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July 31, 2003 At a press conference yesterday, President Bush said, "I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman. And I think we ought to codify that one way or the other. And we've got lawyers looking at the best way to do that."
In radio advertisements in Iowa, singer Willie
Nelson says, "I don't usually get too involved in politics, but I'm
supporting Congressman Dennis Kucinich for president. I know
Dennis and I know he speaks up for heartland Americans who need a
stronger voice."
"The rising-star historian Niall Ferguson, who left Oxford University just last year for a post at New York University, will head to Cambridge[, Massachusetts,] next year to join Harvard's history department. "The young professor, who won international acclaim with his books on World War I and the Rothschild banking dynasty, most recently has made waves with 'Empire,' a spirited defense of British global power. His new job at Harvard officially begins next July, a Harvard spokeswoman said, but Ferguson will be on leave for fall 2004 and will not begin teaching until spring 2005."--from an article by Jenna Russell in the Boston Globe.
"Democratic presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt announced Wednesday that he and his wife, Jane, have joined Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. "The Gephardts' daughter, Chrissy, is gay and works on his presidential campaign."--from an article by Pamela Brogan, Gannett News Service, at News-Leader.com. July 30, 2003 Last night I had Boy Meets Boy (I think that that's what it's called) on the television, but the show did not hold my attention. It was very dull. Consuming cheese and crackers and herbal tea and finishing a crossword puzzle were more absorbing activities for me. The fifteen candidates on the show were not very interesting, certainly not very distinguished. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy remains an enjoyable show, although of course there is a certain sameness to the episodes.
Eileen McNamara in the Boston Globe writes
that three years ago "then-Fall River Bishop Sean O'Malley, now
archbishop-designate of Boston, rescinded an invitation to the chief
justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court because she had the temerity
to applaud a Vermont law recognizing same-sex civil unions.
"Chief Justice Suzanne V. DelVecchio had been asked in October 2000 to deliver the dinner speech following the annual Red Mass offered for the legal profession by O'Malley. The invitation was rescinded when the bishop heard of her remarks to the Massachusetts Lesbian & Gay Bar association. The bishop, she was told, would not feel comfortable sitting at the same table with her. He did not , however, respect the chief justice's request to tell diners why she was not in attendance. Instead, organizers announced that 'circumstances beyond her control' kept DelVecchio from the event." July 29, 2003 Truth is stranger than fiction, especially among the jerks in our government. (Maybe they are not jerks. Maybe they are evil.) Tom Daschle, the Senate's Democratic leader, has asked the Bush administration to renounce a plan for a "potential futures trading market in which speculators would wager on the Internet on the likelihood of a future terrorist attack or assassination attempt on a particular leader," reports ABC News. Does the government welcome terrorist attacks, since the attacks can serve as an excuse for invasion of foreign countries?
Yesterday Vice President Dick Cheney flew to
Columbia, South Carolina, to attend a luncheon that raised $300,000 for
the Bush-Cheney reelection committee.
But, "[o]ver four days ending last night, Howard Dean outdid the vice president--without leaving his campaign headquarters in Burlington, Vt.," reports Glen Johnson in the Boston Globe. "In a testament to the power of Internet fund-raising, and the intensity of the Democratic presidential contender's support, Dean raised $344,000 for his campaign by the time of the Cheney lunch. All Dean's staff did was tell their supporters about Cheney's event via the Internet and challenge them to surpass the vice president's total." "The Vatican is calling on politicians to stand up against growing momentum for same-sex marriage rights . . .. * * * ". . . Sen. John F. Kerry--the Massachusetts Democrat running for president--was among the first to balk. 'John Kerry believes deeply in separation of church and state and does not accept edicts from any religious leaders,' said Kelly Benander, the senator's spokeswoman. * * * ". . . Kerry's campaign . . . said he opposes same-sex marriage while backing domestic partnership benefits and civil union rights. * * * "The campaigns of two other Catholic candidates for president, Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), declined to comment." --from an article by Steve Marantz in the Boston Herald. July 28, 2003 "People have taken another look at the culture of New Labour and they don’t like what they see. They see a bullying and deceitful government obsessed with its own image," says an article at conservatives.com. July 27, 2003 Some people are implying that the problems of sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic clergy in the past few decades were caused by a lack of legislation that required bishops to report such abuse to authorities. That argument is simply untrue. Sexual activity with people under the age of consent was illegal at all relevant times. In some instances, reports were made to police and to prosecutors. But the police and the prosecutors, as well as most people in Massachusetts (I'm not claiming knowledge of other places), were unduly deferential to the Roman Catholic clergy. The crimes were generally not prosecuted. Priests were allowed to get away with crimes. But the crimes were indeed defined by statute as crimes. The problem was a problem of the entire society, although of course the crimes were committed by individuals and not by "society." The Boston Globe today devoted a few pages, including some space at the top of the front page, in the Sunday newspaper to a puff piece extolling the incoming archbishop. He is simply another human being. It is not helpful to make him out in the public mind to be some great figure. Neither he nor any priest should be allowed to operate outside of the requirements of the law.
