Wednesday, December 31, 2003

i have two new daily calendars for the Fantastic '04. i mention this cuz you'll probably be hearing from them on here from time to time. one is a daily Simpsons trivia question (!). the other is a collection entitled "Moving Forward, Keeping Still: The Gateway to Eastern Wisdom" with daily quotes to make you think and ease your soul: (example: "we shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want"). more to come throughout the year.

i just sent an IM to jessie from my computer to his cell phone
i have DSL now and everything's so quick and big on my computer
there's so many new gadgets and whatnots now on my desk and desktop
it's all too crazy and i'm freaking out!
too much newfangled gizmos
i think i'll read by candlelight tonight....

This is my family, series
This is my grandmother

Cooks and cooks and cooks and cooks
Cooks both turkey and brisket, for just one dinner
Bakes pumpkin pies and pecan pies and birthday cakes and more
Bakes potatoes too
And augratin potatoes and mashed potatoes and yams and more, for just one dinner, cuz no one in the family likes the same thing at the same time
Heats up green beans and corn and hominy and black eyed peas for the same reasons
Stirs up gravy and cole slaw and cranberry sauces
Cuts up green peppers and olives and celery sticks and carrots and all
Places out candies and cookies and cakes and more
Pre-bakes her signature chocolate chip cookies and provides a filled container for each visitor for travel
Warms up some cinnamon rolls and breads and donuts and more, to snack on before dinner
Manages to conduct a major operation with little help
Keeps calm and coordinated throughout the process
Cleans as she goes too
Cleans up the whole ordeal afterwords, even while wishing she could nap like everyone else
Naps after it's all done
Still asks if anyone wants more food
Ready to make more food or fix or attend to or help with anything at a moment's notice
Looks prepared to jump up all the time, for she's learned over the years that she always 'has' to get up for something sometime soon
Never seems to rest until time for bed and when the nightgown's on, it is time for bed
Watches and worries and hopes and dreams and loves
Visits with the family and neighbors and friends
Reads her mystery books when she's alone and won't be bothered
Takes care of her family with love and food and sewing and cleaning and hugs and smiles and heart
Loves her family
This is my grandmother

I NOW HAVE DSL!!!!

Thank you Chris.

How silly it seems, now, to realize that resolving it was as simple as letting go.

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

This is my family, series
This is my father

Hides real interest in the holiday rituals with feigned indifference
Worries that the kids won't come home for the holiday
Drives six or seven times to the airport an hour away to pick up all of the kids
Carries every present, before and after wrappings, from house to car to house and back
Pays for everything, including parking fees, tolls, last minute doctor visits and trips to the store
Works jobs he hates to support the family that he loves
Offers the majority of the potatoes at dinner to the visiting kids, even while secretly hiding the rolls
Offers the rolls too
Fixes broken appliances and cars and whatnot
Provides tools and knowledge on how to fix more
Visits the kids often and fixes anything and everything that needs fixin
Doesn't judge the kids' lack of knowledge on cars and appliances and whatnot
Watches what the family wants to watch on the tv at night, even while holding the remote
'Puts up' with the holiday season because he really secretly enjoys it
Patiently waits for my mother while she shops, spends, returns, visits, gabs, cooks, sings, dotes, and decorates
Helps her when needed
Loves his family
This is my father

Monday, December 29, 2003

women on planes, part two

on my return flight direct from kc to oakland, i was boardin kinda late so i knew i'd be stuck in the middle seat. i noticed a seat open between two elderly black women in aisle 2. well, might as well sit up close, and boy howdee if it wasn't with my people. now i know i'm a young white male, but in another life, as i've mentioned many a time on here, in another life i was an elderly black woman. so i felt right at home. i introduced myself. their names were mrs. vance and mrs. robinson. they were probably in their 70's or 80's, thin as rails, kept their coats covered tightly around them the whole trip, proper hats adorning them heads, recognized clean ice in their water cups when they tasted it, and knew right when to stop drinking fer it was to cause them to have to get up for the bathroom. mrs. vance was the talker of the two. mrs. robinson kept tellin her to keep quiet. but mrs. vance gabbed with me fer a long time. we chatted, slept off and on, and swapped candies just like we swapped stories of our trips. they had gone off to atlanta and oklahoma to visit relatives of all sorts, but they were finally headin back home to oakland. where they could rest. and rest they would fer a couple days after all this trouble.

