Aug
28
Read between the lines here in this interesting story on Barack Obama’s reaction to watching Hillary Clinton’s rousing speech Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Hillary pulled out all the stops and rallied the party faithfull to unite under Obama’s flag. And he sounded… well, a bit arrogant, as if he was thinking, “The little lady finally admitted who’s boss.”
Aug
28
The photograph you see here is of activist Del Martin, right, and her partner, Phyllis Lyon, after they were married at San Francisco City Hall on June 16 by the city’s mayor, Gavin Newsom. Tears fill the eyes of the friends who gathered to witness the ceremony. Together for 55 years, Martin and Lyon legally wed in California on the very day that the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning the ban on gay marriage went into effect.
“These are two extraordinary people who have lived extraordinary lives,” Newsom said. “They have spent a half-century fighting for equality.”
Yesterday, Martin, a pioneer of lesbian rights, passed away in a the hospice unit of UC San Francisco Medical Center after a long period of failing health. She was 87.
“We would not have marriage equality in California if it weren’t for Del and Phyllis,” U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “They fought and triumphed in many battles. . . . Through it all, their love and commitment to each other was an inspiration to all who knew them.”
My last floor-hockey game is tonight. Last week was our first playoff game, and we won! (Our first win of the season; it was awesome!) I have high hopes for tonight’s game. Wish us luck!
Aug
27
Usain Bolt of Jamaica and his teammate Asafa Powell just before their record-breaking win in the 4×100 relay. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
This blog has been unusually quiet as the Olympics have unfolded in Beijing, possibly because we’re in the midst of a busy time at work again, but also possibly because I don’t own a TV. So while I’ve been keeping tabs on Canada’s medal count online, I’ve missed watching the greatest moments, including Jamaica’s record-breaking sprinters, 41-year-old swimmer Dara Torres’s silver finish and Canada’s own Olympic triumphs.
But as we were discussing the Games in the office, my cubicle neighbour (and Chatelaine’s fabulous home editor), Virginie, wondered how the rankings would look if countries’ populations were taken into account. So I did a few fancy mathematical calculations (my dad would be proud) to find out how a handful of countries really scored:
1. Jamaica: 0.00000214 gold medals (13th in the actual standings)
2. Georgia: 0.00000065
3. Slovakia: 0.00000055 (25th)
4. Kenya: 0.00000037
5. South Korea: 0.00000026
6. United States: 0.00000021 (2nd)
7. Germany: 0.00000019
8. Russia: 0.00000016 (3rd)
9. Canada: 0.00000009
10. China: 0.00000004 (1st)
Go Jamaica! Did you watch the Olympics? What were your favourite moments?
I like Michelle Obama. She’s a successful, educated women who stands shoulder to shoulder with her husband, instead of behind him. I thought it was clever of her, last night, at the Democratic National Convention, to salute her husband’s bitter primary rival when she praised “people like Hillary Clinton, who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling so that our daughters and sons can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher.” Of course, the line was calculated to mend the rift between Obama and Clinton supporters — and bring more women to Obama’s camp. It probably worked to do just that.
I like Mrs. Obama, much more, frankly, than I admire and trust her husband, who always seems a bit too caught up in the perfume of his own rhetoric. She feels more substantial than him — heavier, in that sense.
But above all, I feel for Senator Hillary Clinton, who takes the convention podium tonight. Can anyone deny that she was given a rough go as a woman in this race? She was villified routinely. She was skewered by the Obama camp itself, which apparently still can’t help itself. According the the site Politico.com, one Obama supporter is comparing Clinton’s aides to “Japanese soldiers in the South Pacific still fighting after the war is over.”
Ultimately, Obama gave Clinton no consideration as a VP candidate, a position that many, many women voters feel she won the right to claim. And yet tonight she is set to take stage and urge people to support her rival, for the sake of the Democratic Party’s unity.
I wish Barack Obama had given her a bit more respect.
