I’m still bummed that the New York State Senate voted on Wednesday not to permit gay marriage in the state (although New York still recognizes as spouses gay couples who marry in one of the states where it is legal), but it’s still worth watching state senator Diane Savino’s floor speech. I really don’t understand how anybody could listen to that and still be against gay marriage.
It seems like so much of what I read in the news is negative or at least not terribly encouraging, so I really enjoyed reading this article on Michelle Bachelet, the president of Chile. I know almost nothing about Chile, but Bachelet’s approval rating is over 70%, up from a low of 35% in 2006. She saved money wisely and was able to not only shield her country during the economic downturn, but also to place Chile in a position where its sovereign funds gained money during the global crisis. She didn’t get the job by being the widow of a dead politician; moreover, she’s agnostic and a single mother in a heavily Catholic country. I love it when the underdog succeeds.
As a followup to my previous post about the possible closing of the Free Library of Philadelphia, I am pleased to pass along that the library will remain open! The Pennsylvania State Senate passed a bill that will allow the library to remain open, and keep 3,000 city employees from being laid off. I love it when people come together to do good like this!
This weekend, Serena Williams and Kanye West both had really public, ugly, meltdowns. They behaved horribly, which both of them later acknowledged. Whether their apologies (Williams; West’s initial apology, and what’s on his web site now) move anybody remains to be seen. With Serena Williams, she hurt herself far more than she did anybody else. Her tirade against the lineswoman cost her match point, a $10,000 fine from the USTA, and put Kim Clijsters in the finals (Clijsters won, which is all kinds of awesome).
One (black) woman who I follow on Twitter (she usually writes about tech stuff) posted several comments about how Kanye’s behavior would reflect poorly on black people. I didn’t agree with her assertion then, and I don’t now. When I heard about what he did, I wasn’t worried that we’d all be tarred with the same brush as West; I was just thinking, “Not this stupidity again.” I mean, seriously, how many times can one person wander across stage at an awards show before he determines that it isn’t a good idea?
BUT…Rep Joe Wilson also did the same thing. His was probably even worse though, because he heckled the freaking president. Ummm…not smart. And I haven’t heard anybody say that they feel all white people would do this, just because one white person did it. If there is an assumption that any person who is in some way other (which in this country usually means non-white and/or non-male) than the norm speaks for everybody in that same demographic, the smart thing to do isn’t to pander to it. That kind of thinking is central to stereotyping and racial profile, and people shouldn’t accept that kind of laziness. Is it naive of me to think that this kind of thinking isn’t common? Do people generally go around thinking “all black people are…?” I really hope not. I’m an individual, and anything I want to say, I can say for myself.
Kanye West does not speak for me.
Serena Williams does not speak for me.
I’m pretty sure that Joe Wilson would not speak to me, and he damn sure doesn’t speak for me.
Who knew that a back to school speech could cause such an uproar? I think it’s pretty sad that people are keeping their children home from school and that some school districts are requiring parents to opt their children in to hear a speech by the President of the United States. I know! The President. Not some random dude in an office or anything. I understand that using the phrases “socialist agenda” and “left-leaning” to critique the President is generally another way to say “I’m a raging idiot and/or racist asshole,” but I still find this pretty disappointing. The worst part is that the text of the speech is up on the White House’s web site, so there’s no reason to speculate as to its content.
This, from the CNN article that I linked to above, is one of the scariest things I’ve ever read, “”I believe this is the greatest country on Earth, and I try to teach that to my children. … I don’t want them hearing that there’s a fundamental flaw with the country and the kids need to go forward to fix it.” I feel so sorry for this man’s children.
It turns out that Moammar Khadafy (another new spelling!) will not be staying in New Jersey after all. He’ll be in New York City for the duration of his visit to address the United Nations. I’m sure that all of the outraged Englewood people who never mentioned their outrage to anybody not from the media are really happy with this development.
Yesterday a friend asked me what I thought of the Qaddafi situation. The town of Englewood, NJ is in an uproar (at least according to the media; I have not witnessed any uproaring myself) over the fact that the Libyan ruler (dictator?) may be staying here when he comes to New York to speak in front of the United Nations.
First, I am truly amazed at how many ways there are to spell Gadhafi’s name and still be considered correct. In honor of this fact, I will never spell his name the same way twice in a row (although I will leave newspaper spellings the way I found them). Second, I completely understand why people would be upset about him staying in Englewood, but I don’t understand how they can allow themselves to be quoted saying such hysterical things.
NIMBY #1: “Unless this man comes into the U.S. and starts paying his share to reside in this community, this mayor and this community will not be coming with honeycake and sugar,” Mayor Michael Wildes said. “This is going to be an even greater drain on an already overtaxed community.”
Translation, please??? What does this even mean? Why would this man be a drain on our community? Unless he suddenly cries poor and tries to collect welfare, how is he going to command any community funds? He travels with his own protection detail, so it’s unlikely that the city would have to oversee that. Also, now I can’t stop picturing Michael Wildes baking honeycakes.
