The Other McCain

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

In The Mailbox: 11.01.21

Posted on | November 1, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 11.01.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Thanks to everyone who bought stuff through my Amazon links in October. It’s very much appreciated!
Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The New South Wales Answer To The Stasi
EBL: American GULAG, also, Let’s Go Brandon Slide
Twitchy: “Give It A Rest, Karen”, also, McAuliffe Wraps Campaign By Inviting AFT’s Randi Weingarten To Speak
Louder With Crowder: AP Reporter Flips Out, Tries To Storm Cockpit After Pilot Says “Let’s Go Brandon”, also, WaPo Reporter Already Blaming “Whiteness” For McAuliffe Losing Virginia Before He Loses Virginia
Vox Popoli: A Bit of An Accident, An Empire In Decline, and Guilt To Carry To The Grave
Surak Blog: The Injection Toll
Gab News: An Eschatology Of Victory

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Church In A Secular World
American Conservative: Va. May Turn The Tide In America’s Education War
American Greatness: Americans Not Buying The Insurrection Narrative, also, How The 2020 Election Was Rigged
American Thinker: This Can’t Be True, also, The Myth Of White Privilege
Animal Magnetism: Hunt Week Totty Monday
Babalu Blog: Castro Dictatorship Continues To Bar Human Rights Monitors From Inspecting Cuban Prisons, also, While Cubans Struggle To Find Food, The Regime Flaunts Abundance Of Meat For Foreign Tourists
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For October 30, also, Va. Governor’s Race/Loudoun County School Board Roundup
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, Enrollment Decline In Urban Public Schools Continues, and Dragon Manned Launch Delayed Again
Cafe Hayek: Freedoms Are Not Acquired Cafeteria-Style
CDR Salamander: What Can The Army Do Best In The Indo-Pacific?
Da Tech Guy: Five Very Quick #tikigate Thoughts Under The Fedora, No Room For Warriors, and Sneak Into America And You Too Can Get $450,000
Don Surber: No Missile Gap – It’s A Leadership Gap, Trump Would Have Unloaded The Cargo Ships By Now, and McAuliffe Says Three Words That Admit Defeat
First Street Journal: Black Lives Don’t Matter In St. Louis, also, About Those Plug-In Electric Cars
Gates Of Vienna: Corona Psychosis, The Reaper & The Vax, and Wir Sind Das Volk
The Geller Report: DeSantis Claus – Florida Ports Report Epic Volumes As Governor Vows To Save Christmas, also, Poll – 2/3 Of French Believe Christians “Threatened With Extinction” By Muslim Mass Migration
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day, Chipping Away At The Supply Chain, and Jupiter Rotates
Hollywood In Toto: Here’s The Undeniable Heart Of The Halloween Franchise, also, Eternals Is More Woke Than Wonderful
The Lid: Blinken Makes A Mess Of Both Red China & Iran, also, 71% Say U.S. Headed In Wrong Direction As They Wake Up About Biden
Legal Insurrection: Elon Musk Thinking Of Launching New “Texas Institute Of Technology & Science”, Christian Student Group Files Lawsuit Against U. Nebraska – Lincoln, and Critical Race Scammer Ibram Kendi Deletes Tweet That Disproved His Life’s Work On “White Privilege”
Nebraska Energy Observer: Random Observations, also, 10/31/21
Outkick: ESPN Staffer Writes That Atlanta Braves Should Rename Themselves “Cobb County Crackers”, Auburn Upsets #10 Ole Miss Behind QB Bo Nix, and Astros Head Back Home For Game 6 After Staving Off Defeat In Game 5 With 9-5 Win
Power Line: Sapp’s Law In Mankato, Ted Cruz Grills Merrick Garland Over Conflict Of Interest, and CRT – It Doesn’t Exist…And It’s Awesome!
Shark Tank: Is Democrat Guillermo Smith Rooting For COVID Deaths?
Shot In The Dark: People, Good Guy With Gun, and Central Casting
The Political Hat: Happy Halloween! also, Modern Education – Cross-Dressing Lingerie Lap Dance Pageant
This Ain’t Hell: Northern Va. Police & Businesses Increase Security After ISIS Threat, U.S. Ranks Last In International Survey On Trust In Media, and Selective Service System To Include Women
Transterrestrial Musings: The New “Four-Star Admiral”, also, The Age Of Discovery 2.0
Victory Girls: Lincoln Project Stunt In Virginia Creates Blowback, also, Kaepernick Compares NFL Combine To Slave Auction
Volokh Conspiracy: University Of Florida Blocks Professor’s Expert Witness Work In Case Against State Government
Weasel Zippers: NYC Jab Mandate Could Force Out 30% Of Firefighters, Never Trumper Kinzinger Says He Won’t Seek Re-Election, and Biden Insists Surging Gas Prices Caused By Green Nude Eel Policies Is Why We Have To Double Down On GND
The Federalist: Wisconsin Investigation Uncovers Tip Of A Potential Voting Fraud Iceberg, also, Hysterical NBC Journalist Calls Secret Service Over “Let’s Go Brandon” Merchandise
Mark Steyn: Better Left Unseen – Night Of The Demon, Go West Young Blue Boy, and Monster Mash

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Category: Linkagery

Controlled Opposition: Has AllahPundit Always Been a Democrat Trojan Horse?

