I think there are a lot of similarities between the Jewish-American and Asian-American experience. Right down to the industries newer immigrants choose to get involved in like dry cleaning and deli-owning.
"As for circumcision debate, at least in Europe it’s as much an anti-Islamic cudgel as it is an anti-semitic one."
I do not deny this at all. It strikes me as ironic and troubling that Germany is the biggest proponent of this it seems. But as has been said "Germany will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz."
Many pro-Palestinians are not anti-Semitic but they do not speak up against Arab anti-Semitism or pro-Palestinian non-Arabs who really hate Jews. Plus the passion people feel on the subject is a sure-bet for unhinged IDs to fly and that usually leads to anti-Semitic language in effect if not intent.
The same with circumcision.
There are only 14 million Jews in the world. I think many people tend to forget we are a minority because of our relative level of socio-economic success for the most part. However, we do not necessarily feel like we are white or part of the majority. Many of us feel like people can have it both ways with us: When it is convenient for Jews to be part of the white majority, we are. When it is convenient for us to be sign as not-white, we are not-white. The only non-Jew who ever agreed with me on this was an African-American woman. I have tried in vein to explain racial anti-Semitism to many atheists/agnostics. It always is an exercise in vein.
Andrew Sullivan comes close with his smears against the Greater Israel Lobby.
There are two issues that are very hot topics on which people use very careless language that boarders into anti-Semitic prejudice. They are Israel and circumcision.
Terms like Greater Israel lobby and others come precariously close to hold accusations of Jews being a cabal that controlled the world banks and politicians through behind-the-scenes chicanery. Couple this with the constant chime of anti-Zionist does not equal anti-Semitic and I am suspicious. Especially combined with awkward facts like where should the Jews have gone post-WWII and now and also the fact that many of these people can grasp the difference between racist/sounding racist for other minorities.
For circumcision, if this is not anti-Semitic I don't know what is:
This provocation destroyed the group luckily. In Europe, it seems to be going the other way. Circumcision is highly important for Jewish identity and I am proud of my Jewish body and wish it non-Aryanized.
"Two, and this might seem a bit eleven-dimensional chess-ish, Obama wants the GOP to turn on one of their own. Hagel’s got skin thicker and tougher than rhinoceros hide and he will give as good as he gets. Those old pansy Neocons won’t know what hit them."
Sure. I guess this is possible. I think Obama does play a longer-game than many people realize.
That WAS Greenwald but Greenwald is probably much more of a hater of Israel than Hagel. Greenwald strikes me as a self-hating Jew. Though I do agree with him on Zero Dark Thirty.
?As for the anti-semitism thing. It’s entirely possible to have a nuanced view of Anti-Semitism. But saying that is kind of funny given that it’s basically the slander of choice by AIPAC and the Likudniks.;"
Wouldn't Fox News and Talk Radio say the same thing about Black-Americans?
I don't have any strong feelings on Hagel and how he will handle the job.
However, I am tired of Secretary of Defense being the position that Democratic Presidents hand over to Republicans. I think that it sends a bad message to the American public, plays into right-wing hands that Democratic politicians are weak on defense. Plus I think that the "aggressively gay" comments are not ones that should be easily forgiven.
On whether he is pro or anti-Israel, I have no idea. But I do hear anti-Semitism in the defense's of Hagel sort of. Not that his critics are anti-Semitic but in the extremely unnuanced view they have of anti-Semitism. Like racism and homophobia, anti-Semitism does not need to be overt and a smoking gun. Yet there are people who realize this about racism and homophobia but not about anti-Semitic views.
The town seems to have a long history of police corruption. By long, I mean since the 1930s if not before. It seems like organizaed crime used to be big and also use the city as a hiding place:
There are two different types of wrongful convictions:
1. One where it is a false allegation and no crime occurred.
2. One where a crime did occur but the police and prosecutors go after the wrong person.
I think number 2 is much more common than number 1. Number 2 probably happens more than any society would want to admit. How many times has the Innocence Project been able to exonerate someone who lost decades of their life to death row or prison? Hundreds? Thousands? In one of the most infamous Supreme Court cases over the past few years, the Supreme Court granted immunity from tort to DAs for going after the wrong man in a capital murder case and then covering it up for years/decades. This is the case the cemented Justice Thomas as a cruel and bitter man to many liberals.
The Central Park Jogger case is an example of it happening with rape.
There are examples of number 1 including for rape but it is hard to come by statistics on how many people are accused of crimes that never happened. Kohole points to one story. The Duke Lacrosse team is another example.
The Duke Lacrosse team is a rare example of a prosecutor getting disbarred for prosecutorial misconduct. And the Duke DA probably only got disbarred because he went after wealthy white college students. If it was the basketball team, I doubt we would have been disbarred. Here is another example of a prosecutor getting in trouble. This time there might have been no crime:
I urge anyone who wants justice and compassion for the victims of crime especially rape and other violent crimes that wrongful convictions are bad in both cases but especially false accusations are very bad. A False Accusation where no crime occurred spreads doubt and disbelief and makes people more prone to think that a victim is lying. Wrongful Convictions where a crime occurs but the wrong person is punished are bad because even if a person is exonerrated, the victim must go through the pain of another criminal trial and the wrongful defendant lost years if not decades of their life. Can you imagine losing 30 years of your life to prison for a crime you did not commit? There was an article in the Texas Monthly this year about a man who was just exonerated in the murder of his wife. His son grew up thinking that he murdered his mom. How horrible is that? Pretty damn bad.
"Injustice anywhere, threatens justice everywhere." This is more true in criminal law than anywhere else. Of course the question of what is justice is unsolvable and open to constant debate. But it should be a no brainer than a wrongful conviction/false accusation can do irrepairable damage to justice.
Again, I am not saying that the defendants in this case are innocent. The biggest problem lies not with the victims but largely with the fact that prosecutors are elected and every incentive they have is on getting a conviction. Not convicting the right person. In my ideal world, DAs would not be elected. I would like other incentives to prevent just going for max number of convictions.
"Everything I read about this case looks really bad for the defendants. And I am kind of predisposed to mistrust jocks (why, yes, I *was* shoved into a locker – why do you ask?). In my experience, they often were a toxic combo of arrogant entitlement, ego and testosterone-fueled aggression."
This is really happens? I was far from popular in high school but was never really beat up either. I always thought the shove-in-the locker thing was something that movies came up with.
"But the Duke lacrosse thing looked really bad for the defendants too – until it didn’t. So I am cautious."
This is true for most wrongful convictions.
Criminal Justice is tricky. Very tricky in maintaining a proper balance between the rights of the accused without damning while still being kind and compassionate to the victim.
By pro, I am sympathetic to the rights of criminal defendants and think that they are important. Not that I would always find for them as judge or jury.
I also believe that the primary purpose of the criminal justice system should be reformation and that a conviction should not be a damnation to the shadows and underbelly for life.
There are stories of wrongful accusations in all crimes and no doubt that wrongful convictions and false accusations hurt everyone severely. They hurt the wrongfully convicted and falsely convicted, they hurt the victims of crimes because it spreads doubt and distrust and makes it harder for them to get justice.
However that does not mean that all accusations are false. At the very best, the videos and other stuff unearthed by Anonymous show a bunch of callous young men. At very worse, it shows a very bad coverup and commission of a crime.
And I am generally pretty pro-Criminal Defendant and Criminal Defense lawyer (though I don't want it to be my practice in law).
I hope that the Washington and Colorado votes show the voters want a sea-change in the War on Drugs. At least for marijuana.
There are probably still top ranking Democrats and Republicans who smoke marijuana and maybe even do other drugs. The problem is that they do it from the safety of their detached and private suburban homes. Hence, the drug war does not affect them in a bad way. This was the sad and tragic status quo for a long time. Many whites did not really push hard for ending the drug war because the prohibitions did not really hurt them too badly or at all. However, Colorado and Washington give me hope that this is changing.
However those are still too fairly homogeneous and not very diverse states. Though Colorado does have a growing Latino population. A real sea change would be in a very diverse state where the drug laws are really enforced in a racially disparate way.
I agree. In this case, the evidence that Anonymous came up with his very damning and there certainly does seem to be a coverup and preferential treatment (hence my other posts here).
You are right on the second point. I heard that the county prosecutor recused herself for various reasons or was forced to recuse herself because of connections to the time. I did not hear anything about a cover up.
