The "Must" List: Girls On Fire Edition

Forehand Policy's usual round-up of a few must read/see/view things that you guys (as in the five people who read my blog) might find interesting.

*I've watched this video about 789594 times already and it still makes me cry every time. Lea Salonga's performance of "Still Hurting" is haunting, heartbreaking and beautiful all at the same time.

*Oh yeah. Hillary Clinton is finally on Twitter. Her profile is genius:
"Wife, mom, lawyer, women & kids advocate, FLOAR, FLOTUS, US Senator, SecState, author, dog owner, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, glass ceiling cracker, TBD..." Obviously, this would not be possible without the guys from Texts from Hillary, who also got a shout out from Madam herself. 

*You want a tennis cat fight? We'll give you a tennis cat fight. Our pre-Wimbledon off-court main event is Serena Williams vs. Maria Sharapova and Round 1 has just started. The sad thing is this would probably end in another Pova shellacking should they meet for the Wimbledon final in two weeks time. (Pova hasn't beaten Serena in 9 years.)

*On a lighter note, let's check out what our favorite female tennis players wore at the WTA's pre-Wimbledon party. Fortunately, Ana Ivanovic, a perennial fashion hit and miss, dressed according to her beauty and wasn't a victim of a fashion fail. 

*Good girl gone bad? Read this intriguing story of why a seemingly straight and honest agent betrayed the US Homeland Security for a notorious Mexican drug cartel. After Homeland and The Americans, this is another theme worth exploring on tv. 

*I think any sports fan can relate to Patricia Lee's piece from Grantland's NBA Shootaround:

With the clock winding down and the Heat amassing what seemed like an insurmountable lead, I found myself negotiating with the basketball gods, or the devil, whichever would work. I promise I won’t curse at Tony Parker again if you just let the Spurs take this one. I promise I won’t make fun of Manu’s bald spot again if you just gift him with another 3. I promise I’ll stop questioning Pop’s coaching decisions and clock management if you just make this last possession count. I promise, I promise …

In the end, it was no use, of course.

There’s no way to avoid destiny, no way to make Danny Green score, no way to help Tim Duncan make that hook shot that he must’ve made a billion times. There’s no way to stop a hot-handed Shane Battier, no way to combat a ready King James, no way to turn the tide just because you feel like the team you’re rooting for deserves to lift the trophy.

...

It’s a strange feeling when the player you love most from your alma mater is playing against the player you’ve watched and loved your whole life. When one makes a 3, the other gets a dagger to the heart. When one misses a hook shot, the other is one step closer to the ultimate goal. It’s not winning or losing, not happiness or sadness. It’s a mélange of all of these things. It makes for an easily combustible bubble of emotion, one that is difficult to comprehend, to marry, one difficult to come to terms with. But I should’ve known that going into the series.

Chill, bro, it’s just sports. You’ll live. They’re not even your team, right?

But do you know what this feels like? To see one of your idols succeed at the expense of another? To see a team that deserved it so much lose to another that deserved it just as much? To see both teams go from miles ahead to inches ahead to, ultimately, just enough to cross the finish line? Somebody has to lose. And, somehow, that is why we all win.

Disco? Really?!

From CNN:

Al-Assad is Moscow's last ally (and largest weapons client) in the Middle East. Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia was just about the Russians' last European ally in the 1990s. Then Sergei Lavrov was Russia's ambassador to the United Nations; now he is Russia's foreign minister. Then, as now, Moscow saw an international conspiracy (led by NATO) against its interests.

 ...

Over Bosnia, Lavrov used arguments that he and other Russian diplomats would repeat as the Libyan campaign evolved more than a decade later. He condemned the shelling of Sarajevo, but said the U.N. and NATO response "exceeds the bounds of the situation in which the Security Council has authorized the use of force: the defense of peace-keeping forces, the protection of humanitarian convoys and the containment of military threats to civilians."

In other words, NATO and the U.N. were not free to choose sides.

A similar view prevails in Moscow today. Lavrov -- using a strange dance analogy -- said Monday that "it takes two to tango, even though in the current situation in Syria isn't really a tango. It's a disco party where many players are dancing and they should all dance in the same way." In other words, the Free Syrian Army is just as culpable as the regime, just like in the '90s the Bosnian Muslims and Serbs were equal opportunity offenders in Russia's eyes.

A massacre just occurred and all that Russia's Foreign Minister could think of was dancing?!

His American counterpart, Hillary Clinton, was obviously pissed:

"The Russians keep telling us they want to do everything they can to avoid a civil war because they believe that the violence would be catastrophic," Clinton said, noting that they are "vociferous in their claim that they are providing a stabilizing influence."

"I reject that," she said, complaining that in fact Russia is propping up Assad as his government continues a brutal, 15-month crackdown on dissent in which some 13,000 people have died.

Hopefully Lavrov finally answers his phone when Hillz calls him again about Syria.

Quotes: Who run the world? Girls.

From Politico:

Hillary Clinton can’t be bothered by chatter about her physical appearance, the secretary of state told CNN’s Jill Dougherty in an interview on Tuesday.

Asked about a photo of her wearing very little make-up that was tauntingly posted on yesterday’s Drudge Report, Clinton replied, “I feel so relieved to be at the stage I'm at in my life right now, Jill, because if I want to wear my glasses, I'm wearing my glasses.”

“If I want to pull my hair back, I'm pulling my hair back,” Clinton, who’s known to sport scrunchies occasionally, added. “At some point it's just not something that deserves a whole lot of time and attention. If others want to worry about it, I'll let them do the worrying for a change.”

Hillary "Hillz" Clinton = awesome. See also exhibits A and B.

Can she get any more adorable?

"Rejection letter" obtained by Politico.

After Texts from Hillary, Madam Secretary of State Hillary "Hillz" Clinton is bringing in the LOLz once again in her "rejection letter" addressed to actor Jason Segel. Seriously, I'm nominating her now as President of the Universe.

"Memes really do come true."

Taken from Texts from Hillary. Image was actually a submission from US Secretary of State Hillary "Hillz" Clinton herself. Click here for the signed copy.

I discovered the Tumblr site, Texts from Hillary, through a couple of tennis fans that I follow on Twitter. People, this is how a fan site should look like. I've always liked Secretary Hillary Clinton and, while I'm not a US citizen, I honestly believe that she is possibly the most awesomest President that the US never had. (Hillz, can you re-consider for 2016?) Seriously, Hillz > Obama. Who run the world? Girls. ZOMG, she even got a text from Mr. Perfect (a.k.a. Ryan Gosling) himself! Sadly, the creators of this hilarious Tumblr site has decided to "stop while they are ahead". ("Is it really possible to top a submission from the Secretary herself? No.") But, we'll always have the LOLz.