Daily Links 8/23

Some great links for the dead of off-season.

Regarding Marbury, anyone who defends dogfighting is too far gone to reason with. There is a malfunction in his wiring. I’ve learned there are some people who are incapable of empathy. The ability to feel compassion just isn’t part of their psyche, and it’s difficult for the rest of us to comprehend. I don’t know if there’s a clinical term for it, but it seems to me that the capacity to justify cruelty or dismiss it with a shrug is a form of mental illness. Maybe it has something to do with self-absorbtion.

Regarding Ruben Patterson, I just can’t cheer for a guy with his track record. If we need that kind of guy on the team to win a championship, I can live without it. I like to function under the delusion that the guys I’m applauding (and whose salaries I’m helping to pay) are halfway decent human beings.

Regarding Stephen A Smith, I can only hope this is the first in a long series of layoffs for him. Every time he’s thrown into the mix on ESPN or on draft night, he almost single handedly (or single mouthedly) ruins it for me. He’s a blow hard of the highest order: a know-nothing who demands attention by out-shouting everyone else. I know TV producers love to throw controversial characters like Smith and Dick Vitale into the mix, but I don’t find it the least bit entertaining listening to stupid people spewing inanities and talking louder than everyone else.

I find Steven A Smight entertaining and enjoy it when he is wrong. He has enough basketball knowledge to be dangerous and takes sides right from the start. I like that. It makes it controversial. I hate the Fred Carter style where he jumps in the “bandwagon” and never tells you what he really thinks….

Coco, you must enjoy steven i smith constantly because he is always wrong. Nothing controversial about steven…just stupidity. He has no basketball knowledge whatsoever….And very little knowledge of anything. Now if ESPN will do us all a service and take his blithering idiocy off the air, my mute button won’t keep wearing out.
There is no comparison between steven and Vitale. Vitale is loud but well spoken and knowledgable.

Danny spent Rivers’ entire tenure trying to Rivers-proof the roster. I can’t imagine bringing a character like Patterson on board.

Got to love Flea’s blog. Go Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Regarding Marbory, dogfighting, etc…Where I live, there are dogfighting rings, cockfighting rings, human fight clubs, drag racing on public street clubs, and, of course, massive gang violence. Dogfighting is a nasty subculture linked to gangs initially but sadly it has seemed to find a home in certain African-American clusters. Cockfighting has long been associated with Latino groups. Regardless of ethnic and racial affiliations, all of this behavior is reprehensible. I am fascinated by the media overkill on the subject. It reminds me of my European friends who tell me that in American film and tv, you can’t hurt an animal but you can kill, torture, rape humans without much of a protest.

Regarding Steven A. Smith, I turn to Bill Cosby for inspiration. Why does he turn on and off, at will, his bogus African-American, street way of talking depending on the tone of circumstances of the report or discussion? I find it disingenuous to say the least.

James,
I get your point, but I think people who are capable of cruelty and who lack empathy don’t differentiate much between humans and animals. It just so happens that it’s easier to get away with cruelty to animals. But I would bet most dogfighting enthusiasts are also bullies to fellow humans and that their cruelty isn’t limited to animals. In other words, an a-hole is an a-hole.

Which brings me to Dick Vitale. Iowa, maybe I’m missing something, but all I ever hear from him is glossy gushing about how great every college player is. To me, he’s all bombast and little substance. And annoying as all hell.

By the way, he STUNK as a GM.

Can’t wait to heckle Flea at the C’s game on Dec. 30. He has the grammar of a 5-year-old.

TA in the interview said his knee is 65%, that doesnt sound good.

Cousin It. Agreed.