Dethroned

The Hawks kept coming back.

After trailing three games to none against Vancouver, they won three straight and forced a Game Seven. Trailing Game Seven 1-0 inside the last two minutes of regulation, Jonathan Toews tied it up.

Was it destiny? Alas, no. It's hard to see how they could have come any closer. Corey Crawford- who by rights should be one of the candidates for the Calder Cup- stood on his head; Coach Joel Quenville called Crow's performance the greatest exhibition of clutch goaltending he'd ever seen. But when it Alexandre Burrows scored on a knuckle ball of a slapshot 5:22 into overtime, it was the Canucks who would be advancing, and the Hawks who would be going home.

Final score: Vancouver 2, Chicago 1.

My Blackhawks have been dethroned as Stanley Cup champions. They have nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, I'm proud of them. And I think the next Stanley Cup will come long, long before we've had to wait another 49 years.

We knew all along that it wouldn't be easy to repeat. It doesn't happen very often; the last team to pull it off was the 1997/98 Detroit Red Wings. Playing from October through June is exhausting, and three months off doesn't give you much time to recover physically or emotionally- especially when it's largely taken up with celebrations, ceremonies, guest appearances, and so forth. And it figured to be even tougher without Brent Sopel, Ben Eager, Andrew Ladd, Colin Fraser, John Madden, Ben Eager, Adam Burrish- and especially Dustin Byfuglein, Kris Versteeg and Antti Niemi, lost to to the late Bill Wirtz's last dirty trick on the team he owned: the salary cap he almost single-handedly got adopted by the NHL.

The advent of Corey Crawford takes the sting out of losing Niemi. But undoing the damage will still be the work of more than just one more off-season. I doubt that the Hawks will be able to mount another realistic challenge for the Cup for another two or three years. But I have confidence in the Bowmans; Scotty, after all, served Detroit pretty well when it came to building championship teams, and his kid is no slouch, either. We'll get there sooner, rather than later.

And in the meantime, watching the Hawks will still be something it wasn't through all those dark and dreary years of managerial ineptitude under Dollar Bill: fun.

Sadly, the Cubs seem to be going through their own mini-Bill Wirtz era at the moment. I didn't follow them very closely last year, and I won't this year, either. What's the point?

I'm a Bulls fan in principle, but only in principle; I've never been much for basketball. The White Sox, of course, are the enemy. And from the look of things, the Bears won't even be playing come fall. It's going to be a long, dry spell for this kid sport-wise.

One more reason to wish that the dream- which seemed to be over even as it only began- had lasted just a little longer.

Just a thought...

I wonder whether the younger generation has any idea how ridiculous they look walking around with their pants at half-mast.

I, for one, could operate a zipper, snap, and belt buckle well before I began high school. But I guess educational standards have slipped even more than I realized.

ADDENDUM: I've come across a Facebook posting which offers an explanation that's as plausible as any: "A rapper died, and they're in mourning."

Cool as a cucumber, the Blackhawks force Game Seven

Not quite a week ago, Vancouver led the defending Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks three games to none in the opening round of the 2011 playoffs, and everybody counted the champs out.

Last night Ben Smith's overtime goal gave Chicago a 4-3 victory in Game Six, tying the series at three games each and forcing a decisive seventh game between the Hawls and the team most people picked to win the Cup this year.

The issue will be decided Tuesday night in Vancouver. One thing is certain: the heart of last year's championship team remains, however depleted its talent level may have been by the late Bill Wirtz's final affront to Hawk fans, the salary cap. The coolness of this team- and notably of rookie goalie Corey Crawford, whose exclusion from the ranks of the Calder Cup candidates is hard to justify- under the kind of pressure faced by a defending champion on the brink of elimination has been remarkable.

Whatever may happen from here on out, I feel a great deal better about this team winning another Cup in the near future, even if not this year, than I have all season. This is a very, very good hockey team- and if they manage to oust the Canucks Tuesday night, don't rule out a deep run into the playoffs and- who knows?- maybe a repeat as Cup winners, salary cap or no.

BTW, Canucks goalie Corey Schneider was injured last night. Roberto Luongo, against whom the Hawks scored almost at will in the two previous games, will perforce be in the nets for Vancouver Tuesday night.

Pro nobis

Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended,
That we to judge thee have in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted!

Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee!
'Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee;
I crucified thee.

Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered;
The slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered.
For our atonement, while we nothing heeded,
God interceded.

For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation,
Thy mortal sorrow, and thy life's oblation;
Thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,
For my salvation.

Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee,
I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee,
Think on thy pity and thy love unswerving,
Not my deserving.

--Johann Heermann, 1585-1647; trans. by Robert S. Bridges, 1844-1930

For thoughts on why this day- and not Easter- is the most important day of the Church Year, see this post.

For a Good Friday sermon, see this one.

Victory! The Cup isn't lost yet!

After losing three straight to Vancouver, the Blackhawks blew the Canucks out of the rink for the second straight game last night- this time in Vancouver.

Final score: Chicago 5, Vancouver 0. Goalie Corey Crawford- snubbed when it came to the nominations for the Calder Cup (Rookie of the Year) despite being among the statistical leaders in wins while only having started half the season- shut out the league's leading offense, outshining the Canucks' justly-touted (and defiant) Roberto Luongo.

The Hawks can tie the series and force a seventh game in Vancouver with a victory at the United Center on Sunday. Suddenly, I'm liking their chances.

You may have noticed my pessimism about the post-season. But if the Hawks win this series after having trailed three games to none, all bets are off. Anything can happen. In that case, the defending Stanley Cup champions will have proven that they do win when they really, really have to- the way champions are supposed to.

Proved it four times in a row.

Moot roots

My family history goes a long way back. One ancestor of mine founded the Belfast Newsletter-  which may be the oldest continuously published English language newspaper in the world- in 1737. His grandson led Wolfe Tone's Rebellion in Ulster, and went heroically to the gallows in 1798. Like Tone himself, Henry Joy McCracken was a Protestant.

But Joys and McCrackens aside, I really don't know where the last name "Waters-" common not only in Ireland itself, but in both Scotland and England- comes onto the scene. I do know that my grandfather, John Waters, emigrated from our family seat in Belfast, Northern Ireland; his wife, the former Sarah Fisher, was born in Dublin but lived thereafter in Downpatrick. Since Grandfather Waters came to the States to study for the Presbyterian ministry, there seems little doubt that the family originated in Scotland. Of course, many of the lowland Scots in the southwestern part of the country originated in Counties Antrim and Down, and the Antrim coast is separated from the Scottish isles by only fourteen miles; people have emigrated back and forth across the North Channel of the Irish Sea for millenia. We're almost certain to have ancient roots on both sides of the Channel.

Most of the Ulster Scots came from the Lowlands, and therefore were not necessarily associated with a clan or prominent family. But "Waters" is a sept (an allied family) of clans Forbes and Buchanan. The lands of the Forbes clan are in Aberdeenshire- in the Lowlands, but on the opposite side of Scotland from the North Channel and rather far to the north. The Buchanans are from much closer: the Loch Lomond area, only barely in the Highlands, and much closer to the North Channel. To complicate matters, the Buchanans (like many of the Clans) seem to have actually originated in Ireland!

Various listings also associate the Waters name with clans Buchan, Watson and- as I recently discovered- Ross and Sinclair. I was recently surprised to find out that there is allegedly a Waters clan in its own right. Its tartan and clan badge are below:

The motto- Non Inferiora Secutus, or "Following not the inferior-" seems suspicious, though, being also the motto of the Buchan  clan- one of those of which Waters is a sept. The Buchan  tartan and clan badge:

also look suspiciously familiar.

Clan Buchanan is an entirely different outfit:

The motto means "Brighter the honor hence." Geography would seem to favor the Buchanans as the clan affiliation of our branch of the Waters ilk, if we have one. Sadly, the Buchanan Clan Society itself only accepts members with the last names Buchanan (obviously), McAuslan, McWattie (probably a variation of "Waters" or "Walters," but apparently not close enough) and Risk.

I used to play Risk a lot in college, but I don't think that would get me in, either.

Clan Ross is from 'WAY up north. As  I mentioned earlier, the best bet for affiliation among the Lowland clans (or families, or whatever; officially only Highlands families are "clans," though convention uses the term for Lowlanders as well) of which Waters is a sept seems to be Clan Forbes:

Being a Lutheran, I must confess that I rather like the Forbes clan motto ;)

I've found the listservs for Clan Forbes much more welcoming than those for the Buchanans. Certainly that's true of the Forbes Clan Society. One of its members actually suggested that, since in ancient times strangers were recruited into or affiliated with clans voluntarily, I simply throw ambiguity to the winds and join up! I kind of like the Forbeses. And since I would have no trouble qualifying for membership, I'm tempted to take Geordie Waters up on his invitation.

