One of the cars in this year’s Daytona 500 will bear an unmistakable message of support for American-Israeli relations, thanks to a couple of NASCAR fans in Charlotte, N.C.

The No. 49 “America Israel Racing” car will have an American flag and an Israeli flag along with an eagle on the hood when it takes to the track Feb. 26 in Florida.
(…)
“NASCAR is the only sport televised where they pray before every race,” MacCaull said. “They are aligned with racing, religion and patriotism.”

Shirey admitted the sponsorship is expensive, but “being brought up Southern Baptist, I was always taught we stand behind Israel. This is a way I felt I could give back to society. It’s something I believe in.”

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not much into racing, but this definitely got my interest.  A pro-Israel race car?  Now I think that’s pretty cool. 

Happy Valley was in bedlam early today as angry, chanting students ran amok in a bizarre climax to an unforgettable day that ended with the unthinkable: the firing of football legend Joe Paterno.

Chanting “Joe Pa-ter-no!” and “One More Game!” students raced to the stately Old Main administration building to express their anger that the winningest coach in major-college football history was out – fallout from the child-sex scandal involving his former top assistant, Jerry Sandusky.

More than 1,000 students rioted and rallied at Old Main and on frat-house-lined Beaver Avenue. Riot cops, fire trucks and ambulances were on hand after midnight, amid reports that tear gas was being used to disperse the crowd.

Demonstrators overturned a TV news van, toppled street lights, shook stop signs and threw toilet paper. From rooftops and in the streets, they yelled “F— Sandusky!” and “We Want JoePa!”

The campus chaos began shortly after 10 p.m. with the announcement by the board of trustees that Paterno, 84, who had said earlier in the day that he would retire at the end of the season, was instead fired over the phone and denied a chance to end his career on the playing field.

Is football more important than they safety of children? Looking at what has happened, in this case, I can come to no other conclusion. The answer is no. The safety and well being of children are an after thought at Penn State. I question the decision to fire a coach over the actions of the defensive coach, Sandusky. From my understanding, the issue was sent up the chain of command, and then…..nothing. The man should have been arrested when it first came to light, instead of waiting more than ten years.

However, no matter how badly this was handled by the school, there is NO excuse for the behavior of the students!

The Ohio High School Athletic Association and one of its referees has come under fire for a recent decision to penalize Louisville High School after its football team‘s receiver paid tribute to a deceased friend in last Friday’s season opener. It’s a move, and a penalty, that cost the team the game.

After scoring what would have been the game’s winning touchdown — putting the team up 26-24 – Alex Schooley, along with his teammate Gavin Lovejoy, pointed their fingers toward the sky in a commemorative gesture for their friend, Dom Wilgus, 16, who was killed in a car accident the week earlier. It so happened Schooley had also been pallbearer at Wilgus’ funeral that very morning.

The referee, however, considered the gesture a display of excessive celebration and penalized Louisville, giving the opposing team, Walsh Jesuit, excellent field position. Walsh Jesuit ended up scoring a 29-yard field goal to seal the win.

You’ll have to excuse me, but I’d really like to know just when football turned into a game for wusses?  Excessive celebration? I guess kids aren’t suppose to be happy about making a touchdown, right?  Pointing to the sky is excessive celebrating?  How ridiculous can things get?  Gosh, wouldn’t wanna hurt anybodies widdle feewings.  Jumpin’ Jehosephat!

The Packers defeated the Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon thus earning them the opportunity to go to the Super Bowl. By doing so, they saved the Hard-Working, Red-Blooded, Taxpaying Americans literally several million dollars of tax money.   How you say? Simple… we were told that if the Chicago Bears had won, President Obama (and probably his family) would be attending the Super Bowl to cheer on his hometown team.  Since the Bears lost…the President won’t be attending.

The money saved from not using Air Force 1, the limousines, all the additional security, and let’s not forget Michelle Obama’s entourage, is literally several million dollars! Therefore, every American should cheer on the Green Bay Packers at the Super Bowl to show them our gratitude. Oh…and let’s not forget to thank Chicago Bear’s Quarterback Jay Cutler for his role in the Packer’s success! With that said…let everyone know so they can understand why they should cheer for America’s team …The Green Bay Packers!

