Ponietz
Ponietz's JournalNY Times and the 30-year anniversary of the backpass law introduction
[link:https://theathletic.com/3397785/2022/07/20/thirty-years-of-the-backpass-rule
Trawling back through footage of Graeme Souness’ 70-yard backpass for Rangers against Dynamo Kyiv in 1987, or Peter Schmeichel and the Denmark defenders running the clock down in the 1992 European Championship final against Germany, is a bizarre experience, not least because you wonder how that kind of thing, which everyone in the game was doing, had been tolerated for so long.
“If I watch games from that time — I don’t want to lose respect for the players who played then, I had my idols — but today I can’t watch this anymore, especially the view from the goalkeeper,” Pascal Zuberbuhler, the former Switzerland goalkeeper and FIFA’s senior football expert, tells The Athletic. “I was excited at that time, ‘Oh, great football game’. Backpass. In the hands. Rolling out. Backpass. In the hands. Today, I can’t see this. It’s crazy.”
Back in 1992, the main reason for introducing the backpass law was to reduce the amount of timewasting to make football more entertaining. Thirty years later, timewasting still exists in one form or another and probably always will, but even the backpass-law sceptics — and there were plenty of those at the time — accept that the game has benefitted hugely from the change.
(Amidst the quotidian posts of The NY Times’ errors, euphemisms, misnomers, omissions, and outright lies)
I add a perspective to this piece.
In the latter 80’s virtually every world soccer fan knew of René Higuita, “El Loco”, Columbia’s electric, offensive-minded GK. Owners and coaches worldwide saw the potential in having a GK with ball skills and focused on it. Also, indoor soccer in the US during the 80’s already required GK’s to play with their feet, and every indoor soccer player I ever met was just biding time until the weather was nice enough to play outdoors. The spirit of the game had already changed by ‘92 — High School, youth, and Sunday city league teams had adept, ball-playing GKs.
FIFA had already instituted rule changes, twice, to cut the shenanigans; first, by prohibiting the GK from running in her box with ball in hand. This necessitated a second attempt — by not allowing the GK to pick the ball up twice without it being touched by another player. By ‘92, skilled GKs the world over made a joke of even the modified rules.
So the current rule was FIFA’s third effort to remedy the absurdities created by the Higuita revolution. As far as I’m concerned it’s the Higuita rule.
The Times omitted the most salient facts.
[link:]
I was chased by a Nazi and saw him get punched
In 1972, I was 11. I loved life, knew everyone in the neighborhood, played in the streets and parks whenever school was out. Everyone knew me—I was always knocking on doors to sell little league raffle tickets, do yard work, or collect on newspaper subscriptions.
The kids would play touch football in the street after dinner and knew to avoid the yard of our ex-Nazi neighbors. The wife would call the police if the ball went in her yard. The grown daughter was a recluse who always wore army surplus. The father was a German scientist relocated here at the end of WW2. There was no animosity amongst my pals but the wife’s behavior was a joke. This family wanted to be left alone and we didn’t bother them. I already knew half the lesson.
One summer afternoon I was walking home and happened to look behind me. The father was walking quickly toward me, 100 yards or so behind. It startled me so I quickened my pace. I looked again and the man was running now. It terrified—I ran and jumped a wall leaving him behind.
My mother and father came home from work. I stayed near their closet until they arrived—still hysterical. Inconsolable.
Did I mention my father was a Marine? Saipan, Okinawa, Nagasaki occupation. Coolest cucumber I ever met. All he said was, “Is everyone ready to go out to dinner?”
We all got into the station wagon. “Where does he live?” he said.
We parked at the curb and, though I didn’t want to, had to come with him to the Nazi’s door. The Nazi answered. “My son tells me you chased him today”.
“Yeah, look here!” and the Nazi crosses the threshold to point to his window. It had a BB hole in it.
I was joyful in my innocence. “I didn’t do it! I wanted a BB gun for Christmas and you said no!”
“He says he didn’t do it”
“I don’t give a shit what your son says!”
It all happened so fast but in an instant it was Clay standing over a fallen Liston. My father had dropped the guy with one punch. He towered over the Nazi whose nose now bled, and told him if he ever came near me again he was a dead man.
We returned to the car. I was triumphant. The matter was dropped. In that moment I understood the whole lesson:
Don’t provoke Nazis but when they cross the line they must be punched in the face.
When many say the 48 Laws of Power is the most important book
they’ve ever read, we’re witnessing devolution in real time. It was published in 2000. Machiavellianism spawned neoliberalism and both prioritize power while ignoring everything that makes human existence meaningful.
Another idea I stumbled upon yesterday is the concept of psychopolitics. Asimov published his first Foundation novel in 1942. In them, the science of psychohistory has reached an apex. He was prescient in seeing that psychology has a profound impact on the traditional scientific disciplines.
Then, in the early 50’s L. Ron Hubbard (Scientology) published a forgery on brain washing and psychopolitics, attributing it to Beria of the Soviet Secret police. It was only considered black propaganda, then, but the traitor caucus seems to have adopted its strategies.
Here is the opening of Hubbard’s forgery:
American students at the Lenin University, I welcome your attendance at these classes on Psychopolitics. Psychopolitics is an important if less known division of Geopolitics. It is less known because it must necessarily deal with highly educated personnel, the very top strata of "mental healing."
