Scalia, Sixpacks and Sanity

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has always been one of the more outspoken justices on the SCOTUS. His latest speech to the New England School of Law truly shows what a gem of a justice the U.S. has on the highest court in the land.

Scalia has long been a strict constructionist on the Supreme Court and does not abuse his position. In fact, he decried the "judge-moralist" era by comparing judges to "Joe Sixpack" in showing that neither are more qualified than the other to decide issues of morality. I agree with Scalia whole-heartedly. This might surprise all the liberals who CRINGE every time they see or hear the name "Scalia" but Antonin does not believe that questions on abortion and gay marriage are NOT to be decided by the courts, but rather the public through elected legislatures. He stated that "anyone who thinks the country's most prominent lawyers reflect the views of the people needs a reality check."

Justice Scalia also assumed rather correctly that a judge with his views could NEVER get elected to even the U.S. Court of Appeals much less the SCOTUS. Frankly, the stupidity of labelling liberal judges as "mainstream" or "moderate" is blatantly evident:

"What is a moderate interpretation of (the Constitution)? Halfway between what it says and halfway between what you want it to say?" he said.

It is an honor to have a person on the nation's highest court who interprets the U.S. Constitution as it is supposed to be interpreted. I may not agree with every single interpretation he has ever taken, but the man is consistent - and that is admirable. All the Scalia-haters need to wake up and look at a man who doesn't let his moral views cloud his decision-making.

UWM Baby!

Once again, the underdog UWM Panthers prove why they belong in the Big Dance after they dominated a beaten Oklahoma team. That, and a little later that day Marquette lost to Alabama. Hm, I remember a certain team that beat a better Alabama team a year ago...

UWM's successes in the tournament can only help Rob Jeter and recruiting for our school! We will really miss our seniors though. Hopefully, they can be replaced with the same able bodies.

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Davis, Tucker lead No. 11 UW-Mil. past No. 6 Sooners
ESPN

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Wisconsin-Milwaukee wavered, but never cracked. The Panthers almost never do at this time of the year.
Once again showing why they've stopped surprising themselves in the NCAA Tournament, the Horizon League champions pulled off their third upset in two years by eliminating No. 6 seed Oklahoma 82-74 in the Minneapolis Regional on Thursday.
Boo Davis scored 26 points and Joah Tucker had 24 for Milwaukee (22-8), which blew a 10-point lead only to rebuild it to double-digits again and hold off the favored Sooners to advance to a second-round matchup against No. 3 seed Florida.
"That's where experience comes in," said Tucker, one of five fifth-year seniors who start for Milwaukee.
"You know there's going to be runs in the game. You've got to find a way to stop the runs. … We had to find ways to get baskets and get to the free-throw line. But the most important thing is that we stayed poised."
Tucker, one of the stars in Milwaukee's stunning run to the round of 16 last season, scored nine during a 23-7 surge that carried the Panthers to a 60-46 lead with just over seven minutes to go.
The closest Oklahoma (20-9) got the rest of the way was six. Terrell Everett led them with 21 points on 10-for-20 shooting, but most of his production came after it was too late.
"It was hard to play catch-up," Everett said. "They made their free throws. They did everything right to win the game."
Four starters remain from the team that upset Alabama and Boston College before losing to eventual national finalist Illinois in last year's tournament. But Milwaukee got it done this time without former coach Bruce Pearl, now at Tennessee.
First-year coach Rob Jeter instituted the necessary changes to begin putting his signature on the team, but was also careful to listen and find a way to coexist with the team's veteran leadership.
"You have a group of freshman, you can just tell them what to do," Jeter said. "With seniors who have been around the block, of course they are going to see how far they can go. But with this team, it's all in fun."
Oklahoma finished what many feel was an underachieving season with three straight losses, one of them a 24-point setback at Texas.
Inconsistency undermined the Sooners all year, and it looked like they could be in for a long afternoon when Tucker's high-arcing 3-pointer put Milwaukee up 24-14 with just over eight minutes left in the opening half.
But just as quickly as it appeared the game might be slipping away, Michael Neal hit a 3-pointer and Kevin Bookout made two easy baskets to start a 17-9 run that closed Oklahoma's deficit to 33-31 at the half.
The Sooners closed the gap despite playing the last three minutes of the half without Bookout, who walked off clutching his already taped left wrist after getting tangled with a Milwaukee player and tumbling to the floor.
The Oklahoma forward returned for the start of the second half with his wrist taped even more heavily and finished with 14 points. David Godbold had 15 points and leading scorer Taj Gray had 13 before fouling out in the closing minutes.
Neal, another key to Oklahoma's offense, played with a sore foot and was limited to three points on 1-of-8 shooting.
"I don't want to make excuses, but he just couldn't move," Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said, adding the turning point in the game was a sequence early in the second half when Oklahoma had the ball on four straight possessions with a chance to take the lead, but turned it over three times.
Tucker was only 5-for-14 from the field, but made 13-of-16 free throws to help Milwaukee outscore Oklahoma 26-5 from the foul line. Davis came up big in the decisive surge, too, delivering two long 3-pointers and driving the lane for a difficult layup to put the Panthers up by double-digits.
Oklahoma, which has made 11 NCAA appearances in 12 seasons under Sampson, lost in the first round for the first time since being beaten by Indiana State in 2001.

