These were very disappointing games. These were games that only fans of the four teams involved would watch to the end.

France 0-1 Germany

Hummels of Germany scored the only goal 11 minutes into the game and the next 79 minutes consisted of people finding novel ways not to score. Ball possession was 60-40% in both halves, Germany dominate in the first and France taking over in the second, but neither developed a rhythm to their game. Germany controlled the midfield and France was stymied. Germany played the midfield well, but couldn’t execute an accurate attack on the goal.

Brazil 2-1 Colombia

This was an ugly game. People weren’t faking injuries because there were plenty to go around. Brazil scored goals at 7 minutes and 68 minutes and Colombia didn’t net the ball until the 80 minute mark.

Brazil will be playing Germany without its captain, Thiago Silve, who picked up his second yellow card. They will also not have Neymar available as he suffered a fractured vertebra which will require immobilization to heal. This was not a ‘beautiful game’.

Neymar just recovered from thigh and knee injuries that occurred earlier in the game with Chile. I saw the incident that supposedly caused the injury and I don’t get it. He is a 22-year-old professional football player, but he suffers a broken vertebra from an open-handed push? I think he needs some tests done to find out what’s going on, because he seems to be injured badly with the application of minimal force.

Maid In The Shade

Zzz…zzz…

[Editor: Froggy relaxes on my neighbor’s bench to avoid over-heating and fleas.

Friday Ark

Position: 41.2N 68.7W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [045°] near 31 mph [50 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 75 mph [120 kph].
Wind Gusts: 90 mph [145 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 160 miles [260 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Minimum central pressure: 976 mb.

Currently about 75 miles [ 120 km] East-Southeast of Chatham, Massachusetts.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Nantucket Island; Cape Cod from Provincetown to Woods Hole; New Brunswick from the US border to Grand-anse; Nova Scotia; Cape Breton Island; and Prince Edward Island.

Arthur is weakening and expanding as it picks up speed. This is the beginning of the transition to a post-tropical storm.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security…

Independence wasn’t really achieved until September 3, 1783 when Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, and, to be factual, our current government only dates from March 4, 1789 when the first government under our Constitution was installed.

Liberty was not extended to all men until December 6, 1865 with ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, nor were women given the one of the most important rights of men until August 26, 1920 with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment recognizing their votes.

In truth, until July 2, 1964 when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, there was no mechanism to force government to recognize the rights of all American citizens.

The national security establishment and religious whackoes on the Supreme Court are eroding the rights hard won over the last 230+ years.