Category Archives: Current Events

Ringo Starr on tour 2012 (Part 4)

July 16, 2012 – 6:33 am

I went  to a Ringo Starr concert on July 4, 2012 at Orange Beach, AL and enjoyed it very much and here are some of the songs I heard that night:

Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach«

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With a Little Help From My Friends / Give Peace a Chance Live Ringo Starr Bethel Woods June 16 2012

ished on Jun 17, 2012 by    

Ringo Starr plays With a Little Help From My Friends / Give Peace a Chance Live at Bethel Woods, on June 16, 2012. View from rushing the stage near the end of the concert

Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach«

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Ringo Starr 2012: Album Review

27th Jan 2012 in Reviews, by Sean Keenan

Whilst in no way meaning to damn with faint praise (it’s Ringo Starr, who would wish him ill?), there is little on Ringo 2012 that is deserving of great praise either.

Nor does there really have to be. Beatles completists and milder nostalgists will find this comfortable stroll through the 4/4, twelve bar, ageing men playing competent blues checklist.

That should be, and will be enough for both camps. It’s interesting to hear what a musician with nothing to prove comes up with. It would be typical at this point to say something along the lines of ‘in 2012’s intensely competitive and failure-strewn music market, only music which strives to be great can hope to survive’, and point out that with a fanbase as solid as Ringo’s, perhaps there is some comforting aspect to making music which only has to strive to be good.

interesting to hear what a musician with nothing to prove comes up with

It misses a point though, which is that there never was a time when the recorded music market wasn’t viciously fought, and that being one of the few to have sold records over the course of six decades still doesn’t guarantee a smooth run with a record label. Ask Tom Jones.

And Ringo, the one member of The Beatles who wasn’t there from the start, described by John Lennon as ‘not even the best drummer in The Beatles’, still has to perform. Shouldering that quote for nigh-on sixty years can’t help but irritate, but to his credit, the album resists any urge to get flashy with the kit, throwing in nifty little syncopations or tricky assymetric paradiddles. (Lennon did tell Playboy magazine in 1980 that Ringo was ‘a damn good drummer’.)

not even the best drummer in The Beatles

Starr’s great gift as a drummer, and one which he is well aware of, is his time. Metronomic and sturdy, what he can do is beat out a backbone to any song, solid enough to anchor any amount of histrionics going on at the front of the stage. In his earlier days that may have been a couple of artschool scousers yelling out harmonies, now it’s more likely to be guitar solos or in one particularly sultry case, Rhodes piano.

‘Anthem’ opens the album with a surging flashback to ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)’, the very same bridge-picked guitar sound (or as near as dammit) swooping in and livening up what is otherwise a pretty pedestrian runthrough of simplistic peace and love platitudes calling upon us all to get our act together and sort the world’s more obvious problems out.

a surging flashback to ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

There are no surprises in the exuberant guitar solos or solid percussion on the blues-rock structure, unless it has some coded clues that only true fans with encyclopaedic knowledge of his life and career will pick up. Perhaps, played backwards, there is a ghostly voice chanting ‘George is alive’, but in its absence, the track is a competent plodder.

Elsewhere the album is jaunty – from the steel drum peppered ‘Think it Over’, which sounds a bit like Dion’s ‘The Wanderer’ mated with ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’, to the strangely polka leanings of ‘Samba’. If these songs were to be played, this well, at a wedding reception, you would dance and enjoy. And there is the heart of it, because as can be expected after so many hugely successful years in the business, the man knows some fine musicians. It’s not the Wilburys, but its a bunch of experts, playing well within their competence, and thus getting on with all those beyond-competence facets of music that come from that: groove, humour, swagger, fun.

It’s not the Wilburys, but its a bunch of experts, playing well

Where that reaches its peak, as does the album, is in ‘Step Lightly’, where Benmont Tench’s languid dexterity on the Rhodes piano [it’s not specified on the notes who played what, but call this an educated guess] is gut-churningly electric, utterly captivating. Any complexity of lyricism or vocals would be wasted on the track, and completely inappropriate. Which is just as well, because to be brutal, there are none of either on the album. What Starr offers instead is unabashed honesty, not soul-baring intensity honest, but just the simple stuff:

the worst it ever was was wonderful, better than I ever dreamed, the worst it ever was was wonderful, because it’s always been you and me. And we made it through, like we always do

Nuff said.

But there is always the moment on solo albums where the artist overextends. Bands self-police, and when one member is in danger of megalomania, the others often cut him down to size. In the case of The Beatles, that could involve a kick in the head. Not ideal, or recommended, but effective nonetheless.

Session men, even as illustrious as Dave Stewart, tend to hold their tongues (and feet). Which is a pity, because with a little constructive criticism, ‘In Liverpool’ might have been the song to finally get Ringo that UK number one single that has been so elusive (all the other Fab Four have had them). It’s sweet, it’s even lump-in-throat at times, but it’s just not enough.

Clunky lyrics are forgiveable, or would be if there were just a detail or two

‘In Liverpool’ walks us through a halcyon recreation of the city where the young Starkey grew up, and whilst clearly autobiographical, is just not intimate enough to satisfy. Clunky lyrics are forgiveable, or would be if there were just a detail or two in the song to draw us into his confidence. Instead we get non-committal observations that whilst ‘the rain never stopped, but the sun always shone in my mind’, or that ‘an apprentice engineer, but I had something very clear in my mind, in Liverpool. Music was my goal, in my heart and in my soul and in my mind’.

