Great Catch

Even though Snopes.com says this is a Gatorade commercial and the catch was done digitally, it's still a great video.

Person of Interest

Remember the Anthrax case, the poison mailings just after 9/11? The "person of interest" in that case, Dr. Steven Hatfill, was just awarded $5,825,000 by the court for damage done to him by the FBI.

Scott Woodward named Freshman All-American

Past Norwell standout, Scott Woodward played third, stole 42 bases, scored 82 runs and batted .364 for the Coastal Carolina Baseball team.  He was named to the Freshman All-American team today.  Congratulations!

Good For One Gallon

Congress

Did you know Congress gave themselves another pay raise this year?  They gave themselves each $4,100 more a year, so they each get $169,300 a year now. In addition to their salary, they get cheap health and life insurance (about 1/3 the cost we pay) and free outpatient care from any military hospital (even if they never served), they're pension for when they retire is automatically adjusted for inflation and is about three times more generous to them than our 401Ks are to us.  On top of that, the Federal government takes our taxes and gives each Congressperson somewhere between 2 and 4 million dollars for their staff and the administration of their office, they get another free fund for their office furniture, we tax payers fund all the junk mail they send us (every email I send them results in a letter in my mailbox, even when I ask them to stop wasting my money with pointless letters.  Did you get that tax check in the mail?  First they send you a note, saying they were going to send it, then they sent you another note, saying it was almost here, then they sent the check... three mailings to millions of people... what a waste.).

They have also voted themselves tax breaks for having to maintain two homes, they get free travel (spouses included) from non-profit groups for most of their "working vacations."  They've voted themselves free research service, free, reserved parking at work and at the airport, free gyms, free swimming pools and low cost, high quality dining halls.  They get a constant stream of skybox  and other free tickets.  Their pensions grow based on how long they're in office and their other perks, like free research and free mailings, keep them in office. 

In November of 2004, 401 of the 435 sitting members of the U.S. House of Representatives sought reelection. Of those 401, all but five were reelected. In other words, incumbents seeking reelection to the House had a better than 99% success rate. In the U.S. Senate, only one incumbent seeking reelection was defeated. Twenty-five of twenty-six (96%) were reelected.  This is not healthy... how can so many people be so upset at Congress and yet they keep getting themselves re-elected into millionaire-pension-heaven?

Is Norwell Structurally Sound?

An interesting discussion from the School Board

There are three structural weak points in the school with one each adjacent to the gymnasium, the cafeteria and the auditorium. The weak points were created by snow load—possibly from the Blizzard of '78 and aggravated a little by the record snowy winter of 1982.

The points are located where lower sections of the Butler System joined with higher sections of the masonry gym and auditorium and with the glass wall of the cafeteria. Heavy snow will naturally drift between the two points.

The reason that the weak points have not been stressed too badly up to this point is because since 1982, there just hasn't been any major single snow events or accumulative snow events to cause any significant stress.

What no one wants is to have something like the Ball State Field house collapse during an ice storm in 1979... even though no one was hurt, there were people inside the Field House when it started creaking and moaning before the collapse.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, they say.

Congratulations to the Sells

Dave and Valarie Sell, married 25 years on June 25

We're Winning the War

Cheer up, we're winning the War on Terror.  Here's just a portion:

The third and perhaps most significant advance of all in the War on Terror is the discrediting of the Islamist creed and its appeal.

This was first of all evident in Iraq, where the head-hacking frenzy of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his associates so alienated the majority of Muslims that it gave rise to the so-called Sunni Awakening that enabled the surge to be so effective.

But it has spread way beyond Iraq. As Lawrence Wright described in an important piece in The New Yorker last month, there is growing disgust not just among moderate Muslims but even among other jihadists at the extremism of the terrorists.

Deeply encouraging has been the widespread revulsion in Muslim communities in Europe - especially in Britain after the 7/7 attacks of three years ago. Some of the biggest intelligence breakthroughs in the past few years have been achieved from former al-Qaeda supporters who have turned against the movement.

There ought to be no surprise here. It's only their apologists in the Western media who really failed to see the intrinsic evil of Islamists. Those who have had to live with it have never been in much doubt about what it represents. Ask the people of Iran. Or those who fled the horrors of Afghanistan under the Taleban.

This is why we fight. Primarily, of course, to protect ourselves from the immediate threat of terrorist carnage, but also because we know that extending the embrace of a civilisation that liberates everyone makes us all safer.

Bishop Luers makes Hoosier History

I've been remiss in my duties and haven't reported on the Amazing year Bishop Luers put together.  The Luers boys won the 2A crown in Football, Basketball and Baseball, all in the same school year.  No Indiana team has ever done that.  Right way, of course, the harping began, saying, "Oh, they recruit the best from all over the city."  But Luers is not the only Catholic High School in Ft. Wayne and they are certainly not the only Catholic High School in Indiana -- and yet no other school has ever pulled off such a trifecta of excellence.

Luers started the title trifecta with a 21-6 win over Heritage Christian in the 2A state football title game in November at the RCA Dome. The Knights moved to Conseco Fieldhouse for a 69-67 win over Winchester in the boys basketball title game and capped it with a baseball title at Victory Field.

The closest any other school had come to the "triple crown" was Penn, who won football and baseball titles in 2001. But the Kingsmen lost in the state finals of boys basketball.

Two other schools, Lafayette Central Catholic in 2000 and Indianapolis Chatard in 2003 won football and boys basketball titles, but lost in the baseball postseason before the state finals.

Although no Luers' player was a member of all three teams, 11 baseball players also played football.

Three of the basketball players also played football, but no basketball players were on the baseball team.

Luers' sports seasons were not without their share of luck, to be sure.  In particular, the Basketball game against Bluffton in the Sectional was very, very close and Woodward was injured in the run-up to the finals.  But luck or no luck, it was a great season.

Congratulations, Luers!

George Carlin has passed away

George Carlin, 71, has died of heart failure.

Turkey wipes out bridge near Ossian

OK, so it's not a bird "turkey" it's the "Turkey" River, and it's not Ossian, Indiana, but Ossian, Iowa... but I'm sure the headline was worth it to you.  Having just watched Cloverfield, the image of a giant turkey on the rampage in Ossian is nearly too much to bear.

Another take on Tiger Woods

Man Who Used Stick to Roll Ball into Hole Praised for Courage

From The Onion, of course.