Saturday, October 31, 2015

Burnley beats back Huddersfield, 2-1, to remain tied for second on Championship Table, Andre Gray Scores Twice at Turf Moor; Claret Just 2 Points Out of First Place

BALTIMORE, Maryland October 31, 2015 - Andre Gray scored twice, once on a penalty shpt and once after a feed from Sam Vokes, and Burnley survived a rare own-goal to defeat Huddersfield, 2-1, before over 16,000 Saturday afternoon at Turf Moor.  The win allowed the Claret to remain tied for second with Hull City at 28 points.  Brighton, which drew with Reading today, leads the Championship with 30 points.

Burnley broke on top just 11:55 from the start when Gray converted a penalty kick.  Gray was taken down in the box by Huddersfield's Joel Lynch to set up the penalty shot.  Gray - now with 7 goals on the still-young season - doubled the Burnley lead at the 42:31 mark after taking a pass from Sam Vokes.  Burnley then cruised along until the 87:28 point of the second half when the Claret's Michael Duff inadvertently scored for Huddersfield.  The own goal came just 22 seconds after Michael Keane's header hit the cross bar for Burnley.  The final six minutes of play, including add on time, passed without either team scoring.

While both Burnley and Hull have 28 points, Hull is listed in second place and Burnley in third because Hull owns the tie-breaker: goal differential.  



Friday, October 30, 2015

Euro 2016: Which National Teams are in Finals and Which Are Not (20 Nations Have Qualified, 26 Have Been Eliminated; 8 Nations Fight for Remaining 4 Berths in Finals)

BALTIMORE, Maryland October 30, 2015 - As national soccer teams around the world gear up for World Cup Qualifying games aimed at establishing the field for the 2018 World Cup, the nations of Europe head into the final leg of the 2016 European Championships, to be played in France.  The only automatic qualifier for the tournament, France, has now been joined by 19 other nations who have earned their way into the finals in the tournament's group stage.  The group stage totally eliminated some 26 national teams, including the Netherlands, which made it to the Final Four in the 2014 World Cup.

There were nine groups, eight of which included six teams and one which had five teams.  The winners and runner-ups of each group qualified for the tournament finals.  Of the nine third-place teams, the one with the best overall record also qualified for the 24-team tournament finals.  The other eight third place nations are matched up against one other third place team, and each pair then plays a home and home series, with the team with the best Goal Differential moving on to the finals.  For those readers in America, be advised that these two-game playoff series are not at all unusual.  The English Championship League uses them in determining the third team earning promotion to the Premier League.  Four teams qualify for the Championship tournament deciding the third team to be promoted.  In the first round, the teams play home and home.  The final round is a one-game, winner take all affair played at Wembley Stadium in London.

Here is the way the qualifying looks up to the minute.  In Group A, the Czech Republic finished first with a record of 7 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, good for 22 points.  Iceland finished second with 20 points and a record of 6 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses.  Turkey, the third place team with 18 points and a record of 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses, was awarded a berth in the finals for being the best overall third place team.  The Netherlands, Kazakhstan and Latvia were eliminated.  

In Group B, Belgium finished first after a slow start.  Their final record was 7 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, good for 23 points.  Wales finished a very strong second, with 6 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss, good for 21 points.  Bosnia and Herzogovina finished third with a final record of 5 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses, giving it 17 points.  Bosnia and Herzogovina will now play a home and home series with Ireland to determine which will move on to the final round.  The first of those two games will be on November 13 in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzogovina.  The three eliminated nations are Israel, Cyprus and Andorra.  The Israelis started strong but faded in the latter games.

In Group C, the very strong Spainish team, with a record of 9 wins and 1 loss, and 27 points, finished first.  In ten games, the Spainish scored 23 goals and gave up only 3. Slovakia took second place with 22 points and a record of 7 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses.Ukraine finished third with a record of 6 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses, good for 19 points.  The Ukraine will square of with Slovenia in the home and home series that will decide which of those two move on to the finals.  The first of those two games is scheduled for November 14 at Lviv in the Ukraine.  The three eliminated teams are Belarus, Luxembourg and Macedonia.  

Group D's title holder is powerful Germany, which, after opening group play with a loss in Poland, went on to earn a record of 7 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, good for 22 points.  Poland finished second a mere one point behind the Germans.  The White Eagle record was 6 wins, 3 draws and only 1 loss.  Ireland was the third place team with a record of 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses, good for 18 points.  As mentioned, the Irish are matched with Bosnia and Herzogovina and begin play in the home and home series on November 13 at Zenica.  The three eliminated teams are Scotland, Georgia and Gibralter.  If they gave an award for the best fourth place team, it would go to Scotland, which earned 15 points for 4 wins and 3 draws in their 10 games.

In Group E, England ran the table, going 10-0 and outscoring opponents 31-3.  No other team had as many points - 30 - as the English.  Switzerland was second with 21 points and a record of 7 wins and 3 losses.  The third-place finisher in Group E was Slovenia, which finished with a record of 5 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses, good for 16 points.  Slovenia, as noted above, is matched with the Ukraine, with the first game in the home and home scheduled for November 14 at Lviv in the Ukraine.  The three teams eliminated  from this group are Estonia, Lithuania and San Marino.

Northern Ireland was the winner of Group F.  They finished with a record of 6 wins, 3 draws and only 1 loss and 21 points.  Romania finished second in the group and, amazingly, they were the only other team besides England to finish undefeated.  Their record was 5 wins and 5 draws, good for 20 points.  Hungary was third with 16 points and a record of 4 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses.  The Hungarians are matched with Norway in the play-off round, and they will begin that series in Oslo on November 13.  The three eliminated teams are Finland, the Faroe Islands and disappointing Greece.  The Greeks final record was an almost shocking 1 win, 3 draws and 6 losses.  Faroe Islands, on the other hand, had their best record ever in either World Cup or Euro competitio

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Pushback? Will America Change if the GOP Really Starts to Push Back

BALTIMORE, Maryland October 29, 2015 - For so long, people who understood what was happening wondered if the GOP would ever wake up and, well, defend themselves as they were raked over the proverbial coals by the Democrats and their surrogates in the mainstream media.  Today, that willingness to fight back against your tormentors is  called "pushing back."  The mainstream media - meaning the three "old" television networks (CBS, NBC and ABC), the major daily papers (New York Times, New York Daily News, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Charlotte News-Observer, Orlando Sentinel, Baltimore Sun), plus CNN and MSNBC and Time.- have spent so long framing life in America as revolving around the Democratic Party, and vigorously laying to waste anybody or anything that stood against that so-called reality, that it was hard to imagine life in America without those so-cool Democrats being at the center of it, at least in Washington.  It was hard to believe the GOP would ever start acting like a real opposition party.  It was widely beiieved that the members of the GOP wanted to be treated like the Dems were treated in Washington, meaning that they wanted to be invited to all of the A-list cocktail parties, chased around by all of the important lobbyists who spent the big money on the Democrats, and other such social niceties.

