A Man Short

September 8, 2012

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This story originally ran on November 12, 2010

When coach Brad Green began the season with twenty players on his roster, he was not overly concerned.  He had been football coach at Mountain View High for two decades now, and dealing with the challenges of building a football team from the small student body was old hat.  There were never many bench warmers on the Mountain View teams – players were rotated into the game to allow every player to have a handful of plays off during the course of the game.

When four of his players were suspended from school for a fight on school grounds, coach Green was a bit more concerned.  During their one week suspension, they could not participate in any extra-curricular activities – even football.  Coach Green was looking at a matchup against Central Valley with sixteen players.

The latest blow came on Friday, when a nasty bout of the flu knocked four more players out of commission.  With just twelve players traveling to the game, the coach wondered if it was even necessary to take a bus.

Bad news comes in threes, they say, and the third event struck just before game time.  As the Tigers were practicing, two wide receivers collided on a passing route.  Ken Jarrett and Kevin Matthews were both tough kids, and it was a very bad sign when they didn’t get up after the play.  Green had seen the injuries many times before – Jarrett had a broken leg and Matthews had fractured his arm.  With ten players on the team, the coach was wondering whether to just forfeit the game and take his kids home.

“Are they going to be OK, coach?”

Green looked up into the face of Amy Marx, one of the cheerleaders.

“Afraid not, Amy.  Neither of those guys will be able to play.”

“Geez.  You’ve lost a lot of players this week.  Aren’t you a man short now?”

“Yep, we’re down to ten,” replied Coach Green.  “Could make for some big plays for the opposition.”

“I’ll suit up, coach!”

“Not going to happen.”

“What have you go to lose?  Split me out as a receiver and have me play defensive back.  It has to be better than playing with ten players, right?”

“Are you sure?”

“I have four older brothers.  I can hold my own with the big boys.”

Fifteen minutes later, Amy was lined up at cornerback for the Tigers.   Central Valley picked on her immediately.  The receiver caught the ball, faked her out of her shoes, and raced up the sideline for a touchdown.  The game was not half a minute old and they were down 7-0.

The Central Valley kicker boomed the kickoff out of the end zone for a touchback.  The Tigers huddled up at the twenty yard line.

“OK, first play goes to Amy,” announced quarterback Matt Ford.  “Don’t worry, Marx, we’ll pick you up.”  The QB gave her a slap on the rear to drive home the point – and then flushed with embarrassment when he realized what he had done.

“Sorry, Amy.  Didn’t mean to do that – just reflex.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied.  “I’m just one of the guys tonight.”

Amy caught the pass for a split second before a smashing hit from the Central Valley defender separated her from the ball.  She lay on the field for a moment, catching her breath.

“Oh, look.  Barbie’s hurt.  Did you break a nail, honey?”  He laughed and turned back toward his teammates.  Amy immediately jumped up and gave him a hard shove in the back.

The referee’s whistle tweeted to announce a penalty.  “Unsportsmanlike conduct, number eighty four on the offense.  Half the distance to the goal line.  Second down.”

Amy cursed herself for making another dumb play.  Two running plays and a short pass completion made up some of the yardage, but the Tigers faced a 4th down and 8 from their own 22 yard line.  Coach Green decided to give her another shot – having the longtime soccer player line up at punter.  She caught the ball and gave it a powerful kick.  The ball traveled forty eight yards in the air and picked up another ten with a friendly bounce before rolling out of bounds at the Central Valley twenty yard line.

Amy felt a surge of confidence as she lined up on the defensive side of the ball.  Once again, the QB threw the ball in her direction, testing her after the earlier TD.  This time, Amy jumped the route and deflected the ball.  Linebacker Jeff Miller snagged the ball in mid-air and raced into the end zone for the tying score.

By halftime, nearly everyone in the stadium had forgotten that there was a girl playing for Mountain View.  Amy felt the game slow down a bit for her.  On the offensive side of the ball she had made three short catches and had done a serviceable job of blocking for the running game.  On the defensive side of the ball, she was the leading tackler – not because she was the best player, but because Central Valley continued to pick on her.  Amy enjoyed delivering the blows and bringing down the ball carrier to stop a drive.

