The Latest: Trump Wins, NFL Caves (Updated)

The latest developments tell a simple story; President Trump wins, NFL Caves.

League commissioner Roger Goodell held a behind-closed-door meeting Tuesday night with NFL owners, league executives and select players to talk about the national anthem protests and especially, I'm sure, the effect its having on the bottom line.

There's been massive cancellations and refunds issued by major cable providers for 'season ticket' accounts, attendance and TV ratings are down to the point where it's becoming a problem, and fan anger is becoming palpable to the point where the networks are taking care not to turn the cameras on booing and gesticulating fans, although tuning out the sound of the booing and catcalls isn't possible. Long time NFL sponsors like Campbell's soups are facing boycotts from angry former fans.

While there were the usual innocuous remarks on the meeting, especially from the player reps who attended, it's obvious that Goodell and some of the owners now realize what a serious mistake they made letting their pampered employees alienate pro football's core audience.

The day after the meeting, Pittsburgh Steeler center Maurkice Pouncey announced that the entire team will stand respectfully for the national anthem this Sunday.

After facing backlash about standing in the tunnel during the national anthem last Sunday, Pouncey says the team will stand for the anthem.

“I promise you one thing, this week we will all be standing out there for the national anthem. Trust me,” Pouncey said. This comes after the entire team stayed in the tunnel when the national anthem was played. And after the one Steeler who did come out and stand respectfully for flag and country, former Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva was viciously attacked by the Steeler's black head coach Mike Tomlin.

The Green Bay Packers tried to have it both ways, standing for the anthem and linking arms, a gesture used before by teams like the Patriots to show 'solidarity' with the black players protesting. The Packers also tried to get their fans to link arms and made the expected remarks about unity, but for the most part that was a dismal failure, as even ESPN admitted:

Michele Steele ✔ @ESPNMichele

Vast majority did not link arms but many sang along w the anthem. Right behind GB bench a sign: "Shame on the NFL. Vets stand for the flag"

5:29 PM - Sep 28, 2017

• 14 14 Replies
• 40 40 Retweets
• 60

Their opponents, the Chicago Bears tried the same linked arms tactic.It didn't go over much better.

The Dallas Cowboys are rumored to be the next team to stand for the anthem, although whether they'll do the linked arms choreography remains to be seen.

After what's already happened, I have my doubts most of the fans are going to put up with half measures. I'm not even sure reversing course and having players respect the flag and the national anthem can turn things around at this point, but we'll see.

At any rate, it appears that once again, President Trump has a lot better grasp on how his fellow Americans think than people who supposedly get paid to know this sort of thing.

Or to use the short version, Trump wins, NFL caves.

UPDATE: This is becoming a farce. After insulting flag and country by kneeling during the U.S. anthem but standing respectfully for 'G-d Save the Queen' during an exhibition game in the UK, New Orleans Saint's quarterback Drew Brees told the press that the Saints will all kneel first during the anthem and then stand up. "

Drew Brees ✔ @drewbrees

As a way to show respect to all, our #Saints team will kneel in solidarity prior to the national anthem & stand together during the anthem.

3:04 AM - Sep 29, 2017

• 2,926 2,926 Replies
• 2,501 2,501 Retweets
• 10,419 10,419 likes

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Get a clue, Brees. By kneeling you're expressing solidarity with those who disrespect our country and our flag. And by standing afterwards, you are simply trying to appease enraged fans because the owners want to keep the money coming in. Do you really have such a low opinion of your fans? Do you really think they're that stupid?

I actually have more respect for the kneelers. They at least have the virtue of honesty in showing their contempt for America, which has given them everything. You and those of your teammates who participate in this nonsense show nothing but cowardice.

Don't even bother.

(Video) Kid Rock To Cheering Crowd: "F*ck Colin Kaepernick!"

Kid Rock, before playing 'Born Free' to a sell out crowd at Boston's Fenway Park...and telling the crowd exactly how he feels about Muslim, BlackLivesMatter promoting radical quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his friends refusing to honor our country's national anthem to wild cheers of approval.

The NFL has a serious problem on its hands. It appears a fair amount of the American people are sick and tired of these spoiled, ungrateful athletes dishonoring the America that has given them everything.

Right now, the hashtag #f*ckcolinkaepernick is trending.

Freedom of speech? Fine. But when you open that door, you take what comes with it. Or be a man and act on your principles by leaving this racist, oppressive country you hate so much, you and those whom agree with you.

The Rams 'Hands Up' Protest Doesn't Bother Me..But Congress's Is Obscene

There has been a great deal of anger expressed over an incident that happened at a St.Louis Rams football game. Jared Cook, Kenny Britt, Chris Givens, Stedman Bailey and Tavon Austin, all of whom are black and play for the Rams decided to express a blatant political view and use the 'Hands Up,Don't Shoot' gesture before their last game with Oakland to express their solidarity with the Ferguson protesters/rioters.

Leaving aside for a moment how bogus the gesture itself is (there is, after all,plenty of evidence that Michael Brown was not standing still with his hands up when policemen Darren Wilson shot him)it's obvious that this was a political statement and an expression of being down with racialist solidarity. It wasn't some kind of of plea for justice,peace and amity, although it's quite possible the five NFL players didn't see that. They simply did it anyway.

When the calls came for the players to be disciplined, both the St. Louis Rams and the NFL refused,citing the players 'First Amendment rights.'

Here's what Rams coach Jeff Fisher saidto rationalize this, saying it was the player's "choice to exercise their free speech."

"It's my personal opinion, I firmly believe, that it's important that I keep sports and politics separate," Fisher said. "I'm a head coach. I'm not a politician, an activist or an expert on societal issues, so I'm going to answer questions about the game."

Except of course, by allowing this,the team and the NFL are clearly taking a political stand as well.

Imagine five white players had done the same thing, holding up signs saying 'We support Officer Wilson.' Is anyone naive enough to believe that they wouldn't have been fined and disciplined for exercising their First Amendment Rights? And speaking of which, does anyone remember what the NFL did to Rush Limbaugh when he wanted to use money he earned honestly to buy into an NFL franchise as part of a group of investors? The NFL blackballed him and he was forced to leave the investor group..for exercising his First Amendment rights.

So this nonsense about 'First Amendment Rights' obviously just goes one way.

The way the team and the NFL saw it these five players using the 'Hands Up' gesture was a form of insurance that a significant number of their highly paid hired hands were mollified. And that a significant number people who happen to be of a certain racial background got the message that the NFL was 'down for the struggle', thus insuring that their expensive facilities were spared the sort of damage visited on Ferguson's small business owners.

If a few cops in St. Louis got angry about it, if some fans felt uncomfortable over the display of solidarity for the lawlessness went down in Ferguson, well, who cares? They're not going to riot or cause us grief. So that's the decision they made.

Let's move on to another sort of arena, the U.S. House of Representative. There, several members of congress decided to make the “Hands up, don’t shoot,” gesture on the floor of the House.

 

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) made a ranting speech, saying “In community, after community, after community, fed up with police violence in Ferguson, in Brooklyn, in Cleveland, in Oakland, in cities and counties and rural communities all across America.”

Jeffries added that people are fed up with injustice, a broken criminal justice system and “continuing to see young, unarmed African-American men killed as a result of a gunshot fired by a law enforcement officer.”

"Now this is a problem that Congress can’t run away from and the [Congressional Black Caucus] stands here today to make sure that Congress runs toward the problem,” Jeffries said. “That we come up with constructive solutions to breaking this cycle, this epidemic, this scourge of police violence all across America.”

He was joined by Reps. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and Al Green (D-Texas), all of whom had their own fuel for the fire as they made the “Hands up, don’t shoot,” gesture.

That little display is very, very different. It makes me catch-a-fire.Can you see why?

The Rams and the NFL are private businesses. And as such, they are allowed to choose what they support as business decisions, however cynical, amoral and wrong headed.

For those of you whom find that kind of racism(there really is no other word for it) and disrespect for the rule of law abhorrent, you too can make choices. Organize. Don't attend the games and don't watch them on TV. Don't buy their paraphernalia and above all, make sure the team and the NFL know why. A few weeks worth of sharply lowered attendance, TV ratings and sales sends a message that can sometimes encourage businesses to make different choices.

Congress, however is a very different animal.

The salaries of the members of congress who made these racially charged, outlandish statements are paid for by the taxpayers. So are their offices, their staffs, even the very building they meet in to do the people's business that they just soiled.And none of us have a choice about paying for it.

The 'scourge of police violence' Rep. Jeffries? Really? You stand there, in the halls of congress and tell me that a young black man is more likely to be murdered by police than by the sort of thug Michael Brown was well on his way to becoming? You really say that in spite of all the physical evidence showing the Michael Brown was the aggressor and assaulted a police officer, he's still some kind of victim? And that by making that stupid gesture and uttering those inflammatory words, you're in solidarity with the looting and rioting that went on in Ferguson and elsewhere?

Remember this, Congressman Jeffries?

I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

Do you really think the sort of language you and your friends just made jibes remotely with your oath of office?

It won't happen, but every one of these four members on Congress ought to be censured for making political points by stirring the pot in this fashion. They are encouraging violence and actually sanctioning it.

And yes, that is obscene on its face.

Obama State Department Stops Israeli From Playing In The NBA

In yet another case of the Obama Administration enforcing special rules on Israel and Israelis that don't apply to any other country, an Israeli basketball player is being prevented from playing in the NBA.

The Indiana Pacers have been hit with severe injuries, and the NBA allowed them a hardship exemption that allowed them to sign a 16th player through last ‎Thursday.

The Dallas Mavericks had waived Israeli Gal Mekel to the Pacers, who was desperately needed because four of the Pacer's five guards are injured and they only have 9 active duty players on their roster.

