NPM: Detroit

Despite a short stint up in the Wolverine backwoods, I've spent over 75% of my life living one block from the city of Detroit. I grew up in a house across the street from my grandparents and I now live in my grandparents old home. Funny how life can work out sometimes.

Anyone paying attention to the News is well aware of the problems with Detroit. I love the city. I love how dirty, grimey, and unpolished it appears to outsiders. I love the view you get driving north on I-75 coming over the Rouge River Bridge and the city skyline appears with the RenCen glistening and the Ambassador bridge in the foreground and the smoke and haze of manufacturing surrounding the beauty. I'm pretty unapologetic of my love for all things Detroit (even Kid Rock and Eminem, but not so much Lions and City Council)

They say New York is the city that never sleeps, well Detroit is the city that never stops working.

That was until they starting bailing out Wall St.

I won't aplogize for this video, and it's as in your face as it needs to be.

“Pardon me if I don’t shed a tear...‘Cause they’re selling make-believe and we don’t buy that here.” - John Rich

Unfortunately, no one's listening.

NPM: Black and White

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who wouldn't agree with you. A camera in the right person's hand can be as powerful as any great work of art or composition. For quite sometime now a niche market has developed within photography focusing on black-and-white and the artistic ability it provides. According to Wikipedia,

"Today black-and-white media often has a "nostalgic", historic, or anachronistic
feel to it."

Who doesn't love black and white pictures? They usually capture a moment that communicates pure beauty. The magic is in there simplicity. Just one snapshot, catching a slice of life, that can sweep through our emotions. Stripped down to bare essentials, everything covered in shades of gray.

It evokes a simpler, much more easier time.

How long before my grand-children look at pictures of my life and "see the story of my life right there in black and white."

What I mean is, many of us nowadays hear the phrase "back in the day" to explain a time when things were easier and a Norman Rockwell moments was more commonplace than a car in the driveway. Dad worked, mom stayed home, and Eddie Haskell was your biggest problem.

But were those times easier?

Did my grandfather find times were great and things were easier as he walked to his factory job every day? Did my grandmother find her life charming and quintessential washing laundry by hand and walking to the grocery store with her kids everyday? Did they view their experiences as Norman Rockwell moments.

So, when will my grandkids pull out some old pictures and see my life in Black and White?

Really, is any time in life ever really simple and completely pure? Black and white? I don’t think so.

”A picture’s worth a thousand words but you can’t see what those shades of
gray keep covered …You should’ve seen it in color.” - Jamey Johnson

I'm on Board

Unless we are anywhere near Somalia or Rush shows up.

NPM

In answer to Corey's comment and to show my support for NPM and to prove just how clueless I can be sometimes, I offer this little diddie....

They said timing was everything, made him...
Want to be everywhere, there's a...
Lot to be said for nowhere
(Eddie Vedder dba Pearl Jam - "MFC" from the album Yield)

Most of you are far more talented in the arts than I am and should have a pretty easy time with this one....

Hopefully

Someday

....and Mike is now with him.



See you on the flip-side buddy.

Sunrise

He is not here....

9 lbs. 6 oz. 22.5" long 8:16 am 10-02-08

NOAH MICHAEL

Still speechless, just like last time

Born a week earlier than the due date, and 1 oz bigger and 1.5" longer than Seth (who was born on his due date)!!! To quote the doctor, "You made the right decision to deliver this baby with a planned C-Section."

Michele is a small woman at only 5' 3", Doc says no way she delivers that baby the normal way.

So Seth now has a big, little brother sort of

The Revolution continues!!!

Watch out world, couple little Maloney boys gonna be running around doing there thing!!

*TEAR-DROP(S)*

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING!!!

This "Presidential Debate" is absolutely brutal.

Neither one of them are answering any of the damn questions.

Lehere specifically asked each candidate what are they going to cut out of thier budgets and programs to help accomodate that probable, supposed $700 billion buy-out, and they spent (no pun intended) more time talking about what they want to do. Be a leader!!! Be a Maverick!!! Bring change!!! SOMEONE...ANYONE

AND THEN LEHER HIT THEM ON IT!!!!

"Neither one of you have said what you would do to make up for this buyout"

"One of you will come into office in January and be staring down one of the biggest and toughest times our country as ever faced."

AND THE BOTH GO BACK TO PARTISAN POLITICS.

"We have to do this..." "I want to do this..." healthcare, education, defense, blah, blah, blah...

And then Lehere says let me ask you the same question a different way to try and get an answer...

The poor guy can't get a straight answer from either one of these chumps, and one of them will be President.....

*sigh*

Hey, did you know that McCain is a Maverick?

