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Days after Steve Spurrier was reprimanded by the SEC for complaining about football officiating, Tennessee’s Phil Fulmer has been added to the pillory for daring to speak out.

Laughably, he was cited under a “Code of Ethics” that prohibits public criticism of league officials. One has to wonder how long *that* concept would stand up under First Amendment scrutiny.

Fulmer apologized, of course, saying, “I should have worked through the SEC office channels to express my frustrations.”

Now *there’s* a winning strategy. Just ask Steve Spurrier how well that’s worked for him over the years. Ask LSU how much the apology they got for the blown call at Florida earlier this year has helped their ranking in the polls. Ron Zook might have a comment or two as well.

Rivalries aside, the SEC is comprised of some of the best educational institutions in the nation, schools that spend real resources striving to portray themselves in a positive light to enable them to fulfill their academic missions.

What the SEC *can’t* afford is prime-time reinforcement of the Mayberry, RFD stereotype already attached to schools in the South. Yet when a coach dares to complain, the league’s imperious, smack-down response invariably gives just that.

The problem with “working the system” is that the core issue never gets addressed: Officials are demonstratably making mistakes, big ones, that are affecting the outcome of league games. Surprisingly, some of the coaches are a bit miffed about that.

A better path for the league might be to pay more attention to what is *causing* the coaches to speak out in the first place. I think I can speak for every team out there when I say that they want to win, or lose, honestly and fairly.

The Ol’ Ball Coach embraces the best idea yet for dealing with the issue: Do away with the concept of ‘league officials’. Let the NCAA establish the metrics for officiating competency and provide the personnel to call the games.

Sounds like a plan.

I cling to intellectual honesty,
the way a drowning sailor
in tempest-tos’t seas
clings to a double suite
on the QEII.

Now Donald Trump is in trouble for flying an American flag.

Palm Beach officials, proving they’ve learned little since the 2000 election travesty, said the 15-by-25-foot flag makes the town look like “we have an Okeechobee car dealer”.

The reality is, it makes the town look like they have a patriot.

If the officials want to harass someone, maybe it should be the car dealers that are leveraging patriotism for cash.

“… my London, London bridge is fallin’ down?”

Sorry. No woman anywhere is hot enough to put up with that noise.

:)

Yet another reader letter in the Gainesville Sun today referenced the “conservative-controlled media”.

The Gainesville Sun? Conservative? I hardly think so. I worked there for a number of years, and come election time we tended to cluster around the few televisions in partisan groups. (I was a Perot supporter; we didn’t have our own TV but the conservatives allowed us to share.)

The liberal crowd around the information udder was always much bigger (and more smug) than the conservative one.

Not convinced? Let’s take a quick look at today’s banner.

If GOP loses, what’s ahead?

• Congress up for grabs on Nov. 7
• White House’s agenda faltering

Who’s been talking about the GOP losing? This is a nice piece of work. Subtle. It brings up an unlikely eventuality and makes it a possibility in people’s minds.

This illustrates my point: this headline isn’t the product of a “conservative-controlled media”. If it were, it would probably give more useful information:

If GOP loses, what’s ahead?

• Lowest airfares to Canada
• How to build your own gas mask

On a totally unrelated topic: can an engine sing? I could swear I heard the Beemer this morning singing, in a thick Bavarian accent, something like, “I love cold weather, autobahn autobahn autobahn autobahn”.

From the snap in the air, I may wish I had remembered my gloves come quittin’ time, but this morning, I wanted to ride.

Caught a glimpse of a news report today, in which Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney opined,

“Clearly Republicans are so afraid of their abysmal record they can’t offer one example of what they’ve done to keep America safe. Democrats offer Americans a real plan to keep us safe at home and around the world that starts with tracking down the terrorists, not just more fear and smear attack ads.” Quoted from www.democrats.org

This to me is worrisome and infuriating, depending on how you read it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of the current situation. We do need a real resolution to our problems, at home and worldwide.

But this quote is long on promise and short on details. I wouldn’t buy a loaf of bread on such terms, no less turn over the leadership of a nation.

If the Democrats have– if anybody has– a real plan leading to real resolution, and is withholding it for their own personal gain while Americans and allies and innocents fight and die– that to me is an obscenity, one that borders on an act of treason.

If there’s a new idea out there, now’s the time to share it. If not, it’s time to stop pretending that it’s politics as usual here at home.

That said, here’s my take on the big picture.

1. We’re in this spot largely because of our dependence on petroleum. There are scores of other issues and history, I know, but at the core is our need for energy.
2. We’ve puttered with ideas for using alternate energy sources (or suppressed successes, if you’re one of the tinfoil-hat-wearing crowd), but nothing’s really come of it. One reason is that we’re depending on economic forces to drive the creation of the infrastructure– which won’t happen until the price of crude really surges, say a couple hundred bucks a barrel. And at that point it’s too late.
3. To resolve this vulnerability, the Federal government should immediately nationalize and develop a hydrogen-fueling infrastructure. We can’t wait for the big companies to decide that the profits are there (although the mere consideration of the plan might get them off their collective backsides).

Crazy? Dangerous? Maybe. But there’s a lot more detail in this plan that anything I’ve heard from the Democrats. I expect better work from both the right and the left.

So there it is, for the world to see.

Leak’s arm was moving forward, having already given a pump-fake.

The ball had left his hand before anyone touched it.

But it wasn’t a pass. It was a fumble. So Say The SEC Officials.

So much for instant replay.