Shared by Packer fan, Mr Ol’ Broad.

Meredith died at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, a hospital spokesman confirmed this morning. The Meredith family’s attorney, Lisa Fine Moses, said his wife, Susan, and daughter Mary were at his side.

Meredith had battled emphysema in recent years and suffered a minor stroke in 2004.

He was the only living Cowboys Ring of Honor member unable to attend the franchise’s September 2009 inaugural game at Cowboys Stadium.

Meredith was the original Dallas Cowboy, signing a personal services contract on Nov. 28, 1959, two months before the franchise officially gained admittance into the NFL.

I grew up on the Dallas Cowboys. My first exposure to football, was the Cowboys. My dad was a Cowboy fanatic, so, by default, our family became Cowboy fanatics, to a lesser degree. My mom’s all time favorite Cowboy……Dandy Don. One class act!  They just don’t make ‘m like that anymore!

Rest in peace, sir. You’ve earned your place in the Pro-Bowl in the Sky!

A high school football player in Tacoma, Wash., got flagged for dropping to his knee and pointing to the sky after scoring a touchdown during a playoff game.

“It’s just something I do every time I get in the end zone,” said Ronnie Hastie, a Tumwater High School running back. “To honor my Lord because I play for him. I give him the glory because he’s the one that gives me the strength.”

Although Hastie’s strength may be divine, high school referees are apparently not.

He was called for unsportsmanlike conduct, a 15 yard penalty—the same amount of yards a lineman would receive after steamrolling a quarterback well after a play.

There is something seriously wrong in the state of our nation. How is giving glory to God “unsportsmanlike”?  I can imagine anything MORE sportsmanlike!

He apparently broke a Washington Interscholastic Activities Association rule that bans players from drawing attention to themselves.

Who comes up with these rules? Does someone sit down on their socialist ass and decide “Well, that MIGHT offend someone, so it must be made against the rules”? If thanking the Lord for your God given abilities is offensive to ANYONE, then they need to rethink their living arraignments, and find some place else to live!  It is quite obvious to me that the kid was not calling attention to himself, but to his Creator!

“I’ll change it for the team cause they are the most important; we don’t want the penalty,” said Hastie.

Perhaps, instead of this young man bowing to the PC bigots, he, and every other player should bend a knee to give thanks for the gifts they have been given. The 1st Amendment protects these kids, so when are we going to start standing up FOR them, and against the bastardizing of the Constitution?

Let me ask one obvious question in today’s current anti-Christian environment:  If the kid was a Muslim, and did the same thing, would there still have been a penalty for his actions?

The Texas Rangers reached the World Series for the first time, with Vladimir Guerrero driving in three runs and Nelson Cruz homering in a 6-1 win over the New York Yankees on Friday night in Game 6 of the AL championship series.

I’m not a big baseball fan, but I AM a Texan! So, I reckon there’s a little bit of Texas pride going on here.

Tennessee voters this fall will be asked to decide whether hunting and fishing should be a constitutional right, a position already taken in 10 other states.

I could never imagine that the right to hunt would ever be in question. Then again, I never believed same sex “marriage” would be an issue either.

Advocates, including the Tennessee Wildlife Federation, say amending the state constitution will prevent radical animal rights activists and an increasingly urban state legislature from one day shutting down the activities.

Anybody heard of Cass Sunstein?   “We ought to ban hunting, I suggest, if there isn’t a purpose other than sport and fun. That should be against the law. It’s time now.” (source)

But some hunters and non-hunters find the proposal perplexing, saying that hunting and fishing don’t appear to be at risk in Tennessee.

YET! Why let it get that far? Why wait until some whackjob in Obama’s administration with a massive control issue decides to use some obscure, or not so obscure, government agency to ban something that bugs him/her personally. We’ve got so many unelected agencies now running our lives, do we really want to wait till one of them gets a hair up their hinder?

