Quotes: Gloria's got nothin' on you.

Aung San Suu Kyi (photo taken from The Financial Times)

From Conrado de Quiros' Philippine Daily Inquirer column:

Keeping Arroyo in a police facility, said Santiago, “damages democracy and our institutions. Humiliating the former president damages the presidency. Power is not perpetual. It expires after six years, so better think well about what you are doing now. Is that how you want to be treated eventually?”

“The world is watching,” said Honasan, “and the way we treat the ex-president would send a strong message of what we are to the rest of the world. (With Arroyo in detention), foreign investors would think, ‘If this is how they behave, why would we invest?’”

Of course, Honasan added, “with the President enjoying a high trust rating, an attempt against his administration would be farfetched. But let’s not tempt fate. Let’s not do anything that would worsen how things are right now.”

You wonder what planet these two have been inhabiting all this time. But of course the effects of Arroyo’s incarceration are sending ripples around the world. And of course Arroyo’s prosecution, which should follow swiftly on the heels of Renato Corona’s impeachment and conviction, would send even bigger ripples, if not a veritable tsunami on the Filipino communities, around the world. But not in the way Miriam and Gringo imagine.

I hope our dear Senators Miriam and Gringo don't start comparing Gloria to Nobel Peace Prize winner and Burmese democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi. Please, no. Gloria, to quote Susan Roces (widow of Fernando Poe Jr., who ran against Arroyo in 2004), "stole the presidency not once but twice". Suu Kyi was deprived of a chance to become Prime Minister by the military junta even if her party won majority of the parliament seats in the 1990 general elections. Gloria is currently under hospital arrest at the presidential suite of the Veteran's Memorial Medical Center (but was previously at the much more chic presidential suite of St. Luke's Medical Center). Suu Kyi, while under house arrest, didn't experience any of the comforts that Gloria continues to receive. Gloria is reviled by many Filipinos. Suu Kyi is not only revered by many people in Burma (except maybe the military officials who previously illegally detained her), but is also considered as a democracy icon by people all over the world.

My fave tennis tantrum. EVER.

The look on the umpire's face is just priceless. Don't ever change, Andy.

To find your own favorite tennis outburst, click here.

Unintentional hilarity: Sesame Street diplomacy

*I didn't know that there's such a thing as Sesame Street diplomacy. I wonder who among Ernie, Bert, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Oscar the grouch and Elmo would've made a fantastic Ambassador?

*A couple of observations from Maroon 5's Payphone video: (1) Adam Levine and his female companion in the video were running in front of the robbers and they couldn't get a clear shot of him?! (2) why are the cops running after Adam's character? Aren't the robbers STILL inside the bank? (3) Adam's sexy but he's still no Jason Statham.

*This book about marriage and game theory totally makes sense. Really, props to the author. I would've made a thesis out of it if only I was able to think about it first.

*Who knew that googling Scottish tennis player, Andy Murray, could yield these hilarious photos of other players?

*For the record, I wouldn't mind seeing a Bollywood number during the opening ceremony of the Olympics. I'll take that over Beijing's fake fireworks and lip-synching.

Quotes: Bow down to the Queen.

Those who belong at the top never forget their way back. #MariaSharapova twitter.com/niketennis/sta…
— Nike Tennis (@niketennis) June 7, 2012

From Maria Sharapova's Roland Garros trophy acceptance speech:

"I proved that no matter how many punches I took in my career, I've always gotten back up," she said. 

"I never made excuses for me, not to myself, not to people.  I always relied on my own talent, on the help of my team. At the end of the day, that's really what gets me through and gets me up. I have a tremendous amount of belief and pride in what I do.  I love my work.  I've always said this:  I love playing tennis. I had so many outs in my career.  I could have said, I don't need this.  I have money; I have fame; I have victories; I have Grand Slams.  But when your love for something is bigger than all those things, you continue to keep getting up in the morning when it's freezing outside, when you know that it can be the most difficult day, when nothing is working, when you feel like the belief sometimes isn't there from the outside world, and you seem so small. But you can achieve great things when you don't listen to all those things."

