On Amy

I realize it's been a bit since Amy’s passed, but I’d be remiss for letting the passing of such a Prophetess go unmentioned on BdG. At first I didn’t know what to say... There was something odd about Amy’s death. Lots of people in my iTunes have passed away, but I hardly wince when they do. When I learned that Amy died, I - for the first time - got emotional about someone whom I’d never met.

This is going to sound a tad bit insensitive since I’m in no place to judge how people feel, but it always irks me when people get sad about celebrities passing away because, they say, “I felt like I knew him.” Yes, you love his music; yes, you love her legacy; but what do you really know about him? Michael Jackson never wrote songs about his darkness. It’s only after his death that many ‘fans’ learned Luther Vandross was gay. We feel like we know them, but do we really?

Then I realized that that was the difference - why I felt so moved by Amy’s death in the same way that irritates me when I see it in others: what most artists hide in their closet, Amy wore on her sleeve. Amy didn’t sneak into the trailer for a sip from her flask, she was unapologetically drunk during the show. She lived her darkness & let it be part of her art. There was no pretending, no polite posturing - just Amy, always. I’ve been in the psychiatrist’s chair with her & I heard her tell him “I’m gonna lose my baby, so I always keep a bottle near.” I’ve watched her punch a fan while she was singing. Amy’s consistency on-stage & off meant that we knew her in a way we don’t know most other singers. Amy & I never had a personal relationship, I can’t say we were “friends,” but I know more about Amy than a lot of people I come across in my daily life & that’s because she was so honest.

So yes, we’ll miss the albums she’ll never produce like every other singer. But it’s not just her music, it’s not just her performance - it’s her.

As-salaam Momokum. [MdG]

Bishop Eddie Long

Bishop Eddie Long can’t win for staying in the closet losing. You’ll probably remember when Pastor Long came under public scrutiny after four young men raised charges of sexual misconduct against him. This was particularly “shocking” since he’s the pastor of the evangelical New Birth Megachurch where boys poking boys is a big no-no. After the charges were raised, a fifth victim joined the talks & was part of the settlement. To Long’s Chagrin, Centino Kemp has reared his ugly tackily permed head after long staying anonymous.

If Long paying off the boys instead of fighting the charges, as he said told his congregation he would wasn’t proof enough of his misconduct, Centino actually has Long’s name tattooed on his wrist. But don’t worry, Long didn’t leave Centino out to dry. Centino, an aspiring singer, is now recording at a studio that charges $100/hr & sprinted into a stretch limo to escape reporters.

I expect this will fiasco will lead lots of self-hating Catholics to convert into self-hating Evangelicals. Who needs the Holy Father when you can have a holy Sugar Daddy?

& now, Kanyé:

Momohu A’lam. [MdG]

BLAME THE MUSLIMS (part trois)

The last thing I saw last night on Fox & the first thing is saw this morning Fox were the hosts saying it’s correct to consider the 9/11 attack as Muslim extremism while simultaneously incorrect to see Brievik’s attack as Christian extremism. I called it... America, the land of the double standard.

Bill O’Reilly is painting this as a campaign against Christians. He misses the point entirely. The message is to stop the campaign against Muslims.

(& still, no matter what happens, we won’t see anti-Christian profiling in airports.)

CHRISTIAN HEGEMONY BITCHESSSSS.

Baraka Momohu fika. [MdG]

BLAME THE MUSLIMS (part deux)

Anders Breivik’s attacks in Oslo make the single largest act of terror & violence Norway has seen since World War II. The shockwaves of fear, sadness & angers will undoubtedly leave the victims’ families with far more questions than answers. As we find out more details, people will point fingers & voices will be raised, but there’s an important lesson in something that, I wager, will not happen.

Amid all of the passionate debate for solutions on how to make sure a tragedy like this never happens again, you won’t find the suggestion that airport security should suspect every Nordic-looking person wearing a cross of terrorist sympathies. If a Christian announced plans to build a church across the street from the Norweigian Prime Minister’s office, you’d be confused at suggestions that the building was an affront to the 7/22 victims’ memory. Muslims, unfortunately, were never afforded such considerations after 9/11. Americans of all colors & creeds quickly embraced the idea that Islamic ideology & not an atypical breed of hatred & violence were at the heart of the attacks on the World Trace Center.

The evidence of this fear is all too fresh. I’m sure you’ll recall about this time last summer when American politicians bashed Park51, the Muslim community center which will open a few blocks from Ground Zero later this year, as insensitive & disrespectful to the 9/11 victims & their families. Of course, the creators of the project, like many Muslims in their everyday life, did everything in their power to distance themselves from the extremists who carried out the 9/11 attacks, but it was not good enough. A symbol of Islam was a symbol of the 9/11 attack & you couldn’t tell some New Yorkers anything else.

Here is the crux of the issue: white(s &) Christians will never feel the need to distance themselves from the Brievik’s behavior (nor should they) & that’s because no one would think to clump them together in the first place. Whites & Christians have the luxury of being taken as individuals. Breivik’s madness is the result of his extremist ideas, not the result of his religious/cultural austerity. This logic doesn’t hold for Muslims. Many Westerners conceive of Muslims, despite being as diverse & individual as those of any other religion, as a monolithic whole. Most Americans know few, if any Muslims & even less about the nuances of Islam. Thus, blaming all Islam for the actions of an infinitesimal minority is not only easy, but goes without consequence to the perpetrators.

