An appreciation for Bob Jenkins on his final race

As we head to the MAVTV 500 INDYCAR World Championships Saturday, we come to the end of Bob Jenkins' career in television broadcasting. As was mentioned earlier in the year, the 65-year old Mr. Jenkins announced his retirement during Carburetion Day, as his wife Pam is undergoing treatment for a serious illness.

Here are some classic Jenkins clips as we celebrate the career of a motor racing legend behind the microphone. ◙













Black Sunday:





◙

Sid Watkins, R.I.P.

Most of our readers have probably never heard of Sid Watkins, but within Formula 1 circles he’s a legend, even though he never won a race, or even sat behind the wheel of an F1 car.

Instead, he saved lives.

The Prof, as he was known, was a gifted neurosurgeon, and F1’s chief medical man for many years. Two from the F1 world who knew him, James Allen and Joe Saward, offer tributes here. I would only add that, having read Life at the Limit: Triumph and Tragedy in Formula One and having seen and heard him in last year’s documentary Senna, I was deeply impressed with the man. He was thoughtful, intelligent, compelling, dedicated not only to the sport and its safety, but in a unique way to the men who put their lives on the line in their racing cars.

He was a close friend of the great Ayrton Senna, and noted the former champion’s unease at Imola in 1994, a weekend that had already seen his fellow driver Roland Ratzenberger killed and his protégé Rubens Barrichello severely injured. Why don’t we just chuck it all, Watkins suggested. Walk away from the track, leave it all behind, go fishing? But Senna could not do it, and the following day it was Senna who would lie dying on the track after a crash, with Watkins bent over him, unable to stop the inevitable. Later, Watkins would write that although he was not a religious man, he felt "[Senna’s] spirit depart at that moment" of his death. It was a measure both of the profound weight of Senna’s Catholic faith and the – what, empathy? intuition? something more?

Though he was not a believer, I like to think that at that moment Sid Watkins sensed the truth. He was a man of great skill and accomplishments, who as both a doctor and a man did great works of mercy. That, I believe, must count for something. And so I think we can be emboldened to think that, at the final moment, his good friend Senna might have intervened for him, encouraged him to say Yes, help him across the threshhold. For those of us who admired him, it's a pleasant hope. ◙

An Evocation for The Day

We Remember . . . Evocation: In Memoriam (9/11/2001)

The Day +11: Young America's Foundation warning

This has to be deliberate, folks. We just saw on live television as a second plane flew into the second tower of the World Trade Center. Now given what has been going on around the world, Some of the key suspects come to mind, Usama bin Laden, who knows what." -- news broadcast on The Day.

Ron Meyer, 22, of Young America's Foundation has a serious warning about what is happening to the Patriot Day memorials, considering what this White House has done to both the military and the day itself:

Many college and high school students can barely remember 9/11. Seniors in college were in fifth grade, freshmen were in first grade, and most high schoolers hadn't even started school. 2012 is the most important year--so far--to remember 9/11 because our younger generations are the most in danger of forgetting what really happened. Or worse, our younger generations are susceptible to getting a politically correct view of 9/11. Many on the Left have tried to turn 9/11 into a "day of national service" or a celebration of tolerance, instead of remembering that radical jihad attacked this nation because of our western values.

And let us take a moment to remember Mark Bavis. ◙

Retro TV Friday

It was 40 years ago that the Republicans last held their convention in Florida, at which they renominated the ticket of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew.  Nixon-Agnew would win 49 states that fall, and less than two years later they'd both be out of office.

Which makes some of the lines in Nixon's acceptance speech ironic, but if you look beyond that you'll be surprised at how much of this speech remains relevant today, from Nixon's concerns about the economy and foreign policy to his comment that one didn't fight discrimination against a group by in turn discriminating against another group.  We are the United States of America, Nixon said, not the Divided States.  Indeed - Mitt Romney could have used that line intact last night.

Here's Nixon's acceptance speech from August 23, 1972, given from the largest, most grandious podium I've ever seen at a convention.  I mean, compare that to the laughably little ones they use today.  That thing has the state seal of every state in the country.  They have television monitors down at the bottom, because it's so tall and so steep that people sitting at the base can't see Nixon up top.  Some people thought it was a little, shall we say, imperial.  Predictably, I love it. ◙

Neil Armstrong, R.I.P.

In the life of every legend, there comes the moment when he ceases being merely a man. For Neil Armstrong, that moment came, in a sense, on September 17, 1962. That was the day he was officially named an astronaut, and that evening his parents appeared on I've Got a Secret to commemorate the event.


It's a stunning moment, given that Armstrong was anything but a household name, when Garry Moore poses the question.  How would you feel if your son was the first man on the moon?  For Moore, born in the decade after the Wright Brothers' flight, the idea of a man walking on the moon was an abstract concept, an unimaginable goal that was inexorably in the process of becoming reality.  For those born or of age in the decade of the 70s, the moon landing was a given; impressive, to be sure, but hardly unfathomable, because they'd never known it any other way. 

Having been born in 1960, I was a child of the space age, growing up with the space program as a part of everyday life.  My memories became cognisant with the final flight of Mercury, and clearer as Gemini progressed.  By the time of the Apollo 1 fire, they were fully formed, and for the rest of the space race I was joyfully along for the ride.  

And amidst the iconic names of the era, the Glenns and Shepards and Grissoms, there was no more iconic name than that of Neil Armstrong.  


It was hard to believe that the images actually came from the moon.  I'm not talking about the kind of suspicion the conspiracy buffs promote, but simply the unbelievability that a live picture could be broadcast from another world.  Are you sure this is going to be from the moon?  They aren't going to just be broadcasting the audio over some kind of animation?

No, it was real all right, and Armstrong's small step propelled him into the unwanted realm of immortality, his name forever to be linked to the unimaginable.  As Arthur C. Clarke would write, "Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined."  Armstrong was not a Christopher Columbus looking for personal achievement, but a man carrying out a mission.  It was something that Armstrong, tempermentally more engineer than explorer, was never comfortable with.

But in another sense Armstrong was the perfect hero, a man who exuded integrity.  When he chaired the Challenger investigation committee, there was no thought that the committee would produce a whitewash or a coverup.  You knew Neil Armstrong wouldn't have any part in something like that.  His refusal to stay in the public spotlight, to make something of his renoun, added to that sense.  He always disclaimed personal honors, reminding everyone of all those behind the scenes who helped to make it happen.  And so his refusal to consider himself a hero made him more of one, and even more than that, it made him admirable.  There is a high school in Robbinsdale, Minnesota called Armstrong High School.  It's named after him, as I'm sure are countless others throughout the country.  There was once a coach of the Chicago Bears named Neill Armstrong.  Whenever I heard his name I always thought of the astronaut, as I'm sure many others did. 

