OUR ZIONIST CANDIDATE

We assume that our mayor’s sojourn in Israel has more to do with his gubernatorial bid than with personal tourism preference.

We assume that Newsom is doing what he does best—getting the support of rich people.

There must be potential donors to Newsom’s campaign for whom pro-Zionism is a necessary condition.

Thanks to the SF Bay Guardian for finding this egregious example of Newsom’s Zionist ass-sucking: Newsom repeats the tired old party line that anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism. In a Jerusalem Post interview Newsom says:

“To those who make that assertion [that Israel oppresses Palestinians], I would like to see it backed up in the context of the capacity of understanding. I think there is a lot of bias and bigotry, and frankly a lot of anti-Semitism…"

Clearly the interviewer was fishing for the last statement, “I think there is a lot of bias…” Very strange are the weasel words that precede it. “I would like to see it backed up in the context of the capacity of understanding.”

What could this possibly mean?

There’s “understanding.”

Then there’s “the capacity of understanding.”

Then there’s “the context of the capacity of understanding.”

Understand?

Newsom said he "absolutely" believed some of the anti-Israel speech emanating from his city was anti-Semitic.

Poor Newsom! What’s he supposed to say? He could as easily have agreed that some of the anti-Israel speech was… psychotic.

SFGate ran an op-ed criticizing Newsom’s trip to Israel. Her perspective on the “birth” of the state of Israel:

On May 15, my family will commemorate an-Nakba, Arabic for "the catastrophe," which is the dark underbelly of Israel's foundation. Sixty years ago, Jewish militants and, later, the Israeli army, forced 2 out of every 3 Palestinians - more than 700,000 people - to flee their homes. Many Palestinians who resisted expulsion or were unable to leave were massacred in cold blood, as were those who returned to harvest food from their orchards or gather personal belongings left behind. The Palestinians who fled now constitute the oldest unresolved refugee population in the world, despite their internationally recognized right to return. Meanwhile, Israel permits any Jew from anywhere in the world to immigrate and obtain citizenship.

Newsom’s trip is being paid for by the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation, clearly a pro-Zionist organization. This page explains the programs JCF funds.

I wonder how Newsom accounts for the receipt of such valuable consideration as plane tickets, hotels, meals, and incidentals, from SFJCF. Is this considered a campaign contribution? A gift?

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A MISTAKE

Mayor Newsom’s fiancée, Jennifer Siebel, is both beautiful and photogenic (independent qualities) and she looks great in couture.

Not many local trophy wives, at least per SFLuxe, who have all three talents and Jennifer Siebel is one of them.

Ms Siebel is a first-place trophy, at least in the looks department. [Click on picture for source.]

And she has guts.

Women with weaker stomachs might shy away from suitor whose past infidelity has been so public, and repugnant. Not Ms Siebel.

More “prudent” women would never have gone swimming in the snark tank of SFist’s comments section.

And only the bravest of San Francisco mayoral wives-to-be would register as a member of the American Independent Party (as reported this morning by Matier and Ross).

San Franciscans pretend to be liberal or progressive, and, on national issues this is sometimes true. Certainly most San Franciscans are registered Democrats. So people like Dianne Feinstein and Gavin Newsom, (who are Nelson Rockefeller Republicans at heart) have to work within the Democratic Party, or leave the city.

In San Francisco where the Republican party is déclassé, the American Independent Party is only slightly less anathema than the American Nazi Party, or, maybe, the KKK.

Republican is the party of Lincoln.

Democrat is the party of Roosevelt and Kennedy.

American Independent is the party of George Wallace and Curtis LeMay.

While we don’t share Ms Siebel’s extreme right-wing views, we salute her for standing up for her values as a proud white woman.

Of course, Jennifer is learning that such candor might hurt her future husband’s political career (as if) and so she has to go along with the “mistake” story, claiming she checked “American Independent” on the voter registration form when she meant to check “Decline to State.”

Just like that—she goes from “proud white woman” to “ignorant beyond belief.”

Being a political wifey is almost like a job. What a team Jen and Gav will make!

