It's been brought to my attention that if you tried to click on the links at the bottom right, they did not take you to the intended place. My apologies, the problem is now fixed, check out some of the cool sites and blogs.

I'll admit I was wrong about the oil prices, I never thought they would get this low again. But it seems this is about the furthest we will go. An OPEC rep today said that prices had leveled to a rate acceptable to consumers and producers. I read through the lines to say that this means the drop is over, get ready to pay this rate for fuel, give or take a dime or so. I guess I can live with it, but I sure miss the rate of just under $2 from last year.

Back to the BCS, another thought. Even a playoff system would not be perfect, as no matter how many teams you take, there will still be some who are arguing they should be in. If you take four, the fifth will be mad, if you take eight, number nine will complain, and so on. My number is eight, cut out some of the patsies, reduce the conference schedule by a game, every team plays 11 games, keep the bowl system, but the top eight teams enter a playoff. My reason is that it gives teams one slip, maybe two in some circumstances. I don't buy the argument that ESPN keeps giving me that the entire season is a playoff, lose and you are disqualified. My problem with that is a situation such as Georgia's today, they played without their QB and one of the best if not simply most valuable players in the country, and narrowly lost to a very good FL team. This should not disqualify them, but it will. The same with Miami, they lost an ugly game early to FSU, now they are out, even if they beat VT next week. Give every team one slip up, we'll know the top eight at the end of the year, and let them play it out. No classes would need to be missed as they could play the week after Christmas, the week of the New Year, and then a final playoff the first weekend of NFL playoffs, maybe that Friday night or something. Couldn't this be worked out? Imagine the ratings and payout for this, and the two teams remaining still play only 14 games. Most teams now play 13 anyway, what is one more game?

Interesting piece from Vox:

College is worthless

From The Wall Street Journal:
William Strauss and Neil Howe have recently argued in the Chronicle of Higher Education that with tuition and the resulting debt reaching surreal levels, and colleges and universities failing to reverse the post-1960s collapse of academic standards, parents and students are increasingly skeptical about the value of a college education.Parents born after 1961, Messrs. Strauss and Howe have found, experienced that collapse of standards in their own college educations and are determined not to tolerate another overpriced and underperforming disappointment for their own children. This is the generation that "propelled school choice, vouchers, charter schools, home-schooling and the standards-and-accountability movement."

These parents will be more likely to treat higher education as a market, in which smart buyers exercise discretion.If you're going to blow $100k, you'd do better to buy your 18 year-old a Ferrari and let him drive that to his next job interview. Chances are, he'll get a better job armed with an automotive marker of success than with a degree.

What the upset little college kiddies, whose angry missives show up here from time to time, don't understand is that their vaunted educations don't mean a damn thing anymore. So, you've got a 3.8 General Prize for Attendance, so what? I have spoken with individuals holding economics majors from major universities who have never heard of John Maynard Keynes, I have spoken with political science majors who have never read Plato's Republic or Marx's Communist Manifesto, much less Cato, Aristotle or the Federalist Papers. English majors who can neither read nor write effectively are as ubiquitous as Philosophy majors incapable of rational thought and foreign language majors who can't actually speak the language they have supposedly mastered.

An art director at a major game studio once complimented the art in our game and asked me how such a small development house had managed to acquire such a strong art team. Our answer was pretty simple. We gave the prospective artist a piece of paper, a pencil and told him to draw something. If he could do it well, we hired him. Most of the time, they couldn't and we didn't. I seldom bothered to look at resumes, much less diplomas or transcripts.

Colleges these days produce pieces of paper, not educated individuals. Unless you wish to work for a government or in a government-regulated profession - medicine, the law, hair-dressing - there is no longer any point to wasting four to seven years in a university system, and going into debt to do so.

Learning and education are tremendously important, but they have increasingly little to do with paying money to an "academic institution" for a piece of paper falsely claiming you know something that you demonstrably do not.

Staying with the BCS scam from earlier in the week, why do we always demand on saying one team is number one "because they won it last year and they'll stay number one until someone beats them." In our current system, that is simply ludicrous. With the stakes as high as they are, if a voter thinks one team (Texas or VT) is better than USC, they better vote that way, or the strand of integrity left in the system is gone. The best team is the best team, one is not better than the other due to last year's team. And let it be known that I do think USC would whip VT or Texas, as much as it hurts me to say that. But if you don't think they are the best team, you'd better not vote them there.

We started watching "The Terminal" tonight, very, very, very slow starting movie. At least we got a reprieve when Lisa had to go upstairs to feed Kendyl. It better start picking up soon! In the meantime, "The Truman Show" is one, good movie.

I just heard a great quote from Michael Reagan. It turns out that since passing the smoking ban in DC was so easy, a city councilwoman is going to propose that they ban drinking as well. He responded by saying that if we are going to expect people to pay for our health care, they are going to tell us how to live as well. Everyone thinks this is such a good idea, national health care, but it's going to set things off when it happens. Couldn't be a worse idea.

I hate the White Sox, but my hats off to Chicago for what is an inevitable World Series crown. I do happen to be an Ozzie Guillen fan and El Duque is simply amazing. Good work guys!

I'm taking the under on their number of wins next year, I'll say they'd be lucky to play .500 ball.

