Dallas Cowboys 31, Washington Redskins 38, and the reason that Jerry Jones is cursed

God hates Jerry Jones. 
The Dallas Cowboys just lost to the Washington Redskins.  RG3 went into the Debt Star and autographed the place. 
The Dallas Cowboys, America's Team, God's Team, and one of the teams picked to go to the Super Bowl this year, well, they won't even be going to the playoffs. 

They've gotten one playoff win in 16 years. It's about to be 17 years. Dallas is 5 and 6 for the year.  

It is because God hates Jerry. 
And that's because Jerry is a freakin' thief. 
There is no other way to explain it. 
Jerry Jones and the city of Arlington, Texas, stole some houses to build their new stadium, the Temple Of Baal.  They used Eminent Domain, and it was all legal.  Jerry obeyed all the laws that Arlington wrote.  But they're still thieves.
 
They must atone. 

What needs to happen?  Well, let's look at some history. 

The Cowboys franchise got its start in 1960.  Tom Landry was head coach.

When Landry was fired by Jerry Jones, Landry had a career record of 270-178-6.  However, Landry (before the start of the 1989 season) had not won a playoff game since 1983.  That's five years.  It was probably time for a change. 

When Jerry Jones purchased the team, he made himself General Manager.  He has supposedly been in charge of all personnel decisions since 1989. 

Jerry put the great Jimmy Johnson in as head coach.  Johnson had been coaching at the University Of Miami, and was familiar with many of the players soon to be drafted by the NFL.  We'll never know who made the decisions that led to the Cowboys era of greatness in the 1990's, but my money is on Jimmy. 

Jimmy Johnson coached his Cowboys to Super Bowl victories in 1992 and 1993.   But he couldn't get along with Jerry and left after the 1993 season.  

The details remain shrouded in a late-night haze, but it seems the trouble started when Jones toasted the Cowboys and was offended when Johnson reciprocated but did not invite Jones to join his table. A few hours later, Johnson alleges, Jones told a group of reporters in a bar that he planned to fire Johnson and replace him with Barry Switzer, an old foe of Johnson's from his college coaching days.

Then General Manager Jerry Jones....

....appointed Barry Switzer as Cowboys head coach. 

Using Jimmy's players, Switzer was able to win a playoff game in 1994, and he won the Super Bowl in 1995. 

The Cowboys won a single playoff game in 1996 (a year soon to be known as "the good old days), but went a disappointing 6-10 in 1997. 

General Manager Jerry Jones.....

....knew he had to do something after his head coach didn't win a playoff game in 1997.  He fired Switzer, and replaced him with Chan Gailey. 

Gailey went 10-6 in 1998, and then 8-8 in 1999.  He didn't win any playoff games. 

So then, Jerry Jones, who was supposedly still making all of the personnel decisions....

 ...fired Chan Gailey and replaced him with Dave Campo.  (Gailey is now doing a good job in Buffalo, BTW.)

Campo was head coach in 2000, 2001, and 2002, and had a won/loss record (respectively) of 5-11, 5-11, and finally, 5-11.  No playoff wins. 
So General Manager Jerry Jones, who was still in charge of ALL personnel decisions....

....fired Campo and replaced him with Bill Parcells. 

Despite winning a couple of Super Bowls with the Giants, and an AFC Championship season with The Patsies, Parcells was unable to do anything with Jerry's Kids in Dallas.  There were lots of discussions about "They want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries."  Some former Parcells players got signed, and Parcells had some small authority over the team. 

From 2003 through 2006, the Dallas Cowboys went 10-6, 6-10, 9-7, and 9-7.  They didn't win any playoff games. 

(It was at the beginning of the Parcells era that I discovered that God hates Jerry Jones, and I started making a small fortune betting against Dallas.  That has nothing to do with the matter at hand.  I wasn't worth a crap at left guard at North Sunflower Academy, but I can tell who God doesn't like.)

Parcells retired. 

Then Cowboys General Manager Jerry Jones, who hadn't won a playoff game since 1996....

...thought that he could improve the situation by bringing in Wade Phillips.

Maybe Jerry Jones had discovered the source of his problems.  Maybe this coach would be the one who could properly use Jerry's draft choices. 

The first year, 2007, it almost worked.  The Boys went 13-3, but didn't win a playoff game. 

The next year, they went 9-7, but didn't make the playoffs. 

In 2009/2010, perhaps to illustrate the old proverb that "even a blind hog can sometimes find an acorn", Jerry's draftees went 11-5, and beat the Philadelphia Eagles in a playoff game.  The curse was lifted. 

The next week Minnesota beat the tar out of them 34-3. 

And on and on and on.  Then Jerry Jones, the worst G.M. of the last 17 years....

 fired Wade and promoted in Jason Garrett on 11-8-2010.    Garrett is something like 16-17 since his promotion. 

Jerry's Kids barely beat a pitiful Cleveland team last week, and just got their asses handed to them by lowly Washington in front of a national Thanksgiving audience. 

