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....

Archie Manning, Drew Mississippi, and "The Ballad Of Archie Who"

You may have heard of Peyton Manning, The Indianapolis Colts QB who led his team to a Super Bowl win in 2007. 
You may have heard of his little brother Eli, who did the same for the New York Giants. 

Enough about them. 

Back in 1970, it was all about their father, Archie Manning.  Archie is THE favorite son of Drew, Mississippi.  According to Time magazine, Drew had a population of 2,143 people at the height of Archie Fever.  We lived between Drew and Merigold, but Drew was where I went to school, where we went to church, and where almost all of my friends lived.  My father had been friends with Archie's father.  Archie's mother did work for our attorney. 
Drew Mississippi children were told that they had to eat their spinach if they wanted to grow up to be big and strong like Archie. 

(Just for the record, Drew's other favorite sons are "Pop" Staples, who went on to form The Staple Singers, and Tommy Johnson, who wrote the old blues classic "Canned Heat Blues".)

Here's Time magazine, from way back in 1970, talking about some of the Heisman Trophy hopefuls of that year:

....In Mississippi, the entire state is in the throes of "Archie fever." The town council of Drew (pop. 2,143) has erected highway signs proudly proclaiming: HOME OF ARCHIE MANNING OF THE OLE MISS REBELS. To accommodate national TV coverage for Archie, the state legislature spent $150,000 to improve the lighting in the Memorial Stadium in Jackson, while at the University of Mississippi's Hemingway Stadium they only half-jokingly call the new artificial turf the "Archie Manning Memorial Carpet." Beyond that, there are buttons (ARCHIE FOR HEISMAN TROPHY), bumper stickers (ARCHIE'S ARMY), Archie handbills, Archie posters, Archie dolls, Archie T shirts and an Archie campaign song that has sold more than 50,000 copies. Sung by the Rebel Rousers on the Hoddy Toddy label, The Ballad of Archie Who is a twangy tribute to "the best dadburned quarterback to ever play the game":

The ball is on the fifty,
The down is third and ten,
He runs it down the sidelines;
Yes, Archie takes it in.

Until he injured his left wrist last week, Manning had as good a claim to the trophy as anyone in college football. He became known as Heismanning last season when he passed for nine touchdowns and ran for 14 more to pile up a remarkable 2,264 yds. in total offense. So far this season, he has tossed eleven touchdown passes in six games. A roll-out passer who likes to look in one direction and throw in another, the 6-ft, 3½-in., 205-lb. Manning has the size to uncork the long bomb —or fake it and go powering down the sidelines. A freckle-faced country boy, he looks a bit like Huck Finn in hip pads—and talks like him too. When asked about Archie fever, he says, "The only thing I can figure out is that Archie is a different name. Maybe if it were Bill or something, none of this would have started." Not a chance.

I don't remember the exact reason for the "Archie Who?" references.  I think an opposing coach was asked how he thought "Archie" would do against his team, and the coach answered with a flippant "Archie Who?" 

Manning went on to beat the snot out of that coach's team, and a nickname was born.  We had "Archie Who?" bumperstickers and buttons and banners.  We had "Archie Manning Day" in Drew.  We gave him a parade.  I think we gave him a convertible.  It was a big, big deal. 

Here's the "Archie Who?" song, which has finally made it onto YouTube:



According to Drew Mississippi Mythology, Archie Manning didn't miss a Sunday at Drew Baptist Church a single time, from the day he entered the nursery until the day he left for Ole Miss. Among Southern Baptists, that gave Archie the same status that Sandy Koufax achieved among the Jews for not pitching on Yom Kippur. Archie was greatness.

Unfortunately, Archie was drafted by a new team.  The New Orleans Saints.  Lord have mercy, they had some bad years.  Archie Manning spent a lot of his career getting sacked. 

Drew Mississippi Mythology says that if Archie had been drafted by The Dallas Cowboys and Roger Staubach had been drafted by the lowly New Orleans Saints, Manning and Staubach would have had reversed careers.  Manning would have gone to all those Super Bowls, and Staubach would have been Jack Youngblood's tackling dummy. 
Deep down in our hearts, we knew it to be true.  Archie was greatness.  If only Archie could have gotten on with The Dallas Cowboys....