So tantalising, especially where he sings of ‘Me and my band, living our fantasies’, there are memories here that would be wonderful to hear, but they are not shared. Instead we get (admittedly very fine) strings adding to the nostalgia of the song, but no real insight. (The subject is better covered on his earlier song ‘The Other Side of Liverpool’, on YNot)

Complex or poignant, ‘In Liverpool’ is not. Which is a pity, because it would be lovely to hear something more detailed. Then there is the unfortunate fact that the track owes a great deal in melody to The Kinks’ ‘Waterloo Sunset’. And that’s a tough, tough song to be compared to.

a complexity of feeling for that city that is utterly lacking in Ringo’s paean to Liverpool

Ray Davies’ self-consolatory but bittersweet musings on being left behind in London by an elder sister bound for Australia deliver a complexity of feeling for that city that is utterly lacking in Ringo’s paean to Liverpool. It wouldn’t be at all fair to even mention it, only that in tone and melodic hook they are so akin. Having spent as many years living in Los Angeles, Monte Carlo and Surrey, Starr’s relationship with Liverpool is surely more complicated than this runthrough of childhood and young adult rose-tinted images.

In truth, the song has much in common with the joke about the Irish boomerang (i.e. it never comes back, nor does it ever stop singing about it). Liverpool, a captivating city in so many ways, seems also to grow in romanticism the further one gets from it.

Boasting an undeniably heavyweight cultural punch for all that, Liverpool still lacks an anthem to rally behind. Marsden‘s ‘Ferry Across the Mersey’ wallows in bombast; ‘Penny Lane’ is too suburban, and ‘In Liverpool’ suffers from being simultaneously too personal – it is obviously autobiographical – but not personal enough to evoke the love for the city that Starr clearly feels. And judging by the mid-Atlantic blues, honky-tonk and pub rock flavour of the rest of the album, we may have to keep waiting.

Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band performs

Tuesday, June 26, 2012  9:03 PM

It Don’t Come Easy Live Ringo Starr Bethel Woods June 16 2012

By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

Is global warming happening? I wonder

July 16, 2012 – 12:32 am

Is global warming happening? I wonder.

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Michael Sandoval

July 11, 2012 at 7:07 pm

Global-warming alarmists have reemerged with a vengeance following the recent heat wave featuring record temperatures across the nation and dozens of wildfires throughout the West. But how much has global warming contributed?

At least two climate change scientists refused to identify any possible threshold, with one declaring, “I honestly don’t think you can really put a number right on it.”

Climate Communication, a non-profit science outreach organization funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the ClimateWorks Foundation and dedicated to the study of “global environmental change,” hosted a conference call with reporters on June 28 to coincide with the release its newest publication, “Heat Waves and Climate Change.”

When pressed by Associated Press science reporter Seth Borenstein on the connection between global warming to recent events, Dr. Michael Oppenheimer and Dr. Steven Running, two of the panelists showcased by Climate Communication, rejected the line of questioning, refusing to offer any estimate.

“I won’t do it,” said Oppenheimer.

Running told Borenstein that to offer such an estimate is “probably really dangerous for us,” instead clarifying that more analysis and “statistical rigor” would need to be applied before the conclusions were sent out “into the public arena.”

Susan Hassol, the moderator for the call, appeared to chastise Borenstein when he pursued the line of questioning, offering to “make it easier” by saying whether or not global warming accounted for more or less than 50 percent to the current situation.

According to Hassol, the question from Borenstein was not “well-posed,” and stated that even the types of modeling necessary to determine attribution “are not very good” at providing that conclusion.

Borenstein bristled at Hassol’s comments.

“I understand, I’ve been covering this for 20 years, I understand. I don’t need a lecture, thank you very much,” responded Borenstein.

Borenstein’s most recent AP story was titled, “This US summer is ‘what global warming looks like,’” dated July 3, five days after the conference call.

In the story, Borenstein, by way of exposition, wrote:

If you want a glimpse of some of the worst of global warming, scientists suggest taking a look at U.S. weather in recent weeks.

Horrendous wildfires. Oppressive heat waves. Devastating droughts. Flooding from giant deluges. And a powerful freak wind storm called a derecho.

These are the kinds of extremes climate scientists have predicted will come with climate change, although it’s far too early to say that is the cause. Nor will they say global warming is the reason 3,215 daily high temperature records were set in the month of June.

Scientifically linking individual weather events to climate change takes intensive study, complicated mathematics, computer models and lots of time. Sometimes it isn’t caused by global warming. Weather is always variable; freak things happen.

Borenstein also quoted Oppenheimer’s observations about the recent weather events.

“What we’re seeing really is a window into what global warming really looks like. It looks like heat. It looks like fires. It looks like this kind of environmental disasters,” said Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer’s colleagues in story agreed.

“This is what global warming looks like at the regional or personal level. The extra heat increases the odds of worse heat waves, droughts, storms and wildfire. This is certainly what I and many other climate scientists have been warning about,” said one professor of geosciences and atmospheric sciences.

Another simply declared that it’s “I told-you-so time.”

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) revealed the contents of the conference call during a speech on the Senate floor earlier today.

AP Reporter Seth Borenstein: Let me try and put you more on the spot, Mike and Steve: I know there’s no attribution – you haven’t done attribution studies, but if you ballparked it right now and had to put a percentage number on this, on the percentage that the heat wave, the percentage of blame you can put on anthropogenic climate change, on this current heat wave, and on the fires, what percentage would the two of you use?

Dr. Michael Oppenheimer: Come on, I’m not going to answer that. Yes I will answer it, and my answer is: I won’t do it. You know, we have to do these things carefully, because if you don’t, you’re going to end up with bogus information out there. People will start disbelieving because you’ll be more wrong, more often. This is not the kind of thing I want to do off the top of my head. Nor do I think it can be done, you know, convincingly, without really taking – doing careful analysis, so I’ll pass on this one and see if Steve has a different view.

