What is it with soccer?

Deaths on every continent as a result of something the world press calls "hooliganism", as if it were a bunch of 12 year-old boys egging cars and toilet-papering houses on Halloween. Well, it's not eggs and toilet paper, it's riots and murders, over something as stupid as a bunch of people kicking a ball around, a sport that most of the fighters AREN'T EVEN PLAYING! IT'S AN EFFING GAME YOU IDIOTS! It's disgusting. And now, as shown below, it seems that people can't even play VIRTUAL soccer without violence. 

ROME (Reuters) – An Italian man who argued with his son over Sony PlayStation tactics was recovering in hospital on Monday after the teenager stabbed him in the neck with a 15-inch kitchen knife, police and hospital officials said.

The man, identified as Fabrizio R., suffered a deep cut to the throat after his 16-year-old son, Mario, attacked him during an argument on Sunday over the soccer video game FIFA 2009.

Police said the argument broke out when the 46-year-old storekeeper offered his son advice on tactics to improve his play, and then turned the television off in response to his son's behavior.

Fetching a knife from the kitchen, Mario stabbed his father in the neck before returning to clean the weapon at the kitchen sink in front of his mother and leaving it to dry on the draining-board. Forty-six year-old housewife Monica B,. told Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera that she had no idea what had happened until her husband stumbled into the room, clutching his throat.

"I saw Mario come back into the room, he seemed calm, he went to the sink and I noticed him washing a knife," Monica told the newspaper. "Then my husband came into the room with a hand round his neck, dripping blood."

The teenager shut himself in his bedroom after the attack and made no attempt to resist arrest, police said.

The game had been given to Mario a few days earlier, as a birthday present.

"Mario is obsessed. He's forever playing on his PlayStation, and we bought him FIFA 2009 because we didn't want him playing violent games," his mother told Il Corriere.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100125/od_nm/us_italy_stabbing

Awww, man...

Robert B. Parker, author of the Spenser, Randall, and Stone novels, died Monday at age 77. He was one of my favorite writers, and this sucks. For those who know Spenser only from the Robert Urich series, you don't know what yer missin'. Sure, it was great hard-boiled Private Eye stuff. But it had intelligence, heart, modern characters, and wit as well (Parker had both Master's and PhD degrees in English Literature).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/7038200/Robert-B-Parker.html

Sucks, bad.

Blagojevich: A blogger's (and SNL's) dream.

Blago: 'I'm blacker than Barack Obama'

The former Illinois governor outdoes himself in an interview with Esquire during the taping of "Celebrity Apprentice": 

It's such a cynical business, and most of the people in the business are full of sh** and phonies, but I was real, man — and am real. This guy, he was catapulted in on hope and change, what we *hope* the guy is. What the f***? Everything he's saying's on the teleprompter. I'm blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived. I saw it all growing up.

Also, an unlikely-sounding claim:

David Axelrod called me the day after John Kerry lost to Bush — Wednesday — and he said, You need to think about running for president in 2008. A new face from the Midwest to challenge Hillary Clinton. He used to work for me. He had Obama in his stable already — he's a consultant, so he's just gathering potential talents. That's what these guys do — it's all about picking winners.

I emailed Axelrod to ask about the claim, and will update if there's a response. The view of Blagojevich as a potential presidential contender, however, has always largely been confined to the former governor himself.

UPDATE: David Axelrod emails:

Total and complete fabrication. I told Blagojevich in 2001 that I could not work for him for governor because I didn't believe he should run. I hardly would then recommend that he run for President. I had heard he was having meetings within a year of running for governor to discuss a presidential race. I thought that prospect was ludicrous.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0110/Blago_Im_blacker_than_Barack_Obama.html

Like I said before, he just doesn't get it.You're done, Rod. Give it up.

Another Palin woman with balls?

Sarah Palin’s Daughter, Bristol, Sets Up Public Relations Firm
 
Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Bristol Palin, the eldest daughter of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has set up her own public relations firm, according to articles of organization filed with the state Commerce Department. 
The single-member limited liability corporation will be known as BSMP LLC and based in Anchorage. Bristol Palin, 19, signed the document as the organizer. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20100106/pl_bloomberg/aq0oyidtonr0

Maybe this is the Palin we should keep an eye on. See ya in 2032?

