The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Give War a Chance?

Posted on | August 2, 2022 | Comments Off on Give War a Chance?

You might be a “climate change” fanatic if . . .

South China Morning Post (SCMP) North American bureau chief Robert Delaney published a bizarre editorial on Tuesday in which he suggested a war between America and China, sparked by Beijing making good on its threat of a military response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) visit to Taiwan, could be even better than the coronavirus pandemic for reducing the world’s carbon footprint.
Delaney’s long screed, which only got around to his give-war-a-chance grand finale in the final paragraphs, included hosannas for the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic as the luckiest break for the climate change movement in generations, since it significantly reduced energy consumption and emissions.
Perhaps more importantly, the pandemic gave free nations a taste of the Chinese-style authoritarianism that would be needed to make Delaney’s climate dreams come true.
A war between America and China that could quickly spiral into a global conflict would seem likely to release a great deal of carbon and other pollutants into the atmosphere — and, in the worst-case scenario, some rather massive radioactive heat blooms — but Delaney argued it would be worthwhile in the long run, because it would make the West more accustomed to totalitarian control and reduce carbon footprints by impoverishing all of mankind . . .
“All things considered, a Pelosi delegation to Taiwan might be just what the Earth’s natural ecosystems need,” Delaney mused.

Is there a thorazine shortage? Because this kind of craziness is apparently becoming rampant — a pandemic of incurable insanity.




 

Category: Global Warming

In The Mailbox: 08.01.22

Posted on | August 2, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.01.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Thanks for everyone who bought stuff through my amazon links last month. Very much appreciated!
Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: F*c*book Doesn’t Believe In Privacy
EBL: Nichelle Nichols, RIP, also, Nancy’s Going To Taiwan
Twitchy: MSNBC – Here’s How Atheists Can Help Fight Christian Nationalists Who Have America Under Siege
Louder With Crowder: “Everybody’s Trying To Be A F****ing Victim”, also, Elon Musk Blasts Wikipedia For Redefining “Recession”
Vox Popoli: Dynamic Definitions, Paul Krugman, Economics Whore, and Scott Adams Comes Clean
Gab News: Godless Media Now Calling Christianity A “Toxic Religion”
Stoic Observations: Explaining The Cloud To Grandpa, also, Some Type Of Therapist

