Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Sepp Blatter and Putin

So... Sepp is now in bed with Putin. England and the 2018 World Cup bid would be "too easy". 
So let's have Russia build ten new stadiums at a cost of $7b and hope half of it ends up buying concrete. The level of corruption is staggering in any infrastructure project because it is so easy to hide under the levels of subcontractors! England has everything needed to host a WC next week and would not need the handholding that Russia will require. Then again maybe that's the dodge. All the trips from Geneva to Moscow will be ample opportunity to oil palms.
I wonder if Sepp has a nephew who is at this moment buying a rebar manufacturer in Volgograd? 

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

We're Against It, Except When We're For It

Things have reached a point where the unfettered demagoguery of the nativists in this country is simply horrifying  Some Senators and others are advocating for a repeal of Sec.1 of the 14th Amendment. 
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
This amendment is called one of the Reconstruction Amendments. It was passed as a direct refutation of Dred Scott v Sandford 60 U.S (19 How.) 393 (1857). 
This is nothing but the second act of that new play The Wogs Begin at Calais, now being staged in Phoenix and various cities around the nation.
This comes on the heels of calls for government intervention in where religious physical structures may reside. (please note the difference between at and near) A few years ago there was a furor over the removal of a copy of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Courthouse. Chief Justice Roy Moore was incensed at the order by US District Judge Myron Thompson. Judge Moore railed at this government intrusion in religious practice and the idea that government had any say in the matter. Now various parties,public and private,  think it's fair game to have a government hand in the location of said structure.
Irrationality and bigotry are excused as O.K. because of our National Grief! 
It's easy to stand up for our basic freedoms when the birds are singing and the sun is shining and all is sweetness and butterflies. When it's raining and thunderclaps are chasing you through a moonless night and the mud is sucking at your shoes is the time to be most vigilant!