Monday, February 8, 2016

Rampant Stupidity

I don’t have a particular article for a number of reason, many of which come down to me watching the Super Bowl. Nevertheless, I have a few things I’d like to mention.

Race & Cam Newton: During Super Bowl week, I was saddened that Cam Newton suggested that part of the criticism aimed at him is the result of his race. This isn’t true. Yes, there is a lot of nasty, unwarranted and false criticism aimed at Newton, but I don’t see any of it having a racial component. If anything, there is a generational component. Indeed, much of the criticism seems to be centered around Cam acting in a way that differs than the older, more staid quarterbacks of the last couple generations (he’s like a throwback to the guys from the 60’s and 70’s). More accurately, however, this is just trolls doing what they always do – making themselves feel better by spewing hate and idiocy at better people.

What troubles me is that Cam reached for the race explanation when none of it even suggests a racial component. Newton is a role model and as such, I would hope that he would be much more careful about accepting such a dangerous and controversial explanation without at least some justification. Indeed, isn’t it funny that we are cautioned not to assume that Islam was a motivating factor when Islamic terrorists killed non-Muslims and claimed they did it in an Islamic jihad, yet it’s acceptable for a black quarterback to blame racism as the basis for criticism of conduct that many people simply consider unsportsmanlike and without a hint of anyone suggesting a racial component to their thinking.

Race & Beyonce: Bizarrely, Beyonce decided to perform a song at the Super Bowl halftime which supports Black Lives Matter and which includes the line “stop shooting us.” My response is simple. We aren’t shooting you. You are shooting each other. What’s more, if anyone has a grievance, it’s whites being killed by black thugs. Why don’t you care about that?

A Hostile Press: I’ve been fascinating watching the NFL-centric media doing their best of late to destroy the NFL. It’s really become an obsessively, paranoid adversarial relationship. Indeed, the media obsesses over the issue of concussions, their view that the NFL is unfairly trying to destroy Tom Brady, is covering up for Peyton Manning’s supposed use of human growth hormone, etc. Seriously, the coverage has long ago left the realm of reporting or even advocacy reporting and slipped firmly into a realm that is vaguely similar to when an obsessed loser wants the world to know that their ex-significant other is worse than Hitler.

This has been fascinating to watch, particularly as it compares to the political media and their relationship to politics. Read a site like Huffpo or watch MSNBC and you see a similar obsessiveness with the focus on the absolute destruction of their mortal enemies, i.e. anyone not on the far left. It’s frankly amazing that a group of supposed professionals could lose touch with reality so completely that they could become seething cauldrons of rage whose sole purpose is to destroy people they have been hired to report upon.

I wonder if this is how groups like the Nazis develop secret police so easily?

A New Species: I have been wondering about this Zika virus. Is this how evolution works perhaps? I can easily see this thing spreading to the point that it becomes ubiquitous. Add to that, that we don’t know yet what will happen when the affected children have their own children. But it’s quite easy, frankly, to see this leading to a permanent change in humanity. Interesting thought. Interesting too how quickly it could work this change. Rather than being a slow process that takes tens of thousands of years and hundreds of generations, this thing could change half the world in only a generation or two.

Bush: Jeb made a point that needs to be shot down. He whined that he could drop his pants and the media would still ignore him. The implication is that a candidacy depends on the press because the press decides how much exposure a candidate gets.

The thing is, Trump has proven that’s not true. Trump, like Reagan (and that’s the only time I’ll ever compare those two men), has shown that a candidate can make themselves relevant by being relevant. In other words, if you are compelling, the media will give you the following you need whether they want to or not because they simply cannot afford to ignore you. So my response to Bush is that this just highlights how poor he is as a candidate.

I will also add that ironically, Billionaire Trump’s rise and Bush’s failure has proven that money does not control politics, as the Democrats want to believe. Being compelling brings coverage and interest and an audience whether you spend money or not (Trump hasn’t). And conversely, money cannot save you from being worthless as a candidate (as Bush’s futile spending has shown).

Thoughts?

35 comments:

tryanmax said...

Spot on with that last point. I heard on the radio that Trump's biggest campaign expenditure has been on swag, including his "Make America Great" trucker caps which caused quite a stir on their own.

AndrewPrice said...

tryanmax, It's kind of funny to me how money is the root of all evil, yet money hasn't helped Bush and hasn't helped Hillary, and Trump and Sanders have done what they've done without money.

Ultimately, I would say that money helps one clone stand out from another, but is powerless against someone who actually reaches the voters.

