ELO is lousy at predictions, but very good at telling you what has occurred

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Why Homer Matters

I have been working in fits and starts - mostly fits - on the newish (November 2015) book Why Homer Matters, by Adam Nicolson.  Having gotten through the introductory matter, I have gotten to the good parts, and they are very good indeed.  Nicolson is not, as near as I can tell, a 'qualified academic', but the sort of gifted amateur that used to be more prevalent in the British Empire, a guy who has put a hell of a lot of work into understanding this stuff.  The results are generally good:

The Iliad is soaked in retrospect. The Odyssey, the twin and pair of it, is filled with heroic adventurism and the sense of possibility, as if it were an American poem and the Iliad its European counterpart.  

There is no doubt that the poet of the Odyssey knew the Iliad. The Odyssey, with extraordinary care, is shaped around the preexistence of the Iliad. It fills in details that are absent from the earlier poem— the Trojan Horse, the death of Achilles— but never mentions anything that is described there. That discretion and mutuality is present on a deeper level too. So, where the Iliad is a poem about fate and the demands that fate puts on individual lives, the inescapability of death and of the past, of each of us being locked inside a set of destinies, the Odyssey, for all its need to return home, consistently toys with the offer of a new place and a new life, a chance to revise what you have been given, for the individual— or at least the great individual— to stand out against fate.

The two poems talk across that divide. The Iliad is rooted in the pain of Troy, the singular place and the sense of entrapment that it brings to everyone involved. The Odyssey is constantly free and constantly inventive. That difference is reflected in the two heroes. Achilles is fixed into rage, into the need to fulfill his fate, fixed into having to revenge the death of his friend Patroclus. Odysseus is always slipping out, the man who has been everywhere, seen everything, done everything, but also thought of everything, invented everything and changed everything. 

These are the two possibilities for human life. You can either do what your integrity tells you to do, or niftily find your way around the obstacles life throws in your path. That is the great question the poems pose. Which will you be? Achilles or Odysseus, the monument of obstinacy and pride or the slippery trickster in whom nothing is certain and from whom nothing can be trusted? The singular hero or the ingenious man?

Decent review from the NYT here.

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Know your UK soul men

Born

• Cocker:  1944 - Sheffield, Yorkshire
• Morrison:  1945 - Belfast, Northern Ireland

Song the world first noticed

• Cocker: "With a Little Help From My Friends" (1969)
• Morrison:  "Gloria" (1964)

Primary influences (according to Wikipedia)

• Cocker:  Ray Charles and Lonnie Donegan
• Morrison:  Much of Morrison's music is structured around the conventions of soul music and R&B... [However] an equal part of his catalogue consists of lengthy, loosely connected, spiritually-inspired musical journeys that show the influence of Celtic tradition, jazz and stream-of-consciousness narrative, such as the album Astral Weeks and the lesser-known Veedon Fleece and Common One. The two strains together are sometimes referred to as "Celtic soul".

Rolling Stone says

• (#96) Cocker would...interpret tunes by Randy Newman and Traffic as if they were R&B classics. And once he was done with them, that's what they were.
• (#24) Morrison has left his mark on over 40 years' worth of rock, blues, folk, jazz and soul, as well as several genres that only really exist on his records. He's the most painterly of vocalists, a master of unexpected phrasing whose voice can transform lyrics into something abstract and mystical...

Best cover

• Cocker: "With a Little Help From My Friends" or "You Are So Beautiful" or possibly "Feelin' Alright"
• Morrison:  Gonna say the 2000 Skiffle Sessions with Lonnie Donegan, but YMMV 

Google hits when you Google their name and "crazy story"

• Cocker:  25,000
• Morrison: 55,800

Nickname

• Cocker:  "Joe" - real name was John Robert.  Performed as "Vance Arnold" for a while.
• Morrison:  "Van the Man"

Big influence on...

• Cocker:  Bryan Adams
• Morrison:  Springsteen, Seger, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty for a start

Imitated by Belushi?

• Cocker:  yes
• Morrison:  no, although Kevin Pollak says they hung out a bit

Song I really like

• Cocker:  "I Shall Be Released" (Woodstock)
• Morrison:  "Dead or Alive"

Still alive?

