I keep hammering on this but IMO it means something. I did some of these numbers above but now I include the defense.

Last year, ostensibily, the Rams offense was rated 29th in Scoring. They clearly sucked on offense. BUT the Rams were 29th in offensive scoring last year because of a terrible stretch of 4 games by Foles. It’s his last 4 games. At the same time, that’s in the period when they were hit the hardest by OL injuries.

As I already said, in the final 4 weeks the OL settled down after the injury stretch, and Keenum started.

Take those last 4 games … how would the Rams offense have ranked in terms of scoring?

In THAT stretch they averaged 22.75 points a game. That would have ranked 16th in the league.

In other words, it’s the old problem—season long averages can often disguise the real story. Because seasons include different moments. The Rams with Foles in meltdown mode in his last 4 games (where they averaged 10.25 points a game) is NOT the same animal as the Rams with Keenum.

And of course Keenum is no franchishe qb. He was just more competent and effective than a melted down Foles.

Plus of course the more settled down OL of the last 4 games was STILL a young, less experienced line. Now they are much more experienced plus will have a 2nd training camp under their belts.

And yet, in those last 4 games, the DEFENSE, with Quinn and Ogletree and McDonald missing, plus Jenkins missing at least 1 game, allowed 18.25 points a game. In season-long terms that would have been ranked 5th.

In the previous 4 Foles meltdown games, the defense actually allowed 29 points a game. In season-long terms that would have been ranked 31st.

SO, not just in general but in directly relation to the Rams, offensive scoring (apparently) bolsters the defense too. If that’s just a truism, fine, but it is nevertheless one that plays out dramatically with the Rams last season.

It breaks down this way:

GAMES 9-10 & 12-13, FOLES IN COLLAPSE:

Offense: avg. 10.25 points a game In season terms, ranked below 32nd (looking back the closest I could find to that bad was Oakland in 2006, which allowed 10.5 a game)
Defense:avg. 29 points a game In season terms, ranked below 31st.

GAMES 14-17, KEENUM STARTING:

Offense: avg. 22.75 points a game In season terms, ranked below 16th
Defense:avg. 18.25 points a game In season terms, ranked below 5th

Now none of that PROMISES anything for 2016, BUT, it certainly bodes well. No question.

I submit that what we see from that is that with just decent quarterbacking and the Rams offense and defense BOTH do better in terms of points for and against.

Rams News & Notes: Finishing OTAs in Oxnard

Myles Simmons

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Rams-News–Notes-Finishing-OTAs-in-Oxnard/c6f6048b-dab5-4687-bd89-4c6cf4e1f649

After three weeks, the Rams’ nine OTA practices have come and gone. The players are now officially on summer vacation before the team gets back together at the end of July for its first training camp back in Southern California. But before everyone took off, head coach Jeff Fisher held one final press conference to wrap up the offseason program. Here are some of the key takeaways from his comments.

GOFF ON THE RIGHT TRACK

Rookie quarterback Jared Goff has made plenty of progress, according to Fisher. The No. 1 overall pick has been working more with the first-team offense in the Rams’ last three sessions, which is something the head coach indicated would happen a few weeks ago.

“I think he’s flourished in that environment,” Fisher said.

Fisher noted Goff’s most significant area of growth has likely been his understanding of the playbook. The tools, according to Fisher, have always been there.

“It’s just learning the system and then applying it to what we would call a fairly sophisticated defensive system. That’s hard,” Fisher said. “If you just line up and play two coverages, things come along quicker. But that’s not our nature. So we may adjust a little bit during camp, but I thought that was the biggest thing as far as he is concerned, was just that he started figuring some of the stuff out we were doing faster.”

While there are obvious expectations that come with being the No. 1 overall pick, Fisher maintained Thursday his usual stance with highly drafted players: Goff will play when he’s ready. He may start Week 1 or he may not.

“He can start anywhere from the opener to whenever,” Fisher said. “And we haven’t changed our philosophy on that. We’re going to coach him to be successful. We’re not going to put him in with a chance to fail. That’s the most important thing in developing a young quarterback.”

