Recently, the Kansas City Star did a report on how churches here in America are having trouble finding organists- and how this country's universities and colleges are experiencing difficulty in attracting students to pick up the King of Instruments. The article also talked about how the University of Kansas (boasting of a multimillion-dollar pipe organ) has one of the strongest organ programs in the United States today.
24 students strong.
Well, the Omaha World-Herald picked up this article and, after having staff writer Kevin Coffey do a local interview to add an Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue slant, put it on the front page of the paper's Living section on 2-23-2013. (One of the points the local edition made was that Nebraska's colleges and universities are bucking the trend the Kaycee original lamented.)
In both versions of the article (you can still catch it at www.omaha.com; type in "Pipes aren't calling many"), you'll find some quotes from University of Kansas organ professor James Higdon.
Higdon bemoaned the trend toward praise bands in many of America's churches, not only labeling the groups "pick-up garage bands" whose members know just six chords...but also saying that the praise bands aren't going to last.
You could see where the professor's coming from; after all, he teaches at a major university with one of the nation's best organ curricula. Higdon's got to look out for his back end and that of his school. (And why throw a few thousand years' worth of compositions out the window?)
I don't want to throw all those compositions out the window, either.
What's more, I'm in a praise band, too...and I love it.
The church I'm in launched its contemporary worship service in September of 2007, and it meets at the church's Fellowship Hall each Sunday at 9:35 AM. (For a while, the service was held at our church's sanctuary...but moved back downstairs in 2011.)
Long before that, I was a substitute organist at the very first United Methodist church I joined...when I was still living in Sioux City, IA. (This was from 1994 to 1997. At that time, that church's lead organist was the wife of the church's pastor. And unless I hear otherwise, they're still married!)
Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is this: Whether it's traditional worship music, contemporary praise music, or a mix of the two, it makes me no difference.
I'm more concerned about the message in each church service. That's what I'm trying to dig.
The basic message doesn't change whether you're using a six-manual pipe organ or a Fender Stratocaster. (At least, that's what I find.)
And as far as I'm concerned, the underlying message is: "God loves each and every one of us...and He wants the very best for us. (And if we could just work to get along with each other.)"
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Last-Second Heroics
The first game was decided by an overtime extra point.
The very last game came down to a touchdown pass with just two seconds left in regulation.
And, when taken as a group, the games in between weren't too bad, either.
All in all, the 2012 version of a shoulda/coulda/woulda NCAA Division 1-A football playoff was one of the best and most interesting playoff cycles to have ever come out of this computer.
Well, here's proof:
FIRST ROUND (seeding in parentheses): Wisconsin (24) 21, Georgia (9) 20; Texas A&M (17) 35, Utah State (16) 14; Louisiana State (13) 24, Nebraska (20) 21; South Carolina (12) 33, Tulsa (21) 32 (1 OT); San Jose State (14) 20, Louisville (19) 15; Oklahoma (11) 38, Oregon State (22) 35; Boise State (15) 34, Clemson (18) 3; Florida State (10) 28, Arkansas State (23) 21
SECOND ROUND: Notre Dame (1) 14, Wisconsin 13; Texas A&M 21, Kent State (8) 14; Louisiana State 14, Oregon (5) 13; Florida (4) 21, South Carolina 0; Kansas State (6) 28, San Jose State 21; Oklahoma 45, Northern Illinois (3) 28; Stanford (7) 21, Boise State 14; Florida State 24, Alabama (2) 7
QUARTERFINAL ROUND: Notre Dame 27, Texas A&M 7; Louisiana State 28, Florida 0; Kansas State 49, Oklahoma 28; Florida State 35, Stanford 7
SEMIFINAL ROUND: Kansas State 28, Florida State 27; Notre Dame 21, Louisiana State 2
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Notre Dame 17, Kansas State 14
And here's some more proof:
*The Golden Hurricane and the Gamecocks met in actually the first 2012 playoff test. Bill Blankenship's Conference USA champs led Steve Spurrier's club after one quarter, 12-7, and enjoyed a halftime lead of 18-15. But that halftime lead went away when the Gamecocks recovered a blocked punt in the end zone for a 19-18 third-period lead.
For a while, the contest was better known as The Trey Watts Show, because the Tulsa running back scored on two kickoff returns- a 96-yarder and the 102-yarder that, combined with his successful two-point conversion, sent the game into overtime. Then, in the extra stanza, Watts scored from a yard out...but the extra point was no good.
South Carolina QB Connor Shaw and WR Ace Sanders then hooked up on a five-yard scoring strike...and K Adam Yates' point after canceled the Watts show.
*The Beavers of Mike Riley- in their first playoffs in a dozen years- owned a 35-21 lead going into the fourth quarter, but Bob Stoops' Sooners rained down the game's final 17 points. The game-winning score came with 0:26 to play in regulation, when QB Landry Jones fired a one-yard TD pass to WR J. Brown. (It was Jones' third TD toss of the contest.)
*Bo Pelini's Cornhuskers were 1:18 away from notching their first 1-A playoff win since 2001 (a 49-0 second-round pasting of Washington)...but the Tigers' Zach Mettenberger flipped a two-yard air score to WR Spencer Ware.
*Mark Richt's Bulldogs were heading for the second round...but the Badgers (now back under Barry Alvarez, because Bret Bielema had just accepted a deal to become Arkansas' new head coach) pulled a shocker and a half. First, RB Montee Ball went in from one yard with 2:09 to go in the fourth; K Kyle French's PAT made it 20-14 in favor of Georgia.
Then Wisconsin recovered an onside kick...and all of that led to QB Joel Stave tossing an 11-yarder to WR Jordan Fredrick for the tying points with 13 ticks to go.
French's next extra point enabled the Badgers to become the first 24th seed to win a playoff game since Troy stunned USC, 16-0, in 2006.
*In the second round, Darrell Hazell's Golden Flashes were working on their own stunner (well, to some people, it would've been a stunner). But halfway through the fourth period, with Kent State leading Texas A&M, 14-7, the Aggies' Johnny Manziel showed just why he picked up that Heisman Trophy.
With 7:58 remaining, Manziel found WR- and fellow freshman- Mike Evans from 14 yards out to make it 14-13 (the point after was no good). Then with 18 ticks to go, the two of 'em connected on a 50-yard bomb to take Kevin Sumlin's first A&M squad into the next round. (The Aggies got a two-point conversion.)
*Bill Snyder's Wildcats needed the whole second half to sideline Mike McIntyre's Spartans (in their first playoffs since 1990). QB Collin Klein (he ran 30 times for 102 yards) used his right arm to do it, with a third-quarter scoring strike to FB Braden Wilson (K Anthony Cantele's PAT tied it at 21-21). Klein- the 2012 playoff MVP- then threw a 13-yard score to WR Chris Harper with 10:06 left to play in the fourth. That did it.
