Another Israeli Terror Attack on Tyre, Lebanon

Twelve innocent men, women and children injured, many more terrorized:

Where should we hold the war crimes tribunals?

More videos here.

More evidence for the war crimes tribunals:

Boing Boing: Home to Sick Twisted Fuck, Mark Frauenfelder

I wrote to Mark Frauenfelder at BoingBoing for this anti-human post in which he links approvingly to a selection of mugshots from the Des Moines' Polk County Jail.

Subject: pics of jailed girls? regular citizens? non-public figures? shameful.

i've seen some shameful stuff on the net before, but posting humilitating mugshots of young girls? hope they don't, you know, need to get jobs when they get out of jail. they are, of course, innocent until proven guilty, but an employer doesn't care about innocent - they care about orange jumpsuits and their potential employees wearing them.

are you competing with Jill Greenberg?

unreal. it's just totally unbelievable what some people will do to get a few page views.

i can only imagine that the people who created the laws allowing agencies to post these pics, and the people who then posted them on the net, including the people who approvingly linked to the post, reproducing the pictures for some sadomasochistic fetish, have all never been arrested and/or are just sick, twisted, fucks.

Linked from one of the most, if not the most, popular blog on the entire fucking internet. Posted by a co-founder of that blog. The one girl is about in tears - probably her first time getting arrested.

Sick. Twisted. Fucks.

...email bounced.

Watching Zidane Get Red-carded...bad.

Watching Italy go on to win the World Cup...worse.

Listening to a bunch of drunk Italians partying the night away....the worst ever.

Italy has proven that they can take better penalty kicks than France when France's best penalty-taker is off the field. After having being dominated for the better part of 120 minutes. I guess that's something to celebrate, right?

Congratulations, Italy. Congrats to diving your way into the final - with particular note to the dive against Australia that saved you from an ignominious early exit.

I thought it was particularly ironic that at least one, and possibly two, Italians were the most-often-fouled players in the tournament. In this final, they were flopping all over the place - like fish out of water. When France striker Malouda was taken down a second time inside the Italian penalty area, there was no call. And this time there was no question - it was a simple takedown that deserved a simple penalty. Most of the papers so far have failed to point out that France dominated the match - instead, choosing to go with the 'obviously Italy were brilliant' storyline, even though Italy were just doing their best to reach penalties to have a shot at winning on the cheap. And there have been no mentions as of yet of Materazzi's holding Zidane in the penalty area as the ball was played in - this was what led to Zidane's head-butt of Materazzi. The holding should have been a penalty and red card, but we'll see if we're allowed to read that in the press. And Materazzi's goal - the head ball - he pushed down on his defenders's left shoulder with his right hand/arm - this is a $2 call - it gets called 10 times a game, but our referee chose not to call this one.

Bravo Italy! You suck!

:)

...so, the truth is slowly leaking out. On top of Materazzi holding onto Zidane, we have a titty twister and the terrorist insult.

As background, I attended a Rutgers soccer camp back in the day when Rutgers seemed to be a decent soccer school. We had a few big-name players there back in the day, and my claim to fame is that one of the camp couselors, Alexi Lalas, borrowed my shampoo. In any case, one of the other camp counselors was a former Italian striker. He relayed to us stories of how we should act on the field - doing anything and everything we can to get an advantage - no matter how dirty, shameful, unsportsmanlike, cheating, etc. He told us stories of how he'd hit, kick, pull, punch players from opposing teams just to get them thrown out when they swung back at him. He told us how he'd spit in a defender's face to achieve the same effect, and how it often worked - getting the opposing player thrown out when he retaliated. I remember looking around at other players in our circle at camp - we were all around 14 or 15 at the time - and we were just stunned. He was serious. Very serious. He was demanding that we become terrorists first, and soccer players second, and only if necessary. All of us players just stared at him like he was some crazy uncle. Little did we know he was absolutely serious and abolutely telling the truth.

