tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post408213450231163957..comments2024-03-29T02:22:59.827-04:00Comments on the daily howler: EYES OFF THE PRIZE: Where in the world was the so-called press?<b>bob somerby</b>http://www.blogger.com/profile/02963464534685954436noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-20124787335792510632014-05-02T10:18:23.078-04:002014-05-02T10:18:23.078-04:00OMB (Bungling in Good Faith With BOB)
Eyes on the...OMB (Bungling in Good Faith With BOB)<br /><br />Eyes on the Parts: Just for counting purposes, this is Part 6 of "obvious pseudo-discussion than the current pseudo-discussion, the enthralling pseudo-discussion about the weird, incoherent and pitiful things Donald Sterling apparently said."<br /><br />KZ<br /><br />FYI: 3 Game 7's Saturday! Maybe 3 Game 7's Sunday.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-74556235540751985502014-05-02T10:10:40.250-04:002014-05-02T10:10:40.250-04:00What do you usually do when someone throws a hissy...What do you usually do when someone throws a hissy fit? Ignore it until they calm down. How does this tar the NBA? They didn't say anyting. <br /><br />What is wrong with pointing out that even racists have a right to free speech, or saying that he doesn't speak for anyone but himself. <br /><br />Doesn't it bother anyone that a person can be harmed financially like this without any fair examination of what happened? Just public pressure?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-14859628197804880412014-05-02T09:44:38.063-04:002014-05-02T09:44:38.063-04:00A good point 5:02. It is telling as well that nob...A good point 5:02. It is telling as well that nobody here responded.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-31171018026435401152014-05-02T09:30:00.198-04:002014-05-02T09:30:00.198-04:00This wasn't and isn't a trial. What would...This wasn't and isn't a trial. What would you have done as Adam Silver, 5:00pm? Dismiss the tape because it doesn't follow the "rules of evidence"? Have players boycott playoff games? Have fans boycott? Have huge p.r. disaster that tars the NBA for many years as the league that defends racist scumbag billionaire owners?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-43132821818906547042014-05-02T09:04:57.736-04:002014-05-02T09:04:57.736-04:00"The point of defining poverty more restricti..."The point of defining poverty more restrictively..."<br /><br />I don't care about that, I'm just here to troll.<br /><br />[/truth telling]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-81879858462633870142014-05-02T05:04:06.559-04:002014-05-02T05:04:06.559-04:00So you can walk into the boss's office, shut t...So you can walk into the boss's office, shut the door, go into a racist rant, and the boss can't do anything about it. First Amendment, you know.<br /><br />Yep, that's exactly the kind of brilliant analysis we get from Internet constitutional experts.<br /><br />Freedom of speech means freedom from and and all consequences because of your speech. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!<br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-74096465316413362152014-05-01T21:29:25.544-04:002014-05-01T21:29:25.544-04:00Wrongful termination if the words had nothing to d...Wrongful termination if the words had nothing to do with the job -- or were said on private as Sterling's were.<br /><br />Who says the other owners are any different?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-86892348374526191512014-05-01T19:31:18.968-04:002014-05-01T19:31:18.968-04:00Yes. Poor Donald Sterling.
