Game Results

Just to update the results from Friday night. Columbus North defeated the third-ranked Center Grove team 23-7. Reports from the game were that the score is much closer than the real game, which it's said could easily have seen North with a score in the 30's.

On paper, this team should not face another major challenge until the Semi-State game. But of course it's never wise to take games for granted in the playoffs. Plus, there are reports that several players got banged up in the Center Grove game, so some may not be available for this Friday's sectional championship game.

Turns out I can't make it to this week's game either - I won't get back from this week's trip until after the game's over, most likely.

It's fun to follow anyway.

Friday Night Football

There's nothing quite like high school football on a Friday night. Tonight in Indiana it's round 2 of the sectional playoffs for the 5 classes. Too bad I won't be able to catch a game in person, but hopefully I'll be able to pull in a game on the radio as I drive this evening.

Of particular interest for me is the hometown Columbus North team visiting Center Grove. Center Grove is ranked third in the state, and North 6th. Each has one loss, each to a different top-10 team. North's loss was at the state's #1 team, Pike, and Center Grove's loss was by a touchdown to the defending state champions, the dominant Warren Central.

It's difficult to handicap this game, because the two teams play in different conferences and have few common opponents. Center Grove would appear to have an edge in tonight's game, if only because the game's being played on their home field.

Columbus North has a big, strong, and dominant offensive line. Their main running back, Alex Turner, has over 1200 yards rushing for the year. Turner has had some injury issues, but his replacement, sophomore running back Austin Streeval, has been nearly as effective for almost 450 yards this season.

Mike Hladik is a tall 6'4 quarterback with a good arm, throwing for a bit under 1,700 yards for 17 touchdowns with only 2 interceptions for the season. He spreads the ball among several receivers, the most productive of which is Brayden Barthlow, with over 600 yards and 7 touchdowns on 34 catches.

The defense is solid, especially against the run. They've shut down the running game of almost every team the Bulldogs have faced all year. The defensive front are big, strong, and quick, and very good at pressuring opposing quarterbacks.

Overall, Columbus North has something like 19 senior starters, all of whom bring experience from last season's final four team. This may be the best team to ever play at Columbus North High School, regardless of whether they can win tonight and advance to the Sectional Final.

The weaknesses of North's team are few but important. Pike was able to win largely by stacking 9 players at the line of scrimmage to stop the run, daring North to use the passing game. It worked for Pike, but did not work for subsequent teams that tried the same strategy. Either the Bulldogs did a good job learning from the Pike loss, or the other teams just didn't have the athletes Pike brought to the strategy. I think perhaps a little of both is true.

Mike Hladik can be impressive with both his accuracy in shorter passes and his strength in long completions down the field. However, he has been known to have trouble with his accuracy in big games. When playing against a strong opponent, Hladik has a tendency to let the adrenaline take over, which results in overthrows of open receivers.

The weakness in the passing game isn't limited to Hladik's nerves, though. An equal or possibly higher percentage of blame can reasonably be assessed his receivers. Hladik's passes are often dropped by the receiving corps, especially in the big games. At the high school level, one of the hardest things to teach receivers is to focus on making the catch first and foremost. The tendency to think about the move to be made on the defender or running in for the touchdown causes a drop in concentration on the catch, thus the frequent drops by North receivers.

The weakness in North's defense has been against the pass. Most teams have not been effective in the passing game against North because of the pressure the front line can put on the quarterback. Sacks are common, as are rushed and deflected passing attempts. But against Pike, North's defensive line were well blocked by the opponent's offensive line and were unable to put their customary pressure on the quarterback. Pike won the game with the pass, and did very little rushing.

North's defensive backfield are tough tacklers and big hitters, but struggle in pass coverage. Whether Center Grove can exploit this or not remains to be seen. Center Grove, from reports I've seen, is mostly a run-oriented offense.

On a rainy friday night near Indianapolis, I think the game will be decided by the big guys up front. If North's run defense remains stout against what's sure to be a strong Center Grove running game, then maybe North's passing game can be the difference.

I'll have to be satisfied with the local newspaper's description of the game, since I won't be able to see it or hear it on the radio. I hope for a Columbus North win, so I can catch their next playoff game (if I can be in town for a change).

It's Bush's Fault of Course

Why am I not surprised.

