Ungrateful heart patient fines doctor who saved his life

Link What a f*cking bastard.

Goodbye Matt Damon fandom

There was a troublingly homophobic snippet of Matt Damon's interview in GQ where he talks about the cars he and Ben were thinking about buying after getting the money for Good Will Hunting.

Damon says, "Because we knew it would be so gay to get the same car [Jeep Grand Cherokee]. And our friends where making fun of us. Like, 'You fags, what are you doing, you're gonna drive around in the same car? Are they gonna say His and His on them?' We both wanted hunter green. So eventually we decided that one had to get black and one had to get green."

Some straight guys and even some gays might say that this is completely normal thing for him to say. But there are clearly negative implications to being viewed as gay here being put out by a mainstream actor. And I think his acquiescing to generalized homophobia is bad as well as highlighting it in a major interview. He even sneaks in the gay slur!! What an asshole!

What would have been much better? Something like: Well, so what if people thought we were gay? We bought the same car anyway. Of course, that would be lying, so, what to do then, would be to not mention this incident at all.

Homophobia is insidious. Something which looks normal and understandable -- oh, I would never want anyone to believe I am gay because it is such a bad thing -- is really degradation, insult, and hate. People are so used to speaking in these terms and automatically thinking it's acceptable. Sure, it's like second nature '80s playground language -- but used by a celebrity in a mainstream magazine.

If I were to restate in racially charged terms, it's like Matt saying: "Ben and I were thinking of buying Cadillacs. My friends were saying: so what are you n*gg*rs now? We *obviously* had to *not* buy Cadillacs because people would think we're a couple of f*cking negros."

Anyway, I'm much less of a Matt fan than I used to be, and now, I think perhaps an end is in order.

Dems should stop with the objective reasoning and go for the kill

Link A couple of the examples in the article seem to make sense. Perhaps one of the hallmarks of the Dems approach is to try to use logic to persuade -- even though it's supposed to be the mommy party (Ok, I won't say that again). I like the idea of adopting the sneaky tricks of the Republicans to go after emotions. We need a campaign that goes after the non-intellectual masses of Americans in a simple basic way. No more high road, just go after the knee jerk low road reaction.

For example, not gun control, it's stopping terrorism. Not abortion, but reducing recent-immigrant population growth. Not hate crimes legislations, but equal nightclub accessibility. And haven't you realized that Bush and the Republicans are f*cking idiots. Don't be an idiot.

Want to win your case at the Supreme Court? Woo Kennedy

Link Much as been made of the single remaining swing vote now that O'Connor has left the bench: Anthony Kennedy. It appears that perhaps some small hope of liberal victories still remain despite the two new white guys.

-- Updated 7/6

Economist says that liberals will now rightly focus on winning in the legislature rather than the Supreme Court. I think that there certainly is great power there.

Doctors like to talk about themselves

Link My GP is great, a nice asian woman with seemingly infinite patience. This article talks about how some doctors forgot to ask what patient was there for. For some reason, I can easily imagine some male doctors doing exactly what's mentioned in the article: self-centered b*stards. And you know that I haven't anything against males, but I can just perfectly picture it. A tall, white, male doctor starting a conversation about my summer and in a blasé manner -- knowing that no patient in need of medical help would dare stop him -- continuing to talk about his family and his vacation last year in Italy for several minutes.

China food fakery (updated)

Link Pretty disgusting. People say the Chinese are just interested in making money. And here it is openly demonstrated that they really don't care how they make money. The feed makers were defrauding the buyers. The chemical makers claim the chemicals were harmless, but they basically turned a blind eye and were enablers for the feed makers to cheat others -- knowing that the feed has no nutritional value. Ethically deficient? Driven by greed?

While I wouldn't doubt it if they claimed that they learned this attitude from rapacious Western multinational corporations, a disturbing aspect of this story fits with another stereotype I've heard others say about the Chinese. That they don't want to get involved. If a nearby person is dying of a heart attack, they won't call 911 or do CPR. They'll claim it was none of their business. Or they didn't know what problem the guy was having. Or they don't want the police to think they killed the guy. Or they don't want to be charged for the 911 call.

While it doesn't excuse anything, one possible explanation for this behavior is that because of widespread government corruption, they've had the habit of not reporting anything to the authorities, because if they did, it might be seen as unwanted meddling and come back to harm them in some way.

-- Updated 5/17

A story on the fallout from the tainted pet food from China.

-- Updated 6/10

Link Making a quick buck in China with fakery.

More firings in the works for offensive racial remarks (updated)

Link I'd like to say that I'm sure these guys will get the boot too. But Asians don't have an Al Sharpton, though perhaps we can ask for his help. I hardly watch CBS, but I'd offer that I'll never watch another tired Katie Couric broadcast again.

-- Updated 5/15

Queerty reports the DJs were finally given the boot by CBS.

Fierstein argues against prejudices double standard

Link Why do Ann Coulter and Isaiah Washington get a relative pass for calling people f----t? And Imus get fired for calling others nappy headed hos? Fierstein wonders why and thinks it's due to a double standard.

Perhaps there aren't insult words strong enough that we can hurl at straight white Christian males in America to understand what it's like to be insulted with such words. Cracker, breeder, red-neck, bible-bearing, poor white trash don't quite meet the level of insults straight white male people can say towards women, Jewish people, gays and blacks. I think people just need to take a moment to put themselves in other's shoes. This seems to be a lost art in this day and age, but a capacity that all humans have.

One can complain about thought police and mind-control, but really this argument isn't about what people think. People can think what they like, but if a public figure makes public insults, he/she is going to have to pay the price. I just hope it that unlike what Fierstein says, gays don't remain the only group bigots can insult publicly and not lose their job.

-- Updated 4/15

Expectations, context and target matters according to Times piece.

NYTimes prints the anti-gay f-word slur from Coulter

Permalink Weird. Just a little while back, with the Isaiah Washington statement, NYTimes refused to actually print the word. Now when Ann Coulter says it about John Edwards, it's okay to print. Maybe it makes sense, but then I don't know what the rules are. Hopefully they can enlighten us.

Anyway, it's just incredible that Coulter decides to use the word.

But what was her reasoning behind using the word? She seemed to say she was intending to use it as in insult and not to say that he is actually gay. But that he is a weak, effeminate man. That is really the most offensive use of the word regardless of whether it is applied to a gay man or not.

More or less erudite reasoning on the matter here.

Hardaway a bigot, and likely feigns apology

AP story on NYTimes [Why didn't the Times do their own story? Lazy bums.]

Hardaway:
"Well, you know, I hate gay people. I let it be known, I don't like gay people. I don't like to be around gay people."

"I'm homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."

Amazing. I don't have a right to exist? As just about everyone has commented, the statement just validates the need for an equality movement. In an ironic way, thank you: Mr. Hardaway.

Isaiah Washington, fighting for career, apologizes deeply for anti-gay slur

Link The New York Times doesn't even write the word, but you can guess what word it is that Washington allegedly said once on the set of Grey's Anatomy and definitely said once in public at the Golden Globes -- of all places. And it wasn't the short version, it was the long version used profusely on playgrounds in elementary and middle school while I was growing up.

I must say that I'm impressed that the country has come to a point where saying it in public is getting close to saying the slur against African Americans in public by a non-African American. Not sure why but African Americans themselves get a pass in using that slur.

I'm ashamed to say I've used the anti-gay word before, before I was out. Maybe out gay people get a pass for saying it, but now I wouldn't do it -- it still has too many hurtful associations.