Tag: Culture

Why I Won’t Be in Church on Easter

Trish

As Christians and people of Eastern Orthodox faiths observe their holiest day this Sunday, one of their number has a few questions about what they think it means to follow Christ.

Christian commentator Roland Martin speaks for many.

When did it come to the point that being a Christian meant only caring about two issues,­ abortion and homosexuality?

Roland Martin: “I’ve grown tired of people who pimp God”

Ask the nonreligious what being a Christian today means, and based on what we see and read, it’s a good bet they will say that followers of Jesus Christ are preoccupied with those two points.

Poverty? Whatever. Homelessness? An afterthought. A widening gap between the have and have-nots? Immaterial. Divorce? The divorce rate of Christians mirrors the national average, so that’s no big deal.

The point is that being a Christian should be about more than abortion and homosexuality, and it’s high time that those not considered a part of the religious right expose the hypocrisy of our brothers and sisters in Christianity and take back the faith.

Martin puts his finger on one of the reasons I and so many others have all but turned our backs on faith, and can’t be pushed into an organized religious service with a Mack truck.

…it’s troubling to listen to “Christian radio” and hear the kind of hate spewing out of the mouths of my brothers and sisters in the faith.

In fact, I’ve grown tired of people who pimp God. That’s right; we have a litany of individuals today who are holy, holy, holy, sing hallelujah, talk about how they love the Lord, but when it’s time to walk the walk, somehow the spirit evaporates.

I mean no disrespect to the people closing their businesses to celebrate Good Friday, or those joining the throngs at church on Easter Sunday. But the joy of religion is long since past for me. And until it becomes more about quietly setting the highest example for others to follow and less about judgement and scorn, it will probably remain that way.

Ryan Skipper Press: With Friends Like These…

Trish

One of the nation’s top gay focused web sites has smeared Ryan Skipper, a young Florida gay man recently murdered in what police labeled a hate crime. In fact, what queerty.com said makes the local sheriff and news media — blasted by us and many others for repeating the suspect’s version of events before investigating — look like paragons of open-mindedness and circumspection.

At no time does Pensito Review accept sources at face value and pass them along, unexamined. And if you ever catch us doing that, we’ll strap on some balls and admit it.

According to friends, Ryan Keith Skipper, 25, went cruising Wahneta, Florida, for some quick and easy sex when he came across 21-year old Joseph Bearden. Testing his luck, Skipper offered Bearden a ride, which Bearden accepted. Skipper then took him to his house, where they smoked a bit of ganj and, according to police reports, chatted about using Skipper’s computer expertise to copy checks.

Skipper and Bearden then apparently took Skipper’s laptop and headed off to meet Bearden’s friend, 20-year old William David Brown Jr. From what police gather, Bearden and Brown, nestled in Skipper’s car, then stabbed Skipper 20 times before tossing his body on the side of the road.

That would make a good movie but it bears little resemblance to what actually happened.

Not a single one of Ryan’s friends has said he was cruising that night. All have said they know of no time Ryan ever looked for sex with strangers.

Ryan’s brother, who is in the computer/internet/all that stuff business, was preparing a laptop to send him from his home in Las Vegas but had not yet shipped.

At the time of his murder, Ryan owned a desktop computer, but no printer and no scanner.

Ryan has no history of criminal activity beyond some underage personal consumption charges related to pot. He was a student at a technical college and held a steady job at Sunglass Hut.

Though they jumped to the conclusion expected by rabid anti-gay evangelicals, Queerty is refusing to apologize. They blame their sources and then, worse, their defenders hide behind the excuse they are a blog, not a legitimate news outlet.

In this story, we passed along the Associated Press story…

Skipper’s friends, meanwhile, wrote us an angry note insisting that not only do we have the story wrong, we’re defaming this boy’s name: a stunning allegation, if you ask us…

Rest assured…that was not our intent. We simply report the news as we find it. We’re sure Skipper would be pleased to know that you’re keeping his good name alive. We must say, however, that we find nothing wrong with cruising for sex and, thus, cannot agree that we assassinated anyone’s character. Regardless, we’re sorry for your loss. It’s always upsetting when people are murdered – especially when it’s a senseless a crime as the one that took Skipper. We’ll be sure to keep our virtual eyes on any and all developments in this convoluted and multi-faceted story.

