NPR Writer on American Boredom with Soccer: “Look out Whitey, Felipe Melo Is Gonna Get Your Mamma!”

  The world of Marxist politics  has for decades  portrayed  America as racist,  greedy, and Christian  in character.   Stalinists were extreme in their caricatures.  So was Howard Zinn, an American communist who died a few months ago after publishing his hates  for America in a variety of texts, some now venerated by high school teachers and university professors for social study. 

Paul Mirengoff writes about a David Zirin at PowerLine today.  Zirin  writes about America’s boredom with the game of soccer.   The childishness to kooky, so popular in the Howard Zinn productions,  seem reproduced for the televisions sports enthusiasts. 

Zirin’s Soccer News:   “In the early 1970s, it was fairly common for commentators to introduce hack leftist political analysis into discussions about sports. Then, we grew up and this sort of chatter faded from mainstream discourse.

Apparently, though, it is still popular in left-wing precincts. The leading practitioner seems to be Dave Zirin.

Zirin has written a piece for NPR and The Nation about the World Cup, which serves mostly to remind us of how much a political agenda detracts from serious consideration of sports. Zirin’s article is called “Why the Far Right Hates Soccer.” He considers only two possibilities: racism and our national team’s lack of success at the World Cup. Why does he limit his analysis to these options? Because they best fit a left-wing narrative. Such circularity is the hallmark of this genre.

In Zirin’s case, he fails even to present meaningful evidence to support his premise that the far right hates soccer. He points to negative comments about the sport from two individuals — Glenn Beck and J. Gordon Liddy. Beck is certainly an influential figure, and Liddy may be too. But there’s no reason to suppose that they speak for “the far right” on the merits of various sports.

Nor does Beck’s statement about soccer, as quoted by Zirin, provide any basis for the view that racism, or perhaps America’s lack of success, explains his aversion to the sport. Here is what Beck said:

It doesn’t matter how you try to sell it to us. It doesn’t matter how many celebrities you get, it doesn’t matter how many bars open early, it doesn’t matter how many beer commercials they run, we don’t want the World Cup, we don’t like the World Cup, we don’t like soccer, we want nothing to do with it.

Here is Zirin’s absurd translation of Beck’s statement:

I know a lot of folks who can’t stand soccer. It’s simply a matter of taste. But for Beck it’s a lot more than, “Gee. It’s kind of boring.” Instead it’s, “Look out whitey! Felipe Melo [a central midfielder for Brazil who is "of color"] is gonna get your mama!”

The left isn’t known for the rigor of its analysis and neither is your average sports writer. Still, even a marriage of the two should produce something less idiotic than this.

It’s normal for people in any nation to favor the traditional sports of their country. In Europe, neither baseball nor football has caught on. Basketball has (as soccer has here), but still lags far behind soccer in most European countries. Nor are we the only nation in which soccer has failed to make a huge mark. It’s not particularly popular in Canada or in Cuba. Surely, this isn’t because of racism or right-wing chauvinism.

There may, however, be a political dimension to the way in which some American conservatives express their dislike of soccer. Indeed, if Zirin were a serious writer, he would have picked it up in Beck’s comment and that of Liddy, who speaks of “American exceptionalism.” Conservatives are far less likely than liberals to appreciate being told they should take interest in a sport that doesn’t much interest them. And to make matters worse, for years a big part of the pitch for soccer in this country has been that it’s “the world’s game.” The idea seems to have been to “guilt” us into taking soccer seriously through references to world opinion. That’s not exactly what the right wants to hear.

But I doubt that people dislike soccer because of the obnoxiousness of the way it’s pitched. More likely, the underlying negatively (or embrace) is based on the merits, assessed as a matter of taste. In any event, unhappiness with the perceived over-hyping of a sport has nothing to do with racism or being a poor loser.

I’ve found that the best way to think about the World Cup is as a sporting event, not a political phenomenon. And the best way to enjoy the World Cup is not to worry about who else likes it and why or why not. My only hope in this regard is a selfish one. I want enough interest to keep the matches on the television screens at bars, but not so much interest that I can’t get a seat.”

Comment:  Try not to forget that through your federal taxes,  you pay to help National Public Radio support and sell leftwing bigotry of the extreme Left.

