USC and LSU are separating themselves from the field.  Or perhaps the field is separating itself from LSU and USC.

Stand by for a major re-working of the College Football polls after a week in which half of the top ten were upset, none of them by other teams in the top ten.

#5 West Virginia kicked things off with a 21-13 loss at #18 South Florida on Friday night.  Not a total surprise.  USF had already logged a huge win at Auburn.  What was surprising was the Mountaineers’ lack of offensive production.  USF took QB Pat White out of the game physically and rendered RB Steve Slaton ineffective.  Considering that Louisville is down this year and Rutgers also suffered an upset this week, the Toros could be on the inside track to a Big East title and BCS Bowl.

#3 Oklahoma logged a monumental collapse at unranked Colorado.  The Sooners surrendered 17 fourth-quarter points including a game-winning Buffalo field goal as time expired.  The Big XII North was supposed to be the significantly weaker half of a conference experiencing a down year. (more…)

It’s final.  Newt Gingrich will not be running for President in the upcoming election.  The stated reason coming from his camp is that Gingrich could not legally explore a bid for the White House and chair his political think tank American Solutions for Winning the Future.

I’ll admit that I’m disappointed.  Gingrich would have had my whole-hearted support had he entered the race.  But part of me realizes that his candidacy would have been a long-shot and though they won’t say it, my guess is that that is the conclusion he and his advisors reached.

I was not aware that legally Gingrich had to choose one or the other.  Given that, the former Speaker has chosen the role which fits him best, and from which he can contribute the most.

Gingrich is an idea man.  This is what made him so appealing stacked up against the current, uninspiring field of Presidential candidates.  How much can we expect of candidates who don’t have any terrific, fresh ways to approach things but promise to be really good at executing on the same old thing.  But I’ll take that over someone like Hillary who has some big ideas (such as health care) that should scare the living hell out of us all. 

Google’s impending “ad-driven” cell phone on the horizon is all the buzz in the telecom industry, but the 21st Century Paladin thinks that the idea will have limited impact.

I’m not so sure I agree but it should be interesting to see what happens.  On the one hand Google has a great track record for winning over converts to whatever their current hot item may be.  On the other, this seems like it will be a tougher nut to crack than the areas of Google’s successes to date.

If nothing else we can look forward to not hearing about the iPhone so much.

Advance Apology:  This may turn into rambling as it is something that I’m still wrestling with.  But I ran across this, at It Takes a Church, which comments on this post, which had to be difficult for its writer.

Broad summary:  Sally Morgenthaler wrote the book Worship Evangelism, and became a champion of the concept.  Recently however, she had a painful epiphany.  Ms. Morgenthaler finally came to realize that though Worship as Evangelism appeared to be a success, it was not accomplishing the purpose of either worship or evangelism, much less both.  As you read her words you can feel the pain at having to scrap what had become her life’s work and go back to the drawing board.

Some preliminary comments:  I’m one of those people who has been in church in a variety of capacities for my entire life.  After some personal struggles and then reading Ms. Morganthaler’s comments it seems that a majority of churches have never really completely figured out worship, and / or evangelism, whether or not they’ve been trying to combine them. (more…)

I just read about the top tier Republican candidates’ plans to skip this Thursday’s debate on PBS to cover issues of importance to “people of color.”  Giuliani, Romney, Thompson and McCain are, as of right now, planned no-shows.

I am terribly disappointed with these men, and even worse, I believe that this is a major faux pas that will hurt the eventual nominee.

The thinking seems to be that the black vote is solidly in Democratic hands and this event is unlikely to change that.

Well, nothing will ensure that things stay that way more than skipping this forum.  And, how many debates have they already participated in that are equally unlikely to have much bearing on where they stand?  For that matter, how many hundreds of things will each of them spend time and money on in the coming months that will benefit them just as little?  But those are just the quick, shallow responses. (more…)

Ahhh, slowly I’m being sucked into the You-niverse.  Check out 1st Semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song.  I thought it was pretty freaking hilarious, provided you don’t over-analyze like some of the twits that commented on it.  It’s a funny parody of the odd, random phrases Spanish beginners learn.  And if you like that you’ll probably enjoy some of the other stuff from Runaway Box.  It’s not doubled-over laughing hilarious, but will definitely resonate with anyone who has ever worked in an office.

Pictured here:  Louisville’s pass defense strikes again … so blanket-esque it’s a wonder that Syracuse’s receivers and 115th ranked offense had room to breathe, much less catch passes. The lady in the white visor was as close to the play as any of our db’s and was paying about as much attention!

OK, around here the homers are taking one of two tracks:  1. They are suddenly acknowledging that the Cards lost a lot of pieces from last season and that it really wouldn’t be right to have high expectations, or 2. They are calling for coach Steve Kragthorpe’s head, four games into his tenure.  Kind of ironic considering that after a couple of coaches who were looking for their next job right from the start, it appears we finally have a guy who might be willing to stick around for a while.

IMHO, when you hire a college coach you are saying that you believe this guy can do the whole job, and you’ve got to give him a chance to prove it. (more…)

Since last Sunday’s epic pitching duo between Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling, which didn’t turn out so well for Schilling, I’ve been watching 38 Pitches (Schill’s blog) for an insider word.  Then Boston went on to burn 3 more games off of their lead and create a battle for the AL East in the last week of the season, and I’ve really been waiting to hear something.  At last a post from Schilling.

Nothing earth-shaking, but I really appreciate a guy like Schill who doesn’t try to spin or soft-petal.  He owns the situation.  In fact the post’s title was “Character test incoming.”  I’m not a Boston fan.  Far from it.  But I am a big Curt Schilling fan.

A pre-commercial break tease last night on ESPN:  “Now that Michigan is back on track after a big win over Notre Dame, are they once again the team to beat in the Big 10?”  Now I know these guys have short memories whenever it suits them, but this is ridiculous.

They’re “back” because they beat Notre Dame?  No TD scoring Notre Dame?  Negative net rushing yards through three games Notre Dame?  That’s the benchmark for “ready to contend in the Big 10″?

Michigan has lost to a Div II school and was absolutely shredded at home by the ONLY good team they’ve played.  In this season, losing to Notre Dame would have been worse than the loss to App State.  Waiting for the Wolverines in conference play are a few teams that are just a shade better than dead last in the NCAA in just about every statistical category you can imagine.

The good news is, when Michigan does find it in their hearts to travel away from home they’ll be visiting Northwestern who just ended Duke’s 20+ game losing streak.

… once again, he’d be Mitt Romney.

Really.  Beyond the ideology they embrace, which in both cases seems to be more of a calculation than heart-felt belief, find me one other difference.  Both sport a carefully maintained appearance.  Both seem to ebb and flow on issues with the political winds.  Both can, on the fly, accurately discern what their audience wants to hear.  And neither would ever make the mistake of appearing to sincerely believe what they are saying at any given moment.

If Romney is genuine, he’s hiding it well.