Quote of the Day

Before I refuse to take your questions,
I have an opening statement.



Ronald Wilson Reagan

Quote of the Day

Government is like a baby. An alimentary
canal with a big appetite at one end and
no sense of responsibility at the other.



Ronald Wilson Reagan

Tanning/Training at Stacy Pool

Outdoors in Austin Sunday:

Quote of the Day

Governments have a tendency not to solve
problems, only to rearrange them.



Ronald Wilson Reagan

Quote of the Day

One way to make sure crime doesn't pay
would be to let the government run it.



Ronald Wilson Reagan

Quote of the Day

I know it's hard, when you're up to your
armpits in alligators, to remember you
came here to drain the swamp.



Ronald Wilson Reagan

Merry Christmas!

We got a great present from John Stossel. Now, the WSF has thrown in a nice stocking-stuffer. Read more here and here.

Yep, they're on the defensive. Seems they have been defending proportionality and it's starting to backfire.

They closed out their "Fact Check" post with this:

The Women’s Sports Foundation would like to move the conversation beyond limiting stereotypes. Girls have proven over and over that they are interested in playing sports by filling spots as they’re opened. High school and college sports are not private entities, but are largely funded by schools with our tax dollars through tax deductions, tax-free bonds for facilities and tax deductions for donors. This expenditure in sport is part of our nation’s investment in education and our future. And it's an investment with superior dividends: the Women's Sports Foundation's work documents the impressive life-long educational and health benefits flowing directly from a sports experience for men and women. See Her Life Depends on It.

Oh yeah, they'd really like to move the conversation - move it away from what the quota system's all about. Stereotypes? Facts is facts, y'all! When opportunities are there, males generally take advantage of them in higher numbers than females. We wish that weren't the case, but it is. All we can do is continue offering opportunities. We can't force these things, can we?

As an organization that has proudly defended Title IX for four decades, the Foundation seek to increase the pie in athletics for women and men, so that a bigger percentage of our youth can experience this important educational experience.

What? They care about men's athletics? What a joke! Thanks for the laugh, Nan!



Well, that about wraps it up for me for a few days. Time to start that Christmas shopping...

Quote of the Day

The future is much like the present, only longer.



Daniel Raymond Quisenberry

Quote of the Day

The single most exciting thing you encounter in
government is competence, because it's so rare.



Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Getting the Message Out

John Stossel does a nice job of letting John Q. Public know truth about Title IX:

Quote of the Day

Do not be too severe upon the errors of the
people, but reclaim them by enlightening them.



Thomas Jefferson

Quote of the Day

One stumble is enough to deface
the character of an honorable life.



Sir Roger L'Estrange

Quote of the Day

Indecision and delays are
the parents of failure.



George Canning

Quote of the Day (thanks MS)

The difference between the almost right word
and the right word is really a large matter -
it's the difference between the
lightning bug and lightning.



Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain

Quote of the Day

Setting a goal is not the main thing.
It is deciding how you will go about
achieving it and staying with that plan.



Thomas Wade "Tom" Landry

The NWLC's Big Lie

They claim that poor funding and a lack of opportunities are the reasons fewer girls than boys participate in high school sports.

Coaches and administrators who work with student-athletes know funding and opportunities aren't what's holding down participation numbers among girls in some schools.

We know that, even when funding is available and opportunities are offered, fewer girls opt to play sports than boys. We wish that weren't the case, but it is. We'd like higher participation numbers, but we don't always get them. Read more here.

Cindy Rivers, athletic director at Lake Placid High School, doesn't agree with the NWLC's assumption.

"It's hard to get the girls to come out and play," Rivers said. "There's not the desire."

Mort Jackson concurred. He tries to recruit girls for sports. "We do everything we can do to get girls to participate, just can't get the girls to come out."

Why?

"I don't know. Tell me that, and I can solve the problem," the Avon Park High School athletic director said.

One reason though, is that cheerleading — now counted as a sport — attracts 30 girls.

"But they don't play soccer. They don't want to play basketball."

So, why do the NWLC and WSF continue to push what they want you to buy into, rather than what's actually true? It's got to do with money, fans. Title IX litigations is a cash cow for lawyers.

We're nearly four decades into Title IX. Unfortunately, what started out as a great concept has been turned upside down by radical feminists. They've been successful in bringing down hundreds of mens' teams at the collegiate level. Now they're setting their sights on public schools.

Is Title IX working?

In an effort to cut budgets and maintain equality, secondary schools and colleges are trimming minor sports like gymnastics and volleyball.

Title IX, Quarles says now, "was fair in the beginning. But it should not come at the expense of our smaller sports. It's working in reverse."

Quote of the Day

I see my path, but I don't know where it

leads. Not knowing where I'm going

is what inspires me to travel it.



María Rosalía Rita de Castro

Quote of the Day

Whatever you do, do it to the purpose; do it
thoroughly, not superficially. Go to the bottom
of things. Any thing half done, or half known,
is in my mind, neither done nor known at all.
Nay, worse, for it often misleads.



Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Quote of the Day

Everything government touches turns to crap.



Richard Parkin Starkey, a.k.a. Ringo Starr

Quote of the Day

You never know how a horse will pull
until you hook him up to a heavy load.



Paul William "Bear" Bryant

Quote of the Day

If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread,
they can sure make something out of you.



Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., a.k.a. Muhammad Ali

Quote of the Day

Our imagination is stretched to the utmost,
not, as in fiction, to imagine things which
are not really there, but just to comprehend
those things which "are" there.



Richard Phillips Feynman

Odds & Ends

If it's a big meet, chances are good Sam Kendricks will be the announcer. He's professional, knowledgeable, and has a great sense of humor. The crowd wasn't responding the way he'd wanted in Austin:

"Don't make me come up there!"

I work with a great young coach who also has a great sense of humor. Carlos Salazar watching a freestyler:

"He's breathing every four because he can't count to three."

Some other things I've heard and/or said on deck:

"Okay freshmen, get your snorkels on. We're gonna do some backstroke."

"Go out as fast as you can, and then negative split it."

"You looked like you were shot out of a gun on that first fifty! Too bad it looked like you were shot by the gun on the last fifty."

"It's a no-breather, so you get two breaths - one before you start and another after you finish."

"Swing, step, and go. It's as easy as 1-2-4."

"That was really using your head - to finish."

Quote of the Day

We are trying to prove ourselves wrong
as quickly as possible, because only
in that way can we find progress.



Richard Phillips Feynman

Quote of the Day (thanks BG)

I can live with doubt, and uncertainty,
and not knowing. I think it's much more
interesting to live not knowing than to
have answers which might be wrong.



Richard Phillips Feynman

One Thousand!

That was Quote of the Day #1,000.

Whether they're worthwhile to you readers or not, I've enjoyed posting them. I've learned quite a bit over the last 3 years of searching for them. Hope at least a few of them have been useful.

Quote of the Day

Poets say science takes away from the beauty of
the stars - mere globs of gas atoms. I, too, can
see the stars on a desert night, and feel them.
But do I see less, or more?



Richard Phillips Feynman

Quote of the Day

I was born not knowing and have only had
a little time to change that here and there.



Richard Phillips Feynman

Quote of the Day

I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific

problems is just as dumb as the next guy.



Richard Phillips Feynman