Now, the shoe is on the other foot. Any American can imagine how belittling & infuriating it would feel to be assumed to support Brievik’s acts when his beliefs are as foreign & noxious to you as they are to the rest of the country. Times like these are telling about our “progressive” Western society; they illicit very different responses to what are, at the root, very similar tragedies – & the only differences will be color & creed.

At a moment like this, I call on all those who love democracy & freedom to get your picketing signs & march on the nearest church – preferably one with a majority white congregation (don’t worry, you won’t have to look far). After all, it’s the American way.

Astagfiru limomo [MdG]

Just Married

We could try to put some words together to describe what today means for gays & lesbians in New York & across the country, but words fail. This picture will do:

Alhamdulimomo w ashkrulimomo. [BdG]

(image c/o NYTimes.com)

BLAME THE MUSLIMS

So I’m on Twitter & looking at all these people complaining about the “blamethemuslims” hashtag. Their complaint is that it’s islamophobic to attribute the atrocities in Oslo to all Muslims.

The guy who committed the bombing & murders at Oslo wasn’t Muslim.

It’s called irony & it’s making you look like an idiot.

Enna limomo. [MdG]

Grandma Abstinence

Will Sarah “Barracuda” Palin please sit down.

The most recent Palin family babymommadrama: Sarah Palin’s son Track has been married for two months! ...to a wife who’s been pregnant for several? Because abstinence-only sex education is a better solution to extramarital pregnancy than condoms are. How could I have been so blind?

This is, of course, none of my (or your) business. What Britta & Track do in their bedroom & what they do about what they’ve done in their bedroom is of no direct concern to me. It does, though, reflect problems with someone who has been & continues, per her own volition, to be influential in American political life. Sarah hasn’t commented on this debacle, but I’m sure she still maintains that abstinence only sex education is the best way to keep away unwanted pregnancies, even though her own household has now twice proven her wrong. It matters to the country that a politician wants to base legislation for millions of strangers on logic that doesn’t even work for the few people under her roof.

On the bright side, Britta’s too old to be manipulated into nonsense campaigns against extramarital sex (even though the self-same “Abstinence Ambassador” a.k.a. Bristol Palin is on record saying that abstinence for all teens is “not realistic”) &, on a more serious note, this is Track’s high school sweet-heart, so maybe there’s some longevity & ostensible stability they can count on. One can only hope for the child’s sake.

& remember kids, a baby does not a marriage make.

Bismomo [MdG]

Keep the Trash in Your Bin, Grover

I hate word games.

Grover Norquist, like too many conservatives, is great at them. Norquist complains that low taxes aren’t this country’s problem, it’s “overspending.” ...Because historically low tax rates aren’t half of the “overspending” game. By definition, we wouldn’t be “overspending” if the government had more revenue/taxes. He complains about a problem his pledges exacerbate. (& that’s not the only problem pledges exacerbate... but I digress.)

I’m SO over it.

La ilaha illa Momo. [MdG]

Susan Rolls Over: The Anti-Abortion Perversion of Susan B. Anthony’s Legacy

In a New York Times editorial released today, the editors decry a recent trend among conservative politicians. They argue that some Republican & Tea Party candidates’ habit of signing policy pledges cripples their ability to make critical decisions they should, but have promised not to make. One of the pledges the article cites bears the noxious, misleading title “Susan B. Anthony pledge.” The anti-abortion content of the pledge coupled with the very fact that it exists show not only how conservatives misrepresent the history they’re so obsessed with, but highlight how their political strategies go against the very values Susan B. Anthony stood for.

The “Susan B. Anthony pledge” commits signers to support anti-abortion legislation; appoint only anti-abortion persons to the Supreme Court & relevant cabinets; & defund Planned Parenthood & similar organizations. (To date, Republican candidates Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, & Thaddeus McCotter have all signed on the dotted line.) This pledge was proffered by the group called “Susan B. Anthony List” (SBAL), which purports that “Courageous women leaders like Susan B. Anthony [...] believed that abortion was just a tool of oppression used against women.” You’d imagine that with such a bold description of Anthony’s beliefs & a pledge in her name entirely dedicated to anti-abortion policy, she was a staunch, vocal opponent of the practice.

You’d be wrong.

It turns out that Susan B. Anthony was more or less mum on abortion generally, never mind on how public policy should relate to it. The SBAL website gives exactly one quote written by an anonymous “A” and published in Anthony’s magazine, The Revolution, as evidence of Anthony’s “boisterous” opposition to abortion. “Most logical people would agree,” the site argues, “that writings signed by ‘A’ in a paper that Anthony funded and published were a reflection of her own opinions.” “Most logical people” would be wrong. Those most well versed in Anthony’s work believe that the article was not written by her, as she was never known for signing things “A” & the article had other content that did not fit Anthony’s writing style or beliefs.

Perhaps most importantly, I can safely say that Anthony would oppose the pledge as undemocratic -- not because it takes a pro- or anti-abortion stance, but because it locks the signer into any stance at all. The Revolution was dedicated to arguing all sides of an issue. Anthony would be appalled at these Republicans’ willingness to sign onto this & other pledges that actively halt discourse & stop politicians from weighing other viewpoints, a practice essential to the democratic process & one that Anthony went to great lengths to encourage.

So what would Susan B. Anthony say about the “Susan B. Anthony Pledge”? We don’t know if she’d support the policies it outlines, but we know she would oppose anyone signing it. If conservatives are as obsessed with the values of the brilliant, though certainly flawed leaders of our past; if they are concerned, as they constantly repeat they are, with “real” American values, they’ll oppose this & the other pledges, too. It’s exactly what Susan B. Anthony & our Founding Fathers would do.

Jazaka Momohu Khairan. [MdG]