Germany has been a soccer superpower just like Brazil and Argentina. I have been taking Germany seriously. This morning Germany made England look like it were North Korea.
France, Italy, England: three former soccer heavyweight countries are by the wayside now.
You got to watch Ozil. That dude can give one killer pass and tilt the game. Ask England.
Argentina had a field day today against Mexico. I was hoping for a 3-0 victory, but that was not to be.
I went ahead and bought myself a soccer ball afterwards, and went to a park nearby. I was able to touch the ball 38 times before it hit the ground. I guess I am in decent soccer shape.
Brazil's defense is like a castle, Argentina's like a whip.
When Messi dribbles it is like the entire field is mud. The ball is stuck until he commands it to move. And he likes to give short, quick commands.
Now Argentina meets Germany next. I am just a little nervous. I want Argentina to win, but I know the German team is in decent shape. I think it will be a close call, but Argentina will prevail. It will squeak by to meet Portugal in the semi-finals.
The scenario I am seeing is one where my two favorite teams - Brazil and Argentina - meet in the finals. It will be hard to pick the one to root for, but Diego might win me over. I might end up rooting for Argentina.
This post totally speaks to me. I think of the number 1.25 billion out of 6.7 billion people online the way Fred perhaps thinks about web services, his domain expertise. As someone who grew up in the Global South, I think of Internet Access - Internet as in broadband with full size keyboard - as the voting right for this century. This is the Internet Century.
When I started reading this post, I was thinking of Brad's post (that I read when it came out) before I had finished the first sentence.
The Al Qaeda is not a state, it is not even an organization any more. The Al Qaeda embodies two big trends - the Internet and Globalization - the way not even Kiva does. Bush went after Saddam instead of Bin Laden because, well, if the medicine I have is for cough (the nation state as an enemy), I am going after cough viruses, the facts be damned, don't tell me the diagnosis is for AIDS.
Fred and I might not be the best people to talk of security issues, but there are plenty of cyber security issues. Maybe that is worth a post. For all its promises, the Internet is just the newest platform for the age old fight between good and evil.
On the War On Terror, I do have very clear thoughts, unlike Fred. One, it is the same scale as the Cold War. Two, it will only conclude once all Arab countries have been turned into democracies. Three, there's the swamp part, and there is the mosquitoes part. I am not going to argue let the mosquitoes be, but I think draining the swamp is the real battle. The best way to introduce democracy to a country is the way we did it in Nepal in April 2006, through a mass movement. People who are not worried the mullahs in Iran might get pissed off if you impose sanctions talk like they are worried the mullahs might get pissed off if they give total support to the protesters in Iran. Beats me.
This tussle also reminds me of the capitalism-communism tussle, and you have to go all the way back to Lenin. When that dude did his 1917 thing, America had not seen FDR yet. FDR had to reinvent both democracy and capitalism to prepare the country for a fight with communism. A pre-FDR America could not have beat communism. Some synthesis happened.
Similarly the War On Terror will conclude through two types of transformations. One, all Arab countries end up being democracies. Two, America ends up a non-racist country. I know that is a loaded term for many people, but I am using it on purpose. A country where calling someone - Obama - a Muslim is passed on as calling him a name like happened in 2008 is still a racist country. If four Muslim young men in New Jersey were to talk violence in the privacy of their apartment, they are a cell, and will be thoroughly dealt with, but the Republican nominee competing against Harry Reid in Nevada is openly calling for violence, and I don't see law enforcement people getting excited about that. Is that a double standard or is that a double standard?
She has a permit to carry a concealed .44 Magnum and brags about bringing it to campaign events. But her passion also leads her to make troublesome statements: "The nation is arming," she said last month. "What are they arming for if it isn't that they are so distrustful of their government? They're afraid they'll have to fight for their liberty in more Second Amendment kinds of ways. That's why I look at this as almost an imperative. If we don't win at the ballot box, what will be the next step?"
I have lost count of how many times I have been subjected to a dirty look or an outright dirty Q&A by some law enforcement officer this past decade, and I am not even Arab. The day 9/11 happened, I was in a small town in Kentucky. The locals called the cops on ME!
Timothy McVeigh was a motherfucker before he was a terrorist. That makes you a motherfucker. That is the angle I like to come from. So much for racial profiling.
