Rocker Again…
Mr. Rocker has gone too far, by daring to suggest that Pearlman might actually be accountable for his words and deeds – these people make a living by trashing others and it never occurred to them that life might be a two-way street? These are people of such great virtue that they perceive it as their responsibility to pick apart anyone who isn’t up their marvelous standards. Standards which consist mainly of political correctness and servility towards them, the arbiters of propriety? We’ll consider the implications of this in a moment. First a word of advice from an older man to a younger one. Play to win – and mark this: you will never win against these people with your current tactics. Every fighter likes to make his opponent mad – then they are prone to make mistakes. You are making it easy for them. I’m betting you don’t begin to have a clue about just how evil this behemoth you’ve run up against actually is. You’ve put your hand in a nest of vipers. Consider money as well - are you likely ever to make this kind of money again, in some field other that the playing field? Where else do paychecks run into the millions? Georgia boys should take their finances seriously. Likewise their family. Remember Mr. Rocker that you are one of the "real" people – ignore the media hype and baseball stardom for a moment, and remember that there are folks counting on you. Some of those folks are your teammates. That fast ball of yours is less intimidating when it fails to cross the plate. Are you in the wrong? Let’s define the problem and search for the answer. Is it wrong to call out some bum that made you look like a fool? In isolation, that answer of course is "no" – but on the other hand I’ve found in my own life that when I look like a fool it was usually because I’d acted a fool. Is it wrong to jeopardize a high-paying job and your future over issues of honor? Again, no, but sometimes honor requires us to stay our hand as well as clench it in a fist. I’m not exactly known as "Mr. Compromise" myself, but I’ve learned to choose my battles. You will face worse trials than this in your life – why not face them with money in your pocket? Consider the strategy of the indirect approach – forget boxing for a moment and think of judo. If your desire is to deny these rascals their paltry little moment of "victory" over you, and your supposedly outrageous opinions, then stop playing into their hands. The one thing you can do this year that would really singe their tail feathers would be to pitch the best season of your life. Take this trip to Richmond and get your pitching back to what it used to be, or better. Give those vultures nothing, not a darn thing, to use against you. Sooner or later they will start crowing about how you seem to have changed your ways and come around to their point of view.. Then gently and publicly state that no, you haven’t changed your opinions, you just decided to make money for John Rocker instead of Sports Illustrated. A final thought Mr. Rocker, because this one occurs to me as I study scripture, and I know you Macon boys have been exposed to that too: remember to whom you are speaking. You’re not just battin’ the breeze with the guys down at the pub, when you talk to Jeff Pearlman. No, you’re talking to millions of folks, out of context, and with no chance to qualify your remarks. I’ve done it too, and there is no retracting a statement after that. The question then, is does it edify? If not, should I say it? The "smash Rocker" industry disturbs me greatly, and not just because it is spoiling Braves baseball for my wife and me this year. There are ramifications to this that suggest we are in real trouble here in the "land of the free." There was a time when it would have been considered heresy to suggest an American man should not be entitled to express his own opinions. No longer…any one to the right of Hillary Clinton is a racist and much more. Yet the media in general have no problem with wife beaters and drug addicts, while pandering to the feminists and arming the SWAT teams with everything short of nukes. A dichotomy as glaring as this requires some examination. For a revealing example of media complicity with the government, see Reuters on the web, which always has at least two articles showing the name "Clinton," typically with a headline suggesting that his participation in the events of the day is critical. When it concerns his many scandals and failures, it leans toward the "Clinton vows to stand firm" nonsense that seems to suggest that having been identified as a scoundrel, saying "So what," somehow mitigates it. As we have with their silly cousins in the sports media, I think we’ve identified some distinguishing characteristics here that can tell us much about what is happening to our country. First – "freedom of the press" has become a sick joke. The press is owned lock, stock, and barrel, by people whose agenda for Americans is any thing but freedom. Since the government exists only to batten on the body politic like some tic bloated with blood, it has been only too easy to encourage those morally irresponsible reprobates in Washington to move ever further to the left. We have this farce presented for us daily, as totalitarians usurp our liberties to protect us from some imagined "right wing conspiracy" led of