Archive for the ‘Plus Ca Change…’ Category
Illegal Depictions
Americans particularly seem, as a group, to be really freaky about sex. For some reason it makes them crazy in outrageous, nonlinear ways. Particularly in these days of heated conservatism and religious zealotry the hysteria can mount quickly. Think for a minute about how society responds right now to subjects like pedophilia, rape, and homosexuality, […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Writing
Please, Call Me Rod
It seems to me that the Republican party has two options when it comes to their homosexual menace: Purge the party of all known and unknown homos; the difficult part, as recent history has shown, is the "unknown homos" bit; or Recognize that fags happen and go with the flow; they needn't, of course, participate […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Raised Eyebrows Dept.
NYDPs
The end of marriage as we know it? The data tells [sic] it straight — three quarters of domestic partnerships in New York City are heterosexual couples. "So far this year, 27% of overall domestic partnership registrations are same- sex couples. We are on par percentage-wise with last year," said Michael McSweeney, first deputy at […]
In: All, Current Events, Plus Ca Change...
One-Third of Americans
Sometime recently I remember hearing the results of a poll that said that about a third of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks. Another poll — or perhaps it was the same one — revealed that about a third of Americans believe that George W Bush and the US government itself […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
Have you Heard the One About the Digital Plumbers?
What an amusing set of spy-story dominoes John Aravosis set up and knocked over on his AMERICAblog this morning: At 12:42 am: "AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth giving the NSA the phone records of tens of millions of innocent Americans. Program goes far beyond what Bush claimed." — USAToday reports that the "limited" spying on domestic […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
Witchcraft in Georgia
From the Gwinnett [County, GA] Daily Post and the continuing saga of the woman who filed the complaint to have the Harry Potter books removed from school libraries because they promote witchcraft, come these tidbits*: “I want to protect children from evil, not fill their minds with it,” Mallory said. “The ‘Harry Potter’ books teach […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
Progress in Washington [State]
File under "Occasional Progress Despite Lunatic Religious Extremists": Transgender individuals will now enjoy the same civil-rights protections as other minorities under legislation passed by the Metropolitan King County Council Monday. The council added gender identity to laws already prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations based on sexual orientation, sex, race and religion. The […]
Noir Politics
It's been awhile* since I've managed to read Deb Price's column in the Detroit News; shame on me. This latest piece, "Dems treat gays to 'Throwback Mountain' " (Detroit News, 13 March 2006) is a useful reminder of one of those things we know but sometimes forget in the heat of the political campaigns: that […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
But It's Not the Same!
Most of us who are gay are well aware of the truism that the loudest, cruelest homophobes are most usually the most deeply closeted, self-hating homosexuals. It seems to be the mental dichotomy that arises from the harsh disapprobation one gets from society, frequently at the hands of over moralizing fundamentalists. This, of course, is […]
Calling George Grosz
As I mentioned a few posts back, Isaac and I spent last Saturday afternoon at the National Gallery of Art celebrating a friend's birthday. After we saw the "Cézanne in Provence" exhibition, our stated goal for the afternoon, we went to the East Wing to the the Dada Exhibit. It was a good, comprehensive and […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Reflections
Moyers on the New Gilded Age
Bill Moyers, in a piece about the curious symbiosis between Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff, corruption and the Northern Marianas Islands, wrote Back in the first Gilded Age, Boies Penrose was a United States senator from Pennsylvania who had been put and kept in office by the railroad tycoons and oil barons. He assured the […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Plus Ca Change...
Bush Cries Wolf!
Today we're hearing the very, very exciting news from the Bush League that the War On Terror is working.* We were concerned there for awhile. It seems that they just discovered that we thwarted — no doubt by using illegal surveillance techniques — a horrible, 9/11-style attack on a tall building in LA whose correct […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
Washington State on Gay Rights
We got the news last Friday that the State of Washington finally passed some gay-rights legislation that has been pending since forever. This is the same bill that lost last year by one vote, which loss was thought to be spurred by Microsoft's taking its support away from the bill — and that action was […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
Who Owns What in America
Nancy Pelosi, current Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, published an op-ed this weekend in The Washington Post, calling for wider sharing of classified information between the White House and Congress as a means to better oversight by the Congress of intelligence-gathering activities understaken by the White House. This, of course, in light of […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
Reassurance-Op
Is it just me, or does anyone else find this swaggering confidence on the part of the President less than reassuring? I take this issue very seriously," he [Bush] said. "The people of the country ought to rest assured that we're doing everything we can. [Gardiner Harris, "Fear of Flu Outbreak Rattles Washington", New York […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Plus Ca Change...
Katrina: Whose Chaos?
So, conservatives spin this as the result of the "liberal media" out of control, liberals spin it as conservative hysteria out of control. I don't think this report is all that surprising, but with all the spinning most everyone seems too dizzy to see what the real lessons are. In New Orleans' whiter, affluent western […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Plus Ca Change...
To Some Extent
It's fun — indeed, one of my favorite pasttimes — to hear what new catch phrase politicians will come up with next. The phrases don't always catch on, but they keep trying; it seems there's a sort of verbal Darwinism at work. A notable example of unfortunately longevity was Nixon's "point in time", which finally […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Such Language!
Darwinism: Real vs. Social
Darwinism was more readily accepted by the Church in England than it was by the rigid Protestant sects of the New World, a pattern that is maintained by the almost complete absence of present-day controversy [NB: the author was writing this c. 1997] over evolution in Great Britain, in contrast to the continuing clashes between […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Plus Ca Change...
Who Could Have Known?
You may remember the incident earlier this year when a small plane flew unexpectedly into DC airspace and our nation's capital responded to a terrorist red alert. I do, although I think it didn't come back into my mind until Frank Rich referred to "…the cinéma vérité of poor people screaming for their lives". Those […]
We'll Be Back
It's a shame that "Schwarzenegger" is so difficult to spell when he looks to be heading towards a significant spot in the history of impeding social progress. Tsk. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a profile in timidity this week when he vowed to veto a pioneering bill authorizing gay marriage in California. The bill, which both […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics