Friday, January 31, 2003

He said that the United States, which callously dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has no moral authority to police the world. "If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America... Who are they now to pretend that they are the policemen of the world, the ones that should decide for the people of Iraq what should be done with their government and their leadership?-- Nelson Mandela

Very interesting to realize how the rest of the world views us.

Couple of pictures from Mr. Jessie of me:

I seem scared to realize that, yes, I really am 32.
And here I am keeping up to date on my Issue of the Month. And you guys thought I made it all up....

I hate headaches that last for days.... ;-(

Thursday, January 30, 2003

Priorities... Now they get around to that?

...tailor-made for a witch hunt... [and directly compares] to the ethnic census information collected in World War II, a precursor to the internment of Japanese-Americans.

Gay wine? You must drink Gayardo with very old cheese or eat it with game.... This bottle must be opened to breathe for one hour. For example, it must rest after movement, for at least a day.

So many lame jokes, so many euphemisms, so many possible here....... must keep to myself..... must try to be good..... must resist....

Ok, be prepared and forewarned:

I just ordered new glasses today and they are quite a different look. Now, since this is through a crappy HMO and not through a one-hour deal, I have to wait about ten days to get them. But they're coming..... are you ready?

Wednesday, January 29, 2003

They're watching...

People with addiction problems need medical help, not Sunday school....Bush seems to be on a religious crusade and that’s not the role of the president.

Guess who I get to have lunch with on Monday? Yay!

Next up in the airport maze of lines, waiting periods, and various time-consuming burdens: the scale.

I just saw Joseph Gordon-Levitt walking around in downtown Berkeley. Anyone know if he's going to UC-Berkeley now?

Tuesday, January 28, 2003

AIDS/HIV

Negative

But what does that mean? And why is being negative a positive? Doesn't that seem counterintuitive? Why is negative just a status quo, everyday regular joe schmo, nothing to celebrate, nothing to mitigate, everything to be standard, hohum, nothing to be, nothing to shout, nothing to write home about?

As part of my Issues of the Month I am trying and will continue to try to "walk the walk" and not just "talk the talk" each month. As such, on the issue of Choice for this month, I've signed onto several action alerts and will be joining CARAL's Political Committee soon via my friend Ellen.

But with my December issue, AIDS/HIV, the action took on a more personal activity: getting tested. I've been tested over the years many times, but I realized as I was doing the month's issue that it had then been about a year and a half since my last one. I knew I needed to "walk the walk" on getting tested and learning more about my own personal piece in the epidemic. So, even though I didn't get around to getting the test til a few weeks ago, I finally did it and got my results tonight.

But what does it mean as a Gay man to be negative? I know it's a positive thing to be negative, and yet it feels so bereft of news or interest or drama to continue to always be the same. This is good news, don't get me wrong, I know. But it just seems lacking in something positive, something to say, something to state, something to be. I think that's an ongoing delimna in the Gay male world in that since AIDS came into our lives we're not sure what it means to be Gay in this day and age and yet not have it. Mind you, I'm not trying to become HIV+ and I always, always am safe and do what I can to ensure others are too. I'm just philosophically thinking through how a negative is a positive and how we can begin to embrace being everyday, boring, quiet people without the epidemic, pandemic, disease, world tumult, pain hanging over our heads. And I'm trying to find a philosophy behind a supposed celebration of sorts. And I'm trying to understand how a negative is a positive in this world of ours. Just some thoughts. Yours?

CHOICE

Great personal statement from another redhead. Cool.

Jessie's favorite columnist is on a tirade. Good4him.

I have this ongoing pet fear:

My cell phone falls out of my hands and falls through the grating in the street into the sewers. It's so small and slim and slippery, I worry it will happen. Then, of course, all the people stare and laugh at the annoying cell-phone user (me) who lost his precious cell-phone.

Not an important fear in relation to so many other issues, but a small one that's consistent.

I love Kathleen Turner. I always have.

Monday, January 27, 2003

Well, who needs professionals to watch over our National Park Service anyway? This way it won't be such a problem when the loggers come through to help make the place look beautiful: The Park Service is not a business enterprise. There is a fundamental ideological binge that the free enterprise system will heal all wounds and solve all problems. Ask Enron about the efficiency of the unregulated private marketplace.

What you talking bout Willis?! Botted water ain't always pure? The NRDC found the contents of one bottle, labeled "Spring Water," actually came from an industrial parking lot next to a hazardous waste site.

Ah, you gotta love artists: Sometimes the only way people feel powerful is to bind together and wear the silver and black -- and that makes them feel like they have power... Football and fan-dom in general, he said, discourage creativity. Creative people tend to shape their own world rather than use other people's worlds as surrogates. If the world had more creative individuals, this would be a less dualistic world where this side wins and this side loses. So true...
Other than that lovely quote, I completely agree with the sentiment that yesterday was rather quiet and blissful for those of us who could care less about major national sports crap, but I can't believe they actually quoted someone saying that it was similar to 9/11. Bizarre.

It's just about time for my new Issue of the Month and I'm getting it ready for next weekend's launch. Get ready. (Or does anyone even read my site anymore?)

