04/25/24
August 05, 2005
What's My Name, Fool?: Edge of Sports columnist Dave Zirin looks at sports and politics in an excerpt from his new book, and in some interviews. [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha to culture at 01:46 AM - 10 comments
Great links, kirkaracha. Not your average sportswriter, for sure.
posted by Amateur at 07:02 AM on August 05, 2005
I think Mr. Zirin has a couple of his facts mixed up, though: Athens was the first post-9/11 Olympics. And what we saw there was something that you even hadn’t seen in years past, and that was the presence of 50,000 paramilitary forces, not from Greece, but from the United States, Great Britain and Israel. I couldn't find this confirmed anywhere and I would be interested in seeing the source. The entire Greek security force (military + police) was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50,000. Although Zirin is correct about his central point -- that armed foreign soldiers and security officers were in Greece during the Olympics -- the number can't be anywhere near 50,000. I would guess somewhere around a thousand. Anybody else know anything about this?
posted by Amateur at 07:52 AM on August 05, 2005
He's also wrong that Athens was the first post-9/11 Olympics. But what the hell.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:01 AM on August 05, 2005
Still some interesting stuff..
posted by daddisamm at 08:30 AM on August 05, 2005
Yes, very interesting. Straddling the boundary between "sport is an evil conspiracy promoted by the secret elites who rule the world" and "sport is a beautiful and worthwhile human endeavour" requires some strenuous mental exercise. I think I'm going to get my hands on that book.
posted by Amateur at 08:59 AM on August 05, 2005
Some pretty interesting stuff. I read through the essay linked to his name above and thought this sentence would get some discussion going here: And it's alive when the US Congress feared calling Barry Bonds to testify on steroids for concern that he would say to them what he has been saying to reporters, namely "Why is steroids cheating but making a shirt in Korea for 50 cents and selling it here for $150 isn't?" Say what you will about Bonds, he cuts right to the bread and circuses chase with that line, as does Zirin.
posted by billsaysthis at 04:36 PM on August 05, 2005
Bill, apples and oranges - Cheating brings with it culpability. An individual can not cheat and get away with it because there is no one else to blame. A corporation can cheat because shifting blame is inherent to its structure. And one could add this very attribute is the wind beneath corporate america's wings.
posted by garfield at 05:06 PM on August 05, 2005
Many thanks, Kirk. Posts like this are why I visit this site. La luca continua.
posted by owlhouse at 02:10 AM on August 06, 2005
Garfield, I'm not saying I disagree with you in respect to Bonds, I just thought given the contempt with which he gets treated by numerous SpoFites that quote would get specific attention in this thread. Yet it has not. Corporations, they're like women: Can't live with'em, can't blow them up with a nuke. (Note: that last bit was a joke. Sort of.)
posted by billsaysthis at 02:37 PM on August 06, 2005
Rebutting Noam Chomsky's potrayal of sports at the opiate of masses, Zirin says: