#declarations of goals and progress or etc. .. perhaps.. for now..

[icewindandboringhorror]

Daily Log 4

Trying out (probably just temporarily) making short daily-ish notes about things, in an attempt to see if it helps me be more reflective or productive lol.

Activities: Woke up late because I went back to sleep with a headache briefly, then kind of struggled to focus all day ToT

Worked more on the aforementioned tapestry/painting type of thing. I've done the base layer of painting for the main image, now I'm lining in darker outlines. I wanted to finish the center art before getting into the intricate borders. Still haven't translated the text lol..

Made a small bowl and also a little box with a lid out of more avocado pits. Still just with random nail cuticle tool things and kitchen knives, as I don't have proper carving tools.

Finished editing and proofreading the new poll adventure post!! I don't have time to post it tonight because I need to get to sleep early but.. I have it Completely 100% Ready.. finally..

Also washed the clothes I got together yesterday. Called about the bloodwork. Sent an email to a doctor.

Reviewed some writing documents to get back into my game maybe?? (basically, I started working on a visual novel type game a few years ago, decided it was a huge project so kind of put it on the backburner for a while in favor of things that were more easily finishable/tangible. then later on a game website I play (similar to neopets or something, there are collectable little creatures, etc.) there was an opportunity for me to design a pet on site, so I made a smaller shorter visual novel centered around that, where people on the site have to play the game in order to earn the pet, and I have a google form for them to answer a few short questions about it. All of the feedback is quite positive (reached 200 responses a while ago! though still only like 4 comments on the itch.io page lol.. Mandatory Form vs. Optional Comments evil showdown), but sometimes I get commentary that's really enthusiastic and inspires me to start back working on the OTHER bigger game. The small game was kind of like, a proof of concept that was safe because I had a guaranteed audience, that has helped me gain more insight for the larger one.

Anyway, since I've abandoned the Main Large Game for so long, I have to re-read and review/probably rewrite A LOT of things just to pick it back up again as A Thing I'm Actively Working On, so it's another one of those tasks that I do maybe 45 minutes of and then realize it's going to take days and days and get discouraged lol..

Notable sights: Saw two cats in windows. No clovers. It rained a little today but I didn't get to go outside and see it. One of the pieces of asparagus in the fridge was like the size of a carrot, comically overgrown downright ridiculous looking asparagus. Maybe I'll get taller after eating it.

Goals moving forward: Consistent sleep schedule. Focus on social activities, finding new friends in the places I want to move, communicating with ones I have. Physical therapy exercises. Plant nasturtiums. Finish and upload videos, edit costume pictures & etc.

Notable foods: ASPARAGUS AGAIN BABEY.. yeaAAAAGHHH asparagus squad !!!!!!

#just posting these publicly since it feels more like I'm doing something or easier to hold yourself accountable if you make public #declarations of goals and progress or etc. .. perhaps.. for now.. #I wonder if you can eat too much asparagus. Hopefulyl I don't get sick ghjbj #Still craving lots of savory foods and soups. Also in a big big worldbuilding mood. #Not enough to actually edit the worldbuilding slideshow videos apparently since I've barely done any of that all week #>:Y #(they are different though.. actively writing wolrdbuilding is different from like.. editing recordings of you talking about it #BUT STILL...) #In an ideal world I have a little house in scotland or canada or something and am sitting cozy by a window watching it #rain whilst I eat lasagna and like a huge buffet table of every single hearty food I am having Anemia Cravings for #and my cat is sitting near me and I am furiously sketching various designs for different worldbuilding details. I have finally found #a weird hermit platonic best friend I'm compatible enough to live with and they are up in the attic doing their own weird little hobbies #but every once in a while I can call them down and tell them about an idea so we can bounce concepts off of each other. I somehow walk away #with no heartburn or stomach upset or nausea despite eating 800 plates of craving foods. It's cold and summer #does not exist anymore but not in a Catastrophic For The Earth type of way more in a like.. I am in a magical bubble #that only affects my direct vicinity and sheilds me from the temperature ever getting above 65F #(also I have a comfortable amount of money and good doctors and reasonable health etc. etc. but that's a given in any Ideal Scenario lol) #oughh... I just want to eat hearty breakfast foods and think about elves for 5 hours.. is that so much to ask #Why must... responsibilities... capitalism... limited time and no energy to focus on 100 projects at once... why these things... #ANYWAY #daily log

[kinjedl]

My Homebrew Discovery system

This is a system that I'm currently playtesting in the campaign I'm currently DMing. It's technically written for D&D 5E, but would require effectively no changes to be adapted to almost any TTRPG system.

The system is designed for times when the party is going to be exploring an area for at least some time. It's not worth the time and prep if the party is just visiting an area briefly, and it's not really suitable for long distance travel - though I'm mulling over a way to adapt it for that. It's instead designed to represent the party becoming familiar with an area, exploring it, and discovering what it has to offer. I'm currently using it to allow the party to explore two cities (one on the surface, one in the caverns beneath it), allowing them to reveal major areas and points of interest through it.

Here is my current edition of the rules:

Step 0) The DM prepares an appropriate number of encounters and assigns them each to a card in a deck.  The deck can be as small or large as is appropriate to the amount of discovery needed to explore an area.  As an example, exploration of a small city could be represented by a deck comprised of the Major Arcana of a Tarot deck.  Not all encounters need be combat encounters - or lengthy at all.  Exploring a vast system of caves could include a large number of cards representing effectively no encounter at all - perhaps a full 52 card deck where only the face cards represent “real” encounters.

Step 1) The party declares what they’re trying to do and/or where they’re trying to go.

ex. Remember where I heard that hot tip about something last week, find a magic item shop, look for my long lost sister, etc.

Obvious or simple options will not involve the discovery system. Finding an inn in a crowded city is not a discovery or a challenge.

Step 2) The DM declares what needs to be rolled, and the difficulty, as well as the length of time each interval will represent (which will generally be a flat number based on the area explored.)  The DM also decides in secret which, if any, of the available cards represents the goal.

ex. The DM might declare that the party needs to roll a DC 14 investigation check, decide in secret that the card they're looking for is The Lovers, and that each roll represents 4 hours of time spent.

Step 3) The party can attempt to use consumables, special abilities, class or background features, etc to influence the roll, at the DM's discretion. The party lists which option(s) they want to try to use, and the DM applies modifiers or advantage as appropriate. Of note, the "Help" action is not available. This represents party efforts as a whole - one player is taking the lead and using their modifiers, but the efforts of the group as a whole are represented.

Step 4) For each number above the threshold, the party gets an extra draw from the deck.  (ex. Rolling a total of 12 on a DC 10 check will result in 3 cards drawn).  If the roll fails, the time spent is lost, and no progress is made, but nothing else happens otherwise.

Step 5) The DM deals the appropriate number of cards, face up and revealed to the party.  

Step 6)  If the desired destination is in the mix, the party has reached their destination / goal and play proceeds from there.  If the card the DM chose is not among the cards revealed, the party rolls to see which of the drawn cards they arrived at, and the player who took the lead in this action is given this card.

Step 7) If the party reaches their destination, the round is over.  The DM discards his hand, and resets the discard pile, but not the players’ hands.  Once a destination is reached, it is removed from the deck and remains in the hand of the player who received it. 

If the party has not yet reached their destination, they can choose to continue on, repeating steps 1-6 with the now smaller deck of remaining cards (the original deck, minus all drawn cards.) 

The party will eventually reach their destination, assuming the DM assigned it a card. The party will not know if the DM assigned a card until either the deck is exhausted or the destination is reached.

If the deck is exhausted without reaching the goal, the party has reached the end of their available search destinations and determines that it isn’t in the location they’re searching or isn't reachable by any means available to them currently.

If the party chooses to change objectives, reset the deck (but not the cards given to players) and start over, losing any progress towards the previous goal except for any cards handed directly to players.

#d&d #d&d homebrew #homebrew #ttrpg #foundryvtt #d&d 5th edition #d&d 5e #d&d 5e homebrew

[increaseknowledge]

3 Steps to Changing Bad Habits

1: cold cut turkey

2: habit replacement

3: small step can change your life

4: focus on the good Habits

5: estate planning

Introduction

5 Proven Ways To Break Your Bad Habits

Everyone has bad habits. Some of these are obvious, such as smoking, excessive drinking, fast food consumption, etc. You might not even be aware of some of the harmful behaviors you’ve developed over the years. Your ability to achieve your goals in life may be hindered by some negative behaviors. For example, frequent procrastination can seriously impede your progress.

Perhaps you have some negative habits that limit your ability to interact with others or prevent you from getting a promotion at the job you want. Recognizing your faults is the most important step in this quick article five steps toward breaking them. There are dependable ways to end persistent blemishes for good.

Persistence, diligence, and time are fundamental. Even though it requires diligence, it is possible to eliminate negative behavior patterns. You will face the right opportunities.

What indecency do you have?

Assuming that you know next to nothing about your negative behavior patterns, which is probably given that you are now conscious of some of them, then at that point, the most ideal way to portray them is to think about yourself. Ask you what they are. You might think this is overly straightforward. It really does. You have created such tendencies that fade away in your psyche. Using it, you can feel what is happening in your life. 

The best way to accomplish this is by presenting yourself with the right inquiries. Your inner mind will be compelled to solve these inquiries for you. So take a pen and paper for yourself and go to an area where you will not face any obstruction. If the television Assumes it’s on turn it off.

Keep your telephone in quiet mode so that you are not completely out of reach of the world. This is the main inquiry to introduce myself: What are my negative behavior patterns?” Most likely it is quite difficult. indeed it is! You must be determined to need to recognize your terrible tendencies. That’s all your psyche needs to respond to you.

Try not to do it pathetically as you will not get the solution. Aren’t you fully ready to recognize that you’re constantly flawed so that you can break them? It doesn’t matter what answers you get; Keep in touch with them as usual below. If you have a considerable expanse of terrible comfort, assuming that you have frequent flaws; You can break them all.

What is more worrying is the non-receipt of a response to the inquiry. Just stay focused on the investigation and be quiet about posing. Something will come out!

The Process Of Eliminating Bad Habits

Every person has both good and bad habits. Similar to your positive habits, you are more likely to be aware of most of your bad behaviors. If you have listened to the suggestions in the previous section, you should have recognized your negative behaviors.

What Will You Do Now?

Many people openly declare that they want to end all their bad habits, but the point is that they are unsure of the most efficient way to accomplish it. They experiment with different techniques but find that breaking their negative behaviors is actually very difficult. If they make an improvement, it is brief and the unwanted habit returns quickly.

As a general rule understanding what a vice is is the most important step in breaking it. In the simplest terms conceivable, a mode of behavior that your psychic mind enacts is referred to as a tendency. It is trying for you to eliminate defects (and great ones) as they are ingrained in your psyche. Remember them. That’s why the screening strategy is so powerful to spot your blemishes.

Your instincts, both great and terrible, make you who you are. You have to take a step to really put an end to your persistent blemishes. You must understand how they came to be. Trying as it may seem, it is not. Any trend is formed after some time. There are four sections to the trend management process, which are:

1. Trigger

2. longing

3. Feedback

4. Rewards

When you can break out the bottom of your trends into these four sections, it becomes much easier for you to understand how trends work.

Thus, it gives you a way to end a trend. Analysts call this 4-step process a “trend cycle”. It checks if not – something triggers you to fuel a trend and, later, you desire to enjoy it.

The urge to instinct is solid to the extent that it gets your response which is a pattern of behavior or activity. While you are enjoying this behavior you will have joyful messages in your mind that will support the trend.

Here’s a model: You’ve had a troubled evening at work. This triggers the desire for a drink. Instead of returning home after work, you go straight down the street to the bar where everyone knows you.

You go to the bar all night, which sends a message of happiness to your brain. The 4 components in the trend development process form a neurological circle that empowers you to pick up new trends and put them on autopilot.

When the trend stops you will follow the daily practice As a result. It’s not programmed at all, but since it happens so quickly, it undeniably feels like it is.

The uplifting news is that there are many powerful ways you can eliminate negative behavior patterns from your life. One part of these will be more compelling to you than the others.

It is on this basis that we are unique and have distinctive tendencies and remarkable situations. That’s why we should examine the five most familiar ways to kick unfortunate behavior patterns:

Read More

[bayern-moni]

Ship Asks: El Cid x Mine

Author's little den: This is dedicated to @lamaquego that 4 months and 10 days ago asked me to write for her a fanfiction about these two characters and how their "love story" would unfold in a less unforgiving AU than canon. I have to say sorry to you because I'm not able to fulfill that promise, I tried but in this period just can't bring myself to write anything more than these posts, which are a sort of relief for me. So, this is for you, in exchange for that fanfiction that, like that love story, never was. I really hope you can like it 😁

For all the others who just read this post, enjoy it and spread word of this nice ship 👍

*

(AU: Mine lives after the Gaiden's events)

*

How would they describe each other to loved ones who haven’t met their partner yet?

