An Inflection Point

The looming election will have consequence that reverberate across time. Either we remain a nation of law and order and stand by our Founding Values, or we are set upon by abolish police and prison radicals who want to end the institutions that have governed us for generations. The contrast is a sharp one. If you are for freedom and prosperity vote Republican; otherwise, the disintegration of America begins. 

Our Civic Duty

Even if you think all the candidates are skunks, go out and vote. Just pick the one you think stinks the least. 

First, Restore Order

France is ablaze. It is not the whole country but significant portions of major cities where chaos reigns. It is NOT disaffected "students" roiling the street. It is Arabs and Africans, largely Muslim, doing so, with some recent entries into France among the rioters, but disturbingly also the children and grandchildren of Algerian, Tunisian, Moroccan, and sub-Saharan Africans who established family in France decades ago, some having left colonies of France generations back. yet their progeny are on the street destroying the nation that welcomed their grandparents. Are there Communists and anarchists involved? Certainly, but most "rebels" are Muslims, some acting as opportunists simply taking advantage of a chance to loot, but the more politically aware using it as a demonstration of dominance to show French whose families have always been there that they are no longer of consequence and that Islam is the real power now.  It will take lethal force to calm the street. I do not believe the French government as currently constituted has the will to do what is necessary to end the "revolution". 

Lose Them All?

My hometown Tennessee Titans might not be the worst team in professional football, but it is sadly undeniable that they are among the worst teams ever in the NFL. They did manage to beat a woeful Colts team today, but only managed to generate a single offensive touchdown. That proved to be enough as Daniel Jones played like Daniel Jones, which makes it extremely tough for Indianapolis. 

The South Shakes

The earth will quake today in Knoxville as the football team from the University of Alabama, a dreaded rival, comes rolling in to face the home-standing Volunteers. The Crimson Tide arrive seeing red as they feel (with justification) that the officiating crew took a win away from them against the Georgia Bulldogs. They seem to be the superior team on paper to Tennessee, but playing at home should give the Big Orange a bit of a boost. With each team already suffering a loss, a second defeat will definitely end national and conference title hopes, while the winner can still hope to be in the championship mix. As a lifelong Tennessean who has had friends and a relative play football for the Vols, I hope my side shocks the world and delivers another "L" to the boys from Tuscaloosa. 

Dodgers Are Done

I was rooting for Los Angeles. Mookie Betts is from my hometown. They just could not overcome the Brewers, who are a complete team this year and are hot at the perfect time this season. Hats off to Milwaukee. They earned their wins. 

Dodgers Are Down

The Los Angeles powerhouse that won the last two World Series seems to be out of juice. Of course not having Shohei Ohtani, arguably the greatest all-around player since Babe Ruth, healthy has slowed the Dodgers down, but on paper, they still seem extremely formidable. Unfortunately for LA, the games are being contested on the baseball diamond and not a piece of paper, and the Brewers are pounding them. Each game has its own momentum, so Los Angeles may certainly come alive in Game Four to avoid the sweep, but it will be a miracle if the ailing Dodgers somehow put together four wins in a row. 

Question of Costs

Does anyone remember those days of yore when Faded Joe was the nominal President, and the puppeteers pulling his strings and running (ruining) our nation were doing all they could to force us into "Green" energy by limiting our access to and surging the prices of fossil fuels while saying nuclear, the low cost alternative, was forbidden because of a whole cloth China Syndrome fear? I remember, and does anybody have an inkling of what everything would cost if we were suffering through nuclear winter after Iran nuked Tel Aviv or was merely using their newly acquired atomic weapons to blackmail Riyadh and extort the other oil=producing states of the Middle East? 

Stop This Ride

Apparently, actress Selma Blair had some sort of issue in the vehicle in which she was being transported. If that happens on a train or bus, generally you can pull a designated cord and be permitted off, Unfortunately for Selma that does not work on airplanes, and she may well have taken her last commercial flight. 