The game continued to be tight in the second half, and with forty two seconds left in the game, Central Valley was clinging to a 31-28 lead.  The Tigers had the ball, but faced a long field – eighty yards away from pay dirt.  Matt Ford huddled up the troops.

“OK, Barbie Doll’s going deep on this one.”  Amy smiled at the joking reference to the defender’s comment earlier in the game.  She split out wide to the right and waited for the snap.

Amy caught the ball at the thirty five yard line.  The defender stood just a few steps down the field, ready to make the tackle.  She faked right before cutting to the left, leaving the defender in her wake.  She turned on the afterburners and displayed the raw speed that had won her the 1A 100 meter dash title the previous spring.  Nobody touched her until she was in the end zone – and then it was her entire team piling on top of her to celebrate the touchdown.

With gallons of adrenaline pulsing through her veins, Amy sailed the kickoff out of the end zone.  Central Valley still had time on the clock, but the fight had gone out of them.  Four incomplete passes later, and the game was over – Amy Marx had led the Tigers to a most improbable win.

Should The President Have Any Power?

September 6, 2012

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The Irrelevancy of the Presidency to the People

In the beginning God created…………an imperfect union of the many states. Soon the confederacy of the United States of America gave way to a more perfect union. A republic was born with the intent to “secure the Blessings of Liberty” [sic] unto the People of the many states.

This republic did not alter or infringe on the states much. A common currency was introduced. A common defense was created. Treaties were negotiated by the Executive Branch and ratified by the Legislative Branch rather than individual treaties by the many states.

Today many people question the importance and purpose of the Electoral College. Obviously the States created the republic we refer to as the Federal Government or the United States of America. The States pick our ambassador to the world, the President of the Executive Branch of the United States of America. How States decide who their electoral votes go to is completely up to the States as laid out in their laws and constitutions. President General George Washington was elected with a majority of electoral votes but many states didn’t have a general election. Many states instead cast their electoral votes for General George Washington by consent of their state’s legislature.

As revealed in previous articles, the Legislative Branch is the predominant branch and the Executive Branch is tasked with executing law. What does the President of the Executive Branch of the United States have to do with individual Americans? Many observes, including the author of this article, say the president is irrelevant to the common US Citizen.

Article I of the US Constitution defines the role of the Legislative Branch. Spending and government programs are created by the Congress. Taxes, fees, and other monetary confiscations are levied or authorized by Congress. War, or authorization of hostilities as it has come to be called, is declared by Congress. Does the president have any powers over individuals that wasn’t first authorized by Congress? Article II of the US Constitution gives only executive power to the president. No authority in domestic matters is given to the president except by law first enacted by the Congress. What relevance does the president really have with the common US Citizen? Provided the president does follow and enforce laws, he/she has little relevance to the People. True power rests in the Congress.

Why should we care if the president grew up poor? Why should I care if Romney has servants? Does he have servants? If so, he’s probably created more jobs than President Obama! Do I care if he favors the rich, he can’t write law anyway. Do I care if the president favors the poor what more can he do that Congress hasn’t authorized? Nothing.

Some people say the president’s veto power is important. It didn’t mean much in 2007 when President Bush vetoed Democrat pork barrel spending. True power rests in Congress. A true republic would keep the presidency irrelevant as it was in the beginning our nation. A true republic would keep the predominant power in the Legislative Branch. Do we still have a republic? President Obama repeatedly stated, contrary to the US Constitution, that if the Congress doesn’t act he must act. President Obama is the most powerful and most relevant president ever. Is he still president or a dictator? We must elect a candidate that will follow law and begin the restoration of the proper irrelevancy to the presidency.

Baseball’s September Story Lines

September 5, 2012

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Baseball bell lap has begun, with just one month remaining in the season.  As baseball winds down, there are several story lines to watch.

Teams I’ll Be Watching

Joel Hanrahan

Pirates closer Joel Hanrahan

Pittsburgh Pirates – The last time the Pirates has a winning season, I was still in high school.  Barring a complete collapse down the stretch, the Pirates should at least get to 82 wins.  Pittsburgh is currently 2 1/2 games out of the final National League wild card spot.  Although I also like the Cardinals (who currently hold the final spot), I’m definitely pulling for the Pirates to make the playoffs.  I think it would be great for the fan base to have a playoff appearance.  Although an entire generate of young fans doesn’t realize it, this is a franchise with a proud and successful past.

