Category Archives: Current Events

Should Steve Jobs been ashamed of the sweat shops he used in China? (Part 1)

February 4, 2012 – 8:20 am

This is a very easy issue for me. Milton Friedman noted in 1973:

 Sweatshops and child labor were conditions that resulted more from poverty than from laissez-faire economics. Wretched working conditions still exist in nations with all sorts of enlightened social legislation but where poverty is still extreme. We in the United States no longer suffer that kind of poverty because the free-enterprise system has allowed us to become wealthy.
Everybody does take the line that laissez faire is heartless. But when do you suppose we had the highest level of private charitable activity in this country? In the 19th century. That’s when we had the great movement toward private nonprofit hospitals. The missions abroad. The library movement. Even the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. That was also the era in which the ordinary man, the low-income man, achieved the greatest improvement in his standard of living and his status. During that period, millions of penniless immigrants came in from abroad, with nothing but their hands, and enjoyed an enormous rise in their standard of living.
My mother came to this country when she was 14 years old. She worked in a sweatshop as a seamstress, and it was only because there was such a sweatshop in which she could get a job that she was able to come to the U.S. But she didn’t stay in the sweatshop and neither did most of the others. It was a way station for them, and a far better one than anything available to them in the old country. And she never thought it was anything else. I must say that I find it slightly revolting that people sneer at a system that’s made it possible for them to sneer at it.

I saw on HBO Real Time with Bill Maher his interview with Mike Daisey. Below is an article on what Daisey said about Steve Jobs and sweat shops in China. 

Mike Daisey’s The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs Will Reboot at the Public in 2012

By Adam Hetrick
01 Dec 2011

Mike Daisey
Mike Daisey
Photo by Joan Marcus

Mike Daisey’s The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, which played an extended run Off-Broadway at the Public Theater earlier this fall, will return for a five-week New York run in 2012.

The Agony and the Ecstasy began previews Oct. 11 and played an extended run through Dec. 4. The monologue, which examines the human cost of must-have technology, has been announced to play a Jan. 31-March 4, 2012, encore engagement at the Public.

Jean-Michele Gregory directed Daisey’s heated monologue, which opened to strong reviews Oct. 17. The Public Theater’s timely engagement began less than a week after the Apple co-founder died at the age of 56.

“The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs is coming back because it must,” Public artistic director Oskar Eustis said in a statement. “There has been huge demand for Mike Daisey’s wonderful show, a demand that is fueled both by the brilliance of his performance and the importance of his subject. This show speaks to the heart of America, who we are, the way we live and what we value. I am thrilled that Mike has struck such a nerve.”

Here’s how the Public describes the work: “Mike Daisey turns his razor-sharp wit to America’s most mysterious technology icon in this hilarious and harrowing tale of pride, beauty, lust, and industrial design. He illuminates how the CEO of Apple and his obsessions shape our lives, while sharing stories of his own travels to China to investigate the factories where millions toil to make iPhones and iPods. Daisey’s dangerous journey shines a light on our love affair with our devices and the human cost of creating them.”

“Many of us feel a deep intimacy with Steve’s passing, because Apple’s design language and Jobs’ obsessions blur the lines—in a real sense many people’s intimate history with Apple has been a decades-long conversation about industrial design with Steve Jobs himself,” Daisey said in a previous statement.

He continued, “This moment is an opportunity to peel back the surface and get at the secret heart of our relationship with Steve Jobs, his devices, our labor, and China itself. We live in denial about China: a relationship that so disturbs us that we pretend our devices are made in magical Willy Wonka-esque factories by space elves instead of the real human cost we all know in our hearts has been paid. Steve Jobs was famous for his unsentimental directness, his ability to ignore nostalgia and demand the unvarnished truth, however difficult. I admire that, and these performances at this precise moment are an opportunity for us to together rediscover out how alive theatre can be when we don’t know all the answers.”

_____________

This argument falls apart as Milton Friedman points out above. He pointed out:

My mother came to this country when she was 14 years old. She worked in a sweatshop as a seamstress, and it was only because there was such a sweatshop in which she could get a job that she was able to come to the U.S. But she didn’t stay in the sweatshop and neither did most of the others. It was a way station for them, and a far better one than anything available to them in the old country. And she never thought it was anything else. I must say that I find it slightly revolting that people sneer at a system that’s made it possible for them to sneer at it.

Some say Steve Jobs was an atheist

According to published reports Steve Jobs was a Buddhist and he had a very interesting quote on death which I discussed in another post. Back in 1979 I saw the film series HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE? by Francis Schaeffer and I also read the book. Francis Schaeffer observes in How Should We Then Live: The Rise […]

Steve Jobs and Adoption

Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address Uploaded by StanfordUniversity on Mar 7, 2008 It was a quite moving story to hear about Steve Jobs’ adoption. Ryan Scott Bomberger (www.toomanyaborted.com), co-founder of The Radiance Foundation, an adoptee and adoptive father: “As a creative professional, [Jobs’] visionary work has helped my own visions become reality. But his […]

What is the eternal impact of Steve Jobs’ life?

I have written several posts on Steve Jobs and they are listed below. Today I want to look at the eternal impact of Steve Jobs’ life. Below are the words of – R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.: “Christians cannot leave the matter where the secular world will […]

Steve Jobs versus President Obama: Who created more jobs?

I loved reading this article below. (Take a look at the link to other posts I have done on Steve Jobs.) David Boaz makes some great observations: How much value is the Post Office creating this year? Or Amtrak? Or Solyndra? And if you point out that the Post Office does create value for its […]

Steve Jobs’ view of death and what the Bible has to say about it

Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address Uploaded by StanfordUniversity on Mar 7, 2008 Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, chief executive officer and co-founder of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life’s setbacks — including death […]

8 things you might not know about Steve Jobs

Things you may not know about Steve Jobs: Steve Jobs leans against his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs (Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle/Corbis) For all of his years in the spotlight at the helm of Apple, Steve Jobs in many ways remains an inscrutable figure — even in his death. Fiercely private, Jobs concealed most specifics about […]

Steve Jobs was a Buddhist: What is Buddhism?

Steve Jobs passed away on October 5, 2011. I personally am very grateful to him for helping the world so much with his ideas and I have written about that before. Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute noted: He’s built a $360 billion company. That presumably means at least $352 billion of wealth in the […]

  Did Steve Jobs help people even though he did not give away a lot of money? (I just finished a post concerning Steve’s religious beliefs and a post about 8 things you may not know about Steve Jobs) Uploaded by UM0kusha0kusha on Sep 16, 2010 clip from The First Round Up *1934* ~~enjoy!! ______________________________________________ In the short film […]

By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in Milton Friedman | Comments (0)

Surprising facts about America’s poor

February 4, 2012 – 12:48 am

Surprising facts about America’s poor. Instead of Mitt Romney and John Burris being out of touch, it is Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times that is out of touch. Take a look at this article:

Mike Brownfield

September 13, 2011 at 11:00 am

In his address to the joint session of Congress last week, President Barack Obama called for $477 billion in new federal spending, which he said would give hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged young people hope and dignity while giving their low-income parents “ladders out of poverty.” And today, the U.S. Census released its annual poverty report, which declared that 46.2 million persons, or roughly one in seven Americans, were poor in 2010. What President Obama didn’t tell America as he was pleading for more spending–and what the Census Bureau didn’t report–is what it really means to be poor in America.