But the U.S. State Department then did something unheard of:

The NBA granted the injury-depleted Pacers a hardship exemption that allowed them to sign a 16th player through last ‎Thursday. When the State Department refused to move up the expiration date on Mekel’s visa even by one day, the Pacers, who had only 9 players on their active roster, backed out of the deal to sign another player before their waiver lapsed.

Normally, visas for foreign-born players in the NBA are automatically transferable with the players to whom they are issued. More than 100 foreign-born players are currently in the NBA. This is the first instance many basketball analysts can recall where a foreign-born player was prevented from signing with a new NBA team because a visa could not be transferred.

Indiana wanted the 26-year-old Israeli shooting guard after his impressive start in Dallas, which included 19 points and 9 assists against the Pacers in Indianapolis on October 18.

This is part of a general practice of denying Israelis visas to come to America, especially if they serve or have served in the IDF. So because of this 'special treatment' the Pacers won't get the player they wanted, and Mekel's career gets stalled.

Yes, special rules for Israel and Israelis since President Obama and his friends came to town..

Does any one want to bet that the visa would have been extended if Mekel was African and came from Nigeria or Ghana?

(h/t, Carl)

Top PA Official: Youth Soccer Match With Israel 'Crime Against Humanity'

Jibril Rajoub, the deputy secretary of the Fatah Central Committee went ballistic over a recent youth soccer match between Palestinian and Israeli children hosted by the Peres Center for Peace as a way to build bridges between Israeli and Palestinian children.

Rajoub, a member of the Fatah Old Guard wrote in a September 6 Facebook post, “Any activity of normalization in sports with the Zionist enemy is a crime against humanity.”

He said the match represented “an Israeli attempt to cover up their crimes against [Palestinian] athletes,” according to a Palestinian Media Watch report released Monday.

Perhaps he's forgotten about his part planning the massacre of Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972, or all the other very real 'crimes against humanity' he, Abbas and the others in Fatah have happily participated in.

The kids themselves appear to not be affected by the hatred their adult leaders are pushing...at least not yet. Over 600 children from Israel and the Palestinian territories were scheduled to take part this year in the Twinned Peace Soccer Schools events.

“I love it when we play together like this. I hope that one day there will be peace between Arabs and Jews and that there will be no more wars and death,” a Palestinian boy told AFP after the first event.

Not if Jibril Rajoub and the PA have anything to say about it. A number of PA officials echoed Rajoub's sentiments

"The Palestinian organizers of this match betrayed the blood of the children of Gaza and of the martyrs, which has yet to dry a week after the end of the barbaric Israeli aggression,” said Palestinian Olympic Committee member Abd al-Salam Haniyeh in an article published last Thursday by Palestinian news agency Sama

Haniyeh went on to demand that Rajoub punish the Palestinian organizers associated with the match, who hail from Yatta. “Immediately interrogate the organizers of the match, settle the account with them and prosecute them on charges of serious treason against the blood of the martyrs [who died in the Gaza conflict] and violating the decisions made by the Palestinian sports community’s leadership,” Haniyeh urged.

Last year, in an interview with Palestinian TV, Rajoub stated his opposition to participating in sporting events with Israelis and threatened to remove anyone accused of doing so from the Palestinian Football Association.

Jibril Rajoub,you might remember is the PA leader who said that if the Palestinian Authority had a nuclear weapon, they would use it on Israel the next day.

It's pretty easy to predict what's going to happen here, because I know how these things usually end up. Remember that Arafat, Abbas, Rajoub, and the rest of the Fatah mafia were trained by their Soviet masters on how to enforce party discipline.

The organizers, coaches and any other Palestinian adults involved in this will receive a visit from Fatah thugs in the 'security forces' and will receive a lesson, a physical one if necessary on the error of their ways. The program will be cancelled, because all of a sudden no Palestinian children or adults will be participating in it. If the regime decides it's necessary, the kids who were involved, especially if they were exposed to the hated Jews enough to see them as human beings will be subjected to intense reprogramming.

There will be no real peace between Israel and the Arabs whom identify themselves as Palestinians as long as Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the other allied factions are around.You could sign any papers you want and give in to all their demands, and that wouldn't change.

NBA Players Call Off Israel Visit

Magic Johnson and a number of other past and present NBA stars were scheduled to attend the inauguration ceremony of Jerusalem's new multi-purpose sports arena in September.

Without any explanation, they suddenly called it off.

The Jerusalem Municipality and the event's production company, Ariel, were surprised to receive a phone call from the stars' representatives on Sunday, informing them that they were cancelling their participation in the festive event.

Ariel and the municipality have been working on the Jerusalem Arena inauguration ceremony, which will take place on September 4, for several months now.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat had invested many efforts to complete the construction and increase the number of seats in the arena after many delays over the years.

