Josie Fuller and J.T. Francis celebrate after getting married at San Francisco's City Hall on Monday, Feb 16, 2004.
Winter of love
Cautious Democrats worry that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's historic affirmation of gay marriage will help Bush win reelection. But as the right squabbles over the issue, his party may well thank him in November.
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By Joan Walsh
Feb. 26, 2004 |
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom "looked like the cat who ate the canary," Supervisor Tom Ammiano recalls, at a hastily convened private meeting Feb. 10. That's when Newsom told Ammiano, who'd run against him for mayor last November, about his plan to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, and asked for Ammiano's support.
"I'm fucking delighted!" the stand-up comic turned politician told the new mayor. Almost two weeks later, Ammiano was still beaming. City Hall had become a giant wedding chapel; just outside Ammiano's door, same-sex couples were being married in the glorious rotunda, on balconies and landings, in a dozen quiet nooks all over the building. And the national gay-rights leader was at a rare loss for words to describe the scene. "It's just so, so ... so queer!" he says finally. "But I think he's unleashed something that's bigger than all of us."
That's for sure, although it's still not clear exactly what it is. Even some gay rights advocates have worried that Newsom unleashed a big fat political backlash, epitomized by President Bush's decision Tuesday to back a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. "What Mayor Newsom has done in San Francisco ... has in fact energized and motivated those who support marriage between one man and one woman," Mathew Staver, president of the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, told the Los Angeles Times in the wake of Bush's decision on Tuesday.
That's supposedly why Rep. Barney Frank warned Newsom against his bold move. (Ammiano shakes his head at Frank's judgment. "That's Barney -- so Beltway-centric!") But Democrats all over the country have been telling the new mayor that the only person happier than the gay newlyweds is Karl Rove, who will now be able to run a campaign about the Democrats' degradation of marriage, rather than unpleasant issues like the jobless recovery, the massive budget deficit and the Iraq debacle. And the debate is sure to rage on: Will San Francisco's Winter of Love make it easier for Republicans to hold onto the White House next November?
No one knows for sure, but I don't think so. I feel like I have to confess upfront that my analytical skills have been warped by watching all of these weddings. You can't imagine what it's like from a distance. Straight or gay, visitors get teary when they walk inside City Hall, where the meaning of what Newsom did is huge and palpable. It's always struck me as vaguely homophobic, the insistence on how "normal" these couples are, but that really is what hits you in person. Sure, there are drag queens in the line waiting for marriage licenses, and plenty of old-fashioned flannel-shirted lesbians. But there are also 50-something men in bad suits and women in Prada; there are women in wheelchairs and interracial couples; and there are children everywhere, kids doing homework sitting on the floor as they wait for their parents' turn to get married. These are families already, and once you see them you know: There's really no going back.
And the ripple effect across the city, and the world, is enormous. In San Francisco, everyone knows someone who got married -- two of my daughter's public school teachers did it -- and practically every city official was deputized to marry couples over the long Valentine's Day weekend. I ran into bleary-eyed Newsom staffer Joe Caruso on Friday, the day Cambodia's King Sihanouk came out in favor of gay marriage after seeing the San Francisco weddings on TV, and Caruso was carrying one of the hundreds of bouquets of flowers strangers had sent from all over the world. The card was inscribed simply: "To the happy couple, With love from Eileen and Darren of British Columbia." People were dropping by City Hall all last week just for the emotional high. Straight San Francisco, too, is glowing with gay pride.
"We were just trying to put a human face on this issue," an exhausted Newsom said on Wednesday, after appearances on CNN's "Larry King Live" and ABC's "Nightline." He acknowledges that he's heard criticism even from supporters for his so-called act of civil disobedience. "That's the strongest argument: Why should a mayor be judge and jury and substitute his subjective interpretation of the Constitution? I've heard that. What I say is: The courts will decide. The system is working."
It's safe to say that of the roughly 119,000 people who voted for Gavin Newsom in the mayoral runoff last December, nobody thought they were voting for the radical in the race. The radical was the other guy, Matt Gonzalez, the Green Party leader who knocked off Ammiano in November and ran a spirited, occasionally brutal race against Newsom, whom he caricatured as a captive of corporate San Francisco. When I publicly declared my support for Newsom on the eve of the election, it was a dramatically uncool thing to do, and I spent many holiday parties defending my decision, which was more a reaction to the nasty campaign Gonzalez ran than a passionate belief in Newsom. (I think the die-hards who kept up their Gonzalez campaign posters featuring Newsom alongside Bush and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger might finally have to take them down.) I saw the new mayor as a cautious, wonky Democrat who might get some good things done. I wish I could say I saw this coming. But anybody who tells you that is a liar.
It's not just his gay marriage moves that shocked the city. In his first weeks on the job, Newsom toppled the powerful but scandal-shadowed police chief and replaced him with a Chinese-American woman, acting chief Heather Fong (he pledged to do a national search), who has already shaken up the command staff and looks like she expects to keep the job. He named the first female fire chief, Joanne Hayes-White, to preside over a department that's still dogged by issues of diversity, and appointed an African-American lesbian, Heather Hiles, to the school board. He told the Chamber of Commerce to expect to share the pain of a looming budget deficit, warning that some kind of business tax-hike is all but inevitable. He took department heads on a tour of ragged, neglected BayView-Hunter's Point, declared the city's epidemic of youth violence a travesty, and put city officials on notice that he wanted change in the way they approach the problems of crime and poverty.
But even though Newsom's bold moves have surprised me, the way he made them and defended them has not. I also voted for him because of a gut sense of his personal decency, an intuition that, agree with him or not, he acts from a moral base, which I respect. When you disagree with him, it can be a little scary. I called him a "sanctimonious schoolboy" last year after we argued about his aggressive panhandling initiative, when he insisted opponents like me were basically saying it was fine to let the city's down-and-out continue to die on the streets. Ouch. Of course, it's sanctimony when you disagree with someone, but conviction when they're on your side. So I've enjoyed watching Newsom's Catholic-schoolboy conviction on the gay marriage issue, his unflappable sense of his own righteousness as he goes up against the Christian right.
It's hard not to notice that Newsom is doing well politically by doing good, and lots of folks are asking if that's the point. "There's a lingering suspicion that this is like the candyman, you know, he's doing this great thing and then he'll do something bad," Ammiano admits. The mayor's cause wasn't helped by an anonymous aide who crowed to the San Francisco Chronicle that if you "control" the gay vote, your political success is assured in San Francisco. There's no doubt his stance has helped Newsom on his left: Pollster David Binder says that just a month ago, only 39 percent of self-described "progressive voters" had a favorable view of Newsom; that soared to 72 percent in a Binder poll this week, though the mayor lost support among the conservatives and older voters who had formed his base.
Kate Kendall, director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, says it's "insane" to think Newsom took his stance on gay marriage for political gain. "He was told by his own gay staff, 'You're going to ruin your political career,' and he said, 'I don't care,'" says Kendall, who calls Newsom's move "completely transformative." Newsom confirms that some gay staffers worried about the move, but says they were won over quickly. Now he acknowledges the most fear comes from older San Franciscans, those of his father's generation. He says his father, former Judge Bill Newsom, "supports me, but a lot of his friends and our family members can't believe I'm doing this. But that generational shift shows the inevitability of this change."
