Muda69
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Posts posted by Muda69
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12 hours ago, Bobref said:
An awful lot of great memories on that field — which was always rock hard by November.
<insert deity here> forbid that teams would have to adapt to differing field conditions.
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Quote
Insert the Steve Carrell GIF from The Office; “Okay, It’s happening!”
The Chicago Bears almost certainly have their man, and that man is USC Quarterback Caleb Williams.
After an extensive visit with Caleb Williams in Los Angeles that included dinner, some whiteboard work and football conversation, as well as some time with Caleb Williams and his teammates, the Chicago Bears topped off their visit with a trip to USC’s Pro Day to watch Caleb Williams perform.
A source told WCG that the evaluation of Williams is now “90% to the finish line” and that with the first overall pick, Caleb Williams is “99% likely he will be the selection.”
This should come as no surprise to any Chicago Bears fan. They have done extensive background work on Williams since the regular season concluded and before the NFL Combine. The Bears brass (George McCaskey, Kevin Warren, Ryan Poles, Matt Eberflus, Shane Waldron, and Kerry Joseph) met with Williams at The Combine in Indianapolis, and with the trade of Justin Fields almost a week ago, it all seemed to be pointing in that direction.
After spending time with him in L.A., it appears the Chicago Bears have zero doubt he will be the first name called after Roger Goodell kicks off the draft.
Why only 99%, then? There would have to be a massive red flag that arises before the NFL Draft for the Bears to pivot, but the source also said that there are zero expectations for that to happen.
So did the Bears perform a detailed evaluation of any other college QB in the draft? What about Mr. Maye, Mr. Penix, Mr. Mccarthy, etc.?
Also I have heard reports that Mr. Williams is really barely 6 feet tall.
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The Least Credible Threat to Move a Sports Team in History: https://slate.com/culture/2024/03/kansas-city-chiefs-news-rumors-stadium-move-hunt.html
QuoteThe Kansas City Chiefs would appear to be a poor candidate to participate in the stadium financing extortion scheme that characterizes so much of American pro sports. The franchise has been in Kansas City since 1963, shortly after it helped to found the American Football League.* In the more than 60 years since then, the Chiefs have turned a huge swath of the lower Midwest into Chiefs Kingdom (their term) and cultivated fan passion that’s extreme even by the NFL’s standards. They sold out every game from 1990 to 2009, including in a bunch of years when the team was bad. After winning three Super Bowls in the past five seasons, the team is now a legitimate dynasty, and Arrowhead Stadium is not just packed every week but is universally regarded as one of the most raucous stadiums in football. The Chiefs are always in the league’s top 10 in attendance, and that was the case even before Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Andy Reid started winning championships.
However, none of this has stopped the team from threatening recently to abandon the city for elsewhere if voters don’t give the team half a billion dollars. The Chiefs are hoping, it seems, that voters are either very dumb or very scared.
The franchise wants to facilitate $800 million in upgrades to Arrowhead Stadium, which would help the Hunt family that owns the team make more money. The Hunts, who are worth at least several billion dollars, say they’ll kick in $300 million. That leaves taxpayers to cover the other $500 million, before any cost overruns. The Chiefs hope that voters will OK a 40-year extension of a three-eighths-of-a-cent sales tax in Jackson County, one that costs a resident 38 cents per every $100 they spend in the county. According to the Kansas City Star, taxpayers are still paying back hundreds of millions of dollars from the last time Kansas City’s football and baseball stadiums were renovated. Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals are also helping to get a new ballpark out of the tax extension.
Chiefs president Mark Donovan told the city’s NBC affiliate last week that if voters didn’t extend the tax, the Chiefs “would just have to look at all our options.” A reporter asked if that meant leaving the city the team has always called home, and Donovan said, “I think they would have to include leaving Kansas City.” He then said the team would be “willing to accept a deal” to stick around its home city.
There is one region in the world where the Chiefs can maximize their business: the one they play in now. They will never, ever—ever, in a zillion years—leave the Kansas City area. They are not the other Missouri franchise, the Rams, that stopped over in St. Louis for 20 years before migrating back to a bigger market, Los Angeles, where it had previously spent half a century. And with the Rams and Chargers both taking up residence in Southern California again and the Raiders in Las Vegas, there just aren’t other American cities that lack an NFL team and would give the Chiefs the level of support they enjoy now. Chiefs owner Clark Hunt is a third-generation oil scion who inherited the team. He may or may not have any personal business acumen. But he is smart enough to know he isn’t going anywhere.
