see?

the irish and the italians had at it over in poland for their final first-round euro championship match today, and there wasn't much else to do but laugh. over the past few years, fifa (the governing body of world soccer) has done yeoman's work in eliminating the worst of it, but today's game between the I's and the I's was a throwback/throw-up of classic shirt-grabbing, short-grabbing (one guy's was hauled down almost to his ankles) gunshot-wound-faking good old-time soccer. (if you haven't seen the soccer sniper video, you absolutely must take a moment to follow the link here--we'll wait til you get back).

it surprises me most that there isn't more national pride and outcry to fire these miscreants lest they continue to soil the national reputation. or, as i might put it, being divorced from one:

see?