Sometimes the other team is just better. Very impressive run from the United States, and I’m really proud of them. I also feel that they were excellent sportsmen- no diving, no bitching at refs, etc. A good show all around.
The strip was a lot of fun, got a bunch of cheese at PennMac (parmesan, asiago, sharp cheddar, feta, buffalo mozz, and some romano), then went to Wholey’s, where we got ridiculous and bought a ginormous lobster. Dinner tonight is fresh crabs, lobster, corn on the cob, salad, and sliced tomatoes, and we have a bunch of people coming over. Going to spread some newspaper all over the table and pig out.
Brian and Tammy also bought me a wonderful housewarming gift- a beautiful 8″ chef knife. So heavy (the way I like them), and I am glad they did, because I have been looking at good knives for ages and can never pull the trigger. Now I have no excuse not to pick up a couple more.
One last thing- no, Ann, I’m not on and never have been on JournOlist (why would anyone even begin to think I was on that?), and I am not trying to “discipline” or punish list members to not disclose more private emails. You would think that would be a matter of honor for those who chose to join the list that they would not leak more emails, and if Ann can not figure out why it is disgusting for Goldberg to use emails to try to destroy someone using things written in confidence rather than engage them on the merits of any particular issue, I’m not going to waste my time trying to explain it to her. The Goldbergs and Althouses’s of the world really deserve each other, and that, I guess, is punishment enough.
meh
hats off to Ghana – well played match – really talented young team – GL to you guys in the next round…
to our defense – diaf
to our offense – you have to shoot to score
Corner Stone
We’re going to have to agree to disagree on that one sir.
CarolDuhart
Once America really takes soccer seriously enough, we’ll dominate the sport.
Your dinner sounds incredible-and I hope it’s farm-raised and locally grown. I just love artisan food-it’s hearty and tasty and filling and fresh, food like I remember it. No cardboard tasting food if you know where to look.
JenJen
I’m proud as hell of Team USA. Wanted more, sure, but I’ll take winning the Group and getting our feet wet.
Now, Gehen Wir, Deutschland!!
That’s funny. Would’ve never, ever pegged you for a Journolister, Cole.
jeffreyw
Mmm…lobster.
Corner Stone
Damn, Soros must’ve been doing better in the commodities market than I expected.
Mark S.
Admit it, John, you’re afraid of losing your job at the Washington Post.
Violet
The US team played with a lot of heart and were great sportsmen. Very proud of them. Now all they need to do is figure out how to start playing at the beginning of the game and not wait until 15 minutes have passed, or even a full half.
That dinner sounds fantastic. Envious!
General Egali Tarian Stuck
One man enters the Althouse PainDome, only none comes out.
R-Jud
C’est la guerre. It’s a shame we’re out, but good that an African team has gone through.
I’m not holding out any hope that Eng-er-land will suddenly remember that they invented this bloody sport.
At least we still have beer left.
licensed to kill time
Did Althouse call you out personally or just lefty bloggers in general? Because I will not click that link to find out.
edit: oh, and your dinner sounds incredibly good, so enjoy.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
So I guess the World Soccer Cup is pretty much done. And now it’s time to concentrate on the International Water Polo tournament. What are the US chances? I forgot from never having known.
Ella in New Mexico
@Violet:
That’s pretty much just “American Soccer”, isn’t it?
That Other Mike
Commiserations, USians. Your guys had a good run and put a lot into it.
Moving on to An OutHouse… I wonder, does anyone else get the feeling of a complete disconnect from reality in her comment thread at the post? Her followers seem to think that WaPo is some kind of left-wing bastion and that there was some kind of conspiracy to direct the news. Is anyone else getting the idea that her readers may be as drunk as she is?
Ella in New Mexico
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
See, that’s the thing about “Soccer Mockers”–ya’ll just don’t get the whole concept of it being more than just about the home team winning.
The World Cup is just beginning!
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@licensed to kill time:
Down, dirty and personal. Okay, which one you BJ legal eagles is going to save Cole from the coming Althouse legal beaning of our host?
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@Ella in New Mexico:
Touche!. I maybe could get into it if they would just dribble that soccer ball a few times now and then.
Maybe hit it with a bat. also too.
suzanne
I don’t really know why, but I have this vague feeling that JournoList is just kind of clubby and gross, and I’m glad to hear you were never a part of it. Amanda Marcotte posted that she was a member, and it rather confirmed my suspicion, since I find her such a horrible blogger. Am I the only one that has this sense? I realize there’s nothing wrong with colleagues having private conversations, but the enforced exclusivity just feels really… cliquish?
