The despicable Luis Suarez, the Liverpool striker, one of the greatest players and most repulsive human beings in world football, will lead Uruguay to what may be yet another impressive run in international competition, again on Brazilian ground.
Commentary
Colombia 3, Greece 0: Juan Valdez Beats Zeus
Colombia can be among the surprises of the tournament, and they’re playing in a group that favors it: anyone in Group C can win it, anyone can advance.
Chile 3, Australia 1: The Mapuche Gods Have It
So, while Iraq falls apart and the United States considers a summer air campaign there, it’s time for the day’s third match, a free-wheeling affair between lowly but beer-swilling Australia and tightly disciplined Chile, whose spoiler capabilities should not be underestimated.
Spain 1, Netherlands 5: Rematch, Beauty and Dethroning
This is the treat of the day: a rematch between the 2010 World Cup finalists, a game Spain won 1-0 at the end of a violent and too often ugly game. Spain these days feels like Rodney Dangerfield in Brazil: it’s getting no respect despite its crushing record in the past eight years.
Brazil 3, Croatia 1: An Undeserved Gift To the Host Nation | World Cup 2014
As an opening match Brazil-Croatia didn’t lack entertainment or tension, two of the absolute requisites of any football game, but it lacked skill and spontaneity, it absolutely lacked poetry and justice.
George Will’s Sex Assault Chauvinism
The oft-reported number of sex assault in college is likely too inflated, but when columnist George Will insisted that women who say they have been raped assume a “coveted status” on campus, it was as nasty a remark as Steve Robinson imagines has ever made it past Will’s editors. A counterpoint.
Bright Spot in Florida’s Budget:
A Forward-Looking Agenda on Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s is the most costly disease to Medicare and Medicaid — and for a state like Florida with high ratios of older residents, this spells an impending crisis for state budgets. Gov. Rick Scott signed a record-sized state budget that included record-sized wins for the Alzheimer’s community.
In Memory of D-Day:
Walking Omaha Beach
Let me tell you about a very lucky trip I had a chance to take with my wife and child about a year ago, to Omaha Beach in Normandy. I’d been wanting to go there for 30 years. I consider it part of my transformation, as an immigrant, into an American, like traveling the 50 states and being a Yankee fan.
With Marco Rubio’s Walmart Mentality, Republicans ‘Discover’ How to End the Poverty They Created
The Tea Party GOP has declared Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” a failure. And with the 2014 elections looming, Rubio-Republicans are trying to remake themselves as sympathetic and empathetic, instead of apathetic, to the plight of the poor and the middle class, writes Stephen L. Goldstein.
Sunshine Lows: Cities and Counties Do a Lousy Job of Sharing Information With Citizens
When the First Amendment Foundation publicized its transparency scorecard last month, it found that on average, cities and counties in Florida had lots of room for improvement in sharing the workings of government with the governed.