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Taking Joy In The Fall Of The Church
American Conservative: Filicide Of The Catholic Faith
American Greatness: My Publisher Canceled Me in Favor of an Activist Who Threatened My Life, also, Trump Stays in the Picture 
American Power: War With Russia Enters New Phase as Ukraine Readies Southern Counterblow, also, In Monkeypox, Gay Men Confront Echoes of the Past
American Thinker: Lessons from Ruby Ridge, also, Naming Things
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Nearly 5,000 dengue cases in Cuba in just the past week, Prizeworthy sanitation and hygiene in Cuban hospitals, Fervent young communist repressor from Cuba enters U.S. through Nicaragua, and Images of privilege: No pain, no hunger, no deprivations for Cuba’s ruling class
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm for July 29, also, Steep Mexican Road 15, Drivers 0
Behind The Black: Space junk thought to be service module of Dragon manned capsule found in Australia, Long March 5B stage falls to Earth near Malaysia, and Another blacklisted American sues school board for banning and censoring him
Cafe Hayek: Orwell Nailed It, Inflated with Motivated Reasoning, and Price Ceilings Harm Those Persons Who Can Least Afford to Be Harmed
CDR Salamander: July Farewell Maritime Free For All – on Midrats
Chicago Boyz: Resilience and Renewal
Da Tech Guy: The Best Argument for Biden that the Left can Manage, How to know you’re in a recruitment crisis, and Baseball league updates 1970 Draft League
Don Surber: Why the press is the enemy of the people, West Virginia takes on BlackRock, and Yanqui go home
First Street Journal: Welfare for the well-to-do, also, Killadelphia
Gates Of Vienna: Pride in Islam, Too White to Reggae, Robbin’ and Gropin’ in Valencia, and The Abused Cadaver of a Jab-Enforcer Lagerkapo
The Geller Report: Biden Creating Permanent USPS Division to Deliver and Return Ballots in US Elections, also, The Clinical Steps To Grooming Kids Match Exactly What They’re Being Taught In Schools
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, Civil Rights Update, and Don’t Know Much Biology—Or English Vocabulary
Hollywood In Toto: How Sum of All Fears Got Caught in 9/11’s Cultural Fallout, Yes, Tobe Hooper Directed Poltergeist…End of Story, and Is LetsGetFr.ee the Ultimate Woke Fail?
Legal Insurrection: Bidenflation: Hershey Warns There Won’t Be Enough Candy To Meet Halloween Demand, Surprise: Misleadingly-Named “Inflation Reduction Act” Will Raise Taxes Even On The Middle Class, UW-Madison Faces Backlash Over New Chancellor’s Pro-CRT Views, and NYT: Democrats Should Be Afraid of Parents, Very Afraid
Nebraska Energy Observer: Change is good, also, Thoughts
Outkick: Prepare For Start Of College Football With A Packed Florida Stadium Singing ‘I Won’t Back Down’, NWSL Player Benched For Refusing To Wear “Pride” Jersey, Warren Moon Implies Racism Was Motive Behind Kyler Murray’s ‘Homework Clause,’ Media Continues To Push The Idea, and Boston Celtics Legend Bill Russell Has Died
Power Line: A clown-car administration, “Green” Is Unsustainable, and Guest Post: Emina Melonic on ‘War Chic’
Shark Tank: The Hypocrisy Behind The Miami Herald, Orlando Sentinel, And Florida’s Entire Press Corps
Shot In The Dark: Misinformation, Keeping Up With The Newsomes, and Headline 2025
STUMP: Public Pension Returns Start to Roll In for FY 2022
The Political Hat: California To The World: All Your Children Are Belong To Us
This Ain’t Hell: Shoot Down SanFranNan? Uh, no., One of the last Navajo Code Talkers dies, and Ayman Al Zawahiri Droned Near Kabul
Transterrestrial Musings: It’s Not Enough To Be Pro-Choice, Nichelle Nichols, and Milton Friedman
Victory Girls: Kim Foxx Burned in Resignation Letter from Prosecutor, Linda Sanchez Displayed Her IQ, Blames GOP Women, and Talcum X Buys Show Dog With Donor Funds
Volokh Conspiracy: Today in Supreme Court History: August 1, 1942
Watts Up With That: Green Nightmare: Aussie Power Prices Rising Out of Control, Great Idea for U.S. Energy Policy: Let’s Follow the Example of Germany!, and You are the pollution they want to eliminate!
Weasel Zippers: Facebook Censors Top Economist For Defining A Recession, Occasional Cortex Tells Trannies “You Are Patriots”, and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) Refuses To Say If He Will Support Biden As The 2024 Nominee
The Federalist: CNN Tried To Find People In Wyoming Who Like Liz Cheney. It Didn’t Go Well, Parents, If You Don’t Get A Grip On Your Kids’ Social Media, Trans Activists Will, and The Creepy Weirdness Of Democrats Is Best Understood When They Talk About Law Enforcement
Mark Steyn: Town Without Pity: Yul Brynner in Invitation to a Gunfighter, Ruritania and Cyrenaica, and Renaissance Man

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Category: Linkagery

Lena Dunham Is Totally Triggered About Abortion Rights (Even Though She Had a Hysterectomy More Than Four Years Ago)

Posted on | August 1, 2022 | Comments Off on Lena Dunham Is Totally Triggered About Abortion Rights (Even Though She Had a Hysterectomy More Than Four Years Ago)

Nothing is ever private with Lena Dunham. Remember the 2014 memoir in which Lena described molesting her little sister? Remember how she described being raped at Oberlin College by a Republican, except that it never actually happened? Because she inhabits a narcissistic bubble in which her own feelings and experiences (real or imaginary) are the only thing that matter, Dunham’s self-centered confessional mode of writing makes everything about her. Nothing can be perceived objectively, because what about me? So when her chronic gynecological problems led her to get a hysterectomy in December 2017, this became the subject of a 2,400-word article in Vogue, as if it were imperative to share this experience with her “fans” (whoever they may be). And now this:

