The Taliban play soccer

Ghazi Stadium under the Taliban

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, they banned movies, TV, music, and flying kites, but they allowed cricket, soccer, boxing, and volleyball. Of course women weren't allowed to participate:

For years[under the Taliban], Kabul's Ghazi Stadium was notorious not for hosting sporting events, but for the executions, stonings, and mutilations carried out there by the Taliban. Its playing field was so blood-soaked, it was whispered, that even grass would not grow there.

An athlete recalls what it was like using the stadium then:

"We did some warm-ups and went to do some shooting practice. When I lifted a barrel that was in the middle of the pitch, I found six amputated hands," Isaq says. "When I saw them it really affected me. I left the training session and the stadium and went home. I felt sick for one or two weeks."

But the Taliban still play their own version of soccer.

Is it okay with Theresa Sparks and the Human Rights Commission if I call these guys "savages"?

Can we build our way to affordable housing?

From the Office of the Controller

Can We Build Our Way to Housing Affordability in San Francisco?

By Calvin Welch 

Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council

The price of housing and the dramatic increase in evictions have once again propelled housing affordability into the forefront of debate in San Francisco. The usual suspects make the usual arguments: if we only unleash the power of the market by removing “regulations” (rent control, height limits, density requirements, traffic analysis, take your pick) from our over-regulated housing market, we could have affordable housing thanks to the immutable “law” of supply and demand.

The graph above shows that in 41 of the last 65 quarters housing production increased in San Francisco and that with that increase in supply THERE WAS AN INCREASE IN PRICE, standing the normal “supply and demand” assumption on its head in San Francisco.

This graph is not an isolated “data point.” In fact, between 1960 and 2010 San Francisco has built nearly one and a half housing units for each new resident: our population increased by 64,000 during that period, yet we have built some 92,000 homes and condos. No major housing development has ever been turned down in San Francisco during that period. Over the last decade alone, San Francisco has exceeded its market rate housing production goal of some 11,000 units by over 50%, building some 16,500 market rate units from 2000 to 2010....