Pretty busy weekend. Started with my Friday night activities I mentioned below, then woke up early on Saturday to attend my first business meeting of the local affiliate of the national Victory Fund and agreed to do several actions and duties and will eventually be even more involved very soon. Spent the rest of the day hanging out in the Castro, reading, and enjoying a beautiful San Francisco day. Finally yesterday I was able to hang out with my closest friends Jessie and Chris. I was adamant that we make sure we avoid any national sports-type hyped-up crap at all costs and then still ran into tv sets in diners. We did manage to go to the store and that got me motivated to clean much of my house. Amaya, my cat, was happy I was home but didn't understand what all the fuss about cleaning was about. She's not very used to seeing me do it. All in all, a pretty good weekend. Now, unfortunately, back to work. And that's a whole different story.

Saturday, January 25, 2003

So my friend Ellen has been asking me to come and join her and her friends at the regular Friday night games-night for a while now and last night I finally went. The best thing about the place was a complete welcoming atmosphere and interest in playing with anyone and everyone regardless of backgrounds or looks or social issues. Everyone was different and everyone was the same. Very cool.

I was too anti-social myself to join in a game without Ellen, even though I was approached rather amazingly and beautifully by several strangers to either join in a game or start up a new one. It's striking how different settings can be when everyone is wanted and cherished even if they don't know you. So I played with Ellen and several strangers a game called "Loaded Questions" which was sorta a mix of the "Matchgame" and sharing personal stories. By the end of the game we strangers, and a completely odd mix of people, had gotten to know each other pretty well and had a fun time.

People can surprise you, especially if you take the time to go beyond first impressions. I think that's something the Gay community and the American culture in general tend to forget. And, for me personally, it's good to be social once in a while. I may just go again.

The rest of the world is really hating us right now. Why don't we care to hear that? We are not an empire.

My gut feeling is that all of this is to weaken the U.N., to possibly leave the U.N., or to destroy the U.N. in the eyes of the American public. The U.N. has been an institution that the right-wing has hated from day-one, complains constantly about on right-wing talk radio, and wants to end our participation. The more that we anger the rest of the world, the more that we encourage and promote to the American public an image of "go it alone" and not needing the U.N., the more we provide a background to stop participating in the U.N. And if we leave the U.N., as the biggest funder and organizer, then it falls apart. Thereby, allowing us as the world's biggest superpower to do whatever we want around the globe. That's scary.

CHOICE

Very interesting take on why the right-wing Republican party needs Roe v. Wade.

Friday, January 24, 2003

Always great things to read over at David's: I don't want to be around nice people right now. I want to be around loud, obnoxious people.... I'm not happy, but I'm definitely not bored.

I love the fact that Bush is now trying to say that he didn't actually appoint right-wing activist Jerry Thacker, who talks about AIDS as a "gay plague." Yeah, uh huh, right. He's only saying that now because it generated so much controversy and made Bush look like the right-wing guy he really is. This is the same as when Bush said that the "beauracracy" put out federal guidelines and that he had no say in them. Talk about lack of personal responsibility.

CHOICE

Over the last week there has obviously been an inordinant amount of articles, editorial, and press coverage of the Choice issue since it was the 30th anniversay of Roe v. Wade. It's been hard to keep up on here with all the links, but I'll combine a few of them here for your reading pleasure:

After three decades of abortion wars, some people may have forgotten -- or never known -- why doctors, ministers, rabbis, abortion reformers and women activists waged such an uphill battle to make abortion legal. Every year, 1 million women had illegal abortions and 5,000 women died as a result of botched abortions.

The predicament of the San Francisco doctors crystallized how untenable the situation was with respect to abortion. If physicians acted in accord with their best medical and ethical judgment, they could suffer dire consequences.

The most appropriate commemoration of Roe vs. Wade's 30th anniversary should be a renewed commitment to preserving freedom of choice. If the right to choose is to endure for future generations, pro-choice Americans must stand up and make their voices heard.
-- Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland)

I still can't believe that Nell Carter has died. I loved her persona.

Thursday, January 23, 2003

Would you have a member of the Flat Earth Society advising the president on space policy? Why would you have people advising the president about approaches to public health who don't read the science?

I agree it's completely insane and shouldn't happen, but I don't know why is anyone would be shocked by this type of appointment: It continues the Bush administration's trend toward morality-based rather than evidence-based public health and HIV prevention....

When it comes to appointments the Bush Administration goes for the furthest right-wing people it can get and has been doing the same type of appointments to other panels, including leading scientific panels. It is really destroying any credibility federal panels will have on issues of science. It also serves to further right-wing ideas out in the public marketplace. These all have the effect of moving society further rightward by getting the ideas out there. Only until a right-wing person is no longer president or until our nation wakes up, realizes the insane work of this administration, or until there we and our representatives begin to speak out strongly as a whole will these types of appointments and right-wing ideologies no longer be seen as acceptable.

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

CHOICE

As today is the 30th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I'd encourage you to take a minute and think about that. Also, here's my own personal story on the subject its meaning to me. 30 years and counting.... never go back.

For those who like The Kronos Quartet, and you know who you are, there's a whole big slew of activities going on right now around their 30th anniversary celebration in San Francisco. Maybe if those mentioned read my page anymore, they might make note....

