COUNTY COURT NOMINEES

In 1932 John "Cactus Jack" Nance Garner was elected the 32nd Vice President of the United States. In March of 1933, before resigning his seat in the house, he became the second man to ever be Speaker of the House and President of the Senate on the same day. 
Garner is famous in history for describing the Vice Presidency as "not being worth a warm buck of ____" the final word being variously described by historians as "piss", "spit" or "shit". 

Now on to news of County Court.  Any resemblance to the above portion of the post and the following is purely coincidental. 

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

SO, YOU WANT TO BE A COUNTY COURT JUDGE .......

The JNC was in their own Beast Mode this past weekend, logging two full days of interviews on Saturday and Sunday.  They interviewed a total of 30 applicants for the two open County Court seats of Judge Gladys Perez and Judge Rudy Ruiz.

Here are the names they sent to Governor Scott:

To replace Judge Perez:

Laura Ann Stuzin
Diana Vizcaino
Gina Beovides
Jonathan Meltz
Karl St Hope Brown
Elijah A. Levitt

To replace Judge Ruiz:

Laura Ann Stuzin
Diana Vizcaino
Gina Beovides
Joseph Mansfield
John William Wylie IV
Alexander Spicola Bokor

The Governor has 60 days to choose the two replacements.  If you would like to weigh in on any of the finalists, you can contact Governor Scott's Office of General Counsel at 850.717.9310.

CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com

TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY

It was the best of times.
It was the worst of times.
It was the best of calls.
It was the worst of calls.

For all we dislike about the super bowl, which we wrote about yesterday, there is value in sports. The value is in the simple moments. The moments of truth. When the player confronts their talent, their opponent's talent, when their coach makes the call to put his or her team into position to win. Or lose.

Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll did both yesterday. As the first half wound down, with his team down by 7, six seconds left, a penalty putting them a dozen yards from a touch down. The safe play was to kick a field goal. Championships are rarely won by the safe play. Carroll called a pass play, his team executed and scored and rode the momentum of that play to a ten point lead by the fourth quarter.

Then the Patriots came back, and then, with an improbable pass reception, the Seahawks and their QB Russell Wilson found themselves down by four, at the one, less than thirty seconds left.

In Basketball, John Havlicek stole the ball. Then a generation later, Bird stole the ball. Jordan made last second jumper after last second jumper, and won six championships.

Mazeroski hit the first bottom of the ninth, game 7 walk-off home run in 1960, and a generation later in the World Series  Kirk Gibson limped to the plate and knocked one out of the park causing Vince Scully to memorably exclaim "I don't believe what I just saw!"

Sports are about those moments of the man or woman confronting their own short comings. The moment of truth when the player emerges and beats the better opponent- or fails and faces  a life time of "what ifs?"
There is no better example of a man confronting his fears than Ali, on the ropes for seven rounds in Kinshasa, Zaire, taking a pounding from the most terrifying opponent in the history of boxing, and then reaching deep inside and throwing the best right hand in boxing history. Ali beat Forman, but in reality, he conquered his fear and allowed himself to win.

Russell Wilson walked to the line of scrimmage as the seconds ticked down. He had timeouts to call if necessary. He had the best short yardage back in the game, and he had the athletic skill to run a yard and win a championship. Pete Carroll or his Offensive coordinator called a pass. The Patriots countered with a goal line defense- their largest players on the line to stop the run- but with a twist- cornerbacks positioned to stop the play-action pass.

Bobby Thompson hit the home-run and "The Giants Win The Pennant. The Giants Win The Pennant."

Wilson called the play and took the snap and stepped back to pass.

Mookie Wilson stood at the plate with two outs and his Mets one out away from losing the series in 1986 to the Red Sox in game six.

Wilson threw an interception when the game was on the line.

WIlson swung and sent a soft roller down the first base line, but improbably Bill Buckener let the ball roll through this legs when the Red Sox were on the verge of their first world championship.

That's why they play the game. And it wasn't a bad game at all.

SUPER ….WASTE OF TIME

The Super Bowl has become a national holiday, morphing into a world-wide event. Good for the NFL, where players beat their families during their days off while recovering from head injuries that will make them drooling, limping morons at an age most men are tuning up their golf and tennis games. 

Here is the dirty legacy of the NFL: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive brain injury resulting from being battered in the head sixteen weeks a year plus practices.  The recent list of victims:  Chicago Bear Dave Duerson who killed himself in 2011; KC Chiefs Javon Belcher, who killed his girlfriend and then himself last year.  And Junior Seau, who killed himself, and was honored yesterday by election into the NFL Hall of shame Fame.  Seau's price for admission into the HOF: a decade plus of violent hits that destroyed his brain and drove him to suicide. But, he has a bronze statute to glorify all those hits. He just won't see the ages of 50, 60, 70, and even if he didn't kill himself, his brain was wrecked. 

Do you get the impression that we are (mostly) done with football? 

A good football game is a fun thing to watch. A good football team going on a run to the super bowl can create a life time of memories for fans.  But this madness has gone too far, and we've had enough. 

Sorry to rain on your parade on this nearly religious day of national pride and celebration. 

There's a 20 kilometer  moderate mountain bike route in Moab, Utah, that we will be riding today while the nation gathers to worship at the NFL's trough. There's more to life than eating chicken wings and  drinking beer and watching ignorant athletes bash each other senseless.  We prefer the memory of cresting the hill of a long bike climb, to a Seahawks pick six. But that's just us. 

For those of you watching the game:

There has been a safety in the last three games. We think the trend will end today, so we wouldn't take the 6-1 odds. Although it would serve the world right if the game ended 4-2. 

Tom Brady scoring (meaning running the ball in or catching a TD pass) the first touchdown at 35-1 is a nice play. 


The Seahawks are -1. Take them. 

The over/under is 48.5, although we got a point less in Vegas earlier this week. We took the over and then parlayed it with the Seahawks to win. We will post a picture of the winning ticket later. 

Over 3 1/2 FGs- take the over. 4fgs wins, 3 or less lose. 

We like the pick-6 prop bet as well. Fact: team with a pick six in a super bowl is 12-0. So if, as we hope, Richard Sherman takes one of cheater-Brady's deflated balls to the house for six, good-bye Patriots. 

In A Superbowl, we will always pick the team with the better Defense. Bears, Ravens, Steelers, Giants, etc. It's why the evil genius and his cheating QB are riding an unenviable two game losing streak in the big game.  

The Seahawks are a well rounded team. Great Defense, a beast of a running game, a QB who can go deep while in the pocket or scramble for a first down and more. These are the types of teams that win two super bowls in a row- Cowboys of the early 1990s, Broncos of the later 1990s, the 49'ers in the 80s and the Steelers in the 70s- twice. 

There will be a point during the game today when we will get off our bike and sit in majestic silence, surrounded by desert and red dusty sandstone on Slickrock trail, and we will eat a sandwich (gluten free bread these days)  and drink some coconut water, and pull out a well worn copy of King Lear, and just rest and eat and read: 

Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,
Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;
And take upon 's the mystery of things,

The last thing on our mind will be some senseless game. 

But we will want to know if our one, lock-solid bet paid off: 

Coin flip: Heads. 

See you in court when we come back.