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| In the ever increasing liberal relativist world we live in, leftist are doing all the can to help the youth abandon morality and common sense. One of many trends in this regard is the concept of providing condoms at school. Simply, this is foolish. It goes back to the sex ed argument really. One camp says teach them and they will do it, and we don't want middle schoolers dealing with the emotional and possible physical consequences of sex. The other says teach them everything and how to be safe to limit those consequences because they're going to do it anyway. I for one don't think middle schoolers are that apt to start boning based on one sex ed class -- especially if the teacher scares the bejesus out of them with STD and pregnancy talk but that's just me. Condoms are available for purchase and any store. If you cannot afford a condom, you are not likely mature enough for sex. Schools have no business condoning sex, which I don't care what you say is how a 12-15 year old will take it if you give them free stuff. In fact in Columbia, a town has a proposed law to require every male over 14 to carry a condom or be fined 180 dollars. This shit is getting out of hand.(http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=52209) So when the inevitable march of "progress" comes a little further and requires schools, even Catholic ones, to pass out condoms like candy, I have an idea. The Church is unfortunately subject to law so they should conform, however, when little Billy or little Sue want a condom, they have to get it from Father O'Riely. Thats right, put the priest in charge of condom distribution. If you are mature enough to be having sex Billy and Sue, then you need the balls (bad choice of words?) to walk up to the man that teaches you it is immoral, and ask him for one. He can't say no, he cannot admonish, that would be unfair. He can though look them in the eye and let them see his disappointment. I like this idea, public schools though? I guess they're on their own. | | |
| Alright this gets a little old. All the time I try to explain to protestants and non-believers that no, they are wrong, about this or that when it comes to what the Church believes. No more. So here I will dispell every myth ever about the One True Faith. 1.We do worship Mary.
We worship her hardcore. We call her the Ever-Virgin or mother of God but those are all just code names. She's really the goddess Isis. In fact, we hold her to a higher standard than God because she is a mother, like mother earth. Since you protestants were getting close to figuring this out, I thought hell, let's just admit it. 2. You can buy your way into heaven.
They're called indulgences. It really works that way, if you give the Church enought money the pope (our earth god) will bop you on the head with his staff, giving you a mark that allows you into heaven -- the good part of heaven.... with all the rich people... not the part with the meek. 3. Speaking of worship, we also worship the saints.
Think of it like a pagan pantheon. Each one has magick powers that control a certain thing so we pray to them instead of God because they tend to specialize. I personally pray to St. Jude, the doom bringer. 4.There is NOTan unbroken chain of apostolic succession. It goes back not to the Apostle Peter, upon whom Jesus Christ built the Church, but to a giant spider as the scholars who make the show South Park depicted. 5a. Catholics don't believe in the Bible.
Yup totally true dude. We belive mostly in sacred tradition which of course is just stories we make up on Sunday before we eat babies..eh..I mean recieve communion.
5b. We aren't allowed to read the Bible either. The priest visits your house all the time and if he catches you reading the Bible, which is obviously a threat to his authoriy and the authority of the death cookie wafer, he slaps you with the paddle of St. Monica the disciplinarian. 6. The pope is a god. 7. We believe in cannibalism 8. Women should be oppressed 9.We are going to hell, but you know this. 10. You're going to hell, and we know this. 11.I'd bet we believe that any protestant that believes the load of shit I just typed is an idiot. On a serious note though. Protestants kind of suck in this regard. As a Catholic, I believe by our common baptism that protestants are rightly called Christians. They are, like us, followers of Christ. I believe they can go to heaven but I just like a faith that is a little closer to the source (ie unbroken succession). The Catholic Church, as in the body of the Church, does not perpetuate myths about the millions of schismatic denominations of Christianity but almost every Protestant group spreads lies and myths about us. I was talking to a woman who considered becoming a Catholic, she had a baptist background. She tried to be open minded but her family, namely a grandfather if I recall. Constantly fed her the standard lies about the Church. Protestants I got just two things to say. ONE: Please, knock it off. and TWO: take a look at what we really believe. If you want to hate us, get your facts straight. Or else we'll excommunicate you and send you to hell with Martin Luther | | |
| Some of the references are pretty localized. Spartan Stadium for example is a 1920s era stadium that housed the NFL's first night game. Hot dogs with "sauce," a chili like spread, are teh primary stadium food in this area. The Portsmouth Daily Times "Gameday" weeklyfootball preview includes a section where all 4 sports guys give their picks for every game and the levy is a giant floodwall adjacent to Spartan Stadium where you can watch the game for free, Portsmouth plays there on Friday at Notre Dame on Saturday. Now that it's been explained... Last modified: Thursday, September 20, 2007 12:04 AM EDT Fridays in fall good times By John Stegeman
PDT Sports Writer Is it Friday yet?
