See It Tonight June 16, 2006January 15, 2017 BEST MONEY MARKET AND CD RATES Click here. DUST UP Michael Martin: ‘The media picked up the dust storm but it’s really not unusual. For the past couple of years they haven’t been too common, but I remarked to someone during the storm that it was like returning to normalcy.’ Sharon Shindel: ‘You turn off your lights so that cars following behind you won’t think you are still driving and follow you off the road and run into you.’ B. SMALLER Sandra Wilde: ‘I love Barbara Smaller! I used one of her cartoons for the cover of a book I wrote (you can enlarge the picture to see the cartoon). I would have loved to by the original, but it was way more expensive than the rights, which were only $300.’ IF THEY MADE A MOVE ABOUT YOUR HOME, WOULD YOU GO SEE IT? Well – they have! In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to. – Roger Ebert
Honest Tea-V June 15, 2006March 4, 2017 2ND QUARTER ESTIMATED TAX DUE Helloooooo, procrastinators! Second quarter estimated tax payments are due today. Click here for the instructions and form. HONEST TEA-V I enjoy plugging Honest Tea, in no small part because I own a tea spoon full of its (still private) stock. Well, here‘s its story on TV. (You can read the transcript, but if you have broadband, click to watch.) It’s one of those nice win-wins: tastes good, good for your health, good for the Third World communities that grow the tea, nice kid in his garage goes from an idea and a kettle to a thriving little enterprise. My current favorites: Mint White (all the anti-oxidants of green tea, 70 calories per bottle, one-eighth the caffeine of coffee), Tangerine Green Tea (10 calories, one-fourth the caffeine of coffee), Peach Ooh-La-Long (a little more caffeine), and my caffeine-free favorite, Gold Rush Cinnamon (just 18 calories per bottle). A FURTHER THOUGHT ON MARRIAGE From entrepreneur Bill Stosine, pseudonymous gay Iowan in a 20-year relationship with a surgeon: It ought to make the “family values” crowd happy that gays want to get married and settle down into committed, monogamous, loving relationships. If gay people were allowed to marry each other, one of the benefits would be that they would not be so pressured into marrying a person of the opposite sex merely to try to conform to what society expects. Do you want a gay person to marry YOUR child or grandchild? Wouldn’t it be better to encourage gay people marry each other instead? Is it fair that 30-year gay and lesbian relationships receive less protection than those of heterosexuals who meet in the morning and marry by sundown? A gay couple may have lived in the same home for 30 years, cared for each other through illnesses, comforted each other after the loss of loved ones and shared their entire lives together are denied the rights and protections that strangers who decide to marry on a whim in Las Vegas receive. Britney Spears was married and divorced within 72 hours. On the TV show “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?” a man chose his bride from 50 women who paraded onstage in bathing suits and wedding gowns. She wanted his money; he wanted a trophy; neither of them had ever met each other before. The judge who officiated proclaimed the union was based on the love and trust they developed (I guess in the 90 seconds in between their meeting and the wedding). Yet gay and lesbian people who are in committed, long-term relationships are denied the opportunity to marry because their relationships supposedly make a “mockery” out of marriage. Which relationship is the true joke? A faithful gay partner of 30 years has no legal right to make important medical decisions for his incapacitated partner. He gets no help from federal legislation that would protect his job in the event he must care for his sick partner. Insurance companies deny them the opportunity to obtain joint policies for automobile, health and home insurance. When one of them dies, the other may have no legal right to continue living in their home. The deceased’s unaccepting family member can contest a will and leave the long-term dedicated partner bankrupt and without a home. Such insensitive maneuvers aren’t uncommon to gay men and lesbians grieving the loss of a longtime partner. Without marriage, gay couples have tried to establish their rights privately, through contracts. For about $1,000 lawyers provide couples with a will, health care proxy, statement granting each partner durable power of attorney if the other is disabled, and a contract to govern disposition of commonly held property. But such agreements aren’t always upheld in courts, and they are like a fig leaf compared to the broad legal cloak of marriage. I don’t describe a “special right.” The right to marry is so basic to happiness that polls have shown that Americans value a happy marriage, even above money, as most important to their sense of personal worth and fulfillment. I think as anyone matures he or she wants to connect with something bigger than self. To love someone, follow all the threads of each other’s lives, and be legally recognized as family. Society has a compelling interest in encouraging stable, monogamous relationships between adults – straight and gay. People who are married buy houses and save money. They are good neighbors, they tend to be more helpful and quieter than singles. They have a reason to work and stay out of trouble: responsibility to their spouses. There are health benefits to monogamy, especially important in this age of AIDS. Finally, the sheer joy and comfort of having that publicly acknowledged close relationship makes one a happier person, and happy people cause less grief to others. NTMD I covered the remainder of my position yesterday on news that BiDil has received ‘Tier 2’ reimbursement status in about 25% of its market . . . which means that insurers will pick up a lot more of the cost of the drug. I question whether this is good for the financially strapped American health care system (why should it cover an expensive drug when a generic equivalent is available, albeit requiring nine pills a day instead of six?), but it could stem some of the company’s losses and cause a bounce in the stock. Or not. Still hard to see what makes this company worth more than $200 million – it has just one product that may never break even. But now you know what I know.
