ESPANA - Ole!

Gano Espana!! Spain has defeated Germany 1-0 to win the Euro 2008 Cup. An awesome tournament, an awesome victory by the Red Fury. Fernando, "El Nino" Torres was the man for Spain. His goal at about the 38 minute mark was the decider, ending 44 years of drought for the Spaniards. 69 year-old Spanish coach, Luis Aragones, was credited by his players for securing the victory. In their march to this impressive victory, the Spanish team beat the world champion Italians, the former Euro Cup champion Greeks, the aggressive Russians and the storied Germans. A victory to savor for the ages. They're still partying in most of Iberia.

On an interesting political side-note, the Spanish victory manged to bring Galicians, Catalans, Basques and Castillians - often a contentious bunch at best - together in a fever of sports patriotism. It would, however, be an oversight to ignore the sublime and unexpected performance of the Turkish national team in this year's tournament. 19 late game goals is very impressive. In The Author's humble opinion, the Turks gave viewers some of the best moments in the last two weeks of football.
Euro 2008
sport
Spain

China's Reprehensible Repression in Tibet

It's not bad enough that China has Disneyfied Lhasa and turned an ancient people and religion into a tourist attraction. No the Chinese government has been Hanifying Tibet as well. The Han, China's powerful ethnic elite, have a long history of heavy-handed regional adventurism. In Tibet's case, that has meant the exile of tens of thousands (govt. in exile) and importing thousands of ethnic Han to cleanse the country of its indigenous influences and authority. It is, therefore, an insidious form of government-sponsored ethnic cleansing. Now, they're shooting citizens, and gassing monks and nuns. No wonder there's local resentment and unrest. The Chinese government's answer? Mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops, fill Tibet and surrounding provinces where ethnic Tibetans reside with troops and police, clamp down on Monasteries, and imprison monks, nuns and average Tibetans suspected of speaking out. Read Mark's comprehensive post on Boing Boing about the riots.

The foreign press has been rounded up and moved away from the action. The Internet has been comprehensively filtered, and the Chinese government is denying any culpability - instead falling-back on their long-time practice of blaming and demonizing the Dalai Lama. Yea, uh huh. Like I'm buying that. Like anybody's buying that. This is brutal repression, pure and simple. The massive denial of basic rights and respect to an entire people and their religion. Though I've been known to condemn the antics of wingnuts and fundamentalists of all strips, the actions of the Chinese authorities in the case of Tibet are over-the-top. There are several petitions making their way around the progressive blogosphere, and The Author has signed all he's seen. I hope my readers will consider doing the same, and taking whatever other actions that may be available to let the Chinese government know that this is not acceptable behavior.

It would not be proper for me to offer such advice and direction without acknowledging the human rights violations of the US in Iraq and Guantanamo. I have posted about my revulsion regarding our current president and foreign policy on many occasions. That is just the point. I can voice my opinion in any forum without fear of sanctioned, state retribution. Unlike the Tibetans, who are being summarily shot and imprisoned for being frustrated and protesting. Now that's dictatorship. It will be a very unfortunate endorsement of this kind of repression if the leaders of the FREE world attend the Beijing Summer Olympics 2008 "Opening Ceremony." Free Tibet Now!

Technorati Tags: Tibet,China,Olympics,Han,Dictatorship

Title Nine Celebrates 35th Anniversary

Title Nine is 35 years old today, and the world of youth sports in the U.S. will never be the same - thankfully. My eldest daughter, the serious jock in the house as I've noted in previous posts, reminded me of the milestone this morning. And of what still needs to be done to fully implement the spirit of the groundbreaking law.

To review, Title Nine prohibits federally-funded education programs and activities from discriminating on the basis of sex. Sounds simple, but of course it's not. Sports and a bunch of other programs in public education have always been unfairly focused on males. I can only think that this anachronism is a result of the puritanical fundamentalist view that only males matter and females are, after all, just chattel. It is important to remember that females now represent a majority of the U.S. population, are often wage earners, combat veterans and, well, you know the story. There's just no reason at all for any remnants of the exclusive, male-only fraternity to be holding on to any part of the old model. So happy anniversary Title Nine. Hoo-ya, have another micro-brew.

QBs in Shopping Carts

I could have just as easily titled this rant: What have they done to my game? Or, Why I won't be watching the Superbowl this weekend. I used to love the NFL. Then "stuff" started to happen. It started with TV Time Outs. Those inexplicable time-outs that inevitably interfere with the natural rhythm of the game. Just go watch a good high school game on a Fall Friday night and see what "natural rhythm" is all about.

Then, in what I take to be an effort to cut back on human resource costs, cable-mounted robotic cameras appear to much fanfare and self congratulation. Well, news flash: they suck. Networks have been trading leagues and playoffs as well recently, and a fan never knows just who to expect in the booth. Sure, the A-team announcers are spot-on. But the B- and C-teams are really, really bad - often consisting of tired old farts paired with young, brash and clueless know-it-alls. That frequently leads to some discernible disconnect at best, and tension at worst. Just what I want to be dealing with at game time.

Recently, network game coverage has been highlighting the "human drama" and "personal sacrifice" associated with the game. First of all, that's turning a perfectly good sport into soap opera; and second, it's kind of a hard sell with the numbers of NFL players busted of late for possession of firearms and assault. Get real. Can anyone say: "Too much drama?"

So drama's not enough. Advertising agencies, in their great wisdom, turned all of my heroes into laughing stocks. Here's where I give the title of the post a nod. The TV commercial that really drove me from the room holding my head was the one featuring a host of HOF-bound QBs being pushed around supermarkets in shopping carts. First time I saw that I had to reach for the air sickness bag. Who's idea was it anyway to turn our sports heroes into powerless fools in the fetal position? That's so intuitive, don't you think? But it didn't stop there, and still hasn't. How about Peyton in that black wig and fake stach? What a giggle, no?

As my frustration mounted, the real jock in the household introduced me to European League Soccer and world-class Rugby. That would be my eldest, adult daughter - a roommate at El Ranchito. This is a girl who used to greet me on Sunday mornings with a recitation of all the times and channels for televised games; the key match-ups, and her personal picks for the day's schedule. She had a poster of Steve Young in her room. An all-conference athlete herself, she takes sports very seriously. And she's way big on soccer and rugby now. Frankly, I can see why. A total breath of fresh air. Soccer fans sing with joy, and scream in agony.

Soccer is not the only "other" football. There's "Irish" football, Aussie Rules and my new favorite, Rugby. American males, who are suffering and in decline, should take a look at Rugby. It's a very masculine and triumphal struggle. The New Zealand All Blacks rugby squad is simply the best football team of any sort on the planet. That "Haka" they do before each game would chill any opponent. Interesting that the team's biggest threat is its smallest player.

So I'm not going to be watching the Superbowl this weekend, for the first time in a couple of decades. I'm not convinced the rivals are of interest to anyone outside the corn belt in any case. And I'm also sure there will be way to much drama. I'm just not interested in sports soap operas. I'll catch the commercials online. Hold the barbecue, stow the chips. You can leave the beer.