Videira signed by the Revs

See here.

I hope it was not the five year contract they had initially offered him.

Greg Seltzer interviews Jeremiah White

Here.

'I enjoy playing on the left because when I attack, the ball is on my right foot which makes it easier to shoot,' said White, who has two goals and three assists in 15 games this term. 'When I play on the right, I cross more. On the left, I get a lot of shots off.'

AGF's getting a new coach and targeting a Top 3 finish. Excellent.

Tottenham 0 - Fulham 0 (Match Report)

This was an excellent point for us, needless to say. No Hangeland, Bullard going off in the first half due to injury, yet we still found a way.

There is no one player who especially impressed on the day. Konchesky, Baird, Etuhu, and Dempsey all could be said to have exceeded expectations.

The Hughes-Baird(!) partnership in the middle did a solid job, with Baird showing a propensity to head it out with conviction. The Murphy-Etuhu(!) partnership also had an impressive a day, with Etuhu showing some serious athleticism in shutting down space in a blink of an eye. Murphy won a lot of balls, as he has been doing lately, but then proceeded to send passes that the intended recipients did not expect. He also needlessly lost possession very late on by apparently waiting for that perfect pass: oh well.

Dempsey and Davies switched wings in the first half, with Dempsey moving to the left. I had been skeptical in the past of his playing there as I perceived him as being extremely right footed, although I suspect that Davies's crossing quality improves when he is on the right. This time around, Dempsey showed how much he improved offensively by not diminishing in influence after the switch. As I am sure will be discussed elsewhere, he almost scored the goal of the year by forcing Gomes into a solid save off a bicycle kick. Earlier, while still on the right, he had a decent volley comfortably saved by the Tottenham keeper. While in possession, he had a few decent flicks, as he does, but also lost possession or misplaced passes on several occasions, as he also does. It is on the defensive end where Dempsey did some of his best work of the day, however. He was involved, it seemed, in winning countless balls and started promising counterattacks. Davies did have some decent work on the right, his low cross that Zamora almost got to being especially memorable, but overall he still seems like a defensive lightweight that doesn't exactly force the issue as an attacker to counterbalance that deficiency. I would like Nevland (like he did in stoppage time today) or Gera (on whose injury status I am looking for an update) come in for him later on when we need an offensive spark, or Andreasen when we need a defensive one (a defensive spark? Yes!). Should Gera start when he gets healthy in place of Davies? My silly spreadsheet from earlier, albeit from a small sample, seems to suggest that Gera is awfully active in the attack when on the right.

Konchesky and Paintsil both did a job Fulham supporters could be proud of. Konchesky, with a notable assist from Dempsey, did not let Lennon run wild, even managing to stay with him on a sprint into the penalty area and proceeding to kick it off Lennon for a goal kick. Same could be said with regards to Paintsil, who had Bentley and, later, Frazier Campbell to contend with, and handled those tasks admirably. These two aren't the best fullbacks in the league, but both are solid defensively with only an occasional lapse, and contribute at least a little bit in the attack.

Upfront, Johnson was active and dangerous as always. After the many attempts of Murphy and Dempsey to send him through, there was a success as someone's (sorry) ball finally allowed Johnson to sprint past his nemesis on the day, Dawson, and while seriously off balance push it against the outstretched arm of the prone Gomes. As a history teacher of mine used to say, "almost" only counts in horseshoes unfortunately. Zamora, aside from the aforementioned cross by Davies, was substantially less influential than he was last week against Middlesbrough - when he was very influential. Perhaps this time around his matchup against the physical Ledley King was unfavorable. He didn't really have a chance to showcase his strengths of holding the ball up and distribute it with his back to goal.

Aside from one questionable moment when he seemed to have come out with no hope of getting the ball and was left stranded, Schwarzer did a solid job controlling the penalty area. He also produced a stupendous save on Lennon early on. Other than that, despite Spurs' pressure, he was never really troubled.

Overall, a deserved draw in which Fulham had some chances. While Spurs probably looked the more threatening, one would probably expect that with the roar of the crowd behind them, their budget, and the fact that our arguably two best players, Hangeland and Bullard, were not involved.

Pinocchioballs

From around Christmas time last year, 4thegame's funny twist on the phenomenon that is Beckham.

Back to the meaning of... life

Metallica performing "Of Wolf and Man" in Edmonton earlier this month. One of those songs that sounds better live than in the studio; "Frantic," I think, is another example of such a song.



The various religions celebrating this or that right now may disagree with Hetfield's lyrics.

Andrew Hush of ESPN Soccernet interviews Clint Dempsey (Part I)

Here.

My favorite part of the interview:

ESPNsoccernet: Since regaining your place, it seems you have been given some freedom to move from your outside midfield position when the moment is right.

CD: We try to make sure that, while we are trying to create things in attack, we know the right time to gamble. A perfect example was the goal against Manchester City, where I played it to Bobby [Zamora] and Jimmy [Bullard] was on the overlap but I was still up there in support of the attack.

