Religion - Roots in yourself

Last night we began going through some of the parables told by Jesus in Matthew Chapter 13. The main discussion occurred when reading the parable of the sower and the seeds. Jesus said that the seeds that were thrown in the rocky places were scorched by the sun and withered away because they had no root. Jesus later explained that this person is excited about the gospel message when he first hears it, but he falls away from God when troubles or difficult circumstances arise because he has no root in himself. Christianity in most groups is not the fun topic and the positions of a Christian may not be too welcomed in mixed company. At times, Christians will be called to stand for their faith. Modern day Americans have it relatively easy, we must only endure odd stares and perhaps being excluded from certain groups and given stereotypes that are not meant to be pleasant. Generally, we do not have to make a stand in the face of physical pain or abuse. Still, we often fail to make stands for what we believe in and what we say we value. Why? Because we have shallow roots in ourselves. It's a confidence issue. If a person is confident in himself and in his values and priorities, the biggest weapon of the world is rendered useless, the opinions of others. If our confidence is small and we need reassurance and acceptance from others, we have said that we value the opinion of others above that thing that we have not stood for, in this case God. Which do you value more, the opinion of God who will determine your eternal fate, or the opinions of the popular and fun people in your circles? It seems like a ridiculous and very easy question. However, very often in our lives, and certainly in mine, we choose to value the opinion of the people whose favor we wish to win. For me it happens in situations where I lack confidence, where I don't believe the people around me will accept me for who I really am and I subconsciously choose to face God's judgment instead of the judgment of my friends and acquaintances. We should put God's judgment above anyone else's. That seems incredibly silly to even write because it seems so obvious. Still, it seems almost impossible to live out at times. It comes back to confidence. If you are sure about what you are doing and what you believe in, armor will be built up around you that makes criticisms of others unable to penetrate into your soul and cause you pain or concern. The question of the evening was: "How do you gain that confidence in yourself". Wow, that is the question. It seems that it is similar to our relationship with Jesus, it comes down to faith. In this case, it is a faith in yourself, not that you are all powerful or knowing, but that, in general terms, you are trying to do right and you believe in the right things. I define right by however Jesus would define right. There are of course people who are supremely confident in themselves who are not Christians. They have set their own values of right and wrong and are living by those principles and have faith in them. Eternal salvation requires faith in Jesus, but self confidence only requires faith in you. In both cases the key element is faith. How can you acquire faith? I'm not sure. Devoting time, thought, and effort to the principles of your life by which you live and which will define you as an individual is the only recommendation I can give. Acknowledge where your priorities currently rank and decide if that is acceptable to you. If not, you are the only person that can rearrange the order of those priorities.

Politics - AIG

The AIG fiasco has been, if nothing else, entertaining. I've read a little, but not much, so I will not pretend to know all the details of the situation. What is clear is that the company and its issues have become a political hot topic. This means that everyone exaggerates the facts and the truth is hard to find. If you wonder about the individuals at AIG who were paid bonuses, I would suggest reading this article by the VP of AIG's financial products unit. I am not so naive to ignore the possibility that this letter was written with the intent of being publicly distributed, which could make it political propaganda and questionable as well. However, if most of what this individual says is true, it does give a completely different perspective than you will hear on Capitol Hill. Speaking in generic terms, I do know that lenders will put covenants into their loan documents and if the borrower does not adhere to them, the loan can be called. However, I don't remember ever seeing one that capped what a company could pay its employees. The government surely knows less about AIG's business than AIG executives. In my opinion, the government has a few choices for corporations such as this. They can let it go into bankruptcy, they can loan it money and get out of the way, or they can nationalize it. Loaning a company money and then putting many restrictions on it without truly knowing the business is somewhere between the second and third options and seems destine to fail. AIG is now losing valuable employees, such as the author in the article above, because they are being vilified by the press and politicians for accepting what was promised to them. Perhaps the bonuses were exorbitant. I could not make an educated comment on that. However, if they were working for a salary of $1 per year with the promise of a bonus at the end, then I cannot possibly see how expecting and accepting at least some sort of bonus is evil. What is evil is that government now realizes that is taking a beating in the media for these bonuses which were allowed by the document they signed, so they are shifting the blame to AIG and now are proposing to change the rules after the fact. The proposed 90% tax on these bonuses is tragic, because it's not playing the game fairly. They signed an agreement and now the public is outraged by what it allowed. So, since they are the United States government, they are going to go and change the rules so they can get the money back. Is that the type of entity you would like to do business with? It's shameful. Admit your mistake and take the responsibility that comes with it. Do not cheat, lie, and steal to cover up for your bad judgment.

