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The principles that rule this blog

Principles that will govern my thoughts as I express them here (from my opening statement):


  • Freedom of the individual should be as total as possible, limited only by the fact that nobody should be free to cause physical injury to another, or to deprive another person of his freedoms.
  • Government is necessary primarily to provide those services that private enterprise won't, or won't at a price that people can afford.
  • No person has a right to have his own beliefs on religious, moral, political, or other controversial issues imposed on others who do not share those beliefs.

I believe that Abraham Lincoln expressed it very well:

“The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot
so well do, for themselves — in their separate, individual capacities.”


Comments will be invited, and I will attempt to reply to any comments that are offered in a serious and non-abusive manner. However, I will not tolerate abusive or profane language (my reasoning is that this is my blog, and so I can control it; I wouldn't interfere with your using such language on your own!)

If anyone finds an opinion that I express to be contrary to my principles, they are welcome to point this out. I hope that I can make a rational case for my comments. Because, in fact, one label I'll happily accept is rationalist.

Thursday, May 03, 2012

What a "sport"!?

The papers today write of a former player in the National Football League, Junior Seau, who apparently committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. At least one author of an article suspected he shot himself in the chest so his brain would be intact and could be studied to see the effects of concussions he had received over the years in his football career.

Another story making the rounds of the papers is the league's suspending various people (players and coaching staff) in the New Orleans franchise over their placing rewards on their team's seriously injuring opposing team players.

It's in the nature of football — a “sport” that seems to be nothing more than unbridled violence. Many people, a few decades ago, were calling for the abolition of boxing because of its violence — I think football is at least as bad, and I think perhaps that “sport” in more deserving of a ban.

I'm not a big sports fan — the only sport I care about is baseball. But I notice that when someone has a sports-only channel playing on a TV in my vicinity, if it's showing basketball, or soccer, or hockey, I'll mostly be just bored. But when it's football, I'm downright disgusted. I'll wince and close my eyes. I really can't understand why this “sport” is becoming the most popular sport in the U. S. A. Are our people really so bloodthirsty?

And I suppose this popularity is why we'll never see football banned. Which is the real pity.

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