…is currently occupied by Lynn Jenkins. Opinions on her vary. Apparently, she has a million dollar smile and what I believe to be a significantly less valued intellect. Seen her press? Checked her (albeit brief) voting record? Most moderate Republicans I know wince every time she opens her gob. Nancy Boyda doesn’t look so futile now, does she? Nancy Boyda was the moderate Democrat who unseated Jim Ryun in 2006 (largely on the heels of a national anti-war/anti-Republican movement). Then, Boyda lost by about 5 points to Jenkins. This seat is definitely in play. Jenkins will have to work hard to keep her seat. I find this swing between right-wing Republicans to moderate Democrats a curious one. Did it ever occur to the KRP to run a moderate candidate? Oh, there aren’t any you say? Ahhh, Kansas. In fairness, Jim Ryun held onto the seat for a few terms. As Ryun became more comfortable and confident in his role as US Representative, the more obvious it was he was not suited for the job. Rep. Jenkins showed her hand far sooner. I thank her for that. So here we go with what looks like (and shouldn’t be based on ability) another close 2nd district race in 2010.
If you’re not sure about Kansas (US) Congressional Districts, look to the link below:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=KS
An unpleasantly (yet apt) titled blog view of Rep. Jenkins:
http://crooksandliars.com/logan-murphy/gop-embarassment-lynn-jenkins-has-dem
Being a moderate candidate in this red state isn’t easy. I wish them good luck.
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Tags: KS Politics, Lawrence
What is it that we say about opinions? Well, I’m sure you’ve heard the…..
Please note that for almost all of the 2009 kickball season (May to September), Mike handled the posting here. I had a few early bits and added one late piece. And, as kball is no longer the seasonal “it” thing to talk about, I believe I’ll move the discussion elsewhere for awhile.
First off, seen this from the LJW yet: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/sep/23/vermont-street-bbq-closing-four-days/
I think a little context is important here. Read the piece (brief bit from Mark Fagan), then…and this is always the best part from the LJW, READ THE COMMENTS. Seriously, I’d almost rather be subjected to diatribes from Perez Hilton. Almost can’t believe I just typed that. I didn’t realize people in this community were so knowledgeable with the inner workings of downtown restaurants. Hopefully, any of you who know me understand that this was not an easy decision for any of us (ownership). Shad made some clear and honest statements. At least, give him that. I’m sure more information will come to light in the days ahead. Oh boy. As the week goes on, I expect a new adventure awaits under every bar stool.
It’s good to be back under the watchful eye of the internets.
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Tags: Lawrence, Vermont Street BBQ
Post Season – Week 1
Once again, I’ve waited far too long in between posts, and left all of you waiting and wanting for more kickball gossip/rumors/allegations of fraudulent reffing. It appears that there were a couple of upsets yesterday if we are going by the rankings, 22 seeded Toepokes beat out number 11 screamers (9 – 8), 20 seeded Red Lyon defeated the 13 seed Mad Greek (11 – 8), and even though it ended with the status quo, it looked for a good portion of the game that #25 Open Sky was going to edge out #8 Das Boot. I thought for sure Open sky was going to put some hurt on the consolation bracket but they showed that they are a youthful team and let it slip in the 10th inning of their second game. better luck next year guys, and i hope to see all of the teams that might not be participating in games still come out and have some fun/ref at the games still to come.
Another interesting score i’ve seen is Rangelife Vs. Replay (14 – 4). One would think that the number 6 team should really end up with a larger scoring gap considering they were playing the 27th rank, and arguably the most coctail friendly team in the league. Perhaps not all ascensions/descents are completely justified, but i’d sure love to take this feud to the field as we are running out of clever ways to call them hipsters. I’m not saying that we would like to challenge them to a game post season, perhaps 3pm on the final day at Hobbes before the championship games start happening, or am I? Perhaps my challenge is unwarranted, if they beat the Toepokes, then Love Garden, and we run through Liberty Hall, then First Blood, we could end up playing them as is. In the spirit of proper shit talkery though, i’d like to point out that they have only played one game (which they lost) of the caliber that our schedule was based upon (which i understand we lost also). if i were a betting man, i would definitely say that the Sacred Swords have a lot better chance of ousting First Blood, than Rangelife and their pack of yelping pseudo indy hippy fans have of taking out Love Garden, especially with their 1st and 3rd base acquisitions this year.
p.s. Curtis, you hurt my feelings when you called us a downgrade so now it is now the sword’s kickball crusade to prove we still have what it takes.
