Remember the good ole days when Arkansas would sign half of their players from Texas. Well this class will have more players from Texas than anywhere else but it is not half the class.
25% or 6 from Texas
20% or 4 from Arkansas
15% or 3 from Oklahoma
10% or 2 from the states Tennessee and California
5% or 1 from the states Alabama, Georgia, New Jersey, and Mississippi
Percentages are rough (it only adds up to 90%)
Richard Davenport of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette wrote this in today’s paper:
davenport@arkansasonline.com
Arkansas 2012 signee and commitments
SIGNED
POS. NAME HT/WT 40 SCHOOL
DE Austin Flynn 6-4/260 4.47 Wilmington (Calif.) LA Harbor CC
COMMITMENTS
POS. NAME HT/WT 40 SCHOOL
LB Vin Ascolese 6-2, 220 4.5 North Bergen, N.J. OL Cordale Boyd 6-3/298 5.3 Memphis Ridgeway CB Ray Buchanan Jr. 5-10 1/2/180 4.47 Suwanee (Ga.) Peachtree Ridge CB Jared Collins 6-0/165 4.4 Tulsa Washington WR D’Arthur Cowan 6-3/170 4.56 Olive Branch, Miss. WR Courtney Gardner 6-3/215 4.37 Rocklin (Calif.) Sierra College WR Keon Hatcher 6-2/197 4.5 Owasso, Okla. WR Eric Hawkins 6-0/171 4.25 Longview, Texas CB Will Hines 6-1/180 4.47 Waco, Texas Ath. Nathan Holmes 6-1/175 4.43 Port Arthur (Texas) Memorial DE Taiwan Johnson Jr. 6-3/235 4.79 Manvel, Texas DE Brandon Lewis 6-5/225 4.9 Memphis Ridgeway ATH Defonta Lowe 6-3/190 4.5 Bearden RB Donovan Roberts 6-0 1/2/200 4.50 Norman, Okla. ATH Jeremy Sprinkle 6-6/220 4.6 White Hall LB A.J. Turner 6-2/204 4.6 East Poinsett County OL Jeremy Ward 6-4/280 5.03 Pottsville RB Jonathan Williams 5-11/205 4.45 Allen, Texas DE JaMichale Winston 6-6/230 4.50 Prichard (Ala.) Vigor DE Deatrich Wise Jr. 6-6/235 4.82 Carrollton (Texas) Hebron
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)
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
TAMPA –Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gringrich sat in an aisle seat near the front of Idlewild Baptist Church Sunday morning, listening to a sermon praising the sanctity of life and the misery of abortion.
The Rev. Russell Moore was preaching to the choir, as Gingrich’s staunch pro-life support underpins his campaign to capture the conservative right’s vote.
Gingrich was in town continuing his quest for the presidency and a win in the crucial Florida primary election Tuesday. He spent more than an hour listening to the sermon in Tampa’s largest church, whose worship center holds 5,500 people. Thousands attended the 9:30 a.m. service Gingrich attended, though plenty of balcony seats were empty.
Some came to church unaware Gingrich would be in attendance and steered clear of the media waiting outside. Others were eager to meet the former speaker of the House, shake his hand, pose for a photo and get an autograph.
Mark Fitzpatrick brought his two sons, 15-year-old Caleb and 13-year-old Jeremiah, to meet Gingrich and was hoping to get seats near the candidate.
“I want to get my boys excited about politics,” he said. His son, Caleb, dressed in a snappy suit and toting a bible, said he wants to be a politician someday.
“I am interested in politics,” he said. “Absolutely.”
Gingrich’s chartered bus arrived at Idlewild Baptist just before the service began. He was ushered in and took his seat with little fanfare, save for the media, which for the most part remained outside.
Inside, the Rev. Ken Whitten greeted the faithful and recognized Gingrich as a distinguished guest. With the candidate was Bill McCollum, the former U.S. representative from Florida and an unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor in 2010.
Gingrich’s politics reflect the pro-life sermon delivered by Moore. Hundreds lined up outside the worship center after the sermon to stream past Gingrich, shake his hand and wish him well in the election.
He did not speak inside the worship center. Church officials have said politicians and celebrities are welcome to attend, but they are never allowed deliver speeches during Sunday services. That would leave the impression the church is making an endorsement.
“We endorse the process,” Whitten said to the congregation, “not the people.”
