This is more for my edification than anything. Just wanted to make sure I had the facts right.

• 632 AD, Muhammad dies and a schism is formed (not too dissimilar to the one that caused the break up of the Catholic church and the Orthodox church)
  • Who should the title of Caliph be passed onto:
    • The majority believed it should pass to Abu Bakr, a friend of Muhammad and thus Bakr did become the first Caliph.
    • The minority believed it should pass through Muhammad’s bloodline, starting with his cousin and son-in-law: Ali ibn Abi Talib
  • Eventually the title made it’s way to Ali ibn Abi Talib or “Ali” as he became the fourth Caliph. However it was short lived as he was murdered in 661 AD.
    • Once again the title of Caliph was, as Jeff Probst on Survivor might say, “Up for Grabs”
      • The majority supported the ruler of Syria: Mu’awiyah and his son Yazid. (notice a more secular/political/wealthy type leader) These people would be known as Sunnis, meaning followers of the Sunnah, or Way, of the prophet.
      • The minority (who originally backed Ali) wanted Ali’s son Hussein (bloodline again), these folks would come to be known as “Shi’at Ali”
        • This lead to a battle between the two sides and Hussein was decapitated near Karbala on Oct 10, 680 AD.
• Following the majority or Sunni way, the Caliph was typically both the religious and political leader of the Islamic movement and thus was a much more popular sect. Today roughly 90% of all Muslims are Sunnis.
  • Since the Sunni’s were the politicians as well as the religious leaders they used religion as a way to keep the Shi’ites oppressed. They felt like they were lesser human beings and thus they oppressed the hell out of them.
• The Shi’ite majority ended up setting up shop in what we know as modern day Iran. In Iraq there is a large Shi’ite population in the south east (along the Iranian border) but everywhere else is Sunni.
• Under the rule of a Sunni – Saddam – the Shi’ite’s were oppressed and Saddam killed off many of the Shi’ite religious leaders; two of them were relatives of Muqtada al’Sadr (Uncle & Father) [When Saddam was hanged someone yelled a vengeful comment relating to the death of al’Sadr]
  • Muqtada al’Sadr is the leader of a large Shi’ite militia that has been, from time to time, a thorn in the side of the US Army. It is believed that he has fled to Iran at this point, biding his time when he can come back in and exert his full power. (Possibly after the US has withdrawn many of our troops, as he believes it is better to have us gone when he starts his campaign)
• Jordanian al-Qaeda leader Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi was a Sunni and he and his ilk targeted Shi’ite specific targets eventually destroying a very holy Shi’ite site located in Samarra. [al-Zarqawi was eliminated by US forces last year]
• Everything went south once the elections were held. For some strange reason the Sunni’s boycotted the elections, this was stupid. This lead to a sweep of power by the Shi’ites (minority) and then many of the Shi’ite militia used their new found governmental authority / protection to avenge former grudges, they also did things on days that traditionally were Sunni holidays but not necessarily Shi’ite. (executing Saddam on a holy Sunni holiday) This Shi’ite power play was more than the Sunnis could handle so they formed militia for defense from Shi’ite death squads, additionally the militia started offensive attacks against Shi’ite .
• Now we have Iran, Iran is the only country in the world where Shi’ite is the majority. It behooves Iran to see a Shi’ite majority ruling Iraq although they would prefer it to be true Islamic government as opposed to a Shi’ite Democracy.
  • With the US backing and supporting a Shi’ite government in Iraq we are inadvertently playing right into the hands of the Iranians.
• Many of the leaders of the Middle East believe Ahmadinejad’s nuclear goals are more than just a power play against the USA and the West, but possibly about Iran spreading the Shi’ite religion throughout the region.
  • Iran is a big time backer of Shi’ite Hizballah as well as Hamas, two organizations that have set up shop rather nicely in Lebanon and Israel/Palestine, respectively.
  • Hizballah was blamed for assassinating a former Sunni Prime Minister of Lebanon which has caused contention between Muslims in that part of the region, especially towards Shi’ite governed Syria.

Anyhow, the above is a really high level overview of the current state of affairs. So in brief summary, we have Shi’ites for the first time ruling Iraq through a democratic process, which is vehemently opposed by the majority of the population, Sunnis. We have Sunni terrorists, like al-Qaeda, flooding into the country to fight the US as well as the Shi’ite government. We have a Shi’ite government too weak to currently defend itself so it is being propped up by both the USA and most likely Iran, albeit Iran denies supporting the Shi’ite militia / insurgency. The last thing the Sunni’s want is for the Shi’ite government to be strong and stable and then the Americans leave because then Iran will be a real power player in the country so they continue to bomb the Shi’ite because they want Islamic law to rule Iraq not democracy. So, needless to say it is a real hornet’s nest over their right now.

