Turkey Day

I am off to my Turkey Day Festivities. My blogging will be zero or at best near zero over the next day or two. I hope everyone has a fun and safe Thanksgiving!

Editorial Fact Checking

Sarah at The Hegemo points out a significant factual error in the Enquirer's editorial today on Nick Clooney. This sentence is just a bit wrong:

Jerry Springer was a TV anchor before becoming mayor of Cincinnati.

I hope David Wells is getting a bit of scolding from the bossman Tom Callinan. I think Sarah is correct when she posits that nearly everyone on the editorial page must be in vacation mode or already on vacation.

Am I Now Some How With It?

Ok, CinWeekly has a story on the Dubliner's Tuesday night Trivia. I just got back from participating in that event. Our team, "ToFurkey," had 411 points and placed 15th. This was a poor showing, but when you have a full round dedicated to drinks & beverages and a round matching philosophers to the name of one of their writings, our low score makes sense. The winning team had like 575 points. Last week our team had 432 points and I think we were in about 6th place.

The best advice in the story, Arrive Early! We had a back booth and were squeezed in.

Delta's Duplicity

Stephanie Dunlap reports on Delta Airline's conflicting benefits polices. Comair does not offer any domestic partnership benefits to homosexuals and does not have anti-homosexual discrimination protections. Comair's parent company, Delta, does have those benefits.

Comair is wholly owned by Delta, which goes above and beyond to demonstrate its commitment to diversity. Delta and its only other wholly owned subsidiary, Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA), both offer domestic partner benefits and an anti-discrimination policy, as do most other "mainline" airlines and their wholly owned connection carriers, Stark says.

It is a very bizarre policy to have a different benefit plan for a wholly owned subsidiary. It is ultimately more work to administer, but likely Comair's benefits are not as good and therefore Delta would have to pay more money to bring them into the main plan. That plan merger would allow for bigger bargaining power with the larger volume of participants, but would it outweigh the increase costs of better coverage? I don't think the company is purposely out to stick it to homosexuals in the benefits arena, but I really wonder why they don't have an anti-homosexual discrimination policy? Who at the Delta HQ wants to screw with more lawsuits?

My only concern is that there is still some reliance on the old Kentucky network of social conservatism. Kentucky is not what I would call Gay friendly, and most of Comair workers are based there. Delta should have made its division comply with corporate policy a long time ago, it should get on the ball and bring them into line with a common policy in all major corporations.

Ouch, That Must Hurt

Greg Flannery hits the CJC hard in his Porkopolis column this week:

Having lost most of its members as a result of anti-Semitic and homophobic rants, the CJC has lately specialized in picketing civil rights leaders, progressives and others who support the group's putative goal of police reform and racial justice in Cincinnati.

That might seem self-defeating, but it's entirely consistent with Livingston's modus operandi. For example, the protective order he was charged with violating had been initiated by fellow boycott leader Victoria Straughn, coordinator of Citizens Concerned for Justice.

"Someone" will surely not like Greg's comments. When a small number of people pretend to be a "large" group, any information to the contrary will surely be meet with childish vitriol. I will expect that this post will make it to the CJC's message board. "Someone" has taken to copying my posts to the CJC website and make it appear that I actually posted it there. I am sure the various posters to that board, most of which are the same "someone" under different screen identities, will call me names for bringing attention to Greg's column, but the truth needs to be said, and I am glad Greg is reporting it.

Something's Missing

OK, this WCPO story indicates:

Former Nativity School principal Bob Herring was fired by church parish director Marc Sherlock Monday over "philosophical differences," according to an archdiocese official.

The story then describes how 200 protestors, mostly parents and students, lobbied to get Mr. Herring reinstated. Since when are "philosophical differences" a good enough reason for protestors to not come up with the "real" reasons this man was fired. What "philosophies" are in question here? I think something is missing here. There has to be more to this story than a philosophical difference to account for firing a principal during the school year.

More from the Post and the Enquirer.

Cincinnati Hipsters Unite!

I can't comment to much on this story, I was not there, but I have to quote this part:

"These organizations are recognizing that they have to build young audiences," said James Czar, manager of information systems with Enjoy the Arts/Start, an organization that promotes art among young people. "Their older member base is eventually not going to be there, so they need to repopulate it now."

I doubt Mr. Czar would call himself a hipster, but I find it interesting this gathering was considered one of "hipsters." I have a negative feeling for the word and I am still unsure if it can apply to anyone in Cincinnati. For the record the dictionary defines a hipster as "One who is exceptionally aware of or interested in the latest trends and tastes, especially a devotee of modern jazz." Now, m-w.com has a more historical feeling of a definition:

Pronunciation: 'hip-st&r
Function: noun
Etymology: 4hip
Date: circa 1941
: a person who is unusually aware of and interested in new and unconventional patterns (as in jazz or the use of stimulants)

The modern usage from urbandictionary.com is the one that gives me the negative vibe:

someone, usually a teenager or 20something, who adheres to a counterculture ranging from indy-rockers to neo-hippies to skaters. they tend to define themselves by the music they listen to, and the outlandish clothes they wear. hipsters are opposed to other countercultures like goths, metal-heads, and gangstas, and they also avoid preps, eurotrash, white trash, and jocks

question: why does he only listen to bands that are never played on the radio?
answer: he's a hipster

So who is a hipster out there?