Ty was named the AJC All Fayette-Coweta football team.
These boys work so hard for four, five and even six years (if you count middle school).
The coaches put in unbelieveable hours, we have great appreciation for their effort.
I am happy for for my son and his friends.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Complaints with the Press
For some weeks I've been composing a diatribe on weaknesses or news reporting. See the attached link where Peter Kann has saved me the trouble.
"The press is an evil for which there is no rememdy. Liberty depends upon freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost." - Thomas Jefferson
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
The Republican's Southern Problem
Today's AJC editorial section had two entries of particular irritation.
First, Kofi Annan has the audacity to lecture Americans on "playing by the rules".
Second, Harold Myerson's democratic talking points inspired description of how the new south is a noose weighing heavily around Republican party's neck.
Within the editorial by Mr. Myerson, Rebuplicans are defined by these Southern characteristics:
It is true, there are large differences in regional perceptions of national politics. Mr. Myerson is suggesting that the Democrats won the last election because they were too much like the historical Southerner. This is incorrect, the Democrats won in 2006 because the war in Iraq and the political savy of the Democrats to hang that about the president's neck. Other factors include the failures of Senate and House to define themsleves as fiscally responsible, morally responsible, independent of presidential power.
By his own words from another editorial:
Mr. Myerson ignores the realities that the southern region has vastly changed demographically. Florida will soon be the 3rd largest state in the union. Metropolitan areas are thrriving in Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Miami, Nashville and Memphis. Many of us are not from here, reared in northeastern and midwestern regions. Transplants have come here by choice, lured by growing economies regional cutural differences. People are attracted to strong conservative communities.
I would suggest that as demographic shifting has taken place, upwardly mobile workers have moved south, leaving the stagnant remains. This stagnant remainder has shifted to liberal dogma rooted in northern machine political bases, unions and the welfare class. Yes, the new Southern value system may be closely aligned with those Republican, to compare those with the knee-jerk characteritics described is plain old-fashioned regional racism.
First, Kofi Annan has the audacity to lecture Americans on "playing by the rules".
Second, Harold Myerson's democratic talking points inspired description of how the new south is a noose weighing heavily around Republican party's neck.
Within the editorial by Mr. Myerson, Rebuplicans are defined by these Southern characteristics:
- Knee-jerk miltaristic
- Anti-scientific
- Dogmatically religious
- Culturally phobic
- Sexually phobic
- Racially phobic
- Knee-jerk chicken-hawk, strong belief if advocacy without fortitude of follow through
- Junk science advocate
- Agnostic, Atheist, or Secular, indicator of weakened family and moral values
- Culturally phobic, clearly lacks understanding of Southern culture
- Metro-sexual, probably unfair, sexual boundaries are changing everywhere
- Racially ignorant, segregation is a natural tendency, and prevalent in every region in one form or another.
It is true, there are large differences in regional perceptions of national politics. Mr. Myerson is suggesting that the Democrats won the last election because they were too much like the historical Southerner. This is incorrect, the Democrats won in 2006 because the war in Iraq and the political savy of the Democrats to hang that about the president's neck. Other factors include the failures of Senate and House to define themsleves as fiscally responsible, morally responsible, independent of presidential power.
By his own words from another editorial:
The meaning of the election was clear for all to see: The people plainly
believed that the unified, pluralistic Iraq that the Bush administration
insisted was growing stronger with each passing day actually had no future at
all.
Mr. Myerson ignores the realities that the southern region has vastly changed demographically. Florida will soon be the 3rd largest state in the union. Metropolitan areas are thrriving in Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Miami, Nashville and Memphis. Many of us are not from here, reared in northeastern and midwestern regions. Transplants have come here by choice, lured by growing economies regional cutural differences. People are attracted to strong conservative communities.
I would suggest that as demographic shifting has taken place, upwardly mobile workers have moved south, leaving the stagnant remains. This stagnant remainder has shifted to liberal dogma rooted in northern machine political bases, unions and the welfare class. Yes, the new Southern value system may be closely aligned with those Republican, to compare those with the knee-jerk characteritics described is plain old-fashioned regional racism.