The type of player Jimmy is, he likes to get about the field a lot. He finds himself in different positions and so, to try and help keep the shape, I tuck in sometimes when he goes out wide. I think that helps give us a better balance and makes us tougher to break down defensively in case we lose possession. If Jimmy makes a run on the right and I overlap, then there is a big hole in the middle if we lose the ball.

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

This Brazilian film can be described in one word: "bittersweet." It does not delve into the political reality in that country surrounding the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, but strongly alludes to the repression that was going on at that time. While watching the movie, I surmised that the government was a dictatorship and that it was cracking down on certain groups, probably Marxists in particular. According to the entry in Wikipedia on 1960s in Brazil:

The first signs of resistance [to the military dictatorship] were seen in 1968 with the appearance of widespread student protests. In response to this upsurge, the government issued Institutional Act Number Five in December 1968, which suspended habeas corpus, increased the power of the executive by shutting down the other branches of government, and declared a nationwide state of siege. Protests were suppressed with violence. The anti-military movement descended into the political underground and eventually armed action.

By the end of the decade there were twenty organizations involved in the urban guerrilla movement. The old-left, particularly in the shape of the Brazilian Communist Party, was seen as irrelevant and outdated, as Marxist-Leninist, Maoist, Trotskyist, Castroist, and all the other shades of left-wing ideology competed for the loyalty of the young militants, especially in places like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Recruitment drives were carried out in schools and universities, initially with lectures in Marxist theory. The most determined were drawn deeper into activism, some taking the decision to leave their families and go underground altogether. [Emphasis added.]

In 1969 the Revolutionary Movement 8th October kidnapped Charles Burke Elbrick, the U.S. ambassador to Brazil. The rebels demanded the release of imprisoned dissidents in exchange for Ambassador Elbrick. The government responded by adopting more brutal measures of counter-insurgency, leading to the assassination of Carlos Marighela, a guerrilla leader, two months after Elbrick's kidnapping. This marked the beginning of the decline of armed resistance. In 1970, Nobuo Okuchi, Japanese consul general in Sāo Paulo, was kidnapped and Curtis C. Cutter, U.S. consul in Porto Alegre, was wounded in the shoulder but escaped kidnapping. Also in 1970, Ehren von Holleben, West German Ambassador, was kidnapped in Rio and one of his bodyguards was killed.

According to a government-sponsored truth and reconciliation commission in 2007, by the end of the 21 years of dictatorship there were 339 documented cases of government-sponsored political assassinations or disappearances. More were questioned, tortured, and jailed.

Brazil famously triumphs over Italy in the final. But the feelings of the giant country may be reflected in the story of one little boy, Mauro, who exults in the majestic play of the Seleção , while waiting for his parents to come home from "vacation."

Fulham Winger Analysis

I compiled a spreadsheet attempting to analyze the relative effectiveness of three Fulham wingers, Simon Davies, Clint Dempsey, and Zoltan Gera, based on whether each plays on the right or the left. My initial hypothesis (or impression if you will) was that both Davies and Dempsey are more effective on the right, while Gera is equally effective on both wings (his public protestations to the contrary notwithstanding). My analysis relies on two stats, both obtained from the Daily Telegraph website: passes attempted and percentage of passes completed. I observed the following conventions: (i) I relied on the Daily Telegraph density charts to determine where each player played in a given match; if the players clearly switched positions (such as against Blackburn) during the match, I disregarded that match (ii) for each player, I only considered matches which he started and (iii) I did not adjust for matches where any of the three players was substituted; unfortunately that means that passes attempted numbers are a bit skewed. Gera's total passes stats against Newcastle and Middlesbrough are disregarded due to early substitution, but passing percentage in the Newcastle match is not. Clint's numbers against Middlesbrough are treated as if all occured while he played RW; in reality, he started at forward. Clint's numbers at Stoke are obviously disregarded as he played up front the entire match. So far, this spreadsheet is only marginally useful, and only as to Simon Davies, who I think basically played 90 minutes in every match and spent substantial minutes on both flanks. If the number of passes and their accuracy reflects a player's involvement, there is not a notable difference as to the wing on which Davies plays.

Omer Golan scores two for Lokeren

The second goal, a nice chip, is here. (Clicking the link opens the clip in Windows Media Player.)

Golan also scored this nice goal earlier this year against Greg Dalby's former club Charleroi.

Adu needlessly concedes a corner against Bordeaux, which results in the equalizer

This is according to Goal.com. Monaco had a 3-2 lead when Adu came into the match in the 75th minute. Bordeaux equalized in 87th minute off the aforementioned corner, and proceeded to snatch the win in the 89th. In their player rankings, Goal.com gives Adu a 4, tied for the lowest rating on his team. The result also had the effect of knocking Bocanegra's Rennes out of a Champions League place in the Ligue 1 table.

