Sportsball Website Writes Article Defending Convicted Serial Rapist Cop (With Audio Version)
The website sportsball recently published a highly empathetic piece on former fuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhtttttttball “hero” turned Hero Cop (now former) and then convicted serial rapist, Daniel Holtzclaw.
That article, which appeared at SB Nation, was immediately met with criticism and outrage. The website pulled the article, but it had already been cached by Google and copied be several readers. Within hours other media outlets had picked up on this and began publishing articles critical of article, its author and the website that initially published it. This one by Slate highlights some of the most grotesque parts of that article:
In Bates’ view, Holtzclaw was swept up in the furor over treatment of black Americans by police officers in other places, turmoil that had already resulted the #BlackLivesMatter movement and sparked riots in places like Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, a brewing perfect storm that was only getting worse.
“The emotions were already there and all (the public) needed was a poster child and Daniel came along at the absolute worst time for Daniel,” Bates said. “And he was done.”
Yeah, it was all of those people angry about police killings that were responsible for Daniel’s downfall, not all of that raping he did.
His football career ended at Eastern Michigan, in Ypsilanti. Less than one year after starring in the MAC, he was a former college football player, accent on “former.”
If anything caused Holtzclaw to become unhinged, that may, in part, be what did. For the first time in his life, he had failed and the goal he had long sought was no longer available. For the first time, his strength and will had not been enough. Without an NFL dream to aspire to, perhaps he felt that his sacrifices had been for nothing. As a football player, he had believed he was in charge of his own destiny, now he was stripped of his power.
Or maybe it was the NFL’s fault for not fulfilling his dream to be a fuuuuhhhhhhhhtttttball Hero.
Scientists at Boston University determined, according to the HBO report, that lesions in the anterior temporal lobe of many former players’ brains have been impacted by the constant head trauma. In the report, Dr. Ann McKee, told HBO that when damaged, that part of brain, which controls emotions and self-control, can lead to bouts of anger and aggression. The potential connection in Holtzclaw’s case is intriguing, but hardly certain, and without testing, there is no real way to determine if Holtzclaw is affected, or, even if he is, if that may have played a role in his crimes.
Bevin, coincidentally, I just read this one this morning:
https://augenguy.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2017-10-02T14:29:00%2B07:00&max-results=1&start=5&by-date=false
Dear Ed,
I agree. The whole getting down on one knee thing had me scratching my head.
Getting down on one knee is genuflecting. It is, if anything, an even more servile gesture than standing and holding one’s hand over one’s heart.
The only thing more servile would be the ancient practice of kowtowing, getting all the way down on one’s hands and knees, and bumping one’s head against the ground as a gesture of total submission.
Idiocracy has arrived.
Hi Bevin,
Agreed, completely.
Genuflecting before totems of authority is appropriate to slaves, not free men.
If another man earns my respect, I will shake his hand.
But “the flag?” Really?
Dear Eric,
Just stumbled across this. I’m guessing you’ll like it.
Football Will Perish from the Earth
Just like the gladiatorial games and the circus, football is doomed to die.
By 2050, the National Football League (NFL) will be like the Barnum and Bailey Circus of today. Bankrupt, closed, irrelevant, morally passe.
https://fee.org/articles/football-will-perish-from-the-earth/?utm_source=FEE+Email+Subscriber+List&utm_campaign=b85942b810-MC_FEE_DAILY_2017_10_09&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84cc8d089b-b85942b810-108157205
Good morning, Bevin!
One can hope… 😉
In a schadenfreude sort of way, I am enjoying political correctness savage the NFL. You can already hear the orchestra tuning up. It is “dangerous” and must be regulated. Inevitably, full contact will be banned. And women will be included.
I love it!
PS: You’ve been missed here; hope all is ok?
Dear Eric,
You’re not alone in your hope. Takes me back to high school and the social hierarchy BS so accurately depicted in teen dramas and comedies. it also reminds me of films such as “Carrie” and “Revenge of the Nerds”.
The jocks and the cheerleaders were the “royalty” of course. God only knows why. The worship of brawn over brains has always bewildered me. You know how “sports fans” memorize sports stats? Mind-boggling! So what if so and so made so and so number of touchdowns during this or that season. How does that change the course of human history?
Well, the cheerleaders I can understand. Nature does program us men to gravitate toward beautiful women. We’re not lechers! This is the way Mother Nature made us! LOL.
One of my regrets is that I chose a more conventional, read “respectable” career as an architect, instead of something in the trades, working with my hands.
