Actually Preston Manning was never the one-time PM of Canada; more’s the pity.  This decent right-wing populist shared the same fate as Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan, giving far too much credit to the virtues of the Hobbesian consumers who pretend to be voters.

shame on you, sir, for repeating this nonsense!

There’s no such thing as a queer hockey fan!  How could there be? There’s no such thing as queer hockey!

Is NOTHING sacred?!?!?!

Kinky didn’t go far enough. Oklahoma University football fans are considered queer also. Pretty much anybody who doesn’t root for the Cowboys, UT or Texas Tech.

“I’m still processing the existence of gay hockey fans."-LOL.

Forrest apparently learned his manners in the street gang where he was raised.

I’m perfectly aware of the connection between beagles and rabbits. I was talking about hounds and hares over coffee with Roger Scruton--one of the lecturers at a conference where I’m keynote speaker next month--who is author of a manifesto in defense of hunting. When he’s not hunting with the Duke of Bedford in Britain, he chases foxes in Virginia in the same hunt as director Ronald Maxwell, at whose house I was staying. Ron invited me to the early hunt, in which beagles chase the young foxes; foxhounds pursue the mature ones.

Sorry about Preston Manning. Sorry I got it wrong, but even sorrier that he didn’t win. What North America needs right now is a resurgence of enthusiasm for George Grant.

@Forrest

“Beagles were BREAD for hunting...”

You have a hell of a nerve calling anyone unlettered.

Umm, John, are you for America and democracy or Oligarchial control?

Learn to READ Forrest. I made a funny aside about fox-hunting, and said I was INTERESTED in it. As in, I read about it, talk to people who do it, support it against legal attacks, etc. From this, you inferred that I was pretending that I ride to the hounds every Saturday morning--then spluttered that this couldn’t be true.

No, it isn’t. And I never said it.  So bravo for refuting it.

Of course there are gay hockey fans. All of you must be familiar with the phrase ‘gay blades’.

Fox Hunting is so gay..skin tight Jodhpurs, those dinky little saddles and temperamental horses....all beating up on some brittle little Fox....Drinking Napa Wines from Waterford Crystal stored in ridiculously expensive Imported Picnic Baskets...... an entire industry of Decorating Accoutrements and Luxury Clothing grown up around it and last but not least, those riding crops that look equally at home in any West Village Leather Bar.

It is an effete endeavor, tailor made for the eurocentric poseur with visions of Barony dancing through their witless heads to the soundtrack of a bunch of baying hounds...the dumbest dogs on God’s Green Earth. I had a Beagle as a kid and the cat consistently got him stuck halfway under the 52 Buick during every chase. He was a good courser though, chased our friend Watts a full four miles, furiously peddling his bike all the way to the Mouth of Ogden Canyon and treed him in a phone booth till his mother could come rescue him. If you folks would leave the damned Fox alone and start chasing naked Neo-Cons across the Virginia Hillsides, that might just be sporting. Only on one condition of course, it not be “catch and release” but end with a quick stroke of the blackjack and a speedy internment.

On the other hand, I would defend the right to Fox Hunt on one’s own land implicitly.

John,

Coffee with Scruton? I’m impressed. What did he say, nondogwize? What conference is he a lecturer and you the keynote speaker? Are you sure that’s not the other way around?

Thanks for asking, Ravis. I’m the first speaker, since I wrote the book on the conference’s topic, the economist Wilhelm Ropke. Of course, most of the people are no doubt coming to hear Scruton--who’ll be much more interesting, I’m sure!

The conference can be found here:
http://www.isi.org/programs/conferences/indy08/index.html

I’ve never been on a fox hunt.  I don’t even ride horses.  But from what I understand of it, foxhunting is a very dangerous sport.  Riding headlong over the countryside is a rather risky past time.  You’ve got to watch for those low braches, holes and the jumping.  I can only imagine that the risk of serious injury or getting killed is much, much greater in foxhunting than football.  About the only physical contact is between a rider and his horse, unlike the man on man contact of say football or basketball.  Talk about ‘gay’.  Never mind the common showers afterwards.