we gabbed and gabbed. mrs. vance's ear started hurtin her awful just at the same time mine was and i offered her some gum to help with the pain. she declined as she didn't have no teeth no more. i felt bad for mentioning the gum. but she just laughed and laughed and patted me on the back while i rested a little. yes she did. we were awful close nearin the end of the flight.

well, sir, here's the awkward part of this here story. nearin' the end of the flight she says to me, "you married?" now i didn't hear her exactly, i thought she was asking for 'mary.' ironic. anyhoo, she says, "you got yourself a wife?" "oh, well, no." and then i demurred. and demurred. and wishing and hoping the subject would turn.

pause
now it's not like i'm not out. and it's not like i haven't come out a million times. and it's not like i'm afraid to come out to anybody anytime, and have done so. so there. but, for the life of me, this was a doozy. i'd had such a good time with her. and we felt close. and we were about to leave. and she was so elderly and frail. and 'gay' seemed so modern and strange for this setting. and i was an old black woman too. ok, well, maybe not, but there went my alias. dang. dangit. i really just wanted the conversation to change. but she wouldn't let it.

"well, what's holding you back son?!"
i demurred.
"you're a handsome young man and i'm sure there's a mighty lot of young women out there who'd go for you. what's holding you back? you nervous?"
"um, well, i'm gay." that was harder than it really should have been. but, well, it was time for reality. and i wasn't gonna go back to no closet. even for nicities.
"oh, no you're not, i don't believe it!"
"well, yeah, i am."
"i don't believe it. no, i just don't believe that."
"ok, well, anyway."

conversations changed briefly. a little later she says, "you're gay?" i said, "yep." "i just don't believe that."

the plane lands, the flight is over. i did have me a nice trip with them. i'd love to meet mrs. vance again someday. she had the bestest smile with high and mighty cheekbones barely covered by her frail skin. and she could talk up a storm. i'm sure she'd led a fascinatin life. and her family sounded awful nice. maybe one day i'll have me some dinner with them. but, in reality, i know that my brief turn as an elderly black woman who suddenly turned gay young white man has run its course, and now i give my goodbyes and they give theirs and we part our ways as she waits for her wheelchair to arrive.

after these episodes on planes and the heterosexual world, i'm ready to get back to my normal life in san francisco now. 'normal life in san francisco'? whodathunk?

women on planes, part one

going home to the midwest brought about more reminders of midwestern life than i had anticipated. on the way there, as i sat between my sister and my niece for our three hour flight from l.a. to kc, i noticed this young woman across the aisle. she was blonde and young and very attractive, dressed up all perty-like for the midwestern set, some nice beautiful lady you'd see shopping down at the plaza or the mall or whatnot, almost barbie-like. i noticed her because, well, she was 'noticing' me. me! why for? first of all, can't she tell? i mean, it's been years since a woman looked at me twice, but then again, i live in san francisco so they're rather used to the idea of us men being 'unavailable' of sorts. secondly, i was looking awful. awful! i had just caught a cold, my head was throbbing, my gut was bloated and heaving, i was hardly dressed to the nines at all, more like the threes, i was congested, my hair was ungroomed, hadn't shaved in days, and that was just the beginning. and yet, she kept eyeing me. at first i wasn't sure, but then over the flight i noticed her glances more and more. me? attractive to a barbie? me? doesn't she realize? i'm so confused. near the end of the flight i turn to my sister and whisper if she had noticed the woman checking me out and she exclaims 'yeah!' she thinks it may have something to do with my being with my niece and her liking kids or something. or maybe i'm just hot by midwestern female standards. who knows. but it made me think that maybe i should reinvest in the idea of living in the midwest if i can be a total bum and get hit on by pretty people. although she was a woman.... i wonder if the men would find me the same. if so, boy howdee!

Sunday, December 28, 2003

i'm back home in san francisco now. short trip. very short trip back home to the homestead in independence, missouri. it was great seeing my family. even though it was a short trip, i still feel a little culture shocked being back here in sf. i live and breathe here in sf so much that being away for even a short time makes everything seem so different. and the midwest and san francisco are really like two different worlds. in a way i feel very comfortable in the midwest. i can be a total bum, let myself go, be totally fat, wear crappy clothes or sweats or whatnot everyday, and no one cares. i love that. in san francisco i can be gay and no one cares. hard to make a decision which is the easier life. of course i'll stay here in sf, but there are advantages...

right now i'm at a coffee shop with my friend martin who's visiting. he's brought me a new laptop, which i'm using right now, and, knowing me like he does, has connected it all up for me. very sweet of him. he's the best.

amaya missed me terribly. i missed amaya terribly too. she was all over me after i came home. it was so sweet.

much to post about my trip home. i'll be back.

