Month: April 2005

Categories
Opinion

News You Might Have Missed

Juries can’t understand complex cases, right? And juries make ridiculously large punitive awards in civil cases that are invariably reduced on appeal, right?

Both of these platitudes were put in doubt this week when Medtronic, the parent company of Memphis-based Sofamor-Danek, settled a lawsuit over patents on back-surgery products by paying a California doctor $1.35 billion.

Last summer and fall, the case of Dr. Gary Michelson against Medtronic was tried in U.S. District Court in Memphis. During the three-month trial, jurors sifted through scores of complex technical drawings and documents. After long deliberations, they awarded Michelson $110 million in compensatory awards and, following two more weeks of deliberations, another $400 million in punitive damages.

If you only read simplistic editorials and listened to talking-head rants about tort reform, you’d have thought this was yet another outrageous jury award. On Monday, however, it was reported that Medtronic settled for an amount more than double the jury award. As described in The Wall Street Journal this week, Michelson is a 56-year-old triathlete and weight lifter who holds more than 600 patents. The agreement gives Medtronic exclusive rights to those patents and any future spinal inventions by Michelson for the next 15 years. Medtronic acquired Sofamor-Danek in 1999.

• Things I never thought I would read in our daily newspaper: a front-page story on Viagra and erectile dysfunction including this quote from advertising and public relations expert John Malmo:

“In all of history there’s probably never been a four-hour erection. It’s the most incredible product claim without actually making a claim I’ve ever seen.”

The reference, of course, was to Pfizer’s cute, family-friendly television advertising disclaimer.

John Malmo, meet Bill Boner, former mayor of Nashville. In 1990, Boner dumped his third wife to marry country singer Traci Peel. As reported in newspapers from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., Peel told a reporter that Boner could perform nonstop for seven hours. The claim was later put in doubt by, among others, Peel herself, but who really knows? Does Malmo have any more evidence to back up his claim than Pfizer has to back up its claim? An amplification, if not an outright correction, would seem to be warranted.

Or at least investigative reporting and more front-page stories on this important issue.

• Speaking of incredible product claims: Albert Means wasn’t drafted when the National Football League held its annual player draft last weekend. Means played for the University of Memphis after graduating from Trezevant High School and knocking the Southern college football scene into a tizzy.

According to local sportswriters, boosters, and high school football coach Lynn Lang, Means was the greatest defensive lineman since Mean Joe Green and Big Daddy Lipscomb. He was “slave auctioned” to the University of Alabama at the direction of Lang and booster Logan Young. Or so the story went. In a period of insanity, state and federal prosecutors were swayed by this nonsense and filed criminal charges against Lang and Young instead of letting the NCAA administer justice.

The rest was farce. Means was no better than average; if he makes the pros, it will be as a long-shot free agent. Lang was the federal government’s star witness in Young’s trial earlier this year. Lang got a no-prison sentence based partly on erroneous information about his job status in his probation report. Young was convicted and is to be sentenced in June. He should also get probation and a refund of the $120,000 he paid for Means.

• A Commercial Appeal story about potential Memphis mayoral candidates in 2007 (!) was a puzzler. It included former MLGW president Herman Morris, who has a political tin ear, avoids interviews, and lost his only political race when he ran for City Council against Tom Marshall several years ago. Marshall, on the other hand (who was not mentioned), is an often-quoted councilman, a political veteran, and a compromiser on the council.

It’s probably too early, but consideration should be given to the Memphian who holds the same job that propelled Willie Herenton to the mayor’s office: city schools superintendent Carol Johnson.

• Pay package of the year? Regions Financial CEO-to-be Jackson Moore received more than $27 million in tax reimbursement payments last year. Moore, a Memphian, was a top executive at Union Planters Bank which merged with Regions last year. The deal to pay his taxes was part of his employment agreement with UP between 1989 and 2004. A Regions spokesman was quoted as saying, “It’s a large number, there’s no doubt about it.” •

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Kung Fool

Kung Fu Hustle is a genuinely sweet fable wrapped in layer after ridiculous layer of unadulterated kung foolishness.

