Category Archives: Social Commentary

November 14, 2010 · 9:50 pm

Chapter 39: My First Kiss | My Southern Gothic Life

New post up on my other blog:

 

I’m walking a thin line with this blog.  I’m not mentioning people who are still alive and active, so the one’s I mention can’t fight back.

My memories may be colored by time and hazy as a result.  But, I won’t go farther in this forum.  I love and respect my friends- and some of my family- too much to share secrets they might not want me to share.

That makes me  a little sad to have so many important memories that I share with people who are no longer here..but I guess that’s one of the downsides to getting older.  You realize you have outlived some of the most important people in your life.

But you are still here.  And you carry then the ones who are gone with you as part of yourself.  And that counts for a lot…

More; Chapter 39: My First Kiss | My Southern Gothic Life.

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Filed under Danville, Gay, Social Commentary, Style, The South

November 12, 2010 · 10:33 pm

Shame: Evelyn Champagne King

This was the first “disco” song played at my college fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, at Washington and Lee University in the late 1970’s.

As I recall, it was quite controversial to play this as previously it had been all Beach Music or some strange Southern rock stuff late at night…

But my friend Ralph prevailed.  He was after a new attitude for the parties…

And the parties got much better…

It was a good mix…

And we danced all night…

Because it might have been “disco” but you could still shag to it…

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Filed under Entertainment, My Journey, Social Commentary, Style, Virginia

November 12, 2010 · 5:06 pm

It Get’s Better: Canadian Ex-Gay Parody

Never let it be said I’m too politically correct to have a sense of humor…

I loved this….

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Filed under Entertainment, Gay, Religion, Social Commentary, Television

November 11, 2010 · 9:56 pm

Real Men

I love Joe Jackson.  This is one of my favorite songs and videos from the 1980’s.

So many layers….and still so – if not more – relevant today…

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Filed under Entertainment, Gay, Media, Music, Social Commentary, Style

November 11, 2010 · 9:43 pm

Tea party politicizing Dancing With the Stars? – Washington Times

Gag me….

Bristol Palin is one of the four finalists on “Dancing With the Stars,” the No. 1 rated show in the country, a fact that has bedeviled some fans and critics.

The 20-year-old daughter of the former governor of Alaska has consistently earned low scores from the show’s on-camera judges, but those scores are combined, a la “American Idol,” with the contestant’s call-in vote, where Miss Palin is a juggernaut.

The show’s producers think tea party voters who back Sarah Palin have turned “Dancing With the Stars” into a referendum on the power of grass roots political muscle.

via Tea party politicizing Dancing With the Stars? – Washington Times.

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November 10, 2010 · 10:31 pm

Sources: Pentagon group finds there is minimal risk to lifting gay ban during war

Surprisingly good news….

A Pentagon study group has concluded that the military can lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts, according to two people familiar with a draft of the report, which is due to President Obama on Dec. 1.

More than 70 percent of respondents to a survey sent to active-duty and reserve troops over the summer said the effect of repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would be positive, mixed or nonexistent, said two sources familiar with the document. The survey results led the report’s authors to conclude that objections to openly gay colleagues would drop once troops were able to live and serve alongside them.

via Sources: Pentagon group finds there is minimal risk to lifting gay ban during war.

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November 8, 2010 · 10:32 pm

John F. Kennedy Photos from 1960 Campaign Published for First Time [PHOTOS]

Hard to believe it was 50 years ago today that JFK was elected President…

One of my first memories, as a very small child, is the JFK assasination coverage on TV….

Marking the 50th anniversary of the day that John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States, a trove of new photos taken during Kennedy’s campaign against Richard Nixon has been released for the first time.

Taken by staff photographers at Life magazine, the new images were captured as Kennedy crisscrossed the country in the spring and summer of 1960 in his attempt to become the youngest man ever elected president. They show Kennedy in a variety of situations, from standing atop the hood of a station wagon while addressing a small West Virginia crowd, to quiet, more contemplative moments inside hotel rooms.

via John F. Kennedy Photos from 1960 Campaign Published for First Time [PHOTOS].

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Filed under Politics, Social Commentary, Style, Television

November 8, 2010 · 12:01 am

Rielle Hunter Sought Affairs With Famous Actors: National Enquirer

I don’t need to comment, this says it all….

