October 6, 2013

The Dynastic Gene (megalomania allele)

An article from the Los Angeles Times about my high school's football team:
It's all in the family name for prep football players 
By Eric Sondheimer 
From the land of high school football weirdness comes this tale: 
One of the top defensive players at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame is senior linebacker Anthony Gutierrez, the identical name of last year's top linebacker. 
They're brothers. And that led a reporter to ask the question: What's going on? 
Their father is also named Anthony Gutierrez and he decided to name his first son Anthony. No problem there. But then he started feeling guilty. 
"He didn't want to name the oldest Anthony and not the others," the second Anthony son said. "He didn't want to be unfair." 
So the second son was named Anthony, then the third son also became Anthony. He's 3. 
"People think it's weird," the mother, Gloria, said. 
Last season, Notre Dame players called them "The Anthonys." 
... To avoid identification weirdness, everyone has been given a nickname. Big Anthony is the father. Anthony is the first born. Tony is the second. Antonio is the third. 
The Anthonys are just two boys away from equaling boxer George Foreman's five sons, all of whom are named George. 
At Long Beach Poly, there's Rodney Shorter II and Rodney Shorter III. They're brothers. One's a senior linebacker and the other is a sophomore running back. One is known as Bama and other Little Bama. Their father is also Rodney Shorter.

41 comments:

Glossy said...

"One is known as Bama and other Little Bama. Their father is also Rodney Shorter."

There is an obscene, extremely juvenile joke about our president begging to be born here.

Anonymous said...

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/433353/Romanian-beggars-who-were-given-taxpayer-funded-tickets-to-go-home-are-ALREADY-back-in-UK

Rotfl

Anonymous said...

The University of South Carolina football team has two half brothers named Gerald Dixon (one May be referred to as "Jr.") this year. Same age, same father, different mothers. Both stud DTs, like their father.

-SonOfStrom

Anonymous said...

http://chronicle.com/article/For-Faculty-Free-Speech-the/141951/

Anonymous said...

http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/09/30/is-the-cognitive-revolution-here-yet/?cid=megamenu

Anonymous said...

http://www.cracked.com/article_16478_7-movies-based-true-story-that-are-complete-bullshit_p2.html

Lot of the BS involves blacks.

Given so many movies purport to be 'based on truth' and their massive influence on public opinion, how come there is so little effort on the part of the media to debunk these movies?

Is it like media's pushing the Obie fairytale?
If it serves the narrative, print the legend?

Anonymous said...

from the lister.blogspot.com re: George Foreman:

George Foreman's Ten Children
1. Natalie Foreman
2. Michi Foreman
3. Leona Foreman
4. Freeda George Foreman
5. George Edward Foreman Jr
6. George Edward Foreman III
7. George Edward Foreman IV
8. George Edward Foreman V
9. George Edward Foreman VI
10. Georgetta Foreman

Anonymous said...

And just the other day someone on this board was saying Mexicans aren't funny.

Anonymous said...

Off topic:

Ailing Midwestern Cities Extend a Welcoming Hand to Immigrants

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/us/ailing-cities-extend-hand-to-immigrants.html?hpw&_r=0

Anonymous said...

Steve, have you read Joel Kotkin's recent piece on the emerging "feudal" California? I get the sense that he reads your stuff. Although he never seems to connect the dots, at least not explicitly in writing.

" California’s New Feudalism Benefits a Few at the Expense of the Multitude "

http://www.newgeography.com/content/003973-california-s-new-feudalism-benefits-a-few-expense-multitude

Anonymous said...

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/10/04/bad_medicine_india_tainted_drugs

Anonymous said...

http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/09/30/empty_gestures_toward_iran

GMR said...

Lawrence Eagleburger had three sons, all named Lawrence.

Karl said...

Did I ever tell you that Mrs. McCave
Had twenty-three sons, and she named them all Dave?

Well, she did. And that wasn't a smart thing to do.
You see, when she wants one, and calls out "Yoo-Hoo!
Come into the house, Dave!" she doesn't get one.
All twenty-three Daves of hers come on the run!

Anonymous said...

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/09/03/straight_up_johnnie_walker_global_middle_class

Juanny Walkez

Anonymous said...

http://www.ourpoliticalnature.com/index.html

Anonymous said...

Lawrence Eagleburger had three sons, all named Lawrence.

They had different middle names though. I imagine they went by their middle names. Still weird though. I don't understand the point of giving them the same first name but different middle ones.

Anonymous said...

http://blog.chabris.com/2013/10/why-malcolm-gladwell-matters-and-why.html

Gladwell doesn't seem much loved bu many libs.

Anonymous said...

Steve,

This is off topic, but I think your friend, Uncle Tim, has posted a comment to this news article in the Tennessean about Tennessee being named by the FBI as the state with the highest violent crime rate.

Tim jumps into the thread to correct someone for noticing that Memphis might drive the crime stats for Tennessee. I guess it could be an imposter, or a different Tim Wise, but it looks like it is our favorite anti-racist.

Feel free iSteve readers to challenge Uncle Tim.

Anonymous said...

http://www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/knee-symmetry-may-predict-sprint-prowess?page=single#.UlHfE4n5SOs.facebook

https://www.facebook.com/ourpoliticalnature

Anonymous said...