The Chiefs are making one of the least credible attempts in the history of stadium strong-arming. Not only are they are not going to leave the Kansas City area; they are unlikely even to leave the site of Arrowhead Stadium, a certainly profitable venue that is already one of the envies of the football world. Jackson County voters should tell the football team to pound sand and pay for the upgrades themselves. The Chiefs have been so successful in their hometown that they will make perfect guinea pigs for a necessary American experiment: Can taxpayers win a game of chicken against a sports team owner who is clearly bluffing?
The bluff’s flaws begin with the fact that there is nowhere in the United States for the Chiefs to go, at least nowhere distant. At most, the franchise could try to find a sugar funding deal a few miles across the border in Kansas, still within KC’s metro area. Other NFL owners are voracious about protecting their territories, and there is not a single swath of American land that does not already have a team (or two) with an entrenched foothold. Other major pro leagues have put successful teams in non-NFL cities like Portland, Salt Lake City, Orlando, Oklahoma City, and San Antonio. But the NBA teams in those cities don’t dominate regional fandom the way, for instance, the Dallas Cowboys do in Texas. And even stepping into another NFL team’s extended turf would be hugely expensive.
The Raiders agreed to pay their fellow NFL owners a nearly $400 million relocation fee to go from Oakland to Vegas. The L.A. teams agreed to pay $645 million. The amount Hunt wants from Jackson County taxpayers is $500 million, and the relocation fee alone would be in that neighborhood. All to move to a less lucrative home for the Chiefs, where he doesn’t have decades of proof that the locals will spend money supporting the team?
Hunt does not have a winning hand. His best hope is that fans who love the Chiefs get scared of an implausible outcome and vote to give him more of their money. Maybe that’s a paradox because less successful franchises than the Chiefs are trying similar moves and have more leverage.
Ted Leonsis is angling to move his Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards from D.C. to its Virginia suburbs. Leonsis has run into trouble in the Virginia Legislature, where some powerful lawmakers wonder why the commonwealth’s full faith and credit should go into a bond issuance that benefits one billionaire before anyone else. But Leonsis is likely to succeed in getting a sack of government cash from either D.C. (which is desperate to avoid losing a big downtown attraction amid a post-pandemic malaise) or Virginia (whose governor wants to build Leonsis an arena as a legacy project).
John Fisher is trying to move his Oakland Athletics to Vegas, following the Raiders. Fisher has his own funding problems, but he has a significant advantage in Vegas’ current lack of a big-league baseball team and Nevada’s desire to build Vegas into a global sports capital. Some big American cities don’t have MLB teams and could support them at levels acceptable to the league. So Fisher, even as he presides over a dumpster fire of a tanking team, has a good chance of getting the A’s out of the Bay Area.
But the Chiefs have none of these advantages, even as Mahomes and Kelce get ready to try for a fourth Super Bowl win in six years. The organization was too successful at building a fanbase in Kansas City, and other franchises were too good at taking over other regions. No move makes realistic sense for the Chiefs unless Hunt would like to be the man who moves his team to London, Berlin, or Mexico City, where the sport’s audience is growing. But even access to international markets is the subject of intense bargaining among NFL owners.
So where would the Chiefs go? Not far. The only plausible move would be across the border to nearby Kansas, but even interested lawmakers there acknowledge that landing the team is a long shot. Both the Chiefs’ and Royals’ stadiums are in an ocean of parking spaces a few miles outside of downtown. If the teams left, it would not be the same death blow to a cityscape that it might be if Leonsis succeeded in getting his teams out of D.C., so it’s worth less as leverage. And as popular as the Chiefs are, their fans may respond poorly to a move out of an iconic, longtime home to a glitzy but sterile new venue in the same area. Not to mention that building such a stadium would cost its own money and time; it would be much less convenient than renovating the existing building. And if the Chiefs do leave? The team’s Missourian fans might feel any number of ways, but it may well be a better deal to drive a short way across the border for games than to be made to buy a rich guy a stadium renovation over 40 more years. Even if the Chiefs “leave Kansas City,” there’s zero chance they go far.
Stadium funding is often a race to the bottom between local governments eager to give out the most generous tax and bond packages to corporate titans who do not need them. Congress could try to stop that race by passing national restrictions on stadium largesse, but the legislature has shown only glancing interest in the past. That gives Chiefs fans and Jackson County voters a unique opportunity to light the way for the rest of us. Their team is great and has no incentive to ever go anywhere else. No group of football fans has ever had a better chance to respond to fearmongering by pointing and laughing at it.
All true. KC is going nowhere.
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On 3/18/2024 at 9:12 AM, temptation said:
Trump: If I lose this November, the American auto industry will suffer a “bloodbath” because of Biden pushing Chinese manufactured electronic vehicles.
