As IF Times

Link Mark Cuban: Donald Sterling’s Comments ‘Abhorrent’ « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth.

Somehow, intemperate comments made in private by Donald Sterling has managed to usurp all other issues ailing the world and is the primary focus for all mainstream news.  His ‘abhorrent’ behavior has given news outlets respite from reporting on abstract things such as the Benghazi scandal or war in the Ukraine.  He’s even managed to push the remarkable Kim Kardashian off the front page of America’s news outlets.  What we are witnessing is nothing less than the most public lynching of an individual since Paula Deen.

Sterling’s history of behavior is not exactly the sort that would befit a NAACP achievement award, as that organization embarrassingly found out.  In the aftermath of the accusations, people who were once proudly associated with Sterling (or his money) disappeared with a ping and a swirl of dust, like the Roadrunner in a Wile E Coyote cartoon.

Apparently, the revelation that Sterling may hold some antipathy towards elements of the black community was a shock to people on the looney left but also to those on the newly sanctimonious right.  His comments were not made in a public speech or in an open forum.  They were uttered in private and we don’t even know the circumstances.  Oddly, someone (the offended gal pal) just happened to have a camera rolling. Maybe she was insisting that ebonics was a language.  The resultant firestorm was powerful and it was immediate.  The chorus of tsk tsking from all quarters was like the drone of cicadas on a summer’s evening in the Midwest.   Sterling became an instant pariah.   It’s hard to feel any pity for the guy, since as the old saying goes, if you lie with dogs, you’re going to get fleas.

What we should all feel pity for, if not absolute outrage, is the blatant assault on something infinitely more sacred and which is rapidly disappearing from our society: that is, privacy.  Even fellow NBA team owner Mark Cuban, noted foot in mouth guy,  recognizes that the circumstances that led to the public lynching of Sterling are the beginnings of a very slippery slope for privacy.  When you couple the fact that most everyone has a cellphone capable of recording any conversation and that many topics these days are strictly off limits as determined by the PC police, the opportunities for future extortion and character assassination are now objects of lawyers’ wet dreams.

As it is, every owner of any professional team is now on notice that they too can be brought before the PC kangaroo court and be stripped of their teams and their reputations if an offhand remark offends any of the exhaustive list of aggrieved members of society.  That’s not a small thing.  Imagine that anyone can be stripped of a multi-million dollar enterprise just because somebody doesn’t like what they said…in private.   That’s essentially state sponsored confiscation…or outright theft.  We can bet that this wouldn’t stop with owners of sports teams.  This policy will affect anyone who runs a large entity, holds public office, anyone who can be gainfully extorted.

It’s amusing that for all of the rhetoric about due process and free markets, the fortunes of Sterling’s ball team is not decided by the wallets of the public, but by a kangaroo court of sanctimonious sycophants.  Naturally, ‘appropriate’ buyers are already in the wings willing to take over the successful operation.  This is huge shot across the bow for American society.  The rule of law is giving way to tribal rule.  With these kinds of stakes at risk, you can be sure that an entire wave of rude hand gestures will emerge in place of verbal insults.  If anyone gets called on it, they can always claim they were misunderstood.

link Kim Kardashian Flaunts Cleavage in Sexy, Low-Cut Top & Sassy Blazer—See the Pic! | E! Online Canada.

It’s curious how certain things wind up getting exposure in popular media. By things I’m presently referring specifically to Kim Kardashian’s breasts, as they have managed to burst onto the front page of today’s Google News.  I’m talking about the breathless headline you would expect to normally find at the magazine racks at the supermarket ( aka the rack rack ) but which now populates news sites.   Even if you were to entirely ignore the unlimited supply of news articles on every topic imaginable and focus only on ‘events’ in pop/entertainment culture, you would think that a story would have to have some point of relevance to make it ‘newsworthy’.

If an alien from another world were to land here and peruse the linked headline, he could naturally assume a number of logical things.

1. This Kim Kardashian person  has something, namely cleavage that is a rare commodity, not in abundance anywhere else.

2. Or, her cleavage is of particular interest, like a Haley’s comet or a potato that happens to resemble Elvis in profile.

3. Such pictures are a rarity and readers are encouraged to take a look with all urgency in case it disappears.

4. Or this is the first time that such cleavage has been paired both with a low cut top and a sassy blazer.

5. That this sighting of Kim Kardashian is such an exalted event that it is worthy of front page billing on Google News eclipsing lost planes and sinking ferries.

But if you look at the very short body of the piece, there is no backstory.  The mere announcement of this sighting is enough to make the headlines.  This is as if the announcement were on par with “Cure For Cancer Discovered”, or “Jimmy Hoffa’s Body Found”. We don’t discover that her cleavage was on display in public for any useful cause, or in the pursuit of some noble activity.  It’s as if you looked inside a colorful box and it was empty.

She was just taking them out for a walk.  I’m sure I’m in the very small minority who think that this is somewhat lacking in the newsworthiness scale.  It’s very possible that the world awaits with rapt attention for any view of Kim Kardashian’s life activities.   Hopefully, there will be cameras around when Kim Kardashian gets up from a chair, or takes a drink of water.

So just as a point of comparison, here are some images of some other popular entertainment personalities, all of whom have some claim to talent and ability.   Oddly, I can find no news stories about the time that they took their cleavages for a walk.  As far as I can tell, that would be equally as headline grabby as Kim’s outing.  So we’re missing something.  The fact is, there is an entire industry surrounding the on going publicity of Kim’s rather banal life as if it were the most crucial element of western civilization.  Somebody must find it all interesting.  For me, it’s mildly titillating at best.