LET'S PLAY MAKE BELIEVE

Let's pretend I live in Boston (turns out I do) along with a lot of other people.  Let's pretend there is a city across the river called Cambridge (turns out there is).  Let's pretend the name of the river is the Rio Grande (turns out it is called the Charles).  Let's pretend me and my friends want to live in Cambridge--they have better jobs, they have better housing, and they have no drug cartels like they do on my side of the river. Let's pretend it is illegal for me and me friends to go to Cambridge. And those mean Cambridge people stop us when we try to walk across the bridges, they stop our cars, and they stop our boats.  But we are both smart and resourceful so we hire guides (some of  them are called coyotes) to get us across often by swimming in the shallowest parts of the river.  Let's also pretend that except for a few residents of Cambridge who came over on the Mayflower, the rest of the residents all were either born in another country or their parents were or their grandparents were. Let's pretend, then, that most of them are either immigrants themselves or descendants of immigrants.

Let's quit pretending and just say that this immigration mess in which we send people back to strife torn countries (and some of those people are children) is fucked up.  The Ted Cruz's of the world who have forgotten their roots are mean spirited nasty unpleasant people.  And Obama blew it big time when he was in Texas and did not go to the border--are you serious?  Even if he was there for 5 minutes and patted two heads, he should have gone.  Yuck on him.

Speaking of children:  Three Israeli and one Palestinian teenager (not counting the number of dead since then) are dead.  Their parents have lost them forever and the adults on both sides are now blowing up each other.  I am beyond words.

Ends and Odds:
--The Governor of Maine is an idiot.
--The European countries also have mindless idiots fighting immigration openness--but did you notice that every European team had immigrants or immigrant descendants on their teams.  That seems to have worked out well--huh?
--So unemployment continues to slowly go down and the economy slowly improves and everyone still hates Obama.  Eric Holder was right--some of this is about race.
--And Boehner's (he who has a perpetual tan) response is to sue the President over Obamacare.
--Saw the wonderful, yet very sad, documentary about Roger Ebert.  What courage.
--Special Nike ad playing tonight focusing on Derek Jeter (and that is not about sports).
--A great documentary on POV/PBS last night about New Orleans and a race for City Council.

SPORTS TALK
--The U.S. deserved to lose to Belgium.  And no, I am not one of those who deems their performance so great.  This country has 300 fucking million people--we should be better.  I am one who believes playing in Europe is better for a player's improvement than MLS.  And Landon Donovan would not have made a difference.
--Germany was predictably boring and yet won.  That final goal against Argentina was just splendid.
--The Bruins for whatever reason blew it by not signing Iginla--they need goal scorers and I will not even get into my Seguin pet peeve.

N:  You may not get better but all of us love you and are here for you.

Sayonara.