Wenger is a stubborn ol’ goat

Photograph by Olaf Nordwich

Yeah, I was happy the Gunners won against Olympiacos last night. Why wouldn’t I be?

But that defense troubles me greatly. It is not porous; it is non-existent!

It would seem that Wenger pays no attention to it whatsoever. He persists in concentrating on the forwards and forward play. How else do you explain that the defense are clueless about the critical role they should be playing in the team?

Why hasn’t a specialist defensive coach been brought in yet? Does Arsenal need to develop into more than the laughing-stock of the Premier League at the moment, having leaked more goals than all the teams, except one?

But it does not stop there. It’s fine to leak goals at one end, but you need to make up for it at the other. Football is after all about scoring goals. Perhaps Wenger needs to remind his forwards that they need to PASS the ball into the net too, not just each other. And I do mean, the opposition’s net, not their own.

I cannot understand why he persists in using Arshavin and Chamakh. These guys are just too lazy for me. It’s quite apparent from watching them play, that they’re content to just show up, and give about 80 to 90%. That’s not good enough at this level; we need players who are willing to give more than their all…and then some.

There seems to be some improvement in their recent showing, but dramatic changes are required to turn things around.

How about it Wenger? How about being a Gunner instead of a goat?

It’s a mystery alright!

Katie Goodman asks perhaps the two most significant questions that have plagued mankind for a long time…

Now, I expect that you’ll all do your bit to un-F*ck things. You know you must…

Peculiar Eating Habits

I reckon there are lots of people all over the world who have a strange predilection or aversion for one or more types of food. And there will of course be people who aren’t pernickety about what they eat at all.

I’m unfortunately one of those former types.

Butter

It all started when I was around 5 or 6-years old. For some reason we had run out of butter. It made me so angry that I swore to never eat the stuff again. I kept my word, and over the years developed a strong aversion for it. I can’t stand having butter as a spread on anything…but I’ll eat anything that contains it as an ingredient, so long as I don’t see it in its natural state.

Eggs

I cannot eat eggs sunny-side up. They have to be fully cooked, scrambled or hard-boiled. I can however eat raw eggs.

Pork

While growing up, my mom forbade us from eating pork. She still does, even though I’ve moved out more than 20 years ago. She will not have it the house. It’s got to do with some weird archaic religious thing. What else? But having been denied pork for nearly twenty years, I love it. Ribs! Can’t get enough of it. Parma ham – love it! love it! it! love it!

Don’t tell my mum, but I still sneak it into the house every so often, when I’m visiting.

Mayonnaise

Probably hate it because it reminds me of butter. It’s kind of a pain having to explain to the counter staff every time that I’d like my burger without it. I’ve had to return a few burgers anger over the years, when they got my order all wrong.

Peaches

It’s the skin! It gives me the willies. I can’t stand having the skin touch my tongue. I could however manage it, if it’s peeled.

Milk

Don’t ask me why! Probably has something to do with not getting any butter when I was around 5 or 6, and me directing my anger towards milk in vengeance. My coffee or tea is taken black, always. However I have no problem with milk in a White Russian or other cocktails.

Breakfast Cereal

Now this is an interesting one. I could never eat cereal because it required milk, and you know I can’t have milk unless it is mixed with alcohol. I tried eating corn flakes like one would eat potato crisps. It was my first and only time.

Then a few days ago I discovered vanilla-flavored fresh milk, while shopping for yoghurt [flavored only, by the way]. I thought maybe it would go well with corn flakes, so I also picked up a box of Kellogg’s – the honey coated kind, just to make sure I get more sweetness. I tried it with my vanilla-flavored milk this morning, and I’m hooked. I love it! love it! love it!

Well, that’s about all I can think off right now. I’m pretty sure I eat just about anything else.

Gunners love scoring goals…

Image via Wikipedia

Even if it’s for the other team…

I mean WTF is going on! I tried to be critically nasty towards Arsenal and when that seemed to be, well…too nasty, I tried to be accommodating. That seemed to do the trick as Wenger actually bought some new players – players who could potentially arrest Arsenal’s decline over the last few seasons.

I tried to be positive when they leaked 8 goals against United. I sucked up the derisory taunts from the ManUre faithful after that debacle. And then I was overjoyed when Arsenal got their first win in the Premiership and drew in the Champions League.

I really thought they were going to score some good goals against Blackburn yesterday – give them hell-for, show the world what the Gunners are really capable off….I really wasn’t expecting us to score for the opposition, almost as many goals as we scored for ourselves.

Wenger’s synopsis that the team are “just not defensively solid enough,” is an incredible understatement. The reality is that Arsenal are defensively clueless. That’s harsh, I know; but it’s unfortunately the truth.

