Results tagged ‘ Politics ’
RSBS Post Number 1,597
Five seasons. Two Hall of Fame interviews. One World Series victory (well, for Jeff at least).
And now, 1,597 posts.
Red State Blue State was born out of the fiery email exchanges between Messieurs Krause and Lung during the 2006 World Series — a World Series that saw Jeff’s Redbirds trounce Allen’s Tigers (although until his dying breath Mr. Krause will blame the pitching fielding errors over an inept offense for Detroit’s shortcoming — one that would not be their last, obviously).
Over the last five years, we have enjoyed all of the benefits of writing a hit MLBlog. Jeff got to interview Ken Griffey, Sr., Dave Winfield and his boyhood idol, Ozzie Smith. He also went to the 2009 All Star Game and reported on that experience. Hell, last year he even went to the World Series! — twice — and then popped champagne as his boys brought it all home. Allen, well, he drew particular pride from the fact that RSBS ended up getting banned by the censors in Saudi Arabia.
But it wasn’t just about the sports. Although RSBS started life as a baseball blog, the second and equally important pillar, was a shared enjoyment of the drama and often maddening inconsistencies with the American political system. We found a way to combine sports and politics with literary bindings, and from that we engaged in quite a few intellectual debates that strung our worlds together. The highlight of Jeff’s political revelations had to be his Libertarian coming out party — the one that Mr. Krause so dutifully lampooned.
For Allen, the Post-Partisan Playoff Preview presented an opportunity to truly combine postseason baseball and postseason politics into an orgy of prognostication. Sure, the only time he may have truly gotten it right was in 2008′s initial edition but he still made a valiant effort in the close but not quite there predictions of 2011 and 2010. Allen’s political evolution may have been less dramatic than Jeff’s as he stayed continuously true to his blue state roots but this led to a moment he’ll never forget, being there for the inauguration of Barack Obama.
However, probably our finest RSBS achievements have to do with a little ditty by David Archuletta and the underground hip-hop sensation, Jesus Hates the Cubs.
Today is a day different from all the rest. Today we publish our last post. It is not without sadness that we do this, but, like many others experience in life, the time has come for us to move on.
If you would like to follow Allen’s post-RSBS exploits, visit him at his new blog, The Nomadic Revue, where he will continue to provide political commentary as well as entertainment and restaurant reviews.
And if you would like to follow Jeff’s sensational running career (and all the creative introspection born from that), then check out The Run Factory.
More than anything, we want to thank YOU, dear reader. Thank you for joining us on our journey. Thank you for all your comments, all your emails, all your Twitter love.
Thank you all very, very much.
Jeff and Allen
Do Your ‘Merican Duty!
It’s Election Day, so you should vote.
No excuses.
People DIED for your right to go to the polls, regardless of your opinions. Don’t let those deaths be for nothing. Do your ‘Merican duty and like, the Iraq, and such as….
Happy Election Day!
Jeff
Where the White Women At?
One of the big stories of this year’s presidential election has been the Republican party’s admitted focus on getting the votes of white people. They’ve more or less given up on the hispanic and black vote so it’s white or nothing at this point.
And the strategy has been successful, at least as far as white men are concerned. The Romney campaign is absolutely destroying Obama among white men. However, among white women it’s not going quite so well.
Maybe that means that in the last day of the campaign Obama should make a new pitch to white voters. Here’s one possible strategy:
Let’s call it a political sacrifice fly. You never know what it might bring home.
-A
Mopping (and Muppeting) Up
Well, that escalated quickly. Or maybe it’s more appropriate to say that de-escalated quickly. Seriously, for a team that closed out the Yankees with a 8-1 win, how can you go 20 innings without a run? If the 2006 loss to the Cardinals was embarrassing, this one will go down in the annals of humiliation.
However, now that we have that out of the way, the focus automatically shifts to the postseason awards. Of course the big ones that Tigers’ fans are waiting on are the Cy Young and MVP awards but there’s an even bigger award up for grabs this year.
Now, I don’t think it would come as any surprise to readers of this blog that I’m hoping for an Obama win next week. It’s unfortunate that the American electorate refuses to understand how much worse things would have been without an Obama presidency, and it’s a very real possibility that Willard and Captain Muppet could win this election.
I guess I’ll leave it at this. Look at what the candidates say and have said. See who has been consistent and figure out who you can trust. And then get out and vote.
-A
P.S. One quick question. Which is worse, getting swept or losing a 3-1 lead in a series? Either way, I think it’s pretty safe to say that both teams repped by RSBS did a pretty phenomenal job of sh!tting the bed.
The Filibuster
For Allen… Would you vote for Romney if doing so guaranteed the Tigers a World Series win?
Mandy
Niles, MI
______________
Religion and literature are full of characters who were willing to make a deal with the devil in return for some sort of gift. Adam and Eve received the knowledge of good and evil while Faust sold his soul for earthly knowledge and pleasure. The catch, of course, is that there are always consequences. Adam and Eve lose paradise and the original Faust is carried to hell by the Devil himself.
Baseball isn’t immune from this phenomenon, the most popular example coming from the Broadway hit “Damn Yankees.” And honestly, it’s no surprise that baseball fans (or fans of any other sport, for that matter) would be willing to sell their souls in exchange for their team winning a championship. There’s a reason that supporters of sports teams are described via a shortened form of the word “fanatic.”
