BALTIMORE, Maryland September 30, 2015 - The recidivists in the media are trying to screw one of the nation's most intelligent people - Dr. Ben Carson - for stating the obvious: a devout Muslim cannot be President of the United States. Would women not object if a rape victim were told she needed three male eyewitnesses to sustain a charge of rape? Would Gay People not object when a Gay was thrown off of the top of a skyscraper for what? Being Gay. No, of course not. And what if the person insisting on such outrages were President? On the otherhand, as Dr. Carson says, if a person were merely born Muslim but lived an essentially secular life that celebrated and upheld America's founding principles - all persons are created equal, all persons are treated the same under the law, all persons are entitled to due process under the law - then who could object to that person becoming president? Is there anythng that is hard to understand? Is there anything that is controversial?
Dr. Carson, for as good and decent a person as he is, nevertheless scares the living bejeezus out of the uber left. He is fearless when it comes to speaking truth to power. He is a devout Christian. He is African-American and will appeal to Black voters who have suffered under the uber left Obama administration. Suffered, you ask? For all of Obama's nonsense, Black Americans have suffered along with the rest of the nation. Black Unemployment has not improved under Obama, not even a little bit. The poverty rate is in shambles. Dr. Carson's message speaks directly to these overwhelming problems. Once he would get out on the campaign trail after the national conventions, and his words would be matched person-to-person against the criminal Hilary or the Rabidly Marxist Sanders, the election wouldn't be close. It would, however, be a slugfest, what with Clonton knowing she almost certainly will be indicted if she doesn't prevail in the election.
New opinion polls have Dr. Carson pulling even with Mr. Trump. Another group of months that begin to pair Trump with Carson will not go well for Trump. Dr. Carson offers the same "outsider" status as Mr. Trymp, the same ultra-sane economic programs, the same ultra-sane re-establishment of American military prowess, in short, the same everything without the bluster. If Dr. Carson can convince a Marco Rubio or Scott Walker to run with him, how does America lose? It doesn't.
Pope Francis Meets With Kim Davis, Urges Her to "Stay Strong"
Over the weekend the uber left celebrated wildly at the results of the Pope's visit to these United States. Every publicized comment was great and good for the Left. Now, news has emerged that the Pontiff met with Kentucky County-Clerk Kim Davis, who has made headlines recently by refusing to issue marraige certificates to Gay Couples. I have mixed reactions to the things Mrs. Davis does. In a secular sense, I do not have strong feelings on the subject of Gay Marriage. From a Christian standpoint, however, I have very strong feelings. There is no question, at all, that the Bible speaks strongly agiainst homosexuality. I am absolutely opposed Christian Faith. And I am outraged that my political party backs him whole-heartedly. And so I applaud the Pope for this act of Christian humanity.
Sports: Save for Maryland Soccer, Can it Get Much Worse? Orioles Cannot Score in Three Games in Fenway; Ravens Lose Third Straight Nailbiter, Burnley Suffers Seecond Setback, and This One Was At Turf Moor, and Maryland's Football Team is Hammered in Morgantown.
Sebastian Elney continued to emerge as a go-to scorer for Maryland, and the Terps rebounded from a heartbreaking loss at Georgetown to crush Wisconsin, 4-1, in Madison on Sunday afternoon. Elney, who scored Maryland's only goal in the 2-1 setback against the Hoyas, scored the first and last goals against the Badgers as No. 11 Maryland rebounded to crush Wisconsin. The Terps are one of three undefeated teams in Big Ten Conference play, and they currently stand second to Michigan, whom Maryland tied earlier in the season. Elney scored Maryland's first goal in the second minute of the first half, and the Terps were off and running. By the half, Maryland was up, 3-1. Mael Corboz and Alex Crognale also scored for Maryland. Elney had the second half's only score. Maryland is now 4-2-3 overall and 1-0-2 in rhe conference, good for 5 points in the standings.. Michigan is 2-0-1 in the conference, good for 7 points and first place. Maryland is off until Friday night, when they take on Northwestern at Ludwig Field at 7:30 pm.
That is the sum and substance of the good news. The Orioles slipped to the precipice of elimination from playoff contention by dropping all three games to Boston at Fenway Park. Making matters worse, they failed to score a single run in the offensive play pen of the Red Sox. Yesterday, the Orioles wasted a fine pitching performance by Ubaldo Jimenez to lose, 2-0. Baltimore is home for the final seven games of the season, beginning Monday night against Toronto. The magic number to officially eliminate the Orioles is 2, and they are 5.5 games behind Houston for the second and final wild card position. What's worse, there are three teams between the Orioles and Houston: the Angels, the Twins and the Indians.
The Ravens fell behind Cincinatti, 14-0, then stormed back to twice take the lead in the fourth quarter. Joe Flacco threw for over 300 yards, including two TD passes to the irrepressible Steve Smith, Sr., who causght 13 Flacco passes for the game. But after shutting the Bengals down for over half the game - after the Bengals grabbed a 14-0 lead - the Raven secondary completely collapsed in the fourth quarter. On the first play from scrimmage after Smith's second TD gave the Ravens their first lead,, weak-armed Bengal QB Andy Dalton threw a bomb to A. J. Green for a long touchdown. Not to be intimidated, Flacco marched the Ravens quickly down the field for another TD and another lead. For all the good it did. Dalton then engineered a quick drive and again found Green wide open for the winning score. There were just over two minutes left. Flacco again tried to rally the Ravens, but a fourth down pass in the final minute fell incomplete. Now the Ravens go to Pittsburgh for the first of two games with the Steelers. With Ben Rothlisberger injured, Michael Vick will start for the Steelers. Oddsmakers, incredibly, have installed the winless road team as the favorite. Joe Flacco and pray for rain.
I am one of a number of Maryland fans who suspect that last year's fine performance, overall, by the Maryland football team, was out of character for a team that does not have a real good coach. I want to be wrong, but the loss to Bowling Green and the wipe out at Morgantown, was firm proof that this year's team is way out of its league for the coming Big Ten Schedule. Don't take my word for it. This Saturday the Terps play Michigan in College Park. Next Saturday they go to Ohio State. Here is hoping that the next two weeks don't end up being West Virginia times three.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
The Courage of Dr. Carson; A Piece of Humble Advice to the Pontiff; Burnley and Derby County Battle to Scoreless Draw, But Claret Still Climb Up Championship Table; Maryland Draws With Spartants in East Lansing, Terps Hold Down No. 11 Position in NSCAA Rankings; With Words From St. Luke and a Poem by John Donne
BALTIMORE, Maryland September 23, 2015 - Georgetown University, a Jesuit University founded to assist in Jesus Christ's admonishment to his apostles to spread the Word throughout the known world, instead chose to cover the Christian cross and other Christian symbols on its scenic Washington, D.C. campus when President Obama stopped there last week.
Compare that to the noble words of Dr. Ben Carson, who stated that people who practice the Islamic religion ought not to be permitted to become President of these United States. Now, this magnificent man is being skewered by the low-brow and highly prejudiced national media, as they dutifully follow Obama and the uber leftist rabble over the idiot cliff. The courage of the man making the statement is unmatched in this era of stagnant thinking and secularized moral standards. And still, the media carries on its assault. In banner headlines, media outlets everywhere breathlessly report that a representative of CAIR says Carson should quit the Presidential Campaign because he doesn't understand the United States Constitution. That's a hoot! Pro-Hamas, Anti-American Ding Dongs like CAIR teliing anybody that they don't understand the United States Constitution. CAIR is living proof that the Jihad will never be a battle of wits. {Fittingly, just as CAIR ramped up its dribble, a Carson spokesperson announced that in the wake of Carson's statements over the weekend his fundraising efforts have taken off like wildfire, and the money is pouring in.}
With All Of the Humility I Am Able to Muster, Credible and Incisive Offers Some Advice to the Pontiff: Dear Pope Francis: Although I am not, myself, a Catholic, I am a longtime and ardent supporter of Catholicism. There is nothing that is part of Catholic Doctrine that I do not embrace. I have often attended Mass, my Wife is Catholic and all three of my Children were raised Catholic. That being said, I would like to speak seriously to you about some of the positions you have embraced of late.
Like you, I believe that the climate is changing. Unlike you, I do not beiieve that mankind yet knows how much, if at all, human activity is driving the changes. I believe that the climate may be about to cool somewhat in the relatively short term because the sun is heading into a cyclical dormant period during which activity that typically warms our climate does not occur very much. Some scientists who are not hogtied by the uber left believe that the so-called 'Little ice Age' occurred in conjunction with one of these solar dormant periods. I do know that the warming trend so-often cited by Global Warming Fanatics came to a stop some 17 years ago, and since then the Earth's mean temperature has not increased at all, in fact, if anything, it has actually fell back by a smidgen. Like many people, I believe that so much of the Global Warming/Climate Change hysteria of recent years has been fueled by far left zealots doing anything and everything to slow down the amazing economic expansion and the western dominance of the world order.
