Dave Murray was awesome in Iron Maiden.
Posted on 01/28/2015 5:29:35 AM PST by LeoMcNeil
Lance Armstrong is back in the news again. I learned this from my pastor, Dr. David Murray, and his blog yesterday. You’ll recall Armstrong won 7 Tour de France cycling titles while on steroids. He basically acknowledges that he’s sorry he got caught but would do it all again. Dr. Murray’s focus is on repentance, trying to apply it to our own lives which can be difficult in light of the fact that Armstrong isn’t a Christian. Lance Armstrong has always been an odd character. He was involved in a sport that no one in America cares about except the sports media who are aiming for a gig in France. His team was sponsored by the US Postal Service, which itself is odd. Why is the American post office advertising in France? We wonder why the post office is billions in the red, pension funding is part of it but so is idiotic advertising.
Last night Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon were blabbing about Armstrong on their ESPN show, PTI. Their conclusion was that because Armstrong used steroids and lied to the media about it, his sin was so great that it was unforgivable. It is obvious they believe that the sports media is God and they will forgive only at their pleasure. Even if we grant that Armstrong hasn’t really sought forgiveness because he said he would do the same thing all over again the question remains who made the sports media God? Lance Armstrong can live a thoroughly immoral life, divorcing his wife without cause, he can lie to anyone on his team or any sponsor. But lie to the sports media and that is absolutely unforgivable! The arrogance of the media isn’t always on display in the political media, they have the sense to try to hide it most of the time. To see what these people are really thinking, you have to go to the sports media which views itself as Lord over the sporting world.
Much like the Michael Sam coming out of the closet story and the “controversy” surrounding the Washington Redskins name, the steroid story is a creation of the sports media. For the most part, fans have never cared whether athletes are using steroids. Baseball attendance skyrocketed when Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds were using steroids. Arguably McGuire and Sosa’s home run duel in 1998 saved baseball, which had been struggling after the 1994 strike canceled the World Series. Everyone knew those guys were on steroids, it didn’t change the fact that it took skill to hit home runs. No one particularly cared, except the sports media which made a big deal out of it. Athletes use all sorts of supplements and vitamins, the media doesn’t give a hoot about any of that. Steroid use, now that’s the end of the world!
The sports media considers themselves Lord over sports, the gatekeepers of a strange morality created by themselves. They certainly don’t represent fans, most of whom don’t care about steroid use so long as they’re being entertained. (professional sports is after all entertainment) Lance Armstrong is being singled out but not because he used steroids. Everyone in cycling was using steroids. The media has singled him out because he was a winner and because he commited the unforgivable sin of lying to the sports media. If there were American cycling fans, they wouldn’t particularly care about steroid use. Especially so when everyone else was using steroids. Make no mistake, the sports media is after Armstrong only because he lied to them. Their message is clear, if you lie to us we will destroy you. In the case of Armstrong, much like McGuire, Sosa and Bonds, the media did just that.
The sanctimonious self righteousness of the sports media is on full display daily at liberal ESPN. These guys create narratives and repeat them all day long, just like the mainstream political press. Fans exist only to be whipped into a frenzy over whatever outrage the media decides needs to be addressed. They decide concussions are a major problem in football, so they spend a year hammering football until something is “done” about it. Never mind that there are more concussions in soccer, that’s not part of the narrative. Much like the political media, the sports media believes it’s their job to push change whether change needs to happen or not. The sports media views themselves as Lord’s over sports. If they decide you’re a bad guy, you’re out until you grovel and get back in their good graces. The arrogance displayed last night on PTI was incredible. You don’t have to like Lance Armstrong, he seems like sort of a sleazy character. But to declare lying to the media an unforgivable sin shows for the world to see the unmitigated arrogance of the sports media. This is the sort of arrogance that Christians must reject out of hand. Who but God has the power to declare a sin unforgivable?
Self-appointed. And these self-appointed homunculi will destroy anyone who does not adhere to their orthodoxy (see John Rocker or their current attempts to hang someone for under-inflated footballs).
People don't seem to realize they extent they are manipulated. Pro Wrestling is pretty bald-faced about what's going on, but the entire sporting industry is not too dissimilar. And the News Business mostly exists to sell products and sway public thinking. And politics is mostly lies.
It's all a facade. Modern society is just play-acting. It cannot last.
Dave Murray was awesome in Iron Maiden.
Still is!
Totally agree. No matter how many steroids I take, I couldn’t hit a homerun in a stadium. It’s not the steroids, it’s the athlete. If Pistorius can run on blades in the Olympics, no one should mind steroids.
I was just in the doctor’s office yesterday reading Sports Illustrated, the issue with the College Basketball predictions in it.
There was a story about some BB player with two daddies and how they helped him get where he is. Goody for him (life is sunshine, lollipops, unicorns and rainbows - don’t forget the rainbows).