Won Wimbledon in 2004 at the age of 17. WTA Tour Championships winner in 2004. Brief stint as world number 1 in 2005. US Open champ in 2006. Australian Open winner in 2008. "Inherited" the #1 ranking when Justine Henin retired unexpectedly for the first time during the spring of 2008. Suffered a debilitating right shoulder injury that almost ended her career and was out of the women's tour from mid-2008 until early 2009. Won Roland Garros in 2012 even if she thinks that she plays like this on clay. Tenth woman in history to win a career Grand Slam. World no. 1 yet again and rightful Queen of the Tennis World. (Yeah, she's still the highest paid female athlete in the world.) Not too shabby, Maria Sharapova. Not too shabby at all.

Queen Bee

Ana Ivanovic is seen here wearing her Adidas dress for this year's US Open.  I think Adidas is trying to transform nice girl Ana (considered an anti-diva by many) into a locker room "Queen Bee" since the color combo makes her look like a bumblebee. I'm not too crazy about this outfit, though I still might change my mind since many of the dresses that she has worn in the past looked meh in promo pics but eventually looked great in her actual matches. I guess Adidas can afford to be lazy in its designs since Ana (who also has a lifetime deal with them) has an uncanny ability to make any blah outfit look fantastic.

Shameless plug

Your not so humble blogger got published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer's Young Blood section today. This feels like an Academy Award moment for me so I'd like to thank the five people who regularly visit this blog. I promise not to suffer from amnesia when I finally hit it big time. ;-)

UPDATED: French Open round-up

*Uhm, Adolf, Ana Ivanovic doesn't have a Twitter account. (But you could threaten to "unlike" her on Facebook.)

*Ana Ivanovic is already out of Roland Garros after suffering a 6-1 5-7 3-6 defeat at the hands of Sara Errani. (I'm as pissed as Hitler is with this result.) Reaching the 3rd round this year was, of course, a much better showing than her 1st round exit last year. However, this was another squandered opportunity for Ana because a win against Errani would've given her an easier road to the semifinals after the losses of Venus Williams, Aga Radwanska and Marion Bartoli. She could've also entered the top 10 and inched closer to a spot for the year-end championships. It's also unfortunate since Roland Garros has been her best slam to date (was a back-to-back finalist from 2007-'08 and winner in '08). Hopefully the second half of the tennis season would be kinder to the former world number 1.

*Old man (and "drama queen", at least according to Virginia Wade) Andy Murray, who is struggling with a back injury, has defied early exit predictions from pundits and is now in the 4th round of RG. He is set to face hugely talented but incredibly inconsistent Frenchman, Richard Gasquet, who took him to five sets in their previous match at RG last 2010.

*Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal have both cruised in all of their matches so far. The Djoker is bidding to match Rod Laver's record of holding all four major titles simultaneously. Those who could prevent him on his side of the draw are Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Roger Federer, who prevented him from winning RG last year. Federer has, however, struggled in his last two matches, dropping two sets in his matches against Adrian Ungur and Nicolas Mahut. Rafa, considered the King of Clay, is gunning for a seventh RG crown. Those who could stand in his way to the finals are Janko Tipsarevic, David Ferrer, Nicolas Almagro and Murray.

*Like Djokovic, Maria Sharapova is also after history as she chases a career slam. RG is so far the only trophy that is missing in her Grand Slam cabinet. Her road to RG has gotten easier as the tennis gods have eliminated Serena Williams (who could've been her quarterfinal opponent), Caroline Wozniacki and Francesca Schiavone. Petra Kvitova and last year's champion, Li Na, could play spoilers to her date with destiny.

UPDATED
*With Vika Azarenka's loss to Domi Cibulkova in the 4th round, Masha would now have the chance to take over number 1 ranking if she reaches the final. Destiny is indeed smiling at the self-described Siberian "cow on ice".

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.