Dr. Steven Running: Well, I already got way too hypothetical in my last answer. Yeah, it’s… it’s probably really dangerous for us to just lob out a number. I – We could certainly lob out some guess, but it wouldn’t be based on the kind of analysis and statistical rigor that we want to put out into the public arena.

Seth Borenstein: Okay let’s make it easier. 50% line…how about 50% line: Is it more than 50%, do you think, or less? Just, you know, on one end. More or less?

Susan Hassol, Moderator for the Climate Communication conference call: Seth, most of the scientists I talk to say it’s a contributing factor and that’s what we can say and that it’s really not even really a well-posed question, to ask for a percentage, because it just – what you’re asking really is for a model to determine the chances of this happening without climate change or with climate change and models are not very good at that.

Seth Borenstein: I understand, I’ve been covering this for 20 years, I understand. I don’t need a lecture, thank you very much. What I’m asking for is when the fingerprint – when the attribution studies are done, two or three years later, it’s already beyond people’s memory. I’m just looking for whether you could say this is – global warming was the biggest factor, more than 50 – most of the factor, you know, either more or less than 50%…

Dr. Michael Oppenheimer: I honestly don’t think you can really put a number right on it. What I honestly think is global warming has in general made this part – that part of the world – warmer and drier than it otherwise would be, and that makes it fertile ground for fire events like the one we’re seeing. So did global warming contribute? Yes. Can I really make any sort of estimate – numerical estimate- about how much? Not really sitting here on a telephone at my desk, and maybe not even if I had six months.

.

Published on Jul 11, 2012 by

In his speech today Senator Inhofe pointed out that not even the most committed global warming alarmists can claim that any percentage of the heat over the past few weeks can be attributed to human causes. He detailed a conference call between reporters and a far left environmental group, Climate Communication, which was held for the purpose of spoon-feeding reporters talking points about how to link the hot weather and wildfires over the recent weeks to man-made catastrophic global warming. Yet, even through the scientists on the call were the foremost alarmists in the field, Dr. Michael Oppenheimer and Dr. Steven Running, when pressed neither of them could say if any percentage of today’s warm temperatures are due to man-made cause.

Climate Communications includes the controversial climate change scientist Dr. Michael Mann on its board of science advisors.

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By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

“Schaeffer Sunday” Francis Schaeffer noted “If there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society is absolute.”

July 14, 2012 – 10:35 pm
photo

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Francis Schaeffer is a hero of mine and I want to honor him with a series of posts on Sundays called “Schaeffer Sundays” which will include his writings and clips from his film series. I have posted many times in the past using his material.

Philosopher and Theologian, Francis A. Schaeffer has argued, “If there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society is absolute.” Francis Schaeffer, How Shall We Then Live? (Old Tappan NJ: Fleming H Revell Company, 1976), p. 224.

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Al Mohler wrote the article ,”FIRST-PERSON: They indeed were prophetic,” Jan 29, 2004, and in this great article he noted:   .

“We stand today on the edge of a great abyss,” they wrote. “At this crucial moment choices are being made and thrust on us that will for many years to come affect the way people are treated. We want to try to help tip the scales on the side of those who believe that individuals are unique and special and have great dignity.”

This year marks the 25th anniversary of “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?” by Francis Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop. The anniversary serves to remind us just how unaware and unawake most evangelicals really were 25 years ago — and how prophetic the voices of Schaeffer and Koop were.

Whatever Happened to the Human Race? was both a book project and a film series, the fruit of an unusual collaboration between Francis Schaeffer, one of the truly significant figures of 20th-century evangelicalism, and C. Everett Koop, one of the nation’s most illustrious pediatric surgeons. They were an odd couple of sorts, but on the crucial issues of human dignity and the threat of what would later be called the “Culture of Death,” they were absolutely united.

Francis Schaeffer, who died in 1984, was nothing less than a 20th-century prophet. He was a genuine eccentric, given to wearing leather breeches and sporting a goatee — then quite unusual for anyone in the evangelical establishment. Then again, Schaeffer was never really a member of any establishment, and that is partly why a generation of questioning young people made their way to his Swiss study center known as L’Abri.

Big ideas were Schaeffer’s business — and the Christian worldview was his consistent framework. Long before most evangelicals even knew they had a worldview, Schaeffer was taking alternative worldviews apart and inculcating in his students a love for the architecture of Christian truth and the dignity of ideas.

Key figures on the evangelical left wrote Schaeffer off as a crank, and he returned the favor by denying that they were evangelicals at all. They complained that he did not follow their rules for scholarly publication. He pointed out that people actually read his books — and young people frustrated with cultural Christianity read his books by the thousands. They were looking for someone with ideas big enough for the age, relevant for the questions of the times, and based without compromise in Christian truth. Francis Schaeffer — knee pants and all — became a prophet for the age.

Dr. C. Everett Koop, on the other hand, is a paragon of the American establishment — a former surgeon-in-chief at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia and later surgeon general of the United States under President Reagan. In 1974 Koop catapulted to international attention by performing the first successful surgical separation of conjoined twins. A Presbyterian layman, Koop lives in quasi-retirement in Pennsylvania. His surgical procedures remain textbook cases for medical students today.

Whatever Happened to the Human Race? awakened American evangelicals to the anti-human technologies and ideologies that then threatened human dignity. Most urgently, the project put abortion unquestionably on the front burner of evangelical concern. The tenor of the times is seen in the fact that Schaeffer and Koop had to argue to evangelicals in the late 1970s that abortion was not just a “Catholic” issue. They taught many evangelicals a new and urgently needed vocabulary about embryo ethics, euthanasia and infanticide. They knew they were running out of time.

“Each era faces its own unique blend of problems,” they argued. “Our time is no exception. Those who regard individuals as expendable raw material — to be molded, exploited, and then discarded — do battle on many fronts with those who see each person as unique and special, worthwhile, and irreplaceable.”

