Yeah...if you don't give them what they want.

Visca Catalunya!

Red Storm Rising

I feel good about the Kansas City Chiefs. I think Andy Reid is a great coach. I think they've got a great GM in Dorsey. Despite their awful year last year I think the Chiefs are poised for a quick turnaround. I'm a homer and I may be naive, but I believe last year was an anomaly. They had a terrible season yet still sent five guys to the ProBowl. Five Guys! The talent is there. Romeo Crennel is a good guy and a great defensive coach but he's in over his head as a head coach.

Now they've got a proven coach. They've traded for a very good quarterback. Even with a rough start to his career Alex Smith has been great the past few years. KC has an elite running back in Jamaal Charles. They have an elite WR in Bowe. They have a very good defense and their line is developing. I think the Chiefs will make a remarkable turnaround and contend for the West Division Title. They just have to get past Peyton Manning.

But still. This draft was depressing. Maybe it will turn out great. But you know it's a weak draft when the top two picks are offensive tackles. I'm just glad the Chiefs passed on the aggie. Eric Fisher looks like a monster on the line. He looks like the best guy in this draft. But to think that if Kansas City had picked first last year they would have had their choice of Andrew Luck or RGIII. It's depressing to think about.

Even more depressing was the ESPN 30 for 30 special that reminded everyone about the QB class of 1983. Oh, you know the one, the one where Kansas City picked QB Todd Blackledge seventh while Dan Marino went 27th. TWENTY-SEVENTH!

Well the future looks bright nonetheless in Kansas City. Hopefully Alex Smith will be decent. Hopefully he'll shake off the ghosts of Len Dawson. Since I've been a Chiefs fan the best QB Kansas City has had was Joe Montana...and he was only around for two years. After him, I'm not so sure. DeBerg? Grbac? Trent Green? Bono? Bill Kenney? Chiefs fans deserve some silver linings!

Secrets to Success

Well success can be hard to achieve. And there's a lot of books on how to achieve it. But the reality is that if you do the four things on my chalkboard...you'll be on your way.

Fab Five

Yeah A&M you may have Johnny Football on campus (although we're not so sure since he's taking all his classes online this semester). Tech, yeah you have Kliff Kingbury. Baylor? Kind of quiet since RGIII left town for the NFL. UT? Mack Brown? That's the best you got?

Well today, my school has all five living Presidents of the United States on campus. At the same time.

Hey Mr. Obama/Bush/Clinton/Bush/Carter...my tuition paid for your parking spot.

SMU > than all other Texas schools

Pony Up!

Soccertalk

Updates on my three favorite soccer teams:

The Forney Dynamo: played a cold one last night as DFW once again broke records for low temps in April. But the U6 lads showed strength and courage and played on. Scores are not kept at this level and there are no goal keepers but the scoring seemed fairly even. A 6'8 friend of mine who was a fellow grad student at SMU has a son on the other team. His boy is six inches taller than JDW and last year they banged heads on a nasty collison sending both boys to the sidelines. No such crash last night. Just two more games this season.

FC Barcelona: An end of an era may be at hand. LaBlauGrana was outclassed by Bayern Munich in the Champions League Tournament. 4-0. Worst Barca loss in 16 years. But Barca still dominates La Liga and will easily win the Spanish Championship. They'll still be a force as long as they have Messi running around. But the days where they were the favorite in every single match may be in the past.

FC Dallas: Biggest surprise of all. The Stripes are off to their best start in franchise history. They have lost only once and have only allowed seven goals in seven games. They lead both the conference and league standings.

Just thought you wanna know.

photo: me working my other gig as the voice of Kaufman High School Soccer.

Earth Day 2013

Imagine if someone gave you a great house to live in. The house had everything you could ever want. It had a great yard and beautiful furniture. Let's say you were given the house for free as long as you took care of it.

Now lets say you went around destroying all the furniture and neglecting the yard. You allow mold to rot the walls. You allow the fence to fall over and the roof to collapse. After a few years the house is a wreck.

That would be an utter insult to the people who gave you the house.

That's the type of insult you give God everytime you disregard His creation. God gave us this earth. It's His creation. When you litter or refuse to acknowledge your destructive ways you insult God.

Like all creative endeavors, the Earth bears the traces of the creator's personality. Christians should be on the vanguard of creation care. Sure, you may not care for secular hippies and their "mother earth" mentality. You don't take care of the environment for them. You take care of God's earth because the earth is His creation which he freely gave to us. You also disrespect your children and grandchildren and so on because they will be the ones left to clean up your mess. By the way, when this "house" is wrecked there is no other house to move into. This is it and it's more than enough.

Are you truly pro-life?

If you are pro-life then I urge you to read this article by author Donald Miller. The article is excellent and long overdue. One of the statements that resonates with me is Miller's contention that if your church is not consistently discussing adoption then your church is not truly "wholistically pro-life."

