As Joel L. posted earlier, the Ole Miss student body voted on the contentious mascot issue today.
I, along with some 75% of those who voted, chose “YES” for student involvement in a new mascot selection process.

The mass confusion surrounding this vote stems from the way the vote was posed. The vote was not about whether to replace Colonel Reb, but whether the students or administration would lead an inevitable effort. The vote was a false dilemma as there was not a “do nothing” option.

The problem then was that deciding whether to vote “YES” or “NO” reuqired parsing the two options.Initially, it seems that voting “NO” would be a vote for Colonel Reb. However, voting “NO” merely supported deferral of the matter to the administration.

Because of this confusion, there was a huge effort to point out this “trap” to students, aided by none other than Admiral Ackbar.

Essentially, a new mascot effort is a foregone conclusion. The choice facing the students was whether the initiative would be led by students or an unfettered administration. Thus, the student body voted overwhelmingly to take the lead rather than leave it to the administration.

Contrary to the assertions of Joel L. and his friends in the news media, this fight is far from over. Students who want to reinstate Colonel Reb and students who want a new mascot were strange bedfellows today, voting “YES” together. Although the ultimate outcome is uncertain, the decision today ensured that the student body would retain the ability to fight when the day comes.

I am watching the post-game report on ESPN. And I just heard Stuart Scott claim that the “44th president” correctly predicted the winner of the 44th Super Bowl. Sorry Stuart, you’re wrong. Here’s the New York Times article documenting the president’s pick, the Colts.

(Update: Joe in the combox points out that over a week earlier the President had apparently picked the Saints to win as well. So, ESPN is both wrong and right, and the President predicted both correctly and incorrectly. Just like in Neoplatonism, all apparent contradictions dissipate in the being of the One)

The Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins destroys the National Organization of Women for their opposition to Tim Tebow’s ad. For those who don’t follow Jenkins, she is both a staunch feminist and pro-choice. The whole column is a must-read. Here is the red-meat section:

I’m pro-choice, and Tebow clearly is not. But based on what I’ve heard in the past week, I’ll take his side against the group-think, elitism and condescension of the “National Organization of Fewer and Fewer Women All The Time.” For one thing, Tebow seems smarter than they do.

Tebow’s 30-second ad hasn’t even run yet, but it already has provoked “The National Organization for Women Who Only Think Like Us” to reveal something important about themselves: They aren’t actually “pro-choice” so much as they are pro-abortion. Pam Tebow has a genuine pro-choice story to tell. She got pregnant in 1987, post-Roe v. Wade, and while on a Christian mission in the Philippines, she contracted a tropical ailment. Doctors advised her the pregnancy could be dangerous, but she exercised her freedom of choice and now, 20-some years later, the outcome of that choice is her beauteous Heisman Trophy winner son, a chaste, proselytizing evangelical.

Pam Tebow and her son feel good enough about that choice to want to tell people about it. Only, NOW says they shouldn’t be allowed to. Apparently NOW feels this commercial is an inappropriate message for America to see for 30 seconds, but women in bikini selling beer is the right one. I would like to meet the genius at NOW who made that decision. On second thought, no, I wouldn’t.

Apparently, the gates of hell have prevailed against it. Read about it here.

No need to rehearse the Tiger Woods saga that is unfolding. But I, for the life of me, cannot believe that his PR “geniuses” released something this slipshod:

As you all know, I had a single-car accident earlier this week, and sustained some injuries. I have some cuts, bruising and right now I’m pretty sore.
This situation is my fault, and it’s obviously embarrassing to my family and me. I’m human and I’m not perfect. I will certainly make sure this doesn’t happen again.

He is “human” while apparently possessing the power to ensure that he will not participate in future car accidents. It’s unfortunate that Princess Diana, Princess Grace, and President John F. Kennedy could not have made similar promises prior to their demises in an automobile. It seems that they were not as “human” as Tiger Woods.

From Kenyon Martin’s back, courtesy of ESPN:

It says, “Fear no man but God.” Does he mean to say that God is a man?