Every age is marked by both the “thinkable” and the “unthinkable,” they asserted — and the “thinkable” of late-20th-century Western cultures was dangerously anti-human. The lessons of the century — with the Holocaust at its center — should be sufficient to drive the point home. The problem, as illustrated by those who worked in Hitler’s death camps, was the inevitable result of a loss of conscience and moral truth. They were “people just like all of us,” Koop and Schaeffer reminded. “We seem to be in danger of forgetting our seemingly unlimited capacities for evil, once boundaries to certain behavior are removed.”

By the last quarter of the century, life and death were treated as mere matters of choice. “The schizophrenic nature of our society became further evident as it became common practice for pediatricians to provide the maximum of resuscitative and supportive care in newborn intensive-care nurseries where premature infants were under their care — while obstetricians in the same medical centers were routinely destroying enormous numbers of unborn babies who were normal and frequently of larger size. Minors who could not legally purchase liquor and cigarettes could have an abortion-on-demand and without parental consent or knowledge.”

Schaeffer and Koop pointed to other examples of moral schizophrenia. Disabled persons were given new access to facilities and services in the name of human rights, while preborn infants diagnosed with the same disabilities were often aborted — with the advice that it would be “wrong” to bring such a baby into the world.

Long before the discovery of stem cells and calls for the use of human embryos for such experimentation, Schaeffer and Koop warned of attacks upon human life at its earliest stage. “Embryos ‘created’ in the biologist’s laboratory raise special questions because they have the potential for growth and development if planted in the womb. The disposal of these live embryos is a cause for ethical and moral concern.”

They also saw the specter of infanticide and euthanasia. Infanticide, including what is now called “partial-birth abortion,” is murder, they argued. “Infanticide is being practiced right now in this country, and the saddest thing about this is that it is being carried on by the very segment of the medical profession which has always stood in the role of advocate for the lives of children.” Long before the formal acceptance of euthanasia in countries like the Netherlands, Koop and Schaeffer saw the rise of a “duty to die” argument used against the old, the very sick and the unproductive. They rejected euthanasia in the case of a “so-called vegetative existence” and warned all humanity that disaster awaited a society that lusted for a “beautiful death.”

“Abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia are not only questions for women and other relatives directly involved — nor are they the prerogatives of a few people who have thought through the wider ramifications,” they declared. “They are life-and-death issues that concern the whole human race equally and should be addressed as such.”

How did this happen? This embrace of an anti-human “humanism” could only be explained by the rejection of the Christian worldview. “Judeo-Christian teaching was never perfectly applied,” they acknowledged, “but it did lay a foundation for a high view of human life in concept and practice.” Through the inculcation of biblical values, “people viewed human life as unique — to be protected and loved — because each individual is made in the image of God.”

Two great enemies of truth were blamed for this loss of biblical truth — modern secularism and theological liberalism. The secularists insist on the imposition of a “humanism” that defines humanity in terms of productivity, arbitrary standards of beauty and health, and an inverted system of value. Theological liberalism, denying the truthfulness of the Bible, robs the church and the society of any solid authority. The biblical concept of humanity made in the image of God is treated as poetry rather than as truth. But, “if people are not made in the image of God, the pessimistic, realistic humanist is right: The human race is indeed an abnormal wart on the smooth face of a silent and meaningless universe.”

Everything else simply follows. “In this setting, abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia … are completely logical. Any person can be obliterated for what society at one moment thinks of as its own social or economic good.” Once human life and human dignity are devalued to this degree, recovery is extremely difficult — if not impossible.

The past 25 years has been a period of even more rapid technological and moral change. We now face threats to human dignity unimaginable just a quarter-century ago. We must now deal with the ethical challenges of embryo research, human cloning, the Human Genome Project and the rise of transhuman technologies. Even with many Christians aware and active on these issues, we are losing ground.

Francis Schaeffer and Everett Koop ended their book with a call for action. “If, in this last part of the twentieth century, the Christian community does not take a prolonged and vocal stand for the dignity of the individual and each person’s right to life — for the right of each person to be treated as created in the image of God, rather than as a collection of molecules with no unique value — we feel that as Christians we have failed the greatest moral test to be put before us in this century.”

In this new century, that warning is even more threatening and more urgent. The challenges of the 21st century are even greater than those faced in the century before. This should make us even more thankful for the prophetic witness of Francis Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop — and even more determined to contend for life. Humanity still stands on the brink of that abyss.
–30–
Adapted from the Crosswalk.com weblog of R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

What Ever Happened to the Human Race?

By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in Francis Schaeffer | Comments (0)

Pamplona Running of the Bulls 2012 – San Fermin 2012 – Headcam – 07/07/2012

July 13, 2012 – 2:52 pm

A relative mine who is living in Germany told me that he was planning on running with the bulls this year. Here is some footage I got off the internet of this years’ run.

Pamplona Running of the Bulls 2012 – San Fermin 2012 – Headcam – 07/07/2012

Published on Jul 9, 2012 by

Headcam footage of running of the Bulls, opening run 2012. this got me a €150 fine (for filming in the run)

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Spain’s Running Of The Bulls Injures Another 6

By DANIEL OCHOA DE OLZA AND DANIEL WOOLLS 07/13/12 04:55 AM ET AP

Spain Running Of The Bulls
Get World Alerts:

PAMPLONA, Spain — Six people were injured Friday but none gored during the second-to-last day of the running of the bulls in Pamplona.

Navarra Hospital said all six were hurt – in the back, arm, face or leg – in falls or when they were stepped on during a very fast run with bulls from a Seville ranch known for particularly swift dashes at Spain’s most popular summer festival.

