In a further demonstration of his profound ignorance and utter disregard of pesky little things called facts, Wacko Wally Shedd praises Maria Sharapova's recent victory at the Zurich Open as "red hot." This illustrates that Wacko Wally, like most lunatic Russophiles, has quite pathetically low standards. To win the tournament Sharapova, ranked #3 in the world, only had to win three matches and never had to face a player ranked in the world's top 20. She faced the world #22 in the finals, and she needed three sets to beat her. Her victory, in other words, meant nothing except that she's quite adept at picking out tournaments to play in where she won't face much serious opposition (well, adept at picking someone to do it for her). Some tiny little facts that Wally, as is his wont, simply chooses to ignore (next time the US basketball team squashes Trindad and Tobago, see if Wally calls them "red hot"). Not that he undertakes any actual defense of Sharapova's game either in terms of its watchability or its technical quality. Instead, his main point of emphasis is what she's done in the past and the fact that her T&A is spread all over Maxim magazine. No question that when it comes to selling her body for money she doens't need, Maria's a star.

And when discussing her recent history, does he mention how Maria was crushed at the Birmingham tournament by a player not ranked in the world's top 75? No. Does he care to mention how she was blown off the court at the Tokyo tournament by a player not ranked in the world's top 100? Uh-uh. Is he the least bit interested in how she barely even showed up at the Moscow tournament, in her "home" country? Nope. And does he care to mention that, to the extent Maria's game is "red hot" its only because she moved to America when she was child and learned how to play there, making her about as Russian as democracy (and, in fact, proving Russian incomptence, the exact opposite of his point)? Of course not. Russophiles lie so ritualistically, and so few people other than other Russophiles pay attention, that to them these lies seem like the truth. It's this fact, more than anything else, that has brought Russia to her knees. Russophiles, in short, are Russia's worst enemy. The net result is that Wally achieves the opposite of what he wanted, to compliment Russians, and ends up showing how pathetic they are. In the field of substance abuse, this is called "enabling." Wally's a classic enabler of decline in Russia. Enablers kill the ones they imagine they're helping.

La Russophobe must admit, though, that Wally's post was amusing in one regard: Watching his tiny little peabrain struggle with the injuries that have crippled America's triumverate of hall-of-fame greats, Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Lindsey Davenport. The America-loathing Wally would have so loved to trash America, but in doing so he would be admitting that the Russians were facing no serious competition and therefore degrading the value of their success even further. Praise the Russians to the hilt and you have to let the Americans off the hook. She felt his pain. It was delicious.