On the national level, the conventional wisdom says that Newsom hurt the Democrats by catalyzing a gay marriage backlash and handing Karl Rove a wedge issue with which to clobber likely nominee John Kerry in November. But in fact, the opposite might be true. Democrats may yet thank Newsom, and the Massachusetts Supreme Court, for pulling the president out of his political spider hole and forcing him to back a constitutional amendment. Already his base is squabbling over whether Bush went far enough, and even Tom DeLay isn't sure he's ready for a move as radical as amending the Constitution.
Newsom won't take credit or blame for forcing the president's hand. "He was going to do this; the question wasn't 'if' but when," says the mayor. "It's a remarkable risk from [Bush's] perspective. He's got a debate going now in his own party. I think it was a huge mistake, but history will judge that."
Meanwhile, Kerry could come out of this looking like a centrist. When Newsom was on CNN's "Late Edition" Sunday morning talking to Wolf Blitzer, the screen below him kept flashing the words "John Kerry is opposed to gay marriage." By staking out one extreme on the issue, Newsom showed that Bush is at the other extreme. If elections are won in the middle, that's good news for Kerry.
But it's too early to know how Newsom's move will play politically, or even legally. It's still possible the courts will say he's wrong and stop the weddings. In the meantime, San Franciscans can be proud of what's going on in City Hall. I walked away last week unexpectedly happy, knowing without a doubt: This is what history looks like. This is what it feels like to do the right thing.
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About the writer Wednesday, February 25, 2004My Way News
My Way News: "NEW YORK (AP) - Andy Rooney set the phone and e-mail lines at CBS buzzing over his commentary - in which he said God was speaking through him - calling Mel Gibson and the Rev. Pat Robertson 'wackos.'"
Thursday, February 19, 2004Yahoo! News - Barney Frank criticizes S.F. weddings
Yahoo! News - Barney Frank criticizes S.F. weddings: "SUMMARY: Openly gay Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., criticized letting same-sex couples get married in San Francisco, saying it could hurt efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in his home state. "
Wednesday, February 18, 2004Salon.com | The culture-war president
Salon.com | The culture-war president: The culture-war president
By Arianna Huffington http://www.salon.com/opinion/huffington/2004/02/18/culture_war/index.html Feb. 18, 2004 | "I'm a war president," George Bush told us. But as the body count in Iraq continues to rise, the president's approval rating plummets, and the furor over phantom WMD, sexed-up intel, and Bush's spotty Air National Guard service refuses to go away, it appears Karl Rove is planning a small rewrite for his candidate: "I'm a culture war president." Remember that divisive pre-9/11 campaign staple? Well, it's flared up again -- with a vengeance and a rash of new administration actions clearly aimed at shoring up the president's Christian conservative base. In the last month, the president has traded in his too-tight flight suit for a revival tent, backing a new anti-obscenity crusade, anti-condom sex-ed programs, a renewed commitment to fighting the drug war, and his attorney general's efforts to poke around the private medical records of women who've had abortions. He even hinted in his State of the Union that he'd be willing to endorse a constitutional ban on gay marriage. With Silver Starred John Kerry threatening the president's hold on the high ground of national defense, Team Bush has decided it's time to switch battlefields and start screaming about Sodom and Gomorrah. And who has time to talk about the 3 million jobs lost on Bush's watch when gay couples are trying to make their lifetime commitment legal? Heaven forbid. You would think the Christian right has more pressing matters to worry about. America now has 35 million people living in poverty, many of them working poor. And Christian conservatives are up in arms about gay marriage? Maybe they should take another look at the Bible and its admonition that we shall be judged by what we do for the least among us. Indeed, if you removed every reference to poverty in the New Testament, the Good Book would be reduced to little more than a Not Bad Pamphlet. In the words of Rev. Jim Wallis, "The Prophets would be decimated, the Psalms destroyed, and the Gospels ripped to shreds." On the other hand, there is not a single mention of gay marriage or the need to ban it. Regrettably, this perversion of presidential priorities is not limited to campaign rhetoric -- it extends to how our increasingly limited tax dollars are being spent. Take the administration's new anti-obscenity push -- a blast from our blue-nosed past. Bush's 2005 budget calls for a boost in funding for government efforts to crack down on the adult entertainment industry -- one of the precious few non-terror-related programs to garner a spending increase. I kid you not: While the White House is cutting back on its housing budget, veterans' benefits, and the National Institutes of Health, it's opening up the coffers to make sure you have a harder time downloading the Paris Hilton sexcapade on the Net. But that's not even the worst of it. The Justice Department has recently assigned a team of FBI agents to focus exclusively on adult obscenity cases. That's right, with the war on terror in full swing, our war president is going to have a group of G-men doing nothing but working the porn beat when they could be tracking down -- oh, I don't know -- terrorist sleeper cells. Talk about your misguided allocation of manpower. I don't know about you, but I certainly feel safer knowing the feds are going to be keeping close tabs on Jenna Jameson. We see the same loopy sense of right and wrong being played out in the Janet Jackson firestorm. Less than two weeks after the shock and bra of the Super Bowl, Bush's congressional cronies were already holding hearings on the matter. Compare that to the foot dragging that followed 9/11. It took 14 months -- and a candlelight vigil outside the White House by the victims' family members -- before the president finally relented and the 9/11 commission was created. Now that's indecent. For the moral relativists in the Bush administration, the definition of sin seems to depend on whether the sinner can further their political purposes. So Justin exposing Janet's boob is a sin, but White House staffers exposing Victoria Plame is a win. Profiting from porno is a sin, but Halliburton's wartime profiteering is a win. Two men getting hitched is a sin, but Cheney and Scalia shacking up in a duck blind is a win. Telling students condoms can prevent STDs is a sin, but lying about WMD is a win. And so, apparently, is GOP staffers hacking into Senate computers and Tom DeLay illegally funneling corporate money to Texas politicians. The president's culture war is little more than breasts and circuses. Election-year weapons of mass distraction. Hail to the panderer in chief. Our one and only president
Salon.com News | Bush 'troubled' by gay marriage issue: "Feb. 18, 2004 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Wednesday he was 'troubled' by gay weddings in San Francisco and by legal decisions in Massachusetts that could clear the way for same-sex marriage. But he declined to say whether he is any closer to backing a constitutional ban on such vows.