I am so sick of self-righteous prigs pontificating about pro-life issues without any word about adoption or the support of adoption agencies or agencies that provide support for women in difficult situations involving unwanted pregancies. The Church should be on the frontlines in supporting adoption initiatives not only because it reflects the compassion of Jesus Christ but also because adoption mirrors the spiritual adoption we experience once we are saved by the grace of God.

Personally I am a believer in a total pro-life ethic. I'm against capital punishment for the same reason I'm against abortion, guns and war. You cannot convince me that Christ would ever support anything that would end the life of one His creations.

If the link above does not work, direct your brower to:  http://storylineblog.com/2013/04/22/talking-points-for-the-pro-life-movement/

West

Yesterday evening around 8 pm I heard thunder. I remarked to my wife that I thought the thunderstorms weren't supposed to roll through until much later. We were expecting them around 3 am.

It wasn't thunder that we heard. It was a horrifying explosion in the tiny community of West, Texas. The pictures on the news leave me speechless. The loss of brave firefighters and first responders. The destruction of nearby neighborhoods and schools. Speechless.

I, like many Dallasites, have stopped in West many times on our way to Austin. The town is famous for the Czech Stop and amazing kolaches. It's a lovely little community.

My heart breaks for those who have lost loved ones. The destruction is staggering.

Been a very strange week. The DA murderers have been captured. A teacher friend of mine was running his second Boston Marathon along with his wife on Monday. They had passed the finish line two hours before the explosion and had actually made it Logan Airport when the bombs exploded. I was relieved when I got word they were okay. The loss of innocents in Boston is so incredibly tragic.

Tough and surreal week. God bless West, Boston and Kaufman.

Strange Days

Weird stuff has been happening in the quiet County of Kaufman the past two months.

On January 31st an Assistant District Attorney, Mark Hasse was murdered in broad daylight across the street from the county courthouse. Schools were put in lockdown for the day. Many in Kaufman were shocked at this brazen attack on our judicial system. National news media swarmed the area. Texas Rangers, FBI, US Marshalls, Sheriffs and a host of agencies descended on Kaufman to find who was responsible.

Two months later on March 31st, the night before Easter Sunday, our District Attorney and wife were shot and killed in their home near Forney. I, like everyone else in the area, was stunned. Our homes seemed more vunerable than ever. These type of events are what you read about in Mexico in the cartel wars, not in sleepy Kaufman County. I couldn't sleep that night.

This was an assassination pure and simple. Regardless of the killer's motives, anytime someone murders an elected official they are committing an act of revolution against the will of the people. Once again law enforcement poured into the area. People were and are afraid. Most spoke about the tragic events in hushed tones as if expecting further retribution from the unknown assailants.

The media immediately focused on the Aryan Brotherhood. I found this ridiculous at the time because I've lived in Kaufman County for 16 years. I know a lot of people. No one I know had ever heard of any Aryan Brotherhood operations in the county. Sure, there may have been a lone member out there in rural areas. But they usually keep low profiles. We have our serious issues in Kaufman County but I resented the untrue and unfair depiction of Kaufman County as a "hotbed for Aryan Brotherhood" as stated in The Daily Beast.

So now everything has gotten weirder. Arrests have been made of a former Justice of the Peace and his wife in connection to the murders. Details are still forthcoming but it seems Law Enforcement has evidence of terroristic threats made by the former JP. Not sure what the wife's connection is yet. Everything is still hazy and I'm sure a clearer story will emerge in the next few days.

Apparently this all stems from a case that happened two years ago when the JP was convicted and removed from office for stealing computer monitors from the county courthouse. It was a strange case then and seems even stranger now. The DA and the ADA prosecuted the case vigorously. From the stories being told it seems that losing his job, law license and healthcare was enough to trigger a murderous response from the former Justice of the Peace.

Strange days in Kaufman County. Seeing CNN and local media trucks is surreal. Seeing a small of law enforcement officers everywhere is both comforting and unsettling for communities used to peace and tranquility. Hopefully they got the right guy and that Kaufman County is safe again.

UPDATE: The wife has confessed. She has confessed that her husband killed all three victims and she also was involved. Story gets weirder by the minute. Stay tuned.

Pics

More pics uploaded today at...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcarltonwhite/

Sorry, the blogger iPhone app doesn't support hypertext linking yet.

Bluebonnets

That time of year. Allergy season. So you take your kid and sit him in wildflowers by the side of the road. Texas.

Flickr Update

Blogging this using my new iPhone 5. Our phones died last week so we decided to finally get smartphones. So if this post looks weird you'll understand. It would be nice to blog on the go. Anyway...I updated Flickr after months...check out the scene at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcarltonwhite/ Because apparently I can't insert links into text on this platform.