VIDEO: Victor Davis Hanson on hot topics of the day

Yes, again. Regular readers of WWW know Walt has a handful of favourite vloggers, but we do try not to repost too many videos by the same commentator all at once. But today's episode of the Victor Davis Hanson Show is a must-watch!

Mr Hanson and host Jack Fowler discuss the raid on John Bolton's house, the Cracker Barrel logo change, male cheerleaders in the NFL, the hot water James Comey finds himself in, and -- the best part IMHO -- how the Dimocrats got where they are. Blame it on all those Karens!

And there's a bonus! At about 1 hour 04 Mr Hanson goes off on the way certain truck drivers -- graduates of the infamous Singh School of Truck Driving -- make America's roads unsafe. 

Key takeaway: "California is a dangerous place to live!"

Remember, dear readers, your comments are always welcome... moderated, but welcome. Just click on the headline and the article will open as a separate page, with the comments window at the bottom.

VIDEO: NBA or NFL?

Ed. here. Walt is sending content only sporadically -- still in a funk, I guess, after her saw his shadow on the 2nd. We therefore appreciate the agents who have stepped into the breach. This little gem, which I believe was filmed at a trial attorneys' convention, was sent to us by Agent 5.

  

Shame on those of who who thought the "N" in "NBA" and "NFL" stood for something other than "National". Hey, it's an easy mistake to make.

Anus Horribilis 2020: Poor Len Canayen's sports highlight of the year

Ed. here. 2020 is almost over, thank God, truly an Annus Horribilis if ever there was one. (I know my Latin but Walt insists on leaving the headline as he wrote it.) We continue our yearend review with a comment from our National Sports Editor, Poor Len Canayen.... 

Tank youse Hed. I `ave a bit of a problem here since you gave me da title of National Sports Editor, because you never made it clear which national sport I was supposed to report on. Different countries have different sports, eh. Canada has two -- the national winter sport (ice hockey) [Is there some other kind of hockey? Ed.] and the national summer sport (lacrosse), which is like hockey but more violent. Or at least that's the way it used to be. 

And the American national sport is... what... baseball? The rest of the world plays games like soccer (which they call "football" for some reason) and cricket, which are incredibly effete and boring. So which sport am I supposed to cover? OK, I'm gonna do the one I know best, the only one which might be considered a natural for a blog named Walt Whiteman's World. 

But first, a word about two American "national" (by name) sports -- National Basketball (as in NBA) and National Football (as in NHL). In terms of fan interest and revenue, those leagues have had the worst year in history, and will probably have another such in 2021. 

The leagues and the lamestream sports media (hello ESPN!) blame Covid-19 for their tanking ratings. I don't see that. With large swaths of North America under varying degrees of lockdown, common sense says there should be more people staying at home, hiding from the dreaded Kung flu, with nothing better to do than watch TV and, errr, the other thing. 

What, then, is the reason why fewer Americans [and Canadians! Ed.] are watching basketball and football, and baseball too? Dare we say that it could be because fans are fed up with the anti-American demonstrations performed by some non-white players and their "woke" colleagues, not to mention the sports media. 

This year it became a "thing" to "take a knee" during the (alleged) singing of the Star-Spangled Banner, to protest the horrible injustices of slavery, colonialism, racism, discrimination yada yada yada. It's more fashionable now than at any time since the Vietnam war to diss the flag of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands. Patriotic Americans have noticed, and have reacted predictably and appropriately. 

Let me turn, then, to what I consider the Sports Highlight of the Year. On February 22nd, David Ayres, the Zamboni driver at a small arena in Toronto, suited up for the NHL Carolina Hurricanes after both their goalies were injured in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

How did that happen? Well, the NHL requires the home team -- Toronto, in this case -- to provide an emergency goaltender in the unlikely event of injury to either team's starting and backup goalies. The standby goalie gets paid a few bucks and gets to watch the game. But on the night of February 22nd, both of the Hurricanes' goaltenders (James Reimer and Petr Mrazek) were injured, so David Ayres entered the game at 8:41 of the second period, after signing a one-game contract.

Wearing a Maple Leafs t-shirt under his equipment, he allowed goals on the first two shots that he faced before stopping the next eight shots on goal, along with recording a shot on goal of his own (!) to help seal a 6–3 win for Carolina. He thus became the first emergency goaltender to record a win in NHL history! He also became the oldest goaltender (at 42 years, 194 days) to win his NHL regular-season debut.

Ayres was cheered to the rafters by the Toronto fans, and named first star of the game. He kept his game-worn jersey and game puck, and donated his game-used goalie stick to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Had he signed a Professional Try-Out Agreement he would have been paid $500 for the game, but Ayres said after the game that under the terms of his contract he was not paid. Hurricanes' forward Sebastian Aho said teammates pulled together and gave Ayres a little bit of money. 

Following the game, the Carolina team announced that they would be selling T-shirts with Ayres' name and sweater number (90), with royalties going to Ayres and a portion of the proceeds being donated to a kidney foundation of Ayres' choice. But wait, there's more! Ayres was invited to sound the siren at the start of the Hurricanes home game on February 25th, which was declaired "David Ayres Day" in the City of Raleigh.

The NHL and its players have agreed on terms for a 56-game season to start on January 13th. It looks as if almost all 31 teams will be playing in their proper cities and arenas, probably without fans, but you can bet that, in Canada at least, hockey-starved fans will be put TV ratings through the roof! 

My favourite Montréal Canadiens look to have been strengthened greatly by some smart off-season acquisitions by GM Marc Bergevin. Moreover, because of the realignment of divisions forced by that old debbil Covid-19 and the closure of the US-Canada border, the Habs will be playing in an all-Canadian "Northern Division". So I'd say they, and Canadian fans should be set for a memorable 2021 season... maybe even a Stanley Cup!

Coming next: Walt's pick for 2020 Man of the Year. Does Walt have a surprise in store for you? Probably not...

Another suggestion for a name for the Washington football team

Now that it has become de rigueur [= you have to do it. Poor Len.] to spell "black" with a capital B -- Black -- when referring to people we used to call Negroes or Colored, I have come up with another billiant idea -- the latest in a long line -- for a name for the NFL Team Formerly Known As Redskins.

This pure genius because it reflects the diversity [or lack thereof? Ed.] in today's National Football League and redresses the complaint of Colin Kaepernick and his fellow Blacks that they are not being shown enough `spect by the owners, the meeja, the public, and of course Still-President Trump.

I thought about "Washington All-Blacks", like the famous New Zealand football team [Actually they play rugby! Ed.], but found that name refers to their uniforms, not to the colour of their skins. The Washington team is Blacker than they are! So "All-Blacks" is out... and my suggestion is... wait for it...

The Capital Bs! Geddit?! Although the football team actually plays in Landover MD, Washington is the nation's capital, right? [What happened to Richmond? Ed.] And "Bs" is a capital B, made plural! Brilliant!

And yes, I even found a logo which will look perfect on the side of a black helmet or the shoulder of a black jersey... although visually it would be much better to have white (no capital) helmets and jerseys.

To the owners and management of the Team Formerly Known As Redskins... You're Welcome!

Footnote from Poor Len Canayen: Walt, didn't you copy that logo from a basketball team? Kinda looks like a basketball....

Suggested name for the Washington (DC) football team

As widely expected, the NFL Washington Redskins have caved to the SJWs and their "woke" corporate sponsors and announced today that they would be dumping their Indian ["Native American", shurely! Ed.] warrior mascot into the same trash bin as Chief Wahoo, where they will soon be joined by Chief Black Hawk who looks like a twin of the Washington... errr... Native American, and perhaps even Notre Dame's Fighting Irishman. [What's wrong with him, ye spud-faced bastard!? Ed.]

All this was predicted by my goodself a year and a half ago. See "'Racist' logos, 'racist' mascots, 'racist' names - Where will it end?", WWW 30/1/18. Lifetime pct .983.

Of course the team name will have to change too. How can they keep on calling themselves "Washington" when they make their home at FedExField (formerly Jack Kent Cooke Stadium -- remember him?) in Landover MD? Is a puzzlement. I saw on the idiot's lantern today that the mayor of Washington DC is working on that problem. "First we have to seize the land," she said... if I heard her correctly.

The greater problem seems to be the second part of the team name. Some say that if you can have a football team called the Browns, and a baseball team called the Reds, and a hockey team called the Blues, what's wrong with "Redskins".

Aha! It's the "skins" part! Although not so heinous as the Word Which May Not Be Spoken Or Even Referred To By Its First letter, "Redskins" ranks right up there with "our little red brothers" [Ugh, kemosabe! Ed.] as one of the more foul racialized descriptives. It must go.

