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Nice picking ddf.
Voted like you asked. Results when I voted:
yes 92...38%
no 145...60%
unsure 1..0%
2/7
all bets $10
1. 5w
2. 4w
3. 3s
4. 3s,5s
5. 9s
6. 12w
7. 1s
8. 8s
9. 3w
if any scratches #2
2/3
all bets $10 to show
3. 8
4. 6
5. 1,6
6. 6
7. 4,5
8. 1
9. 1,7
if any scratches #2
2/2
all bets $10 to show
1. 1,7
2. 6
3. 5
4. 6
5. 2
6. 8
7. 7,2
8. 4
if any scratches #3
2/1
all bets $11 to show #3
if any scratches #4
1/31
all bets $10 to show
1. 3
2. 6
3. 4
4. 11
5. 9
6. 7
7. 3,11
8. 5
9. 1
if any scratches # 2
Voted no ddf. Hope it helps. here were the results when I voted:
Yes 119 (41%)
No 169 (58%)
Unsure 1 (0%)
1/27
all bets $10 to show
1. 2
2. 5
3. 8
4. 2
5. 5
6. 11,1
7. 6
8. 6
9. 10
if any scratches #3
delete
1/26
all bets $10 to show except race 9
1. 11
2. 4
3. 4
4. 6
5. 7
6. 10
7. 11
8. 9
9. $10 to win and $10 to show #2
if any scratches #1
2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16-18-20-22-23-26-28-30-32-34-35-38-39
total score 45
Thanks
1/25
all bets $10 to show
1. 8
2. 5
3. 8
4. 10
5. 7,3
6. 1
7. 2
8. 1
9. 4
if any scratches 6
I off to a slow start :(
1/21
1. 20s-2
3. 10s-5
4. 10s-2
5. 20s-9
6. 10s-10
7. 10s-11
8. 10s-12
9. 10w-4
if any scratches #1
1/20
1. 10w-3
2. 10w-7
3. 10w-4
4. 10s-9
5. 10w-6
6. 10s-1 & 10s-10
7. 10w-6
8. 10s-5
9. 10w-3
if any scratches #2
1/19
1&2. 10daily double-1&8
1. 10w-1
2. 10w-8
3. 10w-10
4. 10w-10
5. 10w-1
6. 10w-5
7. 10w-6
8. 10w-4
9. 10w-2
if any scratches give me #3
1/18
1&2. 10daily double-9&1
1. 10w-9
2. 10w-1
3. 10w-8
4. 10w-9
5. 10w-1
6. 10w-2
7. 10w-1
8. 10w-3
9. 10w-7
if any scratches give me #4
2-4-6-7-10-12-14-15-18-19-22-23
Thanks
1-3-5-8-10-12-13-15-18-19-21-24
Thanks
1-3-6-7-9-12-13-15-18-20-22-24
Thanks
That's great. Looking forward to the start of the season.
Cleveland and over
week 17: Cleveland
Thanks and Merry Christmas!
week 16: Seattle
Thanks
Question: "How should Christians react to 'The Golden Compass' movie?"
Answer: How should Christians react to “The Golden Compass,” the new movie based on a book by Phillip Pullman? Questions are being raised about the content of the film, given the anti-religious slant of the books and their author. The book series "His Dark Materials" on which "The Golden Compass" is based is aggressively anti-Christian. There are ample reasons for Christians to avoid supporting this series through movie tickets or book sales. It would be counterproductive to stage protests, overt boycotts, or other measures, since that would only give free publicity to the studio selling the film. At the same time, "The Golden Compass" has to be taken seriously by Christian families because the source material is explicitly anti-Christian, and targeted at children. Christian parents and children alike should be prepared to answer some of the false claims made by this series.
The Golden Compass is the first book in a trilogy called “His Dark Materials.” The author, Philip Pullman, is a vocal atheist who is particularly critical of Catholicism. In the trilogy, the church is evil, controlling, ignorant, intolerant of dissent, and sadistic. Pullman does not disguise the church as some other entity, but attacks it more or less directly. The books use terms like “original sin,” “baptized as a Christian,” “Vatican Council,” and “magisterium.” "The Golden Compass" is, compared to its sequels, subtle in its attacks on Christianity. The second and third books become more and more “preachy,” and more overtly hostile to Christianity. The movie can be expected to follow the same pattern: the anti-religious rhetoric in "The Golden Compass" will likely be subtle, or even downplayed. Successive movies will not be able to do the same thing without completely changing the story.
