The Late John McCain & The Singapore Red Sox
It was the Columbia Journalism Review people who wondered whether an Onion parody had somehow slipped into the straight-faced Wall Street Journal account that Barack Obama’s slim good health is a political liability to a nation of fatsos.
On behalf of the late John McCain, who passed away recently to be replaced by a Karl Rove-created clone, the media gang has been Swift Boating and dismantling my son Barack at the finger-snap. Obama’s accomplishments are discounted, his support trivialized, his record rewritten, now even his slimness disparaged while John McCain’s campaign of lies, gaffes, blunders, miscalculations, flop-flips and eye-popping ineptitudes and cronyism is ignored entirely. Entirely.
Picking on a guy for being skinny may be the the latest depth of the rightwing media machine but we can feel confident it won’t be the last or the deepest. These are folks on a mission. It’s a contest and competition, smug and destructive. A sad business. George W. Bush, his legacy in McCain’s hands, smirks in satisfaction.
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Up in Boston, the Red Sox similarly continue their process of Singaporizing the franchise — eliminating any spark of personality, separate opinion, creating a white-bread team that promises success so long as the team and fans do exactly as the Leaders demand, in lockstep.
Risking whiplash, the fans and media who were praising the accomplishments of Manny Ramirez on one day, the next day now demonized the player to the 99th level of Hell. He has become a (not green) monster, a devil, and, of course, “a cancer.”
The “of course” is because that is exactly and precisely what the owners finger-snap from its lapdog media stooges when a Nomar or Pedro or other independent spirit, however flawed, strays from the ownership rules of behavior. Angels becomes devils in an instant. Great players become bums. A quiet player becomes a sulker. A chatty player becomes a distracting windbag. And the fans and talk show empty heads bleat along thoughtlessly.
But the baseball trains run on time.
1 Comment
What do you think?
Theo Epstein’s grandfather and granduncle wrote the screenplay for Casablanca. It’s considered to be the best script in movie history. The second best script is the ongoing narrative chronicling the ups and downs of the Boston Red Sox. The latest chapter: Manny gets an exit visa and is last seen in Bean Town on a foggy night at Logan. Out there on the tarmac.
Denis, Denis, Denis. I’m shocked! Management isn’t wrong ALL the time. What organization, be it a newspaper, a real estate office, whatever, would put up with the long list of idiotic behavior we saw ( the tip of the iceberg we saw ) perpetrated by Manny Ramirez? Refusing to work. Making a cell phone call as a pitching change is being made. Attacking a 64 year old man in the clubhouse. Slapping a teammate in the dugout. Chronic lack of hustle down the 1st base line. You may be right about the other guys who got exit visas. But Manny’s a different story.
And if he acts out that way in L.A.? I hope L.A. does what Boston did. Another foggy night at an airport. That scene once more. Play it again, Sam.