The whole thing wasted CB Tyler Ervin's two kickoff-return touchdowns (a 93-yarder and a 98-yarder) for San Jose State.
*Les Miles' Tigers ended the Ducks' reign as playoff champion (and got revenge for what Chip Kelly's club did in 2011 to LSU- a 30-29 overtime win for the Green and Gold) by foiling an Oregon two-point try with 2:51 to play in the fourth.
*Wisconsin almost pulled off The Impossible against the Fighting Irish. With 1:31 left in the fourth, Stave heaved a two-yard TD pass to wideout Kenzel Doe...but Ball's try for two failed.
*Speaking of Fighting Irish...K-State had Brian Kelly's team on the ropes for most of the fourth quarter in the championship game, thanks to Klein's three-yard run with 7:21 to go.
But Notre Dame QB Everett Golson engineered a minute-long, 80-yard drive that was capped off by his 18-yard desperation heave to WR DaVaris Daniels with those two seconds remaining.
Result: The Irish became just the third Number One seed to go all the way [something previously done by Nebraska in 1993 and Miami (FL) in 2001].
And: This is the second straight year that a team whose head coach has the last name of Kelly went to the top.
Many thanks go out to the man known as Brian in Alabama for providing the teams disk that allowed these playoffs to be run to begin with...on Lance Haffner Games' 3-in-1 Football (using the computer vs. computer mode).
How will the 2013 playoffs look? Stay tuned!
The very last game came down to a touchdown pass with just two seconds left in regulation.
And, when taken as a group, the games in between weren't too bad, either.
All in all, the 2012 version of a shoulda/coulda/woulda NCAA Division 1-A football playoff was one of the best and most interesting playoff cycles to have ever come out of this computer.
Well, here's proof:
FIRST ROUND (seeding in parentheses): Wisconsin (24) 21, Georgia (9) 20; Texas A&M (17) 35, Utah State (16) 14; Louisiana State (13) 24, Nebraska (20) 21; South Carolina (12) 33, Tulsa (21) 32 (1 OT); San Jose State (14) 20, Louisville (19) 15; Oklahoma (11) 38, Oregon State (22) 35; Boise State (15) 34, Clemson (18) 3; Florida State (10) 28, Arkansas State (23) 21
SECOND ROUND: Notre Dame (1) 14, Wisconsin 13; Texas A&M 21, Kent State (8) 14; Louisiana State 14, Oregon (5) 13; Florida (4) 21, South Carolina 0; Kansas State (6) 28, San Jose State 21; Oklahoma 45, Northern Illinois (3) 28; Stanford (7) 21, Boise State 14; Florida State 24, Alabama (2) 7
QUARTERFINAL ROUND: Notre Dame 27, Texas A&M 7; Louisiana State 28, Florida 0; Kansas State 49, Oklahoma 28; Florida State 35, Stanford 7
SEMIFINAL ROUND: Kansas State 28, Florida State 27; Notre Dame 21, Louisiana State 2
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Notre Dame 17, Kansas State 14
And here's some more proof:
*The Golden Hurricane and the Gamecocks met in actually the first 2012 playoff test. Bill Blankenship's Conference USA champs led Steve Spurrier's club after one quarter, 12-7, and enjoyed a halftime lead of 18-15. But that halftime lead went away when the Gamecocks recovered a blocked punt in the end zone for a 19-18 third-period lead.
For a while, the contest was better known as The Trey Watts Show, because the Tulsa running back scored on two kickoff returns- a 96-yarder and the 102-yarder that, combined with his successful two-point conversion, sent the game into overtime. Then, in the extra stanza, Watts scored from a yard out...but the extra point was no good.
South Carolina QB Connor Shaw and WR Ace Sanders then hooked up on a five-yard scoring strike...and K Adam Yates' point after canceled the Watts show.
*The Beavers of Mike Riley- in their first playoffs in a dozen years- owned a 35-21 lead going into the fourth quarter, but Bob Stoops' Sooners rained down the game's final 17 points. The game-winning score came with 0:26 to play in regulation, when QB Landry Jones fired a one-yard TD pass to WR J. Brown. (It was Jones' third TD toss of the contest.)
*Bo Pelini's Cornhuskers were 1:18 away from notching their first 1-A playoff win since 2001 (a 49-0 second-round pasting of Washington)...but the Tigers' Zach Mettenberger flipped a two-yard air score to WR Spencer Ware.
*Mark Richt's Bulldogs were heading for the second round...but the Badgers (now back under Barry Alvarez, because Bret Bielema had just accepted a deal to become Arkansas' new head coach) pulled a shocker and a half. First, RB Montee Ball went in from one yard with 2:09 to go in the fourth; K Kyle French's PAT made it 20-14 in favor of Georgia.
Then Wisconsin recovered an onside kick...and all of that led to QB Joel Stave tossing an 11-yarder to WR Jordan Fredrick for the tying points with 13 ticks to go.
French's next extra point enabled the Badgers to become the first 24th seed to win a playoff game since Troy stunned USC, 16-0, in 2006.
*In the second round, Darrell Hazell's Golden Flashes were working on their own stunner (well, to some people, it would've been a stunner). But halfway through the fourth period, with Kent State leading Texas A&M, 14-7, the Aggies' Johnny Manziel showed just why he picked up that Heisman Trophy.
With 7:58 remaining, Manziel found WR- and fellow freshman- Mike Evans from 14 yards out to make it 14-13 (the point after was no good). Then with 18 ticks to go, the two of 'em connected on a 50-yard bomb to take Kevin Sumlin's first A&M squad into the next round. (The Aggies got a two-point conversion.)
*Bill Snyder's Wildcats needed the whole second half to sideline Mike McIntyre's Spartans (in their first playoffs since 1990). QB Collin Klein (he ran 30 times for 102 yards) used his right arm to do it, with a third-quarter scoring strike to FB Braden Wilson (K Anthony Cantele's PAT tied it at 21-21). Klein- the 2012 playoff MVP- then threw a 13-yard score to WR Chris Harper with 10:06 left to play in the fourth. That did it.
The whole thing wasted CB Tyler Ervin's two kickoff-return touchdowns (a 93-yarder and a 98-yarder) for San Jose State.
*Les Miles' Tigers ended the Ducks' reign as playoff champion (and got revenge for what Chip Kelly's club did in 2011 to LSU- a 30-29 overtime win for the Green and Gold) by foiling an Oregon two-point try with 2:51 to play in the fourth.
*Wisconsin almost pulled off The Impossible against the Fighting Irish. With 1:31 left in the fourth, Stave heaved a two-yard TD pass to wideout Kenzel Doe...but Ball's try for two failed.