Pullman leaves no doubt about his beliefs and his intentions. He has been referred to as “The Pied Piper of Atheism” for his powerful ability to tell children’s stories and his distaste for religion. Are the books deliberately atheistic? Pullman has stated, “My books are about killing God,” Are they anti-Christian? Again, Pullman has said, “I’m trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief,” and “If there is a God, and he is as the Christians describe him, then he deserves to be put down and rebelled against.” During the book trilogy, a major character intones, “The Christian religion is a powerful and convincing mistake, that’s all.” It would be dishonest for anyone to claim that this trilogy, which "The Golden Compass" is a part of, is not deliberately anti-Christian.
The messages conveyed in the series are not compatible with a Christian outlook, either. The main character is named Lyra, because she is a habitual liar. Her lies are intended for purely selfish reasons, and there is never a point in the trilogy where she learns that such things are wrong. Part of her journey in the series includes having a sexual experience as very young teen, which the author portrays as a part of her outgrowing religious control. She represents a “second Eve,” whose rebellion against God is meant to be applauded as a quest for knowledge.
The Golden Compass, along with any other works connected to the “His Dark Material's” trilogy, are certainly anti-Christian both in content and intent. The advertising of this movie has been very misleading about the religious message it conveys. The trilogy, both books and presumably the movies, introduce atheistic themes gradually, luring children into the story as a way to slip the message in. Advertisements are comparing “The Golden Compass” to “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Pullman’s work is, morally, the polar opposite of Tolkien and Lewis. Scholastic has even created a school curriculum set, including all three books, as a part of public school reading programs.
Works such as these need to be countered, but only in a Christ-like way. At their core, the “His Dark Materials” stories are a fantasy setting for the atheistic worldview, where death is the end of everything, all morals are subjective, and any idea of God is a tool for evil. Christians should not respond in ways that play into Pullman’s stereotypes of believers as ignorant, oppressive, and bigoted. A loving, polite response combined with truthful answers can turn the release of “The Golden Compass” into a great opportunity to witness for Christ’s sake.
week 15: Cincinnati
Thanks
week 14: Buffalo
Thanks
week 13: St. Louis Rams
Thanks
week 12 Arizona
Thanks
week 11 Dallas
Thanks
Steal on Molina? Only his Gold Glove
By Bernie Miklasz
11/06/2007 5:01 pm
News: The LA Dodgers’ Russell Martin wins the 2007 Gold Glove as the NL’s best defensive catcher in a vote of the league’s managers and coaches.
Martin beat out the Cardinals’ Yadier Molina.
Views: This is incomprehensible.
This is one of the dumbest results in the history of Gold Glove voting, and it makes you wonder if managers and coaches actually pay attention to the games they’re involved in.
“I was floored,” said Joe Sheehan of The Baseball Prospectus, who was a guest Tuesday on our 1380-AM radio show. “We can nitpick some of the other Gold Glove choices, but this one isn’t even a debate. Yadier Molina is the best defensive catcher in Major League Baseball.”
Among NL catchers, Martin had the most errors (14). According to STATS LLC, Martin threw out only 28.7 percent of those who attempted to steal bases against him. That was only the fourth-best rate in the NL, and ninth-best rate in MLB among full-time catchers.
As for Molina: he led all MLB catchers in nailing base stealers, throwing out 23 of the 46 who challenged him (50 percent). He also led NL catchers in putouts per nine innings.
That only 46 steals were attempted on Molina tells us everything we need to know. Teams fear Molina’s arm. They’re very reluctant to run on him.
When Molina wasn’t catching for the Cardinals in 2007, teams ripped off 30 steals in 35 attempts. That demonstrates, in a profound way, the difference that Molina makes defensively.
Fear of getting caught isn’t in play with Martin. Teams tried to steal on him 115 times in 2007 – though I should point out that Martin caught 1,254 innings compared to Molina’s 861. But Molina caught enough to qualify for all defensive ratings. And when teams succeed at stealing 71.3 percent of the time against a catcher, as they did versus Martin in 2007, shouldn’t that count heavily against him?
Here’s what’s particularly crazy about this: if managers and coaches are afraid to run on Molina, then why don’t they vote for him? If you respect a catcher so much that you shut down your running game because of him, then doesn’t he deserve your vote? It makes no sense.
Molina also got screwed out of the Gold Glove in 2006, when it went to Houston’s Brad Ausmus – even though Ausmus threw out only 12 of 72 base stealers.
So why did this happen again?
