November 30, 2002
"because the terrorist threat continues"
By golly, it had just never occurred to me that following through with a promised statutory pay raise would undermine the "war on terrorism." Still, our leaders must certainly know what they're doing, seeing that they're not against all effective...
November 28, 2002
"neither the church nor society should be surprised"
It seems appropriate, in the circumstances of the tragic story of a murder in Chicago and the uproar it has caused among certain Catholic zealots, to be reminded of a ten-year-old proclamation which originated with the Vatican Sacred Congregation for...
November 27, 2002
I think, therefore I am
I think, and I expect others to do the same. I have some control over the first part of that statement, but I am helpless in advancing, and am continually disappointed in the second. Still, I talk and I write,...
but he stays a moron
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's aide has finally been forced to resign over her calling George W. Bush a "moron."Mr. Chrétien comes from the left wing of Canada's governing Liberals and is uncomfortable with Mr. Bush's stance on many issues,...
silence in the face of fanaticism
--in the islamic world as much as anywhere else. Salman Rushdie, at first disgusted with the usage of his name by islamic neanderthals as an epithet, now decides he should take pride in the label, but asks why there aren't...
Sam Waterston
He was checking out the chantrelle in the Whole Foods Market at the end of our block today, and I was too respectful of his privacy to indicate that I recognized him. But I didn't give a damn about his...
November 26, 2002
the infinite wisdom of the right
Ah, the beautiful logic of money and power. I've been wanting for some time to post an item on the fascinating Bush health and insurance care plans and to reference a compelling dichotomy, but Ted Rall's take is superb this...
"pagan babies"
A Message, on behalf of all queers, to all strict Roman Catholics, oh, and also to all readers of The National Review: WE ARE NOT PAGAN BABIES We will not be baptized and become straight, any more than blacks will...
more on the yucky comments
To Jeff Reilly, who did not leave an email address, and to everyone else who has commented on this post: You should read what I actually wrote. Nowhere is there a reference to an evil person, but rather to evil...
yucky comments
I have not yet discontinued the "comments" function of the log, although I have been sorely tempted and may still do so. So, those who have an interest in the descriptions ["sick," "pervert," "sick fuck,"] used of me and of...
U.S. government censors health information
--supplied by its own scientific agencies. This is to save us all from the evils of information relating to human sexuality. The winners? The AIDS virus, teenage pregnancy, cancer and other diseases, ignorance, distrust, a reactionalry religious and social agenda.Over...
help the family that helps itself
The more immediate, political evil of "family values" affects all of us, whether our own families are "valued" or not. In Florida, the Bush family has been helped by the Rehnquist family, even as each family helps itself.At the request...
November 25, 2002
"then get the hell out"
John Bender tells us, sort of courtesy of Apple Computer, why he switched. "... patriotism is the rohypnol of the American public ... I heard people say if you don't love the United States of America, then get the hell...
Awww, but that's not what Chuck had in mind
He's done little enough to keep us out of the mess we're in now, since he voted for the new Department and for the office, but at least Chuck Schumer knows what kind of "big brother" he doesn't have in...
November 24, 2002
a right-wing nation, and it's on the warpath
Sound vaguely familiar? But don't draw too many parallels, even if the picture is incredibly grim. Early twentieth-century fascist and totalitarian states were created in milieus which included strong leftist parties and the regimes were not even partly driven by...
Mark Rudd, still on message
Part of The Left, of the 1960's, of New York City, of our very conscience, Mark Rudd hasn't retired altogether.Mr. Rudd, 55, lives in Albuquerque, where he teaches mathematics at the Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute, a community college. "I'm involved...
an excellent MIX 2002
Damn! Shoulda posted something before the Festival, since it ends tomorrow! Commenting now won't help you find the films and videos already screened, and it won't help the artists. ACT UP BUT. We were able to be part of the...
November 23, 2002
cover art
The current issue of The Advocate includes a story about Hispanic Chicago teenagers running a Spanish-language radio show for their GLBTZ peers and a story about the courage of a Kentucky high school gay-staight alliance in fighting the homophobia of...
American-style family values
Most Americans still believe they live in something close to a meritocracy, and most believe in the family, whatever they mean by that. It turns out that most Americans are half right.It has always been good to have a rich...
November 20, 2002
the pink triangle then, and now
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington has just inaugurated an exhibit that focuses on the Nazi persecution of homosexuals, the first of a series highlighting non-Jewish groups killed during the twelve years of the National Socialist regime.The Nazi...
are the Gauls the planet's last, best hope?
Right now who else shows the will and has an alternative culture and, perhaps, the means to withstand the American hegemony? José Bové is a hero, but he's going to need help.A star of anti-globalization has fallen. José Bové, the...
headline of the day
[describing the imminent establishment of a "Department of Homeland Security"] "ESTABLISHING NEW AGENCY IS EXPECTED TO TAKE YEARS AND COULD DIVERT IT FROM MISSION" Even if the NYTimes relegates it and the entire story to page 14, reservng the front...
now that's a real culture!
