I’ve watched it unfold in the World Cup.  I’ve seen it in most pro sports—football, basketball, and hockey.  I’ve seen it in most collegiate sports.  The referee’s conundrum in an intense game or match is deciding how close to call the fouls and how much to let the players play.  While I don’t usually do sports op-eds in this blog because players, coaches, fans, and even referees can become very emotional in the “fog of war,” a recent incident in the Brazil-Colombia World Cup match merits a comment.

Some people are up in arms against the Colombian who, by accident, broke the vertebrae of a Brazilian player, the star striker.  I saw the event, knew it was an accident, and also knew that in most games the Colombian would receive a yellow card, even if it was an accident.  That would be calling the fouls close.  I won’t side with Brazilian fans who want the Colombian player banned.  Their own players were guilty of egregious fouls that weren’t called up to that point too.  The referee let that game get out of control.

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Happy Fourth of July!  Please celebrate well but take care with drinking, driving, and fireworks….

To the rest of the world, especially those in the British Commonwealth: pardon us while we take a few days to celebrate.  I know you’ll understand….

Item: Politics and futbol….  I use the Spanish spelling here because the U.S. is the only country in the world where football doesn’t mean soccer.  We have American and Canadian football, NCAA and pro football, tackle and touch football, and arena football, all variations of a game unrelated to soccer (it’s more related to rugby).  Futbol’s World Cup, like the Olympics, is an international festival of sport where patriotism can be displayed, flags waved, and bragging rights gained without much violence, except for the wee bit of physical violence that occurs on the field (fewer concussions than in the NFL, I’m sure, but no slush fund to cover them) and among the fans.  All in all, it’s a healthy emotional outlet.  Even if your team is eliminated, one can still watch the games and admire the skill and strategy of players and coaches.  I mean, c’mon, that German goal against the U.S. was a beautiful set piece once you’re past the dismay of having it scored against our team.

All that said, what’s with Ann Coulter’s soccer rant?  An ultra-conservative whatever-she-is blessed with a big mouth because she so often puts her foot in it (“it” can stand for many things here, of course),  she calls soccer “a sign of the nation’s moral decay.”  Huh?  My two granddaughters play soccer, love it, and don’t seem to be suffering from moral decay, and probably never will from soccer.  It’s a wonderful game to teach team spirit, cooperation, and good sportsmanship.  Like other team sports, individual prowess shines best when the star makes his or her team members look good.  Maybe that’s why she says “individual achievement is not a big factor in soccer”?  But soccer stars are big names in the sports world—they might be revered more outside the U.S., but many names are recognized here in the States too, and that’s becoming more common with this tournament.

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Whoever you are and wherever you go this weekend, please pause and remember our service men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice.  They are the true heroes of this great nation….

Item: Dalai Lama, persona non grata.  The Scandinavian countries have a reputation for being progressive and wonderful places to live, albeit too cold.  But the Daliai Lama was dissed by the Norwegian government.  Turns out they bowed to Chinese pressure.  Now, China invaded and took over Tibet.  Sound familiar?  Reminds me of recent decisions made by ye olde ex-KGB homophobic dictator of Russia.  No wonder Norway says nothing about the Ukraine.  They’re afraid of the giant shadows China and Russia cast, even though they have plenty of oil.

Of course, Mr. Lama was just there in Norway for the silver anniversary of his Peace Prize.  I guess even the Norwegians are hypocritical.  Maybe it’s the effect of all those Northern Lights putting them into a hide-our-heads-in-the-fjord-sands stupor.  The Dalai Lama was one of the more justifiable Nobel Peace Prizes (why does Norway hand out that one and Sweden the rest?); Obama’s and others didn’t make sense.  Yet, twenty-five years later, they throw it back into the old man’s face.  I’d be pissed even if I were the Dalai Lama.

Item: Sotheby’s bomb.  No, Sotheby isn’t some wacko English terrorist.  Sotheby’s Spring Auction was a bomb in the sense of kaput, failure, crashed, etc.  One-third of their art items didn’t sell.  The official explanation—from the NY Times, as official as I can get because I’m not a Snowden working at Sotheby’s—is that the art work was overpriced.  I bet!  My explanation is that no one wanted those artworks because they were crap.  Or, we can just write it off to a bad economy—the one-percenters don’t think artworks are a good investment anymore.

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Two recent events portray two different sides of domestic violence.  The first is the case last week of the family renting the luxury home of a tennis star down in Florida.  A man apparently killed his wife and two teenage kids and then set fire to the entire place.  The second is one that happened last Saturday in nearby Lodi, New Jersey (near to my new hometown of Montclair), where a man stabbed his estranged wife and took off with the kids.  The common denominator is a desperate man doing terrible damage to his family.

