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 a facile summary of a deeply complicated problem, a dilemma that really only causes suffering, suffering, and more suffering.
Denial of self is common in hyper-moral situations, and it gives us this curious mixture of shrill, hysterical self-righteousness in public, with agonizing denial in private. Every person caught in this dilemma can explain why he or she "is not like all those others", regardless of which vilified group might be the current target. Again: needless, pointless suffering, suffering, and more suffering.
This is not restricted to those of us pitiful enough to persist in our devotion to the homosexual lifestyle either. Thanks to Avedon Carol ("Better than you"), who links to the article "'The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion': When the Anti-Choice Choose" by Joyce Arthur (link in AC's post), we have stories that reveal the different ways in which anti-choice women justify their own abortions, women who "aren't like those other" whores, sluts, or promiscuous black women having abortions "by choice". No, no, their case is different and unique — they wouldn't expect you to understand.
To re-quote one of the stories:
"My first encounter with this phenomenon came when I was doing a 2-week follow-up at a family planning clinic. The woman's anti-choice values spoke indirectly through her expression and body language. She told me that she had been offended by the other women in the abortion clinic waiting room because they were using abortion as a form of birth control, but her condom had broken so she had no choice! I had real difficulty not pointing out that she did have a choice, and she had made it! Just like the other women in the waiting room." (Physician, Ontario)
But we do understand, all too well.
Pile o' Primes
Some things just don't need words, and some things leave one speechless.
Thanks to the ever resourceful Elayne Riggs: The Prime Number Shitting Bear.
Abso-Bork-ly Amazing
Via Josh Rosenau ("Respect for Dissent"), we find that Robert Bork can still say the most amazing and alarming things. Quoting others quoting Bork writing in the National Review:
Liberty in America can be enhanced by reinstating, legislatively, restraints upon the direction of our culture and morality. Censorship as an enhancement of liberty may seem paradoxical. Yet it should be obvious, to all but dogmatic First Amendment absolutists, that people forced to live in an increasingly brutalized culture are, in a very real sense, not wholly free.
It's so refreshing to discover that "strict constructionists" — or is it "constitutional originalists" this year? — have now learned how to interpret the US Constitution and are no longer to be misconstrued as "absolutists". Fascinating.
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Whither Democracy
Some days I expect I'll soon wake up and discover that the only democracies left are in Latin America.
[Avedon Carol, "It's busting out all over", The Sideshow, 4 March 2006.]
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 informative, presentation of the Dada movement — I think we can safely call it a "movement". It was organized by geography: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, and Paris.
In my youth I felt much closer to the excitement and purposes of Dada than I do now in middle age, when Cézanne seems more profound to me. Nevertheless, I was fascinated and gratified that I finally could see in person and up close so many pieces that had once energized my artistic leanings, and happy to learn more about the artists and their times.
Even though the personal relevance of many of the pieces seems to be receeding into the past, there's still a bit of the old fire left in me. I was particularly moved, fascinated, troubled, etc., by seeing various works of George Grosz in the Berlin room. (Although Grosz was an American, he nevertheless was born and died in Germany).
We were told that Dada was a reaction to the horrors of World War I. True, but that assertion by itself doesn't go very far in explaining anything. But the drawings and paintings of George Grosz! His work was powerful, no-holds-barred statements satirizing corporate and political corruption and those groups' complicity in war-time atrocities and tragedies. I'd seen some of these works before, but they seem ever more powerful when one is standing right in front of them.
There was a case displaying a handful of prints from a collection whose name, unfortunately, escapes me right now. One I remember showed a group of predatory animals sitting around a table — were they playing cards? — with various platitudes coming out of their mouths, facile statements about how good the economy was, or how well the war goes — you get the point now, I'm sure. These pieces resonated so strongly with our current political situation in the US that it felt like the floor in the gallery was moving. I didn't find a link to those prints, alas, perhaps because I can't remember the name! However, we did see the piece called "Republican Automatons", which applies almost as perfectly to the US in 2006 as it did in Germany in 1920.
Where, oh where is George Grosz when we need him? Where are the artists who believe in speaking the truth, and who believe that they can affect society through their work? Perhaps successes in the past has created too much complacency, but we need it again. We could use a few new George Groszes, or Jean Genets, or Samuel Becketts.
