Contributing RPs

Jeff Smith — Amazing Piece on Gilbert Arenas

By Jeff Smith, on Mon Apr 2, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET

Amazing piece, over 5 years old, that was well worth the wait. “Inside the Pathology of Gilbert Arenas” [Esquire]

John Y’s Musings in the Middle: Nietzsche v. Brown

By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Apr 2, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET

“If you stare long enough into the abyss, the abyss will stare back at you”

Friedrich Nietzsche

“But if you continue to stare at the abyss a little longer, it will wink at you. And you can wink back at the abyss. And you will both giggle simultaneously”

Me.

This morning (putting my philosophy minor to good use)

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend: The Case for Gay Acceptance in the Catholic Church

By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, on Mon Apr 2, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET

On St. Patrick’s Day I had the pleasure of speaking to about 350 Catholics who gathered together to attend a conference put on by New Ways Ministry, which is an effort to support the LGBT community in the Catholic Church. The women and men I spoke to included nuns and priests, children who had come out and parents who wanted to be supportive. Two female priests gave me special blessing and I left the meeting inspired by the devotion of those who attended.

New Ways Ministry has a critical mission, since changing the Church will help those who suffer from ill treatment not only here in the United States but around the world, where the Church has so much clout. The Church has millions of members in Africa and South America, where being gay or lesbian can lead to a death sentence.

Worse, the Church’s own teaching encourages bigotry and harm. Just last year, my father’s memorial, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, gave its human rights award to Frank Mugisha, a gay activist in Uganda whose good friend had just been brutally killed in his own home. American missionaries have encouraged the discrimination Mugisha suffers. Refuting their religious arguments is critical, and so is making a moral and religious case for gays. What we need is a transformation of hearts and minds, not merely a change of laws.

The Catholic Church’s attitude towards homosexuality is at odds with its tradition of tolerance and understanding. The actual practice of the Church is true to this tradition. What other institution separates men and women and encourages them to live together in monasteries and convents where they can develop deep relationships with those who share their kind of love?

The fight for the dignity of the LGBT community is a fight for the soul of today’s Church. Some conservatives see the hierarchy’s current, traditional teaching on sex as the Church’s defining position. They don’t really like to talk about, or even be reminded of, the Church’s teachings on immigration, or protection of the environment, or the greed that produces financial meltdowns, all of which they would find distastefully liberal.

Read the rest of…
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend: The Case for Gay Acceptance in the Catholic Church

John Y. Brown, III: Today’s Big Game

By John Y. Brown III, on Sat Mar 31, 2012 at 11:30 AM ET

Are we mostly getting our “game face on” Saturday– or getting our hate face on?

I love the outrageously fun interstate stare down this week between UL and UK.

The smack talk: clever put downs and cleverer retorts and most of what goes with it. Most of it is in good fun, to be expected and a healthy and natural fan activity given the rarefied Final Four positions our state’s two remarkable basketball teams have achieved this year.

But there is a line where we start to sound loopy, goofy, nonsensical and downright mean-spirited if not a little demented.

The key is being cute, clever and competitive. Be like a happy warrior who relishes competition rather than a rambling insulter and hater.

After all, Sunday morning will be here soon enough and the world be back to the way it was last week–pre Final Four with UL facing off against UK.

So, before you rush out and buy this t-shirt or its corollary suggesting you do the same if you hate UK, I have a different suggestion.

Just Breathe.

And, most importantly, have one heckuva fun time. This may not happen again. For another year.

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: I’m Responsible for the UK/UL Rivalry

By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Mar 30, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET

Here’s a NY Times story about how the UL-UK Dream Game became the great annual collegiate rivalry it is today.

In the article the state legislature and my father (former Governor John Y. Brown, Jr.) seem to take the credit for making this once unlikely occurrence a now historic rivalry.

My recollection, however, is very different. I remember one night at the dinner table suggesting to my dad, “Why don’t you work with the legislature to create an annual UK-UL game?”

I seem to recall my dad laughing it off and saying it would never happen.

I stood up, pounded my fist on the table and demanded, “It has to happen! And it has to happen now!!” I was relentless in crafting the legislative strategy and hounding my father to make this is last important act as governor.

