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Thursday, January 27, 2005

Local News
Posted by Jill | 9:19 AM
The two big stories so far this week in the New York metro area are Saturday's subway fire, which has knocked out the 8th Avenue local C service, and most of the express A service for the foreseeable future, and the steel cage match between Richard Codey, the acting NJ governor, and one whopping asshole of a morning shock jock.

Some people, who thanks to the relentless fearmongering of the Bush Administration, see terrorism around every corner, believe that the fire in a signal room which knocked out service, was the work of Al Qaeda. I'm not ridiculing such people; I think it's a sad commentary that after three years, relentless fearmongering on the part of the Administration, and a war in Iraq that the so-called President said would make us safe, terror of terrorism has wormed its way into people's consciousness to such a degree that any time something goes wrong, terrorism is the first thing people think of. Yes, there are terrorists, and yes, we may be attacked again, but sometimes Shit Just Happens.

Meanwhile, Mahablog analyzes the way the wingnut Wall Street Journal editorial page has found a way to blame the problem on liberals, at a time when a Republican governor of New York is skimping on mass transit maintenance. But here's probably the best quote from the piece, which probably explains the only partially rational fear that turns a garden-variety switching fire on a cold weekend into a certainty that last weekend Al Qaeda operatives were prowling through the subway tunnels:

To be a rightie is to harbor a sick, irrational hatred all manner of random things -- France, strong women, endangered species, the environment in general, and New York City, among other things. My hypothesis is that righties fear anything they can't control, and they hate whatever it is they fear.


Meanwhile, across the Hudson, acting governor Richard Codey finds himself getting some ink about his minor and nonphysical altercation with a local radio shock jock.

It seems that on Monday, 101.5 AM shock jock Craig Carton said, "'What Governor Codey ought to do is approve the use of medical marijuana so women can have a joint and relax instead of putting their babies in a microwave. Then all they want to do is cook Doritos. Women who claim they suffer from this postpartum depression ... they must be crazy in the first place.'"

Some background: Codey's wife has battled depression, including postpartum depression. She has been open about this, using her experiences to try to educate people about depression. The governor has made mental health reform a priority during his administration, however long it turns out to be, with Sen Jon Corzine planning to run against him.

Codey showed up Tuesday night for an appearance on a program on the station, and confronted Carton. "I said that if I weren't governor, I'd take him outside as a result of the remarks he made about my wife," Codey explained Wednesday.

Now Carton is talking about suing the governor for "making terroristic threats."

Anything for publicity, I guess.

When I posted about the teddybears in straitjackets, I took no end of guff from people who obviously read neither my post nor the article. The wingnuts assumed I was joining the political correctness crowd, and the lefties thought I was hurting the progressive cause by even passing on the information. One can argue about whether plush toys that one doesn't have to buy constitute offensiveness, but here you have a situation in which a shock jock is making nasty remarks about someone's family member, and then screams bloody murder when that person defends said family member's honor. Sure it's free speech, and sure he has the right to say whatever he wants. But in my view, if Carton thinks this makes him a big man because he's poking fun at a problem someone has had the courage to be up front about, he's wrong. It only makes him a punk.
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