The other harsh reality is that Arsenal are lazy in the in-goal area, on both sides of the field. The players are just too lazy to give that extra 10% to reach for a pass in order to score; the players have become inured to receiving the ball at their feet. It’s perhaps the one drawback of that precise passing game that is so pleasing to the eye.

As much as I hate to say it, perhaps we need a new coach who is more attuned to the demands of the modern game. Wenger has without doubt been an excellent manager/coach, but maybe it’s time to admit that his talents may be better served in the area of the club’s finances or in the boardroom.

Unless he makes a radical change to his approach off course…

10 Popular Myths About Atheists and Atheism by Amanda Marcotte

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I’m frequently accosted by readers that respond to my blog posts, who use one or more of several common myths about atheists and atheism in their arguments with me.

It’s therefore quite obliging of Amanda Marcotte, author of It’s a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments, to collate 10 of the most popular myths for us all.

In an article on AlterNet she writes as follows:

In a regular poll conducted by political scientists Robert Putnam and David Campbell on American political attitudes, atheists recently lost their spot as as the most disliked group in America to the Tea Party. Still, number two is simply way too high in the unpopularity rankings for a group of people who just happen to spend Sunday mornings in bed instead of in church. Polling data shows that nearly half of Americans would disapprove if their child married an atheist and nearly 40 percent of Americans don’t see atheists as sharing their vision of American society, numbers that outstripped similar prejudices toward Muslims and African Americans.

Of course, the real reason atheists are so hated has little to do with jealousy for all their free time, but largely because most Americans are better acquainted with myths than with the realities of atheists’ lives. Unfortunately, atheists often have these myths tossed in their faces, usually by believers who would rather talk about what they heard atheists are like rather than uncomfortable subjects such as the lack of proof for any gods.

And here’s one of my all-time favorites; never fails to amuse me every time it’s used against me:

Atheists are just angry with God. Atheists often point out the logical inconsistencies of many religious beliefs—such as the belief both that God is all-good and all-powerful, but he somehow also allows evil to exist—and believers use that to conclude that atheists are angry with God. We aren’t. You can’t be angry with a being that you don’t believe exists. I’m no angrier with God than I am angry with Zeus or the aliens that keep kidnapping drunks sleeping in their cars. Anger with religions for promoting false beliefs isn’t the same thing as being angry at the being that believers invented.

Catch the other 9 here on AlterNet.

I hate Black people

I’ll bet that Black people think I hate them because of the criticism I direct towards the South African government, the ANC Youth League and Julius Malema on a regular basis.

Well…I can now honestly confirm that I do. I hate Black people who:

1. take advantage of other Black people because they are poor, uneducated, or both
2. are in government to make a career of plundering the treasury
3. believe they are entitled to wealth and status because they were denied it in the past
4. believe they are entitled to jobs and career advancement because they were previously disadvantaged
5. incite violence for whatever reason
6. damage and destroy public and private property in protest against poor service delivery by government, and then vote for the same morons at the next election
7. incessantly complain about colonialism, imperialism and the disgusting moral standards of the West, while openly welcoming the trappings of wealth, luxury and technological advancement, and aspiring to the same decadent lifestyle
8. aspire to be politicians and clergymen
9. are already in government
10. hate White people

There you have it. Some day I’ll tell you why I hate Indian, White and Mixed Race people…

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t…

I belong to that group of individuals who believe that banning something only serves to push it underground and make it more desirable.

So it is with this in mind that I’m a little disturbed by an article in the Mail & Guardian about the banning of witchcraft and exploitation emanating from superstitious beliefs, by a political lobby group in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Chanting to cure snakebites, claiming to be a reincarnated spouse to obtain sex, and charging for miracles could soon be banned by an Indian state seeking to stop charlatans preying on the vulnerable.

Many superstitions are widely held in India but a campaign group is lobbying hard for a new law in the western state of Maharashtra to outlaw several exploitative activities, with penalties of fines or up to seven years in jail. [more here]

According to the article, religious groups are already arguing that the banning is an attack on their religious freedoms. They will undoubtedly find support in the large Hindu population who thrive on superstition and archaic religious belief. The banning will ultimately only give their primitive needs added impetus when it becomes taboo.

While the proponents of the legislation known as Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Evil Practices and Black Magic Bill, mean well, they could in fact be causing more harm.

It’s not a pleasant situation to be in, and is a damning indictment on mankind which is still prone to being deceived by religious charlatans, mostly through their own ignorance.

The rest of us are damned if we do something about it and damned if we don’t.