muddysmind.com

so... you previously thought the excessive and often crippling violence in football was somehow wholesome family fun?

I read somewhere years ago that Americans love sex and Americans love violence but Americans get offended when sex and violence come together.

benny: it was just innappropriate. You don't tune into football expecting sex, you tune in expecting violence. It's that simple.

Your both wrong I am not expecting violence. I'm expecting a good game.

Guess it depends on your view of what "violence" means. Football IS a brutal game, baby. You've said that yourself. So, yeah, when I pass through the living room and I see you and the kids watching football, I know they *will* be exposed to alot of "extreme contact" -so to speak - but, yeah, it goes with the territory.

Oh and, btw....

"...with some ugly hooker stripping for T.O. ..."

She's *not* ugly! (of course this comment *is* comming from a man who thinks Nicole Kidman is ugly too) But, hey, to each his own.:-)

all women can't be a sexy as Elizabeth Hurley

Now, that's *one* woman who can turn even muddy's head....well, other than *me*, of course.:-P

I didn't think the woman was all that but still.

I like to watch football, but even I will say that it's recreational violence.

"recreational violence"? Now, *that's* an interresting phrase....Don't think I've ever heard that one before.:-)

Now there are other media too whose basic social role is quite different: it's diversion. There's the real mass media-the kinds that are aimed at, you know, Joe Six Pack -- that kind. The purpose of those media is just to dull people's brains.

This is an oversimplification, but for the eighty percent or whatever they are, the main thing is to divert them. To get them to watch National Football League. And to worry about "Mother With Child With Six Heads," or whatever you pick up on the supermarket stands and so on. Or look at astrology. Or get involved in fundamentalist stuff or something or other. Just get them away. Get them away from things that matter. And for that it's important to reduce their capacity to think.

Take, say, sports -- that's another crucial example of the indoctrination system, in my view. For one thing because it -- you know, it offers people something to pay attention to that's of no importance. [audience laughs] That keeps them from worrying about -- [applause] keeps them from worrying about things that matter to their lives that they might have some idea of doing something about. And in fact it's striking to see the intelligence that's used by ordinary people in [discussions of] sports [as opposed to political and social issues]. I mean, you listen to radio stations where people call in -- they have the most exotic information [more laughter] and understanding about all kind of arcane issues. And the press undoubtedly does a lot with this.

You know, I remember in high school, already I was pretty old. I suddenly asked myself at one point, why do I care if my high school team wins the football game? [laugbter] I mean, I don't know anybody on the team, you know? [audience roars] I mean, they have nothing to do with me, I mean, why I am cheering for my team? It doesn't mean any -- it doesn't make sense. But the point is, it does make sense: it's a way of building up irrational attitudes of submission to authority, and group cohesion behind leadership elements -- in fact, it's training in irrational jingoism. That's also a feature of competitive sports. I think if you look closely at these things, I think, typically, they do have functions, and that's why energy is devoted to supporting them and creating a basis for them and advertisers are willing to pay for them and so on.

-- Noam Chomsky in Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media

Noam Chomsky...a man who has done nothing but benefit from a country he claims to hate.