Same Old Cougars

It was supposed to be different this year. The offense was returning 7 starters, including Mountain West Offensive MVP, John Beck and 1000 yard rusher Curtis Brown. They had depth at running back, and arguably two of the best tight ends in the country. The defense was adjusting to make use of the talent at linebacker, and to give more help to the weak secondary. All of this was supposed to make this BYU’s year. Now it still may be, and these factors may pan out, but in the first game of the season against University of Arizona, BYU lost the same way it has been losing for the last 4 years. Turnovers and penalties.
BYU started with a good looking pass to tight end Johnny Harline, good for 11 yards before he was stripped of the ball and Arizona recovered the fumble. The defense remarkable held and looked pretty good, and Arizona came away with only a field goal. Simply rust, that was the explanation. BYU’s offense would look better on the next drive. But the game didn’t go the way it was supposed to. BYU couldn’t establish a running game, so the pressure was on John Beck to win the game, something that Beck hasn’t been great at as a starter. He performed well enough passing for nearly 300 yards, but only 1 touchdown. Beck didn’t throw any interceptions, but was forced to fumble the ball late in the game, stopping another BYU drive.
Other drives by BYU were stopped by foolish penalties, such as offensive pass interference, holding calls, and many false starts. The discipline that BYU was supposed to get, wasn’t there. They had 10 penalties for 76 yards, and many of those were costly drive stopping penalties. One took away a touchdown. Another took away an interception, and all hurt their field position.
The defense played much better than expected, holding Arizona to one touchdown and 3 field goals. Cameron Jensen was credited with one interception, because his first was taken away by a defensive holding call.
Maybe they will turn the season around, and maybe they can win the Mountain West, but if the Cougars continue to play like this, with too many penalties and turnovers, this season doesn’t look to much different than any of the last 4.

Crying at Movies

I was listening to the radio the other day, and the DJ’s were talking about movies that guys cry at. One of the guys said that he never cries or has cried at a movie. The other admitted too much stating that he cries all the time at movies. Then the radio show proceeded to take a number of calls from men admitting to crying in different movies. One caller stated that he cried when he watched Ladder 49.
Many men will tell you that they cried in Brian’s Song, and also in Rudy. As a man, I am willing to accept that there are certain movies in which a man may cry. This does not give a man license to cry in any movie of his choosing. That is never OK. The general rule is that a man MAY NOT cry in a movie. I repeat that for emphasis, a man MAY NOT cry in a movie. Now that we have the rule, we look to the few exceptions in which a man may cry. These would be affirmative defenses to the rule.
The movie Brian’s Song, is an acceptable movie during which a man may cry. Rudy is not. The premise of Rudy is that a short no talent average Joe walks on to the Notre Dame football team and gets to play in the last game of his senior season. Nothing sad happens, and no one dies. The emotion that it evokes is joy. There is no excuse for a man to be crying during a movie because he is overwhelmed by joy. The only reason to cry is based upon sad emotion.
The list of movies couldn’t be any bigger than 5 long. I can’t think of all the movies, but I am sure that there can’t be any more than that. Another movie that I am willing to concede is Braveheart. There, throughout the length of the movie, the audience creates a strong bond with the character of William Wallace, and at the end he is tortured and killed. That is a very emotional scene and may give grounds for a man to cry.
But just because someone dies, even a main character, in a movie doesn’t give a man a right to cry. The man who cried during Ladder 49, probably needs to go and put on his skirt. That is not on the short list of movies at which a man may cry. The movies on this short list need to evoke such a sadness over a man and do it in a manly way. The movie itself needs to be manly. The two movies that I have conceded fall into these boundaries. They are manly movies that evoke an sad emotion in a manly way. Should a man CHOOSE to cry during these movies, he would be excused. Finally, I need to state that a man never need to cry in a movie, and in nearly all cases should not cry. A man is guilty if he cries in a movie and is only excused if the movie is on the short list.