Filmed on huge sound stages, Kung Fu Hustle is also a grand and beautifully made essay on the history of physical comedy in film with nods to Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Sergio Leone, Bollywood, Warner Bros. cartoons, A Clockwork Orange, the Coen Brothers, Terry Gilliam, The Shining, Shogun, West Side Story, Spider-man, The Silence of the Lambs, every Chinese folk tale ever told, and every 1970s-era martial-arts flick ever shot by the Shaw Brothers. That may sound like an awful lot of homage crammed into a 95-minute movie, but in this campy, action-packed ode to comic-book fatalism, nothing seems excessive or out of place.

Writer/director/star Stephen Chow’s understanding of cinematic language and his ability to use audio/visual cliché as a kind of shorthand makes English subtitles unnecessary. If the film were entirely wordless there would be no question as to what was going on, and the laughter would be every bit as pervasive.

Set in a squalid future where a gang of youthful, ax-throwing miscreants rules the streets as well as the halls of justice, Kung Fu Hustle imagines a topsy-turvy world where only the poverty-stricken Pig Sty Alley remains untouched by crime and relatively peaceful. Well, until a pair of bungling would-be criminals (Chow and Lam Tze Chung) show up trying to convince the Sty-dwellers that they are members of the ax-gang, accidentally setting into motion a classic battle between the unexpectedly good and the unimaginably wicked.

As a child, Sing (played by Chow) was conned by a street hustler, who took the youngster’s life savings in exchange for a worthless dimestore book about kung fu and some mystical-sounding gobbledygook about how Sing has been chosen as the protector of all mankind. The young Sing’s first attempt to do good by saving a little deaf girl’s lollypop from older ruffians goes badly, and though he saves the lollypop, he takes a beating and suffers a humiliation so terrible he’s determined never to do good again. The lollypop functions as a motif as innocent and sweet as Chaplin’s flower in City Lights, which is the obvious inspiration for Kung Fu Hustle‘s backstory. The second time the fateful lollypop appears now old and crusty there can be little doubt that Sing’s latent heroism will reemerge.

Even without Sing, Pig Sty Alley is well-protected by a quintet of unlikely kung fu masters: a gay tailor, a humble noodle maker, a lowly coolie, a skinny landlord, and his shrewish wife. If Kung Fu Hustle has a moral, it’s that value lurks in the least-obvious places and that those who don’t measure up against the status quo are in no way diminished by their artificially imposed shortcomings.

Yuen Qiu is hysterical as Pig Sty Alley’s exceptionally loud muumuu-and slipper-wearing landlady. Qiu is never seen without a cigarette dangling from her lips, and the way she moves it from one side of her mouth to the other without ever touching it with her hands is a masterful exercise in physical comedy the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the end of the silent era.

Many critics have already labeled Kung Fu Hustle as a live-action cartoon, which is accurate but only to a degree. While there are many comic elements lifted directly from the Chuck Jones playbook, and there are certainly times when the plot seems to mimic exactly the classic encounters of Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, this isn’t some vapid Jim Carrey vehicle with a Mandarin accent. In spite of its animated antecedents, Kung Fu Hustle is more informed by Chaplin’s City Lights, Keaton’s The General, and Harold Lloyd’s famous “glasses character” than it is as Roger Ebert has suggested by Bugs Bunny. For that matter, Chow’s visual style owes more to the surrealist painter Rene Magritte, and to Big Lebowski-era Coen Brothers than it does to “Merrie Melodies” or even the tradition of kung fu action movies.

As wrongs are righted through a series of absurd and magical conflicts between the unlikely good guys and the forces of darkness, Kung Fu Hustle becomes a smart, subtle, and artfully produced answer to a rather obnoxious staple of cable television: the 1980s teen romp Revenge of the Nerds. In Chow’s universe, all things stylish, glamorous, and expensive are inextricably bound up in villainy, while beauty is hidden behind thick glasses and heroism is only fostered by the school of hard knocks. If Kung Fu Hustle is ultimately an exercise in absurdity, it is also a love song to underdogs and a strong warning to oppressors everywhere: There are a lot of poor, downtrodden people in the world and their kung fu is better than yours. •

Categories
News The Fly-By

ENLIST FRIST

In March, Tennessee senator and notorious kitty vivisectionist Dr. Bill Frist met with several evangelical Christian leaders who have been working with G.O.P. lawmakers to ensure that our federal courts are stacked top to bottom with cat-hating conservative judges. The evangelicals have also been exploring ways to punish sitting jurists and even entire courts for being too liberal. Now it would appear that they are also plotting a violent campaign against felines and have called upon the services of a man who knows a thing or two about murdering the cute little critters.

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, told Frist, “and there’s more than one way to take a black robe off the bench.”

Please note the order of priorities and keep family pets off the street at night. — Chris Davis

Plante: How It Looks

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Crisis of Faith

So far, most American media outlets seem to be walking on eggshells to avoid tough coverage of the new pope. Caution is in the air, and some of it is valid. Anti-Catholic bigotry has a long and ugly history in the United States. News organizations should stay away from disparaging the Catholic faith, which certainly deserves as much respect as any other religion.

At the same time, the Vatican is a massive global power. Though it has no army, it is more powerful than many governments. And these days, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church is the capital of political reaction garbed in religiosity. Many dividing lines between theology and ideology have virtually disappeared.

After more than two decades as a Vatican power broker, Joseph Ratzinger is now in charge as Pope Benedict XVI. He is extremely well-positioned to push a long-standing agenda that includes hostility toward AIDS prevention measures, women’s rights, gay rights, and movements for social justice. No one in the hierarchy was more vehemently opposed to condoms, this, while millions of people contracted cases of AIDS that could have been prevented.

During the 1980s, it was Ratzinger who led the charge from Rome against the wondrous spirit and vibrant activism that galvanized Catholics and others across Latin America. While many priests, nuns, and laity bravely joined together to challenge U.S.-backed regimes inflicting economic exploitation, intimidation, torture, and murder with impunity, Ratzinger used the Vatican’s authority to undermine such community-based resistance. He silenced outspoken church officials and installed orthodox clergy who would go along with the deadly status quo.

For right-wing religious activists, Ratzinger has been a godsend. And now that he’s running a church with 1.1 billion members, the odds are excellent that he will proceed to gladden the hearts of misogynists, homophobes, and right-wing crusaders around the world. Contrary to the predictable media spin about the uncertainty of his papal course, everything we know about Ratzinger’s extensive record during the last quarter-century tells us that he is a reactionary zealot who is determined to shove much of the history of progressive social change into reverse. He is a true believer.

The new papacy is a huge gift to the minority of conservatives in the United States who are trying to impose their version of morality on the country and the world.

Soon after the 2000 presidential election, an astute analyst of far-right religious movements, Frederick Clarkson, wrote that “both the evangelical and Catholic Right are developing and promoting a long-term, fundamental approach to the practice of faith that links political involvement with faith itself. ” Clarkson added that “a shift in the political culture suggests that personal and unedited expressions of religious belief for political purposes are no longer considered unseemly. Indeed, the suggestion is that they are beyond reproach.”

And that’s much of the problem. When debatable positions are “beyond reproach” — when religiosity provides cover for all manner of manipulations and repression — it’s easier for demagogic power-mongers to get away with murder.

Journalists should not let pious proclamations intimidate them. When the policies of a president or prime minister result in suppression of human rights or fuel public-health disasters, the news media should not hesitate to expose the consequences. And the policies of a pope should be no less scrutinized. •

Norman Solomon’s latest book, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, will be published this summer.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Change of Course

Two issues before the Shelby County Commission at its regular Monday meeting indicated that the body, faced with a worsening budget crunch and other discontents, may be ready for a sea change or two.

One controversy welled up over what, in other times, would have been the routine nomination of two members to the Memphis and Shelby County Development Corporation — Frank Ryburn, an existing member, and Tony Thompson III.

