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Luis Palau
This & That…………
The Washington Times is reporting that the Democratic party, once the party of the “poor and middle class Americans” is now the party of the rich. The Times references a study by the Heritage Foundation that shows that the nation’s wealthiest Congressional Districts are now represented by the Democrats. ….and contrary to the way the Democrats have routinely defined the Republican’s as the party of the “rich” the same study shows that vast majority of conservative Congressional members come from middle-class districts. [Of course I have my own interpretation of these same facts which doesn’t necessarily follow the Times interpretation.]
It looks like the first major test of the newly elected and “reform” minded President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy has been an overwhelming smash hit. The collapse of the rail/subway strike has resonated a clear message throughout the country. Sarkozy realized that for his country to increase productivity and regain competetivity and increase employment that they would need to “reform” the strangle hold that labor unions have on the country. The rail union leaders have essentially issued their “mea culpa” as strikers have returned to work in droves following a nine day strike. [Oh by the way, Bush’s lack of support for his foreign policy on a so called unified front throughout the world seems to be eroding with Sarkozy being only one of the new adherents.]
Iraqi’s returning to Baghdad in “droves” are finding a transformed city. The Washington Post is reporting: “Many find a Baghdad they no longer recognize, a city altered by blast walls and sectarian rifts. Under the improved security, Iraqis are gingerly testing how far their new liberties allow them to go.” Estimates are that 45,000 Iraqi’s returned last month from Syria alone with flows still continuing at a rate over 1,000 per day. This has got to be bad new for Senator Reid who pronounced the surge “already a failure” weeks before it was launched.
The Gregorian Chant is back in and Winds of Worship is out, at least at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI has eliminated the rotating choirs and music performers at the Vatican and is opting for the more traditional tones of Gregorian Chant and Baroque Sacred music in St. Peter’s Basilica. His comments referenced the time of St. Gregory, the pope that gave rise to the Gregorian Chant by lending the use of his name. [So I guess this means that the likes of P.O.D., Skillet and Reliant K are out of the question.]
Well now you have it. Richard Roberts, son of ORU founder Oral Roberts, has resigned as President under a cloud of suspicion in squandering University Funds in a lavish (and I mean lavish) lifestyle for him and his family. There have also been some accusations of improprieties by both Roberts and his wife Lindsay with some of the hired help and underclasspersons. Roberts statement Friday, he said “that he loved the university.” He became president in 1993. “I love ORU with all my heart,” Roberts said in the statement. “I love the students, faculty, staff and administration and I want to see God’s best for all of them.” I suspect that this is an understatement once you realize the size of that expense account that comes with the job and how much he must have loved that and the private jet.
You have no doubt heard about the forthcoming “end of the stem cells wars” due to recent discovery of being able to get stem cells from skin cells. Don’t ask me how, but you can read it for yourself HERE. This debate has been sort of the opposite of what the Democrats have demanded on energy. They have fought the exploration and use of new reserves while advocating R&D to solve the energy crisis all while denying that approach to the “stem cell” debate. In this case it looks like Bush was right and they were wrong……..again.
And by-the-way, we’ll be headed north next week for the Christmas Holidays and hopefully final resolution to Gayle’s Law Firm. Also, at the moment I’m giving the Ohio State Buckeyes about a 65-70% chance of playing for the BCS National Championship. If either Oklahoma wins the Big 12 Championship next week (likely in my opinion) or Connecticut beats WVA today (not as likely but certainly possible) Michigan oops, I guess Illinois will be going to the Rose Bowl. Go Bucks!!! ………..steve
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10 Responses to “This & That…………”
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glad to hear you are going north. hope all will go smoothly for gayle’s law firm finalization. the family is fortunate to have your experience and patience in that tough time.
as for the buckeyes. as a grad of osu, i dont want us to go to the big game. i just dont see this team as a title contender. that does not mean that the parity of all the upsets this year is indicative of mediocrity. i would prefer to see a team like wvu go head to head with a kansas or missouri team. i bet i will get some flack, but jsut trying to see the best game possible
Matt………I don’t see Kansas or Missouri as the best representatives. I put OSU above them. I really think that the best teams would come from a pool of USC, OK or maybe LSU and yes maybe OSU. Since everybody is losing every week it would hard to deny the bucks if OK wins the Big 12. ……steve
Hi Steve,
It’s just my mid-west roots.
I’m sitting here during half time of the Kansas / Missouri game … and KU is not playing well enough to make it to the Big 12 Championship. I hope that changes for the 2nd half, cuz I’m not a big Missouri fan. Either way though, I’ll be pulling for any team from the Big 12 if they make it to the national championship.
Hi Tammi……….I think Missouri will win tonight, but I think OK is the best team in the Big 12 but are is not positioned to move to the championship. I think OK will beat missouri like they did on 10/9/2007 41-31. If that happens, of course, it will be OSU vs. West Virginia in the BCS championship. Kansas is still in this game though so don’t rule them out yet, but I still see the winner of this game losing to OK next Saturday……..steve
Four things…
- You reference the Times?
- & the Heritage Foundation?
(couple of amazing references regarding dems… Just shocking… “The KKK
says today that people non white are idiots”)
- Travel safe…
- Go Irish!
M2………..clarification…I refrence the Washington Times and they refrence the Heritage Foundation. Do you mean that this is a false report (ipso facto) because it wasn’t the Post? Do you equate the Heritage Foundation with the KKK? Further this is not a opinion article, but a gathering of statistics in districts and district demographics. If you want to challange the results point to your own better research not the KKK…….Go Irish ………sheesh, though they did avoid a 10 L season by beating Stanford who themselves beat USC who I believe is among the top 4 teams in the country. But if you go by that type of lineage, I theoretically beat the ultimate NCAA National Wrestling Champion in High School who only lost one match in HS and College………steve
Hahaha
I’m saying consider the source, not that the KKK have anything to do with the report (just an analogy).
