If you needed one more reason to throw fuuuuuhhhhhhhhhttttttttball in the woods, here it is:
During halftime of NBC’s coverage of the Philadelphia Eagles versus the Dallas Cowboys, NBC Sports analyst Bob Costas made a plea for gun control during his weekly commentary on “Sunday Night Football.”
Responding to the weekend murder-suicide by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, Costas relied on a column by writer Jason Whitlock, formerly of the Kansas City Star, to make a gun-control argument.
“Well, you knew it was coming. In the aftermath of the nearly unfathomable events in Kansas City, that most mindless of sports clichés was heard yet again: ‘Something like this really puts it all in perspective.’ Well, if so, that sort of perspective has a very short shelf life since we will inevitably hear about the perspective we have supposedly again regained the next time ugly reality intrudes upon our game,” Costas said.
“Please, those who need tragedies to continually re-calibrate their sense of proportion about sports will seem to have little hope about achieving perspective,” he continued. “You want some actual perspective on this? Well, a bit of it comes from a Kansas City-based writer — Jason Whitlock — with whom I don’t always agree, but who today said it so well that we may as well just quote or paraphrase from the end of his article.”
Costas quoted Whitlock’s suggestion that a gun ban would have prevented the tragedy.
“‘Our current gun culture,’ Whitlock wrote, ‘ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy. And more convenience store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead. Handguns do not enhance our safety. They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it. In the coming days, Jovan Belcher’s actions and their possible connection to football will be analyzed. Who knows? But here,’ wrote Jason Whitlock, ‘is what I believe — if Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Cassandra Perkins would both be alive today.’”
Our culture needs a revolution. One to promote health and safety. One to increase productivity and restore dignity to every American. We have far too much harmful and distracting stuff. It’s time for parents and community leaders to rise up. To take back the implements of violence, gluttony, and insolence. To strengthen and focus our workforce, to once again lead the world.
Semis and pickup trucks must roll down every road, by every home. Going door to door, every home must be emptied of the following things:
All guns, knives, ammunition, explosives, and toxic chemicals. Violence is not the answer. We can’t afford losses to production due to death, injury, and coercion based on force.
All silverware, dishes, tables and chairs, storage containers, cupboards, pantries, appliances, and cooking utensils and devices. Obesity and gluttony are running rampant. Small amounts of leftovers, and opened unfinished packages of food can be kept in the home. But the family is to eat its meals at the place of employment. Where portions can be monitored and controlled.We need a vigorous and fit workforce. One that can meet its targets and exceed required standards. One that will live to an advanced age, and remain productive throughout its life span.
Finally all tools are to be confiscated. As well as computers, laptops, video cameras, and sound recorders. Tools can be misused for theft, to gain unlawful access. Tools are to remain at a jobsite, and to be the property of their jobsite. Computers and hardware that can copy or record can be misused as well. Intellectual property and ideas remain the property of their creator, or a rights holder.
TVs, media players, game consoles, stereos, furniture, consumer electronics, and toys will all be confiscated. Luxury items and status brand clothing and personal effects are not permitted. The use of items overly stylish or elegant is not to be encouraged. Items are to be durable, functional, and of good construction., well-suited to purpose and not part of fads or trends.
Homes are places to rest, to relax, to study and learn, to perfect and hone one’s skills as a production worker. Time not spent working is to be used to read train, develop communication skills, to invent, and to team build. Being a well-rested, well-groomed, eager and capable production worker is essential. Homes are to be kept uncluttered, clean, and conducive to a well functioning and productive economy.
With these simple, straight-forward corrections. America will regain her cutting edge, and her leadership role in the world economy. The pointless charades and lies will come to an end. We will once again increase exports, reduce imports, earn our way out of debt and deficits, and stop hindering the economies of the world.
The police actions and wars will have to be prosecuted at the factory, and worksop level as it was before. Americans will no longer have time or ability to consumed propaganda, and becoming overly dependent on the state will have to be attempted through the mails, or on a one-to-one basis.
Jason Whitlock’s conclusion:
if Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Cassandra Perkins would both be alive today.’
does not logically follow.
Without a gun, Jovan may have used another method of killing. He could have used a knife, poison, automobile or any number of different tools/methods to kill his girlfriend and then himself.
One example from the NY Daily News.
I just read an article today that some guy killed his father’s girlfriend then went to the class his father was teaching and killed his father with a arrow.
Those who want to kill will kill. They always have. Before guns. After guns. Without guns.
I remember a high school boy who beat his parents both to death with a baseball bat. Are they going to require someone to provide a photo ID the next time you want to purchase a Louisville Slugger? Murder is in the heart and not in the object being used to commit it.
Why not blame fuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhttttttball? I mean, here we have a violent game that puts extreme pressure on (typically) low-IQ ghetto youth to behave violently, brutalizes them from a young age, rewards them lavishly if they perform well (all the while excusing them from normal standards of decent conduct)… so that you end up with a steroid-jacked 240 lb. 23 year-old with a sixth grade ability to read and poor impulse control…
This fuuuhhhhtttttbbball asshole was a huge afa-lete. He could have easily killed his breeding partner with his bare hands. She’d be just as dead – only the worthless sack of shit might still be alive. Thank god for guns!
It’s all just TV to me. I’ll never know, or care, whether the whole story is fiction, because I don’t watch TV. Assholes like Costas have no significance to me.
What’s sad is that there are people like the killer, who a vast swath of Americans revere as heroes until they do something insane like murdering someone. Thanks to the cult of TV Sports, millions of deluded assholes buy into this kind of mindless shit.
Sorry, but I just can’t work up much of a feeling for the killer or for the twits who give commentary for the TV sports industry.