I guess it may be because art is a language I understand, but I believe that art can effect change, and that the best way to expose the corruption we live with is through brutal, honest satire — and I certainly don't mean the flaccid, sophomoric attempts at humor that passes for "satire" on television and in movies these days. We need some creative, subversive art before it's too late.
I would write the manifesto myself, but I feel too old now to do it justice. However, I can see the need more clearly than ever.
Maybe the Dada exhibit had more personal relevance than I realized.
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Reflections
Cézanne in Provence
This weekend Isaac and I hosted a couple of friends, one of whom was celebrating a birthday, so we had a special outing on Saturday that included a visit to the National Gallery of Art (Washington DC) and dinner at Annie's Paramount Steak House (Dupont Circle). We went to the National Gallery specifically to see the "Cézanne in Provence" exhibition, which we did see. There were lots of people, and a line, but the wait was tolerable and one could see the paintings despite the crowd.
It was a very impressive collection of paintings, too. There's always something a little unreal but satisfying about finally seeing a painting, in the canvas, that one has seen reproduced in books for years. I was surprised to notice a few details that had never struck me before. For one, his technique really wasn't very good — he was not a virtuoso with the paints like, say, John Singer Sargent. He also applied the paint in a surprisingly thin layer; the paint did not seem to be thinned in any way as a Renaissance master might do for fine detail, but just spread out in a thin layer. It was surprising how much unpainted canvas showed in many of the paintings.
Nevertheless, they're fabulous paintings — at least, many of them are. A still life with three skulls seemed rather uninspired to me. All his drawings and paintings of bathers: I would recommend he stick to the still lives and landscapes.
Some paintings that were familiar from reproductions were wonderful to see in person: that still life with peaches, that mountain in Provence that he painted obsessively, a haunting image of the Chateau Noir. Oddly, our friend with the birthday found the paintings basically cheerful, while I tended to feel there was something ominous and vaguely menacing about them. Perhaps it was just projection on my part.
There were also some that I'd never seen reproduced that were a delight to see for the first time; I particularly remember a portrait labelled something simple like "Portrait of a Peasant" painted in the most remarkable shades of blue. The expression on the face of the "peasant" was complex and enigmatic.
Given my jaded view of Americans as philistines, I'm always amazed at the number of people who will go to an exhibition like this and look at the paintings and consider and talk about them. I hate the crowds, but it does give me a bit of optimism that there's hope for us yet.
Meanwhile in Missouri….
Now we turn to John Mills, KMOV News 4 in St. Louis, for the latest from the Missouri state legislature:
Missouri legislators in Jefferson City considered a bill that would name Christianity the state's official "majority" religion.
[…]
The resolution would recognize "a Christian god," and it would not protect minority religions, but "protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs.
[…]
The resolution also recognizes that, "a greater power exists," and only Christianity receives what the resolution calls, "justified recognition."State representative David Sater of Cassville in southwestern Missouri, sponsored the resolution, but he has refused to talk about it on camera or over the phone.
[John Mills, "State bill proposes Christianity be Missouri’s official religion", KMOV TV, 3 March 2006.]
John, can you tell us: if this legislation were to pass, would Fundamentalist Christians finally lay aside their claim to being a persecuted minority?
John…?
Of Nipples & Coal Miners
CBS was fined $550,000 for showing Janet Jackson's right nipple on live television. Coal mines that endanger the lives of their workers are commonly fined $60 per violation.
[Cenk Uygur, "Janet Jackson's Nipple versus the Lives of Coal Miners", The Huffington Post, 3 March 2006.]
Style Q&A
Thanks to Maud Newton (in "Miscellany") I learned that the Chigago Manual of Style has posted new Q&A. I whet your appetite with but one example:
Q. The information posted on the Possessives and Attributives Web page comes close to answering my question, but I would appreciate a more detailed explanation: Did we have dinner at the Smiths or at the Smiths'? I am tempted to omit the apostrophe if I consider the preposition "at" equivalent to German bei + dative plural, French chez, Italian da, etc. But if "at the Smiths'" is shorthand for "at the Smiths' house," perhaps I need an apostrophe. Is "Smiths" functioning as a genitive or an attributive adjective? What if, instead of "Smiths," I refer to a group of people (residents, occupants) by some other word, e.g., We had dinner at the neighbors, Canadians, etc?
A. Throwing a dinner "at the Smiths" works if you're describing a food fight, but if you are at the Smiths', you are at the Smiths' place, and, as you suggest, the implied possession requires an apostrophe.
Duh! Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees — I thought that one was pretty obvious. Clearly the questioner is just trying to manufacture a reason to be contrary, a course of action I usually describe as "being republican".
Anyway, I haven't decided yet which is worse: 1) that people would worry enough about these stupid, niggling aspects of our not-very-manageable language; or 2) that this Q&A did answer a couple of questions I'd been wondering about….
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 moguls: "I believe in the division of labor. You send us to Congress; we pass laws under which you make money… and out of your profits you further contribute to our campaign funds to send us back again to pass more laws to enable you to make more money."
Gilded Ages – then and now – have one thing in common: Audacious and shameless people for whom the very idea of the public trust is a cynical joke.
[…]
There are no victimless crimes in politics. The cost of corruption is passed on to you. When the government of the United States falls under the thumb of the powerful and privileged, regular folks get squashed.
[…]
It is time to fight again. These people in Washington have no right to be doing what they are doing. It's not their government, it's your government. They work for you. They're public employees – and if they let us down and sell us out, they should be fired. That goes for the lowliest bureaucrat in town to the senior leaders of Congress on up to the President of the United States.
[Bill Moyers, "Delay, Abramoff, and The Public Trust", The Huffington Post, 28 February 2006.]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Plus Ca Change...
The Young Queen
A friend sent a link to a video of a performance by a young teenage boy of Mozart's notorious "Queen of the Night" aria. It's amazing, but not only from the dancing-bear angle. His voice is a bit young sounding compared to the expected mature-soprano voice, but his pitch is impeccable — not an easy task with an aria alleged to have been written by Mozart to torment a soprano he hated. Also impeccable is his German, but that's less of a surprise given the lederhosen that he's wearing.
In: All, Music & Art, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
The Cellist in the Mall
Today, in celebration of Washington's Birthday*, we did what we frequently do on Monday holidays and went shopping at one of the larger outlet-type malls within a couple hours' drive; generally, most of them are too far away for us to go at other times. Today's adventure took us from our Maryland suburb into the wilds of Norhern Virginia; this involved driving on the Capital Beltway and the notorious Woodrow Wilson bridge. For the locals, our destination was Potomac Mills. For the outlanders, Potomac Mills is a large and rambling faux-outlet shopping mall; it started out more as an outlet place, but I suppose that didn't work out for some reason and now it's populated by "factory stores" and other mall familiars. It also was the first place, years ago, that we shopped at an Ikea store. Happily, we now have our "own" Ikea in nearby College Park.
Anyway, traffic across the Wilson bridge was horrible and slow and crowded as always, even on a holiday. One does one's best to avoid it during workday rush hour, where rush hour lasts for all but one or two hours of the day now across the bridge. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that a new Wilson Bridge is being built, two new spans adjacent to the current bridge. Both are drawbridges, so that the Potomac is navigable into the District of Columbia.
I had seen mention of the new bridge's design, accompanied by drawings, in a book of Henry Petroski's that I read last year — probably Pushing the Limits, but I can't remember with any certainty. Petroski, by the way, is an engineer who writes compelling books about how engineers engineer things. This book was one about tall buildings and bridges — great topics in engineering.
But none of that about the bridge is really relevant, except to note in passing that I've now seen it in progress. It's a rather low-key design, but the piers, flared Y's looking rather like upper-case Greek Upsilon, are rather elegant. Notably, the spans are quite a bit higher than the current bridge, presumably so that the drawbridge part of the span will have to be opened less frequently thereby interrupting the constant stream of traffic less frequently.
Back to the mall. We had walked most of its length and were reaching the "neighborhood" at one extremity when my ear detected unexpected music being played in the public space: a familiar 'cello concerto by Vivaldi. Familiar because I play 'cello myself. I began playing about 40 years ago, which sounds rather incredible to me. My playing underwent a hiatus for about a decade when I was in graduate school and afterwards, but Isaac got me back to it by finding reasons for me to play not-too-demanding parts in his church-music program.#
My surprise was even greater through when we reached the "neighborhood" and I discovered that it was an actual 'cellist playing an actual 'cello, accompanied by a recording of an orchestra. There was a microphone sitting on the floor before him, amplifying his sound just enough to make him audible in the ambiant mall-sound. His playing was quite nice and his technique quite good. I didn't really know what to make of it, it seemed such an enexpected thing to come across. We didn't look closely enough to see whether he was there to promote a product, or just to bring a touch of class to that end of the mall.
