Final Word from Monday, June 19, 2006
Jon Stewart's fake news program, "The Daily Show," joked that for non-Americans, the World Cup is a metaphor for global conflict. They're able to revisit ancient rivalries without having to draw their weapons. Few Americans get excited about the World Cup, Stewart noted, because they don't need a metaphor for war. They have real war. The match against "Czechoslovakia" didn't turn out so well, Stewart added, but in no way did he want to indicate that this means the U.S. is a nation in decline. The Czechs, for their part, were devastated by their 2-0 defeat at the hands of Ghana on Sat. The CR failed to find the proper weapon against a nation that most Czechs had never even heard of, except in the context of ex-MP Michal Kraus's coffee-bean contract. In no way, of course, should this loss to a soccer outsider be construed to mean that the CR is a nation in decline. [Czech Republic soccer football]