El Cid: "She was a friend a long time ago. No, perhaps it was more than that. She was my favorite rival" (To Lacaille). Apart from that, don't be fooled by her elegant appearance, she was and still is an incorrigible pest.

Mine: The most stubborn man I have ever met! Although he seems quite intimidating at first sight with his sharp looks, he's quite funny to poke fun at. It was one of the few past times I had back then when the three of us lived together in that forest house.

(Don't trust if he says mean things about me, it's only envy)

How do they let their loved ones know they are dating?

They don't. Nobody cared if these two were comfortable enough to convey the news, because their "loved ones" just knew. Felser had called it since the very beginning and I mean it. Little Sasha had started sparkling with joy and didn't shut up about it for days, always trying (and failing) to stalk the couple. She was too happy that El Cid finally decided to have a life. Sisyphus became insufferable for the same reasons. Instead, the others never suspected anything: the doubt about capricorn having feelings at all was like a huge ham over their eyes.

Who still blushes when their partner compliments them?

You'd never guess it ;)

Who is most likely to check how their day is going?

When they were little kids training to reach the perfect blade, each in their own way, both often happened to forget about things like time etc... So the one that made sure nobody fainted from exhaustion was Felser. Then, growing up, the situation stayed the same got a little better. Now, Mine worked consistently less than him having left behind the obsession her dream had turned to, now she worked as sword-maker/sharpener in Rodorio -sometimes she even gave lessons to Lacaille-, but surprisingly El Cid is the one writing her more often asking for things like how the day at work is going, or just to hearing her complain about her clients. Mine writes more about the lines of "Did you remember to sleep this week between the trainings, you Spanish stakhanovite?"

(ok, the anachronism is necessary here)

Who gets jealous easiest?

None of them.

Who is the happy morning person and who is grumpy and just wants to go back to bed?

Starting from the fact that a "happy morning person" is more than not an aberration of nature (Kardia's words), the answer is that both are the grumpy type of morning people. Both Mine and El Cid are used to wake up to go and train at the crack of dawn since they were kids, but it doesn't mean they are happy about it. She is the one who complains loudly about it, but go ask Dohko what happens if he practices his new instrument at the early hours of the day. If you dare, I mean.

Who takes the longest to get ready and who is the most tidy and organised

Both are most tidy and organized, but El Cid reached a pathological level at it.

What annoys them the most about their partner? Would they change it if they could?

Mine is annoyed by his self destructive training schedule because she sees it is eating at him and plus they rarely get to spend a lot of time with each other because of it, but differently from Sysyphus and the others she does understand his motives and drive to become the holy blade himself. She literally consumed her whole soul for a similar goal, after all. She wouldn't change anything, though. Not even his emotional constipation.

El Cid could list a very long list of pranks that annoyed him. But nothing about her specifically. Only the fact that she let herself corrupt her noble dream in a demonic obsession. But he does not put it against her. It wasn't her fault, after all, she didn't want it, it just happened.

Who likes seeing the other wearing their t-shirt?

First of all, they don't even know what a t-shirt is. Secondly, she mostly wears women' kimonos (and quite revealing, now that we're at it), so I don't think it's a great mystery why they don't possibly exchange their clothes. Even if once Mine tried to bribe him during a bet, obviously, he vehemently refused and nothing could be done about it. Mine, instead, just doesn't like shirts.

Who plays pranks on the other?

Once, Mine used to sing in the shower with a very awfully shrieking voice with the sole goal of annoying his partner, who just happened to be a very light sleeper at the 3 am. Then, they were reported to the local police and she reluctantly stopped much to his relief.

Who says ‘I love you’ first?

El Cid. The trauma of seeing her revived as Phobetor's illusion and being forced to fight her to death broke every ounce of restraint left. As soon as they found each other again (because it's my AU and I can), that was the first thing he said. He couldn't take other blows on his too fragile heart. Risking waiting too much until she'd slip from his grasp again was out of question. By the way, he almost canonically said it in the end of the Gaiden so it's not too farfetched. She obviously understood this urgency and was delighted to declare that now they could really love and care for each other openly. In a real relationship. Then, she demanded a date, but this is another story.

Their reaction to the other beating them at something

Mine beats him at something: She gloats for the rest of the month, he's extremely annoyed and his pride battered, but he refuses to show it externally. If someone pokes him for it, though, he's met with a truly icy glare.

El Cid beats her at something: He looks like it couldn't go otherwise, Mine screams at him for a hour because he supposedly had cheated and then plans her revenge with Sasha. Because she embodies fair play.

Their favourite activity to do together

Talking about their shared dream and challenge each other at who reached the best results and showing their progresses.

The song that describes them the best

The Calling - Wherever you will go

Which one is most likely to get arrested?

Mine, definitely.

Who leaves notes written in fog on the bathroom mirror?

He's too mature for these things, she'd instead rather use more refined method of writing. Like a good old note written in bloodlike tomato sauce saying "Remember to go to the grocery store", or something like that, to make him have a heart attack in the morning. She says it wakes you up like nothing else. He just see them with a raised eyebrow.

One headcanon about this OTP that breaks your heart

Reality

One headcanon about this OTP that mends it (or the plot of the fanfiction I should've written but couldn't)

Mine doesn't disappear when Phobetor is defeated and the mirage of Catalania turns out to be just that, an illusion. Instead, she finds herself to have been really revived by the dream god's power, much to both her and his breathtaking happiness. It's something none of them even dared to dream, the possibility of having a future, even if the prospect of the Holy War still stood as a Damocles's blade on their neck. Lacaille just becomes their self-proclaimed adopted son, no matter how much El Cid protested that it was ridiculous (she supported him, btw). They arrive at the Sanctuary where she is immediately welcomed with a mix of curiosity and respect by most of its saints. Curiosity because nobody ever saw a Japanese woman and she not even was a saint. Respect because nobody in their right mind had ever imagined El Cid of all people bring a woman between them, so she had to be really special. However, she is friendly with everyone and soon becomes friend of Sysyphus (their favorite topic of complain about El Cid's habits) and then, the little Sasha when she was brought there a couple of years later. The girl was delighted to be with another woman, just like she was with Calbera. After the war, El Cid survives, always because I can, but he's affected in daily life by the loss of his dominant arm and just doubles his training schedule for making up to his handicap, although Mine herself often berates him for it worried about him. Sasha is deeply saddened to see his inability to adjust to a life that doesn't involve war and death and orders to both of them to go and live their lives together in any place they want, like free and ordinary people who deserve to live happily after all they were put through. Like she did with Yuzuriha and Yato in Jamir. Both understood it and tried to do their best to fulfill the goddess's wish, even if life isn't always without problems. They did manage to get a happy life together and that's what is important.

Asks weird questions in the middle of the night

Sysyphus. If it were a modern AU, he'd be the typical insecure friend who phones you at ungodly hours of the night to ask you advice about his problems. And El Cid would be the friend who at first would answer it (because it could be something important) and then leaving the phone in the fridge until the call expires. Mine just would be amused at their antics and frustrated her sleep was interrupted.

Who can't keep their hands to themselves?

Phantaso

What is the most embarrassing thing they have done in front of each other?

Ask Felser if you really want to know. It's your only hope, because their lips are sealed shut on mutual accord.

First impression of each other? Was it love at first sight?

Absolutely not (they both nod). When they first met they had a strange impression of each other, like the other was an alien, staring with a confusingly fascinated air that made Felser to chuckle, amused.

She was a Japanese little girl, so lithe and short that made people doubt she was that age, with strange red eyes that he had never seen before (he'd see them again only when Tenma'll cross his way). But after the initial surprise, he descovered she was a mischievous little pest, who loved getting him exasperated only for the satisfaction of snatching a reaction out of him, with the complicity of the oldest of them. But her dedication to her work as a sword sharpener was truly something to look up to. He really believed she'd manage to create the perfect blade infusing her soul in it, like he was trying to do to his body.

To her, instead, he had seemed like a little crow. A scrawny vampire-like-pallid kid with eyes too sharp and old for his age, too responsible and silent, the perspective of spending years training together seemed boring at the time. But his accent was funny, like he tried very hard to get rid of it and learning their common language, just the way she did with hers (in the meanwhile it was Felser who translated for them). As it was his grumpiness in the morning or the fact he was so unused to gentleness that the moment he received a good word or gesture immediately clung to it like a lifeline. But still, he was too rigid, even for her who was the same. A perfect Nagagire who needed her to enliven his brutal training sessions. After all, she's sure the best holy sword would be hers, but who says she can't have some fun in the process?

No, it definitely wasn't love at first sight. But despite the beginning, they gradually recognized in each other such a determination, a desire to go beyond their maximum limit, the same burning, inextinguishable, complementary dream both lived to fulfill (together, possibly) that attracted them like a magnet. The very Catalania was the tangible proof of that.

Does their work ever interfere with the relationship?

Read: Why do they need to have a serious chat?

#saint seiya #lost canvas #the lost canvas #ask #ship asks #capricorn el cid #el cid #mine #character meme

[arcticdementor]

But police violence, and Trump’s daily assaults on the presidential competence standard, are only part of the disaster. On the other side of the political aisle, among self-described liberals, we’re watching an intellectual revolution. It feels liberating to say after years of tiptoeing around the fact, but the American left has lost its mind. It’s become a cowardly mob of upper-class social media addicts, Twitter Robespierres who move from discipline to discipline torching reputations and jobs with breathtaking casualness.

The leaders of this new movement are replacing traditional liberal beliefs about tolerance, free inquiry, and even racial harmony with ideas so toxic and unattractive that they eschew debate, moving straight to shaming, threats, and intimidation. They are counting on the guilt-ridden, self-flagellating nature of traditional American progressives, who will not stand up for themselves, and will walk to the Razor voluntarily.

They’ve conned organization after organization into empowering panels to search out thoughtcrime, and it’s established now that anything can be an offense, from a UCLA professor placed under investigation for reading Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” out loud to a data scientist fired* from a research firm for — get this — retweeting an academic study suggesting nonviolent protests may be more politically effective than violent ones!

Now, this madness is coming for journalism. Beginning on Friday, June 5th, a series of controversies rocked the media. By my count, at least eight news organizations dealt with internal uprisings (it was likely more). Most involved groups of reporters and staffers demanding the firing or reprimand of colleagues who’d made politically “problematic” editorial or social media decisions.

…

In the most discussed incident, Times editorial page editor James Bennet was ousted for green-lighting an anti-protest editorial by Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton entitled, “Send in the troops.”

I’m no fan of Cotton, but as was the case with Michael Moore’s documentary and many other controversial speech episodes, it’s not clear that many of the people angriest about the piece in question even read it. In classic Times fashion, the paper has already scrubbed a mistake they made misreporting what their own editorial said, in an article about Bennet’s ouster.

…

As Cotton points out in the piece, he was advancing a view arguably held by a majority of the country. A Morning Consult poll showed 58% of Americans either strongly or somewhat supported the idea of “calling in the U.S. military to supplement city police forces.” That survey included 40% of self-described “liberals” and 37% of African-Americans. To declare a point of view held by that many people not only not worthy of discussion, but so toxic that publication of it without even necessarily agreeing requires dismissal, is a dramatic reversal for a newspaper that long cast itself as the national paper of record.

Incidentally, that same poll cited by Cotton showed that 73% of Americans described protecting property as “very important,” while an additional 16% considered it “somewhat important.” This means the Philadelphia Inquirer editor was fired for running a headline – “Buildings matter, too” – that the poll said expressed a view held by 89% of the population, including 64% of African-Americans.

…

The main thing accomplished by removing those types of editorials from newspapers — apart from scaring the hell out of editors — is to shield readers from knowledge of what a major segment of American society is thinking.

It also guarantees that opinion writers and editors alike will shape views to avoid upsetting colleagues, which means that instead of hearing what our differences are and how we might address those issues, newspaper readers will instead be presented with page after page of people professing to agree with one another. That’s not agitation, that’s misinformation.

