We’ve generally had a poor impression of political reporting by daily newspapers in this state since, well, since we transferred to Carolina eight years ago. Compared to other places we’ve been, the reporting tends to be reminding of an old man without his dentures, gumming oatmeal. Though, The Herald-Journal usually does a good job.
Regardless, we let out a rather intense chuckle when apprised of a couple stories on the recent Taxation Realignment Commission hearing on its initial recommendations. We’re rather used to seeing similar ledes in sportswriting, because there’s only so many ways you can write a run-of-the-mill gamer. This, though, was funny. Except for the cancer.
Yvonne Wenger, The Post & Courier, Aug. 14
Kimberly Bradstreet, a teacher and cancer patient, laid out three gallon-size plastic bags filled with the prescription medicines that keep her alive.
Gina Smith, The State, Aug. 16
Kimberly Bradstreet pulls out three gallon-sized plastic bags full of prescription drug bottles, creams and boxes. They’re a small sampling from her drug regimen following her colon cancer diagnosis in July 2009.
We don’t know of one legislative caucus that abides by the Freedom of Information Act laws that extend to their respective governing bodies. Usually, the public finds out about what happens in caucus meetings because of leaks from legislators and staffers. So it struck us as odd and yet apropos that Sen. Lee Bright, who rarely makes a decision that stands up to scrutiny, would announce to the world that he’ll no longer attend Senate Republican Caucus meetings that have more than 23 members attending.
How did this decision come about? Well, he was a part of a three-legislator group that appointed people to the Holly Springs Volunteer Fire Department commission who are in the hottest of water for aggressively conducting government business in secret. Now he’s shocked by the whole ordeal and seemingly flinging darts at the wall to figure out what the appropriate response should be.
Bright said he’s learned a lot about the FOIA during the summer-long Holly Springs controversy — and he now realizes the extent that law is abused.
The FOIA defines “meeting” as the convening of a quorum. “Quorum” is defined as a simple majority.
For the five-member Holly Springs board, three people constitute a quorum, and therefore, must make the proper public and media notices about meetings and make those meetings open to the public.
South Carolina has 46 state senators, which means 24 make up a quorum.
[...]
When asked about how the FOIA cannot apply when a quorum of a public body is present, Donehue produced a 2005 memo from the Senate Research Office. The four-page document concludes the FOIA doesn’t apply because the caucus itself doesn’t fit the definition of a public body.
However, a 17-page opinion from state Attorney General Henry McMaster a year later found otherwise.
Let’s analyze this. Caucuses are not standing committees or special committees, and state party caucuses especially deal with political matters where official government votes are not taken, nor is official state business conducted. And if you apply the law the way it seems it would be applied by McMaster’s opinion, a party caucus with more than half the members of the chamber would be subject to the law, while the minority party, or parties, would have more leeway to skirt it. The whole thing doesn’t make sense.
We — and this is a first — don’t buy the S.C. Press Association’s opinion either, that the caucus could simply go into executive session. It seems that the executive session provisions would also be problematic. And in that light, let’s take Bright’s theory down the road to its logical conclusion.
1. The majority party caucus cannot meet without thorough documentation and openness to the general public.
2. Therefore, an arctic chill will descend on the ability of the caucus to properly discuss its operations regarding political strategy, organization and other such activities.
3. Where the fuck and when the hell is the majority party supposed to conduct its business? Conference call? Listserv? What happens when there needs to be a meeting in the middle of a session?
4. Ergo, this idea is a big bowl of dumbassery.
Laws are rarely perfect and always open to interpretation. The FOIA law isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t take a gaggle of attorneys to see the law was imperfectly written and the current enforcement procedure makes the most sense. Then again, Bright and sense are rarely seen together, so we really shouldn’t be that surprised.
The Birmingham News‘ Kevin Scarbinsky has developed an interesting idea. While thinking about the usual bitch-fest that comes with preseason college football polls, he thinks it’s wrong that only about half of the Football Bowl Subdivision get to vote in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll, and there’s no allowance for priority given to long-tenured coaches or waiting time for new head men. Those are just ways to ameliorate the No. 1 problem with the poll to begin with.
Who out there really thinks that head coaches in major college football take the time to appropriately evaluate teams? The open secret is that the poll gets pawned off on a lower-level staffer, but even if that staffer does pay more attention — sees other games, reads the news, blogs and the like — it’s goes against the point of the poll. These coaches are supposed to be intelligent enough about the game and skilled of their competition to do more than your average yay-hoo going on to ESPN to do a fan poll.
