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Denizens, we start this week’s edition of the Perfect Football Weekend&#153 by mourning the passing of one of football’s greats.&#160 Lee Roy Selmon of the Oklahoma Sooners & Tampa Bay Buccaneers, suffered a stroke last Friday and died at a Tampa hospital two days later at the age of 56.

Selmon and his brother, Dewey, were both chosen as All-Americans in 1975 when the Sooners won their second straight championship under Barry Switzer. They followed older brother Lucious to Oklahoma, and the three played together during the 1973 season.

News of Lee Roy Selmon’s stroke had already spurred tributes to Selmon on Saturday, when members of the University of South Florida’s football team wore his number on their helmet. Selmon had served as the school’s athletic director from 2001 to 2004.

“We all loved him, and we’re all deeply saddened,” said USF President Judy Genshaft. “We’re a better university because of Lee Roy Selmon. He was an incredible role model, who cared about all of our student-athletes, no matter what sport. He built an incredible legacy and he will never be forgotten.”

The Realm&#153 joins with the Selmon family in mourning the passing of their patriarch.&#160 This gentle giant will be very much missed.

On to the football.&#160 I promised you a Guaranteed Win Night&#153 – and, by Cthulu, my Arlington Heights Yellow Jackets are gonna deliver.&#160 It’s the “home” opener at Farrington Field against Carter-Riverside – and no football program that takes itself anywhere near seriously ever&#160 loses to Carter Riverside.&#160 Jackets in a major squash.

On Saturday, Gary Patterson’s 25th-ranked (why, I have no idea) Texas Christian Horne Frogs (still no D until they show me something) are in Colorado Springs to get buzzed on a flyover by Air Force’s Falcons.&#160 Expect AF”s notoious ground game to be shelved in favor of a bombs-away aerial attack.

Vegas has apparently figured this out, too – the line is TCU by only 2&#189.

Also Saturday, Fresno State gets to play the sacrificial lamb to Bo Pelini’s 10th-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers.&#160 The Bulldogs are not the pushover Chattanooga was, but then again the Huskers, with a week of competition under their belt, should be better as well.&#160 Vegas would seem to agree here too – the line is NU by 28.

Sunday night, the Dallas Cowgirlz run into a buzzsaw – they’re playing the NY J-E-T-S-JetsJetsJets!!!, in&#160 New York, on the 10-year remembrance of 9-11.&#160 And&#160 they’re going into the game banged up – Mike Jenkins, Terrance “Bust” Newman and rookie Tyron Smith are all nursing injuries, and the first-team defensae still hasn’t practiced together, I don’t think.

This ain’t gonna be pretty.

Bob Stoops’ top-ranked Oklahoma Sooners are off this week, so we’ll give Turner Gill’s UKansas Rock-Chalks a tryout.&#160 Oddly enough – or not, given last year – the Jayhawks are a 6&#189 home dog to…Northern Illinois?

Hmmm.

We’re back Monday with the recap.&#160 In the meantime, eighth-ranked Bucky is at Camp Randall versus Oregon State, and if you think TCU’s gone belly up…the Beavers lost at home last week to that noted Div. I-AA powerhouse, Sacramento State.&#160 So my question to HDD is…with the line at Bucky by three touchdowns, how many points do you&#160 want?

This sucks.&#160 This @($&*!!#%^) fucking sucks.

Okay, so it’s my 30-year high-school reunion, alright?&#160 And we’ve just come off one hell&#160 of a dinner party that I set up, paid for (I may get that deposit back, who knows?) and hosted, which turned out to be a rousing success, far beyond my wildest dreams.&#160 Good times spent with some very good friends, some going back as far as four decades.

And Mrs. Venomous & I spent pretty much the entire afternoon & evening at the palatial home of one of those friends, and had a ball there, as well.

An uneventful trip home, clean up & wind down a bit, catch the last little bit of Men in Black II&#160 before going to bed around midnight.&#160 Things are getting back to normal, and I’m finally moving past the recent death of my friend, okay?&#160 Beginning to relax a bit, tonight will be a great night of sleep.