As for me, My mamma is dead.  About soccer….it is more than boring….One look at the World Cup fans makes one proud of fans attending NFL games here in the states, even those in Philadelphia and New York…..the uglies of our  country’s  sports centers.

More on Obama’s Vision Deficit Syndrome

Nick Gillespie at Reason.com writes:

June 15) — What can only be called President Barack Obama’s vision deficit first came into undeniable, turn-your-head-and-cough, full-monty view fewer than 100 days into his presidency, when he started yammering on April 15, 2009, about making sure that the wealthy pay their “fair share” in taxes. Then there was his bold plan to free the nation’s cities from traffic jams with a high-speed rail system that pulled not one smoke-belching car off clogged city streets anywhere on the planet.

When it came time to unveil his bold 21st-century stimulus package, it turned out all he was talking about was cash for clunkers, cash for caulkers, and cash for laying asphalt and paying state and local workers for another year or two.

Even his most ardent admirers had to admit that the guy wasn’t exactly dazzling in his approach to the issues of the day. From his approach to foreign wars and civil liberties to his belief that massive government bailouts and housing subsidies will jump-start the economy, he’s been more like the third term of George W. Bush than something new and different. Little wonder, then, that Obama’s approval ratings have been positively Dubyaesque.

Fast-forward to Obama’s first-ever Oval Office speech, talking about the BP-caused oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. His message could have been delivered mere minutes after the crude first started bubbling to the surface. Or, in fact, it could have been delivered years or even decades earlier (and had been, by a rogues gallery of politicians from every position on the political spectrum).

You know the anti-drill:

• We’re “addicted” to fossil fuels in general and “foreign oil” in particular and that’s gotta change.
• The “clean energy future is now” and we’ve got to “accelerate the transition” to the fuels of the future via government largess directed at favored technologies and exhortations to entrepreneurs and inventors to come up with something/anything that won’t kill an entire region’s economy for years or even decades to come.
• More heads will roll at the objectively corrupt and inept Minerals Management Service, the agency that is stupidly supposed to both maximize natural resource royalties from federal lands and regulate the same folks doing the extracting. That sort of self-defeating mission is a recipe for exactly the sort of incompetence and criminality evinced over its entire existence.

The one tangible, immediate action item in Obama’s 18-minute monologue was his declaration that BP would pay not just for all cleanup costs but for all economic costs associated with the spill. That is, BP needs to cover all revenue forgone by fishermen, tourist places and even other oil companies because of the spill. BP, Obama averred, needs to pony up billions of dollars in an escrow account that would be administered by an independent third party.

What’s interesting about this is that under a law that dates back to the last ginormous catastrophe (the Exxon Valdez spill), BP and all other drilling companies have the cost of such damages capped at $75 million. Why that so-low figure? Because legislators decided that such a paltry amount allowed smaller players to stay in the oil-drilling business. And because the bigger players didn’t mind having their liabilities capped at petty-cash levels for them. Capping liability at submarket rates is no way to ensure good risk management.

Yet Obama’s escrow-fund edict is less than meets the eye and underscores his vision deficit. It’s far from clear that the federal government can (or should) simply waive away existing law, even in the face of such a horrible development as the gulf spill.

As important, as a multibillion-dollar corporation, BP knows a thing or two about the difference between strict legal liability and managing public relations. This is a company, after all, that showered bundles of cash on Obama and pushed for “green technologies” that played well with focus groups if not with, well, the environment. With 2009 revenues of $240 billion, BP has long been ready, willing and able to show it’s a good corporate citizen by ponying up pocket change for the right causes. It is happy to seemingly stretch a little to go beyond what it owes statutorily, if that’s the difference between staying in business and getting chopped up for bait.

The spill in the gulf will eventually be capped. Here’s hoping that — and an effective cleanup — happens sooner rather than later. What will linger long after the last oil ball washes ashore on a sandy beach in Florida or Louisiana is the memory that President Obama, the great avatar of Hope & Change, was slow in responding and weak on details when he finally did. And that his vision on this topic, like all others, consists of soaring platitudes and cliches that, like Icarus’ wings, just aren’t up to the blazing-hot sun of everyday reality and the catastrophes that come one after another.