The beautiful city of Dresden is going to be alright. No, not alright, it's going to be as spectacular as it ever was. The Zwinger Museum, flooded this summer, has reopened, with 400 paintings, including works by Titian and Rubens,...
she reminded him of his mother
A gay man in the Chicago area, Nicholas Gutierrez, killed a religious woman he worked with, Mary Stachowicz, when he became enraged as she tried to talk him out of his homosexuality. Her harangues had reportedly evoked the painful memory...
November 19, 2002
can Europe arrest American madness?
Sure, the Europeans have a better understanding of the world, but can they make a difference? Edward Said observes the scene with intelligence, and an objectivity impossible for most Americans.The second major difference I have noticed between America and Europe...
"Secret Court OKs Broad Wiretap Powers"
Did we ever think we would see such a headline describing events in the land of the free? The headline is from yesterday's Reuters story, covering developments little noticed and less remarked upon by those people once described as free.WASHINGTON...
yes, Bush has overwhelming mandate
How else do we account for the silence and obvious indifference of the overwhelming majority of the U.S. population in the face of the Republicans' radical refashioning of the American economy, society and state?November 19, 2002 Low-Turnout Mandate To the...
November 18, 2002
got fascism?
Remember fascism? Maybe it's not yet in the house, but the boot is in the door, and it doesn't look like anyone is going to slam that door shut until it has made it all the way in--invited in the...
holding out for more
There's at least a little bit of Andrés in most of the people who will take the time to read his story, and so it will really mean a lot to most. Still, I sure wish I had more of...
November 16, 2002
Pee-wee's great threat to the world
Paul Reubens has been arrested again. Once again you will be able to watch the witch-hunt from the (dis)comfort of your own home. The initial Reuters story is sketchy, but the American puritanical elements should be as alarming as they...
"Our Country's Good"
Great theater, meaning brilliant writing, extraordinary and sexy cast, wonderful direction, humanist message for our own time, and for the ages, and a wonderful performance space*, but it's going to be around for just one more day! Yeah, tears too,...
November 15, 2002
selling the Government on the cheap
Along with all of the other problems it presents, this is probably the biggest patronage scheme of all time! WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 — The Bush administration said today that it would place as many as 850,000 government jobs — nearly...
sent to the showers
Like, we can afford to throw away linguists, arabic or otherwise, at a time like this, or any time!Nine Army linguists, including six trained in Arabic, have been dismissed from the military because they are gay, even as the military...
November 14, 2002
the terror of pornography and sex
As if we didn't already have plenty to worry about when flying!Three men [sailors returning to their homes in the central Pacific nation of Kiribati] carrying strange-looking documents who took turns locking themselves in the toilets before take-off on a...
speaking of calling a president on his lies
Scott Ritter, the ex-Marine and former U.N. arms inspector, hasn't yet been silenced in his own campaign against the mendacity of this particular Oval Office. His stature and his sincerity does get him some press, even if he is not...
it's not a lie if it isn't about sex
Bush Lies, Media Swallows So reads the headline of a Nation column this week, in which Eric Alterman suggests the following question: Would you rather the press tell us the President is lying about, a) a blow job, or b)...
"poetry can change the world"
Bob Holman thinks so, and it seems like his Bowery Poetry Club may have a good chance to do just that. It looks and sounds wonderful, but the genie himself may be what makes the difference.This is the poet, a...
November 13, 2002
ignorance is . . . "security?"
The "homeland security" bill accepted by Republican-Democrats yesterday does not include a provision for the creation of an independent commission to investigate the circumstances leading up to Sept. 11, although in September the Senate had actually overwhelmingly agreed to add...
oh yeah, "security"
Yesterday the Republican-Democratic Party won again!Democrats who had held up the [bill creating a monstrous Homeland Security Department] before Republicans regained control of Congress in the midterm elections gave in to relaxed Civil Service rules demanded by the White House....
ACT UP video
They're back, and they're still pretty queer, puckish and annoying as hell, and I mean all of that in the very best way! ACT UP Actually, like AIDS, they never went away, even if some of us did, but lately...
November 12, 2002
puff and lies from the media
White House officials said Mr. Bush, whose service in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War meant that he was not sent to fight in Southeast Asia, had never before visited the monument as president. But we've known...
"Hey! You! Get off of my cloud"
Barry found this wonderful photo and story. A proposed law would essentially restrict French prostitutes from looking like they are marketing themselves, supposedly making everybody else feel so much better. The Interior Minister of the new center-right government argues that...
"Das Rheingold" set in Boca Raton
"Boca." Wonderfully perverse. We've now very happy to have been able to see it twice, the first time in its original presentation by Target Margin Theater, and last night, with largely the same, and definitely at least as wonderful, cast,...