Jim Johnson

Orioles closer Jim Johnson

Baltimore Orioles – Through Monday, the Orioles were 15 games over .500 (74-59) with a run differential of -31.  Of all the other teams with a run differential worse than -25, the next best record is the Mets at 64-71 (7 games under .500).  The Orioles bullpen has been great, allowing them to win close games (which allows a team winning percentage to exceed the projected based on run differential).  It remains to be seen whether they can make a playoff run … but through Monday, they were just one game behind the Yankees. 

Players I’ll Be Watching

Mike Trout

Mike Trout

Mike Trout – At this point, Trout has the American League Rookie of the Year award in the bag and is making a strong case for MVP.  Although Ichiro won the MVP in his “rookie” season, he was already a well established professional player at that point.  The only “true” rookie to win the MVP was Fred Lynn in 1975.  Through Monday, Trout was hitting .336 with 25 homers and 43 steals (caught 4 times) and 108 runs scored in 112 games.  If the Angels managed to make the playoffs, it will be due to Trout.  Trout spent the first month in the minors.  However, it’s hard to blame the Angels for sending him down to start the year, as he was sick during much of spring training.  Trout’s season is going be one for the ages.  He has a shot to win a batting title, hit 30 homers, and steal 50 bases (in an abbreviated season) all while providing signficant defensive value in the outfield … in his age 20 season. 

The real challenge may be in trying to match his 2012 output in future season.  Trout could conceivably have a Hall of Fame caliber career while never touching those numbers again.  A .290 career batting average with 450 homers and 500 steals would almost certainly get him into Cooperstown – something he could do by averaging 23 homers and 25 steals over a 20 year career.

Albert Pujols – After signing a monster contract with the Angels in the off-season, Pujols struggled mightily in April.  He has righted the ship in recent months.  Through Monday, Pujols was hitting .287 with 29 homers and 92 RBI.  He’s still a tick below his career numbers, but that will happen when you basically throw a month away.  I think we need to be a little slower to judge players who switch leagues.  Some guys take a bit longer to adjust, but do just fine once they get locked in.  Matt Holliday was the same way in Oakland – after his initial struggles, he really hit well before being traded to St. Louis.

Stephen Straburg – Strasburg’s season will likely come to an end September 12.  The Nationals have an innings cap and will shut him down once he reaches that number.  This means that Strasburg will not be a part of the post-season for the Nationals.  I personally think this is a wise move for the Nationals.  Putting 220+ innings of work on a recently Tommy Johned elbow seems to be a risky proposition.  This is a team that is built to contend over the long run.  Don’t blow out a young arm.

KANSAS CITY, MO - JULY 10:  National League Al...

Bryce Harper

Bryce Harper – Harper gets overshadowed on his own team by the Strasburg talk and doesn’t fare well in comparisons to Mike Trout.  To be fair, no rookies will ever fare well in a comparison to Trout.  However, Harper has actually been a slightly above average hitter this year.  That’s actually an incredible achievement for a 19 year old.  Most 19 year olds in professional baseball are playing in cities like Grand Junction, Cedar Rapids, and Delmarva.  Harper’s career is still 100% on track.

Plenty more to watch

These definitely aren’t the only story lines to watch.  The Nationals are looking to make their first playoff appearance and do it with the best record in baseball.  The Angel, despite the heroics of Trout and Pujols, are still outside the playoff picture.  The Devil Rays are knocking on the playoff door … and could the backsliding Yankees fall out of the playoffs?  Those stories and more as the regular season winds down.

Congrats to Kevin Goldstein

Kevin Goldstein @ Saber Seminar 2011

Kevin Goldstein

On Friday, it was announced that Kevin Goldstein would become the professional scouting director for the Astros (professional scouting pertains to minor league and Major League players, as opposed to scouting of unsigned amateurs).  A lot of scouting directors work their way through the scouting ranks of an organization before being promoted to an executive role.  Goldstein moves into the job after writing (and podcasting) about prospectus, mostly for Baseball Prospectus.  His expertise is very well respected, but it’s still a somewhat out of the box hire.  The move also resulted in the death of my favorite baseball podcast, Up and In.