Nick Gillespie (gillespie@reason.com) is the editor in chief of Reason.tv and Reason.com.

Comment:  “his  (Obama’s) vision…consists of soaring platitudes and cliches that, like Icarus’ wings, just aren’t  up to the blazing-hot-sun of every day reality”……..is an absolutely terrific description of one of the many Obama deficits….this one centering on his gross immaturity and lack of adult work and experience.  He remains a teen ager attending college.

There is a downside to the statement, however.  The  vast majority of black Americans of voting age don’t know anything about Icarus and do not know the words, platitudes and cliches.   Moreover, those in the central city ghettoes have been living a plantation life, fieldhands under the watch of the Democrat Party.  These blacks are generally foreign to democracy and intellectual pursuit. 

With the collapse of standards in nearly all educational institutions in the United States, it may be that today, the majority of Americans under the age of 60 will not understand Mr. Gillespie’s sentence.

Both communities elected this inexperienced, overschooled but undereducated community organizer to the position  where he now “reigns”.   His ignorance plus his arrogance and apparent infatuation with himself especially his voice, led him to the television screen early this week to  pretend he is running a good show, even in the Gulf scene. 

He appeared small and frightened despite his cover.

Report: May, 2010 the Hottest!

NOAA:  May Global Temperature Warmest on Record announced EIN World News the other day.  That is the headline for the article later on after my commentary about “Climate Change”, the god of the American Left.

I don’t want to pass on rumor to excite the environmental fascists in our midst, but I do believe it is my duty to share this climate information with Prager-like people…..people mature enough to handle news which may be startling to some.   Especially when those “some” want to turn the country over to a Marxist state where opposition is banned, government dictates, and presidents, like  Obama, tell citizens how to conduct their personal lives in the name of the State. 

Personally, I am rooting for an increase in Carbon Dioxide in our midst.   Plants will be bigger and happier and will exude more oxygen.   I am hoping a rise of this essential gas in our atmosphere will warm up my State’s temperature just a tad, and clear out the loony leftwing cobwebs clouding the imaginations  of our leftwing leaders and neighbors.

Statistics the fanatical Left fail to mention include many tens of millions more  human folk have perished from Earth’s expanding cold than all of the expanding warmth that has ever occurred.

Ladies of the American Left rarely wind up out door people.   Although, typically they like a flower or two in a garden and like to feed the birds.  These ladies like gardens but are narrow in their dimensions of what garden is or might be.  

They advertise “PEACE”, and will boast gardens help people love others. 

Landscaping is my business.  I have noticed that among the meanest, most unhappy and lonely homeowners are single women, divorced, proud about their Obama signs still  decorating  their windows from  the last political season.  Their  L-O-V-E and P-E-A-C-E signs and stones decorate the  petunias and geraniums and marigolds are to remind all of their higher ”philosophical”  callings.

Yet, they frantically worry about the rise of  the popular, in-the-news “polutant”, no longer George W. Bush, but Carbon Dioxide.

That is George W. Bush in  ”Bush Lied, People Died”  children’s poem of a few years ago.

I have learned to avoid mention to these sweethearts that Carbon Dioxide is not a pollutant.   I did once, and suffered magnificently foul anger as I was physically and verbally escorted out the door.  L-O-V-E  and P-E-A-C-E apparently stopped at the stoop. 

I wonder what reaction would have been had I reminded these gentle Obama women that when the climate was a tad cooler when I was a child, there were no Redbird Cardinals in our part of  the country.  It was too cold.

I like the Cardinals in my landscape garden.  They are as beautiful as the beautiful garden they visit.  Many of my garden plants are climate zoned for zone 4 and zone 5.   Sixty years ago none of the zone 5 plants and about half of the zone 4 plants would not survive a more severe winter than the then average.   Perennial gardens had to be covered with straw or oak leaves in the fall to protect them from the killing cold.  

The P-E-A-C-E and L-O-V-E  Left gals in my state, Minnesota, also have decided that plants not “native” to the state should take second stage or no stage at all in the Gopher landscape. 

When asked what is meant by plants non-native to our community, the answer  usually is a cultural one…….plants which were not here during the time the American Indian was alone in Minnesota  ”at one with Nature”…..that is, before White Man came…..