Did you know that McCain agreed with Bush 90% of the time?

Did you know that Barack Obama is the most far left voting Senator?

Did you know that John McCain was a war hero?

Did you know McCain was for the war?

Did you know that Barack opposed the war from the beginning?



Do you know what John or Barack are going to do to solve the current crisis?

What are they going to do to maybe balance the budget?

Do we know what actual leadership qualities either of these guys bring to the table?

Week 3 Fantasy Football

Not a very good week at all. Matter of fact, I think this is my worse week in Fantasy Football ever. Looking over our league's archive the last time I failed to reach 80 points in one week was back in 2006 during Week 5 when I scored 79.

Then, when you realize that A) - The guy I played only scored 92.65, which is less than the 3 week average, including this stinker of 76.7, of my team's scoring B) Another guy only scored 67.1 C) I left Fred Taylor on the bench (he got me 21 points) and D) this makes me the only 1-2 team in my divison.

Additionally, things aren't looking very good for my team right now. I just lost Jeremy Shockey for 4-6 weeks. I've already lost Colston and with the Brady injury, technically appear to have lost Randy Moss. David Patten appears to be hurt too now. My team is becoming a M.A.S.H unit.

I came very close to landing Addai and Gregg Jennings in a trade, but it fell through Saturday morning when I wouldn't part with Randy and Hines Ward....I probably should have. My own stupid fault there.

Anyway, here is the breakdown for this week.

I lost 92.65 to 76.7

My top 3 - Titans DST 25, Romo - 17, and Mason Crosby (yes my kicker) with 10 for a total of 52

His top 3 - Ravens DST 41, Anthony Fasano (who? exactly) 12.6, and Mat Prater (yes his kicker) with 10 for a total of 63.6

I'm definitely looking to make some trades this week and am wondering if I can tolerate Moss on my bench this week for the bye and then give him one more week (week 5) to see if Belicheck begins to allow his QB to throw deep to Moss. or if I should just take what I can get.

Crapping the Bed

Being thoroughly confused to just what in the hell is going on with all this financial meltdown crisis and watching the Stock Market drop 1,000 points in just a couple I've been trying to read a whole hell of a lot and try and figure out to what extent my family will be affected.

By all accounts, with the exception of the 401K, HSA's, and IRA's we have, we should be ok going through this. We only are in debt the cost of our mortgage (which is only 30% of the orignal mortgage cost, so even if our house has lost value, our loss what be percentage points), and in addition to the 10% of pre-tax money we put into 401K's, HSA's, and IRA's we always aim to save an additional 10% of take home pay. No Credit Card debt, School Bills, or Car Payments. So, we are not overborrowed or in heavy debt but we'll need to still do some buckling down if we want to keep on saving. I am pretty convinced, as of now, this is great chance to Buy-Low, extremely Low.

ANYWAY, here are a slew of articles, commentary, and blogs on the situation for you to read if you want. They have helped me to really understand what in the hell is going on.

• Maybe the best and clearest explanation from the WSJ "No end in Sight"
• Doctor Doom from Forbes
• Time Magazine weighing in (with a very lengthy piece) to let you know how massive this perfect storm is.
• From the BBC, which is basically saying see you later to the Clinton Democrats (don't let the door hit you on the way out) and this modern anti-fiscal conservative Republican Party (good riddance!!!)
• And, from the Atlantic it's not all George W's fault.......
• it's ours as Deneen (some good Perotesque charts and graphs) and Larison say (this is succint, to the point, and brilliant)

Please make sure your seatbelts are buckled, your trays are in their upright and locked position and you have a snickers bar (or two) - we're going to be here awhile.

Week 2 Fantasy Football

Did you guys see that MNF shoot-out last night? WHEW!!!!

Romo goes for 312 and 3 td's.

I score 125.5 points

and lose!!!

Yes sir, I had 169.7 dropped on me, unreal....I know.

But he had Warner, Boldin, MB3, and Julius Jones. Warner and Boldin alone got him over 85 points.

I am sitting in 2nd in my division though and definitely know that weeks like this happen in Fantasy Football. You have a great week and someone has an amazing week.

Oh well.

But my Do the Opposite is still shining through this young football season. Top rushers from this week did include Westbrook and AP. But, remember, Do the Opposite entails you drafting in the middle to late 1st round, meaning LT, Westbrook, AP should be taken first anyway. The other top rushers were Run DMC (5th round), Julius Jones (7th round), and Earnest Graham (5th round).

His top 3 - Warner (44.3), Boldin (41), and Julius Jones (27.8) for 113.1

My top 3 - Romo (35.2), Titans DST (33), and Chris Johnson (18) for 86.2

So onto next week and I wouldn't be surprised if I am able to swing a trade this week of some sort. A couple guys have gone 0-2 and there star players aren't performing for them (Addai, Carson Palmer, Jamal Lewis, Derek Anderson, etc.). I am aiming for Addai or Lewis (definitely buy-low) and chances are slim, but I have some depth I can offer and sometimes an 0-2 start can trigger people's fears and I'm like a shark in water. I am the guy who got Addai, Pitt Defense, Favre, Ryan Grant, Portis, and MB3 in trades last year. Some of those guys I traded away for each other (for example I got Portis in a trade and traded him for Favre).

But I am getting a reputation for my trading prowess so who knows.

Week 1 Fantasy Football

It's funny, I was looking at my archives from last year when I was tracking my Fantasy Football team as I was on a mission to prove that "Doing the Opposite" is the way to go in Fantasy Football. Last year for week 1 I scored 115.4 points and lost.

This year - 115.8 and....I won!

At least I am consistent in the scoring.

Now, obviously, those of you that may have taken my advice this year and took Brady in the first round, I feel for you. Big time! I almost took Brady in the 1st round, but decided I could get Romo or Brees in the 2nd/3rd round and decided grabbing 2 WRs in the first 2 rounds was the way to go (Moss and Colston). But some of the top RB's also suffered injuries, maybe not season-ending but they still left games early...LT, Addai, and Marion Barber to name the Big 3. And up to this year, Brady had never missed a game due to injury in his career. Maybe it's a little karmic retribution for "The Hoody" playing games with the NFL injury report and listing Brady as questionable for some 3 or 4 years in a row every week.

My top 3 Romo - 26, Randy Moss - 22.2, and Thomas Jones - 21.4 for 69.6

His top 3 - Frank Gore - 21.1, Peyton - 18.85, Megatron - 16.4 for 56.35

So, of the 6 top scorers in our game - 4 of them were not RB's.

Hmm.....

Extermination and War

Chilling piece from Joe Carter in Culture11 about how China and India, among other countries, are exterminating shocking numbers of baby girls in the womb. Hey, if abortion is legal and accepted, what right do any of us have to tell Indian and Chinese mothers they may not kill their baby daughters -- sorry, female fetuses -- because they'd prefer to have boys? Right, feminists?

Beyond the confluence of feticide and sexism, Carter foresees violence in the womb leading to violence elsewhere:

Even if we set aside the moral horror of a world that is killing its daughters, this oft-ignored trend of female feticide could pose a greater threat than many of the high-profile concerns that are touted by the media. For instance, the Chinese government says that by the year 2020 the men in that country will outnumber women by 300 million--roughly the entire population of the United States.

Imagine hordes of men, numbering in the hundreds of millions, who will never be able to have sexual contact with a woman, never be able to marry, and never leave a descendant to carry on their lineage. Think about the level of anger and frustration that will be generated. Now consider the fact that the number of males fit for military service (ages 18-49) in the U.S. is currently and remains steady at 54 million.

Pious Hand Wringing

Further proof that the Catholics are getting it more right all the time and why the Evangelicals flounder and spin their wheels under the banner of "conversation."

Truth hurts, truth divides, and truth is love. Truth is not judging. Truth is compassion and not tolerance. Hurt and divide are the ugly results of truth, the difference is that the glory in truth is to far outshine the ugly. Too many times, we focus on the ugly and not the glory.

The Roman Catholic arhcbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput, is someone I'd be a dummy for when it comes to the issue he writes about in this magnificent teaching document. He sets the Speaker of the House - Nancy Pelosi, a self-described "ardent practicing Catholic" straight about what her Church actually teaches and expects its communicants to believe on abortion. Rarely do religious leaders of any church speak so clearly and forcefully about faith and morality in public life. Here's a characteristic passage:

Ardent, practicing Catholics will quickly learn from the historical record that from apostolic times, the Christian tradition overwhelmingly held that abortion was grievously evil. In the absence of modern medical knowledge, some of the Early Fathers held that abortion was homicide; others that it was tantamount to homicide; and various scholars theorized about when and how the unborn child might be animated or "ensouled." But none diminished the unique evil of abortion as an attack on life itself, and the early Church closely associated abortion with infanticide. In short, from the beginning, the believing Christian community held that abortion was always, gravely wrong.

Of course, we now know with biological certainty exactly when human life begins. Thus, today's religious alibis for abortion and a so-called "right to choose" are nothing more than that - alibis that break radically with historic Christian and Catholic belief.

