Sports

Sports - Warner Todd Huston

U.S. Soccer Star Megan Rapinoe Refuses to Sing National Anthem During World Cup in France

June 13, 2019 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Megan Rapinoe, the co-captain of the U.S Women’s Soccer team, refused to put her hand over her heart and sing the “Star Spangled Banner” ahead of Tuesday’s World Cup game going on in France.

Rapinoe’s snub to America came only six days after the world commemorated the great World War Two battle of D-Day where hundreds of Americans died to liberate France.

Rapinioe stood silent with her arms behind her back as the rest of the U.S. team placed their hands over their hearts and sang the American national anthem ahead of Tuesday’s game in Reims, France.

The 33-year-old U.S. star kept a stony demeanor as the rest of her team sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” in the Auguste-Delaune Stadium.

Rapinoe’s disgust with America is well known and the player had already warned that she would “never sing the anthem again.”
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Ethics - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Olympics - Sports - The New York Times - Warner Todd Huston

Olympian Lolo Jones Scolds NYTimes for Not Supporting Our U.S. Olympic Athletes

August 10, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

U.S. Olympic Hurdler Lolo Jones was slammed by The New York Times as a woman of little accomplishment, a flimsy girl not sufficiently woman’s libby enough, one that is all show and no go and during an August 8 appearance on NBC’s Today, the hurdler broke down in tears wondering why the U.S. media was so ready to tear competitors down instead of supporting our U.S. Olympians?

For the Times, longtime sports writer Jere Longman seemed to think that Lolo Jones’ image of beauty and grace was a strike against women’s lib. “Women have struggled for decades to be appreciated as athletes,” he said in an August 4 editorial. But Jones has gotten a lot of notice “based not on achievement but on her exotic beauty and on a sad and cynical marketing campaign,” he carped.
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Olympian Lolo Jones Scolds NYTimes for Not Supporting Our U.S. Olympic Athletes”

Entertainment - Race - Sports - Warner Todd Huston

Fired ESPN Editor Claims no Racial Slam Meant with ‘Chink in Armor’ Headline

February 21, 2012 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The headline written by ESPN editor Anthony Federico about Asian-American basketball star Jeremy Lin lasted only about a half hour before ESPN changed it but the fallout is lasting a bit longer for editor Federico.

On its Saturday story on Jeremy Lin’s less than stellar game the night before, ESPN’s headline screamed, “Chink in the Armor.”

Sports fans were riled at this apparent racial allusion – player Jeremy being of Asian background — and ESPN pulled the headline down quickly. In this age of Internet outrage-of-the-day stories, this one was a natural to get attention.

As the day rolled on, ESPN decided not to just change the headline but to fire its writer, editor Anthony Federico.

Today, Federico is defending himself to a degree and apologizing profusely.
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Fired ESPN Editor Claims no Racial Slam Meant with ‘Chink in Armor’ Headline”

Budget - California - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Sports - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

L.A. Sports Stadium Project More Important Than Libraries, Police, Firemen?

November 17, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The 2010 elections are now history. If there was any lesson from this Republican tidal wave that swept across the country it is that the vast majority of Americans are furious at the overspending and flawed leadership of our politicians. Voters are no longer so easily fooled by claims that wild spending sprees are beneficial. California was spared the GOP tidal wave but California voters of all stripes voted in droves to impose a high threshold on imposing any new taxes (what was LA turnout). In the City of Los Angeles real pain is being felt as libraries are shut down due to budgetary cuts with police and firefighters next on the chopping block. Yet even with all these cuts in services, politicians in the City of Los Angeles are still considering a multi-million dollar subsidy — using taxpayer dollars – for the problematic Staples NFL Stadium project.

Across the country voters are starting to veer away from supporting public money going to fund stadiums and other such entertainment projects. Recently the Wall Street Journal reported that, “taxpayers are opposing agreements to fund baseball projects after a decades long boom in publicly financed ballparks.” It appears that L.A. has not learned its lesson from November 2nd.
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L.A. Sports Stadium Project More Important Than Libraries, Police, Firemen?”

Budget - California - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entertainment - Free Trade - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Sports - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The Coming Staples Mausoleum/Stadium

September 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Even as supporters claim they won’t need subsidies, it is more likely that L.A. is about to plunge itself forever into debt with a new stadium, the Staples Center. A look at just about any other convention center, or stadium in the country easily shows that these projects seldom pay for themselves as builders insist that they will do. Yet, every time you turn around another city is falling for this false hope.

Unfortunately it is almost impossible for the average citizen to track where the budget money is going in any particular city budget. As we learned from Bell, California people have even been duped into making city politicians millionaires and millions have been misspent.

Cities shift funds from one department to another with such regularity that tracking it is difficult. If the City of Bell is any lesson we need far more transparency in city budgeting.

But it shouldn’t be any surprise to the city fathers of LA that the Staples Center will never pay for itself. After all, the Convention Center has lost millions every year, too, and now they intend to tear down part of that losing venture to build yet another losing venture. According to the L.A. Almanac, in 2005 the convention center brought in $9,130,000. Appropriations for the convention center, however, were 21,608,518. That is an operating loss.
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The Coming Staples Mausoleum/Stadium”

Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entertainment - Government - Liberals - Sports - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Stadium Deal in LA a Moneypit

September 7, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Whenever I think of this new Staples sports stadium deal going down in Los Angeles I can’t help but think of the “bread and circuses” that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. Here is the City of L.A. sinking millions into this entertainment project leaving the people destitute and all for what? After all, as I wrote in the last column, these stadiums don’t seem to pay for themselves. So why is LA doing this? Is it just the prestige of having a football franchise?

