"Governing by the Rule of Law" Topic

Jurgen,
I am English and I don't understand cricket either.
And yes, the Champions League final was much more exciting. 2 German teams playing fantastic football with squads composed primarily of German players and led by German managers. That would never happen in the Premier League, which has largely sold its soul to Satan. German football has come a long way in the eyes of the British public since the days of Kuntz at Euro 96.

Public opinion on Kuntz may differ, fact is Kuntz was an unbeaten German.

TelesticWarrior

There are sports fans who like and prefer Cricket to other sports. That's their choice and interest, I suppose. Personally, I see it as a very boring sport to watch but better to play and far less tiring than football, which I prefer to play and watch.

Unfortunately, some people can't accept others seeing Cricket as a boring game and usually claim it is because they don't understand the 'complicated' rules. What a load of rubbish and stinks of wannabe elitism. It is just game like any other which some people like and some people don't.

The viewpoint reminds me of the silliness surrounding those who admire anything about Napoleon. Like having to have a silly reason for finding Cricket boring, there has to be some 'silly reason' to admire anything about him, such as hero-worship.

Apologies to cricket fans if anyone feels offended.

Then there is Rusty Kuntz the baseball player, retired now of course.

Gazzola,

What a silly post from you.

Jurgen

Football and rugby for me. Don't get the whole cricket/ baseball thing myself.
Still each to their own. One thing that does grate a little is cricket fans slating baseball. Or baseball fans slating cricket. Both dull to watch. Both way too long. Both only really fun to play when you bat.

TelesticWarrior,

I think that I understand cricket well enough, although it is possible that thinking that I do actually means that I do not. What I find intensely dispiriting about it is that it takes so long to reach a conclusion that could be reached so much more quickly; it may sound very German to say this, but it is a very inefficient sport. I find the same to be true of tennis, which seems to take a very long time to reach a result which was, in most cases, fairly obvious early on. Mind you, I suppose that may not be a good idea as transferring the same concept to WW2 might have resulted in a very different outcome with Germany being declared the victors and awarded the trophy in 1940 without the second and third sets being played.

As for German football, I think that one has to look at the ownership structure of clubs in the Bundesliga to understand why it is at the level that it is today and why there are so many German players.

Jurgen

Then off the bat there is the Hotel Kuntz where a lot of Napoleonic historians could stay when visiting L'Hôtel national des Invalides.

There is only one game for men – Rugby League.

Me
BA Calcutta (Failed)

Good point Ben, and because it is not a game played that much on the continent yet except for France, and also it hasn't travelled across the pond, you don't get as many Kuntz playing in it.

Heh, heh…

(All those Kuntz are not related to the Turkish Ambassador to Moscow in the Second Great War perchance?)

No Ben, given the character of the man who wrote that memo, one might feel that the Hotel Kuntz is not best positioned for his needs in Paris and that The Ritz might be more appropriate. I still feel the Hotel Kuntz would be fine for the average TMPer, each in their own way though and some more than others. Myself included.

Flechtarn

Like I said in another thread, I will start to worry when my posts become as silly as your posts. However, I suggest you chill out and watch some cricket. I'm sure it will do you the world of good. Chouan will explain the rules to you.

This link may be handy.

hotelkuntz.com

As regards governing by the rule of law I recall the old story about the lawyer who addressed the judge for ten minutes. The judge said that he was none the wiser, the lawyer replied "No M'Lord but you are better informed".

It seems that on some of these threads you could read quite a bit and never be better informed in relation to specific questions.

Cricket is a game I have rarely played, but I've met a lot of gentlemen and players who do or did.

Gazzola,

I suspect that you are actually a German in disguise; your lack of a sense of humour seems to indicate this.

I am slightly concerned as to why you pick out my silly post among the many others that this thread is now developing.

Anyway, after a day spent with my US counterpart, silliness of a different sort from that which the US government has just decided upon may be necessary.

Jurgen

Jurgen, I hope you were just discussing release matrices, vital in the proper delivery of the ball in cricket perhaps more so than in baseball where speed is of the essence, with your counterpart.

Mind you they can feature in governing by the rule of law too I suppose, if it's the Law of Armed Conflict.

At the moment I am having to read between two threads to follow the discussions. I wouldn't worry I haven't had the slightest difficulty keeping up with play so far.

Colonel,

Sadly, we were not discussing that but rather more serious matters which, however, do involve both deliveries and armed conflict.

Jurgen

"However, I suggest you chill out and watch some cricket. I'm sure it will do you the world of good. Chouan will explain the rules to you."

Gazzola, I'm sure that Flecktarn could find out from the friend who took him to Lords, if he needed to. However, it isn't the rules that are complex; I'm sure that your multiple degrees, in whatever they are in, would mean that you are aware of this.

Yours,
Peter

I would help out Flecktarn, but as I said cricket was played more by my peers. I'm a rugby man and was actually quite good at it once, got a few Universities caps. Plus I still have the massed bands of the Bundeswehr on vinyl picked up at a flea market 25 years ago in Bremen.