Sports - Week 1 NCAA Tourney Recap & Week 2 Preview

The biggest surprise of the opening week of play in the NCAA tournament was the lack of surprises. All teams seeded 3 or better still remain. Two 4's are left, leaving only Purdue (#5, not really a surprise) and Arizona (#12) playing past where their seed would project here in the second week. The results suggest that the field was top heavy this year, which I do not think comes as a surprise. Arizona, to me, is also not a shocker. Yes, I believe their inclusion in the tournament was not deserved. However, in the only pool I played in for money, I picked Arizona to make it to the sweet 16. They were given the bracket with by far the weakest 4 and 5 seeds (Wake and Utah). They had nothing to lose since they were playing with house money (they shouldn't even have been in the tournament). It was a perfect set up for a team that should have been playing in the NIT. In my mind, their success does not justify their inclusion. It is not the committee's objective to include the most dangerous teams. The objective is to include the teams that had the most impressive seasons during the year. If the committee wanted dangerous teams, they could have included Notre Dame or Georgetown. Also, consider that the Pac 10 has turned out to be what everyone thought, poor. Arizona is the only Pac 10 team left and they will soon be gone.

As for the Mountaineer's brief tournament, it was of course disappointing. WV played a team they should have beaten and they apparently thought that way going into the game. The effort on defense and on the boards was not there. Ruoff committed some silly fouls to put WV in a bad spot. Again it was the freshmen, Ebanks and Bryant, who carried the team. Butler was less effective as the year progressed and Ruoff could not be counted on to come up big in critical moments. As my friend Ryan commented in an early post, Butler needs to be a role player. He thrives in that setting. Butler does not shine when he is the focal point of the offense. I think Ebanks will be the first option next year. As my pops told me, though, the Mountaineers need some outside shooting. Bryant shot well from 3 towards the end of the season. We will see how much playing time he receives with Mazulla returning. I could foresee some teams simply packing it in on the Mountaineers and making them shoot from the outside next year.

Looking ahead to this weekend, here's how I see each region:

Midwest - Louisville's little scare with Sienna will likely help them as they enter this weekend. I don't see Arizona beating them. I like their chances against Michigan St. or Kansas, which should be a good 50/50 game. Louisville should see the Final 4.

West - UConn has been dominant so far. They should roll over Purdue. Memphis is the wild card of the tournament. I'm still a little skeptical. The Big 12 has looked strong, so the Missouri vs Memphis game will be interesting. If UConn has not faced a serious challenge heading into their Elite 8 match up, they could be in trouble. I'll go with UConn, but Memphis and Missouri both have decent shots.

East - Pitt has not looked good so far. They have historically struggled in the NCAA tournament. If it were not for this, I would say Pitt walks to the Final 4. Xavier cannot match up with them, nor can Duke. Villanova is a streaky team, but Pitt should have a big edge there as well. I like Villanova in a close one against Duke, but either way, I still say Pitt finally breaks through and sees the Final 4.

South - Lawson had a huge second half for North Carolina and has put them back in the mix as a favorite for the National Championship game. The game against Gonzaga should be a very entertaining one. I think this bracket has the most depth. Syracuse and Oklahoma along with UNC and Gonzaga are teams capable of making a final 4 run and possibly winning it all. In no other region could I make that statement about all remaining teams. It makes this region extremely hard to predict, especially with Lawson still potentially not 100%. Due to the depth, I would give no team better than a 35% chance of advancing to the Final 4. I am very reluctant to even pick. So, in a tournament of chalk, I'll take all #1 seeds to make it to the Final 4 for the second straight year and go with UNC out of the South.

