Yemen, schmemen: let’s hear about those balls
I confess it: I don’t care about Tom Brady’s balls. I understand that cheating is bad and that Brady/Belichick/ThePatriots may have done just that, although they deny it. But since I basically don’t care about football I can’t get in an uproar about it, try as I may, and try as the news media may to get me stirred up about it. And they’re certainly trying.
Sorry, that’s just the way it is. But I do understand why football fans care.
However, how on earth can this be more important than, for instance, the disturbing and dangerous chaos going on in Yemen, which is barely on the radar screen for the vast majority of MSM consumers? I know the answer to that, too, and it’s a human answer: people are tired of bad news from far-off Muslim countries they can’t place on a map. The Superbowl is up-close and personal, or relatively so, even though it’s more or less irrelevant to our geopolitical future.
I can hardly fault people for being people, can I? After all, some of my best friends are people.
If it’s any consolation, the new Saudi king, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, is reported as a close friend of the United States and a scourge of Islamist militants.
“After all, some of my best friends are people,” saith neo.
There was a conversation among a rabbi, a minister, and a priest, all from a small Pennsylvania town. The conversation made its way around to the fact that many of the town’s residents, including a good many of the rabbi’s/minister’s/priest’s respective flocks, were embracing the Quaker faith.
The rabbi sighed and lamented, “I know, I know, some of my best Jews are Friends.”
Arabs’ public displays of violence are actually one of their redeeming qualities. It exposes their morality or religion to public scrutiny. Similar to the Chinese policies that do not couch their motives in emotionally appealing euphemisms. The same cannot be said about liberal societies that prefer to prosecute violence behind a veil of privacy – sanitized and out of sight-and-out of mind.
Yes, it’s a movie, but if people are tired of news about Muslim countries what accounts for the success of “American Sniper”? Saw it last night. Very powerful movie. God bless and protect the sheepdogs.
I remember Jane Fonda in her role as the prostitute Bree in the film KLUTE saying “Yemen;” otherwise, somehow it never comes up much. CIA figure Robert Ames (not Aldrich) was stationed there for a while.
Oversized, overpaid, super-strong, superfast Gladiators in a modern Roman Circus representing tribal affiliations engaging in combat that is a combination of chess, (setting the pieces), and sumo wrestling as they fight to move an odd shaped chunk of inflated, (to specific pressure), pigskin towards one end of field or the other under the restrictions of a Byzantine set of rules and penalties.
The sad part of this ritual is that millions become emotionally engaged in the anticipation of the outcome thinking it has some meaning in their day to day lives and I guess it does for those stupid enough to wager on the game. Pro Football is a boys game played by grown men and sold as the biggest money making reality entertainment, maybe in the world.
I do like to watch high school and some college football when I have an actual relationship with the team, i.e. grandsons or my alma mater.
I wish I had never heard the words Sunni and Shia.
What is wrong with those people and their so-called religion?
Cornhead: they’re stuck in the 7th century.
KLSmith: And soon the will have nukes.
Neo your blog has been my sanity saver,
Deflated footballs 24/ 7 something the MSM can glam onto to avoid the firestorm that is the middle east
(as always it seems) What could be more perfect
for HE who matters most?
Thanks for sharing.
It’s your blog, your prerogative to either choose to write about Brady’s balls or not.
But, please, do not make an effort to bolster your decision, your argument by equating it to Yemen.
It’s not a zero-sum exercise:
“Hmmm….should I choose to fecklessly focus on the asinine, juvenile, irrelevant, uninteresting, subject of, football and Tom Brady’s deflated balls—–OR——the very significant and impactful goings-on in Yemen?”
It would be possible to write about both. Just as it is possible to write about mother’s poetry during the same period.
And you are appreciated for having written on poetry. Any subject you please. Your blog, your rules.
You don’t like football. That is okay. Thank you for making that clear.
I never gave a tinker’s damn about ballet until I read about it through your passion. And I’m damned glad I did. I love learning about new things through the eyes of others.
(all said with utmost respect)
The metaphor of Deflated Balls which, at first, seemed obvious for Obamster has a problem: It infers that he had a set at some time before now. NOPE. Nyet. Nada. Nein. No F***ing Way.
(Follow-Up Thought…) A Deflated Set is hardly comparable to BHO’s: V*T*C.
