MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2023
The dogs which continue to bark: It's long been known that you can't fit a square peg in a round hole—or at least that you can't fit it snugly.
Something else is fairly obvious. You can't fit five (5) "Power Five" champions into a four-team playoff.
As in musical chairs, someone has to get left out.
This would seem like a fairly obvious point. But as of this very morning, the cable dogs continue to bark, arguing about which of those five conference champions should have been left out this year.
After Saturday's games, it was Florida State which got left out. Alabama was selected for the final spot in this year's four-team playoff.
As you may know, Florida State's star quarterback has suffered a broken leg; he's now out for the season. Presumably, that injury was a significant part of the Playoff Committee's thinking.
On the basis of that injury, many sports pundits have asserted that Florida State simply isn't one the four best teams at this point. Whether you agree with that assessment or not, it's perfectly sensible thinking.
Other pundits think Florida State deserves to be included, given its unbeaten record. All day yesterday, then on this morning's programs, the various dogs continue to argue a wide array of plainly subjective points.
We're fascinated by the way we humans conduct our various debates. On Saturday, we noted a point of fascination:
Very few sports pundits seemed to realize that they were arguing subjective points as they tried to fit five champions into a four-team format.
Instead, the dogs continue to howl. They seemed to think that they could prove that their preferred assessment was somehow "right."
On this matter, there's no way to do so. We've seen almost no one say that.
Also this morning, we saw one of the worst segments we've ever seen on Morning Joe. We thought the discussion was extremely unfair to Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a progressive legislator with whose views we don't always agree.
As always, Joe was spouting and fuming, with Mika backing him up. Two reliable pundits arrived and quickly piled on. Under current arrangements, disagreement is rarely allowed on our blue tribe's "cable news" programs.
The football playoff concerns a game. The topic discussed on Morning Joe was of the deepest importance.
We'll try to lay it out for you in the next day or two. In the meantime, we'll offer this:
On Morning Joe, the conversation was full of feeling, but it struck us as very unfair. In our view, our blue tribe is often poorly served by the spouting and fuming which occurs on this high-profile "cable news" program.
In the end, college football is played for fun. It's a form of entertainment.
On Morning Joe, the gang was discussing a topic of the highest importance. We thought their judgment was very poor. This was not a unique occurrence.
Somerby doesn't like women much. Perhaps that is why he thought Morning Joe was extremely unfair when they said this:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/jayapal-israel-assaults/
There is no excuse for the things Hamas did. None. Jayapal should have said that more emphatically but she did not. She is choosing her ethnicity over her gender, which is something women often do when there is "intersectionality" in their identity. Unfortunately for Muslim women, abusiveness toward women is part of Muslim religious practice and built-in to most Muslim societies. Palestine is no exception. Jayapal is choosing the Palestinians over women.
DeleteThe other woman on Morning Joe was Mika. Somerby has said actively hostile things about her in the past, some fairly crude. Mika chooses women, not necessarily Israel.
Somerby and various commenters have framed this only in terms of Israel vs Gaza/Hamas, ignoring that no men of any nationality or ethnicity have any business using rape as a tool of war. Various men's inability to understand why rape is wrong is at the heart of today's discussion, NOT Israel vs Hamas or right vs left (red vs blue as Somerby always puts it).
Rape is a crime against women and there are women on boths sides in the Middle East conflict. Jayapal failed to recognize that and that is why she is being blamed, not because she failed to come out hard enough against Hamas -- because she failed to support women in a situation where Hamas has broken international rules of warfare and committed a crime that is out of bounds for warfare, no matter how just men think their claim to land might be.
Somerby and the various clueless commenters here have missed that point.
Jayapal gallantly prioritized her sexual identity over her racial identity.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:16pm, you don’t help the women who were raped by Hamas terrorists by broadening the subject into a generality about rules of engagement. This wasn’t “war”, it was an act of terrorism.
Delete“Men should not rape women” and “Men should not take women as the spoils of war” is true, but in this context that sort of generalization is a deflection from the horrific crimes of Hamas.
