BALTIMORE, Maryland January 31, 2014 - You might be interested to know who, besides you, is reading this blog? The folks who provide me this space automatically tell me who is logging on to this page. No names, of course, just numbers. Even if it is somehow possible to obtain names, I won't look. I promise.
I realize that I have only taken blogging with any seriousness at all for less than a year. Some few posts go back to 2011, but there are no regular posts until sometime in 2013. Plus, I made virtually no effort to expand the readership by using Google Plus, Twitter or Facebook until late last year. I have promised myself that I will not do actual reporting until I have 40-50 pageviews each day. By "actual reporting" I mean contacting newsmakers and identifying myself as John William Trotz of Credible and Incisive. And, once having identified myself, asking them questions. I used to be a reporter for daily newspapers and weekly newspapers. I miss that part of my life.
Anyway, according to the stats I receive, I had some 337 pageviews last month, other than my own pageviews. The stat service breaks down the pageviews by country, by browser, and by operating system. I was most interested in the "by country" breakdown. It flabbergasted me. Not surprisingly, some 264 of the hits came from these United States. Another 28 came from Germany. I'm thinking my last name, Trotz, had something to do with this. "Trotz," I'm told, is a German name. And, not only is it a German name, it is also a German word. I'm told it means "hothead" or something to that effect, in German. To be candid and honest, my father's father came to these United States from Suwalki, Poland. When he came here, Suwalki was part of Russia. Before that, it was part of Prussia. By my estimation, Suwalki is some 30-35 miles from the Russian border. When my grandfather emmigrated from Suwalki, my research indicates that it was one of the few cities in the world - outside of today's Israel - that had a population that was predominantly Jewish. But my grandfather was Lutheran. He came through Ellis Island and originally settled in Detroit. Not long after arriving, however, he traveled to Scranton, Pennsylvania for a wedding. He met my grandmother at the wedding and never went back to Detroit. They married at some point and then had six children. My father was the last one. My grandfather - whose name was also John Trotz, went to work as a coal miner. Many other immigrants from the Suwalki area also settled in Scranton. The word had gotten back to Suwalki that there was work to be had in Scranton as a coal miner. None of these immigrants had been miners in Poland. But they learned quickly. They all originally planned to earn enough money to establish themselves, then to return to Poland. Almost none of them did. My grandgather never had a chance: he was killed in a terrible accident when my Dad was three.
Back to the stats. After Germany there is this breakdown: Seven pageviews were from China. China! Then there were five pageviews each from Japan and Russia. Amazing. After that, there were four each from France, Poland and Singapore. Then there were two each from the Netherlands and Canada. Finally, there was one each from England and India. I was thinking, without knowing, that if I attracted any readers from outside of the United States they would be from England and Italy. The England conclusion was because I make frequent reference to England because I have been there, because I studied English Literature and History at the University of Maryland, and because I follow the Burnley Football Club and write about it. I was also mindful of the fact that I write in English. The Italian guess was because the Vatican followed my Twitter musings for a time, and because I emphasize the fact that I am very supportive of the Vatican. To the people who look at the blog, I cannot thank you enough. It means a lot.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Was the Great Master a Big Man?
BALTIMORE, Maryland January 31, 2014 - According the National Gallery of Art in London, the artist Giorgione may well have been very tall for his time. Little is known about the great man's life, personality, beliefs or values. There is great debate as to how old he was during his brief active period. It is known that he perished in 1510, a victim of the Plague. We know this because he exchanged letters with Isabella d'Este in that year. One of those letters contains information about his death, according to the Gallery.
According to the National Gallery, the name Giorgione actually means "big George." Normally, such a tidbit would not be cause for discussion, but historians, especially art historians, are out front with their hunger for information about Giorgione. He has had an influence on art that far exceeds that normally generated by one who contributes the few paintings credited to Giorgione. Therefore, any news is big news....about the big man.
The Este family ruled the Northern Italian City of Ferarra in the 15th and 16th centuries. Isabella d'Este wrote to the artist seeking to acquire one of his paintings. The National Gallery of Art in London's post concerning Giorgione is at http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/giorgione. The Gallery provides information about the d'Este family and their artistic acquisitions - quite a few of which now hang in London in the National Gallery - at http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/glossary/este.
According to the National Gallery, the name Giorgione actually means "big George." Normally, such a tidbit would not be cause for discussion, but historians, especially art historians, are out front with their hunger for information about Giorgione. He has had an influence on art that far exceeds that normally generated by one who contributes the few paintings credited to Giorgione. Therefore, any news is big news....about the big man.
The Este family ruled the Northern Italian City of Ferarra in the 15th and 16th centuries. Isabella d'Este wrote to the artist seeking to acquire one of his paintings. The National Gallery of Art in London's post concerning Giorgione is at http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/giorgione. The Gallery provides information about the d'Este family and their artistic acquisitions - quite a few of which now hang in London in the National Gallery - at http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/glossary/este.
Unprecedented Revolt of Justice Department Attorneys Attacks Holder-obama support for career criminals
BALTIMORE, Maryland January 31, 2014 - A shameful piece of legislation that would eliminate minimum sentences for hardcore drug dealers, supported by obama and Eric Holder, has sparked an unprecedented public revolt by rank and file Justice Department attorneys. Powerline is all over the story. See: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/01/hundreds-of-career-prosecutors-revolt-against-holder.php
The ultimate in debauched cynicism: after five years of utter failure, obama and his functionaries blame others; Plus: Maryland's ridiculous win and Burnley's Penchant for Not Losing or Winning
BALTIMORE, Maryland January 30, 2014 - In today's surreal political nightmare, I throw my arms up in the air and wonder, aloud, if this is what happens to a leader locked in a prison of stale and rancid thought, all because of an unthinkable and nearly imbecilic devotion to a mode of political thinking that itself is at once vapid, intelluctually stunted and nearly stupid. I write, of course, of the dogmatic utterly far left mindset in which our President is willingly stuck in, to the longterm degradation of these United States.
There are no actual prison cells or twenty foot walls in his prison; there is no need for them. The souls incarcerated there, like obama, make their own shackles. These shackles convince them that the god-awful ideas they promote are actually working in spite of cold hard facts to the contrary. These shackles convince them that ideas like never lifting the burden of an overbearing central government from the backs of the private businesses that provide nearly every job is a worthy one. Business reels. Millions are unemployed. These private businesses, beset with team obama's weight and weapons, either go out of existence or pull in the arms of their existence and go into a kind of hibernation, hoping to survive until obama and company are no longer in place. Just imagine what happens to the businesses existing in these modes if somebody like obama succeeds him. Somebody like Hilary. Hilary and obama battled each other for supremacy back in 2008, but there was no actual difference in the way they approached reality. The only difference was their actual desperation for pure power. obama won. Now, he exercises his power to the absolute degradation of the folk he lords over. He seeks more power - people like him always do. He rails against those elements of government that would reign him in. Now the electorate has acted to further limit his power. They have elected the opposition to run the show in one of the legislative branch's two houses. The GOP has made it all but impossible for him to enact the pure forms of utter far left power he is comfortable with. More often than not, that is the way that America gets along. But obama cannot act within the limits of his power. He rebels against it with all of his might. He says during the State of Union that he will act unilaterally to implement his utter far left dogma. The question is whether the GOP or someone in his own party - perish the thought - has the courage of their convictions and will challenge him, in court, when he tries such an immoral stunt. In the halls of obama's Washington he is surrounded by a hoard of zombie bootlickers uttering mindless "praise". It is worth keeping this in mind because it is one thing that would explain why someone said to be intelligent continues such abhorent behavior in the halls of power.
Five futile years after obama assumed what he sees as the role of the American Caesar (and I've said it before: he is more like the American Nero), and obama is still unwilling to face reality. His backwoods ideas have not worked and will not work. The utterly far left reality that holds him prisoner apparently only permits a truncated view of the real world. Every single class of American Society has suffered. The poor are poorer. The middle class is shrinking with many former middle class folk now checking in below the poverty line. Blacks, for more than a century the class of society that always came last and prospered least, looked on obama's election with unrestricted joy. Now, they look at him and wonder how he could have disregarded their most profound needs. For the poor, for blacks, for the middle class, the worst news is that the bottom is not anywhere in sight. For two years obama had unchecked and unmoderated power. He forced a knuckleheaded redistribution of wealth thing - disguised as something officially called the affordable care act but more aptly named "obamashame" - down the country's unwilling throats, where we now gag and heave on the consequences. During those first two years he could have done real service to the poor and downtrodden. He could have done meaningful work for his nation. He had an unprecedented chance to do good. But he was schooled in the dogma of the utter far left, where children are taught that success is evil because success is achieved only by evil deeds. There were 200-plus years of examples of the total untruth of that stuff - and no, I know we are not perfect and I surely know we do not pretend to be - but of course, on the utter far left, reality is not something to be celebrated because it proves the ridiculous conclusions they have drawn to be so much vapid nonsense. What to do about someone on the utter far left when even the cold hard truth of reality convinces them of nothing?
So here comes obama on "State of the Union" night, not with a leader-to-country frankness we all yearned for, followed by some long-overdue about-faces. No indeed. Instead, we get the spineless and cowardley language of the brain-dead radical, the old stuff, the ridiculous stuff: he actually says: we can solve all of these tremendous problems (that he, by himself, caused) by blaming them on the people who were nowhere near power, people who could no more institute policy than the poor who keep getting poorer. There is no courage or nobleness is hiding behind some old gray radical nonsense that anyone with a wee bit of sense can only shake their head at. Throw money you really don't have at some scheme that can not possibly work. (I am forgetting here that the receivers of this money did give his campaign quite a bit. Silly me). So, the state of the union is thus, says obama: people out of power for years and years keep screwing me up. If I raise the minimum wage on top of the heavy taxes of obamashame, and the other tax hikes, and those god-awful rules and regulations my minions turn out by the thousands of pages, the business people who bear the burden of all of this will hire more people. Makes sense to me.
On Wednesday night in College Park, Maryland finally built up a working lead on Miami, and with only three minutes left, it looked like the long-awaited convincing victory this team needed. And then the lead disappeared. In three hectic minutes Miami ran off ten unanswered points to tie the game with 22 seconds left. Maryland got the ball up court as Coach Mark Turgeon signaled to run their offense rather than call time out. In their zeal, the Hurricanes were not in an optimal defense. Maryland star Dez Wells grabbed the ball and took matters into his own capable hands. He launched a long three-point shot as the clock ticked under seven seconds. It went in. By the time the Hurricanes could get time out, the clock was under four seconds. Turgeon had the Terps foul on the inbounds, further taking time from Miami. A poor shot was launched that was not close. Maryland, which blew a big lead, managed a narrow win. In the ACC, they even their mark at 4-4. On Saturday they go to Blacksburg to play the last place Hokies of Virginia Tech. A win would be huge. But then, how often have we said that in a season that has yet to reach February?
Burnley has slipped a season-high eleven points behind the Championship lead. On Tuesday, at Turf Moor, they played Brighton to a scoreless deadlock. Meanwhile, Leicester won. Queens Park did too. Now, the Claret go to Queens Park. The amazing thing, and it is amazing, is that if you look at the Championship table, Burnley has the fewest losses of any of the 24 teams. At the end of the sixth month of play, Burnley has only lost three times in league play. Three losses in six months. To say that and anything but first place seems ludicrous. But it is true. Burnley has played 27 games. They have only suffered three losses, none of them at Turf Moor. The problem is that they also have the fewest wins of any of the top four teams. Leicester, which even has a home loss, has won twenty times. Queens Park, in second place, has fifteen wins. Derby, in fourth place, has the same number: fifteen. Burnley has won fourteen times. So you know the answer is that Burnley has a tremendous tendency to draw matches. In 27 matches, the Claret have drawn ten times. You know that you get a point in a draw. You also know that one point is two less than the three you get with a win. Is Burnley playing it too close to the vest? They have a tremendous keeper in Tom Heaton, a keeper certainly worthy enough to play that position in the Premier. Maybe, just maybe, the answer is to trust Heaton more and send more pop forward, from time to time. A win Saturday in London ties the Claret with QPR for the second, automatic promotion position. But Burnley needs to get back to their early propensity for winning. Mixing in draws so regularly is not a formula for promotion. The Claret need to win very regularly. They can. They've proved that. But being able to win, and winning, are so far apart. Success is in the doing.
There are no actual prison cells or twenty foot walls in his prison; there is no need for them. The souls incarcerated there, like obama, make their own shackles. These shackles convince them that the god-awful ideas they promote are actually working in spite of cold hard facts to the contrary. These shackles convince them that ideas like never lifting the burden of an overbearing central government from the backs of the private businesses that provide nearly every job is a worthy one. Business reels. Millions are unemployed. These private businesses, beset with team obama's weight and weapons, either go out of existence or pull in the arms of their existence and go into a kind of hibernation, hoping to survive until obama and company are no longer in place. Just imagine what happens to the businesses existing in these modes if somebody like obama succeeds him. Somebody like Hilary. Hilary and obama battled each other for supremacy back in 2008, but there was no actual difference in the way they approached reality. The only difference was their actual desperation for pure power. obama won. Now, he exercises his power to the absolute degradation of the folk he lords over. He seeks more power - people like him always do. He rails against those elements of government that would reign him in. Now the electorate has acted to further limit his power. They have elected the opposition to run the show in one of the legislative branch's two houses. The GOP has made it all but impossible for him to enact the pure forms of utter far left power he is comfortable with. More often than not, that is the way that America gets along. But obama cannot act within the limits of his power. He rebels against it with all of his might. He says during the State of Union that he will act unilaterally to implement his utter far left dogma. The question is whether the GOP or someone in his own party - perish the thought - has the courage of their convictions and will challenge him, in court, when he tries such an immoral stunt. In the halls of obama's Washington he is surrounded by a hoard of zombie bootlickers uttering mindless "praise". It is worth keeping this in mind because it is one thing that would explain why someone said to be intelligent continues such abhorent behavior in the halls of power.
Five futile years after obama assumed what he sees as the role of the American Caesar (and I've said it before: he is more like the American Nero), and obama is still unwilling to face reality. His backwoods ideas have not worked and will not work. The utterly far left reality that holds him prisoner apparently only permits a truncated view of the real world. Every single class of American Society has suffered. The poor are poorer. The middle class is shrinking with many former middle class folk now checking in below the poverty line. Blacks, for more than a century the class of society that always came last and prospered least, looked on obama's election with unrestricted joy. Now, they look at him and wonder how he could have disregarded their most profound needs. For the poor, for blacks, for the middle class, the worst news is that the bottom is not anywhere in sight. For two years obama had unchecked and unmoderated power. He forced a knuckleheaded redistribution of wealth thing - disguised as something officially called the affordable care act but more aptly named "obamashame" - down the country's unwilling throats, where we now gag and heave on the consequences. During those first two years he could have done real service to the poor and downtrodden. He could have done meaningful work for his nation. He had an unprecedented chance to do good. But he was schooled in the dogma of the utter far left, where children are taught that success is evil because success is achieved only by evil deeds. There were 200-plus years of examples of the total untruth of that stuff - and no, I know we are not perfect and I surely know we do not pretend to be - but of course, on the utter far left, reality is not something to be celebrated because it proves the ridiculous conclusions they have drawn to be so much vapid nonsense. What to do about someone on the utter far left when even the cold hard truth of reality convinces them of nothing?
So here comes obama on "State of the Union" night, not with a leader-to-country frankness we all yearned for, followed by some long-overdue about-faces. No indeed. Instead, we get the spineless and cowardley language of the brain-dead radical, the old stuff, the ridiculous stuff: he actually says: we can solve all of these tremendous problems (that he, by himself, caused) by blaming them on the people who were nowhere near power, people who could no more institute policy than the poor who keep getting poorer. There is no courage or nobleness is hiding behind some old gray radical nonsense that anyone with a wee bit of sense can only shake their head at. Throw money you really don't have at some scheme that can not possibly work. (I am forgetting here that the receivers of this money did give his campaign quite a bit. Silly me). So, the state of the union is thus, says obama: people out of power for years and years keep screwing me up. If I raise the minimum wage on top of the heavy taxes of obamashame, and the other tax hikes, and those god-awful rules and regulations my minions turn out by the thousands of pages, the business people who bear the burden of all of this will hire more people. Makes sense to me.
On Wednesday night in College Park, Maryland finally built up a working lead on Miami, and with only three minutes left, it looked like the long-awaited convincing victory this team needed. And then the lead disappeared. In three hectic minutes Miami ran off ten unanswered points to tie the game with 22 seconds left. Maryland got the ball up court as Coach Mark Turgeon signaled to run their offense rather than call time out. In their zeal, the Hurricanes were not in an optimal defense. Maryland star Dez Wells grabbed the ball and took matters into his own capable hands. He launched a long three-point shot as the clock ticked under seven seconds. It went in. By the time the Hurricanes could get time out, the clock was under four seconds. Turgeon had the Terps foul on the inbounds, further taking time from Miami. A poor shot was launched that was not close. Maryland, which blew a big lead, managed a narrow win. In the ACC, they even their mark at 4-4. On Saturday they go to Blacksburg to play the last place Hokies of Virginia Tech. A win would be huge. But then, how often have we said that in a season that has yet to reach February?