One light brown bull running at the edge of the pack knocked people down as if they were rag dolls.

Half-way through the run, one man fell to the cobblestone streets of the city’s old quarter and got up to find several hulking bulls, along with the bell-tinkling steers that run with them, right on top of him. He managed to scurry away to safety.

The pack spread out fairly early in the two-and-half minute run, which is not good: bulls running on their own can become disoriented, thus are more likely to charge at people. Still, no one got gored.

The hospital said one injured man’s face had been stood on, but it was not clear if it was a human foot or a bull’s hoof that got him.

Two of the injured were Americans: a 36-year-old with a fractured forearm, and a 28-year-old with a face injury. The other injured were three Spaniards and a Jordanian.

The San Fermin festival, known for its virtually non-stop drinking and revelry, became world famous with Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises.”

The last of eight runs is Saturday. Afterward, revelers bemoan the end of the party by singing a song called “Pobre de Mi,” which can be translated as “woe is me.”

By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

Top football stadiums in the country (Part 17) (Razorback stadium is #10)

July 13, 2012 – 7:22 am

Here is a list of the top football stadiums in the country.

Power Ranking All 124 College Football Stadiums  

By Alex Callos

(Featured Columnist) on April 19, 2012 

When it comes to college football stadiums, for some teams, it is simply not fair. Home-field advantage is a big thing in college football, and some teams have it way more than others.

There are 124 FBS college football teams, and when it comes to the stadiums they play in, they are obviously not all created equal.

There is a monumental difference from the top teams on the list to the bottom teams on the list. Either way, here it is: a complete ranking of the college football stadiums 1-124.

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I have had so many memories in Arkansas Razorback stadium. Some of my favorite were when McFadden was there.

12. Jordan-Hare Stadium: Auburn Tigers

Jordan-hare-stadium_display_image

Not many cities love their team and college like those in Auburn, Alabama.

The Tigers also have an excellent stadium for their fans to cheer them on in.

Jordan-Hare Stadium seats 87,451 and was built in 1939. The fans here are known to be some of the nicest in the country, and the atmosphere here is unbelievable.

The passion of the fans gives the Tigers one of the best home-field advantages in the nation.

 

11. Camp Randall Stadium: Wisconsin Badgers

45_2_display_image

Camp Randall Stadium has been around since 1917 and is one of the best venues in the Big Ten.

It seats 80,321 and is always jam-packed. The student sections here are loud, and the band is also outstanding.

There are a lot of traditions at Camp Randall Stadium and so much history that has happened over the past 95 years.

Stay after the game to enjoy the fifth quarter.

 

10. Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium: Arkansas Razorbacks

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This venue is not quite as big as some of the other mammoth SEC stadiums, but has a lot to offer in the 76,000-seat facility.

Built in 1938, Razorback Stadium has been known to get so loud that the place literally shakes on big plays.

It cracks the top 10 on this list. There is so much energy here, and the crowd seemingly never stops to take a breath during the entire game.

For a loud and crazy stadium experience, this is the place to go.

 

9. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: USC Trojans

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With a seating capacity of 93,607, the fans in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum love to support their USC Trojans.

Having originally opened in 1923, the Coliseum is located right near downtown Los Angeles.

It has an atmosphere that is not as good as some of the big-name schools from the Big Ten and SEC, but still is the best place to watch a college football game on the West Coast.

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Top football stadiums in the country (Part 10)

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By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

Switchfoot coming to Hot Springs, Arkansas on July 14th!!!!

July 13, 2012 – 7:19 am

Saturday 14 July 2012

Switchfoot

Venue

Magic Springs Theme Park 1701 E. Grand Ave. 71901 Hot Springs, AR, US

Venue info and map

Uploaded by  on Aug 20, 2007

Interview with Tim Foreman and Chad Butler airing February 26th, 2007.
Discuss: cowbell, Christianity, fan connection

_______________________________________

SwitchfootSwitchfootCourtesy of: EMI

 

Making of Stars-Switchfoot

 

Switchfoot The Documentary

 

By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

Discussion of Woody Allen’s 1989 movie “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (Part 2)

July 13, 2012 – 7:15 am

Crimes and Misdemeanors: A Discussion: Part 2

Uploaded by on Sep 23, 2007

Part 2 of 3: ‘What Does The Movie Tell Us About Ourselves?’
A discussion of Woody Allen’s 1989 movie, perhaps his finest.
By Anton Scamvougeras.

http://camdiscussion.blogspot.com/
antons@mail.ubc.ca

_________________-

One of my favorite Woody Allen movies and I reviewed it earlier but I wanted you to hear from somone else:

Guest Review: Crimes and Misdemeanors

07.13.11 | guest-blogs | FanFare Guests<!–Email this Post | –>Print this Post

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Crimes and Misdemeanors starring Martin LandauGuest blogger Alex Kittle writes:

Since enjoying Midnight in Paris so much, I’ve been dipping more intoWoody Allen‘s filmography. First up was Crimes and Misdemeanors, which interested me since it’s more of a drama than a romantic comedy (which is primarily what I’ve seen from him, it feels). The sizable cast features a number of loosely interconnected figures, all somehow dealing with love and disappointment. Judah (Martin Landau), a prominent ophthalmologist, is facing threats from his slightly unhinged mistress (Anjelica Huston) and is given a difficult choice to protect his marriage. Meanwhile, struggling documentary filmmaker Cliff (Woody Allen) is filming a special on his asshole brother-in-law (Alan Alda), a successful and lecherous comedy producer. He finds himself falling for the documentary’s producer Halley (Mia Farrow), as his own marriage has been failing. The two men’s lives seem unrelated, but come together through mutual acquaintances at a dinner party.