Most libertarians are white. Hence they don't feel the pain of the drug war as much as non-whites. So they can smoke their pot with the same impunity as upper-middle class suburbanites and focus on the economics.
That being said, I am not sure that college athletes should be paid. Honestly many or possibly even most of them do not have the grades for college admittance in the first place. I've read some articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education about a community college in nowhere Oklahoma that has basically become a grade academy for college athletes. The classes sounded like jokes.
You also count ban the broadcast of college sports because that would violate the First Amendment. I wonder if you could make them illegal though. Probably not because of the Iron rule of prohibition.
My personal ideal would be no-Division I level mania for sports and the professional sports teams forced to have farm leagues/minors for the development of professional athletes. Someone else suggested letting them just major in "sports", he came up with a course to make it sound more academic but the problem with his program is that it was too academic. The athletes would probably fail some of the more academic courses that were part of the program to make it look academic and just like a surrender.
The problem is that we like the narrative of college players who go onto the majors for some reason more than we like the idea of sending an 18 year old kid straight to the pros or to the farm leagues for a while. It has been a story for decades if not over a century.
Out of curiosity, what are college sports like in Japan? I know high school baseball is very big. I know Europeans look at university sports in America and think we are bonkers. But it strikes me that Japanese universities might have a similar status for their college athletes. Is there a popular narrative for someone to play for Waseda or Tokyo and then go to the majors in Japan? Complete with draft pick, etc. Do you have any other big college sports besides baseball?
Perhaps just start out with that it will only focus on social issues like prisons and the war on drugs, gay marriage, and possibly military spending.
And then when it comes to economics, the welfare state, taxes, and public goods (roads, schools, libraries, scientific research, etc): liberals and libertarians don't try to convince each other and don't get butt hurt about diverging votes.
Old Age Pensions, Unemployment Insurance*, and stuff that helps the physically and mentally disabled get around and have access to the city/where they live.
*Yes plenty of people get fired for their own incompetence but I think it is more common for someone to lose their job because of redundancies, lay-offs, restructuring, or even events really distant from themselves. The recent financial crisis is a good example of this. From 2005-2007, the economy seemed to be doing artificially well because of the Housing Boom and various things done in the financial markets. It was not only Wall Street types who were doing well. This is when there was a buzz about new lawyers making 6 figure salaries and lots of people were going to law school. The financial crash in 2007-2008 led to a lot of people losing their jobs including people not at all connected to the financial and construction industries.
One wonders what it would be like if there was not money to be made through professional sports* and it was strictly an amateur thing. No Division I, No Pro Teams, No ESPN, merchandisizing, deals, etc.
*There have been professional sports for most of human history probably. The Gladiators were professional sportsmen in a rather dark way and obviously not for their own profit. You can also probably find examples from the Middle Ages and Renaissance (though Bear Baiting and Cockfighting probably do not count). There were certainly professional boxers during the 1700s (when it was a bare-knuckle and bloody sport). Though modern professional sports as we know them as probably around 150 years old.
So banning pro-sports and making big money off sports is not going to happen. Prohibition never works. But you are right that all the Powers that Be have too much incentive not to support the victim and something needs to be done about that.
This is possibly and/or probably not the place to bring up these things but they always come up with stories like this especially when people defend the defendants/alleged defendants.
1. An accusation/indictment is not a conviction. In the Ohio case, the evidence out already is damning but I wish people could remember more often than an accusation/indictment is not a conviction or proof of guilt. There are plenty of false convictions in the world.
2. People always show shock when friends and family members defend people accused of horrible crimes in the media. But isn't this what we would want our families to do if we were accused of crimes? Do people really want their friends and families to drop them like a hot potato just because they were accused of a shocking or notorious crime?
None of these questions are to imply that the men in these cases are innocent but they are philosophical and important questions none-the-less connected to these situations. I also firmly believe that the friends and family can support the defendants without destroying the reputation of the victim.
I don't really understand the Friday Night Lights and Division I atmosphere that seems to always allow these things to happen.
This is not to say that other places do not have problems with rape. Amherst College had a rape scandal this year. However, I am always struck by the Friday Night Lights atmosphere.