Jerry Jones, the Cowboy's General Manager has fired the following Dallas Cowboys Head Coaches: All of them but Garrett. 

Once more for Google....  Who are the coashes that Jerry Jones has fired?  They are Tom Landy, Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Chan Gailey, Dave Campo, Bill Parcells (resignation), Wade Phillips, and (soon) Jason Garrett. 

   

It's impossible for an owner who cares to go for 16 years without more playoff wins than one.  It cannot happen.  The way NFL parity works is that you get higher draft picks and an easier schedule if your team is a loser.  What we've seen simply cannot happen. 

That's where God comes in. 

Jerry Jones and the city of Arlington have taken people's homes by force, bulldozed them, and built the greatest sports facility on this planet on the site of their theft.  All to host this mess.  That was like tearing down the Taj Mahal to put up a movie theatre that only shows "Sex And The City". 

God now hates Jerry Jones. The Lord God Jehovah hates Jerry Jones with the white hot passion of a thousand dying suns. And Jerry must atone. Now. Unless he wants to spend another decade with fewer playoff wins than any current NFL General Manager over a 15-yearyear period.

Here's the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, speaking out on the subject of Jerry, The Cowboys, and Arlington:

Ezekiel 22:29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

Ezekiel 22:31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.

I don't think there are any Eagles, Redskins, Giants, or Packers fans who could've said it any better.

So what do we do?

Here is a purification ritual that Jerry could undergo. This comes from the Holman Bible Dictionary.

A cleansing agent (to atone for sin) was required: water, blood, or fire (Numbers 31:23). Water, the most common purifying agent, symbolized cleansing and was used in the rituals related to a waiting period. The person was to wash the clothes and bathe the body (Leviticus 15:7). Blood was used to cleanse the altar and the holy place (Leviticus 16:14-19). It was mixed with other ingredients for cleansing from leprosy (Leviticus 14:1) and contact with the dead (Numbers 19:1).

The final element of the ritual of purification is sacrifice. Purification from discharges required two pigeons or turtledoves, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering (Leviticus 15:14-15,Leviticus 15:29-30). A lamb and pigeon or turtledove were offered after childbirth (Leviticus 12:6). Sacrifice in the purification ritual for lepers was quite complicated, indicating the seriousness of leprosy as a cause of impurity (Leviticus 14:1). The priest also touched the person's extremities with blood from the offering and with oil, cleansing and life-renewing agents. The poor were allowed to substitute less valuable animals for use in their sacrifices.

To cut to the chase: If we're ever going to have a succesful NFL franchise in Tarrant County, Jerry Jones must strip down to his skivvies, wash one of his suits on the 50-yard line of his gaudy Temple Of Baal, mop the field with the blood of Jason Garrett, and perform a ritual sacrifice by slaughtering some of his worst draft picks in the City Of Arlington's luxury suite.

That should do it.

But what about all the little people, Jerry's victims, the refugees who were dispossesed by Eminent Domain ?

Once again, let's see what the Holy Scriptures have to say:

Leviticus 6: 1-7 : "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “If anyone sins and commits a breach of faith against the Lord by deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security, or through robbery, or if he has oppressed his neighbor or has found something lost and lied about it, swearing falsely—in any of all the things that people do and sin thereby— if he has sinned and has realized his guilt and will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression or the deposit that was committed to him or the lost thing that he found or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt... "

It's fairly simple, isn't it? Jerry and Arlington must determine the current value of the stadium, the parking lot, the team, along with the value of having God on their side. They must give that amount of money, plus 1/5th, to the people they stole the land from.

Until that happens, we will labor under an Old Testament curse.

You have violated the decrees of God, Jerry Jones.  And you....will....atone....

New York Giants 31, Dallas Cowboys 14

God hates Jerry Jones. 
The Dallas Cowboys just lost to the New York Giants 31-14. 
The Dallas Cowboys, America's Team, God's Team, and one of the teams picked to go to the Super Bowl this year, well, they won't even be going to the playoffs. 

They've gotten one playoff win in 15 years. 

It is because God hates Jerry. 
And that's because Jerry is a freakin' thief. 
There is no other way to explain it. 
Jerry Jones and the city of Arlington, Texas, stole some houses to build their new stadium, the Temple Of Baal.  They used Eminent Domain, and it was all legal.  But they're still thieves.
 
They must atone. 

What needs to happen?  Well, let's look at some history. 

The Cowboys franchise got its start in 1960.  Tom Landry was head coach.

When Landry was fired by Jerry Jones, Landry had a career record of 270-178-6.  However, Landry (before the start of the 1989 season) had not won a playoff game since 1983.  That's five years.  It was probably time for a change. 

When Jerry Jones purchased the team, he made himself General Manager.  He has supposedly been in charge of all personnel decisions since 1989. 

Jerry put the great Jimmy Johnson in as head coach.  Johnson had been coaching at the University Of Miami, and was familiar with many of the players soon to be drafted by the NFL.  We'll never know who made the decisions that led to the Cowboys era of greatness in the 1990's, but my money is on Jimmy. 

