Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
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A tall, unemployed man took his niece to see Serena and Venus Williams play each other at the United States Open on Friday of last week. The man, a free-agent football player clad in a simple black T-shirt, was briefly shown on the video board at Arthur Ashe Stadium to thunderous applause from the crowd….
There is a story—which is usually described as a poem but is more precisely a muddled version of a song written by the jazz singer Oscar Brown Jr.—that Donald Trump delights in reading to crowds at his campaign rallies. Trump refers to it as “The Snake” and his fans know it by that name. “Who…
The Israeli intelligence service asked the great psychologist Daniel Kahneman for help in the 1970s, and Kahneman came back with a suggestion: Get rid of the classic intelligence report. It allows leaders to justify any conclusion they want, Kahneman said. In its place, he suggested giving the leaders estimated probabilities of events. The intelligence service…
The NFL’s approach to players protesting racial injustice during the national anthem has moved to a whole new level of attempting to please everyone. In a matter of weeks, the league has gone from supporting the players, to co-opting and marketing their protests, to trying to squelch the demonstrations entirely, to … well, it’s hard…
Image credit: ESPN The NFL loves nothing more than a hollow branding opportunity. Just look at the self-satisfaction on the face of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones when he knelt, uselessly, with his team before the performance of last night’s national anthem. That’s the look of a man who knows he’s taken something that has nothing to…
Jackie Robinson, in his 1972 autobiography, I Never Had It Made, described the moment when he realized that he could not “stand and sing the anthem,” nor “salute the flag,” which calls to mind recent statements made by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Robinson strongly indicted this nation on charges of racism, classism and bigotry: There I was, the black grandson…