Fantasy Football Update - Week 7

This week was an unexpected laugher.  I defeated the Phupped Ducks by a score of 110-64.  It is my 6th win in a row and I remain in a 2-way tie for first place in my division.  My division is very tough.  The other division is led by a 4-3 team.  I could have posted a much larger score had I stared Darren McFadden of Oakland.  He went off for 196 yard rushing/receiving and 4 touchdowns.  Had I started him in my flex spot instead of Ricky Williams, I would have posted a 149!  Fortunately, I did not need him this week, although it looks like his groin is fine and he had definitely established himself as the featured back in Oakland.  Carson Palmer finally had a big fantasy week for me as well.  400+ yards and 3 TDs.

Eight Christian Suicides

Normally, I refrain from posting too much from the ultra right wing websites that I see a lot of crazy shit material from.  They are so far out of touch with reality that I can't often read the crap to post about it.  Well, this one I've seen on several of the other blogs I follow and I have to blog about it because it is so incredibly stupid and hateful that it can not go unseen.  The post is called Eight Straight Suicides and is in reference to the recent string of suicides by homosexual who have been bullied, abused, outed, or otherwise had their lives made miserable enough to kill themselves.  The author is Mike Adams.  I don't know anything about him, but a little research shows that the site he has posted this on is a conservative opinion and analysis e-zine.  You must read it to believe it.  He starts out with the following (emphasis mine),

Officials on college campuses across the nation are alarmed at a wave of recent suicides involving Christians who have been harassed by homosexual activists. The main stream media isn’t covering the story so, as usual, I have taken it upon myself to do their jobs for them. None of the following eight cases have been covered by any of the three major news networks.

Wow, this is a very serious problem.  Anytime any sort of harassment takes place that leads to a suicide is very serious and needs to be taken seriously regardless of who the victims are or who the harassers are.  He then follows with little stories of the eight people.  Here is one of them,

Crystal was an administrator at a university in Ohio. She wrote an article for the local paper, which let homosexuals know that there are ways to escape the lifestyle that ends their lives prematurely. She told them they could find hope in God. But they were enraged. They demanded that she be fired from her job – even though her opinions were written and disseminated on her own time. They managed to get her fired. Later, she took her own life.

Certainly, losing your job over something is very devastating.  From the way it is written, you can assume that Crystal believes that homosexuality is a choice and may have been advocating things like reparative therapy.  Certainly, she was advocating turning toward God for answers.

Here is where it becomes vile and disgusting,

These eight cases are all true except for one thing: The Christians who were bullied by gays and gay activists are all still alive. Not a single one has committed suicide. That is because they have centered their lives around Jesus Christ, rather than their sexual identity. And no amount of bullying can change my mind about that. 

You have got to be fucking kidding me!  I can't think of a sweeter, kinder, gentler way to be as repulsive, hateful, hurtful, and ignorant as Mike Adams was with that closing paragraph.

Sorry, But You're Not Christian Enough

Christians, especially the intolerant hateful kind, have taken up a new strategy in their quest to establish the American Taliban and American Theocracy.  You know, the concept that the Constitution of the United States is a Christian document and the Bill of Rights is inspired by the Ten Commandments.  Hmmm, ten amendments in the Bill of Rights and something approximating ten commandments (depending on which version you read).   I see the argument.

Well, the latest argument is best exemplified by the moronic citizens of Murfreesboro, TN.  Despite a long established and peaceful Muslim community, the citizens of the town are all up in arms about their desire to build a new mosque and community center.  Earlier this year, construction equipment being used to build the new mosque was set on fire.  Now the citizens of the community are claiming the whole building permit was done without public hearings and have rejected any freedom of religion claims because they say Islam is not a religion.  In other words, Muslims are not Christians and so, not in my backyard.  Christianity is the only true religion and that is what the Constitution protects, and only protects. 

In a similar vein, in a recent story out of North Carolina, a couple put their two sons into a cub scout troop sponsored by a local Presbyterian church.  After sometime, they volunteered to be leaders.  However, they were asked to step down as leaders when it was identified that they were members of the LDS Church.  The claim?  Mormons are not true Christians.

The hateful Christian-only rhetoric from the likes of Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich.  The complete and utter stupidity of Christine O'Donnell, Sharon Angle, and Michelle Bachmann is nothing short of guanophrenic.  They have inspired a whole new class of angry, hateful voters, and for all the wrong reasons.

News Flash: The French are Crazy

I've been following this story for a few months, but it has just now gotten more attention in the news.  You see, when you are facing difficult economic times, the best possible thing you can do as a constructive member of society is to torch capital goods.  Whenever a foreign power would enter France, the first thing they would do is surrender first, then resist second.  It is the nature of being French I guess.  Anyway, what is it that has gotten the French all up in arms and angry to don masks?  Well, the French government has decided that in order to keep their national pension plan solvent, they must raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.  Yes, that's right, they are raising the retirement age to 62!  Man, that is one way to piss off a Frenchman.  Even the students are getting involved and they don't have to worry about this for 40 more years.  I think they need to teach more economics to these students for them to realize that if they don't raise the retirement age by a paltry two years, then they won't see any of it anyway.

