Category Archives: politics

Rob Thomas: The Big Gay Chip on My Shoulder

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Good piece on The Huffington Post by Rob Thomas regarding being a straight ally to the gay community vis Prop 8; I think he sums it up pretty well:

A civil union has to do with death. It’s essentially a document that gives you lower taxes and the right to let your faux spouse collect your insurance when you pass away. A marriage is about life. It’s about a commitment. And this argument is about allowing people to have the right to make that commitment, even if it doesn’t make sense to you. Anything else falls under the category of “separate but equal” and we know how that works out.

George Orwell would be proud [see: Animal Farm – “all animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others”]. As would John Hodgman: 

I have confidence that, in no short order, Prop 8 will be repealed, and the gay marriage debate will look as absurd at the miscegenation debates of the 20th century do now. I have confidence this will happen not because it is merely right, or because the electorate will suddenly love gayness, but because opposition to gay marriage has no logical foundation in a civil society that is premised on equality.

I seriously can’t quote that often enough; it is the fundamental bottom-line, and this silly Prop 8 would go away in a second if all the folks who claim to love this country and the freedoms it stands for were to suddenly awaken to their collective hypocrisy… anyway, read Thomas’ piece:

Rob Thomas: The Big Gay Chip on My Shoulder.

Mass. Labor Writes to Prez for universal health care

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Massachusetts Labor Leaders Write to Obama Urging Passage of HR 676 | Greater Southeastern Massachusetts Labor Council.

A very well written letter that I think appropriately critiques The Massachusetts Plan (for those of you not living there, from there, or unaware of the health insurance situation, MA implemented a mandatory health insurance law a couple of years ago) as ineffective. I applaud the labor leaders who collaborated to draft this letter, which I hope and trust that Obama will take quite seriously.

Full disclosure: my brother is one of the signatories, on behalf of the AEEF-CWA Local 1300. You go, Joe!

What Obama Must Do : Rolling Stone

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I’ve become a rabid fan of Paul Krugman in the last six months. What’s not to like: he’s an economist who knows what he’s talking about; he a liberal; he has a Nobel Prize.

He wrote a must-read open letter to incoming President Obama (can we drop that useless “elect” modifier yet?!) for Rolling Stone (the print version – an easier, one-page read is here: http://tinyurl.com/6t6uzf)

You might want to be sitting down when you read it….

I’m inclined to agree with Mr. Krugman: President Obama should first rescue the economy – by ensuring that banks which receive bailout money have a Federal mandate to lend that money to consumers and small businesses– and then he should usher in the era of a universal healthcare system.

I wish I could elaborate or expound upon these points, but I really can’t. First, I believe Mr. Krugman explains it better than I could, so I defer to his fine text (it’s not a short piece, but worth the read). Second, I haven’t the time – since, in the middle of my twentieth consecutive month of unemployment, I must prioritize my morning and get moving on job application #198 … (no kidding, I’ve been keeping count).

Disagree II

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Thanks to Guy Kawasaki for tweeting this post from Psychology Today (PT): “Women Have Better Things To Do Than Make Money (Part II).”

The author, Satoshi Kanazawa, wrote a two-part piece looking at discrepancies in salaries along gender lines from an evolutionary standpoint. Well written piece, even though I whole heartedly disagree with his premise. My response, just posted to the comments section on the PT blogs:

While it’s true that there are differences between genders, the vast majority of “difference” is largely attributed to a much out-dated value system that continues to view female attributes (or anything presumed to be feminine) as less-than, or of lesser value (either monetarily or inherently), than that which is masculine or male.
It is not that men seek achievement in their work, but rather that they live in a culture that continues to tell men that they should seek such achievement, and that such achievement is their means of having value (and gaining not only a salary but the attention of women); this is the same culture that perpetuates a billion-dollar pornography industry and continues to tell women that their only means of having value within the culture is through the use of their body and sexuality.
It is not, as Mr. Browne puts it, that “many jobs that pay higher wages require their occupants to work longer hours…or work in dangerous and unpleasant conditions” but rather that men are raised in a culture that teaches us not to complain about such conditions – lest we be labeled “wimps”, or worse: women.
And it is not that “women are unwilling to pay the price and make the necessary sacrifices” but rather that they’ve come to understand nobody should be treated in an inhumane way just because you’re providing a salary.
With no intended disrespect to Mr. Kanazawa, nor disregard to the field of evolutionary psychology (which has many good things to teach us), it seems a bit reckless to analyze the monetary realities of our current culture from an evolutionary perspective without putting in context or calling into question the cultural imperatives that continue to reinforce and exalt masculine identity at the expense of equality.