In Michigan, voters banned hunting of the mourning dove in a 2006 referendum. It had been allowed for the first time in that state two years earlier by an act of the Michigan legislature.

Gotta say it! Michigan is full of fools anyway! Oh, there are some rational folks up there, being overrun by the irrational. And I’ll leave it at that.

An official with one of the nation’s high-profile animal activist groups, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which opposes hunting, called such proposals “frivolous.”

These are the folks who think it’s ok to destroy someone else’s property.

Butler insists that the amendment would not affect regulations. “You’ll still have to have a license,” he said. “You’ll still be subject to regulations. It doesn’t allow for any trespassing.

“It will have no impact on private property rights.”

I learned that if you want to shoot a deer on your own property, you still have to have a license. Why? It’s your property. The deer is trespassing. Dinner!

Larry Hillis, owner of Reloader’s Bench, a guns and ammunition store in Mt. Juliet, said he thought the proposal was odd when he first heard about it.

But, after he understood from an advocate that the legislature could prohibit hunting and fishing, he grew more favorable. “On the face of it, I think it’s a good idea,” he said. “I would like to find out more about it before I jump up and down and say I’m for it.”

Many things going on these days are ‘odd’. It’s much better to be safe, than sorry, right?

“If you really want this, postpone it, and get some strong legislation that really protects landowners,” he said. “They pay a lot more in property taxes than hunters pay in licenses.”

Since we do pay property taxes, you’d think that was enough to give us the right to do what we want with our property. Not so. You have to get permission from government entities if you want to make any changes. I’d say an amendment, if it includes protection of the property owner, isn’t such a bad idea.

Bills:
HJR 0149
SJR 0001
SJR0030

As usual, The Tennessean did not provide any information, not even the number of the legislation, or a summary the text of the amendments, so naturally, I had to hunt them up m’self.

OTHER STATES WITH RIGHT

States with a constitutional right to hunt and fish are Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

California and Rhode Island guarantee the right to fish, but not to hunt.

Perhaps if all states allowed their citizens to hunt, SAFELY, there wouldn’t be hungry children. If a person hunts for sport, and not for food, then the meat could quite easily be given to shelters and such. Just sayin’.

When the United States drew England last December as its opening round competition in the World Cup, it should have set the stage for a friendly rivalry of English superstars against American upstarts.

But the BP oil spill and the subsequent American outrage against one of Britain’s most prominent industrial giants has turned the match into somewhat of a proxy battle for the finger-pointing over the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

Seriously? It’s a freakin’ game, and honestly, it has NOTHING to do with the REAL world! The finger pointing is accomplishing nothing, so my advice….KNOCK IT OFF! As best I know, it was a damn accident, and until I find out otherwise, the only people who are to blame are the feckless weasel environazis who refuse to allow drilling at a reasonable depth…like 500 feet, instead of 5000….AND on land! There is plenty of oil to be had!

Tensions in both countries have flared over BP, injecting the soccer face-off with an added layer of competition. The opportunity for revenge and shin-kicking has not gone unnoticed.

For the love of pete. Stop behaving like spoiled children! I repeat….IT’S A FREAKIN’ GAME! Neither the American people, nor the British people, are to blame! Acting like this only makes the players look juvenile, and doesn’t do much for soccer’s image.

On the U.S. side, director Spike Lee — who’s been on the vanguard of outrage over the spill — reportedly told a gathering of New York bloggers the U.S. team should wear shirts that say “BP Sucks” on Saturday. A Facebook page calling for BP “payback” hopes against hope that “our boys will get some retribution in South Africa.”

Spike Lee is a nitwit! 99% of the Hollyweird types are nitwits.

Facing public pressure, Obama has taken a tougher tone toward BP in recent days.

He said earlier in the week that he’d fired BP CEO Tony Hayward and claimed that he was scouting for an “ass to kick.” U.S. senators called on BP to stop dividend payments, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi echoed that call on Friday.

