Meh

I suppose I should post something happy in honor of Thanksgiving, but whatever. This story is awful, which makes sense, because teenagers suck. Later today or tomorrow I’ll post some pictures that are so cute that you brain will explode.

At last, some good news

Okay, so the less said about the results of last night’s NJ gubernatorial (I do love that word, though) election, the better. But in a followup to something I mentioned last month, Keith Bardwell, that loser justice of the peace who refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple, has resigned his post. The couple that he refused to give the license to, Beth Humphrey and Terence McKay, are still going forward with a federal lawsuit that they brought against Bardwell.

Are you serious? You can’t be serious!

There once was an awful point in American history, when people who loved each other could be prevented from marrying one another because they were of different races. This went on until the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Loving v. Virginia that all race-based marriage laws were unconstitutional. But everything old is new again, right? We’ve got sports teams in throwback uniforms. Throwback sneakers. Pepsi Throwback. And now we’ve got throwback racist marriage policies.

I guess arguing over gay marriage got boring or something, so Tangipahoa Parish justice of the peace Keith Bardwell decided to do his part to prevent miscegenation by refusing to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple. I kind of feel like I know where old Keith falls on the gay marriage question, but is this just not a traditional enough kind of marriage for him? We’ve got one man and one woman. I thought that was the magic formula! I guess God just forgot to use the same crayons when he was coloring them in.

I find it interesting that Bardwell, who has held the elected position of Justice of the Peace since 1990, was a Democrat for his first three terms. Only in 2008 did he run as a Republican. Hmmm…what changed in 2008?

Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?

Remember Stephen Lewis, the Murfreesboro Free Press columnist who thought it would be hilarious to rewrite the theme song to The Jeffersons with the Obamas in mind? Well, as the person who commented on my post mentioned, in addition to reworking songs and ridiculing the accents of naturalized Americans in his free time, Mr. Lewis spends his days as a principal of an elementary school. Oh goody, because he is exactly who I want overseeing the next generation! (Overseeing! See what I did there?)

It seems that, in addition to the apology published by the editor of the Free Press, Mr. Lewis emailed his own tepid apology to the parents of those children who attend his school.

Although my hobby as a columnist is not connected directly to my position as principal I should have known better than to attempt to find humor in a subject so sensitive to so many. With all of that being said, I truly apologize to those of you who were offended by my comments.

What an apology, huh? I’m guessing that the school board or whoever actually hired him told him to write that. It certainly doesn’t sound heartfelt. To me, it sounds a lot like, “I’m sorry you overly sensitive whiners can’t take a joke.” I still really cannot believe that anybody would be dumb enough to write that column, but especially somebody who works with diverse populations every day and knows about the standards to which educators are held. How could this have seemed like a good idea? It would have been a terrible thing just to forward to a few friends, so how much more boneheaded was it to submit it for publication in a newspaper? You have to wonder about some people.

For those people who were directed to this post because of its title, George said that in an episode of Seinfeld, a show I generally don’t care about at all, but which I find selectively quotable.

Stupid Internet, ruining everything

Stephen Lewis, a humor columnist at the Murfreesboro Post of Tennessee, wrote an opinion column yesterday that included a song about the Obamas move to Washington. As you may have guessed by its inclusion in this post, this song was not in the best of taste. Mr. Lewis chose to set his “Ode to President Obama” to the tune of “Movin’ On Up,” the theme song to 1970’s-era television show, The Jefferson. Wow, Stephen. That’s Klassy!

Here’s the first verse:
“Well we’re movin’ on up,
To Washington, D.C.
To a deee-luxe pimp pad,
Painted whiiiite.
Yeah we’re movin’ on up,
To the White House.
I’ll be jetting with P. Diddy cross the sky.

Let’s examine the stereotypes found just in those lines (nevermind the rest of the song): We’ve got the missing “g” in “movin,'” because when you’re a black, Harvard-educated lawyer planning at least a 4 year squat in the White House, the last thing you’re thinking about is saying your words properly. Then we’ve got “pimp pad” (I’ll excuse “deee-luxe,” as it is in the original song). Because every black man aspires to being a peddler of women. And of course, what’s the point of being famous and black if you can’t hang out with P. Diddy? Nothing says you’ve reached the zenith of the American political establishment more than hanging out with Sean Combs.

Because newspaper articles on the Internet has the opportunity to reach readers around the world, Mr. Lewis’ stupidity did not stay limited to the Volunteer State. By Monday morning, this article, which initially appeared in the Sunday edition of the Post, was making the rounds on the Internet, offending latte-drinking, arugula-eating leftists and beer-swilling, gun-toting rightists alike. By Monday afternoon, the editor of the Murfeesboro Post, Michael L. Pirtle, had issued something resembling an apology. Here’s a link to Mr. Lewis’s column, with the editor’s note of the usual passive-aggressive sort apologizing “for any offense generated” by this column.

Time Capsule

This is what Richard Pryor thought a press conference with the first black US president would be like:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_cdbByTeNE]