46
3DHS / Re: Global Warming
« on: January 05, 2010, 12:30:42 AM »
can we spell "cyclical?"
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47
3DHS / Re: The End of an Era: A Role Model Moves On
« on: January 05, 2010, 12:29:46 AM »
<heavy sigh>
48
3DHS / Re: The End of an Era: A Role Model Moves On
« on: January 04, 2010, 07:44:14 PM »
Getting pictured with beautiful women doesn't mean he did anything wrong..Geeesh...
Jealous of someone who is genuine in his beliefs?
Jealous of someone who is genuine in his beliefs?
49
3DHS / Re: The End of an Era: A Role Model Moves On
« on: January 03, 2010, 06:20:36 PM »
Tim Tebow will go down as one of the greatest college players of all time. And, a superb role model to young kids. After all, aren't we much too short of good role models?
50
3DHS / Re: On Sarah Palin
« on: January 02, 2010, 07:55:43 PM »The only good thing about Palin is that she is a quitter.
Perhaps if she has to take the sort of constant heat Obama has had to endure, she'd just QUIT, and run off to peddle another ghost-written book. I am sure she could get rich doing this.
Kramer would be first in line to get an autographed copy, I'm sure.
I'll sell you mine, XO, for $500. I waited three hours for it.
51
3DHS / The End of an Era: A Role Model Moves On
« on: January 02, 2010, 07:53:54 PM »
After Memorable Sugar Bowl, Saying Goodbye to Tebow Is Sweet Sorrow
NEW ORLEANS -- On Friday afternoon, the first day of 2010, an artist named JT Maurer sits alongside Jackson Square in New Orleans's French Quarter. The skies are overcast. Sunlight occasionally spirals down on the milling tourists, illuminating the old gray stone sidewalk. Throngs of Florida and Cincinnati fans, in their requisite blue and red, swarm the old city. On the black iron bars that surround Jackson Square park, Maurer has placed his black charcoal paintings of famous figures for sale.
On the top row, from left to right, rest the following: Barack Obama, Tim Tebow, Jesus.
As the sun begins to decline over across the muddy Mississippi, and night comes on, Tim Tebow's college career still has 60 minutes left, a Sugar Bowl tilt against the Cincinnati Bearcats.
I ask Maurer how the $50 Tim Tebow paintings had been selling.
"Not that well," he says. "I haven't sold one yet. Most people are focused on drinking and they don't want to carry around a painting. Lots of people have stopped and looked, though. I think the Gators are upset about being here."
The only other football figure for sale is legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant.
"To tell you the truth," says Maurer, "I was kind of hoping Alabama was going to be here again. I was expecting it. Last year, I sold 11 Bear Bryant's to Alabama fans."
My wife stands alongside me. She speaks before I even say anything. "You are not," she says, "buying a picture of Tim Tebow."
________________________________________
Let me be clear, I love Tim Tebow because he is the most authentic figure in sports today. Maybe, in all of American public society. Too often our sports heroes like Tiger Woods or Mark McGwire are steeped in artificiality. The same is true of our political figures, our religious leaders, virtually everyone in the public arena today is selling us something that has nothing to do with reality. In an age when we crave authenticity more than any other trait, when our television shows seek to capture reality and when players, coaches, and everyone associated with them sells an artificial image of themselves, I love that Tebow is refreshingly honest, direct, disarming, a man in full.
I don't want to be sold a false image anymore.
And, what's more, I don't want a player to do or say something because he thinks I want to hear that. We've reached an era where player and coach answers are so cliched, they don't even realize that they're spouting cliches anymore. We've all seen athletes and coaches interviewed on television so many times that we know what's coming before it's even said; our athletes are all playing roles.
Tebow isn't playing a role.
Because his role isn't to be cool, or to be calculated, or to do anything like that, it's to be as real as real can be.
That's why no matter how many times Tim Tebow scored touchdowns against my team, no matter how many times he triumphed over other teams that I was rooting for, I don't want to see Tim Tebow leave college football.
Watching him play is too much fun.
Follow Us on Twitter Friend Us on Facebook
As the Gators took the field on New Year's night 2010, come along for an italicized recap of the game interspersed with a retrospective of Tebow's career.
Call it Tebowiana.
1. Do you remember when we all watched Tebow play in the MTV reality show, Two-a-Days?
He was a top recruit then, a home-schooled lefty with a rocket arm. His team lost to Alabama's Hoover High School and a few months later Tebow spurned Mike Shula to join Urban Meyer's first full recruiting class.
Imagine how much the world of college football changes if Tebow picks Shula and Alabama. Is Shula still at Alabama?
Probably.
Forget two national titles, has Urban Meyer won a single national title at Florida?
Probably not.
The fine fault line between success and failure is exposed in that decision, the moment when Tebow first became a star.
Recall the Two-a-Days television conversation.
"Is he good?" a Hoover cheerleader asked.
"Yeah," the Hoover player said, "he's real good."
Indeed.
Kickoff arrives in New Orleans.
One play after Jeff Demps is carried off the field -- Cincinnati fans in front of me are chanting, "See you later, alligator" --Tebow hits Aaron Hernandez with the 19th touchdown pass of the season, and the 86th of this career.
Tebow is 7-for-7 on the first Gator drive.
2. Tebow and Verne Lundquist first became an item on a September night in Knoxville. A then-freshman Tebow came in for a fourth down conversion against the Vols.
The Gators trailed 20-14 in the fourth quarter. Tebow lined up under center.
Shotgun.
I was watching from a sports bar in Auburn, Ala., having just watched Auburn beat LSU 7-3.
"Are they really running him out of the shotgun?" my friend asked.
Yep, they were.
Tebow converted and celebrated on the field.
The Gators won 21-20.
Lose this game and not only do the Gators not play Ohio State for a national title, but they don't even win the SEC East.
On the second drive, Tebow uncorks an NFL-caliber pass down the seam. It's one of three more completions that Tebow has to begin 10-for-10 and give the Gators a 9-0 lead.
3. Then, later that freshman season, came the jump pass against LSU.
I was in Athens, Ga., getting ready for the night game between Georgia and Tennessee. The only thing that united Bulldog and Vol fans was rooting against SEC East foe Florida.
As Tebow threw his jump pass for a touchdown, the tailgate reaction was stunned silence.
Eventually, a Bulldog fan grabbed my arm. "Before he is done at Florida," said the Dawg, "Tim Tebow is going to be more hated in college football than Shane Battier."