Save $83,000 on Coffee June 14, 2006March 25, 2012 Thanks to Stephen Gilbert, who found this outstanding resource in the New York Times. It lets you calculate the effect of, say, switching from Starbucks to office-brewed coffee (or bringing your own peanut butter and honey sandwiches to work with you instead of buying them off the cart). Say you buy one $3.50 cup of coffee a day and could get it for 50 cents from the office vending machine or brewing it yourself. I’m not saying you should do this – or save another $3 a day by not buying cigarettes or whatever. But if you did do this, starting now, at age 49, say . . . and if you could invest your savings at 6% over inflation, which is no slam dunk but not nuts, either . . . by the time you were 84 (with another 10 or 15 good years ahead of you, let us pray), you’d have an extra $83,000. Or $122,000, if we’re talking $3 a day on cigarettes, because with the coffee I was figuring 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year. With the cigs, we’re talking 365.25 days a year. If you’re 18 today and saved the same $3 a day, by the time you’re 65, with the same 6% assumption, we’re up to $264,000. Of course, if you’re 18, you’re thinking you’ll never be 65. But actually the chances are that you will be – with an an extra $264,000 after tax in today’s dollars in your Roth IRA, for being a bit frugal. It’s cheating – but fun – to assume more than 6% above inflation, but it’s not impossible, either. So if we go wild and assume 7% instead, the $264,000 jumps to $360,000. And remember, this is still just on $3. You could double that if you found a second way to save $3 a day – say by buying one fewer gallon of gas a day by (in the short run) driving more carefully and (in the long run) switching to a car that got better mileage. Hugh Chou has a whole range of other frugality calculators. Play with them, and then set up that Roth IRA if you don’t already have one. There’s tons of good and amusing stuff on his site to ponder.
