Vox Popoli

1. Can we end the Michael Vick: Superstar nonsense? He’s not a superstar, in fact, he’s not even a star. He’s nothing but a sub-par quarterback in the Kordell Stewart mode at this point. Sure, he doesn’t have good receivers, but going 7-21, 119 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT against the Kansas City defense, (which is admittedly playing better this year, thought it would have been hard to do worse), is ridiculous. Drew Brees could make a far more reasonable claim to stardom.

2. The Patriots are a machine. But you have to respect Herm Edwards and his stones of steel. Going for it on fourth down inside his own thirty with seven minutes left was the right call, but it was an extremely gutsy one. You can’t beat the champ on points.

3a. Despite the win, the Patriots cheerleaders did not display cold weather cheerbabe professionalism. You know the Eagles girls would have been out there in their Vera Wang hot shorts, heck, they’d probably wear what they are not exactly wearing in their lingerie calendar if the team would only let them. They may not be the most attractive cheerleader corps out there, but you have to respect their weirdly competitive spirit.

3b. No other cheerleading corps does so little with so much sartorial possibility as the Vikings cheerleaders. The blueish purple doesn’t even match the royal purple of the team’s jerseys, for crying out loud. Let’s see some leather, chains and wolf furs instead.

4. It’s nice to see the Vikings win a game they should win against an inferior team. People are rightly blown away by Daunte’s 5-TD games, but it’s his one interception in six games that impresses me most. He even runs out of bounds instead of trying to plow over linebackers for an extra yard on first down now. That’s called the wisdom of experience.

5. I liked Jack del Rio as a player, (although not as much as some….) I think I like him even better as a coach. Did you have them in first place in the AFC South at this point? I sure didn’t.

6. Is Mike Martz certifiably insane? I just want to get a doctor’s opinion on this. I have no clue what he’s trying to do and I’m not sure anyone on his staff does either.

7. Ahman Green is back. Yes! Now, the Sports Guy is probably right in saying that Mike Sherman is a horrible coach, but it doesn’t take a rocket science to note that there is a causal relationship between Ahman carrying the ball and the Packers’ ability to win. Mike Fisher did the right thing in playing ball control to slow down the Vikings as did Jack del Rio with Indy yesterday. Mike Sherman tried to shoot it out with Indy in the RCA Dome, you may remember how well that worked.

8. The NFL needs to pass a rule banning short-yard specialists. This constant goal-line vulturing is a nationwide calamity affecting fantasy leagues everywhere. Do you seriously mean to tell me that Jerome Bettis has scored a single touchdown that Duce Staley would not have been able to take over the line?

9. San Diego is beginning to look like a playoff team and I really like the pickup of Keenan McArdell, who may be the one player described as underrated who actually is underrated. Seattle is beginning to look like it might have a late-season collapse in the cards.

10. Non-NFL note: Words cannot describe the antipathy I currently harbor for the loathsome whistle-carrying pond scum who “refereed” the Arsenal-Manchester United showdown. A record-setting 49-game undefeated streak should not come to an end because of a penalty gifted on a phantom foul. Unbelievable.

Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, was characteristically eloquent:

“This defeat is very difficult to take because we feel like we were robbed today. We felt we were the better team but the referee made the difference. From out of nowhere, Riley has decided the outcome of the game. We can master our own performance but we can do nothing at all about how the referee performs.

Rooney admitted to my players that Sol Campbell did not touch him when he went down. There was no contact at all. That penalty was the turning point in the game. My players have a deep sense of injustice. But just look at Mike Riley’s record when he comes to Old Trafford and it says more than any words. He gave a penalty when it was impossible to be certain there was a foul and, especially in big games like this, you MUST be certain.”

Apparently Mike Riley is distant kin to Dick Bavetta. Sir Alex Ferguson, of course, was mealy-mouthed as ever after having yet another game handed to him by the referees. “Rooney was brought down in the box and to me that is a penalty.” When did the Premiership turn into Serie A or the NBA? I used to think I hated Manchester United, but now it’s not enough to see Arsenal win the Premiership for the second straight year. I want to see ManUre bloody relegated.