For Funds of Funds, Due Diligence Does Not Pay

This is interesting from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Investors, in the case of Madoff, were so blinded by the reputation and returns that they didn't dig deeper into how the place really worked. Some of that may have been a function of cost, [NYU professor of finance Stephen] Brown said.

Conservatively, due diligence costs between $50,000 and $100,000 per hedge fund, so the cost of performing due diligence on 10 funds for a fund of fund portfolio can reach $1 million. At the same time, most funds of funds charge a 1.5 percent management fee to investors. That means a $20 million fund of funds might bring in $300,000 in management fees, not enough to cover cost of due diligence, Brown said.

Avi Strul's goal for Lokeren

The Israeli scores from the center circle: very impressive. Lokeren is a Belgian side that also features another Israeli, Omer Golan.

Kinky Friedman

"You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't wipe your friends off on your saddle."

Michael Videira released by Hamilton

Mike's adventure with Accies is over.

Videira plays 21 minutes in reserve action against Celtic

Hamilton lose 3-1 to their Celtic counterparts. Michael Videira comes on in the 69th minute with Celtic already up 3-0 at that point. Accies salvage a late consolation from the spot.

Jeremiah White is involved in the winning goal as AGF beats OB 2-1

AGF Aarhus - OB Odense: 2-1 (Video-Highlights)

Thanks goes to supergoller.blogspot.com for finding this.

Aston Villa - Fulham Highlights

Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo

Buffalo (adj.) = from Buffalo
buffalo (noun) = the animal buffalo
buffalo (v.) = (to) bully

This sentence is grammatically correct and makes sense if read as:

adj. noun adj. noun verb verb adj. noun

Example: adj.: mean noun: people verb: bully

mean people (whom) mean people bully (in turn) bully mean people

Buffalo buffalo (whom) Buffalo buffalo buffalo (in turn) buffalo Buffalo buffalo

Videira plays the entire game in Hamilton Reserves win

The official website does not discuss his play.

3-5-2

Craven Cottage Newsround recommends this: a history of the 3-5-2 and its relevance today.

Kaiserslautern v. Hansa Rostock

Just finished watching this, but it's not over technically. Heath Pearce just received a straight red, which wasn't entirely fair. He dragged his guy down, but (1) he was not the last man back and (2) his guy was in the process of executing a nifty maneuver of having Pearce's arm locked in his armpit. He was dragging Pearce along with him for twenty yards or so. Isn't that a foul?

Anyway, it was 3:0 to Kaiserlautern at that point. In the battle of Pearce versus Robles, both were completely anonymous. In Robles's case, it was by reason of his goal being not threatened. In Pearce's case, it was because he played the role of whatever is the opposite of a rampaging left back to perfection. He didn't make any egregious errors (even on the red card), but did absolutely nothing to distinguish himself in a positive way either. He did not look to be involved in the first two goals, the second a horrendous error by Hansa, who allowed the scorer behind them on a free kick completely unchallenged (in fact, a defender inexplicably peeled off). On the third, he may have had a role in that he may not have been where he was supposed to be, but I am not sure. Also, I think it was him who failed to pull the trigger in the box, EJ style, after a nice flowing move by Hansa late on. On one occasion, he lost the ball and then got completely burned on the ensuing counterattack.

In conclusion, in this chippy 2.Bundesliga match, Pearce was not up to par, either athletically or technically. Disappointing.

UPDATE: Final score is 6:0. Pearce was dismissed in the 64th minute. The rampage then resumed without interruption.

UPDATE 2: Apparently, Robles was called for a foul in the box, but saved the subsequent penalty in the 72nd minute. I had to read Yanks Abroad to find this out.

Cardiff Players Agree: Eddie Johnson - Man of the Match

Eddie Johnson was man of the match against Crystal Palace?

Who would have thunk?

Some players are "comfortable" on the ball. Some players, think Brede Hangeland, are never on the ball (except to boot it out). Eddie Johnson is the only player I can think of that is emphatically uncomfortable on the ball. I suppose his "link up play," his runs, and his energy (and the latter might be a new one) is what one hopes to get from him.

UPDATE: "He has a terrific touch, good movement and outstanding spring to get up and win aerial challenges in defence and attack."

Fastest Goal in Professional Soccer History?

According to this, yes. It took all of 3.5 seconds. Apparently, according to the linked write up (in Russian), a faster goal, in 2.4 seconds, was scored in a British amateur game in 2004.



This is from the Ukrainian First League (second level of Ukrainian soccer).

Videira Scores In Reserves

From the Hamilton Accies official site:

The Accies reserve team were held to a 2-2 draw by Hearts at NDP on Monday afternoon. Michael Videira gave Accies the lead after half an hour, but Hearts equalised just 6 minutes later through Denis McLaughlin. A late goal by Stephen Ettien looked to have given Accies the deserved victory but Ryan Wallace grabbed an equaliser two minutes into injury time for the visitors. We lined up - Murdoch, Casement, Gibson (Evans 73), Stevenson, McQueen, Taylor, Sorsa, Videira, Lyle (Gow 45), Ettien, Carrigan (Kirkpatrick 24)

The Cell Phone Effect

Here.

