Ramzan Kadyrov is a bloodthirsty autocrat put in place by Vladmir Putin to quash the Chechen insurgency. He kills mothers and children while torturing anyone suspected of being a Muslim militant. This is what many would have you believe. Look at him. Do you doubt Hilary Swank? Could a man who owns a tiger be that evil? That’s almost as ridiculous as calling an Italian a fascist.
Kadyrov finally ran up against an immovable object in the form of the Russian Football Union. The association banned Terek Grozny from playing in their stadium for one match after the Chechen president berated a referee over the PA system during a match.
Kadyrov, who is the club’s president as well as the leader of the troubled Russian republic, reacted angrily to referee Mikhail Vilkov’s dismissal of Terek captain Rizvan Utsiev during Sunday’s 0-0 draw at home to Rubin Kazan.
The local leader took control of the Grozny arena’s public address system to shout: “The referee is corrupt. You jerk!”
Kadyrov followed up by saying the jerk store ran out of Mikhails or something along those lines.
It’s much easier to defy Kadyrov from almost 1000 miles away in Moscow. One can only assume referee Mikhail Vilkov spent no time getting to the airport and leaving the province before being fed to a tiger or hunted by the president and his cronies.
Kadryov later apologized for his actions but excluded the referee. He instead invited him to a getaway at his dacha so they can talk things out over some homemade djepelgesh. Watch Surviving The Game, Mikhail. You don’t want none of what Ramzan got.
The tension between singer Harun Tekin and Harun Tekin the goalkeeper has to be intense. It’s probably something along the lines of the beef between Initech’s Michael Bolton and the milquetoast crooner Michael Bolton who, with his inoffensive covers of soul hits, brings suburban moms to their knees without the negro aggression. The hostility may go in one direction because the more famous one doesn’t know the other but that doesn’t make it less valid. Why take out your frustration on a fax machine when you can smash a living, breathing pitch invader? Allow Buraspor’s Tekin to show us the way.
Note: Why must assclowns always add terrible music to video clips? I wish Jack Dalton was still alive to mete out justice on them and their ilk. Now get off my lawn.
“Calling all cars. Calling all cars. Be on the lookout for a fat, silver and black guy with spikes wearing a silver and black helmet, silver and black jersey, Mardi Gras beads and Doc Martins. Last seen in section 105 heading east. He’s bad.”
The Oakland Coliseum or whatever the pit where the Raiders and A’s play is called isn’t a cafe so it’s probably off Rand Paul’s radar. That’s great news for Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern who wants to employ drones in his jurisdiction. It’s bombs away on cafes and homeless people.
On October 25, Sheriff Ahern sent a letter to AEG Vice President Chris Wright, who is the facilities manager at the Coliseum and Arena, asking to test a product made by Intelligence Based Integrated Security Systems Inc., known as IBIS2. The patent-pending surveillance system from IBIS2 uses “intelligent video” technology that has civil libertarians on their guard.
… IBIS2 sought to conduct a field test in Oakland because of the bad-boy image of Raiders’ fans. “If you ask ten NFL fans which team they associate with violence, they’ll most likely say the Raiders,” said Kephart. He cited two shootings at a pre-season game between the Raiders and San Francisco 49ers as another reason for wanting to test his system in the Bay Area. It should be noted, however, that those shootings occurred at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
… Ahern’s October 25 letter to AEG strongly indicated that the technology would be used for both license-plate and facial recognition. Ahern wrote that IBIS2′s product would be used “in or around sports venues,” including parking lots, and would provide law enforcement with the capability for “instant data retrieval resulting in preemptive action.” Ahern also wrote that the system could “be utilized to detect persons of interest, wanted criminals, parole and probation violators, state certified gang members, and repeat fan violence offenders.” Such detection capabilities likely could not be derived from reading license plates alone.
That’ll work real well in the Black Hole. It’s hard to see how IBIS2′s facial recognition technology would do any good inside the stadium. Ahern would be better off arresting whole sections of fans if his deputies want to deal the blow back. Unfortunately for them, the Black Hole doesn’t consist of defenseless, homeless people.
The idea that the Sheriff’s Department would use the system to preemptively track people for reasons outside of incidents in the area of the stadium should give pause to anyone concerned about privacy rights. Let’s not talk about cases of mistaken identity yet. There are matters of law enforcement misusing information gleaned for other purposes. The public has no idea how much or what kind of data would be stored let alone what it would be used for by Alameda County or any other local, state or federal agency with access to it. The possibilities for abuse outweigh any potential gains from arbitrary surveillance especially from a department already dealing with several abuse of power scandals.
Fortunately AEG refused to test the system on their property. Professional sports venues already have the ability to use video to find people who commit crimes within the confines of their property. There’s no reason to expand to the use of facial recognition technology by outside law enforcement. Teams can hand over video footage to police on an as-needed basis. Fans willingly accept that their image can be used by teams and respective leagues once they enter the stadium or arena. However the expectation of most law-abiding people is that any footage will be used solely for entertainment purposes unless an incident requiring law enforcement intervention takes place. They doesn’t attend a game thinking that their face will be stored in some unknown location for whatever use some random sheriff sees fit.