'I have watched carefully what's happening in San Francisco, where licenses were being issued, even though the law states otherwise,' Bush said. 'I have consistently stated that I'll support law to protect marriage between a man and a woman. Obviously these events are influencing my decision.' 'I am watching very carefully, but I am troubled by what I've seen,' Bush said. He didn't answer directly when asked whether he is any closer to endorsing a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages, as conservative groups say the White House has assured them Bush will do. 'I strongly believe marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman,' Bush said during an Oval Office session with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. 'I am troubled by activist judges who are defining marriage.' 'People need to be involved in this decision,' Bush said. 'Marriage ought to be defined by the people not by the courts. And I'm watching it carefully.' Gay and lesbian couples from Europe and more than 20 states have lined up outside the ornate San Francisco City Hall since city officials decided to begin marrying same-sex couples six days ago. City officials said 172 couples were married Tuesday, a pace that would bring the total number who have taken vows promising to be 'spouses for life' to over 3,000 by Friday. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled that it is unconstitutional to bar gay couples from marriage. U" Friday, February 13, 2004BOSTON GLOBE Puppet Masters
Romney out front; Bush aides in touch
Boston Globe, February 13, 2004Box 2378, Boston, MA, 02107 (Fax: 617-929-2098 ) (E-Mail: letter@globe.com ) ( http://www.boston.com/globe ) http://www.boston.com/news/specials/gay_marriage/articles/2004/02/13/romney_out_front_bush_aides_in_touch/ By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff As Governor Mitt Romney navigates the volatile issue of gay marriage, his staff is in "regular contact" with the staffs of the Bush White House and the national Republican Party, a top Romney aide said yesterday. Eric Fehrnstrom, the governor's director of communications, downplayed the significance of the talks between Washington and the governor's office, but he described it as contact on "about a semidaily basis." Fehrnstrom said the national Republicans, whom he would not name, were in contact with Romney's chief of staff, Beth Myers, and her deputy, Peter G. Flaherty to keep tabs on the debate and other developments, the outcome of which will have implications for the presidential campaign. Fehrnstrom said no one from the Bush White House or the Republican National Committee has talked directly to Romney. In recent days, the governor has become more aggressively and personally involved in the emotionally charged issue, taking a high-profile role and intimating that he would seek legal avenues to block issuance of gay marriage licenses. Local and national political observers had speculated that Romney was coordinating his activities with the White House, the Bush campaign, and the Republican National Committee. Nationally, the GOP, sensing an opening to attack Democratic front-runner Senator John F. Kerry, has also become more vocal in opposition, with its operatives indicating that the gay marriage debate can be used to paint Massachusetts as out of step with the rest of the country. Fehrnstrom insisted that Romney's decision to inject himself into the debate, although he has no formal role in a constitutional convention, has nothing to do with presidential politics and everything to do with Romney's feeling that he should be involved in such a momentous debate. Last night, Romney continued to play a role in the negotiations, sending word through GOP lawmakers that he opposed any form of civil unions for gay couples. "I can't imagine the governor sitting on the sidelines while one of the most important debates in recent history is taking place," Fehrnstrom said. Romney has consistently opposed gay marriage and has said in the past that he also opposes civil unions, although Fehrnstrom indicated yesterday that the governor would not close the door on some system that provided the protections and benefits Romney has supported in the past. The governor has never fully spelled out what those rights would be, but he has mentioned hospital visitations, survivor benefits, and joint health care. The first signs of Romney's heightened profile in the controversy surrounding gay marriage came with a column he wrote that appeared last week in the Wall Street Journal. The column, which advised other states how to deal with the hot-button issue, appeared a day after the Supreme Judicial Court reaffirmed its Nov. 18 ruling clearing the way for gay marriage in Massachusetts. Since then, he has kept up the beat, almost on a daily basis. With the SJC ruling legalizing gay marriage set to take effect on May 17, Romney has indicated he will try to block the issuance of marriage licenses, but has never offered details on how he would circumvent the ruling. Romney and other gay marriage opponents could seek a stay from the SJC or a federal court, pleading that legal chaos will result if same-sex marriages take place and voters ultimately reject the court ruling through a constitutional amendment. Until the issue of gay marriage rose to the top of the agenda on Beacon Hill, Romney had a reputation as a hands-off governor who rarely became involved in direct negotiations with legislators. But this past week, he has pressured Republican legislators to rally behind House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran's proposal to ban gay marriage without authorizing civil unions. Romney's support for Finneran's amendment failed to win approval for the measure on Wednesday. In his lobbying, the governor has seriously strained his relationship with his close ally, Senate minority leader Brian P. Lees of Longmeadow. Romney and his aides have raised the heat on Lees and his five colleagues in the Senate to follow the administration's stance on gay marriage. Lees has bridled at the pressure and has cut off communications with Romney, several GOP sources said yesterday. State GOP chairman Darrell Crate was at the State House on Wednesday just as the debate was at its most intense. Crate met with Romney and then lobbied GOP lawmakers, asking them to line up behind Finneran's amendment. One GOP legislator said Crate had invoked the interests of the White House in urging him to line up behind Finneran's proposal. The GOP chairman declined to comment. "I feel like I would be violating confidences with legislators, whom I spoke to directly," he said. Crate said no one from the national Republican Party or the White House had given him instructions. "There's no coordination with the folks in the White House," he said. "I don't speak for them." Friday, February 06, 2004
ASHCROFT DETAINS JANET JACKSON’S RIGHT BOOB
Half of Singer's Rack in US Custody Just hours after singer Janet Jackson shocked the world by exposing her right boob at the conclusion of Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show, Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered the offending boob detained “indefinitely,” Mr. Ashcroft confirmed today. “Janet Jackson’s right boob has been taken into custody and sent to Guantanamo Bay for questioning,” Mr. Ashcroft told reporters in a Washington briefing. “We’d very much like to know what the boob knew and when it knew it.” Ms. Jackson’s right boob was detained under a little-known provision of the Patriot Act which enables the government to detain celebrity body parts that make surprise, naked appearances at nationally televised sporting events. Under that provision, Mr. Ashcroft explained, Ms. Jackson’s right boob will not have access to a lawyer and could face a military tribunal at some point in the future. When asked about Ms. Jackson’s left boob, Mr. Ashcroft said that it is not a suspect at this time but that it remains “a boob of interest.” “We would like to know if the left boob knew what the right boob was planning to do,” Mr. Ashcroft said. “It strains credulity to imagine that the right boob acted alone.” Elsewhere, experts around the world confirmed that moments after Ms. Jackson’s right boob fell out of its housing, Western civilization fell as well. Dr. Milton Campeaux of the University of Minnesota said that experts were “surprised” that Ms. Jackson caused Western civilization’s long-awaited collapse. “We all expected a Jackson to do it, but not Janet,” he said. Thursday, February 05, 2004Salon.com Life | Three accused of putting hairpieces on cows
Salon.com Life | Three accused of putting hairpieces on cows: "Feb. 5, 2004 | COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Three livestock exhibitors at last year's Ohio State Fair have been disqualified for allegedly outfitting their Holstein cows with hairpieces. "
Tuesday, February 03, 2004Talk about strange bedfellows
The Village Voice: Features: Sleeping With the GOP by Wayne Barrett with special reporting by Adam Hutton and Christine Lagorio: "Roger Stone, the longtime Republican dirty-tricks operative who led the mob that shut down the Miami-Dade County recount and helped make George W. Bush president in 2000, is financing, staffing, and orchestrating the presidential campaign of Reverend Al Sharpton.