Also, see this for a nice graph of this so-called cell phone effect, courtesy of 411mania.com and The New Republic.

Hamilton Reserves lose to Rangers, but Videira's contribution acknowledged

From the official site:

The Accies reserve team went down to a 1-0 defeat to Rangers at a chilly New Douglas Park on Monday night. Tony Stevenson missed an early penalty kick, while substitute Sebastian Sorsa netted late on after good work by Michael Videira only for the goal to be disallowed for offside. Mark McLaughlin had a good run out and was subbed after an hour. Videira was very unlucky to see his powerful shot strike the crossbar with Graeme Smith beaten. The Rangers team included Steven Whittaker, Steven Smith, Lee McCulloch, Chris Burke and Andrius Velicka.

Accies lined up; Murdoch, Stevenson, Gibson (Gow 13), Gillespie (Kirkpatrick 45), McQueen, McLaughlin (Sorsa 68 ), Ettien, Taylor, Thomas, Carrigan, Videira.

AGF Aarhus wins, the Man speaketh...

Highlights.

Jeremiah White, who scored the game-winning goal, is interviewed.

Health Care Policy Misrepresentations

I generally find the New Republic to be a bit too left-leaning, but I enjoyed this Health Care Policy discussion by Jonathan Cohn.

Here's a summary:

In order to cover his proposed 5K tax credit for health coverage, McCain would tax health benefits. Specifically, while the existing exemption for payroll taxes would stay in place, the existing exemption for income taxes would be repealed. But that would still leave 1.3 trillion dollars that McCain would need to find somewhere in the budget to make his plan revenue neutral. His chief economic adviser suggested that this would be accomplished through "savings" in Medicare. Obama pounced, by equating, against the vociferous protests from the McCain camp, "savings" with "cuts." The McCain campaign is not clear how it intends to skim 1.3 trillion from the current cost of Medicare. (Vague promises to "improve efficiency" and "eliminate fraud" don't sound promising.) Cohn says that no serious economists see the necessary "savings" as realistic. Hence, "cuts" is a borderline fair characterization.

Now, Obama's plan would leave a half a trillion dollar hole in the budget and he would also seek to improve efficiency of Medicare to address that; however, he has been consistent and specific as to how he intends to do so. "Cuts" therefore are substantially less likely.

Finally, and most importantly in my opinion, McCain boxes himself in through the holes in the budget his tax cuts will generate; hence if his "savings" don't work out he has to borrow from China. Obama is not boxed in with respect to tax policy to the same extent.

Videira fails to appear for the Hamilton Reserves against St. Mirren

Accies downed 4-1 by St. Mirren.

Michael Videira in Reserves against Celtic

Videira started, and was substituted, in a 4-2 loss to the Celtic reserves.

"The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga

The book deals with a serious subject - the plight of the poor in India - in a fast-moving, entertaining, caustic way. The book should be accessible to anyone (which I somehow suspect isn't the case with all Man Booker winners).

The criticism that the Wall Street Journal raised in today's paper is absurd. Somehow, it sees the book as critical of globalization. The book has very little to do with globalization, and if anything it is welcoming of it. It does not neglect to mention the non-stop construction, the call centers, etc. In fact, Balram (a.k.a. The White Tiger), the main character, seizes on the newly presented opportunities. Nor does it maintain, contrary to WSJ's review, that only the "rich" benefit from globalization.

The book is about poor villagers, for whom the reality is that they are predestined to die no better off than they were born, and about one man going to extreme ends to change that destiny. It's about corruption, it's about the millenia old traditions, it's about illiteracy, violence, debt, and religion, and how all these things prevent a poor villager to break out of what Balram calls the Rooster Coop.

I have no quarrel with WSJ's numbers, which indicate that there was a significant percentage increase of Indians living above the poverty line from 1981-2005 (18%). I also think that Adiga could have been more clear about who works at the call centers. (Is there a middle class? In the novel, Adiga talks about "masters" and "servants" and that 99.9 percent are servants while the remainder are masters. In this interview with the Guardian, he claims that 5% of Indians are well-off. The Independent cites him as putting the total of the underclass at 400 million.) But I think he makes it clear that there is a substantial underclass that is far from equipped (what, with debt bondage, disease, oppressive hierarchal societal structure) to benefit directly in a substantial way. The construction workers in the novel, for example, are not part of the modernity which they are building.

The one time I was traveling internationally, I was seated next to an Indian woman, who upon hearing my talk of a culture shock (on a trip to Western Europe!) suggested that for culture shocks, one should head to India. All in all, the book portrays India as a country that would be almost offensive to Western sensibilities. It does however make an eloquent case for the humanity of those for whom the very circumstances of their birth had seemed to take that humanity away. Most compellingly, it shows how a man with, at the outset, at best a mirky understanding of how the world around him works, slowly but surely figures it out, to the detriment of his masters.

FC Midtjylland - AGF Aarhus

In the battle of Danny Califf v. Jeremiah White, Califf came out the winner. Both played the entire match, but neither was particularly impressive. White had a couple of chances - a long distance shot caught easily by the keeper, and a very good chance just at the edge of the box which Jerry skied. He also made a couple of decent passes to set up his teammates. Califf's performance is harder to assess, but he completely whiffed on a tackle on Nando Rafael inside in the box, fouled the same player hard early, and faked a foul when otherwise Rafael would have been through on goal. I thought Aarhus was the victim of some other dubious officiating: most notably, when Rafael was clearly tripped up inside the box, but also when the same player was whistled for a foul after cleanly robbing the defender (he would have been in alone) and on a couple of incorrect offside calls. AGF had a bit more of the possession and a bit more the chances, but Midtjylland buried theirs.

Sven Goran Eriksson's Favorite Classical Music!

Well!

Mike Videira goes 90 in Reserves versus Falkirk

Accies lost that one 2-1, but according to the official site, had the better of the chances in the second half.

Obama in Toledo

Courtesy of the New York Times:

“We’ve lived through an era of easy money, in which we were allowed and even encouraged to spend without limits; to take out as many credit cards as possible...to borrow instead of save...Now, I know that in an age of declining wages and skyrocketing costs, for many folks this was not a choice but a necessity just to keep up, I understand that.”

“But we now know how dangerous that can be...Once we get past the present emergency, which requires immediate new investments, we have to break that cycle of debt. Our long-term future requires that we do what’s necessary to scale down our deficits, grow wages and encourage personal savings again.”

It's gut check time, America

Some (quoted rather than paraphrased) highlights from this excellent article by Fareed Zakaria:

1. Paul Volcker has long argued that the recent spate of financial innovation was nothing of the kind: it simply shuffled around existing resources while contributing few real benefits to the economy. Such activity will now be reduced significantly. Boykin Curry, managing director of Eagle Capital, says, "For 20 years, the DNA of nearly every financial institution had morphed dangerously. Each time someone at the table pressed for more leverage and more risk, the next few years proved them 'right.' These people were emboldened, they were promoted and they gained control of ever more capital. Meanwhile, anyone in power who hesitated, who argued for caution, was proved 'wrong.' The cautious types were increasingly intimidated, passed over for promotion. They lost their hold on capital. This happened every day in almost every financial institution over and over, until we ended up with a very specific kind of person running things. This year, the capital that remains is finally being reallocated to more careful, thoughtful executives and investors—the Warren Buffetts … of the world."The fear on Wall Street is that a Democratic administration would overregulate. But look at who is advising Barack Obama—Buffett, Volcker, former Treasury secretaries Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. It is more likely that what will come from their efforts will be a better-regulated financial system that, while producing less-extravagant profits, will be more stable and secure.
2. The financial industry itself is likely to shrink, and that's not a bad thing, either. It has ballooned dramatically in size. Curry points out that "30 percent of S&P 500 profits last year were earned by financial firms, and U.S. consumers were spending $800 billion more than they earned every year. As a result, most of our top math Ph.D.s were being pulled into nonproductive financial engineering instead of biotech research and fuel technology. Capital expenditures went into retail construction instead of critical infrastructure." The crisis will stop the misallocation of human and financial resources and redirect them in more-productive ways. If some of the smart people now on Wall Street end up building better models of energy usage and efficiency, that would be a net gain for the economy.
3. In the short term, all the solutions to the current crisis require that governments take on more debts and larger obligations. This is inevitable and necessary. But that doesn't mean we should, as some noted economists advocate, stimulate the economy with more tax cuts. That would be only one more way to keep the party going artificially—like asking a drunk to go to AA next year, but in the meantime to have even more whiskey. A far better stimulus would be to announce and expedite major infrastructure and energy projects, which are investments, not consumption, and therefore have a much different effect on the country's fiscal fortunes. (They are not listed separately in the federal budget, but that's just bad accounting.)
4. [I]t's a different world out there. [We are no longer assumed to know what we are doing on either the foreign policy or economic policy front, and the margin of error in these matters has shrunk dramatically.] We will have to make strategic choices. We cannot deploy missile interceptors along Russia's borders, draw Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, and still expect Russian cooperation on Iran's nuclear program. We cannot noisily denounce Chinese and Arab foreign investments in America one day and then hope that they will keep buying $4 billion worth of T-bills another day.

Palin and the Alaska Independence Party, and other McCain/Palin shadiness

Palling, and sleeping with (The York Daily Record), militant secessionists, felons, etc...(Salon)

We Americans need to ask ourselves: do we have friends, husbands, pastors, or campaign managers like this?

McCain on Energy Policy - "erratic"

This seems to suggest that he is all over the place, finally taking a stand for alternative energy in the bailout bill. Obama, on the other hand, has a consistent pro-energy independence voting record.

