February 2007 Archives
For 37 years, Phil Johnson was the "voice" of WWL-TV (Channel 4), as he delivered the stations nightly editorial opinion. One of his classics was his oft-repeated "Mardi Gras" editorial:
And what else is there to talk about except that which everybody else is talking about…of course, Mardi Gras.It's that time again: that wonderful, crazy, colorful, crowded, happy, mixed-up but glorious time when all New Orleans forgets itself for a day, lets its hair down, puts on a rubber nose, a funny hat, and walks around laughing at the silly people in their crazy costumes.
It's a day for contrasts…a day for change.
A day when legions of quiet, timid, introspective little men forsake their cashier's windows and their neat clerk’s desks, put masks across their faces, and suddenly become Don Juan.
A day when a secretary can become Queen of England…a housewife, Annie Oakley.
Mardi Gras is fantasy in a fright wig, reality with a burnt cork on its nose, a dream with a scepter in its hand, and pompousness about to be punctured.
Mardi Gras is fun and laughter, vulgarity and coarseness, color and light, and at the end, quiet.
Mardi Gras is a state of mind, an attitude, a pose, an opinion. But at its most basic…and perhaps satisfying of all, Mardi Gras is the one day in the entire year when New Orleans can tell the world:
"We're going to have fun!" And we do.
This wasn't his only Mardi Gras editorial, however; he used to have a shorter one that went something like this:
Good evening. Today is Mardi Gras. Since noone can be serious today, we won't try. But we do reserve the right to be serious tomorrow. Good Evening
Compared to the former, the latter might seem like Mr. Johnson phoned that one in. It may be short, but that's how most New Orleanians feel.
...but sometimes a disaster is nobody's fault but the person who dies:
Pontchartrain Park resident dies when storm shreds FEMA trailerBy Leslie Williams
Staff writer
A hopscotching tornado leveled at least two houses in Pontchartrain Park Tuesday and killed an elderly woman who was hurled in the air with her FEMA trailer, which was shredded to bits.Neighbors and family members identified the woman as Stella Chambers, 85, a longtime resident of the closely-knit neighborhood.
Chambers was living in a FEMA trailer in front of her home in the 5800 block of Pauline Drive. Her flood-ravaged home was being repaired.
What kind of family leaves an 85-year old woman alone in a crappy trailer during a severe thunderstorm? That's the old joke, why are divorce and a tornado the same in Chalmette? (someone loses a trailer in each.)
Organized in 1865 and chartered in 1866, Dante Lodge #174 consisted primarily of Italian immigrants. Since the papal bulls forbidding Catholics from becoming Masons weren't issued until the 1870s, the Archdiocese of New Orleans didn't have a problem with selling space for a Masonic tomb in the 1860s. Dante Lodge, one of the ten Lodges remaining in Louisiana that work in the Scottish Rite Symbolic Ritual, is still going strong.
Check out their website at www.dante174.org
Ya know, Texas Governor Rick Perry isn't all that a nice guy. He's quite the asshole, actually. So, when I read that Perry issued an executive order to require that pre-teen girls in TX get vaccinated against HPV, I was surprised that he'd take on the Kooky Kristian Krazies. This is TX we're talking about, and that state's Republican Party is one of the most openly Dominionist in the country. The Texas GOP platform "affirms that the United States of America is a Christian Nation," among other things.
So, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for Perry to butt heads with these nutballs. They put him into office, after all. Still, he's term-limited as governor, and doesn't have a lot of opportunities ahead in his political future. Perry doing something just because it's the right thing to do isn't his style, even if he doesn't have to worry about political consequences.
But wait a minute, I've forgotten the main tenet of any analysis of a Republican politician: Follow The Money. It's not just a cliche from WoodStein, it's essential to understand how the typical GOP pol thinks/operates. Perry is term-limited, and is easing into retirement. Retirement can be expensive, so what better way to feather one's nest than to do something that will be rewarded by corporate players.
