Jerry Reese Deposed

As late as mid-season, Jerry Reese, GM of the Giants, was a certified Football God.  In Reese We Trust was the motto of Giants fans.

Reese has joined God on the Nietschean scrap heap in the wake of the Giants' embarrassing loss to the Carolina Panthers in the last game EVER at Giants Stadium.  He looks fallible now, having created a defense that is being discussed as perhaps the worst in Giants history.  For Giants fans, that is intolerable.  We are proud of our history of defense.  To watch our team give up over 40 points FOUR times is something none of us ever thought we would do.  No, Jerry Reese now has something to prove, and he is going to receive a lot of advice on the Internet on how to do it.

Hey, I'm a Wahoo who remembers In Pete We Trust at the apogee of Pete Gillen's tenure at UVA.  We all know how that went.  There are no Gods.

So, Jerry, here is my advice on what the Giants need.  That's right, more unsolicited advice from a lay idiot.

Jerry, we need some scary linebackers.  Have you seen The Blind Side?  Yeah, you know that scene at the start where we see Joe Theismann's career end and the NFL change forever?  That was The Giants.  That IS The Giants.  Get us some scary fucking linebackers.  We have the wimpiest linebacking corps we've ever had.  We need big, fast monsters who are going to fly to the ball, blowing up anybody who gets in their way.  Linebackers who are a threat to crush the QB on a blitz, smother a back two yards behind the line of scrimmage on a sweep, and pulverize a WR on a crossing pattern.

Jerry, shame on you for entering the season with 1.5 NFL safeties.  We need two NFL starting-quality safeties.  I'm sorry about Kenny Phillips, and you get a pass for him, but we have to count on him never coming back.  Michael Johnson needs to be the third or fourth safety.

Jerry, get rid of Osi Umenyiora.  I've never liked his personality.  I think he is selfish and corrosive.  Get rid of Osi, move Canty to end, and bring in a new tackle.  Canty is not built to be a run-plugging tackle.  He's too long.  Canty and Kiwanuka can compete for Umenyiora's spot.  I'm not ready to bail on Rocky Bernard yet, but the Giants need to come to camp with at least two new bona fide starting DL candidates.  We need more push and clog from the DTs, and more plays from the DEs.  Mostly, we need the line to provide base pressure and keep the blockers off our linebackers.

Jerry, the offensive line is creaking.  I don't know why most of our line got Pro Bowl recognition, because the line as a whole was not dominant.  Eli came under a lot of pressure, and the backs didn't have a lot of wide open space.  We need a new starter.  Whether he wins a job this summer, or just forces the coaches to make a tough decision, he will improve the team.  We need one.

More than going down the units, though, the primary needs are turbulence on defense and pressure on offense.  Add a couple players on offense who will create competition in camp.  And the defense needs turnover.  It needs hunger.  It needs a flagship player in the front seven.  A disruptive force who makes opposing OCs install changes to the system when the Giants are up next on the schedule.

The Giants still have the core of a contender.  The QB is in place.  The receiving corps is there, and just needs to be kept fresh.  At least one new WR and one new TE are likely to be on next year's roster, but  not as starters.  The other units have NFL-quality components.  Three or four new players could have a decisive impact.  The changes that are needed can be made with the resources at hand.  The toughest job, of course, is finding that Disruptor.  It's also the most vital.

The coaching staff also needs some turnover.  The defensive staff needs to be blown up and redone.  The special teams need perhaps a new coach, or at least the current coach put on the hot seat.  Coughlin needs to re-evaluate, because his team was poorly coached.  Penalties, mistakes, confusion, poor decisions marked the season.

The Giants will return to the playoffs next year.  It was apparent early on that this was going to be a bad year. I said so in July, because of the injuries.  Next year should be better.  Fewer injuries, a few new players, a professional defensive coordinator, and better coaching will produce a playoff season.

O Holy Night

or Are We Living the Way We Should?