Josh Allen Shines

Josh Allen is a marvelous quarterback. He has a strong and accurate throwing arm and a relatively quick release (though in that aspect he is no Dan Marino or even Tom Brady). He does not have Michael Vick or Lamar Jackson type speed, but he is a great running qb and trying to bring him down is like attempting to tackle a really good yards after contact tight end as Josh is about six-five and two forty, and exceptionally strong for his size. Allen has not yet won a Super Bowl ring and might never, but he has all the tools to be a champion. 

The Titan Mortification

My hometown Tennessee Titans are not just a bad football team but an historically awful one. I had family in the Tampa area when the Buccaneers set several marks for futility, but that was at the inception of that franchise as an expansion team, comprised mainly of the castoffs of other teams. The Titans are an old club that was winning titles before the merger in the former American Football League. Now, they have fallen to depths so low that they make bad teams look like world beaters. Yesterday, they made their fellow winless Houston Texans, the arch-rival team from the city they abandoned, look like Super Bowl contenders by getting smashed by a tally of twenty-six to three. After the initial drive of the game where Tennessee made a field goal, the boys in blue were supine the rest of the contest. Yes, sadly, the Titans are the worst non-expansion outfit in the history of professional football. 

Alabama Was Robbed

I am no particular fan of the Crimson Tide but recognize a theft when I see it. Georgia did not beat Alabama last night, but the officials sure did. As a lifelong Tennessean, I will be rooting for my Vols this coming Saturday, and therefore, sure hope the same referee who handed the Bulldogs victory is there to help my Big Orange win over the team from Tuscaloosa. 

A Real Chance

My hometown Titans have a real shot at a victory Sunday. It is sadly not as if Tennessee has become a good football team. It is because the visiting team, our Division rival Houston, is not any good either. At 0 and four, the Texans are in the race to the bottom with our boys in blue. I would say someone is finally going to emerge from this game with a win, but justice or irony might find the contest knotted up at the end in a tie ballgame. 

Past His Prime?

King James remains a mighty good forward but even he can't defeat Father Time. LeBron is not as quick as he once was, but he is likely more savvy than he ever was, as he has accumulated more on-court experience than any other player. Does Philadelphia automatically become a championship contender because the King has arrived? I would say not necessarily, but if Embiid can stay healthy the entire season, he and James make a formidable tandem, surrounded by what should be a very solid team. 

The Winning Hand

Let us assume that figures touted by Muslims are correct or nearly so. Two billion Muslims can't be wrong or stopped or even resisted very long. The true face of Islam is not that bend over backwards cab driver who helped you navigate New York City (but also gladly voted for his fellow Muslim to be Mayor). The face of Islam is the terrorist who strangled the Bibas baby. The face is the Iranian prison guard who participated in raping the nineteen year old street demonstrator he is going to hang from a crane in the morning, because he believes he is taking away her chance to enter heaven by robbing her of virginity before he takes her life. Islam is no "religion of peace" but a death and murder cult that is trying to capture the entire world and seems to be winning in that effort. 

Three Years Hence

On this anniversary marking three years since the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, Israel, the alleged power in the region, has NOT been able to vanquish Hamas or take full control of Gaza, even though the Jewish State is backed by the superpower of the world, the United States. Sure, the IDF has martyred many terrorists, but for each the Jews kill, ten rise up to resist in the name of the shahid. There was no question at the end of 1945 who had won the war in Europe with German cities flattened, the country divided in occupation, and every woman who was not hideous to look at in the Soviet Zone raped by Russian soldiers. Payback for the crimes of Nazism bore a heavy price. Revenge on Hamas for their atrocities has not ended their ruthless rule and control over much of Gaza. Israel has undeniably failed. 

The Good France

Students and schools are only a pretext for the rioting rending France. Yes, some school age people are indeed participating in the violence, but for every schoolchild, there are young Muslim men, and then there are Africans who are primarily though not necessarily Muslims, and finally there are whites, largely in their twenties who are Communists and/or ANTIFA, or anarchists. Some "kids" are indeed a part of it, but the vast majority of thugs on the street are not protesting for better education and environments to learn in, but to bring down France. 

