Michaelmas Eve

Tomorrow is the Feast of Michael and All Angels or Michaelmas as more commonly known in England.   Long time readers might remember the day always turns my thoughts towards Oxford and Cambridge as it marks the beginning (or close to it) of the academic year in those two great universities.

I’ve experienced the time more than once in Oxbridge myself.  It is a time of joyous anticipation and newness in both places.  And, even when here in Texas, it brings forth in me both nostalgia and sometimes yearning as well.  I do miss Oxford at times.  And part of me wishes I would have been more persistent in pushing into a Masters program there.  But I suspect God’s providence had other ideas . . . and that the admissions committee might have had other ideas as well.  (I’m an excellent student, but my record is not the easiest sell.)

I’m not ruling out studying again at Oxford, however.  I have one or two possibilities on the backburner.

Anyhow, I could ramble on.  But I’ve written of my attachment to Michaelmas before.  So look back with me and enjoy.

The NFL is in trouble.

I saw it coming (as posted in the comments here).  And now the ratings numbers confirm the NFL is in trouble.

With the dust settled on Week One, the NFL saw a reduction in most key apples-to-apples comparisons from 2015 to 2016.

Via Forbes, the Thursday night opener between the Panthers and Broncos drew 25.2 million, down eight percent from 2015 (Steelers-Patriots) and six percent from 2014 (Packers-Seahawks). Also, Sunday night’s game between the Patriots and Cardinals generated an audience of 20.65 million. Despite the game being decided at the last second, the audience fell 18 percent in the 18-to-49 demographic, in comparison to last year’s Giants-Cowboys Sunday night opener.

The putrid ratings of the second Monday Night game are of personal interest.

According to SportsBusiness Daily, the ratings for the early game dropped from 9.8 in 2015 (Eagles-Falcons) to 9.1 for Steelers-Washington. The late game had an even bigger decline, with last year’s Vikings-49ers 9.5 shrinking to 7.1 for Rams-49ers.

Yes, with the Rams back in the nation’s No. 2 media market, the audience for a game that swapped out Minnesota for L.A. from one year to the next saw a 2.4-point drop in ratings. Via Richard Deitsch of SI.com, the total audience fell from 14.3 million to 10.3 million.

The quality of the game surely contributed to the decline. But last year’s 20-3 drubbing of the Vikings by the 49ers was a snooze-fest, too. It nevertheless drew four million more eyeballs.

Now you’d think SF vs. the once again L.A. Rams would attract a lot of interest.  This is quite a rivalry, now enhanced by both teams once again being in Californicate.  And I was one of those interested.

But during the National Anthem I saw players from both teams being jerks, including holding up raised fists at the flag.  Disgusted, I turned off the T. V. before the game got under way.  For it was not possible for both teams to lose.  And it looks like I was not alone.

Here’s the bigger picture with the NFL.  Millennials do not watch sports, particularly football, as much as older generations.  So the base viewership of the NFL are males over 30.  But now they see an NFL that prohibited the Dallas Cowboys from wearing a police-supporting decal, that each year requires wearing pink in October, but that does not require players to stand respectfully for the National Anthem.  And for the first time, a number of players are disrespecting the flag to push a Leftist lie.  It’s enough to tick off just about any red blooded, football-watching American male.

And those who watch NFL want to root for a team.  But what happens when players from both teams disrespect the National Anthem and the flag?  TVs get turned off.  And many who watch NFL want something of an escape as Ed Morrissey points out.  They don’t tune in to watch a Black Lives Matter protest.  Being angered by the refs or a team you hate is one thing.  Being angered by Leftist millionaires disrespecting the flag is quite another.

The NFL is alienating many of its core viewers.  The league in trouble and will be in further trouble if they do not act to stop the National Anthem protests.

As for me, I’ve been a very loyal NFL viewer since early childhood.  I remember my Mama being unhappy about the Ice Bowl game.  I cried when Dallas lost (was robbed of) their first Super Bowl.  My Sunday afternoon football watching has long been as regular as my church attendance. 

But I, of all people, am considering cancelling my NFL Sunday Ticket and boycotting the NFL.

The NFL is in deep trouble. 

A King in a Car Park? Again?

First, Richard III.  Now, Henry I?

