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Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan

Sunday, September 8, 2013

#Finally! 2013 NFL season is finally here! My counter-intuitive predictions for the 2013 Miami Dolphins season is they stumble to 5-11; Over-valued, under-performing players plus a very tough early schedule may well render Dolphins winless by Bye week in Week 6; USA Today, Dan Patrick and Peter King's Super Bowl picks; Say hello again to our old friend, NFL East Coast/Cowboys bias!; @nfl, @SI_PeterKing, #Lombardi

Above, the scene on August 6th at my table at the Panera Bread in Hallandale Beach, FL, while sipping my Hazelnut coffee and munching on my Everything bagel. August 6, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
The moment I spied this Miami Herald sports section with a cover photo showing Miami Dolphin QB Ryan Tannehill's poor footwork in throwing a pass -NOT properly planted, NOT properly using his hips to throw the ball, but instead, going with the sort of off-stride sidearm delivery you see from a shortstop moving to his right who fumbles the ball and who's then rushing a throw to try to catch a speedy runner at first- and then saw the a propos headline reading, "Critics pan Tannehill, Dolphins," I instantly knew this would be the photo that I used for my predictions for the 2013 Dolphins season.

Despite having a great arm, whether you call it a gun, a rifle or bazooka, last year Tannehill's consistently poor footwork (and plain awkwardness) and his failure to consistently follow through on his throws, led to far too many passes not being right where they need to be when his receivers were open, which is why I've chosen to use the photo at the top.

And since every fan and observer of the Dolphins has known that one of the big problems that has plagued their receiving corps for years has been their inability to create separation, when they DO have some separation, Tannehill needs to be MUCH MORE ACCURATE.

I saw far too many wasted opportunities last year in games when they were still competitive, but when you don't take advantage, those close games become two TD deficits.

Tannehill and the photo of him is the Dolphins in a nutshell from my vantage point -they have the obvious ability, but do they have the means and will to get noticeably better?
That's an open question.

The difference between a successful person and others isn't a lack of strength, a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will. #Lombardi
— Krysta Bear (@KrystaBear95) September 2, 2013

It's great to hear he's showing improvement in practice, but late in a close game, will Tannehill revert back to bad habits? 

 Especially against a team whose defensive linemen consistently raises its hands at the line of scrimmage, as the Texans did so successfully last year, when Tannehill never adjusted, to the dismay of fans watching at home, who thought it seemed so obvious?

 But instead of having Tannehill roll-out on some passes to break that pattern, they just kept doing the same thing that never worked, extending their record of futility against the Texans, a team they've never beaten in a regular season game, an embarrassing fact considering they were an expansion team. 

And so, that idea about Tannehill from a month ago has become reality today on the blog as the Dolphins start their 47th season in Cleveland against a rapidly-improving Browns team -a team with a new offensive-minded head coach with U-M ties, Rob Chudzinski - that unlike the Dolphins in my opinion, have multiple playmakers on both sides of the ball.



*My last post on the Dolphins was my August 25th one here titled, Happy Miami Dolphins Anniversary; For some, the Dolphins' glory is like faded photographs in an album, but to me, it is as fresh in my mind as anything else in my memory. I only wish the people running and coaching the team now cared as much as I and some others do, who know what it's like to see and appreciate a thing of beauty -perfection- up-close and personal; Sports Fan in Chief Obama Honors Champion 1972 Miami Dolphins at White House

To quote myself above:
99% of anyone you see or speak to who is 27 or younger has NEVER BEEN ALIVE when the Dolphins were playing in a Super Bowl game.Now that's some perspective that really says something profound.
For the Jets, that's people who are 44-years old or younger.
Just saying...





The Herald photo and the headline fit everything I knew and have seen -and what most honest and discerning Dolphin fans and I have NOT seen- during the off-season and the five preseason games, which this year, included the Hall of Fame game in Canton against the Cowboys, who will likely share many of the Dolphin problems this year, namely, unrealized and unrealistic expectations for big improvement.

As regular readers of the blog and those who know the powers of the NFL's East Coast/
Cowboys bias, being bad will NOT prevent the Cowboys from being on national TV more than they should and even more than some of the better teams.
That's just how the NFL rolls.