• Cocker:  no (2014)
• Morrison:  yes, playing the Fox Theater in Oakland this fall

Living the dream

I never meant to become a deadly threat in the low post.  Heretofore my basketball career was marked by a firm commitment to the aerial, a contempt for footwork, positioning, teamwork, passing, and other such "fundamentals".  Fundamentals my eye, Bobby Knight can teach that stuff in his damned labor camp, but in a pickup game I want to run and fly, and someone else can worry about the low post, the high post, the elbow and all that rot.

But about a year ago, something odd occurred.  I stumbled across the Rosetta Stone, a brief sequence by Hakeem Olajuwon from which a middle age man can transform himself from a retired ineffectual aerialist into a Dream Master.  I have studied carefully and learned my lessons well.  Here, in case of my untimely death, is the sum total of my knowledge in this matter.

1)  The quick little layup.  You can shoot a quick little layup, can't you?  Say you're dribbling with your right hand on the right side of the hoop.  A quick, hard dribble to push the ball to the left, go up strong with your left hand and tip it in.  Very nice when no one's guarding you.  Here is Hakeem driving for a quick little layup on David Robinson:

2)  As it happens, someone is often guarding you.  In this case, you will pretend that you are going to make a quick little layup, then stop and pivot.  Here is a picture of Hakeem about 2/10 of a second later after he has stopped and pivoted, and he prepares to take his deadly turnaround jumper.

The start of this video shows how it looked when Olajuwon converted the jump shot he is threatening to take here:



"They know you're going to turn," he says, "but they don't know which way.  And they don't know when."

3)  Now, sometimes the person guarding you is very alert.  David Robinson in the picture above has reacted instantly to Olajuwon's change of plan, and readies himself to leap and contest the shot.  It would appear that Olajuwon's try has failed.  But he has a trick up his sleeve.  He will pretend to take his deadly turnaround jumper, then step past Robinson for a quick little layup.

The whole thing looks like this in real time:



I should add that these moves look better if you are seven feet tall and extremely quick and well-balanced.

When I first saw this, I thought no human being could do it, but then I realized it's actually quite similar to a dance step. Footwork is all. At each stage you must maintain your balance to preserve your next option.  You don't lean into the initial layup, you don't fall away with the jumper - both shots/fakes are made from a well-balanced position so that you can transition to the next option if needed.

The key to making the move work in practice - and this is vital - is that you need to get really good at shooting turnaround jumpers.  I heard an interview with Kevin McHale a while back, and he said all of his fancy moves depended on opponents respecting his deadly turnaround jumper.  If you can't make that shot, the opponent can hang back and meet you at the rim as you try your quick little layup.  No, you must draw him to you, and to draw him to you, you must be able to convert that turnaround.

Fortunately, we have a wonderful practitioner of this art right here in the Bay Area:



The beauty of Livingston's game is that he can almost always get to that spot, and, being a point guard, is always a threat to pass instead of shooting the jumper (unlike McHale and Olajuwon who were notorious ball stoppers).  He's also five inches taller than Tony Parker, which makes things a bit easier.

All good so far?  So you have the ball at midcourt, and are dribbling toward the post.  When you arrive in the area you can simply turn your back to your opponent, notice his positioning, then turn the other way and like Shaun Livingston bury your deadly turnaround jumper.  OR, you can drive hard to the hoop for a quick little layup, and then spin to take your deadly turnaround jumper, and then step inside your leaping opponent and convert a quick little layup.  I have practiced this on all manner of middle schoolers, and I can assure you it is crushingly effective.

Now, if you watch Olajuwon's footwork carefully, you'll see that there are also many opportunities to pass to cutting teammates as well.  So this is not simply a sound platform for scoring in the low post, it can be a blueprint for all of your activity when you have the ball in your hands.

Now it is possible that, after seeing your deadly turnaround jumper a few times, opponents will decide that they must deny you that spot in the low post.  As you bring the ball up they may try to challenge you by guarding you closely and daring you to try to drive past them.  My older son, tired of getting Dream Shaken, has adopted this tactic.