The only convoluted stories are the ones coming from the suspects. But George Bush himself could not have sidestepped this any better. Next they’ll be saying, “mistakes were made.”

“It’s always upsetting when people are murdered.” Yeah, don’t you hate that? What a bother. It probably happens to them all the time, which is how they know it’s “always upsetting.” Sheesh.

That they find nothing wrong with cruising is not the point, SINCE RYAN WASN’T DOING THAT ANYWAY.

We didn’t know Ryan when we read the first reports of his death, but we have half a brain and could see that the suspects’ version wasn’t adding up. Since then, we have spoken to his brother, scoured the web for updates, and are in the process of speaking to his friends. At no time does Pensito Review accept sources at face value and pass them along, unexamined. And if you ever catch us doing that, we’ll strap on some balls and admit it.

Ryan’s family has been cautioned that capital murder trials can take up to two years to prepare. If this is the kind of support they can expect from the “good guys,” it’s going to be a very long 24 months.

Speak Spanish? Newt Says You Probably Live in the Ghetto

Trish

Jeez Newt, ese danos! Desmadiado!

Newt Gingrich stood before an adoring crowd of Republican women and said Spanish is the “language of living in a ghetto.”

Gingrich: “We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country…not the language of living in a ghetto”

“The American people believe English should be the official language of the government. … We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto,”

This will come as big news to all those Cubans down Buck’s way who live in waterfront mansions and could buy and sell Newt several times over without calling an accountant.

Peter Zamora, co-chair of the Washington-based Hispanic Education Coalition, which supports bilingual education, said, “The tone of his comments were very hateful. Spanish is spoken by many individuals who do not live in the ghetto.”

Mystery of Tainted Pet Food Might be Solved

Trish

The world’s bread basket imports wheat from China? Who knew?

As surprising as that fact is, it’s even more amazing that the rat poison they use on the wheat in China could be so potent that it kills animals when it gets into processed pet food.

Ever since the government under the neocons abdicated its regulatory role, food has been unsafe for both man and beast.

With the death count at 241 and counting, there’s finally been a break in the Menu Foods case. A press conference will be held this afternoon, and it’s likely a chemical called aminopterin, which is illegal in this country, will be revealed as the source of the pet poisonings.

If, like me, you’ve been wondering with every can of dog and cat food you open if this is the one that will kill your beloved pet, here’s help. ABC deserves a public service award for posting all the brands of all the pet food in the recall, along with specific batch numbers. They also list the symptoms of you should watch for in your pet:

    Uncharacteristic lethargy
    Severe loss of appetite
    Vomiting
    Profound changes in eating and drinking
    Increased urination

While this chemical might not be the problem, and there might be more tainted food than currently identified, it’s a start.

Once they get the bad food off the shelves and the dying stops, can someone please look into how this happened? Ever since the government under the neocons abdicated its regulatory role, food has been unsafe for both man and beast.

Strip Club Freebie Sweetens Pot for Reluctant Voters

Trish

A Tampa strip club owner and city council candidate is making voters a deal: he’ll trade admission to his Mons Venus gentlemen’s club for an “I Voted” sticker.

Hmmm. I wonder what type of voting demographic this will increase turnout in?

“I hope it helps turnout,” [City Council Candidate and strip club owner Joe] Redner said Wednesday. “And the publicity is good for me, too.”

Yes, the publicity be berry berry good to you, Joe.

Interested voters can obtain the sticker by casting a ballot anytime before March 24, the early voting period. Or they can wait until election day, Tuesday, March 27. And then bring on the girls!

Florida Rep Says Gay Students Need Psychological Treatment

Trish

A Republican Florida state lawmaker was right on target when he brought up the need for psychological treatment regarding homosexuality in high school students. Somebody does need to see a shrink.

But it’s not the kids.

“After telling him my story he proceeded to say he was repulsed by homosexuals and we needed extensive psychological treatment”

The idiot in question, Rep. Alan Hays (Umatilla), a retired dentist, reportedly implied to students lobbying for an anti-bullying law, the “Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up For All Act,” that being homosexual is fair game for taunts.

The bill named for a Cape Coral teenager who killed himself in 2005 after being bullied at school would define “bullying” and direct schools to set up clear rules for how to handle threatening behavior…

The bill defines “sexual, religious or racial harassment” as bullying, but makes no mention of sexual orientation.

Its sponsor, Rep. Nick Thompson of Fort Myers, said that is because the bill is broad enough to cover all forms of harassment.

But critics said it intentionally left out homosexuals so conservative Republican lawmakers would vote for the bill.

Didn’t work, according to one of the students.

“After telling him my story he proceeded to say he was repulsed by homosexuals and we needed extensive psychological treatment,” said Jessica Osborn, 22, a University of Central Florida student and one of the three coalition members who met with Hays. Hays confirmed Tuesday he met with the students but said he couldn’t recall saying he was “repulsed” by homosexuals.

“I did tell them that they needed some psychological treatment,” said Hays, who said he first asked them if they wanted to hear his views on homosexuality.

The bill’s sponsors say the three biggest topics of derision among high schoolers are gender, race, and sexual orientation. Personal experience by the author bears that out, although I would replace gender with body weight/puberty development issues. Either way, a bill that deals with bullying but doesn’t include homosexuality is a stupid bill.

New Governor: Dump “Darkeys” and Faux Florida State Song

Trish

Among the many controversies (and we’ll get to some in later posts) that Florida’s new kinder, gentler Republican-lite governor, Charlie Crist, has brought about is whether to change the state song. Even those of us who never really knew we had a state song can guess what it might be. That’s right, Stephen Foster’s classic, “Old Folks at Home,” popularly known as “Way Down Upon the Suwannee River.”

Pennsylvanian Stephen Foster never set foot in Florida, and his song wasn’t even about Florida until Foster realized that “Swanee” sounded better than “Peedee,” the river in South Carolina he originally sought to memorialize

It all started when Crist — who can’t pass a day without being compared to California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger for his “populist,” centrist, two-month-old leadership — decided to forgo the playing of the state song during his inauguration ceremony. No one seemed to miss it at the time, what with all the other festivities, but later Crist was asked to explain the omission.

”There are lyrics in it that are, in the opinion of some, a derogatory reference to some time in our historical past that involves slavery,” Crist said. ”I can’t condone it.”

Since he said that, people like me who know the first couple of lines and then hum, have been wondering what the actual lyrics are, and how this got to be Florida’s state song. What the research turns up is fascinating.

For starters, Pennsylvanian Stephen Foster never set foot in Florida, and his song wasn’t even about Florida until Foster realized that “Swanee,” as he spelled it, sounded better than “Peedee,” the river in South Carolina he originally sought to memorialize.

Wait, it gets better. Foster wrote the song in 1851 for E.P. Christy and his traveling show, “Christy’s Minstrels.” It sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and by the 1880s, was credited with starting Florida’s tourist industry. But a look at the lyrics is enough to make you recoil, or guffaw, or both. […]

PBS to Air Inconvenient Truths About Mormons — and Romney

Trish

PBS is working on a two-part special on Mormons, set to air April 30 and May 1. The Boston Globe’s Alex Beam says it could hurt Republican presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney, since the less Joe Sixpack knows about the tenets of the cult (oops, I said the C-word), the better.

“PBS claims it has 75 million viewers a week…It’s bad math for the Mittster”

The Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormons call themselves, cooperated with “The American Experience ” and “Frontline, ” the show’s co-producers. [Filmmaker Helen] Whitney in turn pays the church the compliment of taking its faith very seriously indeed. The positives are there for all to see: the Mormons’ triumph over persecution in mid-century America; the dramatic “exodus” from Illinois to Utah, the “country no one else wanted,” according to Wallace Stegner, a great admirer of the Mormon pioneers; the devotion to family and community.

But also on view are doctrines and practices that most Americans would view as strange…

“The Mormons” even tackles the ultimate red herring, “celestial marriage,” Joseph Smith’s term for polygamy…”The Mormons” estimates that 30,000 to 60,000 fundamentalist believers practice polygamy. Whitney has footage of 11 happy children passing plates around the dinner table, with three mothers and a father in attendance. Heather has three Mommies! Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Michael Sullivan, “Frontline” executive producer for special projects, calls the project “respectful but frank. We’re not out to get the Mormons.” He says “there is a small section on Romney” in the portion of the documentary that is still being edited. Romney declined to be interviewed for the show.