The trouble with socialism and communism and other dogmas embraced by these uber leftists - who also hate western religions like Catholicism - is that they just plain do not work; in fact, they have never worked and many people believe that they never will work because they fly in the face of the human nature that God has mercifully endowed each of us with. Whenever a government institutes socialism, that society sooner rather than later fails. People who are discouraged from working hard in order to benefit themselves and their families sooner rather than later stop working hard. On the otherhand, Governments which practice capitalism and representative democracy - and there have been surprisingly few of these through the millenia - seem to work exceedingly well so long as they keep their governments relatively small and concentrated in endeavors such as national defense, locally run education and a minimum amount of economic regulation, such as prosecuting fraud, etc. Right here in these United States we have gone through eight sordid years of Obama's brand of socialism. It has been government run amok. The poor are poorer. The rich are more heavily taxed. The economy, despite Obama's chronic lying, is in shambles and millions upon millions are unemployed. Many of the unemployed are so discourged that they have stopped looking for work, giving Obama and his lieutenants a convenient pretext for not including them in the count of unemployed persons. I understand that you are enamored by some of the policies of the Obama administration. Don't be fooled! When you wipe away his dogma, he is virulently anti-Catholic person. He virtually worships abortion, even supporting the right of evil abortion doctors to kill infants who survive abortions and are born alive. That's right, these doctors murden living and breathing children because they survived an abortion. Obama favors this. And you know, also, or you should know, that he also crafted his Obamashame Health Law (whoops, excuse me. The correct vernacular name for Obama's Health Law is 'Obamacare." I gave it a more descriptive and honest name, but it hasn't really caught on) so that Catholic Organizations like the Little Sisters of the Poor have to provide birth-control devices to their employees, even though these Women and other similar Catholic organizations, have dedicated their lives to opposing such things. Birth Control is available on every corner of American society and women have no trouble whatsoever in finding it. Obama made the Little Sisters of the Poor and other Catholic Groups do things by law that he knew they would never do just to teach them one of his very evil lessons. We look to you to stand up to this kind of despotism. You must be God's shining light on earth in the battle against such an evil.
These issues to which I refer have many other side issues and I could spend many pages fleshing them all out. That isn't my purpose in writing. Instead, I just wanted to make sure that you know that the uber left has some good people in their multitude and a lot of bad people. The Castro Bdsothers and Obama are very decidedly in the much larger sslatter group.
Your Humble Correspondent,
John William Trotz
Burnley Draws With Derby County, Takes Over Third Place in English Championship; Terps Draw with Michigan State, Hold No. 11 Ranking in Latest NSCAA Ranking
Burnley had won four straight to climb up among the leaders of the English Championship League, so when they went to Derby County and came away with a scoreless draw you'd think Claret Coach Sean Dyche would be unhappy. But that just is not so. Dyche told BBC Radio in Lancashire that "Coming off the back of four wins, to come here and get a clean sheet and a point is a very good result...We've had to fight really hard in the second half. First half, I thought we were excellent. The way the back five played tonight was absolutely exceptional." Indeed it was, but then, holding opponents scoreless is about par for the course for Tom Heaton, Ben Mee and company. Who can forget last season, when the Claret played three consecutive scoreless draws in the Premier. And besides, the single point Burnley earned for the match was enough to life them into third place in the Championship. This is the up-to-date table from the BBC:
1 Brighton: 8 matches played, 20 points
2 Middlesbrough: 8 matches played, 17 points
3 Burnley: 8 matches played, 15 points
4 Hull: 8 matches played, 14 points
5 Ipswich: 8 matches played, 14 points
6 Reading: 8 matches played, 12 points 7 Birmingham: 7 matches played, 12 points
8 Cardiff: 8 matches played, 12 points
9 QPR: 8 matches played, 12 points
10 Leeds: 8 matches played, 11 points
11 Derby County: 8 matches played, 11 points
12 Nottingham Forest: 8 matches played, 11 points
13 Huddersfield: 8 matches played, 9 points
14 Sheffield Wednesday: 8 matches played, 9 points
15 Charlton Athletic: 8 matches played, 9 points
16 Fulham: 7 matches played, 8 points
17 Brentford: 7 matches played, 8 points
18 Wolverhampton Wolves: 7 matches played, 8 points
19 Blackburn Rovers: 8 matches played, 7 points
20 Milton Keyes Dons: 8 matches played, 7 points
20 Milton Keyes Dons: 8 matches played, 7 points
21 Bolton: 8 matches played, 7 points
22 Preston: 8 matches played, 6 points
23 Bristol City: 8 matches played, 5 points
24 Rotherham: 8 matches played, 5 points
As for Maryland, their scoreless draw at Michigan State did cost them, but only slightly. The Terps dropped from 10th to 11th in the NSCAA Weekly Rankings of Division I Teams. Those current rankings (with records in parenthesis) are:
1 Creighton University: (6-0-0)
2 University Of North Carolina: (6-0-1)
3 Stanford University: (7-1-0)
4 University Of Virginia: (5-0-2)
5 Coastal Carolina University: (5-0-1)
6 Clemson University: (6-1-1)
7 University Of New Mexico: (5-1-1)
8 Elon University: (7-0-0)
9 University Of Akron: (4-1-1)
10 University Of Washington: (4-0-2)
11 University Of Maryland: (3-1-3)
12 University Of Denver : (6-0-1)
13 Oregon State University: (5-1-0)
14 University of Notre Dame: (4-2-1)
15 Wake Forest University: (6-1-0)
16 Old Dominion University: (4-1-1)
17 Temple: (7-0-1)
18 Hofstra University: (6-1-0)
19 American University: (6-2-0)
20 University Of California: (5-1-0)
21 Penn State University: (3-1-2)
22 University of North Carolina-Wilmington: (5-1-1)
23 University of Nebraska-Omaha: (6-1-0)
24 Florida International: (5-2-0)
25 Georgetown University: (3-2-2)
Also receiving votes: New Hampshire, University of (24), Western Michigan University (23), Xavier University (21), University Of South Florida (17), Columbia University (14), Saint Louis University (13), Michigan State University (12), St. Francis College (N.Y.) (12), University Of Louisville (12), Providence College (10), University of California Santa Barbara (9), University Of North Carolina-Charlotte (9), University of San Diego (8), Indiana University (7), North Carolina State University (5), Connecticut, University of (5), Utah Valley University (3), UNLV (2), Syracuse University (2), Duke University (1)
A Poem by John Donne (22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631). Donne was an English poet and a cleric in the Church of England.
Witchcraft by a Picture
I fix mine eye on thine, and there
Pity my picture burning in thine eye,
My picture drawned in a transparent tear,
When I look lower I espy;
Hadst thou the wicked skill
By pictures made and marred to kill,
How many wats mightst thou perform thy will?
But now i have drunk thy sweet salt tears,
And though thou pour more i'll depart;
My picture vanished, vanish fears,
That I can be endamaged by that art;
Though thou retain of me
One picture more, yet that will be,
Being in thine own heart, from all malice free.
From the Gospel of St. Luke, Chapter 18, Verse 1 through, and including, Verse 8:
Verse 1: And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. Verse 2: He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man; Verse 3: and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Vindicate me against my adversity.' Verse 4: For a while he refused; but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor regard man, Verse 5: Yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.'" Verse 6: And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. Verse 7: And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? Verse 8: I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
As for Maryland, their scoreless draw at Michigan State did cost them, but only slightly. The Terps dropped from 10th to 11th in the NSCAA Weekly Rankings of Division I Teams. Those current rankings (with records in parenthesis) are:
1 Creighton University: (6-0-0)
2 University Of North Carolina: (6-0-1)
3 Stanford University: (7-1-0)
4 University Of Virginia: (5-0-2)
5 Coastal Carolina University: (5-0-1)
6 Clemson University: (6-1-1)
7 University Of New Mexico: (5-1-1)
8 Elon University: (7-0-0)
9 University Of Akron: (4-1-1)
10 University Of Washington: (4-0-2)
11 University Of Maryland: (3-1-3)
12 University Of Denver : (6-0-1)
13 Oregon State University: (5-1-0)
14 University of Notre Dame: (4-2-1)
15 Wake Forest University: (6-1-0)
16 Old Dominion University: (4-1-1)
17 Temple: (7-0-1)
18 Hofstra University: (6-1-0)
19 American University: (6-2-0)
20 University Of California: (5-1-0)
21 Penn State University: (3-1-2)
22 University of North Carolina-Wilmington: (5-1-1)
23 University of Nebraska-Omaha: (6-1-0)
24 Florida International: (5-2-0)
25 Georgetown University: (3-2-2)
Also receiving votes: New Hampshire, University of (24), Western Michigan University (23), Xavier University (21), University Of South Florida (17), Columbia University (14), Saint Louis University (13), Michigan State University (12), St. Francis College (N.Y.) (12), University Of Louisville (12), Providence College (10), University of California Santa Barbara (9), University Of North Carolina-Charlotte (9), University of San Diego (8), Indiana University (7), North Carolina State University (5), Connecticut, University of (5), Utah Valley University (3), UNLV (2), Syracuse University (2), Duke University (1)
A Poem by John Donne (22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631). Donne was an English poet and a cleric in the Church of England.
