theCLog

It had to happen, like the aligning of the planets or something: Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-Under a Stump) runs headlong into our Stupid Thing of the Week feature. They come together to display another example of colossal ignorance, or in current GOPspeak, “leadership.”

The right’s wingnuts have lately been pushing a bogus charge that health care reform plans include requiring senior citizens to plan how they want to die. See here for more info. Anyhow, Ms. Foxx (and do we really need to keep reminding you that, despite her name, she’s not a softcore porn star?) picked up the issue and ran with it like a scalded hound, ratcheting up the rhetoric to include people being put to death by the government. Enjoy.

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Why is it that people make racist comment, then cry out that they aren’t racist?

The latest “I’m not racist” guy is a police officer from Boston who CNN says sent an e-mail calling Henry Louis Gates a “banana-eating jungle monkey.”

Cue the apology.

Officer Justin Barrett, 36, told a Boston television station Wednesday night that he was sorry about the e-mail, a copy of which he also sent to The Boston Globe. He repeated his apology Thursday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

“I would like to take this opportunity to offer fellow police officers, soldiers and citizens my sincerest apology over the controversial e-mail I authored,” Barrett said on CNN. “I am not a racist. I did not intend any racial bigotry, harm or prejudice in my words. I sincerely apologize that these words have been received as such. I truly apologize to all.”

To say you’re not racist after calling a black man a monkey, knowing the history of comparing blacks to monkeys, is like saying I’m not a killer while standing over a dead body with a gun in your hand.

Barrett says that he was upset about a column written in the Boston Globe. It seemed biased, he said.

Columns are the opinion of the columnist — so it’s not supposed to be fair and balanced. Maybe he’s not racist, but stupid.

Asked what led him to choose to use such language, he said, “I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you. I have no idea.”

He added, in response to a question, that he had never used such language before.

Sounds like Mark Furhman and his use of the N word during the O.J. Simpson trial. A person doesn’t use such language if they hadn’t thought about it or used it with their friends. If your first thought is to make racial statements when you’re angry, then you’re probably a racist.

Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham, who wrote the editorial that sparked Barrett’s e-mail, supported Gates’ actions, asking readers, “Would you stand for this kind of treatment, in your own home, by a police officer who by now clearly has no right to be there?” Watch Blogger Bunch: Is race discussion possible? »

In Barrett’s e-mail, which was posted on a Boston television station’s Web site, he declared that if he had “been the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC (oleorosin capsicum, or pepper spray) deserving of his belligerent non-compliance.”

Barrett used the “jungle monkey” phrase four times, three times referring to Gates and once referring to Abraham’s writing as “jungle monkey gibberish.”

He also declared that he was “not a racist but I am prejudice [sic] towards people who are stupid and pretend to stand up and preach for something they say is freedom but it is merely attention because you do not get enough of it in your little fear-dwelling circle of on-the-bandwagon followers.”

Whatever this guy is, he’s not fit to be a cop.

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Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, July 31 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• Death Under Cover at Grand Central Events

• North Carolina Dance Theatre’s Summer Repertory Performance at Booth Playhouse

• Mamma Mia at Belk Theater

• I Was Totally Destroying It at Visulite Theatre

• Comedians Al Ernst and Jack Warren at Alive

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Check out these events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area this weekend— as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

FRIDAY, JULY 31

Mamma Mia
Belk Theater
You gotta love mother-daughter relationships, especially in Mamma Mia. Check out a performance of the catchy musical at Belk Theater, before it’s too late.

• Dance North Carolina Dance Theatre School of Dance presents some serious foot action with its Summer Repertory Performance at Booth Playhouse. The show features dance numbers by students who were enrolled in the schools summer program. more…

• Theater You can decide who-dun-it and chow down on at 3-course dinner at a special performance of the murder mystery Death Under Cover at Grand Central Events. more…

SATURDAY, AUGUST 1

American Idols Live
Time Warner Cable Arena
American Idol addicts unite for a night of pure excitement as the American Idols Live tour stops in Charlotte. All of season eight’s finalists will perform at Time Warner Cable Arena.