And then, suddenly, last night at the third GOP Debate, Sen. Ted Crews actually, really, strongly, believably, vigorously, pushed back.  Marco Rubio joined in.  So did Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee.  It was a beautiful thing.  A push back that looked like a push back, sounded like a push back, and really was a push back.

It is an amazing thing in America these days.  The GOP, especially the Conservative wing of the party, is in league with most Americans on virtually every major issue.  But unless you know that from closely following the day in and day out goings on in Washington, you would be ignorant of that.  Instead, you'd think the Democrats were tuned in to America.  That is how profoundly biased and distorting the reporting of the mainstream media is.  Am I right?  I am, at least about this.  What are the issues and what do Americans think of those issues?  Most Americans - an overwhelming percentage of Americans - want the Southern Border locked tight.  Which political party supports that view?  Not the Democrats.  They want to act, literally, as if there were no border.  Federal border patrol people have told interviewers that illegal immigrants are so brazen that they walk right past a uniformed officer and wave.  Why?  Because that is what Obama tells Border Agents they must do.  The GOP as a party isn't that far away from the Democrats.  Jeb Bush is for so-called amnesty; that is, allowing illegal immigrants who have come here over the last decade to stay here. So is John Kasich. Only conservative Republians agree with the majority of citizens on closing the Southern Border. But the mainstream media does not report this.  CBS, ABC and NBC all report that Americans want what Obama wants, or, in most cases, they report nothing at all about immigration and the Southern Border.  It's the same with the major newspapers.  Now even Fox is a mixed bag.  Their so-called straight news folk - in most cases the closest thing TV has to real reporting - no longer report straight up on the Southern Border issue.  You might be able to piece that reality together over a one week period.  But you'd never know that conservative Republicans and most of America have the same views on such a hot-button issue if you only watched NBC or read the New York Times.  

Take another issue: take the political group known as "Black Lives Matter."  Most Americans view Black Lives Matter as a group of Leftwing Racists who believe shooting police officers is a good idea.  The Democrats have endorsed Black Lives Matter and have not spoken out even quietly about their propensity for marching down the mainstreets in racially charged areas of the country while shouting “Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon!”.  If you've only been watching the three networks and their so-called newscasts you should know that Black Lives Matters really does march about shouting, in unison, the pigs in a blanket phrase.  

According to the moderate internet news site, Breitbart, "The phrase “pigs in a blanket” refers to police officers in body bags and has been used overtly by a Black Lives Matter-influenced activist who murdered two police officers.

In Minnesota, recently, the group marched at the state fair using the chant printed here.  As they marched and chanted, they had a police escort.

The GOP has been largely silent about Black Lives Matter.  Conservatives endorse the group's right to say anything they want, but conservatives and only conservatives have condemned the subject matter of the speech and spoken out strongly in favor of police.  This is precisely what most Americans believe:  the group's first amendment rights are to be protected, but protecting the right to say anything does not require agreement.  In fact, any sane American would condemn the idea that there is anything positive to the idea of shooting police officers.  If you watched NBC or ABC, you would never see Black Lives Matter chanting this racially-charged phrase.  But you would be told that this group is fighting for racial justice and has been strongly endorsed by the Democrats.  You would be given the impression that the GOP opposes racial justice, as if what Black Lives Matter says has anything to do with racial justice.  In fact, how can murder promote racial justice?  

Let me give one more example.  Take the situation in the Middle East.  These are the facts:  In Syria, the government of long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad and the country's army have been fighting a civil war with various rebel factions. This horrid war has lasted years and is involving more and more disparate Middle East factions.  The Islamic Extremists calling themselves ISIS or ISIL is one of these  factions.  It is a blood-thirsty, profoundly evil, profoundly anti-woman group of murderous thugs which routinely round-up and execute Christians, even Christian children.  But the Assad government is pretty bad, also.  It has used poison gas and other weapons strongly condemned by most international groups.  Obama told Assad - after first learning of his use of poison gas - that if he used it again the USA would enter the war on the side of  the rebels.  The USA has tried to back one group of rebels, but the policy has been, even in Obama's estimation, a disaster.  When it was discovered that Assad had used poison gas and other chemical weapons in spite of Obama's threats, Obama backed down and did not enter the war.  The cost os backing down has been tremendous and directly because of it and his weak, tepid response to Russian agression in Ukraine, he has come to be viewed as very weak and afraid by the Putins and Iranians of the world.  The USA has run air strikes and drone strikes against Assad and ISIS, but they have had no affect against ISIS and have done little against Assad. 

In the last month, things have worsened dramatically.  First, millions of so-called refugees have spilled out of the Middle East and into Europe.  But instead of the expected majority of women and children and the elderly, these refugees are almost all fighting-aged single men, almost all of whom are Islamic.  Germany has led the way in accepting these peoplle, even though a majority of its citizens have announced their opposition.  Obama says he will allow around 200,00 to 250,000 to come to the USA and some are already here.  Many of these people are very demanding, insisting on contributions from the host countries of money, high-quality food, computers and internet access and other luxuries.  Riots have erupted when the hosts are slow to accomadate the refugees.  There have been repeated battles between the majority of Islamic refugees and the few Christians that are intermingled with them.  Several eastern European nations, notably Hungry and Greece, have refused to allow them to come in.  Other nations have allowed them to pass through.  Most Middle Eastern nations not involved in the civil war have not offered to take any refugees.  Most notable among this latter group is Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. Many believe that the aim of the refugees is to make the host countries majority-Islamic as soon as possible.  If you watched ABC or NBC, or read the Washington Post, would you know any of this?  Certainly not from the TV networks, which ignore the story, despite its overwhelming importance.  If you read only the Post, you would not grasp the danger of allowing so many Islamics into western nations.  In fact, you would believe it is wrong to oppose the coming of the Islamics.  The GOP is opposed to the immigration of so many Islamics.  The GOP believes that Christians are being butchered without the international community doing anything to stop it or even slow it down.  But the mainstream media is not reporting any of this.  You would not know that many Conservative leaders have spoken out about any of this.  You would have no idea of how many Christian massacres have occurred.