United States vs. Czech Republic

The game begins. The US is wearing blue. The keeper for the US is one of the best in the world they say. Keller, the keeper, keeps a shut out for most of his games. The refs are calling a lot against the US so far and it’s only 2 minutes into the game.
US gets a shot on goal, just a bit too high. Finally a foul on the Czechs. Another foul on the US. The ref gives yellow card on Onyewu. That was dumb. Had a smaller player done the same thing, it would have been nothing, but because he is big, he gets a card.
The Czech’s score off a header. The are dominating the game so far. The US needs to be more aggressive. Score 1-0 for the Czechs, in the 6th minute.
The Czechs are ranked second in the world behind Brazil. This should be a tough game for the US, but I still think they can do it.
Another shot on goal, with a great save by the Czechs. Donovan had a good run going with the ball, when one of the Czechs knocked him down. That was clearly a foul. And the ref recognizes it and give a yellow card.
Big shot opportunity that was off the bar. Almost for the US. There it goes again, another goal for the Czechs. This is not good for the US. The US are not looking good right now. I hope that it is just because the Czechs are that good. I hope the US can put this behind them and play better for the rest of the Cup. I guess there is still time to come back in this game, but being down 2-0 is not an easy thing to overcome.
Koller of the Czechs goes down. It looks like a hamstring. He is injured pretty bad, he may not be coming back. This may give the United States a chance to come back. But I do hope Koller is OK.
The Czechs are still dominating the game. They haven’t scored again, but the US can’t seem to control the ball, and their players are doing nothing.
The Czechs score again, and that pretty much ends this game. The US has very little chance of coming back now. In fact, next to no chance. There is not enough time. The US needs to put this game behind them and focus on their next two games against Ghana and Italy. If they win both of those games, they should be moving on. They need to play a lot better though.

England v. Paraguay

It’s 9:00 a.m. I have already showered and dressed for the day. I have a plan to watch the third game of the 2006 World Cup.. I turn on the TV and the game begins. England versus Paraguay. I am definitely favoring England in this match. I am more familiar with the English team. Only minutes into the game, David Beckham gets a free kick. It goes into the goal. Beckham has scored. No, now there are saying that it was an own goal on Paraguay. I guess one of the guys from Paraguay headed it in off Beckham’s kick. It was a great looking kick anyway.
Now the keeper for Paraguay is injured and needs to come out. I hope for Paraguay that their number 2 keeper is decent.
I’m starting to feel hungry, so I’m going to go and make some pancakes. I’ll be back.
Second half begins. The score remains 1-0 in favor of England. Paraguay is being a lot more aggressive here in the second half. I am starting to like Crouch from the English team. He’s like 6'7" and towers over everyone. He seems to have good footwork too.
There seems to be a lot of penalties in this match. That’s the 3rd yellow card that’s been given out. This lone to Crouch. He got it for arguing with the ref. That’s a stupid penalty. Now if he is a bit too aggressive on a play and gets another, he’s in trouble.
One of the English players was dribbling the ball down field when a guy from Paraguay threw him to the ground. No call on the play. That was bad officiating.
Time is running out for Paraguay. Now in the 89th minute. There is only two minutes left. A great shot on goal for England and a good looking save for Paraguay.
Were it not for the own goal, this could have been a nil-nil tie. That’s no fun at all. But I think that goal was going in one way or another. Beckham deserved that goal.
2 minutes of stoppage time. We’ll see if Paraguay can do anything in the 2 minutes. Time is running out. That’s the game. England wins the game 1-0. Congratulations to the Brits.

Are you ready for the madness?