But Commissioner Julian Bolton objected to the appointments — maintaining that the quasi-public corporation had been profligate in extending PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) arrangements to a variety of industries and that this, at a time of severe budgetary pressures on schools, jails, and other county-funded services, was costing taxpayers “hundreds of millions of dollars” unnecessarily.

Kelly Rayne, legal adviser to Mayor A C Wharton, insisted that the mayor’s office was sensitive to such concerns and was conducting a “pilot study” to review the procedures for granting PILOT arrangements — especially with regard to shifting the emphasis from suburban sites to potential in-city businesses and industries. “We wanted to be more comprehensive and less piecemeal about it,” Rayne said.

“We don’t need a study to make a decision,” Bolton objected. “With just a cursory review, you will see it’s out of whack.” In the time it took to conduct such a study, he said, another “50 or 60 million” taxpayer dollars would be expended. “That’s how fast it’s going.”

Vice Chairman Tom Moss, acting as commission chairman in the absence of current chair Michael Hooks, expressed agreement with Bolton’s concerns but suggested that holding up on the renomination of Ryburn and the nomination of Thompson would not have any effect on the process.

Ultimately, in two close votes, the commission upheld the two appointments, but the unexpectedly spirited discussion that had welled up indicated that a full review of PILOT procedures, long held out as bait to attract and keep industry, was in store.

As David Lillard, generally a supporter of PILOT arrangements and a supporter of the appointment resolution, said: “Let’s roll up our sleeves and get into it.”

The other issue was a vindication of sorts for John Willingham, a Republican member who, like Democrat Bolton (whose objections to the PILOT procedures he shares), has often found himself on the short end of controversial votes but keeps trying.

For some time, Willingham, whose 2002 election owed much to his opposition to the deal that brought the NBA Grizzlies to Memphis and got the FedExForum built, has been struggling to subject that contract to a full review.

On Monday, he got the commission’s backing with an 11-0 vote in support of a resolution by himself and Walter Bailey, another longtime skeptic concerning the complex of arrangements surrounding the Forum and the Grizzlies.

The resolution would begin a grievance procedure, allowable under terms of the Grizzlies’ contract with the city and county, by which certain issues — financial ones and other matters, notably that of the no-compete-clause which gives the Grizzlies’ management de facto control over bookings at other local arenas — might be renegotiated.

For his pains, Willingham has drawn some add-on hurt in the form of declared opponent Mike Carpenter, governmental liaison for the Associated Builders and Contractors. In Nashville this week to promote a bill favored by his association, Carpenter was apprised of Willingham’s frequently voiced — and evidently quite sincere — question: “Why does Mike Carpenter want to run against me?”

Asked about that, Carpenter laughed. “I want a seat on the commission,” he answered. Then, more earnestly, he proceeded to spell out some other motives: “I just disagree with John about a number of things. He was elected on a no-tax platform and promptly started voting for taxes. He proposed a payroll tax, he voted for a property tax increase, and he voted to support a real-estate transfer tax.”

(The latter tax — which requires action by the General Assembly — was endorsed by 10 other members of the commission, more or less to back up Shelby County mayor A C Wharton, its chief sponsor, and was forwarded to Nashville without a dissenting vote.)

Carpenter said he was also opposed to Willingham’s ideas of turning The Pyramid into a casino.

The challenger has a fund-raiser scheduled for next month that has some name sponsors. Among them: consultant David Perdue, longtime GOP eminence Lewis Donelson, former Republican chairman David Kustoff, city councilman Brent Taylor, and legislators Paul Stanley and Bubba Pleasant.

• Presuming that Marilyn Loeffel, the soon-to-be-term-limited county commissioner, is still interested in running next year for Shelby County clerk, she won’t have a free run at it.

Debbie Stamson, wife of Juvenile Court clerk Steve Stamson and a longtime employee of the county clerk’s office, announced this week that she will run for the clerk’s job, held by Jayne Creson, who has said she will retire.

