By me.
Fuck you if you disagree. Your opinion doesn’t count.
As I was reading Charles Bouley’s post on cancerous politics (see below), I came across a passage in which he briefly mentioned his husband’s struggle with AIDS. And immediately, without intention or plan, I found myself thinking “Husband? Is this a woman after all? No, it’s a guy. Is he American? What state is he from? Does he mean it metaphorically? . . .” until I finally caught myself.
He meant his husband. The man he was married to. It shouldn’t be hard to understand.
March 27th, 2007
|
General, Politics, Legal Issues, Church & State, Religion, Culture, News & Current Events |
30 comments
Charles Karel Bouley, at the Huffington Post, has a lacerating column today that is breathtaking for its incisiveness and audacity.
He riffs on the recent cancer-related stories in the media, and has a few testy things to say about Tony Snow, so, unquestionably, the wingers will quote two angry sentences from it, dump their usual vitriol on the blogger, and scamper, still blissfully oblivious. But for those who can read and think and who try to care, here’s the medicine you need:
if [CNN] wants to do some good, they’ll talk about the real cancers in this country, and there are plenty; no, not the tumors growing in Elizabeth or the lesions in Tony Snow, but the terminal cancers festering in the political system, in the heartland of America, and on the news networks.
First, let’s talk about the cancer that is festering in the American news media. . . . Our news is one step short of Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition or American’s Most Wanted. Our journalists don’t ask tough questions, don’t do much research, take press releases as fact, report things from the web that have no basis in fact, and if a celebrity OD’s they go in to overdrive. And we, the nation, are dying because of this. . . .
What about the cancer that is in Washington D.C. these days? We’ll call it elected official fearanoma. I openly laughed this week when I read the Chuck Hagels interview where he said that if things don’t change he’s aware that impeachment is a possible solution. . . . So, Mr. Hagel, you FINALLY read the Constitution? It just dawned on you that impeachment is an option when the president has become a dictator? Please, keep reading, it’s a good document. . . . [B]ecause some of you are running for president, others running for reelection and yet others living in some haze of complacency. Your cancer is terminal. You are weakened by it and do nothing. You’re not taking aggressive steps to cure it.
And then there’s the possibly terminal case of Lack of Reality Carcinoma. We are at war and we, the people, sacrifice nothing, demand nothing, expect nothing. Instead of tax increases, you get a tax break. Instead of demanding that Hummer stop producing their gas guzzling completely unnecessary vehicles for the self indulgent and retool their factories to make the Cougar vehicles that are needed in Iraq to keep our troops safe from IEDs you rent limos made of these beasts . . . . Your light bill should be double, the same with gas at the pump. Why? To make the companies switch to green fuels, renewable resources. Most of you haven’t called your power company to see if you are getting greener energy, don’t know your carbon imprint on the planet, nothing. Why is this important? Because Osama attacked us because we have bases is Saudi Arabia. We are at war in Iraq protecting oil reserves and are about to go to war with Iran. We need to leave the middle east entirely and that means leave their oil behind. Not in 100 years, but now. We have the technology, but you have to pay for it. And you won’t. Do you go to city council meetings and demand that all new construction in your city is energy self-sufficient? Have you priced solar for your home? Do you drive a hybrid if you can? What’s the last thing you said to your Congressman? Senator? Sacrifice, we simply haven’t. Most of you haven’t even sacrificed your children, and that includes George Bush. For most of you, it ’s not your kids fighting. No, the cancer of apathy, of gluttony, of conspicuous consumption grows stronger every day. . . .
It is not a given that the U.S. will remain the world’s super power forever. In fact, history says it won’t. If we don’t cure these aggressive cancers growing in our media, in our government and in our society, we will fade away and become a shell of what we once were.
There’s more. Read it.
March 27th, 2007
|
General, Politics, Economics, Environment, Culture, Iraq, News & Current Events, Fiasco, Climate Change |
6 comments
I don’t really have anything substantive to add to this conversation, but I just wanted people to be aware of it. A female technical writer had to cancel her presentation at ETech because she was receiving death threats. Kathy Sierra is a top notch writer and a very smart person. I read her regularly and even when I don’t agree with her she makes me think about my profession.
And yet a group of people hate her so much that they would trip over the line into a vile, sexually depraved attacks and threats. And what brngs about this rage? Honestly? I would have to guess its a personality disorder of some kind. Because, again, Ms. Sierra writes about the software industry! How far down the rabbit hole do you have to be that disagreements about OO send you flying right off the edge of sanity into Hannibal Lector territory? It’s insane and I hope the cops catch the SOB responsible. No one should be afraid because they have an opinion — especially an opinion on how to write code.
Edited to add: And while this isn’t the largest point, don’t for one minute think that the fact that Ms. Sierra is, in fact, a Ms. has nothing to do with the treatment she has received. There are still some men who resent the fact that woman are daring to become successful in the technical fields. I’ve worked with the b*stards and there are a lot more of them than you would think. The highly sexualized nature of many of th attacks also suggests that what really gets some people’s goat is that the opinions are coming from an uppity woman.
March 27th, 2007
|
General |
5 comments