Posted on | November 1, 2021 | Comments Off on Controlled Opposition: Has AllahPundit Always Been a Democrat Trojan Horse?

“In the context of journalism, here, we are dealing with a new kind of ‘lead’ — the Symbiotic Trapezoid Quote. The Columbia Journalism Review will never sanction it; at least not until the current editor dies of brain syphilis, and probably not even then.
“What?
“Do we have a libel suit on our hands?
“Probably not, I think, because nobody in his right mind would take a thing like that seriously — and especially not that gang of senile hags who run the Columbia Journalism Review, who have gone to great lengths in every issue during the past year or so to stress, very heavily, that nothing I say should be taken seriously.”
— Hunter S. Thompson, “Fear and Loathing in Washington: The Boys in the Bag,” Rolling Stone, July 4, 1974 (collected in The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time)

The Patriots won Sunday, and it was sloppy as hell, but it was still a win.

Mac Jones was inconsistent, and New England was plagued by mistakes — a key fumble and penalties, including one that nullified a touchdown run by Damien Harris — and yet somehow they managed to defeat the Chargers 27-24. This was a must-win game, and they won it, bringing their record to 4-4 on the season, thus putting themselves in the middle of the AFC playoff chase with nine games to go in the season.

The real keys to Sunday’s win were two interceptions by Adrian Phillips, one of which he turned into a go-ahead touchdown, and outstanding special teams play by Gunner Olszewski, who had four punt returns for 80 yards, helping the Patriots in terms of field position. Finally, there was a 14-play, 54-yard drive in the fourth quarter that chewed up seven minutes before ending in a field goal that put New England ahead 27-17. That kind of clock-consuming, ball-control offense is underappreciated in the era of high-scoring razzle-dazzle football, but it enabled the Patriots to go home with a “W,” and that’s what really counts.

The thing about being a football fan is that, in identifying with a team, you share their fortunes. When I decided to become a Patriots fan — because they drafted Mac Jones from Alabama — Roll Tide! — I didn’t stop to think of the emotional toll that might be involved in this new fandom. When New England started the season 1-3, I was mortified. Being born and raised a ’Bama fan, I’m not accustomed to losing, and since Nick Saban took over in Tuscaloosa, thank God, there hasn’t been much losing. It’s an “off year” for Crimson Tide fans when we don’t win the National Championship, and it’s a disaster if we lose as many as two games in a season. Alabama fans would be burning Saban in effigy if the Tide ever started the season 1-3, so you can imagine how embarrassing it was for Mac Jones (and for me) to begin their season so badly. Yet there were glimmers of hope amid the gloom, and after New England blew out the Jets 54-13, it was possible to see them with a path to the playoffs if — and it seemed like a big “if” — they could beat the Chargers.

Baby, just look at this beautiful Jones-to-Agholor pass:

Critics keep saying Mac Jones has a “weak arm,” and I’m like, what? If you pay attention to that play, you see that Mac is on his own 33-yard line when he throws it, and Nelson Agholor catches it at the Chargers’ 19-yard line — that pass went 48 yards in the air, and notice that Mac was throwing under pressure from the Chargers’ rush. “Weak arm,” my ass.

Sometimes the best way to start a story is with a weird digression. Don’t even bother trying a “lead,” but instead plunge off into something that seemingly has nothing to do with your main topic — “the Symbiotic Trapezoid Quote,” as Thompson called it. My theme here is about teamwork and loyalty, and the inspiration was Ace of Spades ripping into AllahPundit for trying to spin the McAuliffe “tiki boys” stunt:

