Mammoth Blog

Who wrote the music that was playing after Barack Obama's speech at his victory rally Tuesday in Grant Park?

The Obama rally included the song "Titans Spirit," from the soundtrack to the 2000 film "Remember the Titans," which starred Denzel Washington.

It was written by Trevor Rabin, the South African-American musician best known as a guitarist and songwriter for the British progressive rock band Yes, which he joined in the 1980s. He quit the band in 1994 to focus on writing movie scores.

The song's welling strings convey a sense of the mythic American landscape Aaron Copland evoked so well in his own works decades before. If "Titans Spirit" trades in borrowed populism, it is American through and through; it also conveys a sense of unshakable optimism -- just like the president-elect whose moment of post-victory glory in Grant Park it helped frame.

And what about the background music for John McCain's concession speech?

That was from Hans Zimmer's score to the movie "Crimson Tide." Hard to believe the McCain camp didn't realize the film's plotline involves an aging white maverick ( Gene Hackman) with an itchy trigger finger whose authority is undermined by a smart African-American officer, played by Washington. Could this, along with McCain's self-deprecating gig on the last "Saturday Night Live," herald a late career in stand-up? source>>>

Join us for the Souvenir and Race Ticket Blow-Out from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Nov. 28! Take advantage of incredible savings on all your favorite driver merchandise. More than two dozen NASCAR souvenir rigs will blanket the speedway's main entrance. Souvenirs start at only $1 and t-shirts start at $3! This once-a-year opportunity also allows fans to drive their personal car around the 1.5-mile superspeedway by purchasing $50 in NASCAR tickets or souvenirs, or simply donating $25 to Speedway Children's Charities. source>>>

Since 1934, Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup and Olympic winners have received the honour of having their face adorn a Wheaties cereal box alongside the famous slogan, "Breakfast of Champions."

But while the world of mixed martial arts has been pushing for sporting legitimacy for some time now, their Wheaties equivalent might need a little work.

Behold, the special collector's edition 24-ounce can of Mickey's Malt Liquor, featuring UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn.

Mickey's is a major sponsor of the UFC and has been for several years, alongside such international companies as Toyo Tires and Harley Davidson. Fighters previously featured on Mickey's cans include current Canadian welterweight champion Georges St Pierre and former champions Tito Ortiz, Rich Franklin and Chuck Liddell.

St Pierre and Penn are slated to headline the "UFC Super Bowl Weekend" card on January 31, 2009 for the welterweight title.

MMAJunkie.com reports the cans will be available for purchase from liquor stores in the United States from next week. source>>>

During a recent phone interview, Kendrick explained how lessons from Fireproof can be applied to anyone's life and marriage.

Q: Why is Jesus so important to marriage? How do you show that in the movie?

Kendrick: In Fireproof, we take the audience on an emotional journey through the struggles this couple is experiencing. Caleb Holt, (played by Kirk Cameron) as he is studying the book, The Love Dare, begins to learn about unconditional love and realizes half way through the movie that he cannot give his wife what he doesn't have.

Ultimately, God is the source of unconditional love. And the greatest expression of that love is what Christ did on the cross.

Romans 5:8 says that while we were still sinful, He demonstrated love in dying for us. We communicate that in our marriage counseling; we communicate that in the follow-up Bible studies associated with the movie.

We have been very upfront that God is the source of unconditional love and that a relationship with Christ is the key.

Romans 5 also says that the Holy Spirit is the one who actually pours agape love into our hearts; that only happens when we have come to know Christ as Lord and Savior.

The first fruit of His spirit is love. So, not only does a person need to know Christ as Savior, but they need to be walking in an abiding relationship, an obedient relationship with Him. If they grieve and quench the Holy Spirit because of their sin, then the fruit of the spirit will not be seen in their lives.

A husband, especially, as the leader of the home, needs to be modeling a picture of that Christ-like love and be willing to lay down his life for his wife daily in how he dies to himself and serves her. Ultimately, if he is not tapped in daily to the Lord in an intimate, obedient fellowship, he is not going to be able to fulfill the God-given responsibilities in his marriage.

How well do you know Jesus? Would you like to learn more? Check out our new "Who is Jesus?" page.

Q: Although the movie is about marriage, single people can learn from the themes of friendship, family and forgiveness. There seems to be something for everyone. Would you say your central theme is that Jesus is the foundation of any loving relationship?