I think my retirement age is 67 (maybe 68).  I have been in the workforce for 24 years (including high school jobs) and am fully vested in Social Security.  I still have another 27 to go.  Maybe, just maybe, with a little luck and planning, I can retire earlier.

The French are crazy.  Let them eat cake!

The Story of Grady and Dixie

Grady Gammage was the long time President of NAU prior to becoming the President of Arizona State College up until 1958 when he led a campaign to change the name to Arizona State University.  His wife, Dixie, was a former pupil of Grady's (the old dog) and very active in the development of Arizona State College prior to her death in 1948.

Dixie Gammage Hall on the campus of ASU was named in her honor.

Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium was named his honor for his work in getting ASU to full University status.  Gammage Auditorium is famous for being the last public commission of Frank Lloyd Wright.  It had a reputation of having some of the best acoustics of any performance hall of its time.

Back in April of 1994, my wife and I were at her parents house, for what reason, I don't recall.  Our friends, Caryn and Joel, stopped by after work and brought with them two kittens.  They worked for ASU Parking and were handing an event at Gammage Auditorium when the kittens wandered out into traffic.  Caryn picked them up and held them draped over her arm while she continued to direct traffic.

I had never had cats and really wasn't that interested, but my wife had cats and she wanted to keep them.  I said that maybe we will keep one of them.  Yeah, right.  Anyway, they were obviously inseparable and so we named them Grady and Dixie.  Grady was all black with three white socks and Dixie was patterned like a Holstein cow.

Grady and Dixie were our first children.  Then came Sparky, a Cairn Terrier/Pug mix, followed by a third cat, Hazel (who is now 14).  We then had real kids, Isaak and Emma, followed by another dog, Gaby.  Gaby was an adopted 10-year old Chocolate Lab.  Sparky and Gaby have since passed on.

Grady passed on about 5 years ago, and Dixie passed on last Friday.  She was 16 1/2 years sold.  This time, Dixie outlived Grady.  I can't find any e-pictures of Grady, but here are Hazel and Dixie.

Tom Petty Concert Review

I can't believe I didn't post this sooner.  Princess managed to beat me to it.  So, read her post first for all the details that I will omit...

Now that you're back...

I have to admit not having a lot of enthusiasm for seeing Chuck Berry.  He has never been on my bucket list of aging rock stars to go see.  In fact, prior to him being announced as the opener, I thought he was dead.  He was entertaining.  I knew very few of the songs but have heard a lyric or two here and there in years past.  He moved pretty good for being nearly 84.  There were a few mis-hits on the guitar, but nothing too major.  All in all, a good show.  At least I can say that I have seen Chuck Berry perform Johnny B. Goode live.

As for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the show itself was very good.  The sound was really good.  Not so loud as to distort, but loud enough to be crisp and clear.  Having a less than full house probably helped because they didn't have to plan on drowning out a bunch of crowd noise.  My only real disappointment was the length of the show.  It came in just under 90 minutes.  That is not a lot of songs for someone with his catalog.  I'm sure quite a few people went home disappointed at not having heard their favorite.  Maybe I'm a bit spoiled by Rush, who usually puts on a 90-minute show prior to taking their first break!

I'm glad to have seen him live, but I will probably save my concert dollars for some other acts should he come around again.

As for the new album, Mojo, it is kick ass.  I really like it.  Plus, you got the album download free with the concert ticket purchase, which was nice and added to the overall value of the ticket price.

Fantasy Football Update - Week 6

I won my fifth straight game and I am now 5-1 on the season.  I thought I was doomed last night when Vince Young went down early in the first quarter.  He is my backup QB and my regular starter was on a bye week.  I thought for sure I was done.  Fortunately, the Titans D came up big and ended up being my high scorer for the week.

One comment on this week's games.  The helmet-to-helmet collisions.  There were quite a few scary ones this week.  I was glad to see Rodney Harrison on the NBC telecast say the only way to stop this is to eject and suspend players.  I was disappointed to hear them, and the announcers for the Falcons/Eagles game to say that they weren't sure how a player was supposed to hold up.  I have one simple rule to determine if a hit is legal or not. 

Here is an image just after the impact.  This alone is not sufficient to determine if this was a helmet to helmet hit or not.  It also doesn't show if Robinson was leading with his shoulder.  What it does show you is the position of Robinson's arms.  They were at his side when he hit Jackson.  Now, I have not played football at any level, but I do know that if your intent is to actually tackle someone, you usually have your arms in a position to wrap them around the player to bring them down.  In this case, regardless of whether the hit was legal by NFL rules, the point is that it was still a hit and not a tackle.  I think any attempt to take down a ball carrier without any attempt to wrap your arms around them should be flagged as a penalty.  When you have your arms extended with the intent of tackling a player, even in mid-air, then your head is up and you are more likely to lead with your shoulder and not helmet.  Otherwise, the sole intent is to inflict pain and injury, and that should be illegal.