ScottDS said...

Apparently the Zika virus has made its way to Florida, up to and including the county just south of the one I live in. If I spot any disturbing behavior, I'll be sure to report it... but it's South Florida, thus making it hard to tell the difference!

Re: politics, I stumbled across this article, which attempts to explain why Ted Cruz' face looks the way it does and why many find it unsettling. ;-)

GRATUITOUS PLUG ALERT!

For the last two weeks and counting, I've been doing one movie poster a day, mainly with typography and free/public domain imagery. Check them out here. :-)

tryanmax said...

I just find Cruz unsettling because he's a stinker. He continually distorts the other candidates' records and stances as well as his own in order to exaggerate the distinctions between them. In other words, he's dishonest in the way the best liars always are: he never really lies. *wink wink* I don't need to see his face to make that conclusion.

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, It will be everywhere soon. This one hides too well to isolate it.

Nice posters!

AndrewPrice said...

tryanmax, I find Cruz to be very typical of the wrong end of the legal profession. He seems like the kind of guy who is abusive to staff and you can't trust a single thing he says because everything is caveated.

BevfromNYC said...

What is up with Cam Newton? He spent all week declaring himself God's Gift To Football. Then the Panthers lose and he refuses to speak. There should be some kind of fine for unsportsmanlike behavior...

2. I go out of my way to avoid Beyoncé at all cost. Found she was in the 1/2 time show and changed the channel. She is everything that is wrong with women today. IMHO..

3. Zika virus is scary, but that's why virus' are so hard to treat or develop vaccines to combat. They evolve faster than any other creature on the planet.

4. re Money in politics - It is not how much money you have to spend, it's how you spend it. Trump knows how to play the media, so he managed to get over $50M worth of free publicity leading up to Iowa.

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, I'm actually going to defend Newton here. First, he was very gracious to Manning on the field. Secondly, at the interview, he said point blank that the Broncos beat them and he listed what the Panthers did wrong. Then he walked out when the questions just kept coming back to the same thing over and over. Third, this had to be a shock because all the experts expected a Carolina blowout and they got crushed.

Could he have handled it better? Sure. But he never whined about it. He didn't shift the blame. He didn't try to claim they should have won the game "except for". To me, that's not bad sportsmanship. Bad sportsmanship is trying to diminish the other guy's victory, shift blame or excuse it.

Also, he didn't really declare himself God's gift to football. He spent the week basically being annoyed by the constant media attention.


I agree about Beyonce. Whiny. Entitled. And promotes this false "girl power" garbage that disdains actual achievement as a basis for earning respect.

On Zika, I saw a fascinating discussion once about AIDS and other retroviruses, and there is a theory out there that these are what cause the DNA changes that have driven evolution. If true, that would fill all the gaps in the theory very easily. This Zika thing strikes me as maybe we are seeing that in action.

On money, I think this all really shows that you can make money largely irrelevant if you know what you are doing, and that blows away the entire Democratic whine about money controlling who gets elected.

EPorvaznik said...

>>I agree about Beyonce. Whiny. Entitled. And promotes this false "girl power" garbage that disdains actual achievement as a basis for earning respect.>>

Masses for bootylicious asses now past her expiration date. Put a ringed sock in it.

ScottDS, loving those posters, notably the Black Hawk Down and Heathers ones, the latter pulling one of my favorite deep-cut quotes.

Koshcat said...

I don't think it isn't necessarily racist to point out that none of the current while quarterbacks would have walked off the plane in those pants. Not that it is a bad thing but the black players do like their bling.

Newton and the Panthers learned that just because everyone says you are the better team and are expected to win doesn't mean it will happen. The Denver defense crushed them and broke their spirit. I really liked how the Panther's coach handled the post game interviews. Very classy. Because of him, I expect the team to be back.

Viruses cause changes in DNA through multiple mechanisms over time. Zika is not new and I suspect it has been around for centuries. Generally it is a nuisance virus. It probably comes and goes. When it flares, people develop immunity and then it dies out. After awhile subsequent generations lose the immunity allowing it to flare.

I would be curious to see if Bush is right and have him drop his trousers during a townhall. He could have a funny pair of boxers on. At this point, he may be right in that it may be the only way for the people and media to pay attention to HIM.

I don't watch the half-time shows. Scared of seeing another floppy, sad breast flop out.

Tennessee Jed said...

As much as I am saddened by it, I do understand why a guy like Newton goes for the race card so quickly. It is a gut reflex, based, not entirely, on a history of bad race relations and fed by politicians and media whose own interests are served by it. It is not a reaction based on reasoned critical thinking.

