Has anyone noticed that the Daily News is turning senior features writer Jane Ridley into a more reasoned version of Andrea Peyser? Today, the pair take on Isiah Thomas's weird double standard of debasement (it's not okay for a white man to call a black woman a "bitch," but if it's a black man, it's not so bad, goes the logic). "He should have shut up," Ridley writes of Isiah's videotaped deposition. "But his mouth, which matches his outsize ego – if not his brain – just kept on moving." Zing! "A gazillion dollar salary might get you designer suits and the best table in the restaurant, but it can't buy class and judgment," she adds. Pow! "What we saw for ourselves of Thomas yesterday was not only ugly, but pathetic." Splat! We eagerly flipped to Andrea to see her splenetic spin but were vastly disappointed. "Hang in there, Anucha," is all Peyser musters. "They fired the wrong person." Well, well, well. We're sure it was an off day, as Peyser is by far the best in the bile business. But Ridley appears to be gaining – and if she'd just replace her cute, smiley columnist photo with something more ghoulish, we might have a real battle here!

Isiah Shows His True Colors – in Black and White [NYDN]
The Twisted Racial Logic of a Knicko Sicko [NYP]