Hail Scarlet and the Grey!

My alma mater, Newberry College, the smallest school in the NCAA that plays football, has respectfully told the NCAA to "stick it". Our athletic teams nickname is the "Indians" and as many of you know the NCAA is now selectively enforcing a new rule that bars such names from postseason play or hosting post season play. Like Florida State, Illinois and Utah we appealed. Unlike FSU, IU and UU our appeal was rejected. Let's face it, they are bigger and bring in more money to the NCAA.
NC president, Mitchell Zais has responded both forcefully and respectfully with a request to revisit the appeal. Here are a few excerpts from the response:

...Pay a visit to Newberry. You’ll not find a student dressed in headdress and Indian garb, dancing and gyrating as if possessed. It has been 20 years since any athletic team had a mascot. You won’t find silly cartoons or demeaning caricatures on hats, uniforms, or playing surfaces. Our primary and secondary logos are a spear and arrowhead. The spear is nearly identical to the one used by Florida State University, an institution no longer on your blacklist....

...Furthermore, by ignoring Newberry College’s self-study on this issue and including us on the list of offending schools, the NCAA has declared us incapable of making a fair and ethical decision...

...What’s next? A proscription against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as demeaning to persons of Irish descent? Condemnation of all schools with Crusader nicknames as insulting to Christians or Muslims? Censure of the blue hose-wearing Highlanders of South Carolina’s Presbyterian College as offensive to people of Scottish ancestry? ...

...Already the animal rights groups are lobbying for our nearest neighbor, the University of South Carolina, to remove the “Fighting Gamecock” as its mascot. South Carolina’s legislature recently enhanced the penalties for participating in cockfighting. It’s legal only in Louisiana and New Mexico, two of the fifty states. This mascot pays tribute to unlawful behavior, ostensibly sanctioned by the NCAA. If the NCAA continues along these lines, it won’t be long before special interest activists voice sufficient outrage against the use of any particular mammal, bird, reptile, insect, tree, or weather disturbance to shift that object to the banned mascot list....

Granted, in the grand scheme of things, college mascots are somewhat trivial. It is, however, the proverbial camel getting it's nose in the tent and Dr. Zais' prophecies are probably a lot closer to coming true than many want to acknowledge.

Okay, Okay, I'll Read the Silly Thing

I have thus far resisted reading The Da Vinci Code. Before the chortling gnostics in the crowd start with "What's the matter, scared of being challenged in your faith?", I have resisted it because it has been done before. Anybody remember Holy Blood, Holy Grail? It appears to be another attempt to lay claim that gnosticism is the real Christianity. Now if I am going to discuss this and contribute to the discussion on LaShawn Barber's Corner I am going to have to read the darn thing.

Went as Far as I could Down that Road.

When the President put Harriet Miers' name up for consideration for the SCOTUS I had to admit a bit of surprise, but it was his appointment to make. I tried to give him and her the benefit of the doubt on the matter. I even castigated fellow conservatives for some of their near vitriolic reaction to the nomination.. As time has passed I now find myself unable to support the monination any longer. Her sketchy answers to members of the judiciary committee, the idea she may stop making courtesy calls on the Hill so she can cram for her hearings. I am no longer comfortable at all with the nomination. At first I was concerned with the appearance of cronyism, as this drags on I feel that there is more than just an appearance.
Mr. President, cut your losses and withdraw the nomination.

Perhaps Mr. Kerry would Care to Explain This.

As you may recall, when the Senate was looking into the possibility that there were still American servicemen in Viet Nam it was John Kerry who did everything he could to put a stop to it. He assured us that there were no more. If that is true, then why are the remains of eleven Marines just now getting here?
HT: Michelle Malkin

Amen, Brother Shayne

Being a United Methodist I was more than a little distressed to learn from Wesley Blog that one of our pastors has been named national chaplain for Planned Parenthood. PP is nothing more than a eugenics organization that was founded by Margret Sanger who was in persuit of a racist program of curtailing the number of births to African americans and other groups she deemed "unworthy of life". In addition, their desire to impede the prosecution of pedophiles and statutory rapists (which has led me to parody their name with "Pedophiles' Pal") makes this relationship between a UM pastor wholly inappropriate. I am beginning to think the UM "committment" to the sanctity of life is of the wink-nudge variety.
Cross posted at My Lewisian Pipe Blog

Prez Apparently Asleep at the Switch Again

While I voted for President Bush twice, I am becoming gladder and gladder there is a 22nd Amendment. Those who know me no I do not like the term limit that was written into the Constitution after FDR. This account from Debbie Schlussel proves once and for all that W is no Reagan. Reagan saw the threat posed by Daniel Ortega and risked his presidency to get him out of office in Nicaragua.
Bush, on the other hand is risking his legacy ignoring our boarders and making appointments that are questionable at best (namely Meyers and Miers). I am afraid Schlussel is right, he is looking more and more like Jimmy Carter. Ignoring real threats, going to the mat for people who don't deserve it and leaving himself open to the accusation of cronyism.
W, I want to support you, but you are making it hard these days.

You'd Think He had Nominated Michael Moore

I have been reading with some amusement, and no little bemusement, the reaction to President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to be Associate Justice on the USSC replacing Sandra Day O'Connor. And I am not talking about the reaction from the left. I am tired of the let's-jump-ship-if-we-don't-get-what-we-want mentality among some of my fellow Republicans and/or conservatives. It reminds me of the mentality of the country club Republicans that had a snit a few years back and supported Democrat "Jackpot Jim" Hodges; an incompetent boob if ever there was one.
I have just one question for the whiners: who do you think is your best chance to give you something even close to what you want in a USSC justice? Second, what are you basing your gripes on? It seems to me some of you are letting your imaginations run wild. If the confirmation hearings turn up something objectionable I will react accordingly, but until then let's see what shakes out of the tree and oput away the tar and feathers until we see if they are needed.
Also Read:
My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy