There's No Joy In Mudville

I know what you are thinking. Two blogs in a row on SPORTS?? From SPENCER HUGHES?? The anti-sports guy?

First of all, I am not anti-sports. I am just not terribly crazy about America’s fixation on them, primarily at the professional level.

But I never said that valuable lessons aren’t learned every day in the world of sports.

Like this lesson: If you are too good at what you do, that might be a problem!

HUH??

How can being too good at what you do be a problem?

This is the inspiring yet sad story of Jericho Scott, a 9-year-old Youth Baseball League player in New Haven, Connecticut.

It turns out that the youthful pitcher is SO good at throwing the ball that the League told him he couldn’t play anymore.

You see, other players were too intimidated to face him. He has even had teams forfeit the game altogether.

Can you IMAGINE this?? It’s the latest chapter in the dumbing down of America. It reminds me of the late Kurt Vonnegut’s short story classic HARRISON BURGERON. The future presented in that brilliant work includes an America where beautiful people have to wear hideous masks so that ugly people won’t feel bad and the strong have to wear huge weights around their bodies so that the slow and out of shape don’t have their self esteem hurt.

Instead of training these children to SWING better against an exemplary player, they are getting rid of the exemplary player. Instead of raising everybody up, the League is bringing everyone down.

Imagine what will happen when this coddled generation of children becomes the leadership of this nation.

Actually at the start of a long holiday weekend, maybe we shouldn’t. Let’s eat our hot dogs, go to the beach one last time, and teach our kids it’s better to be mediocre than extraordinary.

English: The Universal Language of...Golf?

The LPGA has done what many in America are too afraid to even whisper about—they have required that their member golfers learn and speak English. And if they don’t, they could have their memberships suspended.

Has the reaction been outrage and protests? Nope. The South Korean membership which the new rule is primarily aimed at is…gasp…in AGREEMENT with the rule.

Is the rule meant to be racist or xenophobic? Nope.

It’s meant to be a tool to help these golfers SUCCEED. And the players agree. Being able to communicate in English in the LPGA is a BENEFIT.

As it is in America and the world at large.

“When you win, you should give your speech in English,” said Korean golfer Se Ri Pak.

If English can become the universal language of golf, why not the official language of America and the running of its day to day business?

Maybe our politicians need to hit the golf courses more.

Good going, LPGA. Thanks for setting such a fine example of just how important unity through language truly is.

Houses, Houses, Everywhere!

Obama is showing his desperation again as he continues to fight for his life in the polls. A man who should be, by all accounts of the popular wisdom (or lack thereof), an easy double digits ahead of his rival is instead faltering left and right.

And that brings us to the latest act of desperation on Obama's part--hammering McCain for supposedly not knowing how many houses he owns.

OH NO!

Wait...he actually owns more than ONE home?? Is that legal in America today? Don't you need a special permit or something?

I LOVE the fact that he couldn't answer. Wouldn't it be nice to own so much of something that you couldn't keep track of it??

That is the American Dream!

And of course, Obama is on the wrong side of things yet again.

Obama's ad regarding this, as well as the general liberal chatter, indicates a jealousy, envy, and sour grapes mentality that is actually quite typical of the far Left. They HATE that some people own things and other do not. Especially if the "Haves" have a LOT of the given commodity.

Now we are finding out that McCain supposedly doesn't even own any of these properties in question--that they belong to his wife, Cindy.

Either way, it seems petty to say the least.

Seems more disconcerting that Obama thinks there are 57 states and that a "bomb" fell on Pearl Harbor. Or that he doesn't know the difference between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Or that his experience and political accomplishments could literally fit on a fortune cookie slip.

But the lapdog media, in utter blind lust with Obama, sees more concern that a man who married into a family worth $100 million might lose track of how many properties they own.

How many shoes do you own? How many DVDs do you own? How many cushions are on your couch? Huh?? You sit on your couch every single day and you don't know the answer??

SHAME!

Motivational Monday: The Power of Visualization

I am the first to admit that I am not a fan of the Olympics. I have nothing against them, mind you. It's just not something I have ever really followed. Even when I was younger and more into sports.

But that doesn't mean there isn't a lesson to be learned by the athletes who train hard and long to get where they are today. Athletes like American swimming sensation Michael Phelps who won 8 gold medals alone. What an amazing feet that is!

The lesson found here is the true power of visualization. Athletes will tell you, whether they are in the Olympics or not, that mental training goes hand in hand with the physical training. And they can both be equally difficult.

It isn't good enough to just train your body your whole life if your mind isn't coming along for the ride.

Ever see a baseball player having a night when they are clearly "on" and then the next day their performance is lackluster to say the least?

Chances are when the player was "on", he was in his zone--fully focused and mentally committed to the tasks at hand. He probably saw that ball going over the fence just seconds before actually sending it there.

And maybe the second day he was focusing on bills or his relationships or his kids or the weather or the election.

Everyone gets distracted. We all drift off course. We all slip in and out of our "zone" as I like to call it.

But it all comes back to visualization. Athletes in particular are very good at this. They see in their mind's eye hitting that ball...swimming those laps...catching the throw...swinging that club...thousands, if not millions, of times. Over and over and over and over again.

I remember the first time I took a failing timeslot and made it all the way to #1. I SAW my boss smiling at me and taking me to lunch. I SAW the balloons and the HEARD the applause in the studio.

And you know what? Talk about dejavu. It played out EXACTLY the way I had visualized it. I reached my goal in my imagination before I made it in the real world.

There are great stories along these lines in Jack Canfield's The Success Principles: How To Get From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be. He writes about American gold medalists who practiced their routines for YEARS and YEARS. And they eventually WON in the EXACT WAY they had daydreamed it in their imaginations.

But we can't forget why this is. THOUGHTS...ARE...THINGS. And most importantly, THOUGHTS...BECOME...THINGS.

That's why it's so important to choose wisely what we think about!

Try to remember that as you start another week. See your goal as already reached. Visualize it. Make it real in your mind and you stand a good chance of making it real in your world.

And even if you don't have an athletic bone in your body, you, too, can act like an Olympian!

Hurricane Hugo & The Radical Left

The story I saw today about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tightening his reins of power filled me with rage.

I wonder if the American Left will share in my rage.

After all, Lefties from Congressman Dennis Kucinich to Actor Sean Penn have shared their open adoration of this socialist dictator.

Chavez's latest plans for power include 26 laws he just ushered in giving him--you guessed it--more control of the country and its people.

So why would the Left in America continue to support such a leader, while at the same time constantly castigating President Bush about everything under the sun?

Many on the Left feel that Bush is stripping Americans of rights and sending us down the slippery slope of complete government control of our lives. And yet that IS what Hugo Chavez is ACTUALLY DOING in Venezuela!

One of my biggest intellectual gripes with many on the Left has been their compassion and sometimes outright support for communist regimes that have literally sent thousands and millions to their graves. How on earth could Bush be considered a dictator when they these leaders ACTUALLY WERE??

In 2006, war protester and activist Cindy Sheehan actually said she would prefer to have Chavez leading America than Bush!

HUH??

Did she REALLY mean that?? COULD she really mean that??

Apparently so.

Few had the guts to question Chavez when he referred to our President as "the devil" himself, reeking of sulfur and all.

So as Chavez continues on his quest to get everything from endless terms as President to further state control of the FOOD of his nation, the Left will battle Bush over some things he has done, and many things they FEAR he will do. Chavez just gave himself the power to shut down businesses that don't adhere to state price controls--with the option to send them to PRISON FOR 10 YEARS if they don't follow the orders!

Ask the protesters of Venezuela who they would rather have leading THEIR country.

Cindy Sheehan and Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte would no doubt not like their answer.

Columnist James Lileks recently wrote on the death of Alexander Solzhenitsyn: "“Reading Solzhenitsyn makes it difficult to take seriously the people in this culture who insist that Dissent has been squelched. Brother, you have no idea.”

No, many on the Left HAVE NO IDEA. Or else they wouldn't describe Bush as the supreme dictator, while supporting true dictators like Castro and Chavez and others.

The real truth is Belafonte and Penn and Glover and Sheehan would have been sent to the Gulags long ago if they protested a real dictator the way they have protested Bush.

The real truth is that if they were Venezuelan citizens and spoke of Chavez in such cavalier and disrespectful ways their dissent would not even be an afterthought. It wouldn't be ALLOWED to happen.

Thank God even the Devil lets us speak our mind, huh?

Motivational Monday: Laura Day's The Circle

My goal has been to read an average of a book a week this summer and so far I have been doing pretty well. As usual, the majority of my selections have been non-fiction and usually focus on motivational thinking and personal empowerment.

I just finished reading The Circle by bestselling author Laura Day.

It is amazing in its simplicity and lyrical in its presentation.

The red circle on the cover of the small but powerful hardback represents the place where we place our wishes.

It’s the starting point…the match that sets the blaze that becomes our dreams realized.

I will not ruin the experience by outlining the entire process. But I will take a moment to discuss the first place most people go wrong.

Most of us never make goals. Most of us never make wishes.

We stop making wishes, most of us, when the candles on our cake reaches the higher double digits.

Wishing is for kids. Wishing is for dreamers.

Both statements are true. But also true is that wishes are for ALL OF US!

We ALL need to wish for something, and most of us DO, just so subconsciously we don’t realize it.

Most of us have wishes of getting rich. Who wouldn’t? But most of us follow that wish with immediate thoughts of “Oh, that’s crazy!” or “Talk about a fairy tale!” or “Getting rich is for other people, not me” or “I can never be rich because (fill in the blank)”.

A wish is only useful if we have a sincere belief that we can attain it. If you wish to lose weight, you have to be able to believe you CAN lose weight.

More importantly, you have to be able to SEE the new you. See yourself in your mind exactly how you will look at your new, ideal weight. The way your clothes will fit you. The way you will feel when you look in the mirror and see the svelte, healthier you.

With any wish, your next step after making it is to act as if you already have it. This is another thing that we forget to do once we become adults. Children have no problem at all pretending they have all their Christmas presents, even if it’s JULY!

So make a wish and act as if you already have it. Feel it! Taste it! See it! Hold it in your hands! Take it all in!

This is, of course, just the first of many steps outlined in The Circle by Laura Day. Her book is an adventure, it truly is. It’s a book that can be enjoyed in just a couple of hours. But the tools it provides in helping make your wishes come true really will change your life.

If you believe.