Trouble. With a capital T and that rhypes with P and that stands for Spool!
Friends, Romans, Countrymen--lend me your comments! I come not to praise this thread, but to bury it. Oh, and if you're fasting and atoning today, G'Mar Chatima Tova.
- Joshua Holland, writing about the right's belief that "the left" is out to ruin football:
While Birdnow may write from the fringes, a similar theory has gained traction among some mainstream conservatives — Rush Limbaugh also wondered recently if “the left” was intent on “banning football as we know it.”
And NewBusters founder Matthew Sheffield agreed that the “liberal media” poses a genuine threat, writing that while “it’s difficult to imagine Americans going along with government outright banning football,” he could easily see “”compassionate’ liberals and trial lawyers gradually destroying the sport through excessive regulation, government intervention and lawsuits.”
While it may seem unclear why anyone would want to destroy football, running underneath these complaints is an established narrative about the supposed “feminization” of American culture that people like Limbaugh have long embraced. Jeff Blevins, author of Confessions of a Mad Sports Addict, was explicit about this angle, writing, “I like to call it the feminization of the league. Emasculation is another good” way to put it.
Because if you think football players shouldn't have to deal with suicide and dementia from CTE, you must hate America.
- California continues to do more things right--this time passing a minimum wage increase that will result in a $10 per hour minimum wage by 2016:
SACRAMENTO — A bill that would boost California's minimum wage to $10 an hour by 2016 won approval by the state Legislature on Thursday and was sent to Gov. Jerry Brown, who said he would sign it.
The measure would raise the current $8 minimum wage to $9 an hour next July 1 and to $10 on Jan. 1, 2016.
The 25% increase would be the first minimum-wage hike in California in five years and would put extra money in the pockets of an estimated 2.4 million Californians.
Business groups provided the usual opposition, saying it would be a job-killer like they always do. And yet, seems like ever since we started enacting the policies they kept on saying would be job-killers, we've done pretty well.
- Boer and Reid 1, David Vitter 0:
Sen. David Vitter is pushing back against a legislative proposal that alludes to his prior connection to a prostitution scandal.
In a letter to the Senate Ethics Committee, the Louisiana Republican seeks an investigation of Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Ethics Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., contending that the offices of the two senators are running afoul of the rules with “attempted bribery.”
Politico reported that Senate Democrats have drafted an amendment to pending energy efficiency legislation that would keep lawmakers from getting employer contributions for their federal health benefits in the new health exchanges under Obamacare if there is “probable cause” that the lawmaker solicited prostitutes.
Vitter has admitted to a “serious sin” but did not fully admit to being a client of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, better known as the “D.C. Madam.” His phone number, however, did show up in the investigation of Palfrey. Because the alleged solicitation took place before Vitter arrived in the Senate, the Ethics Committee dismissed a complaint against him back in 2008.
The draft legislation appears to be in response to Vitter’s quest to secure a vote on an amendment to unrelated energy efficiency legislation over government employer contributions to members of Congress in the new health exchanges.
Now, if you're Vitter...why file that ethics complaint? Why dredge up your dirty diapers again, instead of just letting the situation go? To each his own, I guess.
- From the diaries yesterday. I'm not even exactly sure how such a moral outrage is possible.
- The Los Angeles Dodgers will be hosting an LGBT night out at their home game on September 27th:
The team that broke baseball’s color barrier, that brought in the Hispanic community with Fernando Valenzuela and the Japanese community with Hideo Nomo, is now reaching out to the LGBT community.
They’ve come a long ways from when they kicked out a lesbian couple for kissing at a Dodger Stadium game in 2000.
“We welcome all fans to Dodger Stadium throughout each season,” said Dodger Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Lon Rosen in statement. “We are especially proud to welcome and recognize the LGBT community of Los Angeles, an integral part of the city and of the Dodgers community.”
I'll wait while the Giants fans around here start making snarky comments.
- Not good news for NPR. (But maybe good news for John McCain.)
- From the New York Times, an article on Gibraltar that basically teaches you everything you need to know but might have been afraid to ask.