The municipality had planned a major opening, which would create a media buzz around the new sports complex. The highlight of the event was supposed to be a festive exhibition game between 10 retired and present NBA players and the Hapoel Jerusalem basketball club.

The guest of honor would have been Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Jr., one of the greatest basketball players of all times.





Ariel CEO Zion Turgeman confirmed that the NBA players had canceled their visit to Jerusalem. "This is a serious blow to the arena's inauguration. We have been working on the opening event for a long time, and now we will have to readjust."

Turgeman added there was no plan to postpone the inauguration event. "We intend to invite 5,000 soldiers to the opening in order to thank the IDF for its contribution to the state," he said.

Mixing brave warriors with a bunch of pampered, overpaid cowards? I think Magic and his buds did Jerusalem a huge favor. They may look tall on the basketball court, but they've revealed themselves as little men and such creatures are never missed, not really.

The real guests of honor will be sitting in the stands.



-Selah-

The Real Bullies Among Us

The Obama Regime has made an 'anti-bullying' campaign a major issue since Day One, and the Left has eagerly followed.

The president has made numerous speeches, sponsored conferences and even endorsed legislation forcing public schools to enact anti-bullying codes of conduct and submit data to the Department of Education showing compliance.

 

Yes, nobody likes a bully.

Today, the Washington Redskins football team and their owner, Dan Snyder were subjected to some bullying. For quite some time, they've been subjected to a campaign to change their traditional nickname based on a 2006 appeal by a handful of activists that claims the name is derogatory to Native Americans.

The team and its owner have continuously refused to change their nickname, so some additional bullying tactics were called for. Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday cancelled six federal trademarks of Washington Redskins.

What that means is that the Redskins no longer own their proprietary trademark, and anyone can produce tee shirts, jackets, caps and other merchandise with the team logo on it without compensating the Redskins. It amounts to the government taking of private property without compensation, something the Constitution declares is illegal.

The team has been through this before and successfully appealed a similar decision like this in court, and there's no doubt they will appeal this one as well. The rules about  what's supposedly derogatory and what isn't when it comes to trademarks and ads is so vague and subjective that in the end, it really depends on what you personally see as demeaning. Once again, we're talking about a right not to be offended that simply doesn't exist. I mean, is the term 'redskin peanuts' offensive? Should it be banned?

The Redskins aside, this got me to thinking. For all the noise about bullying, it's the Obama Regime and the Left that are the prime practitioners.

It's the Regime and the Left who are bullying coal companies using the EPA and trying to put them out of business.

It's the Obama Regime that has been bullying countries like Israel, Honduras, and Egypt,among others.

It's the Regime and the Left that have been bullying bakers, florists,photographers and caterers to service homosexual weddings that violate their religious convictions. Ditto for Catholic institutions when it comes to providing abortificants and birth control to their employees.

It's the Obama campaign and the Left who bullied Sarah Palin and her children and attempted to bankrupt her and her family.

It's the Obama Regime that has used the IRS to bully groups and even individual donors who disagree with them politically.

It was the Obama Regime that bullied individual stockholders in GM (many of them retirees) and cut their holdings while leaving Union holdings intact.

And that's just a small sampling of the kind of bullying that's been going on since Barack Obama entered the Oval Office.

But come to think of it, that shouldn't be a surprise, given who 'progressives' actually are and who their predecessors were. Demonizing and bullying those they perceive as their enemies has been a tactic of theirs for a long time now.


 

Yet Another Example Of How Israel And Israelis Are Different

The Israeli national soccer team was playing a match at Kiev in the Ukraine, and the game made headlines in there and in many other parts of Europe for an interesting reason that had nothing to do with the final score.

As the national anthems were played prior to the game, groups of children wearing UNICEF t-shirts were allowed to stand with the players, something that's common in international matches. August can still be fairly chilly in the Ukraine, and the children were caught in a cold downpour soon after they came on the field.

As the pictures show, the Ukrainian players pretty much ignored the kids shivering in the rain and cold. The Israeli team immediately took off their warmup jackets and tried to shield the kids from the weather.

“I am glad we made the gesture and I hope that all the children returned home safely,” said Israeli soccer star Itay Shechter of the incident.

“When it began to rain during the anthems, we decided to take off our training jackets because we saw that the kids that were with us were freezing from the cold of the strong rain. We immediately decided to place the training jackets on the children so that they would feel a little more cozy and warmer,” another player Eitan Tibi added.

According to Yediot Ahronot the incident prompted media headlines in both Ukraine and Russia criticizing the Ukrainian team. ”The human reflex was to do what the Israeli players did,” wrote one newspaper according to Yediot.

The Israeli team lost the match two to nothing. But I think they won something more important than a soccer game.

Jason Collins, 'Heroic'????

I absolutely can't believe the to-do over basketball player Jason Collins outing himself as a homosexual.

One breathless commentator over at USA Today even compared him with Jackie Robinson, believe it or not...

I'm sure you've all noticed the 'straight only' bathrooms, water fountains, seating sections in restaurants and public buildings and the many neighborhoods where gays are unable to buy property.

Oh, wait a minute, you haven't?

Full disclosure..I'm not a round ball fan and know nothing about Collins, nor do I care whom he sleeps with. But it seems to me that calling him heroic is just a tad misplaced.

If anyone deserves credit and sympathy, it's his former fiancée, Carolyn Moos.

She only found out Collins was a gay a couple of days before he announced it.


Carolyn tells TMZ, she never once suspected he was gay, so the news is shocking. She says Collins eventually revealed everything last weekend — just days before his big announcement — and said that his homosexuality was the real reason he ended things with her.

At the time of their breakup, Carolyn says Jason gave a bunch of BS reasons for calling it quits ... and she could never understand what went wrong, until now. [...]

"It's very emotional for me as a woman to have invested [eight] years in my dream to have a husband, soul mate, and best friend in him. So this is all hard to understand."

Eight years. And after all that, he calls her up just like that and says 'Guess what, I'm batting for the other team'. Like he didn't know before?

And while Jason Collins was discovering this about himself, does anyone doubt he was cheating on her?

If he had any doubts about his orientation and he cared about this young woman and her feelings, I think he owed her some honesty.

To her credit, Ms. Moos has remained fairly classy about being strung along like that.

"I care about [Jason] tremendously and only want the best for him," she said. "I want Jason to be happy for a lifetime and stay true to who he really is, inside and out."

Again, I could care less who Jason Collins sleeps with. But based what his behavior and his treatment of his fiancée reveals about his character, I don't see him being held up as any kind of hero or model at all.

That's the only part about this I think worthy of mention, because it shows how debased our ideas of what heroism is are becoming.

Giants Win Series As Tigers Fall Victim To The Obama Curse

 

The San Francisco Giants swept the World Series four straight to become World Champions, with the Detroit Tigers at the losing end, 4-3.

My pal Bookworm points out why. Barack Obama let the world know on Leno's show that he was rooting for Detroit:

On Wednesday night, Obama appeared on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show.  There, in response to Jay’s question about the World Series, Obama turned his back on the Golden State that has filled his campaign coffers and told America that he was rooting for Detroit’s team (keeping in mind that Michigan’s electoral votes are up for grabs):

I will say, I’ve spent a lot of time in Detroit lately, and I didn’t want to let Detroit go bankrupt. So in this particular World Series, I might be a little partial.

You know, it seems like most of what President Barack Obama touches turns into a substance very different from gold - Fast and Furious, Egypt, a stimulus, green energy jobs, an Olympics bid, you name it.

Could it be that President Obama actually figured this out and had a side bet going on the Giants to win?

Jewish Olympic Gold Medal Winner Makes Her Own Statement Honoring Murdered Israeli Athletes

American gymnast Aly Raisman won a surprise Gold at the London Olympics in the women’s floor exercise event, and her unexpected win would be enough to make this memorable.

But Ms. Raisman, who is Jewish, took this opportunity to make a personal statement of sorts regarding the murdered Israeli athletes of Munich the IOC has ignored to placate the Arab and Muslim nations, who threatened a walk out if the Israeli athletes slain by Arab terrorists were memorialized:

It wasn’t a gloved-fist salute from the medal stand, but Jewish-American gymnast Aly Raisman made quite a statement yesterday by winning a gold medal and invoking the memory of the Israeli athletes killed 40 years ago in Munich.

Raisman finished first in the women’s floor exercise, but she deserves to have another medal draped around her neck for having the chutzpah to face the world and do what needed to be done and say what needed to be said.

At the same Olympic Games where bigoted organizers stubbornly refuse to honor the slain athletes with a moment of silence, 18-year-old Raisman loudly shocked observers first by winning, then by paying her own tribute to 11 sportsmen who died long before she was born.

And if that weren’t enough, she won her event with the Hebrew folk song “Hava Nagila” playing in the background.

“Having that floor music wasn’t intentional,” an emotional but poised Raisman told reporters after her performance.

“But the fact it was on the 40th anniversary is special, and winning the gold today means a lot to me.”

Then Raisman stuck the landing.

“If there had been a moment’s silence,” the 18-year-old woman told the world, “I would have supported it and respected it.”

Kol tov, Ms. Raisman. And not just for being an underdog who won the Gold.

I'll let Ankie Spitzer, whose husband Andre was murdered in Munich by Arafat's thugs in an operation organized by the present Palestinian gauleiter, Mahmoud Abbas:

“Shame on you International Olympic Committee because you have forsaken the 11 members of your Olympic family."

“You are discriminating against them only because they are Israelis and Jews.”

B'emet, Mrs. Spitzer. And that's why, with today's obvious exception I've been boycotting the Olympics.

A First: Organist Ejected By Umpire From Baseball Game For Playing '3 Blind Mice'

This certainly made me crack up..!