*Speaking of Fighting Irish...K-State had Brian Kelly's team on the ropes for most of the fourth quarter in the championship game, thanks to Klein's three-yard run with 7:21 to go.
But Notre Dame QB Everett Golson engineered a minute-long, 80-yard drive that was capped off by his 18-yard desperation heave to WR DaVaris Daniels with those two seconds remaining.
Result: The Irish became just the third Number One seed to go all the way [something previously done by Nebraska in 1993 and Miami (FL) in 2001].
And: This is the second straight year that a team whose head coach has the last name of Kelly went to the top.
Many thanks go out to the man known as Brian in Alabama for providing the teams disk that allowed these playoffs to be run to begin with...on Lance Haffner Games' 3-in-1 Football (using the computer vs. computer mode).
How will the 2013 playoffs look? Stay tuned!
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
We Had an Inauguration, Not a Coronation
Yesterday, for the second (and final) time in his life, Barack Obama took the oath of office as President of the United States. (I ended up making a DVD copy of the inauguration ceremonies, then watching C-SPAN's rerun of the ceremonies when I got home from work last night.)
And as much as I liked Obama's first inaugural address (1-20-2009), I liked his second one better.
One phrase kept sticking out as the nation's 44th chief executive gave what turned out to be a 14-minute speech: "We the People."
In addition, one other word stuck out: "Together."
The former US senator from Illinois talked about how it's on ALL of us to keep this undertaking called America going...by using solutions that are unique to OUR time, OUR day and age to deal with the problems that we're right now facing.
And, just as Ronald Reagan put the glow on the conservative point of view when he gave his first address as this country's president (1-20-1981), Obama put the halo on the liberal way of doing things in government. [Well, I like to think so! After all, take a look at what happened to the earning power and the buying power of rank-and-file Americans since the former host of TV's General Electric Theater assumed the biggest role he ever had. (They've gone down since 1981.)]
Last week (in fact, on 1-16-2013), this father of two daughters signed 23 executive orders into law. And it was all part of the most extensive gun-control plan since...well, since Reagan got in. (If not that, since an assault-weapon ban was signed into law in 1994 by none other than Bill Clinton.)
The new executive orders include more sharing of government data for background checks, better databases, and government research into why we've got gun violence here in the US. (Don't worry: Improved school safety and better mental-health services will be covered through the new directives.)
On top of that, I like how we're finally going to have a new chief at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
It'd been far too long since an ATFE chief was appointed.
The vacancy- and so many other appointments- would've been filled these last four years if it hadn't been for (let's not kid ourselves) all those Republicans in Congress.
One of those sticks in the mud (oops, I mean Republicans), US Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), wants to get legislation pushed through to block all 23 executive orders. (Paul the Younger thinks Obama's acting like a king.)
Then you've got US Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), who just got back the same seat he had in the mid-1990s, about the time Clinton signed the assault-weapon ban into law.
All Stockman wants is the impeachment of the newest lefthander to call the shots from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Stockman thinks the executive orders are a White House overreach.
No, it's just like Sasha's and Malia's dad said: "We're all in this together." (And what's to do when a Republican-led House simply won't act on one issue after another?)
The previous (112th) Congress passed the fewest bills of any such group since the Congresses Harry Truman had to deal with in the late 1940s: 68 of 'em. Instead of tackling the budget, the debt ceiling, America's infrastructure, and jobs (that last one was the issue all those new US reps who got elected in 2010 loudly proclaimed they'd deal with first and foremost), the House Republicans have, instead, gone on witch hunts...trying to take down not only Obama himself, but also Attorney General Eric Holder as well as the millions of women who use contraceptives.
I don't know if either Paul (Rand or his father Ron) showed up to the inaugural proceedings. Can't tell you if Stockman came to the Capitol to see the ceremonies. But I did see House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and US Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) walk across my TV screen (and millions of other people's TV screens).
And Ryan and Boehner might have been thinking: "What am I doing here?"
Speaking of Ryan, I like how BHO shot down both PDR's notion that we're a nation of takers and the whole idea that the three most successful government programs to come out these United States (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) have weakened the country.
Those three programs have actually helped Americans live longer than was the case in the 1930s.
To sum it all up, I like what Michelle's husband wants to do with the next four years...and I like his message that, regardless of what we look like, what we believe for a religion, where we were born, etc., etc., we've ALL got a stake in trying to improve the world's most talked-about, most envied, most closely-watched nation there is.
And I'm going to try my best to help. (How about you?)
And as much as I liked Obama's first inaugural address (1-20-2009), I liked his second one better.
One phrase kept sticking out as the nation's 44th chief executive gave what turned out to be a 14-minute speech: "We the People."
In addition, one other word stuck out: "Together."
The former US senator from Illinois talked about how it's on ALL of us to keep this undertaking called America going...by using solutions that are unique to OUR time, OUR day and age to deal with the problems that we're right now facing.
And, just as Ronald Reagan put the glow on the conservative point of view when he gave his first address as this country's president (1-20-1981), Obama put the halo on the liberal way of doing things in government. [Well, I like to think so! After all, take a look at what happened to the earning power and the buying power of rank-and-file Americans since the former host of TV's General Electric Theater assumed the biggest role he ever had. (They've gone down since 1981.)]
Last week (in fact, on 1-16-2013), this father of two daughters signed 23 executive orders into law. And it was all part of the most extensive gun-control plan since...well, since Reagan got in. (If not that, since an assault-weapon ban was signed into law in 1994 by none other than Bill Clinton.)
The new executive orders include more sharing of government data for background checks, better databases, and government research into why we've got gun violence here in the US. (Don't worry: Improved school safety and better mental-health services will be covered through the new directives.)
On top of that, I like how we're finally going to have a new chief at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
It'd been far too long since an ATFE chief was appointed.
The vacancy- and so many other appointments- would've been filled these last four years if it hadn't been for (let's not kid ourselves) all those Republicans in Congress.
One of those sticks in the mud (oops, I mean Republicans), US Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), wants to get legislation pushed through to block all 23 executive orders. (Paul the Younger thinks Obama's acting like a king.)
Then you've got US Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), who just got back the same seat he had in the mid-1990s, about the time Clinton signed the assault-weapon ban into law.
All Stockman wants is the impeachment of the newest lefthander to call the shots from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Stockman thinks the executive orders are a White House overreach.
No, it's just like Sasha's and Malia's dad said: "We're all in this together." (And what's to do when a Republican-led House simply won't act on one issue after another?)
The previous (112th) Congress passed the fewest bills of any such group since the Congresses Harry Truman had to deal with in the late 1940s: 68 of 'em. Instead of tackling the budget, the debt ceiling, America's infrastructure, and jobs (that last one was the issue all those new US reps who got elected in 2010 loudly proclaimed they'd deal with first and foremost), the House Republicans have, instead, gone on witch hunts...trying to take down not only Obama himself, but also Attorney General Eric Holder as well as the millions of women who use contraceptives.
