quote(s) of the day & etc.

"Oftentimes people ask me, 'Why is it that you're so focused on helping the hungry and diseased in strange parts of the world?'"
-our illustrious leader, 4/18/08

Paul Auster, much admired author (New York Trilogy, Moon Palace, Smoke, etc.), had quite a moving piece in today's Times commemorating the Columbia riots of 1968.

Yet another Supreme Court decision gone morally awry was, today, in the hands of the Senate. Last year, in a 5-4 decision, the Court decided against a woman by the name of Lilly Ledbetter in her attempt to wrangle equal pay for equal work from her employer, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. For years Lilly Ledbetter (I'm sometimes a sucker for alliteration) consistently received smaller pay raises than her male colleagues at Goodyear. There is, however, a 180-day statute on limitations for filing a discrimination claim and the Court, in all its brilliance, decided that the clock starts with the first injustice only, rather than the more logical clock-restart with every ensuing unjust paycheck.

There is an obvious flaw in this logic, at least if you give a damn about workers at all. As Justice Ginsburg pointed out in her dissent, salaries are often kept secret, or at least not often discussed, thus preventing employees from even being aware of the discrimination, possibly for many years, as in the Ledbetter case. But you know our Fave Five, always fighting for the big guy. The House passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act months ago in an attempt to clarify the law and right the Court's wrongs, but today it failed to muster the 60 Senate votes needed to withstand a Republican filibuster.

So ladies, when you start a new job, be sure to demand outright knowledge of everyone's salaries or you might get screwed.

And last, speaking of gender issues, I was annoyed beyond belief today at Maureen Dowd's atrocious piece (when will I learn to just, you know, stop reading her?), especially this:

"The Democrats are eager to move on to an Obama-McCain race. But they can’t because no one seems to be able to show Hillary the door."

What I find myself wanting to demand of dear Maureen, and of all the other pundits and laypeople alike making similar inane comments, is this: there is an undeniable flaw in your logic, in that millions of people keep voting for her. Unless you are suggesting that "The Democrats" do not in fact include these millions of people, including over 50% of the voters of Pennsylvania (and how elitist would that be?), shut the hell up already.

One small consolation, for me at least, is that last June's anti-Dowd diatribe continues to draw in random Googlers.