The plans to build a Mosque just a few blocks away from the site of the World Trade Center were sure to ignite protest from the very beginning. They did. Now the issue has become politicized with President Obama saying that he won’t interfere with Muslim’s right to freedom of religion and the Republicans saying they will make a campaign issue out of it.

The picture above was the one picture that really caught my eye. It reads “Islam builds mosques at the sites of their conquests and victories.” The sign is right. Let’s look at some history.

During conquests of the Islamic empires in the middle ages and afterwards, the first order of business after taking a city was to build or convert another building into a mosque.

In 360 AD the Hagia Sophia was built and spent most of it’s use as a Christian basilica (essentially a church with special rites as defined by the Pope). However, in 1453 when Sultan Mehmed and the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople after an almost two month seige, the home of the Hagia Sophia, Mehmed ordered the church converted into a mosque as part of his desire to convert the city.

We can go back even further. In 957 BC, King Solomon of Israel build God’s temple. The site is regarded by Judaism as the place where God’s divinity rests. The temple was destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonians before being rebuilt in 516 BC by Zerubbabel. That one remained standing until it was destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 AD. The location has great meaning in Judaism. However, in 637 AD the Muslim’s laid seige to Jerusalem for four months before they finally surrendered. Shortly after, the building of the al-Aqsa Mosque was commissioned on the location of the old Jewish temple.

Those are just two of the more apparent examples of their methods. There is a history there of Muslims building mosques at the sites of their great victories and places they have conquered, so I can understand the initial blow back.

Let’s look at the political side of it.

Politically, I consider myself a conservative constitutionalist. I believe that what is written in the Constitution is exactly what was meant by the Founding Fathers. As Americans, a legislative branch of the United States government is disallowed by the Constitution from interfering in the free practice and exercise of a religion. What this means is that these Muslims are completely within their rights to build and practice at a mosque just blocks from a site where several Islamic extremists flew planes into a building.

Let me ask you this. Would you feel differently if it was Ground Zero Baptist Church and Community Center that was planned to be put at 51 Park Place? I think if it were this wouldn’t have even made a blip on the radar.

If you don’t have an exception to a Christian church being placed on the property, then you can’t have an exception to a Muslim mosque being placed on the property.

Is building the mosque near Ground Zero the best way to reach out the hand of friendship to New Yorkers? Probably not. Yes, they have the right to build there if they want to. However, with rights come responsibilities. Just because you have a right doesn’t mean you should exercise them.

I have to question the wisdom of the decision to build there. It won’t improve relations between New Yorkers and Muslims at all, if anything it will further reinforce bad feelings.

I don’t believe it is a wise decision for them to be building at that particular location, but I don’t believe the government should stop them if they choose to.

I think that Republicans attempts to politicize the issue and make it a talking point as we progress towards November’s elections are stupid. While I do believe in the idea of democracy, there are times where the majority is incorrect.

We cannot prohibit a Muslim’s right to practice their religion if we desire to maintain our own right to practice. Once we start infringing on those rights it will become easier to do in the future, and once it’s easy to do, there’s no telling where it will stop.

On Monday evening before the game pitting the 1st-place Cincinnati Reds against the 2nd-place St. Louis Cardinals, Reds 2B Brandon Phillips made a statement to the media. Unprompted, Phillips stated that the hated the Cardinals and called them a bunch of whiny babies (not really, but the actually word also started with B). The quotes didn’t hit the media before game time, so the Cardinals players were unaware of the comments made until after the game. The players elected to dismiss it. Then the next game started.

At the beginning Tuesday’s game, Reds leadoff man Brandon Phillips walked up and gave his customary tap of the catcher’s shin guards as a “hello” gesture. Except Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina took exception to the act, letting Phillips know that if he’s going to say those things about Molina’s team, he isn’t Molina’s friend, and that the tap of the shin guards was unwanted.

Phillips responded by getting into Molina’s face which prompted a benches clearing shoving match. Tony LaRussa and Dusty Baker, the Cardinals’ and Reds’ managers respectively, got into their own shouting match obviously showing the history the two have. It’s not the first time they’d been caught shouting at each other.

