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The Public Blogging of Pomosexuality, Homotextuality, Homophobiaphilia, and Drear Theory (aka Career Theory) [aka Gay4Pay]. We also read the Corner and OpJournal so the right buttock will be punished as well.
All comments subject to publication. Or dismissal. Or Both.
Friday, August 02, 2002
Instapundit linked to a story about an uprising against the ludicrous airport security procedures.
I'm always up for news of small victories so I went.
But then I bumped into this delightful aside early on in the heroic tale:
"Here's a quote from the effete little man who took our bags: he didn't say "I apologize for the confusion," or "sorry we didn't separate people who are on the earlier flight," but instead, "I have to put up with this every day." How difficult for you, Emile, or Jamey, or whatever girly little name you go by. Tell the other girls at the hair salon about it."
Now I think I'm just about the least sensitive person to insult, oh I don't know, east of Denver let's say. You call me a faggot I'll call you a cocksucker. Not exactly logical but no harm done either. I mean I'll say it but the orignal insult (or attempted insult) doesn't really matter to me. I just believe in always answering nasty shit with nasty shit. I think it makes the world a better place. The whole "Evolution of Cooperation" thing. You pay a price for bad behavior. And you get a prize for being nice.
So I can't say I'm hurt and outraged at what the guy wrote. I just felt moved to write something nasty back. (I do think it's curious that instapundit didn't mention it and only one of the people commenting on the page before me took notice of the offhand slurs. Substitute racial, ethnic or religious epithets for the sissy baiting and check out the effect.)
Here's my "you cocksucker" reply:
Why so much venom at the "effete" dude at the ticket counter. No mention of the masculinity quotient of the security guards. Or do you save your real anger for the obvious fags?
Doubt he moonlights in a hairdressing salon or hangs out in one off hours. What jackchick comicbook you living in? His faggy name was probably on his lapel name tag, btw. You could have looked. (Emile is a girly name, now? Tell it to Zola.)
Maybe he picked up on your visceral disdain and gave you back a piece of it. boo-hoo. I know you think this disdain is your hidden super-power but most of the human objects of it will actually recognize it and react accordingly. You might want to keep that in mind next time you think you're invisible.
And since when do luggage check-ins operate on anything but first come first served? You get there 45 minutes before take-off and you deserve to be bumped to the head of the line AND an apology from the swish at the counter?
I'm ready to applaud all spontaneous uprisings against stupid and shoddy service wherever, whenever. So part of your story works for me.
But then part of me is "well if someone had to suffer, might as well be this lameass."
4:02 PM
Thursday, August 01, 2002
So I was paging through this Benetton catalogue. Oh, I'm sorry, it's the new issue of adbusters magazine. You know, the guys who want to turn commercialism's graphic weapons against itself. Who want to be beat billboards into...uh billboards, just saying different stuff.
They get me with this last "tactic". I enjoy seeing the occasional billboard subverted to inane ends, or more inane ends. But they sure didn't invent the prank and their refinement of it, self-conscious
"culture jamming", is hardly an improvement.
Not exactly a mighty superstructure to build a political movement around either---but don't tell adbusters--or if you have to tell them do it with a billboard, if you know what I mean.
They kind of remind me of ACT-UP in it's more aesthetic days. Behind all the rage it always seemed like there was an ad agency trying to bust out.
So here's a letter to the editor that appeared in adbusters:
Would it hurt to get some paid advertising? Your cover price is fucking killing me.
--Anthony Baba Montauk New York
Adbusters sticker shock. In Montauk no less. The cultural contradictions of anti-capitalism.
11:48 PM
Wednesday, July 31, 2002
Andrew Sullivan was trying to get something started about what interests gays and lesbians have in common. Somebody wrote to say that one thing in common is only gays and lesbians care what gays and lesbians have in common.
But this gets it exactly wrong. What they have in common is an almost total disinterest in the question. As I think Andrew S found out. Hardly any interesting response.
The best it got was the comment that "cool young gay boys and baby dykes are united in their contempt for Pansy Division, purveyors of gay themed elevator punk." Well sure, Pansy D are bad. Almost as bad as the cringemaker phrase "baby dyke". "Baby fag" is equally douche chilling. As is "douche chilling" itself.
7:14 PM
Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Allen Iverson had most of the charges dropped against him in the case I wrote about below. The most interesting revelation in the out-of-control prelim hearing was that Uncle A.I. pays the rent for his gay nephews digs. Crib, I mean. And so apparently had the right (and the keys?) to enter the apt any time
he wanted.
The best moment though was when the winesses Charles "poom poom" Jones and Hakim Carey disagreed over whether they'd seen a gun or not.
The AP reports (oblivious to the fun) :
"Jones, Bowman's 21-year-old roommate, told police he awakened July 3 to find Iverson standing over him, cursing and threatening. He said Iverson lifted his shirt to show a black handgun tucked in his waistband and declared, "I'm about to do something."
And then this Mae West moment--the "or are you just happy to see me" defense:
"Carey initially told police he also saw a gun. Under cross-examination, however, Carey testified that Jones pressured him to tell police Iverson had a weapon. Carey testified he had merely seen a black object in Iverson's waistband and did not "jump to conclusions" about what it was."
