Funny quote from John Simon on Mamet's Race...: [Mamet] has boldly asserted that our 230-year national experience has been a dialogue about race.
This is more revealing of John Simon's politics than anything else. There's nothing bold about the assertion that the race is the song of America... in progressive circles. Its only in Conservative circles-- since conservatives want to perpetuate the myth that we all of a sudden live in a colorblind meritocracy despite the structural embedding of discrimination thanks to that pesky thing called history-- that saying that something like that would be considered "bold".
Prior to getting a legal separation (and then a divorce) from his wife, Montana Senator Max Baucus had an affair with a woman who he them nominated for US Attorney. Max Baucus also was one of the "yay" votes for the Defense of Marriage Act in the 1990s.
I'm trying to think of some clever snarky thing to say about this but I'm just too tired.
Bill Sparkman, the census worker whose dead body was found tied to a tree with the word "Fed" scrawled on it, apparently staged his suicide to appear like a murder, according to the authorities. As one of the people who believed Sparkman to be murdered, and believed it to be the end result of the anti-government sentiment whipped up by Michele Bachman et al, it's worth saying that in this case, I was wrong about that and rushed to judgement. I still think the anti-government sentiment of the Tea Baggers is dangerous, particularly when mixed with the rather toxic racism that the Republican party likes to stir up and then (im)plausibly deny. But neither of these factors contributed to Sparkman's death and thus my posts referring to him were in error.
I am joining Josh and a bunch of other hardened progressives in taking the Don't Ask, Don't Give Pledge. You can do it here, if you are so inclined. What's the Don't Ask, Don't Give pledge? It's simple...:
I pledge not to donate to the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America, or the Obama campaign until Congress passes, and the president signs, legislation enacting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT), and repealing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
It's important to note that the pledge still allows you to donate to individual candidates, just not to the DNC itself. The only way to have power with a poltiical party is to have a resource they want and need to work against. I knew that gay rights stuff was probably going to be slow in coming, after all, Obama is pretty cautious, as his half-a-loaf position on gay marriage can attest. But still, it's time to turn off the spigot a little. I'm sick of politicians hitting people who want gay equality up for money, using the Republicans as the bogey man and then not fucking doing anything.
It seems to me that if we want to have any hope of "winning" the "war or terror" (whatever those terms mean), studying Jonathan Hari's brilliant profile of several ex-Jihadists in Britain *might* be a better thing to do than, oh I don't know, giving money to contractors who give it to the Taliban so the Taliban won't attack them.
Wait... let me get this straight. Not only did my Congresswoman lie about graduating from College (and lie about lying about it) prior to getting elected... but now she let drug company lobbyists write statements for her? And because of the Democratic Party machine in New York, she essentially has her job for life.
I got a kinda crazy four days ahead of me (Sunday: Auditions at the Firehouse in Richmond, VA for Crumble...Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake. Monday: Early AM flight back up to NYC for reading I'm directing for Rattlestick/The Barrow Group, Tuesday: Back down to Richmond for designer interviews + callbacks, Wednesday: Back up to NYC) so my exciting Saturday night is largely cleaning, packing, and finding delicious YouTube clips like this one, in which former Republican Senator Tom Tancredo sleazily tries to use veterans for a prop and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas calls him on it to his face on national television:
The YouTube below is from a man who is mad that he was fired for telling a superior in his company that he was upset that she would bring up her forthcoming gay marriage because being gay is a "controversial issue" and as a Christian, he doesn't approve of homosexuality. For those of you who don't have video enabled at your work desk, that's basically the story. A female manager of his company was talking about her marriage and she brought it up four times! the outrage! and when he told her she shouldn't talk about her homosexuality because it's a controversial issue and he doesn't approve of being gay, she fired him.
All I can really say is... Good. On. Her. I mean, if someone was fired for wearing a Yes on 1 or a No on 1 pin to work in Maine, I could understand being a little uncomfortable with it. But this guy actually went out of his way to tell a gay superior at his job that "regarding homosexuality, I believe that's bad stuff". And now he wants us to feel bad for him? Dude... regardless of the fact that I disagree with your position and think it makes you an asshole, what did you expect? You just did a number 2 all over someone's upcoming wedding while telling them you think they're "bad stuff". I hate to tell you this, but if the Terminal 3 Brookstone at your municipal airport hadn't fired you, she'd be able to sue their pants off for tolerating a hostile work environment.
But like all Wingnuts, this guy wants us to feel bad for him. Because he as the straight white guy is totally the victim here.
If he was having a debate with a coworker about whether or not gay marriage should be allowed, I could understand (maybe) trying to grab some umbrella of "I was retaliated upon for expressing my political opinions" but the "controversial issue" he keeps referring to wasn't his boss's upcoming marriage, it was that she was gay and out in the first place. This is reinforced by Brookstone's rather logical point that since gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, her stating that her fiancee is female is simply a statement of fact, not a statement about a political issue.
He makes it seem like some big free speech issue, that he was punished for harmlessly expressing the belief that he disagrees with "that lifestyle". But this is absurd. I mean, if you went up to a Jew at your job and said "could you not talk about Yom Kippur? I believe that this Jewish thing is `bad stuff'" you wouldn't expect to last long at that job.You should be fired for saying stuff like that because gay people should have equal rights in this country including not being subjected to hostile workplaces because they're gay. That they don't in all states is the outrage.
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