"Truly He taught us to love one another

His law is love and His gospel is peace

Chains He shall break, for the slave is our brother

And in His name all oppression shall cease."

- Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure, 1847

You've probably heard Anita Bryant sing it, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  But not together.  Or probably not even on the same CD.  But if you're like me and make playlists on your iPod, probably on the same playlist.  It's a beautiful song, though in my mind mostly a meaningless hymn to an uncaring god.  I heard the verse above this morning while I was walking through the frozen remains of a Winter Wonderland to buy a package of shredded cheddar cheese, and at the end of it I thought, "Do we live that way?  Really?  Love and peace don't seem to be what our lives are about, and there is plenty of oppression.  If the verse is true about Christ and Christianity, then this supposed 'Christian nation' seems to be a very unChristian place."

No, Christ is no more relevant in America at this time of year than he is at Easter or any other time of year.  Christmas is about Consumption in modern America, where the unifying Creed is a nihilistic narcissism -- or is it a narcissistic nihilism?  Let's stick with the first one.  Narcissism, or extreme self-absorption, without any driving belief or purpose behind it, is the sum of the messages we are fed every day.  As Barbara Eirenreich, Matt Taibbi, and surely others point up, the most visible and vibrant "Christian congregations" in America feed those very same messages, more and more in the very same language.  I claim not to be a Christian, probably mostly because of my disgust with what passes for Christianity today.

This is not a "there was real christianity back when I grew up but it's all gone to rubbish today" rant.  No, I came to the conclusion somewhere around the age of 12 that if Jesus came back today, the Christians would be the pharisees and sadducees he railed against.  He would hang out with -- as he did then -- the whores and druggies, the working poor and the desperate.  Our American government would be the Caesar he would dismiss.  The superrich he would condemn the way he did the ... superrich of his day.  "The poor you will have with you always," he said then.  He may as well have said "the rich you will have with you always," and it would mean roughly the same thing.

No, America has been converting to this Nihilistic Narcissism since at least the mid-60s.  Does it come naturally with hegemony?  Is it the moral complacency of the man on top?

all good things come to an end

the second law of thermodynamics

for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction

actions have unintended and unforeseen consequences

matter is neither cerated nor destroyed

to do one thing is to foreclose the opportunity to do something else

These are all things that we know to be true: natural laws, if you will.  And yet, we as individuals and a society live as if none of them apply to us, as if we can get around them.  We live like children who think they are getting one by their parents.  In fact, I argue that modern society is designed to reduce all Men to the status of children.  It is a conspiracy, a Conspiracy of Everyone.  They are conspiring to control us, and we are conspiring to give up responsibility.

We've also turned away from our received wisdom.  The "old sayings" and the biblical principles and the findings of writers and thinkers from ancient times -- or any time before our own.  The "old sayings" became cliches because they were the product of generations of experience.  We don't listen to things like "neither a borrower nor a lender be," "judge not lest ye be judged," and the Seven Deadly Sins.  No, that's all old-fashioned and not applicable to The Modern World."

No, in The Modern World, our job as citizens is to Consume.  Borrow to the limit of our income stream's capacity, then beyond.  Always Procure More.  We must do so in order for the economy to constantly expand, and produce More and Greater Profits.  Take care of your credit score, it is your measure of personal value.  If you want it, go for it.  If you want to do it, just do it.  You can have it all.  Have it your way.  You can be whatever you want to be, if you just put your mind to it.  Extreme.  No limits.

I don't want to continue to live that way.  It is unsustainable.  I want to live in a way that if the system collapsed tomorrow, I would be able to survive.  What if I had to be a hunter-gatherer again?  Or with a little agriculture?  I want to use only cash and think about others and be part of a community that is concerned for each other and takes care of all.  I want to not watch TV, and keep my mind free of the messages from the narcissism culture.

