Syracuse University Basketball: Mamma Grizzly Power Award

Because I know next to nothing about basketball, I thought I'd try to impress you with my expertise. This blog is supposed to be eclectic, a tour de force of dilettantism, so who's better to write about basketball than me?

My nominee for Grizzly Mamma of the year goes to Linda Bryant, mother of Thomas Bryant and, get this straight, both are names you should know.

Thomas Bryant is one of the most sought after high school basketball players in the world.  The whole basketball world is watching to see where he will go with his stupendous talents.  But this column is not about him;  it's about his mom, and her interview by Chris Carlson in the Syracuse Post-Standard.

Believe me, this is the type of mom everyone should have.  There would be no Michael Brown tragedies if every mom in America guarded her sons the way this woman is doing.  Okay, let's just stipulate one thing. Thomas Bryant is one sensational young basketball player.  He is also young.  Many things can happen to the young.  His mom is going to make sure that only the right and good things happen to her kid.  This is just as things should be.

This youngster's experience lately has to do with choosing a college where he will play basketball before, if things go well, he gets picked up by the NBA.  There is no need to embellish the story with a florid style or with journalistic sleight of hand.  Linda Bryant speaks for herself and here's what she said to the Post-Standard reporter:

• "It's down to two (schools) Syracuse and Indiana."
• Linda corrected the reporter who thought that Missouri might be a third choice since one of his former coaches works there. "They're trying to get into it," she said.  Meaning, there is no chance.
• Linda Bryant also dispelled rumors that her son might choose Kentucky, another giant in the college basketball industry. But he was only going there to visit with two of his teammates from high school, Linda told the reporter.
• And while there's much to like, what I like best about Mamma Grizzly Linda Bryant's input into her son's well-being is what she says about Indiana where, according to the newspaper, six of Indiana's thirteen basketball scholarship players have been implicated in either failed drug tests or underage alcohol infractions.  Linda puts it best when she says of Indiana: "They have a lot going on. It seems like we went down there on false pretenses. They didn't tell us anything about failed drug tests or that type of thing going on.  My son doesn't need to be around that stuff."
• Trust me, this Mamma Grizzly is no naif and has plenty more to say in expressing love and concern for Thomas.  Get it straight, don't spare the horse, kick the tires, the woman's on fire.  While her son heard a lot from Syracuse assistant coach Mike Hopkins, she wants it all to go directly from her lips to God's ears: "It's great that we hear from Coach Hopkins. But I told Coach Boeheim, my son needs to hear from you."

President Urkel Obama Undeclares War on Taliban

This story comes from the Wall Street Journal. I take no credit for going to Afghanistan and talking to the Taliban.  It concerns President Obama's recent "pivot" (that being the administration's current favored catch phrase) on Afghanistan.  The Urkel prez has decided that his pacification process (aimed at the American military, not the enemy) was a little too much, too soon.  Since the president shared his appointment calendar for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban has caused all sorts of havoc in the country, killed scores of innocence people in suicide bombing and other psychotic anti-human attacks, and made territorial gains which had been previously denied them by a concerted effort in American and Afghan blood.

Now, the U.S. military has dragged Obama away from the Choom Gang and back to reality.  Obama has, after much cajolery, decided to attack the Taliban again, but only in places deemed absolutely necessary, i.e, when their positioning is dangerous to US personnel and interests.

But what do you do, Mr. President, about the "tide of war is declining" statements you have frequently made?  I shouldn't be so critical, perhaps. A naive babe last to learn to crawl before he learns how to walk.

Headline Chasing: Logan International Airport, Boston

Today, we turn our attention to the really important news of the day.  As a public service to those who may have to change planes at Logan International Airport, I report the following;

A couple of days ago, a 26 year old man went into the women's bathroom, stripped naked, and climbed up into the dropped ceiling just before a female patron decided she had to go potty. As one misstep often leads to another, however, the man put his weight on the wrong ceiling tile and fell through, disturbing nature's business issuing from the body of the poor, horrified female patron.  I would hope there is a lawsuit stemming from this incident.  Airports have the responsibility of keeping their customers safe from such horrors.

Not only did the whackjob parachute from the ceiling onto the unsuspecting woman, he then proceeded to run out of the bathroom and attack and 80 plus year old man walking with the help of canes.  The offender tried to kill the octogenarian by pressing the cane against the old man's neck, but was thwarted by security which arrived upon being alerted by shocked Logan Airport travelers.

I know there are skeptics among you, so I am linking this story from the Daily Mail.  So you see -- Logan International continues to grab headlines, even in British newspapers.

Democrats Kill XL Pipeline in Senate Vote

In spite of Sen. Mary Landrieu's last minute hustle to find centrist Democratic senators, a bi-partisan bill to green light the Keystone XL Pipeline failed just an hour ago in the Senate.  All 45 Republican senators voted with Democrat Landrieu but she couldn't convince the plethora of anal-retentive left-wing Democrats that the pipeline would created jobs and boost the nation's economy.

What this means, of course, is that well-heeled limousine elitists will continue to kill jobs for blue-collar and oil products factory workers who would benefit from the building of the pipeline.  Meanwhile,the anti-oil industry limousine liberal elites continue to gulp down huge quantities of oil and its by-products in their huge homes and private jets.  They, too, have their Jonathan Grubers who use deception to convince the victims of failed economic policies that it is better to fill billionaire Warren Buffett's oil trains than to safely move oil down through a pipeline to the people of Louisiana, Mary Landrieu's home state.