Maybe it’s just a case of the grass being greener, but I think I would have been more successful as a bush league Carroll Shelby, or a bush league John Browning.
As a very wise man once noted, “A career in architecture is a one-sided love affair with the most beautiful woman in the world”.
In any event, public disillusionment with American style “football” would be a blessing. it would probably mark the end of the whole American Empire project.
“PS: You’ve been missed here; hope all is ok?”
Thanks for that, mang. Nice to be appreciated. Makes one feel that maybe, just maybe one has actually made a difference in this world, instead of leading a “superfluous” existence.
I guess I’ve been a little down lately, for a number of reasons, some personal, some political. I’m not getting any younger, and by extension, not getting any healthier. As an old Chinese saying goes, “The years spare no man”. As ailments pile up, it can eventually overwhelm a person.
Hope you are well. It can’t be easy now that your wife has left you. As they used to say on “The Sopranos”, “Whaddya gonna do?” “it is what it is”. The quasi-Zen wisdom of New Jersey Mafiosi.
Thanks, Bevin… and, I’m sorry to hear about the not-so-great times. More than enough of that going around, unfortunately. I have three friends going through divorces. And we’re all staring down the barrel of not-so-young anymore. One feels like the proverbial lion in winter. I am, in this vein, about to let loose a sea of inside baseball and vituperation; it may get me in trouble. But what the Hell?
Not much to loose anymore.
Dear Eric,
Yup. Many of us are in the same boat. Lately, films in which a protagonist struggles with forced retirement and age feel like they were written for me.
What can I say? A person can either “Live fast, die young, and make a beautiful corpse”, or live to a ripe old age. Those are our only choices. If it’s the latter, then he will have to cope with all the trials and tribulations the Universe visits upon anyone who makes it past middle age.
Rather than dwell on the negative, here’s an interesting real life Zen anecdote that has always given me comfort.
In his book, “Zen Mind Beginner Mind”. Zen master Suzuki Roshi talks about his visit to the 1,340-foot waterfall in Yosemite.
In telling this story of the waterfall, Suzuki Roshi demonstrated his teaching of non-separation, and his capacity for compassion in the metaphor of the water drop:
“…the water comes down like a curtain thrown from the top of the mountain. It does not seem to come down swiftly, as you might expect; it seems to come down very slowly because of the distance.
And the water does not come down as one stream, but is separated into many tiny streams. From a distance it looks like a curtain. And I thought it must be very difficult for each drop of water to come down from the top of such a high mountain.
It takes time, you know, a long time, for the water finally to reach the bottom of the waterfall. And it seems to me, that our human life may be like this.
We have many difficult experiences in our life. But at the same time, I thought, the water was not originally separated, but was one whole river. Only when it is separated does it have some difficulty in falling.
…after we are separated by birth from this oneness, as the water falling form the waterfall is separated by the wind and rocks, then we have feeling.
You have difficulty because you have feeling, you attach to the feeling you have without knowing just how this kind of feeling is created. When you do not realize that you are one with the river, or one with the universe, you have fear.
Whether it is separated into drops or not, water is water. Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact we have no fear of death anymore, and we have no actual difficulty in our life.”
The article, removed from SBN is archived here:
http://archive.is/O3Gub
This case is a double whammy against people’s belief system. The only way it could have been worse is if he had spent a couple years in the military too.
Well, it’s possible that like a lot of cops he was a military reject. That’s a common theme among cops. Lots of them are ex-military and some are rejects turned wannabes.
The military rejects people? I thought they pretty much took anyone.
“The military rejects people?” Yes, they do still have some standards, the Marines more so than the other branches. And unlike the pheroes, the do not, at least that I have heard, have a maximum IQ that they accept.
” I thought they pretty much took anyone.”
Nope. They reject anyone they determine to be less than perfect according to their standards. It can be for medical reasons or psychological reasons. Police departments have much lower standards.
Two words: Lynndie England.
Ed, not sure about that one. Back in ’03 my state lawyer(as opposed to my federal lawyer)said he was seeing things he hadn’t seen since Vietnam. He told me of a few instances where young people had done some pretty bad stuff and the DA would give them the choice of the slammer or signing up with good old Uncle. While I would have taken the slammer, they all took the military. Yeah, they’re damned picky.
So is this a case of ‘Dain Bramage’?
Sure looks like it, at least if he had a dain, that is…..
“I could while away the hours … if I only…”