Apparently an umpire was so incensed by an organ player's musical selection after a questionable call at a Daytona Cubs game that he ejected him:

[Derek]Dye was being given the chance to run the organ music during Wednesday night’s game. There was a questionable call at first base. “Looked like our first baseman caught it, and then lost it on the transfer. So you figure the call would be out,” Dye told 94WIP’s Marc Farzetta.

So Dye thought he’d have a little fun. “I played “Three Blind Mice,” knew organ tone, no lyrics, just the organ,” he said. “And then, within about four or five seconds of the song playing, the home plate umpire looks up, yells as loud as he can, ‘you’re gone!’” The home plate umpire had tossed Dye from the game.

Man, that's touchy! I've heard of coaches, managers and of course players being tossed out of a game. Even fans being removed at times. But an organ player? Who's next, the guy selling the popcorn??

That has to be one for the record books.

UPDATE: Nope, it's not. Long time member of Joshua's Army Louie Louie informs me that this happened once before at least..and that he heard of an additional instance at Rosenblatted Stadium, home of the College World Series and the Omaha Royals in Omaha, Nebraska a couple of years ago.

Whoah..I stand humbly corrected!

NBC's Bob Costas' Reaction To The Israeli Olympic Team..And Al Jazeera's Hatred

NBC's Bob Costas wasn't quite able to have a moment of silence to honor the murdered Israeli athletes of the '72 Munich Olympics as he wished, but as the Israeli team walked by. But what he did instead was to report on the IOC's craven refusal to honor the murdered athletes, and to voice his disapproval of that cowardice.

Oddly enough, the Israeli team did get some silence as they marched by. From Al Jazeera ( AKA JihadTV).as soon as the Israeli delegation entered the stadium led by windsurfer Shahar Zubari who was wielding the Israeli flag with pride, the Arab broadcasters suddenly fell silent.

The two veteran festive Arab sport commentators, Yousef Saif and Isam Shawali sat there in bitter silence, not even able to pronounce the word 'Israel'. As the Israeli team entered the stadium, Shawali said "They don't deserve it."



Enough said.

( hat tip, The Elder)

More Olympic Spirit - Lebanese Team Demands Barrier Separation From Israelis

The Lebanese Olympic judo team demanded and got the Olympic committee to erect a barrier between themselves and the Israeli judo squad just hours before the Games’ opening ceremony.

The two teams were scheduled to train inside London’s ExCeL center but Lebanon’s team refused and their team’s coach demanded an apartheid wall to separate them from the Jews.

Of course the IOC complied with this racism rather than give Lebanon an ultimatum to abide by the Olympic Charter, curb their behavior or pack for the trip home.

I guarantee you that's exactly what would have happened if the Israelis had made that kind of demand.

What an absolute disgrace.

Iranian Claims He Has 'Infection' , Won't Compete Against Israeli Athlete

Remember IOC President Jacques Rogge's warning that 'sanctions would be taken' against any Muslim nation refusing to compete against Israelis? I think we're about to see how true that was.

Just days after U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon announced the traditional Olympic Truce – for people and nations to “set aside their differences” during London 2012 – news emerged that the one Iranian athlete likely to face an Israeli in competition has withdrawn with a “gut infection.”

Iranian Javad Mahjoub qualified in the same half-heavyweight judo category as an Israeli, Ariel Ze’evi, who participated in the last three Olympics, won the bronze medal in Athens 2004, and is the 2012 European champion. The half-heavyweight category competition is scheduled for August 2.

But Iranian Sports Medicine Federation head Lotfali Pour-Kazemi said this week Mahjoub’s condition required a 10-day antibiotic course and he would not be able to compete. An Iranian judo website quoted him as saying the judoka was experiencing “weakness, nausea and vomiting.”

During the Judo World Cup in Tashkent in 2011, Mahjoub was lined up in a head-to-head against another Israeli, Or Sasson, but refused to compete.

For his part, Ze’evi has been on the receiving end of an anti-Israel boycott before, when a Tunisian withdrew rather than taken him on during world judo championships in 2001. Ze’evi won silver.

Iranians withdrew from events pitting them against Israelis in the last two Olympic Games, in Athens 2004 (judo) and Beijing 2008 (swimming).

The Olympic Charter states, “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”

Ah, the Olympic spirit! I can almost guarantee you that Iran will suffer about the same penalties for violating the Olympic Charter as they have for consistently violating the UN charter.

The IOC Won't Honor Slain Israeli Athletes, But Sportscaster Bob Costas Says He Will

You might remember my piece on how the International Olympic Committee bowed to Muslim pressure and refused to honor the Israeli athletes murdered by PLO terrorists in 1972 at Munich with a moment of silence.

According to one of the widows,Ankie Spitzer, Jacques Rogge, the president of the IOC told her when they met that 'his hands were tied' by the 46 Arab and Muslim members of the IOC.

She replied, “My husband’s hands were tied, not yours.”

Veteran NBC Bob Costas has his own reply to the IOC's cowardice, according to what he told the Hollywood Reporter:

At the July 27 Opening Ceremony from London, Costas plans to call out the IOC for denying Israel's request for a moment of silence acknowledging the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches at the 1972 Games. On the 40th anniversary of Munich, it's a decision he finds "baffling." When the Israeli delegation enters the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium, Costas will stage his own protest: "I intend to note that the IOC denied the request," he says, modulating his voice as if he were on the air. "Many people find that denial more than puzzling but insensitive. Here's a minute of silence right now."

One man, willing to provide honor and dignity to an institution that has forgotten what the words mean. It will be absolutely wonderful if he does this, and even better if other media figures follow suit.

Give the man the gold if he follows through, for courage and for decency.

When Rabbis Turn Bigot

Denver Bronco's Quarterback Tim Tebow is one notorious fellow these days.Imagine...someone who not only made fools out of his critics in the best way possible, but is *gasp!* a believing Christian who openly professes his faith and is unashamed about it.

Apparently that was just too much for Rabbi Joshua Hammerman.He wrote an amazing bigoted screed in the publication Jewish Week ( since pulled from both Jewish Week and his blog, but Yid With Lid has it here) saying that if Tebow, who he refers to as "a poster boy of the Christian right" led the Broncos to the Superbowl, Christian mobs would be indulging in "burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants."

According to Rabbi Hammerman, a Broncos Superbowl victory would "give fodder to a Christian revivalism that has already turned the Republican presidential race into a pander-thon to social conservatives, rekindling memories of those cultural icons of the ‘80s, the Moral Majority and “Hee Haw.” "

From the above, you can tell exactly whom Rabbi Hammerman is pretty easily....a self-identified, hate-filled 'progressive' who heads a left leaning synagogue in a deep blue state, a member of the George Soros funded J-Street Rabbinical council and undoubtedly part of Rabbis for Obama, which he means he was likely one of the rabbis partaking in one of those conference calls with the Dear Leader telling him how to work talking points for ObamaCare and voting Democrat into his High Holidays sermons. In other words, George Soros and the Left own him body and soul.

As far as I'm concerned, after what he wrote, it's a testimony to what a force for good Christianity is in this country and how tolerant most Americans are of their Jewish fellow citizens that some of those Christians he demonized didn't react violently to his poisonous diatribe.One can only imagine what would have happened if he had written the same thing about a Muslim athlete. But Christians?They represent a soft and easily maligned target.

Both Rabbi Hammerman and Jewish Week - a notoriously left leaning publication, where Rabbi Hammerman and his ilk are regular contributors - ran apologies after they saw the reaction this got, from Christians and from Jews who have stopped drinking the Kool-Ade. Rabbi Hammerman's 'apology' in particular was an afterthought as his initial smirking reaction ( also since removed) was: "my Tebow piece is generating the expected outrage from the evangelical right (cant' wait for Jews to begin chiming in!)".

As far as I'm concerned, both apologies were inadequate.

There's an old Chassidic story about a Jew in a small village in Poland who passed rumors and slandered the local rabbi and later found out what he had said was totally unjustified. Approaching the rabbi, the man apologized and asked how he could repair the damage he had done.

The rabbi instructed him to take a pillow filled with feathers and walk to the top of a local hill with him. When they reached the top the rabbi instructed him to cut it open.

After the feathers had scattered, the rabbi then told the man to gather them back up and replace them in the pillow case. "That would be impossible rabbi", the man replied.

"Yes", the rabbi told him, "And it will likewise be impossible to repair the damage you have done to me."

One of Judaism's central tenets is to avoid Lashon Hara, literally 'an evil tongue'. Perhaps they skipped that concept where Rabbi Hammerman went to seminary.

As a Jew and a non-football fan, it not only embarrasses me that someone with the temerity to style himself 'rabbi' would write this sort of thing, but it also strikes me as the height of ingratitude.

America, by and large has always blessed its Jews, as opposed to Europe. There has always been a certain amount of Jew hatred present, but the difference was that is was never a matter of law, never a matter of government policy. There were never ghettos where Jews were literally locked inside at sundown, and no quasi-legal pogroms in America as there were in Europe,with the police turning a blind eye while Jews were raped, pillaged and slaughtered.

Even in the 1920's and later, when there were de facto quotas on admitting Jews to universities and restrictions on buying homes in many areas, when many major firms in law, insurance, and manufacturing refused to hire them, America always provided its Jewish citizens with a way upward.

They were always free to worship as they chose, and have been since George Washington wrote a letter to the Jewish congregation in Newport Rhode Island saying that the children of Abraham would always be welcome here.

Most Jews have amply repaid that generosity of spirit, and the role of America's great and accomplished in every field reflects a contribution that far outweighs their numbers. It even extended to popular culture. Back when the Jews actually owned Hollywood, they made movies that celebrated not only America's history and its greatness but its Judeo-Christian roots. It was a Russian Jewish child who witnessed his family's home being burned to the ground in a pogrom who later immigrated to America and went on to write not only "God Bless America" but "White Christmas" and "Easter Parade".

