Maria Kirilenko faces Sloan Stephens in the first round of Wimbledon 2014

     This could be a very interesting Wimbledon 2014.  I actually have Sharapova v Wozniacki in the finals.  Whoa........slow done before you say.... 'are nuts? Sharapova I might get but Woziniacki?'

     Wozniacki's draw plays right into her game especially after coming off a pretty good outing in Eastbourne where she finally lost to Angelique Kerber in the Semi's.  Wozniacki had Kerber on the ropes and let her off the hook in a second set tiebreak after jumping to a 6-1, 2-0 lead.  That isn't why Wozniacki is one of my favorites to make the final however.  She is playing well and her draw plays right into her hands.

     Wozniacki plays a fading Peer in the first round and Babos in the second round.  Who? you say? ok well it could be Broady!  Yeah, ok she's easily to the third round where Stouser will likely be waiting.  They are 1-1 on grass and 3-3 lifetime but Caroline won the last time they faced each other and the last time they faced each other on grass and Stouser is not playing well at this time.  Caroline should get by Stouser.

     Li, Na likely will be next and Li is 4-2 against Wozniacki so this could be where Caroline stumbles but I don't think so this time.  Once again Caroline is playing a lot better lately and had some good results on grass.  She's and Rory are both playing better since they split, although I hated to see the breakup.  Li, like Wozniacki lost in the first round of the French open and hasn't played since.  She hasn't played any grass tournaments this spring.  I don't think Li will be ready for all the extra balls Caroline will get back.

     Kvitova and Radwanska will likely be her quarter and semi-final opponents.  Kvitova just won't be able to get enough balls back on the fast grass surface.  Kvitova will have to hit a lot of clean winners to beat Caroline.  The same is true for Radwanska.  Caroline will just outlast Radwanska on the grass.

     The bottom half of the draw is pretty wide open.  Vandeweghe could go a long way after just winning her first WTA title; on the grass too.  Radwanska went to the final last year and could again this year. Stouser can always step up her game and don't forget what Kirilenko did last year making the semi-finals although she does have Stephens in the first round and is coming back from an injury.  Then, of course, there is Li and Kvitova who is a past champion.  Wozniacki however may have just the right draw on just the right surface to make her second run to a Grand Slam Final.

     The top half of the draw is loaded and any number of players that could make the final.  Certainly either Halep or Jankovic will come out of the bottom quarter of the top half of the draw.  There are some tough players and some potential entertaining matches yet the draw seems to favor Halep and Jankovic.  Keys is playing well and just won Eastbourne and is destined to meet Jankovic in the 3rd round but Keys so easily can run off the rails.  Then you never know what Ivanovic will do.  I don't see how it can be anyone but Halep and Jankovic in the quarter-finals

     The top quarter is crazy and probably holds the Wimbledon champion; S.Williams, Sharapova or Bouchard would all be favored against Jankovic or Halep and my pick in the final; Wozniacki.  Any of the three would be favored in the final against anyone in the bottom half with the lone exception of Li.

     Williams has one of the toughest draws I've ever seen her have in a Grand Slam in several years.  Tatishvili in the first round won't be a push-over.  McHale or Scheepers will at least let her know she played a second round match.  Then Cornet probably shows followed by Bouchard.  I think by the time Bouchard comes along Serena will be running low on gas and Bouchard should move to the semi's against Sharapova.

     Sharapova has it a little easier.  She has a wildcard in the first round, probably Fichman in the second round.  I'm picking Riske to pick up where she left off last year and be there for Sharapova in the third round but won't cause to many problems for Maria.  Tomjanovic or Kerber will be the fourth round opponent but again I don't think either one will much of a problem for Maria.  Bouchard or Williams in the Semi's.  I think Bouchard will have a tougher time with Maria on the grass compared to the match they played at the French which was quite the match.  If Serena shows, I'll just move my prediction to the fact that she played to many tough players to beat Maria.  Maria finally will get Serena and once again it will be on the grass.

     I will add that if Serena does face Jankovic in the semi-finals, I still don't think Serena will make the final.  Nobody plays Serena as well as Jankovic despite what the recent record may say and after playing Cornet, Bouchard and Sharapova back to back to back it may be the perfect opportunity for Jankovic.  That all depends on Jelena getting there.

     In the end I do like Sharapova to win it all, then Williams followed by Wozniacki, Li and Bouchard.  Radwanska, Halep and Jankovic are players to watch.  Vandeweghe and Keys will also be players to watch but this stage will be too much for them.

The Weekend Golfer

I saw an ad with Jack Nicklaus talking about "moving forward" on the golf course.  His contention was for the casual golfer to play from the "gold" tees to score better and to speed up the game.  Not a bad idea really but some of us still like the challenge presented by the white tees.  We don't like how we score, especially if you are as bad as I am on the golf course.

