Happy Birthday to the ABA, weird things going on in the newspaper business, recruiting desperation, and charity fraud...

45 years ago a group of private entrepreneurs got together and decided to form a whole new basketball leaguye and compete head to head with the powerful - almost monopolistic existing league the NBA..
They formed the new ABA - and it was, in most regards, a significant success....
it sorta rocked the basketball world....
it produced MAJOR superstars like Doctor J, Moses Malone, Connie Hawkins, Rick Barry, Spencer Haywood, Artis Gilmore, and more...
..and they introduced things like the 3-point shot, dunk contests, rapid uptempo play, and guess what...

They didn't need help from the government to get it done.
They didn't need special breaks at the expense of others....they didn't need special favors done for them that the other guys didn't get.
In fact almost all the owners who tried to get breaks were snubbed and turned down but they proceeded with their venture anyway!

This is the heart of being an American - this is what success and inventiveness is all about.

This is the stuff that makes ME proud to be an American and more than happy to pay my taxes to support such a country.

BUT the overbearing, unfair, expensive, wasteful meddling that is exemplified by Title IX and many other government endeavors makes me ashamed that this nation picks and chooses who can and who cannot succeed. It makes me extremely motivated to use every TRICK in the book to keep the money I have legitimately earned and NOT pay it in taxes to a nation that's trying to rob me to use the money for unfair and unethical causes of it's own determination.
The government has created a whole culture of entitlement - of people who now don't actuaklly believe they can get what they want or succeed - but who are ever so ready to put a hand out and expect the government to do it for them or give it to them.

Once they have that mindset - they seem to always have that welfare mentality and pass it on to their next generation.......so it goes and it's now bankrupting this nation with 15 trillion dollars in debt...

So happy 45th birthday to the successful and inspiring ABA which still lives in that some NBA teams are still existing from the merger, and also happy 40th birthday to the controversial and unfair Title IX.


More on Title IX...which is 40 years old now.........
- and lots of people think it helped...
but if I spend $100 million to build a few houses, can it be justified by saying that since 5 people now have homes - that my project helped?

Let's face it - if the government spends any amount of money (our money, of course) - or if they ram legislation and new rules to create things and positions for people - of course there's always someone that it helped - but the issue is..
"at what cost"??

A $100 million program that creates just 5 houses or 2 jobs - or places just one doctor on some Indian reservation - is an abject failure because the money could have been spent way better and helped way more people almost anywhere else.

Title IX is that way...

there are two simple answers to prove it did not help -

-one is that most of what it claims to have done would have gotten done anyway - and that's a no-brainer - since just about everywhere there are more sports and participation opportunites for BOTH males and females - simply because there are more programs from biddy ball all the way up thru middle schools, high schools, and colleges - completely independent of Title IX.

-but there's also been a cost to Title IX - with many, many opportunities lost because colleges have had to scale back and eliminate programs - this is also obvious and needs no proof.
UCLA's storied swimming program that put 16 people into the Olympics - was cancelled due to huge monetary losses caused by Title IX. It hurts men & women.

Likewise - UCLA also was forced to cancel their gymnastics program that produced up to HALF of all the Olympic gymnasts in the prior decades.
http://usa-sports.org/TitleIX.pdf
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=885358&page=1

Even many women who think they've gained from Title IX now admit it hurt them in one way or another...
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/02/how-title-ix-hurts-female-athletes/253525/

I doubt any facts will change people's minds - since most who favor Title IX see only perceived benefits like the NCAA Women's Basketball Title Game between Baylor & Notre Dame..
But does anyone really believe the silly notion that we wouldn't have had this game independent of Title IX -- come on.....Women's World cup Soccer captivated the nation without a Title IX in pro soccer - and plenty of other women's sports like tennis and golf have created superstars who gained not a single benefit from Title IX.



Recruiting desperation??
Near the end of each recruiting cycle we see evidence of recruiting desperation (sound familiar?) - and kids with scant statistics start getting bigger and better offers...
I noted that last year about this time when almost every big man remaining were getting BIG TIME offers...and time has proven the predictions accurate as big men like Robert Goff, Cheir Ajou, etc... ended up being far less talented than the desperation to sign them may have hinted.

