BLOG-JAM

Recent Wisconsin Gazette Columns

2012-01-09T22:30:00.002-06:00

I write a biweekly column for the Wisconsin Gazette. Here are links to some recent ones:

Toasts and Roasts for 2011

Condolences Just Don't Cut It

'Occupy' Protests Need Focus

Murder, Man Crushes, Misogyny and More

2011-04-28T01:54:00.036-05:00

Here's what some of our great men of letters have been saying lately. Honest, it's verbatim.

Thom Geier, Entertainment Weekly, 4/22/11
At the end of a review of the Broadway play "War Horse," Geier wrote:

The evocative message of 'War Horse' lingers: Even as we seek to slaughter our foes with ever more ruthless efficiency, we need not lose our humanity.

Let's read that again:

...Even as we seek to slaughter our foes with ever more ruthless efficiency, we need not lose our humanity.

Well, that's reassuring.

Michael Kinsley, New York Times Book Review, 12/19/10
Under Sam Tanenhaus' editorial direction, the Book Review has become a haven for mindless man crushes and misogyny. In a review of "Decision Points" by George W. Bush, a good deal of which focuses on trumped-up wars and excuses for incompetent leadership, Kinsley noted Bush's "pugnacious determination" and opined:

It's poignant that even as a former two-term president, Bush should feel the need to strut the way he does.

Poignant?
Then, this obtuse crack (which is actually the last line in the review!):

Although Bush is admirable for stopping, he probably was more fun when he drank.

Terrence Rafferty, New York Times Book Review, 11/28/10
Rafferty reviewed Stephen King's "Full Dark, No Stars," a collection of four -- just four -- stories. After noting that "Serial rape and murder figure prominently in two of these stories; in another, a man kills his wife and forces his teenage son to help him..." Rafferty wrote that the "naked pleasure" of King's writing

makes his work -- good or bad -- weirdly irresistible, even addictive. And it disarms criticism, as boyish enthusiam often does.

Ah, boyish enthusiasm!

Jon Meacham, New York Times Book Review, 11/12/10
In his review of "Driven West: Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears to the Civil War," Meacham wrote:

As a child, I would feed ducks in a pond outside the house from which Chief John Ross was driven, and more than once I found Minie balls from the battle of Missionary Ridge in our yard.

Excuse me, did you find Minie balls two times, ten times, or a thousand times, Jon?

Jon Meacham was recently named Executive Editor at Random House.

Columns at Wisconsin Gazette

2011-03-01T04:02:00.004-06:00

I have been writing for this blog less often partly because I am publishing biweekly columns in the Wisconsin Gazette. Check out my latest column called "Which Side Are You On?" at this URL.

Clean Energy Indeed

2010-05-14T03:28:00.009-05:00

Just when you think it can't get worse -- unending, undeclared wars, anti-immigrant legislation, massive unemployment, a degrading cultural landscape, an intellectually aloof president (OK, he's not the worst, we could have a moron again) -- up from the ground comes a bubbling crude.

Oil, that is.

Black gold.

Gulf tea.

No one can stop the gusher. Everyone stands, helpless and appalled. Yet the inertia about renewable energy development continues, with one senator proudly -- proudly! -- declaring in the midst of this truly existential crisis that there will be no movement on an energy bill this year.

It's pretty general sentiment that this country is going to hell in a handbasket. More dangerous than all the individual problems is the deficit of leadership and the perception that none of our institutions have any credibility anymore, whether government, Wall Street, schools, media -- you name it.

Our environment is even more basic than any of those institutions. We have been putting it through the wringer for centuries now and ignoring all indications that we have to change our ways.

We observed the 40th anniversary of Earth Day last month with all sorts of celebrations and media splash. If there's one thing we Americans are really good at, it's show business. But it's increasingly clear that we haven't changed our ways at all. In my narrow little anecdotal way, I certainly don't see it.

I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Some national group just gave Milwaukee the dubious distinction of having the worst air quality in the US. Trust me, this city often stinks, badly. When I get off the crosstown bus to go to work on the south side, I sometimes actually hold my breath when departing the vehicle because the air is so nasty and distasteful. This is a city which has lost much of its manufacturing base over the last 40 years, the only upside of which, one would think, is a reduction in industrial pollution. But that's not the case. The utility giant WE Energies (Weenergies, to detractors) was just allowed to build a massive coal-fired plant along the southern lakeshore, and politicians of all stripes continually vote down alternative public transit systems and pour billions into widening highways. The internal combustion engine and single occupant vehicle are the waves of the future here in Wisconsin.

If the air in Milwaukee is bad, decades after the Clean Water Act, the water is even worse. The city is situated on Lake Michigan, one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world. The coastline (except for the coal and sewage treatment plants!) has miles of beautiful public parklands, a legacy of our far-sighted socialist forebears. But the beaches are often foul and closed to swimming. The level of contaminants is so high that you and your kids can get intestinal infections and even skin infections just from contact with the water.

I'm disgusted by the oil gusher in the Gulf but not surprised. It's the logical consequence of a dirty, greedy industry, collaborationist politicians, and an obtuse, gluttonous public which feigns reverence for the environment while doing little to demand real change.

Unless and until clean energy technology can be centralized, monopolized and squeezed for every dollar it can yield to capitalist profiteers, we will continue to stew in a sewer of our own making.

Shame on Obama

2009-08-21T06:35:00.010-05:00

Paul Krugman did an excellent column on President Obama’s failure to lead on health care in today’s New York Times, “Obama’s Trust Problem.” I can't be nearly that diplomatic or restrained. I am beyond disappointed with Obama, I’m ashamed of him.

We needed an FDR or an LBJ to lead and knock heads together and accomplish something; instead we got another Carter or Wilson – great intellectuals and humanitarians, but mediocre presidents.

Despite his campaign promises to reform health care and despite Democratic majorities in both houses, does Obama come out with a solid proposal? Does he set the terms of the debate and rally public support? Does he demand party discipline and line up the votes? Does he engage in bluff and threats and horse trading? No. He panders to the GOP. He sends mixed messages. He weaves and bobs and dithers, and pushes us further away from hope of any real health care reform for another generation.

What a way to waste a mandate! The highly organized and well-funded right smells weakness and, like all bullies, it will keep pounding and pounding and pounding. Liberal pundits are wrong to believe the debate is swinging back toward real reform. Although a reaction has indeed set in to the thuggish behavior of professional provocateurs and dupes at Congressional “listening” sessions, the resulting fatigue and alienation expressed by increasing numbers of Americans does not bode well. Doubt and division have been fueled with big lies and scare tactics, and neither the President nor the Democratic leadership has mounted any effective resistance.

Where is Obama’s heart? Does he feel passion for anything? Up to 50 million people without health insurance. Millions flooding overcrowded public health clinics. Thousands dying every year from undiagnosed and treatable illnesses. Frantic parents holding bake sales for their cancer-ridden kids. Untold personal tragedies. This is not a time for compromise. This is not a time for intellectual detachment. It is a time to humanize the issue and to mobilize a national campaign.

Throughout her presidential run last year, Hillary Clinton continually personalized the toll wrought by our cruel health care system. She told compelling stories. She spoke with passion about people around the country who were suffering financial ruin and emotional and physical collapse due to lack of health care. She spoke with the sense of moral outrage FDR invoked against the “malefactors of wealth” during the Great Depression. Obama is fond of quoting FDR, particularly FDR’s inaugural line: “This nation is calling for action, and action now.” But what has Obama done? On the stimulus bill, on rendition and detention without trial, on health care? He placates and panders.

He really hit bottom with his patronizing remarks to Organizing for America (his own campaign arm) in which he compared “health insurance reform” (not “health care reform”) to a belt, with suspenders being the public option that “can be” (not “will be”) the tool that supports insurance reform. His tone was that of talking down to some dimwitted old folks, teaching a lesson to Sasha and Malia when they were four years old or, better yet, raising his voice SO THE NICE DEAF PEOPLE CAN HEAR. You could see the boredom in his face, the sense that he was there because he had to mend fences with what the mainstream media ridiculously labeled “the left.” It was a disengaged, embarrassing performance, and did nothing to move the issue forward.

