Less worse

Today is the NFL Draft. I'm glad the wait is almost over, but I'm also wondering how long I will be able to continue putting up with the obvious moral squalor of my favorite sport and what it does to those who participate. I am also a Trekkie, and when I face criticism for that, I can always comfort myself with the knowledge that my favorite franchise is not Star Wars.*

So it is cheering today to be reminded that there is a worse alleged sport, one in which inflicting brain damage is directly the way to win, rather than a byproduct. (Even hockey has aims other than blunt trauma.) In news that should surprise no one, the best boxer of our time has discovered that the skills transfer.

While I'm at it, The NY Times did a follow-up story on the first round picks of the 1990 draft (the first one I watched), and John Scalzi relates it to his rookie class.

*But now the same guy is directing both, and I feel as if my team has signed a treaty with Von Ribbentrop.

Thanx to Metafilter, and Whatever.

Charles Pierce in the quotefile again

Consider what's being said here. Judge Pape is thanking the governor for having the Texas guard "monitor" an Army training exercise because too many of their voters are bughouse crazy. There are Americans who go to sleep at night worrying that they will be abducted by renegade gynocologists from Alpha Centauri. We call those people "crackpots." In Texas, organized paranoids are just another constituency to be serviced.

--Charles Pierce

League of Alleged Gentlemen

There are still all-male clubs in England. oursin discusses.