Posts Tagged ‘world cup’

While everyone has been on the Mitch McConnell death watch the entire political world was caught completely by surprise by the sudden death of a seemingly healthy & vigorous Lindsey Graham.

It’s an important reminder that nobody is promised even tomorrow or even the rest of today.

Plus you never know, back when the Catholic “Sacrament of the Sick” which is now regularly given to those who are ill, was the called “The last rites” given to people expected to die my mother had received them 7 times before she was 50 due to illness & incidents.

She lived to be 88.


Of course Graham will get a full autopsy because he was considered “young” & that he was on Iran’s kill list but in my youth a person dying at 71 would not have elicited a 2nd thought.

A lot of people complain food is killing us or the environment is killing us or manufacturing is killing us but the truth is that we are living longer and longer because western civilization gives us a safer & cleaner life than than even the richest people 100 or 150 years ago.

As a biographer of Churchill, William Manchester, noted in the first of his three volumes on his life, the food served to the lords of the Manor in the 1890 would not pass a basic safety muster of today.

We live in what most people in history would consider a paradise & the only reason why so many young are discontented is because they’re too ignorant & uneducated to realize it & it’s in the interest in those who wish to use them to keep them that way.


The reaction to the death of Lindsey Graham is a great example of the new rules of culture and how they are applied.

As recent as two decades ago the idea that any person with a national platform would speak ill of the dead within 24 hours after they died unexpectedly was considered beyond the pale.

Today the fact that I completely expected to see it online, both by people who want to get credibility with their fellow haters & by their opponents to get clicks by saying how nasty they are for doing so, doesn’t move or outrage me at all.

It’s the natural results of the new rules. I disagree with these rules & I would like them to no longer exist but one must live in the world you’re in even if you wish it changed.

I can’t get angry at people when I don’t expect better from them.


Since we’re speaking of death it’s worth noting the political death of Graham Platner in Maine.

I was actually surprised that he pulled out of his race as he had nothing to lose by staying particularly since the left is completely terrified of the violent DSA types, not to mention his overwhelming victory over a sitting Democrat governor. Whatever incentive they offered must have been really something.

The only thing that really surprised me is how fast the media played the “boy were we stupid” card so soon after they had done so with Joe Biden.

That anybody falls for it is amazing, but it shouldn’t be. It’s amazing how much you don’t see when blindness fits into your political or financial desires.


I don’t blame fans of Egypt for being disappointed. After all they were up 2 goals with under 12 minutes to play for a chance to get to the final 8 in the World Cup before the defending champions with perhaps the single best player in the world managed to put three goals in the net

I don’t even mind them questioning the calls.

What I do mind is trying to turn their defeat by the defending champions into a Jewish conspiracy against Islam in general & Egypt in particular & also going after Argentine “football” as something corrupt.

The only thing funnier is how they champion the “Palestinian” cause while having one of the tightest fences & borders to keep Gazans out of their country.

Egypt’s team had a great run that it should be proud of. 150 countries would have celebrated a team in the final 16 & their fans would be right to lionize their players & coach’s skill. Alas that’s coupled with pulling this kind of idiocy because since they attributed their victories to calling on Allah to curse the Christians & Jews before each game it’s impossible that they might actual lose a legit match.

Fortunately they don’t care about losing the respect of outsiders like me as long as they’re able to lie to themselves.

No wonder today’s left embraces Islam so.

I spent some time watching World Cup Highlights yesterday and those highlights demonstrated why the sport is not worth my time.

The highlight reels ran 15-20 min with several replays in them so maybe 10-12 minutes of play. That from a match that runs 90-100 minutes. That’s 80 minutes of dead time where there is no much happening but a guy kicking a ball back to another while they look for a chance to make something happen,

Contrast this with Baseball which while not having a clock has the potential for a run to be scored & a highly happening on every single pitch.

Give me the pine tar & the leather any day.


The worst part of being out of work is the waiting.

Last time around in 2008 I couldn’t buy a job interview. This time I’ve had quite a few. I’m waiting on three companies right now 2 of which had told me I’d be hearing back from them up or down before this point.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy that I’m getting interviews it’s the waiting that throws me for a loop.

It’s not easy at 63 to be competing for positions with people 20+ years younger than you.


Let me remind you of several somethings concerning Elon Musk’s soon to be Trillion dollar net worth.

  1. Musk employs tens of thousands of people
  2. Musk is actively using his wealth for some rather incredible things
  3. There are plenty of people who have never built anything who will critique his wealth for profit. power & clicks.
  4. There are plenty more who only started hating on him once he became a threat to the power of the left or to virtue signal to said left that they’re one of him.
  5. As the old saying goes, he will still be able to only eat one meal at a time & sleep in one bed at a time & will like all of us eventually die.
  6. The only think that really counts in the long run is his relationship with God, I’d worry more about that but I’m too busy worrying about my relationship with God.

