I’ve made known a few days ago that I’m not psyched for this year’s Super Bowl. Sure, I’m going to enjoy the food, the festivities, and to see which commercial will make me laugh or make me want to turn the television off since I’ll be watching the game with the youth group.
A rematch of the Patriots and Giants season-ending game just doesn’t do anything for me. It’s like going out on a second date with someone you know you really don’t want to go out with again. Sure, you may have fun, and you might actually have a nice time, but the fact of the matter is you would rather it be someone else on the other side of the table.
That is the situation I find myself in with this year’s Super Bowl. I would have preferred someone else to have been sitting on the NFC side of the table. Don’t get me wrong; Eli Manning has done a good job in leading the Giants to the Super Bowl after a mediocre regular season. But, we’ve seen this game. The Giants blew their chance and allowed the Patriots to come back in the fourth quarter. Personally, I would rather see a match-up between Tom Brady and Brett Favre which might have been one of the better quarterback match-ups in recent Super Bowl history. Read the rest of this entry »
Last night, I attempted to watch the State of the Union. I believe as a voter and a citizen of the United States, we have a responsibility in understanding what is going on in Washington and in the state assemblies across the country. We pay for their decisions, after all.
But as I attempted watch President Bush’s seventh and final State of the Union address, I couldn’t get through to the end. I was flipping back and forth like a disinterested viewer. Perhaps it’s because I know that much of what Bush discussed will hardly see the light of day - except for the stimulus package and maybe alternative energy sources. Maybe it’s because I’m more aware that as Bush enters his final year, there is less that he’s able to accomplish with an election year hanging over the clouds in Washington.
Elected leaders are going to be hard pressed to pass any new initiative this year that doesn’t do something for their home districts. Bush realized this, I believe, last night which added to a very dull address to the country. (When professional wrestling is more interesting than the president, we have a problem as a country.)
One proposal that Bush advocated last night will likely get some action today through an executive order. He will sign an order alerting federal agencies to avoid earmarks not approved by Congress. This is a longtime coming, but I wonder how long it will take for Congress to sneak earmarks in regardless.
Follow Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., on this one. He’s the king of pork in Washington and I’m sure Bush’s executive order will come as a thorn in the side of “Big Daddy.”
I’m a big football fan. Anyone who reads this blog with any regularity or knows me personally knows that football is something that I look forward to each weekend.
However, I’m not that excited about the Super Bowl this season. I think it will be a good game, but I’m having a hard time to get up for another likely Patriots win over the Giants. I’ve seen this game. The Giants played well, but just couldn’t get it done.
But, what I’m really excited for is Super Tuesday. Call me weird, but I think watching the election results from Super Tuesday states may be more exciting than the Super Bowl itself. There are 24 states up for grabs and could easily determine the Republican nominee, though I think the Democrats may have some work left to do.
The Republican front runner John McCain could slam the door on Rudy Giuliani with a win tomorrow in Florida. (McCain leads Giuliani in New York, by the way). That could set up a scenario where Super Tuesday could set more distance between McCain and others going into March, even though Mitt Romney leads the Delegate count currently. Should McCain win half the states up for grabs on Super Tuesday, then it’s ball game for the GOP.
Democrats have some work to do. With Barack Obama winning Saturday in South Carolina, it sets up a closer race coming into Super Tuesday. Obama also picked up a big endorsement from Sen. Ted Kennedy today, which will help him in some states coming into Super Tuesday. For Hillary Clinton, she needs to get some distance on Obama by winning more than half of the states in contention.
Forget Illinois and New York on Feb. 5, those states will go to their perspective candidates in Obama and Clinton. The key will be win enough of the delegates in those states to put a dent on any gains. The main target will be California for the Democrats. Whomever wins that state could be home free for the nomination.
Right now, Clinton holds a 12-point lead according to Real Clear Politics.
Like I said, forget the Super Bowl (but GO GIANTS) and bring on Super Tuesday.
Looking for something to do this Fat Tuesday? Want to see how many Pancakes you can eat in one setting?
Come to Junction City UMC on Feb. 5 for our Fat Tuesday Pancake Supper. You’ll enjoy it! It’s free (donations will be taken at the door) and all proceeds benefit our new youth group. The fun begins at 5 p.m. and runs until who knows when (most likely 8 p.m.).
Bring your friends, bring your family, bring your coworkers and come on out!