And it was stupid for the leftwing partisan AllahPundit to attempt to cover for his Palz on the Left and claim that this was just an innocent attempt at street theater which inadvertently turned into a hoax.
Recently AllahPundit claimed the story that Florida now had the lowest covid rates in the country — remember, bloggers at Hot Air “claim” stories on a first-come, first served basis — just so he could attack DeSantis by claiming it was hypocritical that DeSantis did not take the blame for Florida’s higher August covid rates but is taking credit for their lowest-in-the-nation October rates.
AllahPundit somehow doesn’t notice that it’s equally hypocritical for AllahPundit to have spent all August attacking DeSantis for higher Florida covid rates but now refuse to grant him credit for the low October rates.
Or that it is hypocritical of AllahPundit to blow off surging covid rates in the blue states of New England, where they have forced vaccinations and masking and all the wonderful coercions his frightened Karen heart craves.
But this is now typical of the alleged conservative blog Hot Air — it runs the same sort of opinion pieces that you’d find on Salon.
Which isn’t much of a surprise, given that in 2017, Salon named AllahPundit as one of the 25 conservative bloggers worth reading.
Their other picks? Lincoln Project pedophile-enablers Rick Wilson and Stuart Stevens, and actual Lincoln Project pedophile John Weaver.
Former “conservative” blogger Jen Rubin, and former “conservative” fundraiser Ana Navarro.
As well as Noted All-Around Conservative Expert Tom Nichols, and Jon Podhoretz and S.E. Cupp.
As well as Noted Cvckshed Resident Bill Kristol, and Noted Bulwark Writer and Alanis Morrissette Lookalike Tim Miller.
Steven Hayes of The Dispatch. And David Frum.

You can read the whole thing. Lately, Ace has been ripping Allah at least once a day, five days a week, and I fondly recall the days — circa 2007 or so — when it seemed like Ace was just kind of nudging around with Allah, like buddies playing the dozens, but more recently it has become apparent to me that Ace really hates Allah’s guts. And why?

Because AllahPundit is not, and really never has been, a team player.

Like football, politics is a team sport. Just turn on CNN sometime, and see them all shaking their media pompoms for Team Democrat. We know what team they’re on, and we want to beat that team. The whole point of conservative journalism is to do a Mark Gastineau-style sack dance on the faces of those dishonest liberal media hacks.

Even if being on Team GOP is inevitably a disappointment — always being forced to swallow some worthless “bipartisan compromise” arranged by Mitch McConnell and/or an army of corporate lobbyists — it’s usually the best we can do, and a damned sight better than the catastrophes that happen whenever Democrats are running the show. Whatever any conservative’s complaints may be about Trump, you can’t fault him for his full-throttle assault on the “fake news” media, and for this is for nothing else he deserved our loyal support.

As Ace ran down that “Salon 25” list, placing AllahPundit in the company of weasels like Tom Nicols and Rick Wilson, it raised the question in my mind: “In what sense was AllahPundit ever a conservative?” In the Charles “Little Green Footballs” Johnson sense, perhaps?

There’s a freaky acid flashback, eh? Months at a time now go by without LGF ever crossing my mind, but now that it has . . .

Oh, the terrible DANGER posed by “racists” cheering for the Braves!

Exactly what has Charles ever done that would qualify him for recognition as a Friend of Indigenous Peoples? That’s the really annoying thing about these people — they think they deserve praise as Humanitarian Philanthropists merely for the act of going on Twitter and calling Republicans “racist,” as if this demonstrated their courage.

CNN’s ratings are in the tank and nobody reads LGF anymore, because this kind of phony Courageous Stand Against Racism stuff is boring.

And as Ace points out, what’s the rationale for Salem Media Group (SMG) to keep publishing the Democrat Trojan Horse that is AllahPundit? How is that justified, from a business perspective? SMG originated as a Christian radio network, but AllahPundit’s an atheist.

Then, on the other hand, when you think about how soi-disant “conservative” Christians like David French have baptized liberalism, so to speak, as a function of their #NeverTrump obsession, I guess AllahPundit’s atheism isn’t really disqualifying. But his #NeverTrump tendency has definitely put him in the same basket as the rest of the “Conservatives for Biden” crowd. Byron York assesses the damage:

He promised to deal with the COVID pandemic, and the pandemic came back with a vengeance. He promised to improve the economy, and growth has slowed, with inflation becoming a critical concern. He promised to restore America’s place in the world and then led a disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He promised to fix President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and instead brought chaos to the border. Of course his job approval rating is going down. How could it not?

You can read the whole thing. My point is that the market doesn’t seem to be demanding whatever it is AllahPundit is supplying.

Closet liberalism, masquerading as “conservative” punditry, may have had an audience once upon a time, but that time is clearly over:

Republican Glenn Youngkin leads over former governor Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia gubernatorial polls one day before the heavily-watched election.
Youngkin shows a two-point lead over McAuliffe in the Virginia gubernatorial race poll with likely voters, conducted by Insider Advantage and first reported by FOX5. The poll found that 47 percent will be voting for Youngkin. The poll is bad news for McAuliffe, whom only 45 percent of respondents said they would vote for in tomorrow’s race.
Two percent of the respondents said they would be voting for another candidate, Princess Blanding. Additionally, six percent were “undecided.” . . .
Matt Towry, from Insider Advantage, told FOX5 that his company noticed a “shift” towards Youngkin. He added that this election would have everything to do with getting voters to turn out.
“McAuliffe is a very gifted politician. He knows how to turn out his vote. Youngkin is obviously coming on strong. So, it’s going to be down to the wire,” Towry added.
Regarding the six percent who said they were undecided when asked, Towry noted that “they don’t plan on voting” and “most of the vote is already baked into these numbers.”