Daize
@That Other Mike:
From the comments:
PatHMV said…
Cole is a complete moron. A 400-member ANYTHING is not “private.”
And I think the hypocrisy of any journalist complaining that “private” remarks are printed is just mind-boggling. Secret? Got to publish that! Could cause harm to the country’s efforts to stop terrorists from killing us? Public’s right to know! Sexual scandal? Let’s camp outside in the bushes to see where he’s sticking it!
Screw Juan Cole. If anybody on the Journolist had true integrity, he’d upload the entire thing to an archive right now…. I suggest Wikileaks.
Wapiti
@That Other Mike: Yup. The number of comments people have written about Journolist as some conspiracy is either odd or sad. Or coordinated :)
I was amused by the number of her posters that confused John Cole with Juan Cole, but I guess I’d have difficulties naming many bloggers on the other side of the street as well.
frosty
Hope you paid Brian and Tammy a token for the knife. My wife’s family insists that you don’t give knives as gifts, and if you do, you must be paid back at least a penny so it’s a purchase not a gift. Supposedly the knife will sever the friendship unless it’s paid for.
Comrade Luke
n00b question:
What is the *practical* difference between the chef knife above and the Santoku? Is it just a matter of personal preference?
wengler
I think both the US and Ghana are at a point where they should expect to go through to the knockout rounds at the World Cup.
Honestly, I think the US played this Cup with a lot of heart and resilience. They really had to push hard and only got one bit of luck(the Robert Green flub). Sometimes you just have to get a deflection or a ball to drop on the foot just right in order to win a game. Such are the tragedies of the World Cup.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
That’s cheap, not complete.
John Cole
@frosty: Gave them a quarter. We discussed this on the way home.
JMC in the ATL
Fucking Althouse…
/end TNC
licensed to kill time
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
Blerg. That made me go to there. She makes liberal use of the exclamation point! She must be serious! Or hitting that box o’ wine!
Tom Hilton
Okay, now I’m picturing the Goldberg-Althouses after a few years of marriage. Goldberg comes home to find Althouse drunk off her ass again…tells her getting plowed every night isn’t very supportive of Israel…she starts shrieking “Israel, Israel, always Israel! I’m sick to fucking DEATH of Israel! If you love Israel so much WHY DIDN’T YOU FUCKING MARRY IT?”
Ah, good times.
That Other Mike
@Daize:
@Wapiti:
It’s mindboggling. I try to keep an eye on the wingnuts by looking at MRWD, but the Outhouse comments are especially nutty. Squirrel shit, kind of thing.
Tom Hilton
And by the way, I have finally learned to love the World Cup. I went to Trader Joe’s this afternoon, and there was no line into the parking lot and no lines at the checkout. Now I’m bummed that USA lost, because I wanted more games that would keep people glued to their TVs and outta my way.
Oh well…it can’t be that long til the Super Bowl or some shit…right?
Anne Laurie
From the Althouse:
(my emphasis)
I’ve been thinking about this since last night’s posts concerning Jeffrey “Trying to Make the Doughy Pantload Look Like the Second-Worst Person To Share My Patronym” Goldberg, and I want to find a more precise term for this particular brand of thuggery than “kapo“. It came to mind because Goldberg actually did start his career of paid thuggery as a “prison functionary” for the Israeli government. But the Godwinned concept really applies more exactly to Althouse, who busily uses her meagre advantages as an avocational blogger with professional tenure to “punish” those she perceives as more famous, more visible, smarter, better-looking, or more generous than she is. Suggestions would be appreciated…
Corner Stone
@Comrade Luke:
I’ll leave it to any pro chefs to answer this but IMO, I prefer the Santoku for pretty much everything, and I have the Henckels 4 Star set.
Cacti
In contrast to the original post, this is probably the first time where I felt Team USA really didn’t do as well as they might have.
We may never again get to the elimination stage with as favorable a bracket as we found ourselves in this time (no international powerhouses before the Semis.
Could, woulda, shoulda. All the pieces were in place for us to make a deep run. Ghana made the most of their opportunities, we didn’t. They won, we lost. This is one of those times where the only lesson to be learned from defeat is that we were defeated.
Seems like we’re always poised to take the next step, but never actually take it.
Dee Loralei
@Wapiti: I also liked how they thought JournOlist led to the epistemic closure of the left. ROFL.
John, for knives I love my Wustoff Tridents. Solidly made with great balance. I’ve been using mine for 25+ years. I do however handwash them and they look practically new. But whatever you do, make sure the metal from the blade runs through the shaft and has three rivets attaching the wood handle to it. And I prefer a 12 inch chefs knife. And check the balance of the knives too, it’s esentially for marathon chopping sessions.
