On this day in 1984, I woke to the news that Robert Irsay, owner of my beloved Baltimore Colts, had packed up all of the team’s gear in three Mayflower moving vans in the darkness of night, heading to Indianapolis and their new home.   It was seen as a terrible perversion of money and sports, and Baltimore would never be the same.    Even non-sports fans will admit that the loss of a professional sports team casts a dark cloud over people’s perception of that city (attention  Tampa Bay Rays fans).          Not only did Baltimore’s image suffer as a result of the traiterous behavior of an owner,  who until 1984 was happy to garner fame and profit from the Colts, but the city failed to protect the Colts trademark, leaving them today with the mascot of a filthy purple bird !

Move forward a decade, and yes, Baltimore  set out to filch the team of another city (Cleveland), and in 1995 successfully stole the Browns from the city of Cleveland.  But those wily Ohioans (?) fought tooth and nail to retain the rights to the Browns trademark, and in 1998, the NFL granted a new franchise to Cleveland, retaining the Browns moniker in Ohio.     And in Baltimore, “quoth the raven, nevermore”.

Yes, it has been 37 years since this dark cloud descended on Charm City, but I have a long memory.  Firstly, I vowed never to set foot in the state of Indiana, and by definition in Indianapolis, and I have maintained that personal travel restriction.   After all, the Colts ‘ vans were met at the Ohio/Indiana border by an Indiana state police escort, thus forever making  the state complicit in this misdeed.  Secondly, if I ever meet the old Colt owner, Robert Irsay (even though he is now dead) or his son, who orchestrated the Mayflower move, I promise all Baltimore Colt fans that I will soil his shoes with my spittal.    Finally, when we moved to Florida from Baltimore in 1988, my lovely bride was in charge of obtaining moving van estimates.  In what was probably one of the very few major mistakes of our marriage, she entertained the use of the Mayflower company.   Of course, Mayflower has been permanently banned from our vendor list.   Remember this day, Baltimore  !                                                                 WHAT THE HECK !

Transparency was to be one of the hallmarks of this new Proglibocrat administration in Washington, but as of two days ago, we as a nation find ourselves totally in the dark on our southern border.  Last week, press access to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities in southern Texas was prohibited by Department of Homeland Security.  These are facilities that now house over 5,000  migrant children from Mexico and Central America, many of whom arrived unaccompanied by family.   What is being hidden is evidence of a massive immigration and humanitarian and health problem on our borders.   Adding to the shame is the mainstream media’s veil of silence regarding  the problem.  You can’t blame this on Trump !

At the very top of the responsibilities we entrust to a centralized government is the protection of its citizens and the sanctity of its borders.  On both counts, the group in charge is failing miserably. Our border is “wide open”, creating a “situation that is spiraling out of control” according to two prominent U.S. senators that have visited the region (Cotton and Portman).    It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that a wide open border opens the floodgates to great strides in drug traffic, human trafficking, and the spread of COVID.

What is particularly galling is that the crisis is of our own making. Since January, we have reversed the “return to Mexico” policy of the prior four years, which mandated that an individual seeking asylum be returned across the Mexican border until a hearing was set to evaluate the person’s situation.   Coupled with a return to the old failed “catch and release” system favored by earlier Proglibocrat administrations, which relies on the illegal person to show up when their appeal is to be heard (what a joke, with an estimated 90% disappearing into America), we have literally put up “WELCOME TO AMERICA – COME ON UP” banners at our border.  Oh, did I mention that we no longer are completing key parts of Trump’s wall.   Now, we have over 5,000 unaccompanied children at CBP facilities in Texas and Arizona, and are beginning to ship many adults to federal facilities all across the U.S.    Today, a program was announced to spend over $87 million to house these folks in hotels.    As Motel 6 used to say, “We’ll leave the lights on”.  This comes on the heels of an environment pre-Biden that had brought illegal entry into our country to a virtual standstill.   We now have a tsunami of illegal entry, and we did it intentionally.            WHAT THE HECK !

Thanks so much to the 81 million of you that put this crowd into power in November !

NCAA Basketball tournament

Friday —  Oral Roberts (#15 seed) upsets #2 seed Ohio State 75-72

Saturday  — #14 seed Abilene Christian upsets #3 seed Texas  53-52

Sunday  — Oral Roberts comes from behind to upset  Gators 81-78

WHAT THE HECK !