Kendrick: Yes. Not only do we need to be training up the next generation of teenagers and young adults with a Biblical picture of marriage, but we also need to offer hope and healing to people who have been through divorce and are single again. They need to realize there is hope for the future and that loving relationships can exist if Christ is in the center of those relationships.

The singles who have been going to see the movie can relate to the friendship issues, the father/son issues, the mother/daughter issues. The movie ultimately is about relationships and forgiveness is a universal theme.

Q: How did you decide on this particular topic for the film?

Kendrick: We had spent months in prayer asking God for a storyline that would impact the culture specifically. We wanted to go after the fiber, the DNA, of our culture. That takes us back to the root issue of family and then the core issue within family of a godly marriage.

Alex and I both are happily married. We have parents and in-laws who have demonstrated such faithfulness in their marriages. We've also done marriage counseling and weddings for people at our churches, so we've learned a lot. We are very passionate about the topic, so when the Lord led us to it, there was a sense of rightness.

It was like a light bulb went on over our heads - we realize now that God has been preparing us for years to do this movie. We are truly His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works He has prepared beforehand.

Q: Between the website and The Love Dare book, this has mushroomed into a full-fledged ministry. Is that something your team is handling or are you relying on local churches?

Kendrick: We have more than 50 marriage ministries across the United States that are now leveraging Fireproof to connect people, to restore marriages, and lead people to Christ. Ultimately the local church is the best ministry vehicle. We have tried to set up churches to be ready - with Bible study resources, tracts, marriage books, and sermon series.

We don't want people to just be moved emotionally, we want them to walk out of the theater and to connect with Christ and the local church. We wrote the book The Love Dare because Alex and I believed we needed to build a bridge to connect people. The book not only pours into marriages, it challenges couples to connect with Christ, connect with the Word of God, and connect with their local church. We are trying to cast out as many seeds as we can and provide as many opportunities for harvesting ministry as we can.

Do you want to impact marriages? It all starts with knowing Christ. By volunteering at one of the BGEA phone centers, you can lead people who are struggling to a relationship with Jesus. Learn more.

Q: What would you say to our readers to encourage them to put Christ at the center of their marriages?

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"When God has called me into different aspects of ministry, He's usually called me from my own experience," says Anne Graham Lotz, founder of AnGeL Ministries. "In other words, what I've been going through personally then develops into a call."

Although Lotz was born the daughter of Billy and Ruth Graham, she never foresaw her calling into an international ministry of speaking and Bible exposition. Instead, in her late 20s, Lotz found herself married and staying at home with her three young children.

Losing her patience with them, Lotz realized that she was failing to cope with the frustrations of motherhood. She grew concerned about her character.

"I had observed my mother doing such a great job," Lotz says of mother Ruth Bell Graham, "and knew that she drew her strength from scripture and from prayer, and I just didn't have the discipline to get into God's Word like that."

In order to find that discipline, she took the opportunity to establish and lead a Bible Study Fellowship class in her town of Raleigh, N.C. Teaching the class required her to learn the Biblical texts in detail.

While she taught the first part of the study about the book of Genesis, Lotz discovered the Biblical narratives coming alive for her. Within one year's time, the class grew to accommodate more than 500 participants, with a waiting list.

"I felt like Abraham walked right off the pages of my Bible into my life," she says. "Three times in scripture it says Abraham is a friend of God from God's point of view. So I decided to set that as my life goal -- that I wanted to be God's friend from His perspective."

DISCOVERING THE POWER OF GOD'S WORD

At the same time as she prayed, studied, and sought to become a friend of God, Lotz taught the Bible class for 12 years.

"I never missed a class because I didn't want to miss anything that God had for me."

But all the while, she thought about believers beyond Raleigh, those worldwide who also wanted to be led into a closer walk with Jesus Christ.

"I became burdened by what was offered to women because I feel like women tend to be dumbed-down in what's given to them, especially in large meetings -- it is either very emotional, experiential, or entertaining. I just felt like women could be disciples," Lotz says.

She handed over the leadership of the Bible study to other teachers, and for the next 12 years Lotz embarked on a journey of itinerant ministry all around the world. She was honored to accept invitations to speak at churches and seminaries, and later, the United Nations as well as the Amsterdam 1983, 1986, and 2000 conferences, multi-national gatherings for evangelists.