But sure, now that you mentioned it, I’ll equate them with Heritage. Heritage is maybe like a new school KKK?
(They surely wouldn’t have been for equal rights or desegregation - along with anything else “progressive” had they existed back when HRC was a hippie.)
& what a life you’ve led… You’re like Forrest Gump… “Champ”!
M2…………Life is like a box of chocolates……….steve
in all seriousness, i did not know you wrestled. what were your accomplishments? the one you refer to, was it dan gable?
by the way, are you for a football playoff system to alleviate the bcs quagmire? myself, i worry that it would eliminate great rivalry matchups like osu michigan, florida vs fsu and usc ucal etc.. myself, i want to see the best game possible. like last year, how could one not love boise st and the sooners? dont think either would be crowned national champ but it was one for the ages. still besmirched about osu vs florida last year, cant you tell
Matt……..Yes I wrestled at UA we were district champs and 7th in the State OH Division 1 (there was only 1 division then) in my senior year. Not referring to Dan Gable, but Joe Peritore (sp). Never wrestled him, but he was beat in college by the guy that was #2 behind me on the UA depth list our weight class when we were in HS and he went on to wrestle for Kenyon College in OH. I Guess Peritore eventually lost a couple of more matches, but had only lost one before he met and lost to my friend that wrestled for Kenyon. We had to wrestle eachother in H.S. every week to qualify for that weeks match starting position. But Peritore is a legend in Ohio Wrestling from Maple Heights. (HS Wrestling Powerhouse in OH) Its been so long it is a distant fog. The truth is that he would have beat me bad in 99 out of 100. My friend from Kenyon must have caught him that 100th time.
Not necessarily ready for the playoff system like in B-ball. But I don’t have an strong position either way. Still pulling for OK in the Big 12 tournament………steve
pretty cool accomplishments. did not know you were a golden bear. dont know if this is true or not, but did the golden bears become that before or after jack “golden bear” nicklaus?
i am rooting for ok as well. if wvu wins out, and we can somehow get in, that would be a unique matchup. since we are border states, there has always been a recruting war and seeing how wvu and osu stackup would bee cool. on paper, our big slobberknockers vs their svelt speedy types might make for a nola shootut or a sleepfest
Matt…….Nicklaus got his “Bear” moniker from his time at UA (golf team) as a “Golden Bear.” Go Bucks! Also, FYI, Woody Hayes’ son (who is/was now a judge) was a bench warmer on the UA football team. Lot of UA State Championship football teams followed that time………..steve
this is totally off topic. but, have you seen steven colbert? this guy and his dry sense of humor and wit makes my sides split with laughter. is her serious or being satirical?
i think osu chemistry removed my irony, satire, sarcasm intrepretation abilities when i was in grad school. pyridine and carbohyrate chemistry will take out even the best of them. heard a scientist at work say that the carbohydrate backbone of dna and all its complexities were to blame for watson’s racist remarks. that is really bad satire, or so i hope.
Matt…….I’ve seen Colbert and he is not being serious but satirical almost constantly. I bet his wife hates him. See what you get for studying Chemistry? Take a look back up at your last post… I expanded my comment to refrence Woody Hayes……steve
really like the pun on bench warmer. was at ua and now in the ohio judicial senate. probably not intentional, and i have nothing to do while work prints.
i heard colbert with russert on the weekend. he claims that he seriously wants to get a delegate from sc as his home state and wants to speak at the convention. do you think the left will willingly let him make a mockery of the situation to appeal to the later years boomers, gen-x and gen-y types who are definetly on the fence in voting? i would watch it for its comedy and info, but want more meat than cliches, buzzwords, euphemisms and sugarcoated speeches that most conventions provide. both sides of the aisles needs to give the voting populace some real plans. sadly, the sates are brokering for who will be first rather than who will provide the most content
Matt…..yeah this Colbert candidacy reminds me of Pat Paulson in the 60’s (commedian pretending to run for the Presidency). The problem is the system doesn’t have a sense of humor and if he even jokingly declares a candidacy with a straight face he comes under the election rules and equal time rules on his TV program and it is all construed to be excessive campaign contributions by his employer……….steve
Colbert… Isn’t that French?
NO Play-off!
Kenyon, good school…
M2…….Kenyon, very good. He went to Kenyon and played football and wrestled and I went to Xavier U (no wrestling team) but even better business college. I got recruited a bit by OSU wrestling, but decided to can it. At the time I had a greater interest in music and played for a few more years.
My only problem with the play off system is the championship would go to the survivors (literal survivors). Kind of hard to add an extra 3 games to the regular schedule. Couldn’t cut back the regular schedule because it would cost the other 300 teams too much to play less. …………..steve
When I was in DC the other day, I saw a sign from some left-wing group which implied that carbon caps would spur technology change - it said something about it being an incentive to invent, or the like.
I’m shocked that people think that regulation improves technology - without which, industry would languish in a perpetual state of quasi-advanced technology. Do people really think, “Regulations! Now I shall innovate! Wow, had this never happened, I would have let my creative juices rot!”?
The idea that people need to be compelled to innovate or work is really mind-bloggling… especially coming from the group of people who want to ensure that people are never rewarded for the same activity.
/rant
Hi Bridget………yeah, nothing like regulations and government involvment to stimulate innovation.
…steve