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Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
9:40 pm - Peter Vadala: The Gift That Keeps on Giving


I missed it the first time I watched his Fox & Friends interview but Peter Vadala's description of the affianced lesbian he harassed is priceless (2:19):
This homosexual or this person, this co-worker of mine, you know, who is struggling with this homosexual behavior continuously brought up references to her homosexual lifestyle by bringing up, you know, her homosexual fiancee.
Dude, she's marrying her partner. I think she's made her peace with it.


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9:12 am - In Defense of the Newsweek Cover


In June, RunnersWorld.com posted a five-page interview/seven-image photo spread on Sarah Palin. It was one of the longest interviews/features the famously press-shy Palin had ever done. She peppered the interview with stories of personal strength ("My hands just got torn up and I was dripping blood. In the debate you could see a big fat ugly Band-Aid on my right hand.") and now-familiar digs at her former handlers ("A great frustration I had during the campaign was when the McCain staff wouldn't carve out time for me to go for a run.") This exercise in post-election image rehabilitation was widely linked and praised in the Palinsphere.

Palin non-fans also linked the feature, mostly to laugh at the hilariously staged glam photos of Palin stretching and posing amidst Blackberries, babies and American flags. In August, the print edition of Runner's World featured a one-page condensation of the online feature with a URL for the multipage website edition.

This week Newsweek put the most ludicrously appointed of these photos on its cover. Therefore Palin must blame Newsweek and diminish the Runner's World feature (boldface mine):
The choice of photo for the cover of this week's Newsweek is unfortunate. When it comes to Sarah Palin, this "news" magazine has relished focusing on the irrelevant rather than the relevant. The Runner's World magazine one-page profile for which this photo was taken was all about health and fitness - a subject to which I am devoted and which is critically important to this nation. The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now. If anyone can learn anything from it: it shows why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, gender, or color of skin. The media will do anything to draw attention - even if out of context.

-Sarah Palin
Her supporters followed suit and, it should be noted, many on the left have also decried the cover as sexist. But it's not just a photo of Sarah Palin in running shorts. It's a meticulously staged, prop-laden work of image presentation in which Palin deliberately presents herself as a super patriot-super woman. It's unbelievable that any "serious" politician would willingly pose for such a picture. Forget Newsweek, this photo wasn't appropriate for Runner's World. (I couldn't believe it when I first saw it last summer; it looked like a photoshopped parody the opposition would've made.) It says a lot about Sarah Palin that she posed for and approved it and it's a perfect illustration for a critical Newsweek feature that touches on her style vs. substance. The photo's fair game.


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Monday, November 16th, 2009
2:00 pm - **BREAKING** Fox News Gets Fact Wrong **MUST CREDIT VOUCHER ANKLES**


Peter Vadala was on Fox News this morning and set a record for the number of times one can say "homosexual" in a three-minute segment. He also positioned his homophobia as "love." As with most coverage, Fox News ignored Vadala's and his employer's account of the incident and went with the myth that he was terminated for saying something about gay marriage. Maybe I'm reading into it, but he appeared to get on the nerves Fox and Friends interviewer Peter Johnson, Jr. The video can be seen at the bottom of this Raw Story article which references my earlier post.


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Sunday, November 15th, 2009
1:36 pm - Venture Brothers: The Revenge Society


Tonight at midnight on Adult Swim. Beware.


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Friday, November 13th, 2009
7:41 pm - Oh really?


I hear she has excellent negotiating skills. (Headline later sadly amended).


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11:00 am - Not to toot my own horn...
...but check out #26.


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Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
10:29 pm - Me Being Interviewed in a Bathtub



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Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
10:04 pm - Peter Vadala and the framing of the gay marriage debate
AOL News has picked up the FoxNews.com story about Peter Vadala. The headline is "Man Fired Over Gay Marriage Comment," which is how the story is being framed. That framing is incorrect.

There's no evidence that Peter Vadala said anything at all about gay marriage. From his account of the incident:
As the end of the day came, this manager from the other store, my superior, was about to leave and she brought up her so-called female fiance for the fourth time, at least the fourth time and I said to her, out of earshot of anybody, you know, not to make a scene or anything, there was no one else around, as I said, "You know, regarding homosexuality, I believe that's, I believe that's bad stuff."
He didn't defend traditional marriage, he didn't attack gay marriage. He told the woman that her homosexuality was wrong. He knew she was gay because she'd mentioned the sex of her fiance but Peter Vadala's issue with her was that she was gay, period. Her marriage was so much icing on her gay cake.

