There will be always be an England no matter what those Europeans try

Charles Johnson links.

Cut in Gas Tax

There are a lot of things I like about John McCain, but today's proposal to impose a holiday from the (still laughably low) federal gas tax is not one of them. I think we see the worst of all three current candidates when they stoop to populist nonsense like this.

Great Invention

Here is a great invention. It's much like the lids that you get for your hot beverage at any coffee place except that the tea goes through a filter before it reaches your mouth. This way, the barista can simply put loose tea leaves in the cup and pour in hot water. The result: a cup of tea that even George Orwell (the coiner of this blog's name) would be happy to consume! Click here for Orwell's formula for the perfect cup.

Wind Farms

I'm very keen on wind technology and I am tired of all the nimby-type opposition to wind farms from the Kennedys and other vacation-home-owning people. Andrew Sullivan links to a story that suggests that this might not remain a problem any longer.

Another Rich Obituary

The film director Jules Dassin died yesterday. He was blacklisted and went to Europe to continue working.

Soccer Artifact of the Week #5

Remember that annoying jazz/pop/fusion artist Gil Scott-Heron
(of "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" fame)? His father was the first black player to play for Glasgow Celtic.

Bad Baseball Writing

A sentence that should never appear in an article about baseball and the writer's youth: "That was the summer that my friends and I lost our innocence." There it is today in the Wall Street Journal. Ever since (and before) Roger Kahn's "The Boys of Summer," otherwise decent writers have tried to use baseball as a metaphor for... something or other. Biggest culprits: Donald Hall, Bernard Malamud, George Will, Philip Roth. What do these guys have in common? Great writers, terrible writers about baseball.

Soccer Artifact of the Week #4

Here's a good Israeli movie about the first Lebanon War -- some of which took place... during during the 1982 World Cup inSpain.

Those Paris Bikes

I was very impressed by those publicly available bikes in Paris. My understanding is that for a small annual fee, you have access to bikes at any of several dozen places where the bikes are kept. You take a bike and have half an hour to return it to another site. These are the bikes.

Sky News reporter: "It's hard to make sense of a life-saver trained to kill"

No it isn't. He seems like a great guy to me.

Kosovo and Israel

I have thought for a long time that the Kosovo Albanians have a lot in common with the Israelis (in a good way). Michael Totten thinks so too.

The Specials on Obama and Rev. Wright

The Specials had it right in 1984.

The Specials - Racist Friend lyrics

If you have a racist friend
Now is the time, now is the time for your friendship to end

Be it your sister
Be it your brother
Be it your cousin or your, uncle or your lover

If you have a racist friend
now is the time, now is the time for your friendship to end

Be it your best friend
Or any other
Is it your husband or your father or your mother?

Tell them to change their views
Or change their friends
Now is the time, now is the time, for your friendship to end

So if you know a racist who thinks he is your friend
Now is the time, now is the time for your friendship to end

Call yourself my friend?
Now is the time to make up your mind, don't try to pretend

Be it your sister
Be it your brother
Be it your cousin or your uncle or your lover

So if you are a racist
Our friendship has got to end
And if your friends are racists don't pretend to be my friend

So if you have a racist friend
Now is the time, now is the time for our friendship to end

Tibet

This is grisly footage of more apparent Chinese barbarism. I'm not certain that the narration is accurate, but it seems to be.

Soccer Artifact of the Week #3

"Brilliant Orange," by David Winner, is surely one of the best books on the place of sports in a nation's culture. Winner discusses the uniquely Dutch approach to soccer in the context of the broader Dutch culture.

Nothing ever written about American sports comes close.

Cuba's Olympic Soccer Team

Cuban sports teams visiting the US and other western countries seem to have to play short-handed more frequently than others. The Cuban Olympic soccer team was able to field only ten players in their qualifying match against Honduras in Florida last night because seven players left the team, apparently seeking asylum.

