Dale Lature: Sports Blog

Mon, 23 Sep 2002 20:18:41 GMT

I guess I need to go looking for some UK logos and backgrounds for my sports page and be content to wait for College Basketball to start, becuase the Titans absolutely SUCK. They lost to Dallas last week, who got thrashed for the second time in three games, and then they lose AT HOME to CLEVELAND, blowing a 14-point lead with 5 minutes left, and it only took Cleveland about 4 minutes to go 65 yards and kick a field goal to win in overtime, after tying the game on an onside kick where NO Titans were anywhere close to the ball. The titans got 188 yards in TOTAL offense. They won't even win this pathetic division. Horrible. For the second year in a row. I'm so tired of Jeff Fischer and his pathetic offensive "plan".

There's no "escape" in Titans football this year.

The Reds also closed out their Riverfront Stadium/ Cinergy Field history by getting swept by Philadelphia, and pretty much sewed up a sub-500 season. Great American Ballpark, here we come. Hopefully, Ken Griffey Jr. will have a healthy year and I hope a relatively injury-free remainder of his career, and give himself a shot at 700-plus homeruns.

When it gets closer to late fall, I 'll be interested enough in basketball to start looking at who they have and what the season will look like in 2002-3.

Titans Win Opener 27-24!

Sun, 08 Sep 2002 22:40:14 GMT

The Titans played much better (after what whatmust have been a very UN-quiet halftime thrashing from Fisher- following a first half where a quick and awesome start was totally turned around by a two consecutive turnovers and two Eagle touchdowns). When the Titans scored a TD to make it 24-19, with 12 minutes to go, they elected to go for 2, and the announcers said it was "automatic". I thought "it's way too early", and too many different combinations of scoring possibilities still existed. The Titans failed in their attempt. They later scored a go-ahead TD, which put them up 25-24. A an extra point on the previous score would have enabled them to take a 3-point lead with another kick. As it turned out, they got the 2 this time. If the Eagles had simply scored a FG, it woudl have been an 8 point game. It just seems to early to call that decision "automatic". John Madden, if I recall, doen't like the "formulas" that have been used for this either. Especially before the last 5 or so minutes of the game, where the range of possibilities is less. But anyway, a good comeback! 27-24! Kearse is lost for a while , though.

NFL.com -

Sun, 08 Sep 2002 15:59:22 GMT

	vs.
Team News Official Site		Team News Official Site

·Kirwan: Eagles have depth
·Esiason: Watch out for Titans
·Titans' Kearse plans to play in opener

Preview | Matchup

Sun, 01 Sep 2002 01:54:02 GMT

Looks like its time to take down the Reds theme and put up Titans Blue. The Reds are running away and hiding , as if they don't want to play baseball, getting thumped by the worst team in baseball for the second straight night, and not scoring or hitting either. What a pathetic display. Hardly a sign of the team that hung in there all the way through July and beyond.

Titans.......logo....color

Dempster with another bad start

Wed, 21 Aug 2002 02:12:44 GMT

Dempster just does not look like he's going to do anything this season. the shutout looks like the abberation on just a horrible, horrible performance. Since the shutout, he's given up 6 runs in 5 innings in the next start, and now two so far in the first third of an inning in Arizona. I'd be gettin' him the heck out of there before he puts it completely out of reach, since the comeback has to hapen against the unit.

MSNBC: Living in the Blog-osphere

Mon, 19 Aug 2002 13:53:15 GMT

I just sent this link around in an email as follows:

Article I am sending out to people to whom I have shown blogging/weblogging, either my email, my blog, or in person. feel free to forward on and by all means, get back to me with any questions, comments, your own blogs, etc.

All of you have experiences, insights concerning Church and such, along with some familiarity with who I am as a "theoblog" (ie. One who blogs, writes about it as an application ripe for churches and such, and have been for years ----- except for the blogging part----which now adds more "features to the fire" to "light the fuse" that can set off some sparks which lead to explosions. )

http://www.msnbc.com/news/795156.asp?cp1=1

I'm already in my email editor, and it won't let me go back to find all the people on the Website committee that I also want to add to this--- so Lauren, could you forward this to them one more time, and I promise I will make an address book entry for that group in my Address book. Thanks! Please send comments.