One of Mr. Trump's MAGA mouthpieces, Rep. Jim Banks, just echoed this in an editorial in the the Indianapolis Star: https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/columnists/2024/03/20/biden-should-pursue-section-232-investigation-as-step-to-ev-tariffs/73030097007/
I especially like this fear mongering:
QuoteChinese EV imports are even more dangerous than traditional car imports. In addition to hurting our industrial capacity, they leave Americans vulnerable to Communist Party espionage and our infrastructure vulnerable to sabotage. China’s intelligence agencies could easily snoop on American drivers by pulling data from Chinese EVs. We already know that all EVs produce reams of personal data about their users, their habits, and their whereabouts. An influx of Chinese EV imports, as well as their various tech components, would give the CCP on-demand access to any and all of that.
Umm, so we are ok with American, Japanese, South Korean, and German car companies easily snooping on American drivers driving data, but not just the Chinese? And here is a newsflash for Mr. Banks; they can and do pull the exact same "reams of personal data" from non-EV's as well.
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1 hour ago, Cloudy14 said:
Things can be true in your own mind, but are not objectively true. You are correct that a single class system can be better to crown one individual champion, but as @CoachGallogly has suggested, its not practical for football.
The success factor has slightly opened that door, now the IHSAA just has to boldly walk through it.
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1 hour ago, BlackSwarm6407 said:
Around 2 mil but that includes field, new track surface and lights. (baseball, softball & football)
Wow. That's a pretty taxpayer penny. Thank you.
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45 minutes ago, coachkj said:
Opinion.
Truth.
7 minutes ago, CoachGallogly said:But the original posters complaint wasn’t over which system is better, only that it wasn’t somehow accurate to call smaller schools a state champ.
Which is why a single class system can be better. No ambiguity in that system.
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34 minutes ago, CoachGallogly said:
Yes and?
And that goes to show not all multi-class tournaments are superior to their single class counterpart.
Happy now?
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The single class Indiana High School Basketball tournament was a superior product to the multi-class tournament we have today.
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17 hours ago, BlackSwarm6407 said:
South Putnam's Wildman Field will be getting Turf starting in April and ready by end of July for the start of the 2024 season. It was approved by the board this past week.
For how much was the winning construction bid?
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On 3/16/2024 at 1:29 PM, slice60 said:
26 titles in Class 1A, 1 title in Class 2A. Back in the one-class era, LCC won zero State Championships. I rest my case.
That's a huge trophy case. Probably took a nice fund raising campaign to build and future proof it.
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Report: Indiana State basketball coach Josh Schertz in talks over Saint Louis job
QuoteThe hits just keep on coming.
Indiana State basketball coach Josh Schertz is in talks with Saint Louis to be the Billikens next head coach, ESPN's Jeff Borzello and Pete Thamel first reported.
Schertz, the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year, led the Sycamores to a regular-season league title and a No. 1 seed in the NIT. Indiana State was among the first four teams left out of the NCAA tournament, a victim of a bevy of conference tournament bid thieves. The Sycamores host SMU in the first round of the NIT.
Schertz steadily built the Sycamores from the ruins of the 2021 exodus of most of the roster, going 11-20 in his first season, then 23-13, and now 28-6 in Year 3.
St. Louis just fired Travis Ford, who reportedly made $2.3 million this season, more than six times the $365,000 Schertz earned.
Before arriving in Terre Haute, Schertz was a four-time Division II national coach of the year at Lincoln Memorial University. He transformed the Sycamores into one of the nation's most-pleasing-on-the-eye teams.
The Sycamores shot 38.5% on 3s this year and plays with tempo. Per KenPom, the average Indiana State offensive possession lasts 15.9 seconds, a top-30 rate in the country.
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Well it was fun while it lasted.
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Yet another NFL Franchise tries to hold taxpayers hostage. This time it's the Chiefs: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/chiefs-might-explore-option-of-leaving-kansas-city-if-upcoming-sales-tax-vote-doesnt-go-their-way/
QuoteThe Chiefs have been playing in Kansas City since 1963, but there seems to be at least a small chance that the team could be on the move at some point down the road if an upcoming sales tax vote doesn't go their way.
During a recent interview with KSHB 41 in Kansas City, Chiefs president Mark Donovan was asked what the team's plan might be going forward if the sales tax fails, and he said a relocation would certainly be on the table.
"I think they would have to include leaving Kansas City," Donovan said of the team's options if the vote fails.
On the other hand, Donovan did make it clear that the Chiefs would like to stay in the city where they've spent the past 61 years. "Our goal here is, we want to stay here. And we're willing to accept a deal for the county to actually stay here," Donovan said.
