The Super Bowl and Afghanistan

Bettors favored the Carolina Panthers (though I saw the headline to one story that claimed a late load of lucre poured in on Denver, evening things out), as I did, only to be disappointed by the performance of the false idol of the Zeitgeist, Cam Newton. The Panthers star QB's fourth quarter cowardly refusal to dive into a pile to regain his own fumble might prove to be a Fisher King type wound from which his career will never recover. The Broncos defense dominated Carolina like no other team has this season, proving once again the truism that defense wins championships.

The media seems to be going apeshit over Lady Gaga's singing of the national anthem. At one point during her performance, CBS cut away to troops watching the game in a mess hall somewhere in Afghanistan. The picture of course was meant to convey that our men and women are abroad in a savage land so we can sit safely in front of our flat screens and be entertained by athletes sustaining chronic brain injuries. But the CBS cutaway to the troops in Afghanistan, even more so than the Blue Angels flyover after Lady Gaga belted out the last lines of the Star Spangled Banner, struck me as awkward and not anchored in reality.

At the end of 2014 Obama announced the end of combat operations in Afghanistan, except for trainers and special operators to conduct counter-terrorism attacks, meaning, presumably, operations against Al Qaeda. Those pictured during the Star Spangled Banner looked more like support staff, cooks and forklift operators, than Navy SEALs or Army Delta Force.

Along with "ending" combat operations, Obama promised the removal of all troops by the end of 2016. So when Super Bowl LI is televised next February whatever network is hosting the event will have to cut away to a different U.S. theater of war, possibly Iraq, another place where Obama had declared an end to of combat operations; possibly Poland or Bulgaria, where the U.S. is embarked on a reboot of the Cold War; possibly Libya; maybe even Haiti. The only boundary to the U.S. military footprint is the globe itself.

But wait. Not so fast. After Kunduz fell this past September Obama extended the U.S. military commitment to Afghanistan past when he leaves office in 2017. The Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police were decisively outperformed by a much smaller Taliban force; it took U.S. A-10 Warthogs (the aircraft responsible for killing the medical staff and patients at the Doctors Without Borders hospital) and special forces to take Kunduz City back from the Taliban in October.

The problem for the U.S. is even though Obama has committed U.S. troops to Afghanistan through 2017, making them available for a cutaway shot during the next Super Bowl performance of the national anthem (Miley Cyrus?), more and more it is becoming a topic mentioned in the mainstream press that Afghanistan -- at least American/NATO political entity by that name -- might not be around past 2016.

For instance, a story by Najim Rahim, David Jolly and Ahmad Shakib, "Kunduz Residents Live in Fear of Taliban’s Return," spells out clearly that Kunduz Province, for all intents and purposes, is already controlled by the Taliban:

“You can see the white flags of the Taliban along the road as soon as you step out of Kunduz City,” said Mr. Azyanfar, 20, who travels back to his district outside the provincial capital several times a week. The area controlled by the government extends “only to the buildings in which they are based,” he said. “As soon as you step outside, it is totally a different picture: The Taliban’s presence and influence are much larger than the government’s.”

It has been more than four months since the Afghan forces crumbled as Taliban fighters overran Kunduz. But there has been no improvement in the conditions that made the two-week Taliban takeover of the city possible. Disillusionment with the government has only gotten worse; the Afghan forces are still overstretched and demoralized; and the Taliban still control much of the outlying areas and roads.

Now, the worry in and around Kunduz is that it is inevitable that the insurgents will return, strengthened this time by weapons, ammunition and vehicles looted during their capture of the city. 

For a national government already strained by territory losses and infighting, another loss of a provincial capital — whether that is a repeat in Kunduz or a new setback in Helmand or another contested province — is an alarming prospect. 

The initial loss of Kunduz was a national trauma. Many Afghans began fleeing neighboring provincial capitals and district centers. An already huge wave of emigration accelerated after the assault. And, worrisomely in a country torn by warring strongmen in the ’90s, local warlords were threatening to remobilize and settle scores in the absence of a capable government defense. 

The repercussions of Kunduz’s fall were felt all the way to Washington, where President Obama abandoned his goal of ending America’s involvement in the Afghan war this year and instead extended the United States military mission beyond 2016.

The litany of woe for Afghanistan is stunning. Islamic State is on the rise in Nangarhar Province in the east. In the north, in Kunduz and Baghlan, the Taliban is on the march. While in the south, the Afghan government is struggling to maintain a toehold in Helmand Province, the richest region for poppy cultivation. Army and police casualties are at record highs. And there are murmurings of an impending split or coup in the Ghani/Abdullah government in Kabul.

Don't take my word for it. Read Carlotta Gall's think piece, "Pakistan’s Hand in the Rise of International Jihad," in yesterday's paper. It is a breath of fresh air, particularly as it appears in what is basically a government organ, The New York Times. So I quote it whole:

TUNIS — PRESIDENT ASHRAF GHANI of Afghanistan has warned in several recent interviews that unless peace talks with Pakistan and the Taliban produce results in the next few months, his country may not survive 2016. Afghanistan is barely standing, he says, after the Taliban onslaught last year, which led to the highest casualties among civilians and security forces since 2001. 

“How much worse will it get?” Mr. Ghani asked in a recent television interview. “It depends on how much regional cooperation we can secure, and how much international mediation and pressure can be exerted to create rules of the game between states.”
What he means is it depends on how much international pressure can be brought to bear on Pakistan to cease its aggression. 

Critics of the Afghan leadership say it’s not Pakistan’s fault that its neighbor is falling apart. They point to the many internal failings of the Afghan government: political divisions, weak institutions, warlords and corruption. 

But experts have found a lot of evidence that Pakistan facilitated the Taliban offensive. The United States and China have been asking Pakistan to persuade the Taliban to make peace, but Afghanistan argues that Islamabad has done nothing to rein in the Taliban, and if anything has encouraged it to raise the stakes in hopes of gaining influence in any power-sharing agreement. 

This behavior is not just an issue for Afghanistan. Pakistan is intervening in a number of foreign conflicts. Its intelligence service has long acted as the manager of international mujahedeen forces, many of them Sunni extremists, and there is even speculation that it may have been involved in the rise of the Islamic State. 