Had a hilarious dream last night involving my niece. Actually, it wasn't hilarious during the dream. It was somewhat of a nightmare in that there were all these bad guys who were trying to get into the house and my family and I kept trying to keep them out. The only real solution was that we had to get Mariah to use a special shampoo to wash her hair. But she kept refusing because she didn't want to wash her hair. Finally, at the end of the dream she relented and allowed us to wash her hair with the shampoo and the bad guys were then forced to leave. Not sure what that says about my niece's cleanliness....

Tuesday, January 21, 2003

Why, oh why, doesn't the media pick up on these blatantly racist practices and regulations and legal stances and on and on by Bush, and instead they promote his flowery language (but not deeds) of inclusion and praise for civil rights?

CHOICE

Couple of very good articles on the upcoming anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling. I know this may all seem so overwhelming: all the articles, activities, and links I'm pointing out. But this is a major historical event-- it's the 30th Anniversary of one of our rights being found constitutional and with that furthering the cause for the right to privacy concerns. Now, I know it's a lot to read and all, but this right, this legal right, is under attack like never before and now is the time to learn more about it, learn more about the assaults against our rights, to talk with others about this, and to take action.

Safeguard your rights now, for they may one day be gone. As the following article, which I strongly encourage you to read, perfectly illustrates, the assault is on and in full force and the details of the assault are through stealth tactics that will chip away and chip away until the right is gone or impossible to access, i.e. The fate of women's reproductive rights in the Bush administration conjures up the image of Gulliver among the Lilliputians. With Roe too venerable to slay, given the current make-up of the Supreme Court, the Bush administration seeks instead to incapacitate. The entanglements come in the guise of gag orders, executive directives, regulatory restrictions, judicial nominations, political appointments to scientific advisory boards and linguistic and definitional shenanigans. Viewed as a whole, they pose the most serious threat to reproductive freedom in decades.

Additionally, the New York Times did a lengthy anniversary piece, attempting to balance the perspectives, but which gives a good sense of how legislative matters do translate to everyday lives: If they really wanted to reduce the number of abortions, they would work with us to make sure everyone has real access to family planning and real sex education. It is about more than abortion. It really comes down to whether women will have an equal place at life's table, whether we value children enough that we want them to be planned and wanted and cared for.

Chris was going on and on the other night about how much he wants to see The Quiet American, but looks as if it may be real hard to find it in theaters around the country. Interesting. Makes me want to see it more now.

CHOICE

HISTORY. We must never forget and never go back.

So I've been meaning to ask since the weekend, could it be that Chris is back?! I'm so excited about that possibility that I could spit.

I do find it amazing that the racist statement by the basketball player Shaq O'Neal against the other basketball player Yao Ming has received virtually no media blitz. Is that a statement of the larger media and society that Asian-American concerns are of little consequence? I find this quote interesting: ...how come O'Neal didn't get the same treatment as major league pitcher John Rocker, who caused a furor when he denigrated immigrants and gays. Would the press have been all over a white athlete who said the same? But I do find it rather strange that only Asian-American-related media seem to be paying attention to it and there's a justifiably strong anger there. So where is everyone else?

So what did I do yesterday? The holiday, the day off. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I had plans to go out and about and read and such things, but it was soooo terribly cold and after going out for coffee in the morning I suddenly realized that I was freezing and I just wanted to stay in my apartment and hang out with the cat. And even though I was there with all my reading materials and my Spanish homework, I just couldn't get anything done. I could have also hung out with my friends... but no, I did nothing. So much for honoring the holiday or at least being productive.

Sunday, January 19, 2003

Let my country awake.

CHOICE

Two articles in the SF Chronicle today preparing for the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision in 1973 that "guaranteed women the right to a legal abortion": one on the history with a timeline to boot; and another on the current make-up and prospects for the future of the Supreme Court since the Court is becoming more and more anti-Choice and anti-Roe v. Wade ever since the Republicans have been selecting members for it:
Choice has never been in more danger than it is today. If they can't overturn Roe vs. Wade, they will gut it.....
This is the most hostile political environment since Roe vs. Wade for women's rights and women's reproductive rights in particular....
The right has already suffered from years and years of battering.

For those who didn't make the marches yesterday, including myself, and for those who did make the marches but want to follow-up them with a direct statement to Bush himself to say no to war, go here to join an important petition and go here to send in your own letter.

I can't believe I've never seen The Candidate before but I gotta go out and rent it soon. Sounds terrific. And now after reading this editorial on the sad state of current politics, how prescient the movie was, and the fact that they're contemplating a sequel to note just how bad politics has become it's even more of interest to me to watch.

Saturday, January 18, 2003

Been updating both of my monthly issues (December-AIDS/HIV and January-Choice) pages. As promised, I'm trying to update them with news articles and other resources and feedback. Check 'em out.

So I spent the afternoon going through the volunteer training for the GLBTQ Center. I just love that place-- so amazing, so many possibilities, such a community atmosphere, so many people to get to know and work with, so many opportunities. So at some point soon I'll start a regular volunteer program with them, but not sure when that will begin or what I'll be doing. I'll keep you posted.

As part of the opening of the training, they did a little getting-to-know-you activity with the trainees. It involved us answering the following questions: 1) What's your favorite place in the world? 2) Who has taught you something important in your life? 3) What's a current goal you have? and 4) If you were a breakfast cereal, what would you be? Well, just to share, here's how I answered: 1) San Francisco cuz it's just oh-so-beautiful; 2) Erika Fox, my first real boss from my days at Planned Parenthood in Kansas City; 3) Spanish fluency; and 4) Granola with Fresh Fruit because it's pretty basic and wholesome and mundane but mixed with various fruit which means there's something different and refreshing going on and there may be more to the cereal than meets the eye. What would you answer?