And the QB reps will continue to vary as the Rams begin training camp after summer break.

“Case is our starter right now, so Case needs first-team reps,” Fisher said. “And to give Jared an opportunity — and Sean for that matter — to run with the first team, it’s easier to evaluate them. So we’ll change things up. And once we get in there, we’ll make some decisions as to who plays when and how much in the preseason.”

INJURY UPDATES

Last week, cornerback Trumaine Johnson left practice after a collision with a wide receiver. While he hasn’t participated in an OTA session since, Fisher provided good news on him Thursday afternoon.

“If we were going to practice tomorrow, he’d practice tomorrow. That gives you a sense,” Fisher said.

Fisher added Johnson had a laceration on his chin and his “jaw got rocked a little bit,” which made putting on a helmet a challenge. But the cornerback has been running and training to stay in shape.

“He’ll be fine,” Fisher said.

Otherwise on the injury front, Fisher had more encouraging news on the rest of the roster.

“I’m pleased with the progress with respect to some of the injured players,” Fisher said. “I don’t think there will be anybody that’s going to be unable to participate in camp, which is good.”

WRAPPING UP IN OXNARD

As some have said over this offseason, the Rams are in some ways nomads. With the offseason program complete, the club will be moving out of Oxnard before heading south for training camp. Fisher said the team was able to get what it needed to accomplished in large part because of the hospitality it received at the temporary facility.

“It was much better than what we expected,” Fisher said. “Everybody here that’s associated with this football team — and we’re talking about the food preparation, and the housekeeping, and the security — everything was outstanding. And I can’t appreciate that any more. I thought they did a great job.”

Fisher said he was particularly pleased with the way the players adapted to what could have been tough circumstances with the relocation process.

“I just complimented them on No. 1 their participation, attendance, and commitment because it was the best since we’ve been here,” Fisher said. “We had a couple minor little issues here and there, and you guys are familiar with that. But by and large, everybody relocated out here and they committed to this offseason program, and they did an amazing job.

“The next step, as they know, is off time — as is the case for 31 other teams,” Fisher continued. “They’re going to be out there for four or five weeks, however long that is. So their responsibility now is to take care of themselves, continue to train, and get ready for training camp. And we’re going to bring our rookies in a few days earlier than the vets will come in and we’ll hit the ground running at camp.

Not that it’s much of a surprise, but Fisher said Keenum will enter training camp as the starter at QB.

— Myles Simmons (@MylesASimmons) June 16, 2016

wv wrote:

And tornadoes. The weather people are saying we may have tornadoes around here this evening.

And theme parks.

Mysteriously, you left out theme parks.

Gay Muslim: Islam Is No Religion of Peace

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/16/gay-muslim-islam-is-no-religion-of-peace.html

Like the other two monotheisms that precede it, Islam has blood on its hands.
“What’s his name?” I asked my husband as he woke me to tell me of the carnage in Orlando. “It’s going to be a Muslim name.”
I just knew it. I had never been one to racially profile my own community. But this time my premonition was right.
A few years ago, in Islamic year 1432, I was in Mecca on the hajj pilgrimage. I shared a meal with an older Yemeni at Al Baiq, the Saudi version of KFC. We discussed the monstrous Kingdom Tower looming over the Kaaba, the beating heart of my faith, where millions of Muslims converge every year to perform the rituals that make up Islam’s highest calling. The bin Laden family was responsible for its construction, along with the destruction of countless historic sites and artifacts of Islamic history to pave the way for resort hotels and other conveniences reserved for the 1 percent.
“It’s like King Abdullah’s erection,” I told the man.
“But Sheikh Osama destroyed America’s largest penises, didn’t he?” the man replied with a chuckle. His casual joking about the slaughter of thousands chilled me.
And “Sheikh Osama”? I could not return his laughter. This man seemed to be able to tolerate my Americanness, but if he’d had any idea that I was gay, he would have yanked his arm from my shoulder and walked away without a word.
Parvez Sharma
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast
The carnage in Orlando has shaken my very core, but after my experiences traveling throughout the Middle East as a gay man (open in some countries, fully closeted in others), I cannot say I am surprised. Any identity I have ever claimed now lies exposed as a wound that will never heal. Saying “gay Muslim” seems like a reason for damnation.
I’ve spent the last decade of my life making two films. The first, A Jihad For Love, is about the lives of gay Muslims throughout the world. The second, A Sinner In Mecca, dealt with my own personal journey and my effort to reconcile my faith and my sexuality in Islam’s holiest places, surrounded by people who would sooner see me publicly beaten, thrown off a cliff or beheaded.
These are strange times. It is a season of Islamophobia in America, where Donald Trump whips up xenophobia with a tweet. What he doesn’t realize is that he’s attacking a religion that’s already at war with itself. Muslims like me have fought hard not to become casualties. We have always had our Omar Mateens. In the U.S., they manifest as lone crazed gunmen. But in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, they are on the royal payroll.
A cursory look at the pages of ISIS’s glossy magazine, Dabiq, reveals the group’s ideology. They gloat—and show high-res photos—about throwing homosexuals off the tallest buildings that somehow remain standing in the wastelands they’ve created.
The latest American news reports suggest Omar Mateen himself was a closeted gay Muslim who harbored an immense self-loathing. A few nights ago, he murderously redirected this loathing toward dozens of young brown gay men who were enjoying their first tastes of a profound freedom and acceptance that he probably felt he could never truly enjoy with the same carefree abandon.
play iconWitnesses Say The Orlando Shooter Had Been To Pulse Nightclub BeforeWitnesses Say The Orlando Shooter Had Been To Pulse Nightclub Beforeplay iconPer Capita, Hate Crimes Hit The LGBTQ Community HardestPer Capita, Hate Crimes Hit The LGBTQ Community Hardestplay iconThese Are The Victims Of The Orlando Nightclub ShootingThese Are The Victims Of The Orlando Nightclub Shooting
The same defensive, apologist Muslims are called upon every time something like this happens. I, too, have been called several times, but have so far refused the TV parts because I am not sure what I have to say is palatable. Mateen, the homophobic gay Muslim, is not a new phenomenon. The Muslim religious elite is directly responsible for inspiring the guilt and self-hatred that this man must have felt, needlessly struggling with his sexuality. And then he became a mass murderer, whose actions can never be condoned.
What I do know is this. As a devout gay Muslim I am not going to make a claim that “Islam is a religion of peace.”
Growing up in a small Indian town with a large Muslim population, I heard young men talking about jihad in Kashmir and Palestine. I have even heard such matters discussed in hushed whispers at Manhattan’s 96th St. mosque, where I sometimes go and pray on Fridays and where subjugation of women is discussed in the open without the blink of an eye. The mosque was built largely with Saudi money, and its Imams often come equipped with the perversions of Wahhabi ideology.
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A few weeks after September 11th, its Imam at the time, Sheik Muhammad Gemeaha resigned and left hastily for his native Egypt. He was quoted in The New York Times as having said amongst much else including the familiar deriding of “homosexuality” “‘only the Jews’ were capable of destroying the World Trade Center” and added that ‘’if it became known to the American people, they would have done to Jews what Hitler did.”
Calling Islam a religion of peace is dangerous and reductive. Like the other two monotheisms that precede it, it has blood on its hands. It’s time we Muslims start looking inward at our own communities so that the bloodshed can stop. I’m convinced that Mateen’s attitude is not fringe. It can be found everywhere from Mecca to my own mosque in New York City.
The vast canon of Islam that emerged after the Prophet Muhammad’s life has enough sanction for violence, if you know what you are looking for. And there is no lack of homophobic condemnation either. The Quran itself remains vague on the matter, lazily regurgitating the Old and New Testament’s story of the Nation of Lot. And for the majority of 1.6 billion Muslims, many of them plagued by poverty and illiteracy, the debates going on amongst the Western Muslim pundits, will make no sense. What they listen to is Khutba (Friday sermon) after Khutba that talks about homosexuality as a sin amongst other matters of religious import.
Yes, most Muslims are muddling through life, putting food on their families’ tables just like everyone else. There are countless sectarian divisions within the vast faith. But if even a fraction of a percentage of this population believes gays should be put to death, we have a problem that cannot be dismissed so easily.
I, too, fear backlash from a fearful conservative America. I finally won an American passport last year and am officially an American citizen. Will I be singled out at the airport with increasing frequency? Will Muslims like me, desperate to get into the United States, be able to taste freedom here?
I went to my first gay bar almost 20 years ago in New York City. I had just landed in the United States. My cousin who hosted me on my visit swears that I kissed the ground (though I suspect he’s embellishing). I lost myself in the music, the dance, and most importantly the love. There are millions of other gay Muslims in the world, desperate to experience such love.
In 2010, I stood outside a nightclub called Acid, perched on a Beirut cliff. It was Ramadan, and Acid was one of the precious few openly gay nightclubs in all of the Arab Middle East. I shared a cigarette with a friend called Babak as a car with Saudi tags rolled up.
“That’s a rich Saudi prince!” Babak said. He often comes here to cruise! You have no idea how many rich Saudi fuckers come here. We Beirutis must screw well! The Saudis? They walk around like they are so butch but once naked they are all bottoms.”
Babak was the twentysomething founder of Bear Arabia who organized “Bear” tours of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan for western gay men keen to sample the delights of the region. Bears, for those unfamiliar with Western homosexuality, are the gay men who do not confirm to “body fascist” stereotypes and flaunt the hair on their bodies and the ample meat on their bones. Or as my husband Keith liked to say, “They are just gay men who have given up.”
I was in Beirut to do open screenings of my first film for the first time in an Arab capital. It felt like a special moment. Babak, who I would call an activist like any other, was furious at the time because a New York Times article had come out labeling the city the Provincetown of the Middle East. To me it seemed absurd. From our vantage point we were looking at the expanse of Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburb. That was Hezbollah land, bombed to smithereens in 2006. This remained a deeply divided city.
On that journey, I hooked up with a handsome man who later confided in me that he was a member of Hezbollah’s social media division. We’d met on Manjam, a gay hookup website. He was married, with three kids. When we were finished, he performed the elaborate, obligatory post-sex cleansing ritual called the ghusl at almost 4:30 in the morning.
For a brief moment I wondered how the world might be different if these closeted Muslims, from Saudi princes to Hezbollah warriors, could experience the love that I now feel in the arms of my husband Keith. The best chance they have is coming to America, and I’m now afraid that door is closing shut.

bnw wrote:

Congrats. You have equated her wanting a semi-auto hand gun in her purse with her owning a nuclear powered submarine. I’ll use your own words in closing.

“That kind of extremist hyperbole is the real “BS” here.”

Well he didn’t equate the 2. Logically, it’s an example of reductio ad absurdum. The point is things are banned constantly because different societies see them as dangerous and unnecessary. We all agree private citizens should not own their own nuclear subs. What does that prove? THat we always draw limits. In fact that’s the very nature of being in a society.

So saying that just demonstrates the absurdity of claiming that all socially and legally imposed limits are wrong or bad. Obviously that’s not true.

The question then becomes, where is the line to be drawn?

When it comes to everyone carrying MP 40s on their key chains, you come down on one side, he comes down on another.

And no you did not literally specify everyone has to carry an MP 40 on their key chain. Not every point is made with literal language.

More guns period and more guns in law abiding hands. Much more conceal carry too.

That cannot be proven. In fact it’s NRA bs. The “fact” is controversial and of course open to the usual propaganda maneuvering. This is again a pure example of many people believing what they want to believe and then publicizing those beliefs as “true”…with the rest of us actually trying to sort out facts in the midst of all the posturing.

Here is just one of many, many statements on this from the other side.

—

from What Caused the Two-Decade Dip in Crime Rates? Not ‘Good Guys with Guns.’
Gun rights advocates claim concealed carry is the answer to stopping criminals. The data says that’s simply not possible.

link: https://www.thetrace.org/2015/10/lower-crime-rates-not-caused-by-concealed-carry/

The study analyzes a decade of data from every county in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Texas, the only states with at least a decade of reported data on permit holders and arrest rates after the implementation of their RTC laws (an explanation of their methodology that, unlike what Lott misleadingly suggests in a rebuttal, is very clearly delineated). Using several statistical models, Phillips found no significant relationship between changes in concealed carry rates and changes in any crime rate. In other words, the study found no evidence that increasing the number of permit holders decreases (or increases) crime.

==

Actually, BT, me posting that article is misleading in this sense. I actually don’t care that much about what caused it. I take that discussion as being mostly just speculation. I am mostly interested in the fact that crime rates in general DID decrease.

As it happens, I have this semi-lazy way of doing research on that. I add an article here, an article there, hoping others add stuff too, so that we collect a kind of “discussion core” and take it from there. As it just happens, the first thing I posted was about the “why” question.

I am actually personally much more interested in the “did go down” fact…plus the national misperception of that fact…than in the “why” question.

wv wrote:

I work with the poorest of the poor everyday. I hear their stories of life on the street. (And this is just a little town in WV). Their fears are justified. They cant rely on the police or the middle-class-folks safe in their homes or behind their gates.

Yes.

But that has ALWAYS been true. The few times I have lived in rough neighborhoods (primarily in St. Louis), you see immediately that policing and so forth are just different. You’re more vulnerable. And so on. But that has always been the american way.

And the people you describe are not the ones buying AR 15s.

In general, the “fear factor” among the majority of americans who are prey to that is just completely in their heads. It’s not just murder that has gone down—EVERYTHING has gone down.

n the end he made it very clear he was ISIS in the 911 call and his Facebook posting during the standoff that the wicked ways of the west motivated the attack. He was radicalized in his two recent visits to Saudi Arabia and possibly his mosque.

What possible basis are your sources coming up with to justify claiming that his MOSQUE was a source of being radicalized? You know those sources better than I do…why, other than the simple fact it IS a mosque, is his mosque being blamed? You do know that local people are threatening that mosque and people in it?

Many of the women say they are concerned about anti-Muslim violence in response to the attacks, and they are upset that the actions of one disturbed congregant would reflect poorly on the entire community at the center. “We’re afraid of backlash, targeting us because he came to this mosque,” Alladin says. None of the women interviewed say they could recall any time when anti-gay sentiments were ever expressed at the mosque, and all say that gay Muslims would be welcome to worship there.

Shock, Disappointment and Kindness From Worshippers at Shooter’s Mosque

And what evidence does anyone have that he actually was “radicalized”? I mean actually, not just using it clumsily as a facade. Other than his comments during the shooting, which btw make no sense and so far sound like a lot of bs on his part. (So according to that, which I think is the Fox narrative, he made something “very clear”–according to other narratives, he actually confused things with those comments, which don’t add up.)

One example: some claim he was saying HIS country was being bombed. Other than the fact that his country is the USA, that is taken as meaning Afghanistan. Yet he also commented that the USA and Russia were bombing ISIS. That’s in Syria. Syria, ISIS, and Russia have nothing to do with Afghanistan.

I know that as usual FOX is pushing one version of this.

InvaderRam wrote:

wondering right now if bryant and alexander could be the future starting safeties when mcdonald is up for free agency.

That’s a possibility…with Randolph behind them? …Here’s another article (I bet there will be more):

—

Maurice Alexander making Rams’ draft gamble look good

Vincent Bonsignore, Los Angeles Daily News

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20160615/bonsignore-maurice-alexander-making-rams-draft-gamble-look-good

OXNARD — The impetus for the bonds that connect players and coaches sometimes have varied and blurry starting points. The one that will forever link Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and safety Maurice Alexander couldn’t be any clearer.

Williams is the primary reason Alexander is with the Rams, having fought hard on his behalf during the 2014 draft while most of the NFL saw a raw, risky prospect.

“He supported me,” Alexander said, the appreciation obvious.

The gratitude Alexander has returned is the work he’s put in to develop into a potential starter.

It’s almost inconceivable to think about it while watching Alexander fly around the Rams’ practice field Tuesday, but two years ago it took all of Williams’ instincts, vision and projection to see in Alexander what so many were missing.

Tapping into intuition honed over 20 years of coaching — and maybe even a little bit of imagination — Williams saw past the present and into the future. The image that emerged was a raw Utah State prospect developing into an eventual NFL starting safety.

So Williams went to bat for Alexander in the Rams’ draft room, essentially promising everyone with any sort of draft input they’d have an angry coach if Alexander eluded their grasp.

If you’ve spent any time at all observing and listening to Williams on a practice field, he’s equal parts motivator, agitator, comedian, philosopher and mad scientist. In other words, not exactly someone you want on your bad side.

Which probably explains why the Rams drafted Alexander in the fourth round in 2014 when so many others saw him as a sixth- or seventh-rounder, at best.

“That was the beginning for me,” Alexander said.

It was also the foundation upon which Williams and the Rams would take little more than speed, toughness and athletic ability and construct an NFL-caliber safety.

The project is essentially complete, with Alexander making a compelling case for himself as a starter with a strong performance during OTA’s.

The 6-foot-1, 200-pounder is competing with Cody Davis and Christian Bryant to replace Rodney McLeod, who moved on to the Philadelphia Eagles as a free agent.

But with T.J. McDonald out of OTA’s dealing with legal issues, all three have been mixing and matching in the back end of the Rams defense and making strong impressions.

Alexander has been a standout.

“He’s having a really, really, really good camp,” Williams said.

It’s everything Williams envisioned for Alexander two years ago, although he knew it was going to be an extensive project.

“You want to talk about somebody’s head spinning,” is how Williams described the beginning of Alexander’s development.

Alexander played just one year of safety and only two years of Division I football prior to joining the Rams. Making the transition from college to the NFL is difficult enough, but doing so while essentially learning a new position, terminology, responsibility and nuance made it even more challenging.

“He couldn’t discuss football from a secondary standpoint, and he was just paralyzed with all the information and the speed of the game of the National Football League in the secondary,” Williams said.

It also didn’t help Alexander suffered a knee injury during OTA’s his rookie year that slowed him down in training camp.

Understanding the difficulties, Alexander set up personal yard-markers for himself measured in days and stretched out across a football field.

The objective was clear.

“I set a goal to be better every single year,” Alexander said.

He played in nine games as a rookie and made four tackles. While many wondered if the Rams invested too high a pick in Alexander, behind the scenes he was making strides.

By his second year, positional knowledge began catching up with the physical skills. He was getting on the field more frequently, and Williams was growing more confident not only in structuring specific schemes to capitalize on Alexander’s skills, but also his ability to carry them out.

“I invented packages for him last year, because of how well he was doing, to get him more playing time,” Williams said.

And when McDonald was lost in December to a shoulder injury, Alexander replaced him as a starter and responded with 27 tackles and two sacks.

“That was fun,” he said.

Alexander approached this offseason knowing McLeod’s departure opened a starting job. He’s attacking the opportunity as if it were a quarterback and he was on a safety blitz.

“It’s been a great OTA for me, I’ve been learning and it’s a blessing to get an opportunity to be with the (first team),” he said. “It’s been a great process.”

Alexander’s confidence and performance, compared to two years ago, are almost startling to Williams.

“Right now, he is light years ahead of where he was when he first came in,” Williams said.

It took intuition and imagination, but it’s everything Williams saw in Alexander when he looked beyond the present and into the future.

Zooey wrote:

I still don’t understand why he wears a glove. It seemed like he was saying that kickers are like wide receivers. Which made me uncomfortable.

That was the punter, Pat McAfee. And he has a point—every play a punter is on includes him catching the ball.

zn wrote:

As expected, it’s left public health experts and policymakers with little to lean on as they attempt to craft new legislation to help quell the fatal trend.

zn wrote:

Even the congressman who lent his name to the initial amendment, former Rep. Jay Dickey, has publicly expressed his regret for backing the bill.

FBI stats simply record incidents involving gun use in crimes. It is not equipped to, nor does it seek to, explore the possibility that there are more general causes of gun-related injuries and deaths.

The issue goes way beyond simply crimes.

Agamemnon wrote:

The we still need a player to fill the fs role.

Bryant or Davis.