The Chiefs recently unveiled plans for an $800 million renovation at Arrowhead Stadium that would upgrade almost everything. Not only would parking and tailgating improve, but the team would also add new video boards and better luxury amenities. The team would also add a 360-degree concourse that would allow fans to finally navigate the entire stadium when sitting in the upper deck. The team is also planning to add some new club areas in the end zone.
The Chiefs are planning to foot $300 million of the renovation bill, but the rest would come from the extension of a three-eighth of a cent sales tax that will be voted on in Jackson County on April 2. The sales tax is already in place through 2031 and if voters approve the extension, the tax would stay in place until 2064.
If the tax extension gets approved, the Chiefs have said they would sign a 25-year lease at Arrowhead, which would include a team option for three five-year extensions. The current lease expires in 2031, so even if the extension gets voted down, the Chiefs wouldn't be going anywhere for another seven years, but it certainly would create some drama in Kansas City.
Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt has already said the team definitely WON'T be signing a new lease if the tax isn't extended.
"We would not be willing to sign a lease for another 25 years without the financing to properly renovate and reimagine the stadium," Clark Hunt said in late February. "So the financing puzzle is very important to us to make sure we have enough funds to do everything we've outlined."
There are politicians in Missouri who think both the Chiefs and Royals would actually leave if the sales tax isn't extended (The Royals, who have a lease at their stadium that runs through 2030, would use the sales tax extension to help pay for a new stadium).
"I think we're in grave danger of losing one or both teams," Jackson County Legislator Manny Abarca said recently, via KansasCity.com.
The Chiefs are coming off their third Super Bowl win in five years, so they've built up plenty of goodwill with fans that could help get the extension voted through, but voters have also shown that they're tired of footing the bill for stadiums in situations like this, so it will be interesting to see what happens in Jackson County on April 2.
How cheap can the Chief's ownership be? Surely the Hunt family is rolling in dough, what with three Super Bowl wins in five years and from the merchandising coming from having two the of most popular players in the league (Mahomes and Kelse). But one you get used to sucking on that public money teat it can be hard to be weaned off of it.
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https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39738379/rams-aaron-donald-3-dpoy-retiring-nfl-age-32
QuoteLOS ANGELES -- Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald announced his retirement on Friday after 10 dominant seasons.
In those 10 seasons, Donald was a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, an eight-time first team All-Pro, a 10-time Pro Bowl selection and the 2014 Defensive Rookie of the Year.
He finished his career with 111 sacks, the second-most among primary defensive tackles in a career behind John Randle (137.5) since individual sacks became official in 1982. He holds the Rams' franchise record for career sacks.
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According to ESPN Stats & Information research, Donald is one of two defensive players since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to earn a Pro Bowl selection in each of their first 10 NFL seasons, alongside Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor (10).
Donald, 32, and Barry Sanders are the only players in NFL history to play 10 seasons and get selected to the Pro Bowl in each season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Sanders also played exactly 10 seasons, retiring in 1998.
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First ballot Hall of Famer? -
Chargers trade WR Keenan Allen to Bears for 4th-round pick: https://sports.yahoo.com/bears-trade-for-pro-bowl-wr-keenan-allen-from-chargers-022102113.html
QuoteThe Los Angeles Chargers traded star wide receiver Keenan Allen to the Chicago Bears in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick, the team announced Thursday.
The deal ends an era for the Chargers. Allen's tenure with the team predated its move to Los Angeles, as he was originally drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft.
Allen went on to become the Chargers' all-time leader in receiving yards among wide receivers (Antonio Gates remains ahead of him on the overall list), starring for the team as it transitioned from Philip Rivers to Justin Herbert at quarterback and from Mike McCoy to Anthony Lynn to Brandon Staley at head coach.
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Bears add a big WR for ... whichever QB they'll have in 2024
It remains unclear who will be starting under center for the Bears next season, but whomever it is, he'll have a respectable arsenal around him.
The Bears had already landed a new starting running back with former Philadelphia Eagles starter D'Andre Swift and will be returning Pro Bowl wide receiver DJ Moore, who had a career-high 1,364 receiving yards last year.
Moore and Allen would form a pairing of perennial 1,000-yard receivers, which the former seems to have thoughts on:
As for who is throwing the passes, Justin Fields remains on the roster. The trade market appears to not be materializing, but that isn't exactly a good argument for keeping him as starter next season.
The Bears have the No. 1 pick in the draft this season and could very well use it on a quarterback, the most notable option being USC's Caleb Williams. Chicago could very well be building a friendly offense for an incoming rookie quarterback, or it could be trying to give Fields all the support he can get in a make-or-break season.
A 4th round pick for a rapidly aging WR?
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https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/sanders-introduces-bill-reduce-standard-workweek-32-hours
QuoteSocialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced legislation this week which would standardize a 32-hour workweek for the same pay.
"Today, American workers are over 400 percent more productive than they were in the 1940s. And yet, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they were decades ago. That has got to change," Sanders said in a Wednesday press release.
"The financial gains from the major advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology must benefit the working class, not just corporate CEOs and wealthy stockholders on Wall Street," the statement continues. "It is time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life. It is time for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay."
Sanders was joined by Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) in introducing the "Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act."
Companion legislation in the House was introduced by Rep. Mark Tekano (D-CA).
Sanders defended the bill in a Friday op-ed in CounterPunch:
Today in America, 28.5 million Americans – 18% of our workforce – now work over 60 hours a week and 40 percent of employees in America now work at least 50 hours a week. We were talking about a 40-hour workweek 80 years ago, and that is what people today, despite the explosion of technology, are working.
The sad reality is, Americans now work more hours than the people of most other wealthy nations. And we’re going to talk about what that means to the lives of ordinary people.
In 2022, employees in the United States, and I hope people hear this, logged 204 more hours a year than employees in Japan, and they’re hardworking people in Japan. 279 more hours than workers in the United Kingdom, and 470 more hours than workers in Germany.
Despite these long hours, the average worker in America makes almost $50 a week less than he or she did 50 years ago, after adjusting for inflation.
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The question that we are asking today is a pretty simple question – do we continue the trend that technology only benefits the people on top, or that we demand that these transformational changes also benefits working people? And one of these benefits must be a 32-hour workweek.
And this is not a radical idea.
France, the seventh-largest economy in the world, has a 35-hour work week and is considering reducing it to 32.
Norway and Denmark, their workweek is about 37 hours and Belgium has already adopted a 4-day workweek.
Yet, as the American Thinker's Olivia Murray notes:
HuffPost reports that while running for a special election senate seat in 1974, Sanders drew unemployment benefits. He would rack up a number of other political office losses until 1981, at which point he became the mayor of Burlington, Vermont. A leftwing “fact-checker” outlet revealed that this was the first time in Sanders’s life that he had ever had a steady paycheck; if that’s true, Sanders would have been 39 years old before he actually had a steady job… but not even in the private sector actually producing anything!
This, this is the man trying to use government to force his manure ideas on all businesses; here are the specifics of the Sanders’s proposal, from The Hill:
The bill, over a four-year period, would lower the threshold required for overtime pay, from 40 hours to 32 hours. It would require overtime pay at a rate of 1.5 times a worker’s regular salary for workdays longer than 8 hours, and it would require overtime pay at double a worker’s regular salary for workdays longer than 12 hours.
I mean, if we’re just throwing our preposterous and pie-in-the-sky ideas, why not eliminate work altogether Bernie? When it’s “government-funded” that means it’s “free” right? Why don’t we all just get on Universal Basic Income, starting at a million dollars a year—or heck, why not a billion? We could all be on the government payroll like you! “Free” healthcare, “free” Peloton memberships, “free” retirement plans, etc. It will be a perfect socialist utopia!
A Marxist has absolutely no clue how wealth is actually produced, because they don’t produce anything beneficial for anyone (that’s not hyperbole), and they seem incapable of realizing the obvious: the more the government intervenes in the market, the more expensive everything becomes.
It’s a philosophy from the deadbeat of deadbeats; here’s this, from FEE:
On some days, Marx could not even leave his house because his wife Jenny had to pawn his pants to buy food. His friend and collaborator, Friedrich Engels, frequently sent Marx money (between 1865 and 1869 alone Engels gave Marx the equivalent of $36,000). In a letter written on his fiftieth birthday to Engels, Marx recalled his mother’s words: ‘if only Karl made capital instead of just writing about it.’
LOSER. (I mean, this man walked around pantsless instead of getting a job and feeding his family.)
If only Bernie stuck to stealing our capital, instead of trying to legislate it out of existence.I'm sure this isn't first time Bernie has tried this?
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From a newsletter:
The Political Death of Nex Benedict:
QuoteYesterday, President Biden issued a public statement about the suicide of Nex Benedict, a non-binary Oklahoma girl who committed suicide by overdose the day after going to the hospital for treatment following a school fight. The statement begins:
Jill and I are heartbroken by the recent loss of Nex Benedict. Every young person deserves to have the fundamental right and freedom to be who they are, and feel safe and supported at school and in their communities. Nex Benedict, a kid who just wanted to be accepted, should still be here with us today.
