Posted on 06/30/2008 6:30:50 AM PDT by Invisigoth
It is my hope that the art of conversation is not inborn as much as learned, because I frequently find myself feeling out of place in social situations. I’m not good at being funny on the spot, and I’m extremely poor at feigning interest in things that just don’t interest me. In fact, the only two things I really enjoy talking about, besides myself, are sports and politics.
Sports and politics, what strange bedfellows.
This worries me because sports – although I adore them and can rationalize more value from them than anyone alive – do not matter the way politics do. And yet I tend to talk about them with the same sense of urgency. Well, almost the same.
Make me a case for pacifism and I’ll ask you if your hometown has ever been bombed. Tell me you think Kobe Bryant is as good as Michael Jordan and I’ll just laugh in disgust and reconsider ever spending my free time with you again.
But as uniquely awkward as I may be, and as special a case I have concerning my inappropriately similar feelings about sports and politics, I know I’m not alone.
I don’t care if people take sports too seriously, unless of course we end up neglecting our responsibilities. But political junkies are a problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at northstarwriters.com ...
I am CharlieOK1, and I too am both a sports and political junky.
So would I, but that's because Kobe sucks.
And the same is true for politics - they are just very good at making their junkies think there has been some change.
But if you get into a discussion with an Obama-ite and fail to acknowledge his “obvious” divinity, you will have made an enemy for life.
(just another thought. Isn't is strange that the spell-checker shows "Abominate" as the only option to "Obama-ite"?)
People are always intrigued by watching someone excel at their chosen endeavor.
Following politics makes sense because politicians affect peoples lives and livelihoods. Sports are just a fleeting moment of disappointment or happiness....exuberance or saddness
Baseball teams don't raise your taxes and football teams don't take the country to war.
At the risk of sounding like I'm talking down to him, he'll grow up someday.
Wait a minute, Kobe doesn’t suck! However he doesn’t rock my world the way Michael Jordan did.
You obviously don't live in Seattle, or any other city that has publicly-financed new ball parks.
“I have never understood why people waste so much of their time and their money following 11 or 9 or 5 grown men paid millions of dollars for chasing a ball. At the end of the day, nothing has changed in your life for all that effort.”
Makes perfect sense for people who don’t appreciate athletic ability and competition.
“However he doesn’t rock my world the way Michael Jordan did.”
IMO, that was the NBA’s peak. It’s been downhill with thugball ever since.
I live in downtown Seattle. The Mariners were the vehicle for the tax. It was the State Legislature that enacted it........after the people of Seattle voted it down.
placemarker
War and peace, defeating our enemies rather than letting them destroy us, freedom vs. enslavement -- these are the core issues of politics. Somehow I find these to be a tad more important to our lives and posterity than who kicked a winning goal or scored a winning run.
At their extremes, sports junkies are little more than jock-sniffing, worshipful, nearly-homo-erotic devotees, while the very craziest of we crazy politicos become Weather Underground killers, Black Muslim Fruit of Islam, Unabombers, or skinhead Neo-Nazis, so this Shockey may have a valid point.
But if you get into a discussion with an Obama-ite and fail to acknowledge his “obvious” divinity, you will have made an enemy for life.”
Personally I welcome open combat with the Cultists, I am an implacable foe.
Sports is a proxy for making war, plays to our war making human nature. It’s a necessary cultural component for a nation to survive the test of time.
You didn't watch the defensive prowess of the Celtics against the Lakers in the 2007-08 NBA Finals, with Garnett, Posey, Rondo, and Pierce. That was a thing of beauty. You get claustrophobic just watching how they clamp down on a player and half-expect a Roberto Duran "no mas" moment from the player because they have to be near a nervous breakdown.
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