Saturday, February 27, 2016

French migrant cajoling, professional boxers at the Olympics and naked protests of baby boutiques


- The Marvel universe, much like the one in which we all live, is constantly expanding. The key difference is that being a part of the Marvel universe typically pays much better and that makes it good news for “Game of Thrones” actor Finn Jones that he has reportedly signed up to appear as Marvel's Iron Fist in an upcoming series. “Thrones” fans know that Jones plays Ser Loras in the HBO series based on George R.R. Martin's books and he’s reportedly locked up to tackle the role of Iron Fist (a.k.a. Danny Rand), a role in which he will appear alongside fellow Marvel characters Dardevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage in a future “Defenders” miniseries. Rand’s back story is that he endured a family tragedy before training to become a martial arts expert, giving him the requisite tortured past required for a movie hero to rise to power. In “Heroes for Hire,” Luke Cage is his partner and Marvel is spinning these characters off in rapid-fire fashion as  Cage made his Marvel debut in Netflix's “Jessica Jones” and will get his own standalone series later this year. In other words, if you’re a Marvel character of any repute and you haven't yet locked down a starring role in a miniseries, series or movie of your own, it might be time to start asking some serious questions about just how much Marvel likes you and believes in the viability of your character in the long term……….


- Pretentious, overpriced children’s clothing stores, er, boutiques can be infuriating. They’re so arrogant, acting as if dressing your baby in designer threads and surrounding them with trendy decorations makes one damn bit of difference in the kid’s life. Hammond (La.) resident Elizabeth Ferger knows this and knows it well, so everyone needs to lay off her just because she (allegedly) jumped up and down naked on top of her car while screaming obscenities in the parking lot of a children's store. Sure, seeing a woman who has lived more than half a century on this Earth acting like an insane, mentally unstable person and/or someone under the influence of some pretty badass drugs can be jarring, but just because police say Ferger walked into the children's clothing boutique Oh Baby wearing nothing but a blanket tied around her, began shouting obscenities and proceeded to trash the store is no reason to get all judgmental. Her naked car jumping came after she left the store and on the positive side, trashing your own property is decidedly less criminal than destroying someone else’s, so props on that one. Sadly, not everyone understands this possible raging against the obscene prices and snooty nature of baby boutiques and so Ferger now faces charges of obscenity, aggravated criminal damage to property, disturbing the peace with offensive words and simple battery. The sad truth is that most people fail to see a great revolution when it’s in its early stages, but maybe some day, the world will recognize Ferger’s mad genius………


- As one of the sports that won't have to worry about its competitors being sent to the nearest medical facility on account of Brazil’s toxic, feces-clogged waters full of sewage and filth, boxing has a certain appeal within the 2016 Summer Olympics. That appeal just went up for some of the sport’s biggest names now that they are eligible to compete in this summer's Olympics under radical new proposals being pushed through by the sport's world governing body, AIBA. President Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu believes the final few barriers preventing fulltime professionals competing in the Games are set to be abolished within a matter of months and that could throw the door open to everyone from Floyd Mayweather - who could hit up Rio in search of the Olympic gold medal he felt he was unfairly denied in Atlanta in 1996 - to Wladimir Klitschko to compete for glory in Brazil. "We want the best boxers to come to the Olympic Games. It is AIBA's 70th birthday, and we want something to change -- not after four years, but now,” Wu said. "It is an IOC policy to have the best athletes in the Games, and of the international federations, AIBA is probably the only one without professional athletes in the Olympics.” That’s probably an exaggeration, but professionals have been tearing it up for two decades in Olympic basketball and doing the same for boxing sounds perfectly fine. Yes,  the qualifying process for Rio is well underway and proposals from the AIBA Commissions meeting must subsequently be ratified by AIBA's executive commission, but the governing body intends to change the rules in time to give each individual national federation the opportunity to select whomever they want in time for the Olympics. Given boxing’s declining profile in the sports world, anything to boost its image in the Games is a solid choice………


- Can the French actually be bullies? They can if you’re talking about residents in a sprawling migrant camp in the port city of Calais. These international interlopers received a rather rude visit this week from French state representatives who went from tent to tent to convince the migrants to get the hell out. The visit came one day after a court ruled that a mass eviction could go ahead and clearly, the powers that be would like their foreign visitors to leave of their own accord. Authorities in the case sought a ruling allowing them to raze the camp, where thousands of migrants from the world's trouble spots have gathered to try to sneak across the English Channel to Britain via ferry or a Eurotunnel rail service, but the court wasn’t willing to go that far. Its decision fell short of allowing a complete destruction of buildings at the site, concluding that the makeshift shelters where migrants sleep can be demolished. However, common spaces like places of worship, schools and a library that have sprung up must stand. The camp has been dubbed “The Jungle” and with the international scrutiny focused on the property, officials have taken a cautious approach by using persuasion instead of force to dislodge the migrants. That could take weeks and in the meantime, French authorities have offered to relocate those uprooted by the eviction order in the southern portion of the makeshift camp, either in heated containers installed last month nearby or at centers around France where they may choose to apply for asylum. According to Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, 2,700 migrants along the northern French coast have been sent to centers since October. However, only a handful of people were seen climbing into one of two buses at midday as the requests to leave were being made. "We try to tell them that they are free ... to make their own decisions," said Nathalie Seys of the Social Services Department, part of a team combing the camp, "and that, unlike what we are hearing, they will not be prisoners." And why wouldn’t they believe every word you’re telling them, eh France……….

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