RattlerGator Blog

Florida Boys Comin' For Ya, Bama!

It's finally here. Bama Week.

I feel good about this game. May the best team win and that team should be the true blue Fightin' Florida Gators! This is the SEC and, contrary to media opinions galore, Bama is still chasing us -- two recent national titles to one.

The Earthquake Looms

What earthquake, you may ask? The political earthquake of my lifetime. AJStrata at the Strata-Sphere blog has done the calculations and sourced the tea leaves . . . and the numbers look desperately bad for the Democrats. Quite simply, they're going to have to pull off some incredible stunt to blunt the effect of what is rumbling up from the people.

Perhaps two years too late, but far clearer and far more resolute than was possible in 2008, the earthquake looms:

Yes, the earthquake is coming . . . and not a second too soon.

1979 Delta Force Memory

I found the video presented below over at Ace of Spades and it touched me, in an Army kind of way. All I could think about as I watched the brief video (it's not quite four minutes) was a 1979 incident where I almost rolled a Jeep while I was a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Here's the deal: I had only recently been granted a Top Secret clearance that additionally permitted me access  to "Special Intelligence." I had been reassigned to an Army Security Agency unit in Germany and was simply waiting for the May or June date to arrive for my flight to Germany. I was in the 50th Signal Battalion, Airborne. Bravo Company. We called our battalion "Five-O," our headgear badge identified us as the "Key to Command" and our battalion referred to itself as the "Voice of the Dragon" because we were the command communications force for the Commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps. This is the patch of the XVIII Airborne Corps:

At that time, I believe, the constituent units of the Corps consisted of the "All-Americans" of the 82d Airborne Division (Fort Bragg, N.C.), the "Screaming Eagles" of the 101st Airborne Division (Fort Campbell, Ky.), and the soldiers of the 24th Infantry Division (Fort Stewart, Ga.; they've since been reflagged as the Rock of the Marne, the 3rd Infantry Division).

On a Friday, I believe, I was called to battalion headquarters and informed I had new duty assigned for Saturday. I had no idea what it was but I sure as heck wasn't happy. Years later, I would be very happy with the assignment. It was out at Camp Mackall, a well-known Green Beret training site, and I was transporting an Army Ranger who had come in from Fort Lewis to view a Delta Force demonstration exercise (mind you, this was before I even knew Delta Force existed or what Delta Force was to become).

This Ranger was a black dude, an officer, and truly lean and mean. I was racing through the back trails of Camp Mackall to get us to our destination (I was being directed by the Ranger) when I took a curve a bit too quickly. I swear, mid-roll (and all of this seemed to occur in slow motion, of course) he just looked at me, and I looked at him, and I instantly knew I'd better smoothly bring this MoFu back to terra firma. And that I did, thank goodness.

That night I was treated to one of the first views of the incredible fighting force America was putting together (it was an airplane hostage situation) for the coming fight against terrorism. These many years later, I don't know if they drugged me or what. But it is tremendously difficult for me to remember precisely how the exercise concluded, what happened to the Army Ranger I was transporting, or how I got back to the barracks. I admit I was tired, didn't truly know what I was being given privy to, and the event and eventual assault stretched well into the night. Honestly, the kid may have simply fallen asleep. But I do remember being there, I remember seeing the "hostages" being bussed in, I remember the airplane on the runway, and I remember the nighttime helicopters. But not much for days after that.

Soon thereafter, I was off to Germany and my final year in the Army before coming home for college at U.F.

Now to the video:

Very impressive, don't you agree? Kudos to that Canadian Army unit.

When Did You Become a Gator?

Presented below is the new spot U.F. has developed for presentation on football and other athletic telecasts, etc. It, of course, plays on the now familiar "Gator Nation" theme:

Yep, it still works. Well done, Gators.

Good news is also floating around the internet about the Wall Street Journal listing UF as a Top Ten school for corporate recruiters and a top 50 worldwide university for research output.

Football Holiday

Rarely have I ever been as hyped to sit down and do nothing all day but watch college football. All day, and well into the night, there are significant games everywhere.

Of course, there is one primary game -- the Gator game. Today we have to deal with the upstart USF Bulls. You know, the college called South Florida that isn't located in South Florida. Years ago I called them Tampa State and that name still seems appropriate.

Go Gators! Beat Tampa State!

Overview of the New World Trade Center

The New York Times has posted an interesting media show detailing the progress on reconstructing the World Trade Center that is worth a look.

Governor Christie of New Jersey

I haven't seen much of Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey but if the video below is any indication, wow!

Presuming he can stay on the straight and narrow, this guy definitely has a national future.

I Want Your Money

An avowedly conservative film that critiques Zee Roh? Incrediburgible! I Want Your Money is the flick and it goes into distribution in October. This is an interesting development, and the New York Times is taking note. Here's the trailer:

I don't have high hopes for the flick but I am interested in seeing the end-product. Presently, there is no listing for the film being shown anywhere in Florida or Georgia and I find that extremely weird.

A Tebow Hangover

Wow.

Blame is certainly racing around the state of Florida (once the shock the subsides) over the Gators performance yesterday. If one party to blame isn't obvious, one will be anointed (they are certainly targeting CCoach Addazio already). Me, I'm flushing that game down the memory hole because I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

However:

[1] I've never seen a Gator QB get as much unchallenged hype before taking the reigns as JB4. Not even Tim got this kind of unchallenged hype in his sophomore year (doubters about parts of his game were numerous inside and outside of Gator Nation). That was a pressure disaster waiting to happen and the silver lining here is that it has all been flushed.

