Let's start today by mentioning the news that the Susan G. Komen Foundation has retracted it's plan to end its funding of Planned Parenthood. The decision had set the social realms of the internet abuzz, with many decrying the hypocrisy of the Komen Foundation. Planned Parenthood provides a great deal of health services for women besides its family planning aspect, including mammograms. The internet makes it easy for people to express their displeasure about something to the offending party. In the analog era only a few diehards would protest in person at the Komen headquarters, but now opposition spreads like wildfire across the social media spheres. The vast outpouring makes it much harder for institutions to justify their actions, they can't argue that protests don't represent the public sentiment. For what it's worth, the Komen foundation's "breast cancer awareness month" has always made me a little uneasy. Not because I don't like when NFL teams incorporate pink into their uniforms and fields, which I do, but because I think the idea of segregating cancers in a gendered sense makes little sense when cancer is such a common unprejudiced scourge.
Speaking of the NFL, this weekend is the Super Bowl. At this point the Super Bowl is perhaps the quintessential American event. It's the most watched televised event, and it truly has become an experience. It's the only time on television when people get mad if you change the channel. The obsession over Super Bowl commercials is baffling to me. Granted there are often experimental and exciting ads during the game, but they're still commercials. They will be repeated ad nauseam so what difference does it make if you watch it's first airing. It's as if for one night a year everyone in America becomes an ad critic, judging the ads for their creativity and their ability to appeal to pathos, ethos, and logos. You'll notice that the third Greek word is logos, which meant logic and has somehow been transfered to our language to mean an emblem of a corporation. Logic has now become corporations, there is some large statement about modern consumerism that can be sussed out from that. But screw it, it's Super Bowl Sunday and I want to watch some football! I want to see an American flag the size of a football field and hear the scream of fighter jets over head, I want to hear the national anthem. Then I want to see men engage in a pugilistic battle. I know I'm being negative right now, but that's just because I'm bitter it's not my Jets playing.
Instead it's the Patriots and the Giants. For whatever reason I've never bared the ill will towards the Giants that I do for the Yankees. I root for the Giants, but I don't have that same die hard attachment. On the other hand I hate the Patriots. The Jets had the fortune of playing both these teams and my estimation was that neither was particularly good. The Giants were outplayed by the Jets and if not for a 99 yard touchdown catch and the offenses general ineptitude they could've won. The Patriots are always formidable, but this team didn't strike me with the fear that other iterations have.
It should be an exciting game. Both teams have prolific offenses and relatively weak defenses. The Giants defense is led by it's defensive linemen who are able to harass the quarterback on every play, but their defensive backfield is weak and they've been susceptible to a good passing attack all year. The Patriots defense is so undermanned that they use a wide receiver as their 3rd cornerback. Still Bill Belicheck is a defensive mastermind and is quite adapt at drawing up schemes that maximize the talent he has. The Giants have a slightly better running game, but the Patriots are effective running the ball when they use the no huddle. The Patriots exploit mismatches with their athletic tight ends, who are able to block for runs and stretch the field in passing situations. It should be a high scoring, exciting game, and I will be rooting hard for the Giants. I'm not in the business of making sports predictions but I'm feeling fairly optimistic. Giants 31 Patriots 27.
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