Saturday, January 1, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
NCAA
Does this organization try to make itself foolish on purpose?
So, the OSU guys get suspended, not now, but for next season? They won't miss a bowl game, but the first five games of 2011? I guess money talks. The irony is that people would still watch the OSU bowl game and the five players will return next year, after sitting the games, fresh for the end of the season. Now, if they were also banned from practices, spring and fall up to the fifth game, that'd be something different, though still not what should have been done.
"Should" is the key word. I guess there's an NCAA rule that prohibits players from selling items they get from being athletes. Is that a joke? Is the focus that players get things other students don't get? If so, ha ha ah! Let's see...scholarships, training facilities, better meals, etc. I suppose those are all open to all students? Let's see...not going to classes or made up phys ed courses, lower SATs/ACTs, hmmmm. What hypocrites run the NCAA! It must be fun to be able to pick and choose which "principles" are to be followed or abandoned.
Instead of NCAA, maybe the name should be changed to MCAA, Monetary Collegiate Athletic Association.
So, the OSU guys get suspended, not now, but for next season? They won't miss a bowl game, but the first five games of 2011? I guess money talks. The irony is that people would still watch the OSU bowl game and the five players will return next year, after sitting the games, fresh for the end of the season. Now, if they were also banned from practices, spring and fall up to the fifth game, that'd be something different, though still not what should have been done.
"Should" is the key word. I guess there's an NCAA rule that prohibits players from selling items they get from being athletes. Is that a joke? Is the focus that players get things other students don't get? If so, ha ha ah! Let's see...scholarships, training facilities, better meals, etc. I suppose those are all open to all students? Let's see...not going to classes or made up phys ed courses, lower SATs/ACTs, hmmmm. What hypocrites run the NCAA! It must be fun to be able to pick and choose which "principles" are to be followed or abandoned.
Instead of NCAA, maybe the name should be changed to MCAA, Monetary Collegiate Athletic Association.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Cool!
I received, from Bryan, two ties emblazoned (and I mean emblazoned!) with images of Abraham Lincoln! How cool! Yes, I will certainly wear them. Immediately, I think of Lincoln's Birthday and the Civil War lectures in class as very appropriate times. And, no doubt, when the mood strikes me, I'll just wear one of them when we go out--maybe even next week to the New Year's Eve bash!
How coincidental, considering my earlier post! I must have been giving a Lincoln lecture last week during the funeral days.
How cool!
How coincidental, considering my earlier post! I must have been giving a Lincoln lecture last week during the funeral days.
How cool!
DuBois on Lincoln
In this time of maddening desperation toward our fools-for-representatives, this quotation of W.E.B. DuBois about Abraham Lincoln bears repeating. It is doubly appropriate in this season which brings the hope of birth.
"Abraham Lincoln was perhaps the greatest figure of the nineteenth century. Certainly of the five masters--Napoleon, Bismarck, Victoria, Browning, and Lincoln--Lincoln is to me the most human and lovable. And I love him not because he was perfect, but because he was not and yet triumphed. The world is full of illegitimate children. The world is full of folk whose taste was educated in the gutter. The world is full of people born hating and despising their fellows. To these I love to say: See this man. He was one of you and yet became Abraham Lincoln."
Wow...I still get chills having read and recited this hundreds of times. "He was one of you and yet became Abraham Lincoln." After his Cooper Union Address, he was handed his payment of $200 and was told, "Had we paid you $200,000 it would not have been enough." Leaving Cooper Union, one man related, "When I cam out of the hall...a friend, his eyes aglow, asked me what I thought of Abraham Lincoln, the Railsplitter. I said, 'He's the greatest man since St. Paul...."
"Abraham Lincoln was perhaps the greatest figure of the nineteenth century. Certainly of the five masters--Napoleon, Bismarck, Victoria, Browning, and Lincoln--Lincoln is to me the most human and lovable. And I love him not because he was perfect, but because he was not and yet triumphed. The world is full of illegitimate children. The world is full of folk whose taste was educated in the gutter. The world is full of people born hating and despising their fellows. To these I love to say: See this man. He was one of you and yet became Abraham Lincoln."
