The NAIA’s LAWRENCE TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY BLUE DEVILS – after a seven decade hiatus – will be fielding a football team!
The football Blue Devils will play their return intercollegiate season in 2018 as an Independent, then will join the Mid-States Football Association for their conference affiliation in 2019. Continue reading
Filed under college football
FOR PART 1 OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF MARVEL’S SUPERHEROINE MANTIS CLICK HERE
GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS Number 2 (November 1974) A Blast From The Past
Call me crazy, but since this story includes that rarest of things: a superhero death that is final I would have gone with the title Death of an Avenger instead of a cliché like A Blast From The Past.
Anyway … THINGS GET “TIMEY-WIMEY” FROM THIS POINT ON AS THE CELESTIAL MADONNA SAGA CONTINUES!
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
Synopsis: Nighttime in New York. The former Avenger Hawkeye, who has also quit the Defenders since the last time we dealt with him, opens up this installment by capturing a gang of jewel thieves.
When he turns them over to the police those cops tell Hawkeye (who probably slept the day away after a night of partying) about the day’s big news: Kang the Conqueror is back and he kidnapped the Avengers that morning. Kang boasted of his plans to wage war against the entire planet while waiting for something called “the Celestial Madonna” to reveal herself.
Hawkeye rushes off to Avengers Mansion where – even from several blocks away – he can see the incredibly bright artificial satellite called the Madonna Star still blazing away. Anxious crowds still surround the area, drawn by fears that the star means the end of the world and by rumors of some kind of “Madonna.”
Inside the mansion Hawkeye finds the Swordsman, the butler Jarvis and Pharaoh Rama Tut – Kang’s other self. (Explanation below.) The three bring Hawkeye up to date on everything from our last installment, including the increasingly tense international situation after the slaughter of Egyptian troops at the hands of Kang’s creation. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
Professor Camille Paglia – another of us former Democrats (like President Trump himself) who have grown disgusted with how low that party has sunk – weighed in on the circus that the Democrats’ corporate media has reduced itself to.
Fake News was one of the topics Paglia discussed. The link is below. First some excerpts:
Paglia called what she said the Democratic Party has done to journalism “absolutely grotesque” and warned it would take decades to recover.
“It’s obscene,” she said. “It’s outrageous, OK? It shows that the Democrats are nothing now but words and fantasy and hallucination and Hollywood. There’s no journalism left. What’s happened to The New York Times? What’s happened to the major networks? It’s an outrage.”
“And I think it’s absolutely grotesque the way my party has destroyed journalism. Right now, it is going to take decades to recover from this atrocity that’s going on where the news media have turned themselves over to the most childish fraternity, kind of buffoonish behavior.” Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
FRONTIERADO IS COMING UP ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 4th!
The Frontierado Holiday is about the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality. The Danites – the gunslinging Knights of the Mormon faith – are an underutilized and underappreciated element of Old West fiction.
The opportunities for action presented to a Danite could start as early as the 1838 Mormon War in Missouri. After that there’s the Illinois Mormon War in the 1840s which ended in the Siege of Nauvoo.
Following that conflict the Mormon Exodus to the West began, with “Deseret” (later called Utah) as the ultimate destination. Danites – like Christian Knights of long ago protecting Pilgrims headed for their “Holy Land” – safeguarded Mormon travelers from attacks by hooded anti-Mormon gangs, from armed outlaws and from various Native American tribes along the way.
In Deseret itself there were conflicts with Mexican raiders after the end of America’s war with Mexico (1846-1848). Danites would also be called upon to battle various Native American tribes in Deseret, in the role of oppressors rather than oppressed much of the time.
They would also fight Navajo armies to stop them from seizing Paiute Indians as slaves. (The anti-slavery faction in Mormonism is often overlooked.) Plus the Danites faced the task of driving off armed bands of prospectors wanting the gold and other precious metals of the area.
There was also the Utah War with the Mormons fighting the United States Army from 1857-1858. On top of that add rumored armed conflicts among competing factions of Mormon leaders with the Danites caught in the middle like Mafia gunmen serving their respective “Dons” as it were.
NOTE: This blog post is interested only in the neglected potential of Danites as mythic heroes and/or villains in western sagas. I know that in real life the Mormon Church downplays or distances themselves from the Danites because of the violence often associated with them. Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
Ragnar the Dog is a nut for college football!
He usually waits til August to start with his preseason rankings, but this year he is so impatient for the season to start that he insisted on publishing them now.
Have a look at what this handsome little pooch predicts for the 2017 NAIA football season.
***
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) 1. MONTANA TECH OREDIGGERS ### 2. BAKER UNIVERSITY WILDCATS 3. UNIVERSITY OF SAINT FRANCIS (IN) COUGARS (Defending National Champions) ### 4. REINHARDT UNIVERSITY EAGLES (Should be the Rottweilers) ### 5. EASTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY MOUNTAINEERS ###
6. ARIZONA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY FIRESTORM ### 7. LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS ### 8. MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS ### 9. MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS ### 10. DOANE COLLEGE TIGERS ### Continue reading
Filed under college football, dogs
Remember the real-life Serpico? If not, he was the cop who blew the lid off the way taking bribes was a way of life for virtually the entire New York City Police Department for decades.
