Post for Iowa Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Posted by Tom in sports, thoughts.add a comment
So if you have read any comments from the “experts” and, especially, fans over at sportsline you would think that Iowa football is a joke, their trash, overrated, a BCS nightmare, etc. To be fair, these fans seem to sing the praises of USC, Texas, Florida, et. al., so at least we know, in part, who we are dealing with here. Whiners.
Now, having said that, I think there is truth that Iowa has gotten extremely lucky in a couple of games this year. MSU was “lucky” but not in the sense of “that was just stupid luck”. Northern Iowa was another “lucky” win and that is in the sense of “stupid lucky”. Blocking one field goal to win the game is amazing. But two?!? Come on! That is crazy.
I, personally, find it rewarding to hear the cries and complaints from the fans of top tier programs against Iowa. As if the BCS gods only smile down on Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, USC, and OSU. I think they find it hard to believe that Iowa is as good as they (they = Iowa; and they = Texas, Florida, etc.) are. Iowa isn’t the most talented team. They aren’t the most athletic team. Or the most gifted. They have a good defense to be sure. But they are not super stud players. What gives?
One thing that I was informed of over at sportsline was that Iowa ranks in the middle of the pack concerning recruiting classes the last several years. The aforementioned teams rank high. Iowa doesn’t get the blue chip prospects. Yeah, at times, they get some quality players, but not the caliber of players that a USC or Oklahoma tends to pull in. So that makes what Kirk Ferentz has done at Iowa all the more remarkable. He has taken average talent, for the most part, and molded them into strong teams that win games. So this is why a 42-24 victory over Indiana, in which we were down 21-7 at the half, 24-14 after 3 and outscored Indiana 28-0 in the 4th is much more impressive and far less to worry about than a USC or LSU or OSU winning by 1, 3, or 7 points over a non-ranked or low ranked team. They recruit the players that should win. And should win big for their team. Iowa doesn’t have that luxury, but here we are 9-0.
Second, Ferentz has kept his coaching staff intact. I think this helps any team. Coaches have enough to deal with in terms of learning new player quirks every year, the players certainly don’t need to be adapting to a new coaching philosophy (not just head coach) every year.
I think Iowa will beat Northwestern this week to move to 10-0. I do think, that going into Columbus will be extremely difficult and I honestly don’t think Iowa is going to walk away with a victory (I hope they do!). And I think Iowa beats Minnesota in a tough game. Iowa ends up 11-1, I hope it is enough to keep them in the BCS Top 10. I hope it frustrates the committee to figure out what to do with them. I hope it irritates the experts who have to admit that, at least for this year, Iowa was a good team. And I hope it just bothers the fans of LSU, USC, OSU, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida to no end. And the icing on the cake would be that somehow Iowa staying in the top 10 would leave out one of the above mentioned teams. That would be beautiful. And I would almost pay money to hear that teams fans complain and whine about how things are unfair.
Another Day, Another War Sunday, November 1, 2009
Posted by Tom in Thoughts of Others, culture, jesus, life, politics, society, theology.add a comment
Some may call it naive, some may call him a “dreamer”, I call it a brilliant piece of strategy that is just crazy enough to potentially work.
This is why we need people like Wallis. To challenge us and to rock our sense of sensibility so much that we are taken aback thinking at first, “is this guy for real? this is a joke, right?” but then be so stunned by what he says that we want to throw open our windows and shout out “this is what we should try, it just might work!”
One of the downsides to the article is that Washington will never go for it. It’s the whole, “it’s way too out there, but makes perfect sense, but way too out there” thinking. Plus, i was a little disappointed how Wallis came off toward a certain individual and thought he didn’t display the love of Jesus exceedingly well towards him.
It’s a good read.
Health Care Reform Sunday, November 1, 2009
Posted by Tom in Thoughts of Others, culture, faith, jesus, life, people, politics, society, theology.add a comment
Here is a great article by Skye Jethani. In it he follows a news column written by an editor at the Jackson Sun website that prompted a response by Union University theology teacher, Brad Green. Skye does a great job of highlighting the main points of the articles and then providing his own insightful commentary. In the next day or two I plan to weigh in on what I found exceptional about this whole dialogue.
Just in case you are wondering, Skye has some credentials behind him and even though he is young, is very intelligent, well read, well educated and puts much thought behind his words.
Graphs Don’t Lie Saturday, October 24, 2009
Posted by Tom in politics, thoughts.1 comment so far
So here is something else that has bothered me (and there has been a lot lately). One can’t live in the past. I get that. But, yet, knowing that, here I go…back to the past.
First of all, this isn’t a post on the popular vote problem. Since there really isn’t a problem with the “popular” vote. I say this because there have only been three times in our elective history that a candidate has won the popular vote but lost the election. The first back in 1876, the second in 1888, and the third, of course, happening back in 2000 in which Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election. And whether we like it or not, the popular vote is not how we elect our president.
