TIME magazine published a column on the World Cup final just hours after it finished, and the column basically blamed Materazzi for Zidane's head butt. This is absurd, and French coach Raymond Domenech should stop making such excuses for the legendary Zidane.

First, everyone should admit they don't know what was said by Materazzi (or by Zidane, for that matter). So, there's no story there until there's a story there.

Second, "Trash talk" is found in every sport, and often it is without reservations. There is no justification for racism or remarks about one's religion or sexual orientation. But let us not feign ignorance here: If you've ever played a team sport, you know such things are said on the field, ice, court, whatever.

Third, the World Cup final is the most important single game in all of sports, no matter how many pretensions there are in American sports to represent "the world championship" of this or that. So, for Zidane to lose his cool, whatever was said, was stupid, selfish, and inexcusable. Make your retort after the match, while you are hoisting the World Cup.

Materazzi may be disliked in Italy, he may have said something untoward, and Zidane may have a clutch of honorable reasons for responding the way he did, but Zidane is still the sole reason he was ejected from that match. Instead of lurking about in enigmatic silence, Zidane should have issued an apology to his teammates and his country immediately following the match.

That he was tossed from the match for a stupid infraction, and that he did not apologize to anyone afterward, speaks volumes of the man's egotistical approach to the game and life.

No one seems to discussing the fact that this was Zidane's last match, and that that fact in itself may have given him incentive to do what he did. He probably thought, just before rage took over, "I'll never get another chance to retaliate for all the hateful bullshit I've received over the years." Boom. I mean, put yourself in the shoes of a world icon. Are his motives the same as the guy at the other end of the bench?

It's not as though on a personal level he needed the World Cup. Been there, done that.

Anyway, I hope FIFA concludes its investigation by removing the Golden Ball from Zidane and giving it to the real MVP of the World Cup, Fabio Canavarro. The guy was incredible! Have you ever seen a defender take control of a World Cup like that? I haven't.

Zidane showed flashes of brilliance, but Canavarro was consistently outstanding.

Here is part of Robert X. Cringely's column from December 11, 2003. I think of it everytime the question of e-voting arises. Keep in mind, even Canada is being infiltrated by e-voting.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20031211.html

"My model for smart voting is Canada. The Canadians are watching our election problems and laughing their butts off. They think we are crazy, and they are right.

Forget touch screens and electronic voting. In Canadian Federal elections, two barely-paid representatives of each party, known as "scrutineers," are present all day at the voting place. If there are more political parties, there are more scrutineers. To vote, you write an "X" with a pencil in a one centimeter circle beside the candidate's name, fold the ballot up and stuff it into a box. Later, the scrutineers AND ANY VOTER WHO WANTS TO WATCH all sit at a table for about half an hour and count every ballot, keeping a tally for each candidate. If the counts agree at the end of the process, the results are phoned-in and everyone goes home. If they don't, you do it again. Fairness is achieved by balanced self-interest, not by technology. The population of Canada is about the same as California, so the elections are of comparable scale. In the last Canadian Federal election the entire vote was counted in four hours. Why does it take us 30 days or more?

The 2002-2003 budget for Elections Canada is just over $57 million U.S. dollars, or $1.81 per Canadian citizen. It is extremely hard to get an equivalent per-citizen figure for U.S. elections, but trust me, it is a LOT higher. This week, San Francisco held a runoff mayoral election that cost $2.5 million, or $3.27 per citizen of the city. And this was for just one election, not a whole year of them.

We are spending $3.9 billion or $10 per citizen for new voting machines. Canada just prints ballots.

No voting system is perfect. Elections have been stolen and voters disenfranchised with paper ballots, too. But our approach of throwing technology at a problem with a result that election reliability is not improved, that it may well be compromised in new and even scarier ways, and that this all costs billions that could be put to better use makes no sense at all."

I'd watch it.

I haven't seen Lucky Louie, but based on your description of its aesthetic (minimalist with much use of the word "fuck") it sounds like yet another derivative of Trailer Park Boys (minus the faux documentary framework).