29
Aug
The Great GOP Bathroom Scandal, A Rebbe’s View
RABBI ARTHUR WASKOW ON THE GOP BATHROOM SCANDAL
Why are plains-clothes cops posted in airport bathrooms to arrest men who “solicit sex”? Are there plain-clothes cops in the airport cocktail lounges arresting heterosexual couples if one of them taps the other’s leg, with the other’s consent?
Is the cop there to protect unwilling men from being annoyed? Or to protect an unwilling public from being put in the position of witnessing a full sexual encounter? Those purposes might well be OK - especially if plain-clothes cops are stationed in the cocktail lounges for the same purpose in regard to heterosexual annoyance — but then the cop should be protecting real complainants, not becoming the complainant himself.
It seems that the Senator has taken antigay positions in his legislative program. For that, I would vote against him. If it turns out he is a hypocrite, being gay himself, that is a serious spiritual defect. If he in a sense uses his hypocrisy - his secrecy — as a plank in his political platform, then it may be a political defect as well.
But I would keep in mind that if so, his hypocrisy is thrust upon him by the political climate in Idaho and most of America. What would voters’ response have been had he said, “I’m gay, and I oppose gay marriage, etc.”? Would it be the same as if a Senator said, “I’m very wealthy, and I oppose the recent tax cuts for the wealthy”? Or “I’m poor, and I oppose food stamps”?’
MAINSTREAMERS GO ONLINE
Star Tribune veteran writer goes online with www.ericblackink.com
After 30 years in print journalism,the excellent Eric Black enters the ‘new media’
MINNEAPOLIS (08/29/2007)—After 30 years with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, award winning journalist Eric Black today officially launched www.ericblackink.com, a daily “guided tour of facts and arguments on topics that one humble ink-stained wretch deems important, interesting or both.”
Black is among the journalists who voluntarily accepted a buyout from the Star Tribune in June, as the paper downsized its newsroom in the face of dropping circulation numbers and advertising dollars.
“I left the Strib with gratitude for all the great experiences and relationships I had there, but the future is online.” Black said. “I had come to feel constrained by the norms of traditional journalism. Blogging on the Strib’s website during my last years there had felt like a half-step toward liberation from those constraints. Now, I hope to go all the way to a format in which I can write the best, most honest piece that’s in me every day.”
HILLY’S GONE
NEW YORK (AP) — Hilly Kristal, whose dank Bowery rock club CBGB served as the birthplace of the punk rock movement and a launching pad for bands like the Ramones, Blondie and the Talking Heads, has died. He was 75.
Kristal, who lost a bitter fight last year to stop the club’s eviction from its home of 33 years, died Tuesday at Cabrini Hospital after a battle with lung cancer, his son Mark Dana Kristal said Wednesday.
NO LABOR DAY
I am off tomorrow—next blog Tuesday unless there are events of great urgency. Enjoy your Labor Day. Remember the date was actually shifted from MAY 1 to remove the spectre of radicalism and depoliticize it.
Your comments and feedback to Dissector@nediachannel.org
I don’t care what people do in private, as long as it’s consensual and everyone is old enough. Have to disagree with the rabbi on this though. The analogy doesn’t work: I don’t believe people are having sex in airport cocktail lounges. And last time I looked, children were in airports traveling with their families. How would the rabbi like to explain to his young sons or grandsons the presence of two pairs of wingtips in a shaking mensroom stall?
August 30th, 2007 at 2:37 pm