And as the years passed, as Armstrong faded into the recesses of history, replaced by reality shows and flavor-of-the-month celebrities, his stature - at least to me - rose even more.  For those of us who realized the total magnitude of the moon landing, how it changed everything into pre-landing and post-landing eras, there was something amazing about the idea that Armstrong still lived, and that we shared that time with him.  It was similar to the way the early astronauts themselves had felt about Charles Lindbergh, who had lived into the early 70s and whom many of them had met.  There was something amazing about it all, and something comforting, to live with that link to greatness.

I doubt that flags will be lowered to half staff this week to commemorate Neil Armstrong's death, but they should be.  This will probably sound trite, but it's not every day that the first man to walk on the surface of another world dies.  We didn't see Columbus land in the new world, or Magellan circumnavigate the globe, or Hillary set foot on Mount Everest.  We weren't at the North Pole or the South Pole, we never saw explorers set foot on foreign lands, but hundreds of millions saw Neil Armstrong live when he walked on the moon, and anyone with a computer can call it up on YouTube any time they like.

The thing about greatness, though - true greatness - is that it tends to outlive itself.  The men and women who reach such greatness live on long after their accomplishments, in the pages of the history they helped to create.  So we'll remember Neil Armstrong, as we should, and marvel that we lived in his times.  ◙

Analysis on The Mindset List

The Mindset List, released annually regarding college freshmen upon entrance, is an interesting read from Beloit University. I thought it would be an interesting read for consumption with analysis.

Humanism In Education - #3. Terms such as “Forbidden Fruit,” “The writing on the wall,” “Good Samaritan,” and “The Promised Land” are unknown to most of them. This is Humanism on Parade in schools, they have never read the Bible because it's not permitted. Even today's Life Enhancement Centres ignore the Bible, and instead people read a certain self-help book from the King of Life Enhancement Centres in Mr. Warren, Mr. Osteen, or have been taught to believe in New Age beliefs through schools.

MTV as a Legitimate Source of Information - #5 and #22. During the 2008 presidential campaign season, Senator Obama ran campaigns, similar to Governor Clinton, on MTV, and appeared on MTV's homosexual network. However, when it came to the Barclays League of news sources, he refused to appear. The Administration recently said they prefer to appear on entertainment media, not news outlets. MTV programming is that revered by a generation.

And Speaking of #22. We've reverted back in technology. We've gone from black and white to NTSC 480, from 480 to near-movie quality 720/1080 High Definition (the only shows not in HD today are Big Brother and Let's Make a Deal), and now we're embracing tiny screens with 240p quality. It's similar to auto headlights -- we've switched from sealed beams back to screw-in bulbs of the 1920's in the past 30 years.

What's Read - #18? Oh we do miss the years of the World Book in our home!

Bad Pop In The Ears -- #15 and #21. Hearing loss and not caring for the car radio. When the car radio has been the source of sports, news, and weather, what else do you need? I was carrying earplugs for events, and even carry earplugs for events. Sadly, this generation even wants loud rock music for church services. No more LaRoche, Harrison, or Cuttino for them as they want the latest from the Michael Jackson Library for church. Huh?

And on #21. As someone who grew up in the rise of talk radio, with the push of Rush, G. Gordon, Dr. Laura, Boortz, and other major radio shows, and even the 21st century leaders of Hannity, Ingraham, and Tom Sullivan, a generation that ignores serious discussion on airwaves will be completely ignorant. When all they know is the latest pop tune on the airwave, and buy the songs at 99 cents to hear what they want to hear, how can you listen to serious works?

Stupid Sexual Deviancy - #24. No gloves for sexual deviancy groups because they want normalisation. Boxing referees but not White House Security need gloves? Oh dear. Maximum AIDS promotion by the deviancy activist groups that would love to contaminate blood supplies with AIDS!

CCCP - #28. Star Wars (when the movie arrived in 1977) was used by the greatest American President of postwar time as a reference for the defence of this nation against the Evil Empire, the dangerous bear, the CCCP. Star Wars Defence could be needed today to fight Al Qaeda!

William Franklin Graham II - #34. The difference in this unlike the gridiron star listed is that the Graham family is a dynasty in religious communities. William Franklin Graham III and William Franklin Graham IV are evangelists themselves, running the family crusades today.

Seatbacks - #39. Now I've never been to the grand opera theatre of all time, but I've seen supertitles on the stage, not the seat for the operas I have attended!

Labour Issues - The answer to #43? Because of internationalisation of baseball that we saw after consecutive Canadian titles, the next year was Japan's year. The finalists were the Yomiuri Giants versus the Seibu Lions. And which two players from the World Champion 1994 kyojin won MLB titles? Hint: One's from Minnesota and the other made a name for himself on the world stage of baseball's premiership that Series. Futbol has been the sport of this generation, but it's women only for the most part as the success is prominent for Americans, but men are still weak (as the Olympic failure to qualify shows).

No Print Please at #47. At this rate, California propaganda can be easily pushed. John Stossel notes the costs are cheaper for physical books.

Jumping Matches at #52. The controversy of figure skating, since the elimination of compulsory figures (on a figure of eight) has changed the graceful skaters into a more masculine power game. The elimination of the sixes proved it! And of course, the modern action sports movement is where power sports matter! ◙

Faking It, MMXII: Don't Have a Cowell, Symphoney!

Here we go again with another round of Faking It at a major event. We saw in Peking four years ago Faking It during major Olympic opening ceremony events (singers replaced with fakes that look better), and later with the RNC, along with the ceremony marking the deification of The Whammy.

I've written checks to musicians, paid a college student accompanist both cash and a home-made pumpkin pie that I made myself, and have walked out of karaoke events at church. But it still does not matter. As classical music fans, we who pay our money for these spectacular concerts, play the instruments or sing in choral events these masterpieces have become highly offended by the trend towards faking. When $200 DVD's replace the church musician, something's awfully fishy. We do not support the awful trends of music, something a friend noted, "Now they spend half their seasons doing pops concerts with geriatric groups like Styx and Sha Na Na so they can afford to play a little Beethoven or Mozart, forget Mahler or Bruckner, that would cost more money for a bigger orchestra."

It's no longer a church problem. A recent concert in Winnipeg with a well-known symphony whose "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" from Carl Orff's massive Carmina Burana (Dr. Cornwell, that still is one piece that has such powerful) was used for many years by Sean Hannity to open his radio programme turned nasty when it was revealed that the group was faking it. They were allegedly the backing group for a Simon Cowell prefabricated pop group. Instead of performing, while they were faking it live, the sound system was playing prerecorded accompaniment, effectively making the symphony a glorified fake. Now who are the divos? The group that demanded singing to prerecorded music? It's as bad as the church singers who sing almost exclusively to the can, claiming it sounds better than the real thing. Don't tell me that. If I'm paying for Mary Lee, Jennifer, Mori, or other musicians to play in a concert, I want to hear them. I don't want to hear a recording! Real musicians are not Powerade bottles. Here's the article. ◙

Reflecting on the flame

Thoughts from the five-ring circus as everyone comes home and the Paralympics are coming (great report on Speed Center Sunday about the Italian handcycle competitor).
    
219 Million at an Event? Comcast claims 219 million watched the Games of the XXX Olympiad, the most watched event in history. Of course, that's spread over 19 days, and coverage was from early dawn (9 AM GMT in some cases) all the way to highlights at midnight ET, including the three days of football tournament coverage before the Opening Ceremony (which we learned only one broadcast team was assigned to football, and only to selected women's games – the men's tournament and most women's games had a Formula One-style broadcast setup that left NBCSN's MLS broadcast teams frustrated.). And it turns out Comcast edited out pieces from the Opening and Closing Ceremony of the Games in question!

Attacking God is Acceptable? During the Closing Ceremony of the aforementioned event (I skipped it fortunately after photos were shown from the event), the theme of the worst music of British history (compared to what we discuss on Our Word) was paraded. Yes, some of the acts were over the top, and some acts were pale, but to push humanism during the event was absolutely appalling when a Communist and Humanist promoting song was played on a recording with children performing sign language to this tune that is acceptable in our society, but if you dare push serious Händel work, you will be censored. It is a sad state of affairs when Händel was ignored, but Lennon was deemed acceptable.

We need to pick it up! A few years ago, CBS shot a pilot for a proposed local adaptation of the ITV stunt show The Cube, an extremely hard game that nobody had completed the seventh, and final, level of the show. Well, one did. Mo Farah, the eventual 5,000 and 10,000m gold medalist at the Olympics, became the first. Is it time this format, with an Olympic champion being the only one to conquer, be picked up for United States television?

Flooring It. Aly Raisman's victory in the women's gymnastics floor exercise event received accolades from Jewish media, and setting it to הבה נגילה (Hava Nagila), a Hebrew folk song, made some think it was a slap at organisers who had refused a moment of silence in memory of the eleven Israeli athletes killed during München 40 years ago by Arab terrorists. It had been used twelve years ago during the 2000 “Summer” Games (held during the spring) by another gymnast, Екатерина Лобазнюк (Россия). But wasn't there a controversy in 1996 when the United States gymnastics team pulled one of its members off the floor because her floor piece was Daniel Emmett's “Dixie” (and that was at the Georgia Dome, the true Bird's Nest (Falcons' Nest actually) of Olympic Games lore)?

Is Title IX Spelling The End of the American Male? Is the government's anti-male policy in schools resulting in the demise of American male sports while the women's sports are growing in winning at the Olympics? We saw it in football, gymnastics, and volleyball most notably, but athletics and swimming are not far behind. ◙

This Just In

News item…Ichiro Suzuki was traded last week from the Seattle Mariners to the New York Yankees. “He deserves a chance to play for a contending team before the end of his magnificent career,”  said Mariner’s chief executive, Howard Lincoln. “The Mariners should certainly not stand in his way.”

 

Chicago Cubs Announce Banks Signing, Trade to Yankees

August 14 (Chicago, IL): The Chicago Cubs today announced the signing of Ernie Banks, their long-retired Hall of Fame shortstop, who will come out of retirement to join the club as part of a trade deal that will then send him to the New York Yankees.

Banks, now 81 and not, as he readily admits, “in all-star shape,” will play a limited role for the Yankees in their expected stretch run to another World Series title. “I will pinch-hit a few times, sit in the dugout, and root the guys on,” said Ernie, known as “Mr. Cub.” “It will be strange not to be at Wrigley Field, but I’m looking forward to being a Yankee and playing in a World Series…finally.”

Banks played for the Cubs for 19 seasons, none of which ended in a World Series appearance. He holds the Major League record of most games played without a postseason appearance (2528).

“He has meant so much to baseball, and we don’t want to stand in Ernie’s way of playing in a Series,” said Cub’s President Theo Epstein. “It never happened with the Cubs, it probably won’t happen with the Cubs, but this gives him a great chance to make it all the way. While there’s still time.”

In a separate, but perhaps related, announcement, Bud Selig, Commissioner of Major League Baseball, has revealed that the New York Yankees have received a special roster exemption. Effective immediately, the Yankees roster will be allowed to carry 80 players for the remainder of this season and into the playoffs, twice the number of other teams.

“Yes, this is unusual,” said Selig, in a hastily arranged press conference at Yankee Stadium, “but we’re excited about the opportunity this will afford other players—a bit gone, but not forgotten—to be in baseball’s spotlight again. We do not want to stand in their way.”

Selig also announced that the roster expansion, as well as the Banks signing, is part of a new marketing partnership with Anheuser Busch Budweiser.

Wish I'd written that

I am completely an elitist in the cultural but emphatically not the social sense. I prefer the good to the bad, the articulate to the mumbling, the aesthetically developed to the merely primitive, and full to partial consciousness. I love the spectacle of skill, whether it’s an expert gardener at work or a good carpenter chopping dovetails. I don’t think stupid or ill-read people are as good to be with as wise and fully literate ones. I would rather watch a great tennis player than a mediocre one, unless the latter is a friend or a relative. Consequently, most of the human race doesn’t matter much to me, outside the normal and necessary frame of courtesy and the obligation to respect human rights. I see no reason to squirm around apologizing for this. I am, after all, a cultural critic, and my main job is to distinguish the good from the second-rate, pretentious, sentimental, and boring stuff that saturates culture today, more (perhaps) than it ever has. I hate populist shit, no matter how much the demos love it."

- Robert Hughes, the former art critic for Time, who died today.  Rarely have I seen anything in print that so accurately describes the way I view myself, or makes me wish I was talented enough to have written it. ◙

Eat Mor Chikin

Some photos from an 8 PM visit to Chick-fil-A on National Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day. Our local store is just off Interstate 26 (Exit 145A) and opening in April 2011.

Gore Vidal, R.I.P.

I wouldn't consider myself particularly a fan of Gore Vidal. I’ve only read one novel of his, seen one movie based on a play of his, and watched one teleplay he wrote.

But the one novel was Lincoln, which I thought was brilliant, so much so that when reading biographies of Lincoln, I often felt that I’d read about the events and personalities before. And I had – from Vidal.

The one movie was The Best Man, which was as prescient an analysis of the future of politics as you could get in the early 60s. The Best Man was satire, black humor, but it came mostly from the portrayals, especially that of Cliff Robertson as the over-the-top conservative candidate. Sure, Henry Fonda was as sanctimonious as ever as Robertson’s sensitive, indecisive opponent, but that was as much a satire on Fonda’s own reputation as anything else. Reading the actual play, the black humor is much more evident, but whichever version one prefers, they were both terrific.