(It did result in a hilarious comment from Howard Fineman on MSNBC, who noted that with all the silly talk of pants and belts and suspenders, Obama should be careful not to be caught with his boxers exposed!)

The two most credible, consistent national leaders on health care reform in this country have been Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton. Kennedy is dying and Clinton is busy trying to quell international chaos (amid constant personal sniping by the media). But Teddy and Hillary are fighters, and I have more faith in them in their current debilitated and distracted states than in Obama. We’re rapidly approaching the time for a “Hail Mary” pass. I think Teddy should orchestrate a theatrical death bed appeal to Congress, and Hillary should slap Barak silly.

Passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Omnibus Health Care Reform Bill would be assured, President Obama would go down in history as a great reformer, and Hillary, of course, would be blamed for it all.

(Note: This blog was posted just days before Kennedy's death.)

Flu PANdemIC!

2009-05-02T04:57:00.003-05:00

The New York Times is reporting this morning that Mexican authorities say the number of individuals in that country who have actually been diagnosed with the H1N1 flu virus is substantially lower than first reported.

Of 908 suspected cases, less than 400 have been confirmed. Sixteen of those have died.

While scientists do the painstaking work necessary to better understand the virus, the media are whipping everyone into a frenzy. As of Friday, there were only 141 confirmed cases in the US, with one death. Yet around the country, schools and workplaces were closing and community events being cancelled. People were donning surgical masks for prevention. Hospital emergency rooms were being taxed by way too many folks coming in to report general flu symptoms. In its voracious need to fill the 24/7 news cycle and compete for viewers and ratings, the media have lost all perspective on this one.

It didn’t help that the World Health Organization, within only days of the virus being identified and before the numbers of confirmed cases were in from Mexico, ratcheted up its world pandemic warning. The media will certainly cite WHO’s scary pronouncements in its defense.

Meanwhile, Dr. Javier Torres, a leading infectious disease expert in Mexico, told the Times: “The number of those exposed and infected has gone up, and the number of fatal cases has gone down. We can be comfortable with those facts.”

And an official with the Centers for Disease Control in the US, referring to a historic epidemic that killed millions, said: “We do not see the markers for virulence that were seen in the 1918 virus.”

It might also help if someone clarified that thousands of people die every year in the US from common, identifiable flu viruses. This may not be comforting, but it’s a good reality check. We are all vulnerable all the time. Some of us will get sick; some of us will die. Common-sense prevention measures (which the media is purveying well) are always advisable.

The risk for the spread of new and deadly viruses is a real one. Our health authorities must be vigilant and our mass media accurate and sober sources of public information. The current flu hysteria does not give me much confidence that a real threat will be managed effectively. Added to that concern is the danger that false alarms will desensitize people and make them skeptical and lethargic when the real need for action does arise.

Susan Boyle Soars

2009-04-16T06:00:00.006-05:00

Have you seen the YouTube phenom Susan Boyle? If not, prepare to be amazed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Susan, a delightfully real, middle-aged, unemployed Scotswoman, shook the rafters, brought down the house (insert your own showbiz cliché here), and won three ecstatic “Yes” votes from the judges, including curmudgeonly Simon Cowell, on “Britain’s Got Talent.” Within days, Susan’s brilliant voice, previously available only in her church and (presumably) her bathroom shower, was spread internationally with a YouTube audience of more than 22 million.

Susan’s voice is absolutely stunning, but an additional factor at work was the judges’ and audience’s initial misperception of her based on her looks. Susan, with her bulges and bushy eyebrows, is decidedly not a cover girl. You could hear derision in the bumptious music playing behind the two-minute intro and you could see it on the faces of the judges and the audience as she ambled onstage. You could see it in the skeptical grimaces that greeted her stated desire to be like Elaine Paige (a British theatre and cabaret star).

And then they cued the tape. And Susan sang.

What a kick to literally see jaws drop before she finished eight notes of the song – only eight notes! – and to see people’s prejudices utterly dashed. OK, it was the typical teary power ballad that wins over audiences, in this case “I Dreamed a Dream” from “Les Miserables.” But it is a great song, and more significantly, this unknown, unassuming woman from Scotland just recorded what may be the definitive version of one of our modern standards.

“It was a complete privilege listening to that,” said judge Amanda Holden, who appeared emotionally jarred by the performance.

A privilege it was, and a welcome reminder, in our increasingly decadent culture, to value character and talent above appearance.

Try Things, Barack

2008-11-21T05:57:00.008-06:00

In the immortal words of Gerald Ford: “Our long national nightmare is over.”

Unfortunately, a new one is beginning.

What an ordeal. I should have been blogging about the election all year (actually for the past two years) like all the other pundits who have no lives and who think the world is hanging on their every observation. However, even with the addition of a thyroid medication to my daily regimen (“Speed!” a friend enthused approvingly) I could not muster the energy. The news cycles with their ups and downs, low blows and high drama were exhausting.

One of my greatest satisfactions was seeing Rudy Giuliani fizzle. Better yet was being able to vote for Hillary in the primary, knowing I could also vote for Barack in the general election. Hey, if I’m going to triangulate, it seems only appropriate to do so for a Clinton!

The highest satisfaction will come, of course, when the most incompetent and delusional president ever to mislead the country steps down in January.

Obama is inheriting a mess that is likely to be much worse by next year. I’m an unapologetic Franklin D. Roosevelt Democrat who hopes that Rahm Emanuel, presumably speaking on behalf of his boss, will follow through in the determination not to see a crisis like this pass without instituting far-reaching change. Everybody hates government until they need it, especially the rich, who milk it in good times and bad more than a billion “welfare mothers” ever could. Despite preliminary fear-mongering from the right, socialism will never come to this country. But given how selfish and reactionary we’ve become, the farther to the left they can move us is OK by me.

The economic collapse is an utterly predictable (and bipartisan) result of capitalism run amok, our policy of what Gore Vidal calls “Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace” an equally predictable result of imperialist overreach and blind jingoism. (“USA! USA!” the young, male GOP thugs roar. Yeah, right.) If Barbara Tuchman were alive, she’d have enough material for a second volume of “The March of Folly.”

FDR’s first inaugural speech in which he castigated the “unscrupulous money changers” and declared “This nation is asking for action, and action now” is as stirring and relevant now as it was in 1933. Obama certainly has the rhetorical chops and the historical understanding to emulate FDR. Time even put him on its cover in FDR’s jaunty pose.

Go for it, Barack. Like FDR, try things. If they don’t work, try other things. Put people to work. Invest heavily in education, infrastructure and the new green economy. Make health care a right, not a privilege. Exert some of that vaunted executive power for the public good instead of crony capitalism and warmongering. Congress, please friggin’ cooperate.

Defending the New Deal in 1936, FDR said: “Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.”

The New Deal was not an immediate panacea. It had fits and starts, flaws galore, and continually bucked up against constitutional restraints. But it’s looking pretty good to a lot of folks right now.

The Original Adams Family

2008-04-22T05:45:00.010-05:00

I became captivated by the story of John and Abigail Adams after reading Irving Stone's historical novel "Those Who Love" as a teenager in 1973. It's a compelling page-turner told largely through the point of view of the heroic Abigail Adams who, alongside her husband, participated in the momentous events of the American Revolution and the first decades of the U.S. Stone was a fabulous writer, best known for his novels about Michelangelo – “The Agony and the Ecstasy,” and Van Gogh – “Lust for Life.”

At about the same time, “1776” offered a glitzy take on the struggle for Independence, replete with show tunes and dance numbers. Some of the songs were goofy, some inspired, like the haunting soldier’s lament “Momma, Look Sharp” and the searing indictment of the slave trade, “Molasses to Rum to Slaves.” Today, the musical conventions seem dated but the scenes of debate and conflict within the Continental Congress are quite gripping. At the center of the action is the single-minded, volatile John Adams, the leading proponent of American independence, memorably portrayed by William Daniels.

