The NFL: Bastion of American Socialism

America’s National Football League has held a few games in the UK and is trying to form a franchise there. British writer Matthew Engel has let his compatriots in on the league’s radical secret:

“In the US, sport is the habitat of the nation’s secret socialism. Through revenue sharing, salary caps and the draft (which gives the worst teams first pick), the NFL pioneered the notions that the last must be allowed to finish first. To that end, the rich must subsidise the poor.

In part, this is a mechanism to make capitalism work better, though it is not a mechanism favoured in other aspects of American life ….”

“… I suspect the NFL is using London as it uses Los Angeles which, bizarrely, has been without a franchise for 20 years. If any city gets mean and refuses to subsidise a new stadium or whatever, there is a threat so obvious it hardly needs saying: ‘Pay up or LA will.’ In Britain, such geographical shifts are almost unknown and totally anathema. Another piece of secret socialism: American teams are subsidy junkies.”

— “‘Socialist’ NFL would fail in capitalist London,” Matthew Engel, Financial Times

Hipper Brits already knew this, because UK artist Fraser Davidson animated the passage of Bill Maher’s book that points it out:

Red-Meat Christianity

Christine O’Donnell:

“I would have become a Hare Krishna but I didn’t want to become a vegetarian. And that is honestly the reason why — because I’m Italian, I love meatballs!”
— On Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect, July 19, 1999

(Video clip after the jump)

Christine O’Donnell Bewitches GOP

Christine O’Donnell charmed Delaware Republicans, winning the state’s GOP senate primary and making headlines. The Tea Party sweetheart made headlines today by cancelling appearances on two Sunday news interview shows. The Christian conservative claims she forgot about a previously scheduled church picnic, but the recent discovery of a previously aired television performance might have something to do with it: