Could We Scare Her Away by Playing a Slim Whitman Record?

Oh…

That Slim Whitman thing happened in Mars Attacks, didn’t it?

My bad.

Will American Airlines Walk the ENDA Walk? Or Just Mealy the ENDA Mouth?

From Queer Channel Media:

American Airlines, one of the world’s largest airlines, has written Congress a letter endorsing the Employee Nondiscrimination Act, according to a press release.

Should I bother saying anything about the fact that Queer Channel Media can’t even get the name of the bill right?  Its tempting – but I won’t.

The letter of support was signed by Denise Lynn, American’s vice president for diversity and leadership strategies, Michael Wascom, American’s managing director of international and governmental affairs, and Betty Young, American’s national sales and marketing manager for the gay community.

“(We are) proud to express our strong support of federal workplace non-discrimination legislation that would extend basic job protections to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans.  We are proud to have been the first major airline to implement same-sex domestic partner benefits, first to implement both sexual orientation and gender identity in our workplace non-discrimination policies, and first to have a recognized LGBT employee resource group – GLEAM,” the press release said.

“Our endorsement of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is consistent with our longstanding Statement of Equal Opportunity … The principles fostered by ENDA are consistent with our corporate principles in treating all employees with fairness and respect.  On behalf of our more than 80,000 employees, we appreciate your consideration and encourage Congress to enact this important legislation.”

Well – of which ENDA does AA speaketh?

AA says T and means T with respect to its own policy, but does it really mean T when it comes to ENDA?

Will AA step up and oppose the Aravosis-Crain-HRC-St. Barney ENDA 3685? 

Or is it saying what it needs to say to con trans people into believing that we matter?

Mistakes? God?

About a month ago, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had a rather good article about a female police officer who learned that she’s intersexed.

Anger doesn’t live under Darlene Harris’ skin anymore.

It’s melting away — the same way bad memories do — along with the confusion she has carried from a rocky childhood in New York City’s housing projects to her life as an Atlanta police officer.

She now knows why her voice is so deep, why she’s always been attracted to women, why she can grow a full beard.

Harris is intersex — someone whose internal or external sexual anatomy or chromosomes don’t fit the typical definitions of female or male at birth or puberty, according to Sharon Preves, a sociology professor and intersex researcher from St. Paul, Minn.

Genetic testing recently revealed that Harris carries the XY chromosomes of a male while having external sexual anatomy that appears to be a blend of a man’s and woman’s.

Okay.

And Harris works as “the Atlanta Police Department’s liaison to people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender.”

Also okay.

But, something else in the article is a bit troubling.

It wasn’t until Harris started dating her current girlfriend in late 2007 that she went to a gynecologist to explore the differences in her body and, in turn, her anger issues.

That visit led Harris to an endocrinologist, who ran a chromosome test in February that offered medical proof to support how she feels: like a man in a woman’s body.

The news made Harris weep.

“It has lifted the burden off me and also released a lot of the anger,” Harris said. “I was angry and I couldn’t understand why.”

Harris said she thought about having a sex change to male, but decided against it.

“For what?” she asked. “God doesn’t make mistakes. I’m just uniquely different.”

She has quickly found peace being somewhere in the middle.

Now, I’m not in any way criticizing her feelings about herself or about what she has chosen to do and/or not do with respect to her own life and sexuality.  She didn’t want to transition?  Who cares?  I don’t.  I’m happy that she’s happy.

What does creep me out a bit is her interposing religious authority against the notion of a sex change – not the fact that she herself has some mythological groundings for her own life, but the possibility that she might interpose that same religious authority against people she may happen to come in contact with as part of her official duties (she is, after all, the liason to transgender people as well as GLB folks) who not only may have no religious problem with the notion of transitioning but who may actually be transitioning or have already transitioned.

Yes, it was just one quote.

Yes, it could have been out of context.

But, where there’s smoke…?