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College Football – Week 1

September 4, 2012

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Week #1 is in the books. Many were aghast at how Alabama handled Michigan. Wisconsin and Iowa really struggled and were to a large extent lucky to escape with victories last week. A few even went to bed early to ensure they were up for Cheerios, their morning cup of joe…and the Fighting Irish.

Dear ESPN

The cameras were once again focused on Happy Valley. Not much to be happy about there these days when it comes to football. I predicted last week in my article that the Ohio Bobcats, or as we call them at the SoapBoxers – the Fighting Frank Soliches, would pull off a win at Beaver Stadium. Penn State came out full of emotion with jerseys full of names on the backs for the first time ever. They left after being outcoached, and outplayed by a veteran quarterback Tyler Tettleton. The most interesting thing that ESPN/ABC could manage to say about Tettleton is that his dad played Major League Baseball.

A more interesting fact would be why the Buckeye Band always spells the word OHIO and NOT Ohio St. in their big pre-game routine before each game. I assume ALL of the Bobcat fans love when the Buckeyes dot the “I” in Ohio – – as clearly that is a sign of solidarity for the state of Ohio. Either that or the teachers at OSU have never taught the band to spell out “STATE”

Regardless of this useless trivia factoid digression, ESPN had no post game interview with the winning Ohio coach, Frank Solich in what is undoubtedly one of the biggest victories in terms of “Big Wins” for the program while at Ohio University (next to their bowl game win last year, the first in school history) Instead the geniuses at ESPN put a camera in front of the losing coach, Bill O’Brien

This next week the cameras will be on again as Penn State travels to Virginia to take on the Cavaliers…I guess they will have the losing coach interview two weeks in a row. Maybe a better question is why is a team that barely skirted the “Death Penalty” on television every week thus far?

Is it Too Early?

FBC vs. FAU

Le-Veon Bell

To talk Heisman Trophy? I think it is but again the sports hacks that blog and that “report” the news have nothing better to write about. In this day and age of instant news and constant speculations, it is normally the best beauty pageant job marketing a good player by one of the major sports sources (ESPN, ABC, CBS) that helps a player garner the most votes at the end of the year.

Matt Barkley will be in the early lead and frankly it is likely his award to lose since most of the talking heads have already anointed him the man to beat…(of course that was the case for Andrew Luck for the past two years as well and he never received the hardware)

Unlike the copycats that all put the same names on the dotted line in the fishwrap each week, I am giving you my top Heisman Contenders after week #1 based on statistics and performance alone.

#1 – Le-Veon Bell – Michigan State – All he did was tote the mail a whopping 44 times for 210 yards for the Spartans in a win over ranked Boise State. The otherwise anemic offense relied totally on Bell, who added another 55 yards receiving for the game but the Broncos still could not stop him.

#2 – Austin Franklin – New Mexico State, hauled in 8 catches for an incredible 236 yards and 2 touchdowns against lackluster Idaho State.

#3 – Braxton Miller – Ohio State – I am going to seem like a B1G 10 homer this week but as Shakira says…the Stats don’t Lie. Miller rolled it up on weak Miami of Ohio, passing for 207 and 2 touchdowns and running for 161 yards and another score. If his passing numbers were not so weak, he would be higher on the list.

#4 – Johnathan Franklin – UCLA – ran out of control in the opener with 214 yards and 3 TD’s on just 15 attempts. He should face a bit of a better defense in Nebraska this week than he saw in the opener. And speaking of the Huskers…

#5 – Taylor Martinez – Nebraska – Looked like the reincarnation of Vince Ferragamo as he threw for 5 touchdowns and 354 yards while completing over 76% of his attempts in a rout of Southern Miss, the defending Conference USA Champions.

Until next time….Stay classy Reynoldsburgh, Ohio.

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What Should The Role Of Government Be?

September 3, 2012

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There have been many comments on the President’s statement about businesses, that “you didn’t build that, someone else did.” The right wing talking heads claim that this is obviously a socialist statement that all is owned the collective. The left wing talking heads will defend the statement by rephrasing the lead up comments, that without the aid of government, the roads, electric, internet, educated workers would not be available for the success of the business. Both are correct and both are wrong.

Business of any kind is the action of human beings on raw materials to increase the value of a product and provide it to others for the benefit of the business. The raw material can be ideas, services or actual physical resources. Can you actually say that the government provided someone with the cleaning business that they have built up? Most would claim that the government has done almost the reverse with regulations. But again, could that business exist without the guarantees of property, the enforcement of laws and the security provide by the armed forces?