I don't know if either Paul (Rand or his father Ron) showed up to the inaugural proceedings. Can't tell you if Stockman came to the Capitol to see the ceremonies. But I did see House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and US Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) walk across my TV screen (and millions of other people's TV screens).
And Ryan and Boehner might have been thinking: "What am I doing here?"
Speaking of Ryan, I like how BHO shot down both PDR's notion that we're a nation of takers and the whole idea that the three most successful government programs to come out these United States (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) have weakened the country.
Those three programs have actually helped Americans live longer than was the case in the 1930s.
To sum it all up, I like what Michelle's husband wants to do with the next four years...and I like his message that, regardless of what we look like, what we believe for a religion, where we were born, etc., etc., we've ALL got a stake in trying to improve the world's most talked-about, most envied, most closely-watched nation there is.
And I'm going to try my best to help. (How about you?)
Monday, December 31, 2012
Man, What a Group!
Sorry about not getting this out sooner...but I'm excited to bring it to you just the same.
This promises to be one of the best (okay, at least one of the most interesting) fields to ever (at least on this computer) compete in the history of this one version of a should've been/would've been/could've been NCAA Division 1-A college football playoff.
What makes the 2012 version intriguing is the fact that NCAA sanctions have prevented Ohio State from bringing its 12-0 team to the table. (From what I heard and read, school officials' attitudes toward the sanctions didn't help, either.)
Anyway...without further ado, here's the 24-team field for my version of a 2012 NCAA D-1-A football playoff (with regular-season, pre-bowl records shown):
1. Notre Dame (12-0; independent at-large)/ 2. Alabama (12-1; SEC champ)/ 3. Northern Illinois (12-1; MAC champ)/ 4. Florida (11-1; SEC at-large)/ 5. Oregon (11-1; Pac-12 at-large)/ 6. Kansas State (11-1; Big 12 champ)/ 7. Stanford (11-2; Pac-12 champ)/ 8. Kent State (11-2; MAC at-large)
9. Georgia (11-2; SEC at-large)/ 10. Florida State (11-2; ACC champ)/ 11. Oklahoma (10-2; Big 12 at-large)/ 12. South Carolina (10-2; SEC at-large)/ 13. Louisiana State (10-2; SEC at-large)/ 14. San Jose State (10-2; WAC at-large)/ 15. Boise State (10-2; Mountain West champ)/ 16. Utah State (10-2; WAC champ)
17. Texas A&M (10-2; SEC at-large)/ 18. Clemson (10-2; ACC at-large)/ 19. Louisville (10-2; Big East champ)/ 20. Nebraska (10-3; Big Ten at-large)/ 21. Tulsa (10-3; Conference USA champ)/ 22. Oregon State (9-3; Pac-12 at-large)/ 23. Arkansas State (9-3; Sun Belt champ)/ 24. Wisconsin (8-5; Big Ten champ)
If you're new to "Boston's Blog," these 24 teams are listed in order of playoff seeding (rather than rank in the AP, USA Today, and Harris Interactive polls). Matter of fact, the polls don't figure into how teams end up qualifying for this version of a Division 1-A playoff.
A point system akin to what the high school athletic association in your state (if it's a state of the United States) uses to determine playoff seeding in football is used here. And it breaks down like this:
*A Division 1-A team earns 50 quality points for beating a winning D-1-A club.
*It earns 45 points for a win over a nonwinning 1-A squad.
*Said club gets 40 points for a win against a Division 1-AA team that enjoyed a winning year.
*And the playoff team receives 35 quality points if it stopped a nonwinning D-1-AA entry.
This system takes out quality points for every loss...meaning that a loss to a winning D-1-A team costs a playoff squad 50 points, a loss to a 1-A team that stank costs 55 points, and if the playoff team loses to a successful D-1-AA entry, well...say goodbye to 60 quality points.
What's more, if one of these Division 1-A playoff teams should lose to a losing team from 1-AA...the defeat takes 65 quality points away.
Plus: If a team goes undefeated, it picks up 55 bonus points.
This system also uses tiebreakers...with the first one being total number of victories racked up by a team's 1-A foes. If the tied teams saw their 1-A opponents win the same number of games, head-to-head competition is looked at. If the tied teams didn't meet during the regular season, conference records are examined. And if they're identical, point differential in conference games is next. If the teams are still in a deadlock, the next tiebreaker is point differential in all games.
And if that's deadlocked...it all comes down to a coin flip.
With that in mind, Florida (which won the 2009 playoffs- unbelievably, the sole SEC team to go all the way in these playoffs!) got seeded higher than defending playoff champion Oregon, despite the Gators and Ducks racking up 475 quality points each in 2012. [The 1-A clubs that played Florida totaled 87 wins this season, while Oregon's 1-A opponents won 73 times. (Weak Washington State and even weaker Colorado didn't help the Ducks' cause.)]
Also: The top eight seeds get to duck (okay, Duck) the first round.
So...if you're scratching your head as to why Kent State (making its first appearance in these playoffs) jumped ahead of Georgia (in its twelfth appearance; its first was in the playoffs' inaugural year, 1982), here's the reason: The Bulldogs faced eight losing-or-.500 1-A teams this season, while the Golden Flashes went up against seven. (Georgia got 400 quality points, while Kent State slid by with 405.)
It's how a team did this season, rather than a team's past reputation.
By the way...if the Buckeyes hadn't gotten put on probation, they probably would've gotten the playoffs' top seed...assuming they would've won the Big Ten title game to go 13-0. As it was, Urban Meyer's club would've received 670 points for a 13-0 record.
The result that actually took place at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN (Badgers 70, Huskers 31) caused the field to have room for just one at-large nine-win team. On top of that, Wisconsin's win prevented Ball State (the Cards went 9-3) from entering the playoff field.
And it forced the Cornhuskers into a first-round game.
Speaking of games...I'm looking forward to using Lance Haffner Games' 3-in-1 Football (computer vs. computer) to get those games played. (And I'm looking forward to bringing you the results!)
Well, that's it for me this year. I'm Jim Boston, and thanks for reading this blog! (And may YOU have a happy and prosperous 2013!)
This promises to be one of the best (okay, at least one of the most interesting) fields to ever (at least on this computer) compete in the history of this one version of a should've been/would've been/could've been NCAA Division 1-A college football playoff.
What makes the 2012 version intriguing is the fact that NCAA sanctions have prevented Ohio State from bringing its 12-0 team to the table. (From what I heard and read, school officials' attitudes toward the sanctions didn't help, either.)
