Finally, here it is, the week of the 2009 SEC Championship game. Once again it’s the Florida Gators Vs the Alabama Crimson Tide. Since its creation in 1992, Florida has made 9 appearances and Alabama has made 6. Every time that Alabama has made it to the SEC championship they have been met by Florida. Florida leads the series 4-2 including Florida’s 31-20 win over Alabama just last year. Anyone who follows the SEC, or just either one of these teams, knows that when it comes to a game with this much at stake (just in case you’ve been living off where no sports media can reach you,  this is pretty much the semi-finals for the National Championship). Florida is looking for their quarterback Tim Tebow (2,166 passing yards and 796 rushing yards) and receiver Riley Cooper (703 reception yards) to lead Florida to a 2^nd Straight National Championship. Alabama has some expectations from their leading players too. Alabama’s quarterback Greg McElroy (2,211 passing yards), Mark Ingram (1,429 yards rushing) and Julio Jones (545 receiving yards) are expected to lead the team to their first National Championship title since 1992. Alabama stands with the better offense, but statistically, Florida has the better Defense. Florida has only allowed 233.1 yards per game on defense, holding their opponent to only 9.8 yards per game. Alabama isn’t far behind with only 234.1 yards of defense allowed per game and only 10.8 points allowed per game. The game will take place on Saturday December 5^th 2009 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta at 3:00 P.M. CST.

It should be a battle of the ages in college football’s marquee match-up next week.

Of course I’m talking about the epic SEC championship game. The game will have the top 2 teams in the country, Florida and Alabama. This, in my opinion, is the biggest game of the year by far. These are the “men among boys” teams of college football right now, and it should be a battle to the finish.

Alabama

Mark Ingram and the Crimson Tide stifling, dominant defense have kept Alabama undefeated. They have had a few scares, most recently against a scrappy Tennessee team. But, Alabama has remained unbeaten in the toughest conference in the country. Ingram, who I mentioned early, is the leading Heisman candidate. He is an amazing running back that can give any team major problems. Greg McElroy is an efficient quarterback who, in my opinion, is very underrated.

However, the Crimson Tide hasn’t played a team with the talent that Florida has. Alabama’s defense is great, but Tim Tebow and the rest of the Gator offense will look to find the weaknesses and take advantage. I think Alabama doesn’t have the star power that Florida has.

Florida

You know how I’m going to start this. Tim Tebow is fantastic. He has led Florida to and undefeated season, and a 21 game winning streak dating back to last year. Couple that with Brandon Spikes and the quick Gator defense, and you have a potent one-two punch. Tebow is down to one of his last games in college, and he will undoubtedly be hungry for the win.

The Crimson Tide will be ready to play though. And in no way will this be an easy game for Florida, as all their other games have been. This match up is sure to be a great one.

In the end, I think Florida will win this, and move on to the national title game against, most likely, Texas. My final score: 31-24, the Gators score in the 4^th quarter to break the tie for the big win.

Posted by Ben

Yesterday, I said that I’d say something about College Football today. I haven’t given any thought to what I’m going to to say, only that I should say something. It’s not like a whole bunch of people read this blog, but there could be a time in the future when someone calls me out on something I said I would deliver on, and didn’t.

As I have stressed before, this College Football season is nowhere as good as myself, or anyone that I know, thought it’d be. Respectable veteran teams like Florida, Alabama and Texas have dominated the top 3 spots in the BCS standings since the third week of this season. There have also been some new faces, such as TCU, Cincinnati and Boise State, who have trailed the Top 3 for most of the season. With that being said, one of the Top 3 teams will no longer be a contender for the BCS National Championship after next weekend.

Which one will it be?

Well, either the Florida Gators or the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Yep, you read it right. On December 5th, Florida and Alabama will go head-to-head against one another for the second season in a row (seventh time since 1992; UF leads 4-2) to play for the SEC Championship.

Last year, Florida beat Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide by 11 points. Although the Crimson Tide led Florida 20-17 going into the fourth quarter, Heisman winner Tim Tebow rallied his team with two 60-plus touchdown drives to win the game 31-20.

What will happen this year? It’s too close to call coming into the final week of this season. The Heisman race between Alabama’s running back Mark Ingram and Texas QB Colt McCoy is heating up, and Ingram’s performance will very well have an effect on the outcome of this game.

But it doesn’t stop there.

No one can forget about Florida senior Tim Tebow, as he tries for another shot at winning his second Heisman Trophy. Wrapping up the last game of his collegiate career with a 37-10 win over Florida State, Tebow is looking to leave his legacy with a second Heisman and his third National Championship title.

Mark Ingram and Co. are picking up where they left off last season; before their loss to Florida in the SEC Championship. They’re looking to reestablish their football program as the best in the nation, and I think that Mark Ingram’s 1,429 rushing yards , combined with Greg McElroy’s 2,211 passing yards and 138.7 passer rating, is key to their success.

Alabama’s secondary needs to concentrate on Florida’s wide receivers Riley Cooper and Aaron Hernandez. Both players have over 650 yards receiving this season, Cooper with 8 TDs and Hernandez with 4.

Florida’s run game is an unstoppable force as well. Running back Jeffery Demps has rushed for 729 yards, averaging 7.7 yards per carry. Not only that, but Tim Tebow surpassed Herschel Walker’s SEC record with 56 career rushing TDs, and 796 rushing yards this season.

It’s going to be a tough matchup this weekend at the Georgia Dome. With all these stats that each team is bringing to the table, you can definitely expect a low-scoring game.

As for the National Championship game, #3 Texas is looking to beat Nebraska in the Big12 Championship game on Saturday. This will be the third time since 1996 where these two teams have matched up. The series is tied 1-1, with Nebraska winning their last game in 1999, 22-6.

The Longhorns narrowly escaped defeat last weekend against Texas A&M, who held them to only 10 points in a 49-39 final. Considering the Big 12 Championship is on the line, both Nebraska and Texas will put on a hell of a show all the way to the end.

Who do I think plays in the BCS National Championship?

Alabama & Texas

In choosing a print-on-demand vendor there was one factor that sealed the decision for my client.  Namely, with Ingram’s Lightning Source he gained an instant in-road to nearly every bookstore and library in the country with Ingram’s distribution arm.  Through Ingram’s iPage, bookstore and libraries can order our books instantly.  Of course, just because they can, doesn’t mean they will.  We still have to aggressively get the word out about ourbook.  Ingram also offered a number of add-on marketing services like e-mail blasts to up to 10,000 retail accounts and 16,500 library accounts, podcast & trailer creation, a browse & buy html page and embeddable widget and advertising in Ingram’s trade publications like the monthly Advance Magazine.  We opted to create our own trailer, but did take advantage of the browse & buy widget and e-mail blasts to targeted group of buyers.  The bottom line is that availability through Ingram means over 26,000 bookstores and libraries could potentially stock our title.

In addition to printing through Lightning Source my client chose to work with a publishing partner called Wingspan Press to interface with Ingram as well as handle details like securing ISBN numbers, Library of Congress number and bar code, listing the title with online retailers and with Books In Print, assisting with interior/cover layout and more.  We retain full rights and have the choice of publishing under our own imprint.   Couldn’t we have done all of these things ourselves?  Of course, but off-loading some of the grunt work allowed myself and the author to focus more on marketing and publicity.  The end result is professional packaging and design to compliment an already stellar manuscript.

It’’s not difficult for the average self-published author to rack up north of $10,000 to bring a book to market.  When setting a budget there’s certainly a balance to be struck between spending enough to “do it right” and paying through the nose for ancillary services and set-up costs.  I think we’ve hit the mark, but time will tell.  So far, we’re pleased with our publishing partner and print-on-demand vendor.

Black Friday will actually be “lucky Friday” for those who head to Old Ingram Loop on Friday. Southwestern Elegance offers a blockbuster sale – 50% off all regular priced merchandise – awesome stuff! Home furnishings, jewelry, art, furniture, Mexican craftware and more.