The schedule disparity in the NFL is simply absurd. Take a look at the following comparison:

Eagles - Record: 4-2
Opp. Record: 19-20 (record not that astounding, but take a look at the opponent, Atl,
SF, Oak, KC, Dallas, and SD, adn all teams gunning for them as
defending NFC champs along with TO saga - SF hurt them,
Oakland is an underrated 2-4, no gimme at all)
Chargers - Record:3-4
Opp. Record: 26-18 (only Oakland with a losing record, see above)

On the other hand:

Colts - Record: 7-0
Opp. Record: 14-30 (only J-ville has winning record)
Bengals - Record: 5-2
Opp. Record: 17-25 (only played Pitt with a winning record and lost)

The numbers don't lie, and yes, I am rooting for the evil Patriots next week Monday!

The last few nights as I've been flipping through the channels I've caught a few older Jennifer Lopez movies, "Enough," "Money Train," "Anaconda." It's kind of funny watching her pre-JLo and seeing that back then, she was really just "Jenny from the block," a far cry from what she has turned herself into now.

This from my professof, I kind of liked it:

Party Time

When we reduce God to a system of thought or, worse, to an honorable and serious version of ourselves, we violate Him.


The rationalism of our day - and the centuries preceding us - has turned the wildly free, flamboyant, and ebulient Creator into a sombre, intelligent, and generally manageable shotgun rider.

In our sedate theology, He fights off the bandits when our stagecoach comes under attack, but generally sits quietly, hands off the reins. We invite Him on board for the ride, precisely because we can trust Him to sit fairly still and cover our tail in case of trouble. He's good to have riding beside us, eyes peeled for the Bad Guy.

The thought that our heavenly Father might be an outrageous reveller or a wild artist who thrills to splash color across the universe like a painter with an endless canvas, is unsettling to say the least. Yes, He may call for the fattened calf to be killed for a celebration, but He is far too dignified to dance heartily. He would surely prefer to sit regally on a throne than make mud-pies and laugh with children.

As we create Him in our image, we restrain Him in the same ways that we ourselves feel restrained, and in so doing we lose wonder and freedom.
Catherine of Siena, a 14th century Italian mystic, sounds almost blasphemous to suggest that God is "pazzo d'amore, ebro d'amore " - crazed with love, drunk with love. God, crazy? God, giddy? Is not self-control and seriousness the ultimate goal of life? Isn't unbridled exuberance a sign of youthful immaturity? Can we really apply these terms to God and remain respectful?

The cosmic cop barely breaks a smile in our theology. Could He possibly enjoy football (or better, cricket)? He never relaxes. He is ever alert - and therefore, ever tense. His watchfulness denies his playfulness.

And so, our theology takes on moribund tones. Our intimacy with Him becomes measured by intensity not levity, by seriousness not celebration. Could it be that the artists and mystics, the playful children and the poets, the laughing and the light-hearted have more to teach us about God than the weary rationalist, burdened by the seriousness and stress of the world?

Bring on the color, the laughter, the dancing, the music, and the extravagant celebrations. Perhaps as we see the Father in this light, we'll find permission to revel in life a little more ourselves.
In HOPE -

What a terrible day of football. There's not much I don't like in the NFL, I don't have allegiances to any team except the Cowboys, I tend to like players over teams, etc. However, I absolutely hate the Manning Trinity and Mike Holmgren, while I love the Cowboys and have an appreciation for the Broncos. That's why I was so upset to see both the Boys and Denver winning late as I left my in-laws, only to come home and see both teams had lost, allowing crazy comebacks. I'm saying it right now, if both Mannings are in the Super Bowl I am not watching, and the only way I will watch one is if I like the other team and will root vigorously for that team. Go Boys!

I opened my big fat mouth last night in my online discussion and, in response to my reading and various posts of others, wrote that while the writer of Hebrews does encourage/command us to continue meeting in Christian community, "I don't think Christ or any of the apostles would be happy with our form of living out this command today." Of course I was called to the carpet, asked what aspects of Church Jesus would be least excited about today. Here is my response:

Not that I'm innocent of any of these, but...

How similar we are to the Pharisees;
How we exclude those who Jesus ministered to;
The amount of money we spend on buildings while "not having enough money in the general fund to meet a physical need";
Our lack of discipleship, preferring to go through the motions rather than truly follow Christ;
Our dualistic worldview;
Expecing people to come in rather than going out to get them;
Our focus on the Great Commission to the detriment of the Great Commandment;
How we bend Scipture to fit our needs;
How we have gone to bed with political parties (on both sides of the spectrum);

Those are just a few. Of course I do believe some of these are just a part of human nature, but many of these could be fixed if we would take a deep look inward and worry more about expanding the Kingdom than growing our churches.

A few thoughts while perusing some magazines last night:

I find it very interesting, as Time reports, that young Germans are all of the sudden becoming less interesetd or involved in social issues and beginning to look inward at their own country. Basically they are saying screw our idealism, we need jobs and things are just too regulated and too highly taxed! They are becoming much more conservative, even as it pertains to marriage. It seems the social welfare state just isn't what it's cracked up to be.

These words, also reported by Time, should scare every Westerner: "Daddy, I want to be a martyr. Can you get me an explosive belt?" Those words from the mouth of a nine year old son of a man who trains suicide bombers.

I'm probably late in reporting this, but "ubersexual" has taken over "metrosexual" as the ideal man. This man seems to be able to balance both worlds, talking literature one minute and breaking down sports the next. Some examples given are Bill Clinton, George Clooney, and Bono. Rush Limbaugh was left off the list and is not happy about it.