course, by white males and Christians. We find in America today, that one can insult Christians and white males. These are the two groups that are targets and since knowledge is power, let’s consider why that is. The key to this mystery is the supposed "tolerance" of the left wing media. Yet I declare here and now, that this disgusting left-wing media, in concert with the scoundrels in Washington, has a devilish agenda, that if realized, will mark the end of freedom in this country. To those who disagree with me on this Rocker business let me pose a couple of questions. First, do you remember the famous quote, the one that used to define free speech in America, and particularly among military men: "I may not agree with what you said, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it!" Second – the sensitivity training, this mockery that was inflicted upon him – is that not the exact equivalent of the Soviet communist tactic of using psychiatry as a method of indoctrination and punishment? Put yourself in my shoes, and for this exercise, pretend you are a Christian even if you’re not, and let me pose a horror story that would have given H.P. Lovecraft nightmares. Imagine a powerful country where well-meaning radicals seize power and declare the end of government and society as it has been for centuries, and declare atheism the official religion. Remember now, thinking as a Christian means that you know atheism to be an absolute guarantee of eternity in Hell. Now that most people have been isolated from their Savior, and any hope of finding peace in death, the government begins to kill them in numbers that defy description. This is called communism, and it is very much alive and driven always by an insatiable appetite for ever more countries, and ever more souls. That it is successful is obvious in all the misinformation about the holocaust, a horror secondary in scope to the more demonic actions of the communists. One might ask why the one is a horror, and the other an expedient? Why is one remarked upon frequently, the other never? Am I a holocaust denier? Hardly. I am, among other things, a military historian. I don’t deny for one minute that Hitler was a madman who sank his country into a horror of mass murder and insanity. But you better think two or three times before you buy into what the media are selling, because Hitler was an altar boy compared to Stalin or Mao. If that shocks you, then you better buy some history books fast and catch up on what’s been really happening in the twentieth century. It had better make you wonder, when you see that the media screams about Hitler, who is dead, virtually every day. Yet we never hear about the monstrous atrocities of communism which remain the deadliest threat to mankind that has yet existed. Are we to infer something from that? Is our "free press" bought and paid for by the enemies of freedom? How about it Mr. Rocker? What do you think? Can you ever expect to receive "fair" treatment from them – short of shilling for their "politically correct" agenda. Read some of Lenin’s work for an idea of how ruthless these people can be. With them, every compromise is merely a short step "forward" to communism. Can we truly link the problems of a talented and sometimes hotheaded young relief pitcher to the decline of Western civilization? On several counts, the answer is a resounding "Yes!" We have only to ride the subway in New York to see the symptoms of our decline into the abyss – yet Rocker was mocked and castigated for saying essentially what I just said. There is a reason for that. The decline of the family, the radical homosexual activism, the phony civil rights nonsense as defined by Al Sharpton and company, are indeed elements of a catastrophe in the making. Look a little deeper into this witches’ brew and you’ll find the very things Rocker commented upon, are celebrated by our contemptible "free press." That the Bible lays out a system of morality and salvation, that has served us well for two millennia, is of no moment to these mockers. My suggestion to moderates, unbelievers, and fence sitters, is this: ask yourself why the Christian Faith and the Constitution of the United States are always the priority targets for these creatures, even when it is patently obvious that common sense would dictate otherwise. Then tremble, for it is your freedom, and your soul, which they seek to destroy. This is not a game, it is much larger than politics and it is happening now, in our country, right in front of us. June 7, 2000 Mr. Peirce fought with the Rhodesian freedom fighters (the Ian Smith side, of course). Copyright 2000 LewRockwell.com |
John
Rocker is in trouble with the media again. Notice I didn’t say trouble
with the fans. It was inevitable. Perhaps I shouldn’t even have
used the term "again." The sportscasters who have been
making a public spectacle of themselves offering their feeble attempts
at commentary, while ignoring what is happening on the field, have
finally gotten what they wanted. They, and their second rate cousins
like Jeff Pearlman, are out for blood. In their feverish imaginations
Rocker has crossed some line of demarcation and allied himself with
the forces of evil. Worse, he has publicly confronted one of their
own! Pearlman admits that he wasn’t harmed, but the poor fellow
was "scared"!