Quote of the Day

I ain't got much education,

but I got some sense.

Loretta Webb Lynn

Compare 400 I.M. Splits

Let's look at the numbers, shall we?

2012 400 I.M. champs' splits:

Ryan Lochte:  :55.02 - 1:01.84 - 1:09.67 - :58.65

Ye Shiwen:  1:02.19 - 1:09.54 - 1:18.02 - :58.68

Some are wondering how the women's gold medalist was able to get it home just as fast as the men's.

It's hard to blame them, isn't it?

Want to check out another set of splits?

Camille Muffat's 400 free:  :57.83 - 1:01.67 - 1:01.17 - 1:00.78

Ye Shiwen got it home two full seconds faster than the world's fastest freestyler?

She managed a hands to hand hundred free after fly, back, and breast legs that was :02.10 faster than Muffat's feet to hand hundred?

Time for yet another...

...valueless post...
This:

is not the same as this:





Quote of the Day

I like to start the day early,

it keeps me out of trouble.

Glen Travis Campbell

Quote of the Day

I used to be disgusted;  now I try to be amused.

Declan Patrick MacManus, a.k.a. Elvis Costello

Quote of the Day

You got to have smelt a lot of mule manure

before you can sing like a hillbilly.

Hiram King "Hank" Williams

Quote of the Day

I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man

should challenge me, I would take him

kindly and forgivingly by the hand and

lead him to a quiet place and kill him.

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

Quote of the Day

One never notices what has been done;

one can only see what remains to be done.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie

Please send shovels!!!

Since we're in a presidential election year, we've been subjected to a high volume of b.s. in the media, right?  Throw the 40th anniversary of Title IX in with that, and we're being buried by it.

Last week, Christina Lanier Hobbs wrote about the dark side of Title IX - proportionality.  Catch up here.

Nancy Hogshead-Makar responded with an almost laughable load of manure here.

Girls still lag behind boys in every measurable criteria. In participation alone, girls still receive 1.3 million fewer sports opportunities.

Girls never benefit at the expense of boys. When girls do well, so do boys and vice versa.
 
Second, courts have repeatedly held that Title IX is not a quota for the same reason that providing for all members of a family isn’t a quota.

For example, our son was born five years ahead of our twin daughters. Prior to their arrival, he was the center of our universe and, naturally, enjoyed a high standard of living.

When his sisters were born, he got less of the family resources (particularly our time.) Yet he is not a victim of “reverse discrimination” or affirmative action. Instead, he must share the family budget.
Similarly, schools sometimes cannot increase the size of their athletic department budgets yet must still provide equally for their male and female students.

Assuming Nancy's numbers are correct (snicker) "...girls still receive 1.3 million fewer sports opportunities."  should probably read "...girls took advantage of 1.3 million fewer sports opportunities."

It is, after all, a fact that boys take advantage of athletic opportunities at higher rates than girls.

I actually agree that "When girls do well, so do boys and vice versa."  What I can't understand is why so many Title IX activists like Hogshead-Makar have no problem with schools scrapping men's swimming squads, leaving the women to struggle with half a program!

Don't believe me on that one?  The numbers are here.  No women-only teams finished in the top 25 at the 2012 NCAA Division-I championships.

Using her family as an example for sharing resources really set off the old b.s. detector.  Rather than spread the resources equally, athletic departments typically dump men's sports and eliminate all funding for them.  Surely Nancy didn't kick her son out of the house the day she brought the girls home...

Title IX has devolved into a quota system.  Nancy makes a great living using proportionality to help wipe out men's athletics programs.  I guess she's trying to take advantage of the fact that the general public still doesn't get it.

In summary, Nancy Hogshead-Makar sure can fit a whole lotta lies in a little space.

Kind of like squeezing ten pounds of you-know-what into a five pound bag...

Quote of the Day

When in doubt, do the walk.

Sherman Alexander Hemsley

How can you tell when Title IX's gone too far?

The school board in Macomb, Illinois found out the hard way.

Recently they decided that, in the interest of gender equity, they'd require their cheerleaders to attend an equal number of basketball games for both girls and boys.