By psychopolitics our chief goals are effectively carried forward. To produce a maximum of chaos in the culture of the enemy is our first most important step. Our fruits are grown in chaos, distrust, economic depression, and scientific turmoil. At last a weary populace can seek peace only in our offered Communist State, at last only communism can resolve the problems of the masses.
Our unprotected online personal data and rogue corporations like Meta make it EXTEMEMELY EASY to drive wedges into our psyches.
Korean-born and German Philosopher Byung-Chul Han outlined many salient aspects in his 2017 book: [link:https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/30/psychopolitics-neolberalism-new-technologies-byung-chul-han-review
So it’s truly ironic that psychopolitics, from a fraudulent inception, could be the most important academic discipline today. Free people must know and understand it to remain free.
"We're gonna be okay, I promise"
https://twitter.com/kenolin1/status/1563746582607958016NASA encouraging everyone to grow chile plants
https://www.krqe.com/news/space-news/nasa-encouraging-everyone-to-grow-chile-plants-after-space-experiment/]There’s a link to get seeds. Pretty cool.
Torres said they found the crop very adaptable but growing plants in space takes longer, which can be a setback. He also explained that instead of growing straight up, the plants grew into a sphere, making the physiology of the plant unique.
Now, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has decided to fund a new project aimed at growing chile around the world to show that the crop can adapt to many different environments as well as space.
The team working with NASA will send chile seeds for you to grow the crop, and Torres said that even though the crop is usually grown in New Mexico, they also want New Mexicans to take part. Schools are also welcome to grow the plant in their classrooms. As of July 1, 2022, there have been 110 entries for the “Space Chile Grow a Pepper Plant Challenge.”
If you love samba like I do, here's a brand new masterpiece
https://kikodinucci.bandcamp.com/track/foi-batendo-o-p-na-terraIt moves, like Tom Zé
Lyrics
Foi batendo o pé na terra I’m tapping my foot on the earth
qué vovó me ensenou a sambar So it can teach me samba again (My translation)
😢🇺🇦 🕊 🕯
Recommending The Hand of God (E Stata La Mano di Dio) on Netflix
Beautiful, hilarious, crushing. Enjoy!
Another one bites the dust--Jury finds Rio Arriba County sheriff guilty of two felonies
Lujan today lives down fully to his predecessor Tommy Rodella’s legacy. I know the probable next sheriff to be honest and hope the power doesn’t make him stupid, too.
After only a few hours of deliberations, a Santa Fe County jury found Rio Arriba County Sheriff James Lujan guilty Wednesday of aiding a felon and intimidating a witness in March 2017.
The verdict came after a three-day trial for Lujan — his second on the charges, which stem from allegations he helped former Española City Councilor Philip Chacon evade police following a high-speed chase. The first trial in the case, held in a Tierra Amarilla courtroom, ended in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked.
Special prosecutor Andrea Reeb, the district attorney in the 9th Judicial District, argued Lujan knew Chacon had fled from Española city police and went to his home to help him avoid arrest.
Reeb told the jury Lujan believes the law "does not apply to him like it applies to everybody else."
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/jury-finds-rio-arriba-county-sheriff-guilty-of-two-felonies/article_aa4c58ba-52fb-11ec-bd90-ab2c002fc1d5.html|
When New Mexico defeated Texas in 1841, a territory cheered
Excerpt
American-born Texans were in an expansionist mood that year and felt they would need room to grow their newly minted republic. New Mexico seemed ripe for the taking. Word reached Santa Fe of a contingent of Tejanos moving west toward the New Mexico border. Armijo amassed an army of Mexican New Mexicans and led them east to head off the invading army. This was the Texas-Santa Fe Expedition.
The Texans, who numbered about 300, were not prepared for the harsh terrain, nor for the vast, empty distances of western Texas and eastern New Mexico. Their miscalculations would dearly cost them dearly.
The brave contingent of New Mexicans was able to easily overtake and overcome its adversaries, who were in bad shape and half starving by the time the New Mexicans encountered them. Armijo took the Texans prisoners, and they were marched south to be imprisoned first in Mexico City, then in Veracruz, Mexico.
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/commentary/when-new-mexico-defeated-texas-in-1841-a-territory-cheered/article_4e08626e-1fc6-11ec-85ba-cbf044ce0d59.html
The “Mexican New Mexicans” were constituted principally by Taos Pueblo members, and the brigands sent by Texan Governor Lamar were guarding a caravan with $200,000 in goods with the aim of wresting control of the Santa Fe trail from Mexico. Good thing the NM contingent didn’t make martyrs of them, though it was a close call.
The Oligarchs have us exactly where they want us--
Divided and at each other’s throats. Really, they’re autocrats now. They pay little to no taxes and are exempt from criminal codes that apply to the rest of us.
One third of our country, the less intelligent, the susceptible, the antisocial and psychologically damaged, have been scrupulously groomed and meticulously miseducated to make room for an agenda of enrichment for a few.
Postmodernism, relativism, deconstructionism, and like theories have altered the cultural Ph and made us ripe for the virulent growth of fascism. (My hot take is just as valid as your hot take—everyone gets a participation trophy!) I think Plato had it right. Ideals exist, but we only see shadows on the wall of the cave. Many have stopped even trying to see the shadows.
The deep pockets know and believe science, and understand that CO2 emissions must fall dramatically for the earth to be habitable and inherited by them (without estate taxes!). The solution? Violence. Sabotaging public health measures. Etc.
This civilization is functioning exactly as it is designed to.
