Yesterday I wrote a diary, which made the recommended list, but which I'll not link, because if ya missed it, ya probably CHOSE to miss it... and I respect that.
To sum up, said diary focused on a life experience and in the body of the text (as well as the comments) there were some two hundred references to... um... a "marital aid".
Anyway, mostly all fun and games, but there were dissenters, notably this comment:
(This diary) certainly makes me think twice before I send conservative friends here for "more informed discussion and facts" about politics. Seeing this diary will justify the very opinions that they hold of the left that I so desperately want to help change.
That stuck in my block, not because I thought the criticism was unjustified, but because I honestly debated it merits in the shower... with my wife... while prepping dinner.
(I can be that way, see.)
But just as I transfered the wilted, garlic spinach from wok to serving bowl (it was REALLY good) I decided, "Fuck it... I loves me some Muhammad Ali."
Muhammed Ali was not only the greatest
boxer in history, he was also nothing if
not a big meaty thumb in the eye of
everything establishment.
Ali was brash and cocky...
"I'm not the greatest; I'm the double
greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out,
I pick the round."
Ali was irreverent...
"I'm so fast that last night I turned off
the light switch in my hotel room and
was in bed before the room was dark."
Ali was utterly and completely fearless...
"I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin' hell, but as long as they ain't free, I ain't free."
Ali was poetic...
"The man who has no imagination has no wings."
Ali was an asshole...
"Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wild Life."
Ali was profound...
"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."
Ali protested the war... threw his olympic medals in the river... hell choose to become MUHAMMAD ALI when he could have lived his life a Cassius Clay Jr.
And, yet... despite all that... despite being everything that scared the nickers off white, polite society in the late 60's and early 70's... Ali became beloved anyway.
Now, there is another way.
Tiger Woods.
Amazing. Unbelievable. Historic.
But (like my personal idol Michael Jordan, unfortunately), he's chosen (totally his right) to corporatize himself entirely.
Woods never steps into the public fray, so much so that when a golf commentator suggested his competitors should "lynch him" in order to have a chance to win... he never made an on camera statement beyond no big deal.
Woods is never brash... never poetic... never fearless (EXCEPT of on the links, of course).
C'mon... dude sells Buicks.
Sure, I'd like DKos to be the place you send your conservative friend for informed discussion and facts, but since I got here in early 2004, we as a group (and Marcos himself) have always been a little too loud, a little too shrill, a little too unserious, a little too pugnacious, a little TOO TOO EVERYTHING.
Like Ali.
And I loves me some Ali.