The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Violence, Foreign and Domestic

Posted on | September 10, 2014 | 9 Comments

Americans demand that action be taken to deal with two grave threats, radical Islamic terrorism and NFL running backs:

The N.F.L. remained on the defensive Tuesday as questions mounted over its handling of the domestic abuse case involving one of its star running backs, Ray Rice.
Commissioner Roger Goodell went on national television to address what the N.F.L. knew about a graphic video that showed Rice punching and knocking out his then-fiancée in an elevator. The video was released Monday by TMZ, a celebrity gossip website, prompting the Baltimore Ravens to terminate Rice’s contract and the N.F.L. to suspend him indefinitely.
Goodell said he had not seen the video of Rice knocking out his fiancée.
“We assumed there was a video, we asked for a video, but we were never granted that opportunity,” Goodell told CBS News on Tuesday. “No one in the N.F.L. to my knowledge” had seen the video.
In a statement earlier Tuesday, the league said it had asked law enforcement officials for “any and all information about the incident, including any video that may exist” and “that video was not made available to us, and no one in our office saw it until yesterday.” . . .
Goodell said the N.F.L. had seen the less graphic video published by TMZ soon after the assault in February, video that was taken from a camera in a hallway and showed Rice dragging his fiancée from the elevator.
According to advocates for victims of domestic violence, that video should have been enough to prompt Goodell to suspend Rice for more than two games.
“It didn’t leave a lot to the imagination,” said Kim Gandy, the president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
Gandy, who spoke with Goodell at length before he strengthened the league’s domestic violence policy last month, said she applauded the commissioner’s tougher stance and blamed prosecutors in New Jersey for reducing the charges against Rice.
“It’s a sad commentary on the criminal justice system that there wasn’t stronger action taken,” she said. “I guess celebrity has its privileges.”

Speaking of celebrities with privileges, President Obama is reportedly ready to order U.S. air strikes against the ISIS terrorists in Syria, and then he’ll go back to golfing, we presume. A teenage girl captured by the Islamic thugs described her captivity, which is even worse than being married to an NFL running back:

“They treat us like slaves. We are always ‘given’ to different men. Some arrive straight from Syria,” she says.
Isis has made huge territorial gains across northern Iraq and parts of Syria, capturing thousands of women and children according to an Amnesty International report last month.
“They threaten us and beat us if we try to resist. Often I wish they would beat me so hard I will die. But they are cowards even in this. None of them have the courage to end our suffering.”
Mayat says some of the youngest girls have stopped talking because of the abuse and were taken away by their captors. Many of the women have attempted to end their lives.
“Sometimes I feel as though it will never end. And if it did, my life would remain forever scarred by the torture I have suffered the past few weeks,” Mayat says. “Even if I survive, I don’t think I’ll be able to remove this horror from my mind.”

Kim Gandy could not be reached for comment.

 

Comments

9 Responses to “Violence, Foreign and Domestic”

  1. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    September 10th, 2014 @ 9:51 am

    We need Connie Rice to take over the NFL…or the State Department, take your pick.

  2. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    September 10th, 2014 @ 12:58 pm

    RSM asked which is worse, ISIS or Ray Rice, but I guess it depends if you are on an elevator with them and whether you are sleeping with them.

  3. Steve Skubinna
    September 10th, 2014 @ 2:21 pm

    Yeah, domestic violence is bad, okay? And yet there’s more than a whiff of Politically Incorrect Crime of the Month at work here. The real problem is the thug culture “we” expect from the NFL. So why single out domestic violence? Why not install a more wide ranging ban on prohibited behaviors?

    We pay these goons far too much money for them to act like thugs. We ought to explain to them that with the paycheck and other benefits come a responsibility to act in a civilized manner. We pay our military personnel nowhere near what the lowest paid NFL player gets, and yet we hold them to a much higher standard of behavior. Who would you rather share an elevator with? Randomly selected SGT Schuckatelli or randomly selected NFL gangta street thug?

  4. Quartermaster
    September 10th, 2014 @ 3:59 pm

    She’s still sleeping with him.

  5. Bob Belvedere
    September 10th, 2014 @ 7:29 pm

    Certainly not the State Department. She was an Appeaser. Better than John Forbes Kerry, but still a lesser evil.

    Let us not forget that both Bushes chose rather mediocre Secretarys Of State.

  6. Bob Belvedere
    September 10th, 2014 @ 7:31 pm

    THIS.

    And it goes for the NBA and MLB, as well.

  7. M. Thompson
    September 10th, 2014 @ 10:18 pm

    Oddly, the NHL lacks this problem. Many players are good people off the ice.

  8. maniakmedic
    September 11th, 2014 @ 12:03 am

    On the subject of Ray Rice I’m of two minds: one part of me finds the whole situation abhorrent and disgusting (as it is). The other part of me is a tad irritated at the assumption that because she’s a woman, even though she took a swing at him, she couldn’t have hurt him so he should just take it. Granted, most women don’t have the capability to do serious damage to a man (particularly of his size), but I know I pack a pretty mean punch and I’m not above playing dirty. If a guy underestimates me, he may still win, but he’s going to hurt at the end. That said, clearly from the video he went way over the line. And he deserves what he’s getting.

    As far as where this lies on the scale in comparison to ISIS, it’s bad, but it’s not nearly as bad. Ray Rice is an asshole, but he’s an asshole who, near as I can tell, beat on women (I’m guessing she wasn’t the first) who chose to stay with him (not that it makes his beating them acceptable in any way). The women ISIS has enslaved didn’t want anything to do with the shitbag cowards. On any level.

    If only we had leaders in this country who seemed even marginally more concerned with what bears a striking resemblence to a genocide in progress than with thugs who beat up their neighbors and get shot in the process or tournament picks. It might be asking a bit much, I know, but a girl can dream, can’t she?

  9. daialanye
    September 11th, 2014 @ 10:34 am

    Here’s the part I don’t understand. We pay judges, prosecutors and their auxiliaries, yet we must depend on the NFL to hand out punishment?