During the sermon, a man seated across the aisle from Gingrich became ill, and church workers and volunteers rushed to his side. The service stopped, and Whitten asked everyone to bow their heads and pray for the man. He eventually was placed in a wheelchair and taken out of the worship center.
After the service, Gingrich addressed the throng of reporters following him around the state during his campaign. He referred to his chief rival, Mitt Romney, as a “pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase Massachusetts liberal,” and said the Republican Party would never give the nomination to such a man.
“This campaign is about the future of American,” he said, “about the future of the Republican Party.”
He brushed aside polls that showed him trailing Romney.
“We will go all the way to the convention,” Gingrich said, amid speculation that if he lost in the Florida Republican primary on Tuesday, he would drop out. He said the campaign “will be a straight-out run” until the convention in Tampa in August.
“I genuinely want to change Washington,” he said. “Romney would just manage the decay.”
Idlewild Baptist has long been a magnet for conservative candidates making campaign stops. The Lutz church boasts a 13,000-strong congregation, and it’s where prominent Tampa businessmen and philanthropists go on Sunday mornings, along with candidates for public office and those in office.
The church is considered a hub of Republican activity and never has shied away from its role as a place for conservative politicians to meet like-minded constituents and garner support.
Michele Bachmann, former Republican presidential hopeful and Gingrich rival, attended a service there in August before she withdrew from the race.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush and former President George W. Bush have listened to sermons there. Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi made stops there while on the campaign trail.
John Brummett in his article, “Still a taxing issue,” Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Jan 31, 2012, asserts that the Republcans are on the wrong side of the tax issue and the people support the view that President Obama holds concerning fairness. According to Brummett “…the issue is that the government enhances wealth artificially with tax inequity that consolidates riches while mistreating and eroding the vital middle class….” and he also noted that Rich people are getting off too easy and the secretaries of the world are paying way too much and the rich are paying way too little.
Let me offer a solution. How about lowering the tax rates for the rich so they no longer will seek these tax shelters and also we have much less cheating on taxes too.
Dan Mitchell lays a great case for lowering taxes:
Macroeconomic and microeconomic modeling studies based on data for several countries suggest that the major driving forces behind the size and growth of the shadow economy are an increasing burden of tax and social security payments… The bigger the difference between the total cost of labor in the official economy and the after-tax earnings from work, the greater the incentive for employers and employees to avoid this difference and participate in the shadow economy. …Several studies have found strong evidence that the tax regime influences the shadow economy.
Indeed, it’s worth noting that international studies find that the jurisdictions with the highest rates of tax compliance are the ones with reasonable tax systems, such as Hong Kong, Switzerland, and Singapore.
Now there’s a new study confirming these findings. Authored by two economists, one from the University of Wisconsin and the other from Jacksonville University, the new research cites the impact of tax burdens as well as other key variables.
According to the results provided in Table 2, the coefficient on the average effective federal income tax variable (AET) is positive in all three estimates and statistically significant for the overall study periods (1960-2008) at beyond the five percent level and statistically significant at the one percent level for the two sub-periods (1970-2007 and 1980-2008). Thus, as expected, the higher the average effective federal income tax rate, the greater the expected benefits of tax evasion may be and hence the greater the extent of that income tax evasion. This finding is consistent with most previous studies of income tax evasion using official data… In all three estimates, [the audit variable] exhibits the expected negative sign; however, in all three estimates it fails to be statistically significant at the five percent level. Indeed, these three coefficients are statistically significant at barely the 10 percent level. Thus it appears the audit rate (AUDIT) variable, of an in itself, may not be viewed as a strong deterrent to federal personal income taxation [evasion].
Translating from economic jargon, the study concludes that higher tax burdens lead to more evasion. Statists usually claim that this can be addressed by giving the IRS more power, but the researchers found that audit rates have a very weak effect.
The obvious conclusion, as I’ve noted before, is that lower tax rates and tax reform are the best way to improve tax compliance – not more power for the IRS.
Incidentally, this new study also finds that evasion increases when the unemployment rate increases. Given his proposals for higher tax rates and his poor track record on jobs, it almost makes one think Obama is trying to set a record for tax evasion.
The study also finds that dissatisfaction with government is correlated with tax evasion. And since Obama’s White House has been wasting money on corrupt green energy programs and a failed stimulus, that also suggests that the Administration wants more tax evasion.