The world is about to fall into a state of madness. Countries are going to be battling each other relentlessly, and rivalries and old hatreds will be renewed. Everywhere around the world, people will be watching their televisions wondering who will come out ahead in this battle. Everywhere but in America. The biggest sport in the world is not the biggest sport in America. It’s not even the second biggest sport. On the list of popularity in America, this sport ranks somewhere around the same place as hockey. The sport is of course, Soccer, or Football everywhere else in the world. The battle going on is, of course, the World Cup.
America doesn’t much care for Soccer, or Football. They even changed the name from Football to Soccer. I don’t have a problem with this at all. America has a popular football sport and it would be foolish to try to distinguish from American Football and Football. So Soccer is what we have in America. It is very popular among young children who play it in recreational leagues across the country. Then once the child turns a certain age, the interest is forced upon him to Football. The interest in Soccer then dies. This is unfortunate.
Soccer is a great sport. People love to play it. Not everyone likes to watch it. People offer up reasons that it is low scoring and not a lot of action. Yet people continue to watch baseball, and it is often low scoring with very little action. Soccer has a lot of actions, more so than many other sports.
America is, however, starting to like soccer. The MLS is doing well and many people are following it. We are finding more soccer on television. I spoke with a man from England once, and he told me that he was scared of American Soccer. Not right now, but of the future of American Soccer. When America gets behind something, we do everything we can to be the absolute best at it. America is getting better at soccer and in the future will be able to win the World Cup and will be a contender in every Cup.
I am excited for this World Cup and plan to watch as much as I can. I will be routing for my team, the U.S.A. But if the U.S. happens to fall out in the first round, I still plan to watch it through to the end.
Go America!

Remember the 5th of November

“Remember, remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder, treason Should ever be forgot. . .”
Recently I had the opportunity to see the film “V for Vendetta”. I was intrigued about this film before I really knew what it was about, though I cannot explain why. The movie is based on a series of comic books which were compiled into a graphic novel. The story was first published in 1981 and based the futuristic stories in 1998.
The premise for the story is that the United States has suffered a great civil unrest and additional outside violence and has collapse. The reason given for the collapse of the Empire of the United States was moral degradation. The British Government is in the control of a moral zealot who imposes laws on all types of morality. Additionally, there are laws against speaking against the government and curfews imposed on the people. The government does audio sweeps of areas to ensure that there are no terrorist activities or any speaking out against the government.
We are introduced to the hero of the story V once he saves the beautiful Eve, portrayed by Natalie Portman. V is disguised in a mask resembling Guy Fawkes, who in 1606 attempted to destroy the parliament building. V then destroys the Old Bailey, the central courthouse in England. Eve then becomes a willing captive of V. There he teaches her that the government has exceeded its bounds and must eventually come to an end. A favorite line is, “People shouldn’t be afraid of their governments; Governments should be afraid of their people.”
The remainder of the film shows the plan to destroy the parliament building, much like Guy Fawkes attempted to do hundreds of years earlier.
There are a number of different people that will try to draw a message from the movie, such as “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” or “the current government is encroaching on the rights of the people, much like the fictional government in the movie.” One thing that I think is important to remember in watching this movie, is that it is fiction. The story was created in the early 80's and has no relevance to the current day. It is purely for entertainment value. And as far as entertainment goes, it was. I was thoroughly entertained by the movie.
Should someone insist on taking a message away from the film, it should be that people should rule their countries and not some few elites. The way people rule their countries is to vote and to be active in their community. Join a party, attend a rally, organize a rally, vote, volunteer for a candidate, support the armed forces, join the armed forces, lobby a representative. There are number of things one can do to be active in the community. So go see the movie and simply enjoy it and then be involved in your life and country.