Anne Laurie
@suzanne:
If Althouse had stuck to this part of her (nearly identical) critique, it would have been arguable but not personally offensive. Of course, it wouldn’t have been an Ann Althouse production, either.
gwangung
Well, if you’re far enough right, EVERYTHING looks like it’s the Left.
Feh. Liberals of today are nowhere NEAR the Left of 30 years ago. And they’re nowhere NEAR the Left of Europe or Asia.
Obviously, personal experience of others and facts mean nothing to Americans these days.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@gwangung:
Well, if you’re far enough right, EVERYTHING looks like it’s the Left.
When you get this far right EVERYTHING looks like giant talking wabbits.
Ross Hershberger
Hey, warn us when you post a link like that. I started reading the comments and my wife had to come over and shake me so I’d start thinking again. They’re under a Dumbness Spell I tell you, and it’s contagious.
JL
I was very close to jumping on the Team USA bandwagon, and I’ve never cared about soccer one way or the other. I agree they did themselves proud with their conduct. I am a baseball fan, and draw a comparison between their refusal to bitch about that call that robbed them of that game with the super cool behavior of the pitcher (whose name escapes me- how soon they forget) who was robbed of his perfect game. Each just sucked it up on the spot, and more importantly refused to whine about it afterwards.
I get it, too, that the “World Cup is just beginning”. The sun hasn’t shined on the 49ers or San Francisco Giants for a long time, but the respective playoffs in each game are always my favorite time of the sporting year. If you love a game, you want to see the best square off.
Without question, Team USA opened a lot of eyes that had been shut about soccer here in America.
Kryptik
An Outhouse can kiss my whole ass. And kiss it again for all I care.
Don’t worry, I have no plans on joining a ‘respectable’ news organ(ization) like the WaPo that you could use this comment against, An. Oh, and DIAF. And may a rabid meme feast on your remains, I suppose.
Warren Terra
I’m with Gwangung: epistemic closure works both ways. If you’re in a group that has closed itself off and denied reality, from within the group it’s the real world that looks closed off and exclusive.
Ross Hershberger
The stupidest thing in the comments over there is the completely risible idea that 400 highly competitive journalists communicating amongst themselves constitutes a conspiracy to shape the media narrative.
A few points in rebuttal:
1) They’re all basically competitors much more than collaborators.
2) 400 of anybody doesn’t constitute enough throw weight to move opinion even in the stratospherically unlikely case that a majority agreed on something.
3) Any plot that makes use of hundreds of copies of email is a stupid plot.
4) I forgot what 4 was.
5) If any plotting did get done, what just happened, a leak, was highly certain to happen.
We need a new word for r**ard because I keep wanting to say it and can’t bring myself to.
chopper
lol, althouse is a moron. i know, i’ve probably said this a thousand times before.
seriously, who the fuck would imply that cole is on this list? no offense john, but seriously. how completely fucking retarded would you have to be to think that john cole is on journolist?
Ross Hershberger
John, I’m so sorry that you have to read dreck like Althouse to produce this blog. That must be awful. Enjoy your lobster. You’ve earned it. And I’m a vegetarian.
fucen tarmal
@frosty:
that is why guns make such good friends, and great gifts, which is why we can’t limit how many you can purchase….
/mycolddeadlogic
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
Just want to say this at least once on a thread: Yes we Gyan ;-).
Keith G
@Corner Stone: I earn my keep in a kitchen. Santokus are a favorite as I prefer light and wickedly sharp knives. A good stone is key
At home as at work, I do most of my damage with $5.00 molded handle chefs knives from Ace Mart Restaurant Supply.
Bas-O-Matic
Althouse’s main objection to something like Journolist being that she’s not a part of it.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
All this malarkey and handwringing over a bunch of reporters talking privately amongst themselves is kind of mind blowing. Do people think reporters are some kind of empty mechanical ciphers programmed to do nothing, absolutely nothing but witness or comment on news and report it out without any other input other than the echoes of their own minds.
Christ, they are humans, and none of them, like the rest of us has all the breath of knowledge needed to do that to the best we can, alone. They are not programmable things that exist only for our consumption of the info they churn out.
I think it’s great they get together and share what they think and know about shit, kind of what we do here, though in public. And learn other perspectives. What they write in the end for public consumption, stands on it’s own merit and there is nothing secretive about it. Anyone at any time can check it’s voracity or accuracy and say or think what they like. And that product is our only business with them.
And being human, they have biases and resentments and dislikes like every body else. To me, journolist, or something like it, is no different than me thinking what I think about the world, full of cuss words and admonitions of peeps I don’t believe nor like. They had a reasonable expectation that what they sent digitally to others expressing those private thoughts would remain private. They did not have a reasonable expectation that they would actually remain private. And I am sure Weigel is kicking himself for not realizing this fact of life.
