GGGOOOOAAAALL!!!!

World Cup: U.S. defeats Algeria, 1-0, in World Cup - latimes.com

I was standing in Auto Zone one day waiting on the guys who worked there to bring out a car battery. All of a sudden I hear this gooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaal!! But his 'O' went on for much longer. It kept going. Ok really, five seconds later...For real? his still enunciating the 'O'. Finally the guy at the counter says, "It's such a big deal because there's hardly any scoring in soccer."

That made sense.

Which brought me to my next thought, "Do most Americans even care that the team is doing well, let alone know that team USA's in the world cup finals?" I'm not so sure. It was somewhat of a shock to me, mostly because I just assumed the USA wasn't as good in soccer as the rest of the world seems to care more about it.

Exhibit A: In 2008* when Spain won the World Cup, I was there. Not at the world cup finals, but in Spain. People paraded in the streets honked their car horns, went straight crazy and everyone was talking about it the whole day leading up to it. Not only that, when it came game time, every cafe, coffee shop, bar and ice cream parlor (if it had a T.V.--the one I was at did) had the game playing and people were watching. Dang.

What if American's were that excited about soccer, which makes more sense being called "football" anyway?

I can't help but think this. I just got through watching Invictus. Even though it's about rugby, Nelson Mandela, and national pride, I can't help but wonder would things would be like here if people could unite under one thing.

the President's theater

Obama on the Today Show:

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President Obama says that he's not in a theater. I'm not sure that I can agree with him. As soon as a catastrophic event such as the BP oil spill or a natural disaster such as a Hurricane Katrina hit's the United States, the people expect a reaction from the head of state. He is the face of America, and sadly to say, the spotlight is on him and all eyes are on him in center stage.

Nevertheless, it is BP's corporate responsibility to take ownership of the situation and handle this. BP CEO Tony Hayward's comments seemed as though he tried to force sympathy, but instead was more concerned with his self-image-- "I just want my life back"-- and the image of the company and whether they will be able to recover their loss profits. The latter part of this is what he should be concerned about as a CEO, but what about all the people he's affecting and their irresponsibility as a company has costed people's livelihood and animals' lives.

Obama did an excellent job rebutting tough questions from the reporter and flippant comments people have made in reaction to how he has handled the situation. And I couldn't agree with him more about the critics. What were their suggestions of how Obama should have handled the situation? Why should the government take responsibility for a mistake that was not even its own? It seems that the U.S. spends more time cleaning up messes now than anything: TARP, economy, and oil spill.

floods and damages

Last weekend i witnessed and also decided to help with some of the recovery effort from the flooding that hit the mid-south the the first weekend in May. It's crazy to think that while some were rocking their socks off at the Memphis in May music festival in front of bands like Three Doors Down, MuteMath, Limp Bizkit (old school, i know) and praying for the rain to stop to enjoy music blasting from the outdoor stage, others were praying for the rain to stop and fighting to recover their possessions lost to a flood--their life. Flooding is never fun. As I rode through parts of Millington seeing the dried up mudd encrusted on homes and cars from were the waters were rising, this was the first time I had seen such devistation. Yes, I had seen pictures reported on the news, etc...but never had I come face to face with devestation like this. And never had I come face to face with those who experienced it trying to rescue and salvage the pieces of what's left from their life as they knew it. I watched as people threw away old photographs, children's toys, couches, appliances and heaps of clothing, everything.

Please keep the people in Millington in your prayers as well as those in Nashville and the surrounding areas who experienced loss.

the census

This is the national participation rate as of today. Remember that there is supposedly $400 billion dollars to be allocated after the census is complete. How we respond will affect how it is distributed.