USATODAY.com - Split over Iraq grows more public

Mon, 19 Aug 2002 12:00:20 GMT

Tony Campolo (in his audio speech: Christianity after Sept.11) suggests that the ones urging caution are the ones with war experience with Iraq, and the ones urging "pre-emptive strike" are the ones without.

"Split over Iraq grows more public By John Diamond, USA TODAY WASHINGTON â014 A rift over Iraq has emerged among senior advisers in the Bush administration who helped wage the first Persian Gulf War and now face the possibility of a second. On one side are hard-liners such as Pentagon adviser Richard Perle and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. They urge the ouster of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein now, with force if necessary. They say it's too dangerous to wait until he has weapons of mass destruction pointed at the United States and its allies. On the other side are those such as Secretary of State Colin Powell and former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, who advise caution and warn of the consequences of war."

The Reds slim hopes

Mon, 19 Aug 2002 00:08:58 GMT

Reds get excellent pitching vs Astros in the series (with the exception of the 9th inning Saturday night, where Hamilton and Graves gave up 6 hits and 5 runs between them --- Hamilton charged with 4 of them). Other than that, 27 innings, 5 runs, 3 earned (1.00 ERA). No ground gained on the Cardinals , who also won 2 of 3. Keeping pace with them while they play Philly and we play Houston is a good thing. As of now:

StL   68-53 --      41(24h) left with: Pit 4(h), Phi 3(h),Cin 7(3h),Chi 7(3h),Mil 7(4h), Hou 7 (4h), Col 3, Arz 3 (h)
Hou  64-59  5   39(22h) left with: Cin 4(3h), Chi 3(h), SD 6(3h), LA 6(3h), Tex 1,Col 3(h), StL 7(4h), Mil 6(3h), SF 3
Cin   63-59 5.5      40(25h) left with: Hou 4 (1h), Arz 3, StL 7 (4h), Mil 6 (3h), Pit 7 (3h), Chi 7 (4h), Phl 3 (3h), Mon 3

Wild Card
LA   71-53 -- 38(22h) left with: Fla 3(h), Atl 3(h),Arz 6(3h),Hou 6(3h), SF 7(4h),Col 6(2h), SD 7(4h)
SF   66-56 4    39(22h) left with: Fla1, NY 3(h), Mon3(h), Col 6(2h), Arz7(4h), LA7(3h), Mil3, SD 6 (4h), Hou 3(h)
Hou 64-59 6.5
Cin  63-59 7

The Reds have their last 26 games of the season against the Brewers,Pirates, Cubs, Phils , and Expos (half at home), so their next 7 against Houston and Arizona, 6 of those on the road, are HUGE. After that , there's 4 at home against the Cardinals and 3 at St.Louis, then the final 26. Getting swept in Colorado, and then at home by the D-Backs were hugely damaging to the Reds' chances. With 2 of those 3 in Cincinnati were against neither Johnson or Schilling, the Reds realistically lost 4 games in the standings (should/could have won 4 of those 6), and been 1.5 back and 3 in the wild card instead of 5.5 and 7

The Reds have to lose no more ground by their series with the Cards, and preferrably, gain a couple during their upcoming week in Arizona and Houston while the Cardinals play in St.Louis vs Pittsburgh and Philadelphia (not likely). If they somehow can, wining 3 of 4 in Cinci will still laeave them 3.5 back with 3 left in St. Louis. Yikes! The only hope for some grace after that is that the Cardinals will have 7 against Houston, 3 IN Colorado, and 3 with Arizona among their final 27 games.

Another goofed up, out of sync, set of comments (first 3 comments here) really belong to the The West Wing Bias? post

After 10 years, new Baptist branch still finding its way

Sat, 17 Aug 2002 21:39:10 GMT

After 10 years, new Baptist branch still finding its way
By David Waters

ATLANTA — Thousands of “free and faithful” Baptists gathered around their favorite Sunday school teacher the other night.

He spoke softly and plainly as he issued a gentle but firm call to cooperation and commitment.

“The time has come for traditional Baptists to reach out more aggressively to each other,” said Jimmy Carter, a deacon at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., and a former U.S. president.

