The Dutch national soccer team is well on the way to qualifying for the 2006 World Cup finals. It's too early to get excited, but Marco van Basten has the Orange nicely sorted out. One of Holland's problems over the last decade has been that the team was filled with extraordinarily talented stars who simply weren't committed enough to the idea of "team". Dutch players in the post-Cruyff and post-Gullit eras played for minutes, not for Holland necessarily.

Here's a terrific article explaining the positive things that happen when players stop playing for minutes, and start playing for the team.

Jim Treacher, world class smart aleck, sums it up nicely.

"Bolivarian Circles of Venezuela Frontline Defense for National Democratic Revolution."

Or something. Evidently, Cuban "advisors" are involved.

Low income? High crime? High unemployment? Dreadful public education? Hey, who cares? There are 500 festivals on the calendar! Don't worry! Be happy!

The Financial Times published a fascinating report on Friday titled "Iraq's Insurgents Seek Exit Strategy".
Apart from making me guffaw at the sheer irony, it set me thinking about potential negotiations, which "exit strategies" of any sort always entail. Well, not to worry, the indispensable Austin Bay is all over what the "exit strategy" negotiating position should be.

Happy Easter.

Baseball soon. Here's a little warmup: "Myth, Legend, Superstar."

I remember watching an interview with Bill "Spaceman" Lee a long time ago where he was asked what he thought about when he was in a tight situation on the mound and he had to get a guy out. He famously replied, "I think about the cosmic snowball theory. A few million years from now the sun will burn out and lose its gravitational pull. The earth will turn into a giant snowball and be hurled through space. When that happens it won't matter if I get this guy out."

But seriously, what if we could figure out a way out of this universe and worm our way to another one? Science fiction, seemingly. Yet "consistent with the laws of physics and biology."

Tom Sheridan emailed yesterday to alert me to another adventure in education:

Schoolhouse Crock

Honestly, how do these loons get teaching jobs in the first place? Rhetorical; I don't really want to know.

The unhinged, dangerous lunatic who somehow. Still. Has. A. Job. Teaching. Doesn't even really exist.

Business fads come and go, and they can have crippling effects on the gullible and desperate. So how can you tell a fad from a necessary business development?

Here are 10 myths used to sell a fad.

Ah, yes, that wacky character Adolph...What a cut-up.

George F. Kennan passed away at the age of 101 last week. The news wasn't exactly ignored, but it didn't get the attention I think it deserved. Kennan's colossal influence over US foreign policy during the Cold War lingers to this day, and he deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest strategists and diplomats in American history.

"All the major troubles of the last half century have been caused by people who have let politics become a mania."
Democracy stops the maniacs...

Austin Bay is pretty much the go-to guy on emerging military issues. He has a brief and very revealing post in which he argues the focus in Asia should be on the Australia-Singapore-India triangle, not China-Taiwan-Japan.

Be unemployed. Hate capitalism. Experience modern Europe.

We quite correctly condemn anyone with any connection to a Nazi past. Why then do we seem to forgive so many who have a connection to a Stalinist past? They are equally reprehensible and murderous.

"If Heidegger cannot be pardoned for his flirtation with Nazism, why can Lukács and Brecht and others be pardoned for their much longer engagement with Stalinism?"

Journalists are often quick to tell us that they write the first draft of history, but fail to tell us how spectacularly wrong they so often are. The Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet state ended, Japan Inc nearly went bankrupt, and now democracy and elections are breaking out all over.

So why can't journalists see the news coming at them?

I suspect this explains in large part the proliferation of blogs...

Eugene Volokh, who I mentioned a couple of weeks ago as someone I'd like to see on the Supreme Court, directs a blistering comment to white-supremacists: "I'm not going to be nice to Nazis to try to get them to go away."

Read the whole thing.

"Winners Only" Nick emails with a Maradona update: "How does this happen? He's 5' 5" 264 lbs!!!.....A little reminder is in the attachment. He was probably only 200 lbs. then!!"

Here, unfortunately, is the "fat Maradona" picture page...just keep scrolling.

The once brilliant and beloved Maradona has been reduced to a sad, tragic clown.

Coaching? Teaching? Not teaching? What to do? We give each other (and ourselves) non-stop advise when it comes to youth sports, and then immediately ignore it. Is the concept of "Let them play" the same as letting them cross the road without showing them how?

Another soccer game fixing scandal is emerging, this time in Greece. I suspect there is more corruption in Euro and Latin leagues than we'll ever fully know about, but it seems UEFA, at least, is serious about cleaning up the sport. Here's wishing them luck...

A new North Korean vacation promotion promises "many! electric! guitars!"

Rinus Michels, Dutch soccer genius, is dead. Rinus was a contemporary of my father, and my father used to talk about him reverently. His legacy on the global soccer stage is transcendent; he single handedly developed and instituted "Total Football" and high-pressure, attacking soccer. And yet, his greater legacy may be the manner in which he, along with Johan Cruyff, elevated Dutch passion and pride in the 60's and 70's, using soccer as a vehicle for national identity and unity. He'll be missed.
Cruyff's comment here.

I don't like to say I told you so. But, actually, I do like to say I told you so. What I don't like to do is the obligatory false self-deprecatory thing to mitigate against the insufferableness of my saying I told you so. But nevertheless I did.

Hey, I got mine...in fact I have two.
What are the rest of you waiting for?

Be sure to check out this succinct and indispensable post regarding Syria's certain collapse. Money quote:
"Like Iraq, Syria adopted the Baath Party to run the country decades ago. Like Iraq, the socialist dictatorship of the Baath Party led to corruption and economic decline. This has made enemies of Syria's neighbors, and the Syrian people. The Syrian Baath Party has run out of credit, and credibility. The bill is now due, and no one wants to pay."

The Japanese have been quietly and efficiently upgrading their defensive capabilities, and now have the second most powerful Navy in East Asia, after the US's. There is an awful lot of stuff happening in the region that isn't part of regular reporting, and I suspect this may yet be a significant development both in dealing with the North Koreans as well as the Chinese.

Is happiness "an unalloyed good and the proper end of mankind"? The happiness debate rages happily on.

All I can say is I hope you're happy now.

Yesterday I mentioned that the bond market had moved higher. However, by the end of the day they'd slipped after a report said consumer income didn't decline as much as anticipated. Regardless, here's the market update from my site:

Market Direction: Interest Rate Trends:

Rates are: Moving higher Long term (4-6 weeks) Up

Rate Volatility: High Short term (1-2 weeks) Up

All pretty self-explanatory, no?