The latest Taliban offensive began in 2014. United States and NATO forces were winding down their operations in Afghanistan and preparing to withdraw when Pakistan decided, after years of prevarication, to clear Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters from their sanctuary in Pakistan’s tribal area of North Waziristan. 

The operation was certainly a serious endeavor — Taliban bases, torture chambers and ammunition dumps were busted, town bazaars were razed and over one million civilians were displaced. 

But the militants were tipped off early, and hundreds escaped, tribesmen and Taliban fighters said. Many fled over the border to Afghanistan, just at the vulnerable moment when Afghanistan was assuming responsibility for its own security. Ninety foreign fighters with their families arrived in Paktika Province that summer, to the alarm of Afghan officials. 

Further along the border in Paktika Province, Taliban fighters occupied abandoned C.I.A. bases and outposts. A legislator from the region warned me that they would use the positions to project attacks deeper into Afghanistan and even up to Kabul. Some of the most devastating suicide bomb attacks occurred in that province in the months that followed. 

Meanwhile, in Pakistan, the Haqqani network, the most potent branch of the Taliban, moved from North Waziristan into the adjacent district of Kurram. From there it continues to enjoy safe haven and conduct its insurgency against American, international and Afghan targets. 

Pakistan regards Afghanistan as its backyard. Determined not to let its archrival, India, gain influence there, and to ensure that Afghanistan remains in the Sunni Islamist camp, Pakistan has used the Taliban selectively, promoting those who further its agenda and cracking down on those who don’t. The same goes for Al Qaeda and other foreign fighters. 

Even knowing this, it might come as a surprise that the region’s triumvirate of violent jihad is living openly in Pakistan. 

First, there’s Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network, and second in command of the Taliban. He moves freely around Pakistan, and has even visited the Pakistani intelligence headquarters of the Afghan campaign in Rawalpindi. 

Then there is the new leader of the Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, who has openly assembled meetings of his military and leadership council near the Pakistani town of Quetta. Since he came to power last year, the Taliban has mounted some of its most ambitious offensives into Afghanistan, overrunning the northern town of Kunduz, and pushing to seize control of the opium-rich province of Helmand. 

Finally, Al Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, enjoys sanctuary in Pakistan — one recent report placed him in the southwestern corner of Baluchistan. He has been working to establish training camps in southern Afghanistan. In October, it took United States Special Operations forces several days of fighting and airstrikes to clear those camps. American commanders say the group they were fighting was Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, a new franchise announced by Mr. Zawahri that has claimed responsibility for the killings of bloggers and activists in Karachi and Bangladesh, among other attacks.

Pakistan denies harboring the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and points out that it, too, is a victim of terrorism. But many analysts have detailed how the military has nurtured Islamist militant groups as an instrument to suppress nationalist movements, in particular among the Pashtun minority, at home and abroad. 

Perhaps most troubling, there are reports that Pakistan had a role in the rise of the Islamic State. 

Ahead of Pakistan’s 2014 operation in North Waziristan, scores, even hundreds, of foreign fighters left the tribal areas to fight against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Tribesmen and Taliban members from the area say fighters traveled to Quetta, and then flew to Qatar. There they received new passports and passage to Turkey, from where they could cross into Syria. Others traveled overland along well-worn smuggling routes from Pakistan through Iran and Iraq.

The fighters arrived just in time to boost the sweeping offensive by ISIS into Iraq and the creation of the Islamic State in the summer of 2014.

If these accounts are correct, Pakistan was cooperating with Qatar, and perhaps others, to move international Sunni jihadists (including 300 Pakistanis) from Pakistan’s tribal areas, where they were no longer needed, to new battlefields in Syria. It is just another reminder of Pakistan’s central involvement in creating and managing violent jihadist groups, one Pakistani politician, who spoke on the condition of anonymity when talking about intelligence affairs, told me.

This has been going on for more than 30 years. In 1990, I shared a bus ride with young Chinese Uighurs, Muslims from China’s restive northwest, who had spent months training in Pakistani madrasas, including a brief foray into Afghanistan to get a taste of battle. They were returning home, furnished with brand-new Pakistani passports, a gift of citizenship often offered to those who join the jihad. 

Years later, just after Osama bin Laden was found and killed in Pakistan, I interviewed a guerrilla commander from the disputed region of Kashmir who had spent 15 years on the Pakistani military payroll, traveling to train and assist insurgents in Bosnia, Chechnya, Kashmir and Afghanistan. 

In 2012 I came across several cases where young clerics, fresh graduates from the Haqqania madrasa in Pakistan, returned to their home villages in Afghanistan, flush with cash, and set about running mosques and recruiting and organizing a band of Taliban followers. 

I visited that madrasa in 2013. It is the alma mater of the Afghan Taliban, where many of the leaders of the movement were trained. The clerics there remained adamant in their support for the Taliban. “It is a political fact that one day the Taliban will take power,” Syed Yousuf Shah, the madrasa spokesman, told me. “We are experts on the Taliban,” he said, and a majority of the Afghan people “still support them.” 

The madrasa, a longtime instrument of Pakistani intelligence, has been training people from the ethnic minorities of northern Afghanistan alongside its standard clientele of Pashtuns. The aim is still to win control of northern Afghanistan through these young graduates. From there they have their eyes on Central Asia and western China. Pakistani clerics are educating and radicalizing Chinese Uighurs as well, along with Central Asians from the former Soviet republics. 

No one has held Pakistan to account for this behavior. Why would Pakistan give it up now?

Super Bowl L

I started watching the National Football League obsessively as a sixth grader in 1975 (at the same time I was listening to David Bowie, The Eagles and Jefferson Starship on AM radio). That year, the powerhouse team trying to repeat as Super Bowl Champions was the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh was fortunate to host the 1975 AFC Championship because had the game been played in temperate Oakland the Raiders would likely have won and then been the ones to pummel the Cinderella Cowboys in Super Bowl X. As it turned out, playing on a field of iced green concrete in temperatures below 20 °F, the Steelers survived 16-10. I watched the game by myself at my grandmother's apartment in Mountain View not far from Moffett Airfield.

