My Sports Mount Rushmore

I don't know if you've heard, but ESPN is asking for its readers to choose 4 athletes it would have on a Mount Rushmore of Sports. It is done state-by-state, which makes it quite interesting. I'm going to share my choices for Georgia (my current state), Texas (my home state) and I'll go a step further and list my nationwide Mount Rushmore of Sports.

My criteria differ a little:

• One should be from the state, not just played in the state (thus, in Texas I don't have the great Emmitt Smith, and in Georgia, the home run king Hank Aaron)
• You need to be retired (so no Tiger Woods).

Georgia:

Herschel Walker, Bobby Jones, Ty Cobb, Ted Turner

Texas:


Earl Campbell, Nolan Ryan, Lance Armstrong, Carl Lewis

NOTE: I would put AJ Foyt in there, but I'm not quite sure race car drivers are really athletes. I mean, they sit on a machine that takes them around the track. And don't give me that "it is exhausting" argument -- I know it is, I get tired when I drive from here to Black Mountain.

National:



Mohammad Ali, Billie Jean King, Jackie Robinson, Johnny Unitas

Obama's first few days: What a change

It's been only a few days since Obama took office, and the changes are fast and furious, and I might add, logical:

• Released funding for pregnancy services that counsel about abortion
• Stem-cell research for spinal injuries
• Stressing diplomacy when appointing emissaries
  
• Plans to close Gitmo
  

Those were easy fixes, but go so far in improving our country and our country's reputation worldwide. A much more daunting problem is the economy. The $825 billion stimulus package features loan guarantees and other support to open up credit for renewable-energy investors, provides health insurance coverage to almost 8.5 million people who’ve lost jobs, enhances security at 90 ports, and fund construction of a much needed national energy grid.

The two-year stimulus package will need Obama at his best to sell the package to Congress. House Minority Leader John Boehner: “We believe spending nearly $1 trillion is more than we ought to be putting on the backs of our kids and their kids.” I have a question for Mister Boehner: Where have you been the last 8 years? You've put far more on our kids and grandkids' backs -- borrowing to fund a meaningless war to the tune of close to $600 billion. Where does that money go? To contractors with no oversight on whether they deliver or not, weapons manufacturers, constant construction of places we destroyed, and corporate executives of the above. Mister Boehner, as the late great Ann Richards said: That dog won't hunt.

To go along with the new stimulus package, Obama is putting some much needed restrictions on the remainder of the previous $750 billion bailout of the banks. Now that Mister Boehner's party is not in power, gone are the days of taking our tax money to fund remodeling of corporate offices, bonuses for the top executives and acquisitions of other strong corporations. Instead, the rest of that money will be used to free up credit and loans to individuals and small business.

What has irked me most is such spending our tax dollars on the elite executives while at the same time cutting employees at the banks and not loaning any money. These two thing are what is what is really hurting the economy. The banks have gone from one extreme to the other: From loaning way more than many could afford (which greatly inflated housing prices) to not loaning anything to anyone with even a minor problem on credit history. There has to be a happy medium.

How our world is changing... BTW, you need to read David's post today on his Freedom Writing blog: Starry Night. It is a beautifully written piece about where our national priorities need to be. You'll be better for reading it.

Inauguration Special: Hints of Greatness

As we have the Inaugural Address of Barack Obama today, all of us in this country are hopeful that we are getting ready to launch a new, positive era in American history. It is a lot for one person to carry, but many of us -- me included -- believe we are on the cusp of a historic presidency.

It had me wondering about others at the beginning of their careers. Are there moments captured where we got a glimpse of the greatness that would unfold over the rest of their professional lives? I thought of a few, but wondered if you all had examples of great public people -- politicians, athletes, musicians, writers, etc. -- you'd share here.

To get the ball rolling, I'll start with a few:


Michael Jordan, at 17 years old, hitting the championship-game winner over Georgetown in 1982















Mohandas Gandhi organizing peasants in 1915.

















Led Zeppelin's first LP


And what greatness is to come next?


Matt Ryan's first NFL pass went for a touchdown. BTW, his last pass in his rookie season also went for a touchdown.

I look forward to hearing from you and adding to the list!

Confederate History Month?

Most of you probably haven't heard that the Georgia Legislature is considering making April "Confederate History Month." Seriously. I'll let that sink in for a moment...