Jimmy Johnson coached his Cowboys to Super Bowl victories in 1992 and 1993.   But he couldn't get along with Jerry and left after the 1993 season.  

The details remain shrouded in a late-night haze, but it seems the trouble started when Jones toasted the Cowboys and was offended when Johnson reciprocated but did not invite Jones to join his table. A few hours later, Johnson alleges, Jones told a group of reporters in a bar that he planned to fire Johnson and replace him with Barry Switzer, an old foe of Johnson's from his college coaching days.

Then General Manager Jerry Jones....

....appointed Barry Switzer as Cowboys head coach. 

Using Jimmy's players, Switzer was able to win a playoff game in 1994, and he won the Super Bowl in 1995. 

The Cowboys won a single playoff game in 1996 (a year soon to be known as "the good old days), but went a disappointing 6-10 in 1997. 

General Manager Jerry Jones.....

....knew he had to do something after his head coach didn't win a playoff game in 1997.  He fired Switzer, and replaced him with Chan Gailey. 

Gailey went 10-6 in 1998, and then 8-8 in 1999.  He didn't win any playoff games. 

So then, Jerry Jones, who was supposedly still making all of the personnel decisions....

 ...fired Chan Gailey and replaced him with Dave Campo.  (Gailey is now doing a good job in Buffalo, BTW.)

Campo was head coach in 2000, 2001, and 2002, and had a won/loss record (respectively) of 5-11, 5-11, and finally, 5-11.  No playoff wins. 
So General Manager Jerry Jones, who was still in charge of ALL personnel decisions....

....fired Campo and replaced him with Bill Parcells. 

Despite winning a couple of Super Bowls with the Giants, and an AFC Championship season with The Patsies, Parcells was unable to do anything with Jerry's Kids in Dallas.  There were lots of discussions about "They want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries."  Some former Parcells players got signed, and Parcells had some small authority over the team. 

From 2003 through 2006, the Dallas Cowboys went 10-6, 6-10, 9-7, and 9-7.  They didn't win any playoff games. 
(It was at the beginning of the Parcells era that I discovered that God hates Jerry Jones, and I started making a small fortune betting against Dallas.  That has nothing to do with the matter at hand.  I wasn't worth a crap at left guard at North Sunflower Academy, but I can tell who God doesn't like.)

Parcells retired. 

Then Cowboys General Manager Jerry Jones, who hadn't won a playoff game since 1996....

...thought that he could improve the situation by bringing in Wade Phillips.

Maybe Jerry Jones had discovered the source of his problems.  Maybe this coach would be the one who could properly use Jerry's draft choices. 

The first year, 2007, it almost worked.  The Boys went 13-3, but didn't win a playoff game. 

The next year, they went 9-7, but didn't make the playoffs. 

In 2009/2010, perhaps to illustrate the old proverb that "even a blind hog can sometimes find an acorn", Jerry's draftees went 11-5, and beat the Philadelphia Eagles in a playoff game.  The curse was lifted. 

The next week Minnesota beat the tar out of them 34-3. 

This year, the mighty Dallas Cowboys have went 8-8.  

Eli and the Giants just handed them their asses, 31-14.  

   

Jerry Jones and the city of Arlington have taken people's homes by force, bulldozed them, and built the greatest sports facility on this planet on the site of their theft.  All to host this mess.  That was like tearing down the Taj Mahal to put up a movie theatre that only shows "Sex And The City". 

That's the history of the Dallas Cowboys coaches and their playoff wins.  If current trends continue through this year's playoffs, Jerry's Kids will have won a single playoff game in FIFTEEN years. 

Let's hope that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who is a brilliant businessman, can figure out the root cause of his problems.

How could something like this happen? 

It's very simple, folks.

God hates Jerry Jones. The Lord God Jehovah hates Jerry Jones with the white hot passion of a thousand dying suns. And Jerry must atone. Now. Unless he wants to spend another decade with fewer playoff wins than any current NFL General Manager over a 15-yearyear period.

Here's the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, speaking out on the subject of Jerry, The Cowboys, and Arlington:

Ezekiel 22:29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

Ezekiel 22:31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.

I don't think there are any Eagles, Redskins, Giants, or Packers fans who could've said it any better.

So what do we do?

Here is a purification ritual that Jerry could undergo. This comes from the Holman Bible Dictionary.

A cleansing agent (to atone for sin) was required: water, blood, or fire (Numbers 31:23). Water, the most common purifying agent, symbolized cleansing and was used in the rituals related to a waiting period. The person was to wash the clothes and bathe the body (Leviticus 15:7). Blood was used to cleanse the altar and the holy place (Leviticus 16:14-19). It was mixed with other ingredients for cleansing from leprosy (Leviticus 14:1) and contact with the dead (Numbers 19:1).

