The Catholic Church of Professional Sports?

I prefer to get my sports news from the CBS site, but kudos to ESPN for reporting about widespread abuse of youths at the NBA's "training academies" in China.

[By the way: I have had repeated difficulty posting the ESPN link as part of the story. So I had to just post it as text right below.]

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29553829/espn-investigation-finds-coaches-nba-china-academies-complained-player-abuse-lack-schooling

And the story is not perfect: it treads the line of cultural relativism, walking close to making excuses. But fortunately, it walks away from that.

What ESPN found was ugly, and known at very high levels:

The program, launched in 2016, is part of the NBA's strategy to develop local players in a basketball-obsessed market that has made NBA China a $5 billion enterprise. Most of the former employees spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared damaging their chances for future employment. NBA officials asked current and former employees not to speak with ESPN for this story. In an email to one former coach, a public relations official added: "Please don't mention that you have been advised by the NBA not to respond."

One American coach who worked for the NBA in China described the project as "a sweat camp for athletes."

At least two coaches left their positions in response to what they believed was mistreatment of young players.

One requested and received a transfer after watching Chinese coaches strike teenage players, three sources told ESPN. Another American coach left before the end of his contract because he found the lack of education in the academies unconscionable: "I couldn't continue to show up every day, looking at these kids and knowing they would end up being taxi drivers," he said.

Not long after the academies opened, multiple coaches complained about the physical abuse and lack of schooling to Greg Stolt, the league's vice president for international operations for NBA China, and to other league officials in China, the sources said. It was unclear whether the information was passed on to NBA officials in New York, they said. The NBA declined to make Stolt available for comment.

Two of the former NBA employees separately told ESPN that coaches at the academies regularly speculated about whether Silver had been informed about the problems. "I said, 'If [Silver] shows up, we're all fired immediately,'" one of the coaches said.

Tatum said the NBA received "a handful" of complaints that Chinese coaches had mistreated young players and immediately informed local authorities that the league had "zero tolerance" for behavior that was "antithetical to our values." Tatum said the incidents were not reported at the time to league officials in New York, including himself or Silver.

"I will tell you that the health and wellness of academy athletes and everyone who participates in our program is of the utmost priority," Tatum said.

Tatum identified four separate incidents, though he said only one was formally reported in writing by an NBA employee. On three of the occasions, the coaches reported witnessing or hearing about physical abuse. The fourth incident involved a player who suffered from heat exhaustion.

"We did everything that we could, given the limited oversight we had," Tatum said.

Three sources who worked for the NBA in China told ESPN the physical abuse by Chinese coaches was much more prevalent than the incidents Tatum identified.

The refusal of the NBA to let the coaches speak tells you all you need to know. And it also tells us that the odds NBA HQ in New York knew nothing about this are too low to be meaningfully calculated.

But by all means--please lecture the rest of us about justice when you operated child-abusing basketball factories. It's worked really well for the imploding ecclesiastical institution I am counted as a member of.

Who knew operating a glitzy training facility in concentration camp country would be bad optics?

Lord knows it took the NBA long enough to recognize it.

And note how quietly the relationship ended.

Even now, fear of offending Xi is the polestar for the cringing corporati who are so happy to lecture others about privilege and a state's abuse of minorities.

And while Ted Cruz is a preening windbag, his point about Cuban's fear of offending China was not rebutted.

The reality is, you can't have a growing global network of outreach and training centers and then turn into an aw-shucks isolationist when someone calls you out for profiting from your relationship with abusive regimes.

At the end of the day, Cuban and the rest of the NBA are just transnational businessmen trying to sell you something. Their political stances are part of a carefully-scripted sales pitch, and their connections to the community are brand maintenance. All of which serves an overarching brand strategy.

And smart businessmen are always happy to trade a passel of small customers for bigger ones.

That's the spirit!

The Jewish residents who had been welded out of their parks while thousands have marched unimpeded in America's worst pandemic zone responded eloquently yesterday.

With bolt cutters.

More footage here.

Bravo! Let's see how the Jew-hating twerp responds.

And a word to New York's municipal workers: stop following these orders.

Contact tracing was always going to be a hard slog in America.

The mobility of the people, along with the continental size of our nation (round-trip commutes of 100 miles are common) and the general bustle of the day with multiple stops for necessaries, planned or otherwise....yikes.

And that was before most of the health expert class decided to publicly-execute their credibility by supporting or fearfully-avoiding criticism of massive, crowded protests during the pandemic.

So, yeah--this is accurate (hat-tip to Don):

 

In an age where doxxing does not result in 20 year minimums, the third bolded point is certainly going to happen.

But before that, the "go piss up a rope" responses are going to be off-the-charts.

And in light of current events, there's going to be a shortage of law enforcement to deal with the recalcitrant.

"Must be Bald-Faced Liar": the essential job qualification for Catholic Archbishop of Washington.