----- o -----

DID YOU HEAR?

I abhor gossip. I abhor myself when I do it.

My parents were both outsiders. I’m sure my family was much gossiped about by the insiders on our block. For balance, I was assured that the good opinion of born-and-raised hicks had only limited value.

My folks enjoyed it when little Willie whined, “Why can’t we be like normal people?”

They’d laugh, and tease me, “Because we’re NOT normal people. We’re the Morrisseys.” Then they'd laugh at the frustration their answer elicited from me.

Anyway, a piece of gossip about our mayor has been reported in a supposedly progressive journal. The purpose of the not very “blind” item was to impugn the character of the mayor, and, basically, tell on him.

The unnamed mayor’s supposed sin? He got drunk and woke up the next morning in the bed of a young female who was not his official girlfriend.

Well tsk fucking tsk!

Progressives? Criticizing someone for having sex?

I think maybe we need to break this down.

If a mayor goes to a meeting where he signs a deal to build a big new Safeway in Bay View Hunters Point, then he gets drunk and goes home with a new girl to have sex—that's a GOOD MAYOR.

If a mayor goes to a meeting and signs a deal transferring millions of dollars in public assets to the Don Fisher Ego Foundation, then he gets drunk and goes home with a new girl to have sex—that's a BAD MAYOR.

Applying algebra, the drunk/sex part cancels out.

Please!

[Above, notorious drunk, Winston Churchill. Do we know enough about his sex life?]

----- o -----

WiFi: NON-BINDING

Armed with information from public citizen Kimo Crossman along with the ACLU and the folks at SNAFU, the Board of Supervisors resisted Mayor Newsom’s pressure to quickly approve a citywide WiFi franchise agreement with Earthlink.

Instead, the Board, led by president Aaron Peskin, started to negotiate for more favorable terms. Apparently Newsom had accepted Earthlink's first offer.

Anyway, during the delay Earthlink announced they are reexamining their approach to such deals in general. The original agreement as “negotiated” by Newsom appeared dead.

Someone came up with a face saving ploy. Instead of announcing that the deal was lousy from the start, and that the whole thing was a waste of time, and that we need to go back to the drawing board, Peskin and Newsom put a non-binding policy resolution on the November ballot urging city officials to provide free WiFi to SF’s populace.

As Glenn Fleishman at wifinetnews suggests, we might as well add free ice cream and free ponies to the wishlist.

So, good for Kimo and his allies.

Here’s a previously posted clip of Kimo testifying before the supes.

Remarkable about this story is that citizen participation was essential to stopping the crappy contract, and, that the citizen participation was non-political.

The opposition to the Earthlink deal was technical—we’re not getting enough bang for our bucks—as opposed to being pro-Newsom or anti-Newsom. I think even self-identified progressives split on this issue.

Kids whose families don’t have phone service will still need to access the internet at school or at their public library branches. The Earthlink deal was touted as a way for kids in violent neighborhoods to access the internet without having to walk to their local libraries.

If the kids in BVHP can’t go to the library because the streets are unsafe, it’s time to make the streets safe.

They called out the National Guard to escort kids to school in Little Rock. If need be, we should have the National Guard escort kids to their local branch libraries in BVHP.

The inability of Mayor Newsom and Chief Fong to provide safe passage for school kids who want to go to the library is a failure of government so monumental that we hardly notice it. It’s a disgrace.

Of course we won’t have a “safe streets” ballot measure—why bother! WiFi is more “doable.”

----- o -----

BAD FAITH?

A recent announcement by Earthlink (passed along by public watchdog Kimo Crossman) spells an end to San Francisco’s “Free” WiFi charade.

Basically, Earthlink says they can’t make a profit from the kind of contract that is being negotiated with San Francisco. For Earthlink to make money from “free” municipal WiFi they need the municipality itself to a sign long-term contract to use Earthlink services. Earthlink calls such a municipality an “anchor tenant.”

Earthlink's announcement makes the entire process look like a bad faith effort, possibly on the parts of both Mayor Newsom and Earthlink, to sign a quickie contract and work out the (expensive) details later.

