A Slow News Day

This seems to be a slow news day because some of the top stories from around the world are a bit on the bizarre side.
Take the Tory politician in Wales, for example. He was being interviewed on radio and the discussion turned to football, a sport called soccer in this country. I wish someone would do something to clarify these names because it always is necessary to point out that to an American, football has an entirely different meaning than it does to the rest of the universe. Then there is Australian Rules football, but that's a subject best left alone.
So a lady on the radio program said something about the team from Sweden being boring and then the talk turned to the team representing Italy. The politician, who flunked political correctness in school, called the Italian team "Greasy Wops."
This, in the circles where I have always moved, would result in a barroom brawl. For the Tory it meant banishment from the upcoming election, something tantamount to political exile. Should he decide to take a vacation now that he no longer needs to be out and about campaigning, it is unlikely he will travel to Rome, Naples or the Isle of Capri.
Our dear friends and allies in Saudi Arabia had nothing to say about Italians, at least not today, but they did arrest a woman for driving a car. She drove all of ten miles to pick up her husband, a newsman, after work. The ever-alert Saudi police swooped down and cast her in irons. As her guardian, the husband obtained her release by guaranteeing she would never commit such a dastardly deed again. It also gave him a leg up on the competition for the next day's edition.
However, the Saudis say they are going to increase the production of oil. This, of course, more than offsets any blatant violation of human rights the United States demands of countries it considers friends. When oil is involved, all bets are off.
By reading an Irish newspaper, not one of several I scanned in this country, I learned that John Edwards has changed his mind and will consider running for vice-president again if asked by Barack Obama. Look for $400 haircuts to stage a comeback in the campaign. I sometimes wonder, though, why the best source of news on the American political scene is newspapers in other lands.
One piece of news from the Publishers Weekly morning report was downright disturbing. George W. Bush is considering writing a book. God help us all.

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