Yes, Ann, football is a real sport

Seems conservatives have picked a new target of derision -- "soccer." Ann Coulter isn't the only one who sees the game as un-American. G. Gordon Liddy tossed in his two-cents, saying he would rather see South American Indians kick around decapitated heads than watch the World Cup.

I have to give the G-man a yellow card. The game did not originate on the American sub-continent. It actually dates back to Greek and Roman times, and was played in ancient China as well, before being popularized in England in the 14th century, long before Columbus or any other European (other than a wayward Viking) ventured to America.

All this would be quite amusing if the persons in question didn't take themselves so bats**t seriously. Glenn Beck apparently thinks there is a worldwide conspiracy to get Americans caught up in World Cup fever, deflecting our attention from real events like Benghazi and the IRS scandal.

Instead of rooting for America's can-do kids, who qualified for the Cup by beating a heralded Mexico team, Dan Gainor believes the game is "browning America," adding a racist angle to round out the conservative angst over this highly popular game.

I guess my question is, don't these conservative pundits have something better to rage against? I hate to break the news to them but football, or soccer as it is called in America, is a very popular sport and is played largely by kids who haven't made a political decision one way or the other yet. But, assuming any of these kids bother to listen to these radio programs while being ferried to games in the ubiquitous soccer van by their "soccer moms," which Ann also takes exception to, it certainly won't influence them to vote Republican when they do come of age.

Also, what do these rants say to women, who excel at this game? The US women's football team is currently ranked number one in the world and has twice won the World Cup.

These same pundits aren't complaining about golf, which has to be the most boring "sport" to watch. It too was invented in England, and was forced down our throat by rich white men in the late 19th century. Who knows, there might even be an early native American version where Indians batted around the testicles of their conquered foes? It has become a fixture in weekend sports programming with multi-million dollar "purses" for both men and women. Doesn't sound very manly, G-man!

Anyway, it doesn't seem to matter as both the "American Outlaws" and the team have made a friendly splash in Rio. The exuberance has spilled over at home as well with more and more Americans tuning in for the games, led by the team's #1 fan, Stephen Colbert. It is very unlikely Team USA will pull off a "Miracle" like it did in hockey 34 years ago, but a win over Belgium would be nice.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Dylan in America

Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose. Looks like only yesterday. Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.

Team of Rivals Reading Group

''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005

TripplerJuly 15, 2014 at 10:00 PM
Right wing delusional pundits like Coulter and Beck don't have enough sense or knowledge of history to realize the USA was a world power in soccer from 1900 to 1930. The Eagles also upset England in 1950. Also unknown to these radical crazies is the fact that the USA was # 1 in rugby during the 1920s - it remains the only undefeated rugby team in world history. By the way, rugby used to draw crowds of 40,000 in California back in the 1920s.

In the 19th century cricket was the # 2 sport in the USA behind baseball.

Therefore, contrary to the twisted views of the radical far right, American sports fans were far more cosmopolitan that we are generally given credit for.
James FergusonJuly 16, 2014 at 10:02 AM
Most pundits can't see back more than a few years, sometimes only a few months. Baseball is derived from cricket.

Dispatches from Vilnius

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