The original complaint was brought by a parent, Dr. Jill Brody.  Read about the board's concessions here.

Brody still wasn’t satisfied with how her concerns had been addressed, and appealed the board’s response. On June 18 the board reviewed that appeal and sent a final response to Brody with the following concessions:

• The boys and girls regular season basketball schedules will contain the same, or as close as possible to the same, number of games at each competition level for the 2012-2013 school year. Baseball and softball schedules will also contain the same number of games.
• All girls MHS trophies and plaques will be displayed at the high school.
• A hot water heater will be installed in the Washington Street Gym restroom.
• The district will make improvements to the girls varsity softball field, including adding a permanent fence, lighting and coverage for the spectator area.
• Cheerleaders, dance squad and pep band will perform at an even number of girls and boys basketball games during the 2012-13 season. Cheerleaders will also perform at the girls basketball team’s Thanksgiving tournament.
• The district will investigate the feasibility of installing additional bleachers at Washington Street Gym.
• The district’s athletic director will schedule both a girls and boys sophomore basketball tournament during the 2012-13 season.
• The athletic department will implement new rules for the selection of athletic shoes for boys and girls basketball.

Those concessions satisfy Brody, who said, “I’m pleased with the response of the school board, but they have to follow through.”

Brody said she received support from other Macomb School District parents while the Title IX grievance played out.

“Everybody should be for equality,” she said.

While she may have had some valid points, it turns out she didn't have as much support among the parents and athletes as she'd indicated.  Read more here.


Following each statement, the crowd erupted in applause.

“I disagree with what Jill Brody said,” said junior cheerleader Rachel Ruebush, 16, about Brody’s complaint that the absence of cheerleaders and pep band at girls basketball games was in violation of Title IX, the federal law that probates [sic] gender discrimination in education programs receiving federal funding. “It’s like mid-season you’re telling the basketball girls to go play basketball, they know that, and then end of season they’re going to have to play volleyball. And it’s just not fair and I don’t think she’s looking at the big picture. I think she should just look at the big picture and that everyone is against it.”

Board President Robert Shouse said he wasn’t expecting the large turnout for the meeting but said the board listened to what they heard from those in attendance. He was uncertain if the board would revisit the concessions made on the Title IX grievance.

Title IX is supposed to be about fairness in salaries, scheduling, facilities, equipment, coaching, etc.

It's not about deciding when/where cheerleaders and pep squads will show up.

By the way, if band, cheer, dance, and pep squads were included in the Title IX gender quota numbers, wouldn't schools be forced to scale back female athletic opportunities? Wouldn't they have to either eliminate squads or use roster caps to keep their numbers in line?  Remember that word we hear so much about, when male opportunities are being scrapped?

That's right, guys and gals:  Proportionality!!

If we're going to dictate which athletic events cheerleaders are to perform at, shouldn't they be included in our Title IX numbers?

Quote of the Day

All adventures, especially into

new territory, are scary.

Sally Kristen Ride

This Explains Plenty

On last night's Coast to Coast AM, George Knapp interviewed Ryan Holiday.

Holiday is a media manipultor whose book, Trust Me, I'm Lying:  Confessions of a Media Manipulator, will help us understand how media outlets end up reporting bogus stories.

Very interesting stuff.


Holiday's blog is here.

Official book site is here.

Quote of the Day (Thanks AB & KB)

High achievers don't like mediocre people,

mediocre people don't like high achievers.

Nicholas Lou "Nick" Saban

Quote of the Day

You can tell the ideals of a

nation by its advertisements.

George Norman Douglas

Pearland Triathlon

Leon had a nice swim and bike, along with great transitions.  Said the run hurt a little lot, though...

Quote of the Day

He had occasional flashes of silence, that

made his conversation perfectly delightful.

Sydney Smith

Quote of the Day

It's odd that you can get so anesthetized

by your own pain or your own problem

that you don't quite fully share the

hell of someone close to you.

Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson

Quote of the Day

A compromise is the art of dividing a

cake in such a way that everyone

believes he has the biggest piece.

Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard

Quote of the Day

A problem is a chance for you to do your best.