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Guest blogophant: Deron
Ah, kickball community. It has been too long. With only one week in the regular season remaining, I felt it time to insert a reflection post. I missed doing the blog this year and I FIRMLY believe Mike has hoisted a proud flag of prattle and perpetual crap-talk-itude that few dignified folks could match. Thanks Mike, may the doldrums of KC bring you that golden fleece you so seek.
Inspiration(?) It was easy to be inspired by the meteoric rise of now President Barrack Obama. His pasting of Alan Keyes to win an Illinois Senate seat, his brief but noticeable tenure in the Senate, several turbulent Democratic primaries, and a general election victory (365-173) over McCain/Palin. By the way, no one has been beaten that badly in a presidential election since sitting VP G.H.W.Bush over Gov. Michael Dukakis (426-111) in 1988. That would be akin to losing 25 to 1 in the KVKL, me thinks.
So, awash with inspirado, how could I possibly follow that with an ambitious agenda as 2009 KVKL Commissioner? I believe the answer to be quite simple: delegate responsibility, patience, and a sanguine outlook towards the future. Firstly, this may be the cause of some debate, ambitious agenda’s may not be a great fit for the KVKL (see the KVKL community forum). I’m a hands-on person, so delegating has not been my specialty. Clearly defined roles for all pertinent league contributors would have made accountability much more cogent. It then would have been easier to assess our individual and collective success/fail rates. More leadership was needed here. Simply put, I believe I failed in this arena. Patience, on the other hand, came in spurts. It was only the repeat offenders that led me to question their intentions and my willingness to publicly spank them for their actions. By the way, I’m all for public flogging. Flog away. Lastly, a cheery outlook? Seriously, that’s all you need in this league.
The best part about being in this league, regardless of one’s position, is the folks that show up every week. Seriously, you all make the league work. Sure, I’m the grouchy bastard on Sunday’s shooing folks away from Hobbs after G.O.T.W. Yes sirs and ma’ams, it doesn’t always come off so well. Or, how about when I chastise you about throwing trash in the aluminum recycling bins or simply for not picking up after yourselves. I know, I know….all these mixed signals! What to do? It’s important to realize that we have ALL created something, something special. This league, among it’s followers, is the toast and talk of the town in ALL seasons. How many of you have been approached in the off-season about kickball? There are 30 teams and probably 600 (more or less) players/fans/auxillaries. That, ladies and gentleman, represents a constituency. A group with a voice, a mission, and even the power to make a difference (our donation to Heath Care Access last year is a fine example as are the donations for Andrew from Girls w/LSE). So with that presence, and the nature of what we do, I feel it important to behave above reproach. We are members of this community (after all, most fields are IN our neighborhoods). I believe we should strive to make a difference where and when we can at only a cost to ourselves. Read again, with a little foresight WE ARE NOW ABLE TO MAKE SUBSTANTIVE CHANGES IN OUR COMMUNITY BY playing KICKBALL. This is no joke and yes, that just happened. How’s that for ambitious agenda?
While it may not always appear so, I am eternally grateful to you all.
Proudly, I have served at the pleasure of the Kaw Valley Kickball League.
Deron Belt
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Week 9 Predictions
First Blood over Eastsiders
Pita Pit over Love Garden
Tellers over Brew Ballers
Sacred Sword Over Jazzhaus
Rangelife Over Red Lyon
Open Sky over Lady Lumps
Girls With LSE over Solidarity
Channel 6 over Slow ride
Free State over West Coast (yes i heard the podcast you shit talking mathlete north Korean mother fucker)
TIME OUT
TIME IN
Eldridge over Das Boot
Liberty Hall over Yellow Sub
Wildman over Miltons
Astrokitty over Weavers
Replay over BCP
Screamers over Mad Greek
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July 26 Predictions
Astrokitty over Screamers (i think pauls puppets are going to take this one)
Eldridge over Brew Ballers (going to be close for sure but i think the ghosts have it)
Love Garden over Jazzhaus (this one will be too close for comfort in my opinion but as long as love garden wins, my strengh of schedule is high).
