In charity there is no excess

Bill:
Ah, what a teah jerkah of a story this is about Steinbrennah and kid from Arkansas who gave up $1000 he'd been saving to visit NY to put it toward grassroots effaht to keep his school from closing aftah a district budget shortfall.

 

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Steve:
Yeah, that Steinbrenner is one hell of a guy, even the esteemed blogger David Pinto lauds him for walking the walk when it comes to "giving back to the community"

 

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Bill:
Absolutely, the Boss is all about taking the high road, you know? Like that time he funneled corporate funds illegally into the 1972 reelection campaign of Richard Nixon.

 

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Steve:
Right. Steinbrenner lied to the FBI and prepared false backdated records, destroyed other records, and coached the employees to lie to the FBI — now that's what I call good fucking citizenship.

 

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Bill:
Ah, yes, and then there's that great example of "charity" Steinbrennah-style when Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Inouye and House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha provided $58,000 to bail out Steinbrenner’s American Ship Building Company as a quid pro quo for Steinbrennah’s generous campaign contributions and the hiring of two lobbyists with close ties to both legislatahs.

 

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Steve:
Well, Christ, yeah, I mean what do people think the taxpayer's money is for, schools and shit? Get real.

 

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Bill:
Seriously, if you want to keep a school open, don't look to the government for a handout, but get your shit togethah and give up the money you've been saving for vacation and hold a fucking bake sale or something. I mean, c'mon, think outside the box people.

 

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Steve:
That kid in Arkansas is so lucky to have a positive role model like George Steinbrenner in his life.

 

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Comments

[Rob]

Investigative journalism at its finest! If The Boss coughed up HALF of what he paid his PR hacks to get that story out, that Arkansas school district could stay open for the next three fiscal years. (We are talking Arkansas, after all.)

I went to school in NYC back in the early Seventies when that shit was all over the news. I still wonder why more hasn't made of it over the years. Now I know -- H.B. has been saving it up for that last few days before P&C's report. Well done, Hart.

[Jason O.]

"Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo"
-H.G. Wells

[Devine]

Jealous? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

[David Pinto]

He's a complicated guy. One day he's paying off politicans, then next he's paying for surgery some poor guy can't afford.

[E in DC]

I think that's supposed to be $58 million (it's CAGW's error, not yours, H.B.) $58,000 won't even pay for a couple dozen lunches with lobbyists at Cafe Milano.

[h.b.]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about the $58K.

If someone happens across a link with the correct figure, let me know so I can get it right.

[Natalie]

"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike." - Oscar Wilde

[Devine]

Might buy that quote a little more, but I like to think I'm pretty equal-opportunity with my "asshole" labeler. I'm sure Red Sox management have done some pretty scummy things in their time (though I have trouble imagining John Henry doing much to offend *anyone*), and I wouldn't have a problem thinking of them as scum.

[Devine]

If I knew what any of those scummy things were that is. Sorry for the double post. Maybe I'll google Henry, Werner, and Lucchino and see if any of them have been criminals, just to be fair.

[h.b.]

...but I like to think I'm pretty equal-opportunity with my "asshole" labeler. I'm sure Red Sox management have done some pretty scummy things in their time...

Haven't we all faced the music, for instance, that the Yawkey's were racists and alcoholics and pretty much losers in general?

And we've given Lucchino plenty of heat as well.

When someone's an asshat, whether they work for the Yankees, Red Sox, or Mohammed, we'll call 'em on it.

[COD]

So, the lesson for the kid here is that when the schools confiscate on average $7000 per child every year in a failed attempt to teach them something useful, he is doing good by shelling out $1000 more from his own pocket to keep the school board from doing the fiscally responsible thing and consolidating.

Lack of common sense, check.
Lack of fiscal responsibility, check

He has all the makings of a politician, or MLB owner.

[Jim]

F--- Steinbrenner.

[Kaz]

I'm not sure which I think is worse: confiscating money that was to go to the schools or letting some of these asshats get involved with our kid's education at all.

Clearly Kansas, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and now South Carolina, are doing more harm than good to their kids all the time...

[NV in SD]

What- no mention of the Steinbrenner/ Winfield/ Spira conspiracy? I wonder why anyone would want to play for him after that incident. Oh, right- the massive ammounts of cash he throws around.

For a comprehensive list on Georgie Porgie's many transgressions, check this out...

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/steinbrenner.html

[Jason O.]

Re: Pinto's complicated post

"Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him, For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away.

-Marcus Aurelius

[Jackie]

"Quotes are for people who have no intelligent thoughts of their own." ~ me

[d56]

Not that I want to get into some sort of meta-quotation pissing contest, but there's some irony in the fact that Jackie would be better served with the following:

"She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit."
--W. Somerset Maugham

[h.b.]

Considering that on any given day a large percentage of the character speeches are quotes from another, I'm certainly not going to throw any stones from my glass house. :)

[BosoxBob]

Hey HB, here's an outstanding page of information from the Congressional Record about the Steinbrenner bailout. It contains a scathing condemnation of the handout by Sen. John McCain, and includes an equally scathing article from the Washington Post. Good reading!

Congressional Record

[Jason O.]

If a titan of Western thought expressed the sentiment with near perfection 1,830 years ago then who am I to rephrase or paraphrase?

However, Jackie, your post conjures another important contributor to Western thought:

"Suck my balls"
-E. Cartman

[Devine]

So, Jason, my question is (or rather, my questions are)...are you trying to defend Steinbrenner's conduct or are you merely reacting to our bile? And what do you expect to get out of it? Honest questions.

I don't know how you can stand being in enemy territory. I've never visited a Yankee fan site in my life (except to watch the implosion after 2004--and I didn't say anything, just watched).

I like it when you have a point, but sometimes you just seem sort of contrarian, which seems below your own standards of intellectual thought.

[Brian]

"Who do you call when your windshield's busted?"

Sorry, I just could come up with any appropriate quotes.

[Pond]

I can't agree with the sentiment, but you have to respect Jason's ability to pull a quote from ancient Rome about any given topic. Either he has the mind of an encyclopedia or he's the best damn googler in Yankee Empire.

[illegitimate son of dwight evans]

Marcus Aurelius is full of pithy quotes. In fact, he has a book of them.

And I don't say that to be rude, as far as quotes go, they're pretty good for us hotheads trying to make ourselves better people. For that his name is on my mug in the dead author's club.