I wrote three new Insider pieces this week: an updated top ten pro prospects ranking, a look at where thirteen 2015 first-rounders rank in their new orgs, and a scouting piece on Jesse Biddle, JP Crawford, and Aaron Judge.
I’ll be back at Lakewood tonight to see Yoan Moncada and Rafael Devers again, with a post going up tomorrow or Monday on those guys.
I haven’t had a chance to review it yet, but I’m enjoying the new Of Monsters & Men album Beneath The Skin
And now, this week’s links…
- A great longread on Azerbaijan hosting the “European Games,”, focusing on the authoritarian regime’s corrupt history and misguided attempts to ingratiate itself to Europe. I do wish the piece had discussed the ongoing conflict with Armenia (also guilty of its share of crimes) over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is a massive failure for those who position themselves as international peacemakers. Something like 200,000 people have lived in a rogue state or under the “wrong” national authorities for over a decade.
- How vaccine deniers are using social media to fight pro-vaccine legislation. The solution is simple: Make your pro-vaccine voice heard. Tell your state and federal legislators that you support mandatory vaccination for all schoolchildren who don’t have medical exemptions. End all philosophical and religious exemptions and you’ll see measles re-eradicated in the U.S. in no time.
- There’s a raw fish eaten in rural Thailand that gives people liver cancer. The cause is a parasite called a liver fluke that lays eggs in the human liver, yet educating residents has been a big challenge for health officials.
- Does killing jihadist leaders work? That’s the linchpin of our country’s current strategy against terrorism, and there’s a legitimate debate (with, I think, no clear answer) whether it’s effective enough.
- I didn’t agree with the majority of you in the recent case of the Maryland “free range” parents scolded for letting their kids walk home a moderate distance from a playground, but I am guessing we can all agree that the Florida case of parents losing their kids for a month for letting their 11-year-old son play in his own yard is a terrifying governmental overreach. The busybody who called the authorities here should face charges, not the parents.
- An op ed in the Guardian from a former prisoner discussing US prisons withholding menstrual supplies, often by pricing them above what indigent prisoners can afford. Sanitary supplies are a basic human right, not a luxury to be purchased by the well-to-do.
- The Guardian was one of several publications to profile the victims of the Charleston massacre, an important step given how much ink is dedicated to the perpetrators in these attacks. Jamil Smith’s essay in the New Republic on the particular violation of these murders happening in a church was the best piece I read all week on the subject. Meanwhile, it’s high time that South Carolina remove the Confederate flag from all government buildings.
It does seem there is some momentum to stop the philosophical exemption. Vermont was able to do it:
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/28/shumlin-vaccine-philosophical-exemption/28079499/
However, some parents may have already started jumping to the religious exemption.
I’m happy to say that, in Judaism, there is no such exemption that is halachically (that is, allowed by Jewish law) permissible. It is more important to make sure that children do not die from preventable diseases than to cling to the idea that faith alone will keep children healthy. God tends to help those that help themselves.
That liver fluke in NE Thailand sounds like schistosomiasis infection.
Keith, does your blog platform allow you choose an option where your hyperlinks open a new tab, and if so, have you considered doing that?
Every Monday I come here for your Saturday Five, but I often leave your site through hyperlink and then forget to come back.
It does, but I haven’t turned it on because I’ve always found that to be a nuisance when I encounter it. If readers want me to use that function, especially on these links post, I’ll gladly turn it on. The decision was based entirely on what I thought you all would want.
Cool. I obviously can’t speak for everyone, but at least for your Saturday Five posts, I would prefer to keep your tab open.
I will defer to the group if anyone else has an opinion. I usually end up checking back here every couple days anyway to see if you have anything new, and it’s usually then that I realize there’s a couple more links I hadn’t checked yet.
I’m with Brian – I usually shift/click to pop the link into a new window.
I third the idea. I like to click the links I’m interested in, have them pop open in a new tap, and can save for later.