Not Quite There

My hometown Tennessee Titans made a game of it in the end on the scoreboard at least, but still chalked up another loss. Our defense did manage to knock Lamar Jackson, one of the most dynamic quarterbacks, out of the game, but his backup went eight for nine passes against the Titan defense that seemed especially porous throughout the contest.  Zay Flowers, who is a solid receiver, looked like an all-time great with the Titans allowing catch after catch, and face it, Zay is a feisty competitor who plays his heart out despite being undersized, but he should not be able to put up Randy Moss numbers against an NFL opponent. Baltimore is a contender for the playoffs, while our boys seem now to be a lock to earn a very early draft pick. 

My Titans Take

Tennessee will be pecked to death by the Ravens today. Lamar Jackson is better than Cam Ward, more athletic and with vast experience. Tony Pollard is a solid NFL starting running back, but Derrick Henry is arguably the best at that position in a generation, well above the ability that the Titan rusher possesses. I would say the only place in the starting offense or defense where Tennessee has the edge is Jeffery Simmons will be the best lineman on the field on either side of the ball for either team, but that will not stop Baltimore from a dominant victory over my hometown pro football franchise, that is sadly among the worst in the League.  

Our Evil Tinkerbell

It would be hard to argue that at points in her life Christa Pike was not bad beyond redemption, as when she participated in the murder of another young woman also in her late teens, and when she and a fellow inmate tried to kill another offender imprisoned with them. That being said, I do not think the moral compass of my home state should be guided by vengeance alone, but also must be tempered with mercy. I think Governor Lee, if he has any decency at all, should now commute Pike's sentence to spare her any future second attempt at execution. If she survives the effects of the two lethal doses she was administered (that in my mind became cruel and unusual punishment), she should be left to live out the course of her natural life without fear of further torture. Pike, if she lives through this at all, will likely face profound and lifelong damage and disability from what was already done to her, with cognitive and motor impairment almost certain. She has been made to suffer too much already, and our term-limited Governor must take this into account and not keep a sword of Damocles over her head, if she somehow emerges alive from hospitalization and rehabilitation from the State's clumsy attempt at killing her. 

Capital Punishment Reform

If the state is going to kill someone, they should do it quickly, efficiently, and with as little pain as possible inflicted on the offender. I knew one of the wardens who electrocuted murderers at our state prison. Warden Neal said the process was not torturous, and he believed the inmate felt little if any pain because the current moved faster than the neurons that convey pain signals to the brain. We still have a functioning electric chair in Nashville. I do not think firing squads are necessary to terminate those sentenced to die. The Communist Chinese use a single shot to the base of the skull where it connects to the neck, and is almost always quickly fatal. That is messy to the condemned and those who witness it, but there is a speed and certainty to it. I do not think Christa Pike is among the worst of the worst, just a woman who was under the influence of drugs and at only eighteen when she participated in a brutal murder, too young to have her cerebral cortex fully developed to make fully rational decisions that an older person likely might have. I am not saying Pike is an exemplary or even decent person, but she did NOT deserve to be tortured relentlessly by my homestate acting in my name, but against my conscience. 

Sanctions Against Israel?

The tiny beleaguered nation whose intelligence services help keep the world safe from terrorism is being sanctioned by numerous countries that have let in and loosed a raping foreign horde on the women who live those places benighted by Jew-hate going back to the Holocaust or even before the Nazis attacked their countries. Not only do these Jew-haters not defend those vulnerable to Muslim rape gangs, they threaten people who bring in goods from certain parts of Israel with prison, when it is the Israelis who have often put them on alert and saved them from jihadist violence. 

Double the Shame

If the stakes of torture in an attempt at killing were not so consequential, I would say my home state of Tennessee just beclowned itself, They could have had a street thug with an aluminum bat do a better job of finishing off poor Christa Pike than a so-called "doctor" and "highly-trained" execution team did. I do not know how this "physician" is allowed to remain in his metier after two botched attempts to kill inmates this year, that this fool was so incompetent at that his efforts bear the hallmarks of sadism, Beyond that, is deliberately participating in the taking of the life of a "patient" not a violation of the Hippocratic Oath, even if one is so clumsy that the effort fails and the agonized "victim" survives?