The instinct to shield audiences from views or facts deemed politically uncomfortable has been in evidence since Trump became a national phenomenon. We saw it when reporters told audiences Hillary Clinton’s small crowds were a “wholly intentional” campaign decision. I listened to colleagues that summer of 2016 talk about ignoring poll results, or anecdotes about Hillary’s troubled campaign, on the grounds that doing otherwise might “help Trump” (or, worse, be perceived that way).

…

All these episodes sent a signal to everyone in a business already shedding jobs at an extraordinary rate that failure to toe certain editorial lines can and will result in the loss of your job. Perhaps additionally, you could face a public shaming campaign in which you will be denounced as a racist and rendered unemployable.

…

Even people who try to keep up with protest goals find themselves denounced the moment they fail to submit to some new tenet of ever-evolving doctrine, via a surprisingly consistent stream of retorts: fuck you, shut up, send money, do better, check yourself, I’m tired and racist.

…

Each passing day sees more scenes that recall something closer to cult religion than politics. White protesters in Floyd’s Houston hometown kneeling and praying to black residents for “forgiveness… for years and years of racism” are one thing, but what are we to make of white police in Cary, North Carolina, kneeling and washing the feet of Black pastors? What about Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer kneeling while dressed in “African kente cloth scarves”?

There is symbolism here that goes beyond frustration with police or even with racism: these are orgiastic, quasi-religious, and most of all, deeply weird scenes, and the press is too paralyzed to wonder at it. In a business where the first job requirement was once the willingness to ask tough questions, we’ve become afraid to ask obvious ones.

On CNN, Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender was asked a hypothetical question about a future without police: “What if in the middle of the night, my home is broken into? Who do I call?” When Bender, who is white, answered, “I know that comes from a place of privilege,” questions popped to mind. Does privilege mean one should let someone break into one’s home, or that one shouldn’t ask that hypothetical question? (I was genuinely confused). In any other situation, a media person pounces on a provocative response to dig out its meaning, but an increasingly long list of words and topics are deemed too dangerous to discuss.

The media in the last four years has devolved into a succession of moral manias. We are told the Most Important Thing Ever is happening for days or weeks at a time, until subjects are abruptly dropped and forgotten, but the tone of warlike emergency remains: from James Comey’s firing, to the deification of Robert Mueller, to the Brett Kavanaugh nomination, to the democracy-imperiling threat to intelligence “whistleblowers,” all those interminable months of Ukrainegate hearings (while Covid-19 advanced), to fury at the death wish of lockdown violators, to the sudden reversal on that same issue, etc.

It’s been learned in these episodes we may freely misreport reality, so long as the political goal is righteous. It was okay to publish the now-discredited Steele dossier, because Trump is scum. MSNBC could put Michael Avenatti on live TV to air a gang rape allegation without vetting, because who cared about Brett Kavanaugh – except press airing of that wild story ended up being a crucial factor in convincing key swing voter Maine Senator Susan Collins the anti-Kavanaugh campaign was a political hit job (the allegation illustrated, “why the presumption of innocence is so important,” she said). Reporters who were anxious to prevent Kavanaugh’s appointment, in other words, ended up helping it happen through overzealousness.

…

The traditional view of the press was never based on some contrived, mathematical notion of “balance,” i.e. five paragraphs of Republicans for every five paragraphs of Democrats. The ideal instead was that we showed you everything we could see, good and bad, ugly and not, trusting that a better-informed public would make better decisions. This vision of media stressed accuracy, truth, and trust in the reader’s judgment as the routes to positive social change.

For all our infamous failings, journalists once had some toughness to them. We were supposed to be willing to go to jail for sources we might not even like, and fly off to war zones or disaster areas without question when editors asked. It was also once considered a virtue to flout the disapproval of colleagues to fight for stories we believed in (Watergate, for instance).

Today no one with a salary will stand up for colleagues like Lee Fang. Our brave truth-tellers make great shows of shaking fists at our parody president, but not one of them will talk honestly about the fear running through their own newsrooms. People depend on us to tell them what we see, not what we think. What good are we if we’re afraid to do it?

#matt taibbi #journalism in action #new progressive orthodoxy #unofficial official religion #great awokening #purging the heretics and unbelievers #freeze peach is not just an ice cream flavor

[jy4life]

Rocka My Soul

Rocka My Soul

“Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham” is a song about being close to and in the comfort of God.  It is primarily sung in African-American churches, but on the night of December 12th, 1981, the majority of the 76,000 plus fans at Rice Stadium, black and white, were standing, singing the song in unison. They were singing to inspire on the Jack Yates High School Lions, who were seeking to become the first all African-American football team to make it to the Texas state championship since high school sports were desegregated in 1969.  

If you were fortunate enough to be at Rice Stadium that night, you just knew that it was more than a football game – it was a celebration of a transformative journey. The energy in the stadium was powerful in the most beautiful of ways - it hit you in your heart and in your soul. It emanated love, passion, resilience, redemption, and the power of community

Background

John Henry “Jack” Yates, for whom Jack Yates High School was named, was a leader, educator, a community builder, and man of vision. Born into slavery on July 11th, 1828 in Gloucester County, Virginia, Jack Yates taught himself to read and write, and also mastered carpentry. When Texas became the last state to end slavery on June 19th, 1865, Jack Yates and his wife Harriet moved to Houston. He became the first minister of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, the center of political, cultural, social and educational life for the flourishing community of free black men and women. Deeply committed to building community and to empowering that community through education, Reverend Yates founded the Baptist Academy (the forerunner to Texas Southern University), which focused on preparing students for careers in business and the ministry. Jack Yates Colored High School opened its doors in 1926. In the early 1980s, the school was at the center of a vibrant, engaged ecosystem of teachers, students, parents, alumni and the broader community. And the bonds that were the basis of the Jack Yates community in the 1980s are as strong now as they were back then. There is a frequently used expression “JY4Life” which captures the essence of what it meant and still means to be part of the Jack Yates community. It is hard to overstate the pride and deep sense of connection that Yates alumni still feel towards the school and towards one another.

Lori Dee Mack, a criminal defense attorney in Houston, was a cheerleader and editor of the yearbook at Jack Yates in 1981.  “Yates just had a special vibe to it, we were the cool school,” Ms. Mack said. “Part of what made it so special was the involvement of the community. We were expected to make something positive out of our lives, and those expectations were reinforced by our  community.” Jackie Clark was a senior and the majorette on the acclaimed Jack Yates marching band in 1981. “Our parents and our teachers knew one another, expected a lot from us, and they worked together to ensure that we performed in the classroom and were good representatives of our community,” Ms. Clark stated.

The Yates sports teams were the focal point for community engagement, football in particular. From the beginning, the school was successful in football, wining four Prairie View Interscholastic Negro League state titles. Since the end of segregation, however, only once had the Lions advanced past the first round in the playoffs.

In spite of the playoff history, expectations were high going into the 1981 season. Several starters at key positions returned from a team that went undefeated during the 1980 regular season  - quarterback Thomas LeDet, offensive linemen Rodney Henry and John Simmons, wide receivers Jeffrey Fields and Keith Burnett, middle linebacker Sebastian Harris (who made All-City his junior year), defensive linemen Stephen Baker and kicker/safety Lemuel Moton. That core group would be bolstered by several key additions, including defensive lineman Eddie Gilmore (who had to sit out his junior season after transferring from Sterling High School) and running back/wide receiver Randolph Wilburn, who transferred from Lincoln High School which closed in the spring of 1981. Preparation for the 1981 season began in May with spring training, and continued throughout the summer. LeDet, who came into his own at the end of the 1980 season, wanted to make sure that he and his teammates were fully prepared going into the 1981 season.  He organized practices with his receiving corps that summer. “I wanted for us to get comfortable working with one another and to get our timing down,” LeDet stated. High school teammates working out together during the summer is now routine in Texas, but in the early 1980s it was not common. Little did LeDet or his teammates know how prescient these self-organized summer sessions would turn out to be.

The Season

The season began as expected, with a win over Worthing High School. The following week the Lions suffered a stunning and crushing defeat at the hands of Smiley High School.  That loss, however, would prove to be the turning point of the season. “We needed that loss,” John Simmons stated. “It made us realize that we were not as good as we thought we were, and that we need to get focused if we were going to accomplish our goal, which was to win the state championship.” In that game, Smiley RB John Stewart ran roughshod over the Lions defense. To this day Sebastian Harris is livid about the loss to Smiley. Harris is a smart, thoughtful, proud man who still looks like he could level an NFL running back. “We were out hit that game,” he says, with both surprise and disappointment. John just ran all over us, we had never experienced a running back with such speed, power and determination. The gentlemen just set the tone and had his way the entire game.”

The next week in practice 2nd year linebacker coach Coger Coverson, a former Washington Redskins offensive guard and Yates alum, declared that every position on defense was open. Practice started with the intense and savage bullring drill (this is the drill where one player is in the middle of a ring and takes on other players in rapid sequence). It was perhaps the most intense week of practice during our time at Yates.”  That week set the tone for the rest of the season, as the Harris, Stephen Baker and Eddie Gilmore led defense would pitch 5 shutouts on the way to allowing just over 10 points per game the rest of the season. Offensively, Smiley had stacked the line of scrimmage, daring the Lions to beat them with the passing game. Yates was historically a power running team, and Coach Luther Booker was loath to abandon the run. The Lions finally began passing in the 4th quarter, but by then it was too late. Yet Booker saw enough that game to convince him to let LeDet and the passing game become the focal point of the offense.  “We discovered that we had good quarterback that game,” John Simmons said. The investment LeDet and his receivers made that summer was about to pay-off in a profound way. Under LeDet’s leadership the offense exploded, averaging almost 30 points per game the remainder of the season. In an era where the running game was focal point of most offenses, the Lions wide-open and vertical passing game was novel and exciting. In addition to Fields, Burnett and Wilburn (who had moved from running back to wide receiver), LeDet had wide receiver Rayfield Gee and powerful tight ends in Sylvester Morgan and Leonard Moon. LeDet would go on to have the sixth most productive passing season in Houston high school football history. As the season progressed and the Lions advanced in the playoffs, the city of Houston began to take notice. The Lions explosive offense, dominating defense and high-flying marching band were a weekly show that was hard to beat. “As we started winning everyone wanted to be associated with us,” Harris said. “Radio stations, newspaper reports, television stations – they were around us all of the time.” From a purely entertainment perspective, the highlight of the season came when the Lions went head to head with the famous “Who Shot JR” episode of Dallas, which at the time was the highest viewed television show in US history.  “I remember Saturday November 21st - that was the night that the “Who Shot JR” episode aired, Mack said. “We were playing Booker T Washington in bi-district at the Astrodome and the stadium was packed. We went head to head with one of the most watched television shows of all time and won,” she said laughingly. Blacks and whites lived in separate worlds during those days in Houston. When their worlds intersected, it was often confrontational. There was a clear lack of trust and understanding between the two communities.  Yet somehow the Lions performance was able to transcend race and bring those two worlds together, at least for a period of time. “When I was a teenager, I did encounter some forms of subtle prejudice, Thomas LeDet said. “However, I learned to ignore it. But for many of my teammates and friends, racism was hard to ignore. The stares we encountered when we entered a sporting goods store, personnel following you around, etc. But that changed when we beat Aldine in the quarterfinals.” “ I remember walking into Foleys’ department store with my teammates Jeffrey Fields and Kenneth Wiley after we beat Aldine in the quarterfinals. We were wearing our letterman jackets. As we entered the store, we noticed a distinct change on the part of the personnel - instead of suspicious and concerned faces there were smiles accompanied by quick service and people asking us if they could help us. Shortly after entering the store, a middle age white woman hurried over to my side and pointed to a Volkswagen size photo on the upper banister right in the entrance of the store. It was a picture of the entire team and staff of the 1981/82 Jack Yates football team!  Needless to say, we stood speechless for a moment and then were elated. We knew at that moment that we were something special not just to the black community, but also to the entire city. “ “I remember during the playoffs a very popular white radio station (104 KRBE) was broadcasting live from the Jack Yates School of Communications.  Quite a few students told me as I walked towards the lunchroom that the DJ was looking for me. As I approached, he announced, "Here he comes the man of the hour.... Mr. Thomas LeDet, the quarterback for Jack Yates High School.  He began to ask me questions about our season and if I thought we were going to go all the way. It was exciting and fun, and at the end, the DJ asked me, what was my favorite radio station.  As we both chuckled.... I said, as of today, KRBE is one of my favorites.  And then the DJ playfully asked me if I had ever heard of 104 KRBE.  We both laughed and I said no.  At that point, he presented me with a trophy of a giant #1 symbol with the radio station call letters and “Congratulations on a Great Season” engraved. He went on to say that the radio station and the entire City of Houston were cheering for us in the upcoming regional championship.  I was left with a feeling of joy and the sense that our team meant more to the city than just football.���

The Breakthrough

The Lions marched through the playoffs, defeating Booker T. Washington in bi-district, Houston Madison in the regional finals and Aldine in the quarterfinals. Next up? Perennial power San Antonio Churchill in the state semi-finals

The Chargers, who were led by quarterback Cody Carlson (Carlson would go on to star at Baylor University and play seven years in the NFL) and had a glorious history of advancing deep in the state playoffs, including winning the championship in 1976.  They were heavily favored to defeat the Lions and advance to the state championship.