“Let’s leave the talk behind and get to work with each other to develop a global mission partnership. And if there are other (Baptists) who don’t want to cooperate, forget them. Forget them and move on as Christians and as Baptists just following Jesus.”

Not comfortable with JesusJournal.com

Sat, 17 Aug 2002 18:34:34 GMT

I repent for posting links to Jesus Journal.com I should have known better. I have found nothing there that does anything other than cite examples of Muslim vs Christian hatred (ie Muslims hating, attacking, and persecuting Christians, and nothing that I can find in the other direction.) In fact, I am going to remove the links as titles and post them in small print below my comments.

I am seeking to manually edit my weblogData.root file so I can change the links

Graham Remains Outspoken About Islam

Sat, 17 Aug 2002 18:02:24 GMT

"I'm certainly not preaching against Muslim people," Graham said Wednesday on WBT-AM radio. "I am concerned about our nation, and on Sept. 11 last year, we were attacked by followers of Islam, claiming to do this in the name of Islam." |see the artcle on ABC News

See below, my citing of the Timothy McVeigh case, and consider the invoking of Christian principles by the Klu Klux Klan. On the west Wing last fall, there was a special "post Sept. 11" episode done by the cast that featured a discussion with some students by Josh, and he made the comparison:

The terrorist are to Islam as WHO is to Christianity? Answer: KKK

Nobody asks the Church to apologize for the KKK, becuase everyone knows they are a radical racist group, and despite their claims to be followers of Christ, we easily see their TWISTING of the truth; their "hermeneutic of convenience" (meaning, they interpret the scriptures the way they see fit, as justification for their actions and goals).

No, it seems to be lost on Mr. Graham that you are falling prey to the trap of lumping a whole group into one for the actions of a few disturbed, disillusioned, self-deceived , self-proclaimed "saviors" of the Islamic world. And that's all they are, is self-proclaimed, among their fellow "deceived".......which are many, but still do not represent the faithful of Islam.

Graham states further:

"The silence of the clerics around the world is frightening to me," he said. "How come they haven't come to this country, how come they haven't apologized to the American people, how come they haven't reassured the American people that this is not true Islam and that these people are not acting in the name of Allah, they're not acting in the name of Islam?"

|see the article on ABCNews.com

Uh, Mr. Graham, THEY (the Muslims) did NOT do it. Did American Christians apologize to the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing because Timothy McVeigh was a "Christian"? No, because what he did had nothing to do with any association with any association of himself with the Christian Church or Christian beliefs (except maybe in his own head....which is precisely the case with the terrorists). Why is this so hard to understand? Intolerance, bigotry, and hatred: that's why it's hard. These things are hard to see past when they blind us to the truth.

And oh, by the way, Mr. Graham , please SHUT UP!

CamWorld: Journal: Rants: 1.26.99

Fri, 16 Aug 2002 23:06:59 GMT

We've Got Blog 1

Online Forums too close to home

Tue, 13 Aug 2002 00:27:00 GMT

As I pondered over the past few days the last post, and dealing with my frustration with the way people pigeonhole the whole online community concept based on an article they've read or one experience they've had (or even more than one), I struggled for an answer as to why it turned out the way for us in an early Web-forum that our church tried.

It happened on the Sunday just after September 11 (THE September 11, meaning 2001). Our Church has the trradition of dialogue in response to the sermon that day. People are encouraged to share their reflections on the word brought to them that day. Well, everyone knew what subject the message would breach, and our pastor delievered on that. And the word was an appropriate response to all of that in a context of a Church which has always set itself apart in its response to the way our culture typically responds to military challenges. But what happened after the sermon was an announcement that we would be observing silence in place of dialogue. The week before, during the dialogue time, something considered by many who were there to be inappropriate for that context had been shared (including myself as I heard about it). The silence was offered as a way to reflect on the meaning of the response time, and was set to last until Advent (a couple of months away).