Friday, December 26, 2003

christmas is an awesome time....

to get caught up on your wish list!
as we're prone to say in my familia, i got 'hooked up'!

it's also been really nice seeing my whole family together. i just wish i hadn't have caught this cold on the flight here which of course caused my ear to swell and lose its hearing. but regardless, i'm glad i came home for the holiday. i love my family.

Thursday, December 25, 2003

well, i'm in kansas city for a brief holiday trip. my parents actually has DSL now, which i still don't have, and so i'm capable of posting from here now too. i'll have DSL in 2004 though. chris helped me order it a few days ago. and i'll be ready to go for the Fantastic '04!

The doctor's office is closing. Jessie and I called it that for years because it smelled like amonia and had this strange pink motif inside that made it seem like a doctor's office from the 70's. I can't believe that they couldn't work out a better business plan since it is true that it was always busy. But times change.

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

GAY LIFE

A front-page New York Times article published Sunday, December 21, 2003, presents an unbalanced and sensationalistic report on the results of a New York Times/CBS News poll about marriage rights and distorts... Bush's stance on the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA).

So the governor quickly came to the rescue of his personally created predicament by proclaiming a public safety emergency and invoking extraordinary powers to make budget cuts sufficient to cover local governments' immediate needs..... [T]here is no way of assessing whether his cuts make sense or will result in even greater future costs..... Let's have an honest public conversation about the realities of our collective needs. Ignoring social ills does not make them go away. They only return at greater expense to us all. -- Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-SF)

Monday, December 22, 2003

CHOICE

From the days before Roe v. Wade:
She suffered a miscarriage at age 26, delivering the fetus stillborn in a Brooklyn hospital. Restrictive abortion laws made the experience worse. "I had to lay there with a fetus on the bed under me for an hour while the Board of Health came to certify I did not abort it... Things like that stay with me."

Sunday, December 21, 2003

why do computers and technology hate me so?

GAY LIFE

She was once kept in an attic for five hours as friends badgered her about why she was gay and how repulsive homosexuality was. She was released from the attic when she promised she no longer would be gay.

The spelling of Irish words can be frightening at first, but you get used to it.... My favorite example is the Irish word for 'face,' which is spelled 'aghaidh.' [which is] pronounced 'eye,'...
Reading this made me want to learn the language of my heritage, but then again, I have enough trouble just getting fluent in Spanish. And Irish looks incredibly difficult. I wish I had time and money for numerous language immersion courses. I'd love that!

Friday, December 19, 2003

this is one of the coolest bookstores for speciality shopping on murder mysteries. it's always fun to browse around. my grandma is an avid mystery reader so it's fun to shop there with her in mind. and, yes, there's usually a puppy lounging around to say hi.

Thursday, December 18, 2003

Everyone, regardless of age, needs time to play, to engage in something new and fun, that reduces stress and provides varied, new activities.

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

How many times have you gotten a ride with a friend? Are you going to peer around in their glove compartment? So even if you're just in the car, maybe even barely know the people (i.e. after a party, getting a ride home from the club, friend of a friend taking you all out to a restaurant), and one of these people, maybe even someone you don't even know, has drugs on them, you're going to jail. The whole car load of people are arrestable now. Scary.

We have a real problem with drugs in our schools and they're using our narcotics officers to entrap me for selling a vibrator.

So i'm in suburbia last night and i see the fifth season of Buffy out on DVD. And I think, OH NO!, I'm so behind. I haven't even gotten season 4 of Buffy yet. And then I realize that it was just released last week so I'm not that far behind, but, um, what kind of fan am I? And I still haven't bought the third season of the simpsons yet and probably the 4th will be coming out soon and i'm getting so far behind. Maybe the holiday season will help me catch up.