Fittingly, Rice Stadium was chosen as the site for the game. On September 12th, 1962, President Kennedy delivered his famous “We choose to go to the Moon” speech at Rice Stadium, a vision which was realized with the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969.  Now, 19 plus years later, the stadium was again the site for another potential pivotal moment – if Yates could defy the odds and beat Churchill, they would become the first all African-American team to make it to the state championship.

The week leading up to the game was frenetic. “The whole community rallied behind the guys,” said Nanette “Nettie” Simmons, a cheerleader in 1981. “And it continued to and throughout the game. It was a cold and wet night, but I remember the stadium overflowing and people sitting on the grassy hill outside the stadium to watch the game.”

Churchill jumped out to a 14-0 lead, thanks to some great running by Doug Hodo, pinpoint passing by Cody Carlson, good play calling, and a bit of luck – the headsets on the Yates side were not working until the second quarter so Yates was not able to make defensive adjustments to counter the Chargers. Sebastian Harris rallied the defense, the Lions made adjustments and held Churchill scoreless the second quarter. Thomas LeDet and the offense got untracked, with LeDet throwing touchdown passes to Rayfield Gee and Keith Burnett. Churchill scored a safety to make the game 16-14 at halftime.

The week before Yates had trailed Aldine 14-0 before exploding for 42 straight points in a 42-14 win. But this game had a much different feel to it. “We knew we were in a fight. Those guys – Churchill – were tough and would not quit,” said both running back Artie Mitchell and punter Ronald Davis.

The second half was like a classic heavyweight boxing match, a la Rocky Balboa vs. Apollo Creed, with Yates ironically playing the role of Rocky. Churchill scored to go up 23-14 and looked to be on the verge of blowing the game open, when Harris rallied the defense and LeDet the offense. LeDet hit Keith Burnett with a 69-yard touchdown pass, ran for a score, and Harris forced a fumble which led to a Moton field goal. Suddenly Yates was up 31-23 with under 5 minutes left and it looked like they had all of the momentum.

Carlson and Churchill responded by driving to mid-field. Harris and the defense forced a 4th and 10 and a time-out was called by the officials to confirm the game statistics. In those days there was no overtime, in the event of a tie the team with the most 20-yard line penetrations and first downs advanced. Churchill was ahead in both.

On 4th and 10 Carlson completed a 47-yard pass to Harold Huggins. Three plays later Churchill scored to trail 31-29. Churchill then made a 2-point conversion on a tipped pass, and the score was 31-31. Less than 2 minutes remained.

LeDet led the offense to the 45-yard line, where three straight long passes to Burnett and Fields were incomplete. It was now 4th and 10, and arguably the most important play in the history of not only Yates football but perhaps for inner-city schools across the state of Texas was forthcoming.  Since segregation in Texas high school sports ended in 1969, a widely held perception was that an all African-American football team lacked the intellect, discipline, mental toughness and adaptability to advance far in the playoffs. The Lions had been shattering that myth all year, winning by playing smart, disciplined football and adapting at key points during the season. Fittingly, for them to advance to the championship, they would once again have to call on these traits to convert, score and then hold Churchill in check.

“I told Thomas and Coach Booker that I was open underneath all game long,” said Randolph Wilburn. “Thomas and I convinced Coach Booker that Churchill would double cover Keith (Burnett) and Jeffrey (Fields), and to pass to me on an underneath route. We were confident that we could get the 10 yards and convert.”

Everyone was on their feet as LeDet approached the line of scrimmage. LeDet dropped back, avoided the Churchill rush and made a perfect throw to Wilburn, who caught the ball at the Churchill 45-yard line. Wilburn then put his running back skill to use, and thanks to blocking from Jeffrey Fields advanced the ball to the Churchill 20-yard line.

The Lions were well within kicker Lemuel Moton’s range, but this game was about making history, and they were not going to let a field goal determine their fate. “We had momentum and believed we could run the ball to victory,” said John Simmons. Behind crushing blocks from Simmons, Rodney Henry, Byron Strain, Phillip James, James Jackson and Sylvester Morgan, the Lions ran the ball 4 straight times, with LeDet scoring to put the Lions up 38-31.

However, there were 40 seconds left on the clock. And Churchill & Carlson had countered Yates all night long with big plays of their own.

As Ronald Davis lined-up to kick-off, the energy in the stadium as frenetic. There was no way that these fans and the spirits of the African-American men and women who paved the way for this moment were going to let the Lions falter. Reserve linemen Tracy Sandles pinned Churchill inside their own 10-yard line on the kick-off. On the ensuing play, Carlson never had time to get off a pass –Gilmore, Baker, and the passion and energy of the city of Houston sacked him in the end zone for a safety. Yates 40 Churchill 31!

As LeDet ran out the clock, students, teachers, alumni, and fans – black and white - from across the city of Houston poured onto the field to celebrate with the team. Rice Stadium was again the setting for a historical moment. It was not just that Yates become the first all African-American team to advance to the championship, it was how they did it. They shattered long-held racist myths about African-American teams lacking the intellect, character and discipline to advance.

LeDet was also a terrific role model for a new generation of African-American quarterbacks. Historically, when African-Americans were allowed to play quarterback it was as an option quarterback, not a pro-style quarterback. Barry Switzer at Oklahoma and Bill Yeoman at Houston were pioneers in allowing African-Americans to play quarterback, but those were in running offenses where the quarterback was essentially a running back. It seems hard to believe but the perception that African-Americans could not lead a pro-style offense (where the quarterback was responsible for making all key decisions – passing and running) delayed Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon’s entry to the NFL by 6 years.

The Aftermath and the Present Day

The Lions would go on to lose the state championship 19-6 to Richardson Lake Highlands the following week. The Lions had 8 turnovers and offensively were in a funk all game long. The Harris-led defense dominated Lake Highlands, effectively hold them to 12 points on 4 field goals. But it was just not meant to be.

However, the victory of breaking through and making it to state in the way they did had a powerful impact, one that went beyond the football field.

The relationship between educational attainment and Texas high school football is more often than not negatively correlated. However, the 81 team, in the spirit of Reverend Yates, helped reversed this relationship by helping awaken their community to educational possibilities.

“At first colleges sent athletic recruiters to Yates because of the success of the football team,” Lori Dee Mack said. “They quickly followed by sending academic recruiters, and all of a sudden we started to hear about schools like TCU, which we did not know existed.  At the time we thought the only college options were local schools Texas Southern and the University of Houston. All of sudden were aware of all of these other schools – this just would not have been possible had the team not done so well and attracted the attention it did…” “I wound-up going to TCU with 3 of my girlfriends, and other friends went to the University of Texas, Texas A&M, etc. It was really incredible how the team’s success opened doors for us students, “Mack stated. “It was also very comforting knowing that people from our community (Thomas LeDet and Keith Burnett went to TCU with Mack and her friends) were going to these schools.”

And the football team also set an example for the students. “I remember Coach Booker saying that 90% of the players he coached went-on to college,” Randolph Wilburn noted. In 1985 the Lions would go undefeated and win the state championship, becoming the first all African-American football team to win a state championship in Texas post segregation. That team, which was led by running back Johnny Bailey, is widely considered to be the best team in the history of Texas high school football. The path for the 85 team had been paved 4 years earlier by a remarkable group of young men. “The players on the 81 team had a sense of humility about them,” Mack said. “They didn’t let the attention go to their heads, and you just knew that they were going to do something positive with their lives.”

The magic of the 81 team’s journey continues to resonate to this day.  Stella Hall, a cheerleader in 1981, currently works at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She was recently at a conference in Wisconsin and was speaking with a man who, when he found out she went to Jack Yates, asked her if she knew Thomas LeDet, Sebastian Harris and Jeffrey Fields. “He somehow knew about our school, the 81 team and the key guys on that team,” Stella said, shaking her head in disbelief.

Thomas LeDet was recently approached on two separate occasions – one by a former Yates student who graduated in the 1990s, the other by a former cafeteria worker from the University of Houston (LeDet worked at the University of Houston cafeteria while in school, serving the likes of Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler). Both individuals wanted to tell LeDet how much the 81-team inspired them. “At times it just seems incredible, he says, reflecting on the impact of the 81 team. We were just focused on winning on the field. It is really special to know that we inspired people.”

#jackyates #jy4life #Thomas LeDet #Sebastian Harrris

[schraubd]

On Conservative "Support" for Intersectionality

Vox has an interesting profile interview by Jane Coaston with law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, best known as the originator of the term "intersectionality", on the contemporary uses and misuses of her progeny. One of the most fascinating portions of it is when Coaston starts interviewing conservatives who have, over the past few years, treated intersectionality as their primary intellectual bogeyman. To a man, there response was basically identical: "intersectionality", as conceptualized by Crenshaw, is "relatively unobjectionable" (Ben Shapiro); even "indisputable" (David French). What they say is that Crenshaw's ideas, themselves, as articulated in the late 1980s and early 90s, are unproblematic. Clearly, Black women experience forms of discrimination that differ in kind from those faced by White women or Black men. Who could argue? What's problematic is how intersectionality (is perceived to have been) extended in contemporary college debates, where it does allegedly stand in for some sort of inversion of hierarchy where White men are at the bottom of the pack. This is something I've started to hear more and more frequently. In Gabriel Noah Brahm's essay on "Intersectionality" (in the infamous Israel Studies "Word Crimes" symposium), for example, Crenshaw's original 1989 essay is called a "modest, precise, and useful intervention in American jurisprudence." But things go quickly off the rails: "Over the last several years, it has become the watchword, shibboleth, and passkey to belonging on the "woke" left, among the "politically correct" who arrogate to themselves the duty of thought-policing the rest of us." Brahm contends that among intersectionality-skeptics, "A consensus that cuts across the liberal-conservative divide has emerged ... to the effect that the term's expanded uses as a metaphysical totem have outrun its otherwise valid, more limited definition." (the "liberal-conservative" is generous: Brahm lists nine critics he has in mind, of whom at most two -- Cary Nelson and, when he's in the right mood, Hen Mazzig -- can be described as "liberal"). Yet, like most conservative critics of intersectionality, Brahm's description of its contemporary effects is a self-contained system, remarkably insulated from the words or ideas of actual contemporary intersectionalists. Indeed, once he gets past the portion of the paper talking about Crenshaw's original essays, Brahm effectively ceases to cite any work on intersectionality by any self-described intersectional theorist. Once or twice, an essay will be cited seemingly at random as offering "a representative piece of intersectional feminism", despite not meeting the seemingly minimum threshold of ever saying the words "intersectional" or "intersectionality" (this is especially hilarious given Brahm's insistence on the power of intersectionality the word as a "watchword, shibboleth, and passkey". Some passkey -- it needn't even be used to open the doors!). But for the most part, contemporary intersectionality is understood almost exclusively in terms of what it is stipulated to mean by popular conservative critics in outlets like Commentary and The Daily Caller. As we know, they hate it, even though they concede that the primary texts aren't actually problematic at all. In other words, conservatives are fine with what intersectionalists describe as intersectionality, but loathe what conservatives call intersectionality. So maybe the problem lies in the conservative descriptions? And that raises the question: what do we make of the conservative contention that they are actually willing to endorse the "original", supposedly unproblematic intersectional claims? The basic form of the question is whether they think -- in harmony with Crenshaw's original argument -- that discrimination against "Black women", specifically, should be recognized as an independent basis for Title VII liability beyond "race" or "sex" discrimination. I've seen little evidence that they do back any legal or statutory reforms to provide clarity here, but perhaps I'm wrong. More broadly, the question is whether conservatives object to research programs which seek to uncover the specified and particular modes of discrimination faced by, e.g., Black women, or other permutations of several marginalized identities. After all, to quote French, it's just "commonsense ... that different categories of people have different kinds of experience." Yet in practice, I'm guessing the answer is no. The closest Brahm gets to citing a contemporary articulation of intersectionality by a backer rather than a critic is in the National Women's Studies Association declaration of what "Women's Studies" is:

Women's studies has its roots in the student, civil rights, and women's movements of the 1960s and 70s. In its early years the field's teachers and scholars principally asked, "Where are the women?" Today that question may seem an overly simple one, but at the time few scholars considered gender as a lens of analysis, and women's voices had little representation on campus or in the curriculum. Today the field's interrogation of identity, power, and privilege go far beyond the category "woman." Drawing on the feminist scholarship of U.S. and Third World women of color, women's studies has made the conceptual claims and theoretical practices of intersectionality, which examines how categories of identity (e.g., sexuality, race, class, gender, age, ability, etc.) and structures of inequality are mutually constituted and must continually be understood in relationship to one another, and transnationalism, which focuses on cultures, structures and relationships that are formed as a result of the flows of people and resources across geopolitical borders, foundations of the discipline.

