Why is it that far-right Americans can't spell?

I know we've done this before, but look at this monstrosity.


























































Perhaps if you had spent more time in class, and less time buying offensive T-Shirts you would know how to spell

f-a-s-c-i-s-t

...you silly little gimp.




Better still, here's a gem from our old buddy Pat Buchanan.


















Ah yes, then there are those who would protect the English language...




















No 'pubic option' hey? Bless....




...and finally who could forget this genius?

Were the Iranian Elections Rigged? - Answer - Yep, almost certainly

For the election data anoraks, and statistics freaks amongst you here is the best analysis of the Iranian election results I have seen. Though the results do not conclusively prove fraud, they do “strongly support” that hypothesis.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~wmebane/note18jun2009.pdf

Here is the conclusion, from the bottom of page 23;

"It is important to be clear that none of the estimates or test results in this Report are proof that substantial fraud affected the 2009 Iranian election. The results suggest very strongly that there was widespread fraud in which the vote counts for Ahmadinejad were substantially augmented by artificial means. But it is possible that Ahmadinejad actually won, supported by many who might have voted for Karroubi or Rezaei instead voting for Ahmadinejad. The likelihood of such votes being cast needs to be assessed based on information beyond what can be extracted from the 2005 and 2009 election returns alone.

To support the benign interpretation, the additional evidence needs to explain how the strong support for Ahmadinejad happens to line up so strongly with the proportion of invalid votes in the ballot-box vote counts."

So in other words it is just possible (though highly unlikely) that supporters of Karroubi and Rezai voted tactically for Armadinejad, but even so they are going to have to explain how Ahmadinejad got all the spoilt votes.

**

Here is a much easier read from the Washington Post...

http://tinyurl.com/l5cchn

This is a an analysis of the last two digits of each total of votes. Apparently when people invent numbers they tend to stick to end numbers 7 and 9, and almost never use two consecutive numbers (like 23 or 56) in the results. This is demonstrated in the Iranian election results apparently.

They are Destroying Cricket - and Nobody Cares

Look at this monstrosity - it's called The Mongoose, and my sons already want one for their birthday.

Viv Richards must be spinning in his grave.

Or at least he would be if he was dead.

Fear & Loathing at the I.P.L.

The big question on everyone's lips at the I.P.L. is 'Who is Fake IPL player'?

His blog is causing uproar/consternation/fear/much-hilarity amongst the players, officials and media people.

There are some coruscating put-downs and (perhaps) embittered diatribes against his fellow players and coaches. But despite the deep chips on his shoulder he has a real, nasty sense of humor. Great fun.

It probably better to start at the beginning and work through, so you can work out which player fits which nick name. 'Lordy' is Sourav Ganguly for instance, short for 'Lord Snooty'.


http://fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com


For the record, my money is on Aakash Chopra.

[i]"...The day we had landed in SA, I was sitting at the bar with my teammate, the young former India player who will remain a former India player, the Sheikh of Tweak was also at the bar counter. He was chatting up one giggly, sexy twenty-something. And as a way to impress her, he was cracking jokes on our Phoren coach (someone he had played under a few yrs ago). In fact, he even said that if our coach had done a better job of picking up the balls after nets, they would have won the Ashes a few yrs ago. (Apparently, their main bowler - called a sparrow or parrot or something - slipped on a ball during nets, injured his ankle and flew back)."[/i]

Let's Big Up Franky Beverly.

Frank Beverly,I always rated him.

This dates back to his pre-funk days, when he was simply Frank Beverly, and a member of a quartet called 'The Butlers' (later 'Franky Beverly and the Butlers'.)

Not great sound on this video, but this is very, very, rare piece of music. So If you ever find a copy on 7" vinyl in the back of your Aunt Mimi's cupboard, hang on to it, it's worth serious dosh.

Chris Gayle - Good Things Happen to Good People (eventually)

By about this time tomorrow, Chris Gayle, officially the coolest dude on planet Earth, will have lead the West Indies to their first series win since 2004. Thirteen series have gone by without a Windies victory, but Gayle along with coach John Dyson has added some much needed steel to this Windies side to go alongside the obvious talent.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, let's just hope he cashed that million dollar check from Sir Alan Stanford before the FBI got to him.

More tomorrow.

[Update] PHEW! That was closer than it should have been, but the boys prevailed in the end. Congratulations.

Well I sort of agree

I haven't put enough work into this recently. But in my lame defense I've been sick since November.

More very soon.

Americans Should Feel Safer Already

Sourav Ganguly - Legend

Sourav Ganguly - The Bengal Tiger




Great stuff on the retirement of Lord Snooty in this morning's Guardian.
I've lifted their 'Ganguly's Ten Greatest Hits', shamelessly, from The Spin:


1) India had not forgotten Andrew Flintoff's pecs-out rampage round
the Wankhede a few months earlier when they completed a stunning
two-wicket win chasing 326 in the final of the 2002 NatWest Series at
Lord's. Watching from the balcony, Ganguly took his shirt off and
yahooed it round his head like a tequila-sozzled mercenary. It was
very funny - and very Ganguly.