Anyway...without further ado, here's the 24-team field for my version of a 2012 NCAA D-1-A football playoff (with regular-season, pre-bowl records shown):
1. Notre Dame (12-0; independent at-large)/ 2. Alabama (12-1; SEC champ)/ 3. Northern Illinois (12-1; MAC champ)/ 4. Florida (11-1; SEC at-large)/ 5. Oregon (11-1; Pac-12 at-large)/ 6. Kansas State (11-1; Big 12 champ)/ 7. Stanford (11-2; Pac-12 champ)/ 8. Kent State (11-2; MAC at-large)
9. Georgia (11-2; SEC at-large)/ 10. Florida State (11-2; ACC champ)/ 11. Oklahoma (10-2; Big 12 at-large)/ 12. South Carolina (10-2; SEC at-large)/ 13. Louisiana State (10-2; SEC at-large)/ 14. San Jose State (10-2; WAC at-large)/ 15. Boise State (10-2; Mountain West champ)/ 16. Utah State (10-2; WAC champ)
17. Texas A&M (10-2; SEC at-large)/ 18. Clemson (10-2; ACC at-large)/ 19. Louisville (10-2; Big East champ)/ 20. Nebraska (10-3; Big Ten at-large)/ 21. Tulsa (10-3; Conference USA champ)/ 22. Oregon State (9-3; Pac-12 at-large)/ 23. Arkansas State (9-3; Sun Belt champ)/ 24. Wisconsin (8-5; Big Ten champ)
If you're new to "Boston's Blog," these 24 teams are listed in order of playoff seeding (rather than rank in the AP, USA Today, and Harris Interactive polls). Matter of fact, the polls don't figure into how teams end up qualifying for this version of a Division 1-A playoff.
A point system akin to what the high school athletic association in your state (if it's a state of the United States) uses to determine playoff seeding in football is used here. And it breaks down like this:
*A Division 1-A team earns 50 quality points for beating a winning D-1-A club.
*It earns 45 points for a win over a nonwinning 1-A squad.
*Said club gets 40 points for a win against a Division 1-AA team that enjoyed a winning year.
*And the playoff team receives 35 quality points if it stopped a nonwinning D-1-AA entry.
This system takes out quality points for every loss...meaning that a loss to a winning D-1-A team costs a playoff squad 50 points, a loss to a 1-A team that stank costs 55 points, and if the playoff team loses to a successful D-1-AA entry, well...say goodbye to 60 quality points.
What's more, if one of these Division 1-A playoff teams should lose to a losing team from 1-AA...the defeat takes 65 quality points away.
Plus: If a team goes undefeated, it picks up 55 bonus points.
This system also uses tiebreakers...with the first one being total number of victories racked up by a team's 1-A foes. If the tied teams saw their 1-A opponents win the same number of games, head-to-head competition is looked at. If the tied teams didn't meet during the regular season, conference records are examined. And if they're identical, point differential in conference games is next. If the teams are still in a deadlock, the next tiebreaker is point differential in all games.
And if that's deadlocked...it all comes down to a coin flip.
With that in mind, Florida (which won the 2009 playoffs- unbelievably, the sole SEC team to go all the way in these playoffs!) got seeded higher than defending playoff champion Oregon, despite the Gators and Ducks racking up 475 quality points each in 2012. [The 1-A clubs that played Florida totaled 87 wins this season, while Oregon's 1-A opponents won 73 times. (Weak Washington State and even weaker Colorado didn't help the Ducks' cause.)]
Also: The top eight seeds get to duck (okay, Duck) the first round.
So...if you're scratching your head as to why Kent State (making its first appearance in these playoffs) jumped ahead of Georgia (in its twelfth appearance; its first was in the playoffs' inaugural year, 1982), here's the reason: The Bulldogs faced eight losing-or-.500 1-A teams this season, while the Golden Flashes went up against seven. (Georgia got 400 quality points, while Kent State slid by with 405.)
It's how a team did this season, rather than a team's past reputation.
By the way...if the Buckeyes hadn't gotten put on probation, they probably would've gotten the playoffs' top seed...assuming they would've won the Big Ten title game to go 13-0. As it was, Urban Meyer's club would've received 670 points for a 13-0 record.
The result that actually took place at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN (Badgers 70, Huskers 31) caused the field to have room for just one at-large nine-win team. On top of that, Wisconsin's win prevented Ball State (the Cards went 9-3) from entering the playoff field.
And it forced the Cornhuskers into a first-round game.
Speaking of games...I'm looking forward to using Lance Haffner Games' 3-in-1 Football (computer vs. computer) to get those games played. (And I'm looking forward to bringing you the results!)
Well, that's it for me this year. I'm Jim Boston, and thanks for reading this blog! (And may YOU have a happy and prosperous 2013!)
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Haven't We Had ENOUGH by Now?
Like the overwhelming majority of Americans right now, I've got last Friday's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT on my mind.
It's the first time ever that kindergarten children lost their lives at the hands of a mass murderer in an American place of learning.
This time, along with six adults, twenty children- many six years old, the others seven- were killed.
It's been 37 years since the first time a school shooting taking place here in the United States (it happened in Alaska in 1975) grabbed headlines.
And yes, back then, we were discussing whether or not America's gun-control laws ought to be strengthened.
Since 1975, busloads- planeloads- of people here in this country have been killed by mass murderers...especially at this country's schoolyards and shopping malls.
And every time it happens, we keep asking: "Why?"
We KNOW the reason it keeps taking place.
It's that we sure love those guns here in America. (I mean, the love of guns WAS a founding principle. We didn't break off from England by just talking it out.)
Speaking of England...in 1996, a 43-year-old man invaded an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and picked off sixteen kindergartners and their teacher. Then he pulled the trigger one more time and bumped himself off.
In time, the British government conducted an investigation...and the inquiry led to laws that ended legal private ownership of handguns in Rob Pattinson's native country.
America's lawmakers don't have the guts to come up with anything close to that kind of a law.
What's more, way too many of the people in Washington are TOO DOGGONE CHICKEN to discuss any of this with the National Rifle Association...much less stand up to the NRA itself.
Well, I'm glad to find out US Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) wants to have that talk with NRA officials. (And Manchin admits he's a gun lover.)
It's long been time for lawmakers to have that long, long overdue talk with the gun lobby. And while this country's senators and representatives are at it, they need to also invite officials from the nation's big media companies. (After all, the Adam Lanzas, Allen Muhammads, Jared Loughners, and Robert Hawkinses couldn't enact their sprees if they didn't, at one time or another, see examples on TV or at some neighborhood movieplex.)
And invite rank-and-file citizens, too, by all means...because the experience in each community- urban, suburban, rural- is different in one way or another.