NIMBY #2: City Council President Ken Rosenzweig said that if Gadhafi comes into the city, the council will do everything in its power to protect residents, especially immediate neighbors.
Again, I do not get this. Qadaffi is not going to impose sharia on his block and start stoning the neighbors, so I do not understand why people would feel physically unsafe due to his nearness. He sucks, but I’ve never before heard claims that he would personally injure people. People in the immediate vicinity of the property owned by the Libyan government who are worried about their safety need to get a clue and realize that they’re probably on the safest block in the US right now.
Also:
”Gadhafi is a dangerous dictator whose hands are covered with the blood of Americans and our allies,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman, whose district includes Englewood. He promised there would be ”hell to pay” if the U.S. State Department violates a long-standing deal barring the dictator from staying at the Libyan estate.
Lay off the Internet Tough Guy speech there, Rothman; I doubt you can back that up. What, exactly, is he going to do to the State Department if Qadaffi is allowed to stay at the estate? Oh, right. Nothing. He may get lucky, though, as he is now saying that the White House and the State Department are urging Gaddafi to stay in New York City.
And finally:
A lot of articles about Kaddafi mention tents, and at first I thought it was some sort of ignorance, with people assuming that the Northern African dude must live in a tent. But, behold: he actually does travel with a tent. And he may need it, now that the city of Englewood has revoked work permits for improvements being made to the house owned by the Libyan government.
My personal feelings:
Gadhafi is scum, and knowingly supports criminals. He is no friend of this country or our ideals, and I’m conflicted about the fact that you can’t arrest and imprison people for sucking, but then all the politicians would be incarcerated and there’d be nobody to ru[i]n things.
It’s been a while since I checked in with her, and I don’t do well with change, so it’s a relief to know that our friend Michele Bachmann is still as crazy as ever. This time, she temporarily blocked voting on the resolution that celebrated Hawai’i’s 50th year as a state, and, (oh!) also named it as the birthplace of our 44th president. Controversial stuff, there, right? Thankfully, her nuttiness didn’t impede the resolution from being passed 378 – 0 (not that it was unanimously approved; over 50 cowardly jackholes just abstained from the vote).
Of course, it would be remiss of me to rag on West Bend, Wisconsin and not even mention the big news in New Jersey today. A boatload of politicians and religious leaderswere arrested today on charges of corruption. One of those people is Hoboken’s mayor, Peter Cammarano. I’m not surprised that a mayor would get caught up in this; this is New Jersey, after all, and Secaucus mayor Dennis Elwell and Ridgefield mayor Anthony Suarez were also arrested (I linked to the Google caches, in case industrious city workers remember to yank these). No, what surprises me is that Cammarano has only been on the job since July 1. And he’s being accused of taking$25,000 in that time. So this man, if the charges are to be believed, has taken over $1,000 in bribes for every day that he’s been on the job. He should be happy the feds arrested him; how could he have possibly kept up that pace? Also, it might be good for him that this happened so quickly, before he could make more incredibly boneheaded statements. All in all, I’m pretty sure that this is not what Cammarano had in mind last night (his 32nd birthday!) as he poured beer for the opening night of Hoboken’s St. Ann’s festival.
I never tire of asking what is wrong with people, and as usual, the dawning of a new day just brings me new people to despise and pity. The culprits this time? Some stupid yahoos in West Bend, Wisconsin, who think that censorship, law suits, and book-burning (literally) are perfectly cromulent responses to books in the Young Adult section that they find inappropriate. No rational person is going to argue that every book in a library is appropriate for every person who who may walk into that library. And I’m all for parents having a say over what media their children consume (until those kids are over 18 or paying their own way in life). But instead of these people just telling their own children not to read certain books, which would be well within their rights as parents, they want to label and move books and prevent other people’s children from having access to them, too.
Instead of being ashamed of themselves for being so fearful and hiding their intolerance from the world, such people wear it proudly like a badge and want to get more people to join their crusade. Ginny Maziarka is one of the spokespeople for the efforts to censor the library’s materials and amend its policies for labeling young adult material. She seems to be the leader of those in West Bend who are trying to prevent other people’s children from reading things that their own parents may not find objectionable, and runs the West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries web site.
This is what I don’t get about so many issues that people object to; if you don’t like it, don’t do it/watch it/listen to it/eat it, etc. Why should I have to live according to what you believe? And who gets to say what is appropriate anyway? I mean, I find those Purity Ball things highly suspect, but I would never force grown men to stop encouraging their daughters to wear prom dresses, don pseudo-wedding bands, and pledge their virginity to their fathers. Because that’s not creepy at all.
Thankfully, Ms. Maziarka does not speak for the entire town, and there is a reasonable response to that site, in the form of Sleepless in West Bend. The library is for everybody (even weirdos)! There are a lot of things in the library that I kind of give people the side-eye for even wanting to look at, but that doesn’t lessen my support for those items to stay in the library. I’m not sure how I missed out on hearing about this sooner, since Gawker covered it over a month ago.
Awesome, Government/Law, Politics, Things I like | Nicole | 
December 5, 2009 2:19 am | 
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