Welcome Sports Haters!

I was home alone a lot. I took care of myself.





David

I think you must have been very smart when you were a kid (not to mention having a lot of resilience). You also learned self-reliance, which a lot of us lack to some degree. (My comments are not made in a spirit of even slight envy, but are meant to be complimentary.)

Thank u.





David

You're welcome.

Well, in truth, I was never bullied and seldom challenged,
so there was not much for me to bounce back FROM.
I did not feel threatened.
At the age of 8, I felt ill-at-ease home alone in a very quiet,
crime-free naborhood in Arizona, as to how I 'd defend the place
if that ever became necessary; (it never became necessary).
Soon thereafter, by good fortune a small framed Model 36
Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver fell into my hands.
I was subsequently invested with a sense of serenity.
I never actually had to USE that gun, defensively.
Many years later and 1000s of miles away,
I needed to use my .44 Taurus revolver defensively.






Well, I just slept when I was tired n 8 when I was hungry,
and did my schoolwork, hung around with friends in the naborhood.
We never discussed ballgames.





David

I've never been around firearms, but I'm in complete agreement with you about the Second Amendment. Hitler and Stalin certainly believed in gun control.

When did you need to use your .44 Taurus revolver defensively?

I was driving home from my girlfriend s house years ago, alone on the road around midnite.
I wanted to find a particular gas station and was slowly driving, in the right lane,
with my attention forward n to my right. I in my mirror, I saw an old car, judging from its paint job, on my tail.
I thawt maybe he wanted to turn right. After a few minutes, I heard a gunshot and I noticed that a bullethole
had opened up co-incidentally, in my driver 's door window. I then saw the old car driving exactly abreast of me,
until I drew out my stainless steel mirror .44 caliber Taurus Model 445 Revolver,
whereupon I heard a scream, and for some reason, the old car departed hence, apace.

I had been counselled about 25 years before, that a certain demographic element, noted for a high crime rate,
deemed silver colored guns to have a singular in terrorem presence about them, particularly at nite.




Its better to HAVE a gun and NOT need it
than it is to NEED a gun and NOT have it.

Winston Churchill said that there is nothing so exhilarating as to be shot at, without effect.

I did not find it exhilarating, but I found mild humor in it.
I was glad that I had full glass insurance coverage.
The next day, a glassier came to the parking lot at my office and popped in a new window.[img][/img]

MY gun has a brighter, more silvery, more reflective surface than the gun in the picture.





David

Wow. That's a scary story, David. I've not had a brush with crime -- yet.

APRIL FOOL'S DAY. I love the new avatars. Mine seems especially appropriate.

By the way, you shouldn't post pictures of guns. They might scare the liberals. You know how they are.

My avatar used to be a picture of a revolver;
I got some complaints of fear.





David

Oh, my ... You've got to be kidding. [Place rolling-eyes Smilie here.] Well, after all, you never know when that picture of a gun might accidentally misfire.

Type :roll : with no second space to get one of these

Cycloptichorn

Thank you, my friend, for telling me how to get one of those.

Oops! David has just informed me via PMs that a misfire is different from an accidental discharge. So, in my silly statement about the gun in the picture, I should have said "discharge" instead of "misfire."

Don’t take this too personally sports fans. Chumly makes it clear (to me at least) that he is not criticizing sports per se, but rather is calling into question the mindless fanaticism around professional sports in this country, and the usefulness of pe classes at the high school level. I was neither a geek nor a jock in high school, but I certainly witnessed many who were considered geeks being bullied and abused by the ignorant, intolerant, and generally mean-spirited in-crowd atheletes. I have little doubt that these morons were to no small degree influenced by the coaches there, most of whom I found to posess these same endearing qualities. I agree with with Chumly, sports fanatics are by and large mindless idiots! And pe classes are a waste of time and resources.

Wow. And I thought this thread was dead. Well, since it’s been revived, I might as well take the opportunity to make a few comments.

Thanks, pcchamb, for reviving it.

You would think there would be outrage against this sort of bullying, but there isn’t. After all, a high-school athlete weighing over 200 pounds picking on a scrawny kid trying to mind his own business … this is pathetically dishonorable. This should be apparent to anyone. Yet does anyone say, "Why don't you pick on someone your own size"? Where’s the outrage? There doesn’t seem to be any. I would be interested in reading about the psychology behind this kind of bullying. But have any sports psychologists or sports sociologists conducted any field research on this subject? I’m not aware of any. If there is any literature on this subject, I certainly would appreciate someone informing me so I can read it. Nonathletic boys are bullied simply because they have no interest in sports. There’s absolutely no justification for this.

