Sunday, December 25, 2016

Soccer v. soccer rage, India wastes money on monuments and "Bad Moms" gets a sequel


- Well, at least they didn’t get stopped and frisked. New York City resident Kimberly Santiago and her family became the unwitting, unwilling and unsuspecting stars of the New York Police Department’s social media feed just before Christmas when officers raided their apartment by mistake and posted a photo on social media with the caption "Merry Christmas Its NYPD." According to Santiago, the NYPD’s warrant squad showed up at her Brooklyn apartment in the middle of the morning and informed the residents that they were looking for an individual neither she nor her family knows and who doesn’t live at the residence. That didn’t stop the NYPD officers from handcuffing everyone in the apartment and while they were on premises, the police posted two photos of the botched raid on Snapchat. The second photo was captioned "warrant sweeps,” but like all other social media users, clearly the NYPD needs to think and check its facts before sending out a snap, because by the end of their raid, they had succeeded only in wasting three hours of their time and bringing a healthy dose of fear into the lives of a family who seem to be guilty only of being home at the time when some overzealous, underinformed police officers kicked down their door and turned their holiday season into a nightmare. A police spokeswoman says the department's internal affairs bureau is investigating the incident, but it’s going to be awfully difficult for the NYPD to apologize for this one…….


- It was certain to happen, the when was all that needed to be determined. After “Bad Moms” proved to be  one of the highest-grossing comedy films of the year, making more than $180 million worldwide, it was a certainty that there would be a sequel. When a movie costs $20 million and brings in an 800-percent return on that investment, the race to green-light a sequel is on and so it is that a Christmas-themed edition of the film will be released in 2017. Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn starred in the original movie, which came out earlier this year, playing a trio of mothers struggling with balancing work, family life and keeping their children happy. Production company STX Entertainment confirmed the festive sequel, “A Bad Moms Christmas,” with all three leading ladies returning for the November release as their characters attempt to cope with parenting during the Christmas period and the stress of visits by their own mothers. To keep the continuity going, the script will be written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, writers of “Bad Moms.”
That dynamic duo will also direct the film, as they did on the original movie, and one of their stars is clearly fired up about the film. “Get ready. It’s about to get festive as a mother. A BAD MOMS CHRISTMAS coming for ya winter 2017!” Bell tweeted. Before the sequel hits theaters, STX Entertainment will also crank out a “Bad Dads” movie, set to hit theaters this summer and prove that the hijinks and adventures of overwhelmed fathers can be funny too………


- Score one for wretched excess in India. Amidst cries of money being wasted in a country that could badly use some extra cash on more immediate needs, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for a massive memorial of a medieval warrior king that's expected to cost billions of rupees. The statue has drawn the ire of environmental activists and others who oppose a 630-foot-tall statue of Shivaji, a 16th century ruler from western India, being built off the coast of Mumbai on land reclaimed from the Arabian Sea. The memorial is expected to be completed by 2019 and the government of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, is expected to spend about 36 billion rupees ($530 million) on the statue. That money will be spent over the objections of some 25,900 people who have signed a Change.org petition asking that the government spend the money on infrastructure and development instead. "Apart from a waste of money, this statue is going to be terrible for the environment, for the traffic situation in South Bombay and a security nightmare," the petition reads. Yes, but can you really put a price tag or true value on a statue that, when complete, will be more than twice the height of the Statue of Liberty? As part of the stone-laying ceremony, Modi also performed a Hindu religious ritual called "Bhoomipujan," or worshipping the land. It’s a ritual performed by devout Hindus before the start of any construction project and one with which Modi is family. Back in 2014, shortly after he became prime minister, the national budget set aside about 2 billion rupees ($34 million) to build a massive structure to honor independence leader Vallabbhai Patel. That project is underway and currently slated to cost about 10 times the amount set aside in the budget. But never mind that, because this one will definitely (not) stay on budget………


- Soccer is known for plenty of qualities, most of them negative and ridiculous, as a sport. According to a prominent face in the game, the sport’s governing body may be mulling rule changes to eliminate some of the absurdity that makes the average sports fan hate soccer. Former Netherlands striker and manager Marco van Basten says FIFA is considering introducing further measures to improve player behavior towards officials, i.e. a bunch of mulleted, flopping divas storming up to the referee every time they don’t get a call they want, get called for a foul they disagree with or otherwise have a beef with how the game is being called. Van Basten is the world governing body's chief officer for technical development and he believes that soccer could learn from rugby, which allows only captains to speak to referees. "There are a lot of players now who are complaining during a game,'' Van Basten said. "I am sure the behavior of the players can be better -- we are thinking about putting it back in the right direction.'' He noted that soccer must “confront the problem,” noting that television replays to assist referees were used for the first time in FIFA competition during this month's Club World Cup in Japan, while in English football referees were given the power to issue red cards to confrontational players. "This is what we have to do to help the referees,'' Van Basten said about rule changes. "We try to make a good product -- dynamic, exciting, but in the end also honest. "There's a lot of emotion in the game and that's what's good -- but we have to control it also.'' Yes, let’s channel that emotion where it belongs - into lame, asinine and moronic goal celebrations involving using soccer balls as fake babies, wild fist pumps and pretend rides in the team minivan……..

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