McCain associates with convicted felon and provocateur G. Gordon Liddy

From the Washington Post:

[I]t wouldn't be inappropriate to raise questions about McCain's association with G. Gordon Liddy, the convicted Watergate burglar whose colorful history includes telling listeners to his radio show in 1994 to shoot federal agents in the head. When McCain went on Liddy's radio show in November 2007, he told Liddy [link to the Chicago Tribune], "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family... It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."

McCain hasn't been "truthful" in failing to explain this dubious relationship.

Michelle Obama's Cousin the Rabbi

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1019188.html

Haaretz is a leading Israeli publication (and a personal favorite of mine).

It is worth noting that he converted under the supervision of Orthodox and Conservative rabbis.

From Haaretz:

[Michelle Obama's cousin] is well-known in Jewish circles for acting as a bridge between mainstream Jewry and the much smaller, and largely separate, world of black Jewish congregations...

McCain's father-in-law/financier was a felon

Whose wealth do you think bought all these houses for Senator John McCain? That would be Mr. Jim Hensley's - Jim Hensley has sired Cindy Hensley McCain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hensley

From Wikipedia:

In 1948, [Jim Hensley and his brother] were prosecuted by the federal government and convicted of multiple counts of falsifying liquor records in a conspiracy to conceal illegal distribution of whiskey against post-war rationing regulations. Jim Hensley received a six-month sentence (later upheld but suspended by an appeals court) while his brother received a year in federal prison, and both were fined.

Videira is undergoing a fitness program but is not injured

So reported the Hamilton Accies official site on Friday, October 3. It is not surprising, therefore, that he did not feature today for the reserves against their counterparts at Hibs.

Palin's pastor is an anti-Semite

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/06/florida/index.html

Palin was there, apparently, while he was blaming the "Israelites" (a.k.a. Jews) for what plagues us.

One Grandma is already voting Obama (according to little Bro). The other Grandma isn't voting. Grandmas kick butt irrespective of their political beliefs, quite frankly. Grandpa McCain (he's a grandpa age wise, at least) is the only known grandpa not to kick butt.

Palin quotes anti-Semite

http://gawker.com/5048188/palin-quoted-antisemitic-author-in-rnc-speech

The implication that people from small towns (read: white people from small towns) are somehow more genuinely American than other Americans: I argued that it's racist, and it probably is, but it is also anti-Semitic. My fellow Yehudim - this is unforgivable.

Mike Videira features in neither the reserves nor the first team

I don't know what that means. He had gone off in the previous reserve fixture in the 45th minute (at the half?). He didn't even make the bench for either the reserves nor the first team this time around. Is he injured?

Really Large Number

From Forbes (via The Volokh Conspiracy):

In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

Death Magnetic - Part II

This album is enjoyable if not taken too seriously, as lyrically I have no idea what's going on most of the time, and when I do, the lyrics seem inane. The best songs are "That Was Just Your Life" and "My Apocalypse." There is no epic on this album. That is, nothing on the album is as perfect and powerful musically as "For Whom the Bell Tolls" "Master of Puppets" or "Creeping Death". However, TWJYL is a great tune with no prior song in the Metallica catalog that it specifically reminds me of. My Apocalypse is very AJFA except with better production. In fact, it sounds a bit like a sped up "The Shortest Straw." "All Nightmare Long" seems to be popular with those craving for the 80s style of Metallica and viewed as representative of this new old sound of the band. However, the lyrics unabashadely border on the idiotic, and aside from the soloing I don't find this song all that remarkable . "Cyanide," also with silly lyrics, hasn't grown on me yet, but this may change. "Suicide & Redemption" is okay but I can't connect the music with the title. "Broken, Beat, & Scarred" is just a bit too plain. "Judas Kiss" has grown on me because it's so well structured (perhaps vying with TWJYL for that almost-epic) and contains a great solo, but the whole "bow down..." bit is quite annoying, as I can't decide whether the lyrics are meant to be serious or just metal-like, and too prominent in the song to ignore. "The End of the Line" isn't great but isn't bad either (a bit cheesy frankly with that whole "the slave becomes the master" bit). "Unforgiven III" is just a bit too silly with all that "golden treasure" talk. "The Day that Never Comes" is a bit derivative of One and the first two Unforgivens, and the first half of the song doesn't mesh with the second half. In conclusion, this album works for me for the same reason the song "Trapped Under Ice" works for me: I can't identify with the lyrics, but it sure is a good tune.

Random Stuff

John Allison, CEO of BB&T, opposes the Bailout

http://media.gatewaync.com/wsj/pdfs/2008/09/allison.pdf

This letter was sent to every Senator and Representative.

Notably, Wachovia is probably a primary competitor of BB&T.

