Published since 2005. San Francisco is a city that belongs to the people of the world. Hence this blog has a global focus. The name "Sam Spade's San Francisco" refers to an exciting era in the City's history, the time of Dashiell Hammett's fictional gumshoe and San Francisco character, Sam Spade. My name is Tom Dunn and I edit the blog. I'm not as exciting as Sam Spade, but I am definitely a San Francisco character.Contact or on Twitter -- Search blog below.
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Saturday, April 26, 2008
Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco: Clowns, Buffoons and Fools
Have you read about the group of San Francisco lunatics who have formed the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco?
They want to get an initiative on the November ballot that would rename the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility to the George W. Bush Sewer Plant.
In the photo: San Francisco's Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility. Click on the image to enlarge in a separate window.
While there is something mildly funny about naming a sewer plant after George W. Bush, we need to draw the line at belittling the office of President of the United States. The current holder of the office may be universally disliked, but let's think twice before insulting the highest office in our nation.
The presidency as an institution must be above our ridicule. We must make a clear distinction between the man and the office.
The Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco
An organization is only as respectable and honorable as its members. With that in mind, take a look at the group's Board of Directors:
Peaches Christ
Chicken John
Tangie Rumors Sister Selma Soul
Mary Kaye Hole
Sister Porn Again
Wayne Pickering Paul Festa
Moses Koret
Most members of the Board of Directors are not serious enough or honest enough to even list their correct legal names. They list their professional clown names instead.
These clowns want the voters of San Francisco to join them in a grade-school antic. In the process of having their little bathroom humor laugh they want the people of San Francisco to denigrate, demean and degrade the highest office in the land.
Twenty-First Century San Franciscans
During the past ten years people of means, intelligence, education and culture have been moving into San Francisco. They have been buying beautiful Victorian, Edwardian and Italianate homes and they have been beautifully and lovingly restoring them. These same people have been occupying the offices of some of the world's most prestigious scientific and medical research centers, corporate boardrooms, law offices and other professions.
They contribute generously to our world-class symphony orchestra, to our opera and other performing arts centers. These new San Franciscans are returning The City to the once grand, sophisticated, cultured and refined international City it once was.
The Peaches Christs and Chicken Johns of San Francisco are our rapidly shrinking collection of buffoons and misfits. They aremid-twentieth-century leftovers. Its time for them to fade away and leave the stage. The show is over. They are just not funny anymore.
Let's not let these immature children put any kind of permanent stamp on San Francisco infrastructure that is sure to be an embarrassment to future San Franciscans.
Don't sign their petition. If they get their initiative on the ballot - vote no. Keep San Francisco in the hands of adults.
Remember: This is not about George Bush. It is about the collective IQ of San Franciscans.
I'm going to assume this post is parody, but just in case it isn't... 1) Why is the office of the president above mockery? What makes it so? What other executive offices are above mockery? Is there a pay grade level? Is it related to title? Are cabinet officers open to mockery? What about undersecretaries?
2) How is mocking an individual person mocking their abstract "office"? If I call you a humorless buffoon that doesn't mean I think the same thing of all bloggers, for example. Many people are able to make these fine distinctions.
The fact that Peaches Christ is transgender is completely irrelevant. Anyone can be a performing clown - transgenders included. By the way, the term "transvestite" is yesterday's terminology. Transgender is preferred.
Are you sure you're in the right country, much less town?
Arguing for lèse majesté is a damn foolish stance to take in a representative republic, and couching it in terms of American patriotism is plain heretical stupidity. Nothing could be more antithetical to our form of government.
Embodying sanctity of any office is the responsibility of those holding it, period.
the thing is, if they want to diss bush by naming a sewage treatment plant for him, why choose the nice, relatively new, clean, hidden oceanside plant? a better choice would be the eyesore, smelly, bad neighbor, in major need of repair or replacement plant located in bayview hunters point. this proposal dishonors the people who actually treat the city's sewage! if it passes, it will be so very typical of san francisco...
"During the past ten years people of means, intelligence, education and culture have been moving into San Francisco. They have been buying beautiful Victorian, Edwardian and Italianate homes and they have been beautifully and lovingly restoring them. These same people have been occupying the offices of some of the world's most prestigious scientific and medical research centers, corporate boardrooms, law offices and other professions."
And they have raised the price of new homes to an astronomical level, as well as forced many hard working, and creative San Franciscans out of their homes, so new live work lofts can be built. Live/work lofts, which aren't used to work in at all. Thanks folks.
"They contribute generously to our world-class symphony orchestra, to our opera and other performing arts centers. These new San Franciscans are returning The City to the once grand, sophisticated, cultured and refined international City it once was."
Let's not forget that San Francisco has a history of supporting all the arts, from the most elite, to the most creative. I applaud this group, who truly grasp the heart and soul of San Francisco.
I too would prefer the run-down Bayview sewage plant to be the focus of their name change, but I think the people of this great city can truly appreciate it either way.
As for President Bush, being ridiculed by some socialists in San Francisco just makes him a more admirable person in my eyes and in the eyes of many lucky non-brainless Americans.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 3:57:00 PM PDT
greg said...
Wow, what a load of priggery.
Bush himself has done far more to demean the office of the president than anyone renaming a sewage treatment plant ever could.
