Autogol

I danced for five years at a major dance studio in the region, and we competed annually. I do not think our choreographer wanted us to sabotage our routines, and cause us to lose to opponents. I played varsity baseball while a 6th grader for a small parochial school, and while we never won, I don't think Coaches Frazier and Griffin wanted us to throw games. We worked on fundamentals. I've debated, and would never consider doing ANYTHING to intentionally cause our team to lose.

Anyone who has played sports and is on defense knows the goal is to prevent the offense from scoring. The sad thing from overturning both Proposition 8 and the Defence of Marriage Act is that the Supreme Court ruled the defendants' attorneys were not entitled to defend the statutes in question. In the former, it was a private party, and in the latter, it was the Leader of the Loyal Opposition. In both cases, the attorneys entitled to defend the statutes were on the opposition, the respective Attorneys General (Kamala Harris in California and Eric Holder for the United States) were not defending the laws they were supposed to defend, but chose to side with the sexual deviancy lobby.

In effect, the Attorneys General told their teams to work against what they were supposed to defend. It would be a head coach telling his players to score own goals in an attempt to lose games. It is akin to being one of the members of the Black Sox, and Kennesaw Mountain Landis could not prosecute them.

That is the larger issue with overturning both DOMA and Proposition 8. The courts have said if an attorney jumps ship and sides with the opponent, the defence cannot hire a new attorney to defend them. Is that the court of law?

The only thing I can say about what both cases did is something you hear at football broadcasts but you do not want to happen.

¡¡¡¡¡AUTOGOL!!!!!

If you were a defender, and you scored an own goal, you would be ashamed of yourself. But in the overturning of both cases, the Mr. Holder and Mrs. Harris patted themselves on the back, since they worked against the side they were supposed to defend, and instead worked to score the own goal.

Sad. The real problem now is the Supreme Court ruled the attorney who is supposed to defend can now jump ship and cause an instant victory for the opposing side. ◙

Retro TV Friday

Lunchtime Thursday I contemplated something about evening news here in the Midlands of South Carolina. While we have the luxury of Charleston news available to us as do Columbia, the Columbia market was fortunate to be 2013 and not 1989.

Why?

Until the early 1990's, WIS, the NBC affiliate, was the only station with an evening newscast (WOLO-ABC in 1992, WLTX-CBS in 1995, and WACH-Fox in 1996 added evening newscasts, with WACH only being a junior newscast of WIS for the early years before they branched out on their own with the only local three-hour newscast in the morning in the 21st century and one hour at 10 PM -- they tried a 7:30 PM for a while as a "last word before primetime" but didn't work well though it was sold as an Idol pregame). Television reruns dominated the other three stations (Andy Griffith on WLTX and Cheers on WOLO; WACH was too new at the time).

That could have spelled disaster in the Midlands for situations such as the 2005 Firecracker 400 (rain; ended after 2 AM) or last Wednesday's Boston-Chicago Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final (three overtimes; ended at 1 AM) if television was still that way with only one station having evening news. Could you imagine more people reading the morning paper for results as the newscast didn't air until 1:30 AM in off the air territory. ◙

Scouting's version of the USAC/CART war

The recent Indianapolis 500 reminded me of the tragic news among the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America selling the 100-year old organisation to the wolves of sexual deviancy advancement organisations that sacrifice children in order to advance the wants of this tiny minority that controls Hollywood and the government.

Scouting, as a result of this tragic move by the National Council, under the bullying of AT&T, Intel, and UPS, has sown the seeds of a split as a result of the cave to sexual deviancy activists. The majority of sponsoring organisations (churches for the most part) do not support the bullies that changed the policy to advance sexual deviancy, and it is evident that Scouting's version of the USAC/CART Split of 1978 has arrived with the tragic vote of the National Council.

Much as an airplane crash that killed United States Auto Club officials on the way home from Trenton, New Jersey, in 1978 accelerated the divisions that led to the owners' split with the national governing body, resulting in a split that reared its ugly head at Indianapolis for 30 years, Scouting's major split was a byproduct of the 2012 elections, one that according to Hillsdale College showed the power of the powerful group in the electoral process, the group now clearly in charge nationally, those without religious belief (mostly atheists, humanists, and those without a belief system). They control higher education, cultural institutions, the media, and Hollywood, while carrying a clear understanding of their power and momentum of their growth. It is a split between Scouting sponsoring organisations and the National Council that seems to be irrepairable after recent changes.

The Hillsdale report noted in a swing state for 2012, President Obama lost the Protestant vote by three percent and Catholic vote by eleven percent. However, with just one eighth of the vote, the Nones carried the election home with a nearly 2:1 margin that supported him. The results were shocking, and other elections, where Nones were in control, showed as sexual deviancy activists won all four elections on redefining “marriage” that were aimed at weakening churches, and following further state legislative votes, churches are now barred from ministry work for certain groups as a result of the Biblical worldview in conflict with the state's worldview in a full quarter of the states – twelve and the District of Columbia – in full, and more in part.

