« The US Navy Entry | Main | Fun Star Wars Stuff »
May 23, 2005
The NYT has corrupted another one. . .
Here's a VERY interesting opening paragraph. . . .
For a certain segment of the population, Nascar's raid on American culture -- its logo festoons everything from cellphones to honey jars to post office walls to panties; race coverage, it can seem, has bumped everything else off television; and, most piercingly, Nascar dads now get to pick our presidents -- triggers the kind of fearful trembling the citizens of Gaul felt as the Huns came thundering over the hills. To these people, stock-car racing represents all that's unsavory about red-state America: fossil-fuel bingeing; lust for violence; racial segregation; run-away Republicanism; anti-intellectualism (how much brain matter is required to go fast and turn left, ad infinitum?); the corn-pone memes of God and guns and guts; crass corporatization; Toby Keith anthems; and, of course, exquisitely bad fashion sense. What's more, they simply don't get it. What's the appeal of watching . . . traffic? It's as if ''Hee Haw'' reruns were dominating prime time, and the Republic was slapping its collective knee at Grandpa Jones's ''What's for supper?'' routine. With Nascar's recent purchase of a swath of real estate on Staten Island, where it intends to plop down an 80,000-seat racetrack and retail center for the untapped New York City market, the onslaught seems poised on the brink of full-out conquest. Cover your ears, blue America. The Huns are revving their engines.
You might want to read the whole New York Times article before we continue.
You may not realize until you're half way through what is, in reality, a book review. Yep, there it is, halfway through page two is the first mention of the book that the reviewer is covering. Actually, it's 2/3rds of the way down.
So what do we have here? Bash the Red States, hate the moronic Southerners that gave us President Bush, stereotype and slander every NASCAR fan, essentially engage in racist behavior, and insult 75 million people because they "aren't like YOU."
I really wonder if this is "fit to print", or even what that means anymore.
For the record, I'm no NASCAR fan. I'm not a big race fan, period. I don't even drive my own car very fast. About 5 miles over the speed limit is my limit, I just don't see the point. Now I will say that I "appreciate" racing. I enjoy watching coverage of the Tour de France, Kentucky Derby, Olympics Track and Field and I'll sit and watch any Formula 1 race or Rally Car race. I'll also watch parts of big NASCAR races, especially if it's close to the end.
I'm curious? Miles must feel the same way about ski racing, bike racing and horse racing as he does about NASCAR. I'm quite sure he doesn't. In fact? I'm wondering if Johnathan Miles feels the same way about NASCAR as he says he does in the article. I suspect that the fact that Miles was writing for the NYT was the source of his vitriol.
I say this because This Article just doesn't make sense when you compare it to the NASCAR piece. So this Miles is all happy bout hunters killing rabbits and cooking them up but he doesn't like NASCAR? Does anyone see where I'm going with this? Maybe he just has a thing for wild birds.
Personally, I think Miles just graduated up to the big time now with the New York Times and part of his selling his soul is to hate that segment of America that put him there. I'm sure the percentage of NASCAR Fans that read Field and Stream is far greater than the number of Field and Stream readers that read the New York times.
Hey but what do I know, I'm just one of those Huns.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at May 23, 2005 12:39 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.jasoncoleman.com/MT/mt-tb.cgi/22