The California wildfires are slowly dying down or being extinguished. Evacuations seem to have gone as smoothly as can be expected, plenty of shelter and supplies have been made available to those who need them (and taken by many who don't), and things will return to normal soon.

But the partisans can't just leave it at that. The Left, through their willing media outlets, are working feverishly to find angles allowing them to blame George W. Bush.

Among ideas they've been floating:

The fires happened because of drought that happened because of Global Warming which Bush refuses to acknowledge or do anything about.

This is turning into another Katrina. (This one isn't working very well, because it clearly isn't)

Key military resources, personnel and equipment, aren't available to assist because they're in Iraq. (Actually not true, and the National Guard hasn't even been requested, and probably won't be needed.)

Bush is heading to SoCal today, where he will be treated politely but will be a distraction and just get in the way. This according to California's Lt. Governor, who also holds a prominent spot on the global warming and Iraq bandwagon.

Probably the worst thing said on the Right, at least that I've heard anyway, is that the fires are made much worse than they have to be because of the idiocy of California's environmental regulations that won't allow anyone to clear dead wood and brush or do other sensible things to reduce the risk of out-of-control wildfires.

It's been said that some right-wingers have been blaming illegal immigrants for setting the fires. I haven't encountered that. But it seems a far cry to compare a few right-wing bloggers to ABC, NBC, and CBS reporters involved in the left-wing fingerpointing.

If there's one positive that we can all look forward to in next year's presidential election, it's that we can finally escape the pinata the Left has made of George Bush. Unfortunately, if a Republican wins, he will immediately be hoisted by the Left as the new pinata. Then again, if Hillary wins, conservatism will be outlawed.

A poor choice.

Talkin' Football

Watched the Colts and Jaguars last night, and was struck by how the commentators spent more time talking about the New England Patriots than the Colts and Jags.

The hype has been huge around the Patriots, who are not only undefeated, but haven't really been challenged so far this season. They've had a negative issue involving stealing signals from their opponents using videotape. But they fixed a problem from last year with their sub-par receiving corps by signing Randy Moss and Wes Welker. (Randy Moss signing with the Patriots has to be unfair. I wonder if they're cheating on the salary cap a la the 49ers?)

Anyway, I have a few observations:

How many people do they actually need for a Monday night football telecast? Between the studio hosts, the special commentators at the stadium, the actual game announcers, and the two sideline reporterettes, they must have a whole army of people needing face time. It's a wonder we ever got to see the game itself.

They appear to give the Colts respect, but it's obvious that every one of the talking army is drooling over the Patriots. They are fervently hoping that the Patriots stomp the Colts in Indy two weeks from now so they can continue their "best team ever" hype. Some of them even held out hope before the game that the Jags would win, so they could cross the Colts off the list and focus just on their heroic Pats.

I wonder just a bit whether some of these guys might be thrilled more by having something to talk about. Two dominant and undefeated teams on a collision course makes a great storyline for them, I suppose. It's just that they've already scripted their ending to that storyline (Patriots beat Colts and proceed to another Super Bowl victory).

Not only do they seem to be favoring New England, but I also get the sense they really dislike the Colts. The occasional snide comment about Peyton's commercials pops up, along with suggestions that the Patriots just had a "down year" last year. Some seemed disappointed, while certainly surprised, that the Colt defense was able to shut down Jacksonville's running game.

I have no idea how the Colts will fare against the Patriots two weeks from now. I won't even try to predict a victor or even guess at how many points will be scored in the game.

But I will be watching closely to see how the commentator army reacts. If the Pats win, will I be right about them all predicting an undefeated season for New England on the way to a dominating Super Bowl victory? If the Colts win, will it be attributed to a New England injury or bad play call or bad officiating? If the Colts win, will they start talking about whether the Colts can go undefeated?

I think I know the answers, but will be interested to confirm them.

As far as the Colts going undefeated, it won't happen. Not because it can't. But because they will choose not to go undefeated. For proof, just look at the past. The Colts had a legitimate chance to go undefeated for the season a couple years ago. But when they solidified first place in their division and homefield through the playoffs, they took out their key starters and lost two of three.

