Short Cuts -- From the Porch

The Beckham Bust continues, as the man who would save soccer in North America is now out for 6 weeks. He sprained his MCL in a game against Pachuca, a team from Mexico.

The AP's Beth Harris points out that Becks has made a little over thirty grand per minute in the games that he played this season (his yearly contract is worth 6.5 million dollars). Total playing time: 198 minutes. Total goals: Zero.

For the first time in a while, I can say the words, "Hell, even I can do that," and mean it with absolute certainty.

The English team can't be too thrilled with Beckham's Hollywood lark, either. He's due to play for them in upcoming international games, and now he's got a bum knee from playing soccer against a third-rate Mexican club.

King Edwards

I was channel surfing the other night and happened across a Battle of the Bloggers on CNN. Two ladies were representing the right and left, and the anchor was tossing softball questions for each of them to hammer out of the park.

I'm always struck by how pious and arrogant news guests can be. The entire time the right-wing lady was talking, the left-wing lady looked like she was sitting on a broomstick and eating glass.

Anyway, the left-wing lady sat munching and squirming while the right-wing lady blathered on about something dealing with presidential hopeful John Edwards. She was calling Edwards a hypocrite because he's been telling people to stop driving SUVs even though he's been seen in an SUV on the campaign trail. Seemed pretty straightforward to me: the lawyer is full of it. Wouldn't be the first time.

When it came to her turn, the left-wing lady defended Edwards by saying, "John Edwards was the first to declare a carbon-neutral campaign."

I swear it. That's what she said.

I have a liberal buddy in California. A couple of weeks ago he blew me away by saying he was probably going to vote Republican in the next election. It floored me. He's a California liberal, and he hates George Bush. He'd feel right at home living in a rain forest, or the parking lot of UC Berkley. I didn't have time to ask him why he was planning on voting for the other side, and now I don't have to.

There's a war going on. People are blowing things up. Soldiers and civilians are dying. Iran wants nukes, and North Korea already has them. At any moment, some maniac might blow up another building or airplane. Yet a presidential candidate has the time to spout off about a "carbon-neutral campaign."

My buddy in California might be a liberal, but at least he's a serious liberal.