Tellers over Red Lyon (no brainer, sorry lyon, but your heat went to the haus)
Rangelife over Das Boot (upgrade to Rangelife for super solid play, downgrade to curtis for being pissy and downgrading sword)
Eastsiders over Pita Pit (this is my upset o’ the week, also downgrade to curtis for his jean jacket)
Sacred sword over first blood (like i could pick any other way, also downgrade to curtis for his ever present midriff)
Weavers over yellowsub (another close one)
Liberty Hall over Mad Greek (I hope their ref choices are strong)
Miltons over Slowride (Mil tang clan aint nothing to muck with)
BCP over channel 6 (NL needs to run the bases on a bunt for the winning point though)
Wildman over Replay (they’ll all be wasted)
Open Sky over Free state (i think open is going 5 and 5 this year)
West Coast over Solidarity (nuff said)
Girls with LSE over Lady Lumps (GWLSE have some good karma coming their way).
As always, let me know if you disagree and feel free to post your games/other games you know the outcomes of here so we can see just how intelligent that i am not.
Mike.
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Midweek post.
Sorry for the delay on the post here guys/gals, amidst the self loathing that came from the 3 game skid Sacred Sword is a part of, and the fact that Curtis has listed my team as an official “downgrade,” I just didn’t feel like stepping up to the proverbial plate and writing out my thoughts. There was, however, an instance this week at one of our games that needs to be mentioned. During the game between West Coast Saloon and Girls with LSE, Andrew from GWLSE was a part of an incident on the field in which his head hit the ground which caused him some pretty serious trauma. I won’t go in to much more detail that than as I don’t want to be a part of faulty reporting, but that isn’t the issue here. He was rushed to LMH, and is now subsequently still under observation due to a blood clot in his brain at KU Med. He is also uninsured. There are going to be many fundraisers over the next couple of weeks (including a drive at the game of the week this week) so I would encourage anyone who is able to donate and help him out as he is now going to have 5-6 days of full medical treatment to cover which is no small amount.
please take the time to let people who may not frequent this blog or the forums about this issue and the efforts to help Andrew as I’m sure he would appreciate any help we could give him at this point.
Mike.
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July 19 Predictions
First off, let me start by printing a retraction. Much like a language based bull in an internet china shop, I hastily posted some new rules on my week 12 predictions post. Let it be known that those rules are not yet a part of the KVKL rules and should not be played as such. Deron Belt has assured me that they are working day and night to find the proper language so that they can be ratified, however we are not quite to that point, so please don’t take them literally when reffing your games this week. I speak of course to you: Adam, Geoff, Chris, Deron, Adrian, and myself largely the only community to apparently read this thing.
now. predictions. I’m in a bit of a time pinch so no scores to accompany today.
Weavers over screamers
channel 6 over Miltang clan
pita pit over jazzhaus
first blood over love garden
tellers over rangelife
sacred sword over easysiders
free state over lady lumps
open sky over solidarity
das boot over brewballers
eldridge over red lyon
blue collar over wildman
West Coast over Girls with LSE
Mad Greek over yellow Sub
Replay over Slow Ride
Liberty Hall over Astrokitty
good games this week all and if anyone knows the outcomes of the games before they get posted on the main site feel free to shoot over the results int he comments so we can see how clairvoyent i am.
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Apparently it is a good week to visit kickball blogging sites, because all 4 of you that look at this thing have visited Sunday(s) in the Park a record breaking!!!! 150+ times (this record is unsubstantiated and most likely affected by my urge to check for comments every 3.67 minutes give or take). With that in mind, I figured what would be a better time to start a friendly conversation on how everything thinks we should have the post-season tournament structured this year.
It was mentioned during the most recent captain’s meeting that there are some who are looking into the possibility of having a 2 loss elimination tournament this year. I think this is an absolutely amazing idea, because it gives some of the teams who may not be the most competitive a second shot at playing some games. Lets be honest, some of the most entertaining games are fought between the teams that probably aren’t going to make it past round 1 or 2. This will also create a better situation for the more competitive games also, as the refs will be more interested in kickball if they aren’t 2 or 3 weeks removed from the season when they are reffing.
I think the easiest way to accomplish this would be to take the teams who lost in rounds 1/2 and put them in a separate “bragging rights” bracket at that point to see who comes out on top, however i also think that is a fairly boring suggestion and would like to see if there is a pooling system, or non single loss advancement system that someone thinks could work when applied to our little community.
i haven’t really fleshed anything out as structuring tournaments is something that i’ve simply never done, but i’d love to hear what everyone thinks about a possible change to the post-season tourney to keep more people involved.
Mike.
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