Shopkeeper Cynthia Anderson says people line up just waiting for this once-a-year sale. The store is closed until Friday to make preparations. New inventory has just been added.

Pictured here is a stunning teak, copper, and iron vent. Regular price $398 – now half price!

Old Ingram Loop is located 5 miles west of downtown Kerrville. Check out the other fine stores on the Loop while you’re there, including Sorella’s, Clint Orms Silversmiths, Horsefeathers and Copper Cactus.

www.southwesternelegance.com

Not the cornucopia of upsets we had last week, but if you thought there was nothing to talk about in college football, then you could not be more wrong. Florida and Alabama held serve and will meet in the SEC Championship game as, in all likelihood, undefeateds. Let’s get to some of the games before turning to the BCS and Heisman races.

Iowa 24, Ohio State 27

I called the Ohio State win, but I did not think it would be so painfully close for the Scarlet and Grey. If not for the special teams hiccup, it might not have gotten so close, but special teams are part of the game and Ohio State’s blunder almost cost them dearly. However, Ohio State pulled it out and can book their plane ticket to Pasadena to play in the Rose Bowl. Who they will play remains cloudy as Oregon is leading the Pac-10 but still has games against Arizona (a very good team) and Oregon State (good and a rival) remaining. Stanford has been extremely impressive, including a rout of USC in Los Angeles, but will need help from Oregon to win the Pac-10. All that stands between them and the Rose Bowl is Cal (a rival) and Notre Dame (talented despite sucking). Oregon State is in the same boat as Stanford in that they need a little help to win it, but instead of needing Oregon to lose, they need Stanford to lose since they still have to play Oregon. Any of these teams could win the Pac-10 and conceivably Arizona is still in the mix too. Crazy race.

Stanford 55, USC 21

One of the most underrated RBs in America

See above paragraph for Pac-10 race info, but Stanford was impressive. I picked them to cover, but never did I think they would score 27 in the 4th quarter to run USC out of their own building. Toby Gerhart might be the best white running back in the NFL since John Riggins. I know it sounds crazy, but he was the last white running back to be really successful in the NFL. Not being racist or anything like that, just making the observation that there have been 0 good white running backs since Riggins. Gerhart is that good though, he is built for the NFL and will be an impact player for a team like, let’s say, Green Bay, Tampa Bay or Buffalo. He is the real deal, keep an eye out for him.

TCU 55, Utah 28

I didn’t need to tell you that TCU was good, but I was trying to tell you just how good they really are and they wentoutand proved it. They are fast, they can run it and throw it, they run adefense that no one really knows how to deal with, and they can get after the QB. What else could you possibly want? They could hang in there with any tea

So awesome

m in the country. ANY. You don’t want to face this team. On top of all that, they are wearing the jerseys that were promoted in this awesome Adrian Peterson commercial. Scary and awesome, just like the Horned Frogs.

It might seem obvious, but I feel the need to say one more time for everyone that the Horned Frog is one of thebest mascots in college football. Intimidating, exotic and regionally relevant. Kudos.

The Rest

Arizona, Miami, and Houston all fell this week, with two of those (Arizona and Houston) just about ousting themselves from conference title races. I called the UNC upset of Miami, but it was not all that surprising given how inconsistent Miami is and how underrated UNC is at home. Pitt, Cincinnati, LSU and BYU all survived scares against inferior opponents. The final verdicts from the games were fairly predictable too. Pitt is good, but not that good as they struggled with a mediocre Notre Dame team. LSU is talented but always struggles at weird times. Cincinnati is not elite, but is very good, and BYU is just another team with good players. Frankly, no one cares too deeply about these teams. Cincinnati is probably the best among them, but we will know when Cincy and Pitt hook up later this year. That one will be for a BCS bid.