This seems to be an articulation of intersectionality that is no more "problematic" than Crenshaw's original: "categories of identity" and "structures of inequality are mutually constituted  and must continually be understood in relation to one another." A little more jargon-y, perhaps, but not something that strays far from Crenshaw's original formulations. Yet Brahm cites this as his proof-text for the claim that "the majority of radical academic feminists today, in theory and in practice, hold to some version of this sort of 'post-essentialist' understanding of what it means to study gender" and therefore(?) the contemporary feminist project is irredeemably fascist, antisemitic, and racist. (Don't shed too many tears: feminism "achieved its proper goal long ago, when women gained equal rights under the law in the developed world"; now " we can all contribute toward restoring sanity in the academic arena by rejecting" contemporary feminism's "shrill, hectoring discourse"). So what we're really seeing is the classic historical pivot of contemporary conservatism: hating some feature of progressive discourse right up until it becomes too mainstream to effectively challenge, at which point critics say that the term they've just spent years assailing used to be valuable and important but only now has turned astray. The National Review did it with "civil rights", David French did it with "white privilege", and now they're all doing it with "intersectionality". It's bad scholarship and bad history, all wrapped together in a neat little bow. via The Debate Link http://bit.ly/30OZ7ip

#conservatives #intersectionality #scholarship

[momestuck]

Epilogues: Meat ch 38-42 [Epilogue 7]

We’re very near the end now. But it can’t be that easy for D---, can it?

chapter 38

Dirk has decided he’s going to take it upon himself to get Dave and Karkat to fuck at last. He’s not going to outright rape them by taking direct control of them through the narration - for the “integrity of their emotional arcs” rather than like, any actual concern for their will as people, of course. Instead he’s going to try to use his narrative power to “persuade” them.

So he pushes Karkat to make a really heartfelt speech about how much Dave means, how when Dave says kind things to him it doesn’t automatically feel fake. And Karkat... doesn’t quite play along. He says he’s glad Dave’s his friend. (Also Dave makes an anime reference).

At this point Dirk goes berserk. He desperately tries to force Dave to take the initiative and top Karkat. As the scene progresses, he gets more and more heavy handed with it.

“I just want you to be happy...” [in exactly the way I prescribe]

Dave fights back against Dirk’s influence, without recognising its origin. (It’s interesting which characters can perceive it, and which can’t). Anyway, Dirk backs off - it doesn’t “count” for him if it’s not of Dave’s own will that he kisses Karkat.

They do in fact kiss. But not before Dave shouts at Dirk’s narration:

DAVE: GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD AND JUST LET ME DO THIS MYSELF!!!

This completely busts up Dirk’s attempt to narrate, and then Dirk decides... to just let the moment pass, without a thorough ‘poetic’ (you wish dude) description.

I’m not going to intercede with a single word further, and I won’t let you, either. I won’t cheapen this beautiful moment with my base editorialization just to satisfy your voyeuristic curiousity. Frankly, I’m offended you’d even expect me to. What they’re getting up to here is nobody’s business but theirs.

Davekat is canon, and that’s really all there is to say on the matter. Let’s give these crazy lovebirds some privacy and move on.

This is a really interesting moment. On one level, insisting on the privacy of fictional characters who exist only insofar as we imagine them is kind of absurd. On the other, letting them have actual privacy and independence is a huge step for Dirk, as a characterisation moment.

Also lol @ ‘davekat is canon' there god. about fucking time

chapter 39

Dirk is narrating himself, for once. He’s getting a spaceship from Jake’s mansion. Parenthetically, we learn that Skaianet - Jake’s company - has been manufacturing military spaceships for the Crocker administration. Guess we’re well on our way to a similar fascist hellhole in the Meat storyline as well, if there was ever doubt.

To think: if Jane had just died in the final battle... (because of course, fascism is driven by the ill will of one single superpowered evil person...)

Going by the narration, Dirk still feels some level of horniness for Jake here, even though Jake is now more or less his lovestruck puppet.

He not-so-gently informs Jake that this is a Dirk-and-Rose only mission, and they’ll never see each other again. Jake says some shit. (Also apparently Dirk intends to leave Jane in charge of the planet for ‘millions of years’.)

Dirk gives Jake a kiss, which he describes in the most nauseatingly self-aggrandising way possible. And then he says goodbye - implying this is, in a sense, some manner of revenge.

DIRK: I’m sorry, Jake.

DIRK: But I’ll never let you break my heart again.

God damn he’s an overdramatic bitch isn’t he.

Chapter 40

Either there’s no epilogue 8, or this is longer than I thought.

Jade gets woken up by Kanaya... and this time it really is Jade, at least going by the text colour. She’s fully aware of everything that alt-Calliope did through her... and immediately declares DIrk must be stopped.

Judging by the lack of editorialising in the narration, this reaction may be All According to Keikaku?

Chapter 41

We get a little insight into Dirk’s motivations. It’s some kind of Singer-style effective-altruism-by-way-of-god-complex:

If my agenda was to try as hard as I could to make sure no one thought I sucked, what the fuck would ever get done? How would I go about taming this world, or shaping reality for the better? And if I didn’t bother pursuing those goals, and thereby tacitly accepting the untold suffering that resulted from my inaction, wouldn’t that make me a bad person? If I try and succeed, I’m a hero, right? And if I try and fail, at least I made things interesting on my way to the grave. There would be a tragic nobility in that. And the way I see it, settling for anything less from my arc would be, frankly, pathetic. 

In this longwinded soliloquy, Dirk acknowledges that, whatever his self-perception, he recognises his role in the story is to be the villain. Supposedly for the greater good. He understands that people will resist, because “the sins of God and man” are not so “pliable” as that. He says that it’s inevitable that “power such as [his]” over other peoples’ would become “the enemy of anyone who noticed”, but suicide simply isn’t a thinkable option for someone as consequential as him.

So he’s setting up for his own dramatic comeuppance, as part of the whole grand design.

What a dick!

Chapter 42

Jade catches Kanaya and Roxy up on what’s really been happening, the control Dirk’s been exerting. Dirk - now confident of his escape - takes this opportunity to free Kanaya from the thoughts he placed in her, that made her so blasé about Rose leaving with Dirk.

Kanaya is incandescent, understandably. But then alt-Calliope ‘wakes up’ in Jade again, suppressing Dirk’s role in the narration, and Dirk meanwhile is on his ship and on his way out already. (Though given Jade has such overwhelming Space powers, you think she’d be able to catch up and stop him pretty trivially!)

alt-Calliope declares she won’t turn them into puppets to send them after Dirk, like he did - that this is the line between them. Dirk laughs, it’s futile, he’s already gone! etc.

(I guess Dirk is going to the Candy universe, unless I totally misunderstood that lol)

Epilogue 7

Well we finally got that Davekat kiss. And a lot of thought about agency of fictional characters.

Dirk, it seems, wishes to remake the universe in the ‘right’ way, without suffering? Perhaps that’s the purpose of his planned SBurb session: to repopulate the universe now depopulated by the black hole with a new set of universes.

Dirk seems to have gotten his ‘win state’ all sorted out - but alt-Calliope still has something in mind, even if they’re obstinately refusing to tell anyone until the time is right.

#momestuck

[supplyforall]

Life Through Lenses

If there is one impactful tool that I have cemented into my every day, it is to relentlessly look at life through lenses.  Not just eyeglass lenses centered in those cool, clear frames picked up at Warby Parker, but intangible lenses that act as constant filters for thoughts and actions.

Think back to your childhood.  If you were lucky enough to have parents or teachers that actually parented or taught, you may have heard expressions such as, “always do what’s right, kind, and good,” “think before you speak,” or perhaps something similar to the most effective phrase preached by my own Mother; “treat others as you would like to be treated.”  As a child, you wanted nothing more than to ignore these lessons and run back to playing Need for Speed, chatting on AIM, or skateboarding in the streets.  As an adult, I am finding that there is nothing more important than holding mantras such as these front and center in your mind, or as related here, over your eyes.

As noted, treat others how you would like to be treated, is one lens that I have strived to always keep in front of my eyes, filtering every word spoken and each action taken.  When utilized consistently, this single, very simple lens is one sure fire way to create a lasting relationship, show someone that you truly care about them, or even just to put a smile on someone’s face.  Still, to this day, I repeat these words in my head as I solve problems in the workplace, communicate with my girlfriend, or any friend, when placing an order at public businesses, when interacting with family, and so on, and so on.  This is one lens that can be applied to all situations, and one that I will never remove, as I find nothing but positive outcomes

This lens seems straightforward, right?  Before you act or speak, just ask yourself, “Would I like someone to speak to me this way, or treat me this way?”  If the answer is no, you would not like to be spoken to or treated that way; no further questions needed, it’s back to the drawing board.  Back to finding the words or actions that you would like to hear or receive yourself.  Easy.  Easy once you have arrived to your internal debate, yes, but arriving in that dialogue is certainly no mindless feat.  This is where the power of imagery and analogy may help to create that consciousness and permanent filter for your thoughts.

Imagine you’re wearing your all time favorite pair of sunglasses.  I’m talking all time favorites.  Could be a pair you’ve held onto for years, currently sliding around the bottom of your briefcase, or that pair of Tom Fords you thought you’d never see anywhere but in the sparkling clean case at Neiman Marcus.  Well, now they’re yours!  Slide those puppies on - the arms up and over your ears, the bridge sitting nice and high on your nose, and the lenses front and center over your retina.  Next, imagine the lenses are polarized - the kind that make the world appear brighter and in more vibrant hues.  Wow, these lenses take sunlight and not only remove the negative, dangerous aspects, but create a world of increased light and beauty!  These are your lenses.  These are the shades that you must wear as you do absolutely everything in life.  Before you make a decision, before you speak your mind, before you take action; imagine yourself in your shades, and imagine looking through the lenses that will brighten whatever scenario you are in.

Just last week, I had the chance to flip the roles and teach the teacher, my own Mother, in one of the exact scenarios listed above.  We were out on our usual dinner and movie date when we approached the ticket counter at the theater and I heard her say, ”we need three tickets to Widows.”  She did not have a rude tone or a demanding demeanor, and may have even added “please” to the end of her request.  The problem was that she was not speaking to the theater attendant how she would like to be spoken to.  Who, while standing at a POS system, taking orders for 8 hours a day, would like to be instructed or demanded time after time by each customer?  Not me, not the guy we were looking at, and certainly not my Mother.  So, looking through the very lens that she permanently affixed over my eyes throughout my childhood, I leaned over, put my hand on my Mother’s shoulder and gently said, “Mom, when you place an order, make sure to ask, ‘May I please have _____, instead of telling the person what you will have.”  She looked a little taken back that her son was giving her etiquette lessons, then responded, “Oh, is that how you’re teaching your employees to speak to people, or how to order something?”  I said, “No, that is how I am hoping all people will speak to others, or order something.  Think about if you were the guy working at the counter - Would you like someone to ask you nicely for the tickets with a “please” and “thank you”, or declare that they need them?”  I think she was surprised to hear that something she said could have been interpreted as not-so-nice sounding, and perhaps more surprised that she had broken her own golden rule.  Or, as I see it, she had, at least in that moment, not been wearing her favorite shades with the polarized lenses.  Luckily for me, for my Mother, and for everyone, glasses are quick to throw back on.  Just as easily as they slipped off of your head and out of mind, you can slide them right back on and begin again to filter all of your thoughts and actions.  I think in that moment, my Mother did just that. 

