Yes . . . but in Camus's case it wasn't really football but "futbol" which, of course, explains a lot. It would be better if Sarah had learned what she knows from baseball . . . but we can't have everything.

Can you explain why baseball would be better Julie?

My guess is that if I went back into George Will columns I could get an answer of sorts. I am still curious to figure out what Dr. Schramm was getting at in asking Jeb Bush about Baseball vs. Football. I wasn't suprised in the least that he preffered football, albeit for some rather abstract reasoning about the economics of how the sports were organized. Conversely in terms of how Jeb Bush came off as a numbers guy, it has always seemed to me that baseball was more about pure numbers, box scores and more capable of being supercrunched while Football hinged to a larger extent on momentum and key moments.

Ohio State fans can't deny that OSU came out flat last week against OU. The pot smoking moonshine making Appalchian party school almost got us, but we dodged the Clinton voters. The Appalchian's of number 8 WV lost badly to ECU which I can only guess reflects upon the cultural power of famous alumni Vince Mcmahon's WWE. If the WWE really clashes in any way with the appalchian way of life is up to debate. In any case when Ohio State comes to California to play Southern Cal, it could be that more than the national title is up for grabs. If the Southern Cal liberals defeat Ohio State, there may be enough animosity to justify some buckeye dems in voting for McCain at the polls come November. Of course of late Ohio State buckeye fans have enough anger at the predominately republican dominated states of the SEC(Florida and LSU) that this may ballance itself out. It is hard to say how college football really affects politics.

Nevertheless after the BYU/Washington game it was probably a good thing McCain didn't pick Mitt Romney, not only did his Utah beat Michigan which was one of the states he supposedly put into play, but the enforcement of a horrible new rule which was defended in the ESPN poll only by the state of Utah couldn't have done much to help the ticket or himself or the plight of Mormonism generally. In addition if BYU does have a good year, it will only serve to iritate Notre Dame fans who might see it as a cultural manifestation of the decline in the Catholic faith.

In any case I am not trying to be that serious, but asking that Palin learn from a sport such as baseball seems to neglect the role of geography in sports, not to mention gender since the close cousin would have been softball. I might guess that basketball being a good "winter/indoor" sport in northern areas(that don't have all the priviledges of weather you southern happy cow Californians types enjoy/take for granted) would be more popular/likely in Alaska.

So Palin learning from basketball coheres in a way that her learning from surfing would if she were from Hawaii, and "futbol" makes sense as a global warm weather sport in the rest of the world because almost anything can serve as a ball, no special equipment is necessary and shirts/sticks or concrete blocks can be used for goal posts.

Soccer is thus the ultimate democratic sport.

'Soccer is thus the ultimate democratic sport.'

How can you reconcile that comment in the presence of fascist referees waving red cards in celebration of Oscar winning dives.

Soccer is thus the ultimate democratic sport. Precisely. But we are a Republic and this requires something more than mere democracy. Baseball is the most rational of all of our sports in that it requires reason and honors its statesmanlike execution. How American is that? Girls may play softball more often than baseball (an adaptation according to their physical natures) but we are capable of equal (and sometimes greater) love for The Game.

But don't make too much out of all of this, John. In the main, it was a flippant comment rooted in a bit of personal prejudice. (Though I will say that most of my prejudices are not entirely sub-rational.)

Who needs referees? I mean soccer as a global sport enjoyed as readily on the streets of Lome Togo where goals are made of bricks and sticks, and the ball need not be regulation in any sense. To a large extent we can replicate this in backyard football but once you get to be of a certain size tackle football is just too dangerous and two hand touch just isn't the same thing. So american football requires a lot of money and equipement. Economists would say that Football has barriers to entry that soccer doesn't. Basketball has fewer barriers to entry than football and baseball in the sandlot if you build it they will come tradition also lacks barriers to entry. Now once you move up past pee wee leagues you start to get serious and the sports become formalized loosing some of the democratic(everyone can play) qualities.

I still don't know what to make of the fact that the folks in the capitalistic/democratic enclave of Dubai have built a massive indoor downhill ski slope and have a mean ass camel racing team that competes well with Kuwait. Camel racing I suppose is as natural to the middle east as horse racing is to Kentuky. And while soccer may be the team sport with the fewest barriers to entry, long distance running might be more democratic, albeit Keyna seems to excell here proving perhaps that geography(thin air+necessity) still has something to do with it.

I notice that the stuff white people like site that Dr. Lawler linked to has said that swimming is a white thing, and that swim meets have more white flesh than the mormon choir. The back story on Michael Phelps being that he was picked on in school and overcame this by concentrating his energy on swimming. Is it simply a coincidence that Dr. Knippenburg and his kids are involved in swimming?

Is it a coincidence that Palin likes basketball or is this an attempt to further confound the likes of P. Diddy?

I mean...all americans play basketball at some point in life, it is a good and reasonably fun sport. But as comment three points out the idea of a sport usually gravitates towards its highest and most organized form. Which means that basketball is code for NBA and the NBA is represented to a large extent by King James and Kobe Bryant. Is the fact that Palin likes basketball just another steriotype confusion, meant in some sense to placate P. Diddy comments concerning being from Alaska. P. Diddy says: Alaska?? are any black folk from Alaska? Well Palin likes basketball. And while all of this is somewhat ridiculous, I know that Burger King doesn't pay P. Diddy for a commercial where all he says is: "Tell them P. diddy says Burger King is open late" without some sort of reasoning. Ironically now the BK commercials feature a tall man (the King) in bling reverse pick pocketing...what is Burger King up to?

So right now I am tracking Burger King commercials+ college football. I am still not rulling out the possibility that the happy cows from california spot is contributing to a McCain surge. California=brain drain/elitism.

Flippant comments rooted in bits of personal prejudice are the stuff of commercials nowadays, as long as the prejudices are reliably sub-rational enough to send a broad enough message to the right base.