I believe the antidote is a killer crossover.  I do not have this weapon developed yet, but this video from Jim Barnett gives me hope that I can master the requisite skills:

Naigrin

Here is a nice little documentary on Daniel Nagrin, one of the greatest dancers of the 20th century.  I greatly admired Nagrin's book How to Dance Forever, and found it really helpful as I tried to learn some steps in my 40s.

Nagrin was the expert on this.  He was born in 1917, bringing down the house on Broadway in the 50s, dancing modern art pieces like Strange Hero in the 60s, and still doing really hard stuff in the the 1970s.  He seemed to figure out before everyone else that the main thing holding back achievement in middle age was acknowledgement of the limitations of middle age.  He simply proceeded as if he could dance into his 60s, then did so.

I was sitting in a tea shop in Chinatown about 10 years ago, and hit a particularly good passage in Nagrin's book, which I read to my wife while we were sitting there talking.  I happened to look up and saw a well known comic actor eavesdropping with amusement.  So he and I will always have that moment:  him amused at my earnest discipleship, me amused that a guy whose magnum opus was Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo would look down on Nagrin, who put sincere effort into his performances.

In the documentary below Bill T. Jones says Nagrin was "for me, the epitome of artist as warrior.  The battle is against sloth, insincerity, and indecision.  He believes that the artist must win this battle, through daily effort."  Nagrin himself said he watched a film of one of his performances late in his career and caught himself thinking "he's not pretending."  That's about as good an artistic credo as you could ask for, I think.




I don't know enough to say if that particular ethos played a role in his longevity.  He certainly seemed to think so, saying "it's important not to die young.  You've got to last."

I wrote Nagrin a brief fan letter a few years before he passed away, and he sent back a nice thank you.

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Great app

There's this editor called EMACS that you can get on a Mac...

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Surprised to see me here...?

This is what it's all about.  I know we had to go through the formality of the regular season, we have to go through the playoffs...  But at the end of the day didn't we all know, and don't we all want to see...The Trilogy...?!   Well, let's settle it.  Everyone's healthy, they have a week to prepare, you've added maybe the second best player in the world in Kevin Durant...LET'S GO!  
- Reggie Miller

Because fuck the wild horses

Rats with hooves, I call 'em.

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Farewell Mr. Moore

Get me some of that Stargoon

"The neural network has really, really bad ideas for paint names."

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Objection withdrawn

Speaking of avoidable risky situations...

Botha was leading a group of hunters western Zimbabwe on Friday afternoon when they stumbled upon a breeding herd of elephants in Hwange National Park, the Telegraph reported.

Startled, three elephant cows charged the group. Botha opened fire, according to News24, but a fourth elephant rammed him from the side, lifting him with her trunk. One of his fellow hunters then fired a shot. The elephant collapsed on top of Botha, killing him, News24 reported...

Botha's death comes just weeks after one of his friends was killed by crocodiles during a hunting expedition in Zimbabwe. Scott Van Zyl, 44, was with a local tracker and a pack of hunting dogs when he disappeared in mid-April. A week later, his remains were found in the carcass of a crocodile shot and killed by local authorities, the BBC reported.

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Well...

Better days in LA

In 2008, over 1,600 people were hit by a bullet in Los Angeles, but the number fell by around 500 last year, Beck said. The city also experienced 384 homicides in 2008, but the number was 290 last year.

“The proof is in the pudding,” Beck said. “The proof is that we have a less violent society in Los Angeles because of gun buybacks, because of smart legislation, because of good cops and because of the strong will of the people to recognize that guns are what turns a minor dispute between young people on the street from a shouting match to a funeral.”

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42 or 357?

What with all the Russian spies and other menacing characters around my neighborhood, I have thought in light of my advancing age that I ought to get a piece for my drawer.  You know, for punks.

Apart from the usual objections of "morality" I also have struggled with the national problem of overabundance: there are so many options, it is genuinely difficult to make a rational choice.  But I am making some progress.  I am not a sportsman or drug dealer, so long guns and Wonder Nines are out.  It needs to be something small, ideally concealable, but able to, you know, perforate baddies.