In a new report, Heritage’s Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield lay out what the U.S. government’s own facts and figures really say about poverty in the United States. The results might surprise you, especially if your view of poverty is the conventional one, perpetuated by the media–namely, destitute conditions of homelessness and hunger. In reality, though, the living conditions of those defined as poor by the government are much different than that popular image. The following are facts about persons defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau:

  • 80 percent of poor households have air conditioning
  • Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks
  • Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite television
  • Two-thirds have at least one DVD player and 70 percent have a VCR
  • Half have a personal computer, and one in seven have two or more computers
  • More than half of poor families with children have a video game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation
  • 43 percent have Internet access
  • One-third have a wide-screen plasma or LCD television
  • One-fourth have a digital video recorder system, such as a TiVo

As for hunger and homelessness, Rector and Sheffield point to 2009 statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showing that 96 percent of poor parents stated that their children were never hungry at any time during the year because they could not afford food, 83 percent of poor families reported having enough food to eat, and over the course of a year, only 4 percent of poor persons become temporarily homeless, with 42 percent of poor households actually owning their own homes. Want an international comparison? The average poor American has more living space than the average Swede or German. You can read even more of those facts in their report, “Understanding Poverty in the United States.”

None of this is to say that the poor have it easy. Sadly, one in 25 will become temporarily homeless during the year, and one in five poor adults will experience temporary food shortages and hunger at some point in a year. But exaggerating the conditions of poverty does not do America any good, as Rector and Sheffield explain:

The poor man who has lost his home or suffers intermittent hunger will find no consolation in the fact that his condition occurs infrequently in American society. His hardships are real and should be an important concern to policymakers. Nonetheless, anti-poverty policy needs to be based on accurate information. Gross exaggeration of the extent and severity of hardships in America will not benefit society, the taxpayers, or the poor.

Those exaggerations about the symptoms of poverty don’t solve the root causes of the problem, either. As Rector and Sheffield write, “Among families with children, the collapse of marriage and the erosion of work ethic are the principal long-term causes of poverty.” In order to truly benefit the poor, they say, welfare policy must require able-bodied recipients to work or prepare for work as a condition of receiving aid. And it should strengthen marriage in low-income communities, rather than ignore and penalize it.

Poverty is a serious problem that requires serious solutions. But policymakers and the public need accurate information about what poverty in the United States really means. Only then can they implement the right policies to help those Americans who are truly in need.

By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

Occupy Wall St

February 3, 2012 – 10:40 pm

Video below from Blue Arkansas Blog:

Occupation of Clinton Presidential Library / Occupy Little Rock / LRPD Agrees With Occupation

__________________________

I enjoy reading the Saline Courier and there is a writer by the name of Clark Hopper that writes from a liberal perspective. He is the chairman of the Saline County Democratic Party and has been involved in politics in the county for many years.

I come from a conservative perspective, but I am always glad when a healthy debate can take place in a civil way. Hopper’s past articles have all been consistently logical from the liberal point of view and I hope to provide a conservative response on this occasion.

During the last few years I have helped conservative candidates in their campaigns by word of mouth and making phone calls. I have learned that it is very difficult to get volunteers to man the phones and go door to door or hold up signs. People are just too busy and very rarely can candidates get people to do things like this. However, in the last couple of years the most faithful volunteers for conservative candidates have come from the Tea Party ranks.

Tea Party members are upset at the bailouts which were available because of cronyism and they are very mad about all the federal deficit spending.  Tea Party members blame the politicians in Washington D.C. primarily responsible for these deeds.

_________________________

According to the article, “Peaceful rally gives people right to  express opinions,” Oct 22, 2011, Clark Hopper and his wife recently took part with 300 other people in the Occupy Little Rock March that took place on Oct 15, 2011 that began at the Riverfront Park amphitheater and ended up at the Capitol after stopping at the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, several banks and the Federal Building. The marchers chanted, “The banks got bailed out and we got sold out.”

Hopper noted:

It was really nice to be surrounded by people with the same thoughts of what is wrong with America and what is needed to correct its course. Americans have had enough of corporate greed as witnessed by the occupying of Wall Street and other marches taking place across America…

Corporations are not seeking consent to take wealth from the people, or the earth…This comes at a time when corporations run our government and place profits over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality….Those holding great wealth versus those living in poverty in America is way out of balance…

I think that unlike the Tea Party which is focused on just a full issues, the Occupy Wall Street crowd really is not sure about what direction is heading yet. Nevertheless, there are some statements and actions of their members that I would like to comment on.

First,  I wonder how peaceful this movement is. Jim Lendall is one of the organizers and back in April he stood on the steps of the state capitol at a “Make Them Pay Rally” and called for erecting guillotines and placing them in front of corporations like Bank of America to remind these business leaders that the rich leaders of the French government of the 1700’s were beheaded during the French Revolution because of their greed. Also the downtown branch of Bank of America reported that a large brick was thrown into a glass window near the first floor entrance of the bank.

Second, how big is this movement compared to conservative movements? Every year I take part in the “March for Life” which is a pro-life march that takes place every January. Last January we had over 5000 marchers, but the Occupy Little Rock March had only 300 marchers.

Third, both the Occupy Little Rock crowd and the Tea Party both are mad that the bailout was available because of cronyism. This is one area that I have in agreement with the Occupy Little Rock group, but we must take the next step. The Tea Party has done that by discouraging the larger role the federal government has been taking in recent years by controlling our lives with increases spending. The Tea Party has correctly condemned the federal deficit spending of the politicians in Washington D.C. as the primary problem. The Occupy Little Rock crowd never mentions that issue because their answer is to spend more money. If the USA is to avoid the fate of Greece.  Why does the federal government think it has the money to bail out anybody?

Fourth, the Occupy Little Rock crowd thinks we need more regulations and taxes on the big bad corporations.  There are two points here. If we raise taxes on those corporations then they will raise their prices on their products and we end up paying the higher prices at the retail stores. Also more regulations will hurt upstarts like Steve Jobs who started as a poor teenager in a garage with an idea. Steve Jobs later grew his company to over  350 billion dollars in sales and the  company  made a lot of money for lots of Americans who worked for him. Furthermore,  Steve Jobs also provided various products to the public that changed life for billions across the globe. Is that the type of progress that the Occupy Little Rock crowd is opposing?

Fifth, the Occupy Little Rock crowd talks about the system in our country that punishes the poor and helps the rich, but the facts clearly show that  the ability to move from poor to rich is more abundant here than any other country in the world.  Just consider Steve Jobs who was mentioned in the point above.