Besides the so-called refugee crises, the Russians and Chinese have entered the war in support of Assad.  Russian planes have been running air strikes in support of Assad, although they claim, almost facetiously, that the strikes are only against ISIS.  The Pentagon has not bought into it and says that the Russians are helping Assad.  The USA had struggled, successfully, for decades to keep the Russians out of the MIddle East.  But Obama has let them in and started taking orders from them.  Meanwhile, the Chinese are also on the ground in the Middle East.  They are helping Iran get their oil fields up and running now that Obama has lifted sanctions, for the most part, as part of his Iranian Nuclear Treaty.  The Chinese are also said to be active in the right in favor of the Assad government.  But the mainstream media has downplayed the fact that the Russians are helping Assad and ordering Obama around.  Obama and his current Secretary of State, John Kerry, say the Russians are welcome to take an active role in the fight against ISIS.  Neither has said how they will get the Russians out of the MIddle East.

This brings me back to the GOP debate.  The three people who were serving as moderators - Becky Quick, John Harwood and  Carl Quintanilla -  asked no questions about any of this.  Not one.  A story that is easily the most important of the last generation is skipped, and in its place they ask questions about the internet site, "Fan Duel." and other similarly mundane topics.  Nor do the moderators touch upon the idea that the two leading Democratic candidates are an admitted socialist (Bernie Sanders) and a woman who toured the world asking for and receiving millions of dollars which is given by nations seeking influence over her should  she be elected. This would be Hillary Clinton, who is also being investigated by the FBI for illegal use of a private email server that directly led to the disclosure of hundreds of USA State secrets to its sworn enemies.  The night would have passed, in fact, without any of this being talked about, had Ted Crews not taken the bull by the horns and pushed back, not just lightly, but vigorously and with lots of gusto.  He said the obvious: that the ideas and credentials of the eleven GOP candidates are far superior to those of the two leading Democrats.  Crews also said directly to the three moderators that they were openly preferring the two Democrats and had no intention of ever voting for a Republican.  The moderators did not deny any of this.  The moderators, and the rest of the mainstream media, are hell-bent on concealing the fact that the conservative Republicans have the same political and world views as do most Americans.  The obvious truth is that the mainstream media is hell-bent on concealing this from the American public. 

The media wants Americans to think that the Democrats think like most Americans do, and are in favor of policies that most Americans are also in favor of.  But it just is not true, not even slightly.  The Democrats, taken as a whole, are against almost every policy that most Americans favor, and the two Democratic front-runners are for policies that most Americans vehemently oppose.  It is very obvious that this is true.  It is very obvious that the media will not report this.

Amazingly, on Twitter last night even left-leaning media types were put off by the acid-like rancor being pushed by the three CNBC moderators.  They were not asking questions but instead were making anti-GOP political comments and tacking on a question mark at the end.  But when Ted Crews laid into the three, and the crowd cheered wildly, things did change.  Oh, the questions were still pretty bad, but the candiddates suddenly were not being brow-beat into capitulating.  Instead, they began to talk back to their tormentors.  Chris Christie was a new man when he laid into the moderator who asked what he'd do about Fan Duel.  He recounted the human suffering inflicted by ISIS and other hot button issues and asked the questioner why she or he would ask a question about Fan Duel instead of the really important things that are going on.  Marco Rubio and Mike Huckabee joined in.  Donald Trump was on board.  

Was this a seminal event?  Will the GOP as a whole start acting like an opposition party?  Will the media's efforts at concealing and distorting the reality that the conservative wing of the GOP is talking the same policies as those favored by most Americans?  Will the Democrats finally be outed as hard-core uber Leftists?  

It is a a series of really hard questions.  It will take gumption and willpower on the part of many people for the truth to finally emerge.  It will demand actual vigor and determination.  The mainstream media will do everything they can to keep it from happening.  Obama will get surley and, if it looks like it is coming to pass, will get extraordinarily devious.  Watch out for really weird executive orders. 

But it will be fun to watch.

One final note: Veteran CBS and Public Television Host Charlie Rose is said to have come unglued at the thought that two GOP candidates actually called Hillary Clinton a liar.  "Why would they do that?" he is said to have exclaimed several times.  

It is hard for me to believe Mr. Rose has trouble fathoming that Mrs. Clinton is a liar.  She lies very very often, and often in an almost instinctive way.  Most people expect her to lie.  It explains why national polls declare her "untrustworthy" and "not to be trusted."  These results are not just by a few people, buy by a majority of Americans.

And don't forget that it was Mr. Rose, on his public TV show on a night, just prior to the 2008 election when his guest was Tom Brokaw, that he and Mr. Brokaw exclaimed that both of them knew virtually nothing about Barack Obama.

Gentlemen, that would be because the mainstream media did not vet Mr. Obama because they knew, if they did, they would have to report all manner of negative facts.  And heaven forbid!

It is just being reported that the GOP has now cancelled an upcoming debate on NBC.  Shawn Hannity is stating now that he expects the Wednesday debate to have longterm effects on how debates are conducted on TV.


Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Burning International Bridges: Obama's Policies Force London and Tel Aviv to Seek Other Allies

BALTIMORE, Maryland October 27, 2015 - Most Americans are aware of the tremendous damage President Obama has done to the relationship between the USA and Israel.  Several national opinion polls have documented the damage that Americans in both political parties sense has occurred.  When the American President virtually announces his Anti-Semitic feelings and gussies up to virtually all of Israel's age-old enemies, no one should be surprised.  Most of us are of the opinion that only because Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu will not allow all lines of communication to be cut does the American-Israeli alliance survive at all.  Netanyahu is a leader for the ages.  Obama isn't a leader at all.  But while the tremendous damage to that relationship is out in the open, the damage to another of America's most important and most productive foreign relationships has been kept relatively quiet. That, however, is about to change in a none-to-quiet manner.

It seems that Red China is horning in on the age-old alliance between these United States and the United Kingdom.  The Chinese are in the process of pouring billions of dollars into its new relationship with England, and the English, cash starved and anxious to improve their economic outlook going forward, are being extremely attentive partners.  As recounted by John Lloyd, a Senior Fellow at Oxford University's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, a recent visit to London by Chinese President Xi Jinping resulted in the British lavishing him with the highest possible state honors, honors not given to Obama or any other national leader for many years.  

Lloyd reported that Xi Jinping is being given the highest honors the British state can bestow. Queen Elizabeth II gave him a banquet and a suite in Buckingham Palace (last occupied by her grandson William and his wife on their wedding night); he addressed parliament; he was attended constantly by either the queen, or by Prime Minister David Cameron.

This is being done, Lloyd reported, because "China may invest up to $46 billion in various projects, including up to $12 billion in a new nuclear power station (together with France). China will use the City of London for international banking and currency and other trading; and will favor Britain when importing services.

In this newfound amity, there has been no public mention from the British side of human or civil rights. No lectures on the imprisonment of dissidents, nor the suppression of already limited press freedoms, nor even of the vast corruption that still plagues the country, in spite of Xi’s campaign against it. This silence — it’s widely said — is Britain’s shame."  

