As IF Times

link It’s Time for the N.F.L. to Welcome a Gay Player – NYTimes.com.

It’s time. Really? Why? What possible difference does it make for one to announce their sexual preferences as part of fulfilling a job role? Why does announcing sexual proclivity have any bearing on how competent you may or may not be for a job?

How does being gay affect one’s role as an auto mechanic? A postal worker? A dentist? A sports announcer or even a football player.  If you listen to the pleadings of gay activist groups, they insist that all they want is to be treated like everyone else, without discrimination.  Ironically, broadcasting gayness only puts a light on themselves, essentially begging for special attention.

It’s as if you insisted on revealing to your future employer that you collected stamps, or liked to eat with your bare hands while naked, or  watched ostrich wrestling.  Who cares? Nobody asked!

Some nutbar writing for USA Today opined that this guy Michael Sam coming out was comparable to Jackie Robinson’s circumstance.  Keen observers may note that Jackie Robinson did a poor job of hiding his condition at the time, so ‘coming out’ may not be the best characterization.  Robinson’s achievement was ultimately based on his skill, not because he satisfied a PC agenda.  If he stunk, he’d have been a very minor footnote in history and the answer to a Jeopardy question on sports trivia. Maybe he was gay as well.  Who knows, who cares.

The NFL, as is the case with all pro sports, likely already have contingents of gay participants.  Think of all the hugging that goes on in football, the skin tight pants.  Heck even throwing the yellow hankies to signal a penalty seems a bit dainty if you think about it.

If this guy Michael Sam is any good, somebody will pick him up. But he should decide whether it’s more important to be a ball player who happens to be gay or a gay person first who happens to play football.  Regardless of whom he winds up playing for, he’d better develop a thick skin because his teammates will make fun of him; for having two first names.

link Doomsday clock set at 5 to midnight – CBS News.

We last visited this doomsday clock back in 2010. http://asiftimes.com/2010/01/14/thats-a-relief/  Over the many years since they first brought out this metaphorical measure of human extinction back in the early 1950’s, you’d think that the purveyors would have worn out the skin on their hands from all the wringing.

While it’s hard to argue with the reality that since the 1950’s when only two parties had access to the big kaboom, today there are many nations with nuclear bomb making capability.  No longer the exclusive domain of the Americans and the Soviets, the new players include the 17th century nations of North Korea and Pakistan.  Pakistan of course got the bomb because arch rival India got it years ago.  Nations that house their people in tin roofed shanties nevertheless have the capability to ixnay their neighbors if they were to go all Richard Sherman one day.  Iran has aspirations to join this exclusive circle as well, so the players keep a-comin’.   Despite this arms buildup, it’s unlikely that any of them would be dumb enough to fire the first shot, since that would likely mean a large mushroom shaped cloud would in turn be directed their way in minutes not days.

The stated reason for the metaphorical clock is to warn against a “civilization threatening catastrophe” which in the day meant an atomic bomb event.  If you ask me, the word “civilization” strictly speaking  doesn’t just mean people in general, as those living in Syria, the Sudan or North Korea will attest.  There is no civilization if people are oppressed, enslaved, starved and unable to enact free will.  There is just a large majority being pushed around by a very small minority.

In nations such as those, there is no long history of democratic free will or the establishment of ‘civilized’ protocols for its citizens.  Education and information flow is both low and controlled, so people can be more easily repressed.   Instead, their histories are marked by autocratic rulers who determined the rules of society as they saw fit to enact.  Typically, violence is the preferred method of enforcement.  Life is miserable anyway, so nuclear angst is probably low.

Therefore when they talk about ‘civilization ending catastrophe’, they really mean western civilization, because in parts of the world where despotism prevails, no one spends their days worrying about anything other than getting through their day alive and fed.  However, even in the ‘enlightened’ western world, the angst of imminent doomsday, nuclear or otherwise, is a bit down the list of concerns for the average Joe, perhaps adjacent to how they get the caramel in a Caramilk bar.

Unless of course you are in the professional doomsday business.  While nuclear warfare may exist as a theoretical possibility, that dynamic has evolved into a circular firing squad, so the chances of an event are slim.  Over the years, numerous other imminent world ending scenarios have had their turn in the spotlight as the pending disaster du jour.   Remember global overpopulation?  Bioterrorism?  Today, there is  the possibility of the earth colliding with a wayward asteroid; massive volcanic eruption; or solar flares.  Let’s not rule out alien invasion.  Of course we can’t forget the current imminent disaster headliner; climate change.

I think that the doomsday crowd should pay some attention to the real civilization ending event(s) that are going on right now.  This dynamic has been going on forever and is as prevalent now as it has ever been.  As mentioned above, this is where the small minority are pushing around and enslaving the large majority.   It’s the dumb preying on the dumber.