Woo-hoo!

White House aides have developed a strategy for filling a future vacancy on the Supreme Court that calls for nominating an ideological conservative... "There is no fear of a confirmation fight"
Let's give 'em hell and then they'll be scared.

CHOICE

Join a virtual sit-in at the Supreme Court and leave your own personal statement there.

Guess who else is starting up his own website now too? Why it's Corby, my bestest friend from high school and beyond. He's still working on the site, so it's not complete yet, but I love the opening....

Friday, January 17, 2003

Any techies out there that have time and interest in helping my sister set up a blog of her own, please contact her. As you know, I have no idea what I'm doing and am of no help to her.

Times when there's an exciting event happening and you don't want to go....

I think I'm getting old. I don't have the energy anymore for marches or rallies or events, even though I know how important they are and how much good change they can do. I'm much more about the quiet changes that one can do such as voting or writing or helping political campaigns or smaller group activities or volunteering or attending conferences or small vigils or other such things... I've never really enjoyed large rallies personally. I did the giant marches on Washington in '92 for Choice and '93 for Gay rights. I protested the Christian Coalition in DC. I've always done the Gay Pride parade every year (although even that's getting boring and overwhelming out here in Gay mecca land). But I'm tired of marching and rallying when I'm just not personally the type of guy who likes to yell or chant or march. I fully support the whole thing and want it to occur. It's just personally not my thing and really never has been.

So everyone's all excited, at least here in the Bay Area, about tomorrow's big march against the war on Iraq. And while I'm excited about it being as huge and loud and vocal and impactful as possible, I dread the thought of going myself-- so many people, so much noise, so many people, so many people, so many people.

Although Chris and Jessie have talked about going, I've been debating and dreading it all week. I just don't want to go. I also have a conflict since I'm going to be doing a volunteer training all afternoon at the Center to do my part for some volunteering, social cause, social justice activity. But I almost feel guilty for not wanting to attend the march tomorrow. I fully support the cause, but I feel bogged down by the whole idea of personally going. Am I being a bad activist? I know the answer is that I'm not and that we all have our own roles to play in these activities, but I still feel a little guilty.

Thursday, January 16, 2003

Another reason not to get fat:

A study on medical mistakes found operating room teams around the country leave sponges, clamps and other tools inside about 1,500 patients every year... Researchers say big patients simply provide more room and more fat in which to lose track of objects.

They're gonna raise my tuition from $11 to $24 per credit? Aiya!

CHOICE

The United States has one of the highest rates of abortion among industrialized countries outside of eastern Europe, in large part because we have high levels of unintended pregnancy. In addition to safeguarding access to abortion services, if we hope to continue to decrease the number and rate of abortions in this country, we must first address the factors responsible.
Continued assaults on access to contraceptive information and services, particularly for young women and men, will only lead to more unplanned pregnancies and abortions.

Wednesday, January 15, 2003

Tell DOJ and Department of Homeland Security that we need effective measures to combat terrorism, not ones which frighten [and discriminate against] law-abiding residents!

CHOICE

Wow, check it out: one of those internet cartoons with singing and dancing by Bush and others and their threat to choice. Funny and yet scary. Check it out.

Yeah! My friend Ellen wrote a letter to the editor and it was printed today. She wrote regarding the following comment by Senate Majority Leader Frist and his comments about the fact that he votes abysmally on civil rights issues for African Americans: Frist defended his civil rights record, which has been criticized by civil rights organizations. He said studies of his votes ignore actions such as "the fact I go to Africa once a year or twice a year to work with the African American community."

Here's here letter:
Editor -- I wonder why Sen. Bill Frist finds it necessary to go all the way to Africa to help the "African American community." It seems that there is more than enough work he could do for that community here in America.

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

CHOICE

10 Things you can do to promote choice, California-style.

The supposedly liberal American press has become a dog that never bites, hardly barks but really loves rolling over and having its tummy tickled.

Is the internet the new basis for detailed analysis and fact-finding?
Lott, the veteran senator from Mississippi, made his pro- segregation statement on a Thursday, in full earshot of the Washington press corps. The Times and Post both failed to mention it. Indeed, it was almost totally ignored until the following Tuesday, kept alive until then only by a handful of bloggers. If there is a Watergate scandal lurking in this administration, it is unlikely to be Woodward or his colleagues who will tell us about it. If it emerges, it will probably come out on the web. That is a devastating indictment of the state of American newspapers.

How about another update from our good friend Leslie, that great Woman of the World, reporting from her new Peace Corps assignment in Kenya. It looks as if she's disappointed she's living in a modern home with amenities rather than in the hut she hoped for:

"Well I am finally settling down to a normal, what ever that may be, life in Mombassa. After a month long homeless, traveling safari experience I finally have a house and have unpacked my things. First of all I suggest to all of you to pack up a bag of special items and hide it away for a few months so that when you stumble upon it and open it up you are excited by all the things you once had, forgot about and are now overjoyed to find again. It is an instant Christmas. If you try this little experiment you will understand what unpacking my bags felt like after four months! Needless to say I am now unpacked and living the most exceptional PC experience.