What does it all mean? PBS claims it has 75 million viewers a week. Let’s say one-tenth — no, one-twentieth — of that audience watches “The Mormons.” That’s almost 4 million men and women who will know more about the Mormon faith than Romney might wish them to know. It’s bad math for the Mittster.

Simon Sez, I’m Sorry — Really

Buck Banks

Pop apology: In an entertaining send-up of celebrity apologies, Media Guy Simon Dumenco takes a first step toward healing:

I realize now that I used a phrase in describing Mr. Cowell that is unacceptable in any context or circumstance — even if, say, your shrink just changed your meds, which, by the way, he had.

Editor’s note: In lieu of a Media Guy column this week, we’re publishing the full text of Simon Dumenco’s statement from his press conference where he apologized for his recent unfortunate use of hateful language.

First off, I want to apologize to Simon Cowell, the fans of “American Idol” and not only all big-chested, squared-haired British men everywhere, but all ridiculous British people period, including Rowan Atkinson, Queen Elizabeth, that soccer player with the spiky hair and his Spice Girl wife, the other Spice Girls, Tony Blair, Madonna, J.K. Rowling and Benny Hill, if he’s still alive.

I realize now that I used a phrase in describing Mr. Cowell that is unacceptable in any context or circumstance — even if, say, your shrink just changed your meds, which, by the way, he had. And even if you were being heckled at the time by someone who clearly got off on pushing your buttons, which happened to be the case. And even if you were drunk, which, for the record, I was then, but I’m not now. Also for the record, this water bottle I’ve got right here, it just has water in it. You can taste it if you want to.

Anyway, I realize that in not only saying what I said but repeating it five times — and then also arranging for the production of a limited-edition T-shirt with the phrase that’s available at selected boutiques including Kitson on North Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills — I ruined the moods of ridiculous, differently chested, alternatively coiffed British men everywhere. I can neither defend nor explain my outburst or my licensing agreement.

I can also no longer deny to myself that there are issues I obviously need to examine deep, deep within my own soul, and I’ve not only asked for help from the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson but for forgiveness from Donald Trump.
[…]

Guess Who’s Coming to the White House Press Club’s Dinner?

Trish

Remember last year when Stephen Colbert addressed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and ripped them a new one for their cowardice at reporting all things Bush?

Do we really need a neon sign to proclaim the coziness of the White House press corps and the White House’s occupant?

But, listen, let’s review the rules. Here’s how it works. The President makes decisions, he’s the decider. The Press Secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know, fiction.

Well, the press club isn’t going to make the mistake of having a relevant, funny, coherent speaker again this year. No, they’re opting for Rich Little instead.

Yes, I said it, ’70s-era impersonator Rich Little. Go ahead, check deadoralive.com if you don’t believe me but the guy is still breathing, and being dragged out of mothballs to deliver those wacky impressions that make the reporters and politicians laugh out loud. Or at least not squirm uncomfortably in their chairs.

While the name is probably unfamiliar to people under 40, Little was a popular Las Vegas performer and guest star on TV variety shows of the 1960s and 1970s. He’s best known for impressions of celebrities (Johnny Carson, Jimmy Stewart, Jack Benny) and presidents (Nixon and Reagan) who are no longer with us…

Which is why, according to Little, he was hired in the first place. “One of the reasons they picked me is because I’m not controversial,” he said yesterday from his home in Las Vegas. “They did get some flak about the guy they had last year. I don’t think they wanted someone political or controversial again.”

In light of this announcement I, for one, feel terrible about all the times I accused the mainstream media of turning away from the facts or weak-sister reporting.

Still, some people are talking about giving the new improved version of the dinner a miss. Like forever.

Another reason to scrap the dinner altogether, suggests Rem Rieder, editor of the American Journalism Review. After the Colbert controversy last year, and an earlier one in which Bush joked about not finding weapons of mass destruction, Rieder wrote that such press-politico events reflect the “smugness” and arrogance of the news media, suggesting that they are “part of a wealthy elite, completely out of touch with ordinary Americans.”

The hiring of “a controversy-free” Little underscores the point, he says: “Do we really need a neon sign to proclaim the coziness of the White House press corps and the White House’s occupant? It’s really hard for me to understand making a decision like this, particularly so close to the WMD debacle. The dinner must go.”