__________________

“Occupy Little Rock” wants to occupy your wallet
According to the article, “Peaceful rally gives people right to  express opinions,” Oct 22, 2011, Clark Hopper and his wife recently took part with 300 other people in the Occupy Little Rock March that took place on Oct 15, 2011 that began at the Riverfront Park amphitheater and ended up at the Capitol after stopping at the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, several banks and the Federal Building. The marchers chanted, “The banks got bailed out and we got sold out.”
Hopper noted:
It was really nice to be surrounded by people with the same thoughts of what is wrong with America and what is needed to correct its course. Americans have had enough of corporate greed as witnessed by the occupying of Wall Street and other marches taking place across America…
Corporations are not seeking consent to take wealth from the people, or the earth…This comes at a time when corporations run our government and place profits over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality….Those holding great wealth versus those living in poverty in America is way out of balance…
I think that unlike the Tea Party which is focused on just a full issues, the Occupy Wall Street crowd really is not sure about what direction is heading yet. Nevertheless, there are some statements and actions of their members that I would like to comment on.
First,  I wonder how peaceful this movement is. Jim Lendall is one of the organizers and back in April he stood on the steps of the state capitol at a “Make Them Pay Rally” and called for erecting guillotines and placing them in front of corporations like Bank of America to remind these business leaders that the rich leaders of the French government of the 1700’s were beheaded during the French Revolution because of their greed. Also the downtown branch of Bank of America reported that a large brick was thrown into a glass window near the first floor entrance of the bank.
Second, how big is this movement compared to conservative movements? Every year I take part in the “March for Life” which is a pro-life march that takes place every January. Last January we had over 5000 marchers, but the Occupy Little Rock March had only 300 marchers.
Third, both the Occupy Little Rock crowd and the Tea Party both are mad that the bailout was available because of cronyism. This is one area that I have in agreement with the Occupy Little Rock group, but we must take the next step. The Tea Party has done that by discouraging the larger role the federal government has been taking in recent years by controlling our lives with increases spending. The Tea Party has correctly condemned the federal deficit spending of the politicians in Washington D.C. as the primary problem. The Occupy Little Rock crowd never mentions that issue because their answer is to spend more money. If the USA is to avoid the fate of Greece.  Why does the federal government think it has the money to bail out anybody?
Fourth, the Occupy Little Rock crowd thinks we need more regulations and taxes on the big bad corporations.  There are two points here. If we raise taxes on those corporations then they will raise their prices on their products and we end up paying the higher prices at the retail stores. Also more regulations will hurt upstarts like Steve Jobs who started as a poor teenager in a garage with an idea. Steve Jobs later grew his company to over  350 billion dollars in sales and the  company  made a lot of money for lots of Americans who worked for him. Furthermore,  Steve Jobs also provided various products to the public that changed life for billions across the globe. Is that the type of progress that the Occupy Little Rock crowd is opposing?
Fifth, the Occupy Little Rock crowd talks about the system in our country that punishes the poor and helps the rich, but the facts clearly show that  the ability to move from poor to rich is more abundant here than any other country in the world.  Just consider Steve Jobs who was mentioned in the point above.
I have enjoyed Mr. Hopper’s articles, and they are very good at engaging the main issues of our day from the liberal perspective. As a conservative his articles have always challenged me to be able to defend my own views. His praise of the Occupy Little Rock crowd overlooks that fact that their answer is to tax the “rich” more, but the fact is that once the government is through with the rich then they come looking for you and me. I am not happy about them trying to occupy my wallet more than do now.
By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

Ron Paul’s Pro-life view

February 3, 2012 – 12:36 pm

Ron Paul’s Pro-life view

Ron Paul’s Pro-Life Speech in Ames, Iowa

Uploaded by on Aug 13, 2011

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Ron Paul is America’s leading voice for limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, sound money, and a pro-America foreign policy.

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By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in Prolife | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Vols still crying about losing two 4 star linebackers on signing day

February 3, 2012 – 11:38 am

Arkansas wide receiver Joe Adams runs back a punt for a touchdown against Tennessee at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville on Nov. 12, 2011. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

 

www.Knoxnews.com reported:

Andrew Gribble: Needs filled at WR, DL and RB, but questions remain at LB

It only took one injury to expose how razor thin Tennessee was depth-wise at wide receiver last season. The impact of Justin Hunter’s torn anterior cruciate ligament put players all across the field in unexpected positions and the drop-off was significant.

So, coach Derek Dooley and the Vols did something about it. They recruited the problem away with their 2012 signing class, adding three four-star wide receivers — Alton Howard, Drae Bowles and Jason Croom — and a five-star cherry on top in the form of junior-college transfer Cordarrelle Patterson, who announced his decision early Wednesday morning.

The defensive line, which was steady but far from fantastic in 2011, has been similarly bolstered. Junior-college transfers Darrington Sentimore and Daniel McCullers have the potential to see immediate playing time while Danny O’Brien and Trent Taylor were both recruited heavily by college football’s elite.

A running back position that lacked any sort of playmaking threat in 2011 now has three new players with three completely different running styles. Alden Hill (power), Quenshaun Watson (speed) and Davante Bourque (little bit of both) provide, if nothing else, additional candidates for a job that should have a wide-open competition starting at spring practice.

“Got to have a lot of good football players to win in this league because other teams get injuries, too, and you can’t go blaming every year on an injury,” Dooley said. “You’ve got to go put the next guy in and go win. That’s what we were trying to do.”

It just wasn’t that easy at another position of need.

At linebacker, a spot that conceivably needed even more bodies than originally planned because of the anticipated implementation of more 3-4 formations, the Vols reeled in just two signees.

That group stood at four and featured two of the highest-ranked players at the position as recently as Sunday afternoon. It was what the Vols needed.

But on Sunday night, four-star Texas product Dalton Santos — who committed to the Vols during the summer but had his flirtation with other schools tracked like a soap opera — informed UT’s coaches that he would be signing with Texas. On Tuesday, longtime commitment Otha Peters (Covington, La.), who 247Sports considers the 13th best outside linebacker in the nation, dropped the Vols for Arkansas.

“Neither of them surprised us,” Dooley said. “We knew (with) those two guys it was going to be a tough road to close them out.”

Left were two three-star players who each come to UT with a learning curve ahead of them. Justin King was a do-everything athlete at Dunwoody High in Atlanta. LaTroy Lewis (Akron, Ohio), formerly a defensive end who missed most of his senior season with a broken bone in his foot, will make a transition to the “Jack” linebacker position.

“I think both of them will be really good football players,” Dooley said. “LaTroy probably wasn’t as good a fit in our old scheme and he knew it. He was getting a little shaky in December. I told him, ‘I’m going to fix it, be patient. You’re going to fit in perfectly with what we’re about to do.’ ”

Patience, though, wasn’t something UT’s coaches had at their disposal with fringe prospects because of the SEC’s new 25-man signing cap. The Vols were unable to “stockpile” players at positions of need like they could in the past because those spots needed to remain open for potential, last-minute signees. Players like Patterson.

In early January, when numbers started looking tight, one of the first commitments, linebacker Khalid Henderson of Austell, Ga., was told his spot might not be safe. Henderson promptly de-committed, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the situation was “a bunch of crap” and eventually signed with Kentucky.

“You get criticized for it,” said Dooley, who wasn’t speaking specifically about Henderson. “The fact of the matter is, you have to make those kinds of decisions and you can’t help them.”

There’s no disputing that the Vols do have quality players coming back at linebacker in 2012. Curt Maggitt and A.J. Johnson combined for 136 tackles and were shoo-ins for the All-SEC freshman team. Herman Lathers, who missed all of 2011 with a broken ankle, is “full go” and just one full year removed from a 75-tackle 2010.

