Football and war

[Johonny]

Why is it every football program has to break to thank the troops defending our freedom? Not once a year, not just during say Vets da but every freaking game. Does every show on TV have to pimp the Bush war. I can see now Tony Saprano pausing in the middle of every episode to give a very special thanks to those serving oour country at home and abroad. Here's a thought. Every working fucking American is serving America in some way. Get the fuck over the military and throw a little love to the rest of us. Or just stop the praising. It's a football game.

The Red Sox just won there first world series in nearly100 years. Let's cut to some long suffering fans, but first a reaction shot of our troops watching in Iraq... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[demgrrrll]

1. I read about sports being a diversion from what is really going

on in the world. Chomsky writes about sports as being an integral part of the way the government sells their policies and keeps people in line. If you look at the last election it seemed like a big sports tail gate party. We win you are a bunch of losers. Another writer who used sports analogies in an interesting way was Becker in his book Denial of Death. He wrote that people believe you can achieve immortality via sports and that there was not many ways short of war or sports that people could perform heroic deeds which in could lead to some sort of immortality. Oh hell that is a little weighty lets go have a cold one and buy one of those big foam hands.

[Telly Savalas]

4. How does Chomsky explain...

the numerous Italian soccer teams that have actively leftist fans? It's not unusual to see fans holding giant pictures of Che Guevara or anti-Bush banners in stadiums there.

Maybe it's just my false conciousness speaking, but I think it's pretty ridiculous to suggest that my dissent is being co-opted because I enjoy watching a hockey game or a soccer match on TV every now and then.

[T Town Jake]

2. This post is just a tiny, ephemeral speck...

...of the kind of horseshit that gives Karl Rove a throbbing hard-on. Attacking football and the military all in one post? Yeah, right... :eyes: You're just the kind of so-called "Democrat" we all need to lead the party back to power...

[demgrrrll]

3. You have a point. I go to the NFL games here in town and right now

I can hear the football game in the next room, my husband is a huge fan and always votes a straight Democratic ticket. The issue is not the game itself. I was at a NFL game a couple of weeks ago and Pat Tillman was on the jumbo tron. I looked around and just about every corporate sponsor was a near 100% Republican contributor. There were points in the game where the military was mentioned or the military was somehow tied into breaks and jumbo tron commercials. The game is fine I just don't think that the Republican party should be so tied to the sport.

[fujiyama]

7. He's not attacking

either football or the military.

If you read his post properly, he's tired of constantly being bombarded by images of the military. This kind of constant militaristic imagery can be construed as propaganda.

Why can't sports be seperated from the military? Many of us are tired of hearing about this war in terms of it being some sort of great and noble gesture. I'm tired of hearing about this being a pursuit of "liberation".

I've seen the begining of both NASCAR and NFL games and I've seen this militaristic bullshit. It's generally very characteristic of fascist and totalitarian states where this sort of worship of the military is the case.

So please spare us your lecturing and your snide resonse. I suppose those of us that are tired of seeing images of the military in every daily aspect of our lives are "elitists" and "anti American" or whatever other bullshit.

[ComerPerro]

5. Its called propaganda, and its the only thing keeping Bush in office

Well, that and Diebold...

Interesting, isn't it? I can not think of a single instance when Clinton deployed troops that I even saw one American flag, saw one "support the troops" sticker or yellow ribbon, or heard anyone pray for our leaders and our troops.

In fact, it was quite the opposite.

Republicans know how to exploit people, and they know how to make and steal money. So, naturally, they are quite good at pimping war.

Of course, 9/11 made this all the easier. But that is another topic...

[Bush was AWOL]

6. That's a solid point re: lack of troop support when Clinton was president

I recall Republicans calling for his head when he deployed troops, even though the casualties were far lower than they've been in the current war.