Rant: Shot Clock Needed!

<rant>I just returned from a high school boys basketball game, and I'll say what I've said a hundred times before: the KSHSAA needs to put a shot clock into high school basketball, especially boys! The boys' teams never have trouble getting a shot off ever 35 seconds, so why not go ahead and put the shot clock in?!
The catalyst for this rant is that I just watched our team (again) get punished for playing good defense. We lost a game partially because our opponents were able to run 6 or 7 minutes total off of the clock simply by passing the ball around and not trying to score. There was nothing we could do. We couldn't foul, because that would only put them at the free throw line, and we couldn't steal the ball easily because they took very safe passes and made no real effort to do anything with the basketball. In other words, we played good defense, and our "reward" was losing time we needed to make the basket (or two) that we needed to win the game.
Now, in case you say, "But the last couple of minutes in a game are when the team ahead is supposed to slow down its offense," I'm not talking about the last two minutes of the game. Our opponents started "taking the air out of the ball" in the second quarter when they were ahead by no more than 6 points! That is not good basketball; it's ugly basketball that has no business being played at any level of the game. It's strategies like that which forced the pro and college games to adopt shot clocks, and it's time for high school to do the same!
KSHSAA adminstrators, take note of that when you're making all of your other rule changes you make every year, and put in a shot clock!!</rant>

Commentary: When Floridians Call...

I received a most interesting call a couple of evenings ago from the "Vote No on March 1" campaign.
For those of you who have no idea on what the whole "Vote No on March 1" campaign is about, it is an attempt to prevent from passing a referendum on the primary ballot here in Topeka. This referendum would prevent the city from establishing sexual orientation as a protected class in employment practices. A current ordinance, forced through the City Council after a long and bitter debate, prevents the city from discriminating on the basis of those criteria. My thoughts on the ordinance may follow in a later post, when I have time. For now, I will focus my comment on the implications of this unsolicited call.
What surprises me is that the "Vote No" group hired a telemarketing firm in Florida to start calling Topekans and urging them to vote against the ordinance. This tells me that the opponents of this referendum are very scared that they will lose this vote. After all, this is a primary, in which the majority of voters stay at home anyway. Those who do go are usually not ambivalent and undecided. Rather they, like me, have already made up their minds on where they stand on the issue. So to go to the cost and effort to hire a telemarketing firm suggests to me some desperation on the part of the "Vote No" coalition. I think that this coalition feels that they will lose the vote on the ordinance.
Fascinating. That's all I'm going to say about it.

First Post

Ignoring the obvious statements, let me simply say, "Welcome!"
This blog will be updated as often or as infrequently as I feel like it. I mostly created it so I would have a chance to work through my thoughts and opinions in a forum where I could feedback (when I wanted it). So, please feel free to read and comment on what's written. The content will vary depending on mood, but will probably include opinions, pieces of stories, and ocassional random posts.
As you read, it is my hope and prayer that you will take the time to respond thoughtfully to any feedback you may have. May God richly bless you as you read this blog!

PdG