Remember

Memorial Day
San Antonio, Texas

The NFL is a protection racket

No, really. One of the league's stars admits as much, and an online commentator agrees with him.

For all the craziness that is associated with Ray Lewis, the man sure does seem to speak the truth on big issues. The latest one? How the lockout might affect our society as a whole, and what it might do to the nation's crime rate.

No, he isn't just talking about the players. Ray thinks if the lockout continues and there is no NFL season, crime will increase because people will be so distraught without one of their favorite past times.

...

The man has a point. Football fans will have to find other things to do without their favorite game being played if the NFL does decide to go with this lockout, and Lewis is just pointing out facts about this. If any sport or big event was dumped, it would force people to look for other things to do, and I think that's the point Lewis is making here.

Just add it to the growing list of reasons why the NFL lockout would be a bad thing.

(from Shane Bacon at Shutdown Corner)

Did you get that? Ray Lewis says that he and his buddies need to be paid to play or we will all suffer from increased crime. And Shane Bacon thinks the man's on to something!

Hey, football's great, but it ain't so great that it keeps career criminals in check, allowing us to live in a functioning society that otherwise wouldn't function. If that were the case, then the months of February through September would be lawless mayhem in the streets every year. But criminals don't really work that way. They strike when they will and when they feel they need to, and, though I'm sure they like sports, these same criminals really won't suffer too much if just the NFL loses its season. There's still baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer (I think), and even arena football and Canadian football. Wrestling, too. There are plenty of sports to watch (with overlapping seasons, even!), and it's the pinnacle of hubris for Ray Lewis to think that his own sport is the only one that saves us from things that go bump in the night.

Nice society you have there. Be a shame if anything were to happen to it.

Standing up for the flag

Times sure have changed. Nowadays it seems college students no longer think it's cool to burn Old Glory.

A student’s plans to burn an American flag on the LSU campus were cut short when thousands of combative counter demonstrators arrived on scene, prompting police to escort the student to safety.

Crowds wearing red, white and blue and chanting “U-S-A” threw water balloons and ice at Benjamin Haas, a communication studies graduate student, while he tried to read a prepared statement in front of an estimated crowd of 1,500 to 2,500 students and community members.

Haas publicized the event on Facebook and obtained a permit for peaceful protest from the university, according to LSU Media Relations Director Ernie Ballard. But when he found out he also needed a burn permit from the city to set fire to a flag, he decided to read a statement instead – but the rival protesters still would not let up.

...

Haas organized the protest in response to the arrest of fellow LSU student Isaac Eslava, who was charged last week for taking the American flag at the Baton Rouge campus’ historic War Memorial and burning it hours after news of Usama bin Laden’s killing by U.S. Navy Seals.

I hope the attitudes of Haas and Eslava are the rarity these days. And, according to LSU student government president Cody Wells, they just might be.

“My main message behind all of this is that it’s time for my generation and our society to start speaking up so that the minority voice does not always seem like the loudest voice,” Wells said. “(Haas) did have right to burn the flag, but it was not an honorable thing for him to do and our student body and fellow Louisianans made that very clear today as they rallied on campus to show support for our county.”

I have nothing to add to that sentiment. I can only back it up with the earnest words of Wang Chi: "Here's to the Army and Navy and the battles they have won; here's to America's colors, the colors that never run."



Here, indeed.

"Virgin Galactic's Space Tourist Ship Passes Major Flight Test"

I love to hear encouraging news like this.

A private spaceship built to carry space tourists on suborbital flights for the company Virgin Galactic passed a major glide test flight while flying over California's Mojave Desert today (May 4): The spacecraft tested out the novel system it will use when re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

Today's flight marked Virgin Galactic's seventh glide test for its first SpaceShipTwo spacecraft, called the VSS Enterprise, and took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port.

SpaceShipTwo was carried to its high-altitude drop zone by the WhiteKnightTwo mothership, VMS Eve. Both vehicles have been designed and built by Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., an aerospace and specialty composites development company.

(from Leonard David at Space.com)

And I love to hear the words "private spaceship". It somehow makes the possibilities seem that much closer.

"Usama Bin Laden Is Dead, Sources Confirm"

Well, good.