…would be Her Honor Kimberley Driscoll, chief executive of the town of Salem, MA, now caught up in a dispute with Gordon College. Gordon is a Christian school with an educational mission it describes thusly:
That love does not extend to all neighbors.
The college recently requested an exemption from President Obama’s LGBT anti-workplace-discrimination order, a decision that caught the attention of Salem officials. In response, the city ended a contract it had with the school to manage its town hall.
That caught the attention of, among others, Glenn Beck, who warmed up the usual suspects to object to Salem’s decision. In a letter posted to her Facebook page on Wednesday, Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll said her office had received more than 50 calls that day from supporters of Beck and “right-leaning” blogs result, many of them…how to say this?…not what you would call civil:
Driscoll said the callers expressed “some patently offensive views regarding LGBT individuals.”
No surprise there. But what came next turns this from a conventional story of conservative/religious push-button rage that the exercise of the their first amendment rights were not without consequences into a lovely moment, courtesy of Mayor Driscoll:
So to fight back, she said she planned to donate $5 for every phone call to the North Shore Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth (nAGLY).
Hee!
You go, Madam Mayor.
Image: Thomas Eakins, Swimming/The swimming hole, 1885
Kyle
Shorter Gordon College:
“Sigh. It’s no longer the Salem of the witch trials. I miss the good old days.”
Mustang Bobby
Mayoral jiu-jitsu. Gotta love it.
c u n d gulag
Tee-hee!
Now THAT’S a great strategy!
Mayor:
“Thank you, Mr/Mrs/Ms ________________ for giving me your stupid and bigoted opinion.
And I’m sure the North Shore Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth (nAGLY) will make good use of the $5 I’ll donate in your name. Yes. In YOUR name! To be published in OUR local newspaper. Please call again on this subject!
Bye-bye! LOL!!!”
*click*
The Dangerman
I’ve grown SO tired of the pattern: The Left does something to address a problem and the Right bitches about it. They offer no solutions; they only bitch…
…and, if they DO offer a solution to a problem, it’s often so ignorant as to be rejected out of hand. Some Talking
HeadAsshole was on FOX last night saying Obama should place Stealth Aircraft in Poland in response to MH17. OK, at least it’s a suggestion as opposed to only bitching, but wouldn’t it be necessary for the Poles to AGREE to placing Stealth Aircraft on their soil? And, really, is THAT going to happen? Yeah, I thought not….ETA: The same things have happened related to military cuts; OK, assholes, I find some of the cuts deplorable (see: VA) so lets not make the cuts and instead raise taxes, and, of course, the response is *crickets*
Cassidy
@The Dangerman: Hell, people here will tell you that all them small European countries, like the UK, have zero sovereignty and just do what the US tells it to.
jacy
Brava, Your Honor.
srv
Deepak issues a new challenge as the Toms of the Left can’t defend athiesm:
gene108
I got a fundraising letter from Hillsdale college in the mail*. It’s a Christian college in Michigan that apparently refused federal aid to keep to its principles.
What got me is I never went to Hillsdale college.
I can understand places of higher learning, I actually attended, sending me the periodic request for donation, but that was the first time I ever got a request like that from a college I did not attend.
* They had quotes from Reagan and some other popular right-wingers about how great Hillsdale college is, as well as a form letter from Sean Hannity, to get me interested in supporting them….what a waste of paper…
Baud
@srv:
Ha! Like I would trust a felon to honor his bets.
Baud
@srv:
Ha! Like I would trust a felon to honor his bets.
mai naem
@gene108: Hillsdale was the college where there was some major sex scandal with the college president. I’ve forgotten as this was several years ago and I can’t be bothered to do the google and,well, there are just so many RWNJ sex scandals, it’s hard to keep track. Anyhoo, the president was either bopping his daughter in law or he was caught up in a nasty divorce where he was accused of anally raping his wife who I think he had been screwing aroud on.
Villago Delenda Est
Right fucking on, Mayor Driscoll!
Beck and his followers are the antithesis of actual followers of the teachings of Jesus.
A pox on all of them.
Cervantes
@gene108:
Well, Hillsdale’s true claim to fame is rather more disturbing than that.
Schlemizel
There used to be a moran on Jonathan Turleys blog that would stop by from time to time to call all Democrats baby killers. She would drag it into any thread in some hilarious ways. So I told her I was donating $5 to Planned Parenthood every time she did that. It probably cost me $100 but every time she did I would post that I sent another $5 in her name. She did finally go away for good though and I’d like to think that was money well spent.
Sadly, his blog has been invaded by mouth-breathers since then. What used to be pretty decent discussion, even when there were disagreements, has been killed by some awful louts.
Baud
@srv:
My bad. I saw an Indian name and a crazy wingnutty statement and confused Chopra with D’Souza.
rikyrah
Friday, July 18, 2014
The real deal
I remember a scene on West Wing where Josh Lymon tracks down Sam Seaborn, who is working at a law practice, to discuss whether or not they want to get back into politics. Josh is thinking about going to work for Jed Bartlet’s presidential campaign. He tells Sam that he’s going to check Bartlet out and will get back to him. After doing so, Josh calls Sam to tell him this guy is “the real deal.”
I’ve looked for a clip of that scene on youtube and can’t find it. So I’m going from memory. But it stood out to me because that’s how I feel like I’ve spent most of my time following politics…looking for the real deal. One of the reasons I’ve followed President Obama so closely is that I finally felt like I found just that.
The real deal doesn’t come along very often in politics. But I had that same reaction today when I watched this video of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick talk about his plans to work with the federal government to provide shelter for the unaccompanied children who have come here from Central America. You can skip to about 4:45 on the video to see the pertinent portion.