Meaning no disrespect to this dead girl, what Biden says is a political statement not fully in line with the facts. This troubled child’s death is politically useful for the president and for progressive causes, but people should know the actual story is more complicated.
Take a look at the police body cam footage of Officer Thompson’s interview with Nex (real name: Dagny), at the hospital after the fight in the school bathroom. Nex is accompanied by her grandmother Sue, who refers to Nex repeatedly as “she,” and as her daughter. Nex/Dagny does not object or even flinch:
This Officer Thompson is very friendly, open, and supportive. Nex tells him that three younger girls made critical remarks about the way she dressed. In response, Nex threw water on them. Then they physically attacked her.
After hearing this, the police officer advises Nex and her granny on the next possible courses of action. Near the eight-minute mark, he says, “Both parties are victims, and both parties are suspect. You are an offender as well” — this, because she tossed the water on the girls, elevating a verbal confrontation to physical, and accelerating the conflict.
“She’s the one who initiated it,” the cop says. “It doesn’t make it right, but they are the one who defended themselves.”
He hastens to say that he’s not defending the actions of the other girls, but rather trying to give Nex/Dagny and her guardian an idea of how the courts would likely approach the matter if they file criminal charges. “She essentially started it,” he says — and again, watch for yourself, but the cop is not trying to discourage Nex from filing charges, only explaining that if you do this, it won’t necessarily go as you hope. The other girls could file charges against you too.
At the 10:16 point, the officer says that throwing the water on the other girls is meaningful, in a criminal sense. “If you hadn’t done that, you would have been a victim all day long,” he says, meaning that her status regarding criminal law would have been uncomplicated. Later, to Nex’s guardian: “She [Nex] is the one who started the domino effect. [Then, to Nex] If you had not done that, we might not even be here.”
He goes on to explain that the other girls are “just as guilty as you are, 100 percent,” for the fight, but that in the eyes of criminal law, the fact that those girls were allegedly making fun of the way Nex was dressed is not considered adequate grounds for reacting physically.
On the video, we next hear audio of the 911 call Sue Benedict made after finding Nex in physical distress. As the dispatcher questions her about Nex, Sue Benedict tells her that Nex takes seroquel, a prescription antipsychotic given for treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder. The autopsy found that Nex did not die because of head trauma, but because she overdosed on Prozac and Benadryl. Sue Benedict did not mention to the 911 operator that Nex was on Prozac. It is possible, I guess, that Nex had a stash of Prozac hidden away somewhere from when she had been taking it in the past. The point is, Nex was under treatment for mental illness.
So Nex Benedict had very serious mental health issues before she and those girls ever got into a school bathroom fight. Heaven knows I’m not defending the bullies who made fun of this kid, but it’s an important part of the story to know that
a) Nex was under medical treatment for serious mental health problems;
b) according to the police bodycam interview, Nex admitted to accelerating the school conflict, and was advised by the officer that as a criminal matter, this means she is probably just as guilty of assault as the other girls; and
c) Nex’s guardian referred to her repeatedly by feminine pronouns, and Nex did not object, meaning that she was capable of bearing up under so-called “misgendering”
None of this makes the child’s suicide any less painful. But it does make it far less political than activists and the Democratic president are making it out to be. Democrats and activists are angry that Oklahoma is passing conservative laws regarding transgenderism (see here for more). It seems clear that they’re trying to capitalize on this kid’s suicide to get what they want. Oklahoma trans activists accuse the state’s school superintendent of creating a “hostile environment” for trans and non-binary students, because he won’t recognize them for what they claim to be.
This is the bog-standard form of emotional bullying LGBT activists use: give us what we want or you will have the blood of dead kids on your hands.
In the past, I’ve written about how LGBT activist lists of the “epidemic” of transgender murders are purely political documents, nothing but. For one thing, there aren’t large numbers of trans people murdered. For another, when you look into the cases activists cite, there is rarely evidence that the person died because of bias. Many of them died because they are streetwalking prostitutes, which puts them in great danger. Again, it doesn’t mean they deserved to die, but it does put their death in a meaningful context.
This is not the kind of context activists — including advocacy journalists — wish to acknowledge.
It would be useful to know Nex Benedict’s history of psychiatric treatment. Normally this would be nobody’s business but her family’s, but inasmuch as activists — including the US President — have appropriated her and her story in the culture war, the public is entitled to know just how mentally ill the girl was prior to the bathroom incident. After all, by Nex’s own statement to Officer Thompson, the girls she fought with made fun of her for the way she dressed, not because of her sexual identity. Of course the way Nex and her friends dress could certainly be tied to their sexual identity, but then too, teenagers picking on each other over the way they dress, wear their hair, etc., is hardly unique.
