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" (Permanent Musical Accompaniment For This Feature From The Blog&amp;#039;s Second-Favorite Canadian.)      Light posting for today because, sometimes, somewhere, out there, you figure there just has to be more to life than this. (There isn&amp;#039;t enough antifreeze in the world to make me forget that Politico has given a gig to that irredeemable hack. Of course, it&amp;#039;s not like he&amp;#039;ll point out the obvious fact that Willard Romney is most comfortable around white people, so the poltroons who edit Politico don&amp;#039;t have to worry about people yelling at them on the radio.) For example, let&amp;#039;s consider how anyone could be luckless enough to get a flight diverted to Syria at this particular moment in history, but, I have to admit, if you&amp;#039;re going to be Air France, and you consider hitting people up for gas money like you&amp;#039;re driving Mom&amp;#039;s Celica to the Cape for the weekend, the sales pitch of, &amp;quot;Cough it up or we&amp;#039;re not getting out of Syria&amp;quot; is pretty damn effective these days. He said Air France found a way to pay for the fill-up without tapping customer pockets \u2014 and apologized for the inconvenience. The airline had never resorted to such a request before, he said.  Zut alors, mes amis. Don&amp;#039;t give Delta any ideas. Milton&amp;#039;s Aeropagetica. Zenger&amp;#039;s trial. Sullivan v. New York Times. The Pentagon Papers. And now... Pussy Riot. The fight for free expression never sleeps. The three were arrested in March after a guerrilla performance in Moscow&amp;#039;s main cathedral, high-kicking and dancing while singing a &amp;quot;punk prayer&amp;quot; pleading the Virgin Mary to save Russia from Vladimir Putin, who was elected to a third new term as Russia&amp;#039;s president two weeks later. Judge Marina Syrova said in her verdict that the three band members &amp;quot;committed hooliganism driven by religious hatred&amp;quot; and offended religious believers.  Remember when the Dixie Chicks did sort of the same thing? Remember the gatherings to burn their records? Remember Laura Ingraham&amp;#039;s book? I hate it when Russians make us look stupid and provincial. If Pussy Riot were an American band, Fox and Friends would have had that judge on twice by now to talk about the War on Christmas or something. If you&amp;#039;re looking to make a splash in this ever-changing media world in which we live, you can&amp;#039;t do much better than arranging to have yourself billed as the &amp;quot;Ex-Amish Rodeo Cowgirl and Mother of Six.&amp;quot; Raised in a traditional Amish family where young girls did not join in such athletic pursuits, Esther always dreamed of barrel racing on horseback.  If that&amp;#039;s not the opening narration of a Dreamworks production, I don&amp;#039;t know what is. Finally, turning to the world of sports, we have a major Scrabble scandal to take our minds off the earlier major badminton scandal. I am now fully prepared for the Great Lawn Darts Massacre to occur later this fall. The controversy began when a young player was spotted by a competitor at a nearby table trying to hide a pair of elusive blank tiles, which can represent any letter to complete a word. When the cheat was confronted by tournament officials, he admitted to his crime and was promptly sent packing.  This kid may well be a very promising young Scrabble champion, but he&amp;#039;s an extremely stupid cheater. Did he not imagine that the people who organize the National Scrabble Championship would know exactly how many blank tiles are supposed to be in play in every game? This is the Scrabble equivalent of trying to hide additional playing cards in your ear. &amp;quot;Ah, four Kings. Good hand, my good man, but not good enough because I happen to have... five Aces!&amp;quot; Used to be that kind of thing got you plugged full of hot lead. What do they do in Scrabble? Impale you on knitting needles? Anyway, have a good weekend, ya pack o&amp;#039; bastids. I&amp;#039;ll be back Monday with the usual gobshitery as I prepare to drive to the two conventions, seeing America, as it were, and visiting all the other reptile farms before I get to Tampa. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15342/the-weekend-081712/>