{"id":11025,"date":"2025-12-06T13:20:42","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T18:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=11025"},"modified":"2025-12-06T13:20:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T18:20:42","slug":"stick-to-baseball-12-6-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/06\/stick-to-baseball-12-6-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 12\/6\/25."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For subscribers to the Athletic, I wrote my analyses of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6837589\/2025\/11\/25\/sonny-gray-trade-keith-law\/\">the Sonny Gray trade<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6841245\/2025\/11\/26\/blue-jays-dylan-cease-signing-analysis\/\">the Dylan Cease signing<\/a> (featuring a massive temper tantrum by Jays fans in the comments); <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6857140\/2025\/12\/03\/blue-jays-cody-ponce-mets-devin-williams-analysis\/\">the Cody Ponce &amp; Devin Williams signings<\/a>; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6864111\/2025\/12\/04\/pirates-red-sox-trade-analysis-jhostynxon-garcia-johan-oviedo\/\">the Jhostynxon Garcia-Johan Oviedo trade<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At AV Club, I reviewed the game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avclub.com\/white-castle-duel-board-game-review\">White Castle Duel<\/a> and wrote up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avclub.com\/pax-unplugged-2025-board-games\">my weekend at the PAX Unplugged board game convention<\/a> here in Philly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I sent out a new edition of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avclub.com\/pax-unplugged-2025-board-games\">my free email newsletter<\/a> last weekend, right after the holiday.<\/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: ProPublica has the story of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/texas-abortion-ban-tierra-walker-preeclampsia\">another woman killed by Texas Republicans<\/a> and their anti-abortion crusade. Just worth noting that the unholy marriage between Christians and the anti-abortion movement is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2022\/05\/10\/abortion-history-right-white-evangelical-1970s-00031480\">an entirely modern creation<\/a>, not supported by the Bible or the previous 1700 or so years of Christian thought.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Bill McKibben, an environmental activist and lifelong Methodist, writes in the <em>Guardian<\/em> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/ng-interactive\/2025\/nov\/23\/america-christian-evangelical-discrimination-immigration\">how Trump and his allies are doing to America what they did to Christianity<\/a> \u2013 subverting their meanings and destroying them from the inside.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Dr. Atul Gawande, author of <em>The Checklist Manifesto<\/em> and a professor at Harvard\u2019s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says that the ending of USAID funding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/the-new-yorker-documentary\/the-shutdown-of-usaid-has-already-killed-hundreds-of-thousands\">has already killed hundreds of thousands worldwide<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Princeton Prof. Robert P. George, a highly influential conservative philosopher and legal scholar who was in the news recently for his resignation from the board of the Heritage Foundation, spoke to <em>The Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em> about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chronicle.com\/article\/robert-p-george-and-the-great-campus-vibe-shift\">the state of academic thought and the growing \u2018illiberalism\u2019 on the far right<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Also in ProPublica, a Minnesota pediatrician who challenged the methods of the director of the child abuse team at the state\u2019s primary children\u2019s hospital <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/child-abuse-pediatrician-minneapolis-nancy-harper-cps\">says he was sacked for speaking out<\/a>. The director in question, Dr. Nancy Harper, appears to still use debunked ideas like \u201cshaken-baby syndrome\u201d and thus overdiagnoses child abuse, separating children from families without sufficient cause.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Twitter turned on location identification for its accounts, and shocker of shockers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/2025\/11\/x-about-this-account\/685042\/\">a huge number of self-proclaimed MAGA accounts are based in Pakistan or Morocco<\/a> or elsewhere outside the U.S.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Prof. Jack Goldsmith, a conservative scholar at Harvard Law School who authored the memos authorizing the Bush Administration\u2019s use of warrantless wiretaps in 2004, writes that the U.S. strikes on boats in the Atlantic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.execfunctions.org\/p\/a-dishonorable-strike\">are murder even if you assume all of the government\u2019s claims are true<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I won\u2019t link to too much about the Olivia Nuzzi scandal, given how much attention it\u2019s received and the fact that <em>Vanity Fair<\/em> finally undid its mistake in hiring her (although whoever approved that hiring needs to be held accountable for the decision), other than this <em>New Republic<\/em> piece on <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/203590\/olivia-nuzzi-rfk-jr-lizza-vaccines\">the public-health cost of Nuzzi\u2019s utter lack of ethics<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Speaking of which, Kentucky has reported <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wowktv.com\/news\/kentucky\/kentucky-reports-third-whooping-cough-infant-death\/\">its third infant death in the last year from pertussis<\/a>, a vaccine-preventable disease; all three infants were unvaccinated, as were their mothers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Michael Scherer writes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/2026\/01\/rfk-jr-public-health-science\/684948\/\">about the delusions of RFK Jr.<\/a>, who is dismantling public health in the face of all available evidence and massive pushback from the scientific community.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Dr. Rachael Bedard writes in the <em>Times<\/em> about her experiences attending an anti-vaccine conference and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/11\/25\/opinion\/children-health-defense-kennedy.html\">why these grifters and liars are so easily able to capture people\u2019s minds<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Scientific American<\/em> has a somewhat related story about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/ai-chatbots-shown-to-sway-voters-raising-new-fears-about-election-influence\/\">how AI chatbots could sway voters\u2019 opinions<\/a> even when the bots were fabricating \u2018facts.\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Drew Magary writes that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/tech\/article\/time-to-declare-war-ai-21221535.php\">it is time to declare war on AI<\/a>, and I couldn\u2019t agree more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Government bans on the use of puberty blockers for trans teens set <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/puberty-blockers-why-politicians-overriding-doctors-sets-a-dangerous-precedent-270246\">a dangerous precedent for further intrusion into individual health-care decisions<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Concerned Republican Senator Susan Collins (ME) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bangordailynews.com\/2025\/11\/24\/politics\/elections\/susan-collins-referendum-overturn-maine-transgender-protections\/\">is backing a referendum to overturn Maine\u2019s protections for trans students<\/a>. National media members need to stop calling her a \u201ccentrist.\u201d She is as extremist as the rest of the party.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Drain the swamp! Trump commuted the sentence of David Gentile, who had served <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/11\/29\/us\/politics\/trump-david-gentile-commutation.html\">just two weeks to date for his role in defrauding investors of $1.6 billion<\/a> through his private equity funds. The corruption is coming from inside the White House.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Tennessee libraries have begun shutting down <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/tennessee-book-bans-2674352969\/\">to purge books that Republican theocrats wish to ban<\/a> because they contain LGBTQ+ characters or themes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I\u2019m absolutely stunned that a Turning Point staffer and Arizona city councilwoman has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/news\/world\/americas\/crime\/turning-point-usa-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-b2874957.html\">accused of sexually harassing another TP employee<\/a> \u2013 and kidnapping his daughter when he rebuffed her. People that obsessed with others\u2019 sex and sexuality are telling you something about themselves.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The government of the Caucasus nation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/latest\/news\/2025\/12\/georgia-governments-alleged-use-of-toxic-chemicals-against-protestors-calls-for-international-investigation-and-complete-embargo-on-all-policing-equipment\/\">Georgia sprayed anti-government protestors with bromobenzyl cyanide<\/a>, a toxic form of tear gas introduced by the Allied Powers during World War I, according to a report from the BBC.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Disgraced New York City Mayor Eric Adams <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/dec\/04\/new-york-eric-adams-zohran-mamdani-israel\">signed an order that would ban any city agency heads or staff<\/a> from doing pretty much anything in line with the BDS movement against the government of Israel, just a month before the door hits him on his way out of Gracie Manson in four weeks. Incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani could undo this with a similar order, but of course there will be an outcry calling this antisemitism if he does.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Europe\u2019s water reserves, especially those in southern Europe, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/nov\/29\/climate-crisis-depleting-europe-groundwater-reserves-analysis\">are drying up due to climate change<\/a>, while Tehran is approaching day-zero for water.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There\u2019s a new Kickstarter from Spanish publisher Salt &amp; Pepper Games, publishers of the solo game Resist!, <a href=\"https:\/\/gamefound.com\/es\/projects\/saltandpepper\/queen-of-spies\">for Queen of Spies<\/a>, another solitaire game, set this time set during World War I.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Mike Drucker\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcsweeneys.net\/articles\/the-new-yorkers-isaac-chotiner-interviews-santa-claus\">parody of Isaac Chotiner interviewing Santa Claus<\/a> is note-perfect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For subscribers to the Athletic, I wrote my analyses of the Sonny Gray trade; the Dylan Cease signing (featuring a massive temper tantrum by Jays fans in the comments); the Cody Ponce &amp; Devin Williams signings; and the Jhostynxon Garcia-Johan Oviedo trade. At AV Club, I reviewed the game White Castle Duel and wrote up [&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":[1300,1247,566,1429,1083,1312,828,179,181,190,961,1020,1116,223,766,799,907,870,477,940,807],"class_list":["post-11025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abortion","tag-academia","tag-arizona","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-board-game-news","tag-book-banning","tag-climate-change","tag-journalism","tag-kentucky","tag-links","tag-longreads","tag-maine","tag-minnesota","tag-new-york-city","tag-religion","tag-science","tag-social-media","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-texas","tag-the-swamp","tag-vaccines","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11025","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=11025"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11026,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11025\/revisions\/11026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}