Quotulatiousness

August 31, 2013

Vikings 53-man roster for 2013

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 17:32

Final cuts were due to be announced late Saturday afternoon. The Vikings didn’t start announcing their released players until about an hour before the deadline, starting with running back Joe Banyard, who’d had a great preseason game on Thursday. Unless he’s picked up by another club, I’d expect to see him signed to the Vikings practice squad when that is allowed to happen.

There was a brief flurry of interest among Viking fans when it was rumoured that Seattle was trying to trade former Viking cornerback Antoine Winfield and would cut him if he couldn’t be traded. Several fans expressed the hope that he might be back in purple, but the hope was dashed when Seattle announced that Winfield would be retiring instead.

Position

Starter(s)

Backups

Other

QB

Christian Ponder

Matt Cassel, McLeod Bethel-Thompson

WR

FL – Greg Jennings

SE – Jerome Simpson

FL – Jarius Wright, Stephen Burton, Adam Thielen (UFA)

SE – Cordarrelle Patterson (R), Joe Webb, Rodney Smith

Greg Childs (PUP)

RB

Adrian Peterson

Toby Gerhart, Matt Asiata, Joe Banyard

FB

Zach Line (UFA)

Jerome Felton (suspended for 3 games)

TE

Kyle Rudolph

John Carlson, Rhett Ellison, Chase Ford, Colin Anderson

OL

LT – Matt Kalil

LG – Charlie Johnson

C – John Sullivan

RG – Brandon Fusco

RT – Phil Loadholt

LT – Kevin Murphy

LG – Jeff Baca (R)

C – Joe Berger

RG – Travis Bond (R)

RT – Brandon Keith, Troy Kropog

DeMarcus Love (suspended for first 4 games of season), Seth Olsen (IR)

DL

LE – Brian Robison

UT – Kevin Williams

NT – Letroy Guion

RE – Jared Allen

LE – Everson Griffen, D’Aundre Reed

UT – Sharrif Floyd (R), Everett Dawkins (R)

NT – Fred Evans, Chase Baker, Anthony McCloud

RE – George Johnson, Collins Ukwu, Spencer Nealy

Christian Ballard (left team for undisclosed reasons)

LB

S – Chad Greenway

M – Erin Henderson

W – Marvin Mitchell

S – Larry Dean, Tyrone McKenzie

M – Audie Cole, Michael Mauti (R)

W – Desmond Bishop, Gerald Hodges (R)

CB

Chris Cook

Josh Robinson

A.J. Jefferson, Brandon Burton, Bobby Felder

Xavier Rhodes (R), Marcus Sherels

S

Harrison Smith

Jamarca Sanford

Robert Blanton, Brandan Bishop

Mistral Raymond, Andrew Sendejo, Darius Eubanks

K

Blair Walsh

P

Jeff Locke (R)

LS

Cullen Loeffler

Jared Allen*

H

Jeff Locke*

Matt Cassel*, McLeod Bethel-Thompson*

KR

Cordarrelle Patterson*

Marcus Sherels*, Josh Robinson*, A.J. Jefferson*, Joe Webb*, Jarius Wright*

PR

Marcus Sherels*

Jarius Wright*, Josh Robinson*

An asterisk indicates a player already listed on the roster in another capacity. On Sunday, teams can sign up to eight players to their respective practice squads. Some of the players cut today are eligible for practice squad contracts.

The modern monarchy in Spain

Filed under: Europe — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 11:06

In an older post at the Guardian, Miguel-Anxo Murado looks at the place of the monarchy in Spanish society:

King Juan Carlos of Spain must be one of the most Shakespearian kings, ever. His grandfather was ousted from the throne like Richard II, and like Richard III, his brother was killed (though in Carlos’ case it was a tragic accident). Like Hamlet he had a difficult relationship with his father, and like Macbeth, he arrived at the crown by way of an evil creature (General Franco). It sounds inevitable that, like King Lear, in his old age he would be cursed with troublesome daughters. Now, one of them, Princess Cristina, has been summoned by a judge. She has to answer for allegations that, together with her husband the Duke of Palma, they misappropriated millions of euros in public funds. Some say this scandal, the latest in a long series of royal mishaps, threatens the very institution of monarchy in Spain. But is it so?

The rule of King Juan Carlos of Spain is a very interesting example of how the essence of monarchy is not history, but a story — and how tricky that is. The Spanish monarchy is a literary institution. It was born outside and above the law. Its legitimacy was based on symbols, metaphors and, first and foremost, on storytelling: a mostly imaginary tale of continuity and exceptionality. Modernity changed this a bit, but not by much. Like theatre, monarchy had begun like a religious cult and ended in a popular spectacle. That was all. In stable systems like the UK, this transition from statecraft to stagecraft could be done more or less effectively, but in Spain it was pushing the trick too far.

[…]

Like with all story-telling, there’s some truth in this fiction. Yes, the king did assist the transition to democracy, and he stood against the 1981 military coup. Yet the often overlooked fact here is that he had no alternative if he wanted to reign. It was true that he was not ostentatious, but he wasn’t austere either. It is true that he seems a likeable person, but not exemplary. He was a patron of the WWF, but he also loves hunting elephants. He needed not to be perfect, but now he has to, because that was the nature of the narrative his friends concocted.

New rule of thumb for military adventures

Filed under: Britain, France, Middle East, Military, USA — Tags: — Nicholas @ 10:16

James Joyner suggests a new rule of thumb needs to be used:

Could anyone have imagined a decade ago a scenario when the United States would go to war with France by our side and England on the sidelines?