I had been considering the Walther PPK.  The merits of this fine firearm need hardly be rehearsed here, and how many personal defense weapons have such an impressive pop culture pedigree?



More prosaically, the slide burn issue has been addressed (after eighty years) with an extended tang.  It's a very good gun, as the estimable Hickock45 attests.

But the PPK has its problems.  It is hard work to shoot: the slide is stiff, and it kicks hard.  With some practice you can get proficient with it, but it's hard to imagine, in a sudden household firefight, tossing it to my wife and having her wield it effectively.  And in reality, most other compact guns have the same problem: the ones with stopping power are hard to shoot, and the ones that are easy to shoot may be too mild to achieve the desired results.

And there the matter stood with me, until the Glock 42 swam into my ken.  Glock took a lot of heat for the 42 because they decided to chamber it for .380 ACP instead of 9 mm.  This makes the gun more expensive to operate because 9mm ammunition is cheap and abundant:  it can be found on deserted beaches and school playgrounds all over America.  The .380 ACP, by contrast, must be bought in a store, with money, instead of stripping it from the bodies of the men who were so foolish as to betray you.

The PPK, which also uses .380 ACP is certainly the prettier of the two:

But the Glock has one huge advantage over the PPK and other "concealed carry" weapons:

[A]fter getting the hang of one of those little 9mm’s, switching over to the Glock 42 feels like cheating. With almost no effort at all, the front sight simply snaps back onto target after each shot. If all centerfire handgun calibers were equally effective for self-defense, the favorable combination of small size and light recoil found in the Glock 42 would instantly render obsolete dozens of other carry guns that are either more difficult to shoot or more difficult to carry.  (link)

So...have a couple of these babies around the house, toss them to the wife and kids when trouble starts, and the bad guys are going to learn what "downrange" really means.

But, the nagging thought pursues me...as appealing as it is to shoot people, what's the point if the ammo isn't up the the job.  We've all heard these "I emptied my Beretta Bobcat into a perp and he didn't even drop his milkshake" stories.  When we shoot someone, we want them to know they've been shot, and fall down without unwanted additional activity.

I am of two minds about this.  One part of me notes that this particular round has a long history of killing people, including (according to Wikipedia) the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophia.  That must count for something.  And when friends tell me the round has poor stopping power, I notice none of them accept my offer to be shot with the harmless ineffective little pea shooter.

On the other hand, this is not a game, and as a rawboned Alaskan used to negotiating safe passage with brown bears and wolverines, I know just how important it is that the things we shoot, stay shot.

As I think about it, most gunfights are over very, very quickly.  Whomever puts a round into their target first probably wins - if the round is up to the job.  So, reframing the question, is there a reliable and easy-to-operate small weapon that can put serious ammo to work instead of these .380 Lucky Charms or whatever you call them.  Well, I can think of 38 reasons to consider a J-Frame...



"Remarkably accurate and easy to shoot for a gun this small," Hickock says.

But only five shots.  Well, would you rather have five 38s or six 380s?  It's a difficult question.  My current thought is that the greater power of the .38 round in the J-Frame is not enough to offset the shooting ergonomics of the Glock 42.

But...you know...some of those J-Frames can handle a .357 Magnum load.  Oh yes.  Yes they can.

Tactical Tim says "you can have five rounds of .357 Magnum on your person for just a touch over one pound."  Therapy for carpal tunnel syndrome not included:



So are you going to go with the one that loves you, or are you going with the one you love?  I really admire the understated murder efficiency of the Glock 42, but as a middle aged man I'm not sure I want more potency issues to worry about.  The M&P 340 resolves those questions with total finality, but at what cost?

At what cost?

Also: founding member of the ACLU

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Last show 5/28, info here

Stay tuned for our big post on the best pate foie gras to eat while playing the Volga gambit

Last 30 days

An interesting crop of obituaries

Using this space for excerpts and linked to Roger Ailes obituaries:


Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

We are a hate-filled, paranoid, untrusting, book-dumb and bilious people whose chief source of recreation is slinging insults and threats at each other online, and we're that way in large part because of the hyper-divisive media environment he discovered.