In 1976, PBS presented an outstanding multi-part series called “The Adams Chronicles,” newly available on DVD. A bit stagey but well-written and acted, this series charted the stories of John and Abigail; their son John Quincy, who became a diplomat and the 6th President; their grandchild Charles Francis, a diplomat; and their great-grandchildren Henry, a historian, and Charles Francis II, an industrialist.

The new generation of feminists embraced Abigail Adams for her early promotion of women’s education and her famous admonition to John that he and his colleagues “Remember the Ladies” in the code of laws they were devising for the new nation. “Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands,” she wrote him. “Remember, all Men would be tyrants if they could.” As pro-woman and outspokenly anti-slavery as she was, Abigail might be somewhat aghast at the extent of women’s “liberation” today. She was, at heart, the daughter of a Puritan minister, and had a conservative moral code and a strong belief in the traditional family.

Last fall, I read a new collection of the letters of John and Abigail Adams called “My Dearest Friend,” which was their most common salutation to each other. They were frequently separated due to John’s political and diplomatic career, so their letters were a lifeline. John’s are rather formal and detached; he worried they could be intercepted and used by the British and, later, by his political rivals. Still, they are a remarkable documentation of the almost daily thinking and activities of one of the Founders. Abigail’s letters are lively, intellectually probing and intimate. Her descriptions of the siege of Boston and other historic events are vital eyewitness accounts. Her expressions of love could melt anyone’s heart.

Concerned that her private thoughts not become public knowledge and probably self-conscious about her uneven spelling and grammar, Abigail repeatedly asked John to burn her letters. John, a scholar who respected his wife enormously, recognized their value and saved them for posterity. You’ve got to love a guy who chose such a great partner and remained true to her for 54 years – it almost makes you forgive him for signing the Alien and Sedition Acts!

With this Adams-mania in my background, I had high hopes for HBO’s series “John Adams.” HBO usually produces high quality drama, but this one... Well, some of the acting was outstanding. Paul Giamatti’s performance as John has been panned but I thought he built the character well and was quite moving as old John Adams in the final episodes. Laura Linney as Abigail? Give her the Emmy now. Who needs dialogue? Linney could teach a master class through just looks and gestures.

The costumes were great, but I concur with many others about the weak writing, uneven pacing, jittery camerawork and leaden direction by Tom Hooper. Tobe Hooper (“Poltergeist”) could have done a better job. There would have been much more blood, but more guts and glory too!

The history and timeline were dicey. Of course, they couldn't include every detail of John’s long, active life, but that doesn't excuse inaccuracies like all eight of the British soldiers charged in the Boston "Massacre" being found not guilty. Hello?! Two were found guilty of manslaughter and branded, a horrific scene Irving Stone used to great effect in "Those Who Love." Like the lack of discussion of slavery at the Continental Congress (dismissed in only a brief aside in the Declaration committee). Like Abigail reading of the surrender of Cornwallis on a lovely spring-looking day in Braintree (he surrendered in the fall; she would have received word in late October). Or the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts (there were four in all), repeatedly called the Alien Act and the Sedition Act. Then there was the weird casting and continuity snafu that had the same child actors playing the Adams’ kids in 1775 and in 1781, none of them apparently having grown an inch.

And what about that family life? In the HBO script, John and Abigail bark one-word orders at their children unremittingly until the kids become hopelessly compliant or dysfunctional adults. Reality check: John and Abigail were New England Puritans with a strict moral code who demanded a lot of their children, their friends and their colleagues. But they were also revered among the same for their wisdom, humor and generosity. Abigail in particular was famous for her warmth and constant caregiving for others. They had a large and loving extended family of Adamses, Smiths, Quincys, Boylstons, Cranches and Shaws, all of whom, at various times, took in each others' kids, helped work each others’ farms, bailed each other out of debt, and held huge holiday and funeral gatherings. John was certainly politically isolated at times, but depicting John and Abigail as utterly isolated from any larger social network or community misses a big part of their identity.

I was not looking for an idealized portrait. Indeed, the HBO series made clear John’s vanity, temper and occasional political obtuseness. His renunciation of his son Charles and his inability to comfort Abigail when Charles dies was played out like the tragedy it was. The later episodes dealt forthrightly with the infirmities of old age, although they could have dispensed with the goopy make-up. Surely, pros like Giamatti and Linney could be trusted to act old.

The best scene had the old John Adams viewing Trumbull’s famous life-size portrait of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Adams clearly thinks it’s bad art and, worse, that it’s bad history. The summer of 1776 was chaotic, he says. In the midst of revolution and war, Congressional representatives streamed in and out of Philadelphia to sign the document at different times. They certainly never gathered all at once and posed for a formal portrait. John mourns that the true history of the Revolution is lost forever. The scene was a sly, perhaps defensive comment by the series' chief writer, Kirk Ellis, about the vagaries of historical re-enactment.

The old PBS series "The Adams Chronicles" is now available on DVD. I haven't seen it in 30 years, but remember it fondly. I also recommend PBS's American Experience episode "John & Abigail Adams," now on DVD. It contains great detail and insight and is only two hours long.

Another "Tragedy" and Cries of "Why?"

2007-10-09T22:54:00.000-05:00

America’s latest mass murder unfolded in tiny Crandon, Wisconsin this past weekend and everyone is again asking, “Why?”

See “A Tiny Town, Suddenly Smaller by Seven, Mourns and Wonders, Why?” in the New York Times, or “Crandon Asks ‘Why?’” in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Why? . . . Why?

Because another jealous and angry man, with no impulse control and easy access to high-powered weaponry, decided to slaughter six unarmed individuals, that's why.

A friend, who the murderer sought out after the killings, said that Tyler Peterson was "very sorry" for what he had done. The conscience-stricken assassin then took a nap in the back of his pickup truck.

Since Peterson apparently took his own life, the media have dubbed the incident, as they so often do, a "tragedy." Despite a popular culture saturated with violence, cruelty and gore, we still seem to be surprised when real-life splatter-fests occur in our small towns, our workplaces, our homes, even our churches. And we seem to be able to handle them better if they fit a familiar tragic narrative, with no one really at fault, always neatly tucked away with “closure” and “healing.” A colleague suggested that this is the way human beings are able to make unacceptable things more bearable. That's true. But could it also be making unacceptable things more acceptable?

I believe that emphasizing the tragedy of mass murder-suicides obscures the criminal aspect of the behavior and implies the murder victims’ complicity in the act. This is especially true in cases where men kill their intimate partners, then themselves. In 1986-87, there was a series of murder-suicides in the Milwaukee area in which men killed their female partners, then killed themselves. Some of the Milwaukee Journal headlines related to these brutal murders were "Relationship ends tragically" (8/2/87); "Another tragic end to a romance" (8/14/87); and, worse yet, "Death from love" (1/29/86).

In this case, the lives of the Crandon victims should not be obscured or minimized by a “tragedy” of someone else’s criminal design.

The Crandon massacre is similar to so many, many others, virtually all perpetrated by armed men reacting to some perceived slight.

Male violence is ubiquitous. It destroys families and terrorizes communities. It is destroying the world.

Easy access to weapons of all kinds facilitate this reign of terror.

Anyone who raises these simple, obvious, empirical facts is marginalized as a nut or a "man-hater."

But until community leaders recognize these elementary facts and start discussing what can be done to curb male violence and to reduce access to lethal weapons, we will continue to be assaulted. We will continue to express “shock.” And we will continue to dither and wonder, “Why?”

Sharing a Laugh, from Milwaukee to Mumbai

2007-09-29T00:27:00.000-05:00

I called EarthLink tech support late the other night and connected with "Sarah" from Mumbai or Hyderabad or wherever.

When I told her my name, she got kind of excited and said, with that wonderful Indian lilt in her voice: "Miss Jamakaya, do you know what your name means in my language?"

I sorta knew but, being polite, asked anyway, "What?"

"It is a type of fruit we eat here, a guava."

"Actually, I remember that," said I, "I looked it up on the Internet once and jamakaya is said to be the sweetest guava."

