From The Boston Globe:
Legislators Vote To Defeat Same-Sex Marriage Ban
Joyce Durst, an opponent of same-sex marriage from Mattapan, had come to the State House today to pray that the measure passed. When the amendment failed, she pulled a crumpled tissue from her pocket and began to sob.
“I’m sick,” said Durst, 60. “I’m sick.”
To which I must say, “Yes, yes you are.”
I know people have different views on what constitutes marriage. But to cry because two people of the same sex happen to want to get married? In what way does this harm you?
My opinion of many things boils down to: if it isn’t hurting anyone, I don’t care. If it is hurting someone, than that someone has to be a mentally competent adult who has agreed and wants to be hurt.
So unless a gang of crazy lesbians kidnaps Ms. Durst and forces her to marry one of them, I don’t really see what there is to cry about.
I thought this was a mildly interesting article from The Boston Globe., until I got to the last two paragraphs, at which point it became a wildly funny article.
Graying Duo Keep Passenger in Check
I have still not figured out how to edit digital video (give me good old 16mm), so the latest Tiny Dog Adventure will have to wait.
In the meantime, I’m watching Alanis Morrissette covering The Black-Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” and Will Ferrell’s The Landlord (waaaay too many times; I just love Pearl), and listening to Jonathan Coulton’s cover of Alanis’s “You Oughta Know.”
Four days ago, Christopher sent me a link to the world’s first TiVo ambassador’s first blog post.
For one reason or another (I was at work and erroneously assumed that the link had accompanying video and/or audio), I didn’t get a chance to look at the link until five minutes ago, and now that I have read the entire post, I am very angry.
Don’t get me wrong, the TiVo ambassador’s post was amusing. But why didn’t Chris tell me about what was apparently some kind of contest to elect the first ambassador? Because I could have written a TiVo essay that kicked the winning essay’s butt.
Admittedly, I didn’t bother to check out the accompanying winning video so I can’t say anything about whether I could have produced a superior one. But I will mention that I happen to know someone who wrote an episode for the PowerPuff Girls, did something for the Weird Al Show, writes screenplays, and now works for an animation studio (unless he has already quit). He even has an IMDb entry, people!
Someday I hope to have my own IMDb entry. Although now that I think of it, I did some crew-related thing for a student film with a deaf producer back in 1995 or 1996, so I think that counts. All I remember from that day is the subway ride home. Apparently riding the subway was more traumatic than speaking to strangers, which if you know me, says quite a bit about how I feel about riding the subway.
I also made two student films, one post-college film, and another post-college film (with synced sound, even!) that starred my sister back in the days when she was willing to run around pretending the lawnmower was going to kill her. That film would undoubtedly have been an Academy-Award nominee (probably not a winner; all that stuff is political) had I actually finished assembling it.
So you see, my video would have kicked at least some butt, although not necessarily all butts.
As a TiVo ambassador, I would have spread goodwill and free TiVos about me. I would have held old people hostage at the Market Basket in Burlington, if necessary, and expounded about the freedom that TiVo provides, freedom to live your life on your own time, freedom to watch TV when you want, and if you don’t have a particular time in mind, may I suggest at about noon on a weekday so that non-old people can shop at Market Basket without worrying about the possibility of getting stuck in an old-person shopping-cart pileup?
And as a TiVo ambassador, I really, really would have loved that free car.
This makes me sick, and wish even more that science was at the point where everyone was automatically born sterile, and couldn’t get it turned off to procreate until they passed some kind of test and successfully kept an animal alive and happy for several years first.
I honestly can’t think of a punishment bad enough for the parents. Giving them the death penalty, if it were possible, would be just too gentle a death for them.
This is ridiculous.
I wasn’t thrilled when I heard that Isaiah Washington had called his costar a faggot, but when you grow up with people calling you “China Girl” just because you walked past them, you kind of accept that there are other people in the world who are racist, homophobic, whatever.
But then when Washington brought it up again at the Golden Globes and said he didn’t call TR Knight a faggot, which was disputed the next day by Knight and others, well, then I realized Washington has a deeper problem than homophobia. He has stupiditis.
Before I go into the stupiditis, let’s first examine the whole idea of putting Washington in rehab. Why does he even need to “ask for help” to “examine” his soul and “understand” why he called a gay person a faggot? Here’s a novel idea — maybe he called a gay person a faggot because he’s homophobic. And then maybe he lied about it because he knew that calling people names like that aren’t socially acceptable.
But the last time I checked, rehab wasn’t something that could cure homophobia, or even stupidity. (If it did, I would have already nominated several dozen people for a stint inside.) Putting Washington in rehab is just another example of how political correctness has gone overboard.
As liberal as I am, I have to call a spade a spade. Washington’s in rehab because he has to do something (other than firing his publicist, who seems only to have suffered from the mistake of having Washington as a client) to show he’s sorry. It doesn’t matter that his actions say something other than what he’s now spouting, or that a psych evaluation is unlikely to show some kind of “disease” in himself that caused his sudden outburst of homophobia.
Homophobia, racism, and sexism are not diseases. They are personality traits, and though exposure to diversity can sometimes lessen the degree of hatred and intolerance, rehab can not turn a skunk into a rose. If ABC was really intolerant of this kind of behavior, they should have just fired him and not bothered with the charade of “helping” Washington get over this.
What Washington did was not “unfortunate.” It was stupid; hence, the stupiditis. His stupidity is not that he’s homophobic, but that he showed it.
While the world would be a better place if no one showed these kinds of traits, people are always going to be against other people and often for reasons as little as the way as someone acts or looks. Pretending that racism and homophobia don’t exist is ridiculous, but outlawing expressions of it that could lead to actual physical harm is a different matter. Free speech is not the same as hate speech.
People’s personal feelings on homosexuality are their own business. But when you work for a company that has rules about certain types of conduct, you need to follow those rules. You can’t change how you feel, but you can certainly be smart enough to keep your mouth shut when you know that your personal feelings can get you in trouble.
Washington publicly apologized, for which I commend him, especially since he managed to apologize for his remarks unlike other people who say “I’m sorry if anyone felt hurt by what I said” which I’ve always felt is one of the dumbest ways to apologize without actually apologizing. But Washington already got a free pass back in October when he first called Knight a faggot. This time around, while he didn’t call him a faggot, Washington lied about the original incident and in front of people who knew the truth. Once is a mistake, twice is just stupid.
I did not know that my opinion of President Bush could sink even lower.
Wake me up when it’s 2008.
Derrick Z. Jackson’s opinion
Oh, show, how you disappointed me and forced me to give up on last season within five minutes of viewing Mischa Barton’s overindulgent, inexplicably emotionless emoting! And how you cruelly tempted me to begin watching again after you killed her off and replaced her with someone whom I could actually watch without battling those feelings of homicide and righteous fury! Now, now…at long last, I must reconcile myself to this grievous loss and pray my broken heart shall soon mend, mayhaps with some extended viewings of My Name Is Earl.
The last episode will air February 22.
This post has been brought to you by the letter S for Shakespeare.
I’m listening to “Missing You” by John Waite, and if I remember correctly, the video had some asian woman running around. What the hell was that all about, anyway?
My god, I haven’t thought about White Lion in ages. Too bad the only White Lion song on this particular compilation is “When the Children Cry.” I myself am nearly crying, and not because I am enjoying the singing.
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