The cover story in the June issue of National Geographic is about soccer. It features some fantasitc country specific short pieces by some fairly renown writers. The short on England was written by Nick Hornby, the author of Fever Pitch, About a Boy, and A Long Way Down*.

His piece quotes former England captain Terry Butcher and his awe-inspiring statement after a 1989 WC qualification match:

"Off the pitch I was always an ordinary, mild-mannered bloke, but put me in a football shirt and it was tin hats and fixed bayonets. Death or glory."

But it's not all bayonets, contrast Butcher (awesome football name) to Robert Coover's piece on Spain:

"Each game is a story, a sequence of ambivalent metaphors, a personal revelation couched in the idiom of the faith. No game I know of is so dependent upon such flowing intangibles as "pattern" and "rhythm" and "vision" and "understanding." Which may be all illusions. And at the same time it is a very simple game: like dreams, almost childlike."

In my own life...the game has supplanted baseball in majesty and beauty. I am seduced by its simplicity and pulled from earthly worries in ways that baseball could only provide sporadic and temporary relief from. It is an elixir, a panacea whose medicinal remedy can stroke your soul long after the official has blown the final whistle.

A look back...

My first experience with the World Cup was in 1994. I was in Germany for the opening matches, returning for the semis and finals right here in the United States. I regret not going to one of the matches in the Meadowlands, having declined the opportunity because I didn't want to sit in traffic!

Here's a quick list comparing and contrasting 1994 to 2006:

1994
FIFA Soccer '94 Gold (SNES), Alexi Lalas, Steve Sampson, USA
2006
Winning Eleven 8, Landon Donovan, Bruce Arena, Germany

*This book is a glimpse inside my own life.

I just watched "The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy" on the History Channel and found it very eye-opening. I've never believed any of the crap spewed by Oliver Stone in his "historically" based fiction. What I found most heartbreaking about this program was the power and influence filmamakers have over the hoi polloi. It's a grim reminder of how powerful Hollywood is. Many Americans believe Stone's version (debunked by historians) unequivocally. I weep to think what Stone will invent for his propaganda piece on 911 and how a dimwitted public will gobble it up wholesale, just like they've done with The Davinci Code and any film by Michael Moore.

This is a post from Tim Graham over at NRO. His comments after the numbered list burn. He's captured the essence of "modern" MSM journalism. The MSM continues to be a shill for the "moderate" wing of the DNC. This piece, just like the puff piece last week on the Clinton marriage in the NY TIMES, is purposely intended to frame her ascendancy. These are just the opening salvos...the intensity will ratchet noticeably for her as Couric and Co. get on board.

Hillary "Not Easily Defined" Clinton?

Repeat after me, says the Washington Post today.

1. A clear sky is "not easily defined" as blue.
2. A skunk is "not easily defined" as stinky.
3. Hillary Rodham Clinton is "not easily defined" as a liberal.

This is one of those stories where a seasoned political reporter makes himself look like an undiscerning idiot who's never evaluated a voting record, like he's trying to pass some sort of fraternity hazing ritual.

I took these photos this afternoon. This was at the end of our driveway. Awful. How do you think this poor pineapple met its fate?

Google is linked to the DNC by several sources. They support censorship in China and apparently here in the US.

"Something frighteningly ominous has been happening on the Internet lately: Google, without any prior explanation or notice, has been terminating its News relationship with conservative e-zines and web journals."

Source: The American Thinker

"Google has become the single largest private corporate underwriter of MoveOn. According to sources in the Democrat National Committee, MoveOn has received more than $1 million from Google and its lobbyists in Washington to create grassroots support for the Internet regulation legislation [“Net Neutrality”]. Some of that money has gone to an online petition drive and a letter-writing campaign, but the majority of that money is being used to fund their activities against Republicans out in the states."

Source: The American Spectator

Read more...

...that the NY TIMES is a rag for the DNC? Maybe NOT the DNC but certainly for Bill and Hillary Clinton.

The New York Times front page has a whiff of People this morning, writing about the Clinton marriage.

"Mrs. Clinton may be the only Democrat in America who cannot look at Bill Clinton as an unalloyed political asset."

I'm glad K-LO is up worrying about this stuff.

I can still write a little HTML and use Photoshop!

I'm part of the schism in the Republican Party over immigration. I support border security 110% (I don't want some crazy ISLAMOFACIST jumping across the border with a suitcase bomb or biological weapon), but can't support ANY faction of the party reprsented by bloggers like PoliPundit and NRO Corner that sound like David Duke/Pat Buchanan/Lou Dobbs.

I'm ashamed of them. Please get yourself a copy of anything written by Hayek/von Mises or Milton Friedman. I just hope we can stay civil and resolve this schism so that we don't hand Hillary the White House in 2008.

I'll sleep a little easier tonight having read this article on the USD.

Here's another on inflation...although this one will keep you up at night.

"Somewhere out there people were pursuing useful careers and doing good deeds. In the time it took me to build half a mountain, some Wall Streeter was making enough money to buy a BMW. I didn't care. Day after day, I just aimed straight ahead, like a man hacking his way through a jungle, improvising with each stroke. I never thought that some wisdom, or cosmic insight, might be lurking in the matrix of decisions and events that had led me to this basement obsession, but I was convinced that if I stopped, something would happen."
- Sam Posey

“The unfettered free market has been the most radically disruptive force in American life in the last generation.”
     - Hillary Clinton

Thinking of you, wherever you are.
It seems like all the sadness has diappeared and for the sake of all feelings not yet reached.
I think I will continue forward.
And who knows.
Starting a new journey may not be so hard perhaps its already begun
there are many worlds under this sky
but I believe we'll be together again...

The future is small cars and football (soccer).

This is a great ad by GATORADE and it makes me a little teary-eyed.

Online resources to stop her ascent!

Stop Hillary PAC.com
Go Home Hillary
THE HILLARY WATCH
Stop Her Now

John Podhoretz weighs in on National Review Online.

I love Hugh Hewitt. He was the only BLOGGER during the 2004 elections to reassure us that the early returns for Kerry were bogus. While they were jumping out of windows over at "The Corner", Hugh was calmly reassuring us that something was awry with those early returns.

Hugh is once again recommending some reassuring words regarding the 2006 elections.

On a side note...this business with the CIA just makes me want to vomit. They [the CIA] have been actively waging a coup agains the President and his Administration since the decision was made to invade Iraq. What bothers me is how unpublicized this "fact" is in the MSM. I'll post more as this unfolds...until then...

"Either way…even if you’re unhappy...donate, vote, keep fighting, blogging, reading, challenging the MSM…If the DEMS take control of the house the GWOT is over, the DEMS will continue their anti-American ways and we’ll have 2 years of impeachment hearings against the President. It’s NOT about the President anyway...it’s about keeping Hillary and her anti-American agenda out of the White House for 4-8 years."

Print this and put it in your wallet or purse.

I'm sad that Taylor Twellman isn't on the roster.