Well, I didn't expect that to be the next way he got his name in the news.
Like a lot of people my age, Thriller was (I think) the first album I ever bought, though I am probably one of the few who got it on vinyl rather than casette (remember, it came out the year before the CD was introduced). Since then, like most people my age, I have gone from loving it to hating it and back to conceding that it is a gem of a pop album even if everything else about its creator was repulsive. At least whatever demons inspired him to such a bizarre lifestyle will not be doing so any longer. RIP.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Overheard in a bookstore
From a few students who apparently aren't poli-sci majors. One of them saw a Francis Fukuyama book and misread the author's name before realizing that's what it was..."Oh, I thought it said 'France Is F**k-a-yama'."
While basically meaningless, I do find that a refreshing response to the guy who predicted the end of civilization.
While basically meaningless, I do find that a refreshing response to the guy who predicted the end of civilization.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Dr. Tiller
Back in DC, I volunteered as an escort at Planned Parenthood on weekends for a couple of years before I went to Taiwan. I have avoided discussing that on here because I know some of my friends disagree quite strongly with me on that particular issue. But not now.
When I heard the news this morning, it was entirely too easy to believe. Some - not all, but some - of those folks are just gonzo. Take it from someone who has stood three feet away and listened to them chant and pray and compare me to Hitler, what happened in Wichita was sad, but it just wasn't that big of a surprise.
I have to admit that I do have some positive memories of those confrontations. When the weather was nasty, some of us on both sides had a sense of humor about the whole thing..."God must be on one of our sides, to make the weather this nasty for the other side," that sort of thing. Some of us on both sides also recognized that we were more or less cut from the same cloth, just opposite sides of it. It really does take commitment to turn up anyplace you don't really need to be at 7:00 on Saturday morning.
But still. The ones who said things like "Here come the SS!" when we went to shield patients from them, and then told us in the next breath about the love of Christ; the ones who told crying patients that "you should be crying because you're about to kill your baby," the ones who greeted young families entering the clinic by telling the kids "They're gonna kill your little brother!"; the ones who accosted black patients with their bizarre (not entirely off-base, but still bizarre) theories about Margaret Sanger and her racism...as Jerry Falwell said about people like me after 9/11, "I point the finger in their face and say, You helped this happen."
When I heard the news this morning, it was entirely too easy to believe. Some - not all, but some - of those folks are just gonzo. Take it from someone who has stood three feet away and listened to them chant and pray and compare me to Hitler, what happened in Wichita was sad, but it just wasn't that big of a surprise.
I have to admit that I do have some positive memories of those confrontations. When the weather was nasty, some of us on both sides had a sense of humor about the whole thing..."God must be on one of our sides, to make the weather this nasty for the other side," that sort of thing. Some of us on both sides also recognized that we were more or less cut from the same cloth, just opposite sides of it. It really does take commitment to turn up anyplace you don't really need to be at 7:00 on Saturday morning.
But still. The ones who said things like "Here come the SS!" when we went to shield patients from them, and then told us in the next breath about the love of Christ; the ones who told crying patients that "you should be crying because you're about to kill your baby," the ones who greeted young families entering the clinic by telling the kids "They're gonna kill your little brother!"; the ones who accosted black patients with their bizarre (not entirely off-base, but still bizarre) theories about Margaret Sanger and her racism...as Jerry Falwell said about people like me after 9/11, "I point the finger in their face and say, You helped this happen."
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