I am soooo wasted, dude....

My daughter thought my South Park dude looked stoned. Actually, he is supposed to look cynical. Here is what he looks like when stoned:

Just Wasting Time...

Little Miss Chatterbox had a link to this site on her blog where you can create your own South Park character. Of course, I just had to waste about 30 minutes or so creating one for myself. So, without further ado, here is South Park Stuffle...

Soccer is the Metric System of Sports...

Every once in a while, a caller on one of my favorite radio shows will call in with something good. The latest was during a discussion on soccer in which a caller called in and said "Soccer is the metric system of sports." Besides being funny, it is absolutely true. Both have been crammed down our throats forever, both with the ridiculously stupid argument of "the rest of the world is doing it", and in both cases, most Americans are not on the bandwagon.

The thing that amazes me is that this seems to bother a lot of soccer fans (for that matter, the fact that we don't use the metric system seems to annoy a lot of the loon-jobs who push that, too). I have never understood why. OK, I am only a casual soccer fan. I don't really have the time to follow all sports that I like, and baseball and auto-racing have to take precedence. Still, I do catch some MLS games, and some of the European leagues' games when I can, and I have been watching quite a few of the World Cup games. Still, I am not going to get all bent out of shape because I am the only one of my friends and coworkers who actually gives a shit.

Are the rabid US soccer fans that shallow that they actually care that 95-99% of the other US sports fans don't really care about their sport? If so, why?

Ukraine vs. Switzerland

Let me start by saying, I really don't care who wins this game.

I am watching the first OT period, and so far the only thing that stands out about this game is that the yellow card pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme with this ref. It is nice to see a ref that will just let them play the game, but this is getting a bit ridiculous with some of the non-calls...

Hopefully this will go to penalty kicks. That would be an exciting end to an otherwise lackluster game.

Update: Ukraine wins on what would have been an exciting round of penalty kicks if the Swiss were capable of scoring even one penalty kick...

Major League Meltdown

I saw this video on ESPN's sports center this morning. It has really been a long time since I have seen a manager have such a temper tantrum. He was acting like a two year old cry-baby who didn't get the toy he wanted at WalMart... Very funny!!

Viva Italia!

I am not at work today because I am ill. I evidently ate something that did not at all agree with me. The down side is that I split 70% of my time between sleeping and being in the bathroom. The upside is that I get to watch more World Cup!

Today's first match was between Italy and Australia. At one point, it looked like there was going to be yet another case of a referee inserting himself too much into the game, with an unwarranted red card going against Italy. That seemed to be the only real error made by the ref.

So, thanks to a bad call, Italy had to play most of the second half a man down. They held off Australia, however, and at the last moment in stoppage time, they earned a penalty kick, which resulted in Italy winning the game at the last second. Very exciting!! At least in the end a single poor refereeing decision did not effect the ultimate outcome of the game (this time).

Way to go Portugal!!

When the Portugal vs. Netherlands game started, I was kind of pulling for the Netherlands. However, after seeing some almost classless play from the Dutch and some good hard nosed playing from the Portuguese players, my sympathies started to turn towards Portugal.

From a "human drama" perspective, this was certainly one of the more exciting matches I have seen, but I would really like to see less yellow cards. In a physical game like today's, you will get some, but they seem to come out for every little thing, and in today's match the referee seemed to be rather inconsistent. That has to be frustrating for the players...

Stupid Weather People!!

So I am attempting to watch Korea vs. France, and the stupid TV station switches from high def to regular, and then puts up some stupid tornado warning sidebar thing. Yes, I know, there is a tornado. I heard the damn sirens, now get back to the high def broadcast!!!

Stupid TV stations...

Update: Well, now the useless talking heads have decided that these tornados are "news". I really hate these stupid, self important dumbasses. Just put the weather news on a crawl, so the two people who actually give a crap can just read it off of there...

Stupid, stupid, STUPID TV people...

Damn Child predators

There were a pair of related articles on the BBC today. The first deals with the fact that the British are looking to copy "Megan's Law". Personally, while I do believe "Megan's Law" is a very good law, it really ought not be necessary in the first place. The fact of the matter is sexual predation of a child, besides being extremely disgusting, is also a crime with a very high rate of recidivism, and the people who perpetrate it should be put away forever to begin with, amen, and end of story.

The second article today was about a woman in England who has reasonable opinion on this subject. Specifically: "He should have had life and life should mean life". Amen to that. See, in her case, her three year old daughter was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by some scumbag who, if this was a sane world, would still be in prison from the time he assaulted a six year old. A crime for which he only got three years, though he actually served even less.

Adding insult, is the amazingly lenient sentence he is getting for his second offense:

Craig Sweeney, 24, who took the three-year-old from her home in Cardiff was last week sentenced to life but can seek parole after five years.

Life is a great start, I have no argument with that. However, the ability to seek parole after any amount of time, let alone a measly five years is just pathetic. I think the mother of the child says it best:

The mother of the victim, who cannot be named, said Sweeney's sentence, passed at Cardiff Crown Court, was a "pathetic insult" to her child and called for the law to be changed immediately.

She said: "Regardless of whether its a minor assault, or a major assault, there should be a minimum of 15 years."

Absolutely, and I would add that this sort of thing should be a life sentence without parole starting with the very first offense.

Go Korea!!

Alright, Korea, let's kick some pacifist French ass! All you have to do is show a little fortitude and backbone, and they will likely surrender... :)

Finally, a useful Firefox Extension

While perusing the Monkey Bites blog, I found this post about the Joga.com Companion. Now I can get all my World Cup scores and news in a handy little side bar in my browser. That is really nice for me, since I am at work when most of the games are played. I mean, let's face it, this is soccer. Periodically checking the scores in a browser isn't really that much different than actually watching the game... :)

Anyhow, I have finally found a firefox extension that is actually useful. So if you are one of the three or so soccer fans in the US, and you use Firefox, I would suggest checking it out.