Maybe Raiders fans should consider themselves lucky. John Yoo would advocate drone bombing potential criminals during games. “I am the law!” On the other hand death would prevent them from seeing Carson Palmer throw another pick-6. Cowboys fans must be salivating over this possibility.
Here’s your musical reference. A pox on you if you didn’t get it.
Sheriff Ahern is a no good scavenger when it comes to the retention of personal data. A catfish vulture even. Say facial recognition and do the wop!
Who can forget Congressman Peter King (R-NY) standing up in the face of terror and holding hearings on Muslim “Radicalization”? If it doesn’t work four times, hold a fifth hearing. Ward-Gatti had nothing on King-Islam.
Much to King’s dismay, mosques (80% of which are jihadist according to him) are still in our midst so he’s decided to take on a new opponent. A New York State kickboxing champion. Note it’s “A” not “The”. The Long Island congressman will take on “Irish” Joe Foley for two rounds on Saturday night.
The congressman said he weighs in at about 230 pounds and has been training for about nine years. The bout isn’t for charity, he said.
“We’ll be sparring,” King said. “If anyone is going to get knocked out, it will be me. I can tell you that much.”
He also joked that while he plans to throw real punches, Foley will probably throw “sort-of-real punches.”
King said that back in 1991, he sparred with former pro Seamus McDonagh in an exhibition bout on the 20th anniversary of the first Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali fight.
The fight isn’t for charity. They’re fighting just for the hell of it in a Wantagh, NY bar. Does it get more stereotypically Irish than this?
Saturday won’t mark King’s first time inside the squared circle. He previously fought a former pro named Seamus McDonagh who lost to Evander Holyfield by TKO in 1990. McDonagh’s biggest claim to fame was winning Rusty Staub’s rib eating contest in 1989.
If the bar is anything like Irish Times in DC, it’ll have a guy singing the same five Irish songs all night. There’s no word on whether Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness will take time from governing Northern Ireland to referee the fight. Gerry Cooney or someone from Boyzone will have to do on Saturday.
Recipe Note: Ribs should be their own food group. Try this Chinese Noodles with Baked Sriracha Ribs recipe from Serious Eats. I tried different kinds of chilis for the rub. Serrano also works well but I also added a bit of habanero for some extra kick. Stick to the lighter beer. It works better with the glaze. The process takes a couple hours due to the ribs but it’s worth it. Go with a bigger bowl while you’re at it. You want to eat it out of a mixing bowl? Bloomberg doesn’t own you. This is America. Do it.
Barcelona’s recent drop in form has sent the soccer world into conniptions. The seemingly unstoppable force that is “mas que un club” came to a screeching halt in Milan and was battered twice in a row by Real Madrid. Some have attributed their problems to the absence of manager Tito Vilanova who is currently in the US undergoing cancer treatments. Barca however might suspect a scandalous devil woman by the name of Shakira.
Former mananger Pep Guardiola was worried about players partying and not focusing on their day jobs. He and others in the Barca hierarchy sent the agency to follow anyone they suspected of hitting the sauce too hard. Pique was one of the targets along with Deco, Samuel Eto’o and Ronaldinho.
The news website El Confidencial reported that the club asked for Piqué to be followed in 2010 in order to see how much time he was spending partying. It says in September 2010 Piqué was trailed after going to a pop concert in Barcelona. Detectives logged the drinks he had and the time he got home. El Confidencial said the player eventually realised he was being tailed, but the club managed to persuade him that it was just the tabloid press.
The club issued a confusing denial. “The club does not wish to comment on this because it has no documentary evidence that this ever happened and, as a result, we deny it,” a spokesman said on Tuesday.
You got nothing. I got nothing. Arsene Wenger, who never sees or hears anything, would be proud of that denial. The club even offered to protect Pique from the tabloids to cover their tracks.
Al-Jazeera reported on the spying scandal which reaches beyond Barcelona into the highest levels of Spanish politics.
The former manager was also worried about Messi being led astray by Barca’s party contingent. Little did he have to worry. He’s not Brazilian or Diego Maradona.
It’s unclear why Barcelona would waste time following Ronaldinho. His partying style is legendary the world over. Who can forget the time he and Robinho went partying in Rio after a Brazil win? They turned a night at the club into a full on orgy with Robinho requesting 40 condoms from a club bouncer so they could line women up facing a wall and sex them all like Mutombo. Ronaldinho stayed in the club until 11 AM the next day before he left in the trunk of a car. At least he didn’t end up rolling with a transvestite like Brazilian compatriot (Fat) Ronaldo.
Ronaldinho, Robinho and Ronaldo bring up a tangential question. What is it about Brazilian players that seemingly makes so many of them prone to partying their way down from the heights of soccer stardom? We’ve seen it happen with those two as well as Adriano and many others. They have the world in their hands only to throw it away for booze, drugs and women.
Luckily Pique decided face down on Shakira was a preferable option to a table.