The teleplay was “Summer Pavilion,” which he wrote for the Golden Age anthology Studio One, and it had a disturbing, psychological quality that made it a cut above many of the episodes released in the DVD box set from a couple of years ago. A common misnomer is that all TV from the Golden Age was Golden – well, it wasn’t, and a lot of it was poorly written, at least in retrospect. Vidal’s work was as strong today as it was back then.

So Gore Vidal had talent. Gore Vidal could write good stuff.

But he also wrote crap, like Myra Breckenridge and Caligula and virtually all of his political nonfiction. His suggestion that he inserted a homosexual subtext into his work on the screenplay for Ben-Hur is stretching it (although it does produce one of the better Hollywood quotes, as William Wyler said to Vidal, “Don’t tell Chuck {Heston}, he’ll crack up.”) His essays, such as the one he wrote after longtime antagonist William F. Buckley Jr’s death (“RIP WFB – in Hell”) were usually execrable. About his personal life, the less said the better.

I think the most enjoyment I got from Vidal was from his debates with Buckley during ABC’s coverage of the Republican and Democrat conventions in 1968. Vidal provoked Buckley into a rare loss of his celebrated cool. (At one point Buckley called Vidal a “pink faggot” and threatened to “sock” him, “and you’ll stay socked.”) Personally, I loved Buckley’s response, but I can understand how he might have regretted losing control.



Subjective opinion: Gore Vidal wasted the God-given talent he had, which could have been even greater had it been used in the right manner. He might well have hated me for saying that.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth is credited with having said, “If you can’t say something good about someone, have a seat next to me.” Gore Vidal died today at the age of 86, and I have said something good about him - several things in fact. However, I also subscribe to the idea that we shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, and in that spirit I think I’ll just leave well-enough alone. ◙

Censored!

I warned friends Friday morning that the Opening Ceremony, which was set for 3:12 PM ET, would not be broadcast in the United States, and only a highlights show would air after the fact.

As it turned out, those words were prophetic. According to BBC reports that were posted as it happened, the Olympic Cauldron was lit around 0035 (7:35 PM ET). And it turns out Comcast (US rights holder, and owner of NBC) had blacked out a tribute to the victims of the 7 July 2007 terrorist attacks in London from the edited broadcast, which effectively made this a "highlights package" while making the East Coast wait until after bedtime to show the cauldron being lit, which took place at dinner time.

And the Socialist propaganda of the opening ceremony reminded me of what has sadly happened to the Olympic Movement -- those who oppose the Far Left's worldviews are censored (such as the Cobb Galleria Centre, set to be an Olympic venue until a certain sexual deviant activist came along and swooped them away, even covering the torch away from pro-family counties) in too many situations now. ◙

The Olympics, brought to you by the UN

I haven't paid much attention to the Summer Olympics for years (and the Winter Olympics only pique my curiosity for hockey and curling), but there's a difference between indifference and contempt, and for me, the London Olympics are more or less morphing from the former to the later.  Remember 1972?  They'd just as soon you didn't, you know.

Considering how much the International Olympic Committee resembles the United Nations, should we really be surprised at such a spineless organization?  ◙

Keep the date...

Opera camp!

Opera Wednesday hasn't taken the summer off. It's Children's Music Camp. What does it mean to you? Over in the Captured Territories of Arizona, Opera Project has come and gone and with it the annual Opera Camp for ages 8-14 has ended with a tongue-twisting title of "The Tail of a Whale is a Wail of a Tale." Enjoy! ◙

The Penn State aftermath: the policy that protected Sandusky is still there

The Penn State scandal's roots began in the late 1980's, when Joe Paterno protected women's basketball coach Rene Portland and her “straight-edge” policy on the team – "no drugs, no alcohol, no sexually deviant behaviour allowed," resulting in complaints by sexual deviants about her program. Around the time, a generation after Stonewall was being infiltrated by the agenda of sexual deviants, and one book boasted of how the sexual deviancy activists would win this country away from the "hate groups" of Christians.

In response, sexual deviant activists, both students and faculty, protested, and successfully the Faculty Senate at the university passed a series of policies where "sexual orientation" was added to the nondiscrimination clause at the school. As we've learned about sexual deviancy activists, legalising pedophilia is part of their cause, and protecting evil adults at the expense of children is their agenda. When college professors such as Ed Madden (a sexual deviant in my time at South Carolina) consistently push for such pro-sex offender policies, they disregard the price that generations will pay for future scandals that will erupt from such protection. Sexual deviancy special rights activists care about normalising pedophilia and other wicked sexual deviant behaviour at the expense of children.

The pedophiles took charge of Penn State after punishing Joe Paterno for protecting Rene Portland. And once that policy took place, Jerry Sandusky was scot-free because he had official school policy protecting him. When Mr. Paterno or others attempted to report the charges, they were stonewalled by the policy that protected Mr. Sandusky. Could anyone go after a child molester if official policy protected the molester?
The blood of this scandal is clearly on the hands of the Faculty Senate and the sexual deviancy activists that bullied the school into adding the policies that protected the molester. These policies are everywhere in many schools, governments, and corporations.

When a “pride” festival comes in with parades, celebrities, and other exhibits in an attempt to push their agenda down people's thoughts through textbooks. Under this Administration, a federal speech code has made speaking out against sexual deviancy a federal hate crime (Shepard-Byrd), and now there are some in Congress what want the same policy that created this scandal in protecting sexual deviants in policy to become federal law (“ENDA”). Furthermore, the the change of the military from a fighting force to defend this country from evil into a sexual deviancy indoctrination force was made complete by Public Law 111-321, where speaking for God's Word is a crime, and "soldiers" are now participating in full uniform in these sexual deviancy parades. Proud of what? Now the mayor of Boston is even vowing to ban the Cathy family's quick-service chicken sandwich restaurants from the area, which even offends the local CBS affiliate because they advertise heavily on national advertising during SEC on CBS broadcasts weekly, because of their pro-Bible stance.

The $60 million fine is necessary, but the unprecedented postseason ban for four years (which would affect this crop of freshmen just signed by the new administration, whom, if they are successful, will become this generation's 1980 United States Olympic Team) without fixing the problem that caused this mess is senseless. The sexual deviancy activists are working hard to ensure the policy that created this scandal (“sexual orientation” protection) stays – its removal is mandatory for the healing from the scandal to begin, and is crucial in preventing further similar scandals, since legal protections of pedophiles via official policy would be eliminated. And the beasts of ENDA and special rights activists will fight to the end to ensure pedophilia is a federally protected class, while Christians are punished.

Why is nobody looking at the policy that created this mess in the first place?

Andrew Dionne has this on the course list at Penn State, and how it helped the corrupt culture. ◙

This Just In

Now this?

Wait a minute, this is Classic Sports Thursday isn't it? We're not here to talk "dating" "reality" (or as Steve Beverly of Union University near Memphis calls them, game operas). But . . .

