http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/short-film

The UK Guardian is running lots of material related to The Shock Doctrine, including excerpts, critiques, and supplemental reading. Obviously, I think you should go check it all out.

As he bounced with joy with friends outside his house in Baghdad’s violence-racked Amiriya neighbourhood, Taha Mahmoud, a 25-year-old computer programmer, said: “In 90 minutes, 11 men on a soccer pitch thousands of miles away have made millions of Iraqis happy while 250 MPs, our government, the mullahs, imams and warlords can’t provide us with a single smile. I hope this is a turning point for our country.”

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2137653,00.html

Ian Jones, writing in the Guardian, pretty much nails the decline of a once great TV series. The “Rise and Fall of a Comic Genius”

True, a long-running series has to evolve. Nobody would expect Simpsons episodes to still be solely about Lisa getting a pony or Bart failing a school exam. But, in the second decade of its life, The Simpsons evolved into a dreadfully predictable monster. With each new series came the same questions. Which foreign country will the family just happen to end up visiting this time? Which pop star will the family just happen to encounter while there? And what unsubtle bit of physical violence will Homer be subjected to en route? Contract leprosy, perhaps; get raped by a panda; or maybe get his head trapped between two halves of a lowering drawbridge?

This was change all right, but change as an excuse for idiocy. It was desperately disheartening for those who cherished and loved the show’s early years. Watching Homer hold forth on the topless women he’d seen on holiday in Florida, or Marge accidentally getting breast implants, you wanted everything to be revealed as a huge wind-up, or a cunning satire on trashy TV. But there was no hidden agenda. What you saw was what you got: a base, repetitive, unfunny cartoon.

The show has been ruined for me for many years. Everything that made the show great has been lost for a long time, replaced with “a base, repetitive, unfunny cartoon.” The “raped by a panda” scene is the series low point by a mile. I despise that scene so much that I cannot bear to hear Hank Azaria’s voice anymore because of his play-by-play narration of the, eh, courtship of a male panda by Homer in a panda suit. “Yep, he’s doing the Lindy Hop…” Damn, just thinking about it makes my blood boil.

I don’t even care about the movie and I doubt I ever see it. Does anyone really believe it will be any good?

This writer thinks so. Although based on the following statement, I remain unconvinced:

In short, it looks like The Simpsons Movie is going to be worth the wait. Still sceptical? Consider that this joke, revealed by Groening, didn’t make the movie, as Bart inadvertently gets stuck in an Egyptian sarcophagus:

Marge: “Homer, get him out of there!”
Homer: “Honey, he has to get over his fear of coffins one day.”

Excited?

Excited? Based on that “joke,” not in the least.

Instead I’ve decided to post the only thing that mattered in this tournament — Feilhaber’s golazo, wondertor, super volley matchwinner.

With the recent explosion of organic groceries, most of the big food corporations have a major stake in “natural” brands. For instance,  Kraft owns Boca Burger and Kellogg now owns Morningstar Farms.

These companies are not concerned with your health or the environment. They are focused on making a profit — as corporations, making money for shareholders is the main focus. Conscientious shoppers should be as fastidious as possible when purchasing seemingly healthy groceries. Don’t let a picture of a meadow on the box blind you to its contents or origin.

I am an avid consumer of most of the products I’m discussing here. I’ve been a vegetarian for more than 12 years. I buy lots of veggie burgers. The quandary of the current state of the organic, vegetarian-friendly food industry is that I am ecstatic at the availability and selection of vegetarian-friendly products, but I’m disgusted by the corporate duplicity and disingenuous, predatory marketing. But I hold no delusions. Sure, I shop at Whole Foods, but I don’t think I’m saving the world by doing so. You shouldn’t either.

I am a big fan of last.fm and have become increasingly obsessed with tracking my listening habits.  Often when listening to a CD in the car I start daydreaming about how my stats might be affected, even though last.fm can only track my computer and iPod listening habits.

And the site has gone through a nice face lift and has introduced new tools on a regular basis, so I expect the improvements to continue at a faster pace with the infusion of cash from CBS.

I really like the new playlist widget.  Even though most of the tracks on my playlist are labeled as only being 30 second samples, the full tracks play when in shuffle mode.  And as alluded to by Richard Jones in the announcement, the site now has “…more clout when it comes to negotiating licensing deals etc.”  So I expect the available selection of tracks to increase dramatically.

I am very tentative, and usually disappointed, when corporate money creeps into things I enjoy.  The profit motive tends to erode almost everything of quality these days, so I’m not expecting last.fm to be any different. My only hope is that the site doesn’t become a giant Flash ad or start making me click through extra, useless pages to increase ad revenue, making it unbearable to view and navigate.  Please don’t fuck up this site guys.

See more here

Aside from the lineup looking screwed up because of FSC’s mistake, it was tactically awkward as well. Bradley and Feilhaber may make a nice central midfielder pairing in the future, but they never had a chance of breaking down this opponent. I think a better option would have been to use Donovan in central midfield with either Feilhaber or Bradley and putting Dempsey on the right. I haven’t seen Hejduk do anything useful since the 1998 World Cup so I don’t know how he makes this squad, let alone starts ahead of up-and-coming stud Frank Simek at right-back. And let’s face it folks: Oguchi Onyewu is the most over-rated and over-hyped US international ever. It’s clear as day that Jay Demerit is a tactically and positionally superior central defender and deserves to start alongside Bocanegra. At left back, Bornstein benefits immensely from Beasley’s defensive work leaving me to question whether he is truly up to the task. So ideally, the backline should be: Simek-Demerit-Bocanegra-Spector. Luckily, Guatemala plays with one forward and their closest chances were from a near own goal from Bocanegra and a decent low effort from Ruiz on a 20-yard free kick, so this weak defensive arrangement wasn’t exposed too badly.

Anyway, the game started awfully, with the US wasting possession and misfiring a large percentage of passes as they tried to “feel out” the Guatemalan bunker defense. Despite the lack of flow, the US managed two great open headers from corner kicks but finished them poorly. It’s not a stretch to say it could’ve been 2-0 in the opening 10 minutes.

The lone goal, courtesy of Clint Dempsey, was started by a classy headed pass by Beasley into space behind the Guatemala defender, Melgar, who was caught flatfooted and couldn’t adjust as Twellman ran past him and onto the ball, quickly centering to Dempsey to blast in from short range. A really nice goal.

It looked as though the lead might open the game up a bit but that didn’t happen. Donovan was being wasted on the right until about the 35th minute when he started to see more of the ball. A very nice run was thwarted by Twellman, whose diagonal run succeeded in nothing more than getting in Donovan’s way and ruined what may have been a nice scoring chance just before the intermission.

The second half was a truly ugly affair. Guatemalan attackers, most notably Carlos Ruiz, were initializing all sorts of contact in the midfield and their offensive third. These shameless attempts at winning free kicks actually convinced the referee. It was a pitiful performance. A good ref would have warned Ruiz and called many fouls the other way. But a ball would be sent into the offensive third, a US defender would give chase, and a Guatemala attacker would run into the American, hit the ground, and the referee would call the foul and award a free kick to Guatemala. This was Guatemala’s sole ability to get the ball down field. Onyewu was carded unfairly, but he should have known better and played off Ruiz a bit. After he was sent off, Demerit should have immediately been inserted instead. There was a nervous few minutes after Onyewu petulantly left the field when it seemed Guatemala would get a breakthrough. Seeing Hejduk playing center back was a scary site. But once Demerit came on, the backline settled down. Demerit even flattened Ruiz cleanly, illustrating his superiority over Onyewu even in physical play. The fact is, Onyewu is a liability and it almost cost the US a victory. I am glad he will miss the Trinidad & Tobago match.

Getting three points in the opening match of a tournament is always a great start, but I’d like to see the US improve in most aspects of their game. However, the level of competition is so low that continued mediocre play from the US will still get them to the final in Chicago.