In my column that debuted the term Tebow'd in October of 2006, I even wrote: "Here's a ClayNation prediction for you: By the time he's a senior [if he stays until he's a senior], Tebow is going to make J.J. Redick seem downright lovable in comparison."
But that never happened.
In fact, it never came close to happening.
Of course I also wrote then, "Urban Meyer has forbidden Tim Tebow from ever flexing both his biceps at the same time. The last time Tebow flexed, every coeds' top at the University of Florida miraculously rose at the exact same time. This caused two plane crashes, 96 fender benders and all classes were canceled at the university."
What I should have written was this, "When Tebow flexed, every coeds' top at the University of Florida miraculously rose at the exact same time ... and Tebow covered his eyes."
On the third drive, Tebow runs his streak of complete passes to 12, converts a fourth down on a shotgun draw, and tosses a perfect touchdown pass to Deonte Thompson. He's now 14-of-15 for 168 yards and two touchdowns.
4. Tebow converts on fourth down at The Swamp during Florida's 17-16 victory over South Carolina, and then heads out to The Swamp, the restaurant on University Avenue in Gainesville, for a postgame meal.
People forget once more what might have been. Lose that game against the Gamecocks and Meyer is 0-2 against Steve Spurrier.
Uneasy would lie the headset on the coaching crown.
Instead Tebow carries the Gators to victory.
That night, Tebow goes out for a post-midnight meal. Word spreads that Tebow is in The Swamp Restaurant and gives me the first indication of what it would have been like to see Elvis in his prime.
Tebow is in the building!
There's a rush to the second floor where an 19-year-old is having a meal. Or trying to have a meal. He's swarmed.
Just three months after turning 19, Tebow, wearing an oversized white shirt and jeans, is already a star.
Still more, Tebow leads the Gators to a fourth consecutive scoring drive and with seven minutes remaining the Gators are up 23-0.
Tebow's eye black? Ephesians 2:8-10
8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
5. Being e-mailed 14-million different attachments featuring Tebow wearing jorts.
It didn't matter that the picture was fake, it was everywhere.
Barry Bonds once said: If 70,000 people are willing to boo you, you must be good. Now it's time for the Tebow addendum, "If every Southern football fan has seen you photoshopped in jean shorts, you must be pretty good too."
On their fifth possession of the half Tebow hits Riley Cooper for an 80-yard touchdown. Did you know that they are roommates? I'm told that Thom Brennanman shared the most overtold stat immediately on the Fox broadcast.
Somewhere Verne Lundquist chortled.
6. The next year, in early September, Tim Tebow was stopped by Ole Miss on a fourth down sneak and the Rebels stunned the Gators 31-30.
Lots of attention has come from the "promise speech" that Tebow made after the loss. That's always been secondary to me. Because I was more interested in the response across the SEC.
No one could believe that Tebow had been stopped on fourth-and-short.
What's more, the failure offered a more interesting narrative, a player challenged as opposed to a player who was always dominant. In responding to defeat, Tebow became more interesting than he ever was in victory.
Tebow goes over 300 yards passing, 320 to be exact, with three touchdowns and 28 yards rushing tossed in for good measure.
At the half.
If Florida leaves him in for the entire game, he'll pass for 500 yards.
7. The circumcision of Filipino boys is something only Tebow could pull off.
Yeah, it's absurd and funny. And something that you and I wouldn't do.
No matter what.
Why?
Because even if it's beneficial to someone, you and I aren't touching Filipino foreskin because we would get killed for it by friends.
Question: "Where'd Clay go on his vacation this year?"
Answer: "Oh, you know, he went and circumcised Filipino boys again."
Result: For the rest of my life I hear about this after any friend has more than a beer.
But Tebow?
He makes circumcising Filipino boys cool.
Okay, maybe even Tebow can't pull that off.
At the half Cincinnati has 55 total yards on 28 plays. Tebow has 348 total yards on just 31 plays.
Also at the half Ephesians 2: 8 10, what Tebow is wearing on his eyeblack, is the No. 2 search result on Google hot trends.
What's No. 1?
Tebow cam.
8. Yeah, I asked Tebow if he was saving himself for marriage.
And all his answer did was burnish the mythological and otherworldly image of Tebow. But what it also did, was provide still further evidence that Tebow was refreshingly honest, someone who was willing to live his faith and continue to propound that faith even when it might not be cool.
I'll be honest, if I'd have to choose between being an SEC quarterback on the field, or an SEC quarterback off the field, I'm picking off the field. And you'll know exactly what I've meant if you've ever spent any time on SEC campuses.
In my experience, some of the biggest hypocrites on earth are those who profess themselves religious and evangelize for their faiths.
But Tebow's different.
How different?
My mom e-mails me the Bible verses he puts on his eyeblack.
On the first drive of the second half, Tebow runs his tally up to 366 yards passing and, on fourth down, after drawing the defense tosses a pitch to Emmanuel Moody to put the Gators up 37-3 and end all talk of the Big East being in the BCS title game in the foreseeable future.
Amazingly, Cincinnati was one second being put back on the clock from playing Alabama for the national title.
9. His lack of fear in returning when only a perfect 14-0 season and a championship could sate Gator fans.
Think about this for a moment, the Gators went 12-0 in the regular season and lost a single game, the SEC title. Tebow had a chance to become the greatest college football player ever, but he'd set the bar so high for himself that anything less than absolute perfection disappointed us.
And because he didn't achieve perfection, we devalued him.
Think about this for a moment, if Tebow leaves early, is drafted somewhere and heads to the NFL, do we rank him higher as an all-time player?
I think so.
Why?
Because Tebow occupies such a high perch in our estimation that we would have given him a perfect season and a national title by default.
We really would have.
And, by the way, if you don't favor a playoff then you're a damn fool. Having Tebow end his career in the Sugar Bowl, a game that is virtually meaningless, against an awfully matched team is a complete anti-climax. It doesn't do justice to Tebow's career.
Tebow is now 28-of-31 for 435 yards passing. As if that weren't enough, he scores on a four-yard run to make his tally 471 total yards rushing and passing. That 471 yards is the most by any player in BCS history.
Prior record holder, Vince Young put up 467 against USC in the title game.
What's most amazing about Tebow's yardage?
There's still 2:40 left in the third quarter.
10. Crying at the end of the Alabama game in the SEC Championship.
If any other player on a team cried after a loss, I'd mock them to no end. I might even write an entire column about it.
But somehow this was the perfect ending for Tebow's SEC career.
Why?