"Yes, it is my favorite fruit," she said, with absolute delight in her voice.

"It is a very beautiful name," she added.

I thanked her and told her its derivation and the fact that "jamakaya" and "kaya" or "kia" mean a variety of things in many different languages – luckily all good things – and she laughed.

I could hear others laughing as well so I got the impression I was on speakerphone. The conversation was probably being monitored as they often warn you in advance when calling customer service numbers.

“Sarah” was very smart and effective in helping to correct the glitch I was having with my internet connection and email and then waited patiently while I reopened all the programs to make sure they were working properly.

When my email program opened I immediately received a spam letter, so I said to "Sarah": "Well, now I know my email's working for sure because I just got spammed."

I then heard a chorus of Indians laughing uproariously on the other side of the world!

What a fun interaction!

Then we said a pleasant goodbye.

Wish I'd gotten her name tho, because I'm betting it wasn't Sarah . . .

Fries with Your Falafel?

2007-08-24T23:44:00.000-05:00

A few days back, while waiting for a bus on the corner of Oakland and Locust here in Milwaukee, I ran into a young woman handing out promotional flyers for Shiraz, a nearby Middle Eastern restaurant. I took one of the flyers and had a good laugh because it promised to the bearer - I swear - a free order of French fries with their lunch or dinner! Two older men who received a flyer and walked past me were audibly puzzling over the offer. In a thick Russian accent, one asked the other, "Why is Shiraz giving away French fries?"

That same day when I got home, there were some bright pink flyers in the mail bin at my apartment complex. I grabbed one and took it upstairs. It was a promotional menu for William Ho's, a longtime Chinese eatery in suburban Shorewood. Emblazoned on the front page was the offer of free buffalo wings - yes, buffalo wings - to those who purchased two dinners (or something to that effect).

"Assimilation has its limits, dammit!" cracked a friend, who is a fellow lover of non-American foods.

I wanted to end this blog with some witty comment like, "What's next, a burger with your Pad Thai?" But the reality is already too funny.

"Some fries with your falafel?"

"Some buffalo wings with your won ton?"

Whatever gets 'em through the door, I guess . . .

W: A Poem

2007-08-03T03:51:00.000-05:00

In anticipation of President Bush's promised VETO of the Congressional measure expanding health care coverage for America's poorest kids, and in exercise of my First Amendment right to criticize the most despicable individual ever to hold the office of President, I offer this heartfelt poem.

Woefully unprepared.

Willfully blind.

Wickedly deceitful.

Wildly delusional.

Witless.

Worthless.

Wanting.

Weenie.

Weasel.

Whiner.

Wastrel.

Warped.

War criminal.

Worst president ever.

My Bernie Mac Moment

2007-05-19T10:47:00.000-05:00

I sat before the TV Wednesday evening, stunned.

“America, it just can’t be.”

I swore I wouldn’t get hooked in but there I was.

“America, what were you thinkin’?”

Just in time to see Melinda Doolittle get booted off American Idol.

“America, you blew it.”

Best singer this year.

“Ooo-ooh, baby girl!”

Defeated, she thinks, by her age – 29!

“Whassup wi’ dat?”

– and the age of her supporters, apparently making them too decrepit to dial fast enough!

“I’m hurtin’, I’m hurtin’.”

Forget Simon’s shock.

“America, this cain’t be.”

I turned off the TV –

“America, whatchu thinkin’?”

– stared at my reflection on the dark screen,

“America – for shame.”

and couldn’t stop channeling Bernie Mac.

“America – you wrong.”

GOP Contenders: Lowering the Bar

2007-05-04T14:53:00.000-05:00

Well, the many old, white, male GOP candidates for President had their first debate last night. Each seemed to outdo the other to prove his conservative credentials, especially on the "family values" front.

Giuliani, the former pro-gay, pro-abortion social liberal, continued contorting himself into the type of reactionary any evangelical would be proud to vote for. On this night, Rudy said it would be fine if the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade. Dems ought to call out their own "Flip-Flop" brigades to hound him around the country. Even more incredible was the response to whether the candidates believe in evolution. In a frightening harbinger for the future of science in America, only McCain said yes, then backtracked to cover his butt by saying that when one sees the Grand Canyon, one can't help believing it has been touched by the hand of God. Cue the harps.

But the most despicable comment and backtracking came from Wisconsin's own former bumbler, er, I mean, governor, Tommy Thompson. You know, the one who recently told an audience of Jewish leaders that he was making good money now that he was out of politics and he knew his audience could really appreciate that. The following exchange took place last night:

MODERATOR: Governor Thompson, If a private employer finds homosexuality immoral, should he be allowed to fire a gay worker?

THOMPSON: I think that is left up to the individual business. I really sincerely believe that that is an issue that business people have got to make their own determination as to whether or not they should be.

MODERATOR: OK. So the answer's yes.

THOMPSON: Yes.

Thompson, who is reportedly hearing impaired, says today that he did not hear the full question and answered incorrectly. Maybe. But given his characteristically inarticulate reply, who knows what this bozo will say (or do) about anything?

How do such middling piss ants become candidates for president?

Oh, that's right. The current occupant lowered the bar.

Exit Doors Await More "Heckuva Job" Guys

2007-04-20T04:29:00.000-05:00

In a blistering editorial, the New York Times today called Attorney General Alberto Gonzales "a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch."

This came a day after his latest lackluster, deer-in-the-headlights testimony before a Congressional Committee investigating the firing of eight federal attorneys. Gonzales's shifting explanations, selective memory, and claims of non-involvement (contradicted by others' sworn testimony) even infuriated some Republican members of the committee, who joined the chorus of voices calling for his resignation.

Given that his boss, President Bush, continues to express support for his ol' Texas buddy (one can see why these two vacuous men became friends), Gonzales really doesn't seem to get that he's finished. Kaput. Hasta la vista, baby! Maybe even as early as today. He's like "Brownie," who professed to be clueless about folks suffering in the New Orleans Super Dome. His boss thought he, too, was doing a heckuva job, but within a week or two "Brownie" was history.

It took a heckuva, er, excuse me, helluva lot longer for the incompetent Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign - six years! And the havoc he wreaked and the lives he destroyed across the globe are of truly historic war-crimes-trial proportions. But our Commander-in-Chief, (the fabled "Decider," who is now looking for a "Czar" to oversee the war he started and cannot stop), gave Rummy a lavish, ceremonial goodbye tribute, with jet fighters flying overhead, an army band blaring martial music, and gun salutes. Farewell to the Mighty Rumsfeld!

The exit door is also open wide and awaiting another worthy Bush player, Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfie, as his detractors call him, was a major architect of the Iraq invasion and - what do you know? - just when things started going terribly awry, he was rewarded for his "heckuva job" by being appointed to the Presidency of the World Bank. Wolfie's pushy neo-con pieties haven't been received well in this den of international financiers, and his emphasis on standards and ethics among World Bank staff has rung particularly hollow since the press exposed the sweetheart deals he arranged for, well, his sweetheart, who worked until recently at the bank. The World Bank's staff association has called for Wolfie's ouster and individual board members have also said it's time for him to go, to restore, in one finance minister's insistent phrase, the bank's "credibility, credibility, credibility."

Meanwhile, our befuddled Commander-in-Chief-in-search-of-a-Czar is expressing his full confidence in Wolfowitz, a sure sign the Wolfman will soon be on his way.

Man, it's getting crowded at those exit doors!
____________________________________

UPDATE, Friday evening:
True to form, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino today expressed President Bush's complete faith in Gonzales, declaring of the beleaguered AG: "He has done a fantastic job in the Department of Justice."

On Pimps and Plug-Uglies

2007-04-12T19:17:00.000-05:00

So CBS finally decided to fire Don Imus. It's about time.