Here’s a clue D’Bama: Hayward may not be anyone’s favorite person right now, but at least he’s had a REAL job. I’ve no doubt, given the chance, he’d fire D’Bama for being an utter incompetent! Come to think of it, odds are, the American people will do just that when the time comes.  Once again, the “U.S. senators” and Nancy Pelosi prove themselves completely clueless.  There are people, both here and in Britain, depending on those dividends.  Neither side of the pond need that man/child spouting his manure, doing more harm than good, as usual!

Question:  What kind of game doesn’t have a clear winner anyway?

Seriously, who cares?

Franklin, the UFC fighter, says he doesn’t know if God cared if he knocked out Travis “The Serial Killer” Lutter in Montreal, Canada. But “it doesn’t hurt to ask.”

“Win or lose, I always thank God for what he’s given me,” says Franklin, an evangelical Christian.

Franklin says he thanks God after victories because he has felt God’s presence in the midst of mixed martial arts battle.

(…)

Athletes who publicly thank God for victory are often calling more attention to themselves than their faith, says William J. Baker, author of “Playing with God.”

They are selling their goodness, and their brand of faith, to a captive audience, says Baker, who describes himself as a Christian.

“I don’t think it’s the right place and it’s not the right gesture,” says Baker, a former high school quarterback. “It’s an athlete using a moment to sell a product, like soap.”

When did the media become so ignorant?  Any place, and EVERY place, is the RIGHT place to thank God, and sing his praises!

2 Samuel 22:50 Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name.

Psalm 50:14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:

Psalm 69:30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

2 Timothy 4:5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

Galatians 6:6 Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.

Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Romans 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

And that’s just a few examples.  We are instructed, by God, to share the Word, to praise him, to proclaim before all, and these people are questioning what players do on the field?  Well, I guess it just proves that some folks haven’t bothered to read the Book.  Kind of like they pass judgments on bills they haven’t read. 

Matthew 19:26
But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

The old adage says that religion and politics don’t mix.  Someone needs to tell FOX Sports writer Jason Whitlock that sports and politics don’t either.  In his February 17 column dedicated to ranking the top ten quarterbacks of all-time, Whitlock made one of the most ridiculous, outrageous, and boneheaded statements any sports reporter has made in a very long time.

Whitlock was describing the game-clinching play of Super Bowl XLIV when Saints defensive back Tracy Porter jumped a route being run by Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne, intercepted quarterback Peyton Manning’s pass, and galloped down the field for a touchdown, securing the Saints win.  For Indiana folks like me, it was heartbreaking.  For the folks of New Orleans…ecstasy.

But Whitlock managed to drive a political wedge into what should have otherwise been left as a thrilling moment of sports history by writing, “A black defensive back outsmarted a beloved white quarterback.  I know. That’s a truth many of you can’t handle. It makes you uncomfortable.”

Ok, so where are Al Sharpton, and the rest of the race baiting bunch on this one?  Does anyone else remember this little tidbit from 2003?

“My comments this past Sunday were directed at the media and were not racially motivated,” Limbaugh said in a statement issued late Wednesday night. “I offered an opinion. This opinion has caused discomfort to the crew, which I regret.”

One comment, made by a white man, obviously NOT racially motivated versus a statement made by a black man, that was most definitely racially motivated.  Can we say ‘double standard’?  I knew we could!  This column was written nearly 2 weeks ago.  Where are the talking heads calling for the resignation of Jason Whitlock from Fox Sports??

Tiger Woods in car accident

Tiger Woods, 33, was seriously injured after being involved in car accident in Central Florida, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Troopers said his 2009 Escalade smashed into a tree on Deacon Circle in Isleworth at about 2:20 a.m. Friday.

Reports say Woods had just pulled out of the driveway at his residence, located at 6348 Deacon Circle. As Woods began to drive on Deacon Circle he struck a fire hydrant and then a tree, reports say.

Woods is listed in serious condition at Health Central Hospital in Ocoee.

Troopers said the crash remains under investigation and charges are pending.

Prayers for a complete recovery.

I have to ask, how in the world did he manage all this at 33mpg?

NFL Picks Week One