Meanwhile, it seems that while English arms belong properly only to one specific bloodline, any family with the proper surname is entitled to use an Irish or Scottish family coat of arms. I've always sort of regarded the Irish version

as my own family crest. Now, though, I find that there is also a Scottish Waters family crest.

What have I learned from all of this? Get yourself a geneologist. Or else, find a nice, friendly clan that's willing to take members from all of its septs.

Blackhawks win! Still on life support- but also still alive

The Blackhawks' offense- which has apparently been on vacation during the first three games of the Conference quarter-finals against the Vancouver Canucks- went back to work on Tuesday night.

The Hawks beat Vancouver 7-2 at the UC, staving off elimination. The Canucks now lead the series 3 games to 1.

The bad news is that the defending Stanley Cup champions now have to win three in a row- two of them in Vancouver- in order to stave off elimination. If they can do it, it could be an emotional turning point- especially since Vancouver is the consensus favorite to win the Cup this year.

On the other hand, it's never a good sign when a defending champion's website carries a feature on how hard it is to win the Cup two years in a row. In fairness, though, it's been up there since the playoffs began.

Here's the home team take on Tuesday night's victory, and the steep, grueling road ahead

Vancouver 3, Hawks 2

For the third game in a row, the Good Guys came up a goal short against the Canuckers. Vancouver now leads the best-of-seven series three games to none.

I'm afraid you can pretty much stick a fork in us. We're one and done.

With Corey Crawford in goal the entire season instead of only half of it next year, a better-rested team (some commentators have claimed that the Hawks are exhausted after playing hockey for eight of the last twelve months, But wouldn't that apply to the Flyers, too?) and- hopefully- some major roster moves to improve the penalty kill and shore up the defense,  perhaps the Major's warriors can take a stab at making it two Cups in three years next year. But I have a feeling that it'll take a longer time than that. When push comes to shove, the Hawks are losing to Vancouver because right now Vancouver is a significantly better hockey team than they are.

Dad got to see three Blackhawk Stanley Cups. The first two were four years apart.  The third came twenty-four years later. My first two were forty-nine years apart. I hope I live long enough to see my own third.

Now it's time to worry

The Vancouver Canucks won their first Stanley Cup Playoffs Game Two against the Blackhawks in three years last night, holding off the champs, 4-3. The Bad Guys now lead the series two games to none, with Game Three scheduled for the United Center tomorrow night.

To say that it's a must-win for the Hawks is an understatement.

The Hawks are reported to be showing signs of exhaustion. No doubt. Also signs of missing nine key players due to Dollar Bill Wirtz's salary cap.

Incidentally, the first sentence of the fifth paragraph of the story linked to above contains yet another piece of evidence that educational standards in North America are going down the tubes.

Don't sweat Canucks' Game One victory

Roberto Luongo shut the Hawks out 2-0 Wednesday night in Game One of the opening round of the Good Guys' Stanley Cup defense.

But sweat it not. Vancouver also won Game One last year, and the year before. The Hawks won both series.

They go at it again tonight at Rodgers Arena. It's a bummer that I won't be able to listen very well; WGN Radio doesn't come in very clearly in my apartment, and I won't be able to listen on the internet this year. In fact, since the games start so late, I won't even know the result until I get to a computer tomorrow.

Such are the consequences of living in a state where they think the Hawks are a college football team.

Sigh.

Anyway- go get 'em, champs! ONE GOAL!

The Eleventh Doctor passes custard

Saw my first episode of Dr. Who with Matt Smith Saturday night.

He'll do fine. After David Tennant, we could use a comic Patrick Troughton- Sylvester McCoy- Tom Baker type Doctor again. And I have to love anybody who breakfasts on fish sticks and custard, and shows up twelve years late for an appointment he had every intention of being on time for.

Interesting new decorating scheme for the TARDIS, too. Retro is cool.

BTW, I wonder whether the BBC has taken into account the fact that, according to the canonical legend, Time Lords only get to regenerate thirteen times. That being the case, when Smith's successor leaves the role, they'll be casting the Last Doctor- unless they can find a work- around.