Though Stone and Sharpton have tried to reduce their alliance to a curiosity, suggesting that all they do is talk occasionally, a Voice investigation has documented an extraordinary array of connections. Stone played a pivotal role in putting together Sharpton's pending application for federal matching funds, getting dollars in critical states from family members and political allies at odds with everything Sharpton represents. He's also helped stack the campaign with a half-dozen incongruous top aides who've worked for him in prior campaigns. He's even boasted about engineering six-figure loans to Sharpton's National Action Network (NAN) and allowing Sharpton to use his credit card to cover thousands in NAN costs?neither of which he could legally do for the campaign. In a wide-ranging Voice interview Sunday, Stone confirmed his matching-fund and staffing roles, but refused to comment on the NAN subsidies. " Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | The Fix
Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | The Fix
Even as studies show that Americans are heavier than ever, a new wave of reality TV shows have taken to making fun of fat people. Most conspicuous is Fox's "My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance," which places a thin, attractive woman in a phony engagement with a large, ill-behaved man whose main goal is to disgust pretty much everyone around him -- and, of course, viewers as well. Last season's "Average Joe" and this season's "Average Joe: Hawaii," while purportedly championing the cause of the normal guy, also generate tension and controversy by pairing a few large, out-of-shape men with a model-type woman. The implicit message: Can these slobs possibly live up to the standards of a beautiful person? The answer so far: no. (In fact, TV viewers watched the very big Sean sent packing Monday night from "Average Joe: Hawaii.") Salon called up Sandie Sabo-Russo, spokesperson for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, a 34-year-old fat people's rights group with more than 5,000 members in chapters across the United States and Europe. While NAAFA tries to have a sense of humor about the media -- its hall of fame includes John Candy, Chris Farley and Miss Piggy -- it takes the cause of "ending discrimination against fat people" seriously. It even has a "Fat Activist Task Force" that uses letter-writing campaigns to protest what it feels are unfair portrayals of fat people in the media. What do you think of "My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance?" I think that's a really obnoxious title. If you change that word "fat" to any other oppressed minority -- to "My Big Black Obnoxious Fiance," or "My Big Gay Obnoxious Fiance," or anything -- you'd have a lot of groups that would be going, "Well, wait a minute ..." They've wrapped all these negative stereotypes into this one guy who's fat, [saying] because he's fat, he's obnoxious, and he's sloppy and he's smelly -- which is not true about us. When the word "fat" is used as a negative, it becomes a term to hurt people, just like when people use the "n word" against blacks. That's one of the reasons why we use the word "fat" -- it means we've taken it back. I'm fat. It is the appropriate adjective for my body. What about "Average Joe"? Matter of fact, I watch it all the time. [Laughs.] I have a few of my favorite reality shows. I love "Survivor," and I watch the "Bachelorette" ... she's so cute. She's so pretty. Why do you like "Average Joe"? I was curious. I watched the first time and I was so pulling for Adam -- you know, the average guy when she got down to the one last average guy and one non-average guy. Adam was charming, he was a nice guy, he was rich -- what an idiot [she was]! I can't believe she passed this guy up! But it's her prerogative ... I don't berate someone for being more attracted to a thin person than a fat person. From television's point of view, if they're just trying to get more people to watch, doesn't it make more sense for them to focus more on thin beautiful people than fat people? Who are they to decide what's attractive and not attractive? I think extreme body builders with all the ripples -- oh yuck, it gives me the creeps. It's like fingernails on a blackboard. I see that when I'm flipping the channels and I switch that stuff off. That's the way I look at it -- gee, you don't have to look at it if you don't like it. But there has to be that broad spectrum of reality. Because there's many people who think rounded women are attractive. It's not just about whether people think we're beautiful or not. Most thinner people treat fat people as if there's something morally wrong with us. What did you think about the stunt in the first "Average Joe," when the thin woman put the fat suit on [to trick the contestants into saying nasty things about her]? I think it stunk. We don't like it for all the same reasons that black people don't like it when white people put black face on and pretend to be black. It's demeaning and disrespectful. Do you think the guy from "My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance" could ever make it to NAAFA's hall of fame? I don't think so. He's probably thrilled to get a gig, and to some extent I don't blame him. I'm sure he's probably a nice guy in real life. But we'll never know, because all we'll think of him as is the fat obnoxious guy. Friday, January 30, 2004Salon.com Technology | Ask the pilot
Salon.com Technology | Ask the pilot: "Those who miss the thrill of Kai Tak still have some options. Spotters and gawkers can visit Maho Beach, for one, on the island of St. Maarten (St. Martin when speaking of its French half) in the Dutch Antilles. Here, along this otherwise small and unattractive oceanfront, the threshold of Princess Juliana International Airport's single runway extends nearly to the tide line. Judging from these pictures, which are not retouched in any way, you'd be advised to hit the sand to keep clear of jet blast and the swirling vortices from a 747's wingtip. The beach is posted with signs warning swimmers and sunbathers of these very hazards."
Tuesday, January 27, 2004Razzies.com - Home of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation
Razzies.com - Home of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation
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The Village Voice: Nation: Mondo Washington: Operation Desert Guard by James Ridgeway
The Village Voice: Nation: Mondo Washington: Operation Desert Guard by James Ridgeway: "The moral dictates of the Christian right are nothing compared with the concerns of the protectors of public morality in the press corps. Ever vigilant in our behalf, they recently condemned Michael Jackson (Who needs a trial with the people's advocate Nancy Grace and CNN judge Larry King on the job?). But even Jackson didn't have the audacity to say what Michael Moore said?that the president of the United States is a deserter. Yes, indeed. He said that. Not only did Moore say it, but he said it in public on a stage in the midst of a political campaign. In the midst of a war, no less. The press corps blushed in shame for all of us and promptly condemned Moore as an ignorant fool who ought to stick with his disgusting comedy shows.
Fortunately for us, Michael Moore is crazy like a fox. By calling Bush a 'deserter,' he got the big-time journalists?horrified David Broder, incredulous Peter Jennings, outraged Robert Novak, nonplussed Tim Russert?to openly raise the deserter issue before millions. It is now a political topic once again. As the journalists damn Moore, the populace is once again wondering, well, maybe Bush is a deserter after all. And the idea of a deserter running this war makes it even more sick than it already is. Consider that this weekend warrior is already responsible for the following toll in Iraq: 513 GIs sent to their death; 8,000 medevacked out of Iraq; 2,919 wounded (missing arms or legs, or blinded, or psycho); and at least 22 GI suicides. God only knows how many Iraqi men, women, and children. And when it was his turn to fight for his country, Bush booked. " Friday, January 23, 2004Dean delivers top 10 list on Letterman Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean turned to late-night comedy Thursday to poke fun at his arm-waving outburst in Iowa that has proven politically damaging. Dean taped an appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman" in which he presented the Top 10 list. The last Democrat to deliver the list was Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri on Jan. 12. After a poor showing in Iowa Monday, Gephardt abandoned his presidential bid. The subject of Dean's list was "Ways, I, Howard Dean, can turn things around." 10. Switch to decaf. 9. Unveil new slogan, "Vote for Dean and get one dollar off your next purchase at Blimpie." 8. Marry Rachel on the final episode of "Friends." 7. Don't change a thing, it's going great. 6. Show a little more skin. 5. Go on "American Idol" and give them a taste of those pipes. 4. Start working out and speaking with an Austrian accent. 3. I can't give specifics yet, but it involves Ted Danson. 2. Fire the staffer who suggested I do this lousy Top 10 List instead of actually campaigning. 1. Oh, I don't know -- maybe fewer, crazy, red-faced rants.
Wednesday, January 21, 2004The Village Voice: Nation: Mondo Washington: Warnings During Wartime by James Ridgeway
The Village Voice: Nation: Mondo Washington: Warnings During Wartime by James Ridgeway: "One thing we learned from the Taliban is how to get rid of drugs through harsh penalties for anyone breaking the law. In recent days articles have trumpeted the success of the Taliban's drug program, the only one in the world that has actually worked. As for all those promiscuous girls (and some boys, too) out there, let them practice abstinence as a way to fight STDs and drugs, which a growing chorus of get-tough lawmakers, even some right-wingers who fear rising prison costs may raise their taxes, say don't work. Let's reward schools that follow the Taliban-style enforcement program with a $23 million federal drug-testing program under the heading of 'a tool to save children's lives' against sexually transmitted diseases. The government will give them a heftier federal handout if they coerce their students into taking drug tests. "
Friday, January 16, 2004NPR : Mormon Cinema, a Growing Indie Scene
NPR : Mormon Cinema, a Growing Indie Scene: "New Breed of Films Promote Values of Latter-day Saints"
Thursday, January 15, 2004Gibson's "Passion" to hit U.S. screens
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "Mel Gibson's controversial new film, 'The Passion of Christ,' which at first had a hard time finding a distributor, will be independently released on about 2,000 screens in the United States next month, a Gibson spokesman said on Wednesday."