Ailes was the Christopher Columbus of hate. When the former daytime TV executive and political strategist looked across the American continent, he saw money laying around in giant piles. He knew all that was needed to pick it up was a) the total abandonment of any sense of decency or civic duty in the news business, and b) the factory-like production of news stories that spoke to Americans' worst fantasies about each other.

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Bill O'Reilly, USA Today

When stuff hit the fan, as it will when you are doing daily political commentary in a polarized nation, Roger had my back. Even in the beginning when my ratings were not dominant. He defended me in public even while sometimes mocking me in private. He was genuine, charismatic, profane, generous and sincere in his beliefs. He could be brutal verbally but if you were straight with him, he would protect you.

Over the years, I saw Roger literally save people from destruction. And more than a few. He didn't have to do it, there was no benefit to him. In the callous world of TV news, that kind of generosity is rare. If a Fox person had trouble, Roger was the guy to go to. But you had to be honest...

It's easy to make judgments from afar — but fair people know that seeking the truth is a complicated and demanding process. In my opinion, few sought the comprehensive truth about Roger Ailes.

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Michael Carlson, The Guardian
While working successfully for big tobacco to stop Bill Clinton’s healthcare reform, Ailes also began producing a syndicated TV show for the radio “shock-jock” Rush Limbaugh, which became a massive hit. He took over the failing CNBC business channel, tripled its profits and made stars of the combative host Chris Matthews and stunning business reporter Maria Bartiromo, setting a formula he followed at Fox: men apparently chosen for bombast and women for looks. But when a second channel he started for NBC, called America Talks, was taken from him and turned into MSNBC, Ailes left the network in 1996 and teamed up with Rupert Murdoch to launch Fox News.

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Clyde Haberman, New York Times

As [Fox News'] chairman and chief executive, Mr. Ailes was widely feared, particularly by conservative politicians who sought his favor. He cultivated a swaggering persona, accentuated by bursts of obscenity-laced anger. Once, he became so enraged that he punched a hole in the wall of a control room.

“I don’t ignore anything,” he acknowledged in a 2003 profile in The New Yorker. “Somebody gets in my face, I get in their face.”


Years earlier, Lee Atwater, whose remorseless approach to politics matched that of Mr. Ailes when they worked together on George H.W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign, described his colleague as having “two speeds: attack and destroy.”

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Stephen Battaglio, Los Angeles Times

[Former CNN president Rick] Kaplan said Ailes was also a brilliant TV producer who was keenly aware that even with talking heads, he was working in a visual medium. Fox News always had state-of-the-art graphics and animation. His penchant for putting attractive women on the air, with legs displayed on the set, was well known.

“Roger has a very visually pleasing network in terms of look and color and form,” Kaplan said. “Roger cared about what it looked like.”

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The Onion

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TOF Comment
Say what you want about the whole sex predator / wrecking American political discourse thing, I thought this book by Ailes, first published in the late 80s, was excellent.  Following its advice helped my career.  Goes in the same bin as the Cosby albums now, but still.

Let's rock

And then there were four:

• Warriors
• Spurs 
• Cavs
• Celtics

The last three teams to win an NBA championship, and the franchise with the most championships in NBA history.  The Celtics of course have no right to be here, except they beat everyone else, so whatta you gonna dooboutit?

The greatest Celtic of 2017 is named Isaiah Thomas

This could be a pretty interesting wrap-up to the season.  Highlights include:

• Pictured above, coming out of Tacoma, Washington, the 60th and final pick of the 2011 draft, you've got five feet nine inches of "who's stopping me?"
• You've got LeBron, who has won three championships, and Gregg Popovich who has won five, and Steve Kerr who has won five, and Kevin Durant who has won zero, and Steph Curry who lets you get comfortable with a 25 point lead then drops 40 points on you on 26 shots.  
• The Warriors were a little soft last year so they signed David West, JaVale McGee, and Zaza Pachulia, who collectively weigh 795 pounds, have 15 fouls and zero fucks to give per game, and this is the last chance for any of them to get a ring.  So...probably fewer 'Warriors are getting bullied' stories this year.
• LeBron has been in the last six Finals, won three and lost three.  This next one, if he gets there, probably decides his legacy.
• The Cavaliers have won eight straight playoff games against no losses, which is weak because the the Warriors have won ten.

