Golf #1

What is it like to reach the absolute top in your chosen field? Scottie Scheffler is there, rated the best golfer in the world.  

“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about, because I've literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport."

But it lasts just a few minutes. "You win it, you celebrate, get to hug my family, my sister's there, it's such an amazing moment. Then it's like, OK, what are we going to eat for dinner? Life goes on.”

"I love the challenge. I love being able to play this game for a living. It's one of the greatest joys of my life, but does it fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart? Absolutely not.”

He loves his golf career. But it's third priority after faith and family. There's a lot of love in this man's life.

from Golf Week

Sorry girls!

Girls in college sports have something big to celebrate: they will no longer have to compete against male bodies at University of Pennsylvania. 

A former U Penn student and swimmer says “As a former UPenn swimmer who had to compete against and share a locker room with a male athlete, I am deeply grateful to the . . Administration for refusing to back down on protecting women and girls and restoring our rightful accolades. I am also pleased that my alma mater has finally agreed to take not only the lawful path, but the honorable one."

In negotiations, U Penn agreed to these actions: 

• Formal apologies will go out to the girls who wrongfully lost wins and records. 
• Trans athlete Lia Thomas (photo) will be stripped of his accolades won in girls' sports. 
• U Penn will stop violating Title IX and use biology-based definitions of female and male. 

 from NY Post

We see you, NCAA

XX-XY Athletics launched a video last October to ask Nike to support biological women's sports: "Will you, Nike?"

Now they've launched a new video that includes Riley Gaines: "We see you, NCAA." 

NCAA has linked their definition of who may qualify as female in women's sports to a birth certificate. But that does not yet actually protect women in the view of XX-XY Athletics. Birth certificates can be changed in 44 states.

Vibe shift 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Not long ago, you probably heard the word "Christian" used negatively as a pejorative by some public figures, as in "Christian nationalist." But our recent vibe shift went so far as to result in a Christian recording artist singing at the Super Bowl, probably America's biggest stage.

During the woke years, schools and universities often trained students to consider their own country hopelessly racist and contemptible. But this year's Super Bowl featured a five-minute video narrated by actor Brad Pitt which movingly celebrated the good things about America.

You don't have to be Christian to appreciate these things. Everybody should. 

Girls' sports

Do most Americans think it's a good idea for girls' sports to include transgendered male bodies? A study reveals what every one of us should know:

"Experts and critics believe trans girls and transwomen who have experienced male puberty hold an advantage over their biological female competitors." 

Duh.

from NYPost

Dear Nike

A new athletic apparel company started up last March. They have a goal in addition to selling clothes: "We are here to protect women's sports and spaces," to protect women and girls from a travesty like what happened here, here, here.

Their name is "XX-XY Athletics," and their new ad is terrific. I want everyone to see it, so here is "Dear Nike" . .

Paris Olympics 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Security is always an issue at the Olympics. Grievance groups and terrorists would love to create drama at an event that will make headlines all over the world.

France has already experienced multiple attacks in the name of Islam, including "the Charlie Hebdo killings of 2015, the Bataclan attack of the same year, the Bastille Day murders in Nice in 2016, and a series of brutal murders of teachers." European sporting events have recently received threats from Islamic State. 

France's Interior Minister says these threats are nothing new, and they're prepared. Twenty-thousand soldiers will patrol and defend the games, along with 40,000 police and gendarmes. They are training in the south to defend, for example, against knife attacks and hostage taking.

photo

Two soccer fans expressed tough resistance against fear of terrorists: 

"If they are doing this communication campaign, it is above all to scare us and terrorise us, so that the French no longer go out. So we must continue to live and show them we are stronger than that." 

"You have to be vigilant but there is no reason to be more afraid than usual."

from BBC

Paris Olympics 1

Cleaning the Seine River has been a huge job for France. The Paris Olympics 2024 will begin late in July this summer, and some of the events will take place in the river--which has been very polluted for many years. 

photo

Even this close to the events, tests of the water still show pollution levels may be too high for swimmers. The problem is E-coli, bacteria coming from sewage. Potentially, it can result in various problems ranging from skin irritation to serious illness.

Sewage treatment has been updated and improved, but untreated water can overflow into the Seine after a rain. So an immense container to hold the potential overflow was built during the past three years. It's the size of 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

About $1.4 billion has been spent on the effort to make the beloved Seine River clean. If all goes well, the public could be permitted to swim in it again by 2025.

from Forbes

Fired

A couple weeks ago, I advised caution about truth telling: "If you haven't bowed to the wokeness, please speak up. But maybe not at work . . I don't want you to be fired for thinking things through." Maybe you thought "that doesn't happen." Well, I wish it didn't.

But it really does. A snowboarding coach at a Vermont high school was chatting with students, and agreed with one of them, adding that biological sex is the basis for significant physical differences and should apply to sports.

"The next day, Bloch learned the school district had fired him over the matter and barred him from ever being hired again." 

Not only did this coach tell the truth as he sees it in a respectful manner, but he then had the courage to initiate a lawsuit. The school district and the state Agency of Education admitted that he was wrongfully fired. This man had the courage to speak up even in a job and justice prevailed, thank God.