If rumour has it, Emily Maynard (mother of a seven-year old daughter, Josephine Riddick, was born months after the father died in a plane crash) may have found a son of The Hot One. And she visited the family in Scottsdale, where The Hot One lives, to see if The Hot One, his wife, and siblings approve of her romance with the son of The Hot One.

Now what is with the reference of The Hot One?

Let's go back to 1990, and a record that still stands, to see that one of Emily's attractions is a father who is "The Hot One":

Breaking...

Formula One's Marussia had a freak incident where the team (once known as Virgin before its sale to Russian interests) had one of its test drivers have a serious crash with a support vehicle during a straight-line test. Injuries are critical from what I've heard and the top of the car and helmet were involved in the contact. ◙

Who are "The Hollow Men"?

Last week Mitchell posted the famous final section of T.S. Eliot's magnificent, disturbing poem "The Hollow Men."  But I'm here to do him one better: here is Eliot himself reading his poem.



And just who are the hollow men?  Certainly the phrases may have meant something specific in Eliot's time, but as is the case in all truly great works, the meanings are timeless. But they are there, the hollow men, and they do exist; it is true as sure as is the truth of the poem's final four lines.  I will leave you to your own interpretation of who they are, and where.  ◙

Wish I'd Written That

Let me add two cents — not so much mine as those of a wise judge I know. “Incompetent,” he said. Roberts’s ruling was incompetent. “Silly, absurd, not worthy of respect. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was far more reasonable in her argument.” (Yikes!) “If a district-court judge pulled a stunt like the one Roberts pulled, he would be reversed by the next court in about two seconds.”

In the deepest cut of all, the judge said, “Roberts failed to do his duty — his constitutional duty. He’s not supposed to be looking at the political situation. He’s not supposed to think about his ‘legacy.’ He’s supposed to uphold the Constitution, plain and simple. The majority decision will come to be embarrassing. The dissent will stand as something true and admirable.”

I said, “So, do you think Bush 43 may have inadvertently saddled us with another Warren Burger?” “No!” said the judge. “Burger would never have written something so stupid” as the Roberts ruling. “He was not incompetent.”

- Jay Nordlinger, writing today at National Review Online ◙

The Hollow Men

The Hollow Men
by T.S. Eliot

Part V

 
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
                                For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
                                Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
                                For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Feels like £1,000,000 dropped down and I have nothing

Poor Bobby lost everything on the seventh question. After wheezing by six questions correctly, he misses the seventh question on Channel 4's spectacular format (but didn't succeed in the US, unfortunately) "The Million Pound Drop," placing all £1,000,000 on a question, only to see it all drop down.

And this banner is what I must fly . . .

The transcriber didn't do it right

Transcribers are an important part of every industry that requires speaking. Whether it is in court, or in interviews, they are usually reliable. But in reading a transcript following Sunday's Toyota / Save Mart 350, a big flub came from the transcriber at Sonoma.

Read it and see if you find the mistake from a Kurt Busch transcript after his first podium of the 2012 Sprint Cup season..

Thanks to Kyle and KPM yesterday; to get me back and forth on a nice, private jet that allowed me to rest up and be prepared for today. Yesterday was not quite the day we needed. We needed one more car with the Monster Energy car to get up there with the nix and get that Top 5 finish or even battle with Nelson Piquet, who is a friend of mine. It's amazing to see a Formula 1 guy come in and win right away in a Nationwide car. The Nationwide race was stacked yesterday. And of course, everybody wants to be in Cup, because this is where the best racers race.

Today we came home third. Chevrolet and Monster Energy and tag his or her, our three big brands with us this year I'm a bit choked up. I just made a little mistake there in turn 11. Those tires have never been bolted down, ever and I clipped a set of tires and it broke the front suspension and the rear panel bar and I couldn't compete for the win after that; so a mistake there. Our guys, but if we pulled it into victory lane with all red car and no sponsor, here in California, I thought it was Team Tiger Blood with Charlie Sheen around (laughter).

I see the transcriber in the press room made at least two mistakes, and a third while not-so-subtle mistake, considering the Monster can still take a podium. Can you find them? ◙

Expectations

Zonks, zonks zonks everywhere. We've had enough of this Administration replacing our military with a sexual deviancy indoctrination force. Now we see JCPenney show their utmost pushing of the agenda of a tiny minority that infiltrates everywhere. Not only are they using the sexual deviant whose promotion of the agenda led to an entire day of no television during my college days to push the firm, for Mother's Day they ran the “Heather has Two Mommies” gimmick, and now the two-fathers gimmick for Father's Day. We've gone out of control. When God's Word is not allowed but we can push deviants' agenda, what are we teaching? The sexual deviants' agenda is the Zonk behind Curtain Number One.


Wayne Root: Obama Copies Europe's Model of Decline.
Another Part of My Youth Gone. Former financial columnist Dan Dorfman dies at 82. A tribute on Fox Business' Dobbs Tonight?

Anti-Gun Types At It Again. The IAAF starter who will fire the pistol at the London Olympics was told during an athletics field day at a school in England not to use the pistol set to start the signature 100-metre dash in July at the event. Now why no starter's pistols when the rule requires one, although now many events have switched to electronics because of gun control regulations. Just for reference, a reaction time of .100 is a “perfect” reaction time. A reaction time of .099 or less is an automatic disqualification.
Are You Kidding Me? ESPN and the IFOCE recently renewed their contract for the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, with Paul Page and Richard Shea sitting atop Coney Island to call the contest, which will just under six times the time of three-class (3:39) or under four times as long as the four-class (5:27) of contests Mr. Page calls, as two ten-minute contests (divided by gender of the contestant) are to be called.

And . . . The demise of tennis continues. When Flushing Meadow comes to CBS, it will be the only major televised on network television. The push of the Les Internationaux de France to the new NBCSN on Monday morning means three of tennis' four majors had finals on pay television, as Wimbledon is now pay-only for the next eleven years, meaning the CBS Finals (which they hope will be prime-time) will be the only ones left. Golf's Open Championship is also pay only, and I wonder if the BCS four-team format will be ripe for an HBO PPV option.

Why Do The Past Two Stories Link Together? That's because Nathan's Famous has changed its start time to just after 3 PM in order for ESPN to show Wimbledon Gentlemen's Semifinals.

It's the U. S. Open. What Do You Expect? Webb Simpson wins the 112th U. S. Open with a score of 281 – +1. You're supposed to win it with a positive score over par. It's not regular golf!

And a Note. I have a dentist's appointment this week to see if my teeth will survive after a recent fracture of the tooth in a nasty crash on by road bike as a result of a triathlon training incident last month. ◙

Flag Day

Play Ball!

Most of us who have read the blog will know that I was an 8th grader at Prep when a certain Randhawa girl was in 12th grade, and we know very well who she is today.