The final element of the ritual of purification is sacrifice. Purification from discharges required two pigeons or turtledoves, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering (Leviticus 15:14-15,Leviticus 15:29-30). A lamb and pigeon or turtledove were offered after childbirth (Leviticus 12:6). Sacrifice in the purification ritual for lepers was quite complicated, indicating the seriousness of leprosy as a cause of impurity (Leviticus 14:1). The priest also touched the person's extremities with blood from the offering and with oil, cleansing and life-renewing agents. The poor were allowed to substitute less valuable animals for use in their sacrifices.

To cut to the chase: If we're ever going to have a succesful NFL franchise in Tarrant County, Jerry Jones must strip down to his skivvies, wash one of his suits on the 50-yard line of his gaudy Temple Of Baal, mop the field with the blood of Jason Garrett, and perform a ritual sacrifice by slaughtering some of his worst draft picks in the City Of Arlington's luxury suite.

That should do it.

But what about all the little people, Jerry's victims, the refugees who were dispossesed by Eminent Domain ?

Once again, let's see what the Holy Scriptures have to say:

Leviticus 6: 1-7 : "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “If anyone sins and commits a breach of faith against the Lord by deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security, or through robbery, or if he has oppressed his neighbor or has found something lost and lied about it, swearing falsely—in any of all the things that people do and sin thereby— if he has sinned and has realized his guilt and will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression or the deposit that was committed to him or the lost thing that he found or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt... "

It's fairly simple, isn't it? Jerry and Arlington must determine the current value of the stadium, the parking lot, the team, along with the value of having God on their side. They must give that amount of money, plus 1/5th, to the people they stole the land from.

Until that happens, we will labor under an Old Testament curse.

YOU HAVE VIOLATED THE DECREEES OF GOD, JERRY JONES, AND.... YOU.... WILL..... ATONE !!!!!

 

Why Libertarians shouldn't support the Texas Rangers

This hurts me. 
I don't want to write this again. 
I've written it before. 
Here's why libertarians shouldn't support The Texas Rangers baseball team in The World Series. 

Waaaay back when George W. Bush was just a pup, he was the front man for a group that bought The Texas Rangers baseball team. Bush brought a 2% share of the team using borrowed money. ($600,000.00) They wanted a new ballpark.
Bush's buddies could've built a new ballpark themselves, but why should they? You were there for them. Bush threatened to move the Rangers out of Arlington. His cartel spent about $125,000.00 campaigning for a 1/2% increase in the Arlington sales tax. The voters approved it. Bush and Company then trampled property rights, seizing land via Eminent Domain.
That's right.  They stole the land on which the ballpark was built. 


All in all, the Bush gang profited from a total subsidy of $205 million dollars.
(Did he send you a thank-you note? Me neither.)
They had paid $86 million for the Rangers.
They sold The Rangers nine years later for $250 million.

The team still stunk.
So what was different? Why the added value?
It was all in the stadium that YOU bought for them. The $164 million dollar profit was $38 million dollars less than the money that we put into the team ! ! !

My arch-nemesis Dr. Ralph likes to refer to the Iraq war as one of history's worst "bait-and-switch" deals.

The following is also David Cay Johnston's "Free Lunch", pg 79:

"What followed (after the Rangers purchase) was an early indicator of Bush's extraordinary success at marketing. Bush is arguably the greatest salesman of our time, having sold not just friends but political opponents on a war costing more than a trillion dollars and thousands of lives with the kind of pay-no-attention-to-that-pool-oil-under-the-engine polish that used car salesmen only dream about."

Ok, they stole the land, they built a mega-stadium on the land, sent you the bill, and then sold the whole thing to Nolan Ryan and kept the overage. 

Why do we put up with this? 

I think it's because Juvanal said it best, somewhere around 100 B.C.   Give us bread and circuses and World Series appearances, and we'll support anything. 

"At the twilight's last reaming"

Most people secretly want their enemies to crash and burn. 
Then there's taking it too far by wanting to dance on their graves. 

That's kind of how I feel this morning.  I've been whining and griping and moaning about Jerry Jones and the City of Arlington stealing land for stadiums for a long, long time.  I'm going to say it.  I feel sorry for Jerry Jones.  Lord have mercy, what a mess. 

A few days before the Super Bowl, I posted pics of the disastrous weather, the unlikely rolling power blackouts, and all the other signs that Jerry and Arlington were sinners in the hands of an angry God. 

I suggested some purifying rituals that Jerry could undergo.  He apparently did none of them. 

Here's the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on the game day meltdowns.  Or lack of melting.  Whatever:

These weren't the text messages, phone calls and e-mails that Bill Lively had envisioned.

On Monday, the president of the Super Bowl Host Committee and his staff expected to revel in the afterglow of the region's first Super Bowl, which they had promised would be the "the biggest and best" ever. Instead, they found themselves among several entities facing a barrage of questions about what went wrong and who was to blame.

After more than 31/2 years of work and with a well-choreographed plan that was praised by National Football League officials, the Host Committee is under fire for a series of events that were out of its control during Super Bowl week.