But then, there are Jews like Joshua Hammerman.

The normal reaction of a man of G-d to a young athlete whose fame is based on his courage in openly showing his gratitude and his allegiance to the Almighty no matter what anyone thinks about it would be admiration and applause.

But then, Rabbi Hammerman's true allegiance isn't to G-d, but to the Left.

Since my Christian friends are unlikely to get the teshuvah ( repentence) and apology from Joshua Hammmerman they deserve, please allow me to apologize humbly in his stead from the bottom of my heart. He is a bigot and an embarrassment to my faith, and indeed to the Judeo-Christian values of America most of us hold dear.

I realize many of you will forgive him, but I can't. Unlike those famous Romans, he knew exactly what he was doing.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

The Definitive Post OnThe Penn State Scandal

It is indeed all that needs to be said about the Penn State football scandal and the firing of legendary coach Joe Paterno and the University President, written by sci-fi writer John Scalzi.(warning, some NSFW language)

I would only add to what Scalzi says that it's worth remembering that then-graduate assistant and now assistant coach Mike McQueary, the guy who originally saw the child rapist in action and did nothing to stop it not only still has his job but has apparently been promoted with Paterno's firing.

Sad and disgraceful beyond measure.

A gracious h/t to my pal Greg over at Rhymes With Right for sending this my way.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Smokin' Joe Takes The Final Count

I was saddened today to read that World Champion Joe Frazier took the final count last night after a battle with liver cancer. He was 67.

Smokin' Joe will be remembered as long as boxing exists for the three fights he had with Muhammad Ali. Those two warriors went at each other like men possessed, and even watching films of their bouts still sends chills up and down the spine.They were like matter and anti-matter, two immutable forces.. greatest fighters of their age and arguably two of the best of all time.

In many ways, Frazier was the model used for the motion picture 'Rocky'. The scenes in the film that showed Rocky punching meat carcasses and running up and down the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art were things Frazier actually did to train, and the action in the final bout between Rocky and Apollo Creed parallels the action in the final Ali-Frazier fight.

Frazier's style was simple - he just kept coming at you, throwing punches designed to seriously rock your world. A then-undefeated Ali found out about that in a personal way in their first meeting at Madison Square Garden in 1971, when a vicious left hook from Frazier put him down in the 15th round.It's worth remembering that it was Joe Frazier, the existing champ, who personally petitioned President Nixon to restore Ali's right to box so the fight could take place.

Frazier later lost the title a couple of years later to George Foreman, who took him out early with a surprise attack in the early rounds.

Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier clashed again at Madison Square Garden in 1974, and this time Ali was wise enough to handle Frazier's power by using his speed to keep Frazier out of range and tiring him by illegally holding him behind the neck in clinches, something Ali was warned repeatedly about by the referee but managed to get away with without a points deduction. Ali won that fight with a decision and went on to regain his crown by taking out George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire.

The third fight, the Thrilla In Manilla was an epic clash, one that everyone remembers but that neither fighter ever recovered from.

While Ali won the early rounds, Frazier just kept coming and dominated the middle rounds, punishing Ali with tremendous shots to the body.Both fighters were visibly hurt, but Ali was able to rally enough in the 11th round to inflict enough damage on Frazier to close his right eye so that Frazier was fighting virtually blind by the 14th round.

Frazier's corner, Eddie Futch stopped the fight after Round 14 over Frazier's protests. Ironically, Ali had also had more than enough, walking back to his own corner after the 14th and instructing his corner Angelo Dundee to cut his gloves off. Ali later said that "Frazier quit just before I did. I didn't think I could fight any more".

41 rounds they fought together, and it ended with both of them fighting each other to a standstill. Two of January's children, locked together in a combat that in the end,neither one could really win. Both of them Olympic Gold medal winners,both of them undefeated when they first met, both of them men who didn't understand what the word 'quit' meant.

No one who ever saw the two of them collide will ever forget it.

R.I.P.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Awful Woman Steals Baseball From Child

This one beggars belief.

During a game between the Astros and the Diamondbacks at Minute Maid Park, a player tossed a baseball to a little girl in the stands. An absolutely horrid woman standing next to her first tried to reach in front of her to get the ball. When she missed and the little girl caught it, the woman simply ripped it out of the girl's hands and took it away from her. And then turned to her group to show off 'her' baseball and garner a few high fives from her friends while the little girl walked away heartbroken.

You have to wonder about someone like this. What she was thinking, how she justified it, whether she'd been spayed yet.

There was a time when no adult would think of doing this to a child, or if one forgot themselves and did, they'd risk major feedback and retaliation by decent society.

On the bright side, the play-by-play guy noticed this, talked to the Astros and reportedly came up with an autographed ball for the child. And many of the commenters on the original story had the same reaction I did.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!