Now, that is just one example of viewing life through lenses.  There are thousands of lenses and infinite applications.  I am currently developing the structure for a business that I would like to one day open.  Within that framework are lenses for myself and the staff, often known as values when referring to the internals of a company.  To give you an idea of how lenses may be used in a business, or even just to show some varying lenses in general, i’ll provide my companies’, followed by a brief list of how each may look in a more practical application:

How We Do Anything Is How We Do Everything: Consistency, Quality

Worth Your Time, All the Time: Efficiency, staff and guest experience, always make it right, workflow, time management

Never Stop Improving: Continued education, mastery training, open minded, opportunity minded, self improvement, progress not perfection

Open Door Window: Transparency, no bad questions, the sky is the limit, constant staff and guest feedback

Not Like You: Embrace individuality, accept differences and take time to learn how to work with other types of people, build off unique strengths, personality assessments

Own It: Be responsible, own your mistakes with an outlook of, ”what did I do wrong, and how can I improve next time?” as well as owning your wins while remaining humble

Simplify: Simplify, simplify, simplify! Workflow, visually, aesthetically, training, communications, scheduling, etc, etc, etc

Care: CARE, EMPATHY, love, equality, employee benefits, B corp, our mission

As my staff and I make decisions and take action on a daily basis, we will be looking through each of these 8 lenses, as well as the even grander lenses of our mission and vision.  In turn, we will become a single unit who are all operating on the same basis.  We are unified by our lenses.  Our actions are working toward the same goals, and around the same parameters. 

Think about your job.  Does your employer provide lenses for you to use in your work each day?  If your mind goes blank, sadly, the answer is likely no.  Without lenses, how are you supposed to know the guidelines for how your employer would like you to make decisions?  How to communicate?  How to take action?  You won’t!  Without lenses, or values, each employee is simply floating on their own cloud, possibly making decisions using their own personal lenses, or most dangerous, using none at all.  Without company lenses to look through, you may often find yourself confused and struggling to feel confident in your work.  You may feel like your coworkers are acting against you, or using another agenda that hasn’t been given to you.  Know that none of this is your fault.  It is due to the lack of direction that is provided by values in a company. 

As I have done to set my future business and staff on the right track to a productive culture and working as one unified machine, each business owner must give you the appropriate pair of polarized shades to throw on each day.  They must provide the framework for your thoughts and actions, or it will feel and look as exactly that - a structure with no frame. 

Without lenses, our lives and businesses are susceptible to flowing with the wind.  They have no standards and will never operate coherently.  So, I challenge you to think about the lenses that you would like to see your life through.  Think about what kind of filters will be most effective for your thoughts, words, and actions, and then add them to your shades.  Layer them up!  Most importantly, never take them off.

#values #life #lenses #care #ownership #lessons #simplify #goals #business #consistency #quality #experience #efficiency #workflow #education #mastery #training #transparency #individuality #simplicity #empathy #love #equality #mission #bcorp #supply #forall #supplyforall

[icewindandboringhorror]

Daily Log 3

Trying out (probably just temporarily) making short daily-ish notes about things, in an attempt to see if it helps me be more reflective or productive lol.

Activities: Not too much, stomach kind of upset today and my chest muscle aches/shoulders/etc. are still too irritated for like typing a lot or anything.. grr... At least it was less hot than yesterday, still not feeling great symptoms wise though.

Worked on painting the tapestry thing and getting more of the basic design down. Still don't have the Avirrekava text fully translated.

Recorded another sims episode for the let's play series on my games/side youtube channel because I just realized that I definitely won't be able to in the summer since it gets so hot in my apartment that my computer runs hotter too and I can't even play games lol, so I should get a few recordings out of the way as a backlog before it gets warm. I'm always so caught in the bliss of winter (favorite season, best season, ultimate season) that summer kind of sneaks up on me and I have a moment of realization like "OH gOds I only have like one month to get a bunch of things done that are way harder for me to do in the heat!!'' , and then scramble lol..

Wrote down a script for calling a few doctors.

Thought more about the religions and other cultural systems that exist in certain elven cities in the south, where the story I mentioned in the first Daily Log takes place. Drew the basic sketch of an outfit for one of their primary religious figures (kind of like priest robes?).

Put together a load of clothes but didn't actually wash them because by that point I didn't feel good, but at least I have them out for tomorrow lol.. hashtag ultimate productivity win

Notable sights: Found 19 four leaf clovers and 1 six leaf clover that's actually kind of a double clover? Like there's a clear spot on the stem where it's two 3 leaf clovers not entirely all the way merged. Saw 4 cats in windows, one cat actually outside roaming, and a rabbit in a tennis field. There was also a pile of rocks outside that was very nice, resisted the urge to pick one up and take it home for my rock collection. Watching a show about tudor monastery farms and there was a sheep on there that looked round and funny.

Goals moving forward: Same as yesterday basically lol.. especially post the poll adventure thing that has been sitting in a draft for weeks (I thought I would get it done today, but alas.. I don't even have to do much, just proofread and post it, I just keep having no energy/being preoccupied with other things/hurts to be on computer.. grrr.. I want to continue the story >:T.. for the second day in a row, nothing has changed lol..).

Notable foods: Not much of interest, but had salmon, my favorite fish. Also had a chia seed fruit snack sort of thing which was in a squeezy pouch, and I love anything in that sort of packaging so, very fun.

Really craving spicy udon, chicken wings for some reason (which I don't even like that much), and something like lasagna?? I'm probably vitamin deficient again from my weird diet and it's making me yearn for hearty savory foods.. evil... chronic anemia cravings lol..

#just posting these publicly since it feels more like I'm doing something or easier to hold yourself accountable if you make public #declarations of goals and progress or etc. .. perhaps.. for now.. #It's clover finding season apparently #so many good patches of clovers with lots of mutuation in them. Most of the 19 I found today were right next to each other spread among jus #t a few groupings of clovers. I think it runs genetically or something - so if you find one you're much more likely to find another #somewhere closeby. Or at least this is what I have found as someone who has like 150+ special clovers collected #I also really need to bleach my hair again before the summer but that's such a process... #I'll probably have to bleach it two more times to even get it light enough to dye it so. It's just like.. I wish I could have it done #all at once. I think anything that has to be done over multiple days makes me able to put it off more in my mind. #Actually just so so so so many things to do and it always feels like no time to do them..... AUghhhhhGG *collapses to my knees #in the rain like a dramatic character in a movie. wisps of rain soaked hair cloaking my face as my fancy velvet cape billows #in the stormwinds behind me. after a few moments you realize I'm also eating a little square of cheese whilst I sob #but am trying to hide it behind the hair that is flopped in my face and fumbling bc my evil vampire claws are too long* #ANYWAY #daily log

[careycuprisin]

Should transgender women athletes be allowed to compete, and even [gasp] win?

In which I am provoked by a podcast episode to declare my support for transgender women’s participation in sports, even when they succeed!

March, 2021 -- we face many obvious and large problems. Unfortunately, one of these problems which might not have been as necessary to address RIGHT NOW were it not for several state legislatures indulging a contemporary moral panic is whether or not transgender women athletes will be able to compete in sporting events. More specifically and to the point, should these athletes be allowed to win any of these events?

In light of these legislative efforts, anyone writing about this issue should acknowledge that the contemporary debates about athletic participation are occurring in a context that is much broader than the narrow one about how to make sports fair or safe. While these issues are (I think obviously) very important, many people are using them as a vehicle to advance a particular political view about transgender peoples’ status generally. 

I agree with David Roche. Here is his twitter thread. 

So I declare up front — I think transgender people should count as full members of their identified gender, without any asterisks or reservations or limitations. With this declaration out of the way, I want to talk specifically about fairness in sports, and whether transgender women athletes should be allowed to participate in, and even to [gasp] win the sporting events in which they participate. I think they should, and as a way of jumping into the debate I’d like to refer to a recent podcast which provoked me into thinking (again) about these issues, Episode 68 of Jason Koop’s KoopCast, with guest Emma Hilton. There’s a lot to say about this issue, but for now I’ll try to limit myself to arguing that Hilton didn’t do a great job of arguing for her position (which is the opposite of mine).

Jason Koop is an endurance coach with a focus on ultra running, and has a keen appreciation for sport science. In Episode 68 of his podcast his guest was Emma Hilton, a developmental biologist at the University of Manchester. I don’t want to focus too much on Jason, whose podcast I have now subscribed to and find very useful and wholeheartedly recommend. Koop himself made two foundational points during this episode that I agree with and think should be kept firmly in mind. First, there are many different sports, and policies appropriate for one sport might not be appropriate for another. Second, there is a difference in goals and ideal outcomes between primarily participatory sporting events, and elite competitions between professional athletes. 

“Where there are competitive benefits… there’s no evidence that it can be a fair thing to include trans women.”  --Emma Hilton

With those caveats in mind, the conversation with Hilton was focused on whether medical treatments are capable of reversing any natural physical advantages that people born male have over what they would have had, if they were born female. Hilton reviewed the literature and referenced a few studies and concluded that no, evidence shows that medical treatments such as testosterone suppression can’t ever completely eliminate the ‘male advantage’ in strength, speed, etc. Hilton didn’t say this explicitly, but I think it’s reasonable from the context that what she meant is that medical therapy can never transform a biologically-born male person who is now a transgender female into a person with the same physiological characteristics that they would have been had they been born biologically female. Hilton emphasized that despite medical therapy, the trans woman will always be a bit bigger, stronger, and faster than the person she would have been had she been born female.

Set aside for now any question about whether this empirical conclusion of Hilton’s is as robustly supported by the evidence as she thinks it is. I want instead to grant her this, because I want to disagree with the leap she makes from her conclusions about the physiological evidence, to her policy recommendations, which I think are bad. At the end of the podcast, Hilton says “If a sport has a strength or skeletal component, I don’t see any justification to include trans women within a female category.” “But I don’t see an argument for inclusion of trans women in female sports.” “Female sports are a protected category… protected from males.” “Where there are competitive benefits… there’s no evidence that it can be a fair thing to include trans women.”

In other words, at least with regard to elite sports where ‘there are competitive benefits,’ trans women should not be allowed to participate because it would not be fair. And if they happened to win any of these competitions, it would certainly not be fair, because they have a ‘male advantage’ at birth. And so we return to fairness, the fundamental underlying issue that all this talk about scientific studies is supposed to illuminate.

What does fair competition mean?

One thing that almost everyone agrees on is that a ‘fair’ competition is one where everyone plays by the same rules. But that’s not what this issue is about; no one argues that transgender women competing with other women should follow different rules. Instead, what people mean by ‘fair’ in this case is almost never explicitly spelled out. Hilton certainly does not, although she reveals a lot when she says that ‘Female sports are a protected category… protected from males.” Because few people are explicit about what ‘fair’ means, we’ll have to try on a few versions of what they might mean, and ask whether Hilton’s opinion that transgender women should be excluded from women’s sports comport with any of them.

One way of understanding what Hilton and others might mean by ‘fair’ is to look at what she clearly thinks is not fair. It would not be fair in rugby for a team of 120-lb women to compete against a team of 250-lb men. The women’s team wouldn’t be competitive because in rugby, that weight difference would likely be decisive, even if the men’s team had far less skill or experience in rugby than the women’s team did.

This gets at some sense of parity. Fairness in this sense means that a competition should pit athletes against one another that can in some way be described as ‘the same.’ This is the underlying basis for age-group competitions and for weight class divisions and, in almost every sport, separate categories for men and women. What I take Hilton to be saying is that at least in the context of sports where winning actually means something, gender differences as expressed in measurable physiological characteristics are so important that it could never be fair if a transgender woman achieved any success in a competition against someone born female. A transgender woman could not ever displace a biologically-born female from a podium position or a prize, or from a sponsorship or an endorsement deal, without it being so unfair that we should, ex-ante, ban transgender women from ever competing against biological females.

I find this position risible.

There are at least two reasons why. First, it explicitly and maliciously fails to give any weight to a third common conception of fairness. This is the sense in which a person ought to be afforded similar opportunities to others, commensurate with a person’s commitment, skill, willingness to sacrifice, ambition, etc. This is the sense that it is unfair for an accident of birth to close off opportunities. This sense of fairness has driven the progress that women have made in athletics. We have moved from an era in which women were unfairly prevented from becoming athletes at all, simply because they were born female, to a much more fair era where women’s sports are coming closer to achieving parity with men’s in terms of competitiveness, visibility, and reward. It is, in my opinion, ironic and worthy of contempt that Hilton argues from biological gender essentialism to justify unfair treatment of transgender athletes by excluding them from competition.

Second, if we look at the connection between Hilton’s empirical conclusion that there is a ‘male advantage’ across a population of men and women and try to connect that with her conclusion that it simply isn’t fair to let transgender women compete in elite athletics, it’s not as clear or obvious as she apparently thinks it is.