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

for the last 8 or so years i have lived in the midst of a big city-- either Washington, DC or San Francisco-- and sans car. most of you dear readers won't understand this phenomena for you live in suburbia or in a city with a car at hand. i love not having a car. but it does often isolate you to the citylife for the most part. the san francisco bay area has bus lines everywhere and a regional transportation system called BART, but still, without a car, it's sometimes limiting in where you can go. i don't mind this at all. i love being carless and not having to worry about car issues, car insurance, car maintenance, car repair, car crap. i hate cars. but on those rare occasions over the years when a friend has a car or when i've rented a car and my city friends and i have a chance to go to suburbia, just like most people do every day, and visit a mall-- a real one, not a city high-rise mall-- or outlet stores or Targets or K-Marts or big stores where the prices are really low, well, it's an occasion indeed. especially if you pile that occasion on with a special dinner at a big suburban steakhouse like Sizzler or Ponderosa or something like that. this is normal life for most people. but for me, as a city dweller over the last many years, it's a special time to revisit Americana and my memories of life in Kansas City and my reminders of home. and the deals you can get in the suburbs on simple, basic household needs are insane! i don't regret living a city life one bit, but it's nice to revisit suburbia every once in a while.

Monday, December 15, 2003

i'm so sick and tired of getting constant 'great deals on viagra' in my inbox (i.e. 'spambox'). i don't need any, thankyouverymuch!

i can't believe it's christmas time and i am heading home in a week. it still seems like summer, except for the whole cold weather thing. i already miss my cat amaya and i'm sitting here next to her right now.

Sunday, December 14, 2003

An rather long, but necessary, excerpt from a very descriptive and telling piece:

My father is of a generation of men who would never use an umbrella, push a shopping cart or use the phone to socialize. To Dad, the telephone is an instrument for conducting business, even if one of his six children is the dialee.

Over the past 25 years when my parents have called me, Dad invariably dials the number, just as he orders for my mother in restaurants and is always behind the wheel when they drive. Upon my answering the phone, he never says hello back. "This is your father," he declares, which I, at age 42, still find as heart-stopping as, say, being paged by the principal over the high school PA system. He normally asks one question and maybe a follow-up and that's it. "Here's your mother" is his goodbye. He thrusts the phone at her, although most times Mom doesn't know which of the kids he has called. Dad's an impulse phoner.

My father's lead question has evolved over time. In college, I'd get, "How's your dough?" After graduating, it became "How's work?" And, after I came out and moved to San Francisco in 1985, Dad went through a long phase of "How's your health?"

My reply, always the same: Fine, fine, fine. Long distance came to be an apt description for both the type of call and the quality of our rapport. Mom, the translator between us, would later fill Dad in on the finer details.....

Saturday, December 13, 2003

CHOICE

A pregnant girl will be thrown out of home and may end up working in a bar as a prostitute... It is then only a matter of time before she gets the AIDS virus and dies.

i spent my whole morning planning around going to Victor's holiday party today at 3pm, trying to determine whether i would eat lunch in the castro, telling a friend that i couldn't hang out because of the party, trying to get a hold of Jessie and Chris to coordinate plans on going there, and of course the whole hourlong 'what should i wear' episode and the 'why haven't i been working out' and 'all the gay men there will think i'm boring and not pretty enough' and 'none of my clothes fit right' and 'this outfit makes me look fat' and 'why haven't i been working out all this time when i'm a gay man and i need to look pretty' and 'what should i wear again' episodes. (i always end that episode with the 'i have nothing to wear' episode and planning to buy a new wardrobe and wishing i had money to do so and wondering what i would buy and then calming down and realizing that all my clothes aren't complete crap and then i breathe.) anyway, then Jessie writes me a simple email to say that the party is actually tomorrow! oh, good, i was too nervous and anxious and still hadn't figured out what to wear yet anyway. i can procrastinate all that for tomorrow morning. today i can be my normal bum-self again.

updates on health. well, for those of you who remember my unknown virus over the last summer and fall, i have somewhat of an update. nothing. actually a good nothing, it all seems to be gone, at least mostly. i had a follow-up visit with my rheumotologist yesterday and he seems to think that my body fought the 'virus' and won. i am better. i don't take the pain medication anymore and haven't for months. every once in a while i'll have a little pain in my arm, but nothing major and it goes away on its own. the whole 'vertigo' episode I had in September was a one-time thing and hasn't repeated. i seem to be well. i know not what happened this year, but i am thankful to be recovered from whatever it was. and i am thankful to feel whole again. and i thank you for your concerns and thoughts. they meant a lot to me.