Newsom wanted a cool-sounding resume item. A number of public-commenters hauled in to a Supes Committee meeting said they needed “WiFive,” which sounds cooler yet.

With the Earthlink deal all but defunct, we’ll see if our mayor has a Plan-B for bridging the digital divide.

----- o -----

SOMETHING BORROWED

A couple days ago Mayor Newsom and D.A Kamala Harris held a press conference in the Bay View to announce four new gun laws they are introducing. Chron story here.

Supervisor Chris Daly, who spearheaded Prop. H and regularly opposes Newsom, said he was glad to see the mayor focusing on gun control.

Frequently the Mayor’s announcements of new initiatives includes phrases like “first in the nation,” “first in the world,” “groundbreaking,” “a model for the rest of the country.”

Not this time. And I rejoice. San Francisco does enough service as a social-engineering laboratory, its residents as lab rats. At least this time we’re piggy-backing on the efforts of other jurisdictions.

When asked about legal, constitutional challenges to the new laws, Harris said the laws had been modeled on laws implemented and tested in other California cities.

I salute such cost-effective efforts.

In a sort-of related theme, one commenter at this week’s WiFi hearing explained the need for WiFi thusly:

Where she lives, in Bay View Hunter’s Point, they have computers in the libraries, but it’s not safe to walk to the libraries. Solution—provide wifi access to those imprisoned in their own homes.

I guess “free” wifi for the entire city is cheaper than providing effective law enforcement for the “underserved” neighborhoods.

----- o -----

THIS IS GOING TO SOUND MEAN

But, really, there’s a vacancy behind Mayor Newsom’s eyes, and a cadence to his voice, his words a flood of seeming reasonableness, that’s just a little psycho, or at least a little detached. Seeing him recently on TV has made me think of Ted Bundy.

Check out Ted: a note on YouTube says this was close to his execution.

Here’s a snippet of Mayor Newsom talking about cuckolding his campaign manager. It's only reasonable that our mayor should feel bad, poor guy!

This video shows Mayor Newsom leading a neighborhood “Townhall.” His pacing around the audience makes me nervous. I believe this event took place before Mayor Newsom announced he'd be getting help with his own drinking problem. Notice the flow of reasonableness.

BTW: Our Mayor rails against “80-proof.” His business is selling wine.

The very best examples of what I’m talking about are photos to be found on Fog City Journal. You can click around various stories to find photos by Luke Thomas. The two pictures of Mayor Newsom in this story are as edgy as any Diane Arbus stuff.

----- o -----

LET'S PRETEND

There’s a good, simple, functional definition of “an alcoholic.”

An alcoholic is a person who should never have another drink, not even one, for the rest of his or her life.

In yesterday’s TV interview, Hank Plante asked Mayor Newsom, who recently went into “sort-of rehab,” if he, the Mayor, is an alcoholic.

Our Mayor said, “I don’t know.”

This means that Mayor Newsom still holds out the possibility that he will re-introduce booze into his life at some point. Our Mayor has officially entered the rehab-relapse ping-pong game and he’s going to lose, poor guy.

The image of William Powell and Myrna Loy drinking day and night but remaining witty, sexy and vertical, and solving crimes to boot, is a lofty ideal.

We have to remind ourselves that movies don’t necessarily represent real life.

The raw footage (view it here) of the Mayor’s interview is painful to watch. The glibness, the everything’s-great-except-for-some-mistakes spiel, the shoulder shrugs, the way he talks about himself too much, the Ted-Bundyesque composure and sincerity—Gavin is white-knuckling it, poor guy, through life.

Not a word about Muni (public transit), nor about SFPD, but we heard some details about his rehab. According to Newsom, he used to look forward to some wine when his workday ended, around nine or ten at night. Now, instead of drinking, he goes to Delancey Street for rehab, and stays for several hours, every night with maybe a few exceptions.

It’s all pretend.

There wasn’t a single follow-up question, a poor performance from Hank Plante, who proves once again that gay people can be every bit as mediocre as straight people.