But today on Classic Sports Thursday, how many people know that George Herbert Walker Bush, in 1947, played on the Yale baseball team in the first two NCAA DivisioN I baseball tournaments, and the Bulldogs lost each time in the final, first to California at Berkley, and Southern California in the second year (and it was the first of twelve). Jackie Jensen, a future American League Most Valuable Player, was on the first Bears team.

The tournament was actually held on the campus at Western Michigan University's Hyames Field. After those two years, they moved to Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in 1949, in 1950 it moved to its home for now its 63rd year, Omaha, with the first 61 seasons (1950-2010) at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium before its move to Toronto Dominion Ameritrade Park last year in downtown.

It's time for what has become one of the most exciting events in all baseball -- a championship that has been held annually since 1947 -- the only major professional level of baseball has been continuous that long save maybe a rookie league or two. (The current NPB title series has been played since 1950, and continuous; MLB sine 1995 thanks to labour, and most minor leagues since 2002, as most leagues' championship series were cancelled in 2001 as a result of the terrorist attacks.)

This year's storyline? Three in a row? C! A! R! O! L! I! N! A! Goooooooo-COCKS!


(Sorry, folks, had to say that . . . but when the ring says South Carolina, and you've enjoyed so much in Omaha after having been dry for centuries . . . ) ◙

Modern Youth Thieves: Learned from Stealing Music to Stealing Expensive Merchandise?

There has been on news reports everywhere of a massive increase in grand larceny, burglaries, and numerous theft rings (copper, et al) by youth of this generation. The question came to my attention while pondering over it:

Has this generation that learned it was appropriate to steal television (illegal streaming via YouTube, et al), music (illegal file-sharing, something that I've learned through numerous clients causes trouble in computers), and software, and played a glorified game promoting such thuggery in Grand Theft Auto, and the prohibition on learning right and wrong through the secular humanist educational system that bars the teaching of Biblical standards, including the Ten Commandments, learned that stealing is perfectly appropriate because they started from stealing $15 albums, then $20 television programmes, and now anything from watching video games? Has this attitude of stealing little means they can steal more expensive merchandise now?

Wonder what values being taught on the media today have led to today's theft rings. ◙

Organizers Admit Grand Prix of Venice Might Be a Stupid Idea

(VENICE, ITALY) Officials in this northeast Italian resort city acknowledged today that the inaugural Formula 1 Grand Prix of Venice was in danger of being cancelled, after all 24 cars plunged to the bottom of one of the city’s famed canals immediately after crossing the start line during today’s first round of time trials.

“There are still some bugs to work out in the course, unquestionably,” Venice mayor Giorgio Orsoni acknowledged to reporters after race stewards showed the red flag, indicating a halt to further practice sessions. “But it is premature to suggest that the race may be postponed. We know there are always problems when an event such as this is run for the first time. “Venice has long been known as one of the world’s most beautiful cities, and Formula One is the world’s greatest form of motor racing. The Grand Prix of Venice, which I promise will be run as scheduled, will give us a chance to show the world what our city is really made of.”

No drivers were seriously injured as a result of the multiple accidents, although Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was reportedly being treated for hypothermia.



Defending champion Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull is pulled
from the water following Friday's disasterous practice



As crews using heavy cranes worked to remove the cars, valued at upwards of $15 million each ($750 million Euro), from the paddock area near the Dorsoduro region, F1 major domo Bernie Ecclestone refused to concede defeat, saying that “48 hours is plenty of time to correct any of these little bumps in the road. Or ripples in the water, as the case may be.” Many Formula 1 fans, though, expressing their anger and frustration in various internet chat rooms, laid the blame for the “fiasco” at the feet of controversial race course designer Herman Tilke, who was responsible for the design of the Venice street course. “Tilke has given us another bland circuit, even worse than Abu Dhabi,” “ruapetrolhead564” wrote in a typical comment. “Only this time he replaced sand with water.”

Longtime F1 analyst Peter Windsor felt fans might be underestimating the adaptability of F1 pit crews. “We have some of the most brilliant engineers and technicians in the world working in Formula 1,” Windsor said. “If you ask them to come up with a solution, I’ve no doubt they’ll do it. I imagine Red Bull are probably working in their garages right now, fitting some sort of oar propulsion system to the blown rear diffuser. And McLaren – well, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d come to race weekend all prepared to fit the car’s side pods with some sort of pontoon if it was needed.” He refused, however, to comment on speculation that FIA officials might allow gondoliers to accompany the drivers during the race.

Despite the confidence of race promoters and F1 officials, most observers remained unconvinced. Former world champion driver Jackie Stewart spoke for many, shaking his head as he looked out over the course while the setting sun cast an orange glow on the waters lapping gently against the guard rails set up for the race. “This is what happens when money is allowed to be the overriding concern in motor sports, rather than safety. Let’s race on a street circuit in Venice, they say. Great idea. It will bring in lots of money and look great on television, which is all they care about. Only now do we see the fatal flaw in the plan, which is that Venice has no streets.”

Here comes Big Red

I'll Have Another goes for the Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, and Frank Deford makes a reasonable case as to why we should hope he doesn't become the first Triple Crown winner in 34 years.

This is the longest stretch we've ever gone between Triple Crown winners; I came of age during the previous stretch, which ran 25 years - between Citation and Secretariat.  The mythos that built up as we saw horse after horse try and fail to win the Crown - Kauai King, Forward Pass, Canonero II - became incredibly compelling theater. In each of those years the governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller, would show up at Belmont Park with the Triple Crown trophy, which after the heartbreaking failure would be packed away for at least another year, waiting for the next superhorse.

As I say, the drama was immense, and each year that the Crown remained unclaimed, each time another contender appeared at Belmont's post, it became moreso. You'd think, as Deford suggests, it would be even better for the sport for the buildup to continue. And yet, could there have been anything more compelling than the sight of Secretariat storming down the stretch in 1973, headed for the finish line and immortality?

We thought, after seeing this, that perhaps we'd never see anything like him again.  Then we had two more Triple Crown winners (Seattle Slew and Affirmed) during the decade of the 70s, and some might have thought maybe it wasn't such a big deal after all.

But as Saturday approaches, we remember the horses that have failed since Affirmed (11, or roughly one every three years), and we remember the world and race records that Secretariat set, and the way he set them, and the 31 lengths from first to second place in that 1973 Belmont Stakes.  And then we go back to the video for another look, to see if it really could have happened that way .◙

Spite his face

In case anyone's looking for a story for a new opera, I have a suggestion: Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny. I don't think anyone's done an opera of that yet.  And in the starring role of Captain Queeg, the Caine's insane master with an obsession about strawberries, I have the perfect casting: Peter Gelb.

Peter Gelb, you see, is the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, and a couple of weeks ago he made the extraordinary suggestion (read: order) that Opera News, the monthly magazine published by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, stop reviewing productions done by the Met.  It seems as if Mr. Gelb was offended by some critical reviews of recent Met productions, and decided that the best way to combat this was to kill the messenger.