"Ok I began my trek back to Kenya thinking living in a mud hut again would be great!! Yes I really was looking forward to living in a village hanging out at the local duca (shop that sells the minimum of necessities and the most random maybe at some point useful items) and hanging out drinking chi with the local momas. Not once did it ever cross my mind that I would be living where I am now.

"Ok brace yourselves.... I am living in an apartment at an international secondary school in the rich neighborhood of Mombassa. Ok I wanted to live in old town,(the historical cultured part of the island, a good variety of ethnicities, a strong muslim influence and lots of Swahiliilli food!), but alas PC wouldn't allow me to live on the island. So I am living in Nali, a suburb north of the Island. I have access to a pool and tennis courts, maybe even a round of golf is in nearable future. Yes I ask myself where am I everyday. My house has a fridge, electricity, running water, a stove, fans and all the comforts of home. All my neighbors are English. I am a bit confused to say the least. It is definitly a different life style than I expected.

"Thank goodness for my job which lets me work up and down the coast with local people to use natural resources sustainable through eco tourism practices. I'm focusing right now on two projects. The first is in the south on Wasini Island/Shimoni. Here I am helping KWS and the womens group on the Island with marketing expansiontion of there coral gardens. It is beautifull there. It is located near the Pemba channel where some of the best deep sea fishing is, I have to say the fish I have had is superb. I am also helping with the crocodile problem they have in the river, issulicencesates to cull them and then helping to create revenue from the skins or meet. There are so many that in rainey season they threaten the local population. Lets hope I don't get eaten!!!

"My second project is up north near Malindi at a place called Watamu. I will be working at the butterfly farm there to help the current NGO turn over businesses to the local people. Thus I will be teaching basic business skills and marketing. I will also help the locals to initiate income generating projects to sustain businesses.

"So I guess you could say that I am settled here... I am very happy to be living on the Coast, though it is so hot, yes Sarah I have a great tan!! Definatly nice, though for some reason I feel like I should be suffering a little more that I am. I just keep telling my self that its a new experience and that I am pretty lucky. Well gota go get some provisions!! I miss ya all. Take care."

Monday, January 13, 2003

So I'm not real big in the whole new year's resolution department-- it just seems like another holiday attempt to make people feel guilty. But I did recently resolve late last year that in 2003 I was going to be more involved in volunteering and in my community. So I started talking with different groups and community people late last year about getting involved and now it's all coming together:

This last weekend I volunteered with the Victory Fund and have another meeting with them next week. Yesterday, my friend Ellen asked me to join her on the CARAL Political Committee. I have a volunteer training for the GLBT Center this Saturday. I'm meeting with the Larkin Street Youth Center this week about becoming a mentor to youth. And I haven't even had a chance to contact the people at Stop AIDS about doing something with them, even though I really want to do so. I also have to start my new Spanish class tomorrow night.

Whew! I'm already tired and overcommitted. I'll have to prioritize these very soon. But I am excited to be getting more involved and doing more things in my life and for the community.

Even Republican Senators are angry at Bush's arrogance. Wow.

Great article listing the top ten news stories that were under- or misreported last year (with the anthrax killers being #1; yeah, what happened to that?). He goes on to state a few important insights:

Denial is a basic human trait. But media denial denies us the knowledge and analysis we need to make reasonable sense of the world. Most American journalists are not decoding or assembling the world for us - they're more or less smashing it into thousands of fragmentary tales and leaving matters at that.

I'm afraid it's that of a cowed press in denial about, and so denying us, the larger picture of this administration's assault on us, our rights, our land and the planet. Read the papers, turn on the TV, and you'll see some of the trees (those not being felled by this administration), but catch hardly a glimpse of the forest.

Funny, sad, true. But remember, this is America -- where ad space is sold on the floors of supermarkets and the tiles above urinals, on coffee sleeves and ticket stubs.

We have to make sure that Lieberman does not get the Democratic nomination. He is waaaaaaayyyyyy too conservative. When Gore named him his vice-presidential candidate I was oh-so-bummed and worried. I supported the ticket because of Gore and because we needed to beat Bush. But I was not happy with Lieberman's selection. Now we have a chance to vote no on him in the Democratic primary.

Very funny. I can only imagine what Lott thinks of this: This month, the cafe at Dupont Circle's Kramerbooks served a new $3.25 drink called a "Trent Lotte", which offers "separate but equal parts of coffee and steamed milk." The ingredients are served in separate mugs to allow customers to integrate at their own pace.
P.S. That cafe was smack dab in the middle of my old neighborhood in DC.

Sunday, January 12, 2003

The Washington Post takes on Bush's extreme partisanship:

The president came to town promising to change the tone of debate and to reach across party lines. Now he seems to have settled on a different course. Some of his advisers apparently have concluded that polarizing political fights with Democrats benefit the administration....

Playing partisan politics and calling it high principle won't work anymore.

This season's Simpsons has been one of the best in years. Tonight was another brilliant episode. Amazing, after so many years....

CHOICE

The New York Times takes on Bush's war against women in a rather long and well-detailed editorial:

On the surface, the Bush administration's war against women's rights is a series of largely unnoted changes. It is intended to look that way. In reality, it is a steady march into the past, to a time before Roe v. Wade, when abortion was illegal and pregnancy was more a matter of fate than choice.... [T]he actual impact of the presidential assault: women's constitutional liberty has been threatened, essential reproductive health care has been denied or delayed, and some women will needlessly die.

Speaking of Illinois.... I saw Chicago last night and it was fun, fun, fun.

This is a watershed moment, a turning point in the debate over capital punishment....

Sometimes politicians do amazing things. This happens most often upon retirement when they no longer feel worried about their careers and just want to do the right thing. Regardless, he's been working on this issue for several years and he deserves great praise for his astonishing decisions. Here's several strongly worded statements he made about this decision:

Detectives subsequently handcuffed Patterson behind his back, turned out the lights, suffocated him with a gray plastic typewriter cover over his head and struck him in the chest. When Patterson refused to confess, he was suffocated and beaten about the body again.....

They were found innocent. Innocent of the charges for which they were sentenced to die. Can you imagine? We nearly killed innocent people, nearly injected them with a cocktail of deadly poisons so they could die in front of witnesses on a gurney in the state's death chamber....

The Legislature couldn't reform it, lawmakers won't repeal it, but I will not stand for it. I must act....

Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error, error in determining guilt and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die. What effect was race having? What effect was poverty having? Because of all these reasons, today I am commuting the sentences of all Death Row inmates.

Saturday, January 11, 2003

This whole thing is a round-up... Attorney General Ashcroft is using the immigrant registration program as a pretense to lock people up whose only offense was having their green card application get lost in the bureaucratic morass that is the INS.

Protest this unconscionable travesty:
At any time when our brothers and sisters are denied civil liberties, civil rights or human rights, we must always have a cadre of people who will stand up and say, 'No, no, no.'...
When you lie to one of us, you lie to all of us. When you detain one of us, you detain all of us. When you terrorize some of us, you terrorize all of us...

I've seen people going in and not coming out.

I loved this article: "When people call me and say, 'My job isn't fulfilling anymore,' I tell them, 'You're lucky you have a job right now – I would hold on to it,'"....
"It's better to be getting some experience and making some connections and building your résumé, even if it's not something that you feel is the perfect job for you, because doing that says something about you.
It says, 'I am someone who wants to work and will work hard even if it's something I'm not thrilled about, because I'm going to learn something every place I go."
Sound vaguely unappealing? It's amazing how your perspective changes after just a few months spent watching your bank account balance diminish.

Times you get really, really worried about your friends..... I hope all is ok. Don, please let me know you're ok. I miss you.

Friday, January 10, 2003

CHOICE

"As an actor, I portray a character who fearlessly encounters the unknown every day, but as a woman, what does scare me is the thought of returning to what we do know: the days of back alley abortions. Join my Million4Roe team and stand strong for women's rights and women's lives." -Gillian Anderson Cool!

CHOICE

Countrymouse has offered this song as an ode to my Issue of the Month. Thanks!

Think back to the year 2000 and how Ralph Nader and the Green Party were saying that there was absolutely no difference between Gore and Bush. Now, how many wars are we getting ourselves into since Bush came to power? How many international treaties are we ourselves ripping apart? How much of our "green" environment is being eroded each and every day by Bush's anti-environmental policies? How many right-wing judges must we deal with from now on and what terrible decisions will they make? How many more civil liberties will we lose?

One wonders if the Green Party still thinks there's no difference between Bush and Gore. Now, are the Green Party people seriously be happy with these results?

One really great thing about going back to the Midwest for the holidays every year: new underwear. --due to my regular stocking-up pilgrimage to K-Mart.

Jessie's back. Hooray!

You know, I punched up the ole archive section of his page and started going through the posts from his first few months in 2000. Wow, it's like a trip down memory lane of he and I and our hanging out activities. Good times.

The other funny thing about it is how far away and yet how recent everything is. In the year 2000, Jessie's loving Kozmo.com & Napster, making pre-9/11 terrorism sarcasm, talking about crushes in his then-current college classes, and writing about then-popular movie after then-popular movie after then-popular movie. What a timewarp.

Perhaps you wonder just where in the hell is the spineless major media in all this, as they watch the chicken-hawk Shrubster himself, between golf swings, announce how tens of thousands of American troops are being sent to the Gulf alongside an enormous billion-dollar military buildup and imminent gobs of heaping death raining down upon a paltry oppressed nation and coming up next on CNN, we interview that dumb guy from "Joe Millionaire." Perfect.

Perhaps you wonder where are all the "serious" journalists, the risk-taking news agencies pointing up the absurdity of it all, the imminent horror, the outrage. Could it be these news agencies are owned by major conservative corporations? Could it be they're all terrified of losing ratings, of saying something unpopular, of invoking Cheney's wrath, of losing advertiser dollars and that ever-precious, ever-dwindling dumbed-down audience? One guess.

Our constitutional rights are quickly and systematically being stripped away....

[Pickering's nomination is] a symbol of the Bush administration's determination to push for everything it can get, to cram its agenda down its critics' throats.... And it symbolizes something else - that just in case anyone down in Dixie feared the White House was going soft after this Lott business, now there can be no doubts. We're not even talking winks and nods here - it's more like a billboard.

Environmentalism in Crisis due to Bush and Republicans. It's no longer just a threat from them. It's government policy.

