Joe > Average

'Sports' following is a non-productive surrogate for competitive desires, Baron. It's like videogames, gambling, or anything temporarily fun & addictive that absorbs the same signals from the frontal lobe. It's not a necessity, like sex or eating. But competitive desires and the 'will to power' is. So I propose that these desires be channeled into more effective uses.

Circa 2003, Americans were more interested in the superbowl than the invasion of Iraq. I found this unacceptable.

LOL @ that pic .

Great point about the remakes. I happen to like the Manson version. I also, though I find it inferior to the original, like his I Put a Spell on You as well. Good point about Motown too. I personally think that, aside from the Boone treatment, there were a lot of great remakes in that era. It seems a lot of standards were done by a lot of different artists too back then. Another thing about the beef thing in light of you all's legendary consumption. I do at least find it refreshing to see countries like yours and Hungary where they still actually use the whole thing .

I'm not much of a gamer myself, but I have to also defend even video games. As long as its good clean fun and not some date rape simulator, I don't see the problem with it. If it were their last day to live and they spent their free time playing video games, I don't think they'd regret that they weren't reading Aristotle instead. Truth be told, they could be playing with toys, but I just see it as another person off the streets that could be picking my pocket instead. As to the Iraq thing, I don't see how what you watch on television has anything to do with how you feel about the troops. The Super Bowl is the highest rated American event every year to be sure, but I would imagine troubling times would only increase ratings as fun things are more of a comfort. The only things I could have thought to do was go to war myself, write letters or donate to the families. Whether I watch CNN or ESPN neither reduces the death toll or helps or hinders me or anyone in any of those efforts. Back to the sports thing though, even though I still wouldn't agree, I could probably understand an argument that the entertainment industry as a whole was a waste of time rather than just singling out sports. All in all, I still maintain that 'wast of time' is relative. You used sex and eating as examples of the opposite whereas some would call recreational sex and eating a waste of time. Take us for example. We're into fashion whereas most people I know can't name a single model in their 20s. The world sucks in a lot of ways, so if you work hard and take care of your responsibilities, it doesn't matter to me whether you fancy sitting in a rocking chair chewing tabacco, playing dodgeball or watching paint dry in your free time.

As to the question of what would people do without sports, the answer is easy. I'll take it a step further. Take away sports, art, music, television and movies right now and people will just replace it with something else. The desire to compete, the desire to be entertained and the desire to have fun are just natural desires for the majority of the population. Its like the question, 'what if you got rid of all the drugs?' Easy, people would just find other ways to get high . Even with the desire to get stonned not being as common as the desire for general entertainment, they'd start mixing stuff and burning plants until they found a way .

^^^

No, friends, I'm not discounting 'fun'. There's nothing wrong with hobbies and moderation- I have hobbies myself- BZ as of right now, but still. I'm discounting the value of this particular cultural hegemony. I don't like hegemony. I can't go to a single general-purpose party or enter groups where sports is not a topic of conversation, somewhere. It seems that fascination with sports absorbs the personalities of far too many people until it becomes the dominant interest. It makes some people banal. And I can't escape from it. It's unfortunate, because there are societies and eras where this is not the case: for instance, right now with the Chinese and the Indians & immigrants I meet... They're all about reality.

If we were alive during the 1930s, the fascination would center around putting food on the table. In World war 2, the fascination would be, pragmatically, about the war. If we were alive during the 1960s, the cold war and the space race were the subject of fascination. Objects of fascination get influence, and activities get accomplished in service of these fascinations.

The Average American knows diddley squat about history, military strategy, and war, and has never met a war veteran in their life. This fact appeared in our politics, and drove the decisions that went through. The mass media, which exerts influence beyond its value in revenues, responded accordingly. The American people were distracted by 'fun'.

Iraq was a failure (from a humanist's standpoint), frankly because Americans failed to manage the political will, and fell prey to demagogues and smooth-brained ideologies on all sides. Our society failed to secure the high ground with this issue because they, in the aggregate, failed to grasp the real-world big picture. One cannot blame it all on Congress, the president, and all the politicians.

The 'big picture' problem is still there, with free-market fundamentalism and class-warfare BS being touted today as if they were intelligent ideas by those involved in economic policies.

My sports and music record helped me on just my earliest employment and the undergrad ap. That's the only reason why I did it. Because I had to fulfill the edict of the institutional imperative. Just like- for instance- if I wanted to attend graduate school right now it would help if I appeared to be 'a good American liberal' and worked for non-profits (and I don't, because I don't need a graduate degree, and second, I'm not interested in non-profits). I'd love to be renumerated for those childhood years- since I had to make up for it as an adult. The clear winners, from my vantage point, were the public-sector sports/music workers that were compensated with public monies.