Well I had a different idea re: scoring

The USGA should change "par" for the average golfer and the average golfer should start scoring themselves like you score in a scramble.  Par for the casual golfer should be changed to 4, 5 and 6, making par for the course 90.  

On the scorecard the player then places is score as -2 -1 0 1 2 like you would in a scramble.  You don't count total strokes.  You count your score relative to par.  For most players 90 really is par even with today's equipment.  You might get the average golfer to then count all his strokes against par.  The only person that tells more lies than a fisherman is a golfer.  Lots of strokes don't get counted.  If we apply how we score differently against an easier goal (par) it might make the game a little more fun.



Bridenstine Questions President's Leadership

http://www.youtube.com/v/86UL9ekiXDk?version=3&autohide=1&autohide=1&showinfo=1&feature=share&autoplay=1&attribution_tag=LFg-MIND60OYzSz29BiPbg

The Unicorn Poacher (Intellectual Froglegs S2E14)

http://www.youtube.com/v/PaimtY3jRiM?version=3&autohide=1&showinfo=1&autohide=1&autoplay=1&feature=share&attribution_tag=hVPAVbmXBjMa3Fj8b6EhZQ

Kool Aid Drinkers

     The kool aid drinkers are still out in force and all over the Internet.  I read a kook blog and a couple of comments by more kooks that drink the kool aid and it was so idiotic you have to wonder what is wrong with some people.  I found the link via Google+ nearby while on Daniele Island, S.C.  I went and read the link a guy nearby posted and apparently agreed with whole heartily.  It was pure lunacy.  Then one of his friends posted to his comments that were even more whacked out.  However they revealed why they were so kooky and on one had I felt sorry for them but on the other hand it doesn't explain their lack of honest and sincere thought.

     That all leads me to comment on the whole thought process of the dedicated far left, which is about 1/3 of the country.  In addition you have about another 20% that don't examine the facts for themselves but by what the media tells them to buy even though they can carry on a somewhat honest debate.  They still buy the kool aid first.  Sometimes they see the light and sometimes they don't. 

     This group of about 45% of the population still buys some basic fallacies and deny some basic facts.  They also tend to believe it's ok for one political party (democrats) to violate the trust of the people but it's never ok for the other party (republicans) to violate the trust of the people.  They believe the lies of the left, ignore the truth from the right and some even work at finding other sources now matter how dishonest to reinforce their false beliefs.  Their most fatal flaw however is they always want to live in the past.  Even though I'm going to use the past to make some points, the past doesn't matter, what are we doing to fix the problem now?

    Here are some points and counter points that make the left so loony:

•  They believe that George Bush stole the 2000 election and some even believe he stole the 2004 election but they refuse to believe that JFK stole the 1960 election and will sometimes get violent in their defense of the same.  All this even though the biggest stack of evidence clearly sides with the 1960 election.  Never mind the fact that even the media finally after all their research even said Bush won 2000 fair and square.  2000 was compounded by the fact the left tried to set up the stealing of Florida for the Democrats by announcing that Gore won Florida before the polls were closed, in a state where the final tally was with in the margin of error, as in too close to call.
• The kool aid drinkers also love to compare the "far right" to the Nazi's.  What a joke!  Clearly the left doesn't understand fascism and don't even notice that the closest politician we have had in my lifetime to a fascist is Obama.  Fascism is socialism, period, end of story.  Nobody on the right is a socialist.  Fascism is also government owned corporations.  Clearly the right doesn't want the government to own the corporations.  What was the first thing Obama did when he took office?  He illegally took control of two corporations and bought union support.  Clearly fascism and socialism.  Some on the left mistakenly (on purpose) try to say fascism is corporations owning government but the opposite is true.  Communism is when the government literally owns everything.  Fascism is when the government allows corporations but demands all their profits.  Clearly much more aligned with Obama and the loony left.
• The media is the next topic of interest.  Their are a lot of people that buy the well publicised, by the left, that there is some sort of Fox News bias.  All the while they ignore the bias of the rest of the media which is a real bias, especially compared to the alleged bias at Fox.  Moreover, Murdock's M.O. is to present the news according to the larger trend  of thought based on some precise surveys.  That then answers the question as to why Fox News gets such high ratings and then hammer CNN and MSNBC ratings, combined.  The loony left thinks that Fox is influencing people.  The facts are the opposite.  Fox News represents the largest portion of thought in the country.  On the other hand MSNBC is clearly loony left whack-o biased and you don't hear one word about it anywhere.  Why?  Easy!  They are biased to the MSNBC slant.  CNN didn't get their nickname "Clinton News Network" for no reason at all.  The bias is clearly on the left and the mainstream media.  The media is suppose to protect us from rogue politicians, instead they prop the same up.  The kool aid drinkers on the left are "influenced."  Why else do they repeat word for word what they hear from the liberal media?  The media is so biased that you hear the exact same phrases on every network except one!
• Finally for this blog, the current economic crisis.  The kool aid drinkers all buy the line "it's Bush's fault."  The facts say otherwise.  In fact, the facts say this is Clinton's fault.  I've said it for years and history has proven it true.  Bad law and/or policy never rears it's ugly head until after the purp is long gone.  Everyone warned about the housing buble, which is largely to blame on this crisis, and it all happened under Clinton with the aid of two more left wing kooks; Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.  This whole disaster happened because of policies of the Clinton administration, including the very early beginning of this crisis, which was Enron.  Clinton gave us sub-prime mortgages and Enron, who then gave us $4 a gallon gasoline, which triggered the housing bust.  You can read an older post on this blog to learn why Enron was responsible for the gasoline prices.  Clinton however gave us this economic disaster and it is not even debatable.  The loony left tried to blame Enron on Bush and he hadn't even been in office long enough to cause such a meltdown, well he wasn't if you are to believe the way Obama thinks, constantly blaming the last guy 3 years later.  When is Obama going to take his blame?   

