Thursday, July 13, 2006
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LAT: Beyond Parody
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Posted by:
Mary Katharine Ham at
1:58 PM
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That World Cup head-butt was...wait for it...Bush's fault!
That is actually the subject of an actual column in the L.A. Times. Of course, those of you who've been reading Hugh's site for a while probably aren't that surprised. Oh, if Bush can be blamed for jerkiness among the French population, then the folks at LAT will never be short on column inches.
H/t Right Wing News.
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It is now being reported that French player Zinedine Zidane head butted Italy's Marco Materazzi in the chest for comments Materazzi made about Zidane's Mother and Sister. So, how old is Zidane? How many players over the years have made similar comments in sports to rattle their opponents? How many times has a linebacker shouted something over the line to an opposing QB to rattle him. How many opponents make comments to an opponent on a free throw line? How many catchers have made comments to batters? These are all boring questions. The interesting question is how many people have fallen prey to such comments. How many grown men have turned around and reacted in a violent manner to a person who presumably knows nothing of the other's mama? What Zidane did was equivalent, in my frame of reference, to Michael Jordan turning around and punching an opponent in game seven of an NBA finals game. You rarely see such idiocy on display, and I'd like to thank Zidane for tarnishing the French name even more with this childish display.
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This head-butt thing is getting WAY too much press. What is the big deal anyway? But in recognition of its purported newsworthiness, I am throwing my two cents in. I would like to give props to the Frenchie Zidane for putting this weasle on his tail.
There was a time when such abhorrent insults regarding one's mother was grounds for a duel. While this is admittedly excessive, the sticks and stones attitude toward even the most shameful and insulting comments I find equally offensive. Somebody calls my mother a wh*re or threatens her, they can expect what Marko got. To some, this may seem quaint. But in my opinion, contrary to "tarnishing the French name," Zidane demonstrated a quality sorely lacking in his country: a backbone. |
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There is historical precedence here, believe it or not.
Roosevelt, Churchill, et. al. saw Nazis everywhere in their time.
"Nazi" thus became a disparaging term filled with tons of negative connotations ... a situation that continues to this day!!
Bush is an idiot so I doubt his ploy of imbueing "terrorist" with negative imagery can match the staying power of Churchill's and Roosevelt's feat. Their "trickle-down politics" had such reach that it even had millions of Poles seeing "here a Nazi, there a Nazi, everywhere a Nazi," in September of 1939, it is said.
Nonetheless, despite the terrorists' best philanthropic efforts in New York, London, Madrid, Bombay, Bali (well, around the world to put it succinctly), Bush and Rove have still managed to sully the term "terrorist" in a way that would no doubt have Churchill and company smiling in their graves. |
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(re: pidgintodamax 07-14-2006 1:49pm et)
Interesting perspective pidgin! ...While it seems you and the LA Times' Ms. Morrison wouldn't see eye-to-eye on most things, somehow we think you'll agree she's on to something with that "Humor Deficit Disorder world" observation. |
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