Oh, well. They did it for The Master; I assume they'll be able to do it for his nemesis, too. Especially since he's the franchise.

Let's get this straight, Darwinians

There is a certain Gahan Wilson cartoon that I really wish were in the public domain so that I could publish it here. Suffice it to say that, for atheists (and orthodox Darwinians, who by definition must be either atheists or Deists), yes. Nothing is indeed sacred. In more ways than one.

Dr. Kurt Gibberson believes that "Jesus would believe in evolution."

Leaving aside both the fallacy of using the past tense (Jesus isn't dead anymore) and that of forgetting that Jesus, being true God as well as true man, knows rather than believes,  Dr. Gibberson seems to have missed a rather critical point many others also miss.

Darwinian evolution, by its very nature, excludes the possibility of God being in any way involved. It is, by definition, random. Advocates of theistic evolution need to be aware that their view is just as much in conflict with Darwin- and with "orthodox" Darwinists, such as dominate the scientific community- as is creationism.

Scientists, on the other hand, need to recognize that any theory- whether held by Darwin or anybody else- on whether evolution is guided by a Deity or occurs by mere chance is, by its very nature, metaphysical rather than scientific. In short, any claim that Intelligent Design is not science but metaphysics applies equally to Darwinian evolution.

Evolution itself is a scientific issue. The question of whether it is random or guided by an intelligence, on the other hand, is metaphysical. And that which discredits Intelligent Design as science discredits at least Darwinian evolution just as much, and for exactly the same reason.

HT: Real Clear Religion

Now there's a job I'm qualified for!

On a sign I saw just now in front of a video rental place in West Des Moines:

RAPIDLY EXPANDING MANAGERS WANTED

By the skin of our teeth

Who ever heard of the Cubs losing a game they had to have?
-- Frank Chance, "The Peerless Leader," 1908- the year the Cubs won their last World Series

All the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks had to do yesterday was to tie the Detroit Red Wings- whom they had thrashed in Detroit the night before, and had beaten four times in a row- in regulation
and the five minute overtime to make the playoffs. And they were playing at home.

Last year they would have done it. No problem. Winning games when a team has to is the hallmark of a champion. But the Hawks just couldn't get it done yesterday.

It was one of the best hockey games I've seen in a long time, and the Hawks certainly didn't lose for want of effort, heart, or discipline. They "left it all out on the ice," as the saying goes. Twice the Wings led by two goals in the third period, and twice the Hawks managed to cut their margin back to one. But when the final buzzer sounded, Detroit had won, 4-3.

Oh, the Hawks are going to the playoffs anyway. As it happens, just before firing their coach the Minnesota Wild managed somehow to beat Dallas 5-3. The Hawks were in- and thus granted the privilege of playing the team with the best record in the league, the leading offense, the leading defense, and which either led or finished second in just about every other significant category. My guess is that the Vancouver Canucks, whom the Hawks have ousted in each of the past two years,  will end up winning the Cup this year. For the Hawks to beat them is not impossible. But it seems much less likely, now that we know that this is a team that doesn't necessarily win the games it has to.

Dustin Byfuglien. Andrew Ladd. Antti Niemi. Kris Ver Steeg. Brent Sopel. Ben Eager. Adam Burish. Colin Fraser. John Madden. All key players from the 2010 Stanley Cup championship team. All them are gone now, due to the last dirty trick played on Blackhawk fans by the man in the Hall of Fame as a "builder," but whose career as the Hawks owner more accurately could be summed up in the word "wrecker"" William (Dollar Bill) Wirtz.

A combination of penny pinching, arrogance, bad judgment in picking subordinates and absolute loyalty tto those inept hirelings despite their blundering almost destroyed the franchise. Chicago- one of the great hockey cities in North America- almost forgot what hockey was during the Bill Wirtz era. Wirtz refused to allow home games to be televised. No matter, though; the teams he put on the ice were so inept that nobody would have watched. The fans who filled the old Chicago Stadium to the rafters to cheer for Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita and Glenn Hall stayed home. And Dollar Bill just didn't learn. He just wouldn't listen. After a while, the fans simply stopped caring. If Wirtz didn't care, why should they?

After a while, you couldn't give Blackhawk tickets away. The relatively rare cheers raised by Chicago fans echoed off the empty seats.