The Cowboys get on high-profile TV times because... well just because its what the NFL and madison Avenue have been doing by rote for years, so they do it by default, despite the facts that the Cowboys last won a playoff game when?

Based on looking at the Cowboys schedule, it looks to me like 7 of their 16 games will be nationally-televised games, par for the course of late.

Why do you suppose tonight's NBC game is the Giants vs. the Cowboys instead of the 49ers and Packers, even though there's more interest in the latter game and not the former?
The same reason the NFL doesn't, hypothetically, have a Giants at Oakland game as the second part of the ESPN Monday Night doubleheader to start the year off.

There is no equality among the NFL's 32 teams as far as the NFL's TV folks are concerned, there's merely the illusion of equality.
To think otherwise is to publicly declare yourself naive.
http://mmqb.si.com/2013/09/06/eli-manning-new-york-giants-dallas-cowboys/

And so begins another year of irrelevance for the Miami Dolphins, to join all the ones that have come before the past 15 years.

Based on what I have seen, I think Jeff Fisher was right to turn down the Dolphins job last year and go with Rams, as in 2nd year of Joe Philbin head coaching experiment in Miami, it's entirely possible that lackadaisical Dolphins, poised for what I believe could be a yet another completely inconsequential season, may also be winless by their Bye in Week 6, and only 1-6 going into a nationally-televised Thursday night home game on Halloween Night against the offensive-minded Bengals that could well turn into rout in second-half.

With the Dolphins given an extra week to practice and play because of their Hall of Fame game and yet with little to show for that extra week in terms of Ryan Tannehill to Mike Wallace synergy in evidence, I am ready to say that I'm completely underwhelmed by almost every aspect of the team  and its coaching staff I have observed, save their rookie kicker, Caleb Sturgis, who could well be their MVP if that tells you anything.

For me at least, it's been like watching kids playing on 75-pound Optimist teams: I see lots of players whom I've never heard of and who never seem to get better or learn from their mistakes -just repeat them in new and more frustrating ways. 
(Yes, like the Miami Herald and the City of Hallandale Beach and Broward County and...)

How many plays per games are their #1 and #2 draft picks of the past 5 years actually playing? It's embarrassing!
Who moves up to #3 in the entire draft to select someone -Dion Jordan- who, it was speculated, might not even play the season-opener?
Guilty.

1 SEP 8  1:00 PM EDT * AT   BROWNS 
2 SEP 15  1:00PM EDT * AT   COLTS 
3 SEP 22  4:05PM EDT )   FALCONS 
4 SEP 30  8:40PM EDT + AT   SAINTS 
5 OCT 6  1:00PM EDT *   RAVENS 
6 BYE 
7 OCT 20  1:00PM EDT *   BILLS 
8 OCT 27  1:00PM EDT * AT   PATRIOTS 
9 OCT 31  8:25PM EDT ,   BENGALS 
10 NOV 11  8:40PM EST + AT   BUCCANEERS 
11 NOV 17  1:00PM EST *   CHARGERS 
12 NOV 24  1:00PM EST    PANTHERS 
13 DEC 1  1:00PM EST * AT   JETS 
14 DEC 8  1:00PM EST * AT   STEELERS 
15 DEC 15  1:00PM EST *   PATRIOTS 
16 DEC 22  1:00PM EST * AT   BILLS 
17 DEC 29  1:00PM EST *   JETS

In the Historical Dept., I honestly think this Dolphins season may be the one where they travel west less than any regular season since I first started following them in 1970, as the farthest west they go is New Orleans. Weird.


Postcards from training camp: Miami Dolphins Source:SI The MMQB editor-in-chief Peter King discusses the loss of tight end Dustin Keller and the role rookie Dion Jordan is expected to play for the Dolphin's defense.

Veteran Sports Illustrated writer and frequent Dan Patrick Show guest Peter King sees them as a 6-10 team, while CBS Sports/nfl.com writer Pat Kirwan sees the Dolphins as slightly better at 7-9.
My friends, I think in mid-November, we'll all be thinking that a 7-9 record would be nothing short of a small miracle, with 5-11 my actual prediction, but 4-12 a real strong possibility, too.
http://mmqb.si.com/column/monday-morning-quarterback/
https://twitter.com/theMMQB/the-mmqb
Peter King @SI_PeterKing https://twitter.com/SI_PeterKing

There's still room for big improvement, but I can't help but wonder if a terrible start -as I expect- will tap the emotional resolve of many of the younger players who seem not quite as intense as players and teams of the past.
Yes, consistently inconsistent effort and serial under-performance in the clutch have been the hallmark of the Dolphins since I returned to South Florida almost ten years ago from the Washington D.C. area, where I probably saw about 70% of their games.   

I'm not a big believer in cautious optimism for NFL football teams, because at this level, with teams so even, I believe there has to be something that your team does well consistently that you can draw strength from when you get behind against better-quality teams.
Unfortunately for the Dolphins, I see that being their kicking game.
That's why, unfortunately, a record of 5-11 sounds pretty accurate to me.


'GameDay': 2013 Bold Predictions 
Published: Sept. 4, 2013 at 11:25 p.m
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-gameday/0ap2000000238524/GameDay-2013-Bold-Predictions




USA TODAY Sports' 2013 NFL predictions 
Staff report, USA TODAY Sports
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2013/09/04/2013-staff-picks-season-predictions/2768317/


TheDanPatrickShow YouTube Channel video: Peter King on the Dan Patrick Show 9/3/13. Peter's Super Bowl prediction is Seattle vs. New England. Uploaded September 6, 2013. http://youtu.be/ayQPoUyVkU4


TheDanPatrickShow YouTube Channel video: Dan's Super Bowl Picks 9/4/13. 
Dan's prediction is Denver Broncos over Seattle Seahawks at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on February 2nd in Super Bowl XLVIII, which everyone I know -plus me-hopes is a snowstorm. Uploaded September 4, 2013. http://youtu.be/ziuas6ZKKeU

TheDanPatrickShow YouTube Channel video: Rich Eisen on the Dan Patrick Show 9/6/13. Uploaded September 6, 2013. http://youtu.be/zFDuJJW9_zI

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Friday, September 6, 2013

Crime and (No) Punishment in Hallandale Beach: Observations on Rachel Mendleson's spot-on Toronto Star article on January's double-homicide of a Toronto-area couple in the Three Islands neighborhood of Hallandale Beach, which remains unsolved 8 months later. I still believe the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. has done a very poor job of engaging in outreach and making it as easy as possible for the community to access relevant info about the case that could prove helpful, just as HBPD and HB Crime Watch completely botched public outreach in 2010 following the disappearance of HB resident Lynda Robin Meier, who has never been found. Just like others at HB City Hall, HBPD continues to never learn from experience





















Below, excerpts from my email of Thursday afternoon to certain concerned residents of Hallandale Beach, Hollywood and people in South Florida and Tallahassee with an interest in public affairs in Southeast Broward County, plus selected news reporters who know a story when it is staring at them from a silver platter I've handed them.

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Canada's largest daily newspaper, the Toronto Star, has an update today, below, on January's double-homicide of Toronto-area snowbirds in the Three Islands neighborhood of Hallandale Beach.


Toronto Star
Unsolved Hallandale Beach Florida murders leave family ‘broken’: Exclusive
Toronto snowbirds Rochelle Wise and Donny Pichosky died eight months ago; their son is issuing a plea for help in solving the case.
By Rachel Mendleson, News reporter
Published on Thu Sep 05 2013
At first glance, it was almost as though nothing had changed.
It was late March, more than three months after his mother and her husband were killed in their Hallandale Beach condo, and Jamie Wise was in Florida for Passover.
The investigators had finished collecting evidence. They told him he could visit the scene.
Read the rest of the article at:

Some of you recall receiving emails from me in Stockholm a few days after it happened when I first read about it online on my trip, asking what-if-anything was known and whether there was actually a rapid public information outreach campaign taking place in the general area, or, was it the usual HBPD routine of chasing-its-tail, as was the case with the Lynda Meier 
disappearance in 2010, which got me so angry because HBPD and HB Crime Watch -then led by Alexander Lewy before he was elected a City Commissioner months later-
didn't even do the bare minimum you'd expect in such a case, or routinely seen done in a TV drama or film.
Things we have a reasonable right to expect.

