It really amazes me that the same people in the media who take no offense with American Olympic Athletes running down our country that they supposedly represent taking great offense at me choosing not to support them for that reason.
The people who are rushing to say the failure of the “transgender woman” weightlifter to place proves there is no advantage for men claiming to be ladies might have a better argument if the weightlifter in question was not in his mid 40’s.
The fact that a mid forty’s guy was able to beat out any women from his country to represent it in the Olympics speaks volumes concerning this reality.
If you really want to understand how crazy this all is go to a venue that requires masks and tell them you are in fact masked and define yourself as masked while at the same time insisting that you in fact the opposite sex of what you are.
Watching them slobber to call you by the sex you desire while insisting that the evidence of their own eyes is enough to determine if you’re wearing a mask will speak volumes.
I’m really torn on the Simone Biles business, particularly after she came back to compete in a singles event. A player who knows they are a drag on the team should not jeopardize their position on the other had at this level does a person owe it to their team to go forward if at all possible.
Can you imagine how the person who was the last cut from the squad must have felt knowing that they were bumped for someone who backed out of the competition?
It’s unfortunate that Biles will likely be remembered more for this moment then her previous successes, I wonder if she considered that before making the call?
Finally we once again had an Arab athlete in judo pull out because they drew an Israeli opponent in the competition.
This is constantly spun as being done in support of the Palestinians but in my eyes he is simply terrified at being beaten by a Jew on an international stage.
Given the record of Arab nation in warfare against Israel this fear is a lot less irrational than it sounds.
Finally China seems to be hypersensitive as to how their athletes are being portrayed, particularly in losses to Japan.
As I’ve written before I believe China as a nation still hasn’t gotten over what Japan did to them in WW 2 and I suspect defeat at their hands, really rubs them the wrong way.
My gut tells me that China is doing what it’s doing these days because they know the demographic clock is against them and figure their time to flex their international muscle is now.
As you may have noticed I haven’t posted here for a couple of weeks. Mrs. Marathon Pundit were on vacation. And we traveled to, at least if you live in the Chicago area, to an unlikely place, Georgia.
After MLB’s spineless commissioner, Rob Manfred, pulled the annual All-Star Game out of Atlanta over Georgia’s voting integrity bill, my wife and I decided to “buy-in” to Georgia.
So on Independence Day Mrs. Marathon Pundit drove south to the Peach State to make up, in a very small way, for the tens-of-millions of dollars shipped off by Manfred to Colorado. There were some diversions. We spent the night of July 4th in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is just north of the Georgia state line. We did some sighteeing there the next day, including time on Lookout Mountain, where a pivotal battle of the Civil War Siege of Chattanooga occurred in late 1863. But the lion’s share of that day was spent on the site of the Battle of Chickamauga a few miles south in Georgia. The two battles are often presented as one, or part of a campaign, which is why the these two locations comprise the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.
Of our Civil War battles only Gettysburg, fought two months earlier in Pennsylvania, had more casualties than Chickamauga. Unlike Gettysburg, Chickamauga was a Confederate victory. After being routed in Georgia the Union army retreated to Chattanooga. The northern commanding general, William Rosecrans, was relieved of his duties and replaced by Ulysses S. Grant. His breaking of the siege set the stage for the army led by his close friend, General William Tecumseh Sherman, to capture the strategic city of Atlanta the next year. Sherman’s March to the Sea, where Union forces split the Confederacy a second time, ended with the capture of Savannah late in 1864.
We eventually made it to Savannah too.
Mrs. Marathon Pundit was stupefied by the sprawling expanse of the Chickamauga Battlefield and the hundreds of monuments there. Her hometown of Sece, Latvia, was the site of a World War I battle. With the exception of a German military cemetery, there are no commemorations of that battle there. C’mon Sece, at least erect an historical marker in town about the battle.
We wandered for the next two days in the luscious Blue Ridge Mountains, mostly hiking, in these state parks: Fort Mountain, Black Rock Mountain, Smithgall Woods, Unicoi, and Tallulah Gorge. The latter is where much of the classic but disturbing film Deliverance was filmed. Around the time that movie was shot Karl Wallenda crossed the gorge on a high-wire. In fact, the Great Wallenda accomplished that feat 51 years ago today. Our first night in the mountains we spent in Helen, Georgia. Its buildings are in a Bavarian style and it’s filled with German restaurants. While it only has about 500 residents, Helen is Georgia’s third-most visited town. And I encountered mobs of Floridians there.