July 25, 2003
This morning, a little after ten thirty, I walked down Broad Street to Rowes Wharf and visited the Jeanie Johnston, the re-creation of a nineteenth century ship that transported Irish emigrants to North America during the years from 1848 to 1855. The admission charge for adults was $7. I spent a little under half an hour there. The ship is quite small, although the original ship carried as many as 254 passengers. The current ship is licensed to carry 40. Here are three of the photographs that I took.
The Boston Globe reports that a yahoo group,
bostoncitymob,
has been established for the purpose of creating seemingly inexplicable
mobs of people for brief periods of time in Boston, Cambridge, and
vicinity.
On September 1 in Iowa, Willie Nelson will do a benefit concert for the presidential campaign of Representative Dennis Kucinich. July 24, 2003
The
Jeanie Johnston,
a recreation of a nineteenth-century Irish emigrant ship, will be in
Boston through August 3.
Here are two more photos that I took today, somewhat dark (the weather was cloudy). "There is overwhelming evidence that for many years Cardinal Law and his senior managers had direct, actual knowledge that substantial numbers of children in the archdiocese [of Boston] had been sexually abused by substantial numbers of its priests," said a report by the Attorney General of Massachusetts as quoted in a Reuters article in the Boston Metro. According to the Boston Globe, Thomas F. Reilly, the Attorney General, "in releasing the report on a 16-month investigation, said that, over six decades, at least 237 priests and 13 other church employees were accused of molesting at least 789 minors. Reilly said the actual number of victims may be much higher, and probably exceeds 1,000." The report says, "The archdiocese has yet to demonstrate an appropriate sense of urgency for attacking the problem of sexual abuse or for changing its culture to remove the risk to children."
July 23, 2003 Blogger Oliver Willis of Dedham, Massachusetts, is featured in a front-page story by Joanna Weiss in the Boston Globe about political blogs. Willis has a website called oliverwillis.com, which promotes presidential candidate Howard Dean. The article says: "Willis originally set up a blog on Senator John Edwards' behalf but stopped updating it, he said, after the Edwards campaign gave him a tepid response. (A spokeswoman for Edwards, Democrat of North Carolina, did not return calls from the Globe seeking comment.)" July 22, 2003 "Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said yesterday President Bush circumvented portions of the congressional resolution authorizing war against Iraq by failing to exhaust all diplomatic options before attacking Baghdad," reports the Boston Herald. July 21, 2003 "Dr Kelly's MP in Wantage, the Tory Robert Jackson, a former minister . . . said he believed that the BBC, not No 10 or the Ministry of Defence, had tipped Dr Kelly over the edge," reports guardian.co.uk. July 20, 2003 "America can be lifted from its present sense of fear to the 'spiritual' traits of freedom, optimism and courage, Democratic presidential candidate Dennis J. Kucinich said Saturday. "The Ohio congressman spoke Saturday evening to about 300 supporters in a hot, packed theater at Bainbridge High School as part of a campaign swing in the Seattle area."--from an article by Steven Gardner at thesunlink.com.
"Kucinich may be the only guy who can win this [US Presidential]
election," writes Daniel
Patrick Welch in an article entitled "The Fire This Time:
Why Kucinich May be the Right Guy at the Right Time." July 19, 2003 "Poisoned sausages placed in a park [in Portland, Oregon,] have killed eight dogs amid a heated debate over whether canines should be allowed in the recreation area without a leash. "Autopsies indicated that someone laced the meat with the herbicide paraquat, veterinarians say."--from an Associated Press article by Andrew Kramer in the Boston Globe. July 18, 2003 In a letter to urge colleagues to oppose a proposed constitutional amendment that would outlaw same-sex marriages, Congressman Barney Frank has quoted language of Vice President Dick Cheney. "In the [2000 vice-presidential debate] debate, Cheney said that 'people should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to enter into.' He also said he wasn't sure if the government should officially sanction homosexual relationships through permitting marriage. '''That matter is regulated by the states,' Cheney said. 'I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and that's appropriate. I don't think there should necessarily be a federal policy in this area.'''--from an article by David Enrich, States News Service, in the Boston Globe.
