The Role of Money In Football (or as you call it soccer)

I watch,play and live soccer. That pretty much sums up my obsession with this sport. My favorite club is called Manchester United FC, and they are playing in a league called the English Premiere League, or EPL for short.

While the league and its clubs have changed a lot since their inception in the 1900s, some changes have been more marked than others, and that is money. Billionaire owners, massive player transfer deals, and extraordinary agent fees are just some of the revelations in football that is caused by desires to make quick bucks. In other lesser leagues (mostly those in poorer countries) there is even corruption of players and even match officials, showing that there is no barrier in football for money. The question is how mixing fast cash and football actually effects the sport as a whole? While the good has been obvious; clubs that used to be punching bags can now afford world class players after being bankrolled by someone rich, the bad part is equally tangible, as I mentioned above with all the unethical means of using money to achieve quick success.

While I tend to lean towards money being a bad thing in football, I think there is a lot of ground to be covered in this topic.

In Defense of Will Ferrell

I am a big fan of American slapstick movies, and naturally Will Ferell is one of my favorite actors. One of his movies that is in my "hall of fame" happens to be Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, so I decided to see what kind of reviews this CapAlert guy had about this film.

To be honest, looking at the comprehensive scale of analysis this guy has, and having watched this movie at least seven times, I did not expect a very high rating score, and I was right as it got a miserly 25/100. But that did not bother me at all as much as his rantings on the movies' main themes. Lets break it down shall we?

So there was a gay character involved (Sacha Baron Cohen as Jean Girard). But the way the review describes him and his actions suggests a very anti-homosexual inclination, and I don't think that is appropriate. Granted some people may not like same sex relationships, and maybe kids are too young to be exposed to these things, but the reviewer should not be so dismissive of the movie just because of that. Firstly there were no overtly sexual scenes shown (both gay or straight for that matter) and secondly, this movie did not completely negatively stereotype homosexuals as being weak or failures. Jean Girard more than shows that he is as capable of any straight man, even someone so testosterone fueled as Ricky Bobby himself, as shown by his expert NASCAR driving. The movie's brave decision to include a homosexual as a main character, and the positive portrayal of him overall should be a highlight to this movie instead of a put down.

My other major grouse was how children are "profusely" using expletives. Yes, the two kids in the movie were pretty messed up, but towards the end, they changed for the better through a combination of Asian martial arts and social service. That was not talked about in the review, which I think is totally unfair as there is a message there trying to be sent out; no matter how bad your kid is, he is genuinely good inside.

As for the other parts that were too much for the reviewer, I think he should have an open mind and instead credit Ferrell for the wonderful use of carefully sculpted nudity and profanities to an art called "humor". I just cannot understand why someone won't just laugh deliriously watching Ricky Bobby run around in his underwear in the middle of the race track yelling "The ninjas are going to get me...save me Jesus...save me Allah". While the content is not appropriate for young children, it has to be understood that not a single movie is suitable for everyone at all, and even then it is up to the audience themselves, not some third party reviewer to decide what they want to watch (free market).

As for me, no matter what any review says about this movie, Ricky Bobby is still one of my favorite characters ever, and though he might not be liked by all, he is still an AWESOME guy! "shake and bake"

Plato In the Library

From the day we did the assignment regarding Plato and Mencius, I have been thinking about reading the former's famous book "The Republic". However, I was too lazy to go to the library to get the book,until now. So,I looked it up online,saw a bunch of available copies in College Library (the nearest to my dorm) and went up there on Sunday evening.

I am pretty used to looking up books from a vast collection, as I did A LOT of that for my Botany paper last semester (I got a miserly B). So I jotted down the details earlier; College Library Main Collection, 1st Floor, West, Room 1191. I found the room easily, as I pretty much just had to turn left as I entered the building. The next step was the call number-JC71P352007, and once I located the correct shelves ,it was a matter of minutes before a found a stack of Republics. I chose the one by Penguin Classics, as through experience I thought they would be the easiest to read and understand. The book I picked was flanked by another copy of "The Republic" by Cambridge press (looked freakishly academic) and the "Interpretation of Plato's Republic" by Murphy.

So I took the book with the SOLE intention of finishing up on this blog assignment. But as I type this with the book laying so tantalizingly close to me, I'm thinking about reading this book after all. Look's like this trip to the library would be a success!

Lee, Desmond. Plato The Republic. England: Clays Ltd, St Ives plc, 2007

Call number:JC71P352007