What an idiot! That is my phrase for today, though it's interpretation is open for discussion.

Am I talking about referee Koman Coulibaly, who apparently blew a big call in the 86th minute of today's FIFA World Cup match between USA and Slovenia? Certainly a pivotal mistake, as the TV replays show, but certainly losing out on a couple of extra pool-play points is not going to ruin the world.

Am I talking about the riotous Lakers "fans" who set fire to a parked car after Game 7 of the NBA Finals last night? Bingo. How one, or in this case a group, could be so stupid amid the LAPD ramp-up of the last couple of days to quell any uprisings, not to mention the controversy centering around the Arizona immigration law, be so stupid or so belligerent is beyond me.

I, for one, find the new Arizona policy to allow law enforcement officials to stop at random anyone who they think might not have the proper papers especially perilous not just for the issue of authorizing blatant racism but the glimpse at a potential police state it offers up to our society. We already know the history of racial profiling against blacks that has occurred for centuries in this country. Certainly Hispanics and other "minorities" have suffered the same. But what is especially appalling to me is that, in today's society when we're supposed to be educated and enlightened, this law was perpetuated by today's new fringe of the scared and the over-reactive conservative right, all under the guise of curbing illegal immigration.

You might as well roll the clock back to the mid-19th century when any "foreigner" could be run out of town, whether you be black, brown, yellow or white (can anyone say Irish? What about the Italians?)

What's next? Where do we stop at making a snap judgment about a person by the color of their skin? What about the color of their eyes? "All those with brown eyes and curly hair, get against the wall!" I'd be one of the first picked out undoubtedly along side Hispanics, Muslims, Arabs, Persians, Native Americans... the list goes on and on. (Oh, and I'm of Irish descent, raised Catholic but now agnostic. So much for appearances.)

Still, there we had TV news cameras last night trained on gangs, truly so, as described by Merriam Webster, "A group of criminals or adolescent hoodlums," of young men AND women, many of who were undoubtedly of some kind of Hispanic origin, lighting fires, turning over Cal-Trans equipment and acting like complete idiots. But make no mistake about it: there WERE other races involved. Still, in light of the Arizona law, I shuddered to think of all the "Look, I told you so" and "See, that's why we need an immigration law" comments that I knew were being uttered by many all across the nation. Some TV viewers simply made up their minds that, if there were people with brown skin running around the streets of L.A. starting fires, they were all "Mexicans" or "illegals."

What is even more unfortunate than the racism that still permeates our society are those who help to propagate such hatred by the sheer force of their stupidity.