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The California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8 which puts a statewide constitutional ban against gay marriage. This continues the state’s indecisiveness on the issue, begun (to my offhand knowledge) by the major of San Francisco and continuing to today’s point.
For non-heterosexual State Department employees, on the other hand, US Ambassador Michael Guest speculates that same-sex partner benefits may be established within “weeks”.
It was also announced today that President Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court is Sonia Sotomayor. Although not the radical, feminist lesbian with “Roe v. Wade rocks my world” tatooed on her arm (as NPR’s “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me” recently baited my hopes with), she should be at least a centrist bridge between the majority conservative and the…others.
This thereby marks the end for the once-seemingly endless “Obama shortlist” posts and journalist entries around the web, so we can once again focus on other things….like debating waterboarding.
Which, by the way, even McCain says is torture. Come on, only Hannity and few others — who wouldn’t even take up Olbermann’s challenge that for every second the former withstood waterboarding, Olbermann would donate $1,000 to veteran charity — still think it’s just a form of interrogation.
All this silly headline crap, however, going back and forth between the parties — I’m thinking specifically the current case in which the straggler republicans are trying to create a democrat-witch-hunt by going after Nancy Pelosi — is just frustrating fodder for discussions that only address the manifestations of truly deep systemic issues.
Just a rant, so I digress for now but am likely to spontaneously pick up the thread later. I’m gearing up for another list post, this one on racial and cultural identity. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to have them.
Heldman on Hannity mini-rants and raves:
Trust his political opinion. Or b whipped off your pedestal with a giant q-tip.
- WHY WAS NITRO THERE? Yes, Nitro, from American Gladiator. Hannity’s “Great American Panel”, one was some guy who looked like plastic and said really generic points like, “torture is okay because doctors watched”, and another was NITRO.
- Nitro got touchy. He would have NEVER touched a male pundit. On top of it, he touched Heldman while interrupting her in a matter of politics. Now, I believe that pedestrians have, or should have, a say about their government. At the same time, when you’re on national television, you don’t interrupt a DOCTOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE to toss in your two cents about a buzz topic. I would not go onto a gardening show and interrupt the gardener to talk about watering dead plants. It’s a matter of time and place. And sexist touching.
- Hannity did his best “girl” voice. While discussing the topic of torture, Heldman
"I dutch oven on the first date, and then censor your gagging with, 'LET ME FINISH!'"
asserted that waterboarding is torture even if doctors were watching. The third pundit thought that if doctors bore witness to these terrible acts, it somehow made it okay. Heldman said that just because a small handful of useful testimony does not excuse the multitude of others that were fruitless. She also brought up the point that just because there was helpful and preventative information that was gained, doesn’t mean that torture was necessarily the only route to that information. Hannity asked Heldman if she would have asked, “Pretty please Mr. Mohammad…?”
Would "Experience the Passion" be to cheesy of a caption?
- Perez Hilton, whose blog was rated among the most overrated of 2009 by Time, inadvertently produced the second topic for the Great American Panel. Apparently, he asked Miss California what she thought of Proposition 8, and she responded that she supported “opposite marriages” (hetero). I suppose he made fun of her later, for her response and Hannity was demanding that Perez should apologize. Heldman asked the appropriate question of why they were talking about Perez Hilton at all. She brought up the fact that pageants are sexist institutions (to which Nitro said, “well just don’t watch then”), and the continued objectification of the female body. The third guy, Reed, interjected with something highly forgettable.
Heldman is great. I didn’t agree with her on all points while in college, but I continue to truly admire and be influenced by her work.
**UPDATE: Since it’s over, I have a post about my interpretation of events here**
Let me be clear about this: I loathe Fox. Everything Rupert Murdoch makes me want to spew my internal organs into a ditch. That’s putting it politely.
But tonight, April 22nd, my old college mentor Dr. Caroline Heldman will be on. She’s actually a somewhat regular pundit on the show (per my youtube results) fighting the good fight against Sean Hannity, on his own turf.
Dr. Heldman is currently a political science professor at Occidental College, who continues research in areas such as gender and voter behavior. She is an incredibly intelligent and sharp person, who is funny and endlessly passionate about resolving gaps in equality that the government fails to remedy.
One skill of hers that seriously is admirable, is her uncanny ability to be concise and articulate.
I am confident you will witness this firsthand, if you choose to subject yourself to Hannity’s obnoxious talking-over, interrupting, insulting speech towards his own panelists.
I wonder how/why they let her be on the show, is it a false stereotype that they generally only pick weak people easily pushed around?