Heath Shuler Votes "No" on the Bailout

Having failed as an NFL quarterback, Heath has become a Congressman in rural Western North Carolina. He then hurt himself in the process of hearing (but probably not listening to) Pelosi shooting her mouth. Having gotten a boo-boo to his fragile feelings, he proceeded, as Barney Frank so eloquently explained, to help the other sensitive Congresspeople flush the American economy down the toilet. (Go to Slate's Trailhead feature for the House Roll Call and a link to the transcript of Pelosi's speech.)

Barney Frank

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/09/frank_mocks_gop.html

It's difficult to find anything the least bit funny about this whole bailout mess, but Barney finds a way.

Classical Music and American Soccer

An Aarhus (Benny Feilhaber and Jerry White represent!) Orchestra conducted by Lance Friedel:

http://www.msrcd.com/1150/1150.html

I only listened to "An Imaginary Journey to the Faroe Islands" (as an MP3 purchased from Amazon). It's okay. I also intend to buy at least the Helios Overture. Nielsen is a similar composer to Sibelius (late Romantic with ever so small 20th Century influences whose music is close to that North European nature), but not quite in the same league probably. I do enjoy Nielsen's use of percussion.

Update: I now also have "Helios" and "Saga-Dream." I really like "Helios."

Debate

McCain, according to himself, has never been a good student. While Obama was preparing for the debate, McCain has been campaigning without interruption. This whole skipping the debate act to work on the bailout (where many have cast doubt on his ability to be helpful, or even to not interfere) reminds me of failing to study and then skipping school (with a decent excuse in hand) the day of the test.

Jeremiah White

Jerry is the man:

http://www.yanks-abroad.com/get.php?mode=content&id=4088

'Nuff said.

Paulson and Bernanke

What I still don't understand about this whole bailout fiasco is where specifically this urgency to have the deal in place by Monday is coming from. What's so special about this upcoming Monday?

Have Paulson and Bernanke somehow created a market expectation that this (the bailout) would happen, thereby amplifying the adverse consequences if it doesn't?

I am confused.

Is the bailout necessary? Is the bailout just? Plus, Wall Street est mort - so?

Is the bailout necessary?
http://thecurrent.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/not-buying-it.php

Is the bailout just?
http://www.slate.com/id/2200604/

Wall Street is dead - what result? http://www.bmacewen.com/blog/archives/2008/09/how_big_how_bad_is_it.html

Obama/O'Reilly Transcript

Good stuff...

http://www.bigmouthfrog.org/2008/09/05/fox-news-bill-oreilly-interviews-barack-obama-part-1/

Much belated pix from Arrowhead Stadium (Chiefs-Bengals in October 2007), RFK Stadium (2007 MLS Cup) and Giants Stadium (USA-Argentina 2008)

David Einhorn and Joseph Stiglitz

The perspicacious Einhorn (an outspoken hedge fund manager with a philanthropic streak) on the root causes of the credit crisis:

http://www.designs.valueinvestorinsight.com/bonus/bonuscontent/docs/Einhorn_Speech.pdf

Stiglitz (an economics professor at Columbia) on what's to be done going forward:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/17/stiglitz.crisis/

Interesting reads, both.

Eric Posner on the (il)legality of the AIG takeover by the Fed

All glee aside (born out of my being directly affected by this mess), over at the Volokh Conspiracy (a libertarian blog presided over by various luminaries of the legal profession), Eric Posner (Judge Posner's son and an eminent lawyer himself) has the following to say (edited):

The AIG Deal.
True, the Fed statute says that loans can be issued with conditions. As a commenter asks, what loan doesn’t have conditions? But the Fed statute does not say that the Fed can purchase businesses, and it seems reasonable to interpret the statute to forbid the Fed to purchase businesses. So here’s the question, is the AIG deal a purchase or a loan? I suspect the deal is a loan in form but a purchase in substance. Unfortunately, the details are not available, but the press accounts suggest that the Fed is receiving AIG equity (more precisely, the option to obtain equity) as collateral for the loan but that it’s going to exercise the option more or less automatically. Here’s an analogy. Suppose that I lend you $100 and we agree that all of the equity in your business will be collateral for the loan. The contract provides, however, that you must pay me interest of a gazillion dollars, due one second after closing, and that if you fail, that counts as a default, whereupon the collateral is mine. The parties use the loan form but substantively a sale occurs. A court would almost certainly interpret the transaction as a sale, not a loan, if tax or other legal consequences turned on the distinction. If the AIG loan is like this, then it’s illegal. So: why aren’t our rule-of-law friends yowling?

Update: more on this here.

Videira plays the first half in reserve match at Killie

From the Hamilton Academical official website:

Accies Reserves drew 1-1 at Rugby Park against Kilmarnock last night, Tuesday. Stuart Taylor had fired Accies into the lead on the hour mark while Donovan Simmonds equalised on 90 minutes for the home side on a very wet night. Accies lined up - Murdoch, Casement, Gibson, Evans, Taylor, McQueen, Lyle, Videira (Carrigan 45), Thomas (Kirkpatrick 74), Ettien (Grady 82), Corcoran. Manager Billy Reid was pleased with the display and the good football we played.

