This is where I believe the NCAA goes wrong. Payments from boosters...sure. Agents lingering and influencing before legal...all right. Money from the institution to try to sway a recruit to attend their school...I can handle that. But here I believe we have gone too far.

I've never been a big Lebro fan (though I respect the MAN greatly) not a believer in the idea that one sports figure can save a city. Then I saw Bron's "Witness" commercial last night and had a change of perspective. Maybe one man can make a difference, especially in a city like Cleveland.

I've written before that I don't like to see oil companies posting record profits with gas prices as they are, but this sure isn't the answer:

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois echoed those calls on “Meet the Press,” warning that “if you do not tax these corporations ... they will continue to run up the profits to high heavens.”

I'm a believer that businesses don't pay taxes, they pass it on to the consumer. So taxing the oil companies will then lead to higher prices as the pump. Makes sense to me.

Interestingly, twice this week I heard on the radio talk-show circuit that maybe the government should hold back a little on the amount of $ per gallon of gas they take, up to a third of the price in some areas. But you'll never see that happen!

Congrats Mr. Leinart,

I hope you enjoyed the last 365 days of your life. Last year you would have been the #1 pick of the NFL draft, signed a contract for around $55 million, almost $30 million of that would have been guaranteed. Today you slipped to the #10 pick, the Cardinals, where you may receive a contract somewhat above the 5 year - $13.5 million dollar range that last year's #10 pick Mike Williams signed for, again, half of which is probably guaranteed. So, you could look on the bright side and be thankful for what you have, or the downside and the $20 million you lost by staying in school. I know what I'd be thinking. You idiot!

Two things stick out to me in the article below. First, there are two major fallacies here, first an appeal to pity on the part of the young lady (which I share, but it gets us off of the topic) and an ad hominem attack against Congress (which again may be right but it gets us off of the topic, people who are in our country illegally)
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Second, I don't ever see the US deporting people who, though they came here illegally, have lived an upright life. All I want (and I'm sure many others) are those who use the system and commit the crimes (whether that be 1 or 10 million) be punished and returned.

Diana Villanueva-Hoeckley did not take the typical path to Westmont College, a Christian liberal arts college in Montecito, California. The 19-year-old sophomore was born in Guatemala, and then smuggled into the United States at the age of 7. Her story makes you want to cry. What the U.S. Congress may do to her makes you want to scream.

Diana's mother came to the United States legally in the mid-1990s. Once she had established some semblance of a life for herself in the Los Angeles area, she tried to obtain a visa for her daughter to come and live with her. The U.S. Embassy turned down her application. Desperate to have her daughter by her side, she paid a "coyote," or migrant smuggler, to deliver Diana to California.

Imagine the fright of being told at age 7 that you must take a long, covert journey with a stranger, all alone. Diana today can only recall snippets: a bus journey, a short plane ride, hanging out at borders waiting for the right moment to cross. "I just kept focused on how great it would be together with my mother again," says Diana.

Not long after her arrival into the U.S., Diana and her now-pregnant mother moved to Santa Barbara. Diana's sister, Estrellita, was born. Earning a meager income from a string of housecleaning jobs, her mother moved the family into a small trailer. Diana attended public schools in the Santa Barbara area starting in the third grade.

During her freshman year in high school, Diana took note that her mother was not looking well. Lacking health insurance, her mother visited a health clinic serving a low-income population. At first she was diagnosed with pneumonia, but slowly it became apparent that something much more serious was going on. She had lung cancer, and died within two years.
Chris Hoeckley and Cheri Larsen Hoeckley are both professors at Westmont College. Their daughter, Mackenzie, was Estrellita's classmate at the local public school. Many there were heartbroken by Diana and Estrellita's loss. The Hoeckleys reached out and embraced the girls into their family.

The Hoeckleys had for some time looked to adoption as an avenue for growing their family. Their desire to parent matched their religious conviction that God calls us to care for the orphans in need. They went through the county process to legally adopt the Villanueva children. In the midst of much tragedy, the Hoeckleys, now 5 in number, patched together a loving connection.

If only the story could move on from there to focus on the life experiences that all families look to create. But most families do not face criminal prosecution. Yet, Diana may one day soon be charged as a felon for illegally immigrating to this country 13 years ago. And her adoptive parents also could be criminally charged for aiding and abetting an illegal immigrant.

I like how our "basic human rights continue to evolve. It's gone from life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness to a living wage and health care. Socialism, here we come...

Cover the uninsured
A group of diverse religious leaders are coming together because they believe health care is a basic human right and they are frustrated that addressing the issue of expanding health care coverage is not a national priority. While Cover The Uninsured Week does not endorse any specific legislative or policy solution to the problem of the uninsured, it will continue to shine a spotlight on this important issue until our leaders discuss potential solutions and take action.

Now this would be quite a conference!

