Recently, the Secretary of War!! — the title must come with an exclamation point! — Pete Hegseth made news by quoting a movie instead of the Bible during a pseudo-sermon. People laughed at that.
But should they have laughed?
Yes, maybe. Let’s have some empathy for Warrior Pete, though. How many of you can tell the Bible from the movies? It’s harder than you think.
Here are a series of quotes. See if you can tell which ones are from the Bible and which ones are from a movie. Give yourself extra credit if you can identify the movie or Bible source. The answers are below.
or “We are born to display the glory of God that is within us.”
B “All it takes is faith and trust.”
C “Happiness is the richest thing we will ever have.”
D “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
E “Be vigilant, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong; whatever you do let it be done in love.”
F “This can’t be a team of ordinary people, because ordinary people don’t go anywhere. You have to be extraordinary.”
G “Our faith can move mountains.”
H “Our destiny lives within us, you just have to be brave enough to see it.”
The “I am not a prize to be won.”
J “The heart is not so easily changed, but the head can be persuaded.”
K “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work.”
L “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Calculate the damages: Who doesn’t love a good math challenge?
OK, I realize many of you don’t, but I have a treat for you today: How much would you pay for a White Abario breeding?
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you are a sane and rational person. I’m obviously not a sane, rational person and right now I’m fighting the urge to go on a long rant about the economics of horse racing.
I’ll hold off (I think). Suffice it to say that horse racing rivals crypto, Ponzi schemes, and whatever else Trump peddles about financial insanity.
I bring this up because the owners of a racehorse named White Abario recently sued Breeders’ Cup Limited, the California Horse Racing Board and the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club for barring the horse from participating in a $1 million race just moments before the start.
The “scratch” – the term for withdrawing a horse from a race he was scheduled to be in – supposedly happened because White Abarrio’s “unbroken gait” showed he was not sound. As a result, he lost the opportunity to compete for all that money.
Owners say WB was very good and his walk always looks like this.
I won’t go into whether the scratch was justified or not, mainly because I have no idea. The mathematical challenge is: How do you calculate damages if the plaintiffs win?
Here’s what the lawsuit says: “By preventing him from starting—much less potentially winning or placing—in an additional Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Championship race, the defendants precluded him from further adding elite black-type performance to his racing record, diminished his appeal relative to comparable stallions whose credentials were not as strong. possible, and by arbitrarily impeding the stallion on a large commercial breeding operation, this, in turn, reduced his current and future earning capacity at the stud, through lower fee potential and weakening breeder demand.
Apart from the possibility of adding to the WB race record, is this a real thing? You can decide for yourself, but the answer is no.
A few extra wins don’t affect stud fees – many stallions with the highest stud fees didn’t earn that much at the track. I could explain this, but you’re already bored.
White Abario has earned more than $8 million. While writing this column, I took a break to watch White Abario win Oaklawn Handicap – a $1.25 million race. He doesn’t need another big win on his resume.
We don’t know how WB would have done in the race last fall. He could have won. He could have run last. You never know on a given day.
So, members of a hypothetical jury, how do you arrive at an award?
I would consider a carrot and mint boat. He is a beautiful rider.
Answers:
Movies: A (“Coach Carter”); B (“Peter Pan”); C (“Donald Duck”); F (“Miracle”); H (“Brave”); I (“Aladdin”); J (“Frozen”); L (“Passion of Christ”)
Bible: D (John 15:13); E (1 Corinthians 16:13-14); G (Matthew 17-20); K (Ecclesiastes 4:10)
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