----- o -----

CHICKEN ala NEWSOM

Our mayor decided to hold a neighborhood “townhall” on his own terms, in lieu of attending a voter-requested Question and Answer session with the Board of Supervisors, our city’s legislative body.

Some who supported the policy initiative are miffed that the mayor ignored the will of the people and they accuse him of cowardice, they call him a chicken. They say he’s afraid to defend his policies and performance in any forum that’s not under his own tight control.

To show their displeasure, a few of them attended the mayor's townhall wearing bright yellow head-to-toe chicken costumes. This was their way to emphasize the word chicken in a visually compelling way.

Conceptually it sounds ho-hum so I didn’t pay much attention. There was some TV coverage but the chickens didn’t get into frame too much.

Then one day, waiting for my call from the Nobel Committee, I clicked on a link and saw a series of stunning photos, one shown above. Click here to see the rest of the pictures. The Chronicle story is here.

The chickens were an enormous presence and I’m sure the mayor and the panelists were at least a little unnerved.

So what began as a kind of sophomoric idea made a powerful public statement that the mayor could not ignore.

It seems like the folks at SF Party Party are the poultry pushers here.

Good for them!

----- o -----

CHAPEL OF LOVE

Chapel of Love – The Crystals

This is another guilty pleasure song that might be difficult to remove from your head. This is the best sound quality of this song on YouTube, and the people in the slideshow are mui simpatico.

I’ve asked Pud to investigate the financial aspects of Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Gay Marriage Fiasco, the third anniversary of which is being celebrated today.

Were marriage license fees collected? Were they refunded? What was the net cost to the taxpayers of SF for this stunt?

Meanwhile, I’m going to look for a way to describe my view of it. “World’s largest dry hump,” isn’t quite right.

----- o -----

GLEEGATE/TOURKGATE

Some say let’s show Gavin the gate. It looks like he’ll get lost if he tries to find his own way out.

Monday morning has dawned in San Francisco. We’ve all had a full week to recover from the Super Bowl (Pud’s minority report: “Stupid Bowl”).

I think of the week after the Super Bowl as a national post-coital nap. It’s good timing that Anna Nicole died during a week when no one was going to cover serious news anyway.

So, what ever happened to the thorough investigation conducted by SFPD into the New Years Eve attack by local toughs on visiting choristers from Yale?

On the table is the proposition that the Gleegate attackers, and the Fajitagate attackers, and cops who rough up gay people are acting as agents of the “true San Francisco.” You know, like, we’re a brawlin’, sissies-beware kind of gold rush town.

We San Franciscans insist on balsamic vinaigrette, then we kick you in the balls, or shoot you between the eyes, like Palladin. We’re manly men, like Richard Boone, we just happen to have good taste.

I should remember that many think danger is an attraction.

Heck, it’s common for young men visiting SF for the first time have fantasies of being Shanghaied. Of course, to them “being Shanghaied” includes lots of opium and sex with Chinese women.

So, Gavin, if you want these Yale pussies to fuck off, just say so.

Or, now I get it, that’s what you’ve been saying all along. Stupid me.

That's why Robert Frost left when he could. Fucking pansy!

----- o ----

YOU GOT A LOT

Andrews Sister - You Got a Lot of Living to Do - Bye Bye Birdie

Drag queens usually go way over the top and become parodies of real women. At least that’s my not-unusual stereotype.

Then we see a clip like this and I have to re-think. Who could overtop these gals?

Anyway, Mayor Newsom, it’s Monday morning, time to get motivated (in motion).

You can start with some arrests in Gleegate. Then, this afternoon you can work on the murder rate. (Gee, rate rhymes with –gate. Have to remember that.)

Have a great week, Mr Mayor.

----- o -----

MAKING THINGS BETTER

The mayor’s alcohol rehab is sfgate-described. The non-programmatic, special treatment, sort of belies the theme that he’s down there at Delancey with the regular folks.

His townhall meeting in SF’s poorest, most dangerous district is sfgate-described.

The difference is that the mayor might get better

I’m a middle class middle age white guy and I’m afraid to go to or even through Bayview Hunters Point Sunnydale in broad daylight.

This has not changed in my liftetime. I felt the same way forty-five years ago.

The map below (wikilink) shows the distribution of black people in San Francisco. Red and maroon are denser and densest.

My mom talked about her commute to work during World War II, changing streetcars in the middle of LA’s southcentral negro ghetto. She said she felt perfectly safe. Because of the war, everyone who wanted a job had one, and people were busy.

The problems faced by the mostly black residents of southeastern SF will not go away, but the residents will, through gentrification. It would already have happened except the home ownership rate is so high. The land will have to get even more valuable before it’s worth the eminent domain fight.

Meanwhile, nothing changes.

----- o -----

WEEKEND MAKEOVER

A generation without anarchists
is a dull group indeed.
P. Wilson

Here’s something the Mayor could do to get his mind off his own problems: Free Josh Wolf.

[A young San Francisco video-journalist is in Federal Prison for failing to turn over raw mpg’s of a stupid local demonstration. The way J. Edgar Hoover’s Fascist Bureau of Intimidation weaseled into the case is really back-alley. No journalist in the history of the United States has done a longer Federal stretch for this sort of thing. The facts of the case are piddling. The intrusion on press freedom is monumental. Josh Wolf is a hero for refusing.]

It’s shameful that our “liberal” city hasn’t done more to resist this jackboot attack on one of our youth. We count on our local officials to help shield us from the thuggery of Bush, Cheney, and ilk.

Newsom should do a camp-out and hunger-strike at the gates of the Dublin facility where Josh Wolf is imprisoned. Not forever, but for a full weekend, Friday sundown to Monday sunrise.

Invited celebrities would flock.

There’d be lots of non-scandal press coverage and it’s very low risk, Newsom would be supporting the First Amendment and opposing the least popular administration since Nixon’s. Since his chances for higher office have suddenly become non-existent there’s no harm can be done there.

And, who knows, it might hasten the release of Josh Wolf.

Of course, Mayor Newsom doesn’t give a shit about Josh Wolf. But he needs to do something that isn’t about himself, something to get his head out of his own butt. And it’s entirely symbolic, it’s not like he’d have to do any real work.

Free Josh Wolf.

----- o -----

NEWSOM/TOURK MATH

“Most news isn’t,” Pud always says, “and that’s a good thing.”

A politician paying anything out of their own pocket qualifies as real news.

Newsom’s offer (Chron story) to pay Alex Tourk $15,000 per month until Tourk finds a new job was the minimally decent thing to do. And continuing to pay him out of campaign funds made sense as a kind of severance package.

Then questions arose about the propriety of using campaign donations to paper over the candidate’s sexual indiscretions.

Newsom’s decision to pay Tourk out of Newsom’s own pocket looked like an easy solution at first glance, but it has two negatives.

First the math. By my calc Newsom will be turning over his entire mayoral paycheck to Mr Tourk, every month. The below math assumes that Newsom pays Tourk with after-tax dollars (payoffs to betrayed husbands are not deductible), and that Newsom has at least 25% of his net pay withheld for taxes and social security etc.

It turns out Newsom will lose a couple hundred a month until Tourk gets a job. What if Mr Tourk gets all depressed and spends the next five years in his bathrobe and slippers?

Second the precedent. Newsom’s action sets a highly undesirable precedent for other politicians. For a politician to pay the damages of their own misbehavior is a betrayal of the profession. It’s like omerta. Wise guys don’t talk. Politicians don’t pay.

This gal, Mimi, can’t she talk to him?

----- o -----

sorc-sf DUMP NEWSOM

Background: Per the Chronicle Story, the Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, has admitted to having an affair with the wife of his long-time assistant and campaign manager. I’m not going to use his name.

The story has three aspects, the Sixth Commandment, forbidding adultery, Sexual harassment on the job, and cuckoldry. Violation of the sixth commandment “First offense, your honor!” is probably forgivable. The latter two are really not good things to do.

