I do get tired of preaching to the choir about economics and libertarianism. Since football is on, and baseball is on the way out with the World Series, I’m just going to tell you of my prejudices towards two things. Sure, buy gold and silver, but I’ve said that a hundred times. Football and funerals are both on my hate list. This weekend then, do two things. Send Mitt some money, and try to wean yourself from football. The Vice Presidential debates are tonight, and should be a comedy show, unless I miss my guess. Here then, is my opinion on the American male’s favorite TV shows. Sunday afternoon football, and Monday night football.
I hate football. I think America loves it because of its brutality. In what other sport, do players play in a full suit of armor? In what other sport, do many players, even in high school, end up with permanent injuries? In what other sport, is it common for a player to be carried off the field in a stretcher or gurney? In what other sport, is there one prime player, the one that the entire team depends on, and the one with the most brains, which of course is the quarterback? Baseball and basketball, require every member of the team to be smart, skilled, and not just a big hunk who can tackle another big hunk. Baseball requires skills in hitting, catching, pitching, running, and other skills. Imagine how many milliseconds a batter has, to decide to swing or not to swing at a ball coming at him at close to a hundred miles an hour. How much strength and skill does it require to throw a ball accurately several hundred feet? Lots. Basketball, requires incredible accuracy in throwing the ball towards the basket, and superb athletic ability for running almost continuously, guarding, passing, and throwing. I know, baseball has been described as, “Three hours of boredom, and ten minutes of action,” but that’s funny, not accurate. You can have Sunday afternoon and Monday night football, plus the Super Bowl. I’ll take the World Series. Go Yankees!
Funerals
Ever see a movie called, “The Loved One?” It’s a satire on the funeral business. Rent it if you can find it. It’s so funny, you’ll want to own it. I consider a funeral one of the cruelest things known to man. The dead body is displayed for all to see…supposedly ’asleep.’ Nonsense. It’s a corpse. All the blood has been pumped out of it, and it has been filled with embalming fluid. It’s been padded and dressed up. It has had lots of cosmetics painted on it to make it look peaceful. It’s a dead body, all dressed up. How can viewing a corpse in an expensive coffin, make anyone feel good? Black suited, solemn faced, characters looking so concerned, dreary organ music, expensive Cadillacs taking the coffin to the cemetery, where people watch it lowered into the ground, is supposed to make everyone feel good? And after the hideous ceremony is over, everyone goes to a ’wake,’ and eats and drinks themselves into numbness. Do the funeral attendees ever consider the enormous cost, the bereaved one has to pay for all this nonsense?
My Dad died of lung cancer in 1962, at age 63. He started smoking at age 15, and couldn’t stop, so it killed him. My Mom arranged for the funeral, (I was in a distant city), and even then, it cost way over $10,000. It would cost $35,000 today, I imagine, and it wasn’t that fancy. When my Mom died, I had her cremated, a simple service was done at her church, and I spread her ashes at a place where I thought she might like to have them spread. When I die, I want to be cremated, and my ashes scattered somewhere among the beautiful Colorado Rockies. I won’t know about it, because I’ll be dead, but it makes me feel good, thinking about it while I am alive. Want to have a simple service at my church? Sure, but never put me in a nursing home, and never have a funeral for me.
Watch the debates tonight and have a good laugh, as Paul Ryan demolishes Joe Biden, we hope. Joe has been cramming for six days I hear. I wonder if it will take?