November 11, 2002
emptying the cupboard and pocketing the goods themselves
Over a period of years they have somehow been able to fool enough voters (and nonvoters!) to get into the position where they can finally acomplish their fundamental but hidden, goals.There is a method to the G.O.P.'s tax cut madness,...
all citizens are not equal
One month ago at John F. Kennedy Airport the U.S arrested and deported to Syria a Canadian citizen who was returning from a vacation with his wife and young children. He was at JFK only to switch planes on his...
Royals now roiled routinely?
But this is England! Every bloke there plays with his mates and now and again, and besides, everybody was gay in the eighties, weren't they?Today's batch of headlines included claims that Charles, the Prince of Wales, hushed up the rape...
U.S paid off Security Council
But of course we already knew this.UNITED NATIONS - Friday's unanimous vote in the U.N. Security Council supporting the U.S. resolution on weapons inspections in Iraq was a demonstration of Washington's ability to wield its vast political and economic power,...
November 10, 2002
"The American people just don't have a clue as to what's coming."
So spake James Carville, just after the election, as we learn from Mark Morford's scary but entiely plausible alarum....Congress will now have almost zero struggle or balanced counterargument when the GOP chooses to ram through more generally invidious resolutions and...
"America is not a happy place"
A view from London, and also pretty much the view, I must admit, from this desk in New York City.Europeans do not understand the curious civilization that the current America is becoming, and the grip that a visceral and idiosyncratic...
"I think it's a power trip"
How did we end up supporting a man and a government whose interests and policies are so patently offensive and contrary to the welfare of at least ninety-five percent of the nation? One statement keeps coming back to me as...
remembering the real Giuliani
--before he was canonized by September 11. Some of us will not forget the man who essentially presided over a regime of terrorism against the poor and the weak, and who encouraged its most visible instrument, the New York Police...
November 9, 2002
half the muslim world is invisible
--and no one anywhere is doing much to change that, since the people involved are not men. In Amsterdam, with a huge significant immigrant population dominated by those who share her religious heritage, Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been trying to...
entering the Hobbesian jungle
Jane Smiley, not without a certain perverse delight, says, in a letter to the NYTimes editor, that she's now rather pleased with the election outcome. To the Editor: Re "Into the Wilderness," by Paul Krugman (column, Nov. 8): The Republican...
fighting nothing with nothing
Quote of the day, found in the last sentence of the following excerpt from Frank Rich's column:As the reigning cliché had it, 2002 was the "Seinfeld" election — an election about nothing. But how could an election in the midst...
the man in the moon is not a Democrat?
In one of the best pieces to appear since November 5, Thomas Scott Tucker talks, on his own site, about where the Democratic Party came from, where it went and where it now has to go, to survive.In the wake...
November 6, 2002
death watch
The junta in Washington frightened, seduced or merely distracted, us with a war of its own invention. Is this nation cowardly, insane or just plain stupid? Never mind. The consequences will be the same, regardless of the answer. The people...
November 5, 2002
the Hummer , daring or cowardly?
Another letter in the NYTimes today puts the lie to the boasts of Hummer owners and GM's marketing campaign. Note that the vehicle in question is the "small" HummerTo the Editor: I'm not surprised that the H2 is such a...
U.S. resented, not envied
In the context of a letter to the editor responding to a really problematic NYTimes OP-Ed piece by Thomas L. Friedman, the writer includes a compelling european view of the U.S. today.The United States is the friendly but overweight neighbor...
Paul Wellstone, et al
[Barry and I are sharing this greeting today.] An Election Day post courtesy of Thomas Scott Tucker's "Open Letter." We knew there had been at least one reason why we had some negative feelings about Paul Wellstone: Whatever can be...
November 4, 2002
wow! wow! wow!
["Queer" and "Culture!"] Beautiful. Wonderful art, theatre and activism and love. We should all be so fortunate as to be as creative and bold as Patricia Cronin and Deb Kass! For more, see the three links in the highlighted names...
November 3, 2002
dulling up New York
I don't know what to say about this story. I know what I feel about golf, and I certainly have mixed feelings about the Russian Tea Room's history, but is this what is to become of New York?...
scouts' dishonor
So it's not good enough to be straight if you want to remain in scouting; you also have to be religious.[Eagle Scout] Lambert, who is 19 and has been an atheist since studying evolution in the ninth grade, was told...
guarding the coasts
Maybe the big story in the arrival of hundreds of Haitians on the Florida coast is not just the interruption of traffic or even the clear preference of our laws for Cuban refugees over their Haitian counterparts. A letter in...
November 2, 2002
the bird
No name yet. This little guy (gal?) essentially flew into our apartment this afternoon. I was in the kitchen when I heard a soft thump at the window of the breakfast room. I looked up and saw a bright little...
November 1, 2002
"Can I carry it on the subway?"
I've always called it my magic carpet, for the, to me, obvious reasons of its magical appearances (usually) and ease of operation (also only usually), but for many New Yorkers it's a truck as well. It's the subway!While other Americans...