My wife tells me I'm not a true Southerner, and she might be right. I grew up and lived most of my life in Texas. In Texas schools, and Texas in general, we don't dwell on the fact that we joined 10 other states to fight a war to secede from the United States. You do see a few folks with the Stars and Bars in east Texas -- east of an imaginary line from Dallas to Houston -- but for the most part, Texans think of themselves as, well, Texans, and really don't think much of the War Between the States.

Thus, I'm sure my wife is right. But I just gotta comment on the possibility of "Confederate History Month."

Hmmm, let's see what will be studied:

• The fact that the "Southern Belle" couldn't exist without slave labor doing all the house work.
• The fact that "Southern Gentlemen" couldn't exist without slave labor working in the fields.
• The fact that the entire "Southern Culture" they are wanting to study and preserve is only possible with slave labor.
• The fact that, in order to preserve slavery, they started a war that became the deadliest war in our history.

I doubt Georgia legislators are smart enough to kill this bill; but we can only hope and pray.

Israel: Rogue Nation

Please alert me if there is a nation other than Israel that can get away with shelling a UN convoy (killing a UN Peacekeeper), blow up the UN relief supplies and headquarters, bomb Gaza hospitals and attack the media hotel. Now, why would Israel want to do that? Simple -- it wants to kill as many Palestinians as possible, and it really doesn't want the rest of us to see it or find out about it.

Israel will take any opportunity to wipe out Palestinians, and use any excuse to do it. Sniveling Israel: "They shelled us (killing 4 soldiers initially) so we had no choice but to kill and maim all the men, women and children, destroy their water supplies, homes and hospitals, contaminate all their food and not allow anyone to help, and do whatever we can to keep others from knowing about it."

And what has been the US response? Today we signed an agreement with Israel to stem the tide of weapons to Gaza. Now, I know this is needed, but shouldn't we be doing something about this rogue nation, Israel, and its crimes against the people of Gaza and the world (yes, the UN is the world).

All this does for me is turn me further against Israel. I'm taking a big step here because any criticism of Israel is greeted by swooning cries of "anti-Semite", "Hitler-lover," and "Holocaust denier!" Just ask Jimmy Carter; his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, got such treatment for telling any truth that challenged an Israeli world view. I have nothing against Jews, and I strongly believe in Israel's right to exist. I know the history of the Holocaust, and encourage everyone to take the very moving tour through the museum in DC. The Jewish story should never be forgotten. But the Israeli government has earned my wrath: illegal settlements, walls keeping Palestinians away from water supplies and work, and now this terror in Gaza.

Sadly, terrorism can come from a nation, not just someone with a rocket-launcher and bombs strapped to her chest. Tanks through residential streets, bombing relief supplies, bombing hospitals and trying to stop media to cover your tracks -- all are forms of terrorism against innocent people.

Jews around the world should be the most outraged. As many more people see this overreaction that kills so many innocent Palestinians, it just turns people against Israel, the Israeli government, and unfortunately, Jews. Where is the outrage from the Jewish community?

Israel, beware: The next century or two belongs to China and India. Neither of which has ANY emotional, religious or cultural tie to the "Holy Land." You better clean up your act before your enabler (US) leaves the scene and you have to justify your actions to Beijing and New Delhi.

Bowl games to playoffs

While I certainly accept Florida as the top college football team in the nation, I believe we need some sort of bowl-playoff hybrid. This is a big step for me -- I've been one of the longest holdouts for the bowl system (though I think the BCS should be reworked). I like that the college football season is like no other sport: With no playoffs, the season is the playoffs. As such, each game is of utmost importance.

Contrast that with college hoops, which I love with the drama of March Madness. But who really cares about any preconference game? So what if UNC beats Michigan State...it has no bearing whatsoever on the outcome of the championship. And even the conference play has less at stake. If you go .500 in the ACC, you're in the Big Dance.

I have to admit, that some modification is needed for a true college football champion. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of Pete Carroll's annual whining. If the Pac-10 were any good -- and if it had a championship game -- his tears would have more impact. So just to shut him up (and because we need something different) let's try something new.

For starters, one has to be realistic about what is possible. The bowl games are extremely lucrative for the sponsors, the schools, and the conferences. Thus, they have to stay. Because I'm sick of stretching the bowls out past New Year's Day, let's put them back to that traditional date and use them. We'll have the top four winners of the bowls -- a Final Four, if you will -- play at the end of the bowl season. This year, we'd have Florida, USC, Texas and Utah in the Final Four. Match them up, and let them play the week after New Year's to get to a Championship Two. Then the next week, they play for the title. If we did it that way, we would add only 2 more games for two teams, and they could finish before the Spring semester starts. The bowls remain lucrative and we get an undisputed national champion.