Wow...I still get chills having read and recited this hundreds of times. "He was one of you and yet became Abraham Lincoln." After his Cooper Union Address, he was handed his payment of $200 and was told, "Had we paid you $200,000 it would not have been enough." Leaving Cooper Union, one man related, "When I cam out of the hall...a friend, his eyes aglow, asked me what I thought of Abraham Lincoln, the Railsplitter. I said, 'He's the greatest man since St. Paul...."
Friday, December 24, 2010
Fri Musings
I don't often agree with former state superintendent Tom Watkins, but he had a great column in today's newspaper. In essence, he wrote that, if Americans want to continue to have the country they have, with its freedoms, wealth, etc., they're going to have to work for it. It won't come easy. I believe he described too many Americans as "fat and comfortable." Good for Mr. Watkins!
And, in the spirit of the Christmas season, here's this gem. (No, I don't make up this stuff!) Apparently an Oklahoma bank, a private bank, had some Chris display, "Merry Chris" or something like that. The Federal Reserve, overseeing its duty (read that facetiously!), told the bank to remove it, citing some regulations. First, whose stupid "regulations" were these? Second, what ding-a-ling at the Fed was stupid enough to apply/enforce them? Such an innocuous matter, yet other religions, e.g., Islam, are left unfettered, e.g., women wearing burkhas so their identities are hidden, say, in courts of law. Fortunately, enough people were aroused to contact their US Sen and Congressman, who stepped in and got the Fed to rescind its silly directive. But, the question remains, how did any of this get anywhere? Stupid people making stupid regulations that other stupid people blindly enforce. BTW, to whom, really, is the Fed responsible?
Also, while I'm at it.... How about that Cal pilot who demonstrated the folly of some TSA regulations? Apparently, flight personnel undergo rigorous TSA scrutiny, while mechanics, baggage loaders, etc. merely need to swipe a card, forgoing any similar scruting, to get access to planes. Again, your federal gov't at work.
It's nice to see that John Conyers is going to reimburse for the inappropriate use of a gov't-funded SUV. Yet, two big questions remain. Why is the gov't paying over $12oo a month for a Congressman's wheels? Can't he drive what the rest of us drive? Hey, does he still own his Ford dealership?!?! Does anyone think he's paying for any reason other than he/his son was caught?
Isn't revision wonderful? The gov is engaged in it right now. Granted, she was dealt a difficult hand; but, she knew that going in. To claim that things are better because of her two terms is preposterous, maybe worse.
I just love (yep, read more sarcasm into that) how people say things like "Let's not blame anyhone" or "Let's not dwell on the mistakes of the past and move ahead from there." How absolutely silly! Where is the accountability if we don't cast blame? If we don't recognize the mistakes others made, how can we move ahead? Shouldn't we stop people who made poor decisions in the past from making more decisions?
Time to leave....
And, in the spirit of the Christmas season, here's this gem. (No, I don't make up this stuff!) Apparently an Oklahoma bank, a private bank, had some Chris display, "Merry Chris" or something like that. The Federal Reserve, overseeing its duty (read that facetiously!), told the bank to remove it, citing some regulations. First, whose stupid "regulations" were these? Second, what ding-a-ling at the Fed was stupid enough to apply/enforce them? Such an innocuous matter, yet other religions, e.g., Islam, are left unfettered, e.g., women wearing burkhas so their identities are hidden, say, in courts of law. Fortunately, enough people were aroused to contact their US Sen and Congressman, who stepped in and got the Fed to rescind its silly directive. But, the question remains, how did any of this get anywhere? Stupid people making stupid regulations that other stupid people blindly enforce. BTW, to whom, really, is the Fed responsible?