Today's Super Bowl, Super Bowl L, the golden anniversary, takes place at Levi's Stadium, about ten miles and 40 years from where I sat alone as kid watching the Raiders and Steelers beat the shit out of each other.

Times have certainly changed. The thing that snaps right out of the YouTube above is the human scale of the game. Money doesn't pulsate from the screen as it does now. Three Rivers Stadium looks like something you might find in Kazakhstan or Balochistan. And the fans aren't all decked out in pricey franchise bling. Solidly working class, yes. It is Pittsburgh after all. You don't see a lot of obesity. And on the field there is plenty of athleticism on display. Note in the first offensive series of the game how fast Oakland linebacker Phil Villapiano is in shooting into the backfield to drop Franco Harris for a loss. Also, look at how quickly and crisply the offense comes set in its formation. Why don't we ever see two running backs lined behind quarterback anymore? This is the way teams ran the ball in 1975. Now whenever there are two running backs in the game at the same time, unless it is one of the few teams like the NFC Champion Panthers who can run the read-option, it is in the I formation, and the fullback, usually some 250-lb. former lineman, is obviously there only to block. In 1975 both running backs lined up three of four yards behind the quarterback and were parallel or roughly parallel to one another, making it harder for the defense to read who was going to get the ball.

Looking at the video of the 1975 AFC Championship Game, which was played in January 1976, the conclusion that I draw is that while we might be wealthier in toto as a nation -- there is certainly more money in the financial system now than then -- it has come at the expense of the working class and equality in this country. Are we better off now with all our bright shiny lights and digital whistles or then, at the outset of the neoliberalism, when there was less inequality and more humanity?

I started on this 1975 AFC Championship jag because I have been thinking about Ken Stabler. In the run up to today's Super Bowl there was a story this past week about how Ken Stabler, the Raiders quarterback in the 1975 AFC Championship who would go on to win the Super Bowl the following year, had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E.). He died last summer and his brain has since been dissected and studied and the results announced. That's what caused the bad press, like Ken Belson's "Roger Goodell Insists Football Is Safe: ‘There’s Risk in Life’," for the National Football League in its gala week leading up to the big game:

It was disclosed this week that two football greats, quarterbacks Ken Stabler and Earl Morrall, were the latest of dozens of players found to have had a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head hits.

Yet N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell, when peppered with questions about player safety on the Friday before Super Bowl 50, gave one of his most earnest endorsements of the safety of the game.

Most of his comments echoed previous statements: that the league is changing its rules to reduce risks, has adopted new equipment and technology, and is spending millions of dollars on research.

But near the end of a 45-minute question-and-answer session with reporters, Goodell seemed exasperated. When asked whether it was safe for young people to play football, Goodell said that he was glad he was able to play tackle football for nine years before college.

“If I had a son, I’d love to have him play the game of football,” Goodell, a father of two daughters, added. “There’s risk in life. There’s risk in sitting on the couch.”

Goodell’s comments came amid a renewed focus on whether football was too dangerous. By the N.F.L.’s own account, the number of diagnosed concussions rose by 31.6 percent this season over last season. Several former players have posthumously been found to have had the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., including Stabler, Morrall and Tyler Sash, a former Giant who died at 27. At least seven high school football players died last year. 

When asked about these statistics, Goodell often focuses on what the N.F.L. is doing to make the game safer. He bristled at the suggestion that more N.F.L. players were retiring because they were worried that extending their careers could increase their risks of brain damage.

The NFL is the premiere television product in the United States, really the only guaranteed "take it to the bank" eyeball draw left in our culture. As Mark Leibovich reports in "Roger Goodell’s Unstoppable Football Machine":

Put it on TV, and people will watch; put it on a jersey, they will wear it. The N.F.L.’s total revenue in 2015 ($12.4 billion) is nearly double that of a decade earlier ($6.6 billion). The price of television ads during the Super Bowl has increased by more than 75 percent over the last decade. This year’s conference championship games set yet another viewership record for the league: 53.3 million people watched the A.F.C. game on CBS; 45.7 million watched the N.F.C. game on Fox. Goodell talks constantly about ‘‘growing the pie,’’ finding new revenue streams and ways to make the N.F.L. a ‘‘year-round’’ experience rather than just during fall and winter. He has said he wants the N.F.L. to achieve $25 billion in gross revenue by 2027. No league is as relentless when it comes to growth and making cash for its billionaire cartel. It’s reminiscent of a shark that will die if it doesn’t keep moving and ripping little fish to shreds.

The NFL has made changes to try to reduce the number of concussions. But the tendency of the rule changes has been to enhance the overall speed of the game, which increases the impact of collisions. So there hasn't been any big bonanza of reduced injuries.

A lot of commentators compare the NFL to boxing, a blood sport that was enormously popular at one time only to sputter into irrelevance. But boxing's demise had nothing to do with its brutality. Look at the popularity of mixed martial arts today. Boxing lost its broad popularity because all its big fights went behind a paywall. If the NFL gets so greedy that it shunts more of its games away from broadcast TV, then something similar could happen I suppose; that combined with a loss of talent from parents preventing their children from participating in the sport.

In any event, the National Football League is who we are in the United States. And in 1975 it was also who we were. Today in Super Bowl L I like the Carolina Panthers. For the Broncos to win Peyton Manning would have to play a perfect game, matched by a perfect game by the Denver defense. I see no miracles today. It is Cam Newton's year.

NFL Week 17: The End of the Regular Season

The New Year arrived cold and clear here. Usually on days when I don't have to work I like to be out on the road for a run before 8:30 AM, but the below-freezing temperatures kept me indoors. I finally made it out around 10:00 AM. On my way out the door I dropped off my rent check in the building super's mail slot. On the outside of the check envelope I jotted a note about the dire circumstances in which the home team finds itself at Week 17.

The building super, like so many men and women in this city, is a Seahawks junkie. Whenever I run into him at the entrance to the apartment building we hash out the team's state of affairs. The last time I saw him I believe was prior to the Cardinals-Seahawks Sunday night game in Week 10. Since that loss and up until last week's shellacking administered by the Jeff Fisher Rams, Seattle had gone on a Russell Wilson-fueled winning streak; the result of which, thanks to the synchronicity of losses by other teams competing for a wild card berth, is that the Seahawks had secured a playoff spot at the end of Week 15.

But now, the day before the last game of the regular season, things are not looking good. The Seahawks visit the Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium Sunday afternoon with a roster decimated by injury: Jimmy Graham out for the season; Thomas Rawls gone for the year; the great Marshawn Lynch, heart and soul of the team, missing since the Week 10 Cardinals loss because of an abdominal injury that required surgery; Kam Chancellor, absent since the game in Baltimore with an injury to his pelvis, will be a pale shadow of his former self if he does return to active duty; Michael Bennett and Jordan Hill both slowed because of toe injuries; Russell Okung hobbled with a bum calf. One could go on, but you get the idea. The Seahawks are not the team they once were. When they take the field the vibe is different.

Which was the gist of my note to the building super: Never before in the Russell Wilson era has Seattle been so vulnerable.

My fear is that Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians has a beat down planned for the Seahawks, payback for the humiliating defeat Seattle dealt to Arizona at the end of the season last year. But not just payback, also a statement. The statement being that the Seahawks are finished, kaput. There will be no more Super Bowls for Seattle.

As I think I have mentioned before, football, National Football League football, is important in the United States because it provides an ersatz form of community in this era of peak neoliberalism, in this age of possessive individualism run amok. Yes, it is a corporate product that serves as a public relations foil for U.S. militarism (which comes pretty close to a good definition of fascism), but it binds people together, gives them a way to relate to one another in what is otherwise a benign way. Because underneath the layers of commercialism, the billions of dollars in advertising and the excessive violence is the athleticism, the basic element of human effort. For a Seahawks fan when Marshawn Lynch rushes for a touchdown at the goal line the feeling is "All is right with the world." Or for a Jets fan, what it must have felt like when Eric Decker caught the touchdown that beat the Patriots last Sunday in overtime. It is sad to say but this is what represents exuberant, collective fulfillment for us in the West now that neoliberalism has bankrupted our politics.

After I dropped off my rent check I headed out the front door to the trash and recycle bins. I had a green biodegradable bag full of kitchen compost -- banana and grapefruit peels, coffee grinds, onion skins -- that I needed to drop off before I began my jog. When I flipped open the compost container I was greeted by the vision of a large carcass of some sort of bird of prey. Hawk or owl I don't know which. I couldn't make out the head, and the body parts were hard to identify. The feathers were white with some gray checks; it could've been the under-wing of an osprey. Probably road kill that some Samaritan scooped up and tossed in the compost. In any event, a very ill omen for Seahawks fans.

It has been a bizarre season. Despite Carolina's flirtation with a perfect record, which came to an end last week thanks to Atlanta, there has been no sense of transcendence or complete domination by any one team. I think injuries have upended a lot of the drama of the regular season. Baltimore has been uncharacteristically turned into an also-ran because of season-ending injuries to Suggs, Flacco and Forsett. Green Bay, once the apple of the tout's eye, is now limping, like the Seahawks, to the playoffs, their offensive line devastated. In the AFC, conference powerhouses New England and Denver (not to mention Cincinnati), are very beatable because of rosters wracked by injury.

If I had to make a prediction I would say the Arizona Cardinals are the team to beat. Nonetheless they are beatable. The Seahawks had them in the fourth quarter in Week 10, but they couldn't hold the lead. It is going to take a team with a stout line and good defensive secondary who can run the ball on offense. That team very well could be the Panthers. The problem with Carolina is that the defense has looked shaky lately.

In the AFC I think it is a toss-up. The Jets could even make a run, assuming they don't shoot themselves in the foot tomorrow against Buffalo. I say this because New York has proven they can beat the Patriots. There has been a lot of talk about the run that the Chiefs are on. My issue with the Chiefs, and the same can be said of the Bengals, is that they have a tendency to underperform in the playoffs.

NFL Week 12: Let's Get Caught Up, Again

This weekend of the Thanksgiving holiday marks three years that this page has been up and running. I started the blog when I got back from California, where I go every Thanksgiving to visit my father. We have a routine. We run a "turkey trot," one of these community fun runs that are popping up all over and are very popular now, so much so that the turkey trot is becoming as much a part of the Thanksgiving holiday as Black Friday and the National Football League. After we run the turkey trot, we return to my father's modest house in a suburban neighborhood close to downtown of the Solano County seat, and we watch football all day. The next day, Black Friday, I travel north back to the Emerald City. That's the routine.

There was some variation this year in that I decided to get my father a flat screen digital television. TV is very important for the elderly, something I found out one Christmas while visiting my mother, who resides in an assisted-living facility, when her universal remote quit on her. A panic attack ensued. Thank goodness it happened at a time, 4:30 PM on Christmas Eve, that I could run out and buy a replacement at the Radio Shack. If the remote had quit just an hour or two later, my mother, who can only move about with the aid of a walker, would have had to go without her regular televisual experience for more than 36 hours. A real crisis.

My father has had the same TV for years, a small -- 13-inch -- analog model with a picture tube and a built-in VCR; the same kind of TV that I have had for the last 12 years. We both have the analog-to-digital-antenna converter box. But recently a co-worker gifted me an older flat screen that she and her husband never used in a spare bedroom because they found something newer and larger on craigslist. And it was such a marked improvement from the old-school 13-inch, particularly for the type of programming that I use the television for -- the NFL -- that I decided my father, who watches TV every day, would benefit if he had his own.

So prior to my trip down to California, I went online and found a well-rated, reasonably-priced 2015 high-definition (HD) 32-inch LG flat screen. (Read Nicholson Baker's magisterial New Yorker piece, "A Fourth State of Matter," on the South Korean flat screen television industry. Samsung and LG are the two big South Korean producers.) The LG arrived at my father's house in a little more than a day, and he installed it himself. But by the time I arrived he was having difficulty picking up the same stations that he had with the old set.

