Observations!

The World Cup is going well.  Some surprises, like Costa Rica.  Some disappointments, like Spain.  Some predictable failures, like England.  And some really good games.  Unless you’re a Yankee-hater, Portugal’s last minute goal against the U.S. yesterday was a dagger in the heart.  But with the tiebreaker in play, it is still likely that we will go through to the next round.

Iraq continues to go down the toilet.  To repeat what I’ve already said – for the U.S. there are no good options.  History will be the ultimate decider.

Would I like to see another establishment Republican incumbent, this time Thad Cochran, go down at the hands of a Tea Party renegade?  On the one hand, yes.  It will throw more fuel on the civil war within the Republican Party.  On the other hand, no.  It will likely put yet another crazy in the U.S. Senate.

I notice in a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that 7% of Americans have confidence in Congress.  I think they’ve stuffed the ballot box.  7% seems awfully high.

I just finished reading “Narcopolis,” short listed for the Booker Prize in 2012.  Too much drug-addled stream of consciousness for me.  Why are Booker Prize nominees so often weird and hard to follow?

San Francisco is out of the running for the next America’s Cup.  Fine.  Let it go to San Diego or Chicago or Bermuda.  From a sailing and scenic point of view, no location beats San Francisco Bay.  From a financial point of view, no way as a taxpayer do I want to cover Larry Ellison’s shortfall.  So good riddance.

I’ve been a critic of the California Legislature forever.  But gotta give credit where it is due.  They got a decent budget passed on time and the Governor signed it.  Given how it has been in the past, this qualifies as a genuine breakthrough.