Archive for February, 2008
Hitting the ball fat
gommo February 11th, 2008
I found a nice article in my mailbox today about ‘hitting the ball fat’ (Golf talk that is). I wanted to bookmark it but thought I’d throw it on here instead for any other keen golfers.
http://www.iseekgolf.com/golfinstruction/7046-hitting-the-ball-fat
Blasphemy - Repost from Daniel Dennett
gommo February 6th, 2008
The West screwed up badly when the denunciation of the fatwa on Salman Rushdie was not closer to unanimous. (I will never forget or forgive the shameful silence of some writers who shunned the invitation to join in a firm but not hostile rebuke.) The West screwed up badly again when the Danish cartoons were not reprinted world-wide. What many didn’t understand was that the staged riots were a political strike against moderate Muslims, not non-Muslims. The “tolerance” urged by many voices outside the Muslim world played into the hands of the radical Islamists. Now we get a third chance to come to the aide of moderate Muslims all over the world, but so far, I haven’t heard much outcry. Several days ago I sent the following letter to the Boston Globe, which has not yet indicated that it will publish it:
The conviction and pending execution of an Afghani student, Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh, for blasphemy is an appalling circumstance, but it offers an opportunity that we should all seize. The time has come for Muslims to step up to the plate and demonstrate that Islam is a great faith that has no need for violence or intimidation to maintain the loyalty of its congregation. And we outside Islam must make it crystal clear that we cannot respect or honor a religion that would consider blasphemy a capital crime, no matter how ancient the tradition from which this decision flowed. Muslims who support–or refrain from condemning–the conviction and sentence of Kambakhsh must be made to realize that they share responsibility for bringing dishonor to their cherished heritage, and if we non-Muslims do not speak out, we too must share in the blame. Friends don’t let friends commit, or condone, evil. The best way of showing our good will towards Islam is by helping it shed an indefensible aspect of its legacy. Every religion has much to atone for, but that is no reason to button our lips and tolerate fresh grounds for atonement.
There is no need, yet, for anger. Let us all just remind Muslims everywhere of what they must surely know: blasphemy is not a capital crime in any society worthy of respect. It is now up to Muslims to prevent some of their number from defiling their own precious culture.
Bogans
gommo February 3rd, 2008
Thanks to my mate Andrew D for this.
I love the last line, “You got the meat raffle tickets wet, you dip shit” 
Steelers season thoughts
gommo February 2nd, 2008
Well, its a day before Superbowl XLII and my Steelers have long since been out of the hunt. I got to browsing over my previous posts and saw a few of my questions I posted before the season. I thought it would be good to summaries my thoughts and results of them.
The questions where
- How will Mike Tomlin fair this season as the Steelers new head coach? Will he bring back that fire on defense that we have been sorely missing?
- Overall Tomlin did a pretty good job, however we failed dismally in applying consistent pressure to the QB. I really hoped our draft picks would help in that regard but that wasn’t to be. The defense did hold up in the statistical area but in reality, especially in the later part of the season, we were very soft. As poor as it was though, I do think that next year Timmons and Woodley will see the field more and that will help in the pressure department.
We need some better defensive lineman and a replacement for Haggans at LOLB. James Harrison was easily a better replacement for Porter who stunk up the joint in Miami this year. Poor Joey
- Overall Tomlin did a pretty good job, however we failed dismally in applying consistent pressure to the QB. I really hoped our draft picks would help in that regard but that wasn’t to be. The defense did hold up in the statistical area but in reality, especially in the later part of the season, we were very soft. As poor as it was though, I do think that next year Timmons and Woodley will see the field more and that will help in the pressure department.
- Will Alan Faneca shut the f*(*ck up and play to his usual high standard?
- Hard to say here. Our OL played so poor that any half decent linemen would be ‘playing at a high standard’. The scarey part is that we kept our OL coach (all our coaches actually), and Kevin Colbert seems to have hinted that he thought the OL wasn’t that bad. Wake up mate, the OL is a joke!! Get a good free agent Tackle, resign Faneca and draft at least 2 stud lineman.
- Will our first 2 draft choices, both outside linebackers, help the pathetic pass rush we had last year?
- I’ve pretty much covered this. They played ok when they were in, which wasn’t much. Hopefully that will change. Woodley shows the most promise I think.
- Will Ben Roethlisberger return to form this year? He’s off to a good start without being in a head on motorcycle accident and his appendix is gone now
- We win and lose by how Ben plays. He had a terrific year but also was a big part of both the lose to the Jags in the wild card round but also the main reason behind the ‘almost’ come from behind victory. I think he’ll play even better next year especially if we can improve the OL and get some more depth at RB and maybe WR.
- At the end of the day, Ben was the 2nd highest rated QB behind Tom Brady. And Tom Brady played like he was on Madden 08. So in reality, (and I mean reality), Ben was the highest rated QB
- Can we beat the Ravens this year??
- Well we smashed them early in the year! A perfect game by BR and a shutout for the D. We narrowly lost to them at their house but by that time in the schedule the Steelers were on the downhill run rather than hitting all cylinders. Coaching and just a lack of talented depth. However, far better than the year before. The Ravens are and hopefully will stay, horrible.
So, where does that leave the Steelers for ‘08-09? There are a number of questions to answer, my initial ones are
- Not firing coaches? Our OL and special teams where pathetic this year. I’m going to trust Tomlin on this one and hope we get some better talent, because that probably was at least half the problem.
- Pressure D! Where is it? Traditionally the Steelers are run first, both on offense and defense. We were even struggling to contain RB’s in the later part of the year. That is scary, and it needs fixing NOW! I really like how the NYG’s are playing D and pressuring the QB. This may just get them an upset win over the Patriots! (yeah right :()
- Depth, depth, depth. We will be 3 years removed from our Superbowl victory and that means the good players then, are getting older. I’m a little concerned that we still seem to holding on to a core nucleus of players. That’s ok if they can perform (Take New England for example) but I haven’t seen it consistently the past 2 seasons, which may spell trouble for next season. We need some better picks in the draft and those draft choices need to be used and play a role more. No use drafting if you don’t get any value, they just tie up salary cap space.
Anyway, thats my hurried thoughts. I’m excited for tommorrow, I think it will be a great Superbowl to watch. Not having my team in it means I can’t lose
- If New England win, I will have witnessed an historic moment in sport
- If New York win, Plax gets a Superbowl ring and I can ROFL over the Patriots disappointing finish.