…the coefficient of public spending inefficiency remains negative and highly significant. …We find that tax morale is higher when the taxpayer perceives and observes that the government is efficient; that is, it provides a fair output with respect to the revenues.
On the other hand, tax evasion apparently is correlated with real per-capita gross domestic product. And since the economy has suffered from anemic performance over the past three years, that blows a hole in the conspiratorial theory that Obama wants more evasion.
All joking aside, I’m sure the President wants more tax compliance and more prosperity. And since I’m a nice guy, I’m going to help him out. Mr. President, this video outlines a plan that would achieve both of those goals.
The Flat Tax: How it Works and Why it is Good for America
This Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation video shows how the flat tax would benefit families and businesses, and also explains how this simple and fair system would boost economic growth and eliminate the special-interest corruption of the internal revenue code. www.freedomandprosperity.org
__________________________________
Given his class-warfare rhetoric, I’m not holding my breath in anticipation that he will follow my sage advice.
3) The crowd silence altered the chemistry in the room
It’s not exactly news that Newt Gingrich uses the debate hall crowd as a theatrical prop. But the effect has never been so clear as in last night’s debate — when the crowd wasn’t engaged.
NBC News moderator Brian Williams asked the crowd for quiet early on, and, unlike past debates, they complied. There was sporadic clapping here and there, but almost nothing for the first hour.
It gave the debate hall an eerie calm and a decidedly low-energy feel. The back and forth between Gingrich and Romney lost some energy because of it. The whole debate, for that matter, was sluggish, with very little electricity for almost an hour and 45 minutes.
Gingrich simply seemed not quite himself without the applause. At points when he approached anger, he simply seemed, well, angry. With the help of the debate hall crowds, in other debates that anger had seemed like passion.
Gingrich is still better at this than Romney, but this debate underscored an important fact: He is less a great debater than an extremely good stage actor. He’d better hope CNN doesn’t follow the same rules at the next debate Thursday night.
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 […]
It pays to remember history. Today I am going to go through some of it and give an outline and quotes from the great Southern Baptist leader Adrian Rogers (1931-2005). Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times started this morning off with some comedy: From pro golfer John Daly’s Twitter account following last night’s Republican debate, […]
EXCLUSIVE: Ron Paul Has A Secret Plan To Win America I used to go to the Immanuel Baptist Church (Clinton was member there) Luncheon every week in Little Rock and in 1995 I visited the large Southern Baptist Church in the Atlanta where Newt was a member. Both men evidently shared some hypocritical habits […]
There is no other way around this problem for Romney. If he wins the Republican Nomination for President then the must embrace some of Paul’s ideas (as suggested below by Senator Demint) or get Rand Paul to be the VP candidate. GOP Should Heed Ron Paul by Michael D. Tanner Michael Tanner is a senior […]
The Arkansas Times jumped on this story as many other liberals outlets. Change in the marketplace is driven by the wants and needs of consumers. Are we to protect the jobs of those who work for companies that want to cling to the past? I posted about this before but I have decided to revisit […]
Great website below tracks the delegates for the Republican nomination: The delegate race There are 2,286 delegates up for grabs. A candidate needs 1,144 to win the GOP presidential nomination. Total delegates won, by candidate Delegates needed: 1,144 Romney 20 Santorum 12 Paul 3 Huntsman 2 Perry […]
Here is an excellent article: You can blame Mitt, but not for Bain By: Steven Rattner January 12, 2012 12:02 AM EST I’m all in favor of piling on Mitt Romney for any number of reasons: his come lately embrace of hard right conservatism, his periodic malapropisms (“I like being able to fire people”) and […]
Dr. Robert Jeffress a Featured Guest on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” (10/14/11) Uploaded by robertjeffress on Oct 15, 2011 Dr. Robert Jeffress was a featured guest on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” Friday night, October 14. The pastor talked with the controversial political satirist about the Protestant Reformation; being saved by faith, […]
What Ever Happened to the Human Race? Bachmann was a student of the works of Francis Schaeffer like I am and I know she was pro-life because of it. (Observe video clip above and picture of Schaeffer.) I hated to see her go. DES MOINES, Iowa — Last night, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann vowed to […]
Life begins when the fetus is viable outside the womb, prior to that it is parasitical and lives at the discretion of the host.