It is easy to see that we sure got ourselves into a mess by attacking Iraq, but at the same time Iran is going to need to be dealt with sooner or later. Right now we have a very strong base of operations to launch an attack against Iran should the need arise. If we were to pull out of Iraq I think it would be disastrous. Right now the only thing keeping Israel from bombing Ahmadinejad back to the stone age is our presence in Iraq. If we were to leave Israel would have no choice but to attack Iran. I mean it would be really nice if we could pull out of their and let them all figure it out for themselves but let’s not kid ourselves about what this has always been about: it’s really simple, it’s the oil. I know it’s nice and PC to say no war for oil, etc etc, but we need that oil because without it our economy comes to a screeching halt and thus does every economy in the world get turned upside down. It is better to deal with Iran now, or we will be forced to deal with them later…

4-12 – 05
5-11 – 04
4-12 – 03

11-5 – 02 (Lost to eventual Superbowl Champion)

8-8 – 98
8-8 – 99
12-4 -00 (lost to eventual Superbowl Champion)
10-6 -01 (lost to eventual Superbowl Champion)

What these numbers show you is that good ole Al has no one to blame but himself. It is very arguable that had Gruden never been traded the Raiders would have won that Superbowl in 02 – (Considering he was the coach of the team that killed the Raiders). Also, it is worth mentioning that the 02 team that did make it to the Superbowl was living on the memory / influence of Gruden and therefore Callahan can only claim small coaching merit for his getting them to the Superbowl; especially after the rumors have how horrid his coaching was leading up to the game.

Next item:

Vince Young
Matt Lineart
Jay Cutler

The Raiders passed on these three QB’s in the 2006 draft. Many people have made quite the fuss about the Reggie Bush pass-over by the Texans (and rightly so I believe) but I will always remind Raider Nation of how the Raiders took Michael Huff when these three guys were still on the board. The sweetest irony will be three or four years from now when Jay Cutler is kicking the living crap out of them as the starting QB of the Broncos… Long live Al….

Note the Raider QB drafts over the past 10 years:

Andrew Walter, QB, Arizona State
Ronald Curry, QB, North Carolina
Marques Tuiasosopo, QB Washington

So when they finally have a chance to take a big name QB they choose another DB. Classic stuff! Long live Al…

Hey Raider Nation, don’t hate me for pointing out the facts, you know it too be true. The greatest thing about all of this is how do you fire the Owner?

Later,

Jon

Some good commentary about Da Rah-das:
San Francisco Chronicle article

Bill Simmons, ESPN’s Sport Guy (my favorite sports writer)

… To the dumbest round of preseason stories: glowing features about Art Shell’s coaching comeback with the Raiders, which proved the age-old adage, “If you let enough time pass in sports, people are bound to forget just about anything.” Shell’s 14-year absence from the sidelines had nothing to do with color; he was a terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE game coach. Do you know why we started using the phrase “bad clock management”? BECAUSE OF ART SHELL!!!! During the last two minutes of a half, Art Shell’s math skills made Herm Edwards look like Will Hunting. Really, nobody remembers this? For God’s sake, that’s why he got fired! That’s why I’ve been making “Art Shell School of Clock Management” jokes in my column for the past 10 years! That’s why he hasn’t worked since! …

The one league that matters the most is the one I took the spanking in. My good friend and the commish of the league Shelby is the one who put the hurting on me, so that is just added pain since he is the one I compete with the most.  All in all it was a pathetic performance lead by Culpepper’s dismal 22 point showing last Thursday night. I also truly hope that Madden curse hasn’t hit Shawn Alexander otherwise it is going to be a long season…

My wife called from downstairs to turn on the TV. For the next hour or so I was transfixed to the TV watching Katie Couric explain the events as they unfolded, then the first tower fell. I didn’t realize it at the time but I am pretty convinced that I was in shock, full on total shock. Not something like awe, but the actual medical condition. One of the thoughts I kept running over and over in my head was “The tower can’t fall, King Kong climbed that tower, it can’t fall” Then the the other tower fell. At this point after having seen a brief clip of the plane crashing into the towers I figured this was a terrorist act.

