the panoply of economic realities what exactly had "recovered" during the "economic recovery" that allegedly took place during obama's first term, the harsh reality for America is that even this "recovery" is played out. Sure, the crowd of Democratic functionaries in the media assured us that a recovery had been "ongoing." Now, even that absurdity is in danger of coming to an end with the revelation that the economy actually shrunk during the last quarter of 2012. You will want to read John Hinderaker's post on Powerline that delves into this new reality:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/01/is-the-worst-recovery-in-history-coming-to-an-end.php
No longer will the sporting lads at NBC have to grit their teeth and report that the "economy continued to grow" last quarter, even though the so-called growth was at the annual rate of 1% (If you're one of the apologists who say growth is growth, imagine what the democratic media would be saying if the growth rate under President Bush, even in the quarter immediately after 9-11, was ever so pitifully paltry). With baited breath, now, we all turn to the White House to see what obama and other anti-capitalists will pull out of their bag of marxist tricks. Some say it will be more stimulus. The Good Lord knows that worked well the first, second and third times it was tried. Well, maybe not. I know that the new plan will begin with the reminder that this was all George Bush's fault.
It wasn't. Anyone with half of a brain knows that. But they'll say it anyway. They always do. Anti-Americans like obama and his mob just cannot help themselves. One guesses that if you caught them with their guard down they'd say that Bush knew about 9/11, too, but we're not supposed to say that.
The sad reality is that obama could care less. Right now he is busy, and the media is busy, bludgeoning the spineless GOP on the issue of immigration. Sen. Rubio and others in the the "Gang of Eight" are playing it straight, trying to solve a vexing problem. They have a common sense solution that really is owed a serious vetting. Yesterday, the lucid and decent man promised that if the Dems think they can ram anything through Congress that doesn't have a meaningful and expressly implemented border enforcement aspect, they are kidding themselves. But if that necessity is included, amnesty might come along with it. Many on both sides would be unhappy but it is a bridge that is going to have to be built if the issue is ever to be solved. Rubio might be just the man for the leadership job. So what does the American Nero do? He gives a speech that apparently takes meaningful enforcement off the table. It seems obama wants things his way or he doesn't want them. Yet it is the GOP that is the tough guy. Really? You can almost hear the campaign rhetoric now: the GOP hates Hispanics. They want them all deported. Or something like that. Solve the problem and take away the campaign issue. obama can't have that.
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