Filmmaker Lena Dunham — who once said she has never had an abortion but wishes she had — says the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overrule Roe v. Wade was one of the “darkest days” she has experienced in her life.
“I’m terrified,” Dunham told Yahoo! Entertainment of the Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling. “I grew up with a mother who was part of the Downtown Women’s Action Coalition that went and held hands around abortion clinics to make sure that women could enter and exit safely without being harassed by protesters.”
“I was also raised to say ‘anti-choice’ and not ‘pro-life’ for people who advocate those views,” the 7 Days in Hell actress added, before claiming that pro-life Americans are “anti-the livelihood of people with female reproductive organs.”
Dunham went on to bizarrely refer to women as “people who are assigned female at birth,” stating, “when people who are assigned female at birth don’t have bodily autonomy, we don’t have a free society.”
“So those are my beliefs, and I think that it’s my job and all of our jobs to do everything that we can to make abortion accessible and affordable,” she added.
Dunham also implored Americans to “make sure that people who are in these states that are locking down are going to have support of people who are in states where there is more freedom to get where they need to go and make the choices to live free lives.”
“My life exists because I’ve been allowed to have bodily autonomy,” Dunham affirmed. “My ability to have and pay for a hysterectomy allowed me autonomy because I no longer lived in chronic pain.”
“I think that [June 24] was probably one of the darkest days that I’ve experienced in my life in terms of my terror around what’s happening in this country,” the actress added.
Dunham is just one of many celebrities having a public meltdown over the idea that women may not be able to as easily kill their unborn children in a post-Roe America.
In 2016, Dunham proclaimed that she has never had an abortion but wishes she had, because she believes killing one’s own unborn child is a sign of “bravery” and “self-knowledge.”

Do you believe in curses? Do you believe that, by their actions, people may draw down the wrath of Almighty God upon themselves? Because I was raised up in Bible-believing tradition, where it was emphasized that we were “sinners in the hands of angry God,” as Jonathan Edwards famously phrased it, and that only by God’s mercy could any of us hope for anything good in this life, or the hereafter.

God hates sin, and we are all guilty of it, and therefore those who defy God invite their own destruction. Or so I was raised to believe, and when I contemplate the miserable life of Lena Dunham, I’m thankful for all those Bible-thumping sermons I heard as a child. Otherwise . . .

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham)

Behold the consequences of sin. Be grateful for God’s mercy.

UPDATE: Speaking of curses, Doug at Daley Gator is cursing me for inflicting Dunham on his eyes. “For the wrath of God is revealed …”




 

Category: Abortion, Celebrities

Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Olga Alberti

Posted on | August 1, 2022 | Comments Off on Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Olga Alberti

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Delayed on account of laundry…anyway, the toothsome Miss Alberti was born in Leningrad in 1988, has appeared in a number of movies & TV shows, and was May 2012 Playmate of the Month in the Russian edition of Playboy. She apparently DJs in her spare time.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

NINETY MILES FROM TYRANNY: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1792, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. 

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Oil Bonanza Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon. 

EBL: Recession Girls, Becoming Elizabeth, Beatrice Of Burgundy (1148, colorized), “China Girl”, Sir Francis Drake & Queen Elizabeth, Smokin’ Girls, The Gray Man, Oh! Calcutta, “Girls Of Summer”, Sergey Brin’s Wife Nicole Shanahan, Marilyn Mosby, and Anne Karine Strom

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Sabina Gadecki, Fish Pic Friday – Victoria Vartiainen, Proud, The Wednesday Wetness, Ancient Dogs Enjoyed Fish Dinner, Tuesday Tanlines, Are Chesapeake Crab Woes a Management Failure?, I Hate It When That Happens, The Last Days of ‘Joe Biden’?, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Biden Least Popular President in History and Sunday Sunrise

AMERICAN POWER: Katie Pavlich, Kayla Sweetie, Aubrey Nolan, Immie Hills, and more Aubrey. Welcome back!

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

All Neighborhoods Are Not Created Equal

Posted on | July 31, 2022 | Comments Off on All Neighborhoods Are Not Created Equal

One of the things that caused the impressive reduction of crime in New York City in the 1990s was CompStat, where data about criminal activity in the city was compiled and analyzed in weekly reports that gave police detailed information about when and where crime was happening. This allowed police to concentrate their efforts on specific areas at the most likely time to apprehend perpetrators. The CompStat approach was subsequently emulated by other law-enforcement agencies, and thereby helped produce a nationwide downward trend in crime that began in the 1990s and continued for about 20 years, until the “Ferguson effect” took hold during Obama’s second term. The important point is that CompStat, along with other technological advances (e.g., widespread video surveillance), made law enforcement more effective in apprehending and prosecuting criminals. This is why liberal complaints about “racial profiling” and “mass incarceration” are so misguided. If there is a rash of street robberies in a particular location, and victims of these crimes are reporting that their attackers are young black males, the cops trying to prevent these crimes can’t do so by scrutinizing elderly Chinese women in some other neighborhood. Investigations will focus on specific locations, and on suspects fitting witness descriptions. Add video to the investigative toolkit, and not only are police better able to identify suspects, but they obtain evidence that makes it much easier to get convictions — the jury can see the crime for themselves.

More effective law enforcement meant more criminals going to prison, and it wasn’t innocent people who were getting locked up. The “social justice” crowd engages in deliberate deception about the factors in so-called “mass incarceration,” and they do so for two reasons: Money and politics. It is little appreciated how many tens of millions of dollars annually are poured into the coffers of “social justice” groups by gigantic tax-exempt foundations. That money goes to hire an army of researchers, writers and publicists who promote these misleading narratives that, in turn, are amplified by Democratic Party politicians and activists trying to win elections. All of these people have incentives to maintain the belief that statistical disparities in crime are the products of “systemic racism” — it’s their job, it’s what pays their bills — and will respond to any pushback by accusing their opponents of racism. Because most journalists are sympathetic to the political objectives of these activists, the public is presented with a distorted picture of crime and law enforcement, particularly as it pertains to the black community.

Manhattan Institute scholar Rafael A. Mangual has produced a new book, Criminal (In)Justice, examining this crucial topic:

The effects of serious violent crime are not evenly distributed. Criminal violence has long been both geographically and demographically hyper-concentrated. In New York, about 3.5 percent of street segments see about 50 percent of the city’s violent crime; and every year for well over a decade, a minimum of 95 percent of shooting victims are either black or Hispanic (the vast majority of them male). Uncomfortable as it may make some people, you’ll see similar disparities in the statistics of shooting suspects. Nationally, black males constitute between 6 and 7 percent of the population but are murdered at a rate ten times that of their white counterparts. And homicides are tightly clustered in a relative handful of neighborhoods in and around American cities. For example, in 2019, the national murder rate was five per 100,000. In the ten most dangerous Chicago neighborhoods, which are 95.7 percent black or Latino, the 2019 homicide rate was a whopping 61.7 per 100,000. As high as that number is, it actually understates how dangerous some of those neighborhoods actually are. West Garfield Park, for example, had a 2019 murder rate of 131 per 100,000.
My book highlights data like these for two reasons. First, a thorough understanding of how violence is (and has long been) concentrated helps us understand exactly who it is that will suffer the most should a particular policy program diminish public safety, and, by extension, who it is that will gain the most should a particular policy program enhance public safety.
Second, the reality of crime concentration can help contextualize some of the disparities in enforcement statistics that we hear so much about — disparities often seized upon to make the cases for mass decarceration and depolicing as a means of pursuing racial equity. If the most serious crimes are occurring in very small slices of our cities, and affecting particular demographic groups more than others, then it is entirely reasonable for enforcement resources to be disproportionately deployed to these areas. Disparities would naturally arise from that uneven distribution of law-enforcement resources. In other words, if we accept as legitimate the decision to police neighborhoods where victimization rates are highest, we must also accept as legitimate that police are going to interact disproportionately with the people spending time in those neighborhoods.
To focus on the disparate rate of interactions in a vacuum is to ignore important context that, when accounted for, undermines the assertion that enforcement disparities are driven exclusively by racial animus. . . .

Read the whole thing, and you can click here to buy Criminal Injustice: What the Push for Decarceration and Depolicing Gets Wrong and Who It Hurts Most. (Hat-tip: John Tierney at Instapundit.)




 

Category: Crime

FMJRA 2.0: Velvet Voyage

Posted on | July 30, 2022 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

It was a really bad week for the Senators, who are starting to feel a lot like the Kansas City A’s in the 1950s and 60s. Many water coolers were broken, a couple of sportswriters had hot water poured on them (and much to our manager’s surprise, did not turn into shit), and the air around the dugout was a starting shade of blue…anyway, nothing for it but to buckle down and wait for hockey season. Oh, wait, the Capitals don’t start up until 1974. Damn.
Big week for links this week. Say hello to Okrahead, who broke through into the top linkers list this week and helped put economists and philosophers ahead of hot French babes.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Teddy Baseball is not in his happy place.