No. Those Hamas sons-of-bitches gang raped women to the point that their backs, thighs,, and pelvises were crushed to pieces. THAT is the subject to be addressed NOW. It can be discussed in the broader context later.
Was there any independent investigation of those alleged rapes, or is this just another "throwing babies out of incubators"-style story?
DeleteThe UN is supposedly doing that now and looking at evidence from the Israelis.
DeleteNothing about wether the women were asking for it by the way they were dressed?
DeleteThat's what I call "progress".
In this circumstance that would mean a woman was out and about without a head covering.
DeleteWoman like long neck bottles and a big head on her beer.
DeleteSo, you're demanding to address NOW something that may or may not have happened? Considering the gravity of the accusations, how is this not hate-mongering, "hate speech"?
DeleteIt was a mistake to erect a Jewish state in Palestine.
DeleteAnonymouse 9:38am, I mean NOW as in now, not the National Organization for Women.
DeleteAnonymouse 10:24am, move on with your life, baby, it’s a done deal.
DeleteYes, I know you meant 'now'. But what's to talk about now, when all the accusations are nothing but standard war-time propaganda?
DeleteAnonymouse 10:45am, no, we know that women were raped by Hamas. We don’t know if all the reports are valid.
DeleteWe can talk about the fact that Hamas fighters raped women, rather than couching it by saying it is a deplorable fact of war and putting it into the contrived parameter of “both sides” do it.
According to new reports, Hamas filmed instances of it.
DeletePlease, Cecelia. You know better than believing "reports". Or you should know better anyhow.
DeleteWikipedia:
"The Nayirah testimony was false testimony given before the United States Congressional Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990, by a 15-year-old girl who was publicly identified at the time by her first name, Nayirah. In her testimony, Nayirah claimed that after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers take babies out of incubators in a Kuwaiti hospital, remove the incubators and leave the babies to die. The testimony was widely publicized and was cited numerous times by U.S. senators and President George H. W. Bush in their rationale to support Kuwait in the Gulf War. "
The one thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.
Anonymouse 11:51am, I don’t disregard news reports simply because they’re news reports. We don’t have to have a UN investigation to know that women were raped during the attack on Israel. There are videos, 1st person (plural) accounts, and witnesses.
DeleteYour outlook makes Jayapal’s remarks even more specious.
DeleteYou don’t disregard news reports simply because they’re news reports.
What you should disregard, treat as propaganda, is the tales of evil deeds of official enemies: China, Russia, Iran, N.Korea, Venezuela, Palestinian resistance. That's just common sense.
Enough of this; you can have the last word now.
Anonymouse -2:19pm, oh, no. You said it all.
DeleteIt's an interesting observation and I've made it myself more as of late. People in online discussions about for example movies or video games constantly make the mistake of conflating a mass consensus of subjective opinion with objective reality.
ReplyDeleteIt's an easy slope to slide down. I get it. But why can't we as a species make the realization together that even if 99/100 people feel the same way about something, it doesn't invalidate that one other opinion.
Subjective opinion can not "transform" into objective truth even when there is a very large consensus. But when people couch what they say with "In my opinion..." or "I feel that..." maybe some take that as a sign of weakness and not fully committing? People simply enjoy saying "this thing is objectively bad." (or good.) So it goes...
It can be hard to discern objective reality.
Delete"even if 99/100 people feel the same way about something, it doesn't invalidate that one other opinion"
DeleteTrue, but it's even worse, because 99% of people hardly ever feel the same way about something. It's usually 99% of people inside your bubble. Or inside your silo, using Bob's lingo.
This dispute has nothing to do with subjectivity.
DeleteI like phonics. I am Korbi.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I am Corby.
Deletehttps://jabberwocking.com/in-californias-worst-schools-phonics-works/
I play bridge, love Joe Biden, and hate Somerby. I am Corby.
ReplyDeleteI don’t play cards, I support Biden for re-election, and I laugh at Somerby. I am not Corby.
DeleteHow can Somerby talk about subjectivity or objectivity without defining either one? This is a farce.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's about over for Biden.
ReplyDeleteIt's all over, but the pouting (of Right-wingers).
DeleteIt's going to be a rough year for you.
Delete