"Rise up rise up

With wings like eagles

You run and don't grow weary

Take my hand

and Hold on

Hold on tightly"

It's Christmas Day.  The holiday means very little to me.  It seems to have more of a negative meaning to most people.  They approach it with a desperateness and panic that indicates fear of disapproval.  Damn, I don't want to go shopping for gifts, but everybody will get pissed if I don't get them something good.  Gotta have the most extravagant light display.  Gotta get together with family even though none of you might really want to do it.  Supposedly to celebrate something very few of us really believe in.  It's a fake holiday, a creation of charlatans and advertisers.  And there I was at 6 AM, in Walgreens, looking for something for my wife, because I knew my effort had been insufficient.  And in a few hours, I will climb into my car and drive hours to eat with my parents, which none of us really want to do.  Oh well, can't change the world in a day.

It was nice to see on the local news last night that Ukrops workers are considering unionization. I hope to see an increased spread of union activity. We need it. What are unions but like-minded people banding together to obtain their interests? It's ok when rich people do it, so why isn't it ok when working people do it?

We need fundamental changes. Those are not going to come by electing a cool new guy president then going back to our idle pursuits or life on the hamster wheel and expecting him to do it all for us. No, it's not going to take long for him to start seeing things the power elite's way when those people are the only ones he is exposed to and the only ones presenting their opinions. Fundamental change comes from the people.

Let's start rebuilding our families. Maybe the economy will force us to do what we need to do anyway, and that is recombine extended families. Atomized individuals are far easier to control from on high than are groups of people joined by powerful bonds. Why do you think the messages of the organs of social control (including every major media outlet and in particular anything you see on TV) work so hard to promote extreme individualism and an ideology of pure self-interest?

Barbara Ehrenreich is my new favorite writer. She is a wonderful social critic. Start reading all her books. I have just recently read Bright-Sided and This Land Is Their Land. I want to read several others. Nickel and Dimed was another great book. I read parts of it while browsing in Barnes & Noble a year or so ago.

Every time I sit down and watch TV, I want to try not to buy anything I see advertised or even mentioned. Everything on TV is manufactured. Every show, every ad is manufactured to manipulate the viewer. Your thoughts, ideas, feelings and viewpoint are being shaped by everything broadcast on TV, whether over the air or through cable. Every thought expressed on TV has been approved by someone with enough money to get on TV. The more we rely on TV (and movies) for our thinking, the more we permit the millionaires and billionaires to dictate our ideology. Do you think they are doing so for OUR benefit? Of course not. They do so for their own, which benefits us only so far as our interests are in line with theirs.

The Giants' season is on life support. We have to win our last three games to make the playoffs, but if we do so, our chances are good. If Dallas goes 2-1 and we go 3-0, we are in regardless of what anyone else does. Dallas has to play New Orleans and Philadelphia. I don't see them winning both of those. Of course, the Giants winning three is not much more plausible. Minnesota is at worst the second best team in the conference, and they might be playing for home field advantage. If we don't beat Washington, we don't deserve the playoffs. I don't know the third opponent. Carolina. Could go either way. Probably no playoffs with 2-1, but given the Cowboys' propensity to choke on their T-bones in December, still not out of the question.

I lost my moleskine journal. I need to find it.

The Army of the Unemployed

Turning that loathsome term against the power elite. The "army of the unemployed" is a term I picked up some time in my childhood. It is supposed to be those unemployed workers who stand as a silent threat to labor that "you can be replaced," keeping wages and employee demands low. We have a large army of the unemployed in this country, and it skews very young.

I propose forming them into an Army of the Unemployed, people who have the freedom (Joplin definition) and the time to agitate for real social change. Many of them will have the motivation. The stereotypical Unemployed Man can be the foot soldiers, and the college kids and recent college grads can be the officers. The high command will use them in nonviolent campaigns of illegal social protest. What is an illegal social protest? A perfect example would be an unpermitted parade down 14th Street, or a demonstration that gets too close to a public building members of the power elite frequent at a time when one or more of them typically enter or leave. Not to threaten them, just to make them aware of your presence, to confront them in human terms with the losers they've plundered.