Bertie Wooster and the n-word

At the risk of beating a dead horse, I want to come back one more time to the question of when the use of the n-word might be appropriate.

I am a huge fan of English humorist P. G. Wodehouse, especially enjoying his Jeeves and Wooster series. If you have read Wodehouse, you know that his stories largely deal with the life of the British upper classes and aristocracy and are set in the time between World War I and World War II. His funniest writing also occurred in this period, though he was a prolific writer, churning out stuff right up to his death in 1975. [Read more…]

Unconstitutional but legal

You now that we have reached a bizarre stage in the so-called war on terror when a court rules that the government is doing something that is likely unconstitutional but legal.

One of the most shameful and appalling actions of the Obama administration is its claim that it has the right to target and kill anyone in the world using whatever means at its disposal, but in practice using mostly drones. Of course the US government, through the CIA, has routinely murdered people for decades but it was done covertly and not acknowledged, which implied that the government knew it was wrong but did it anyway. [Read more…]

Looks like the fix is in, again

President Obama has announced Mary Jo White as new head of the Securities and Exchanges Commission, focusing on her past position as US attorney and her reputation as a tough prosecutor. Since the SEC oversees the operations of many Wall Street activities, this person is someone whom the public would look to to ensure that the rules are followed and that the rights of ordinary investors are protected from the predators who run the big banks and investment houses and which have so far failed at the task. [Read more…]

Boy scouts to accept gays?

News reports are emerging that the Boy Scouts are seriously considering lifting the ban on gay members and scout leaders and that the decision might come very soon.

The Boy Scouts of America, one of the nation’s largest private youth organizations, is actively considering an end to its decades-long policy of banning gay scouts or scout leaders, according to scouting officials and outsiders familiar with internal discussions.
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The new policy, now under discussion, would eliminate the ban from the national organization’s rules, leaving local sponsoring organizations free to decide for themselves whether to admit gay scouts.
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The discussion of a potential change in policy is nearing its final stages, according to outside scouting supporters. If approved, the change could be announced as early as next week, after the BSA’s national board holds a regularly scheduled meeting.

This reversal, coming just seven months after the national body affirmed its ban on gay members, demonstrates the remarkable rapidity with which acceptance of equal rights for the LGBT community is advancing. The Boy Scouts have been getting a public relations hammering and losing donors because of their reactionary stand of excluding gays and seem to have realized that any group that depends on membership of young people cannot have such a policy and survive because young people are way ahead of the old guard in acceptance of diversity.

As I wrote earlier, it is usually the case that in such reversals by large organizations, they usually edge slowly towards doing the right thing by taking incremental steps. The Boy Scout policy change, if confirmed, will not positively welcome gays into the group but simply drops the national banning policy, allowing local troops to make their own decisions. So in the short term one could expect some affiliates to accept gays and others not.

But such minimal steps tend to create their own problems. For example, what happens to a gay scout whose family moves from an area with an accepting troop to one that bans them? What would happen if a gay scout leader rises in the hierarchy to a position overseeing a local affiliate that excludes gays? The proposed change, while it is to be welcomed, will cause all manner of internal contradictions.

It is only a matter of time (I give it five years at the most) before the national group shifts to a more affirmative position, requiring that all affiliates not exclude gays.

Beyond Beyoncegate

Since I complimented Beyonce on her rendition of the national anthem at the inauguration, I feel let down by the news that she may have lip-synced her performance. Although it can hardly be considered a scandal, if true it does signify a lack of professionalism on her part, especially if the other charge that she did not devote enough time for rehearsals also holds up. [Read more…]

Poor rich people

It seems like some rich people never seem to realize that, in times when so many are losing their homes, it is not a good idea to whine to reporters about how tough their lives are when their troubles are ones of having excess. I wrote about this peculiar phenomenon before and the latest edition comes from people living in New York (where ordinary people are lucky if they can afford an apartment that is bigger than a closet) who complain about having too much space. [Read more…]