Because Tebow cried even though Alabama fans cheered his crying. He's so honest with us, that when his team lost, he didn't even think about the joby he might be providing to Alabama fans via crying. Nope, he just reacted as he saw fit.
And Tebow wept.
On the final complete drive of his college career, Tebow runs his total yardage stats into the stratosphere: 31-of-35 passing for 482 yards and 14 rushes for 51 yards. Add it all up and that's 533 total yards in a BCS game, a record that might stand for decades.
With 3:13 remaining in the game, Tim Tebow leaves the field for the final time of his football career. The crowd, mostly Gator fans, chants,"Thank you, Tebow," Tebow raises his hands in acknowledgment, and one of the greatest careers in college fooball history is over.
But not quite yet, as the witching hour comes to New Orleans, Tim Tebow doesn't want to leave the field just yet. He sprints to midfield, in front of the few fans remaining, and runs a semi-circle around the Superdome field, slapping hands with Gator fans.
Until, at long last, Tim Tebow leaves the building.
"It was better than a dream," Tebow says later.
________________________________________
For four years, Tim Tebow wasn't better than us, he was honest with us.
And that's why when I show up back in Nashville, I'm going to be carrying a Tim Tebow painting that spent Sugar Bowl week resting on the fence outside Jackson Square.
OK, not really.
But a Tennessee fan even thinking about it, says all you need to know about Tebow's career at Florida.
Clay Travis is the author of three books. His latest, "On Rocky Top: A Front Row Seat to The End of an Era" chronicles the 2008 Tennessee football season and is on sale now and makes a great stocking stuffer. You have a stocking for Martin Luther King Day, right?
NEW ORLEANS -- On Friday afternoon, the first day of 2010, an artist named JT Maurer sits alongside Jackson Square in New Orleans's French Quarter. The skies are overcast. Sunlight occasionally spirals down on the milling tourists, illuminating the old gray stone sidewalk. Throngs of Florida and Cincinnati fans, in their requisite blue and red, swarm the old city. On the black iron bars that surround Jackson Square park, Maurer has placed his black charcoal paintings of famous figures for sale.
On the top row, from left to right, rest the following: Barack Obama, Tim Tebow, Jesus.
As the sun begins to decline over across the muddy Mississippi, and night comes on, Tim Tebow's college career still has 60 minutes left, a Sugar Bowl tilt against the Cincinnati Bearcats.
I ask Maurer how the $50 Tim Tebow paintings had been selling.
"Not that well," he says. "I haven't sold one yet. Most people are focused on drinking and they don't want to carry around a painting. Lots of people have stopped and looked, though. I think the Gators are upset about being here."
The only other football figure for sale is legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant.
"To tell you the truth," says Maurer, "I was kind of hoping Alabama was going to be here again. I was expecting it. Last year, I sold 11 Bear Bryant's to Alabama fans."
My wife stands alongside me. She speaks before I even say anything. "You are not," she says, "buying a picture of Tim Tebow."
________________________________________
Let me be clear, I love Tim Tebow because he is the most authentic figure in sports today. Maybe, in all of American public society. Too often our sports heroes like Tiger Woods or Mark McGwire are steeped in artificiality. The same is true of our political figures, our religious leaders, virtually everyone in the public arena today is selling us something that has nothing to do with reality. In an age when we crave authenticity more than any other trait, when our television shows seek to capture reality and when players, coaches, and everyone associated with them sells an artificial image of themselves, I love that Tebow is refreshingly honest, direct, disarming, a man in full.
I don't want to be sold a false image anymore.
And, what's more, I don't want a player to do or say something because he thinks I want to hear that. We've reached an era where player and coach answers are so cliched, they don't even realize that they're spouting cliches anymore. We've all seen athletes and coaches interviewed on television so many times that we know what's coming before it's even said; our athletes are all playing roles.
Tebow isn't playing a role.
Because his role isn't to be cool, or to be calculated, or to do anything like that, it's to be as real as real can be.
That's why no matter how many times Tim Tebow scored touchdowns against my team, no matter how many times he triumphed over other teams that I was rooting for, I don't want to see Tim Tebow leave college football.
Watching him play is too much fun.
Follow Us on Twitter Friend Us on Facebook
As the Gators took the field on New Year's night 2010, come along for an italicized recap of the game interspersed with a retrospective of Tebow's career.
Call it Tebowiana.
1. Do you remember when we all watched Tebow play in the MTV reality show, Two-a-Days?
He was a top recruit then, a home-schooled lefty with a rocket arm. His team lost to Alabama's Hoover High School and a few months later Tebow spurned Mike Shula to join Urban Meyer's first full recruiting class.
Imagine how much the world of college football changes if Tebow picks Shula and Alabama. Is Shula still at Alabama?
Probably.
Forget two national titles, has Urban Meyer won a single national title at Florida?
Probably not.
The fine fault line between success and failure is exposed in that decision, the moment when Tebow first became a star.
Recall the Two-a-Days television conversation.
"Is he good?" a Hoover cheerleader asked.
"Yeah," the Hoover player said, "he's real good."
Indeed.
Kickoff arrives in New Orleans.
One play after Jeff Demps is carried off the field -- Cincinnati fans in front of me are chanting, "See you later, alligator" --Tebow hits Aaron Hernandez with the 19th touchdown pass of the season, and the 86th of this career.
Tebow is 7-for-7 on the first Gator drive.
2. Tebow and Verne Lundquist first became an item on a September night in Knoxville. A then-freshman Tebow came in for a fourth down conversion against the Vols.
The Gators trailed 20-14 in the fourth quarter. Tebow lined up under center.
Shotgun.
I was watching from a sports bar in Auburn, Ala., having just watched Auburn beat LSU 7-3.
"Are they really running him out of the shotgun?" my friend asked.
Yep, they were.
Tebow converted and celebrated on the field.
The Gators won 21-20.
Lose this game and not only do the Gators not play Ohio State for a national title, but they don't even win the SEC East.
On the second drive, Tebow uncorks an NFL-caliber pass down the seam. It's one of three more completions that Tebow has to begin 10-for-10 and give the Gators a 9-0 lead.
3. Then, later that freshman season, came the jump pass against LSU.
I was in Athens, Ga., getting ready for the night game between Georgia and Tennessee. The only thing that united Bulldog and Vol fans was rooting against SEC East foe Florida.
As Tebow threw his jump pass for a touchdown, the tailgate reaction was stunned silence.
Eventually, a Bulldog fan grabbed my arm. "Before he is done at Florida," said the Dawg, "Tim Tebow is going to be more hated in college football than Shane Battier."
