#Arkhaven INFOGALACTIC #Castalia House
67 Moundsview Meerkats (1-0)
65 Bailout Banksters (0-1)
97 Fromundah Cheezheads(1-0)
73 Greenfield Grizzlies (0-1)
70 ’63Mercury Marauders(1-0)
57 RR Redbeards (0-1)
52 Bane Sidhe(1-0)
48 D.C. Hangmen (0-1)
98 Luna City Gamma Rays (1-0)
71 Suburban Churchians (0-1)
Some minor revenge for last year’s championship game isn’t particularly satisfying, but at least the Meerkats are off to a decent start.
Sean – (Cranberry Rhyneaux)
Gapeseed – (Grover Beach Quixotes)
I’ll need to get an email from Sean and Gapeseed by the end of the day if they want to play this year. Otherwise, we’ll have two more spots open in the VPFL.
I tend to agree with those who believe that you can learn a lot about a man’s character from how he plays sports. In that vein, Tucker Max’s recollection of playing basketball with a mid-30s Barack Obama at the University of Chicago is informative indeed:
“I do remember that he had a good understanding of the game. He knew when to backdoor cut, how to pick and roll, when to take his man away so you could drive, how to block out for rebounds, etc. And he would hit open jumpshots if left alone. He was not some doofus out there trying to get exercise. He understood the basics of basketball very well, which is better than most people who play pick-up. Just this knowledge of the game made him fun to play with.”
“But the thing is, even though he knew the basics and could execute them, his performance wasn’t anything beyond that. He didn’t have what basketball players call ‘old man game.’ Old guys who have that know every trick, use every advantage, and kill your youth and quickness with their guile and strength. That wasn’t Barack. He would beat you if given space, but if you played even half decent defense on him, you could take him out of the game.”
“He played point guard a lot, but I don’t remember him as a dominant court leader, controlling the flow of the game…. Weirdest thing about him — I always thought he would be better than he was. I mean, here was this guy, in good shape, relatively young (mid 30s at the time, I think) clearly likes and knows the game, and is black (so there’s the quasi-racist assumption that he’s good at basketball)… but he was never that great. Even after I knew the limits of his game, I always half-expected one day he would just decide to turn it on and light everyone up, but it never happened. He had everything that you’d think would make him great, and he definitely looked the part, but he never really turned that look into serious production in an actual game. I saw so many people pick him first, and then get burned because he didn’t play up to that pick.
This very much jibes with my perspective on Obama, which is that he is not a competitor and is naturally disengaged. That’s why I expected him to step down after his first term and why I don’t expect him to put in much of an effort in competing against Romney this fall. It’s also why I never put any credence in those who worried, needlessly, in my opinion, about Obama the Would-be Socialist Dictator cancelling the elections and ruling with an iron fist.
He simply doesn’t have it in him to try that hard. He doesn’t see the point of working that hard. This is a pattern that goes back to his high school days in Hawaii and can be seen in his graduate career at Harvard Law, his faux-literary career, and his political career. If someone is going to open the door for him, he’ll certainly bother to stroll through it, but he’s not interested in pushing on the door himself.
I’ve played against a lot of half-hearted competitors like this in a wide variety of sports. The one thing they all do is hang their heads and give up once the tide begins to turn against them. I suspect one reason the Democrats running his campaign already appear to be in panic mode prior to the Republican convention is because they know that if Romney gets a serious convention bounce and starts running ahead of Obama in the polls, Obama is going to quit on the campaign, quite possibly in literal fashion.
Already, he seems to be doing little more than going through the minimal motions necessary. When was his last major speech, his last big press conference? As for the potential for rumored October surprises, particularly from the Fed, ask yourself this question: why would Ben Bernanke prefer a lukewarm banker’s ally like Barack Obama to an enthusiastic quasi-banker like Mitt Romney?
UPDATE: Steve Sailer puts in a lot more work to reach a similar conclusion: My last word: it’s easy to overthink Obama. Don’t overlook the largest element in his make-up—the “apathetic quasi-intellectual sports fan.”
Draft Time: Sat Sep 1 3:00pm CDT
Bailout Banksters – Larry Fitzgerald, Rob Gronkowski, Matt Ryan
RR Redbeards – Tom Brady, Chris Johnson, LaShean McCoy
Greenfield Grizzlies – NEED 3 KEEPERS
Mounds View Meerkats – Aaron Rodgers, Arian Foster, Marques Colston
Sean – (Cranberry Rhyneaux)
Peter Garstig – (Bane Sidhe)
Boetain – (Green Reverends)
Gapeseed – (Grover Beach Quixotes)
上酒 – (Macau Marauders)
Slack Attack – (Swamp Spartans)
So, if you’re one of the three remaining guys – in bold – who have been assigned a team, email me ASAP and I will send you a league invitation as well as your roster from whom you can select up to three keepers.
