By AP

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Joe Paterno, who racked up more wins than anyone else in major college football but was fired from Penn State amid a child sex abuse scandal has died. He was 85.

His family released a statement Sunday morning to announce his death.

Paterno’s son Scott announced Nov. 18 that his father was being treated for lung cancer, which was diagnosed in mid-November during a follow-up visit for a bronchial illness.

The storied career of “JoePa” included 409 wins in 46 seasons and two national championships.

But his reputation for success with honor was shattered when a former assistant was charged with molesting 10 boys during a 15-year span, including some in the Penn State athletic complex.

Critics said Paterno should have done more to stop it. He was fired Nov. 9.

In all, Paterno guided five teams to unbeaten, untied seasons.

Source: Fox News

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By Kerry Patton

Why I gave American Idol a chance last night is beyond me.

I love music and more so I love watching inspiring dreams get a chance to become reality.

Oh how I should have stuck to my regular 8pm weekday schedule watching the O’Reilly Factor.

Instead, I made the mistake watching one of America’s most embraced musically rich reality television shows.

Music is a powerful thing. It assists us in coping, celebration, and love. Normally, on day one of American Idol, we get an opportunity to watch contestants with incredible talent sing their hearts out. Simultaneously, viewers get entertained by the most ridiculous of contestants who are simply horrific in their singing abilities.

Many of the less talented contestants get disgruntled and oftentimes show extreme disrespect towards the judges. This year’s debut of American Idol didn’t need any contestant to show disrespect to anyone—Judge Steven Tyler did it for them.

The Aerosmith front man, Steven Tyler, demonstrated incredibly poor judgment last night. What he did should make every mother, father, and young girl cringe. When an incredibly beautiful 15 year old Tampa native, Shannon Magrane, stepped onto the platform to sow off her pristine singing talent, Tyler’s mouth virtually dropped to the floor in awe.

She, like other contestants, was asked a bit about herself. She explained that her father was a former Cardinals pitcher who actually played in the 1987 World Series—Joe Magrane.

The spotlight was immediately taken off the young Shannon Magrane as Idol judges Steven, Randy, and J-lo asked Shannon to bring her dad along with the rest of her family into the room.

Shannon’s father Joe was cordial and more than respectful to the judges shaking their hands and asking how they enjoyed being in Savannah, Georgia.

To promote the brief small talk, the former World Series pitcher mentioned how Savannah was hot and humid. How such a statement opened up a bombshell for the rock and roll hall of famer Tyler.

No matter how beautiful a woman is, when you find out they are only 15 years of age, the human mind should shut down any possible sexual thoughts.

Unfortunately, this obviously was not so for Steven Tyler.  Joe Magrane’s “hot and humid” remark specifically pertaining to Savannah’s weather was spun around to Joe’s 15 year old daughter when Tyler immediately responded with “Yeah, just like your daughter.”

Randy and J-Lo’s facial expressions were priceless. Shoot, if I were a judge on American Idol last night, my facial expression would have been just as priceless as it were when I watched the show in my own home.

Tyler’s remark was no accident. In fact, he never even apologized to the Magrane family for his inappropriate remark.

Shannon took the remark as if it never even happened. She possibly didn’t hear it. Who knows? Shannon’s father, Joe, on the other hand showed through his facial expression that he indeed heard Tyler’s vulgarity.

Yet like the true professional he is, Joe demonstrated incredible poise towards the situation by not letting Tyler’s sexual stupidity ruin his daughter’s chance to fulfill her singing dream. Shannon’s incredible voice earned her a slot in Hollywood.

Joe is a much better man than I. Personally, I couldn’t imagine what I would have done to Tyler and his stick figure body under the circumstance. I would hope I would have been the better man as Joe Magrane demonstrated himself to be. But would I allow my daughter to go on to Hollywood knowing she would be exposed to such a sexual predator?

Again, thankfully, I am not in that predicament because I personally believe I would be the man who ruined my daughter’s one time chance to fulfill a lifelong dream.

Tyler proved what a disgrace he truly is as a celebrity. I love the music of Aerosmith however the inappropriate and outlandish comment by their front man destroyed my desire to listen any longer to their songs let alone make the mistake of watching American Idol again.

Thankfully, The O’Reilly Factor will always be available at 8pm on Fox News.

Source: Kerry Patton 

Editor’s Note: Kerry Patton is a Senior Analyst for WIKISTRAT. He has worked in South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, focusing on intelligence and security interviewing current and former terrorists, including members of the Taliban.

He is the author of “Sociocultural Intelligence: The New Discipline of Intelligence Studies” and the children’s book “Sociocultural Intelligence: The New Discipline of Intelligence Studies.” You can follow him on Facebook.