According to Lotz, she serves as a "scriptural messenger," like an angel -- an idea that inspired the name for her nonprofit ministry, AnGeL Ministries (that also uses her initials) which she founded to organize her ever-increasing speaking engagements.

"More than calling myself a preacher or an evangelist," says Lotz, "I'm a messenger. God gives me a message from His Word, and I seek to deliver it as faithfully as I can."

A TESTING OF FAITH

While Lotz traveled the world, she could not shake a growing dissatisfaction with her own knowledge of Scripture.

"Looking back, at the time, I feel like God was giving me a heart's cry for revival. I needed God to just come down in a fresh way into my life."

But instead of spiritual refreshment, Lotz faced heartbreak and pressure. Her son, who was about to celebrate his wedding day, called her to say he had been diagnosed with cancer.

During the same two-year period, her husband's dental office burned, her three children married, a hurricane ravaged the Raleigh area, and her mother was placed in the hospital five times with life-threatening conditions.

Lotz leaned on her faith in Jesus Christ. Still craving to learn more about God, she started a personal journey of Bible study, where she took extensive notes on Jesus' interactions with people in the Gospel of John.

When she finished, she placed a title on her notes from the study: Just Give Me Jesus. It was a statement that had become the burning desire of her heart, and her notes developed into a book.

For "every single" book that she has written, Lotz says, "I could give you my personal testimony that provoked it. For my little book, Why, that was when my son was going through a divorce, and Heaven, that was after the deaths of my brother-in-law, John Lotz, and our beloved 'Uncle T' [T.W. Wilson, Mr. Graham's longtime friend]."

All nine of Lotz's books have been birthed out of her life experience, an organic process that she believes is God's way of giving people their individual callings to ministry.

LOOKING INTO SCRIPTURE

In explaining the process of being called, Lotz cites the Old Testament story where God tells the prophet Jeremiah to buy a linen belt, bury it, and then dig it up after a period of time. When Jeremiah unearthed the belt, it had rotted.

In scripture, God says to Jeremiah, "People who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts ... will be like this belt -- completely useless! For as a belt is bound around a man's waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me ... to be my people for my renown and praise and honor"
(Jeremiah 13:10-11, NIV).

After this encounter, Jeremiah set out on his ministry to warn people of their stubbornness and call them to repentance.

"Jeremiah's experience became his message," Lotz says. "And for me, my life's experience becomes my ministry and my message. I feel like people that are wanting a ministry shouldn't look at other people and what other people have done, but look into their own life's experience and see if God would open a door that is compatible with that."

Soon God opened up an opportunity for Lotz to impart her wisdom from the Just Give Me Jesus study. She would share her passion for God's Word in large revival events, unlike what she had done before.

Just Give Me Jesus revivals, which charge no admission fee, were extended around the country to overflow crowds. Even though times were stressful for her family, Lotz grew from the trials and embraced the opportunity to share what she had learned.

"I believe that God allowed me to go through those experiences so that when I stand on a platform for Just Give Me Jesus, I'm not pointing my finger at them, saying, 'You need Jesus.' I'm telling them, 'I need Jesus, and this is how I found Him, and this is who He is to me,'" says Lotz.

DIVINE DISSATISFACTION

AnGeL ministries had been holding Just Give Me Jesus revivals for five years when Lotz began to sense a personal unhappiness, a sentiment that caused her to feel guilty. After all, the revivals were sparking prayer and growth in communities around the world -- Norway, Panama, Ukraine, United Kingdom, South Korea, and across the United States -- but Lotz was eager to learn more.

"I wasn't satisfied anymore with Just Give Me Jesus or what I had discovered about Him in the Gospel of John, and I wanted more," she says, "but I was embarrassed to tell the Lord because I thought that would mean I wasn't satisfied with what He had given me."

At the time, Lotz was preaching in Northern Ireland, and she received a call about her father, Billy Graham. He had been rushed to the hospital and required an operation on his brain. She flew to Minnesota, where Mr. Graham lay in the Mayo Clinic.

"I just sat beside him so he could see me when he woke up. He was still under anesthesia," she says. "Tears just began to come down my cheeks because I thought, 'I know he's ready to go to heaven,' but I just didn't want to let him go."

