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Here there be sports/political commentary. If that's not your cup of tea, there are handy-dandy clickthrough buttons scattered at strategic points around your monitor. Drive home safely.
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Eliyahu Rips is a gentle and well-reasoned man, very Jewish, and a world-class mathemetician. In 1994, he published Equidistant Letter Sequences In the Book of Genesis, using state-of-the-art statistical methods to assert that the Torah had 3-dimensional "coding" in it.
This is not an issue for which Dr. D is very sympathetic. But Rips said something, after the firestorm subsided a bit. He said that he was disappointed that almost all reaction to his article was from one of two points of view:
- People ready to believe that Bible Codes existed, whatever the quality of the evidence
- People unready to believe that Bible Codes existed, whatever the quality of the evidence
Rips said that he had a hard time finding even one person willing to examine his article dispassionately, and to give him interesting feedback on it. Think about it: one person.
People think of themselves as skeptics when they are actually debunkers. And when it comes to racial tensions, it's even harder to find a climate in which calm, open discussion can flow freely.
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Donald Sterling is on tape, allegedly forbidding his girlfriend from bringing black friends to his Clipper games. Sterling's attorneys respond by saying that the girlfriend is under fire for "embezzling" $1.8M from Sterling, and that she had previously made vows to "get even" with him for wanting his money back.
Sterling is, of course, a creepy man, and the relationship with the young woman is creepy. At least from this distance. (Do I respect Ms. Stiviano any more than I do Sterling?)
And personally I doubt that Sterling's relationships are the most creepy in the NBA.
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Bill James weighed in several times. $3 per month at BJOL:
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Hey Bill, in light of Clippers owner Donald Sterling's alleged racial comments, do you believe that there is an appropriate discipline for these kind of statements? Those of us who have lived in Los Angeles and been paying attention to his antics aren't really that surprised. However, if these statements are correctly linked to him, the NBA clearly needs to impose some kind of clear punishment.
Asked by: andyf
Answered: 4/27/2014
In general and in philosophy, I think we need to learn to tolerate other people saying things that we don't like, particularly in their private lives. In this particular case, I think he's beyond the pale of that kind of defense. I think the NBA will order him to sell the team, if they have that power in their working agreement, and I think they should. A person who would prefer not to associate with black people has no business being in the NBA. xxxxxx I know you're going to ask me why THIS particular comment is beyond the pale, and I don't know that I have an answer for you. If he had expressed attitudes that were behind the times, as Marge Schott did in the 1990s, I would certainly defend him; people have a right to be old and stupid. If he had told a racist joke, I suppose that I might argue that it is unfortunate but ultimately none of our business. But when you ask people not to associate. . .well, ORDER people not to associate, that's bias in action. That's active discrimination, which means that it is no longer personal conduct. And the fact that he said these things to a woman of mixed-race heritage just somehow makes it that much worse.
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OK, yes, and I agree. If a feminist wants to get up and say "I just don't like men; deal with it," well ... this is America.
If you want to argue that all men should be forced to wear their underwear backwards, upon threat of Archipelago, then the appropriate punishment for you is for you to be humiliated in public debate.
But that is a general principle. Absolutes need not apply. It may be that Sterling, in this specific case, broaches my personal philosophy of "You can say and think what you want."
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James continues,
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Is there any precedent for a professional sports league forcing an owner to sell a team?
Asked by: Ben from New York
Answered: 4/28/2014
I'm not expert. Baseball in its operating agreement (among the teams) had language (and probably still has language) providing for such a situation. I'll state this as I remember it, and then somebody else can straighten out anything I've got wrong. The Phillies owner in the 1940s (before the Carpenter family) was forced to sell the team, I think because of some involvement with gamblers or something similar, and Cardinals owner Fred Saigh was forced to sell the team in the early 1950s after being convicted, I think, of tax evasion. Of course, a person who is in big trouble with the IRS is in a financially vulnerable position, and he probably can't do much to resist efforts to force him to sell an asset. About 1966 or 1967 the American League voted to force Charlie Finley to sell the A's, while they were still in Kansas City; however, Finley refused to sell and promised a court fight, and the league was unable to force him out. I believe that there was also an effort to force Bill Veeck to sell one of his teams at one time, and I believe there were also earlier owners who were forced to sell, but I don't know the specifics of it. (Paragraph) It's actually not that uncommon a situation in smaller businesses; three to ten people are running a business together and one of them becomes persona non grata; there may or may not be legal remedies to force the uncool person to sell. There is often language in the contracts which is supposed to provide for this eventuality, but it's a crapshoot whether you'll be covered or not. When businesses grow larger over time they often retain the old language, but such "force out" clauses are not easy to enforce in court. The NBA (in the current situation) might have to go to court to force the owner to sell, even if there was an agreement in place, and one couldn't readily predict what the court would do.
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Right. Who cares about the precedent?
America is going to thoroughly enjoy media-lynching Sterling. The precedents won't matter.
Sterling aside, I'd love to hear Mojician educate us as to those practical situations in which attorneys don't worry much about precedent.
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Sterling's comments as reported say, basically, these black guys are OK as high paid gladiators but not as fans. It is an attitude I have seen some folks argue as the basis of our sports culture, and I always completely rejected it as having any real basis. Now here is an idiot, in the NBA of all places, who owns a team and says that. It is not only association, which you are right, is bad enough. It also says he doesn't want his stands filled with black people. It is untenable, and if the NBA can it should get rid of him. And for the first time in his ownership it actually looked like he was building something with the Clips.
Asked by: raincheck
Answered: 4/28/2014
Part of what is offensive about it is that it comes so near to the image of the slave owner, eager to exploit black people but unwilling to treat them as human beings.
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What I would hate to see, is a recoil into the culture of "If I don't like what you say, then you'd better learn to be more sensitive. Or else."
USA Today's headline gleefully chortles, "How will NBA's Adam Silver punish Donald Sterling?" Punish him? For what, exactly? For the fact that he doesn't like black people? It's left vague, in the article as well as in the headline.
But, that said, American society moved forward on race through SOME means. Donald Sterling is about to (appropriately) become the MEANS by which we put the finishing touches on social justice.
Criminal penalties (for free speech) are one thing, civil and professional penalties another. Sterling is an 80-year-old rich guy, born during the Great Depression, made his dough in divorces and personal injuries and then apartment housing .... who thinks it's still okay to hate dem folks, even while you avail yourself of their services.
In this particular case, I'm just fine with his getting a great big comeuppance for the expedient-but-dubious effect he's had on the people around him.
My $0.02,
Jeff