Stamson’s election next year, if it comes to pass, would create the first husband-and-wife pair of clerks to serve in Shelby County government.

• Governor Phil Bredesen last week announced the appointment of Memphis attorney Jerry Stokes to succeed the recently retired George H. Brown Jr. as Circuit Court judge in division 6. Stokes, who has practiced law since 1981 with the Stokes, Wilson and Wright law firm, has also worked since 1998 as a part-time assistant divorce referee for Shelby County. In 2003-2004, he received the highest rating among divorce referees (8.9 out of 10) in a survey commissioned by the Memphis and Shelby County Bar Association. •

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Wonders on Wheels

“We are going to kick them in the teeth right when they walk through the door.”

Sounds like Glen Campbell, vice president of the Wonders Series, is preparing for a rumble at the “Art of the Motorcycle” show, on display at The Pyramid through October 30th. Actually, he’s talking about the striking design of the exhibition, which features some 100 motorcycles from around the world, from a steam-powered 1884 Copeland to a Viking-inspired 2004 Honda Rune.

“It’s an avant-garde art exhibit, the kind of thing you might see in San Francisco or New York, but you’ve never seen this in Memphis before. Motorcycles are like sculptures in steel, rubber, and chrome, and we’ve displayed them like that,” says Campbell.

But a Wonders show devoted to motorcycles?

Well, it worked before. “Art of the Motorcycle” was originally produced in 1998 by the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, displaying more than 100 motorcycles from around the world. Considered a groundbreaking show for an art museum, it set new attendance records for the Guggenheim and then traveled to Chicago, Bilbao, Spain, and Las Vegas.

Memphis was going to be part of that exhibition tour, but because of scheduling problems, the show would have opened here in the winter –not a good time to host it, particularly when many visitors might ride in on two wheels.

But the staff at Wonders remained in touch with the Guggenheim Foundation. “Eventually we worked out a deal where we would essentially reconstitute the show,” Campbell says. “It would follow the same guidelines, the same curatorial intent, and the same concepts.”

The Memphis show, however, doesn’t include the same motorcycles. In fact, only five of the bikes from the original show are in this exhibit. When the Guggenheim exhibition ended, those bikes were returned to their owners. Wonders borrowed this exhibit’s bikes from collectors and museums throughout the United States and Canada.

The collection embraces the complete history of motorcycles, ranging from the Copeland steamer with a top speed of 12 mph (“Can you imagine riding something while sitting on a hot boiler about to explode?” asks Campbell) to a 1991 Suzuki Hayabusa that can take riders to a pulse-pounding 193 mph. In between, there are motorcycles from France (an 1897 Leon Bollée), the United Kingdom (a 1905 Royal Riley with a wicker sidecar, a 1929 Excelsior Super X, and a 1929 Scott Super Squirrel once owned by Steve McQueen), Italy (a 1927 Moto Guzzi and a 1956 Aermacchi Chimera), Germany (a 1942 KS-750 complete with machine gun mounted on the sidecar), Spain (a 1972 Bultaco 250 dirt bike), and even New Zealand (a 1994 Britten V1000 that had a top speed of 186 mph).

Memphis is represented by two bikes owned by Elvis Presley — a 1965 Honda Dream and a striking maroon-and-white 1957 Harley-Davidson. Elvis later sold the Harley to a friend, who held onto it all these years. One of the Wonders docents was overheard telling a group of visitors, “And a while back, he sold it to Graceland for $300,000.” Wonders won’t discuss the costs of some of these machines, but you get the idea.

Campbell understands that not everyone is fascinated by the roar of a mighty V-twin motorcycle — even one owned by the King of Rock-and-Roll:

“But I think this show will appeal to a lot of people. After all, we’ve had visitors who didn’t know anything about ancient China or the Medicis but almost universally loved the exhibits. The way we do it, the way we explain it, makes it work for the visitor who may not have a background in that particular subject.”

The motorcycles are arranged chronologically, each one mounted on a wooden or metal platform and illuminated by spotlights. An acoustiguide narrated by Tonight show host (and avid motorcyclist) Jay Leno tells the story behind each bike. It’s too bad, though, that “Do Not Touch” signs are mounted on each platform, because it’s tempting to hop aboard. What would it be like, one wonders, to hurtle down the road at 100 mph on a 1914 Cyclone — a ride made all the more thrilling since that machine, designed for track racing, didn’t have any brakes.

A red ribbonlike roadway (“sort of our version of the yellow brick road,” explains Campbell) twists through the exhibition. Along the way, text panels set each grouping of bikes within their historical context, and huge blowups of images from such classic films as The Wild One, The Matrix, and Easy Rider show the motorcycle’s role in popular culture.

The star-spangled “Captain America” chopper from Easy Rider is here — sort of. The original, considered one of the most famous motorcycles of all time, mysteriously disappeared before the 1969 film was released. But an accurate reproduction is on display, set off from the rest of the bikes by a mesh curtain — the motorcycle world’s version of the Mona Lisa.

Helping Wonders chief curator Stevel Masler acquire all the bikes were Ed Youngblood, who served 19 years as president and CEO of the American Motorcylist Association, and Pete Gagan, president of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America.

Gagan brought five machines from his own collection to Memphis. He participated in the original Guggenheim show and is enthusiastic about the Memphis version. “I think this is a wonderful exhibition,” he says. “The architects [Memphis’ Hnedak Bobo Group] have done a fabulous job laying it out, and the Wonders people have been great. This is the first time a show like this has appeared in the South, and there’s a lot of motorcycle enthusiasts down here who will want to see it.” •

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Candyland

Approach this business via Carolina Street, and you may drive right by. The white metal building, with its loading docks and accompanying big rigs, blends right in with all the other warehouses in south downtown.

Take Second Street, however, and you can’t miss the giant red letters spelling “Wayne’s Candy Company” painted across the side of the building. It’s those letters, according to Vice President Dave Wilkes, that draw customers into Wayne’s massive showroom, where bulk candy is sold at discount prices.

Inside, there’s enough candy to give all the kids in Memphis a sugar rush that would last well into the next year. If candy isn’t enough, customers can also buy pickles, potato chips, beef jerky, frozen popsicles, and sno-cone syrup.

“Throughout the course of a year, we offer 2,000 to 3,000 products,” says Wilkes. “We deal a lot in close-outs where the company we buy from may only have 20 cases of an item and then it’s gone. Those close-out items are sold very cheap.”

Wayne’s Candy Company, founded in 1946, is a family business in the truest sense. Wilkes and his brother, Gary, inherited the business from their father, Wayne, who died in 1999. The brothers grew up helping out around the warehouse. When there was downtime, Wayne would allow the boys to build forts using the cardboard boxes the candy was shipped in.

Their father began selling neckties and watermelons at age 9 to support his family after his own father’s death. As the oldest son, he had to play dad to his younger siblings, and he was forced to drop out of school.

“He hitchhiked to Memphis in the mid-1930s, and he only had a dime to his name,” says Wilkes. “He bought the driver some coffee and pie with it.”

Once he arrived, Wayne borrowed $60 from his brother who worked at a bakery. He put $40 down on a truck and bought cookies, peanuts, and snack foods with the remainder of the money. He sold the products, bought more, and eventually built a business that way.

“He was operating at a place across from where the Blue Monkey is now, and it was so tiny, they called it the piano box,” Wilkes says. “He had to expand and move to this location in 1954, and my mom told him he’d never fill this place up.” (The company has had to expand four times to make room for all their stock.)

“It’s still an old-time family business,” Wilkes says. “My nephew works here, and so does my sister and also my niece, my aunt, and my uncle. At one time, my wife and sister-in-law worked here.”

The showroom, which was added in the 1970s, services mostly individual candy lovers and convenience-store owners who don’t need to order large amounts of candy. Wilkes says many walk-in customers come in to buy candy to fill their kids’ lunch boxes or the office candy dish.

