classmates in biloxi are blogging about hurricane katrina posted August 29, 2005 in print
Gravestones Have Pentagon Slogans
ARLINGTON, Va. -- Unlike earlier wars, nearly all Arlington National Cemetery gravestones for troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan are inscribed with the slogan-like operation names the Pentagon selected to promote public support for the conflicts.
Families of fallen soldiers and Marines are being told they have the option to have the government-furnished headstones engraved with "Operation Enduring Freedom" or "Operation Iraqi Freedom" at no extra charge, whether they are buried in Arlington or elsewhere. A mock-up shown to many families includes the operation names.
The vast majority of military gravestones from other eras are inscribed with just the basic, required information: name, rank, military branch, date of death and, if applicable, the war and foreign country in which the person served.
Families are supposed to have final approval over what goes on the tombstones. That hasn't always happened.
Nadia and Robert McCaffrey, whose son Patrick was killed in Iraq in June 2004, said "Operation Iraqi Freedom" ended up on his government-supplied headstone in Oceanside, Calif., without family approval.
"I was a little taken aback," Robert McCaffrey said, describing his reaction when he first saw the operation name on Patrick's tombstone. "They certainly didn't ask my wife; they didn't ask me." He said Patrick's widow told him she had not been asked either.
"In one way, I feel it's taking advantage to a small degree," McCaffrey said. "Patrick did not want to be there, that is a definite fact."
The owner of the company that has been making gravestones for Arlington and other national cemeteries for nearly two decades is uncomfortable, too.
"It just seems a little brazen that that's put on stones," said Jeff Martell, owner of Granite Industries of Vermont. "It seems like it might be connected to politics."
- david pace, "Troops' Gravestones Have Pentagon Slogans," washington post august 24, 2005
posted August 25, 2005 in politicson kanye
Kanye’s remarks are making such a seismic impact because no part of the explosion of media images dealing with LGBT people in recent years has come from or been targeted at the Black community. Despite all of the talk about how easily gay people have integrated into pop culture, as Kanye West points out, “the exact opposite word of ‘hip-hop,' I think, is ‘gay’” – which makes it the opposite of a defining part of young, Black life and culture.
Black people must see other Black people confront homophobia, and must see LGBT people as Black people as well, if we are ever going to make real progress shifting attitudes. Kanye, bravely and boldly, has realized this fact. And his testimony couldn’t have come at a more apt time, in the midst of a summer in which we have once again heard startling news about HIV’s rampage among Black gay men – a reality that, in no small part, is driven by the Black community’s failure to embrace and support us.
Kanye opened his story on MTV by talking about his close relationship with his mother, which is captured in a song on his new CD entitled “Hey Mama.” He explained that growing up with his mother meant that he also took on some of her mannerisms. When he got to high school, this fact meant he was often ridiculed for being a “fag.” And, in turn, he became very homophobic.
But when Kanye learned through one of his cousins that another cousin in the family was gay, he began to rethink his stance. "It was kind of like a turning point,” he told MTV VJ Sway, “when I was like, `Yo, this is my cousin. I love him and I've been discriminating against gays.'"
And there it was, the cycle of homophobia broken.
Kanye’s seeing his cousin as gay helped to humanize Black LGBT people in his eyes and prompted him to in turn abandon the sort of knee-jerk attitudes that prevent people like his cousin from being able to come out in the first place. As Kanye so articulately explained in describing the roots of his own homophobia, “If you see something and you don't want to be that because there's such a negative connotation toward it, you try to separate yourself from it so much that it made me homophobic by the time I was through high school. Anybody that was gay I was like, ‘Yo, get away from me.’”
It is often assumed that the Black community is more homophobic than the white gay community. But while there is certainly homophobia in the Black community, the buzz surrounding Kanye’s remarks shows the real issue may be how rarely the topic is actually addressed substantively and humanly.
- kenyon farrow, "Kanye West Rewrites Hip-Hop’s Gay Record," Black AIDS Institute august 22, 2005
posted August 23, 2005 in printtop 5 choices, 8/11/05
1. man date or girl crush? girl crush
2. vince, shane or hal? shane, followed by hal
3. mulder, scully or skinner? skinner all the way
4. e-mail this, printer-friendly, single-page or reprints? single-page
5. cjr or ajr? ajr
top 3 annoyances of 8/9/05
1. misplaced coffee thermos
2. ran out of half-and-half
3. wilford brimley's pronunciation of "dye-uh-BEAT-us"
top 7 things i like that he doesn't
1. eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
2. raisins
3. rachael ray
4. beagles
5. alicia keys
6. jason kidd
7. chicken on the bone
top 5 things bf likes that i don't
1. pimp my ride
2. liver
3. madagascar hissing cockroaches
4. lobster
5. seann william scott
top 5 things my bf and i both dislike
1. meringue
2. merengue
3. emeril
4. the white stripes
5. ugg boots
top 8 things my bf and i both like
1. psylocke
2. age of apocalypse vol. 1
3. gregg araki on his good days (nowhere, mysterious skin)
4. scott bakula
5. wet walnuts
6. bitter greens
7. degrassi: the next generation
8. magic hat no. 9
top 9 hangout movies*
1. high fidelity
2. blue crush
3. ghost world
4. nowhere
5. rules of attraction
6. almost famous
7. heathers
8. clueless
9. darko
*hangout movie: one you view repeatedly just for the sake of spending time with its characters rather than being gripped by the story or wowed by cinematic technique. - Richard Alleva, "About a Boy" commonweal december 5, 2003
posted August 08, 2005 in listtop 4 shows i am campily glad are always on
1. roseanne
2. law & order: special victims unit
3. law & order
4. the west wing
top 5 things noticed in boston suburbia
1. ubiquitous baseball caps
2. ditto re: steak tips
3. softer-edged alt weeklies
4. non-delivering thai restaurants
5. silverfish