Friday, January 20, 2006
Our crapulous press
Paul Krugman, in today's NY Times, wants to know, as much as I want to know:
It's interesting, though, that Scott McClellan has announced that the White House, contrary to earlier promises, won't provide any specific information about contacts between Mr. Abramoff and staff members.
So I have a question for my colleagues in the news media: Why isn't the decision by the White House to stonewall on the largest corruption scandal since Warren Harding considered major news?
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Kudos to the Barista!
Our very own (well, Montclair's, anyway - Essex County pride!) Debbie Galant, the Barista of Bloomfield Ave., has gotten a nice little notice from Doc Searls, thanks in no small part to her guest blogging at Jay Rosen's PressThink.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Unstylish life
I just read a roundup of news about the despicable Ocean County NJ Freeholders/ Lt. Laurel Hester hoo-hah, and was struck, as I always am, by the editorializing implicit in the press' use of the word "lifestyle" when what they really mean is "sexual orientation."
"Gay" is not a lifestyle, any more than "straight" is a lifestyle. We, all of us, embody many styles. It's my choice, my style, to keep my hair short, to wear shoes with thick heels, to exercise to stay youthful - but I did not choose to have thinning hair, to be 5'10", to be 51 years old. Nor to be straight. Those things just are. Straight, gay, or somewhere in between - sexual orientation is, simply, everyday life. What could be less stylish than that?
"Gay" is not a lifestyle, any more than "straight" is a lifestyle. We, all of us, embody many styles. It's my choice, my style, to keep my hair short, to wear shoes with thick heels, to exercise to stay youthful - but I did not choose to have thinning hair, to be 5'10", to be 51 years old. Nor to be straight. Those things just are. Straight, gay, or somewhere in between - sexual orientation is, simply, everyday life. What could be less stylish than that?