Back to my original statements to Layla- before the tangents...that is.. children need to spend less time living for today and more time living for tomorrow. They have so little time left.

----------------

^

looking at that again, I realize that this conversation got a little more heated than I expected and it also was pretty boring for me to type out. Anyway, Joe, I appreciate your point of view though I see things differently. So I hope that we, from now on, prefer posting about the 'fun'...!

I thought my post was the last on the other page . I do indeed like trams then .

Well, I wouldn't call it heated. I find it refreshing just to see actual conversations around here in general whether they agree or not as it seems that even though there's ten times as many members and posts now, the percentage of actual conversations has decreased.

I also can't deny that there are several aspects of sports culture that I find disturbing. On the extreme end, some take it too seriously to the point of being violent toward other fans and players whether it be verbal or physical. Of course, I dare say that if that same person weren't into sports, those flaws would have likely surfaced in the form or road rage or some other capacity. That said, it is common in sports culture. On the small end, even though I am a huge sports fan, I somewhat resent the idea of assuming that any random strange man I meet is also a sports fan just because he's a man. I'll never start a conversation with a stranger like, 'how bout those Yankees?' or whatever. Sports is a huge deal in China. With the Olympics in particular, there is far more pressure on their athletes even compared to the US and possibly even slightly more than Russia if that's possible.

There's over a billion people there, so naturally you can find many who aren't into it obviously, just like there are more English speakers there than we have in America even. People definitely owe it to those fighting for them to know something about what's going on. Of course, my war sentiment is purely the sentiment toward the troops and their families. I don't care for most wars though. I know that if you're attacked, you pretty much have to respond or else the people won't feel safe and you'll also lose respect. Of course, whether you respond with the proper knowledge and make the best choices based on that knowledge and how long to drag it out is a different story. I can also surely understand a situation whereby interceding on behalf of someone else is necessary or a situation like the Spartans whereby you're a small country or city state actually trying to protect yourself against a foe that outnumbers you. That's not to say that I would have done any better in the shoes of any of our presidents mind you. Its a tough call. Sometimes you can have the greater numbers and wealth, but if your foe is one that will never give up, there really are no winners and no one really learns anything they didn't already know anyway. As to fun on the other hand...

also your discussion in here seems interesting. i will read when i get time

That is interresting that two players who are so different are so much alike at the same time .

There have been shows that got cancelled before the first episode, shows cancelled after the second episode, shows sent to specialty and cable stations and various other situations. I haven't seen tons and tons of

non-cartoon shows

by any means, but have had the misfortune of getting involved with a show only to see it cancelled halfway throught first season with mysteries and questions that will never be resolved. These likely didn't have that problem and if they did, at least they were put down quickly enough for it to be merciful by comparisson.

South of Sunset - never seen it, but apparently gone before one could even check in at the Hotel California. Sorry, couldn't resist .

Year: 1993

Type: detective

Episodes: 1

Most famous person in it: Glenn Frey from the Eagles

Public Morals - I haven't seen it, but maybe someone should give it another shot .

Year: 1996

Type: Police Comedy

Episodes: 1

Most famous person in it: NYPD Blue actor Bill Brochtrup

Lawless

Year: 1997

Type: Private Investigator

Episodes: 1

Most famous person in it: NFL football player Brian Bosworth

Dot Comedy - this one obviously came out years before Youtube and such.

Year: 2000

Type: Funny stuff from the web

Episodes: 1

Most famous person in it: ?

Comedians Unleased - later the network wold succeed with different animal variations of Funniest Videos and such.

Year: 2002

Type: Animal Humor

Episodes: 1

Most famous person in it: Byron Allen

Emily's Reasons Why Not - the title seems somewhat ominous in retrospect even though I've never heard of it.

Year: 2006

Type: Sitcom

Episodes: 1

Most famous person in it: Actress Heather Graham

Korgoth of Barbaria - its said that it wasn't cost efficient. I haven't seen it, but I wonder why they didn't just make it cheaper. I suppose some just won't compromise even in the face of gettin the ax and that's respectable.

Year: 2006

Type: Adult Swim

Episodes: 1

Most famous person in it: Aaron Springer

The Rich List - aired during the World Series

Year: 2006

Type: Game Show

Episodes: 1

Most famous person in it: Weakest Link producers

The Debbie King Show - this one was actually cancelled in a few hours

Year: 2007

Type: Game Show

Episodes: 1

Most famous person in it: Debbie King

Secret Talents of the Stars - this one I have heard of . I didn't expect a second season although I did expect a full season . Its said that the ratings were extremely low.

