{"id":5382,"date":"2017-01-07T10:12:18","date_gmt":"2017-01-07T15:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=5382"},"modified":"2017-01-07T10:12:18","modified_gmt":"2017-01-07T15:12:18","slug":"stick-to-baseball-1717","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/07\/stick-to-baseball-1717\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 1\/7\/17."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been working on the top 100 prospects package, which begins a three-week rollout on January 18th, since New Year&#8217;s, so I didn&#8217;t write anything for Insider this week. My boardgame reviews continue, with a review of <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2hXufHW\" target=\"_blank\">the Celtic-themed game Inis<\/a> for <em>Paste<\/em> and a review of <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2j2DioU\" target=\"_blank\">the boardgame and new iOS app for Colt Express<\/a> here on the dish. I did hold my regular <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2j8cHGO\" target=\"_blank\">Klawchat<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>You can <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2dtXS3S\" target=\"_blank\">preorder my upcoming book, <em>Smart Baseball<\/em><\/a>, on amazon, or from other sites <a href=\"https:\/\/www.harpercollins.com\/9780062490223\/?utm_source=Keith+Law&#038;utm_medium=athremail&#038;utm_campaign=Smart+Baseball\" target=\"_blank\">via the Harper-Collins page for the book<\/a>. Also, please sign up for <a href=\"https:\/\/tinyletter.com\/keithlaw\" target=\"_blank\">my more-or-less weekly email newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And now, the links&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Several former Justice Department lawyers penned an op ed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/jeff-sessions-says-he-handled-these-civil-rights-cases-he-barely-touched-them\/2017\/01\/03\/4ddfffa6-d0fa-11e6-a783-cd3fa950f2fd_story.html?utm_term=.ad47eb1fcca6\" target=\"_blank\">claiming that Jeff Sessions is lying about his involvement in civil rights cases<\/a>. They say, &#8220;Sessions knows that his real record on race and civil rights is harmful to his chances for confirmation. So he has made up a fake one.&#8221; In a rational world, that would end his nomination for Attorney General.<\/li>\n<li>Venezuela&#8217;s ongoing political and economic meltdown may lead to a recall of president\/dictator Nicolas Maduro, but he appointed a successor this week in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/nation-world\/world\/americas\/venezuela\/article124609614.html\" target=\"_blank\">new Vice President Tarek el Aissami<\/a>, who is (or was) under investigating by U.S. authorities for drug trafficking.<\/li>\n<li>Author Ryan Holiday wrote an insightful, somewhat angry piece on <a href=\"http:\/\/observer.com\/2017\/01\/how-the-online-diversity-police-defeat-themselves-and-leave-us-all-much-worse-off\/\" target=\"_blank\">the &#8216;online diversity police&#8217;<\/a>, folks who immediately decry the lack of diversity on any list or grouping (often inaccurately, as it turns out).<\/li>\n<li>Lindy West wrote one of the week&#8217;s best, most important essays, on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2017\/jan\/03\/ive-left-twitter-unusable-anyone-but-trolls-robots-dictators-lindy-west\" target=\"_blank\">why she left Twitter after six years on the service<\/a>, citing the endless abuse and the rise of neo-Naziism.<\/li>\n<li>The <em>Daily Beast<\/em> exposed the long con of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/articles\/2017\/01\/05\/the-media-s-favorite-millennial-is-a-55-year-old-comedian.html\" target=\"_blank\">55-year-old &#8220;millennial&#8221; comedian Dan Nainan<\/a>, who tries to pass himself off as 35 and has fooled several media outlets as such.<\/li>\n<li><em>Esquire<\/em> has a longread on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.esquire.com\/news-politics\/a51625\/aj-daulerio-interview\/\" target=\"_blank\">former Deadspin and Gawker EIC A.J. Daulerio<\/a>, whose career was derailed by the Hulk Hogan sex tape lawsuit.<\/li>\n<li>Grierson &#038; Leitch each posted their <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/139574\/grierson-and-leitchs-top-ten-films-year\" target=\"_blank\">top ten films of 2016<\/a>, along with a 100-minute podcast where they reveal their lists to each other and discuss them. As usual, Leitch&#8217;s list comprises fairly well-known films, while Grierson&#8217;s has several films I&#8217;ve heard of and three that may not actually exist.<\/li>\n<li>The eight-year-old transgender boy kicked out of a New Jersey Cub Scouts group after other parents complained <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nj.com\/hudson\/index.ssf\/2017\/01\/8-year-old_transgender_boy_his_place_in_the_transg.html\" target=\"_blank\">talked to the <em>Jersey Journal<\/em><\/a>, as did his mother, about what happened, in a piece that also explores the psychiatric community&#8217;s evolving understanding of &#8220;gender dysphoria.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Jill Saward&#8217;s death didn&#8217;t garner much coverage here either, but she was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/01\/06\/world\/europe\/jill-saward-dies-advocate-for-rape-victims.html\" target=\"_blank\">an important figure in the movement for sexual assault victims&#8217; rights<\/a>, as the first British rape victim to waive her right to anonymity and publicly discuss her case.