Then there’s the problem of the BCS formula. As one-third of the formula, it has significant impact on who will play for the national championship and at-large bids. The Harris poll, a grouping of retired coaches, athletic directors and any number of people affiliated with college athletics who are both knowledgeable and have the time, is actually a better setup. That’s another third. And there are the computers, of course.
Despite how the Associated Press may feel about the BCS, it would be a significant advantage to eject the coaches’ poll and bring back the sportswriters. Even though they’ve had their own problems with their poll, writers are professional observers. An observer is likely to have a better grasp of the national picture than someone who is basically a 24/7 participant.
And no, a playoff isn’t the answer. There’s polling further down the ladder in college football and every other college sport we know of. A poll, in and of itself, isn’t the problem. We just need a better poll.
Last week was not exactly the best for S.C. Democrats, who had to bear witness to three different events that weren’t entirely the doing of U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene. But, oh, did Greene and his campaign come up big. This guy and his people just don’t stop providing entertainment.
Greene’s epic freakout
We got it around noon on Saturday, and it began to go viral a few hours after that. Charlotte’s WCNC television sent a crew down to Manning to talk to Greene about his recent indictment (bad incident 1A) regarding the incident when he allegedly showed porn to a Carolina student in one of the worst pitches for tail since our last appearance at Bar None. The epicness is epic, as the kids say.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
The Post & Courier‘s Brian Hicks does a fine job taking on the actions of the S.C. Democratic Party‘s reaction — Chairwoman Carol Fowler reiterating that Green should drop out, and lands a Forrest Gump reference on the candidate himself.
“My lawyer is dealing with that,” Greene said before hanging up.
That’s all he had to say about that.
But Friday’s statement shouldn’t be all the Democratic Party has to say about this. The party has fouled up several important races around the state, yet still wonders why it seems to be the permanent minority in South Carolina these days.
Green’s SCDP executive committee appearance
While the SCDP has publicly come down for Greene to step aside, it still played host to him at its executive committee meeting on Thursday. Free Times was on hand for the spectacle, in which we get friendly clapping, more candidate-in-a-pod behavior (30-second speech, no questions, no comments) and more people looking to get high-end jobs on the low-end campaign.
Greene’s speech clocked in at around 23 seconds, which is consistent with what his campaign adviser Felipe Farley had predicted weeks ago, when he noted that Greene wasn’t going to be doing any long barnburners on the stump.
When Greene finished, one of his newer advisers stood up.
“I would like to say that Alvin isn’t being short with you -– my name is Georgean McConnell and I’ve been working with Alvin -– and we have a speech committee and so forth and so I didn’t want him to get into no debates tonight or anything, because it’s really not fair since he’s been very cooperative with us.”
McConnell works at the University of South Carolina School of Music in the Center for Southern African-American Music as the gospel music ambassador. She went on to describe Greene as a quick learner and a knowledgeable person.
“So I think, in a very short time, you’re going to be seeing a very different Alvin Greene,” she said.
A-ha. Nope, looks like more of the same. Not that we’re upset about that one bit.
Gunn checks out
While the Greene sideshow has been running for some time, the abrupt announcement by Rep. Anton Gunn that he was leaving the House and taking over the regional U.S. Department of Health and Human Services post was the absolute bomb. Gunn’s a competitive Democrat in a competitive district, though a district that would tend to go Republican more often than not. His departure brought a lot of speculation about other issues, like whether his close ties to President Barack Obama were seriously hindering his reelection hopes or that he would simply be a victim of high Republican turnout.
Either is possible, but we think we could make a good case that a ficus plant would make a better member of the House than GOP nominee Sheri Few. The consideration that no other Republican this side of the padded-room set decided to run and win the nomination may suggest that local Republicans felt Gunn was solidifying his position as the HD-79 representative. Maybe because it seems Few will run on a regular basis, anyway, it just wasn’t worth another tough primary battle.
Whether any of these statements were factors doesn’t change the fact that this is a major blow for replenishing the stock of good Democratic candidates and for overall sanity in the General Assembly.
Sports Illustrated, spreading out the cover jinx, went back to the regional covers this year. Of course, last season it was a little more out-of-control, but unless we see something new, it looks like SI will settle with four covers this year, the top four teams in the poll. And being the top four, we begin with the best.
