The sex ed bill (mandating that sex ed be medically accurate and that abstinence cannot be taught at the exclusion of contraception) passed the House tonight, 63-34. It passed the Senate earlier this session 30-19. Onto Governor Gregoire.

I’d like to be thrilled about the news, but given that the bill has passed the House for several years running now (while traditionally stalling in the Senate), I actually thought it had already passed the House earlier this year. Some reporter I am.

Anyway. Three cheers !!!

Meanwhile: Rocky Horror Picture Show, people. That was my high school sex ed bill. (Hey, Allison.)

Sorry for the drunk post. A happy press release from NARAL, which has supported this bill for years, is linked below.

Continue reading "Sex Ed Bill Passes" »

Dead.

Guess who’s sticking up for this man:

Are you ready?

Today on The View (my favorite show that I’ve never seen) Rosie declared that Imus’s “nappy headed ho’s” comments were, and should be, protected free speech:

JAMIE-LYNN SIGLER: I think people who have a public voice just need to be conscious then of what they’re saying and the effect that it can have and understand that there’s going to be consequences if they say things like that.

O’DONNELL: Right, you just worry if the consequences, you know —

BEHAR: Because you could be next.

O’DONNELL: -impede upon- which is all right. If that happens, it happens. But the point of the story is, if it impedes on free speech in America, democracy is at stake. Because democracy is based on freedom of speech and freedom of the press. So we really have to worry about that in this country.

[Applause]

HASSELBECK: And we should be concerned and responsible without freedom too.

O’DONNELL: Right, but it’s not a freedom if you outlaw certain words or thoughts, because then the thought police come and then before you know it, everyone’s in Guantanamo Bay without representation.

Unfortunately I haven’t found any video of the conversation but I’ll post it if I do.

Via Newsbusters

It’s not just a good idea. It’s the law.

After seven years of debate, the Legislature passed a measure that bans driving while talking on a cell phone with a bipartisan, 59-38 House vote. But Senate Bill 5037 would make driving with a hand-held cell phone only a secondary offense, which means drivers would not be ticketed unless they commit another driving infraction.

And drivers would still be allowed to use “hands free” cell phone devices like headphones or earpiece.

But studies show that “hands free” cell phone devices are every bit as distracting to drivers as cell phones. Hand-held or hands-free, using a cell phone will driving makes you more dangerous than a drunk driver. So what does this law achieve? Not much—it may, in fact, make us less safe.

Now when I see someone driving toward me holding a cell phone up to her fool head, I give her a wide berth. I think, “There’s a dangerous, might-as-well-be-drunk driver, and I’m going to keep an eye on that asshole and get the fuck away from her as soon as possible.” But once those same assholes are all using handhelds, I won’t be able to tell which drivers are might-as-well-be-drunk drivers and which aren’t. I won’t be able spot drivers I need to avoid on my bike, I won’t know at a glance who I can trust to see me in the damn crosswalk.

So come one, lawmakers, no half-measures here. If you’re going to ban cell phone use by drivers because it’s not safe then fucking ban it, period, hand-held or hands-free. Sheesh.

Warning: this post is unimportant and of only moderate entertainment value, and that only to some. It’s not blood on the bathroom floor, but it’s close. Those whose time is exceedingly precious should go no further. Do your taxes.

The state Senate is great about keeping reporters posted on their voting docket as we head into the home stretch of the session. Sine Die (last day of the session) is April 22.

However, I keep waiting for the bill that lowers the hurdle for passing local school levies (from a 60 percent vote to a simple majority vote) to hit the Senate floor. The bill passed the House 79-19 in early March. Ironically, this vote itself needs to pass with a two-thirds majority in the Senate (33 yeas), as it did in the House, because it amends Washington’s Constitution. If it passes the legislature, a simple majority of voters would have to pass it as well.

This is a centerpiece item of the supermajority Dems’ agenda. Word from the Senate Democrats is that it might come up tonight. No word on whether they have the 33 votes lined up.