Now I'm wondering if it's wise to rest your starters that long. I think it can lead to rust, throw off timing, and maybe even get the starters a bit soft and complacent. But we can be sure that the Colts won't take any risks once they have met their goals for the playoffs. And that means they'll play a game or two with backups and most likely lose those games.

The simplest thing commentators can say this year (which they have said), is that we will probably see Indy and New England in the AFC Championship game, and that game will be the de-facto Super Bowl. because whatever team the NFC puts into the Super Bowl will probably have no shot against either of these teams.

Barring injury or disaster for one or both teams, of course.

Motives Move Distrust

The chasm between two political extremes is built fundamentally on distrust. That distrust causes each side to believe the worst in what motivates the other side to hold and protect their beliefs.

The Left fears Christians, strangely even more than they fear radical Islamists. The fear seems to come from a vision of the country ruled by some version of the KKK, which persecutes non-Christians and especially atheists. Which tosses women who have had abortions in prison. Which imposes Christianity on schoolchildren. And somehow - I'm not sure where this one comes from, but it seems to be there - persecutes and openly discriminates against racial minorities.

The right fears a left-wing totalitarian communistic government. Like Communist societies seen in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and now Venezuela, free speech is muzzled, religion is outlawed, children are indoctrinated in atheism and sexual deviance in schools. That homes will be taken away and given to the socialist elites, while everyone else is forced to live in government-assigned high-rise housing. Government confiscates all private property and nationalizes all businesses, instituting a national wage that's the same for everyone. Each person is assigned a job by the government, and must apply for government permission if they wish to travel.

Are there people on the right who dream of implementing the Left's nightmare? Maybe, but I've never met one. What about on the Left? I think there may be some.

The truth, I think, is that there's a sort of bell curve on political beliefs. The vast majority of the people are somewhere between slightly left or slightly right of center. As long as that holds, I don't think either side has too much to fear from the other.

That said, I judge the Democrat front-runner, Hillary Clinton, to be much further left of center than most people realize. That concerns me, but I suspect that will be revealed during the inevitable debates between the conventions and the election. On the other hand, the Republican field isn't really that far right of center; in fact, it appears that Giuliani's further left than many people realize.

Interesting that the Republican field sits right around the middle of the bell curve, while the Democrats all fall well to the left. It seems that protestations against the "right wing" are rather baseless, at least when measured against the field of presidential candidates.

On a side note, I'm noticing there seems to be a growing movement among conservatives behind Mike Huckabee. Wouldn't it be interesting if we actually elect a second president in the same era from the tiny town of Hope, Arkansas?

Disturbing News

Sometimes I want to stop watching and reading the news. Like yesterday, for example.

The sum total of disturbing stories get me down. They make me wonder if these items are just isolated cases based on a few insane people, or if they're an indication of how far we have fallen as a society.

The stories from yesterday that I found particularly disturbing:

Pete Stark, a congressman from California. What he said publicly on the floor of the House yesterday may reach an all-time low for partisan rhetoric. What makes it even worse is that so far nobody from his party has disavowed his hateful comments. Speaker Pelosi actually praised him.

Portland Maine deciding to provide birth control pills to middle-school students without parental consent. Girls between 11 and 14 now can get the pill from the school nurse, who will help her hide the fact from her parents. Explain to me how anybody, anywhere, would be OK with that? No wonder our public schools are such a disaster.

Al Quaeda tried to blow up Benazir Bhutto when she finally returned to Pakistan from exile. They missed her, but killed well over 100 innocent people. Most likely, bin Laden himself is in Pakistan, but nobody has the courage to root him and his band of renegade thugs out. The question that should be asked is whether Musharraf really cares whether Bhutto is safe to return to Pakistan?

Not to mention, of course, my frustration with the mainline television networks who manage every story to drive their propagandist agenda. That being to elect Hillary president next year, of course.

Vandals

The high school football site I maintain was vandalized this morning. I discovered it by chance, really, when I just happened to click into the site and find a bogus "Art Department" page where the football website should have been. Turns out they trashed every page, so I reloaded the site.

I'm trying to get in touch with someone at the school to change the passwords and hopefully at least slow down the vandal. Hope they don't come back and wreck it again in the meantime.

Wonder whether it was some kid from an opposing school, or maybe even a student from the same school who likes to hack and vandalize.