The weather is bearable with a tinge of the coming cold, the high schoolers are attending homecomings, the Bengals and Buckeyes are playing and every Friday night, you can see one of the most beautiful sights of the fall sports season - stadium lights creating a glow on the horizon. There is the drive down the road to Spartan Stadium with the halo of light above the concrete sea of cars. Or the trip up Harding Avenue to Allard Park, the same sight nestled against adjacent houses. Then, there is the sight of Ed Miller Stadium from the bottom of the hill it's built on. Really, it's the first sight of any local stadium when you first come around the bend after dusk. There's just something about it.
Then, there is the crisp air, the sound of marching bands, drinking hot chocolate or coffee to stay warm after halftime just hours after drinking water to stay cool. Ordering up a hot dog with or without sauce, and getting back to your seat before realizing you forgot a napkin. Then there's bringing a blanket, an umbrella and sunscreen, just in case.
Maybe that's why we love this season.
Or maybe, it's watching 22 kids at any given time playing a sport the way it was meant to be played. Hitting each other as hard as they can, and helping each other up. Or seeing the kid who hasn't caught a pass all year finally haul one in.
Maybe it's seeing the team that all four sports writers picked to lose, coming back and winning on the final play. It's winning the last game of the season, after losing the first nine. Or maybe it's the joy of watching a local team make the playoffs, and lay a hurting on some overrated school from up north.
Perhaps it isn't even the action on the field. It could be the sight of an entire community rallying together, for a least a few hours a week, to support its youth. Seeing an athlete's younger sibling with his or her face painted with the elder's number; or a mother with her son's photo on a sweatshirt. It's a father's friend telling him congratulations when his son breaks the big run. It's sitting on the levee on Friday - and Saturday.
It's milk jugs full of pebbles or beads. It's that guy that always brings the air horn. It's the kid who dresses like a Trojan, Tartan, Pirate, Indian, Viking or Senator. Or it's especially the kid who breaks out the basketball mascot of a Falcon or whatever it may be.
It's a halftime show and old school cheers.
It's taking the field to “Hells Bells” or “Welcome to the Jungle.”
It's remembering the days when you were on that field.
Really, it's just a great game. There's something about it that can't be explained. It's exciting. It's football. Here in Ohio, namely southern Ohio, we just love it.
JOHN STEGEMAN can be reached at jstegeman02@hotmail.com. | | |
| www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com
By JOHN STEGEMAN
PDT Spors
Just give him his due.
Barry
Bonds could very likely surpass Hank Aaron's home run record during
this weekend's three-game series against the Florida Marlins in San
Francisco and the Giants will celebrate it as they see fit.
They
will not celebrate it as a miracle of chemical engineering, but rather
as an achievement of baseball's most prolific power hitter.
In reality, both statements are true.
Anyone
with eyes that can see photos of Bonds' odd progression of bulk and
irregular head growth doesn't need leaked grand jury testimony to tell
them he took performance enhancing drugs. Anyone capable of reading a
stat book knows that another fact will be undeniably true just three
home runs from now — Bonds will have hit the baseball into the stands
in fair territory more times than any other player to become a legend
in those very books.
And you know what? We should celebrate the
milestone, for now. All of us. Writers, fans, athletes and even
commissioner Bud Selig should marvel at this feat and give Bonds the
credit he is due.
And here is why.
We marveled and celebrated
Mark McGwire and his chase, albeit we were a bit naive at the time, but
despite the celebrations, history has judged McGwire accordingly. He
was a cheater.
