There is a Heinlein story, the exact name of which I forget (MLG will know), in which the protagonist tracks incidents that he feels are indicators of the onset of “The Crazy Years.” That story quite naturally resulted in the protagonist holed up in the mountains while nukes fell on the cities below.
We are, my friends, slap-ass in the middle of The Crazy Years Redux, if you haven’t already figured that out for yourself. I’m not just talking about our new socialist overlords government – and the near-constant subversion of our Constitution – but smaller things, daily occurrences that chip away at the average human’s ability to be a self-reliant, logical, reasoning entity.
Here’s a big old stinking example. January 13 a Texas high school basketball team beat another team by the whopping score of 100-0. No big deal, right? The winning team was clearly a great deal more talented than the losing team, and just outplayed them. Some might whinge that was “running the score up,” but what is the winning team to do, just stop trying? What kind of lesson is that for those girls? Or for the losing team…who have a total of EIGHT girls on the varsity team, with only 20 total in the entire school…they never quit, kept playing, kept TRYING through the entire game.
A few days later it was reported the winning team wanted to forfeit the win to the losing school, they felt bad about the blowout…AFTER the fact, mind you, when they’d had the opportunity to be scorned by the bleeding hearts among the teaching staff/parents. (That last bit is pure conjecture on my part, but I’m probably right, you know.)
Then winning team’s school administrators then posted a public slam of everyone involved:
On its Web site last week, Covenant, a private Christian school, posted a statement regretting the outcome of its Jan. 13 shutout win over Dallas Academy. “It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christlike and honorable approach to competition,” said the statement, signed by Queal and board chair Todd Doshier.
And now the coach has been fired for calling bullshit:
The coach of a Texas high school basketball team that beat another team 100-0 was fired Sunday, the same day he sent an e-mail to a newspaper saying he will not apologize “for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity.”
Hopefully everyone involved – save the reactionary pussies that blew it all out of proportion – will take the following lessons from this ludicrous non-incident:
- It’s ok to win.
- It’s ok to lose.
- School administrators, with few exceptions, fail upwards.
- Sometimes a teacher will take a hit for you. Honor them by remembering the fucking lesson.
The Year of the Jackpot? All the periodic functions of the universe bottom out at the same time.
David
January 27th, 2009
I read about this yesterday. WTF? If things were going so horribly, why didn’t the losing team forfeit at the end of the half? Because they wanted to keep trying! Now the winners are being treated like they’re bitches because they did what sports teams are supposed to do.
My head hurts.
jana
January 27th, 2009
I just commented yesterday about this story to my own Mr. 5kids. He is a hockey coach and learned a long time ago that in order to avoid the “everyone gets a trophy” crowd, he has to manipulate the score sometimes. His teams are very competetive and actually won the national championship in their division last year. When he sees that they are going to win by a significant margin, he starts doing stuff like making the forwards play defense, and the defense play forward. Even then, sometimes they have a hard time (without resorting to playing without a goalie) making it come close. Add to that the fact that he has been burned by this method, as every so often the other team makes a comeback and brings the score close again. Some people have actually complained when he does this and still wins by a significant margin because they think he should have told the kids that they need to pass 3 or more times before they can take a shot on net as well. If your kid can’t take losing, then maybe he ought to step up and score?
I, for one, am tired of this crap. I cringe when my daughter’s soccer coach gives out the stupid trophies at the end of the year. They always give a different award to each child, and sometimes it’s a complete and utter stretch and it’s obvious. One year her coach gave her the “Most Improved” award and then went on to say how at the beginning of the season she cried at the first practice, and then when her attitude didn’t continue in that same vein, he was so relieved that he felt she earned most improved. WHAT? I wanted to jump up in the middle of the speech and walk out. WTF? If she didn’t do anything really worth commenting on, why don’t we move on? Don’t get me wrong, she’s a great kid, and she had a great time, but she didn’t NEED or DESERVE an award for not crying. It’s an insult to your intelligence most of the time and renders all of the real awards worthless because you can’t separate the wheat from the chaff.
I listened to a little girl on her ball team complain because she thought my daughter got the team ball twice before she had gotten it even once. While it wasn’t true (because her coach would NEVER reward a child more than once for her performance for fear of a backlash or accusations of favoritism), I wanted to snap back at her that if she wanted a game ball she could work to earn one. This everyone gets one attitude demeans the whole process.
BTW, my husband doesn’t give awards to everyone at the end of the year, his own son is not the star of the team, and he tells the kids when they’re screwing up as well as encourages them when they’re doing the right things. This formula has proven to be a successful one…
5kidsnadog
January 28th, 2009
@5kidsnadog:
Imagine that.
Liberty Girl
January 28th, 2009
There’s a simple solution – one I’ve seen already implemented in a couple of places:
Don’t keep score.
Then whichever team “feels better” is the winner, and the other team is also the winner because they didn’t cry at the end.
I didn’t read the details, but I give the losing team a lot of credit for not giving up after the score went over 50 – 0 or thereabouts.
It sounds like both teams did their best. To do any less would be a cop-out – and for the better team to “play bad” would be an insult to the losers.
Or maybe they could take a Monty Python apporach and play with one hand tied behind their back.
ZZMike
January 28th, 2009
Isn’t there a “skunk” rule in basketball? Like in ping pong, if you get 7 points to their 0, you win without having to get to 21.
David
January 28th, 2009
God, I am glad I went to Catholic schools. Unlike our smaller Christian school brethren, we were encouraged to crush the life out of opponents. Mock confession all you want, people, but it sure helps to know that you can clean your conscience after knocking a guy out on the football field.
Whoa, I think your swirling tag cloud got to me there for a moment. I’m not as dizzy now.
Stephen Kruiser
January 28th, 2009
John Gault R.I.P.
What the hell is this world coming to?
LiBBy BuTTons
January 29th, 2009
I believe the Heinlein book you refer to is “Door into Summer.” The one with the cat that attacks the woman who betrayed the protagonist.
The “Crazy Years” were also mentioned in the Lazarus Long series of books.
sam
January 30th, 2009
No, it’s not from that one, it’s a short story from one of the huge compendiums, “The Past Through Tomorrow” or…the other one.
Liberty Girl
January 30th, 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Year_of_the_Jackpot
MLG
February 1st, 2009