Our crazy Italian camp counselor must have trained Materazzi, too. Materazzi has left his stain on the World Cup. He'll forever be remembered for terrorizing the game's greatest player in that tournament, until that player had finally had enough.

Ugly American comic book from 1958

Boing Boing tells us about the You Don't See These Sights on the Regular Tours travel comic book.

Florida professor Kenneth Osgood points out the extent to which psyops are meant to influence the American public, first, and only then the international audience, in his book Total Cold War. He also did C-SPAN (why is this stuff not free?). Completely interesting stuff.

Though I haven't read this book yet, Professor Osgood really makes it clear in his C-SPAN presentation, which I did catch, that George W. Bush wasn't the first president to use the government's massive resources to use propaganda against the U.S. citizens - it's been around a long, long time.

Bush's distinction, perhaps - according to me, is that he's the first President to employ the entire government to progagandize the citizenry.

In his C-SPAN presentation, Professor Osgood covers this exact type of travel pamphlet, if not this exact pamphlet linked-to, above. Watch it if you can find a bootleg copy somewhere!

Joga Bonito, Kung fu-style

I knew I'd seen Eric Cantona's face before. He's the main spokesman for Nike 'Joga Bonito' campaign/social website/etc. What I didn't remember about him was his apparently-infamous flying Kung fu-style kick of an English Premiereship fan:



Those darn Frenchies. Who knew he was French? I always thought Spanish.

Read the wiki for more fun details. Too hilarious.

Joga Bonito!

Béla Károlyi and 'Big Phil' Scolari

Béla Károlyi is the famed Romanian and U.S. women's gymnast coach. Though many of his methods (like starving his athletes) are highly controversial, he still has this reputation, aura, something - of being a father figure. Extremely demanding, but still a father figure. And his reputation precedes him. Give him something to work with, and he'll produce a champion - it's as simple as that. He famously carried an injured Kerri Strug to the medal podium in the 1996 Olympic Games, further adding to his 'father figure' and 'molder of champions' status.

To me, he looks much like Luiz 'Big Phil' Scolari, the former Brazilian soccer coach, and now coach of the overachieving Portuguese. Scolari took Brazil to World Cup success in 2002, and he's pushing Portugal through wins, now, in 2006. Sometimes Portugal even looks convincing - like real contenders for the championship. I like the way his players play for him - it's the same way Hiddink's players played for Hiddink, the same way Károlyi's gymnasts performed for Károlyi. A true indicator of the level of quality of a coach, sometimes, when other indicators are not so readily available - are the players giving it their all? Are they, in a word, playing for the coach? Or are they playing for some other cause, maybe none at all? Portugal's players may be playing for more than one 'cause', but one of them certainly is their coach, Scolari.

The father-figure-type persona that Scolari has as head of Portugal is like Károlyi had coaching all his champion athletes. I'm not sure what that 'father figure' quality dynamic is that makes champions, but there it is. Give Scolari something to work with (he has that in Portugal/Figo/Ronaldo/Deco), and he'll produce a champion.

Odd that both their names end in the Italian-sounding 'i'.

Wayne Rooney and Ronaldo of Brazil - Shameful

Rooney, pathetic as always on the pitch, the most overrated player in the history of the game, personification of the spoiled brats that are most England internationals (certainly not Gerrard, who's always been classy, at least what little we've seen of him) - did the unspeakable today. He actually stomped on an opposing player's groin area - penis, testicles, etc. That's your Rooney for you. That dude should be banned from competitive soccer for life.

Our second despicable act of the day goes to Ronaldo of Brazil. He took a dive at the top of the French box as the clock was ticking down. The ref - the same as the U.S./Italy refs - calls everything, every dive, everything - gave the kick to Ronaldo even though nobody touched him. The Brazil free kick went over the crossbar, and the end result of the game was not changed, but Ronaldo shamed himself, his team, his country, this Cup, and the sport of soccer. May that dive forever disgrace his name, his record, and overshadow anything he's every accomplished on the pitch - especially having the most goals ever in the World Cup. Good riddance to Brazil and the Brazilian Ronaldo.