Tennessee Jed said...

Even in my own case, I was pissed at "Yonce" who brings the worst of race relations and dwindling morals in our society together in an unholy alliance. If anyone happened to watch HBO's mini-series Rome several years back, you might have noticed a subtle similarity with today's society. Now I may be a geezer, but was never a holier than thou sort. Still, I can't help but wonder if our secularist ion is leading to an overall decline. I also, perversely, wondered if ISIS captured Beyoncé, would they use her as a sex slave or just behead her?

AndrewPrice said...

Eric, I concur. She's well past her sell-by date.

AndrewPrice said...

Koshcat, I think they got caught up in the hype and weren't prepared fro Wade Phillips to play such an attacking style of defense. It was very high risk, but he really never gave them any room to breathe. And I'll bet it was a shock to them to be manhandled like that when they thought they would be the ones doing the manhandling.

I like Rivera a lot and suspect he will have them back several times. They seem like a rising contender. Of course, I would expect Denver to be back too, especially as Osweiler improves.

What amazes me about the Zika thing is how widespread it got itself so fast. It seemed to go from nothing to everywhere in weeks.

Bush might as well try it at this point. LOL!

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, I suspect ISIS would behead her and then use her as a sex slave. That seems like their thing.

I agree about Newton and I think that's the problem. I think it's being taught as a reflex that race is always one of the key elements of anything involving blacks. That kind of thinking is disastrous.

ScottDS said...

EPorvaznik -

Thanks! Those are two of my favorites.

Kit said...

Jed,

re Rome; it is worth remembering that show is set in the mid-to-late 1st century BC, ending with the reign of Augustus when Rome started its golden age streak of about 150-200 years.

Kit said...

correction: "ending with the start of the reign of Augustus"

Kit said...

Oh, any thoughts on that silly Doritos commercial featuring the unborn baby on the ultrasound hungry for Doritos chips?
LINK

And any thoughts on the pro-abortion group NARAL slamming it for "using #antichoice tactic of humanizing fetuses"?

BevfromNYC said...

Kit - I for one hate when someone tries to "humanize" babies...but that's just me.

If you followed on Twitter, every single commercial was wrought with some kind "political statement". Like that wonderful Hyundai ad with the old senile astronaut. On the face it was so sweet, but the first was "they are letting some old senile man drive a car that fast and while we're at it, why not an old senile FEMALE astronaut, huh???

It was about that time that I turned over to Downton Abbey where all is grace and charm.

EPorvaznik said...

>>I agree about Newton and I think that's the problem. I think it's being taught as a reflex that race is always one of the key elements of anything involving blacks. That kind of thinking is disastrous.>>

Sadly, if my experience on the LA “subway” (quotation marks in deference to my Long Island wife, who mockingly chuckles whenever hearing “subway” outside the context of NYC’s) this past weekend’s any indication, don't expect it to get better any time soon. Guerrilla-style webcast camera crew (damned if I can remember their call-letters), hopped on-board a few stops shy of Hollywood, and proceeded to interview select people with the none-too-subtle query, “Does racism still exist?” Please bear in mind 25ish years ago, the sound and camera guys could easily have been extras on the set of Forrest Gump, fake-bothered by the title character breaking up their Black Panther Party, and the gal doing the interviewing could have been Angela Davis’ stand-in. Again, none-too-subtle questioning. Clad in my X shirt, straight outta The Cult’s gig a couple hours earlier, I apparently didn’t meet their target demo, and they walked on past me to the other end of the car. Ahhhh, if only they’d known I had been cuttin’ heads with some young brothas I heard on the corener as I left the concert a few minutes earlier, joyfully swappin’ lines from the Fear of a Black Hat soundtrack, watching their eyes light up to see an O.H. (O-riginal Honkey) like myself spittin’ out “Fuck the security guards,” “Ice froggy frog,” and adapting “Bald and black” to “Balding and black” before signing off with the Rhyme Animal – “Yo, man, fuck Hollywood.” Yeah, content of character and not color of skin, most definitely not the guerrilla crew’s demo.