Economics - Robin Hood Explained

In a previous post, I compared Obama to Robin Hood for stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. There, however, is a difference with which Robin Hood may take offense to the comparison. There are two ways to view our hero. The common way is to see him as a friend of the poor and enemy of the rich. The other as is to view him as a champion of property rights. The current Administration can be seen similarly to the former, but not the latter. In the story of Robin Hood, the working class poor people were taxed heavily as the rich became richer. The workers were not allowed to keep the fruit of their labor. Robin Hood was merely giving back to them what was taken unfairly. He was not really stealing from the rich; he was returning to the poor what was stolen from them. In fact Robin Hood was part of the noble class until a new ruler came to power and began behaving so mercilessly to the poor. Robin Hood had not made it his life long mission to redistribute wealth. He chose to act only when the rights, particularly property rights, of the poor were taken away from them. In today's society, we have a much different scenario. The poor are hardly taxed at all. Even the middle class is taxed lightly. For that family that politicians love to discuss, the one with a couple of kids a mortgage and are making less than $100,000, their taxes are not burdensome. I can say that because I fall into that category and my Federal effective tax rate remains in the single digits. In fact, my state tax bill nearly matches my Federal tax bill and the highest Virginia income tax rate is a mere 5.75%. Also, there is such a thing now as an Earned Income Tax Credit. What this means is that if a person works but makes little money, that person can actually have negative tax where the government owes them money. This is different than a refund, please do not be confused. A typical refund is the result of a person's calculated tax (ex $5,000) being less than the taxes withheld from the person's paychecks for the year (ex. $6,000, resulting in a $1,000 refund). In the Earned Income Tax Credit, the person can have paid nothing to the Federal government and will still receive money. When in the history of the world has a government not only decided to not collect taxes from its workers, but to give them tax money? Combine the low taxes for the middle class and negative tax for the poor with the services they receive from government programs and it is an extremely difficult argument to make that our government is abusing or taking advantage of the poor or middle class. Robin Hood would not have had to quit his day job if he had lived in the US today.

If all of the President's initiatives go through, the wealthy will have about half of every additional dollar they make taken from them when all taxes are considered, much of which will go to social programs for the poor and lower middle class if not given directly to them. I find it hard to see how this is not stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, the key word there being "stealing". I have read articles and experienced in my own work where employees have stolen from their companies for great causes - for a family member in need of medical assistance, for nice clothing for their children, and even for a favorite charity. These stories are compelling, but how do the courts of our government respond? The defendants are convicted, fined, and/or sentenced to jail time. Why? Because the laws of our country do not recognize need as an excuse to infringe on property rights or, in simple terms, steal. Yet our government does it openly and unapologetically as if it were a virtue.

A person choosing to donate out of their excess to those in need is certainly worthy of praise and should be considered virtuous. I feel good about my donations I make throughout the year. I can see some of the impact these donations have. I feel no sense of honor or virtue by having my money forcibly taken from me by the government and given to somebody else, nor should anyone. There is no voluntary sacrifice in that. The approval rating of Congress stands in the teens and it has been well earned. The government has proven over many decades to be highly bureaucratic and highly inefficient. I have much more confidence that the money I donate to local charities will be spent wisely than the money the biggest charity, the Federal Government, takes from me. While I do favor a progressive tax rate, one where the wealthy are taxed at a higher RATE than the middle class and poor, there has to be some limits. We are moving in a direction where the tax rate is so high and burdensome that we must consider if there truly is any virtue in our actions, in forcibly stealing from one group and giving to another with the money being run through a very inefficient organization with a high overhead that eats away at the money stolen. We would be better off to have a little more respect for property rights and allow the American people, even the wealthy American people, to decide how to distribute/spend their income and wealth. I have more trust in the virtue of Americans (yes even rich ones) than I do in Congress and our government.

Sports - WV tournament preview

West Virginia drew 11 seeded Dayton in Minnesota on Friday at 3pm. The thing that scares me the most about Dayton is that they don't scare me at all. It is the team that I was hoping they would draw, but there is the phrase "be careful what you wish for". It wasn't long ago that WV only had to beat Pittsburgh in a football game to advance to the national title game. The game was at home. They had crushed Pitt the previous two years. Pitt was a woeful 4-7 (2-4 in conference). How could you not love their chances? What worried me about that game was that there was little reason to worry yet so much on the line. This is the same thing to a lesser degree. WV should win the game. Dayton's best player, Chris Wright, is very good. However, he is a 6-8 power forward that WV should be able to handle, at least much better than Blair or some of the other Big East beasts. As an A-10 fan and proponent (due to the Spiders), I can say that I believe that the A-10 is overrated. Xavier is very weak at 4 and Dayton looks soft. Wright averages 13 ppg and Marcus Johnson averages 12, so there are no huge stars that should be able to take over the game. They have gone 3-3 in their last 6. West Virginia has handled inferior teams and this team is not as good as WV. Still, when they throw it up, especially on a neutral court at 3pm, anything can happen. I look for the Mountaineers to win handily. That confidence concerns me.

