IT'S A SAD, SAD DAY AT OHIO STATE

I awakened this morning to the very sad news that Jim Tressel, coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, had resigned his position due to the ongoing scandal regarding discounted tattoos and sold championship rings and the like.

While I don't condone the activities of the players, what business is it of the NCAA if tattoo parlors want to give marquee players a discount? Frankly, my long-held belief is that universities make a veritable fortune from their football programs and the players who are, granted, getting a fine education for free, still have expenses during their college careers for which, quite honestly, they should be paid. They shouldn't be put into the position of grubbing around for nickles and dimes but rather should be free from the financial pressures during their college experience. That way they can and should concentrate on their school work (as Tressel insisted they do - to his enormous credit), might not be tempted to bolt to the pros early, and it would leave a school free to concentrate on educating all of their students and administering a successful athletics program, without the fuddy-duddy, antiquated NCAA breathing down their necks.

Here's a thought - why not tell the NCAA to go stuff themselves? Their investigations are NEVER EVER conducted in a discreet fashion and even when the allegations and charges are baseless - and they have been in many cases at many schools - the school is forever tainted by the rooting around of the NCAA investigators who try to justify their salaries by painting everyone with the same guilt-brush!

Granted, I am an OSU Alumni and more than a little biased (unlike the MSM, I admit my bias), but that's how I see it.

WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

That Justice Elena Kagan will recuse herself from consideration of the Obamacare lawsuits when they reach the Supremes?

She was involved in framing some of the legal strategy involved in the horror known as Obamacare and thus, by any measure of judicial conduct, she must recuse herself.

Is this likely to happen? Hell, no, not if Justice Kagan's unsuitability to rule on the Obamacare cases isn't questioned, and it should be questioned loudly and frequently in full hearing and view of the American public.

GOOD NEWS ABOUT MARK

Thank you all so much for your prayers. Apparently our West Virginia-born guy is going to go a few more successful rounds with the brain tumors! He is one tough dude!

He went to Charlottsville, they did the pre-op and detected a baby tumor starting to manifest and when they did the gamma knife surgery, they zapped the larger tumor but the baby one as well.

Our guy was home by 8 p.m. the same day, with a headache due to the screws they had to put in his skull, but otherwise in great shape and not needing another MRI for 3 months!

Thank you all. We know your prayers are helping to sustain him!

WHY I VOTED FOR KIRSTIE ALLEY TO WIN DWTS!

Call is solidarity with another old broad, call it fellow feeling for someone who struggles, as I always have, with their weight, call it anything you want - to me, picky purist that I am, Kirstie Alley was the clear winner on Dancing With the Stars this season.

She was the oldest contestant, at 60 years of age, and the most considerably out of shape, with an egocentric partner who is 31 years old and of Ukrainian ancestry - a demonstrated curmudgeon!

Throughout the run of the series, she could have whined, she could have pouted, she could have done a lot of things. She could have put on a weekly tantrum like Kate Gosselin did. She could have whined the way Jennifer Grey did. However, what she DID do was practice . . . very hard . . . and work through adversity and pain. Each week she brought to the dance floor what was often not the most perfect dance, but definitely the dance to which the fullest commitment had been given! And THAT is why I'm voting for the courageous and outrageous Kirstie Alley, who at age 60, actually did a cartwheel during last night's freestyle.

She deserves to win and she got my votes, whatever else happens! Hines is good and Chelsea is okay. But Kirstie is my choice!

UPDATE: Hines Ward won, but in my heart (and I suspect in her own) Kirstie was the REAL winner! She looks amazing, she seems happier, less nutty and secure!

TOO FUNNY FOR WORDS!

Apparently the Brits think our president is a smart ass!

His code name with the British police, Scotland Yard and all other UK law enforcement agencies is "Chalaque" which is a Punjabi term meaning someone who is too clever for his own good.

Isn't it sad that our longest term ally feels free to label our President thus? Since taking office, the Fauxbamas have done their level best to alienate our two closest allies. Bibi Netanyahu made his position very clear while addressing Congress today (Zippy is frolicking in Ireland with Michelle Antoinette) and every word he said resonated with me. Giving the Queen of England an Ipod loaded with his past speeches was an act of incredible arrogance and hubris.

Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge looked appropriate and elegant today whilst greeting Michelle Obama who was inappropriately clad in a garish ensemble that was better suited to a high school girl, than a supposedly mature woman with two children. Who advises this dummy about her clothing?

It shouldn't matter, but she IS representing our nation abroad (and no that wasn't a smack at her substantial derriere).

IF THE WORLD ENDS TOMORROW?

What would you do today, if you knew the world was ending tomorrow as some evangelical nutjobs are predicting (well actually, we'll find out tomorrow at midnight just how deluded they really are).

First of all, let me be very clear about two things: Hawkings is a horse's derriere and yet, given his health issues, I can almost understand why he is under the mistaken impression that there is no God. But he is wrong about that. Second, it won't be heaven to me if I cannot reunite with my departed animals in that place. Sam the Wonder Cat, as well as Boo and Rocky, have been major parts of my life's happiness and if they aren't there, it would be a major letdown.

As to what I would do. First I would tell all my family and friends how much I love them. In fact, within reason, I try to do that every day. Then I would spend the rest of the day playing with Buddy and Rusty and giving them the earthly love they so deserve and crave.

However, I very much doubt that the world is going to end tomorrow at midnight or anytime soon. Doesn't the Bible state that we will not know the hour of our ending? I'm just saying. There was no exception for a miniscule band of evangelical oddballs! But God loves them too.

INVOLVING THE CHILDREN

A discussion online has led to some serious thinking on my part about the Obama children and any exposure they may face during the upcoming election campaign (which promises to be a fairly nasty one).

Anyone with a pulse remembers the savaging doled out to the Bush twins as part of the generalized Bush Derangement Syndrome prevalent during almost the entire 8 years of George W. Bush's Administration. It was irresponsible, unwarranted and altogether offensive to most sensible, fair-minded Americans.

The girls were not part of either of their father's presidential campaigns other than a brief appearance at the conventions. But unlike the protection afforded Chelsea Clinton and before her Amy Carter, it seems the national media had declared "open season" on the Bush twins. Yes, they were older but equally yes - they were not involved in their father's campaign in any really active sense, other than being their father's daughters and supporting him and loving him in private.

Now the conversation has turned to the two Obama girls and the sense that some (not all) press members feel that the Obama girls are fair game since they will be accompanying their parents on campaign trips. My response to that is: Hell No!

Those two girls are and should continue to be protected from any kind of press intrusions into their lives. The fact that they happen to live (very temporarily one hopes) in the White House is incidental to their parents' campaign for a second (undeserved) term in office.

Now, here's my caveat! You knew there had to be one, didn't you? Their parents, like it or not, ARE fair game and should be caused to answer questions about why on earth a 10-year-old child has to be taken to Spain for her birthday, with an enormous entourage of hangers on and Secret Service protectors. And the Obamas should be held to account for the multitudinous vacations they have taken, the date nights that cost beleagured taxpayers a fortune (and who really believes in this enormous love affair they are supposed to be having?) The endless games of hoops, the golf outings the egredious lack of awareness that the extreme self-indulgence being demonstrated is highly inappropriate when people in this country are losing their life savings and homes because the economy has been so screwed up by this President. Those things need to be discussed, whether or not Zippy is willing or able to discuss them!

PRAYER REQUEST

Mark is going to Charlottsville, Virginia on 5/24 to have yet another brain surgery, this time with a gamma knife which is, I'm told, minimally invasive and which will deal with the new tumor which is about thumb-sized. The entire family will be there with him and I ask that you all join me in praying for this brave man and his stalwart and loving family that they have strength, healing and many future months of happiness.

Waiting For the Other Shoe to Drop

Rumblings indicate that all is not well in the upper echelons of the Iranian government. Apparently Ahmadinejad has royally torked off the Ayatollah Khameini and, as you know, in that nation, religion trumps the secular every time.

I predict that Iran in the next domino to fall - and certainly with no help from our trembling, lily-livered President!