Just 2 of the 4 blog posts on that case 

Yes, that jaw-dropping 2010 fiasco where the HB Police Dept. NEVER put up ANY flyers
at ANY of the dozens of parks, restaurants, retail stores, parks that residents visit daily, in the days immediately after Meier's disappearance, where a possible witness may've been found.
Not one.

They NEVER even so much as put one up at next door City Hall, but sure as hell, there was a 
taped missing poster for someone's pet at the time, right next to the front door of the Police Dept.. 
But not for Lynda Meier.

Yes, I still have THAT incriminating photo of the missing pet flyer at City Hall, just like I still have the photos of all the dozens and dozens of storefront windows that had nothing in them about this missing HB resident, even though store/restaurant owners and managers that I personally spoke to in-person all over the city unanimously said they'd have put one up IF the HB Police Dept. or HB Crime Watch had merely asked them to.
But they NEVER asked!

And where exactly was the HB Crime Watch crew under Alexander Lewy, who never said anything the least bit critical about what Thomas Magill was doing or saying -or not doing- all those years when he was police chief, and alive?
Sitting on their ass!

They sure the hell weren't passing out flyers at the busy intersections or stores or restaurants we know from the released video of her car driving west on U.S.-1, like would be done in other cities across the country in the first 72 hours, when time is of the essence in looking for her and any prospective witnesses.

As some of you know from my past emails -and by my standards- a very short blog  post in February,
for months I've publicly criticized the HB Police Dept.'s communication efforts to the public of info/photo of this "person of interest" at Venetian Park that was NOT immediately visible (and available) on the city's website, as would be common in most cities.
Why?

The HBPD, the HB Police Chief and the HB City Manager won't say why it was made so intentionally difficult for the public to even find that photo -and still is, eight months later- on the very, very remote chance they even saw something or knew something, given that the video shows such a small area that was perhaps barely visible to anyone walking thru the parking lot in front.

So, knowing how very tenuous and short people's memories are for even important
things, much less, fleeting things that they did NOT connect to the murders, why did
it take 4 months before flyers with relevant info were ever seen on bulletin boards around
town at popular places, like at Panera Bread, one of few places in town with a bulletin board?

And why were there no visible displayed flyers in the neighborhood in the weeks and months
afterwards even while you could, with some looking, still find flyers for lost pets?
Not even near the so-called security gate to Golden Islands on Atlantic Shores Blvd.
I NEVER saw a single one -and I was actively looking for them, as many of you know  
from past conversations.

Is it any wonder that as is being reported here, HBPD has NOT had a new lead or tip in a month when their initial public outreach efforts were so feeble?
This is the same crew that would NOT allow a HB City Commissioner to attend a meeting of
the complex's residents.
A City Commissioner who only lives a few blocks away and far closer to the scene of the horrible crime than anyone else on the City Commission.

Why did so many WEEKS pass between that initial meeting, mentioned by every local TV
station and newspaper, and when that photo was actually made public thru a press conference and actually placed on the city's second-rate website, albeit, NOT right where you could see it, but rather requiring you to jump thru 3-5 more hoops and links to see it. 
IF you knew what you were doing!

Precisely the wrong way to do something that would actually
help HBPD resolve the case by pointing them in the right direction.

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Selected excerpt below is from my email to the woman outside of HB who
was in charge of reviewing HBPD's documents re accreditation, which many
of you have seen before in prior emails.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, Jun 6, 2013 at 7:00 PM

Follow-up re Hallandale beach Police Dept. accreditation

...On May 13th,  I went over to Panera Bread, a place that I usually go about twice a week, but which I hadn't been to for over a week due to my busy schedule.

The public bulletin board in that restaurant used to be full all-the-time, but for whatever reasons, starting just before the election thru the last week, has attracted few flyers or public notices.
Since that place is very popular, and that bulletin even more so, it was very noticeable to my friends and I, but who can say why it was suddenly so bereft of info?

Anyway, after got my coffee and bagel and the coffee was too hot to drink, as usual, I placed them down at a table near a friend and walked back to see if there was anything on the bulletin board, and what do you suppose I found?

Yes, almost FOUR MONTHS after it would've mattered and might've actually done some positive, two HBPD flyers re the twin murders from January suddenly appeared out-of-the-blue.

Since I'm a familiar face there, I asked some employees there how long the flyers had been up and it was just as I described -they were put up sometime within the previous few days, when I hadn't come by.

