I haven’t posted for a while. Life has been a little complex. Not least, my father (I’m 93, so you can imagine how old he is) fell and tore the quadriceps ligaments in both his legs and is in hospital unable to walk, so I have been dealing with the fallout of that.
However, I need to come out of my temporary exile to remind you that, in addition to some kind of Presidential election, Tuesday also brings votes on gay rights in Minnesota, Maryland, Washington and Maine. Gay rights are human rights, so get out and vote.
I’ll leave the bulk of this post to Chris Kluwe, who becomes sexier and angrier and more erudite with every day. Here he is, with his final posting at the blog of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, condemning the paper’s editorial which claimed to present a neutral view of both sides of the marriage amendment, and railing against lies and bigotry, with the gnashing of the teeth and the lamentation of the women. It is indeed righteous.
How does this piece lie? It lies in statistics. “Some argue that as a practical matter there seems to be less interest by same-sex partners in actually being married than in redefining what marriage is. In Iowa, for instance, Wikipedia reports, that only 815 same-sex couples married in the first year after legalization.” It’s unfortunate that the editorial board does not comment on the fact that the actual link in the Wiki article leads to a page not found.
This is not journalism. This is cherrypicking “facts” you hope no one has the inclination to look up, because if one looks up the actual facts one would see that 815 marriages equates to 20% of the same-sex couples in Iowa choosing to marry that first year, a not insignificant amount. If one looks up actual facts, one would find that 13.6% of all marriages in Iowa in 2010 were same-sex marriages, another not insignificant amount when you consider the gay population of the United States is estimated at only 3.5%.
How does this piece lie? It lies in every mealy mouthed, “Love may be love, but even now there are any number of prohibitions around marriage between consenting (heterosexual) adults.” Name them. Oh that’s right, you didn’t. It lies in every five sentence vote yes argument compared to a one or two sentence vote no stance. It lies by juxtaposing “It is a decision both about what the definition of marriage should be, whether it is about children and the biological family or about consenting adults”, as if gay parents can’t raise children as well and all they want is to have sex with each other.
How does the piece lie? It lies, oh how it lies, when it talks about supporters of traditional marriage being bullied, being painted as victims, weeping and moaning about the “members of the (vote no) movement are aggressive”, wailing and gnashing teeth over “For those who hold traditional beliefs about marriage, increasingly the force of law will be brought to bear on matters of education, speech, and practice”; all the while not mentioning a single gay person denied THEIR right to be treated as a human being, silent on the issue of gay children bullied in school, completely quiet about a gay support group forbidden to march in Anoka.
How does this piece lie? It lies, most simply, in this sentence, “the Pioneer Press is not endorsing one way or another.”
You have made your endorsement, gentlemen. You chose your side. What you did not choose, what you refused to face, was the courage to stand for your convictions, to attach your names to the position your actions claimed. That is why I will no longer associate with you, why I decline to give you page views and ad revenue any longer. The only reason I’m posting this piece here, and not somewhere else, is because I said I would, and I believe that one’s word is not something to be given lightly.
I will not stand for the continual eroding of society. I will not tolerate the presentation of a biased argument under a thin coat of presumed neutrality. I will not contribute to the cheapening of discourse and thought that decays every single news as entertainment outlet in this country. I absolutely will not compromise my ethics and morality, ideals that lead me to treat others with empathy and honesty, to demand truth not only from myself but from those around me.
I reject you, and I encourage others to do the same – to you, and to all others like you. To those who perpetrate deception and fraud. To those willing to hide the truth of their beliefs. To those who value flash over substance, short term gains over long term consequences.
Without honesty, we have nothing.
Farewell.
eemom
Hi Mrs Sarah! Been missing you.
Best wishes to your Dad. He must be very PROUD himself, and most rightly so.
Darkrose
I love Chris Kluwe so much. He’s made of awesome.
Culture of Truth
Truth! Truth!
Yutsano
:: fans self ::
He was just in state you know.
Shinobi
Chris Kluwe needs to stop being cute, athletic, and smart. It’s just not fair to us mortal females.
arguingwithsignposts
Wow. Good for him.
scav
That man can think and, moreover, flay those that fail to measure up with laser blades, obsidian flakes and blunt force trama, as conditions warrent. The difference in tone and diction is obvious, but there’s titanium skeleton under whichever skin he decides to go with. Impressive.
arguingwithsignposts
@Yutsano: Playing the seahacks?
Smiling Mortician
Also, the posting begins with this:
Author’s note: This time for realz – So long, and thanks for all the fish.
. . . which nicely mitigates the GBCW quotient.
Craigo
Kluwe is so awesome, I bet he actually makes tackles on special teams.
Valdivia
sorry to hear about your dad. I wish him a speedy recovery!
blingee
Panic really starting to set in on the right. Starting to see lots of trolls using ALL CAPS BOLD and what not. Lot’s of “I know you are but what am I” come backs on twitter. I think I am going to enjoy the meltdown tomorrow more than I thought as the walls of reality come crashing down around them.
c u n d gulag
I’M NOT EVEN GAY, AND I WANT TO HAVE THIS MAN’S CHILDREN!
gwangung
Holy crap, I think I need a cigarette after reading that.
I am TOTALLY envious of his command of the language (and he went to the lesser California university…..).
shortstop
We will wake up on Wednesday saying: and then there were 10, plus a district. Suck it, bigots.
JPL
Sorry about your dad but it’s nice seeing you post again.
Earlier someone posted a link to Kluwe’s oped piece and as long as the vikings are not competing against my team, I’ll wish them well.
Schlemizel
Sorry to hear about your dad – hope he gets better fast & you are not left having to care for him, not just for you but because he probably is unhappy being waited on.
mellowjohn
my thoughts go out to your father. i’m 65 and tore my left quad tendon a year ago sept. very slow to recover.
tell him to take it easy, but be ready to work his butt off in PT.
good luck.
Robin G.
I love Kluwe to death. (Also, y’all should follow him on Twitter. When in Seattle for the Seahawks game this weekend he hung out at Wizards of the Coast for a few gaming sessions. Is there anything this man can’t do?)
The last poll here in MN was looking promising, but it’s going to be GOTV all the way.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I hope your father recovers as quickly as a 117-year-old man can.
Chris Kluwe is the awesomest thing in purple since Gorgon Heap.
Surreal American
So basically it’s polling math vs wingnut bravado. Which will prevail?
Sarah, Proud and Tall
Thanks all for your best wishes.
When he injured himself, he was playing squash against a man a third of his age, so my sympathy is a little tempered. He’s doing fine, all the nurses think he’s an adorable grumpy old thing, and there is a good rehab and care plan in place (yay for socialised medicine) so things are looking up.
S. cerevisiae
Kluwe is awesome, but as a Vikings fan I wish he didn’t get so much work in on Sundays.
Uncle Cosmo
And they didn’t because (per this very helpful webpage I googled up) those “prohibitions” as a group are either “Biblical”–i.e., “based on the incest prohibitions listed in the 18th chapter of Leviticus, which are noteworthy for their extensive restrictions on affinal relatives and the absence of bans on cousin marriage”–or “western”, which “contrasts with the biblical model in that shifts its focus from affinal restrictions to consanguineal ones. In-laws of any kind are allowed to marry, but first cousins are not.”
The page cites Martin Ottenheimer, author of the 1996 book Forbidden Relatives, who notes that “The biblical model … focuses on adherence to scriptural authority and on the maintenance of social order within the family, through the elimination of possible occasions for role conflicts and personal antagonisms among closely related people. The western model represents a change to a conceptualization of the family as an instrumental reproductive unit geared to producing optimally healthy offspring.”
Note that Minnesota’s restrictions are of the “western” variety–which are utterly irrelevant to same-sex marriages which by definition* cannot “produce offspring” of any kind*, “healthy” or not.
It should also be noted that any state with “Biblical” restrictions on in-laws marrying could simply extend the prohibitions to same-sex in-laws. (Though frankly I would expect such non-genetic prohibitions to be challenged in court, & would be shocked if it in fact has not already happened.)
* At least until&unless some pretty advanced reproductive technology comes along–which brings up among other things the thorny question of how the courts would deal with challenges to incest prohibitions once the technology exists to remove double-recessive bad genes at the blastocyte stage….
gwangung
@S. cerevisiae: Hm, well, as a Seattle fan, I was happy to see a lot of him yesterday….
Schlemizel
@Robin G.:
From what I have been reading I am fairly confident about the marriage bullshit but the voter ID is going to be closer. The hope rests on the fact that not voting for the thing is the same as voting no. I’m hoping a lot of morans ignore the amendments because they often do.
Surreal American
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
Oh, and I hope your father recovers quickly, SPT!
LanceThruster
Kluwe brings to mind the words Paul McCartney had re: John Lennon following his murder…
He’s got a lot of soul, that one.
Yutsano
@arguingwithsignposts: Yup. Seachickens won too. See what happens when I don’t bet wifey?
@c u n d gulag: Heh. You’re gonna have a lot of competition there. Am I bad for wanting him and Scott Fujita on the same team? Preferably a Seattle one?
Spaghetti Lee
Just saw TPM’s latest round of polls. Obama’s up in every swing state except FL and NC, and I think by more than a point in every one. He’s up in Iowa by 2.5, in Ohio by 3, and in Nevada and New Hampshire by more than 4. Kaine, Warren, Tester, McCaskill and Donnelly are all up or close to it in the Senate. I don’t know why I’m nervous, but I am. Maybe that’s just part of being a Dem.
JGabriel
Best wishes for your father’s recovery, Sarah.
lamh35
Speaking of Marriage Equality, this is why this man deserves our support.
President Obama Responds To Bullied 10-Year-Old With Two Dads
Violet
Hope your dad recovers quickly!
Chris Kluwe is awesome. I wonder where his blog is going to end up.
arguingwithsignposts
@Violet:
Were I any smart owner of a sports media property, I’d be snapping it up for national distribution.
JGabriel
__
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blingee:
Speaking of ALL CAPS BOLD, what the hell is wrong with Conservatives’ design sense? I checked out unskewedpolls.com today, and my god, that is one ugly fucking site.
It’s almost like incoherent visual design sense is a diagnostic criteria for Conservatism, along with spittle-flecked rage and the inability to comprehend science & logic.
.
trollhattan
@arguingwithsignposts:
If the Strib is still around, they can give him Jimmy five-head’s old space.
ruemara
Why isn’t Kluwe single and courting me? He is awesome. And, my best to your Dad, Sarah. Tell him to try to curtail his epicness, sometimes, reality can’t handle it.
redshirt
Rolling Stone did a longish piece on Kluwe. He is indeed awesome, and a proud nerd!
I wish he wasn’t a punter, though. If he was a WR or OMFSM a QB it would give him more gravitas.
arguingwithsignposts
@redshirt:
He’s a smart man.
AndoChronic
From my favorite Minneapolis city councilman:
http://don1samuels.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/why-im-voting-no-on-the-marriage-amendment/
geg6
Dawg, that is just an awesome man, that Kluwe. I just love a man with some righteous indignation and an ability to articulate it.
Darkrose
@lamh35: What a contrast between that response and Governor “I didn’t know you people have families.”
redshirt
@arguingwithsignposts: True that. Less pressure than the field goal kicker too. It’s the middle reliever position of football.
BillinGlendaleCA
Kluewe’s article is well written and in the interview’s that I’ve seen him give, is a well spoken young man. It must speak well of his college education. Go Bruins.
Comrade Luke
A friend of mine told me she probably wasn’t going to vote on the gay rights initiative in Washington because as far as she could tell, it was only something you could vote on if she had a strong opinion either way, and she didn’t. She was voting to legalize marijuana, though.
Libertarianism FTW.
TaMara (BHF)
Here’s some more fuel for your Kluwe worship. Excellent indeed.
BruinKid
So proud of him being a fellow Bruin. 8-)
Note that the guy he was originally defending, the Ravens’ Brendon Ayanbadejo, is also a Bruin as well.
UCLA’s always been at the forefront of equal rights in the sports world. Jackie Robinson integrated baseball, Don Barksdale integrated the NBA, and Kenny Washington integrated the NFL. And let’s not forget Arthur Ashe’s contribution to tennis.
Legendary Coach John Wooden also pushed for racial equality, and actually turned down an NAIA postseason invitation when he was still coaching at Indiana State, because they wouldn’t allow black players. Even though the only black player was a benchwarmer who hardly saw any playing time, Coach Wooden said either the entire team goes, or nobody goes. So nobody went. They sat it out. By the next year, the NAIA had changed their policy to allow black players to play in the tournament.
Now we have Chris and Brendon leading in pushing professional sports to a new tolerance on gay rights in this century.
Not. A. Coincidence.
LesGS
@arguingwithsignposts: Yes. His brains are precious. (Dang, he can WRITE!) I’m glad he’s playing a position that minimizes his chances of head trauma.
Roger Moore
@Craigo:
I remember a special teams coach talking about this a few years ago. The basic point was that there are now enough kickers who have been playing football their whole lives that teams don’t have to put up with imported soccer players who don’t know how to tackle. Teams now demand kickers who don’t just kick but are able to make a touchdown saving tackle on the return. It’s a big change from twenty or thirty years ago.
jibeaux
He is a sexy cockmonster.
Also too go YouTube a song called Same Love. It & the video are beautiful.
Raven
@Roger Moore: Sheeeeet, Kevin Butler was a hitter.
Fuck ALL the chickens! (né Studly Pantload, t.e.u.u.)
SP&T: So sorry to hear about your father’s injuries! And, yes, I know of the stress such a sitution can produce. Hope you have good support.
Mailed the ballots for the Mrs. and me today. Washington State is going to have huge, fancy gay weddings! (And the Mrs. will probably wanna be invited to all of them.)
redshirt
@Roger Moore: Good points. Further, I think there’s room to make the Punter position more dynamic. Say you had a Tebow type as your punter – big guy, can run it or throw it, as well as of course punt it. This would put defenses at a great disadvantage either on return coverage and/or in blocking attempts.
If it was 4th and 3 on your own 50, why not try a screen pass from the punter position? Or an option type sweep?
I’m writing Darth Hoodie with these ideas.
jl
Thanks SPaT, for a moving editorial and good luck to your dad, who looks to be somewhere around a sprightly 115 or slightly above years young.
gbear
@trollhattan: The Strib is as bad as the PiPress now. They both stink.
rollSound
@JGabriel:
Editing contrasting visual and mechanical elements into a functional, harmonious whole requires compromising the pure vision of each of the individual elements. Compromise has no place in Modern Conservatism.
Roger Moore
@redshirt:
I remember the Broncos doing the opposite with John Elway. If it was third and long and they were deep in their own end, they’d occasionally have him go into a shotgun and punt instead of passing. He didn’t have to get off a great kick to get a good net, because there wasn’t anyone back to field it.
ETA: And I find the difference between memory and fact yet again. It turns out that he did this only once in a great while; only 7 times in his career and only one season where he had more than one punt.
gex
@JGabriel: Design is a subtle art, and it’s main focus is caring about someone else’s experience. IOW everything about it is the antithesis of today’s conservatism.
Best wishes to SPT’s father. I’m rather impressed by how the injury was sustained.
And I am incredibly impressed by Chris Kluwe. I’d marry him if he weren’t a guy.
gex
@redshirt: I believe you are describing Randall Cunningham.
redshirt
@gex: He punted?
In general I’m talking about getting the Punter position more involved in the football game, IE more athletic punters. The trends are there – just need a coach to try something different.
Michael2
Now *that* is a mother-fuc**ng manifesto!!
I also saw Cole make a similar point I’ve been thinking: it’s _tragic_, really, that Romney was never held to his release his taxes. It’s *especially* galling that he got away with it, and that his gamble was right.
God I hope he loses tomorrow.
Uncle Cosmo
Obligatory FUCK YOU WORD PRESS WITH A RUSTY CHAINSAW for holding up my long & informative comment for OVER TWO HOURS because I used some unspecified word you don’t like.
(Burden of comment: The “many prohibitions on heterosexual marriages” cited by the morans at that newsrag all boil down either to preventing any chance of inbreeding–physically impossible for same-sex relationships–or keeping in-laws from marrying, which is easily extended to same-sex marriages by revising the text of the statutes to substitute “parent” for “father/mother”, “sibling” for “brother/sister”, and “child” or “offspring” for “son/daughter”. FTFY, reactionaries–& saved you a whole passle of electrons too!)
Roger Moore
@Uncle Cosmo:
The word it didn’t like is almost certainly the one for inbreeding. It’s apparently a term that some spam sites use to try to sell their porn.
RedKitten
/fans herself
My land, but Chris Kluwe is just blisteringly intelligent, isn’t he? Good-looking, smart as hell, a fantastic writer, empathetic, and athletic. The crush, it is growing by leaps and bounds.
True — it’s good to see the younger guys doing that, but it’s also good to see some of the older guys pushing for that tolerance as well. Brian Burke, President and GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is an outspoken advocate for gay rights and marches in Toronto’s Pride Parade every year in memory of his gay son, Brendan. He and his other son Patrick started the “You Can Play” project, aiming to eradicate homophobia from pro sports.
Lyrebird
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Yay for things looking up! All sorts of good wishes and THANKS for clipping this beautiful Kluwe column!
JasperL
@JGabriel:
Its only incoherent cause your a libtard. For the audience, the design is perfectly in balance with the spittle flecked rage and inability to comprehend science and logic.
Went to check out the site. What a joke. The top article was a story about Purple Strategies predicting a big Romney win, based on polls taken in ………..August!
Also, too, I learned people on the Twitter machine have threatened to kill Romney. So that’s good to know.
Ruviana
@gwangung: Watch that “lesser” stuff, bub! :)
elftx
Damn that felt good..need a cig after that read.
RaflW
As a gay Minnesotan who’s been working for 18 months to defeat the bullshit antimarriage amendment, Kluwe made my morning.
He’s been fantastic for months now here in MN. On fire.
And the PiPress shit in its own hat.
Tim I
Goddammit, Kluwe is brilliant. I hope his voice remains a force for justice in this society. I fear that people will want to celebrate him as a football player with a brain. He is so much more. If he were a nuclear physicist or a doctor of philosophy, his brilliance would still be extraordinary. I am awed by his eloquence. His ability to dissect a false argument is invigorating. His moral code is crystal clear and he does not suffer fools. I hope his voice will become a prominent feature on the intellectual landscape.