About 15 years ago, Roger Staubach's real estate company was trying to work a deal with my old employer, Barnes & Noble.  Some of us got invited to a pre-game party at Mr. Staubach's home, and then got to go to a game in his suite at the old Cowboys stadium. 

During the pregame party, Staubach brought up the names of some of the other quarterbacks of his era, and I HEARD ROGER STAUBACH SAY THIS SENTENCE WITH HIS VERY OWN MOUTH:

"You know, there are a lot of people who think that if Archie and I had been drafted by opposite teams, we would have had opposite careers.  And they might be right."

I heard Roger Staubach say that sentence.  I heard it with my own ears.  I heard him say it.

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 Texas Sinkhole Revisited

About a year ago I posted several pointless rants about the new Cowboys stadium, how taxpayers were taking the risk while Jerry Jones took the profits, and how the stadium would be a net loss for the City Of Arlington.
At about the same time, a massive sinkhole opened up someplace in Texas. The earth actually opened, and started sucking in trees, houses, lakes, etc.
I posted a comparison between the two, complete with a picture of the stadium construction. It got passed around and emailed a lot, people got some giggles out of it, and then it died.

Now check this out. You know those encyclopedia-type articles you can find all over the internet, the ones that rely on Flickr, Google Image tags, etc. for their pictures?

Go here. Look at the section "Images Of The Texas Sinkhole".
A picture is worth a thousand words.

Minnesota Vikings 34, Dallas Cowboys 3

Jerry Jones' #9 stopped working again.
Lord have mercy, what a whoopin'.
So here's the question. The Cowboys, until last week's Philadelphia game, hadn't had a playoff victory since 1996.
Philadelphia hadn't beaten a team with a winning record all year long.
Brett Favre and company just showed the world that the Cowboys aren't really a playoff team.

If you get your rear end handed to you by a team with a 40-year-old quarterback, and I'm talking a THIRTY FOUR TO THREE blowout, does the Philadelphia wildcard game really count as an end to the Jerry Jones/Eminent Domain curse?

But enough about Jerry Jones' inability to put together a winner. (Hit the link above. Jimmy Johnson gets full credit for putting together the teams that won the Jones era superbowls.)

Like everyone else from Drew, Mississippi, I've been a fan of the New Orleans Saints since 1971. That's the year that New Orleans drafted Drew native Archie Manning. We've had some long, dry years. This could be the Saints' year, right?

But wait, it gets complicated. Archie and Olivia Manning had some babies. Cooper, Peyton, and Eli. Cooper can't play football any more because of a bad back. Eli is quarterback for the New York Giants. Peyton is quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. I always have to root for the Giants and Colts because of the Mississippi roots thing, right?

Let's change gears one more time. I've followed Brett Favre ever since he led the University Of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles to beat the snot out of Florida State, against all odds, sometime in the late 80's. (Two of my siblings went to Southern Miss.) I love me some Brett Favre, even if he's now jumping from team to team like a madman.

Mrs. Sepulchre, who has forgotten more about football than I'll ever know, has been a fanatical New York Jets fan ever since the Joe Namath era. For birthdays, I've occasionally given her bouquet/gift baskets made of New York Jets merchandise and propaganda. Unlike the Saints fans, Mrs. Sepulchre has seen her team win a Super Bowl. In 1969.

Here's my nightmare scenario.... Archie Manning's Saints, Peyton Manning's Colts, and Brett Favre's Vikings will be in the NFC and AFC championship games next week. While I'm typing this, Mrs. Sepulchre's New York Jets are playing San Diego for the remaining spot in next week's games.

ALL OF OUR TEAMS MIGHT BE PLAYING EACH OTHER IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES.

Can it get any worse?

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.

Dallas Cowboys 24, New York Giants 31 - December is the cruelest month

Without nearly enough apologies to the works of T.S. Eliot....

December is the cruelest month, breeding
Defeats out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Fumbles in the Meadowlands.
Autumn kept us warm, covering
Earth with easy wins over lowly Oakland, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Eli surprised us, coming over the top
With a shower of passes; though we stopped not one,
Romo and Whitten set records; into the end zone
Giants returned punts, and treated us like losers.