HaroldC is right and Dirk is an ass. Fox-hunting is, as Tim Blanning explains at fascinating length in “The Pursuit of Glory,” a history of the period 1648-1815, a democratized remnant of the sport pursued by kings and nobles--that is, the military class--from the Middle Ages up through the French Revolution. While they once hunted boar, deer, and a wide variety of other creatures, these warlords (and their middle-class emulators) switched to foxes because they were depleting wild game. As agricultural pests that breed relentlessly, foxes were fair game--and keeping their numbers under control was useful to farmers. The sport can indeed be dangerous--a lot more so than nearly any activity short of rock-climbing, base-jumping, or NASCAR. The preservation lands for the hunt helps keep wild spaces free of suburban sprawl, and gives jobs to thousands of working class, rural people. Which is why it’s hated by veal-colored impotent vegans the world around--like Dirk. Oh, by the way, Dirk… the only people who worry about whether their dogs are smart are those who suspect their children are stupid. I suspect you’re probably right.

I have only gone fox hunting once, and that was by firing a shotgun while standing in the back of an old pickup truck chasing a fox across a field.  The fox escaped unless it died from laughter from watching us.  Not a horse for miles, and no blowing horns or talley--ho to be heard.  John I think I signed up for your conference in Indy, but am not sure since the website does not seem to give any confirmation.  Please check my status.  Happy Easter to all.

All beagle and no horse.

Fox-hunting is, as Tim Blanning explains...-JZ

How does ZIRMAK view it?

Doc Zim,

What is it with TMC?  You are now the fifth or sixth person I know affiliated with that institution (out of the five or six people I know affiliated with that institution) with a “blank disinterest in sports.” You guys need a hockey team.  BAD.

How dare Zmirak embroil baroque opera in a discussion of hockey’s decadence?

Its Boy Meets Nymph plots are an example to the youth of the nation, and the hunting scenes too. It is an insult to Western Civilization to imply the genre of Purcell and Rameau is indebted to poodle owners who fancy mayhem on ice.

mayhem on ice?

Were you witness to that unfortunate play last night when i tripped over the blue line?

Oh, the shame!

(At least i recovered in time to clear the puck from our end)

Hockey is poetry on ice (when played by those far more adept than myself!) and opera is poetry set to music - too bad that either has to be affected by that silly p.c. nonsense.

I’ve shot two foxes that were being chased by Beagles.
Does anyone really have a connection to nature anymore?

I need a moment to process the existence of gay hockey fans....

Duh, they’re probably 90% lesbians.

Forrest,

For the sake of argument I will assume you have some legitimate grievance against Zmirak. 
I am not acquainted with him even via cyberspace, do not follow his articles—thus far
I generally only read those of Chronicles-folks, along with Dr. Gottfried & Raimondo. 

The reason I’ve read this piece (& bits of the WWII debate, re/ which I disagree with him fairly
strongly) is because I’m attending the aforementioned ISI conference, & wanted to familiarize
myself with Zmirak before hearing him speak.

A word to the wise:  First-strike insults followed up by gems like “nyah, nyah, nyah”
and “:-) I win” ..... 

Well, if I were really paranoid I’d think Zmirak invented you himself, in order to make himself
out as, from a disinterested* 3rd party perspective—a sympathetic, decent man plagued by a
self-important, childish simpleton. 

If you want to hurt his image, I’d recommend adopting an approach that comes off as less petty,
obnoxious, & abrasive. 

Are you trying to make *him* look bad, or yourself?

*

Main Entry: dis·in·ter·est·ed
Pronunciation: \-təd\
Function: adjective
Date: circa 1612

1 a: not having the mind or feelings engaged : not interested <telling them in a
disinterested voice — Tom Wicker> <disinterested in women — J. A. Brussel>

b: no longer interested <husband and wife become disinterested in each other — T. I. Rubin>

2: free from selfish motive or interest : unbiased <a disinterested decision> <disinterested
intellectual curiosity is the lifeblood of real civilization — G. M. Trevelyan>

SYNONYMS:  see “indifferent”

......

The original sense of uninterested is still out of use, but the original sense of disinterested
revived in the early 20th century. The revival has since been under frequent attack as an
illiteracy and a blurring or loss of a useful distinction.

Actual usage shows otherwise.

Sense 2 of disinterested is still its most frequent sense, especially in edited prose; it shows
no sign of vanishing. A careful writer may choose sense 1a of disinterested in preference to
uninterested for emphasis <teaching the letters of the alphabet to her wiggling and supremely
disinterested little daughter — C. L. Sulzberger>.

Further, disinterested has developed a sense (1b), perhaps influenced by sense 1 of the prefix
dis-, that contrasts with uninterested <when I grow tired or disinterested in anything, I
experience a disgust — Jack London (letter, 1914)>.

Still, use of senses 1a and 1b will incur the disapproval of some who may not fully appreciate
the history of this word or the subtleties of its present use.

Riiiiight.

The guy who gets into arguments with dictionaries says Zmirak is pompous.