The Real Revolutionaries

My latest article for the UWM Times:

The Real Revolutionaries

A quick glance at the student body at any university across the United States would easily display the many different groups that students sort themselves into. Within these groups, you can find those who display their political ideology very easily. You will see them walking around in their popularized and commercialized “Che Guevara” t-shirts (I wonder what communist Che would say about his face on a popular t-shirt further representing the successes of capitalism). However, do these students truly know and consider themselves revolutionaries? And if so, what revolution are they exactly fighting for?

In November of 2004, UWM was bombarded with information and propaganda for the upcoming political elections. While there were all sorts of phrases displayed on the sidewalks (and in some cases, the walls), one phrase stuck out: “Viva la Revolucion”.

That phrase along with liberal groups on campus that constantly label themselves as “revolutionaries” has particularly led me to question whether the liberal students on campus are leading a revolution. After all, revolutions usually constitute changes in how things are operated in a system.

First off, it would be helpful to see the actual definition of “revolutionary”. Webster’s dictionary states that being “revolutionary” in essence means “constituting or bringing about a major or fundamental change.” Webster also defines the term “revolution” to be “a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something: a change of paradigm.” So according to Webster’s definition, liberal groups on campus must be seeking fundamental changes to the way our universities are being run.

Now, wait a minute. Am I to believe that the strongholds of liberal thought are in need of a good revolution to change the views and ideologies of its faculty and student body? Perhaps, these students do not know what “revolutionary” actually means. It is common knowledge that the university system is the hotbed for liberal and leftist thought.

A quick examination of a university’s faculty would confirm this statement easily. Take the University of Colorado for example. The Wall Street Journal reported several years ago that the number of registered Democrats on the faculty exceeded the number of registered Republicans by an astounding 31-1 ratio. While this statistic is surprising, it really isn’t in the context of ideological composition at such institutions. A recent survey taken among faculty members across the United States showed that 72% of professors view themselves as having a leftist/liberal ideology. That number compares with 15% who claim to be more conservative leaning.

Not only is the faculty comprised of unabashed liberals, but often times the invited speakers to campuses are radical and extreme leftists. In fact, it is almost humorous to examine the lists of speakers who are frequently invited to address university functions. Why do universities seek out communists, socialists and extremists with such gaiety? In fact, it often comes down to small groups of conservative students and off-campus organizations to assemble the funds to invite a conservative speaker to campus.

Furthermore, students are being taught by a faculty that consists of left-leaning members. While I won’t say that all professors incorporate their own beliefs and opinions in their teachings, instances in which professors attempt to indoctrinate their students has been well documented. After all, the only real place left to find such radical thought is the university system. The vast majority of Americans realized the failure of such ideas as communism, socialism and radicalism years ago. Yet, professors don’t want to let go of their foolish dreams and ideas; therefore, it is up to them to teach their students the beauty of these failed systems.

So, once again, why do liberal students on campus think of themselves as revolutionaries? Maybe they like the term. Not to mention, it looks cool on their t-shirts. In actuality, I think many of them don’t understand what a revolution is. Liberal students are living in the majority on campuses across the nation. There is no need for a revolution when one’s ideologies are being represented in vast numbers. Attention liberals: you aren’t campus revolutionaries.

I say to the liberals who dream of revolutions: you are sadly mistaken. Go ahead and claim to be bringing about change in a setting where incorporating a revolution would involve the removal of yourselves for the sake of conservative thought. Think about it. You are surrounded every day by thousands of other self-proclaimed “revolutionaries” who don’t exactly know who the face on their t-shirts belongs to. It doesn’t matter though because they are fighting against the oppression they so often face on campus! That just sounds funny not to mention ridiculous.

The fact of the matter is that the real revolutionary ideas belong to those who are seeking tolerance of their views. The real revolution is taking place to fight for the promotion of intellectual pluralism. Tolerance, diversity and equality are no longer terms that belong to liberals. It is the conservative movement on campus that seeks these tenets. After all, any other type of political thought that does not fall on the left side of the spectrum is subjected to an amount of hostility.

Liberal universities do not want to see any semblance of conservative thought having an outlet on campus. It is for good reasons that they do so. They realize that after students graduate, the appeal and popularity of liberalism is often replaced by the rational adoption of conservative views and values. Universities know that they only have a short time to indoctrinate their students. Therefore, the presence of another ideology is simply unacceptable. The conservative movements on campus are definitely attempting to seek representation.

This is the change that would constitute a revolution. To go from a system with room for the dominance of only one ideology to a system that encourages and promotes differing political views.
And to all those “Che” t-shirt wearers out there, do you really want to support a guy whose ideal revolution can be summed up with his notion that “the solution to the world’s problems is to be found behind the Iron Curtain”? I didn’t think so.

Stunned? Nope, just whooped!

World Cup hosts Germany were crushed yesterday during a friendly against Italy in Florence. The "Azzurri" dominated the game and beat the Germans 4 to 1 after a delightful performance by some up and coming stars. Luca Toni, who scored in the match, is one of those players who might flourish in what appears to be his only World Cup appearance (he'll be 29 by the time the World Cup rolls around). It is refreshing to see the Italians attack the whole game for once, rather than sit back on a goal's lead. Perhaps Coach Lippi realizes our errors and we'll continue to provide an attacking squad - we certainly have a plethora of talented strikers.

Of course, Italy can also lay an egg come World Cup time. I can't get too confident with Italy having the toughest draw in the World Cup. If they make it out of the group stage, they'll certainly have proven their worth.

And their jerseys are pretty awesome too!