The Army-Navy Game

I don't hold out too much hope of an Army victory over Navy tomorrow, so I thought it might be fun to tell you about my first Army-Navy game, in 1983.



My first Army-Navy game was in the Rose Bowl.

It was quite an undertaking. 4000 cadets and 4000 midshipmen were flown across the US to Southern California, where we were (voluntarily) quartered amongst the populace. I don't know if they were just rumors or not, but I recall hearing that both Hugh Hefner and Lynda Carter had offered to house some cadets and midshipmen, but West Point denied both requests--I don't know if Navy did or not. Disneyland had us for a night--only cadets, midshipmen, and their guests were allowed in; I don't think we paid, but I might be mistaken.

Our sponsors, the folks who housed us over the Thanksgiving weekend, got us to the appropriate location on time, and we marched about 2 miles through Pasadena to the Rose Bowl. Both sides of the street were lined several people thick with cheering fans, which was a great feeling for a beanhead (plebe/freshman). When we got to the stadium I was a designated usher, and I was brought into the stadium to help people find their seats in the stands.

At one point, standing alone in my section of the stands, I saw an NCO not too far from me. When he got closer I saw a baby blue ribbon around his neck. I may not have known much as a beanhead, but I knew to snap to attention and salute a Medal of Honor winner--Roy Benevides. He returned my salute with his left hand--then, with his salute still raised, turned his head towards his hand, noticed it was the wrong hand, said something like "oops", and then returned my salute with the correct hand. His was the first MOH I ever saw; I think I've seen another, but I don't remember for sure. I remember the news when Benevides died.

I may be wrong on the details, but as I recall, Napolean McCallum of Navy (and later of the Raiders) either ran the opening kickoff in for a touchdown or took the first play from scrimmage in for a touchdown. The omen was correct, as Navy scored more points in the first few minutes than Army did all game. The final score was 42-13. However, we went 2-9 that season so we were used to losing. Pizza with the sponsors afterward helped a lot.

And then we flew back to Stewart on chartered ATA aircraft. Senator William Proxmire gave the game his Golden Fleece Award as a waste of taxpayer money. My sponsor's son showed up as a new cadet in '86, but resigned during plebe year. And my Beat Navy kazoo--sans rose sticker, which fell off years ago--is still in my cadet lockbox, which sits atop the safe in my bedroom closet.

Beat 'em.

Update, 12/1/07: Unfortunately, the results of today's game were somewhat less than desired.

Number Watch

What do you think of this site? I view it as an opportunity to wile away hours at a time....

This site is devoted to the monitoring of the misleading numbers that rain down on us via the media. Whether they are generated by Single Issue Fanatics (SIFs), politicians, bureaucrats, quasi-scientists (junk, pseudo- or just bad), such numbers swamp the media, generating unnecessary alarm and panic. They are seized upon by media, hungry for eye-catching stories. There is a growing band of people whose livelihoods depend on creating and maintaining panic. There are also some who are trying to keep numbers away from your notice and others who hope that you will not make comparisons. Their stock in trade is the gratuitous lie. The aim here is to nail just a few of them.

Nerdy Pick-up Lines

This is a family blog, and normally I wouldn't link to ribald humor, but this list of nerdy pick-up lines was hilarious--and not all of them are off-color. View at your own risk.

Hatred of the President

I've mocked and ridiculed those with Bush Derangement Syndrome, but here's a post wherein the author uses intellect, reason, and common sense to explain its lack of value--and how it harms the person who suffers under it.

Media Bias

Here are a few snips from Instapundit this morning:

JUST HEARD A LENGTHY NPR STORY ON THE YOUTUBE DEBATE, with a live followup from Mara Liasson -- and it omitted any mention of the planted question issue. Hmm. If Fox hosted a Democratic debate and many of the most pointed questions turned out to come from Republican activists, but Fox didn't disclose that, do you think it would pass unremarked?
link

A ROUNDUP ON LAST NIGHT'S DEBATE from Stephen Green. Excerpt: "What we really saw tonight was CNN playing out its own agenda in front of a couple million viewers and seven or eight candidates, without anyone calling them on it." Planted questions and all . . . .
link

HORTICULTURE JOURNALISM 101 -- a gallery of CNN/YouTube plants. "Abortion questioner is declared Edwards supporter . . . Log Cabin Republican questioner is declared Obama supporter; lead toy questioner is a prominent union activist for the Edwards-endorsing United Steelworkers."

