The World Cup could teach us Americans a thing or two

People who know me know that I am not the biggest of sports fans. While I have teams that I like and some that I don't, in the end it doesn't really matter to me and ultimately, I want the team that wants "it" most to win. Find me a team that shows a lot of heart and is really busts there collective hump and is the best TEAM, and that will the team who gets my praise.
That does not mean that I am indifferent as to HOW games should be played and how the players should play them. We can all think of an incident of some professional athletes self-aggrandizing "I'm so great" moment. Individual moments of self appreciation is not what bothers me. I'll give any athlete the latitude to be proud of their own accomplishments as long as that at the end of the day they acknowledge that it's a team thing. In short, show some class. Because if you don't, than your just another self important, overpaid, egomaniac that should have never been given the opportunity to play the game. That kind of egocentric and self-importance is well....tiresome. Our society is replete with people telling us how good they are. How great they are. How much bling they have. How many bitches they have, how much money they have and just basically how fantastic they are. If the people don't tell us that themselves, the tabloid media more than takes up the slack and tells us of their greatness for them.
Now I know that not all of the a fore mentioned social grievences takes place solely within sports. So how can the World Cup teach us something? It is in my opinion that one of the greatest tragedies of the American sports arena is the loss of the end of game hand shake. This is a time honored tradition. The message that is transmitted in that split second walk the line,slap hands,and say nice game ritual is one of vital importance. Because at the end of the day, it is just a game. And win or lose on a different day the outcomes could have been different and everybody knows it. And no matter who you are, your still human and subject to all the factors that comes with it. And that ritual is a way for all players to convey that to eachother in that instant.
As we witness the World Cup this ritual is taken to a tremendous level. Not only do these athletes shake hands with eachother, they exchange shirts and will hug eachother and reminisce on the game. I know that a lot of the players play together on other teams which helps aid in these niceties, but on the field of battle, these players will help eachother up and check on eachothers well being if injury was possible and know that it was they themselves that could have been injured. One team even brought flowers for a member of the opposing team to honor the loss of his father.
In short, the world cup athletes are playing like gentlemen. Being professional and having a bit of class. And that bit of class is sorely missing from American sports in this day and age.
If you are one of the greats than history will remember you as such. Your records will be there for all to admire. You will be remembered for them. Michael Jordon and Wayne Gretzky are remembered as greats in their respected sports for there performance within the teams they played on as well as their individual accomplishments. Not because they walked around saying how great they were. Everybody knows how great they were, we don't have to be told. They showed class. Cal Ripkin ran around the field and shook hands with the fans when he broke the record for consecutive games. Again, class.
Since these athletes are always put on a pedestal in our society (not that I blame the athletes for this) is it too much for the sports their in to require just a modicum of class. Isn't that the lesson that should be watched by the millions of viewers? That no matter how much money you make and no matter what the score was, that it is just a game? And that I know that it could have been you on any given day? Without the fans we couldn't be paid all this money? Well, let's not push it.
But then perhaps we would see this class carry over into the other areas of our society. And would that be such a bad thing?
Nice game
BB

Green Fuel's Dirty Secret

By Sasha Lilley
Archer Daniels Midland stands to make a fortune from ethanol, but is it green?
The town of Columbus, Nebraska, bills itself as a “City of Power and Progress.” If Archer Daniels Midland gets its way, that power will be partially generated by coal, one of the dirtiest forms of energy. When burned, it emits carcinogenic pollutants and high levels of the greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

New light on NSA spying

By Kim Zetter
Republished from salon.com
A former Internet expert for the FCC concludes that a secret AT&T installation was most likely used for government surveillance.
June 23, 2006 | A federal court in California released a previously sealed 40-page document on Thursday in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s lawsuit against AT&T, which bolsters allegations that the telecommunications giant built secret rooms to allow the National Security Agency to conduct widespread surveillance of Internet traffic. The document also paints a detailed scenario of how the NSA may be conducting the top-secret operation, which closely matches information given to Salon by a former AT&T employee who worked at the company’s network operations center in Bridgeton, Mo.

The End of Net Neutrality?

Big Telecom companies want to control the internet
If you haven’t been following this big story about the future of Net Neutrality, I’ll try to lay it out as simply as I can.
Good Guys: Proponents of Net Neutrality.
Bad Guys: The telecom giants who want to extract fees for service.
The Good Guys want to protect the internet and keep it in the hands of folks like you and I. The Bad Guys want to control it and put it in the hands of big telecommunication corporations. Now, it’s not that black and white of an issue, but for the most part the Bad Guys are looking to gain more, while the Good Guys (Google, Amazon.com – still not great) want to protect what they already have.

Sacramento Anti-War Demonstration Confirms That Peace Takes Courage

I live one hundred miles form this protest and I didn't here anything about it.
"liberal media" hard at work again....NOT
BB
by Gary Zimmerman Sunday, Jun. 11, 2006 at 8:13 PM
glzimm@comcast.net

Sacramento progressives confirmed that “peace takes courage” by holding another anti-war demonstration at 16th and Broadway. Over three hours starting at 5:00 pm, about 150 people dedicated to the anti-war/anti-Bush regime cause rejected pressure to boycott the demonstration because the “wrong people” were sponsoring it.

Lawmakers' Profits Are Scrutinized

Republican profiteering take four hundred and ninety six:

Hastert and Others Defend Land Gains
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 22, 2006; Page A01

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) made a $2 million profit last year on the sale of land 5 1/2 miles from a highway project that he helped to finance with targeted federal funds.

A Republican House member from California, meanwhile, received nearly double what he paid for a four-acre parcel near an Air Force base after securing $8 million for a planned freeway interchange 16 miles away. And another California GOP congressman obtained funding in last year's highway bill for street improvements near a planned residential and commercial development that he co-owns.

GOP Rebellion Stops Voting Rights Act

Complaints Include Bilingual Ballots and Scope of Justice Dept. Role in South
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 22, 2006; Page A07

House leaders abruptly canceled a vote to renew the 1965 Voting Rights Act yesterday after rank-and-file Republicans revolted over provisions that require bilingual ballots in many places and continued federal oversight of voting practices in Southern states.

Jiffy Lube Caught With Its Pan Down

Jiffy Lube Caught With Its Pan Down
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

It is every customer's nightmare.

You take your car in for an oil change.

And the guy goes down the checklist of things they have done -- and charges you $60.

But did they actually do what they said they did?

They said they changed the fuel filter.

But did they?

They said they flushed the transmission.

But did they?

Pol rips Bushies' power grab

YEEEAAAAAAA, dissention in the ranks. It's about fucking time.
BB

BY MICHAEL McAULIFF
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - The powerful Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee all but declared war on the White House yesterday, and accused Vice President Cheney of sneaking around behind his back.
In a blistering letter to Cheney, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) laid out a long list of grievances over the White House seizing more and more power "at the expense" of Congress.

Powerful Lawmaker's Relative Linked Financially to Contractor

Republican money laundering take four hundred and .... oh I lost count.
Here is another one.
BB

By Peter Pae, Tom Hamburger and Richard Simon, Times Staff Writers
June 8, 2006

WASHINGTON — A political fundraising committee headed by a defense contractor has paid thousands of dollars in fees to the stepdaughter of House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) at a time when the contractor has been lobbying Congress for funding.

Lewis' stepdaughter, Julia Willis-Leon, has been paid more than $42,000 by the Small Biz Tech Political Action Committee, according to campaign finance records. The PAC is led by Nicholas Karangelen, founder and president of Trident Systems Inc.

contraception and hypocrisy

Recently sent to the NY Times by my Mom.
Here here Mom!!!
I'm very proud
BB

Thoughout the Roman Catholic world, educated and affluent women have access to birth control even
if they must import it . If an abortion is required, that too is available to them, either
locally or abroad. Priests everywhere tell their wealthy parishoners to ' follow their
conscience.' Yet the Church's official ban persists in keeping the poor and uneducated locked in
the helplessness of too many mouths to feed. [ Look no farther than Mexico for an example. ] It's
not about 'the culture of life', but about control of the franchise and keeping the poor in their
place.

In this country, the religious right is as sex-obsessed as any adolescent. Its proposed
restrictions on contraception and abortion impact only the poor and powerless. Middle class
couples will be always be able to contol their family size no matter what idiotic laws are on the
books. Can't the media be open and honest about this hypocrisy! Is even the Times afraid of the
truth?

Let's be consistent: if sex is only for procreation, then certainly we should ban Viagra. [
Women can identify with erectile disfunction just as completely as men can understand pregnancy.]
And in vitro fertilization should be banned if its byproduct, excess embryos, can't be used for
stem cell research. And no more organ transplants or joint replacements.....they 're nowhere in
the Bible, so certainly they're not ordained by God.

Judith Burke