Patriot’s Matt Patricia Wears Goodell TShirt, Inadvertently Supports Crude Barstool Website

Patriot’s defensive coordinator Matt Patricia was pictured wearing a Goodell Clown tshirt while deplaning upon the team’s return to Boston following their win on Sunday.

Kind of surprised that anyone connected with the Patriots would “support” Barstool or David Portnoy.  We can only guess that Patricia doesn’t know, or remember, the history between the crude site and Tom Brady.

You may recall that it was Portnoy, in 2011, who posted a disgusting photo of Brady’s son.

Some perspective is appropriate.  And please note that Barstool/Portnoy and the word “appropriate” are words rarely found in the same thought.  The BS/P combo, and it’s element, are known for their crude, inappropriate, 12 year old teenage boy take on sports commentary.

Back in 2011 Portnoy made a decision to post a picture of Brady’s young son on a Costa Rica beach.  Benjamin was sans-swimsuit with his mother Gisele.  The photo was explicit in it’s view of the young boy’s body.  Larry Brown’s Sports site gives some details of the post:

The post was titled “Check out the Howitzer on Brady’s Kid,” and it shows a close-up picture of Tom Brady’s son in profile. Portnoy then presents some commentary on the naked two-year-old child’s large member and uses it as a way to compliment Tom Brady on his latest world conquest. (emphasis added)

In a normal scheme of things the photo itself was not disgusting.  It was the context.  In the same way that a woman’s hair can be beautiful, a woman’s hair floating in your soup is disgusting.

But this is what BS/P markets.  Crude, disgusting, inappropriate.  Another Boston sports site said at the time:

Barstool, by nature, is a profane site.

In the end BS/P pulled the photo.  WEEI banned the entities from their airwaves.  But time has a way of things fading.  Make no mistake about it, BS/P has not faded.  They are as blatantly crude today as they ever were, maybe more so.

At the time of the photo Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly weighed in with their view of the legal side:  The legal fallout from the Barstool Sports-Brady controversy

It seems that BS/P will do anything that brings clicks, and dollars, to their account.  Portnoy has been pictured holding a sign comparing Goodell to Hitler.  He was chastised by 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Michael Felger for wishing bodily harm to Goodell.

Nothing is off limits, it seems.  We have a great history in the US of freedom of the press.  It is a critical right which should not be limited for frivolous activities.  But within that context we have the right as consumers to shun those who are using it unwisely.

Which is why I am a little surprised that Patricia and others would “support” by buying, wearing or otherwise publicizing BS/P and their crude view.

Making Sense of the Holocaust Remembrance Day

From Israeil’s oldest daily newspaper, Haaretz:

As we reflect on the Holocaust, we should also remember that we have a way to prevent it from recurring.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates more than a tragedy. It is an opportunity for us to reflect on the reason for anti-Semitism, and remember that we have a method for connection, a way to prevent the atrocities from recurring.

 

No, Neil Gorsuch did not start a ‘Fascism Forever’ club at his Jesuit high school

According to a post by Michael O’Loughlin:

It was “a total joke,” said Steve Ochs, a history teacher at Georgetown Prep who was the student government advisor during Mr. Gorsuch’s junior and senior years at the Bethesda, Md., school.

“There was no club at a Jesuit school about young fascists,” he told America. “The students would create fictitious clubs; they would have fictitious activities. They were all inside jokes on their senior pages.”

Total Wine and More stores facing resistance for “illegal” discounts **Updated**

The huge liquor outlets, with locations in Natick and Everett, are under scrutiny for violating a Massachusetts law which prohibits selling alcohol below cost.

Two Total Wine and More stores, which have locations in Natick and Everett, have been given license suspensions for pricing its booze lower than wholesale, WickedLocal reports.

** UPDATE **

Total Wine wins challenge on discount pricing

The Boston Globe reports

A Boston judge has ruled that Massachusetts alcohol retailers can legally sell booze at deep discounts when they order it in bulk, rebutting state regulators who said the practice can violate a state law that prohibits selling alcohol at less than cost.

Yes, the US southern border is susceptible to terrorist crossings

A recent piece in the Christian Science Monitor discussed terrorist apprehensions on the US/Mexico border:   Terror and the Mexico border: How big a threat?

The threat isn’t merely speculative.

From November 2013 to July 2014, officials apprehended 143 individuals listed on the US terror watch list trying to cross the Mexico border and enter the US illegally, according to a confidential Texas Department of Public Safety report obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

And last summer, the US military’s Southern Command warned in an intelligence report that Muslim extremists were using existing migrant smuggling rings in Latin America to gain entry to the US across the Mexico border, according to an account in the Washington Free Beacon.