Burnley has slipped a season-high eleven points behind the Championship lead. On Tuesday, at Turf Moor, they played Brighton to a scoreless deadlock. Meanwhile, Leicester won. Queens Park did too. Now, the Claret go to Queens Park. The amazing thing, and it is amazing, is that if you look at the Championship table, Burnley has the fewest losses of any of the 24 teams. At the end of the sixth month of play, Burnley has only lost three times in league play. Three losses in six months. To say that and anything but first place seems ludicrous. But it is true. Burnley has played 27 games. They have only suffered three losses, none of them at Turf Moor. The problem is that they also have the fewest wins of any of the top four teams. Leicester, which even has a home loss, has won twenty times. Queens Park, in second place, has fifteen wins. Derby, in fourth place, has the same number: fifteen. Burnley has won fourteen times. So you know the answer is that Burnley has a tremendous tendency to draw matches. In 27 matches, the Claret have drawn ten times. You know that you get a point in a draw. You also know that one point is two less than the three you get with a win. Is Burnley playing it too close to the vest? They have a tremendous keeper in Tom Heaton, a keeper certainly worthy enough to play that position in the Premier. Maybe, just maybe, the answer is to trust Heaton more and send more pop forward, from time to time. A win Saturday in London ties the Claret with QPR for the second, automatic promotion position. But Burnley needs to get back to their early propensity for winning. Mixing in draws so regularly is not a formula for promotion. The Claret need to win very regularly. They can. They've proved that. But being able to win, and winning, are so far apart. Success is in the doing.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Many in Israel and Egypt fear obama trying to scuttle election of strong Egyptian President
BALTIMORE, Maryland January 29, 2014 - A growing number of Israelis and Egyptians claim that obama is actively trying to keep a strong Egyptian General with widespread support from running for President in upcoming Egyptian elections. A blogger in Israel, known as "Israpundit" posted yesterday a detailed account of steps taken by obama and his far left regime to prevent General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the current Defense Minister, from even being on the ballot. According to Israpundit, it was El-Sisi who led the movement which overthrew Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood poster "guy" who "won" a previous election amidst widespread claims of corruption and election tampering. Morsi is currently on trial in Egypt for opening the jailhouse doors and allowing a mass prisoner escape once he was in power. During his short stay in power obama funneled over $8 million to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, a widespread and amorphous movement with ties to Al Qaeda. Israpundit alleges that obama's plan is to have Muslim Brotherhood members rise to power throughout the Middle East.
United States Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel - a far left politician nominally registered as a Republican - contacted several members of the Egyptian armed forces in recent days in a somewhat desperate attempt to keep El-Sisi off the ballot. Hagel told these Egyptian Military contacts that obama "is not comfortable" with El-Sisi, and instead wants the military to completely disengage in Egyptian politics. obama has also prevailed upon several Middle East Arab countries to publicly make the same request. These countries include Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
It appears, however, that obama's efforts have failed and actually angered the Egyptian military. At a meeting recently of high level Egyptian Military leaders, plans for an election within 90 days and plans to supervise and regulate the process were hammered out. The group emphasized that any candidate meeting the qualifications for candidacy set out in the Egyptian Constitution would be permitted to run. No one has suggested that El-Sisi lacks any of these qualifying characteristics.
The Israpundit post is at http://www.israpundit.com/archives/63593558. The New York Times, a ultra left publication defending every obama policy, ran a story yesterday defending Morsi and attacking the current trial. It can e found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/world/middleeast/egypt-morsi-trial.html?_r=0
United States Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel - a far left politician nominally registered as a Republican - contacted several members of the Egyptian armed forces in recent days in a somewhat desperate attempt to keep El-Sisi off the ballot. Hagel told these Egyptian Military contacts that obama "is not comfortable" with El-Sisi, and instead wants the military to completely disengage in Egyptian politics. obama has also prevailed upon several Middle East Arab countries to publicly make the same request. These countries include Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
It appears, however, that obama's efforts have failed and actually angered the Egyptian military. At a meeting recently of high level Egyptian Military leaders, plans for an election within 90 days and plans to supervise and regulate the process were hammered out. The group emphasized that any candidate meeting the qualifications for candidacy set out in the Egyptian Constitution would be permitted to run. No one has suggested that El-Sisi lacks any of these qualifying characteristics.
The Israpundit post is at http://www.israpundit.com/archives/63593558. The New York Times, a ultra left publication defending every obama policy, ran a story yesterday defending Morsi and attacking the current trial. It can e found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/world/middleeast/egypt-morsi-trial.html?_r=0
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Top-flight analysis of what is wrong with obama and his administration; In the Grip of historic cold; Burnley faces key showdown tonight
BALTIMORE, Maryland January 28, 2014 - In just a few short paragraphs, the lads at Powerline Blog score a direct hit on the exact reasons why the obama administration is an utter failure and why other administrations, even with their errors of judgment, are far more preferable. Go to: http://www.powerlineblog.com/ and stay with the jump, it is quite short. Even far left folk will have to agree if they think even a little bit.
Snow fell across Maryland again on Sunday, marking the third time in six days that measurable snow was recorded. On Tuesday morning Maryland again experienced single digits. On Monday morning I checked some temperatures and forecasts. A spot known for its cold readings, International Falls, Minnesota, was tickling the thermometer at -24 degrees. The forecasted high in Minneapolis on Monday was -5 degrees. Tonight in Maryland the low is predicted to be about 11 degrees, with some snow and accumulation expected. The NCAA Baseball season will start in just over two weeks with outdoor baseball scheduled all across the south, far west, and as far north as Maryland, Virginia and other spots now locked in a deep freeze of unprecedented proportions.
Leicester City grabbed a rare opportunity when it played at home Saturday against Championship Rival Middlesboro while the two teams pursueing it - Burnley and the Queens Park Rangers - were idle. When Leicester beat back visiting Middlesboro, 2-0, after a scoreless first half, it increased its Championship lead to 8 points over Queens Park and 9 points over Burnley. David Eyres of the Lancashire Telegraph writes a column about the state of things on the Burnley side, and he pulls no punches about tonight's showdown at Turf Moor between the Claret and Brighton. Eyres, a former player himself, calls the match a "must win" for Burnley, especially in view of the fact that both Leicester and Queens Park have much easier matches on tap. Read David Eyres' column in the Telegraph at: http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/burnley_fc/news/10963179.David_Eyres_column__Brighton_match_is_must_win_for_Burnley/?ref=eb
Snow fell across Maryland again on Sunday, marking the third time in six days that measurable snow was recorded. On Tuesday morning Maryland again experienced single digits. On Monday morning I checked some temperatures and forecasts. A spot known for its cold readings, International Falls, Minnesota, was tickling the thermometer at -24 degrees. The forecasted high in Minneapolis on Monday was -5 degrees. Tonight in Maryland the low is predicted to be about 11 degrees, with some snow and accumulation expected. The NCAA Baseball season will start in just over two weeks with outdoor baseball scheduled all across the south, far west, and as far north as Maryland, Virginia and other spots now locked in a deep freeze of unprecedented proportions.
Leicester City grabbed a rare opportunity when it played at home Saturday against Championship Rival Middlesboro while the two teams pursueing it - Burnley and the Queens Park Rangers - were idle. When Leicester beat back visiting Middlesboro, 2-0, after a scoreless first half, it increased its Championship lead to 8 points over Queens Park and 9 points over Burnley. David Eyres of the Lancashire Telegraph writes a column about the state of things on the Burnley side, and he pulls no punches about tonight's showdown at Turf Moor between the Claret and Brighton. Eyres, a former player himself, calls the match a "must win" for Burnley, especially in view of the fact that both Leicester and Queens Park have much easier matches on tap. Read David Eyres' column in the Telegraph at: http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/burnley_fc/news/10963179.David_Eyres_column__Brighton_match_is_must_win_for_Burnley/?ref=eb
Saturday, January 25, 2014
College Park Man, 19, Kills Two Inside Columbia Mall in Howard County, Maryland, then Kills Himself; Five also Injured in Chaotic Incident
BALTIMORE, Maryland January 26, 2014 - {Sunday update of story posted originally on Saturday} Even as frigid cold weather continued its steel grip on the Mid-Atlantic States, police and other authorities in central Maryland say three people are confirmed dead and at least five others injured after a lone gunman killed two employees of a store inside a metro shopping mall, then apparently killed himself. Howard County Police Chief Bill McMahon said Sunday morning that no connection has been established between the shooter and his two victims. Authorities have determined that the shooter and one victim have College Park, Maryland addresses.
The assailant has been identified as Darion Marcus Aguilar, 19, who lived with his mother in College Park, Maryland. When his body was discovered immediately after the 11:15 am Saturday (1/25/2014) shootings, he was wearing a backpack filled with rather crude explosives, and authorities initially feared he had booby-trapped himself. Police raided his apartment last night and confiscated ammunition, a computer and documents.