Liberal authorities want to eject Scouts for a Christian worldview (including Jamboree venues), which was the reason for the sellout in part in order to keep using facilities, and also to keep corporate sponsors, bullied by activist groups such as the Human Rights Campaign (which is not about human rights but about forced acceptance of sin and expulsion of those with a Christian worldview, as Matt Barber learned) and the Pride Foundation, and also by federal laws of this Administration, including Public Laws 111-84 (Shepard-Byrd) and 111-321 (redefines the military's goals to homosexual activism), and now even a bill to legalise bestiality and other gross conduct currently illegal. Sadly, this is the reason for the demise of the Boy Scouts of America.

In the Hillsdale article, they noted “dhimmi” means non-Muslim, and under Muslim rule, those who are not Muslims could only survive if they accepted Muslim dominance. The modern ruling Nones have adopted the same playbook in that Humanist dominance must be accepted and Christianity must be shut down.

The result of this massive decision by the National Council, and in effect the dhimmitude of Christians by the ruling Nones, has created the catalyst for the upcoming split in Scouting. It is on par with USAC and CART 35 years ago, but was not something we needed until activists ran roughshod with the power of humanists against Christians. These are splits that are necessary in order to preserve the Biblical truth, as the Scouts and the supermajority of sponsoring organisations have been abandoned for the 30 pieces of silver that the Nones took in order to advance an agenda pushed by the President. ◙

Opera Wednesday

I grew up in the Boston area and have always been a Red Sox fan. As a kid, I went to many ball games at Fenway Park and always found it to be a magical place. Of course, part of being a Red Sox fan is experiencing gut-wrenching disappointments, albeit, interspersed with moments of elation.” -- Richard Maltz, composer, Bambino.

And such is the opening notes for the recent South Carolina performances (in Aiken and Columbia) in the Month of May of Mr. Maltz's Bambino, a short (30 minute) one-act opera that's a work of fiction that was conceived ten years ago, but was made different following October 27, 2004.

Bambino starts innocently set above the Green Monster, yes, the well-beloved left-field wall that has a reason for being nearly ten metres tall near Lansdowne Street, with John Dooley as Buck (a young Red Sox player, ironic considering a top prospect currently in Pawtucket after having his first cup of coffee was Jackie Bradley Jnr) and Kelsey Harrison as Molly (his girlfriend) walk into Fenway, thinking this was to be the time the Red Sox finally would make it. Once Buck walks into the locker room, the story then focuses on Molly's fears and the staging moves to the box seats at Fenway, in a section that would be normally for players' wives and girlfriends.

While this takes place, a montage of famous moments from the past (all real life, unlike this opera!) are shown, from the story of the Curse (we know of course legend has it that “No, No, Nannette” was being funded resulting in the firesale) to the plays of the past. The most famous moments of those shown are the ones from 1975 (Game 6) but little, if any, reference to going between Buckner's legs or what is known as the Boston Massacre (1978 – Nike had to pull shirts thanks to Джоха́р and Тамерла́н Царна́ев).

Molly (dressed well for the event) is met by a few fans (and note the programs come from 2007), while in this game setting, Buck, in 21st-century home uniform, is patrolling the famed left-field area near the fence. After a few errors, he finds the Red Sox down two after just an inning. What happens is he is confronted by a ghost, George Herman Ruth himself (Kevin Eckhard). After a disappointing K in the inning he batted, the situation turns ahead to the end of the game, down two runs, two on, two out in the bottom of the ninth.

Suspiciously I see there is a gangster on top of the Green Monster. This sets the stage for the dramatic ending of this too-short operetta. Buck is up to bat in the situation and after two strikes are set (with appropriate recitatives), the dream of a big hit is there. Naturally, in the dramatic settings of theatre, you go unrealistic of the modern game. Buck hits a long fly ball and runs across the bases, and just as he is about reach the plate, and the relay, a few shots are fired (from the Monster, no less), reportedly trying to keep the Curse alive. Buck slides home but is killed from the gangster's fire. He's safe. The Red Sox win.

Poor Molly grieves while her beau lays dying the team had finally won. Thus was another chapter, legend says, the fate of Buck George dying while the curse ends, or so it goes in the story. Considering the Curse of Ben Tillman here for a long time that ended in 2002 (women's athletics), what else could you say? Makes you wonder how the opera was rewritten after the 2004.

But in actuality, as I learned, the real Curse isn't at Fenway. It's across town on the grounds of Boston University, at Nickerson Field, originally Boston's National League stadium (Boston was a two-team town until the end of 1952; Boston's National League team moved to Milwaukee in 1953 and to its present location in 1966 – note too that two other two-team towns were down to one as St. Louis and Philadelphia also lost their American League teams, the present Baltimore and Oakland teams). In recent years, teams that called Nickerson home have folded – Boston University's gridiron team, and a few women's professional footballers have failed. Could that be the true place where the Curse still stands, from the time in 1935 when George Herman Ruth came back to Boston for a curtain call in the NL and retired shortly into the season? ◙