Crimes and Misdemeanors has a lot going on, balancing traumatic ruminations on death and faith with light-hearted romance and comedic dialogue. It’s a bit off-putting at times, but eventually the very different experiences of the two main characters begin to betray the darkness that can pervade any lifestyle or worldview. Cliff comes off as a slightly silly, intelligent film buff, but it’s clear he uses humor to overcome his own insecurities and cannot responsibly deal with his crumbling marriage. Judah seems so put-together, a wealthy doctor, husband, and father, but his own misgivings about his Jewish background and atheist present lead to a complete shift in ideology after he makes a life-changing decision. Their final meeting at the end is a pivotal scene.

The dialogue and characters are the standout of the film, with the story and tone a little too uneven for me. It’s a decent mix of comedy and drama, but doesn’t quite nail it, plus the ending felt abrupt despite the voiceover montage, somehow. But I loved the interactions between Allen and Farrow (they hang out and watch Singin’ in the Rain!) and his adorable niece. Alan Alda is hilarious and douchebaggy; Martin Landau brings the gravitas. It’s an interesting and entertaining film overall, but I didn’t all-out love it. For one thing, the way it ends with Farrow and Allen’s characters is frustratingly written, and I can’t help but think that this is the sort of thing that influences the one-sided sexism of movies like (500) Days of Summer, wherein women are untrustworthy and fickle just because they don’t fall for the protagonist. That’s a bit extreme, I guess, but I couldn’t help but have that line of thinking.

4/5

Pair This Movie With: Oh jeez. Um. Maybe something kind of noir-y, like The Square.

Alex Kittle is an art, movie, and comic geek with a penchant for nonsensical jokes and exaggerated claims. Her blog Film Forager explores movies of every genre, from weird high-concept sci-fi to classic brooding romance.

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By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

The best quarterbacks in the SEC in 2012? (Part 5)

July 13, 2012 – 7:15 am

I think Tyler Wilson is the best quarterback in the SEC but here is what others think:

The Southeastern Conference possesses some of college football’s best quarterbacks, and plenty of youngsters ready to emerge.  Here are my rankings of the signal callers headed into the season:

1. A.J. McCarron, Alabama, Jr.

McCarron tops the list, and looks to pick up where he left off in 2011 after he lead the Crimson Tide to an 11-1 regular-season record and a BCS title. McCarron commands an offense that will rely heavily on the run with running back Eddie Lacy. Lacy takes over for Heisman Trophy winner Trent Richardson.

If Lacy does his best Richardson impersonation and McCarron duplicates his 2,400 yard, 16 touchdowns, five interceptions and 66 percent completion percentage performance in 2011—while developing a young talented receiving corps—the Tide will be in the running for another crystal football in 2012.

2. Aaron Murray, Georgia, Jr.

Murray comes into 2012 at the top of many quarterback lists.  Murray’s numbers jump out at you,  with 3,149 yards  and 35 touchdowns in 2011; make a strong case for the top spot, but his slightly less efficient 59 percent completion percentage and 14 interceptions last season have him in the number two spot here.

Nonetheless, Murray looks poised to lead Georgia to another SEC Championship appearance, and could easily be number one at season’s end.

3. Tyler Wilson, Arkansas, Sr.

Wilson had arguably a better 2011 statistically than both McCarron and Murray, with more yards than both, (3,638) fewer interceptions than Murray (6) and more touchdowns than McCarron (24).

The fact that Wilson loses his top two wide receivers from a year ago, senior Colbi Hamilton enters as the only returning upperclassman at that position with experience in the system, and Bobby Petrino’s firing in the middle of spring drills has Wilson’s standing in question. If Wilson overcomes these pitfalls he will challenge Murray for second on the list, if not McCarron for first by the end of 2012.

4. Tyler Bray, Tennessee, Jr.

Bray at No. 4 hinges on the return of Tennessee’s two-headed monster at wide receiver in the persons of juniors Justin Hunter and Da’Rick Rodgers in 2012. Hunter looked poised for a breakout season with Bray in 2011 connecting with Bray for 302 yards and two touchdowns through just two games, but an ACL injury against Florida derailed any chance of that. Rogers picked up the slack leading the SEC in the regular season with 67 receptions and 1,040 yards, and added nine touchdowns on the year.

Bray had injury problems of his own in 2011, a thumb injury sidelined him from October 8-November 19. Despite the injury, Bray threw for 1,983 yards, 17 touchdowns and just 6 interceptions in seven games. If Bray, Rodgers and Hunter stay healthy, look for big things from the Tennessee passing attack in 2012.

5. James Franklin, Missouri, Jr.

Missouri comes into the SEC with its starter on the shelf for the spring recovering from offseason shoulder surgery on his non-throwing shoulder. If healthy, Franklin looks to give SEC defenses fits with his dual threat ability.

In 2011, Franklin threw for 2,865 yards, 21 touchdowns. Franklin rushed for 981 yards and 15 touchdowns. If Franklin enters the season healthy, watch for the Tigers to challenge Georgia, and South Carolina in the SEC East.

6. Connor Shaw, South Carolina, Jr.

Shaw lands at No. 6 thanks to the departure of go-to wide receiver Alshon Jeffery to the NFL and a lack of experience, just 9 starts. Shaw, however, boasts an 8-1 record as a starter, a bowl win and had 1,671 yards 15 touchdowns, eight interceptions in those starts.

Shaw could be the quarterback Head Coach Steve Spurrier has hoped for at South Carolina. It will be interesting to see if Spurrier pulls Shaw at any time if he struggles in 2012.

By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

Rick Crawford again makes conservatives mad

July 13, 2012 – 7:15 am

Earlier I posted about Rick Crawford’s mistake where he said he agree to tax increases if the Democrats tried to balance the budget. Now he has allowed a bloated bill that includes Food Stamps to get out of committee and it has angered the conservative Cato Institute.