Or so I thought.

Two hours of sleep later, I’m tossing & turning, and sleep simply refuses to return, so out here I venture to catch up on some stuff.&#160 First stop after checking FB for new messages is the Rott.

And I find this.

LC Anniee451 aka Linda Haley, passed away July 5th, 2011. She was a frequent commenter here and elsewhere.

She posted here once or twice as “AnnieMcPhee” – the Gravatar&#153 on her profile confirms it.

Not again.&#160 Great Honkin’ Cthulu, dammit for fuck’s sake, not again.&#160 I just get over the death of one of my friends, and now I find out I’ve lost another (one I might not have known that&#160 well, but still) – and a Denizen to boot.

FYJFI.

Ed Driscoll has a real nice memorial on the passing of Clarence “Big Man” Clemons today.&#160 Well worth your time to read.

Back during my college days, the E Street Band (with Bruce Springsteen) was at its zenith with The River, Nebraska&#160 and Born in the USA&#160 on the heels of Born to Run&#160 and Darkness on the Edge of Town.&#160 And it was Clarence Clemons who provided the signature sound of the E Street Band with his saxophone.

The Realm&#153 extends its condolences to the Clemons family during this time.&#160 He will be missed.

Believe it or not, Texas used to be a Demoscum state.

Now, Donks here weren’t anywhere near&#160 as bad as what you had (and have) back Northeast – but they were bad enough.

Texas is overwhelmingly Republican today, and Bill Clements was the man who got it started, back in 1979, when he became the first Republican governor elected in over 100 years

Bill Clements is dead tonight at 94.

Clements, who served two terms as governor despite losing his first re-election bid, died Sunday after what his family said was a brief stay at a Dallas-area hospital. The family said Clements had been ill for several months and grieving the death of his son, who was shot and killed by a neighbor last year.

“It is somewhat fitting that he died Memorial Day Weekend since he so appreciated the opportunities he had to serve his state and country,” the family said in a statement.

The Texas House honored Clements with a moment of silence Sunday on the chamber floor.

“As the father of the modern day Texas Republican Party, Gov. Clements is responsible for the growth, success and election of Texas Republicans in every corner of our state,” Gov. Rick Perry said. “Today, Texans and Americans have lost a leader whose leadership, service and patriotism were unparalleled.”

Our thoughts & prayers are with the Clements family tonight.&#160 The governor will be sorely missed.

(via TMZ)

Not much of a WWF fan, but I know Macho Man Savage was a good guy.

Reports out of Florida (from the TMZ article) said he had a massive heart attack while driving his Jeep Wrangler, crossed over the opposing lane of traffic and hit a tree head on. Both he and his wife of one year were wearing seat belts.  She is fine.

Being that the General has done rotations in hospital Emergency Rooms, he can say with a fair amount of certainty that the autopsy will not be pretty.

Prayers go out to Mrs. Savage and his fans.

Dismissed&#153

There’s an extremely maddening quality to Newt Gingrich:&#160 Every time he gets some momentum going and you think he might be an okay guy to vote for, he goes, sticks his size 13s in his mouth and makes you remember that he’s a libtard in RINO clothing.

If it’s not throwing a snit fit over having to deplane Air Force One in the back, it’s sitting prettily with San Fran Nan Piglousi on that damned couch.

And if it’s not that, it’s siding with the Ayatollah on Bambicare.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that he strongly supports a federal mandate requiring citizens to buy health insurance – a position that has been rejected by many Republicans, including several who likely will be running against him for the Republican presidential nomination.

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Gingrich told host David Gregory that he continues to advocate for a plan he first called for in the early 1990s as a Congressman, which requires every uninsured citizen to purchase or acquire health insurance.

UPDATE:&#160 And in the same breath, Newtie then&#160 doubled down on Teh Stoopid&#153 (hat tip:&#160 Doug Powers):

Newt Gingrich’s appearance on “Meet the Press” today could leave some wondering which party’s nomination he is running for. The former speaker had some harsh words for Paul Ryan’s (and by extension, nearly every House Republican’s) plan to reform Medicare, calling it “radical.”

