we can raise up and wage a war on radical stupidity. Looking more and more like that’s something America needs.
Category: Society Page 60 of 69
His own words, courtesy of Voices of American Sexuality:
- “AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexualsâ€
- It appears that America’s anti-Biblical feminist movement is at last dying, thank God, and is possibly being replaced by a Christ-centered men’s movement which may become the foundation for a desperately needed national spiritual awakening.”
- “If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being.”
- After the September 11 attacks Falwell said, “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.”
- “Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questionsâ€
- “[Homosexuals are] brute beasts…part of a vile and satanic system [that] will be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven.”
Despite my infrequent posting on the matter, the subject of Turkey‘s possible place in the European Union has been a subject of much fascination for me.  Putting aside my qualms about EU overexpansion, I think the dance between Turkey and the EU powers can yield lessons for the much bigger global dance that we’re all involved in (like it or not). This Slate column does a decent job of touching on some of those issues. Check it out.
Via Slashdot, I see that Verio recently sent Cryptome.org a notice informing the owner that Verio will no longer provide hosting services as of this Friday. What is Cryptome, and why should you care? Cryptome is perhaps the most impressive individual effort at plugging the “memory hole” that has ever existed.* In Cryptome’s own words:
Cryptome welcomes documents for publication that are prohibited by governments worldwide, in particular material on freedom of expression, privacy, cryptology, dual-use technologies, national security, intelligence, and secret governance — open, secret and classified documents — but not limited to those.
As you might imagine, this has annoyed not just the US government, but governments around the world. I’m near-fanatical when it comes to the idea that transparency is essential to good government, and I think James Young (who runs Cryptome) has done important work in advancing that idea. So getting this notice of shut down from Verio – with no explanation beyond a claim that Cryptome is violating its Acceptable Use Policy – is troubling. Verio, which has otherwise been an excellent host for Cryptome, appears to be unwilling to explain the reasons behind terminating this relationship. Mr. Young speculates:
It may be wondered if Verio was threatened by an undisclosable means, say by an National Security Letter or by a confidential legal document or by a novel attack not yet aired.
I should hope not. But that appears to be the most likely explanation. I’d quite like to see more on what happened.
*I’m not absolutely certain, but I think Cryptome may be the first online effort I’ve ever donated to.
More here, if you can stand it.
Whenever I return from travel to a city filled with billboards, I’m reminded how much I love the DC area’s near-complete absence of the horrible blight that is outdoor billboard advertising.  It seems that the residents of São Paulo felt the same way, and have banned all outdoor advertising from their city. That is, not only are new billboards banned, but old ones must come down. Here’s a flickr set showing some of the resulting bare infrastructure. Background on the ban here.
(I wouldn’t personally support a US edition of the policy adopted by São Paulo – it reaches well beyond billboards and into protected speech, I think – but the results sure are a beautiful thing to contemplate. Atlanta would do well to take a lesson.)
There’s so much good and insight in Baratunde Thurston’s rather amusing post about not being amusing that you’ll have to read it yourself. And if you’re in DC, he’s at HR-57 on Saturday night, as part of the 4 Shades of Black show at the DC Comedy Festival. Â Check him out.
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But speaking of funny, the Arlington Republican Women’s Club is sponsoring a seminar next Thursday called “So, you want to be married?” 7 p.m. at Hunan Number One, $23. Laughing right here, free.
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I’ve got very little to say about Imus, beyond the fact that I’ve never really understood his appeal. I don’t at all believe any of the spin that his firing is due to any genuine interest in decency by MSNBC, CBS, or any of the advertisers.  As Media Matters well illustrates, it’s not just Imus.
The big right-wing broadcast names – Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, etc. – don’t just poke fun at Chelsea Clinton and crazy enviros anymore – they’re downright hateful (and consistently go far beyond what Imus just said). Here’s a few from the Media Matters list:
On the February 1 edition of his radio show, [Rush] Limbaugh responded to a Reuters report on a University of Chicago study that found that “a majority of young blacks feel alienated form today’s government” by asserting: “Why would that be? The government’s been taking care of them their whole lives.”
[ . . . ]
On the September 9, 2005, edition of his radio show, [CNN host Glenn] Beck referred to survivors of Hurricane Katrina who remained in New Orleans as “scumbags.” Also, after acknowledging that nobody “in their right mind is going to say this out loud,” Beck attacked victims of the disaster and the families of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying: “I didn’t think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims.”
[ . . . ]
On the March 31, 2006, broadcast of his radio program, [widely syndicated radio host Neal] Boortz said that then-Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) “looks like a ghetto slut.” Boortz was commenting on a March 29 incident in which McKinney allegedly struck a police officer at a Capitol Hill security checkpoint. Boortz said that McKinney’s “new hair-do” makes her look “like a ghetto slut,” like “an explosion at a Brillo pad factory,” like “Tina Turner peeing on an electric fence,” and like “a shih tzu.”
