Mystic Force

Not having to be in Portsmouth is a punishment?

I actually think it takes people how have discovered how to psychologically manipulate people either by careful study or by trial and error for centuries to be able to pull this off. People are drawn into believing these things slowly over time, being persuaded of a little bit more without noticing how far they have actually gone. Or alternatively passing on the belief system to children who do not have a capacity to question, but by the time they are grown up it becomes part of their makeup and hard to reject.

If you have ever seen on youtube "The Atheist Experience" I am firmly of the opinion the only bit of that show that will cause people to change their mind would be the opening song rather than any of the arguments made to the callers. It has bene shown that when you use music you can get ideas past the reasoning part of the brain. That is why music and singing features so prominently in worship services.

I did not really care that there was no god until I moved to America. The conjunction of religion and politics with its opposition to scientific fact is what made me a more strident atheist. Young earth creationism is very much the default position for a very large section of the Evangelical churches, to continue to hold this position requires the rejection of certain scientific knowledge, which then leads to the wholescale rejection of science in general, and to do so there are significant home school programs and religious schools and universities, who have staff required to sign statement that they will agree to certain facts being true, which would rather hinder scientific or historical study, and the information that may be taught. We now have a large and voting wise powerful (due to geographical distribution and rules in place) that have been a hindrance to dealing with a real world demonstration of science. Trumps position on the virus was locked in a self reinforcing position with the evangelical leaders, egging each other on. Science did not have all the answers, but there is a well worn path of how knowledge is acquired, ideas are tested and models improved. This general rejection of science had consequence for how the population reacted to the pandemic. in England I would say that for the most part church is benign gathering place for people, and there is no real requirement to be a certain way. That is not the case in the parts of America I have lived. Despite the times we live in, being an avowed atheist was pretty rare in the Midwest, or Appalachians. Even people who do not go believe it to be true. Where as in the UK most people would these days be indifferent, our religious politics being confined to the past. They are certainty not requiring political choices to only be done in accordance with their religious beliefs. So for you guys back home religion is really not so important a consideration in the practical everyday, that cannot be said to be the same here in the political and cultural, it effects laws, it effects education and it affects who will die.

Sell a player, wait to the following season to replace them and discover that player inflation means that for the amount of money you sold one player you can now only obtain a player with 50% of the ability of the last one, but at the same cost. Then repeat over several seasons.

To be fair most "free speech" promoters are normally only interested in having access to the largest possible megaphone for themselves and would like everyone else to shut up. Its come a long way from the quote attributed to that French bloke Voltaire, "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Police normally shoot people with toy guns the problem should be self correcting.

Yesterdays game was terrible to watch one team not interested in playing and another with only one idea to beat them. The highlight as mentioned before is the Italian assistant manager he reminds me of someone wearing those glasses with the fake nose and moustache attached. But also in an expensive designer suit. I think we win today and edge Italy in the final. Italy looked nothing special against Austria and only just beat Spain. Against Belgium they looked like a proper team, will be interesting to see which version of Italy turns up.

I asked God if he would come and have a chat, he isn't here yet, but I will keep you posted. So at this point thinking no not real. If I had to pick a religion though I would become a Sikh, because I like the head gear. Prove to me Ik Onkar is not the true god.

Do we need a John Smith in between? Not sure to many will volunteer for that one the way it ended..... Okay here is what the Labour Party needs to do say "We fight for the economically marginalized and the socially marginalized" That's what they are meant to do, that's why they exist, often those two groups overlap. I never voted for them as a Liberal but if they do not have that simple message they will never get anywhere.

Keep Sterling out of Shaw's way and we have a chance. I think we have a real chance this time. We are not spectacular, but we seem to be getting it done, we have had luck on our side with opponents bad misses. We seem to have a system that can adapt to the opposition and I think we have enough to beat our next opponent and the one we would face after that. Whoever else ends up in the final would be a tough opponent, and at that point we have to see what we can do. But till then I am quietly confident.

Keeping the names secret so no one gives them a call to warn them off. Resembles me playing Football Manager with the lower league database assembling a team because there is no one in the squad.

Key for our success last night was after the substitution Sterling moved of the left giving Shaw space and also the ball, instead of running into space and then being ignored as sterling preferred a blind alley than giving him the ball. Shaw has been out best player this tournament I think. In the flair vs defense argument to win tournaments, well you play to your strength and what that is for England is a mixed format, not overly defensive like Portugal were playing and not free flowing like brazil would try. Defend when you need to defend, attack when you need to attack. We do not have any outstanding attacking players who can mesmerize opponents with their feat or Usain Bolt past a defense. So even if we looked to play on the counter we do not have the players to capitalize. As for Swe-Ukr that was some game, two solid if not spectacular teams having a slugging match, there was a 15 min period in the second half with balls bouncing off posts. The first period of extra time resembled the results of trench warfare out there with bodies all over the ground. At the end it was a strike from a team who just had the little bit extra left that knocked them out. Not classically skillful but still entertaining. Best news for England is that game will have depleted Ukraine's energy reserves, while we were able to finish it 90 mins with out bunch of walking wounded.

There is something to be said for football going in phases where one style or formation comes into vogue it follows along to a natural pinnacle of that thing as everyone copies and then comes another often overlooked as old fashion thing to knock it of it perch because it exploits a weakness that was not evident playing against other versions of itself. The ever evolving world of football, although any of these can be overcome by an individual moment of brilliance or undone by momentary lapse.

Its more his smug face I find annoying.

No Foden please, is hair annoys me, plus I don't think he is as good as he believes he is. I Blame him for lack of service to Kane in the first two games because he was more interested in passing between him and Philips on the right hand side than actually creating a chance for others. For once I am not too concerned about playing Germany, they are no way as good as in past years and there defense looks vulnerable to a a bit of pace.

If you are the best team in the completion, you have to play the second best team at some point.

What tells me that its where you are from not who you are much of the time is when the bit part players at the big clubs play repeatedly for England, but once they move on to other clubs where they play more regularly never get selected. The likes of Welbeck, Shelvy, Cleverly spring to mind in this regard. None of them really where that great with England either so it makes it hard to argue that it was repeated form for country which kept them there, but that magically evaporated when they went somewhere else.

Hierarchy of football Support England (born there) Mexico (wife) Wales (Grandparent) Scotland (because in UK) N Ireland (because in UK but lets face it smaller country than Scot so less chance) Ireland (Almost UK and don't we all remember when we became Irish in USA '94) USA (I live there) I support these teams in international competitions, if one plays another then the one higher up in the list gets my support. As me sitting in front of the telly makes no difference to the outcome it is probably irrelevant anyway

I have never understood the idea of putting people in a squad who are "great for the locker room" but wont play. You can bring them along anyway if they were that useful just to hang out, join in practice, pump up the spirits without them using up space. And if they become moaning twats for not being picked I am not sure how useful their "locker room" contribution was anyway. Same goes for giving exposure to younger players for a future tournament who you are not going to pick. Breaking News https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/57560206 Mount and Chilwell have to isolate.

In the old days they always aimed for the top corners because they were unsavable, now it is this stupid game theory guessing game. If you are good enough you do not have to guess which the keeper is going or look like a turnip when you try to cheekily put it down the middle and they just stand there. However not that many people are good enough so it is kind of moot.

Studies show intelligent people to be better at fooling themselves by the ability to rationalize.

Science relies on collecting data, you cannot just claim stuff are cures and then go round injecting people with stuff. How science actually works is people who have spent a lot of time acquiring knowledge, but mostly learning how to get a machine to give you a correct number, to use that existing information to make guesses at what would happen if we did something. Then they try varriations of it to see if what they expected to happen did or not, and then use the obtained information to refine it or rule it out. it does not occur when people look at stuff and just say things with no back ground knowledge and no actual measuring. looking at stuff and proclaiming it to be a certain thing without proper study is what philosophers do and there scientific success rate was low.

From the games I have seen the referees have not been very interested in giving out fouls to every contact that players make with each other. It has been quite refreshing.

Managers coming in from less renowned leagues are able to bring some under appreciated gems with them, which is what Koeman seems to have done, and what built Wengers success with the influx of French players when he started at Arsenal. Coming from Germany, a more substantial league then Holland or France of the 90s means that those type of players simply are not floating around in the same way inexpensive and unrecognized. Which players that finish 2nd in the Bundersleague are going to want to come to a bottom half of the premier league team? However playing for the biggest club in Holland, will probably not get you as well payed as a lesser premier league side, plus you are in a bigger shop window. Are model was to be the stepping stone club, which worked great for us. The hits out weighed the misses, but once that progression dried up we no longer look as attractive to those who might want to tread that path, and are capable of delivering the goods, which now leaves us back as an "ordinary" club competing on the same level as those around us. It does not help that our other talent source has also been running dry at this time. So if I was looking for our next manager, I would look for someone who has done decently in a Portugal, Holland or somewhere similar, who seems to punch above their weight from available resources.