Pay no attention to the missile behind the curtain ...

This afternoon, I made a visit to azcentral.com. I immediately knew that underprivileged girls were getting prom dresses.

But I needed a few visits to other news sites to find out that:

-North Korea is threatening war against Japan should Japan have the temerity to shoot down a North Korean missile that enters its air space.
-North Korea is also planning to either send two American journalists to hard prison labor on trumped-up charges, or use them as bargaining leverage against the United States.

Womens Pro Soccer - A Rare Time When "Kickoff" Applies

"Kickoff" is high on my list of overused words. Nearly every single thing is a "kickoff" of some kind - a grand opening, the first day of some marketing campaign, the beginning of a sale on Chevy Novas. What, is "beginning" a dirty word?

But hey, there are times when something really is a kickoff! I give you the impending kickoff of Women's Professional Soccer. This is a great thing, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. In my travel blog, I've outlined the reasons I'm happy that women again have a professional soccer league in the United States.

For now, though, just a few messages. One, two the word warriors out there - stop saying kickoff when you're not talking about sports. And to the Women's Professional Soccer players - best of luck to you all!

Say what you want - as long as I agree

There's something interesting going on at the Facebook Web site: A group called Soldiers Are Not Heroes has sparked quite a backlash. An acquaintance recently sent me invitation to join the group. I did not join, because I join very, very few groups.

Some of the "Soldier Are Not Heroes" group's messages are somewhat extreme, but it claims not to be anti-soldier. It purports to be simply against the hero worship of soldiers. That's fair enough - however, the group's language is filled with mixed messages.

The group's opponents - and there are many - claim not to be anti-free speech. One even writes "Although people are entitled to their opinions, there are ways in which they should be made public and that group is not the right way to do so!" Yet their goal is to pressure Facebook to remove the page, and they don't specify the correct way to air one's opinions.

I can see an interesting legal battle brewing should Facebook cave in.

The opponents' claims that they believe in free speech ring hollow, even more so than the group's claims not be anti-soldier. My call? A line often attributed to Voltaire, though it's not clear he actually wrote it:

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."