JOLLY DAYS

Playoffs Aplenty

Playoff weekend: the best games of the year, usually. Teams that make it to the Super Bowl are seldom the best matchups. But you have a bunch of proxy Super Bowls in the playoffs. One of the better games is Dallas/Seattle, being played right now as these pixels dance. With Owens on one side, and a great coach in Seattle, you expect this to be the matchup it is turning out to be: 3 to 3 in the second quarter.

I feel pretty much as Ron Rosenbaum does about watching football:

I don’t root for a team, I root for overtime, for drama, for great games, heroic comebacks, underdog surprises, fantastic plays.

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Rosenbaum wrote a good piece about Iran and its nutcase leader:

… if you believe that the euphemism “wipe Israel off the map” refers only to eliminating a geographical distinction. Another all too easy excuse to ignore the threat, the exterminationist context in which those words are uttered. The real world conseqences of a “binational state” Hey, nothing to worry about, it’s just a policy proposal. Again, read the Hamas charter.

Anne Applebaum @ Slate had an earlier, more comprehensive piece about Iran:

Of course, Holocaust denial also has broader roots and many more adherents in the Middle East, which may be part of the point: Questioning the reality of the Holocaust has long been another means of questioning the legitimacy of the state of Israel, which was indeed created by the United Nations in response to the Holocaust, and which has indeed incorporated Holocaust history into its national identity. If the Shiite Iranians are looking for friends, particularly among Sunni Arabs, Holocaust denial isn't a bad way to find them.

Strange slogans adhere to discussions of Iran — media memes:

• The people of Iran don't like their leaders.
• Their leader is an aggressive bigot.
• The US shouldn't “do anything” about Iran — other than administering a talk-cure (appeasement) — because then the people of Iran won't like us.

The Orwellian logic is more grotesque than usual.

Seattle scored another field goal — it is anyone's game. Go teams — make it a good finish.

Dallas now with a first and goal…reach-in touchdown. 10-6 Cowboys.