The Moscow City Council election is now over, and the results are in. Congratulations to Tom Lamar, the top vote getter, as well as to the other victors — Steed, Krauss, and Carscallen. Lamar is a genuine liberal, but he showed a lot of class in this election. In the aftermath of the bigotry kerfluffle, …
Bigotry on Stilts
One of the drills that we go through here in our local controversies is this: our adversaries quote some outrageous thing from us, we say in reply that that’s “out of context,” and they say, “Yeah, right. You guys always complain that ‘it’s out of context.’ You just don’t like getting caught.” And so that …
The Matter Closed?
I said at the end of the previous post that I considered the matter closed. By that I meant that the Food Coop has done what they needed to do — they reprimanded an employee for distributing bigoted materials, and in so doing they have acknowledged that this kind of bigotry does exist in our …
Thanks to the Food Coop
A young lady, an employee of the Food Coop, has acknowledged on the radio that she was the one distributing the “boycott list” of kirker businesses out of the Coop, and that she was reprimanded for doing so. I want to publicly thank the Food Coop for taking action, for doing the right thing, and …
Bigotry Is As Bigotry Does, Sez I
Okay, so I have a question. I would appreciate a public answer on this from any recognized spokesman for the Moscow Food Coop. A flyer identifying downtown businesses that are connected to “kirkers” — folks in our church community — has in recent weeks been handed out at the cash register of the Food Coop …
No Incumbents
Our Moscow City Council election is about a week and a half away. For those involved, the simplest rule of thumb is to vote for no incumbents, which would include Lamar, Ament, and Pall. They have been been hip-deep in the antics of the last several years, and there are a few reminders of that …
Just Goes to Show
The happy fallout from the NYT article continues. Here is my former undergraduate advisor, Nick Gier, telling the sorry tale of how I squandered the legacy of my UI philosophy degree. First, Gier has clearly opted for a different strategy in his response to this article — some of his fellow Intoleristas have been fit …
Potoked Again
Reactions to the NYT article were not long in coming. This one comes from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the world’s richest civil rights organization. Mark Potok, author of this article, was upset that Molly Worthen, author of the NYT piece, wrote a balanced, critical piece when the SPLC clearly sees the crying obligation for …
Scraping Paint Off a Gun Turret
Well, I now have the deep privilege of being a scarecrow in local politics. There are many individuals that I would like to thank for this peculiar honor . . . But first, for those who are from out of town, here is the sitch. The Greater Moscow Alliance, a group that had gotten themselves …
NSA in The New York Times Magazine
We got a nice note from Molly Worthen, who wrote an article on NSA for The New York Times Magazine. That article is available here. In her note she comments, fairly enough, that the article is critical in places, but that she is hopeful that the article does indicate her interest in and admiration for …