For his part, Lively said he would essentially use the same approach, with a few refinements, when the region makes its next Super Bowl bid.

"The stadium is a great venue and it will get us another Super Bowl, whether it is 50, 51 or 53," he said.

Problems at Cowboys Stadium on Super Sunday and unexpected bad weather in the days leading up to the game have called that faith into question.

The biggest single-day event in the country once again set a record for the most-watched TV program of all time.

But a number of the 103,219 people in attendance Sunday might be wishing they had stayed home to watch. About 1,200 fans had to be moved just hours before kickoff because temporary seats in the end zone and on the main concourse were completed too late and judged unsafe.

And ice and snow on the giant domed roof prompted closure of some stadium gates, creating long delays for fans trying to enter. Six people were injured by falling ice on Friday. Even Lively felt the pain, waiting for two hours to get inside, a member of his staff said.

People waited outside for three freakin' hours to get inside of The Debt Star.  According to DFW talk radio, cops were instructed that if anyone left their place in line to go to the restroom, they had to go to the back of the line.  Half the gates were shut down because of ice overhanging the Dome Of The Wreck.  1200 people had no seats. 
The NFL offered 'em seats in the media area, out in the parking lot, in a bar someplace, merchandise, a chance to go onto the field after the game, 3 times the purchase price of their tickets, and a free ticket to next year's Super Bowl.  Yeah.  Green Bay and Pittsburgh fans are totally pumped about a chance to go see Tampa Bay and Arizona next year. 

For the sadists among you, here's some video of pissed off fans chanting "Jerry Sucks". Can you imagine flying or driving from Green Bay or Pittsburgh, having paid 3K to a scalper for a ticket, and being told "Oh, your seat isn't built yet"? It....Got....Ugly....



Bill Lively eventually offered up this classic line:
"I don't think it will be harder next time," he said, "when you consider that we were laboring under the deepest recession in 70 years."
I think Mr. Lively has seen too many of Mr. Obama's press conferences.

Here's The Startlegram on the seat problem....

Several days before the Super Bowl, the National Football League, the Dallas Cowboys and the city of Arlington knew that the installation of about 15,000 temporary seats was behind schedule, but they still believed that the seats would be finished in time.

Some of the bleacher seats were deemed dangerous and placed off limits during the game. On Monday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league will not only refund affected fans $2,400 per ticket but also invite them to next year's Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

"There were some very unhappy fans, but people went home safe," said Arlington Fire Chief Don Crowson said. "That is what matters to us."

Arlington fire inspectors had been monitoring the installation of the vertical metal bleachers for at least two weeks before the game, he said, and there was a concern that their completion "was going to be close." Contractors were working on the stands, set up in the end zones and along the main concourse, through the afternoon of game day.

But time ran out.

At about 2 p.m. Sunday, Crowson said he told the NFL that about 500 bleacher seats in the west end zone were not going to open. The staircases leading up to sections 425A and 430A, at either end of the stand and about 30 feet tall, didn't have guardrails and handrails as required.

"We were hopeful work would be completed, but it was not," Crowson said. "When it became apparent the stairs were not going to be completed, we told the NFL those seats were not going to be in use."

The NFL and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wanted to break the Super Bowl attendance mark of 103,985, set in 1980 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. In the end, they fell short with a crowd of 103,219.

And then there was the national anthem.....Christina Aguilera has more talent in her little finger than most of us have in our entire 210-pound selves.  She has been on stage since she got out of diapers. 

I've heard Willie Nelson and Roseanne Barr botch the anthem, but they weren't laboring under the Jerry Jones Eminent Domain curse.  Aguilera left out lines, doubled up on others, and left us with the classic line "At the twilight's last reaming". 




So, one last time before next year's football diasters start to fall on the heads of Jerry Jones, The City of Arlington, and the Dallas Cowboys....
God doesn't like it when you steal somebody's land for a football stadium. 

An explanation of Arlington's Super Bowl weather disaster

I don't believe that God intervenes in human activity, or anything else. 
There are only three exceptions to this rule:

1) My blackjack games
2) My football bets
3) The life and works of Jerry Jones  

Let's concentrate on #3.  Jerry Jones and the City Of Arlington conspired to steal some peoples' houses, bulldoze them, and build a Pharaonic Pyramid of a football stadium on the site of the theft. 
It was all legal, done within the realm of Eminent Domain, and at least 51% of Arlington voters voted in favor of the theft. 
You can hit the Jerry Jones or Eminent Domain tags at the bottom of this post to read some older rants on the subject. 

Tomorrow's Super Bowl was supposed to be a week-long celebration of the crime, seven days of partying to reward the many who voted to rob the few.  Million-dollar parties, Concerts.  Swarms of media. 

Full Disclosure: My employer, Jukt Micronics, got a contract to build the ESPN booth that they're using in downtown Fort Worth.  Nice piece of work, but it's generally been too cold for ESPN to use it. 