*Vast Testicular Concavity*
Other than perhaps the most fanatical of fans, everyone knows that sports are not as important as world events. But what would we have them do? They cannot, even in the least of ways, affect the outcome of events in Yemen.
Nor should we interfere in Yemen’s politics, as no overriding national interest is at stake. Repressing groups like al Qaeda should be the extent of our involvement in Yemen.
Professional football is entertainment and thus a form of escapism, no more harmful than reading fictional mysteries. So for a few hours a week, fans get to forget the world’s troubles. That seems like a harmless enough escape valve from the day to day grind. The average citizen wringing their hands over trouble spots like Yemen accomplishes nothing.
“The average citizen wringing their hands over trouble spots like Yemen accomplishes nothing.”
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Truer words unspoken. However, there is a larger issue.
“Yemen”, to far too many Americans is seen as a response in the affirmative.
“Yo, homey, you wanna smoke a bone?”
“Yemen, you got one?”
Being able to control what is going on is not really of primary concern. Nor is wringing one’s hands over it. The real concern is knowing that it even exists. And what it represents…
Clarityseeker:
In the interests of clarity, let me say that I do not mean to put down those who care about football, or who write about it. I used to be a rabid baseball fan, for example, and the fortunes of the Red Sox would make or break my day, perhaps even my week. I do not consider sports—or the arts, or poetry, or food, or any of those very human things that interest me and other human beings—trivial or irrelevant.
“I do like to watch high school and some college football when I have an actual relationship with the team, i.e. grandsons or my alma mater.”
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OldTexan,
Thanks for the chuckle. No state has taken the sport of football to dizzying heights as that of, Texas.
ESPECIALLY high school football:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/60-million-texas-high-school-stadium-deemed-unsafe-football-n109946
$60MM spent and the concrete is cracking.
And that ONE BILLION DOLLAR stadium built by Jerry Jones? YeeeeeeeHaaaw, everything really is bigger in Texas. Especially the money spent on football.
Texas football is even the stuff movies are made of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Night_Lights_(film)
All in fun…
“The real concern is knowing that it even exists. And what it represents…”
Agreed, which is the job of the nightly news and the mass media. That they have utterly betrayed their reason for existence is not a reflection upon the average non-political citizen.
neo—-believe me when I say that it was not received that you were “putting down” those who place an elevated value on football.
Please pardon my attempt to critique your effort as one of balancing it against the weighty issue surrounding Yemen.
I have been very intrigued by Tom Brady’s response to the incident. I would elaborate, but, it’s your blog.
And I am not at all patronizing you here. Your artistic side is very attractive. I’ve read your related posts with relish. Genuinely.
No mistake.
“Agreed, which is the job of the nightly news and the mass media.”
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Mr. Britain,
Heartily disagree. It is the job of each citizen to know of the world. What is going on in it. How it relates to America.
We are in Yemen as a result of Al-Qaida having come to the US. We are there as part of what use to be known as the, “war on terror” (whatever one prefers). My point simply was, it is noteworthy, just how ignorant many are in America about these issues.
Most of today’s youth could not locate Yemen on a map if you waved a million dollars in front of their pimpled-mugs.
Hell—–I do not even want to consider their effort in spelling it.
correction: “…of what once was known as…”, or, “used to be known as…”
Whether one is educated on nightly news, internet, newspaper, radio is of another matter. I do not mean to be argumentative. I simply place onus on the individual.
That said, the mainstream media is complicit in disseminating/generating/forwarding misinformation and misrepresentation over many issues.
We bitch and moan about the culture, the mass media…..
But how many of us go out and try to support an alternative and send a message when we get one of those very rare opportunities?
I’ve only seen one other person here mention “American Sniper”. The industry pays attention to how much a movie drops off in it’s second weekend. A cold dreary weekend is a perfect time to go see a movie. But it’s easier to sit on the sofa or say I don’t like war movies. And then we gripe about losing the culture war.
We all know the reason for “DeflatedBallGate” is so the news media doesn’t have to report on any of Obama’s screw-ups.
Kind of like Cuba – the news media doesn’t say much about the human rights abuses going on there and Obama’s selling out the Cuban people; but, let’s talk about how Americans can now buy Cuban cigars!