Pat Buchanan endorses George Bush:

While both men are wrong on Iraq, Ariel Sharon, NAFTA, the World Trade Organization, open borders, affirmative action, amnesty, free trade, foreign aid and Big Government, Bush is right on taxes, judges, sovereignty and values. For conservatives, Kerry is right on nothing.

Actually, Bush is not right on taxes, as he supports the criminal fraud that is the IRS. He is not right on judges, as the re-election of Arlen Spector means that any genuinely Constitution-abiding judges will be blocked. He is not right on sovereignty, as he does not respect the sovereignty of other nations nor his own, as demonstrated by his staunch support for the legitimacy of the United Nations and the Law of the Sea treaty. Values, I will concede as I have no information to the contrary. So, Mr. Buchanan’s summary is almost completely incorrect.

I cannot endorse the candidate of Michael Moore, George Soros and Barbra Streisand, no matter how deep our disagreement with the fiscal, foreign, immigration and trade policies of George W. Bush.

Then support Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party or Michael Peroutka of the Constitution Party. It is the height of irony for a former third-party candidate to pretend that there are no other candidates for whom Americans can vote.

As Barry Goldwater said in 1960, in urging conservatives to set aside their grievances and unite, the Republican Party is our home. It is our only hope. If an authentic conservatism rooted in the values of faith, family, community and country is ever again to become the guiding light of national policy, it will have to come through a Republican administration.

If that is true, than there is no hope and authentic conservatism will never again become the guiding light of national policy. Unfortunately, it almost surely is true, at least until the financial system fails and creates the necessary impetus for significant change. (Which, admittedly, will probably will be in the direction I would prefer.) There is as much hope of Jacksonian democrats regaining control of the Democratic party as conservatives taking control of the Republican party, because both the Republican and Democratic parties are factions of the same globalist-corporate ruling party. This has been true for over a century.

Prodigal Republicans now understand that their cohabitation with Big Government has brought their country to the brink of ruin and bought them nothing. But if we wish to be involved in the struggle for the soul of the GOP – and we intend to be there – we cannot be AWOL from the battle where the fate of that party is decided

You can fight for something that has been bought and sold, but the effort will ultimately be futile. The fate of the Republican party was decided long ago, not even a genuine conservative maverick in the White House managed to effect any lasting change. If you examine the rhetoric of Democrats from 40 years ago to the rhetoric of Republicans today, you’ll soon realize that the only significant change is that both Democrats and Republicans have moved to the left. The institutions are in Republican hands, but the long-term direction remains unchanged.

Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Farah have both made their accomodations with the corruption of American conservatism this year. Perhaps they are too old to see that the status quo is not forever, or they are simply too weary to continue fighting what certainly appears to be the inevitable. I harbor no anger or irritation over what I consider to be their momentary failures of principle here, only some pity. Because the truth is the truth, regardless of whether one man or one billion men hold to it.

And perhaps George Bush is divinely appointed to lead this nation at the present time. After all, the one-world government that the globalists are constructing and which Christians have been expecting for 2,000 years isn’t going to complete its installation without help from the leader of the once-free world.

17-3 at halftime. Okay, Daunte’s only thrown for one so far and Moe vultured Mewelde, but I’m standing by my prediction of three TDs passing and two rushing. Oh, and it was tough to see Mr. Volek’s streak of passes without an interception smashed so quickly. Final score = 38-17.

How unfortunate!

Last week: 8-6. Overall: 50-36. Fantasy: 3-3.

