I value personal freedom and personal expression extremely highly.

Also, Craig, why are you on the bandwagon. You usually try to show us all what a good liberal you are, and they want people fired over everything they say they could be remotely construed as non PC.

His hubris as an English speaker often dooms him to making asinine and sometimes laughable statements from which he must later back away. Somewhat unsurprisingly, his limitations don’t seem to affect his ability to manage a baseball team. Or does it?

The majority of employees–indeed the great majority–are “at will.” They can be fired for any reason, or for no reason at all. Go ahead and insult your boss if you want, but the law is on his side if he chooses to get rid of you. “His reason for firing me was not good enough” is not in a defense, and will not hold up in a court if you try to sue.

There are some exceptions to this:

1. Employees, even “at will” employees, can not be fired for discriminatory or retaliatory reasons. If you fire someone because they are Asian, or female, or Catholic or because they turned you in to OSHA or because they went on maternity leave, you can be sued.

2. Employees whose jobs are covered by a contract may–and probably do–have protections that make it harder to fire them. If you are a teacher, or a union carpenter, or a baseball player, or someone like that, you may indeed be able to get away with insulting your boss.

But if neither of these circumstances holds true, you largely have no recourse if you are fired. Regardless of how silly you feel the reasons are.

As for the Luna Star Cafe, I have not been there but checking out some reviews and the like it sounds like my kind of place. Maybe a Miami meet-up for the Hardball posters?

How much was that contract with Slobbering Ozzie that Scrooge McLoria is going to be on the hook for?

Ah well. Time to put in that call to Wally Backman. Come on, Scrooge. You know you want him.

Daisycutter: ever been up to the Luna Star Cafe, across from MOCA on NE 125th Street? That’s where the elite disaffecteds of Macondo gather for idiosyncratic beer, cappuccino, weird pastas and anachronistic music. We should meet there to hoist a tankard of something or other to our fallen payaso.

BTW – Were the pols out in full force to admit they got hoodwinked into paying for the new stadium? If I were a Florida taxpayer, I’d be screaming about that, not another goofy Ozzie comment.

For most of the 19th and 20th Centuries, the United States hegemony over Latin America caused more havoc and destruction, sent more troops, and installed and defended more dictators than any other country in the world. After America imposed one ruthless dictator after another throughout Latin America, dictators that committed atrocities against their own people, we must now all decry the leftist dictatorships of Castro, Chavez and Bolivia’s Morales. Castro threw one of Batista, and Communists took over Cuba.

As a bilingual American who has lived in Central America, it might surprise people in the United States that many Latin Americans like Guillen, a Venezuelan by birth, don’t believe Castro is the monster that ex-Cuban anti-Castroites would have us believe. The same is true for the constant vilification of Hugo Chavez, who has reduced the rate of poverty and built quality institutions of education in Venezuela, and has been elected repeatedly by at least 58% of the voters.

Regardless of whether Guillen loves Castro as a survivor or whether he loves Castro as someone who didn’t kowtow to the United States or for any other reason, the bottom-line questions is: Does every professional athlete or coach have to subscribe to official political dogma or propaganda in order to work in America? Why are sports politicized? If you love to see a well-turned double play, or a jump shot swish even though the defender’s hand in the shooter’s face, or a finger-tip catch with both feet down in the corner of the end zone, why should it matter what the political beliefs of the players are? Even though the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, is aimed at governmental acts, not those of private citizens, isn’t respect for diverse opinions a hallmark of America’s identity as a democracy? You remember, “I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Why are US sports fans so intolerant and politically naive?

“Well, the jerkstore called, and they’re running out of you.”

“What’s the difference, you’re their all time best seller.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/09/2739214/miami-cuban-exile-group-calls.html

– Ozzie CAN say these things and not be jailed for them.
– Cubans can decide to stop attending his athletic performances with the marlins if they don’t like it.
– He will eventually be fired for the economic harm he did to his bosses.
– our government will allow him to say whatever he wants and he will sink or swim on his own.
– but what the govt WILL do is investigate any death threats he may receive to promote greater public safety so that ozzie may be free to continue to act a fool into his old age.

It’s really why America is the greatest country in the world and Castro sucked cookaracha piss. (yes I want to be able to go back to Alumni day at UM sometime, and I know enough to call Castro a cockroach piss drinker if I ever want to go back and dance at Calle Ocho, something ozzie might wanna learn, cause Calle Ocho rocks).