“I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering,” he said when asked about Ryan’s plan to transition to a “premium support” model for Medicare. “I don’t think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate.”

As far as an alternative, Gingrich trotted out the same appeal employed by Obama/Reid/Pelosi — for a “national conversation” on how to “improve” Medicare, and promised to eliminate ‘waste, fraud and abuse,’ etc.

G’night, Newtie.&#160 Thanks for playing.

Screen legend, one of the original Hollywood divas, and two-time Oscar winner, Elizabeth Taylor passed away today. She was 79.

Much could be said about her, much already has been, but that’s for the gossip blogs and E! not here. We prefer to remember her from her days as “Cleopatra“. She will be missed.

God rest her soul.

Dismissed&#153

All flags one the Southern Command HQ are hereby ordered to half staff, and are to remain so for the next seven days as we honor our fallen veteran Frank Woodruff Buckles.

He didn’t seek the spotlight, but when Frank Buckles outlived every other American who’d served in World War I, he became what his biographer called “the humble patriot” and final torchbearer for the memory of that fading conflict.

Buckles enlisted in World War I at 16 after lying about his age. He died Sunday on his farm in Charles Town, nearly a month after his 110th birthday. He had devoted the last years of his life to campaigning for greater recognition for his former comrades, prodding politicians to support a national memorial in Washington and working with friend and family spokesman David DeJonge on a biography.

Heaven is certainly one citizen bigger tonight. We here at the Southern Command salute our fallen soldier and ask that God now keep safe that which the earth has given up.

Dismissed&#153

Received this in the mail last night from Texas Right-to-Life.&#160 Wikipedia has, sadly, confirmed.

Austin, TX — Texas Right to Life mourns the loss today of Dr. Bernard Nathanson, the former abortionist whose conversion to the pro-life cause was major news at the time and whose impact reverberates to this day. Dr. Nathanson, 84, died earlier this morning after a long battle with cancer. In the early 1970s, Dr. Nathanson was director of the largest abortion facility in the world, New York City’s Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health, at which he presided over 75,000 abortions. He personally performed about 5,000 abortions.

In his 1979 book, Aborting America, Dr. Nathanson gave an insider’s account of building what was then called the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL), recently rebranded Naral Pro-Choice America. In that classic, Dr. Nathanson explained how he and others strategically fabricated and exaggerated statistics about the number deaths from illegal abortions while consciously vilifying the Catholic Church hierarchy.

In his autobiography entitled The Hand of God, Dr. Nathanson admitted that he was one of the individuals most responsible for dismantling the laws that safeguarded the unborn and then pushing for the Roe v. Wade decision. Once he realized his error, he dedicated the rest of his life to restoring the sanctity of preborn life and protecting women’s health. In 1984, Dr. Nathanson unveiled “The Silent Scream,” a mesmerizingly powerful video which shows sonogram images of an unborn child frantically wincing from the abortionist’s instruments. The landmark video was one of the first of its genre, confirming the sheer horror and brutality of abortion through the window to the womb.

Texas Right to Life was proud to host Dr. Nathanson at many of our events, and he unselfishly served Texas Right to Life in an advisory capacity for a number of bioethics issues. He will be missed. For many years Dr. Nathanson described himself as a Jewish atheist, but in 1996, Nathanson was baptized a Catholic by Cardinal John O’Connor.

The Realm&#153 mourns the passing of Dr. Nathanson.&#160 He was one of our heroes, and he will be sorely missed.

(Hat tip Dan Riehl – dammit, Dan, do you always have to be the bearer of bad news like this?&#160 Hell, let Sissy or Jen do it OneOfTheseDays&#153.)

Denizens, have any of you ever read the Mark Levin book Rescuing Sprite?&#160 If you haven’t, don’t – at least, not without about three boxes of Kleenex&#169 within arm’s reach.&#160 So help me Cthulu, I tell you that it will get mighty damned dusty in whatever room you happen to be at the time.

