By VictorM:

David Beckham and his Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team visited Edmonton mid week to play an exhibition game against a second tier team from Vancouver. Commenting on David Beckham's arrival, Robert Tychkowski, of the Edmonton Sun had this to say:

It's like meeting cricket great Imran Khan Niazi, or catching a brief glimpse of bowling legend Mark Roth, or bumping into one of the top 25 javelin throwers of all time - a rare opportunity to see a once in a generation athlete in a goofy sport.

My first reaction, based on the rest of the article, is that Mr. Tychkowski was trying to be funny. But I'm going to give him some credit and refuse to accept that someone can be that bad at comedy.

What I believe is more plausible is that Mr. Tychkowski is the stereotypical Canadian who wants to be like the Americans, and so, to be like the cool kids, he picks on soccer. What he doesn't realize is that that is so 90's. The cool kids, for the most part, have all moved on to either ignoring soccer or accepting the inevitable -- that soccer is here to stay.

The Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League averaged 36, 843 in 2007. David Beckham and his mediocre Galaxy team, in an exhibition game against a team that's not even from Edmonton and plays in the lower division, played in front of 37,104.

Goofy, eh?

By VictorM:

Josh Marshall has summarized the current state of the Democratic primary in a way that makes sense to me:

We seem to have arrived at an equitable compromise: Sen. Clinton is staying in the nomination race while Sen. Obama drops out to move on to the general.

Keep running, Hillary, keep running.

By VictorM:

Kvatch and his take on the Democratic primary and calls by Obama supporters for Hillary to leave the race:

Not only does the the Democratic Party need every supporter from both sides of the primary debate, if the two sides come together, we’re unassailable. Do you hear that? Unassailable! So if the Obama supporters would just lay off for a few minutes; give a woman who ran a tenacious campaign her due; and explain to those of us on the fence why, exactly, we should support Congressional dilettante, then maybe we’ll win this election.

Clearly, Hillary should not be pushed out of the running, but... the math doesn't lie. It's time for the lady to sing.

As a follow up to a recent post on this matter, I must say that I don't lose any respect for Hillary if she fights on. I was just merely saying the math is against her and I don't see how she can win now. But in any case, a lively convention will probably do the Democrats a world of good. Still... practice, Hillary, practice... Do, Re, Mi...

By VictorM:

Last night the New York Red Bulls visited Los Angeles and defeated the LA Galaxy 2-1, with a winner by the fabulous Juan Pablo Angel.

And today over in England...

Manchester United won 2-0 to become champions of England on the very last day of the championship. As a bonus, Chelsea give up a goal in the last minute of the game to settle for a tie 1-1. Awwww... poor babies. :-p

And Fulham, a team that boasts 5 American players, scored a late goal to save themselves from relegation and stay in the premiership. Awesome stuff. This one really made my day.

By VictorM:

Sometimes, less is more, and Glenn Greenwalds's title of a recent post says is all:

Neocons and the truth: Bitter enemies to the end

The rest of the post goes on to detail how neocons continue to push for an attack in Iran and are happy to make up shit to see that it happens before George Bush leaves office.

Terrorists are our enemies but neocons are this nation's biggest danger.

By VictorM:

I saw the following on the front page of the Washington Post and had to laugh. They have it there as if it's big news. Come on, this is standard operating procedure for a leader in the current day Republican party:

PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers].

This type of activity just endears the senator to the conservative base of his party. And the rest of the party just thinks he has balls. Party on, like it's K-street days!

By VictorM:

You know the saying: " It ain't over till the fat lady sings." Well, Hillary, the time has come to belt out a tune. The math is not in your favor.

I'm not thrilled with Obama's message of hope and "let's all play nice" nonsense, but he has won the Democratic nomination fair and square. Delaying the inevitable just plays into McCain's hands.

By VictorM:

In an article in the Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, I ran into this sentence:

Liberals love victims and want them to stay helpless, so they can help them, with government programs; while conservatives love those who refuse to be victims, and get up off the canvas and fight.

I can understand conservatives thinking that liberal policies continue to leave people helpless as an unintended consequences. I don't agree with that assessment, but I can understand it. But to say that liberals want people to stay helpless, well, that's just sheer nonsense.

That attitude shows that conservatives can't just disagree with others; they must demonize them. As long as conservatives are in power, there will be no peace and no compromise. Their nature won't allow it. Those who disagree with them are traitors, anti-America, terrorists, appeasers, weak, macacas, etc.

This explains why there isn't much difference between George Bush and John McCain on the issues that matter.

By VictorM:

Both John McCain and Hillary Clinton made similar proposals to suspend the federal gas tax during peak driving months this summer. This holiday tax really is a rotten idea and here's why why:

Economists... say the oil companies may end up the biggest beneficiaries, while the aid to families wouldn't be enough to buy a $35 backpack.

The trouble with the plan, they say, is that oil prices are rising because of low supplies, and companies will continue to charge the average $3.60 a gallon and just pocket the money that would have gone to federal taxes...

Where supplies are fixed -- and oil/gas supplies, for all intents and purposes, are -- it is the demand that determines price. One oil company could cut its gas prices, but it can't sell anymore gas than it already is (because it already sells all the gas it has), so purchasers would have no choice but to get the rest of their gas from someone else. This leaves oil companies with no incentive for lowering prices. If I'm already selling out all my inventory, and I can't make any more, lower prices cannot boost sales or take sales from someone else. All they can do is cut my profits.

Your model posits suppliers bidding against each other to sell gas. But with supplies fixed and limited, in effect what is happening is that buyers bid against each other to purchase gas.

This sounds like a campaigning good idea that would be a failure if implemented. Sorta like George Bush's tax cuts.