That's remarkable. Cant really say much. To just play at that level, let alone until your 6O is simply amazing. I'm happy being able to mow the lawn
at my age.. Stay healthy. Lee n 10/7/2014 5:26 AM, schalestock@xxxxxxxx wrote:
Lee, Since you asked...I was playing in college in the sixties (American University in DC) and also with the British embassy when the first pro team (Washington Darts) was formed. I met the coach (Charlie "Cannonball Fleming" at a party at the embassy and we became friends. Charlie had played for Sunderland when they were the English powerhouse and got his nickname, "Cannonball" because he was said to have the hardest shot in English soccer at the time. The owner of the team (another Scotsman - Norman Sutherland), being the cheap skate he was, hired 7 of the Jamaican national team. They weren't bad players but not at the level of our competition. Norman then brought over a couple of Scottish internationals, Billy Fraser who had played in England for Huddersfield and then Hearts in Edinburgh, and Johnny Kerr who went on to have a great career in America. He played for the legendary Cosmos in New York along with Pele and Beckenbauer and eventually became the players rep for the league. He was a great guy and a great player. His son John Jr who I helped coach as a kid, went on to be the first American born player to play in the English First Division. Billy was only 21 at the time and a terrific player. We ended up rooming together and he taught me a lot. Norman thought it would be good to have :"token" American on the team so I ended up training with them under an amateur contract. (keep in mind that in the '60s, except for St. Louis and Baltimore, Americans playing soccer were minimal. In fact, when we would give clinics, maybe only 5 kids (dragged by their mothers) would even show up. We've come a long way in this country for sure! We played Santos in an exhibition game at RFK stadium when Pele was still playing for them. What a night! We were up 3 - 0 at halftime an the Jamaicans were going crazy. Billy just laughed and told me, wait for the second half. (he had played against Santos in Europe.) Sure enough, we lost 7-3. Pele and the boys were just being polite to their hosts in the first half. (which I found out later was their normal procedure when playing exhibitions against inferior teams.) It was like a switch was thrown and we (mostly the Jamaicans) were like not even in the game. I then went out to LA and played with Thistle FC, another Scottish team based in Santa Monica. That too was a learning experience. When I started going to sea on a regular basis, I would look for a pick up game in whatever country I was in. Two stick in my memory. Beach soccer in Santos went on 24/7 under the lights, complete with Samba music and barbeque's. In Buenos Aires, at the Areoparke by the river, it was like a Serengeti Plains of football on the weekends - dozens of games going on. One neat thing about the Argentines (back then at least) was that during the off season, the pros would join in these games. (nothing you would see from an American professional team!) I actually played in a pickup game with Maradona present ! I continued to play, moving down the geezer food chain into the Sunday amateur leagues until I was 60 years old. I 'd still be playing except for making a cosmic mistake. When at a soccer reunion of guys I had played with and against for 30 years, I made the mistake of saying I had never had a knee injury (all the others were showing their scars.) I forgot the universe is always listening. The very next weekend game, I went up for a header and my cleats caught in the rutted ground. Felt the knee go and knew (before I hit the ground) that my career was over. I had a good long run so can't complain. Though I DO miss the game.I play a lot of golf now. Another challenge ! (and new obsession.) JS ---------- Original Message ---------- From: "Lee, NI7I" <pixiehat@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [sparkscoffee] Re: Obama & Holder Destroy the Constitution Date: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 16:11:50 -0700Were you a professional? footballer?? We (or at least I tend to) tend to forget that most of us had other lives outside going to sea for a living.? Would love to hear some of your (cleaned up versions) stories of professional sports.Lee NI7I On 10/5/2014 10:54 AM, schalestock@xxxxxxxx wrote: RR ? You put your finger on something that I have always found amazing and utterly illogical. Treat them like they treat others and they cry like babies. ? I used to see this on the soccer field. 30 something yuppies, thinking they were being "clever" would intentional trip or kick other players.? Having played professionally against hard men who never did anything they didn't mean to,?it first made me laugh and then angry. When I retaliated, the referee never saw it. But these pathetic babies would squeal like little girls. How DARE anyone do what they were doing to others. This, as you say, is their mentality - and why nothing short of a punch in the nose will ever get through to them. ? ? JS ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Ron Ristad <ristad@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [sparkscoffee] Re: Obama & Holder Destroy the Constitution Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2014 11:26:05 -0600 (GMT-06:00) JS, You don't seem to understand Stanley's culture. With these people your are either with them or against them. They are no different than ISIS except they are a little more tactful and they cry like babies when they are treated the same way they treat others. -RR -----Original Message----- From: "schalestock@xxxxxxxx" <schalestock@xxxxxxxx> Sent: Oct 5, 2014 10:37 AM To: sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [sparkscoffee] Re: Obama & Holder Destroy the Constitution Stanley, ? I can only marvel at the labyrinth of your mind. What is hell does FDR have to do with Churchill's comments on democracy?? Inquiring minds would like to know.? Can you please try an stay focused on the point under discussion. ? JS ---------- Original Message ---------- From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "sblumen123@xxxxxxx" for DMARC) To: sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [sparkscoffee] Re: Obama & Holder Destroy the Constitution Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2014 11:59:00 -0400 ? JS This post of yours exposes how short sighted, shallow thinking?a memory you have. Winston Churchill owes FDR for saveing England from most likely a successful invasion by Hitler when they signed a Lend-lease agreement and 50 older Destroyers and a lot of other war material was given?almost immediately. It was you who pissed all over FDR for getting us into?WW2 which Hitler might have won if we didn't get into?which was one good war?that must be?won. In my humble opinion WC would think?quite lowly of your condemnation of long sighted FDR although most everyone has some faults including them, me and you. ? Comrade B, the realist mensch ? ?? ? ? -----Original Message----- From: schalestock <schalestock@xxxxxxxx> To: sparkscoffee <sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sat, Oct 4, 2014 12:33 pm Subject: [sparkscoffee] Re: Obama & Holder Destroy the Constitution RR ? Well, as Churchill said, "Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others."? I think what he was really getting at is that democracy, illusory or otherwise, is a vicarious substitue for violence and anarchy.? Which fits nicely with Jefferson's observation that American democracy can only work if the elected have some modicum of integrey.? We see the proof of that with Obama - albeit the negative side of the coin. ? JS ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Ron Ristad <ristad@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:ristad@xxxxxxxxxxx>> To: sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [sparkscoffee] Re: Obama & Holder Destroy the Constitution Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2014 10:00:36 -0600 (GMT-06:00) ? JS, It seems to me that anybody who votes for one party or another, Democrat or Republican, is a socialist since voting for any party is collectivism.? I see no fundamental differences between the two parties.? They only pretend to have differences. I agree that things are going to get a lot worse.? I see no other possible outcome, at least for the vast majority of Americans. The new definition of success will be just to survive. -RR -----Original Message----- From: "schalestock@xxxxxxxx <mailto:schalestock@xxxxxxxx>" <schalestock@xxxxxxxx <mailto:schalestock@xxxxxxxx>> Sent: Oct 4, 2014 5:04 AM To: sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [sparkscoffee] Re: Obama & Holder Destroy the Constitution RR ? A thoughtful and interesting post. Personally, I think the rising tide of lawlessness in this country can, in part, be laid at the feet of the Obama/Holder dictatorship. People sense that the law is meaningless anymore - Or as Obama is positing, the law is what I say it is. ? One only has to read Obama's book, Dreams of my Father, to gain an insight into his mindset.? His absent, psychopathic racist?father told him that he believed in 100% taxation with the "government" dispensing favors to the compliant. This is the classic African tribal chief mentality - all power, all privilege, no responsibility.? When you couple this with Obama's neurotic ditsy mother and his hard core Socialist grandparents, its little wonder he thinks and acts as he does. ? But the supreme irony is that enough of the American people bought into his bullshit about "fundamentally changing America".?? Just the statement alone should have been enough to raise the red flag. But the voting demographics that elected him tell the whole tale. 90% African Americans (not surprising), the stupid white (educated) females and their wimp eunuch cohorts, and of course, the cynical democrat politicians that don't give a rat's ass about the country as long as they stay in power. ? I'm afraid things are going to have to get a lot worse before they get better - if in fact they ever do before we are irrevocably and "fundamentally changed". ? JS ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Ron Ristad <ristad@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:ristad@xxxxxxxxxxx>> To: sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [sparkscoffee] Obama & Holder Destroy the Constitution Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2014 09:34:35 -0600 (GMT-06:00) ? Posted on October 3, 2014 by Martin Armstrong I have studied Constitutional Law intensely and I can say with conviction that history will indeed remember Eric Holder and his mentor Obama for much more than merely the top 9 controversial issues everyone writes about. Mr. Holder?s more than five years as the nation?s chief legal officer has been absolutely devastating to the future of the nation and the Rule of Law. This goes far beyond merely the NSA, IRS scandal and the State Department scandals. Barack Obama ?s White House has done serious long-term damage to the world economy and the civil rights of every American. Obama and Holder pushed the authority of the executive branch of the federal government far beyond any democratic process. The administrative agencies under the Executive branch have gone well beyond the edge of the Constitution and law in a systemic manner that is truly breath-taking. Unlike previous presidencies where there was just one controversial instance, the Obama-Holder team have embarked on virtually a dictatorship under the pretense of democracy. I do not say this lightly nor as a political partisan. Everyone who has ever studied law had basic rules that government simply could not go beyond ? they just can?t do that! Everyone in the legal community if they spoke freely has now learned that what they took for granted as clear meaning of existing law just no longer applies. Once you undermine the Rule of Law, everything else collapses for in the end game, you cannot even prove you own anything when it is subject to interpretation and discretion. In 2011, the Obama-Holder tag-team just did what they wanted anyway ignoring the Judiciary regarding off-shore oil drilling. Believe it or not, Federal Judge Martin Feldman found the government in contempt holding: ?Each step the government took following the court?s imposition of a preliminary injunction showcases its defiance.? Of course nobody goes to jail for how can you order the Justice Department to put itself in jail for contempt? This is why we need an independently elected Roman Tribune who can prosecute anyone in government and is outside the Executive Branch. We call that a Special Prosecutor to investigate a president ? well we need a real elected office of Tribune to secure the Constitution and be able to criminal charge Obama, Holder, or John Boehner . The Obama-Holder? tag-team has effectively made federal legal authority boundless eliminating any restraint upon government as Obama justified the actions of the NSA saying you have to give up liberty to be safe. ?I think the American people understand that there are some trade-offs involved,? Obama said when questioned by reporters at a health care event in San Jose, Calif. He also famously said: ?It?s important to recognize that you can?t have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience,? he said. ?We?re going to have to make some choices as a society. And what I can say is that in evaluating these programs, they make a difference in our capacity to anticipate and prevent possible terrorist activity.? The question is ? safe from whom? Obama stands in history directly in opposition to those who founded this nation. In Belgium Obama clearly stated the struggle between the state and the people. His address in Belgium to the European Youth who are suffering unemployment levels almost three times that of the Great Depression on March 26, 2014 obviously demonstrates he knows what he is doing to tear down democracy. ? ?The belief that through conscience and free will, each of us has the right to live as we choose.? The belief that power is derived from the consent of the governed, and that laws and institutions should be established to protect that understanding.? And those ideas eventually inspired a band of colonialists across an ocean, and they wrote them into the founding documents that still guide America today, including the simple truth that all men ? and women ? are created equal. ?But those ideals have also been tested ? here in Europe and around the world.? Those ideals have often been threatened by an older, more traditional view of power.? This alternative vision argues that ordinary men and women are too small-minded to govern their own affairs, that order and progress can only come when individuals surrender their rights to an all-powerful sovereign. ? ?And just as we meet our responsibilities as individuals, we must be prepared to meet them as nations.? Because we live in a world in which our ideals are going to be challenged again and again by forces that would drag us back into conflict or corruption.? We can?t count on others to rise to meet those tests.? The policies of your government, the principles of your European Union, will make a critical difference in whether or not the international order that so many generations before you have strived to create continues to move forward, or whether it retreats.? Obama has stated clearly that he has come full circle. He believes that right must be surrendered to the sovereign government for only it can defend freedom by taking it from the people. This is very strange logic. The Obama-Holder theory of law has been mind-blowing. Essentially, they stand for the proposition that the needs of justice supersede the law?s boundaries. Obama has effectively stated he will take your rights and money but for a good purpose ? government power to protect your right to have rights and money? This is precisely what Thrasymachus warned about and every law professor when confronted with this question would have responded ? that is not law. Nevertheless, Obama has stood for the proposition that justice is merely the self-interest of the stronger ? government. Anyone who thinks I am exaggerating this in any possible way should look at what Obama said himself. In July 2011 over the debt ceiling, Obama said publicly that he would like to ?bypass Congress and change the laws on my own.? He said this again in June 2014 with respect to immigration reform. This is what one expects from a dictator ? not an elected official who pretends to be a Constitutional lawyer. The very next year, Obama then made his unconstitutional recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. Effectively, he bypassed Congress to stuff his own people in positions without the approval of the people. UNHEARD OF! Yet Obama also said back in 2011: ?Sometimes when I talk to immigration advocates, they wish I could just bypass Congress and change the law myself, but that?s not how a democracy works.? The antics of the Obama-Holder tag-team have displayed the audacity to argue in federal courts what difference does it make? The real curious phase is not only used by Obama-Holder in court, when Hilary testified before Congress regarding the attack if it was a protest of just some guys out for a walk and decided to kill some Americans she too simply replied ? what difference does it make? This is not a legal argument in any court under any system of law that I am aware of. It makes a huge difference for even as Hillary tried to dismiss the attack, one is an organized terrorist attack and the other is just a random act of violence. I am not the only one with a problem here regarding the abuse of power of Obama-Holder. In 2013, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the Obama administration?s legal claims raised ?significant questions about the scope of the Executive?s authority to disregard federal statutes.? Obama?s praise of Holder one would think he offhandedly saved the nation. Certainly not from the abuse of government. The legal precedents are shocking and very alarming. These people never get it. Obama expands the reach of the Presidency and the next one comes in and always expands it further. Nobody ever reforms. So unfortunately, we are headed down the creek in a boat that is leaking without a paddle. Our children will never know the world in which we grew up when once upon a time there use to be a friendly face behind every badge. -RR ____________________________________________________________ *The #1 Worst Carb Ever?* Click to Learn #1 Carb that Kills Your Blood Sugar (Don't Eat This!) <http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3132/542fd4959674a54951f06st02vuc>FixYourBloodSugar.com <http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3132/542fd4959674a54951f06st02vuc>