Aguilar's two victims, according to authorities, were Brianna Benlolo, 21, of College Park, and Tyler Johnson, 25, of Mount Airy, Maryland. WBAL Radio in Baltimore reported Sunday, quoting Ms. Benlolo's grandfather, that Ms. Benlolo moved to College Park from Colorado and was the manager of the store where the shootings occurred. She is the mother of a 2-year-old son. The grandfather, who lives in Florida, said he did not know Aguilar. Ms. Benlolo is on good terms with her child's father, and they share custody of the 2-year-old. The grandfather also said Ms. Benlolo was from a military family and moved often.
The scene of the gunfire was the Columbia Mall in suburban Howard County, just north of Washington D.C. and southwest of Baltimore. College Park, Maryland is also close to the shooting scene. According to WBAL, which quoted University of Maryland officials, neither the gunman nor the victims had any connection with the University of Maryland's main campus in College Park.
Witnesses have said that the armed assailant emerged from the back of a Zumiez location and began firing. All three fatal shootings occurred inside the Zumiez location, which is on the second floor of the mall, although at least one body was found just outside the store. Police and other authorities initially said the shooting grew out of a domestic dispute.
In addition to the three fatalities, at least five people were treated for injuries at Howard County General Hospital, including one who was shot. Of the five injuries, only the person who was shot was not injured in the panic that erupted immediately after the shots rang out. Police say the shooter fired six to eight total shots from a 12-gauge shotgun. There was no immediate explanation as to how the injured shooting victim received his wounds since he was on the first floor of the mall underneath the Zumiez shop. Although police were on the scene within two to three minutes of its occurrence, they apparently fired no return shots.
It has been reported that the instant that shots rang out shopkeepers began closing and locking their stores. They then kept themselves and their customers locked in until given an okay from SWAT Team members inside the mall.
This writer culled his story from a variety of online sources. The Chicago Tribune, mainly utilizng Reuters, has a concise report of the facts at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-maryland-mall-shooting-20140125,0,2030558.story
The assailant has been identified as Darion Marcus Aguilar, 19, who lived with his mother in College Park, Maryland. When his body was discovered immediately after the 11:15 am Saturday (1/25/2014) shootings, he was wearing a backpack filled with rather crude explosives, and authorities initially feared he had booby-trapped himself. Police raided his apartment last night and confiscated ammunition, a computer and documents.
Aguilar's two victims, according to authorities, were Brianna Benlolo, 21, of College Park, and Tyler Johnson, 25, of Mount Airy, Maryland. WBAL Radio in Baltimore reported Sunday, quoting Ms. Benlolo's grandfather, that Ms. Benlolo moved to College Park from Colorado and was the manager of the store where the shootings occurred. She is the mother of a 2-year-old son. The grandfather, who lives in Florida, said he did not know Aguilar. Ms. Benlolo is on good terms with her child's father, and they share custody of the 2-year-old. The grandfather also said Ms. Benlolo was from a military family and moved often.
The scene of the gunfire was the Columbia Mall in suburban Howard County, just north of Washington D.C. and southwest of Baltimore. College Park, Maryland is also close to the shooting scene. According to WBAL, which quoted University of Maryland officials, neither the gunman nor the victims had any connection with the University of Maryland's main campus in College Park.
Witnesses have said that the armed assailant emerged from the back of a Zumiez location and began firing. All three fatal shootings occurred inside the Zumiez location, which is on the second floor of the mall, although at least one body was found just outside the store. Police and other authorities initially said the shooting grew out of a domestic dispute.
In addition to the three fatalities, at least five people were treated for injuries at Howard County General Hospital, including one who was shot. Of the five injuries, only the person who was shot was not injured in the panic that erupted immediately after the shots rang out. Police say the shooter fired six to eight total shots from a 12-gauge shotgun. There was no immediate explanation as to how the injured shooting victim received his wounds since he was on the first floor of the mall underneath the Zumiez shop. Although police were on the scene within two to three minutes of its occurrence, they apparently fired no return shots.
It has been reported that the instant that shots rang out shopkeepers began closing and locking their stores. They then kept themselves and their customers locked in until given an okay from SWAT Team members inside the mall.
This writer culled his story from a variety of online sources. The Chicago Tribune, mainly utilizng Reuters, has a concise report of the facts at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-maryland-mall-shooting-20140125,0,2030558.story
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Draw with Owls dumps Burnley into third place
BALTIMORE, Maryland January 21, 2014 - The English soccer season is so very long. The 24 team Championship League features each side playing a home and home series with each other side. Add that up and it is a 46 game schedule. Add to that schedule the two tournaments that each league team plays in, and it means that those players are going to go at it some 50 times each season.
Burnley is having a good season, so far. They have only lost three games. And yet they have slipped just a bit from the level they maintained over the first 15 games. Last Saturday, at Turf Moor, the Claret were matched up against one of the sides who inhabit the bottom fifth of the league. Sheffield Wednesday went into he match just one point ahead of the 23rd place team. That is a bad place to be, because, come the first week in May when the season ends, the teams in 23rd and 24th place are demoted to League 1. It is a scary prospect. And yet keen observers had detected a rejuvenation underway on the Owl side. It continued Saturday, when Sheffield Wednesday scored late to earn a road tie and an all-important point. Burnley, too, earned a single point but it wasn't enough to keep them ahead of Queens Park, which won its match. As a result, the Claret are now in third place. Were the season to end this way, Burnley and three other teams would play a single elimination tournament and only the winner would be promoted. The teams finishing first and second are automatically promoted to the Premier.
The Claret now have ten days to rejuvenate themselves before playing again at Turf Moor against Brighton. Five days after that they travel to Queens Park.
Burnley is having a good season, so far. They have only lost three games. And yet they have slipped just a bit from the level they maintained over the first 15 games. Last Saturday, at Turf Moor, the Claret were matched up against one of the sides who inhabit the bottom fifth of the league. Sheffield Wednesday went into he match just one point ahead of the 23rd place team. That is a bad place to be, because, come the first week in May when the season ends, the teams in 23rd and 24th place are demoted to League 1. It is a scary prospect. And yet keen observers had detected a rejuvenation underway on the Owl side. It continued Saturday, when Sheffield Wednesday scored late to earn a road tie and an all-important point. Burnley, too, earned a single point but it wasn't enough to keep them ahead of Queens Park, which won its match. As a result, the Claret are now in third place. Were the season to end this way, Burnley and three other teams would play a single elimination tournament and only the winner would be promoted. The teams finishing first and second are automatically promoted to the Premier.
The Claret now have ten days to rejuvenate themselves before playing again at Turf Moor against Brighton. Five days after that they travel to Queens Park.
As Ice rapidly builds in Anarctica and historic cold sweeps the Northern Hemisphere, some scientists wonder if a new "Little Ice Age" is dawning
BALTIMORE, Maryland January 21, 2014 - In the "Little Ice Age," temperatures dropped so far in winter that they could not recover in summer. There were no warm summers across a wide swatch of Northern Europe. That may also have been true in North America, but this was a period of time beginning in the year 1350 and no temperature records were kept in North America, at least that survive. The reason it is easier and easier to find reference to the LIA is because some of the key reasons for it are happening again. The main one, a period of striking calm on the Sun that may not be done yet, was also a key factor in starting the LIA, which, despite debate, occurred between 1350 and 1850.
An article in the Digital Journal on Monday summarized NASA's findings about solar inactivity. Find it here: http://digitaljournal.com/tech/science/op-ed-new-mini-ice-age-on-the-way-as-sun-goes-to-sleep/article/366556. Now, NASA is the last place to go to find people talking about any kind of ice age. With obama running the big show, all federal agencies are required to drink global warming kool-aid if they want to remain employed. But scientists at NASA have to admit what they see. Other scientists are reporting on the shocking build up in the amount, extant and thickness of the ice plate on the continent of Anarctica. Forbes had a story on this back in September and they have recently updated it. See: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2012/09/19/antarctic-sea-ice-sets-another-record/. Wikipedia has an entry on the LIA.
What brings all of this to mind, again, is the winter of 2013-2014. Outside my window, now, a new snowstorm is starting with up to ten inches predicted along with single-digit temperatures. If the wind come to - forecasters are iffy, here - it will be a full-fledged blizzard.
It is the calm sun that is generating most of the talk, together with the thickening polar ice. I should add that the New York Times managed to find some real kool-aid drinkers who say that the thickening polar ice is because of glocal warming. Record cold is also because of global warming.
I only know what I see and feel. Right now, this is the coldest winter I can remember. The only one that was close was the winter of 1976-1977, when the Chesapeake Bay froze over and cars drove out on the ice. I remember ice skating for miles on Middle River and other bodies of water that haven't seen ice like that since, until now.
There is another article worth reading. An MIT scientist who generally believes the planet is warming laid in to the numbscalls who tell the publiv that every thing that happens is because of global warming. See http://newmexico.watchdog.org/15128/mit-scientist-disputes-man-made-global-warming-in-sandia-labs-presentation/.
Update: It is now just after 4 pm on Tuesday and the snow in Baltimore has continued while the wind increases and the temperature plunges. It is now 21 degrees Farenheit and forecasters here say that a foot of snow is now possible. They also say more snow is possible on Thursday and again on Saturday.