<\/li>\n<li>Will Trump&#8217;s election mark <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2017\/01\/09\/the-return-of-civil-disobedience\" target=\"_blank\">the return of civil disobedience<\/a>? So far it has, but can the various movements opposed to the Republicans&#8217; reactionary agenda keep it up for four or more years?<\/li>\n<li>Let&#8217;s talk about the Russian hacking operation, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2017\/jan\/06\/vladimir-putin-us-election-interference-report-donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">a US intelligence report says Putin &#8216;ordered&#8217; to get Trump elected<\/a>. David Remnick <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/news-desk\/trump-putin-and-the-big-hack\" target=\"_blank\">weighed in as well<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The <em>Seattle Times<\/em> called out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/opinion\/trumps-reckless-linkage-of-vaccines-and-autism\/\" target=\"_blank\">Trump&#8217;s &#8220;reckless linkage&#8221; of vaccines to autism<\/a>, desperate overwhelming evidence that there is no link.<\/li>\n<li>Lauren Duca of <em>Teen Vogue<\/em> has quickly become one of the most important voices in political journalism, thanks to pieces like this one <a href=\"http:\/\/www.teenvogue.com\/story\/trump-mar-a-lago-conflict-of-interest?mbid=social_twitter\" target=\"_blank\">about the family selling access to the President-Elect at a party at Trumo&#8217;s Mar-a-Lago resort<\/a> that made over $420K.<\/li>\n<li>Republican Christine Todd Whitman headed up the Environmental Protection Agency under President George W. Bush, but she said <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/science-environment-38484730\" target=\"_blank\">she fears for the planet under a Trump regime<\/a> for many reasons, including his denial of climate change.<\/li>\n<li>The <em>Washington Post<\/em>&#8216;s Dave Weigel outlines <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/claiming-mandate-gop-congress-lays-plans-to-propel-sweeping-conservative-agenda\/2017\/01\/01\/9840338a-ceee-11e6-b8a2-8c2a61b0436f_story.html?postshare=6461483322648831&#038;tid=ss_tw&#038;utm_term=.26f1c0a93a55\" target=\"_blank\">the Republican Party&#8217;s plan for a &#8220;sweeping conservative agenda&#8221;<\/a> now that they control the White House and both houses of Congress. I&#8217;d dispute the word &#8220;conservative&#8221; here, though; this is very much an agenda written by and for white Americans, especially Christians, but doesn&#8217;t bear much resemblance to the traditional economic and libertarian-minded conservatism of Reagan or Buckley.<\/li>\n<li>The political crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo hasn&#8217;t gotten much attention here amidst our own, but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-38479196\" target=\"_blank\">President Kabila hasn&#8217;t signed the agreement to end his rule<\/a>, which has been marked primarily by his looting of the country&#8217;s coffers of millions of dollars.<\/li>\n<li>Finally, the Huffington Post made news of nothing with a piece <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/former-atheist-mark-zuckerberg-religion_us_58684845e4b0eb586489cb9e\" target=\"_blank\">on Mark Zuckerberg apparently becoming an ex-atheist<\/a>. I&#8217;m linking this for one major reason \u2013 my disdain for the need to classify people by their religious beliefs, something I first encountered on Wikipedia maybe a decade ago, where articles on people can be categorized by the subject&#8217;s religion. You can change your religious beliefs on a dime; you can lie about them (in many countries, you may have to); you can fail to fit in any neat bucket of beliefs. As a general rule, I don&#8217;t think your religion is any of my business unless you wish to make it so, so I particularly dislike the idea that you need to know what someone believes or, as in this case, that a possible change in the beliefs of a famous person are somehow newsworthy. I&#8217;ll be happier when Zuckerberg&#8217;s beliefs include extirpating fake news sites from Facebook.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been working on the top 100 prospects package, which begins a three-week rollout on January 18th, since New Year&#8217;s, so I didn&#8217;t write anything for Insider this week. My boardgame reviews continue, with a review of the Celtic-themed game Inis for Paste and a review of the boardgame and new iOS app for Colt [&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":[821,137,190,907,870,807],"class_list":["post-5382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anti-science","tag-frauds","tag-links","tag-social-media","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-vaccines","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5382","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=5382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5383,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5382\/revisions\/5383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}