If it doesn’t come up tonight, “it better [come up tomorrow] … we’re running out of time,” one Dem staffer says.

The Lover Speaks: David Freeman’s Desperately Romantic New Wave Gem.

Danger High Volta: Björk’s Free Video Podcast.

Real Live Disco: Escort’s Disco Revival.

RIP, Joe Crawford: New Mexican’s Guitarist Killed in Hiking Accident.

Energy: Megan Seling Loves Operation Ivy.

Chuck Taylor, The Ramones, and AIDS: And All You Get Is This Crappy Shoe.

Concerted: Communicating With Elbows.

Gush Gush Gush: Band of the Week, Levi Fuller.

Booze and Fake Boobs: Ponys and Deerhunter at Neumo’s.

Walkabout: Optimo’s New DJ Mix.

ALL ONE!: But I Thought Punks Hated Soap…

Louvin It: Kim Hayden on Charlie Louvin.

Mordor’s Muzak: Embalmed’s Orc Juice.

And now, nature’s frightening grampa, the Wolf Eel:

This week I reported on a lawsuit against the developers of Vulcan’s 2200 Westlake project, detailing the many problems that have arisen since its staggered opening in the fall of 2006. During my reporting, I spoke with Alex, a resident at 2200, who anonymously runs the blog Fast Times at 2200 Westlake.

When I interviewed Vulcan, I cited Alex as one of my sources inside 2200. Subsequently, several comments appeared on Alex’s site challenging him to reveal his identity and attempting to discredit him:

One truth I have been dying to find out is your true identity, Chucky. For some one who is interested in the truth, it is unnerving to listen to someone who hides behind a false identity.

Alex checked the IP addresses the comments were posted from.
According to Alex, his search revealed that the comments were coming from the offices of Vulcan Inc. and their PR team at The Fearey Group.

[An] anonymous comment[er]…is logging on from feareygroup.com. The Fearey Group is a PR agency that represents Vulcan, as evidenced from their website. It is distasteful that Vulcan and Fearey have decided to troll this blog and attempt to discredit me and the discussions that we (owners, future residents, local area residents) are having. I am extremely disappointed in Vulcan that they have chosen this path. I urge them to listen to the concerns on this blog instead of trying to silence them. Vulcan: You’ve already got your payment from all the condo residents here! We can’t exactly ask for a refund, so what do you have to lose?

I attempted to contact Vulcan and The Fearey Group to comment on Alex’s claims but my calls were not returned.

So, Northwest Film Forum has been doing this series on Canadian nouvelle vague-inflected films from the sixties. It is awesome. Due to an ill-timed editorial meeting, I missed the press screening for the movie screening this week, Nobody Waved Goodbye. Apparently every other film critic in town did too, because when I went to see the movie last night, the lone press clipping posted on NWFF’s window was my sad rewrite of their calendar boilerplate.

Let me make amends. Don Owen’s 1964 film Nobody Waved Goodbye, financed by an unwitting National Film Board (which thought it was producing a documentary), is a slangy juvenile delinquency tale about a gap-toothed smart aleck named Peter (Peter Kastner) from the Toronto suburbs. Peter takes his father’s car for a joyride, is arrested for reckless driving, and spends the night in jail. Let’s just say he doesn’t quite get the message. The movie is unimaginative visually—actually, it reminded me of Mutual Appreciation, with its I-hate-personal-space close-ups and negligent mise-en-scène—but the acting is top-notch and the dialogue is hilarious. It’s definitely worth catching, especially if you’ve seen Rebel Without a Cause too many times and are still feeling restless. Showtimes are 7 pm and 9 pm tonight at Northwest Film Forum.

