Okay, If you want me to say it I’ll say it

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/meet-the-press/52355266#52355266

In response to Ralph Reed: Yes, Bill Clinton signed DOMA to to pander to anti-gay bigots and then ran radio ads in the south in 1996 touting the fact that he had signed it. The same goes for everyone who voted for DOMA. Either bigots or bigot panders every one. And yes, Obama was afraid to come out for gay marriage until last year for fear of the political consequences from anti-gay bigots if he did support marriage equality. Yes, it’s bigotry to deny people rights based on their sexual orientation, sex, race, ethnicity or anything like that. If you advocate for discrimination you are a bigot. You are a bigot, Mr. Reed. And you too Mr. DeMint. If you don’t like being called a bigot, stop being one.

The New York Times, late to the party as always, reveals what everyone in the opera world has known for YEARS!

Shut up and listen!

Within days of listening to the most recent episode of the Godless Bitches podcast, this happened. The “bitches” (I use the term affectionately) were discussing some recent events in which men got all butthurt because women actually expected men to treat their issues and concerns seriously. I guess some men-children hear that as “shut up and listen”. As I was thinking about that I realized that the vast majority of men (I’d guesstimate somewhere around 99.9%) DO need to listen more to what women have to say. Think about it. How well represented are women’s opinions in the media? And no, I don’t count The View. How often are women, half the population, given half the chairs on a roundtable? How often, even then, do they get half the time? I’m not asking for quotas but this is 2013 and if women aren’t 50% of the contributors in media at this point then it was intentional the include more men than women. There are plenty of women in public life and in the media to choose from to fill those seats. Why isn’t it happening?

And then this happened. On the eve of the historic gay marriage decision from SCOTUS, women stood up and demanded to be heard in Austin. It may not have been “the shot heard ’round the world” but it was definitely heard. It’s long past time for women to demand to be heard. So what if some wimpy man-child doesn’t want to hear you. It’s TIME for men to listen to what women have to say. Well past time, actually. Brava, divas. (I used diva in the operatic sense as if they’d just sung the crap out of the Queen of the Night’s arias.) Brave, tutte!

The bigot as victim OR why Paula Deen needs to STFU now

The religious right has played the victim for awhile now on the issue of gay rights, but to see someone well known and presumably media-savvy like Paula Deen play the victim because she got caught using the n-word and telling racist jokes is just bizarre. In Texas I hear this crap all the time, so one can imagine that Deen is surrounded by people equally racist who use that word and tell such jokes.  So I understand that she feels victimized.  People like that usually do. What I don’t understand is why there isn’t someone on her staff to tell her that her “apologies” are just making things worse for her.  Unfortunately a great many Americans live in bubbles in which their most ridiculous or even heinous utterings go unchallenged until they find themselves in a situation like this.  Deen is obviously free to believe and say whatever she wants.  The rest of us are also free to change the channel or buy someone else’s products.  I do think it’s sad that she sees herself as the victim.  Her blubbering appearance on yesterday’s Today Show would have been embarrassing for anyone with any character at all.  Sadly she doesn’t seem to have any of that at all, otherwise she wouldn’t be in this mess.

Nickeled and Dimed at McDonald’s (by way of Chase Bank)

A McDonald’s work in Pennsylvania has complained about being paid with a high fee Chase debit card instead of by check or direct deposit. I saw a lot of despicable behavior at the Wall Street banks but ripping off minimum wage employees is a new level of bankster depravity.

Samantha Bee on Gays who Bully Christians

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-17-2013/left-behind

Samantha Bee is the best fake news reporter on television. Her parody of the vapid telejournalist is dead-on. This latest on Christians being bullied by gays is particularly good. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday, Robert Merrill

One of America’s greatest baritones was born on this day in 1917. (Hat tip to Sam Ramey for reminding us.) “Per me giunto” from Verdi’s Don Carlo. Younger people may better know Bob Merrill from singing the National Anthem at Yankees games for years after his retirement from the opera stage.

Film buff: The best of Erich Wolfgang Korngold

One of my favorite composers is also the man who pretty much invented the modern film score. Some of these are familiar and others not so much. I still watch Robin Hood at least twice a year. Sea Hawk is also a personal favorite for the same reason. Enjoy!

#$%& people actually said to me, part 1

One of the reasons I wanted to start a blog was to comment and the crazy #$%& people actually say to me either in person or online.  The following is a very good example of the kind of batshit crazy things that people say.  I wonder if they can hear themselves say them or if they are just so invested in their own personal brand of crazy that their cognitive dissonance overrides their common sense.

It was in a discussion about something the new pope had said and naturally the conversation had veered off into the child rape scandal and after many exchanges the person who shall remain nameless wrote the following:

“In the last decade I have probably met hundreds of priests: a few mediocre ones, many good ones, and a few exceptional ones. No criminals. No child rapists. Not a single one. But really a lot of humble and good men at the service of their people. How you get your totally black picture of the Church on the basis of the abuses of about 2-3% of priests, while wholly ignoring the good work of the other 97% – and then claim that your criticism is fair and/or balanced is beyond me. I am absolutely not “fine” wit h the ab uses, they are extremely distressing and horrible. But they are still ***2-3%*** of priests – a much lower ratio than the ratio of abuses committed by single or married men. You don’t see the double standard in your extremely harsh judgment? It is completely out of proportion with the facts. I suppose I can’t blame you for it because this has been pretty much the approach of most of the media.”

Okay let’s think about that.  For this person it’s not that big a deal that ONLY 2-3% of priests are pedophiles.  There are currently about 440,000 priests worldwide.  If 2% (and I can’t verify that statistic) are child rapists, that’s 8,800.  Now let’s assume that the estimate is high and we’ll cut that number in half.  4,400 priests seeking to rape children is a pretty fucking big deal if you ask me!  Look at how easily it was dismissed.  And I’m sorry but this is the attitude I commonly find among practicing Catholics.  “They didn’t all do that.”  As if anyone said that the problem was that ALL priests were pedophiles.  No one says that.  What alarms anyone who doesn’t have their heads up their asses is that there were thousands of priests raping children and that a very large, wealthy and powerful organizations shuttled them around to new parishes with even more potential victims and helped cover up for the crimes and shield them from prosecution.  It’s Jerry Sandusky multiplied thousands of times.  That’s the problem, and to this day I don’t think any cardinal or pope are truly acknowledged the vastness of the problem or the church’s own culpability.  And of course there’s the excuse that the church does a lot of good work.  Yes, it does.  But tell me exactly how many good works it takes to make up for raping one child?  Please supply me with an actual figure so I can do the math.  I’m disgusted not only at this kind of rationalization but that people who make them don’t even have the good sense to be ashamed for defending an organization that was an accomplice before the fact in thousands of cases of rape and statutory rape.

Sick to death of “woo”

I have adopted the term “woo” to refer to unproven beliefs.  Things like homeopathy fall into that category.  So last week the wife of an old friend posted something on Facebook (or rather “shared”) on the dangers of Splenda.  What was interesting was the copy in the picture offered rather specific “fact” about the dangers of this artificial sweetener with no sourcing.  Since I have found (anecdotally) that most anything like this in a forwarded email or shared facebook meme is a hoax or at best widly distorted from the original information, I asked for more detail.  I got more woo, encouraging the use of “raw sugar” (which is still sugar and has as many calories).  Not only was their no attempt to provide real evidence (a published study, perhaps).  Everyone was perfectly happy to accept information that fit into their world view and dismiss any skepticism on my part.  For all I know the claims of liver and kidney damage are true, but if they are there should be some evidence to back up such a claim.  Without such evidence I will continue to be skeptical.