Here our troubles began. I thought we would face only minimal difficulty in working out the kinks and matching the reception he enjoyed before because I had no problem with my own gifted flat screen. What I didn't take into account is that my flat screen was so old that it didn't have its own HD tuner; hence, I was able to use the same analog-to-digital-antenna converter that I used on my old-school cathode-ray-tube TV. These new flat screen televisions come equipped with their own HD receiver, and, apparently, at least what my father and I have learned, is that they are not as good as the analog-to-digital-antenna converters which were widely distributed when we the non-cable unwashed were kicked off the analog spectrum into the digital stream.

We then proceeded to problem solve for the next two days, our goal being to try to match the number of channels he had with the old technology; that, and be able to receive all three networks televising the Thanksgiving games -- FOX, CBS, NBC. This meant two separate trips each to both Target and Best Buy, and one trip to Sears. What we learned is that most digital antennas are useless, particularly if you live in an area that is windy and rainy and far away from the nearest transmission tower. My father lives in a wind corridor, and we learned by research online that the nearest transmission towers are 29 miles to the east. So we returned the first digital antenna we purchased at Best Buy and upgraded to one with amplification and a 40-mile range.

After purchasing 100 feet of coaxial cable at Target and walking the digital antenna all around his living room, dining room and kitchen; out into the front yard; and finally out into the patio area at the back of the house, we found the sweet spot -- the window in the living room at the front of the house. Thanksgiving Day was clear and not too windy so we were able to enjoy the morning and afternoon games on the big screen. But the winds picked up at night, and we were forced back to the old 13-inch to see Chicago hold on for a big upset of the Packers at Lambeau Field.

My takeaway from all this is that "superior" technology is not always better. Analog TV might not have been high definition, but neither was it so sensitive that a gust wind would lead to disintegrating pixelation of the picture.

If new, "higher" technology is not better then we as a society can expect nothing but trouble ahead because that is all that Western civilization has to offer its citizens these days -- the promise of "consuming" newer, more wonderful digital technologies.

As neoliberalism -- the divination of the market above all else -- continues to reign supreme despite its inability to deliver economic growth, as our political parties, in fealty to concentrated wealth, atrophy beyond recognition, as the Global War on Terrorism" leads to ever more terrorism, as the mass extinctions of anthropocene surge, we the people are cajoled to visit the big box outlet at the super mall and purchase the latest digital tech. That is our consolation. And having just "been there and done that," I am here to tell you it is no consolation at all. Pope Francis is completely on the mark when he says in his encyclical "On Care For Our Common Home" that the dominant technocratic, consumer-driven paradigm is killing the planet and needs to be overturned.

But this is supposed to be a post about the National Football League Week 12. Of two unbeaten teams, Carolina and New England, the Panthers are the team that has the best shot at going all the way. Why? Because they are playing the best defense -- hands down -- of any team. They have it all -- a fantastic secondary; super-fast smart linebackers; a steady stout line. As long as Cam Newton can keep his gigantic ego in check and play turnover free football, I like Carolina's chances.

The Patriots, always formidable, have issues, which were on display Monday night against mediocre Buffalo. Julian Edelman is Brady's go-to guy, and he's gone for the year. Maybe he could come back for the AFC Championship game or the Super Bowl, assuming New England is there, but it is doubtful. Dion Lewis is gone for the year too. The Patriots defense is beatable. New England depends on Brady controlling time of possession.

If Osweiler, who is good, can play well; or if Cincinnati can overcome there late season issues; or if Pittsburgh gets hot -- all could beat New England.

Speaking of Pittsburgh, the mood in Seattle is not buoyant heading into today's game with the Steelers. The young men in Seahawks gear I talked to on the flights down and back were not optimistic. The feeling is one of resignation. We've been burned too often this season to believe otherwise. The oddsmakers favor Seattle because the Steelers-Seahawks match-up is usually decided by who is playing at home. It should be a nail-biter. Again.

My epiphany while struggling through the turkey trot on Thanksgiving is that will power is a hard thing to maintain year in and year out. My times have really suffered lately. I'm not training like I used to. There are a whole set of reasons for this, but the end result is the performance. And my performances have been poorer.

The Seahawks are in the same place. This cannot be denied. The Seattle faithful, the 12s, long hoping for a turnaround I believe have accepted that the team is diminished and will be fortunate to win today. Something Seattle must do to remain in the hunt for a wild card playoff berth.

NFL Week 19: Divisional Playoff Round

Last week the Colts undid me. I foolishly went with the Bengals thinking that their ground game would be the difference. Indianapolis shut it down, and Luck, with plenty of time to throw, completed passes at will. The Colts were impressive. They hadn't impressed me all season. Whether they can go into Denver and do the same thing against the Broncos is a whole different question.

Here are my picks for the divisional playoff round.

Ravens at Patriots: It is foolish to bet against New England at home, but I have done it before, and Baltimore is two out of three at Foxoborough in their last three playoff games there. I loathe the Patriots more than any other franchise in the NFL, even the Cowboys. This one is easy for me. Take Baltimore. Disregard the wisdom of Las Vegas (Patriots by a touchdown) and disregard the legitimate question "Who covers Gronkowski?" Go with Flacco and Ngata, Suggs and Forsett.

Panthers at Seahawks: For Cam Newton to go before the 12th Man and come away with a victory would be tantamount to a miracle. We live in a fallen age. The miraculous is absent. Seattle will be fresh from a week of rest. Marshawn Lynch's legs will be ready for another Super Bowl run. Take Seattle.

Cowboys at Packers: Vegas favors Green Bay. Rodgers' calf injury is troubling. Calves take a long time to heal. I like Eddie Lacy in this one though. DeMarco Murray's broken hand is still bothering him. Dez Bryant is not going to be dominant in the 20-degree weather of Lambeau Field. Take Green Bay.

Colts at Broncos: Here is where Indianapolis' Luck runs intro trouble. Manning much maligned of late will outshine, failing arm and all, his Colts replacement. C.J. Anderson should play well. Take Denver.