The government only took over the maintenance and building of roads in the last 100 years. Government education is also about 100 years old. Before that, individuals and businesses built the road that they needed and educated themselves through apprenticeships or the world of hard knocks. What about the raw materials? Most people do not understand that the ownership of resources has only been sure for about 300 years. Prior to the British commonwealth, the strongest person or group owned the resources, usually obtaining them through force and violence or the threat of violence.

Let’s look at the simplest form of a business, the small farm. The farmer claims some land, by his own strength, he plants seeds, raises animals and gathers his harvest. He can live off of his produce and trade is excess for goods he cannot make himself, such as better plows, stronger horses, etc. It all looks like the perfect growth plan. But he has to defend his land from predators, not all of them wild animals. If he is not well enough prepared, someone else will take what he has, and if he is fortunate enough to escape with his life, he may start the process all over again.

So both camps are right in that each can point to points that support their argument, but both are also wrong in stating it is an either/or argument. Without government programs, no business can succeed very long without becoming a government of their own (see the Mexican drug cartels or the British East India company). Claiming that the government has come claim over a business beyond the taxes paid to fund the services that make running the business easier and those government functions that allow the business to exist, is statism (whether you call if fascism, communism, socialism, despotism, does not really matter).

Now no part of this essay suggests that government has no part in business. Government is essential in providing security and restraint on business. If a business becomes too powerful, excesses can result that are harmful to the community that the government is expected to protect. In the United States, the government has stepped in to support the rights of workers from abuse. The government has also intervened when one business becomes too powerful within an industry, resulting in artificial increase in cost for what could be considered an essential product or service.

Recently (within the last 50 years), the effort to protect workers has migrated at times to punitive actions against businesses that are not for the good of the worker, but for the good of the individual political office holder or the organizational hierarchy of the labor organization. Also (within the last 25 years) the government has started to protect businesses that are “too big to fail” rather than harnessing those businesses into manageable sizes.

As examples, in the early 1900s, intervened to help workers including assisting in establishing work weeks and holidays. Now the emphasis is on increasing the minimum wage. The stated goal is to get people more money to spend, but the minimum wage is for entry level jobs, not full time careers. The result of increases in the minimum wage is the loss of entry level jobs until the market can adjust to absorb the increased costs. So the net result is a loss of opportunity, not an increase. But, there is a side effect. Most union contracts have a wage clause that pushes up the cost when the minimum wage is raised. The biggest effect is on contracts with government agencies resulting in a positive feedback.

Also in the early 1900s and as late as the 1970s, the government broke up large businesses. Standard Oil became 7 separate companies, Bell telephone was broken up, and railway crossings were regulated so that one company could not block common roads with trains to prevent their competitors from getting their raw materials. In 2010, the government was bailing out car companies and financial institutions.

As with any political action, there is some good and some bad for everyone involved. With unions, workers are protected, but now have to pay heavy dues to fund a top heavy highly paid administration. With unions, businesses cannot set the wages across and industry and have to provide certain benefits to lure skilled workers to their doors. With government interference, large businesses have been broken into smaller pieces for some short term pain for their customers, but overall better climate for all concerned. With government interference, large businesses have been “saved” to continue along flawed business plans that can only result in additional bailouts in the future.

The point of this essay is not to suggest that we return to the 1800s. The point is to expose that both the left and the right are both correct and incorrect in their interpretation of the role of government and business. We must have government protection of workers, communities, and other businesses. We must also avoid the idea of a collective. Each worker and business should be rewarded for the value of the work they do. It does not matter what you perceive the value of your effort is, only what the community determines the value is. If you have spent a lot of money on a college degree that will not get you a job, then you have prepared poorly. It is not the responsibility of the government or anyone else to assure that you effort is rewarded. If on the other hand, you build up a business that fills a need in the community, you should not be penalized. Restraint should only be applied if you are harming someone in the process of you effort.

The Challenges of Writing a Novel

August 31, 2012

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I’ve been working on my first novel for a few years now.  I got the first draft to about 10,000 (not terribly long) before deciding to completely re-baseline.  It’s hard to basically throw that work in the trash, but when I wrote it, I was basically trying to get some words down, knowing that I’d be heavily revising.  Over the past couple of years, I’ve had a lot of irons in my literary fire.  Recently, I’ve decided to shelve many of these ideas in order to work on the novel.  Here are some of the challenges I’ve been facing.