Also, while I'm at it.... How about that Cal pilot who demonstrated the folly of some TSA regulations? Apparently, flight personnel undergo rigorous TSA scrutiny, while mechanics, baggage loaders, etc. merely need to swipe a card, forgoing any similar scruting, to get access to planes. Again, your federal gov't at work.
It's nice to see that John Conyers is going to reimburse for the inappropriate use of a gov't-funded SUV. Yet, two big questions remain. Why is the gov't paying over $12oo a month for a Congressman's wheels? Can't he drive what the rest of us drive? Hey, does he still own his Ford dealership?!?! Does anyone think he's paying for any reason other than he/his son was caught?
Isn't revision wonderful? The gov is engaged in it right now. Granted, she was dealt a difficult hand; but, she knew that going in. To claim that things are better because of her two terms is preposterous, maybe worse.
I just love (yep, read more sarcasm into that) how people say things like "Let's not blame anyhone" or "Let's not dwell on the mistakes of the past and move ahead from there." How absolutely silly! Where is the accountability if we don't cast blame? If we don't recognize the mistakes others made, how can we move ahead? Shouldn't we stop people who made poor decisions in the past from making more decisions?
Time to leave....
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Sometimes I Sits and Thinks...
...and sometimes I just sits.
Today I just "sits." When I saw and read the article about MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo's suspension I just had to laugh--and laugh hard. Who are these NCAA clowns? All the crap going on, payoffs, illegal recruiting, payoffs (did I already say that?), false attendance/grades in classes, training meals, tutors (for free), etc. and this guy gets a one game suspension for paying a guy to work at one of his clinics. Did the guy actually work the clinic/camp? Was he there? Then, he deserved to get paid, didn't he? Who was supposed to be hired, some Bozo of a high school coach who doesn't know any basketball? But, in the end, that's not the point. The point is that the NCAA just looks the other way, ignores, doesn't want to know, etc. major problems--e.g., admission of players who don't deserve to be in college. If people want to keep paying attention to college sports, good for them. The hypocrisy, dishonesty, lack of courage and integrity, etc. have pretty much driven me away.
Today I just "sits." When I saw and read the article about MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo's suspension I just had to laugh--and laugh hard. Who are these NCAA clowns? All the crap going on, payoffs, illegal recruiting, payoffs (did I already say that?), false attendance/grades in classes, training meals, tutors (for free), etc. and this guy gets a one game suspension for paying a guy to work at one of his clinics. Did the guy actually work the clinic/camp? Was he there? Then, he deserved to get paid, didn't he? Who was supposed to be hired, some Bozo of a high school coach who doesn't know any basketball? But, in the end, that's not the point. The point is that the NCAA just looks the other way, ignores, doesn't want to know, etc. major problems--e.g., admission of players who don't deserve to be in college. If people want to keep paying attention to college sports, good for them. The hypocrisy, dishonesty, lack of courage and integrity, etc. have pretty much driven me away.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Joys, Redux
Earlier this week I posted a list of joyful things. One was shooting stars/meteors. Two nights ago I viewed a "big one," (Can you say that on television?), a long, wide streaking meteor. It might well have been part of the Perseids or Leonids, whichever meteor shower is visible this week. And, to make it cooler, Bopper, in another car a couple miles away, heading home, too, saw it!
Wed AM, out running, a deer crossed my path, maybe only 20-30 yards in front of me. I kept running, smile on my face. Following the first was a second, then a third, then.... There were nine of them, all leaping through the snow, over and down a hill, across the road and up and over a hill. How cool! But, as a note of interest, they are not at all "cute." In fact, up close they are pretty ugly, fur all matted, not particularly bright/shiny, etc. But, still, cool to see so many.
Wed AM, out running, a deer crossed my path, maybe only 20-30 yards in front of me. I kept running, smile on my face. Following the first was a second, then a third, then.... There were nine of them, all leaping through the snow, over and down a hill, across the road and up and over a hill. How cool! But, as a note of interest, they are not at all "cute." In fact, up close they are pretty ugly, fur all matted, not particularly bright/shiny, etc. But, still, cool to see so many.
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