Loose Ends and Monkey Mail (Really) June 13, 2006March 4, 2017 MONKEY MAIL Chris Kubler: ‘I found that by changing the number in the url of a monk-e-mail I could browse random messages. I stumbled across this one . . .hilarious beyond belief.’ ☞ Oh, boy. I feel like the NSA. (If you try this, I found that altering the third and fourth digits of the first long number-string in the url most reliably pulls up a monk-e-mail.) 19 POUNDS OF CO2 Stephen Gilbert: ‘A gallon of gasoline, which weighs eight pounds, converts to 19 pounds of CO2? This sounds like alchemy. Do you have a cite for this?’ Bobby Corcoran: ‘Apparently, yes. Per the EPA.’ To calculate the CO2 emissions from a gallon of fuel, carbon emissions are multiplied by the ratio of the molecular weight of CO2 (m.w. 44) to the molecular weight of carbon (m.w.12):44/12. CO2 emissions from a gallon of gasoline = 2,421 grams x0.99 x (44/12) = 8,788 grams = 8.8 kg/gallon = 19.4 pounds/gallon CO2 emissions from a gallon of diesel = 2,778 grams x0.99 x (44/12) = 10,084 grams = 10.1 kg/gallon = 22.2 pounds/gallon ☞ So the carbon atom grabs a couple of oxygen atoms on the way out of your tail pipe and, thus laden, swims skyward. DUSTUP Kathryn Lance: ‘You wrote, ‘What was that dust storm that enveloped Phoenix Wednesday? Did you see that? Is this regular occurrence and I just missed the memo?’ Don’t worry, Andy! We get those storms from time to time. They are caused by dry soil and wind, and there may be a few more these days because of the seven-year drought we are in. Which may or may not be connected with global warming, but my guess is probably not. This is a desert, after all. If you’re ever out here on the Interstate and a dust storm blows up, pull OFF the road, turn out your lights, and wait it out.’ ☞ You turn out your lights so it won’t see you? And come and choke you to death? VALUES Christina OSullivan: ‘Why aren’t you pushing ‘Maxed Out‘? I saw it at a film festival and it gave me the willies. I’m seriously thinking of moving back to Canada – I’m too fiscally conservative and socially progressive to be happy in the U.S., and the President had made some comment that ‘new arrivals need to adopt American values.’ I’m not seeing any good reason to keep my kid here to pay for a war no one in my family wanted, or for values we disagree with (profligacy, homophobia). My friends cannot tell me what American values are – finding consensus among 300 million people is pretty tough to do! But if I don’t know what the values are, I can’t adopt them, and if I can’t adopt them [the President thinks I shouldn’t] be here.’ ☞ The movie looks good, from its web site. I hope it becomes available to be plugged. In the meantime, everyone should read this past Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, DEBT: America’s Scariest Addiction Is Getting Even Scarier. It is a whole issue of articles, like this overview: ‘Reasons to Worry.‘ As to America’s values, I do think we 300 million have some shared values: freedom, fairness, opportunity for all, community, responsibility, honesty, common sense. Even separation of church and state. It’s just that the Republican leadership seems to have lost sight of a few of them. LION KING Harry Mark: ‘Jeremy Siegel will soon have a book out that revisits the potential ‘Boomer Sell-off’ of stocks that will have millions of retiree sellers and no buyers. Any thoughts on that?’ ☞ With luck, there will be several hundred million middle class Chinese and Indian thirty- and forty-somethings buying stocks (from us) to invest in their retirement. Disney said it best: It’s the circle of life. Or so we must hope. CHICKENS AND EGGS Bob Fyfe: ‘I agree with your thoughts on the chicken and the egg – that the chicken-egg is a mutated egg that came from a near-chicken, and therefore, the egg came first. However, I believe that the intent of the question ‘Which came first, the chicken or the egg?’ is not specifically the chicken, but rather ‘Which came first, the egg or the animal that laid an egg?’ Your conclusion, based on the fact that it was a near-chicken and not a chicken that laid the chicken-egg, just leads to the question, ‘Which came first, the near-chicken or the egg?’ That, I believe, is the real question.’ ☞ Aha! For the answer to that, I imagine one would have to go all the way back through the evolutionary chain to the miraculous lightning strike that produced the first organism capable of reproduction and decide: Does it appear more chickenlike or ovoid? TREES AND FORESTS Andy Long: ‘A tree failing in the forest will disturb a butterfly that, in turn, will cause a typhoon 10,000 miles away. Faced with a typhoon, does anybody really care whether a tree made a noise?’ ☞ But it did, I tell you – it did! As one of you wisely noted: what if you went into the forest and placed a tape recorder beside a soon-too-fall tree . . . then left, but came back after it had fallen and played the tape to see whether it had made a sound. You’d hear nothing on the tape, but that’s only because the batteries would have run out.