• Festival Bon Odori Festival at Wachovia Atrium celebrates Japanese culture with an array of entertainment like Japanese dance and drum performances, as well as martial arts (like “Aikido”) demonstrations. There’s also food, crafts and more, including a raffle with a trip to Japan up for grabs. more…

• Comedy Let Charlotte Comedy Theater make you laugh. If you’ve never been to one of the groups improv shows, you’ve been missing out. Saturday night shows at The Nook include off the wall stand-up comedy and a special show titled Culture Shock. more…

SUNDAY, AUGUST 2

Grits: The Musical
Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte
You can expect some good ol’ Southern charm in performances of Grits: The Musical at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte. The show is based off the book Friends are Forevah!, a series of stories about women and their Southern culture, by author Deborah Ford.

• Food Stop into Cakes n Flakes for yummy Indian puffs stuffed with chicken, paneer tikka or vegetables. And don’t forget to try the delicious fruitcake pound cake. more…

• Music The L.A.-based duo The Crystal Method will perform its electronic creations at Amos’ Southend tonight. more…

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Zoinks.

Scientists have discovered that exposure to a common pollutant may make people more likely to experience severe symptoms from swine flu — and it’s a pollutant emitted in large quantities by coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities.

The culprit is arsenic, a highly poisonous semi-metal which, according to a new study by researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory and Dartmouth Medical School, compromises a person’s ability to mount an immune response to the H1N1 swine flu virus.

Most disturbingly, the study — published last month in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives — found that arsenic can weaken the immune response to swine flu even in the low-level exposure levels that  are commonly found in contaminated drinking water.

More from the The Institute for Southern Studies.

In related news: Child who attended Harris YMCA tests positive for Swine Flu

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After founding the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival in High Point and guiding Charlotte Repertory Theatre to regional theatre respectability as its artistic director, Mark Woods has kept a relatively low profile in recent years. He founded New River Dramatists in Healing Springs and basically hung out a “Do Not Disturb” sign so that playwrights and actors, at various stages of their careers and in varying degrees of renown, could concentrate cooperatively on the work in a bucolic creative cocoon.

Now Woods is re-establishing his presence in Charlotte and changing his tune – and his signage: “We’re hanging out a shingle that says, in spirit and in fact, ‘We want to have some fun with some friends.’”

More precisely, it’s a sign at 1401 Central Ave. that says Story Slam, and the fun begins on Friday, Aug. 14. There will be plenty to see, hear, and talk about – every Friday and Saturday – for the $12 admission price.

“We want to meet people,” says Woods. “We want to have conversations, we want to inspire and promote discourse and debate and even disagreement in a civil environment – on issues that people feel are relevant. So let’s use story – new theater, new poetry, new music – to kick all that off. Let’s run it all night long on Friday and Saturday, maybe seven hours.”

Invited actors and actresses from across the Metrolina region, lured by hors d’oeuvres and the prospect of paying gigs, are gathering tonight, headshots in hand, to learn more about Story Slam and how they can participate in the staged readings. These readings of new works, written by developing and established writers at NRD’s Playwrights Project, will bring back a tang to the local scene that has been missing since the days of Charlotte Rep’s New Plays in America Festival.

But the idea isn’t to replicate New Plays. It’s to transplant some of that new-play mojo into a salon/nightclub/coffeehouse ambience that also showcases music, poetry, performance art and the kind of free-flowing conversation that can be lubricated by the ready availability of $2 beers.

“It’s not about building a company, it’s not about starting a new theater, it’s not about any of that stuff,” Woods insists. “It’s about putting a front porch back in the community. That’s about including people and using new works, not to get their applause and approval, but using them to get them thinking and reacting and responding. You know what? I don’t care if they like the work. I really don’t. I really care if they are affected by it in some way and want to talk about it. And I hope to high heaven that our producing theater companies who are still up and running will come and find some material.”

Whether or not you’re in on this front porch conspiracy, you can already participate in selecting the works that are presented. The first slate of candidates is up and blurbed at the Story Slam website, and you’re encouraged to vote for your favorite at here.

See you there.