In the Ohio case, the football team seemed to be the only thing that the town had going for it. It was a dying industrial town with huge problems of poverty and drug abuse according to the Times story. However, it somehow scrapped together the money to build a football stadium that can hold 10,000 people. What kind of high school needs that kind of football stadium? This is not a rhetorical statement. The NY Times article also mentioned that many of the games had tailgating parties that start at 9 AM when the games start at 7:30 PM. I think I also read that the high school has 19 football coaches (the article did not say whether they were full-time or parttime or had other responsibilities in the school district.)
Pardon me but this is rather insane. I can understand that a small town especially one with a dying or dead economy can want something to cling onto. An event that the entire town can rally behind to provide a sense of community, hope, and something to cheer for. But it strikes me by spending so many resources on so many people seems wrong-headed still. Surely the resources would be better spent on both vocational and career track education. Most of their players will probably not go pro or even college.
I think it is making these boys and young men into Titans on campus that helps encourage the culture and violence.
I should add that I don't come from this culture. I grew up in a well to-do suburb and attended a high school with good academics and sucky sports teams. We had football, basketball, and baseball teams but it was not a big deal to attend the games. I only went to football games because I was in band and needed to play. My college was Division III and had no sports teams.
This is a sincere question but can anyone justify the Friday Night Lights atmosphere of towns like Ohio or at Division I schools like Notre Dame? Especially for the high schools. Is there any argument to be made that this is not a misuse of educational resources and the culture is good?
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Nominations Towards Normalcy”
I am in concurrence with you on Andrew Sullivan. And I do like Sullivan even when I disagree with him. He is not anti-Semitic nor is he anti-Israeli.
"
I think there are a lot of similarities between the Jewish-American and Asian-American experience. Right down to the industries newer immigrants choose to get involved in like dry cleaning and deli-owning.
"
"As for circumcision debate, at least in Europe it’s as much an anti-Islamic cudgel as it is an anti-semitic one."
I do not deny this at all. It strikes me as ironic and troubling that Germany is the biggest proponent of this it seems. But as has been said "Germany will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz."
"
I think there is a lot of defensiveness.
Many pro-Palestinians are not anti-Semitic but they do not speak up against Arab anti-Semitism or pro-Palestinian non-Arabs who really hate Jews. Plus the passion people feel on the subject is a sure-bet for unhinged IDs to fly and that usually leads to anti-Semitic language in effect if not intent.
The same with circumcision.
There are only 14 million Jews in the world. I think many people tend to forget we are a minority because of our relative level of socio-economic success for the most part. However, we do not necessarily feel like we are white or part of the majority. Many of us feel like people can have it both ways with us: When it is convenient for Jews to be part of the white majority, we are. When it is convenient for us to be sign as not-white, we are not-white. The only non-Jew who ever agreed with me on this was an African-American woman. I have tried in vein to explain racial anti-Semitism to many atheists/agnostics. It always is an exercise in vein.
"
Andrew Sullivan comes close with his smears against the Greater Israel Lobby.
There are two issues that are very hot topics on which people use very careless language that boarders into anti-Semitic prejudice. They are Israel and circumcision.
Terms like Greater Israel lobby and others come precariously close to hold accusations of Jews being a cabal that controlled the world banks and politicians through behind-the-scenes chicanery. Couple this with the constant chime of anti-Zionist does not equal anti-Semitic and I am suspicious. Especially combined with awkward facts like where should the Jews have gone post-WWII and now and also the fact that many of these people can grasp the difference between racist/sounding racist for other minorities.
For circumcision, if this is not anti-Semitic I don't know what is:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/18/anticircumcision-comic-he_n_879739.html
This provocation destroyed the group luckily. In Europe, it seems to be going the other way. Circumcision is highly important for Jewish identity and I am proud of my Jewish body and wish it non-Aryanized.
"
"Two, and this might seem a bit eleven-dimensional chess-ish, Obama wants the GOP to turn on one of their own. Hagel’s got skin thicker and tougher than rhinoceros hide and he will give as good as he gets. Those old pansy Neocons won’t know what hit them."
Sure. I guess this is possible. I think Obama does play a longer-game than many people realize.
"
I don't necessarily want someone from that establishment. There has to be a Democratic candidate with Hagel's positions or even further to the left.
"
That WAS Greenwald but Greenwald is probably much more of a hater of Israel than Hagel. Greenwald strikes me as a self-hating Jew. Though I do agree with him on Zero Dark Thirty.
