Murray sleepwalked to defeat? No Way!

So Andy Murray went out today at Wimbledon to 11th seed, the Bulgarian, Grigor Dmitrov, in straight sets.  And on social media, Murray was getting hammered, by people saying that he had sleepwalked into this defeat. 

Actually, it’s more like people sleepwalking into giving criticism that’s based on false premises and over-inflated, over-hyped expectations.  People were expecting Murray to actually successfully defend his title this year.  Only 4 men have achieved the distinction of defending the Men’s Singles at Wimbledon after your first championship during the Open era.  By far the most impressive of these, was Bjorn Borg, who won his first Wimbledon Men’s Singles in 1976, and then went on a run of 5 titles in a row, from 1976 to 1980.  He was only prevented in making it six on the trot in 1981, by a young brash American tennis player, named John McEnroe, who played the game of his life, to defeat Borg, who was still at the peak of his game, at a mere 25 years old. 

The other 3 to achieve that feat.  Boris Becker, in 1985 and 1986; Pete Sampras, in 1993 and 1994; and Roger Federer, in 2003 and 2004.  Coincidentally, there have also been 4 women to achieve the same feat.  Martina Navratilova in 1978 and 1979, Steffi Graf in 1988 and 1989, Venus Williams in 2000 and 2001, and Serena Williams in 2002 and 2003.  To have successfully defended the title this year, would have put Andy Murray in a very exclusive club indeed, a club that does not include Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Pat Cash, Stefan Edberg, Andre Agassi, Goran Ivanisevic, Rafael Nadal, Leyton Hewitt or Novak Djokovic.  So there’s no shame in falling short of defending a title. 

And the other part of the equation, Grigor Dmitrov, has been on a roll since towards the end of 2013.  He won the Stockholm Open, his first title in his career, and this year, he has taken off, winning another 3 tournaments; The Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco, The Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Bucharest and The Aegon Championship at Queen’s Club.  In fact, on grass courts right now, Grigor Dmitrov has won 10 matches in a row, a very impressive run by anybody’s standards.  Dmitrov is definitely the hot player right now.  His confidence is very high, and he is playing the kind of tennis that wins championships.  Murray just had a bad day at the office, played very passive against a very aggressive opponent, who actively prepared to face him, and Murray didn’t have the answers.

You know sometimes we tend to give criticism far too easily and often far too quickly, without actually considering all the evidence and background.  Too often, opinions on social media are written from the lower levels of the brain, which is very emotional, and often very limited in the kinds of responses that are available to you.  Stop, and think, and actually do some research.  Jurgen Klinsman, the USA’s team manager in Soccer’s World Cup, warned people about expecting too much from the team.  It’s always nice to root for someone to win, or for a team to win, but be realistic about it.  Nobody can win every time, as much as we might like them to.

Russia goes backwards on LGBT

Russia Today are reporting that the the lower house of the Russian Parliament, The Duma, has voted for a ban on promoting non-traditional sexual relations to minors.  Now whilst this might sound sensible, it is one of those ideas that in practice causes a lot more problems than it solves.

The situation in Russia regarding LGBT relations has been pretty stable since 2003.  The age of consent is 16, for both heterosexual and LGBT relationships, homosexual sex is legal, as is the right to change your gender, but there is still a long way to go. 

There are no anti-discrimination laws in place for the Russian LGBT community, and this new law seeks to take the issue further back into the dark ages.  People start to express their sexuality as early as their early teens, and they will want to find out information.  Blocking access to that information will not promote heterosexuality, but will make LGBT relationships, and other non-traditional sexual relations more interesting.  It's classic reverse psychology, tell somebody they can't do something and they want to do it all the more.

Some ideas sound eminently sensible.  However, most of those ideas end up causing more problems, especially when those measures are directly against a person's sexuality, and also, trying to place societal controls on something that Mother Nature decides.  It comes across as being a fool's errand to try and place societal controls, such as laws, on things that are not decided by societies, but by nature.

What's worse is that the public backs this ban.  88% back it, and 42% think homosexuality should be made a criminal offence.  This is a backward step for Russia, and it will come back and bite them, when they least expect it.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford: The Distraction Express.

Rob Ford was elected Mayor of Toronto in 2010, and ever since then, it's been one piece of silliness or scandal after another.  Rob Ford is The Distraction Express when it comes to Toronto politics.

Today's story is no different.  Apparently the Toronto Star and Gawker have been offered a video that reportedly shows Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine.  And apparently, the sellers wanted a 6 figure sum for the video.

Now, I haven't seen or been offered the video.  But, I always have my suspicions on stories like this.  It is said that everybody has doppelganger somewhere, and I've seen enough evidence to support that thought.  Also, these days computer editing software can make just about anyone look like anyone else.  So even though it might look like Rob Ford, there's no guarantee that it actually is.

He shouldn't be in office really, after being convicted of a conflict of interest back in November 2012, though Rob Ford successfully appealed against being removed from office.  That case isn't over though as the lawyer who brought the case is seeking leave to appeal to Canada's Supreme Court.

But this quite frankly, is a piece of silliness, just another one in a long line of silliness surrounding this Toronto Mayor, who has never helped himself, ever since being elected. 

