Sports

A lift too far: The Court of Appeals decision [With Comment by John]

Featured image On the local front, I have sought to draw attention to the case of JaycCee Cooper v. USA Powerlifting in several posts accessible here. Filed in Ramsey County District Court and assigned to Judge Patrick Diamond, the case raises the question whether USAP’s separation of men from women in USAP’s Minnesota competitions must yield to Cooper’s self-identification as a woman. Although a biological male, Cooper seeks to compete with the »

Dunkage

Featured image Mac McClung of the G League Osceola Magic has won his second straight NBA slam dunk contest. The six-foot-two guard performed, among other feats, a slam after jumping over Shaquille O’Neal. While ranking the greatest dunkers of all time, fans might consider game dunks – not showboat jams by someone in the clear but plays where the dunk is the best or only way to score. For example, check out »

The Apartheid Bowl

Featured image For the fourth straight year, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” will be performed at the Super Bowl. The so-called “black national anthem” assumes a separate black nation, a concept with a rather strange origin. The Communist Party USA, an overwhelmingly white party controlled by an all-white Soviet dictatorship, held that blacks were not real Americans. In 1928, the Communist International, (Comintern), founded by the USSR to control national Communist parties, »

70 Plus 3 Equals Luka

Featured image A few days after Joel Embiid scored 70 points against the San Antonio Spurs, Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks dropped 73 against the Atlanta Hawks. Both feats drew comparisons to Wilt Chamberlain, who holds the record for points in a game with 100. Wilt also tallied more than 70 points a full six times, but he was not the first to hit the mark. During the 1960-61 season, Elgin »

70 Plus 30 Equals Wilt

Featured image This week Joel Embid dropped 70 points on the San Antonio Spurs, surpassing the Philadelphia team record of 68 set by Wilt Chamberlain back in 1967.  Some reports failed to note that Wilt’s records came in bunches. On March 2, 1962, Chamberlain threw down 100 points and grabbed 25 rebounds in a 169-147 victory over the New York Knicks, surpassing his previous record of 68 set three months earlier. That »

Unsportsmanlike

Featured image Sports fans who get up early might check out “Unsportsmanlike” on ESPN radio. From predictions to draft picks and recruiting scandals,  Michelle Smallmon, Evan Cohen and Chris Canty break it down  in fine style, with humor always in the mix. On Tuesday they were comparing the late-season breakdowns of the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys. The “unsportstmanlike moment of the day” is always a treat. “Smalls,” Evan and “CC” never »

Dolly Does Dallas

Featured image At halftime of Thursday’s Dallas-Washington football game, Dolly Parton made a pitch for the Salvation Army but didn’t show up just to ring the kettle bell. In a flash, Dolly appeared all tricked out as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, and as the crowd confirmed, the minimalist style suited the 77-year-old quite well. Parton first busted out “Jolene,” but she hadn’t forgot the working folks. As Dolly lit into “Nine to »

Baseball Is Better Than Politics

Featured image No doubt sports fans in many cities believe that their teams are jinxed or cursed. But Minnesota fans have had a special, objective basis for feeling put upon: our Twins had lost a world-record-in-any-sport 18 consecutive postseason games. It is a unique distinction–they had to be good enough to often make the postseason, but not good enough, year after year, to win a game. If the chance of winning a »

Poltroontang: Keith Olbermann’s late hit on Aaron Rodgers

Featured image On 9/11 at MetLife Stadium, fans went crazy as Aaron Rodgers, holding aloft the American flag, led the New York Jets onto the field. Four plays into the game, the 39-year-old Rodgers sustained a season-ending Achilles injury. Across the country, fans and players alike gave the quarterback some love, but former ESPN and MSNBC mouthpiece Keith Olbermann opted for a late hit. “Another #SuddenLisfranc due to failure to vaccinate,” Olbermann »

Next time I see Matt Birk

Featured image I was standing at the back of a long line at our local Coldstone Creamery a few weeks ago when former Minnesota Viking Matt Birk walked in with two of his eight kids. When he left the Vikings after ten or eleven seasons he moved on to the Baltimore Ravens, with whom he won a Super Bowl ring. As he took the spot in line immediately behind me, I introduced »

Try this at home

Featured image The Minnesota Twins just finished a three-game series with the San Diego Padres this afternoon. They won the series 2-1 and Carlos Correa — a/k/a the $200 million man — contributed in his own way. Though he is batting .191 at the moment, he is prone to self-admiration when he thinks he has connected for a home run. It happened last night. Late out of the batter’s box when he »

A lift too far: Diamond no gem

Featured image I have sought to draw attention to the case of JaycCee Cooper v. USA Powerlifting. Filed in Ramsey County District Court and assigned to Judge Patrick Diamond, the case raises the question whether USAP’s separation of men from women in USAP’s Minnesota competitions must yield to Cooper’s self-identification as a woman. Although a biological male, Cooper seeks to compete with the ladies. Cooper alleges that USAP’s refusal to yield to »

A lift too far: The transcript

Featured image We have followed the case of JayCee Cooper v. USA Powerlifting in a series of posts I call “A lift too far.” Ramsey County District Judge Patrick Diamond has held USA Powerlifting to be in violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act by separating “trans women” from women in its weightlifting competitions. He has ordered USA Powerlifting to let “trans woman” JayCee Cooper compete as a woman. He (Judge Diamond) »

That to philosophize is to learn to die [With Comment by John]

Featured image I root for the hometown teams — the Gophers, the Vikings, the Twins, the Timberwolves, and the Wild. When the Wild and the Timberwolves crash and burn, as they just have, I consider them and their season a failure. The Wild lost to the Dallas Stars in the first round of the NHL playoffs — they lost to the better team. The Timberwolves lost to the Denver Nuggets in the »

A lift too far: NRO edition

Featured image I first read about the absurd case of JayCee Cooper v. USA Powerlifting in the March 1 Star Tribune op-ed column by Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve celebrating the court’s decision in the case. Ramsey County District Judge Patrick Diamond has found USA Powerlifting to be in violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act by separating the men from the women in its weightlifting competitions. In her Star Tribune column »

A lift too far: South Park edition

Featured image As the Babylon Bee frequently proves, reality is catching up with satire. In November 2019 South Park anticipated the case of JayCee Cooper v. USA Powerlifting. Ramsey County District Judge Patrick Diamond has required USA Powerlifting to recognize Cooper’s self-identification as a woman so that Cooper can compete with the ladies who are weaker than he is. Judge Diamond has found USA Powerlifting liable under the Minnesota Human Rights Act »

A lift too far: Where’s the order?

Featured image JayCee Cooper’s case against USA Powerlifting seems to me to represent the reductio ad absurdum of the woke trans madness, at least in its legal manifestation. Cooper is a biological male who claims that USA Powerlifting has discriminated against him by not allowing him to compete as a woman. Are you kidding me? Physical strength lies at the core of weightlifting. Men are stronger than women. Treating men as women »