I hope Leveon Bell never plays again

The article today at CBS Sportsline is "Leveon Bell has his eyes on the Colts," meaning next year he'd like them to sign him.

But I don't think any team should sign Bell - he quit on the Steelers. It's one thing to say, "I'm going to take the year off because I can't feed my family on $40 million a year." (okay, he didn't say that, Latrell Sprewell did, but same difference) and it's another to say...."Well, I might come back next week. I'm looking to come back the week after next."

How could any team, or teammate, trust this jerk to not quit on them just as he did the Steelers?

He should never get "guaranteed" money again.

If he doesn't play, he doesn't deserve to get paid.

Request was denied so Leveon Bell stayed away

Just read an article about the Leveon Bell debacle.

The guy screws over his team and his teammates.

Please God no team hires him next year.

https://247sports.com/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers/Article/LeVeon-Bell-transition-tag-holdout--125010665/

Apparently he didn't want the "transition tag" placed on him, and if the Steelers would do that for him, he'd "consider" reporting to the team.

What an idiot.

What kind of union does the NFL have that a guy can give his team the shaft for a whole year, and still be able to be employed?  He should be banned for life.

Sports "reporting"

I'll be spending a lot of time venting about what's going on in the sports world.

I used to be able to vent my frustrations on the message boards of the various sports and news related sites, but more and more of them are deleting their message boards, doubtless because of all the racist comments (on sports boards) and childish fighting on news sites

And it's so frustrating because I'd like to tell certain authors on certain sports site - well, specifically CBS Sports, that I really hate the current trend of injecting personalities into their "reporting."

None of them report the facts anymore, they've got to be "clever" or "cute..'

So expect to see more venting about sports gossiping in the future.

One thing..it's a joy not to see Lonzo Ball or his father garnering the headlines every single day. Now that LeBron is in LA, the gossipers have made it all about him.

Meantime, I see that Lonzo, while he's definitely been working out over the summer, has also decided to follow the crowd and mar his skin with tattoos. Is there any athlete in the NBA these days who doesn't have a tattoo?

WWE and Saudi Arabia

I don't follow professional "wrestling". I see snippets of it on occasion and cringe every time.

Yes - let's show impressionable youth that it's "cool" to attack your opponent while he's down, beat up authority figures (referees) and prance around as if you're god's gift.

So I didn't know that the WWE has just penetrated Saudi Arabia and will be holding some contests there.

Well...gosh.

That's just what Saudi Arabia needs - decadent American "entertainment' that teaches that there's no need for good sportsmanship, prancing and preening and arrogance are loved, and of course that old thing about not kicking an opponent when he's down.

The impact of pro wrestling can be seen in school yards every day where bullies beat up their helpless opponents, showing them no mercy - and I'm talking girls as well as boys here.

The saddest thing is that WWE is soooo popular. And it will probably be popular in Saudi Arabia, too.

Wonder how soon it will be before young male Saudis start body-slamming any woman they see who has dared to venture outside her house without a male relative beside her...

Red Sox and Curt Schilling

Should athletes - even retired athletes - have Facebook accounts?

I say no. They only get themselves in trouble.

Childish arguments that should be handled man to man, but they put it all out there so that the gossip columnists on CBS Sportsline can have something to write about.

The latest thing is Curt Schilling not being asked to throw a ceremonial pitch before the 2nd game of the 2018 World Serious with the Dodgers.

First off, of course - what were the Red Sox thinking?  Are they so afraid of the man's politics that they'll cave to pressure groups and not honor him?

Schilling is upset with the Red Sox for not inviting him to throw out a first pitch.  Talk about it in an interview or something, not on Facebook!  Confront them, don't whine!

Why Make a Pity Party Out of It

The parents of a 6-year-old kid named Terry Mazzinni invited his entire kindergarten class to a birthday party for him at a pizza place.

No one showed up.

The mom objectified poor Teddy, taking a photo of him sitting among all those empty plates.

And she sent that photo to news outlets in Tucson, who publicized the little kid's humiliation.

Whose fault is it that no one came to his party?

You invited 35 people, you don't personally call to make someone will show up?

I find it difficult to believe that his classmates wouldn't have told the kid they wouldn't come, unless he's a bully or something.

 It's bad enough no one came to his party - I blame mom for not cancelling the party when she knew no one could come, and for making her son an object of pity on the news.

Because you just know he's going to be teased mercilesslly about it by his classmates.

I blame the mom.

As for the rest, 32 classmates didn't show up? Something suspicious there.

4 Jan 2018 Rush headlines

 New York Times tries to save the Russia investigation

Conservatism, not populism, wins for Trump

Everything I've heard about what's in Wolff's book.
The Wolff in question is Michael Wolff, the book is Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House

Day 4: 2018: America's Anchorman Returns - Apparently Rush was going to take the whole week off, but his staff and advertisers "begged" him to return, so he's back.