The time she had spent with her father was not enough.

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The demo for NCAA Basketball 09 is out now for the Xbox 360 and will be this afternoon (usually around 3pm PT) on the PS3. Coming in at 875.89 MB it features two four different teams that can be used in any combination. Kentucky, Tennessee, 1979 Michigan State, and 1982 North Carolina.

In a pleasant surprise the demo lets you choose from six different camera angles, four different difficulty levels, and is a full 8 minutes half. If there has been one really frustrating thing about sports game demos it is how many have had multiple short quarters which doesn't provide an opportunity to get into any sort of flow. Thankfully that isn't the case here and should allow for the tempo feature to actually come into play.

Leave your thoughts on the demo in the comments. I'll have some impressions and videos up tonight. source>>>

- EA SPORTS today launched a contest to choose one NCAA school's home venue the "Toughest Place to Play" in college basketball. Fans of the EA SPORTS videogame NCAA Basketball 09 can visit http://www.easports.com/ncaabasketball/toughvenues.action now to vote for their school from among 50 schools entered in the contest. Ten finalists will be selected from fan voting before a winner will be crowned and that school featured in next year's videogame. In addition, a full playable demo of NCAA Basketball 09 is available for download beginning November 6 at the PLAYSTATION Store and Xbox Live Marketplace. NCAA Basketball 09 will be in stores beginning Nov. 19 for the PLAYSTATION3, Xbox 360 and PlayStation2.

The NCAA Basketball 09 demo, featuring the University of Tennessee, University of Kentucky, the 1979 Michigan State Spartans and the 1982 University of North Carolina Tar Heels, showcases a new, strategic basketball gameplay experience that challenges gamers to replicate their school's style of play and set the game tempo to win. NCAA Basketball 09 features the EA SPORTS ESPN Classic Tournament of Legends and Division I coaches in-game for the first time. Each coach will provide real time instruction and feedback to help gamers control the tempo by executing their team's offense and defense to perfection.

Voting in the "Toughest Place to Play" contest closes December 1. School's voted in as finalists will receive a visit from EA SPORTS this basketball season to judge their arena based upon a number of factors. A panel of basketball experts will then determine the final top 10 rankings and crown a winner. The rankings will appear in next year's EA SPORTS NCAA Basketball videogame. source>>>

NFL on FOX analyst Daryl "Moose" Johnston won three Super Bowls with the Cowboys, but the former fullback doesn't see this Dallas team making the playoffs, let alone winning a Super Bowl.

Johnston, who lives in Dallas, says the city has turned on its beloved Cowboys.

"It's unbelievable. The reversal in the atmosphere of the town from the end of September to the end of October is unbelievable," Johnston told the New York Post. "You had people packing their bags for Tampa (site of Super Bowl XLIII) at the end of September and now they're canceling their reservations at the end of October. It's typical rats off the ship."

The most obvious problem with "America's Team" is the broken pinky of starting quarterback Tony Romo, who has missed the team's past three games. Dallas went 1-2 in that stretch, including an embarrassing 35-14 loss to the Giants in the Meadowlands. Backups Brad Johnson and Brooks Bollinger have struggled mightily, but Romo returned to practice yesterday during the team's bye week and is looking to start when the Cowboys play in Washington on Nov. 16.

But Johnston said he believes the problems stretch far beyond Romo's absence.

"They weren't playing that well when Tony was healthy. They didn't play well against Cincinnati, didn't play well at Arizona. There's nothing to say when Tony gets back in there that everything is going to be fine again," said Johnston, who will be calling the Jets-Rams game for FOX on Sunday.

"When reporters talk to coaches and they're like, 'What's going on, why can't you get this fixed?' it's like 'If I knew what was wrong, I would have corrected it. I am not in the business of losing football games with correctable problems.'

"When it's something you just can't put your finger on, that's scary. One week it's special teams. One week it's the quarterback. One week you can run the football and then your quarterback goes down and you are really exposed. Unfortunately for Dallas, I don't think anyone really knows what the problem is."

The Giants are more than happy to watch their longtime rivals suffer as they flourish. Even with the loss of DEs Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora, the Giants continue their tremendous roll that started with last season's playoffs.

"With the Giants vs. the Cowboys it was a talk of team vs. talent, and the team won out easily," Johnston said.