Friday, December 1, 2006
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Otis Nixon
Otis NixonBorn January 9, 1959 in Columbus County, North Carolina
Brother of Donell Nixon
Originally drafted by the Yankees, 3rd pick 1st round, 1979
Played for:
New York Yankees
Cleveland Indians
Montreal Expos
Atlanta Braves
Boston Red Sox
Texas Rangers
Toronto Blue Jays
Los Angeles Dodgers
Minnesota Twins
Had 620 career steals and 1379 career hits.
Not what you might call a handsome man.
Once arrested for pulling a knife on his own bodyguard. Why did he even need a bodyguard, to score coke?
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
2007 Hall of Fame Ballot
Spent a lot of time in the car today and ESPN radio piqued my interest.
Colin Cowherd spent a good amount of time discussing opinions on allowing steroid tainted ballplayers into the MLB HoF. While admitting that he is comfortable with either all in or all out he would favor admission for all. Part of this argument, he suggests that, all people break laws in a manner that suits their needs. A baseball player in order maintain competitive conditioning will take steroids, this is, according to Colin, an equivalent to exceeding the speed limit for the purpose of getting to get to work on time.
I hope that the Mr. Cowherd, for the purposes of entertainment, has constructed this analogy to promote discussion and not a philosophy on life. This sort of thinking leads to habits like weak parenting, based on an unwillingness to make critical judgments on the behavior of others.
To directly oppose the point I would suggest that during these player's careers each was richly rewarded through contracts and endorsements. To offer additional reward after admission of unlawful behavior would be insulting to those that have achieved the HoF honestly. The Hall of Fame is a shrine to great ball players who have been statistically superior, possessed leadership positions on successful teams and were publicly moral. Players who don't pass the stink test shouldn't get in.
Now Mr. Cowherd's points are not any cause of pain for me. In the end he is pragmatic, Players like McGwire will probably get in eventually because proof of wrong doing is absent.
Here is how I hope the voting should go in the next couple of years.
The following list is the set of nominations for 2007.
Colin Cowherd spent a good amount of time discussing opinions on allowing steroid tainted ballplayers into the MLB HoF. While admitting that he is comfortable with either all in or all out he would favor admission for all. Part of this argument, he suggests that, all people break laws in a manner that suits their needs. A baseball player in order maintain competitive conditioning will take steroids, this is, according to Colin, an equivalent to exceeding the speed limit for the purpose of getting to get to work on time.
I hope that the Mr. Cowherd, for the purposes of entertainment, has constructed this analogy to promote discussion and not a philosophy on life. This sort of thinking leads to habits like weak parenting, based on an unwillingness to make critical judgments on the behavior of others.
To directly oppose the point I would suggest that during these player's careers each was richly rewarded through contracts and endorsements. To offer additional reward after admission of unlawful behavior would be insulting to those that have achieved the HoF honestly. The Hall of Fame is a shrine to great ball players who have been statistically superior, possessed leadership positions on successful teams and were publicly moral. Players who don't pass the stink test shouldn't get in.
Now Mr. Cowherd's points are not any cause of pain for me. In the end he is pragmatic, Players like McGwire will probably get in eventually because proof of wrong doing is absent.
Here is how I hope the voting should go in the next couple of years.
The following list is the set of nominations for 2007.
Harold Baines - nope, good hitter, played DH too much
Albert Belle - nope, too short of a career, great for about 5 years
Dante Bichette - nope, the hall already has enough fat bastards
Bert Blyleven - nope, nice pitcher, not great
Bobby Bonilla - nope, even shorter career sweet spot that Belle
Scott Brosius - nope, bet he gets 0%
Jay Buhner - nope, when he was healthy loved to watch him in the field
Ken Caminiti - nope, more that stink here
Jose Canseco - nope, admitted to steriod use
Dave Concepcion - nope, nice player on a great team, like Rizzuto who shouldn't be in either
Eric Davis - nope, a couple of geat years, lots of injures
Andre Dawson - YES , hard player, good stats, languished on Montreal too long
Tony Fernandez - nope, he was a shortstop wasn't he?
Steve Garvey - nope, what was that commercial for where he flipped the bat?