Salon.com | America's final wakeup call
Salon.com | America's final wakeup call: "America's final wakeup call
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's damning book may finally clue Americans in to the deadly consequences of being governed by a disengaged dolt in the hands of a fanatical cabal."
My Belief-O-Matic Score
Belief-O-Matic -- A personality quiz about your religious beliefs and spiritual beliefs - a quiz answering What Religion Am I -- Beliefnet.com
Belief-O-Matic -- A personality quiz about your religious beliefs and spiritual beliefs - a quiz answering What Religion Am I -- Beliefnet.com: "Even if YOU don't know what faith you are, Belief-O-Matic? knows. Answer 20 questions about your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature, and more, and Belief-O-Matic? will tell you what religion (if any) you practice...or ought to consider practicing. "
Monday, January 12, 2004Salon.com Technology | No safety net for programmers
Salon.com Technology | No safety net for programmers: "When manufacturing jobs go overseas, laid-off workers are eligible for a host of benefits. But if you're one of the tens of thousands of software producers whose jobs have been outsourced, you're out of luck."
Wednesday, January 07, 2004Arianna Huffington
Salon.com | Dean, Bobby and the ghost of landslides past
Of course Dean is angry. Take a look at what's happening in Iraq, with another 236 American soldiers killed or wounded since Saddam was dragged out of his spider hole. And take a look closer to home, where we have 12 million children living in poverty, six out of seven working poor families unable to afford quality child care, record levels of personal debt, and more and more U.S. jobs being "outsourced" overseas. If you still have a pulse -- are you listening, Joe Lieberman? -- you should be royally pissed. And the Press Thinks He's Nuts?
The Village Voice: Nation: Mondo Washington: Dean Calls 9-11 by James Ridgeway: "WASHINGTON—Setting aside Sunday's puerile attacks on Howard Dean by a desperate John Kerry and the by now embarrassing Joe Lieberman, the so-called Iowa debate briefly touched on the true bottom-line issue of the coming election: the extent of the U.S. government's foreknowledge of 9-11. "
Salon.com | God to America: Don't reelect Bush!
Salon.com | God to America: Don't reelect Bush!: "Pat Robertson says that God is calling a Bush blowout. My own pipeline to the Almighty says it's not a prediction, it's a warning."
Monday, December 29, 2003The Village Voice: Nation: Mondo Washington: The Martial Plan by James Ridgeway
The Village Voice: Nation: Mondo Washington: The Martial Plan by James RidgewayWASHINGTON—Every day the U.S. looks more like a police state.
An internal Justice Department probe, based on surveillance videos made by the government inside federal detention facilities, shows that the U.S. harassed, beat, and kept in solitary confinement without access to family or lawyers men it picked up off the streets of New York after 9-11. More likely than not, these men were seized on grounds that some cop or FBI agent thought they looked like Osama followers. Or that a business partner or neighbor decided he could get the man's money or property by charging him first with theft and then telling the cops, "Oh, by the way, I think the guy is Al Qaeda," a claim that one magistrate after another accepted as the reason to set bails so high no one but a millionaire could pay to get out. And this doesn't even scratch the surface of what's been going on. Lawyers were not told the numbers of courtrooms to where their clients were being shuttled because the room locations were secret. Members of Congress, government, the press, and the judiciary knew from the very get-go that any FBI agent, acting on his or her own, could make an affidavit asserting that any individual was a suspected terrorist. Every day, Ashcroft and Bush work the country toward something like martial law, though the administration has suffered setbacks, like last week's rulings by two federal appellate courts in Padilla v. Rumsfeld and Gherebi v. Bush. Both of those decisions, for now at least, hamper the government's ability to simply lock up suspects indefinitely. But the government has other targets and other ways of dealing with them. The most recent crackdown seems to be on the foreign press—the source of much of the substantial critique of its policies. U.S. immigration authorities are detaining foreign correspondents on grounds they have not obtained special visas permitting them to operate here, reports the Associated Press. True, there is a law stipulating a special visa for journalists, but few have ever heard of it and it is seldom enforced. No more. No one ever told the visiting journalists it had suddenly been revived. As a result, immigration officials aren't allowing reporters from abroad to come in under ordinary 90-day tourist visa waivers. Peter Krobath, chief editor for the Austrian movie magazine Skip, was seized and held overnight in a cold room with 45 others who landed without visas. Is he an Osama follower? A disguised fedayeen from Saddam's clan? No. He is guilty of flying to the U.S. to interview Ben Affleck. Thomas Sjoerup, a photographer for the Danish paper Ekstra Bladet, had to give the American authorities fingerprints, a mug shot, and a DNA sample, and he was promptly sent back home anyway. Six French journalists were marched across a terminal at Los Angeles International Airport in handcuffs, having had their belts and shoelaces removed. The International Press Institute, based in Vienna, along with the International Federation of Journalists, headquartered in Brussels, is protesting this treatment. The U.S. response? An embassy official in Vienna insisted that the government was only acting in accordance with the letter of the law. Tuesday, December 23, 2003Spell this word
Moral of the story: Never make a woman angry ... there'll be Hell to pay later.
Man says he gave wife toilet seat as gift
- - - - - - - - - - - - Dec. 23, 2003 | LONGMONT, Colo. (AP) -- Gary and Karri Clark haven't forgotten their second Christmas together. He knew she wanted bathroom accessories, so he wrapped up a couple of gifts and waited. The toilet seat and towel rack didn't go over too well. "Here I thought I was doing good," he recalled with a laugh. "It was something she can always use, day after day. It's the gift that keeps on giving." The Clarks were among those who responded to requests by the Daily Times-Call newspaper to share their stories about bungled gifts and best intentions -- the waffle makers, blenders and vacuum cleaners given with love and practicality in mind that will never be forgotten or forgiven. Karri Clark admits she wanted a new toilet seat a decade ago because there was a crack in the old one. She just didn't think she'd get one gift wrapped. "I could not believe it," she said. "What man gives you a toilet seat for Christmas?" Stan Stanley said he learned his lesson about practical gifts in the early 1980s after presenting his wife with a garage door opener one Christmas. There was no entrance from the garage into the house, a source of irritation for Connie Stanley. "I was so excited about opening it. I had no idea what it was," she said. After 57 years of marriage, she said, she has to forgive Stan when he makes a mistake like that. Tom Tinkle remembers giving his wife a birthday blender and how she did a wonderful job of oohing and aahing before setting the box aside. When she finally took the blender out of the box, she discovered a sapphire bracelet slipped inside. "It was a surprise for her and possibly made her rethink her opinions of her doofus husband giving her a bonehead blender for a gift," Tinkle said. Gary Clark admits his bathroom gifts were out of desperation: It was Christmas Eve, he was at Kmart and he couldn't think of what to buy his wife. "She wanted it, but not for Christmas," he said. Since then, he's done better: His wife received a Ford Explorer for her birthday this year. Saturday, December 20, 2003
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The retailer that stole XMAS ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Saturday, December 20, 2003 N ORTH POLE -- Troubled toy maker Santa Claus Inc., (NYSE: XMAS) (this week) announced that had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the latest victim of the retailing juggernaut that is Wal-Mart Inc. Santa N. Claus, XMAS chairman and CEO, said his 2,000-year-old firm would lay off 2,500 workers at its North Pole toy factory. Claus said manufacturing would be shifted to factories in China and Korea. Claus also announced the liquidation of "certain livestock assets," specifically, eight tiny reindeer working in XMAS' delivery operations. "We can't afford on-time delivery any more," Claus said bitterly, "not when Wal-Mart has people coming to 4,300 stores around the world to pick the stuff up for themselves." The action by XMAS follows the announcement last week that the upscale FAO Schwarz toy company had sought bankruptcy protection. In November, Toys "R" Us, the $11 billion toy chain, announced a $38 million third-quarter loss, closed 182 stores and laid off 3,000 workers. Over the past year, FAO Schwarz has closed its Zany Brainy stores, and Toys "R" Us has closed 146 Kids "R" Us clothing stores and its Imaginarium toy stores. Toys "R" Us shares have dropped 73 percent to around $11.75 in the past decade. Not coincidentally, in the past decade Wal-Mart has more than doubled its share of the nation's annual $25 