Most mainstream opponents of gay marriage understand that it is not politically viable to attack gay people per se. They say they don't have a problem with gay people, it's not about homosexuality, it's about redefining the word "marriage," maintaining tradition, etc. For Peter Vadala, gay marriage is secondary; he does have a problem with gay people, it is about homosexuality. (In his video he even uses the phrase "so-called homosexual person" as if the word itself is an abomination.) Opponents of gay marriage who want Peter Vadala to be their poster boy need to be honest and frame the debate in his terms. The headline "Man fired for defending traditional marriage" should read "Man fired for decrying homosexual employee." Make the debate about that. Brookstone's official policy is that telling a fellow employee that their sexual orientation is bad is the same as telling them that their race or religion is bad. Vadala and his supporters say the woman harassed him first in that by repeatedly referencing her upcoming marriage she was attacking Vadala's religion. Brookstone's nondiscrimination policy says an employee has every right to be gay but Vadala and his supporters say that any palpable evidence of that gayness is an implicit attack. So no mentioning of partners, marriages or musical comedy. Wait, scratch that last one.

After consulting with God, Peter decided that the Christian lamb could not quietly suffer the lesbian lion and despite his employer's desire that co-workers ignore their differences for the sake of productivity, he called her out (as it were). What he did was deemed harassment and he was let go. Now the aspiring playwright (or "playwrite") slash composer slash broadcaster is a growing cause célèbre in the anti-gay marriage movement. It's only a matter of time before he's being interviewed by Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck and doing color for Michael Savage. But for Peter Vadala, it isn't and wasn't about defending traditional marriage. It's about "my sincere belief that homosexuality is wrong." His supporters should man up.

Update 11:00 pm: Local Boston TV news piece featuring inaccurate reporting and quote from Vadala about how it's all gay marriage's fault.


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Monday, November 9th, 2009
7:59 pm - And I tell you that you are Peter
A response to Saturday's post:



Sadly, as I'm sure this anonymous commenter will attest, there are still many Christians who refuse to verbally confront and condemn the gay people in their workplaces, communities and families. My parents, for example, go to church every week yet I have never heard them criticize a gay person. Not even their out nephew! Let us pray for their souls, Anonymous!

As noted in the previous post, when he is not telling gay co-workers they engage in "bad stuff," the proudly heterosexual Mr. Vadala composes songs in the American musical theatre tradition. This is all well and good but I would suggest that young Mr. V explore hipper, more modern musical genres so as to reach more members of his generation. I offer herewith a humble "dance track" remix of his YouTube video to get the ball rolling. Sing unto Him a new song!


He was fired for your sins.


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Sunday, November 8th, 2009
10:05 am - Venture Brothers: Return to Malice


Tonight at midnight on Adult Swim. Served up just the way you like it.


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Saturday, November 7th, 2009
12:30 am - Bad Stuff: The Peter Vadala Story (a post with music)


A senior thesis idea for communications major Peter Vadala has turned into a campus-wide "Culture of Life" project that will soon evolve into "College Musical," a movie intended to spread the message of God's grace to secular audiences.

The project started out simply as a script that Vadala was writing for his thesis. When Vadala chose to actually create the movie, the project grew to include nearly 30 musicians, vocalists, actors and technical crew.

At first Vadala's script focused on abortion, but as he revised, he decided to focus on an anti-pornography message. Vadala said he can understand the issue, since he has met men who struggle with pornography.
That Guy Isn't Me )

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Sunday, November 1st, 2009
12:19 pm - Venture Brothers: Perchance to Dean


Tonight at midnight on Adult Swim. You'll be glad you did.


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Sunday, October 25th, 2009
1:36 pm - Venture Brothers: Handsome Ransom


Tonight at midnight on Adult Swim. You'll believe a man can fly.

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Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
3:58 pm - Go College!
I'll be on the college talk show UC@USC tonight at 6:30 PST. View it here. I'll be wearing a raccoon coat and holding a pennant.

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Monday, October 19th, 2009
9:39 am - Lemonade
Adult Swim is rerunning the Venture Brothers season four premiere tonight through Thursday at 12:30 am.

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1:21 am - Well...
The West Coast broadcast of the Venture Brothers premiere showed the first half twice. Can we get the sheriff who arrested Balloon Dad on the case?

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Sunday, October 18th, 2009
6:10 pm - Venture Brothers Season Four Premiere


"Blood of the Father, Heart of Steel," tonight at midnight on Adult Swim.

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Monday, October 12th, 2009
10:53 am - Think different.

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Monday, October 5th, 2009
11:36 pm - Shit, I forgot to blog!
Hey gang!

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Monday, September 28th, 2009
5:11 pm - The Best Show just got Better
[info]jacksonpublick and I will be guests on Tom Scharpling's "The Best Show" tomorrow night, Tuesday the 29th, on WFMU. Show's from 8-11, we'll be in the second half. You can hear it on the internet! SO THERE'S NO EXCUSE NOT TO TUNE IN!

UPDATE: EST


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