If we don't, I suggest Pete Carroll go coach at Northwest Missouri so he can have the opportunity to win a playoff for a national championship. If we do, it makes me wonder what sports talk radio would scream about?

Teen pregancy and the culture wars

The CDC stats on teen pregnancy were alarming, going up in more than half the states for the year 2006. This was the first rise in 14 years. The new leader? Mississippi! Followed by New Mexico and Texas. This hit close to home: I don't think it is related to my family, but I can't deny that my parents live in Texas and have cabins in the mountains of New Mexico and the bottoms of Mississippi.

So what is happening in these states? New Mexico and Texas have always been at the top each year, and this year showed rates of 64.1 and 63.1 teen births, respectively, per 1,000 births. But Mississippi? It's rate was a 4 points ahead at 68.4 teen births. Many in the mainstream media are pointing to these state's high population of minorities (hispanic and African American), whose teen birth rates are higher. Others are pointing to the federal funding of abstinence-only education ushered in by the Bush Administration. Just search on Google News using "teen pregnancy" as terms.

The Perfect Storm

But there is more that combined with the above creates the perfect storm to see this increase. The schools in Mississippi are not required to teach sex education, and if they do, they are required to heavily stress " abstinence-until-marriage, including “the likely negative psychological and physical effects of not abstaining” and “that abstinence from sexual activity before marriage, and fidelity within marriage, is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually-transmitted diseases and related health problems.” Additionally, if a school is brave enough to educate about contraceptives, state law requires that they stress the failure rates of using contraceptives, and specifically outlaw any demonstrations on proper contraceptive use. And the schools do have an option of teaching sex education without mention of abstinence if a majority of the school board in that district approves. How often do you think that happens? And that wouldn't be prudent anyway as abstinence should be taught along with everything else.

Texas doesn't require sex education, but if a district chooses to, it is heavily abstinence-based. New Mexico is not required to teach sex education, but does have to teach about HIV and related issues. Teachers have to stress abstinence in teaching about sexually transmitted diseases, and have to show learning outcomes that test "refusal skills."

Compare that with the state with the lowest birth rate among teens: New Hampshire. The schools are required to teach sex education from elementary school on.

Additionally, the news last week that the so-called "virginity pledge" campaigns actually backfire: The teens that take them are just as likely to have sex, and are more unprepared with contraceptives when that "moment" occurs. The thinking goes that if you have a condom or are on the pill, then you're not taking the virginity pledge seriously.

If this country is in a culture war, and I believe it is to an extent, the data seem to suggest that the more the Religious Right gets their policies in place, the more we all seem to suffer -- even the Religious Right. You might want to know that the largest one-year increase for teen births was not in the continental U.S.: Bristol Palin's Alaska jumped 19 percent from 2005. Bristol, as we all know so well, was reared in an abstinence-only household.

And what about those "liberal" states and districts? California's teen birth rate for the past 10 years had a 47 percent decline. Washington, D.C.? Down 42 percent in the last ten years. We've already mentioned New Hampshire. The entire Northeast has the lowest teen births in the country.

If this country is to progress, soon-to-be President Obama has to lead us through these culture wars, get some of the archaic laws off the books, and appoint federal judges that will value freedom and responsibility. Our children deserve a real chance to lead happy and healthy lives.

Staying Home

Well I received bad news from the Visa Express folks: They can't process the visa fast enough -- so, India will have to wait for another time. Disappointed but not depressed. It was a spur of the moment trip, which needed much more planning (obviously), and the opportunity should present itself again.

That is about it tonight; I'm going to tune in the Longhorns and Buckeyes....

Bush's peace in the Middle East?

I don't know about you, but I'm wondering whatever happened to that peace-in-the-Middle East promise President Bush gave us last year. About the exact opposite has occurred, which is a common theme of the Bush presidency. matfst comments on my post yesterday asking about the ongoing attack on Gaza by the Israelis -- and what role the Bush Administration is playing.

While indirect, the Bush administration earns blame here in two primary areas:

1. Absolutely no legitimacy as a leader in international affairs/events
2. Allowing like-minded people and governments to do whatever they desire as his presidency is winding down.

I know I laughed out loud when I heard Bush's promise to bring peace to the Middle East by the time he left office. The naïveté of this president, though, is no laughing matter. I don't know if he really believed he could do in a year's time what no one has done in history or if it was another one of his "if I say it, it must be true" moments. Steven Colbert called this "truthiness."