America had its 9/11, India had its 11/9. But that 11/9 would be 9/11 because in India they put the number for the month second. The Islamists' tussle is with democracy itself, and India is the biggest pot.
Diego (Maradona) looks as majestic off the field as he used to look on the field: for the love of the game, he will do anything, even come back as a coach.
I own three Brazil shirts, two Argentina shirts.
France and Italy are out. Those used to be heavyweight teams.
The US team has surprised many people. I commend their spirit, and their victories. I don't expect them to win, of course, but it is possible they pull a few more surprises. Expect to see a lot of soccer in Central Park this summer.
Do you want to know what my secret sauce is, and how I make it? It usually goes with steamed dumplings, which is one of my favorite things to eat. Chatfe dude Paul Orlando (Chatfe: Audio, Interest Based Random Connections On Skype?) introduced me to Lam Zhou on 144 E. Broadway in Chinatown. I get my frozen dumplings there. I steam them up at home. But dumplings need sauce. I make my own. You can't find anywhere what I make. How do I make it? It is not that complicated at all. You just need green chilli, tomatoes, and some salt.
I like my sauce really hot - not temperature, but spicey hot - and I get my green chilli from the Patel Brothers in Jackson Heights. I used to be Mayor of that place on FourSquare. But if you like it only mildly hot, jalopenos will also do.
Don't use oil at all. You feel healthier.
Gently fry up the chilli and grind it in a grinder. Cut up the tomatoes, fry them a little, grind them in a grinder. Put both into a bowl and mix, and add some salt.
See? That easy. But you can't get this anywhere. I like my sauce to look green - as in, heavy on chilli - but you could make yours look red. It is just that some like it hot.
So Bill Gates is on my BlogRoll, (so is Amitabh Bachchan), one the richest dude on the planet, another a fairly rich dude, but the most recognized face on the planet. And I was just reading one of his blog posts for the first time. In it he talks of a Buffett son. "Contrary to what many people might assume, Peter won’t inherit great wealth from his father." Well, why thank you, Bill Gates!
Contrary to what many people might assume, Peter won’t inherit great wealth from his father.
Warren Buffett gave most of his money to the Gates Foundation, an entity I am a fan of. I never called myself a fan of Microsoft, although I have admired Gates' path in business greatly. I hope Buffett left at least one billion, or half a billion for his kids. Or I am going to think the guy is cheap, a rich cheap guy. Buffett's logic has been, "but I did not deliver my children myself either." As in, his children perhaps are not the best professionals to be doling out money. Let Bill G do it.
Sam Walton went the other way. Many people don't know this but Walton created more wealth than Gates: there is more money in people skills than in software, always will be. That Republican dude left everything to his children. I don't approve of that either. That is taking family values a little too far.
An honest rich guy is Larry Ellison. He was not born rich. He was born in "Chicago's Jewish ghetto" - his words - where you could hear "gunshots." He talks of having to eat "macaroni and cheese" late into his 20s. He claims his first wife left him because he "did not work hard enough." He went ahead and bought a boat, and that sent the wife into therapy. His second wife left him because he "worked too hard."
About money and children he said, "I am not going to pretend that my children are going to have to work for a living." That's my kind of a rich guy: brutally honest, interesting.
Although, did I say, I am a huge fan of the Gates Foundation? I am a Third World guy, after all. Bill Gates has challenged many racist viewpoints about the "bottom two billion," as he calls it. He is not talking about the first two billion he made, but the two billion poorest people.
Steven Spielberg once said about his huge wealth. "It's just numbers. Some accountant takes care of it." Bill Gates said only a few weeks back about being rich, after a few million, it does not really matter. Makes no material difference to your life. I buy into the Spielberg line. I have 47,000 followers on Twitter. I remember being very excited when I hit 2,000 followers. Me? What? Popular? At 47,000 it just feels like numbers.
Larry, again, has quite another attitude. "There is nothing that can be bought with money that I can not buy," he boasted to a biographer. Well, that car you see is going down Larry Ellison Boulevard.
There has got to be joy in actively giving. Dying and letting others figure it out can't be joyous. You are not even around. But I am not against financial freedom for one's children. They can still end up normal people doing good, productive work. I think.