Social Faux-pas or Unshackled Freedom

The other day I was at a movie. I saw V for Vendetta. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but that is the topic of another post to come. At the movie I sat behind a lady who had a coat placed on the seat next to her. I assumed that the seat was saved for a companion who was either in the bathroom or getting popcorn. As the previews went on the seat continued to be empty. Soon the movie began and still there was no one occupying the seat. I put it out of my mind for a majority of the movie. Then sometime later, near the end of the movie, my attention was again drawn to the empty seat in front of me with a coat on it. I came to the realization that this lady had come to the movie by herself.
It has occasioned me to go to a movie by myself, though not often. The first time I ventured to a movie by myself was sometime shortly after high school. It was a Wednesday night and I was living with some roommates. No one was home at the time and they were not going to be home for many hours. I was left with a couple of options. I could either stay home and do nothing, or go out and do something by myself. A new movie had come out that I wanted to see and no one was willing to go see it. So on this Wednesday night, I went to the movie theater. I was scared of what people would think of me, especially at the ticket booth. So, as I approached the booth, I pretended to be talking on my phone with another asking where they were and what time they would get there. I then stated within earshot of the ticket booth that I would just go inside and get some seats. Then I purchased my tickets and went in. The movie was ok, and there ended up being only 3 people in the theater, including myself.
Since that night, I have gotten over the fear of going to movies by myself, though I still rarely do it. It seems to be a social faux-pas to go to a movie by oneself. I can’t understand this. People will look at a person who goes to a movie by themself and think that they must have no friends or that they must be really weird. The problem with this is that people are often found watching movies by themselves. People are often found watching television by themselves. People will sit at home by themselves and put in a DVD. I have yet to see someone come home to their house only to find a member of their family is watching TV and react with, "what are you doing you weirdo? Why are you watching TV by yourself?" Yet, this is the same attitude we take when people go out to watch a movie.
I no longer fear the judging eyes of others if I choose to go to a movie by myself. But the rest of society will continue to judge. I applaud those who will go into the public realm and subject themselves to public scrutiny, so that they may be entertained. Let us all cast off the shackles of shame and be not afraid to do as we like simply because others my think us bizarre.

I recently read a case that held a shop owner criminally liable for the acts of his customers, and was charged with Involuntary Manslaughter. This shopkeeper sold Sterno, a substance used for cooking and heating, to his customers. The customers then proceeded to drink the Sterno, outside of his store, in the privacy of their own home and then died from it. The court ruled that since he knew of their intentions to drink the Sterno, he should be liable for their actions.
In a typical socialist society, I could understand holding a store owner criminally liable for acts of others. However, here in the United States of America, we pride ourselves on not being socialists. In fact, America is the beacon of Capitalism. We should not be held responsible for the actions of others, but only for our own actions. In civil court, there are of course exceptions, but when it comes to depriving someone of their own freedom, how can this country state that a man can be detained and jailed because someone else decided to drink Sterno and end their life. The idea is so ridiculous to me that I was dumbfounded after reading the case.
Here's a hypothetical, a man walks into a hardware store. He is missing some fingers, and in fact where his thumb should be, he has bloody gause there. The man goes to purchase a saw. The store owner probably can assume that the man has sawn off his fingers and quite recently his thumb. But the store owner sells him the saw anyway. Later, it is found that the man has cut off his entire hand, and has bleed to death. Should we as a society, hold the owner of the hardware store responsible for the death of this stupid man?

I've also discovered that there are a number of people in this country that favor Good Samaritan laws. These are the laws that one must act if he sees a crime being committed by another or help someone that appears to need help. There are laws like this found in European Countries that are seemingly becoming more and more socialist. I'd like to say to those who would favor legislation of Good Samaritan laws.
I have a Constitutional Right not to give a damn! If I should want to help someone in need then I will, however, I will not live in a place that requires me to help someone else. This is the equivilent of slavery. The requiring of others to do something that they are not inclined to do themselves is slavery. This is a step in the wrong direction.
Finally, I have decided to post another picture. This one is of Petra Nemcova. Both her and Alessandra Ambrosio (pictured below) are fighting for a spot in the Road to the Final babe on 1280 The Zone's Website. To vote click here. Please support these two lovely ladies.