I responded with this post today:
It seems to me the real argument lies in the personhood of the unborn baby. (The best evidence pointing to unborn baby being human was given by my atheist friend Dr. Kevin Henke.) If it is just a piece of material that is lifeless then the pro-life crowd has no argument. However, if it is a person then the pro-choice crowd has no argument. (A great article on the Biblical passages against abortion are found in this link.)
My pro-life evidence lies in the lives of two of the most abortion supporters of the 1970’s. Why did they change to the pro-life view? Check out the links below for the answers.
“Jane Roe” or Roe v Wade is now a prolife Christian. She’s recently has done a commercial about it.
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I have often wondered why we got to this point in our country’s life and we allow abortion. The answer is found in the words of Schaffer.
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.
Below is a clip from the film series “How Then Shall We Live?”
Silent Scream, The Hand of God is “semi-autobiographical…for the study of…the…demise of one system of morality…and the painful acquisition of another more coherent, more reliable [morality]…[with] the backdrop …of abortion. p. 3.
“We live in an age of fulsome nihilism; an age of death; an age in which, as author Walker Percy (a fellow physician, a pathologist who specializes in autopsying Western civilization) argued, “compassion leads to the gas chamber,” or the abortion clinic, or the euthanist’s office.” p. 4.
“I worked hard to make abortion legal, affordable, and available on demand. In 1968, I was one of the three founders of the National Abortion Rights Action League. I ran the largest abortion clinic …and oversaw tens of thousands of abortions. I have performed thousands myself.” p. 5.
“The Hippocratic Oath states the following,
I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner, I will not give to a woman a pessary [a device inserted in the vagina, thought erroneously to initiate an abortion] to produce an abortion.
The oath is unambiguous on these matters.” p. 48.
“The World Medical Association meeting at Geneva, in 1948, in the aftermath of the revelations of the Nazi medical experiments, revised the oath marginally to include the pledge, “I will retain the utmost respect for Human Life from conception.”…in 1964 restated the theme : “The health of my patient will be my first consideration.” p.50. The unborn baby in an abortion procedure is not considered a patient.
A Ronald Reagan radio address from 1975 addresses the topics of abortion and adoption. This comes from a collection of audio commentaries titled “Reagan in His Own Voice.”
I just wanted to share with you one of the finest prolife papers I have ever read, and it is by President Ronald Wilson Reagan.
I have a son named Wilson Daniel Hatcher and he is named after two of the most respected men I have ever read about : Daniel from the Old Testament and Ronald Wilson Reagan. I have studied that book of Daniel for years and have come to respect that author who was a saint who worked in two pagan governments but he never compromised. My favorite record was the album “No Compromise” by Keith Green and on the cover was a picture from the Book of Daniel.
One of the thrills of my life was getting to hear President Reagan speak in the beginning of November of 1984 at the State House Convention Center in Little Rock. Immediately after that program I was standing outside on Markham with my girlfriend Jill Sawyer (now wife of 25 years) and we were alone on a corner and President was driven by and he waved at us and we waved back.
My former pastor from Memphis, Adrian Rogers, got the opportunity to visit with President Ronald Reagan on several occasions.
Take time to read this below and comment below and let me know what you thought of his words.
EDITOR’S NOTE: While president, Ronald Reagan penned this article for The Human Life Review, unsolicited. It ran in the Review‘s Spring 1983, issue and is reprinted here with permission.
The 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. Our nationwide policy of abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy was neither voted for by our people nor enacted by our legislators — not a single state had such unrestricted abortion before the Supreme Court decreed it to be national policy in 1973 is a good time for us to pause and reflect. But the consequences of this judicial decision are now obvious: since 1973, more than 15 million unborn children have had their lives snuffed out by legalized abortions. That is over ten times the number of Americans lost in all our nation’s wars.
Make no mistake, abortion-on-demand is not a right granted by the Constitution. No serious scholar, including one disposed to agree with the Court’s result, has argued that the framers of the Constitution intended to create such a right. Shortly after the Roe v. Wade decision, Professor John Hart Ely, now Dean of Stanford Law School, wrote that the opinion “is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be.” Nowhere do the plain words of the Constitution even hint at a “right” so sweeping as to permit abortion up to the time the child is ready to be born. Yet that is what the Court ruled.
As an act of “raw judicial power” (to use Justice White’s biting phrase), the decision by the seven-man majority inRoe v. Wade has so far been made to stick. But the Court’s decision has by no means settled the debate. Instead,Roe v. Wade has become a continuing prod to the conscience of the nation.