Let's strengthen the gun laws we've already got. Let's make it harder for people to get them. (After all, state after state just got through pushing legislation making it harder to vote- even if that legislation basically backfired!)
You mean to tell me we can't find a place of common ground here in America when it comes to gun control?
It's the first time ever that kindergarten children lost their lives at the hands of a mass murderer in an American place of learning.
This time, along with six adults, twenty children- many six years old, the others seven- were killed.
It's been 37 years since the first time a school shooting taking place here in the United States (it happened in Alaska in 1975) grabbed headlines.
And yes, back then, we were discussing whether or not America's gun-control laws ought to be strengthened.
Since 1975, busloads- planeloads- of people here in this country have been killed by mass murderers...especially at this country's schoolyards and shopping malls.
And every time it happens, we keep asking: "Why?"
We KNOW the reason it keeps taking place.
It's that we sure love those guns here in America. (I mean, the love of guns WAS a founding principle. We didn't break off from England by just talking it out.)
Speaking of England...in 1996, a 43-year-old man invaded an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and picked off sixteen kindergartners and their teacher. Then he pulled the trigger one more time and bumped himself off.
In time, the British government conducted an investigation...and the inquiry led to laws that ended legal private ownership of handguns in Rob Pattinson's native country.
America's lawmakers don't have the guts to come up with anything close to that kind of a law.
What's more, way too many of the people in Washington are TOO DOGGONE CHICKEN to discuss any of this with the National Rifle Association...much less stand up to the NRA itself.
Well, I'm glad to find out US Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) wants to have that talk with NRA officials. (And Manchin admits he's a gun lover.)
It's long been time for lawmakers to have that long, long overdue talk with the gun lobby. And while this country's senators and representatives are at it, they need to also invite officials from the nation's big media companies. (After all, the Adam Lanzas, Allen Muhammads, Jared Loughners, and Robert Hawkinses couldn't enact their sprees if they didn't, at one time or another, see examples on TV or at some neighborhood movieplex.)
And invite rank-and-file citizens, too, by all means...because the experience in each community- urban, suburban, rural- is different in one way or another.
Let's strengthen the gun laws we've already got. Let's make it harder for people to get them. (After all, state after state just got through pushing legislation making it harder to vote- even if that legislation basically backfired!)
You mean to tell me we can't find a place of common ground here in America when it comes to gun control?
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Now You Can't Tell the Conferences without a Scorecard
I saw this in my local newspaper and I cringed.
It was announced last week that Louisville will quit the Big East Conference (the Cardinals just got through tying Cincinnati and Rutgers for the league football title) and, effective in two years, go into the Atlantic Coast Conference...the exact same decision made earlier this year by Pittsburgh and Syracuse.
And Louisville's decision came after (1) Notre Dame decided to take all of its sports- except football, of course; can't jeopardize that contract with NBC- to the ACC from the Big East and (2) Rutgers itself decided to trade its membership in the Big East for a chance to become the Big Ten Conference's 14th member. (Maryland- a charter member of the ACC, a league that goes back to the 1953-54 academic year- will start doing its thing in the Big Ten in 2014, same year Rutgers officially becomes a member of the league that gave us Nile Kinnick, Dave Winfield, Magic Johnson, and Katie Smith.)
And I'm wondering to myself: "When will all of this end?"
I thought it was going to end with the Big 12 Conference taking in TCU and West Virginia...a move that still leaves that circuit with ten schools, what with Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, and Texas A&M all saying "bye bye." (I still believe that Texas A&M and Missouri wanted the bigger paychecks Southeastern Conference membership could provide...and that Nebraska wanted to go into the Big Ten because it got tired of losing to Texas in football. Oh, well...)
All of these ACC moves during this 21st Century have been all about that green folding stuff...especially the kind that football can generate. [Remember when the league snatched Miami (FL), Virginia Tech, and Boston College from the Big East during 2004-05?]
The Big East retaliated by prying Cincy, Louisville, and South Florida (they've got football teams) as well as DePaul and Marquette (schools that used to compete on the gridiron) out of Conference USA.
And then C-USA made up for that by yanking Rice, SMU, and Tulsa out of the Western Athletic Conference.
In turn, the WAC enticed New Mexico State and Utah State out of the Sun Belt Conference.
Here we are, almost a decade after the ACC sought to prove it could compete in football.
And I'm wondering to myself: "When will all of this end?"
I remember when the Big East got started (1979-80, same year as the Horizon League and the Atlantic Sun Conference, neither of which wages a football championship). The BEC was billed as the East Coast alternative to the ACC, then- as now- the most respected circuit when it comes to men's basketball.
The Big East was the league the sports reporters up in the Northeast (especially in the New York City area) had been on their knees begging for.
And they were licking it up, all right. Between 1979-80 and 1990-91, Big East squads had won as many NCAA Division 1 men's hoops tourneys as did ACC contingents- two apiece, with North Carolina's 1982 win and North Carolina State's 1983 conquest followed by Georgetown winning it all in 1984...then getting evicted from the throne room a year later by Villanova.
All four of those championships ranked right up there in NCAA history.
At that very moment, both the ACC and BEC were building good resumes in women's basketball (at a time when the SEC and the then Pac-10 were the most respected leagues)...but the championships wouldn't start coming until the middle 1990s, when North Carolina got it done (1994), only to lose its title a year later to Connecticut.
By then, Big East officials had started offering their schools a football championship...so that they wouldn't play as independents anymore.
And it looked good at first...as long as Miami (FL) was the dominant team in the Big East.
1991 was the first year Big East teams fought for a football championship. A year later, the SEC went from 10 members to 12...by taking in football indie South Carolina and by getting Arkansas to jump the Southwest Conference.
The SEC leaders found out they could now split their circuit into divisions and put on a championship football game.
Within five years, other Division 1-A conferences sought to duplicate the SEC and get their own grid title games going. When the SWC imploded in 1996, the Big 8 took in four of its schools and became the Big 12. The Mid-American Conference expanded to 12 schools. (It's now got 14.) C-USA took in Houston and eventually got other universities to join.
And the WAC ballooned to 16 members...only to become a joke to sports reporters and talk-show hosts. (In 1999, eight WAC schools got tired of being laughed at by the Jim Romes of the world and formed the Mountain West.)
But now, with this current amount of movement going on among D-1-A institutions, the WAC is celebrating its 50th birthday with a limp...all because it might have to drop football.
Idaho and New Mexico State have decided to go it alone (a la Notre Dame and original WAC member BYU- one of the Mountain West's charter members). And this after Fresno State, Hawaii, and Nevada left the WAC in time for this current school year...duplicating Boise State in the process by going to the Mountain West.
WAC newcomers Texas State and Texas-San Antonio are already ticketed for other leagues...like C-USA or the Sun Belt.