Can we trust these polls? Will the Democrats in Virginia come up with one of those ballot-harvesting “miracle” wins with a 3 a.m. truckload of absentee votes to give McAuliffe the margin of victory? We can’t rule it out, and there are probably corpses of Democratic voters in Oakwood Cemetry awaiting their electoral resurrection Tuesday. But we cannot allow this possibility to discourage Republican voters — living, breathing, legal residents of Virginia — from actually voting. Maybe the fix is in, but Virginia Republicans have to vote as if the machinery of Democratic vote fraud weren’t going to nullify their ballots. Keep in mind that Biden beat Trump by 10 points in Virginia, so for this election even to be close is something of a miracle. If Youngkin manages to pull off an upset here, it will send shock waves across the nation. And maybe, just maybe, it will drive a stake through the heart of #NeverTrump.

 

Shove it down their throats and do a sack dance on their faces.

Oh, and the Patriots are a three-point favorite over the Jaguars.




 

Category: Election, Football, Virginia

Rule 5 Sunday: Danielle Rose Russell

Posted on | October 31, 2021 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: Danielle Rose Russell

— compiled by Wombat-socho

The daughter of a Rockette, this New Jersey girl started her acting career early with A Walk Among The Tombstones alongside Liam Neeson, but she’s probably better known for her role as Hope Mikaelson on the Vampire Diaries spinoffs The Originals and Legacies. Here’s a pic of her from the latter series.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Ninety Miles From Tyranny: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1519, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. 

Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Power Grids Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon. 

EBL: Evanescence, Elizabeth Tablish, Cimorelli, 15 Minutes Of Shame, Yasmine Al Bustami, Rosemary Clooney, Jessica Alba, They Might Be Giants, Ann Margret, Barbara Eden, and MAGA Halloween. 

A View From The Beach: Selita Ebanks Suffered Deprivation for Her Craft, Forgive My Skepticism, Fish Pic Friday – Oceanic Barbie, Ancient Actress Seeks Social Climate Credits, Perfect Wave, Managers Put Striped Bass on a Deadline, The Morning Election Madness, The Wednesday Wetness, Tuesday Tanlines, Can Striped Bass Cure Cancer?, Hail to Thee, My Alma Mater, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Sunday Sunrise, Promise? and Repression Down Under.

Brian Noggle: Big Data Knows I’m A Big Bollywood Fan

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Totem

Posted on | October 31, 2021 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Totem

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Swept the two-game series at Pittsburgh this week, which was a surprise since Forbes Field is where deep fly balls go to die, and my lineup is full of sluggers, but my Senators are above .500 again. On an unrelated topic, everyone I’ve heard from regarding the catch-up In The Mailbox posts has been for them and nobody thinks I should drop them. Feel free to express your opinions in the comments. 
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Rule 5 Sunday: Queen Victoria Eugenie Of Spain
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
EBL
Proof Positive

‘Jetpack Joe’ and the CNN Town Hall
Bacon Time
Animal Magnetism
EBL
357 Magnum

“And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good – need we anyone to tell us these things?”
EBL
357 Magnum

FMJRA 2.0: Floating Sequence
A View From The Beach
EBL

‘Ain’t Going Back to Jail’
EBL
357 Magnum

Can the Patriots Make the Playoffs?
EBL

In The Mailbox: 10.25.21
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Hypocrite Terry McAuliffe Does Not Send His Kids to Virginia Public Schools
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

In The Mailbox: 10.26.21
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Virginia, Brace Yourselves
The Pirate’s Cove
A View From The Beach
EBL

In The Mailbox: 10.27.21
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Scold Me Closer, Terry Dancer
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 10.29.21 (Afternoon Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Fools and Their Money
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 10.29.21 (Evening Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Top linkers for the last FMJRA of October:

  1.  EBL (15)
  2.  357 Magnum (11)
  3.  A View From The Beach (8)
  4.  Proof Positive (7)

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Category: FMJRA Award

The NFL’s (Other) Race Problem

Posted on | October 31, 2021 | Comments Off on The NFL’s (Other) Race Problem

This morning I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and reached for my phone. I’d fallen asleep after watching YouTube videos of police chases, which I consider therapeutic — something to distract me from the insanity of politics. So I swiped the screen to get back to my YouTube home page, and one of the first videos I saw was titled, “NFL LIVE | Marcus Spears ‘believe’ Mac Jones lead Patriots beat Chargers in week 8,” an 8-minute clip from ESPN’s Friday broadcast. The algorithm has got me figured out. Ever since the New England Patriots drafted Alabama quarterback Mac Jones — Roll Tide! — I’ve become a Patriots fan and, leading up to this make-or-break game against the Los Angeles Chargers, I’ve been watching hours of videos about Jones and the Patriots. But after ae couple of minutes of trying to watch this “NFL LIVE” clip, I became so annoyed and distracted I switched it off. Diversity has run amok at ESPN.