BCS Bowl Predictions (My pick in Italics)

BCS Championship Game

Florida (SEC Champ) v. Texas (Big 12 Champ)

Rose Bowl

Ohio State (Big Ten Champ) v. Oregon (Pac-10 Champ)

Orange Bowl

Georgia Tech (ACC Champs) v. LSU (SEC at-large)

Fiesta Bowl

TCU (MWC Champs, BCS at-large) v, Boise State (WAC Champs, BCS at-large)

Sugar Bowl

Alabama (SEC at-large) v. Cincinnati (Big East Champs)

A quick note on these picks. I really hope they have Boise and TCU split up so TCU plays Alabama and Cincinnati or LSU plays Boise, but I have a feeling they will get lumped together. I would like nothing more than to see the other matchups, but the BCS has a way of screwing the public over, so it might just be TCU v Boise. It’s a shame, it really is.

Heisman Race

The perfect name for a Texas QB and the perfect ending to a great college career.

1. Colt McCoy
2. Tim Tebow
3. Mark Ingram
4. Kellen Moore/ Andy Dalton
5. Jimmy Clausen

McCoy has really stepped it up lately and has a legitimate shot at this thing this time around. Ingram has the numbers, but I have a feeling that the loss to Florida in the SEC Championship game is going to kill his chances. Tebow and McCoy will get the undefeated bump that Ingram will not, bumping him to third. The guys in 4th are extremely good, but have not gotten the publicity needed to make a real run at the Heisman. Clausen will probably make the trip to New York instead of them simply because of publicity, but it is really a three-horse race.

CLOWN OF THE WEEK: The NFL. The NFL fined Chad OchoCinco $10,000 for offering a referee a one dollar bill in a joking manner and saying, “Come on can I get a call?” That is funny, I don’t care what the NFL says. The NFL needs more guys like Chad, as long as it is happy Chad instead of mopey Chad, which we have seen the last few years.

Once again were not talking about the NFL, were looking again at the Crimson Tide of the University of Alabama. Tonight the Tide takes on the Bulldogs of Mississippi State in Starkville before a sold out crowd. Dan Mullen (the former offensive coordinator for Urban Meyer) took over the head coaching job for the bulldogs this year, bringing the Florida spread offense with him. Alabama player are hoping to use this game to help prepare them for the SEC Championship game since Florida is still running the same type offense (Just sub Anthony Dixon, Miss. St. Powerhouse back, with Tim Tebow). Don’t let this fool you. Alabama is still focusing hard on the Bulldogs. While they may not admit it openly, every player knows that one loss could cost them a shot at the National Championship. Typically against a spread type offense, Alabama head coach Nick Saben has used the nickel and dime packages, rather then the typical 3 – 4 defense he runs, meaning nose tackle Terrance Cody would spend time off field. With this game there are rumors of just leaving the big man Mt. Cody in the game. With the speculation between the coaches, look for Mississippi State to employ some offensive maneuvers slightly different from the playbook and some defensive line ups that have not been seen before from the Crimson Tide.

Rolling around to my opinion of it all…. Alabama has had a bad habit of not playing on the national championship level that there team really is. The Tide has a tendency to bring their game down to the level of the team they are playing (see: Alabama vs. South Carolina and Alabama vs. Tennessee). I’m hoping that Alabama bring the running game with them. Mark Ingram is a fantastic back who can get the ball up field to move the chains. Quarterback Greg McElroy proved to be a lot better with the passing game last week but seemed to really be over throwing his target A LOT. If McElroy can settle down and make his assignments and the offensive line give him time to get his passes off, I think we stand to see a good passing game. If Mark Ingram can continue to get at least four yards a carry in combination with McElroy, I see no reason why Alabama could not cover the spread. Alabama has also had some issues in the red zone. (see past 3 games and you might see it) but fortunately we’ve had our field goal kicker Leigh Tiffin who has pretty much been a machine when it comes to getting the ball between the uprights (I got to give it to this kid, he has greatly improved since he first came on the scene choking at every important field goal attempted during the season). As long as Alabama plays their typical hard core defense and stops the run game, and the offense pulls together to move the ball down field and finishes in the red zone, Alabama should have no trouble beating the Bulldogs. The game will be at 7 ET/ 6 CT on ESPN.