Paul Newman, RIP

Damn.

Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as the anti-hero of such films as “Hud,” “Cool Hand Luke” and “The Color of Money” _ and as an activist, race car driver and popcorn impresario _ has died. He was 83

And I’m sure almost no one will mention my favorite movie of his: Blaze. 

It wasn’t a big hit, but, then again, I guess there aren’t enough people who grew up in the vicinity of Louisiana to appreciate just how fucked up Louisiana politics is – and how Earl K. Long actually was not the nuttiest character to emerge from it but was definitely worth a movie unto himself (and I won’t even mention how hot Lolita Davidovitch was in it as Blaze Starr.)

More Fantastic Pseudo-Journalistic Hackery From Charlie Butts?

You remember Charlie Butts, right?  The person – assuming he actually exists – who penned this work of fiction journalism?

Baltimore residents have lost their battle against an ordinance protecting transgendered people.

Under the controversial “gender identity” law, a man would be allowed to walk into a women’s restroom or shower room claiming he believes himself to be a woman, essentially opening the door for rape or sexual molestation. In July a lower Montgomery County court agreed more than 900,000 petition signers had the right to see it on the ballot to choose whether to overturn it — but it was appealed.

900K?  Not quite.

Well, he’s at it again – this time pecking about Diane Schroer’s (thus far) successful employment discrimination suit against the Library of Congress.

A federal court has ruled against the Library of Congress for refusing to hire a transgendered person.

The American Civil Liberties Union says the ruling sends a message to employers everywhere that if they fire or refuse to hire someone for transitioning to another gender, they can be held liable. Mat Staver, dean of Liberty University’s law school and founder of Liberty Counsel, believes the decision is outrageous.
 
“This is why there needs to be sanity within our legal system with regards to this homosexual agenda, which will literally undermine the whole concept of law and the rule of law,” Staver contends. “And it also underscores why we need judges on the bench who will judge and not legislate their own ideology.”

To be fair to Mr. Butts, here, this One News, Not! piece might not be the hackery that the other one was.  In fact, clearly, the wackiness is from Staver – who actually does exist and, sadly, appears to actually believe the nonsense he spews.

The Liberty Counsel founder believes it is essential to appeal the case. “The question, however, that we have to ask is what will the Supreme Court of the United States do with this?” Staver wonders. “It’s probably going to be a very tightly divided court on this issue because we have some justices on the Supreme Court who [couldn’t] care less about the Constitution, federal or state law, or the rule of law in general.”

Notice that he doesn’t say anything about legislative history?  Or the fact that the judge who issued the opinion in the case relied on the reasoning of that flaming liberal Antonin Scalia?!?!

Of course, here’s the money shot:

Staver hopes voters will keep in mind when they go into the voting booths in November that the next president will likely appoint several new justices.

Yes – frighten voters with the possibility that employment decisions might be based on ability rather than religionist bigotry.

Have at it.

And (Probably During the Debate Tonight) Several ‘I’d Like to Lose This Platform Plank’ Moments

Sara Whitman over at Bilerico pointed this out.  H/T to Sara.

From the 2008 Republican Party Platform:

Rebuilding Homeownership

Homeownership remains key to creating an opportunity society. We support timely and carefully targeted aid to those hurt by the housing crisis so that affected individuals can have a chance to trade a burdensome mortgage for a manageable loan that reflects their home’s market value. At the same time, government action must not implicitly encourage anyone to borrow more than they can afford to repay. We support energetic federal investigation and, where appropriate, prosecution of criminal wrongdoing in the mortgage industry and investment sector.  We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself. We believe in the free market as the best tool to sustained prosperity and opportunity for all. We encourage potential buyers to work in concert with the lending community to educate themselves about the responsibilities of purchasing a home, condo, or land.

Remember that ‘ownership society‘ thing? 

Fact Sheet: America’s Ownership Society: Expanding Opportunities

 

“…if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of our country. The more ownership there is in America, the more vitality there is in America, and the more people have a vital stake in the future of this country.”