James Hewitt, quondam the lover of Diana, Princess
of Wales, is being described as a cad and worse because of his plans to
sell her love letters for $16 million dollars. I don't doubt that
he is a cad. But I am mindful of an observation that I frequently
made during my eight years of representing criminal defendants, that
birds of a feather flock together.
July 17, 2003 "IT'S TIME TO TALK impeachment," says the editorial in the Boston Phoenix of July 18-24, 2003.
"Bathroom deodorizers, graffiti removers, floor
buffers, carpet cleaners, air fresheners and toilet bowl scrubs are
killing us already, to hear the grim lineup at the Health Care Committee
yesterday [at the Massachusetts State House]," wrote Margery Eagan in
the Boston Herald. "Teachers experience chest tightness
walking around school halls."
"A New Mexico family is suing the Roman Catholic diocese of Santa Fe and one of its priests over a funeral Mass in which the priest allegedly said their relative was a middling Catholic headed straight to hell," reports a Reuters article in the Boston Herald. "Family members say [the decedent] was a practicing Catholic all his life, but as too ill to attend church in the year before he died in June 2002."
Tuesday night's premiere of Bravo's Queer Eye
for the Straight Guy "drew a respectable audience nationally,
about 1.6 million viewers, says the Boston Globe. "'It
broke all of our records,' said Bravo spokesman Dan Silberman."
July 16, 2003
"Senator Edward M. Kennedy said yesterday that US
troops in Iraq are ''police officers in a shooting gallery' and that
they are paying the price for the 'ideological pride' of the Bush
administration, which has failed to secure broad international support
for rebuilding and stabilizing Iraq.
* * * '''It's a disgrace that the case for war seems to have been based on shoddy intelligence, hyped intelligence, and even false intelligence,' Kennedy said in a speech at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. 'All the evidence points to the conclusion that they put a spin on the intelligence and a spin on the truth.'"--from an article by Susan Milligan in the Boston Globe. I watched the debut episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy last night at 10 p.m. on Bravo. Five gay men, experts on grooming, culture, food, fashion, and interior design, "made over" a straight man. They picked an easy target, a man who wore brown overalls and had not had a haircut in nine years. His apartment was an absolute mess. As one of the gay guys remarked, it looked like the apartment of a nut. You don't have to be an expert to figure out ways to improve the guy's appearance and apartment. For starters, get the guy a good haircut! Everyone involved was pleasant, congenial, and at least somewhat witty. I enjoyed the show. One of the gay guys, the grooming expert, looked pretty good, but the rest of them might benefit from a few pointers themselves, being something of fashion-victim twits. Another episode followed at eleven, which I might enjoy watching some other time, but one hour of the show was enough for one night.
July 15, 2003 Queer Eye for the Straight Guy premieres tonight at 10 p.m. (East coast) on Bravo. The premise: five gay men give makeovers to straight men. John Ruch in the Boston Herald writes that "effeminate gay men appear to be the only gay men allowed in mainstream entertainment. Furthermore, they must be funny--the whole joke (to the straight world) is based on the idea that gay men act like women."
"Anchored by former Gov. Michael Dukakis, a group
of environmentalists, unions and health officials called on the Romney
administration [in Massachusetts] yesterday to fund a long-awaited
underground rail link between North and South stations [in Boston,]"
reports the Boston Metro.
"But the Romney administration has declared that the North-South Rail Link is basically dead," says Anthony Flint in the Boston Globe. "Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis J. Kucinich said yesterday his campaign had raised $1.54 million in a three-month period, mostly from small donations via the Internet," reports the Boston Globe. July 14, 2003 The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts did not issue a decision on gay marriage today, although many people had expected it to do so in accordance with the Court's internal, but non-binding, deadline for considering cases. "It can be waived in cases in which the justices need more time," said Supreme Judicial Court spokeswoman Joan Kenney, as quoted at bostonchannel.com. "It could be days or weeks or months."
"'The American people are aware this administration
has engaged in a pattern of deceit,’' said [Representative Dennis]
Kucinich, who spoke at a peace forum at Drake University in Des Moines.
'Our country is being distorted by fear.'
