Rising Gas Prices....Again

Anyone else notice that gas prices are creeping toward 2 bucks again and going up? Does anyone in Washington or Wall Street not realize that the economy and housing market all started to go downhill when the gas prices started going up insanely? People had to pay for it so they could go to work. Couldn’t pay anything else, including mortgages and credit card payments. Other sectors costs increased and pushed that on the consumer (ie groceries) so people were spending more there. More defaults and more foreclosures. Banks lose money again, government bail outs increase.
That also made people cut back on other spending and thus other companies had to cut jobs. Basically it’s this formula.

Rising Gas Prices = more foreclosures + not paying payments on other creditors + higher costs on groceries + missing other payments + banks going broke again + more government bail outs.

If a country radio dj in Des Moines, Iowa can also see this, why can’t our elected officials? HELLO! Dumbasses! If you want see America get back to where it was, there needs to be something done on fuel prices.

I can’t believe we are going to go through this crap again this summer, 1 year later. Did no one learn a damn thing?

Thoughts.....5/2/09

• Saw Wolverine:XMen origins this weekend; it was pretty good.  I thought it was better than XMen 3:The Last Stand, and the way it incorporoated other mutants was really good.  Tim Riggins was a good Gambit.  Liked the change in Sabertooth.  Liev Schrieber was better than Tyler Mane.  Kinda of intersting though since in the first XMen their fight, there is no mention to "Jimmy".  
  
• Had a great night out with Kim, Jason and Shawnna.  Hopefully we can do that like once a month or so.  
  
• I'm done with the Cubs until about July.  I just can't watch them and get invested in them.  Then they break my heart.  2003 was great but heartbreaking.  2007 was a suprise to me that we made the playoffs.  Last year just hurt.  Then when I feel I can get invested into them, they go and lose to Cincinnati and St Louis and Colorado.  We really need to trade for Peavy.
• Had Addy's first Bam-Bam ball game today.  It went really not as bad as I thought.  We are coaching it and from what we had at practices this was really good.  All the kids seemed to have fun and it was a great day.
• Addy, Kenna & Shawnna are hitting the circus tomorrow, so it's just Brady and I at home, think we'll go check out Easter Lake and walk around or hit a park.
• Anyone else think the media is OVERBLOWING swine flu.
• Still not giving in to TWITTER or whatever it is.

2009 MLB Predictions

My 2009 MLB Predictions

AL EAST-Yankees

AL CENT-Indians

AL WEST-Angels

AL Wild Card-Rays

 

NL EAST-Mets

NL CENT-Cubs

NL WEST-Dodgers

NL WC-Cardinals

 

AL Champs-Angels

NL Champs-Cubs

WS Champs-Cubs over Angels

The Cubs reverse the Curse....finally!!!

Hey I can hope right?

Conference Championship Picks

Down to the Final 4.  One home team won last week, Pittsburgh and they are hosting rookie Joe Flacco and Ray Lewis and the Ravens in the AFC.  And the left for dead Cardinals vs the barely in Eagles in the NFC.  

Everyone seems to say Pittsburgh will win, and I think that they will initially....but with that I'm going to go with the Ravens.  Go against the trend of everyone in America.  I like Tomlin and the Steelers but just think its gonna go to Baltimore.  I won't be surprised if Pitt wins though either.

Ravens 20-18.

The Eagles are hot, the Cardinals are hot.  The difference in the game may be the health of Brian Westbrook.  The Cardinals D has woke up the last 2 weeks, they are at home.  I'm taking them.

Arizona 31-27

So in 2 weeks it's going to be the birds in Miami.  Ravens-Cardinals.

Divisional NFL Playoff Picks

Down to the final 8, and all games are rematches.

I like Pittsburgh's D to keep Darren Sproles under 200 total yards and win 24-13.

Baltimore's the girl with the curl right now and everyone seems to forget what the Titan's did all season long. I think the Titan's get just enough on offense, and Kerry Collins keeps the passing game away from Ed Reed. Titans 13-7.

Eagles are on a roll and playing great. The Giants are a different team on offense with out Plax. Eagles blitz Eli all day and McNabb and Westbrook win it in the 4th. 24-20.

The Cardinals are putrid leaving the Pacific Time Zone. Bad weather could make it hard for the pass happy birds from getting anything going. Panthers running game wins it for them. 27-14.

So my picks....Steelers--Titans--Eagles--Panthers.

Urban Meyer

2 National Championships

3 BCS Bowl Wins(Utah in the Fiesta; Florida 2 BCS Titles)

3-1 in Bowl Games at Florida.

If the Gators are smart, they give him a life time contract.

College Football Fix?

Everyone has their own idea of how to fix the search for the rightful College Football Champion in FBS. With the beat down that Utah put on #1 all season Alabama, I'm in agreement with ESPN's Colin Cowherd, something needs to change. The Utah has shown its a BCS Buster. Boise State has shown on the right day it can play its way to a win over a big boy BCS team.

So how do you fix it? How do you keep Bowls happy? How do you keep all the conferences happy?

First off there are too many bowl games. 6-6 Teams don't deserve a bowl game. Iowa didn't deserve the Alamo Bowl in 2006 when the Hawks were 6-6. Some 7-5 teams don't deserve them. And watching the bowls, fans aren't going, and ratings are dropping (except for the Rose - and probably the BCS Title and Fiesta). Bowl games should be a privledge in college football, not a right by over 50% of the teams. So eliminate some of the bowls.

Next, there needs to be a better system to determine the top teams. Coaches pool is TERRIBLE. It's a bunch of crap full of bias rankings made by SID's. Get something similar to the RPI in college basketball. Incorporate some of these computer polls. The Harris poll has enough individuals involved that it could be used also.

Third, end the REGULAR season the weekend before Thanksgiving. Teams don't need 3 bye weeks (SEC Schools???). The Big Ten has a bye week, and gets a 12 game schedule done before the Thanksgiving break. Use Thanksgiving weekend as Championship Weekend for conference championship games.

Fourth. Either all conferences have a conference championship or none have it. HINT HINT Big Ten & Pac-10. Big Ten, add Notre Dame. Notre Dame, go to the Big Ten. You and the domers need it more now then EVER. Big Ten, it adds the Irish. Pac-10, add Utah and maybe Colorado State, BYU or Boise State. On Championship weekend, the Big East Champ plays the Conf USA Champion; WAC Champion plays the Mt. West Champion.

Fifth, a playoff. 8 teams. Big Ten Champion, Pac-10 Champion, ACC Champion, SEC Champion, Big XII Champion, Big East/Conf USA Rep, Mt West/WAC Rep, 1-At Large based on RPI ratings. Bowl Sites built in here. The Rose could still have the Big Ten & Pac-10 Champions or rank 1-8 and have a seeded tourney. Use the Rose, Cotton, Sugar, Orange for these games. The final 3 games could be played in Phoenix/Tempe at the site of the Fiesta Bowl. Play the four bowls on New Years Day. The semifinals a week later, the Championship the week befor the Super Bowl. Sure there will probably be some back lash about the fans having to travel 3 weekends, but somehow they always get there. Students take out new loans for bowl trips. And Phoenix/Tempe has the hotels and restaurants that could handle this, and also the weather.

It's not pefect, but what we have now isn't either.