- Remember yesterday, when this space tackled the latest
incident of soccer and racism, linked together once more? This isn’t a carbon
copy, just another instance of the world’s sport showing the world’s bigotry
and small-mindedness when it comes to treating people of other races like
they’re actual people. It comes from Paris, where the first leg of a Champions
League matchup between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain took place and ended as
most soccer games do, without an actual winner or with more than two goals
scored. Yet the 1-1 tie wasn’t the story, partially because there is a second
game to come in the series that will theoretically decide an actual winner but
mostly because Chelsea fans on their way to the game decided to channel their
inner hatemonger aboard a Metro train at the Richelieu-Drouot station in the French capital.
Footage popped up shortly after the game showing what appears to be a group of
Chelsea fans travelling to the Parc des Princes for the game blocking a black
man from boarding the train and compounding their hateful stupidity by
chanting, "We're racist and that's the way we like it." Points for
self-awareness and honesty, you ass clowns, but that’s about it. Police are
working to confirm that those responsible for the incident were Chelsea fans
and officials from both countries are attempting to identify those involved in
cooperation with the Metropolitan Police. Chelsea released a statement
condemning the incident and vowing to take action if its fans were involved,
which will undoubtedly be a scathing and punitive punishment that will teach
these racists how to tolerate and appreciate their fellow man regardless of the
color of his skin……..
- Drunken idiots help fellow drunken idiots out. It’s how
the world works. It’s how many of them find each other in the first place,
stumbling drunkenly through life and needing someone to make sure they don’t
end up falling in front of a moving vehcile or off a cliff. It might even be
how New Jersey residents Bryan Byers and Alexander Zambenedetti met.
It’s certainly how the two of them ended up with matching drunk driving charges
and one of the most asinine stories imaginable to go with them. The tale begins
with an allegedly drunk Byers trying to traverse a wintry road in his inebriated
state, barreling right through a stop sign and blasting into a guardrail, doing
damage to both stationary objects and to his BMW. Despite being intoxicated, he
was thinking clearly enough to call a friend for help – because you clearly
can't call the cops when you’re driving drunk and just committed multiple
infractions behind the wheel – and soon enough, his pal Zambenedetti arrived in
his own car and went to work. What did Zambenedetti do? Did he bring a third
friend to drive Byers home, at least avoding putting anyone else in danger with
a drunk on the road? Of course not. No, Zambenedetti showed up shirtless
despite a wind chill of 15 below zero and proceeded to deliver two 5-gallon
buckets of water to his friend so they could pour the water on the freezing
road to create black ice trying to cover up his drunken car crash. An officer
saw Zambenedetti with two buckets of water in the back set at 2:45 a.m. and
these two criminal masterminds caved quickly when questioned by police. Byers was
arrested and charged with drunken driving and other offenses and Zambenedetti
was also charged with drunken driving. "I've seen a lot of dumb
stuff," police Sgt. Dennis Proctor said. “But not this dumb." No, not
when an officer also spotted Byers fleeing the scene before returning to cover
up the accident and leaving his car’s license plate lying in the road………..
- Class warfare in rock and roll is not a new notion. So
when The
Cribs' Ryan Jarman said "there's no way out for the working class" in music
and claimed that the industry has become "a vanity project,” no new ground
was broken. Still, any time someone was to blast the current state of a world
ruled by the likes of Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Katy Perry, it’s worth hearing
them out. Mix in a good conspiracy theory and you’re off and running. "I
feel like at the minute, people see it as everything being pop and dance music
at the moment, so there is definitely something," Jarman said. “"I
wouldn't call it a conspiracy but we are told, 'This is popular,' and that's
what you need to be part of to be down with the kids. That's the most important
thing to the grown ups, that's the number one goal." Nothing says
conspiracy theory quite like saying you’re not suggesting a conspiracy, but
Jarman wasn’t done. He went on the attack about class distinctions within
music, speaking as if he were talking about the caste system in India. "I'm
not that sure what's going on as far as guitar bands are concerned, but Serge
(Pizzorno) was talking about 'working class' rock n' roll bands and there's
definitely a point where there's a lack of that anyway,” Jarman added, alluding
to comments by Kasabian guitarist Serge Pizzorno. Jarman recalled being young,
working a crappy job and then going to rehearse all night with his band, dreaming
of “getting a record deal (as) this dream to take you away from that crappy job
- it was seen as your way out. Jarman sees a musical landscape now where the
hungry, aspiring rocker looking for a way out of a low-end life is gone and
many of those in the game are already well-off before they sign their first
record deal. It’s an interesting theory and one that sounds very much like a
member of a moderately successful British indie rock band lashing out at pop
hacks who make a lot more money and are much more famous despite having little
or no discernable musical talent, but that doesn’t make Jarman wrong……..
- It’s nice to be the Roman Catholic archdiocese
of Cologne, Germany. Aside from living in a pretty sweet city in a solid
country with outstanding beer, epic sausage and top-notch soccer, you also have
an incredible war chest that makes you the envy of virtually every other
diocese in the world. The diocese has finally revealed the full extent of its
wealth to the world for the first time in the wake of criticism of Germany's
Catholic Church for the former bishop of Limburg's lavish spending, prompting
his peers in Cologne to post documents on their website showing off just how
deep their pockets are. The documents show Germany's richest archdiocese had
assets of 3.35 billion euros ($3.82 billion) at the end of 2013 and their
holdings are diverse. About 2.4
billion euros were invested in stocks, funds and company holdings, while
another 646 million euros were
held in tangible assets, mostly property. Mix in cash reserves and outstanding
loans, which total about 287 million euros, and you begin to see just how much
these robe-wearing church leaders are swimming in piles of gold – both literal
and figurative – and how those diamond-encrusted slippers have to make them
feel at the end of a long, hard day of shepherding the faithful. In 2013 alone,
the archdiocese received 573 million euros from church taxes paid by the 2
million Catholics living in the region around Cologne, famous for its Gothic
cathedral. In Europe, people of a particular faith pay taxes to their religion,
making the declaration that you don’t follow any religion at all a popular one.
It’s good to know that in Cologne, the money is going to those who don’t
already have a ton of it and need it badly………
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