The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Non Nget. He is the supreme patriarch of Buddhist monks in Cambodia. He has decreed that any Monks that celebrate, cheer, or bet on this year's world cup in a pagoda could be defrocked.

Lighten up Non Nget. There's a time for prayer, there's a time for soccer. Devotion to Lord Buddha will carry on long after you're dead. Who knows Buddha may even be a soccer fan? So your monks a break. Till you do, Non Nget you are today's knucklehead of the day.

Open Post- Jo's Cafe, Cao's Cafe, Mudville Gazette, Bright & Early,

Phnom Penh, Cambodia -- Cambodian monks may be allow to watch the football World Cup, but asked to be calm, local media reported on Friday.

With the tournament kicking off in Germany on Friday and being broadcast live on Cambodian television, Buddhist monks have been officially permitted to watch the games, but rules have been introduced to regulate their emotions, The Cambodia Daily reported.

Supreme Patriarch Non Nget, chief of monks in Phnom Penh, was quoted as saying that monks can watch the televised tournament but they must do so silently.

"Screaming and cheering with an angry face or happy feeling are the acts of street kids," he said. "Laughing, cheering or making noise inside the pagoda violate Buddha's rules."

Though watching matches in silence and solemnity on TV is allowed, Non Nget said that betting on the games would not be tolerated. "If I found any monk betting money on a football match...I might fire him from the pagoda," he warned.

However, some chief monks said that their pagodas would not follow Non Nget's suggestion, saying that the watching sports challenges the discipline monks are required to learn, and worrying that they (monks) would be unable to control their emotions.

Cross posted to Bullwinkle Blog