In my column that debuted the term Tebow'd in October of 2006, I even wrote: "Here's a ClayNation prediction for you: By the time he's a senior [if he stays until he's a senior], Tebow is going to make J.J. Redick seem downright lovable in comparison."
But that never happened.
In fact, it never came close to happening.
Of course I also wrote then, "Urban Meyer has forbidden Tim Tebow from ever flexing both his biceps at the same time. The last time Tebow flexed, every coeds' top at the University of Florida miraculously rose at the exact same time. This caused two plane crashes, 96 fender benders and all classes were canceled at the university."
What I should have written was this, "When Tebow flexed, every coeds' top at the University of Florida miraculously rose at the exact same time ... and Tebow covered his eyes."
On the third drive, Tebow runs his streak of complete passes to 12, converts a fourth down on a shotgun draw, and tosses a perfect touchdown pass to Deonte Thompson. He's now 14-of-15 for 168 yards and two touchdowns.
4. Tebow converts on fourth down at The Swamp during Florida's 17-16 victory over South Carolina, and then heads out to The Swamp, the restaurant on University Avenue in Gainesville, for a postgame meal.
People forget once more what might have been. Lose that game against the Gamecocks and Meyer is 0-2 against Steve Spurrier.
Uneasy would lie the headset on the coaching crown.
Instead Tebow carries the Gators to victory.
That night, Tebow goes out for a post-midnight meal. Word spreads that Tebow is in The Swamp Restaurant and gives me the first indication of what it would have been like to see Elvis in his prime.
Tebow is in the building!
There's a rush to the second floor where an 19-year-old is having a meal. Or trying to have a meal. He's swarmed.
Just three months after turning 19, Tebow, wearing an oversized white shirt and jeans, is already a star.
Still more, Tebow leads the Gators to a fourth consecutive scoring drive and with seven minutes remaining the Gators are up 23-0.
Tebow's eye black? Ephesians 2:8-10
8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
5. Being e-mailed 14-million different attachments featuring Tebow wearing jorts.
It didn't matter that the picture was fake, it was everywhere.
Barry Bonds once said: If 70,000 people are willing to boo you, you must be good. Now it's time for the Tebow addendum, "If every Southern football fan has seen you photoshopped in jean shorts, you must be pretty good too."
On their fifth possession of the half Tebow hits Riley Cooper for an 80-yard touchdown. Did you know that they are roommates? I'm told that Thom Brennanman shared the most overtold stat immediately on the Fox broadcast.
Somewhere Verne Lundquist chortled.
6. The next year, in early September, Tim Tebow was stopped by Ole Miss on a fourth down sneak and the Rebels stunned the Gators 31-30.
Lots of attention has come from the "promise speech" that Tebow made after the loss. That's always been secondary to me. Because I was more interested in the response across the SEC.
No one could believe that Tebow had been stopped on fourth-and-short.
What's more, the failure offered a more interesting narrative, a player challenged as opposed to a player who was always dominant. In responding to defeat, Tebow became more interesting than he ever was in victory.
Tebow goes over 300 yards passing, 320 to be exact, with three touchdowns and 28 yards rushing tossed in for good measure.
At the half.
If Florida leaves him in for the entire game, he'll pass for 500 yards.
7. The circumcision of Filipino boys is something only Tebow could pull off.
Yeah, it's absurd and funny. And something that you and I wouldn't do.
No matter what.
Why?
Because even if it's beneficial to someone, you and I aren't touching Filipino foreskin because we would get killed for it by friends.
Question: "Where'd Clay go on his vacation this year?"
Answer: "Oh, you know, he went and circumcised Filipino boys again."
Result: For the rest of my life I hear about this after any friend has more than a beer.
But Tebow?
He makes circumcising Filipino boys cool.
Okay, maybe even Tebow can't pull that off.
At the half Cincinnati has 55 total yards on 28 plays. Tebow has 348 total yards on just 31 plays.
Also at the half Ephesians 2: 8 10, what Tebow is wearing on his eyeblack, is the No. 2 search result on Google hot trends.
What's No. 1?
Tebow cam.
8. Yeah, I asked Tebow if he was saving himself for marriage.
And all his answer did was burnish the mythological and otherworldly image of Tebow. But what it also did, was provide still further evidence that Tebow was refreshingly honest, someone who was willing to live his faith and continue to propound that faith even when it might not be cool.
I'll be honest, if I'd have to choose between being an SEC quarterback on the field, or an SEC quarterback off the field, I'm picking off the field. And you'll know exactly what I've meant if you've ever spent any time on SEC campuses.
In my experience, some of the biggest hypocrites on earth are those who profess themselves religious and evangelize for their faiths.
But Tebow's different.
How different?
My mom e-mails me the Bible verses he puts on his eyeblack.
On the first drive of the second half, Tebow runs his tally up to 366 yards passing and, on fourth down, after drawing the defense tosses a pitch to Emmanuel Moody to put the Gators up 37-3 and end all talk of the Big East being in the BCS title game in the foreseeable future.
Amazingly, Cincinnati was one second being put back on the clock from playing Alabama for the national title.
9. His lack of fear in returning when only a perfect 14-0 season and a championship could sate Gator fans.
Think about this for a moment, the Gators went 12-0 in the regular season and lost a single game, the SEC title. Tebow had a chance to become the greatest college football player ever, but he'd set the bar so high for himself that anything less than absolute perfection disappointed us.
And because he didn't achieve perfection, we devalued him.
Think about this for a moment, if Tebow leaves early, is drafted somewhere and heads to the NFL, do we rank him higher as an all-time player?
I think so.
Why?
Because Tebow occupies such a high perch in our estimation that we would have given him a perfect season and a national title by default.
We really would have.
And, by the way, if you don't favor a playoff then you're a damn fool. Having Tebow end his career in the Sugar Bowl, a game that is virtually meaningless, against an awfully matched team is a complete anti-climax. It doesn't do justice to Tebow's career.
Tebow is now 28-of-31 for 435 yards passing. As if that weren't enough, he scores on a four-yard run to make his tally 471 total yards rushing and passing. That 471 yards is the most by any player in BCS history.
Prior record holder, Vince Young put up 467 against USC in the title game.
What's most amazing about Tebow's yardage?
There's still 2:40 left in the third quarter.
10. Crying at the end of the Alabama game in the SEC Championship.
If any other player on a team cried after a loss, I'd mock them to no end. I might even write an entire column about it.