billion toy business. Nearly one in every four dollars spent on toys in the United States goes to Wal-Mart. Claus explained, "Take your Hokey Pokey Elmo, the `it' toy for this year. Wal-Mart is selling Hokey Pokey Elmo at $19.46. That's 30 percent under list and about what it costs me to make it. They sell toys at low margin and make it up on volume. Plus they use toys as loss leaders, getting people into their stores and selling them other stuff while they're there. I don't sell tires and groceries and besides, the delivery costs would kill me. Man doesn't live on milk and cookies alone, you know." Economists predicted that competing with Wal-Mart would make Claus' operation more efficient. "Wal-Mart is the greatest thing that ever happened to low-income Americans," W. Michael Cox, chief economist of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, told The New York Times. "They can stretch their dollars and afford things they otherwise couldn't." Meanwhile, at Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., a company spokesman said the firm would soon debut "Sammy Claus," a Christmas mascot modeled on the company's late founder, Sam Walton. "Sammy Claus and his trusty bird dog, Roy, will fly through the air in a magic bass boat pulled by an old pickup truck," the spokesman said. "Sammy Claus will wear a blue vest, and instead of `Ho, ho, ho,' he'll be saying, `Low, low, low."' Informed that Sammy Claus would soon be coming to town, Santa Claus was philosophical. "I guess I can get a job as a greeter at Wal-Mart." Wednesday, December 17, 2003Salon.com News | "This is not America"
Salon.com News | "This is not America": "Afterward, many observers said the same thing: 'This is not America.' Civil libertarians, though, worry that -- in an era when legitimate homeland security fears have begun to edge over into hysterical paranoia about 'anarchists' -- it might offer a glimpse of where America's response to protest is headed. "
Thursday, December 11, 2003Thanks from a grateful nation
Salon.com News | Dearly deported: "Just months after Zeferino Colunga Sr. lost his GI son in Iraq, the government arrested him and sent him back to Mexico. "
Tuesday, December 09, 2003Got to love those fun loving Republicans Cruisin' for a Bruisin' December 9, 2003: "The plan by House Majority Leader, Tom 'the Hammer' DeLay, to quarantine Republican politicians, donors, and delegates on a cruise ship in the Hudson during next year?s Republican National Convention has been sunk. But for Bush opponents, there sure is a lot of blood in the water. With Democrats hooting and howling, and many fellow Republicans quietly wincing, DeLay caved, but only after letting the controversy play out for a while, so determined was he to have his colleagues stay docked off Manhattan Island. The dramatic debacle revealed that the Republicans?including Tough Guy DeLay?are wimps of the first order, scared to death of mingling among the Clinton-loving, sodomite-friendly masses. "
Microsoft fires worker over weblog
Microsoft fires worker over weblog: "As the weblogging phenomenon has taken off, there have been isolated incidents around the country in which companies fired employees for posting in their personal weblogs work-related material that executives consider compromising or inappropriate. But Hanscom appears to be the first person let go for that reason from Microsoft, where an ever increasing number of employee webloggers regularly post work-related material."
Monday, December 08, 2003What I am readingDry: A Memoirby Augusten Burroughs One of the best books I have read in years. Highly recommend. “I was addicted to “Bewitched” as a kid. I worshipped Darren Stevens the First. When he’d come home from work and Samantha would say, ‘Darren, would you like me to fix you a drink?’ He’d always rest his briefcase on the table below the mirror in the foyer, wipe his forehead with a monogrammed handkerchief and say, ‘Better make it a double.’” (from Chapter Two) New York Daily News - Daily Dish & Gossip - Rush & Molloy: Tasteless gags Maher a Hillary tribute
New York Daily News - Daily Dish & Gossip - Rush & Molloy: Tasteless gags Maher a Hillary tribute: "'Queer Eye' guy Carson Kressley asks Cher in Us Weekly who she'd most like to have as a co-joined twin. Attorney General John Ashcroft, she says. 'So I could influence him a bit - or just beat the s-- out of him.' Kresley notes that Cher doesn't seem to be a Republican, 'Are you kidding me?' she says. 'I'd rather stick needles in my eyes' ..."
I like John Kerry more and more
New York Post Online Edition: news: "December 6, 2003 -- Struggling 2004 Democratic wannabe John Kerry fires an X-rated attack at President Bush over Iraq and uses the f-word - highly unusual language for a presidential contender - in a stunning new interview with Rolling Stone magazine. "
Things you have to believe to be a Republican today
Wednesday, December 03, 2003Pfizer Corp. announced today that VIAGRA will soon be available in liquid form and will be marketed by Pepsi Cola as a power beverage? suitable for use as a mixer.? It will now be possible for a man to literally pour himself a stiff one.?? Obviously we can no longer call this a soft drink, and it gives new meaning to the names of "cocktails", "highballs" and just a good old fashioned "stiff drink".?? Pepsi will market the new concoction by the name of: "MOUNT & DO." Monday, December 01, 2003Light BulbTwo bone weary public servants were working their little hearts and souls out. Their department was just too busy for staff to be able to take flex. But there had to be a way........ One of the two public servants suddenly lifted his head. "I know how to get some time off work," the man whispered. "How?" hissed the blonde at the next workstation. Instead of answering, the man quickly looked around. No sign of his Director. He jumped up on his desk, kicked out a couple of ceiling tiles and hoisted himself up. "Look!" he hissed, then swinging his legs over a metal pipe, hung upside down. Within seconds, the Director emerged from the Branch Head's office at the far end of the floor. He saw the worker hanging from the ceiling, and asked him what on earth he thought he was doing. "I'm a light bulb," answered the public servant. "I think you need some time off," barked the Director. "Get out of here -that's an order - and I don't want to see you back here for at least another two days! You understand me?" "Yes sir," the public servant answered meekly, then jumped down, logged off his computer and left. The blonde was hot on his heels. "Where do you think you're going?" the boss asked. "Home," she said lightly. "I can't work in the dark." Friday, November 21, 2003God continues to stay on our side apparently
The Village Voice: Nation: Mondo Washington: Rummy's Kids by James Ridgeway: "Attending a National Prayer Breakfast, General Boykin described 'a demonic presence in [Mogadishu, Somalia] that God revealed to me as the enemy,' reports The Washington Post. Speaking of Somali warlord Osman Ato, Boykin said, 'He went on CNN and he laughed at us, and he said, 'They'll never get me because Allah will protect me. Allah will protect me.' Well, you know what, I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.' "
Friday, November 14, 2003Thursday, November 06, 2003What I am reading - pure trash but it is a fun read
Amazon.com: Books: Santa Fe Rules: "You're a rich, successful Hollywood producer who awakens the morning before Thanksgiving in your Santa Fe home with no memory of the previous night. Ignoring your dog's attempts to get you to visit the guest wing of the house, you leave and fly your private plane to Los Angeles. But you never get there: a breakdown forces you to spend the holiday isolated in a small airport town. When you finally see the newspaper the next day, you read that the bodies of your wife, your business partner and a third man--assumed to be you--have been found in the guest room of the Santa Fe residence. Further, you learn that your wife is not who you thought she was and has a most sleazy past. You don't know what's going on--or even whether you committed the murders yourself. That's the premise of Woods's ( Palindrome ) newest thriller. Wolf Willett decides to stay 'dead' for a while and finish work on his new film, then hires a top defense attorney and turns himself in. Things keep moving thereafter at the same mad pace, with ever more improbable plot twists pushing the reader's suspension of disbelief to the limit--if not beyond. Willett may be the dumbest protagonist any writer will create this year. Woods is a master of this sort of thing, however, and unfolds his tale in an easy style that will keep readers engrossed and probably put his name on the bestseller lists again. 75,000 first printing; $125,000 ad/promo; Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild selections; Literary Guild alternate; author tour. "
Wednesday, November 05, 2003Monday, November 03, 2003Yahoo! News - Study Finds No Link Between Vaccines, Autism
Yahoo! News - Study Finds No Link Between Vaccines, Autism: "But public health activists, including those who work with autism sufferers, said that neurological disorders had been found at significantly high rates in the original analysis of the study in 2000, but had been watered down in the final version. "
Thursday, October 30, 2003Do they ever have my number
Salon.com Technology | Hackers on Atkins: "Geeks who go low-carb see it as more than just taking off pounds -- they're reengineering the human organism, overclocking their own bodies."