So it is always perplexing to hear, conservatives especially, complain when a Democrat wins because “if you look at a picture of the United States it is pretty much all red with blue on the outer edges of both coasts.” Now, of course, that is somewhat tongue in cheek because Michigan typically votes Democrat, along with Illinois, Iowa (lately) and Ohio (normally).
I used to think myself how unfortunate it was that Democrats would win the presidency when if you did look at a map it seemed to be that the whole middle of the country (or at least the majority of it) voted conservatively. They are screwing middle America I thought. They aren’t listening to over or close to half the states. How can this be?!? But then the obvious came crashing in on me.
Hypothetically if our nation had 100 million people spread out in 49 states and the other 200 million lived in 1 state and in that 1 state there was 225 electoral votes (since those electoral votes are distributed to each state based on their population) then all a candidate would have to do would be to win that 1 state and a few more and they would win the presidency. In other words, it may seem unfair that “all” of the country is red except the outsides but if the “outside” is where most American’s live than it works just like it should. Some may counter and say that is not totally fair because there are more “liberals” than “conservatives” in these places so their votes don’t count like they should. And that may be true….but the same could be said for “liberals” living in conservative areas.
Ayn Rand Friday, October 23, 2009
Posted by Tom in culture, faith, life, people, theology, thoughts.1 comment so far
Atlas Shrugged. The Fountainhead. Classics by Ayn Rand. I have read the former but not the latter. Ayn Rand is a phenomenal writer with engaging story lines and, ohhhh boyyyy, a huge philosophical/political agenda.
So this is why I am surprised when I see “moral conservatives” such as Beck recommending her books and her web site. I am surprised when I see people I am related to who are some of the most staunch conservatives I know who quote Ayn Rand (but probably have never read anything by her) but will chastise anyone who quotes Ghandi or Wallis or Sider (you know Wallis and Sider, right? They are those nasty Christ-followers who happen to lean left on some issues).
This is why gets me about Rand. She embraces Objectivism (this is actually a philosophy she created). Objectivism declares that the moral purpose of one’s life is the pursuit of one’s own happiness (or rational self-interest).
Rational self-interest is a combination of both rational and ethical egoism. Rational self-interest says that it is “both immoral and irrational to act against one’s own self-interest.” That an act is only rational if it maximizes self-interest. So much for Jesus.
Rational self-interest also has no place for religion or organized religion.
I am not implying that Ayn Rand didn’t have good things to say. And didn’t get it right on some things. But when Christ-followers simply latch on to people like Ayn Rand (who rejected not only religion but rejected the attitudes and values that Jesus, Paul, and the whole counsel of scripture calls us to) because it matches up with their political leanings but will reject Wallis and Sider (who are Christians, who do see a place for religion, whose values and morals are shaped by their understanding of Scripture) because their politics run contrary to the conservative agenda, then something is wrong. This is simply politics driving our theology rather than our theology driving our politics. Or as Michael Babcock has said it so well, this is an example of “putting the political cart before the theological horse.”
Which is Worse? Which is More True? Friday, October 23, 2009
Posted by Tom in thoughts.add a comment
So if you believe all the e-mails, the fox news slants, the Glenn Beck tears, and others, then, of course, President Obama is leading our country down a path to socialism, fascism, communism, and any other ‘ism’ that they want to tag him with. But, again, that’s only if you simply believe, take for granted what ultra-conservatives are trying to tell us. The problem is that it simply isn’t true. Obama may want to “spread the wealth” but for a supposedly ‘christian nation’ why do we buck at such a notion? Why did we not hear in the previous 8 years something of the Bush dynasty that was true?
Bush was a lone ranger. His policies, his approach to global issues. He isolated America from the rest of the world, apparently thinking that “leading by example” is best done removed from everyone else (and their thoughts and opinions). Of course this is how he approached his own administration. He thought he was the cowboy who not only stood above the law but created the laws.
Listen, i am not saying that to live with the problems of socialism is better than to live with the problems of nationalism. However, in this case….isolated nationalism seen in the cowboy, lone ranger mentality of President Bush was/is more true than some sort of socialistic program that President Obama has up his sleeve for America.
Huge Props Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Posted by Tom in life.1 comment so far
Huge props to my former college roommate and always close friend, Nathan. Dude just ran a 1/2 marathon this past Sunday in Detroit. That is crazy. I enjoy running but a 1/2 marathon?!? That’s 13.1 miles. 69,168 feet. 104.8 Furlongs. 1048 chains. 4192 rods. 830,016 inches. However you want to do the math (and Nathan is a CPA so he knows the math)…it’s a long way! With all seriousness….great job Nathan!! You finally worked off the forbidden slice of pizza.