Deterioration of Society

As you may have discovered, I am a law student. Much of my observations of late are based upon my experience there. Recently in one of my classes, I made one such observation. We were discussing the difference between Voluntary Manslaughter and Murder in the 1st Degree. In this discussing, we were reading a number of different cases where the person purposely and willfully killed the victim. The manners of death were numerous, from shootings, to stabbings, to killing with no weapons at all. The motives behind the killings were also of note. I will mention 2 of the cases in order to give some background.
The first, a man and his wife were going through marital troubles. She had stated that she wanted to see other people, and in fact she was already seeing other people. He spied on her one night and saw her with another man. His wife and this other man were getting cozy and drinking. He also witnessed them smoking pot. He went to where he was staying and retrieved a camera and a pistol. He returned and saw his wife and this man go into a guest bedroom in the house. He then entered the house and ran into the guest bedroom where he found his wife and this man nude and in flagrante delicto. He tried to take a picture and then he shot the man. The man later died from his wounds.
The second case involved a hitchhiker, Joe. The hitchhiker was picked up by another man, Steve. Joe asked Steve where he could find some girls. The two talked like that for a while, at which point, Joe asked Steve where he could get a blow job. Steve offered his services. Joe and Steve went to a baseball field. Joe then removed his pants and underwear. Steve attempted to do as he stated. Joe then kicked Steve in the stomach and proceeded to stomp him to death.
The point is that in my class when we discussed the manner of killing and the situations preceding them, there were a number of individuals in the class that started laughing. The manner of death elicited some giggles. I sat and thought about this and realized that the people in my class were not any different from any other person in America. The people had become desensitizing to the violence of murder. They laughed at the thought of a gay man being stomped on until he died.
I don't pretend to not be one of the people that has become desensitizing. In fact, I openly admit to being insensitive to violence, especially when I only hear about it and don't witness it. I, only thought that it was interesting that the people in America don't give value to the human life as much as they did in the past. But I suppose it isn't surprising considering that this is the country that had the old west with gun fights and duals happening on a regular basis. Mob violence and Mob justice was accepted in this country.
Alas, I find that still don't care. The small percentage of people that are so affected by violence on television that they commit the same violence is acceptable in order to keep the programs from becoming dull and boring.

The Selection Committee

I've spent a great deal of time over the last couple days creating and editing a website. I know that there are programs out there that can accomplish these things with great ease. I, however chose not to go that route. I learned the HTML format in high school, but as is the case with many things, I have forgotten how to do it. I spent some time reading up on HTML as well as the newer XHTML. I've been able to refresh my memory and created the website. This website has been in production longer than it has been worked on. The Selection Committee has been discussing having a website for sometime and only now have I taken the initiative to get it started. It is now up and running. I am not completely happy with it right now, but it is a work in progress. I hope to make it more professional looking and to have a number of different options on it for the future, including a way to donate money directly into a paypal account for the fund raising of the Selection Committtee.
I would also like to congratulate a fellow member, Jay Hart, on teaching his boys how to swim. Congratulations Jay. Someday we all hope to teach our boys that lesson.
I also intend to write more on this blog, so stay posted.

January 17, 2006

I sat through my constitutional law class today at Widener University School of Law, and I began to think about the topic of politics. We were discussing the nomination and likely confirmation of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court. I thought of how the Supreme Court was set up to be a body free from politics, in order to be an unbiased judge on the issues brought before it. The past week the Senate went through a number of hearings with Judge Alito. There the attempted to destroy him in front of the public. The democrats in the Senate made a political decision to attempt to block Judge Alito, from a seat on the court that is supposed to not be political.
Perhaps I am being biased, but the Democrats seem to be creating more problems than they solve. They are also fighting a losing battle. In the next presidential election, there are a number of Republicans who have the power and influence to win. The democrats are hoping that Hilary Clinton will be able to win enough votes to get the White House. Truth be told, she won't even get enough votes from her own party to get out of convention.
I just read an article about Al Gore. He is attacking the Bush administration, and President Bush in particular. He wants to impeach the President. Of course, I don't always agree with everything that President Bush has done, but I think these attacks are petty and childish. Just like Al Gore to do something so petty. Not that President Bush stepping down would be a bad thing, because then we would have President Cheney. The democrats would hate that. But they never seem to think of the alternatives or consequences of their actions. This is why they flip flop, because they don't know the consequences.

Beginning

Welcome to my blog. I am new to the whole blogging thing, but I figure I ought to be involved in this budding industry of web logs.
I am Thayne Cullimore, and I rule.
More to come