Category Archives: Humanity & Humanism

“Hey, Y’all!” – What’s Left Behind When Your Butter Empire Crumbles

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Oh, Paula Deen ….

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Paula Deen Facebook Meme.

What is wrong with people? Are we all just hell-bent on destroying ourselves? Maybe. And the latest high profile personage to hit the self-destruct button is Butter Queen Paula Deen, the multimillionaire face of Food Network’s home cookin’ empire.

Deen has been all over the news for the last week or so since a lawsuit brought by a former employee in 2011 came to light and Paula’s deposition has been made public. And whaddaya know: ole Paula comes off as racist as all get out. Actually, if you read the whole thing — find it online; it’s kinda unbelievable — the person who comes off the worst is not Paula, it’s her brother, Earl “Bubba” Hiers.

Deen’s first mistake was not firing his mongrel ass a long time ago. The second mistake (hand in hand with the first) is this ill-formed belief that family always comes first and everything else second — even when it’s family that’s going to bring you down. And third, and perhaps most importantly, Paula needs to get her ass up out of Georgia and get a perspective on the situation that’s not tinged with inbred Deep South racism.

You can talk a good game until you’re blue in the face about not being a racist, but when you’re a white woman referring to a group of African-Americans as “them” or cavalierly saying to someone in a public forum that people can’t see you standing by a black background because of the tone of your skin … that’s racist. Paula Deen may not think she’s a racist, but guess what? She is. And she needs to get some perspective on it.

Look, I know a little bit about this. I’m from the Deep South. What saved me is that I left. My grandfather, who I loved to death, used language that would curl your toes, but he was the least racist person I have ever known. He used that language because he was born in the Deep South in 1906 and everyone — black and white — of his era used language that we would never use today. Heck, listen to recordings of some of the greatest leaders of the Civil Rights era: they routinely used adjectives that no one would use today.

But here’s the thing: Paula Deen is not living in 1953 or 1963 — or even pushing the envelope of acceptability — 1973. She’s living in 2013. And no amount of butter or grits or cream can cover those actions up.

If Deen was smart, she should fire her PR team, fire her brother, implement proper workplace protocols against discrimination and stand in the public square and tell everyone that the “best dishes” she serves, she serves to everyone, always, without a hint of racism or sexism. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll forgive her.

High School Same-Sex ‘Cutest Couple’ is Prom-Bound Internet Sensation

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Bradley Taylor and Dylan Meehan, voted their high school’s cutest couple. This montage courtesy the “Have a Gay Day” Facebook group.

Carmel High School students Bradley Taylor and Dylan Meehan hold hands as they discuss the whirlwind of publicity they have received these past few days.

Just hours away from their senior prom Monday, Taylor and Meehan donned tuxedos with coordinating blue and silver vests and ties, living up to their newfound class designation. Last week, the two were named “cutest couple” in their yearbook’s senior superlatives, sparking international attention for the gay teens.

via Carmel H.S. ‘cutest couple’ become Internet sensation | The Journal News | LoHud.com | lohud.com.

I love the idea that these kids don’t see anything abnormal about a same sex couple being voted “Cutest Couple” in their senior superlatives. I, on the other hand, find it breathtaking and utterly astounding. And also as evidence that these young people will be more capable leaders of the world than my generation — and most assuredly more capable than the generation or two that came before me.

The great video that accompanies this story shows Dylan and Brad and their friends getting ready for their senior prom in Carmel, New York, north of New York City.

My high school prom was held in 1982. If I would have said I was attracted to a yak and wanted to bring a yak to the prom and let it crap on the dance floor, it would have caused less stir than if I said that I wanted to bring another boy. It just wasn’t done. Not only that, no one — certainly no one that I knew — ever even thought about it.

I cannot even imagine the world that these young people live in, but I am ecstatic that it exists for them. I hope it exists for everyone soon.

Remember this: no old person ever changed the world. Let’s make way for our young people; they know better than we do. That’s how change happens.

(Also, every now and then it pays to know your history. Written by John Lennon and released by The Beatles in 1967 was an anthem with the following line: All you need is love, Love. Love is all you need. Truer words were never spoken [well, sung]. Note that there’s no gender inferred or implied. Love is love, Love.)

New Pope, New ABC, Same Old, Same Old

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New Archbishop praises gay couples for having loving relationships of ‘stunning quality’ | Mail Online.

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Archbishop Justin Welby. Photo: The Mail.

The new Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Communion, was invested in  a ceremony with plenty of pomp and circumstance in Canterbury Cathedral in Kent this week, just two days after the new Pope was installed in Rome.

The Most Rev. Justin Welby made headlines in the UK by noting that many gay and lesbian couples have formed relationships of “stunning quality,” but he would not pledge to work to change the Church of England’s stance on same-sex marriage, though he did say that he thought that someday a woman would become Archbishop of Canterbury.

For all of his talk of inclusion for some, much of his rhetoric is as rooted in the dogma of the past as that of Pope Francis.

A Life Well-Lived

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As many other people have reported, this is the best obituary ever. It’s gone viral in a major way and deservedly so. Having lived for the first 25 years of my life in the South, I do appreciate a delectable Southern character. I would have loved to have known Mr. Stamps, I believe.

Harry Weathersby Stamps, ladies’ man, foodie, natty dresser, and accomplished traveler, died on Saturday, March 9, 2013.

Harry was locally sourcing his food years before chefs in California starting using cilantro and arugula (both of which he hated). For his signature bacon and tomato sandwich, he procured 100% all white Bunny Bread from Georgia, Blue Plate mayonnaise from New Orleans, Sauer’s black pepper from Virginia, home grown tomatoes from outside Oxford, and Tennessee’s Benton bacon from his bacon-of-the-month subscription. As a point of pride, he purported to remember every meal he had eaten in his 80 years of life.

via Harry Stamps Obituary: View Harry Stamps’s Obituary by The Sun Herald.

Follow-up story in the Gulfport (MS) Sun Herald.

DOMA Hurts Gay Military Couples [VIDEO]

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DOMA Hurts Gay Military Couples After DADT Repeal, Says U.S. Marine Corps Captain Matthew Phelps.

On the heels of the one-year anniversary of the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” U.S Marine Corps Captain Matthew Phelps made history when he became the first gay man to propose marriage to his boyfriend Ben Schock at the White House.

Now the newly engaged couple are featured in a new video that demonstrates how the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, counteracts many of the benefits same-sex military spouses should be receiving in the wake of the DADT repeal.

Meanwhile, the Obama Administration has urged the Supreme Court to strike down DOMA when it hears arguments next month.

The Obama administration on Friday urged the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense Of Marriage Act in a brief that calls the law unconstitutional because it violates “the fundamental guarantee of equal protection.”  HuffPo

Indiana Teacher Fighting For ‘Traditional’ Prom That Would Ban Gays

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Sullivan High School Students, Teacher Fighting For ‘Traditional’ Prom That Would Ban Gays. Huffington Post

“There’s no way to stop the haters at Sullivan High School from holding an independent prom for the special bigoted kids. But here’s what we can do: we can make a noise so loud enough that all the queer kids at Sullivan High School hear it. Those kids need to know that there are people — a lot of people — who think this sh*t is wrong.”

—Dan Savage, sounding off on this latest atrocity

This is one of those day that I abhor living in Indiana.

400 – 175 For Marriage Equality In Britain « The Dish

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400 – 175 For Marriage Equality In Britain « The Dish.

February 5, 2013 in London, England.

February 5, 2013 in London, England. Image: The Dish.

Sullivan dishes on the House of Commons vote today on marriage equality and a few additional issues we could learn a thing or two about from his home country. I posted this on my Facebook page today and said, “It it passes the Lords, how does one immigrate?” Several friends chuckled, one suggested it would be closer to move to Iowa, but, well, no.

If I could swing it — need to work unless I win the lottery — I’d jump ship in a New York minute. Liverpool minute. Northumbrian minute. Whatever.

God Save the Queen.

Gay Teen Bullying Study In England Finds It Does Get Better

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The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the start, just over half of the 187 gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had been bullied; by 2010 that dropped to 9 percent of gay and bisexual boys and 6 percent of lesbian and bisexual girls.

The researchers said the same results likely would be found in the United States.

via Gay Teen Bullying Study In England Finds It Does Get Better. AP story via Huffington Post Gay Voices.

The It Gets Better Project is one of the greatest initiatives launched in recent memory. It’s such a genius idea. I think most of what Dan Savage does is genius, truth be told.

Hollyoaks, the UK soap, is in the midst of a long-term bullying story arc. Grittier and more real than anything we see on TV in the US. I’ve linked to the Channel 4 website, but you can’t view it in the US unless you’re sneaky!

Daniel Radcliffe Sounds Off On Why British Men ‘Seem Gay’

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Radcliffe has been the subject of gay rumors since catapulting to stardom after the “Harry Potter” series.

“The papers used to say I had a gay face, whatever that is, or a gay voice but it simply wasn’t true,” he told the Daily Express in March, according to Pink News. “[But] when you know a gay guy has a crush on you, it’s the most flattering thing.”

via Daniel Radcliffe Sounds Off On Why British Men ‘Seem Gay’.

I love him. He seems so damn, well, reasonable.

Every time I go to the U.K. I think, “Everyone’s so much more likable here than they are in the States.” HA! Probably completely not true, but I do feel more at home ‘across the pond’ in many ways, I must admit.

Shakespeare and the Syph — Comic Superhero Duo or Freakishly Literary VD?

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Did Shakespeare Have Syphilis? | PBS NewsHour.

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A report from the NewsHour on possible illnesses of famous literary figures. There’s a new book out, natch. Whenever you think about the follies and foibles of modern medicine, think about this:

[John] Milton is known to have “dabbled in physic,” or taken popular medicines of the day in a failed attempt to save his eyesight. These may have included “mummy” (ground-up human bones or flesh), human sweat, cat-ointment, oil of puppies, and sugar of lead, the last of which may have led to Milton’s gout and kidney failure.

OIL OF PUPPIES???