Witchcraft by a Picture
I fix mine eye on thine, and there
Pity my picture burning in thine eye,
My picture drawned in a transparent tear,
When I look lower I espy;
Hadst thou the wicked skill
By pictures made and marred to kill,
How many wats mightst thou perform thy will?
But now i have drunk thy sweet salt tears,
And though thou pour more i'll depart;
My picture vanished, vanish fears,
That I can be endamaged by that art;
Though thou retain of me
One picture more, yet that will be,
Being in thine own heart, from all malice free.
From the Gospel of St. Luke, Chapter 18, Verse 1 through, and including, Verse 8:
Verse 1: And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. Verse 2: He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man; Verse 3: and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Vindicate me against my adversity.' Verse 4: For a while he refused; but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor regard man, Verse 5: Yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.'" Verse 6: And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. Verse 7: And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? Verse 8: I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
Sunday, September 13, 2015
What Would Schaefer Have Done? Terps, Wolverines Battle to Scoreless Deadlock; Ravens Lose Suggs for Season in Agonizing Loss to Denver; Burnley Wins Third Straight
BALTIMORE, Maryland September 13, 2015 - In this column on Friday it was mentioned that some of the City's 'more mature' residents had pined often in these past months for the late former Mayor, William Donald Schaefer. The man who ran the City for some 16 years (after terms in the City Council and as City Council President) operated as if the City were his spouse, which, as anyone alive in those years knows, was nearly literally true: Schaefer never married and lived in the same West Baltimore neighborhood until moving into the State House in 1971, having been elected Governor. He was a surley man who was hard to get along with, but what did that matter? He wasn't a feel good guy. He was single-minded in his determination to make the City of his birth a great place. That he succeeded is amazing, because he had to literally drag the badly damaged urban setting kicking and screaming into the modern age. When he assumed control Baltimore was a shell, gutted in the angry and destructive race riots that followed the vicious murder of Martin Luther king in 1966. Whites and middle class blacks were fleeing the City and its blocks upon blocks of urban blight. Businesses were following the people; a once thriving retail district was closing up shop, the Inner Harbor was home to a huge and ugly rat population and nothing else. What's worse, the shrinking population was robbing Baltimore of the infusion of tax money it needed to reverse these dismal trends. Somehow he turned it all around. Using energy reserves that seemed almost super-human, he pushed through a plan to rebuild the Inner Harbor and turn it into, of all things, a tourist attraction. He found one ally in James Rouse, who had built the utopian-like new City of Columbia in Howard County, and a financial wizard of unparalelled genius in Charles Benton. Benton showed Schaefer how to squeeze money out of rocks, so to speak, and Rouse paved the way for other wary big-money investors when he developed the Baltimore Inner Harbor after Schaefer literally willed through an enabling voter referendum. And Schaefer - as he constantly pointed out - was not just about money. He preached neighborhoods, he went to neighborhoods and he improved neighborhoods. A story that is mostly true has Schaefer, on weekend days, ordering his chauffer to drive up and down the alleys of this neighborhood or that neighborhood. He's in the back seat with a note pad, jotting down the location of pot holes, big trash pile-ups, or anything else that needs municipal attention. Those notes turn into work orders in public works come Monday morning. While other man spent the weekends in quality time with their families, Schaefer spent quality time with his chauffer, getting things done. Governors hated him because no matter what they did for Baltimore, it was never enough. Later, of course, he became Governor. And despite what everybody else thought was a bad match, he ended up being a good Governor. After that, he was a good Comptroller until time caught up with him and he started saying and doing some curious things. The sun finally set on him, but when he was gone, even his political enemies conceded he was giant.
Schaefer became Mayor in the immediate aftermath of the 1966 riots, and rebuilding from it became the job of a lifetime. Once again, the job is humongous. Baltimore needs another Schaefer. Really, it does.
Terps and Wolverines Battle to Scoreless Deadlock
COLLEGE PARK, Maryland September 11, 2015 - It had to be the quietest big game crowd I've ever been in the middle of, but then it was the kind of match that generated few big moments. The reason was the two defenses and the absolute determination both threw out onto the field. In the aftermath, Terp Coach Sasho Cirovski said Michigan played unusually in that it played "directly." I suppose it is a term of art because it looked to this observer like both teams were going right at the other. Michigan's defense was spectacular in heading Terp feeds from the box. Maryland only generated 12 shots for a game that lasted 80 minutes: Two 30 minute halves and two ten minute overtimes. There were a few scares for each team, and Maryland's fine keeper, Red-shirt Junior Cody Niedermeier, was aggressive in coming off the line, a trait that kept Michigan from getting off good shots on several occassions. Neidermeier also exhibited outstanding hands, both against Michigan and the Friday before, when the Terps beat back then No. 1 UCLA. About mid-way through the first OT, Maryland's talented freshman striker, Sebastian Elney, duped two befuddled Wolverine Defenders when they had him, seemingly, pinned in the corner with the ball. Instead, he flicked it, floated it, and kissed it, finally, to a charging George Campbell. Campbell got his right foot on the ball and seemed about to shoot when he was muscled to the deck by a Michigan defender. The official blew the whistle and every Maryland fan thought a penalty shot was forthcoming. But the ref - whoever he was since the box score omitted his name but added the name of the official scorer who omitted the name of the ref - didn't follow the whistle with a call and the match remained tied.
Cirovski, who felt Maryland "deserved better," was happy that Maryland remained on the attack even though they had to play the final 35 minutes with only ten men on the pitch. The ref saw fit to give the Terp's Jorge Calix a red card at the 79:21 mark of the second half. Replays seemed to indicate that the contact that resulted in the red card was not of an intentional variety, but then what do you expect from a man who won't allow his name in the box score. Maryland was No. 4 after beating UCLA, but during this past week they lost to Akron, 3-2, and tied Michigan. The Terps play next tomorrow at College Park against Navy, which whacked the Terps last season in Annapolis. Maryland must guard against the same kind of let down they suffered last Monday against Akron.
Suggs Tears Achilles Heel in Heartbreaking Loss to Broncos in Denver
When Terrell Suggs went down in the fourth quarter of the Ravens awful loss to Denver, it looked liken nothing but cramps. It was an unusually warm day in Denver, where the altitude already made playing conditions tough. Suggs was able to ambulate off the field and then to a cart for a ride to the locker, so when Raven Coach John Harbaugh let the news out in the post-game press conference, it was a bomb shell. Harbaugh praised the perennial All-Pro for his incredible work ethic, his leadership and, of course, his outstanding play. The injury came on a day that Suggs and his companions held Denver without an offensive touchdown, a difficult job to say the least.
While the defense was great, the offense was anything but until the last drive, when Joe Flacco guided Baltimore down the field to a first down inside the Bronco 20 in the final minute. A second down pass into the endzone glanced off of Steve Smith's hands, although the Flacco pass may have been slightly deflected at the last by the Broncos. Then, on third down, Flacco threw to Crocket Gilmore in the endzone. It was a high lob that Gilmore tried to bring down between several Broncos. First, the Broncos appeared to interfere with Gilmore, with one defender jumping up in his face with his back to the ball an his hands in Gilmore's face. Gilmore managed to reach around the defender and get both hands on the ball for a second or so, but then the ball was flicked away and before it hit the turf former Raven Darien Stewart caught it for an interception that all but ended the game.
After trailing throughout the first half, the Ravens came out after halftime and seemed to take control of the game. The defense repeatedly sacked Peyton Manning, and the pressure finally paid bigger dividends when a sideline pass was intercepted by Jimmy Smith, who raced into the endzone for Baltimore's only TD of the game. A subsequent drive gave the Ravens a four point lead, 13-9. Then the Ravens again stopped Denver and took over near their 20. The team drove out near mid-field but then the game turned when Flacco's pass to Steve Smith was picked off and returned for a TD. Denver added a field goal before the Ravens launched their final drive that came up just short.
Burnley Wins Third Straight, Top Sheffield Wednesday, 3-1; Matthew Taylor, Again, In Critical Scoring Play
After David Jones had put the homestanding Claret ahead of Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday afternoon at Turf Moor, the visitors struck back and took the match to the half notted with Burnley, 1-1. In the first 20 minutes of the second half, the visitors maintained their advantage. But the home crowd began to feel a change, and in the end, the man whose critical goals have helped the most in Burnley's current three-game win streak, came through again. Then, with the Claret ahead, 2-1, new signing Andre Gray got his first Burnley goal in stoppage time, giving Burnley a 3-1 win. No rest for the Claret, as they return to the Turf Moor pitch Tuesday night against the Milton Keyes Dons.
The win did enable Burnley to move into the top six of the Championship for the first time this season. Brighton leads the Championship with 16 points. Cardiff has the second position with 12 points. Then come Middlesbrough, Birmingham and Burnley, each with 11 points. Burnley is assigned the fifth position on the table because its Goal Differential is +2, while Middlesbrough is at +6 and Birmingham at +5. After Burnley comes Hull, QPR and Ipswich, each with ten points, and Reading and Charlton with nine points.