2. OHIO STATE
3. BOISE STATE
4. TEXAS
In light of what Sen. Hugh Leatherman wants to do with capping tuition increases, it’s funny to think about the sort of world that would happen if the S.C. Policy Council would get its way. After all, the SCPC has seen little of any government – public sector – spending that it likes. And it seems to have a hard-on for defunding all public education in South Carolina, whether it’s K-12 or higher ed.
Now, we’re pretty sure of our audience. We’re pretty sure y’all trade in argumentative fallacies, logical fallacies, the sort of ways about speaking of one’s position that are easily broken apart by level-headed thinking and basic common sense. But those arguments are the bread-and-butter of politics. They’re what you’ll see in handouts, mail pieces, advertisements, stump speeches and stand-up comedy routines.
So let’s have some fun with the Policy Council.
One big player this year, and probably in the GOP presidential primary race, is former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Newt’s a big fan of alternate history, along with writing partner and author William R. Forstchen. Let’s do a bit of alternate future, aye?
Beginning, the SCPC gets what it wants. Government in South Carolina, as we knew it, is gone. No statewide law enforcement, regulation, everything. The Palmetto State falls into “failed state” status as much as we all learned in early-level political science classes. The federal government, fed up with our antics and devoid of S.C. federal officials who will cooperate with the federal government, gives up on us. We devolve into a weird combination of post-1992 Somalia, 18th century Russia and plutocratic rule and a theocracy.
South Carolina does have a government, at its basic form, but it’s really strange. Ceding to people who have been involved, we have multiple capitals. Amalgamated Industry & Agriculture, the corporate group that handles everything dealing with money and commerce, buys the State House complex and handles disputes in Columbia. The rest of the United States and the world consider this the “Commerce Capital.”
A strong band of armed social conservatives claim part of the power vacuum for itself, establishing a ruling order in the Upstate to handle every vice and everything you do with your naughty, naughty genitals. Originally located in Greenville, a breakaway, fundamentalist group establishes a new religious government in Spartanburg. So now you have two groups of statewide religious police checking up on you. Be careful, brother.
The Grand Strand is ceded to North Carolina, and Hilton Head is ceded to Georgia. Too many people were having trouble figuring how to work Yankee-heavy areas into our new combination of free markets and religious fundamentalism. Yankees who feel like they belong apply, and are given permanent resident status, as long as they absolve all fealty to the Big Ten, the NBA and anything regarding to sports north of Baltimore or west of Austin. Being a hockey fan is considered a capital crime.
Congress, working slowly but worked into a frenzy because of the developments, sends Georgia and North Carolina national guard units to run border patrol. Initially, powered by Twitter and Facebook, many moderates, liberals, intellectuals, artists and other sorts took off for Charlotte and Savannah before the borders close. Rural residents and sportsmen who know the border regions and are friendly to criminals who become known as “RINOs,” “Democrats,” “educators,” “reporters,” “musicians,” “good-time Johnnys” and “those who are too big for their britches” are under special scrutiny from the Upstate moralist squads.
As the situation unfolds from the mountains to the river, Charleston figures out what’s up, organizes a government unto itself and rejoins the United States, a historical irony by itself. A city-state of a fashion, the Commonwealth of Charleston maintains its connection to America, but with an independence that befits the Holy City and its denizens. CC takes within its bounds all of Charleston County, and parts of neighboring cities and counties. The Jasper County port situation, to put it mildly, becomes a little more complicated. And by complicated, we mean issues with all-powerful corporations, multiple governmental entities and firearms. Wait – nevermind. That’s exactly how it is now.
Oh, the more things change….
Nice job, North Carolina, at trying to hang with the big boys. In our lifetime we know two “‘Heels,” which is how’d we refer to anyone in periwinkle, that were halfway decent in the pigskin. That would be Natrone Means and Dre Bly. But it’s not like UNC could beat Alabama in the Gator Bowl or anything like that, which must have started all that Rick Fox love.
Regardless, UNC, y’all had a decent time in the ’90s as Florida State’s bridesmaid. That’s going to look beautiful to what’s coming, which is some mean-ass probation and hateful scholarship restrictions. We’d say we’re sorry, but we’ve hated UNC since moving to Winston-Salem in 1992 and, well, fuck you guys anyway.
Three sources close to an NCAA probe into the University of North Carolina football program told Yahoo! Sports that investigators are focusing on ties between assistant coach John Blake and prominent NFL agent Gary Wichard.
