The Republic of T.

When I moved to D.C. in the mid-nineties, as a single, young, gay man, one of the first things I did was to get my first personal computer. The second thing I did was to get an AOL account. (I’m dating myself here, but that was when AOL still charged by the hour and by the month.) The reason was because my friends clued me in on the fact that there were lots of gay men online, and it was an easy way to meet other gay men without having to leave your home.

Even in a city like D.C., with a sizable gay community and plenty of places to meet other gay people, there were lots of guys online for various reasons. Mine was that I was way too painfully shy to meet other guys in public venues. The idea of walking up to an attractive stranger and talking to him caused me to lose my ability to speak english.

But at least I lived in a city where there were lots of other gay men, and where they were relatively easy to find.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for March 6th through March 9th:

• Ray McGovern on Gov’t Accountability –
• Taylor Marsh: David Brooks Fears First Lady's Biceps –
• Hale "Bonddad" Stewart: The Economy — Not the President — Is Tanking the Market –
• Breaking the Banks: The Struggle to Feed America’s Nouveau Needy –
• Will Bush Ever Face World Court? –
• Weisberg: We’re Not Sweden –
• Beat the Petty Person: Seriously, It’s a Holiday –
• She's a 9-year-old girl –
• Parker Blackman: More Than a Rush Job –
• The Phony "War On Wealth" –
• The Closeted Nature of Some Black Men –
• An Emotional Time In The American Workplace –

Oh, boy. It’s gonna be a fun eight years if president Obama keeps giving interview answers like these.

First, he confuses and confounds conservatives by doing pretty much what he said he would do when he was just candidate Obama. (Somehow, that, plus his margin of victory, and approval rating don’t suggest to them that he’s also doing what people elected him to do.)

But his additional answers to a New York Times interview are likely to cause a few fits on the right.

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I’ve wanted to write something about the murder of Larry King for a while now. But it’s been more than a year since his murder, and I haven’t written anything substantive yet. I started a couple of blog posts, and even began working on an entry for the LGBT Hate Crimes Project (despite my usual aversion to writing about things I know have been thoroughly covered elsewhere).

But every time I started, as some point I found myself backing away from the story the way I might back away from a fire or someone wielding a weapon. Something in me instinctively knew that immersing myself in Larry’s story, as I usually do when I’m researching a hate crime story, would be painful, and would probably bring back memories I’d long tried to forget as much as possible.

As the anniversary of his murder approached last year, I wanted to have something ready to post about his story. Again, some of it felt too painful, and I had to stop and focus on something else. So often, in fact, that the anniversary of Larry’s death came and went before I finished anything. B

ut in the course of writing I discovered what it was that was that made thinking and writing about Larry’s murder so painful. (more…)

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for March 3rd through March 5th:

• CORRUPTION-US: How Wall Street Paid For Its Own Funeral –
• ECONOMY: Trickle Down Misery –
• The Smoking Wreckage of Limbaugh Nation –
• ‘Underinsured’: The cost to you –
• Economix: When Greed Isn’t Good –
• Editorial: The Tortured Memos –
• Rihanna case brings abuse to forefront –
• "Why Doesn't She Leave?" Is the Wrong Question to Ask About Domestic Violence –
• We Can’t Afford the Death Penalty –
• Moving the Economy Ahead –
• Obama skews battle lines in ‘class war’ –
• It’s Renovation, Not Socialism –
• A Test Case for Marriage –
• Frightening Memos From the Office of Legal Counsel –
• Naomi Wolf: John Yoo's Legal Groundwork for the Possible Subversion of Liberty that US Citizens Narrowly Averted –
• The Costs of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell –
• Commentary: The audacity to reverse Reaganomics –
• Why Is the Religious Right Obsessed With Other People’s Sex Lives? –

(Crossposted from the day job.)

They’re at it again. Conservatives, in concert with the health insurance industry, are desperately reaching for relevance on health care. But what they call CPR is really DNR — a “do not resuscitate” order for a health care system in critical condition.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for March 2nd through March 3rd:

• Justice Memos Gave Bush Total Power –
• Wrong Arm of the Law –
• Blacks, whites hear Obama differently –
• Op-Ed Columnist: Wars, Endless Wars –
• Married Same-Sex Couples Sue US For Federal Benefits –
• Democrats Need Democratic Voters More Than Republican Voters –

Far be it from me to criticize anyone in government. (Yeah. Right.) But there’s something that’s been on my mind ever since people started piling on the auto industry, and this comment from Rahm Emmanuel brought it back to mind.