Wednesday, October 29, 2003Yahoo! News - Americans Flock to Get on NRA Blacklist
Yahoo! News - Americans Flock to Get on NRA Blacklist: "Most blacklists are designed to intimidate. But thousands of Americans are clamoring to join one drawn up by the National Rifle Association (NRA)."
Tuesday, October 28, 2003Boy, I hope this is the beginning of something
BW Online | October 27, 2003 | The Hidden Costs of IT Outsourcing: "While moving software development and tech support offshore is all the rage, many companies find the overall savings aren't that great "
Monday, October 27, 2003Tuesday, October 14, 2003This is good news, I started the Atkins diet 11 days ago.
Yahoo! News - Low-Carb Diets Are Working, Study Says: "The dietary establishment has long argued it's impossible, but a new study offers intriguing evidence for the idea that people on low-carbohydrate diets can actually eat more than folks on standard lowfat plans and still lose weight. "
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
After Sunday service the minister was passing a group of young teens laying on the church lawn and stopped to ask what they were doing.
"Nothing much, Pastor," replied one boy. "We were just seeing who can tell the biggest lie about their sex life." "Boys, boys, boys!" he scolded. "I'm shocked. When I was your age, I never even thought about sex." In unison they all replied, "You win!" Tuesday, October 07, 2003Dolphin Stress Test
Dolphin Stress Test: "It's a simple test designed to indicate whether people have too much stress in their life. "
Friday, October 03, 2003Response to Austism post on Salon.com[Read "Planet Autism," by Scot Sea.] I suspect this is small comfort to Scott Sea, but the ability to write so gorgeously about such a mysteriously tragic reality -- his daughter's severe autism -- says something breathtaking about human life. The article was a gift to your readers; yet in resonance with the author's experience, it's impossible to describe precisely what that gift was. I remain forever grateful that there are people who can do this. -- Barbara Regenspan Scot Sea's "Planet Autism" is heart-wrenching, vivid and the most "real" account of the daily lives of families with challenged children I have read. As a pediatric nurse I counseled parents on strategies and helped them manage their children when they were in the office or the hospital. I always knew and respected the fact that these parents were the experts, the soldiers in the trench. I have long admired the way many parents of these children hold their heads up and accept what the day brings, which is usually a predictable kind of unpredictability that most of us would not accept for an hour. Few of us know what it's like to make cleaning feces and other body fluids off everyday objects part of our routine, or to suffer from the lack of a shower or a trip to the store on our own. There is not a comment I can make to comfort a family member in this situation. I hope that people read the article and understand that the world is a completely different shape in some households. -- Teresa Courtney I found the article on autism both fascinating and heartbreaking. In a civilized world, governments would exist for one reason only: to take care of their people, to help them with the necessities of life that they can't provide for themselves. Food, shelter, healthcare (no matter how specialized) and education are every human being's right. These things should not be subject to "free market" whims, political expediency or, God forbid, insurance industry regulations. Lack of money is the most common excuse for the existence of human suffering. In a country that can afford trillions of dollars for vanity wars, foreign aid to despots, and boondoggle/pork barrel projects, this is obviously a fallacy. Lack of vision, compassion and will is the reason behind this story and millions of others like it. -- Joseph Thomas Tell Scot he is not alone. I understand exactly what he is talking about, having a 15-year-old daughter with PDD-NOS and OCD who gets violent. Our family has been destroyed through police calls, moving everywhere to find a decent spot for her, to running out on the rent as all the money went to care for her ever-growing needs. We are bankrupt, living with family, and are numb with exhaustion. I cannot work full time as her high school calls daily about whatever she has done lately that they will not handle. There was also a grandmother in Sacramento who shot her adult granddaughter rather than watch her daughter go through moving the granddaughter to yet another school, another disaster. I nodded grimly at the news, knowing what drove the grandmother to that extreme. I wonder what will happen when I finally cannot take any more? -- Michelle Eventide As the proud parent of a wonderful 14-year-old young man who is severely autistic, I obviously strongly empathize with the author and his wife and daughter. Simply put, parenting a large, physically powerful and nonverbal young man such as my son is an incredibly challenging and stressful experience that could not be comprehended by anyone who had not been through the experience themselves. I myself have found my strength stretched to its absolute limit. That being said, at no point in the article did I detect any love for Sea's daughter or enjoyment of her company. Those are the two things that allow me to cope with my son and make him the best thing that has ever happened to me. -- Steven L. Fine As an older sibling of an autistic man, I take great offense to Scot Sea's article, "Planet Autism." Mr. Sea would like to categorize the autistic as either savants or savages. My brother, Jeffrey, was diagnosed in the early '70s. He went on to attend two of the best schools for special needs in New York State, Pre-Schooler's Workshop and Rosemary Kennedy School. Because of this strong educational background and loving family support, my brother has a job and an active social life. I don't "feel" for the man who killed his child and himself. Did he exhaust every opportunity for his child's development? Families with an autistic child are obligated to provide the best educational and social opportunities, just like any other family. But we just have to work a little harder so we can avoid resentment and tragedy. -- Karen Christina Jones Thank you, Scott Sea, for writing this article. It is the most truthful account I have ever read of what it is like to be the parent of a severely disabled child. My 23-year-old son has severe cerebral palsy, frequent seizures, and is mentally retarded. The issues are different than for your daughter. But the sense of living on another planet, surrounded by clueless neighbors and store clerks, enduring unimaginable inconvenience at home: All this I recognize. Thank you for speaking the truth. -- Jan Gallant I know that man (who killed his autistic child), and I know the author. I am living their lives. I love my son with all my heart, but when my husband and I are gone or when we become too ill to handle him, what will happen to my son? I would not wish this on anyone. -- Suzanne Leonard As the mother of a 15-year-old child with tuberous sclerosis who has many autistic-type symptoms as a result, I could really relate to the chaos, embarrassment and frustration expressed. Especially when it comes to the clueless and stupid attitudes, comments and delusions comfortably nurtured by those who don't have to live through something like this. Burdens like these "blessings" are a nice place to visit, but nowhere anyone would want to live, and as character-building experiences they are highly overrated. More like character-deteriorating through the continual stress. It never stops. It never changes. It never goes away or gets better. Or worse, it seems to for a time and then returns with a vengeance. I wish the world could really see what it's like through the eyes of this article but unfortunately, I don't have the faith in human nature required to believe it will really happen. -- Name Withheld Scot Sea's piece on autism is, without a doubt, one of the most courageously written articles I've ever read. Courage is not often associated with writing anymore, but to make people try to see or feel the reality of an (un)certain situation is admirable. The phrase "She is atomic" is a masterstroke. I don't know when, or if, that quote will ever leave my