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington

NCAA President on Title IX

After kicking around the possibility of sanctions against Penn State's football program, Dr. Mark Emmert talked about Title IX (between 12:00 and 14:00):

Watch NCAA president Mark Emmert on PBS. See more from Tavis Smiley.

My wife's very athletic.  We went to a small high school together.  The number of opportunities available to her were trivial.  My daughter came along and all of a sudden, she's playing every sport.  And now I've got this little baby granddaughter for whom, I hope the world is such that she doesn't even think about the idea that opportunities would be denied her.

I wonder if Dr. Emmert would still be gushing over Title IX if proportionality had denied his son (or a grandson) athletic opportunities...

Quote of the Day

In the last analysis, what we are communicates
far more eloquently than anything we say or do.

Dr. Stephen Richards Covey

Thanks, Christina Lanier Hobbs!

Her letter to the editor should be required reading for every lawmaker in the U.S.  Read it here.

End proportionality test for Title IX

I was a beneficiary of Title IX, having played varsity tennis in high school.

It was a wonderful experience for me, and I am so glad that my daughter will be able to have the same opportunities that I enjoyed as she grows up.

I am, however, concerned about future opportunities for my son.

While it is admirable to support giving girls and women equal access to athletics in high school and in college, at times the implementation of Title IX has been disturbing.

While not conceived as a quota system, that is exactly how it has been used.

Colleges around the country for fear of lawsuits have cut many men's athletic teams so that the percentage of males to female athletes mirrors that of the student population. This is referred to as the "proportionality test".

With women now outpacing men in going to college, this has been problematic.

Men's wrestling and gymnastics programs have been among the most targeted programs for elimination.

It is one thing to add women's teams and in doing so create more opportunities for their female students to participate in athletics. It is quite another thing to simply eliminate men's programs in order to achieve parity.

In 2005, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights under President George W. Bush suggested guidelines that would help to eliminate this phenomenon.

One proposal was to offer participation surveys to gauge the level of interest in sports among the student body. It would have allowed schools to demonstrate they were fulfilling the needs of their students without having to rely on the "proportionality test."

This idea was immediately attacked by feminist groups as an effort to destroy Title IX and as harmful to women.

On the 40th anniversary of Title IX, it is time to reflect on the progress that has been made in terms of opportunities for girls and women but also look for ways to protect men's programs so that our sons aren't denied athletic opportunities by an unfair quota system that doesn't take into account student interests.

Christina Lanier Hobbs, St. Augustine

Quote of the Day

Everything in the world may be endured

except continued prosperity.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Quote of the Day

I've always liked being relatively
obscure.  I feel that's where I belong,
that's where my work belongs.

Don DeLillo

Quote of the Day

I don't believe in the philosophy that if you knock
a champion down, then they get back up.  You
have to build them up gradually.  You have to
develop their self image.  It's just how you treat
people every day that makes them better.

Edwin Charles "Eddie" Reese

Quote of the Day

The highest and most beautiful things in life

are not to be heard about, nor read about,

nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard

Quote of the Day

Leadership is about being a servant first.

Allen Bernard West

What if proportionality applied...

...to Team USA?

We'd have to tell eight (8) women "Sorry, you aren't going to London."

Aren't we fortunate the USOC doesn't use money from the feds?  If they did, Title IX would apply, right?  Using the gender quota system, we'd have to balance out the squad, wouldn't we?

Ridiculous, isn't it?

269 women and 261 men make up the 2012 USA Olympic team.  They earned their spots by taking advantage of the opportunities that were available.

Congratulations to each and every one of our Olympians and best of luck to them at the Games!

Quote of the Day

It's nice to know that you're

leaving something behind.

Ermes Effron "Ernest" Borgnine

Thirty Years Ago

In 1982 I loaded up a beat-up '66 Chevy pick-up truck (with a little Honda in the back) and headed for Houston.  First night in town I slept in the truck in a K-Mart parking lot on FM 1960.  Woke up with about a hundred mosquito bites.

Drove down to UH and checked into Moody Towers as a "visiting prospective student".  Parking was free, room was ten or fifteen bucks, phone was free, and I had a pass to swim in the outdoor 25m pool, mosquito bites and all.