(OK, OK, the Google Toolbar is indispensable, so I guess I should say that I have found a second extension that is actually useful. Most, though, just get in the way.)

We Finally Scored a Goal!!

The US finally scored a goal in World Cup! Well, not really. The US finally has a goal, but Italy had to score it for us. But we did actually manage to luck into a tie and score a point.

Oh, and while we are on the subject, I would like to thank Mexico and Portugal for both kicking Iran's asses!! If anyone needs to be sent home with no points, it is them...

OK, I know. I am one of only about way less than 1% of the American population who actually gives a shit about Soccer, so I will shut up now...

Update: The New York Times has a nice recap of the game.

Tyler Groth, Worlds Biggest Dumbass...

When I first saw the pictures of the punks who trashed Holy Hill, I thought the older one looked like one of those overly pampered turds that you just automatically want to beat some sense into. You know the ones. They are the ones who have grown up with their no one wanting to hurt their "self-esteem", resulting in monsters who can't handle rejection, think the whole world exists just to amuse them, and have no sense of the value of other people, their lives, or their property. Basically a "Columbine" sort of syndrome. Turns out this first impression of mine was right on.

The investigators then asked Groth, according to Washington County Sheriff Brian Rahn, "Do you feel sorry for what you did?"

"No," the sheriff quoted Groth as saying. "It was just something I did. I just wanted to have some fun."

Pretty typical of these kids who have grown up in a culture where they don't have to work to achieve praise, where there are no "losers", and where their self-esteem is coddled to the extreme.

But what is even worse then these turds and what they did, is the attitude of the judge in the case.

He [Judge Patrick Faragher] said the vandalism is a "very terrible thing" but comparable to "tagging" or graffiti, and "not an assault on the Catholic Church."

Bullcrap! What would they have to do for it to be an assault Catholic Church? Bomb the church? Shoot the pope?

The fact of the matter is that thousands of people use these grottoes for prayer and reflection, and these acts are extremely hostile towards them. If this type of thing was done to a Muslim or Jewish temple, you can almost bet that this would be considered a "hate crime". This should be no different. These guys are completely unrepentant, and are actually proud of what they have done. They don't need slaps on the wrist. They need several years in prison. Maybe someone in there can teach these two a bit about "respect".

Eddie Cheever is an Idiot...

Or at least, that seems to be the common consensus between Danica Patric and Marco Andretti...

ABC didn't have any good coverage of the Patrick vs. Cheever incident, but the Andretti vs. Cheever incident seemed to be a pretty clear cut case of stupidity...

On a related note, I am glad to see that the media has stopped fixating on Danica. Last year she got a lot more attention than she deserves, especially for someone who has never won a race. She is a pretty good driver, but there are others who certainly have done more to deserve the attention.

Now the medis seems to be fixating a bit on Marco. OTOH, that may be justified. He actually shows a lot of potential for true greatness. Only time will tell.

European Football Fans Still Living in the '50s...

I have never understood why certain people seem to be so in love with European countries. They seem to think we should emulate their crappy health care systems, and many of their other economically crippling socialist policies. I could go on and on about how many of the European countries have used illogical (and stupid) policies to attempt to solve very real problems. However, this post isn't about that. It appears that when it comes to racial issues, European countries may talk a good game, but in reality, they are basically still living in the 1950's.

Players and antiracism experts said they expected offensive behavior during the tournament, including monkey-like chanting; derisive singing; the hanging of banners that reflect neofascist and racist beliefs; and perhaps the tossing of bananas or banana peels, all familiar occurrences during matches in Spain, Italy, eastern Germany and eastern Europe.

I, thankfully, cannot remember racism like that in any American sports during my lifetime. Hank Aaron had to endure some stupid crap when he was chasing Babe Ruth's record, but that is really the last time I recall any real racism in sports here. Maybe if some black NASCAR driver was threatening to take the cup, we would see bullshit like this, but even that is a big maybe. Even the NASCAR fan base has changed a lot over the last 20 years or so.

While we are on the subject, I would like to call "bullshit" on Bono. Yeah, U2 is one of my all time favorite bands, and Soccer is my third favorite sport (right behind baseball and auto racing), but I am really getting sick of hearing the World Cup commercials with Bono talking about how a little ball can stop wars, bring people together, and otherwise solve all of the world's problems. Evidently, he never read this article...

German convicted over baby deaths

I am not sure what I find more disturbing about this article, the fact that someone would be so morally bankrupt as to do something like this, or the fact that in Germany this is only worth 15 years. At least they are consistent. After all, this is the same country that initially put a cannibal away for only eight years because the victim "wanted to die". Meiwes eventually got the sentence he deserved (well, considering Germany doesn't have the death penalty). I have less hope for this case. After all, had she done this before the baby was actually born, the murders would have been perfectly legal...

Update: The article has been expanded since the "Breaking News" article this morning. Now I have even more questions and comments.

A jobless dental assistant, Mrs Hilschenz did not give evidence at her trial but had previously told investigators she did not harm the babies, but let them die after giving birth alone.

Excuse me? Last time I checked, letting your babies die is harming them. This is one screwed up world if someone can say they didn't harm their baby but just let it die. What the hell is wrong with these people?

She said she already had three children, and her husband did not want any more babies.

Ever heard of birth control? Condoms usually work. Vasectomies work. Should have probably looked into that a bit, eh?

Mrs Hilschenz's husband, relatives and neighbours all said they had been unaware of her pregnancies.

Really? Are they stupid? Blind? Look at the picture. She isn't fat or anything. You would think hiding a pregnancy would be very, very difficult.