As if it wasn’t enough that the Brits’ famous oil company has destroyed the ecosystem of the Gulf for the next thirty years or so (the BP disaster makes the Exxon-Valdes one look like stealing from the cookie jar), they are seeking revenge for their poor showing in the World Cup, especially relative to the Yanks.  The British government continues to deny the Haudenosaunee team’s entry to the World Lacrosse Championships in Manchester, England, insisting that the team travel on U.S. passports.  You see, the Haudenosaunee are Iroquois tribesmen.  They don’t need U.S. passports and travel fine without them—usually, until they ran into the Brits.  Even though their ancestors invented the game of lacrosse, the Brits are still fighting the French and Indian Wars and want nothing to do with Native Americans.  Any excuse to equalize the playing field, eh, mate?

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Yes, I know he has a following on Facebook.  The snail in my garden probably has a following on Facebook and a movie on YouTube.  Congress people, moving just as slowly, rarely say anything more worthwhile than the 140 character tweets on Twitter either.  So maybe internet fame doesn’t mean that much.  Yet, if we accept the premise that this man-boy’s fame goes beyond his desire to expose everybody to his foot odor, the question of the title is still meaningful.

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Sunday’s New Jersey Star-Ledger got it all wrong.  Terribly, foolishly wrong.  Gov. Christie of New Jersey wants to implement the 2 ½ % property tax increase limit that Massachusetts employs.  The Star-Ledger’s main argument against it was that it would destroy school sports.  Come on, guys!  If you can’t think of a better argument than that, you deserve a century of dancing, chortling Gov. Christies that fill your every waking moment and all your nightmares as well.

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Mr. Nelson Mandela, father to modern South Africa, could not be at the opening ceremonies of the World Cup today because his great-grand-daughter, Zenani Mandela, died in a car accident on the way home from a kick-off concert at the Orlando Stadium.  While our hearts go out to Mr. Mandela, he will be sorely missed at the ceremonies because he was a great believer in the power of sporting events to bring the races together.  He promoted the rugby championship in South Africa (portrayed in the movie Invictus), even though his critics called rugby a white man’s sport, and has promoted the World Cup.

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OK, one post and I’m done being Mr. Rand Paul’s apologist.  Before anyone calls me on it, let me speedily admit that I was wrong about Mr. Paul.  I thought he might be a true Libertarian and bring some seasoned philosophical meat to the riotous Tea Party table.  Instead he is the Mad Hatter and not nearly as funny as Johnny Depp.  Paul is currently hiding from the media and for good reason.  The statements that Woolworth’s had the right to exclude blacks from its lunch counters and that corporations in general can be exclusive of anyone they feel like were way over the top.  In other words, he said that the civil rights legislation of the 1960’s went too far.

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Today we made out our shopping list for the Memorial Day BBQ so I thought it would also be appropriate to sit down and remember why we really celebrate this day.  We have two official holidays associated with our armed forces, Veterans’ Day and Memorial Day.  The first is more general and in theory honors all who have served.  The second is to specifically honor the memory of the fallen and the wounded.

The public and the media often confuse the two days by celebrating the heroes and their medals of valor.  I’d rather not confuse the two at all.  Moreover, I’d like to focus on the quiet and dedicated service of men and women far from home and family, just doing their jobs as best they can in a hostile environment.  They’re generally young and lonely and also very deserving of our esteem and appreciation.

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I’m just a little weary of all the pundits saying that Mr. Rand Paul’s victory in Kentucky is a win for the Tea Party.  Sure, he used them to whip up the mobs that rejected Mr. Mitch McConnell’s lackey, but if Paul son is anything like Paul father, I’m sure his philosophy is more reasoned than mob rule.  Neither Rand nor Ron is a person that thinks in terms of tweets (the new expression for “thirty second sound bite”).  Libertarian philosophy is deep enough that most Tea Party members, including their dingbat darling Ms. Sarah Palin, would drown in its depths.  Mr. Paul’s victory is one for the Libertarian movement.

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Justice Stevens’ retirement from the Supreme Court is a potential disaster for the progressive movement in this country.  Justice Stevens was to President Ford as Justice Warren was to President Eisenhower-a force for rational, progressive change named by a conservative president.  How lucky is that!  Maybe Ford wasn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but Eisenhower was the military genius that smacked Hitler around.

Don’t expect that to happen much in the future.  On the contrary, President Obama, thinking that it’s more politically expedient, you can be a wuss and try to name someone that will upset conservatives and liberals equally and therefore be a shoo-in for Senate approval.  If that happens, the over-all effect would be to make the Supreme Court more conservative.

Don’t do it, President Obama!  Be bold.  You won the election.  Ignore political expediency, pick your progressive candidate, and nominate him or her.

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Anyone around my age (most baby boomers?) will remember those old Saturday double features where you got two movies and, in fact, could spend all day at the movie theater watching them plus some excellent cartoons.  My favorites were what you might call bad sci-fi, variants on the theme in Tremors, a fairly recent campy film that caught the flavor of those movies.  The sugar high from all that candy made those monster movies even scarier.  In that wonderful tradition I give you today a double feature.

It’s not sci-fi, though.  This post is about two rather famous people that are ill.  Due to the NCAA finals (I rooted for Butler in the men’s and Stanford in the women’s), some of you may have passed over the news about my choices, so let me bring you up to date.  My subjects today are James Levine and Tiger Woods.

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The recent case of Chelsea King in San Diego, CA, the Polly Klaas case in Petaluma, CA, the Holly Piirainen and Molly Bish cases in Western MA, and many others around the country over the years have shown that prevention, sex offender registration, and prison rehabilitation just do not work.  While we have added technology like GPS anklets and web surveillance by the police, the number of sex offenders continues to grow, overwhelming law enforcement efforts.  The internet has given sex offenders a new recruitment tool and, in the case of pornography, ready access to a market that seems to be increasing steadily.

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