The Sixth Commandment

According to the version of Catholic sexual morality I grew up with, the sixth commandment forbids any willful sexual pleasure except in the context of penis-in-vagina ejaculation of married partners (PIVEMP).

This is not completely obvious from the mere words themselves, Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery. You see, God is not very articulate, so we need years and years of religious education in order to understand what He says.

This interpretation: all sex is bad except PIVEMP, is similar to saying that all drugs are bad except under a doctor’s orders.

So kids try marijuana and discover that it’s fun and completely benign. The parents lied about marijuana, they reason, so maybe they’re lying about heroin, let’s try it and see.

Similarly, kids jack off and experience no weird hair growth, they have fun sex without significant woes, so, why not try actual adultery?

Poor Gavin fell into this very trap. How was he to know that fucking his campaign manager’s wife would have negative consequences? There was only one way to find out, so he tried it.

Now Gavin understands the truth of those old words, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Maybe the meaning was obvious all along.

So life is a learning process. So what?

Sexual Harrassment

On the other hand, the woman involved was on mayor Newsom’s payroll.

This is a no-no that is unequivocal. The prima facie assumption is sexual harassment.

I think this, along with other issues that seem to be snowballing, might show that maybe Gavin isn’t up to the job. Gavin’s sponsors had such high hopes for him. They thought they had a thoroughbred.

This demonstrates the main problem faced by rich people everywhere: It’s hard to get good help.

Cuckoldry

A cuckold is a married man whose wife has sex with other men. Traditionally, a cuckold is the object of scorn and ridicule amongst his fellow men.

When a wife is unfaithful it hurts her husband’s trust and comfort within their relationship. Additionally it humiliates the husband in front of the community, especially in front of the husband’s male friends.

The latter pain, in many cases, is the more compelling..

I think in primitive times the remedy for being cuckolded was to kill the wife and her adulterous partner. Anything less would be unmanly.

So what about the poor guy, supposedly a friend not to mention a valuable advisor, whom Gavin Newsom has publicly cuckolded? Publicly means not just in SF and in California, but nationally and internationally.

And worse, for the rest of eternity, when you google the poor guy, you’ll find out in milliseconds that he’s the one whose wife got banged by the Mayor of San Francisco.

I don’t see any upside of this for him. He should sue big time.

Most confusing is the light this incident throws on Mayor Newsom’s advocacy of Gay Marriage. Like, ain’t marriage great!

Our Ruling Class is not being well served. Now, more than ever, they need our support.

----- o -----

SORC-SF: SUPPORT OUR MAYOR

We, especially Pud, are sick and tired of stupid ad-hominem political attacks. For instance, his political enemies along with “jerkoff gossips” as Pud calls them, are tsk-tsking our mayor’s drinking and dating habits.

“There was Matier-talk that Gavin Newsom showed up at SFGH with liquor on his breath,” Pud said. “So fucking what!

“We expect a decent forty hours per week from our mayor, but when the work day ends he can do whatever he wants.

“Look at Winston Churchill. He got shitfaced every night after work, but that didn’t keep him from being a great man. He won a goddamn war for his country! Who cares how much he drank?

“Likewise Gavin Newson, he’s doing, or gonna do, terrific things for our city. Right? If it turns out that drinking is the worst you can say about him, he’ll be remembered as our city’s greatest mayor.

“And dating young girls? Talk about reaction formation! The men who criticize Newsom for dating eighteen-year-olds would, if suddenly possessed of Gavin’s good looks and pocketchange, be banging every recent high school grad in town.

“Eighteen is as legal as forty, Mr Mayor. Go for it!

“You know, criticizing someone for drinking and screwing is about as un-San Franciscan as you can get.

“These so-called journalists should stop their puling gossip and get to work on who killed Lester Garnier—that’s a manly task.”

Pud seemed adamant.

“Pud,” I said gently, “you can’t say ‘manly’.”

“Ok,” he said, “worthwhile, brave, non-insipid.

"Sheesh!"

