Letters to the Editor
droogoy
Published Letters: 589 Editor's Choice: 9
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Back in the day
[Read the article: Are kids worth the cost?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]ajbuckle wrote:
If you think that kids burden the world so much, how do you justify your continuing to live? You were a child once too, should your parents have aborted you instead?
Well, back in the day - when my folks had me - the population of the world was 0.4b less than its 'carrying capacity' of three billion people. Hence, there was not the planetary burden there is now - when we have 6.5 billion people, and each N. American imposes an eco footprint of over 500 hectares in his or her lieftime.
In addition, consuming energy-petrol at an ever increasing rate of 2% more per year.
It was also not the economic burden it is today. In 1950s Milwaukee, the city's Socialist mayor provided free kinder care, family health care and the Catholc schools were FREE. Bank interest rates were 4-5% and a family could easily afford to have one spouse stay at home. Whole different ball game.
No such luck today. Thus, comparing the two eras in terms of burdens results in differing conclusions.
As Isaac Asimov noted in his great essay on population control in his book 'The Stars in Their Courses':
"The childless woman is the great heroine today and the one who merits kudos and respect for saving the planet from human growth and trepidation. She is the one that merits honors, as opposed to those who simply reproduce"
Asimov was also one of the first to point out the carrying capacity of the planet and the dire consequences:
"We have a choice- we can either control our numbers, or nature will it for us. And the ways she chooses may not be to our liking"
Say like, uh....antibiotic resistant bacteria such as MRSA or c. diff.
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Bonds not commparable to "other players"
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]bkreit wrote:
Yeah, Bonds cheated, and he probably lied, and he is probably a jerk. But the reaction to all that has been disproportional to his crimes, has ignored what a lot of other players have done.
Maybe, maybe not. But that's beside the point. The point is that "other players" did not steal, befoul and besmirch one of the most hallowed records in all sports. The HR record.
That this record - even if asterisked- could reside with this swine and turd drives me insane. It ruins the game for most of us, or what was left of the game. Yeah, the commissioner himself holds part of the blame because of the laxity with which the issue was handled. But, ultimately it was Bonds who did "the cream" and now must be reamed.
I prefer to see the record revert back to Henry Aaron if Bonds is convicted. To restore at least some semblance of dignity to the game's heritage and to a decent, law-abiding man who never deserved such an abominable fate.
As I noted in other earlier threads, Barry Bonds is not fit to lick the soles of Aaron's wingtips. Even if they have dog shit all over them.
P.S. If you don't know Mike Coolbaugh, there's a remarkable device called "google" that can help. Again, baseball is much more than entertainment, it has a venerable history and is still - to many - the national pastime.
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Stupid fuckers
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Kstone vomited:
Coach Coolbaugh died doing something he probably loved. That you are using his death to castigate others who, correctly, stated that baseball is just entertainment probably makes you the stupid fucker.
NO asshole. It makes you about the stupidest fucker and imbecile this side of Zeta Reticuli. For conflating a game, the national pastime, with a venerable history and tradition, with fucking shallow crappola "entertainment"
I don't give a fuck what the game has become now with "big buiness". I have followed it from the 1940s, 1950s- the Jackie Robinson era, Brookly Dodgers, Milwaukee Braves, and Warren Spahn, etc. Don't tell me and many other legions of fans that what we have followed since then was merely "entertainment"
It just shows what a shallow stupid fucker you are, and as we saw from previous thread on this, merely an apologist for criminals like Bonds.
You ought to be ashamed for even posting such vile shit, as should the rest of your ilk. It's a good thing at least one or two generations remain alive to know and recall what baseball once was- as opposed to little wet behind the ears Johnny come laterly Gen X'ers or knotheads who don't know any of the game's history or heritage.
Moron.
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Movies v. baseball
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]King Kaufmann wrote:
Are the movies somehow not entertainment because people sometimes die in accidents while making them?
False analogy, again. MOvies are fictional works of art based on unfolding artifact. E.g. they are not even real as they are made or put together. They shoot maybe 20 hrs. of film, but maybe 18 hrs. end up on the cutting room floor. A ficitious product emerging from a fictitious script or storyline. Yeah. stunt doubles may bite it during filming, but that's a different kettle of fish.
Re: baseball, the GAME unfolds in real time. As you yourself pointed out, all those statistics count. "Game editors" don't go back to all the film records of any game - say the Milw. Braves game 7 win over the Yanks in 1957 and change the ending - as can be done in a movie.
In other words, we are talking chalk and cheese. Movies ain't baseball and baseball ain't movies - and anyone who makes such a daft generalization doesn't understand either.
Re: the HR record, you maybe have a point on the intertwined stats. So I will happily settle for a big ol' asterisk after Bonds' name.