The US had a golden opportunity after 9/11 to lead a world sympathetic to us after the attacks (and trying to find a way to negotiate a one-superpower world following the Cold War). Even the French newspaper Le Monde proclaimed, "We are all Americans." But Bush, Cheney, et al, rejected any help from abroad, instead deciding to forge ahead on our own. While starting down the right path, we ended up stumbling into Iraq and for the past 8 years destroying any sense of world leadership we once had to offer. Instead, we are the ones saying it is OK to overreact and strike at will whomever you want, regardless of the reason or of the firepower of the enemy. We say it is OK to torture, that the Geneva Conventions are outdated and don't apply to us.

That is only a part of the Bush World we helped to create, and the Israelis are taking full advantage of it -- and doing it before Barack Obama takes office. As NPR reported last week, George Bisharat, a professor of law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, said:

"Certainly, the Bush administration is one that the Israeli government feels comfortable with, realizes is not likely to face much constraint with. And so, I think, one of the reasons for doing this before the incoming Obama administration is because of that sense of freedom and comfort with the Bush administration."

Although Obama has consistently sided with Israel during his career and campaign, the Israelis know that with Bush, they get the go-ahead to do whatever it deems necessary. In this case, it is to blow away hundreds of Gazans, bomb and invade one of the poorest regions in the world, all because several rockets were fired from an unknown origin, and killing 4 Israelis. Now, the rocket fire is wrong, but what is right about using a bazooka to kill a fly? There has to be another way.

We saw this same phenomenom -- getting what you can while Bush is in office -- from Big Oil. As prices soared to $4 a gallon, the oil industry was making its largest profits. Now as it is in the $1.50 range, we all celebrate the "low" price. Frankly, it never should have gotten over $2, but Bush's Big Oilmen knew this was the last gasp chance to get such a profit, and boy did they jump on it. Now, with Obama coming in, prices have settled to where they should have been all along.

Thus, we live in a world created by a Bush Administration intent on helping its big business friends and giving governments carte-blanche to do whatever appropriate to fight what it claims as "terror." I think the election was a repudiation of this "world" and a hope that we can move toward something much more realistic and fair.

Note: Now that you've read my post today, take 5 minutes to read Frank Rich's column today in the NYT. And later, give Bob Hebert's Add Up The Damage column from a few days ago a read. These earn an "AMEN."

Fear Nation

My heart goes out to the Muslim family detained from their holiday flight to Orlando on New Year's Day. And my heart aches for what this country has become under 8 years of the Bush propaganda machine: Fear Nation.

Yes 9/11 did happen; it was a horrible attack on our country by al-Qaida. But terrorism's success depends on the reaction to the event. Under Bush, al-Qaida has been highly successful. Going to Afghanistan and crushing Bin Laden and his network there was the right decision -- but we quickly were diverted by right-wing hawks who for years advocated going pre-emptive attacks (which became known as the Bush Doctrine) on whom they termed "rogue nations" and saw Iraq as an opportunity to test their theory. Combined with a president not-too-well versed on the ways of the world, they took advantage, and we have the Iraq quagmire we hope to get out of with the Obama presidency.

Our reaction to 9/11 has led to a perfect-storm victory for al-Qaida: Bin Laden remains free, Iraq is his prime recruiting ground, the US is going into massive debt supporting an unending war (this was the mujahideen's role in taking down the Soviet Union with President Ronald Reagan's help.) The by-product contributes to a nation gripped by fear. GOP politics plays on this, and really has since the 1960's as
Paul Krugman's column in yesterday's New York Times points out. Playing on people's fears of the unknown, the foreign, the "liberals" is all the Republicans have to offer, and they force it home by absurd "terror levels" in the airport, searching random travelers, while our ports -- our real vulnerability -- go totally unprotected. Do we need all of this? Frankly, no. Terror-attack-by-jet was stopped on 9/11 by United Flight 93.

Our culture of fear led to the two teenage girls "reporting" what they thought they overheard in a crowded New Year's Day airport. I imagine if I had a conversation about where the safest place to stay on an airplane with one of you and these girls overheard, they might even have joined the discussion. But when they saw people with darker skin in Muslim dress (read: different from "us") they became alarmed. They reacted as our society has told them to react -- BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID. I just can't wait for the inane new reality TV series "Homeland Security USA," can you?

So while I want to apologize to this American family detained on a holiday trip, I mourn for what this country has become. Whatever happened to "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"?