In a second issue that broke out, Chris Carpenter pulled former teammate Scott Rolen away from the scuffle and the teams thought the two were fighting so they went around that and ended up catching Reds starter Johnny Cueto up against the fence where he started kicking people. In that scrum, Cueto’s cleat covered foot caught Chris Carpenter on the back and Cardinals’ backup catcher Jason LaRue in the face.

The managers were ejected at that point and the game continued on. Unknown to anyone at the time, but LaRue became unavailable, had a suspected concussion and his face was covered with scratches from Cueto’s cleats.

Yesterday, the MLB announced that Johnny Cueto would be suspended for 7 games while Tony LaRussa and Dusty Baker each received 2 game suspensions. There were also additional monetary fines for Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter and Yadier Molina and the Reds’ Brandon Phillips and Russ Springer.

The debate has raged over whether or not Cueto’s suspension fit the crime. He caught the Cardinals’ catcher in the face and has him unable to play. The team’s AA catcher Stephen Hill has been called up to be the backup catcher while LaRue’s situation is determined.

I, personally, feel that just 7 games, effectively 1 start, for Cueto is not enough of a penalty. Would a position player have gotten just a 1 game suspension for kicking an opposing player in the face? I highly doubt it. I would have liked to see a 14 game suspension, enough to make Cueto miss 2 starts.

The argument is also there that a starting pitcher is more important to a team than a position player. I disagree with this one. While a starting pitcher is not 1/5th as valuable as a position player, which is the defense, his worth can only be felt 1/5th of the time. Meanwhile, a position player can make an impact in every one of those 5 games between a starting pitcher’s starts.

Now, let’s stop arguing about the penalty and figure out how the MLB could fix this issue from cropping up again.

The solution is simple. The NBA has a rule where if a scrum breaks out on the playing floor, any player leaving the bench is automatically suspended. Transfer this over to the Major Leagues.

Any MLB player that leaves the dugout or the bullpen during an altercation is automatically suspended for two games. No exceptions, no appeals.

It would make players think twice before escalating a conflict, and 9 on 9 plus coaches is more than a good enough fight if they’re set on fighting. You don’t need all 50+ people in uniform on the field being moderated by just 4 umpires.

I’m against the whole idea of banning these types of things. Much like fights in hockey (some fights, not all) they do serve a purpose at times. However, preventing them from blowing up into bigger issues is in everyone’s best interests.

This should be something that the Commissioner should be immediately looking at.

Dear Internets. Recall in days of old when we would write an essay upon our return to school describing the activities in which we participated during our summer vacations? Well this goes a little like that.

Nothing. I did nothing.

Well, as long as you can call school nothing. My summer vacations have been spread out and short. I got a couple weeks off between the end of the Spring semester (with my very disappointing 2.9 semester GPA upon my return) and the beginning of my first summer school session.

First session I took Graphic Communications 1 and Web Development, with Mr. Reeves and Mr. Howell respectively. With just 5 students in our Graph Comm 1 class, we had a lot of fun. In Web Dev, I figured I was in for trouble when Mr. Howell walks in the first day of class and says “I love Flash.” (I hate Flash) Despite that, I still walked away with an A and an A- in the first two courses of the summer and my first two in the major.

Then we had a week and change off at home before returning for the second summer session.

Second session I took Graphic Communications 2 and Electronic Prepress, both with Ms. Surerus. That can be good or bad. It turned out to be good as I got a fairly good feel for what she was looking for. I still walked away with an A and an A- in the third and fourth courses of the summer, maintaining my in major GPA at 3.85 and upping my GPA since returning to Appalachian to a 3.44.

On the last week of classes, I got a surprise. Roommate! So I survived 9 out of the 10 weeks of the semester without getting a roommate, but out of the blue get one for the last week. Allen was caught in a period between his old lease running out and his new lease picking up, so he came to campus. It was fun getting to know him for the week we spent in the same room. We shared a few interests for sure.