I anticipate English muffins being renamed Freedom muffins any day now. And jokes about kippers eating surrender bulldogs or some such.

More seriously, perhaps recent experience has provided us a rule of thumb: if Washington can not persuade both London and Paris of the advisability of military action, perhaps said action is inadvisable?

Slavery is still common around the world

Filed under: Africa, Asia, Liberty — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 10:12

Most Americans think slavery was abolished in 1865 with the Union victory in the American Civil War, but there may be more slaves in the world today than there were before the war:

Slavery contributes to the churning out of at least 122 different types of goods according to the US Department of Labor in the world. That could range from food such as shrimp in Asia or diamonds from Africa. Slavery has increased to such an extent in our modern times due to population increases. Industrialization and increased economic activity have also resulted in social changes, catapulting people into urban areas, with no social safety net to protect them in countries like China for example. Lastly, we could point the finger at corrupt administrators that allow it to continue complacently.

There are more slaves today working in the world than ever before. More means cheaper. If we were to compare the cost of a slave back in the mid-19th century in the USA, then it would have cost roughly $40,000 to buy a slave in today’s money. Today, however, you need only pay out under a $100 for one. Not bad for a reduction in price.

Bonded labor is commonplace, where the slave has contracted a loan and has to work to pay it back to the lender. Child forced labor affects over 5 million kids in the world today. Forced Labor is recognized by the US Department of State as being: “involuntary servitude, forced labor may result when unscrupulous employers exploit workers made more vulnerable by high rates of unemployment, poverty, crime, discrimination, corruption, political conflict, or even cultural acceptance of the practice.”

The leaders discuss the Syrian situation on Facebook

Filed under: Humour, Media, Middle East, USA — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 09:59

A rather amusing little squib from Best of Cain (via American Digest):

Cain - Facebook posts on Syria

Enabling the “nudgers”

Filed under: Government, USA — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 09:44

Coyote Blog links to a Daily Mail article on the woman who wants to run your life (and Obama wants to help her):

I am a bit late on this, but like most libertarians I was horrified by this article in the Mail Online about Obama Administration efforts to nudge us all into “good” behavior. This is the person, Maya Shankar, who wants to substitute her decision-making priorities for your own […]

If the notion — that a 20-something person who has apparently never held a job in the productive economy is telling you she knows better what is good for you — is not absurd on its face, here are a few other reasons to distrust this plan.

  • Proponents first, second, and third argument for doing this kind of thing is that it is all based on “science”. But a lot of the so-called science is total crap. Medical literature is filled with false panics that are eventually retracted. And most social science findings are frankly garbage. If you have some behavior you want to nudge, and you give a university a nice grant, I can guarantee you that you can get a study supporting whatever behavior you want to foster or curtail. Just look at the number of public universities in corn-growing states that manage to find justifications for ethanol subsidies. Recycling is a great example, mentioned several times in the article. Research supports the sensibility of recycling aluminum and steel, but says that recycling glass and plastic and paper are either worthless or cost more in resources than they save. But nudgers never-the-less push for recycling of all this stuff. Nudging quickly starts looking more like religion than science.
  • The 300 million people in this country have 300 million different sets of priorities and personal circumstances. It is the worst hubris to think that one can make one decision that is correct for everyone. Name any supposedly short-sighted behavior — say, not getting health insurance when one is young — and I can name numerous circumstances where this is a perfectly valid choice and risk to take.

QotD: “Face It World. You F’d Up; You Trusted Me”

Filed under: Government, Quotations, USA — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 00:01

For the first time since the Brits grew exhausted with the Hurricane of Fists they were getting from the 13 colonies, the British parliament voted against the government on an issue of war. Obviously, this was not directly Barack Obama’s fault. But he’s hardly blameless either. This mess is part of the larger mess he created. Obama follows polls and acts like it’s courage. He mocks and belittles American leadership and then is shocked when no one wants to follow America. We were supposed to be in an era of renewed global cooperation and engagement. Instead, Obama can’t hold the support of our closest ally — because the British Left balked. Forget forging new alliances with “former” enemies — as Obama promised would happen once it dawned on the Arab street that his middle name is “Hussein” and they realized he’s black; Obama can’t even maintain historic alliances with longstanding friends.

Oh, and thank goodness Hillary Clinton gave the Russians a big toy button with the word “overcharge” on it. We’re really reaping the payoff on that now.

Part of the problem stems from the simple fact that Obama can’t sell anything but himself. Even when he tried — and he really tried — he couldn’t sell Obamacare to the American people. When it comes to the Syria intervention — which, if done right, I am in favor of — he’s not even trying to sell. His body language in that PBS interview was that of a husband forced to explain to his wife how he got the clap. He talked like a teenager looking at the floor while telling his parents that he doesn’t know how their car ended up in the neighbor’s swimming pool. The only thing his “shot across the bow” talk did for him was convince everyone that he’s not wagging the dog to boost his poll numbers. A war-mongering charlatan would at least fake commitment better.

And that goes for his entire national-security team. To listen to this sorry bunch try to explain why they’re doing everything right while doing everything they once criticized is painful, like watching Helen Keller give a whirl at karaoke. I am perfectly willing to concede that this is a very complicated situation with few clear right answers. But this crowd insisted that everything was simple if you were smart like them. And now that the smarty-pants brigade got us into this mess, they still talk like anyone who disagrees with them is a moron. I mean, as bad a salesman as Barack Obama is, Jay Carney is worse. If he ran a massage parlor he couldn’t sell a happy ending to a drunk sailor during Fleet Week in Bangkok.

Jonah Golberg, “The Goldberg File”, 2013-08-30

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