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by Christopher Santarelli

Tim Tebow has truly become a phenomenon as the popular, but unconventional, NFL quarterback continues to find himself at the center of discussions about sports, religion and politics.

Tebow’s play for the Denver Broncos has drawn polarizing opinions from football analysts. Additionally, there has also been a great deal of criticism over Tebow’s Christian views.

ESPN analyst Skip Bayless, an equally polarizing figure among football fans, often supports Tebow and spoke with him on ESPN Tuesday. As the phone interview progressed, Bayless asked Tebow if he was aware of recent comments made by former Bronco quaterback Jake Plummer.

Plummer told a Phoenix radio station yesterday that he respects Tebow’s play, but said of the young quarterback’s religious beliefs:

“I think that when he accepts the fact that we know that he loves Jesus Christ, then I think I’ll like him a little better. I don’t hate him because of that, I just would rather not have to hear that every single time he takes a good snap or makes a good handoff.”

When asked by Bayless Tuesday what he would say about those comments if he had the opportunity to speak with Plummer, Tebow responded:

“Well, first I’d say, thank you for the compliment of calling me a winner and then I‘d also say if you’re married and you’re a [husband] is it good enough to only say you love her on the day you get married or should you tell her every single day when you wake up and have an opportunity?

And that’s how I feel about my relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the most important thing in my life so anytime I get an opportunity to tell Him that I love Him or give Him an opportunity to shout Him out on national TV, I’m gonna take that opportunity.

So I look at that as a relationship that I have with Him that I want to give Him honor and glory anytime I have the opportunity and then right after I give Him honor and glory, then I want to try and give my teammates honor and glory and that’s how it works because Christ comes first in my life. Then my family, and then my teammates.

So I respect Jake’s opinion and I really appreciate his compliment of calling me a winner but I feel like anytime I get the opportunity to give the Lord some praise, He is due for it because of what He did for me and what he did for us on the cross for all of us. “

Tebow went on to say that his relationship with God not only influences his play on the field, but makes him who he is as a person:

“I want to be a great role model and be what Danny Wuerffel was to me and I want to be someone who makes  difference. Because at the end of the day if all we’re doing is winning and losing football games and scoring touchdowns, then we really haven’t done a lot in our lives.

But if we’re in the business of encouraging people, bring faith, hope and love to those on their darkest hour of need as the mission statement of my foundation reads, then we’re really doing something successful with our lives.

So I’m going to take the platform that football has given me and try to give back, make a difference and make this world a better place.”

While his character is undeniable, many are not yet sold on Tebow’s abilities as an NFL quarterback — even in light of his 4-1 record this year as a starter. Tebow is arguably one the greatest college football players of all time, having won two National Championships and the Heisman Trophy at the University of Florida.

Source: The Blaze

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By Fox Nation

Dan Wheldon, the 2011 Indianapolis 500 winner and one of the most popular drivers in open-wheel racing, died Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a horrific multicar crash on Lap 11 of the Indy Car Series season finale.

Officials decided to call the race, but the drivers, many sobbing openly, did a five-lap tribute to Wheldon. Indy Car Series CEO Randy Bernard made the official announcement of Wheldon’s death without further comment.

“Indy Car is very sad to announce that Dan Wheldon has passed away from unsurvivable injuries,” Bernard said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today. Indy Car, its drivers and owners, have decided to end the race.

In honor of Dan Wheldon, the drivers have decided to do a five-lap salute to in his honor.”

Read more…

Source: Fox Nation

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By NewsCore

ZURICH, Switzerland –  Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski apologizes to the woman he sexually assaulted when she was a 13-year-old girl in a new documentary that premiered Tuesday night at the Zurich Film Festival.

“She is a double victim: my victim and a victim of the press,” he said in Laurent Bouzereau’s “Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The Franco-Polish director was charged in 1977 for giving Samantha Geimer, who was 13 at the time, champagne and drugs during a photo shoot at the Hollywood home of actor Jack Nicholson. 

The then 43-year-old filmmaker then had sex with her despite her protests.

Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful intercourse as part of a plea deal in 1978, but fled the US before being sentenced. He has remained an active filmmaker from his home base in France and has avoided extradition to the US with limited travel. 

France does not have an extradition treaty with the US.

In 2009, however, he was apprehended by Swiss authorities when he tried to attend that year’s Zurich Film Festival to receive a lifetime achievement award. He spent 10 months there under house arrest before he was ultimately released.

Tuesday night he received a standing ovation at the festival as he finally accepted the award.
Polanski, 78, thanked the crowd, telling them it was “better late than never.”

“It’s a strange anniversary for me, two years, day for day [since his arrest in 2009]. … Certain parts of it I’d rather forget, but I’m happy to be here,” he added.