Nonathletic boys and girls need to be put on exercise programs instead of being forced to participate in competitive team sports in mandatory sports-centered P.E. (Fortunately, there are excellent P.E. programs that promote physical fitness; but the old P.E. is still a reality in way too many school districts.) A sport is not a physical fitness program; it is a contest and a form of recreation that should not (but often does) have a coercive element to it. I know what I’m talking about from my own personal experience. For over two years I’ve been working with a personal trainer at a health club on a bodybuilding program. The experience has been quite beneficial in more ways than one. Nothing like this was ever offered for nonathletic boys in the mandatory sports-centered P.E. that I was forced to put up with as a kid in the 1960s. And what is so funny about it all was that I actually got very little exercise! What I did experience was a lot of pointless humiliation, and the only thing I learned was to fear athlete classmates and coaches. I get more exercise in a single workout than I ever did in a single year of mandatory P.E.; yet at the time I was required to take sports-centered P.E., the phony claim was made by the adult hypocrites who imposed this flawed P.E. upon all students (including those who were physically handicapped!) that the purpose of P.E. being mandatory was to promote the physical fitness of all students. Baloney! There wasn’t even any mention of exercise programs in these P.E. classes. Not only that, there also was hardly any instruction in the sports themselves. The assumption seems to have been made that all boys were athletes. The real purpose of the old P.E. was to promote sports, not physical fitness for all students -- especially with a view to having a winning high-school football team. What’s hilarious is that this highly important and cherished goal could have been achieved with P.E. as an ELECTIVE, instead of imposing a flawed approach that completely neglected the physical fitness needs of nonathetes.

One final comment (at least for this post): There is a sense in which I have no problem with sports. I have no problem with people enjoying
sports -- as long as they don’t try to impose them upon those of us who have no interest in them, especially young children. What I have a problem with is what the sportswriter Robert Lipsyte and others have called the sports culture or “jock culture.” There is a negative culture that is associated with (but is NOT inherently a part of) certain (but certainly not all) sports. Yes, that’s convoluted; but it best summarizes what I’m trying to say. I’m convinced that this culture (NOT sports directly) encourages bullying and other kinds of misconduct.

One of my heroes is Joe Ehrmann, a former professional football player who is now a minister and a high-school football coach. (If only most high-school football coaches in this country were like Ehrmann …) He recently made a comment that I’m afraid would offend some (if not many) of the sports fans who post at this website: “The great myth in America is that sports build character. That’s not true in a win-at-all-costs-culture. Sports don’t build character, coaches do.” He’s absolutely right. This truth needs to be emphasized, especially in this thread. (By the way, isn’t bullying -- and, for that matter, arrogance -- a sign of character deficiency?)

Yet another comment (I can't help it. I just have a big mouth): I learned a rather interesting fact when I started my bodybuilding program. Ever wonder why some people have a big problem with putting on too much weight while other people can eat like hogs but hardly put on any weight? That's because the bodies of some people burn a lot more calories than the bodies of others. When a guy is on a bodybuilding program, he must have a calorie surplus for each 24-hour period so muscular development will take place. We as individuals cannot change our metabolic rate. Ectomorphic guys burn up a lot of calories. (I wonder if there is a correlation between being high-strung and being ectomorphic.) This makes muscular development difficult, sometimes extremely difficult. (This is where dietary planning comes into play.) So, one very significant reason why some guys are puny is because their bodies burn up too many calories (unless, of course, there are changes in his diet). This means that a "jock" who picks on a guy simply for being scrawny is all the more despicable.

Sir, I agree with your sentiments, generally.
However, may I point out (respectfully) that if thay were "mindless"
then thay coud not be "idiots" because idiots have been defined
as having a mind with a mental age of less than 3 years.

In that condition (mindlessness) thay coud not even rise
from their beds to go to the bathroom,
let alone harass anyone.





David

I wish I only weighed 200 pounds again.
Anyway, if the offenders are VIOLENT then Y not call the police?

Y not sue for damage$$ for assault & battery
and for a restraining order to keep them away from their victims ?

Sir, thank you for pointing this out(correctly) and I shall move to strike the expression 'mindless idiot' from my lexicon immediately.