Abortion kills an unborn, developing human life. It is always gravely evil, and so are the evasions employed to justify it. Catholics who make excuses for it - whether they're famous or not - fool only themselves and abuse the fidelity of those Catholics who do sincerely seek to follow the Gospel and live their Catholic faith.

Magnificent. Of course many Catholic Democrats and Christian Democrats will continue to vote and serve the Democratic Party. Earlier he wrote:

But [Catholics who support pro-choice candidates] also need a compelling proportionate reason to justify it. What is a "proportionate" reason when it comes to the abortion issue? It's the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them face to face in the next life--which we most certainly will. If we're confident that these victims will accept our motives as something more than an alibi, then we can proceed.

And further

Carter lost his bid for re-election, but even with an avowedly prolife Ronald Reagan as president, the belligerence, dishonesty, and inflexibility of the pro-choice lobby has stymied almost every effort to protect unborn human life since.

In the years after the Carter loss, I began to notice that very few of the people, including Catholics, who claimed to be "personally opposed" to abortion really did anything about it. Nor did they intend to. For most, their personal opposition was little more than pious hand-wringing and a convenient excuse--exactly as it is today. In fact, I can't name any pro-choice Catholic politician who has been active, in a sustained public way, in trying to discourage abortion and to protect unborn human life--not one. Some talk about it, and some may mean well, but there's very little action.

"Pious hand-wringing." Exactly so.

Where's the humanity in a "Pro-Choice" stance?

Fantasy Football Update - Draft Results

Muhahahahaha, Muhahahahahahaha, Muhahahahahahaha........

That's all I can say.


1st round - Randy Moss
2nd round - Marques Colston
3rd round - Tony Romo
4th round - Thomas Jones
5th round - Edge James
6th round - Fred Taylor
7th round - Chester Taylor
8th round - Jeremy Shockey
9th round - Hines Ward
10th round - Patrick Crayton
11th round - Matt Schaub
12th round - Packers D/ST
13th round - Chris Johnson
14th round - Colts D/ST
15th round - Mason Crosby

I debated Drew Brees over Tony Romo, but having Colston, I'm not a fan of pairing up Qb's and WR's. It works great when they have a 2 TD game together, but when one is slow, usually the other is to. So Romo was the call in the 3rd.

I would have rather had McFadden in the 5th over Edge but he was sniped right before me.

I may have been able to get Chet Taylor in the 8th but my second goal of this draft (Doing the Opposite being 1st) was to make sure I came out with the biggest, most important handcuff in the draft.

This is "Doing the Opposite" to perfection.

Fantasy Football Update - 1

Well, I do practice what I preach.

I will be doing the opposite this year afterall. I traded my 1st, 2nd, and 4th round draft picks to the guy who had the 5th pick in the first round for his 1st, 2nd, and 4th round picks as well. I benefited big time by the fact that the guy is a big RB-RB guy and he knew in the 5th spot he wasn't going to get an elite back. So I am able to keep my 3rd and 5th round picks where they are (2nd in each round) as well as all rounds till the end. While my 1st round pick fell down only 3 spots, I moved up in the 2nd and 4th rounds, guaranteeing that I will get a top 5 pick in round 1, top 6 picks in rounds 2 and 4 and the second pick in rounds 3 and 5.

WOW!!!!

So I am most definitely going QB-WR-WR in some kind of order like that in the first 3 rounds. I haven't decided if I am going to draft Brady or Moss at 5. If I take Moss in the first then it's Romo or Brees in the 3rd with another top WR in the 2nd (Wayne? Colston?). Then it is all RBs in rounds 4-8. If I take Brady in round 1, then it is WR-WR in rounds 2 and 3 with, yep, RBs in rounds 4-8.

But maybe. I'm actually thinking of going TE in round 4 or 5 if Witten, Shockey, or Clark are on the board and I am comfortable with the RBs left on the board will make it to me

As last year, I'll track my progress for all to see just how right this strategery is.

My draft is 7pm tomorrow night, so results will be posted that night or the next morning.

Stayed tuned and see what I pull off.

Fantasy Football Time!!!

For you faithful readers out there, you know I wax poetic on "Doing the Opposite" in Fantasy Football at your draft. Meaning, instead of RB-RB in rounds one and two, you go WR-QB or even both WR in one and two, and then go a step further and coming out of round three you have both your WRs and your top QB.

You can read a whole bunch more about this here and follow the links to track my progress last year. I ended up the Regular Season league champion and finished 3rd overall during the playoffs (damn Brady and New England D, as well as Kolby Smith...who...exactly....going for a buck 20 and 2 touches.....ugh). And when you read the article, look who I had listed as "sleeper" picks last year: AP, Lynch, T. Jones (he had 7 100 yard games last year), and Brandon Jones (if only he could have stayed healthy).