There are no: suckers, chumps, pretenders, pushovers, wannabes, posers...ok, there are posers.  But there are no easy outs left, just good teams with good players and coaches.  And no guarantees for anyone.  Your max contract gets you nothing here.  We're just going to play some ball now, and see who's best.

The Warriors might win, probably will win.  If they do, who's going to say it was easy?  Who's going to say there was no competition?  If they don't...well, try harder next time fellas, it's a hard game.

It's war, the most beautiful, wonderful war anyone could ask for.


[5/19 UPDATE:  It is, so far, a massacre.  Cavaliers are now 10-0 this postseason following a 44 point wipeout of the Celtics tonight.  The Warriors are also now 10-0.  Both teams lead their series 2-0...]  

I might start to care now

Durant and Curry scored 74 points in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, the most they’ve ever combined for as teammates. Kevin Durant and Steph Curry are on the same team. It still feels really weird to write that. But if you want to know why the Warriors got Durant, this game is the answer. San Antonio led by as many as 25. But Durant and Curry are the Warriors’ kill switch. There is no such thing as being out of it if you have them together. You cannot step on Golden State’s neck. If one of them is off, the other is there to make up for it. If both are on? Take cover...

Leonard, who was reportedly getting an MRI on his ankle Sunday night, is obviously essential to whether the Spurs can make a series out of this. But even if can play, he can only guard one of them.

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Mindful little chocolate pretzels

You know mindfulness has jumped the shark when the garbage bag-sized bag of (Non-GMO, Fair Trade) chocolate covered pretzels your wife bought at Costco advertises itself as: "a mindful and sophisticated way to snack."  Well, la-dee-da, call me the Dalai Lama and get me a tuxedo, I'm going in.

I'm also gonna need a shot of insulin and a wash rag later.  kthxbye

Also: Little Chocolate Donuts

Feeling better, thank you

Hats off to Ron Kroichick of the Chronicle, who has blown the lid off the Shaun Livingston story:

The Warriors knew Livingston didn’t fit the ideal profile of a modern NBA player, given his shot selection [won't take threes - TOF], but they also discovered the Brooklyn Nets were much better in 2013-14 when Livingston started (35-19) than when he didn’t (9-19).

It didn’t take long for Gelfand and his front-office colleagues to realize Livingston’s efficiency mostly offset his aversion to three-pointers. For one thing, defensive players rarely affect Livingston’s shot; Gelfand jokes that a “hand in his face” actually means a hand at Livingston’s chin, given his height, leap and high release.

Game 1 vs Utah: 20 minutes, 5 shots, 9 points

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They were all alive until they met you, Raul

"Nobody dies because they don't have access to health care," the Republican congressman from Idaho said in response to a statement by a woman that the "lack of health care was essentially asking people to die," according to local CBS station KLEW.

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Doesn't seem right - has Putin approved this?

Over several hours of slide shows and presentations, representatives from the [family of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner] urged Chinese citizens gathered at a Ritz-Carlton hotel to consider investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a New Jersey luxury apartment complex that would help them secure what’s known as an investor visa.

The potential investors were advised to invest sooner rather than later in case visa rules change under the Trump administration. “Invest early, and you will invest under the old rules,” one speaker said.

The tagline on a brochure for the event: “Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States.”

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Eisengeiste FACTCheck™ - Ball of Confusion

In this modern age of "fake news" it seems no one can be trusted, even pop culture icons.  In today's post we are going to interrogate a modern cultural work using our proprietary Eisengeiste FACTCheck™ process, an up-to-the minute tool informed by big data, algorithms, and state of the art knowledge bases such as Wikipedia and The Daily Mail.

The object of today's interrogation is a work by an "African-American" musical group known as "The Temptations" (double entendre intended, surely), who in 1971 expressed discontent with their song "Ball of Confusion".

Disloyal?

Well, Mr. Temptation (if that is your real name) stand by for an objective assessment of your claims. Get ready, because here we come!  Readers can listen to the song for themselves here.