Much like the wide receiver position in 2011, the question marks don’t swirl around the projected starters. It’s the next players off the bench — Dontavis Sapp, Nigel Mitchell-Thornton, John Propst, Christian Harris, Greg King and Raiques Crump — a group that combined for 37 tackles in 2011. A defensive end such as Jacques Smith and others could be in line for a move back to linebacker, but it’s far too early in the process to prognosticate.

Even after National Signing Day, possibilities remain on the recruiting trail. The Vols have room to sign four more players and Dooley said he expects a few, talented prospects to be still available because of the fallout from the signing cap.

“Time will tell,” Dooley said. “I wasn’t going to take a marginal player to fill out everything because I’m not sure we can get to 25 next year.”

Andrew Gribble may be reached at 865-342-6327. Follow him athttp://twitter.com/Andrew_Gribble and http://blogs.knoxnews.com/gribble

The Vols have been very happy lately about all the great players they got but they are still crying about losing two 4 star linebackers on signing day. Late in the evening on signing day Andrew Gribble of Knoxville noted:

At linebacker, a spot that conceivably needed even more bodies than originally planned because of the anticipated implementation of more 3-4 formations, the Vols reeled in just two signees.

That group stood at four and featured two of the highest-ranked players at the position as recently as Sunday afternoon. It was what the Vols needed.

But on Sunday night, four-star Texas product Dalton Santos — who committed to the Vols during the summer but had his flirtation with other schools tracked like a soap opera — informed UT’s coaches that he would be signing with Texas. On Tuesday, longtime commitment Otha Peters (Covington, La.), who 247Sports considers the 13th best outside linebacker in the nation, dropped the Vols for Arkansas.

“Neither of them surprised us,” Dooley said. “We knew (with) those two guys it was going to be a tough road to close them out.”

Left were two three-star players who each come to UT with a learning curve ahead of them. Justin King was a do-everything athlete at Dunwoody High in Atlanta. LaTroy Lewis (Akron, Ohio), formerly a defensive end who missed most of his senior season with a broken bone in his foot, will make a transition to the “Jack” linebacker position.

Take a look at that article below.

Arkansas 360 reported:

2/1/2012 at 6:39pm

Arkansas just wrapped up the 2011 season ranked No. 5 for on-field performance. Most college football analysts expect the Razorbacks to begin 2012 in the Top 10.

National recruiting rankings weren’t so favorable.

Only Scout.com ranked the Razorbacks among the Top 25 nationally for Wednesday’s 24-man signing class. No service that ranks conference recruiting standings put Arkansas in the top half of the league.

It is worth noting that Arkansas has routinely been on the outside looking in among signing day elite. Still, Coach Bobby Petrino has developed the talent on hand into teams capable of going 21-5 the last two seasons.

Outlet Natl/Conf. Top Arkansas Commit (Stars) Overall No. 1
247Sports.com 27/10 LB Otha Peters (4) Alabama
ESPN.com —/— WR D’Arthur Cowan (4) Alabama
Rivals.com 31/11 LB Otha Peters (4) Alabama
Scout.com 21/9 RB Jonathan Williams (4) Texas

Will he have the same success with this group?

Related posts:

Last minute pick up from Vols helps Hogs finish strong in recruiting

I was disappointed that Vandy had a better class than Arkansas but I was glad that we got a chance to get a quality linebacker to switch to the Hogs at the last moment. Otis Kirk’s Recruiting 360: Arkansas’ Peoples Key In Landing Otha Peters by Otis Kirk, Hawgs247.com 2/2/2012 at 1:06pm Arkansas struck late in […]

Briefs on all the SEC football recruiting hauls

I am glad that Petrino got more defensive players than offensive players but time will tell if he can develop these three star players like he did in 2008 when that class later turned the hogs into a national contender in 2011. Below is an article from http://www.ajc.com Alabama (26): The national champs added to their […]

Tennessee is upset at Peters for switching to the Hogs

In the article below you can see that the player who lived in Texas that switched to Texas could be explained away and the one that lived in Virginia that switched to VA Tech could also but the Vols don’t have an explanation for why the 4 star linebacker Otha Peters switched from his commitment […]

Articles on SEC football recruiting results

I disagree with the article below that says that Vandy did not do well in recruiting. There is no way they are number 13 out of 14.   National Signing Day around the SEC. 247Sports ranked the SEC team’s recruiting in this order: 1 Alabama, 2 Florida, 3 Georgia, 4 LSU, 5 Texas A&M, 6 South Carolina, […]

Arkansas can learn from Vols’ mistake in football recruiting

I have noticed that Arkansas never seems to have great recruiting years like Tennessee and Florida and Alabama do. However, the 2008 class that will graduate in 2012 for Arkansas included some great players like Joe Adams and has been re-ranked as the 5th best performing class. That class led Arkansas to a final ranking […]

SEC football recruiting update

It seems to me that there are a few surprises in the recruiting game this year. Below is a rivals article and the one below it is an article from 3 months ago. January 27, 2012 Rivals.com analyst Chris Neereviews recent rising and falling in the 2012 team rankings as National Signing Day nears. Five […]

Lane Kiffin has put off Judgement Day

It is true that USC’s Lane Kiffin has had two great recruiting classes at USC, but that was because he signed 25 players both in 2010 and 2011. He delayed “Judgement Day” by getting permission to avoid the 15 scholarship limits (imposed for 3 years) while the school appealed the NCAA’s decision. Therefore, all these […]

By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

Ron Paul’s opinion of Fed

February 3, 2012 – 9:34 am

I really like Ron Paul a lot.

  • OCTOBER 20, 2011

Blame the Fed for the Financial Crisis

The Fed fails to grasp that an interest rate is a price, the price of time. Attempting to manipulate that price is as destructive as any other government price control.

By RON PAUL

To know what is wrong with the Federal Reserve, one must first understand the nature of money. Money is like any other good in our economy that emerges from the market to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers. Its particular usefulness is that it helps facilitate indirect exchange, making it easier for us to buy and sell goods because there is a common way of measuring their value. Money is not a government phenomenon, and it need not and should not be managed by government. When central banks like the Fed manage money they are engaging in price fixing, which leads not to prosperity but to disaster.

WSJ’s Danny Yadron discusses Ron Paul’s proposal for $1 trillion in budget cuts with “Mean Street” host Evan Newmark. Paul’s cuts would come in large part as a result of cutting several cabinet positions. AP Photo.

The Federal Reserve has caused every single boom and bust that has occurred in this country since the bank’s creation in 1913. It pumps new money into the financial system to lower interest rates and spur the economy. Adding new money increases the supply of money, making the price of money over time—the interest rate—lower than the market would make it. These lower interest rates affect the allocation of resources, causing capital to be malinvested throughout the economy. So certain projects and ventures that appear profitable when funded at artificially low interest rates are not in fact the best use of those resources.

Eventually, the economic boom created by the Fed’s actions is found to be unsustainable, and the bust ensues as this malinvested capital manifests itself in a surplus of capital goods, inventory overhangs, etc. Until these misdirected resources are put to a more productive use—the uses the free market actually desires—the economy stagnates.

BloombergFed Chairman Ben Bernanke

The great contribution of the Austrian school of economics to economic theory was in its description of this business cycle: the process of booms and busts, and their origins in monetary intervention by the government in cooperation with the banking system. Yet policy makers at the Federal Reserve still fail to understand the causes of our most recent financial crisis. So they find themselves unable to come up with an adequate solution.

In many respects the governors of the Federal Reserve System and the members of the Federal Open Market Committee are like all other high-ranking powerful officials. Because they make decisions that profoundly affect the workings of the economy and because they have hundreds of bright economists working for them doing research and collecting data, they buy into the pretense of knowledge—the illusion that because they have all these resources at their fingertips they therefore have the ability to guide the economy as they see fit.

Nothing could be further from the truth. No attitude could be more destructive. What the Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek victoriously asserted in the socialist calculation debate of the 1920s and 1930s—the notion that the marketplace, where people freely decide what they need and want to pay for, is the only effective way to allocate resources—may be obvious to many ordinary Americans. But it has not influenced government leaders today, who do not seem to see the importance of prices to the functioning of a market economy.

The manner of thinking of the Federal Reserve now is no different than that of the former Soviet Union, which employed hundreds of thousands of people to perform research and provide calculations in an attempt to mimic the price system of the West’s (relatively) free markets. Despite the obvious lesson to be drawn from the Soviet collapse, the U.S. still has not fully absorbed it.

The Fed fails to grasp that an interest rate is a price—the price of time—and that attempting to manipulate that price is as destructive as any other government price control. It fails to see that the price of housing was artificially inflated through the Fed’s monetary pumping during the early 2000s, and that the only way to restore soundness to the housing sector is to allow prices to return to sustainable market levels. Instead, the Fed’s actions have had one aim—to keep prices elevated at bubble levels—thus ensuring that bad debt remains on the books and failing firms remain in business, albatrosses around the market’s neck.

The Fed’s quantitative easing programs increased the national debt by trillions of dollars. The debt is now so large that if the central bank begins to move away from its zero interest-rate policy, the rise in interest rates will result in the U.S. government having to pay hundreds of billions of dollars in additional interest on the national debt each year. Thus there is significant political pressure being placed on the Fed to keep interest rates low. The Fed has painted itself so far into a corner now that even if it wanted to raise interest rates, as a practical matter it might not be able to do so. But it will do something, we know, because the pressure to “just do something” often outweighs all other considerations.

What exactly the Fed will do is anyone’s guess, and it is no surprise that markets continue to founder as anticipation mounts. If the Fed would stop intervening and distorting the market, and would allow the functioning of a truly free market that deals with profit and loss, our economy could recover. The continued existence of an organization that can create trillions of dollars out of thin air to purchase financial assets and prop up a fundamentally insolvent banking system is a black mark on an economy that professes to be free.

Mr. Paul, a congressman from Texas, is seeking the Republican presidential nomination

By Everette Hatcher III | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

How free is the USA?

February 3, 2012 – 7:33 am

Uploaded by on Jan 12, 2011

http://www.heritage.org/index Is the American Dream dead? How free is America’s economy? Check out the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom for all the answers.

______________________

Economic freedom is not heading the right direction in the USA. My son Wilson has been asking me if there are any other countries that are less socialistic then us and I have been painting a pretty bleak picture out there for him. This article and chart below show there are some countries heading the right direction. Unfortunately, the USA is not one of them.

Economic Freedom of the World: Lessons for the U.S.

by James D. Gwartney, Robert Lawson and Joshua Hall

James Gwartney is a professor at Florida State University. Robert Lawson is a professor at Southern Methodist University. Joshua Hall is a professor at Beloit College. They are co-authors of the Economic Freedom of the World report, which can be found at http://www.freetheworld.com, and is co-published by the Cato Institute.

Added to cato.org on September 26, 2011

This article appeared on The Huffington Post on September 25, 2011

Economic freedom in the United States is on the wane. Historically a standard bearer for freer markets, the United States has seen its economic freedom rating fall in the last decade according to the latest Economic Freedom of the World index, published by a world-wide network of institutes. In 2000, the U.S. was ranked 3rd in the world behind only Hong Kong and Singapore, but in the most recent report, the U.S. is ranked 10th behind countries like Canada, Chile, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

The index measures the degree to which people in a nation are free to pursue their own economic objectives without government taxes and regulations, as well as the extent to which government protects property rights and provides a sound monetary environment. The decline of the U.S. is the result of massively higher government spending and borrowing, increased regulation, and especially less secure property rights. Ballooning budget deficits are crowding out private credit causing the rating in this component to fall to 0.0 from 9.3 (out of 10) since 2000. Asset forfeiture laws, eminent domain abuse, the wars on drugs and terrorism, TSA, and warrantless wiretaps have apparently taken their toll on the security of property rights.

The so-called Washington Consensus of the 1990s — free trade, stable money, and privatization — appears dead. The housing bubbles, financial crises, bankruptcies, bailouts, stimulus, debt crises, and erratic markets of the past few years seem to have led to a new consensus. Policymakers now tell us that markets have failed, and government stimulus, subsidies and new regulations are needed to set things right.

James Gwartney is a professor at Florida State University. Robert Lawson is a professor at Southern Methodist University. Joshua Hall is a professor at Beloit College. They are co-authors of the Economic Freedom of the World report, which can be found at http://www.freetheworld.com, and is co-published by the Cato Institute.

More by James D. Gwartney

When evaluating such claims, it is important to remember the fundamental truth of economic life: Markets work. When people are free to buy, sell, produce, trade, and move they do a pretty good job of bettering themselves and others in the process. This is not just common sense or idle theory — there is tons of evidence.

Nations that score higher on the index tend to be richer, grow faster, have less poverty, live longer, be more educated, and on and on. On virtually every measure of the good life, we find that more economic freedom yields better results. Other research finds economic freedom corresponds with less warfare, greater human rights, more gender equity, less unemployment, improved democracy, more trust, and less corruption. The results of the Economic Freedom of the World project and the scholarly analysis it has facilitated are simply overwhelming. Economic freedom works.

Over the past decade, the rating of the United States has fallen almost a full point on the economic freedom scale. Prior research indicates that a decline of this magnitude will reduce a country’s long-term growth rate by at least a full percentage point. In the case of the United States, this will mean future average annual growth of real GDP of 2 percent rather than our 3 percent historical average.

While economic freedom has fallen in the United States, there is good news in the former communist world. A number of formerly centrally planned economies have made remarkable progress toward freer markets during the past decade. Eight of them, Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Albania, Mongolia, and Georgia, now rank in the top 40. By way of comparison, only three Latin American countries, Chile, Panama, and Peru, place in the top 40. All of these countries now rank higher than Sweden and France, for example.

With economic freedom, profits and losses direct resources toward socially beneficial activities. When too many resources are allocated by politics, a system of crony capitalism emerges where politicians can reward the politically powerful. Unlike true entrepreneurs, crony capitalists do not create wealth; instead they plunder wealth from taxpayers and other citizens.

America has prospered historically because we have chosen economic freedom rather than political allocation and crony capitalism. To the extent we move away from economic freedom, our future prosperity will be diminished.

_________________

This article includes a List of countries by economic freedom.

2011 List by the Fraser Institute[1] 2011 List by The Heritage Foundation[2]
Rank↓ Country↓ Score↓
1  Hong Kong 9.01
2  Singapore 8.68
3  New Zealand 8.20
4  Switzerland 8.03
5  Australia 7.98
6  Canada 7.81
7  Chile 7.77
8  United Kingdom 7.71
9  Mauritius 7.67
10  United States 7.60
11  Bahrain 7.59
11  Finland 7.59
13  Slovakia 7.56
14  United Arab Emirates 7.54
15  Denmark 7.52
15  Estonia 7.52
15  Hungary 7.52
18  Cyprus 7.51
19  Austria 7.50
20  Luxembourg 7.49
21  Germany 7.45
22  Japan 7.44
23  Panama 7.41
24  Lithuania 7.40
25  Ireland 7.38
26  Taiwan 7.37
27  Georgia 7.36
28  Bulgaria 7.34
28  Oman 7.34
30  Albania 7.32
30  Netherlands 7.32
30  South Korea 7.32
Rank↓ Country↓ Score↓
1  Hong Kong 89.7
2  Singapore 87.2
3  Australia 82.5
4  New Zealand 82.3
5  Switzerland 81.9
6  Canada 80.8
7  Ireland 78.7
8  Denmark 78.6
9  United States 77.8
10  Bahrain 77.7
11  Chile 77.4
12  Mauritius 76.2
13  Luxembourg 76.2
14  Estonia 75.2
15  Netherlands 74.7
16  United Kingdom 74.5
17  Finland 74.0
18  Cyprus 73.3
19  Macau 73.1
20  Japan 72.8
21  Austria 71.9
22  Sweden 71.9
23  Germany 71.8
24  Lithuania 71.3
25  Taiwan 70.8
26  Saint Lucia 70.8
27  Qatar 70.5
28  Czech Republic 70.4
29  Georgia 70.4
30  Norway 70.3
By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in Cato Institute, spending out of control, Taxes | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

“Friedman Friday” (“Free to Choose” episode 1 – Power of the Market. part 1of 7)

February 3, 2012 – 12:07 am

“FREE TO CHOOSE” 1: The Power of the Market (Milton Friedman)
Free to Choose ^ | 1980 | Milton Friedman

Posted on Monday, July 17, 2006 4:20:46 PM by Choose Ye This Day

FREE TO CHOOSE: The Power of the Market

Friedman: Once all of this was a swamp, covered with forest. The Canarce Indians who lived here traded the 22 square miles of soggy Manhattan Island to the Dutch for $24.00 worth of cloth and trinkets. The newcomers founded a city, New Amsterdam at the edge of an empty continent. In the years that followed, it proved a magnet for millions of people from across the Atlantic; people who were driven by fear and poverty; who were attracted by the promise of freedom and plenty. They fanned out over the continent and built a new nation with their sweat, their enterprise and their vision of a better future.

For the first time in their lives, many were truly free to pursue their own objectives. That freedom released the human energies which created the United States. For the immigrants who were welcomed by this statue, America was truly a land of opportunity.

They poured ashore in their best clothes, eager and expectant, carrying what little they owned. They were poor, but they all had a great deal of hope. Once they arrived, they found, as my parents did, not an easy life, but a very hard life. But for many there were friends and relatives to help them get started __ to help them make a home, get a job, settle down in the new country. There were many rewards for hard work, enterprise and ability. Life was hard, but opportunity was real. There were few government programs to turn to and nobody expected them. But also, there were few rules and regulations. There were no licenses, no permits, no red tape to restrict them. They found in fact, a free market, and most of them thrived on it.

Many people still come to the United States driven by the same pressures and attracted by the same promise. You can find them in places like this. It’s China Town in New York, one of the centers of the garment industry __ a place where hundreds of thousands of newcomers have had their first taste of life in the new country. The people who live and work here are like the early settlers. They want to better their lot and they are prepared to work hard to do so.

Although I haven’t often been in factories like this, it’s all very familiar to me because this is exactly the same kind of a factory that my mother worked in when she came to this country for the first time at the age of 14, almost 90 years ago. And if there had not been factories like this here then at which she could have started to work and earn a little money, she wouldn’t have been able to come. And if I existed at all, I’d be a Russian or Hungarian today, instead of an American. Of course she didn’t stay here a long time, she stayed here while she learned the language, while she developed some feeling for the country, and gradually she was able to make a better life for herself.

Similarly, the people who are here now, they are like my mother. Most of the immigrants from the distant countries __ they came here because they liked it here better and had more opportunities. A place like this gives them a chance to get started. They are not going to stay here very long or forever. On the contrary, they and their children will make a better life for themselves as they take advantage of the opportunities that a free market provides to them.

The irony is that this place violates many of the standards that we now regard as every worker’s right. It is poorly ventilated, it is overcrowded, the workers accept less than union rate __ it breaks every rule in the book. But if it were closed down, who would benefit? Certainly not the people here. Their life may seem pretty tough compared to our own, but that is only because our parents or grandparents went through that stage for us. We have been able to start at a higher point.

Frank Visalli’s father was 12 years old when he arrived all alone in the United States. He had come from Sicily. That was 53 years ago. Frank is a successful dentist with a wife and family. They live in Lexington, Massachusetts. There is no doubt in Frank’s mind what freedom combined with opportunity meant to his father and then to him, or what his Italian grandparents would think if they could see how he lives now.

Frank Visalli: They would not believe what they would see __ that a person could immigrate from a small island and make such success out of their life because to them they were mostly related to the fields, working in the field as a peasant. My father came over, he made something for himself and then he tried to build a family structure. Whatever he did was for his family. It was for a better life for his family. And I can always remember him telling me that the number one thing in life is that you should get an education to become a professional person.

Friedman: The Visalli family, like all of us who live in the United States today, owe much to the climate of freedom we inherited from the founders of our country. The climate that gave full scope to the poor from other lands who came here and were able to make better lives for themselves and their children.

But in the past 50 years, we’ve been squandering that inheritance by allowing government to control more and more of our lives, instead of relying on ourselves. We need to rediscover the old truths that the immigrants knew in their bones; what economic freedom is and the role it plays in preserving personal freedom.

That’s why I came here to the South China Sea. It’s a place where there is an almost laboratory experiment in what happens when government is limited to its proper function and leaves people free to pursue their own objectives. If you want to see how the free market really works this is the place to come. Hong Kong, a place with hardly any natural resources. About the only one you can name is a great harbor, yet the absence of natural resources hasn’t prevented rapid economic development. Ships from all nations come here to trade because there are no duties, no tariffs on imports or exports. The power of the free market has enabled the industrious people of Hong Kong to transform what was once barren rock into one of the most thriving and successful places in Asia.

By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in Milton Friedman | Comments (0)

Briefs on all the SEC football recruiting hauls

February 2, 2012 – 4:32 pm

I am glad that Petrino got more defensive players than offensive players but time will tell if he can develop these three star players like he did in 2008 when that class later turned the hogs into a national contender in 2011. Below is an article from http://www.ajc.com

Alabama (26): The national champs added to their bounty by signing the No. 1 recruiting class, according to ESPN, and No. 2, according to Scout. Highly regarded defensive back Landon Collins, receiver Eddie Williams and running back T.J. Yeldon were expected to sign, but so did top defensive tackles Dalvin Tomlinson (Henry County) and Korren Kirven, who choose Alabama over Virginia Tech. Including Tomlinson, the Tide signed eight Georgians, including linebacker Dillon Lee (Buford), defensive back Geno Smith (St. Pius) and running back Kenyan Drake (Hillgrove).

Arkansas (24): Bobby Petrino loves receivers, so he signed four, going into Mississippi to get D’Arthur Cowan (6-foot-3, 180) and into Oklahoma to nab Keon Hatcher (6-2, 195), to help make up for missing out on Dorial Green-Beckham, who signed with Missouri, and Courtney Gardner, who signed with Oklahoma. That doesn’t include Jeremy Sprinkle (6-6, 220), who played tight end and defensive end at White Hall, Ark. Defensive back Ray Buchanan Jr., the son of former Falcon Ray Buchanan, signed out of Peachtree Ridge.

Auburn (20): Auburn survived losing both coordinators to sign a class headlined by offensive tackle Avery Young (6-6, 292) out of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., the ninth-rated tackle according to Rivals. However, the Tigers missed on defensive back Ronald Darby, who went to Florida State. Jovon Robinson (6-1, 220) was the only running back the Tigers signed, but they plucked five players out of Georgia, including speedy defensive back Jonathan Jones (Carrollton) and 6-7, 280-pound tackle Will Adams and receiver JaQuay Williams (6-4, 204) of Sandy Creek.

Florida (23): The Gators grew along the defensive front with the addition of Dante Phillips (6-6, 270), Jonathan Bullard (6-3, 263), Dante Fowler (6-3, 261), who had committed to Florida State, and Stephenson’s Jafar Mann (6-4, 293). The Gators also signed defensive lineman Quinteze Williams (Sandy Creek) and kicker Austin Hardin (Marist). Florida is No. 4 in ESPN’s rankings and No. 5 according to Scout.

Kentucky (26): Coach Joker Phillips nabbed linebacker Khalid Henderson (Pebblebrook), who committed to Tennessee in June, and three-star running back Justin Taylor (North Atlanta), who was going to Alabama before being told that he would have to grayshirt. Taylor gives Kentucky three Atlanta-area backs, joining Josh Clemons (Whitewater) and Marcus Caffey (Grady), who were freshmen last season. Henderson and Taylor were two of eight Georgians who signed with Kentucky.

LSU (22): Three players, including Gunner Kiel, the No. 1 quarterback in the nation, backed out their commitments to LSU in the past few weeks, but the Tigers still signed five players in the ESPNU 150. Les Miles grabbed linebacker Kwon Alexander out of Oxford, Ala., signing him despite the fact that Alexander missed most of his senior year with a torn ACL. Buford’s Vadal Alexander (6-6, 315) and Reid Ferguson (6-2, 235) already are enrolled.

Mississippi (17): Trae Elston (6-0, 183), who looked at LSU and Oklahoma State, gives new coach Hugh Freeze a top safety. He wants to build his offense around quarterback Bo Wallace, the junior college player of the year, who threw for 4,604 yards and 53 touchdowns to lead East Mississippi Community College to the 2011 national title. Channing Ward and Issac Gross should contribute on the defensive line, and Freeze likes running backs Jaylen Walton, I’Tavius Mathers and Kenno Loyal (Columbia).

Mississippi State (23): It was a balanced class with 11 defensive players, 11 offensive players and a specialist. Coach Dan Mullen likes versatile quarterback Nick Schuessler (6-4, 190), who led Grayson to the Class AAAAA state title, saying: “He’s going to do whatever it takes to win. As a coach, that’s what you want in the quarterback.” Linebacker Richie Brown (6-2, 225) of Long Beach, Miss., said he wants to play on offense and defense, and Nick James (6-4, 330) is the biggest of eight linemen, a group that includes Jordan Washington (North Gwinnett).

Missouri (19): The Tigers will begin life in the SEC with the No. 1 recruit in the nation and one of the top guards in the country after signing state products Dorial Green-Beckham (6-6, 220) and Evan Boehm (6-3, 290). Green-Beckham’s impressive stats include holding the national career receiving yards mark with 6,447 after a season in which he caught 119 passes for 2,233 yards and 24 touchdowns. Despite Green-Beckham’s presence, Missouri’s class is ranked 33rd by Rivals and No. 20 by ESPN.

South Carolina (25): Steve Spurrier signed Mr. Football in South Carolina for the fourth consecutive when he got receiver Shaq Roland, a 6-1, 173-pound receiver out of Lexington, S.C. The Gamecocks, as always, did well in Georgia, signing 12 players from the Peach State, including safety Chaz Elder (Banneker), running back Mike Davis (Stephenson), who had once been committed to Florida, defensive end Darius English (McEachern) and guard Joe Harris (Lithonia).

Tennessee (21): Derek Dooley didn’t sign any offensive linemen, but got three junior college players — defensive linemen Darrington Sentimore (6-2, 273) and Daniel McCullers (6-6, 380), and receiver Cordarrelle Patterson (6-3, 205) — who should make immediate contributions. Sentimore played 11 games at Alabama in 2010. Dooley on McCullers: “When you see him, he looks like two people. It’s like a circus act.” Four Georgians — including Rivals four-star receiver Jason Croom (Norcross) — are in the class.

Texas A&M (19): The Aggies’ class includes 15 Texans, including Trey Williams (5-8, 175), considered the No. 5 running back in the country, and Thomas Johnson (5-11, 180), the No. 3 receiver, who originally committed to Texas. They provide weapons for first-year coach Kevin Sumlin, who was hired by Texas A&M from Houston in December. Quarterback Matt Davis and cornerback De’Vante Harris add to a class that was hurt when receiver Bralon Addison of Missouri City, Texas, went with Oregon.

Vanderbilt (21): The Commodores were hurt by Tucker defensive end Josh Dawson, who signed with Georgia after committing to Vanderbilt, but they signed versatile Brian Kimbrow (5-8, 170) out of Memphis and Andrew Jelks (6-6, 270), a Rivals four-star offensive lineman out of Paris, Tenn. Linebackers Jake Sealand (Tucker) and Darreon Herring (Stephenson), defensive back Paris Head (Buford), defensive end Stephen Weatherly (Shiloh) and defensive tackle LaDarius Banks (East Paulding) signed.