Yeah, wishes, hopes and dreams. The mysterious "black object in Iverson's waistband".
A lesson for the ages: Don't jump to conclusions--jump,jump,jump to it!
Monday, July 29, 2002
I just finished Sam Tanenhaus's biography of Whittaker Chambers. It's been out for several years and I would have read it sooner but I went on a Chambers/Hiss binge once so the memory of that gorging slowed me down.
The book is good but if you want to read only one book about the case then Chambers' memoir "Witness" is still the one. It's a great book and terrifically exciting in recounting the amazing starts, stops, reversals and detours of the Hiss trials.
But Tanenhaus does make the homosexuality of Chambers' father explicit while Chambers' only gave the most spectral hints of it in his book. And Chambers' own intense homosexual years were not alluded to
at all in "Witness". Tanenhaus covers the matter simply. He quotes the written statement Chambers prepared for the FBI when it appeared the Hiss team might use Chambers' homosexuality against him.
As it turned out this painful self-revelation wasn't even necessary since Hiss's handlers shied away from the subject probably because Hiss was swimming in a sea of similar rumors. If every story has a gay angle (see below) the Chambers/Hiss case was a polyhedron of gayness.
So in the name of prurience aka historical accuracy and truth I print below money grafs from Chambers' statement. Keep in mind that Chambers is one of the most important figures in the history of modern conservatism. But it's Chambers in pieces conservatives revere not the whole man. Me, I like him all put back together again.
(I got this from a pro-Hiss site that NYU hosts. Pro-Hissery ,or Hissteria, is one of the most foolish hobbies imaginable but thanks are due since this seems to be the only place to find this on the web.)
"Alger Hiss's defense obviously intends to press the charge that I have had homosexual relations with certain individuals. With the resumption of pre-trial deposition, it is necesary to face this issue since my answer or refusal to answer certain questions must have a direct bearing on the case. I am for stating the facts. They are as follows:
"The cause of separation between my father and my mother, which I have described in my statement, was chiefly due to my father's active homosexualism.
"As a boy, I was aware that something peculiar was involved, and I even knew the name of the other participant. But the nature of homosexualism remained secret to me. Nevertheless, I undoubtedly inherited this tendency from my father. It was no doubt further intensified by the domination of our home by my mother, who taught us that sex is an evil.
"Yet I did not know what homosexualism meant until I was more [than] 30 years old. Until then, some of my friendships with men were too intense but they were completely innocent. My relations with women were slow to develop, but were normal."
***
"Sometime in either 1933 or 1934, I met a young fellow on the street in New York City. Since I was more or less footloose and fancy-free, I took him to a hotel, the name of which I cannot now recall. During the course of our stay at the hotel that night, I had my first homosexual experience. It was a revelation to me. Because it had been repressed so long, it was all the more violent when once set free. It set off a chain reaction in me which was almost impossible to control. Since that time, and continuing up to the year 1938, I engaged in numerous homosexual activities, both in New York and Washington. I actively sought out the opportunities for homosexual relationships. I recall that incidents of this nature took place in Hotel Annapolis and the Hotel Pennsylvania in Washington, D.C. I registered in these hotels under assumed names which I cannot now recall. I would describe my homosexual activity as being in the most elementary form."
"In 1938, I managed to break myself of my homosexual tendencies. This does not mean that I am completely immune to such stimuli. It does mean that my self-control is complete and that for years I have lived a blameless and devoted life as husband and father. It will be noted that three things of some great importance happened during the year 1938. First my cessation of my homosexual activities, my final break with the Communist Party, and my embracing for the first time, religion. I do not believe that the cessation of my homosexual activities and my break with the Communist Party were in any way connected with each other."
"I tell it now, only because in this case I stand for truth. Having testified mercilessly against others, it has become my function to testify mercilessly against myself."
"I have said before that I am consciously destroying myself. This is not from love of self-destruction, but because only if we are consciously prepared to destroy ourselves, in the struggle, can we fight the thing, can the thing we are fighting be destroyed."
Sunday, July 28, 2002
I go to see movies at second run theaters (some are closer to 4th run, the movies are out on DVD before they play there). Or I go to see free previews. Why? Cause I'm a cheap sonofabitch. And the movies are invariably lousy anyway.
I wish the theaters would let you do jumping jacks in the aisles so I wouldn't always leave feeling that my time had been thoroughly wasted.
SO I would like to give these two late breaking reviews. Very.
Spiderman--Sucks
Lord of the Rings--Blows
Spiderman sucked so hard that the main thing on my mind while watching was that its two stars, Toby M and William D, are both on the famous big dicks lists. So I was wondering if Sam Raimi was a size queen or something for most of the movie. At other times I wondered if Toby And Will discussed their swinging stuff between takes. Then I wondered if maybe Cliff Robertson was on the list too and I'd forgotten about it.
I was pretty sure that the James Dean clone dude who played Daffy Dafoe's son was packing too but I didn't know his name and he probably isn't famous enough to be listed yet. Then I wondered if everyone else in the dollar theater was enduring the flick with these same thoughts. God knows they seemed as joyless and distracted as me.
Go here to see dancing spiderman, aka gay spiderman-- as he was called in the email that brought him to me.
Easily 53 times more enjoyable than the movie. And it's not that great.