It is, in my opinion, ironic and worthy of contempt that Hilton argues from biological gender essentialism to justify unfair treatment of transgender athletes by excluding them from competition.

If there is a ‘male advantage’ that isn’t eliminated by medical treatments, I want some evidence about how important this advantage is relative to other ‘advantages’ in athletics, and some demonstration that it is large enough that it would be fair to athletes who have this one type of advantage to single them out, and ban them from competition, while athletes with other advantages are allowed to compete and to win. What is the relative magnitude of a male advantage relative to other genetic advantages? What about the advantages of being born into a wealthy family, and the additional opportunities that this provides to obtain the advantages conferred by advanced training and expert coaching? Do we have enough evidence to say that these advantages, which we almost universally accept as fair, pale in comparison to the ‘male advantage’ that transgender athletes may retain? It seems to me that they would have to pale in comparison to allow us to assert as Emma Hilton does that it is a priori and as a matter of policy unfair for transgender athletes with their advantages to compete in female categories.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, many arguments (or un-argued bald assertions) that attempt to move us from the presumption that some degree of ‘male advantage’ is retained even after transitioning to a conclusion that it is unfair for transgender women to compete in the female categories and certainly unfair for them to win when they do, fail to honestly acknowledge the explicit claim that transgender women athletes are women. Instead, they too often assume without argument that transgender women are men who have failed to become women, and therefore it is fair to treat them exactly the same as a man when it comes to women’s athletic competitions. This is a conflation of arguments in favor of separate male and female gender categories with arguments that transgender females should not be allowed to compete in the male category.

This is lazy at best, and malicious at worst. I won’t try to describe here all the ways in which gender, in addition to having a biological component, is socially determined, because this is widely known if not always assented to. I would have thought, however, that good-faith proponents of banning transgender women from participating in women’s sports would at least acknowledge these arguments more often than they do, and try to show us how they don’t undermine their conclusion that transgender women must be excluded from women’s competitions.  Instead, many of them too often behave as if any arguments they make in favor of maintaining separate men’s and women’s categories in sports are sufficient to cover the case of transgender women. But they are not.

What is the problem, really?

Emma Hilton revealed a lot when she said that “female sports are a protected category… protected against males.” The only way a statement like this is relevant in a discussion about transgender women competing against women, is if you believe, as I suspect Emma does, that at bottom there is really no such thing as transgender women. This is not a position that I hold, but I can see how you might hold it if you were a biological determinist about gender and held a belief that gender was a purely binary thing. It disappoints me when people aren’t transparent and forthright about this belief of theirs. It makes them look like they’re hiding the ball. This weakens their arguments (if any are provided beyond a bald assertion) about how physiological data supports their conclusions about what sports policies should be. We saw it in the podcast when Emma went from presenting some (not very robust, in my opinion) evidence about the inefficacy of medical transitioning to the conclusion that “where there are competitive benefits... There’s no evidence that it can be a fair thing to include trans women.”

There’s another thing I’d ask of people who want to participate in this debate about the fairness of any given athletic policy concerning transgender women. Fairness, as a matter of definition, implies fairness for everyone. It makes no sense to talk about fairness from the perspective of only one side, without also showing how this is also fair for a person on a conflicting side. If you are going to assert that banning transgender women from women’s athletic competitions is ‘fair,’ you are obliged to show not only how it is fair for biologically-born women, but also how this is fair for transgender women. If you don’t, you’re not making a fairness argument at all. You’re simply expressing a preference of yours with regard to one kind of person. You’re failing to balance anything, which is what ‘fairness’ requires.

There are still many threats to women’s sports, but the fact is that the most robust and overwhelming evidence supports the conclusion that transgender women’s participation is not one of them.

I’m a big supporter of women’s sports and female athletes. I feel fortunate to live in a world, so recently constructed, where being a woman does not automatically prevent you from also being an athlete. There are still many threats to women’s sports, but the fact is that the most robust and overwhelming evidence supports the conclusion that transgender women’s participation is not one of them. Rather than over inflating the threat suggested by the studies Emma Hilton cites about a residual ‘male advantage’ among transgender females (many of which are based on measurements of the general population, and not on athletes), we might look around us and ask, ‘are transgender women actually winning competitions and displacing biologically-born females in any way?” It’s a very relevant, real-world natural study, and the obvious conclusion is that they are not. There are just not that many transgender women competitors overall, and those that are competing aren’t regularly winning. If the ‘male advantage’ that people like Emma Hilton were so important, we wouldn’t have to look so hard to find even single examples of a transgender woman on the podium or making a team or signing a lucrative endorsement deal. This is simply a non-problem. Very much to the contrary, Emma Hilton’s recommendation that transgender women not be allowed to participate, and certainly not be allowed to win, is the problem.

Three out of eleven thousand! Oh no!

#transgender #transwoman #emmahilton #fairness #sports #athletics

[vitmelbourne]

Benefits of career through Diploma in Information Technology in Sydney

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 Testament and certificate projects are normally cheaper than one man's or graduate course of study. What's more, since they're regularly planned considering working experts, they will in general be offered on the web, around evening time, or on the ends of the week. That implies you'll have the option to work (and keep those checks coming in) while you're in school.

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Enhance the your Career through a Diploma in Information Technology in Sydney Course

 Each student has got interests and sets some goals to be pursued in life. There are hundreds of different fields and areas of work providing countless opportunities. Whether it's engineering, medicine, business, and Information technology program, education which an individual can enhance his career or avail the promotion opportunities which come because the years pass.

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[jadelyn]

On Righteous Wrath

Look, I get it. It feels good to say "I have a right to speak out, I shouldn't have to repress myself for your comfort when you've done something that hurts me." It feels empowering to draw a hard line and cast it in stark black-and-white terms, such that any response at all coming from a marginalized person is completely acceptable, while anyone suggesting that perhaps calling people every name in the book, declaring them utterly anathema now and for all time, and suggesting they kill themselves is not an appropriate response even when you are responding to something harmful, is Bad and Wrong and stifling your gods-given right to lash out at anyone who hurts you.

But there are two major problems with taking the hardline stance on that issue, one ideological and one practical.

The ideological problem is that you're stripping all the nuance and context out of the conversation. I actually agree, in principle, with the statement that marginalized people shouldn't have to silence themselves for the comfort of their oppressors. That is a sentiment I agree with wholeheartedly. But in practice, there is a qualitative difference between not silencing oneself - speaking up, speaking out, even forcefully and loudly so - and lashing out, going on the attack. But taking the purist approach to this means treating those two things equally since they both fall under the wider umbrella of "marginalized people modulating or not modulating their reaction to an oppressive thing," meaning that a purist reading of the (good and very true) ideal that "marginalized people shouldn't have to silence themselves for the comfort of their oppressors" winds up encompassing and including support for the view of "it's okay to suicide-bait and verbally abuse people for any infraction at all, regardless of scale, intent, misunderstanding, etc. if it happens to be a member of an oppressor class who did anything at all that is even a tiny bit harmful toward the marginalized group they are privileged over." That's where this black-and-white, you're with me or with my enemy view takes us. That's the part I'm not okay with. Speak out, yes. Speak out forcefully and angrily, absolutely. Hold people accountable, please do, I am right there with you on that. But attack them, verbally abuse them? That's not okay, not even in the name of righteous anger at someone who's done wrong, especially if it's out of ignorance or misunderstanding. Let people be human, ffs. None of us were born knowing everything, not even you.

And then the simpler problem, the practical problem, is that sometimes you have to make the choice between ideology and outcome. If the goal is a world where there is frequent high-quality diverse representation for all people in all types of media, as good as it feels to rip someone a new one for fucking up or falling short...you have to ask yourself, is this moving me toward my goal or not? In an ideal world we could remain ideologically pure and still make progress. This is not an ideal world. So sometimes we can't do both.

And tbh, yeah, sometimes the answer is that you prioritize righteous wrath over incremental progress. Maybe the object of your anger has shown themselves to be resistant to even the most reasonable criticism, so it's not going to help anyone to stay polite, and going off will at least make you feel better. So you do.

But insisting as you do so that this is 100% okay no matter how far you take it and nobody can even point out the choice you're making, or make a different choice for themselves, is disingenuous at best and duplicitous at worst. If you make that choice, own it, and don't cloak it in the defensive camouflage of "I have a right to do this because marginalized people shouldn't have to silence ourselves for the comfort of our oppressors!" No, you're right, we shouldn't, but it's still not cool to tell people to go play in traffic.

And like, this is an enormous topic with so many variables I can't begin to really do it justice, and especially not in a single annoyed post bashed out on my phone while I'm procrastinating on taking a shower and going to bed.

There is a conversation to be had about people who respond to even reasonable criticism with whining and flouncing, because that is absolutely a thing that happens. But the existence of those situations and those people doesn't negate the rest of the discussion, either.

There is a conversation to be had about how and when and why and to what degree we choose to balance ideology with practicality - how do we avoid compromising ourselves into impotence in the name of prioritizing practicality? How do we stick to our principles but still make progress? When do we say "well, this isn't ideal, but it's a step in the right direction, so let's encourage it" and when do we say "nope, the unacceptable part of this outweighs any good it's doing, I can't support it at all"?

And so much of this hinges on it being an intra-community conversation. There's a serious difference between one member of a marginalized group saying to another member of that same group, hey, I'm upset too, but I don't think this is actually helping anything, and a member of the privileged group telling people from marginalized groups how to handle their reactions to things.

Anywho. I'm sure I'll be accused of tone policing for this, but tbh if you can read this whole thing and come away with just "you're tone policing people!" then I don't even know what else to tell you because you are too far down the road of Righteous Wrath Deserves To Be Prioritized Above All Else for concepts like nuance and context to reach you.

[pullcarol0-blog]

How Do We Change Our Lives in a System That's Broken?

Rather than fight a system designed to thwart us, we need a model for our own lives that bypasses the perverse tides and obsoletes the impediments in our path.

Everyone wants to change their lives for the better (or preserve what's positive), and this is relatively straightforward in a healthy system with positive incentives and a transparent, productive set of rules and feedbacks.

But what if the system is broken? How do we change our lives for the better in a dysfunctional system of unearned privilege and perverse incentives? Needless to say, it's difficult, and this is why we see a rise in inward-directed solutions.

If we can't change the external world we inhabit, then the "solution" is to nurture an inner tranquility. It's no wonder that Taoism--perhaps the ultimate inner-directed philosophy--arose during the Warring States era in China, when social unrest and conflict were endemic.

But what about real-world changes such as improving our health, fitness, resilience, work/career satisfaction, income security and psychological well-being? When it comes to affecting real-world changes in a broken system, it often feels like we're swimming against the tide: the system doesn't make positive improvements easy, despite an abundance of lip service to individual goals such as losing weight, improving our career options, etc.

There are number of reasons for this; here are a few:

1. The economy, society and systems of governance are all changing in fundamental ways. I've written a lot about these forces-- AI, robotics, globalization, financialization, the concentration of wealth and power at the top, etc. --and how we can respond positively, particularly in my books A Radically Beneficial World and Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy.

The point here is that even if our system was fair and functional, the structural dynamics are generating uncertainty, instability and a diminishing number of winners and an expanding multitude of losers.

2. But we don't inhabit a fair and functional system; the status quo is dysfunctional, dominated by self-serving insiders, the Protected Class and various elites. Actual inflation (loss of purchasing power) is under-reported, and other metrics are gamed or distorted to improve the optics--that is, the perception.

Markets have been grossly distorted to reward the already-wealthy; stocks and housing are been transformed into signals of economic strength when in reality they are signals of excess and asset bubbles that increase wealth and income inequality.

3. Maximizing profit and convenience via marketing is the core of our economy now. Unfortunately, what's highly profitable and heavily marketed is often unhealthy or deleterious to our physical, mental and financial health: fast food, packaged food, social media, high-cost, low-utility higher education, medications with serious side-effects, and so on.

Accomplishing changes often requires declaring war on convenience, as convenience is the enemy of everything required to swim against the tide:discipline, sustained effort, sacrifice, etc.

So how can individuals and households manage positive changes in a destructive, perverse and broken system?

One place to start is to eliminate as much marketing as possible, and as many negative, deranging distractions as possible. This means limiting media and social media exposure to a bare minimum.

Another is to focus on value rather than convenience. This goes against the tide not just of marketing but of "progress," which is implicitly defined as an increase in convenience and a decline in drudgery, effort and discipline.