Sept 29, 1998. I had to look up the date. That night I happened to catch the very first episode of "Felicity." I know this may sound warped and strange, but watching that episode and that first season really hit me in an emotional way that's hard to explain. Something about the way Keri Russell played her so perfectly and humbly and unsure and frightened and yet strong, constantly tugging at a place in my own psyche to where I knew exactly where she was coming from and had been there before. Something about the way the slow-paced direction of the show which allowed for more time to think through and feel the emotions. Something about the emerging strong woman element. Something. But that first episode and that first season I couldn't get the show out of my head. I didn't want to either. It felt part of my soul.

So when I saw that they'd just released the entire first season of the show on DVD I picked it up knowing that it would take a week, a weekend, or at least a rainy night for me to watch and absorb back those thoughts and feelings. Last night I spent the evening wrapped in a blanket, glued to the first several episodes. The show always felt like a session with her therapist, and in a way it was a therapeutic session for the audience too. Television does have a strong power. Good thing I really don't watch too much of it.

Thursday, January 09, 2003

Rough day, it's raining, I'm tired. Gonna sleep early tonight.

Wednesday, January 08, 2003

CHOICE

In one click, tell your Senators to reject Bush's extremist, right-wing, anti-choice judicial appointments. It'll take two seconds. You can do it!

Anything we don't pay for now, our kids are going to have to cover. We're on a path to bankrupt the next generation.

For those who think that political decisions don't have consequences:

One interesting aspect of the Seriously Dumb Tax Cut we are watching develop in Washington is that we are simultaneously witnessing the effects of Seriously Dumb Tax Cuts at the state level.

The states are plotzing right and left, caught in hideous binds -- whether it is better to release dangerous prisoners or cut back the schools, cut back health care for kids or nursing homes for old folks.


Next time you wonder why the schools have no money or why a dangerous convicted criminal isn't serving their full sentence or why there aren't any good child care opportunities or why our roads aren't fixed or why you don't have better-- or even proper or basic-- health care, think back to the fact that taxes are used for the public good.

By the way, where's that $300 tax "rebate" now? And how much are you getting nowadays, whereas the wealthy are still reeling in the breaks daily....

I walk by the bakery-- the one near my office that I never go to. I only went there once, back on my very first day of this new job when my officemate took me there to welcome me. I remember how excited I was; actually I wasn't just excited, I felt my career had finally taken off and I was ecstatic.

I walked by the bakery today. Those feelings are now just remnants of my past.

A new site as a tribute to Senator Paul Wellstone: "Politics is not about big money or power games, it's about the improvement of people's lives."

I AM NEVER GOING HOME TO SEE MY FAMILY AGAIN

That's what I would have said had it been worse, but luckily it looks as if I only gained three to four pounds while back home even though I ate so much food, was terribly sick, and never got to the Y near my family's home. Sidenote: happily the gym seems to not be too busy right now, even though this is the most populated time of year. And my workout program is going strong.

Well, it's official. Actually it was official on the 31st of last month, but it's the end of the year. I just went through the final days of my Simpsons Daily Calendar, having had several days piled up while I was out of town. Now the year is over, my daily calendar is gone, and I only have my new Simpsons DVD sets to keep me company....

P.S. 2002 SUCKED!!!! Here's looking forward to 2003 being a good year for me.

Tuesday, January 07, 2003

so what does everybody think of how I've been using my webcam? pretty nifty, eh? I'm becoming so technological I don't even recognize myself....

CHOICE

FIGHT BACK

Very funny, Byron. The way I see it, I have the rest of my life to legally drink myself into vomiting--why start on the first day?

All the Women, Independent!
Political spouses used to be women walking demurely behind their husbands and listening with fixed smiles to speeches they had heard at least a hundred times. No more.

CHOICEAIDS/HIV

...information that used to be based on science is being systematically removed from the public when it conflicts with the administration's political agenda.... Bush staffers are vetting hundreds of nominees to these scientific panels by screening their political loyalties, rather than their scientific expertise.

So the military is worried there aren't going to be any recruits in the near future because everyone's so obese. If they just got rid of the ban of gays in the military then they wouldn't have that problem. For everybody knows the only people who work out anymore are gay muscle clones....

Should I go out with a CHiP? Follow-up question: how hilarious is that question in general?

[A]s we invest in one another's ability to be productive we increase the community's wealth and we reduce its costly disorientations. And we also promote peace. God forbid we should allow history to record that the best thing this generation did as a nation was to destroy enemies and win wars, instead of helping people help themselves earn a good life. We know we can frighten people with our awesome military might: what we need to be sure of is that they will respect us for our wisdom and fairness as well.... We are the richest, freest, most technologically proficient and most powerful nation in world history. There is no reason, other than our own unwillingness, that we cannot also be the best educated, most highly skilled, healthiest, fairest nation in the world ¯ and the most effective instrument for spreading prosperity and peace to the rest of the planet.-- Mario Cuomo

Excellent article on the climate of fear in this country: Sometimes it appears that a primary role of the news media is to scare us. Perhaps this is just a way of engaging our attention, but many stories, particularly on the local news, seem designed more to alarm than inform.

Question: Is it normal for a cat to clean a person while they lie asleep in bed?
Just a question.

Unrelated follow-up question: Do I look dirty?