Bill Wirtz died in 2007, leaving the team to his son, Rockwell. Rocky made it a his number one goal to woo the fans back. The team started winning again. And once again, the stadium was filled to the rafters.  But before he died, Dollar Bill had left Hawk fans one final "gift:" he almost single-handedly talked the NHL owners into adopting a salary cap.

That salary cap decimated the championship team that Wirtz's son and heir, Rocky managed to build with the help of all those high draft choices awarded to the Hawks over the years because they were so consistently bad. It could have been a dynasty, a team for the ages. Instead, a great hockey team was reduced to a merely good one.

The Hawks will do better next year than they did this year. They found a new and elite goalie during the second half in Corey Crawford, and pretty much turned it around in the second half; they figure to finish much higher than eighth in the conference next year almost no matter what they do in the off season. That's especially the case because they won't be exhausted by the necessity of playing into the early summer this year.

Despite their historical dominance over the Canucks in the playoffs, I don't see the Hawks  getting past the first round. They could pull off an upset; they're a good team, and a far better one than their record for the season indicates.

But I doubt it. And if they somehow do, I don't see them repeating as Stanley Cup champs. Yesterday's game was one which a championship team would have found a way to win.

Last year's team would have.

Now or never for the champs

The Blackhawks' 4-2 victory over Detroit last night at Joe Louis- their fourth win in a row against the division champion Red Wings- means that all they have to do is tie Detroit in regulation in tomorrow's 11:30 am game at home to make the playoffs. One point is all it will take.

If the Hawks lose in regulation to the Wings, they will need Dallas to also lose in regulation in order to have the chance to defend their championship. On the other hand, the Hawks still could finish as high as fifth in the conference when the dust clears tomorrow night.

This is it, guys. From this point on, you're playing for all the marbles. Hopefully, having to scramble to make the playoffs will prime them to keep scrambling when they get there.

ONE GOAL!

Obama drives Saudis toward China and Russia

The most diplomatically inept administration in recent history has managed to alienate Saudi Arabia to the point where it's making goo-goo eyes at China and Russia.

The Obama administration's handling of the Hosni Mubarak affair was so ham-handed that the Israelis also were reportedly appalled. And anything that can get the Saudis and the Israelis on the same page ought to give even the most dedicated Obamaphile pause.

While the media continue to give this administration a pass, Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden continue to find new and ever more inventive ways to botch crises and alienate our allies. Whatever you thought of his predecessor's foreign policy, at least Dubyah understood the consequences of what he was doing. This guy seems totally clueless.

Finally, Cub fans are standing up for themselves

A great many goody  two-shoes baseball fans bemoan the fact that Cub fans are turning surly. Our usually lovable and gentle and above all loyal (though chronically depressed) race isn't supposed to act that way.

For nearly a century, we stood by our team through thick and think. We put up with ineptitude beyond belief, not only on the field but (more fundamentally) in the front office. We've been teased, to be sure- not only by White Sox and Cardinal fans, but by our own team. From time to time there have been 1969s and 1984s and 2003s and 2007s and 2008s. We have come tantalizingly close- or, failing that, sometimes demonstrated such mastery over our every opponent right up to the moment when it counted that we felt that we were already there. But somehow, the inevitable happened. Somehow, we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

But some time around the point where Steve Bartman was unjustly made a scapegoat for our 2003 collapse at the last possible moment in the game that would have brought us our first pennant since 1945, we Cub fans started getting surly. To some extent, this was due to the salutary example set us by our brethren in despair, the fans of the Boston Red Sox- who, after having repeatedly seen their team come even closer without grabbing the brass ring for almost as long as we had, stopped being satisfied with displaying character and loyalty and started demanding victory. The result was world championships in 2004 and 2007.

Cub fans will not be put off anymore. We, too, are sick and tired of being a national joke. As a group, we are heeding the wisdom of a St. Louis Cardinal fan of my acquaintance who once  pointed out to me that a fan base willing to accept mediocrity will get precisely that. Baseball is a business, and capitalism is based upon the premise that companies that put defective merchandise on the shelves go out of business.On the other hand, human nature and the laws of economics being what they are, if the consumer is willing to buy a defective product in sufficient volume to give the company in question a huge profit, why should they go to the effort and expense required to give them quality instead?

