Tuesday, November 30, 2010

NCAA Myth of the Student Athlete

As 1 who had the blessed fortune for his family to reach FL before Disney started buying property for Disney World, have rooted for the Gators since age 10 in 1968.

The University of Miami ranks as my second favorite team because Howard Schnellenberger first went into the projects, the slums of Miami, to recruit black football players and allow them to get a college education.

Now, the whole country recruits in FL and Miami area in particular.

So now while the NCAA peddles the myth of the scholar athlete, the "U" has fired Randy Shannon, by all accounts a decent man and football coach, despite the fact his team has the second best graduation rate of teams in the Bowl Championship Series division.

"The  U" has had only 6 players arrested since 2005 while UF (University of Felons) had 24 arrests of players in the same period.

[The University of Miami was right to fire Randy Shannon.

I wish college football wasn't a sham. I wish colleges didn't treat their football programs like corporations. I wish graduation rates mattered more and having a trouble-free program was considered a significant accomplishment.

I wish there was a place for coaches like Shannon, a decent man whose academic progress rate (APR) ranked third among Division I football coaches.] by Jemele Hill at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?id=5867137

[John Matuszak had a great moment in North Dallas Forty. "Every time I call it a game, you say it's a business," he rants to a coach. "Every time I say it's a business, you call it a game!"]
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/sports/20100517/mccarthy17_st.art.htm


Randy Shannon

Monday, November 29, 2010

"What will it take for you...to join us in fighting back?"


[Because let's face it, even if things are looking up just a little for some of us, and looking better than ever for Big Business, there are still millions of Davids, millions of thankless human question marks scattered across every corner of the American landscape this Thanksgiving.
Given such a situation, the real question mark for all working, out of work and middle class people who failed to vote in 2010 or who voted for Republican Party candidates, is this:
What will it take for you to put aside issues of race, religion, abortion, homosexuality, citizenship status, for you to overcome feelings of frustration, anger, apathy or hopelessness, for you to join the rest of us who are victims, just like you, of a Corporate-Republican war to impoverish, discard, divide and conquer us, for you to join us, in fighting back?
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!]  emphasis added
Found link at Beach Peanuts..

WTF Has Sarah Palin Done?

http://wtfhassarahpalindonesofar.com/1/

"Bashed Obama's health care bill while she herself admitted crossing over the border health care in Canada."
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20000152-503544.html

Sunday, November 28, 2010

International Bank Run Day-7 Dec '10

"...If those professing religion shared the life of the poor..."


" … If those professing religion shared the life of the poor and worked to better their lot, and risked their lives as revolutionists do, and trade union organizers have done in the past, then there is a ring of truth about the promises of the glory to come. The cross is followed by the resurrection."
Dorothy Day

Saturday, November 27, 2010

"Hunger Endures Despite Our Bounty "

[Good news.

An average of 17.7 percent of all Americans were at times unable to feed themselves in the 12 months prior to September of this year. That’s according to an analysis of data from the Gallup-Healthways Index, conducted and newly released by the Food Resource and Action Center, an advocacy group.

You may be wondering: In what universe does a 17.7 percent hunger rate qualify as good news?

In this one, actually.

That figure, after all, represents a slight drop from the average 18.5 percent rate recorded at the end of 2009. But even the smaller figure is hardly reassuring, given that it means just under 55 million Americans had to do without food at least occasionally.

Hunger endures. It seems a timely point to make as we enter upon that season wherein we express profound thankfulness by gorging on turkeys and hams and yams and greens, potatoes by the mound, dressing by the mountain, and groaning tables full of puddings, pies, cookies and cakes.

Hunger endures.

The point also seems salient given an often niggardly political environment in which it is common to hear people speak of poverty as a defect of birth or character, and an Andre Bauer — lieutenant governor of South Carolina — can get away with likening children who receive free and reduced price lunches to stray animals you feed at the back door.

Hunger endures.

And maybe, as your humble correspondent did once, you respond to that by spending some part of Thanksgiving at a shelter, ladling food onto paper plates held forth by less fortunate people. It makes you feel good — or at least, not so guilty about your relative plenitude. Just don’t think too hard about them, about where they will go when they leave this place, and how they will eat tomorrow.

Hunger endures.

“It’s great that people at this time of year make donations to food emergency charities,” said FRAC president Jim Weill. “But that’s ultimately not going to solve the problem. What will solve the problem is a better food-stamp program, better school lunch programs and a more robust economy which shares the prosperity more with struggling families.”

Hunger, said Weill, “existed unnecessarily before the recession and has gotten worse unnecessarily since the recession. As Congressman Jim McGovern says, hunger in America is a political condition. It’s not something that exists because of lack of food or lack of resources.”

And yes, some of us still view poverty as a sign of laziness. But as recent victims of the Great Recession will no doubt testify, reality does not conform to that stereotype.

People are poor because of untreated mental conditions or lack of education. They are poor because there are no jobs. They are poor because the jobs they do find don’t pay enough to live on.

You and I are often asked to care about the plight of people who are not like us. But this is different. After all, if you are not a member of some mistreated racial, religious or sexual subset, you can be reasonably certain you never will be.

But any of us can be poor. Some of us already are or have been. And any of us can be hungry. Some of us are just a crisis away. So while it’s all well and good to spend Thanksgiving ladling food at a soup kitchen and breathing that well-worn prayer about the grace of God, it might not be a bad idea to also drop a line to your elected representative and let her or him know you consider it unacceptable that children — and even their working parents — hunger in the richest nation on Earth.

To draw that line in the sand is to take the critical first step in becoming a nation where everybody eats.

And that would be very good news, indeed.

Pitts is a columnist for the Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla., 33132. Readers may contact him via e-mail at lpitts@miamiherald.com.]  emphasis added

Team of All that is Right With the World 104-Axis of Evil 95

The Magic team that defeated the Heat 104-95 on Wednesday night answered a late Miami run, played energetically and hit big shots.

"All big games are statement games," Magic forward Rashard Lewis said. "It lets you know that we're going to be there at the end of the season and competing for that title."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orlando-magic/os-magic-heat-game-1125-20101124,0,554047.story

BB King, Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan- The Sky is Crying