Miami Accepts Independence Bowl Bid

Love and honor to Miami,
Our college old and grand,
Proudly we shall ever hail thee,
Over all the land.

Alma mater now we praise thee,
Sing joyfully this lay,
Love and honor to Miami,
Forever and a day.

Miami's season was not all that I wanted, but they really bounced back from some early set backs. Details here.

Also, Senior Football player Michael Larkin was involved in a altercation last night.

And So It Begins

This is just the begining.

What's Missing From This Article?

We are treated with a puff piece on Answers in Genesis about putting dinosaurs outside their re-education camp in Boone County Kentucky. We get the facts about how the group had to get zoning approval. We learned about how much they are funded. We learned that they have a 160 seat "classroom." We learned that they take the bible literally.

What we don't learn is that every educated scientist, scholar, and rational person finds that this group’s contention that the earth is 6,000 years old to be totally and completely false. It is a fact that the earth is billions of years old. I am sure they would rebut that, but I think my 9th Grade Earth Science professor presented enough information on rock formations, how rivers are formed, and carbon dating to suffice anyone willing to use logic instead of emotion. What was missing from the article was a simple sentence, after the telling of AIG's mission, stating that every other credible scientist believes that most of their claims are totally without merit, or something to that affect. I sent an email to the reporter asking some general question as to why this story was writing and how did the Enquirer become aware of it. If I get a response I will post it. I don’t expect one, but you never know. AIG gets heavy coverage by the Enquirer and from what I can find very little, if any, is negative.

One can disagree on the origin of "life," but anyone who thinks the Earth is only 6,000 years old is either incredibly stupid, ignorant, or just insane.

[Link via Wes Flinn]

GOP Self Congratulations

The GOP is dancing for joy at making a slight gain in the number of blacks voting for Bush. How did they do it? It was rather simple, appeal to anti-homosexual bigotry:

'But we are clearly gaining ground because our platform has placed a specific emphasis on social issues, which appeal to the black faith community,' he said.

When we hear "specific social issues" here in Ohio, we don't need any more detail about what they are talking about. There is a vocal anti-homosexual strain in the black community and it was exemplified by Fred Shuttlesworth. Picking off a few of the wealthy anti-homosexual blacks is like shoot fish in barrel. Invite them in and they go in freely. They fit in like a hotdog in a bun.

I don't believe this group of black Ohio Republicans won Ohio for Bush. They were as needed as every other vote was needed. This is no great feat for the GOP. This group is more conservative than half of the Bush supporters. What keeps them weary of the GOP is the racism and bigotry that still lives in significant numbers in their ranks. These particular blacks can afford to hold their noses with their wallets and stand next to people they might find repugnant. It is no different than the socially Liberal conservatives who gladly took the votes for Bush from theocratic anti-homosexual bigots. The smell of money overpowers the smell of Fascism, I guess.

Crime Story

Nick Spencer has chronicled yet another crime his bar has suffered. Nicks states that they got relatively lucky with this, but that is as he says "…as lucky as you can with a window busted out at 7 in the morning." Nick puts the issue in clear as day language:

For those keeping track, we've been open two months now. We've now been broken into, one of our employees' had their car stolen, another two cars broken have been broken into, not to mention all the drug dealing and prostitution across the street, and its negative impact on business.

Crime is just out of control down here right now. Period.

Now, what I hope people say is, "See man, Downtown is not safe." Downtown is safe. This is OTR. OTR has huge problems. Not the level of problems those who fear Downtown thinks it has, but enough to disrupt life of those who live, work, and do business there. What OTR lacks is a solution. The problem I believe rests with police-community relations. The cops have given up leaning hard on criminals. They fear being blamed for what ever happens. I can understand that. What they have to understand is that they can't go on thinking that they are superheroes who should be kowtowed to every time their contract comes up. They should allow bad cops to be fired by reduced the binding arbitration that keeps bad cops on the force. The leadership of the police has to eliminate their attitude of classism, bigotry, and on a small level racism by a few.

On the community's side we must root out the criminals. We can't let them run the streets. This is where the boycotters have let down their own constituents. They have created the same us vs. them attitude that the leadership of police have created. Ego, pride, bigotry, and racism are what is allowing drug dealers to go unpunished.

What I think I would advocate would be for a private group/company/person to mount video cameras outside their places of business and tape the crimes going on. If drug dealers camp out on a corner, then tape them doing their business and pass a copy along to the cops. If you also get some license plate numbers of drug customers I would pass those along to the media.

If the government were to do this without cause, I would oppose it. If a business owner were to do it from their property, I would have no problem at all. What keeps this from happening more is cost, in both dollars and time. That is where the city might be able to offer loans of some type to help. I don't think they could pay for them outright. That might raise issues of the property owners being agents of the police, opening up possible legal defense issues.

The citizens need to fight crime, not be bystanders.

Another idea could be a take back the streets initiative. A neighborhood watch type program. It could start with a gathering in the effected areas. If 500 people are standing around where the crime is happening, one would think less crime would happen. This would be met with fear though. It comes close to vigilantism, something which I absolutely oppose. The problem with any action like this is that most people don’t given a damn. Now, they care about it and will give support for helping with it, but actually doing something, that is a different story. I can speak from personal experienced. I would be right there with those doing nothing, sitting on my fat ass watching TV. We all must do more, but I think we will not get out and get involved. A head in the sand is so much easier than sticking out a neck.

Greg Hoard Leaving TV

WXIX Sports Director Greg Hoard is leaving the station at the end of the year. The sports on WXIX was the best element of the station. Both Hoards made a great team. The article points out that Greg Hoard often felt out of place on TV. Looking back I would agree that was the noticeable something about his style. It was like he really did not want to be doing what he was doing. I hope WXIX takes Dan Hoard quick. He is likely to be picked up soon as a play-by-play guy by someone full time. He does a good job with the UC games on the radio.

Oh the Symbolism

One can't look at the picture accompanying this article and not see it as some type of symbolic sign from Zeus.

[Via Kevin Drum]