UPDATE: Apparently, I was a good prognosticator. Things seem to be going badly for the raving lunatic who is president of Iran. Read here.

AMATEUR HOUR!

Thanks to the "enhanced interrogation techniques" so decried by the liberal left and the Obama Administration, our pathetic president managed to take credit for killing Osama Bin Laden at long last.

However, ever since that event, this Administration has done nothing but bumble around, opening their mouths when they shouldn't (Joe Biden), revealing the contents of top secret briefings, delivering multiple contradictory accounts of the raid that removed a malevolent cancer from the face of this earth and generally snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

Sometimes, keeping one's mouth shut is the best thing you can say! This is a lesson that the current Administration hasn't and won't learn.

In addition, the President turned his back on Debra Burlingame, sister of the Flight 77 pilot who died on 9/11, when she quite properly asked a question that the MSM is too lazy or too besotted (still) with Zippy and his minions to ask. Why is Eric Holder (an asshat of major proportions) still pursuing an investigation of the CIA for its actions to protect our nation? Osama - I mean Obama - refused to answer and walked away from her which was both churlish and rude!

Has there ever been a more bumptious president? Even Jimmah would show a modicum more class!

WHY I LOVE MY COMMUTE!

I drive 51 miles each way to get to work here in The District. At one end of the commute is my home with my two lovely kitty boys awaiting me and at the other end is an office full of lawyers who are also awaiting the opportunity to chew my guts out on a regular basis. How could you not LOVE the idea of traveling so far for such a daily treat!?

Today it was especially delightful - took over 2 hours because it was raining in Virginia, DC and Maryland. Nobody on the roads had ever seen rain in their entire lives and thus they were unsure of how to cope. Do you drive faster and send spray all over the other cars on the road or do you drive really, really, really slowly and tick off your fellow commuters? Both choices were made and it led to a right mess, let me tell you!

The idea of retirement looks more and more promising!

UPDATE

Osama bin Laden is still dead.

But how he got that way may be a matter of some small debate, according to this article.

Make up your own minds!

GOOD RIDDANCE!

Osama Bin Laden has been confirmed dead as of a week ago! There are lots of rumors swirling around but it appears fairly certain that he was killed in his home in Pakistan and that it wasn't any cave.

Pakistan, in the words of Ricky Ricardo "You've got a lot of 'splaining to do!"

This is a brilliant vindication of the strategy of General Petraeus and makes the George Soros funded goons at MoveOn.org look asinine for their full page ad published several years ago in the Wall Street Journal. Thank God he is moving to the CIA. I feel slightly safer already. We may have an ineffective failure as a President, but this at least was a great choice on his part.

How does it feel to be so damned wrong, you treasonous jerks?

WORLD FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS ROUND-UP

In the ladies' competition there was a lot of butt-ice collisions and in the end, the not-very-exciting but always reliable Miki Ando of Japan won the World Championship for the second time as a result of her very steady performance. The exquisite YuNa Kim of South Korea placed second. Our ladies didn't do very well, although Alissa Czisney did manage to eke out a 5th place finish. When is this young woman going to understand how remarkably talented she is and quit skating with a look of bewilderment on her face. Yes, dear, you DO deserve to be there! Miki's victory was a big shot in the arm for the beleagured nation of Japan.

THE BIG NEWS, the absolutely fantastic news is that Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States made history by becoming the first American ice dancers to EVER win the World Championship. And they did it by outskating in every way their off ice friends and on ice rivals, Virtue and Moir of Canada. The real thrill was the fact that there were TWO American pairs on the medal stand, since the team of Alex and Maia Shibutani of Canton, Michigan, trained by the same coaches as Meryl and Charlie and Tessa and Scott and yet skating in a completely different style than their training mates, placed third in the world in their FIRST World Championships. This brother and sister team are the real deal. They have the edges, the musicality, and the grace and strength to stand them well in coming years! You'll continue to hear good things about all three of these couples since they all are planning - at the moment - to stay in competition until the Olympics in Russia, three years hence.

All in all, it was a great championships.