The Cowboys' trip to Washington starts a brutal stretch that ends their season. The Giants can do their part to keep the Cowboys out of the playoffs when the teams meet again on Dec. 14.

"It's going to be hard for them to qualify for the playoffs," Johnston said of the Cowboys. "The margin of error for them is so slim and they've got Washington, Philly, the Giants, Pittsburgh and Baltimore in their last seven games. They've got to win five of those final seven, so there is no margin of error for them. It will be interesting to see."

According to Johnston, no one involved with the team can escape the wrath of the media and fans.

"You don't have enough fingers down here," Johnston said. "It's Jerry Jones, it's Wade Phillips, it's the offensive line, it's the backup quarterback, it's the special teams, it's everywhere. And no one can really put a finger on where it is and that's the scary part." source>>>

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Of all the absolute nonsense network sportscasters and BCS apologists spew during the season, this might be the most galling. If the regular season is a playoff, it's the most asinine, unfulfilling playoff ever devised. If this is a playoff, it's missing one teeny, tiny, possibly useful ingredient for the big picture: the actual "playing" part.

There are many rules in life and sports, but here's one that's ironclad and undeniable: In order for something to qualify as a playoff, teams have to actually play each other.

In a playoff, teams settle matters on the field of play (I'm not an etymologist, but I think that's where the "play" part of the word originated). Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think I failed to notice the week in the schedule where Alabama will play Penn State, Texas will play Florida, Southern Cal will play Texas Tech, Oklahoma will play whichever non-BCS conference team plays its way in and then the winners will play each other.

The every-week-is-a-playoff thing is great -- in theory. Enough fans and media buy into that company line to give the college football regular season an intensity no other sport can match. It's just too bad the sport's powers that be substitute 'common sense' for 'intensity' and pretend the fans won't notice.

Things would be fine if everyone played the same balanced schedule and the best teams got the chance to pick each other off during the season until a true champion emerged. But if there's one thing college football fans can agree on, it's that conference schedules are not created equal. (Well, they probably also agree that USC cheats, Lou Holtz needs to hang up his teleprompter-reading glasses and Florida fans wear jean shorts, but you get the point).

In reality, this alleged regular season playoff settles virtually nothing on the field, and that means at the end of the year we could have the following situation: Florida could get shut out of the title game even though it's churning through SEC opponents by 30 points per game. Penn State could get shut out even with an undefeated season. USC could get shut out even though it's, well, shutting people out (three times this season, and it hasn't even faced UCLA yet). Texas could get shut out even though its only loss came against an unbeaten team, in the final seconds, thanks to the best play of the season. Oklahoma could get shut out even though Texas is the only team that beat it. Notre Dame could get shut out even though ... well, it doesn't appear a 5-3 team without a win over a ranked opponent can play for the national title, but we'll credit the in-house counsel at GE/NBC for trying to find a loophole.

While college football fans shrug their shoulders and endure the "regular season playoff" nonsense, fans of other sports laugh and point derisively. Under similar rules, last year's New England Patriots would have been voted the NFL champion after their unbeaten regular season. The Phillies' World Series run would have derailed prematurely thanks to a Marlins loss back in September.

And don't get us started on the March Madness comparison. Imagine if college basketball's movers and shakers played the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, building up to the frenzy of the Sweet Sixteen ... and then stopped. Oh, we probably wouldn't even notice, right?

There's an equally absurd notion marching in corrupt lockstep with the "regular season playoff" line, and it's that BCS controversy is "good for the game." Sure, just like tax evasion is good for you because it lets you know the government really does care about you as an individual.

The "regular season is a playoff" delusion comes off even worse if you apply it to real life. Imagine if you decided to just quit showing up for work for the last eight weeks of the year. Would your boss think you're good for the company?

It's like pledging a fraternity and putting up with a semester's worth of indignity, surviving Hell Week (we know, hazing is illegal and nobody does it) and then not getting initiated. Or, like a groom buying an engagement ring, registering for china he'll never use, enduring bridal showers, surviving the wedding and not getting to, uh, enjoy married life with his new bride.

If college football's gatekeepers were race car drivers, as soon as they saw the checkered flag in the distance they'd slam on the brakes, spin out and crash into the retaining wall. If the BCS overlords had been on the original expedition to the moon, instead of one giant leap, they'd have stepped off prematurely and plummeted into the infinite blackness. The analogies are as endless as the system's stupidity.