[ . . . ]
While discussing the rape and murder of 18-year-old Jennifer Moore during the August 2, 2006, edition of his radio show, [Bill] O’Reilly appeared to suggest that the clothing she was wearing at the time helped incite her killer. O’Reilly discussed several factors that contributed to the “moronic” girl’s rape and murder, including that she was drunk and wandering the streets of New York City alone late at night. But in addition to those factors, O’Reilly added: “She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at 2 in the morning.”
It just goes on and on and on. Bonus creep factor material:
On the February 28 edition of CNN Headline News’ Glenn Beck, while discussing racy photos of American Idol contestant Antonella Barba, Beck asked his female guest: “I’ve got some time and a camera. Why don’t you stop by?”
You’ve really got to see the video of that one to get the full slime effect.  But all of these guys – the biggest names in the business – spew this crap every day, and all the networks and advertisers that pretend to take issue with Imus continue to advertise with them.
Tim O’Reilly has had a lot of good ideas. A very smart guy. And what happened to Kathy Sierra (and lot of less famous people) is obscene. But this Blogger Code of Conduct business? Is an enormous waste of time. Does it move anyone to do anything they wouldn’t already? No. Is there anything stopping someone from throwing up one of those inane badges and then doing what he’d do already? No. But it’s not as if this is the first exercise in pointless wankery on web. So why does this particular project bother me?
It’s giving legitimacy to this idea that form is more important than substance. That so long as you say please and thank you, you ought not be held to account for anything you say between those two words. Oh, there’ve always been delicate flowers on the internet, ready to faint at the first “goddamn.” But more and more, I’ve seen people who spew the most hateful and ignorant things immediately retreat behind a claim that someone is being uncivil, if they’re called hateful or ignorant. And, astoundingly, a fair number of otherwise reasonable people appear ready to give them cover on that.
This was well-illustrated for me in the past year, as I discovered Virginia political blogs. Until I realized the impact that the Virginia Marriage Amendment would have on me, I’d generally treated Virginia politics as mostly irrelevant to my interests. But then we had an issue on the ballot where people from all over the state could decide that I ought not have control over my own life and family. So I got involved in the Virginia online (and off) conversation. And in many respects, I’m glad I did. I discovered good folks like Vivian, Waldo, and the Howling Latina. All great contributors to public life, I think. But I also discovered a whole lot of hate. A whole lot.
I discovered that a vast swath of Virginia political blogs are dedicated to promoting some of the most ignorant, hateful, and harmful lies out there. Islam is dedicated to killing you. Allowing equal rights for all will lead to the collapse of society. Black folks ought to be thankful for slavery. I’m not going to link them, as there’s nothing to be gained by it, but I’ve come across all of these sentiments and worse in the posts and comments sections of Virginia political blogs (and this is to say nothing of the daily homophobia and xenophobia). Ignorance like this ought not to be met with acquiescent silence, or a polite murmur of disagreement. It needs to be engaged head-on, called out for what it is, and exposed to the sort of ridicule that a flat-earther might experience at meeting of geophysicists.
In other words, people who repeatedly claim and perpetuate hateful, ignorant, and harmful things don’t deserve a thoughtful engagement, deconstruction, and explanation every time. They can – and should – be dismissed as bigots. Or liars. Or straight up loons. There is no reason in the world to be patient and polite with someone who claims that some humans don’t deserve the same basic rights as others, or that a whole swath of humanity ought to be killed because it will satisfy their uninformed selves.
You want to improve the blogosphere? Raise the bar on substance, instead of hiding behind form.
Every once in a while, I’m pleasantly surprised by an elected Republican. Rep. Tom Davis on DC voting rights, or Gov. George Ryan on the death penalty, come to mind. This time, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is delivering:
Florida officials will automatically begin the [voting] rights-restoration process for felons when they finish their sentences.
[ . . . ]
The change was urged by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist. His predecessor, Jeb Bush, had long opposed changing the ban.
“I believe in simple human justice and that, when somebody has paid their debt to society, it is paid in full,” Crist said Thursday. “There’s a time to move on, a time to give them an opportunity to have redemption, to have a chance to become productive citizens again.”
Good job, Governor.
Michael Bérubé shares a long ago conversation he had on the lawn at UVA:
And your soul, he said. You don’t care if you lose your immortal soul in that belief.
Right, here’s the way I look at it, I said. If you’re right about this and I’m wrong, then you and I agree that we have the obligation to treat others as we would have them treat us, but because I believe that we humans just made that up one day, I’m going to Hell for an eternity, and you’re pretty much in the clear. Whereas if I’m right about this and you’re wrong, my beliefs don’t visit any punishments on you. We live, we act as best we can, we die, end of story, except that we hope that maybe some of the good we do on earth will live after us for a little while. And that’s it.
Yep. That’s pretty much it.