Polanski won an Academy Award for Best Director for his 2002 film “The Pianist” but was unable to attend the Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles due to his legal issues.

Sources: Fox News

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By Kim Komando

It was only two years ago that I came to fully understand the magic of football.

The occasion was attending my first Super Bowl.

I was caught up in the crowd’s escalated enthusiasm and impressed by the agility and strength of the players, who were truly at the pinnacle of their careers and their sport.

Watching from home isn’t quite the same, but I enjoy it much more after that experience. Football is also a great excuse to have a few friends over to the house.

The latest wrinkle in football fever is watching online, and I’m sure you’ve heard of websites that offer free live streaming of NFL games.

Doesn’t that sound like a great way to get around all the additional charges for sports subscription programs?

If it sounds too good to be true, there’s a reason. The unfortunate fact is these sites aren’t genuine. That isn’t to say you don’t get to watch the game. It just won’t be legal.

Why should you care? First, you can get in trouble with your service provider, which means you might lose your Internet privileges.

Also, the streaming video quality is usually terrible. It especially gets corrupted during fast-paced action – the very thing you most want to watch!

And there are even bigger risks to your computer, your identity and personal information.

If you search online for free NFL football, you could land on a virus-laden site. Anytime you visit a questionable website, the risk of exposing your computer to viruses is high. And any site offering illegal downloads is highly questionable.

You might be asked to download a media player that is really a key logger, giving hackers direct access to your computer from the inside.

Another ploy is to ask you to pay a low-cost subscription that requires you to provide credit card information, opening you to further identity and credit risks.

Not surprisingly, the NFL is very particular about how its content is broadcast. It has extremely lucrative deals with major distributors and service providers.

If the programming is given away for free, they lose a lot of revenue. Naturally, they’re doing all they can to keep that from happening.

So the best ways to watch football are the legitimate ways. This doesn’t mean you can’t watch online, but you’ll want to get access by subscribing through an official provider.

Here are some of the legitimate ways to watch NFL games beyond those available on over-the-air broadcasts and basic cable:

DirecTV has the NFL Sunday Ticket. It brings you out-of-market, non-nationally televised games along with pre-game shows and statistic tracking.

To receive it, you’ll need to be a DirecTV subscriber and pay the additional $340 charge. For an additional $50, you can add the To-Go feature. This lets you stream the games to your computer or mobile gadget.

On Sept. 1, Sunday Ticket became available through an online-only package. This streams the programming directly to your PC and mobile gadgets. Cost is $350.

Many games are offered through the NFL Network channel. You can order this from your cable or satellite provider.

This channel carries all the preseason games, weekly season games and hosts the popular show, NFL Total Access. It also includes NFL Replay, which offers the five best games of the week.

For a free but legitimate viewing option, check out Hula’s NFL page online.

You can watch past games, highlights and interviews. Just look under your favorite team’s name or in the Game of the Week section.

Are you even more passionate about college football than NFL games? ESPN 3 is a great destination for college football viewing.

You can get a Game Plan subscription through your cable or satellite provider for $135 for the regular season (excluding bowl games).

Some Internet providers let you watch online; ask about that option before subscribing if that feature is important to you.

Source: Kim Komando

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By Mike Opelka
July 30, 2011

Lily Anderson is just 10-yrs-old, but her rendition of the National Anthem before Thursday’s Braves-Pirates game at Turner Field in Atlanta.

Inspired the longest standing ovation Braves pitcher Peter Moylan has ever witnessed.

Lily’s remarkable performance was part of “Rally Night,” a special event for kids fighting cancer. And fighting cancer is exactly what Lily has been doing since she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma Cancer in 2009.

Despite a two year battle that included chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, on Thursday night Lily Anderson delivered the National Anthem with all of the grace and professionalism one might expect from a seasoned performer.

We salute this young lady and all of the participants in Rally Night.

And for the record, The Pittsburgh Pirates came to Atlanta and beat the Braves on Thursday night, 5-2… but thanks to Lily and the rest of the Rally Kids, there were no losers.

Source: Yahoo Sports     The Blaze

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By AP

MIAMI Fla. – for Dirk Nowitzki, the resume is complete. He’s an NBA champion.

For LeBron James, the agonizing wait continues for at least one more year.

Avenging what happened five years ago in perfect turnabout style, the Dallas Mavericks won their first NBA title by winning Game 6 of these finals in Miami 105-95 on Sunday night — celebrating on the Heat’s home floor, just as Dwyane Wade and his team did to them in the 2006 title series.

Jason Terry scored 27 points; Nowitzki added 21 and the Mavericks topped the Miami Heat 105-95 in Game 6 of the NBA finals on Sunday night.

The Mavericks won four of the series’ last five games, a turnabout that could not have been sweeter after seeing the Heat celebrates their first title in Dallas after Game 6 of the 2006 finals.

“Tonight,” Terry said, “we got vindication.”

James did not. Not even close and a year unlike any other ended the way they all have so far — with him still waiting for an NBA title.

He scored 21 points for Miami, shook a few hands afterward, and departed before most of the Mavs tugged on their championship hats and T-shirts.

Chris Bosh had 19, Mario Chalmers 18 and Dwyane Wade 17 for the Heat.

Mavs coach Rick Carlisle joined a highly elite group, those with NBA titles as both a player and a head coach. Only 10 other men are on that list, including the presumably retired-for-good Phil Jackson, one of Carlisle’s mentors in K.C. Jones, and Heat President Pat Riley — who led Miami past Dallas in 2006, and was the mastermind of what the Heat did last summer by getting James, Wade and Bosh on the same team with an eye on becoming a dynasty.

It might still happen, of course.

But even after 72 wins this season, including playoffs, the Heat lost the last game. And that means this year was a disappointment — except to just about everyone else in the NBA, or so it would seem.

Hating the Heat became the NBA’s craze this season, and the team knew it had no shortage of critics, everyone from Cleveland (where “Cavs for Mavs” shirts were popular during these finals) to Chicago (the city James and Wade both flirted with last summer) and just about every place in between lining up to take shots at Miami.

Given their newfound popularity, meet the new America’s Team.

Sorry, Cowboys — your long-held moniker might have to be ceded to your city’s NBA club. When it was over, Mavs owner Mark Cuban ran onto the court to hug Carlisle, then punched the air and whooped.

Dallas took control in the second half after some wild back-and-forths in the opening two quarters. Miami took its last lead of the game — the season — just 64 seconds into the second half, lost it 16 seconds later and chased the Mavericks the rest of the way.

They never caught them.

Jason Kidd, at 38 years old, got his first championship. Nowitzki got his at 32, Terry at 33. They were featured on the video screen in their building in Dallas during this series on what seemed like a constant loop, each posing with the NBA trophy and looking longingly at it, standing mere inches from it, as if to say “so close, yet so far away.”

No more.

It’s theirs.

Nowitzki sealed it with 2:27 left, hitting a jumper near the Miami bench to put Dallas up 99-89, and some fans actually began leaving. Nowitzki walked to the Mavs’ side slowly, right fist clenched and aloft.

He knew it. Everyone did. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra implored his team to foul in the final minute, and even then, they couldn’t catch the Mavericks.

“All those unique individual stories are what propelled us to this victory,” Terry said.

Source: Fox News

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By Cristina Everett
June 5, 2011

James Arness, the actor best remembered as the rugged lawman of the American frontier on “Gunsmoke,” died on Friday at age 88.

Arness died of natural causes at his home in Brentwood, Calif., said his business manager, Ginny Fazer.

The actor was in relatively good health but had “just been fading” in recent years, Fazer told Reuters. “No disease, nothing untoward, he just got tired, I guess.”

Read more…

Source: Fox Nation

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By Bill Hallowell
June 4, 2011

Recently, the White House invited the Maccabeats (we posted their viral video “Candlelight” on our blog back in December), a choral group from Yeshiva University, to perform for President Obama.

The young singers gleefully headed to D.C. and sang their hearts out for the president. But, the story took an odd turn when the guys returned home and posted a recording of their performance on the Internet. Matzav.com has more:

Matzav.com, in the Featured Video section, recently presented a video of the famed Maccabetas singing group performing for President Barack Obama at a reception in the White House in honor of American Jewish Heritage Month, the month of May.

American Jewish Heritage Month pays tribute to the American Jews who have helped form the fabric of American history, culture and society.

As part of the entertainment at the event, the Maccabeats were invited to sing several songs. They also did an impromptu acapella chant, with beautiful harmonies, of “Four More Years”…

To many, the White House’s actions are baffling. After all, why did the government ask the group to remove the video? There may be a variety of reasons for the request — some of them relatively harmless, but the uncertainty is breeding speculation.

American Thinker writes:

Maybe there is an innocuous explanation, but the ugly suspicion that Obama does not want anything “too Jewish” associated with himself from reaching Arab eyes inevitably suggests itself.

After searching the White House Web site, we were unable to track the video down. But, after a quick Google search, we located the clip (complete with the WH.gov logo) on Yeshiva University’s YouTube page. Interesting, right? You can watch below:

The story is odd in that these singers offered praise to the president. Obama openly expressed his gratitude for the performance. Below, you can watch him thank the Maccabeats (this video is posted on the White House Web site). He even cracks a joke about liking the Maccabeats’ “four more years” chant:

Truly odd

Source: The Blaze    Getway Pundit

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