When we turned around and headed back from that end of the mall, he was playing something more new-agey. Isaac thought perhaps the 'cello player was blind, possibly because he was playing everything from memory, or maybe it something about his expression, which I didn't notice particularly since I was watching his hands and the confidence of his thumb positions.** Thumb positions still intimidate me, I'm afraid. I'm hoping that teaching the use of the thumb to my student will finally exorcise that demon.
The shopping experience today was lackluster. Instead, it will be this brief and unexpected encounter with the 'cellist in the mall that I shall remember.
—–
*About this whole Washington's Birthday / Presidents' Day confusion, I found the article at Snopes on Presidents' Day enlightening.
#Surprisingly — at least to me! — I've had a 'cello student for the past 4 years. She was an absolute beginner, aged nine, when we started, and her progress has been gratifying. However, that's another story altogether.
**Thumb positions are typically used in upper regions of the strings (i.e., nearer the bridge, or further down the instrument as the 'cellist sits behind it) where the hand is on the fingerboard over the body of the instrument. The thumb is laid across the fingerboard and stops a string (or strings) on one note, and the other fingers play notes above it. The thumb is also use to play octaves on the 'cello, since two notes at the octave are too far apart for both to be fingered.
Brown Accuses
Via Pam's House Blend ("The Lying Bastards in the White House"), this fascinating quotation from an AP story:
…[Former FEMA director Michael] Brown's appearance in front of the Senate investigative panel came as new documents reveal that 28 federal, state and local agencies — including the White House — reported levee failures on Aug. 29 [three days before the Bush responded to the Katrina events], according to a timeline of e-mails, situation updates and weather reports.
That litany was at odds with the administration's contention that it didn't know the extent of the problem until much later. At the time, President Bush said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
We note that this could be the usual W prevarication, as in "oh, we knew about it after Brownie and all those others told us, we just hadn't anticipated it."
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
But Is It Science?
It is not often that I laugh out loud while reading court decisions. True, I may smile at a clever argument or an adept turn of phrase, or maybe chuckle over displays of willful stupidity; however, cackling is not a common response for me.
Today I'm finally giving a first read to Judge Jones' decision in Kitzmiller v Dover, the case last fall concerning the Dover, PA school-board's decision to demand inclusion of so-called intelligent-design creationism in the curriculum of the biology classroom.*
I've just gotten through the important first half in which the judge gives his rationale for finding that actions taken by the school board had been in violation of the Constitution's establishment clause. Just before he takes up the question of "Whether ID is Science" (section 4, p. 64), he offers the following justification. I think his tone is well indicated by his use of the word "traipse", which I don't think I've ever seen before in a judicial opinion (in case the reference to judicial waste of time hadn't been clear enough).
We have now found that both an objective student and an objective adult member of the Dover community would perceive Defendants’ conduct to be a strong endorsement of religion pursuant to the endorsement test. Having so concluded, we find it incumbent upon the Court to further address an additional issue raised by Plaintiffs, which is whether ID is science. To be sure, our answer to this question can likely be predicted based upon the foregoing analysis. While answering this question compels us to revisit evidence that is entirely complex, if not obtuse, after a six week trial that spanned twenty-one days and included countless hours of detailed expert witness presentations, the Court is confident that no other tribunal in the United States is in a better position than are we to traipse into this controversial area. Finally, we will offer our conclusion on whether ID is science not just because it is essential to our holding that an establishment Clause?violation has occurred in this case, but also in the hope that it may prevent the obvious waste of judicial and other resources which would be occasioned by a subsequent trial involving the precise question which is before us.
———-
* Much useful information, including a copy of Jones' opinion, can be found on this ACLU web page.
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science, Laughing Matters
Death Promotes Life?
Speaking of humpty-dumptyism, Josh Rosenau* pointed out this curiously overt example to issue from the mouth of Kansas Senator Brownback#
If use of the death penalty is contrary to promoting a culture of life, we need to have a national dialogue and hear both sides of the issue.
Fascinating.
—–
* Josh Roseanau, "Brownback confused about the 'culture of life' ", Thoughts from Kansas, 3 February 2006.
#The original reference was to another blog entry of the same title.
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Such Language!
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 name escaped the President's memory. We're waiting, of course, for details on the "plan" that was evidently "thwarted". The thwarting was so super-duper top-secret that even the mayor of LA had never heard about it.
Myself, I can't wait to see what the meaning of "plan" and "thwart" turn out to be when they issue from the mouth of the Humpty-Dumpty administration. What I've found most interesting today is the nearly universal reaction of indifference to the President's warning that that plan was thwarted but we're still in danger. Boo!
The imagined facial expression that accompanies this indifference (I've only read what people have not been saying about it all) says to me: "well, I suppose he could be right, but it takes less energy just to wait and see how much he's lying this time."
———-
*For fans of Anna Russell, I hear "that's how we know the War On Terror is working!" said in the same way that Ms. Russell said of the appearance in "Siegfried" of Albrecht's leitmotif: "that's how we know that the curse is working!"
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
Loose Lips Are Often Funny
There were amusing quotations that have come from the testimony of Attorney General Gonzales before a congressional committee about Bush's self-admittedly unwarranted and illegal surveillance of US citizens.
"Our enemy is listening, and I cannot help but wonder if they aren't shaking their heads in amazement at the thought that anyone would imperil such a sensitive program," he said.
[Dana Milbank, "In Quizzing a Reticent Gonzales, Senators Encounter a Power Shortage", Washington Post, 7 February 2006.]
The startling implication, of course, is that we should enquire of our enemies whether they find the public workings of our remnant democracy amazing, incredible, or otherwise ill-considered. Is it giving "comfort to the enemy" to work out strategy with them?
Then, of course, there was this little gem (quoted at Crooks and Liars) whose humor I hope I don't have to explain:
President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale.
In: All, Laughing Matters, Splenetics
The State of the President
Oh dear — I haven't been paying attention to the rules. According to Susie Bright
When you publish a blog, you are obligated to write a scathing opinion the day after the President makes a State of Union speech. You have to prove you stayed awake— although it's hardly likely.
I didn't even watch it. In fact, I've watched none of the current president's state-of-the-union addresses, mostly because he sounds like such a blithering idiot to me that it tends to color my reaction to the substance of his speech.
Not that there's all that much substance, of course. I was hearing headlines today suggesting a bit of hooplah about his commitment to improving math and science education in the US (something that I'm conerned enough about to start a company: see the link to Ars Hermeneutica). Well, I looked thoroughly through the text of the speech and found very little to warm my cold, cold cynical heart.
It's all embodied in the American Competitiveness Initiative (yes, we're told to call it the "ACI"). There were three main points that I picked up:
- Science and math education will be improved through testing, that brilliant idea that has made the No-Child-Left-Behind thingie such a success. It's sort of a market-forces approach to education although, ironically, it does rather presume that children will evolve into better test takers.
- Enormous amounts of money are proposed to spend on R&D, but much of it is actually to be in the form of corporate tax credits for companies that "invest" in R&D; to me, it sounds like another way to spell "loophole".
- Such is the president's commitment that he wants to increase spending on science at federal laboratories by incredible amounts over 10 years. This "over 10 years" gambit has become one of my favorites: it lets them talk about huge numbers, which look good, without our noticing perhaps that only 3 of those 10 years — at best — will have the current incumbant in the White House. I'm impressed.
So, since I didn't even watch, maybe I'll skip the scathing post-speech analysis. I do, however, rather agree with Ms. Bright's remarks about the call to end human-animal cloning: did we miss a breakthrough someplace? Ms. Bright wants a big, fluffy tail; and she should know better than anyone what the guys would ask for, given a chance.
Mandarin Oranges
I was happy to have yet another naming issue cleared up, thanks to an article I just read called "Mad about mandarins"*, referring to the citrus fruit. It turns out that Clementines — which I had neither seen nor heard of until just a couple of years ago — are, indeed, tangerines or — more properly, according to this article — mandarins:
Although they're a relatively new addition to the California scene, mandarins (Citrus reticulata) are hardly newcomers to the world of citrus. In fact, they are among the three original families, along with pummelos and citrons. Every other kind of citrus fruit — oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit and all the rest — are hybrids resulting from cross-breeding among these three groups.
