It’s been a hazy, hot, and sluggish week here in Beantown.

With most of us staying indoors and trying to stay cool, it’s been a good week to catch up on the news and goings-on around the world. Here’s a few things to take note of as we make our way towards the thunderstorms, hail, and ultimate cooling off that will take place between now and Thursday morning.

From the serious….

• It’s laughable and disgusting that the International Olympic Committee is still refusing to hold a moment of silence for the victims of the 1972 Munich massacre.
• It’s equally disconcerting that the world is more or less standing idly by while Bashar al-Assad is launching full-scale attacks on the Syrian people, and that newspaper headlines are casually asserting that the regime may end up using chemical weapons against its own citizens.
• The grand coalition of Kadima and Likud lasted a whopping ten weeks. Should we be celebrating Shaul Mofaz’s obstinacy on the draft law, or lamenting another year of turmoil that will inevitably lead to Bibi’s re-election?
• US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commented that Jonathan Pollard, a US citizen convicted of passing classified information to Israel, will continue to serve out his lifetime sentence for espionage, with no potential for clemency or release.
• “The International Pro-Life Memorial and National Life Center” in Wichita, Kansas, is planning on erecting a massive replica of the Western Wall covered with sixty crosses to commemorate the “Holocaust” of sixty million aborted fetuses since Roe v. Wade.

To the sublime…

• Somehow all-universe slot receiver Wes Welker and the New England Patriots didn’t sign a multi-year contract extension. At least Gronk appeared in the ESPN body issue.
• Haaaaaavahd graduate Jeremy Lin said see ya later to Gotham City and the New York Knicks, signing a three-year deal with the Houston Rockets. At the same time, the New Jersey Brooklyn Nets have set up shop in New York City and aren’t doing anything remotely interesting.
• Kevin Youkilis is back at Fenway this week and absolutely crushing the ball for the White Sox. It was laughable to see Josh Beckett giving him tepid applause when he came to bat on Monday night, given the reports that Youkilis was the source of the beer-and-fried-chickengate story last fall. Youk must have gotten no small measure of satisfaction from launching a 3-2 pitch out of the park last night off of Jon Lester, who was also implicated in the scandal.  In the immortal words of Boston sports fans since time immemorial… “why can’t we get guys like that?”