[2] The conventional wisdom among Gator fans is probably eating Addazio alive. I'm hoping he can remain steady in the boat.

[3] Yesterday was a Tebow hangover; there needed to be more fire in that huddle and on the sidelines and it wasn't coming. So, we've got to release Tim from our current reality while acknowledging just how great, and how incredibly unique he was.

[4] Our twin at Center had something of a meltdown on gameday and surely missed his brother. I really don't want to overstate this but I sure as heck am not going to understate it, either. I've never seen something like that from a premier player.

[5] I can't read all of these threads but I sure wish I knew what the heck was the deal with Andre Debose.

[6] I can only assume the plain vanilla gets ditched against USF and the real Gator football season gets underway in earnest this coming Saturday.

[7] He may never acknowledge it, but Urban appears to use this opening game every year as something of an open-ended laboratory that's going to tell him something about the nature of his team and how the plan to win should be implemented. I felt like I was watching a Bill Belichick throw-away exhibition game yesterday.

That said, I still believe in the Plan to Win, JB4, Deonte and all of our receivers, Demps and all of our RBs, that rugged Gator D. Most of all, I believe in our coaches and the methodical system they have implemented.

Come on Big Orange and Blue; Go Gators !!!

Food for Thought on the 2nd of September

[1] From Jay Costs' new gig at The Weekly Standard:

From McKees Rocks to Columbus? It is looking increasingly likely that John Kasich will be the next governor of Ohio.  Rasmussen shows the Republican up 12 against incumbent Ted Strickland, with the latter at just 40 percent.  PPP has Kasich up 10, again with Strickland mired at 40%.  The GOP's time in the Ohio wilderness after the Taft debacle appears to have been fairly short.  

Tom Jensen of PPP summarizes the state of the Midwestern Democratic Party:

I think this fact sums up how much trouble Democrats are in for in the Midwest this year: Ted Strickland's 34/52 approval rating on the Ohio poll we put out today makes him...the most popular Democratic Governor in a Big Ten State! (...)

The Midwest, rather than the South, is going to be the Democrats' worst region because they have so much more to lose. When you see approval numbers like these for the Governors in these states- not to mention the President- it makes you wonder how bad the damage is for Democrats in the Congressional and Legislative races in the region.

Dayyyuuuummmm!

[2] From Lisa Frabrizio, in The American Spectator; on living in the liberal bubble:

In past ages, it was mostly starry-eyed young people who inhabited these utopian climes; those who have not yet been exposed to the real world with all its scabs. But most of the denizens today are Peter Pan-ian liberals who declared in the 1960s that they had no intention of growing up. And, as long as they are in power, they don't have to. They write the history books, they report the news as they would have it portrayed and they teach our kids that, as in Never-Never-Land, they don't need to fret about responsibility as long as there are evil, rich grownups to be taxed to care for them. And if life really isn't that way, it should be; and that's the point.

This is what enables them to act with such certainty in matters where their positions have either been proved wrong or are mere theories. That is why they can believe wholeheartedly that man can cause changes in the climate; that taxing the rich will stimulate the economy; that the way to foster equality between the races is to favor one over the other; or that the murder of unborn children is somehow liberating to women: because in the islands of their minds, that's the way it should be.

First, Obama’s juvenile buck-passing hasn’t and won’t work. The election game plan of threatening the return of Bush isn’t going to fly. Heck, the voters wouldn’t mind having him back! Second, Obama has, to a degree we have not seen in recent years, shied away from acknowledging error. His “out” was always that Bush had messed things up — far worse than we even imagined. Now with Bush-bashing proven to be entirely counterproductive, what will Obama do to deflect blame? And finally, you have to keep faith with the American people. They may get impatient and lose perspective, but they remain exceedingly fair and possess a large reservoir of common sense (e.g., a mosque at Ground Zero is absurd, Bush was a decent man who made tough calls, we shouldn’t dump on loyal allies). It is good to be reminded of that.

Yes. The Democrat group specializes in condescension these days. And Barry is a perfect representation of that.

[3] Robert Costa, in National Review; Jacksonville's Pat Caddell on the Midterm Elections:

Unlike President Reagan at his first-term midpoint, in 1982, “Obama is not able to go out there and say, ‘Stay the course.’ That’s just not possible. The Democrats’ hope with health care was that ‘people will like it after we pass it.’ Well, they hate it, and you don’t see any effort to promote it. The Democrats had a chance to do this right — most people supported aspects of reform — but because of the way it was passed, as a crime against democracy, the country has simply not accepted it. The lies, the browbeating, the ‘deem and pass’ — all of it was a suicide mission.”

That's what I've tried to say to friends on that side of the aisle but it appeared they were all deaf, dumb and blind with respect to the obviousness of all of this.

[4] Jennifer Carroll

At 10 a.m. this morning, Rick Scott will apparently make it official; Orange Park's Jennifer Carroll will be his selection to run as Lt. Governor. This is a brilliant move for the Republicans and marries up two ends of the  Florida peninsula. It also positions her for much more prominence, nationally, and provides something of a checkmate on Alex Sink and the Democrats.

Kudos to Rick Scott.