An article in the Digital Journal on Monday summarized NASA's findings about solar inactivity. Find it here: http://digitaljournal.com/tech/science/op-ed-new-mini-ice-age-on-the-way-as-sun-goes-to-sleep/article/366556. Now, NASA is the last place to go to find people talking about any kind of ice age. With obama running the big show, all federal agencies are required to drink global warming kool-aid if they want to remain employed. But scientists at NASA have to admit what they see. Other scientists are reporting on the shocking build up in the amount, extant and thickness of the ice plate on the continent of Anarctica. Forbes had a story on this back in September and they have recently updated it. See: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2012/09/19/antarctic-sea-ice-sets-another-record/. Wikipedia has an entry on the LIA.
What brings all of this to mind, again, is the winter of 2013-2014. Outside my window, now, a new snowstorm is starting with up to ten inches predicted along with single-digit temperatures. If the wind come to - forecasters are iffy, here - it will be a full-fledged blizzard.
It is the calm sun that is generating most of the talk, together with the thickening polar ice. I should add that the New York Times managed to find some real kool-aid drinkers who say that the thickening polar ice is because of glocal warming. Record cold is also because of global warming.
I only know what I see and feel. Right now, this is the coldest winter I can remember. The only one that was close was the winter of 1976-1977, when the Chesapeake Bay froze over and cars drove out on the ice. I remember ice skating for miles on Middle River and other bodies of water that haven't seen ice like that since, until now.
There is another article worth reading. An MIT scientist who generally believes the planet is warming laid in to the numbscalls who tell the publiv that every thing that happens is because of global warming. See http://newmexico.watchdog.org/15128/mit-scientist-disputes-man-made-global-warming-in-sandia-labs-presentation/.
Update: It is now just after 4 pm on Tuesday and the snow in Baltimore has continued while the wind increases and the temperature plunges. It is now 21 degrees Farenheit and forecasters here say that a foot of snow is now possible. They also say more snow is possible on Thursday and again on Saturday.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Documenting obama's slide from Chief Executive to Caesar
BALTIMORE, Maryland January 18, 2014 - Reading carefully from his security blanket turned teleprompter (or is it teleprompter turned security blanket?), obama tells us he is determined to get things done. He won't be stopped, he says. The people demand it. They absolutely do. Let me, a totally disenchanted Democrat, interpret these sayings for you. In plain unfettered obamaspeak. obama is telling us that, these days, he just can't get Congress to pay the first bit of attention to him.
The House has been recalcitrant - and not one second too soon - since the 2010 election gave the GOP a majority in that august body. That election was the first dividend paid by obamashame (a/k/a Affordable Train Wreck er, ah, Care Act) Before 2010, obama had two whole years of unchecked unfettered control over both houses. Looking back, even leftists have to admit that they had never seen so much boot-licking and gussying up as you did during those years. The whole country acted as if a deity had been discovered. Remember the article in the Washington Post that talked about the sweat glistening off of his fit body as he walked along the beach in Hawaii, or the things running down the leg of some nobody on MSNBC? We learned about those things from the dude himself. He bragged about getting, what?, sexually excited about obama's mere presence. Two joyous years for the far far left.. The legacy of those years? Tons of ingenious and far-reaching legislative reform, a country at the peak of its pretige and influence spreading goodwill and social change throughout the four-corners of the planet. I mean it was two years of Nirvana.
Two years of hell. Two long years. We had so much garbage rammed down our throat that it will take years to get it cleaned out. After those first two years we've now had three more years on the downbound express. Of late, obama has had trouble getting much of anything through Congress because while the Senate would generally continue to rubber stamp the far left manifestos slinking over from the White House, the House would not.
Now, it seems, even the Senate is starting to pose trouble for the far-left uber hero. This has caused the regime leader to, as they say, lose it.
Fact is, obama has lost has capability to hold sway in either party because legislators on both sides of the aisles are running away from him fast as they can. The reasons are obvious. Poll after poll show that the citizenry neither believe what he says or trust him as a person in the wake of his "if you like it you can keep it". bald-faced lie.during the obamashame run-up. The other scandals now plaguing his far left regime are also contributing to the contempt that more and more of the citizenry seem to hold him in.
It still seems downright hideous to say "bald-faced lie" in the same breath as you say the name of an American President.
In 2014 the country will elect or re-elect every member of the House of Representatives and about one-third of the Senate. In a great many election districts, closeness to obama is absolute poison. The GOP is in position to strengthen their hold on the House and grab control of the Senate. And that brings us to the present problem, and it is a problem that will not go away so long as obama and the rest of his far far left glee club are running the show.
Obama's days of jamming the far left playbook down America's throat via the Congress have, thankfully, ended. It is a hard lesson to learn and a bitter pill to swallow for a far far left exec like obama who, you'll recall, wants to fundamentally change the nation. He still wants to open the borders to immigration without restriction. He still wants to make public sector unions like the SEIU more powerful than the local governments they serve. He still wants institutionalize the tremendous power of the EPA, enabling it to rule-make its way to total environmental hegemony. In normal situations - with a sane and actually independent press - a package of "wants" like this wouldn't get out of the soot and smoke in the back room even if he had a majority in Congress.
obama has let it be known that he intends to do a lot of what Congress won't let him do by executive order. What can and can't be done by executive order isn't etched in stone. After well over 200 years, the judicial branch of the federal government has given direction and hints about what is ok. The reason the picture isn't clearer is that no president has tried to "fundamentally change" the way our government works. There has never been a wholesale end run like the one obama contemplates.
Obama, basically, wants to turn from a President into a Caesar. He wants to sign orders without challenge from anyone in another party or anyone in his own party who is seeking publicity. An executive can pass orders for things like canned food drives by his office staff. Executives can pass orders about having all US flags flying at half mast because some famous citizen died. These are the easy ones. obama has kicked up mild controversy - it should be a lot of controversy but the complicit press has shielded obama from most of the griping - by changing dates and deadlines in obamashame even though these dates and deadlines are part of the law; in other words, it is part of the law enacted by Congress and signed by obama, that all citizens are supposed to have registered for obamashame by such and such a date. But as time moved along, those statutory dates became inconvenient for obama, so he simply announced new dates. There is absolutely no question that he overstepped his power. But nobody took steps to challenge him because nobody thought the new dates were bad news.
When obama tries to open the borders - say by ordering the border guards to stand down - all hell will break loose. Right now they are brainstorming on Pennsylvania Avenue, trying to come up with a way to force the country to abandon sanctions on Iran in favor of the negotiated capitulation described by John Kerry before Christmas. Obama is also working on ways to rule-make laws about climate change. If the EPA gets away with it, and who's to say they won't, why would obama ever want to fool with Congress again.
With obama's approval ratings in free fall, more and more members of the loyal opposition are empowered. Obama is being a bully - in the end, all far far left "executives" are bullies. Now, opponents are poised to move to try to stop him. They will make their move in the Courts. That's where the showdown will be. And, as we saw with obamashame - when Chief Justice turned traitor, John "Benny" Roberts, allowed his bulging ego and quest for fame outstrip his silly old conscience - anything can happen in that forum.
Even so, just the idea that somebody might stop the bully in his tracks is giving obama the heebeejeebees. It is a beautiful sight to behold.
The House has been recalcitrant - and not one second too soon - since the 2010 election gave the GOP a majority in that august body. That election was the first dividend paid by obamashame (a/k/a Affordable Train Wreck er, ah, Care Act) Before 2010, obama had two whole years of unchecked unfettered control over both houses. Looking back, even leftists have to admit that they had never seen so much boot-licking and gussying up as you did during those years. The whole country acted as if a deity had been discovered. Remember the article in the Washington Post that talked about the sweat glistening off of his fit body as he walked along the beach in Hawaii, or the things running down the leg of some nobody on MSNBC? We learned about those things from the dude himself. He bragged about getting, what?, sexually excited about obama's mere presence. Two joyous years for the far far left.. The legacy of those years? Tons of ingenious and far-reaching legislative reform, a country at the peak of its pretige and influence spreading goodwill and social change throughout the four-corners of the planet. I mean it was two years of Nirvana.
Two years of hell. Two long years. We had so much garbage rammed down our throat that it will take years to get it cleaned out. After those first two years we've now had three more years on the downbound express. Of late, obama has had trouble getting much of anything through Congress because while the Senate would generally continue to rubber stamp the far left manifestos slinking over from the White House, the House would not.
Now, it seems, even the Senate is starting to pose trouble for the far-left uber hero. This has caused the regime leader to, as they say, lose it.
Fact is, obama has lost has capability to hold sway in either party because legislators on both sides of the aisles are running away from him fast as they can. The reasons are obvious. Poll after poll show that the citizenry neither believe what he says or trust him as a person in the wake of his "if you like it you can keep it". bald-faced lie.during the obamashame run-up. The other scandals now plaguing his far left regime are also contributing to the contempt that more and more of the citizenry seem to hold him in.
