sundries

[rm]

Offensive? Inexplicable? All of the above? Anti-healthcare ad in which a bunch of people proclaim "I guess I'm a racist." I am FLOORED. Convoluted rheotrical strategy FAIL, and, oh yeah, RACIST.

The Tiger Woods thing is not interesting to me. The New York Post's headline about his "harem" though made me want to punch something (racist exoticization and removal of female agency! All in one!).

Space tourism is almost here.

Gay marriage bill on the move in New Jersey.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from a Christian student group that's been denied recognition by a public law school in California because they exclude non-Christians and gays. The Times says "the case pits anti-discrimination principles against religious freedom," which isn't really how I'd interpret the scenario.

A MN Quaker group has decided to stop certifying het marriages until gay ones are legal too. via karjack

A manager at an Orlando McDonalds is completely horrible to a trans teen looking for a job.

The life of a stooper.

NY'ers: ellen_kushner and deliasherman are reading tonight at the monthly NYSRF thing.

Comments

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

I'm still hoping for a resort on the Moon.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

"Guess you are, then. Glad that's settled."

[regyt.livejournal.com]

Yep.

[soundingsea.livejournal.com]

A MN Quaker group has decided to stop certifying het marriages until gay ones are legal too.

I caught this interview on Minnesota Public Radio last night; worth listening to the audio. I'd really like to see all religious institutions do the same. (Also, for over a decade I've been telling people I won't het-marry Joe until I'd be able to gay-marry a Jo, because otherwise it's just taking advantage of privilege and buying in to the patriarchy. Nice to start hearing that other places.)

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I like the way you think. It would be interesting if people in general would ' take back ' marriage from the churches and the government ( taxation , registration, etc ) and perform more meaningful personal ceremonies in protest. It would take alot of legal wrangling to get your rights ( both civil and legal ) in order, but imagine the backlash.

1. The bloated and socially overfed wedding industry takes a huge and much deserved hit.

2. People moving away from closed minded religious groups, and taking religion back to where it belongs - a personal relationship between the individual and how they address any higher authority. The rise of smaller community based religious organizations that have the betterment of it's members and community at the front of the line instead of politics and money.

3. Loss of revenue in the various legal processes associated with marriage , where possible. it won't be perfect but until we as a country get our heads screwed on straight it's better than letting other people dictate how to live our lives.

Imagne the change .....

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

given that i favor a complete seperation of the civil govt "marriage" form the religious "marriage" i would generally agree with you..... BUT

not all religions CAN be divorced from the community/church. for many religions the whole point is apostolic succession of the priesthood, for example. or a need to have at least 10. or something.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Right, so what I was suggesting in that case is that the members of the community steer the church in such a way that it's focus is on the religion/community and not involvement in politics.

[misch.livejournal.com]

That's one of the interesting points of the New Jersey legislation, S1967. Section 5 specifically states that if a religious group doesn't want to perform the marriage ceremony they don't have to. Civil authorities who are already authorized will have to.

Of course, this doesn't speak to the non-discrimination in public accommodations vs. religious freedom argument. But, hey, that's another court case.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'l have to grab a copy of that .... ( I live in NJ at the moment )

[misch.livejournal.com]

Here you go.

You can find your legislative members here.

[cozzene.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Quaker bit. I subscribe to the MPR FB page and didn't see this come across.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

that's the quakers by macalester! yaaay!

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

*hopes* w/r/t Jersey.

/eta: and I'm not surprised about the Quakers in Minn., but encouraged that they're being forthright about it.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

since i have no Tv and cant do video on this computer, i will have to take your word for it... but i can sympathize with why they *probably* did it..

every time i try to talk outside of my church or friends about anything i dont like about the health care bill i get "racist!" thrown in my face.
it feels like you are not allowed to not like or disagree with the current administration about anything without being told you are racist.

any time you have a 1 guy many women story the word Harem gets used. doesnt make it any better, mind you. but its hardly unique to whatever is going on with the current story.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I think it's a case of people using a word without knowing it's full history and meaning. To most Americans(tm) a Harem was presented to them in a disneyfied(tm) manner and not from a historical or factual perspective. If they were to think a little bit about it , they might choose another word.

Then again, in the case of Tiger they were probably struggling to stop short of calling him a pimp.

[offbalance.livejournal.com]

I sat in front of the "I'm a Racist" thing for about 5 minutes, unable to speak or form sentences after it.

I may sue them for inducing a stroke.

(all kidding aside, when did that become okay? Did I miss something?)

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

That ad...while I'm sure they expected us to react to their "I guess I'm a racist" statements with incredulity, my actual reaction was "Really? You had to guess?" But not because of their position on health care; mostly because in the past few months, I've started to see some of the more subtle racism that people try to hide or pass off like it's not really about race. I've almost come to expect racism from people, rather than expecting tolerance, which is a terribly pessimistic approach to take, I know. I don't know who made that ad, and don't really care, but whoever it was clearly didn't test it on an audience before spreading it around to massive populations, or didn't stop to think that it might only appeal to a very narrow demographic. Isn't that what marketers and advertisers are supposed to do?

Aside from all that, though, definitely one of the worst race-centric ad campaigns I've ever seen. Who do I write so I can bitch them out?

[sethg]

The teabagger branch of the Republican Party isn’t trying to appeal to a broad demographic. They want the party to be slavishly loyal to Real True Americans with Real Conservative Principles, even as the proportion of Real True Americans shrinks and the proportion that believes in Real Conservative Principles shrinks even faster.

If you bitch them out, you’ll only encourage them.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

You make some very valid points...sad, though.

[ckd]

There's also a straight couple in New York seeking to have their marriage annulled on the grounds that it's an invalid discriminatory contract.

[sethg]

The “I guess I’m a racist” ad is brilliant, in an evil way.

It “rallies the troops” of people who disagree with health care reform by telling them they’re (a) victims of those awful liberals who accuse other people of being racist, and (b) part of a much larger movement. And it reinforces the idea that false accusations of racism are a more significant problem in our society than, well, actual racism.

“I guess I’m a racist” could end up as the ressentiment-driven white conservatives’ version of “We’re here; we’re queer; get used to it”.

[ladypeculiar.livejournal.com]

“I guess I’m a racist” could end up as the ressentiment-driven white conservatives’ version of “We’re here; we’re queer; get used to it”.

Aiee . . that's kind of terrifyingly accurate. *shudder*

[gement.livejournal.com]

It's also working on the basic division in language between what people mean by racist.

I had a three hour conversation with someone to break things far enough down for him to understand that when I say "racism" or "racist" as an adjective as in "racist policy," I include all the shitty little subliminal prejudice. If I want to specifically call out the sorts of people who are actively, consciously, and unrepentantly prejudiced, only then will I bring out the personal noun of "a racist."

It took him three hours of active, attentive listening as someone who cares passionately about fairness and equality to work out and defuse that distinction. (Followed by a briefer discussion of how he can personally crusade for explaining the distinction to confused and defensive newbies, but that he can't ask that other people do so without, fairly or not, invoking the Tone Argument.) He is not alone.

People less interested in the topic and more bitter about being told to clean up their attitude are hearing, "the kind of people who lynch people" when people who think a lot about *-ism are saying "Everyone's a little bit racist. And this thing here is a little more racist than usual."

If someone walks up to me and say, "You're the kind of person who lynches people," it's almost too ridiculous to make me angry. It's just into crazytalk. Just as it is ridiculous to say that every criticism of the Obama administration is based in race.

It's a very clever strawman.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

The congregation will continue to hold both opposite-sex and same-sex weddings at its meeting house, but will no longer sign the legal marriage certificate for opposite-sex couples. Instead, couples will need to have the certificate signed by a justice of the peace.

That line especially made me smile.

~Sor

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

When I saw "I guess I'm a racist" I began cackling like mad.
I scared that cat.
I've discovered, that often when things depress me or make me sad, but which do not affect me directly, I laugh.
A lot.

I hate the fact that the Tiger Woods story is in actual News and not, ya know, E! News, where it belongs, if it even belongs anywhere.

[thorn]

Follow-up: Manager Fired After Transgender Discrimination Claim

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

I managed to miss that Richard Branson link earlier, but I just thought I'd mention that my Marketing class's term-length marketing plan project was based on Virgin Galactic. It was definitely an interesting product/service to market, considering the kind of demographic that they'd have to target and attract in order to break even on their venture. :-P

[missdeanna.livejournal.com]

In my experience, people who complain a lot about being called racist (or homophobic, or sexist...) either ARE racist, or are really missing the point.

The video comes off as melodramtic to me. 12% of people in some poll thinks they're racist, and they felt compelled to make a video about it?

[lauredhel.livejournal.com]

I like it that you call it "Anti-healthcare". Because these people aren't just against healthcare reform, or socialised medicine, or whatever - they're against actual people having access to actual healthcare.