The big picture here boils down to this: The left never takes blame for their errors, never admits their mistakes and they always lay blame and lie to their highly devoted constituants so they can keep their power.  Their power is all that matters and anyone with a lick of intelligence can see it.

You break a promise to the republican base and you pay for it.  Remember no new taxes? 

While "W" could have done a better job he was the right guy for 9/11.  That being said the Bush administration did warn of the Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac and sub prime loan debacle to come but the democrats ignored it. 

In 2006 we gave the Democrats control, in 2008 they had Carte Banc!  They made the economy worse.  If all their policies are so good we should see some real recovery and we wouldn't have such high unemployement, one of Obama's key promises broken. 

The kool aid drinking kooks of the far left that keep giving us people like Obama, Frank, Dodd and Clinton are to blame.  Clinton rode the Reagan tax cuts and the interenet boom (and his false surpluss was during the Republican control of the house for those that want to mistakenly give him credit for a surplus.)  Clinton's tax increases and the interenet bust gave us the short recesssion under Bush.  Bush's tax cuts brought us out.  The Democrats brought it back in 2007.

Oh, Clinton's tax increases topped the "laffer curve" which lowers revenues to the treasury, lowers venture capital and caused the internet bust (although admittedly it was going to slow.)  The tax increase triggered it however.

Reagan's tax cuts and tax reform allowed for the prosperity of the 90's.

It should be clear to see that Clinton was one of the biggest mistakes this country ever made and a third party candidate allowed for the mistake to take place.

If we don't get rid of Obama and the the Democrat majority in the house, it's never going to get better and we are going to go through all this again in 2014 when Obamacare takes hold. 

 

 

 

Trump says jokes about him by Obama, Meyers were 'inappropriate' - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

Trump says jokes about him by Obama, Meyers were 'inappropriate' - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

Obama Cried, Kids Died - HUMAN EVENTS

Obama Cried, Kids Died - HUMAN EVENTS

VIDEO: Andrew Breitbart vs. Bill Maher : The Other McCain

VIDEO: Andrew Breitbart vs. Bill Maher : The Other McCain

Tennis Month

     Well as usual I took my annual trips to Charleston and Dothan.  Both tournaments went very smooth this year compared to some other years.  It all depends who is in charge sometimes.  Sometimes it depends on when you start to get ready too.  Dothan was supper smooth this year.  The staff there had everything done quite early this year.  There were a lot of crazy last minute scrambling as there had been on occasion in the past.  It's not that they weren't ready in the past but by getting things done earlier the crazy little things that happen when you are pressed for time, don't and didn't happen this year.

     Charleston went a lot smoother this year as well.  Getting the right people to do the job they are suited for made a big difference there.  Julie did a great job getting the rookies trained this year.  I hope she trains the kids every year.  I was able to set court assignments this year with the help of Julie and Rona.  I think that also helped.  One person making the final decision on assignment makes a big differnce.  There were several new kids that went straight to "superstar" status. 

NASCAR has to Fix Daytona and Talladega

     NASCAR has to fix Daytona and Talladega and the only way to do that is to get rid of the restrictor plates.  Yeah wrecks are fun to watch for some people but this is just stupid.  Half the field taken out in one wreck.  I hope they all wreck and finish with two cars on the lead lap.  This isn't racing.  It's uncontrolled chaos.  There are better ways to slow the cars down if that is what is really necessary and still give the cars some throttle response and a competitive drive without the big bunch of cars all running together waiting to get crashed out.