Archive for the ‘culture’ Category

What if we applied the left’s Woke Rules to the NBA & NFL Rosters?

Posted: July 18, 2020 by datechguy in American Success Stories, baseball, culture, nba, nfl, nhl, Sports
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I could understand Cobb. Ty Cobb had what the black ballplayer had. The black ballplayer had to get out of the cotton field. He had to get out of the celery fields, and this was a vehicle to get him out. This was the same thing with Cobb. Cobb had to get out of Georgia. He had to fight his way out and this was why he had this great competitive spirit. And so what he’s saying against blacks was the same thing that I think every poor white man had against blacks. Because we were competition to him. 

Buck O’Neil

The left keeps insisting that we have to be hiring based on race in everything from police to orchestras so they “better reflect the communities they serve”.

What if we did this to the NBA & NFL or even MLB?

Think about that for a second.

The reason why breaking the color line in baseball was wrong wasn’t because a “black” men per se were being excluded from the game, it was because baseball players who were as good or better than the current players on the field were excluded that’s a big deal in baseball as Buck O’Neil the great Negro league player and manager put it:

For Jackie to play in the major leagues, that meant that one white boy wasn’t going to play. We had played against these fellas and they knew that we could play. And they knew if we were allowed to play, a lot of them wouldn’t play. See?

By an odd coincidence as the final teams in the league integrated and the white population of the league dropped to 82% in 1961 expansion in MLB took place with two teams added in 1961 and 1962 meaning there were 100 new major league jobs to the system and in 1968 when the white population of the league was down to 73% expansion happened again and another 4 teams (and 100 jobs) were created. (Note non-black “latinos” were not excluded from the majors but at 0.7% of the league the year Jackie Robinson debuted they constituted a nominal figure of about 4 players over a 16 team league)

Around this time Football began to overtake baseball in popularity and accordingly the best black athletes began migrating to that sport and as Basketball increased in popularity again black athletes moved in that direction in a big way.

in 2017 only 28% of the NFL was white and nearly 70% of the league is black (with Latinos and Asians at less than 2%)

In the NBA for 2017 the figures are similar with a slightly smaller white population (20%) a slightly larger Latino population about 5% and over 70% of the league consisting of black players.

Oddly I don’t hear anyone arguing that since the black population is about 12% that whites are unfairly underrepresented in the NBA or the NFL. We don’t see people insisting that that cause for this discrepancy is “systematic racism” Yet the same people who scream that because the number of black coaches is closer to the actual black population of this country as opposed to the percentage of blacks in the league don’t find it odd that those same coaches and the front offices seem to be signing black players way out of disproportion to white ones.

The simple fact is this. We have, thanks to the efforts of actual civil rights leaders (as opposed to the demagogues of today) reached a point where the primary question as to the signing of a defensive back or a wide receiver or a quarterback or a center in the NBA or a center fielder is the skill set of said player rather than their race (and occasionally the price see Cam Newton NE Patriots).

This is as it should be.

So when the racial demagogues start demanding quotas in all kinds of fields tell them you’ll consider it as soon as those same demographic quotas are applied to the high paying jobs in the NFL/NBA & MLB

Two closing thoughts:

As of 2016 the Demographics of MLB are 63.7% White, 27.4 % “Latino” 6.7% black (lowest since 1957) and 2.1% Asian. However I suspect this reflects black athletes gravitating more toward the NBA & NFL. I don’t know why black players are less interested in MLB as it’s a much better game and I would further submit and suggest that with guaranteed money, longer careers and less prospect of serious injury it’s a better choice and smarter choices for the best athletes out there. Plus you don’t have to play in the rain or freezing conditions but it’s not my call.

I haven’t included the NHL in these figures because while the NHL integrated in 1958 with Willie O’Ree joining the Boston Bruins (Ironically the Bruins integrated before the Red Sox) and while we’ve seen black superstars (HOF goalie Grant Fuhr who played from 1981-2000 comes instantly to mind) there just doesn’t seem to be the same interest in the game among the black athletes or the black community which more than anything else is the reason for the 90% white demographic of the league.

DaTechGuy off DaRadio No Frills Livestream Podcast. Silent No More Edition 3 PM EST

Posted: July 17, 2020 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, crime, culture, elections, News/opinion, politics, primaries, Vive L'Empereur
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I may be under quarantine (again) and my Laptop screen might be toast but the Camera is working fine so DaTechGuy Off DaRadio Podcast will be alive and well at 3 PM EST.

Well be talking

You can watch the livestream here:

Hope you enjoy it.

FYI: Both DaWife and I are under quarantine pending the results of her COVID test and this means we’re missing days of work and our sick and vacation time is exhausted. If you’re in a position to hit DaTipJar and have demurred before now is the time when it would help most.

Jeff Sessions A Good Man Whose time has Unfortunately Passed

Posted: July 15, 2020 by datechguy in culture, elections, News/opinion, politics, primaries
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Lt. Columbo: Mrs. Williams, you have no conscience and that’s your weakness. Did it ever occur to you that there are very few people who would take money to forget about a murder? It didn’t did it? I knew it wouldn’t. No conscience, limits your imagination. You can’t conceive of anybody being any different than what you are, and you’re greedy, and that’s why, as bright as you are, and you’re bright, you believed that Margaret could be bought.

Columbo: Ransom for a Dead man 1971

Last night Jeff Sessions was defeated in a primary runoff in an attempt to reclaim the Senate Seat he abandoned to become the Attorney General of the US.