Schaefer became Mayor in the immediate aftermath of the 1966 riots, and rebuilding from it became the job of a lifetime. Once again, the job is humongous. Baltimore needs another Schaefer. Really, it does.
Terps and Wolverines Battle to Scoreless Deadlock
COLLEGE PARK, Maryland September 11, 2015 - It had to be the quietest big game crowd I've ever been in the middle of, but then it was the kind of match that generated few big moments. The reason was the two defenses and the absolute determination both threw out onto the field. In the aftermath, Terp Coach Sasho Cirovski said Michigan played unusually in that it played "directly." I suppose it is a term of art because it looked to this observer like both teams were going right at the other. Michigan's defense was spectacular in heading Terp feeds from the box. Maryland only generated 12 shots for a game that lasted 80 minutes: Two 30 minute halves and two ten minute overtimes. There were a few scares for each team, and Maryland's fine keeper, Red-shirt Junior Cody Niedermeier, was aggressive in coming off the line, a trait that kept Michigan from getting off good shots on several occassions. Neidermeier also exhibited outstanding hands, both against Michigan and the Friday before, when the Terps beat back then No. 1 UCLA. About mid-way through the first OT, Maryland's talented freshman striker, Sebastian Elney, duped two befuddled Wolverine Defenders when they had him, seemingly, pinned in the corner with the ball. Instead, he flicked it, floated it, and kissed it, finally, to a charging George Campbell. Campbell got his right foot on the ball and seemed about to shoot when he was muscled to the deck by a Michigan defender. The official blew the whistle and every Maryland fan thought a penalty shot was forthcoming. But the ref - whoever he was since the box score omitted his name but added the name of the official scorer who omitted the name of the ref - didn't follow the whistle with a call and the match remained tied.
Cirovski, who felt Maryland "deserved better," was happy that Maryland remained on the attack even though they had to play the final 35 minutes with only ten men on the pitch. The ref saw fit to give the Terp's Jorge Calix a red card at the 79:21 mark of the second half. Replays seemed to indicate that the contact that resulted in the red card was not of an intentional variety, but then what do you expect from a man who won't allow his name in the box score. Maryland was No. 4 after beating UCLA, but during this past week they lost to Akron, 3-2, and tied Michigan. The Terps play next tomorrow at College Park against Navy, which whacked the Terps last season in Annapolis. Maryland must guard against the same kind of let down they suffered last Monday against Akron.
Suggs Tears Achilles Heel in Heartbreaking Loss to Broncos in Denver
When Terrell Suggs went down in the fourth quarter of the Ravens awful loss to Denver, it looked liken nothing but cramps. It was an unusually warm day in Denver, where the altitude already made playing conditions tough. Suggs was able to ambulate off the field and then to a cart for a ride to the locker, so when Raven Coach John Harbaugh let the news out in the post-game press conference, it was a bomb shell. Harbaugh praised the perennial All-Pro for his incredible work ethic, his leadership and, of course, his outstanding play. The injury came on a day that Suggs and his companions held Denver without an offensive touchdown, a difficult job to say the least.
While the defense was great, the offense was anything but until the last drive, when Joe Flacco guided Baltimore down the field to a first down inside the Bronco 20 in the final minute. A second down pass into the endzone glanced off of Steve Smith's hands, although the Flacco pass may have been slightly deflected at the last by the Broncos. Then, on third down, Flacco threw to Crocket Gilmore in the endzone. It was a high lob that Gilmore tried to bring down between several Broncos. First, the Broncos appeared to interfere with Gilmore, with one defender jumping up in his face with his back to the ball an his hands in Gilmore's face. Gilmore managed to reach around the defender and get both hands on the ball for a second or so, but then the ball was flicked away and before it hit the turf former Raven Darien Stewart caught it for an interception that all but ended the game.
After trailing throughout the first half, the Ravens came out after halftime and seemed to take control of the game. The defense repeatedly sacked Peyton Manning, and the pressure finally paid bigger dividends when a sideline pass was intercepted by Jimmy Smith, who raced into the endzone for Baltimore's only TD of the game. A subsequent drive gave the Ravens a four point lead, 13-9. Then the Ravens again stopped Denver and took over near their 20. The team drove out near mid-field but then the game turned when Flacco's pass to Steve Smith was picked off and returned for a TD. Denver added a field goal before the Ravens launched their final drive that came up just short.
Burnley Wins Third Straight, Top Sheffield Wednesday, 3-1; Matthew Taylor, Again, In Critical Scoring Play
After David Jones had put the homestanding Claret ahead of Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday afternoon at Turf Moor, the visitors struck back and took the match to the half notted with Burnley, 1-1. In the first 20 minutes of the second half, the visitors maintained their advantage. But the home crowd began to feel a change, and in the end, the man whose critical goals have helped the most in Burnley's current three-game win streak, came through again. Then, with the Claret ahead, 2-1, new signing Andre Gray got his first Burnley goal in stoppage time, giving Burnley a 3-1 win. No rest for the Claret, as they return to the Turf Moor pitch Tuesday night against the Milton Keyes Dons.
The win did enable Burnley to move into the top six of the Championship for the first time this season. Brighton leads the Championship with 16 points. Cardiff has the second position with 12 points. Then come Middlesbrough, Birmingham and Burnley, each with 11 points. Burnley is assigned the fifth position on the table because its Goal Differential is +2, while Middlesbrough is at +6 and Birmingham at +5. After Burnley comes Hull, QPR and Ipswich, each with ten points, and Reading and Charlton with nine points.
Friday, September 11, 2015
Leaving the Kitchen: In Baltimore, Embarassing Tenure as Mayor Convinces Rawlings-Blake She Can't Stand the Heat; Obama Seeks to Permit 10,000 Islamic Syrian Refugees to Enter USA; Obama Said to Demand No Christians Be Among Those Coming Here
BALTIMORE, Maryland September 11, 2015 - It was 14 years ago this morning that a group of profoundly evil Islamic Men under the stylized command of the since-assasinated Osama bin Laden, massacred over 3000 Americans by flying hijacked jetliners into Manhattan's World Trade Center twin skyscrapers and the Pentagon. A fourth jetliner, said to be heading for the United States Capital Building, crashed instead in a Pennsylvania farm field after a group of American passengers rebelled against the hijackers and staged a counter-attack. During the ensuing life or death struggle, the jet went down. You would think that anyone who became the Mayor of a large East Coast City in the wake of 9/11/2001 atrocities would have spent some time preparing for disasters. Stephanie Rawlings Blake didn't think such preparation was necessary and learned nothing from history, however recent, so when disaster did strike Baltimore in the guise of a blood-curdling racial uprising, she was totally ill-prepared. Even as the riots and arsons took place at various locations throughout one of the Northeast's southern-most urban areas, there were rumors that Blake had fled the City for the protection of a friend's suburban home. Some old timers - this writer included - pined yet again, as these events unfolded, for the sure and moral leadership of the late William Donald Schaefer, a man seemingly born to be Mayor. Blake, meanwhile, ordered the Baltimore City Police Department to "stand down;" i.e., not confront, rioters, looters, pilagers and plunderers, in the face of the large scale rioting, even ordering lines of officers deployed in the path of the carnage and not wearing protective gear, to not react when being pelted with bricks, stones and other potentially lethal projectiles. She later denied giving these orders, but that order didn't appear out of nowhere, and she had hand-picked a completely unvetted West Coaster to be Police Chief (she subsequently fired him after saying many times that he had acted appropriately). Today, Ms. Rawlings-Blake will announce - according to any number of sources - that she will not seek re-election. To that, most Baltimoreans say, "thank God!"
In recent weeks, and well before the news that Blake was about to quit had hit the streets, several high-profile Baltimore Politicians had announced their candidacies for Mayor, including former Mayor Sheila Dixon. Rumors about several others are everywhere. Faced with a virtual silent coup, Ms. Blake did the only logical thing, she cried "No Mas!" No Mas indeed.
It was in the middle of the brutal and shocking street uprisings that Rawlings-Blake - the daughter of the late and much lamented Baltimore Political and Elected Leader Wayne Rawlings - said during a news conference that the rioters had to be given "room to destroy." Many who heard her say those words live could only blink in amazement. Did she really mean to say such a ghastly thing? But they weren't aware that she was a personal adherent to the uber leftists in the White House, including the Iranian, Valerie Jarret, who is said to be President Obama's most trusted advisor. Obama and Jarret are openly opposed to any kind of police action airmed at those who riot against traditional authorities. Both Obama and Jarret concede that they follow the uber left Marxist rants of the late Saul Alinsky, who schooled Communists, Anarchists and other Anti-American elements in the rudiments of anti-Americanism. Both learned well, but when Jarret tried to pass these lessons on to Rawlings-Blake as the unrest unfolded, she learned that the Baltimorean was not such a quick learner. Admitting to the press, in the middle of the riots, that she was on the side of the destroyers was not a good idea. Well, she knows it now (although her decision to announce that she wouldn't fun again on the anniversry of 9/11 will remind some that there are those who never really learn life's lessons).
