Vacation can make you rusty
Instead of making yourself more productive, often vacations make you less productive, effective, accurate, informed, etc.In most cases, the culprit is the time spent away from the action.
Showing clear signs of this syndrome, Eugene Kane returns to column writing today with a piece encouraging unnecessary litigation and defending ignorance.
First, he encourages Mandy Block (the Itallian Sauage clubbed by a Pittsburgh Pirate in the fiasco known as "sausagegate") to sue her attacker.
Why should she sue? She was not injured in any way. She's repeatedly stated that she thought it was funny and that it was a joke that got out of hand. That seems sensible to me. Kane sees it differently:
She was just trying to do her job and she was assaulted, however slightly.
By a millionaire. -my emphasis
He also suggests that we'll all look like a bunch of midwestern suckers if she doesn't sue because, "You think they'd let him get away with that stunt in Yankee Stadium?"
I guess it depends whose eyes are watching us. To a sleazy lawyer, sure, we'll look like suckers. But to a lot of people we will look like what we really,are, ...pretty descent folk with a good sense of humor and a 6th sense for a "good time".
Secondly, he defends the ignorant remarks of Dusty Baker. Let's just Fisk it a bit:
...Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker, roundly criticized for a supposedly politically incorrect statement about black and Latin players being better in the heat.
supposedly? Baker said that blacks and latinos play better in hot weather than white folks. Forgive me, but it IS politcally incorrect to say that blacks and latinos are biologically superior to whites in hot weather.
Kane continues:
Baker refused to back down from his comments, and I'm glad.
What is ridiculous about this story was nobody could identify which group Baker supposedly insulted.
Ummmm, how about his own white ball players?
Or prove he was all that wrong, given the scientific facts about the amount of melanin in the skin of blacks and some Hispanics and how that affects their ability to absorb heat and sunshine.
Huh? The day after the incident, Rick Morrissey did a pretty good job of proving him wrong in a lengthy column in the Trib.
Among Morrissey's gems are these:
"According to a study by Dr. Robert S. Helman of New York Medical College, 'heatstroke affects all races equally. However, because of differences in social advantages, the annual death rate because of environmental conditions is more than three times higher in blacks than in whites.'"
"Another study by the Borden Institute, which researches medical issues in the military, states: 'It has been suggested that as a group, blacks are less heat-tolerant than whites. This is certainly supported by U.S. Army medical reports.'"
Nuff said.
It's just another case of that famous search to uncover proof of the insidious double standard or "reverse racism" some always point to as evidence racial minorities have somehow become a privileged class in society.
Given the reality of being black or brown in America, it's a flimsy premise, not worth the energy it takes to debate it.
I don't think I would say "privileged", ...but there is certainly a double-standard when it comes to things like this. Baker's comment is really not that far off from Jimmy "the Greek's" comment stating that blacks are better athletes than whites because they were bred that way. Dusty Baker's career will not be ruined, nor should it be, but let's at least acknowledge that this would be a much pricklier pear if Bobby Valentine or Lou Pinella said it.
And I will add that you should always debate something that you think is incorrect, even if you think your side is so self-evidently right. Just a little bit of effort would have led him to the Trib column by Morrissey and the scientific studies he cites.
My position: lots of people who really aren't that bright (Baker included), say stupid ignorant things without intending offence. They don't realize the comments are wrong or insensitive or borderline prejudiced. Baker isn't a racist, he's just uninformed. Let's remember this the next time some old white guy says something equally as dumb.
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