(The song begins)

People moving out, people moving in. Why? Because of the color of their skin.

• FACTCheck:  Although causes of the 'white flight' from urban areas in the 1960s and 1970s are debated by historians and sociologists, it does appear that, in fact, people were moving out and moving in because of the color of their skin.  This phenomenon may have even persisted into modern times.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  TRUE

Run, run, run but you sure can't hide. 

• FACTCheck:  Presumably intended figuratively, as anyone can hide at almost any time.  But, to the degree that this describes the futility of trying to not be noticed in a society with heightened attention to race and ethnicity, it does seem accurate to say you sure can't hide.  
• FACTCheck Assessment:  TRUE

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Vote for me and I'll set you free. Rap on, brother, rap on.

• FACTCheck:  In point of fact, many politicians have promised to seek greater attention to civil liberties when courting the black vote in America, but African Americans remain marginalized.  Americans' general assessment of politicians is highly negative.  The ironic twist to the lyric is therefore justifiable.  
• FACTCheck Assessment: TRUE

Well, the only person talking about love thy brother is the...(preacher.)

• FACTCheck: See The Economist's pre-election article on Obama's final State of the Union address, which states that "America is in no mood for healing." 
• FACTCheck Assessment:  TRUE

And it seems nobody's interested in learning but the...(teacher.)

• FACTCheck:  In recent weeks scientists around the United States have protested the anti-science view of many leading politicians.  The very existence of such protests, however, suggests that the claim that "nobody's interested in learning" is at least dubious.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  ARGUABLE 

Segregation, determination, demonstration, integration, aggravation, humiliation, obligation to our nation.

• FACTCheck: This appears to be a rhetorical exhortation.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  RHETORICAL

Ball of confusion. Oh yeah, that's what the world is today. Woo, hey, hey.

• FACTCheck: The claim that the world is a "Ball of Confusion" is a complex one, and a final determination will depend on a weighing of all available evidence.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  UNCLEAR

The sale of pills are at an all time high.

• FACTCheck: In point of fact, the pharmaceutical revenues are at an all-time high [see chart].
•  FACTCheck Assessment:  TRUE

Young folks walking round with their heads in the sky.

• FACTCheck: True, although drug use is not confined to the young.  Nor are the alarming effects of substance abuse limited to pills:  in 2015 a  German homeopathy conference descended into chaos as adults aged 24-56 consumed hallucinogens with ill effects, including “staggering around, rolling in a meadow, talking gibberish and suffering severe cramps.”  
• FACTCheck Assessment:  TRUE, but incomplete

The cities ablaze in the summer time.

• FACTCheck: Yup.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  TRUE then, TRUE now

Watts, 1965

Residents view incendiary munitions in Aleppo, 2016 (source)

And oh, the beat goes on.

• FACTCheck: In point of fact, the beat does appear to go on.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  TRUE

Evolution, revolution, gun control, sound of soul.
Shooting rockets to the moon...

• FACTCheck: In points of fact rockets were shot to the moon in the late 1960s and 1970s, although this has not been the case in recent years.  
• FACTCheck Assessment:  TRUE, but incomplete

...kids growing up too soon.

• FACTCheck: In point of fact, children reach adolescence sooner than they used to [see chart.]  
• FACTCheck Assessment:  TRUE

Politicians say more taxes will solve everything.

• FACTCheck: In point of fact, the Republican Party controlled the White House when the song was written, and all three branches of government in the modern era.  The GOP Platform of 2016 emphasized reform of the tax system, and explicitly expressed skepticism about the efficacy of higher tax rates.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  NOT TRUE

And the band played on.

• FACTCheck: In point of fact, the band does appear to play on.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  TRUE

So, round and around and around we go.
Where the world's headed, nobody knows.

• FACTCheck: Robert Litterman, former head of risk for Goldman Sachs, notes that one of the most concerning aspects of climate change is not the certainty of a bad outcome, which is disputable, but the increase uncertainty about future outcomes as carbon concentrations rise.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  TRUE

[Instrumental]

Oh, great googalooga, can't you hear me talking to you.
Just a ball of confusion.
Oh yeah, that's what the world is today.
Woo, hey, hey.

