Monthly Archives: January 2020

TWENTY COOL-NAMED NCCAA COLLEGE SPORTS TEAMS

Another Balladeer’s Blog Top Twenty list for 2020. Previously I featured cool-named college sports teams from the NAIA and USCAA. This time it’s 20 cool-named teams from the NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association).

Yellowstone Christian College Centurions 2YELLOWSTONE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE CENTURIONS

Location: Billings, MT  

Comment: “Thwow him to the GWOUND, thentuwion!” Had to be said, for the sake of all us Monty Python fans. Joking aside, Centurions is a terrific and almost unique team name in college sports.

saint katherine firebirdsUNIVERSITY OF SAINT KATHERINE FIREBIRDS

Location: San Marcos, CA

Comment: These teams were named after the Doug McClure post-apocalypse movie Firebird: 2015 AD. I’m KIDDING! They were named after the legendary firebirds themselves. 

Nebraska Christian College SentinelsNEBRASKA CHRISTIAN COLLEGE SENTINELS

Location: Papillion, NE

Comment: The Sentinels have got it going on! So does their institution, which has a knack for unique and memorable team names. Prior to going by Sentinels NCC’s teams were called the Parsons.

Moody BIble Institute Archers bigMOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE ARCHERS

Location: Chicago, IL

Comment: Set your Mood Rings to “contemplative!” This team name comes from the school’s reference to their famous Arch, NOT to people who wield a bow and arrows, but that’s a common misconception. Continue reading

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Filed under college sports, Cool names and cool logos

FACULTY LOUNGE FASCIST ROUNDUP: JANUARY 31st

Education or indoctrination gifIt’s the latest installment of Faculty Lounge Fascist Roundup!

American “educators” (LMAO) and the American “Educational” System have long been jokes, and deservedly so.

For a look at some of the most absurd antics from the fools and fanatics who masquerade as teachers and students in America, ten years of campus reform efforts and related stories: Continue reading

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Filed under Education or Indoctrination, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

FOOL KILLER PART THIRTY-TWO: JANUARY OF 1910

Fool Killer 1910-1929Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE 

Balladeer’s Blog’s readers have been asking me to back up a bit and cover the 1910-1917 run of James Larkin Pearson’s Fool-Killer publication before following it any further into the Roaring Twenties. As always, I aim to please the readers, so here we go:

Fool Killer timelessPART THIRTY-TWO: The targets of Pearson’s Fool Killer (I prefer no hyphen) in this debut issue from January of 1910:

*** A flim-flam artist called Grammar who was selling bogus “eternal youth” treatments via his book Perpetual Life, or Living in the Body Forever.

*** Frederick Cook, who, the previous December, had seen his claim to have reached the North Pole ruled invalid and possibly fraudulent by the University of Copenhagen. (The Fool Killer was unable to locate Cook, however.)

*** The “Idle Rich” who had never worked a day in their gilded lives. One memorable line: “A good deal of ‘the cream of society’ ought to be churned.”

*** A Professor Pickering who wanted to raise 10 million dollars to send a message to the planet Mars. Continue reading

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TWENTY BUNYORO DEITIES: AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY

The year 2020 will see plenty of Top Twenty lists here at Balladeer’s Blog. Here’s a look at 20 Bunyoro Gods. Bunyoro was located in and around present-day Uganda. The people had an elaborate pantheon of deities. For the top gods of the Nyanga people instead, click HERE

UgandaRUHANGAThe supreme god of the Bunyoro pantheon. The creator and initiator of the world after he separated the Earth from the sky and adorned the sky with stars. Ruhanga stayed remote and, though omnipotent, was seldom invoked or prayed to. He provided the Banyoro people (Bunyoro for the place, Banyoro for the people) with children, animals and the harvest, but also was the author of disease, sickness and death.  

On the freshly-created Earth Ruhanga put three seeds into the ground and in 1 day 3 calabashes had grown. all on one stem. He took a man/woman couple out of the first 2 calabashes but found just a lone man in the third.  Ruhanga named the men KAKAMA, KAHIMA and KAIRU.  

After subjecting the men to tests to determine their worth, Kakama was judged the most worthy and Ruhanga decreed his descendants would be the ruling class. He further decreed that Kahima’s descendants would be the cattlemen class and Kairu’s descendants would be the farmer class. (No the myth doesn’t say who Kairu has the children with.) Continue reading

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OPENLY GAY RICKY REBEL’S STATEMENT ABOUT IMPEACHMENT AT THE GRAMMIES

Ricky RebelOpenly gay singer Ricky Rebel presented a butt-shot message about the ongoing impeachment absurdity.