head. -- Michael Deme Please convey my gratitude to Scot Sea for vividly telling the truth about life with an autistic child. While I am only an occasional visitor to their planet, I've had a glimpse of what life is like there for my sisters and their families (one has two autistic daughters, and one has a son with Asperger's syndrome). On behalf of them, I'd like to thank Mr. Sea for sharing what daily life is really like for the parents of "special needs" children, and for including the full range of emotions that the necessary yet relentless, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second, monitoring of these children can elicit. -- Cynthia Winters Many thanks to Scot Sea for writing that excellent slice-of-autistic-life piece, and to Salon for publishing it. For me it couldn't have been more perfectly timed as I dragged myself into work after getting up at 4 a.m. to tend to my 11-year-old daughter giggling and running naked around our backyard. Since we learned of our daughter's condition, my wife has been a stay-at-home mom. She slid reluctantly into the role of advocate, therapist and caretaker and gave up her career as a software developer. Sometimes it's hard to decide if you should try and lead a normal life or not. Is it bad to pretend that everything's fine? "Let's go the mall!" you say on a fine fall morning. Two hours later you leave the store with your child screaming, with everyone looking at you like you're an abusive parent. But sometimes it works. Sometimes no one knows but you that it could all fall apart in a few seconds. And sometimes she laughs at her private joke, and her face shines as she sings her current favorite song, and you hug her and kiss her beautiful face and you find you can get through another day. -- Charlie Evett Thursday, October 02, 2003The Outing of a CIA Employee Is a Predictable Move in the Bush Government's Attack on Constitutional Rights
The Village Voice: Nation: Mondo Washington: Spy Scam by James Ridgeway: "WASHINGTON, D.C.—Outing Ambassador Wilson's wife as a covered CIA employee is another predictable step in the Bush government crude witch hunt politics.
Washington is crawling with covered and uncovered CIA employees as well as spooks from other agencies, such as the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. Many people cooperate with and/or are employed by the spy agencies. In the past they have included prestigious university professors along with any number of journalists. Ramparts Magazine rose to fame in the 1960s with its revelation of various student organizations used as CIA fronts. Ivy League universities recruited spies. Publishing companies have been financed and directed by the intelligence services. So, it is inconceivable that Ambassador Wilson's wife was identified without everyone involved—from reporters to editors to lawyers to newspaper owners—knowing perfectly well that placing her name amid such an incendiary case in a major newspaper would lead to her ruin. And as a warning to everyone else in or around the spook community to shut up on the Iraq war or stand ready to be taken down. As Wilson told Reuters back in August: 'The reason for it was not to smear me or to even smear my wife,' Wilson said. 'The reason was to intimidate others from coming forward.' Wilson himself is a whistleblower. And the Bush administration, with cooperation of the Congress, has successfully sought to curb what modest laws exist to protect whistleblowers. No one within the government—Democrat or Republican—has ever seriously tried to promote whistleblowing. This government, perhaps more so than the others, thrives on secrecy. " As I Mature
I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope they panic and give in.
I've learned that no matter how much I care, some people are just assholes. I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and it only takes suspicion, not proof, to destroy it. I've learned that you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes. After that, you'd better have a big willy or huge boobs. I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself to others - they are more screwed up than you think. I've learned that you can keep vomiting long after you think you're finished. I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, unless we are celebrities. I've learned that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades, and there had better be a lot of money to take its place! I've learned that 99% of the time when something isn't working in your house, one of your kids did it I've learned that the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon and all the less important ones just never go away. Repulican Family Values?
Women say Arnold groped, humiliated them: "One woman who says she was deeply offended by Schwarzenegger's words was a waitress at the Bicycle Shop cafe on Wilshire Boulevard in West Los Angeles, where the actor used to hang out with about half a dozen pals on Sunday mornings in the late 1980s.
'They always sat in my section,' she said. The group was friendly and chatty with her, and always took their lead from Schwarzenegger. They tipped well, too. 'There was definitely harmless flirtation with all of them,' said the woman, who also worked sporadically as a TV actress. One Sunday, she said, she was pouring coffee at the table when Schwarzenegger beckoned her. 'I bent down to listen to him,' she recalled. 'He said, a little louder than a whisper, 'I want you to do a favor for me.' I thought, OK, maybe he wanted more bread. And he said, 'I want you to go in the bathroom, stick your finger in your (vagina), and bring it out to me.' ' She stood upright. 'I was thoroughly disgusted' but said nothing to Schwarzenegger, she recalled. 'There was drama in the silence of it,' she said. 'He looked up, and it looked like I was threatening (him) with the coffee pot.' Everyone at the table then glanced over at the restaurant owner, Andre Driollet. He wagged his finger at the waitress, she said, apparently fearful that she was going to dump the coffee on Schwarzenegger. 'I was so appalled, and when Andre looked at me (as if) to say you better not, I immediately went to him to tell him what happened,' she recounted. What Schwarzenegger had said 'was above and beyond what was acceptable. I think he should have had hot coffee poured in his lap.' Driollet, who according to a relative is living on a boat in the Caribbean, could " Wednesday, October 01, 2003
Salon.com | Matt Drudge, GOP scourge?: "Liberals, Bush-haters, disillusioned right wingers: Meet your new journalistic hero, your muckraking defender of the everyman, your razor-sharp slasher of the Bush White House and Arnold Schwarzenegger's drive to take over California for the GOP.
Meet Matt Drudge. OK, don't sign him up for a Salon Premium subscription just yet. But as unlikely as it seems, the online bottom feeder, who made his mark in the '90s spreading allegations that Bill Clinton got Oval Office nookie (true) and his aide Sidney Blumenthal beat his wife (false), is now going after the Bush White House with similar gusto. "
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The Good Samaritan
As a trucker stops for a red light, a blonde catches up. She jumps out of her car, runs up to his truck, and knocks on the door. The trucker lowers the window, and she says "Hi, my name is Heather and you are losing some of your load."
The trucker ignores her and proceeds down the street. When the truck stops for another red light, the girl catches up again. She jumps out of her car, runs up and knocks on the door. Again, the trucker lowers the window. As if they've never spoken, the blonde says brightly, "Hi my name is Heather, and you are losing some of your load!"
Shaking his head, the trucker ignores her again and continues down the street. At the third red light, the same thing happens again. All out of breath, the blonde gets out of her car, runs up, knocks on the truck door. The trucker lowers the window.
Again she says "Hi, my name is Heather, and you are losing some of your load!"
When the light turns green the trucker revs up and races to the next light. When he stops this time, he hurriedly gets out of the truck, and runs back to the blonde.
He knocks on her window, and as she lowers it, he says."Hi, my name is Kevin, it's winter in Wisconsin, and I'm driving the damn SALT TRUCK!