born live love die

There was a guy I knew named Phil and he used to say “To the first one of the day” even when it wasn’t the first one of the day.  He was with ASA in Augsburg and when I was there with the field artillery.  Phil is now Madison following his gender reassignment surgery.  I haven’t talked to Phil/Madison in 30 years.  But I think of Phil/Madison when I read something like this.

When word got out that Mr. McBeth, a popular substitute teacher at two southern New Jersey school districts, was about to come back to class as Miss McBeth, it caused an uproar.  The former William McBeth had undergone sex-reassignment surgery and was now Lily McBeth. The schools’ 2006 decisions to keep her on as a substitute were hailed around the nation as a model of tolerance and acceptance of transgender Americans.  But the storybook ending never happened: She got only a handful of assignments since then and is resigning in frustration.

At first read, the story seems to be that the people of New Jersey are intolerant.  But then, later in the piece,

McBeth, 75, sent a letter Wednesday to the Eagleswood Board of Education saying she would not return as a substitute this fall, and she plans to give similar notice soon to the Pinelands district.

75?  I don’t know.  I think there may be more to this story than we are getting.

I’m not down with gender reassignment surgery.  Gay?  Okay.  But live your life inside your space and don’t dribble into my space and expect me to like it.

I wish Walter Cronkite was alive to see this.

Jon Stewart is the most trusted newscaster in America.  And he is a comedian.

He won 38 or tied for first in 38 of the 50 states.

I don’t have a long time to write this morning, so this post is mostly notes, but I wanted to pull something together about the Gates arrest.

In an incident that raised eyebrows from coast to coast, Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., a prominent scholar and author, was arrested by the Cambridge Police Department after officers responded to reports that black men were breaking into his house. Gates had just arrived home from China and was trying to force open his jammed front door with the help of his hired driver when a neighbor called the police.

He was arrested for disorderly conduct.  A friend of mine was cited for the same thing.  He was walking down a street, 132nd Ave near my house, on his way to return videos to the store at 70th and 132nd.  There is a sidewalk, but it is uneven.  He was walking in the bike lane, as do many other people.  It was dusk.  The police stopped him and asked for identification.  During their questioning session, he said, “Oh, you’re well fed and have little to do.” and got arrested.  He and his lawyer arranged a deal with the prosecutors whereby they would not prosecute if he had no more incidents in a year.

Facts:

1) Police abuse discretionary powers.  When I lived on the south side of Seattle, I saw a lot of black motorists pulled over for violations.  It seemed like there were more traffic stops there than when I lived on the north side of Seattle.  The south and central sides of Seattle have more blacks.  My guess is that the police were hoping for a felony drug bust on these traffic stops.  I don’t have data, but I’m willing to bet that felony arrests are one of the metrics for promotion.

2) Police unions protect police.  There have been many stories in the Seattle press about police misconduct and how the union has backed these officers to keep their jobs.  Police unions keep people employed when they should be fired.

My friend who was stopped by police was white.  Over here on the Eastside, there is a shortage of blacks so the police have to stop someone.  They are indeed well fed and with little to do.  We have gotten to this state of affairs because conservatives believe that police are going to do right if given the opportunity and progressives think unions protecting jobs is always a good idea.

Both are wrong.

John Dickerson is remembering Walter Cronkite’s passing and he ends the first paragraph with, “and no one was divorced.”

We were putting the kids to bed when word came that Walter Cronkite died. Immediately I went from being a father—shushing and threatening—to being a kid again. We watched Cronkite before dinner, in the library. I sat cross-legged on the rug. Mom sat on the sofa, and across the room sat Dad in the chair in which he’d fall asleep later that night. I had patches on my jeans and grass stains. I was wearing a Washington Redskins jersey. Everyone was in place, and no one was divorced.

Dickerson’s parents did divorce.  Many kids from divorced families mark life as pre-divorce and post-divorce.  Divorce is ususally a choice of self first.  And that choice can be self over kids.

David Horsey gets it right.

To Andrea, I hope you are well.

At the first US festival, I was with Andrea and her cousin (name escapes me, but I’ll get it soon) and The Police were playing.  It was out in the desert and there was a full moon. We were down front, about 20 feet from the stage (as I remember it)

Sting said, “See that fucking moon?  It’s no fucking accident.”  Andrea turned to me and said, “My brother says that Sting uses the word ‘fuck’ because he thinks it makes him significant.”

Miss you Andrea.

Bookzilla is 13.  The inexorable march of time has kicked my ass.  Like it or not, she is growing up.  I saw a woman today with a soft squishy baby.  I remember when Bookzilla was like that.  I could hold her and kiss and smush on her and it was all good.  These days, that isn’t really appropriate.

Bookzilla and her friends are playing Rockband in the other room.  They do the Police tune, “Message in a Bottle” and I want  to tell them about the first US festival, with The Police following The English Beat and playing under the moon in the desert.

They wouldn’t get it.

I have never understood the purported antipathy that some Americans feel toward the French.  Renaming a fried potato  product to “Freedom Fries” seemed like bollocks to me.  The French are just like us.  Perhaps that is what unnerves us so.

Two Tour de France riders were slightly injured by shots from what their teams suspect was an air rifle during Friday’s 13th stage.  Julian Dean of New Zealand and Oscar Freire of Spain were struck along the road in northeast France but both riders were expected to start Saturday’s stage.  A projectile embedded in Freire’s thigh was removed by a team doctor. Garmin spokeswoman Marya Pongrace said Dean’s right index finger was injured.  It was not immediately certain what weapon was used, but Dean’s team, Garmin Slipstream, and Freire’s Rabobank team both believe their riders were hit by an air rifle.  The riders were hit in the descent of the category-1 Col du Platzerwasel, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the finish of the stage between Vittel and Colmar, Rabobank said.

There was a French redneck plinking the riders when they came down the mountain.  How is it that Americans don’t see themselves in that?

Neat video.

There are things we can do locally and things we can do globally.  Here is a place to contribute globally.  Betterplace.org is takes donations globally.