The host is a 33-year-old former Florida beauty queen — Miss America 2013 — named Laura Rutledge. Now, I don’t know about you, but where I come from, football is a man’s game. As I’ve explained here before, I was a small-town newspaper sports editor for several years early in my career, and used to be a fairly enthusiastic sports fan, but since the 1990s, there has been a severe diminution of the amount of mental bandwidth available to pay attention to sports. As my journalism career went in a different direction, I simply didn’t have time or energy to devote to watching games the way I did in my 20s and 30s.

All of that is by way of explaining my mystification about ESPN having a woman host its morning NFL talk-show panel. Somehow, over the past 20 years or so, TV executives have decided that “diversity” requires them to have a quota for women in football coverage, which is crazy.

FOOTBALL IS A MAN’S GAME!

This is an indisputable fact, and until rather recently, football journalism was also a man’s business. Someone who has paid more attention than I have to sports broadcasting in recent decades will have to tell me when the “sideline girl” phenomenon began. Every football broadcast has a play-by-play announcer and a color commentator, and the addition of a sideline reporter, who reports on injuries, etc., is a recent development, and it appears that TV executives decided that this was the job where “diversity” should be applied, so that having girls reporting from the sidelines became a phenomenon that I suppose many younger viewers now take for granted. But football is still a man’s game, and it used to be that nearly all announcers were former football players themselves.

Who set the standard in this business? Legends like Pat Summerall, who played for 10 seasons in the NFL, where his career highlight was kicking a 49-yard game-winning field goal for the New York Giants under Coach Vince Lombardi. Then there was Frank Gifford, who scored 77 touchdowns during a dozen seasons with the Giants. You could go down the list of the most successful football broadcasters, and they were almost without exception former players. One of the rare exceptions was Howard Cosell, but a lot of fans always hated Cosell — indeed, his abrasiveness was part of his value on Monday Night Football, sort of like the villainous “heel” in pro wrestling. As part of the MNF team alongside Gifford and “Dandy” Don Meredith (who threw for 135 touchdowns and ran for another 15 TDs in nine seasons with the Dallas Cowboys), Cosell was a contrasting flavor — the extra spice in the recipe. What the original MNF crew provided, during the years when it was routinely the highest-rated show on television, was a sense of camaraderie. It was like watching football with your buddies at the bar, including that one know-it-all loudmouth (Cosell) who doesn’t know how to shut up.

FOOTBALL IS A MAN’S GAME!

Watching football is an occasion for male bonding, allowing men to celebrate the fraternal feeling of being “one of the guys.” It’s why guys turn their dens into “man caves” decorated with sports memorabilia, lounge chairs, a beer fridge and a gigantic TV. Adding female reporters to football broadcasts ruins the whole manly vibe of the ritual.

Why do you think ESPN’s ratings are in the tank? And it’s not just because they’ve got girls reporting football. Look at the lineup on the NFL LIVE panel — white female (Rutledge), black male (Marcus Spears), Asian female (Mina Kimes) and black male (Ryan Clark). Is it just accidental that ESPN doesn’t have any white males on this broadcast?

We may stipulate, arguendo, that there are practical considerations involved in certain aspects of the “diversity and inclusion” agenda that are not about politically correct “wokeness.” About 60% of NFL players are black, 25% are non-Hispanic white and 15% are some other ethnicity, and complaints that blacks are “underrepresented” (as the diversity consultants might say) among the broadcasters covering the league would be understandable. (And yes, there have been such complaints.) But when we consider that 100% of NFL players are men, what’s up with women being 50% of this NFL LIVE panel?

The regular rotation of panelists on this ESPN program also includes Dan Orlovsky (former QB for the Detroit Lions) so there’s your “token white guy,” I suppose, but if you think of sports broadcasting in terms of audience — which one imagines ESPN executives would — does it make sense to relegate white males to such a token role? And to do so by creating an apparent token role for Asian-American women? Not that I have any kind of personal animus against Mina Kimes, by the way. She is an actual journalist, who won awards for her business reporting before she joined ESPN in 2014. But why is she on NFL LIVE?

FOOTBALL IS A MAN’S GAME!

Excuse my repeated emphasis of this point, but it is my belief that part of what’s wrong with ESPN’s ratings (a problem affecting the NFL and sports broadcasting more generally) is the disrespect of the predominately male audience by trying to impose female broadcasters this way. Everybody knows — it is a fact notorious — that there is no real audience for women’s sports, e.g., the WNBA can’t fill an arena. Only because of government intervention via Title IX have women’s athletics reached something approaching “equality” in college sports, but there is no audience for these games, not like there is for men’s sports.