Oh, well.
The next several years really are going to be interesting as conferences and schools alike prove it's really all about The Money.
After all, if schools and conferences won't be loyal to each other, how in the world can their fans expect to show continued loyalty?
And I'm still wondering to myself: "When will all of this end?"
It was announced last week that Louisville will quit the Big East Conference (the Cardinals just got through tying Cincinnati and Rutgers for the league football title) and, effective in two years, go into the Atlantic Coast Conference...the exact same decision made earlier this year by Pittsburgh and Syracuse.
And Louisville's decision came after (1) Notre Dame decided to take all of its sports- except football, of course; can't jeopardize that contract with NBC- to the ACC from the Big East and (2) Rutgers itself decided to trade its membership in the Big East for a chance to become the Big Ten Conference's 14th member. (Maryland- a charter member of the ACC, a league that goes back to the 1953-54 academic year- will start doing its thing in the Big Ten in 2014, same year Rutgers officially becomes a member of the league that gave us Nile Kinnick, Dave Winfield, Magic Johnson, and Katie Smith.)
And I'm wondering to myself: "When will all of this end?"
I thought it was going to end with the Big 12 Conference taking in TCU and West Virginia...a move that still leaves that circuit with ten schools, what with Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, and Texas A&M all saying "bye bye." (I still believe that Texas A&M and Missouri wanted the bigger paychecks Southeastern Conference membership could provide...and that Nebraska wanted to go into the Big Ten because it got tired of losing to Texas in football. Oh, well...)
All of these ACC moves during this 21st Century have been all about that green folding stuff...especially the kind that football can generate. [Remember when the league snatched Miami (FL), Virginia Tech, and Boston College from the Big East during 2004-05?]
The Big East retaliated by prying Cincy, Louisville, and South Florida (they've got football teams) as well as DePaul and Marquette (schools that used to compete on the gridiron) out of Conference USA.
And then C-USA made up for that by yanking Rice, SMU, and Tulsa out of the Western Athletic Conference.
In turn, the WAC enticed New Mexico State and Utah State out of the Sun Belt Conference.
Here we are, almost a decade after the ACC sought to prove it could compete in football.
And I'm wondering to myself: "When will all of this end?"
I remember when the Big East got started (1979-80, same year as the Horizon League and the Atlantic Sun Conference, neither of which wages a football championship). The BEC was billed as the East Coast alternative to the ACC, then- as now- the most respected circuit when it comes to men's basketball.
The Big East was the league the sports reporters up in the Northeast (especially in the New York City area) had been on their knees begging for.
And they were licking it up, all right. Between 1979-80 and 1990-91, Big East squads had won as many NCAA Division 1 men's hoops tourneys as did ACC contingents- two apiece, with North Carolina's 1982 win and North Carolina State's 1983 conquest followed by Georgetown winning it all in 1984...then getting evicted from the throne room a year later by Villanova.
All four of those championships ranked right up there in NCAA history.
At that very moment, both the ACC and BEC were building good resumes in women's basketball (at a time when the SEC and the then Pac-10 were the most respected leagues)...but the championships wouldn't start coming until the middle 1990s, when North Carolina got it done (1994), only to lose its title a year later to Connecticut.
By then, Big East officials had started offering their schools a football championship...so that they wouldn't play as independents anymore.
And it looked good at first...as long as Miami (FL) was the dominant team in the Big East.
1991 was the first year Big East teams fought for a football championship. A year later, the SEC went from 10 members to 12...by taking in football indie South Carolina and by getting Arkansas to jump the Southwest Conference.
The SEC leaders found out they could now split their circuit into divisions and put on a championship football game.
Within five years, other Division 1-A conferences sought to duplicate the SEC and get their own grid title games going. When the SWC imploded in 1996, the Big 8 took in four of its schools and became the Big 12. The Mid-American Conference expanded to 12 schools. (It's now got 14.) C-USA took in Houston and eventually got other universities to join.
And the WAC ballooned to 16 members...only to become a joke to sports reporters and talk-show hosts. (In 1999, eight WAC schools got tired of being laughed at by the Jim Romes of the world and formed the Mountain West.)
But now, with this current amount of movement going on among D-1-A institutions, the WAC is celebrating its 50th birthday with a limp...all because it might have to drop football.
Idaho and New Mexico State have decided to go it alone (a la Notre Dame and original WAC member BYU- one of the Mountain West's charter members). And this after Fresno State, Hawaii, and Nevada left the WAC in time for this current school year...duplicating Boise State in the process by going to the Mountain West.
WAC newcomers Texas State and Texas-San Antonio are already ticketed for other leagues...like C-USA or the Sun Belt.
Oh, well.
The next several years really are going to be interesting as conferences and schools alike prove it's really all about The Money.
After all, if schools and conferences won't be loyal to each other, how in the world can their fans expect to show continued loyalty?
And I'm still wondering to myself: "When will all of this end?"
Friday, November 23, 2012
Where? Where? Where? Where? Where Do They Go from Here?
It's now been 17 days since the 2012 US presidential election took place...and the Republican Party has spent all of this time wondering just what happened (and why it happened).
Party officials (along with their cheerleaders on the nation's AM so-called news and information radio stations) have spent this time not only licking party wounds...but also trying to nail down the reason(s) why Willard M. Romney couldn't put it in his hip pocket despite an early lead on Election Night.
Some in the GOP think the party couldn't end Barack Obama's presidency because Romney didn't choose US Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to run alongside the former Massachusetts governor. Others feel the loss was due to the "emasculation" of Romney's campaign.
The man the son of a former Michigan governor did select as a running mate, US Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), racked it up to "urban" voters...while WMR himself, in that now-infamous (or famous, depending on your point of view) conference call to his campaign team, chalked the 2012 results to Obama supposedly giving "gifts" to Hispanic Americans, African Americans, young voters of all ethnicities, and women of all ethnic backgrounds.
Regardless of your socioeconomic background, what would YOU do if someone offered you an actual, honest-to-goodness freebie?
Next door in Iowa, you've got Matt Schultz, its secretary of state, who's trying to get its lawmakers to join all those other states in getting voter suppression (oops...I mean voter ID) laws put into place. ("You know...if All Those Other People hadn't turned out for this year's election...")
Only a few brave Republicans have had the guts to blame the party's overall message for why we'll have to wait until 1-20-2017 for the country's 45th commander in chief to give the inaugural address.
Yes...I could really dig all of this GOP self-evaluation and all this soul searching among the current trustees of the party of Abraham Lincoln and of Teddy Roosevelt and of Dwight Eisenhower if it were heartfelt and not mere lip service.
I keep turning on my TV set and finding US Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John McCain (R-AZ) trying to prevent UN Ambassador Susan Rice from accepting the State Department's top gig because they don't like how Rice has handled the Benghazi affair of 9-11-2012.