We all knew that Wilton Gregory was moved to Washington to keep Donald Wuerl's and Ted McCarrick's remaining secrets and network of pals secure. After all, the overlap is considerable.

And while that involves a certain amount of smiling mendacity, I wasn't expecting him to display his predecessors' knack for easily-disproven lies.

At least not so soon.

Donald McClarey brings this to our attention today: the shocked, shocked! Archbishop had been fully aware of the President's planned visit to the JPII Center and had declined an invite:

The White House said Sunday that Washington’s archbishop was invited to attend an event with President Donald Trump several days before it took place, amid media reports that the archbishop did not learn of the event until the night before it took place.

White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told CNA June 7 that “Archbishop Gregory received an invitation to the President’s event at the St. John Paul II Shrine the week prior to the President’s visit. He declined due to other commitments.”

Correspondence between Archbishop Wilton Gregory’s office and the White House indicates the same.

In correspondence dated May 30th and obtained by CNA, Gregory’s office declined “the kind invitation to attend the event celebrating International Religious Freedom on Tuesday, June 2, 2020 at the Saint John Paul II Shrine.“

I'm neither surprised nor disappointed. As the last few years have shown, this is the precisely the kind of shallow, hissing ideologue the pontiff wants in prominent positions in the American church. 

I can't wait to see who he gives us to run Detroit when that bleak day comes.

Oddly enough!

I have reservations about James O'Keefe, but I have to admit I admire this brilliant bit of guerilla theatre: posing as members of an anti-gun organization, O'Keefe's group offered "This Home Is Gun-Free" stickers to the grandstanders at MSNBC.

There were no takers.

Did I mention brilliant?

As predictable as a metronome.

NBC's David Gregory will not be prosecuted for possessing illegal rifle magazine, "despite the clarity of the violation of this important law."

The laws do not apply to the ruling class, living in their gated, well-appointed compounds, nor to their circle of favored courtiers, like Gregory. Discretion will be exercised to excuse and protect the important.

You, on the other hand, would be staring down the barrel of a vigorous felony prosecution for the same violation of the District's silly statute.

"Equality before the law," my ass.

Is it possible for an entire culture to suffer from Asperger's?

Symptomology:

• Not pick up on social cues and may lack inborn social skills, such as being able to read others' body language, start or maintain a conversation, and take turns talking.
• Dislike any changes in routines.
• Appear to lack empathy.
• Be unable to recognize subtle differences in speech tone, pitch, and accent that alter the meaning of others' speech. So your child may not understand a joke or may take a sarcastic comment literally. And his or her speech may be flat and hard to understand because it lacks tone, pitch, and accent.
• Have a formal style of speaking that is advanced for his or her age. For example, the child may use the word "beckon" instead of "call" or the word "return" instead of "come back."
• Avoid eye contact or stare at others.
• Have unusual facial expressions or postures.
• Be preoccupied with only one or few interests, which he or she may be very knowledgeable about. Many children with Asperger's syndrome are overly interested in parts of a whole or in unusual activities, such as designing houses, drawing highly detailed scenes, or studying astronomy. They may show an unusual interest in certain topics such as snakes, names of stars, or dinosaurs. 
• Talk a lot, usually about a favorite subject. One-sided conversations are common. Internal thoughts are often verbalized. 

This whiny violent bully crap is getting old. Then again, Buddhists are probably the masters of Islamophobia, so I guess they deserved it.

Frederick Douglass and Irish emancipation.

Donald McClarey at the American Catholic is always worth reading, but he absolutely knocks it out of the park with his history posts. This one is no exception, chronicling the meeting of the liberator of Ireland and the Elijah of emancipation.

Not so by the way, Douglass' Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass is a must read. He revised it over time (the 1845 version protected those who helped him escape), and I have only read the first. But it is a work of remarkable power, and a searing indictment of those who do evil under a lacquer of piety.

"I think he can *hear* you, Ray."

Juan Williams' sin was simply in voicing NPR's own fears out loud.

In the end, NPR did not post the cartoon, although it is readily available around the Internet. Many listeners wrote to say that they were disappointed with that decision.

. . .

Listeners who are strong First Amendment advocates say NPR's response is insufficient. Many have written asking that NPR join with other American media and stand up to extremism and intimidation. But NPR also has, in my opinion, an obligation not to exacerbate the tensions that already inflame relations between Muslims and non-Muslims. Would posting the cartoon help or hinder the goals of free speech and a free press in the Muslim world?

To put in another way — would NPR post racist or anti-Semitic cartoons on its Web site in the name of free speech? Or do the values of public radio demand another, more measured response?

NPR may have a special role in this: In radio, the shock of the visual can be avoided by clearly describing why the cartoon is considered offensive. This does not compound the offense by re-publishing it. There is a value in euphemism, even though the temptation to poke radicals in the eye is strong.