I threatened to legally change my name to John Chandler Beshear Nunn if he wasn’t successful. And I succeeded.

Well, he and the legislature succeeded.

OK, OK maybe it didn’t really happen that way.

Maybe…. I was in college out of state at the time and didn’t even know about the effort until several years after it happened.

And, yeah, maybe I never had such conversations about legislation of any kind with my father because I was more interested in more hormonally appropriate topics.

But you gotta admit, it does make a darn good story. Even if it’s entirely an imaginary one.

Jeff Smith: O’Malley Says The Boss is “Born to Run” for Governor

By Jeff Smith, on Fri Mar 30, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET

Race of the decade in ’13:

Governor Martin O’Malley says Bruce Springsteen is born to run for governor of New Jersey:

Click here to read the full article from Politico.

Jeff Smith: Should the Feds Probe the Florida Tragedy?

By Jeff Smith, on Fri Mar 30, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET

Absolutely.

It may be the only way to get state officials to act.

The Sanford police chief claims that he has no ability to prosecute based on the “Stand Your Ground” law.

Of course, he’s making huge assumptions without a full investigation of the facts.

Most importantly, “Stand Your Ground” is misapplied in the case of an assailant who has actually pursued a victim; pursuit directly contradicts the notion of self-defense.

And the assailant is caught – on tape, no less – determinedly pursuing the victim even against the specific and unambiguous direction of the police dispatcher.

(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Talking with the Animals

By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Mar 29, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET

I’m so relieved that society does not judge us on our thoughts but only on our actions.

I’d hate to be accountable for my thoughts. They aren’t dangerous. Just, well, hard to explain away.

For example, I was eating lunch alone in my car today–a turkey sandwich. Out of nowhere I start thinking about how I’m really glad that animals can’t talk. And I hope we never teach them to.

For one thing, what would we talk about? It’s hard enough making conversation with other humans. Besides, no matter how good we get at small talk with animals, we can only avoid the inevitable “Big Question” for so long.

Eventually a turkey (or some other animal) will ask, “So, why do you eat us?”

And the truth is I don’t have a good answer. All I can say is something along the lines of the primitive logic, “Look, I’m bigger than you and smarter than you and you taste good. That’s it. End of story. Let’s please talk about a less awkward subject.”

Just typing this response makes me cringe–and reinforces to me this is a conversation I’d like to avoid.

And besides, what other subject could we move on to after that uncomfortable segue? It’s just not realistic.

But even without an eloquent explanation, I’m not giving up turkey.

Well, my lunch time ran out on this thought. I’m on a business call now and sounding very professional –using lingo from my MBA and law degree. Very impressive. I’m on my game.

And I’ve almost completely stopped thinking about conversing with turkeys.

Artur Davis: A Moderate’s Constitution

By Artur Davis, on Thu Mar 29, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET

Judge Harvie Wilkinson of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals could easily have been Justice Harvie Wilkinson of the Supreme Court. He was short-listed for vacancies in both 2005 and 2007, and his brand of conservative jurisprudence and judicial restraint bears more than a passing resemblance to John Roberts.

His essay last week in the New York Times is a thoughtful, elegant scolding of both liberals and conservatives who are bent on using the Constitution as the last resort when politics takes too long.

As Wilkinson notes, both the left and right have spent an inordinate amount of time on their own versions of judicial activism—liberals famously so in the context of abortion but increasingly in the context of same sex marriage as well. Liberals favor a robust vision of constitutional privacy over the shifting, ambivalent state of public opinion on both issues. Conservatives, meanwhile, are a week away from urging the court to overturn the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that individuals buy health insurance or risk a fine. If they win, it would be the first time since the thirties that the Court invalidated a major domestic statute.

Read the rest of…
Artur Davis: A Moderate’s Constitution

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Being Profound

By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Mar 28, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET

Have you ever tried to say something profound but weren’t able to think of the words?

Because there was no profound thought to fit the words into?

And really never had been. Just some assorted near-clever ideas from time to time….but nothing achieving “profound” status.

And so you decided you’d wait and try to say something profound another day instead?

That just happened to me.