As to England's exit - bravo! Think of all the pathetic hooligans across the globe who are turning cars upside down and terrorizing innocent people as we speak - just because their side once again proved to be a bunch of whiny-ass-titty-babies. Beautiful. Losers. Feel bad for some of the players, who seem to be decent people, but the sense of entitlement the players seem to have, but especially the fans - it's outrageous. And the hooliganism/terrorism needs to stop. England should be banned from all future World Cups until they fix the problem. On that note, Spain should be banned from all future cups until they fix their racism problem.

On the English team and racism, after watching France take care of racist Spain, I started to think, "Where is Shaun Wright-Phillips?" Wright-Phillips, of course, is black, and the last time I remember seeing him play, he was alongside my man Claudio Reyna, and Wright-Phillips was awesome - which is why he got called up to Chelsea. Now, why was Shaun Wright-Phillips not selected to the England team? Most of France are black. Most of racist Spain were white. Most of England were white. An incredible black English player is not selected to the national team for the World Cup? Why not? I wondered if Eriksson might not be comfortable with black people, considering how he grew up, presumably, in Sweden. Is it possible? It wouldn't be a crime to be uncomfortable around a person of a different race, but to not select them to the national team because you don't feel comfortable around them? That would be a crime - a moral crime.

Supposedly Wright-Phillips has been warming the bench for Chelsea this season, having scored no goals in several apperances coming off the bench. I can't argue with that. It just seems to me that the more opportunity there is for black players to show their class on the pitch, the more they continue to dominate. Ghana were the latest example, taking the attack to Brazil, even though they ended up losing 3-0. Lennon, a black player for England, finally got another chance today, in place of Beckham, I believe, but Beckham only left the game because of injury. Does one have to be white, or at least light-skinned (Fernando), to be called up to the England national team? Is England really that devoid of black athletes? I know France has a close history with African countries and all that, but why is the England roster filled with perfectly ordinary players like Beckham, who wouldn't impress on an American college side, never mind an international side? Who are the rest of the boring white players in the England squad? I have no idea. I can't remember any names. Almost none made a name for themselves. The only white player to show up today for England was Hargreaves, who's never played in the Premiereship. And maybe that's another key to England's continued international failure - their players are, by and large, spoiled brats. They play in the Premiereship, tell themselves that it's the toughest, most competitive league in the world, and then they're shite when they get on the pitch with real players.

To reiterate this post:
* Rooney: Pathetic. Shameful. Should be banned from competitive soccer forever.
* Brazilian Ronaldo: Pathetic, shameful dive. Go eat some Twinkies.
* England: Spoiled, entitled players and hooligan fans. Shameful all the way around.

p.s. Cheers for France in all their multicultural glory for dropping the Brazilians from the tournament. To hear the shock in some people's voices after the game ("What?! Brazil lost?!"), you'd think Brazil just had to show up to collect the Cup. And the American announcers - whew. JP Dellacamera - heard near halftime - "Well, you'd have to say that France are holding their own." Ummmm....JP, buddy, France has controlled the game since after the 60-second mark. They've had more possession, more shots on goal, more creativity, they're controlling the flow of the game, they've committed fewer fouls, etc. Nobody was 'holding their own' - Brazil was looking beaten, and in the end, that's what happened.

In fairness, I actually thought Henry or someone else might have been offsides on the cross that Henry scored from. But, a deserved win. Just puttin it out there.

Be interesting to see if England can get Hiddink to coach them before the next Cup. Hiddink is scary coaching any team, must less a team with some World Cup history. I hope he doesn't do it.

