Letters to the Editor
Bukk63
Published Letters: 584 Editor's Choice: 64
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In the end...
[Read the article: "Idol" succeeds as a fundraiser but fails as entertainment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]American Idol is a show about being entertained by humiliation. All they did last night was shift the focus of the humiliation which entertains us to a different set of victims.
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If I was a Salon blogger...
[Read the article: Getting ready for the first Democratic debate]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...the incomprehensible and unrelenting comment spam rained down by Triple Pi Pairs would make my teeth ache, rendering any attempt at "communication" impossible.
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Schilling
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I grouped with Curt Schilling while playing Everquest. We were working one of the camps in Paludal Caverns. True story.
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People are insane
[Read the article: Storm over "penis" in Va. Tech shooting photo]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A) It's not his dick. B) Who cares if it is? It's a newsworthy photo from a shocking event. It's not a picture of a penis, it's a picture of the victim of a crime and the people who've come to help him. Good grief.
Anyone who looks at the picture and gets upset that they are seeing a penis is probably a person who sees penises in their Cheerios. Delusional, irrational, pathological. Take your pick.
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Today's topic
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I never understand the "oh my gawd yesterday X happened and you didn't write about it" comments. Yeah, it was a big basketball weekend, and yeah, King wrote more about something other than basketball than about basketball, and yeah when he did write about basketball he wrote more about one game than another game.
And. Um. So?
Are you folks really all that desperate for writing about your narrow item of focus that you can't stand the thought that this one guy didn't devote 18 column inches to it? What? Is no one else talking about the Bulls today, and King was your last forlorn hope?
Personally, I read King because there's a high likelihood that he's NOT always going to be talking about the most gigantamundous story of the day. Or maybe he is. It doesn't matter, because King talks about what King talks about it -- which is about the vagaries of human nature. Often the sports is almost incidental. Furthermore, he writes with a snappy style full of self-deprecating humor that I find interesting.
Some days he's more interesting than others. But every day he writes about what he wants to write about, and if you don't know that by now, it's time to go back to school for some reading comprehension lessons. He ain't your bitch.
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President Guiliani?
[Read the article: Polling snapshot: President Giuliani?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]All along, I've though he was running the Great Big Joke® campaign. He's amusing, so long as you keep him away from children, sharp objects, and matches. But as president?
That is truly frightening.
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Only...
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...a rich white guy like NBA Commissioner David Stern would suggest there's not racial bias in officiating in the NBA. Stern may be, as you say, generally thoughtful about race (I'm not convinced, but I won't argue the point), but what he is not is reasonable or open to criticism when it comes to the officiating in the NBA, which sucks hard. Beyond that, as you say, his rejection of the study simply doesn't pass the sniff test.
The real problem though is the narcissistic prima donna approach too many NBA referees have with their job. Racial bias may be difficult to control. Even people who actively combat in themselves may demonstrate it unconsciously. But what the NBA could do is stop hiring referees with delusions of grandeur and related personality disorders. And then, oh, I dunno, officiate consistently with the same rules for everyone and for every game.
Crazy talk, I know, but it might just work.
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Yes
[Read the article: The battle for California, as seen by bike. Part 2]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'd certainly be interested.
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Why does this guy get air time?
[Read the article: Gay discrimination? Thompson takes it all back]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I mean, Crazy Uncle Bob isn't the half of it. If I declare for president will I get interviewed on teevee? Lemme tell ya about what I think about what, um, uh. What was the question?
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King Kaufmann!
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Stop the hatin' on King, King!
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Anything that makes David Stern unhappy
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Can't be all bad. You go, Sir Charles!
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I think Bonds is a dick
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And he's not someone I want my own kids to emulate, either in interpersonal style or choices. I think he most likely knowingly took steroids, and I think he's most likely very much the kind of person he seems to be in media depictions: petulant, narcissistic, etc.
And. I hope he surpasses Hank Aaron, and I think he should be voted into the Hall of Fame, because I think he's arguably the best baseball player ever. Certainly a top-ten.
Oh, and I'm a white guy.
Here's the thing. I love baseball. I love watching it, and I love playing it -- though at my age I can only manage a little softball now myself. Whatever.
What I don't buy into is the epic mythos of the Grande Purity of Baseball.
Professional baseball is like everything else in America: fundamental grasping and greedy, looking for any edge in making a buck. Bonds is only doing what most Americans do -- looking out for himself. The myth of sportsmanship and fair play is laid bare for the farce it is before we ever get to the level of professional sports, so the fact that Bonds probably cheats and we're all collectively waving our hankies in alarum is just a joke.
What he does is sometimes hit the hell out of the ball, and it's cool to watch. And it's not like the rest of them aren't juiced as well. And it's not like dicks and grasping cheaters aren't a fact of life in the whole history of baseball, and the whole history of America. Hell, the whole history of the world. Who are we fooling by pretending otherwise? Only ourselves.
In the big scheme of things, I think it would be great if sportsmanship really did matter. But it doesn't. It's a pretty word we trot out to rationalize our willful blindness.
So you know what? I don't care. Bonds has been amazing to watch, juiced or otherwise, dick or otherwise. And if Ty Cobb is in the Hall, keeping Bonds out would only be evidence of our hypocrisy. He's good entertainment. He does what he's paid to do, and juiced or not, dick or not, he's done it better than anyone else.