-President George W. Bush, June 17, 2004

Yeh – it looks like we’re all going to have a stake in bailing out your buddies, eh John?  So quit pretending that you give a shit people who don’t have spouses who wear $300,000 outfits.

And One ‘I’ve Lost My Mind’ Moment

Apparently, this internet ad hasn’t simply been run prior to the debate; it appeared before McPhilGramm had even ‘decided’ to attend the debate tonite in Oxford, Mississippi.

 

Here’s the Crooks and Liars item.  Its worth a read.

Two ‘I’ve Lost Cronkite’ Moments in One Week

First it was David Letterman rocketing past a thousand lumps of journalism oatmeal to analyze John McPhilGramm the way the lumps of journalism oatmeal should have been analyzing him.

Now, its Kathleen Parker at the National Review:

Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.

Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

Oh, but it gets better.

When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: “I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?”

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

Here’s to hoping that she never gets the oppotunity to try.

Yet Another Tale of Rep. Barney St. Bigot O’Dumbass

From an interview in Gay Military Times:

GMT:  Now, although this is not actually part of the debate, in the interest of inclusion, what about Transgender service?  Just in the past month a survey of transgender service members and veterans by Transgender American Veterans Association, analyzed by the Palm Center, revealed that they are being discriminated against, as if they were gay or lesbian, under DADT because the military often doesn’t understand the difference.

BF:  I think the rule is that people should not be discriminated against due to their gender identity.  Now, I hope we will get a bill through on job discrimination.  But we are not going to get trough a bill on integrating people [in the military] with one set of sex organs to be identified as the other sex.

Yet again…

What about people who once had a particular genital configuration but now have another? 

St. Barney has never – so far as I’m aware – ever addressed why, assuming that pre-ops and non-ops (particularly MTFs) are the problem, ENDA (or anything else which would encompass rights of transsexuals) can’t be written to cover at least post-ops in all situations and everyone else in occupations where showers are not part of the job equation.

As for the military?  If ‘the penis problem’ is the problem, then perhaps pre-ops and non-ops might get short shrift.  But if there’s no penis, there how can there be a penis problem?  In the military – or anywhere else?

The Tale of Sir Robin, err…, Sen. McConArtist

When you see that you’re about to lose (and perhaps get stomped worse than anyone in history, assuming that the bailout bullshit is still on people’s minds on Nov. 4th) whaddaya do?

Leave.

Which is a strategy that only has any chance of working if the other team leaves as well.

Or unless you’re dealing with knights who say ‘ni’

But, when last I checked, Monty Python and the Holy Grail was a financial success.

From CNN:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign to return to Washington and focus on the “historic” crisis facing the U.S. economy.

The Arizona senator called on his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, to do the same.

Don’t do it!

Everything that this crooked old bastard has worked for during his career in Congress just came home to roost. 

Serve it up to him – and if he won’t bite, pry his lying gums open and shove it down his throat.

The fact that his party of greedy deviant christianist psychopaths have pinned their presidential aspirations on him is irrelevant.  We – Americans who, if we’re lucky, have one house and one car each (as opposed to 7 and 13 or however many) and have never even met anyone who believes its not obscene to wear a $300,000 outfit (much less married someone who has no problem with it) – want this debate to happen and this campaign to continue and we have an absolute right to see all of those who have perpetrated this financial rape of our nation exposed and called to account.

The fact the presidential candidate of the party of greedy deviant christianist psychopaths is someone who has spent five time longer in Congress – aiding an abetting the people and criminal enterprises who have destroyed the financial system – than he did in a POW camp is something that we deserve to see him have to answer to.

Every second of every minute of every day between now and Nov. 4th.

And especially Friday night in Oxford, Mississippi.

But, it looks as though America will be singing…

Brave Sir McConArtist ran away, bravely ran away away

When the economy reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and ran…