If Sessions had won I would have had no problem supporting him and despite the animosity between him and the president I have absolutely no doubt he would put that aside to support his programs and his judges for the sake of his state of Alabama and the country as a whole.

Sessions opponent in the runoff Tommy Tuberville who had the president’s support. Sessions lost that support due to his action of recusing himself during the start of the Russia investigation. Unbeknownst to him this would lead to an incredible witch hunt that took up a lot of time and resources of this administration thanks to the tireless efforts of his deputy who was frankly working against the administration from the start. This mistake, while honest, was disastrous for the administration and the country.

Being an honorable man, raised honorably, doing honorable service as a judge and in government he presumed that he he recused himself as his honor demanded that his deputy would act in the same good faith that he did. He could not conceive that a lifelong public servant who had been in government for decades would do otherwise in an attempt to undermine the administration. Nor could he conceive that the FBI and the Obama administration might actually act in the way so destructive to the American Republic for the sake of political advantage.

Sessions is a good man and an honorable man and if we were dealing with the Democrat party of even 10 years ago he might have been a useful member of the Trump Administration. However because he didn’t recognize reality as it was he was able to be taken advantage of.

Given the new realities I suspect his defeat is not a bad thing, but I long for the days when the Democrats and the deep state once again are sane and honorable enough to be trusted thus allowing a Jeff Sessions to be able to function as per his wont. Just as I long for the days when the left respected free speech, loved America and was not controlled by a Marxist mob.

However I suspect that these days will not be coming back anytime soon.

In Lady A music battle big crushes little when white privilege meets wokeness

Posted: July 12, 2020 by John Ruberry in culture, media, News/opinion, politics, Uncomfortable Truths
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By John Ruberry

Up until a few weeks ago the country trio Lady Antebellum barely registered on my radar. While I do enjoy country music my interest is mostly focused on the Americana genre. As for the country music you hear on most FM radio stations, most of it is formulaic garbage, mediocre pop tunes delivered with a drawl. And that is the type of drivel Lady Antebellum delivers. And it’s not just me who feels that way. In 2010–that year will come back soon in this story–a sub-headline on Slate named Lady Antebellum “the world’s dullest band.”

But their name caught my attention. Even before wokeness became a political movement I thought “Lady Antebellum” was an odd choice of a moniker, as it refers to what some Lost Cause of the Confederacy propagandists viewed as the good old days of the pre-Civil War South. On those infrequent occasions when word came up, until very recently, it referred to plantation manor homes, which of course were staffed by slaves and were financed by agricultural goods produced by slaves. Those good old says weren’t good at all.

According to the band they decided on Lady Antebellum after a photo shoot at one of those mansions.

But after the killing of George Floyd and the protests, some of them of violent, Lady Antebellum announced they were now Lady A.

But as you probably heard there is already a Lady A, Seattle blues artist Anita White, who has been using the name for decades. But she isn’t a superstar or even a star. When White spoke up–that should have been the coda of the new name for the artists-formerly-known-as-Lady Antebellum. Their wokeness compelled the name change. They are white and Anita White is black. Their wokeness should have compelled them to brainstorm for yet another name. Now the former Lady Antebellum is suing White to prevent her performing as Lady A.

There was briefly an informal co-existence agreement between the two Lady As after the group’s name change. But that’s not working out. If you type “Lady A” into the search box on iTunes and Spotify, it’s the new Lady A who appears, not the blue singer. The same result comes at at YouTube.

White now wants $10 million from the Lady A trio–with half going to Black Lives Matter and some charities. The ex-Lady Antebellum calls that demand “exorbitant.” The band has possessed the trademark for “Lady A” since 2010. While I’m not going to pretend, as a non-lawyer, to completely understand the legal side of this dispute, the law appears to favor the band.

Even if the law didn’t, the band has significant financial resources that White doesn’t. For her part, she told Entertainment Weekly that she offered a compromise, “I had suggested on the Zoom call [between the band and her] that they go by the Band Lady A, or Lady A the Band, and I could be Lady A the Artist, but they didn’t want to do that.”

There are a number of lessons in this story that exemplify why our society is so messed up.

There has not been heavy coverage of this suit outside of the entertainment media and Seattle news sources despite the race angle. Conservative websites have been reporting on this story. Now imagine if Lady A the Band were conservative Republicans. This battle would be the lead story on CNN and MSNBC. There would be a constant drumbeat of stories from them–and of course the New York Times and the rest of the legacy media, which of course takes its cue from the Times.

Lady A the Artist told Rolling Stone, “They claim to be allies and that they wanted to change their name out of the racist connotation, and then they sue a black woman for the new name.”

So here is more proof for you that the mainstream media is not interested so much in reporting the news but instead advancing their narrative that America is systemically racist–and conservative Republicans even more so.

Let’s talk common sense. Just because something is legal that doesn’t make it moral. Charles Dickens’ character Mr. Bumble phrased it best in Oliver Twist, “If the law supposes that, the law is a ass–a idiot.” Well maybe that’s an overreach, but there are three idiots in Band Lady A.

I support Peter Sagal’s idea. He hosts NPR’s quiz show Wait…Wait…Don’t Tell Me! “There is a simple solution to this problem, though,” he said. “Lady A the Band should just go by Lady A-Hole.”

That works for me.

I just typed “Lady A-Hole” into the iTunes search box. Nothing relevant comes up.

Go for it.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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