Il giorno sabato 17 ottobre si sono tenute due inaugurazioni di negozi Ingram franchising. Le nuove aperture sono quelle di La Valletta (Malta), a cui hanno partecipato anche gli sbandieratori di San Sepolcro. L’altro negozio inaugurato è quello monomarca di Spilimbergo (PN).
Prosegue la crescita del franchising di camicie Ingram che continua ad esportare il proprio stile inconfondibile e ad espandere la propria rete di affiliati.

Contatta direttamente il franchising Ingram
http://www.okfranchising.it/

Posted by Guest Contributor alpolitics from Progressive Electorate

Today the Tea Party Express rolled into Birmingham, Alabama – my hometown. Probably not a big surprise to anyone. But I’m absolutely shocked at the display that occurred in Kelly Ingram Park – right in the middle of the historic Civil Rights museum. Within feet of the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum and the 16th Street Baptist Church – where four little girls were killed on September 15, 1963. In the middle of Kelly Ingram Park where Dr. Martin Luther King and Fred Shuttlesworth organized demonstrations for real freedom. Where Bull Connor turned the firehouses and dogs on children.

Here’s Kelly Ingram Park on May 3, 1963

Here was Kelly Ingram Park on November 9, 2009

One man had the audacity to say:

“I’m here for freedom,” said Pinson resident Tim Emala. “We need to get back to the Constitution. We seemed to have strayed away from it. The politicians need to read it.”

You are talking about freedom in the same place that people marched because they were forced to sit on the back of the bus, and use separate restrooms and attend separate schools. This could have been held anywhere in Birmingham but it was held in the cradle of the Civil Rights District. Where people marched and protested for real rights. And now they are protesting against health care which should be a right not a privilege.

You had this stupid rally using kids as props within a stones throw of where four little girls died simply because of the color of their skin.

Here are some images of statutes that are actually in the park to memorialize the significance of what occurred in the park during the 1960’s and the civil rights movement.

The three ministers statue in Kelly Ingram Park representing N.H. Smith, John T. Porter and A.D. King, who led a sympathy march on Palm Sunday in 1963 in support of jailed civil rights leaders: Revs. Martin Luther King Jr., Fred Shuttlesworth and Ralph Abernathy

This sculpture is dedicated to the foot soldiers of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement who braved the dogs.

A statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. looking towards the 16th Street Baptist Church.

Charlene Cannon of Birmingham does a good job summing up her feelings, mine and I hope yours…

“They say they’re against taxation, it looks like it’s a No-Obama rally. My thing is they could have had this anywhere else other than Kelly Ingram Park”

Please check out the poignant video of Ms. Cannon here. More pictures from today can be viewed here. Another slide show here.

Related Articles

Tea Party Express makes stop in Birmingham’s Kelly Ingram Park

44-D Update

Alabama Republican gubernatorial hopeful Tim James attended the 32nd stop on the Tea Party Express national bus tour in Birmingham, Alabama. From the picture he looks as if he thoroughly enjoyed today’s Tea Party Rally in the Civil Rights district. It would be interesting to know what comment he has about the rally being held in such a hallowed place.

There really was not a whole lot to talk about in College Football this week, so what better time than now to talk about the Heisman Trophy? There were a few upsets, which we will talk about, but it has been an unusually quiet week in college football. Everyone has about the same list of candidates for the Heisman, but you will probably get some picks here you will not expect. But first, let’s cover the upsets that did happen.

Quack Attack!

Birds of a feather sometimes wear a million different colors.

Once again, USC came into Eugene and left with a whooping. As called on this site, specifically on this page, the red-hot Ducks were way too much for USC to handle. They did whatever they wanted on offense, and if USC didn’t like it, the Ducks did it anyway. USC was effectively knocked from BCS with this loss, and may have lost its shot to win yet another Pac-10 championship. This USC team is different from the USC reams of the last few years in the sense that they do not just find a way to win like the USC teams of the past did. They have still done it (Ohio State comes to mind), but not as consistently as before. They are probably looking at a Holiday Bowl berth at this point with a Rose Bowl berth highly unlikely (essentially 2.5 games back of Oregon in conference). They could get bumped up simply for being USC, but at this point that looks like the best they could do.