Hopefully, all the recent talk about "ho's" will fuel a larger and necessary discussion about the pimps -- yes, pimps -- who enrich themselves by sponsoring and participating in the racist, misogynist, immigrant-bashing rant-fests that dominate the AM dial nationwide. This includes networks, advertisers, shock jocks and their PR flacks, and the all-too-eager 'celebrity' guests who enable the defamers in order to puff their own egos or to sell their books, policies, or whatever to listeners. Here's a prime example. On the morning Coach Stringer and her Rutgers team members made their dignified, moving remarks about how they had been maligned, a spokesman for "Talkers" magazine, quoted on CBS radio news (11 a.m. CST), had the audacity to complain that 'Now everybody is getting into the act. Everybody wants their 15 minutes of fame.' He said this about the Rutgers team, the offended party! What an appalling example of greed and twisted values! The man's paycheck (and that of many, many others) depends on promoting these hateful bullies.

The mean-spirited pronouncements of these supposedly "entertaining" shock jocks degrade the culture and divide us as a people. To conservatives and libertarians who were so happy to see the Fairness Doctrine abolished in the 1980s, claiming it would free the market and usher in broader content on the airwaves: I hope you can swim in the sewer you've created.

Since I don't feel bound by the dignified restraint of the Rutgers women, let me ask (and answer) an Imus-like question that's been on the minds of women this past week: Why are all these shock jocks so physically repulsive? (I warned you it was Imus-like!) If Don Imus, Howard Stern, Michael Savage and Milwaukee's own Mark Belling were women (scary thought), there's NO WAY they'd ever have gotten onto radio or TV! They're like The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde's classic, in which the protagonist's portrait deteriorates and grows more grotesque as he casts aside moral qualms and sinks into depravity. I think Imus and his ilk wear their inner corruption like the picture of Dorian Gray. Given their casual cruelty and the damage they've inflicted on so many, they are likely to end up just as miserable.

Note:
Definition of "pimp" - procurer; panderer; one who exploits the weaknesses of others; one who profits by exploiting others, especially sexually
Definition of "plug-ugly" - thug; tough; one hired to intimidate others; someone who bullies weaker people
__________________________________

On the “Confession” of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed

2007-03-30T02:01:00.000-05:00

JUSTICE

So the guy named Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,
spilled the beans in Guantanamo Bay.
Confessed to his 9/11 planning
and more terrorist plots gone astray.

The tribunal excluded his witnesses
and attorneys to help plead his case.
The indictment was thoroughly censored
and all traces of torture erased.

The media hyped his “bravado,”
aping the government’s line.
While the absence of any due process
seemed to strike everyone as just fine.

Yes, after years in secret detention
the “mastermind” ‘fessed to his sins.
But with all these contortions of justice,
can we really be sure of who wins?
__________________________________

November 7th Referenda Challenge Wisconsin's Progressive Tradition

2006-11-01T05:36:00.000-06:00

On November 7, Wisconsinites will vote on a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and restricting the rights of unmarried partners along with an advisory referendum on reinstating the death penalty. The passage of either measure will be a rebuke to Wisconsin’s long progressive tradition and set our state firmly in a course back to the 19th century, if not further.

For those who study the right wing – its history, leaders, goals and tactics – these proposals are emblematic of a movement that has consistently used fear and scapegoating to divide us and misdirection to divert us from the true course of justice.

On a more basic and immediate level, civil rights for lesbians and gays and the death penalty are classic wedge issues, used by right-wing politicians to stir the emotions and to ensure heavy turn-out of their constituencies at the polls.

The Republican majority in the Wisconsin legislature used its clout to intentionally delay approval of the marriage amendment until it would coincide with the 2006 gubernatorial race. In a more cynical ploy, they rammed through the death penalty question this Spring so it would also be on the ballot this Fall at the same time that accused murderer Steven Avery was set to go on trial for the gruesome and widely publicized murder of Teresa Halbach. This is hardly an example of responsible public policy-making. (Avery's trial has since been re-scheduled.)

Regarding capital punishment: a public execution in Kenosha in 1851 drew thousands and was described by one observer as resembling “circus day.” That spectacle and the passionate advocacy of Christopher Sholes moved the legislature to abolish the death penalty in 1853. They recognized it did not deter murder then, and there is no evidence that it does so today.

Capital punishment is costly litigation-wise and in practice, it is implemented unequally, and it is not fool-proof, even with DNA evidence. It’s a reactionary policy motivated by fear and vengeance. Instead of doing the hard work of designing policies to address the underlying issues that promote crime – joblessness, poverty, untreated illness, lack of education and role models – and devising more effective policing, we are racing to build more prisons and to re-institute the death penalty. It reminds me of Emma Goldman's bitter quip that every society gets the criminals it deserves.

Meanwhile, the proposed marriage amendment goes way beyond banning gay marriage. It threatens virtually any legal protections for unmarried couples in Wisconsin – gay or straight. For the first time in our history, it would single out a group of citizens to deny them and their families any legal identity or protections for the foreseeable future.

Colorado once adopted an amendment that repealed all civil rights protections relating to sexual orientation and forbade local governments from adopting any such laws in the future. When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that measure in 1993, Justice Anthony Kennedy declared:

“Amendment 2 classifies homosexuals not to further a proper legislative end but to make them unequal to everyone else. …This Colorado cannot do. A State cannot so deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws."

From the racism of segregationists to the fear-mongering of nativists (having a big comeback lately with the anti-immigrant movement), from the Jew-baiting of old-line right-wingers and the witch-hunting days of the Red Scare, we have now arrived at the demonizing of homosexuals and the threat they allegedly pose to the “traditional” family. Knowing all that we know about past injustices, how can we possibly make this mistake again?

Right-wing fear-mongering divides communities and damages public discourse. It deflects attention from substantive issues that require intelligent discussion and problem-solving. It’s a given among those of us who study the Right that it aims to reverse the gains made by the labor, civil rights, women’s, environmental and consumer rights movements of the last century. But it goes much further than that, undermining the principles of human reason and pluralism that emerged from the Enlightenment and that once defined America.

This essay is slightly modified from the one that first appeared in the Fall Newsletter of the Wisconsin Center for Pluralism.

Champion Vacillator Won’t Run for Prez

2006-10-13T08:46:00.000-05:00

Mark Warner, the former Democratic governor of Virginia, announced Oct. 12 that he would not seek the presidency in 2008. I know, you’ve probably never heard of the guy, but here’s why that little item is good news.

Warner was promoted by some Democratic leaders and big money men as the "anti-Hillary," a centrist whose past electability in Virginia could help Dems finally crack the South in a national race. In fact, Warner was a mealy-mouthed moron who seemed to prevaricate on virtually any issue he was asked about. Sound harsh? Well, don’t trust me. Read an article the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran about him in April. In contrasting Warner to Wisconsin's own Sen. Russ Feingold, Warner comes off as particularly craven and inarticulate.

In the story, both Warner and the Journal Sentinel repeatedly refer to his centrism ("the sensible center is wide open" said Warner), his being a "moderate," and the belief of many party leaders that he is "a more viable candidate than Feingold." Warner declared: "I think there is a whole new (political) center... If you want somebody who’s going to check every box on Democratic orthodoxy, I’m not going to be the guy."

The Dems need to move beyond criticizing Bush to articulate their own agenda, Warner said. But other than touting "gun rights" (undefined any further than that), there is nowhere – nowhere – in the article any indication, let alone clarity, about what Warner thinks that agenda should be. In that broad, bold "center" that Joe Lieberman keeps praising, Warner has had plenty of room to prevaricate about everything. Although the war is not going well, he doesn't think we should set a deadline for pulling our troops out. He supports Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law but not its implementation.

And Warner gave this incredible response to a question about whether expanded government wiretapping is illegal. This is verbatim:

"Yes. I went to law school. I never practiced, so I’m not going to – I just came back. I was up at Harvard and got a couple of, spoke, there was kind of a fellow up there, had tried to bring in some of the law professor types. And, boy, you know, after two or three hours of going around and around – net, probably yes. But there are arguments both ways you know. And I hope one of thing things that absolutely – in my gut, it sure does seem wrong."

Well, that makes everything perfectly clear.

What a blessing this man is not running for president! If folks think Bill and Hillary’s triangulation is bad, seems like this guy would have been a purveyor of octangulation! His inarticulation seems to be the result of half of his brain feverishly working to determine how many votes he might be losing by taking one position or another.

