As a writer, married to a writer who is a really good guy, I would like to say that I do not think that is true. Excellent creative work can be created by decent people. However, in the world as it currently operates, being an entitled sociopathic asshole makes it much easier to get ahead in every area, especially…

Yeah, I think people are attributing too much good will to the anti-abortion movement. This is a feature, not a bug. They WANT women trapped into relationships with men because of their reproductive capacity. That is how misogyny works. There may be some misguided people out there who actually think they're trying…

Hey, he and his parents apparently do/did real work to help real, non-privileged people. Whoever decided they HAD to get into the "Vows" section I guess has another step to do in their privilege recovery.

Seriously, though, they seem like pretty good eggs, all things considered, for the modern trustafarian.

True, but it is doing everything possible to monopolize the social space. Facebook is no longer a safe environment for me because of a stalker. That's also why I'm keeping my burner account here. True, I don't *have* to use Facebook. But a major community (that my stalker is part of) that provides important…

I think it lets Stanley in particular and the NY Times leadership generally off the hook too much to focus on just lack of racial diversity to explain this piece. I'm a middle-aged white woman. I would never in a million years have thought to write about Shonda Rhimes and her work that way — because it's both wrong…

I agree. To me, this appeal is an unalloyed good. Ray's got more of an incentive to treat his wife decently while it goes forward, and it puts more pressure on the NFL to stop lying and treating the players like chattel, and develop reasonable and transparent procedures for this and other issues going forward.

Thanks for the compliment. But I think there is quite a bit of compelling conversation at Deadspin. As a female football fan, Deadspin's writers and much (although admittedly not all) of its commentariat are a joy compared to other sites.

That's not what I said. The NFL's PR-driven, dishonest, reactive response puts Janay Rice at greater risk, does nothing to improve Ray Rice's behavior and attitudes, and does nothing to address the broader problem of domestic violence in the league. Even criminals deserve justice and due process, and certainly…

I'm worried that throwing him out of the league like this makes it more likely he'll beat her to death, TBH, given what we know about the dynamics of domestic abuse. That would be on him, not on the NFL, obviously. But this is so CYA-driven, and in line with Goodell's other authoritarian behavior that flies in the…

I have no problem rooting for Rice in his appeal, and I'm a feminist. He's being scapegoated in a way that's unjust to him and dangerous for his wife, just so Gooddell and the owners can cover their asses and create a distraction from a host of ways in which they are corrupt, unjust and incompetent. They knew or…

Plenty of highly paid football media figures didn't play pro or Division I ball. Half the NFL audience is women. Women demonstrably compete as athletes at a high level. So your stance is based on what, exactly? That we can't compete directly against men in certain elite sports designed for men? How is that relevant…

I laughed my ass off all the way through Drew's piece. Yet I am still a bit amazed that everything he and the fan letters described about the idiocy of some kinds of Steeler fans has been so beautifully illustrated so quickly. ("Illustrated" means your moronic little post draws a vivid picture proving exactly what…

Based on what's in this post, it's even worse than that. This guy has a pre-existing bias that monogamy is bad. He then looks at conversations in a self-selecting pool of people who agree with him and/or have failed monogamous relationships and his conclusion is that monogamy doesn't work.

Well, DURR. Obviously,…

Our specific conversation is a result of your initial post claiming that domestic abuse is a form of "terrorism", and my response to that. Again, you seem to only want to look at evidence that exculpates Rice, even though as far as I can tell, you're only looked at tainted evidence — whatever is coming from him, his…

You do realize that it's quite common for abuse victims to later say it was their fault they were beaten, shot, stabbed, whatever? You're basically taking the NFL/Ray Rice story at face value, while ignoring all objective evidence, such as the justice system response (whatever she told the police verbally, the…

That's so cute, that you want to turn "heavily muscled professional athlete knocks his fiancee out cold" into "hey, she hit him first!". The term domestic violence is less about the gender of the abuser, and more about the dynamic of two people in an intimate relationship. Tiny little women can be domestic abusers…

I didn't say "exorbitant," only big — the former implies negative judgment, and I don't actually think baseball players (or swimmers, or fencers, etc.) are less worthy than football players. I'd like EVERYBODY to get access to the good food.

It sounds like you know a lot more about college sports financing than I do.…

How long has it been common for non-revenue producing athletes to get big scholarships? I'm guessing not that long. I mean, there's probably always been a way to get someone in an elite school who does something the alums value watching. But how wide spread would that have been? Until not that long ago, you…

Serious question, young'uns: Are flower beards a thing in the real world? Like, not just in Preserve and Williamsburg? And if so, why?

You're making a bit of a leap there. This restriction does not actually prevent people from bondage attire from being within the eye line of old women on a public street. And why, exactly do these old woman's needs, desires and preferences in public spaces trump the needs, desires and preferences of other citizens…