Yes, Cub fans are getting surly. For me, it began with the failure of the Cubs to recognize that a team that dominates during the regular season two years in a row, and yet on each occasion allows itself to be swept out of the post-season in the first round while scoring only six runs in the process, needs to replace players with a pattern of choking when the chips were down with players who have shown that they can handle the pressure.

I am simply not thrilled anymore with division championships. 1984 was fun, while it lasted. But mere divisional championships are not fun anymore. Getting there and then losing is simply not acceptable.

And then, there was the DeRosa trade- General Manager Jim Hendry's stroke of brilliance in which he traded one of the most valuable members of the team, who could adequately play six positions, for essentially nothing- because he hit from the wrong side of the plate. There were other issues involved, but the Cubs went from 97 in 2008 wins to 83 in 2009, finishing second.

It's worth noting that hard-hitting  third baseman Aramis Ramirez, for whom DeRosa had filled in admirably in previous years, was injured for a goodly part of the season.  The Cubs foundered in these games, in no small measure because they had no adequate replacement at third base. It's hard to escape the question of whether they might not have won their third division championship in a row (for whatever that would have been worth) if they still had been able to send DeRosa out to fill in.

Last year the Cubs plummeted to 75-87 and finished next to last. And frustratingly, Hendry's signing of super-expensive Alfonso Soriano and Koske Fukedome, neither of whom have produced sufficiently to justify the crippling expense of signing them, prevents the Cubs from making any particularly significant free agent signings. Hendry did  sign Milton Bradley to play center field during the 2009 season.  He was an even worse disaster, and was traded last year for pitcher Carlos Silva- whom the Cubs cut at the conclusion of spring training this season.

I haven't stopped being a Cub fan. But when the Cubs' new owner, Tom Ricketts- who has thus far been underwhelming in his stewardship of the Cubs- decided to retain Hendry as GM, I decided that if Ricketts didn't care, I saw no reason why I should, either. I didn't really follow the Cubs last year, and I don't plan to really follow them this year, either.

And I have company.

When I was a kid, you could get  a decent seat at Wrigley for under ten bucks- and there were always seats available. Good seats. In the grandstands. Seats that have since been upgraded to be faux-box seats, with prices appropriate to that exalted though undeserved status. They didn't even open the upper deck. The team sucked, of course. But at least there was no trouble getting in.

Beginning with the unexpected division title in 1984, that changed. Suddenly it became both difficult and prohibitively expensive to go to a Cubs gane- any Cubs game.

But not any more. This season, Cub fans have beens staying away in droves. Good.

A study done by University of Chicago economist  Tobias Moskowicz and Sports Illustrated writer L. John Wertheim shows that attendance at Cubs' games is less effected by team performance than the games of any other team in professional baseball.

Yes, Cub fans are getting surly. About time, too.. And maybe for a change the ownership will have to live in a world in which the law of supply and demand applies to winning baseball, and not just the beer sold in the stands.

The best argument for privatizing the space program yet

Space X has announced the Falcon Heavy- the most powerful operational rocket in the world and second only to the Saturn V as the most powerful booster in history.

I remain skeptical about the ability of the private sector to compete with government-funded man in space programs in Russai, China, and probably in the future Japan, Europe, and India. But if the Falcon Heavy is a success, it will be an impressive achievement, and the best evidence yet that maybe the private sector can operate successfully in that endeavor without embarassing itself or causing the United States to fall any further behind the other spacefaring powers than the Obama decision to pare back government support for the space program makes unavoidable.

The next human beings to walk on the surface of the moon will be Chinese. Thanks to the Obama decision, there is, at this point, precious little that can be done about that. But as skeptical as I remain, maybe the private sector can eventually get us back in the ballgame.

We shall see what we shall see.

The Rev. Terry Jones...

is an ass with blood on his hands.

What in the world does burning the Koran accomplish- other than hurting our war effort in Afghanistan and giving his brother whack jobs in the Islamic world another excuse to hate the United States?

Maybe he can get a few Christians martyred in the process. Thing is, Terry... you don't get extra credit for that with God. Rather the reverse, in fact.

Is the jobless part of the recovery ending?

The unemployment rate has defied expectations and fallen to 8.8%- its lowest level since March of 2009.

The unexpected good news has boosted the stock market and inspired some economists with confidence that the "jobless recovery" is ending, and that we are finally headed into a period of expansion for the job market.

For which, thanks be to God.