• FACTCheck: This appears to be a primarily rhetorical exhortation.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  RHETORICAL

Fear in the air, tension everywhere.

• FACTCheck:  One paradox of the modern situation is that some indicators, such as consumer confidence or the options market-derived CBOE Volatility ('Vix') index suggest an elevated level of confidence in the future.  Other sources, however, suggest notable anxiety, such as Gallup's finding that 45% of Americans worry "a great deal" about global warming.  The American Psychological Association warns that "two-thirds of Americans say they are stressed about the future of our nation, including a majority of both Democrats and Republicans."
• FACTCheck Assessment: UNCLEAR

Unemployment rising fast...

• FACTCheck: In point of fact, unemployment has fallen steadily since 2010.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  NOT TRUE

...the Beatles new record's a gas...

• FACTCheck: Abbey Road was, in fact, a gas, and was widely praised and imitated by other musicians.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  TRUE

...and the only safe place to live is on an Indian reservation.

• FACTCheck: Indian reservations are not safe, either.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  NOT TRUE

And the band played on.

Eve of destruction, tax deduction, city inspectors, bill collectors,
Mod clothes in demand, population out of hand, suicide, too many bills,
Hippies moving to the hills. People all over the world are shouting, 'End the war.'

• FACTCheck: That about covers it.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  TRUE

And the band played on.

• FACTCheck: In point of fact, the band does appear to play on.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  STILL TRUE

Great googalooga, can't you hear me talking to you.
Sayin'... ball of confusion.
That's what the world is today, hey, hey.
Let me hear ya, let me hear ya, let me hear ya.
Sayin'... ball of confusion.
That's what the world is today, hey, hey.
Let me hear ya, let me hear ya, let me hear ya, let me hear ya, let me hear ya.
Sayin'... ball of confusion.

• FACTCheck: This appears to be a primarily rhetorical conclusion to the song.
• FACTCheck Assessment:  RHETORICAL

FACTCheck™ Assessment

In our review of "The Temptations" song "Ball of Confusion" we noted 24 claims that we viewed as potentially assessable, and evaluated each one on its factual merits.  Five of these were ultimately judged to be either UNCLEAR or largely RHETORICAL, making it impossible to make a final determination as to factual content.

The remaining claims were assessed as follows:

We conclude that "The Temptations" have a point.  It is objectively true that the world was and is at least 79% a "ball of confusion."  In addition, in our judgment the song has a sweet, sweet opening hook.

The question of what to do is a matter for further research.

Thank you

As Chase Stuart wrote at Football Perspective, Cutler is the definition of an average quarterback, averaging 0.03 adjusted net yards per attempt more than the league average for his career. For this, the Bears paid him $97 million...  

That Cutler was able to be an average passer for so long is something few humans on earth can claim; the ones that can are all megamillionaires... 

As Jay Cutler leaves the NFL behind as an unloved Chicago nonlegend, I ask Bears fans this: Are you ready for Mike Glennon and Mitchell Trubisky?

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In our time - the Battle of Lincoln

William Marshal's great encore performance, amongst other significances.  "Louis went home, leaving England's Anglo-French rulers more Anglo and less French than he had planned."

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This is tranya. I hope you relish it as much as I.

One of the funds is designed to deliver 400 percent of the daily performance of S&P 500 .SPX stock index futures, while another fund will aim to deliver four times the inverse of that benchmark. That means a fund could go up 8 percent on a day the index it tracks falls by 2 percent.

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Helpful tip to coaches around the Association

It was kind of clever last year, running 7-footers at Curry to get him to alter his shot, mix it up.  But my advice now is:  just stop.  As discussed, this is what he did to Gortat a few weeks ago:



"But," I hear you say, "that wouldn't happen to an athlete like Rudy Gobert, The Stifle Tower, a true athlete and candidate for Defensive Player of the Year."

Um, yeah.  Behold:



Tell your big man:  if Curry's backing up near the three point line, just let him go.  Unless you want to be in his Hall of Fame video.

Ryan Leaf's letter to Ryan Leaf

File under: Holy Crap

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