Rambling thoughts on recent news

Because It Just Doesn't Make Sense, That's Why

To the great joy of all who believe in basic human rights, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer ruled on Monday that withholding marriage licenses from gays and lesbians violates California's Constitution.

Quoth Judge Kramer - who is not only a Republican but also Catholic - "It appears that no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this state to opposite-sex partners." Amen, Yer Honor.

No rational purpose has ever existed for any form of discrimination against the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community ... but it's certainly nice to hear it from a relatively conservative judge.

The ruling will be appealed. We know that. The issue will eventually make its way to the Supreme Court, where the issue will have to be decided on the merits of the law - not on religion or tradition or whether half the country freaks out at the thought of gay people having the same rights as their own selves.

Until that day comes, however, we celebrate victories wherever we find 'em.

A Case for Living Wills

The tragedy of Terry Schiavo continued, with the Florida legislature and both chambers of Congress rushing last-minute measures to a vote, all in an effort to keep Schiavo's husband from having her feeding tube removed against the wishes of her parents. In a breathtaking example of Congress's penchant for theater of the absurd, House Republicans issued a subpoena for Schiavo to appear before a congressional hearing - a blatant attempt to subvert a court order allowing her feeding tube to be removed.

The Florida judge presiding over the case finally told Congress where to stick their subpoena, and the feeding tube was removed at 1:45 EST this afternoon.

There is no happy ending to this story. None. But it serves as a potent reminder that every adult should make out a living will.

No Guts. No Glory. No Wonder.

My seamhead husband and I spent a couple of hours last night watching C-SPAN's rerun of the congressional hearings on steroid use in baseball. My beloved had never actually sat down to watch C-SPAN - and probably never will again - but for a while there, it was more entertaining than an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

After listening to a pack of obsequious congressmen lob softballs that Mario Mendoza could have jacked, and hearing Jose Canseco, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Curt Schilling make statements that ranged from pugnacious to pathetic, we came to a few conclusions:

• Jose Canseco is a clown.
  
• Sammy Sosa looked like he got lost on the way to Camden Yards and somehow wound up in the Rayburn building.
• Sammy also managed to conveniently forget he knows how to speak English.
• Jose Canseco is a clown.
• Raffy Palmeiro is one heck of a handsome man.
  
• Curt Schilling needs to make up his mind whether steroid use in baseball is or isn't a problem, because he contradicted himself half a dozen times.
  
• Jose Canseco is a clown.

But what saddened me most was Mark McGwire's non-testimony. The man who kept us glued to the screen in 1998 as he and Sosa chased Roger Maris was a mere shadow of his former self - and I'm not just talking about the considerable change in his physical appearance (which could be explained by the fact that retired ballplayers don't need to retain all that muscle, couldn't it?).

My respect for McGwire came not only from his talent at the plate, but from the way he conducted himself during that remarkable season - with dignity, humility, and a refusal to feed the rivalry the press kept trying to cook up between him and Sammy. Most of all, I gave him huge props for speaking openly about going through therapy - an admission that most athletes wouldn't make if you held a .45 to their heads. He had integrity, and we loved him for it.

The Mark McGwire I saw at yesterday's hearing was not the Mark McGwire of 1998. This Mark McGwire stammered and stalled, feebly refusing to answer questions about whether he or any player he knew had used steroids. Over and over again, he bleated, "I'm not here to talk about the past." "I'm a retired player." "I can't answer that." "It's not for me to determine." "My lawyers have advised me that I cannot answer these questions."

After a couple of hours of that, how can anyone not think that Big Mac was ducking the questions because he was, in fact, juiced while he was playing? That those 70 runs, and the entire magical season, were the result of - let's say the word - cheating. By choosing to all but plead the Fifth, McGwire forever tarnished his legacy as both a great player and a man of integrity. Moreover, as today's Washington Post noted, McGwire's crowning achievement will now be tagged with an "unwritten asterisk."