To the issue of human safety and environmental safety, I have a two- word response:  Lac Megantic.  Be sure to watch the video of the little Canadian town that was virtually annihilated by an oil train explosion.  Aside from destroying a good part of the town, and killing forty-seven people and injuring many more, the oil train disaster has required great new expenditures on HazMat teams and long term cleanup operations. If you're thinking that what happens in Canada doesn't concern Americans, then keep in mind that these very same trains pass through Maine and other states.

Moreover, what's wrong with helping the Canadian economy by passing the XL Pipeline?  Has the White House declared war on Canada?  That will be next, I suppose.  For why does Obama balk at establishing an economy of mutual benefit to both Canada and the U.S.?  After all, the Obama White House hasn't hesitated to provide foreign aid to people who want to kill us.  Well, perhaps, that's the whole thing in a nutshell.

From Warren Buffet's Mouth to Obama'sEars: XL Pipeline Veto Train Wreck

Here's a riddle for you.  What has been approved through four EPA reviews and carries the imprimatur of Secretary's of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry?  You guessed it. THE XL PIPELINE!  Now you get the hat and a free copy of White House Stink as President Obama tells the world he's smarter than everyone else and will veto any bill Congress puts on his desk approving the pipeline much sought by Obama's CANADIAN ENEMIES and by dozens of Democrat congress members like Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. 

That's what happens when Billionaire Obama supporters like Warren Buffett buys up railroads and puts billions into transporting oil by rail all over both countries.  Obama can't get off the man's errr... you know what...  because with Buffet's continued support it's a bit like Obama hitting the powerball lottery.

The question is how long can the mandarin in the White House keep on deceiving American workers and depriving them of much needed jobs?  Where are the so-called Demcrat "populists" like left wing neo Marxist Elizabeth Warren on this?  I guess her "populism" extends only to the academic limouse elite liberals who put millions into their campaign funds. 

It's a known fact, too, that the pipeline is far safer environmentally than trains.  And they've killed less people, too, unless you want to conveniently forget about the those Canadians who were killed in an oil train crash in Lac Megantic.  I guess it's small potatoes with the environment left when an oil train crash only kills FORTY-SEVEN people.

How Ridiculous is CBS TV's "Madame Secretary?"

I liked the concept when first I heard CBS was doing a political show.  My enthusiasm waned when I realized the writers hadn't done their homework, had no clue about foreign policy, were   espousing left-leaning social policy and getting their talking points from the DNC.

The photo above is a bit deceptive, including former Clinton Sec. State Madeline Albright in the front row. This is really Hillary Indirect.  On the bright side, Tea Leoni has the right masculine/feminine je ne sais quois while Carradine has his hard-assed presidential role in equal intensity.  Minor characters are interesting and fun enough.  It just sucks that good actors have to front for ignorant uninformed scripts.  Don't those writers read real newspapers?

The big question about the new CBS show “Madame Secretary” is whether it’s the publicity arm of the Hillary Clinton 2016 Campaign. I kind of doubt it’s exactly that, but I wish it were, because it’s ridiculous, just as Clinton’s most outstanding and outrageous failure Foggy Bottom was well… Benghazi, the death of our ambassador to Libya, and three other brave souls. I’ve watched the CBS show one or two times now (I’ve lost count) and I’ve decided two things: 

 1)  It’s a comedy and 2)  I should get a sense of humor.

This TV show is made to laugh at. Madame Secretary is a quasi-Marxist-pro-Iran-anti-Israel Superwoman—a type always in demand on MSM network TV in the year before a national election.

Tea Leoni plays Madame Secretary in the quiet breathy husky voice style of a retired veteran CIA analyst now living on a horse farm.  Suddenly, there appears on the clichéd and dusty road leading to the ranch a parade of SUV’s.  Stepping out of the one in the middle is the POTUS himself. POTUS immediately taps Elizabeth for Secretary of State and, of course, she will step up to save the country from the dark forces of conservatism. Yep, that’s how it’s done folks. That and stuff like the Sec State’s handsome husband explaining philosophical gibberish to his admiring and spellbound students—which is always how it happens in real life, right?

But you can’t have a TV show about Super-Secretary of State without taking on the contemporary political baggage, can you? My favorite and most revealing episode of the heavily left-leaning bent of the show’s writers has two contemporary political issues at its heart:

1     * The XL Pipeline (renamed something else)

        * The Iranian v. U.S. nuclear negotiations in Vienna.

Now the trick is to defend Obama’s failures in each of these areas while playing to the least common denominator of stupidity in the American public. As we know, Obama has stopped the XL Pipeline these past six years to appease his pseudo-environmentalist left-wing supporters, Canada wants the pipeline, preferring to ship oil to its good buddy the U.S. rather than send it west and then offshore to some foreign destination. Even the unions want the pipeline, knowing it could create an estimated 30,000 jobs for people in manufacturing, constructions, and the building trades. 

Yet, the cynical left-wing writers of this dreck and drivel political soap opera provide a scene in which it is revealed that the Pipeline Proposal was entirely the work of “Big Oil” lobbyists and is full of error, outdated information, and outright lies. In the real world, of course, the XL report was written by the EPA and sub-EPAs of the states XL would pass through.  All of them cleared the pipeline, saying it was cleaner, safer, and better for the environment than the oil trains, especially the one that crashed and burned and killed so many people in Canada. 

Apparently the “Madame Secretary” writers do not know any of this.  Big Momma the Sec. State lectures everyone around her on the evils of oil. 

More on the Iranian sub-plot next post –every bit as comic as the bit about the pipeline.  It’s too much celebrity socialism to ingest all at one time.  “Madame Secretary” apostrophe “s” family is whacked, too, cardboard stick figures, very much different than the realistic characterizations of celebrity political/legal offspring in shows like “The Good Wife.”