Barba-No!

A potentially legendary tragedy apparently took place this weekend of the likes of such other Philadelphia tragedies as the Mitch Williams Home Run, and Justin Guarini. That’s right – Wunder-horse Barbaro broke his hind leg in three places, effectively ending the triple-crown talk - and probably pissing off many executives at NBC, who will now have to try and sell advertising for the –yawn- Belmont Stakes without being able to promote the possibility of the Triple Crown.

Barbaro and his jig-saw puzzled leg was the lead story in just about every local news/sports show this weekend, and even today, and was very high up in national news as well. And, while it is a shame horse, I must remind everybody, IT IS ONLY A HORSE! My goodness, I’ve never seen anything like this – one would think that this horse was a movie star, war-hero, and chemist who found a cure for cancer rolled up in one.

Need I remind everybody that this horse is owned by people who are so wealthy that they probably have never seen a quarter before? Why does everybody care so much about this? Is Philly so desperate that its very existence (and sanity) depended on a horse to win the triple crown?

I’m not trying to playa-hate on animal lovers (yeah, I went ghetto on ya, deal with it). I love animals (not in that way, pervs). I never want to see bad things happen to animals, but when this is the lead story on a news program, something is wrong. Again, I remind you, it is only a horse. A HORSE! One that would’ve been put down had it not been worth so much friggin’ money. Oh yes, that is the ONLY reason this horse is being saved – so that the owners can make more money on it. I hope nobody thinks that they were performing life-saving surgery on Barbaro because he was a nice horse. Rubbish. They make their money on studding the horse (good for the horse AND the owner, but how good is it for anyone else?).

Geez, they are making a bigger deal about Barbaro’s leg than the elections and the attached violence in the Iraq. Eh, who cares about world issues and mass human deaths – a friggin’ horse broke its leg during a rich-persons’ race. What’s wrong with you people? Seriously.

There was even a title that was given to this story – “Bleakness at Preakness.” Seriously? Were there any other words that they were thinking of using? Like maybe – “Freakness,” or “Reekness?” Was it really that slow of a news weekend?