Greatest Day of the Year

Ladies and Gentlemen, its about that time. No, not the Final Four being set, which is great in itself. First time ever four #1 seeds have reached the Final Four. But I digress. Its Opening Night for Major League Baseball, and our beloved Braves our opening up the season with a game vs. the Nationals in their new home ballpark. Something about the opening of the season that brings out the all things good. Its springtime, a time for the rebirth of nature and a time to get outside and enjoy the warmer weather and all it has to offer. And accordingly, the marathon of the baseball season begins.

This year, the Braves have been picked by numerous experts in their preseason picks to win the World Series. As a native Atlantan and lifetime Bravos diehard, I am very excited about the possibilities the 2008 season brings. I won't bore all four of you that read this with details about the team (yet), but I will say that that the next six months, I will be consumed with the Bravos and will be posting regularly about the games. New unis this year, new hope for a championship. And I am not the only baseball junkie who feels great about the Braves. So here's to a great season.... Go Bravos. More updates during the game tonight.....

4th inning, Chipper just went yard. Nice start to his season. And as much as I support GW, he is possibly the worst booth guest in the history of ESPN. He gives 2 word answers to every question and sounds like he has no clue about baseball, even if he was once the owner of the Texas Rangers back in the day. Geez... "Mr. President, what do you think of the new stadium?"

"Its nice."

Mr. President, how do you feel about the Mitchell Report about steroids?..."

"Its a start." Anything else, sir? Would you like to elaborate? Please????

Who is responsible?

Reading through some news links this morning, and I came across an article on yahoo (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080327/ap_on_el_pr/democrats_economy) that describes how both Dem candidates for Prez claim that John McCain just wants to sit back and 'watch' our economy fall to pieces into a recession. They can't seem to understand why he would not want to regulate businesses even more to protect the people of this country.

Has it ever occurred to either of these deceivers that maybe that is the best way to lift us out of this mess? Let the natural forces of economic activity, specifically in the housing/lending markets, take effect and pull us out of the housing decline 'laissez-faire' style? The answer I believe is yes, which is why I call them deceivers. They are both more interested in appealing to the more asinine voters who have no concept of what drives our economy. Last month, the housing prices were down, but volume of home sales was up. This means that investors are once again gobbling up inventory, spurring the activity needed to pick up the market. Slowly but surely, and in a way that won't raise taxes or put government even deeper into our everyday lives.

What John McCain is advocating is not sitting and watching like an idiot, but sitting and watching the natural forces of the market rebuild itself without excess government intervention. Our federal government can do very little to positively impact economic and housing sector growth, except to stay on the sidelines. They can do alot to negatively impact this growth, and Obama and Hillary have made it abundantly clear what their role would be, and I have news for you, its not the right move.

CBS Sports needs to get a clue

Could someone please explain to me why I am watching UNC beat Washington State by about 65 with 4 minutes left, while Xavier and West VA are battling neck and neck with 2 minutes left??? I don't give a rip how many UNC fans are in ATL, switch to the better game... nobody likes a blowout. This is the greatest time of year in sports and its because of games like Xavier and WVU, two teams I would rarely watch in the regular season.

Getting this for Maddux

This might be the greatest invention ever. Now my dog will be able to entertain himself for hours.

Bracket Busters

Stephen Curry, my new hero. Photo courtesy

of davidsonbasketball.blogspot.com

Congrats to Davidson for their upset of G'town today. The boys from the NC hills can play. Same goes for West Virginia and their upset of Duke yesterday (got that one right, thank you). I can't stand Bob Huggins, but I can't stand Duke either (see earlier posts from Jan/Feb for further clarification on my general disdain for the boys in blue and white).



Its been a great tourney to watch so far with some quality upsets and a couple of great endings this weekend... anybody ever heard of San Diego University???? And Siena (great legacy for Paul Hewitt) made Vandy look like its football team, out of place representing the SEC. Looking forward to the next two rounds in a few days.



By the way, does anybody else think Bob Knight should get the heck out of the ESPN GameDay studios? I won't question his coaching ability (sorry haters, results speak for themselves), but his persona in the studio is about like mine at a karoke bar.... monotone and booooooring. Let's hope the brass upstairs doesn't keep him around too long.

Obama and Jeremiah Wright

Ok, I know I am a few days late on this, so no need to post links to the news stories about the situation. Now you only need my humble opinion to set you straight. I have no ill will towards Obama or his run for the presidency. He is a politician, and his true colors are finally starting to show. His platform of change and hope has been based on this ideal that he is different from the rest of the pack. He is not owned by corporations, he is not run by radicals wanting to implement their will on the people for their own good.... or so we thought. Actually it is quite a conundrum for the man. 2 potential courses of action:

1. Back away from Wright and his views, and the fact that he baptized Obama's children and led Barack's spiritual development for 20 years. Back away and call Wright out for what he is, which is a racist hate monger spreading vicious lies and deceiving a congregation that so obviously hangs on his every word. Back away and tell the world that you joined the church for its power in Chicago, that you don't believe the U.S. created AIDS to kill blacks, and that you no longer will associate with Wright b/c he defames the country that you love so much. Back away and be called a traitor by other minorities, back away and be called a POLITICIAN in the truest sense of the word.

2. Endorse Wright still as a friend an advisor. Make excuses for what he said, and tell the world that you don't believe everything that comes out of his mouth. Tell the world that you will not leave a friend behind. Then, explain to the world how Wright is any different than Don Imus, whom you demanded by fired for his Rutgers comments. Defend what you said about not having anyone on your staff that would express such hateful and wrong comments. Defend that you were the first to call his firing, yet won't do the same when the shoe is on the other foot.

Either way, I can't see that Obama is going to be able to lead the party forward. I don't care about electoral pledged delegates, I am talking about having the real backing of his party to face the dreaded Republicans in October. I would not want to be in his shoes right now.

US History 101

So I had an interesting argument with a neighbor the other night, and I thought it worthy for all six of you reading this. We talked about the difference b/w a republic and democracy, and how this country is not a democracy with majority rule (my argument).

The fundamental difference being that a democracy in its truest sense is governed by the rule of man, or mob rule. A simple majority vote decides everything. On the other hand, a republic is governed by the rule of law, on the foundation that we elect and are proportionately represented by a LIMITED government. A republic leads to greater stability, due to the controls in place on our government and its branches. The Constitution was written primarily to restrict the powers of the Federal Government, not enforce the will of elected officials. The power resides with the people.

This link discusses the difference of the two forms of gov't and links to some writings by John Adams and the Federalist papers as well. Boring reading, way above my intellect, but it differentiates the forms of gov't and the problems created by a democracy. http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/AmericanIdeal/aspects/demrep.html

To put it in present-day terms, I don't think either party is fulfilling their duties of limited gov't or the ideal of a republic. Even GW has got it all wrong. We have created a state of handouts and gimmes, and our gov't has become its own worst enemy in providing effective leadership. I'm embarassed by many Republican leaders who in no way represent the conservative ideals that I strongly believe in. I'd like to see a mass exodus of current party leadership replaced with a new wave of truly conservative leaders focused on re-focusing gov't efforts on what it was originally intended to do under our Constitution.

Quick example of a democracy: 3 wolves and 1 sheep take a vote to decide whats for dinner. Majority rules

Weekend Hoops Edition

Huge Crowd taking in the SEC tourney, moved to GT b/c of the tornados
Tornado damage in ATL

What a crazy weekend of conference tourney basketball this weekend. As a GT fan and an ACC purist, I would usually sit here and write about the great games going on up in Charlotte, as it has been a great few games to watch, even if Tech did lose their Friday matchup with Duke. But the real fun has been here in Atlanta, with the SEC tourney. Due to the first ever recorded tornado to hit downtown Atlanta, the GA Dome sustained quite a bit of damage and they moved the games over to Tech's Cremins Court at Alexander Memorial Coliseum. That name is too long btw. GT holds 9,100 seats, the GA Dome hosts about 30,000 set up for basketball. That presents a problem. So only family, certain alum, and the media were allowed in to watch the games, amounting to about 2,500 people instead of 30,000. And to make matters even crazier, UGA was forced to play two games in one day, and they somehow won both of them. Kudos to Dennis Felton and his squad. The worst team in the SEC is now playing this afternoon for a chance to go to the Big Dance, and this Tech fan will be watching and rooting for them. On a side note, its really funny to see UGA football fans come out of the shadows now during basketball, now that their team is winning. I don't think most UGA fans could even name their starting five on the basketball team.

the dems and their problems

So I have been reading and trying to understand the Florida and Michigan democrat primary issues the past few days. For those of you unaware, the delegates in FL and MI will not be seated at the Democrat Nat'l convention in August b/c they each chose to move up the dates of their primaries against the will of the democrat national party leaders. So, they said if you move up the primaries, your votes will not be counted in nominating their candidate for president.

Now with the race so close, both states are crying foul and saying that its not fair that the votes are not going to be counted. Guess what? Tough. You should have thought of this when you changed the dates. And here is my favorite part of it: I found out today that in Florida, a state senator introduced the bill to the senate floor to move up the primary. This said senator is a democrat. Furthermore, all of the democrats voted UNANIMOUSLY to go ahead with moving up the primary against the will of the party. And now they are bitching and moaning that it was the Republicans who caused this.... Sound familiar? Do any of these idiots take any personal responsibility for anything? Just typical.

Seriously?

So I see the news tonight, and one of the top stories is about Trip Isenhour, the pro golfer on the Nationwide tour. He hit a hawk with a golf ball and killed it. Here is a link.
http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/news?slug=ap-golfer-birdkilled&prov=ap&type=lgns

From a few hundred feet away, he kills the bird. Problem is, the bird is a protected species and he was aiming at it for screwing up his game during a TV shoot of 'Shoot Like a Pro.' For starters, he is an idiot for doing this on camera. What in the hell did he think would happen if he actually hit it? He'd get a high five from the crew? Moron. But that is not the point of this post. The animal rights groups are freaking out and calling for him to be suspended, fined, imprisoned, tortured, etc, etc. My favorite piece of the story is this:

Jethro Senger, a sound engineer at the shoot, said hitting the bird was “basically like a joke to (Isenhour).”
“He just kept saying how he didn’t think he could have hit it, which I think is a stupid thing for a PGA Tour golfer to say,” Senger said. “He can put a ball in a hole from hundreds of yards away, and here he is hitting line drives at something that’s, I don’t know, a couple hundred feet away?”

Really? You think that just because he is a pro golfer that he can hit a freakin bird from a few hundred feet away? How many PGA Tour pros can put the ball in the hole from a few hundred feet away? There is a reason why pitch-ins from 120 out are on the SportsCenter top ten every time they happen.... because they rarely happen!!!! Senger needs to get a better view of reality, which is the odds were that this bird was safe and sound from getting hit. It was pure luck (actually bad luck) that it got drilled in the head.

Anyway, I just find it amusing. Don't get me wrong, I love animals. But is this really a big enough story to find its way to the front page of the national news? Find me something a little more relevant to our lives as Americans.