But what has happened?  We've had ice storms, sleet, and snow.  The power companies have had to implement a rolling blackout system for businesses, warehouses, manufacturers and some residences.  Traffic has slowed to a crawl.  Or no crawl at all, because everyone has stayed home all week.  We don't do snow very well. 

DFW airport and Love Field have had to operate at a limited capacity when they could operate at all. 
Downtown Fort Worth was supposed to have crowds rivaling Disneyworld.  On my one trip downtown I saw a few drunken Cheeseheads wandering around, Wisconsinites who know how to deal with this kind of weather.  That was it. 

And then, this happened:

As bowling ball-size chunks of ice fell on him from the roof of Cowboys Stadium on Friday afternoon, Win McNamee said he didn’t think he would survive.

“Honestly, while it was hitting me, I was thinking I’m going to die here,” McNamee said. “It was pretty frightening.”
McNamee, a veteran photographer who works for Getty Images, was one of six people injured by falling ice outside the site of Sunday’s Super Bowl XLV in Arlington. He broke his left shoulder in four places and was planning to fly home to Washington, D.C., on Saturday and undergo surgery soon.
None of the other injuries were thought to be life-threatening, authorities said. One person remained hospitalized in stable condition Friday evening, officials said.

Lord have mercy, what a mess.  And why do I think that it isn't over yet? 

As for the economic impact of the disastrous weather?  Go here for ABC's evaluation of it.  We've got hotel cancellations left and right, retailers shuttered, and restaurants operating at 10% of capacity.  The national media is gleefully mocking Arlington's lack of preparedness for this kind of weather.  Especially the reporters who have been told by the NFL that their cities (Denver, Seattle, Detroit) aren't good Super Bowl locations because of their....weather. 

How could something like this happen?  I mean, what are the freakin' odds? 

It's very simple, folks. 

God hates Jerry Jones.  The Lord God Jehovah hates Jerry Jones with the white hot passion of a thousand dying suns.  And Jerry must atone.  Now.  Unless he wants to spend another decade with fewer playoff wins than any current NFL General Manager over a ten year period. 

Here's the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, speaking out on the subject of Jerry, The Cowboys, and Arlington:

Ezekiel 22:29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

Ezekiel 22:31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.

I don't think there are any Eagles, Redskins, Giants, or Packers fans who could've said it any better.
So what do we do? 

Here is a purification ritual that Jerry could undergo.  This comes from the Holman Bible Dictionary. 

A cleansing agent (to atone for sin) was required: water, blood, or fire (Numbers 31:23). Water, the most common purifying agent, symbolized cleansing and was used in the rituals related to a waiting period. The person was to wash the clothes and bathe the body (Leviticus 15:7). Blood was used to cleanse the altar and the holy place (Leviticus 16:14-19). It was mixed with other ingredients for cleansing from leprosy (Leviticus 14:1) and contact with the dead (Numbers 19:1).


The final element of the ritual of purification is sacrifice. Purification from discharges required two pigeons or turtledoves, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering (Leviticus 15:14-15,Leviticus 15:29-30). A lamb and pigeon or turtledove were offered after childbirth (Leviticus 12:6). Sacrifice in the purification ritual for lepers was quite complicated, indicating the seriousness of leprosy as a cause of impurity (Leviticus 14:1). The priest also touched the person's extremities with blood from the offering and with oil, cleansing and life-renewing agents. The poor were allowed to substitute less valuable animals for use in their sacrifices.

To cut to the chase:  If we're ever going to have a succesful NFL franchise in Tarrant County, Jerry Jones must strip down to his skivvies, wash one of his suits on the 50-yard line of his gaudy Temple Of Baal, mop the field with the blood of Wade Phillips, and perform a ritual sacrifice by slaughtering some of his worst draft picks in the City Of Arlington's luxury suite. 
That should do it. 

But what about all the little people, Jerry's victims, the refugees who were dispossesed by Eminent Domain ? 
Once again, let's see what the Holy Scriptures have to say:

Leviticus 6: 1-7 :   "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “If anyone sins and commits a breach of faith against the Lord by deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security, or through robbery, or if he has oppressed his neighbor or has found something lost and lied about it, swearing falsely—in any of all the things that people do and sin thereby— if he has sinned and has realized his guilt and will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression or the deposit that was committed to him or the lost thing that he found or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt. ... "

It's fairly simple, isn't it?  Jerry and Arlington must determine the current value of the stadium, the parking lot, the team, along with the value of having God on their side.  They must give that amount of money, plus 1/5th, to the people they stole the land from. 
Until that happens, we will labor under an Old Testament curse. 

YOU HAVE VIOLATED THE DECREEES OF GOD, JERRY JONES, AND.... YOU.... WILL..... ATONE !!!!!

