Here is a question for the lawyers out there.
Do FINA regulations supersede US federal anti-sex discrimination laws?
Granted, I am not sure I know what the latter are. However, if I were to show up at a USMS swimming meet, wearing a perfectly legal women's swimming suit, one of the zipper-free kneeskin type models that also covered my ample boobage, and the officials rightly disqualified me for wearing this get-up because it is against the FINA/USMS agreed upon New Order, could I then turn around and sue under some federal statute prohibiting discrimination because gender?
In my mind, the new FINA rules are going to end up making swimming even more of a dying sport for boys in the US than the unintended consequences of Title IX, etc. Girls, especially in the younger age groups, can often beat boys in swimming, and in fact our own Mr. Qbrain got a top 10 time in the men's 30-34 LCM 1500 this summer. His wife, if I am remembering correctly, beat his time but failed to make the top 10 in the women's category.
If anything, it is we men who are now at a disadvantage. I say make the dystaff gender wear thongs and let us wear body suits fashioned to look like very streamlined tuxedos.
Suits for women now remain pretty much unchanged by the new FINA ruling, with the exception, that is, of getting rid of zippers and getting rid of non textiles. But that means women can continue to swim in what are still arguably very fast suits--FS1's, for example, that are very close to the short john types that helped loads of people get their best times. Men are prohibited from wearing anything but jammers.
Chicks, in other words, get 2004 technology; guys are back to the 60s. Why not let us go back to the 20s instead, when Johnny Weismuller wore a full body suit, albeit of wool?
So, in the spirit of Larry David, who recently concluded an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm with the line, "I'm Larry David, and I am comfortable in women's underwear"--I propose that any men who want to join me in the latest civil rights battle of our time show up at nationals this summer in women's suits and accompanied by our class action lawyer, and join me in echoing in a collective voice that rings out in natatoriums all across the fruited plain:
"I am a male USMS swimmer, and I am comfortable wearing women's suits."
Provided I can find an esquire who will agree to take the case on a contingency basis, I say this to the USMS sexist powers that be:
See you in court! Suckers!
Former Member
The next poll should ask whether women should be allowed to wear FINA approved Bikinis.
To that one, I'd vote Yes!, Yes!, Yes! :bump:
D2
There seems to be something very different about what Southerners actually do when they go outdoors. I think they mostly sit on the porch and eat+drink.
The 9 fattest states in 2008 were:
1. Mississippi - the champion!
2. West Virginia
3. Alabama
4. Lousiana
5. South Carolina
6. Tennessee
7. Kentucky
8. Oklahoma
9. Arkansas
The western states are markedly slimmer.
calorielab.com/.../
We are fat and happy. No rushing around thinking money will buy us happiness. Our Yankee counterparts are busy billing 250 hours a month at some Wall Street law firm and have to work all day Saturday. Meanwhile, we have spent the day tailgating, seeing our old friends, talking about Aunt Sue's wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, and watching true athletic talent out on the football field. You can bet that we've taken in more than our fair share of calories vis a vis good food and alcohol. We'll add some more excess calories on Sunday when we go over to Cousin Martha's house for dinner after church. Meanwhile our Yankee friends will be back at the office working on Sunday afternoon.
Yep, I'd rather be fat and happy than rich and alone.
BillS- Awesome analysis!
... but Casey had a toothy little law called the American with Disabilities Act on his side.......
Okay, I like it.
Here's my disability. It's a rare combination of social anxiety disorder (SAD) and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Despite all evidence to the contrary, I find the human harmony about as welcoming as a herd of rhinos. They scare me, Bill. They scare me bad.
As if this weren't enough--again, in defiance of all rationality--I see myself not as the Greek God adonis-like figure others see when their bulging eyes get stuck on my cut musculature and well developed pecs and glutei from which casually dropped quarters richochet faster than you can say Jack Robinson.
Instead, I see myself as an old decrepit husk of sagging "***" (whatever that is) and moobage, an ancient and hideous cricket of a man who still uses expressions like "faster than you can say Jack Robinson."
For me to swim with my hideousness exposed for all to see puts me at a huge disadvantage over my competitors. Life and health insurance companies can then, in turn, use my pathetic swimming performance to claim I am the poorest of all bets for coverage, and either deny me or charge usurious rates.
Bill, I am clearly disabled, and I am clearly suffering significant financial damage as a consequence--financial damage which, I'm sure you will agree, must be reimbursed in full along with substantial punitive damages to ensure guys like me won't be discriminated against in the future.
If this isn't disability, I sure as hell don't know what is.
.....Your claim, based on what most would characterize as reverse discrimination, rings hollow (or if you prefer, totally whiney), coming from a member of what is normally the stronger, faster gender.....
No. I prefer that you characterize my claim as reverse discrimination. Absolutely no need to get snippy.
... ...I'll forward my bill under separate cover.
Excellent. In the meantime, do you ever take cases from guys who refuse to pay bills for legal advice that doesn't go their way? I have a "friend" who thinks his lawyer is selling him a bill of goods and he wants some sort of injunctive relief but purely on a contingency basis.
Jim,
Obama promised "Hope"- didn't you get yours yet?
:lmao:
BTW, have we seen an "unprecedented definition of Obama's HOPE yet?"
Because you know, everything he does is unprecedented...
:lmao:
Very true!!!! And I can't believe I am going to say this...but I hope Bama beats Florida this weekend.
While I don't like bama(count find one good thing about it but can't find one bad thing about it either) I hate florida(there is nothing good about florida)
roll tide
It will be a good game! Bama just needs to send in Mt. Cody a few times to go after Tebow. That will psych him out or at least provide a mild distraction!
Very true!!!! And I can't believe I am going to say this...but I hope Bama beats Florida this weekend.
While I don't like bama(count find one good thing about it but can't find one bad thing about it either) I hate florida(there is nothing good about florida)
roll tide
It will be a good game! Bama just needs to send in Mt. Cody a few times to go after Tebow. That will psych him out or at least provide a mild distraction!
Chomp, chomp.
As a UF alum I will obviously cheer for them to win the national -- er, I mean SEC -- championship.
But whoever the SEC champ is I'll be rooting for them to trounce Mack Brown.
I would much rather live in Florida than Alabama. Well, maybe not in Orlando. Or anywhere south of I-4.
I don't understand the relatively recent puritanism regarding men's thighs.Those 70s basketball shorts seem less ridiculous to me than some of the modern ones.Also I am not offended by briefs(but I am 60 and we did have nude swimming at the Y when I was a teen.)
As to what you call us Northwesterners,I don't think we are yankees,we are us,you are you guys(Yankees),Y'all(southerers) and :censor:(Californians)(that is not my opinion of Californians,just what everyone around me says,some of my best friends are Californians,as long as they stay in California.)
Very nice. You wait until California to vent your most noxious fumes. The NW is home to the most passive aggressive types ever. "..not my opinion...just what everyone around me says..." Just man up and say you are like all other NW wonks, hating Californians for no other reason than that it is popular to hate the state from which they came.
