Tuesday, August 31, 2004

just plain
evil

click the link to watch the video...

Monday, August 30, 2004

the new edition of the newsletter is up, with the piece you already read a few days ago, and a new version of some of the rants i was saying the other day entitled "The Legislative and Policy Equivalent of Domestic Violence"-- i like the way it looks on the screen in this version

i have no words, this is just completely, utterly disgusting. check out the picture. band aids being word at the republican national convention with colored purple hearts drawn on them to symbolize scratches! do they even think about what they're referencing? i mean... ('screaming' now)

You can't craft a vicious, mean-spirited platform and then try to put lipstick on the pig by putting Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger on in prime time...

I think it's interesting that the people they want people to hear on the opening nights of the convention are basically the people they never listen to

people, people, watch this tape of alan keyes going off on a reporter in his race for illinois senate. it's quite unbelievable. i mean, how do republicans even take him seriously? he's been a serious republican contender for senate in several states now and has been a part of the presidential circuit who's well-loved in right-wing republican circles. watch the whole thing through because it gets better and vehement near the end. how do such people get so far in politics? unbelievable.

for those of you who are non-political, it's worth a really hearty, good laugh

p.s. they keep taking down the official link because, one would guess, they don't want it spread through the internet further. but this site has kept a mirror of it continually through the day. let me know if you have trouble getting it to work. (you can also see it through here)

Sunday, August 29, 2004

"Keep in mind, this president has gone after three Vietnam veterans in four years. That's got to stop."

What is incredible is that these attacks on men who served not just honorably, but heroically, are coming from a hawkish party that is controlled by an astonishing number of men who sprinted as far from the front lines as they could when they were of fighting age and their country was at war.

...it is wrong - just wrong - to try and reap a cheap political gain by defacing the sacrifices of individuals like John Kerry, John McCain and Max Cleland, who put themselves in mortal danger in the service of their country.... The privileged classes no longer feel an obligation to put their lives - or their children's lives - on the line in defense of the nation. The very least they could do is insist that those who have put themselves in harm's way be treated with respect.

Saturday, August 28, 2004

"News Item" from Dorothy Parker

Men seldom make passes
At girls who wear glasses


I'm finding that my contacts have brought some newfound attention these days as I stroll around....

Friday, August 27, 2004

Read the whole article for some great lines, but here's a good part:
So, let's see: Bona-fide war hero turned incredibly articulate, educated, gifted Vietnam War protester and respected senator on one side, alcoholic AWOL failed-businessman born-again pampered daddy's boy evangelical Christian on the other. Is this really the contest? Bush slugs gin and tonics like Evian while Kerry is accused of ... what again? Not being incredibly heroic enough? Wow.

This is not, apparently, a hallucination. Kerry really is being forced to defend his well-documented war record, despite how all the proofs are there, in public view, on the candidate's own Web site, with nothing to hide and for all to see, whereas Dubya was (and still is) a famously inept embarrassment to the military, and is being forced to defend nothing about his own spoiled spoon-fed life, as he humiliates the nation at every utterance and attacks Kerry (and, by extension, John McCain) via GOP-sponsored henchmen while large chunks of his own embarrassing records have just, um, "disappeared."

What, too bitter? Resentful? Too much like I advocate stringing Karl Rove up by his large intestine and slapping him with a rainbow flag until he cries? All apologies.

Hey, it happens. Sometimes you just gotta purge. Vent. Let it all out. Because, really, it all makes you ask: Is everyone on drugs? Mass delusional? Are we just blind? Or is the vicious GOP spin machine really that powerful? Why, yes, yes, it is. And isn't it just the funniest thing?

My latest newsletter piece:

"Rearing Back, Keepin' On, and Having Faith"

We've had a rough month—the state Supreme Court invalidating our marriage licenses, my home state of Missouri choosing discrimination over equality, a newly-acknowledged Gay governor resigning amid scandal, being vehemently attacked and degraded in the U.S. House and Senate, and did I mention the marriage license loss? And, well, we better brace for some other possible state losses around the country in the coming months as several conservative states vote to constitutionally amend our rights away.

Yes, this has been a rough month. Another one in the many rough months we’ve had many times over the years. So what do we do with these disappointments? And how do we deal with loss?

First, a loss is never the end. It is a reminder of what’s at stake, and a beginning of the next go-round. For there is always a next go-round. Justice is never finalized, nor certain, but always possible. Paraphrasing Jefferson, justice and liberty require constant vigilance and continued hope.