Perhaps even more damaging to the NFL’s value, from a marketing perspective, is the overrepresentation of black players, in comparison to the U.S. population, which is only 14% black. Far be it from me to argue for quotas in sports, the way liberals insist on racial quotas everywhere else, but whites are more than 60% of the U.S. population — the largest demographic, and thus the largest potential audience — so the fact that only 25% of NFL players are white can be considered a marketing problem for the league. And when you then factor in the way ESPN seems to be implementing a “No White Guys” policy on NFL Live in order to fill their “girls talking about football” quota, it’s scarcely surprising that the network’s ratings are in the toilet. It is in this context, then, that we must view the antics of Colin Kaepernick, who collected at least $3.8 million after getting drafted in the second round, had two good seasons, and then became a “social justice” activist after he got benched in 2016.

If you understand that the NFL is a profit-seeking business, dependent upon fan support and TV revenue, this kind of “woke” activism is obviously damaging to the brand, and adds to the marketing problems that the league already faces because of demographics.




 

Category: Football

The Stars Above

Posted on | October 30, 2021 | Comments Off on The Stars Above

— by Wombat-socho

 

Welcome back to the continued trashing of what may be the worst list of recommended SF not published on Tor.com. I’ve been noodling over this post for most of the week, cudgeling my brain for good space opera, because in contrast to Ryan & Finney, who broke their list into “A Place To Begin”, “Military Focused”, “Social Focused”, and “Mind Expanding”, I am keeping it relatively simple by denying that there is a difference between good combat SF and socially-focused SF, because as I said last week, the whole point of combat SF is to examine the effect of war on people and their societies, noting in passing that the “people” in question are not always human. There’s a rather famous Harry Turtledove story, “The Road Not Taken”, in which a bunch of aliens (who have developed anti-gravity and the stardrive but otherwise are stuck with 17th century technology) attempt an invasion of contemporary Earth, which fails horribly because muskets and pikes are no match for modern mechanized infantry, and their flyers are hopelessly outclassed by F-15s. 

So this week we’re going to look at combat SF that takes place in space, or as some folks like to call it, space opera. Like so many things in SF, space opera clearly begins with E.E. “Doc” Smith, and his two epic series. The Skylark novels begin as a kidnapped damsel in distress story and end with an apocalyptic war of oxygen-based life against chlorine-breathing aliens from a different galaxy in which psionic powers are used to teleport suns across millions of light years to trigger novae in the hostile aliens’ home systems. Along the way, we’re introduced to several alien races, most of them humanoid, and get a good look at their societies, which are inevitably changed (usually for the better) by the advent of our hero, Dr. Richard Seaton, and his friends. This gets expanded to a grander scale with the Lensman series, which begins with Triplanetary and really hits its stride when we meet Kimball Kinnison in First Lensman, which seems at first to be merely a tale of a galactic police agency fighting a war against a drug cartel, but turns out to be much more. 

Despite being heavily involved in the aerospace industry, Jerry Pournelle didn’t write about any space battles in the CoDominium/Empire of Man universe until The Mote In God’s Eye, but between him and Larry Niven, they turned in an outstanding example of the genre, especially if you include the deleted section later published as “Reflex”. Probably the only better such story set in that universe is Don Hawthorne’s “The Face Of The Enemy”, published in one of the War World anthologies, and in some ways a foreshadowing of our next subject.

Your fleet has been lured to the enemy’s home system under the pretext of peace talks, but during the talks the enemy executes the fleet’s senior leadership. The admiral commanding the fleet has left you in command, but you’ve just awakened from a century-long snooze in cold sleep aboard a survival pod. During that time your heroic last stand in the opening days of the war made you a hero to your people – their Arthur, their Holger Danske – and much of your fleet believes that you’ve been sent by the living stars to save them in this dark hour. What now, Captain Geary? So begins The Lost Fleet: Dauntless, the first of Jack Campbell’s excellent series about “Black Jack” Geary outthinking and outfighting the Syndic fleets as well as officers in his own Alliance fleet who don’t want to change the way they’ve learned to fight as the decades rolled on and things like fleet tactics were forgotten. There’s also a bigger problem (no, not the complicated relationship between Senator Rione, Captain Geary, and the skipper of the Dauntless, Captain Desjani, which does give our hero some serious migraines) that could spell the end of both the Alliance and the Syndic Worlds. Campbell does an outstanding job portraying the troubles involved in leading a fleet that initially acts more like a barbarian warband (as Raj Whitehall might say) than a coherent fleet, the headaches of logistics involved in operating behind enemy lines, and the feeling of desperately trying to get up to speed on a century’s worth of progress – and sometimes, all too often, regress. Highly recommended. 

