Salt City Sinner

Honestly, I consider myself a positive person, really. I do tend to nay-say more than I glad hand, but all things considered, I'm not a storm cloud bobbing along with the sole intention of ruining my fellow person or persons' attempt at a good time. With that disclaimer out of the way: According to the Sydney Morning Herald (?!), Three years ago, Lazaros and Ben Goldman, a documentary filmmaker, created Superheroes Anonymous, an organised group of real-life superheroes. Lazaros said there are now roughly 200 fellow superheroes across in US - costumed civilians who patrol the streets behind self-made superhero personas. Their missions are varied, from conducting homeless and sex worker outreach and picking up rubbish to looking out for crime and teaching first aid skills. In early September, about 20 members gathered from across the country for a three-day event that included a hip hop concert, beach clean-up and workshops on how to disarm an enemy. Scavenger, a 28-year-old soci...

I attended the rally put together by Organizing for America last night – the big ol’ tour-bus pulled into Sugarhouse park a little late, but there was a surprisingly large and enthusiastic crowd there to support it. As an antidote to all of this media coverage of Tea Party Protests and the like, I thought I’d point out that this event was in Utah, reddest of red states, and yet the turnout was unbelievable ( estimates say 1500 , but I find that hard to swallow outright): A pretty cool crowd. All kinds of folks showed up, from hippies to bikers to grandmas: “What about the Tea Party People?” you might ask. Well, three pretty peaceable wingnuts turned up. They seemed kind of sad and lonely: Patriot poodle says: “Ruh roh, we need a public option!” Various speakers showed up, including the chair of the Utah Democratic Party, Wayne Holland , who dropped the ball by referring to health reform as an issue for “2008” (wake up, Wayne! We won! Time to focus on the now, brother!). Karen Mayne , D...

Tonight, Organizing For America (Obama's campaign/policy apparatus) will bring their tour bus to Sugar House Park for a rally for health care reform. I'll be attending, along with the family, Lydia, and a few friends - come out to hear OFA Deputy Director Jeremy Bird, along with various progressive local luminaries. You can RSVP or get directions here - it will take place on the Northwest Terrace of Sugarhouse Park. Doors open at 6:00, the action starts at 7:00. See you there!

The lunatic fringe at WorldNetDaily (the site that, more than almost any other, has been carrying the Birther torch for quite some time now) put up a pretty sad little attempt at justifying right-wing consternation over President Obama's pretty bland, middle-of-the-road speech to America's youngsters today about the virtues of working hard and staying in school. This is a topic that is so "Golly, Mr. President!" that previous Republican presidents George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan both felt moved to flog it in national addresses as well. Full disclosure; the Democrats at the time, moved by a similar sense of high moral dudgeon stretched to idiotic lenghts, acted like asses. Note: most of this hysteria was generated before the full text of Obama's speech was even posted, so it can be viewed as a case of shooting first and then asking questions - if questions were going to be asked by the right at all. In the case of WND's article, they've pretty much avo...

I wandered into an exchange on Facebook yesterday and today that culminated in an extremely odd online encounter with what I'm assuming is the real Paul T. Mero , public face of the Sutherland Institute and a prime example of the highly concentrated conservative culture that festers in the dankest corners of Utah life (on a par with Chris Buttars or Gayle Ruzicka ). A friend of mine who is something of a moderate Republican is apparently friends with Mero, so when my phone pinged me that one "Paul Mero" had commented on the same post that I had, my reaction was halfway between "Well how about THAT, a local celebrity" and "...wait, Paul T. Mero, the same Paul T. Mero who argued publicly following the Prop 8 fiasco that gays come from a 'very emotionally immature frame of reference' while pretending to gladhand the gay Colmes to his Mormon Hannity in a weak sauce series of public forums?" If that last seems hard to follow, it's because Mero...