You are so desperately full of shit that it’s not even funny anymore. Part of every business today is NOT just being mindless automatons, but also involves paying attention to collective morale, which plays a big part in worker productivity. Even the most cuthroat Wall Street businesses spend tons and tons of money on events to recognize various people and groups working there, smooze with clients, do PR, etc. I hardly think employees having official recognition of various groups hinders the course of daily business, and there is a lot of pretty strong evidence that it helps it. Both you and december are so desperate to find SOMETHING bad to say that you’ll go right off the rails looking for it. (Something that’s happened for ten years most certainly is a tradition to most people. Heck, my family started a “tradition” of going to Virginia to the summer, and that’s only happened four times so far. So calling this “spin” is really reaching, as usual.)
In many places within the Bush administration, it’s been said by insiders, Bible study is not quite mandatory (which would be illegal) but… it’s not quite NOT mandatory either, if you know what I mean.
Hang on a darn minute Public Advocate, don’t gay people have families?
You know, mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, partners, spouses and children?
People who love them, grew up with them, raised them, support them and are proud of who they are.
Yeah, whatever. Whose opinion is going to have more influence on my life, the GOP chairman or the Attorney General of the United States? The fact that Ashscroft is the top law enforcement official in the country tells me all I need to know about the GOP.
Thank you. Also remember that celebrating or at least acknowledging that hundreds of gay and lesbian people are employed by the DOJ might help to foster an environment where people feel comfortable being themselves at work. Imagine being in a work place where you were afraid to put a picture of your SO on your desk, you attended employee related social events alone or not at all because you had a same sex partner, or pretended that nothing was wrong when your partner was in the hospital becuase you were afraid to let anyone know that you were gay or lesbian. Makes a for a really happy employee doesn’t it?
Racicot then caved to pressure and agreed to meet with a group of so-called “ex-gays.” I tried to find a cite that wasn’t slanted one way or the other but the above was the best I could do. Someone should tell Racicot’s aide that a grown man using the name “Timmy” is uber-creepy.
You’re right. They shouldn’t single out Gay Pride Day. I don’t think I was advocating they should, though. If anyone miscontrued it that way I hope they know me well enough to know I certainly didn’t mean it that way.
I looked up some of the other “days” and “weeks” Pres. Bush has proclaimed:
National Hurricane Awareness Week (or, “Look out!”)
Law Day
National Day of Prayer
Education and Sharing Day (what does this even mean?)
National Poison Prevention Week
America Recycles Day (you can recycle days? Do they count as paper or plastic?)
National Diabetes Month
National Character Counts Week (WTF?)
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Month (I swear I am not making these up)
Perhaps after we restore the Gay Pride events we could do something about my pride as an American. I’m feeling a certain amount of shame after this stunt.
No, I don’t know what you mean. And without a cite, I don’t think you do either.
A bit more specific, please. Who says so, what are the alleged bad effects of not participating in a Bible study, who experienced the effects, does the Bible study happen during business hours, etc.
If you want to have pride, feel free, but this kind of drive-by accusation does not give anything to be proud of.
I think that’s National Show and Tell Day. Can’t wait to see the press conference.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the White House press corp, this is my turtle, Shelly. He’s a red snapper, and likes to eat crickets. He’s cold blooded, so I have to keep him under a heat lamp so he won’t die. I will now answer any questions you have.”
And now you know the real reason why Ari Fleischer resigned! Shodan – I agree that a “drive-by allegation” is not a good way to handle things. A couple of questions for you, however:
Have you never been employed at a place where a sense is inculcated, that doing certain things would be bad for your career and doing certain other things would be good for it, never by any direct statements (which would of course be wrong) but by innuendo and implication the message is slowly but surely driven home? I have, and I consider it reprehensible.
Now, contemplate whether Apos knows as little as you or I about inside conditions at the Justice Department, or whether he might have some information about such an atmosphere which he is conveying. I don’t know for sure which is the case, but I read his post as the latter.
That’s my partners situation–he works for a major defense contractor here. e is closeted due to a strong anti-gay, pro-fundie atmosphere at his workplace. So when the company has events where the married, hetero employees bring their spouses, he goes alone. He has no picture of me at his desk. When the hetero folks talk about their weekends, what they did with their spouses and kids, he clams up or is noncommittal.
Amongst the issues that gays and lesbians are most concerned with as pertaining to that aspect of their lives, this has got to be minor stuff. Nor do gays and lesbians concern themselves solely with issues relating to their sexuality (even on this board…despite appearances, some of gobear’s 3000+ posts have nothing to do with gay issues.) So even among the LGB community this has got to be a minor annoyance at best. And Fin-man, hate to break it to you, but no matter what the prevailing sentiment on this board is, or amongst your circle of friends or mine, but there is still a huge chunk of the country that is either totally apathetic to gay rights issues, or is firmly opposed to them. Not only a large percentage of GOP voters, but also rural and Southern Democrat voters, will not even bat an eyelash at this decision, and will either support it or just won’t care. This isn’t even a single molecule of iron in the nail, and the nail is lightyears away from the coffin.
And Trion, why should you feel shame for this “stunt”? You didn’t do it, Ashcroft did. The people who voted for the deceased Mel Carnahan in the Senate race that freed Ashcroft up for the job are tangentially responsible, but do you think they feel shame? (I didn’t vote for Carnahan, I voted for the Lib candidate, but voted for his wife last year.) You don’t even live in Missouri, what in the world makes you think that you should be shamed by his behaviour? I am a Missourian, and I despise the attitudes of these pentacostal AofG’ers from Springfield like Ashcroft, but those attitudes aren’t mine, so why should I feel shame? And of all the things Ashcroft has done to restrict personal liberties and increase federal police power, this is the thing that gives you shame about this country?
I’m with Brutus on this one. There shouldn’t be any of these fluffy little “pride” events, you’re in the DOJ to get an important job done for this country and that should be what you’re taking pride in while you are at work. That they have others, but are cancelling the gay pride event, might be unfair but it doesn’t actually harm anybody. Failing to extend a privilege is not a harm. Depriving people of a right is a harm, and Ashcroft is party to plenty of such deprivations that we can focus on, but this isn’t one of them. This just isn’t that big of an issue.
Sorry you hadn’t heard this. Your other questions are irrelevant: I said no more than what I meant.
In the same vein:
Apparently, Ashcroft doesn’t share Brutus’ disdain for any and all non-nose-to-the-grindstone activity on work premises:
There is of course nothing wrong with holding private sessions on company grounds: but to then argue that OTHER such events are illegitimate is a pretty hard sell.
So, nice try you clowns. You did your best to find SOMETHING to bitch about without actually having to fully defend Ashcroft (except for Brutus, of course, but then I still can’t tell if he’s a real human being or just a poorly written Freepbot.)