Year: 2008

Type: Reality Competition

Episodes: 1

Most famous person in it: Various Celebrities

Osbournes Reloaded - I actually have heard of this one although I've never stayed for any installment more than a half of a minute. I would expect a guy that bites bat heads to be reality gold, but I guess you have to tone it down for the family. Aside from that, I don't find the family particularly interresting.

Year: 2009

Type: Reality

Episodes: 1

Most famous person in it: Ozzy Osbourne and or the Osbournes

Impact Westling - with the WWE buying up all of its competiton left and right, its hard for upcoming companies to get or keep any big names. I haven't seen this one, but I imagine that is the reason it didn't make it.

Year: 2012

Type: Pro Wrestling

Episodes: 1

Most famous person in it: ?

Oh yeah, for sure. I just don't like to write too much when I'm on BZ...I like being lazy... A few paragraphs at most with no giant wall to wall debates .....truth be told, I don't think that I would have written my diatribe about the olympics if I wasn't affected by the death of an acquaintance during that time...

----

Anyway, I know how to speak conversational Mandarin- it was my foreign language training and I've done some traveling in Asia. Most of my time was spent in Taiwan. I know the island and its capital the best. I've surrounded by foreigners and people who are first, second, or third generation. They make up half of my closest associates. My ex. spent time in Kenya, and my father spent a decade in Congo and Somalia. The attitudes towards what needs to be done in the developing world and the third world is just different. I know many personal stories from Indians and Chinese people. People that rise from poorer places have to literally 'work smart' and 'work' several times harder than people from developed places. Sometimes, it's just to survive and sustain life in a shanty-town. This instinct then becomes a disciplining agent, and makes their children or children's children, who immigrate to Europe and North America very different from the nationals that live there. Their grasp of what needs to be done ....and their temporal sense as well of mental conception of reality is tougher and more desperate. Unfortunately, this also makes them much more grim and joyless...

I thought my post was the last on the other page . I do indeed like trams then .

Well, I wouldn't call it heated. I find it refreshing just to see actual conversations around here in general whether they agree or not as it seems that even though there's ten times as many members and posts now, the percentage of actual conversations has decreased.

I also can't deny that there are several aspects of sports culture that I find disturbing. On the extreme end, some take it too seriously to the point of being violent toward other fans and players whether it be verbal or physical. Of course, I dare say that if that same person weren't into sports, those flaws would have likely surfaced in the form or road rage or some other capacity. That said, it is common in sports culture. On the small end, even though I am a huge sports fan, I somewhat resent the idea of assuming that any random strange man I meet is also a sports fan just because he's a man. I'll never start a conversation with a stranger like, 'how bout those Yankees?' or whatever. Sports is a huge deal in China. With the Olympics in particular, there is far more pressure on their athletes even compared to the US and possibly even slightly more than Russia if that's possible.

There's over a billion people there, so naturally you can find many who aren't into it obviously, just like there are more English speakers there than we have in America even. People definitely owe it to those fighting for them to know something about what's going on. Of course, my war sentiment is purely the sentiment toward the troops and their families. I don't care for most wars though. I know that if you're attacked, you pretty much have to respond or else the people won't feel safe and you'll also lose respect. Of course, whether you respond with the proper knowledge and make the best choices based on that knowledge and how long to drag it out is a different story. I can also surely understand a situation whereby interceding on behalf of someone else is necessary or a situation like the Spartans whereby you're a small country or city state actually trying to protect yourself against a foe that outnumbers you. That's not to say that I would have done any better in the shoes of any of our presidents mind you. Its a tough call. Sometimes you can have the greater numbers and wealth, but if your foe is one that will never give up, there really are no winners and no one really learns anything they didn't already know anyway. As to fun on the other hand...

At one time in my life this was the biggest song around in Canada Really?

Another thing about the beef thing in light of you all's legendary consumption. I do at least find it refreshing to see countries like yours and Hungary where they still actually use the whole thing .

^

Haha, a little bit. I write a lot by BZ standards per post, but not by my own. I hold back on a lot- actually most of my potential written words due to variations in appropriateness, interest, and time constraints.

Its definitely a shame to work hard and get no joy out of it. Some of my greatest memories are working outside before the sun came up to after it went down. That said, I wasn't in a developing country or trying to support a family either, so there wasn't much on the line there .

I know what you mean about trying to not write that much. For me, its just natural both because I type fast and I tend to just blurt out what comes to mind in general life . Some surprise me when I see how long they are and I actually try to edit many of them to make them shorter. As a side note though, that Karlie's growing on me. At first she was winning me with her smile, but then lost points for the whole thin top lip, fuller bottom lip combo. Now that I'm seeing more of her editorials, she's growing on me again.