"mid-twentieth-century leftovers"? SF has encouraged buffoons and artists for far longer than that, sir. It doesn't seem like you know very much at all about the history of the city you're trying to "civilize".
Every year we see fewer and fewer freaks in San Francisco. The city is changing. Better educated people with good incomes are coming into San Franisco. That means there will be fewer coops in which people like Chicken George can live and fewer freak shows for the Peaches Christs and other assorted misfit exhibitionists. Be patient. Time will reduce and then finally eliminate these urban misfits.
As a resident of San Francisco, I can say I recognize over half of the names on this list. Most are local celebrities, showing up, often in costume, at San Francisco's storied street fairs and public celebrations. Many of these supposed 'clowns' spend countless hours each week attending a stream of fundraisers for important HIV/AIDS, Breast Cancer, Disability, Arts, and and other service organizations. They regularly stand on the steps of city hall alongside our elected officials, and have the support of local religious leaders. I marvel at their astonishing commitment and at the way they make my city a bearable and enjoyable place to live.
For a San Francisco native, this board gives the initiative all the credibility and local leadership it needs.
14 comments:
I'm going to assume this post is parody, but just in case it isn't... 1) Why is the office of the president above mockery? What makes it so? What other executive offices are above mockery? Is there a pay grade level? Is it related to title? Are cabinet officers open to mockery? What about undersecretaries?
2) How is mocking an individual person mocking their abstract "office"? If I call you a humorless buffoon that doesn't mean I think the same thing of all bloggers, for example. Many people are able to make these fine distinctions.
Peaches Christ is a transvestite performer, not a clown. Clowns are for the children.
The fact that Peaches Christ is transgender is completely irrelevant. Anyone can be a performing clown - transgenders included. By the way, the term "transvestite" is yesterday's terminology. Transgender is preferred.
Are you sure you're in the right country, much less town?
Arguing for lèse majesté is a damn foolish stance to take in a representative republic, and couching it in terms of American patriotism is plain heretical stupidity. Nothing could be more antithetical to our form of government.
Embodying sanctity of any office is the responsibility of those holding it, period.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se_majest%C3%A9
Sorry, meant "representative democracy" in that last comment. =)
the thing is, if they want to diss bush by naming a sewage treatment plant for him, why choose the nice, relatively new, clean, hidden oceanside plant? a better choice would be the eyesore, smelly, bad neighbor, in major need of repair or replacement plant located in bayview hunters point. this proposal dishonors the people who actually treat the city's sewage! if it passes, it will be so very typical of san francisco...
You said...
"During the past ten years people of means, intelligence, education and culture have been moving into San Francisco. They have been buying beautiful Victorian, Edwardian and Italianate homes and they have been beautifully and lovingly restoring them. These same people have been occupying the offices of some of the world's most prestigious scientific and medical research centers, corporate boardrooms, law offices and other professions."
And they have raised the price of new homes to an astronomical level, as well as forced many hard working, and creative San Franciscans out of their homes, so new live work lofts can be built. Live/work lofts, which aren't used to work in at all. Thanks folks.
"They contribute generously to our world-class symphony orchestra, to our opera and other performing arts centers. These new San Franciscans are returning The City to the once grand, sophisticated, cultured and refined international City it once was."
Let's not forget that San Francisco has a history of supporting all the arts, from the most elite, to the most creative. I applaud this group, who truly grasp the heart and soul of San Francisco.
I too would prefer the run-down Bayview sewage plant to be the focus of their name change, but I think the people of this great city can truly appreciate it either way.
As for President Bush, being ridiculed by some socialists in San Francisco just makes him a more admirable person in my eyes and in the eyes of many lucky non-brainless Americans.
Wow, what a load of priggery.
Bush himself has done far more to demean the office of the president than anyone renaming a sewage treatment plant ever could.
"mid-twentieth-century leftovers"? SF has encouraged buffoons and artists for far longer than that, sir. It doesn't seem like you know very much at all about the history of the city you're trying to "civilize".
Every year we see fewer and fewer freaks in San Francisco. The city is changing. Better educated people with good incomes are coming into San Franisco. That means there will be fewer coops in which people like Chicken George can live and fewer freak shows for the Peaches Christs and other assorted misfit exhibitionists. Be patient. Time will reduce and then finally eliminate these urban misfits.
The Ronald Reagan National Airport?
100,000 residents of Baghdad now lack proper sanitation due to the bombing of that city's infrastructure. This is the least we could do.
The initiative is crafted to only take effect after the current President leaves office; consequently, no insult is meant to the office.
As a resident of San Francisco, I can say I recognize over half of the names on this list. Most are local celebrities, showing up, often in costume, at San Francisco's storied street fairs and public celebrations. Many of these supposed 'clowns' spend countless hours each week attending a stream of fundraisers for important HIV/AIDS, Breast Cancer, Disability, Arts, and and other service organizations. They regularly stand on the steps of city hall alongside our elected officials, and have the support of local religious leaders. I marvel at their astonishing commitment and at the way they make my city a bearable and enjoyable place to live.
For a San Francisco native, this board gives the initiative all the credibility and local leadership it needs.
This is typical liberism. The champions of "tolerance" show such hypocrisy through their foul and sickening hatred for those they disagree with.
I live in the bible belt in Nashville Tn.
I wish I lived in a fun city like San Francisco.
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