I have a certain sympathy for the Benedicts here. Back when I was in eighth grade, which I guess would have been around 1980, a bigger, older boy in my class who had serious mental health issues grabbed me from behind in the classroom and began punching me uncontrollably. The kid, who had been transferred to our class after literally picking up a smaller boy in his previous class and throwing him across the room, knocked me unconscious. The school didn’t call my parents, or seek medical help for me. My mom found me after school on the couch at home, babbling nonsense. She took me to the hospital, and they diagnosed concussion. The kid who assaulted me was removed from school. Later, he was placed into a state home for violent, mentally ill juveniles after police found him masturbating in the bushes while watching a barn he set on fire burn.
So yeah, I am especially sensitive to schools not taking bullying seriously. What my school did forty years ago, and what Nex Benedict’s school did, aren’t the same thing, but they might be the same kind of thing. I don’t know, though, how we can reasonably expect any school to prevent teenagers from trash-talking each other over the way they dress, wear their hear, the music they listen to, and so forth. Mocking other kids for their race, their sex, and so forth, is more serious. But teens picking on each other over their clothes is a federal case? Really?
Why do I bring this up? Because I resent the hell out of the POTUS and activists (including journalists) unfairly using this tragedy to advocate for their political causes. Here’s the ABC News White House correspondent all but boasting on Twitter about how she laid into the Oklahoma school superintendent over his supposed lack of concern about bullying. Has ABC devoted much time this week to writing about how the British government’s National Health Service has decided to stop prescribing puberty blockers to minors over concerns about safety and effectiveness? Have ABC or any other networks reported on the bombshell WPATH files?
Even The Guardian, the gold standard of mainstream British leftism, reported on the damaging information in the leaked files, talking about why it really matters to the trans discussion. Yet I found no mention of these files in The New York Times, and the only place I found it in the Washington Post is in a (very good and balanced) op-ed piece by Megan McArdle. McArdle notes in her piece:
In a large-scale Dutch study, trans patients were found to have almost four times the suicide risk of the general population. The researchers saw 49 suicides among more than 8,000 patients, many of which occurred during or after transition. A nationwide study of suicide rates among trans people in Denmark similarly found 12 suicides in a population of 3,759.
One implication of this is that being “gender-affirming” via medical transition and the other panoply of solutions proffered by LGBT activists and their political and media allies may still not be enough to save trans lives. Could it be that the main problem is not with society rejecting transness, but with a lack of inner psychological stability that leads people to identify as trans in the first place? Shouldn’t we at least be able to ask the question?
All school bullying is wrong, but in this Nex Benedict case, we have a girl who overheard other girls making fun of the way she and her friends dressed — and then reacting by throwing water on the teasers. Had this gone to court, both parties — Nex and the three other girls — would have likely been found guilty of criminal assault. Nex, who looked and acted normal and calm in the hospital interview, had some kind of mental health episode at home, and decided to overdose on prescription and non-prescription medications. Again: a tragedy, but not a national political issue — until Joe Biden decided to make it one.
Pay attention to how this story is being manipulated! Most media will not give you the context — namely, that Nex Benedict was already taking anti-psychotic drugs for her mental condition, and that she admitted to the police officer that she accelerated the fight by being the first to respond with physical violence.
You know who Biden is not talking about? Kaylee Gain, a teenage girl still hospitalized in critical condition after being beaten up outside a high school by another girl. Gain is now in a coma, fighting for her life. She has a fractured skull, brain bleeding, and damage to the frontal lobe of her brain, but doctors won’t know how badly her brain was damaged until she emerges from her coma.
The video of Gain’s assault went viral. You can watch it here, but it’s brutal, especially the part where the assailant repeatedly slams Gain’s head against the pavement. Here’s a still shot:
Notice something? Gain is white; the girl who beat her into a coma is black. Was this simply two girls fighting, or was race a part of the conflict? We don’t know yet. But I think we all know perfectly well that if things were reversed, and a white teenager had put a black one in a coma by slamming her head repeatedly on the concrete, Joe Biden would have issued a statement, and the media would have been going crazy reporting out What It All Means About Race In America.
In official America today, it’s all “who-whom,” you know. The meaning of an act of violence depends on who is abusing whom. We will hear no White House statements of support for Kaylee Gain, any more than we heard them for Laken Riley, the white Georgia student murdered by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. Republicans have tried to capitalize on Riley’s death to blame the Biden administration’s open borders policy, but theirs was not a political stunt; it is actually true. From the NYPost:
The Venezuelan migrant charged with murdering Laken Riley has been identified as member of a deadly gang, but was still waved through the US border, sources have revealed.