2) During India's epic 2-1 home win over Steve Waugh's Australians in
early 2001, Ganguly developed a habit of making Waugh wait at the
toss, thus achieving outside the hours of play what few managed to do
inside them: raise the temperature of the Iceman. Waugh pronounced
himself "wound up" by Ganguly's "continued petulance" and, after much
consideration, called him a "prick". Ganguly smiled to himself and
got on with the business of winning a series.

3) Ganguly was once batting with Mike Atherton during his stint with
Lancashire in 2000 when, in between overs, he regally summoned Athers
to his end. Expecting to gain some valuable insight into the quality
of the bowling or the nature of the pitch, Atherton was surprised to
be handed Ganguly's sweater instead. Ganguly may not have said
"dispose of this, my good man," but he probably wasn't far away.

4) Arriving in New Zealand for India's ill-fated visit in 2002-03,
Ganguly and his entourage (wife, child, maid) whizzed through customs
ahead of the rest of India's tour party and allegedly commandeered
the team bus to take them directly to their hotel without waiting for
anyone else. Well, he was the captain.

5) After India's left-arm swing bowler Ashish Nehra was given the new
ball against Namibia during the 2003 World Cup, he retired with
figures of 0.1-0-0-0 courtesy of a twisted ankle. Asked later why he
had opened with Nehra, Ganguly was straight to the point. "We wanted
to see what Ashish did with the new ball," he said. "We found out
that he falls over."

6) India were 1-0 down at home to Australia in 2004-05 when the teams
travelled to Nagpur for the third Test. Ganguly asked the groundsman
to remove the grass from the wicket, only to be presented with a
greentop that prompted the umpire David Shepherd to chuckle "Looks
like home, don't it?" With immaculate timing, Ganguly developed a
groin problem "at the very last minute", according to his coach John
Wright. India lost by 342 runs.

7) In 2006 Ganguly turned out for Northamptonshire. It quickly became
apparent that he had left his best form somewhere in the Bay of
Bengal, and Jason Brown - Northamptonshire's off-spinning rabbit -
was persuaded to strike a bet with team-mates about who would average
more. Ganguly's championship scores during his brief stint were 2, 0,
6, 2, 5* and 9: a total of 19 runs at 3.80. Brown (80 runs at 6.66)
won his bet.

8) After India had lost in the final of the 2001 Coca-Cola Cup to Sri
Lanka in Colombo - their eighth successive one-day final defeat -
Ganguly was summoned to see the match referee Cammie Smith, who felt
he had verbally abused a Sri Lankan batsman. But rumours of Ganguly's
unpopularity must be exaggerated: not one person, including the Sri
Lankans, would testify against him. Cordial relations were regarded
as more important than stuffing Sourav. The Sri Lankans "played the
game," remembers Wright, "and pulled the rug out from beneath Smith's
feet."

9) You must have heard the one about the time Ganguly scored a 50 for
Lancashire, turned round to salute his adoring team-mates on the
balcony and then discovered they were all inside the dressing room
doing more important things like cutting their toenails. Here's how
Flintoff summed up the dynamic: "It's a struggle with him. He wasn't
interested in the other players and it became a situation where it
was 10 players and Ganguly. He turned up as if he was royalty - it
was like having Prince Charles on your side."

10) Ganguly falls out monumentally with Greg Chappell, Wright's
replacement as India coach. One report suggests Chappell's messages
to Ganguly out in the middle, urging him to speed up his batting,
were routinely ignored. He is dropped from the side in 2006, but -
amid widespread outrage - returns soon after. A year later he makes
239 against Pakistan at Bangalore. Post-Chappell, Ganguly averages
46, four more than his career figure. You've got to hand it to him.
And you've got to admit: we'll miss him.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Cricket Sledging - A Masterclass

I’m trying to teach my boys the art of cricket sledging, but it’s proving difficult. The subtlety of what is required is, as yet, beyond them. They think it involves shouting “BANG” very loudly at the point that the ball pitches.

In fact sledging is about the subtle drip-feeding of negative thoughts and negative information into the batsman’s brain.

Let’s begin this master-class with the work of a true artist in the field – South Africa’s Mark Boucher.






“What’s your average these days? 9.5? 10 ?”

Genius.

Moving on to a different perhaps less sophisticated style, this is Freddy Flintoff first putting a young Dwayne Bravo in his place, before sledging Tino Best into charging down the pitch. The scorecard should have read ‘Best sledged Flintoff Bowled Giles.’




Of course Freddy got this one very wrong, three years later Dwayne Bravo is now one of the World’s great players.


Another method is to step up the pressure on incoming batsmen. Here is a man I’ve met in the real world – Kumar Sangakkara, a nicer man you will never meet, but here is ladling on the pressure to Shawn Pollock.



To be fair, Pollock’s a crafty old goat, and he doesn’t look all that perturbed.


Of course as we close this initial study, it would be remiss of me not to mention that sledging sometimes backfire.