Rebel made this cheeky statement at the Grammies.

“The impeachment process is a joke” he said. Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

COLLEGE BASKETBALL RANKINGS FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG

Per the Glitternight Index:

Midamerica Christian University Evangels BESTNCCAA   1. MID-AMERICA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY EVANGELS    ###    2. BETHEL (IN) UNIVERSITY PILOTS (Riverboat Pilots)    ###     3. WARNER UNIVERSITY ROYALS    ###     4. SOUTHWESTERN ASSEMBLIES OF GOD UNIVERSITY LIONS    ###    5. GRACE COLLEGE LANCERS    ###  Continue reading

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THE WAR UNDER THE SEA (1892): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

War Under the SeaTHE WAR UNDER THE SEA (1892) – Written by Georges Le Faure. This sci-fi work was intended as an escapist societal salve to a French public still smarting from their loss to Germanic forces during the Franco-Prussian War just over two decades earlier.  

One of the main characters in The War Under The Sea is Count Andre Petersen, a French military man who saw service in the Franco-Prussian War. The Count was appalled at France’s humiliation and since then has been running a secret intelligence organization to ensure that his homeland will be much better prepared the next time they must face Germans in war. And that’s not the only outrageous science fiction concept put forth in this novel. (I’m kidding.)

Unfortunately for Count Andre the Germans have been outmaneuvering his organization at the arts of spycraft and know the names of every member of his secret organization – even the Danish, Austrian and Alsation operatives. Unless the Count agrees to a political marriage to the daughter of a German Consul followed by the disbanding of his spy network the Germans will kill every one of his agents.

VindexInterestingly enough, despite this threat the Germans are not depicted as being any more bloodthirsty than the alleged “heroes” of this story as we will see. Though the Count and his allies prove equally callous about large-scale killing (and worse) their attitude is romanticized and approved of by the narrative since Andre and the others are fighting France’s traditional Continental foes the Germans. Instead of Film Noir think of this novel’s approach as callous enough to be called World Noir. Or at least Politics Noir.

The Count is rescued from his dilemma by Jacobus Delborg, a Dutch scientist who has created an incredibly advanced submarine and has been running an anti-German spy network of his own. Continue reading

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COOL-NAMED COLLEGE SPORTS TEAM: CLEVELAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Cleveland Community College YetisCLEVELAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE YETIS

Location: Shelby, NC

Comment: Special thanks to reader Andrew, who informed me about this incredibly cool name for the sports teams at Cleveland Community College! Continue reading

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NATALIE SHAU: FOR THIS ARTIST IT’S HALLOWEEN ALL YEAR ‘ROUND

Natalie Schau 2Mixed media artist Natalie Shau should have been featured in one of Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebrations of Halloween by now. Unfortunately, I’m late to the game when it comes to Shau’s dark, haunting and disturbing works of art.

If you’re squeamish then the images conjured up by this Lithuanian-born artist are not for you. She’s like a one-woman Deviant Art site. Some examples of Shau’s art: Continue reading

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COLLEGE BASKETBALL RESULTS FROM JANUARY 25th

NAIA

Benedictine College Ravens logoDOWN GOES NUMBER THREE – The BENEDICTINE COLLEGE RAVENS welcomed the number 3 team in the nation – the WILLIAM PENN UNIVERSITY STATESMEN. The Ravens built up a formidable 40-28 lead over the Statesmen by Halftime, then followed through with a 97-91 Upset. Matt Austin led Benedictine College with 27 points.

vanguard lions newOTHER UPSETS IN THE RANKINGS – The VANGUARD UNIVERSITY LIONS traveled to face the 18th ranked HOPE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY ROYALS and defeated them in a 62-61 Instant Classic    ###    And the CENTRAL CHRISTIAN COLLEGE OF KANSAS TIGERS notched a 78-75 Upset of the home-standing (19) TEXAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY RAMS.

usao_drovers_150px31CENTURY CLUB – Teams scoring 100 points or more in Regulation: The UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & ARTS OF OKLAHOMA DROVERS visited the SOUTHWESTERN CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY EAGLES and knocked them off 102-92    ###    And the WAYLAND BAPTIST UNIVERSITY PIONEERS utterly annihilated the visiting BACONE COLLEGE WARRIORS to the tune of 104-47.   Continue reading

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