It still seems downright hideous to say "bald-faced lie" in the same breath as you say the name of an American President.
In 2014 the country will elect or re-elect every member of the House of Representatives and about one-third of the Senate. In a great many election districts, closeness to obama is absolute poison. The GOP is in position to strengthen their hold on the House and grab control of the Senate. And that brings us to the present problem, and it is a problem that will not go away so long as obama and the rest of his far far left glee club are running the show.
Obama's days of jamming the far left playbook down America's throat via the Congress have, thankfully, ended. It is a hard lesson to learn and a bitter pill to swallow for a far far left exec like obama who, you'll recall, wants to fundamentally change the nation. He still wants to open the borders to immigration without restriction. He still wants to make public sector unions like the SEIU more powerful than the local governments they serve. He still wants institutionalize the tremendous power of the EPA, enabling it to rule-make its way to total environmental hegemony. In normal situations - with a sane and actually independent press - a package of "wants" like this wouldn't get out of the soot and smoke in the back room even if he had a majority in Congress.
obama has let it be known that he intends to do a lot of what Congress won't let him do by executive order. What can and can't be done by executive order isn't etched in stone. After well over 200 years, the judicial branch of the federal government has given direction and hints about what is ok. The reason the picture isn't clearer is that no president has tried to "fundamentally change" the way our government works. There has never been a wholesale end run like the one obama contemplates.
Obama, basically, wants to turn from a President into a Caesar. He wants to sign orders without challenge from anyone in another party or anyone in his own party who is seeking publicity. An executive can pass orders for things like canned food drives by his office staff. Executives can pass orders about having all US flags flying at half mast because some famous citizen died. These are the easy ones. obama has kicked up mild controversy - it should be a lot of controversy but the complicit press has shielded obama from most of the griping - by changing dates and deadlines in obamashame even though these dates and deadlines are part of the law; in other words, it is part of the law enacted by Congress and signed by obama, that all citizens are supposed to have registered for obamashame by such and such a date. But as time moved along, those statutory dates became inconvenient for obama, so he simply announced new dates. There is absolutely no question that he overstepped his power. But nobody took steps to challenge him because nobody thought the new dates were bad news.
When obama tries to open the borders - say by ordering the border guards to stand down - all hell will break loose. Right now they are brainstorming on Pennsylvania Avenue, trying to come up with a way to force the country to abandon sanctions on Iran in favor of the negotiated capitulation described by John Kerry before Christmas. Obama is also working on ways to rule-make laws about climate change. If the EPA gets away with it, and who's to say they won't, why would obama ever want to fool with Congress again.
With obama's approval ratings in free fall, more and more members of the loyal opposition are empowered. Obama is being a bully - in the end, all far far left "executives" are bullies. Now, opponents are poised to move to try to stop him. They will make their move in the Courts. That's where the showdown will be. And, as we saw with obamashame - when Chief Justice turned traitor, John "Benny" Roberts, allowed his bulging ego and quest for fame outstrip his silly old conscience - anything can happen in that forum.
Even so, just the idea that somebody might stop the bully in his tracks is giving obama the heebeejeebees. It is a beautiful sight to behold.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
A Bit on Sports: Bronco-Seahawk Superbowl Shaping Up; Determined Burnley Scores Key Win; Irish Coming to College Park
BALTIMORE, Maryland January 13, 2014 - Barring Surprises, Look for a Seattle-Denver Superbowl in the Meadowlands: There are still plenty of sub-plots that could, in the end, waylay what more and more looks like an inevitable Superbowl Showdown between the two best teams in the NFL circa 2013. For instance, New England's four-man rotation at running back could actually start to believe they really are as good as the Boston Press trumpets them to be. Or, maybe they'll be a blizzard in Denver this weekend. It could happen. Peyton can't pass the ball but Belichek has found a way for Brady to get the job done. Could that happen? And to be perfectly honest, Jim Harbaugh could get his 49ers fired up enough to go into Seattle on Sunday and forget about the maniacs in the stands and somehow find a way to beat Seattle. I'd start with those game films from the Seahawk's quite narrow win over New Orleans. Really, all you need is the second half. The first half would just depress you if you, like me, favors the 49ers, what, with Anquan "Should Still be a Raven" Bouldin and Vernon "UofMd" Davis.
Seattle did show they have vulnerabilities. You have to deal with the noise. You have to deal with the speed. And you have to play your game. Against the Saints, Seattle was up, 16-0, at halftime and it wasn't even that close. But in the third quarter the New Orleans defense put on a clinic on how to stop Seattle's offense. In the fourth quarter Drew Brees finally got the Saints' offense going. Harbaugh should concentrate on the fourth quarter game films. That's when the Saints damn near stole the game from Seattle. New Orleans scored in the first minute of the quarter after a long drive. Then, they scored a two-point conversion and now that 'commanding' lead was cut exactly in half. Remember, that 'commanding' lead consisted of one TD and three Field Goals. After the Saints halved the lead, a lot of the screaming maniacs up in the stands were morphing into fidgeting adults griping again about the Seattle weather.
Alas, New Orleans got the ball back a couple of times in the quarter but couldn't cash in. Then, Seattle rebuilt its lead on a 31-yard run by Marshawn Lynch. That came with but 2:40 left to play and that should have ended it. But it didn't.
Brees marched the Saints quickly down the field and scored with 26 seconds left. The extra point kick cut the Seahawk lead back to a single score, 23-15. Against all of the odds, the Saints then recovered the ensuing on-side kick, giving them the ball at their own 42. Brees quickly completed a pass to Jimmy Graham - it was the Saints' leading receiver's only catch of the game - for eight yards. Now, the Saints were at midfield and still had time for three or four more plays. Brees then tried a pass over the middle but it fell incomplete. Brees reloaded, then fired again to Marques Colston. Colston had just caught the touchdown pass to give the Saints this chance, then he went right out and recovered the bloody onside kick. Now, with the play starting from midfield, Colston caught the pass at the Seattle 38 and he had an unchallenged two or three steps to the sidelines and a chance to again stop the clock, giving New Orleans a realistic chance of scoring on the game's final play. But the pass and catch by Colston was only part of this play that Saints Coach Shawn Peyton had installed ten days ago. Colston was to catch the ball, then throw a lateral across the field to a running back streaking down the right sideline. Sadly, the back had mistimed his run and was well past the 38 when Colston threw to him. The play was instantly flagged as an illegal forward pass, and with the mandatory ten second runoff for such penalties, the Seahawks had officially escaped.
For the expected Superbowl matchup to become reality, the Seahawks must avoid the 49ers expected strong effort and again exert their will on a visitor. And, the Broncos still have to beat invading New England, but unless something unexpected happens, Denver and Seattle will head east after this weekend for the first outdoor cold weather venue Superbowl in NFL history.
Burnley has struggled mightily of late, but still holds on to Promotion Position: In the English Championship League, the top two finishers are awarded a guaranteed promotion to the Premier League and the riches and attention available there. Burnley, one of English Soccer's original teams, last tasted that magic in the 2009-2010 season, but before that one year run, their last promotion to the top league came in the 1950's. At the very start of the 2009-2010 campaign, the Claret stunned Manchester United and always tough Everton in a five-day period they will never forget at ol' Turf Moor. In case you didn't know, Burnley has played their soccer matches there since 1883.
This year's edition of the Burnley squad has been one of the most successful ever. At Christmas, the Claret sat atop the Championship standings. Since, then, however, the Claret have struggled a tad. In fact, the Claret have struggled a bit since their most convincing victory of the season, on October 26, when they whacked the always tough Queens Park Rangers, 2-0. Since then their record is 4 wins, 6 draws, and 2 losses. Their overall record in the Championship after an exhausting 25 games stands at 14 wins, 8 draws and but 3 defeats. It is good for second place. The Claret have 50 points while Leicester City has 54. Behind the Claret, in fact, right behind the Claret, with 49 points, are the Queens Park Rangers. That one single point means the difference between night and day if it stands that way at season's end, which isn't until the first week of May. In the Championship, as stated above, Places One and Two are automatically promoted to the Premier for the following season. Places Three through Six enter a single elimination tournament, and only the winner advances to the Premier. The three other teams are dumped back into the Championship. One point means a helluva lot.
Despite the slide in winning percentage, there is reason for optimism. Burnley has now won two in a row and are 4-1-1 in their last six games. What's more, their next match, on Saturday, is against Sheffield Wednesday, a team just one point away from one of the dreaded demotion positions. The two teams that finish in last and next-to-last in the 24 team league are demoted to "League One," the league immediately below the Championship in the fascinating English Soccer World. And wouldn't you know, Burnley will be at Turf Moor for the match. After Sheffield Wednesday, the Claret have two tough matches. On January 28 the Claret host Brighton & Hove Albion and on February 1 Burnley goes to the Loftus Road stadium in London to take on Queens Park. Come that evening, we all might have a good handle on what course Burnley is on for the coming months.