Finding time to write

With a 5 year old and a 2 year old in the house, much of my “free time” is already spoken for.  Simply finding a spare 20-30 minutes each day to write can be quite a challenge.  NaNoWriMo is looming in November.  Although I don’t plan to birth and develop and entire novel during the month, I am aiming to make significant progress on my novel during the month.  My goal is to add 25,000 words in November.  That’s a relatively modest word count compared to NaNoWriMo winners, but it would push me to the point of being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Baseball winds down around the same time, which will remove one competitor for my time.

Slow down

I’ve always had a tendency to race ahead in my story telling, focusing almost solely on the action.  I’d rather write a kill scene than anything else.  It’s always been difficult for me to spend any time describing the scenes or daily life.  Lately, I’ve been doing a better job of this, trying to get inside the heads of characters and looking around to see what they see and listening to hear what they hear.  Essentially, I have to tell the story telling part of my brain to pause while I stop and smell the roses (and describe them for you).

Exploring my feminine side

Although I’ve had strong female characters in many of my stories, my novel is my first longer work to have a female driving the plot forward (although there will be shifting perspectives in the book).  I have to take care in how I develop the role of Marina, a female detective.  As a homicide detective, I want her to be strong, but not over-the-top like Dirty Harry.  While I can write from a male point of view fairly easily, I actually need to put some thought into how my female characters act.  Marina is going to have to deal with situations that her partner Jake won’t ever encounter – and I need to make sure she handles them in a way that makes sense to my female readers.  Then there’s the matter of female clothing, accessories and makeup.  Dresses, skirts, blouses, stilettos, flats, mules, foundation, blush … Just getting a female character dressed and out the door in the morning can be a job unto itself.

How many of you are working on a novel?  What are some of the challenges you are facing?

Highlights of the Republican Convention

August 30, 2012

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This week is the Republican National Convention.  Anger seems to be the word of the week so far.  The convention got off to a rocky start when hurricane Isaac threatened Florida, forcing a very abbreviated first day session that lasted exactly two minutes.  Oddly, hurricanes also affected the 2004 and 2008 conventions.

Ron Paul

Ron Paul has always had very devoted supporters.  The average depth of support among his fans is certainly greater than that of any other candidate.  The only probably is that a “eh, I like the guy” vote counts just as much as a “I’d die for the guy” vote.  Paul has never been able to muster a strong breadth of support – and that’s what really matters.

While Paul was basically a non-factor, his supporters have claimed that while he didn’t win, this campaign was the start of a revolution, and that the Ron Paul 2012 campaign would set policy within the Republican party for the next generation, on par with Ronald Reagan.  Really?  A fringe candidate with support of a small minority of party members is on par with a two term president?  If Romney wins the presidency, I’d expect the GOP to close ranks behind him a bit and at least shift somewhat toward him. 

Paul supporters did cause at least one change, though.  State delegates will now be bound by the results of the state’s primaries and caucuses.  Paul’s support had been able to lobby to become delegates, such that their representation as delegation was far out of proportion with the percentage of votes Paul had received in primaries and caucuses.  In other words, they were essentially disenfranchising the voters by making the election results irrelevant.

The platform

The Republican platform is far to the right of where Mitt Romney stands.  It has been characterized as “activist written”.  The platform advocates making English the official language, banning all abortions (even in case of rape), and changing medicare to a voucher-based system.  So, basically, the platform alienates legal immigrants, women, and senior citizens.  Prominent Republicans such as John Boehner and Jeb Bush have spoken out against the platform.

I’d expect to hear the Romney/Ryan commercials tout their own platform, while essentially ignoring the official Republican platform.  There is a link to Romney’s plan at the bottom of this article – it’s a free Kindle download. 

It will be interesting to see what role the platform could play in congressional races, however.    A Democratic candidate could push an opponent to either embrace the platform (alienating independents and affected groups) or reject it (possible reducing voter turnout among their base).

This is how we feed the animals

One of the lowlights from the convention were two partygoers who threw nuts at an African-American CNN cameraman, saying “this is how we feed the animals.”  The two attendees were immediately removed by police.  I realize that a large amount of alcoholic beverages are probably consumed by convention attendees, but is it asking too much to remain civil?