Blake did seeth openly at the rioters as they pulled off the unrest's most egregious and shocking acts - one hound dog stuck a kitchen knife in a fireman's hose as the BCFD tried to douse a huge blaze at a pharmacy - Blake also avoided impassioned calls from Maryland's new Republican Governor, Robert Hogan, who had the National Guard poised and ready to deploy on the first night of the riots, but did not want to act until Blake approved. Instead, Blake would not come on the line with the Governor. Just as Hogan was about to act unilaterally, Blake finally approved, but not until later on Monday night. When she did, the nation was confronted with Baltimore as a City of military occupation for the next ten days. There are countless City residents who wish the Guard had stayed longer - ten months instead of ten days - because their departure touched off an astounding string of murderous rampages that forced the murder rate to skyrocket. The rate of cold-blooded murders has already passed last year's totals and are racomg pell-mell toward national records. Baltimore's murder rate has shot past that of New York's, and is closing in on the World's Shooting and Murder Capital: Chicago, home of the nation's very-own personal political agitator, Barack H. Obama. When confronted with her "room to destroy" statement, Blake initially denied the statement was hers. But when shown a video of the quote, she proceeded to claim it was taken out of context. Huh? How does one even begin to take such a statement out of context? Ms. Blake obviously needs a beginners lesson in Freudian Slips.
Two days before today's concession, Blake announced that the City will pay the family of Freddy Gray - the man whose death while in police custody sparked the urban conflagration back in April - a sum exceeding $6 million to settle their wrongful death claim against the City. The amount would be outrageous in any circumstance, but it was announced against a backdrop that includes a State Wrongful Death Statute that has very firm statutory limits on what a jury or judge can award in a wrongful death case, and a well-known fact that Gray was a career criminal and well-known West Baltimore heroin dealer who has been convicted of selling narcotics, including heroin, to school children. And Blake knows that the money will have to be paid by a City that is cash-starved on its best day. She will live with the knowledge that these millions of taxpayer dollars will be going to the Gray family instead of the many desperately impoverished residents served by City agencies. Many immediately wondered also about the timing of the Mayor's announcement, made, as it was, just two days before the hearing and ruling on the six defendant police officers' motions to have their cases moved out of the City to a state jurisdiction not clamoring for the officers' respective scalps. As it turned out, Blake need not have been concerned about the timing, since the Judge who conducted the hearing immediately ruled against the motion in one of the biggest travesties in the history of the State of Maryland (See Credible and Incisive post of September 10, 2015, entitled "A Really Awful Court Decision in Baltimore All But Eliminates Chances Six Defendants Will Receive Fair Trial.") It is interesting to note that a community center has opened in the same neighborhood where the Gray case unfolded. Although not City-funded, it has been named in honor of the dead narcotics dealer.
Obama Said to Demand No Christians Be Among 10,000 Syrian Refugees Coming to USA
As hundreds of thousands of refugees stream out of Syria and seek asylum in Europe and the USA, Barack Hussein Obama, the USA President, has announced that he wants to take 10,000 of the refugees for asylum here in the USA. Sources say that he has told those involved in the process that none of the people coming to America can be Christian. Hence, they will all be Muslim.
Obama has claimed in the past that he is Christian, but his actions since being re-elected have cast a large question mark on that claim. He has authorized his secretary of state to sign a treaty with Iran that will inevitably lead to Iran getting possession of a nuclear arsenal even though its leaders continue to vow almost daily its intention to destroy the USA and its close ally, Israel. He has kept Christians throughout the Middle East from coming to the USA even though they are being hunted into extinction by ISIS and, some say, Iran. He has prevented the USA's military from doing anything - other than sporadic air strikes - to curtail ISIS as the rogue Islamic Movement butchers tens of thousands of Christians and Moderate Muslims throughout the Middle East and beyond, and continues a land-grab that has resulted in it having actual physical control of most of Syria and Iraq. ISIS calls these occupied lands a new Islamic Caliphate. Obama has also has spoken out publicly when two Muslims were allegedly killed in North Carolina by an American. But Obama remained silent when killers alligned with ISIS butchered Americans. He has criticized Christians for actions taken by their long-ago ancestors during the Crusades of the earliest part of the second millenium, but remained silent as today's Muslims throw gay people off of the roofs of multi-story buildings while being tied to a chair. He has given his full support and that of his administration to those parts of his Obamacare (referred to by this Column as "obamashame") that force Christian organizations such as the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide birth control products to their employees even though such an act would be in direct contravention of their deeply held religious beliefs. In response, national Archdiocesan Groups have joined together to sue the Obama Administration over the policy. There have been many other acts against the Christian Faith, but in the interest of brevity, we will end the list here. Countless citizens, including many who formerly backed Obama, have recoiled at the vicious nature of his anti-Christian campaign, a campaign he neither defends or rationalizes.
When Obama ran for president in 2006 and 2007, and then throughout his first term in office (2008 through early 2012) Barack Hussein Obama stated over and over again, and very publicly, that he was opposed to marraige between members of the same sex; i.e., so-called 'Gay Marraige." After winning a second election, thereby ending any possibility that an act or statement that he makes will haunt him in a future election, Obama made a very public and much-balleyhooed announcement that his views of marraige between members of the same sex have "evolved." Obama said he now is a strong supporter of Gay Marraige. Cynics claimed that Obama has always favored Gay Marraige, but felt he could not make these views public during his campaigns for President because the nation, during these times, was opposed to such marraiges.
Obama was very public in his 'admissions' that he was Christian. He embroiled himself in controversy when he claimed, in a book, that he greatly admired his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago, and that he treasured the outspoken Wright's personal and political advice. But the few journalists willing to write anything other than glowing stories about Obama learned that Wright was always incredibly critical of all things American. An excerpt from one sermon, played over and over again in the conservative media, claims that the 9/11 massacres were "Americas chickens coming home to roost." Obama felt compelled to publicly break with Wright. Now, Credible and Incisive, and others, wonder if sometime soon there will be an announcement by Obama that he is converting to the Muslim faith. His identified father's family are all Muslim, although Obama has said that his father did not practice Islam. There are questions about whether Obama is really the son of the late Kenyan. Those who believe those stories point to Frank Marshall Davis as the actual father of the President. They claim there is a facial resemblance and a confluence of lives along about the time Obama was conceived. What differene does it all make now? Well, no one denies that Mr. Davis, an avowed Communist and gifted poet, was a mentor of sorts to Obama in his formative years.
In recent weeks, and well before the news that Blake was about to quit had hit the streets, several high-profile Baltimore Politicians had announced their candidacies for Mayor, including former Mayor Sheila Dixon. Rumors about several others are everywhere. Faced with a virtual silent coup, Ms. Blake did the only logical thing, she cried "No Mas!" No Mas indeed.
It was in the middle of the brutal and shocking street uprisings that Rawlings-Blake - the daughter of the late and much lamented Baltimore Political and Elected Leader Wayne Rawlings - said during a news conference that the rioters had to be given "room to destroy." Many who heard her say those words live could only blink in amazement. Did she really mean to say such a ghastly thing? But they weren't aware that she was a personal adherent to the uber leftists in the White House, including the Iranian, Valerie Jarret, who is said to be President Obama's most trusted advisor. Obama and Jarret are openly opposed to any kind of police action airmed at those who riot against traditional authorities. Both Obama and Jarret concede that they follow the uber left Marxist rants of the late Saul Alinsky, who schooled Communists, Anarchists and other Anti-American elements in the rudiments of anti-Americanism. Both learned well, but when Jarret tried to pass these lessons on to Rawlings-Blake as the unrest unfolded, she learned that the Baltimorean was not such a quick learner. Admitting to the press, in the middle of the riots, that she was on the side of the destroyers was not a good idea. Well, she knows it now (although her decision to announce that she wouldn't fun again on the anniversry of 9/11 will remind some that there are those who never really learn life's lessons).
Blake did seeth openly at the rioters as they pulled off the unrest's most egregious and shocking acts - one hound dog stuck a kitchen knife in a fireman's hose as the BCFD tried to douse a huge blaze at a pharmacy - Blake also avoided impassioned calls from Maryland's new Republican Governor, Robert Hogan, who had the National Guard poised and ready to deploy on the first night of the riots, but did not want to act until Blake approved. Instead, Blake would not come on the line with the Governor. Just as Hogan was about to act unilaterally, Blake finally approved, but not until later on Monday night. When she did, the nation was confronted with Baltimore as a City of military occupation for the next ten days. There are countless City residents who wish the Guard had stayed longer - ten months instead of ten days - because their departure touched off an astounding string of murderous rampages that forced the murder rate to skyrocket. The rate of cold-blooded murders has already passed last year's totals and are racomg pell-mell toward national records. Baltimore's murder rate has shot past that of New York's, and is closing in on the World's Shooting and Murder Capital: Chicago, home of the nation's very-own personal political agitator, Barack H. Obama. When confronted with her "room to destroy" statement, Blake initially denied the statement was hers. But when shown a video of the quote, she proceeded to claim it was taken out of context. Huh? How does one even begin to take such a statement out of context? Ms. Blake obviously needs a beginners lesson in Freudian Slips.
