Winners

Nothing is as refreshing as someone or something admitting he or she was wrong. It's such a rarity. Because, after all much of being human is about finding fault with others or simply passing on one's own blame. So when The Des Moines Register finally sobered up this past Sunday and editorialized that it's time for Congressman Steve King to go (don't go out on a limb here, guys), we were more than a little surprised. The Register usually gets behind a loser and stays there - e.g the city-county merger - and the paper had endorsed King for election, twice, despite his being an out-of-touch, loud-mouthed, bigoted, right-wing zealot. And while not run by Iowans or people overly familiar with what makes Iowans tick,( and pushing for King to represent us in Washington goes a long way toward proving this) a little research or simply removing one's head from one's ass would likely have proven to be beneficial for the newspaper Iowa supposedly depends upon. And although while trying to slither back into the good graces of a public that knows better by providing a number of excuses for its past sins, the Register's Editorial Board essentially told its dwindling readership that it had greatly erred and some serious backpedaling was in order. "Spare us more embarrassment" the headline of the Opinion section read. Wonder if the members of the paper's editorial board meant themselves or Iowans as a whole?

While other groups of the evangelical ilk were focused on making sure Harriett Miers is sufficiently sexist and homophobic to be a godly representative on the Supreme Court, the Iowa Family Policy Center had bigger fags to fry. Or small children to persecute. But bigoted action alerts from religious fanatics didn't deter the GLBT Youth in Iowa Schools Task Force - created by the state Civil Rights Commission in 2002 - from keeping the rights of gay and lesbian students in the public spotlight last week. The enlightened folks at the Pleasant Hill-based Family Policy Center may feel threatened by the "political agenda" of ensuring that students of all sexual orientations are treated with the dignity and support they deserve in the supposed safe space of the public school system, but more than 200 rational Iowans showed up for the task force's anti-bullying discussion in Cedar Rapids. Of course, if such groups sent out action alerts urging their members to teach their children some real family values instead of raising unholy hell about other people's "lifestyles," there'd likely be little need for such public forums in the first place.

Losers

One would think the people of Madison County wouldn't want to burn any more bridges, so we were surprised last week when Winterset Public Library Director Nancy Trask gave our paper the boot because of an advertisement on the second-to-the-last page for Corn-Porn.com, which features homegrown talent. When asked how she could justify, as a librarian, her blatant slap in the face of the Constitution, Trask replied, "I appreciate the whole free-speech thing, but we have children here." And we're certain the parents of that tiny hamlet - made popular by an appalling book about adultery - are sure glad to have a goosestepper like Trask deciding what is and what is not good for their kids through tax-payer funded censorship.

Jewish residents of Des Moines felt somewhat slighted when the Des Moines Public School system announced that it would be holding parent-teacher conferences on Yom Kippur - Oct. 13. And adding insult to injury was the City of Des Moines' plans to resurface Shriver Avenue, which Temple B'Nai Jeshurun uses for overflow parking, the very same day. But while the city, which called it an oversight, scrambled to make changes ("We'll not be paving the road next to the Temple on a Jewish High Holiday," said Director of Public Works Bill Stowe) and will keep Shriver accessible, the school system sent a note to all families and employees informing any parent or teacher who is affected that they will be accommodated with alternate days and times - which doesn't sound like a complete pain in the ass or anything. CV

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