Let’s hope Mr. Warner has a happy retirement, or, that if he must come back in 2012, he’s developed a backbone.

Cannon Fodder

2006-09-22T01:33:00.000-05:00

I was heartstruck this past month at the news of the three latest Wisconsin casualties in the Bush wars.

Two were 21-year-olds – Shaun Novak of Two Rivers and Kenneth Cross of Superior – whose sweet baby faces stared out at me from the newspaper. They looked more like they ought to be playing in their Little League or swiping chocolate bars from the Seven Eleven than toting ammo and dodging snipers in godforsaken Iraq.

Like all loved ones needing to understand and rationalize their “sacrifice,” family members said the young men were proud of their service, were motivated by patriotism and understood the dangers. I don’t wish to show disrespect to Shaun or Kenneth or their families, but I can’t help being a little skeptical. War has always been a game in which old men exploit the idealism and vulnerabilities of the young to pursue mad dreams of empire or oil or “honor” or “peace.”

Then came news that 52-year-old Merideth Howard, an Army Reservist from Waukesha, was killed by a suicide attacker in Afghanistan. Merideth had made the innocent decision to join the Reserves back in 1988, no doubt never dreaming she would be deployed to an all-out theatre of war overseas – especially in her 50’s.

As a mature woman who’d seen a little of life, Merideth dropped the macho “Hoo-hah!” facade and honestly confessed to friends that she was “very worried” about being sent to Afghanistan. She admitted that she was poorly trained and unprepared. Lorraine Stevenson, a cousin, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she was given a gun that she did not know how to use: “She was not adequately trained. She was just sent over there.”

This testimony reinforces the concerns of Stephen L. Castner of Cedarburg, whose 27-year-old son was killed in Iraq in July. Castner believes that his son’s National Guard unit received inadequate training before being shipped out and got poor equipment once in Iraq. He is demanding an investigation.

What a shameful government we currently have – saber-rattling, declaring pre-emptive wars and destabilizing whole regions of the world – and then betraying those pushed into the front lines. Sending untrained, ill-equipped and (aggravatingly) loyal citizens into a poorly planned and miserably executed series of wars that are achieving nothing, only exacerbating hatred and violence.

The disrespect shown to surviving families by military officials who have delayed providing accounts or who have lied outright about the circumstances of soldiers’ deaths – the case of Pat Tillman being the most prominent example – is contemptible. The growing skepticism at home is matched by doubts at the front where soldiers, facing hostile populations and impossible odds, are openly telling reporters that they have no idea what they’re fighting for or achieving. Their only goal, most say, is to make it through their tour with their buddies alive.

Well, I’m for sending Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Perle and all the sycophantic brass and cheerleading neo-cons (like the evil Charles Krauthammer who is now promoting war with Iran) for a long tour of Iraq’s Anbar province, or Kandahar in Afghanistan. Maybe it would knock some sense into them. Maybe, their own Humvees would have a personal encounter with an IED and someone, somewhere would get a clue.

Right now, our soldiers aren’t even engaging any “enemies.” Woefully unprepared and ill-equipped, they are being picked off one-by-one and two-by-two by roadside bombs – cannon fodder for the 21st century.

Don't Mess with His Blue Suede Shoes

2006-07-08T04:24:00.000-05:00

Pyongyang - Sources close to a senior advisor of North Korean President Kim Jong Il have revealed exclusively to Blog-Jam the true motive for the multiple missile launchings of the past week. The provocative missile firings have been condemned by most world leaders and have led to a flurry of diplomatic head scratching.

What was the Dear Leader thinking?

Trying to intimidate neighbors? Trying to placate his own military-industrial complex? Trying to gain leverage for direct talks with the U.S.?

None of the above.

Blog-Jam has learned that the Dear Leader ordered the missiles fired in a fit of pique over President Bush's and Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi's recent visit to Graceland in Nashville.

Sources close to President Kim say he is a devoted Elvis fan, and often wears glittering costumes and bejeweled necklaces under his drab jump suit. His hair, they say, should be a dead give-away. Three stylists work on it every morning to give it that rock star quality. They are then taken out and shot so as not to reveal Mr. Kim's secret. One source also indicated that the Dear Leader watches Elvis videos every weekend. He particularly enjoys the films The King made with Ann-Margret, and even tries to emulate Elvis's dance steps in his own pair of blue suede shoes.

The senior advisor revealed to Blog-Jam that he saw President Kim repeatedly watching U.S. news footage of Bush and Koizumi's visit to Graceland, becoming more agitated with each viewing. Only hours later he gave the order to send the missiles flying toward Japan and the U.S.

Our source indicated that an invitation to Graceland by President Bush might be all it would take to calm the Dear Leader and get him to stand down North Korea's missiles. It would help, he added, if Priscilla, Lisa Marie and Ann-Margret joined in the tour.

Our Puny President

2006-02-01T04:08:00.000-06:00

I know that President Bush delivered his State of the Union message last night, but the real state of our union was made rather clear to me in the first weeks of January.

That’s when Bush, back from another lengthy vacation and eager to show his engagement with the Big Issues, made several major speeches regarding the US economy, Iraq and the so-called war on terror. Within days of his cocky and upbeat assessments, the stock market plunged, rumors circulated about both Ford and General Motors going bankrupt this year, and new bombings by those “dead-ender” insurgents in Iraq claimed many, many more lives.

I expect that any boost in approval ratings for Bush post-State of the Union will be only temporary given the teetering state of our economy and our disastrous military and foreign policy. What a mess this puny man and his evil cronies have gotten us into! I shiver thinking of the damage they can do with three more years in power. . .

On "Naked Boys," Civil Rights and Security

2005-08-20T18:37:00.000-05:00

The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) is once again under attack for its selective enforcement of laws against a gay enterprise.

On the evening of August 18, cops closed down a production of “Naked Boys Singing” on the grounds that the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center did not have a city permit to present live entertainment. When confronted with why the Vice Squad was sent out to enforce a licensing issue, MPD spokeswoman Annie Schwartz said they received a citizen complaint about the show and the Vice Squad was dispatched because it related to nude entertainment. The lieutenant who runs the squad responded defensively to criticism and fell back on the old stand-by that he was just following orders.

It should surprise few folks that the complaint came from a local anti-gay religious zealot, Drew G. Heiss, who has an extensive criminal record. It should surprise even fewer that the MPD, some of whose officers savagely beat unarmed black men and roust gay bar patrons while searching for “fruit flies,” would so assiduously follow such inane orders. That cops would waste critical manpower shutting down an art center as the murder rate skyrockets in the city is equally outrageous.

Over the years, I have probably written more stories about MPD abuses against the queer community than anyone else. Check out this 1991 report of MPD misconduct. The MPD’s reckless behavior and failures in leadership have been legion.

But, but, but . . .

Given this disgraceful history — not to mention Milwaukee’s dubious rep as the city that put comedian George Carlin in the pokey for using cuss words on stage and the vicious homophobia of Milwaukee’s right-wing talk jocks — why would the Gay Arts Center not have made sure that it was fully protected? Did they really not anticipate any problems at all? Was there no contingency plan for such a legal challenge or for a possible disruption of the show by fundamentalist zealots? No plan for public relations or damage control? HELLO?!

The Milwaukee Gay Arts Center was the vision of Paul Masterson who put his heart, soul and sweat into developing the Center earlier this year. It’s a beautiful facility that has hosted great art works and live shows for the past four months. It’s become a “must-see” destination on Milwaukee’s quarterly Gallery Nights. But it has become a magnet for anti-gay nuts, who have picketed, harassed patrons and tarnished the building with homophobic graffiti. When I first heard that “Naked Boys Singing” was coming, I assumed there would be more trouble.

We gays and lesbians are living in a very hostile climate, and I expect that hostility will only accelerate when the referendum campaign to ban civil unions and gay civil marriage in Wisconsin picks up next year. There is a well-funded movement to crush our hopes for legal equality and a more frightening movement among some religious zealots to see us exterminated altogether.

