File This Under Signs of the Apocalypse

Bank of Japan charging people to hold their money.

In a related story, corporations are holding trillions in cash. Apple alone holds 1/5 of its stock price in cash.

I start to hoard cash when I don't see a lot of income coming down the pipe. Or, when I've got nothing I want to spend it on. Neither are good signs for corporations.

Broncos-Pats

Broncos getting to Brady and know they aren't running. Why couldn't KC do this?

UPDATE: Meant to post regarding the Manning PED story earlier. Normally, I'm prone not believing athletes when it comes to PED related stories. Except in this case. I'm not a huge Manning fan, but I believe the guy has quite a bit of integrity. Perhaps this is pure bias because of his personality, but also because the sharp deterioration of his physicality over time coincides with my understanding of aging. Whereas guys like Bonds or Arod, I'm less inclined to believe.

UPDATE 2: 4th and 1 after a lousy run call - Denver should have gone for it. Actually, they should have put in a jumbo package with a plan to go for it on 4th when it was 3rd and 1...and take two shots at pushing it through. IMO.

UPDATE 3: Every time I've seen the Broncos D play this year they look really good.

UPDATE 4: Listening to sports radio post game and a couple things:

a) Gostkowski was taking the blame for the loss. This is pretty ridiculous. Sure, he missed an extra point, but it was in the first half. It had little bearing on the game. The story of the game was the Broncos pass rush putting Brady under intense pressure all day and the Pats only putting up 18 points.

b) Of interesting note, the Pats were doing the silent count all game and apparently it becomes harder to coordinate keeping the defense off balance with the silent count. This can partially explain why Denver was getting such a good jump on the rush whereas Kansas City was not.

Logging

Film: Top Five

I need to think of a name for the genre of content of which Top Five, Girls, and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee occupies. It's something akin to memoir and it's not a development I like. Basically, it amounts to privileged people complaining...and trying to position themselves as victims to gain cultural currency. And they put their talents toward naval gazing as opposed to fiction. I occasionally hear cultural commentators talking about this kind of content as some kind of radical new development. Bret Easton Ellis calls it "non-empire." I dunno. Seems to me Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, Woody Allen, and JD Salinger all did this type of thing with considerable more skill and insight.

Anyhow, Top Five is the worst of all this stuff.

Logging

Film: The Hateful Eight

Pre-intermission, I was really enjoying the movie. Post-intermission was probably the worst hour of filmmaking in Tarantino's ouvre. Most disappointing to me, I think his writing is slipping. The entire Channing Tatum element of the film felt like the guy wrote himself into a corner, had no way to get out, was too lazy to fix it, and just went backwards into a totally different and uninteresting story.

Tarantino's use violence is getting increasingly less humorous and more grotesque, which I don't like. Also, his casting is becoming too predictable and repetitive. I love Walt Goggins, but he's better in Justified than any of his Tarantino roles...

Although he needs a new Christoph Waltz or Sam Jackson, what he needs even more is a new John Travolta.

Playoffs

Chiefs got outclassed the Pats. My biggest gripe with the performance was the Chiefs inability to get a pash rush (supposedly one of their strengths) against an utterly predictable Pats offense.

The Chiefs needed a big turnover type of play and to the Pats credit, they didn't make any mistakes. Or, they needed Alex Smith to outplay Brady, which he didn't. It was made particularly hard without Maclin.

In the end, the Chiefs injuries hurt them more than the Pats -- Maclin and Houston. The bye week helped.

Smith played like Smith. Solid, but not spectacular. He missed a few throws and couldn't get them into the end zone early. He made some awesome plays with his feet. He needed a big turnover from the defense or a stifling overall effort.

Actually, if early on the Chiefs D stopped the Pats on some of those 3rd and long plays, the game would've been closer down the stretch.

This was the only game I watched because I'm tired of football.

Making A Murder

Good interview breaking down who Avery really is.

Seems to me pretty relevant that he was accused of molesting a young cousin at one point and Teresa Halbach was creeped out by him and didn't want to go out to his place... facts the documentary left out over the course of 10 freaking hours.