GOP Freshmen Vote to Move Farm Bill Out of Committee

Posted by Tad DeHaven

In the latest example of the so-called “Tea Party Class” of House Republicans not living up to the hype, GOP freshmen on the House Agriculture Committee voted overwhelmingly to approve a bloated $957 billion farm subsidy/welfare bill.

The overall vote was 35-11. Only 4 Republicans voted against it – the rest appear to be Democrats who weren’t happy that the bill doesn’t spend more money on food stamps. Republican freshmen occupy 16 of the 25 GOP seats on the committee. Only 3 out of the 16 voted against the bill.

  • Bob Gibbs (Ohio)
  • Tim Huelskamp (Kansas)
  • Marlin Stutzman (Indiana)

Here are the names of the 13 GOP freshmen who supported it:

  • Austin Scott (Georgia)
  • Scott Tipton (Colorado)
  • Steve Southerland (Florida)
  • Rick Crawford (Arkansas)
  • Martha Roby (Alabama)
  • Scott DeJarlais (Tennessee)
  • Renee Ellmers (North Carolina)
  • Chris Gibson (New York)
  • Randy Hultgren (Illinois)
  • Vicky Hartzler (MO)
  • Robert Schilling (Illinois)
  • Reid Ribble (Wisconsin)
  • Kristi Noem (South Dakota)

The question now is whether the House Republican leadership will allow the bill to come to the floor. According to the Washington Post, Speaker Boehner hasn’t decided:

Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., feels the committee did “an awful lot of good work,” Boehner said at a weekly news conference. But “no decisions about it coming to the floor at this point,” Boehner said…“There are some good reforms in this bill. There are other parts of the farm bill that I have concerns with,” Boehner said. He referred to what he said was “a Soviet-style dairy program in America today and one of the proposals in this farm bill would actually make it worse.”

Boehner has voted against farm bills in the past so he’s probably not eager to get this one to the floor, especially since advocates for free markets and limited government rightly consider the bill to be a disaster. But Boehner helped create this dilemma for himself when his Steering Committee gave Frank Lucas the chairman’s gavel after the 2010 elections. As Chris Edwards and I noted in a recent op-ed, Lucas is a big supporter of farm subsidies and takes pride in having been named a “Wheat Champion” by the National Association of Wheat Growers.

Back in December 2010, I wrote that “An indicator of the incoming House Republican majority’s seriousness about cutting spending will be which members the party selects to head the various committees.” Lucas’s chairmanship indicated that when it comes to bloated farm bills, the House leadership wasn’t serious. If this bill is allowed to reach the floor, any doubts will have been erased.

Russ Vought of the Red State Blog noted:

The fundamental problem with incrementalism is that you can never win the argument, because you never set out to have a debate on principle.

Instead, the debate is always about making some federal program run a little better or cost a little less. It is never about the underlying benefit or activity being fundamentally inconsistent with a limited government or the Constitution. No matter how common sense the reform, the Left immediately demonizes the effort as a “cut,” either scaring the reformers to the sidelines or sparking the same ideological firefight that the reformers were trying to avoid. The reformers get caught unprepared to argue on principle, and the proposed reform itself then proves to be well south of the herculean political effort needed to get it signed into law.

Consider the “farm” bill just passed out of the House Agriculture Committee.

Its $957 billion over ten years. The last farm bill in 2008 was $604 billion over ten years—a 63% increase. 80% of the bill is now food stamp funding. This is because there are now 46 million individuals on food stamps, compared with 17 million in 2000 and 30 million in 2008 respectively. 1 out of every 7 Americans are on food stamps. Chairman Frank Lucas is proposing to tweak the program to save just $16 billion or 2%. The Left is predictably freaking out. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities claims that the, “Lucas-Peterson proposed farm bill would throw 2 to 3 million people off” food stamps. Assistant Democrat Leader James Clyburn is calling the reforms “an abomination.” This freakout will inevitably result in some compromise that is even more worthless.

This is not the approach that you would take if you were, say, trying to drastically roll back the welfare state. You would take a much harder line. You would break up the food stamp portion from the commodity portion. You would go back to pre-Obama or pre-Bush levels and block grant the program (surely the nation can exist on the same food stamp levels enjoyed by the Clinton Administration, no?). You would be proposing a work requirement for the food stamp program. You might bring back the paper stamps and discontinue the EBT system. In other words, you would force a real debate about food stamps and dependency in America—about what we can afford given our fiscal situation and how to get people off of welfare for their and our benefit.

Despite

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Nancy Carlton on climate change

July 12, 2012 – 7:45 am

Patrick J. Michaels on Climate Change

Uploaded by on Nov 18, 2008

Cato Institute Senior Fellow Patrick J. Michaels discusses climate change on various television programs. Michaels is a research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and visiting scientist with the Marshall Institute in Washington, D.C. He is a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists and was program chair for the Committee on Applied Climatology of the American Meteorological Society

______________-

Mitt Romney earlier held the view that we had to take an aggressive view concerning climate change but has lightened up on that view since then.  I have big doubts concerning climate change and I am willing to say that I don’t know for sure but now the facts indicate to me that global warming is happening. It may just be a cycle that includes periods of cool downs too in the past.

Below is an interesting article that I wanted to pass along.

Check your calendar – Is it 1984 yet?

Living in Quadrant 2 is the same as living in Saline County, he thought to himself. Vaguely he could still perceive the term “Saline County”, even though all his neighbors had forgotten it.

From his dingy window overlooking the People’s Ministry Headquarters in Bentonia, he could see the lines of uniformed workers already waiting impatiently to be let into their work stations.