The Cuban coach put it in perspective nicely: "Playing with ten men is difficult, but it is something you have to accept." I can imagine similar quotes from other Cuban emissaries over the years: "Playing without a string section is difficult but it is something you have to accept," said the Cuban conductor.

Why "Common Toads"?

In the "about me," section, I explain the -- slightly pretentious -- title for this blog. On a sunny March NYC day, today is a good time to post the link to George Orwell's essay.

Another Cliche Bites the Dust

So those Buddhist monks aren't as non-violent as we think they are.  Still, they are right about wanting the Chinese out.

Client #9

At least we know that the spirit of the great American entrepreneur is still alive.

China's Olympics

I support the positions taken by some celebrities (Spielberg, Clooney) regarding the connection between China's policy towards Darfur and the Olympics. But isn't the real issue China's policy towards China? Surely whatever harm the Chinese government is doing by propping up the bad guys in Sudan is trivial compared to their own totalitarian policies at home that affect 1.3 billion people. Let's protest China policy in Africa, but don't forget Chinese policy in China.

The Bracket

I'm not a big basketball fan anymore. Having grown accustomed to the non-stop action of soccer, I can't bear watching the last few minutes of a basketball game with its intentional fouls and time-outs just when things get exciting. Still, I enjoy the NCAA tournament and usually take a good look at the bracket the day it comes out and occasionally play one of those pools where you try to predict the winner of each round. However, predicting who will be in the bracket is, I think, too much.

Ferraro and Clinton

I finally understand why so many people keep saying that the Clintons will use just about any tactic to get elected. This kind of thing.

Soccer Artifact of the Week #2

This movie really conveyed the place of the beautiful game in the global context.

Spitzer

Andrew Sullivan gets it exactly right here.

Another Election Map

This one is endlessly fascinating too.

Election Map

I'm trying not to get too wrapped up in the election numbers just yet -- and indeed I have not yet decided who I would vote for among the 3 possible presidential nominees. Still, it's fun to look at maps like the one Andrew Sullivan provides here.

Tibet

Here is video which apparently shows Bjork performing a song called "Declare Independence" in China. At the end of the song she shouts "Tibet, Tibet." I don't know much about Bjork's politics, but I love this kind of thing. My biggest hope for the summer Olympics is that some heroic athlete wins an event and pulls off his uniform to reveal a t-shirt that reads something like, "Free Tibet you bastards!"

Qassam Rocket

And here is video of a Qassam shot from Gaza hitting a house in Ashkelon, Israel.

Soccer Artifact of the week #1

I really liked this book by Gianluca Vialli, Italian soccer player who played for Sampdoria, Juventus and Chelsea (and of course, Italy). He was later manager of Chelsea. The book does two things better than virtually any other sports book I have read (and I have read a lot of sports books, especially those crappy Boy's Life-type autobiographies from the 60s and 70s). First, it conveys the mentality of a successful athlete in an unsentimental way. The book is not a my-life-as-a-footballer book, but you still see how, for Vialli, playing soccer was about winning, not about having fun. Second, it makes actual, supportable, generalizations about the difference in sporting culture from one country to the next -- in this case, Italy and England.

Gaza

This is very riveting footage from above Gaza. Scroll down to the second video. The thing moving is apparently a truck carrying 160 of those nasty Qassam rockets.

Update: it looks like it's now the first video you see.

Richard Quest

Richard Quest is my favorite TV reporter (and probably the only one I even have a strong opinion about either way). I think his talents served him better on BBC, but CNN lets him do what he wants. This is a guy who likes his job.

Bush and Geldof

Charles Johnson posts a piece by Bob Geldof about his time with GWB in Africa. It says a lot about both of them (mostly in a good way).

Accents

This is very impressive and accurate. Only falls short on Dublin and Brooklyn.

Rock and Roll Obituaries

There are two richly detailed obituaries in the NYTimes today of not-exactly-minor figures from sixties rock and roll. Buddy Miles sang the California Raisins song? The Dave Clark 5 were on the Ed Sullivan Show twelve times?