Not hearing too much about him ending his trip to India (an up and coming player in central Asia we should be getting closer to) so that he can stop by his old (let me bow to them) chums on the Arabian peninsula.
Really, it is just another Obama faux pas; but, let’s all talk about a football being underinflated.
Bread and circuses – Obama supplies the stale bread and the news media supplies the circuses.
I’ve only seen one other person here mention “American Sniper”.
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Seen it four times. All with different friends. I have the dvd here at home, so it has been too easy to get people to watch it. Only because it may arouse curiosity, my brother is on the board of the Academy. He gets all of those movies up for an award sent to his home. That is how the Academy gets its “votes”. I do not lend, sell, copy, or otherwise profit from any of these films. I am very appreciative for the opportunity to have access to them.
American Sniper is simply another great movie—-truly great on many levels.
One production of many recent and very worthwhile war films.
Lone Survivor, Zero Dark Thirty, Act of Valor among them.
Keep ’em coming…
Don’t both teams play with the same ball(s)??
And who was the deflate detective, and why? Why detect only after the game was concluded and not during? Despite or because of the lopsided score?
Inquiring minds, etc….
This turmoil has been going on for months and months, yet Fox News talking heads were totally unaware of it as recently as one-week ago. !
This ‘civil war’ is an Iranian enterprise…weapons wise… and is CERTAINLY the driving force behind the price war initiated by KSA within OPEC.
Feckless Barry has forced the Saudis into the front rank.
Clarityseeker,
Forget about finding Yemen on a map, many people could not find Russia (a big target) if it was not labeled.
Like to put my two cents worth in on deflation-gate. Had this been an issue for a team like the Jacksonville Jaguars or the Oakland Raiders, both teams with undistinguished records over the past decade, it would not have received nearly the attention that it has. This is the New England Patriots, a team that has been a consistent winner over the last 15 years. (Which happens to be the period when Bill Belichick has been their coach and Tom Brady the quarterback.) This team and these two men have their enemies because they are too successful. Another background issue is that Belichick was caught video-taping opposing team signals some years back and was fined $500,000 for that caper. The conventional wisdom is that Belichick is a cheater, which marks the Patriots as a “dirty” team.
The NFL is probably secretly loving this controversy because this is hyping the big game. The two teams, the Seattle Seahawks and New England have their loyal fan bases, but are not teams that have admirers in all parts of the country such as the Dallas Cowboys or the Pittsburgh Steelers do. Thus, they worry about the TV audience. Will people tune in to see a team that many hate, such as New England? Or how many people outside the faraway Pacific Northwest care about the Seahawks? How do they gin up interest in the game? IMO, this has been a God-send of hype for the NFL. Many people who might not have cared, will tune in hoping to see the eeevil Patriots get their comeuppance.
KLSmith; “I’ve only seen one other person here mention “American Sniper”. ”
I saw the movie on Wednesday. It is superb on many levels. It depicts the service of a man who was born to be a sheepdog. Very moving on that level. It shows the damage that war can do to even the most dedicated sheepdogs. It depicts in moving fashion the sacrifices of families who wait at home. It gives an insight into the depravity of the enemy. It depicts the evolution of the weapons, vehicles, and tactics as the war continues. I cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone who wants to know more about the war in Iraq. I will buy the DVD when it comes out so I can watch it a few more times to totally digest all that it has to say.
Scott Walker’s go big, go bold speech was a big hit at the conservative forum in Des Moines. He sounds like he’s getting ready to run.
parker:
Walker has been my favorite candidate for a long time.
It’s interesting how ignored he’s been so far. We’ll see if that changes.
Don Carlos:
You ask don’t both teams play with the same balls?
I am WAY out of my depth in answering this, but everything I’ve heard indicates the answer is “no.” Each team has its own game balls that it uses when it is on offense.
Here’s everything you never wanted to know about footballs and their provenance.
Clarityseeker:
No harm, no foul.
As they say in some sport or other 🙂 .
“It is the job of each citizen to know of the world. What is going on in it. How it relates to America.” Clarityseeker
That is an unrealistic demand, probably originating from the understandable frustration we all feel with an ignorant public. Most people are not political and/or news junkies. Most people have lives to lead whose circumstances simply do not provide the time needed to stay fully informed. Many more simply have other, more pressing concerns in their lives.