Cognitive dissonance for Jan 3, 2017: Hannity website

Here's the headline on the Sean Hannity website:

SOCIALIST PARADISE: UK Cancels ALL ROUTINE OPERATIONS Due to Overcrowding

 https://www.hannity.com/media-room/socialist-paradise-uk-cancels-all-routine-operations-due-to-overcrowding/

 That's the headline.

Here's what's actually going on:

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service announced this week that it was canceling all “routine operations” until February, saying all “non-emergency” procedures will be delayed after a flu-outbreak left hospitals overcrowded and under-funded.
According to the Telegraph, the nation’s government-run health services axed over 50,000 operations in every hospital in the UK following claims by doctors that patients were being treated as if they were in “third world countries.”
“Hospitals are reporting growing chaos, with a spike in winter flu leaving frail patients facing 12-hour waits, and some units running out of corridor space,” write the Telegraph. “Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS medical director, on Tuesday ordered NHS trusts to stop taking all but the most urgent cases, closing outpatients clinics for weeks as well as cancelling around 50,000 planned operations.”
“I want to thank NHS staff who have worked incredibly hard under sustained pressure to take care of patients over the Christmas. We expect these pressures to continue and there are early signs of increased flu prevalence.” Keogh added.
The chaos comes as prominent Democrats and liberal legislators like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders advocate for a similar, single-payer healthcare system in the United States. Left-wing advocates often point to Canada and the United Kingdom as an “ideal” vision for the future of America’s health industry.

 So a massive flu outbreak is crowding hospitals, causing all *non-essential* operations to be postponed for a month.

I'm not sure what the headline writer means with his "Socialist paradise."  If there's a massive flu outbreak here in the US, wouldn't the same overcrowding occur regardless of whether someone got free healthcare or wanted to pay for it?

The problem is caused by a flu outbreak, not by any inherent flaw in the system.

If there's no surgeries being done because of red tape, that'd be a different story.

3 Jan 2018: Tod Herman guest again

Rush will return Thursday, 4 Jan 2018.

Meantime, what's big in the news?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/world/middleeast/trump-israel-palestinians-twitter.html

The US gives billions of dollars to Palestine refugees...where does all the money go that they live in such poverty?

Tod Hermann of AM770 is guest host

Rush still hasn't returned to work - the guest host today will be Tod Herman.

He is located out of Seattle, apparently.

http://mynorthwest.com/category/todd-herman/?

Here's an example of what's going on in Seattle, according to Herman, from his December 29, 2017 article regarding the year just past:

• Seattle taxes sugary drinks; Seattle plans to subsidize heroin use.

Actually - they're not subsidizing heroin use, they're just building a place where heroin people can inject themselves with the drug that they've already bought. Even though heroin is illegal, they can go to this place to inject themselves without fear of being arrested.

• Seattle taxes sugary drinks to make them more expensive so people will buy less of them. Seattle wants to place a tax on employees — a per head tax — so that employers will hire less people. Oh … wait, that can’t be right.

No, what the city wants to do is put a tax of 2.5% (gosh, how awful!) on people earning $250,000 a year.

Under the new law, the city taxes income over $250,000 a year for individuals and over $500,000 for couples at 2.25 percent. The tax is approved but isn't being collected yet.

• Seattle spent more money trying to hide how much money they made taxing guns and ammunition than they made by taxing guns and ammunition.

No, they spent money on a lawsuit that gun owners brought against them, nothing about trying to hide anything!

• One of Seattle’s four mayors of the last year — the one who resigned after a fifth allegation of sexually abusing children — famously said of the homeless crisis — on which King County spent nearly $1 billion last year — “I don’t have all the answers; we are making this up as we go along.”

So of 3 out of the 4 allegations that Herman brought up, he lied about.  And this is the guy Rush has as his guest host today.

1 Jan 2018: A new year of posting

It's Monday, 1 January 2018.

While the world hasn't stopped spinning, Rush has been on vacation for a while and will return to his radio hosting duties tomorrow, Tuesday, 2 January 2018.

On December 28 and 29, Mark Steyn had substituted for Rush.

On December 27, it had been Nick Searcy.

On December 26, Ken Matthews

Headlines from December 22:

• "Happy Trump ends first successful year - and the Haters are miserable!"
• "Swamp Republicans have warmed up to Trump because they finally believe the Mueller investigation is BS"
•  "CNN Analysts blame talk radio for exposing the bogus Russia investigation"
• "Rush prediction: Republicans will hold House and Senate in 2018"
• "Conspiracy! Collusion! Boeing spokesman thanks Trump on Fox & Friends"
• "Reluctant Trump voter apologizes to the President"
• "The biggest challenge we face in the next 30 years"  (closing the border with Mexico)
• "Former head of MI6 thinks American Exceptionalism is measured by how much we do for other countries at our own expense"