Bad Things

I have a young child, so I'm often not on top of the latest happenings. But it's interesting to come up for air and find out what's happening in the world...

1. It actually appears Donald Trump will be Republican nominee for President. I initially found Trump entertaining and a fun sideshow to keep the real candidates on their toes. Now, the jokes on all of us. (BAD THING)

2. My streak of falling asleep during eight straight episodes of Making A Murderer continues. I've yet to think the guy is innocent. Perhaps a big twist is coming, but I doubt it. What I find fascinating about the phenomena of these vindicating-the-accused true-crime shows is how the filmmakers expect the audience to simultaneously consider the characters incredibly stupid and incredibly smart to undermine the accepted view of events. For example: the local cops would need to be incredibly stupid to put their careers in jeopardy to frame Avery for murder. They would need to be quite evil as well, to pull blood from an evidence vial, to move the ashes, move the car, and/or plant the key. Also - the filmmakers expect us to believe the cops are more likely to frame a guy who was already vindicated for the rape because they are mad about it? Huh? I would think the cops much more careful and less likely to accuse a guy who was already wrongfully convicted. And then, of course, we must also consider this "other" murderer who must be a genius to wait to kill the woman on the same day she visits Avery and along with planning the murder, also manage to frame Avery, and then also - perhaps using voodoo - anticipates the cops helping to frame Avery by further planting evidence. It all becomes quite absurd to think about. I'd sell my stock in these type of shows if I had any.

3. Iran grabs 10 US Navy personnel, holds them captive overnight, and the United States is apologizing for drifting into Iranian territorial waters. For the "greatest military ever," it sure doesn't seem like anyone in the Middle East is very worried about pissing us off.

4. All the passion regarding the Oscar nominations is directed at the "snubs" of minorities. Of course, the real story is the pathetic state of movies produced in the US and how it's turned into a legacy industry mixed with some advertising for comic and young adult books. Nevertheless, people are upset Creed was not nominated despite the fact that Creed was a mediocre movie that took a terrific idea and couldn't come up with an original story. Couple it with the fact that Michael B. Jordan is a hugely limited actor (2 notes only with that guy - cool and mad), in a healthy movie industry, this film would be considered a letdown. As it is, it becomes a lightening rod for the diversity crowd, a group with an ultra liberal political agenda they forward through non-traditional political channels because of the unpopularity and bankruptcy of the ideas.

Chip Kelly

Kap jersey clearance ends.

Peak Oil?

Or the return of $1 a gallon gasoline.

I hate to make predictions, especially about the future.

Playoffs

For all the commentators who shit on Alex Smith, I bet the Houston Texans would give up every single player on their team other than JJ Watt and DeAndre Hopkins for him.

Now...Chiefs-Pats. Damn, I wish Maclin was playing. He is probably their most important offensive player beyond Smith. (Charles is their best, but clearly not the most important). It would make the game considerably more competitive. I think the Chiefs can win if Alex Smith outplays Tom Brady. That's a tall order and not likely. Not impossible, though.

Meanwhile...

Dozens of women raped in the streets of Cologne, Germany on New Years Eve.

I'll just point out the obvious:

1) They bury the lead, of course...which is, the perps were groups of "Arab-North African Men." In a country that welcomed millions of Syrian refugees...

2) A few months prior American college students were protesting the rape culture of their schools, none of which experienced anything remotely as criminally insane as this incident.

So...conclusion...

a) We cannot attribute the rapes in the streets of Cologne to any type of cultural or religious attitudes -- that would be racist.

b) But, we can attribute the fondling mistakes of drunken college students as an urgent cultural problem that must be addressed.

Riiiggghhttt.

Is This Peak Oil?

World awash in oil, price drops.

Or acid rain? Or a hole in the ozone layer? Or running out of food? Or the sky is falling?

Coughlin

Gonna miss seeing his red face on the sidelines. I thought he was a pretty good coach.