From commenter JBerardi:
“Almost all scandals, I think, result not from the invention of new evils, but from the imposition of new ethical standards.” – Bill James, The New Historical Baseball Abstract
Speaking of people who have written great books about baseball, Michael Lewis’s book on the financial collapse drops in a few days. His article in Vanity Fair on the collapse is still my favorite thing I’ve read about it.
gnomedad
The Bush admin seems to have understood this. No standards, no problem.
Comrade Jake
I was in the airport the other day and spotted Lewis’ “Liar’s Poker” prominently displayed. Interesting strategy to push that out there again in advance of his new book.
But yeah, the new book should be great. If you’re a football fan and haven’t read “The Blind Side” yet, you should. It’s a lot better than the goddamn movie, and has the added bonus of being completely free of any Sandra Bullock.
Comrade Jake
Missed the moderation for that one. What’s the deal there?
Barry
I’ve read Lewis’ ‘Moneyball’ and ‘Liar’s Poker’ and enjoyed them. I’m looking forward to his new book.
Bill E Pilgrim
My favorite way to find out what happened on the Sunday shows is now posted.
First laugh, apropos the last thread:
Brokaw: what about the little fetuses?
Axelrod: not only are they protected they can
now carry guns
Paul Gottlieb
That Bill James quote is superficially plausible, but I think it’s actually wrong. Watergate, for instance, wasn’t a scandal because we suddenly decided that repeatedly breaking in to a major party’s headquarters to plant and retrieve listening devices, or trying to arrange to burn down the Brookings Institution was wrong. And the scandal engulfing the Catholic Church isn’t caused because we suddenly decided that the wholesale sexual abuse of pre-teens by the clergy, aided and abetted by a wide-spread conspiracy by the church hierarchy to keep it secret, was wrong.
Cat Lady
I agree about the Portfolio.com article – it’s the one I recommend to people to read when they start wanking about illegal immigrants causing the financial industry collapse.
I’m going to buy his book when it comes out, and get Paulson’s book from the library.
WereBear
Auuagh. Another good book… to add to my Wish List.
Lewis is a good writer: which means he’s a good Understander and a good Explainer.
Comrade Mary
It looks as if the name of a card game, also the name of an iron stick used to poke a fire, also the name of a Lady Gaga song, puts you in moderation.
Comrade Mary
Repeating: It looks as if the name of a card game, also the name of an iron stick used to poke a fire, also the name of a Lady Gaga song, puts you in moderation.
jurassicpork
Elsewhere in book news: Ted Kennedy, Others to be Assassinated From Texas School Book Depository.
harlana peppper
Re: Unemployment/Health Insurance Blog Project
I apologize for being OT, but I need advice from those less-technically challenged than me. I want to start a blog where visitors would able to post their own observations as a blog post (not comment on a blog entry I made). This blog would be all about visitors posting their own stories about being unemployed and/or health insurance issues (also, same issues that their loved ones and friends may be experiencing). I don’t want it to be about me, but the readers being the writers – given them a place to vent and share experiences.
Does anyone have a suggestion about setting up a blog with this format or what type of blog would be conducive to such a format?
JBerardi
@gnomedad
The entire Republican party not only understands this, but has developed a capacity to de-impose ethical standards nearly at will. ANY ethical standard. It’s really quite amazing.
John Cole
@Bill E Pilgrim: “Bart Stupak is one of my best friends and a fucking liar.”
arguingwithsignposts
@harlana peppper: Drupal is a more community-oriented blogging software than WordPress (although more of a PITA to configure), although you can set up a wordpress blog that will allow people to submit content as a “contributor” that would have to be approved by the administrators (see this link for some info on that).
harlana peppper
@arguingwithsignposts: thanks much!
J.
@DougJ: Thanks for the links to the Michael Lewis article and book review. Good stuff, though now I feel nauseous. I was a summer intern in the training program at Salomon Bros. when Lewis worked there. But unlike Lewis, I was so turned off by the place, and Wall Street (even though my father was a broker at Bear Stearns and LOVED it), I turned down an offer to work there when I graduated college, though maybe if I had stayed I could have become an uber successful writer like Lewis. Btw, like @Comrade Jake wrote, if you all have not read Lewis’s book The Blind Side, do.
aimai
New ethical standards? I’m an atheist but the original ten or so seem to have most of the bases covered.
aimai
DougJ
@aimai:
Imposition of the standards has been largely unsuccessful, however.
aimai
I fault the teacher’s union! Lack of good rubrics.
aimai
harlana peppper
Okay, I just slapped this together. Please feel free to vent here at the unemployment-health insurance blog. I hope Mr. Cole does not mind my blog-whoring this site from time to time, as it is not about me, but about you and your struggles, and those of your loved ones.
Blessings,
harlana
harlana peppper
@arguingwithsignposts: Thanks for the suggestion, but I took one look at Drupal and it’s too complicated for me, as you indicated it might be. As stated above, I just threw something together and hope it works. :)
low-tech cyclist
I’m about as big a Bill James fan as there is, but I think he’s mostly wrong in this particular instance. It may be true about baseball, and it may occasionally be true about other things, but not generally.
Take steroids in baseball. It’s not like players had been using them for decades when all of a sudden, fans and sportswriters started being bothered by their use – it was really a matter of just a few years. By the time casual fans started becoming aware of the prevalence of steroids in the game, everybody quickly agreed that they were a blot on the game.
It wasn’t that ethical standards changed; it just took a few years for people’s underlying standards to apply themselves to this new thing.
Bootlegger
Balloon Juice NCAA tourney pool is open for business on Yahoo. Don’t forget the “seed bonuses” when you make your picks. You’ll need the group ID# in the group label below.
Boots Day
It’s not like players had been using them for decades when all of a sudden, fans and sportswriters started being bothered by their use – it was really a matter of just a few years.
No, I think this is exactly backwards, and in this instance, James’ quote applies perfectly.
When do you think baseball players started using steroids? Tom House has said players were experimenting with steroids in the 1960s and 1970s. Jose Canseco came up in 1986, so it was at the latest then. Canseco was openly accused of using steroids by 1988, but nobody gave a crap. No one said he needed to be banned from the game or anything.
In 1998, after andro was found in McGwire’s locked during the home run chase, there started to be a little more grumbling about steroid use. But it wasn’t until Bonds broke McGwire’s record in 2001 that people started talking about banning players and putting asterisks next to records. So at a minimum, it was a good 15 years before people really cared about steroids. It wasn’t really the steroids they cared about; it was the record book.
But even more importantly, players had been using other illegal PEDs since the 1950s, in the form of greenies and red juice. No one ever said these players should be barred from the Hall of Fame or anything. In that sense the opprobrium directed at steroid users is very much a shifting of the ethical standards rather than the introduction of a new evil.
JBerardi
@low-tech cyclist
Actually, that’s exactly what it’s like: youtube.com/watch?v=_vUhSYLRw14
Joe Buck
I think that this is backwards. New ethical standards are typically imposed after some outrage causes the public to demand the new standards.
Honus
In his historical baseball abstract, Bill James ranks Pete Rose as a better right fielder than Roberto Clemente. For that alone he is complete idiot. That is all.
Chuck Biscuits
I generally love Michael Lewis’ stuff, but was annoyed by parts of The Blind Side. The family’s actions were inspirational, but their decision to adopt one gifted athlete after another creeped me out. Reading the book, I didn’t blame the NCAA for investigating them, but Lewis couldn’t resist casting the NCAA as politically correct busy bodies.
DougJ
@Bootlegger:
I would join if I had a Yahoo ID!