Secondly, we, of all people, know how to deal with disappointment. We’ve seen discrimination and hate first hand. Each of us and all of us, the same, we know it well. We’ve known the hurt of friends turning their backs. We’ve known the abandonment by our families. We’ve known the pain of our partners being torn away from us due to laws, society, prejudice, inequalities, shame. We’ve known the maltreatment of others. We’ve been beaten and bashed and burned and bombarded and battered and bullied, from childhood through adulthood. We’ve known early death.

We know how to deal with disappointment because we’ve had to do so in order to survive. It’s not easy and it sucks, but we keep on keepin’ on. And we do keep on keepin’ on because we have also known the power of inner strength that comes from after the hurt. We’ve known the wisdom and courage that forms following a storm.

And that’s what we must take from these political and social setbacks. These are disappointments and losses, indeed. But we know in our hearts that we have the ability to handle them squarely, and that they only strengthen us in our souls. And with that knowledge, we can withstand the setbacks of this month, the future setbacks that will occur, as there will always be setbacks, and continue on to the future holding strongly to that eternal dream.

Thirdly, and as awkward as it may sound, we are a people of faith. We are a people of faith because we have been through hell and we have pulled ourselves out. We believe in the future. We live our every day fulfilling the next page in our tome towards a haven of equality and betterment. We are a people of faith who forge our own sense of serenity full of eternal hope for better days.

We, of all people, are a people of faith. And that is how we know to keep on keepin’ on.

I end with this quote from President Clinton, which has always been a favorite of mine. He spoke it just after the Democratic losses in 2002. Read it with faith, read it with hope, read it with a smile for the possibilities of tomorrow:

“Martin Luther King said the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice. The people who want to be the benders toward justice have the harder burden… So we lost a couple of elections. Big deal. Compared to the sacrifices others have made to be agents of constructive change, so what? So I say, take a deep breath. Decide what you believe. Rear back and go on.”

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

The headline for the day: Cheney breaks rank on same-sex marriage; Vice president refers to daughter as lesbian publicly for 1st time

The reality: don't trust anything he says. this is just part of an overall ploy, right around convention time, to make him and bush and the republicans look moderate. the whole point of their upcoming convention is to 'moderate' their message. this is part of that. it's calculated. they don't take questions from the audience that aren't planned in advance. they don't come up with answers and statements that aren't planned in advance. they know they are losing moderates. they know that they want the convention to put out a moderate face. this is the beginning of a long line of 'moderate' image-makeovers that we're going to see in the next few weeks and beyond.

don't believe the hype! yeah, it's good to hear nice things, but his policies and activities are what count and he is diametrically opposed to our wellbeing. and it's completely opposite of what their policies have been for the last four years. he and the administration and the republicans have been pushing the constitutional amendment, have been pushing state constitutional amendments, supported stridently the archaic discriminatory sodomy laws in the states, have been working against equality every chance they get, are ready to do whatever they can to never let us gain any sense of equality. they are opposed to us.

i've said this before and i'll say it again, don't believe the hype. THEY LIE all the time. this is a calculated stunt a few months before the election. nothing more.

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Gay Animals are real. Homosexuality is not a sin; it's part of our earthly design. So there.
..."the birds and the bees" generally meant only one thing—sex between a male and female. But, actually, some same-sex birds do do it. So do beetles, sheep, fruit bats, dolphins, and orangutans. Zoologists are discovering that homosexual and bisexual activity is not unknown within the animal kingdom.

have you ever noticed how odd the word keep looks written out? i mean, it doesn't look like a real word. it looks made-up. ok, so i've been on the computer too long today.

They have obviously decided that some people will believe anything, no matter how fictional or how far-fetched, if they just repeat it often enough. That's how they have run their administration, that's how they're running their campaign, and that's how they will run their convention... You can't cover up reality with a few empty slogans... The Bush campaign and its allies have turned to the tactics of fear and smear because they can't talk about jobs, health care, energy independence and rebuilding our alliances -- the real issues that matter to the American people.