Loose Ends and Monkey Mail June 12, 2006January 15, 2017 But first . . . a quick word about the decline in public policy: Fallen star blames self, GOP tactics: Jail term served in N.H. phone plot By Michael Kranish Boston Globe June 10, 2006 For nearly a decade, Allen Raymond stood at the top ranks of Republican Party power. He served as chief of staff to a cochairman of the Republican National Committee, supervised Republican contests in mid-Atlantic states for the RNC, and was a top official in publisher Steve Forbes’s presidential campaign. He went on to earn $350,000 a year running a Republican policy group as well as a GOP phone-bank business. But most recently, Raymond has been in prison. And for that, he blames himself, but also says he was part of a Republican political culture that emphasizes hardball tactics and polarizing voters . . . Raymond stressed that he was making no excuses for his role in the New Hampshire case; he pleaded guilty and told the judge he had done a ‘bad thing.’ But he said he got caught up in an ultra-aggressive atmosphere in which he initially thought the decision to jam the phones ‘pushed the envelope’ but was legal. He also said he had been reluctant to turn down a prominent official of the RNC, fearing that would cost him future opportunities from an organization that was becoming increasingly ruthless. ‘Republicans have treated campaigns and politics as a business, and now are treating public policy as a business, looking for the types of returns that you get in business, passing legislation that has huge ramifications for business,’ he said. ‘It is very much being monetized, and the federal government is being monetized under Republican majorities.’ . . . And an even more important story: WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE PRESS? From Friday’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer: By Kenneth F. Bunting Associate Publisher The blogosphere has been abuzz. But in the days since Rolling Stone magazine published a long piece that accused Republicans of widespread and intentional cheating that affected the outcome of the last presidential election, the silence in America’s establishment media has been deafening. In terms of bad news judgment, this could turn out to be the 2006 equivalent of the infamous “Downing Street memo,” the London Times story that was initially greeted by the U.S. media with a collective yawn. It is news. It certainly deserves mention, at the very least in stories about the story, reaction to it or even ones debunking it. Any of those choices would be better judgment than simply ignoring it. Those of us in what bloggers and Internet journalists derisively call “mainstream media” should have learned that lesson last year, when Internet-fueled curiosity about the “Downing Street memo” made us pay attention to a story we were too quick to dismiss as old news. It’s too early to tell whether it will become big news in the same delayed manner the British intelligence memo did. But the titans of the news industry still have things to learn about how news becomes news in the present-day media landscape. Editors will always have responsibility for filtering, and helping readers understand the importance and credibility of news reports. But nowadays, the American discourse is rightfully in hands other than ours. ☞ We learned endlessly about the $30,000 Whitewater investment the Clintons made that we spent $50 million of taxpayer money to investigate. (Michael Chertoff, who was the Republican legal counsel for the Senate Whitewater investigation, went on to become our Secretary of Homeland Security – can you think of better credentials for the job?) We learned endlessly about Travelgate and the $225 presidential haircut on the tarmac of Los Angeles International Airport. (It may or may not have delayed air traffic by 20 minutes.) Is there a citizen out there who does not know about the $100,000 Hillary made trading commodities? (According to an extensive investigation by Pulitzer prize-winning author James B. Stewart in Blood Sport, she did nothing wrong.) But when it comes to things like ‘fixing the facts around the policy’ to launch a disastrously ill-planned war . . . or, perhaps, subverting our democracy by stealing a presidential election . . . what does the average American who watches the news and reads the paper know? Heck, 70% of Bush voters this last time around believed Iraq attacked us on September 11. And most Americans have been led to believe ‘the jury is out’ on global warming, even though the scientific community is as sure of it as it was of the connection between smoking and cancer (on which ‘the jury was thought to be out’ for decades, thanks to misinformation, when it really was not). (For God’s sake, see the movie.) It was Thomas Jefferson who wrote that ‘whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government’ . . . going on to say, ‘whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.’ But how do we ‘attract their notice?’ What if they’re misinformed by the government and the rightwing press – and not informed by the mainstream press? # Okay – tomorrow: monkey mail, sand storms, chickens, eggs, forests, and other loose ends from last week