----- o -----

BRANDING

It’s not too unusual in this town to see a man or woman holding a leash that’s attached to a dog collar worn by another man or woman. Whether at Folsom Street Fair or Saturday shopping at Cala, it’s just not that big a deal.

[Below, the person second from the left is wearing a collar and leash. The guy next to her, on the far left, is wearing a St Christopher medal.]

And, it’s sort of cliché to say that some powerful entity “owns” a politician, in the same way that a master owns a dog.

It would, however, be highly unusual to see such an entity, say Gordon Getty, leading a paid-for politician, say Gavin Newsom, down the street with the leash/dog collar arrangement. That would make it all too obvious.

But that’s what’s happening with the PlumpJack brand. It’s a symbolic leash.

“Plump Jack,” a nickname of Shakespeare’s Falstaff, is the name of Gordon Getty’s opera in progress. “PlumpJack” is the name of many of the businesses Gordon Getty bought for Gavin Newsom.

The connection implied by the PlumpJack brand is the same connection implied by the dog collar leash thing. It’ sort of embarrassing.

Pud is impressed that “rosebud” the obsession-word of another great San Franciscan, WR Hearst, is “totally yonic.”

And Getty’s obsession-term PlumpJack is “totally phallic.” Pud thinks “that’s nice.”

Here’s a website where you can purchase collars and leashes designed for humans. The market for real dog collars and leashes is so huge, I wonder why those so inclined would buy from a leather-fetish shop.

If I were a dog-boy I’d want a collar from Van Cleef (hint), not some cheapass leather thing from Joe’s Beatoff Emporium.

“Branding,” is a buzz word.

I knew a guy who got branded, a punk musician Haight Street store clerk, green hair, nose ring, etc. He went the extra step and got a brand burned onto his right calf.

The experience humbled him. The pain continued for weeks. He said he’d never do it again.

----- o -----

GO TEAM!

[Note: The wonderful kids in this video have no association with San Francisco, nor with any New Year's Eve ugliness. I salute them for their presentation and for the excellent example they provide. As always, you can click through to YouTube for more information. BTW: I love this song, it's one of my guiltiest pleasures.]

Tourists to our sophisticated city need an additional guidebook:

SAN FRANCISCO HIGH SCHOOL RIVALRIES
Who’s Gonna Kick Your Ass, and Why

----- o -----

SAN FRANCISCO BEAT

Examining why I’m so pissed off about the Yale choir beating cover up, I had to consider my family’s status vis-à-vis this city’s elite.

My dad had been destined for a role in San Francisco’s native Catholic elite. His father, Joseph Sr, fucked things up and my dad wasn’t able to claim his birthright.

My dad saw his sons (me and my brother) as a way to reclaim his family’s status. My family returned to San Francisco from a truly happy time in Los Angeles, so that my brother and I could attend St Ignatius High School.

This is all in retrospect, but, what a tawdry goal, aiming to be part of a goodoldboy native elite in a provincial, if pretty, town! I’m so glad, for my sake, that the effort failed!



Our current mayor, Gavin Newsom, is in a position to greatly quiet the Yale beating uproar, but appears to be supporting the attackers and the cover-up-ers instead.

Gavin Newsom’s dad, Bill, was a high school (St Ignatius) friend of Gordon Getty, and pretty much worked for Mr Getty all his life. Gordon Getty was considered for a time to be the richest man in America. He’s currently around #150.

It seems that now Gavin, our mayor, works for Gordon Getty. No problemo. [These are all native San Franciscans.]

For the most part we expect if not exactly applaud that special privileges are accorded the rich and powerful. I believe that I’ve been a significant beneficiary of those privileges.

The idea that native born people have privileges not enjoyed by newcomers or by visitors, is also not particularly shocking or upsetting.

But there’s no way those privileges include beating people up, with impunity.


I can’t imagine that Gordon Getty likes this situation. San Francisco is, sortalike, HIS city. So why can’t they arrest a couple of kids and slap them on the wrist?


And the tourist industry and CofC can’t like it much either.

There’s got to be some bad juju somewhere back there, if even Gordon Getty is powerless. Somebody’s got somebody by the balls.

----- o -----