Abortion concerns not just the unborn child, it concerns every one of us. The English poet, John Donne, wrote: “. . . any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life — the unborn — without diminishing the value of all human life. We saw tragic proof of this truism last year when the Indiana courts allowed the starvation death of “Baby Doe” in Bloomington because the child had Down’s Syndrome.
Many of our fellow citizens grieve over the loss of life that has followed Roe v. Wade. Margaret Heckler, soon after being nominated to head the largest department of our government, Health and Human Services, told an audience that she believed abortion to be the greatest moral crisis facing our country today. And the revered Mother Teresa, who works in the streets of Calcutta ministering to dying people in her world-famous mission of mercy, has said that “the greatest misery of our time is the generalized abortion of children.”
Over the first two years of my Administration I have closely followed and assisted efforts in Congress to reverse the tide of abortion — efforts of Congressmen, Senators and citizens responding to an urgent moral crisis. Regrettably, I have also seen the massive efforts of those who, under the banner of “freedom of choice,” have so far blocked every effort to reverse nationwide abortion-on-demand.
Despite the formidable obstacles before us, we must not lose heart. This is not the first time our country has been divided by a Supreme Court decision that denied the value of certain human lives. The Dred Scott decision of 1857 was not overturned in a day, or a year, or even a decade. At first, only a minority of Americans recognized and deplored the moral crisis brought about by denying the full humanity of our black brothers and sisters; but that minority persisted in their vision and finally prevailed. They did it by appealing to the hearts and minds of their countrymen, to the truth of human dignity under God. From their example, we know that respect for the sacred value of human life is too deeply engrained in the hearts of our people to remain forever suppressed. But the great majority of the American people have not yet made their voices heard, and we cannot expect them to — any more than the public voice arose against slavery — until the issue is clearly framed and presented.
What, then, is the real issue? I have often said that when we talk about abortion, we are talking about two lives — the life of the mother and the life of the unborn child. Why else do we call a pregnant woman a mother?I have also said that anyone who doesn’t feel sure whether we are talking about a second human life should clearly give life the benefit of the doubt. If you don’t know whether a body is alive or dead, you would never bury it. I think this consideration itself should be enough for all of us to insist on protecting the unborn.
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I remember when President Carter and candidate Reagan debated in 1980 and the subject of abortion came up. Reagan said that if you were on a dusty area and you found someone laying down would you bury him without knowing for sure if he is alive or not? It is the same with the case of abortion.
ABORTION – THE SILENT SCREAM 1 / Extended, High-Resolution Version (with permission from APF). Republished with Permission from Roy Tidwell of American Portrait Films as long as the following credits are shown: VHS/DVDs Available American Portrait Films Call 1-800-736-4567 http://www.amport.com The Hand of God-Selected Quotes from Bernard N. Nathanson, M.D., Unjust laws exist. Shall we […]
Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson, a leading pro-life advocate and convert to Catholicism, died at the age of 84 on Monday a week ago in his New York home, after a long struggle with cancer. The Hand of God-Selected Quotes from Bernard N. Nathanson, M.D., Chapter 12 is titled To The Thanatoriums, an allusion the Walker […]
The pro-life position is very important to a great many of the freshmen members of the House of Representatives. As you can see above in the clip from the film series Whatever Happened to the Human Race? by Francis Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop, the unborn baby is a child, but we are treating many […]
When I think of the things that make me sad concerning this country, the first thing that pops into my mind is our treatment of unborn children. Donald Trump is probably going to run for president of the United States. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council recently had a conversation with him concerning the […]
Federal Spending Grew More Than Ten Times Faster Than Median Income
Everyone wants to know more about the budget and here is some key information with a chart from the Heritage Foundation and a video from the Cato Institute.
When federal spending grows faster than Americans’ paychecks, the burden on taxpayers becomes greater. Over the past few decades, middle-income Americans’ earnings have risen only 27 percent, while spending has increased 299 percent.
PERCENT CHANGE OF INFLATION-ADJUSTED DOLLARS (2010)
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Source: U.S. Census Bureau and White House Office of Management and Budget.