Where is the United States in this lavish production by the British?  Nowhere.  Obama has emphasized, time and again, how little England means to him.  It began with his infamous removal of a bust of Winston Churchill and the gifting of Obama speeches to the Queen.  You read that right.  Obama thought a nice gift to the Queen of England would be an ipod filled with recordings of his speeches.  Just what Her Majesty wanted, far left dogma.  England cannot stand by while the USA decides whether it will come to its senses next year or elect another uber Leftist.  Hence, the Chinese are the big stars in London.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Terps beat No. 17 Washington, 1-0; Maryland to End Regular Season At Ohio State and Home Against Rutgers; Winning Both Would Guarantee No Worse Than Tie for First in Big Ten

COLLEGE PARK, Maryland October 26, 2015 - After last Tuesday's depressing home loss to Delaware, the No. 20 Maryland's Men's Soccer Team desperately needed an uplifting win.  The opportunity to get such a win presented itself to the Terps on Friday night, when No. 17 Washington came to College Park.  To the credit of Maryland Coach Sascho Cirovski and his charges, they did not fumble the opportunity.  Over some 90 minutes of hard-fought, physical soccer, Maryland outshot the Huskies, 24-7.  The Terps also played a swarming and aggressive defense that prevented the Huskies from getting even one shot on goal.  Washington, however, hung tough, and the first half ended with the two teams scoreless.  Finally, at 51:19, Maryland scored when their relentless offensive pressure forced an own-goal by the Huskies.  Junior Defender Chris Odoi-Atsem pushed all the way to the Washington end line with the ball at his feet.  There, he sent a picture perfect through ball across the goal mouth.  Maryland Freshman Striker Sebastian Elney was racing to the ball and easily could have scored.  But a retreating Huskie defender inadvertently hit the ball first, and it went directly past Huskie Keeper Ryan Herman into the back of the net.  It was the only score of the game and it gave the Terps (7-4-4) the win.  Washington slipped to 6-4-5. 

The official scorer described the weather for the game as "a beautiful fall evening."  I would have inserted the word "chilly" between beautiful and fall.  And still, it was a beautiful sight to see the Terps playing at the top of their game.  The player who stood out for Maryland at both ends was Senior Tsubassa Endoh.  I have rarely seen a soccer player who was better at getting himself turned around with the ball so that he is facing the other team's goal.  By doing so, he gets a complete command of the field and where his teammates are and where they are going.  It was Endoh who fed the ball to Odoi-Atsem as he drove down the field and then made his game-winning pass.

The Big Ten Soccer Standings are more jumbled than ever.  Rutgers now leads with 12 points and one game left.  Ohio State is second with 10 points, and two games left.  Maryland and Northwestern are tied for third with 9 points and two games left. Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State follow with 8 points.  The Spartans and Wolverines have two games left while the Nittany Lions have only one.  Friday night, Maryland invades Columbus to take on the Buckeyes.  Then, on November 4 the Terps entertain the Scarlet Knights.  

Another way of looking at the Standings is figuring each team's maximum point total.  With only one game left, Rutgers has a maximum total of 15.  Ohio State's maximum is 16 points.  Maryland and Northwestern have maximums of 15.  Michigan and Michigan State have maximums of 14 points, while Penn State has a max of 11.  Taken as a whole, Ohio State controls its own destiny, still, but to do so it must win both of its remaining games.  Rutgers has fought its way to the top, but with only one game left, it must hope for help from other teams.  Maryland can guarantee itself a tie for first by winning its two remaining games.  This is because it plays both of the teams that are ahead of it.  But if the Terps win those games, they still need help from one of the two teams Northwestern has to play: Penn State and Wisconsin.  Both of those games are road games for the Wildcats.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Hillary Clinton: The 11.5 Hour Lie She Told To Congress


BALTIMORE, Maryland  October 26, 2015 - Last Thursday, the Vice President of these United States gives a compelling speech listing all of the reasons why he should run for President in 2016.  The speech is not unexpected.  For weeks, Joseph Biden, the former Delaware Senator, has been dropping almost candid hints concerning his intentions.  And he has emphasized that his family, in particular his wife, are on board with the decision to run.  This is of essential importance because Mr. and Mrs. Biden have just buried their oldest son, who died this year of brain cancer.  The son told the Vice President as he was about to pass that he should run for President.  For the Vice-President, it was all falling into place.

But despite the nature and wording of the speech, despite the urging of Beau, his dying son, and despite the fact that everyone who knows Biden knows that pursuit of the presidency is his life and his very intense ambition, this speech will not end with an announcement that he is entering the race.  For reasons still to be explained, Biden makes the speech to say he is NOT running.  Not Running! Not Running?

It was a whacky speech in the end, but then again, it was a speech given by Joe Biden;  a.k.a. Good Old Uncle Joe.  This is the man who plagiarized a speech given originally by a British official.  He was so clumsy in his plagiarism that he got himself caught.  Getting nabbed ended his presidential bid that year.  Biden is known as the man who can't get out of his own way.  Just last week he told an on-camera interviewer that he urged President Obama to authorize the Navy Seal mission that ended up with the body of Osama bin Laden being thrown into the Arabian Sea, dead as dead could be, and wrapped in a burial shroud.  The only problem with Biden saying this on-camera is that he had told another on-camera interviewer that he had told the President not to authorize that Seal mission.  Good Old Joe: first one story and then another totally different story.  As goofy as this is, people tend to forgive Biden because, well, because compared to the top Democratic Presidential Candidate, Hillary Clinton, Biden's screw ups are just plain clumsy.  Hillary's are out and out diabolical.  In fact, if you can stand a bit of stark honesty, Hillary Clinton's continuous bald-faced lies cross the line into the realm of evil.  As the essential Mark Levin would say, "there, I said it!"