But the two victims were killed on January 9th, so why did it take almost FOUR MONTHS for HBPD to place the flyers in a place that is one of the single most-popular places in town, and located within a mile of the
murder site at Venetian Park?
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Thursday, September 5, 2013

More on President Obama's historic trip to Sweden, and sharing some cold hard facts, anecdotes and lessons learned re Sverige; #obamainsweden, @Swedense, @CBildt, @AnnelieGregor, @hannawagenius, @davidlinden1


















Joint statement by Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and President Barack Obama: http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/16999/a/222806

 More official photos! http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/17736

 SVT's photo gallery of Wednesday's events: 
http://www.svt.se/nyheter/varlden/bildextra-obama-i-sverige

 SvD's account of Thursday morning's events so far:
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/live-obama-i-sverige-del-3_8488844.svd









Nima Sanandaji is spot-on in highlighting what so many others ignore, whether consciously or accidentally. There were unique factors present in Sweden that allowed a certain sort of culture and ethos to develop and flourish that were NOT possible in countries where transportation and social mobility was far better and where larger centers of industrialization could lure larger numbers of rural residents.

 In rural areas, especially during the many months of very cold weather, you absolutely needed to be able to trust and depend upon your neighbor, even if they were located quite a distance from you. Self-reliance and the bond of community, things so very much absent in current South Florida, with the predictable results we can see all around us:  
Sweden’s phenomenal growth can, besides business friendly policies, has much to do with the country’s unique history. Nordic countries were for a long period dominated by independent farmers who had great incentives to work hard in order to survive in the harsh and cold climate. The populations in these homogenous countries not only adapted very strong ethics relating to work and responsibility, but their culture also became characterized by social cohesion and high levels of trust.
http://www.newgeography.com/content/003909-swedish-lessons-obama

 Similarly...



Joel Kotkin correctly identifies another central aspect of what has made Sweden what it is and has made the areas of the U.S. that Swedish emigrants settled in more successful than others: 
Scandinavia's greatest strength may lie in its least political correct asset: its Nordic culture. Scandinavians' traditional interest in education, hard work and good governance serves them well both at home and abroad. It's not socialism that is primarily responsible.
After all, America's Scandinavians, although largely the descendents of poor immigrants also are pretty successful, earning more on average than their counterparts back home. 



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One of the differences I've observed first-hand between American and Swedish women who are interested in politics and foreign policy is that smart, funny and attractive women in Sweden who are interested in those areas aren't as snobbish or smugly elitist as Americans, like to talk more frequently and passionately about big ideas like freedom and liberty and NOT about how they became vegans, don't seek to win arguments based on painting themselves as victims of "society," don't talk incessantly about yoga, pilates or their career, but have no problem in making public their love for the occasional fast food snacks. 
Par exemple, Hanna Wagenius. http://missbesserwisser.blogspot.com/

 Nothing to do with Obama visit but I find this CUF video of hers droll and amusing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x5qvssI-IQ&feature=share&list=TLp16zPHqyoo0

 Puss och kram på dig!


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 http://anneliegregor.wordpress.com/
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For someone like me who is a longtime recycling enthusiast, one of the best things about Sweden is the average person's commitment to keeping the city and nature free of debris. 
You pay a few SEK for products packaged in recyclable plastic or aluminum, like sodas, at both stores and from vendors, but get your money back via self-serve machines when you recycle at stores. 
All of this gives people a real  financial incentive to return items to stores, as well as for others to pick-up any you see lying on roads or in parks and get that money, which is one of the reasons that Stockholm is SO CLEAN!
Though I'm a committed meat-eater, especially when it comes to pizza, this actually looks good enough to try next time I'm in Stockholm, at Kungstensgatan 62.
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Anyone wanting an accurate account of the problem in Sweden of the lack of successful Muslim assimilation in Europe ought to read my post of September 17, 2012 titled, re Fouad Ajami's Washington Post essay: Why is the Muslim world so easily offended?; What Muslim "moderates"?; Målmo as the European canary-in-the-coal-mine doesn't auger well for the success of Muslim "moderates" or assimilation efforts; #MUSLIMRAGE
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/re-fouad-ajamis-washington-post-essay.html

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