Darcy
@Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people): That is win.
burnspbesq
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
So root for France.
South of I-10
Your dinner sounds delicious! We are having fresh corn too, but Mr South is grilling steaks and I’m making a salad. I finally got that margarita I’ve been dreaming about since last weekend.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@burnspbesq: Being a Francophile, I will do so. Let me know how they do?
burnspbesq
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
Not do, did. They were by far the biggest train-wreck of this World Cup.
Corner Stone
@Keith G:
I’ve been through a number of less expensive knives in my time in the kitchen. Have yet to handle any that feel as good to me, or keep an edge as long, as the Henckels I received as a gift some 10 years or so ago.
Maybe I’ve just had them so long, or maybe they really are quality, but I can get a solid rhythm with them and not worry about losing a digit.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@burnspbesq:
oH noes! I was a fan but for a very short time.:(
JL
During an interview plugging his book, the ex-cabinet member who coined the term ‘Mayberry Machiavelli’s’ shed light on another aspect of what occurred yesterday with the Post crackdown. When asked if he feared retribution from the Bush administration, he replied that he had already made his pile of dough; that with his millions in the bank, he could no longer be threatened or coerced. Unfortunately, not too many journalists or writers are in the same boat.
How did Ari Fleischer phrase it? “Watch what you say”? Something like that. Very few– indeed, no one to best of my recollection– saw fit to pin him down on what exactly he meant by that.
Chuck Butcher
For something much lighter – swinging baby fun
demimondian
Has anyone heard from Comrade Mary? Downtown Toronto has turned into the kind of mess that Seattle did when the G8 was here, and I know she was going down there…
elmo
Just back in from cutting the
weedsgrass in the front yard. Dripping sweat, and you all are talking about food and chef’s knives. Crap.The upside of having lots of chickens is that I get eggs whenever I want, and I feed them to the dogs as well.
The downside is that we have so many eggs that the partner sometimes throws them out into the yard for the dogs to run after. Which would be fine, but sometimes the dogs get distracted and don’t find them all. And then I do. A week later. When I’m cutting the
weedsgrass and I step on one, and it explodes.I love living in the country, swear to FSM I do, but sometimes…
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@elmo:
That’s eggravating.
elmo
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
You’re cracked.
SiubhanDuinne
@Chuck Butcher #58: Cute pix! But a little ambiguous — are you the baby (are these from 40-50 years ago) or the grandfaffather?
SiubhanDuinne
@General Egali Tarian Stuck #51:
Ooh! Funny yolk!
2th&nayle
@elmo: I guess the yokes on you, huh elmo?
kay
@Chuck Butcher:
That is one sturdy swing, Chuck. Now you have to get started on the tree house.
demimondian
@2th&nayle: That’s very white of you.
elmo
@2th&nayle:
Yep. Allllllll over me. Did I mention that it’s been over 95 degrees every day for three weeks?
2th&nayle
@elmo: I’m trying hard not to let that image take any cognitive form in my….oops. Dammit! Yuckity Smuckity!
Bill P
@Dee Loralei:
Dee, a 12″ French Knife is a BIG knife. Usually the knife size is determined by the blade length, and the standard 8″ knife is indeed about 12″ including the handle. Full Tang is the term for the steel extending all the way through the handle, the wooden or plastic parts that are riveted on are called scales. I’ve had my Wusthofs going on twenty years, and used them professionally back when. A better knife is hard to find, and usually triple the cost.
Chuck Butcher
@SiubhanDuinne:
Um, I think that is me, though I haven’t been called that particular noun before…
2th&nayle
@Chuck Butcher: From the look of it, that young trooper may have a real future in aeronautics! You are a good Grandpa!
Chuck Butcher
@kay:
I still have one from when his deceased dad was slightly older. Construction guy … the thing will probably out last me.
D-Chance.
The US lost a soccer game… good. Now, we can concentrate on REAL football (you know, the fun and exciting and vuvuzelaless kind), which begins August 8.
And, if you want to know how easy it is for someone like Weigel to get the axe, just cruise on over to Memeo to see the latest fauxrage. Someone said something that wasn’t favorable about Sarah! on an open mic, and almost all of Conservative Bloghistan is on the warpath. Expect reporters’ names to be exposed, and dismissals demanded.
Chuck Butcher
@2th&nayle:
His favorite and omnipresent toy is a plastic motorcycle. When he hears the Harley roll in (you can hear it) he charges to the door. When the Harley is parked where he can get to it he’s all over it, touching and pointing and jabbering and even the motorcycle graphic on the cigarette pocket of some of my teeshirts much be poked and jabbered at.