Theories:
Try as they might to avoid doing this, some of these baseball men simply attach a catcher’s offensive value to the thought process when contemplating their Gold Glove choice. Martin batted .293 with 19 homers and 87 RBIs last season. (That does not explain, however, why Ausmus won it in 2006).
Molina’s case was damaged by a stint on the disabled list (fractured wrist) in late May, then was shut down in late September because of a knee injury. Martin caught in 145 games; Molina only 107. If a manager/coach was adamant about factoring in playing time and durability in the voting, I can see some logic there.
The Cardinals finished 11th in the NL in ERA (4.65). Do the voters hold that against a catcher? It shouldn’t. Molina’s catcher ERA (4.29) was lower than the Cardinals’ overall ERA, so he obviously wasn’t the issue. And that Molina ERA wasn’t much higher than Martin’s catcher ERA (3.95). Obviously, with Brad Penny, Derek Lowe and Chad Billingsley making 85 starts for the Dodgers, Martin had better guys to work with.
Molina is well on his way to having one of the greatest defensive careers in MLB history.
His career throw-out rate of 47.1 would be the best in major-league history since STATS began keeping track of the statistic.
And he’s yet to win a Gold Glove award.
That tells you more about the flaws in the process, and in the minds of the voters, than any weakness in Molina’s defensive game.
It seems that the only thing these guys can steal on Molina is the Gold Glove award.
Green Bay for week 10.
Thanks
I live about 70 miles from Memphis I should visit this museum. Sorry about the article being so long.
The Bible on the Square
A unique museum in Tennessee is showcasing the truth of God's Word.
By Tracy Crump, online exclusive
"We don't know nothin' about the Bible."
Those words have been ringing in Don Bassett's ears since the day he spoke to a class of seventh-grade students near Memphis. Showing slides and explaining the customs of Near Eastern countries, Bassett mentioned important Bible sites and great Bible characters, assuming he was on common ground with his young audience. "Here is the valley where David fought Goliath" or "This is the Land of Goshen where Joseph's father and brothers came to live," he would say. Soon Bassett found himself looking over a sea of puzzled faces. Not one child in the public school class understood his references.
That incident confirmed to Bassett, chairman and CEO of the Biblical Resource Center and Museum (BRC&M) in Collierville, Tennessee, that the work he is doing is more vital today than ever before. "A whole generation of young Americans is growing up ignorant of the Bible, the world's greatest book—God's book," says Bassett. "Our children are not reading the Bible nor having it read to them. The atmosphere in our public schools is hostile toward it. Public communications media scoff at its morality and ridicule its miracles. Its very Ten Commandments are no longer welcome in the halls of our public institutions."
But how do you introduce people, young and old, to the Bible when many of them would not set foot into a church? One solution is to open a public museum in which visitors can learn the history of the Bible, see and touch actual relics from biblical times, and observe archaeological evidence that what the Bible claims is true. What sounds like a pipe dream became a reality a decade ago through the efforts of Don Bassett and many others.
An Inspired Vision
The idea for BRC&M was conceived in the early 1970s while Bassett was serving as minister at a Church of Christ in Shelby County, Tennessee. B'Lou Carter, a gifted Bible class teacher, approached Bassett at that time to discuss her concept of a museum where children could learn about the origins of the Bible and experience hands-on activities that would bring it to life. With no funding available, however, they laid their plans to rest.
In 1995, Carter again approached Bassett—this time with financial backing. Bassett slowly began accumulating materials, replicas, and artifacts for the museum through visits to the Holy Lands, the British Museum in London, and the Louvre in Paris. In 1997, BRC&M opened as a small museum in a row of office buildings and offered tours and specialized programs to the public.
Soon church and homeschool groups began flocking to the museum where children delighted in holding 2,000-year-old oil lamps from Bethlehem, assembled their own "How We Got the Bible" books to take home, and used a magnetic board to race each other in putting the books of the Bible in order.
Then disaster struck.
Fire and Faith
On August 12, 2001, the day before BRC&M's third annual teen archaeology camp, fire broke out in the museum. No one was injured, but the fire and smoke damaged many of the artifacts.
"Though the museum's pieces were badly sooted and smudged, they were not destroyed. We feel it was providential that they were spared," says Bassett.
The archaeology camp went on as scheduled. However, the fire rendered the museum building unusable. "We had hoped to move to a more spacious and strategically located venue. We did not want a fire to help us do the moving," Bassett says with a smile, "but the Lord works in mysterious ways. We went into storage while that building was being refurbished."
In the meantime, a building with over twice the floor space of the original museum became available. Located on the historical Collierville town square, the site seemed ideal for increased exposure to the public. Whether the public would accept a biblical archaeological museum was another matter.