The convention released a statement condemning the acts.  I’m sure that the vast majority of Republicans would condemn this behavior as well.

The national race

I always laugh when I hear people talking about the national polling number.  It’s almost as if they believe there is a national election for president.  That’s not really the case.  We operate on the Chuck E Cheese model.  There are 51 presidential elections.  The winner of each elections get a certain number of tokens.  If you get 270 tokens, you can trade them in for the big prize.

You can safely ignore the national polling numbers and the numbers from about 3/4 of the states.  A handful of battleground states are the only ones that really matter.
 

 

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Weird Neighbors

August 28, 2012

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This is based loosely on the experience of Baseball Prospectus writer/podcaster/managing partner Kevin Goldstein.  He became fascinated with his weird neighbors, who were constantly throwing out mattresses on trash day – until they were evicted today.  Nobody ever saw mattresses coming in, but they always saw them on the curb waiting for the garbage truck.

If you’re a baseball fan and you haven’t checked out the Baseball Prospectus site, take a moment to visit.  it’s a great site.  And if you enjoy your baseball information with a heavy dose of pop culture, sarcasm, and non-baseball related content, be sure to check out the Up and In podcast, which often weighs in at a hefty 2+ hours.

 

“Another mattress!” Kevin exclaimed.

“How many mattresses is that?” Jason asked, half an internet away in Brooklyn.

“It has to be like ten?  They’ve put one out for the trash almost weekly for the past three months.  What are they doing that causes them to throw away that many mattresses?”

“It could be a brothel,” replied Jason helpfully.  “You know, the average life span of a mattress is probably based on an average of eight hours of use per night, with the assumption that most of the time will be spent sleeping.  If they’ve got a happening brothel, they might be keeping those beds active 24 hours per day.  All that rolling around and groping is probably pretty hard on the springs.”

“I think I’d notice the traffic if there was a brothel next door.”

“Maybe there’s underground parking with direct access to the inside.  Valet parking, maybe – guys with the funny little hats.”

“It’s DeKalb, Jason.  There’s not an underground parking deck with valet parking.”

“Maybe left over from the underground railroad.”

“It’s probably something mundane.  They’re probably a distributor for some knockoff mattress company, and it’s cheaper to just dump the defective mattresses on the curb.”

“That’s probably it,” Jason agreed.  “They’re probably selling Snerta and Stealy mattresses on the internet.  Wonder if they can use one of those fixed rate boxes from the postal service?”

Kevin rolled his eyes, but it was lost on Jason and the listeners.  Time to shift the conversation back to baseball.

 

 

The stocky man turned his head and yelled int the back room.  “Hey, Chas.  Come listen to this.”

The old man grumbled, but pulled back the lever on the recliner and slowly stood up.  “This had better be good, Harris,” he said and he ambled toward the front room.

Harris was busy doing something with the newfangled computer.  As Chas sat down, Harris hit a button and the computer began to talk.

At the end of the segment, Harris hit a button to stop the audio.

“Do you think it’s him?”

“Certainly sounds like him.  He always did go through mattresses as often as some people change underwear.  That massive bulk coupled with the insomnia – that man could demolish a new mattress in a few days.”

“What next?” asked Harris.

“We’re off to DeKalb.  Grab an umbrella and your Glock.”
 

 

College Football Seasons Kicks Off

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And So It Begins…

Colgate 1895 college football team

Colgate 1895 college football team (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This Thursday with a couple of games to kick-off the season. While most of the country will be focused on watching the big opening weekend match up of Alabama and Michigan, (Alabama coincidentally is a 14 point favorite over Big Blue) Thursday night officially starts the season. 9 games top the slate of action, with Ball State and Eastern Michigan likely providing the closes match up, at least on paper.

Play Like A Champion Today

Saturday morning you can awaken early (real early if you are on the left coast) and watch Notre Dame take on Navy from Dublin, Ireland. Yes the Golden Domers – if that is what we can call them after their new helmet designs – are headed overseas. I guess the Notre Dame Broadcasting Channel – NBC must really trying to be able to spike viewership of their beloved team….or maybe hoping that they can put a better product on the field. The main thing hurting Notre Dame is that they really are irrelevant since Cheater Lou Holtz was heading the club. While a lot of people will tune in to watch Notre Dame win or lose, they lose a lot of TV sets when they are just plain average, which is what they have been for quite a while.