The sources said the NCAA’s inquiry into Blake has focused on his one-time position as vice president of football operations for Pro Tect Management – an agency founded and run by Wichard since 1979. Blake is now a defensive line coach for the Tar Heels, and oversees All-ACC tackle Marvin Austin, who is also facing NCAA scrutiny.
The sources said the NCAA is investigating trips Austin took to Florida, as well as his travel and training in California in the summer of 2009, when he worked out at Proactive Sports Performance with former Tar Heel and current Wichard client Kentwan Balmer.
The NCAA’s inquiry at North Carolina is one of multiple investigations underway at several institutions. The association’s enforcement staff has been in contact with at least nine Division I football programs since June, in what appears to be a more aggressive posture following major agent-related sanctions against the University of Southern California.
Who else is in trouble? Oh, that couldn’t be those toothless meth addicts from East Tennessee, could it?
The NCAA has broadened the scope of its investigation of the Tennessee football program beyond the appearances of recruiting hostesses at high school games, sources told ESPN.com on Friday.
Tennessee officials acknowledged last December that the NCAA was investigating the school’s use of female students as hostesses for football recruits, with some traveling to South Carolina and Georgia to attend prospects’ games. Since then, sources said investigators have looked into whether assistants under former coach Lane Kiffin had improper contacts with high school players at an all-star game and whether coaches improperly interacted on players’ Facebook pages.
A source close to the investigation said such actions could be considered secondary in nature “but if you look at it all together, [it] looks like there was not a sense of adhering to all the rules all of the time,” which could result in a “major violation” classification.
Tennessee has acknowledged it committed at least six secondary violations during Kiffin’s tumultuous tenure.
According to sources, the Vols’ football program is expecting a letter of inquiry from the NCAA before the start of the 2010 season.
Then there’s, you know, the people who always knew were fucking criminals. The University of Miami.
The University of Miami is being investigated by the NCAA for recruiting-related text messages by coaches in various sports — including football, women’s track and possibly baseball, three sources told The Miami Herald.
UM initiated the process by self-reporting the infractions to the NCAA.
Two UM athletic department sources said they believe the infractions are not considered severe.
Another source with knowledge of the investigation said it was launched in January.
Though individual text-messaging episodes would normally be categorized by the NCAA as secondary violations, collectively they could be considered a major violation, which is believed to be the case for the UM program.
See you in another 20 years, Vols, Canes and Heels. We never liked you assholes anyway.
The picture, a fog-bound Horseshoe at the University of South Carolina. It’s a good showing of higher education in South Carolina, at least for the last couple decades. Before we graduated from high school, we heard from more than one Carolina student — and this was prior to June 1999 — that USC was way, way more expensive for in-staters than North Carolina or Virginia. Granted, we’re not going to bust our asses to see what the average tuition was for USC, UNC and UVa were for fall 1999, but we’ve got this. So, let’s bring on the AP.
An education group says South Carolina’s public colleges charge the highest tuition among 16 Southern states.
The Post & Courier of Charleston reported Sunday that median tuition at South Carolina four-year public schools was $8,400 for the 2008-09 school year. That compares with $4,174 in North Carolina and $4,032 in Georgia.
The figures were reported by the Southern Regional Education Board. The board says part of the reason for the high tuition is because state lawmakers do not fund South Carolina public colleges at the same level as North Carolina and Georgia.
State funding at South Carolina colleges was about $4,800 a student in 2008-09. That compared with more than $11,500 per student in North Carolina and about $7,800 per student in Georgia.
Oh, really? South Carolina lawmakers are not spending on public education to the same level of other Southern states? Jesus, man, you’re blowing our minds right here. Goddamn — we guess that we missed that entire situation while spending 2.5 years in K-12 and three years in higher ed in the Palmetto State. That whole issue missed us entirely.
It doesn’t take a graduate from a college way the hell off the Interstate to tell you that South Carolina doesn’t do dick for its higher education students of a lower income (among other things) compared to North Carolina, Georgia, or especially Virginia, where we transferred from. No kidding — if UVa had as good of a public relations program as Carolina did in 2001-2002, we would be the bastards making Va. Atty. Gen. Ken Cuccinelli‘s life a living hell. But, unfortunately for Mussolini, er, Cuccinelli, we’re here, trying to help people out.
The fact is, though the rotten core would like to dispute it, Sen. Hugh Leatherman‘s idea of capping state college tuition hikes at 7.3 percent is the least anyone can do, but it’s taking one of the most powerful members of the General Assembly to do just that. Even The Post & Courier, whose editorial board must get Christmas cards from both Mark and Jenny Sanford, says that Leatherman is making a needed move.