Oregon, on the other hand, is hotter than Tabasco Sauce inside a habanera pepper on top of a volcano. Since the beat down in Boise, the Ducks have been nothing short of spec-quack-ular, winning games and making it look easy, even against quality competition. They beat now ranked Utah, blew then #6 Cal to smithereens and beat Washington, in Seattle, 43-19. The only games really standing in their way are a game at Arizona, which is a quality team, and against Oregon State in the Civil War. If they can navigate those games with only 1 loss they should cruise to a Rose Bowl berth, and if they can win both, they can rise even higher. They will probably be ranked #7 or so after this game so with a few breaks they could easily sneak their way into the top 4 by the end of the season. Impressive stuff out of a team that looked pretty bad in Boise to start the season.

Other Games

Texas rolled Oklahoma State. Not even close; sorry for bothering you with such an awful prediction on that one. VT fumbled away a game quite literally down at Chapel Hill when they fumbled a punt inside their own 20 with under 2 minutes left. Oof. “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” turned into “The World’s Most Widely Witnessed SEC Spanking” as Florida rolled. Miami once again played down to the level of their opponent before eeking one out over Wake Forest. Numerous other overrated teams fell this week, such as Ole Miss, South Carolina, and West Virginia, but if they are so overrated, why talk about them, right? Let’s get to some more individual looks.

Heisman Watch

The following guys are, in order, the most likely to win the Heisman this year.

1. Tim Tebow- Captain America will get some extra credit for probably going undefeated and putting up outstanding numbers. He will get the extra bump for being, in all likelihood, undefeated and his leadership. Fair or not, that is definitely a part of the voting. Tebow will win his second Heisman Trophy.

2. Colt McCoy- He has really picked it up as of late and after beating Oklahoma State, they should go undefeated. I think they are a flawed team, but they sure looked good this week and have no major obstacles left on their schedule. He will get the undefeated boost too, but his numbers against the better competition has not been stellar.

3. Mark Ingram- It is rare that a running back sneaks into the discussion in the era of the spread offense, but Ingram has a shot. Alabama has undeniably been riding their horse to their current unbeaten mark and will have to continue to until they can figure out the quarterback position. Ingram’s numbers are undoubtedly elite, but teams will start putting 9 in the box and as a result, his numbers will not quite be good enough to roll to a Heisman Trophy.

4. Jimmy Clausen- What a difference a few years can make. When Jimmy Clausen arrived in South Bend, he made a living out of being beaten to a pulp by defenses, as the offensive line was in shambles, and running from defensive ends. Now he is making his living throwing the ball all over the field and being among the most efficient passers in the country (2nd) and a leader in touchdowns (T-7th) and yardage (12th). And he is doing this in a pro-style offense, not a spread or Hawaii-style offense. He has done wonders for his draft stock, but I have a feeling he is staying in school. There is a rookie salary cap in place if he stays, but I think he has unfinished business and he wants to finish.

5. Case Keenum- The other name that could have gone here was Boise State’s Kellen Moore, but I think the competition he faces in the WAC will hold him back. You cannot argue with Keenum’s numbers but he will get some backlash for being a “system quarterback”. Isn’t the idea to create a system quarterback? Anything to get your offense going, right? I am not sure about this whole system QB thing, but he will get in trouble for it.

This morning whilst driving into Wellington, Adam heard Sean Plunket interview Bill English over the Auditor-General’s report on his ministerial housing allowance. Mr Plunket opened with a question asking Mr English whether he regarded himself as vindicated. Now Bill English did not respond saying Yes or No, nor did he use the word vindicated. Instead he responded as to what the report said.