Sterling has every rig...Yes. Poor Donald Sterling.<br /><br />Sterling has every right to be a vile, contemptible asshole.<br /><br />The other NBA owners also have the right not to associate any longer with a vile, contemptible asshole -- for both very good personal and business reasons.<br /><br />Tell you what. Go into your boss's office and say the same sort of things Sterling said. Just say them. Don't act out on them.<br /><br />Then, after you get fired, run to the court with a lawsuit. See how far you get.<br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-1900047865744343632014-05-01T18:21:45.554-04:002014-05-01T18:21:45.554-04:00Again, you are not reading well. He says it is not...Again, you are not reading well. He says it is not an indicator of poverty -- poverty and low income are not the same things. You can't say these kids are poor because they constitute 50% of the student body. It is meaningless to conflate such kids with truly poor kids whose life circumstances, expectations, outcomes are so different that they may need very different kinds of interventions than the larger student population. You insist on a focus on defining more extreme poverty because the needs of those kids may be different and are NOT being addressed to the same extent as those of the larger group you insist on talking about.<br /><br />The point of defining poverty more restrictively is that the group defined may be qualitatively different, may need different teaching approaches, than the broader group defined when you use the school lunch criterion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-52441162025321884612014-05-01T18:16:37.328-04:002014-05-01T18:16:37.328-04:00But here is the problem again. Are we going to pun...But here is the problem again. Are we going to punish people for their thoughts and beliefs instead of actions? Until you define racism in terms of specific behaviors, how does anyone know what is and is not racist? There is a big confusion about that because we are supposed to celebrate diversity on the one hand but cannot talk about it on the other hand without being condemned as racist for noticing a difference. That means there is no way to stay out of trouble if someone wants to accuse.<br /><br />Then there is the matter of what it means to be a free society. Are we going to tell citizens that free speech and freedom of thought end when it comes to statements, beliefs and thoughts about race? Sterling's situation is a good example, since he thought he was talking to a trusted associate and not for public consumption and yet his private words became public and were the basis for punishment. So where exactly is the line in terms of freedom of speech and the right to hold opinions, even unpopular ones (as when the ACLU defended the American Nazis)?<br /><br />Are we now becoming the kind of society where groupthink enforces vaguely defined norms by punishing targets using social stigma, shunning, to the point that economic entities (such as employers) cannot tolerate any association with the accused person and they then are destroyed financially?<br /><br />I would rather tolerate Sterling than live in that kind of society.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-35466183964884886262014-05-01T17:27:00.408-04:002014-05-01T17:27:00.408-04:00"As Somerby has stated before, talking about ..."As Somerby has stated before, talking about the schools in general is not the same as concern for the often different needs of underclass students within our schools systems."<br /><br />Here's a newsflash for you. Somerby routinely dismisses the best evidence of low-income within a school -- the free and reduced lunch program. <br /><br />You can't say these kids are poor because some of them may be 1 to 30 percent above the poverty line.<br /><br />Which makes discussing the education of low-income children rather difficult, since Somerby doesn't seem to want to believe there are that many.<br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-24160715514889458872014-05-01T17:22:10.746-04:002014-05-01T17:22:10.746-04:00So what if the accuser isn''t Christian? D...So what if the accuser isn''t Christian? Does casting the first stone still "implies an absence of guilt on the pat of the accuser"?<br /><br />To me, the "payoff" is that finally, we've drawn a line concerning racism that won't be tolerated.<br /><br />Yeah, sad in some ways that it has to be so blatant as Bundy and Sterling. But at least we as a society do have a line somewhere.<br /><br />And that is progress.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-67800053754686010052014-05-01T17:08:37.338-04:002014-05-01T17:08:37.338-04:00How about before being forced into it by a public ...How about before being forced into it by a public clamoring for action, pulling endorsements, boycotting games?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-52628161622187162452014-05-01T17:06:19.162-04:002014-05-01T17:06:19.162-04:00WHO are YOU? You picked this fight by defending Jo...WHO are YOU? You picked this fight by defending Joan Walsh. She doesn't talk about the things Somerby mentioned in this article, so your defense is inappropriate. <br /><br />I'm not Somerby and I don't necessarily want to see the same focus as he does. I DO want to see his concerns discussed accurately instead of distorted in order to beat him with a stick he didn't raise.<br /><br />If you are concerned about an issue, you don't do a one-off. You repeat your concerns over and over. As Al Gore did when he made repeated public appearances promoting his film. As Somerby does here, as he raises his points over and over. People who don't care do one-offs. People who care engage in campaigns and don't stop until they make progress.