I truly feel sorry for this generation (no offense to Kit and ScottDS, who repeatedly prove themselves exceptions to the millennial rule), who didn’t get to experience a natural and gradual dissipation of racism following the genuine turmoil and racial upheaval of the 1960s. I’m most certainly not naïve enough to say I haven’t witnessed racism in my life (thanks to my stunningly bigoted grandfather (RIP), my dad has on more than one occasion said he wants to sue Norman Lear over rights to Archie Bunker), but thanks to a time when Hollywood (and society) was responsibly attentive to the race issue, my friends and I saw people of all colors and religions interacting together because they liked each other -- Welcome Back, Kotter, Chico and the Man, The White Shadow -- or watched race relations handled comedically and dramatically when the gravitas dictated – Diff’rent Strokes, Sanford & Son, or the All in the Family stable of shows. Nothing was force-fed, no “affirmative action” casting to meet a quota. To bum a line from his Royal Purpleness, black, white, Puerto Rican – everybody’s just a-freakin’! Glorious days and good times indeed!

I have confidence we can get back that time, but Lord knows it won’t be easy, not thanks to the last 7+ years of race-baiting being condoned and practiced from the Oval Office and Attorney Generals’ offices, setting race relations perilously back 40 years.

ScottDS said...

(no offense to Kit and ScottDS, who repeatedly prove themselves exceptions to the millennial rule)

Aww, thanks. But I must point out that there is a world of difference between the first millennials (i.e.: me) and young people today who might as well constitute an entirely different generation. (Never knowing a life without the Internet makes a good dividing line.)

AndrewPrice said...

Kit, I thought the Doritos commercial was kind of silly. It's just meant to shock you and they clearly ran out of other things to shock people with. It does seem to have upset people though.

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, LOL! There's irony for you... "humanizing" a baby. What are they if not human? Oh yeah, economic impediments.

AndrewPrice said...

Eric, An OH LOL! Nice! :)

On race, the evidence suggests that most people are moving well beyond it, but there are still holdovers and it's too bad that someone like Newton reflexively goes back to that old trope.

EPorvaznik said...

>> But I must point out that there is a world of difference between the first millennials (i.e.: me) and young people today who might as well constitute an entirely different generation. (Never knowing a life without the Internet makes a good dividing line.) >>

Good to know as I tend to see the divide at Pre- and Post-Partcipation Trophy. ;-)

Koshcat said...

The Cult? One of those bands I heard about growing up but I don't think I could name or recognize any of their songs. With today's tender children regarding race, I wonder how they would have handled a band such as N.W.A.? Further, they see themselves as sooo sensitive but I'm not sure they would have handled the AIDS epidemic any better. Has this generation actually had a well known person die of AIDS?

Now get off my lawn while I walk uphill both ways to work in a blizzard.

BevfromNYC said...

Scott - You and Kit are certainly the exception. Both of you have a wonderful sense of history. But, the dividing line for me is "Have ever used a typewriter or touchtone landline or, God forbid, a payphone?" If the answer is...a blank stare, I know what I am dealing with. ;-)

Did anyone else miss the Budweiser Clydesdales? I did. Those were the best...

Kit said...

I'm 26 so I can't quite remember a world w/o internet but I can remember it just getting started.

BevfromNYC said...

EP - Wonderful rant! There was a time where we used humor to make a point. All of those '60's and '70's shows you name made a very important point, but with humor. I just recently was watching an old episode of the "Flip Wilson Show" and it made me sad. He dealt with complicated racial issues with amazing humor while still making a strong point. We've lost our sense of humor...

BevfromNYC said...

Koshcat - re: AIDS. We may see it with the Zika virus. I am not sure my generation handled AIDS all that well. Instead of taking it serious as a major health crisis, we kind of turned it into a political crisis.

AndrewPrice said...

Kit2075, I'm only 26, so I can't quite remember a world before they ran the internet right through everyone's heads.

Not sure how I feel about that.

AndrewPrice said...

Bev and Kosh, every generation should get their own disease. For Millenials, I vote for Flaming Diarrhea Pocks. :)

EPorvaznik said...

Thanks, Bev, and added tip o' my cap re. The Flip Wilson Show, which I forgot to mention in the above. One of my early favorite shows (reruns, natch), gloriously re-watching of late via the Up Network. Beautiful one this past weekend featuring Don Rickles and Ray Charles, too, illustrating the genius of all three, notably "Geraldine" singing with Ray. Yup, I had a great childhood.

EPorvaznik said...

Thanks, Bev, and added tip o' my cap re. The Flip Wilson Show, which I forgot to mention in the above. One of my early favorite shows (reruns, natch), gloriously re-watching of late via the Up Network. Beautiful one this past weekend featuring Don Rickles and Ray Charles, too, illustrating the genius of all three, notably "Geraldine" singing with Ray. Yup, I had a great childhood.

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