Well, this year, I landed the #2 pick. Doing the Opposite works best and ideally when you are not in the top 3 (most years). My league doesn't allow trading of draft picks, so I have number 2. Which is the highest I have ever drafted (last year was number 5 and that was the highest ever to that point). Having had the bottom of the 1st and top of the 2nd round for so many years, I started doing the opposite and cornering the market on WRs and QBs in the first 3 rounds, and then swooping up all RB's in rounds 4-8 trusting one will hit. And last year that was AP, 3 years ago that was LJ, 4 years ago it was Westbrook. You gotta do your research a little bit more on the middle of the pack RB's but the elite QBs and WRs are always the same, so you need time researching them, spend it on the middle of the pack RBs.

I could go on and on and on about follow the link above you can read all about it.

But this year, with number 2, I going RB in the first round. But do not fail....it's going to be all WRs and QBs in rounds 2,3,and 4. Then back to "middle of the pack" rb's in rounds 5-8.

I hate to disappoint all of you, but at number 2 I may get LT or Westbrook. My personal top 2 in all of fantasy football land. AP has been hurt every year of his collegiate and now NFL career, S-Jax has never lived up to the hype, and Addai doesn't touch the ball as much as Westbrook does and he too gets hurt...a-lot. Also, the guy holding 1 says he's taking AP #1, which leaves me LT!!!!! I'll find out next Friday (22nd) at the draft.

I am aiming for something along the lines of this coming out of the draft:

QB - Derick Anderson (Cleveland has the best O-Line in the game...take in round 4)
RB - Brian Westbrook (rd 1)
RB - Jonathon Stewart (rd 5)
WR - Marques Colston (rd 2)
WR - Larry Fitzgerald (rd 3)


How could you not like this team?

Do the Opposite!!!

BIG DAY TODAY!!!!!!

ACTUALLY IT IS A HUGE DAY TODAY!!!!

A DAY LIKE THIS ONLY COMES AROUND LIKE:

3.28542094455852E-05

PERCENT OF THE TIME A CENTRURY





AFTERALL

TODAY IS

08.08.08

Whoa, trippy dude

On Vacation

Vacation time

In Traverse City (well actually Leland) until sometime next week. Beaches, vineyards, lighthouses, sand dunes, friends (2 other families splitting the house with us for the week) and the whole family....get me there NOW!!!

The plan is to be back in Detroit on Saturday the 19th, but maybe not. We'll see, we may stay an extra day or two.

I hope to catch up here (Darwinmania and This happens to me a lot are still gong strong, in case everyone last track and any of the What Say Yous are always wide open for everyone) and on everyone else's blog with comments, etc when we get back. Although, based on the last 2 or 3 weeks, hasn't been much...at all. Maybe everyone is on vacation.

Anyway, see y'all on the flip side and keep the faith!

This happens alot to me....

Maybe all the time actually.

I can't figure out why some things become such a huge deal before legitmacy is proved.

Maybe I am missing something. And I know my bias comes out in these types of things, but nothing has appeared with these types of news stories to make me regret showing bias. Actually, there's been nothing, ever, at all to make me re-think my bias in these situations. That, as the media purports will happen, has my faith been shaken and rocked to its core. Everytime these things prove to be fakes, frauds, or were completely misinterpretted.

James Ossuary (Or "Loss Tomb of Jesus)? - Fake
Gospel of Judas? - Grossly embrassing for National Geographic
Tomb of Jesus? - That was the same thing as the James Ossuary, and yet, it made it's way back to the forefront under a different name and had the backing of "famous" people like James Tabor and James Cameron. Books, TV shows, etc., etc., etc. Big oops on that one

So why keep going?

So, why is Dan Brown-esque hysteria allowed to happen?

So, what am I missing with the newest discovery that, get this, goes from having no evidence at all to almost no evidence at all that Messianic resurection was an option.

There are elements in the Jesus story -- and in other stories in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) -- that have analogues in other traditions. If this new discovery proves to be exactly what some think it is, so what? How does that falsify the resurrection of Jesus? It certainly makes it easier to believe that the Jesus cultists, so to speak, made it all up. But couldn't you say the same thing about the messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Bible -- that Jesus's followers, knowing about the prophecies as part of the Jewish tradition, adapted the story of their Lord's life and death and resurrection to fit those prophecies? I mean, if you're determined to disbelieve, there are plenty of reasons to disbelieve. And if,like me, you're determined to believe, material evidence doesn't much matter, does it? Especially when that material evidence continues to fall short time and time again.

My reaction to this latest news is, "Ho hum." But maybe I fail to grasp its true significance. What say you?