Started making calls, unloaded the Honda, and the job search began.

Oscar Sarabia* at HISD got me a couple of campus interviews and I visited with the Milby HS and Jackson MS (originally Jackson JH) principals.  Jackson's Virgil Fisher took me on a tour and showed me around his campus (built in 1925 & named after Confederate General Stonewall Jackson).

Under the band hall was a four-lane, twenty-yard pool with hexagonal tile all around.  There was no circulation and the water level was down several feet.  Desks were floating in the green water.

Fisher asked me if I wanted to teach science and coach swimming.  I thought about life back in Terre Haute vs. working in a combat zone and it was a no-brainer:

Hell yeah!

Thirty years later I've retired from teaching.  Thanks to Oscar and Virgil for helping me get a start.



*Read a great piece in the Houston Chronicle (1990) about Oscar here.

Then, in 1970, he left the classroom to join HISD's personnel services. He became involved with recruiting, interviewing and evaluating teacher applicants. For the next 18 years, Oscar Sarabia played a key role in hiring thousands of teachers.

So there you have it. A different person in that job would not always have reached the same conclusions that Sarabia reached concerning the applicants. Many teachers who were hired and moved to Houston as a result of meeting with Sarabia might have wound up in Keokuk or Kankakee or wherever if he had become a pilot instead. If his uncle hadn't died in that crash.

Oscar Sarabia recently retired after 31 years with HISD. The past two years he was assistant principal at Waltrip High School.

Quote of the Day

Even if people censure me, they

should do so hat in hand.

Gustav Mahler

Males? Just Title IX 'em!!!

That's been the solution to those pesky men seeking college athletics opportunities outside foosball and thump-thump, right?

Dave Roberts thinks it's time to bring that philosophy down to the high school level.

Read Get rid of some boys sports instead of reversing gains in girls sports from Title IX in the Hunterdon County Democrat here.

Perhaps instead of eliminating girls sports to save wrestling, we should eliminate ice hockey or fencing. Perhaps wrestling should align its sport with the wrestling types promoted in the Olympics so that they would get the boost in popularity that results from seeing Americans win gold medals every four years.

Can someone give Dave a lift back to Trenton?  The greenhouse could use his attention.

Quote of the Day

We all live in suspense from day to day;  in other

words, you are the hero of your own story.

Mary Therese McCarthy

Quote of the Day

Where is the Life we have lost in living?

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

Thomas Stearns "T.S." Eliot

Quote of the Day

I don't believe in this business of

being behind, better to be in front.

Melvin Kaminsky, a.k.a. Mel Brooks

Turn out the lights...

...the party's over...

Lots of reasons to love July, right?

D&J's Tent Sale.

Celebrating the 4th with Roman Candle and Bottle Rocket fights.

Tapers later in the month.

Title IX's June anniversary propaganda ends.

Proportionality isn't something the Title IX quota folks like to talk about much anymore.  It's a fact that gender quotas have resulted in a disproportionate number of men's programs being dropped for "budgetary reasons".

Read Putting Maryland's Sports Cuts in Context here.

The Post‘s Liz Clarke puts the cuts in context:

“Over the last five years, 205 varsity teams have been dropped in NCAA Division I, the top ranks of college sports—133 for men, 72 for women. Men’s tennis, gymnastics, and wrestling have been hit particularly hard. Rutgers cut six sports in 2007 to address a multimillion-dollar deficit. Brigham Young, Clemson, Washington, and UCLA have also pared offerings.

Why do so many men's teams get the axe?  C'mon, y'all can figure it out, can't ya?

Miscellaneous

In no particular order:

IdeaPaint turns any flat surface into a dry erase board:


Neil Armstrong doesn't do interviews, right? Aussies talked with him and those videos are here.

From the "I told ya so..." file:

Here's part of a recent (June 20) Bay City Tribune article titled Bay City:  A great place for family and sport?

This past week as the local swim team was doing its part to bring outside visitors to Bay City by hosting a swim meet, an unfortunate event took place.

In the midst of competition, the meet had to be rearranged a couple of times before it was eventually canceled.

