Glad to see she got a 9 out of 10 (and that Lee got an 8 – you know how we feel about him).

And like you, Siobhan (and Lee) is my reason for watching/caring at all this season.

Just look at Jonathan Slavin. The man is playing a stright scientist when he acts completely gay and you don’t believe Slavin acting one fucking beat. Guess what? That’s not because the man is gay, it’s because he is an awful actor!

Here’s my take. I actually think the President responded well to this story by criticzing the police, although I fault the judgment of the particular police officer, not the police force as a whole. And today I learned that the officer, Sargent Crowley, has taught law enforcement how to avoid racial profiling for five years, which makes me wonder where his good judgment went. I understand what you are saying about not finding fault, yet at the same time, race is all intertwined in this story. For one, I have doubts the neighbor would’ve called if the owner of the house was white and she saw two white guys trying to open the jammed door. I don’t really fault the neighbor, although it’s odd that she didn’t know her own neighbor. Judging from the photos, this happened in daylight, so it’s not like she couldn’t see clearly who the people were. But anyway, I have doubts the cop would’ve responded in exactly the same way to the person who answered the door, if that person was white. In other words, would the officer have assumed that the guy answering the door is a suspect, or the owner of the house? That’s where we disagree. You think this isn’t a race issue, saying that it would still happen if Gates was white, but I disagree. Even if the suspects were white, I think if Mr. Gates was a white man answering the door of his own house, the officer would assume that he was the owner of the house. There is no way to know for sure how this would play out, but I wouldn’t automatically assume it would play out the same. I don’t draw conclusions either that President Obama only has your back if you’re black, (or brown).

The main problem I have with this is that after if was established that Mr Gates was in fact the owner of the house, 1.)the cop refused to give his name and badge number when asked, and 2.) There were charges against Gates, (although they were finally dropped on Tuesday, which was five days after the incident, and 3.) the cop refused to apologize for the siuation, even after a week, and even after the charges were dropped, and 4.) the cop arrested and handcuffed a 5′6″, 150 black man who needs a cane to walk, because he was angry and “disturbing the peace” and “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior, in a public place”. I don’t get how someone’s front porch qualifies as a public place, and since when is being rightfully upset and critical of police action a reason for arrest?
Granted I wasn’t there, but I don’t think that was a necessary action for the cop to take. It was extreme to arrest and handcuff a small black man in his own home after he already proved he was the owner and wasn’t getting an apology or identification from the cop. And Crowley is still sticking with “I won’t apologize because I don’t believe I need to apologize for anything.” If he admitted he made a mistake and offered an apology, I’d rethink things, but for now he comes off as an arrogant asshole.

I think it’s wonderful that a person of color became President (and yeah, it bothered me somewhat to refer to President Obama as black, since he’s actually interracial). But I don’t think his ethnicity should shield him from complaints.

And when it comes to equal rights, the whole “I’ve suffered more than you” argument is ridiculous. I have to be honest. What I posted was very toned down from what I originally wrote. I’m not crazy about sports commentators telling me that their civil rights are more important than mine because 150 years ago some people thought slavery was cool.

Peace