HPV vaccinations fit this bill to a T. The vaccine that is at the heart of Perry's order is Gardasil:
Perry has ordered the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to adopt rules requiring Merck & Co.'s new Gardasil vaccine for girls entering the sixth grade as of September 2008. The vaccine protects girls against strains of the human papillomavirus that cause most cases of cervical cancer.
Ah, now the fog clears as soon as I read the name "Merck & Co." Vaccinations aren't Viagra--you have to take more steps to get people to get their pre-teen daughters to the doctor than you do to get a bunch of middle-aged guys who want to get erections. When you're Merck, you want to maximize sales of your drug, so who better to sell it to than the State of Texas?
So, that means this battle is really a GOP in-fight, Big Pharma vs. Big Jeebus. And what a battleground! The Religious Right isn't a fringe element in Texas, they're the political institutions. But they don't have the same money to give to politicians that corporations do. Pols aren't like me, they always follow the money first, even if that means throwing Big Jeebus under a bus. Perry's already fired the opening salvo in this response to critics of his order:
"Providing the HPV vaccine doesn't promote sexual promiscuity any more than providing the Hepatitis B vaccine promotes drug use," Perry said in a statement. "If the medical community developed a vaccine for lung cancer, would the same critics oppose it claiming it would encourage smoking?"
Remember, Perry's giving the GOP base a huge back-handed slap with this remark. That leaves the door open for an ambitious wignut pol to step up and defend Big Jeebus.
Pass the popcorn...
Ya know, Texas Governor Rick Perry isn't all that a nice guy. He's quite the asshole, actually. So, when I read that Perry issued an executive order to require that pre-teen girls in TX get vaccinated against HPV, I was surprised that he'd take on the Kooky Kristian Krazies. This is TX we're talking about, and that state's Republican Party is one of the most openly Dominionist in the country. The Texas GOP platform "affirms that the United States of America is a Christian Nation," among other things.
So, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for Perry to butt heads with these nutballs. They put him into office, after all. Still, he's term-limited as governor, and doesn't have a lot of opportunities ahead in his political future. Perry doing something just because it's the right thing to do isn't his style, even if he doesn't have to worry about political consequences.
But wait a minute, I've forgotten the main tenet of any analysis of a Republican politician: Follow The Money. It's not just a cliche from WoodStein, it's essential to understand how the typical GOP pol thinks/operates. Perry is term-limited, and is easing into retirement. Retirement can be expensive, so what better way to feather one's nest than to do something that will be rewarded by corporate players.
HPV vaccinations fit this bill to a T. The vaccine that is at the heart of Perry's order is Gardasil:
Perry has ordered the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to adopt rules requiring Merck & Co.'s new Gardasil vaccine for girls entering the sixth grade as of September 2008. The vaccine protects girls against strains of the human papillomavirus that cause most cases of cervical cancer.
Ah, now the fog clears as soon as I read the name "Merck & Co." Vaccinations aren't Viagra--you have to take more steps to get people to get their pre-teen daughters to the doctor than you do to get a bunch of middle-aged guys who want to get erections. When you're Merck, you want to maximize sales of your drug, so who better to sell it to than the State of Texas?
So, that means this battle is really a GOP in-fight, Big Pharma vs. Big Jeebus. And what a battleground! The Religious Right isn't a fringe element in Texas, they're the political institutions. But they don't have the same money to give to politicians that corporations do. Pols aren't like me, they always follow the money first, even if that means throwing Big Jeebus under a bus. Perry's already fired the opening salvo in this response to critics of his order:
"Providing the HPV vaccine doesn't promote sexual promiscuity any more than providing the Hepatitis B vaccine promotes drug use," Perry said in a statement. "If the medical community developed a vaccine for lung cancer, would the same critics oppose it claiming it would encourage smoking?"
Remember, Perry's giving the GOP base a huge back-handed slap with this remark. That leaves the door open for an ambitious wignut pol to step up and defend Big Jeebus.
Pass the popcorn...