Come to think of it, wouldn't it be cool to get the same vandal to trash some really obnoxious sites? Like redirect, say, MoveOn.Org to RushLimbaugh.Com? Sounds like fun.

Not that I'd actually condone such behavior, of course.

Envirinsanity

A new little word I made up to represent the current state of rhetoric, especially as it relates to Global Warming.

Al Gore gets the Nobel Peace Prize for his mostly false and misleading global warming advocacy movie. What does his movie possibly have to do with peace? What does this say about the Nobel prizes in general?

So a huge segment of the population takes it on faith that the planet has a fever. And it's our fault. Not only the general us, as in the earth's human population, but specifically us, as in pampered, energy-hogging Americans.

I'd be willing to make a bet that 10 years from now, serious scientists, if there are any left, will look back on these times of global warming hysteria and laugh at how stupid and naieve we were.

The creatively offensive term for people like me these days is "global warming denier". Notice it evokes "holocaust denier", which of course is a roundabout way of calling anybody who questions the global warming religion or its high priest Al, a Nazi. Real friendly folks out there on the left these days.

Hey, I'm all for practical and responsible conservation. Clean air and water are important to me. I just don't subscribe to the notion that we must turn to a lower living standard and socialist government control to accomplish them.

I could respect the greenies if they were advocating little ways we all can help reduce pollution. If they want to encourage everybody to voluntarily conserve energy wherever they can, no problem. Where they run off the rails is with their advocacy of setting up energy quotas, or "carbon footprints", and essentially levying big taxes on people who use more than their allotted quota. That's government oppression.

Then there are the other popular measures being advocated. They sound good on the surface, but not so good if you do just a bit of research.

Energy Independence: What does that mean, really? That we no longer need to import oil from countries that hate us? OK, so how do we do that? The same people shouting loudest about this topic won't allow any more oil exploration in US territories. We've got plenty of coal, but they won't allow that because it's dirty. Nuclear is a very clean energy option, but they hate nuclear technology out of fear of a Chernobyl event.

So what are they pushing instead? Wind? Not all that terrific an alternative - check it out. Solar? We've been trying that for 40 years, and still can't get it to work. Ethanol? Tell me what makes sense about taking our food and converting it to fuel that isn't really that efficient and doesn't actually reduce pollution all that much.

Don't get me started on the hybrid cars. It seems to be a hugely successful marketing campaign that has tricked a huge segment of the population into paying more for vehicles that do nothing to improve the environment.

I'm struck by the lack of curiosity among most people on this and nearly every other important topic of our age. Why are so many happy to accept whatever they're told by celebrities and a politically orchestrated news media without so much as checking to see if there's another side to the story?

That's the bigger question.

Football

My indulgence is Football. The best part about this time of year is plenty of football. I like it all, from high school to college to the NFL.

The local high school teams are both very good again this year. Columbus North was tripped by Indianapolis Pike a couple weeks back for their only loss so far, and East's only loss is to their crosstown rivals. I enjoy going out to the high school games, not just for the football, but for the overall atmosphere.

Think things have changed over all these decades of high school football games on autumn Friday nights? Not much, as far as I can tell. The parents in the stands rooting for their kid (whether playing football or a band instrument), middle-school kids wandering in packs trying to be "cool" (or whatever word passes for "cool" these days), high schoolers trying to impress each other. I don't see any real difference from xx years ago when I was one of those junior-high kids or a football player on the field. Take my generation and drop them into the Columbus North football stadium and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

I enjoy seeing the senior players, playing as hard as they can to make their last few weeks as an athlete memorable. And the young players, itching for a chance to show what they can do under the lights with the varsity. The marching band, with their intricate marching patterns and enthusiasm for their music. What better chance is there to experience real life and real people getting together for an event they can all share.

It's my favorite pastime to catch the high school team, my favorite college teams (Notre Dame, Indiana, South Carolina, maybe Purdue), and the Colts every weekend as the leaves turn and the weather gets colder.

Censorship

It was only yesterday that I caught up with the current dustup over Rush Limbaugh and "phony soldiers". In a mind-boggling move, Harry Reid put through a resolution condemning a radio talk show host for calling soldiers who are against the Iraq war "phony soldiers".

Since when does congress introduce resolutions to slap down people outside of government for something they said? In this case, Limbaugh is outraged and is shouting from the rooftops that he never said what Reid and the Democrats accuse him of saying. As far as I can tell, he's right - the entire kerfluffle is based on a false story. Notice that not a single Democrat on this particular Limbaugh destroy mission has even attempted to contact him directly to hear his side of the story; they have tried and convicted him without any interest in the facts.

The bigger story here is about censorship. Even if Rush did say that all soldiers who personally oppose the war or are Democrats or have green eyes are "phony soldiers", so what? As I recall, people like Jack Murtha, Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy, and Harry Reid himself have said far more insulting and damaging things about our troops than that. If the standard is to pass resolutions condemning private citizens for saying mean things to people, then I would suggest resolutions must be passed against most Hollywood activist actors, activist entertainers, Bill Maher, and the entire Air America talk radio host lineup. Nearly all have made far more inflammatory and insulting statements about the troops, the President and Vice President, Condi Rice, Don Rumsfeld, and just about every other Republican in government.

The best that can be said about this event is that it's simply a Democrat political ploy to attempt to create a story that cancels out the "General Betray Us" ad from their puppet masters at MoveOn.org. I hope that's as far as it goes, but fear it might go farther.

Despite their protestations to the contrary, Hillary has already taken credit for establishing the group that "exposed" Rush's seemingly insulting comment about "phony soldiers". The organization, basically a website called Media Matters for America, defines its mission statement as:

Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.

They seem to want to be the left's answer to mediaresearch.org , which is a conservative website dedicated to pointing out liberal bias in the news media.

There are some very important differences between the two groups. While Media Research is about educating people about media bias, Media Matters is an activist group demanding action to shut down what they consider lying conservative propagandists. Media Research does not solicit funds for political action, nor do they exhort their visitors to demand action from legislators. Media Matters is all about such political action.

Most importantly, both groups claim to be independent media research organizations. Media Matters is not; they belong to Hillary Clinton and MoveOn.org.

Think of it this way: An organization dedicated to silencing conservative voices, particularly focused on Talk Radio, which is the primary home for those voices, is financed and given their direction by a candidate for President of the United States. I think that's very dangerous.

People scoff at the discussions of instituting the "Fairness Doctrine" for Talk Radio. When it firzt came up, I did too. But now I'm not so sure. Regardless of what you might think about the bombastic Limbaugh, his right to say whatever he wants to anyone who cares to listen is protected by one of the founding rights and principles of our country - freedom of speech. For the first time in my lifetime, I am actually seeing a serious effort by a political party to silence him.

I don't care which side of the political aisle you align yourself - if the citizens of the country don't stand up and demand politicians stop trying to silence people they don't like, our freedoms will be lost.

Why Do They Self-Destruct?

Ricky wants to come back. Ricky Williams, that is - remember the running back Mike Ditka bet his coaching job to draft for New Orleans? The same guy who got traded to Miami, then decided to take a year off. Then when he came back, his heart wasn't in it and he got booted out of the NFL for drugs.

Now apparently he's a new man. I suppose running out of money can do that to you.

The bigger question with Ricky, as with all sorts of celebrity types, is why? Why do people who seem to have the world at their feet often mess it up?

For Ricky, the message was clear - if we catch you smoking weed again, you're out. The logical response would seem to be to cut all drugs out, because why throw away millions of dollars playing football on some giggle weeds? But Ricky apparently had no logic, and he promptly was caught and kicked out.

I would think that the NFL wants more than just his word that he's cleaned up his act and is ready to be a good boy. If Ricky can prove that he's been clean for the past 12 months or more, maybe that could buy him a chance to try out for an NFL team again. I think the Dolphins can decide first whether it's their team he'll be trying out for.

If I were the NFL commissioner, I'd probably do this: Allow Ricky to return to the league next season beginning with training camp. If he is tested regularly and stays clean all that time, he will be cleared to join the Dolphins, or they can trade or release him as they see fit. Assuming he makes a roster next season, he will be subject to routine drug tests that he must pass to continue playing. One failed drug test equals permanent suspension.

Think he could pull it off? Based on others like him, I sort of doubt it. But wouldn't it make a great story if he could get back in the league, play at his former all-star ability, and become a spokesman for the anti-drug message?

Miracles do happen now and then.