LET us go then, you and I,
When the stadium is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through Arlington's half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of bulldozed houses near one-night cheap hotels
And bad chain restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question …
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.

In the room libertarians complain
Cursing both Jerry, and Eminent Domain.

The yellow curse that rubs its back upon the uniforms,
The yellow December curse that rubs its muzzle on the gray and blue uniforms,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the end zone,
Lingered upon the Cowboy drives that failed to move the chains,
Let fall upon its back the hopes that falls from gullible fans,
Slipped by the defense, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft December night,
Curled again about the Meadowlands, and fell asleep.


We'll soon see New Orleans riding Brees-ward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water gold and black.

We will linger in the Dome of the damned,
By cheerleaders wreathed with fabric gold and brown
Till the ref whistles wake us, and we drown.

And I have known the eyes already, known them all,
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To explain the theft of land and homes?
And how should I go on?

For I will show you fear, fear in a handful of dust....

Pics came from here and here.

Dallas Cowboys Stadium, Arlington Texas, George Strait Concert, June 6, 2009

George Strait, Reba McIntyre, Blake Shelton (The Aggie's fave), and LeeAnn Womack opened up the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington last night.

I've written a lot of posts about the thefts required to build the new stadium. A few months ago, this comment appeared beneath one of them:

Hi Allen,

I'm not angry or offended, just curious :)
I came across your page while Googling images of the new stadium.
I'm curious as to why you seem so angry about the stadium.
I know people had to move from their homes, but this new stadium is for a lot more than just football.
We will have concerts there which will bring in money for the city and the stadium has created a TON of new jobs.
I also noticed your profile states you live in Ft. Worth, and not 5 miles away from it like I do. So the traffic probably won't even effect you.
I look at the stadium as an investment in Arlington's future, a way to keep our city "alive".Email me back ok?

amy@removed to protect her privacy.com

Sincerely,
Amy

Here's one of the more popular images in question that Amy found on her Googling expedition. It won't hurt my feelings at all if you right-click on it and email it to everyone you know.

My friend Dr. Ralph, who sees attacking my worldview as his job, came to my defense:

Amy Anonymous - that's not anger, that's righteous anger.

The Whited Sepulchre takes great pride in his righteous anger and never misses a chance to spew a little.

Trust me -- he's much nicer in person, and thankfully not near so righteous.

So.... in honor of the 1.15 billion dollar stadium that you've all paid for, here is my response to Amy's comment and email. Perhaps slightly edited for clarity, and with the beer goggles removed.

1) "I'm curious as to why you seem so angry about the stadium."

I don't just seem angry over the new stadium, I am angry.

2) "I know people had to move from their homes...."

Yes, and think of the outrage that would've gone down had the city taken the homes to put up a Wal-Mart, a business that would return far more tax dollars per theft dollar to Arlington.

One of the things that has made America great, and a safe investment for people all over the world, is a concept known as property rights. If you own something here, the government can't take it away from you except in truly extraordinary circumstances. Unfortunately for us, Big Business has ridden roughshod over property rights for the last 20 years, and our reputation is declining.

3) "....but this new stadium is for a lot more than just football. We will have concerts there which will bring in money for the city...."

I heard Van Halen and Tom Petty at Reunion Arena. I heard The Dixie Chicks at American Airlines Center. The Beach Boys at the old Arlington Stadium. Now, close your eyes and think of all the economic development that sprang up around those venues after they were built. Having difficulty? It's because the development hasn't happened. The Ballpark in Arlington had the most development, but even those retail strips have struggled (I used to manage retail there. Look at the vacancies at Lincoln Square, I-30 and Collins.)

5) "....and the stadium has created a TON of new jobs...."

To use an analogy that is about to become tiresome on these pages, if someone breaks a window in your house, it creates a two hour job for somebody. If someone breaks all the windows, it creates a couple of jobs for an entire day. If someone breaks every window in the City of Arlington, it creates a TON of jobs. That doesn't mean that the jobs are worth more than the activity they are replacing.

Money has been moved, thanks to the vandal, from your wallet to the repair man's wallet.

In the stadium example, assets have simply been moved from the Taxpayers' wallet to the City's wallet to then be given to contractors and Jerry Jones.

