This just in – apparently the Bible Belt is still buckled. That according to a recent Gallup survey, as reported by World Net Daily. Americans are still largely religious, but some states have more than others. The Gallup telephone poll of 355,334 adults asked the question, “Is religion an important part of your daily life?” Nationwide, 65% said yes.
But in the Deep South, my ancestral home, the numbers are much higher. Mississippians and Alabamians lead the list, with 85% and 82%, respectively, answering yes to Mr. Gallup. You can find your state by the color-coded categories below. The darker the green, the higher the response. Some states have a very religious culture, while others are decidedly secular.
Wow. There you have it. And all this time I thought we were in a state of massive decline and increasing irrelevance. With nearly two-thirds of Americans turning the pages while we say “Amen,” I guess we can invest in those church bonds after all.
Sorry. Don’t mean to rain on the celebration, but I don’t think I’m buyin’. Not in the secular belts. Not in the Bible Belt, either. [click to continue…]
Sittin’ here watching the bowl games, wondering – is this the fix we’ve been looking for?
Hardly…
I grew up fuming at the whole college bowl game situation. Too many conference/bowl tie-ups. Too many great teams (my favorite in particular) unable to play for a national championship, while every single other NCAA sport and division had some sort of playoff system.
The solution? What we have now as the BCS system, complete with
- uneven conferences being treated as all equal.
- four or five conference championship games that are either really meaningful or dangerous to a great team.
- other conferences (Pac 10, Big 10-actually-11, etc.) with no forced championship game, getting a free pass into the bowls.
- twice as many games so that everybody gets a chance – after all, we’re ALL winners, aren’t we? (We used to joke when a team had a lousy year that they were going to the Toilet Bowl. Now, lo and behold, we actually have a half-dozen of ‘em!)
- EVERY SINGLE bowl game of ANY type has a conference tie-up. “Big 10 #6 vs. SEC #8.” Are ya’ KIDDIN’ me? There is now no such thing as an at-large team.
- A single championship game decided a week-plus into January between a hybrid of two polls and a stack of computers. Four other BCS games bearing the same bowl names and locations, but lacking the same luster. (With all due respect to Cincinnati and West Virginia, really?)
Just for nostalgia’s sake, I thought I’d take this year’s year-end AP rankings and results, and see what they might produce in a 70s bowl scenario. Take a look and tell me, do you really think we’ve made things better? [click to continue…]