NFL Week 18: Wild Card Playoff Round

My biggest disappointment going into the weekend is that I will not be able to watch the Cardinals-Panthers game. Why? I don't have cable; I use digital rabbit ears. So if it is not on broadcast TV, I don't see it. Unless I go out to a bar. I did that once for one game of the 1998 World Cup, and I regretted it. I sat at the bar on a Saturday morning and tried to watch Italy vs. Norway while on either side drunks pestered me. They were like noisy children competing for attention, criticizing my interest in soccer as un-American.

Since the National Football League receives an antitrust exemption from the federal government, the principal advantage of which is that it allows team owners to bargain collectively with the television networks, a proviso should be added to the exemption that mandates all playoff games must appear on broadcast television.

This is the first NFL playoff game to appear exclusively on a cable channel. My fear is that this move means that the NFL will go the way of the NBA and Major League Baseball, leagues where most of the playoff games appear only on cable. I have written my Congressman.

As for the games of the wildcard round, here are my picks:

Cardinals at Panthers: Vegas has lost confidence in the miracle workings of Bruce Arians. Carolina is a six-and-a-half-point favorite at home, equal to the margin granted to Cowboys over the Lions. I am not a Cam Newton fan, but his play has improved as the Panthers have gone on an end-of-season tear. He has thrown only one interception in the last three games. I have yet to see the rejuvenated Panthers play. The last full game I saw is when Seattle beat them in week 8, and then Carolina was a team in free fall. I have seen the Cardinals play recently. And with Ryan Lindley at the helm, they are a team in free fall. Take the Panthers.

Ravens at Steelers: This is a tough one. The Vegas line is Steelers by 3. It is hard to go against Pittsburgh at home, but Le'Veon Bell is out. The Ravens get Haloti Ngata back from his Adderall suspension. Plus, I like Justin Forsett. Possibly Roethlisberger could win this game with his arm. Look what Philip Rivers did to Baltimore. Nonetheless, take the Ravens.

Bengals at Colts: The Vegas line is Colts by three-and-a-half points. Even though A.J. Green is out and the Bengals don't win in postseason, I'm going out on a limb here to say Cincinnati will triumph. I like the Bengals defense and their running game with Jeremy Hill; also, Andy Dalton running the read-option. The Colts have not impressed me this season.

Lions at Cowboys: Dallas could be playing the best football in the league right now. The Cowboys are an offensive juggernaut. Everyone is peaking: Romo, Witten, Murray, Bryant, Beasley. There is a possibility for an upset here though. Detroit's fearsome defensive line could knock Romo out of the game. Dallas will counter by running the ball with Murray or going with the quick dump off pass to Lance Dunbar and Cole Beasley. On defense, the Cowboys will devote all their attention to Golden Tate and Calvin Johnson, daring the Lions to beat them with Joique Bell. I would like to see Detroit win this game, but I don't see that happening on Sunday. Take Dallas.

NFL Week Eight: Carson Palmer Stands Tall

Week Eight began well with the home-team Broncos notching a solid win over injury-weakened San Diego. With no running game to speak of, Philip Rivers was unable to mount sustained drives, as he did last year when the 'Bolts traveled to the Mile High City.

This was the last Thursday night NFL game to appear on nationwide broadcast television for the remainder of the season; tonight the Thursday night platform reverts back to the NFL Network. For eight weeks the "unwashed" of the nation like myself who have no cable and choose not to frequent bars basked in the television's glow every evening on Thursday. I despised Phil Simms when he quarterbacked Parcells' Giants, the bête noire of every self-respecting 49ers fan at the time, but I must say he is by far the best analyst on television today. I'm going to miss these Thursday night CBS broadcasts.

Denver looks formidable: a strong defense, Ronnie Hillman developing as a potent ground-gainer, topped off by what is easily the NFL's top passing attack of Peyton Manning throwing to Emmanuel Sanders, Julius Thomas, and Demaryius Thomas. I think the Broncos offense can be stopped by the right defense, as the Seahawks proved last year. The problem for other teams around the league is that defense does not exist midpoint of the season.

The Cardinals D looked stout enough against the Philadelphia Eagles. But the difference in that game was the quarterback position. Nick Foles' numbers, 36 completions in 62 attempts for 411 yards and 2 TDs, surpassed Carson Palmer's 20 for 42, 329 yards and 2 TDs, but the Raiders castoff impressed me to no end. He stood tall in the pocket and never appeared rattled by the Eagles pass rush. You could tell he was seeing the entire field, and of course his game-winning bomb to rookie speedster John Brown was a thing of perfection.

NFL Week Eight Sunday began for me at 6:30 AM with the Fox telecast of the Lions-Falcons game from London's Wembley Stadium. Golden Tate had a huge game, helping the Lions overcome a 21-point halftime deficit to defeat the freefalling Falcons. If the Seahawks had a do-over I'm sure they would keep Golden Tate and deal Percy Harvin prior to the beginning of the season, though the rumor that Tate carried on a tryst with Russell Wilson's wife that culminated in the pair's divorce likely would have made the plucky wideout's departure inevitable.

Game #2 for me on Sunday was Seattle vs.Carolina. The Seahawks finally ran into a team more snake-bit than themselves; plus, the defense finally, in the fourth quarter, found its pass rush. A cocky Cam Newton, cocky in the first half despite the inability to hit paydirt -- he ridiculously celebrated every chickenshit first down he scrambled for -- was not cocky by game's end. Seattle tallied a necessary win when Wilson, overcoming numerous mistakes -- a fumble, a pick, missing a wide-open Cooper Helfet for a touchdown -- connected on a pretty pass to Luke Willson, who actually held onto the ball this time, for the game winner.

Now Seattle has a chance to regroup with Oakland in town on Sunday. The Raiders dominated the Seahawks in the final preseason game. So this isn't the walkover that Vegas' 15-point spread says it is. Still, with a win on Sunday, and another win at home next week against the Giants, Pete Carroll will have bailed out his leaky, listing vessel and gotten back on course.

