The Bilerico Project

Georgetown, symbols and the media

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:00:00 -0500

I'm sitting here shaking my head over the "situation" at Georgetown University. You know the one - it's been on the news cycle and in lots and lots of online media - about how the university covered up the symbol that represented the name of Jesus. [Here's Media Matters on the issue, contrasting with Fox News. -Ed.]

Here's my issue. How many people know what Obama said when he spoke at Georgetown? I had to actually Google the speech to find out because all I got from the media was the issue of the covered symbol.

I understand all about the 24/7 news cycle and how they have to fill air time. And I understood, under Bush, why people got so invested in minutia rather than the really big issues of the day. When you feel helpless and afraid it's not unusual to focus on something over which you can safely be upset. But now??

And what's our role in this? Is there anything we can do, as consumers, to alert the media that we want news of substance? Is the covered symbol really worth this much air time?

And before someone blasts me for this post in the context of some religious issue, I've already considered how I would feel if the symbol of my religion was covered. And my conclusion is that I would take a rational look at the situation and then make a decision about whether it was important enough to make an issue. I understand that Georgetown did this exact same thing last time a President spoke there - so - that takes me back to my original issue. What's the big deal?

So what's so wrong about a little bit of unpaid taxes?

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:30:00 -0500

I mean, clearly, this is not an usual situation. Lots of folks don't pay their taxes - or pay them, but not quite all of them - or even have liens against them for back taxes due for 16 years.

I have to admit that I'm feeling a little silly because I, personally, am not one of those people. I pay my taxes every single year. I'm never happy about it, but I do it. It always bothers me to see how much of my pay has gone to fund programs over which I have little to no control or wars for which I didn't vote and don't support. But still, I pay my taxes.

And now I'm feeling kind of silly that I've paid everything I owed every year.

Continue reading "So what's so wrong about a little bit of unpaid taxes?"...

Ak-scent-tu-ate the Positive

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:30:00 -0500

That phrase is from a (probably very) old song - "Accentuate the Positive," by Johnny Mercer. Well, that's what I feel like doing this morning from here in (really cold!) Denver at Creating Change. Yesterday when I arrived at the Denver airport, I followed the crowd to the escalators, moved with them onto the train, spent time scrolling through my blackberry and, finally, exited at that main terminal.

Looking around for where I should go to get a shuttle I came to a dead halt and suddenly was fully "in the moment." There - stretched across a large railing facing everyone getting off the train was a banner from Creating Change welcoming us and announcing the conference. US! Right there! Proud as anything and big as life!

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Activism and Change

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 10:00:00 -0500

A comment I wrote on AlterNet in response to a post about Obama's recovery plan got me started on a line of thought about how we approach advocacy and activism. I guess, since my flame-retardant garments are at the cleaners, that I should begin by saying "not all of us" and "no, I don't mean you!"

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Palin rumor that could cost Dems the election!

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:00:00 -0500

I was at a dinner last night with someone who has, in the past, had access to private information about candidates that later proved correct. This person shared with us that the devastating rumor is around Palin's statement of her official position on abortion.

[RUMOR] When Palin announces her official position it will be that she, personally, does not believe in abortion and believes, based on her faith (is this sounding like Biden's comment to anyone else?) that life begins at conception, but she does not believe that there should be any laws restricting the rights of other women to make their own decisions. [/RUMOR]

I bracketed that with the word RUMOR because that's just what it is - a RUMOR. But I wanted to share it so everyone else I know would feel as frightened as I.

Palin: A serious dose of reality

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:00:00 -0500

This morning I had one of those ah-ha moments that leaves you slightly ill and trembling as you confront a reality of which you were aware but had somehow managed to avoid.

In so many places, on lists and on blogs, from pundits to activists, a kind of celebration of Palin's candidacy as a gift from above for the Obama campaign. There is a special delight in her lack of experience. There are intelligent discussions of her possible ethics violation. There have been days of discussions of her family's decisions around her unmarried, pregnant 17 year old. All of these no-brainer "we win" discussions have had me nodding my head while holding my breath.

There's no question in my mind that choosing Palin was a serious mistake. I mean, what was he thinking? How could anyone put her up there a heartbeat away from that phone that could ring in the middle of the night? No brainer. Obama wins the election.

Until this morning and a phone call from someone close to me....

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Palin and the GOP: Making the accidental case for sex ed

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:00:00 -0500

I am following all of the rumors about Palin's daughter being the real birth mother of Trig, followed by the release of information that her 17 year old unmarried daughter, Bristol, is pregnant.

McCain's own staff said they released this information in an effort to stop the rumors about the baby, Trig, being Bristol's.

Enter - comprehensive sexuality education that would have taught those folks that having one child doesn't preclude having another, and that lots of women get pregnant when their first child is only three or four months old.

But it seems to me that this is all family stuff, not the meat of a political campaign when we have so very much on the line politically. If Palin did lie to protect her daughter from a scandal, it wasn't when she was a candidate for VP and it has little to do with her qualifications (or lack thereof) for that position.