Friday, December 12, 2003

My party's taken a hit. We've got to find ways to re-energize and re-invigorate our voters to come back to the party, and re-mind them of what we stand for. And with that said, we need to state clearly who we are.
The lesson for Democrats out of these two extraordinary elections is that registered Democrats will cross party lines -- and even put aside ideological differences -- if they feel their concerns are not being heard by the people in power. If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere -- and if it can happen to Democrats, it can happen to Republicans or Greens. Regardless of registration, voters are caring less and less about party label, and more and more about responsiveness and results.

Bob Ross, the founder and editor of the Bay Area Reporter, the mainstay GLBT newspaper for San Francisco, has died this week. He took the usual 'bar-rags' that told the then-nacent community where the bars were, and made a new type of local paper that delved into politics and social issues and everything else.
Thirty years ago, no one could have imagined the growth and power of our community. Bob did.-- Assemblyman Mark Leno. I never got the chance to meet him, although I saw him at many events. At least his work and paper and legacy go on, to the benefit of us all.

Thursday, December 11, 2003

and he said he didn't need or want any money....

and other lies from the arnold

and more lies

President Gore has helped convince me. I've been unsure for a while, mostly because I really want to win badly, but I'm thinking that it's possible now, and in my heart I've always been there. I'm for Howard Dean.

Thanks for the help finding the picture Brent.

Tuesday, December 09, 2003


San Francisco's New Liberal Democratic Mayor

I'm just as politically IN-correct as the majority of my town. Hooray for that.

And check out our new FABULOUS District Attorney:

Yay!

Oh, you've got to be kidding. I wish.

Elections

It's election day in San Francisco. Don't forget to VOTE, however you plan to vote. And if you have an absentee ballot you haven't mailed in yet, remember to take it directly to a precinct or City Hall, not to a mailbox, as it has to ARRIVE today. Happy voting.

Monday, December 08, 2003

It is officially politically correct (PC) to be with the green guy here in SF. And that's just sad and depressing. We don't need 'flower power'; we need jobs and an economy that's moving forward and services that actually work. We need pragmatic realism, not lofty idealism. I guess I sound conservative with that and I guess I'm not PC, but whatever. Here's to dealing with real-world problems and not writing philosophical research papers on Camus and Marx. Here's to being NOT-politically correct.

Sunday, December 07, 2003

a new Nuclear arms race that we, our country, via the bush administration, has started and is charging. the world will never be the same cause of the right-wing bush and his people.

ah, napping, the sweetest taboo....

happy birthday baby.

yours forever
stay sweet
stay cool
don't forget me over the summer
can't wait to party with you next year
'88 rocks
remember the time we got caught talking in mr. wilson's class?
hahahaha
you're the best
i hope we'll always be friends
don't worry be happy

(signed with a big looping version of my signature and a smiley face)

Saturday, December 06, 2003

It wasn't a real turkey.

They wasted me. A terrific article highlighting the tremendous loss we've experienced as a country and militarily by way of ousting military people, who are dutifully and proudly and strongly serving our country, and being discharged simply for being Gay.

so where have i been lately with all my rants and quotes and such? well, my mind has been really focused on our local mayoral runoff election so much so that i haven't been paying as much attention to national news like i should and like i try to write about on here. and as we can see, i get in trouble when i talk about local elections on here. san francisco really is in its own world. i'm still amazed after all these years of living here that somehow i am a considered a 'moderate-conservative' here in this town. how can an openly gay, liberal, pro-marijuana, pro-gay marriage, pro-gender-nonconformity, pro-choice, pro-civil rights, pro-diversity, pro-minimum wage, pro-labor, pro- separation of church and state, pro-gressive be considered a 'conservative' anywhere? ah, but welcome to san francisco.

living here has meant that i've really had to take ownership of my own definition of 'liberal' and 'progressive.' and that's been tough sometimes. i now know what it's like to have been protested by the right-wing of the country, and now by my friends in the left-wing. how many liberals can say that? anyway, i'm still really frustrated and bothered by the liberal infighting in my community and amongst those of us who should be friends and working hard to defeat bush and the right wing on the state and national levels, but it's the way it goes here to some extent.