Game #3 was the aforementioned bird bash, Cardinals vs. Eagles. Then it was on to game #4, the Sunday night Packers-Saints match-up. By this time I was on my fourth straight game. I only made it to halftime. The score was tied 16-16. I was convalescing from a lingering flu. The rest and recuperation that such a televisual NFL smorgasbord afforded was welcome.

You can fool yourself and be who you imagine yourself to be. For a spell at least. Then things change. And you're not so strong.

I had not called in sick for five years. So my ego encrusted around being an "iron man." Strong and always showing up to the job and working hard. When I called in sick Monday before last I had to adjust the self-image. Arriving to work the next day I asked myself, "Who am I?" The answer I received was not pleasant. I am a jester, a fool, a clown.

But such is life. The ego is always being amended, buffeted this way and that like a toy boat in the foamy surf. Better not to pay too much attention. Best just to accept that health is the anchor and leave it at that.

Hippies vs. Punks: The Clash's Combat Rock, Pt. 2, "Should I Stay or Should I Go"

It has been a while since Hippies vs. Punks has been a regular Friday feature of this page. I think what happened is that the coup in Ukraine took over my attention at the beginning of this year.

I had a certain routine that I would follow for a Hippies vs. Punks post. During the work week I would immerse myself in spotlighted recording(s) I felt somehow illuminated the "why" and the "how" of the eclipse of the Hippies by the Punks.

The hypothesis we're dealing with here is that the eclipse -- understanding the toppling of the Hippie by the Punk, coinciding as it does with the dawn of the neoliberal age -- will provide essential insight into our current exhausted and disintegrating cultural paradigm.

A sonic immersion is no easy feat. Listening to an album or possibly two or three albums by the same artist repeatedly over a five to six day stretch requires a triumph of the will. But to truly understand music I don't think there is any other way. Interesting effects begin to multiple. One of the things I realized is that almost always after listening repeatedly to an album, even if it is one previously considered poor, you come to appreciate it. This has been my experience, particularly, for instance, with Penelope Houston's solo debut, Birdboys (1988).

To go along with the sonic immersion, I would print out what I could find online about the particular album and artist, and I would study that on the train ride home at night.

All in all, the Hippies vs. Punks posts, meager as they are, required a significant time commitment, one that has obviously gone by the wayside.

Today we're going to return with a remembrance of the popular culture zenith of First Wave UK Punk band The Clash.

In May I remembered Combat Rock's "Straight To Hell." Today, through the prism of a moment shared with Ron Rivera, we will approach "Should I Stay or Should I Go."

The month was October. The year was 1982. Ron Rivera, who is now the head coach of the Carolina Panthers, who the Seattle Seahawks travel cross country to play on Sunday in a game that will decide the rest of their season, was seated across from me on a bench in Dwinelle Plaza one morning.

Ron Rivera was a junior, a big man on campus, the star linebacker on the Golden Bears football team. He wore a pink Oxford shirt (very au courant), cargo shorts and a pair of white K-Swiss sneakers (which were also au courant).

Rivera greeted well-wishers as they strolled by prior to 10 o'clock class. I looked on from a bench not more than five-feet away. I was invisible, a freshman, nameless, faceless. The sun was shining its orange California rays.

And what seared this episode in my memory all these years is the song that Rivera was singing to himself.

That fall of 1982 you could not go anywhere without hearing "Should I Stay or Should I Go." It played on transistor radios (people still carried those around in 1982; this was prior to the Sony Walkman), could be heard at cafes and bars and coming out of dormitory windows as well as on the lips of gridiron stars.

It is hard today to understand what that feels like. I was reading an article yesterday on the train home about nervousness in the record industry about Taylor Swift's new album, 1989. Swift is the only contemporary artist who has proven able to sell more than a million albums in the first week of release, which must be some important industry benchmark. Overall album sales are down 14% from last year. People are not buying CDs like they used to; apparently people are not even purchasing music by download like they used to. The trend is toward music streaming sites like Spotify. The nervousness about 1989 is that it is a straight pop album. Usually Swift pitches her songs to the reliable and industry-leading Country market.

Music is dying, or at least the delivery system for music. Music can never die even if the Salafis' wildest dreams were to come true and the caliphate stretched to all corners of the globe.

But as the media continues to atomize and newspapers and television and record labels shrink, there is also a corresponding shriveling of popular consciousness.

October 1982 when we were all singing along with Mick Jones and thinking at the same time, "If I go there will be trouble/And if I stay it will double" -- so immaculately true in all its plebeian, quotidianness -- is as close as the Punks, Ron Rivera and all the rest of us came to apotheosis.

NFL Week 3: Seahawks Triumph, Pittsburgh Better Than Anticipated

The point of these posts on the National Football League is something akin to a dream journal. I don't spend a lot of time on them. Very few people read them, fewer even than the other posts on this page. Around mid-season I will shift, as I did last year, to predictions for the coming week. It takes a couple of months of spending every Sunday in front of my small color TV watching the games to get a feel for who is up and who is down.

For instance, the conventional wisdom on the Steelers is that they're rebuilding, and they are not a serious threat to anybody. But based on the Sunday night game, Pittsburgh is not a team to look past on the schedule. LaVeon Bell after dropping weight in the off season looks quicker and stronger than last year. And the defense played well against Carolina. Granted, Cam Newton is playing hurt, but that doesn't explain Pittsburgh's offense moving the ball up and down the field against the celebrated Panthers defense.

Earlier that day I rode the Seahawks roller coaster as hometown Seattle hung on in OT to win their rematch of February's Super Bowl with the Broncos. I shouted at the television when Russell Wilson threw his pick in the 4th quarter and Marshawn Lynch was tackled in the Seahawks end zone for a safety. Peyton Manning lived up to his hype by executing a drive in the last seconds that brought Denver even. But in the end Russell Wilson channeled his inner Joe Montana, something he does better than most if not all NFL quarterbacks, and engineered a game-winning drive in OT following Tarvaris Jackson correctly calling the coin toss and electing to receive the ball.

Really, in the end, watching the NFL on Sunday is an excuse for me to recline on my mattress on the floor. All day. A welcome rest for my legs, a chance to forget and merge with the American hive mind.