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Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you!

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:30:00 -0500

...but it also doesn't necessarily mean they are.

It's not always about the fact that we're gay or lesbian, into bdsm, too fat or too thin, heterosexual, gender neutral, gender queer, two-spirit, transgendered, a cross-dresser, a person of color, etc., etc.

I know someone who is x. They are rude, angry, miserable and aggressive in their insistence that no one likes them because they are x. It is this person's firm belief - their absolute 100% insistence too - that no one wants to be with them, listen to them, act on whatever they want done, not because of them as a person but, rather, because they are x.

I think that there is often a fine-line we have to walk when we cry "foul" over behavior or media coverage (or lack thereof). Sometimes we're simply not a likable person. Sometimes our behavior makes us someone others might want to avoid. Sometimes someone doesn't want to be with us not because we're x, y or z but, rather, because they simply don't like us.

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How these things happen...

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:30:00 -0500

This is not from one article but, rather, a series of articles. It's a perfect illustration of how the radical right will seize on something (anything!) and, with no research, without even reading the readily available facts, make it into an issue to "prove" their rhetoric in some way.

An article appeared yesterday in the paper: Gay Sets U.S. Record in 100 Meter Dash at U.S. Olympic Trials

Tyson Gay set a new U.S. record in the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials, beating Maurice Green's nine-year-old mark by .02 seconds.

Gay, the defending world champion in the 100 and 200 meters, covered the distance in 9.77 seconds at the trials in Eugene, Oregon

A "pro family" group titled the AP version of the news on their site: "Homosexual eases into 100 final at Olympic trials"

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Pro-life is anti-woman

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:30:00 -0500

I suspect that I've heard every single Carlin routine at one time or another in my life. Since his death, there's been a revisiting of many of his performances. I listen to them now, from the perspective of my work and my awareness of social justice issues, with a recognition of the battles being fought every day to win the rights about which he speaks so eloquently, invoking humor to deliver very powerful messages.

I wonder, as I listen to this routine (where, incidentally, he makes the point that the Catholic Church and "homosexuals" should be natural allies on the abortion issue since no one has less abortions than homosexuals. He is, of course, kidding - just in case anyone reads the post and doesn't watch the video), if in his humor there might be talking points for us - new ways to deliver old messages?

iPhone users: Click to watch

I'm voting Republican because...

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:00:00 -0500

Those were the words in the subject line of an email I received from a friend of mine who is one of those folks declaring that if the nominee wasn't Hillary, they would rather vote for McCain. So I was going to pass on watching the video - figuring it was just more justification for what I can only describe as rank stupidity. Then I decided I'd watch it and try one more time to show her how ridiculous she was being.

iPhone users: Click to watch

More after the jump...

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Does the Supreme Court of the United States affirm sexual freedom as a fundamental human right?

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:00:00 -0500

Does the Supreme Court of the United States agree with us when we affirm that sexual freedom is a fundamental human right? You bet it does!!

In Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 588 (2003), the Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed sexual freedom as a fundamental human right protected by the United States Constitution. Lawrence v. Texas was a landmark case, affirming a constitutional protection of sexual privacy. In the 6-3 ruling, the justices struck down the sodomy law that had criminalized homosexual sex in Texas. The majority held that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected by substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment, which ruling invalidates laws in the US that purport to criminalize homosexual activity between consenting adults acting in private. It also invalidates the application of sodomy laws to heterosexual sex based solely on morality concerns.

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Larry King, Jon Stewart and "is America ready for....?"

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:05:00 -0500

In Larry King's interview with Jon Stewart, Larry was asking him about the primaries. I didn't see the episode, but someone shared Jon's response with me and I thought I'd return the favor and share it here....

Larry asked Jon if America was ready for a "woman or a black president."

Jon looked at him quizzically and said, "This is such a non-question... Did anyone ask us in 2000 if Americans were ready for a MORON?"

Rebates

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:32:35 -0500

A friend just shared this with me, pointing out that it is clearly in the best interest of the government to legalize sex!

"The federal government is sending each and every one of us a $600 rebate.

If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money will go to China. If we spend it on gasoline it will go to the Arabs, if we purchase a computer it will go to India, if we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, if we purchase a good car it will go to Japan, if we purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy.

The only way to keep that money here at home is to buy prostitutes and beer, since these are the only products still produced in the US.

Thank you for your help."

Celebrating Women's History Month, Victoria Woodhull and Sexual Freedom

ricci@bilerico.com (Ricci Levy) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:02:00 -0500

"A very large proportion of present social relations are commendable. Do you not perceive that the law has nothing to do in continuing the relations which are based on continuous love?"

Victoria Woodhull (1838 - 1927)

The first woman to run for U.S. President (before all women even had the right to vote) is best known for advocating women's sexual freedom during America's repressive Victorian era. That visionary was Victoria Woodhull, a woman living in the Victoria era who refused to be constrained by the sexual repression of that age.

As part of the celebration of Women's History Month, we recognize Woodhull's contributions to the world in which we live today.

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