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Blinkered in rural Arkansas

January 28th 2011 02:32

: Vyoos news

David Furnish and Elton John

VYOOS EDITORIAL
Elton John is fuming, and he has every right to be. Just last week he said he was getting increasingly annoyed by anti-gay sentiment, and now this.

With the world looking at pictures of a grinning John and his partner, David Furnish, with the baby they have just adopted, a supermarket in a rural US community has decided the pictures are offensive.

The Harps store in Mountain Home, Arkansas, has decided to hide magazine covers featuring pictures of John, 63, Furnish, 48, and Zachary, born on Christmas Day, covering the happy family in wrapping normally used on pornographic magazines.

The supermarket said it decided to wrap the magazines after customer complaints and to "to protect young Harps shoppers".

Now the world is crying "homophobia". Maybe so - as mX columnist Anna Brain wrote today, one assumes it is not the baby that people are protesting about.

But I don't call this homophobia. I reserve that noun for cynical acts of hatred or violence against gays. I don't think this is a homophobic act. I think it's an act of ignorance, and I think criticising it is the wrong response.

A person or persons in rural Arkansas was offended by an image of a gay couple celebrating parenthood. It's an unenlightened reaction, but there will always be an uninformed minority, and there will always be a need for tolerance towards them.

The supermarket to which the complaint was directed decided to take action, meaning its management was as naive as the complainant. This is a Keystone Cops sequence of the dumb influencing the gullible. Instead of labelling them homophobic, we have a chance to explain how and why majority perceptions differ from their own.

It needs a gentle approach.

Now get those moronic covers off those magazines, and give Elton a quiet day or two until the next piece of stupidity comes along.
news.com.au

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Adoption, Celebrity watch, Gays, gay issues, North America, US, Vyoos Editorial

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Lolly pops and violent video games

November 3rd 2010 08:14

: Vyoos news

VYOOS EDITORIAL
They are trying to make the sale of video games containing graphic violence illegal in California to people under 18.

Plenty of people are pushing the process, saying kids of all ages play video games these days and who in their right mind could be comfortable with a legal system which condones eight-year-olds having unfettered access to games which contain violence?

Who could dispute that?

Well, one group which is isn't convinced, and which is putting up some interesting counter-arguments, is the judges who comprise the United States Supreme Court.

They don't like the "vagueness" of the proposed California law, which sounds like something which can be discussed and addressed. But secondly, and much more crucially, they fear the law conflicts with the First Amendment's protection of free speech.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put it this way, "If you are supposing a category of violent materials dangerous to children, then how do you cut it off at video games?''

Justice Antonin Scalia said, "You're asking us to create ... a whole new prohibition which the American people never, never ratified when they ratified the First Amendment.''

What the judges are concerned about is an apparent free speech double-standard, in that the California law appears to limit violent video games while ignoring the violence minors experience in other media such as online, in movies, in music and in books.

Justice Scalia repeated a crucial point: many children's books use violence to demonstrate that being bad doesn't pay. "Some of Grimm's Fairy Tales are quite grim, to tell you the truth,'' Scalia remarked.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed to a study said that watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon had the same effect on minors that playing a violent video game did.

"So can the legislature now, because it has that study, say we can outlaw Bugs Bunny?'' she asked.

Think also comic books. Think kapow! Think comeuppance factor.

As often is the case with these debates, there can be legal, political or social mandates on both sides, and common sense can get squeezed out the back door.

There aren't enough headlines in common sense.

So let's let common sense have a say here. Is it common sense to leave violent video games around for kids to find? Of course it isn't.

Is it common sense to think kids will access violent video games despite the best efforts of parents, teachers, politicians and police to prevent them doing so. Of course it is. The more you hide something, the more attrractive it becomes.

Is it common sense to do everything you can, including legal imperatives, to ensure that any underage kid can not access violent video games? No, it isn't.