Patrick offered two reasons for his decision. One is the U.S. tradition of helping children from other nations in need. The other, Patrick explained, is deeply personal.
“I believe that we will one day have to answer for our actions and our inactions. My faith teaches that ‘if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him,’ but rather ‘love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt,'” Patrick said , quoting scripture, as he grew visibly emotional.
http://youtu.be/ubpvoDIfKvY
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.ca/2014/07/the-real-deal.html
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud: They’re both loons who should be summarily deported from this country: they are infinitely more damaging to this country than any kid from Guatemala or Honduras. Or any thousand kids.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: That’s evil hippie Jesus, son of God shit, not Jeebus, the wonderful son of Mammon, the true deity of the United States.
Villago Delenda Est
@srv: He might as well demand that someone explain to him why water is wet.
MattF
@The Dangerman: That’s… pretty dumb. In fact, most modern military aircraft are stealthy, so there’s no actual difference between stationing ‘stealth’ aircraft and stationing aircraft.
Eric U.
@Villago Delenda Est: not sure that forming thoughts is really a theological question. I suppose that it’s a sufficient stand-in for intelligent life, but I would like his explanation of how it works first. Is it as simple as, “God created intelligent life — thus thoughts!”
Iowa Old Lady
@srv: Why does he care? Why does he want to argue about it? I feel no need to talk him out of what he believes. All I ask is that he act like a decent human being.
Joey Maloney
@rikyrah: that scene is from the first episode of season 2, “In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen, Part 1”. They used the framing story of Josh being shot to flashback to the backstory.
Cervantes
@Iowa Old Lady:
What you’re missing is that he’s responding to Randi’s challenge with his own counter-challenges.
WaterGirl
@Cervantes: Ugh. Not sure whether to thank you or curse you for that link, Cervantes. Perhaps I’ll do both!
Gene108
@Villago Delenda Est:
What is your beef against Chopra?
Might as well ban books by Joseph Campbell and others, who dabbled in spirituality.
Gene108
@Eric U.:
I think it is more that not everything has a rational scientific explanation.
SFAW
@srv:
I can’t decide if Chopra is a fuckwad, a douchebag, or just a fucking asshole.
[OK, if that isn’t a set-up line for youse guys (of either sex), I don’t know what is.]
Hal
@srv: OK deep pockets. Just give me a few decades and a few dozen PhD neuroscientists, plus millions of dollars and we’ll have that answer for you.
He’s offering a million bucks for a question that’s pure science while ignoring the time and effort it would take to prove it. Unlike faith, which just requires belief.
Iowa Old Lady
@Cervantes: I did miss that. I still find the whole thing strange. Decent human behavior. That’s the ticket.
From my prejudiced point of view, the only reason to debate belief is that you think the other side is using their beliefs or lack thereof to excuse behavior you find reprehensible. And I do think that. There’s a song about having god on your side and how that lets you do pretty much anything.
Anoniminous
@srv:
The God Botherers in Congress gutted funding that was, in part, being used to investigate this question.
gbear
The adopt-a-protestor technique is pretty cool. It’s been around for quite a while. I wish all Planned Parenthood clinics would do this on a regular basis.
Villago Delenda Est
@Iowa Old Lady: He’s a grifter.
This means he’s not a decent human being. Like all televangelist types.
Viva BrisVegas
@Gene108:
Which might be true, but so far nothing has been shown to have a rational spiritual explanation.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@gene108: I got one of those and I almost wrote the school to tell them they are being scammed by their direct mail operation.
I’ve been a registered Democrat since I was old enough to vote!
Lurking Canadian
@Villago Delenda Est: there is a kind of question begging in modern neuroscience, that goes, “Assuming strict materialism, prove strict materialism”. Given Occam’s Razor, I’m not sure there’s another way to approach the problem, but philosophically, it’s still worth bullshitting about when stoned. Or so I have been given to understand anyway.
Narcissus
Was hoping for Dat Ass and got Dat Metaphysics
FridayNext
I realize this is totally not the point, but why is a government hiring a private college to manage a town hall? What do they do? Book parties? Security? Building maintenance and janitorial? Is this normal?
I get the strange feeling this arrangement is so the town can get whatever services they are getting paying undergrads minimum wage or less. This sounds hinky to me.
SiubhanDuinne
@gbear:
It’s such a great way to out-troll the trolls.
Kyle
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer):
If they have a postage-paid envelope, send it back empty so they have to eat the postage charge. It’s what I do with the occasional right wing nutjob solicitations I receive, as well as Wall Street Journal subscription offers since Australia’s Worst Export took it over.
Someone once suggested taping the postage-paid envelope to a phone book so they’ll have to eat the cost of mailing a 2lb package, but I’m skeptical as to whether that would actually work.
Fort Geek
@Kyle: Mother Jones has a writeup on this kind of thing. Can You Mail a Brick to a Bank?
The short version is: stuff some junk in the envelope and mail it back. The Post Office is more likely to just throw out something like a brick or bowling ball.
Even then, there’s no way of knowing who opens the thing at the other end.
FridayNext
@efgoldman:
Thanks!!
xenos
@srv: Atheism? Chopra can’t even handle phenomonology!
xenos
@srv: Atheism? Chopra can’t even handle phenomonology!
Skepticat
I’ve know Kim, er, Her Honor, since she was in college, and she is a most impressive, incredible woman–the type of person we need in the political arena. I think (and hope) you’ll be hearing more of her in Massachusetts and perhaps on the national stage.