"he's the greatest dancer i've seen since baryshnikov or nureyev."

[rone]

I had this quote in my .signature some time ago:

[Ronald Reagan's] presidency always reminded me of a remark made by a woman to Heywood Broun following Secretariat's victory in the Triple Crown.  After the trauma of Vietnam and Watergate, she said, Secretariat had "restored her faith in humanity."  I like to think Reagan was the Secretariat of the eighties.
        — G. B. Trudeau

Sadly, not only are people like that woman still around, they've gotten much, much worse.  I really hope this is the last i'll ever hear or read about that goddamn horse.

Comments

[arian1.livejournal.com]

"I really hope this is the last i'll ever hear or read about that goddamn horse."

Heywood Broun...or Secretariat?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

The one behind the link, which i don't even want to name.

[arian1.livejournal.com]

I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

I say "neigh".

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I think my initial interest in woo-woo stuff derived from the observation that some people will plug just about anything into their religion receptors.

[sweh.livejournal.com]

See L. Ron Hubbard.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

Or Carlos Castaneda, for that matter.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Which is why G. K. Chesterton says you have to be Christian: to prevent yourself from believing in anything. Only stick G. K. Chesterton-approved Gods in your God hole so you don't believe in anything!

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

So it's supposed to be like some sort of inoculation, then?

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

You can always read about dead horses instead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macuahuitl#Effectiveness).

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Synchronicity: i am reading Pratchett's "Eric" for the first time, and i just read the bit with the macuahuitls.

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

I think I have a copy of that in one of my boxes, waiting to be read for, oh, the past 4-5 years....

[joepro.livejournal.com]

I really hope this is the last i'll ever hear or read about that goddamn horse.

Same discussion I had with a few friends over drinks the other day. I have a cousin going to Iraq in three days and people are worshiping that horse. I only read the heading to your link, I get so pissed thinking about this.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Why do you hate America?

[wisn.livejournal.com]

See, Elvis is passe even in the redneck backwoods, so all the stupid crackers have to find something new to worship. Sure, they got Jesus, but sometimes it ain't enough.

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, Jesus never won the fucking Kentucky Derby now, did he?

[xtingu]

Make sure you don't fly on United any time soon. As part of their in-flight entertainment they had a piece on "that goddamn horse." They scrolled through images of cards, flowers and get-well-soon signs that people mailed to him.

SWEET WOUNDED JESUS, IT'S A HORSE.

(And yeah, I spent every summer as a kid on my aunt's horse farm. I think horses are pretty and special and neato and all that. But yo, pass the fucking glue already.)

Damn straight.

[asienieizi.livejournal.com]

There hasn't really been an animal worthy of hero worship since Rin-Tin-Tin.

[twillis.livejournal.com]

That's just silly. Secretariat should restore ones faith in horses, not humans. If I were Secretariat, I would be really pissed off, humanity getting faith credit for my race.

[twillis.livejournal.com]

One of the finest human qualities, in my opinion, is our ability to care about strangers. We can ever care about stuff that isn't real, or love an idea. I figure it's part of being a successful social creature; empathy is probably a survival plus.

Unfortunately, this also means we have folks doing this kind of stuff, and caring about "Who Shot JR?".

It's probably a package deal that we're stuck with. Unless people smarten up.

[littleamerica.livejournal.com]

Can you put a point on this for me? Are you saddened because people are still fussing about Barbaro? Or because ESPN covers horse racing?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Actually, ESPN covering horse racing has been a long-time irritant, but what really pissed me off this time is the insane horsey cult (calling it "fussing" is like calling Iraq an "incident").

[littleamerica.livejournal.com]

Well they're not alone: NPR was guilty of treating Barbaro's demise with the same fascination they're treating Fidel Castro's. I haven't heard any items devoted to the cult of St Barbaro on NPR, but then I've been busy, etc.

oh just shoot them...

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

some times one has to just accept that the war on Idolatry is ON, and we all have to just do our part to cull the herd...

[urbeatle.livejournal.com]

It could be worse.

You could be seeing news stories about how the loss of the MacArthur Maze is a great loss to history, and how that stretch of road touched the soul of the Bay Area.

I'm assuming, of course, that there are no such news stories. I'm sure you will rub it in if there are.