It's enough to make me wonder whether the notion of the baseball hero has gone the way of the dodo bird. And to thank the gods for Cal Ripken.

Et tu, ESPN?

I know, I know ... I've been a real slacker. But today I actually have time for a drive-by.

My subject of choice, however, is not politics - well, not in the strictest sense, anyway. It's sports. Or, to be more exact, the infuriating preponderance of sports-related websites and magazines that wallow in sexism.

I'm a woman. I'm also a sports fan. Baseball is my passion, but I also enjoy football and basketball. I'm crazy about the Winter Olympics, too. I'll even watch golf on TV. (OK, soccer I'll never get. As my husband says, soccer was no doubt invented by someone whose kid couldn't catch a ball.) And my reaction to today's cancellation of the NHL season was, "Didn't they cancel it months ago?" But for the most part, I love sports.

What I do NOT love is sports websites and magazines that feature swimsuit issues - can anyone explain to me what half-naked models rolling around in the surf have to do with sports? - or slobber all over pulchritudinous female athletes (most notably the young, blonde, utterly-incapable-of-winning-a-tournament Anna Kournikova). I quit on Sports Illustrated's website years ago, out of protest over their swimsuit issues. ESPN.com became my sports site of choice ... until I saw this.

The most maddening part of all is that there really are no other viable alternatives. What kind of business model do you suppose these sites have that encourages overt sexism? Are they trying to alienate female consumers?

My queendom for a sports site that doesn't assume all male fans are horndogs - and that's savvy enough to realize that there are an awful a lot of female fans out here, wallets in hand, waiting for the ESPNs of the world to stop treating us like objects.

A little touch-up and a little paint

Fabulous post today from Annalee Newitz at AlterNet (via blackfeminism.org), about a real jaw-dropper of a ruling from the ostensibly liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The gist of the ruling? It's OK for an employer to fire a female employee for refusing to wear makeup on the job.

As Dave Barry says, I am not making this up. Read the ruling for yourself, here.

Then, as a gesture of solidarity, vow to never again wear makeup to work unless you bloody well feel like it.

What's the life of a woman worth?

In Fort Worth, Texas, apparently, it's 14 years and 6 months less than the life of a man.

Y'know, it's a good thing I've lined my skull with chicken wire so there's less mess when my brain explodes.

And you just know Scott Peterson is thinking, "Drat ... I should've offed Laci in Fort Worth."

The late, great Shirley Chisholm

It occurs to me that in my post-holiday stupor, I (unforgivably) neglected to note the passing of Shirley Chisholm. Anything that can be said about this brave, awe-inspiring, and entirely splendid woman has most likely been said already... but I'll add my two cents.

Ms. Chisholm was a force of nature - spirited, unyielding, groundbreaking. She was outspoken when women and blacks were openly reviled for being so, and she neither suffered fools gladly nor meekly acceded to the limitations others tried to foist upon her. Those limitations came not only from her political enemies, but sometimes from her own adherents:

During her failed presidential bid, Chisholm went to the hospital to visit George Wallace, her rival candidate and ideological opposite, after he had been shot -- an act that appalled her followers.

"He said, 'What are your people going to say?' I said: 'I know what they're going to say. But I wouldn't want what happened to you to happen to anyone.'"

Her Congressional campaign was inspired by her belief that "Our representative democracy is not working because the Congress that is supposed to represent the voters does not respond to their needs. I believe the chief reason for this is that it is ruled by a small group of old men."

What's shocking is that 36 years later, her description is still accurate.

Shirley Chisholm fought for the underdog - the poor, the underprivileged, women, African Americans. An activist, a rabblerouser, and - as the title of her book aptly noted - "unbought and unbossed," she was, in the words of Shakespeare, an "unruly woman." He didn't mean it as a compliment - but I do.

Once, when asked about her legacy, she said, "I'd like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts. That's how I'd like to be remembered."

Consider it done.