Today I went back to the Film Forum to see next week’s entry, Michel Brault’s Entre la mer et l’eau douce. Apparently the francophones totally get mise-en-scène: There are so many amazing shots in this film, from the boatload of freshly cut logs making the voyage from the Quebec hinterlands to a doorway crowded with three fleurs-de-lis—in two corners of the molding and on a banner hanging just between them on a hallway wall. The plot concerns a sexy country boy named Claude Tremblay (Claude Gauthier) who goes to stay with his brother in Montreal for the winter, working petty jobs as he tries to make it as a folk singer. The road to fame is strewn with pretty girls: the Native woman he was embarrassed to be seen with at home, the waitress and dance instructor who hooks him up with an agent, the TV personality with an unhappy marriage. The story is sort of unsatisfying, but it’s so beautiful you won’t care. Entre la mer et l’eau douce screens next Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 and 9 pm.

And the week after that is the most amazing movie in the series, better than even the amazing Le chat dans le sac: The verité (which is to say, surely partially staged and definitely operatically edited) documentary A Married Couple, by the director of Warrendale.

From: [REDACTED]
To: Editorial
Subject: Coat Rack

I broke it.

Don’t ask.

One thing that has troubled me (and others) during this whole Don Imus scandal is the media’s willingness to use the word “ho” when quoting Imus’s racist, misogynistic tirade. Why are words like “bitch” and “ho” acceptable material for “family newspapers” while words like “nigger” and “faggot” get rendered “the n-word” and “the f-word”? (Here’s an example from the Seattle Times that ran just today.) Is it because the latter terms are degrading to African Americans and gay men, respectively, while the former are “only” degrading to women? (Come to think of it, the high-minded Seattle Times uses the term “dyke” without asterisking out any letters, too). Personally, I’m all for judiciously quoting racist (and sexist, and anti-Semitic…) remarks without any hankie-clutching redaction: The more Imus gets quoted, the more his racism and misogyny gets exposed (and discussed) for what it is. But it seems pretty hypocritical for so-called “family” newspapers hypocritical to print slurs against women while redacting all the others.

From the comments:

I don’t care about Stranger employees hand washing habits, smells or menstruation cycles. STOP IT ALREADY! It’s very self indulgent. Please show some restraint.

Darn. I was just sitting down to write a long post about how I don’t wash my hands after I use the toilet on an airplane because I figure my dick has to be the cleanest thing I might touch in one of those toilets.

From the BBC:

Last month, the Chinese authorities banned any new cyber cafes from opening this year in an effort to combat addiction. It has also set up a department, charged with monitoring the content of games.

Games which offer a view of history at odds with the official version in China, such as the Swedish game Heart of Iron which shows Tibet as an independent state, have been banned.

Boot-camps have been set up to provide military-style training in an effort to wean youngsters away from the net.

Though not mentioned in this report, one of the reasons for the clamp down on the amount of time Chinese youth are spending online on games was the shocking, and recent, death of a young man from “game exhaustion.” He spent such a long time in the world of the game that his body in the world of things collapsed. Those familiar with the 18th century Chinese novel Hónglóu mèng, will recall the sick young man, Chai Jui, who died from spending too much time in a magic mirror given to him by a Taoist sorcerer. In the mirror, he was fucking a fantastic creature (Feng-chieh), while in the mirrored/actual world, he was wasting his body and ejaculating on himself for no apparent reason. It was a sticky situation for his relatives.

Finally the mirror dropped, and then there was no movement. When [Chai Jui’s parents] came up to look, he had already ceased to breath. The lower part of his body was icy cold and moist; he had emitted a large mass of semen. He was at once hurriedly dressed and laided out on the bed. Tai-ju and his wife cried themselves into hysterics and pronounced great curses on the Taoist. What magic was this which he had practiced?

The mind and body can only live as one.

Just found this on this fascinating blog about the hows, whats, whys, and whatthefucks of online tagging. It may sound boring, but people creating their own taxonomies is pretty radical. You create the hierarchy or refuse to. You ascribe meaning or deny it. You shhh those rowdy kids in the corner or you join them. We’re all librarians now.

And as for the Presidential speech tag cloud (what an ingenious visual metaphor, by the way), you can scroll through the years and watch the shifting patterns of light and shade, slavery and territory, war and economy, family and debt, strength and freedom. It’s an almost-visceral experience that left me curiously moved.

To: Editorial

From: [REDACTED]

Subject: Unpleasant Situation

Hello 2nd Floor Denizens,

This is a difficult email to write, but the time has come.

A couple weeks ago, I encountered blood on the bathroom floor. Not wanting to touch it, but not wanting anyone else to have the same unsettling experience, I cleaned it up. Today [REDACTED] encountered the same thing. Blood on the bathroom floor and some on the toilet. Left there, for the rest of us to enjoy or avoid at our own discretion.

First of all, I hope that everyone here is okay and not bleeding profusely from some horrible stapler accident or friendly punch to the nose from a co-worker. These scenarios probably not being the case, I move to admonishment. What the hell?! This is absolutely ridiculous and absolutely unacceptable. It is unsanitary, inconsiderate, and makes me think badly of everyone who uses the restrooms on this floor.

Stop this behavior. If you make a gross mess, clean it up. Don’t leave it for others to make it magically disappear. Our cleaning service comes twice a week. If [REDACTED] did not take it upon herself to clean and disinfect the area, it would probably have remained like that until Sunday when our crew comes again.

I would really like to not have to deal with this situation again. Be an adult and clean it up.

According to a graffiti-covered land use action sign, the long-empty Chang’s Mongolian BBQ on Broadway will soon be torn down and replaced by a six-story, 65-unit apartment building with parking for 66 cars. According to Sound Transit, the former Chang’s will soon be torn down and replaced with a light rail station.

The debate over what will happen to the site (and another across the street) has been complicated by land-use changes on Broadway that allow developers to build more-valuable six-story buildings; previously, buildings on Broadway could only be four stories tall. The change could enable developers, claiming they plan to build, to get a higher price from Sound Transit for their property. Hugh Schaeffer with Driscoll Architects, which designed the six-story building and is pushing it through the city’s land use process, says the architects have “never talked to Sound Transit. We were hired to design the building and we did.” A final design review meeting is scheduled for April 18.

Sound Transit made its final offer to the owners of the property and filed for condemnation late last year. According to Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray, the dispute is scheduled to go to trial in August; however, he adds, “we’re hoping that we can come to an agreement before then.”

[Originally posted at 11 a.m.]

I’m at Seattle Pacific University this morning, listening in as the gay rights group Soul Force lectures the students of this Christian university on the many ways in which accepting gay people is not incompatible with their faith. Above is one of the Soul Force “Equality riders.” Her group has been traveling the country doing these types of lectures at Christian universities, and sometimes getting arrested.

SPU has taken a different approach, welcoming the Soul Force people onto their campus as a way of showing that this university is “grace-filled.” Does that mean that SPU thinks being gay is compatible with Christianity? No, it does not.

The forum I’m sitting in will involve a presentation by Soul Force, a counter-presentation by an SPU professor, and then a question and answer period. I’m pretty skeptical about all of this. I admire the effort the Soul Force people put into these events, but personally, I don’t understand why a gay person would waste his or her time trying to argue against Biblical literalism.

Biblical literalism is not rational, therefore it doesn’t respond to rational argument. End of story.

In addition, the rubric of the “Equality Ride” is of course intended to echo the anti-segregation Freedom Rides of the 1960s, but there’s a big problem in this comparison: Gay people who willingly attend anti-gay Christian universities today are not in the same situation as blacks in the South in the 1960s. The difference is very obvious: If gays and lesbians don’t like the inequality they experience at Christian universities, all they have to do is leave them.

Here’s a picture of an SPU student who asked one of the questions at this event:

UPDATE: After the discussion, I talked with a young woman who had been sitting next to me taking notes during the presentations. Her name is Tiffany Gathers. She’s a 21-year-old sociology student (with a minor in educational ministry) and she wasn’t at all persuaded by Soul Force.

