There’s been commentary elsewhere about the weird segment on CNN’s Capital Gang that was devoted entirely to the death of Pope John Paul II. But one aspect of the show that has not been mentioned sticks in my personal craw. Toward the end of the hour-long program, they showed an eight-minute "special report" on douchebag of liberty Robert Novak’s conversion from Judaism to Catholicism. The segment, narrated by Judy Woodruff, begins as follows (scroll about 3/4 of the way down): It was one day some years ago that this man [Novak], known to many as the Prince of Darkness, walked into one of the oldest churches in Washington and saw the light. And it ends with Woodruff saying this: "And so it was that the Prince of Darkness embraced the Prince of Peace." Let me be clear: I have no problem with anyone converting to whatever religion they want, nor do I have any problem with Novak or anyone else finding that Catholicism does a better job meeting his spiritual needs than Judaism did (or vice versa). What I don’t like is CNN describing a Jew accepting the Catholic faith as "seeing the light." Nor do I particularly care for [...]
Black robes, white robes, I can never keep it straight
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Dr. James Dobson, one of the wingnuttiest of the wingnuts and head of "Focus on the Family," compared the "men in white robes," i.e., the Ku Klux Klan, who "did great wrong to civil rights and to morality," to the "black robed men" now serving on the US Supreme Court. (Don’t believe it? Listen for yourself – it’s the daily radio broadcast of April 11, at about 23:00 into the tape.) I’m offended, deeply offended, by Dr. Dobson’s profoundly sexist remarks. What about Justices O’Connor and Ginsburg? Are their robes not just as black as those of their male colleagues? To Dr. Dobson, I can only say this: Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
Reminder: Special elections are TODAY
Remember all that hoopla a few weeks back about the special elections, the disenfranchised BU students, and all the rest of it? Well, those were just the primaries. The elections that will actually determine who gets a new job on Beacon Hill are TODAY, and if you live in the Suffolk 12th (Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, Milton), Suffolk 18th (Allston, Brighton, Brookline), or Berkshire 3rd (Pittsfield), you should take a few minutes to stop by your polling place.
ACTION ALERT: Hearing at State House on anti-gay bills on Tuesday
On Tuesday, April 12, starting at 1 pm, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary will hold a hearing on several bills that can only be described as legislative gay-bashing: House bill 652, a bill of address that requests the removal from office of Justices Marshall, Greaney, Ireland, and Cowin (the Goodridge majority); House bill 653, a new proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, ban civil unions, and ban domestic partnership benefits (this would have to be passed by the next legislature as well so it could not go to the ballot until 2008); and House bill 654, a bill that would undo all same-sex marriages performed since Goodridge went into effect. These are all wacko proposals, and none of them seems likely to pass. Nonetheless, MassEquality is trying to turn out the pro-marriage forces so that the legislature realizes that people really do care about this issue. (There are also some pro-marriage bills on the agenda: three that would codify Goodridge, and one that would repeal the infamous 1913 law.) So if you’re interested and available, the hearing is in room B-2 in the State House. B-2 is in the basement, and it is not easy to find [...]
