Saturday, April 09, 2005

Take Your Sports Seriously?

You know, I always have heard from Texans that they take their football very seriously, but this story really pushes the envelope. They still aren't sure exactly why he did it I guess, but theories abound. When in doubt, I like to blame it on the water. I wonder what he'll blame it on? The coach probably wouldn't let his son play enough. There was actually a South Park about that last week, where Stan's Dad was getting in fights with the opposing Little League dads. Why did almost never happen twenty years ago, and now we hear multiple stories about it every year? What kind of insanity is gripping people? Can the water really be that bad everywhere?

I generally like the idea when corporate execs take voluntarily cut their own salaries as a statement of loyalty to their companies. The only problem is, the people that do it are not usually the people that deserve to make one dollar a year. It's the Googles and the Apples of the world it seems, and not the Enrons and the Tycos of the world. Those Google people and Steve Jobs at Apple deserve all the rewards they want because they do a great job of running their very profitable companies, and they treat their employees well. It looks like the Cisco CEO took a similar cut when the business was doing poorly though, and I have to give him credit for that. Of course I know that their regular salary is only a part of their earnings, a small part even, but it's more than a symbolic gesture.

Who knew that beanbags could kill you? I still like the trend toward effective non-lethal force in cases like this though. Police like it, the community they serve likes it, everyone is happy. When Gomer is coming off a bender and waving a butter knife at the police from a hundred feet away, he probably doesn't deserve the death penalty. Unfortunately for Gomer, he probably won't be any brighter after he sleeps it off in jail.

9 comments:

Paul Mitchell said...

I don't believe that you think that it's something in the water. I am pretty sure that you do have a good idea about what is causing a rash of crimes and other violence that was unheard of twenty years ago. With your educational background, you should KNOW BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT.

I do remember back in 1983, here in Mississippi we had a murder-suicide in a protable classroom at one of our local high schools. At this particular point, that was just completely unthinkable. Then the school shootings started at Pearl High School in central Mississippi, the Kentucky one, and finally Columbine.

Erik, I fully blame this wave of violence from a shift in personal responsibility to one of a victim mentality. soundboyz even alluded to this trend and said he understood the outcome. Until we, as a country, decide to quit thinking in terms of some kind of moral relativism and turn back to the simplicity of calling something RIGHT or WRONG, we shall continue to slide into this abyss. This should be "nose on your face" kinda stuff.

And the guy that was killed called the Police and told them that he was thinking about hurting children with a gun. He accidentally got dead. Boo hoo. Maybe someone else will think twice now about the same kinda sick behavior.

Erik Grow said...

I would tend to agree with you Two Dogs, though I would probably not extend the right and wrong to *quite* as many areas as you would. In other words the political areas. However, on the kinds of issues that EVERYone, Dem and Rep believe in, yeah those have suffered too. Moral relativism is reserved for political issues. Nobody thinks shooting up schools is acceptable aside from the ones that do it, so there must be something else to it.

Paul Mitchell said...

Something else to it? Do you actually believe that the moves we make to blur the distinctions between right and wrong can't be the culprit? Erik, we have stood by and watched as our country lets movies like "Boyz in the Hood" get released and then believe that our kids aren't going to act this way? And yes, I liked the movie.

We have attempted to provide a gradually decaying society over the past forty years. We have reduced the marriage rate, lowered our education standards, allowed for abortion on demand for any reason, removed our religious symbols from every corner of our communities and you think that there has to be another reason.

Like I said, this should be "nose on your face" kinda stuff. You can continue to ignore the obvious or look to the past to see what is different. That is one of the screamingly obvious things that just sends me over the cliff.

Erik, we can sit by and continue to watch our society devour itself because we don't want to hurt anyone's FEELINGS or we can make the hard choices that are going to move toward straightening things out in the long run.

I guess that is where my problem with being a moderate starts. There are people that refuse to accept there are glaring problems with what they believe. I guess that a better way to say that is that they simply refuse to formulate a belief. Moral relativism doesn't start with political areas or even end there. There are many areas that I disagree with the law, but I have to continue to follow that law or make attempts to change them.

Wayne World said...

Two Dogs, I do believe that you are twisting the truth , as usual, to try to support your points. The point that I made in my post regarding school shootings was that children are lashing out because they are tired and angry at other children who feel that it's their right to pick on and bully them. I was making the point that Americans need to learn how to respect and accept everyone and not pick on others because of some difference that they may have. I also concluded that it was not right to retaliate by shooting up schools and killing people, however one should think real long and hard before deciding to bully someone else because one never knows who is going to respond in that manner!

Paul Mitchell said...

But, my point was that you, as well as everyone else, understood what was going on. You posted that these people were outcasts and that you knew why they struck back, ie the bullying.

And, dammit, why do I always get blamed for twisting the truth? Truth is FACT, my interpretation of why the truth is any particular way is just that, my opinion. When I say that these kids killed people or that Social Security is basically insolvent, those are FACTS. What to do about them is up for interpretation, and as y'all know, I got my damn opinion.

Erik Grow said...

Wait a minute, movies like you mentioned, abortion, and removal of religious symbols are what is causing the problems? What religious symbols have been removed by the way that "used to be on street corners"? Movies and symbols won't make any difference to a kid that has been brought up to know *basic* right from wrong. No stealing, assaulting, killing, and so on. The abortion issue is the last thing on most kids' minds. Movies alone certainly aren't going to turn kids into killers. Are you also saying that church helps people not kill?

Doesn't it seem more plausible that very often substance abuse problems that lead to parental abuse and neglect leave these kids more open to "street forces"?

It seems like that is the one thing that whether the other factors you mention are there or not, will make all of the difference.

Paul Mitchell said...

Erik, we, as parents, all make mistakes. I hesitate to believe that all kids that get into trouble come from abusive backgrounds. My point is that our country spends an awful lot of time being offended that our rights are getting trampled, but we continue to try to make sure no one gets their little feelings hurt at the expense of trampling our rights.

It wasn't too long ago that being a kid meant going to work on the family farm or in a factory. We are raising kids these days that are just soft. Is this a problem? Yea, and to continue to deny that abortion is on kids minds is irresponsible. You actually advocate teaching kids to have sex, so it better be on their little minds.

Hey, this world is a cruel, cruel place. If you want to grow up to a good life, better wear a cup.

Erik Grow said...

So kids don't figure out sex on their own without teaching them? Come on Two Dogs, you were young not THAT long ago, weren't you? I never gave abortion a second thought other than I knew that it existed, and it existed since my mother was a couple months pregnant. Kids being soft and kids being violent are two very different issues I think.

Paul Mitchell said...

Yea, two different issue stemming from the same problems. As parents, we try to make sure that our kids never have to experience the hardships that we did at the risk of making sure they never experience bumps and bruises.

My point is this, if we never allow our children to get scraped up, we shield them from all of the joys as well. That equal but opposite reaction thing in person. We have turned our kids into fat, slovenly turds that sit around and play video games all day. They never have to get along with other kids in person because they are playing on-line games and IMing all day.

Then when the kids finally do have to relate to other kids, they are at an extreme disadavantage. One of the things that I hardly ever see anymore are the kid's pick-up games of basketball and baseball in the parks around our area. I do see mothers and their children at the swing set, but there are generally no other kids playing with kids.