aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Monday, May 01, 2006
Gay rights are good business…
More than 80 percent of companies in the Fortune 500 now ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Some 249 of the Fortune 500 offer health and other benefits to the same-sex partners of their employees. That’s up from just 28 a decade ago.
Last year, Wal-Mart, America’s biggest employer, agreed to support a network for its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) workers, joining such firms as Citigroup (Research), DuPont and IBM. All these trends are moving in one direction - towards more rights for gay and lesbian people.
This is remarkable, given the setbacks that gay rights have taken in the political arena, especially around the issue of gay marriage.
Even Wal-Mart! Now let’s compare statistics:
• 80% of Fortune 500 companies ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
• 90% of states prohibit legal recognition of same-sex partnerships.
Is it any wonder I contemplate the concept of a benign corporate state?
Poppycock newsiness
There are so, so many examples, but I quote Diane Sawyer on GMA just now:
...The word “crisis” has now been officially attached to the rising gas prices in this country…
Say what? By who?
Ah, the Chief of Staff and Energy Secretary on yesterday’s Meet the Press. Oh, so now it’s a crisis. Diane’s “report” goes on to point to high gas prices in Europe. Golly, I’m really scared. So does this mean maybe we’ll get the 85 MPG car?
RELATED “LIBERAL MEDIA WATCH:” I note all the media showing video of the Bush double at the White House Press Corps dinner on Saturday night. I’ve yet to see Steve Colbert’s Bush roasting on a single network. (It did get plenty of coverage on liberal blogs.)
Leave them alone and they’ll come home…
Someone should tell this Dallas dad that you catch more bees with honey:
Ted Gambordella and his 17-year-old son, Teddy, don’t see eye to eye on politics. Mr. Gambordella says he won’t pay for Teddy’s college unless he becomes a Republican.
Not for the father and son duo of Ted and Teddy Gambordella.
Ted Gambordella dislikes the idea that his only son, a Highland Park High junior, is a Democrat. He loathes it so much that he has flat-out refused to pay for his son’s college education unless he becomes a Republican.
“Yeah, I’m serious,” said Mr. Gambordella, a 57-year-old martial arts expert. “He’s got to earn his own way.”
That suits Teddy just fine.
The 17-year-old said there’s no way he’ll switch to the GOP just to get his father’s financial backing. He recently started a Web site - onemillionreasonswhy .com - to raise money for college.
Here’s his website. My favorite link? ”Good luck from your grandmother!”
I’m trying to track down that recent study (from CBS?) on why we vote the way we do: habit and history. Can’t find it or I’d quote it.
Via Steve Gilliard.
Starbucks extends the brand
With barely one movie under its belt, Starbucks is moving aggressively toward expanding its involvement in the entertainment business, seeking movies and books to promote in the hope of duplicating the success it has had with music.
The retail coffee giant - which used its stores to promote “Akeelah and the Bee,” a Lionsgate movie that opened this weekend - is to announce Monday that it has signed an agreement with the William Morris Agency to find more movie and book projects to market. The aim is to have one book in Starbucks stores this year, and at least two or three movies to promote and sell on DVD next year, with more projects in years to come.
In the meantime, the company’s small entertainment staff will move from Seattle, where Starbucks is based, to Santa Monica, Calif., this year to be closer to the heart of the entertainment industry.