But somehow this was the perfect ending for Tebow's SEC career.
Why?
Because Tebow cried even though Alabama fans cheered his crying. He's so honest with us, that when his team lost, he didn't even think about the joby he might be providing to Alabama fans via crying. Nope, he just reacted as he saw fit.
And Tebow wept.
On the final complete drive of his college career, Tebow runs his total yardage stats into the stratosphere: 31-of-35 passing for 482 yards and 14 rushes for 51 yards. Add it all up and that's 533 total yards in a BCS game, a record that might stand for decades.
With 3:13 remaining in the game, Tim Tebow leaves the field for the final time of his football career. The crowd, mostly Gator fans, chants,"Thank you, Tebow," Tebow raises his hands in acknowledgment, and one of the greatest careers in college fooball history is over.
But not quite yet, as the witching hour comes to New Orleans, Tim Tebow doesn't want to leave the field just yet. He sprints to midfield, in front of the few fans remaining, and runs a semi-circle around the Superdome field, slapping hands with Gator fans.
Until, at long last, Tim Tebow leaves the building.
"It was better than a dream," Tebow says later.
________________________________________
For four years, Tim Tebow wasn't better than us, he was honest with us.
And that's why when I show up back in Nashville, I'm going to be carrying a Tim Tebow painting that spent Sugar Bowl week resting on the fence outside Jackson Square.
OK, not really.
But a Tennessee fan even thinking about it, says all you need to know about Tebow's career at Florida.
Clay Travis is the author of three books. His latest, "On Rocky Top: A Front Row Seat to The End of an Era" chronicles the 2008 Tennessee football season and is on sale now and makes a great stocking stuffer. You have a stocking for Martin Luther King Day, right?
53
3DHS / Re: On Sarah Palin
« on: January 02, 2010, 03:38:42 PM »
And not being so naive. As in when Jimmy Carter was "astonished" when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan after they told him they wouldn't.
54
3DHS / Re: It starts at home...
« on: December 13, 2008, 08:50:48 PM »
Well, I am NOT LDS, but why should they be limited to one wife if their religion says otherwise?
Why Ruby Ridge? Gimme a break here.
Why the ludicrous assault on Korash & Co?
Why?
Why Ruby Ridge? Gimme a break here.
Why the ludicrous assault on Korash & Co?
Why?
55
3DHS / Re: Our Mutual Joy
« on: December 13, 2008, 11:05:20 AM »
Newsweek is yet another attempt by the secular media to disenfranchise Christianity/to demean it/to invalidate it.
Part of a trend. It will continue as our Judeo-Christian foundation continues to erode.
Secularism has no basis in morality so watch what will happen over the next few years...
Part of a trend. It will continue as our Judeo-Christian foundation continues to erode.
Secularism has no basis in morality so watch what will happen over the next few years...
56
3DHS / Re: It starts at home...
« on: December 13, 2008, 11:01:12 AM »
Typical strong-armed Government tactics. Seems you can't mind your own biz without the Government intruding.
57
3DHS / Re: Our Mutual Joy
« on: December 11, 2008, 02:58:53 PM »
Here's the rebuttal to the original article:
Newsweek Argues the Religious Case for Gay Marriage
Albert Mohler
President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
December 10, 2008
Newsweek magazine, one of the most influential news magazines in America, has decided to come out for same-sex marriage in a big way, and to do so by means of a biblical and theological argument. In its cover story for this week, "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage," Newsweek religion editor Lisa Miller offers a revisionist argument for the acceptance of same-sex marriage. It is fair to say that Newsweek has gone for broke on this question.
Miller begins with a lengthy dismissal of the Bible's relevance to the question of marriage in the first place. "Let's try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does," Miller suggests. If so, she argues that readers will find a confusion of polygamy, strange marital practices, and worse.
She concludes: "Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple—who likely woke up on their wedding day harboring some optimistic and newfangled ideas about gender equality and romantic love—turn to the Bible as a how-to script?" She answers, "Of course not, yet the religious opponents of gay marriage would have it be so."
Now, wait just a minute. Miller's broadside attack on the biblical teachings on marriage goes to the heart of what will appear as her argument for same-sex marriage. She argues that, in the Old Testament, "examples of what social conservatives call 'the traditional family' are scarcely to be found." This is true, of course, if what you mean by 'traditional family' is the picture of America in the 1950s. The Old Testament notion of the family starts with the idea that the family is the carrier of covenant promises, and this family is defined, from the onset, as a transgenerational extended family of kin and kindred.
But, at the center of this extended family stands the institution of marriage as the most basic human model of covenantal love and commitment. And this notion of marriage, deeply rooted in its procreative purpose, is unambiguously heterosexual.
As for the New Testament, "Ozzie and Harriet are nowhere" to be found. Miller argues that both Jesus and Paul were unmarried (emphatically true) and that Jesus "preached a radical kind of family, a caring community of believers, whose bond in God superseded all blood ties." Jesus clearly did call for a commitment to the Gospel and to discipleship that transcended family commitments. Given the Jewish emphasis on family loyalty and commitment, this did represent a decisive break.
But Miller also claims that "while the Bible and Jesus say many important things about love and family, neither explicitly defines marriage as between one man and one woman." This is just patently untrue. Genesis 2:24-25 certainly reveals marriage to be, by the Creator's intention, a union of one man and one woman. To offer just one example from the teaching of Jesus, Matthew 19:1-8 makes absolutely no sense unless marriage "between one man and one woman" is understood as normative.
As for Paul, he did indeed instruct the Corinthians that the unmarried state was advantageous for the spread of the Gospel. His concern in 1 Corinthians 7 is not to elevate singleness as a lifestyle, but to encourage as many as are able to give themselves totally to an unencumbered Gospel ministry. But, in Corinth and throughout the New Testament church, the vast majority of Christians were married. Paul will himself assume this when he writes the "household codes" included in other New Testament letters.
The real issue is not marriage, Miller suggests, but opposition to homosexuality. Surprisingly, Miller argues that this prejudice against same-sex relations is really about opposition to sex between men. She cites the Anchor Bible Dictionary as stating that "nowhere in the Bible do its authors refer to sex between women." She would have done better to look to the Bible itself, where in Romans 1:26-27 Paul writes: "For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error."
Again, this passage makes absolutely no sense unless it refers very straightforwardly to same-sex relations among both men and women -- with the women mentioned first.