as i started to say, i've really had to take the terms 'liberal' and 'progressive' and allow myself ownership of them under my own terms even when i'm being considered a conservative here in town. it's complicated and frustrating, but i think i'm actually growing as an individual and politically via this local craziness, because i have to realize more about how i feel on everything rather than just knee-jerk liberal reactions to things. plus, i realize now, living in a liberal city, 'liberal' means different things to different people, and being liberal in kansas city or in washington, dc does not necessarily equate with being liberal in san francisco.

i am still a liberal and proudly so and i won't let anyone take my own political definitions away from me or box me into a corner to where they view me as a conservative or a racist or a nazi or whatever. i just have to recognize that intra-liberal politics in the city are just that, that there are no perfect answers, that for every two liberal people out there you get three or four different points of view, and that i can make my own politics and my own sense of mind and my own definition of 'liberal' and still claim ownership of my liberal heritage and beliefs. no one can take that away from me.

so with that, and at the risk of causing more intra-liberal fighting on this website, i mention that this last month has been very trying for the democratic party in a city that is one of the strongest democratic cities in the nation. and that really helps the republicans in more ways than i can express here. the green party and its followers have really demonized the democratic party for being too conservative and just like the republicans, which is simply not true. it's been stressful and trying on my nerves and patience. i enjoyed this article from the democratic state party chairman, who is a liberal democrat, reminding san franciscans just how liberal the democratic party is and the values and causes we are fighting for both locally and nationally. i really feel like the democratic party in san francisco has been taking a steady beating from the greens and others during this runoff election because it's viewed as a 'conservative' party here, when it's really just infighting amongst liberals. this infighting just helps the republicans locally and nationally and that's bad for us. i also find it interesting that the green party and the republican party similarly use the issue of gay marriage as a wedge issue against the democrats (i.e. the republicans are not for it at all, and the greens are upset with national democrats for waffling on the issue and taint local liberal democrats negatively on the subject, even though locally the democrats are completely for it and even conduct gay weddings in city hall, but i digress...).

anyway, to wrap this discussion up, i once again state that i am proud liberal democrat, i am not a green party person and do not believe that party has the answers we need politically or pragmatically, and have voted (already absentee) for the liberal democrat gavin newsom for mayor against the liberal green party guy and for liberal democrat kamala harris for district attorney. and i am still a liberal, dammit. you can't take that away from me. and if you don't believe me, read the rest of my rantings on this website.

Friday, December 05, 2003

as i've said on here before, in another life i was an old black woman. i love to spend the evenings relaxing to one of the retro r&b, soul stations playing the "quiet storm" or "between the sheets" or similar formats. i also often listen to them throughout the day while i'm working. i just feel close to the people on the stations and the music.

i bring this up because i find it hilarious and quietly strong of the stations to be doing subtle odes to michael jackson over the last week or so. i've heard more michael songs this week than in a while, and not a word about anything else, just the music. and what great music it is. i'm an old black woman.

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

why are all my black socks different shades of black?!

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

Global Warming is now starting to impact the world's ski resorts, i.e. the snow is melting. Will the politicians start paying attention soon? Will the Bush administration sign onto the world treaty? Probably not since Bush doesn't believe in the SCIENCE behind global warming. But then, he doesn't believe in science at all, unless it's been rendered to say something he likes.

The White House under the Bush Administration from his director of the so-called 'faith-based' crap:
"I haven't run into a pagan faith-based group yet, much less a pagan group that cares for the poor! Once you make it clear to any applicant that public money must go to public purposes and can't be used to promote ideology, the fringe groups lose interest. Helping the poor is tough work and only those with loving hearts seem drawn to it."

Who is he to determine which religion has 'loving hearts' and which don't? How does he know anything about minority religions? How dare he call any religion a 'fringe' group? Many, many of today's 'major' religions were once considered 'fringe'; he has a terrible misunderstanding of history and religion. Why is our government getting entangled in the mess of doling out money to religions, which inevitably leads to conversations about and decisions on which religion is better? This whole mess is wrong, wrong, wrong, and people we are headed down a bad, dangerous road with this. We need to strengthen the separation of church and state, not cross-over it. This just goes to show you how dangerous the Bush people are.

San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno, who led the fight against a California ballot measure banning gay marriage a few years ago... said he, too, would prefer any candidate embrace gay marriage but added: "This is a Republican trap. Every one of the Democratic candidates is far more supportive of (the gay) community than the president is.'' Well said.

Monday, December 01, 2003

AIDS/HIV

World AIDS Day 2003--Live and Let Live