I don't know why ESPN is pushing soccer so hard these days. America has plenty of sports; we don't need to import another boring, useless one. Their top story on last night's 10pm Eastern SportsCenter was...the Euro 2008 final??? YO, ESPN!!! WE DON'T GIVE A **** ABOUT SOCCER!!! SOCCER SUCKS!!! STICK TO AMERICAN SPORTS! This indicates to me, more and more, how ESPN continues to go downhill.
Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I realized something on our trip to South Dakota a couple of weeks back, and it was confirmed by something I saw in our neighborhood. Remember how you have to have a Germanic-sounding name to succeed in truck-related industries? Apparently, you have to have a goofy pun name to succeed in small-scale cargo trailers. The ones I've seen to this point: Wells Cargo. Lode Runner. Haulmark.
Ugh.
Heidi and I watched the end of North and South this weekend (you know, that miniseries from the mid-80s with Patrick Swayze). I always enjoyed that, but it took a little doing for Heidi, as she's not much of a Patrick Swayze fan. Anyway, watching it always boggles my mind to a degree, and perhaps more so today, because the portrayal of the political turmoil of the 1850s leading up to the Civil War/War Between The States. I can't even imagine how it must have been. We have a pretty crazy political atmosphere these days, and it has been particularly bad since the 2000 election, and yet, no one talks about secession. Lots of liberals threatened to move to Canada, but even in today's poisoned political atmosphere of "no compromise, no retreat, no surrender" and continuing balkanization of everybody-vs.-white-America and splitting people out by ethnic background or whatever, there is no one pushing very hard to just split the nation up and let the chips fall where they may. Honestly, though, I think there are lot of folks, both on the coasts and in the Midwest, who would be happier and who believe in their hearts that things would probably be better for everyone involved if we were just to acknowledge that we can't live together and separate everyone out. I would personally be in favor of splitting the South and Midwest out from the coasts.
That might be a little simplistic, though; I think we're beginning to see more effect of the nihilism that is bred in the cities, leaching into the suburbs and countryside through the mainstream media. I remarked to Heidi just last night, after seeing a book at Barnes and Noble called "Skinny Bitch in the Kitch", that our society has become so crass. It is that very type of urban, me-first, nothing-is-sacred, obscenity-sells attitude that has poisoned civility and individual freedom in America, because it has destroyed the idea of personal responsibility that we claim to stand for. It has leached into everything in American life, and it continues today. In fact, I posit that this overriding concept that has removed the cultural identity that forced the South to secede nearly 180 years ago. They saw their Southern way of life under attack. Considering the United States was nearly 80 years old when the Southern states seceded, the fact that their cultural identity trumped their national identity is fascinating. They still saw themselves as Southerners first. Our American way of life has been radically altered over the past 40 years, but it has occurred so slowly that we have hardly recognized it. We have permitted the minorities (not just ethnic minorities, but political minorities) to negate or marginalize America's core values, while claiming to be upholding them. Maybe one day we'll stand all together again, and say, "no more."
I'm not holding my breath, though.
For some reason, I've been very excited about baseball lately. It's not that I've suddenly fallen in love with it again or anything like that. I have been thinking a lot about going back to umpiring, though, and maybe that's what's driving me in that direction. I watched the Cubs-White Sox game last night, and listened to it on the radio while I cleaned out the garage, and I was thoroughly engrossed for the entire game. That's a good thing (sorry, Martha).
Chong is off in Israel for a brief "vacation", but bless him, he's been checking the blog regularly. Hi, Chong! I hope you make it back in one piece...that's kind of a...umm...volatile area you're visiting. Keep your powder dry.
I've been getting a lot of search hits that past few weeks, for three different topics/terms:
1. Horatio G. Spafford
2. Zeroscaping (actually, xeriscaping)
3. What's the first thing you know?
Search for these here on the blog to find why I keep getting hits for these. Seriously, I get 3-6 hits a day just for these three terms. It's very consistent.
Well, time to sign off for now. Thanks for reading along.
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