It seem that a few tiles in the swim lanes either had rough edges or were broken. This caused some of the swimmers to be cut as they were making turns in their races.

While Bay City’s aquatic facilities are a far cry from that of the surrounding cities like Lake Jackson or Angleton, it is still one of the few places kids who prefer swimming to other summer activities can go.

Several parents of swimmers who were at Saturday’s swim meet were left with a bitter taste in their mouths about our city and its pool.

Many of these parents took to Facebook to vent and make their make their feelings heard.

One Facebooker shared their feelings by saying we have nothing to offer a young family, nothing to grow and build upon.

When we tried to host a swim meet in our city pool, the same pool the reader had swam in 35 years ago, the pool was deemed unsafe, said the reader. The reader went on to say that, like most things in this town, little effort, time or money has been put into our pool, and because of that our pool was deemed unsafe.

So Lake Jackson, Freeport and Wharton teams had to pack up mid-meet and go home.

Meets like the one canceled this past weekend are a good way to bring in outside money to the city and county – visitors shop in our stores and eat in our restaurants.

While this is not a good sign for the progress being made and a black eye for future events at the pool, city officials were out assessing the problem on Monday.

“We know where the problem areas are and we are working to fix these problems as soon as possible,” said Bay City Parks and Recreation Director Mike Duke.

“We will drop the water level in the pool to an area were we can smooth out and coat the tile and grout that is an issue.”

On top of that the city plans replaster both the high school and Hilliard pool at summers end.

“We will be giving the pools a much needed overhaul as soon as they are not needed for summer use,” Duke added.

Here's a little history lesson for our Bay City readers.  I'm guessing most don't know much about our 2006 "pool renovation".

The city and school district agreed to borrow $200,000 to upgrade the facility.  They'd pay the loan off over a ten-year period.  The plan called for various improvements, including resurfacing the pool and deck, overhauling locker rooms & offices, and enclosing the outdoor facility.

The project got underway and it was obvious from the very start that it wouldn't end well.  My concerns were ignored.  The "consultant" in charge of the project had never worked on a pool and barely knew where the water went.  When I was unable to get school and city adminstrators to listen, I walked.

What did the taxpayers get for their money?  Both the pool and deck surfaces are a mess.  The locker rooms are a disaster.  The building that was to enclose the facility was never built.  Many other problems (starting blocks, lifeguard stands, underwater lights, etc.) were never addressed.

Still, they did put up this wonderful $1,700 plaque to celebrate their accomplishments:

Comment on Great Story:

Great article! Leaves me with a somewhat unrelated question though. Way back when, USA apparently sent 3 swimmers per event to the Olympics (Bruner was 4th and missed out). Now we send 2. Track sends 3. What gives?

Back in '76, our Montreal men's squad dominated, hauling home a bucket of medals.  The sweeps (1-2-3 finishes) resulted in a rules change that limited each country to just two (2) individual qualifiers per country per event.  The quality of swimming around the world has improved greatly since then.  It's time to go back to the maximum of three (3) individuals per country.

Pics from Trials are here.

A few results:

DSSC Father's Day

Rice Junior

PEAK Elite

Mustang Classic

Senior Circuit 4

COPS B/C

TRS B/C

SWAT B/C

NTN BB

Bill Nixon Memorial

TRS B/C II

DADS Open/Junior

SPA Elite/Open

AAAA B

AAAA Senior Series II

McAllen Unclassified

AAAA B+

Valero Unclassified

AAAA C

BAS/MSC BB Champs

Quote of the Day

I think we do need rural humor.

I think it's always been around

and I think it always will be around.

Andrew Samuel "Andy" Griffith

Maryland Swings the Ax

The only sport to survive Terp Purge 2012 is men's track.  They got a stay of execution.

Read the university's statement here.

Guess they got their gender quota numbers to work out.

Quote of the Day

Hope is a pleasant aquaintance,
but an unsafe friend.

Thomas Chandler Haliburton

Quote of the Day

Cherish your human connections:  your

relationships with friends and family.

Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky

Quote of the Day

It's never just a game when you're winning.

George Denis Patrick Carlin