Hillary Clinton graced the Benghazi Committee with her long-planned appearance last Thursday.  Democrats were saying beforehand that If she could somehow pull this appearance  off without further revelations, she could stop the downbound train her campaign had been riding on since her 'formal' announcement those many months ago.  At least, that's what they were saying, these Democrats who think Americans don't care if she lies about everything.  I once knew a man who was also a congenital liar.  He lied so much that I believe he did it without even thinking.  This man lied even when he didn't mean to lie.  Being a liar was literally second nature to this man.  This man was in a room with myself and a third man one afternoon, and he happened to call his father on the phone.  The third man and I sat there, slack jawed, as the liar proceeded to tell his own father four or five real whoppers about some completely mundane subject.  Hillary Clinton is the same way.  She believes she has the right to lie.  She is so utterly narcistic, so utterly arrogant, that she believes that anything she has to do to ease her way to the most powerful seat in the land, she has a virtual duty to do so.  For instance - and believe me, there are millions of "for instances," - remember the time when she said that on the original 9/11 she was worried sick about her daughter, Chelsea, because Chelsea was very near the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.  Except she wasn't anywhere near to the World Trade Center.  But Hillary lied about it because she wanted to have a first-hand brush with destiny like the thousands of butchered Americans who really were there.  Similarly, on Friday Hillary testified that she was the one "who asked Chris," meaning USA Ambassador Christopher Stevens, to go to Libya.  Why would she testify to such a thing? I suppose in her warped thinking she felt that Americans would empathize with her because of the increased emotional pain of sending a man to an assignment that would end up killing him.  But most Americans instead will remember the night that Ambassador Stevens was massacred and Hillary sat by, watching but never lifting so much as a finger to help him or the other Americans pinned down at Benghazi by Al Qaeda terrorists.  So she felt bad, she says, for sending him there.  But she doesn't feel even a little bit bad for not ordering or setting in motion an order for military assistance for the Ambassador and the other Americans.  And please do not give me the song and dance that there was no military anywhere to send in.  That attack lasted long enough to get planes and soldiers from the continental United States to the scene. And some special forces were literally boarding a plane in Tripoli when they were told to "stand down," by whoever gave that order.  (For my money, I think it was Obama's boss, Valerie Jarret, but what do I know?)  The trouble for Hillary and her operatives is that anybody paying even a little bit of attention knows that no matter how cool she sounded Thursday, she can't really pull off a positive or even uneventful committee appearance because she's already cooked her own goose.  As I have recounted, the only thing you have to know in order to properly judge this debauched woman is the few minutes her and Obama spent on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base with the coffins of the four Americans butchered at Benghazi along with their freshly grieving families. The cat in this episode is already out of the bag.  Hillary knew when she went to Andrews that afternoon that the Benghazi uprising was a planned attack by Al Qaeda.  At the hearing we learned that she told the Egyptian Prime Minister the morning after the Benghazi Massacre that it was a planned terrorist attack.  We also learned that she wrote a letter or text to Chelsea saying the same thing, and that it was sent by Hillary within two hours of the attack.  Yet she proceeded to tell the grieving families - right in front of the coffins of the dead - that the film no one had seen was the sole cause of the Benghazi Massacre.  Al Qaeda had nothing to do with it, Hilary told the families in hushed tones.  No way it was planned.  This attack was spontaneous, taking place because some evil American made a film about the Prophet. 

It's true.  There was a film.  But the hole in Hilary's goof-ball pack of debauched lies is that nobody had seen the stupid movie.  It had been on You Tube for months and had less than 100 hits.  But Hilary promised the families she would bring that evil film maker to justice.  How profoundly evil, how profoundly arrogant, how profoundly narcistic does one have to be to tell such brazen lies to families of Americans who were killed by Al Qaeda, but also because Hillary turned down and ignored - get this: over 600 increasingly desperate pleas for increased protection from the slain Ambassador, Christopher Stevens.  Thursday, old Hilary said she hadn't seen even one of the 600 messages from Ambassador Stevens.  Didn't hear any office gossip about them, didn't hear a secretary recount the extraordinary number of desperate requests.  This is what Hillary wants the nation to believe.  In her regime at the State Department, an ambassador stationed in one of the most dangerous places on Earth, LIbya, a nation without a real government and literally crawling with terrorists, can make 600 desperate requests, and no one bothered to alert her about it.  If you believe that, I've got a bridge up in Brooklyn I'd like to talk to you about. The answer, of course, is 'as profoundly evil, arrogant and narcistic' as Hillary Clinton is 365 days each year.

Sadly, in the USA of 2015, none of this means that Hillary Clinton won't be elected President.  A nation so far away from the real world re-elected, in 2012, a man who had demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was a terrible, awful, and uber Leftist President for the previous four years.  We'll be just getting rid of the nightmare of Obama in 2016 and into the White House will march eight more years of debauched uber leftist hell.  Rome had Caligula and Nero.  The USA has Obama and Hillary.  

Please, Lord, please spare us this awful sentence. You've promised to listen. I'm begging.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Ohio State Controls its Destiny in Big Ten Soccer Race; Maryland Loses to Delaware, Draws With Indiana; Burnley Draws with Nottingham Forest on Matthew Taylor's Score in 90th Minute; Claret Defeat Bolton

COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND  October 20, 2015 - In a conference season that is but eight games long, the finish of the Big Ten Soccer Campaign is shaping up to be a doozy.  It would be hard to top last season - Maryland's first in the Big Ten - when Maryland stormed from the bottom of the standings to the very top in the seasons last two weeks.  The one and only day that Maryland was in first place in the Big Ten was the last day.  Now, Ohio State has come from nowhere to take over first only three games from the finish line.  What's more, the schedule is smiling on the Buckeyes - kind of.

The standings look like this as of Tuesday afternoon, October 20, 2015:
1. Ohio State: Big Ten: 3-1-1, 10 points; Overall: 8-4-2
2. Maryland: Big Ten: 2-1-3, 9 points; Overall: 6-3-4
3. Rutgers: 3-3-0, 9 points; Overall: 8-4-1
4. Michigan: 2-1-2, 8 points; Overall: 7-3-3
5. Michigan State: 2-1-2, 8 points; Overall: 7-4-2
6. Penn State: 2-3-1, 7 points; Overall: 5-6-2
7. Northwestern: 2-3-0, 6 points; Overall: 5-6-1
8. Wisconsin: 1-2-2, 5 points; Overall: 3-9-2
9. Indiana: 1-3-1, 4 points; Overall: 7-4-2

As you can see, Ohio State has three games left to play.  That is good.  Two of the three are at home.  That is good.  The away game is at Rutgers. The two home games are against Maryland and Michigan.  That is bad.  After finishing their non-conference schedule tomorrow night in Columbus against Cleveland State, the Buckeyes travel to Rutgers on October 25, then host Maryland on October 31 and Michigan on November 4.  They control their own destiny.  If Ohio State runs the table, they are Big Ten champs and get to host the conference tournament.  The winner of the Big Ten Tournament is awarded the Big Ten's one automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

Maryland has just two games left, but both are against the teams they are fighting with for the conference title.  And the No. 20 Terps - the only Big Ten Team in the NSCAA Top 25 - still has a tough non-conference slate left.  Tonight, they are home against Delaware.  Friday, they host No. 17 Washington (6-2-5).  It will be the second Pac-12 School to cross the country to play in College Park.  Then, Maryland travels to Ohio State on Oct. 31 and then play host to Rutgers on November 4.  Maryland only sort of controls their own destiny.  If they beat both Rutgers and Ohio State they will finish ahead of both so long as Ohio State doesn't also beat their other two remaining conference opponents.  Got that?  It is really even more complicated.  Michigan and Michigan State can still win the Big Ten Championship if they win their three remaining conference games, providing that Ohio State doesn't win their remaining conference games. 