?As for the anti-semitism thing. It’s entirely possible to have a nuanced view of Anti-Semitism. But saying that is kind of funny given that it’s basically the slander of choice by AIPAC and the Likudniks.;"
Wouldn't Fox News and Talk Radio say the same thing about Black-Americans?
"
I don't have any strong feelings on Hagel and how he will handle the job.
However, I am tired of Secretary of Defense being the position that Democratic Presidents hand over to Republicans. I think that it sends a bad message to the American public, plays into right-wing hands that Democratic politicians are weak on defense. Plus I think that the "aggressively gay" comments are not ones that should be easily forgiven.
On whether he is pro or anti-Israel, I have no idea. But I do hear anti-Semitism in the defense's of Hagel sort of. Not that his critics are anti-Semitic but in the extremely unnuanced view they have of anti-Semitism. Like racism and homophobia, anti-Semitism does not need to be overt and a smoking gun. Yet there are people who realize this about racism and homophobia but not about anti-Semitic views.
On “Briefly, On Football’s Culture and Rape”
The town seems to have a long history of police corruption. By long, I mean since the 1930s if not before. It seems like organizaed crime used to be big and also use the city as a hiding place:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/01/steubenvilles-long-history-police-corruption/4333/
"
There are two different types of wrongful convictions:
1. One where it is a false allegation and no crime occurred.
2. One where a crime did occur but the police and prosecutors go after the wrong person.
I think number 2 is much more common than number 1. Number 2 probably happens more than any society would want to admit. How many times has the Innocence Project been able to exonerate someone who lost decades of their life to death row or prison? Hundreds? Thousands? In one of the most infamous Supreme Court cases over the past few years, the Supreme Court granted immunity from tort to DAs for going after the wrong man in a capital murder case and then covering it up for years/decades. This is the case the cemented Justice Thomas as a cruel and bitter man to many liberals.
http://www.yalelawjournal.org/the-yale-law-journal-pocket-part/supreme-court/the-myth-of-prosecutorial-accountability-after-connick-v.-thompson:-why-existing-professional-responsibility-measures-cannot-protect-against-prosecutorial-misconduct/
The Central Park Jogger case is an example of it happening with rape.
There are examples of number 1 including for rape but it is hard to come by statistics on how many people are accused of crimes that never happened. Kohole points to one story. The Duke Lacrosse team is another example.
The Duke Lacrosse team is a rare example of a prosecutor getting disbarred for prosecutorial misconduct. And the Duke DA probably only got disbarred because he went after wealthy white college students. If it was the basketball team, I doubt we would have been disbarred. Here is another example of a prosecutor getting in trouble. This time there might have been no crime:
http://www.veritasinitiative.org/news/california-state-bar-charges-santa-clara-prosecutor-with-misconduct-disbarment-possible/
I urge anyone who wants justice and compassion for the victims of crime especially rape and other violent crimes that wrongful convictions are bad in both cases but especially false accusations are very bad. A False Accusation where no crime occurred spreads doubt and disbelief and makes people more prone to think that a victim is lying. Wrongful Convictions where a crime occurs but the wrong person is punished are bad because even if a person is exonerrated, the victim must go through the pain of another criminal trial and the wrongful defendant lost years if not decades of their life. Can you imagine losing 30 years of your life to prison for a crime you did not commit? There was an article in the Texas Monthly this year about a man who was just exonerated in the murder of his wife. His son grew up thinking that he murdered his mom. How horrible is that? Pretty damn bad.
"Injustice anywhere, threatens justice everywhere." This is more true in criminal law than anywhere else. Of course the question of what is justice is unsolvable and open to constant debate. But it should be a no brainer than a wrongful conviction/false accusation can do irrepairable damage to justice.
Again, I am not saying that the defendants in this case are innocent. The biggest problem lies not with the victims but largely with the fact that prosecutors are elected and every incentive they have is on getting a conviction. Not convicting the right person. In my ideal world, DAs would not be elected. I would like other incentives to prevent just going for max number of convictions.
"
"Everything I read about this case looks really bad for the defendants. And I am kind of predisposed to mistrust jocks (why, yes, I *was* shoved into a locker – why do you ask?). In my experience, they often were a toxic combo of arrogant entitlement, ego and testosterone-fueled aggression."