My thoughts went to the Oklahoma City bombing. I remembered in the aftermath of the bombing some fanatical Arab leader – can’t remember who he was – releasing a statement claiming that he and his organization had nothing to do with the bombing. I kept wondering if someone would claim responsibility. I then heard about the Pentagon and the plane crashing in the field in Pennsylvania. I remember thinking “WTF is going on, where is our military” It was also interesting how I felt pretty safe, that this was happening in NY not Utah, Utah is insignificant in the eyes of the world. We are fine.

I then left for work, the rest of the day was a bit of a haze. We had TV’s on all over the office and I would walk around from one office to the next and chat with whoever was watching at the time.  I had a meeting in Provo with a client. The meeting turned into a open discussion about the towers. All sorts of weird conspiracy theories being thrown around the table, not much getting accomplished. I came home from work and was glued to the TV with my wife. I remember putting my kids to bed that night and wondering what the future held for them.

It wasn’t until 9-11-02 that I really understood how I was affected and how I handled things that day. During a memorial service I finally broke down and cried for the first time.  What became clear to me a year later was that I supressed my feelings / emotions and pretty much blocked them out of my mind in order to cope with everything.

This is the first year Bugga has asked me about it, apparently he was taught about 9/11 at school.  I want to make sure that he knows what happened and why.  It is also important that I never forget what happened to me that day…

Fella’s

I traveled out to my parents house today and helped them do some fall cleaning. I felt kinda tired and didn’t want to risk a drowsy drive on the way back to Lehi so I drank three energy drinks – two sixteen ouncers (Rock Star and Monster) and one 24 oz (Monster) – and guess what, they totally work! So, I am physically drained but I can’t get my mind to shut down therefore I spent some time (way too much) on our formations to ensure that all the kids are treated fairly. So let me know what you think.

I have devised four (4) formations: Army, Navy, Air Force & MARINES. In keeping with the military theme and trying to mirror the realities of the US Armed forces the Marines is our strongest and most formidable formation with both Bugga and Zach enlisted while the Navy formation is our weakest, Bugga and Zach in reserve status. Anyhow, I have structured it such that every boy can have at least one chance to try and advance the ball by being either a QB, RB or WR. Keeping with our base formation of Alpha Right (see attached) I have placed each boy into one of the four formations. You will notice (probably only because I pointed it out and neither of you two are as anal as I am about this stuff) that five (5) of the boys are only involved in two (2) formations while six (6) of the boys are involved in three (3) formations. I make up for this potential discrepancy in playing time by having three (3) of the five (5) (Bugga, Zach, and Trevor) always playing Defense. The other two (2) boys (Adam, Morgan) will have distinct / unique roles on Special Teams. Adam will be our full time kicker and Morgan will assume all kick off return duties. Additionally, I propose two defensive formations – Raider / Charger (I hope this naming convention isn’t a direct correlation to their namesakes, else we will most likely want to change the names to DENVER BRONCOS) with Raider being the default defense. Also, I have created two (2) kick off teams – a Raider team and a Charger team. (Currently I don’t have .gifs created for these positions, but who knows by the time I get done drafting this email I may still be totally wired and have created them too) Finally, I have also created two Kick Off Return teams using the MARINE and Army formations. (Formations that include Morgan [see point above about kick off return man for further clarification])

Without further ado, the formations:

<–snip formations–>

This week in practice I would like to have each of the four (4) QB/RB/WR combinations practice the four (4) base plays (Dive/ Fake Dive/ Reverse/ Fake Reverse) with one another separate from the rest of the boys. While one of us is working with the three (3) boys we can have the remaining boys (lets hope that all 11 boys show up) work on the blocking assignments correlated to whichever group (Military Unit Name) is practicing the skilled aspects of the plays. (I hope this makes sense) Finally, we need to make sure that we practice with Trevor, Jack and Dexter the role of a defensive end. (contain first – pull flags second) If we can get them to understand containment our backers will eat up any running play.

Ok boys, I think this is enough for now, please let me know if you think I have missed anything. And finally, I just want to thank both of you guys for helping out, it sure makes this a lot more enjoyable when I don’t have to worry about everything during the game.

Peace,

Jon

P.S. As you probably can tell I created the kick off formation .gifs…
P.P.S. Please think of a way to teach the boys their formations to which they belong. (I used the military names because I thought it would be easier to remember than A,B,C or 1,2,3 but I am open to suggestions.)