Note: The final link is to a video; as a newbie, I don't know how to embed a video into the layout, but will learn soon.

Not so fast

Well, 2009 did not start as I thought it would. I'd planned to get control of finances (yes, one of the annual lame new year's resolutions) and to not procrastinate so much (another lnyr), and both jumped up to slap me back down...and it is just January 2.

I mentioned our two dogs, Jake and Wheeler. Well, it was Jake's turn to chew a hole in my wallet. After a normal morning, we found him standing in a pool of fluid in his crate. Thought it was urine, but it was clear and no smell. While I'm investigating this, MC is outside keeping an eye on him -- and saw him pissing a red stream. Off to the vet. Of course, once there, nothing...no red pee, no clear fluid, nothing. X-rays, urinalysis, blood work, the works all come back negative. As did my wallet. Mind you, it was New Year's Day, so it was the emergency vet. POW!!! Thanks, Jake. Followup was cheap and also negative, so nothing wrong -- "just watch him." Now, I'm happy Jake will be with us, but it could have been something...know what I mean?

Procrastination is a big problem for me. My grandmother, Granny, told me she believed in reincarnation and she imagined that before we were born, we sat with the Creator and chose the life to lead. That decision was with great discernment of what we (the Creator and the soon-to-be-human) believed we needed to learn about life or things grander. If that is true, I must have needed to learn a lot from waiting until the last minute to do things. I procrastinate, but always pride myself in getting what I need done. That has been bothering me lately (several years being "lately"). I don't want to rush, rush, rush at the last minute, but no matter what, it seems to happen.

On literally the last hour before my vacation, I was told that my work was sending me to India for a conference -- the week I returned. Very exciting, to be sure, but it didn't leave me much time to get things in order. Last minute preparations are tough, even when you've been planning for months. They are very tough when you don't have any time to plan. So, before I left for Christmas and New Year's holidays, I bought a plane ticket and made arrangements for hotel (or actually emailed the folks in Belgium making my arrangements). I thought I'd done pretty well, and left for Texas.

Well, today, I'm in a Borders reading Fodor's on India and see the section on travel. First thing that jumps out: I need a visa. Mind you, I'm leaving in 6 days, and two of those are weekend days. I rush home, look online, get a rush service, go to Kinko's and get a passport photo for the visa, and FedEx the package. I'm using Visa Express so we'll see what happens. I wrote them a note saying I'd plug the service; the link above is the good faith effort I'm showing!

Two days into the new year and Jake takes a bite out of the wallet and the heart rate is up. Wine is helping. Ole Miss beating TTech helps and now, what's this, the Tide is losing to Utah! o well, there goes the "SEC domination" blog topic. Maybe things will settle down and we can begin the current event discussions.

first post

This blog will be my attempt to get back into the practice of writing. I used to do it for a living, and certainly use the skills in my current work. Here you'll find my comments on whatever -- but my true passion in writing is primarily journalistic. Thus, current affairs will take a high priority.

I vow not to let the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush to slide into oblivion. The problems to face the Obama presidency are compounded exponentially by Bush's ideology and the ramifications of putting that ideology into practice. The philosophy of unbridled capitalism has been PROVEN not to work. The human nature toward greed makes regulation imperative.

In future posts, I'll take this to task, as I will the entire charade of the Republican Party being a party for the masses. Folks, the GOP cares only about the the wealthiest of the wealthy. They don't care one bit about the social issues they proclaim -- that is only to get votes. You'll hear a lot about this.

The quandary we find ourselves in with the environment and the future of the human capacity to live on this planet is another passion. Quandary is a quaint term for this problem. In order to move away from the environmental meltdown of the planet, we must consume less. If we consume less, our economy is doomed. The US of A has built its economy on consumption. If we don't buy, use, discard, buy, use, discard, buy, use, discard, etc., our economy crumbles. If we don't stop buying, using, discarding, our planet crumbles. Gotta find a happy medium -- and better ways of consuming.

I'm sure to write about my family, my beautiful wife MC, and our absolutely magical lives together. We have two litter mate labrador retrievers -- Jake (black) and Wheeler (yellow, a Dudley actually) -- and they keep us busy to say the least. We have an easy-going cat, Blue, who is brown with blue eyes. I have two children from a previous marriage -- L, a daughter in her senior year at TCU and D, a son soon to graduate from high school. They live in Texas, as do my parents and a sister and her family. My brother and his family live in Nebraska.

That is enough for now. Peace, and Happy New Year!