"Clementine" is just one variety name under which they're sold; "Satsumas" and "Pixies" are others, but I've yet to see either. As the article points out, "Mandarin" is pretty much restricted now to the little segments sold in small cans, of which I've always been rather fond. I've also long wondered whether they were related to tangerines, about which we also learned:
The popular name tangerine is a commercial invention that was attached in the mid-19th century because the first mandarins imported into the U.S. were shipped from the Moroccan seaport of Tangiers. So unfamiliar were these fruits that they were sometimes sold under the name "mandarin orange," a usage that today continues mainly in the canned version.
The article lists these variety names, which we expect to see more of in our supermarkets as their popularity spreads:
Dancy
One of the oldest commercial varieties (dating to the 1860s) and the traditional California mandarin; this is the taste most people associate with tangerines. They can be quite seedy. Midseason.Fairchild
One of the earliest-ripening mandarins, particularly when it is grown in the desert. Rich, sweet flavor, though difficult to peel and seedy. Early season.Gold Nugget
Very similar to Pixies, Gold Nuggets are small fruit that are easy to peel and very sweet. Seedless. Late season.Kishu
With tiny, gem-like fruit no bigger than a walnut, the Kishu is like a little piece of tangerine candy. Easy to peel and seedless. Midseason.Lee
An incredibly sweet mandarin with a complex flavor and a high note almost like orange flower water. A bit difficult to peel, with seeds. Midseason.W. Murcott Afourer
One of the prettiest mandarins, the Murcott has a peel that looks almost polished. The biggest grower in California sells them under the trademarked name Delite. Not to be confused with Murcott, which is the Honey tangerine of Florida. Seedless in isolation. Mid to late season.Page
Along with the Lee, perhaps the best tasting of the mandarins. It is very sweet and has an extremely intense flavor that is almost winy. Seedless in isolation. Midseason.Pixie
Small and sweet, with good flavor and little acidity. Seedless. Late season.Satsuma
Satsumas can be dark or light orange in color, depending on the specific variety. The flavor can be mild, but tradition has it that trees at least 10 years old bear the best fruit. Seedless. Early season.
Maybe this was already on my mind because I bought a bag of "Tangerines" a couple of weeks ago, and they tasted like Tangerines, i.e., they actually had some flavor and the flavor was not just a weak, orange-like flavor but a full-bodied, mandarin-like flavor. They were quite good, although not quite so good as the nectarines that I bought at the same time — they were remarkably tasty, a peak flavor experience the likes of which one gets only every several years.#
—–
* Russ Parson, "Mad about Mandarins", Baltimore Sun, c. 2 February 2006.
# It's been my empirical hypothesis that I eat a really, really good cantaloupe only once every three years or so.
Homo Irony
You may remember from not long ago the story about the arrest in Oklahoma of one "Reverend" Lonnie Latham, a fundamentalist, homophobic minister who was picked up on soliciting charges after he asked an undercover cop back to his place for oral sex. He claimed he just wanted to give "pastoral comfort" to conflicted homosexuals.
Well, now we have the ACLU telling
…an Oklahoma city judge Wednesday that a pastor who frequently speaks out against homosexuality and was arrested last week for propositioning a male police officer was charged in violation of the Supreme Court's ruling on gay sex.
We of the gay persuasion are quite familiar with these techniques of police entrapment, one of the few holdovers from an earlier golden age when police routinely harrassed and intimidated gay people at social venues like bars and dance halls — recall the tinder box that was the Stonewall Inn. Doing a sweep to pick up some homos is still a sure electorate-pleaser for many a sheriff that has barely abated despite the Supreme Court's ruling a few years back that laws restricting private, consensual acts were unconstitutional. That really bothered a lot of people.
One's first, instant reaction to this story about "Rev" Latham is to wonder what the ACLU is doing to mess up this guy's prosectution. Homosexuals are very good at schadenfreude, and we always enjoy having the hypocritical homophobes arrested under the laws they use to persecute us, even though we believe the laws should otherwise be done away with.
So, maybe that's the beauty of the ACLU's irony in joining this case. In a moment of calm thought, one has to agree that laws like those under which the "reverend" was arrested have to go. How charming, then, that the "reverend" himself might be the agent for abolishing that very law in favor of which the "reverend" mightily thumped his bible until recently. Sweet.