Two days before today's concession, Blake announced that the City will pay the family of Freddy Gray - the man whose death while in police custody sparked the urban conflagration back in April - a sum exceeding $6 million to settle their wrongful death claim against the City. The amount would be outrageous in any circumstance, but it was announced against a backdrop that includes a State Wrongful Death Statute that has very firm statutory limits on what a jury or judge can award in a wrongful death case, and a well-known fact that Gray was a career criminal and well-known West Baltimore heroin dealer who has been convicted of selling narcotics, including heroin, to school children. And Blake knows that the money will have to be paid by a City that is cash-starved on its best day. She will live with the knowledge that these millions of taxpayer dollars will be going to the Gray family instead of the many desperately impoverished residents served by City agencies. Many immediately wondered also about the timing of the Mayor's announcement, made, as it was, just two days before the hearing and ruling on the six defendant police officers' motions to have their cases moved out of the City to a state jurisdiction not clamoring for the officers' respective scalps. As it turned out, Blake need not have been concerned about the timing, since the Judge who conducted the hearing immediately ruled against the motion in one of the biggest travesties in the history of the State of Maryland (See Credible and Incisive post of September 10, 2015, entitled "A Really Awful Court Decision in Baltimore All But Eliminates Chances Six Defendants Will Receive Fair Trial.") It is interesting to note that a community center has opened in the same neighborhood where the Gray case unfolded. Although not City-funded, it has been named in honor of the dead narcotics dealer.
Obama Said to Demand No Christians Be Among 10,000 Syrian Refugees Coming to USA
As hundreds of thousands of refugees stream out of Syria and seek asylum in Europe and the USA, Barack Hussein Obama, the USA President, has announced that he wants to take 10,000 of the refugees for asylum here in the USA. Sources say that he has told those involved in the process that none of the people coming to America can be Christian. Hence, they will all be Muslim.
Obama has claimed in the past that he is Christian, but his actions since being re-elected have cast a large question mark on that claim. He has authorized his secretary of state to sign a treaty with Iran that will inevitably lead to Iran getting possession of a nuclear arsenal even though its leaders continue to vow almost daily its intention to destroy the USA and its close ally, Israel. He has kept Christians throughout the Middle East from coming to the USA even though they are being hunted into extinction by ISIS and, some say, Iran. He has prevented the USA's military from doing anything - other than sporadic air strikes - to curtail ISIS as the rogue Islamic Movement butchers tens of thousands of Christians and Moderate Muslims throughout the Middle East and beyond, and continues a land-grab that has resulted in it having actual physical control of most of Syria and Iraq. ISIS calls these occupied lands a new Islamic Caliphate. Obama has also has spoken out publicly when two Muslims were allegedly killed in North Carolina by an American. But Obama remained silent when killers alligned with ISIS butchered Americans. He has criticized Christians for actions taken by their long-ago ancestors during the Crusades of the earliest part of the second millenium, but remained silent as today's Muslims throw gay people off of the roofs of multi-story buildings while being tied to a chair. He has given his full support and that of his administration to those parts of his Obamacare (referred to by this Column as "obamashame") that force Christian organizations such as the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide birth control products to their employees even though such an act would be in direct contravention of their deeply held religious beliefs. In response, national Archdiocesan Groups have joined together to sue the Obama Administration over the policy. There have been many other acts against the Christian Faith, but in the interest of brevity, we will end the list here. Countless citizens, including many who formerly backed Obama, have recoiled at the vicious nature of his anti-Christian campaign, a campaign he neither defends or rationalizes.
When Obama ran for president in 2006 and 2007, and then throughout his first term in office (2008 through early 2012) Barack Hussein Obama stated over and over again, and very publicly, that he was opposed to marraige between members of the same sex; i.e., so-called 'Gay Marraige." After winning a second election, thereby ending any possibility that an act or statement that he makes will haunt him in a future election, Obama made a very public and much-balleyhooed announcement that his views of marraige between members of the same sex have "evolved." Obama said he now is a strong supporter of Gay Marraige. Cynics claimed that Obama has always favored Gay Marraige, but felt he could not make these views public during his campaigns for President because the nation, during these times, was opposed to such marraiges.
Obama was very public in his 'admissions' that he was Christian. He embroiled himself in controversy when he claimed, in a book, that he greatly admired his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago, and that he treasured the outspoken Wright's personal and political advice. But the few journalists willing to write anything other than glowing stories about Obama learned that Wright was always incredibly critical of all things American. An excerpt from one sermon, played over and over again in the conservative media, claims that the 9/11 massacres were "Americas chickens coming home to roost." Obama felt compelled to publicly break with Wright. Now, Credible and Incisive, and others, wonder if sometime soon there will be an announcement by Obama that he is converting to the Muslim faith. His identified father's family are all Muslim, although Obama has said that his father did not practice Islam. There are questions about whether Obama is really the son of the late Kenyan. Those who believe those stories point to Frank Marshall Davis as the actual father of the President. They claim there is a facial resemblance and a confluence of lives along about the time Obama was conceived. What differene does it all make now? Well, no one denies that Mr. Davis, an avowed Communist and gifted poet, was a mentor of sorts to Obama in his formative years.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
A Really Awful Court Decision in Baltimore All But Eliminates Chances Six Defendants Will Receive Fair Trial
BALTIMORE, Maryland September 10, 2015 - When you spend your entire life always sympathizing with, and often being active in all things promoting civil rights, finding yourself on the so-called 'wrong' side of a key controversy is very disconcerting. And yet, here I am. The Freddy Gray incident in Baltimore is about as terrible a set of circumstances as one can imagine. The latest development - the really awful decision of Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams denying the combined motions of the Defendants to change the venue of the cases - is merely the latest, but it is easily one of the worst.
My simple argument in the venue controversy is, "if not this case, which case?" Changing the venue of high-profile criminal cases is part of American criminal law. The Maryland Rules of Procedure, which codify and annotate the rules by which every piece of litigation in the State of Maryland must abide, contain provisions for changing venue. Each case is one that must be decided on the facts. The very fact that the rules are there, with annotations (i.e., every decision by the Court of Appeals of Maryland and Court of Special Appeals of Maryland which announce law pertaining to any aspect of change of venue issues) is the firmest possible indication that the law in Maryland allows for changes of venue. Once you get to that point of the legal analysis, your work is done. Or, at least it should be done. It simply is not possible for any case to have a more compelling set of facts and circumstances virtually crying out for a change in this trial's venue. The decision should've been a no-brainer even for a first-year law student, unless the judge making the call was a) determined to keep the cases in the jurisdiction where convictions are almost certain; b) concerned about his personal status in the City where he lives; or c) fearful for himself and his family if he rules in favor of a change of venue. These three possible reasons are all directly contrary to the pillars of justice which should underly our legal system. In short, it is the kind of decision that - while possibly placating the mobs in the street in the very short term, does nothing to promote real justice and real respect for the legal system. It is the kind of decision that will lead to derisive comments by people who know the law and respect the law. This latter group will be left to shake their heads in disgust.
There are those in the mob who see a real street justice in this latest turn of events. For decades, Black Americans were discriminated against by racist judges and police. Now the mob screams that it is time for pay back. The racist group calling itself "Black Lives Matter" demonstrated a few days back somewhere in Minnesota, and was recorded chanting, as they marched, something to the effect that police officers should be wrapped up and fried like bacon. Another member of the group said on a radio broadcast that it is now "open season" on white people and especially on white police. They should be shot and if they are, there is nothing they can do about it, the genius said. And he is a fine human being. You see, the scum that did the discriminating those years ago are held in very low public esteem these days. They are hated and scorned, their memory is loaded down with nothing positive. People today do not aspire to be like those old dead racists. The overwhelming majority of people alive today hold no such foul views. Yet the hatred in the streets today give credence to the view that humanity cannot rise above the evils of racism. Instead, racism is like a pendulum, swinging back and forth. No one has the courage or decency to end it. And so, six police officers who might have been negligent in the way they took a career crimal into custody are instead blamed when he managed to get himself killed. The State's Attorney, when she wasn't busy blowing her own ample horn, filed a criminal complaint which alleges no beating or physical abuse. But she charged one with second degree murder. All six are vilified and derided almost daily on local media. Baltimore Police are so incensed that they have stopped trying to control the evil in the streets. As a result, murders are skyrocketing. The entire City boils. But Judge Williams says, "fair impartial jury possible." Of course it is.
