So I haven't written much about my fellow Buffalonian Carl Paladino and his ugly comments on sexual orientation, partly because I have to keep my blood pressure down. But his "apology" is just something I have to dismantle, because it just makes me roll my eyes at the same old story.
1 teaspoon each of the words “tragic” “appalling” and “heartbreaking”. Optional substitutions: “terrible” or “sad”. This will emphasize that you really do have a heart.
1/4 cup of compulsory “bullying is wrong”. Here’s [Chuck] Colson:
First, we must absolutely, positively condemn harassment and bullying in all of their ugly forms.
1/2 cup of trying to show that LGBT kids aren’t especially targeted.
Here’s Kathleen Parker:
Although Clementi was filmed with another man, one can imagine as easily a roommate spying on a heterosexual encounter.
Here’s Colson:
Cyber bullying is an equal-opportunity crime.
Here’s Maggie [Gallagher]:
…the cruelty of cyberbullying is causing teen suicides among those who are not gay, as well.
1 quart of “social media is really the problem, here- not homophobic kids or where they get their homophobia from.”
Here’s Parker (after discussing social media):
I don’t want to downplay the gay aspect of this travesty, but there isn’t space in a column to tackle everything.
Here’s Colson:
Teenagers have always intimidated and harassed other teenagers. And now with the advent of social media-Facebook, Myspace, Twitter-young people have a new way to abuse and torment each other. It's called cyber bullying.
You get the idea.
Along comes Paladino, who says some disgusting homophobic comments. And surprise, surprise, he follows the same, tired, scripted recipe for the kind of apology everyone makes when they offend the gays. And so we have a recipe for "How an anti-LGBT conservative can make a seemingly heartfelt apology for homophobic comments":
One tablespoon of blaming the media. Here's Paladino:
I did also say some things for which I should have chosen better words. I said other things that the press misinterpreted and misstated.
One cup of "I really do support homosexual, er, gay rights!"
I am 100% against discrimination of any group. I oppose discrimination of any kind in housing, credit, insurance benefits or visitation.
I am 100% against hate crimes in any form.
No word, of course, on whether he's reversed his opposition to actual laws banning discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation, or opposition to hate crimes legislation.
One teaspoon of denial (however incorrectly stated). Paladino on the ABC's "This Week":
I am not a homophobic.
One quart of comparing yourself to someone the larger public thinks is "gay-friendly: (spelling aside)
My position on marriage is based on my personal views. I have the same position on this issue as President Barrack (sic) Obama.
One pint of naming lots of types of people to show you like everyone.
I am concerned with the future for all our citizens, gay, straight, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim and Agnostic.
Mix well, and voilà! You have a boilerplate written apology, radio interview, or TV appearance to show you're not a raving homophobe.
It is no secret that in this current environment with so many workers unemployed, underemployed and making less money that anger is rampant among American workers. It is understandable as working America watches the bankers who crashed our economy costing them millions of jobs get bailed out while in every town in America they are still hurting. This on top of the fact that Corporate America has stagnated wages on jobs they have not shipped overseas to virtual slave markets. Yes, anger is justified and rampant in many unemployment lines and workplaces. However, working America must be very careful of how to channel this understandable anger. You see, just like in past days forces of hatred are seeking to divide workers keeping them from forming a united front to really change this country and their own lots in life.
In 2004, the United Church of Christ produced a television commercial promoting its inclusive approach to organized faith. The ad showed two nightclub-style bouncers guarding the rope line of a church as they denied entry to a gay male couple, several people of color, and a man in a wheelchair. By contrast, a white family of four had no problems getting through.
"Jesus didn't turn people away" was the ad's tagline, but CBS did, turning down the commercial which was intended for broadcast during that year's Super Bowl. The 30-second spot apparently violated the network's policy of "prohibiting advocacy ads, even ones that carry an 'implicit' endorsement for a side in a public debate."
In 2004, the United Church of Christ produced a television commercial promoting its inclusive approach to organized faith. The ad showed two nightclub-style bouncers guarding the rope line of a church as they denied entry to a gay male couple, several people of color, and a man in a wheelchair. By contrast, a white family of four had no problems getting through.
"Jesus didn't turn people away" was the ad's tagline, but CBS did, turning down the commercial which was intended for broadcast during that year's Super Bowl. The 30-second spot apparently violated the network's policy of "prohibiting advocacy ads, even ones that carry an 'implicit' endorsement for a side in a public debate."
This week in a San Francisco Federal District Court, a legal odd couple will be on display. Attorney David Boies, who represented Al Gore before the U.S. Supreme Court in the infamous 2000 case ofBush v. Gore, and conservative attorney Ted Olson, who represented George W. Bush, are joining forces to overturn California's Proposition 8. It will be their contention that the initiative passed by voters in 2008 banning same-sex marriage in the Golden State violates the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the U.S. Constitution, singles out gays and lesbians for a disfavored legal status, and discriminates on the basis of gender and sexual orientation.
Regardless of which side prevails, experts agree the case is likely to be appealed all the way to the highest court in the land.
It's that time of year again. Some have vowed to hit the gym more often. Others are swearing off cigarettes. For some, coffee has been replaced with copious amounts of socialist green tea. Still others are signing up for community service projects to help improve the world around them.
Yes, many Americans have made their New Year's resolutions. Perhaps the conservative media establishment should do the same.
Raw Story has a pretty succinct take on the deteriorating state of Rick Warren's mental health:
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow believes that the uproar over Barack Obama's selection of Pastor Rick Warren to deliver his inaugural invocation might have been subsiding by now, except that Warren himself -- very much like Reverend Jeremiah Wright last spring -- has stirred things up again with a video address in which he accuses his critics of being "Christophobes."
"Not only it is getting worse," commented Maddow, "it's getting weirder."
In the 22 minute message to his congregation placed on his website last Sunday, Warren first denied ever "equating gay partnership with incest and pedophilia" -- which Maddow quickly disproved with a clip of him doing just that -- and then went on to attack his critics for their "false accusations, attacks, outright lies, and hateful slander, and really a lot of hate speech."
"It's what I would call 'Christophobia.'" Warren concluded. "People who are afraid of any Christian."
"Might those people possibly just be Pastor Rick-o-phobes?" Maddow asked.
But there's a deeper story than Rick's mental ticks.
You see, here's what Christ said about homosexuals:
That's right. Let me repeat that:
And that's just got to scare Pastor Rick, don'tcha think?
Last week Lou Dobbs told his viewers "I can't say 'I love you' to a fellow in San Francisco." Me think he doth protest too much. Who was he talking about anyway?
Dobbs "came out" about having "one of those days" when "some folks are kind of just on you." Specifically, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom "got on Lou" for hating on anyone who thinks that immigrants are human beings and not aliens. Menendez softened his criticism of Dobbs by saying "I love you, Lou" but a relentless Newsom spoke of "cable TV, where careers are literally being saved and salvaged, like Lou Dobbs."
Lovable Lou responded by saying "Senator Menendez said he loved me, and so I'm going to say I love you back. I can't say 'I love you' to a fellow in San Francisco I suppose." (Think Progress has the video.)
STATE BLOGS