Apart from the legal arguments above (and in the US anything that might compromise the First Amendment is a very serious legal argument indeed), and apart from political self-agendas from the Our Kids Are Pure and Sacred lobby, one has to ask what a law banning access by minors to violent video games would achieve.

It certainly won't prevent access by minors to violent video games. The games will still be out there, legally accessible by parents, older siblings, and anyone with an internet connection who knows where to find free copies on the net. Which is, like, you know, every teenager.

Then there's the life lesson argument. If this law is passed, and we somehow effectively prevent every individual viewing video violence until the day they turn 18, we are going to have some shocked and shaken 18-year-olds walking around. Is this the way to prepare kids for the rigours of the real world?

Kids are tougher than many people give them credit for, and they need to be. Surely it is common sense to let them learn some of life's harsher, uglier lessons in their time and in their space.

If an eight-year-old is old enough to find a violent video game, he or she is old enough to start learning perspectives associated with it. The first lesson, that the world isn't full of lolly pops and mum can't, in fact, kiss everything better, can be a hard one, but it's better learned sooner rather than later.

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Children, Law, North America, US, Politics, Vyoos Editorial

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The lawman and the lap dancer

September 23rd 2010 09:16

: The lawman and the lap dancer

Wyatt Earp would not be pleased

VYOOS EDITORIAL
Unemployment in the United States is close to 10 per cent, a disturbing level for a developed country, and is forecast to rise.

At this level, few people in the country are unaffected. Almost everyone will know someone, quite likely an extended family member, who has lost a job and is desperate for another one. Those who do have some assets may be watching them dissipate - the US dollar, the US sharemarket and property prices are all sliding.

When unemployment hits 10 per cent anywhere, there are hardship stories all around. For those with children and no job, the hardship can be better described as heartbreak.

One man who does have a secure job is William Nolan. He lives in Connecticut and is a state marshal. It's a position that means a lot in the US. Built on the legacy of romantic figures like Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickock, and with an unbroken history of service stretching back to 1789 when the office was created by the Judiciary Act passed by the first US Congress, it's a position of trust.

William Nolan must be a proud man, and one whose hand you'd be happy to shake.

Maybe not.

William Nolan went to work one day recently, and was given the duty of serving a tax warrant on Johnny Kraft, owner of a strip club. The tax warrant was for US$9,800. Nolan, it has been alleged, added 10 per cent to the amount, which was discovered when Kraft paid the bill directly to the city, rather than to Nolan.

Still at the club, having delivered the tax demand to Kraft, Nolan decided to wile away a work hour or two by availing himself of the pleasures of the premises. He hired himself a lap dancer.

Nolan this week appeared before a commission of inquiry, which found "probable cause" that he "unreasonably blurred the lines between professional and personal conduct''.

"I think it was a lack of judgment and I want to put on the record that I apologise to my wife and family and my 87-year-old mother," Nolan told the commissioners, reportedly through tears.

The commission recommended a disciplinary hearing.

If Nolan loses his job, let's hope his replacement appreciates the privilege the position brings.
middletownpress.com

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Human nature, North America, US, Vyoos Editorial

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Uchitel teaches Tiger a lesson

August 24th 2010 03:15

VYOOS EDITORIAL

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Celebrity watch, US, Vyoos Editorial

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They want to build a mosque near Ground Zero

August 4th 2010 03:46

VYOOS EDITORIAL
They are going to build a mosque and Islamic community centre close to Ground Zero in New York. The final obstacle to the development has just been removed with a vote by New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission to reject landmark status for an existing building on the site. The rejection, which was unanimous, will allow for demolition of the existing building and construction of the mosque and community complex

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: North America, US, Religion, Vyoos Editorial

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Ricky Martin is a tabloid gay

April 3rd 2010 05:17

VYOOS EDITORIAL
The main news stories around the world on Monday, March 29, were the terrorist attacks on the Moscow subway, a surprise visit by the US president to Afghanistan, and the announcement by Ricky Martin that he is gay

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Entertainment, Human nature, Interracial relationships, US, Vyoos Editorial

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