But the real heart of the operation lies in distribution. Behind the showroom are four large warehouse rooms filled with towers of candy in cardboard boxes. Convenience stores, movie theaters, and candy shops throughout Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi get their sugar stash from Wayne’s. Wilkes says most of their clients are located within a 200-mile radius of Memphis.

That’s a lot of candy over a lot of miles, but the folks at Wayne’s don’t track inventory or do invoices with computers — just ink pens, paper, and the occasional smidgen of Wite-Out. Their philosophy: “When the stack looks low, order more.” •

Wayne’s Candy Company is located at 164 E. Carolina (527-4370). Showroom hours are 6 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6 to 9:45 a.m. Saturday.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Orwellian Developments

I was all set to write a column about the nuclear option — the proposal to change the rules of the Senate in order to get President Bush’s most questionable judicial appointments through — when, lo, word came that there is no nuclear option anymore. It is now called “the constitutional option.”

Who changed it? Why, the Republican Party, of course. Having found that “nuclear option” does not poll well, the Republicans simply decreed the rules change can no longer be described by that name. Further, the Republican Party sent media operatives around to major news organizations to inform them that anyone who fails to obey the new diktat on usage will be demonstrating the dread “liberal bias.”

Since this particularly fateful rules change was first christened “the nuclear option” by Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi in 2003 and has been called “the nuclear option” ever since — by Republicans, along with everybody else — I have to say this is a distinctly Orwellian development.

In fact, given the implicit threat that the Republican Party faithful will be encouraged to denounce all news outlets that do not conform to this new political correctness, I’d say it is not only ridiculous but also dangerous — quite a feat.

I shall, of course, continue to refer to the proposed change as the nuclear option out of a sense of obligation to freedom of speech. I would be shocked if anyone in the media did otherwise.

Now, back to substance. Americans are notoriously bored by governmental process. If you want to lose readers, just start a story with “House Bill 787 was passed out of subcommittee by a unanimous vote on Tuesday.” So, convincing folks that changing Senate Rule 22 is a danger to the republic is a challenge. But this really is about protecting the rights of the minority in the Senate, the right of every senator to filibuster.

In the old movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the key scene is Jimmy Stewart’s filibuster on behalf of the people, which triumphantly wins over his fellow senators. Under the changed rule, Mr. Smith would have to keep his mouth shut.

Actually, no one filibusters anymore. The last filibuster against a judicial nominee was in 1968, when the Republicans successfully filibustered for four days to stop Abe Fortas from becoming chief justice of the Supreme Court. These days, if there’s a serious threat of filibuster, the leaders broker a deal.

But the Democrats are threatening to filibuster the same Bush judicial nominees they busted in his first term, leaving the poor man with only a 95 percent approval rate for his nominees. Bush promptly renominated seven of these 10 dog judges, and now the Republicans are prepared to change the rules so they can be cleared by a simple majority, rather than winning the 60 votes needed to stop a filibuster.

Since what goes around comes around, some Republican senators are deeply troubled about the prospect of being in the minority themselves someday without the right to filibuster. Further, in order to change Rule 22, the Senate also has to change the rules on how to change the rules. At present, a two-thirds vote, 67, is required to change the rules, but under a procedural ploy, this will be brought up “out of order,” so it requires only 51 votes.

Look, this is a system of government based on protecting the rights of the minority. It is also based on the premise that there are three separate branches of government, each of which forms a check and a balance on the others. The system was carefully designed to prevent the dictatorship of the majority.

How God got involved in all this is a bit of a mystery. Some Christian Dominionists decided the Almighty is in favor of changing Rule 22. Led by James Dobson, who runs Focus on the Family, they decided 22 is “a filibuster against the faithful,” implying and in some cases stating that anyone who opposes them is anti-Christian and probably working for Satan.