Anyway, a lot rides on the outcomes of the games between now and November 4.

Tuesday night, Maryland lost to Delaware, 2-1.  The game was scoreless at the half, but the Blue Hens took the lead on a beautifully executed corner kick in the 67th minute.  Then, Delaware circled the proverbial wagons and tried to hold on.  For the next 31 minutes, the Hens only sent one man forward.  Even their wings dropped into the defense as Maryland tried every trick in the books to knot the score.  With about ten minutes left it looked like Maryland would get a penalty kick.  Freshman Amar Sejdic charged into the Delaware penalty box and between two Blue Hen defenders.  As he was about to shoot almost point blank, he was pushed to the ground.  It was that simple and there were no obstructions or other events blocking the baffled refereee's vision.  Nonetheless, he made no call to the stunned disbelief of Maryland Coach Sascho Sirovski and the entire Maryland team.  Sadly, the official came to believe he needed to make up for his mistake, or at least that is what I believe he was doing in the game's waning minutes.  With less than two minutes to play Maryland was correctly awarded a corner kick.  As the kick was taken, Terp sophmore Emmanuel Korvah put a shoulder into a Delaware defender and proceeded to bull rush him right out of play.  As the kick arrived, however, Korvah, now left alone, rose up and headed the ball past Delaware Keeper Todd Morton.  Now the score was tied and there were only 90 some seconds left to play.  Delaware, which to a man yelled at the game official for his clueless no-call, recovered their composure quickly and made those remaining seconds count.  Abandoning their defensive posture, the Hens rushed forward and began firing away at the flat-footed Maryland defense.  In no time, Delaware's Guillermo Delgado fired a shot past Maryland Keeper Cody Niedermeier.  For the game, Maryland outshot the Blue hens, 13-6, and had 7 corner kicks to just 3 for Delaware.  Of Delaware's six shots, only three were on goal, and Niedermeier - always a Maryland star - made only one save.  But it was not Niedermeier who cost Maryland this match.  Instead, it was a team-wide reluctance to shoot the ball.  On at least three occassions a Maryland player came free in the box with the ball at his feet, and yet did not shoot.  Most of the time the Maryland players seem hell bent on making one more pass, even when no pass is apparent.  On a night when Delaware had the box jammed like a sardine can with swarming defenders, open shots were very precious.  Even on the play when Sejdic - who needs to be given considerably more on-field time in this observer's humble opinion - was fouled and deserved a penalty kick, he was open before he was fouled, but hesitated.  Shoot the Ball, Maryland!  Shoot the Ball.  Besides turning down the in-the-box opportunities, Maryland will never let fly from the top of the box or just a few feet beyond it.  Tim Howard is not the keeper for any Maryland opponent.  Niedermeier plays for Maryland, not your opponents.  The Terps fell to 6-4-4 on the season, while Delaware climbed above .500 to 7-6-2.

Last Friday, Maryland did everything right except score in earning a single point for playing Indiana to a scoreless draw.  The Hoosier Team that battled Maryland that night is not the same team that has Indiana mired in last place.  Their defense was tenacious, and while Maryland nearly scored twice, the fact is that Indiana took away Maryland's set piece game that always seems to get them a goal or two each game.  In front of a huge crowd at Ludwig Field, Maryland seemed sure to take a lead when Freshman sensation Sebastian Elney broke in on goal with a half-step on his defender. But he didn't get a  good shot off and it missed high.  In the first overtime another Maryland shot from twelve feet away - for the life of me I didn't see who took it - bristled in on Hoosier Keeper Colin Webb as he lunged to cover the post to his left.  Webb got there in time, but the shot was so hard that it blasted under his prone body and made it so far as to lay on the goal line.  Only then did he cover it up and pull it to himself.  The teams played hard for 100 minutes with no score.  Maryland took 18 shots to 16 for Indiana.  It was in corner kicks that the Terps had a huge advantage (15-4) and Indiana snuffed each one out with their tall and strong defense and midfield.

Burnley Stops Bolton Trotters, 2-0; Claret Tied for 2nd With 3 Other Sides; Claret battle Nottingham Forest to 1-1 tie Tuesday Night, Matthew Taylor's Goal in 90th Minute Gains Burnley Road Point
Newcomer Andre Gray scored two second half goals and Tom Heaton put up another scoreless sheet as Burnley moved into a second place tie in the English Championship with a 2-0 victory at Turf Moor over the Bolton Trotters.  The loss sends Bolton to the bottom of the Championship Table.

Burnley now has 21 points, the same as Reading, Middlesbrough and Birmingham City.  All four sides have played eleven matches.  Reading is listed in second place by virtue of a better Goal Differential.  Reading's GD is +10.  Middlesbrough's is also +10.  Birmingham has a GD of 7, while Burnley's is 5. 

Tonight, the Claret battled Nottingham Forest to a 1-1 tie at Nottingham's home pitch. Matthew Taylor scored in the 90th Minute to gain Burnley the road point.

Monday, October 19, 2015

The Next Uber Left 'Movement' Revealed: Christianity Said to Be a Sickness; Secret Service to Guard Trump and Dr. Carson; Don't Be Surprised By Snow and Cold in October, Especially Along the Atlantic Coast

BALTIMORE, Maryland October 19, 2015 - If you want to know what is on the horizon for those in the uber left movement, you merely watch the headlines.  For instance, we have known for a little over one year that the uber left is moving toward advocating a decriminalization of pedophilia.  If you hadn't heard that, you are now educated.  Now understand, in saying what I just said, I am not saying that every uber leftist is for decriminalizing pedophilia.  But enough are that discussions of the decriminalization effort has begun to 'percolate'.  Now, another future campaign has snuck into the headlines and it caught even me by surprise.  

The uber left will, in the near future, begin to try to show that religious belief is medical condition needing treatment.  Even someone professing Christian Faith while being a member of a mainstream Christian denomination such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, the Baptist Church, the African-Methodist-Episcopal Church, the Episcopal and Anglican Churches, and all of the Protestant denominations which fit under the umbrella of the word "Evangelical," are actually ill and in need of medical and psychological intervention.  I'm not kidding.  The news came late last week from scientists at UCLA and the University of York in the United Kingdom.   The news confirms the coming uber left movement.  At UCLA, scientists announced that when they directed magnetic pulses at a certain area of the human brain, the recipients of the magnetic pulses were far more likely to stop believing in God while at the same time becoming far more sympathetic to illegal immigrants.  So, if you are a Christian, say, a Catholic or a Lutheran (as I am), you need medical treatment.  If you oppose illegal immigration, get treatment.  Isn't life good?  Disagree with the uber left and you are not merely wrong in their eyes, you are sick.  Obama has been like that all along. Although the scientists who authored the report did not say if the change in religious beliefs was permanent, they seemed to indicate that it, indeed, was a permanent change.  

