Sanity Pills

As always, I look to the Boston Globe to get the latest in cultural news, especially when it comes to eating in drinking. They are all over the newest restaurants and products to hit the Boston area. That’s why I was thrilled to see an article about Harpoon’s 100-Barrel Series. What a novel idea, I’m surprised I haven’t heard about this sooner.

Oh wait, I have, because they’ve been doing these beers for two fucking years. The first one, an Oatmeal Stout that I unfortunately missed, came out in June 2003.

Yes, I understand that Harpoon is in the news because it had a major (by New England standards anyway) BBQ tournament this past weekend at their Vermont brewery, but Ann Cortissoz writes as if the 100-Barrel Series is a new discovery.

The Boston Globe is quickly becoming the saddest major daily in the nation, luckily it’s got a sidekick to accompany it in its decline.

To the Globe’s Andrea Pyenson: Great job with the ‘jimmies’ coverage. It’s nice to know that a racial slur still has a place in Boston…and on ice cream (Jimmy refers to the Jim Crow Laws, that’s why the rainbow ones are called sprinkles, but the chocolate [brown] ones are jimmies).

This made me sick this morning:

Targeting gay rights

By Randy Sharp | July 31, 2005

Back in 1977, our founder, Donald Wildmon, was flipping through the channels of his television and he was shocked by what he saw. Each of the three networks (remember, this was before cable) was showing scenes of sex, violence, or promiscuity. He thought the content entirely inappropriate for families.

When Wildmon complained to the networks and got no response, he decided the best way to gain their attention was through their pocketbooks. He had monitors watch television for 28 prime time nights. They were told to record every offensive scene and then note the show’s sponsor.

When the results came in, we discovered that Sears and Roebuck topped the list of advertisers who sponsored offensive programming. So Wildmon announced that he and his congregants in Tupelo, Miss., would boycott Sears. The media got hold of it, and Sears realized it had a public relations problem on its hands. Wildmon led a protest march in front of Sears Tower in Chicago, and within hours Sears announced it was changing its sponsorship of several questionable programs (I remember ”Three’s Company” was one of them.)

Nowadays, the Internet makes it easy for any group to organize a boycott. At any given time, probably every company in America has somebody boycotting it. But there’s still power in numbers, and our organization, in concert with other conservative groups, can still generate an enormous number of complaints–anywhere from 100,000 to one million. When that happens, corporations pay attention.

Since Sears, we’ve boycotted Disney to protest their Gay Days and Procter & Gamble for contributing to a campaign in support of homosexual rights, which we believe would lead to an endorsement of gay marriage.

In May of this year, we announced a boycott of the Ford Motor Company — it was donating cars to gay causes. Within three days, the Ford Dealers Association called and asked us to suspend the boycott for six months. They said they’d look into our complaints. So we did.

Right now we’re looking at Kraft Foods. They’ve donated $25,000 to support the Gay Games, a kind of gay Olympics, and we’ve let them know we’re not pleased. Kraft says it won’t back down, it won’t negotiate or compromise. So, yes, it’s very possible that within the next year we’ll announce a Kraft boycott.

These companies have got to understand that there’s power in the consumer. People will go out of their way not to buy a product that supports causes they don’t believe in. That’s one thing about the American public: Our values are not for sale.

Randy Sharp is director of Special Projects for American Family Association.

What pisses me off more than Randy Sharp’s idiotic and hateful reasoning, is the Globe’s willingness to publish this in a section called Thinking Big. Unfortunately, I don’t have a subscription to cancel.

The Boston Globe just started publishing a new daily insert for the unwashed called “Sidekick: Your Guide to a Better Day.” The Globe’s been pushing it hard, with print ads and commercials trying to get people excited about it, but I think they are clearly running scared, realizing that they are losing younger readers to the hipper free papers (Phoenix, Weekly Dig, Stuff@Night). That’s probably why they had attractive young people and, for some reason, two men dressed as Batman and Robin passing out free copies today in Copley Sq. Most passers-by didn’t take a copy probably because they thought it was more bullshit promotional stuff, but I rejected the offer because I read yesterday’s inaugural issue of Sidekick.

Everything about it blows. The writing is bad, there is no real info, and much of it is filled with TV schedules. If you want interesting lifestyle stuff like the newest store, new bar or restaurant, or a new product to use, just subscribe to the free emails from DailyCandy. If you want entertainment news and the hottest gossip about your favorite stars, go here.

The Globe also recently lowered the subscription price, offering a 50% savings now through September. But the Globe isn’t alone in its drive to attract new readers, the Boston Herald has workers stationed at popular corners throughout the city giving out free issues around 5pm. I never take one because the Herald is horrible and its readers disgust me; only the NY Post and the Enquirer offer more sensationalized bullshit.

I’ve been consistently disappointed with the Globe for about 5 years. I’ve watched their health/science section become pop-science crap that’s now almost 75% health-related, and the loss of Chet Raymo who’s one of the best science writers alive. I’ve seen the Ideas section dumb-down and shrink considerably. The food section doesn’t even rise to the low-bar set by outlets like the Food Network. The Arts section is now all filler containing some of the worst film criticism of any major paper. Don’t even get me started on the restaurant reviews. And then there’s the Boston Globe magazine, where the advertisements are more interesting than the articles. This city deserves better.

