home about photos slide shows videos magicsauce twitter other blogs books contact









If You Love To Write

Cool Social Media Tools

Analyst Blogs

Around The World

On Spirit & Philosophy

On Culture & Food

On Marketing & PR

On Economics and More

On Fashion

All Things Green

Dance Links

Books: Life

Books: Novels

Website Links

FAVORITE QUOTES

  • Only Those Who See the Invisible, Can Do The Impossible
  • The Age of your Heart is the Age of what you Love - Marcel Prévost
  • Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I'll understand.
  • When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one opening before us. -Helen Keller
  • The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity. -Leo Tolstoy
  • Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets. -Paul Tournier
  • They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. -Carl W. Buechner
  • Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • The foolish reject what they see, the wise reject what they think
  • Imagination is more important than knowledge - Albert Einstein
  • When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you - Lao-tzu
  • The world surrenders to a quiet mind
  • It is a funny thing about life: If you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it - Somerset Maugham
  • "At the moment of commitment, the universe conspires to assist you." Goethe


June 25, 2010

World War Cup

You'd think that World War II was the most important event of the previous century what with all the parallels being drawn between the course of that conflict and the current World Cup. Basically, it goes like this:

France has capitulated early and Italy has given up the boot. England is left to fight Germany all alone, although the Yanks may show up eventually. The Japanese have advanced. All we need is for Russia to force Germany to divert most of her players to the Eastern Pitch.

But wait, the Russians aren't coming! Those pesky post-Tito Slovenes defeated them in World Cup qualifying because they penetrated the Russian defense in Moscow in November, a strategic conquest denied both Napoleon and Hitler.

Speaking of our favorite mass murderer, don't you think his hell-roasted spirit is in particular agony knowing that Germany's side has a bunch of guys who under his command would have been sent to a completely different kind of training camp? Turks, Brazilians, even Poles. To paraphrase another German, Max Weber, "The progress of humanity is the slow boring of hard boards." 65 years is not that long (the Serbs, who were eliminated yesterday, are still stuck on the year 1389). So this development is a very happy one.

Bgr0121h Back in France L'Equipe is not being welcomed a la maniere de Gaulle. The French are playing Yellow Card Red Card Race Card, with digits pointing about who to blame, who won't sing La Marseillaise and who is and is not really French.

A quick look at a team picture shows 13 players with dark skin. Contrast this with the 1998 championship team, which had only 13 players with dark skin. Ok, so it's the same number but that team, in contrast, won so they're patriots, true French, whereas this team lost, so they are a bunch of unassimilated enfants d'Afrique unjustly blessed with French citizenship. We'd have done better with the Algerians!

Yes, they conducted themselves horribly, winners of the Petulant Boot, and deserve the nation's condemnation. They squandered a quadrennial opportunity on the world's biggest stage, their behavior a warning to the world's children rather than an example.

But maybe it's about individuals and their poor choices, or about how professional athletes are absurdly spoiled, rather than let's simply tar everyone with the same old tar? Vive, vive, vive Le Pen!!!

France's flame-out was spectacular but mostly took place away from the pitch, and the whole mess with Henry's hand ball against Ireland and the French coach's astrological consulting made this outcome seem preordained in that weird fateful fashion that is so common in soccer.

The argument could be made that Italy's collapse was more shameful, especially when you consider the end of the Slovakia game. Once they got down by two goals Italy began playing with speed and inspiration. It was the most riveting 20 minutes of the tournament and it made it obvious that Italy's prior performance was from apathy.

France seemed troubled, but Italy seemed indifferent. That's a greater sin. In contrast, the Western Hemisphere is playing with enthusiasm and purpose lacking in most of the European powers. At least six of the eight teams are going to advance to the Round of 16 and Chile, the team playing the most exciting soccer, might make a seventh.

More specifically, has anyone noticed that in this particular game of Risk the South Americans are taking over the board? 10 wins, zero losses, three draws, with top-ranked Brazil and Chile playing against Portugal and Spain today. Today could have the best play we've seen so far.

To give us a sense of where things are, let's take a look at the map.

Upside
Hey, who stole Europe?

June 25, 2010 in Current Affairs, Europe, In the News, On Germany, Sports | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 14, 2009

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on Social Media #tg09 #leweb

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah gave an amazingly inspirational talk....on social media and how powerful it can be to mobilize social issues and causes, on passion, on having a voice, on Twitter, on taking action because action is so easy for all of us now with the free and easy-to-use online tools we have at our fingertips.

December 14, 2009 in Conference Highlights, Current Affairs, Europe, On Education, On France, On People & Life, On Politics, On Women, Social Media, TravelingGeeks, Videos | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack


PARTNERS

KUDOS

Recent Posts

  • Wisdom from Michael Pollan
  • Reflecting on Tony Hsieh's Death
  • The Coronavirus: A Spiritual Perspective!
  • Zen 2.0 Brings Connectedness & Compassion to Kamakura Japan
  • IONS Annual Conference Brings Together Scientists & Spiritual Seekers Under One Roof
  • On Discipline & the Art of Courage
  • Simplifying Your Life Connects you to Your Life Purpose
  • Gratitude & Remembering America's Core Values Will Set Us Free
  • In Honor of International Women's Day
  • Proposed Cut of Planned Parenthood Funding by New Administration

Forbes Top 50





Favorite Blog Posts

Conferences & Events

    2012 Archives

    January 2012

    February 2012

    March 2012

    April 2012

    May 2012

    June 2012

    July 2012

    August 2012

    September 2012
    October 2012
    November 2012

    December 2012


    All Archives
Featured on BlogHer.com

Categories

  • America The Free
  • Arts & Creative Stuff
  • Belize
  • Books
  • Client Announcements
  • Client Media Kudos
  • Conference Highlights
  • Current Affairs
  • Entertainment/Media
  • Europe
  • Events
  • Fiji
  • Holidays
  • Humor
  • In the News
  • Israel
  • Magic Sauce Media
  • Music
  • New England
  • New York
  • On Africa
  • On Australia
  • On Being Green
  • On Blogging
  • On Branding
  • On China
  • On Costa Rica
  • On Dance
  • On East Africa
  • On Education
  • On Fashion
  • On Fiji
  • On Food & Wine
  • On France
  • On Geo-Location
  • On Germany
  • On Guatemala
  • On Health
  • On India
  • On Innovation
  • On Italy
  • On Japan
  • On Journalism
  • On Mobile & Wireless
  • On Money
  • On Nature
  • On People & Life
  • On Poems, Literature & Stuff
  • On Politics
  • On Robotics
  • On RSS
  • On Science
  • On Search
  • On Social CRM
  • On South Africa
  • On Spain
  • On Spirituality
  • On Technology
  • On the Future
  • On Video
  • On VoIP
  • On Women
  • Photography
  • PR & Marketing
  • Reflections
  • Religion
  • San Francisco
  • Science
  • Social Gigs & Parties
  • Social Media
  • South America
  • Sports
  • Travel
  • TravelingGeeks
  • United Kingdom
  • Videos
  • WBTW
  • Web 2.0
  • Web/Tech
  • Weblogs

Subscribe


  • Add to Pageflakes

  • Add to Google

  • Add to Netvibes

  • Subscribe with Bloglines

  • Subscribe in NewsGator Online

  • Add to My! Yahoo

  • FeedBurner



Add me to your TypePad People list

Enter your Email


Powered by FeedBlitz

Copyright 1999-2022 Renee Blodgett