NPR resisted that temptation, much to the dismay of some listeners who want NPR to use the cartoon as a weapon against radical Islam. In reporting this story, NPR has been clear, but not provocative. It's been a tough call all around, but I think that NPR did the right thing.

Translation: we submit--don't behead us.

Crocodile tears.

Or, "Progressives pretend to be upset about the iconoclasm they've tried to ram down everyone's throats since 1965."

The merry band of lassies and lads at the Reporter claim to be appalled--just appalled!--by a pastor's decision to cover a mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I agree--it's a horror. The Archbishop is screwing this one up.

But...color me skeptical that the folks at the Reporter are truly upset by the actual covering, though. The Reporter piece reeks of opportunism, getting the chance to rage at a despised bishop to their right (which, yes, is most of them). I mean, how can the same people who rip out baldaccinos, high altars, altar rails, statuary, crucifixes, etc. at the drop of a hat really be upset by the covering of a mural above the altar? Or am I to believe that the Reporter crowd suddenly got the bulletin from II Nicaea, rekindling that ol' time religion?

Even better: there's evidence for the opportunism. From right here in Michigan, when some of the late bishop Untener's apparatchiks did the exact same thing to a Hispanic parish in Saginaw, removing the statue of the Guadalupana commissioned by the Mexican families in the parish back in 1961. Reporter coverage of that abuse of the religious sensibilities of Hispanic parishoners? Zilch. Try it yourself. I used "Guadalupe statue" and "rainbow parish."

Can't embarrass the administration of a late progressive hero, can we? But the Devil Chaput? Avengers assemble!

Nice bit of canned outrage by the folks in KC. Need to work on making it less transparent next time, though.

According to Hollywood, Paul Shanley's real sin was that he didn't make "Chinatown" or "The Pianist."

How else am I to understand the ferocious defense of noted rapist Roman "Everyone wants to f--- young girls" Polanski?

I'm pleased to note the French public--and a growing number of public figures--are less solicitous of rapists than Les People are.

Resign, you scumbag.

Governor Mark Sanford admits to travelling to Argentina to knock boots with his mistress.

He also used his office to lie and conceal the affair.

But here's the best part: he's a father of four, and he spent Father's Day getting jiggy.

Unbelievable. Wretched, rotten, foul, putrid--insert your decomposing adjective here.

This married father of four recommends you STFU, leave office and spend the rest of your life in penitential obscurity. The longer you spend in office, the more you make Elliott Spitzer look like a model of puritan rectitude.

Some animals are more equal than others.

One for the memory banks.

On the same day a Senate committee was in high dudgeon over record oil company profits, the Congress passed a farm bill that ensures windfall profits and other taxpayer-funded goodies for agribusiness--to the tune of a nice, fat $300 billion.

Cognitive dissonance much, O Solons of the Beltway?

Nothing quite like the sweet, sweet taste of petrodollars to euthanize the conscience.

Cal-Berkeley and Cal Poly are racing to set up schools in enlightened Saudi Arabia.

Cal Poly's is men-only and Berkeley's being...circumspect about the nature of its school, assuring that there will be no discrimination.

But refusing to cough up any documentary proof.

Faculty concerns have slowed similar proposals between other U.S. and Saudi schools. At Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, engineering professors are opposing an agreement to develop a men-only engineering school at Saudi Arabia's Jubail University College.

Berkeley administrators are making sure the King Abdullah proposal would not lead to discrimination, said Al Pisano, chairman of the UC Berkeley mechanical engineering department.

"We're in the middle of vetting all of this," said Pisano, who declined to say how much money the Saudi school would pay UC Berkeley. "If this agreement goes forward as planned, I think you're going to find that there will be no discrimination on any basis."

Unlike other Saudi universities, the new school -- known as KAUST -- will not be subject to gender or religious restrictions, said John Burgess, a former U.S. diplomat who runs the Crossroads Arabia blog. King Abdullah intends to allow KAUST complete freedom so it can become one of the world's top graduate schools, Burgess said.

"KAUST is unique," he said. "There will be no government pressure on curriculum or the way anything runs. This is being carved out of Saudi Arabia."

But it remains to be seen whether women and others will indeed be allowed to be equal partners in the new venture. The New York Times reported in October that Israelis would not be allowed to collaborate with KAUST.

Sounds like a stunning engineering achievement, floating above Saudi Arabia like that. After all, that would be the only way the institution would escape the eyes and truncheons of the hairy double-y chromosome types who call themselves the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

And it looks to be 100% Jew-free, too. Understandable--those clever Zionists might sneak a few more nut-shrinkers into the land of purity.

Very well-played, Cal-Poly and Cal Berkeley.

Remember when American universities used to have their thongs in a wad about companies that did business in apartheid-era South Africa?

My mistake was to think it was an admirable stand for the principle of the equality of all men before the law. More the fool me.

Looks like the Boers' real crime was failing to sling some serious piles of Krugerrands down University way.

Nah--too cynical...