Terps, struggling again, host Notre Dame on Wednesday: In their last two ACC games Maryland has been blown right off the court. Hence, you would think things look grim for Wednesday's showdown with a good Notre Dame team. But if that is what you think, you haven't been looking at the schedule. It's true that Maryland has been annihilated by Florida State and Pittsburgh in their last two outings, both last week. But both have been on the road, a place it is extremely difficult to win in the ACC. Wednesday's game, however, is at Maryland, where the Terps are 1-0 in the ACC and have played well of late.
Seattle did show they have vulnerabilities. You have to deal with the noise. You have to deal with the speed. And you have to play your game. Against the Saints, Seattle was up, 16-0, at halftime and it wasn't even that close. But in the third quarter the New Orleans defense put on a clinic on how to stop Seattle's offense. In the fourth quarter Drew Brees finally got the Saints' offense going. Harbaugh should concentrate on the fourth quarter game films. That's when the Saints damn near stole the game from Seattle. New Orleans scored in the first minute of the quarter after a long drive. Then, they scored a two-point conversion and now that 'commanding' lead was cut exactly in half. Remember, that 'commanding' lead consisted of one TD and three Field Goals. After the Saints halved the lead, a lot of the screaming maniacs up in the stands were morphing into fidgeting adults griping again about the Seattle weather.
Alas, New Orleans got the ball back a couple of times in the quarter but couldn't cash in. Then, Seattle rebuilt its lead on a 31-yard run by Marshawn Lynch. That came with but 2:40 left to play and that should have ended it. But it didn't.
Brees marched the Saints quickly down the field and scored with 26 seconds left. The extra point kick cut the Seahawk lead back to a single score, 23-15. Against all of the odds, the Saints then recovered the ensuing on-side kick, giving them the ball at their own 42. Brees quickly completed a pass to Jimmy Graham - it was the Saints' leading receiver's only catch of the game - for eight yards. Now, the Saints were at midfield and still had time for three or four more plays. Brees then tried a pass over the middle but it fell incomplete. Brees reloaded, then fired again to Marques Colston. Colston had just caught the touchdown pass to give the Saints this chance, then he went right out and recovered the bloody onside kick. Now, with the play starting from midfield, Colston caught the pass at the Seattle 38 and he had an unchallenged two or three steps to the sidelines and a chance to again stop the clock, giving New Orleans a realistic chance of scoring on the game's final play. But the pass and catch by Colston was only part of this play that Saints Coach Shawn Peyton had installed ten days ago. Colston was to catch the ball, then throw a lateral across the field to a running back streaking down the right sideline. Sadly, the back had mistimed his run and was well past the 38 when Colston threw to him. The play was instantly flagged as an illegal forward pass, and with the mandatory ten second runoff for such penalties, the Seahawks had officially escaped.
For the expected Superbowl matchup to become reality, the Seahawks must avoid the 49ers expected strong effort and again exert their will on a visitor. And, the Broncos still have to beat invading New England, but unless something unexpected happens, Denver and Seattle will head east after this weekend for the first outdoor cold weather venue Superbowl in NFL history.
Burnley has struggled mightily of late, but still holds on to Promotion Position: In the English Championship League, the top two finishers are awarded a guaranteed promotion to the Premier League and the riches and attention available there. Burnley, one of English Soccer's original teams, last tasted that magic in the 2009-2010 season, but before that one year run, their last promotion to the top league came in the 1950's. At the very start of the 2009-2010 campaign, the Claret stunned Manchester United and always tough Everton in a five-day period they will never forget at ol' Turf Moor. In case you didn't know, Burnley has played their soccer matches there since 1883.
This year's edition of the Burnley squad has been one of the most successful ever. At Christmas, the Claret sat atop the Championship standings. Since, then, however, the Claret have struggled a tad. In fact, the Claret have struggled a bit since their most convincing victory of the season, on October 26, when they whacked the always tough Queens Park Rangers, 2-0. Since then their record is 4 wins, 6 draws, and 2 losses. Their overall record in the Championship after an exhausting 25 games stands at 14 wins, 8 draws and but 3 defeats. It is good for second place. The Claret have 50 points while Leicester City has 54. Behind the Claret, in fact, right behind the Claret, with 49 points, are the Queens Park Rangers. That one single point means the difference between night and day if it stands that way at season's end, which isn't until the first week of May. In the Championship, as stated above, Places One and Two are automatically promoted to the Premier for the following season. Places Three through Six enter a single elimination tournament, and only the winner advances to the Premier. The three other teams are dumped back into the Championship. One point means a helluva lot.
Despite the slide in winning percentage, there is reason for optimism. Burnley has now won two in a row and are 4-1-1 in their last six games. What's more, their next match, on Saturday, is against Sheffield Wednesday, a team just one point away from one of the dreaded demotion positions. The two teams that finish in last and next-to-last in the 24 team league are demoted to "League One," the league immediately below the Championship in the fascinating English Soccer World. And wouldn't you know, Burnley will be at Turf Moor for the match. After Sheffield Wednesday, the Claret have two tough matches. On January 28 the Claret host Brighton & Hove Albion and on February 1 Burnley goes to the Loftus Road stadium in London to take on Queens Park. Come that evening, we all might have a good handle on what course Burnley is on for the coming months.
Terps, struggling again, host Notre Dame on Wednesday: In their last two ACC games Maryland has been blown right off the court. Hence, you would think things look grim for Wednesday's showdown with a good Notre Dame team. But if that is what you think, you haven't been looking at the schedule. It's true that Maryland has been annihilated by Florida State and Pittsburgh in their last two outings, both last week. But both have been on the road, a place it is extremely difficult to win in the ACC. Wednesday's game, however, is at Maryland, where the Terps are 1-0 in the ACC and have played well of late.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Fair Criticism Hurts obama and Hilary
BALTIMORE, Maryland January 13, 2014 - All in all, there is enough good and enough bad about the revelations engendered by former Secretary of Defense William Gates to satisfy and disgust all parts of the political spectrum, almost in equal measure. The far left, of course, is appalled that someone with inside access to obama has turned a large dose of bright light on the inner workings of the far far left sanctum currently holding sway inside the nation's house in Washington. How dare he? Except that it wasn't all that revealing unless you live with a bag over your head. Mr. Gates, after years of frontline observation, is forced to conclude that obama is anti-military and doesn't trust military leaders. obama is quintessentially a far far left agitator, activist and committed Kool-Aid Drinker. Most of us consumed a fair measure of far left material as college students. Most of us kept those chards of it which stood the test of being churned up against the strong detergent that is stark reality. The rest of it went down the storm drain of life. The same with other fringe political theories. There is a reason these things occur as they do. The experiences of life; i.e., maturing, experiencing, succeeding and failing, learning and realizing, all contribute, in the end, to a view of things quite different from some of the beliefs we might have held as youngsters. For whatever reason, obama hasn't had these same life experiences. Somewhere along the line, some of the far far left dogma the rest of us cast off as we grew is still stick on him like a burr sticks to your clothes after a walk through the forest. Most of us know from experience that any economic system that doesn't reward achievement, ingenuity and success can't last long in the human experience. That is why one communist country after another fails, not because of outside interference, but because it collapses on itself. Remember the iron curtain? It wasn't just the Soviet Union that collapsed. It was all of the countries around it, also: Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, Czeckolslavakia, Latvia, Estonia and so on and so forth. Red China, too, was falling headlong toward collapse when it began a series of market reforms, reforms which have infused capital into its economic system in the form of western corporate investment in their great supply of readily-available labor. Meanwhile, socialist Europe heads with equal speed toward its own economic maelstrom brought about by over-dependence on government hand-outs and entitlements by a growing and aging population, even as its work force shrinks rapidly because its citizens can't be troubled with reproduction, at least beyond the compulsory one or two children. Simple math tells us that when too many people are receiving government aide and too few are contributing to the pot, the system will collapse from within. The writer Mark Stein has written with abundant clarity on the subject. obama doesn't tell us how these starkly revealed facts are wrong. He just goes along pounding away at those who succeed, making it known that he is against them. His far left learning curve must have been on hyper drive when the rest of us were being dealt those hard doses of reality. Our economy, by any sane measure, is shriveling. Nations that couldn't hold a candle to us two decades ago are now laughing at us as they conduct business as if we didn't exist. Noticed Iran recently? Their government leaders promise to destroy Israel. They don't hide it. They promise it openly. They are also up front and obvious in their pursuit of a nuclear bomb. And obama's reaction is to reduce sanctions, allow the nuclear build-up to continue, and announce, as a goal, continued "dialogue." And instead of ramping up domestic energy production using market-based sources, obama openly kills the coal industry and strangles the domestic oil industry, thereby killing, slowly and surely, domestic business. Our leading technologies are capable of controlling polution while at the same time using oil, coal and natural gas. But obama and his functionaries work stridently against fracking and instead waste billions on green energy that is many years away from being economically viable. The rest of the western world pays lip service to global warming, but only here is obama killing the economy in furtherance of still unproven scientific impact.
