Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Did Procter & Gamble bow to pressure from anti-gay activists and quit sponsoring shows they deemed inappropriate? The Family Research Council is claiming victory: "Those monitoring the company's practices have concluded that it has now ended its sponsorship of offensive TV programs and homosexual websites. An executive who promoted the homosexual agenda within the company, and who was given a leave of absence to work for pro-homosexual special rights legislation in Cincinnati, is no longer working for P&G. This victory shows the power that pro-family citizens have when they vote with their dollars against supporting corporate homosexual activism. Thank you, P&G, for listening to your customers' concerns." 7:00:15 PM   permalink   comment []

N&R reporter Jeffrey Hahne interviews Tommy Lee...with all respect to the estimable Lorraine Ahearn, wouldn't an interview with a rock star make for a better podcast than a columnist reading her work? Why not put this up on GoRadio? 4:51:58 PM   permalink   comment []

Does Google have a sense of humor? As of this afternoon, the number three entry in a search for "pope names" is Jay Ovittore's April Fools Day post... 3:01:05 PM   permalink   comment []

Roch Smith Jr. resolves to resolve the resolution question at tonight's City Council meeting. It's a statement of support for the mission, not an endorsement of the as-yet-unwritten report. It doesn't obligate the City to anything. Sound like something Sandy Carmany, who has said she objects to "being politically manuvered to take a stand on something that has not even been researched and written yet," might get behind? 2:29:58 PM   permalink   comment []

Greensboro blogger-in-exile FRM is getting married early. 9:41:21 AM   permalink   comment []

David Wharton has some questions for Eric Muller about what books to pull from school libraries. I'm a fan of the Chronicles of Narnia, and find its Christian allegory compelling. The racist depiction of Muslims/Calormenes is an unfortunate cultural artifact of its time, as is the whiff of OxBridge anti-semitism that permeates The Last Battle. Yet reading the series several times as a kid did not make me a Christian, or even a lion-worshipper, or an anti-semite or Muslim-hater. That said, the books Eric is protesting are not allegory, they are much more direct in their thumbs up/thumbs down for particular religions. They come out and say to kids, Christianity is the way to go, not that strange Buddhist and Muslim stuff. C.S. Lewis, for all his cultural baggage, was not an exclusivist -- he lets Emeth, the faithful Calormene, enter "heaven," suggesting that truth can be found in non-Christian religions. Should the books slighting Buddhism and Islam be in a public school library? Probably not. You are using tax dollars to tell some students that their religions are wrong, and it's not like these books are timeless classics. But what about Narnia? Its racist stereotypes are also offensive. Then again, Huck Finn stays in...although it gets challenged a lot, too. Complicated. 9:35:39 AM   permalink   comment []

Guarino says the idea that homosexuals are "individuals whose lives and values are similar to everyone else's" is "fundamentally untrue." 9:11:32 AM   permalink   comment []

Hoggard on the City Council's consideration of the Truth and Rec project: "Why is it that white folks on the Council see this issue in such a different light than the black Council members?  To me, this dichotomy of perceptions as to what may or may not come from the work of the Commission is evidence enough that Greensboro really needs to undertake this examination." Agreed, as noted here. Mr. Sun comments, "A suggestion to the GTRC: go find the facts as impartially as you can and, until you return, let each and every one of your public statements be only questions -- not statements or requests." He also says, "I find tonight's requested vote objectionable and foolish...for every inch the GTRC steps away from the role of independent fact-finder, I move two inches away from them in my own support." Huh. I dont' really get how asking for some buy-in from the City Council is an objectionable and foolish move away from fact-finding. Poorly timed, perhaps, but otherwise a pretty straightforward request for support in a difficult mission. 8:55:55 AM   permalink   comment []

Robert Wright: What liberals can learn from Thomas Friedman's new book. 8:31:41 AM   permalink   comment []