The finding was originally reported by in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. It was picked up last Thursday by The Daily Beast and its columnist, Abby Haglage.  You can see Ms. Haglage's story at http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/14/this-magnet-could-change-everything-you-think-you-believe.html

USA Secret Service Now Guarding Trump and Carson
It was a break with previous policy when the Secret Service provided protection to then-Presidential Candidate Barack H. Obama in 2008.  Until then, the Secret Service only guarded candidates for President after their political party had formally nominated them.  But Obama told the Secret Service that he was receiving a large number of what his campaign team thought were credible death threats, and this prompted the Secret Service to begin guarding him long before the Democratic Convention.  This time around, both Trump and Carson have reported receiving similar threats, and so beginning at once the two candidates will be guarded by the Secret Service.

It is Cold in the Eastern United States, But This is Par for the Course.
There was ice on my windshield just before dawn this Monday morning, and the thermometer which reads out on the dashboard said 35 degrees (Fahrenheit).  Since it was the first real cold snap of the autumn, some newscasters included it in their hourly reports.  The same newscasters also included the news that central and upstate New York received up to 9 inches of snow on Sunday.  I had seen it snowing during parts of the Buffalo Bills home game against the Bengals.  

But I have to tell you that even in Baltimore, a few miles south of the Mason-Dixon Line, snow isn't all that unusual in October.  Many might recall that a World Series game scheduled in Baltimore in 1979 was snowed out, while then-Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn made national headlines at another Baltimore home game that year when he sat through the entire game in shirt sleeves even though temperatures were in the upper 30's.  Back then Baseball was adding layers of playoffs onto the end of the season and critics scolded Kuhn and the Baseball Owners for being willing to play decisive games in the potentially deep chills of late October.  Kuhn thought he could help mold public opinion by avoiding the appropriate winter gear.  I was sitting about 25 rows behind the 'Commish' during that game, and I was dressed for the weather.  But looking at Kuhn made me feel cold anyway. 

Then there was the time in the middle of October when my father and I drove up to Scranton, Pennsylvania to attend the 'closing' on the sale of my dad's boyhood home.  There had been Trotz's living at 218 Greenbush Street, on Scranton's north side, since 1917 when my grandparents rented a second floor apartment there.  My grandmother was pregnant with her second child, and the owner of the home where they were living was selling the house.  That apartment was very very small, anyway, and it was time for something bigger.  Times were tight and Greenbush Street was within walking distance of the entrance to "The Marvin," which is what his employer's coal mine was called.  Not so long after John and Anna Trotz moved into the Greenbush Street apartment, the owners of that house, who lived on the first floor, informed them that they were putting the house up for sale because they had found a farm up near the New York state line and were going to buy it.  My grandparents scraped and scratched and came up with enough of a downpayment to qualify for a mortgage, and they thus became the proud owners.  

The Trotz family grew from two children to six, and the youngest of the six, my dad, was now five years old when the unthinkable happened.  The roof of The Marvin gave way at the place where John Trotz was working.  A huge boulder in that roof fell on him, crushing his pelvis.  He somehow survived for three days, but my grandmother and my Aunt Ruth recall those days as totally unbearable, such was the immense pain that he was in.  That misery ended for the man who had come to this country as a very young man, having gotten on a ship in Gdansk Harbor in what was then Russia but is now Poland.  In Europe he spoke seven languages fluently, but there was no work.  In the USA he and hundreds of other young men who lived in or near the city of Suwalki found work as coal miners.  It was hellish work then, mostly manual conducted in airless pits hundreds of feet under the earth, but he was raising a family on it and he and my grandmother had their eyes on a farm not far from Scranton.  When he died, happening as it did in the middle of the Great Depression, it left his young wife and six kids - ages five through fourteen - to struggle with a mortgage and all of the other expenses.  My grandmother and her oldest daughter found work in a cigar factory.  The bank with the mortgage accepted interest-only payments for several years.  Eventually, all of the children grew up and moved on.  My father returned from World War II to find his home town wrapped in the Depression, made worse by the fact that those coal mines which had turned Scranton into a kind of boom town, all closed.  He looked for work for almost a year before accepting his uncle's invitation to move in with his family in western Massachusetts, where he obtained work in a paper mill.  Seeing that job, too, as a dead end, he moved to Baltimore and went to work for Martin Marietta because he would have a chance to use a skill he had learned at a technical high school - now a Junior College - in Scranton: drafting and tool design.  He lived briefly with his sister in Towson.  It was her husband - a German immigrant - who procured work for my father and his brother at Martins.  My mother lived with her parents across the street. 

On that October Day a few years back, he and I went back to Scranton to attend the closing on that house on Greenbush Street.  My Aunt Ruth - the oldest of the six children - had stayed in the house until suffering a fall in her nineties.  The other children had all agreed that the house should be hers in recognition for the years she spent taking care of their mother, who died at age 89 in the 1980's.  After my Aunt's fall, she moved into a nursing home and the house became vacant.  Now, a buyer was found.  After the closing in mid-October, my father and I headed down Interstate 81.  That highway moves across the tops of the Appalacian Mountains until descending at the small town of Pine Grove, north of Harrisburg.  Anyone who has travelled that road from October to April has stories about the weather.  On this October Day, the few snow flurries and showers in Scranton became a raging blizzard as we passed Wilkes=Barre.  Traffic slowed to a crawl and many cars pulled off the road, unable to get traction.  We continued on, but a trip that takes three and one-half hours in good weather took seven hours.  By the time we reached Harrisburg there was no sign of snow and temperatures in Baltimore were near 50 that day.  I was reminded of that day yesterday when a newscaster described a five-car pile-up on Interstate 81 in New York State.  On a clear day the road can be as beautiful as any other in these United States.   Autumn, especially, can be breathtaking when the trees that cover those mountains turn to gold, brilliant orange and a hundred shades of red.  

It is when you must travel those roads when the weather is unforgiving that all of that beauty gives way to white knuckles and tense muscles.  And did I tell you about the wind, howling out of the northwest?  When that wind is packed with below-freezing temperatures and snow falling sideways that things get really fun.

Monday, October 12, 2015

The Uber Left's Worst NIghtmare is Dr. Carson

BALTIMORE, Maryland October 12, 2015 (Columbus Day in these United States) - It is a poorly guarded secret that Dr. Ben Carson is the Uber Left's absolute worst nightmare.  