Tennessee Titans 34, Dallas Cowboys 27, and The Tower Of Babel

Please gather around, boys and girls.  Our children's sermon today is the sad story of The Dallas Cowboys, The Tennessee Titans, and the recently constructed Tower Of Babel.  Did you know that the Tennessee Titans just beat the Dallas Cowboys 34-27 ???  
Children, have you heard of the Tower Of Babel?  The Tower Of Babel is in Arlington, Texas.  I'll show you pictures of it in a few minutes.
This story is in a book that we call "The Bible", and this little story is from the Bible's book Of Genesis, Chapter 11.

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

4. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves....

and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.

6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city, (and they also stopped any plans for being in a hometown Super Bowl).

9 That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

And that, boys and girls, is what happens if you steal peoples' homes to build a sports arena.  God gets angry, and your team loses.  

Pics for this epic came from here and here and here and here and here and here and here.

Michael Anthony Caldwell fined $15,500 for offering parking for less than Jerry Jones

From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

By ROBERT CADWALLADER

ARLINGTON — A city judge on Thursday levied the maximum fine — $15,500 — against a property owner who provided unauthorized parking on his land for Cowboys Stadium events.
A six-person Municipal Court jury took 40 minutes to find Michael Anthony Caldwell guilty of 31 misdemeanor counts of violating city permit requirements. The rules were adopted last year to regulate pay-for-parking operations in the entertainment district.

And why, you ask yourself, did those parking lots need regulating?

The 31 tickets were just a fraction of Caldwell’s violations, officials said. He has about 360 tickets pending with potential fines totaling $180,000.
Caldwell has 30 days to pay Thursday’s fines or arrange a payment plan, Municipal Judge Stewart Milner said.
After the trial, Caldwell said he still plans to offer parking on his 1-acre lot, at 210 E. Randol Mill Road, for the NBA All-Star Game at the stadium Feb. 14.
He said he will appeal the verdict and fines and then will likely sue the city, challenging the ordinance as an unfair restriction on business.
Caldwell, 50, who said his occupation is running a Dallas hotel and booking special events there, acted as his own attorney during the trial.
Before setting the maximum $500 fine per ticket, Milner scolded Caldwell for refusing to heed the repeated warnings of code enforcement officers who were among about 10 city officials who testified during the one-day trial.

Ten city officials? Ten of them?
Arlington, Texas, has that many people drawing pay, pensions, and other expenses who are worried about a guy using his land the way he chooses, providing a service that people consider themselves lucky to use?
Is there any doubt in your mind why Arlington TX needs every fee, tax, permit and kickback it can possibly find?

"There are ways if you don’t like an ordinance to address those issues," Milner said. "To simply thumb your nose at the system and say 'I’m going to keep doing this’ is not acceptable."
During in his brief opening comments to the jury, Caldwell said he and other property owners "believe you have the right to do whatever you want to with your property."

Hell yes, they have that right. I think this is the perfect issue for the Libertarian Party in the 2010 elections, don't you, Mr. Spivey?

He tried to focus attention on the fairness of the ordinance but faced objections from prosecutor Elisabeth Kaylor, who said Caldwell’s point was irrelevant.
Milner agreed.
Caldwell ended up submitting no exhibits, testimony or closing argument.
Milner urged Caldwell to hire an attorney before challenging the rest of his tickets.

Well of course he did. If we're talking about this Judge Stewart Milner, it's because he's a lawyer. He wants people to hire lawyers for the same reason that I want people to hire freight brokers.

It was the city’s first prosecution of a case involving the special-event permit ordinance.
The city has 97 permitted parking lots, providing nearly 12,000 spaces. Caldwell’s site is among 14 unpermitted lots identified on the city’s Web site.

Jerry Jones and the City Of Arlington charge up to SIXTY Freakin' dollars to park a car. I wouldn't pay $60.00 to see The Resurrection, much less park my truck outside the tomb. Is there any wonder why they're wanting to put up barriers to entry for parking competitors?

Caldwell does not qualify for a permit because he does not have a permanent building and business on the site. A building that had been there burned down.

Can someone tell me how a Taco Bell in the middle of a parking lot improves the parking experience? Does it make it safer? More wholesome? Does it help immerse the Cowboys Fan in that down home Arlington Texas goodness?

City Attorney Jay Doegey said the purpose of the ordinance is primarily to protect the public from shady practitioners. But it also gives existing businesses a chance to benefit from the stadium and doesn’t encourage the expansion of lots just for parking.

Here are some questions for you, Jay Doegey. Is it your land? No. Is it any of your business what Mr. Caldwell chooses to do with his land, as long as it doesn't cause physical harm to anyone else? No. Will the area surrounding the new Cowboys Stadium be a parking lot wasteland within 10 years anyway? Yes. Please stop pretending that the stadium will be a boon to retailers and restaurants. That was just marketing. Please give Mr. Caldwell his money back.

"This is an important case for the city," Doegey said. "If the jury didn’t support us on this, it would encourage people not to comply with the law."

Mr. Caldwell was providing a service for people who were glad to find him. Having to purchase unnecessary permits from the City Of Arlington is no different than paying protection money to the mob. Exhibit A: Go here to witness Jay Doegey in action, in what many think of as aiding and abetting in land theft.

One other thing....This is the Wal-Mart Supercenter that had the misfortune of being located next to the Jerry's Kids land grab. I'm hearing that this WalMart won't be open long. I bet it will be one of those "lots just for parking" once Wal-Mart vacates Jonestown North. And I bet Arlington can't find a "permanent business" to occupy the building. Wagers, anyone?
The picture, along with so many other good things in life, came from Durango Texas. He's got great pics of the forced evacuation of the North Arlington indigenous people, the destruction of their habitat, etc. Makes you wonder if Jay Doegey is Jerry Jones' avatar, doesn't it?

The Curse Is Broken

The curse has been broken.
Someone must have brought the Holy Grail back to Camelot.
Maybe somebody helped Frodo the Hobbit throw that damn ring back into the fires of Mount Doom.
Was King Tut's mummy returned to Egypt?

Is there any better way to explain it? The Dallas Cowboys, who haven't won a playoff game since 1996, broke the curse.
Last night, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles 34-14.

Dang it, I've been winning bets off that losing streak for 10 years. My winnings are probably up to 3 grand by now. This year, thanks to some Cowboys diehard fans changing jobs, I wasn't able to get any money down on their playoff chances at the beginning of the season.
This is a good thing, because I didn't think they had a chance of winning a big one this year.

I don't think any other NFL General Manager has ever kept his job through this long of a losing streak, so congratulations to Jerry Jones for finally making it happen.
Or maybe Jerry didn't make it happen. Even a blind hog can find an acorn every now and then.

Go here to read outdated speculation about why the Cowboys used to be cursed, going back to November of '07. Basically I thought that ever since Jerry and the City of Arlington stole and bulldozed all those houses, they were cursed. Maybe not. Let's see how the do against Brett Favre (of The University Of Southern Mississippi) and the Minnesota Vikings.

The Dallas Cowboys' Debt Star Claims Another Casualty

This is the house that the City Of Arlington Texas built with other peoples' money and land. Cowboys Stadium.
When Jerry Jones and the City Of Arlington were conning the taxpayers into building Jerry a new stadium, one of the arguments they used went something like this:

The stadium will increase business in the area around the stadium. There will be a retail and restaurant boom. It will create jobs in Arlington, so many that we'll be justified in taking people's homes by force and bulldozing them for parking space.

People bought the argument.

Well, the new Cowboys Stadium has started claiming casualties.

About a dozen years ago, I was the manager of this Barnes & Noble store near the stadium in North Arlington. It was one of the last ones B&N built with a full book, CD, and software selection, plus a Starbucks coffee bar.


The store closed on New Years Eve.
Guess what killed it? On game days and concert days, customers avoided the neighborhood. On all other days, the city was working on the roads to improve access to The Boss Hawg Bowl, and customers avoided the neighborhood.
As a life-long Mark Twainiac, I loved, loved, loved this mural in the coffee bar:


Ok, so Amazon, file-sharing, and the internet are cutting into book and retail music sales.
The stadium was still supposed to be a godsend for restaurants and bars.
This bar/restaurant (in the picture below) was in the front parking lot of the B&N. It was one of those Hooters/Twin Peaks/Bone Daddy's - type places.
The stadium killed it. There are lots of places in DFW to watch the Cowboys, but one place you don't want to be anywhere near on game day, unless you have a ticket, is within 10 miles of that stadium.
Look at the restaurant/retail wasteland around the old Cowboys Stadium in Irving. Was it ever possible to buy a hamburger within 3 miles of that place?

Here's some empty retail to the west of the Barnes & Noble. I remember it being fully occupied, or close to it. I wish I'd gotten photos a couple of years ago.

I don't think this is what the Arlington City Council had in mind....

Like most libertarians, I have an appreciation for what Joseph Schumpeter called "Creative Destruction". We can't make progress with new ideas if old ideas have to be preserved at all costs. The B&N would've eventually died, but in this case, Dr. Jerry Kevorkian sped things along.

A funny thing happens when government forces a new idea. Jerry Jones didn't have to pay the price that businesses and families were asking for this land in Arlington. The Government determined the price, via an abuse of Eminent Domain. The free market didn't determine if a Debt Star Stadium would ever be profitable in the middle of North Arlington. It was theft by plebiscite. The typical voter probably spent less than two minutes seriously considering the secondary and tertiary effects of buying Jerry Jones a new toy in Arlington.

I'm predicting that the B&N retail site will soon be some variation on a parking lot. Guess which two entities will get the lion's share of the proceeds?

Maybe this store is a poor example. Granted, the retail book business is struggling. Ditto for retail music.

Another business (that operates in the shadow of the new stadium) is one of the few that has done well through the current recession.

In spite of their increased nationwide sales, the Arlington Wal-Mart will be closed by the end of 2011. The stadium is going to kill it.

Hide and watch.

Picture of the Wal-Mart on Death Row came from here.