We don’t know the details of either case at the time I write this, but I can guess.  In the first, I suspect the fortunes of the SOB went south for whatever reason, he didn’t want to live, and he didn’t want to put his family through hardship.  Relative to living in a mansion, anything is a hardship, I suppose, but it still sounds crazy.  Of course it’s crazy!  Murder-suicide is the work of a crazy man.  The guy flipped and his family suffered.  His unilateral determination brought way more suffering to his family than poverty would have.  Of course, the guy could also have had a bad trip with some bad drugs, but buying all those fireworks and gasoline ahead of time sure looks like premeditation.

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Last Friday, a NY Times article titled “Donors Weigh Jilting Christie for Jeb Bush” (5/2/14) reported that more moderate Republicans might be looking toward another Bush in lieu of some radical Tea Party candidate.  Admittedly, the GOP has a thorny problem.  The Tea Party and its sympathizers even go after GOP rank and file—anything to the left of fascist is anathema to these fruitcakes.  But, after our NJ guv Christie’s fledgling campaign couldn’t even leave the nest due to Bridgegate, who else does the GOP have that might appeal to America’s vast political middle?  Certainly not Ted Cruz.  Mario Rubio might be a good veep candidate, although any Hispanic would be stupid to vote for him, and that GOP budget genius Ryan has shown his black heart all too often.

Of course, “more moderate” is relative: Dubya’s brother is still a Bush, and a member of an ancient dynasty in American political terms.  He’s still far to the right, a card-carrying conservative whose progressive ideas are half-baked, half-hearted, and designed only to court Hispanics, Blacks, and women.  He, in fact, still would have to court Tea Partiers, right-wingers, born-agains, and long-time bigots in order to be nominated.  As Mitt Romney so ineptly demonstrated, to win the GOP nomination you have to move so far to the right that you fall off the eastern edge of the political world.

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The case of the botched execution in Oklahoma should never have happened.  Couldn’t find the vein?  C’mon!  Some people are wringing their hands, saying, “They made that poor man suffer.”  Well, that’s the idea, isn’t it?  Isn’t the application of any death penalty just the Old Testament form of justice, eye for an eye, etc, etc?  What kind of insanity is it to talk about humane ways to put someone to death?  What right does our government, or any government, for that matter, have to murder anyone?  What does the victim’s or victims’ families gain?  Some kind of Old Testament revenge?

That’s the first point of this post: two murders, one where the killer offs his victim, and the other where the government offs the murderer, don’t add up to justice.  Two wrongs don’t make a right.  Even if the murderer wants to die, no government should be in the business of killing its citizens.  It’s simply barbaric and grotesque.  Absolutely nothing is gained.  That famous closure victims’ families receive is a smokescreen for institutionalized murder.  No matter how it’s done, that’s what it is.

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Les deseo a todos un feliz Cinco de Mayo, especialmente a todos los lectores mexicanos.  Nachos con chile con queso, algunas  cervezas Coronas, o margaritas virtuales para todos!  Tengan una fiesta toda esta noche….

Translation for gringos: I desire for all a happy Cinco de Mayo, especially for all my Mexican readers!  Virtual nachos with chili with cheese, Corona beers, or margaritas  for everyone!  Have a party the whole night….

The tape of LA Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling allegedly ranting to his girlfriend about not wanting her to embarrass him by socializing with Blacks…the comments uttered by Fox News and Tea Party “hero” Cliven Bundy questioning why Blacks ever wanted to end slavery…these are ignorant old men who are bigots and racists, but the news about them reminded me of a comment Michael Moore made in a discussion last year at the Montclair Film Festival (that’s Montclair, NJ, where I live).  To paraphrase, Moore (no relation, as far as I know) said that we just have to wait for the bigots to die.  NBA owner, Sterling, as rich as he must be, can’t dissuade the Grim Reaper from his appointed rounds—he’s old, and we’ll soon have one less bigot.  (I’ll admit that at the time I write this, proof still has to be supplied that the recorded voice is his, but he has a track record.)  Bundy’s made his money by stealing from U.S. taxpayers, which somehow is more folksy-heroic than stealing from basketball fans and players, but he too is old and will die, erasing another bigot.

Unfortunately, Michael is wrong.  Bigots and fanatics aren’t born; they’re made.  They’re products of their culture.  Technically, these are subcultures, I suppose, but “sub” implies that we have just one or few cultures in the U.S.  We don’t.  We have many.  Every immigrant—and we’re all descended from immigrants, except for Native Americans—imports some of the culture from his Fatherland, and that percolates through the decades.  The average person usually passes through many subcultures during his or her life, but not always.  While one might be a bigot or fanatic as a reflection of their parents’ culture (they’re not mutually exclusive, of course), that can be overcome.  As the nation becomes more diverse and subcultures more plentiful, a person often adapts, realizing that the prejudices and fears inculcated in him by his parents are invalid.  Or not.  Prejudice, even hate, can be so ingrained that the personality collapses without it.

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