Ironically, most of life's most rewarding things are not convenient at all:fitness, real food prepared at home, acquiring skills with steep learning curves, etc. These are all terribly, horribly, irrevocably inconvenient.

Third, look outside the mainstream and status quo "solutions." Solutions outside the mainstream status quo tend to be inconvenient, wrenching and difficult, and there is very little institutional support for anything outside the mainstream. Rather, the entire weight and force of the status quo is put to bear in support of passive compliance with the approved "solutions."

For example, the approved "solution" to ill health is surgery or costly medications that haven't even been tested for interactions with other powerful medications.

The "solution" to the high cost of housing in desirable cities is to surrender the household income for the next 30 years and buy a decaying bungalow for $800,000 or more (or $1.8 million in bubble-mania neighborhoods).

These are simulacrum solutions; they only worsen the initial problem, not solve it.

As Bucky Fuller noted in his famous dictum, "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

This is as true of our individual lives as it is of systems. Rather than fight a system designed to thwart us, we need a model for our own lives that bypasses the perverse tides and obsoletes the impediments in our path.

This essay was drawn from Musings Report 25. The Musings Reports are emailed to subscribers and patrons weekly.

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Read the first section for free in PDF format.

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Source: http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2018/09/how-do-we-change-our-lives-in-system.html

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[junker-town]

Luke Fickell’s Cincinnati rebuild is well ahead of schedule

Fickell’s Bearcats just exploded from 4-8 to 11-2. What happens if the offense figures things out?

Bill C’s annual preview series of every FBS team in college football continues. Catch up here!

In last year’s Cincinnati preview, I declared myself a huge fan of what Fickell was building as he headed into his second full season. Then I predicted the Bearcats to maybe eke out a bowl bid.

Thanks mostly to quarterback Hayden Moore’s return and excellent two-year recruiting, Cincinnati is projected to improve back into the S&P+ top 90. I’m going to assume major leaps don’t happen until 2019 or later.

The Bearcats can eke out a bowl bid. That’s really the only goal on the table this year, though. Keep building the foundation, try to win more than four games, and keep recruiting your butt off.

Had I known that a redshirt freshman quarterback (Desmond Ridder) would end up starting, leading returning rusher Gerrid Doaks and star defensive end Kevin Mouhon would miss the season with injury, safety Chris Murphy would miss most of the year (while another safety, Malik Clements, moved to linebacker) ... that Cincy would be much younger than I anticipated, in other words? Well, I probably wouldn’t have even predicted a bowl.

Fickell ended up leaning even more heavily into a youth movement than anticipated. And Cincinnati went 11-2.

That’s not the way that’s supposed to work.

The Bearcats were a revelation. They beat (an admittedly worse than expected) UCLA on their way to a 6-0 start, and when opponents adjusted to make life harder on Ridder and the young offense, they still landed some shots. They outlasted SMU and USF, walloped Navy and ECU, and fell only at Temple and at UCF. And when Ridder got hurt in the Military Bowl against Virginia Tech, Moore threw for 120 yards in a 35-31 win.

Cincinnati arrived ahead of schedule and then, perhaps most importantly, managed to hold onto Fickell despite interest from a few power conference schools. And with few scholarships to give out because UC just won 11 games with almost no seniors, Fickell inked a recruiting class with the second-highest per-recruit average in the conference.

It was a pretty good year, in other words. And now Ridder, 1,300-yard rusher Michael Warren II, all but one receiver, seven defensive starters, and Doaks and Mouhon return.

In one year, expectations did almost a 180, from “maybe make a bowl?” to “maybe win the AAC West?” Cincy gets UCF and Temple at home this time and gets shots at both UCLA (at home) and Ohio State (away). With this schedule, the Bearcats can make as much noise as they are capable of making. Per S&P+, they are projected favorites in nine games and one-possession underdogs in two more.

You excited yet? Great, now let me throw some cold water on everything: teams that make a major leap — and I would say going from 95th to 50th in S&P+ qualifies as “major” — don’t usually leap again the next year.

Of the 26 teams that jumped at least 45 spots in S&P+ between 2006 and 2017, only seven improved further the next year. Thirteen saw their rankings fall by at least 13 spots, and nine fell by at least 30.

If you think about the likely causes of unexpected jumps, that makes sense. A team that surges like that is more likely to lose its head coach, like Ball State after 2008, SDSU after 2010, Houston after 2011, SJSU after 2012, etc. Or maybe it leaps due to a terrific senior class, which leaves a young two-deep in its wake.

Teams that improve suddenly and then maintain their progress, however, often underachieved to begin with (giving them room to surge), then rebounded again with a new coach. Auburn, for example, surged in 2009 under first-year head coach Gene Chizik (who replaced Tommy Tuberville, the guy Fickell replaced at UC in 2017), then improved further in 2010.

I figure Cincinnati has a good shot at becoming one of the latter examples here. The Bearcats probably aren’t going to surge into the S&P+ top 25, but top 40? Top 35? You figure it’s on the table.

Offense

If you’re looking for signs that Cincinnati can climb higher in 2019, your biggest source of encouragement has to be that the offense still has a lot of room to rise.

The Bearcats enjoyed a top-50 Off. S&P+ ranking every year from 2011-15 but fell to 99th in Off. S&P+ in 2016 and 109th in Fickell’s first year. They improved to 74th last year, awfully impressive considering the freshman quarterback, but they were an unfinished product.

For one thing, the base offense didn’t work all that well. They ranked 91st in standard-downs marginal efficiency, which means they were constantly falling behind schedule and asking a freshman QB to catch them up.

Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

Desmond Ridder

He usually did. Ridder was incredible on third-and-long. He completed 33 of 52 passes on third-and-7 or more for 563 yards, six touchdowns, and two interceptions. Passer rating: 184.8. Cincinnati was 16th in passing-downs marginal efficiency and 11th in blitz-downs success rate, and arguably the only freshman quarterback who was better in these situations was Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence. Ridder’s a far more willing and able scrambler than Lawrence, too.

We maybe have to worry about sustainability here — Ridder’s passer rating on first down, when opponents were geared up to stop the run, was only 138.5, and maybe there was a fluky element to the third-and-long success.

In theory, though, he might face fewer third-and-longs if the run game develops.

Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports

Michael Warren II

Fickell and offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock want to run the hell out of the ball — here’s your reminder that Fickell served for nine years under Jim Tressel and for five under Urban Meyer — and they’ll almost have to, to get every deserving player some touches.

Warren averaged just 4.7 yards per carry over his first month on the job, then averaged 5.9 from there. He came on strong, and his freshman backups, Tavion Thomas and Charles McClelland were even stronger, combining for 984 yards (6.5 per carry) and 11 touchdowns. Throw in Doaks, who averaged 5.9 per carry in 2017, when nothing was working, and this is one of the best RB corps in the country, one that is young enough to still have another gear or two of development to uncover.

The biggest question for the run game actually comes up front, where Cincy has to replace three starters, including all-conference performers Dino Boyd (LT) and Garrett Campbell (C). Two senior starters return, and lord knows Fickell’s recruited well in the trenches — among the younger players he might be calling on are four-star Michigan transfer James Hudson and mid-three-stars like junior Darius Harper and redshirt freshmen Jeremy Cooper and Lorenz Metz. Still, this could be a young line. Maybe Ridder’s not out of the third-and-long woods just yet.

When he’s got to throw, he’ll have some exciting options. No. 1 receiver Kahlil Lewis is gone, but everybody else is back, including big-play senior Rashad Medaris, tight end Josiah Deguara, senior Thomas Geddis, and the requisite exciting youngsters: sophomores Jayshon Jackson and Trent Cloud, freshman Tre Tucker, etc.

Defense

The defense doesn’t have nearly as much room to grow. The Bearcats rose from 68th to 36th in Def. S&P+ last year, dominating against the run and playing ultra-aggressive, on-ball pass defense. When you rank sixth in rushing marginal efficiency and first in completion rate allowed, you’re doing something right.

Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images

Cameron Jefferies (14)

We’ll start with the good news: just about everybody in defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman’s linebacking corps and secondary are back.

Cornerbacks Coby Bryant and Cam Jefferies combined for three interceptions, 20 pass breakups, and four tackles for loss (all from Jefferies) and played on such islands that they ended up with 54 solo tackles and only 12 assists. They’re back, as is redshirt freshman Arquon Bush, a 2018 star recruit who managed to break up four passes, with only three tackles (solo, of course), in a four-game audition.

Safeties James Wiggins and Darrick Forrest are back after leading such an aggressive unit as sophomores. They combined for five INTs, seven breakups, and two TFLs.

At linebacker, Clements is gone after leading the team in tackles following his move from safety to SLB. But Jarell White and Bryan Wright return after combining for 15.5 TFLs, five sacks (all from Wright), 22 run stuffs, and a pair of passes defensed.

Senior Perry Young, junior Joel Dublanko, sophomore RJ Potts, Duke transfer Tinashe Bere, redshirt freshman Ty Van Fossen, and others should combine to give Cincy the deepest LB corps in the AAC. And the secondary isn’t exactly thin.

Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports

Bryan Wright (11)

Now the bad news: the line needs a little bit of retooling. Last year’s top three — end Kimoni Fitz and tackles Cortez Broughton and Marquise Copeland — all depart, and while Freeman played a pretty large rotation up front, their production (33 TFLs, 14 sacks, 40 run stuffs, eight breakups) set a high bar.

Mouhon’s return should solve one of those problems, at least. The senior had 16.5 TFLs in 2016-17. And at the jack/DE hybrid spot, juniors Michael Pitts and Ethan Tucky combined for 11.5 TFLs and six sacks last year. There are still playmakers on the edge.

In the middle, though, lots of guys will be asked to punch above their weight class. There are plenty of breakout candidates — juniors Curtis Brooks, Elijah Ponder, and Marcus Brown, sophomore Jabari Taylor, redshirt freshman Blake Bacevich — but no particularly known entities. Run defense was such an important driver of success, and further improvement will depend on a couple of these tackles playing at a really high level.

Special Teams

There’s another good news, bad news scenario.

Cincy brings back maybe the best punter in FBS, James Smith. The junior averaged 44.3 net yards per punt and ranked first in punt efficiency.

But if the offense does improve, the Bearcats will have less use for Smith and will lean on place-kicker Cole Smith more. He ranked a ghastly 129th in FG efficiency as a freshman. He was just 3-for-7 on field goals under 40 yards, which is unfathomably bad.

The kicker’s struggles meant UC ranked just 82nd in Special Teams S&P+, and we don’t know if that will improve, even with this punter in tow.

2019 outlook

2019 Schedule & Projection Factors

Date Opponent Proj. S&P+ Rk Proj. Margin Win Probability 29-Aug UCLA 63 6.5 65% 7-Sep at Ohio State 7 -19.7 13% 14-Sep Miami (Ohio) 93 14.5 80% 28-Sep at Marshall 77 5.8 63% 4-Oct UCF 27 -2.1 45% 12-Oct at Houston 73 4.3 60% 19-Oct Tulsa 95 15.6 82% 2-Nov at East Carolina 113 19.0 86% 9-Nov Connecticut 129 34.3 98% 16-Nov at USF 71 3.6 58% 23-Nov Temple 66 7.4 67% 29-Nov at Memphis 26 -7.7 33%

Projected S&P+ Rk 44 Proj. Off. / Def. Rk 71 / 31 Projected wins 7.5 Five-Year S&P+ Rk 1.5 (68) 2- and 5-Year Recruiting Rk 69 2018 TO Margin / Adj. TO Margin* 0 / 2.6 2018 TO Luck/Game -1.0 Returning Production (Off. / Def.) 71% (71%, 71%) 2018 Second-order wins (difference) 9.6 (1.4)

Cincinnati is going to be good again this year, but how good is very much a “see whatever you want to see” situation.

With an even more explosive run game and a passing-downs magician in Ridder, the offense could rise into the top 50.

Or, the new line starters will lead to a less consistent run game, and the passing-downs success will prove unsustainable.

The defense could find a couple new tackles and ride an incredible back seven to a top-30 ranking.

Or the run defense will regress, leading to fewer opportunities to make plays in the passing game.

The most likely scenario is that Cincinnati improves slightly overall. Granted, the record might not improve, thanks to trips to Ohio State, Memphis, Marshall, and Houston and visits from UCF, UCLA, and Temple. That’s a rugged schedule, and a top-40 team might lose four games.

Still, after a brief stumble, Cincinnati was basically back to looking like a power conference team last year. The Bearcats were nasty, physical, and fun. That probably won’t change as long as Fickell’s there.

Team preview stats

All 2019 preview data to date.