Oh, my that ugly weed, white man.

They learn these delineations at  University in ecology and Women’s study programs.

The EIN World News Article on the “Hottest May:”

June 15, 2010 — The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for May, March-May (Northern Hemisphere spring-Southern Hemisphere autumn), and the period January-May according to NOAA. Worldwide average land surface temperature for May and March-May was the warmest on record while the global ocean surface temperatures for both May and March-May were second warmest on record, behind 1998.

The monthly analysis from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, which is based on records going back to 1880, is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides government, business and community leaders so they can make informed decisions.

Global Highlights – May 2010
* The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for May was the warmest on record, at 1.24°F (0.69°C) above the 20th century average of 58.6°F (14.8°C).
* The global land surface temperature for May was 1.87°F (1.04°C) above the 20th century average of 52.0°F (11.1°C) — the warmest on record.
* The May worldwide ocean temperature was the second warmest on record, behind 1998. The temperature anomaly was 0.99°F (0.55°C) above the 20th century average of 61.3°F (16.3°C).
* Warm temperatures were present over most of the globe’s land areas. The warmest temperature anomalies occurred in eastern North America, eastern Brazil, Eastern Europe, southern Asia, eastern Russia, and equatorial Africa. The Chinese province of Yunnan had its warmest May since 1951. Numerous locations in Ontario, Canada had their warmest May on record.
* Anomalously cool conditions were present across western North America, northern Argentina, interior Asia, and Western Europe. Germany had its coolest May since 1991 and its 12th coolest May on record.

Scientists, researchers, and leaders in government and industry use NOAA’s monthly reports to help track trends and other changes in the world’s climate. This climate service has a wide range of practical uses, from helping farmers know what and when to plant, to guiding resource managers with critical decisions about water, energy and other vital assets.

Source: NOAA

Comment:  Those in the Twin City area who garden knowledgeably are in unison for their praise of the weather this year from March 15 to June. 

March was mild with no winter treachery….April was warmish and again noted for enough moisture, much sun, and no winter violence.    This past May was a very cool May here, a  perfect one which  extended the flower bloom of nearly all  spring flowering perennials and shrubs for weeks.

Brunnera bloom in one area to another has bloomed for two months and only now seems to want to quit.

It is quite peculiar in the eyes of those  who work out doors here in the Northland why so called “scientists” want to politic to freeze up the globe a bit…..especially by blaming their false statistics on Carbon Dioxide, and more than peculiar that these deceivers are willing to cook up numbers to get money from the United Nations politicians to advance their agenda.  More than peculiar for it is deeply dishonest.

Response to Tavis Smiley

I read the transcript of Tavis Smiley’s interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali the other day. (See previous post below). The ridiculous statements he made regarding the violence perpetrated by Christians every day in this country bears responding to, but I think Ms. Ali was too stunned to do it at the time of the interview.

When a Catholic prays the Rosary, or a Jew observes the Seder, it is a religious act, an expression of devotion to their religious faith.  It’s the same thing when a Muslim fanatic detonates a suicide belt.  It too is an overtly religious act, and a statement of their devotion to their faith. They are doing it because it is what they believe their religion tells them to do.  Conversely, when the various crimes that are committed in this country which Tavis referred to happen to be done by people who call themselves Christians, it has nothing to do with their religion.  These crimes are not demonstrations of faith, a fact which Tavis blithely overlooked in a misplaced effort to find equivalence.  These acts are not done because the criminals think it’s what their faith compels them to do.  On the contrary, they are done because the perpetrators are ignoring what their faith would tell them to do. In fact these are acts their faith explicitly forbids them from doing.  Furthermore, there is no organized, widespread and well-funded movement to perpetrate acts of violence in the name of advancing Christianity, another vitally important distinction. When Ali was making the case for dialog with Muslims to get them to question Islam and hopefully begin to inject some kind of reform into Islam, it was with an eye toward reforming the behavior of these jihadists.  But with respect to Christianity, there is no reform to that religion which would alter the behaviors of the criminals who call themselves Christians.  They are simply criminals who happen to be Christian, a fact as relevant to that behavior as the fact that they may wear brown shoes or have eaten eggs for breakfast.