Rich Gossage - YES, not my favorite but dominating
Tony Gwynn - YES, the best contact hitter of the last 45 years
Orel Hershiser - nope, tough guy though, enjoyed this pitcher
Tommy John - nope, over-rated when he was with the Yankees
Wally Joyner - nope, good not ever great
Don Mattingly - nope, loved the player
Mark McGwire - nope, go back to the stink test
Jack Morris - unsure, tough in the playoffs
Dale Murphy - nope, 2 MVPs, fantastic arm, missed too many pitches low and away
Paul O'Neill - nope, let the Yankee fans squeal
Dave Parker - nope, a lot like Murphy, great arm from left field, short career sweet spot
Jim Rice - YES, good hitter, lots of home runs, MVP, put up with all that Boston crap
Cal Ripken Jr. - YES, MVPs, the game streak
Bret Saberhagen - nope, short career sweet spot
Lee Smith - YES, did as much as Gossage and for a long time
Alan Trammell - nope, tough player, too many weak years at the plate
Devon White - nope, he was fast, big deal
Bobby Witt - nope, aw hell no
Monday, November 27, 2006
Muslims Prepared for Holidays
Not Islamic holidays.
On Friday night, in the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli paratroopers found stuffed teddy bears wired for explosives.
Targeting children, what kind of logic leads a man to this?
No man at all.
On Friday night, in the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli paratroopers found stuffed teddy bears wired for explosives.
Targeting children, what kind of logic leads a man to this?
No man at all.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Grizzly Hunting
The Pope took a couple of days off to visit the mountains of Alaska for some sight-seeing.
He was cruising along in the Pope mobile when there was a frantic commotion just at the edge of the woods. A helpless Democrat, wearing sandals, shorts, a "Save the Whales" hat, and a "To Hell with Bush" T-shirt, was screaming while struggling frantically, thrashing around trying to free himself from the grasp of a 10 foot grizzly.
As the Pope watched horrified, a group of Republican loggers came racing up. One quickly fired a .44 magnum into the bear's chest... The other two reached up and pulled the bleeding, semiconscious Democrat from the bear's grasp. Then using long clubs, the three loggers finished off the bear and two of them threw it onto the bed of their truck while the other tenderly placed the injured Democrat in the back seat.
As they prepared to leave, the Pope summoned them to come over. "I give you my blessing for your brave actions!" he told them. "I heard there was a bitter hatred between Republican loggers and Democratic Environmental activists but now I've seen with my own eyes that this is not true.
"As the Pope drove off, one of the loggers asked his buddies "Who was that guy?" "It was the Pope," another replied. "He's in direct contact with heaven and has access to all wisdom." "Well," the logger said, "he may have access to all wisdom but he sure doesn't know anything about bear hunting! By the way, how is the bait holding up? Or do we need to go back to Massachusetts and snatch another one?"
He was cruising along in the Pope mobile when there was a frantic commotion just at the edge of the woods. A helpless Democrat, wearing sandals, shorts, a "Save the Whales" hat, and a "To Hell with Bush" T-shirt, was screaming while struggling frantically, thrashing around trying to free himself from the grasp of a 10 foot grizzly.
As the Pope watched horrified, a group of Republican loggers came racing up. One quickly fired a .44 magnum into the bear's chest... The other two reached up and pulled the bleeding, semiconscious Democrat from the bear's grasp. Then using long clubs, the three loggers finished off the bear and two of them threw it onto the bed of their truck while the other tenderly placed the injured Democrat in the back seat.
As they prepared to leave, the Pope summoned them to come over. "I give you my blessing for your brave actions!" he told them. "I heard there was a bitter hatred between Republican loggers and Democratic Environmental activists but now I've seen with my own eyes that this is not true.
"As the Pope drove off, one of the loggers asked his buddies "Who was that guy?" "It was the Pope," another replied. "He's in direct contact with heaven and has access to all wisdom." "Well," the logger said, "he may have access to all wisdom but he sure doesn't know anything about bear hunting! By the way, how is the bait holding up? Or do we need to go back to Massachusetts and snatch another one?"
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