Rubbing Ross Douthat’s Face in the Dirt

Well Worth Reading

The Phil Nugent Blog is one of my favorite reads at the moment, offering excellent analysis of movies and triple toe loop–triple axel caliber takedowns of political blatherers. Today’s piece, “Ugh! or, What Do You Mean ‘We,’ Straight Man” is dedicated to eviscerating New York Times columnist Ross Douthat for his recent column arguing that allowing gays to marry would, like, totally degrade the privileged status of heterosexual marriage.

But as the heterosexual possessor of a working penis, I have to tell you, I really, really hate it when guys cite the supposedly Darwinian inevitability that men can’t control their libidos and their dicks as a reason to fuck over women and gays. I hated it during the great “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” circle jerk of the early ’90s, when a conga line of military hacks took the position that, if gay men were allowed to serve alongside “regular” men, every barracks would turn into a bar scene from Cruising. And I didn’t like it any better a few years later, when there were a string of scandals related to women in the military being harassed and worse by some of those clean straight male servicemen, and the conga line started up again, this time with the hacks insisting that this is what just happens when men are forced to be in the same vicinity as women–it’s not as if their superiors could ever get them to control themselves.

Falling Down

Politics, Well Worth Reading

Alexis de Tocqueville, the great French chronicler of early America, was once misquoted as having said: “America is the best country in the world to be poor.” That is no longer the case. Nowadays in America, you have a smaller chance of swapping your lower income bracket for a higher one than in almost any other developed economy – even Britain on some measures. To invert the classic Horatio Alger stories, in today’s America if you are born in rags, you are likelier to stay in rags than in almost any corner of old Europe.

Another good “death of the middle class” piece, this time in the Financial Times. The people profiled don’t seem blameless, but it looks like their biggest mistake was believing that a rising tide lifts all boats.

More Onomatopoeia

FLYMF Alums, Well Worth Reading

The summer issue of Onomatopoeia, the online literary magazine by FLYMF alum Bobby D. Lux, is available online! It’s full of great fiction, poetry, essays, interviews and more, so be sure to check it out!

Bobby is the author of the short-story collection, The Exciting Life and Death of the Amazing Henry and Other stories (which I reviewed here). He was also a longtime FLYMF contributor, with a number of stories in FLYMF’s Greatest Hits. Bobby’s FLYMF work includes When The Camera Stopped Rolling, Mike Tyson Movie Reviews, O’Neill ‘Scopes’ An Early Career, Monkey Dance, Outrageous Claims, In Memorium, Adventures In Time Travel, The Worst Story Ever, Batman Begins By Superman, The Coreys, Tonto’s Shocking Discovery, Vegas Wedding, The Solution To America’s Problems, Superman Returns, The Pirates Of Swenxof, and “Sly” Nostalgia.

Balls and Strikes

Politics

As the New York Times reports, under Chief Justice John Roberts, “the court not only moved to the right but also became the most conservative one in living memory, based on an analysis of four sets of political science data.”

I disagree with them politically, but I do admire the Republicans for their skill at long-term strategy. The results are disastrous for working people, of course, but corporations will see a new era of unchecked freedom.

Killing the Middle Class

Well Worth Reading

Michael Snyder has a Yahoo Finance article detailing the many ways the fortunes of the American middle class are crumbling.

It’s depressing to learn that “66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans” while “As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.” At the same time, Snyder doesn’t offer much in policy prescriptions; he seems to conclude the middle class has been doomed by cheaper overseas competition.

Of course, I think people will find the most fault with the statement that “In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.” In Chicago, at least, we like to blame our budget issues on those blasted public servants who have the temerity to earn a living wage.

It’s easier to complain about the bus driver getting paid vacation than it is to figure out a way to leverage some of those top-1% gains for the greater good of our shared society.