{"id":10221,"date":"2024-03-23T20:00:40","date_gmt":"2024-03-24T00:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=10221"},"modified":"2024-03-23T20:00:41","modified_gmt":"2024-03-24T00:00:41","slug":"stick-to-baseball-3-23-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/23\/stick-to-baseball-3-23-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 3\/23\/24."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>At the Athletic, I wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/5352531\/2024\/03\/19\/scouting-mlb-breakout-games-keith-law\/\">a bunch of prospects I saw in the Cactus League<\/a>, including two Breakout games; plus a list of <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/5356529\/2024\/03\/21\/mlb-breakout-candidates-2024-keith-law\/\">six breakout candidates for 2024<\/a>; as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/5358218\/2024\/03\/21\/fantasy-baseball-draft-prep-prospects-keith-law\/\">a Q&amp;A with our fantasy expert Nando di Fino<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Vulture, I wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/article\/best-cooperative-board-games.html\">the surge in cooperative tabletop games<\/a> that started with Pandemic and then picked up during the \u2026 pandemic, really, along with a list of 14 of the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that this post is up I\u2019ll begin the next edition of <a href=\"https:\/\/keithlaw.substack.com\/\">my free email newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now, the links\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Longreads first: <em>Scientific American<\/em> looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/families-find-ways-to-protect-their-lgbtq-kids-from-serious-harm-physical\/\">the extensive harm done to LGBTQ+ kids and their parents<\/a> by the anti-LGBTQ+ bills pushed by religious zealots and right-wingers across the country. One key quote: \u201cEvery major medical association in the U.S., including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the Endocrine Society, endorses gender-affirming care for trans kids.\u201d The fear and ignorance of a small number of bigots should never outweigh the unanimous view of the medical community.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>34<sup>th<\/sup> Street<\/em>, the arts &amp; culture magazine of the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Daily Pennsylvanian, offers an incisive look at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.34st.com\/article\/2024\/03\/liz-magill-upenn-free-speech-academic-freedom-aaup-fire-stefanik-mark-rowan\">how big-money donors are trying to stifle free expression on campuses<\/a> across the country \u2013 including at their own school. This goes beyond the attacks on the school\u2019s President, who resigned in December, to demands for mass disciplining of students who participate in certain assemblies or protests, for the right to approve faculty hires, and more. Don Moynihan wrote about a similar topic, including Christopher Rufo\u2019s bad-faith \u201cplagiarism\u201d claims against researchers into race-related topics, <a href=\"https:\/\/donmoynihan.substack.com\/p\/open-season-on-scholars-of-race\">in his newsletter<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ProPublica found an \u201cexpert\u201d who has testified in Colorado adoption cases for over forty years, typically arguing that foster parents should be allowed to keep the children in their care rather than the biological parents, whose self-described \u201cprotocol\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/expert-in-foster-care-cases-admits-her-method-is-unscientific\">is based on no evidence or research at all<\/a>. It\u2019s a way of conning the system that, according to the authors, is spreading across the country \u2013 and taking babies and young children away from their (financially) poor parents.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Abortion bans affect more than just the women who might want or need abortions: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/health-shots\/2024\/03\/19\/1239376395\/louisiana-abortion-ban-dangerously-disrupting-pregnancy-miscarriage-care\">Standard pregnancy care in Louisiana has been severely curtailed by the state\u2019s abortion ban<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A scientist and a medical doctor wrote in the <em>Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/jep.13985\">that regulatory bodies should take action against medical professionals who spread disinformation about vaccines<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>NPR looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/03\/15\/1238780699\/nex-benedict-nonbinary-oklahoma-death-bullying\">the death of Nex Benedict<\/a>, a nonbinary, indigenous student in Owasso, Oklahoma, who died after bullies attacked them at their school, and whose death has been ruled a suicide on what appears to be insufficient evidence. The article here at least entertains the possibility that the Owasso School District and local authorities are trying to cover up a case of manslaughter, perhaps because the victim was queer.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A Bronx high school English teacher emailed author Tommy Orange (<em><a href=\"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/09\/there-there-2\/\">There There<\/a>, The Wandering Stars<\/em>) with an unsolicited request to come speak to his class about his work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/18\/books\/tommy-orange-there-there-wandering-stars.html\">Orange rearranged his schedule to make it happen<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Killing Joke founder\/singer Jaz Coleman spoke to <em>The Guardian<\/em> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2024\/mar\/18\/killing-joke-jaz-coleman-geordie-walker\">his first interview since the death this winter of guitarist Geordie Walker<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Republican Party is making immigration a major issue in this year\u2019s elections, tying it to crime rates. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/03\/08\/1237103158\/immigrants-are-less-likely-to-commit-crimes-than-us-born-americans-studies-find\">immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S.<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>North Carolina\u2019s Republican candidate for the state\u2019s Superintendent of Public Instruction post, which offers all public education in the state, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/mar\/21\/north-carolina-gop-michele-morrow\">has called for the execution of President Biden and former President Obama<\/a>, along with a host of other Democrats and public figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci. Michelle Morrow also participated in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6<sup>th<\/sup> and has the endorsement of Moms for Liberty. She is opposed by Democrat Mo Green.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Haiti has now fallen into anarchy after the Prime Minister resigned and armed gangs have taken control of large parts of the country. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2024\/mar\/16\/plundered-and-corrupted-200-years-haiti-doomed-end-in-anarchy\">This was the inevitable consequence of two hundred-plus years of exploitation and corruption<\/a>, according to the <em>Guardian<\/em>\u2019s Kenan Malik. One enormous factor is the billions of dollars Haiti had to pay France as \u201creparations\u201d for lost property (primarily slaves) after the Caribbean nation declared its independence in 1804; another is incessant meddling by the U.S. government, including at least one actual invasion, as well as our support of anti-communist dictators who drained the country\u2019s limited coffers without building an actual state apparatus.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Also in <em>Scientific American<\/em>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/evidence-does-not-support-the-use-of-the-death-penalty\/\">There is no evidence supporting the use of the death penalty<\/a>. It is not a deterrent; it is state-sponsored vengeance. The United States is the only NATO member that still has it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Arizona legislature held yet another hearing where they allowed witnesses <a href=\"https:\/\/azmirror.com\/2024\/03\/15\/yet-again-the-az-legislature-hosts-a-covid-hearing-full-of-misinformation\/\">to expound on various bogus COVID-19 hoaxes and myths<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A Lancaster, PA, library <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/amp\/philadelphia\/news\/lancaster-pa-library-cancels-drag-queen-story-event-after-bomb-threat\/\">had to cancel a drag-queen story hour after employees found a suspicious package and the library received bomb threats<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Floyd County (VA) Public Schools cancelled a community reading of the YA novel <em>Wishtree<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/pw\/by-topic\/childrens\/childrens-industry-news\/article\/94637-in-virginia-censors-attempt-to-axe-wishtree.html\">after complaints that its protagonist was nonbinary and uses any pronouns<\/a>. The protagonist is a tree. One of the complaining parents doesn\u2019t even send her kids to the public schools \u2013 they go to a fundamentalist Christian school nearby.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Alabama consistently ranks near the bottom of all U.S. states in the quality of its education, so rather than address that issue, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/03\/19\/us\/alabama-bill-bans-dei-public-universities-reaj\/index.html\">the Governor just signed a bill banning all DEI efforts in public education in the state<\/a>. We\u2019ve already seen some migration from states that have passed anti-LGBTQ+ laws (see above); will we see something similar for non-white families, and for people who work in academia?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A prisoner in Illinois who was teaching a peer-led civics class about voting rights that the state requires inmates to take before they can leave prison was fired for teaching that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbez.org\/stories\/incarcerated-teacher-fired-for-teaching-about-racism\/95a20032-3507-48a2-aef8-afac11482706\">literacy tests were a racist way to suppress the Black vote<\/a>. Anthony McNeal, who is Black, has sued the counselor who fired him and the prison warden, claiming his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated. Also, he spoke the truth.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Missouri\u2019s Attorney General beclowned himself by claiming that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/news\/local\/crime-courts\/missouri-ag-says-hes-investigating-hazelwood-fight-dei-programs-in-error-filled-letter\/article_b6ce3fe2-e87f-11ee-9944-ab4435e23530.html\">DEI programs were somehow responsible for a fight between two students<\/a> that left one, a white girl, critically injured, while her Black 15-year-old assailant is facing assault charges.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I didn\u2019t get to longtime Phoenix restaurant El Portal on my recent trip there, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/entertainment\/dining\/2024\/03\/19\/biden-visits-el-portal-mexican-restaurant-2024\/73028566007\/\">President Biden went there on Tuesday<\/a> to kick off a new part of his Presidential campaign aimed at Latino voters. I\u2019m more interested in whether the food\u2019s any good.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Front Office Sports publishes a lot of content, but their editorial standards can be \u2026 well, they ran an article claiming that the San Franciso 49ers\u2019 publicly-funded stadium has been a good investment for taxpayers, when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fieldofschemes.com\/2023\/10\/04\/20463\/study-proving-49ers-stadium-is-a-huge-win-for-the-public-says-nothing-of-the-sort\/\">the study they cite actually doesn\u2019t show that at all<\/a>. If you\u2019re a journalist, or trying to be one, and you don\u2019t understand a research paper, find someone who can help you do so.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the Athletic, I wrote about a bunch of prospects I saw in the Cactus League, including two Breakout games; plus a list of six breakout candidates for 2024; as well as a Q&amp;A with our fantasy expert Nando di Fino. At Vulture, I wrote about the surge in cooperative tabletop games that started with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1247,964,1312,1125,898,1390,1347,1112,190,961,1065,1268,1105,531,590,1115,235,870,807],"class_list":["post-10221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-academia","tag-alabama","tag-book-banning","tag-colorado","tag-death-penalty","tag-haiti","tag-illinois","tag-lgbt-rights","tag-links","tag-longreads","tag-louisiana","tag-misinformation","tag-missouri","tag-north-carolina","tag-oklahoma","tag-pennsylvania","tag-phoenix","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-vaccines","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10222,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10221\/revisions\/10222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}