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Will Notre Dame Go Undefeated? It all started in Ireland...

Will Notre Dame Go Undefeated?  It all started this year in Ireland with a win over Navy.  Tonight could see history made.  GO ND!

http://www.irishcentral.com/sport/The-legend-of-Brian-Kelly-takes-off-as-Notre-Dame-stand-on-edge-of-history-180684511.html

The legend of Brian Kelly takes off as Notre Dame stand on edge of history

The march to the BCS bowl all began with victory over Navy on Irish soil

By 

PATRICK COUNIHAN,

 

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Saturday, November 24, 2012, 7:39 AM

Updated Saturday, November 24, 2012, 7:39 AM

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See more: Brian Kelly  

Brian Kelly, Notre Dame's head coach

Photo by Google Images

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It began on a September Saturday in a Dublin rugby stadium – now the Brian Kelly legend is blossoming as Notre Dame rewrite the history books under their influential coach.

A season that opened with a win against Navy on Irish soil is taking on a whole new dimension for the famous college.

And who could have predicted the manner in which the Kelly legend would grow on that transatlantic visit to Ireland two months ago.

A glowing report in the Chicago Tribune states that familiarity with a coach’s demands could have bred contempt; for Irish it shaped mutual admiration society.

Writer Brian Hamilton recalls how a visit to an open training session in 2010 saw him witness Kelly shouting and cajoling his players.

Now, he says, Kelly may shout from time to time but a new Mr Nice Guy approach has inspired Notre Dame to an 11-0 season, one triumph short of a national championship game bid.

Hamilton outlines how Kelly dines with his players, how his door is always open, how the lines of communication are available 24-7.

This is the coach who insists the playbook occupy a specific spot in each locker. Hamilton suggests: “Maybe he’s nicer because he’s nicer. Maybe he’s nicer because the Irish mess up less. But a No. 1 ranking seems to be proof positive works.”

Linebacker Manti Te’o told the Tribune: “He just seems more relaxed. He seems more comfortable. He doesn’t have to test us anymore. He knows what we can do. He knows how we’re going to play, and he knows we’re going to give everything we have.

“He doesn’t have to do double practices in the fall to know how much heart this team has. He knows how much we have. He knows that we care about him, that we’ll do anything for him. He has found comfort with that, that confidence in his team.”

Hamilton reports: “With a victory Saturday night at USC, Kelly enters into the rarefied Year 3 air certain Notre Dame coaches occupy: Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine and Lou Holtz all won a first national title in their respective third seasons, and Kelly would get his chance to match that.

“It can be theorized that 11 victories would make any coach bubbly. But Kelly assumed, publicly, a painstakingly reserved posture since the preseason. That means he had contrived his approach before the first kickoff. That means he knew his players knew what he wanted. That means he knew this season screamed only for positive reinforcement.”

Kelly himself said: “I’ve let my coaches coach, and I’ve tried to spend more time with our players on a day-to-day basis.

“I think it was needed and necessary in our third year. The first couple of years I had to set a bar and a standard and an operation of the way we wanted things done on a day-to-day basis.

“Sometimes that means you have to be hard on some guys. This third year was a year where you knew our guys knew exactly what was expected, and it allowed me to spend more time with my players and build those relationships that are so important to having great morale.”

Notre Dame players now know where they stand with Kelly, a man who pays attention to detail.

Receiver John Goodman said: “When guys wouldn’t do the right thing - and there was a lot of the wrong thing being done by us the first couple of years - if he didn’t like it, then he’d yell or something.

“A lot of these guys on our team don’t take that as constructive criticism. It’s more, ‘Oh, this guy doesn’t like me, why he is yelling at me?’ And they’ll go out and do something wrong again. When you approach guys positively, like he’s doing now, then they take it a lot better.”

Center Braxston Cave said: “The biggest thing is we know he cares about every single guy.”

Hamilton wrote: “When Kelly arrived at Notre Dame, he told his new players that he had been where they wanted to go. He asked them to stick to the plan, and he would show them the way.

“Here they are, in a place none of them ever have been, at the virtual Hillary Step of their ascent. Brian Kelly has everything he needs to win, and he’s winning, and winning just one more gilds this journey. Everyone is positive about that.”

Kelly told him: “They would tell you from Day 1 they were pretty clear on what the mission was. As you develop closer relationships with your players, they start to go, ‘Oh, I now know what you were talking about.’ I think we’re at that point now."

@Lindsey Stone! Stop Being Stupid.

Young People have to learn that most sane and mature people care about things considered sacred.  Respect is necessary for a functioning society.  Ms. Stone's insensitivity cost her a job.  It cost all of us who desire a world of care and concern for others, for now we live in a society where community is at the mercy of self described "douchebags".  She may have meant no disrespect, but it is disrespectful.  She enjoys being disrespectful to authority.  Now she learns "authority" no longer wants to give her a paycheck.

http://wizbangblog.com/2012/11/20/meet-lindsey-stone-self-professed-douchebag/ 

Johnny Cash sings Thanksgiving

Johnny Cash and Thanksgiving....  Beautiful

DON'T SHOP ON THANKSGIVING DAY

It's crazy to have all these stores opening on Thanksgiving Day.  Too many people have to leave family to go and work.  People can buy all the crap they want other days.  Keep Thanksgiving a day for rest, relaxation, reflection.  Eat, watch football, thank God for everything.  Listen to Mary Chapin Carpenter

Song from Parenthood "You ain't alone, just let me be your ticket home"

Cool song from tonight's Parenthood (11/13/2012).  Alabama Shakes, "You Ain't Alone"

Lies I've heard recently: $60,000 for each poor family. Right...

   

Recently someone sent me an article from the Weekly Standard claiming the USA spends $60,000 per poor family in the USA.  Some people (i.e., journalists) really need to check out that commandment against bearing false witness, in other words lying.

The facts of the matter are that TANF [Temporary Aid to Needy Families] gives much less than welfare AFDC [Aid to Families with Dependent Children] ever did.  There is no welfare, AFDC, since Clinton "ended welfare as we know it."   A person is only eligible for TANF for five years and then she and her kids are on their own (usually it's the woman who is left to care for the children).

The truth is TANF and food stamps do not add up to more than two thirds of the poverty line, $23,031 for a family of four (http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/cb12-172.html).

The idea that the USA spends an inordinate sum to aid the poor is bogus.  The entire budget only spends 38% on all Human Resources costs.  AFDC never cost more than 1% of the federal budget.  The military this year will cost 48% of the federal budget (https://www.warresisters.org/sites/default/files/FY2012piechart-color.pdf ).

Here's the  link to the Weekly Standard story. 

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/over-60000-welfare-spentper-household-poverty_657889.html

Compare the above to articles blowing the Weekly Standard article out of the water

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/peter-edelman/poverty-social-safety-net_b_1980431.html


http://www.thenation.com/blog/170849/week-poverty-bigfoot-nessie-and-paul-ryan

Here's the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities with all the graphs and facts.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3700 





Vital Statistics
US poverty (less than $22,314 for a family of four): 46 million people, 15.1 percent of population.
Children in poverty: 16.4 million, 22 percent of all children, including 39 percent of African-American children and 35 percent of Latino children.
Number of poor children receiving cash aid: one in five.
Poverty rate for people in female-headed families: 42 percent.
Single mothers with incomes under $25,000: 50 percent.
Single mothers working: 67 percent.
Deep poverty (less than $11,157 for a family of four): 20.5 million people, 6.7 percent of population. Up from 12.6 million in 2000.
Increase in deep poverty, 1976-2010: doubled—3.3 percent of population to 6.7 percent.
Americans with no income other than food stamps: 6 million, 2 percent of population.
Twice the poverty level (less than $44,628 for a family of four): 103 million people, roughly 1 in 3 Americans.
Families receiving cash assistance, 1996: 68 for every 100 families living in poverty.
Families receiving cash assistance, 2010: 27 for every 100 families living in poverty.
Impact of public policy, 2010: without government assistance, poverty would have been twice as high—nearly 30 percent of population.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/170849/week-poverty-bigfoot-nessie-and-paul-ryan