To many, the issue was not one of whether or not the previous week's sharing was one that should or should not warrant pondering of the way we share things in the response time. There seemed to be little disagreement about this. The question and the concern was a legitimate one. The problem was the timing of the "moratorium"; a time that many considered to be a crucial time to voice and articulate our deepest reacions, reflections, and responses. There was much buzzing and discussion all around the room after the service ended as people asked each other "Was this the thing to do, today of all days?". People gathered around the pastors and asked this question, and many more waited to voice their concern. The time came for an after church committee meeting, and I got the attention of the senior pastor to voice the same concern she had doubtless heard several times already that day, but time was cramped now, and there were meetings to be started, and so my received response seemed abrupt and dismissing.

I had been starting to build a "discussion board" on our Church's website, and had been envisioning an "extension" of the Response time as one of its reasons for existing, since there were no doubt many people who hesitate to share certain things before a group out of either inimidation, timidity, lack of confidence in one's choice of words, or just simply not having that idea get far enough to the surface because of listening to the ones who do share, or , in most cases, finding the online context much less stressf ul. Less stressful because:

words can be chosen more carefully
less concern about using up group time in one's attempt to adequately communicate the idea shared
more at ease with writing than with public speech
more confidence in one's written communicative skills than in extemporaneous speech

So I opened the forum with what I heard people talking about that day, which was the above events. I later heard that there were those who thought the matter did not belong online. There were those who protested that such a matter should have been brought to a staff member first (which I did, contrary to how this "opening forum" was characterized. Also, it simply "extended" into an online space what was already taking place in discussions buzzing around the place for weeks.

There was concern that this was not something we wanted "public", as if people were "stumbling upon this discussion" in hordes. This discussion was announced by emailing members with a notice that the board was up. A link from the home page was provided. No other avenue for finding these discussions , even by internet search engines was possible since all the message content resided in a database, unreachable by search engine indexing spiders.

I posted a message days later after the reactions posted to the board had subsided, and posed the challenge of how the September 11 events had affected us, rather than the fact that we did not discuss it during the response time as many had expected. This was the key reason for the forum anyway: to discuss the events. But without Church endorsement, and with the dismay of some about how this online forum had sprung up as if by revolt, the online forums were practically vacated after September.

Perhaps further email notifications about subsequent discussions should have been mailed out, to encourage persons who saw and did not want to enter into online discussion about the silence question could throw their hat in the ring on more the global questions of an appropriate response by Christians in the US.

CBS.SportsLine.com - Box Score/Recap Reds 9 Padres 0

Sun, 11 Aug 2002 02:47:40 GMT

More excellent, accurate depiction of baseball by baseball reporters. Consider as you read the following that in his last start against these San Diego Padres, Dempster gave up 10 hits and 10 earned runs in 4 innings, but that wasn't "solving" Dempster, since their team's own pitching surrendered 15 runs to the Reds, thus saving Dempster a disgraceful loss.

"CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- The San Diego Padres will have to wait until next year to try and solve Ryan Dempster. Dempster relinquished just four hits in six innings and remained undefeated in his career against the Padres as the Cincinnati Reds rolled to a 9-0 victory"

But hey, baseball fans have absolutley no memory, and these inane stats can be thrust into headlines ........oh well. Dempster did do the job today, for really the first time (his other non-disasterous start was a 7 inning, 9 hit, 4 run win, to go with his 4 dreadful ones. But he put his worst and then his best back to back. Go Ryan!

Radio Fun

Sat, 10 Aug 2002 20:37:27 GMT

I've come a long way with Radio over the past week. I just installed the KIT tools, and love the News Aggregator, and , as in this post, Ttiles and Links for my posts

Fri, 09 Aug 2002 03:32:44 GMT

I haven't seen any news article on it yet, but I had to say something about it. There's apprently some uproar about Bobby Bowden's FSU football squad using "Let's Roll" as a theme song. The uproar is that the guy who (name escapes me) led the passenger revolt that thwarted the Sept. 11 hijackers from rweaching their destination and crashed the plane short of their target had used the phrase to commence the plan. Bowden actually used the connection between the two and thought it a theme worthy of veneration for just that reason.

Regardless, "let's roll" has been around for years. Bowden using it for a football fight song is no different in my book than any of the much less serious uses to which the phrase has been employed. One might argue that Sept. 11 changed all that. It now invokes images of that fateful day and the heroism of that group and that individual. Does this preclude the use of that term forever in the lingo of our everyday lives? I think not.