The president’s chief of staff criticized U.S. car companies Sunday for relying too long and gas guzzlers and not investing enough in alternative energy vehicles.

Rahm Emanuel also said the automakers have an outdated health care cost structure. He said the companies are making the kind of changes now that many people long had told them to make.

President Barack Obama’s auto industry task force is trying to restructure General Motors (GM) and Chrysler by a March 31 deadline. If the Obama administration fails to approve their turnaround plans, earlier loans could be called back and the companies could be forced into bankruptcy.

…”They never invested in both alternative energy cars. They got dependent on big gas guzzlers. They didn’t do — they have a health care cost structure that’s outdated,” Emanuel said, repeating the administration’s premise that health costs must come under control or else risk breaking all other pieces of the budget.

OK. I’ll be the first to say the auto industry has made some huge mistakes and some horrible business decisions. (I still haven’t figured out how or why it is that equally destructive decisions and business practices on Wall Street didn’t get half as much of an angry response as the auto industry.) But this is one they have some help with.

Help from the U.S. government, that is.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for February 27th through March 2nd:

• The Recession’s Personal Toll –
• Obama to Void ‘Conscience’ Rule –
• Lawyer: Freed Gitmo Prisoner Binyam Mohamed Experienced “Nightmare We Can’t Imagine” –
• GOP Civil War: Senator Threatens to Resign to Hurt Fellow Republicans –
• Marilyn Barrett: The US Universal Health Care System-Emergency Rooms –
• A Call for Truth, Reconciliation and Justice Post-Bush –
• Redistributionist, and That’s Just Fine –
• The Party of Psychopaths –
• Dying Conservative Intellect –
• Limbaugh and racism –
• Chris Brown, Rihanna and Reality –
• Ailing G.O.P. Risks Losing a Generation –
• A Condensed History of Labor Since the 1960s –
• Editorial: President Obama’s Budget: Some Honesty About Taxes — Finally –

Paul Harvey is dead.

Paul Harvey, 90, a Chicago-based radio broadcaster whose authoritative baritone voice and distinctive staccato delivery attracted millions of daily listeners for more than half a century, died Feb. 28 in Phoenix.

…Mr. Harvey was the voice of the American heartland, offering to millions his trademark greeting: “Hello Americans! This is Paul Harvey. Stand by! For news!”

For millions, Paul Harvey in the morning or at noon was as much a part of daily routine as morning coffee.

“Paul Harvey News and Comment” was a distinctive blend of rip-and-read headline news, quirky feature stories and, usually, a quick congratulation to a couple who had been married for 75 years or so. The news stories, and Harvey’s distinctive take on them — usually, but not always, from a conservative political perspective — flowed seamlessly into commercial messages for products Mr. Harvey endorsed.

One of radio’s most effective pitchmen, he kept sponsors for decades, attracted by such features as “The Rest of the Story,” mesmerizing little tales, cleverly written, that featured a surprising O Henry-style twist to stories listeners thought they already knew.

I know now is “not the time” for anything but glowing remembrances and such, but I can’t resist offer my own bit of “The Rest of the Story,” since I remembered a post I wrote about Harvey. Besides, I’m not the only one.

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In the previous post, I wrote:

Or you’d have to just not care, something which these days is increasingly referred to as being “post-racial.” Yet that the Post would publish a cartoon like this is evidence that we’re not anywhere near post-racial. We won’t be “post-racial” once images like this “don’t matter,” or “aren’t a big deal,” or “just a joke.” Saying you’re “colorblind” doesn’t make you so, because those few words can’t divorce you or me or anyone else from the history we share or the culture we’ve been simmering in practically since conception.

It’s been said before, but we’re not anywhere near post-racial. We’ll be on our way to being something a bit closer to “post-racial” when we don’t see images like this because we know the history they invoke and we we give enough of a damn about our fellow citizens that we at least think before we use them.

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