My Insider pieces this week included a post on some Red Sox prospects, including Yoan Moncada; one on the Arizona/Atlanta trade involving Touki Toussaint; and a reaction to the release of the Futures Game rosters. I also held a Klawchat on Thursday.
My latest boardgame review for Paste covers the reissue of the modern classic Tigris & Euphrates, designer Reiner Knizia’s best game, now back in print with better graphics and clearer rules.
My good friend Molly Knight has a book coming out on the Dodgers, The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse
And now, this week’s links…
- We’re getting so much closer to vaccine sanity, as California is set to end religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccinating school-age children. The science is clear and unequivocal, and making the wrong, anti-science decision can affect hundreds of others’ lives.
- A young widow’s heartrending letter to her late husband, who committed suicide a month ago after a long battle with depression.
- The Moringa oleifera tree may lead to an inexpensive process for purifying drinking water in developing countries.
- On a Tokyo coffee roasting master still roasting at age 100.
- A former president of the American Humanist Association writes in Psychology Today that anti-intellectualism is killing America. I’m not sure I agree with the premise, nor do I think such unreason as racial hatred is “anti-intellectualism” per se, but I still found it an interesting read.
- Roxane Gay wrote in the New York Times that she can’t forgive Dylan Roof, and why should she? Forgiveness means releasing your anger. If we forget to be angry, why would anything ever change?
- The first segment of Thursday’s episode of BBC Outlook, on Canada’s abused aboriginal children is harrowing listening, but also makes a superb case for “truth and reconciliation” commissions to address past historical wrongs.
- Common sense from VOX.com: People with mental illness are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violent crimes. Yet we don’t hear calls for greater mental health treatment options when the former is true, only the latter.
- A recent meta-study has found that the phenolic compounds found in olive oil may help prevent neurodegenerative diseases, although it would be nice to see empirical evidence (via clinical trials) to back this up. Still, olive oil is delicious and may be really good for you.
- The guys behind Animal and Son of a Gun have opened a pizzeria in LA, and it sounds amazing, of course.
I agree with you that the author of the anti-intellectualism piece is way, way off base in his understanding of racism.
Racism is rooted in a number of social, economic, and biological imperatives, and reducing it to “if people just weren’t so ignorant, we wouldn’t have racism” is wrongheaded and–I think–harmful. When lecturing to my students, I start with the assertion that “racism is natural.” The implication, I argue, is that racism is not like polio–something that will eventually be “cured” and eliminated with enough social progress. It’s more like cancer–something that we constantly have to be mindful about, and something that we will consistently have to struggle against. The various forms of racism that exist in our society today–even among people and communities who generally consider themselves to be non-racist–like racially-charged language in sports analysis and news coverage, grossly divergent rates of incarceration, discriminatory voter ID laws, etc., is evidence of this, I would say.
On another note, thanks for the heads-up about Jon & Vinny’s. J Gold is brilliant and charming, but–like most critics–he tends to equate “different” with “good.” I’ve been to many places he raved about and was very pleased (say, Providence). And, I’ve been to many places he raved about and was underwhelmed (say, Osteria Mozza). That said, he tends to be pretty spot on about “street food” type dishes–pizza, tacos, banh mi, dumplings, and so forth, so I like my chances. In any event, I shall post a comment to the blog once I am able to try the new place. I don’t know what your LA trips usually look like, but if you’re traveling from USC to UCLA, it should be optimal for you, since it’s about midway between the two.
I’m with you completely on racism as an incurable aspect of the human condition. I think that PT piece fell into two traps. One was the common trope among militant atheists to equate religiosity with anti-intellectualism, which I think fails even a prima facie examination. The second was trying to draw a line from the combined religion/anti-intellectualism to racism, ignoring the fundamental human tendency to distinguish between one’s own group(s) and groups defined as “other.” Religion may have been used – may still be used – as a post hoc justification for racism, but that doesn’t mean its existence is necessary for racism to exist.
Good points, both.
Hope you enjoy your vacation!
Speaking of olive oil, which brand do you use? I’ve read a fair amount on the subject, which only caused more confusion. Not only that, but it seems to be a rare instance of something in a can being the healthiest.