Miller dismisses the Levitical condemnations of homosexuality as useless because "our modern understanding of the world has surpassed its prescriptions." But she saves her most creative dismissal for the Apostle Paul. Paul, she concedes, "was tough on homosexuality." Nevertheless, she takes encouragement from the fact that "progressive scholars" have found a way to re-interpret the Pauline passages to refer only to homosexual violence and promiscuity.
In this light she cites author Neil Elliott and his book, The Arrogance of Nations. Elliott, like other "progressive scholars," suggests that the modern notion of sexual orientation is simply missing from the biblical worldview, and thus the biblical authors are not really talking about what we know as homosexuality at all. "Paul is not talking about what we call homosexuality at all," as Miller quotes Elliott.
Of course, no honest reader of the biblical text will share this simplistic and backward conclusion. Furthermore, to accept this argument is to assume that the Christian church has misunderstood the Bible from its very birth -- and that we are now dependent upon contemporary "progressive scholars" to tell us what Christians throughout the centuries have missed.
Tellingly, Miller herself seems to lose confidence in this line of argument, explaining that "Paul argued more strenuously against divorce—and at least half of the Christians in America disregard that teaching." In other words, when the argument is failing, change the subject and just declare victory. "Religious objections to gay marriage are rooted not in the Bible at all, then, but in custom and tradition," Miller simply asserts -- apparently asking her readers to forget everything they have just read.
Miller picks her sources carefully. She cites Neil Elliott but never balances his argument with credible arguments from another scholar, such as Robert Gagnon of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary [See his response to Elliott here]. Her scholarly sources are chosen so that they all offer an uncorrected affirmation of her argument. The deck is decisively stacked.
She then moves to the claim that sexual orientation is "exactly the same thing" as skin color when it comes to discrimination. As recent events have suggested, this claim is not seen as credible by many who have suffered discrimination on the basis of skin color.
As always, the bottom line is biblical authority. Lisa Miller does not mince words. "Biblical literalists will disagree," she allows, "but the Bible is a living document, powerful for more than 2,000 years because its truths speak to us even as we change through history." This argument means, of course, that we get to decide which truths are and are not binding on us as "we change through history."
"A mature view of scriptural authority requires us, as we have in the past, to move beyond literalism," she asserts. "The Bible was written for a world so unlike our own, it's impossible to apply its rules, at face value, to ours."
All this comes together when Miller writes, "We cannot look to the Bible as a marriage manual, but we can read it for universal truths as we struggle toward a more just future." At this point the authority of the Bible is reduced to whatever "universal truths" we can distill from its (supposed) horrifyingly backward and oppressive texts.
Even as she attempts to make her "religious case" for gay marriage, Miller has to acknowledge that "very few Jewish or Christian denominations do officially endorse gay marriage, even in the states where it is legal." Her argument now grinds to a conclusion with her hope that this will change. But -- and this is a crucial point -- if her argument had adequate traction, she wouldn't have to make it. It is not a thin extreme of fundamentalist Christians who stand opposed to same-sex marriage -- it is the vast majority of Christian churches and denominations worldwide.
Disappointingly, Newsweek editor Jon Meacham offers an editorial note that broadens Newsweek's responsibility for this atrocity of an article and reveals even more of the agenda: "No matter what one thinks about gay rights—for, against or somewhere in between —this conservative resort to biblical authority is the worst kind of fundamentalism," Meacham writes. "Given the history of the making of the Scriptures and the millennia of critical attention scholars and others have given to the stories and injunctions that come to us in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament, to argue that something is so because it is in the Bible is more than intellectually bankrupt—it is unserious, and unworthy of the great Judeo-Christian tradition."
Well, that statement sets the issue clearly before us. He insists that "to argue that something is so because it is in the Bible is more than intellectually bankrupt." No serious student of the Bible can deny the challenge of responsible biblical interpretation, but the purpose of legitimate biblical interpretation is to determine, as faithfully as possible, what the Bible actually teaches -- and then to accept, teach, apply, and obey.
The national news media are collectively embarrassed by the passage of Proposition 8 in California. Gay rights activists are publicly calling on the mainstream media to offer support for gay marriage, arguing that the media let them down in November. It appears that Newsweek intends to do its part to press for same-sex marriage. Many observers believe that the main obstacle to this agenda is a resolute opposition grounded in Christian conviction. Newsweek clearly intends to reduce that opposition.
Newsweek could have offered its readers a careful and balanced review of the crucial issues related to this question. It chose another path -- and published this cover story. The magazine's readers and this controversial issue deserved better.
Newsweek Argues the Religious Case for Gay Marriage
Albert Mohler
President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
December 10, 2008
Newsweek magazine, one of the most influential news magazines in America, has decided to come out for same-sex marriage in a big way, and to do so by means of a biblical and theological argument. In its cover story for this week, "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage," Newsweek religion editor Lisa Miller offers a revisionist argument for the acceptance of same-sex marriage. It is fair to say that Newsweek has gone for broke on this question.
Miller begins with a lengthy dismissal of the Bible's relevance to the question of marriage in the first place. "Let's try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does," Miller suggests. If so, she argues that readers will find a confusion of polygamy, strange marital practices, and worse.
She concludes: "Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple—who likely woke up on their wedding day harboring some optimistic and newfangled ideas about gender equality and romantic love—turn to the Bible as a how-to script?" She answers, "Of course not, yet the religious opponents of gay marriage would have it be so."
Now, wait just a minute. Miller's broadside attack on the biblical teachings on marriage goes to the heart of what will appear as her argument for same-sex marriage. She argues that, in the Old Testament, "examples of what social conservatives call 'the traditional family' are scarcely to be found." This is true, of course, if what you mean by 'traditional family' is the picture of America in the 1950s. The Old Testament notion of the family starts with the idea that the family is the carrier of covenant promises, and this family is defined, from the onset, as a transgenerational extended family of kin and kindred.
But, at the center of this extended family stands the institution of marriage as the most basic human model of covenantal love and commitment. And this notion of marriage, deeply rooted in its procreative purpose, is unambiguously heterosexual.
As for the New Testament, "Ozzie and Harriet are nowhere" to be found. Miller argues that both Jesus and Paul were unmarried (emphatically true) and that Jesus "preached a radical kind of family, a caring community of believers, whose bond in God superseded all blood ties." Jesus clearly did call for a commitment to the Gospel and to discipleship that transcended family commitments. Given the Jewish emphasis on family loyalty and commitment, this did represent a decisive break.