Other than that, they were just "ordinary Americans."
link


JEFFREY TOOBIN JUST MADE A FOOL OF HIMSELF by saying that Huckabee needed to explain what he meant by abolishing the IRS. Actually, as Toobin should know if he's going to opine on this stuff on CNN, this isn't some wild idea of Huckabee's but the subject of a bestselling book and a national grassroots movement. That's not to say that it's necessarily a good idea, but it's certainly not something new that Huckabee just made up. The audience knew this. And if this was like earlier debates, there were probably hundreds of Fair Tax demonstrators outside. Toobin should have known it, too.
link

An on-air apology from Anderson Cooper, saying that CNN didn't know that Gen. Kerr was on Hillary's steering committee: "If we had known that we would have disclosed it before using the question, if we used the question at all."

Suckered by Hillary, again. Try Google, next time. It's not that hard!
link

The Most Trusted Name In News? Maybe in Moonbatlandia.

Update, 11/30/07: This morning's Instapundit contains this gem:

SO I LOOKED AT EDITOR AND PUBLISHER and there's nothing about the CNN planted-question scandal. There's one story on the debate, but it's a puff piece about a cartoonist getting his video in. Then I looked at Poynter and all I could find was this piece on covering the debates. But I'm not seeing anything about the planted-question scandal. I'm not seeing anything at the Columbia Journalism Review site, either. Journalism, cover thyself!

Well, actually I think they are covering . . . .

There's also this:

Now it appears that an amazing number of partisan figures posed many of the 30 questions at the GOP debate all the while pretending to be CNN’s advertised “undecided voters.” Yasmin from Huntsville, Alabama turns out to be a former intern with the Council on American Islamic Relations, a group highly critical of Republicans. Blogger Michelle Malkin has identified other plants, including declared Obama supporter David Cercone, who asked a question about the pro-gay Log Cabin Republicans. A questioner who asked a hostile question about the pro-life views of GOP candidates turned out to be a diehard John Edwards supporter (and a slobbering online fan of Mr. Cooper). Yet another “plant” was LeeAnn Anderson, an activist with a union that has endorsed Mr. Edwards.

It seems more “plants” are being uprooted with each passing day. Almost a third of the questioners seem to have some ties to Democratic causes or candidates. Another questioner worked with Democratic Senator Dick Durbin’s staff. A former intern with Democratic Rep. Jane Harman asked a question about farm subsidies. A questioner who purported to be a Ron Paul supporter turns out to be a Bill Richardson volunteer. David McMillan, a TV writer from Los Angeles, turns out to have several paens to John Edwards on his YouTube page and has attended Barack Obama fundraisers.

Given CNN’s professed goal to have “ordinary Americans” ask questions at their GOP debate, how likely is that it was purely by accident that so many of the videos CNN selected for use were not just from partisans, but people actively hostile to the GOP’s messages and candidates?

Tea Club

At my school we have a 15 minute break between 2nd and 3rd hours, and two ladies and I have teamed up to form a tea club. Each Wednesday one of us will bring tea and another will bring snackies, and that's how we'll spend our 15 minutes. I have prep 2nd period, so I've taken it upon myself to have the water nuked and the teabags simmering when the bell rings.

Last week I brought cranberry-pomegranate tea and my fellow math teacher brought cranberry rolls. Today I brought those delicious soft cookies with the frosting on top, and the counselor among our troika brought pina colada flavored tea that she'd purchased in the US Virgin Islands.

We're exclusive but we don't exclude; membership is open to any staff member--but you have to enjoy a cup of tea.

Update, 12/2/07: George Orwell had some thoughts on tea.

President Clinton Supported The War Before He Was Against It

Do these types of lies even surprise us anymore? Unfortunately, probably not.

You've Gotta Fight--For Your Right--To, What? Have No Rights?

There's more fighting in the streets by Venezuela's university students in the run-up to the election to solidify Chavez' dictator-for-life status.

Carnival of Education

I hadn't heard of Matt-a-matical Thinking before, but he's hosting this week's Carnival of Education. My post about the charter school radio ad is included.

Internet Traffic Jams

Too much data, not enough infrastructure?

A flood of new video and other Web content could overwhelm the Internet by 2010 unless backbone providers invest up to $137 billion in new capacity, more than double what service providers plan to invest, according to thestudy, by Nemertes Research Group, an independent analysis firm. In North America alone, backbone investments of $42 billion to $55 billion will be needed in the next three to five years to keep up with demand, Nemertes said.

Secret Snowman

At our school the PTSA has a Secret Pal program, wherein a parent "adopts" a teacher (or teachers) and provides gifts to that teacher all year long. It's a very generous thing to do, and I know all of us teachers enjoy getting gifts from our pals.

For the upcoming Christmas season, we teachers can participate in a "Secret Snowman" program with a fellow teacher. Those who wanted to participate filled out forms with likes/dislikes and these forms were distributed to other teachers who chose to participate. It's another great program.

You know what bothered me about it? The teacher who is running "Secret Snowman" chose that term instead of the more common "Secret Santa" because "Secret Snowman" is a non-sectarian term.

