Re: Conflict of Interest

Man, I finally got my Endurance News this month. What a hot bed of potatoes this issue is, even if I guess they decided not to reprint my story. Oh well, guess my refund check isn't big money like what the UAE must spend for that God awful full page ad they run every month. Here's Howard whining, "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA."

Anyway, I learned all about Alphabet Soup, courtesy of that famous endurance person who is now retired and Stewarding our FEI rides, and none of it made any sense to this silly redneck. THen I read my gal, Val's letter, and wow. Double WOW. I've never read anything written by her before and I was dually impressed (riding and writing) She really is the QUEEN! I kneel before her.

Even though I'm not totally clear on who thinks they are the NGB in my neck of the woods, all I know is AERC is what matters, and the rest of them can go pound sand (Thanks Truman, I really enjoy that one. Can I have it?)

As far as conflict of interests go, I can give you an example of that, which is part of the now famous Alpha Bet soup equation. You've heard it from me before, but let me try and put it in a story. Keep in mind, this is Howard's version of fiction.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a really rich Sultan. He's got General attached to his name and God is thrown in there somewhere too. He loves horses. He owns hundreds of em. He, also, kind of owns this country, or is partners with another Sultan. Now this rich Sultan named God goes and makes Endurance riding a National Sport in the country that he owns with this other Sultan. His countrymen, they all love him cause he's rich and he employs all of them, and he looks good on a horse. They'll do anything the Sultan wants. They learn to ride, and they ride well. They ride all over the world. And endurance riding is their specialty.

Now the Lord General Sultan decides he wants this National Sport of his country in the Olympics. So he goes and heads up on the main board that controls everything in his neck of the woods called the Foreign Endurance Idiot's Board. They run everything in the world of endurance riding everywhere except for a couple places like Australia and America, those damn renegade countries where the folks there don't have the respect for Sultans like they should. The people in those countries act like they're FREE or something, but the Sultan knows better.

So, he decides to infiltrate these places by hiring people in each of them to go work for him and buy up their good horses for his stable. They're paid lots of money and their job is to let everyone know that to love money is to love a Sultan, which in turn, is to love God. And this seems to work pretty well, especially when he makes a rich guy out of a poor one when he buys one of his horses. The price of horses just went up in the two renegade countries, American and Australia, cause the Sultan has that much money.

Then someone, who has the Sultan's ear and knows what he wants, suggests that they start advertising in the Endurance publications, to get the word out. And the word is "Olympics;" you too can be a part of it. We can do it if we just unite into one world entity headed by General Lord Sultan, of course, and accomplish this. You just have to join us, and by the way, the Foreign Endurance Idiot's Rules apply, but don't worry about that, y'all will adjust to the uniforms, the rules, the stewards, and the bullshit. Besides, it's one world order now, so you MUST CONFORM and do it our way or hit the highway. But, it's too early to let that cat out of the bag, even though this is the overall plan.

And then the Sultan decides to put out a magazine, he calls it World Endurance even though the pictures of endurance equestrians only show members from his country. This will get the word out, and those pesky Americans and Aussies will get in line. AFter all, they need the money, they want the money (especially those greedy Americans), and Lord General, King of Kings, has the money.

And to top it all off, he invites them all to come stay with him for a spell in his castle, has a big horse endurance race and pays for everything (even flies their horses over the big ocean). He brings in the best riders from the renegade countries and others to show that it's all one big united world, and we all are in this together. ONe big team, with Lord General Sultan as our Leader. And this has quite an effect, the great riders from their countries go home and tell everyone just how great Lord General Sultan is.

And if someone questions what's going on, as in, isn't this a conflict for this guy to get his hands in every pie all over the world, and also, be a participant in the sport? Wouldn't that be like Shaquille O'Neil playing basketball, owning the team, and owning NBC Sports coverage as well? And all the commercials we see are enterprises owned by Shaq? To this, the well known riders reply, "This is no man, this is a GOD. And every rider wants to ride with, and follow, God; don't you?"

Now, my story isn't done yet, it's still a work in progress. It changes day by day. But for some reason, call me silly, this is where I believe the PRIME CONFLICT OF INTEREST LIES.

Now, I will warn those of you who intend to flame me with hate mail ahead of time. I know I'll get some and those that call me RAcist cause I go after one guy and he just happens to be non Jewish, can go pound sand. My warning is if your hatemail is really well written (this is rare, I admit), I just might share it with the group, cause well written hatemail should not be kept to oneself. That would be incredibly selfish of me to do so. So, just cause you think you might have a special bond with me and think that I should keep this special bond of hate secret and between the two of us, DON'T COUNT ON IT.

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