Yet in a news bullettin a little later, there was a headline saying Bill English regarded the report as vindication. At the least sloppy reporting, but someone more prone to paranoia and conspiracy theory might infer that RNZ was attempting to link the Auditor-General outcome with that of the Ingram inquiry where from memory Philip Field supposedly regarded himself as vindicated. That of course cannot be the case, as noted only a paranoid conspiracist would think that.

The Internet Archive has launched the BookServer project: an open system for finding, buying, and borrowing digital books over the Internet.

At our launch event on Monday, the Internet Archive demonstrated how the BookServer ecosystem could be used to deliver books several e-book readers, including the OLPC laptop, the Amazon Kindle, the iPhone, the Sony Reader, and the Humanware VictorReader Stream, a talking eReader for the blind and print-disabled.

The Internet Archive also announced it was making all 1.6 million public domain books on archive.org available in EPUB and Daisy talking book formats, to better support e-book devices.

To help develop BookServer, the Internet Archive partnered with OLPC, Aldiko, ThreePress, Pixel Qi, Inkmesh, FLOSS Manuals, University of Toronto Libraries, LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Shortcovers, Feedbooks, O’Reilly Media,  Adobe, Bluefire Productions, Humanware, Ingram, Lexcycle, author Katie Hafner, and many others.

We were pleased that so many partners could join us on Monday for the BookServer launch party. For those who couldn’t attend, the Follow the Reader blog has an excellent article detailing the BookServer launch.

Resource Shelf has an extensive overview of BookServer media coverage. Thanks to everyone who helped develop and launch the BookServer ecosystem! If you are an author, publisher, book seller, device maker, library, or a reader, please help us in building an open ecosystem for online books!

The news media today contains very little straight news; the Wall Street Journal and the Christian Science Monitor are two possible exceptions. If you, dear reader, know of any better sources of straight news, please leave a comment.

Many if not most reporters today seem to take on the role of commentator and/or news analyst; they no longer report — they either quote selectively or supply their own slant to stories. I admit that I do some of that but I’ve never claimed to be a reporter, I just attempt to be an “influencer” and sometimes try to stir up passions through occasionally outrageous rhetoric that reflects my personal, mostly Conservative world view.

Speaking of influencers, Conservative radio talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingram and Mark Levin make me look like the amateur I am; these are professional influencers! Many people (millions) listen to them every day and most of them probably take every word they say as gospel even though its obvious that they often tweak facts and omit other facts to make their arguments more persuasive . . . then again, maybe its not that obvious to the majority of their listeners. The twisted reality is that Conservative leaning people like most of their listeners (and me) will readily overlook their prevarications because in the end their message may be the ‘Right’ one, but it is also, in our opinion, the right one for America.

After all, when your Right, your right!

Aside from twisting facts to suit their needs, these Right-wing radio hosts have other annoying on-air habits. Rush Limbaugh has the largest audience and is without a doubt the most influential radio host today but his constant bragging and his well-fed ego has the effect of making me switch channels. The other three I mentioned have the annoying habit of constantly interrupting or talking over their guests and their callers; especially guests and callers that disagree with them — Laura Ingram however, talks over everyone, even those who share her point-of-view and her voice is so shrill that I don’t last long there either. Sean Hannity will subtly change the subject when a caller makes a point and then will badger the caller about some inconsequential point or insist on a yes or no answer to a leading question until its time for a commercial or a hard break. Mark Levin is simply caustic! Levin may be the most Constitutionally literate of all the radio hosts but he is a short-tempered name caller; “jerk,” “putz,” and “idiot” are his favorites but they are just three of many he uses to describe people who disagree with him.

I can’t say much about Liberal radio hosts because the only Libs on the radio in the Dallas area seem to be on NPR (National Public Radio) and when I tune in I always manage to catch some Brit talking about some rebellion in some Commonwealth. I’m sure however that there are plenty of Left-wing talk shows out there in radio land and I would wager that the avid listeners of Left-wing radio hosts exhibit the same blind spots for non-factual facts and half-truths as we on the Right do. I’m not sure how that works but it seems that when you’re Left you are also right!

