In his never-ending, sycophantic effort to ingratiate himself with his Ming the Merciless master, King Donald of Mar-a-Lago, Representative Andy Barr blames Vice President Kamala Harris for every crazy coincidence that happens on Earth—including, one might think, the disappearance of the Hope Diamond.
The Lexington Republican recently added another charge to his growing indictment of the Democratic presidential candidate: She is advocating for boys to beat up girls because an Algerian woman fought hard to earn a spot for the Olympic gold medal after physically defeating other female boxers of similar size.
I know this is hard to understand, but anything that has to do with connecting our boy Andy to a logical path of thought is doomed to failure. So let’s try to figure this out.
Imane Khelif is a welterweight boxer who won the gold medal in her division at the recently concluded Paris Games. She is, by all accounts, a hard hitter. Just ask Italy’s Angela Carini, who threw in the towel 46 seconds into the first round when Khelif beat her into a pulp, causing her considerable pain. It was, she said, the hardest punch she had ever received.
This should come as no surprise. For those unfamiliar with the “sweet science,” the idea of the contest is to hit your opponent as hard as possible in various parts of the anatomy above the belt. Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who has had countless personal problems over the years but is still smarter than most people give him credit for, said it best: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
Carini got punched in the face and her plan fell apart. The minds of countless others fell apart too, which basically led people to claim that Khelif had an unfair advantage because she was actually a man.
Among those who chimed in was Garland Hale Barr IV, a man of the people who apparently plans to expand his congressional career and become the next Arthur Mercante. Barr was outraged by the outcome and accused… Kamala Harris?
On X, Barr posted a photo of Khelif raising her arm in victory. He wrote: “This is what women’s sports will look like under Kamala Harris, as evidenced by the revised Title IX rules that allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports. This is not the America I want for my daughters.”
Barr apparently concluded that Khelif was a man in a drag suit because the blatantly corrupt International Boxing Federation, based in Russia, had disqualified her from the organization’s sanctioned fights because a fake DNA test showed she carried both X and Y chromosomes, which the group said gave her a physical advantage over female opponents. She was not tested for testosterone.
The International Olympic Committee, in a rare show of decency from this often despicable organization, correctly determined that the IBA was talking nonsense and allowed her to compete. It is worth mentioning that Khelif also competed in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where she was thoroughly outmatched and her gender composition was not questioned. She achieved her Olympic gold medal only through proper training and hard work, not because she is a man in a women’s game.
“Let’s be very clear here: we are talking about women’s boxing, and we have two boxers who were born women, grew up women, have a female passport and have competed as women for many years,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.
Yet here we are, as usual, Andy Barr talking nonsense and addressing a subject about which he knows little more than the man on the moon – all in order to stage a covert attack on Harris, who has suddenly outperformed her political messiah, Republican Donald J. Trump, in this year’s race for the White House.
Cheap political attacks have always been Andy’s specialty, as has hitting down. This time it’s transgender people, particularly men attempting to transition to female. He’s appalled at the idea of people born male outperforming women’s sports.
These fears are based on claims that are not proven. There is no reason to believe that males born transsexuals will become transsexuals in order to compete in women’s sports, or that they are so athletically gifted that they will outshine their female competitors. And there are still very few who even seek the physical transition.
Harris supports the Title IX decision, giving professional pompous Barr a chance to relax, even though Khelif is not transgender, is proud to be a woman, and is hardly representative of America’s sporting future.
And of course Andy brings his children into the country if it serves his political goals. What a great father, isn’t he? Who wants to subject their children to these disgusting transsexuals? As he himself said, “This is not the America I want for my daughters.”
No, the America Barr wants for his daughters is one with a president who raped a woman, was convicted of 34 crimes, and incited an insurrection against the America he claims he wants for his daughters. The America he wants for his daughters includes a president who had sex with a porn star shortly after his wife gave birth and then made sure the adult starlet got money to keep her mouth shut. All of that describes the man Andy supported for president and who he really, really, really hopes will support when he runs for Senate in two years. But yeah, he doesn’t want the evil of transgender people to contaminate the America he wants for his daughters.
Maybe he should set his priorities straight.
It was the French poet and philosopher Paul Valery who said, “Our mutual differences enrich us,” adding, “The future, like everything else, is no longer what it once was.” Barr should perhaps take that to heart.
Another person with a Kentucky connection who was closely associated with the Olympics is a good example of Valery’s statement. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, a former track and field star at the University of Kentucky, won two gold medals at the Paris Games by breaking her own world record in the 4×400 hurdles and running a leg in the 4×400 relay. She won two more gold medals in Tokyo in 2021.
Sydney, if I may indulge in a bit of familiarity with someone I’ve never met, is from Dunellen, NJ, a small borough in Central Jersey with a population of about 7,000. It’s also my hometown, which means I’m now only the second most famous person to have lived in Dunellen, NJ before becoming a Wildcat. It should also be noted that while Sydney is the best athlete the city has ever produced, I’m the worst.
I mention this for a reason. The Dunellen I grew up in over 50 years ago was basically a working-class town. My old man was a carpenter. Mr. Walker, next door, was a plumber. Clarence Johnson, two doors down, worked in the old Art Color factory. The mailman and a bus driver lived on our street. A few people rode the Central Jersey Railroad, which ran through the middle of town, to work in New York. A friend of mine always referred to the part of town on the south side of the tracks as the Polish ghetto.
I have a great affection for my hometown. There were more personalities in that square mile than in cities with millions of people. It was great to grow up there.
It was also lily white.
There were no black kids in my high school graduating class of 1971. There was only one black boy in the whole school, and I heard he’s some kind of preacher in New York City now. There were a few kids of Puerto Rican descent, one I called a friend. Otherwise, the houses were full of white people.
And that’s how the town liked it. Plainfield, the town to the east, was majority black, and the county pretty much made sure the population never headed our way. It wasn’t uncommon to hear the N-word in everyday conversation (and I don’t like using that euphemism because it softens the evil that the actual word conveys, but there’s no intention to offend anyone here).
But over the years, since I left, Dunellen has changed. There’s a Mexican restaurant on North Avenue and a Peruvian chicken restaurant. The New York Times reports that “according to the 2020 census, less than half of the county’s 7,600 residents are white; 32 percent are Hispanic, 12 percent are black, and 7 percent are Asian.”
Sydney, who is African American, would not have been welcome in the Dunellen of my youth.
Now, the signs that greet travelers on North Washington Avenue and other streets proudly proclaim that this is the hometown of world-record holder Sydney McLoughlin-Levrone. Although she attended high school at Union Catholic, the Dunellen High School track in Columbia Park is named after her. On the night of the 4x400m hurdles finals, dozens of people filled the Dunellen Theater to cheer on their hometown daughter.
I have to admit that I got quite emotional watching the final last week, not only because of Sydney’s achievements, but also because I realised that the city I called home is now a better place.