On August the 3rd, I got the keys to my apartment. I’m sure I’ll discuss it at some point once I get settled into the school year. Later in the week my parents came up with a truck and we moved my big furniture into the apartment before I returned home. It has some ugly red carpeting in it, but it has begun to grow on me and I kind of like it now.

So here I am on my two week break from school, the first week almost complete. Dentist appointment, scavenging for things I need to take back to Boone with me, and lunch with Dad are the things I’ve done this week. I haven’t done much else and don’t really plan to do much else over the next week and a half.

Suzanne is busy doing the working thing (raising funds to be my sugar mama) and I’m just biding my time until I’m ready to return to Boone for the fall. I’m playing video games and such. Fun stuff.

This fall should be fun. I’m taking 17 hours and 7 classes. Some fun little 1 hour seminar classes that I need to take that likely produce the same amount of work as the regular 3 hour courses do. The GPA goal for walking away after this semester is a 3.6, though if I straight A it I could have a 3.77.

Hopefully this summer will be the last one that I need to spend in school. I’m hoping that next summer will either be spent doing an internship or finishing up my classes in the first summer session. I am so ready to be done with college, it’s not funny. Ready for the next stage in my life, please!

Antti Niemi. Goaltender for the 2010 Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. Niemi has found himself as a free agent after Chicago cut the goalie after he won a $3.25 million arbitration judgement. Just where will the #1 goalie of the Stanley Cup champions land? If I had my way, he’d find his way to Ottawa.

Yes, Brian Elliott has turned a corner and was incredible in the second half of last season. But I still don’t think he’s ready or capable of being a #1 goalie in the NHL. There were many games he won on sheer luck rather than skill as I watched him misplay a lot of shots through last season. And when playoff time came, his Goals Against Average increased by two.

Yes, Pascal Leclaire had a great playoffs and single handedly kept Ottawa in the series against Pittsburgh. At the time, I told him that all of his previous sins would be forgiving and his slate wiped clean. Truth be told, I’ve not been happy with Leclaire since we made the trade. I’d much rather have Vermette.

Elliott: 2.57 GAA, 29-18, 90.9 save%
Leclaire: 3.20 GAA, 12-14, 88.7 save%

Antti Niemi: 2.25 GAA, 26-7, 91.2 save%

The numbers speak for himself. Last season he was way better than either of these guys and the Cup that he raised at the end of last season speaks for itself.

Ottawa has a relatively deep offense at the moment. Fisher, Michalek, Foligno, and the emergence of guys like Regin and Karlsson. Their defense is solid. The missing piece of the equation is a consistent goaltender.

Of course, Ottawa will stand pat because like most major sports franchises, their most glaring weakness is always spotted by the fans but never management.

I look at my St. Louis Cardinals. They were 2nd in pitching and 18th in offense in the league. So what did they do at the All Star break? Traded their second-best bat for an average pitcher. Makes sense, right?

If I were the Senators, I would pursue Niemi and make whatever counter-trade to make the salary cap room that I needed to make. Perhaps back load a deal two years down the road, give him a big signing bonus, something, anything.

It’s not every day you have the opportunity to sign a Stanley Cup winning goaltender, let alone one that’s 26 and coming off the season in which he won the Stanley Cup.

Elliott and Leclaire are both solid goaltenders. However, they are too inconsistent. Too hot or cold. On any given night, either of those two guys could go out and shut down the other team or they could allow 5 goals before the 40 minute mark. That’s the problem though. Unfortunately, I don’t think management sees it.

According to NASCAR’s release, Carl Edwards has been fined 60 points, $25,000 and placed on probation for the remainder of 2010. Brad Keselowski has been placed on probation for the remainder of 2010 as well.

There are typically three divisions of fans. Those on Carl’s side and feel his actions were warranted, those are Brad’s side and feel he’s been the victim, and those who think this is what NASCAR has asked for and neither is at fault.

I’m more the second. I think a lot of what has happened is Brad driving aggressively and other drivers have made moves around him when they aren’t clear. They’ve expected Brad to let them go. Is that necessarily Brad’s fault? No. Could he do something to avoid it? Yes.

The general reaction amongst fans today was, “Good for NASCAR for drawing the line, now what the heck did Brad do wrong?”