Criticism of Peter Gelb in this space is nothing new - you may recall his appearance on our Enemies List a couple of years ago.  And as a paying subscriber to Opera News, I read the specific pieces that appear to have been in question.  I remember thinking that at the time that hey were extraordinary pieces of criticism coming, as they did, from what many people consider the house organ of the Met.  And not only did I not see them as unfair, I agreed with them almost 100% - particularly Brian Kellow's admonition to the Met to start trusting its audience (summarized here).  While I'm sure this criticism had to hurt, especially since Robert Lepage's Ring has been Gelb's prize baby, neither of the articles said anything that hadn't been said already by other opera writers in many publications and forums. You'd think that Gelb might have taken this as a sign, but rather than admit he has no clothes, he chose to critics as best he could.

Predictably, the move backfired.  Such was the level of outrage (and, in many cases, vitriol), that Gelb was forced to resind his decision by the end of the day. This can only be good news for Opera News - as Terry Teachout commented, during the few hours that the ban was in effect:

In so doing, [Gelb] has guaranteed that nothing published in Opera News about the Met, be it positive or negative, will henceforth be taken at face value, and that no reputable music journalist will ever again agree to appear in its pages.

Now, I'll admit that Peter Gelb has done some things right.  The HD moviecasts, for example, have been a marvel.  But even within that silver lining there have been clouds, with more than one critic noting that the productions seem to be more and more geared toward the movie audience rather than the live audience at the Met, which makes for a very disappointing (and expensive) night at the opera.

Couple this with Gelb's desire to rid the Met of some of its most classic productions, such as the Zeffirelli staging of Tosca and the Schenk Ring, and replace them with vapid, minimalist settings; and the absence of James Levine, still suffering from poor health, and you have a situation where the Met has become, in the opinion of many, an increasingly stale institution.  Alex Ross discusses the Met's tarnished reputuation here. Gelb may be a brilliant marketer, but he seems singularly incapable of providing a steady hand on the tiller. (I particularly enjoyed Norman Lebrecht's suggestion that the men in the white coats may be coming to the door soon.)

And while on some level it's satisfying to see Gelb being savaged, ultimately I take no pleasure in it, because in the end we're not talking about one man alone, but an institution.  The Metropolitan Opera may not be the nation's best, or most creative, opera company - but it is its most visible. For many who were weaned on the Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts, the Met is opera in America.  Perhaps it's time for the board of the Met to take a closer look at Gelb's management of the company, and whether this kerfuffle is just an abberation, or the shape of things to come.  Because when the Met is diminished, all of opera, and all of us, are just a little bit diminished as well. ◙

Jack Twyman, R.I.P.

Jack Twyman wasn’t the most famous Hall-of-Famer the NBA has ever produced. Not that he didn’t deserve to be in the HOF, for his stats suggest that he most certainly does. For years and years I thought he should be in the Hall; I would watch the names each year when they were announced, looking for his, and then when he was inducted in 1983, I missed it. I always thought that if anyone ever deserved to be in a Hall of Fame, it was Jack Twyman. And his greatness on the court was only part of the reason why.

He was a star at the University of Cincinnati before going on to a stellar career with the hometown Royals (who once were in Rochester, then Kansas City-Omaha, and now – for the time being – in Sacramento). He once scored 59 points in a game. He was a six-time all star, was (along with Wilt Chamberlain) the first player to average 30 points a game for an entire season, and when he retired in 1966 only Chamberlain had scored more points in a career than Twyman. But if anyone remembers a star from the Cincinnati Royals, it’s probably Oscar Robertson.

After he retired, Twyman became an analyst for ABC in their coverage of the NBA. His most famous call came when he announced Willis Reed’s appearance on the court prior to the start of the final game of the 1970 NBA Finals. But if anyone remembers an announcer from ABC’s coverage in the 60s and 70s, it’s probably Bill Russell.

It’s not that Jack Twyman didn’t do things well – but, like many quiet and unassuming people, it seems as if someone else always got more attention. But there was one thing that Jack Twyman did very, very well, and it’s why he’d belong in the Hall of Fame even if he didn’t have the stats for it. He also probably wished he’d never had to do it.

In 1958 the Royals had a player named Maurice Stokes, a gifted young man who looked every bit as if he were poised to become a superstar. He was the 1956 Rookie of the Year, his potential seemed limitless – and can you imagine a Royals team with Stokes, Twyman and Robertson? Had they played ever together, that team might still be calling Cincinnati home – and with a few championships to boot.
But in the last game of the 1958 regular season, against the Minneapolis Lakers, Stokes fell and struck his head on the floor. He was temporarily knocked out, but appeared to recover with no after effects. Three days later, following a playoff game, he suffered a seizure on the plane trip back to Cincinnati, and then fell into a coma. The diagnosis was “post-traumatic encephalopathy” – a brain injury that would leave him permanently paralyzed and unable to talk.

It was shocking enough that the vital, powerful Stokes would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair – if he even survived. Add to that the fact that, in an era when professional athletes generally had to work off-season jobs to make ends meet, Stokes was almost broke, with his only source of income now gone. His family lived in Pittsburgh, but he would have to remain, alone, in Cincinnati in order to qualify for workman’s compensation.

“Something had to be done,” Twyman, who lived in Cincinnati, would say years later, “and someone had to do it. I was the only one there, so I became that someone.” He would add that any teammate would have done the same thing, but nobody will know for sure because he was the one who did it.

Jack Twyman became Maruice Stokes’ legal guardian. He visited him every Sunday. He helped him to get workers’ compensation. He helped teach him to communicate by blinking his eyes to indicate individual letters. He organized a benefit basketball game, in which many of the NBA greats played, to offset the medical bills; it raised $10,000 in its first year. Along with his wife, he started a foundation to help not only Stokes but other needy former players. One donation included a note that said, “Where else but in America could I, a Jew, send money to you, a Catholic, to help a Negro?” It’s as good a definition of America as any that exists.

When Stokes recovered enough flexibility in his fingers to type, he wrote, “Dear Jack, How can I ever thank you?” But Twyman said that it was he who benefitted; whenever he felt down he would visit Stokes, who “never failed to pump me up.”

Stokes died of a heart attack in 1970, but Twyman’s work continued. The foundation raised several hundred thousand dollars, and the charity basketball game, which evolved into a golf tournament (insurance concerns, don’t you know) continued for decades. And there was one other thing important to Twyman – that his friend be remembered for what he loved, playing basketball. After years of campaigning, Stokes too was voted into the Hall of Fame in 2004. Twyman was there to accept the induction.