Tattoos are a bad idea. Here’s my theory for why they are in cultural ascendancy: their popularity skips every two generations. Because I was born in 1960, I had the opportunity to view the tattoos of male relatives who acquired these flesh ornaments while in World War II or the Korean War. But by that time, these men had aged, with gravity and diminished elasticity having had decades to work their dermatological mischief. So, the big patriotic American Bald Eagle embossed across my grandfather’s chest now sported wings that drooped as a consequence of his developing and wrinkling man-boobs. This immunized me from ever considering a tattoo. This present generation, however, has not had the benefit of having witnessed such aesthetic atrocities. But their children and grandchildren will get a glimpse of it soon enough. And then tattooing will lose its popularity, only to return again in the middle of the 21st century.

Every two years, the unwashed LSU faithful crawl out of their brackish swamp and travel to Oxford, MS, bent on defiling our cosmopolitan soil like so many socially-perverse locusts. But we welcome you, that even one of your young might leave with the indelible mark of civility.

As to the game: beware of the man who has singlehandedly redeemed the name “Dexter.” Be sure and wave as he runs past you, because it’s all you can do.

Update: Dexter McCluster also passes.

“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia…You have limited strength” (Rev. 4:4.6)

Greg Hardy is.

Good for Cal Ripken, Jr. (my baseball hero growing up an O’s fan) for finally speaking up more about steroids. Cal and A-Rod have enjoyed a professional relationship over the last 16 years and Cal wants to know exactly why A-Rod took steroids and why he felt the need to cheat. I’ve always thought that the only two players from the steroid era—Ripken and Tony Gwynn—really have the moral clout and leverage to publicly take their fellow players to task. For sure there are more retired players who could speak out, but these two should really lead the charge. Nice to see Cal stepping up to the plate.

…oh no no no no Manny!!!! You juiced!!!! Is this the end-of-your hall of fame bid?

If you haven’t heard the story of Michael Oher (recently graduated LT for Ole Miss) ESPN has a video about him.

He is expected to be picked in the first round of the NFL Draft today.

Hotty Toddy!

(Consider this post an open thread for commenting on the game)

Alabama goes 11-0 with their 32-7 victory over Miss State. Sorry Dad

This is not the type of basketball player most Americans want their kids looking up to:

Josh Howard’s decision-making has again come into question after he was filmed disrespecting the national anthem.

And the Mavericks are taking steps to help Howard and their other players avoid controversy in the future.

In a video posted on YouTube, the swingman is shown at Allen Iverson’s charity flag football game in July. When the national anthem is being sung, various participants are shown mugging for the camera. When the camera gets to Howard, he says: ” ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ is going on. I don’t celebrate this [expletive]. I’m black.”

Howard goes on to make a difficult-to-discern comment that includes a reference to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Call me old-fashioned, but I’m still one of those who sees a patriotic gloss on American sports.  When a player insults our country this way, it degrades the sport and defies the expectations of the fans.

However, some people responding to the article felt differently, as in this comment:

Who cares? This is a free country; we have a first amendment right to free speech, which includes dissent. You may not agree with it but it’s hardly news-worthy. What is truly un-American is demonizing those who exercise our most cherished rights to protest, dissent, and speak freely.

I can’t abide this kind of obtuse rhetoric.  Everyone who spouts this drivel should have to write the following on a blackboard one-hundred times: “The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, not freedom from criticism. It protects the dissenter the same way it protects that dissenter’s critics.”

It took place on 6-17, the numbers of Russell and Havlicek. The basketball universe is now aligned properly.

Florida pulled out a thriiler Saturday against the Old Ball Coach and the USC Gamecocks.

The game probably cost Florida a lot of credibility in the BCS picture thanks to voters who don’t appreciate the coaching clinic Spurrier put on in the Swamp, but the game was a great chess match. Bottom line is no one else needs to know how huge this win is… Florida fans know, and we can deal with other folks’ right to be wrong.

Such is SEC football, where every game is a war and every win is worth celebrating.

Check this YouTube vid to share in the experience of The Block.

Details here. 

isn’t it rather uncomfortable playing baseball while wearing a belt?

I often like the commentaries of Sports Illustrated’s Frank Deford.  But he’s got this odd tic that just drives me up the wall.  Take his latest column, prompted, I’m guessing, by the complaint that Tiger Woods was being unpatriotic for rooting against American Andy Roddick and for the Swiss Roger Federer in the U.S. Open final.  There – as he has done several times – Deford lambastes Americans for being a “a narrow, jingoistic sports country.”  You see, he’s upset that we don’t appreciate “‘furriners” and pay attention only to sports where Americans are dominant.

