Bits and Pieces

Just some things I felt like posting while I prep for my fantasy football draft (yes, we're still waiting) and the start of the NFL season in general. It's a long list, and unsurprisingly, it has gotten quite long and unwieldy, so I'm putting it all after the jump.

This, from Peter King, is so annoying that I almost feel it's self-evident, but I need to point it out anyway cause that's how I rock it:

I think these are the best nuggets from the enlightening America's Game 2009 New Orleans Saints show, airing on NFL Network Wednesday at 9 p.m. EDT ... [snip] ...

On the Peyton Manning interception that Tracy Porter intercepted and ran back for a game-icing touchdown, NFL Films has a good iso camera on Reggie Wayne. Three points.

First: Poor throw by Manning, obviously, to a spot where he thought the receiver could be just beginning his cut, because Porter stepped into the hole and made an easy catch.

Second: Great anticipation by Porter made that play happen. Clearly he knew Wayne almost certainly would be running an incut route on the play, and he anticipated it brilliantly.

Third: I don't see Wayne on an iso camera running routes often, but this one was rounded and lazy and not run with the speed that could have had Wayne cutting off Porter. All in all, I'd credit Porter for a great football play, but I'd also criticize Wayne for his route and, to a lesser degree, Manning for making a throw that Porter saw coming a hundred miles away.

Just to be clear, those italics and bold in the last sentence are mine, and what drives me nuts. Why is Manning at fault "to a lesser degree" than Wayne? Wayne could have run the crispest route and Porter would have still, at minimum, knocked the ball down. That's the result of a crappy pass -- if you don't believe me, just watch:

Sure, Reggie Wayne could have ran a 'crisper' route, but to say that he should have been in front of Porter - who clearly anticipated this pass and broke his coverage - is insane. The interception was all about Manning making a bad decision. Folks like King make excuses for Manning (and Brett Favre, and Tom Brady, etc.) because they are the faces of the NFL and guys like Wayne aren't. Super, super annoying.

I want to get more upset about the seemingly idiotic move of the 49ers dropping Nate Davis for Troy Smith, but then I remember he was the third-string quarterback with absolutely no chance of playing in a game this year. Davis has a cannon for an arm, but also seems to have a bad work ethic; my guess is that the Seahawks sign him (because, seemingly, they sign every 49er castoff) and we'll see how or if he makes an impression in the league. But when I get down to it, if this is the misstep the 49ers are going to make, that speaks pretty favorably towards their 2010 season.

Big Brother 12 is nearing its finale, and while I've never suggested this is a 'quality' television show, I always enjoy it ... but this season, it's been somewhat of a snoozefest. For one, there hasn't been nearly as much conflict in the house as in years past, which is at least somewhat due to the fact that three of the final four players were part of an alliance made on the first day. This never happens, and while these guys have turned against each other to some degree, they haven't gone stir crazy like most 'houseguests.' Indeed, one of the best parts of the show are people going nuts - which did, to some degree, happen with Rachel (pictured left) but few others. The gimmick of the 'saboteur' didn't work (they were kicked off the first week, seemingly inadvertently) and wasn't very interesting anyhow. I'm in for the next year, of course, but this was not a great season by any stretch of the imagination.

Just to be clear, the message the Republicans are working on - to success, it seems -- is this: "The Democrats can't fix what we broke, so put us back in charge so we can do exactly the same stuff that got us into this mix!"

No wonder so many folks hate politics.

Before you have kids, parents will always tell you about the lack of sleep, the fear of them getting hurt, diapers, and so on. All of these are very real hurdles that you just deal with as a parent because it's worth it. But what they don't tell you? You will have stupid, idiotic songs stuck in your head all day, solely because your kid is obsessed with [fill in the blank]. Seriously, you can mitigate this by getting your kids to watch better kid crap, like Here Come the 1,2,3's or Here Come the ABC's, but regardless you are going to find yourself at work, whistling or humming a song to yourself that is designed for two-year olds.

And don't get me started on Dora... that kid is dead inside.

I am pretty sure that Michael Lewis could write directions on how to wash my laundry in warm water, and I'd find it compelling. The Big Short was typically brilliant, and also frustrating since it talked about the financial crisis by pointing out that, yes, many folks DID see it coming and when no one would listen to them, they profited from it instead. Similarly, his recent Vanity Fair article about the recent collapse in Greece is equally compelling and frustrating because of the truly insane level of corruption.

The scale of Greek tax cheating was at least as incredible as its scope: an estimated two-thirds of Greek doctors reported incomes under 12,000 euros a year—which meant, because incomes below that amount weren’t taxable, that even plastic surgeons making millions a year paid no tax at all. The problem wasn’t the law—there was a law on the books that made it a jailable offense to cheat the government out of more than 150,000 euros—but its enforcement. “If the law was enforced,” the tax collector said, “every doctor in Greece would be in jail.” I laughed, and he gave me a stare. “I am completely serious.” One reason no one is ever prosecuted—apart from the fact that prosecution would seem arbitrary, as everyone is doing it—is that the Greek courts take up to 15 years to resolve tax cases. “The one who does not want to pay, and who gets caught, just goes to court,” he says. Somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of the activity in the Greek economy that might be subject to the income tax goes officially unrecorded, he says, compared with an average of about 18 percent in the rest of Europe.

And, suprise! Goldman Sachs makes another cameo.

In 2001, Greece entered the European Monetary Union, swapped the drachma for the euro, and acquired for its debt an implicit European (read German) guarantee. Greeks could now borrow long-term funds at roughly the same rate as Germans—not 18 percent but 5 percent. To remain in the euro zone, they were meant, in theory, to maintain budget deficits below 3 percent of G.D.P.; in practice, all they had to do was cook the books to show that they were hitting the targets. Here, in 2001, entered Goldman Sachs, which engaged in a series of apparently legal but nonetheless repellent deals designed to hide the Greek government’s true level of indebtedness. For these trades Goldman Sachs—which, in effect, handed Greece a $1 billion loan—carved out a reported $300 million in fees. The machine that enabled Greece to borrow and spend at will was analogous to the machine created to launder the credit of the American subprime borrower—and the role of the American investment banker in the machine was the same. The investment bankers also taught the Greek-government officials how to securitize future receipts from the national lottery, highway tolls, airport landing fees, and even funds granted to the country by the European Union. Any future stream of income that could be identified was sold for cash up front, and spent. As anyone with a brain must have known, the Greeks would be able to disguise their true financial state for only as long as (a) lenders assumed that a loan to Greece was as good as guaranteed by the European Union (read Germany), and (b) no one outside of Greece paid very much attention. Inside Greece there was no market for whistle-blowing, as basically everyone was in on the racket.

Sigh.

Happy Tuesday, y'all.