I think that it's funny. :p

'girlie-men' -- a term with an ugly history as a slur against gays." "

Wow.

He's got to be picking up the Chronicle (doubt he gets it), but if he DID get it, he'd be picking it up asking himself how in the hell they came up with the theory that he was somehow demeaning the gay community.

I guess comparing them to legislators is pretty bad though.

The problem is, anything is a slur against anything anymore...

If you want to find fault with someone's statement, no matter how PC it is, you'll find SOMETHING petty to call them out on...

(Ok, come on GCers...prove my point)

I was actually at the same mall he made that comment at. I didn't go to the rally as it was held in the food court of Ontario Mills ( i was at Jc Penny outlet....bad republican me!) but it was rather loud and could herethe cheering from where i was at .....i was told when he made that comment ppl actually
cheered it!

Funny I never heard that as a slur against gays. It is what it sounds like though - men who act girly. If you act girly, you are a girly man. Should you wish to obliterate all semblance of gender from your life good for you though.

-Rudey
--This is just as stupid as complaining about the word niggardly.

My mother told me last night that it had been in the news that the California Senate President Pro Tempore John Burton, D-San Francisco, was so angry with Arnold that he won't have espresso with him anymore. Burton has an espresso machine in his office and would often share with Arnold.

Arnold may be a caffeine fiend and have withdrawls for a few days, watch out!!!

Scaramento Bee story here

http://www.sacbee.com/ips_rich_conte...0720budget.jpg

This was emailed to me this morning:

Governor Schwartzenegger’s Politics of Bullying
An Editorial by Warren J. Blumenfeld

During a speech a few weeks ago, Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger blasted Democrats in the California legislature for failing to ratify his state budget by calling them “girliemen,” an epithet that began on “Saturday Night Live” as a parody of Schwartzenegger’s style of hypermasculinity. Schwartzenegger has since embraced, unapologetically, this epithet as a credo of intimidation.

“Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can never hurt me.” That was one of the lies many of us are taught growing up. We have, though, come to learn otherwise. Research has shown that name-calling in the schools and other forms of bullying behavior can leave lasting scares on young people resulting in high-risk and self-destructive behaviors. It has been shown to be, at least in part, a cause in the epidemic of suicides that take so many young people from us each year. In addition, we have found that the spate of school shootings at the close of the last decade was perpetrated by young, primarily white males in suburban communities who had, themselves, been the constant target of harassment by their peers who had determined them to be deficient in their so-called “masculinity” quotient.

As the Governor of this country’s most populous state, and as a film cult hero to tens of millions of young people, Schwartzenegger’s words and actions carry much power and weight. In this latest incident, he is communicating a message of coercion, one which calls a person’s gender performance or expression and sexuality into question, and one which insults all females and also all males who in anyway transgress the narrowly constructed confines of gender-based roles. Moreover, the explicit message Schwartzenegger is communicating is that it is acceptable to bully people into acting (voting) your way.

I was shocked to learn the results of an online poll taken by Iowa TV station, WHO Channel 13, which asked its viewers to vote on the following question: “Should Governor Schwartzenegger apologize?” An unbelievable 87 percent replied that he should not apologize, while only 12 percent stated that he should, and 1 percent replied they didn’t know. I would ask, then, what kind of message are we sending our young people when we fail to take Schwartzenegger to task? Are we not giving young people a double message by directly stating or, at least, implying that it is alright for the Governor to use insulting and demeaning language, but that young people cannot do the same?

If we are ever to interrupt the vicious cycle of bullying in our schools and in our society at large, one necessary step in the process is to make unacceptable bullying behaviors by adults, for one of the major areas they learn it is from us.

Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld
Assistant Professor
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Iowa State University
Ames, IA
(515) 232-8230
wblumen@iastate.edu

I sincerely hope that this bullying by the governor leads the pansey lawmakers of California to engage in self-destructive behavior.

C'mon, them wanting an apology for this is just silly. A bunch of wimps with their panties in a twist because they have been taken to task for not having the initiative to solve the problems and make the tough decisions that they were elected for.

I wonder how many points they're winning with California voters with this whining that they were called sissies.

Cry wolf and nobody will take you seriously. That is why most people really haven't made such a big deal of this.

-Rudey

When you still have to pay Californian taxes and you have not lived in the state for 2 years, then you do want the cake and eat it too...

Many of the state programs go for much progress in the state--such as Caltrans and the Chip officers. If you don't have those folks, California will stand to lose trillions of dollar a day... And with the unmedicated trying to make runs for the border, what will the news media outlets film???



As far as the Governator bullying his points across, I believe it is under the purview of the old Pete Wilsonnites, Warren Buffet and the LA Mayorial candidate telling Mr. Governator what to do and say. None of Arnold's ideas are his own... He is not THAT smart... He is smart enuf to surround himself with extremely powerhouse people that run California.

The hard part is not disenfranchising too many folks. Who wants to be the Governator when the LA Riots happenend? That's the problem with Cali, things can be bullied over, but something happens that set Californians off and the state torques off, live on American Idol, Internationally...

However, if Arnold wants to stay governor of California, he had better do something for the rich folks that lost their houses due to brush fires... That is not a voting contingent you want to piss off... The Greenlight folks will have something to say about that...

And then do not have "rolling blackouts"...

And do not live and die in LA...

I think some of his ideas will come across, but when the military personnel gets back into mainstream society, he is going to have a problem... And God forbid a terrorist attack in LA... That would not be cool, at all. Some folks have trigger fingers on nukes out there...

Welcome to the wonderful world of politics. If a mature adult gets all bent out of shape over a "girlie-men" comment, then that person needs see a really good therapist rather than hold a press conference.

I would have just called them pussies.

-Rudey

Never state the obvious.