It’s a little different for me, though, especially when the deal is so clearly Faustian. The Tigers have always been my team and I follow them from the beginning to the often painful end of the season every year, but my world does not fundamentally change with Tigers’ wins and losses. Similarly, the argument could be made that the quadrennial presidential elections really don’t change much in a country that is held hostage by a two-party system, but I still believe that the President’s power to nominate judges and justices, decide foreign policy and choose how the laws of the nation will be executed means that his or her role is of supreme importance.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the stakes in this year’s presidential election, and any presidential election, are so much higher than one city winning the right to call themselves champion for a year. If the Tigers lose, Medicare will continue to function, women will still have the right to choose and we aren’t going to suddenly find ourselves fighting a new war in Syria or Iran. If Romney wins, these propositions all suddenly become much less certain.
I’d love to see the Tigers win the World Series, even if that looks less and less likely with every pathetic swing of the bat. But there’s no way that I would risk my country’s future or the lives of my friends and family members on it. Faust was willing to make a deal with the devil. Me, I’m not so arrogant.
-A
Have a topic you want to see us Filibuster? Send us your Filibuster questions by emailing RSBSblog@gmail.com or by commenting below.
Foreign Policy in Disguise
Tonight’s foreign policy debate promises a healthy dose of the Middle East and what each candidate thinks the other one should do or should have done with respect to places like Libya, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Romney will hammer Obama on Benghazi, completely ignoring the reality of the situation and the fact that a President should not be micromanaging things like security at a small consulate. Obama will talk about energy independence while choosing to continue ignoring our infatuation with the Saudis and their oil despite that country’s status as serial human rights abusers and traffickers in persons.
It’s too bad we can’t focus on some of the good things. Like the baseball diplomacy program that uses MLB players as ambassadors to baseball crazy countries in Latin America and attempted to use the game to thaw relations between the US and Cuba. Or how about the exchange programs where female American athletes travel all over the world to teach basketball and soccer clinics to young women in other countries?
We aren’t going to hear about any of that tonight. But we should.
-A
RSBS Digest: Blowing Up
Whether we’re talking about getting drunk and hitting the Taco Bell drive-thru at 4 a.m. or the state of my phone after a fast-movin’ night at the Roxbury, this much is known: things blow up.
This much is ALSO known: nothing blows up quite like the internet. I had a front row seat to the Twittersphere when Michael Jackson died (for real that time) and was amazed at how far-reaching this convoluted series of tubes really is.
And, as my melancholy and oft addled colleague Mr. Krause recently pointed out: proper internet explosions get a lot of fuel from fumbling politicians intent on keeping their multiple wives inside the three-ring trappings of a Trapper Keeper.
But the REAL explosion has yet to come. Hopefully, it will come tonight — Friday night. Hopefully the Cardinals will wrap up the San Francisco Giants’ futile efforts, kick back and wait for those cute little kitties to come to town.
That’s right, my fellow US Americans. An RSBS World Series is on the horizon…
Happy Friday!
Jeff
Yeah? Well, Leyland’s Got Binders Full of Baseball Players
The long delay during game 3 of the NLCS left a void that simply could not be filled by the WNBA playoffs. And then when it became apparent that the Tigers would have to postpone their opportunity to bring this year’s edition of the Evil Empire to a close, I had to face reality. No baseball for the evening.
However, this left me a little time to follow up on my favorite instant meme from Tuesday night’s debate: Binders Full of Women.
It’s amazing how in less than a day we’ve gone from:
to:
all the way to:
Rain may have halted baseball for one evening but it can’t stop the internet. Or Mitt Romney and his binders.
-A
Burning Down the House
Through years of tradition and arbitrary custom, decisions in the United States are often made by random groups of people whose legitimacy owes itself to nothing except that tradition. Exhibit A, the Electoral College. Exhibit B, the House of Representatives. Exhibit C, the Baseball Writers Association of America.
The first one isn’t going anywhere and except in random cases like the 2000 election, hasn’t actually thwarted the will of the people. Sure, it does give outsized importance to states like Ohio and Florida that really should be sold back to the French and Spanish, respectively, but it doesn’t make me hate myself.
The House of Representatives, on the other hand, is where intelligence and common sense go to die. Take Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia who sits on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology as an example. Rep. Broun’s membership on a relatively unimportant committee wouldn’t matter too much except for one thing. He believes that “evolution and embryology and Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell.” Broun also has stated that he believes that the earth is about 9,000 years old. That an idiot of this magnitude could be elected to Congress, and is running unopposed this year as well, is indicative of the collective intelligence of the body (and the American people, unfortunately).
Need more proof? Take the House Republicans’ hearing on Libya that took place last week in which they not only failed to resolve anything but also managed to blow the CIA’s cover in Benghazi in the process. Seriously, this is more appropriate to the plot of a Coen brothers’ movie than it is to the lower house of of our esteemed national legislature.
And finally we come to the Baseball Writers who have the power to hand out post-season awards as well as decide who is elected to the Hall of Fame. Considering that the list of members includes Woody Paige and Buster Olney, I’m not inclined to give much credence to anything they say. The only good thing about having them around is that there’s a good chance they’ll give the AL MVP to a Detroit Tiger for the second consecutive year, despite the strong case that could be made for Mr. Trout. And, at the end of the day, if I had to wish for the unholy death of one group of people, I’d probably give the nod to the House over the sportswriters. That could all change if Miggy doesn’t get the MVP, though. Writers, you have been warned.
-A
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