Magical Thinking as Economic Policy
Okrahead
Transterrestrial Musings
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL
Proof Positive

Academic Stasi Protecting Students From White Supremacist Menace of (Checks Notes) 18th-Century Scottish Philosopher
The DaleyGator
The Political Hat
Okrahead
357 Magnum
EBL

Rule 5 Sunday: Marine LeCourt
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
EBL
Proof Positive

‘We Were Somewhere Around Barstow on the Edge of the Desert When the Trump Derangement Syndrome Began to Take Hold…’
Okrahead
The DaleyGator
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 07.27.22 (Evening Edition)
Okrahead
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL
Proof Positive

In The Mailbox: 07.28.22
Okrahead
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL
Proof Positive

FMJRA 2.0: Starface
A View From The Beach
EBL

Paying Attention NOW, Democrats?
The DaleyGator
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 07.25.22
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL
Proof Positive

In The Mailbox: 07.27.22 (Afternoon Edition)
Okrahead
357 Magnum
EBL
Proof Positive

‘I Think She Was Delusional’
Okrahead
357 Magnum
EBL

Still More Aspiring Rapper Updates
Okrahead
357 Magnum
EBL

Feds: Russian Agent Funded Radical Fringe Groups, Including Black Hammer
Okrahead
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 07.29.22
Okrahead
357 Magnum
EBL
A View From The Beach

Top linkers for the week ending July 29:

  1.  EBL (14)
  2.  357 Magnum (12)
  3.  Okrahead (10)
  4.  A View From The Beach (9)
  5.  Proof Positive (6)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

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Category: FMJRA Award

Joe Biden Has COVID — AGAIN!

Posted on | July 30, 2022 | 1 Comment

Double-vaxxed, double-boosted, and COVID-positive:

President Biden tested positive for COVID-19 in a “rebound” case on Saturday, according to the White House.
“As described last week, acknowledging the potential for so-called ‘rebound’ COVID positivity observed in a small percentage of patients treated with PAXLOVID the President increased his testing cadence, both to protect people around him and to assure early detection of any return of viral replication,” White House Doctor Dr. Kevin O’Connor said.
O’Connor said in the letter that Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning, and Friday morning, but tested positive on Saturday morning by an antigen test.
The doctor says that the re-infection represents “rebound positivity” and said that Biden has not experienced a reemergence of symptoms, and there’s no need to restart treatment.
Biden will, however, begin “strict isolation procedures,” according to O’Connor.
Biden tweeted on Saturday afternoon that he will continue working. . . .
Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Wednesday after contracting the virus last week, prior to the announcement on Saturday afternoon.
A White House official told Fox News that contact tracing is now underway since Biden tested positive for COVID-19 again.
Previously, White House press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that it didn’t matter where Biden contracted the coronavirus.
“Look, I don’t think that matters, right? I think what matters is we prepared for this moment,” Jean-Pierre said on July 21.
He was previously seen at several White House events without a mask since testing negative for COVID-19 on Wednesday, including at a roundtable discussing the economy on Thursday.

The White House is a circus and Joe’s the biggest clown.




 

Category: Joe Biden

Patrick Mahomes: Victim of Racism?

Posted on | July 30, 2022 | 2 Comments

Because I didn’t win the Mega Millions jackpot last night, it’s difficult this morning to feel sorry for the $45-million-a-year quarterback:

After an anonymous defensive coordinator called Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes a “tier 2” quarterback because of his “inability” to throw past his first read, discussions have been raised about the underlying message behind the criticism that other quarterbacks don’t receive.
The unnamed defensive coordinator was quoted by The Athletic’s Mike Sando in an article about quarterback tiers with votes from coaches and executives.

“We love Mahomes because of his unorthodox throws, not because of his natural pocket presence. And when that disappears, that is when they lose games. I don’t think that is a 1. I think that is a 2. Nothing against the guy. I love the kid. But take his first read away and what does he do? He runs, he scrambles and he plays streetball.”

The “streetball” comment, along with criticism of Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray for an “independent film study” clause in his contract, prompted discussion’s about the types of criticisms Black quarterbacks receive, compared to other quarterbacks.
When asked about those types of critiques, Mahomes said he wouldn’t read that far into it, but knows Black quarterbacks have had to fight to get to where they are.
“It always is weird when you see guys like me, Lamar, Kyler, get that on them and other guys don’t,” Mahomes said. “But at the same time we are gonna go out there and prove ourselves everyday to prove that we can be some of the best quarterbacks in the league.”
Mahomes added that he and other quarterbacks like him prove everyday that they belong behind the line of scrimmage throwing the ball.
“Obviously, the Black quarterback has had a battle to be in this position that we are to have this many guys in the league playing,” Mahomes said. “I think everyday we’re proving that we should have been playing the whole time. We got guys that think just as well as they can use their athleticism.”