Homo promo ALL THE TIME.
The “problem” with Belichick is that he tell the coaches association to stuff it, he is brilliant, he gets coaching and he is running circles around the rest. So the jealous and pathetic want to tear him down. Ridiculous.
tells
What a bunch of crap. Americans as individusls are deeply engaged with cycling as a form of sport and exercise. The only reason it is not more popular is the high injury and death rate associated with cycling in American cities due to an almost pathological automobile culture and drivers who have a basic animosity toward the bicycle and see cyclists as convenient targets for aggression on the road. Don't get me wrong. I love my pickup and will never exchange it for a bullet train to nowhere like the libs expect all of us to do. But in Europe or at least France Spain and Italy cycling has been so much a part of the fabric of the culture for so long that there is respect and consideration for anyone cycling on the roads there. I don't think that will ever happen here. Meanwhile our grade school kids are being disenfranchised from baseball and being herded into soccer uniforms to become like Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina and all the other "advanced" civilzations surrounding us.
“individusls” = individuals
“civilzations” = civilizations
Like it or not, competitive bicycle riding isn’t even on the radar here in the US. That doesn’t mean Americans don’t enjoy riding their bikes, it just means that very very few are actually interested in watching a bicycle race on television or in person.
The left has been pushing soccer hard for the last decade or so. I’m not sure it’s catching on as much as they had hoped. There seems to be a disgruntled set 15-40 year olds who follow soccer for no other reason than it isn’t American. Interesting, Europe has a set of people in the same age range who follow the NFL for no other reason than it’s American. Ok, they’re probably following it because it’s better than soccer.
In any event, the government schools try to herd kids into soccer but by the time they’re teenagers they’ve largely abandoned it for football and basketball. I think it’s going to take more than herding kids into soccer at 7-9 years old to overcome the allure of playing on a high school football team. Especially so in the areas of this country that are completely obsessed with high school football.
Nor could most non-professional baseball players. However, steroid use among major leaguers can turn those 370 foot fly outs into 400 homers with enough frequency to break longstanding records.
Sports Illustrated is doing nothing more than pushing the agenda. They’ll take any opportunity to push the homosexual agenda, even forcing it if they have to. ESPN does the same thing. In fact, ESPN has the uncanny ability to force Obama into just about everything. There isn’t a week where his name doesn’t appear out of nowhere on the bottom line or when his name is randomly dropped on Sportscenter. I don’t even watch Sportscenter that often anymore and at least once a week I hear his name. It’s all agenda pushing.
I wonder why Belichick was never brilliant in Cleveland, and didn’t become brilliant in New England until Tom Brady became the starting quarterback in 2001.
Who's next? Mark McGwire? Barry Bonds? Rosie Ruiz?
The sports media is made up of nothing more than a bunch of political correctness pimps.
I’m not sure the steroids had that big of an effect on the game. When Mark McGuire is hitting 500 foot home runs and Sammy Sosa is hitting balls onto Waveland Ave. those are going to be home runs with or without steroids. Those two in particular either hit it a mile or they struck out, there really wasn’t an in between. They weren’t hitting home runs into the first row, they were all in the upper deck or out of the park entirely.
Baseball has a long tradition of cheating or otherwise playing fast and loose with the rules. The freak out over steroids was entirely media driven, I don’t think fans gave a hoot when it was happening and even now after years of harping on the issue a majority of fans just don’t care. Heck, these days baseball is trying to figure out how to create more offense because ultimately offense is what gets fans in the stadium.
Absolutely right. Not to mention extending careers with superhuman production waaaay past the point of normal human decline.
Freegards
“Everyone knew those guys were on steroids, it didn’t change the fact that it took skill to hit home runs.”
It didn’t take as much skill for them as it did for non drug users, because they were stronger. It takes skill to hit a home run; it also takes strength. Steroids give you strength that you didn’t inherit (nature), and didn’t work for (nurture). Actually, EVERYONE didn’t know those guys were juiced. Most people are ignorant on the subject, and think that “those guys must work out like 8 hours a day”. Yes, they do, they also stick needles in their butts to recover from all that working out.
The drugs provide an advantage that simply cannot be reproduced without them. They work, and no amount of grit or gumption or fight or hard work will allow a non-user to keep up when it comes to strength. If you and a competitor are similarly skilled at a game where strength is a major component, the season he starts juicing is the season you start losing .... unless you needle up too. Your only hope is that your opponent slacks off in some other area. Oh, and all of those guys who aren’t as skilled as you? Well, they just got a lot stronger via the juice, and now they are nipping at your heels.
The sports media selectively expresses outrage at all of this in order to further their agenda. If just about every pro athlete can be taken down for something (drugs, slugging a fiancee, beating a kid), then they can pick and choose their feeding frenzies.
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