5) .... "I also noticed your profile states you live in Ft. Worth, and not 5 miles away from it like I do. So the traffic probably won't even effect you...."

I'm not concerned about the traffic. But if you get a chance, check out David Cay Johnston's book "Free Lunch", which covers this topic at great length. The Chapter titled "Pride and Profits" explains why most sports stadiums are surrounded by economic dead zones. Ask a restaurant owner around the new stadium if the traffic around their business hurt or helped on Saturday night. Regular traffic = good. Erratic killer traffic 30 times a year = bad.

6) ...."I look at the stadium as an investment in Arlington's future, a way to keep our city alive."

Lemmee tell you a story, Amy. 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.

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 ! ! !

Your fellow commenter Dr. Ralph likes to refer to the Iraq war as one of history's worst "bait-and-switch" deals.

Well, the following is also from 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."

Guess which city should have, and could have sounded some warnings ahead of time about Bush and his buddies, but didn't?

Arlington, Texas.

Why didn't they? Embarrasment? Shame? Didn't feel truly humble enough? Not enough righteous anger? We'll never know.

But that's why I get angry over the City of Arlington taking away peoples' homes and giving the land to Jerry Jones.

The Dallas Cowboys and the instruments of God's wrath - The Philadelphia Eagles

As predicted, there was a problem with #9 on Sunday. Hit this link and come back to me.

I feel like the Prophet Isaiah. Or at least a Vegas odds-maker. Tony Romo, #9 for The Dallas Cowboys, had the worst game I can remember from a Dallas quarterback since the Ryan Leaf experiment. The Cowboys, at one point early in the season, were favored to go to the freakin' Super Bowl. Now they won't even be in the playoffs. They got spanked by the Philadelphia Eagles, 44-6.

Every year, I have a wager with a co-worker that the Cowboys won't win a playoff game. They never, ever do. I always eat well in January, because of all that extra money.

Why won't they win a playoff game? (Do you know what the difference is between God and Jerry Jones? God doesn't think that he's Jerry Jones.)

God doesn't like Cowboys owner/General Manager Jerry Jones.

There's no other way to explain it. How else do you explain the Romo Butterfingers on the field goal two years ago, the total meltdowns every December, or the masterpiece that Philly's Donovan McNabb put together last Sunday?

Jerry Jones and the City of Arlington have seized/stolen/taken houses and business via Eminent Domain. They've used the bulldozed space to start construction of a temple in honor of a team that is now 0-12 in the last dozen years' worth of playoff games.

As long as Jones is owner and General Manager, they're not going to win a playoff game. More than anything else, Jones wants to be known as a football X's and O's guy.

But he's not.

Jerry Jones is a brilliant businessman but a crappy evaluator of football talent and team chemistry. He needs to turn the G.M. responsibilities over to someone who doesn't labor under an Old Testament curse. (I work in the shipping, logistics, and freight industry, and that qualifies me to comment on these things.)

Those early Super Bowl wins were because of a team put together by coach Jimmy Johnson. Deal with it.

(Full disclosure: I loved the Johnson era Cowboys, and thought that Jimmy's "Turning The Thing Around" was the best sports-as-metaphor-for-life book I'd ever read.)

Jones fired Johnson because of nothing but ego.

Is there any other franchise in baseball, football, basketball or hockey whose G.M. has gone 12 years without a playoff victory? (Maybe Al Davis, the owner/G.M. of the Oakland Raiders?) Somebody help us out on this....

Next year, the citizens of Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Texas will be able to watch an even crappier team, but with the luxury of nicer toilets.

Hardly an even trade-off.

Jerry Jones, you have taken what was not yours. You will atone. God is not mocked.

The Texas Sinkhole

People are coming to this site looking for pictures of the famous Texas Sinkhole, an unnatural phenomena caused by allowing a particular industry to run rampant in a small space, sucking in houses, trees, yards, vehicles, and every other resource in the area.

The bad news is, this thing will continue to grow unless we petition our government to stop Eminent Domain abuse.

Eminent Domain

It took me a while to find this again, but it's worth reading....

TTC News Archives: “Rick Perry is the landowners’ worst enemy in Texas. "

It's got more on the Eminent Domain ripoffs that I wrote about here.