The charts in this book are based primarily on data available as of March 2011 from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The charts using OMB data display the historical growth of the federal government to 2010 while the charts using CBO data display both historical and projected growth from as early as 1940 to 2084. Projections based on OMB data are taken from the White House Fiscal Year 2012 budget. The charts provide data on an annual basis except… Read More
Authors
Emily GoffResearch Assistant
Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy StudiesKathryn NixPolicy Analyst
Center for Health Policy StudiesJohn FlemingSenior Data Graphics Editor
John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles (three at Wimbledon and four at the US Open), nine Grand Slam men’s doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title. McEnroe also won a record eight season ending championships, comprising five WCT Finals titles and three Masters Grand Prix titles from twelve final appearances at these two events, a record he shares with Ivan Lendl. He posted the best single season win-loss record in the Open Era in 1984 at 96.47% (82/3). In addition he won 19 Championship Series top tier events of the Grand Prix Tour that were the precursors to the current Masters 1000.
He is best remembered for his shot-making artistry and superb volleying; for his famous rivalries with Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl; for his confrontational on-court behavior which frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities; and for the catchphrase “You cannot be serious!” directed toward an umpire during a match at Wimbledon in 1981. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999, and is regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.[2]
McEnroe is the older brother of Patrick McEnroe, who is also a former professional tennis player and the former Captain of the United States Davis Cup team, a position in which John served previously. They also both are now often commentators for Grand Slam tennis television coverage in the United States, and John McEnroe is also a commentator on Wimbledon for the BBC.
McEnroe was born in Wiesbaden, West Germany, to Kay (née Tresham) and John Patrick McEnroe, Sr.[3] His father, who is of Irish descent, was at the time stationed with the United States Air Force.[3] In 1960, the family moved to the New York City area, where McEnroe’s father worked daytime as an advertising agent while attending Fordham Law School[4] by night. He has two younger brothers: Mark (born 1964), and former professional tennis player Patrick (born 1966).
McEnroe grew up in Douglaston, Queens. He started playing tennis when he was eight years old at the nearby Douglaston Club with his brothers. When he was nine, his parents enrolled him in the Eastern Lawn Tennis Association, and he soon started playing regional tournaments. He then began competing in national juniors tournaments, and at twelve—when he was ranked seven in his age group—he joined the Port Washington Tennis Academy, Long Island, New York.[5] McEnroe attended Trinity School and graduated in 1977.
I like this CD a lot mainly because of it rhythm and how it is the most relaxing of Coldplay’s albums. “YELLOW” “SHIVER” “DON’T PANIC” “TROUBLE” “SPARKS” are all great songs. I would have to say that Parachutes was a good song but it was too short. Altogether I would give this album a 9/10! However, this is the 5th best album of Coldplay. Next Monday I will reveal the 4th best album. Wilson Hatcher
Coldplay – 42 Live Coldplay perform on the french television channel W9. In 1992 Woody Allen took up with one of his adopted kids and lived in with her. He was given over to the pursuit of pleasure. Actually he has made that a major focus of his life. In the latter part of his […]
In the past three years I have written many posts concerning the spiritual meaning of the Coldplay songs. There is something going on with them. Even with one of the songs on their upcoming album there is something spiritual they are driving at. Tonight on Letterman the band will perform. Elusive: Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris […]
In one of his philosophical and melancholy musings Woody Allen once drily observed: “More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” Life tortures Woody Allen posted by Rod Dreher […]
Brian’s Blues, Brian Jones on guitar in the early stones years. unreleased track Brian Jones died at age 27 just like Amy Winehouse did. I remember like yesterday when I first heard the song “I can’t get no satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones. I immediately thought about Solomon’s search for satisfaction in the Book of […]
Papa Roach – Last Resort (Censored Version) Amy Winehouse died at the young age of 27 and she had lived a life filled with drug and alcohol addiction. This series on Papa Roach is meant to provide answers to those who feel trapped. Hopefully it will people to avoid troubles like Amy Winehouse experienced. Today I […]
Elusive: Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin in a rare shot together at a beach party in the Hamptons I was very interested in the first single that came out from Coldplay a few weeks ago, but this second single escaped my attention. Then this morning my son Hunter told me all about this second song […]
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 of #5.
Constrast the 2009 class at UT when Kiffin brought in the #10 class of the year with 23 players. Now only 9 players are left in the program and only one player has started over 10 times. THE LESSON IS CLEAR. SIGN BOTH FOR TALENT AND CHARACTER!!! Read on:
Former Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin looks on during a 2009 game against Western Kentucky in Knoxville, Tenn.