Monday, January 06, 2003

From the Onion: Bill of Rights Pared Down to a Manageable Six-- thanks Ellen for the referral. Funny, yet scary to think how close to reality it all is.

CHOICE

Looks like one of my favorite groups, NARAL, has changed its name (now NARAL Pro-Choice America) and is gearing up for the major fight ahead. Good for them!
We will guarantee freedom of choice using the most powerful resource in a free society: the determination of the American people never to allow our freedom to be taken away. This mobilization will secure the right to choose the same way we won it - one American, one neighborhood, one community, one state and eventually one nation at a time.

I love them for being so strident and strong. Yeah! But it will be quite a fight. Let's do our part; let's get involved!

Jessie, the cinematographer of one of your favorite movies has died. Interesting career and insights into his use of light.

While back in Kansas City I met up with an old friend I hadn't seen in years-- Lisa. She's fun, very political, stridently liberal, and oh-so-focused on fashion. Anyway, she was wondering what was going on with her favorite presidential candidate of 1992-- Jerry Brown of Oakland (she was for him; I was for Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts; all this during the primary before Clinton went on to win). Anyhoo, she may find this article interesting. While I think it shorts his political power a bit since I think he still could try and run for U.S. Senate in the near future (at one point there was talk of him running against Senator Barbara Boxer in the Democratic primary next year-- he better not!), it does make for an interesting interpretation of his need to get Oakland moving forward again.

Sunday, January 05, 2003

CHOICE

Sorry for the delay, but here's the new Issue of the Month: January-- Choice
Save CHOICE-- Save Roe v. Wade

A couple of new, exciting blogs I've run into lately:

esoterically.net, countrymouse.blogspot.com and lds.com.au. Of course, I'm also waiting to check out Dr. Crow's, aka "my mother's chiropractor," once his is up and running.

P.S. I've finally updated my links page, at least somewhat.

Saturday, January 04, 2003

oh, to be back home again

just got back, the place is a mess with unpacking, the cat's a wreck, and i'm wondering where to start. oh, to be back home again

Friday, January 03, 2003

And we didn't even get to eat pizza. Can you imagine? Still, a wonderful time meeting David in person. He's the best, very sweet, and oh-so-adorable with smiling eyes. Can't wait to see him again, especially when he comes to SF for a big West Coast visit, or even for the eventual big mid-Missouri blogfest we've now decided must be done.

Be prepared. My mother's chiropractor, whom I mentioned the other day on here, is getting ready to put together his own blog. Should be a cool "spreading the word" kind-of-site since he wants to make sure everyone is aware of what's happening out there. He already sent me an article which portends his informational blog to come. Looking forward to the site coming about.

The "First Baby of the Year" is by a lesbian couple. Very cool.

Thursday, January 02, 2003

Yesterday I took the train down to visit fellow blogger David who lives in mid-Missouri. (More, much more, on David later) Anyway, I love trains, as I've mentioned before. They seem historic and very Americana as you whistle along the back countrysides, back yards, and back roads of the country. Everything is slowed down and calm; there is no hurried atmosphere of today's life, just a refreshing reminder of how calm life could be if we tried to remember.

My father waited with me at the old train station in Independence, not too far from where he grew up and from our current home. He referenced all the physical changes he'd seen in the area around the station, his high school job at a long-gone hamburger joint, the old Icehouse out in the woods for those back then who didn't yet have the new-fangled refrigerators, and his first train ride with his father way back when trains were more common. (Ironically, the train ride he and his father took was to buy a new car for the family, paving the advances in modern transportation that would eventually leave the train system itself behind.) As we sat in his very modern SUV-styled pick-up truck waiting for the train to arrive, we listened to the radio where they detailed a biography of the late Hank Williams, who's death was now having its own 50th anniversary, perfectly highlighting the old-time world of yesteryear we were visiting while we make our way through the present.

I boarded the train via a make-shift stool, located an empty seat next to a long staring window, got out my papers, my food, my drinks, and made myself comfortable. As I looked around I felt an immediate connection with my fellow passengers. These are those that ride trains in today's world. Nowadays everybody flies, drives, honks, speeds, runs, hurries, rages, worries, takes off, lands, and nobody seems to make the time to enjoy the act of the travel anymore. These fellow travelers and I have chosen to take a different way down that same path and found a connection and inner sense of strength that lights us along the way.

Upon arriving in Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri, I took a seat outside the train station and waited for David to pick me up to take me the short distance to his home in Columbia. The train station is situated between the state capitol building and the governor's mansion. I couldn't help but reminisce about my time in this place exactly ten years ago in early January of 1993 when I was down here celebrating the inauguration of Governor-elect Mel Carnahan. Who could have guessed what would happen within the next ten years, with him dying and his wife becoming a Senator, and all the others strange happenings of Missouri. And who could have guessed what would happen with me and my life over those ten years.

This time of year, the changing of the annual calendar, and visiting Missouri, my home, always brings out so many thoughts, memories, and the reminiscing in me. It's good to have times like this to remember more about who you are and where you come from.

Wednesday, January 01, 2003

Well, I just wrote a wonderful and very long post on here today for the first day of the new year, but then I accidentally erased it before publishing it on here. So now I'm very depressed about that. Oh well, maybe one day I'll attempt to rewrite it.