I do not know Judge Barry Williams and do not recall being before him, even for minor matters. But this is a case that is a textbook case for changing the venue. The facts are so very much in favor of moving the trial to a Maryland County where the population didn't riot in anger over what they believe these defendants did. There were two days of angry rioting, tens of millions of dollars of property damage, many hundreds of arrests for crimes like rioting, looting, arson, and all manner of crimes whch make up a concept of mayhem, a deployment of the Maryland National Guard for days and days, a deployment of law enforcement officers from around the state and beyond, city-wide curfews, massive school closings, non-stop, high-decibel discussion of events on local TV and radio, running around the clock. store closings (not counting the ones that were looted and closed either for good or for a very long time), and even the cancellation and eventual relocation of several Major League Baseball Games. Despite this massive publicity, despite the riots and demonstrations, demonstrations which continued even up to the date of this decision, despite non-stop press coverage by all manner of urban media, despite the fact that the entire City has squared off about this or that aspect of the case, this judge said the defense did not convince him that residents of the City - the potential jury pool - will be able to separate the mob scenes from the facts. Very very sad, and quite wrong. The courageous decision, the noble decision was to grant the motion of the defendants to change the venue. But that would've meant that the judge would've been held up to public scorn. Instead of the mob loving him - like they do this night - he would've been their personal bad guy. If Judge Williams ever wanted to be considered a great judge by people who know what a great judge is, he would never have made this awful decision. Instead, he'll have to be content with well-wishes from the mob outside his window and boot-lickers and other spineless sorts.
The jury pool and the poor souls who will make up the actual jury in the City will have to have the courage of the greatest heroes of the human race just to get to the deliberation room with an open mind. Every person in the City Courthouse - save for the six Defendants and their attorneys - will be praying for a conviction so the riots don't start up again. The allies of the State and their private attorneys; i.e., everybody, including the media, will be doing everything in their power to convict and incarcerate. Outside of the courtroom where the trial will take place, demonstrators will scream for conviction. Hangers-on and operatives will be everywhere. But according to Judge Williams, it will still be a place where the six defendants will be able to present their evidence and then make their way to prison. Heaven help us.
My simple argument in the venue controversy is, "if not this case, which case?" Changing the venue of high-profile criminal cases is part of American criminal law. The Maryland Rules of Procedure, which codify and annotate the rules by which every piece of litigation in the State of Maryland must abide, contain provisions for changing venue. Each case is one that must be decided on the facts. The very fact that the rules are there, with annotations (i.e., every decision by the Court of Appeals of Maryland and Court of Special Appeals of Maryland which announce law pertaining to any aspect of change of venue issues) is the firmest possible indication that the law in Maryland allows for changes of venue. Once you get to that point of the legal analysis, your work is done. Or, at least it should be done. It simply is not possible for any case to have a more compelling set of facts and circumstances virtually crying out for a change in this trial's venue. The decision should've been a no-brainer even for a first-year law student, unless the judge making the call was a) determined to keep the cases in the jurisdiction where convictions are almost certain; b) concerned about his personal status in the City where he lives; or c) fearful for himself and his family if he rules in favor of a change of venue. These three possible reasons are all directly contrary to the pillars of justice which should underly our legal system. In short, it is the kind of decision that - while possibly placating the mobs in the street in the very short term, does nothing to promote real justice and real respect for the legal system. It is the kind of decision that will lead to derisive comments by people who know the law and respect the law. This latter group will be left to shake their heads in disgust.
There are those in the mob who see a real street justice in this latest turn of events. For decades, Black Americans were discriminated against by racist judges and police. Now the mob screams that it is time for pay back. The racist group calling itself "Black Lives Matter" demonstrated a few days back somewhere in Minnesota, and was recorded chanting, as they marched, something to the effect that police officers should be wrapped up and fried like bacon. Another member of the group said on a radio broadcast that it is now "open season" on white people and especially on white police. They should be shot and if they are, there is nothing they can do about it, the genius said. And he is a fine human being. You see, the scum that did the discriminating those years ago are held in very low public esteem these days. They are hated and scorned, their memory is loaded down with nothing positive. People today do not aspire to be like those old dead racists. The overwhelming majority of people alive today hold no such foul views. Yet the hatred in the streets today give credence to the view that humanity cannot rise above the evils of racism. Instead, racism is like a pendulum, swinging back and forth. No one has the courage or decency to end it. And so, six police officers who might have been negligent in the way they took a career crimal into custody are instead blamed when he managed to get himself killed. The State's Attorney, when she wasn't busy blowing her own ample horn, filed a criminal complaint which alleges no beating or physical abuse. But she charged one with second degree murder. All six are vilified and derided almost daily on local media. Baltimore Police are so incensed that they have stopped trying to control the evil in the streets. As a result, murders are skyrocketing. The entire City boils. But Judge Williams says, "fair impartial jury possible." Of course it is.
I do not know Judge Barry Williams and do not recall being before him, even for minor matters. But this is a case that is a textbook case for changing the venue. The facts are so very much in favor of moving the trial to a Maryland County where the population didn't riot in anger over what they believe these defendants did. There were two days of angry rioting, tens of millions of dollars of property damage, many hundreds of arrests for crimes like rioting, looting, arson, and all manner of crimes whch make up a concept of mayhem, a deployment of the Maryland National Guard for days and days, a deployment of law enforcement officers from around the state and beyond, city-wide curfews, massive school closings, non-stop, high-decibel discussion of events on local TV and radio, running around the clock. store closings (not counting the ones that were looted and closed either for good or for a very long time), and even the cancellation and eventual relocation of several Major League Baseball Games. Despite this massive publicity, despite the riots and demonstrations, demonstrations which continued even up to the date of this decision, despite non-stop press coverage by all manner of urban media, despite the fact that the entire City has squared off about this or that aspect of the case, this judge said the defense did not convince him that residents of the City - the potential jury pool - will be able to separate the mob scenes from the facts. Very very sad, and quite wrong. The courageous decision, the noble decision was to grant the motion of the defendants to change the venue. But that would've meant that the judge would've been held up to public scorn. Instead of the mob loving him - like they do this night - he would've been their personal bad guy. If Judge Williams ever wanted to be considered a great judge by people who know what a great judge is, he would never have made this awful decision. Instead, he'll have to be content with well-wishes from the mob outside his window and boot-lickers and other spineless sorts.
The jury pool and the poor souls who will make up the actual jury in the City will have to have the courage of the greatest heroes of the human race just to get to the deliberation room with an open mind. Every person in the City Courthouse - save for the six Defendants and their attorneys - will be praying for a conviction so the riots don't start up again. The allies of the State and their private attorneys; i.e., everybody, including the media, will be doing everything in their power to convict and incarcerate. Outside of the courtroom where the trial will take place, demonstrators will scream for conviction. Hangers-on and operatives will be everywhere. But according to Judge Williams, it will still be a place where the six defendants will be able to present their evidence and then make their way to prison. Heaven help us.
Friday, September 4, 2015
The Absolute Ugliness of a Presidency When the President Hates His Nation; A Poem; Soccer News: Burnley Rights the Ship, Wins Second Straight; No. 6 Terps Draw With No. 5 Notre Dame, Rout St. John's, Prepare for Tonight's Showdown with No. 1 UCLA
BALTIMORE, Maryland September 4, 2015 - This is Obama's world, the world he had visions about from the time he was a disaffected teen. The only trouble is, it hasn't changed since then, not even a little bit. It hasn't evolved, to use a phrasing from today's parlance. Obama didn't mature and neither did his view of the United States. When I was a teen, each of America's blemishes seemed larger than life. Every ounce of corruption immediately spread to every government official. Every penny spent on anything other than the poor was totally wasted. Every ounce of water or cubic inch of air that had even a trace of foreign matter in it was an indictment against the country's environmental policies. (But you know, even then I couldn't impune the current national leaders with the sins of every western leader since the Birth of Christ.) What I thought and experienced then, Obama still experiences. He can overlook each of Islam's debauched acts (throwing gays off of rooftops while tied to a chair. Putting prisoners of war in a cage and dropping it in the ocean to watch it, and the prisoner inside, sink out of sight.) but he attacks Christians because of the Crusades. I keep wondering what Christians could have done to him to justify what he allows Islam to do to them today, allowing their slaughter around the world. I'd like to debate him about the Crusades, but I'd really like to ask him some questions that reporters today - hapless sell-outs that they are - haven't or won't ask him about Islam. Obama blames an American Constitution and Declaration of Independence for falling short of utopia. He conveniently forgets that both documents constituted landmark breaks with what passed at the time for contemporary human rights guarantees and written guarantees of citizen participation in government decision-making. In fact, when they came into existence at the outset of this Republic, there was nothing anywhere on earth to compare them to. They were revolutions in and of themselves and the men responsible for them were heroes to all, despite the wrongs their documents did not address.
I am sorry that Jefferson and Franklin, Adams and Washington didn't do away with slavery right from the start. Our nation would today have been so much better had they been able to do so. But Obama knows and historians know that neither document would have ever been enacted or accepted at that time if the drafters attempted to do that. If those men had insisted on abolitionist language from the start, there would have been no United States, and the brave men who fought and died to rid this nation of slavery forever would never have the chance to take that stand. We abolished slavery at a great human price. We passed universal suffrage. We saved the world from HItler. But none of those things would've happened if the men Obama seems to loathe had never been born.