Just last week we reposted an anonymous fan's excellent suggestion for a new team name. See "Suggested name change for the Washington Redskins", 8/7/20. But for some reason, "Washington Foreskins" has not made the short list. So it's up to Walt, as usual to come up with a name which will offend no-one and satisfy everyone. Are ya ready?

Really ready?
Here `tis. (Drum roll please, Ed.)

The Washington Generals! The team's owners said that the new name should have some military connotation, and of course the Washington connection must be kept, so "Washington Generals" is perfect!

But (I hear you say), there's already a team with that name! They used to play against the Harlem Globetrotters, although of course they weren't in the same league. (Geddit?) True enough, but the key phrase there is "used to". After over 60 years of playing -- and losing -- to the showboating and basketball tricks of the Globetrotters, the Generals hung up their sneakers five summers ago.

They closed up shop with the worst record in sports history, having won one (1) game and lost more than 16,000. Their name became, like that of Harold Stassen, a synonym for losing, so much so that Krusty the Clown could bet on the Generals to win and we were all supposed to get the joke.

So there's the perfect name. The old logo of the tiny white dude flailing aimlessly with a ball held over his head would have to change, of course, but a similar image, in which whites would be shown to be inferior, shouldn't be hard to design. And Everyone That Counts would be happy. Right?!

Who won the Great Debate? Walt makes the call

Walt was over to Fort Mudge last night to watch the presidential debate on the TV in the store window. The whole 100 minutes. Damn near froze, in spite of a little pre-debate fortificatory libation.

Quite a different performance by the Prez from the first one, but the Inevitable Mitt held his own, I thought. Both combatants scored a couple of good points. Obama forced Romney to admit that his (Romney's) pension was bigger than his (Obama's). Imagine that. And Romney got off a good one by telling an African-American that he had every right to be disappointed in the candidate he voted for last time, meaning Obama.

But the biggest play was -- or should have been -- Romeny's calling out Obama when he told an out-and-out lie. Speaking about the killing of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya on 9/11,  the Prez stated cited remarks he said he made in the White House Rose Garden the next day, September 12th. He said clearly and unequivocally -- Walt heard him -- that he called the attack a "terrorist act".

That was after Romney said that it took Obama 14 days to call the attack "an act of terror" rather than just an overreaction to a stupid video. Well sir, Romney called the Prez on it, or attempted to. But  no sooner did he begin to say "That's not what you said just a moment ago" when the moderator, CNN's Cathy Crowley weighed in. [That would certainly be the appropriate verb, in her case. Ed.]

The idea of last night's "town hall" format was to allow Obama and Romney to spaker directly to voters, a representative group of same comprising the audience. They weren't supposed to be overtly partisan. Their role was to ask questions, which the Prez and Wannabe Prez would then answer.

The moderator wasn't supposed to be partisan either. She was supposed to be, errr, moderate. Time magazine somehow got a copy of the campaigns’ agreement over the debate’s terms. The deal was that the moderator would not ask follow-up questions. All she was supposed to do was choose which of the audience's questions would be asked, and introduce the voters who would ask their questions.

Did the lovely Cathy rein in her obvious lamestream bias in favour of Obama, the media's darling? Noooooo. When Romney said Obama was speaking with a forked tongue -- OK, not his actual words -- Al told him, "Get the transcript."

Then Cathy opened her large yap to defend her favourite. "He did call it an act of terror," she said.

Speaking on CNN after the debate, Crowley said her comment "was the natural thing that came out of me." Just like shit.

Romney supporters at the debate were irate. "Candy was wrong, and Candy had no business doing that, and Candy didn’t even keep the (candidates’ speaking) time right," said former New Hampshire governor John Sununu.

Added one of Mitt's senior advisors, Ron Kaufman, "At different times tonight, she in fact got into the game, and she wasn’t on the sidelines."

Indeed. In Walt's opinion Cathy played the entire front four for Obama. For her outstandingly partisan performance, second only to that of the NFL's replacement referees, Walt declares Cathy Crowley the winner, and awards her the first ever COW, the latest in a long line of prestigious WWW awards. COW stands for Combative Overweight Woman.

Footnote from Ed.: Cathy Jones of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, used to do a devastatingly accurate impression of the biased and ignorant CNN "personality". I'm looking for a video clip. If you have one, please send it to walt.whiteman@yahoo.com.