Filly Eight Belles: Exploitation Exploded Ankles

Three-year old filly Eight Belles with her bursting determination tried to catch the exceptional colt Big Brown in yesterday's 134th running of the Kentucky Derby. She didn't. She finished second. Probably both of her front ankles were already broken when she crossed the finish line. Within minutes she was euthanized on the track. Her spirit and determination were greater than her ankles could carry.

Her most sad end is reminiscent of the 1975 match race between the filly Ruffian and then Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure. Ruffian tried to catch the colt also, but shattered one of her ankles in the pursuit. She ran for 40 yards after her ankle was broken before the jockey could rein her in! Ruffian was also euthanized. The two fillies' spirit and determination were the margins that made them champions. Those qualities simply known as heart can overcome anatomical disadvantages.I'm sure the trainers of both fillies knew that they could "go to the bank" in the exploitation of the horses heart quotient.

I have been an equestrian for 37 years. I stopped watching horse racing shortly after buying my first horse. When you know horses intimaely you learn that racing is cruelty.

Bush & Africa's Heart Of Darkness

Our chimp in chief is visiting his paleo-roots in Africa. One of his stops is in Rwanda. This is close to where Joseph Conrad wrote his novella "Heart Of Darkness". Francis Coppola based his motion picture " Apocalypse Now" on that work. The essence of the book is captured in the phrase by the character Kurtz, he posits a "choice of nightmares". The "choice" was for man " to commit himself to the savagery of the human condition or to the lie and veneer of civilized restraint". Hello Africa, meet the great white father George Bush!

Bush's African tour is to take some bows for the U.S.'s $19 billion it has spent over the past 5 years in combatting AIDS and malaria. Bush and Congress plan to spend another $30 billion over the next 5 years. One facet of AIDS prevention that the Evangelical Bush insists on that Africans follow is sexual abstinence. Can you imagine telling the Africans to abstain from sex? Firstly the words "sexual abstinence" don't exist in their lexicon. So will counselors draw pictures? Maybe this is a hurdle that Bush will enforce with expensive U.S. Piece-Keepers ?

Bush is a one-eyed jack. What he shows ostensibly in AIDS/malaria mitigation shadows his other plans for Africa . It's called AFRICOM. This will be yet another U.S. colonial adventure notwithstanding the wretched experience of Iraq and the historical failure of colonials in African history. By the way, just look at all the dead bodies in Somalia if you want a trailer on the AFRICOM movie. The U.S. through the C.I.A supports the Ethiopians with air power and weapons while they kill in the Horn of Africa.

I think Bush more represents the savagery of the human condition with a suit as a veneer. Bush-meat anyone?