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I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
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An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
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Daily Blah for... Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Pat Robertson is Losing It
In the most magnanimous display of Christian charity since he and Jerry Falwell claimed 9/11 was God's revenge on gays and lesbians, Pat Robertson has launched a 21-day prayer-a-thon aimed at unseating three liberal members of the Supreme Court. "One justice is 83-years-old, another has cancer and another has a heart condition," points out the 700 Club supremo in this snitty little letter. "Would it not be possible for God to put it in the minds of these three judges that the time has come to retire?" The first is Stevens, the second, presumably, is Ginsburg, who had cancer surgery four years ago, and nobody seems to know who the third Justice is supposed to be. But I'm betting it ain't Scalia.
Amazing, isn't it? At a time when the global economy is balanced so precariously, when mistrust among nations is rife, this is what we're being asked to focus our spiritual energies on. It is, of course, all about the court's decision in the Texas sodomy case. This has nothing to do with any actual religious doctrine; if that were so, Robertson would be leading 21-day prayer-a-thon against people being very, very rich, something Jesus said repeatedly was a bad idea if you wanted to get into heaven. (Number of times Jesus spoke out against homosexuality: 0). It has everything to do with sheer, unabated ignorance and a belief, as Scalia put it, in the existence of a "homosexual agenda." (Ah yes, the famous homosexual agenda. They have copies of it posted up on noticeboards around the Castro, you know. Item one: no one is to ever wear black and navy blue in the same outfit!)
I do hope there will come a day when televangelists preach love instead of bigotry. When the majority of the Christian right does not believe, as Robertson does, that gay rights open the door to "bigamy and incest." Perhaps that will take another generation or so, but I always like to hold out hope that old-school bigots will come to their senses -- maybe once they discover that the legalization of sodomy has not caused the end of the world. In the meantime, would it not be possible for God to put in the mind of Pat Robertson that the time has come to retire?
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