He knows that the main reason they are anxious to get inside is that their breakfast rations are laid out for them in the entry hall, to be picked up on the way to their cubicles. It’s a good thing that the food is neatly cut into perfect squares, each with its complete nutrition, low fat, high fiber, artificial taste, designed by a GS-12 dietitian, for quick consumption and zero waste.

This Orwellian, far-fetched scenario may seem like a total outlandish exaggeration when compared with the reality of 2011 in Saline County, Arkansas. But have you seen how quickly things are changing? If you have read George Orwell’s “1984”, look around you and see literature come to life!

“Newspeak” is the language of Orwell’s land of Oceania, where the government has taken over the language and is changing it rapidly to incrementally conform the thinking of all citizens to the official view handed down by the administration. Couldn’t happen here, you say?

Tell me where the following terms came from: Smart Growth. Green Economy. Sustainable Development. Undocumented Workers. Climate Change. Kinetic Military Action. Carbon Footprint.

This is your government telling you how to think. Business must not grow for profit – it must grow “smartly”. It must conform to a thousand regulations. It must not leave behind any unsightly traces. It must be globally fair and internationally lawful.

The economy mustn’t be robust. It must be environmentally pure. It must be inoffensive to other countries. It must be controlled. It must be manipulated.

The environment has been exalted by our government and the media to a higher status than people. Indeed a huge part of “Smart” and “Sustainable” projects to many futuristic thinkers in this world involves many, many fewer human beings than now inhabit this planet. The United Nations and I.C.L.E.I. have dire plans for the human race. Do yourself a favor and go to http://www.freedomadvocates.org. Look at the ICLEI Primer. Read the articles. See what is about to happen to our “unalienable rights” if the globalists get their way. The attack on America started decades ago. The dumbing down of our people by controlled media and public education which has been saturated with globalist attitudes and values is sucking the lifeblood from our nation. By the way, in case you think that surely nobody in our fair state would be radical enough or stupid enough to allow this ICLEI monster into our local governments – Pulaski County, North Little Rock and Fayetteville, Arkansas have all three already signed on. Check it out.

On another front, Al Gore and his merry band of junk scientists have convinced our schoolchildren that evil America is drowning the baby Polar Bears, when in truth the Polar Bears are thriving. Someone slipped up and told the truth about the global farce that is Climate Change. Will Al Gore give back his Nobel Peace Prize?

We have to stop the “death by regulation” and the organized brainwashing that is being perpetrated on us by Big Government.

As I am emphatically the Conservative columnist, you may ask,”What does this have to do with Conservatism vs. Liberalism?” Pretty much everything. For some reason, most Liberals seem to have an appetite for big government. They strive for the bliss they feel will come when government levels every playing field to the point that no one person even feels the need to try to excel anymore. Big Government left unchecked could easily become the “Big Brother” of Orwell’s “1984”. Maybe not in every detail, but the complete stifling of freedom would be the same.

I find some comfort in knowing that I am not sounding this alarm alone. Besides the Freedom Advocates website I gave you, also look at http://securearkansasnetwork.org for plenty of good local information.

If you don’t want to wake up some morning living in Quadrant 2 and lining up to get your rations along with your comrades, do some research.

Let’s make sure that we can continue to sing “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave” without having to lie.

__________

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President Obama c/o The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President, I know that you receive 20,000 letters a day and that you actually read 10 of them every day. I really do respect you for trying to get a pulse on what is going on out here. I wondered […]

Hurtful regulations from Obama

I wondered why President Obama was claiming that he was not increasing regulations as much as Bush did. However, the real truth coming out  in this article below: Chart of the Week: Obama Tops Bush With More, Costlier Major Regulations Alison Meyer March 18, 2012 at 2:40 pm President Obama famously declared in this year’s […]

Newt is a poor excuse for a candidate

I used to like Newt back in the 1990′s but a lot has changed since then. Take a look at this fine article from the Cato Institute: Gingrich Rise Is Triumph of Style over Substance by Gene Healy   Gene Healy is a vice president at the Cato Institute and the author of The Cult […]

Federal government runs up cost by increasing regulations

The Heritage Foundation website does it again. Take a look. CAFE Standards: Fleet-Wide Regulations Costly and Unwarranted By Diane Katz November 28, 2011 Automakers would be required to double current fleet-wide fuel economy by 2025 under regulations proposed last week by the Obama Administration. Advocates contend that this crackdown on the internal combustion engine would […]

Climategate

What about climategate? Here is an article from the Wall Street Journal: OPINION NOVEMBER 28, 2011 Climategate 2.0 A new batch of leaked emails again shows some leading scientists trying to smear opponents. By JAMES DELINGPOLE Last week, 5,000 files of private email correspondence among several of the world’s top climate scientists were anonymously leaked […]

John Huntsman: “I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming”

This may get interesting. AFP reported today: Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman took a swipe at his rivals and warned his party against rejecting science in an interview that will air Sunday. “I think there’s a serious problem. The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party — the anti-science party — we have a […]

Is Al Gore Misrepresenting Global Warming? – Patrick Michaels

I ran across this great video above on global warming. ____________________ Uploaded by ForaTv on Apr 15, 2009 Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/03/12/Climate_of_Extremes Patrick Michaels argues that, when discussing climate change, “people accept the strangest things without really fact checking.” Michaels argues that many of Al Gore’s claims and presumptions about global warming are false. —– […]

Global Warming is not happening in last 15 years

I love it when the facts come out and contradict the liberal spin on things. “Why Hasn’t the Earth Warmed in Nearly 15 Years?”by Patrick J. Michaels.   Patrick Michaels is senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute and author of Climate Coup: Global Warming’s Invasion of our Government and our Lives. Added to […]

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