Here’s a novel idea for newspapers: make them worth reading again.

In the meantime, I’ll keep reading the Weekly Dig, they seem to like me (4th one down).

I heard a recording of yesterday’s White House press briefing on Air America this morning. The press, especially NBC’s David Gregory, actually did their job for once. Unfortunately, Scott McClellan is such a slimeball that he wouldn’t come close to answering their questions, which, in the end, is far more revealing that the truth ever could be.

Here’s a choice excerpt:

QUESTION: Scott, can I ask you this: Did Karl Rove commit a crime?

MCCLELLAN: Again, David, this is a question relating to a ongoing investigation, and you have my response related to the investigation. And I don’t think you should read anything into it other than: We’re going to continue not to comment on it while it’s ongoing.

QUESTION: Do you stand by your statement from the fall of 2003, when you were asked specifically about Karl and Elliot Abrams and Scooter Libby, and you said, “I’ve gone to each of those gentlemen, and they have told me they are not involved in this”?

QUESTION: Do you stand by that statement?

MCCLELLAN: And if you will recall, I said that, as part of helping the investigators move forward on the investigation, we’re not going to get into commenting on it. That was something I stated back near that time as well.

QUESTION: Scott, this is ridiculous. The notion that you’re going to stand before us, after having commented with that level of detail, and tell people watching this that somehow you’ve decided not to talk.

You’ve got a public record out there. Do you stand by your remarks from that podium or not?

MCCLELLAN: I’m well aware, like you, of what was previously said. And I will be glad to talk about it at the appropriate time. The appropriate time is when the investigation…

QUESTION: (inaudible) when it’s appropriate and when it’s inappropriate?

MCCLELLAN: If you’ll let me finish.

QUESTION: No, you’re not finishing. You’re not saying anything.

You stood at that podium and said that Karl Rove was not involved. And now we find out that he spoke about Joseph Wilson’s wife. So don’t you owe the American public a fuller explanation. Was he involved or was he not? Because contrary to what you told the American people, he did indeed talk about his wife, didn’t he?

MCCLELLAN: There will be a time to talk about this, but now is not the time to talk about it.

QUESTION: Do you think people will accept that, what you’re saying today?

MCCLELLAN: Again, I’ve responded to the question.

QUESTION: You’re in a bad spot here, Scott…

(LAUGHTER)

More of the transcript is here, and the media files, here.

The Daily Howler has been tremendous lately. By far the best critique of the media you will find anywhere. Check out the scathing attack on Scarborough today. Check out the series on urban high school test scores too. It’s basically the only place left to get anything close to the truth.

Robert Novak should be hanged with his bowels out for exposing the name of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame in his vile column. However, the government has little interest in prosecuting or even questioning Novak in the matter, ostensibly because he is one of this Administration’s greatest cheerleaders. Instead, the government plans to jail TIME magazine’s Matt Cooper and the NY Times’ Judith Miller for not divulging what seems to be a tenuous link to the Valerie Plame leak.

The investigation of Plame’s outing is so pathetic, anything that resembles the truth terrifies this Administration. I know Americans are dumb, but how fucking dumb do they think we are?

These reporters shouldn’t go to jail, although the pro-Bush, pro-War, and all-around shitty journalist Judith Miller, who the Times tapped to cover (read: promote) the buildup to war, deserves a lot of time as somebody’s bitch.

This story was covered by two sources that I can find. DefenseNews, and Bloomberg. Great job guys.

Iraqi lawmakers from across the political spectrum called for the withdrawal of foreign forces from their country in a letter released to the media June 19.

The move comes as U.S. President George W. Bush is under increasing domestic pressure to set a timetable for the pullout of American forces in the face of an increasing death toll at the hands of insurgents.

Eighty-two Shiite, Kurdish, Sunni Arab, Christian and communist deputies made the call in a letter sent by Falah Hassan Shanshal of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the largest group in parliament, to speaker Hajem al-Hassani.

I for one thank the media for their thorough coverage of this article.

Indeed.

A Tom Toles Cartoon via Altercation

Dick Durbin is right. The White House, the Pentagon, and the rest of the Repugs are wrong, and they know they are wrong. Gitmo is an abomination, and instead of fixing it or addressing the problem, all the Repugs can do (with the help of the complacent enabling media) is scandalize true, if hyperbolic, statements by Democrats as extremist and even treasonous.

Should Sen. Durbin have used different language? Probably. Should he back down? FUCK NO!!!

I can already see Nancy Pelosi, Joe Lieberman, and Joe Biden on the Sunday morning talk shows denouncing the statements of their colleague. If the Dems are smart they will fully agree with Durbin’s sentiments but eschew his phrasing. However, if they try to distance themselves from Durbin, like they did recently with Dean and will probably do again this time, the Party will be fucked.

The real problem is that Gitmo and Abu Ghraib are not anomalies, they are par for the course. These are the things we should expect when our military is made up almost entirely of, what is best described as, “low-hanging fruit.”

The story about the California man who, police fear, may have molested THOUSANDS of children, that’s news. Nancy Reagan falling, not news.