But the real thing about Musk’s wealth is this: It’s nothing to do with me and not my concern. He has what he has and does what he does and what he so does is his own business, not mine. I have no more right or claim on what he has than the guy down the street has to mine.


Over the past two weeks gasoline has dropped .29 cents from it’s high in my area. About 9%.

While that’s nice it’s still up 57% from the low it had hit before the Iran War.

This causes me pain but it’s still worth it if Iran is emasculated. What the people who are complaining about the lack of a deal or Trump not getting said deal or bombing them on any given day either don’t understand or ignore is that every day that passes Iran grows weaker and we grow stronger.

As the tankers continue to come to the US & we keep getting tankers in the straits out Iran’s leverage continues to drop. Yeah if we were willing to commit 100,000 troops we could likely bring them down and take the country & the oil but at the cost of 1000’s of US lives that while justifiable in the long run to destroy once & for all the leading terror sponsor in the world, is a price our current society is unwilling to pay & unnecessary if Iran can be emasculated without doing so.

The price will keep trickling down slowly as the alternate supplies continue to open up. I suspect if things aren’t concluded right away it will take till the end of August to see gas at $2.99 again. By that time Iran will be capping wells and their ability to finance jihad outside will be practically finished, which frankly they are almost at now anyways.

That’s a lot less sexy than seeing the Mullahs fall just like winning the cold war over 50 years was a lot less sexy than Patton leading his army against the Soviets in 1945 would have been, but I’ll take less sexy with thousands of less casualties every day of the week.


Finally word is out that the Doctor Who Christmas special is nixed & the BBC is pretty much taking bids to see who wants a shot at running the franchise that they’ve driven into the ground once again.

Like the anti-thatcher stuff that killed it in 1989 the work stuff has made Doctor Who so Toxic that actors have no interest in the iconic role & fans don’t care.

In my opinion the solution is obvious, I’d give it to Big Finish which has been producing original Doctor Who stories for more than a quarter of a century & doing so without needing a government imposed fee to pay the way.

While they have their share of woke they are experts at making stories that people are willing to pay actual money to hear, and while they don’t have experience in TV that doesn’t matter as the special effects and or cinematography are not the problem here. it’s the stories and as Big Finish says: Big Finish, We Love Stories!

Let Big Finish supply the scripts and Doctor Who can thrive again, or let the TV show die and let Big Finish run the Time Lord as strictly audio. Remember it was six years of Big Finish stories starting a decade after the final show that caused it to return. And even if it dies here, remember the first episode was broadcast in 1963 when I was six months old.

Not a bad run.

With apologies to John Cleese If you want to understand why Soccer/Football is a sport that Americans on the whole reject go to youtube and compare the highlights of the game for any NFL game vs the Highlights of any of these world cup matches.

You will not that it takes 10-12 minutes for them reviews of the 60 Minute NFL game but only about 6 minutes for a 90+ minute World Cup match.

For the other 80 minutes it’s the Simpsons


Was it just two months ago that Celtics fans were worried about how the injury to Robert Williams and the suspension of Ime Udoka would mean doom to a team that was just two wins away from a championship last year?

Joe Mazzulla has made them forget all about Udoka but his answer to the question if he met with “the Royal Family.” when the Prince and Princess of Wales means they won’t forget him

They’ll never forgive him for that


Patriots fans seem to have very short memories.

Just 14 weeks ago everyone was noting that while the Patriots have pretty much the same team that they had last year, that all of the teams in their division and many others in the in the conference had improved.

So is it so strange that they sit in last place in their division while still having a ..500 record when in the previous season they made the playoffs by the skin of their teeth?

20 years of Tom brady success really has spoiled the fan base here.


Speaking of success have you ever seen a team as successful as this year’s Boston Bruins that has gotten less attention from the media and the fan base of a city.

The Bruins have set a record for consecutive home wins, they have dominated their sport and they can’t buy any press. All people want to do is to talk about how bad the Patriots have been.

Again I blame Tom Brady. In the days before his time the Brins would be THE story in the city.


Finally the Red Sox seem poised to lose Xander Bogarts. He is the link to the David Ortiz days winning and the Mookie Bettis days of winning.

They will not get a player as good at him at short or second (they can always move Story to short which I suspect was the plan from the beginning) but this tells me they are going full rebuild mode.

If they figured on losing him I can’t see why they didn’t trade him while they could, Better to get something for him than nothing for him, particularly if the plan is to rebuild.

Again success makes it difficult. 20-25 years ago when winning was practically not in living memory they could have gotten away with it, but now with four titles in under 20 years the fan base may not be as patient as they once were.

Maybe it’s just me but it looks like the Dutch are using the tactics of the New England Patriots vs the Rams in Superbowl XXXVI. Hit them hard on every play and make them feel it

Of course Dutch might not be emulating the Pats as much as the Dutch Sea Beggers who were the terror of the Spanish and won the Dutch their independence.

In an hour or so we will see if they are as effective.