For Shame Tennessee

My home state is scheduled to execute Christa Pike later today who participated in killing another girl over three decades back. Pike was raped and abused as a child with no access to counseling after these horrific events warped her. She by definition had ineffective lawyers, or she would never have had a death sentence imposed. I will not feel any more safe in my Nashville home after the authorities terminate a mentally ill middle aged woman for what she did in the 1990's while under the influence of drugs and with PTSD from her hellish childhood few could even imagine. If it becomes a jejune concept to want to protect womanhood in a society, then we need to start anew where men are protectors of women and girls and not their executioners.  

Eagles Not Powerhouse

While I will give Philadelphia their props for being the most obnoxious and confrontational fans in American sports, I have to say their football team is overrated this season. Yes, while they did defeat my hometown's woeful Titans (in a game I suffered through in the scorching stadium), they had their heads handed to them by the Bears being led by a career backup quarterback, who was not even drafted when he signed as a free agent over a decade back. Philadelphia does not look like a Super Bowl contender, but Chicago continues to shine even without their superstar starting QB in the mix. 

Edge of Victory

My hometown Tennessee Titans played up in the Garden State yesterday. Their offense in the first half was anemic against a solid New York Giant defense, but came to life in the second half and just as they did against the mighty Eagles, made a game of it. The problem with coming close is that "only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades" as the old saying goes. Losing by a few points is still a loss, with tougher parts of the schedule looming for the winless Titans future. 

Manning Is Simms

I watched Arch Manning more or less stymied by the Tennessee Volunteer defense yesterday. My hot take is that Manning, unless he improves greatly or has the fortunate situation of having pro teammates who are superstars at all the other skill positions, will be a career backup quarterback in the National Football League. He completed some relatively deep passes on what seemed to be deliberate under-throws, but they were also passes that might have been longer gains or even touchdowns if Arch had led the receivers a little. Honestly, it looked like the Vols' freshman quarterback had the livelier arm and actually threw for a TD, when Manning, who despite winning the game could not manage a touchdown throw. Manning also looked the farthest thing in the world from a Heisman candidate. In fact, his performance did not even look like he is secure in the role of starter- where is Quinn Ewers when the Longhorns need him. Manning has all the tools to be another Chris Simms iteration of second teamer at the professional level. 

Dabo Is Back

Coach Swinney did not forget how to win football games, and the times did NOT pass him by, as he proved once again last night versus Cal-Berkeley. To me, Dabo is still a very good coach who can be victorious at Clemson. Was there a bad stretch? Undeniably yes, but it took some time for many programs to sort out NIL. Swinney is great at the strategic aspects of football and at motivating young men. I expect to see the Tigers in a bowl at the conclusion of this season. 

Last Best Hope

Trump was it- our knight rising to turn back the invading horde. Yet our courts, the not loyal opposition party, and tragically even many fellow Republicans have done everything possible to thwart the President at every turn. You will only recognize how great the Donald was when the country falls apart under his successors. 

The Summit Summit

The leaders of the two most powerful nations on earth are meeting. The monstrous murderer who enslaves China is dining with the enormous ego who governs America. I do not like despots, so I hope Trump achieves his goals in regard to Red China.  

Sweet September Semiconductor

We had an issue with our modem, and our cable company was kind enough to replace it. Instead of having a donkey turning the wheel speed, our Internet is now so speedy that I fear it will soar into the stratosphere, but then we would have to revert to the abacus and smoke signals. 

Trump Lacks Discernment

Why would our President reduce himself and his office to go meet with an insouciant Muslim Marxist? The mayor of New York City is not a friend to Trump, or someone the President can find common ground to work with, but should be a pariah. Trump could not win the mayoralty in NYC or the governorship in his home state of New York, but that does not mean he has to play nice with the Leftist scum who did prevail there. When people hate our nation from its founding, our nation's leader should not elevate them, but isolate them instead. 

Give Up Play

I was in the stadium as my hometown Tennessee Titans eschewed a chance to tie the game at the end of the first half yesterday, and instead, ran a draw to set up a field goal that was good but left them down four points at the half. The play selection was real loser territory. Winners go for the end zone in such circumstances and do not settle for three points. Yes, maybe Ward would have thrown an incomplete pass or even an interception on the second to last play of the first half, but when you have back to back seasons of wretched futility, you must not try to stay close but do everything possible to win. The Eagles did ultimately prevail, and their margin of victory was the four points Tennessee left on the table at the end of the first half. 

The Vanderbilt Miracle

Some years back the Vandy basketball team earned the name "the cardiac Commodores" for the close games and late game comebacks. They rarely displayed the heroics that the football team did yesterday with the most improbable of all last second (literally) wins. Their young quarterback seemed to have cost them the game with an interception in the last moment that seemed to kill any hope the Nashville boys had, but they had a never quit attitude, and fought to the last play from scrimmage, forcing a fumble in the end zone that the defense recovered to stun North Carolina State, who looked like the superior squad until the momentous turnover that turned around fifty-nine minutes and 59 seconds of ACC dominance. 

