National Common Courtesy Day 2025 is on Friday, March 21, 2025: Do you admit that Italian national team of soccer is one of the greatest in the world now and

Friday, March 21, 2025 is National Common Courtesy Day 2025. March 21: National Common Courtesy Day Common courtesy consists of

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I would certainly admit that the Italian national soccer team has always been considered one of the world's greatest soccer teams. Even the so-called "experts" must begrudgingly include Italy as a "favourite" or "powerhouse" in every soccer competition that it plays.

However, it has been said rather astutely that many people love to criticize or "hate" the Italians, a statement which is sadly true. It's rather hypocritcal for these people to be so disrespectful toward the Italians considering that most of these people love to eat our food, wear our clothes, live like us, etc... It's so fashionable to be like an Italian, but God forbid anyone gives them any respect or common courtesy!

If anyone is actually willing to do some rudimentary research, one will see that Italy has a winning record against the vast majority of its soccer opponents. That is a consistent record. The fact that the Italians did not play strongly in the second half is only a testament to having pushed themselves to the limit in their semifinal match against Germany. By contrast, the French won their semifinal match against Portugal on a penalty in regular time. Despite the age of the French team and having played on the second day of semifinals, they did go into the final a better rested team.

As for unfounded allegation that the Italians are "dirty players", even more research will show that in the final match, the French committed more fouls and, obviously, received more cards from the referee. I wholeheartedly agree that De Rossi's actions in the Italy v. USA match were deserving of a red card and FIFA sanctioned him appropriately. So the crime did not go unpunished!

Looking back at the Italy v. Australia game in which Italy was awarded a "controversial" penalty because of diving, I firmly believe that had it been the Australian that was tripped, the popular perception would never describe the penalty as "controversial" and would certainly never allege a dive. How can it be that every single time an Italian player is knocked to the ground or injured he is diving? Could it be possible that maybe, just maybe their opponents are using a little more physical force because they lack the skill on an individual and team basis???

Sometimes I seriously wonder what all these Italy haters are actually watching with their eyes and registering in their heads. I know I can only expect to read more negative answers following my submission, but I can only have faith that perhaps one person will change their views and at least treat Italians with respect.

GAO Audit on Federal Reserve?

You are misrepresenting what the audit stated. For anyone who is interested, the audit report can be found at

The extraordinary measures used by the Federal Reserve were temporary liquidity programs where the Federal Reserve LOANED money to financial institutions that were sufficiently credit worthy to qualify for the loans. Since loans are not gifts, the Fed DID NOT GIVE anything to anybody.

There was nothing secret about the Federal Reserve's extraordinary lending programs. Each of the programs were discussed in detail in the 2008, 2009, and 2010 annual reports to Congress. Amounts that were outstanding in each program are listed on the Fed's balance sheet and were shown on the weekly H.4.1 statistical release which are all public information. For example, here is the statistical release from March 5, 2009

Also, there were news reports from the period that specifically covered several of the extraordinary lending programs. Yup, it was so secret that it was announced in the media. and I could probably find dozens of others.

Also, there was never $16 trillion in loans outstanding. Page 4 of the report shows the peak amount for each lending program. It also shows the balance at the time of the audit which for most programs was $0. The report also explains that the total figure overstates the amount of lending due to aggregating all loans regardless of maturity. Most of the extraordinary lending were for loans that matured overnight to address temporary liquidity issues. So, a bank that borrows $10 billion from the PDCF as an overnight loan and pays it back the next day but then reborrows the $10 billion for another day and this continues for 30 days, it would appear in the report as that bank borrowed $300 billion, when in reality, it borrowed $10 billion for 30 days. Also, most the extraordinary lending programs required adequate collateral from the borrower. Almost all of the extraordinary programs have now ended and all loans made under those programs were repaid, on-time, and with interest. Of course, you would know that if you had actually read the report.

Contrary to the blathering of certain politicians, all of the lending programs established minimum interest rates and the terms of the loans. The Primary Dealer Credit Facility only made overnight loans and the interest varied from as low as 0.5% to 3.25%. The Term Auction Facility made loans for 28-day and 84-day periods. The interest rate for those loans varied from 0.25% to 4.65%.

As for loans to foreign banks and corporations, the law governing the Federal Reserve specifically allows those types of transactions. If Senator Sanders wants to complain about those transactions, he should probably read the law first. It wasn't that the Federal Reserve did something it wasn't supposed to do. It did exactly what was allowed by law. Since Congress wrote and enacted that law, it was Congress that allowed those transactions to happen.

See 12 USC 347c and 12 USC 347d

Finally, the Federal Reserve is independently audited every year. Those audits ARE complete financial audits. What Ben Bernanke and others opposed was releasing to the public the names of who borrowed and how much they borrowed. The independent audits do review those transactions to ensure that the reported outstanding amount shown on the balance sheet is accurate. Also, a risk assessment review is performed to ensure that the Federal Reserve follows its procedures for limiting risk. Ben Bernanke and others were not opposed to an audit, they were opposed to releasing names of those who borrowed for obvious reasons.

Do you think Napolitano can do the job so it's fair?

Yes they did write a letter, of which you choose to use a single descriptive paragraph of "relentless attack" to support your questioning of if Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is doing a fair job.

I did try both of your blog links and neither worked for me. But I did find a copy of this letter posted on another blog and am happy to share the link.

This is a rather long letter and I suspect that maybe one to none of the opposing posters will even bother to read, I see postings with self opinions,stereotypical comments, straight out insulting and out right lying from supporters as well as the opposition doing this.

Taking the time to read and reason the other sides views and thoughts are a part of solving not just this but almost any problem. Using just a tad of common courtesy is a simple and honest act it does not matter if you know the other person or not.

From the copy of the letter to what is used in part shows many different reasons and situations for the letter being written.

Such as in your post there is not a single mention that legal(ized) American citizens are being caught up in these raids. Being caught up in a raid means that you are treated as the illegals that is to say "without rights" until they pronounced you "American" until then you are just as illegal as those around you - right or wrong.

Also this coalition is made up of eight agencies not just the two that you list. I believe independently they are;

Hispanic Federation, League of United Latin American Citizens,

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund,

Mexican American Political Association,

National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities,

National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the

National Hispanic Environmental Council, Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.

Posters will write many comments, answers will be of different opinions yet it can not be argued that as equals the people and the government of the people have failed. We have set standards for the rich and another for the poor. Standards for whites and another for blacks, there are two sets of laws one being reachable only with a lawyer and the other for those with public pretenders.

My biggest sadness is that one day we will all be gone and those that live on have only what we have said and done to draw interaction with others from, read some of the answers again and tell me please that I am wrong.