Many human beings go through what my contemporaries called a "rebellious period". Such a part of life, often lasting for one to three years, is characterized by stated disagreements with parents, teachers and other authority figures. The teen rebels against those who set a course and established barriers, restrictions or rules. That was the hated word: rules. Rebellious teens hate rules. Obama hates the law so much that he routinely ignores it. When he can't get his way, he acts like an insolent child and signs one of his knucke-headed executive orders. Other Presidents - men from both parties - negotiated with Congress to try and get things done. Obama rejects all things American and embraces all things Middle Eastern and Far Eastern. He embraces and is enthralled by Uber Leftists who gained control of nations by force and ruled with bloody iron fists: Fidel Castro, Robert Mugabe, Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir (the former Sudanese leader) and, until his death, Hugo Chavez represent, to Obama, what Churchill, Jefferson, Adams and Acheson represent to other western politicians.
The result of Obama's stagnated development is, among other things, the absurd and debauched 'treaty' with Iran. Like many Americans, I believe that the agreement will lead to war and bloodshed with an Iran that is far more powerful and far more evil than it would be had it not been the recipient of Obama's largesse. Forget all of the weak and unforgivable tenets of the agreement, it is the incredlible amount of money that Obama is giving to Iran that is the worst thing of all. His functionaries even admit that the money will be used to fund terror, acquire weapons and wage war. They act like it is unavoidable. Unavoidable? I would far more prefer war than giving an evil pack of satanic fools like the Mullahs a pot of gold. Again and again I ask, why is he doing this? I have to pinch myself when I think like that. It means I am comparing Obama to other Americans who recognize, on its face, the evil that is Iran. But Obama isn't like other Americans. He is an uber Leftist who hates everything American. He is the kind that forgets that the road from dictators to democracy is long and hard, and that mistakes and compromise will be engaged in along that road. Absolute dictatorships and absolute monarchies do not give way to republics in the history of man, not in the west or east or anywhere. But they didn't teach that lesson to Obama while he was at Harvard or Columbia.
Only the Lord knows what represensible uber Left nonsense Obama will ram down the nation's throat in the next few months. I dread November and December of 2016. I really fear what kind of people he will be pardoning on his way out. And you know and I know if there was some way he could continue to inflict his far left nonsense on us after his term is supposed to end, he will do it.
poem no. 2 for now
by John William Trotz in September, 2015
Chained in ancient crumbling prison pocked through squalid plague without any iron or steel bars;
none at all; none! think like ‘mate locked in stale breathless space,
locked tight, squelched in manner, cloying air
squelched in mind, nothing new, nothing that functions.....
There was a sure sense of knowing to release;
when the soft knock was put to the bone-cold door,
and a created vision springs out, fast so arrived
to it there was brilliance there was
the sureness of that, that amazing certainty of its survival
trick them. confuse them. conflict them and slap
across the jowls. smack! crash! smacked; joy of pain inflicted
with him then with passion just bodily,
a certain conjuring a certain nothing a certain nothing
knowing why there was more there
a perfected concert with pure brilliance tonal and serene
serene! whirring and grasping and embracing before meditating
reciprocated not caring not even contemplating
not her problem
life being lived life experienced life recompensed.
Sports: Burnley, With Two Straight Wins, Rights the Ship; No. 6 Terps Impressive in Draw With Notre Dame, Rout of St. John's; Showdown with No. 1 UCLA Tonight in College Park
Quickly stated: Burnley went to Bristol City last weekend and beat back the home team, 2-1, for its second consecutive win. The Claret opened the season with two draws and a loss before breaking through at Turf Moor against Brentford. They followed that win with Saturday's great road win. After the dismal start, the Claret have quickly climbed the table and now stand in 9th place, just two points out of 2nd place and the same automatic promotion to the Premier that they earned in 2013. Burnley is off until September 12, when they entertain Sheffield Wednesday.
No. 6 Maryland opened the regular season one week ago with a thrilling draw with No. 5 Notre Dame at the Indiana tournament in Indianapolis. They followed that result with a 4-0 rout of St. John's at the same venue. All of that sets the stage for tonight's showdown with No. 1 UCLA in College Park. The BTN will have the game live.
I am sorry that Jefferson and Franklin, Adams and Washington didn't do away with slavery right from the start. Our nation would today have been so much better had they been able to do so. But Obama knows and historians know that neither document would have ever been enacted or accepted at that time if the drafters attempted to do that. If those men had insisted on abolitionist language from the start, there would have been no United States, and the brave men who fought and died to rid this nation of slavery forever would never have the chance to take that stand. We abolished slavery at a great human price. We passed universal suffrage. We saved the world from HItler. But none of those things would've happened if the men Obama seems to loathe had never been born.
Many human beings go through what my contemporaries called a "rebellious period". Such a part of life, often lasting for one to three years, is characterized by stated disagreements with parents, teachers and other authority figures. The teen rebels against those who set a course and established barriers, restrictions or rules. That was the hated word: rules. Rebellious teens hate rules. Obama hates the law so much that he routinely ignores it. When he can't get his way, he acts like an insolent child and signs one of his knucke-headed executive orders. Other Presidents - men from both parties - negotiated with Congress to try and get things done. Obama rejects all things American and embraces all things Middle Eastern and Far Eastern. He embraces and is enthralled by Uber Leftists who gained control of nations by force and ruled with bloody iron fists: Fidel Castro, Robert Mugabe, Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir (the former Sudanese leader) and, until his death, Hugo Chavez represent, to Obama, what Churchill, Jefferson, Adams and Acheson represent to other western politicians.
The result of Obama's stagnated development is, among other things, the absurd and debauched 'treaty' with Iran. Like many Americans, I believe that the agreement will lead to war and bloodshed with an Iran that is far more powerful and far more evil than it would be had it not been the recipient of Obama's largesse. Forget all of the weak and unforgivable tenets of the agreement, it is the incredlible amount of money that Obama is giving to Iran that is the worst thing of all. His functionaries even admit that the money will be used to fund terror, acquire weapons and wage war. They act like it is unavoidable. Unavoidable? I would far more prefer war than giving an evil pack of satanic fools like the Mullahs a pot of gold. Again and again I ask, why is he doing this? I have to pinch myself when I think like that. It means I am comparing Obama to other Americans who recognize, on its face, the evil that is Iran. But Obama isn't like other Americans. He is an uber Leftist who hates everything American. He is the kind that forgets that the road from dictators to democracy is long and hard, and that mistakes and compromise will be engaged in along that road. Absolute dictatorships and absolute monarchies do not give way to republics in the history of man, not in the west or east or anywhere. But they didn't teach that lesson to Obama while he was at Harvard or Columbia.
Only the Lord knows what represensible uber Left nonsense Obama will ram down the nation's throat in the next few months. I dread November and December of 2016. I really fear what kind of people he will be pardoning on his way out. And you know and I know if there was some way he could continue to inflict his far left nonsense on us after his term is supposed to end, he will do it.
poem no. 2 for now
by John William Trotz in September, 2015
Chained in ancient crumbling prison pocked through squalid plague without any iron or steel bars;
none at all; none! think like ‘mate locked in stale breathless space,
locked tight, squelched in manner, cloying air
squelched in mind, nothing new, nothing that functions.....
There was a sure sense of knowing to release;
when the soft knock was put to the bone-cold door,
and a created vision springs out, fast so arrived
to it there was brilliance there was
the sureness of that, that amazing certainty of its survival
trick them. confuse them. conflict them and slap
across the jowls. smack! crash! smacked; joy of pain inflicted
with him then with passion just bodily,
a certain conjuring a certain nothing a certain nothing
knowing why there was more there
a perfected concert with pure brilliance tonal and serene
serene! whirring and grasping and embracing before meditating
reciprocated not caring not even contemplating
not her problem
life being lived life experienced life recompensed.
Sports: Burnley, With Two Straight Wins, Rights the Ship; No. 6 Terps Impressive in Draw With Notre Dame, Rout of St. John's; Showdown with No. 1 UCLA Tonight in College Park
Quickly stated: Burnley went to Bristol City last weekend and beat back the home team, 2-1, for its second consecutive win. The Claret opened the season with two draws and a loss before breaking through at Turf Moor against Brentford. They followed that win with Saturday's great road win. After the dismal start, the Claret have quickly climbed the table and now stand in 9th place, just two points out of 2nd place and the same automatic promotion to the Premier that they earned in 2013. Burnley is off until September 12, when they entertain Sheffield Wednesday.
No. 6 Maryland opened the regular season one week ago with a thrilling draw with No. 5 Notre Dame at the Indiana tournament in Indianapolis. They followed that result with a 4-0 rout of St. John's at the same venue. All of that sets the stage for tonight's showdown with No. 1 UCLA in College Park. The BTN will have the game live.
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