Archaeologists have discovered what could be King Henry’s remains languishing beneath a Ministry of Justice car park on the site of Reading prison.

The bones were detected among a series of graves discovered by archaeologists using ground-penetrating radar (GPR), during an exploration of the site containing the ruins of Reading Abbey.

This is what happens when kings are not required to have parking permits.

Hillary’s Deplorable Eliminationist Rhetoric

Hillary Clinton’s “Basket of Deplorables” comment Friday night is already being overshadowed by her health episode yesterday.  But it should not be forgotten.

For, as Glenn Reynolds has noted, it is eliminationist rhetoric, words that justify taking away the basic rights of a large segment of the population because they are in the “wrong” group and/or political opponents.

As a reminder, she said this:

You know, just to be grossly generalist, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people – now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric.

Now some of these folks, they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.

So she smears almost a quarter of American voters with hateful traits, then says they “irredeemable” and “not America.”

You don’t have to be a historian to hear echoes of the eliminationist rhetoric of Nazis and Communists from the 20^th Century.

And she said this to a LGQT fundraiser in New York City.  It is safe to say many in the room have no problem taking away the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, livelihoods, and more from conservatives, particularly those who hold traditional values about the family.  And they indeed cheered her on.

Thus what Hillary did is the moral equivalent of going to a KKK rally and speaking on how “irredeemable” “those n____s” are or going to a neo-Nazi rally and speaking against “the Jews.” She went to an audience that wants to take Constitutional rights from many political opponents, and she said, yes, those political opponents you hate really are “deplorables,” “irredeemable,” and “not America.”

Regardless of her faux political apology, this should disqualify her from the presidency.

We can and will disagree on much.  But we must agree that the revival of eliminationist totalitarianism, now vocally backed by Hillary Clinton, must be stopped.

Hillary and Her People Knowingly Destroyed Emails UNDER SUBPOENA

One of the frustrations of blogging is sometimes you are so overwhelmed with information that it is a big ask to put it together in a presentable form.  To apply this to the subject at hand, I know Hillary is a crook.  But to put together all the evidence for that and make some sense of that would take days.  And the “Mainstream” News Media isn’t helping with that since the perp in question is a Democrat.  They bent over backwards to get Nixon, but the even more corrupt LBJ before him or Obama and Hillary after him?  Not so much.

So I am all the more appreciative of Ace for presenting and summarizing the fact that Hillary and her people knowingly destroyed emails under subpoena.  His post is a bit of a rant but I will defer to him.

And do know this is a serious crime.  Not only can destroying evidence already under subpoena get you years in prison.  But that act can be used as evidence itself in a court of law.  Heck, deposing of evidence even not under subpoena can be used against you in a court of law.

And this is only one of the crimes of Hillary Clinton, albeit a damning one. 

The veteran gentleman last night was right.  If she wasn’t Hillary Clinton, she would be headed for prison.

And she should be.  “Lock her up.”

Now an Airport Blocked? ENOUGH!

Now protesters under the Black Lives Matter banner have blocked an airport.  Yes, you read that right.  They blocked the London City Airport this morning.

When will U. S. and U. K. authorities stop going easy on Black Lives Matter?  Willful unlawful blocking of transport cannot be tolerated in a free society.  Yet the perps are handled with kid gloves and then given slaps on the wrist, if even that.  So, predictably, their attacks on free travel are escalating.

Being nice to these people must not continue. Airports and major roads and highways should be cleared of unlawful protesters with whatever force is necessary to clear them quickly.  If there are injuries, that’s the protester’s d#$% fault.  The time it is now taking authorities to oh-so-gently clear protesters from roads and now runways is absurd. 

And sentences should be commensurate with all the hours these people rob from everyday decent people simply trying to go about their business - in other words, months and even years, not . . . well has any of the BLM crowd gotten more than a day or two?

Willfully blocking a nation’s transport is the equivalent of false imprisonment of the victims; it is a crime and should be treated as such.  And that includes stopping the crime with all necessary force.  ENOUGH with the predations of Black Lives Matter and affiliated Leftists and of going easy against them.

By the way, most of the criminals in the London City Airport blockage are white.  This has nothing to do with skin color.  It has to do with the rule of law in a free society and with protecting citizens above protecting criminals.