The second round, if the Mountaineers should beat Dayton, would likely be against Kansas. An opportunity to defeat the defending champions should provide plenty of inspiration. Will the Jayhawks play tight with their title on the line or will they play with confidence? I admit I don't know too much about the Jayhawks. They had a very nice season despite being in a "rebuilding" phase after winning the championship. The posted a 14-2 record in the Big 12, which is solid. Still, my gut instinct is that this would be a toss up game. I give the Mounties a decent shot at the sweet 16. If they should make it so far, I think that Michigan St., like any Big 10 team, is suspect. WV has the potential, if they play well, to roll into and Elite 8. That's where the journey would end, likely against Louisville. I think it's a favorable draw for WV. We'll see what they can do with it.

We will see how the freshmen and Ruoff handle the big stage. They did fine in the Big East tournament. Let's play into the second week Mounties!!!

Sports - Tournament Grumblings

Lunardi beat the DeHavenator 52-49. If I had put Maryland in (they were my first team out), I would have pulled off the upset 49-48. I probably let my bias against Maryland blind me to reality. It's a lesson to learn. I have no problem with Maryland being in. My issue is Arizona. It was the one team Lunardi missed. He had Creighton and I had St. Mary's or Creighton. I would have taken St. Mary's, but either way, I see no rational argument for Arizona. Arizona was 19-13. They played just two non conference road games and were 0-2 (UNLV, Texas A&M). They were 2-9 on the road with weak wins against Oregon St. and Oregon. They finished on a 1-5 slide including their third loss of the year to Arizona St. when they met in the tournament. The have some good wins against UCLA, Washington, USC, and Kansas, but they were all at home. The neutral court Gonzaga win is probably their most impressive. Still, with a 19-13 record, a poor RPI, a terrible road record and an awful finish to the season, their inclusion is very peculiar. Arizona has a streak of 24 consecutive tournament appearances and I wonder if that factored into the decision. They also drew Utah which has to be one of the weakest 5 seeds to dress up for a tournament. It's almost like they manufactured that matchup to justify Arizona's inclusion hoping they would take care of an easy opponent.

Saint Mary's, by contrast, was 26-6 and boasted a much higher RPI. They were 13-5 away from home (9-3 road, 4-2 neutral). They lacked big wins (Providence, San Diego St. both on neutral courts), but they were dominant with Patty Mills on the court and he has now returned from his injury. During his injury St. Mary's was 3-3. Take away that time and they were 23-3. The committee has said that they take injuries into account. They must not have considered it in this case. I have no problem saying that St. Mary's could have gone 19-13 with Arizona's schedule (they had plenty of cupcakes too). I highly doubt that Arizona would have gone 26-6 (or especially 23-3) with St. Mary's schedule give Arizona's road woes. Even if you don't take St. Mary's, Creighton's case was better than Arizona's.

I heard an announcer say that the committee said that when judging a team, their RPI is not a factor, but that the RPI of the teams that they beat is a factor. Perhaps this was incorrectly reported. However, if not, this is completely absurd. They are in essence saying that the RPI system is valuable and is used, but when looking at a team the only RPI that they don't use is their own. Huh? I believe they outthought themselves on this one. So, when they looked at Arizona, they considered all the RPI's of all the teams they beat, but not the RPI of Arizona themselves. This could explain the seemingly inexplicable decision. So, Arizona's RPI is important, it's just that it's important to UAB, Stanford, Washington St., UNLV, and all those teams that beat them, but it's not important to Arizona. It's clear that the committee prefers a team with a mediocre record that has a few big wins (even if they have some bad losses) to a team that has a great record, but did not play too many good teams. I disagree. There are teams that know how to win and teams that aren't sure how to win. 19-13, unless it's against an unbelievable schedule, which Arizona's was not (36 SOS), leads me to believe that the team is not sure how to win. By the way, San Diego St., another team I would have taken over Arizona, had a SOS one spot ahead (35) of Arizona and a much better record (23-9).