One Way We’re Like Bulgarian Newlyweds Plus: W's Straight Talk on Torture June 9, 2006March 4, 2017 We killed Zarqawi. We turned back a discriminatory amendment to the Constitution. We nixed the Republican plan to go deeper into debt in order to eliminate the estate tax on multi-millionaires, centi-millionaires, billionaires and deci-millionaires. (Mere millionaires pay no estate tax.) It was a good couple of days for America. The broader picture is cloudier and a jittery stock market seems to reflect that. We have a good new Secretary of the Treasury, but his main role, as some see it, is to manage an orderly – as opposed to a disorderly – decline in the dollar. Many of us feel flush because our homes have appreciated so nicely. But they’re no bigger than they were when we bought them, and Paul Krugman has written that ‘[we have become] a nation in which people make a living by selling one another houses, and they pay for the houses with money borrowed from China. Now that game seems to be coming to an end.’ We have a great system of higher education, but some of the foreign talent we used to attract we no longer allow in the country, and other foreign talent that used to stay here upon graduation now goes back to Bangalore. We have terrific kids graduating from high school this month – but so many others dropping out early or graduating with below-par skills or civically challenged. (We need to be able more readily to fire low-performing teachers and principals – humanely, and helping them find other work – both for the kids’ sake and, selfishly, our own.) We borrow huge sums from abroad to buy gasoline that we convert to carbon dioxide at the rate of 19 pounds per gallon. Slowly, we are impoverishing our nation, even as we lurch toward environmental catastrophe. (Katrina as a foretaste, but what was that dust storm that enveloped Phoenix Wednesday? Did you see that? Is this regular occurrence and I just missed the memo?) All of this can be fixed – as Al Gore says, ‘political will is a renewable resource’ – but it won’t fix itself. Cutting taxes for the rich turns out not to solve every problem. In fact, it’s only seemed to make the rich richer, which the median American family gets squeezed tighter and tighter. THE MOVIE Speaking of which: In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to. – Roger Ebert ☞ Asked whether he’d see the movie (about a planetary emergency), you may recall that George Bush half-laughed, ‘Nah, probably not.’ That quote’s from memory, but pretty close. TORTURE “Torture anywhere is an affront to human dignity everywhere. We are committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law … The United States is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example.” – George W. Bush, June 26, 2003 BOREF And so, like Bulgarian newlyweds in Casablanca in quest of exit visas, we wait. And wait. And wait. The latest, from Borealis subsidiary Roche Bay: 8 June 2006 Roche Bay plc (US OTC: RCHBF), (“Roche Bay” or “the Company”), owner of one of the world’s largest undeveloped iron ore deposits, located in Nunavut, Canada, today announces three key executive appointments with immediate effect, two of which will join the company’s Board of Directors. Each individual brings considerable and valuable experience to the Roche Bay project, having held senior positions elsewhere in the mining and steel industries. Their appointment comes as the company moves towards the next phase of the project’s development. Daniel M. Botes joins the Company as Chief Operating Officer and will have day-to-day responsibility for mine engineering, construction, ore processing and all other on-site operations. He also joins the Board. Daniel has wide experience in mine engineering and product quality, as well as ore marketing and business strategy. Having completed a degree in Industrial Engineering in 1997 at the University of Pretoria, Daniel was employed by Iscor Ltd in the Mining Division in South Africa, which later became Kumba Resources. During his employment, he held the positions of Senior Industrial Engineer, Head of Quality Assurance, Technical Manager (Kumba Hong Kong), Marketing Manager and Manger, Strategic Projects. Melinda K. Moore joins Roche Bay as Chief Financial Officer and will also join the Board. As well as having responsibility for financial management of the project, Melinda will lead Roche Bay’s fund-raising initiatives. She joins Roche Bay from Steel Business Briefing, a widely-read industry information provider, where she was Chief Representative for China, based in Shanghai. This role provided her with an enviable understanding of the industry and the Asia-Pacific market in particular. As well as being a Post-Graduate Finance lecturer at the Securities Institute of Australia, she held a number of advisory roles at Truegrip