Stick to baseball, 3/26/17.

My annual column of breakout player picks went up on Thursday for Insiders, and I held a Klawchat that same day. I had one other Insider post since the last roundup, on four prospects I saw in Arizona, one Cub, one Royal, and two Padres.

You can preorder my upcoming book, Smart Baseball, on amazon, or from other sites via the Harper-Collins page for the book. The book now has two positive reviews out, one from Kirkus Reviews and one from Publishers Weekly.

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And now, the links…

• Call your Representatives ASAP if you oppose the stripping of online privacy rights, not that I think anything’s going to stop the Republicans from helping the ISPs here.
• Why don’t we have a Lyme disease vaccine for humans, even though there’s one for dogs? Blame the anti-vaxxers.
• You can also blame them if rubella, which causes autism, makes a comeback.
• Venezuelan’s spiraling economic crisis means there’s a severe shortage of critical drugs for the mentally ill.
• Thank goodness the Administration is trying to save us from such dangerous people as the Syrian refugees who’ve started a booming chocolate company in Canada. I feel so much safer already.
• Is the Admin’s ban on the use of laptops and tablets on certain Middle Eastern airlines actually just retaliation in an ongoing trade war?
• I don’t complain about the amount I pay in federal income taxes, but I do think it’s ridiculous how difficult and complicated it is. (I have used an accountant for the last five years, since my work contracts became more involved.) Why is filing still so difficult? Because Intuit and H&R Block spend millions in lobbying to keep it that way.
• An independent group that monitors civilian deaths from airstrikes (including those by drones) says they are overwhelmed by the uptick in such claims since the new Administration took office. The drone program was one of the worst of Obama’s policies, but it appears it’s been cranked up since the regime change. This is a very good way to make a whole new generation of terrorists who hate the United States.
• You should be horrified by the “advice” a Homeland Security official gave Gizmodo staffers on workplace violence.
• The New England Journal of Medicine has an op ed suggesting some better answers for HHS Secretary Tom Price on mandatory immunizations.
• If you live in Florida, call your state reps to tell them you oppose the new bill to allow the teaching of creationism in public schools. It’s a violation of the separation of church and state anyway, but still, let’s not go down that particular toilet.
• The gluten-free craze is driven by anti-science and opportunism. A lot of pseudo-doctors (like “naturopaths” or chiropractors) sell a bunch of tests and treatments to people who don’t need any of this, using consumer misperceptions about things like gluten.
• Chiropractors like this one, accused of practicing medicine without a license. If your chiropractor starts claiming s/he can cure or treat various diseases, call your state licensing board.
• A company that takes advantage of consumer ignorance about science had to recall one of its products because it contained peanuts. So much of organic/non-GM marketing is about the claim that consumers of other products don’t know what’s in their food. The irony is thick here.
• Julie DiCaro asks Indiana basketball to reconsider considering Steve Alford for its open head coaching position.
• I particularly enjoyed Will Leitch’s look at the biggest droughts in various pro and college sports because I’m pretty team-agnostic in any sport, so my rooting interest is often determined by who’s gone the longest without a title/playoff appearance/whatever, or who’s never had one in franchise or school history.
• There’s supposed to be a ruling in the Roman Polanski rape case due within the next 90 days. He’s 83, and spent 40 years outside the U.S., fighting extradition and avoiding jail time for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl. Why the fuck would we let this creep back into the country?
• New York Times food critic Pete Wells visited Austin’s Franklin BBQ.
• Tacos Chiwas, one of the hottest new restaurants in Phoenix from 2016, was burglarized earlier this month. I ate there in October and was a big fan of their Chihuahuan-style tacos, which were an absolute bargain too. There’s a GoFundMe page to try to help the restaurant’s owners recover some of what they lost.
• I gave Leitch a link, so now I have to give one to Grierson. Here’s Tim’s rundown of the documentaries at the annual True/False film festival, held in Columbia, Missouri.
• I was unfamiliar with the annual Disability Day of Mourning until reading this editorial on the unnoticed crimes of caregivers killing their disabled charges.
• The Texas state alcohol licensing board spent tends of thousands of public dollars partying, traveling to expensive resorts to drink with industry lobbyists. The state government of Texas is a septic tank.
• White supremacists have created a “guide” to posing as black people while operating troll accounts on social media.
• High Street on Market is one of my favorite restaurants in Philly, maybe my favorite, period. I didn’t realize that chef-owner Eli Kulp was left paralyzed by the May 2015 Amtrak derailment until I saw this week about a new wine from his restaurant group. They’ll donate $25 from every bottle to spinal cord research.
• I’m sure you’ve seen one or both of these, but in the Schadenfreude Department, we have the idiot woman who voted for Trump, only to see her husband arrested and likely deported, and rural Trump voters about to lose their development programs if his proposed budget passes. I want to feel bad, but these people each bear some tiny sliver of responsibility for this mess we’re in. Voting matters, and voting incorrectly has consequences.