When you look at the penalties given out after each situation that Brad’s been involved with over the last year.

At Phoenix in a Nationwide Series race, Keselowski got into Denny Hamlin. After the race, Hamlin called his shot. He said that he would spin Keselowski the next chance he got. Sure enough, at Homestead two weeks later Denny Hamlin would spin Brad Keselowski. No penalty handed out by NASCAR.

At the beginning of this season, NASCAR issued a “Have at it boys” order to the drivers before the season. They announced that they would be rolling back the restrictions placed on drivers and allow them to show more heat of the moment reactions without fear of penalty.

It only took until the fourth race of the season for this to be put to the test. While racing for position, Carl Edwards moved from the high line to the low line. Unfortunately for Edwards, he wasn’t clear and Brad Keselowski’s red Dodge made contact and Edwards ended up in the wall. However, when Edwards returned to the track and was well over 100 laps down he intentionally turned in Keselowski’s car down the front stretch while Keselowski ran in sixth-place. That resulted in Keselowski flipping in his Dodge.

For that incident, Carl Edwards received a 3 race probation and Brad Keselowski received no penalty.

For the incident at Gateway, Carl Edwards received a larger probation and Keselowski got one.

So what NASCAR basically said to their drivers with these penalties is that Edwards’ actions were wrong, and that Keselowski’s bump-and-run on Edwards to attempt to win was wrong as well.

The argument can be made that NASCAR gave Keselowski the probation in order to discourage payback. That’s nice, but has Brad Keselowski ever paid anyone back? He has handled each incident of payback from Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards with the utmost class. He’s a hard nosed, aggressive driver that will run you hard, but doesn’t look down on you when you do the same to him.

Of course, NASCAR couldn’t really suspend Edwards for any Nationwide races. He is their last hope to have an interesting championship hunt in the Nationwide Series. Edwards is 168 points behind Keselowski, who is having a phenomenal season. Beyond Edwards, the closest competition is Justin Allgaier, Keselowski’s teammate, who is 497 points back. That pretty much means that Keselowski could miss two races that Allgaier wins and still have a 107 point lead.

Good move by NASCAR to draw the line at intentional wrecks. If you want to take care of someone, do it without involving others. Unfortunately, there will be no compensation for the teams that run on shoe string budgets that went home with wrecked race cars because a Cup driver got greedy about a Nationwide win and decided to wreck another Cup driver.

However, for every step forward these days that NASCAR takes they like to take one backwards.

In the coming days I think I’m going to write a Gameplan for NASCAR, which would be my thoughts on what to change to turn NASCAR’s downward trending popularity back in the right direction.

For IndyCar driver Will Power, his time is now. The Toowoomba, Australia, native claims that that is actually his real name too. For Power, he took a huge career risk signing a deal with Roger Penske last season to take over the car of Penske’s #1 driver Helio Castroneves. What? That doesn’t sound like a risk does it? Castroneves was dealing with his tax evasion case and wasn’t going to be able to drive his traditional #3 that season, unless he was exonerated.

And Castroneves was, cleared of wrong doing in the case and returned to his car after Power drove it to a sixth-place finish in the season opener at St. Petersburg. Except now, with Castroneves’ return, Power only had two races left on the schedule thanks to sponsorship brought over from the NASCAR team from Verizon.

For Power, it was a bit of a gamble. He had plenty of potential when he came to America to race ChampCars, but lack of success and IndyCar’s oval schedule left him out in the cold. If he didn’t find something and show he belonged in IndyCars, his racing career in America was likely over.

A second at Long Beach and a fifth at Indianapolis showed that Power had the ability to get the job done in Roger Penske’s equipment. The issue was sponsorship for a third car. To Penske’s credit, he funded Power in four more races the rest of the season. Power rewarded him with a win in Edmonton where he led 90 of the race’s 95 laps.

His 2009 season ended prematurely after an injury at Infineon in a practice accident.

For Power, his experience is all road racing. From Formula Fords to British Formula 3 to ChampCar. In terms of road racing acumen, he and Justin Wilson are likely the top pure road racers in IndyCar racing today.