But Miller also claims that "while the Bible and Jesus say many important things about love and family, neither explicitly defines marriage as between one man and one woman." This is just patently untrue. Genesis 2:24-25 certainly reveals marriage to be, by the Creator's intention, a union of one man and one woman. To offer just one example from the teaching of Jesus, Matthew 19:1-8 makes absolutely no sense unless marriage "between one man and one woman" is understood as normative.
As for Paul, he did indeed instruct the Corinthians that the unmarried state was advantageous for the spread of the Gospel. His concern in 1 Corinthians 7 is not to elevate singleness as a lifestyle, but to encourage as many as are able to give themselves totally to an unencumbered Gospel ministry. But, in Corinth and throughout the New Testament church, the vast majority of Christians were married. Paul will himself assume this when he writes the "household codes" included in other New Testament letters.
The real issue is not marriage, Miller suggests, but opposition to homosexuality. Surprisingly, Miller argues that this prejudice against same-sex relations is really about opposition to sex between men. She cites the Anchor Bible Dictionary as stating that "nowhere in the Bible do its authors refer to sex between women." She would have done better to look to the Bible itself, where in Romans 1:26-27 Paul writes: "For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error."
Again, this passage makes absolutely no sense unless it refers very straightforwardly to same-sex relations among both men and women -- with the women mentioned first.
Miller dismisses the Levitical condemnations of homosexuality as useless because "our modern understanding of the world has surpassed its prescriptions." But she saves her most creative dismissal for the Apostle Paul. Paul, she concedes, "was tough on homosexuality." Nevertheless, she takes encouragement from the fact that "progressive scholars" have found a way to re-interpret the Pauline passages to refer only to homosexual violence and promiscuity.
In this light she cites author Neil Elliott and his book, The Arrogance of Nations. Elliott, like other "progressive scholars," suggests that the modern notion of sexual orientation is simply missing from the biblical worldview, and thus the biblical authors are not really talking about what we know as homosexuality at all. "Paul is not talking about what we call homosexuality at all," as Miller quotes Elliott.
Of course, no honest reader of the biblical text will share this simplistic and backward conclusion. Furthermore, to accept this argument is to assume that the Christian church has misunderstood the Bible from its very birth -- and that we are now dependent upon contemporary "progressive scholars" to tell us what Christians throughout the centuries have missed.
Tellingly, Miller herself seems to lose confidence in this line of argument, explaining that "Paul argued more strenuously against divorce—and at least half of the Christians in America disregard that teaching." In other words, when the argument is failing, change the subject and just declare victory. "Religious objections to gay marriage are rooted not in the Bible at all, then, but in custom and tradition," Miller simply asserts -- apparently asking her readers to forget everything they have just read.
Miller picks her sources carefully. She cites Neil Elliott but never balances his argument with credible arguments from another scholar, such as Robert Gagnon of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary [See his response to Elliott here]. Her scholarly sources are chosen so that they all offer an uncorrected affirmation of her argument. The deck is decisively stacked.
She then moves to the claim that sexual orientation is "exactly the same thing" as skin color when it comes to discrimination. As recent events have suggested, this claim is not seen as credible by many who have suffered discrimination on the basis of skin color.
As always, the bottom line is biblical authority. Lisa Miller does not mince words. "Biblical literalists will disagree," she allows, "but the Bible is a living document, powerful for more than 2,000 years because its truths speak to us even as we change through history." This argument means, of course, that we get to decide which truths are and are not binding on us as "we change through history."
"A mature view of scriptural authority requires us, as we have in the past, to move beyond literalism," she asserts. "The Bible was written for a world so unlike our own, it's impossible to apply its rules, at face value, to ours."
All this comes together when Miller writes, "We cannot look to the Bible as a marriage manual, but we can read it for universal truths as we struggle toward a more just future." At this point the authority of the Bible is reduced to whatever "universal truths" we can distill from its (supposed) horrifyingly backward and oppressive texts.
Even as she attempts to make her "religious case" for gay marriage, Miller has to acknowledge that "very few Jewish or Christian denominations do officially endorse gay marriage, even in the states where it is legal." Her argument now grinds to a conclusion with her hope that this will change. But -- and this is a crucial point -- if her argument had adequate traction, she wouldn't have to make it. It is not a thin extreme of fundamentalist Christians who stand opposed to same-sex marriage -- it is the vast majority of Christian churches and denominations worldwide.
Disappointingly, Newsweek editor Jon Meacham offers an editorial note that broadens Newsweek's responsibility for this atrocity of an article and reveals even more of the agenda: "No matter what one thinks about gay rights—for, against or somewhere in between —this conservative resort to biblical authority is the worst kind of fundamentalism," Meacham writes. "Given the history of the making of the Scriptures and the millennia of critical attention scholars and others have given to the stories and injunctions that come to us in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament, to argue that something is so because it is in the Bible is more than intellectually bankrupt—it is unserious, and unworthy of the great Judeo-Christian tradition."
Well, that statement sets the issue clearly before us. He insists that "to argue that something is so because it is in the Bible is more than intellectually bankrupt." No serious student of the Bible can deny the challenge of responsible biblical interpretation, but the purpose of legitimate biblical interpretation is to determine, as faithfully as possible, what the Bible actually teaches -- and then to accept, teach, apply, and obey.
The national news media are collectively embarrassed by the passage of Proposition 8 in California. Gay rights activists are publicly calling on the mainstream media to offer support for gay marriage, arguing that the media let them down in November. It appears that Newsweek intends to do its part to press for same-sex marriage. Many observers believe that the main obstacle to this agenda is a resolute opposition grounded in Christian conviction. Newsweek clearly intends to reduce that opposition.
Newsweek could have offered its readers a careful and balanced review of the crucial issues related to this question. It chose another path -- and published this cover story. The magazine's readers and this controversial issue deserved better.
58
3DHS / Re: are we about to enter a DEPRESSION?
« on: December 10, 2008, 06:08:59 PM »
kimba it seems lots of illegals work in construction which has ground to halt
Economy forcing many Mexicans to leave United States
By Chris Hawley, USA TODAY
When her 3-year-old son begs for pizza, or when her family is shivering through a subfreezing night in the Mexican highlands — those are the moments when Rosario Araujo misses America the most.
Three months ago, Araujo and her husband, José Zavala, were still living comfortably, though illegally, in a suburb of Phoenix. He hung drywall for $10 an hour; she was a housekeeper. Their version of the American dream was modest: a small apartment, a washing machine and an occasional night out with their two American-born kids.
Then the economic crisis hit, and work dried up. So in October, the family moved back to central Mexico's empty plains, joining a small but growing flow of migrants heading home because of the U.S. recession.