Nor do you need to be a rocket scientist to figure out why.  Whether you are on the left or right or somewhere in the middle, you know that these days a solid majority of Americans support public policies that are miles and miles away from the policies of Barack Obama and the Uber Left.  A clear majority of Americans want the southern border closed tight.  If the government does that in a convincing way, whether by building a wall or fence, or by some other viable means, most citizens will be placated. There is not a clear majority for kicking out all of the illegals who are already here.  Any reasonable solution will be accptable.  The Uber Left and Obama, on the other hand, do not want the influx of illegals even slowed down.  In their warped world of "Uber Left first and everything else including the national well-being, second."  The Left has concluded, rightly I think, that as people become more educated and more aware of the public policy ideas of the respective parties, the ranks of the GOP will swell and the ranks of the Uber Left will shrink. The only way for the Uber Left to stay in power is for it to replenish its ranks with incoming immigrants, many of them of the illegal variety,   It also must keep a vice grip on the votes of African Americans.  If Black votes begin slipping to the GOP because of this issue or that, it is the end of the Left's power.  

Which brings us back to Dr. Carson.  There is no more decent man on the face of the Earth.  His Life's story is so compelling, his demeanor and personality so wonderful, that schools in the Baltimore area - white and black, rich and poor, public and private - lined up to bring their children to Johns Hopkins Hospital to hear Dr. Carson speak.  His books are uplifting and powerful.  They speak to the ability of anyone to succeed if only they put their minds to it.  But he also had other wonderful messages for the kids. He urged them to get along with each other.  Don't be afraid to say hello to someone you are riding an elevator with is one of the things I remember him saying (he wasn't a hypocrite when it came to that: I happened to ride an elevator with the doctor one day way back when, just me and him, and darn if he didn't look over at me and, with a smile on his face, say hello.  I said the same.  And I felt good about it.  Now, I have that confession out of the way).  When Dr. Carson stood up at the National Prayer Breakfast those couple of years ago, and proceeded to criticize President Obama's God-Awful Obamacare (Obamashame is what I call it) Health Program, he left his countless admirers stunned.  But only for a minute.  Once I thought about it for more than a few seconds, I realized that there must be more wrong with the bloody law than even I had picked up.  It was an extremely powerful message and immediately announced the arrival, on the political scene, of a new and potentially powerful force.

Now, as Dr. Carson climbs the polls methodically, despite his understated approach, the sweat glands on the Uber Left are working overtime.  If Dr. Carson should get the GOP nomination and beat Hilary Clinton, Joe Biden, or whoever else ends up running, it could mean the beginning of the end of the Uber Left's hold on national power.

You have to give the Uber Left credit.  The public policies they support are so opposite the views of most Americans that they dare not be open and honest about them.  Do you think for one minute that Obama would've beaten Senator McCain in 2008 if the voters knew that he would be introducing and ramming down the nation's throat a health care system as radical and indecent as Obamashame?  Would Obama have beaten Mr. Romney if the electorate would've known about the Iran Treaty, the Bergdahl affair, the IRS and Bengazi scandals and his complete abandonment of Israel?  I don't think so.

Anyway, if Dr. Carson gets out on the campaign trail, gets his policy points across and displays his wonderul anti-politician persona, it will be enough to split off a huge chunk of the African-American vote and spell defeat for the Democratic nominee.  It would take the most determined effort by the uber Left to keep Dr. Carson's real true nature away from the voters.  The scary and disenchanting thing is, you know they will try in any way and every way they can think of.  

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Terps Rally at Penn State; Campbell's Hat Trick Gives Terps 4-3 Win in University Park; Maryland and Michigan Now Tied for First in Conference


BALTIMORE, Maryland October 10, 2015 - Sophmore George Campbell came off the Maryland bench to score three goals as the No. 25 Terrapins stormed from two goals back to defeat Penn State, 4-3, Friday night in University Park, Pennsylvania. The victory enabled the Terps to move ahead of the Lions and into a first place tie in the Big Ten with Michigan (5-2-3, 2-0-2 in the Big Ten).  Both Maryland and Michigan have 8 points, while Penn State remained stuck on 7 points.  Northwestern (5-4-1, 2-2-0 in the Big Ten), the only other Big Ten school with two conference wins, is next with 6 points.

Campbell's first score was the most important, Maryland Coach Sascho Cirovski told a student reporter after the game.  It came in the last four seconds of the first half with Maryland (6-3-3, 2-1-2 in the Big Ten) down, 2-1.  The Nittany Lions (5-4-2, 2-2-1 in the Big Ten) had scored twice in the match's opening minutes to put the Terps on their heels.  Tsubassa Endoh got the Terps on the board with a score in the 33rd minute, and Campbell tied the score after reciving a corner kick from Jorge Calix.  Then, Campbell, a sophmore, scored twice within three minutes of the second half - in the 56th and 59th minutes - to put the Terps up, 4-2.  The Lions fought back and pulled to within a single goal when Conner Maloney scored his second goal of the match in the 64th minute, but Maryland's usually stingey defense and keeper Cody Niedermeier (7 saves) rose to the occassion, stopping homestanding Penn State the rest of the way.

Maryland is now off until next Friday, when they take on Indiana in College Park beginning at 7:30 pm.  Here are the current NSCAA Rankings, with the records of the teams at the time the votes were tabulated, in parenthesis.  All of this courtesy of the NSCAA and NCAA.

1 Creighton (10-0-0) 600 points
2 North Carolina (8-0-1) 551 points
3 Stanford (8-1-0) 547 points
4 Coastal Carolina (6-0-1) 517 points
5 Clemson (8-1-2) 497 points
6 Wake Forest (8-1-1) 482 points
7 Notre Dame (7-2-2) 439 points
8 Akron (7-2-1) 435 points
9 Denver (8-0-2) 389 points
10 Virginia (6-1-2) 369 points
11 Old Dominion (6-1-1) 364 points
12 Georgetown (6-2-2) 302 points
13 Elon (8-2-0) 236 points
14 Hofstra (8-2-0) 229 points
15 South Carolina (6-2-1) 215 points
16 Oregon State (7-3-0) 180 points
17 Washington (5-2-3) 176 points
18 South Florida (7-3-0) 165 points
19 Seattle (9-2-0) 144 points
20 Kentucky (6-2-1) 124 points
21 Butler (6-0-3) 116 points
22 Syracuse (7-2-1) 108 points
23 Utah Valley (9-2-0) 93 points
24 Xavier (7-3-0) 80 points
25 Maryland (4-3-3) 68 points

Also receiving votes:
26 North Carolina-Wilmington 61 points
27 Florida International 52 points
27 California-Santa Barbara 52 points
29 New Mexico 38 points
30 New Hampshire 33 points
31 North Carolina State 29 points
32 St. Francis (Brooklyn) 27 points
33 Michigan 24 points
34 Indiana 21 points
35 Southern Methodist University 10 points
36 Temple 6 points
37 Boston College 5 points
37 Boston University 5 points
39 Louisville 3 points
40 California 1 point