PC nonsense. Can anyone explain in which holy book a fat man with flying reindeer appears? And in which holy book we're commanded by the deity to cut down trees--the givers of oxygen!--to decorate?

This kind of foolishness is brought to us by the same people who don't want to acknowledge Christmas Break (even though Christmas is the name of the federal holiday) and don't want us to decorate our classrooms, even with trees or snowmen. I can understand having issues with displaying a creche, but not with non-sectarian decorations of the season--and Santa is certainly non-sectarian. Anyone who claims that Santa is religious because his name derives from St. Nicholaus should also complain about the word holiday itself, which is derived from holy day.

And then they should work on those "holy days", like Veterans Day, and Labor Day, and the 4th of July. Let them live up to their PC values.

And in doing so, they should not participate in the Secret Snowman activity--because the idea of giving gifts during this season derives from the gifts of the three wise men to the Christ child.

Is Your City Growing Or Shrinking?

Go here to find out.

Co-op Schooling

Want to homeschool your kids but don't know enough about certain subjects to do so? Then consider a homeschool co-op.

What A Deal At Wal*Mart

As the world's largest private employer, Wal-Mart is used to being greeted by large numbers of applicants almost every time it opens a new store.

But the 6,000-plus people who applied for jobs at the new Supercenter in Cleveland's Steelyard Commons took everyone, even Wal-Mart, by surprise...

Those 6,000 people were competing for some 300 positions. That means for every one person hired, 19 people walked away empty-handed.

Then there was this point:

But these were regular retail jobs with low-to-average wages and benefits, not the sort of positions typically in high demand.

But, but, but...the lefties always tell me that Wal*Mart doesn't offer any benefits to its employees! Who am I gonna believe in this case, shouting lefties or the Cleveland Plain Dealer?

Why Some Teachers Are Such Rabid Union Fans

This blog post had nothing to do with teachers or unions, but there were 2 sentences in it that just screamed out to be applied to teachers and unions.

It's always the weakest, least members of a group that are the most passionate about their membership in the group. The group gives them what they do not have of their own merits: a somewhat undeserved sense of personal value.

Watch some lib cry out about how wrong I am.

The Big Bang Theory

In part because of my new relationship with the elliptical trainer, I just finished watching, for the first time, The Big Bang Theory (CBS, 7:30 PST).

Whoever wrote that show is a comic genius.

First Day Back At School

After having 9 days off, going back to work today was more difficult than usual for a Monday. Still, I persevered!

Not a bad day overall.

Democratic Honesty

I'll send you over to my friend and fellow blogger Mr. Chanman, who links to a YouTube video showing that Wolf Blitzer's "undecided" voters--those undecideds who asked questions of the Democratic candidates--were plants.

My favorite was the "unknown", completely "random", "undecided" voter who asked Senator Obama a question, and he replied, "Thank you for the work you do for the culinary workers." She didn't mention the culinary workers in her question, but she is a member of the Culinary Workers Union. Doh!

Attending A "Military" High School

One in 10 public high school students in Chicago wears a military uniform to school and takes classes -- including how to shoot a gun properly -- from retired veterans.

That number is expected to rise as junior military reserve programs expand across the country now that a congressional cap of 3,500 units has been lifted from the nearly century-old scheme.

Proponents talk about discipline and pride. Opponents talk about the "militarization" of children or some similar complaint. Neither side talks about student performance.

I did enjoy this section of the quoted article:

"Here there's discipline, but there's freedom as well. Everybody just respects each other and we get respect from the teachers."

Standing with her hands clasped firmly behind her back, Coleman wrinkles her nose at the thought of enlisting and explains that she wants to be a mathematician. She enrolled in the Marine academy because she thought it would help her get into college.

Yes, they're really brainwashing that young lady. Riiiiiight.

Which Temperature Is Lower, -6 or -8 Degrees?

It's not just Americans who are innumerate.

The Cool Cash game - launched on Monday - was taken out of shops yesterday after some players failed to grasp whether or not they had won.

To qualify for a prize, users had to scratch away a window to reveal a temperature lower than the figure displayed on each card. As the game had a winter theme, the temperature was usually below freezing.

But the concept of comparing negative numbers proved too difficult for some. Camelot received dozens of complaints on the first day from players who could not understand how, for example, -5 is higher than -6.

Tina Farrell, from Levenshulme, called Camelot after failing to win with several cards.

The 23-year-old, who said she had left school without a maths GCSE, said: "On one of my cards it said I had to find temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so I thought I had won, and so did the woman in the shop. But when she scanned the card the machine said I hadn't.

"I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it...

A Camelot spokeswoman said the game was withdrawn after reports that some players had not understood the concept.

Speechless.