Is having a football franchise enough of a palladium to justify sinking millions of tax dollars into a project like this? The city and the state it is in are going bankrupt, yet the city fathers of Los Angeles are pursing this football team with stars in their eyes. Is this the sort of hard-nosed, grown-ups we want leading our government?

Even more ridiculous is the plan to tear down a portion of the convention center to build the stadium. In a city starving for revenue does it make any sense to tear down a facility that brings in money and to leave that space fallow until the new stadium is finally finished years later?
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Stadium Deal in LA a Moneypit”

Sports - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

The Maudlin Nonsense of Sports ‘Heroes’

August 18, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Good Lord, what is it with you sports goofballs that have to raise baseball or football players — or ANY sportsman — to the status of national heroes?

Some guy named Bobbie Thomason died yesterday and as a result we get absurd, maudlin prose such as the piece by John Steele Gordon in Commentary Magazine, or the over-the-top New York Times slosh telling us why he was so important to America.

Apparently this Bobby Thompson fellow hit a baseball once and because of it people think he cured cancer or saved the whales or something.
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The Maudlin Nonsense of Sports ‘Heroes’”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - California - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Sports - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Want Economic Stimulus? Don’t Build a Sports Stadium!

July 9, 2010 by 5 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

For the last few decades sports teams across the country have nosed up to the public trough and demanded that states and cities chip in millions for the construction of new sports stadiums. To justify the public expense the claim has been made that these monstrous construction projects bring a wealth of jobs and spending on entertainment and are a boon to any city that will fund them. But are they? Do these multi-million dollar projects bring such lucrative benefits to the cities and states that pay through the nose for them?

For many years the “economic boom” idea of building stadiums seemed to make sense and city after state pumped billions of taxpayer’s dollars into such projects. But starting in the early 2000s, economists began to have enough data to show that the claims of beneficial end result of building stadiums was not as advertised.

In fact, these days economists that disagree amongst each other about so much have developed a wide consensus based on the belief that sports teams in and of themselves are not great economic engines for a city and that building giant new stadium complexes are not the automatic boon to the area such as they were sold.
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Want Economic Stimulus? Don’t Build a Sports Stadium!”

Canada - Children - Education - Liberals - Society/Culture - Sports - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Don’t Hurt the Loser’s Feelings: Kids Told Not to Win Games By Too Much

June 3, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A kiddie soccer league in Ottawa is oh, so concerned about the feelings of its little players. These poor kiddies will just wilt and turn to mush if they lose by too much according to league officials. So, in order to protect the delicate feelings of Canada’s youngsters, league officials have implemented a rule that forces an automatic loss for any team beating another team by more than 5 goals.

Yes, you heard me right. A winning team will automatically lose if they are winning by more than 5 goals.

Now, I’d like to puff my chest and laugh at this Cannuckle-headed foolishness. I’d love to point up to the Great White North and scoff at their lack of manliness, their limp-wristed PCisms, their mindbendingly idiotic paean to “feeealwings.” Yes, I’d love to say that no American would ever stoop to such milquetoastiness. Unfortunately, Politically Correct halfwits infect both sides of the border, up there and down here alike, and we in the States have just as many numb-chucks as the Cannucks have Cannuckle-heads.
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Don’t Hurt the Loser’s Feelings: Kids Told Not to Win Games By Too Much”

Entertainment - Immigration/Immigrants - Law - TV - Warner Todd Huston

Of AZ Law Football Player Tells Media: ‘I’m a Football Player It Doesn’t Matter What I Think’

May 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As “Dirty Harry” Callahan said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Well it looks like Jets Quarterback Mark Sanchez knows his and his limitations are that he’s a football player, not a politician.

Like the lemmings they are, the left-wing Old Media asked this football player what he thought about the Arizona anti-illegal immigration law. His reply was admirable.

“When it comes to politics, my candid answer is, I’m football player and it doesn’t matter what I think,” he said in a transcript provided by the New York Jets. “The most important thing is you see both sides. I haven’t read the legislature, so I won’t pass judgment on it.

Would that more entertainers, singers, actors, sports folk and other such uninformed folks would keep their completely irrelevant opinions out of the public square.

It is usually so painfully obvious that these sort of people who have spent their whole lives single-mindedly striving for excellence in a single field of endeavor have NO clue about history, politics, philosophy, or anything outside their field of work – much less any ability at introspection. Yet they seem to think that because they have achieved some amount of fame for their chief interests or work, why just everyone wants to hang on their every word. The fact is, people should simply shut the heck up if they don’t have an informed opinion.
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Of AZ Law Football Player Tells Media: ‘I’m a Football Player It Doesn’t Matter What I Think’”

Children - Education - Entertainment - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Hitchens Says Sports Suck… And I Agree

February 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, Christopher Hitchens has finally written something with which I can whole heartedly sign on. In his latest Newsweek piece Hitchens decries the sham that is sports — especially international soccer tournies. He slams the supposed benefits of sports and rightly pinpoints the singular truth that sports brings out the worst in everyone.

Hitchens eviscerates the lie that sports “brings people together,” lays low the lie that sports is good in schools, and obliterates the idiotic babble that sports are in any way filled with good role models — or that they even could present good role models.

I loved this delicious paragraph, delivered after delineating the “shock” that one sports dolt had when another dissed him:
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Hitchens Says Sports Suck… And I Agree”