NFL Week 19: Divisional Playoff Round

Standing in the queue this morning at Starbucks I was greeted by servers wearing handsome Seahawks 12th Man t-shirts. A good omen? Hard to say. My neighbor, the super of the apartment building where I have lived for the past decade, a guy my age and a fellow sports-on-TV junkie, had this to say the other day when I ran into him on the stairs to our third-floor residences: "It is hard to beat a team three times in a row."

Ah, yes. Words of wisdom. But I think it is a tall order for the Saints to come to CenturyLink Field and hand the Seahawks a loss. Granted, last week the New Orleans defense contained the premier running back in the National Football League; and, granted, the Saints own ground game was terrific; -- I am betting that Seattle has too much defense -- a well-rested defense with springy legs -- for the Saints. It will tighter than the Week 13 34-7 blowout, but it will be a Seattle victory nonetheless. Take the Seahawks.

New Orleans at Seattle is the Saturday afternoon game. The Saturday evening game has the Colts at Foxboro Stadium to take on the Patriots. Andrew Luck has been getting a lot of ink after his comeback win over the Chiefs. I don't think that T.Y. Hilton is going to run crazy in the secondary at Foxboro. Though the forecast is for warmer weather tomorrow -- temperatures in the 50s with rain -- I don't see massive breakdowns in a Belichik defense. Combine that with what I think is a potent Patriots rushing attack and the passing of Tom Brady and I say take New England.

Quickly on the Sunday games, I'm taking San Francisco. Kaep is too strong, and the 49ers defense is too cagey. True, the Panthers have a dynamite defense. But the Cam Newton-led offense is mediocre.

I'm going out on a limb and taking San Diego. The Chargers are the hot team now, and they have proven they can win in Denver. I love the Mathews-Woodhead-Brown ground game. And for some reason I think it is Philip Rivers moment.

NFL Week 16: Go with the Home Teams in the Big Match-Ups

I have to apologize for the generally low quality of my NFL posts. Last year I seemed to have a little bit more mojo working. This year because I sneak them in right before starting work at 9 AM they've been pro forma "picks" of what I deem to be important upcoming games. At least that is what I have been doing for the last couple of months. Prior to that I was providing a rundown of what I thought was the significant action from the prior week.

In any event, apologies, and here comes another rushed set of picks.

There are a lot of big games this Sunday and none is bigger than New Orleans at Carolina with the division on the line. The Saints plastered the Panthers in the Superdome a couple weeks back, exposing the profound weakness in the Carolina offense: Cam Newton has no serious downfield, long-bomb catching receiving threat. With New Orleans on the road the outcome should be reversed. Look for the Panthers offense to dominate the game with its rushing attack. Pick the Panthers.

Other big games include Indianapolis at Kansas City, Arizona at Seattle, Chicago at Philadelphia and New England at Baltimore. I'm going with the home team in each of these match-ups.

The Seahawks pass rush seems a little speedier on home turf. Carson Palmer's immobility will hurt the Cardinals; that, and Rashard Mendenhall is not the type of young, speedy tailback that usually hurts the Seahawks. Assuming there is not some sort of first-ever catastrophic meltdown by Russell Wilson, I am confident that Seattle wins this game and thereby sews up the division not to mention home field throughout the playoffs.

NFL Week 11: Three Big Games

Just glancing at the Week 11 schedule, a few games really stand out.

49ers at the Saints. New Orleans put up a lot of points against Dallas last Sunday night. But most of those points came after middle linebacker Sean Lee left the game with a hamstring pull. Then DeMarcus Ware got hurt. Drew Brees will have a harder time with San Francisco. The Saints look good though, and they're at home. If Mark Ingram and Pierre Thomas get any kind of traction running the ball, you've got to take the Saints in the Superdome.

The Sunday night game should be very revealing. Do the Broncos or the Chiefs have feet of clay? Denver at home has always been able to score points even prior to the arrival of Peyton Manning. If Tamba Hali doesn't have a big game and Manning has time to set up and throw the ball down the field, I can't see how Alex Smith and Jamaal Charles keep Kansas City in the game. Though I'd love for Andy Reid to take home the win, I've got to pick the Broncos.

Finally, the Monday night game pitting the Patriots against the Panthers at Charlotte will let us know how good Ron Rivera's Carolina squad is. I think they're playing some of the best football in the league right now. I think that trend continues. Panthers win big.

NFL Week 1: How to Make Oneself Miserable

A dispiriting opening Sunday to the NFL regular season. Yes, the hometown 'Hawks triumphed, but they did so in unconvincing fashion by relying on Earl Thomas to create a lucky fumble in the fourth quarter. The Panthers DeAngelo Williams was headed for a go-ahead touchdown when he coughed it up and Seattle recovered. The Seahawks then were able to maintain offensive control and run out the clock, something they have been good at since the ascension of Russell Wilson last season.

The vaunted Seattle defense looked okay. Not great, they improved in the second half; in the first half, DeAngelo Williams seemed to crack off five-yard runs at will and QB Cam Newton had plenty of time to set up and throw. But the Seahawks deserve praise for preventing the big play.

On offensive, some unpleasant traits surfaced in game #1. Russell Wilson in his sophomore NFL year does not look as focused as the rookie Russell Wilson; he looks a little cocky and slower to react to pressure, which today was heavy and consistent thanks to an excellent Panther defensive line. Lynch was shut down; he had very few holes through which to accelerate. But Doug Baldwin was dynamite as usual, and Russell Wilson got the job done when it mattered. The Seattle QB is reliable for keeping his team in the game to the end. This is what makes him special. He's a winner.

Now, I'm midway through a good battle taking place at sunny Candlestick. The 49ers and the Pack are duking it out. San Francisco is up 21-14 in the third quarter. Later on it will be Dallas and the New York Giants on NBC's Sunday Night Football.

Before the Packers-49ers game I took the compost and recycling downstairs. Outside it was a perfect sunny West Coast late summer afternoon. I felt lousy. Stiff, unhappy, stressed. This is what a morning in front of the TV watching professional football will do for you -- it will make you miserable.