Worst Sports Nickname?
January 31, 2005
Bob’s response to my post about the Arizona Cardinals’ scary new logo 
has got me thinking about the worst nicknames in all of pro sports. Usually, this happens when a team relocates and doesn’t bother to change its name, even when it’s name was location-specific. So for any takers, what is the worst nickname in all of pro sports (we’ll confine it to the “Big Four”–although if the NHL doesn’t get its act together soon, there may only be three…)? Here’s my “Top Five” list:
5. Memphis Grizzlies – Aren’t grizzly bears illegal in Tennessee?
4. Los Angeles Lakers – The lakes are in Minnesota, where this team used to be. Lakes in L.A.? Hmmm…
3. Tampa Bay Devil Rays – Just a stupid name all the way around.
2. Mighty Ducks of Anaheim – Imagine the name of Lord Stanley being disgraced by a team with this name winning his Cup.
and my number one worst-named team:
1. Utah Jazz – This team was the New Orleans Jazz–where jazz came from. Is any place LESS jazzy than Utah? Maybe DesMoines…
Kerry: “I bet those grapes were sour anyway…”
January 30, 2005
This from AP Diplomatic writer Anne Gearan in her article Bush Declares Iraq Election a Success:
In Iraq, officials said turnout among the 14 million eligible voters appeared higher than the 57 percent they had predicted. Complete voting results are not expected for days.
Polls were largely deserted all day in many cities of the Sunni Triangle. In Baghdad’s mainly Sunni Arab area of Azamiyah, the neighborhood’s four polling centers did not open at all, residents said.
A low Sunni turnout could undermine the new government and worsen tensions among the country’s ethnic, religious and cultural groups.
“It is hard to say that something is legitimate when whole portions of the country can’t vote and doesn’t vote,” Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
Thanks, John, for your positive, helpful input on the brightest day in Iraq in 50 years. Spoken like a man who has felt the sting of people who didn’t vote…for him. Go have a toddy with Soros and quit yer whinin’…
Installment Three: I’m Here, but How? Part II
January 29, 2005
Installment Three: I’m Here, but How? Part II
I could watch Tom and Jack duel it out over and over again:
“You want answers?â€
“I think I’m entitled to answers.â€
“You want answers?â€
“I want the truth.â€
“You can’t handle the truth!â€
It’s truth we’re after when we think of the development of a worldview—but some, it would seem, “can’t handle the truthâ€! We said in the previous installment that, in constructing a Christian worldview, we are not interested in, nor will we be content with, an understanding of Christian truth that assigns it to anything less than a role as “true truthâ€. No mythico-spiritual pabulum will do in this quest; we will not accept a secondary role for what we “believe†as opposed to what is factually, scientifically “trueâ€. We will search for explanations for the fundamental questions of life. This does not mean that we will not have to exercise faith, for as we said, all men do at points; it does not mean that we will bull-headedly hold onto our conclusions despite evidence, but in fact quite the opposite: we will follow where the evidence leads. We also will ask all faithful truth-seekers to do the same—but can all “handle the truthâ€?
Naturalism and theism are ultimately the two competing propositions when it comes to our viewpoint as to origins; though both have many permutations, when we boil it all down, we must arrive at one of two conclusions: we’re here by accident, and no One ever was minding the store, or we’re here as the result of the planned creation of some Higher Intelligence. We’re not nearly at Christianity yet; we’re just asking questions, and seeking answers, to how we got here. What is our evidence, and how best do we explain it?
William Paley wrote, two hundred years ago, of the most obvious first evidence for a theistic explanation of origins. He envisioned an individual discovering a pocket watch lying on the ground. Picking it up and considering its design and function, the reasonable person, Paley said, would conclude that the watch had not come about as a result of some mere accident, but through the deliberate design of a watchmaker who possessed the intelligence to craft the object thusly. This we call the “Argument from Designâ€. At the very least, the Argument from Design acts as a powerful opening volley in the Christian worldview as to origins, and places honest naturalists on the defensive from the beginning. Richard Dawkins, perhaps the leading Darwinist in the world today, titled one of his books The Blind Watchmaker in reference to Paley’s work. In it, Dawkins admits, “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.†Of course, he spends the rest of the book arguing against that proposition, but for our purposes, it is enough that he admits the appearance.
George Gaylord Simpson has similar words in This View of Life: the World of an Evolutionist:
“A telescope, a telephone, or a typewriter is a complex mechanism serving a particular function. Obviously, its manufacturer had a purpose in mind, and the machine was designed and built in order to serve that purpose. An eye, an ear, or a hand is also a complex mechanism serving a particular function. It, too, looks as if it had been made for a purpose. This appearance of purposefulness is pervading in nature.â€
Simpson believes that Darwinism solves the problem, of course, but he acknowledges the point: things sure look like they were designed by a Master Designer.
On this point, we are aided, actually, by the development of science. The more we learn of our universe, the more astonishingly intricate its design is seen to be—and the harder it is, logically, to assign its existence to random, unsupervised chance. This is why Christians have nothing to fear from science—not only is it true that “this is my Father’s worldâ€, and thus, “all truth is God’s truthâ€, but it is also the case that the evidence continues to “flow our way†the more we come to see the complexity of the universe.
And there is more, but it will have to wait until next time. But a question before we leave, one that is simple and yet valid, one that harks back to our first discussion and which will no doubt recur: if one must exercise faith in something, does it take more faith to believe in the existence of our intricate universe as the handiwork of a Designer, or as a mere accident? Sorry…I just don’t have enough faith to believe the latter.
Instead of 15,000 words…
January 29, 2005
If a picture paints 1000 words, here are 15 pictures courtesy of Kevin McCullough on the elections in Iraq.
When’s the last time, by the way, you saw people crying with joy at the prospect of voting in a U.S. election? Freedom, it’s a beautiful thing…
I Can Die in Peace…
January 29, 2005
The improbable and largely unexplainable climb that this humble blog has seen over the course of the past month (according to The Truth Laid Bear) has culminated on this fine Saturday morning with a ranking of #398 in the blogosphere, but that number isn’t the thing so much as the fact that as of today, I have climbed past the notorioius MoveonDOTorg, the irrational propaganda machine headed up by George Soros. And no, the reason “MoveonDOTorg” isn’t a link is because I don’t want to make it easy for anyone to waste precious moments and brain cells actually going there.
Ahead of MoveonDOTorg…I can now die in peace.
The Only Solution for Baseball
January 28, 2005
Until the owners lock the players out, a la the NHL, and break the union, baseball will remain a sad joke.
Maybe THIS will do the trick!
January 28, 2005
The Arizona Cardinals, with apologies to the Los Angeles Clippers, maybe, are undoubtedly the perennially sorriest team in professional sports. 
Joe at Evangelical Outpost credits John Mark Reynoldswith the tip that the Cardinals are going to update their logo for the first time in 45 years.
Arizona brushes up logo of outdated bird
“A tough bird,†team owner Bill Bidwill said. “Hopefully it will be worn by tougher and faster and meaner players.â€
Observing the Bidwill-owned Cardinals through the years, one gets the feeling that this idea of “tougher, faster, meaner players” is something that has only recently occurred to the dear man…
This phrase comes from the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in which most members of the Peoples Temple cult, blindly following their leader Jim Jones, committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
Osborne: A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God
Schlossberg: Idols For Destruction