If it's blindfolded reverse orienteering which requires string not a compass with degrees then I'd personally take a leaf out of Theseus' book.

I still recommend The One Armed Boxer for light entertainment:

YouTube link

I think the way that Wang Yu invents Charm Kuen Do is remarkable, not only in it's degree of difficulty but in the masterful way he employs it. He takes it to a new level.

I have "The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break", by Steven Sherrill in my toilet library. I might take it to the Hotel Kuntz with me when I pop off for my break in Paris.

What do you think Chouan?

And then, what do you think Gazzola?

Personally I think there seems to be two threads running at once which are dealing with the same sort of thing, all getting very complicated.

That you played I'm moderately impressed by, that you played for your university I'm very impressed by!
Although I enjoy watching football, and played in my youth (Not very well though) my favourite spectator sport is Rugby, only Union though. An indirect claim to fame is that a second cousin played for the All Blacks against France in their recent tour of NZ. Given that my cousin (his dad) is English I'm peeved that he didn't play for England.
My wife is more the cricket fan; she can explain the finer points to me when I haven't noticed.
Yours,
Peter
PS. Yes, I know that I rose to the bait earlier, and shouldn't have done. I don't even know the bloke!

Chouan, I didn't play for my university, I played for my country (in rugby not in nationality) in other words international at university level, hence my reference to caps. That would invariably mean getting a blue from my university, which it did.

I never make myself very clear on here.

Did you like the One Armed Boxer?

Then I'm even more impressed!

Chouan

That's called passing the buck – leaving it to someone else to explain the rules to poor old Flecktarn. Dear oh dear, with friends like that, eh?

But thankfully we still have some friendlies to watch while waiting for the more exciting sport to return. Going to be a good season.

Flecktarn

Tut tut! That was bit nasty, wasn't it. Some of the Germans I have met had a great sense of humour. Perhaps it goes over your head? Or perhaps you need to meet more Germans?

A player's grasp of a sport increases exponentially in my experience.

A spectator may know the rules, but it doesn't mean he can play. I love boxing for example. Including Charm Kuen Do.

With football, Kuntz, who was mentioned earlier, played 25 times for Germany and they never lost. I think it's fair to say that he knew his sport inside and out. I've played a lot of football in my time, but was never really good at it.

I even used to play competition chess when I was younger, with timers and everything, but I am no master of the game. I say this to illustrate that people can also play sports but play them badly, and then think that they know the game – or realise that they are never going to be better than they are.

To be merely a spectator who has never played would remind me a little of Theodore Roosevelt's "It's not the critic…"

Gazzola,

I think that you may be deficent in your understanding. I do not really need to meet more Germans as I am a German, albeit one who is currently posted to the UK.

How my despised and unlamented grandfather would spin in his grave if he knew that I was here as a friend of the British.

Jurgen

So getting back on topic did Napoleon understand the rules of Cricket while playing Rugby at University? If so did he obey those rules?

Depends on whether he was a gentleman, a player or a gentleman and a player. But he could certainly win in a snowball fight.

As Napoleon died in 1821 and rugby was not invented, or at least codified, until after that date, the idea of him playing rugby at university invokes all sorts of philosophical and metaphysical dilemmas which could easily keep this thread going for another 200+ posts.

As he was neither British nor from one of the nations either enslaved or used as a dumping ground for convicts or the destitute by the British, I suspect that he did not understand the laws of cricket either.

Even if he had understood the rules of cricket as applied to a then non-existent game at a university that he did not attend, I fear that he might have bent and broken them as suited him. Did not Wellington (who, incidentally, was rescued from utter defeat by Germans on June 18th 1815) once say that Napoleon was not a gentleman? I was under the impression that only gentlemen truly understood the rules of cricket. But then, how does one explain that Australians understand them?

Jurgen

Thank you Colonel.

Excellent observations Flecktarn!

One and all,

My leave starts in about 18 minutes and I will be offline for 2 weeks; behave yourselves while I am away and try not to make the threads too silly.

Jurgen

Flecktarn

I hope you'll have a great time on leave, and thoroughly enjoy your posts, but I am sorry I shall have to wait two weeks to learn which 'nations' you feel were 'enslaved' by the British Empire of the period.

As the British Empire was ahead of its time in being the scourge of the slave trade (outlawing this disgraceful trade throughout the Empire in 1807), I find your claim somewhat fascinating.

Especially as some German states, I think, still had serfs in the period we're discussing.
Yes, I know you were being ironical. Or were you?
Enjoy your leave; it's always too short.
Peter

As befits a great military commander, one of Napoleon's qualities was ruthlessness.

There was, and probably still is in places of learning, much intellectual discourse over the Bybee memo.

Personally I think you cut your cloth, and I have little doubt that with Napoleon the end would have justified the means.

As the OP involved Napoleon, I believe the answer was in and of itself at the time of posting.

Sheesh, just when you thought it was safe to go anywhere near the Napoleonic boards!

If no one attempts to address your last point does that mean you can just pour yourself another with a whisky chaser and watch the One Armed Boxer doing his thing with one armed tied behind his back? :-)