...p.s. As to Rooney, I thought I heard one American announcer, on watching a repeat clip or review of the England/Portugal game, I _thought_ I heard the announcer describe Rooney's groin-stomping action as a 'mistake' - something to be overlooked. They said stuff about Rooney being 'young' and 'inexperienced' and all that. This, to me, is the ultimate in passive racism. If Rooney were a black player who'd done this, _all_ the papers in Europe tomorrow would be digitally lynching his ass for being any number of horrible things - and most of those descriptions would be correct, but for Rooney, who is white, you will see very little if any condemnation, and lots of defenses of the 'young' and 'inexperienced' lad.

Let's address how 'young' that fool is. He's 20. Sure, that's pretty young, but he's not a baby. He's an adult who's been doing adult things around the world for year. Exactly how 'experienced' is he? Well, let's see - his first international for England was in February 2003, when he was 17 years old. So, that's three full years of international experience, with the Euro 2004 tournament his coming out party where he played several full internationals. He went through world cup qualifying with England. For several years he's played for Manchester United, either the first or second most popular soccer club in the world. Does all of this experience qualify as what certain commentator's would described as 'inexperienced' - i.e. a general lack of experience? I would only say that if Rooney was still inexperienced by the beginning of this Cup, then I would like to know what, if anything, would actually qualify a player to be 'experienced', besides a World Cup experience itself.

To sum up, with Rooney's play in the 2004 Euro Championships, his coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, compared his impact with England to that of Pelé with Brazil. When asked to compare Rooney and Pelé, Portugal's current coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, said, "One is black and one is white."

Scolari may have been more insightful than he realized.

...on the offsides comment, I saw the goal again, and it was taken from a free kick on the left-hand side of the field - Zidane. Can't be offsides on a free kick. So, it looked like about three French players were goalside of the English players who were supposed to be marking them - one of them was Henry, and no English players bothered to pick him up at all. That's pathetic. But, that said, a lot of the in-the-box marking in this Cup has been atrocious - starting with the Americans. Blah.

...this article contains a great quote about Rooney:

His frustration, a product of his impotence in an unfamiliar role, resulted in the stamp on Ricardo Carvalho.

The 'stamp' on balls wasn't something that Rooney did, proactively - it was just the 'result of frustration' - i.e. it couldn't be helped - i.e. he's just a young lad - i.e. he's white, it's really no big deal.

...'Jeu Admirablement'? 'Play beautifully', or 'joga bonito' in French? si? oui?

...violence in France after the win. Pathetic. Where does the blame go? Sucks.

...England keeper Paul Robinson is listed at 6'3" or 6'4". And I'm Pelé. It's not the end of the world to see a player stretch his actual height by 6 or so inches. A little bit ridiculous? Sure - I mean, 6 inches? That's more than most NBA point guards stretch their heights, but whatever. In World Cup penalty shootouts, however, height can make a difference. I dunno - I'm just not crazy about short goalkeepers, and listing Robinson as 6'3" or whatever is just a bit absurd. My guess is that he's pushing 5' 11", on a good day, after waking up, after a night on the stretching board. He didn't do anything to help England in the shoot-out. Why am I all over this guy? I dunno - probably just because I hate England, and their drunken, violent, hooligans. And their violent players - a la Rooney.

...one other thing. If you plan on crying for 15 minutes after you lose in a shoot-out, please make sure you leave everything on the field during regulation and overtime. Is that too much to ask in return for some compassion? To me, it looked as if England were coasting, willingly, towards the shootout. Why? I mean, you _know_ someone is going home crying - why not do what you can to prevent the shootout. It's just difficult to have compassion for a bunch of players who were dogging it through most of the match. Sorry. Some players weren't dogging it - Owen Hargreaves - but most were. And the coach is included in that, too, of course. He, above anyone, has the most control over the situation - whether or not a team decides to attack, or if a team decides to make it to the shoot-out and pray for a miracle.

...parish priest calls Rooney a thug.