Gag all you want, it's pointless. Women have been targeted for advertising since the dawn of mass media. Who do you think those diaper and fabric softener ads are aimed at, anyway? Twenty-six-year-old bachelors?

You are also missing something rather glaring, which, truth be told, you probably would have picked up if you actually DID know something about professional baseball: LA is one of the worst cities in America to own a baseball team from the front office's POV. During most games the stands are relatively empty, certainly compared to crowds at Fenway, Wrigley, Camden Yards, Arlington or (old) Yankees Stadium. If you watch a Red Sox game when they play in Anaheim or in interleague play at Dodgers, you can hear Red Sox, not local, cheering. That's because there is a full(er) stadium when the Sox, or the Yankees, or Mets are in town, because that draws out the transplants from the East. Quite simply, southern CA is more apathetic to baseball than probably any other market.

So the owners need to fill seats, and the Mannyville strategy's busted. Why not create a LASTING fan base, one around the team instead of a disgraced player, using the town's greatest asset--celebrities? Hey, that's what the Lakers did 25 years ago, making the Lakers game the Place To Be Seen for half of Hollywood. That, and trying to create a female fan base in a town that has little fan base, might help McCourt and Friends.

So, vent if you will, but remember, if it helps fill the stadium, it's a smart play.

when nary a WORD about the Sotomayor nomination shows up here, but cutuesy articles about some bullshit in Australia does.

{Financial folks wrap their emotional decisions in shrouds of speadsheets in an attempt to justify them. They usually can only reason in a linear fashion and scoff at anything that is subjective.}

Baloney. The guys YOU'RE talking about are actuaries and accountants, not traders and brokers. Traders have LOTS of emotions. They are not spreadsheet guys--they pitch on emotions wrapped in a thin veneer of logic. Most financial salesmen are more likely to have been the star high school quarterback and a B- student in college history than to have ever spent time crunching real numbers.

Selling is NOT a logical process. Anyone who thinks that is not in sales, certainly not financial sales. It is 95% emotional. I know, I've sold mortgages and life insurance for 14 years and take it from me, there is no sale without touching on fears, doubts, concerns or desires.

As to the larger point raised by Andrew: yeah, testosterone is responsible for the current crash. So what? It's also responsible for our economic prosperity, the spread of most technologies, the destruction of fascism, our independence from King George and what drove the Vikings to sail through storms to find America. The same hormonal drives that sold mortgage derivatives were at work in 1700's New England selling pond ice to shippers to help build the colony. You can't have the good without the bad.

A twelve day old boy does not remember pain. I certainly don't.

A twelve year old boy in a locker room getting teased because he's the only one in an Israeli school with a "dog dick" will feel a lot of pain. And anger at his parents for forcing him to be different at an awkward age.

Make no mistake: in a country where 99% of the men are circumcised, being known to be uncircumcised can be a social problem as a teenager.

Consider this as well. If the boy should decide he wants to reconnect with his heritage as a Jew, he will be required to become circumcised if he is not. Could he simply lie to the rabbi about it? Sure, lying about fulfilling one of the basic Commandments so you can observe others isn't exactly ethical. And if you believe in God--as you would if you are a practicing Jew--He would know you are a liar. So, to become observant, you will have to circumcized as an adult, a much more painful operation.

If the boy doesn't want to be a Jew, he's lost nothing of value. Phht.

Am I the only one who immediately thought of something else when I saw the word "teabaggers"??