Anyone who placed money on me saying that I would not be able to last a couple of weeks without a Diet Dr Pepper, hand over your money to the nearest collection agency. I’ve not had a drop of a soft drink since Dec. 31 around 8 p.m., or so, which gives me about three and a half weeks of soda free life.
And I’m feeling good.
I didn’t think it would be this easy, but it really has. I stopped cold turkey and picked up other drinks to counter what I was drinking a day in soft drinks, such as fruit punch, water, and Sweat Tea when I go out to eat. Only a few times have I been tempted and the most serious was yesterday, though luckily someone was there to put the stop to it.
I have noticed some changes since I stopped drinking the Diet Drinks. My cheeks are a lot smoother and I feel like I have more energy. Give me a few more weeks of no drinking cokes, and I could be a lean mean fighting machine. Well, maybe just a fighting machine.
Otherwise, life is going a lot better here lately. I really believe God is in the midst of answering a lot of prayers for me personally. Finally, I feel like I am starting to see where my community is and where its not. I’m thankful for that, because I’m telling you God’s done some great things this month. Too bad I never have my eyes fully open to see it all.
One other thing, before I head off to my last day of Greek. I realized something lately, why be down when it’s so easy to goof off and enjoy life.
One year from today, a new president will be inaugurated on the steps of the Capitol, thus putting to an end one of the more disappointing and controversial presidencies in quite some time, but also a presidency that will be remembered - I believe in 20 years - for resolve against terrorism.
That being said, someone in the field of candidates must come away as the new president. That’s the law. We have to have a president. The constitution says as much.
That being said, where do the current crop of contenders stand after a month of primaries and caucuses. Read the rest of this entry »
Tonight, I went out to Lexington to have a little break after what has been a pretty exhaustive January thus far. One of the places that I went to was a bookstore heavily visited by seminary students where I proceeded to walk to the political science section.
There I saw a copy of the Ronald Reagan Diaries, a bound collection of President Reagan’s thoughts during his eight years in office, and I decided to open it up. Determining that $35 was a little out of my price range right now for a new book, I opted to just do a little “free reading” and specifically skim to any entry on or around the date of when he was shot in 1981. I was amazed to find at the end of the entry, which had to be written days after he was shot, this line.
Whatever happens now, I owe my life to God and I will do my best to serve him.
It was the last line for that entry and perhaps the most powerful. There in those 18 words, Reagan gets it and he gets it right on the money. (Before I proceed, I will allow my readers who are friends of the Democrats to gather their thoughts.) Read the rest of this entry »
For the past few months, I’ve served as a youth basketball coach for the local YMCA here in Kentucky. Coaching is something that I’ve always wanted to do as something to divert attention from school and work and this was really the first opportunity I had to do so.
Now, before I get into discussing the season, I should mention a fact, as I believe I have before. That is I knew nothing about how to coach basketball before the start of the season. I never played the game, on an organized team, growing up so all I knew of the sport is what I covered as a sports writer and watching it on television. But, I enjoy it, especially on this level where at 7 and 8 the kids are starting to get that fire for competition in their belly and they are still coachable.
My team this season was the Rockets - a group of six very talented girls and boys who were a pleasure to coach. They really were. We finished the season, if scoring was kept, at 5-0-1. Today, we played a great defensive game to “win” in the fourth quarter.
I was really proud of the team and what we accomplished in growing together as the season progressed. We went from a group of players that didn’t want to play together to a team that played well as a cohesive unit - as much as one as you can at 7 and 8-years old. I told my family, when I called after the game, that I was more proud of being a coach right now with this team than I would be if WVU won a national championship in football.
Today, I cooked for the first time, really, since I gave myself food poisoning during Christmas break. I cooked once before but I even messed that up.
It was my day to bring snacks to class and I opted for a little lovin’ called The Pepperoni Roll. A wonderful mixture of cheese, pepperoni on a nice roll. Melts in your mouth just thinking about them.
Well, last night I purchased the available products to make such a wonderful treat and cooked this morning. Nothing says fun like cooking 32 pepperoni rolls at 6:30 a.m. That is fun right there! Not really.
I was freaking out while making them. The last thing I wanted was to make my entire class sick. I mean that would just about ruin any hopes of ever cooking again.
So far, so good. The class seemed to love the lovely treat of food! Ah, my cooking is saved, though we have to see if more of my friends will eat the leftovers. We’ll see during lunch. Read the rest of this entry »