{I keep coming back to this reality: if Americans of good will really wanted the world, or even just the United States, to accept global warming as a reality worthy of tremendous economic upheaval, would you really choose Al Gore, a divisive and polarizing figure if ever there was one, to lead the movement? Gore has parlayed his unelected position into personal wealth that should revolt obama and company, but this never even fazes them. If they wanted all Americans to accept global warming as neccessitating immediate change, wouldn't someone with the most impecable personal characteristics be asked to assume the leadership mantel. With Gore, half the people immediately recoil because, if nothing else, he is a one man Carnival side show, doing everything he can to get into your pocket and then making no effort to hide his hypocritical personal lifestyle of unrestricted decadence, all of it gained from the global warming movement. You can make an argument that no one hurts the cause of climate change than does Gore.}
Anyway, back to the Gates book. As long as the far left tries to disguise all of its real views on public policy, books like the Gates book will stab them where it hurts. obama doesn't want the public to know that he is a committed far left zealot. It's been easy for him to hide this with the compliant mainstream media being what it is: the compliant mainstream media. At once, it hides all of obama's flaws and amplifies any it finds in the other half of the political spectrum. Now, then, we see the debacle of national scrutiny on the Christie regime in New Jersey because some of his trusted operatives pulled off a rank political trick without telling him. That is covered as if it is an earth-shattering event. But Benghazi, when obama and Hilary stood beside the coffins of four dead Americans and lied to the families and the nation about why they were dead, is ignored and obfuscated by the media in hopes that they can shield the two perpetrators of the cover-up - Hilary and obama - until the public stops thinking about it. It is the mainstream media that permits obama to act like a moderate and shield the fact that his policies are killing the American economy. If the media treated obama's attack on the economy as it treated any little mistake that President Bush made, obama would be dead in the water. But their complicity in shielding his far far left policies from scrutiny - outside of Fox, Mr. Limbaugh and other right-of-center outlets - enable obama to continue to hold sway with that middle part of the spectrum which votes for him because they don't care where he is politically and, instead, only care whether the entitlement checks and other benefit programs keep the government money flowing their way.
Of course obamashame (a/k/a the Affordable Care Act) has gummed up the game plan a bit and forced even certain mainstream media sources to stop the shielding act, at least for now. But at the same time as obama begins getting criticism from parts of the political spectrum there heretofore absolved him of all wrong, the main intent of those mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times has changed from obama to Hilary. obama, by law, falls from power in 2016. Hilary is seen as the most reliable place to park the right's stranglehold on the presidency. Hence, the recent NYT effort to convince the gullable that Hilary really didn't have anything to do with the Benghazi debacle.
The Gates book was especially reprehensible to the far left because Hilary was also openly criticized. Sometimes tell-all books like the Gates volley are nothing but a grab for glory from some person about to be considerably less important on the national scene. Gates, however, in generally shielded from that group. He has served both Republican and Democratic Presidents. He had a lot of good things to say about obama. So when he tied into Hilary with the revelation that her policy choices in Afghanistan and even in Benghazi were as much for political considerations as they were based on national security, the charges have stuck. And they have hurt badly.
{I keep coming back to this reality: if Americans of good will really wanted the world, or even just the United States, to accept global warming as a reality worthy of tremendous economic upheaval, would you really choose Al Gore, a divisive and polarizing figure if ever there was one, to lead the movement? Gore has parlayed his unelected position into personal wealth that should revolt obama and company, but this never even fazes them. If they wanted all Americans to accept global warming as neccessitating immediate change, wouldn't someone with the most impecable personal characteristics be asked to assume the leadership mantel. With Gore, half the people immediately recoil because, if nothing else, he is a one man Carnival side show, doing everything he can to get into your pocket and then making no effort to hide his hypocritical personal lifestyle of unrestricted decadence, all of it gained from the global warming movement. You can make an argument that no one hurts the cause of climate change than does Gore.}
Anyway, back to the Gates book. As long as the far left tries to disguise all of its real views on public policy, books like the Gates book will stab them where it hurts. obama doesn't want the public to know that he is a committed far left zealot. It's been easy for him to hide this with the compliant mainstream media being what it is: the compliant mainstream media. At once, it hides all of obama's flaws and amplifies any it finds in the other half of the political spectrum. Now, then, we see the debacle of national scrutiny on the Christie regime in New Jersey because some of his trusted operatives pulled off a rank political trick without telling him. That is covered as if it is an earth-shattering event. But Benghazi, when obama and Hilary stood beside the coffins of four dead Americans and lied to the families and the nation about why they were dead, is ignored and obfuscated by the media in hopes that they can shield the two perpetrators of the cover-up - Hilary and obama - until the public stops thinking about it. It is the mainstream media that permits obama to act like a moderate and shield the fact that his policies are killing the American economy. If the media treated obama's attack on the economy as it treated any little mistake that President Bush made, obama would be dead in the water. But their complicity in shielding his far far left policies from scrutiny - outside of Fox, Mr. Limbaugh and other right-of-center outlets - enable obama to continue to hold sway with that middle part of the spectrum which votes for him because they don't care where he is politically and, instead, only care whether the entitlement checks and other benefit programs keep the government money flowing their way.
Of course obamashame (a/k/a the Affordable Care Act) has gummed up the game plan a bit and forced even certain mainstream media sources to stop the shielding act, at least for now. But at the same time as obama begins getting criticism from parts of the political spectrum there heretofore absolved him of all wrong, the main intent of those mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times has changed from obama to Hilary. obama, by law, falls from power in 2016. Hilary is seen as the most reliable place to park the right's stranglehold on the presidency. Hence, the recent NYT effort to convince the gullable that Hilary really didn't have anything to do with the Benghazi debacle.
The Gates book was especially reprehensible to the far left because Hilary was also openly criticized. Sometimes tell-all books like the Gates volley are nothing but a grab for glory from some person about to be considerably less important on the national scene. Gates, however, in generally shielded from that group. He has served both Republican and Democratic Presidents. He had a lot of good things to say about obama. So when he tied into Hilary with the revelation that her policy choices in Afghanistan and even in Benghazi were as much for political considerations as they were based on national security, the charges have stuck. And they have hurt badly.
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Diving in the Sewer Headfirst: New York Times in New Low trying to Save Hilary Presidential Bid
BALTIMORE, Maryland December 30, 2013 - Reaction to the nausea-provoking effort by the New York Times to provide Hilary Clinton with a lifeline in her bid to be America's next president has been swift and sure. Calling the front page report entirely false, those close to the Congressional investigation of the massacre of four Americans in Benghazzi in September, 2012 have swiftly condemned the article, written by Times' reporter David Kirkpatrick.
Kirkpatrick's article claims that al Qaeda had nothing to do with the attack, and, even more incredibly, also ressurects the ridiculous notion that the attack was in direct response to a video uploaded to You Tube by an obscure California man many months before the Benghazzi episode. At the time of the attacks the video had far fewer than 100 hits and was completely unknown in Benghazzi. Kirkpatrick's bizarre assertions are a desperate and conniving effort by the New York Times to shield Hilary Clinton from all blame for the Benghazzi attack and a subsequent cover-up of her and obama's role. Even more bizarre - but not totally unexpected - were weekend revelations that the reporter on the NYT article, David Kirkpatrick, was actually in Benghazzi as the attacks took place but did nothing to save the four Americans' lives or even to summons help. What's more, since he was on the ground he would know, firsthand, that the video had nothing to do with the planned attack. Whether the attackers were charter members of Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda wannabes is of little importance. Clearly the top dogs in the attacks were connected in some way to Al Qaeda.
Kirkpatrick's article claims that al Qaeda had nothing to do with the attack, and, even more incredibly, also ressurects the ridiculous notion that the attack was in direct response to a video uploaded to You Tube by an obscure California man many months before the Benghazzi episode. At the time of the attacks the video had far fewer than 100 hits and was completely unknown in Benghazzi. Kirkpatrick's bizarre assertions are a desperate and conniving effort by the New York Times to shield Hilary Clinton from all blame for the Benghazzi attack and a subsequent cover-up of her and obama's role. Even more bizarre - but not totally unexpected - were weekend revelations that the reporter on the NYT article, David Kirkpatrick, was actually in Benghazzi as the attacks took place but did nothing to save the four Americans' lives or even to summons help. What's more, since he was on the ground he would know, firsthand, that the video had nothing to do with the planned attack. Whether the attackers were charter members of Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda wannabes is of little importance. Clearly the top dogs in the attacks were connected in some way to Al Qaeda.
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