Since the 1980s, I've heard that the NBA is crooked, and I've heard it from reputable sources. The refs supposedly fix the games. The question is, do they fix games for their personal profit or at the direction of the League? I incline to the view that both types of corruption exist. The fan who put together the above video thinks it's the League officials . . . and he might be right. David Stern, quite frankly, doesn't rub me the right way. Something about him screams "phony" and "dishonest." It's just my vague impression, of course, but when combined with evidence like this video . . .
TIL
A few "Today I Learned" squibs from Reddit recently:
TIL when Pope John XXIII was once asked, "How many people work in the Vatican?" John replied, "About half."
TIL Two identical twins separated at birth; one grew up a Nazi and the other a Jew.
TIL that Approximately 25-30% of drinkers are resistant to hangover symptoms.
TIL there is a town in Nebraska with a population of one.
TIL A Greek taxi driver has the highest recorded mileage to date (2.9 million miles) on a Mercedes. He donated his car to the museum, and was gifted a new car.
Stockman
David Stockman, my district's former Congressman and an acquaintance of my deceased father (on at least one occasion, Stockman cited my Dad during Congressional debates), wrote a stunning op-ed for the New York Times this past weekend: State-Wrecked: The Corruption of Capitalism in America. Excerpt:
As the federal government and its central-bank sidekick, the Fed, have groped for one goal after another – smoothing out the business cycle, minimizing inflation and unemployment at the same time, rolling out a giant social insurance blanket, promoting homeownership, subsidizing medical care, propping up old industries (agriculture, automobiles) and fostering new ones (“clean” energy, biotechnology) and, above all, bailing out Wall Street – they have now succumbed to overload, overreach and outside capture by powerful interests. The modern Keynesian state is broke, paralyzed and mired in empty ritual incantations about stimulating “demand,” even as it fosters a mutant crony capitalism that periodically lavishes the top 1 percent with speculative windfalls.