Not unreasonably, they assume that the mass media are as loyal to objectivity as they claim to be because for the uninformed, it simply strains credulity to imagine that nearly the entire mass media is betraying America.
Similarly with the politicians they elect who have perfected lying to a fine art. That Congress has an approval rating in the single digits while 90+% of individual congressional representatives are repeatedly reelected is quite informative as to just how duped is the public.
It’s taken most of us here years of focusing upon current affairs to obtain the degree of awareness we possess. It’s unreasonable to demand that most people be as involved in this area as are we.
Neo:
Un-freakin’-believable!
Thanks for the link.
It is even more absurd than I could imagine. Football guardians, aka “ball attendants”.
parker,
Russia’s on the map?
neo,
Thanks. I’ve made a conscious effort for decades to minimize the New York edginess I was born into. Some success, many failures. Alas, I’ll never shed the sarcasm.
The NFL is not hyping this. This is a PR disaster. Brady and Manning lobbied the league to change from both teams using the home team provided balls to each offense using their own. This was in 2006. 2007 on has the Pats being far far better than everyone else in terms of fumbles per play and they get better in wet weather when most teams get worse. They have probably been cheating the whole time. I am sure the NFL will go back to the old rules and then if the Pats stats fall substantially flat (snort) then we will know for sure.
As far as Yemen goes, I think anyone who cares knows. Also anyone who cares has no illusions about the Sun King and his clown show agenda. Until Cromwell, Pinochet or Napoleon shows up, nothing will change.
As for the rest, well there is still Kate Upton and her Zeppelins on parade.
You know who’s balls I care about? Our President. Because he doesn’t have any and our enemies know it.
Clarity seeker. I’m a New Yawk Texan. I will never surrender my NY edginess or my accent.
Jim Kearney, 1:32 am — “I’m a New Yawk Texan.”
I’ve always spelled it “Noo Yawk”. Nuttin’ poisonal.
I find the underinflating scandal interesting. It is kind of like the French suspecting that Lance Armstrong was cheating. He denied it completely. Then it turned out to be true. His attitude now seems to be that he still had to do the work to win those races, so in his mind he won them. The Patriots have long been suspected of cheating. They have long denied it too. I am sure Patriots fans are of a mind that the cheating does not amount to much. Their team still had to execute at a high level.
JJ: “I cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone who wants to know more about the war in Iraq. I will buy the DVD when it comes out so I can watch it a few more times to totally digest all that it has to say.”
I suggest this as a companion learning aid on the subject.
Whhhhheeeeeeewwwwwwiiiieeeeeeeeeee…..
As a Texas girlfriend once told me back in the 80s, “Neocon Boy, some folks love to stir up the s*** just to smell it.”
Clarity, old pal, do’ya think…?! ((-:
I’ll tell you what I think, NCS. I think it’s good to see you.
Seems like old times, Clarity, and our honorable Landlady does Hugh proud. Townhall was taken over by the pestilence and a recent(rare)flyover looked like “the interns” shut down commenting due to the aforementioned. I value N-Neo’s site highly.
NeoConScum, Clarityseeker:
If a site is really really large with a lot of comments, it can be a big job to police them. It’s necessary to either ban a lot of people or have some sort of controlled registration system. It can be done, though (Ace of Spades has a ton of commenters but they seem to do a pretty good job keeping the really destructive ones out). I think if a blog decides to get rid of comments because of trolls, that’s really a shame.
I had to leave my original blog at Blogger because this blog was being destroyed by trolls. At the time, Blogger didn’t provide enough tools to take care of trolls. WordPress is much, much better for that.
neo-neocon,
neo,
I look forward to your next post on ballet, or of an artist’s rendition of a woman’s physique.
Reading of your appreciation, your understanding of a particular medium and the way in which it allows the human to convey personal expression is magnetic.
I will go so far as to stubbornly insist that you get about this business which draws from your soul, your core constitution.
I refuse to open my next bottle of Chateau neuf du pape until and unless you do so.
You had me on that post of Le Clerc on December 13th.
To hear the simplicity your explanation of another’s (Jerome Robbins) fascination with a woman was intoxicating. To give it attention was delightful, refreshing to hear.
Please…
Clarityseeker,
Why, thanks!
N-Neocon…Know that your handling of that stuff is hugely appreciated by most here. And, as Clarity stated, the variety and “surprises” are a delight.