This Just In:

ND Pop:

Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow calling for an early spring. The reason Phil didn’t see his shadow is because it was cloudy and snowing.

American Idol is changing it’s name to American Idle.

The Beyonce Lip Synching scandal has everyone wondering if she will actually sing at half time of the Superbowl or Lip Synch again. Regardless, ND’s prediction of Milli Vanilli being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Revolution 0021 ND (Issue: Orion 3, 0001 ND) may actually happen sooner now that Lip Synching is accepted as a form of art.

Manti Te’o’s said he lied about his girlfriend after he found out she was still alive because he felt it would be too embarrassing to have anyone find out about it. His reaction is very similar to what happened to Charles Van Doren on the game show Twenty One in the 1950’s, which was depicted quite well in the movie Quiz Show. Van Doren, a good looking young Columbia professor, was given the answers ahead of time and went on to win 14 weeks in a row becoming an instant celebrity, getting his picture on the cover of Time Magazine, and a $50,000 job on the Today Show with Dave Garroway. When it all crumbled on him, Van Doren explained to his father that once he was in it deep, it was hard to get out and would have been extremely embarrassing. Do you see a similarity here? Just a new form of insanity. Television was the rage back then. The Internet and Wastebook now. Not much has really changed in 50 years

ND World:

Hillary Clinton resigned as Secretary of State. She worked her tail off trying to show the world the “New America”. But, right before she did, she was lambasted by Republicans at the Benghazi hearings. Her reaction was “Classic Clinton”. She stuck it right back in the faces of those clowns who were just looking for any reason to give her some crap. Like her or not, Hillary is definitely presidential material.

A woman in Chicago was on CNN recently telling Anderson Cooper how she lost all four of her children to gun violence. Only one of her children was involved in an argument. Two others were random shootings, and her teenage daughter died by an accidental shot from a friend. She tried to protect her last son, but he died while just sitting in a car. He was 33. This woman was a good mother who tried her hardest to protect her kids and do right by them. She just was poor and lived in the wrong place. Does she deserve this? Does anyone? It’s not just about automatic weapons and mass murders. Too many children are dying every day all over America from gun violence. For those of you that think more guns is the answer, you should probably re-think your position. You probably would if it happened to you.

Women are now allowed to fight in combat. Why they would want to do this is beyond ND.

Ed Koch died. The popular former Mayor of New York City then went to Heaven and asked God, “How’m I doing?” God said, “not well Ed. You look a little pale.” RIP Ed, you were a good man,

The Archbishop of Los Angeles, Jose H. Gomez, disciplined retired Cardinal Roger Mahoney after a California judge forced the archdiocese to release approximately 12,000 pages of church documents revealing how it handled allegations of abuse. 192 priests and bishops were named in the litigation and the cases go back as far as the 1930’s. This is so horrific but not surprising at all. Case after case, day after day, this is all we hear about. We get appalled and surprised about Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, and Penn State. We get appalled and surprised by the Philadelphia priests scandal that rocked the nation a few years ago. We get appalled and surprised by a woman being raped and beaten to death by a gang of boys in India. It goes on and on and on. The one thing you shouldn’t do is ever get surprised by anything any more. The other thing you should do is talk to your children. Perhaps these priests should finally be allowed to date women and marry, and have cameras on them 24 hours a day. Then they might just get a woman pregnant by accident and have to have a baby they might not want. Hmm, very hypocritical wouldn’t you say? BTW, how do you discipline a child rapist Cardinal that has been doing this for umpteen years and is retired? What a joke. Send him to a cell with Jerry Sandusky, or Devil’s Island with the hundreds of other priests. They can pray to God all they want to, but they can’t get forgiveness or come back.

Grand Central Station in NYC celebrated it’s 100th birthday. If you’ve never been there you should stop by when you are in NYC. What a Grand building it is.

The U.S. Defense Budget is not only the largest in the world, it is more than the next 13 biggest defense budgets combined; all of whom are our allies. With modern technology, and the fact that it took only six people to kill Bin Laden, isn’t it about time we stop policing the world and cut our budget by at least half?

ESPnd: ND Sports:

The big question on everyone’s mind is, who will win the Superbowl? Logic tells us that it will be the Ravens. Why? Well, in looking at some recent major sibling rivalries, the older sibling has gotten their titles first, and then the younger one went on to win more. Venus Williams got her titles first and then Serena went on to win more. Older brother Peyton Manning won his title first and then Eli went on to win more. So, by logical reasoning, older brother John Harbaugh will win his title first and it’s very possible that younger brother Jim will go on to win more. Look for a tightly contested battle and a Ravens victory. Even though ND is not about predictions but rather ESP, he anticipates a Ravens 29-27 win. Take the points. And, look for Sandra Bullock to be sitting with Leanne Tuohy watching “Big Mike” Oher win his first Superbowl title. From The Blindside to The Superbowl; a better story than Ray Lewis’ Deer Antlers.

Another reason the Ravens should win is Joe Flacco. Last year before the season started the idiotic sports media asked Eli Manning if he was an Elite Quarterback. Not wanting to sound soft, he of course answered he thought he was. He then went on to win his second Superbowl and his second Superbowl MVP. This year the idiot sports media asked Joe Flacco the same question. He gave the same answer (who wouldn’t?). Of course he got pounded worse than Eli did, but he’s in the Superbowl. If he wins, which logic says he will, then who will be asked that question next year before the season? The odds on favorite is Matt Ryan, QB of the Atlanta Falcons. A distant second is Houston’s Matt Schaub, Dallas’ Tony Romo, and Chicago’s Jay Cutler. So, when one of them gets asked that question this spring, and Flacco has his ring, go to Vegas and put your bet down on next year’s Superbowl winner.

Even another reason why the Ravens will win the Superbowl. One hour before kickoff, Phil Mickelson just won the Phoenix Open with a total four round score of 256 (28 under par). He tied the tournament record set by Mark Calcavecchia in 2001. Who won the Superbowl right after Calcavecchia won the Phoenix Open with that record score Phil just tied? Yup, you guessed it; The Baltimore Ravens!

Why does The Atlantic 10 division have 16 teams, The Big Ten have 12 teams, and The Big 12 have 10 teams? The Pac 12 used to be the Pac 10, but when they got more teams they changed their conference name to the Pac 12.

President Obama said that if he had a son he’d have to think long and hard about whether he’d let him play football or not. He need not think long, and he need not think hard because he doesn’t have a son, but even if he did, he still shouldn’t have to think long and hard about that question. Not with all we know now, much more to come, and all the lies spewed about.

Pitcher R.A. Dickey is an amazing guy. After one of the greatest all around years in sports and an incredible story to boot, he is now in India with his daughters helping children who are being trafficked and sexually abused. For all the Lance Armstrong’s, Roger Clemens’, A-Rod’s and Barry Bonds’, there IS a real sports hero out there. His name is R.A. Dickey!

Joe Flacco mouthed off about next year’s Superbowl being played outdoors in the New Jersey Meadowlands known as Met Life Stadium (formerly Giants Stadium). First of all, Joe should be worrying about THIS Superbowl, not next years, and what in the world is everyone so up in arms about a football game being played in cold weather? Isn’t that what made football great in the first place? Remember the Ice Bowl? How about the 1958 Championship game at Yankee Stadium? Football is supposed to be played in the cold, not in Miami or San Diego or in domes in New Orleans or even Indianapolis or Detroit, where they had a “cold weather Superbowl city”. If it’s so terrible, why do they play the championship games in cold weather cities outdoors? Oh, wait, it’s because that team deserved “home field advantage.” But, in the Superbowl you can’t give either team an advantage. Why? They have two weeks to practice and a full year to prepare. If Peyton can’t win a game in under 40 degrees, or San Diego or Miami or other warm city teams can’t win in the cold, then get rid of your soft team or move to Toronto. This is professional football. Isn’t it far better to play it in the cold than in 85 degrees in Miami? Even better yet, make an official stadium for the Superbowl every year in a climate that will be around 45-60 degrees in early February, and play it outdoors every year. Then there is no home field advantage, and perfect weather for football. If it snows or rains, even better. Dick Butkus and Sam Huff may even get out of their chairs! It just goes to show you that no matter what decision anyone makes in life these days, 50% of the people are going to be unhappy. The only difference is today with the Internet, Wastebook, and *hitter, we need to hear about it all the time. Is this news? Advice to Joe; concentrate on this Superbowl. Just because the Farmer’s Almanac predicted bad weather for next year’s Superbowl doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. It will probably be a balmy 50 degrees, perfect football weather.

SF 49ers defensive back Chris Culliver said that he would not play on a team that had a gay player on it. His sheets (ND’s term for tweets) and words were spoken like a very uneducated man with lots of ghetto talk and terms in it. He then apologized, but his statement read like that of a Harvard Law School graduate. Why do we always get that on the apology? Don’t we want to hear his sincere apology in his own terms, just the way he said it in the first place? Why do we always have to hear an apology statement written and usually read by an attorney? Is it because the athlete knows how to rant and rave but not truly apologize, or is it because his lawyer, agent, and/or PR people think it’s best to read a well written statement that would never come out of his mouth? And, how does that help his community or the gay community in this case? Everyone knows it’s phony and not a sincere apology? Let’s for once and for all hear the apologies from the athletes in their own words in front of a microphone.

The very first openly gay male athlete in a major sport will in a lot of ways be very similar to Jackie Robinson. He’s going to have to be able to take a lot of crap and discriminatory words, and maybe even endure death threats like Jackie did. He’s going to have to keep his mouth shut and let his actions speak louder than his words. He’s going to represent a whole community of people just like Jackie did and ultimately can be a hero and great American just like Jackie was. Hopefully he’ll have his own Pee Wee Reese to put his arm around him in the middle of the field and show the world that he’s just another person capable of great things. The question is, why has it taken so long?

Stan “The Man” Musial died on the same day Earl Weaver died. Poor Earl; he could never get a break!

Pete Rose has a new reality show called Hits & Mrs. In one episode he goes to the Hall of Fame with his wife and kids and signs autographs blocks away. He has to tell his step son why he’s not in the Hall of Fame. Let’s put it this way: It’s totally unwatchable. Poor, poor Pete!

Speaking of egos, in the 1970’s there was a man named Reggie Jackson who’s ego was so big everyone said he couldn’t fit his head into Yankee Stadium. But, compared to Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, A-Rod, and Lance Armstrong, Reggie’s head is the size of a pin head.

Jose Contreas, the Cuban Baseball pitcher who won the World Series with the Chicago White Sox in 2005 and still pitches, became the first defector to go back to Cuba under a new policy created by the Cuban government. He visited his home town, his family for the first time in ages, and played ball with the locals. And, he cried. What a great story.

LeSean (Shady) McCoy, the Eagles running back, had a massive fight with his girlfriend on *hitter (ND’s term for Twitter) about the custody of their child etc. Terrible words were said. Then of course, he apologized. Does anyone under 30 know how to have a normal or even private conversation any more? No wonder we have the Manti Te’o situation. Have you noticed that people can’t even deal with emails any more that are longer than one sentence? If communication is an art form, most people under 30 need to learn how to paint

Phil Mickelson lipped out a putt the other spin (ND’s term for a day) to shoot a 60. Since he talked about his tax situation recently and possibly moving from California because of it, can you imagine how worse his tax problems would have been if that putt went in for a 59?