On Feb. 4, 2009, Lane Kiffin stepped to the podium and addressed what would be his only signing class as University of Tennessee football coach.
“Understand that this class is far below the standards that we have here and what we’ll need here in the future,” Kiffin said.
Who knew then just how precise he would be?
Kiffin and his staff of relentless recruiters had two months to scramble and assemble a class, and they were praised for compiling a crop that was strengthened with the late additions of safety Janzen Jackson, all-purpose back David Oku and tailback Bryce Brown, the nation’s No. 1 prospect. Rivals.com ranked Tennessee’s 23 signees 10th in the country, but only eight from that class are still with the program following a string of arrests and academic shortcomings.
Last summer, Rivals.com ranked Tennessee’s ’09 class as the most disappointing nationally in the past decade.
“I don’t care who you are or where you are, you cannot have a class like that,” longtime recruiting analyst Jamie Newberg said. “You can’t have a bunch of kids to where a year or two later most are gone. Your roster is going to be depleted, and that’s exactly one of the big reasons why Tennessee is in this situation right now.”
The Volunteers are 18-20 the past three years and went 5-7 this past season, losing seven league games for the first time in program history and finishing last in the SEC East for the first time as well.
Ed Orgeron, Lance Thompson and Eddie Gran were the heralded recruiters three years ago who helped Kiffin land five players in Rivals.com’s top 100 — Brown, Jackson (No. 17), receiver Nu’Keese Richardson (No. 68), linebacker Jerod Askew (No. 79) and Oku (No. 97). None of those five lasted more than two years with the Vols, with Brown transferring to Kansas State before his sophomore season and Jackson to McNeese State before his junior season.
Brown left Kansas State’s program last October after rushing three times for 16 yards and hasn’t spoken to the media since August. He and Jackson are bypassing the rest of their collegiate eligibility and have declared for April’s NFL draft.
There were 11 players remaining at UT from the ’09 class at the start of this month, but Vols third-year coach Derek Dooley recently announced the dismissals of defensive tackle Arthur Jeffery and linebacker Robert Nelson. Dooley also said guard JerQuari Schofield is not on the team for academic reasons but is still in school.
The only active member of Tennessee’s ’09 signing class with more than 10 career starts is cornerback Marsalis Teague, who has 16.
TEMPORARY ROLL
Before Tennessee’s additions of Jackson, Oku and Brown in ’09, the Vols were reveling in the signings of Richardson and Teague.
Those two had been committed to Florida, and snatching players from the Gators meant taking from the very best. Less than a month before that signing day, Florida won its second BCS title in three seasons under coach Urban Meyer.
“You can already see where we’re going to be very powerful in the state of Florida recruiting,” Orgeron boasted on signing day. “In order to beat the national champs on the field, you have to beat the national champs in recruiting, and we beat them twice.”
Kiffin wrongly accused Meyer of cheating during the recruitment of Richardson and was quickly reprimanded by SEC commissioner Mike Slive, but that hardly put a dent in Tennessee’s new momentum. The Vols had rebounded from their subpar 2008 class in Phillip Fulmer’s final year, a group that was headed by E.J. Abrams-Ward and the late Aaron Douglas and was rated 35th — unheard of by Tennessee standards — by Rivals.com.
Snagging Jackson gave the Vols another superstar safety alongside Eric Berry, and then there was the biggest catch of all, even to his fellow signees.
“I show up to a spring practice, and there is Bryce Brown, the No. 1 recruit in the country,” said Kevin Revis, the former Rhea County lineman who signed with the Vols in ’09 and transferred last year to UT-Chattanooga. “It was just a crazy time. You didn’t know who they were going to bring in.”
Kiffin’s one autumn in Knoxville yielded a 7-6 record, and there were notable moments compiled by the ’09 signees.
Brown rushed for 104 yards in the opening rout of Western Kentucky and finished with 460 yards as Montario Hardesty’s backup. Teague had two touchdown receptions and Richardson one, while Oku set the program’s single-season mark for kickoff returns (33) and kickoff-return yardage (863). Jackson amassed 37 tackles and an interception, and Greg King had 24 tackles and a pick.
But there would be far more lows than highs.
THE UNRAVELING
Tennessee’s ’09 class suffered its first setback when James Green, a promising receiver from Tallahassee, couldn’t get through the NCAA clearinghouse.
