Comments for A Rock, A River, A Tree

Comment on Going hungry in the land of plenty by blacksheepone

blacksheepone — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:40:13 +0000

Indeed, ProfWombat.

Why is it that all people want someone over whom to consider themselves superior?

Maybe, I dunno, it’s something in the DNA. There’s the “alpha” in every pack, every pride, every school, or so I’m told.

Comment on Canada’s Caroline Kennedy by observant

observant — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:43:15 +0000

Of course, the Liberal MSM will not hold Ignatieff accountable for his unfettered if not enthusiastic support of President Bush, with this proclamation:

“To defeat evil, we may have to traffic in evils : indefinite detention of suspects, coercive interrogations, targeted assassinations, even pre-emptive war.”

- Michael Ignatieff, NY Times Mag, 2004

Comment on Smash-mouth, In-Your-Face, Blue Collar Football by theothersarah

theothersarah — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:22:25 +0000

Well, just to add insult to injury, national media is now saying TO is not the problem in Dallas.

Maybe not, but Deion “Prime Time” Sanders and TO together sure are.

Maybe Owens is the greatest active receiver in the NFL, and maybe not. After all, it’s Jason Witten playing in the Pro Bowl from Dallas this year.

Owens’ baggage is self-inflicted, IMNVHO. Unhappy? Look, guy, you’re fixin’ to be 39 years old. You have to build yourself an after-football life — and your boy “Neon” ain’t gonna retire from that ESPN desk spot, where he can dance in the limelight despite being overage, out of shape, and no longer in any position to back up his mouth with his moves so you can take over. Get used to that, dude.

Owens is still young enough and in good enough shape to take the world by storm; if Billy Blanks could do it, TO ought to be able to out-fitness-craze everybody from Oprah to Richard Simmons (and leave no doubt about his macho cred in the bargain) — so why not teach Tai Chi, or team up with David Carradine for a TV show? Owens is easily as good an actor as Schwarzenegger ever was — he’s articulate, he’s pretty, for a football player he’s erudite on non-NFL subjects, there’s a sparkling personality under his helmet, and FSM knows if he can hack training camp in the NFL at his age, he’s strong and fit and determined. Maybe he should run for Governor.

He couldn’t do much worse in office than the last two, and at least we’d all expect him to drop the ball.

Comment on Smash-mouth, In-Your-Face, Blue Collar Football by Ruth

Ruth — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:15:21 +0000

The early version of soccer (football) in Chile ended with the losing team losing its heads, we found out in touring the pre-Columbian museum in Santiago. I guess we haven’t come such a long way, baby.

Comment on Irrational Manliness by Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:43:43 +0000

as someone not blessed with a Y chromosome, I hear you, professor wombat.

the one or two times I got involved with things later labeled “heroic” came out of necessity. inevitably, at the end of ‘em I got in trouble with somebody for something, but the looks on the faces of the folks who needed the help when I gave it made up for that.

Comment on Smash-mouth, In-Your-Face, Blue Collar Football by Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:33:33 +0000

Spread the word. Helmets aren’t enough and the culture of sacrifice we submit our kids to in the name of sports is borderline cruelty.

Comment on A good first week by profwombat

profwombat — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:25:43 +0000

Sarah: absolutely. Koop, again, was hardly a wild-eyed lefty. But he was a doctor, a good one, and capable of recognizing reality. He was appointed Surgeon General with the thought that he’d be entirely compatible with Reaganist Republican right-wing politics, that he’d fit right in. He didn’t, because he accepted the reality of HIV/AIDS, and acted. And he became a hero to the left, and to LGBTs, because he treated those afflicted, and those potentially afflicted, as human beings.

It’s worth noting how seldom one sees such honor on the right these days, much less an ability to deal with the world as it is, rather than the world as they’d like to see it. One might draw the conclusion that right wing philosophy and practice these days is so fatally flawed as to make honorable righties mostly oxmorons.

Comment on Irrational Manliness by profwombat

profwombat — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:20:26 +0000

sarah: as somebody afflicted with a Y-chromosome, and struggling to deal with its burdens and blessings, well, manfully, I couldn’t agree more. I’d add that every real hero I’ve met, or read about, postured minimally, if at all; their usual take on their extraordinary actions is that they had no choice, did what they had to do, that there wasn’t anything like the moment of self-doubt and screwing-up of the courage to act so oft depicted in media; most of them are a little baffled that others view them as heroic. It’s also true of the handful of times I’ve been seen that way by others. The right offers us a plethora of counterexamples, all fatally flawed as reflecting a heroic ideal in that only those in their circle, like a school bully’s posse, see them that way.

Comment on A good first week by Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:15:52 +0000

Koop, IIRC, was an even better example of that re: AIDS, wasn’t he?

Comment on Irrational Manliness by Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:14:01 +0000

Kristol moved to the other paper in town. So the population’s not safe from his ill-considered spew even in DC.

The thing is, all the movies and macho crap on TV aside, real men aren’t like that. Bullies are like that. Rush Limbaugh is a bully, and that he is hailed as the voice of … whatever delusion these dittoheads call it … across the land should make us all very much ashamed.

We’ve seen the bluster and the posturing. It doesn’t work.
That it came from the ultimate poseur during the last 8 years (d’ya really think all-hat, no-cattle W wasn’t a puppet?)

Captain Chesley Sullenberger III is one great example of how real men behave. They’re prepared. They do the job. They make sure everybody’s okay.