That road racing ability has shown in 2010. Announced that he would be driving a third Penske car full-time this year, sponsored by Verizon, Power didn’t waste time showing that it was the right decision.

In the first race of the season in Brazil, Power would lead just four laps, but it included the most important one, the final lap.

At that point, Power won from the pole in St. Petersburg and had a pair of poles in the next two races at Barber Motorsports Park and Long Beach. He would score top-5 finishes in both of those races. Power would take a 42 point lead over teammate Castroneves into a four-race stretch on oval tracks, Power’s weakness.

He showed speed in the next four races, thanks to Penske Racing’s superior equipment, and he even won the pole at Iowa in the final oval race of the stretch. His fifth-place finish at Iowa would be his best finish though. That points lead after four more races, had fallen to just 11 over defending champion Dario Franchitti.

Lucky for Power, the series would switch back to road courses for four more races. Giving him time to put more points on the board. Back to back wins for Power the last two weeks at Watkins Glen and yesterday in Toronto have solidified his position at the top of the championship standings, giving him a lead that is back to 42 points with two more road races left.

How will Power do? Well, Edmonton is next on the schedule. Yes, that same track he won at last year. Then on to Mid-Ohio where he finished fourth with KV Racing in 2008.

If he can keep the car out of trouble and finish near the top, all he has to do is maintain that points lead through the series’ final four races on ovals to score his first American racing championship.

Can he do it? With a name like Will Power, you think he’d just be able to make himself do it. I’m sure he’s had to deal with that name for quite some time. The good and the bad of it. All I know is if he complained about the car, I’d be like “Your name is freaking Will Power, make it happen.”

With my favorite open wheel racer in Paul Tracy sitting on the side lines for the past two years and showing no signs of finding anything to run full time, Will Power is definitely the guy I watch.

There is no one else I’d rather see win the title more.

Good luck Will.

For Brad and Carl, the pair have a history together. However, most of their history on the track has been caused by Carl’s expecting Brad to give room to a more established veteran and Brad’s unwillingness to give up ground.

Many will remember what happened at Atlanta when Carl Edwards came back out onto the track with a wrecked race car and intentionally wrecked Brad Keselowski at one of the fastest tracks in NASCAR. Keselowski’s Dodge spun around and then flipped right through the trioval and hit the catch fence. The entire world then watched as NASCAR gave Edwards a tap on the wrist. A meeting with both drivers and car owners along with simply a 3 race probation for Edwards.

Tonight, Brad hadn’t done a thing to Carl.

“Oh, but he hit me!” says Carl in victory lane. He talked about Keselowski over driving the turn and bumping him out of the way. Last I checked in the replay, Edwards over drove the turn as well. In addition, Carl, go see Days of Thunder. He didn’t bump you, he rubbed you. And rubbin’ is racing.

I see a huge distinction between rubbing a driver and moving him out of the way and Carl Edwards’ actions at Gateway last night. When you move a driver out of the way, the goal is to switch places with him. You go to first, he goes back to second or maybe third. What Carl Edwards did, was turn into him, take the win, and put Brad somewhere in the back.

One of the guys I know through the sim racing community writes NASCAR features for Bleacher Report, a fan sports site. Jory is right on with his opinion on the matter. NASCAR had a chance to really stand and say, bumping and rubbing is one thing, blantantly wrecking a competitor is another.

After seeing the hits Keselowski took while he sat sideways on the front stretch while 25-30 other cars ran as hard as they could for the checkered flag, I don’t know how anyone on Carl Edwards’ crew could celebrate that victory. What their driver did was classless and disrespectful. Not just disrespectful to Keselowski, but disrespectful to himself, his crew, his team, and his sport.

When you watch the post-race reactions, the words of Brad’s father Bob, a longtime racer and the holder of 87 starts in NASCAR’s top series, including a Camping World Truck Series win at Richmond, ring true.