This is really happens? I was far from popular in high school but was never really beat up either. I always thought the shove-in-the locker thing was something that movies came up with.
"But the Duke lacrosse thing looked really bad for the defendants too – until it didn’t. So I am cautious."
This is true for most wrongful convictions.
Criminal Justice is tricky. Very tricky in maintaining a proper balance between the rights of the accused without damning while still being kind and compassionate to the victim.
"
By pro, I am sympathetic to the rights of criminal defendants and think that they are important. Not that I would always find for them as judge or jury.
I also believe that the primary purpose of the criminal justice system should be reformation and that a conviction should not be a damnation to the shadows and underbelly for life.
"
There are stories of wrongful accusations in all crimes and no doubt that wrongful convictions and false accusations hurt everyone severely. They hurt the wrongfully convicted and falsely convicted, they hurt the victims of crimes because it spreads doubt and distrust and makes it harder for them to get justice.
However that does not mean that all accusations are false. At the very best, the videos and other stuff unearthed by Anonymous show a bunch of callous young men. At very worse, it shows a very bad coverup and commission of a crime.
And I am generally pretty pro-Criminal Defendant and Criminal Defense lawyer (though I don't want it to be my practice in law).
On “A cultural problem…”
Does your wife know about this post?
Would you like her to see you schtuping around here?
On “A Dialog on Liberty and Equality Wanders into the Guns In America Symposium”
I hope that the Washington and Colorado votes show the voters want a sea-change in the War on Drugs. At least for marijuana.
There are probably still top ranking Democrats and Republicans who smoke marijuana and maybe even do other drugs. The problem is that they do it from the safety of their detached and private suburban homes. Hence, the drug war does not affect them in a bad way. This was the sad and tragic status quo for a long time. Many whites did not really push hard for ending the drug war because the prohibitions did not really hurt them too badly or at all. However, Colorado and Washington give me hope that this is changing.
However those are still too fairly homogeneous and not very diverse states. Though Colorado does have a growing Latino population. A real sea change would be in a very diverse state where the drug laws are really enforced in a racially disparate way.
On “Briefly, On Football’s Culture and Rape”
I agree. In this case, the evidence that Anonymous came up with his very damning and there certainly does seem to be a coverup and preferential treatment (hence my other posts here).
You are right on the second point. I heard that the county prosecutor recused herself for various reasons or was forced to recuse herself because of connections to the time. I did not hear anything about a cover up.
On “A Dialog on Liberty and Equality Wanders into the Guns In America Symposium”
I do not disagree with your analysis.
Most libertarians are white. Hence they don't feel the pain of the drug war as much as non-whites. So they can smoke their pot with the same impunity as upper-middle class suburbanites and focus on the economics.
On “Briefly, On Football’s Culture and Rape”
Agreed.
That being said, I am not sure that college athletes should be paid. Honestly many or possibly even most of them do not have the grades for college admittance in the first place. I've read some articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education about a community college in nowhere Oklahoma that has basically become a grade academy for college athletes. The classes sounded like jokes.
You also count ban the broadcast of college sports because that would violate the First Amendment. I wonder if you could make them illegal though. Probably not because of the Iron rule of prohibition.
My personal ideal would be no-Division I level mania for sports and the professional sports teams forced to have farm leagues/minors for the development of professional athletes. Someone else suggested letting them just major in "sports", he came up with a course to make it sound more academic but the problem with his program is that it was too academic. The athletes would probably fail some of the more academic courses that were part of the program to make it look academic and just like a surrender.
The problem is that we like the narrative of college players who go onto the majors for some reason more than we like the idea of sending an 18 year old kid straight to the pros or to the farm leagues for a while. It has been a story for decades if not over a century.
Out of curiosity, what are college sports like in Japan? I know high school baseball is very big. I know Europeans look at university sports in America and think we are bonkers. But it strikes me that Japanese universities might have a similar status for their college athletes. Is there a popular narrative for someone to play for Waseda or Tokyo and then go to the majors in Japan? Complete with draft pick, etc. Do you have any other big college sports besides baseball?
On “A Dialog on Liberty and Equality Wanders into the Guns In America Symposium”
Well said.