Even the cops who weren’t on the take practiced omerta and refused to talk about the way all the others WERE on the take.
Our de facto Third Party President Donald Trump is a political Serpico – hated by the crooked because he’s not part of their bought and paid for club.
America’s political officials have been rotten to the core for a very, very long time. They are going to hate ANYONE who exposes their corruption. Compared to them even a black-hearted, swashbuckling rogue like Donald Trump can emerge on the side of the figurative angels.
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
FRONTIERADO IS COMING UP ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 4th!
As always, Frontierado is a holiday dedicated to the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. Here is a look at a handful of ladies who served as gunslinging Marshals.
ADA CURNUTT
Around 1889 or 1890 Ada Curnutt moved to Oklahoma (formerly Indian Territory) with her sister and her brother-in-law. By some accounts Ada chose to head west to get out from under the influence of her Methodist Minister father and equally devout mother.
When she was 20 years old, Curnutt started working as a Clerk of the Court in Norman, OK. Finding a desk job too dull for her, Ada soon became a Deputy Marshal for United States Marshal William Grimes. Her duties included serving writs and warrants, escorting dangerous prisoners from one jurisdiction to another and, of course, making arrests. Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
FOR PART 1 OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF MARVEL’S SUPERHEROINE MANTIS CLICK HERE
AVENGERS Volume 1, Number 129 (November 1974) Bid Tomorrow Goodbye
AVENGERS ROSTER: Thor (Donald Blake, MD), Iron Man (Tony Stark), The Scarlet Witch (Wanda Frank), The Vision (not applicable), The Swordsman (Jacques Duquesne) and MANTIS (Mantis Brandt).
BID TOMORROW GOODBYE
Synopsis: The story picks up where we left off last time. The Avengers and the sorceress Agatha Harkness – the Scarlet Witch’s mentor – have gathered outside Avengers Mansion. Stunned crowds of onlookers have gathered as well, in reaction to the incredibly bright artificial star that appeared over Avengers Mansion like a sci-fi version of the Star of Bethlehem.
Kang the Conqueror, a frequent foe of the Avengers, appeared on the scene, saying that the star was a signal to him. A signal that the time of the Celestial Madonna had arrived and that 20th Century Earth was ripe for conquest. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
Balladeer’s Blog presents another edition of “Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead.” This time around it’s to Wang Chung, for their memorable soundtrack for the INCREDIBLY underappreciated movie To Live and Die in L.A.
The movie was from some of the creative team behind Miami Vice and was often described as “Film Noir Meets MTV.” After a teaser depicting Secret Service Agent Richard Chance and his partner saving the U.S. president from a Muslim terrorist the main story focuses on the often-neglected role of the U.S. Secret Service: fighting counterfeiters.
Ironically the movie features top scenes from the novel it’s based on, yet presents the story with the exact opposite meaning that the novel offers. Both are enjoyable but in entirely different ways – the film as flash and the book as substance.
And Robert Downey SENIOR has a small role for you trivia buffs.
Filed under opinion
Here at Balladeer’s Blog I am STILL fascinated with so much of the political realignment going on in this country. The latest word is that some of the DemoKKKrats have at last realized that their ridiculous slogan “Resistance” just isn’t working out like they’d hoped.
They’re trying out “A Better Deal,” since long ago when Democrats actually cared about the working class they had some success with FDR’s New Deal and Truman’s Fair Deal. (And remember, my criticism of the DemoKKKrats is in NO WAY an endorsement of the Republicans, too many of whom are like that piece of garbage Paul Ryan.)
Here are some appropriate slogans that the Democrats should consider:
DEMOCRATS: APPEALING TO THE WORST ASPECTS OF HUMAN NATURE FOR ROUGHLY TWO HUNDRED YEARS!
DEMOCRATS: WE’D RATHER SEE THOUSANDS OF YOU PEASANTS GET KILLED THAN SEE ONE SINGLE MUSLIM TERRORIST INCONVENIENCED AT AN AIRPORT!
DEMOCRATS: BEFORE REPUBLICAN JOSEPH MCCARTHY THERE WAS DEMOCRAT MARTIN DIES!
DEMOCRATS: WE’LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU PEASANTS FOR HUMILIATING ME SO BADLY! (I understand Hillary Clinton suggested this one.)
DEMOCRATS: WE CAUSED THE DOMESTIC SPREAD OF SLAVERY, THE TRAIL OF TEARS, THE JAPANESE INTERNMENT, THE SPOILS SYSTEM AND THE KKK, THEN PASSED THE BLAME ON TO THE REST OF YOU!
DEMOCRATS: PROTECTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM THE SCUM CALLED AMERICAN CITIZENS!
DEMOCRATS: REMEMBER “DON’T TRUST ANYONE OVER THIRTY?” WE’VE ADJUSTED THAT TO “DON’T TRUST ANYONE UNDER SEVENTY OR OVER TWENTY-ONE!”
DEMOCRATS: YOU PEONS NEED TO GET USED TO THE FACT THAT THIS COUNTRY EXISTS SOLELY TO PERPETUATE PRIVILEGES FOR OUR POLITICAL PARTY! Continue reading
Filed under humor, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, opinion
Balladeer's Blog 