We who are about to BUY salute you.

 

                                                             ( detail - Roman gladiator sculpture )

 

     When Roman gladiators entered the Colosseum to entertain the roaring crowds, 

they would address their audience by saying,"We who are about to die salute you!"

In the title of this posting, I have changed one word of that declaration, in order to

create an appropriate greeting for the NFL teams owners to use, when they open their

annual, college, players draft.  The 2023 draft has just wrapped up in Kansas City.  

The acquisition of the new players was a three day spectacle of noisy, frenzied fans,

making themselves look as stupid as possible, in order to demonstrate their 

everlasting loyalty to the surrogate warriors of their tribal cities.  

     Popular entertainments, including ball games, have always been loud, crude

and simpleminded, so it was not unexpected that the three hundred thousand fans

who showed up here, to cheer for their teams, would make quite a show of it. 

At times the draft resembled some kind of a blend of a ritualized slave-auction 

and the presentation of a new crop of Marvel-comics super-heroes.  All of that 

only shows how little we have changed over the past several thousand years and

 more, into history.  The recorded history of ball sports extends back through

countless cultures.  From American-style football games in ancient Greece, to

Harpastum in Rome, to Cuju in Ancient China, to field hockey sports in Medieval 

Europe, ball sports have had  a presence in almost every continent at some time.

No doubt when those athletes of old, finished their games, they had plenty of

avid fans waiting outside the gates to get something in the way of an autograph 

or perhaps something more from their heroes. 

       What the big show of the draft comes down to in the end is money.  Put on

a big enough, glitzy production to create excitement for the fans, and reap the 

rewards of increased profits from the publicity and sales of expensive tickets 

and all of that new NFL team-merchandise.   Are you ready for some football?

                                                        Eugene P. McNerney

        

Murdoch's Monstrous Triumph - and - Owls Taking Flight

 

 

                                                              Owls Taking Flight       

                                                             An original mixed-media painting 

                                                               ( click on image to enlarge )

                                        

     I have not posted this painting on the blog for a decade or so, but I was reminded of it 

because I have been hearing owls calling in the night, and because of recent events in 

the news.   Throughout the history of literature and art, owls have been seen as somehow

wise and able to foresee a troublesome future.  That is a fanciful notion, but about one 

third of American voters seem to be less intelligent, more angry and afraid than the owls.

That mental state is due in large measure to the constant stream of poisons being fed

to them by Rupert Murdoch and his lying team of program hosts at Fox, who play to

to all of the worst fears and hatreds of their followers.   Legitimate news organizations

provide the honest truth about everything that is happening, so that people know the 

facts.  Murdoch gives the people whatever lies will bring him the greatest profit.  

     Now the real news organizations are reporting on the fact that Murdoch has 

paid close to eight hundred million dollars to settle the Dominion lawsuit, just so he

wont have to stand up in court and admit that everything Fox has been telling people 

about stolen elections, is a complete lie.  Fox will never do any kind of on-air report

or admission of guilt or apology for their assault on the belief in our honest and

fair elections, which are the basis of our democracy.  Now Murdoch will be able

to conduct his lying business as usual, after paying some hush-money, much the way

Trump pays hush-money to porn stars.   Murdoch is reportedly worth nearly

eighteen Billion dollars, more money than anyone could ever need, so the pay-off

was a way for him to win again, without costing much serious pain. 

    But there is something that all of those lying Fox program hosts should probably

remember in the future.  Those avid Fox followers out there may not be the most

intelligent birds in the aviary, but most of them probably have guns, because of

all the things you have done to reinforce their fears and hatreds.  So when the 

truth finally begins to filter down to some of them, they may start coming after

you, just the way they stormed the Capitol on January 6th.  Wouldn't that

be a hoot?

                                            Eugene P. McNerney