Forgetting the Titans

I am afraid the Eagles will trounce my hometown Titans as Nashville hosts the mighty Philadelphia franchise on Sunday. It is too early to say if Tennessee made the wrong hire with Coach Saleh, but the problem has NOT been the head coach but an owner who will obviously NOT fire herself. As long as the tickets sell, dear Amy will remain satisfied, even if many are ultimately purchased by the visiting team's fans. The atmosphere, pre-game music, cheerleaders, halftime entertainment are always among the best the NFL has to offer, but the product on the field, that being the team itself, has not been a contender for years. Bud Adams had a genuine commitment to trying to win championships, and I am certain his daughter would love to deliver a title to Nashville but does not know what that takes. As long as she controls the franchise, the Titans will not be champs. 

Murder on Menu

I have been in a fast food restaurant where employees were calling each other everything but "child of G-d". When I was younger we drove up on a cafeteria where there was a stabbing of an employee by another worker. It does not shock me that violent situations might arise in a workplace, and I just read a Zaxbys workman shot another dead at a location in North Carolina. At a McDonald's near me, I asked an employee if he could cut my Mom's burger in half as per her request, but he said they could not because they were not permitted to have any knives in the kitchen. Sad that society has come down to such a knife-banning edict, but I bet that makes for a safer Mickey D location, and I did slice it in two for her when I brought it home for her consumption. 

Up Your Interest

The Federal Reserve raising interest rates is a proper tool when there is irrational exuberance on the part of consumers engaged in unrestrained spending on elective purchases. The inflation America has indeed faced recently is caused by market chaos due to petroleum prices and supplies being destabilized because of the conflict with the mullah regime in Iran, and all the downstream rise in cost of everything made with or transported using oil. The Fed upping interest rates does absolutely nothing to stabilize gasoline and diesel prices, nor the cost of goods made with oil or oil byproducts, nor hold down the cost of transport of virtually everything that is shipped at least at some point using petrol. The rise in rates just further punishes people who are already suffering from increased costs that were in no way their fault. This is the same stupidity as being punitive by raising interests folks have to pay when it is not them but government itself that is engaged in frivolous spending. Fiscal and monetary tools should only be deployed when Congress has already cut back their spree of spending like drunken sailors which last happened during the years Clinton was President but was forced to make deals with a Republican majority in control of Congress. Why make working people suffer more when it is a war of choice America embarked upon and crazy expenditures by the Federal government that have stoked inflation, not anything Joe or Jane is doing when they have already cut back spending everywhere else to be able to afford their drive to and from work?

Vance the Duck

If it walks like a duck and quacks like one, it is reasonable to conclude it is one. I am saddened to have to report that our Vice President is a Jew-hater. Vance declared that America will not be "subservient" to Israel. The Jewish State is a tiny democracy encircled by murderous tyrannies, being attacked on numerous fronts by folks that hate Americans and Christians about as much as they despise Jews. Israel is the world's front line against exterminationist jihad. The United States has never been "subservient" to Israel or the Jews, and JD is a Pat Buchanan-type instigator against the most beleaguered people on earth- who happen to be my people. Take a long walk off a short pier Vance. You will never have my vote. 

Chiefs Are Back

I attended a Kansas City game once that my hometown team was hosting. It would have been better from the Tennessee draft perspective if the Titans had lost that contest, so of course they beat the injury plagued Chiefs playing without Patrick Mahomes. Well, Mahomes was definitely back for the rgular season opening Monday Night football broadcast, and KC ripped up a Broncos squad thought to be contenders this year. One game does not a season make, but I would not be shocked if the Chiefs end up in the Super Bowl that will conclude this campaign. 

Titans Looked Awful

My hometown professional football team looked like the perennial losers that it is sadly clear they are becoming. The Tennessee Titans were trounced on their home field by the New York Jets, who have not exactly been contenders lately. To add insult to injury, the Nashville team was drubbed by the club that fired our new head coach Saleh a couple of years back presumably because he was unable to produce a winning team for them. It seems clear after Tennessee produced just ten points, including a meaningless touchdown at the end of the game when the Jets were already resting many defensive starters that the Titans offense is once again anemic at best. The Bears managed to score fifty-nine (59) in their season opener. Perhaps we can hire a coach off their staff or trade with them for an NFL-caliber starter. The boys in Columbia Blue have been abysmal the past two seasons, and it looks like three will not be the charm around which to turn their fortunes. 

Our "Dolly" Airport

Dolly Parton did right well for herself but always focused on helping others. I will be glad to have the airfield in my hometown of Nashville renamed for the great performer, who also took the initiative to increase literacy with her Imagination Library and gave a substantial amount to fund medical research. 