UKIP feeling the heat in Scotland

UKIP's Nigel Farage never met a controversy he didn't like.  In this case, it's being protested against in Edinburgh.  A number of protestors yesterday confronted him as he held a news conference in a pub, and he had to be locked in for his own protection. 

Now he is trying to put a brave face on it today, by saying that he'd been in worse places than that.  Yeah, right!  You felt scared for your life, so you got the police to bring a van so you could get away without facing the protestors again.  Because you knew in your heart, they had you pegged, to a T.

UKIP describe themselves as "...the UK’s third political party – and the only one now offering a radical alternative...".  Third political party?  Not true.  In terms of elected representatives, they have only 11 MEPs, 3 members of the House of Lords, 1 Assembly Member in Northern Ireland, and 201 councillors in Local Elections.  That's a lot lower than many parties, behind the SNP, Plaid Cymru, and even The Green Party. 

Yes, they may have made a major breakthrough in England, but outside of England, they have just 1 MEP, for Wales, and 1 Assembly Member in Northern Ireland, and even this was a defection.  Their only electoral success outside of England is the one MEP in Wales.  This gives the impression that they are somewhat of a band of 'little Engalders', as it were.

They're fighting hard to establish themselves as a mainstream party, even going so far as to ban former BNP Members from joining or standing as candidates, but this is mere smoke and mirrors.  The party's policies and actions in various situations have spoken far louder.

They proposed a 5 year freeze on immigration, and they wanted to initiate a drive to remove all illegal immigrants from the UK, something that in cost terms, is impractical.  They want to leave the European Union, withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, and the European Convention on Refugees.  They want cut corporation taxes and abolish inheritence taxes and national insurance.  UKIP lost a sex-discriminitation case when Nikki Sinclaire was expelled from UKIP.  Now you might say they lost because they mounted no defence, but to be honest, they must have known what they'd done was indefensible.  This is an extremist right wing party.

And whilst Nigel Farage might find it easy to accuse Scottish Nationalism of being extremists and being "akin to fascism", but it's clear to me, that he obviously has little understanding of Scottish politics and his view of the UK is obviously a view of England primarily and not of the other nations in the Union.

However, SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, got it wrong when he said the UKIP Leader had "lost the plot." as to be honest, UKIP and Nigel Farage never had the plot in the first place.  Farag'e accusations of a hate campaign as well are liudicrous.  If you think a small student demonstration constitutes a hate campaign, then you know nothing about politics.  UKIP has little credibility, and even less believeablity after this.

Nigel Farage might be trying to make UKIP seem more electable, but nobody should be fooled by extremism dressed up in a suit.  And their audience outside England, might be extremely limited indeed.

Bob Schieffer: Congress must stop making excuses and get down to work.

Viewpoint - Conservative media domination

NaVloPoMo 2009 – Day 1

The first video for National Vlog Posting Month, and again, a different style of video from what you're used to from me.  You might even say it was... golden!

Viewpoint: 9/11 +8

It was 8 years ago today when the world changed forever.  9/11 as it was to become known killed over 3,000 people in 4 separate attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, the Pentagon in Washington DC and in Virgina.  Ian Beaumont looks back at a day that lives in the minds of all who witnessed it.

Viewpoint – Pornstars and politicians

Keith Olbermann: Fox News Channel complicit in Dr Tiller murder.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Viewpoint – from City Media Productions - 1l

Video Blogging Week on Viewpoint - Day 1 of 7

This is my first video blog post for Video Blogging Week 2009, which begins today, and continues until the 11th April.



Another post tomorrow, for day 2.

Viewpoint on video. 1a: Snow in the UK

From the 22nd Amendment, to Hilary-bashing!

It strikes me just how afraid the conservative/republican movement in the USA is of Hilary Clinton, when I read this commentary from David E Marion at the conservative Washington Times.

Basically, the 22nd Amendment is the one that prohibits any President from being in office for more than 2 terms of office. David E Marion uses this idea to suggest that Hilary Clinton's candidacy may be in violation of the spirit of the amendment, even if it isn't literally in violation of it.

Now, David E Marion is not your average political pundit, he's a college professor of Political Science, so he has some decent grounding, but the trouble is, his article has the definite pro-republican/anti-democrat undercurrent that Fox News and the rest of the conservative media love.

For instance, in one paragraph he says...

"... In all fairness, the wisdom of limiting presidents to two terms is open to debate. Ronald Reagan, among a group that has included Bill Clinton, believed there was much practical wisdom in Alexander Hamilton's assertion in the Federalist Papers that unlimited terms advance the cause of both effective and accountable government. But the important fact as we look ahead to 2008 is that the Hamiltonian side lost the debate on the 22nd Amendment. What won out was the argument that the benefits of institutionalizing change and curbing excessive ambition in the executive department outweigh whatever undesirable consequences Hamilton might have conjured up."

Note the positive spin is in Reagan's favour, more than Clinton's. How can we know whether a third Reagan term wouldn't have been more damaging to both the US and the Republicans than the Bush 41 term turned out to be.

The article raises some good points, but all spoiled by the definite pro-republican stance, and the opportunity to take a seemingly desperate constitutional pot-shot at Hilary Clinton, which quite frankly, would legally hold about as much water as a tea-strainer!