No list of space opera would be complete without the Salamander. The tale of a far-future Horatio Hornblower begins with On Basilisk Station, Harrington’s first command and since then has expanded to fourteen books in the main sequence, two sets of prequels, and at least one other side series – forgive me, I pretty much lost interest and track of the Honorverse after Weber failed to kill her off like Lord Nelson at Trafalgar. So much the worse for me. Still, unlike Forester’s stories of the misanthropic Royal Navy captain, Weber gets heavily into the politics, not only of Harrington’s own Kingdom of Manticore but also her adopted world, the Protectorate of Grayson, on whose originally theocratic society she has a considerable impact. That having been said, while Forester rarely showed Hornblower in other than single-ship actions, Weber treats us to many, many scenes of squadrons, groups, wings, and fleets in combat described in loving detail, while describing in passing the effects of Manticoran and the Republic of Haven societies on their fleets. It honestly doesn’t get any better than this. 

Next week, we’ll talk about the groundpounders, tankers, Mobile Infantry, and suchlike people.

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Category: Books

Crazy People Are Dangerous

Posted on | October 30, 2021 | Comments Off on Crazy People Are Dangerous

Do you recognize those mug shots? All of them are the same guy — Walter Wallace Jr. of Philadelphia — who was 27 years old when his lifelong criminal career came to an abrupt end last October. Police were called to the Wallace family home for a domestic disturbance, and Walter was shot dead after he charged at the cops with an 8-inch knife:

Police were called dozens of times in recent months about problems at Walter Wallace Jr.’s home, and had responded twice on Monday to reports of disturbances at the West Philadelphia house before two officers answered a third call and shot him as he approached them with a knife, according to law enforcement sources.
What happened during those earlier visits — including which officers responded and how much they knew about Wallace’s mental health problems — remained unclear Tuesday. Asked at a news briefing, Commissioner Danielle Outlaw declined to offer details about any prior contact police had with Wallace, saying the incident remained under investigation.
But the confirmation of previous visits, by sources not authorized to publicly discuss them, raised questions about the police response to what Wallace’s relatives have described as a mental health crisis.

The death of Wallace was the subject of a blog post here (“Media Promotes BLM Lies in Philadelphia, as Rioting Continues for the Second Night”) as riots left dozens of police officers injured and millions of dollars in damages in the looting and vandalism that followed the shooting. And yet video of the incident clearly showed that the officers had no choice but to shoot the maniac who charged them.

Despite this, Philadelphia taxpayers will pay Wallace’s family:

The city of Philadelphia has agreed to settle a wrongful-death suit filed by the family of a Black man whose fatal shooting by the police last year was recorded on video and prompted widespread protests.
The man, Walter Wallace Jr., 27, had mental health issues and was holding a knife when he was shot by two Philadelphia police officers on Oct. 26, 2020.
The settlement between the city and Mr. Wallace’s family was finalized this week, according to Kevin Lessard, a city spokesman, who said the city was not releasing the figure “without a Right to Know request due to a direct request from attorneys representing the family.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the city agreed to pay the family $2.5 million. . . .

TWO-POINT-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS!

A city spokeswoman said on Friday that, in response to Mr. Wallace’s death, the city planned to equip and train all uniformed police officers with Tasers. The city this year budgeted $13.9 million to pay for the Tasers.
“In addition, Mr. Wallace Jr.’s death emphasized the urgent need for additional support for those with behavioral health challenges and their families,” Mr. Lessard said, adding that the city “can and will do better to address Philadelphia’s inequities in our criminal justice and health systems.”

So, in addition to paying $2.5 million — TWO-POINT-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS! — to the family of the knife-wielding maniac, Philadelphia taxpayers will also shell out nearly $14 million to equip the police with tasers, even though it is unlikely a taser would have stopped Wallace.

All of this, because the state of Pennsylvania somehow couldn’t find room for this dangerous lunatic who had been perpetrating violent crimes on a regular basis since he was arrested in 2006 for assaulting a teacher when he was only 13 years old. Saying he had “mental health issues” is a way for the media to pretend that Wallace was a helpless victim, rather than a lifelong criminal. What are police supposed to do?

More than 1 in 5 people fatally shot by police have mental illnesses, according to a Washington Post database of fatal U.S. shootings by on-duty police officers. Since 2015, when The Post launched its database, police have fatally shot more than 1,400 people with mental illnesses. . . .
Last month the journal Annals of Epidemiology said in an analysis that police are more likely to shoot and kill unarmed Black men who show signs of mental illness than white men who exhibit similar behaviors.

WALTER WALLACE JR. WAS NOT UNARMED! HE CHARGED AT COPS WITH AN 8-INCH KNIFE! PLEASE STOP LYING ABOUT IT!