Fri, 09 Aug 2002 01:24:34 GMT

Some wierd stuff with my home page when I try to upload an edited 8/6 page... I had to put the whole path for my story link, which had been broken.

Theological Unity on the Issue of Weblogs

Thu, 08 Aug 2002 23:38:01 GMT

In Notes from the Cave: The online journal of Frank McPherson, computer professional and freelance writer. , Frank blogs :

I found Dale Lature's weblog, and he writes "Weblogs seem to be such a theologically sound communication tool. " I agree. I've also been thinking about whether a weblog would be a good tool for conducting a web-based bible study. I think it is, and I'm thinking about doing an experiment over on the other site.

Should be an interesting experiment. Frank and I have to work out just how we're going to do this, ut we both use Radio, so I suppose we'll do something in a category, and see if I can post something to his category when I upstream (I think I can)

Don't get me started on the Reds

Thu, 08 Aug 2002 22:44:16 GMT

I don't want to spend too much time here ranting about the Reds, but here goes a mini-rant: Ways to NOT be in the race: Lose 3 straight IN Colorado and score just 6 runs in 26 innings (and throw in a 5 run 9th when you're down 6 just for extra frustration), and basicallylook like total crap against a sub-500 team, all this while the Cardinals are losing 7 in a row, and the Astos have lost today, so also out the window goes a chance to re-tie 2nd, and perhaps pull to within 1 game of the top ---- which they also had each of the last three days. I don't even know who they play next and could care less right this minute. There.

This is the Thanks I get?

Thu, 08 Aug 2002 11:05:09 GMT

Whatever this means, it seems awfully goofy to have a set of rules that prevent a manager from putting ineffectuive pitchers in the minors and keeping effective ones on the major league roster. This situation with Reitsma highlights this. He's in the minors, just two weeks past pitching the Reds first complete game in over a year, and the existing starters, with Dessens down, are stuggling and sputtering.

Major League Baseball News Chris Reitsma, whose 3.41 ERA is the second-best among the starters, is stuck at Triple-A Louisville, the victim of having minor-league options remaining.

Wed, 07 Aug 2002 03:17:15 GMT

How do you follow a 15 run 17 hit game in SanDiego with 3 hits thru 7 innings at Coors Field? To add insult to injury, the Cardinals are getting trounced, leaving the Reds blowing the chance to pull to within 1 game. This is one of those times that "baseball is a funny game" is not so funny. But it is a TOTALLY unpredictable game. The fact that tonight hapened, only means the Reds could be some completely different team AGAIN tomorrow, or maybe even in the 8th and 9th inning tonight.

Wed, 07 Aug 2002 02:56:00 GMT

Another of Doc's points that has been an important one for me that I find it hard to accept that it seems so hard for many to accept:

DocSearlsWeblog:"After 9/11 we declared war against terrorism, not against a whole people. Let's try to remember that."

Along that same line, a little piece I wrote back in late September 2001 seems appropriate here: Islam Hijacked

Tue, 06 Aug 2002 11:59:20 GMT

Online Community seems to be perceived as some sort of demonic, impersonal, dangerous abberation of "real community" by many Church people. I've heard the term "dangerous" used in response to thinhgs I have said that suggested that online communication holds promise for furthering the spread of community in ftf communities. It seems to be a lingering suspicion that the discussions we had online about the way our church staff handled the first Sunday morning service after Sept. 11 were somehow damaging, even though everyone with email was invited to them, and it seemed such an obvious tiopic, since there were scores of groups huddled about immediately after the service, expressing concern about the omission of the usual "sharing time" after the sermon.

Tue, 06 Aug 2002 11:41:58 GMT

Regarding the impending baseball strike: This is exactly what I think about "they'll eventually come back"

Scanlon Column: Baseball Is Fooling No One: "In regard to baseball's self-destructive "labor" problems, we keep reading and hearing the same gibberish, repeated by people who seem to be in some kind of baseball cocoon. Much if it is obviously wrong, but is repeated often enough to be generally accepted as truth. Some examples: The fans will always come back. Some will, others won't. Each strike brings out more "others." "