That last comment regarding “extermination” is not an exaggeration. Arson has destroyed several Metropolitan Community Churches around the country, terrorist Eric Rudolph planted one of his nail bombs at a gay bar in Atlanta, injuring 11 patrons, and the jerk who complained about “Naked Boys Singing” has a web site that links to a memorial to Paul Hill, the assassin who murdered a doctor who performs abortions.

We need to fully protect ourselves in the years ahead:

1) Leaders of the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center and the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center need to meet with Police Chief Nannette Hegerty about the closing of “Naked Boys.” They have a challenging mission. They need to express their displeasure with the Vice Squad’s intervention in this incident (backed by legal action against selective enforcement) while impressing on her the security needs of the LGBT community and the necessity for closer cooperation with the MPD in the months and years ahead.

2) All of our community agencies and institutions need to retain professional financial and legal counsel to ensure proper governance and operations. Our opponents will be looking for any opportunity to attack us, weaken us, divide us from one another, or sully our collective reputation in the larger community. We must fortify ourselves and be prepared.

3) Fortifications of another sort are also in order. LGBT organizations need to be thinking more seriously about security measures at the buildings in which our organizations are housed and at venues where LGBT events are held. Threats and harassment are increasing, and I’m concerned it’s only a matter of time before we have major injuries to both people and property. We must plan now and consult with security experts to prevent such things from happening. Jewish community leaders, who have faced threats themselves, have instituted various security systems and policies at their facilities. They may be a helpful resource in this regard.

* * * * *

There is another aspect of the “Naked Boys” bust that makes me squirm – that a gay civil rights complaint is emerging from a closed-down production featuring naked men. Call me a prude (many have), but I’m sure I’m not the only lesbian in Milwaukee who cringed at all the publicity.

At a time when we should be shining the light on LGBT families who are separated from one another or denied rights and benefits because they lack legal recognition, at a time when we should be showcasing the lives and good works of long-term gay and lesbian couples who contribute so much to our neighborhoods, churches and schools, we are instead demanding our right to nude entertainment!

I do understand the injustice and stupidity of the bust, but can you imagine how many negative stereotypes were reinforced in the minds of thousands of Milwaukeeans who saw the “Naked Boys” coverage on TV or in the newspaper, or who heard about it through the mean-spirited filter of AM talk radio? A lesbian friend told me her mother called (her mom is very supportive of her) and expressed dismay that “You people are always associated with smut.” Ouch – and that’s a gay-supportive person!

I had the same squirm response a few months back when I heard about an “Underwear Party” fundraising event for Action Wisconsin and the campaign against the anti-gay marriage referendum. As I recall, it featured Ru Paul and was billed as an event to build alliances for the campaign.

What I want to know is, did someone think the delightfully bawdy Ru Paul was not enough of a draw? That underwear was needed? And what alliances were forged — with Calvin Klein and Jockey?!

What’s next, a circle jerk for civil rights? Yikes, dykes, I better not give anyone any ideas!

Maybe I should add a fourth point to my list above: The LGBT community could benefit from a little more carefully thought out public relations!

Women v. the Shepherd Express

2005-04-20T19:43:00.000-05:00

In early April, I sent a letter to the editor of Milwaukee’s so called “alternative” weekly, the Shepherd Express, in response to a column by Joel McNally. Since they didn’t publish it in their subsequent editions and are unlikely to do so, I have published it below.

My beef was not with McNally, who wrote about the irony of a jury finding former Milwaukee Police Chief Art Jones guilty of “reverse” discrimination for failing to promote 17 white male lieutenants to captain. (In his seven-year term, Jones promoted to captain 21 white men and 19 white women or men and women of color.) But a line in McNally’s column reminded me of the Shepherd’s own sorry history of discrimination against women and sparked what Elizabeth Cady Stanton once called a “woman’s rights convulsion.”

Stanton’s words will be immediately recognizable to any woman who has faced or endured sexism. Writing to her great friend Susan B. Anthony about some outrage against women back in the 1800s, Stanton declared: “Susan, if I do not find the use of my tongue on this issue soon, I shall die of a woman’s rights convulsion!” (paraphrased but pretty close)

This one’s for you, Elizabeth!

Letter to the Editor, Shepherd Express
413 N. 2nd Street, Milwaukee, WI 53203

Dear Editor:

In your April 7 edition, my favorite columnist Joel McNally wrote about a seemingly previous newspaper job: “The best jobs at the newspaper, including the political reporter, the movie critic and most of the columnists, are still held by white males.”

Mr. McNally is far too reliable a progressive voice to be tweaking his former employer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, on this account. After all, despite its regrettable corporate hegemony, the Journal Sentinel does publish a wide range of women’s voices, from witty TV critic Joanne Weintraub to business writer Tannette Johnson-Elie, from architecture maven Whitney Gould to book critic Geeta Sharma Jensen, from chief obit writer Amy Rabideau Silvers to arts commentator Jackie Loohauis, from Wisconsin treasure Jackie Mitchard to op-edsters Barbara Miner, Maureen Dowd, Kathleen Parker and others.

Could McNally possibly be referring to the supposedly progressive, alternative Shepherd Express, which in its 24 year history has managed to have only one woman – one – the talented Anthe Rhodes, in an editorial position that isn’t preceded by the word “assistant”? Where the only woman columnist in almost 25 years has been a forgotten byline who briefly contributed the painfully self-conscious column called “Girl”? Where the turnover of women is mind-blowingly swift while the old white boy mainstays are destined to die at their desks?

I mean no disrespect to the few women who valiantly contribute to your paper. Overall, however, it is a continuing scandal that Milwaukee’s major alternative weekly serves women so poorly. If McNally can’t say it openly, I will: you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Jamakaya

I encourage other women – and men – to let the Shepherd Express know what they think about their shameful exclusion of women’s voices. Email them at: editor@shepherd-express.com, fax them at (414) 276-3312, or send a letter to the address above.

BREAKING NEWS! — Michael Horne reports on his milwaukeeworld.com web site that Catherine Nelson, the Shepherd’s “Associate Publisher and CFO” of the last few years is no longer with the paper. Her name is off the masthead and Publisher Lou Fortis says only that she doesn’t work there anymore.

In February (scroll down to the fourth item in the link), Horne reported that the Shepherd Express (Alternative Publications Inc.) is the subject of three EEOC complaints by former women staff members. Gee, I can’t imagine why . . .

How about catching up to the 21st century, boys?

Flying Nun Cruelly Robbed of the Papacy

2005-04-20T17:00:00.000-05:00

SAN JUAN (SNN) – The Sister News Network reports that supporters of Sister Bertrille, the famous Flying Nun from San Juan, Puerto Rico, are bitterly disappointed that she was not elevated to the papacy. The College of Cardinals instead chose Joseph Ratzinger, a former member of the Hitler Youth.

“I can’t deny that we like her, we really like her,” said Sister Jacqueline from the ancient Convent of San Tanco on the hilltop overlooking San Juan. “She has brought the word of our Lord to street urchin, playboy and colonialist alike on this blessed island. And with her miraculous ability to fly – well, we feel sure she has been touched by the hand of God and is destined to lead His church.”

“Sí, and think of the transportation costs she could have saved the Vatican!” added Sister Sixto. “She wouldn’t even need the Pope-Mobile.”

Carlos Ramirez, owner of the swank Carlos-A-Go-Go in San Juan, expressed his disappointment as well: “Sister Bertrille helped me to see the error of my ways. She helped me to stop my evil lifestyle of shameless womanizing and to come out as a proud gay man. The cardinals should not have overlooked her many good works.”

"We could have had a perky pope," said a dejected San Juan resident, "instead of a Nazi pope."

"The Jews are still waiting for their Messiah; we will just have to be patient and wait for our Flying Pope," another of Sister Bertrille's proponents said philosophically.

San Tanco's Reverend Mother, sometimes at odds with Sister Bertrille’s free spirit, issued the convent’s official statement: “We welcome the elevation of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the exalted position of Pope Benedict XVI. With his long history of directing the Vatican enforcement office formerly known as the Inquisition and his early training in the Hitler Youth, we’re confident he will maintain the purity of the Catholic faith and lead us down the right path.”

