Other news tidbits that have caught my eye in the past day or so:
At the Maddow Blog, Steve Benen reports on the controversy that Gary Trudeau's "Doonesbury" series of comic strips satirizing legislative measures to shame women seeking abortions is eliciting in some parts of the U.S. As Benen notes, some newspaper editors have yanked the cartoons, claiming that they cross a line of good taste.
Benen's rejoinder:
Editors and publishers clearly have their own decisions to make in these areas, but here's a radical thought: perhaps those offended by phrases such as "compulsory transvaginal exam" should be more concerned with the legislative proposals themselves, and less concerned with Trudeau satirizing the measures.
And at Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, Alvin McEwen notes that a Faithful America television ad which MSNBC refuses to air, which criticizes MSNBC for repeatedly hosting Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, has gone viral. MSNBC claims it is engaging in objective journalism by having Perkins present the "other side" when gay issues are discussed.
Faithful America demurs. It notes that the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified FRC as a hate-group, and in giving media voice to Perkins, MSNBC is helping him spread hate rhetoric--rhetoric of a sort no journalistic outlet seeking credibility would permit if, say, the object of the rhetoric were African Americans or Jews.
Faithful America also notes that while Perkins claims to represent "the" Christian position about homosexuality, many Christians--Faithful America included--do not view gay people and the morality of homosexuality as Perkins does. Information about the Faithful America ad is at the group's website, with a link to a petition to MSNBC to protest their repeated sessions permitting Perkins to spew his junk science and hate rhetoric about gay folks.
Alvin helpfully provides contact information for various folks at MSNBC, if you want to make a personal statement to their staff. Faithful America is asking those supporting its petition to call Jeremy Gaines, MSNBC's v-p for communications, at (212) 664-5133. And after you've made that call, Faithful America would like for you to contact them at admin@faithfulamerica.org, and tell them what happened when you called Mr. Gaines.
And finally, Vinnie Nauheimer of SNAP Minnesota finds His Eminence Timothy M. Cardinal Dolan screamingly funny. As he says, who knew how hilarious His Eminence could be? Until he did his stand-up comedy shtick in Hicksville, New York, recently, and as Nauheimer reports, the following happened:
So let’s repeat that line. “If you want an authoritative voice, go to the bishops. They’re the ones that speak for the truths of the faith.” With lines like that, Dolan proved himself a first rate comic, but good comedians need more than one good line to make a performance, and Dolan met the call. The NY Times Reported on March 4, this line from the same performance, “I don’t recall a right to marriage.” In his jocular fashion Cardinal Dolan went on to say that every day someone finds another right. Well he ought to know, the Roman Catholic Church leads the way in finding new rights. They have the right to hide sexually abusing priests, they have the right to destroy evidence, they have the right to shuffle sexually abusing priests from parish to parish, diocese to diocese and in some cases country to country, talk about inventing rights! But more than that; let’s talk about inventing the right to the wholesale destruction of the lives of children without the expectation of consequence.
Meanwhile, His Grand Jocularity Eminence has just been recognized by Governor Cuomo of New York as a distinguished individual who has become "a beloved leader" and has made a "tremendous impact" through his pastoral leadership in American Catholicism.
And if that's not screamingly funny, I don't know what is.
No comments:
Post a Comment