Many students at our colleges graduate deeply in debt. And that was before the state’s institutions of higher learning upped tuition by as much as 14.8 percent.
There is no question that colleges, like every state agency and almost every business and family, are in a financial pinch. And there is no question that South Carolina would suffer if its colleges were unable to attract and educate people to take on challenging careers in a state actively courting new industry and business.
State colleges have seen state allocations decline over the years as a percentage of their budgets, and that’s occurred more precipitately with the current drop in state revenue. As a result, colleges are more likely to increase tuition to counter the shortfall. College officials should resist the urge, recognizing that students are dealing with the tough economy, too.
Even if students are able to manage higher costs through government loans, it only delays the pain.
This year, the College of Charleston has approved a whopping 14.8 percent hike; The Citadel, a hefty 13 percent jump; and Clemson, 7.5 percent.
Perhaps Sen. Leatherman has overstepped his authority by threatening to deal with state’s colleges and universities in the next budget go-round. But who else has been willing to take up the cause of struggling students and their families?
Just like the P&C, to take a shot at Leatherman to please the Sanford moneymen (and moneywomen). Here’s an idea — help people without a shit-ton of money, but good grades, get into college. You know, merit. Don’t give people who have the benefit of name and money initial admission. South Carolina is good on academic scholarships, so we should try getting need-based grants and loans in line with other Southern states. Because, and this is just a minor idea, South Carolina could lose its best and brightest to other states, while keeping its rich and asinine in-state.
Logos. They’re a part of branding, showing who you are, what you do. Some people are obsessed with them, like many people are about flags. Symbolism, colors, this and that. A logo or flag can be interpreted any number of ways beyond the official statement. That’s why we enjoyed learning a few things recently.
That is, a couple logos of a couple new political consulting firms. One was from Josh Gross and his nascent entity by the Starboard Communications offices.
We’d like it if we had a Facebook screencap of Larry Marchant‘s “Black Label Strategy” fun, but as we passed “the black hole of South Carolina politics” last night, we saw what could just end up as this:
Piracy. The free market at work.
There is a disturbing trend among well-off, liberal female writers. They appear to be writing the most obvious observations in the known world, but at a 3,000-word clip and healthy, healthy doses of navel-gazing. For instance, at one time — near when it started — Jezebel was a great alternative to a lot of women-centric blogs. Early Jezzies were funny, interesting and could run circles around Slate‘s slightly older XX crowd. But now the blog trades in a pedanticism born of a College Democrats group at Sarah Lawrence. It’s unreadable.
But Salon, which has been trading on borrowed time since Jake Tapper left and the initial “Salon Premium” paywall back in the day, has taken the cake as of late, and especially this week. The first story was, and we shit you not, a woman advocating for large penises. The blown way out of proportion, self-important piece could actually be boiled down to a fucking tweet:
Some say “motion in the ocean,” but on the whole, bigger is better. #sexytime
Oh, my. Thank you, Salon, for bringing that needed column to the world’s attention. We had no idea. The money shot:
Anybody who’s been around the block even a bit can acknowledge that penises, like snowflakes, are all different, and it follows that larger ones happen to feel different in the trenches. And the truth is that when women get together, they have been known to describe their partners in the universal language of holding their palms several inches apart and nodding appreciatively. Now you know.
Jesus. No shit, lady. Human beings have pretty much accepted this as reality for thousands of years, and we’re pretty sure cavewomen did the hands move between grunts, too. And the kicker is, the woman who wrote it is by any measure accomplished. And she got paid more money than I’ve ever seen — for a single article of that length — to do a defense of large penises from a heterosexual woman’s perspective. What.the.fuck?
And then Saturday comes a column from our favorite trope, which is women who are getting old and wondering what the hell happened between 30 and 60. The hed and subhed are, “The hot young teacher they hired instead: I have decades of experience in the classroom, but when I went up against Alex for a job, I knew how it would end.” Shorter, “Middle-aged woman threatened by younger woman.” We’ve heard this story? We’ve heard this story. Really, sometimes we see a hed and it looks so absurd, and the lede is insane, but the writer fixes it eventually. Halfway through this extended monologue to an analyst masquerading as a column, the writer goes deeper into the rabbit hole.
Early on, you know that the writer is about to be 59, her and her friends hate these mid-20s, in-shape, attractive women who dress well that get hired, and she’s obviously threatened by the appearance, quite literally, of your average female recent secondary education graduate. The whole beginning of the piece deals with appearance. If that’s what she’s leading with, that’s what she’s most concerned about. It’s even hard to tell whether she’s being sarcastic when she talks about doing the same thing, when she could.