To start with, Mahomes is half-white, so some might question his invocation of racial solidarity. However, it is perhaps not entirely wrong to suspect that the “streetball” criticism has some racial subtext. It could be pointed out, for example, that Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills and Justin Herbert of the L.A. Chargers are both quarterbacks of the “athletic/mobile” type — capable of “extending the play,” as the TV commentators say, and scrambling for extra yards — but because they’re both white, they don’t seem to be targets of the “streetball” criticism.

Watching Mahomes this past season, I was very impressed with him overall, even though I’m not generally a fan of that style of play. The divisional playoff game between the Chiefs and the Bills was one of the most exciting NFL games you could ever hope for, a seesaw struggle down to the wire, decided in overtime, with both quarterbacks doing their share of “streetball.” Mahomes ran the ball seven times for 69 yards and a touchdown, while Allen ran 11 times for 68 yards. On Kansas City’s first possession, the Chiefs came up on a 3rd-and-6 at their own 40, and Mahomes scrambled for 34 yards, giving them a first down at the Buffalo 26. When you’ve got a quarterback capable of that kind of run, it creates real problems for the opposing defense — a problem the New England Patriots experienced in their two losses to Buffalo last season — so maybe “streetball” isn’t an entirely bad thing. On the other hand . . .

Over the long haul, the traditional dropback quarterback style wins more consistently. This year’s Super Bowl featured two traditional “pocket passers,” Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams and Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, so spare me your enthusiasm for the improvisational run-and-gun style as allegedly being the future of football, as if the traditional style were obsolete. And it should be pointed out that, in the AFC title game, where the Bengals beat the Chiefs in overtime, Burrow actually ran more (five carries for 25 yards) than did Mahomes (three carries for 19 yards). Why don’t analysts speak of Joe Burrow, rather than Patrick Mahomes, as the future of football? Isn’t it because many analysts are prejudiced in favor of the “streetball” style? Isn’t it because, as Rush Limbaugh once notoriously observed, most guys in sports media desperately want black quarterbacks to succeed, just to make some kind of “racial justice” statement? Therefore, if black quarterbacks do have a tendency toward the “steetball” style, most of the voices in sports media will be enthusiastic for that style of play, simply for political reasons. (Please notice the word “if” in that sentence.)

Who’s promoting stereotypes here? Is it me or Mahomes? Is it the anonymous defensive coordinator, or the sports media’s “racial justice” cheerleaders? It seems to me that some people are making an implicit argument for a double standard, where a more risky type of offensive approach must be encouraged, simply because this style of play is what black quarterbacks (allegedly) do best. Embedded in this implicit double standard is an apparent belief that black quarterbacks can’t succeed in the more traditional dropback “pocket passer” role. And so we’re in this hall of mirrors where it’s difficult to say that enthusiasts for the “streetball” style are less racist than critics of that style.

Can’t we just play football? Or is it no longer possible to have any area of human existence exempt from the madness of identity politics? Football fans ought to be able to cheer for our favorite teams without having to worry about suspicions of racism — “RAAAAACISM!” — lurking around every corner. Because I’m a Patriots fan, of course I want Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to lose, just as I’m sure Chiefs fans want the Patriots to lose, and for the same reason: Both teams are regularly in the playoff hunt in the AFC, so we want to see our conference rivals get taken down a notch or two. On the other hand, when the Chiefs are playing the Bills, it’s my duty as a Patriots fan to cheer for the Chiefs, because the Bills are our division rivals. Therefore, on Oct. 16, when Buffalo travels to Kansas City, I will be cheering for the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, despite the “streetball” style of their tragic mulatto quarterback. (The phrase “tragic mulatto” is from a book entitled Dreams of My Father, by a certain politician you may have heard of). Perhaps, if the Chiefs beat the Bills — and thus indirectly help the Patriots in the AFC East standings — I will praise Mahomes as “articulate and bright and clean.” On the other hand, if the Bills beat the Chiefs, I might say something less flattering about Mahomes. Racism is strictly situational, you see.

“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” Say what you will about this win-at-all-costs mentality, by making victory the only standard of judgment, athletic competition tends to work against racism, because football fans only care about the color of a player’s jersey, not his skin. Patrick Mahomes ought to try to encourage this attitude, rather than leaping to suspicions of racism every time anyone criticizes him.




 

Category: Football, Racism
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