Showing posts with label flies on the wall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flies on the wall. Show all posts
Monday, October 13, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Me, Baseball, and Cheaters
I grew up in one of those immigrant families that embraced baseball as their personal savior. It was such a uniquely American thing that to take it into your heart was almost a shortcut to becoming a real American. It was one of the rare things we did together as a family that didn't turn into a brawl over politics, relationships, or the lack of and type of religious observance. It was a sweet memory in a past filled with tears, pain, and disillusionment. Without it my childhood would have been absolutely unbearable instead of merely bad.
That's why I quit watching it at all a couple years ago when the talk of performance-enhancing drugs started to surface. I didn't want to reward cheating, I didn't want to turn away from the betrayal I felt over discovering the one pure thing of my life was a lie same as most of the rest of it. I didn't want my youthful escape from the misery to take its place alongside the lying, cheating politicians that had taken over the government. I didn't want my rare and few innocent moments of childhood to take a seat at the same table where the corrupt corporate whores fed.
I wanted baseball to remain pure, to be a shining example of what passion and talent and skill could accomplish if one was only determined enough and strong enough. Baseball was the American dream played out on a field where everyone had a chance to feature themselves in the starring role of saving the day. It was America as I wanted America to be. It was the pure moment in a world of lies.
But instead it became a game of who had the best doctor, who could find the most secretive substance that could escape detection, who became the best at fooling their own bodies into believing they were super, powerful machines. Baseball became a lie played by dishonest lying cheaters. It became everything most people once used it to escape from.
What the powers behind the players and even the players themselves failed to understand was that most of us would have been happy with less home runs, less superhuman plays, less miracle wins because none of that really mattered. We watched because it was fun. Because it was a game that was as much a social event as it was a sport. And because it was pure and simple and entertaining. We made players into heroes not only because of what they could do on the field, but because of the dreams they could awaken in us. The ones who led us to believe that we too could succeed as they had succeeded were the ones who became our heroes.
And that is what pisses me off the most about all this and why I quit watching baseball. Not only did the cheaters cheapen the whole sport, they also took away a whole new generation's ability to dream. For that alone they should have asterisks forever by their names as a symbol of the wrong they can never right so history will always remember them as the cheaters who destroyed the dream that baseball was for so many of us. It is the only fair punishment.
That's why I quit watching it at all a couple years ago when the talk of performance-enhancing drugs started to surface. I didn't want to reward cheating, I didn't want to turn away from the betrayal I felt over discovering the one pure thing of my life was a lie same as most of the rest of it. I didn't want my youthful escape from the misery to take its place alongside the lying, cheating politicians that had taken over the government. I didn't want my rare and few innocent moments of childhood to take a seat at the same table where the corrupt corporate whores fed.
I wanted baseball to remain pure, to be a shining example of what passion and talent and skill could accomplish if one was only determined enough and strong enough. Baseball was the American dream played out on a field where everyone had a chance to feature themselves in the starring role of saving the day. It was America as I wanted America to be. It was the pure moment in a world of lies.
But instead it became a game of who had the best doctor, who could find the most secretive substance that could escape detection, who became the best at fooling their own bodies into believing they were super, powerful machines. Baseball became a lie played by dishonest lying cheaters. It became everything most people once used it to escape from.
What the powers behind the players and even the players themselves failed to understand was that most of us would have been happy with less home runs, less superhuman plays, less miracle wins because none of that really mattered. We watched because it was fun. Because it was a game that was as much a social event as it was a sport. And because it was pure and simple and entertaining. We made players into heroes not only because of what they could do on the field, but because of the dreams they could awaken in us. The ones who led us to believe that we too could succeed as they had succeeded were the ones who became our heroes.
And that is what pisses me off the most about all this and why I quit watching baseball. Not only did the cheaters cheapen the whole sport, they also took away a whole new generation's ability to dream. For that alone they should have asterisks forever by their names as a symbol of the wrong they can never right so history will always remember them as the cheaters who destroyed the dream that baseball was for so many of us. It is the only fair punishment.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Kucinich, Paul, and Mass Hallucinations
This is so bizarre on the face of it that you just have to wonder what either of them are thinking. Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich on the same ticket? View the hallucination here.
And for those who think this is some sort of demented excellent idea, do a little reading on Ron Paul beyond the anti-war smokescreen. Here's ten good reasons NOT to vote for him Ten good reasons
Still not convinced? Do some reading on his good buddies the John Birch Society
So tell me again how a racist, anti-choice, environment destroying, homophobic, religious wacko is a good running mate for Dennis Kucinich? I'm waiting....
Sunday, December 09, 2007
The Bush Legacy
There's a certain element of disgust, a kind of bile that rises up in me when I see how desperately Bush is floundering for a legacy that won't put his grandchildren to shame. And then I remember that they will be Bush grandchildren and those genes are devoid of such things as shame. When they study the history of Grandpa Dubya he'll be lost in a crowd of other sleazy war criminals guilty of treason, thievery, unethical and immoral behavior, and crimes against everything that didn't crime against them first. Every year they will hold the annual family picnic at the Torture Park, a memorial especially for Dubya that will be famous for the statue of Liberty permanently encased in an Abu Ghraib hood for all the generations who come after to see. That will be his legacy, just like Torquemada and other historical slime. The pigeons will shit on it and no one will dare wipe it off for fear of altering his legacy. The bums and other creatures of the night will piss on it until the smell becomes so overpowering over time that the stench of it will become synonymous with the name Bush. Only then will his legacy be complete.
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Friday, December 07, 2007
About those flies....
I've had this idea for a while that cartoons are a good venue for some political thoughts and opinions. We do live in a cartoon universe when it really does come down to it, don't we? And because with the coming election season it is going to get absolutely crazy, then more words just can't capture all the fun of watching the ever-expanding field of lunacy compete for first place in the flat-earth, fundie whacko, who-you-calling-a-cult insane asylum we call a Presidential election. So since one of my favorite books as a child was "Lord Of The Flies" then it only makes sense that I would create a cartoon called "Flies On The Wall." You'll be able to follow their adventures all through the next few months when those rare occasions present themselves that words are just not enough to capture the sheer idiocy of the political candidates. Sometimes you just need a good fly to do the talking for you.
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