Jose Ibarra, 26, is listed as part of the deadly Tren de Aragua gang on internal Department of Homeland Security documents seen by The Post.
He was first arrested for illegally crossing into the US in September 2022 at El Paso, Texas. However, after less than 24 hours in custody, he was released on parole and given free rein in the US until October 2024, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement insiders.
Ibarra made his way to New York City, where he appeared carefree, living in a shelter provided by the city and posting pictures of himself smiling at Big Apple landmarks.
He was even arrested by police in the city but let go, before fleeing to Georgia to meet his allegedly violent brother, who had also been allowed into the country but who cut off an ankle monitor to evade authorities.
Three months later he would go on to kill innocent 22-year-old nursing student Riley, as she jogged near her campus.
The case also highlights how violent and dangerous people have easily slipped under the radar by taking advantage of the Biden administration’s border policies.
After Biden mentioned Riley in his State of the Union (though he misnamed her), he apologized for referring to dear Jose Ibarra as “illegal.” Media and other liberals had faulted the president for being so insensitive as to describe this gang member who crossed illegally into the US as “illegal.”
This is the class of people who runs our country these days. Is America politically polarized? Oh, absolutely. We are so in large part because the POTUS, the Democratic Party, and the media go into paroxysms of activist emoting over a mentally ill teenage girl who committed suicide after girls she threw water on attacked her in the school bathroom … but the savage beating of a white high school girl by a black high school girl gets little to no attention from the president or the media, who seem to be particularly incurious about the racial dynamics here. (There may actually be no racial element to the conflict, and I am not eager to insert one where it doesn’t belong. The point is that our media would not have hesitated to explore than angle were the races reversed.) And we are polarized because the POTUS’s border policies let into the country a violent gang member who allegedly murdered an innocent American, and the POTUS is shamed into apologizing for calling this animal “illegal”.
If polarization is the result of refusing to live by the lying narratives that the Democrats, the White House, and the media expect us to accept, then fine, let’s be polarized. I cannot for the life of me understand why it’s not clear to the Democrats that most Americans have no real way to register their disgust with the current state of affairs, other than to vote. And they will vote Trump, not necessarily because they have much hope that he will fix things, but at least to send a message of no confidence in the Ruling Class.
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I hope the residents of Brownsburg and Westfield push for the opening of at least one additional high school within their districts if the enrollment projections are that high. If they are willing to pay for it.
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3 hours ago, LCKathleticsupporter said:
Great hire for Wabash! Happy for Jake and his family, Westfield will be in good hands. Also it would appear many folks are waaaay too concerned at how much money is being paid to someone. I wish I had the time to be that concerned about other folks! Carry on.....
If it a private sector salary then it is really nobody's business. But if that salary comes from taxpayer funds then it behooves the public to be vigilant and questioning.
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Colts sign Comeback Player of the Year Joe Flacco as backup quarterback
QuoteThe Colts have found a quarterback to replace Gardner Minshew as Anthony Richardson’s backup.
Another quarterback who ended up surprising everybody when he was thrown into the lineup in place of an injured starter last season.
Indianapolis has signed Joe Flacco, the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year, to a one-year deal worth $4.5 million in guaranteed money and up to $8.2 million in incentives, a league source told Indy Star on Wednesday night, handing head coach Shane Steichen a backup quarterback he already knows he can trust.
Flacco spent half a season with Steichen in Philadelphia in 2021, serving as the backup to Jalen Hurts until the Eagles traded Flacco to the New York Jets halfway through the season. A starter In Baltimore for a decade and a Super Bowl MVP for the Ravens in 2012, Flacco has spent the past six seasons as a sometime starter and a mentor in a backup role for the Broncos, Jets, Eagles and Browns.
Interesting signing.
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36 minutes ago, BTF said:
Do athletic revenues justify these salaries or is it more of a tax burden? And I don't mean "burden" in a bad way. I don't think you can put a price tag on the development of young people.
For something labeled as an extra-curricular actively I think you can.
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6 minutes ago, Coach Nowlin said:
Buy your Potato farm for retirement yet in Idaho ? 😃
Still saving $.
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Seeding coming to IHSAA football tournament? A proposal for Class 6A is in the works.
in The Indiana High School Football Forum
Posted
https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2024/03/22/indiana-high-school-football-ifca-proposal-to-seed-class-6a-fails-to-pass-athletic-directors-vote/73065072007/
Bummer. The mostly boomers running the IHSAA hate change.