Paris Olympics 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Tickets are going fast! No, really. "Of the 10 million tickets available for the Olympic Games, just under 8 million have already been taken up."  Better hurry if you don't already have your tix.

What could go wrong? Plenty of things. 

Bed bugs, for one thing. Last fall it was like a plague. About the same time, trash collectors went on strike and piles were left on Paris streets. That in turn probably exacerbated the persistent rat problem.

For another thing, they have millions of visitors coming in the middle of a "housing crisis." In the words of one student, "[M]any of my friends are being evicted from their flats in June so that their landlords can let them out at inflated prices during the Olympics."

Workers are being asked to work from home if possible, so that the already-strained transport system isn't overloaded. Transportation tickets will double in price.

Add more strikes and public protests to the list. Be glad you are not in charge of making this whole thing look good to the world and run smoothly. Because the last thing France wants is to damage its global, glorious reputation. 

from Paris is heading for an Olympic-sized disaster

Paris Olympics 1

With an expected fifteen million visitors coming to town this summer, Paris is making a tremendous effort to give them a good impression and a good time at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

Spectacular scenery will abound as a background for photos. Imagine the opening athletes coming down the Seine River on boats as you watch from the riverside quai, beach volleyball under the Eiffel Tower, equestrians on the grounds at Versailles.

artist's image

Huge profits will ensue for businesses and the city. But possible disasters loom as well, so the upfront costs are also huge as they try to eliminate those possibilities.

Three swimming events will be held in the river itself, where swimming has been banned since 1923 because of pollution. Confident that it will be clean, President Macron says he himself will take a swim in the river.

from Paris is Heading for an Olympic-Sized Disaster

(cont'd tomorrow)

Girls' sports

An official with the NCAA has taken a stand for female student athletes. 

William Bock III resigned from his position on their infractions committee to say it's not fair to make females compete against male bodies.

The NCAA allows it if the transgender athlete meets certain requirements, like a lower current level of testosterone. But Bock made the right point in his resignation letter when he pointed to something we all know:

“There’s a lot of biological development that starts at birth that allows you to maximize testosterone, and those changes that you get through development — they don’t go away . . . you’re never going to bridge the gap between men and women."

Common sense at last. Apparently it took a little courage as well, judging from another of his comments:

“I’ve gotten no response from anybody,” he said. “Which I think probably says a lot about the fear that’s driving silence at academic institutions on this issue.”

from Washington Examiner

CNN baffled

"On Saturday, tennis phenom and devout Christian Coco Gauff won the U.S. Open, her first Grand Slam victory. Afterwards, she spun off her chair, got on her knees, brought her hands together and prayed."

But CNN can't or won't recognize what she's doing, so they said she's "soaking it all in." No doubt she is doing that as well, but it's hard to believe they couldn't identify the obvious posture of prayer. Babylon Bee calls it, here 😄

photo

Dunk

The National Basketball Association (NBA) held their "slam dunk" competition over the weekend with spectacular results.  For an NBA player, the winner is a little short at 6'2'. But this 24-year-old from Virginia defies gravity.

You won't get the full effect til you see the winning dunks in slow motion here.

NBA story

Growing up in Bronx NY, Jonathan Isaac fell in love with basketball. To him, its flow and movement is an art form. He also had the talent to play it like that, and he's in the NBA today.

His dad and mom modeled integrity and tenacity and hard work for him. He needed all of those virtues to help him overcome anxiety issues on his way to becoming a professional athlete and an author.

Jonathan's story deserves respect . . and receives it, as you can read in the Youtube comments.

Inside NBA

Cable show "Inside the NBA" is hosted by Ernie Johnson, Jr., who won an Emmy award as "best studio host." Would I watch a show about professional basketball? Of course not - but for this post I did watch a few youtube clips and after that, well, maybe I would because it looks pretty fun.

Johnson is good at managing the fun with Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley. But beyond the sports, Barkley describes him as having "uncommon courage and a pure heart."

A trailer for ESPN's profile story of Ernie is here. In 2006 he told his viewers that he'd been diagnosed with cancer. "What he then said still brings tears to a colleague’s eyes. After thanking his doctors and expressing his gratitude for the audience’s concern he said: “And [my family continues], as we always have, in both good times and bad, to place our faith in Jesus Christ, and to trust God . . . period.”

NBA MVP

Sonya Curry says that from November til June she and her husband "are just tired." They stay up late watching their two sons play for the National Basketball Association.

Last year the Golden State Warriors won their first NBA championship in 40 years. The Currys' son Stephen was Most Valuable Player. "In 2012-13, he set a new NBA single-season record for 3-pointers (272), only to break it twice since . . Assuming good health, Curry is a solid bet to eclipse Ray Allen’s NBA record for career 3-pointers (2,973)."

"[T]he NBA’s leading scorer, [Curry] has become one of the sports world’s must-watch entertainers because of his quickness, unlimited range, and crafty handle."

And Stephen is a Christian. “I’ve always been a believer that the Lord has put whatever talent in you, [and] whatever gift He has put in you, He wants you to get the most out of that. He wants you to succeed; He wants you to pursue and work and be passionate about it . .” Agreed!