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-19957622995454809962014-05-01T17:02:18.316-04:002014-05-01T17:02:18.316-04:00Who talks about a female human being as "an a...Who talks about a female human being as "an arm piece"?<br /><br />Why is there not as big a fuss when a public figure says sexist things about women? Why is this guy not being hounded off the air and fined? Why is there not as much outrage about the wrongs most women suffer in their lives as there is concern over racism?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-61044769686687534452014-05-01T17:00:42.776-04:002014-05-01T17:00:42.776-04:00He may have said that, but that doesn't make h...He may have said that, but that doesn't make him right. I think he answered that part poorly. In a trial, for example, illegally obtained evidence is inadmissable. Fruit of the tainted tree. A statement never intended for public consumption should not be treated the same as a public statement. A statement taken out of context, without verification should be treated even more cautiously.<br /><br />That passive sentence construction evades responsibility. Someone made that conversation public. THAT was a fact he apparently didn't think much about. What if it was leaked by someone hoping to purchase the franchise? What if they also paid the girlfriend to lead him into racist remarks? That makes Silver a co-conspirator colluding in perpetrating a fraud.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-83180559151656954912014-05-01T16:59:21.939-04:002014-05-01T16:59:21.939-04:00Who ARE you? No other blogger on the web has sycop...Who ARE you? No other blogger on the web has sycophants like you.<br /><br />When you are talking about urban public schools, for the most part you are talking about low income kids. What exactly is the journalistic slant you would like to see? How would you do it except as a one-off with minimal impact?urban legendnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-86429043596231940942014-05-01T16:55:19.517-04:002014-05-01T16:55:19.517-04:00When JC asked the first among us without sin to ca...When JC asked the first among us without sin to cast that first stone, he made it clear that accusing others implies an absence of guilt on the part of the accuser. That is where the self-congratulation and sense of smugness comes from. Anyone stating how bad Sterling is automatically becomes spotless themselves. As Somerby stated, that is the payoff for playing this game.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-6475568011939353752014-05-01T16:52:48.646-04:002014-05-01T16:52:48.646-04:00In the case of Sterling, none of the allegations r...In the case of Sterling, none of the allegations raised in the lawsuits were proven. The case brought by Baylor dropped the racial allegations and then was decided in favor of Sterling. The housing lawsuits contain allegations of what Sterling said but were settled without any admission of wrongdoing. That means they are not evidence of anything. He may be a racist landlord who doesn't fix things, but he has denied those charges and there isn't any finding against him. Characterizing him as a long time racist then is tenuous if that is the evidence. I don't know him. I only see what is being presented and the conclusions drawn from that. It seems like a rush to judgment on the basis of too little, to me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-2983059043207206362014-05-01T16:50:15.492-04:002014-05-01T16:50:15.492-04:00Adam Silver answered the "private conversatio...Adam Silver answered the "private conversation" part quite well when he said, "It became public."<br /><br />That was the set of facts he was confronted with. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-78574888655023024972014-05-01T16:47:44.048-04:002014-05-01T16:47:44.048-04:00As Somerby has stated before, talking about the sc...As Somerby has stated before, talking about the schools in general is not the same as concern for the often different needs of underclass students within our schools systems. Here today he asks about the students living with the 9% of families who do not have voter IDs. That is relevant given the number of poor students being raised by grandparents, for example. Addressing questions of education is not the same as addressing the persistent and difficult problems of students who are poor. That has been a recurring point here.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-44657912618910651592014-05-01T16:40:14.513-04:002014-05-01T16:40:14.513-04:00Yes. They should have banned him for life, fined h...Yes. They should have banned him for life, fined him $2.5 million and begun the process to take away his team before he said anything.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-4945270352411769002014-05-01T16:40:05.853-04:002014-05-01T16:40:05.853-04:00I have heard nobody congratulating themselves on t...I have heard nobody congratulating themselves on their virtue.urban legendnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-89538602779093075842014-05-01T16:37:52.163-04:002014-05-01T16:37:52.163-04:00A lawsuit involves accusations that are not resolv...A lawsuit involves accusations that are not resolved for many months. Carrying on about them while still unresolved would be deeply irresponsible. When a suit is settled, by definition, almost, the facts are unresolved for the public. urban legendnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-24473698001745455702014-05-01T16:34:11.102-04:002014-05-01T16:34:11.102-04:00If Joan Walsh doesn't care about the schools a...If Joan Walsh doesn't care about the schools and their students, you wouldn't know it from all the articles on the subject she lets into Salon. As Editor, she presumably could ask her writers to move onto a different subject.urban legendnoreply@blogger.com