“I didn’t exactly feel like the arguments held a lot of ground,” Gathers said. She believes the Bible is the literal word of God. Being gay, she told me, “is something that Satan places on you.” But, she added, it’s also a choice that a person can refuse.

She told me she’s “not a gay-bashing person,” and that she might support gay marriage if it was state-sanctioned and religious groups weren’t forced to marry gays in religious ceremonies. I asked her if she could point me toward a gay person at SPU. “No one really knows who the gay people are here,” she replied.

It wasn’t hard for me to spot the gay men at SPU. I walked up to one and asked if I could speak with him. Then I asked if he was gay. He replied: “Yes, but not here.” He wouldn’t let me take his picture, but he did allow me to take a picture of his shoes.

The young man is 19 years old. “I don’t really like this university at all,” he told me. “But I attend because I love Seattle, and I love the people I’ve met here.”

He’s from California, from a conservative Christian family that sent him to therapy when he came out. His mother, he told me, wouldn’t pay for his college education unless he was attending a Christian university. He’s not comfortable on the SPU campus, he told me, and can’t wait to get out.

“Next year is my last year, thank God,” he said.

I also ran into a gay man who dropped out of SPU because he felt uncomfortable on campus, but came back for the forum. His name is Jimmy McKay:

McKay is 21, and now attends Seattle University, a religious university where he says he feels comfortable being out. He left SPU, he said, because “I didn’t see why I should pay so much money to an institution that didn’t support a big part of me.”

Does he think the event today was worthwhile?

“It might not change anyone’s mind,” he told me. “But it will help them to put a face to people who are gay instead of holding on to their stereotypes.”

A bill to keep tabs on corporate tax breaks by including those de facto expenditures in the budget, died in the House this session.

The bill, pushed by the liberal Tax Fairness Coalition, had 17 co-sponsors, including lead sponsor Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos (D-37, South Seattle). Sanots’s bill was passed out of the Finance Committee to the Rules Committee, but leadership yanked it from Rules and sent it back to Finance, where it’s now, reportedly, wasting away.

As regular Last Days readers are aware, I have some serious problems with Mucinex’s use of anthropomorphic mucus in their television commercials. It was bad enough when the ads centered on just one walking, talking mucus wad—who looks and acts suspiciously like Danny DeVito—and things got worse when Mr. Mucus took a bride. (Snot can get married but gays can’t?)

Naturally, Mr. and Mrs. Mucus started a family, and today brought a plush novelty version of the Mucus family’s beloved son to my desk.

Now I can stare at the snotty offspring of mucus all day long, and give him a squeeze whenever I’m feeling jittery.

Speaking of squeezing things, the Boy Mucus doll was accompanied by a stuffy nose key chain, which, when squeezed, produces a snot-like goo.

Thank you, Mucinex, for fulfilling a variety of novelty mucus needs I didn’t know I had. Next on my wish list: A blow-up sex doll version of that horny Nasonex bee.

(Thanks to Joe Joe for the swag, and to Kelly O for the photos and finger-modeling.)

Rajnii Eddins, the 26-year-old African-American writer and teaching artist arrested by police for a disputed obstruction charge (Eddins said he was trying to calmly inquire about the arrest of one of his students, the police report said he was being “non-compliant,” you can read about it here), had his arraignment yesterday.

He plead not guilty. His case goes to trial May 29th.

Eddins, a slam poet, has taught and led writing workshops at Seattle Public Library, Seattle Art Museum, schools, and (ironically) youth detention centers, mostly through youth-advocacy organizations like Arts Corps whose director, Tina LaPadula, attended the hearing. She said the place was packed with Rajnii’s supporters—old and young, black and white and Hispanic and Asian, men and women. “It made me teary,” she said.

LaPadula also reminded me of this story, about another Arts Corps teaching artist who got arrested (and beaten) when he questioned a police officer who was giving somebody else a hard time.

Paris Hilton plus Nicole Richie plus Susan Powter plus enemas equals TV garbage heaven.

Full story here.