Government shutdown: Women Hit Hardest:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/10/01/government_shutdown_from_wic_to_the_panda_cam_seven_ways_the_shutdown_will.html

"Seven Ways the Government Shutdown Will Hit Women Hardest"

Anonymous said...

Better than Ra-lon or Know-shawn.

jody said...

anthony? george? pretty tame when we have guys like barkevious mingo and jadeveon clowney now.

jim goad nailed this in his column about 'peak black name'.

check baby names from 2000 if you want to see the upcoming absurdity for the 2020 sports season.

jody said...

"Better than Ra-lon or Know-shawn."

but is it better than Ha Ha Clinton-Dix?

note that retard culture er, black american culture, has taken over the NBA to such a suffocating degree now, that the league is actually considering allowing the players to wear jerseys once or twice a season with their nicknames on the back instead of their real names.

is this still the same country i grew up in? now, i suppose this is not much different than soccer players in brazil, who are allowed to come up with single name nicknames and use those instead of their real names, and everybody has to take their goofy made up names seriously. but brazil is a garbage country with a garbage culture, so that's not so surprising.

but in the NBA how many players actually have a real nickname, and what will the average players, who clearly do not have any nickname, come up with for their jersey? i'm fascinated to see what utterly stupid crap some of these guys come up with. he hate me, anyone?

bjdubbs said...

I'm sure an experienced semiotician could explain why boys but not girls get named after their parents.

Anonymous said...

In response to "Ailing Midwestern Cities...."

African-Americans, who make up 43 percent of Dayton’s population, agree with the goals of the city’s program but said they were waiting to see the results. Derrick L. Foward, president of the Dayton Unit N.A.A.C.P., said he was concerned that immigrant businesses were not hiring enough black employees.

“I think Welcome Dayton is a very good initiative,” Mr. Foward said. “But I would like to see more diversity hiring as part of their practice from the start.”


African-Americans just don't or refuse to get it that's why they stay losing while others pass them by. Good luck with begging immigrants to hire you.

Anonymous said...

Kotkin referenced Steve in the last article he wrote that I've read .

Anonymous said...

I love how he couches his own vanity in a tongue and cheek "It didn't seem fair to name just ONE Anthony!" LOL!!!

hahahah

Love it :)

Bill said...


Anonymous said . . .

http://www.cracked.com/article_16478_7-movies-based-true-story-that-are-complete-bullshit_p2.html

Lot of the BS involves blacks


The one which involves Asians, 21 is seriously funny. The article's writer complains that Hollywood re-wrote the MIT Blackjack Team from mostly Asian to mostly white, explicitly callig this an instance of pro-white racism.

To see why this is funny, imagine that Hollywood had not done the re-write. Instead, it had presented the truth: a squad of Asian grinds who have been granted admission to MIT don't spend their time studying or giving back to the culture that has given them so much. Instead, they spend their time relentlessly training to develop the skills necessary to rip off unsuspecting white people. Oh, and their leader is an Asian transvestite.

Camlost said...

Puerto Ricans are fond of this, too.

I went to high school with a guy named Hector Felix. His brothers were named Hector Felix, Jr. and Hector Felix III.

jd said...

"I'm sure an experienced semiotician could explain why boys but not girls get named after their parents."

They were often named after parents, usually mothers or grandmothers. Very common, and was in my own family; but for some reason less so now, probably because female names, more than male, seem to have trends.

In ancient Rome, girls bore feminine forms of their fathers' names. In fact, both sexes in the same family had the same names, with adjustments made for birth place and gender. That's one of the things that make Roman history confusing.

Dutch Boy said...

George Foreman has outdone them all: all five of his sons are named George.

Gilbert Ratchet said...

Families in medieval England sometimes did this - it acted as a guarantee of the name's survival into adulthood, even if only one of boys made it that far.

helene edwards said...

Bobby Bonds had a brother named Robert.

walter condley said...

On The First 48, it's not unusual to see a murder suspect named Booby. Just something about that Alabama- Tennessee-Kentucky triangle, I guess.

Anonymous said...

I believe our esteemed former placeholder-Senator Roland Burris has two children, a boy named Roland II and a girl named Rolanda. (He also has an elaborate tomb already constructed for himself. It's inscribed with his accomplishments. See: http://images.politico.com/global/blogs/081230_burris1_oconnor.jpg)

Weltanschauung said...

@bjdubbs:
A woman doesn't crave any reassurance concerning the true maternity of her babies.

Anonymous said...

http://gizmodo.com/watch-this-girl-with-telekinetic-powers-freak-out-coffe-1442158546

'Rational' libs are such suckers.

Anonymous said...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24429621

D. Smith said...

Former British chancellor of the exchequer Nigel Lawson (don't be fooled - he was a Baltic Jew of fairly recent extraction) called his daughter Nigella, a name that he invented as far as I'm aware.

As a fairly young Englishman, I'm not sure I know any males who have the same given names as their fathers. This was certainly a common practice for much of the last thousand years (partly because of a fairly limited stock of names) but it's seen as rather gauche and vulgar now. It's common for a man to give his own father's first name to his son, which strikes me as a neat approach.

Anonymous said...

This problem could have been foreseen in about five seconds of pre-naming contemplation. Low time preference strikes again!