"It's almost inevitable these days that when you go into a community and begin an organization that's labeled 'biblical,' people do not know what you're up to. They do not know whether there is a hidden evangelistic agenda and are naturally skeptical," says Bassett.
Though some Christians might balk at the idea of creating a Bible museum that is not evangelistic, Bassett sees the matter from a different perspective. "We have people out there trying to understand our history, our literary heritage, the political philosophy that was the aegis for the beginning of this republic without any knowledge of the Bible, and it cannot be done. We feel that bringing the Bible to the public square in a nondenominational context, from a largely educational rather than evangelistic perspective, is rendering a public service of immense value. Once people saw our intentions, the community became very supportive."
Funding proved to be the next hurdle to overcome. Community leaders united to raise money for construction, and funds often came from the least expected sources. Still, there were many times the project did not look workable.
At the height of BRC&M's financial struggles, when everyone else was ready to give up, Chick-Fil-A franchise owner Scott Clark asked, "Is this a business project or a faith project?" The consensus was that the museum was a "faith project." Soon after, $100,000 arrived from a donor in California.
The Best Evidence
It took over two years and a quarter of a million dollars to gut and renovate the building. The new museum opened its doors on November 7, 2003, and soon became a popular attraction, drawing up to 20,000 visitors a year.
Artifacts, such as a 4,000-year-old bowl from Hebron in use during the time when Abraham settled there and a Bethlehem cooking pot from the days of Jesus' birth, provide a glimpse of everyday life depicted in the Bible. The museum's replicas, however, present visitors with the strongest confirmation of the Bible's authenticity.
Time and again, archaeology has proven the Bible correct by uncovering ancient writings that corroborate Scripture. BRC&M owns copies of many of these ancient inscriptions. Originals of the tablets, which include the Sennacherib Prism, Cyrus Cylinder, and Moabite Stone, are priceless and require a trip to Europe to observe. Visitors to BRC&M can not only see exact replicas but can touch them as well.
"We want to be fair and not decide issues ahead of time, not run ahead of the evidence," Bassett explains. "At our museum, visitors can see the results of the best evidence—evidence strong enough to speak for itself."
One of the museum's replicas, the Pilate Stone, has garnered widespread attention. Many biblical critics assert that Pilate and Tiberius Caesar did not live at the same time. These claims undermine many of the facts surrounding Jesus' crucifixion. Bassett determined to obtain a copy of the Pilate Stone, which mentions both names in the same inscription and verifies the New Testament's historical context. However, securing an exact copy from the Israel museum proved impossible.
B'Lou Carter, a skilled artist, stepped forward once again and began a two-year project to duplicate the artifact. Carter's reproduction is superior to the replica displayed at Caesarea Maritima in Israel, and other museums have already requested copies of BRC&M's Pilate Stone.
A Greater Hope
The museum itself is also drawing widespread attention. Visitors from Arizona, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Jersey, and even Canada come—not to tour the museum but to study how to get the Bible into the public forum. With most existing Bible museums in this country located at churches or on religious college campuses and limited to scholarly pursuits, requests to clone BRC&M arrive with increasing frequency.
Keeping the museum running, with all its many programs, is a constant challenge requiring approximately $250,000 per year. "Funding is still our biggest issue," says Bassett's wife Nancy.
Though the BRC&M could not operate without large donations, sometimes the smallest gifts mean the most. Nancy's eyes filled with tears at the memory of one such gift the museum received in early September of 2005. The check for $20 was drawn on the Hibernia National Bank in New Orleans, Louisiana, shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. The couple who wrote it said they wished it could be for more, but they were not yet sure whether they still had a home or jobs to which they could return.
Says Bassett, "That tells me there are people out there at the end of their rope who are grateful for a museum that assures them the promises of God are firm and true, even when everything they own lies beneath a flood of noxious sludge. The victims of Katrina and other disasters need more than just food and raiment. They need assurance that there is a living hope for them that floods, fires, and looters can never take away."
And this hope is what the museum is all about.
Tracy Crump is a freelance writer from Nesbit, Mississippi. For more information about the Biblical Resource Center & Museum go to www.biblical-museum.org.
I never seen the ball change hands so much in a single play. Nice ending to the game.
Tampa Bay for week 9
Thanks
NY Giants please
Thanks
New Orleans this week
Thanks
Jacksonville please
Thanks
I'll take Tennessee
Thanks
I'll take San Diego this week
Thanks
I'll take Washington for week 3
Thanks