Excuse me if I seem a bit worked up. Maybe I should ignore the media. Otherwise, the news might drive me crazy and, as everybody knows . . .

Crazy People Are Dangerous.




 

Category: Crime, Pennsylvania, Racism

The Accusatory Finger of Blame

Posted on | October 30, 2021 | Comments Off on The Accusatory Finger of Blame

Thomas Sowell’s The Vision of the Anointed is the best explanation of the psychology of liberalism, and it was Sowell’s insight that helped me understand an otherwise inexplicable phenomenon: White people who habitually accuse other white people of racism — “RAAAAACISM!”

This is an exercise in moral narcissism — the white accuser seeks to display his own moral superiority by pointing out the sins of others: “Not only am I not a racist, but I am endowed with the capacity to identify racism in my fellow white people, and the courage to speak out.”

And they expect to be applauded for their wisdom and courage.

The real problem with this, beyond the Salem witch-hunt mentality involved, is the blithe assumption that racism is the one-size-fits-all explanation for every woe afflicting racial minorities. Anyone familiar with Sowell’s work knows how dubious this assumption is. However widespread racial prejudice may be at any given time or in any particular place (and such prejudice is more or less a universal human trait), the prevalence of “racism” does not the define life chances of minorities, in America or anywhere else. So the paranoid mentality that seeks evidence of racism everywhere (and which generates “hate crime” hoaxes) is a waste of time and energy that functions as a political distraction from the real social problems that confront us. Christopher Rufo exposes the deployment of Critical Race Theory at AT&T:

AT&T Corporation has created a racial reeducation program that promotes the idea that “American racism is a uniquely white trait” and boosts left-wing causes such as “reparations,” “defund police,” and “trans activism.”
I have obtained a cache of internal documents about the company’s initiative, called Listen Understand Act, which is based on the core principles of critical race theory, including “intersectionality,” “systemic racism,” “white privilege,” and “white fragility.” CEO John Stankey launched the program last year and, subsequently, has told employees that private corporations such as AT&T have an “obligation to engage on this issue of racial injustice” and push for “systemic reforms in police departments across the country.”
According to a senior employee, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, managers at AT&T are now assessed annually on diversity issues, with mandatory participation in programs such as discussion groups, book clubs, mentorship programs, and race reeducation exercises. White employees, the source said, are tacitly expected to confess their complicity in “white privilege” and “systemic racism,” or they will be penalized in their performance reviews. As part of the overall initiative, employees are asked to sign a loyalty pledge to “keep pushing for change,” with suggested “intentions” such as “reading more about systemic racism” and “challenging others’ language that is hateful.” “If you don’t do it,” the senior employee says, “you’re [considered] a racist.” AT&T did not respond when asked for comment.
On the first page of AT&T’s Listen Understand Act internal portal, the company encourages employees to study a resource called “White America, if you want to know who’s responsible for racism, look in the mirror.” The article claims that the United States is a “racist society” and lays out its thesis plainly: “White people, you are the problem. Regardless of how much you say you detest racism, you are the sole reason it has flourished for centuries.” The author, Dahleen Glanton, writes that “American racism is a uniquely white trait” and that “Black people cannot be racist.” White women, she claims, “have been telling lies on black men since they were first brought to America in chains,” and, along with their white male counterparts, “enjoy the opportunities and privileges that white supremacy affords [them].”

Glanton published that column in the Chicago Tribune on May 31, 2020 — the same day the governor of Illinois sent the National Guard into Chicago after three days of looting and vandalism.

The 2020 riots in Chicago caused more than $100 million in damages, and have been followed by an unprecedented surge of gun violence. There were 769 homicides in Chicago in 2020, a 55% increase from 2019. By the end of September this year, Chicago had recorded 2,726 shootings and 616 homicides for the year, on track to eclipse even last year’s astonishing bloodshed. What does this suggest about the role of white racism in the problems affecting black Americans? If accusations of “racism” against police result in skyrocketing homicide rates in Chicago (where more than 80% of shooting victims are black), doesn’t this suggest that maybe “racism” is not the fundamental problem involved?

My point is not to begin a discussion of root causes, but merely to illustrate the futility of this witch hunt for “racism.” What good does it do, in terms of the quality of lives of black people, to have managers at AT&T go through a brainwashing program that includes this Chicago Tribune column about the ubiquitous guilt of white people?

Of course the CEO of AT&T is white. John Stankey is paid $20 million a year to run the company that owns CNN. You might think he would have better things to do with his time than to lecture his employees about their “obligation to engage on this issue of racial injustice” and promote “systemic reforms in police departments across the country.”

The cop risking his life for $45,000 a year is demonized as “racist” by this clown who gets paid $20 million a year to run AT&T. Exactly what does that do in terms of helping black people in America?




 

Category: Racism
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