Sports can serve as a provider of societal truths. Really. For example, check out Radley Balko on last night's riot at the Pacers@Pistons game:

I thought it was interesting see how when you introduced just a wee bit of anarchy to an otherwise controlled event, these accountants, college kids, and business people seized the moment. They stormed the floor and stampeded to the exits for no other reason than to hurl a symbolic beer-soaked hot dog bun at whatever athlete happened to be trying to escape from the floor at time. Didn't really matter if the guy on the receiving end had the character of Terrell Owens or of Michael Jordan -- whether he was Ron Artest or Austin Croshere. That he was wearing a jersey seemed to be enough.

Overbearing control begats discord. This is why in dictatorships there's the phenomenon of iron-fisted government control co-existing with virtual anarchy at the fringes. Also it's why after a dictator is overthrown otherwise calm people act like complete nuts.

I recall a "man on the street" type report out of Iraq soon after the overthrow was complete, where random Iraqis were doing awkward things like smashing bottles on the ground and setting stuff on fire, while yelling something along the lines of "this is freedom!" and whatnot. No surprise there, expecting someone who'd up to that point lived a tightly structured life to approach the removal of said structure rationally would be like expecting a newborn to walk.

That control sows the seeds of chaos is a lesson people should take care to remember. Just because for some people out there it takes a fight at a basketball game to realize it doesn't make it any less important.

On a lighter note: LOL@some of the descriptions people have online of the punches thrown. I read on SOHH various people saying Jermaine O'Neal's sucker punch of some dude reminded them of "some Tekken shit", "Sagat (from Street Fighter 2) TIGER UPPERCUT!!", "Kung-Fu shit", etc. Damn I wish I saw that...*fires up Kazaa to look for video...*

Found this interesting:

Just 2 months prior to the election, there was an attempt to amend language in the "New Freedom Initiative", hatched up by a commission created by Bush, allowing for mandatory psych testing & drugging of children by the government. Ron Paul -- serving his usual role as the lonely voice of reason -- offered an amendment at least requiring parental consent, since earlier attempts to get the whole thing thrown out failed. The amendment failed in the House, w/ 94 Republicans voting for it. Guess how many Democrats voted for this modest restraint?

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ONE.

Yet they're considered to be "concerned" about civil liberties. Har-de-frickin-har-har...

Que? Am I reading this correctly?

...administration officials have begun dialing back expectations that they will move to scrap the current graduated income tax for another system. Instead the administration plans to push major amendments that would shield interest, dividends and capitals gains from taxation, expand tax breaks for business investment and take other steps intended to simplify the system and encourage economic growth, according to several people who are advising the White House or are familiar with the deliberations.

The changes are meant to be revenue-neutral. To pay for them, the administration is considering eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes on federal income tax returns and scrapping the business tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance, the advisers said.

If true, this isn't reform in the slightest. Just "well, we cut taxes before we raised taxes".

A major point behind the "Fairtax" sales tax plan is that it would completely dead any bickering about what to tax and what not to tax, and other than the poorest among us would not take into account income -- anyone not in poverty would pay it, period. The proposal portrayed in this article sounds more like targeted cuts to steer around the looming issue of the bankruptcy of the tax code itself, while simultaneously increasing the effect state & local taxation (which tends to be regressive) has on people. Just continuing to cut taxes on investment income amounts to using a pair of nail clippers to cut down a tree, not to mention it's easy fodder for yet more Democratic charges of "tax cuts for the rich".

Instead of honest discussion that would take into account the results of different taxation schemes, the reasoning behind certain ideas, and the dragging of sacred cows into the blinding light to be slaughtered, we get this type of craven display of political cowardess. This will actually hurt worse than doing nothing in the long run.

James Joyner shows I'm not alone in this:

"...we're supposed to be talking about a replacement system! This is disappointing on a number of levels. Not only does it do very little to alleviate the problems that Bush citied in the campaign--the incredible amount of time and money that simply complying with the current system consumes--but it actually strikes me as harmful..."

Go outside and play:

Heavy use of computers may be linked to the development of a progressive eye disease, researchers claim. A study in Japan has found that staring at a screen could be related to glaucoma, which can lead to blindness.

War, war, war...

A couple bits on Iraq:

-A right-leaning pilot w/ a blog catches a Sneer Grenade from an NBC reporter and shares it with us via OTB.

-A Lefty catches on Australian TV something that would appear to be a war crime if the person killed wasn't trying to return fire.

Do with them what you will...

Update 11/16/04: That second one may allegedly be part of a pattern...

another update: John Hockenberry aplogizes to our pilot friend. Awwwww...

BTW: before anyone barks, no I do not agree with the lefty's interpretation of the war in Iraq. Invading Iraq to get cheap oil would be like robbing a bank to get change for a 20, the concept makes zero sense. I've explained this before: based on past history the war was inevitable, the only question was whether or not we'd actually find WMDs, and that answer has been No.

Well doesn't this suck....Ol Dirty Bastard, R.I.P.