Rielle Hunter, the blonde film producer whose affair with John Edwards rocked the political world, is allegedly still on the prowl.

According to the National Enquirer, the same publication that blew the Edwards sex scandal wide open, Hunter recently visited Los Angeles — and tried to get in touch with at least a couple of famous men. The Enquirer reports that Hunter sought out “Friends” star Matt LeBlanc.

According to the article, Hunter told a friend that “if she can’t marry John Edwards, then marrying a famous actor is high up in those dreams of hers.”

Hunter is currently locked in a lawsuit with ex-Edwards aide Andrew Young, who could face jail time over a dispute about a John Edwards-Rielle Hunter sex tape.

More information about Hunter’s West coast trip can be found in the latest issue of National Enquirer.

via Rielle Hunter Sought Affairs With Famous Actors: National Enquirer.

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November 7, 2010 · 3:04 pm

Our Banana Republic – Nicholas Kristodf: NYTimes.com

Another great article from Nichlas Kristof.

Sometimes I wonder why I post this stuff since it seems only the people who already know it are reading it…..

In my reporting, I regularly travel to banana republics notorious for their inequality. In some of these plutocracies, the richest 1 percent of the population gobbles up 20 percent of the national pie.

But guess what? You no longer need to travel to distant and dangerous countries to observe such rapacious inequality. We now have it right here at home — and in the aftermath of Tuesday’s election, it may get worse.

The richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976. As Timothy Noah of Slate noted in an excellent series on inequality, the United States now arguably has a more unequal distribution of wealth than traditional banana republics like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana.

C.E.O.’s of the largest American companies earned an average of 42 times as much as the average worker in 1980, but 531 times as much in 2001. Perhaps the most astounding statistic is this: From 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent.

That’s the backdrop for one of the first big postelection fights in Washington — how far to extend the Bush tax cuts to the most affluent 2 percent of Americans. Both parties agree on extending tax cuts on the first $250,000 of incomes, even for billionaires. Republicans would also cut taxes above that.

The richest 0.1 percent of taxpayers would get a tax cut of $61,000 from President Obama. They would get $370,000 from Republicans, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. And that provides only a modest economic stimulus, because the rich are less likely to spend their tax savings.

At a time of 9.6 percent unemployment, wouldn’t it make more sense to finance a jobs program? For example, the money could be used to avoid laying off teachers and undermining American schools.

via Our Banana Republic – NYTimes.com.

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Filed under History, Politics, Social Commentary, The Economy

November 7, 2010 · 10:49 am

Tone-Deaf in D.C. – NYTimes.com

Bob Herbert’s thoughts on the election results. I encourage you to follow the link to the complete story:

It would be easy to misread the results of Tuesday’s elections, and it looks as if the leaders of both parties are doing exactly that.

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are offering voters the kind of change that they seem so desperately to want. We’re getting mind-numbing chatter about balanced budgets and smaller government and whether Mitch McConnell and his gang can chase President Obama out of the White House in 2012.

What voters want is leadership that will help them through an economic nightmare and fix a country that has been pitched into a state of sharp decline. They long for leaders with a clear and compelling vision of a better America and a road map for getting there. That leadership has long been AWOL. The hope in the tumultuous elections of 2008 was that it would come from Mr. Obama and the Democrats, but that hope, after just two years, is on life support.

Tuesday’s outcome was the result of voters, still hungry for change, who either switched in anger from the Democrats to the Republicans or, out of a deep sense of disappointment, stayed home.

AND

 

What this election tells me is that real leadership will have to come from elsewhere, from outside of Washington, perhaps from elected officials in statehouses or municipal buildings that are closer to the people, from foundations and grass-roots organizations, from the labor movement and houses of worship and community centers.

The civil rights pioneers did not wait for presidential or Congressional leadership, nor did the leaders of the women’s movement. They plunged ahead with their crucial work against the longest odds and in the face of seemingly implacable hostility. Leaders of the labor movement braved guns, bombs, imprisonment and heaven knows what else to bring fair wages and dignity to working people.

America’s can-do spirit can be revived, and with it a brighter vision of a fairer, more inclusive, and more humane society. But not if we wait on Washington to do it. The loudest message from Tuesday’s election is that the people themselves need to do much more.

 

 

via Tone-Deaf in D.C. – NYTimes.com.

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