Ownership Society

With the government's acquisition of AIG, this Administration has effectively positioned itself to the left of China. Unfortunately, I can't confirm whether the Chinese government owns the China Life Insurance Company (the second biggest insurer in the world after AIG), a stake in which I can buy on the market. But, importantly, Yao Ming is their spokesman. Which entrepreneurial athlete is going to be AIG's spokesman, huh? (Manchester United is now sponsored by the United States, hehe.)

(Thanks to Unprofessional Foul via The Original Winger)

McCain and Palin dive in the box

That's all I have to say about all the bullshit that's coming out of their campaign. I hope this most recent episode, involving lipstick and pigs, is a clever ploy by Obama to show how petty and inane the Republican candidates are. While Obama gives a speech addressing the importantce of making the electorate less retarded (better education of course!), McCain demands apologies (for using the same terms he himself used to describe Hillary's health policy). I think Barack may be too busy to be apologetic, even if he did "misspeak." By the way, while Barack was graduating in the top 10% at Harvard Law School, Palin was busy switching colleges, to the tune of six colleges in six years (twice at U. Idaho). The anti-intellectualism of the (national) Republican party is appalling. This cultural populism of theirs (which effectively says being ignorant is somehow an American value) threatens to destroy this country.

David Paterson may not be right that criticism of community organizing has racial connotations. But, "small town values" from Palin's speech is a not so oblique reference to "white values." American cities and American towns share American values which encompass hard work, faith, etc. Therefore, there is no principled way to distinguish between small town values and city values other than on the basis of race. (Are city inhabitants lazy? Many are plenty religious.) Black inhabitants of small towns will overwhelmingly vote Obama and Palin knows that nothing she could say would change that, so she wasn't speaking for them.

P.S. Apologies for using a soccer analogy when discussing a "hockey mom," but soccer is what's on my mind these days.

Death Magnetic - Part I

No, this is not a review of Metallica's new album (which I have heard not in the best sound quality and nevertheless liked). But, having read the lyrics to songs in said album, I can identify with pretty much every word having read this: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/04/politics/animal/main4414663.shtml

/ripping hair out, running head first into wall, ripping hair out, banging head against desk, puking, puking, puking...

Look, I sincerely respect McCain and am not 100% sure of Obama. But some statements, like a racial slur or McCain's quoted in the link, show such a lack of - forget judgment - marbles that make the speaker unfit for any public office, not just the presidency.

P.S. To bolster McCain's brilliant argument, it should be noted that Palin graduated from the University of Idaho which is located in Moscow, Idaho.

Palin

I read the transcript of her speech. I don't see what the big deal is: yes, it was a good speech, if quite mean-spirited. But she worked extensively with a senior speech writer, and had plenty of time to come up with those petty zingers (e.g. small-town mayor is a community organizer with actual responsibilities). By contrast, Obama's speeches are full of profound observations that have to underlie good policy. Those that continue to wrangle over experience are missing the point; this election is not about experience. After the debacle of the Bush presidency (and the sunny days of the Clinton presidency), this election is about intellectual heft. Given McCain's obdurate support for an idiotic war costing us in the trillions and causing a massive deficit, despite of being a great, great man he doesn't deserve a shot. Barack may have not done much, but he wasn't really in position to as a legislator, and I would rather entrust the future of this country to his keen intellect. We clearly need a better education system so we produce more competitive workers here, and a better immigration policy so we incentivize the best and brightest Indians, Russians, Chinese, Brazilians etc. to come here and contribute to our, rather than their country's of origin, economy. In his speeches, Obama shows he understands this.

Also, Palin didn't say anything of substance when it comes to her own policy views (in fairness, she was only offered the VP job a week ago), and may have flat out lied when discussing Obama's tax policy. She was also misleading with respect to her position(s) on the Bridge to Nowhere, but she is after all a politician and one could not expect her to omit a reference to it altogether (which would have been the honest thing to do).

Charlie Davies: Should have been called in against Cuba and T&T

He scores consistently in Sweden (arguably equivalent in quality to MLS), he is not in the process of settling in at a new club (a la Adu, Altidore or, for that matter, EJ), and he has the pace which is EJ's best attribute. Plus, unlike Buddle, there is no suspicion that his goal-scoring exploits are a result of having world-class teammates at an MLS level or an aberration.

Videira scores in reserve match!

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/818781?UserKey=

Videira

Michael Videira looks set to join newly promoted SPL side Hamilton Academical (a.k.a. the Accies) until January:
http://www.acciesfc.co.uk/

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/display.var.2436018.0.reid_swoop_will_net_the_accies_three_new_faces.php

Futbolyanka Tactics

Can't wait for Wilson's book on the history of tactics to come out. See here: http://www.amazon.com/Inverting-Pyramid-History-Football-Tactics/dp/0752889958. And to see why I care, see here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jun/08/euro2008.
Thanks CCN!