So, yeah aeronautics or scooter tramp … or both. Assuming gasoline is available for him.
jrosen
O’Hanlon has a vomitous piece over at WaPo about how things are really going well in Afghanistan, in spite of “negative reporting”.
I was in my 20’s during most of Vietnam, and remember it all much better than I want to. This piece of neocon BS could easily have come out of the famous “5 O’Clock Follies”, daily the press briefings in Saigon, with a few changes of names and places (although whether Karzai is Diem or Thieu is not yet clear and Kabul will never rock like Saigon did).
I read it so you don’t have to.
fucen tarmal
i have decided to greet the ghanans as liberators.
Mark S.
@D-Chance.:
Here’s Dan Riehl’s take:
I think you’re supposed to say it out loud in an Elmer Fudd voice to get the proper effect.
h/t
SiubhanDuinne
@Chuck Butcher #71:
Oops, ffafat thumb :-(
Allan
The worst punishment I can think of for Althouse is to make her undistinguished faculty at a second-tier institution who drowns her loneliness with box wine and marries strangers off the internets.
Wait, what?
OK, then we’re good.
snarkyspice
Oh really?
This, by the way, is why despite living here for 20 years, I still couldn’t bring myself to root for the US team. Americans can be really annoying.
Let’s see you start to take it seriously. And then let’s see how you do. Until then, STFU.
Chuck Butcher
@snarkyspice:
yes, but you know we do have the one with two “o’s” in it to take seriously and then there is that sport with the “u” in it where referreeing is some sort of roulette game. Don’t even bother to try to tell me there’s a similarity in calls if you’ve watched any football at all.
Comrade Mary
@demimondian: Aww, don’t worry, demi. I’m in one piece as I was on Queen West between 2 and 3:30, and things didn’t get rough there until about 5, when I was busy elsewhere.
I’ll probably post more in the current open thread.
Chuck Butcher
Jayzus WP you suck. Moderated for using the name of a game were a little ball goes ’round and ’round ??? where I can say … a lot of profanities???
asiangrrlMN
@Chuck Butcher: Totally adorable is the little guy. Now I wanna see him dressed in his Harley leathers.
Cole, I am cracking up at the idea of you on Journolist. I think you would have made it a hell of a lot more interesting. And, that’s quite the swanky knife. I don’t get the superstition about not giving knives as gifts, though.
Corner Stone
@snarkyspice: Ooooo…ouch.
Corner Stone
@asiangrrlMN:
Personally, if a friend gave me a sharp knife of any variety I wuld luff him.
God dammit! I can’t shake the Lolspeak.
asiangrrlMN
@Corner Stone: Which is very disorienting coming from you.
Cacti
@D-Chance.:
You mean the kind of “football” that’s played primarily by carrying or throwing the ball with your hands?
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
I like my Forschner 10″ chef’s knife. Big, well balanced (though not real heavy) and scary sharp, which keeps me from getting careless. And the Fibrox handle feels very good.
I like it so much that I have been teetering on the edge of getting the 6″ model and/or the 7″ santoku.
P.S. I had a Wüsthof Trident santoku that I loved, loved, loved, but sadly I have it no more. The Forschners–Victorinox now, I guess–are great value for the money.
fucen tarmal
@Cacti:
right, limiting one’s ability to only the lower body, is for earlydevelopment games, the more advanced ones integrate eye hand coordination, upper body strength, movement, agility, as well as fully integrating the core abdominal region…you know, complexity?
of course in simple games, all you do is follow the ball. in complex ones strategy and tactics away from the ball matter as well.
Corner Stone
@Cacti:
Fuck yeah! Oh, hells to the mother freakin’ yay-uh!!
I’m just killing time til then.
Corner Stone
@fucen tarmal: Oooo…ouch.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack:
Sounds like you’re talking about me. {blushes modestly}
Corner Stone
@asiangrrlMN: I know rite! It’s liek i cant sheik it or sumpin. lawlz.
Oh noes! i’z doomed!
;)
Chris
Why does anyone outside the wackosphere give a shit about Ann Althouse? At best, she’s a simple-minded concern troll who tries to suck moderates and liberals into conversation, and at worst, she’s a
Palinite “feminist”fucking moron.Great, now I’ve rendered myself unemployable, according to 21st-century political-media standards. On the other hand, Ann Althouse will always be a fucking moron.
asiangrrlMN
@Corner Stone: Now you’re just cracking me the fuck up. Thanks. Much needed.
thalarctos
@Chuck Butcher: that just made my morning!