Of course the U.S President of the United States, Donald Trump, should have ceased reactionary tweeting when he took office at the White House. Of course he should not have waded into this anthem kneeling chicanery enacted by NFL players through twitter. However; he is entitled to have an opinion with respect to protocols, conduct, and assembly of Americans in witness to the ceremony of the country’s national anthem.
Americans exercising their civil liberty are entitled to their opinion regarding each others’ conduct. If a citizen has a grudge to bear against their country, they have the freewill to express themselves within their law abiding rights. Each American has the autonomy to choose which way they wish to fight their civil battles within their rights. I suspect that many Americans lacking weekly television exposure while administering their own rights for justice would rather see NFL players take their grievance(s) to the appropriate forum for resolution rather than grandstanding in front of folks enthusiastic about watching some football.
I, personally, stopped watching football in 2014 upon learning of an NFL player beating his wife in a casino elevator. There was much ado about whether the player should be suspended by the league or not. The story line had morphed from the strategy of defensive alignment, pass protection, finger tip end zone catches, and fourth down late game conversions into a gong show about the conduct of privileged elite players having difficult managing themselves.
Chris Iorfida of the CBC has penned a thoughtful piece on the death of “Mixed Martial Arts” fighter Tim Hague. It was with great sadness that we learned of this tragedy. There will be an investigation and it’s looking like somebody responsible for the sanctioning of the contest is going to be up against some hard questions but in spite of the grilling, I suggest that the public at large needs to take a hard look at the savagery of these bouts and the appeal they have for their entertainment dollar. When UFC (Ultimate Fighting Challenge) first came out, I was frankly aghast. Call me conceited or pollyannaish but my instinct at the time was, “don’t these people have better things to do than watch their kindred get pummeled? Where have we gone as a society? What are we teaching our children? What would our bona fide soldiers from history think of our sense of amusement toward their means of sacrifice for our liberty?”
I recall sitting in a first year “ethics in sport” university class among fellow idealists of youth while witnessing the result of a poll conducted by our professor. “Who thinks boxing should be outlawed?” The result was overwhelmingly in favor. Appreciably, as Mr. Iorfida points out in his article, there are governing bodies set up with criteria in place for the purpose of ensuring that mismatches do not occur. However; something may have gone awry here and there’s nothing to say that the same outcome could not arise even if competitors are equally matched. I was a big football fan until the evidence started to pour in that men’s lives after football were being detrimentally affected because of the impact of repetitive brain blows. It took a class action law suit for the NFL elites to finally pay attention. I do actually adjust my way of thinking in lieu of facts as they are presented. Hopefully, the market for this kind of thing starts to dry up because of people’s refute of indignity while the aesthetic purity and tight regulatory execution of formal disciplines of “martial arts” thrives.
They chase a puck around a rink for multi-millions and reside in the U.S. preventing the imposition of Canada’s high rate of tax while you tote the j.o.b. for nickels in comparison. You pay into Canada’s social welfare state and sometimes irresponsibly pony up a three figure event ticket for an apparent privilege of sitting in beer and mustard stained seats. All the while your backdrop is emblazoned by the corporate logo of Scotiabank. Your neighbour to the left needs a pee break again because getting wasted is his idea of a night out on the town at the good ol’ hockey game. You lest not wait yourself for period intermission should the bladder be acute to line up anxiety. By the way – those multimillionaires want you to pay more tax for their new age arena and as for the Olympics….forget about it – the spirit doesn’t quite align with the profit motive and the violent spectacles for which you cheer, pay and celebrate. The hockey establishment has successfully marketed a strategy with a belief that in the absence of your own progressive realization of a life purpose, you will annually pay thousands for season tickets and the opportunity to witness another’s actualization of a capitalist ideal transmuted through a game. As a bonus you might get to see a street fight on skates and the manifestation of legal thwarting and impunity from assault laws.
Naturally, the Calgary Herald deleted my sarcastic post on Gary Bettman’s Calgary appearance. Hence; I reproduce it here. Oh Yes, BTW Ken King of the Calgary Flames apparently used to work for the Calgary Herald.
This is what I said “Expect the Calgary Herald to delete posts representing articulate opinions against the construction of a new arena. Apparently Gary Bettman knows what you need and cerebral folks have provided him a forum to patronize.”
Prior to his injury, Federer had dropped his number one ranking but today he has won the Australian Open. Tennis pundits in recent years have bestowed the best one handed backhand drive in the game to Stan Wawrinka and Richard Gasquet. Wawrinka most likely today generates the most power from the back hand wing and Gasquet utilizes more torque from a smaller physique. However; Roger Federer today demonstrated the importance of a compact back swing and set up to deal with the immense power generated by today’s tour players. While enjoying the highlights this morning, I noticed that Roger was always delivering the drive on the backhand side during service return when in years past he would often deliver the more defensive blocking style of return. It’s evident that in the run up to his tour return that his team put a focus on absolute conviction of the backhand drive from every backhand position on the court. This would have lead to more repetition in practice and mastery of set up. Today he delivered fluid cross court backhand winners at will with acute angles while managing points with sustained depth from the base line all in the context of that human back board on the other side, Rafael Nadal. Not only now a legend of the game, in Roger Federer tennis has never had a better ambassador of the sport.