Other than Utah, BC, and Texas receiving a little better seeds than I think they deserved, no other problems with the selection. Arizona is the one that nobody predicted simply because they didn't deserve it.

Sports - Pitt Recap, Orange Preview

There are times when it feels really good to be wrong. Last night was one of them. I was correct in that the Mountaineers gave a spirited effort and Ebanks had a big game (career high 20 points and led the team with 7 rebounds). The Mountaineers winning by 14, on the other hand, was nothing I could have predicted. After the second time that Pittsburgh thumped WV in the regular season, my dad and I talked about the game. We agreed that the Mountaineers could play Pittsburgh 10 times and would lose all 10 games with one possible exception - if Blair could not stay on the floor. Blair played only 18 minutes, most of which were in the second half while he was frustrated by his foul situation and the Mountaineers took advantage. The Mountaineers win was really the result of three unexpected events. The first was Blair's foul trouble. It was the least surprising of the three but the most important. Pittsburgh was off to a 9-4 lead with Blair early and it looked like another beat down was coming. His second foul changed everything. The second event was the incredible foul shooting by the Mountaineers. They shot 24-27 from the free throw line. I'm not sure when they missed their first one, but I believe they made at least their first 13. The Mountaineers shot just under 70% for the season and that performance last night from the line was critical, especially in the first half as it kept them in the game. The third was the performance of Ruoff. Yes, the in-your-face defense once again shut him out from three point range (0-3). However, it was if for the first time he recognized that the defense was tough and was going to take away the three, so he needed to forget about it. He didn't force it. More importantly, Ruoff recognized the size advantage he had on his defender. He posted up a few times. He drove the lane as his defender overplayed on the three point shot. And, unlike most games, particularly against top level opponents, he finished consistently (7-11 from inside 3). It was the best game he has played from inside the three point line against a quality opponent. If he could do that in the NCAA tournament, perhaps a run by WV is possible.

The Syracuse match up is another tough one for WV. The Orange pounded them in Syracuse. Onuaku is a Blair clone though not as skilled. Flynn is excellent with the ball. An excellent point guard combined with a huge big man who can score is a bad combination for the Mountaineers as those are their weak spots. The best news for WV is that Syracuse played a 6 overtime game late last night at the Garden. There should be a little physical and emotional fatigue from that game. If Syracuse plays smart and is at their best, WV will not be able to hang with them. That may not be the case though. Syracuse has won 6 in a row and I wonder how they will rebound from the huge emotional win last night. I give the edge to Syracuse, but a lot will depend on the mind set of Syracuse. They have made the four game run through the tournament before, perhaps they can do it again. Or, perhaps, WV will send them back to the cold of upstate New York.

The Mountaineers seeding in the NCAA tournament will be interesting to see. The biggest problem with their resume was a lack of big wins, Villanova at home being the only one. Now they have a neutral court win over Pittsburgh. They could be moving up to the 5 area, although I might prefer to WV to stay in the 6 spot. Either way, a decent shot at the sweet 16 is looking better and better.

Religion - Time of Possession

Last night the youth group studied Matthew Chapter 12. Other than a slightly off topic discussion about Elijah, the passage that received the most interest was near the end of the chapter:

43"When an evil[f] spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation."

I believe this passage certainly applies to us today. People, whether Christian or not, can decide to eliminate activities from their lifestyle that they consider immoral or harmful to themselves or others around them. However, the soul is restless. It yearns for occupation. Even the atheist would agree that humans loathe boredom. Many people today complain of being too busy. However a person with a full productive schedule is likely to be much happier than someone with nothing to do. We will find a way to fill our time. I believe this restlessness was given to us by God so that we would search for Him and allow the Holy Spirit to fill us. This passage explains that even though we may rid ourselves of sin/negative behavior, if we do not replace that activity with positive behavior then the old habits can return and return in a state even worse than before. It's like the football saying, "the best defense is a good offense". The idea is that if your team can keep the ball, the other team cannot score because it does not have a chance. You have successfully defended your goal not by stopping the other team from moving the ball, but by never letting their offense step onto the field. If your life is a football field, something/somebody is going to be on it and moving the football. Will it be God and the Holy Spirit playing offense and winning the time of possession? If you do not allow that, the restlessness of your soul will find an inadequate replacement and God will be put on defense, or, worse yet, be forced to watch from the sidelines. Something will fill our time, filling it with good things is the best way to prevent the bad.