The Looming Debacle

The Republicans are about to lose control of both the United States House and Senate. They had a mid-term "convention", the first ever, to boost their prospects. It did NOT work. Most Americans tuned into something else, and the few watching were already GOP voters. Make no mistake- I want MAGA to prevail- but they will not. 

San Francisco's Season?

The 49ers have been a competitive football squad for a long while but of late, have had injuries to crucial players at the worst possible times. They utterly laid waste to a good and well-coached Rams team in the game from Australia broadcast last night. Brock Purdy is no Joe Montana or Steve Young, but his troops dominated a club that are no pushovers and look like real contenders for the Super Bowl if they stay healthy this year. 

Keeping the Faith

DemocRATS put party over country. John Fetterman is the notable exception to this. The Pennsylvania Senator places the nation and our People as his priorities over a sense of loyalty to a political organization that has left our Founding Principles far behind. The Republican Party is more loyal to the spirit of the Declaration and the Constitution than the opposition who sees Constitutional constraints as something that must be overcome. 

Sanctions Against Israel

Nations are siding with evil and murderous jihadists against the only genuine pluralistic and tolerant democracy in the Middle East. When you stand against the Jewish State, you become a supporter of terrorism. You facilitate the genocide of Jews by siding with their would-be murderers. 

Do Not Attend

Mayor Mamzer, please do not sully the memory of the fallen by imposing yourself where you are NOT wanted. Act like your side encouraged at the start of COVID and stay home! https://c.org/RcpKrS7FYz

Boycott the Jews

Well, not so great Britain is going to exclude goods from the so-called "occupied territories", which are the heartland of Biblical Israel. Other folks in times past directed similar sanctions on the Jewish People. They called themselves "Nazis". 

His Lead Blocker

If there is football in heaven, then Matt Suhey is opening the path for Walter Payton to score touchdowns again. The Good Lord must be seeing quite a display of Bears glory as the two great backs, but more than that, supremely generous people are reunited. 

Munich Basketball Referees

The officiating crew that worked the 1972 Olympic basketball game between the United States team and the men representing the now former Soviet Union rose from the grave to officiate the Western Michigan contest versus the home-standing colossus Wolverines last night. Western never stood a chance against the mighty squad in stripes. 

A Little Rain

My hometown of Nashville, Tennessee has been in a drought that was relieved a bit yesterday when there finally was some rain. It was not enough where we were able to break the dry spell, but it brought the temperature down from ninety-eight degrees to eighty-five. Some are still hawking "global warming" or "man-caused climate change", but I have witnessed this summer pattern here my entire life, and I am about to turn sixty (Lord willing). I believe it is just weather in a Tennessee summer, not some sky is falling new catastrophe that we must urgently address. 

To the Gun

You play till the final whistle or the blank fired to show time has run out. Both Colorado and Georgia Tech looked as if they had won with time rapidly dwindling in their televised contest. The visitors found themselves down with no timeouts and less than two minutes to play after a Tech field goal brought the host team's lead to six. Then, the Buffaloes rushed down field to score a touchdown with little time left to put themselves up by a single point. All was not lost though for Tech who followed brilliant Indiana transfer Mendoza down the field into field goal range in record time. Unfortunately for the Atlanta boys who had already blocked a field goal themselves, the mountain men had a trick up their sleeve and blocked a field goal attempt of their own to preserve the one point win. What excitement for a season-opening game, and may the rest of the year live up to this glorious beginning! 

Impose Knife Control

We must ban sharp pointy things and rocks too as they can be used to hurt folks. From now on, you will not be able to cut your meat or vegetables, so let us hope you have strong jaws and teeth, but do not dare bite anyone, or those chompers have to go as well. After all, we want to keep everybody safe. 

Summon Social Workers

The Times Square horror stabbings should demonstrate conclusively that the "abolish policing movement" does not have a leg to stand on, as having social workers as first responders would only have resulted in dead or wounded social workers and more innocent civilian deaths. Cops are not always right, but properly trained law enforcement is needed when someone attacks community members with potentially deadly force. Kitchen knives can kill and indeed, in this instance, did. We need professional policing to keep the citizenry safe. A social worker offering group therapy, classes, or a pamphlet would have only been stabbed themselves. Thank goodness the NYPD put an end to the stabbing spree. 

Just Abolish Police?

In recent election cycles, we have heard the far left demand that police (and also incidentally prisons) should be abolished. These radicals called our law enforcement "slave catchers". Cops are not perfect but are absolutely essential in preventing chaos. Without competent and professional policing, society would rapidly fall into bloody anarchy. Social workers would not have stopped the Times Square stabbing, but well-placed shots by the NYPD did, and that protected innocent lives.