Sister News Network asked a Vatican official if there was any truth to the rumor that Sister Bertrille was disqualified because some cardinals believe that her aerodynamic abilities are an “intrinsic moral evil.” The Vatican declined to comment as did Sister Bertrille, who was last seen swooping perkily into San Tanco’s bell tower dutifully obeying the Reverend Mother’s order to ring chimes in celebration of the new pope.

* * * * * *

Real quotes about the new pope:

"Having seen fascism in action, Ratzinger today believes that the best antidote to political totalitarianism is ecclesiastical totalitarianism." – Ratzinger biographer John L. Allen Jr., quoted in the NYTimes, 4/20/05

"He's going to have a German mentality of leadership: either get on the train or get off the track." – Rev. M. Price Oswalt in the NYTimes, 4/20/05

Extending that unfortunate metaphor, let's hope the train isn't a German cattle car . . .

A Lapsed Catholic on Pope John Paul and His Church

2005-04-07T04:58:00.000-05:00

The ceaseless and uncritical media coverage of Pope John Paul’s death and funeral rites are driving this lapsed Catholic crazy! The endless encomiums about his virtue and good works and selflessness and blah, blah, blah are just too much. So how about this for an alternative view?

First, I should point out that I was baptized Catholic (it was coerced, I was only two weeks old!) and attended a Catholic grade school for eight years in the 1960s. There’s no question that I got a superior education there from the strict and often dotty nuns. I was way ahead of fellow students when I got to a public junior high and spent my high school years bored out of my mind.

But the catechism imposed on us youngsters at St. Mary’s (in Elm Grove, Wisconsin) was problematic to me from an early age. A precocious tot, I did the one thing little Catholics weren’t supposed to do: I asked questions – mostly “Why?” I cannot tell you how many times the nuns whacked me or the priest yelled at me for daring to challenge them. The pastor at St. Mary’s, who the nuns treated like a god but who reminded me of my shambling, alcoholic father at home, would bellow at me: “BELIEVE AND OBEY!”

“Believe and obey!” seemed to be the essence of Catholicism in the 1960s and apparently still is today. Problem is, in addition to my natural inquisitiveness, I was deeply impacted by the ‘60s ethos of challenging authority. I also loved history, and I was especially captivated by the period of the Enlightenment, when rationalism overcame superstition, and the peasants and middle classes and colonists everywhere began to challenge empires and the divine right of kings. How could anyone be expected to simply “believe and obey”?!

I had a difficult transition leaving the church in my teens. I was still living at home, of course, and there were often Sunday morning battles with Mom about my going to Mass. Once 18 and out on my own, I simply stopped going. I have no regrets and, despite all the threats and fear-mongering, have no fear for my immortal soul. The few times I’ve gone to church in the past 30 years, it seems the priest has launched into some homily about protecting embryos or lectured about some reactionary papal encyclical, only reinforcing my disaffection.

I have known nuns who were dynamite teachers and Catholics who were/are compassionate Christians. I know that some organs of the Catholic Church, particularly at the local level, are doing vital work in supporting oppressed communities. But I find much of the dogma (about holy spirits and virgin Marys and immaculate conceptions, etc.) just plain silly, and I am appalled by the conspicuous wealth, the institutionalized sexism, the archaic hierarchy, the ritualistic excess and the doctrinal hypocrisy of the Vatican superstructure. The pope runs that superstructure.

I agree that Pope John Paul should be recognized for his heroic stand against communist regimes. And I am grateful that he spoke out against war and capital punishment. But any balanced assessment of this pope and his church needs to include the following indictments as well.

What about the millions of women worldwide condemned to poverty, endless childbearing and physical debilitation by the Vatican’s cruel and deadly campaign against artificial birth control?
What about the millions who have died and will continue to die of AIDS – especially those in the third world – due to the Vatican’s irrational opposition to condoms?
What about the millions of gays and lesbians worldwide whom this pope’s Vatican has described as “intrinsically disordered” and who must endure all the discrimination and hatred that flow from that declaration?
What of the millions of Catholic women who are restricted from full participation in John Paul II’s church, permanently relegated to a secondary role?
And finally, what about the thousands of victims of pedophile priests, a sad but predictable result of the Vatican’s repressive and hypocritical view of human sexuality?

Maybe John Paul can rest in peace. But I’m not convinced he or his bishops can be absolved of these sins.

There He Goes Again!

2005-03-17T05:46:00.000-06:00

There he goes again!

“Personal accounts do not permanently fix the solution.”

Those were the words of our feckless Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush at his press conference March 16. It sounded like a concession, but the Master of Malaprop proceeded to clarify his position.

According to the New York Times, “The president ignored a question about whether he would be willing to drop the private accounts from his plan in exchange for a negotiated deal with Democrats on benefits cuts and tax increases to assure the solvency of Social Security.”

Then he answered a question about when Congress should act on the issue by saying, “as quickly as possible, whatever that means.”

Whatever that means ...

The Prez reiterated his tiresome mantra of “I fully understand it's a difficult issue. Otherwise, it would have been solved a long time ago.”

Then he added this Lincolnesque declamation: “And I understand some members don't, you know, view this as a tough vote. In other words, you know, why did you bring it up?”

I don’t know, you know, why did you?

Despite raising the issue and flogging it ceaselessly across the country with his “sky is falling” alarums, the Commander-in-Chief said he would not propose a more detailed plan of his own because he knew Congress would reject it!

“I'm interested in coming up with a permanent solution. I'm not interested in playing political games.”

Well, that makes everything perfectly clear.

Undercover at the Conservative Conference

2005-03-14T05:32:00.000-06:00

It was a busy weekend. Most notably, I spent all day Saturday at the first conference of the Wisconsin Conservative Leadership Coalition, a gathering of right-wing true believers held at the Pallas Restaurant on S. 108th Street in West Allis.

I'll post a detailed description of the panels and speakers soon. Among my first impressions are these:

1) Folks were friendly, welcoming and (happily) oblivious. This big old lesbian left-winger even got a cheery invitation to join the 4th District Republican Women's Club! "We're looking for women just like you," said a pleasant GOP matron at registration. I had to bite my tongue to suppress some great come-back lines, but she was really very nice and I didn't want to be rude!

2) The solution to all of our country's problems are a) tax cuts, b) limited government, and c) personal responsibility. Not terrible ideas on their own, but disturbing in the absence any discussion (or even recognition) of broader social currents and contexts and communal and corporate responsibility.

We liberals may be derided for our guilty consciences and seeking government solutions to socio-economic problems but at least we give a damn. I was struck by the "ME, ME, ME" tone of the conference. The constant chorus was "Cut my taxes, get government out of my life [except, of course, in the areas of women's reproductive freedom and same sex families, where government is being pushed to enact all sorts of restrictions] and, dammit, why don't other people just pick themselves up by their own bootstraps!"

The most extreme examplar of the "bootstrap" school was panelist Michele Litjens of Winnebago County who seemed to have a bee in her bonnet about obesity and mental illness. She kept shrieking about the need for more exercise. "I shouldn't have to pay higher rates for the insurance costs of obese people! I shouldn't have to pay for all the depression drugs on the market! If you're depressed, go out and take a walk! EXERCISE!" Let's hope this woman is never put in charge of mental health policy!

3) Several panelists were dynamite speakers despite my disagreeing with the content of their messages, namely State Rep. Scott Jensen and Sen. Glenn Grothman. Several prominent speakers were awful: US Rep. Tom Petri was a deadly bore (even the blogger for the new conservative paper Mendota Beacon agreed) and Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke is as defensive as ever and dumb as a post. My favorite Clarke-isms: LBJ and the Great Society programs created America's underclass (apparently poverty was non-existent before then), and "abortion on demand" became "rampant" in the 1960s. Uh, I don't think so, Sheriff. Stick to catching speeders.

Well, as you can imagine, it was exhausting. I'll post more later. Let me know what you think.