“Brad got into Carl getting down into turn 1. Racing. They bumped. They rubbed. Typical racing deal. Carl flipped out like he did at Atlanta. Tried to kill the kid. I’m sick and tired of this, I’ll get my own damn uniform back out and take care of this. He ain’t gonna kill my boy. He just overreacted so bad. If he wanted to bump Brad, it’s one thing. Don’t drive him through the inside guard rail, don’t put him in the grandstands at Atlanta. That’s asinine,” said Bob when being interviewed by ESPN following the race. Asinine’s a good word for it. I had to look it up.

You could see the emotion in Bob’s eyes. He was angry at Carl for making a stupid, classless move and then when he said “He ain’t gonna kill my boy,” you could see that emotion welling up in him.

Bob’s a racer. He understands this sport is dangerous. He understands there’s a risk every time his son goes out on that track that he might not come back. He comes from an era where drivers would beat and bang and their emotions were allowed to hang out. However, they had respect for each other and they usually knew better than to flip a guy into a catchfence at 190 mph or put a guy sideways on the front stretch in front of 25-30 cars doing 120 mph at him.

But Bob’s response begs the question, why are we allowing drivers to make it even more dangerous than it already is by allowing them to use their cars as 3500 pound weapons at will?

Following the race, Carl was mostly unapologetic. The first words out his mouth in victory lane when asked about what happened with Brad were, “I just couldn’t let him take the win from me.”

Carl, he didn’t take the win from you. He earned it. You didn’t.

When Carl was asked later in the victory lane interview whether this incident would impact how the two of them raced down the road later in the season, of course, he decided that it shouldn’t. ”I hope not. We raced really well there for like 10 laps straight and he got in over his head and tried to hard and it was at my expense. And that was at his expense.”

Now, let me get Carl’s reasoning right. The pair have a handful of run-ins over the 2009 season and Carl’s decision is to wreck Brad at Atlanta in March as the culmination of those run-ins. However, when Carl starts something he doesn’t think he should get paid back? Do as I say, not as I do, Carl?

Meanwhile, NASCAR will likely stand by and do nothing. Why? It’s a ratings bonanza. I give it just a couple days before it’s featured in an ESPN commercial for the races next week. This is where NASCAR could take a hint from the NHL.

The NHL has fights. The NHL has penalties. You don’t see those advertising the next game. Why? Because it’s not the right part of the game. It’s not that virtuous part of the game that you should be trying to extol. NASCAR should step up and not only penalize it, they should tell ESPN that if they want to keep their television rights, they won’t advertise with it.

The question remains. What will NASCAR do now? They’ve been given an opportunity to right the wrong choice they made this March following Carl and Brad’s run in at Atlanta. Will they do it or will “have at it boys” remain once again the definition of intentionally wrecking a competitor?

I’ll let Jory’s words be my closing because they are absolutely true.

“It took the death of Dale Earnhardt for the sport to realize it was greatly behind on the safety aspect for it’s drivers. Let us hope it doesn’t take another death for the sport to realize the error of its ways once again.”

After some time with the Tasty theme by Michael Whalen (which is an excellent theme by the way), that helped bridge the gap for the past year, I decided that with the advent of WordPress 3 that I needed to renovate my website to mesh with my current branding look that originated with the Business Card layout that I did a few weeks ago for my Graphic Communications class.

For the longest time I’ve struggled with the reason for my blog. Is it a blog or is it an attempt at a portfolio site? However, I think I have found the balance.

Using the Featured Content Gallery plugin for WordPress, my most recent design work is front and center when you now visit the website. However, for my friends who are more interested in my writings, that can also be found on the website.

Rather than being a blog with my portfolio on the side, I think it’s now a portfolio site with a blog on the side and that was really my goal all along with the website.

Theme implementation is still ongoing at this point, but hopefully it will be completed this weekend.

Software Used:

The Sunshine Laundry Detergent bottle was a small project I did for my girlfriend. She was doing a presentation for one of her classes where she had to come up with a product to attempt to sell that was based on pseudoscience.

Her idea was a laundry detergent that was packed with vitamins. The idea behind it was that you would was your clothes in this detergent, which would place the vitamins in the clothes, and then you would absorb those vitamins while you wore your clothes.

As part of the presentation, I created a bottle image for her to use in her PowerPoint.

Software Used: