THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

The view of cockfighting, from the Dominicans:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/sports/othersports/13fight.html

I wonder how India would react to how their sacred animals are treated in America:
http://www.ecoheritage.cpreec.org/04_03_sacred_animals.html

And, how about the reactions of Europeans, Canada, and Mexico to the existence of capital punishment in America (you know, the killing of humans):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment

I don’t really want to get into a discussion about the individual merits of any activity.  (That is, are horrible human beings at a lower level of protection than roosters, dogs, or sacred cows?)

The point is that you cannot project your morals onto others, thinking that yours is the higher code, allowing you to espouse your self-righteousness to supercede others’.

There are certain things that unite all good people, regardless of context.  But, there are others that are subject to interpretation and context.

One of my two favorite bloggers (along with Poz).

Racial bias in sports:
http://dwil.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/race-and-sports-maybe-if-the-cards-are-laid-out-on-the-table/

I’m definitely with him here.  Any time you’ve got the US media involved, get your white radar on for your victims stories and your black radar on for your perp stories.

If all your information was from TV, you’d think there’s a serial kidnapper out there who only goes after young, good looking, white girls.

Show me on TV an older unattractive black girl that was kidnapped, and that’ll be the first I’ve seen of it.

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And the possible association of a black man as king kong:
http://dwil.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/lebron-james-and-the-vogue-cover-more-king-kong-than-king-james/

Here, I’m not so sure.  There might be racial bias here.  Would you see Dirk Novitzky make such a pose?  Joba Chamberlain?  I think DK has a point.

Is it harmful?  It seems that Lebron is just playing with it.  He was probably at least shown the pics at some point.

In Canada, we don’t look at race as an issue (language is our cultural vice).  Stephen Colbert jokingly says “I don’t see color. You tell me that you’re black, and I take your word for it”.  To me, that’s a fact.  I’ve got friends from basically half the countries in the world.

Maybe Lebron has that kind of feel to it, that this picture is all for fun, and really nothing more.  That even if it was King Kong, it wasn’t meant to associate a black guy as Kong.

But, DK’s point is still good enough.  Would a big white guy have done that pose, and would it have the same Kong effect?  Maybe if it was Lou Ferrigno (even as a non-green guy).

Tough call…