Sports - WV vs Pitt preview

Ruoff scored 25 points going 4 for 7 from three point range as he and the Mounties made me look like a genius. WV should be able to stay out of the 8 or 9 seed with that win and, thus, avoid a #1 seeded team in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Bryant has continued to play pretty well of late and is shooting with confidence behind the three point line. Butler also had a nice game and while Ebanks struggled with his shooting a little bit (3-11), he had 18 rebounds and 5 assists in an excellent floor game. Jones had been playing really well of late, but he laid a big egg in his first Big East Tournament experience. It was not just the fact that he was a miserable 1-10, it was that he looked so bad doing it. His one make was an uncontested layup and many of his misses were right around the basket. By the second half I was cringing every time he went up for a shot. Let's hope he will be back to his old self again after getting his tournament feet wet.

Up next for WV is Pittsburgh. The opening line has Pitt favored by just 3. UConn is favored by the same amount over Syracuse. This speaks to the depth of the conference. I was on target with my ND prediction, but let's hope I'm off the mark this time. I'd give the 3 points and take Pitt. Blair is a beast for which WV has no answer. Young is smooth and can take over the game. The Panthers play very good defense which spells trouble for Ruoff. Pittsburgh also has a very successful history in the Big East tournament. I look for a spirited effort from the Mountaineers and a good game by Ebanks. Still, I think Pitt will be in control most of the way and win by somewhere around 10 points.

Sports - WV vs ND preview

West Virginia will enter today's game against Notre Dame as the favorite. It is highly likely that West Virginia will be in the NCAA tournament regardless of the outcome of tonight's game. However, it is important for seeding. A loss tonight may put West Virginia in the 8 or 9 slot where they could find themselves matched up with a No. 1 powerhouse in the second round. Notre Dame is certainly dangerous. Harangody is an excellent player and the Irish can score. In Morgantown, West Virginia outworked the Irish on the boards (40-28) and exposed their suspect defense. The Irish did do some damage from three point range and starting with that game the Mountaineers have given up 43-107 (40%) shooting from long range. That statistic is troublesome going into a game against an underdog who has the ability to light up some threes.

WVU does have several things on its side. First, the Irish poor defense should allow Rouff to feel confident and have a big game as he did the first time around (24 points, 4-8 from three). Secondly, during the entire Big East season West Virginia won only one game (1-7) against teams that finished ahead of them in the standings (Villanova) and lost just one game (9-1) against teams that finished below them in the standings (Cincinnati, an emotional game on which WVU should perhaps receive a pass). Simply put, West Virginia has been extremely predictable. They win the games they should win and lose the games they should lose. West Virginia should win this game. I think they will.


Let's go 'eers!!!!!!!!!

Sports - Tourney projections through 3/14 games

Here is my prediction. It's the DeHaven-Lunardi challenge. A point off for every seed off and 5 points off if you missed the team. We'll see how I stack up. Creighton is my last at-large team. I feel like the real bubble is St. Mary's, Creigthon, SD St., Maryland, and Penn St. I have the first two in and the last three out. Lunardi currently has St. Mary's out and Maryland in as the only difference. We'll see if he makes any last second switcheroos.

1's North Carolina, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Louisville
2's Michigan St., Duke, Memphis, Oklahoma
3's Villanova, Wake Forest, Kansas, Missouri
4's Syracuse, Washington, Gonzaga, Florida St.
5's Illinois, Xavier, Purdue, UCLA
6's Arizona St., West Virginia, Tennessee, Clemson
7's LSU, Butler, Utah, Marquette
8's California, BYU, Oklahoma St., Ohio St.
9's Texas A&M, Texas, Sienna, USC,
10's Boston College, Michigan, Wisconsin, Utah St.
11's Dayton, Minnesota, St. Mary's, Miss. St.
12's Creighton, Temple, VCU, Cleveland St.
13's Akron, Western Kentucky, North Dakota St., Northern Iowa
14's American, Binghamton, Stephen F Austin, CS Northridge
15's E Tenn St., Radford, Cornell, Portland St.
16's Morgan St., Morehead St., Robert Morris, Play in game

Next in line (in order) San Diego St., Maryland, Penn St., Arizona, Auburn

The bubble is shrinking. If the team isn't listed here, it has no at large hopes. The committee has been accused of creating interesting pairings, ones with subplots that will draw attention. If they did so with WV, the obvious choice would be Michigan. Perhaps a 6-11 WV-UM matchup is in order? Starting with the 10 seeds, the field is on thin ice and could be mixed up a number of ways for seeding purposes.

