What is NSA, again?

The Rose Bowl is today, where USC Trojans will play Texas Longhorns to be the ‘Number 1’ college football team in 2005. There is a lot of excitement and hoopla about this event, with newspapers carrying special ‘Bowl Supplements’ almost every day. The statistics of star players like Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush are repeated over and over, backed up with careful analysis. The American public’s knowledge and interest about sports are truly amazing. I have no doubt that the sports section is the most widely read portion of newspapers in this country. Politics and current events are a different story. There, the preferences and opinions are formed based on first impressions and 15 second sound bytes. I still believe that George Bush won (?) the 2000 election mainly because he came across as a person you would like to have beer with, while the ‘wooden’ Al Gore was not that likable. Most did not care about the knowledge and experience of the person who is going to impact their lives for many years. Same with Iraq war. Many justified it on the premise that ‘we have to kick some ass to prevent terrorists from repeating a 9/11’. What a shame.

Go Trojans!