W-Philadelphia Eagles over Cleveland Browns

W-Minnesota Vikings over Tennessee Titans

L-Indianapolis Colts over Jacksonville Jaguars

Denver Broncos over Cincinnati Bengals

L-New York Giants over Detroit Lions

W-Baltimore Ravens over Buffalo Bills

L-St. Louis Rams over Miami Dolphins

L-Seattle Seahawks over Arizona Cardinals

W-Tampa Bay Buccaneers over Chicago Bears

W-Green Bay Packers over Dallas Cowboys

W-San Diego Chargers over Carolina Panthers

W-New Orleans Saints over Oakland Raiders

W-Kansas City Chiefs over Atlanta Falcons

W-New England Patriots over New York Jets

Last week started off unbelievably badly but we almost ran the table on the last seven games to salvage a respectable 8-6 finish. Despite last week’s thumping of the Grizzlies, we’re still trailing the White Buffalo by 13 points in the pool and we’re well off the pace of the leaders.

UPDATE – Good picks, bad shuffle. 9-4 so far and an easy fantasy win. Not perfect, but not bad either. A Denver win and we’ll pass up the White Buffalo and get back on the right side of the Annabella line. I’m kicking myself for the Seattle pick; I’d given serious thought to Arizona because I like their defense but didn’t follow through on at least backing down the priority.

We had another tournament this weekend and we went into it loaded for bear. I ran into one of my best players from last year the night before – he’s of an age to play for the team but has been playing up a level on my recommendation – and invited him along since I wasn’t sure we’d have a full squad or not. As it turned out, we did, but the rest of the boys were so happy to see him again that no one begrudged the possibility of lost playing time.

I was a little worried when we played a very young, very unskilled team in the first game. My kids have a tendency to forget everything and turn into a pack of wolves scenting weak and sick prey when facing such a team. I had to pull my attackers and tell them to settle down and just allow the goals to happen instead of greedily charging forward again and again. That worked, and after easily shutting out the first two teams, they were calm and disciplined when we finally faced a team of similar talent but no concept of tactics.

That game was a pleasure to watch, as the kids methodically broke down the other team with constant passing and ended up beating them worse than the first two teams. The fourth game was really funny, as it was against another weak team and I put our two defenders up front to give them a chance to score. (I also had to put my most aggressive little striker in goal; that was the only way to keep him in the game but out of the other team’s net.) One defender scored quickly, but despite the best efforts of his teammates, the other, who is the smallest and possibly the most gifted child on the team, was too generous to shoot the doggone ball.

Time and time again, they’d pass it to him in front of the net, but instead of shooting he would draw the defense to him and pass off to a wide-open teammate standing right in front of goal, who couldn’t help but kick it in. My best midfielder kept looking over helplessly and shrugging his shoulders after scoring; after the third time that happened, he started standing practically inside the opposing team’s goal and trying to block the ball so that he could pass it back out to our little defender. Even that wasn’t enough, unfortunately, but by the end the parents of both teams were cracking up at how the entire team was laboring to get their teammate a goal that he just refused to accept.

A communications mixup cost us a perfect shutout for the tournament in the fifth game, but the kids poured it on in response to win that game by five and set up for their sixth and last game against the strongest team. That team made an early mistake by breaking everyone on a long clearance from goal that one of our midfielders headed back over their onrushing team; our aggressive little striker was already breaking forward before the ball was even headed and put the ball past the goalie like a seasoned pro. The combination of selfless passing and constant movement without the ball just tore apart their defense as if it wasn’t there, and they controlled the ball so thoroughly that our goalie only touched the ball twice the entire game. I have no idea what the final score was, I quit counting at six.

It’s simply delightful to watch these six, seven and eight year-olds operating like a ruthless machine, more interested in playing smart and destroying the other team than pursuing individual honors. When I asked the boy who usually plays up a level how many goals he’d scored today, he shrugged and said he had no idea, he wasn’t counting. At all levels, the lesson is the same. The better TEAM usually wins, not the team with the better players.

From WND:

Former Navy Secretary and 9-11 commissioner John Lehman says the U.S. knows where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is hiding but can’t reach him because he is in a region of Pakistan controlled by Islamic extremists opposed to President Pervez Musharraf. Lehman spoke to the San Bernardino Sun yesterday after delivering a keynote speech on terrorism at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif.

He said the terrorist leader is in South Waziristan in the Baluchistan Mountains of Pakistan’s Baluchistan region. “There is an American presence in the area, but we can’t just send in troops,” Lehman told the Sun. “If we did, we could have another Vietnam, and the United States cannot afford that right now.”

The paper said Department of Defense spokeswoman Capt. Ronnie Merritt confirmed the U.S. military believes bin Laden is in Pakistan. Also, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday bin Laden was alive and operating in the western part of the country.

From these statements, it sure sounds as if the accusations that Iraq is a distraction from the so-called War on Terror is more than a little accurate. Lehman doesn’t explain why the USA can’t afford going in and getting bin Laden right now, but presumably the fact that a large part of the US military is occupied with nation building in Iraq would have something to do with that.

Iraq was never a central base for the global jihad, and it is unreasonable to think that the global jihad could or will be defeated there.

Chris Naron writes:

My point was that the American electorate is in such a state of moral decay and avarice, they will never adopt the Libertarian ideal of self-reliance AND self-control.

That’s quite likely true. You may wish to note that in addition to be a libertarian, I am also an outspoken opponent of universal suffrage, of democracy and most particularly the mutant form of non-democratic, non-representative bifactional one party system currently operating in this country.

See how it all comes together? How do we get there from here? I don’t know. But I do know that neither Republicans nor Democrats will lead us there since neither faction is the least bit interested in advancing the cause of human freedom or invidual liberty, as both are in service to the central state.

#include

#include

#include

#inlcude // I hope you have Turbo C

int room(void)

{

char input;

printf(“You entered the room, which is well lit. Would you like to proceed? (y/n)n”);

input = getch();

if ((input == ‘n’)||(input==’N’)) return 0;

printf(“The lights turned off. Would you like to turn on the flash light?(y/n)n”);

input = getch();

if ((input == ‘n’)||(input==’N’)) return 0;

printf(“You see a monster, would you like to switch to the gun and shoot it? (y/n)n”);

input = getch();

if ((input == ‘n’)||(input==’N’)) return 0;

printf(“You have killed the monster, and are moving on to the next room.n”);

return 1;

}

int locker(void)

{

int lockercombo = rand()%1000;

printf(“You’ve found a PDA, would you like to listen to the messages? (y/n)”);

input = getch();

if ((input == ‘n’)||(input==’N’)) return 0;

printf(“Playing back message … “);

sleep(120000);

printf(“The combo for the locker is %d, would you like to open the locker? (y/n)n”, lockercombo);

input = getch();

if ((input == ‘n’)||(input==’N’)) return 0;

printf(“You found some ammo and a medpack.n”);

return 1;

}

void main(void)

{

srand(time(NULL));

int stillrunning;

do {

if (rand()%10

Paul Craig Roberts, banished from Townhall, writes:

Bush’s conservative supporters want no debate. They want no facts, no analysis. They want to denounce and to demonize the enemies that the Hannitys, Limbaughs, and Savages of talk radio assure them are everywhere at work destroying their great and noble country.

I remember when conservatives favored restraint in foreign policy and wished to limit government power in order to protect civil liberties. Today’s young conservatives are Jacobins determined to use government power to impose their will at home and abroad.

Where did such “conservatives” come from?

As Hayek famously explained with regards to “social justice”, a “strong government” or “compassionate” conservative is no conservative at all. It will be interesting to see how quickly these “conservatives” will return to the intellectual fold should Kerry win, (or more likely, when a Democrat wins in 2008), and the other faction begins to wield the expanded powers created by the present administration so beloved by them.

On a related note, Polemics reminds us of when conservatives were conservative and quotes Russell Kirk writing about Edmund Burke:

And Reason, dear to the illuminati of the eighteenth century, seemed to Burke a tool weak at best, frequently treacherous. The mass of mankind, Burke implies, reason hardly at all, in the higher sense, nor ever can: deprived of folk-wisdom and folk-law, which are prejudice and prescription, they can do no more than cheer the demagogue, enrich the charlatan, and submit to the despot. (p. 42)

It’s clear to me that both Kirk and Burke were nothing but Bush-hating liberals ahead of their time.