Arkansas wide receiver Joe Adams runs back a punt for a touchdown against Tennessee at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville on Nov. 12, 2011. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL)<br /><br /><br /><br />

Related posts:

Briefs on all the SEC football recruiting hauls

I am glad that Petrino got more defensive players than offensive players but time will tell if he can develop these three star players like he did in 2008 when that class later turned the hogs into a national contender in 2011. Below is an article from http://www.ajc.com Alabama (26): The national champs added to their […]

Tennessee is upset at Peters for switching to the Hogs

In the article below you can see that the player who lived in Texas that switched to Texas could be explained away and the one that lived in Virginia that switched to VA Tech could also but the Vols don’t have an explanation for why the 4 star linebacker Otha Peters switched from his commitment […]

Articles on SEC football recruiting results

I disagree with the article below that says that Vandy did not do well in recruiting. There is no way they are number 13 out of 14.   National Signing Day around the SEC. 247Sports ranked the SEC team’s recruiting in this order: 1 Alabama, 2 Florida, 3 Georgia, 4 LSU, 5 Texas A&M, 6 South Carolina, […]

Arkansas can learn from Vols’ mistake in football recruiting

I have noticed that Arkansas never seems to have great recruiting years like Tennessee and Florida and Alabama do. However, the 2008 class that will graduate in 2012 for Arkansas included some great players like Joe Adams and has been re-ranked as the 5th best performing class. That class led Arkansas to a final ranking […]

SEC football recruiting update

It seems to me that there are a few surprises in the recruiting game this year. Below is a rivals article and the one below it is an article from 3 months ago. January 27, 2012 Rivals.com analyst Chris Neereviews recent rising and falling in the 2012 team rankings as National Signing Day nears. Five […]

Lane Kiffin has put off Judgement Day

It is true that USC’s Lane Kiffin has had two great recruiting classes at USC, but that was because he signed 25 players both in 2010 and 2011. He delayed “Judgement Day” by getting permission to avoid the 15 scholarship limits (imposed for 3 years) while the school appealed the NCAA’s decision. Therefore, all these […]

By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

Tennessee is upset at Peters for switching to the Hogs

February 2, 2012 – 4:21 pm

It is nice to be feared by the Vols. They rejoiced when it was announced that they would not have to play the Hogs in 2012.

Arkansas wide receiver Joe Adams breaks tackles to return a punt for a touchdown against Tennessee at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville on Nov. 12, 2011. UT lost the game 49-7. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL)<br /><br /> ” width=”607″ /></p><br /> <p>Photo by <a title=Amy Smotherman Burgess, ©KNS/2011

Arkansas wide receiver Joe Adams breaks tackles to return a punt for a touchdown against Tennessee at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville on Nov. 12, 2011. UT lost the game 49-7. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL)

Arkansas wide receiver Joe Adams breaks past Tennessee defensive back Brian Randolph to return a punt for a touchdown at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville on Nov. 12, 2011. UT lost the game 49-7. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL)<br /><br /> ” width=”607″ /></p><br /> <p>Photo by <a title=Amy Smotherman Burgess, ©KNS/2011

In the article below you can see that the player who lived in Texas that switched to Texas could be explained away and the one that lived in Virginia that switched to VA Tech could also but the Vols don’t have an explanation for why the 4 star linebacker Otha Peters switched from his commitment to the Vols to sign with the Hogs. (I have another post on this too.) Rick Schaffer told me that it was John Adams who wrote in 1992 that the visiting Hogs did not have  a chance against the #4 ranked Vols in Knoxville, but it did not turn out that way.

Below is an article from http://www.knoxnews.com :

John Adams: Recruiting reveals state of UT program

By John Adams

Originally published 08:48 p.m., February 1, 2012
Updated 09:18 p.m., February 1, 2012

Tennessee signed 21 football recruits Wednesday. If you want to know what that means to the future of UT football, you have come to the wrong place.

But I can venture an opinion on what the class says about the current state of UT football. The opinion was formulated by recognizing a handful of recruiting hits and taking note of a couple of misses.

Bottom line: UT is more desperate than prosperous.

First, the misses — the most telling of which were linebacker commitment Otha Peters, and defensive tackle Korren Kirven, who entered the stretch run of recruiting seemingly torn between UT and Virginia Tech.

Peters opted for Arkansas the day before signing. Kirven backed off the Vols and Hokies for national champion Alabama.

Those were not-so-subtle reminders that when you have suffered through three losing seasons in the last four years, you can be as vulnerable in recruiting battles with more successful programs as you are on the field.

Losing long-standing linebacker commitment Dalton Santos to Texas wasn’t as significant. He grew up a Texas fan. When the Longhorns finally expressed interest, he couldn’t resist.

But neither Peters nor Kirven had a childhood infatuation with the program they chose. They were out-of-state signees who picked top-10 teams over a team that just went 5-7 and lost six assistant coaches.

As for the hits, the standout signee is obvious. His name is Deion Bonner, a cornerback from Columbus, Ga.

I don’t know Bonner’s 40 time or vertical jump. I just know he was charged with a crime while visiting Georgia’s campus.

How’s that for standing out?

He stands out further since second-year coach Derek Dooley and his staff have talked so much about recruiting “high-character” players in rebuilding UT’s program.

“When I say bringing in high character (players), that doesn’t mean I’m never going to bring in guys who have made mistakes,” Dooley said at Wednesday’s media gathering. “Because I’ve made as many mistakes in my life as anybody.

“We did a lot of diligence on the situation. Deion was incredibly truthful and incredibly remorseful.”

No matter what glowing attributes the Vols might have uncovered in their recruitment of Bonner, does that outweigh a police report? He was one of three people arrested by University of Georgia police following the theft of iPods and iPhones from the unsecured lockers of seven Georgia players.

Recruiting interest in Bonner waned elsewhere after the incident, but not at UT, reminding you that the pursuit of high-character players sounds better in theory than in the reality of back-to-back losing seasons.

Dooley needs a talent upgrade. Fast. So he’s willing to take a chance on a player who can’t resist the temptation of an unlocked locker but might be a lock-down corner.

Given UT’s immediate needs, junior college players are more alluring than ever, which brings up encouraging news for UT fans. When you check out the resumes of this class, three of the most impressive are from the junior college ranks.

Never mind what defensive lineman Darrington Sentimore accomplished at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. I remember him as a backup lineman at Alabama. I also remember that he looked like an Alabama lineman. That’s high praise for a UT signee.

Daniel McCullers looks like a former Alabama lineman. McCullers, who last played at Georgia Military Institute, is in the Terrence Cody weight division at 6-foot-6, 380 pounds. As the 3-4 alignment becomes more prominent in UT’s defensive plans, it’s helpful to have someone towering over center who, as Dooley put it, is like “two people.”

Cordarrelle Patterson is a consensus five-star wide receiver coming to a program that can benefit enormously from a five-star anybody. So even if Patterson falters at the major-college level, his signing flashes neon bright for now — just as Kenny O’Neal’s once did.

UT signed O’Neal as a junior college five-star wide receiver five years ago. He had two career catches at Tennessee.

But the Vols can’t think about potential recruiting busts now. They have to hope that Patterson plays up to his billing, McCullers becomes the next Mt. Cody, and Sentimore plays like what he once was — an Alabama lineman.

That’s the state of UT football.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 oradamsj@knoxnews.com. Follow him at http://twitter.com/johnadamskns

Arkansas wide receiver Joe Adams runs back a punt for a touchdown against Tennessee at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville on Nov. 12, 2011. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

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Tennessee is upset at Peters for switching to the Hogs

In the article below you can see that the player who lived in Texas that switched to Texas could be explained away and the one that lived in Virginia that switched to VA Tech could also but the Vols don’t have an explanation for why the 4 star linebacker Otha Peters switched from his commitment […]

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Lane Kiffin has put off Judgement Day

It is true that USC’s Lane Kiffin has had two great recruiting classes at USC, but that was because he signed 25 players both in 2010 and 2011. He delayed “Judgement Day” by getting permission to avoid the 15 scholarship limits (imposed for 3 years) while the school appealed the NCAA’s decision. Therefore, all these […]

By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)