Sports - Ruoff the Great or Ruoff the Goat, it's easy to predict

I have often written of Ruoff's lack of clutch shooting and ability to make shots against solid defensive teams. That was clearly evident in the last two games. Against a poor DePaul team, Ruoff shot 6 of 9 from 3. Against Louisiville he was 0-4 from the field and 0-2 from 3. He could not get a shot off and when he did it was ugly. The only way WV stayed in the game was by Ruoff getting in foul trouble. WV fell behind early, but the team pulled together with Ruoff sitting on the bench. They actually took the lead in the second half and were either in the lead or a point down when Ruoff returned to the game with five minutes to play. He missed a few shots, but, more importantly, he turned it over several times down the stretch with poor play against the pressure defense. His inability to make big shots against good teams combined with him often taking the big shots against good teams has led me to be pessimistic on the chances of another magical WV tourney run. I think the future is bright with those three freshmen improving and years to come without Ruoff to let them down when they need him most. Here are some final Big East stats to support my position:

Ruoff:

Games against teams finishing ahead of WV 35% from the field 27% from 3
Games against teams finishing behind WV 45% from the field 42% from 3

Rest of the team:

Games against teams finishing ahead of WV 39% from the field 28% from 3
Games against teams finishing behind WV 45% from the field 33% from 3

As you can see, in the tougher games everyone shoots a little worse. However, Ruoff drops 10% from the field and 15% from 3. The rest of the team drops a much more reasonable 6% from the field and 5% from 3. Ruoff is 9% better than the rest of the team from 3 against weaker competition but 1% worse against quality competition. Despite what fluff commentators may say, Ruoff is still primarily a three point stand still shooter. He will try to create but does not do it well. He is better defensively, but still below average. If he cannot stroke the three, he is not helping the team very much. WV's tourney fate will likely be decided by Ruoff's ability to overcome these struggles in his final chance.

Sports - Mountianeers lock it up

It was an odd game last night. DePaul is clearly not good; they have earned their 0-17 mark in the Big East. They were shooting the ball incredibly well from 3, but just couldn't get out of the way of themselves. They played no defense, didn't rebound, and turned the ball over, many times by committing a silly screening foul. Early in the second half DePaul was 8-10 from 3 and trailed by 8. That is crazy. I'm not sure how good of a coach Mooney is, but at least the Spiders don't have Jerry Wainright any more. DePaul was horribly coached.

Ruoff was 6-9 from 3 as he was salivating to play a poor defensive team in an easy win type of game. The nice thing for me was that the freshmen continue to improve and be a key part of the team. Ebanks, Bryant, and Jones combined for 39 points and 24 rebounds. The group may be better than I thought. I was surprised to see Johnnie West in the game at the end. I looked at his stats for the year and noticed that he had played in a couple of games recently in scrub time. I had thought he was actually getting some real minutes at the beginning of the year (13 against Cleveland St.) and had been injured and was out for the year. I thought it was a medical redshirt year for him. Apparently that is not the case, apparently Huggins doesn't think he's good enough to play even on a team very thin at guard. Anyone know any details on that?

The pressure is off for the upcoming game at Louisville. A tourney bid is sealed and anything else is gravy. One more home game then on to Madison Square Garden.

Politics - Medicare Tax Raise

The more I read about Obama's tax hikes, the more nervous I become. Previous posts discuss the potential perils of raising taxes on the wealthy (producers) during a deep recession. Obama also wants to raise the dividend tax which could discourage investment in business (production). However, the most terrifying potential policy is to force those making over $250,000 to pay the full payroll tax. The other negative effects of increased taxes are indirect and take time to slowly eat away at the economy, but this is not only a tax on wages or profits earned by the individual, this is an expense added to many companies. It is direct and its approval would have immediate effects.