"The four-term congressman told reporters that Vice President Dick Cheney put pressure on the CIA to 'come up with intelligence that would fit the administration’s preconceived notions' about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." --from an article by Amy Lorentzen, Associated Press, in the Dayton Daily News.
"'George Tenet, making him the fall guy, does not resolve the question or make go away the questions about the overall intelligence and why the administration clearly had this political tug of war over the kind of information they were presenting America,' Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry said on CNN's Late Edition. 'That is only going to be answered by the White House.' "Tenet's statement of responsibility, Kerry said, does not end 'the question of ultimate responsibility.' It also doesn't answer 'questions about what really happened, nor does it provide an answer, which is the most critical one, which is are Americans safer today than they were three years ago, and do we have the kind of knowledge about our intelligence gathering that allows us to make the judgment that we are safer?'" --from an article by Wayne Washington in the Boston Globe of July 14, 2003.
Best wishes to France on July 14! I bought
some French cheese this weekend, as my own little show of
non-participation in any boycott of French products.
July 12, 2003
Randy E. Barnett, a professor at Boston University School of Law and author of The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law, has written an interesting and intelligent article at nationalreview.com on the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas. Its thesis is that: "Contrary to what has been reported repeatedly in the press, the Court in Lawrence did not protect a 'right of privacy.' Rather, it protected 'liberty' — and without showing that the particular liberty in question is somehow 'fundamental.'"
July 11, 2003 Grace Paley, the poet laureate of Vermont, has endorsed presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, reports the Barre Montpelier Times Argus.
July 10, 2003 "Of the nine Democrats [running for President of the United States], only Al Sharpton, Carol Moseley Braun and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio have indicated their support for gay marriages, said David Smith of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group. "--from an article at globeandmail.com.
July 9, 2003
The Guardian plans to come to America, its
tentative form being a weekly magazine, reports
newyorkmetro.com.
Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, has written,
"I am happy to support Dennis
Kucinich because I believe he is our only
Help
spread the word about the Kucinich campaign:
The United States House of Representatives "on
Tuesday approved a $368.7 billion defense spending bill that lawmakers
said would support the Pentagon's goal of developing a more mobile,
high-tech fighting force while preserving older weapons systems that
proved their value in the Iraq war," reports an Associated Press
article at
oaklandtribune.com.
"The bill was approved 399-19. * * * "But Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, . . . said the bill does little to make America safer. He wants money shifted to improve education and strengthen homeland defense." "Senator John F. Kerry is planning a burst of campaign activity this fall, including a formal announcement speech possibly set against a backdrop of the USS Constitution, in a concerted effort to elevate his presidential candidacy among the Democratic contenders and cast himself as the party's most credible alternative to President Bush," reports the Boston Globe.
A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal of
British Columbia has ordered the "reformulation of the common law
definition" of marriage to declare it a union of two individuals,
reports the Boston Globe.
July 8, 2003 Two Harvard graduates, Nancy Redd (Miss Virginia) and Laurie Gray (Miss Rhode Island) will be competing in the Miss America pageant, reports the Boston Globe. I preferred the time when there was a vast gulf between Miss America contestants and Radcliffe students. I can remember watching the Miss America broadcast in the late 60's and thinking that nobody in Cambridge looked like any of the contestants except possibly Miss Vermont. With today's homogenized Gap-style look, Harvard students don't look any different from the general population
"The Sierra Club is planning to launch a
three-month ad campaign next week calling for construction of a one-mile
train tunnel connecting North and South stations" in Boston, reports the
Boston Herald.
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and two of his sons jumped onto their jet-skis and helped to rescue six people and a dog whose boat sank on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire last Saturday. Margery Eagan in the Boston Herald asks, "Why is our governor a lake man, with oh-so-nouveau Jet Skis? Why not Chatham, Wellfleet, the Vineyard, Nantucket? An ancestral sailboat at mooring, mahogany sided. Traffic or no traffic, why's he in the land of pickups and live free, etc.?"
It is an encouraging sign that Sean Patrick O'Malley,
archbishop elect of Boston, has hired Thomas H. Hennigan, Jr., of the
Boston law firm Ropes & Gray, "to help speed the settlement of more than
500 pending lawsuits" (as reported in today's Boston Globe).
"He's way behind in fund raising, name
recognition and political buzz, but U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich,
D-Cleveland, has been buoyed by some recent enthusiastic crowds that have
turned out to hear him speak across the country," writes Jim Siegel in the
Lancaster Eagle-Gazette.
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