It’s probably no surprise that Twyman was a success in business as well; after working at ABC he ran a food wholesaler for 24 years, quintupled its earnings, and made more than $3 million when he sold it.
Jack Twyman died on Wednesday of blood cancer, 78 years old. His death – and life – should have merited saturation coverage on networks like ESPN, but I suppose he wasn’t colorful or controversial enough. But he did pretty well, didn’t he? Basketball star, successful announcer and businessman, world-class humanitarian.

Yeah, he was a hall of famer, all right. ◙

A cultural outrage

If it isn't clear television executives lack logic at times, it was in full force Thursday night.

Disney chose to advance the dumbing down of the nation by choosing a pop-music pro-am, Duets, to air Thursday instead of, as it was in the past, live coverage of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on network television, instead pushing the Bee to pay-television (ESPN Cable Network). Now what does this say about executives who think people will care more to watch four pop stars or composers sing in pro-am contests than watching the best of the best spellers spell the toughest words in the business? A show that is legally educational is pushed to low-audience numbers of niche-based pay television instead of network television as it was in the past makes no logic.

You've downgraded academic excellence in favour of the lowest common denominator.

Shame on you, Disney.◙

Jenkins retiring

NBC's Bob Jenkins officially announced his retirement during Carburetion Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And contrary to published reports, Mr. Jenkins, who turns 65 in September, will officially call it a career at the IZOD IndyCar World Championships September 15 in Fontana. As we come closer to Fontana, we'll collect a Bob Jenkins archive. ◙

Classic Sports Thursday

Classic Sports Thursday this time goes to a legendary piece of lore, the 25th anniversary of a deceptively titled event.
 
After two normal events, NASCAR's All-Star Race (as it is now called; because of federal tobacco regulations the title T. Wayne Robertson called the event from 1985-2003 is not legal; the Nextel years adopted the name “All-Star Challenge,” but the popular generic term of the race was adopted formally by Sprint in 2008) http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/05/16/all-star-pass-that-wasnt/ It was in All-Star Race III that the lore of this event began. A 202.5-mile event, the 75/50/10 format's desperation ten-lap shootout became the stories of lore. ABC televised the event, and after dominating the day, Bill Elliott was in trouble in the final ten-lap dash. During the middle of this race, a famous trip across Charlotte grass took place, and a piece of lore that for 25 years continues to be part of its legacy continues to this day.
 
Here was Keith Jackson's call of the Pass in the Grass:
 

Ten lap dashes are a part of motorsport lore. This was the one that made ten-lap dashes fun.

Note: Through a missions auction in 2000, the author purchased tickets to All-Star Race XVI, which was the last edition with two legends, and had one of the most famous finishes to the race of all-time. ◙

Survival Sunday

I don't think I've seen anything like it on television, but Sunday is football's Survival Sunday, and seven of the ten games in the Premiership will air live on television Stateside, while three games are streamed online. All seven televised games have importance.

To think about it, imagine the NBA using a system where the top two teams in the East and West in the D-League advance to the NBA, and the bottom two teams in each conference are dumped to the D-League. In that case, it would be Charlotte and Washington (East) and New Orleans and Sacramento (West) to the D-League, while Austin and the D-Fenders (Los Angeles) (West) and Springfield, MA and Bismarck, ND (East) replace the two dumped teams in the NBA for next year.

Wolverhampton and Blackburn are dumped. 38 points are needed to avoid relegation.

It's Survival Sunday, seven games broadcast on Disney and News Corp channels combined make this bigger than Week 17 of the NFL, when only five games air on their final day of the season, and the Thursday night game is not available locally.

The dangers of Obama's sell-out to sexual deviants

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. (KJV)" -- Leviticus 18:22

If it isn't clear the President is now siding with sexual deviants' and their right to change marriage in order to advance their agenda that has successfully seen new speech codes, the DSE/SRD, new benefits for homosexual couples, and sexual predators being protected, the report in The Washington BLEEP proved at a clip of one out of six major-dollar donors are sexual deviants, all of whom want to violate the aforementioned verse in the Bible.

The sexual deviancy lobby's playbook has been exposed for years. Rep. Herlong nearly 50 years ago noted the Communist Goals included normalising the deviant behaviour. They aren't playing by the rules; they want dictatorships that rewrite the rules to favour them, and punish everyone else. Our fundamental freedoms do not matter to them; they want a dictatorship, a New World Order, where they are the superior class and everyone else must bow to them.

Shepard-Byrd, rammed down using the defence authorisation act tactics in 2009, was an example of the loss of freedom of speech and religion. Any speech that a sexual deviant declares hateful (mainly caused by it being from the Bible) can now be reported as hate speech and the speaker be charged with a federal hate crime, effectively making "equal justice under the law" changed to "arbitrary justice based on" various special groups based on race, religion, or "sexual orientation" of criminals and victims, as Sen. DeMint referenced. As we've seen in other nations, it has been used on the Bible. Swedish minister Åke Green was prosecuted for preaching sexual deviancy was a sin in violation of the aforementioned verse. Alberta minister Stephen Boissoin was prosecuted for saying the truth about the sexual deviancy activists' agenda. Churches were punished in 1954 by then-Representative Lyndon B. Johnson, who used laws to block churches from discussing national issues in order to punish his opponents. With 2009's Shepard-Byrd, it's open season.
The second major point of the sexual deviants' agenda that the President has endorsed is to curtail the church itself. For many years, churches have run foster care and adoption agencies, and established homes for at-risk youth that develop these children into positive role models. We saw in states where false "marriage" was legalised that churches have lost the right to establish such agencies, and the government has total control. In the past, the church helped those in need, and liberals want it to be the government. What can the church do if the government states because they do not believe in the values of the state (which is the sexual deviants' agenda), they must shut down their ministries and their teachings are criminal under federal hate crime statues?

You call this a prayer event?

I was outraged by what I heard during Thursday's National Day of Prayer Mayor's Prayer Breakfast. Instead of discussing faith and the power of prayer, the speaker, a long-serving Democrat legislator (there are no Republicans elected to any local office -- the Left has had a 20-year winning streak), instead started pushing the virtues of government, the class warfare tract, and even discussed the goodie bags given at major events. It lacked any Biblical thought at all. It had the makings of an Occupy Wall Street rally speech, and was not suited for a prayer event.

If this does not show how the Left would rather promote Occupiers, Class Warfare, and all sorts of "social gospel" that does not include the Bible at a National Day of Prayer event, this should be a warning that the Left will hijack any event to advance their evil, anti-Christian agenda. ◙

Retro TV Friday

Leave it to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling to use their "superstars" to promote their British rights holder's revival of the Goodson-Todman game show "Blockbusters" that had successful runs in both the United States (Bill Cullen) and in the United Kingdom (Bob Holness most notably). While it's the one versus one format with adults, much unlike the classic one versus pair format and the teenage contestants in the Holness (UK) version, see if you can detect a reference to a certain part of the game at the end. The original Goodson concept was interesting and would be better than the trash television that airs today. ◙