Equality matters

In Massachusetts, a husband's death shows how important marriage is -- and how absolutely ordinary and accepted same-sex marriage has become

Insomnia and movies

I saw Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels on Hulu last night. Not for the first time. An elegantly constructed crime caper with lots of clever word play and men behaving badly.

I then pulled out Snatch and watched it again for the first time in years. Snatch has more humor, actually. But the denouement is not as satisfying -- one of the charms of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was the unexpected "wtf" factor. For example, when the protagonists discover the knocked out traffic warden in the van they've just nicked.

One of the greatest penalty shoot-outs ever

What an amazing drama.

Texas secession

When Rick Perry talks about Texas seceding from the union we all know what he's talking about, right? After all, the previous two times Texas seceded, it was over slavery.

Racism and Juve

Juventus will be harshly punished following a series of racist taunts launched by Juve fans at Balotelli in this past weekend's Juventus-Internazionale game.

Balotelli is a promising young striker at Inter who has improved and matured quite a bit this season. Next season could be his break-out season (just in time for the World Cup).