Pentecost 2006:Building a Covenant for a New America

Sen. Barack Obama* and Rev. Jim Wallis have places at the table - will you join them? Register now!Hosted by Sojourners and Call to Renewal June 26-28, 2006 - Washington, D.C.
Join Rev. Jim Wallis and hundreds of grassroots and faith-based anti-poverty leaders for three days of putting faith into action through workshops, Hill visits, inspiring speeches, and music, with the goal of building the political will to overcome poverty! Invited speakers at Pentecost 2006 include Sen. Barack Obama and Marian Wright Edelman, and confirmed speakers include Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rev. Sharon Watkins.

You can't put a price tag on this:

Portland Trail Blazers forward Darius MilesMiles, in an interview with Jason Quick of the Portland Oregonian:

"Yeah,you probably smelled liquor on me before. But it's not like I'm at practice drunk. I'm totally focused. I don't care if you come to practice and take a shower, once you go to practice and start sweating, it's going to come out. That doesn't mean you aren't focused or ready to practice.

Like you might go out, you might get drunk, and come to the gym higherthan a mother, and you sweating, you smell like liquor, and you interviewing everybody. What does that mean? You still 100 percent focused. That's just ridiculous. Ask any other team, little petty stufflike that, if you ask any other coach in the NBA if they smell liquor on aplayer, any coach would say, 'Every year."'

In the same interview, Miles, who wants out of Portland, detailed some ofhis concerns with Trail Blazers management. "It's like you are telling me I'm this franchise player, but hey ... once I noticed it, and I was like dang, 'I don't have no bobble head?' They tried to get me one at the last minute, and I was like, 'No, I'm fine.' "But I don't want to sound like I'm whining. But this is what you all are telling me. You mean to tell me, if they have a Steve Nash, a Raja Bell,Amare Stoudemire, and a Boris Diaw bobblehead, they wouldn't have a ShawnMarion? But I don't want this whole interview to sound like I'm whining." Too late.

Since you guys and gals all gave such great godly wisdom last time I asked, I'm going to run another situation off of you:

As you may have gleaned from previous posts, the Lord really seems to be opening up doors for both of the organizations I serve on a part-time basis, the Players Chapel Program and Tumaini International Ministries. From Kenya to Guatemala in the past to Toronto (AIDS 2006 International Conference) this summer to possibly more opportunities in such countries as the Ivory Cost and Paraguay in the near future along with follow-up in Kenya and Guatemala (where the government wants us to join them on a five-year plan to reach the entire country with our curriculum and eventually the Gospel. This has nothing to do with our skills, I see the hand of God working here, and that is what intrigues me greatly and brings me to this.

Of course, all of this travel and work brings with it a steep cost (yet one after much thought and prayer I have deemed worthwhile). While the Players Chapel had done what it can to raise the funds for the travel, the board of Tumaini has decided we will not take any percent of the child donations to underwrite our operational costs. Therefore, an idea of mine was that I would continue to work at the high school but also raise funds for the work that I do on the side. This would include the foreign travel to train others in the material we offer, attend and present at mission conferences, domestic travel for meetings, etc. Is this right? How would potential donors respond to this? What would be the proper angle to take? I really only have one shot at this, and I am beginning to feel more and more that this is the time. Any insights?

The Sports Guy was in rare form again today, two quotes stuck out from his article, one from him and a side bar from Kevin Jackson:

First the SG:

(By the way, out of any Pearl Jam song, this is the one that gives me oneof those party flashbacks -- you know, when you hear a moment in a songand it makes you remember standing in somebody's kitchen at 4:45 a.m.,bombed to smithereens, holding a cigarette in one hand and a beer in theother, waiting for the guitar transition near the end to wrap up soeveryone still awake could scream, "She loved him!" at the same time ...and you can't even remember where you were or who else was in the kitchen.Have to love the party flashbacks. They're almost like acid flashbacks.)

I've got four such songs, three of which fit perfectly with his description of the moment:
1) "American Pie" - all night party with the Mert Man, must have played this song from 1am to 8am when I tried to go roller blading and couldn't get out of the door. "Play it again..."
2) "Closing Time" - called in the national John Garabedian "Open House Party" and requested this one Saturday afternoon after we had six too many, still think of that every time I hear the song.
3) "Freshman" by the Verve Pipe - we were at a party at the house of a guy named "Blah" and this song was on repeat for the longest time, we were 21 but most were not and it got busted shortly after.
4) "Black" by Pearl Jam - on our way to the biggest FB game of the year, we were told once we hit the tracks going into Hilbert we were to focus solely on the game. At that exact moment this song came on and brought us into town, but we lost 7-3.

Now from Kevin Jackson:

For me, it's impossible to separate the Sonics and Pearl Jam in mymemories. I still vividly recall the night it became cool to be a Sonicsfan again -- when GP led them out of the tunnel wearing short black socksand all-black shoes before Game 1 of a first-round playoff game at GoldenState in 1992. (The seventh-seeded Supes went on to upset the No. 2Warriors in four games, punctuated by a Kemp dunk-for-the-ages over AltonLister in Game 3.)

Two things stick out to me here:

1) Alton Lister was still in the NBA in 1992? I didn't think he made it out of the 80's. WOW!
2) The Warriors were the #2 seed in the Playoffs at one time. Double WOW!