Today, my wife and I received our free stimulus money from the government printing presses.  The $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package the proglibocrats foisted upon the meek and toothless    Republicans in Congress appears to be wildly popular among the masses. Who doesn’t want free money ?   It buys votes, silly !

Forgetting for a moment all the pork and molasses embedded in the above-mentioned legislation, who in a sane world thinks that this writer needs a financial boost to lift me out of the COVID financial swamp.   Heck, during the pandemic months last year, I played golf every week, and topped it off with an updated Porsche !     Giving me free money is like the government using an already way overdrawn credit card to buy me shiny things that I do not need.

Oh, and let’s never forget that there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch (TANSTAAFL), or free money.    When is the last time you heard a politician of either party lament openly about  federal budget deficits or the national debt ?   A little quick arithmetic suggests that the idiots in D.C. have loaded approximately $100,000 of debt on each man, woman and child in the country.   This little fiscal frolic will not affect me in my lifetime, but it sure as heck will impact my kids and their families – think dollar devastation, hyperinflation, crowds in the street kind of stuff.                                                                     WHAT THE HECK !

Let me see if I have this right.  Since late January, 108 undocumented visitors (illegal immigrants for those of you in Birdsboro) have tested positive for the China virus at the Texas border, then have been released into Texas with no travel restrictions until their immigration hearing date.  But not to worry, they have been told to wash their hands often, wear masks, and maintain social distance.

At the same time, yesterday our commander-in-chief referred to the governors of two southern states as exhibiting  “neanderthal thinking” for relaxing their mask mandates.   So, it’s OK to distribute COVID-ridden guests via Greyhound to all corners of the USA, but I should be scared to visit Mississippi and Texas, where cases are subsiding rapidly, and businesses/schools are generally open.   WHAT THE HECK !

Thanks so much to the 81 million of you who voted to put  this crowd into power in November !

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is not a household name in the world of sports in America.  However, internationally, Zlatan is a renowned Swedish footballer who headed the Swedish national soccer team for many years, and has enjoyed a spectacular club soccer career with Juventus, Barcelona, PSG, Manchester United, L.A. Galaxy, and currently A.C. Milan in the Italian top flight.   He is known for his prolific goal-scoring proficiency (570 club goals over 4 decades) and, some would say, his dashing verbal self-promotion.  He is without a doubt one of the most cocky, outlandish, arrogant, vain athletes the world of sport has seen.   Some notable quotes over the years include, “I can’t believe how perfect I am”; “Zlatan doesn’t do auditions”; “When you buy me, you’re buying a Ferrari”, and finally , “What do you mean, present, she got Zlatan ( on his ex-girlfriend’s engagement gift”.   In other words, Zlatan is an athlete many love to hate.

But last week, in a rare interlude of wisdom, Zlatan decided to verbally attack another aging prominent athlete, our own LeBron James.   At a news conference, when  asked about the tendency of prominent athletes to wax poetic on political topics of the day, singling out LeBron James of the NBA, Zlatan had this to say; “Athletes unite the world, politics divide it.   Athletes should be athletes, and politicians should do politics.  LeBron is phenomenal at what he’s doing, but I don’t like when people have some kind of status, they go and do politics at the same time.  Do what you’re good at.  I play football because I’m the best at playing football.  I don’t do politics.  That is the first mistake people do when they become famous like LeBron.   Stay out of it.  Just do what you do best.”    Of course, this criticism drew a scathing retort from LeBron (“from a very educated mind”) and his people.   Zlatan doubled down on his comments a few days later.

I say hooray for Zlatan, and I wish entertainers of all kinds would heed his call, and just shut up !                                  WHAT THE HECK!

Dr. Seuss’ birthday is a national celebration of the importance of reading in our schools, an event endorsed by the National Education Association that takes place each year on March 2, which happens to be Dr. Seuss’ (Theodore Seuss Geisel) birthday.     But whoa, before you start your celebration, note that in many school districts, six of the Seuss books, written mostly in the 1950s, have been removed from  the bookshelves, and from further publishing , due to “racist and insenstive imagery”, and the perception that these six books “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong”.     The  Loudon County, Virginia School Board notes “strong racial undertones in many Seuss books”.      I took the time to page through some of the offensive material, and found examples of Asians with chopsticks in their hands , and in another instance, barefooted African men.  Yes sir, we need to keep our kids safe from that !  Thank goodness The Cat in the Hat survived the cancel police.           WHAT THE HECK !