First, let me explain how the system currently works. Payroll tax consists of Medicare and Social Security. 1.45% of an individual's earnings go to Medicare with no cap. However, Social Security is capped at $106,800 though it is taxed at much higher rate of 6.2%. This means any earnings after $106,800 are not subject to the Social Security tax. That doesn't affect me because I don't exceed the threshold, but it does affect many high wage earners and it does greatly affect my employer. The payroll tax is split between the individual and the company, so your company, in essence, matches what you pay. Your company also pays 1.45% of your wages to Medicare and 6.2% of your wages up to $106,800 to Social Security. While it may seem unfair that high income earners do not pay Medicare tax on earnings above $106,800, that thought only proves the socialistic ideals that are becoming engrained in us and ruining our country. Social Security, if handled properly, actually has some merit to it. It is set up that the more you put into it, the more you will get out upon retirement. Thus, those high income earners do not pay taxes on the income above $106,800, so they're benefits are capped just as their taxes are capped. Obama is looking to change the rules to turn it into a truly socialistic program (much harm has already been done to Social Security because of its debt, one generation pays for the retirement of the previous one, when the money should have been saved from the generation that is currently retiring).

We will ignore the very odd fact that in Obama's proposal income between $106,801 and $249,999 is not subject Medicare tax, although that is so odd that it's hard to ignore. Let's go to the obvious effect. The wealthy (producers) will have their taxes raised by 6.2% on the income over $250,000 and they will receive ZERO benefit from these taxes. If the person owns his own business, he will also have to pay the employer portion, meaning his taxes have just been raised by 12.4%. Do you not think that might affect his decisions to expand his business or hire new workers? Most likely there will be layoffs coming as a result. Still, the effect on the middle class is indirect because it comes as a result of the wealthy (producers) being harmed, so Americans may be able to be sold on it. Here though is where Obama will run into trouble. The company portion must also be paid. So in large corporations and small private owned businesses employing highly skilled staff, this tax will be a heavy burden. Suppose a company had 10 employees who when combined made $2,000,000 above the $250,000. This would increase the company's taxes by $124,000. At a time when the economy is lagging, that burden may be too much to bear for some companies. For others, it will require cuts in payroll (layoffs, wage freezes, or reductions). The effect will be immediate and will harm working class people. Also, Medicare taxes never go down, they only go up. So, people will understand there is no turning back here. Income tax rates fluctuate, but if Obama were to push this tax through, it would never return to its previous position. This, I think, will in the end defeat Obama's plan or at least cause him to make some serious concessions. I hope I am right.

Let's take a minute to recap where those wealthy producers would stand if Obama's tax increases are approved. They would have federal income tax rate of 40%, payroll tax rate of 7.45%, and a state income tax rate probably around 8%. This means that for every additional dollar earned, the individual will only get to keep about forty-five cents. This is where individuals really start to look for tax shelters and begin to cheat on their taxes because they feel the burden is unfair, and so it is. This is not the way to help an economy recover. This is the way into a Depression.

Sports - Mountaineers need one more

The Mountaineers got in done at South Florida and probably only need to beat DePaul (winless in Big East play) to seal an NCAA tourney bid. The freshman are continuing to step up for the Mountaineers. Bryant played a real nice game at the point, 13 points, 2 assist, a steal and ZERO turnovers. He scored early when the rest of the team looked a little sluggish. Jones continues to improve and grow in his role, he has a nice mid range jumper. Ebanks could be a beast if he could shoot a little better from the outside. The three freshmen had just over half of the Mountaineers' points, each scoring in double digits.

The only negative is that the temporary theory that Butler had developed into a stud and would carry the team has been debunked. He's a very good player, but just not exceptional enough to be that kind of star player.

As a side note, the game against DePaul is personal for me. Wainright is the head coach for DePaul who previously coached the Richmond Spiders. He completely ruined the Spiders program and left it in shambles for a promotion to DePaul. I found the whole thing absurd as Wainright had done a terrible job at Richmond, he should have been fired not promoted. DePaul had good talent when he came in and the program had high hopes. They have gotten worse every year and here they are at 0-16 in the Big East. I would be extremely upset if WV did not do its part to expose Wainright for the coach that he is and allow DePaul to move on with their program. It was once a pretty proud program.