johnzo

How do you know this? Would you say that race is absolutely never ever a factor in any American law enforcement encounter? You think a black man and a white man will be treated equally when they're pulled over by a highway patrol in, say, Mississippi?

I think the "police aren't targeting black people because they're black, but only because they're poor" argument is pretty much horseshit. The numbers don't add up. Consider how black people fare in non-fatal encounters with law enforcement: According to the 2009 U.S. Census (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0695.pdf) there were about 3.7 million black families under $30,000 income in the USA, and 13.1 million white families under $30,000 income. If the imprisonment numbers tracked with income, then you'd expect to see roughly 3-4x as many white people in jail as black people, because there are 3-4x more poor white people than poor black people. However, according to the Prison Policy Initiative (http://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/rates.html) blacks and whites each account for about 40% of the prison population. Blacks are many times more likely to be imprisoned than whites are. If the American justice system is indeed blind to race, then why are black people being imprisoned at such an elevated rate?

If you're considering context about the shooting, please also consider the larger context in which the shooting took place: one in which it's widely believed that the police prey on black people without consequence. Alas, it's very difficult to prove this conclusively because the data simply isn't there -- the FBI does do some reporting on killings by police, but the data is self-reported by local/state police departments and participation in the reporting is not mandatory. That said, the anecdotes do not flatter the police. The federal Ferguson report was some scary reading; the police department there was basically operating as a shakedown crew that propped up city revenues. The New York City stop-and-frisk program targeted people of color way out of proportion to white people. Here in Seattle, the head of the police officers' guild called out his union brothers and sisters for being racist and anti-gay, and encouraged them to leave Seattle and go to departments where that kind of thinking was tolerated. When your union president is talking about how bad things are, you know there's a problem -- and that's in cozy liberal Seattle where we're supposedly past this kind of thing. I wish the federal government would force local police departments to report demographic information on law enforcement killings so that Americans could be better informed about this issue. My own suspicion is that, by and large, cops feel more empowered to **** with people of color than they do to **** with white people. I think this concern shouldn't be dismissed: it should be studied just like any other social science hypothesis.

They're cooling off. They're winless in their last three games.

3a. Pavs kinda got his revenge already, he beat the Blues 2-1 a couple weeks ago, in a shootout no less. 3b. Since his blueline whiff, Pavs has been on a mission, going 8-2 with a 1.88 GAA, a .937 save percentage, and 2 shutouts.

We're within striking distance of Minne -- and they have a tougher schedule than we do, playing all three Central Division leaders.

Pavs. There is no way you take him off the ice right now.

First reaction to Kashif: his name is great nickname fodder. Second reaction: imagining Rod Black screaming "Kashif! Cashes In!" after he scores a TD.

Chicago does us a solid and we get to spend another day in a playoff spot...

under the present roster rules there's no special advantage to rostering a Canadian QB, so there's no point in drafting him unless you think he's got a shot at winning a job in training camp. Like for us, I'd only want to see us draft Yantz if we thought he could legitimately unseat Portis, Marve, or Brohm. (I have no idea how good Yantz is ... maybe he could.)

With Perrault back and Little imminent, that's a seriously deep set of forwards we'll be rolling out there.

Whoever survives this wild card marathon is going to put a scare in the west's top teams -- every marginal playoff team in the west is playing great right now, while the division leaders are cooling off a bit.

Leeman was involved in one of the worst trades in hockey history, being the principle asset that Calgary received in exchange for Doug Gilmour. That trade spelled the final death for the great Calgary run of the eighties.

It's amazing how the West's wildcard race is running in lockstep: Calgary, Minnesota, LA, and the Jets all have 14 points over the last 10 games. Vancouver has 13 points and Chicago 15. No one's made up any ground in March.

Goals from Stafford, Myers, Stempniak -- nice work, Chevy.

It's inspired by an actual icelandic saga. It's utterly gorgeous (even if they do lean on the blue filter a little bit) and plotwise it is much simpler than Game of Thrones. The whole show revolves around a Viking jarl named Ragnar Lothbrok, a guy with a vision for his people and in each season different people come at him.

Never been sold on Pav as our starter, but I gotta say I love a redemption story, and he's been money since that fluky goal. Go Pav!

Back in the Jets 1.0 days, during the 1990 playoffs heartbreak, I remember a RANFORD chant that the organist joined in on.

I hate Orange County with the fury of a thousand burning suns, but yeah, go Ducks. Speaking of Vancouver goalies, why do their tailors leave the umlaut off Eddie Läck's namebar? Is it too metal?

The most recent episode was outstanding and had the best moment in the series.

Yeah, job 1 has got to be getting the Argos situation sorted out. Would love to see a CFL renaissance there.

Not related to the wild card race ... but Edmonton is up over Toronto 4-0 just over halfway through the first period. #tank #tank #tank #lolnotheyjustsuck

There is a lot of hockey left to be played you guys.

We're watching Vikings and Better Call Saul right now. Vikings is pretty good. Better Call Saul is okay, but it's getting a ton of Breaking Bad goodwill from me.

There are lots of busy two-tenant NBA/NHL arenas, and you'd figure it'd be easier for an arena to host two hockey teams than a hockey & basketball team because you don't have to spend time and money continuously re-laying out the basketball floor.