Remember ya heard it here first.

Cow

Idiota

"BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – A failed airport security test ended up with a Slovak man unwittingly carrying hidden explosives in his luggage on a flight to Dublin, Slovak officials admitted Wednesday — a mistake that enraged Irish authorities and shocked aviation experts worldwide.

While the Slovaks blamed the incident on "a silly and unprofessional mistake," Irish officials and security experts said it was foolish for the Slovaks to hide actual bomb parts in the luggage of innocent passengers under any circumstances."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100106/ap_on_re_eu/eu_hidden_explosives

Now how stupid does someone have to be to not figure out ahead of time that hiding explosives in unknowing passengers' bags is a bad idea?

National Pubic Radio?

*****

NPR using your tax dollars to insult you
Clarice Feldman

There's no question NPR is for the Administration and against its opponents but 
with the nation being almost evenly split between the parties and the Tea Party 
gaining support every day, how much chutzpah does it take for an organization 
which gets a lot of tax revenue for operations to insult the tea party as it does 
in this "Learn to Speak Tea Bag" video.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120344047

Update: Big Fur Hat adds:

It is time for NPR to be thrown on the ash heap of history. When tax dollars are 
used to promote a video that is dripping with contempt for the tax payers themselves 
it is time to stop feeding the beast.

Ok boys n' girls, lets recall what the term "teabagging" really means: dropping one's scrotum 

into a sexual partners mouth. Well, Tea Partiers pay taxes too. The Tea Party is mainly about taxes, financial waste and large, intrusive government, on which NPR feeds. National "Public" Radio? Where is the honesty, objectivity and fairness -not to mention plain courtesy- that a public-funded network should be devoted to? If I were a member of the Tea Party, would I be an enthusiastic supporter of NPR? I would think not. Regardless of which party I belonged to.

Cow

A blues song...

Did You See That


Standin' there at the bar just havin' a beer
after work and nuthin' much to take me home
when I caught some motion out the corner of my eye
It was a babe with a tray and... my oh my

Oh my God did you see that
Oh my God did you see that
I know she's too young, or I'm too old but
Oh my God did you see that

Well I shoulda known better than to do what I did next
But the way she moved put a whiplash in my neck
So I followed her 'round the corner watch her walk up the stairs
I knew it was stupid but I followed her right up there

(I'm tellin' ya, the way her hips moved under that skirt
The way she could balance that tray, dodge drunks and still flirt)

Caught up with her in the middle of a wailin' reggae crowd
Tried to get her number but the music was too damned loud
From the smile in her eyes I knew she knew what I was after
She put her hand on my arm and said "sure I'll get you a draft sir"

Oh my God did you see that
Oh my God did you see that
She saw it coming and she stopped me flat
Oh my God did you see that

Well I tucked in my tail retreated back downstairs
chugged my beer had to get the hell out of there
As I was leavin I could hear her laughin' with my friends
Another mistake I'll never hear the end of

Oh my God did you see that
Oh my God did you see that
(He ain't rich enough to be that fat!)
Oh my God did you see that
 

Blagojevich ain't too bright, is he.

Rod Blagojevich, the disgraced, Dr. Cornelius-looking former governor of Illinois (that bastion of political integrity), is a contestant on Donald Trump's "The Celebrity Apprentice". The guy just doesn't get it, does he? After being thrown from office for trying to sell Obama's Senate seat he made the rounds: "The Late Show with David Letterman", "Today", "Good Morning America", "The Early Show", "The View", along with multiple programs on Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC where he proclaimed his innocence and insisted he would be vindicated. When hair and brazen denial didn't work, he sent his wife off to Costa Rica to star in a reality show called "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here!", and THEN went on to star in The Second City's musical entitled "Rod Blagojevich Superstar", and wrote a book called "The Governor: The Truth Behind the Political Scandal That Continues to Rock the Nation". The guy just ain't too bright, and doesn't understand how dumb he is. But what else could we expect from a man who appeared on "The Daily Show" and thought it was a real news program? A man who insisted his aides carry a hairbrush for him at all times, which he referred to as "the football"? A man of whom Judge James B. Zagel said "I don't think this defendant fully understands and I don't think he could understand...the position he finds himself in." But "The Celebrity Apprentice"? Trumpy'll probably boot him just from hair envy.