Best Places to Watch Games

The USA Today is running an article all week, showcasing the best stadiums to watch a game from each conference. I don’t know what they have used as part of their criteria, but I guarantee most people will disagree with their voting. They are not all done with covering all conferences this week, but to date this week they have the following selections:

ACC – Clemson – hard to argue this one, I will agree this gains the top spot. Hokie fans likely disagree, but I think they got voted down to #2 due to their hideous chicken feet helmet design…..The only one approving of this new helmet is Foghorn Leghorn

Pac 12 – Oregon – so last year….but they get the top vote.

Big 12 – A big Shocker here…Texas…OVER-RATED – This would be behind Missouri, Texas A&M and Nebraska if they had not all gotten ticked off by the Longhorns and went elsewhere.

Big East – Does anyone really care? The article picks Cincinnati. I would go with Pittsburgh, Heinz Field is a cool venue.

Big 10 – TBA – Everyone will argue that it is the Big House or the Horseshoe…Come talk to me when you sell the place out 307 times straight and counting. Yeah, call me a homer, but Memorial Stadium in Lincoln Nebraska wins the conference on that stat alone.

SEC – TBA – A lot of great venues and rabid fan bases. I still love the fact you can take your boat to the stadium so I am going to Knoxville and choosing Tennessee. Plus that checkerboard orange and white end zone is still a memory from my youth.

Upsets of the Week

Iowa State over Tulsa…The only Hurricane working this week is Isaac.

Auburn over Clemson – I just have a good feeling about this one.

Ohio over Penn State – How will the Lions react in their first game in spite of all of the events and lots of losses?

Until Next time, stay classy Eek, Alaska!
 

 

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Remembering Neil Armstrong

August 27, 2012

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Flag of the United States on American astronau...

Neil Armstrong

I worked at NASA during the Space Shuttle era. I missed the Apollo era mostly because of age. I was almost 5 years old when I stayed up all night to watch the first man on the moon. July 1969 and Neil Armstrong were major drivers that made me who I am today. Bad eyes prevented the ultimate goal of being an astronaut, but studying and dreaming lead me to a degree in Aerospace Engineering, a Cooperative Engineering experience at the Johnson Space Center, and the opportunity to support the space program with my talents and enthusiasm. All of this came from one man stepping onto the surface of the moon and stating “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

To be fair, twelve men walked on the moon, all of them are my heroes. Hundreds of men and women worked thousands of hours to build the machines that took them and trained them for the mission. Thousands more men and women developed the science and technology that led to those tools. Truly this was a case of standing on the shoulders of giants.

Neil had the opportunity to succeed and capitalized on that opportunity. It seems that all of history focused on him at that singular historic event. The science of rocketry had taken a thousand years to put a man made object in orbit around the Earth. A world war had been fought driving the final steps of that journey and setting up the industrial and technological infrastructure to allow the vehicle to be assembled. Colliding with these advancements was the conflict of two former allies in an all out race to achieve the goal of putting a man on the moon. Some would claim that only a democratic country like the United States could even try to go to the moon, and that may be true since we are the only ones who have sent men there to date.

Neil had trained to be a pilot in the military, but had retired to civilian life before becoming an astronaut. The civilian status added to his technical qualifications to make him the choice for that one small step. Were there others as qualified? Definitely. Were there any more qualified? Possibly, but it there were, they were not American Astronauts. When asked, he spoke of duty and responsibility, not of celebrity and renown. His humility was that extra part of his personality that made him by far the best choice for the job. He was supported by a talented team, including his pilot “Buzz” Aldrin. A lot of people cannot name the second man to walk on the moon, but Neil could not and would not forget him.

When I look up at the moon, I think of Neil and all of the others who walked on or orbited the moon. I still dream of doing so myself, although my age is making that dream less accessible. I also dream of the accomplishments yet to come. I dream of humanity’s (specifically America’s) return to the moon. I dream of man on Mars, the asteroids, and even the moons of Jupiter. I know we can do all of the things because we have already done so much. All we need is the will and drive to achieve, just like we did in the decade that was the 1960s.

 

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