I reference this because it’s just been brought to my attention that the wonderful pup Mark’s wife & daughter got him to ease the pain of losing Sprite, has himself passed on.&#160 Griffen was somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 years old or thereabouts.

This hits me somewhat hard – one, because I love dogs, and two, because it won’t be all that long before I have to face that journey myself.&#160 Pup-Pup turned ten years old back in October, and even though she’s still a little ball of energy and people still can’t believe she’s not a puppy, I can tell she’s lost a step.&#160 And it’s gonna tear my guts out when I have to say goodbye to her.&#160 And it’s not as if I haven’t lost a pet or two before, as you guys well know.

So God bless you, Mark Levin.&#160 I understand where you’re comin’ from, buddy.

Always remember.

Turn out the lights – the party really is&#160 over now.

“Dandy Don” Meredith has passed.

He was well known as the Cowboys’ first winning quarterback, i.e. he ran the team the first time they posted a winning record.&#160 And he was already well-known in Dallas as SMU’s quarterback.&#160 But his fame (notoriety?) took off a couple years after he retired – for that’s when he became the third man in the triumvirate of announcers doing ABC’s Monday Night Football, opposite Frank Gifford & Howard Cosell.&#160 And America became enamored with the song:

Turn out the lights

The party’s over

They say that

All good things must end

Call it tonight

The party’s over

And tomorrow starts

The same old thing again

Goodnight, Dandy Don.&#160 You left us too soon.

(Hat tip Doug Powers on Michelle’s site.)

Every so often, I’ll post on someone who’s just shuffled off this mortal coil, and I’ll say something like “condolences from the Realm&#153, so-and-so’ll be missed.”

But Denizens, I gotta tell ya – this one hurts like Hell.

Leslie Nielsen, who traded in his dramatic persona for inspired bumbling as a hapless doctor in “Airplane!” and the accident-prone detective Frank Drebin in “The Naked Gun” comedies, died on Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 84.

The Canadian-born actor died from complications from pneumonia at a hospital near his home at 5:34 p.m., surrounded by his wife, Barbaree, and friends, his agent John S. Kelly said in a statement.

“We are saddened by the passing of beloved actor Leslie Nielsen, probably best remembered as Lt. Frank Drebin in ‘The Naked Gun’ series of pictures, but who enjoyed a more than 60-year career in motion pictures and television,” said Kelly.

I only saw him in the aforementioned Airplane!&#160 and Naked Gun&#160 flicks, as well as Gun’s&#160 predecessor, Police Squad! – all six episodes of it.&#160 (Yeah, the article says there were four – don’t believe it, there were six.)&#160 Not many things or persons have caused me to literally ROFL – but Leslie Nielsen did, every time he tried it.

Dammit, Leslie – you left us too effing soon.&#160 There’s a hole in my funny-bone where you’d taken up permanent residence, and this pain’ll be felt for a while.

I pray God will bless your family during this time.&#160 You were loved, and you’ll be seriously missed.

I find out through Ann Coulter’s emailed column tonight that Joe Sobran passed away last week.

My friend Joe Sobran died last Thursday, and the world lost its greatest writer.

To my delight, some obituaries noted that he had influenced my writing style. I only wish I had known he was so close to the end so I could have seen him again to let him influence me some more.

Back in my courier days, CBS Radio – locally here on KRLD 1080 – would run a five-minute blurb near the top of the 1:00 hour (12:55).&#160 They’d rotate the commentators – Sobran, pseudo-conservative & super-pseudo-brainiac Kevin Phillips and two others whose names escape me at the moment.&#160 I always enjoyed Sobran’s commentaries immensely – Phillips’, not so much.

The world has, indeed, lost a great conservative intellect – and not at a great time, either.&#160 Joe, we miss you already.

… on this day 9 years ago.

I’m not typically one for overt commercialism in a situation like this, but below is a video of a commercial that Budweiser aired only ONCE back when the tragedy happened.  No words are spoken, just the Clydesdales, some music, and one powerful image at the end.  See what you think.

Dismissed&#153