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The bad news: If we don’t clean up our act, we could lose out on federal funding for roads. And, unless you’re in a cave, you know Charlotte’s roads could use some attention.

So, what are we going to do about it?

What can be done? The American Lung Association recommends these actions:

• Clean up coal-fired power plants.
• Clean up dirty diesel engines currently on and off the road.
• Clean up dirty ocean-going vessels.
• Tighten ozone and particulate exposure standards to reflect current science.
• Require all counties with high air pollution levels to crack down on sources.
• Drive less by combining trips, walking, biking, carpooling and using public transportation to limit your contribution to air pollution — especially on hot, sunny days.
• Don’t burn wood or trash, to avoid releasing particulates in smoke into your neighborhood’s air.
• Encourage your school district to retrofit old school buses with modern pollution controls, and to stop idling in school parking lots.
• Conserve energy, because every bit of electricity saved means less pollution from the power plant supplying your electricity.

Read more from The San Francisco Chronicle.

Here’s an animation short from 1947 warning about air pollution:

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President Obama held a town hall-style meeting in Raleigh yesterday before 2200 people, drumming up support for his health care reform effort. He finally took off the gloves regarding the health insurance companies who currently dominate the timing and pricing of health care delivery in the United States. That would be the same industry that denies coverage to people with pre-existing conditions which, in any country that respects its own citizens, would land insurance execs in jail. But no. Not here.

Anyhow, Obama said he wanted to be sure “that those who have insurance are treated fairly, and insurance companies are held accountable.” Reasonable goals that everyone can agree on, right? Oh, hell no. Bob Greczyn, the $4 million-per-year CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (which has become a main mover in national anti-reform efforts), said he was disappointed that Obama “used so much of his time in North Carolina bashing insurance companies.” Well, guess what, Bob? There are 2 million people in North Carolina who are “disappointed” that you won’t insure them. People like Raleigh’s Jerry Thompson, a Vietnam vet and 30-year state employee who, because of a chronic disease, is on the verge of going bankrupt because of medical bills. Add any number of people whose equally horrific stories you’ve heard — then think about the $1.3 billion in reserves held by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina — and, as they say, do the math.

Our favorite part of Obama’s meeting was when he attacked the incredible pile of, um, lies being spread by reform opponents. “Nobody is talking about some government takeover of health care,” the President said. “I’m tired of hearing that. I have been as clear as I can be. Under the reform I’ve proposed, if you like your doctor, you keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you keep your health care plan. These folks need to stop scaring everybody.”

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Families of criminals always seem to say the same thing:

“He’s not a monster.”

But the public doesn’t buy it. Take the man accused of shooting two police officers in 2007, Demeatrius Montgomery.

When his aunt told the court that he was mentally unstable, the public balked.

Gwendolyn Hinton said her nephew frequently talked to himself, played with children’s toys as an adult and falsely believed “they’re trying to get me.”

Hinton testified at a Mecklenburg County court hearing to determine if Montgomery is mentally competent to stand trial. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty.

“His mind is not functioning the way it should,” she said.

Prosecutors questioned her conclusion.

While in jail, they noted, Montgomery has been reading civil rights books and religious material, including the Koran. Prosecutors also noted that he held jobs and once rented an apartment with his girlfriend.

Now, the family of Jerry Case, the man accused of kidnapping a Gaston County family, says he took the family captive because wanted to get to Tennessee to see his dying mother.

But Case’s alleged victims have a different out look on the ordeal.

A Gaston County man who was kidnapped along with his daughter and two grandchildren said Monday he wishes he could exact revenge on the man charged in the case.

“I’d like to kill him, and you can quote me on that,” said William Payne. Payne said Jerry Case should have never been on the street, and the criminal court system shouldn’t let him out now.“He was a killer and he was aiming on killing us,” Payne said.

Sure you don’t want people to think bad things about your family, but let’s be real and honest, when your family member does something like these two did, it’s best to keep quiet.

There is nothing you can say to excuse their actions and your speaking out doesn’t help them at all. You may remember the sweet brother or nephew, but what they are accused of doing doesn’t jibe with your memories of your family member.

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