"
Perhaps just start out with that it will only focus on social issues like prisons and the war on drugs, gay marriage, and possibly military spending.
And then when it comes to economics, the welfare state, taxes, and public goods (roads, schools, libraries, scientific research, etc): liberals and libertarians don't try to convince each other and don't get butt hurt about diverging votes.
"
"Did I miss anything?"
Old Age Pensions, Unemployment Insurance*, and stuff that helps the physically and mentally disabled get around and have access to the city/where they live.
*Yes plenty of people get fired for their own incompetence but I think it is more common for someone to lose their job because of redundancies, lay-offs, restructuring, or even events really distant from themselves. The recent financial crisis is a good example of this. From 2005-2007, the economy seemed to be doing artificially well because of the Housing Boom and various things done in the financial markets. It was not only Wall Street types who were doing well. This is when there was a buzz about new lawyers making 6 figure salaries and lots of people were going to law school. The financial crash in 2007-2008 led to a lot of people losing their jobs including people not at all connected to the financial and construction industries.
On “Briefly, On Football’s Culture and Rape”
One wonders what it would be like if there was not money to be made through professional sports* and it was strictly an amateur thing. No Division I, No Pro Teams, No ESPN, merchandisizing, deals, etc.
*There have been professional sports for most of human history probably. The Gladiators were professional sportsmen in a rather dark way and obviously not for their own profit. You can also probably find examples from the Middle Ages and Renaissance (though Bear Baiting and Cockfighting probably do not count). There were certainly professional boxers during the 1700s (when it was a bare-knuckle and bloody sport). Though modern professional sports as we know them as probably around 150 years old.
So banning pro-sports and making big money off sports is not going to happen. Prohibition never works. But you are right that all the Powers that Be have too much incentive not to support the victim and something needs to be done about that.
"
This is possibly and/or probably not the place to bring up these things but they always come up with stories like this especially when people defend the defendants/alleged defendants.
1. An accusation/indictment is not a conviction. In the Ohio case, the evidence out already is damning but I wish people could remember more often than an accusation/indictment is not a conviction or proof of guilt. There are plenty of false convictions in the world.
2. People always show shock when friends and family members defend people accused of horrible crimes in the media. But isn't this what we would want our families to do if we were accused of crimes? Do people really want their friends and families to drop them like a hot potato just because they were accused of a shocking or notorious crime?
None of these questions are to imply that the men in these cases are innocent but they are philosophical and important questions none-the-less connected to these situations. I also firmly believe that the friends and family can support the defendants without destroying the reputation of the victim.
"
I don't really understand the Friday Night Lights and Division I atmosphere that seems to always allow these things to happen.
This is not to say that other places do not have problems with rape. Amherst College had a rape scandal this year. However, I am always struck by the Friday Night Lights atmosphere.
In the Ohio case, the football team seemed to be the only thing that the town had going for it. It was a dying industrial town with huge problems of poverty and drug abuse according to the Times story. However, it somehow scrapped together the money to build a football stadium that can hold 10,000 people. What kind of high school needs that kind of football stadium? This is not a rhetorical statement. The NY Times article also mentioned that many of the games had tailgating parties that start at 9 AM when the games start at 7:30 PM. I think I also read that the high school has 19 football coaches (the article did not say whether they were full-time or parttime or had other responsibilities in the school district.)
Pardon me but this is rather insane. I can understand that a small town especially one with a dying or dead economy can want something to cling onto. An event that the entire town can rally behind to provide a sense of community, hope, and something to cheer for. But it strikes me by spending so many resources on so many people seems wrong-headed still. Surely the resources would be better spent on both vocational and career track education. Most of their players will probably not go pro or even college.
I think it is making these boys and young men into Titans on campus that helps encourage the culture and violence.
I should add that I don't come from this culture. I grew up in a well to-do suburb and attended a high school with good academics and sucky sports teams. We had football, basketball, and baseball teams but it was not a big deal to attend the games. I only went to football games because I was in band and needed to play. My college was Division III and had no sports teams.
This is a sincere question but can anyone justify the Friday Night Lights atmosphere of towns like Ohio or at Division I schools like Notre Dame? Especially for the high schools. Is there any argument to be made that this is not a misuse of educational resources and the culture is good?
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