About that song being popular in Canada, if it makes you feel better, Tik Tok by Ke$ha has the record for most one week downloads in American history .

LOL @ the show clip and tongue in cheek comment . As to the show, maybe someone should give that one another shot. I suppose since everything from the 80s is being remade, remaking things from the 90s will eventually become the fad in its place.

Well, Baron, that comment about the cuts is ironic because it almost made me add to a list I was ashamed to admit to .

One thing's for sure, by the time you get to junior high school, almost anything can be conscrued as a sex joke of some kind. Some things take a bit of a reach and others make it a little easier. Unfortunately, I've never been that great at being on my guard and these statements are proof of that. Not only were these either taken out of context genuinely and on purpose, but resulted in merciless ridicule from my friends as a result.

10. We're friends with benefits - referring to the exchange of actual business

9. She knows I like to squeeze em' - a female friend of mine threw away some of my bubble wrap stash.

8. I can do it all night long - well, I suppose I was asking for it on that one .

7. Nuts make some pretty good milk - referring to literal milk made from nuts. There are several varieties of nuts used to produce milk.

6. Brazil nuts are a bit too big - referring to the actual food Brazil nuts that were considerably larger than the nuts I was used to.

5. I went down on her - I leterally fell on top of some poor girl and was carrying a bag to boot. It so happens that I said this to a girlfriend to, so that choice of words wasn't the best in more ways than one .

4. She couldn't take it all in - news about a sports team's failings

3. I like going in from behind - referring to a paint ball ambush

2. She just likes it on her face, but not in her mouth - referring to a woman that uses some water spray on her face, but spits it out if it gets in her mouth

1. Hey man, you were amazing last night - though obviously referring to his performance on the field, I regretted it instantly .

Joesph, check your PM's. I've sent you two

Well, Baron, that comment about the cuts is ironic because it almost made me add to a list I was ashamed to admit to .

My Quotes Most Misconstrued as Um...Suggestive...

One thing's for sure, by the time you get to junior high school, almost anything can be conscrued as a sex joke of some kind. Some things take a bit of a reach and others make it a little easier. Unfortunately, I've never been that great at being on my guard and these statements are proof of that. Not only were these either taken out of context genuinely and on purpose, but resulted in merciless ridicule from my friends as a result.

10. We're friends with benefits - referring to the exchange of actual business

9. She knows I like to squeeze em' - a female friend of mine threw away some of my bubble wrap stash.

8. I can do it all night long - well, I suppose I was asking for it on that one .

7. Nuts make some pretty good milk - referring to literal milk made from nuts. There are several varieties of nuts used to produce milk.

6. Brazil nuts are a bit too big - referring to the actual food Brazil nuts that were considerably larger than the nuts I was used to.

5. I went down on her - I leterally fell on top of some poor girl and was carrying a bag to boot. It so happens that I said this to a girlfriend to, so that choice of words wasn't the best in more ways than one .

4. She couldn't take it all in - news about a sports team's failings

3. I like going in from behind - referring to a paint ball ambush

2. She just likes it on her face, but not in her mouth - referring to a woman that uses some water spray on her face, but spits it out if it gets in her mouth

1. Hey man, you were amazing last night - though obviously referring to his performance on the field, I regretted it instantly .

I thought my post was the last on the other page . I do indeed like trams then .

I genuinely enjoy this song so damn much. You have no idea

And people think Nicki Minaj is bad

Yankin

A term used to refer to a vagina with multiple STDs. Often with visible blisters and/or warts, accompanied usually by a terrible stench.

or

Yankin

Yankin: When the pussy is so good that when you try and pull ya dick out that shit be pullin back. Ya dick just can't stop stroking.

Girl: This pussy ain't had no teacher, but it's been trained.

Either way it's win...

Though I'm still getting used to this new system, I think I'm updated on the pms now. Ironically I get a lot more pms now and you also didn't answer mine before that and it was about WOW besides . .

I'm glad you got a laugh out of it as each came at my peril at the time. Well, I've still yet to live down most . I find it fun to ride into downtown areas or even other cities in general. I particularly like going from the city to country or vise versa as the contrast seems somehow more interresting that way. I prefer a windown seat and at least the occassional stop though as I like to stretch my legs a bit. That said, either an interresting conversation with a stranger, a friend or two to tag along, some strange and funny characters, nice scenery or even just a good book with some headsets make it worthwhile on my end .

I definitely couldn't believe that song the first time I heard it and laugh every time .

Just remember:

And finally:

There is some justice afterall