McCain thinks Rice isn't qualified to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton at State. (And that's hilarious of McCain...especially when you consider his 2008 decision to have Sarah Palin run alongside him in the former Navy pilot's effort to prevent the creation of an Obama administration to begin with!)
It all smacks of Business As Usual as far as I'm concerned. You see, if McCain and Graham can get Obama to change his mind and ask US Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) to take over from Rodham Clinton on 1-21-2013...well, Scott Brown can keep his own seat in the US Senate (this time as Kerry's replacement).
So much for the Republicans' loudly-proclaimed slogan of 2008: "Country First."
Democrats, independents, and other non-Republicans have shown themselves more likely to put America first.
With Republicans, it's- with very few exceptions- party first. (One of those exceptions has been New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's work alongside BHO in the Garden State's handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.)
Another major component of the GOP message, besides "Party First," is: "It's every man for himself. It's every woman for herself. I've got mine. You go get yours.
"In fact...I want yours, and I'm going to keep you from getting yours!"
To top it all off, Republican lawmakers and aides go to great lengths to make anybody who isn't a Caucasian-American man feel unwelcome. (Todd Akin's and Richard Mourdock's sexist remarks come to mind...as do racist jibes from Newton Gingrich, John Sununu, Donald Trump, Ryan, Romney, Brown, Palin, etc., etc., etc.)
And these same Republicans have the audacity- the unmitigated nerve- to wonder why they can't get votes from people who aren't Caucasian-American men!
I remember when the Democrats ended up having to retool their party after Richard Nixon crushed George McGovern to keep the job he'd always wanted. That year, 1972, the Donkeys held a telethon.
And on that telecast, one of the speakers (I think it was Phil Donahue) said that, instead of the Democrats holding this telethon to pump money into the party, "John Wayne ought to have a telethon for war!"
It took a lot of years...but the Democratic Party remade itself into a party that not only cares about civil rights, but also cares more about America's middle-and-low-income citizens than the Republicans do.
Let's face it: The Elephants MUST retool if they're going to remain a viable major US political party (let alone win presidential elections again).
The Republicans can crow all they want to about having won seven of the last twelve US presidential elections.
Fact remains that this party has now LOST four of the last six US presidential elections.
If the Romneys and Ryans and Boehners and McConnells ever learn that, as Mom used to say, "You draw more flies with honey than vinegar," their party will have a chance to get back to winning the most talked-about political job there is.
But only as long as the Republicans REALLY mean what they say and say what they mean.
Party officials (along with their cheerleaders on the nation's AM so-called news and information radio stations) have spent this time not only licking party wounds...but also trying to nail down the reason(s) why Willard M. Romney couldn't put it in his hip pocket despite an early lead on Election Night.
Some in the GOP think the party couldn't end Barack Obama's presidency because Romney didn't choose US Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to run alongside the former Massachusetts governor. Others feel the loss was due to the "emasculation" of Romney's campaign.
The man the son of a former Michigan governor did select as a running mate, US Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), racked it up to "urban" voters...while WMR himself, in that now-infamous (or famous, depending on your point of view) conference call to his campaign team, chalked the 2012 results to Obama supposedly giving "gifts" to Hispanic Americans, African Americans, young voters of all ethnicities, and women of all ethnic backgrounds.
Regardless of your socioeconomic background, what would YOU do if someone offered you an actual, honest-to-goodness freebie?
Next door in Iowa, you've got Matt Schultz, its secretary of state, who's trying to get its lawmakers to join all those other states in getting voter suppression (oops...I mean voter ID) laws put into place. ("You know...if All Those Other People hadn't turned out for this year's election...")
Only a few brave Republicans have had the guts to blame the party's overall message for why we'll have to wait until 1-20-2017 for the country's 45th commander in chief to give the inaugural address.
Yes...I could really dig all of this GOP self-evaluation and all this soul searching among the current trustees of the party of Abraham Lincoln and of Teddy Roosevelt and of Dwight Eisenhower if it were heartfelt and not mere lip service.
I keep turning on my TV set and finding US Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John McCain (R-AZ) trying to prevent UN Ambassador Susan Rice from accepting the State Department's top gig because they don't like how Rice has handled the Benghazi affair of 9-11-2012.
McCain thinks Rice isn't qualified to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton at State. (And that's hilarious of McCain...especially when you consider his 2008 decision to have Sarah Palin run alongside him in the former Navy pilot's effort to prevent the creation of an Obama administration to begin with!)
It all smacks of Business As Usual as far as I'm concerned. You see, if McCain and Graham can get Obama to change his mind and ask US Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) to take over from Rodham Clinton on 1-21-2013...well, Scott Brown can keep his own seat in the US Senate (this time as Kerry's replacement).
So much for the Republicans' loudly-proclaimed slogan of 2008: "Country First."
Democrats, independents, and other non-Republicans have shown themselves more likely to put America first.
With Republicans, it's- with very few exceptions- party first. (One of those exceptions has been New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's work alongside BHO in the Garden State's handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.)
Another major component of the GOP message, besides "Party First," is: "It's every man for himself. It's every woman for herself. I've got mine. You go get yours.
"In fact...I want yours, and I'm going to keep you from getting yours!"
To top it all off, Republican lawmakers and aides go to great lengths to make anybody who isn't a Caucasian-American man feel unwelcome. (Todd Akin's and Richard Mourdock's sexist remarks come to mind...as do racist jibes from Newton Gingrich, John Sununu, Donald Trump, Ryan, Romney, Brown, Palin, etc., etc., etc.)
And these same Republicans have the audacity- the unmitigated nerve- to wonder why they can't get votes from people who aren't Caucasian-American men!
I remember when the Democrats ended up having to retool their party after Richard Nixon crushed George McGovern to keep the job he'd always wanted. That year, 1972, the Donkeys held a telethon.
And on that telecast, one of the speakers (I think it was Phil Donahue) said that, instead of the Democrats holding this telethon to pump money into the party, "John Wayne ought to have a telethon for war!"
It took a lot of years...but the Democratic Party remade itself into a party that not only cares about civil rights, but also cares more about America's middle-and-low-income citizens than the Republicans do.
Let's face it: The Elephants MUST retool if they're going to remain a viable major US political party (let alone win presidential elections again).
The Republicans can crow all they want to about having won seven of the last twelve US presidential elections.
Fact remains that this party has now LOST four of the last six US presidential elections.
If the Romneys and Ryans and Boehners and McConnells ever learn that, as Mom used to say, "You draw more flies with honey than vinegar," their party will have a chance to get back to winning the most talked-about political job there is.
But only as long as the Republicans REALLY mean what they say and say what they mean.
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