People often wonder where Florida residents go on vacation–after all the Sunshine State is of course one of America’s most popular vacation destinations. In the summer many Floridians head to the slightly cooler climes of Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Yes, Tropical Storm Elsa, which passed through coastal Georgia after pummelling Florida during our trip, might have chased some people up north, but not all of them.
After a couple of days in South Carolina–at Abbeville, Beaufort, and Hunting Island State Park, with a quick return to Georgia for a walking tour of Augusta and lunch with a high school friend in nearby Evans, we spent our last two days in Georgia in historic Savannah, an even better walking city than Augusta. Our own March to the Sea was over. Then it was time to drive home.
On our way back, the day of the Home Run Derby of the MLB All-Star Game, we planned to visit Stone Mountain Park, site of “the Mount Rushmore of the South,” the largest bas-relief in the world, which is comprised of carvings of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson. But the weather that day was horrible–heavy rain–so we kept driving, straight through, back to Illinois. Stacey Abrams, the defeated Democratic candidate for Georgia governor in 2018, favors removal of the mountain carvings.
Stone Mountain Park is the most-visited attraction in the Peach State.
Abrams gave tacit support to a boycott of Georgia because of the voting reform bills, but she stealthily edited her USA Today op-ed call for one, but her disingenous act was later exposed.
Abrams all but said to stay away from Georgia.
So we visited. And and Mrs. Marathon Pundit and I had a wonderful time.
The left is having a hissy fit over the Jacksonville Jaguars signing of 33 years old Tim Tebow when the 33 year old Colin Kaepernick does not have an NFL job (not that he actually wants one but I digress). For those who have to deal with such people here are five quick reasons why signing Tebow makes much more sense than signing Kaepernick.
Tebow is in professional sports shape.
While Kaepernick’s last game in the NFL was in 2016 and Tebow’s in 2012 Tebow has spent the last three years playing minor league ball in the Mets system rising to the AAA level before deciding to leave baseball this year. Thus the 33 year old Tebow not only is in playing shape while Kaepernick is not but he’s had three years of the routine of playing and being in shape to play daily.
2. Tebow’s most recent NFL Stats are better than Kaepernick’s
In his last two seasons as a starter Colin Kaepernick went 3-16 with no playoff appearances and was benched for lack of success
In his last two seasons as a starter Tim Tebow went 8-6 including a victory in the 1st round of the playoffs and oddly was benched despite his success.
3. Tebow is coming back as a TE,
Over the years teams that weren’t impressed with Tebow as a QB were still impressed with him as an athlete and were open to signing him at another position (Remember Julian Edelman was a QB in college) over the years Tebow steadfastly refused wanting to play QB. Tebow finally being willing to accept this fact is a big part of his being signed.
Meanwhile advocates for Kaepernick not only insist that he be a QB but also suggest that anything other than a starting QB (with a salary for a starting QB) would be beneath him. I have no idea if Kaepernick is interested in another position (WR?) but he’s not made any indication that he’d be willing to try one.
4. A Christian Brother to help Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville
Tebow brings a unique advantage to Jacksonville who just drafted Trevor Lawrence with the 1st pick.
Lawrence is very publicly a devout Christian in a society that is not kind to Christianity. Tebow is a very public Christian who has taken the slings and arrows for it. Tebow’s signing give Lawrence not only a Christian Brother in the clubhouse to confide in but a Christian brother who was a 1st round QB with direct experience in how to handle what the NFL will throw at him. Furthermore the attention that Tebow catches might lighten the load of the same on Lawrence.
Colin Kaepernick could not do this for Jacksonville and it’s very likely that for any team that he signed he would be more a distraction than an asset.
5. Tebow brings fans, Kaepernick chases them away.
Finally everyone forgets that the primary job of a sports franchise is to sell tickets, merchandise and eyeballs. Tim Tebow will not only draw fans but draw good publicity.
With a fan base already sick of “woke” sports Colin Kaepernick would chase fans away from the game and keep those who were thinking of coming back away.
I understand the WNBA draft is today and I have a question:
If a NCAA player who played in the men’s tourney, say a low level NBA prospect publicly defines himself as a woman is he/she eligible for the WNBA draft?
If not why not?
I imagine a player who has no chance at the NBA and looking at a regular job having a huge incentive to do so but that’s just me?