Last time I checked, no one had elected Dobson to decide who is a Christian and who is not. It’s a joke that the right wing claims it is against “judicial activists.” What they want are judicial activists who agree with them. These people don’t want to govern, they want to rule. •

Molly Ivins writes for Creators Syndicate.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The RDC Responds

To the Editor:

The Riverfront Development Corporation was established as a result of several communitywide public forums, which affirmed that revitalization of the Memphis riverfront was an important priority for moving this city forward (“River of Dreams,” April 21st issue).

Having served first as a steering-committee member studying how best to begin riverfront improvements and now as the RDC’s founding chairman, I can assure you that our first task for the city of Memphis was to provide a higher level of service to the green spaces along the riverfront, attract more citizens to the area, and provide appropriate amenities.

We have achieved and maintain a high standard of excellence in caring for the parks. We have added canoe, kayak, and bicycle rentals to Mud Island River Park and started a walking club and overnight camping. Plus, we eliminated the admission fee to Mud Island.

The RDC is in fact doing more with less. The RDC is managing the riverfront at the same cost to the city as in 1999. At that time, riverfront costs had been escalating at a rate of 14 percent a year over the previous four years. Using that rate, the RDC has saved the city $3.9 million.

I do not believe that the citizens of this community want their riverfront to fall into disrepair. I believe this community wants a vibrant riverfront and that the vast majority of people support the RDC. We are working to maintain excellence in all that we do, and I believe the people enjoying the riverfront today expect just that.

John W. Stokes Jr., Chairman

Riverfront Development Corporation

God and Man

To the Editor:

In Charles Gillihan’s letter (April 21st issue), he states that God condemns nations and cultures that violate his ethical standards. I have studied theology a good bit, and all I have ever found in the Bible pertaining to government laws is that God says to obey the laws of your government, unless the laws do not allow you to worship him.

Gillihan states that comparing gay rights to civil rights is a fallacy because one is a behavior and the other is a race. Civil rights are not merely about race. They are about equality. Homosexuals are not solely defined by “certain sexual behaviors,” as Gillihan states, nor are black people solely defined by “the color of their skin.”

Is it right to grant one group of people civil rights and deny civil rights to another, for any reason?

What bothers me most about Gillihan’s letter is that he supports amending the Constitution to ban homosexual marriage for religious reasons. What if the people in power were not Christian? What if they were Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, or Muslim? Would Gillihan and others like him still support the idea of imposing religious laws?

Jesse Vance

Memphis

Thanks, Arianna

To the Editor:

Thanks to Arianna Huffington (News Analysis, April 21st issue) for trying to balance some of the exploitation of the pope’s death by the press.

It’s clear, now that the Karl Rove of Rome is the new pope, we shall see the entrenchment of the “one true” Church’s dogmatic absolutism. Sexual morality excludes everything except the missionary position (without birth control) within heterosexual marriage. Women, by God’s will, are unfit for Holy Orders. Clerical marriage would dilute the sanctity and dedication that celibacy “guarantees.” Homosexuality remains a moral disorder.

Welcome to the 19th century.

Ray Berthiaume

Memphis

Day of Reason?

To the Editor:

With the annual abuse of the Constitution that occurs with the federally supported National Day of Prayer approaching, nontheistic Americans have come up with a counter day of observance: the National Day of Reason. Both days will be celebrated on May 5th.

Anyone who has been paying attention to the news can attest to the intrusion of religious ideology into all departments of the American government:

The Federal Marriage Amendment would codify intolerance and obstruct civil liberties; restrictions are being put on scientific research and the reporting of scientific findings; attempts are routinely made to introduce creationism into science textbooks; battles are fought over displays of overtly religious icons in courthouses and public schools and on public lands; access to information about reproductive services and sexual health are restricted to “abstinence-only” programs.

Considering all this, the National Day of Reason on May 5th seems, well, reasonable.

Chris Stahl

Cordova

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We Recommend We Recommend

thursday, 28

The semifinals of Emergenza, an international battle of the bands, begins tonight at Young Avenue Deli and runs through Sunday. Former Memphian Steve Stern signs copies of his latest book, The Angel of Forgetfulness, at Burke’s Book Store, 5 to 7 p.m.