We can let Barry hit his homers and we can stand in
awe as each arcing shot brings him closer to what he thinks is baseball
immortality.
McGwire thought the same thing but the Hall of Fame
denied him enshrinement. We don't need to judge Barry as a cheat
because history will do it for us. Fans have the right to enjoy this
moment as a monumental event in baseball history, no matter how it
happened.
Baseball allowed Bonds to hit these home runs without
testing him. For that reason the record should stand asterisk free.
Nevertheless, Bonds will be relegated to the limbo of Pete Rose. While
he won't be technically banned for life from the sport, his name will
stand atop a major record, and he will stand on the outside looking in.
The
great thing about baseball is the victors do not get to write the
history, sports writers do. And there isn't one writer out there who is
unaware of what Bonds did.
When Bonds suffers the long-term effects
of steroid use, when fans slowly forget him as Alex Rodriguez chases
his record down, when the Hall of Fame tells him he isn't welcome and
maybe even when he stares at a federal indictment for perjury, Bonds
will get what he deserves as a cheater.
But when he hits No. 756, we should give him an ovation worthy of the all-time home run king.
JOHN STEGEMAN can be reached at jstegeman02@hotmail.com | | |
| Last modified: Sunday, June 24, 2007 1:03 AM EDT  | | Lindsay Niegelberg/Daily Times Tim Wilson, of Ironton, stands in front of his No. 6 modified race car after qualifying for the feature race at Portsmouth Raceway Park on Saturday. Wilson has raced in more than 350 races in 14 years and has never won the feature race in his career. He keeps racing for one reason - because he loves to. |
For the love of the race By JOHN STEGEMAN PDT Sports Writer
The recent NASCAR-oriented film, “Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” popularized the phrase, ‘If you ain't first, you're last.' Tim Wilson, a regular racer at Portsmouth Raceway Park, would disagree.
Wilson began racing at PRP in 1993 and has run in more than 350 races - and he's never won a feature race.
The Ironton native got the itch to race in the 1980s and his love for the sport has never waned. Wilson started out driving go karts and ATVs in Wheelersburg before he began racing his current car. He now drives the orange No. 6 chassis - which runs just a bit slower than most of the other cars on the track.
“I don't have a whole lot of money in (the car) like a lot of the other guys,” admits Wilson. “I always liked racing and being around racing and I knew this guy for years ... and he was racing modifieds at Portsmouth at the time. I helped him out for a while and then started my own (team).”
Getting starting in dirt track racing is no cheap task and Wilson said it can cost between $15,000 to $20,000 to get started.
Modifieds, Wilson's division of choice, are a hybrid of stock car and open wheel racing with the back wheels covered by the fender and the front wheels open. According to Wilson, the modified class is the “working man's class” of dirt track racing because of its affordability.
Winning a feature race at a dirt track isn't an easy task. To even make a feature race, drivers must finish near the top of a qualifying heat. If they fail there, they can sometimes make it into the main race by winning the “B” feature, a race where all the unqualified drivers from the heat races can earn a spot in the main race. If a driver can get through all that, they can race in the main event.
Wilson, whose sons Mark and Tim Jr. and brother Bob Jones act as his pit crew, doesn't always make the feature race but he said it doesn't get him down.
“Because with the equipment I got, and the amount of money I got in it, if I made the feature I did good,” he said.
“Of course I come out and root for the other guys if I don't make it.”
Wilson's best finish came in the 2004 season when he finished second, but for him, racing isn't as much about winning as it is about, well just racing.
“I'm going to say probably 90 percent of the guys down there, with the money put in their cars, are out for the win,” said Wilson. “But I do it because I enjoy racing and I enjoy being around the guys I race with.”
At 48, Wilson has been racing modifieds for fourteen years and isn't sure how long he'll continue.
“I keep saying I'm going to quit every year,” said Wilson. “But I keep coming back. It's just something that's in your blood. It's hard to get out of.”
On Saturday, Wilson finished fourth in a heat race to qualify for the main feature despite the fact that every competitor in his heat, had at least one feature win. Wilson's finish in the feature race was not available at press time.
JOHN STEGEMAN can be reached at jstegeman02@hotmail.com. | | |
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