Another Teachable Moment

Are I the only one who is is tired of hearing of screw-ups being described as teachable moments? The administration eventually accepts responsibility for being wrong but works hard to do everything but, and muddies the water with this preachy teachable moment nonsense. To wit Harvard's Prof Gates and the pronouncement that the Boston police were "acting stupidly" before the facts were known. And then we had the almost instant firing and subsequent apologies and job offers to a Mrs Sherrod.

If that weren't enough we now have the President in-artfully defending the right of Muslims to erect a mosque very close to ground zero. That was a proper idea and Obama's prerogative but then the next day he undoes any good he did when he walks it back by saying he was not commenting on the decision to build the mosque. If this were the Bush administration we would be hearing much about incompetence and little if anything about teaching moments. That works for me.

Perhaps in reality this is another example of the President's lack of true grit... or cajones as some of our less polite conservative pundits suggest. Now that Palin has picked up on cajones, I promise again to revert to true grit.

Despite having the right to build the mosque at this controversial site I believe building at that location would signal a remarkable insensitivity.

The Beautiful Game

You both know that my knowledge of soccer is limited to what I learned on the sidelines of your games years ago. Having said that, I must say Holland's tactics of aggressive [to put a nice face on it] play to physically intimidate the Spanish wasn't pretty, was dirty at times and certainly not very sporting. I guess if you can't intercept the pass you take out the passer ... any way you can.They deserved to lose on that alone.

After getting 9 yellows and one red, the Dutch then blamed their loss on the referees. Hypocrisy? Never my favorite people the Dutch. Of course the ref wasn't perfect; that would be impossible. For example he should have immediately ejected the karate kicker who kicked the Spanish mid fielder right in the chest.

Good world cup overall except for the vuvuzelas. Amazing noise, must have been dreadful up close.