No wonder the newspaper industry is dying

This has to be just about the worst sports column I've ever read. It's insensitive, tasteless and idiotic, sure, but perhaps worst of all, it's indicative of the pathologically skewed priorities that too many people in modern America have. I love sports. To play, they're fun, relaxing, and edifying to both body and spirit. As entertainment, watching a close contest in any sport is far more compelling than most of the formulaic scripted rubbish that comes out of Hollywood, the TV networks, or the record industry. Despite the fact that many athletes, professional and otherwise, are juvenile, narcissistic boors and not at all admirable people, what they do is fantastic entertainment. But it is just entertainment. For this columnist to write about sports as if they have any degree of consequence when considered beside truly important things like war or peace or opportunity or, in the case of Jaycee Dugard, human dignity, exhibits an appaling lack of perspective. It's commonplace for sports commentators to remark that these things are what really matters, that the troops fighting in Afghanistan are the real heroes, etc. I wish it were so that everyone acted as if they really believed that.