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Violent Crime and American Football

I was looking at Google Trends the other day and something strange stood out to me: A rather unfamiliar name appeared three times in the top ten search result with two different spellings. I knew immediately that I had to do some kind of investigation to find out who this man was and why everyone was searching for information about him and the faux-celebrity known as Tila Tequila.

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A Ten Foot Frame for a Five Inch Watercolor

Super Bowl 43 was played last night and the Steelers beat the Cardinals 27-23 in a barnburner for the centuries.  The problem with the NBC broadcast was not the game, but rather the massive, and unnecessary 10-foot frame of spectacle, commercialism and crass self-promotion that overpowered the delicate watercolor of a beautifully executed game of football.

Continue reading → A Ten Foot Frame for a Five Inch Watercolor

Vick Back on the Street and in the Field

It looks like Michael Vick might just be back on a football field sooner than we thought and slower than we hoped:

Michael Vick said he was remorseful for his past actions involving his dogfighting activities as he entered a guilty plea to state charges Tuesday at the Sussex County Courthouse. In a plea deal that was agreed upon before he travelled from Leavenworth, Kansas to the Hopewell Regional Jail in Virginia, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback pleaded guilty to charges of attending, sponsoring and promoting dogfighting.

Vick, who didn’t plead guilty to animal cruelty, received a three-year suspended jail term and four years of probation. The prison term is suspended provided Vick can display good behavior for four years.

“Remorse” is not enough.  Vick should serve our his full prison punishment and rightfully confess to animal cruelty — even if he didn’t plead to it — and then completely reveal his moral and financial role in the killing of dogs for betting profit.

Texas High School Football: The Wrongful Elevation of Childhood Ego

I was raised in Nebraska where American college football rules Saturday afternoons for three months a year.

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Oh Noes, O.J.!

Double murderer O.J. Simpson is back in the news making an unwelcome return to using his parsing of words to point the blame, not at himself, but rather at others he feels unduly influence him.

It is fascinating to watch Simpson skate and dance and prevaricate his way out of a mess while he celebrates his return to the public eye.

I fear we will never be without O.J.’s influence because he knows how to take advantage of shared semiotics and the duality of semantic communication to better only his selfish ends in life and, I believe, his self-enrichment will continue to strangle us beyond his death and into our graves.

O.J. Simpson has marked us all in the eye and ear for all of eternity and we are all the worse for his wearing.