Gosh, that’s shocking.  Do you mean that people prefer their own, in general?  That people pay more attention to the goings-on of their own countrymen (and women) than others’?  I’d bet that if we got Mr. Deford in a room and had a bit of time to, er, “interrogate” him (Sen. McCain notwithstanding) we’d figure out pretty quickly that his distaste for the preferences of the people that allow him to pursue a pretty nice life as a sportswriter and commentator runs right along with distaste for what he sees as our “current American tendency toward arrogance and imperiousness” in the world at large.  In other words, those know-nothing red-staters are boobs in sport and politics, don’t ya’ know?

Perhaps more to the point, maybe the explanation for his phenomenon is a bit simpler – maybe the sorts of sports he would like us to take an interest in just aren’t all that interesting to Americans.  Deford made this sort of complaint previously when Americans, in his view, were only paying attention to the Tour de France because an American, Lance Armstrong, was winning.  Well, why else would anyone watch hours upon hours of a cycling race?  “Well, Jacque, the strange beast known as the peloton has continued to move along all together now for five straight days – but, my, isn’t that a lovely thatched roof on that shed and, look, some excitement now, the French along the roads look like they’re trying to surrender to the German cyclist!”  (Sorry, lost control a bit there…)  Ditto goes for soccer – er, excuse me, “football” – European basketball and don’t forget 24-hour Le Mans racing!  You’ll be at the edge of your seats for that one!

Finally, who says we don’t root for foreigners or take interest in them?  Sergio Garcia is one of the most popular players on tour; people love Ernie Els.  If Vijay Singh weren’t such a prickly fellow, he’d be a bigger hit than he is.  I’ve even heard tell that there a few – just a few – players born outside of the US that are pretty popular among American baseball fans.  I mean, c’mon, didn’t we root for the Red Sox in the World Series a few years go – what’s more foreign than Boston?
(Oh, and as an aside, the only thing more silly than complaining that Tiger Woods was rooting for Federer is believing that it actually had anything to do with their “friendship.”  Yep, all those pictures inside the locker room didn’t have anything to do with the fact that their both Nike guys or that they have the same agent.  Nope – theirs is just a mutual admiration society, that’s it…)

I knew yesterday morning that the fuss over ABC’s 9-11 film was going to end up being overblown.  As I checked out with emergency baby supplies at Target, the elderly female cashier smiled and asked me if I’d be “watching the Mannings tonight?”

Based on the ratings, it looks like the Mannings were the overwhelming choice of viewers.  I was one of them.  For what it’s worth, Peyton is substantially better than little brother Eli at this point, but the Giants have a heckuva running game.  It’s hard to believe they lost given the way they were imposing their will on the ground.

Congratulations to the Columbus, Georgia, team on becoming the Little League U.S. Champions today.  The team plays Japan for the world championship tomorrow at 3:30.

Looks like the College World Series is just another installment of the ACC Tournament.  Go Tigers!

For beating South Carolina and making it to the College World Series.

The President of the University of North Dakota takes the NCAA to the proverbial woodshed because the NCAA decided in its infinite wisdom that having the “Fighting Sioux” as a nickname was so awful that UND would have to change it or not be able to participate in NCAA events.  I’m guessing that if UND had won, say, a few more big money games like some other schools, they wouldn’t be in so much trouble.  I don’t have a clue as to what sort of legal remedies might be available, but here’s hopin’ the NCAA loses…

I always wondered how soccer hooligans spent their government checks. 

A big Hotty Toddy to the Rebs for laying the smack down on Vanderbilt to win the SEC baseball championship.  If only our football team could do so well…

Yeah, I know.  In the South football is king.   But for me, baseball is still the sport.  I’m a huge college baseball fan and a season ticket holder for my alma mater.  Even though I could do without the DH and the ping of aluminum bats, there is still something pure about college baseball.  Very few kids even have full scholarships–they are playing because they love the game.  And what a game it is. 

This weekend Clemson won the ACC Baseball Tournament.  Now it is time for the NCAA Regional and then Super-Regionals.  Then off to Omaha.  The tournament and Omaha make college baseball.  It’s a lesson college football should learn by scrapping the BCS.