… New Times’ Seattle Weekly takes on the little guy: How contrarian. How interesting. Real Change’s Tim Harris responds.

This is going to break your heart: The right-wing quacks, religious abusive parents, and fundamentalist fuckwits willing to gamble with the health of young people—assholes that believe it’s better for teenagers to have unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and cervical cancer than to have access to accurate information about birth control, disease-prevention, and life-saving vaccines—are crying to the media about the possibility that those big meanies in the Democratically-controlled congress are going to cut their funding.

Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation promoting comprehensive sex education instead of abstinence-only curriculum. They want to send money to schools that stress abstinence while also instructing students about the health benefits and side effects of contraceptives.

Besides opening their own trade association, abstinence educators hired a public relations firm with a long list of Republican and conservative clients….

Currently, Congress uses three different programs to fund abstinence education. The largest of those programs has gone from $20 million to $113 million in seven years. President Bush is requesting $141 million next year.

The second largest pot of money, $50 million, goes through the states, which match that funding with $3 for every $4 they get from the federal government. The programs teach that sex outside of marriage is likely to be psychologically and physically harmful….

Wade Horn, who oversaw the two largest abstinence education programs until he resigned last week, predicted Congress will give states more flexibility in determining how Title V money is spent.

But he doesn’t believe Congress will make major funding cuts.

“I think it’s going to evolve, but I don’t think it’s going to go away,” he said. “I’ve seen some bills introduced by Democrats that suggest they want a separate fund dedicated to comprehensive sex education, but my sense is that it won’t be at the expense of abstinence education. I think it’s a matter of both, not one or the other.”

Hilarious. When Republicans were in control of Congress the abstinence-only crowd insisted that it had to one program—their program—never both. Never mind that their programs were backfiring everywhere. Teenagers subjected to abstinence-only education do not abstain from sex until marriage—and when they do become sexually active they were less likely to use birth control and condoms and, consequently, get themselves knocked up and infected with various STIs at higher rates than teenagers that receive comprehensive sex education.

Sorry, Wade, but there isn’t room for both—Congress should cut all funding for abstinence-only sex “education.” It was a grand experiment, a nice way for the corrupt Republicans to funnel money to the religious right, as well as a full-employment program for sexually stunted Jesus freaks terrified of their own desires. But guess what? Abstinence education hurts kids. Kill it, Nancy. Kill it, Harry.

The Drumbeat of War: U.S. General William Caldwell accuses Iran of supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents.

The Search for a War Czar: The Bush administration is looking to appoint someone, anyone, as head of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. So far three four-star generals have declined the position.

Pink Slips: Citigroup, American’s largest bank, is cutting 17,000 jobs.

Democracy in Action: Investigation into voter fraud may, in fact, be a fraud.

Battle of Algiers: At least 17 dead after a bombing in Algeria linked to al Qaeda.

Ship, Sinking: Staples and Procter & Gamble have yanked their advertising from Don Imus’s radio show.

Good News for Gays and Seniors: The domestic partnership bill passed the state House yesterday, awaits signature from Gov. Gregoire.

Sea Sickness: Scientists are left scratching their heads as seabirds continue to wash up on beaches in alarming numbers.

Scrap Yard Sting: Local metal-recycling yard shut down, accused of “trafficking in stolen property.”

Sexy Presidential Fact of the Day: From John F. Kennedy: A Biography by Michael O’Brien:

At the age of seventeen, Ralph Horton related, Jack lost his virginity. Horton already had some experience with sex; now it was time for Kennedy and Billings. All three took a cab to a whorehouse in Harlem, and after watching a “dirty show,” for three dollars Jack had sexual relations with a white prostitute in a room. Billings followed suit. Billings and Jack returned in a panic to the apartment of Horton’s parents in New York. “They were frightened to death they’de get a VD,” said Horton. “So I went with them to a hospital…where they go these salves and creams and a thing to shove up the penis to clean it out.” Subsequently, though, Jack would adopt a far more casual attitude toward venereal disease.