{"id":26589,"date":"2015-09-08T11:29:21","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T18:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/?p=26589"},"modified":"2015-09-09T00:10:28","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T07:10:28","slug":"deflategate-migration-and-invasion-coming-civil-war-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/deflategate-migration-and-invasion-coming-civil-war-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Deflategate; Migration and Invasion; Coming Civil War in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chaos Manor View, Tuesday, September 08, 2015<\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> \n

I keep hearing about the NFL quarterback who, to satisfy baying hounds of sports writers, is to be suspended or whatever they call it, from the first four season games because of numerous stories about his deflating, or allowing others to deflate, or possibly knowing others had deflated, or maybe knowing others were going to deflate, or were thinking about deflating, the footballs he was going to throw when his team was on the offensive during the Superbowl. Now a court says that the NFL Commissioner, who has arbitrary power, doesn\u2019t really have arbitrary power, and there are rules of arbitration, and you have to tell people in advance if they are to suspend them. Or something. It\u2019s all told in the deflategate story on Wikipedia https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Deflategate<\/a> and elsewhere if you really want the details.<\/p>\n

The problem is that it doesn\u2019t make sense. If deflated footballs were used during the Superbowl, the first move by the NFL should be to change the rules that allow the offensive team to supply its own footballs. That\u2019s the NFL\u2019s job. While they are at it, they can fire the referee for incompetence: surely the rules require that the referee inspect the ball before it is put in place for the next play? In basketball the ball has to be returned to the officials before the play begins each time the action is stopped; how can it not be the same for football, where the ball is much more subject to abuse?<\/p>\n

So when the NFL fires the officials who presided at the Superbowl for incompetence \u2013 they let one, but only one, team play with deflated footballs \u2013 and fires the employees who wrote the rules not requiring the officials rather than the offensive team to provide the balls in play, then the Commissioner might consider penalizing the key player of the winning team. This isn\u2019t about fairness, it\u2019s about competence: they penalize the most competent man they can find to hide their own inabilities.<\/p>\n

It might be pleaded that the referee can\u2019t tell if the football has been deflated. That\u2019s absurd. The ball is subjected to impacts and abuses on every play. Of course it will be deflated with use. How seriously I do not know; probably not enough to notice most times, which probably means that a small amount of deflation, too small to notice on casual inspection, won\u2019t make any noticeable difference in play; requiring a metered inspection and reflation each quarter would be sufficient; possibly at half time would be enough to assure fairness, and in any event making both teams use the same ball seems reasonable; why should the offense be allowed to fool with the balls before playing with them? (If actually they can do so; it seems so unreasonable that I have trouble believing that an intelligent commissioner would allow it, although Wikipedia says that it is so; possibly the NFL should find a rational commissioner?)<\/p>\n

If the NFL provided the footballs, and the same ones were used by both sides, the story would have never developed. It would be trivial to make it go away. I expect that won\u2019t be done.<\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> \n

Of course I am still hoping that someone at Microsoft will go sane and restore the easy access to the autocorrect dictionary in Word 2008 to the Word you get with Office 365.  Hope springs eternal.<\/p>\n

\"bubbles\"<\/p> \n

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Migrant Wave Inspires Others to Try to Reach Europe A1 <\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Images of migrants pouring into Europe are inspiring thousands more, from Iraq to Nigeria, to rush out on their own risky journeys, posing a burgeoning problem for policy makers focused mainly on Syrian refugees.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/itp<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What a surprise! A successful invasion is followed by successive waves of occupiers! And note that no one is invading \u2013 or migrating to \u2013 wealthy Arab oil kingdoms. Suleiman only wanted Vienna in 1529; this year the Moslem invasion goes into the heart of Europe.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And they are being paid to come in!<\/p>\n

And we are told that you cannot cut welfare benefits. It\u2019s inhuman. Better to borrow the money; we can become indebted to the Chinese government. The National Debt:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Quantifying the National Debt<\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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* As of April 3, 2015, the official debt of the United States government is $18.2 trillion ($18,152,112,019,695).[1]<\/a> This amounts to:<\/p>\n