It’s an interesting enigma isn’t it? When someone is saying or doing things that support your world view, little things like twisted facts, partial truths, out-of-context quotes and annoying mannerisms are as inconsequential as sunshine in July.

1959

Point Outdoor Theatre 2009

Where:  Ingram    The Hill Country Arts Foundation will mark the culmination of its year-long 50th anniversary celebration with a Black Tie Masked Ball on Saturday, October 24, 2009 from 6 p.m. to 1 am.  The Black Tie Masked Ball will be on the Hill Country Arts Foundation’s Guadalupe riverside campus under an autumn crescent moon.   The event will include fine dining – four courses prepared and served by Sodexho;  a live band – Jazz Blues, and Diamonds;  dancing on the outdoor stage,  walking tours of the facilities,  and silent and live auctions.

The Ball will celebrate 50 years of visual and performing artistic activity and the vision of  “a small group of people, united by their love of the Hill Country’s beauty and appreciation of the arts, who dreamed of creating a place for arts education, exhibition, and performance—a place where families could explore together their individual talents,” says Elizabeth Loggie, HCAF Vice President of performing arts. She adds that this is a great opportunity to gather together to commemorate and renew a commitment to the arts in the Hill Country and that the community’s involvement will truly spark the magic for another 50 years! 

Lane Tait, HCAF Board President, encourages participation for this monumental celebration and praises the mission of the HCAF. “For a half-century, Hill Country residents—as well as those who wish they were—have enjoyed arts education and entertainment at the Point Theatre and its visual arts center. You may even be one of the many whose love of live theatre, painting, music, and dance was born when you were a child participating in the HCAF’s youth programs. I hope you’ll join us as we celebrate 50 years of art in the Hill Country.”

 The Hill Country Arts Foundation is currently securing Ball sponsorships that range from $250 to $15,000. It will soon send out invitations for the event. Reservations are required with assigned dinner seating. General admission to the Ball is $100 per person.  Contact the HCAF if you would like to be a part of the celebration as a sponsor, to receive an invitation, or want to reserve your place at the Ball.  For additional information, please contact Chris Huber or Rosanne Thrall in the HCAF office.

The Hill Country Arts Foundation is located at Hwy 39, Ingram

830-367-5121   www.hcaf.com

Ingram is located about 70 miles NW of San Antonio in the heart of the Texas Hill Country.    It abuts Kerrville, where a variety of accommodations are available.  For visitor information,  refer to:  www.kerrvilletexascvb.com 

# # #

Estilo plataforma pero con una muñeca algo armada,
Tiene buenos graficos y buena musica. Creo que es realmente muy poco conocido.
Se utilizan dos teclas la Z para disparar y la X para saltar.
Plataforma-Vertical, siempre para arriba.

Requerimientos Minimos:
* Supported OS: Windows® XP or Vista
* Processor: 1GHz or faster
* Memory: 256+MB RAM
* Video: Any 3D graphics accelerator less than 5 years old
* DirectX® Version: 9.0c

link:
http://depositfiles.com/files/pjcdd8yaq

Un filete me manda hacer John Craken,
que en mi vida me he visto en este brete;
quinientos gramos dicen que es filete:
Zampa zampando tengo yo buen saque.

Yo pensé que no hallara restaurante
y estoy a la mitad de otro banquete;
más si lo puedo cortar con un machete
no hay cosa en los filetes que me espante.

Por el primer filete voy zampando
y parece que está muy poco hecho
pues más que tener jugo, está sangrando.

Ya voy por el segundo, y aun sospecho
que estoy poniéndome como un normando:
contad si era ternera y buen provecho.

Ingram

• Blog

Ingram

• Blog

Well we have been back at it again and got more surnames up  to look threw.  Here are some of the new ones we have added.

Heagy     Hauk       Herrell     Hoard      Inabinett      Ingram     Jolley     Keister     Koss      Maddox      Glabraith

We have been adding more to the common names two. To see if we have what you need go to http://www.headstonesgenealogy.com/search.php  and check it out.