So last night, I was smoking/leaning out my window overlooking Hyde when I see a motorcycle cop has stopped traffic on Sutter crossing Hyde. Not only that, he is ABSOLUTELY forbidding any pedestrians to even cross the street. I look up and down the block and see the same thing, flashing lights parked motorcycles at the intersections of Hyde & Post, Hyde & Bush, etc.
After an eternity, a long line of motorcycle cops then come zooming down the street, lights flashing, occasional honk/siren--it looked pretty cool, actually. Then there's another break/pause and people try to sneak across the street only to be thwarted by the cop. Then another long line of motorcycle cops and I'm thinking, "These can't ALL be SFPD - I can't imagine they even have that many..." duh, when it dawns on me, for this type of heavy-duty blocking, and the endless sporadic lines of motorcycle cops, it can only mean......PRESIDENTIAL MOTORCADE!
Woo-hoo! I was surprised to realize it was the first time I'd ever seen one "live." It was pretty impressive/cool; all the motorcycles, all the other cars, the monstrous, almost square, tank-size limos, the flashing lights, the cheering crowds, etc. And President Obama, whizzing by my window, not even 15 feet away from me, the closest I've been to a "sitting President." And yes, I have to admit it, it was pretty effing cool. As cynical as I am, as disappointed in Obama as I am, it was still pretty cool. So much for being a "commie Blue stater."
But speaking of, I have to share another guy's blog post coz it is just spot on, and I'm hoping some of my "Red State" friends and family can possibly explain the statistics referenced below:
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
So I'm skimming like a mud puddle Jesus through another hunk of grammatically wretched hate mail, kindly informing me that both I and the city in which I live are godless, stinky insults to all humanity (yawn), that all of us here in Perverted Pelosiville are depraved sickos due in no small part to our pathetic liberal values (zzzz), our lack of openly displayed firearms and our obvious adoration of terrorists, immigrants, communism, anal sex, artisan coffee, organic produce and, of course, organic analterrorist sexcoffee.
All told, it's a rather uninspired, typically brainless hunk of Tea Party-grade spittle, true 2nd grade stuff that's nowhere near as nasty as some of the hate mail I used to get back in the 00's BAC (Before Anonymous Commenting) -- the absolute finest examples of which, by the way, I've included in my book, "The Daring Spectacle." It's something to see.
But this time, because this message keeps trumpeting the same old childish cliches about San Francisco in particular and blue state values in general, it caused me to actually do something I haven't done since Glenn Beck was knee-high to a crocodile tear...
I paused. Just before I hit the delete key, I actually stopped and wondered: What would happen if I did something I simply never do, and actually tried to engage this person, just a little, to speak to him with reason and tact, try to show him some facts and actual data, recent studies and long-term reports that prove, once again and for the 100th time, that the infamous "blue state" values -- particularly those about family and family structure -- that they so fear and abhor are, well, actually some of the most stable and healthiest in the country?
What if I were to trot out the irrefutable stats about, say, education levels, or teen pregnancy rates, or abortion? How about college graduation rates, marriage stability, or even adoption? What about general health? Obesity? What if I were to casually mention, with sufficient factual backup, how blue states tend to trounce nearly every red state across the board in these key markers?
Would it matter? Would the spittle-flecked bipeds who write to me (or comment down below) and misspell "commy" and "sodimite" listen or care in the slightest? I already know the answer.
But I paused on this piece of mail because I had just finished a fine article that discussed a new book, "Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture," written by a pair of typical elitist academic types the Tea Party crowd is so scared of (we hippies call these types "professors") detailing, in essence, how the "family values" that the red states so desperately cling to like drowning monkeys are exactly the ones that are undermining and sabotaging family stability in the first place. In other words, "family values" are the bane of family values. Did you already know? Of course you did.
Examples? Legion. You've probably already read about teen pregnancy rates in relation to religious belief (ref: this terrific piece from the New Yorker). It's a simple enough equation: the more religiously conservative a given state is, the more it's guaranteed to be lacking in quality sex education, easy access to -- and information about -- contraception and women's health, and the more it tends to wallow in fear of sex, the body and the stickier dynamics of human relationships.
Upshot: As the strict, antiquated religious codes of these states fail -- as they have for millennia -- a far higher number of those states' sad, uninformed teenaged girls get knocked up, marry far too young, get divorced, never get a real education, earn low wages and generally contribute to every unpleasant and downward spiraling statistic in America, right along with the slumpy males. Yay family values!
Check it: "Six of the seven states with the lowest divorce rates in 2007, and all seven with the lowest teen birthrates in 2006, voted blue in both elections. Six of the seven states with the highest divorce rates in 2007, and five of the seven with the highest teen birthrates, voted red."
With numbers like that, it's hard not to shudder in frustration, hit with an urge to hurl this information all over Fox News and the fundamentalist lintballs from the far right.
Let's pose it this way: Do you want a stable family, low divorce rate, low abortion rate, low teen pregnancy, an emphasis on intelligence, maturity and higher education? Would you like to more fully engage in the information economy, get a good job with high wages, live healthier and more spiritually free? Don't move to Alaska, or Kansas, or Texas, or any of the states so wildly drunk on "family values," silly. You go blue all the way. I mean, isn't it obvious?
(Did I mention how San Francisco was just rated the leanest city in the nation by Men's Health magazine, an admittedly mindless ranking, but still somewhat telling, especially considering Texas is home to five of the fattest cities on Earth? It's true. San Francisco is looking damn good in those jeans. Though that's probably just because we get the best cocaine and MDMA. Shhh.)
Of course, the instant I considered sending the depressed haters of me, you, this city, all "blue state" values a link to this or any of the other fine articles detailing the utter failure and bassackwardness of conservative "family values" mindsets, I just laughed and sighed and reached for my mug of analterrorist sexcoffee, remembering quite well my own hard-fought advice, dispersed not long ago.
It was a column titled, if you will, "How to talk to complete idiots" (also featured in the book, btw), which details the tragic failure of facts, science and research in the face of those real red state values, such as hysteria, alarmism and a childlishly literal interpretation of wonky Christian mythology.
But it gets better: Because even if they accept the data as partly true, the typical red state reaction is to argue that the real reason teen pregancy, abortion, divorce and so on are far worse in the "family values" states is not because the rules and religions are flawed and outdated, but because they aren't being enforced strictly enough. And for that, they blame ... you guessed it ... the liberals.
Ah, disingenuous doublethink. It's a family value.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/05/12/notes051210.DTL#ixzz0nlogFxPX
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