College football's regular season is many things, including the most exciting of its kind across sports. But there's one thing it most certainly is not, and that's a substitute for a playoff.

That's all for this week. Remember: Just because college football fans believe it's true, doesn't mean it is. source>>>

Patti Smith and her band will return to the Bowery Ballroom on December 30 and 31.

Tickets to this annual New York City happening will go on sale on Friday, November 7, at noon, on ticketmaster.com

Don't miss it!

The Rangers' Michael Young earned the first Gold Glove of his career Thursday after leading all American League shortstops in fielding in 2008. In his fifth season with the Rangers, Young compiled a .984 fielding percentage, five points higher than Derek Jeter and Jhonny Peralta.

He also led AL shortstops with 113 double plays and 3.25 assists per nine innings. Young is only the second Rangers shortstop to win a Gold Glove. Alex Rodriguez won the award for the Rangers in 2002-03.

OF Grady Sizemore earned his second consecutive Rawlings Gold Glove today, earning a spot in the outfield on the American League Rawlings Gold Glove Team. The voting was conducted at the end of the 2008 season in a poll of American League Managers and Coaches.

The last Indians player to win consecutive Rawlings Gold Glove Awards was SS Omar Vizquel (2000-01) and the last Indians outfielder with consecutive Rawlings Gold Gloves was OF Kenny Lofton (1995-96).

Sizemore made 151 starts in CF, making just 2 errors in 386 total chances (.995 fielding % was 8th among AL outfielders and 2nd best among AL centerfielders). He finished the season with a 36-game errorless streak.

Jimmie Johnson and Team Lowe's Racing travel to Phoenix International Raceway for Sunday's Sprint Cup event, the ninth of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

With two races remaining, the two-time champion leads Carl Edwards by 106 points in the championship standings and is heading to a track on which he has had great success.

Johnson has won the last two races at Phoenix's one-mile flat track and has accumulated more points than any other driver there over the last 10 events. He has completed every lap of the 10 races that he's started there and has finished outside the top seven only twice, in the fall of 2002 and spring of 2005. source>>>

..And then tell them that it's in order to keep you from going insolvent and to keep your business doors open.

That was basically the ridiculous acknowledgment made by Fannie Mae on Tuesday (interesting that they would acknowledge this on a day when everyone's attention was turned to the election, maybe hoping nobody would read about it...?), after a Dallas-Fort Worth-area television station KTVT reported on Monday that Fannie spent more than $6,000 on a golf outing after being seized by the government earlier this year. Of course, the now government owned Fannie went on to say that any similar company-sponsored events will be suspended immediately, but one has to think how much money would have been spent on vacation retreats, casino engagements, and other taxpayer-financed fun events.

The September 29 "outing" was attended by 20 golfers, including several company executives, at a Texas golf course. Fannie did not try disputing the report, but tried to excuse itself by describing the event as a "mortgage industry customer meeting," which, according to the company, is held twice annually.

"We do regret that the activities surrounding the customer meetings in Dallas may be perceived as excessive," company spokesman Brian Firth said in an e-mail message. "We have ceased all similar activities as those associated with this event, and we regret having not done so in this case."

$6,000 doesn't seem like that much money compared to the billions that Fannie Mae has needed from the government in order to keep operating as a mortgage company, servicer, etc., however, for someone struggling with a mortgage payment or student loan bills or medical bills, $6,000 could make or break a person's current financial situation, and I think this is another slap in the face to taxpayers, troubled homeowners, and everyone else who's been affected negatively due to the ongoing mortgage crisis.

As AIG spent $440,000 on a California retreat for its executives, Fannie Mae shows it can be just as irreverent when it comes to spending government money. These companies' actions, in situations like the golf outing or retreat, show how lenders who've taken financial bailouts from the Fed or Treasury, feel that they're entitled enough and given a green light to go do whatever they feel like doing, when they want to do it.

Clearly, if other lenders like Fannie Mae, Countrywide, IndyMac, WaMu, etc., were myopic enough to flood the mortgage market with loans filled with TILA violations, then should we have expected otherwise when it came to Fannie applying its "best judgment" of choosing to play golf with taxpayer money, instead of working to modify loans?source>>>