Then came the early morning hours of Nov. 12, when Jackson, Richardson and Mike Edwards were charged with attempted armed robbery at a Pilot convenience store on Cumberland Avenue. Richardson approached the driver’s side of a parked car wearing a hooded sweatshirt and holding an air-powered pellet pistol, and he instructed the people inside to “Give me everything you have.”
Edwards, approaching from the passenger side wearing a hooded sweatshirt, said, “Do what he says.”
Richardson and Edwards were dismissed from the program, and Jackson was suspended for two games. Charges against Jackson eventually were dismissed, but Richardson pleaded guilty to attempted armed robbery and Edwards pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of reckless endangerment.
Kiffin bolted to Southern Cal three weeks before signing day in 2010, and the exodus of ’09 signees continued. Dooley announced on the first day of the 2010 spring practice that Brown had left the program for personal reasons, and safety Darren Myles was dismissed that July after being arrested on charges of assaulting a police officer and resisting and evading arrest following a Knoxville bar fight.
It was the second arrest for Myles in a three-month span.
“That’s why it really pays to rank these classes three, four or five years down the road,” Newberg said. “At the time Tennessee’s class looked awesome, especially the way they got some of those kids late in the game.”
Tennessee’s ’09 crop was not without concerns even before the defections. The Vols did not sign a quarterback that year, and Revis, Schofield and Daniel Hood were the only offensive linemen.
That left Tennessee inexperienced in each area during Dooley’s first season, when the Vols went 6-7.
Revis considers himself among the fortunate after transferring to the Mocs and starting 10 games this past season at right guard. He admits his one year with Kiffin, who has the Trojans poised to make a run at the 2012 BCS title, was entertaining but much prefers the stability of coach Russ Huesman’s program.
As for being a part of the most disappointing signing class of the past decade? Well, that’s just something he and 22 others will have to live with.
“No matter where you go, there is going to be some attrition, and I guess they had to get that class together so quickly,” Revis said. “I roomed with Naz Oliver and Arthur Jeffery and JerQuari Schofield, and I still talk to them all the time. People went their separate ways, but I still keep in touch with a lot of the guys.”
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 […]
Photo by Justin A. Shaw, Special to the News Sentinel Jarnell’s mother Shunta Stokes said his college decision was “solely up to him. I support his decision wholeheartedly, he’s the one that has to attend the school, not me. His dad and I are behind him 100%.” Yesterday when I got in the car at […]
Recently I posted that I was saddened by the Saturday Night Live reckless skit on Tim Tebow that among other things endorsed Mormonism. In response, I gave several evidences from archaeology that disproved the Book of Mormon. Then I included a five part video series that showed the archaeological evidence that supported the historical accuracy of the Bible. (Archaeological […]
Newt is a poor excuse for a candidate and I have written those words before. Why so many Christians are supporting him is shocking to me. Tim LaHaye and Don Wildmon were best friends with the late Adrian Rogers of Memphis. In a very well known sermon Rogers noted these verses concerning our national leaders:
“It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness” (Prov. 16:12).
“I wisdom dwell with prudence. … By me [wisdom] kings reign and, princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth” (Prov. 8:12, 15-16).
Proverbs 17:7 tells us, “Excellent speech becometh not a fool: much less do lying lips a prince.” According to Proverbs 20:28, “Mercy and truth preserve the king.”
(Avoid bad counselors) Proverbs 29:12 says, “If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.”
“The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows? Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings” (Prov. 31:1-3).
Then how can these gentlemen like Wildmon and LaHaye support Newt? I had a chance to correspond with LaHaye back in the 1990’s concerning some bogus quotes that had been attributed to the Founding Fathers and I wrote an article concerning his response to me. Unfortunately around 30 religious right leaders had been using bad quotes and many of them did not take my correction very well and LaHaye was one of them. I have written about that before too. LaHaye is a man I really respect though and that is why it hurts so much to see him supporting Newt. Wildmon is another one of my heroes too.
Hopefully Newt will come crashing down soon. One can always hope.
Amy Smotherman Burgess, ©KNS/2011
Amy Smotherman Burgess, ©KNS/2011
Amy Smotherman Burgess, ©KNS/2011
Federal Spending Is Growing Faster Than Federal Revenue
Federal Spending Is Outpacing Inflation