"It was a difficult decision," admits Araujo, 20. "We took a lot of risks to get" to America. "We miss it."
Life on her husband's family farm seems a world away from sunny Arizona. The cinder-block farmhouse lacks central heat, so the family wraps in blankets and huddles around a space heater. They can't afford pizza anymore because they haven't yet found work here, either.
Those challenges help illustrate why most of the 11.9 million illegal immigrants that the Pew Hispanic Center estimates are residing in the USA are staying put for now. Even in bad times, U.S. salaries are still, on average, about four times higher than those across the border. The Mexican job market is flat and drug-related violence is at record highs.
Even so, the collapse of the U.S. economy — particularly the housing industry — has forced the Mexican government to start preparing for an influx of returnees in the months ahead. As was the case with Araujo's family, most illegal immigrants lack a social safety net in the USA and could have no choice but to return to Mexico, where at least they can count on family to provide shelter and food.
"We have to face the possibility of a very large number of Mexicans" coming home, Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa said last month.
Besides the faltering economy, tighter border enforcement and increasing numbers of police raids on undocumented workers have contributed to a modest decline in the USA's illegal immigrant population — the first such drop in recent memory, says Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
"People still continue to come and go, but the equation seems to have switched," Camarota says. "A lot of people argued that immigrants were so permanently anchored in the United States that nothing, no enforcement, no cutoff of jobs would induce them to go home. It seems that's not the case."
If the trend accelerates, it could eventually ease some of the strain that illegal immigrants place on services such as schools and hospitals in border areas of the United States, says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, another Washington think tank.
Culture shock awaits
Many of those who return undergo a kind of culture shock after spending so many years in a more developed country. Zavala, Araujo's husband, says he is most worried about his children's education.
"The schools there (in the United States), they take the children in a bus and give them food, books, everything," he says. "Here you walk to school and you get nothing."
For now, the couple are scraping by with their dwindling savings. Zavala spends his days tending his father's three cows, waiting for planting season and worrying about the future.
Just down the road from him in the town of San José de Lourdes, population 7,000, about 50 migrant workers have returned from the USA in the past few months, says Abel Hernández, the town's administrator.
Even by local standards, the town is not a particularly inviting place.
Tethered horses stand in the dirt streets. A battered welcome sign hangs crazily from a post, one end resting on the ground; the other post was knocked down by a drunken driver and never replaced. The town's liveliest businesses are a feed store and a factory that processes corn husks for wrapping tamales.
The long tradition of migration is obvious everywhere. At a gasoline station outside town, there is a U.S. highway map on the wall and a Western Union window where residents can pick up wire transfers from their relatives in the United States.
Still, several residents who were deported from the USA or came back for family reasons say they are postponing their return until the economy improves.
"Why go back now? There's no work," says Rogelio Ortíz, who returned from Memphis in August to visit his wife and children. He's waiting to see whether the next U.S. president can help the economy. "Let's see if Obama can do something about it."
Teresa Cervantes, 21, says she and her husband decided their family no longer could afford to live in the Chicago area after his construction work dried up.
She returned this month with their two children; he probably will join them next year, she says.
The migrants who remain in the United States are sending home less money, Hernández says. Across Mexico, migrant remittances dropped 6.5% from $6.33 billion in the third quarter of 2007 to $5.92 billion in the same period this year, according to Mexico's central bank. The effect has been amplified in poor towns that rely heavily on money from migrants abroad.
In San José de Lourdes, store owner Ana María Guardado says her sales have dropped 30% as families cut back to staple foods. Rodriguez, the farmer, says his sisters used to wire him $100 every eight days. They also paid for his phone line so they could keep in touch with family back home.
He hasn't gotten a wire in six weeks, he says, and now his phone has been shut off.
Trying to assist returnees
Among the thousands of Mexicans who have been uprooted by the economic turmoil, most are moving within the U.S. rather than leaving the country, says Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador in Washington.
In some Mexican consulates, the number of requests for consular IDs has doubled as migrants update their addresses, he says. Many people in Arizona, Colorado and Virginia are moving to California and the Northeast, places seen as more migrant-friendly, he says.
"We are seeing very significant and very profound migration patterns within the United States," Sarukhan says.
For those who do return to Mexico, the Mexican government is expanding the Seguro Popular health insurance plan to absorb returning migrants and is hoping to create jobs for them with a raft of new infrastructure projects such as highways, airports and new border crossings, says Espinosa, the foreign minister.
In Mexico City — which estimates it has about 450,000 citizens living in the United States, out of a total population of 8.7 million — officials are taking more dramatic steps. The local government is bringing in psychologists from a local university to help migrant children returning from the USA to fit in at Mexican schools, says Guadalupe Chipole Ibañez, director of Mexico City's Center for Migrants.
Many of the new arrivals have trouble in grammar and literature classes, she says.
"There are children who speak and understand well in both Spanish and English, but many of them only write in English, and that is causing them a lot of problems in school," Chipole Ibañez said during a news conference in October.
Not all of the change is negative — Araujo, the former housekeeper, says she won't miss the constant threat of deportation. In Maricopa County, Ariz., where she lived, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has earned national attention for arresting illegal immigrants in anti-crime sweeps.
Blanca Castillo, Araujo's sister in-law who also recently returned home, notes that anti-Mexican sentiment seemed to be growing among Arizonans.
"Suddenly people were shouting things at you on the street," Castillo says. "It was like, as the economy went down, the racism went up."
Despite all the problems, and the increasing difficulties of getting back across the border, Araujo's husband says he would try to return to the United States in an instant if things improve.
"Maybe things will get better next year," Zavala says. "I hope so, anyway, because there's nothing for us here — nothing."
Hawley is Latin America correspondent for USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic.
Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-12-09-Mexico-immigrants_N.htm
59
3DHS / Re: are we about to enter a DEPRESSION?
« on: December 10, 2008, 03:07:38 PM »
you first, Plane. :-)
60
3DHS / Re: Our Mutual Joy
« on: December 10, 2008, 11:46:30 AM »
No one is trying to force the CHURCH to approve gay marriage.
Actually, XO, I could easily foresee a situation in the near future where churches would have to hire married homosexuals or violate the law. In fact, I suspect there are already such laws on the books and if not, I'm sure San Francisco will be in the forefront of this movement.
Actually, XO, I could easily foresee a situation in the near future where churches would have to hire married homosexuals or violate the law. In fact, I suspect there are already such laws on the books and if not, I'm sure San Francisco will be in the forefront of this movement.