I’ll be 59 in two weeks. Ten or fifteen years ago, I realized I could not remotely rely on my youth and looks to get by. I no longer had an Oil of Olay complexion or a size 6 figure. I couldn’t get away with wearing short skirts or tight sweaters or acting cute or coy. I’d have to depend on other qualities, the ones my grandmother said you could see in the dark: personality, intelligence and character.
Further down, she mentions leaving a husband and a good, tenured position to the once she has now, teaching high school English. And she moves on to discuss problems moving to another job. Bit it’s classic, reading between the lines. Her mention of her background is saying, “I have education and I have had a better job that I left voluntarily — I have taste.” It’s shorthand for saying, “I don’t shop at Wal-Mart.” Then the whole rigmarole about not finding another job:
I consider cutting years off my résumé. Maybe I’ll be hired if they think they don’t have to pay me so much. (Compensation scales based on years of experience allow me to make twice what first- and second-year teachers earn.) The recession isn’t helping; districts are paring activities and staff. Nationally, according to the New York Times, 150,000 teachers may lose their jobs this year. Some districts have already received more than 450 applications for each advertised position.
In the last few months, I’ve applied for dozens of jobs. No response — except for automated e-mails thanking me for applying and advising they will call if they’re interested. One school asked me to call to set up a pre-screening interview. When I called within 20 minutes of receiving the e-mail, the secretary said, “All slots are already taken.” And that was for an interview for an interview!
I think of the Hillary Clintons and Ruth Bader Ginsbergs — women over 60 who are still active and vibrant and employed at a level they deserve. I worry I’ll have to do what I did when I graduated from college: answer phones, make coffee, and type carbon copies that have to be retyped if there are mistakes. I imagine working as a proofreader — editing and correcting the grammar of my grown-up students. I imagine myself behind the counter of a coffee bar or bookstore. Or taping up signs with my phone number on little flaps offering to walk dogs or tutor.
First, she’s using the job thing to buttress her point about age, but she’s smart enough to know she can’t let alone the economy, though she basically discounts it without directly addressing the issue. Second — Clinton, Ginsberg? One’s a former senator and current secretary of state, and the other sits on the Supreme Court. Levels of expectation may need to be addressed. Also, she’s uttering the utterance of the uncool — “change scares me.” This is usually generational and always banal. The changing economy waits for no man, or woman. We live in a different world than the early ’70s, when she was last an undergraduate. Even for someone born in 1951, it might be time to recognize that.
And even if her underlying belief is true, that she’s having trouble because she’s older and no longer a candidate for “hot for teacher” fantasies, so what? We’re on the record saying that our two main choices of work, public relations and politics, were stacked against us because we weren’t a hot sorority girl that wanted to plan parties for a living. It’s why our first jobs shoved us in the direction of all other paunchy male degenerate writers — sportswriting. So, yes, if you’re young and attractive, you’re likely to have a better chance of getting a job at certain levels. This is not news. Especially it shouldn’t be for someone whose first vote for president was probably for George McGovern.
She says that she told herself that losing a job was not like losing a husband. But she gets it wrong — people come and go, but a good job you hold on to with both hands. James Carville, at the end of the documentary The War Room, mentions in a tear-filled speech how important one’s labor is, and for who or what it is for. At this point, everyone should be saying, “Yes, we know you’re laid off. Sucks. The rest of us have been in this position since 2006.”
After being told she was cut loose because the school had to eliminate positions and the object of her disaffection would be retained, she celebrates, and name-drops, with an expensive scotch and, call “Sex and the City,” chocolate. What, was there no ice cream in the freezer? Did you warp your “An Affair to Remember” DVD? So, yes, more shit we already knew long ago.
And she ends it with an optimistic upswing. But as an English teacher and a writer, she has to know the devices she used in her argument and how transparent they are as far as advancing her point while making her look good, using her intelligence to write around tropes so obvious that they burned our retinas. The writer seems more 69 than 59. Wolfe mère is 51 and we couldn’t imagine her writing such a thing. We’d like to think it would come down to basic things: Change happens. The young inherit. Act, do not be acted upon. Three basic tenants that would have allowed the writer of the column to get through, kick ass and own the situation.
But she plays the victim, which is pretty fucking sad for someone who came of age during the height of the women’s liberation movement.
