Old Boy Network

Wally points out the obvious:

espn’s Michael Smith explains why the failure to fill any of the eight vacancies in the NFL with a minority is not simply racism. see, as he explains it it’s because in the nfl it’s a matter of who you know. so it’s not racism in refusing to hire qualified minority candidates because they didn’t hire qualified white guys either! gms generally hired their friends (or almost themselves, in the case of the buffalo bills). i would hope that anyone with a keen ear for gender/racial inequity would have a bullshit meter that goes off whenever someone explains that it’s a matter of social networking, not deliberate exclusion. what a very old and tired excuse for a lack of equity. if the old boys’ club is all white (and all boys!), it’s racist. we dogs are notorious for our sense of smell but surely this smells rotten to you naked apes too?

Which reminds me of something I once wrote about Charles Murray.

… and speaking of Charles Murray, it’s disappointing yet predictable that Lord Saletan doesn’t even entertain the possibility that differences in reactions to violence on the part of American men and women might be cultural, rather than genetic. I suppose acknowledging that would make it harder for him to write his human nature column.