Corporation, Intersuisse, Bell Securities and Hambros Equities in Australia. Dirk P. Swartz joins Roche Bay as Vice President of Engineering. Dirk has gained wide experience in coal & iron ore metallurgy, as well as other minerals processing, particularly crushing, screening & dense medium separation in South Africa Most recently, he has been an engineering project manager on behalf of South African mine engineering firm, LSL Consulting. Apart from project managing various feasibilities studies for coal and iron ore projects, he also acted as Project Engineer for Kumba’s 9 million tonne a year iron ore project, Sishen South. Previously, he held roles at Joest Ltd as Senior Process Engineer, at Schenckas Sales Manager for process equipment and at Kumba’s Sishen Iron Ore mine in senior operational management roles. Benjamin Cox, Chief Executive of Roche Bay, said: “Each one of these appointments is very exciting for Roche Bay and I am thrilled that we have attracted such high calibre and well regarded individuals to the Company. Equally, their confidence in joining Roche Bay is a testament to the attractiveness of our assets and the huge potential of this whole project. “We have delivered considerable progress over recent months, not least evidenced by our agreement announced last month with Corus Group plc, one of the world’s largest metal producers. I look forward to delivering further positive news as we move forward and the new team gets to work.” Who knows? With Borealis currently selling for less than $60 million (there are two houses in the Hamptons currently on the market for more), I continue to think of it as a lottery ticket where, two chances out of three, perhaps, you will ultimately lose your money; but where, if you don’t lose your money, you might make 10 or 50 times your bet. I will a admit to being surprised and disappointed to have seen no visible progress since “the plane moved” a year ago. But the plane did move, and there really is a steel company called Corus (I checked), so I wait. And wait. And wait. (In the meantime, go see the movie.)
And Now THIS June 8, 2006March 4, 2017 So the Republican Federal Anti-Marriage Amendment was defeated. Two Democrats and 47 Republicans voted for ‘cloture,’ to allow the Amendment itself to be voted on, but 60 were needed (and two-thirds would have been required for the Senate to approve the Amendment itself, and then three-quarters of the states). So that was that. Now comes the Republican push to eliminate the estate tax. At a time of war and gigantic deficit, they call for yet another tax cut, this one exclusively (not just mainly) for the rich. Matt Ball: ‘From the American Prospect blog: ‘If you’re ever confused about the GOP’s puzzling determination to eliminate the broadly supportable estate tax, this report showing that George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their cabinet will personally gain between $90 and $340 million dollars from the tax’s repeal clarifies things considerably. As for amassing the political will for the battle, a recent Center for Public Integrity report found that a handful of superrich families had spent $490 million lobbying against the tax. If they succeed, these same families will gain almost $72 billion. Now that’s what I call a good investment. – Ezra Klein Had enough?
Why Not Pull for These People? June 7, 2006March 4, 2017 SOLUTIONS Thanks to Roger who thanks Brian who may have thought this up himself, but it’s the Internet, so who cares? ‘1. Dig a moat the length of the Mexican border. 2. Use the dirt to raise the levees in New Orleans. 3. Put the Florida alligators in the moat. Any other problems that need to be solved today?’ ☞ Well, we have a lot of problems to solve, actually. But the President and Republican Senate have set aside this week to solve the problems of divorce and unwed mothers – which they propose to do, at least in part, by denying gay Americans equal rights and telling churches whom they may and may not marry. VOWS Jim Ries: ‘Here‘s an article about a small town in Missouri where it is illegal for three or more people to live together if unmarried. So, imagine a gay couple with children living there. They would have to get married, but would also be prohibited from getting married. Sometimes I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I grew up in small town Missouri. Sometimes I’m a bit embarrassed to say I grew up in the United States.’ John in Atlanta: ‘Someday same-sex marriage will be routine. I am married to a female, but I know right from wrong.’ Senator Feingold on Daily Kos: The last thing we should be doing right now is playing politics with the Constitution, or with the lives of gay and lesbian Americans, who see this proposal for what it is – discrimination, pure and simple. Gay and lesbian Americans are our friends, our family members, our neighbors, and our colleagues. They should not be used as pawns in a political exercise. Backers of the proposal say they want to support marriage. But this debate is not about supporting marriage. Everyone agrees that good and strong marriages should be supported and celebrated. The debate in the Senate is also not about whether states should permit same sex marriage. I happen to believe that two adults who love each other and want to make a lifelong commitment to each other with all of the responsibilities that commitment entails should be able to do so. Others may disagree. But the Senate debate is about whether we should amend the Constitution of the United States to try to define marriage, and restrict, rather than expand, the rights of our citizens. The answer to that question has to be “no.” It’s deeply disappointing to see the Senate consider this proposed constitutional amendment, and for such cynical reasons. . . . This attempt to pass this constitutional amendment isn’t about values. It’s an attempt to stir up prejudice and fear, but I think it’s going to stir up something else – outrage at Republican leaders. The proposal itself is an outrage, and so is its consideration at the expense of so many other important issues, from health care to gasoline prices to Iraq. . . . AIDS AND MARRIAGE John Gilliam: ‘Twenty-five years ago yesterday, a physician in Los Angeles reported to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta that five men had come down with a strange pneumonia and completely lacked the natural defenses to fight it. Our president chose yesterday, of all days, to walk out into the White House Rose Garden and demand that the Senate vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would for the first time use our blessed constitution to intentionally discriminate against a class of people . . . ‘ ☞ There’s a connection here. The Republicans’ famously slow reaction to the AIDS crisis, because it seemed to be confined to gay men and heroine addicts, has led to a trajectory of the disease that now has 65 million mostly heterosexual people infected. Imagine if, all things considered, a more muscular response had revved up research and prevention efforts to lower the trajectory of the curve. Over the long run, worldwide, tens of millions of lives – many of them children’s lives – would have been saved. So what’s the connection between AIDS 25 years ago and the proposed federal anti-marriage amendment today? Other than the obvious – Republican distaste for gay people – it is that promiscuity spreads AIDS. The Republican leadership has consistently worked to discourage and devalue stable, monogamous gay unions. The Republican Party is the party of promiscuity. AT THE END OF THE DAY IT’S ABOUT PEOPLE Like the families in these ads. Why not grant them equal rights? Why not pull for them instead of against them? What a nice idea: a society where we’re all pulling for each other.
More Monkey Mail June 6, 2006March 4, 2017 So? Have you seen the movie? (Or bought the book?) Have you read Rolling Stone? ELECTION FRAUD Dale Davis: ‘It’s clear that Republicans, led by Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris and the Supreme Court, stole the White House in 2000. After reading Robert Kennedy’s article in Rolling Stone, it’s clear that they also stole it in 2004, thanks to Kenneth Blackwell. I’m beginning to think Republicans’ politics are too dirty to ever let us win again.’ ☞ If you are a Republican who disagrees, urge your representatives to back HR 550 and other ‘election protection’ legislation, to put this kind of speculation to rest. We need elections everyone can trust. What are we – Belarus? MARRIAGE Paul Rightley: ‘It would seem that Charles and my wife share the same birthday. I hope that he has had a great day. It doesn’t make sense to me that I should be allowed to marry my wife, while you are not allowed to marry Charles.’ ☞ Thanks, Paul. We pay a lot in taxes and do our best to be good citizens. It would be nice to have equal rights. But attitudes take time to change and I’m not as impatient as some. I marvel at how far the world has come since I was in college, and am encouraged that the trend seems to be generally positive. Look at Dick Cheney (of all people). He doesn’t favor the Republican anti-gay Constitutional Amendment because he knows someone who’s gay (his daughter). And Bush himself almost surely doesn’t give ‘two —-s’ about this either, as has been recently reported; it’s just a loathsome tactic to keep power. For Charles’s birthday I went to the Cartoon Bank and got him the original of a Barbara Smaller cartoon that shows two stylish women in a restaurant ladies room. ‘I can’t walk in these shoes,’ one is telling the other, ‘which is a problem because I can’t sit down in this dress.’ MONKEY MAIL Have you sent a monkey mail lately? I wrote about this a while back, but every once in a while one of you sends one to me – like this one – and it cracks me up every time.
Two Inconvenient Truths June 5, 2006March 4, 2017 So? Have you seen the movie? Have you read Rolling Stone? I can’t do all the work around here. PS – Today is Charles’s birthday. Buy yourself something nice.