Off Your Radar Screen

Items you might have missed:

Swansea beat Manchester City yesterday. To put together the entire Swans team cost less than one of the City stars. Indeed, the Swansea stadium is worth less on the market than one City striker. Yet yesterday, at least, the best team won.

When the Sumo Association chose a new leader recently they reinstalled Kitanoumi, the guy who resigned in disgrace in the face of multiple scandals a couple of years ago. How’s that for a step forward?

If you need a place to sleep, from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. the St. Boniface church in San Francisco’s Tenderloin is open to you. Sometimes it doesn’t smell too good, but it’s usually quiet.

Opinion:

I watched “Game Change,” the HBO film about the 2008 campaign. I thought it was very well done. Contrary to those who see it as a hatchet job on Sarah Palin, I found myself actually feeling some compassion for her. Don’t misunderstand. I’m no fan. Just conscious of how utterly, totally unprepared she was for the new world she found herself immersed in.

Afghanistan is more hopeless than ever. It isn’t enough that our soldiers piss on the bodies of those they’ve killed. That’s followed by burning a bunch of Qurans – by mistake they say. And now some rogue American sergeant goes out in the middle of the night and kills 16 Afghans – many children – in their homes.

And Mitt Romney is also more hopeless than ever. If he’d just be himself and stop pandering to every group he meets, maybe he’d be seen as an authentic candidate. Or maybe he is just being himself. Doesn’t matter. He’ll be the nominee. I can only hope it isn’t sewed up too quickly.