Comments on: Sport Conspiracy theories

Sport Conspiracy theories

noizyboy — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:36:33 -0800

Jets meet-up suggest that George Bush really does not like black people. A post over at Grabthar's Hammer analyses a recent photo-op of the President with the New York Jets, and figures out that the probability of the black players having been kept out of the immediate vicinity of Dubya (as you can see is the case in the photos supplied on the post) was 0.4%.

By: troybob

troybob — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:42:47 -0800

yeah, but it's balanced by a 0.4% chance that a black person would want to stand next to george bush at a photo-op

By: Espy Gillespie

Espy Gillespie — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:46:12 -0800

To really get to the bottom of this, someone needs to compare the heights of the players to their positions in the line-up.

By: wilful

wilful — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:46:35 -0800

Yaaah bollocks. The "near the Prez" discriminator includes non-black people way out on the wings and misses a black guy just up and left a bit. Though troybob's answer is funnier.

By: kyleg

kyleg — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:47:56 -0800

Besides being a specious argument, he was meeting the New England Patriots.

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:53:01 -0800

Another possibility: the black players don't like Bush, and don't want to be seen near him. Also, rich white dudes seem to REALLY love Bush, so they might just be elbowing all the brothers out of the way. on preview, what troybob said.

By: The Jesse Helms

The Jesse Helms — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:58:22 -0800

It seems like every road work crew I have ever passed, the guy on the bulldozer or standing by the truck is white, and the guys shoveling asphalt are always black.

By: noizyboy

noizyboy — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 22:08:27 -0800

...he was meeting the New England Patriots. Ah, sorry, my mistake. Can't tell one American Football team from another out of their uniforms.

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 22:19:37 -0800

And they're all smiling nervously because they remember Pat Tillman...

By: Chasuk

Chasuk — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 22:42:06 -0800

For group photos, taller people are meant to stand in the back. Could it be that these black people are standing in the back because they are taller? I don't like George Bush as much as the next guy, but this article is really grasping at straws here.

By: justgary

justgary — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 22:51:20 -0800

Wow, when did mefi crossover into onion territory?

By: hellbient

hellbient — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 22:59:02 -0800

onion territory... Bush Responds to Kanye West: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 23:10:47 -0800

Yeah, I figured it was a hight-related thing as well. Still, it is kinda funny. [george bush dosn't care about anybody]

By: sbutler

sbutler — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 23:14:51 -0800

Damn, troybob read my mind.

By: caddis

caddis — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 00:35:01 -0800

george bush dosn't care about anybody Bingo!

By: rjt

rjt — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 00:47:56 -0800

Because, of course, George Bush personally decides where everyone gets to stand at each and every photo op.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 02:41:17 -0800

This fpp... sheesh.. I want my 1 minute back! feels a lot like race baiting.... not good

By: Goedel

Goedel — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 03:19:31 -0800

George Bush really does not like black people

Yeah, which is why he made one his right-hand woman ... Jeez, enough with the stupid Kanye West imitations already, it was bad enough when he blurted it out the first time, and I say this as one of those black people Dubya supposedly doesn't like.

By: graventy

graventy — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 03:31:52 -0800

Can't tell one American Football team from another out of their uniforms. What kind of a fan are you?

By: Kirth Gerson

Kirth Gerson — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 05:33:14 -0800

I don't like George Bush as much as the next guy, . . . I also prefer the next guy.

By: Zo d'Axa

Zo d'Axa — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 06:11:31 -0800

There's nothing random or spontaneous about this grouping, and the fact that Bush was surrounded by a cordon of white guys jumped out at me before I'd read any commentary. The point is not whether Bush likes black people or not--I'm sure anybody who hands him a beer or brings him some cash in an envelope is okay by him--but that his core constituency contains an awful lot of former Dixiecrats and their unreconstructed children.

By: geoff.

geoff. — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 06:18:25 -0800

Bush doesn't like people with blonde hair! I see no people with blonde hair around him!

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 06:26:49 -0800

I don't like George Bush as much as the next guy, . . . I also prefer the next guy. Uhm...the next guy is Cheney.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 06:32:00 -0800

Bush hates poor people. I can tell because there isn't a single one in that picture. Can someone break it down by salary? Are the lower paid players at the back?

By: juiceCake

juiceCake — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 07:06:26 -0800

Rice...

By: Rothko

Rothko — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 07:14:40 -0800

Rice is not black. Rice is a cyborg from the planet Sylon J, sent from the future to buy Prada fashions and look the other way while 9/11 happened.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 07:18:45 -0800

Aren't the white guys nearest the president the coaches? They do tend to be rather white, but that's the NFL's problem, not the White House's. And like wilful indicated, some of the "close to the president" white guys are actually farther away than some of the black guys.

By: Rothko

Rothko — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 07:23:59 -0800

Maybe we should ask the photographer if it's about compositional symmetry, putting a layer of white guys around Bush up front, and then another layer of black guys away from Bush at the back of the ~~bus~~room.

By: shockingbluamp

shockingbluamp — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 08:47:18 -0800

I can take all kinds of crap about the US government and the Prez from Americans but it boils no end me to read a non-American posting utter nonsense.

By: dness2

dness2 — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 08:51:51 -0800

because only Americans should post utter nonsense? That doesn't seem fair.

By: b_thinky

b_thinky — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 10:33:11 -0800

Actually, I'm sure they try to put the biggest stars next to the Pres, so Tom Brady and Teddy Bruschi are up front. There really aren't any black stars on the Patriots (or any stars besides Brady). Willie McGinest would probably be next on the list, but the case could also be made that Vinitieri is a bigger star than he is. I didn't look at the picture to see who was standing where - just that Tedy and Tom were in the front.

By: Bonzai

Bonzai — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 10:34:10 -0800

Let's see. .4% that one photo-op can produce these events? (That percentage has already been called into question. But let's just take it as a given) How photo-ops does a president do anyway? If it's 100, the odds of 100 iterations not producing 1 example of .4% probability, is around 67%. So about a 33% chance of it happening at least once. 200 iterations would be 45% chance of it happening once. The sample size is one. Can we draw on a larger sample set? How do you eliminate bias when deciding who is "close" and who is "not close", are these precise measurements? This doesn't seem to be good science.

By: hellbient

hellbient — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 10:48:21 -0800

is all the outrage and analysis expressed here for real? I'm pretty sure this is a joke folks...

By: wKen

wKen — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 11:21:35 -0800

Structure is not the result of random chance. A recognizable pattern or design is evidence of an intelligent designer. To suggest that the positions of each person came about either by chance or evolved through trial and error over a long period of time in order to ultimately create the best balance of physical height and relative importance is to deny God's hand in all things. God made the Patriots superbowl champions. God made Bush our president, and God made the black players stand in the back. Nothing happens by chance.

By: spiderwire

spiderwire — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 11:31:21 -0800

ok, i'm confused. are the Bush media people (a) masters of PR and the staged press appearance (as per the blue-building post on MeFi recently) or are they (b) dumb enough to stage a photo op where all the black people were nowhere near the president?

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 13:52:57 -0800

wKen wins.

By: Kirth Gerson

Kirth Gerson — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 18:41:14 -0800

I don't like George Bush as much as the next guy, . . . I also prefer the next guy. Uhm...the next guy is Cheney. Not that next guy! The next guy to get elected president - that's the next guy I prefer. Assuming we're allowed to have an election. Otherwise, I don't like that guy either.

By: Bugbread

Bugbread — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 20:36:30 -0800

Is this the thread where we all gather to get angry about possible logical fallacies in a joke article?

By: noizyboy

noizyboy — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 00:17:58 -0800

It would seem so.