Bugga played really well, had a number of flag pulls and actually intercepted a pass on the other teams 5 yd line and ran it all the way back down the field and did a sommersault dive into the end-zone for a TD.

This year I am letting the assistant coach take care of the Defense and I actually walk off the field and work with the kids on the sidelines. Last year I had to do it all and it was a lot more stressful, I think we are going to have a lot of fun this year. (see past posts related to winning & fun)

I am conflicted about Culpepper, my buddy Mike a huge Vikings fan, said not to give up on DC just yet. I don’t know though, he sure looked like Culpepper circa 2005 as opposed to the 2004 model I had hoped for. Anyhow, many more games to go this week.

Anyhow, we came out and scored two quick goals to their one goal in the first quarter and I was feeling good about our chances of having “a lot of fun” in the game. So first quarter ends and they start the second quarter and within 10 seconds of kicking the ball off they had scored a goal. Apparently the Pele of the Lehi City 5 & 6 year old soccer league was on their team and their coach was kind enough to sit him out for the first quarter. The second quarter was so scary and ugly for our team that I can’t remember what happened. It is like one of those childhood memories that gets repressed because it is so damaging to the psyche. Anyhow, by the time we were half way through the 4th period I was full on “it isn’t about winning, it’s about having fun” because I didn’t have any other choice. I think they beat us by about 8 or 9 goals. This kid was unbelievable, thoughts of that kid from the Little League world series came to mind who was two years older than everyone else but sneaked into the league, but since his twin sister (the Mia Hamm of the Lehi City League) is also on the team I had to accept my fate.

I did take some solace from a cute statement made by one of the girls on my team during a half time exchange.

“Is it almost over yet Coach?”

“No Abbie, we still have have the same amount of time left that we just played, why, do you not want to play?”

“No coach I want to play, but I really like the treats, the treats are my favorite thing”

So, I think I really do need to focus on the whole “It isn’t about winning, it’s about having fun” especially when the other team has future potential MLS, EPL stars playing…

On another note, my daughter Boo picked up slide tackling yesterday. It wasn’t really a text book slide tackle but it was highly effective. In essence she will run at whoever has the ball and jump forward with both feet extended forward (as if she was doing a bum bounce on a trampoline) and squarely hit the ball and then land on her buttocks. The first time she did it was by accident, then she realized its effectiveness and eventually that is all she would do, so I had to have her stop because she was headed for an accident or serious injury to someone else. (Maybe she should have tried it on Pele)

Last night I went and saw Invincible, the story of Philadelphia Eagles special teams star Vince Papale. I have no recollection of this story from my youth and before the this movie I had no idea who this guy was. I do remember the Eagles losing to the Raiders in Super bowl XV, I was nine years old at the time. Anyhow, I enjoyed this movie a lot and was entertained throughout the show. Some of the things I enjoyed most were:

• The camaraderie of Vince and his friends. The weekly tackle football games and the meeting afterwards at the bar. (that being said I cringed a bit about how quickly they appeared to recover from the games)
• The artistic aspects of the neighborhoods, having grown up in Utah where my parents house was built on a half acre lot I have no frame of reference to inner city living. I just loved how they portrayed everything from the cars to the buildings so close together and the bar as the gathering spot.
• The game against the Cowboys – Staubach, White, Jones walking to the field. These are guys I vividly remember from my youth. As I was watching the movie I can’t even imagine what a person like Vince must have been feeling to walk into that stadium knowing that he was going to be on the field with those guys. That was a goose bumps moment for me.
• The interactions with his father. The scene where his father talks about making it through 30 years on the line due to past Eagles glory is something that I was intrigued by. I have for awhile been fascinated with how people in the big cities latch onto their sports teams and live from season to season. I never fully understood this until I went to New Orleans two years ago on vacation. I decided that I was going to talk about the Saints with everyone I met from New Orleans as a way to create some common ground. It was amazing to me how much passion these people had for the Saints. Almost everyone I spoke to had an opinion, and a strong one at that about what the Saints needed to do in order to win. I did this same thing in Detroit when I went on a business trip. I asked about Roy Williams and how good he was going to be. It was unbelievable how much the folks I spoke with believed he was going to make their lives better because he was going to help the Lions win. Anyhow, I love the love and passion people have for their teams.
• Dick Vermeil actually have the rocks to have an open tryout and then actually picking someone from it for his team, that is great stuff!
• The sound track was cool, and the “feel” of the stadiums was electric, especially in the Dallas game.
• Mark Wahlberg, I enjoy him as an actor.