Now -- Does this sound a bit desperate?
Michigan suddenly faces losing their good freshman point guard Trey Burke as he's somewhat unexpectedly going pro........
Now they are hosting 2012 Spike Albrecht, and the word is that John Beilein plans to offer him a scholarship.
http://www.umhoops.com/2012/04/04/2012-point-guard-spike-albrecht-to-visit-thursday/

He is at a prep school out east (Northfield Mount Hermon), but is originally from Crown Point Indiana. He is a 5'11" point guard - and obscure doesn't even begin to describe the kid.
In high school he got zero interest, and is not even in the database of Rivals or Scout for 2011. In fact, even this year after a year at Northfield Mount Hermon Prep School in Massachusetts, he is still not even in the databases of Scout of Rivals for 2012. He is so far under the radar, that if it wasn't for the publicity about him being recruited by Beilein, and visiting Michigan, there wouldn't be anything on him at all.

He just doesn't sound like a potential Big Ten point guard, but only Beilein knows, I guess..........But the loss of Trey Burke has Beilein getting desperate.



What gives with this??
A guy named John Plevka - who is the Managing Editor of the Peoria Journal Star - the very TOP job at the entire newspaper...
...he is "stepping down" to take over as "general manager of the Daily Vidette" - the student newspaper at ISU.
He has only been the Managing Editor at the PJS for a couple years... and he's only 56 years old..

Is this incredibble or what -- it's like stepping down as CEO at Cat and instead taking over as head of the high school art club. it's a HUGE step down and frankly it's hard to believe this is the whole story - nobody would make this move willingly if you know what I mean.

Could it have something to do with this??
"As the company is collapsing, Gatehouse Media Awards$1.4 Million in Bonuses"


One other site says...
"Plevka bolts while the bolting is good
Wow.
Journal Star Managing Editor John Plevka announced Wednesday he is resigning next month to accept the position of general manager of The Daily Vidette, the student newspaper at Illinois State University.

First, it’s stupid for a college newspaper to have a professional, non-student serve as managing editor. At Eastern Illinois University, we had advisers who advised, but all decisions were up to students.

Second, it’s hard to not consider this a step down for Plevka. A managing editor of a rather large daily, becoming essentially an adviser, Yeah, it’s a step down.

Look for the new managing editor to essentially manage more than one GateHouse newspaper."
Plevka also tweets and blogs and says nothing about his major and unprecedented move.....
Hmmm...kinda sounds like he's being trash-canned...

http://www.pjstar.com/free/x221035817/JS-managing-editor-stepping-down-to-accept-ISU-position
http://pundit.blogpeoria.com/2012/04/04/plevka-bolts-while-the-bolting-is-good/



Now the public service department -
I am sure you have heard the radio commercials...

1-800- Cars 4 Kids

and 1-800 - Donate Cars

etc...
They make it sound like if you donate your car to them - they will help some kid or use it for charity...and it's a good thing because you can then deduct the value of your car - which would likely be WAY more than you could sell the crappy old thing for..

Here's an overview of how they work if they are legit -
http://cardonationreview.com/car-donation-charities-and-how-they-work/

Well -- did you ever wonder if this is on the up and up??
It generally is NOT..
Here are just a few things

-first - come on - "Cars 4 Kids"??? Kids don't need cars..

-a review of several "donate cars" type of charities proved that they do what they want with the cars - either re-sell or junk them - then take the money and ONLY 16% of it ever goes to any charity - where even more then is used as overhead..
that means over 80% of the money generated by your car donation is pocketed by the greedy people who ask for your car.
http://driving.myfoxwausau.com/news_this_week/2010-05-26-4613-driving/

-One study in New York showed only 1.8% of the money in the "donate cars charities" went to the charities - so the New York Atty General shut them down and sued them.
http://www.adi-news.com/16-car-donation-charities-gets-sued/21575/

-then just to compound the issue - one Children's Charity that did get money from the "donate cars" program - turned right around and invested $5 million on bad real estate deals and lost it all, .....
In that same span they claim to have spent a total of only $6 million on all their charitable efforts...
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Kars-for-Kids-Cars-4-Kids-Real-Estate-Investments-Investigation-140955003.html