31 December 2010 later

Football: right now I am watching ND whip Miami; it is 30-3 Notre Dame going into the 4′th quarter. Basically ND kept intercepting Miami passes. You kind of knew how it was going to go when you saw the ND players playing without sleeves and the Miami guys all bundled up. Hey…it is in the 30′s guys!

It is in the 4′th quarter and ND is up 30-3.

Update: note it is 30-17 with 4 minutes left in the game; Miami still has a chance, though it is a remote one. But an onside kick and another quick touchdown….who knows?

Update: ND kicked a field goal with 1:26 left to make it 33-17; I agree with this call. 16 points is a safer lead than 13, as it would require Miami to hit two 2-point conversions (in addition to 2 touchdowns…)

(photos from yahoo)

Pinstripe Bowl:
I talked about the controversial call; here it is:

That’s it. This lead to a 15 yard penalty which meant that they had 18 yards to go on their 2 point conversion.

This is what the officials said:

Todd Geerlings, the head official on the officiating crew from the Pinstripe Bowl earlier today, explained the reasoning for the call after the game in pool quotes provided to media members.

Kansas State lost 36-34 to Syracuse when officials flagged Wildcats receiver Adrian Hilburn for excessive celebration. Hilburn he saluted in the direction of the crowd after scoring on a 30-yard catch-and-run that gave Kansas State an opportunity to tie the game. But a 15-yard penalty was assessed on the two-point conversion try, which Kansas State failed to convert.

It was a Big Ten officiating crew.

Here’s the full text of Geerling’s explanation:

Excessive celebration is rule 9-2-1d, which states a penalty is called for:
“Any delayed, excessive, prolonged or choreographed act by which a player attempts to focus attention on himself (or themselves).”

What exactly caused the penalty?
“It was the salute, which was the judgment of the calling officials, which were the head linesman and the back judge. Two officials threw the flag, both judged it to be drawing attention to themselves, and that’s what the flag was for.”

Were you watching for any celebrations?
“These kinds of excessive celebrations have been a priority in the rulebook for the last several years. There’s a whole page in the rulebook pertaining to sportsmanship.”

That’s a pretty weak explanation.

Regardless of the wording of the rule, officials have to take into account context as well as timing. Plenty of players’ actions after scoring are far more animated and draw plenty more attention, but you don’t see those flagged.

U agree with the ESPN writer (David Ubben) here. That was a weak call and completely inappropriate.

Of course, had they kicked that field goal earlier in the game…

Other posts
Medicare: is in a situation where people are taking out much more than they are taking in:

The financial health of Social Security and Medicare, the government’s two biggest benefit programs, have worsened because of the severe recession, and Medicare is now paying out more than it receives.

Trustees of the programs said Tuesday that Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2016, one year sooner than projected last year, and the giant trust fund will be depleted by 2037, four years sooner.

Medicare is in even worse shape. The trustees said the program for hospital expenses will pay out more in benefits than it collects this year and will be insolvent by 2017, two years earlier than the date projected in last year’s report.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the head of the trustees group, said the reports are a reminder that “the longer we wait to address the long-term solvency of Medicare and Social Security, the sooner those challenges will be upon us and the harder the options will be.”

Geithner said that President Obama is committed to working with Congress to find ways to control runaway growth in both public and private health care expenditures, noting the promise Monday by major health care providers to trim costs by $2 trillion over the next decade.

Part of it is the rotten economy is suppressing wages; fewer people are paying into it. And of course, end of life expenses are going up.

President Obama’s critics on the left I won’t go nearly as far as Frank Schaeffer does here; I think that Paul Krugman is still calling it as he sees it. And Krugman wanted someone who “fought” where Obama always campaigned as a pragmatist who wanted to compromise and bring the other side on board.
Still, maybe Obama IS right and things will get better; I certainly hope so. Still, Krugman and Robert Reich fill an important need; we don’t need cheerleaders but rather realists.

As far as the right wing criticism: who cares. They have zero credibility.

Mind
This is cool:

Advertisement