Louisa Thomas proposes sexism in the name of sports equality:
Because Augusta is a golf course, and because it hosts the Masters, the announcement that the club was taking women was treated as a sports story. It’s actually a business story, and if it says something about women in American culture, then it says something about the rise of women in finance and politics.
For the story to be about women in sports, the debate isn’t about whether Darla Moore and Condi Rice should be able to wear green jackets. It’s whether Stacy Lewis, the top American on the LPGA tour (and the second-ranked woman in the world), should have a chance to compete for one.
Opening up the Masters to female players would be a hell of a lot more controversial than opening up Augusta to female members. But it wouldn’t be impossible. Give women their own leader board, and give them their own tees — but don’t give them their own tournament. Mix the groups in with the men.
I have a much better idea. Announce that women will be permitted to play in the PGA as soon as men will be permitted to play in the LPGA. No different tees, no different rules, just complete equality regardless of sex.
Anything less would be sexist and therefore unacceptable.
UFC women’s champion Ronda Rousey thinks women can enter the male octagon:
Fuel TV’s Ariel Helwani asked Ronda if she thinks we will ever see women fighting in the UFC:
“I think it’s a distinct possibility,” she said. … “Women are tough, women are clever. We’re going to find a way to get everywhere. So, you can’t stop us. We’ll be here at some point.”
I’m over 40. I haven’t done any martial arts training in more than a decade. And I would not only agree to meet Ms Rousey in the Octagon, I would be willing to bet $10,000 that I would either knock her out or force her to quit in the first two minutes.
I very much hope that UFC president Dana White will give into the feminist pressure and permit Anderson Silva to fight Ronda Rousey. That would instantly silence all the ridiculous girl power talk that has been going on ever since the charade of the Riggs-King tennis match.
And did those feet in ancient time.
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!
And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?
Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!
I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land
The London Olympics site describes tonight’s opening ceremony thusly: “London 2012 gives athletes a magical welcome”. The laudable habit of the enlightened courteously telling everyone exactly what they’re doing is always educational. No doubt the generation will be inspired… by what, exactly, we shall learn tonight.
That totalitarian vibe you were picking up isn’t a product of your imagination:
Triple jumper Voula Papachristou was expelled from Greece’s Olympic team Wednesday for her comments on Twitter mocking African immigrants and expressing support for a far-right party. The Hellenic Olympic Committee said Wednesday that Papachristou is “placed outside the Olympic team for statements contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic movement.”
I absolutely loathe the Olympics. It’s a corrupt, fraudulent and grotesque celebration of globalism. The idea that Hitler and the Chinese Communists were perfectly acceptable to “the values and ideas of the Olympic movement” but free speech and democracy are not should tell you all that you need to know about the true spirit of the Olympics. Banning an athlete for the “crime” of being a nationalist who doesn’t favor the flooding of her country with foreign criminals is far more troublesome than any race-related comments she may have made. The irony here, given the original rules of the games, is that being a paid professional no longer bars an athlete, but being an open nationalist does.
This is exactly the same totalitarian progressivism that has led to the denial of building permits to companies that do not exhibit “Chicago values”. Strange, isn’t it, how “Chicago values” and “the values and ideas of the Olympic movement” just happen to be exactly the same.
It is in part because of this grotesque political correctness, which is now creeping into European football, that I have no plans to watch the Olympics, except of course in the event that the rumored false flag operation takes place. That might actually be entertaining, certainly more so than the ghastly North Koreanesque opening and closing ceremonies.
The NCAA goes light on Penn State:
The NCAA has hit Penn State with a $60 million sanction, a four-year football postseason ban and a vacation of all wins dating to 1998, the organization said Monday morning. The career record of Joe Paterno will reflect these vacated records, the NCAA said. Penn State must also reduce 10 initial and 20 total scholarships each year for a four-year period.
This is a ridiculous penalty. The problem wasn’t football-related cheating, so vacating the wins makes no sense. This is pure historical revisionism. The postseason ban won’t matter because Penn State isn’t going to compete for any of the serious bowls in the next four years, and while the scholarship limitation will hurt a little, the whole package falls well short of the four-year death penalty that was merited.
This year, we’re not going to leave it until the last minute. So, if you’d like to throw your hat in the ring, please do so. There are only four spots available, as the fixed spots go to last year’s winner, Nate, the White Buffalo, the VP-AFL champion, and me, plus Ender has asked to play for the first time, so I will randomly select from the volunteers with first-timers given precedence.
Whoever is the VP-AFL champion should let me know in the comments who would be the three keepers from their roster and I will attempt to pair them up with an open team from the VPFL with one or more of those players.