If there's a problem, he denies it or finds someone else to take the fall for him.
Everyone has these tendencies in their measure. No one is perfect. But they define George W. Bush.
The same sort of moral cowardice that led him to support the Vietnam war but decide it wasn't for him, run companies into the ground and let others pay the bill, play gutter politics but run for the hills when someone asks him to say it to their face, those are the same qualities that led the president to lie the country into war, fail to prepare for the aftermath and then refuse to take responsibility for any of it when the bill started to come due.
That's the argument John Kerry needs to be making. And he needs to make it right now.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

someone please explain to me how the media and the pundits and everyone is up in arms over kerry's, not bush's, record during vietnam? i mean, i really don't understand how a war hero (who volunteered for service, saw hostile fire, saved a fellow veteran's life, and still carries shrapnel in his leg) is pummeled constantly over details of which are logged and described in detail in the war records, all of which is undisputed by the military; while a war deserter who didn't even serve is given a free pass with no hard questions asked, even though no one seems to know where he was during the time he was supposed to be serving. it's really rather orwellian

Saturday, August 21, 2004

i admit it, i'm a fan of 'smooth jazz' music. it's comfortable, relaxing, quiet, and fun to have in the background of life. i liked this quote about it, even if less than flattering: a case could be made that smooth jazz has found its cultural moment. The world is a jagged place, beset by terrorism, soaring oil prices and election fears. Into this scary vortex pours musical Xanax for frayed 21st century nerves... anyway, when i go to turn on the radio anymore, it's either to listen to a 'smooth jazz' station or a 'lite r&b' one.

over the years that i've been listening, i've been a quiet fan of a saxophonist named Dave Koz who i knew nothing about other than his music and his continued play on all the smooth jazz stations. when they'd say his music was coming up or just played, i always connected to it and him for some reason. and, well, now i know why after reading this article about his 'coming out' at age 40. nice article, nice story, cool guy, glad he took the plunge, even if he feared "being abandoned by his audience, especially married women," because it turns out that, due to the work and openness of many others over the years, no one is shocked or even cares anymore. except now he has started to build up a whole gay audience that may or may not have been paying attention before. good4him. good4us. and good4america for the yawn.

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

so i've been reading books lately, something i never used to seem to have time for. but thankfully to my vacation with my family and to Chris who recommended some good ones, i've been enjoying the written word, stories about people in depth, and spending time alone reading a novel rather than running around fitting in newspapers all the time

with all that said, i just finished an amazing book, A Home at the End of the World which has just been turned into a movie recently. but regardless of the movie, the book itself is a wonderful read. and there were times when i actually wanted to highlight passages because the language and the tone and the sense perfectfully captured an entire concept in ways hard to explain here. but here's my favorite example with a passage that hit me strongly:

"Are you in love with me?" I asked, though I knew the answer. He wanted desperately to be in love with someone. I fulfilled the fundamental age, height, and weight requirements. But his desire didn't attach directly to me. It was not quite personal.

the other main thing that hit me with the book was the sense of possibility and hope of families being built up from scratch based on being close enough with friends and lovers to accentuate each others strengths in a common goal. the tagline for the movie is "Family can be whatever you want it to be." and i love that statement. it's about finding your space in this world and having those around you who are closest sustain you, strengthen you and each other, and find a life together. as i read these passages i kept having these glimpses of a big house where my closest friends and i lived, not based on sex or children, but based on harmony and trust and love. and it heartened me greatly, as often i don't feel like i fit into the societal model of 2 people plus kids, let alone the heterosexual model. the story spoke to my hope of fitting into my own model of family and coexistence and love.

What binds us is stronger than sex. It is stronger than love. We're related. Each of us is the other born into different flesh.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

I arise at the crack of whenever I wake up -- ah, the home office...

It's like, she wants the idea of food, she wants the reassurance of food, but she does not actually want food.

Of course, we are smarter than cats. We can, for instance, do quadratic equations. Well, I can't, but a member of my species can.

Rappers are getting to be of an age where leadership is on their minds, and they accept their responsibility. ... These rappers wouldn't be talking about voting unless people in the street were talking about voting. They're doing what's in style.

i got contacts today!

Sunday, August 15, 2004

my friend Ariana is a budding environmentalist saving rare frog species in Michigan:
The Blanchard's cricket frog is a Michigan species of special concern (due to its dwindling numbers) but has no real legal protection. I am working with the Detroit Zoo to remove all the frogs before development begins in earnest... Please let me know ASAP if you can donate a little time to save a little froggie in a bad situation. I can provide nets and such. You will either want to wear clean rubber boots or waders (no chemicals or crud from other areas) or shoes you don't mind getting wet and muddy. I can provide bug spray to anyone needing it... Every frog we catch is (hopefully) going to find a better home and life. There are still some frogs out there that have avoided us so far!!-- Ariana in trying to drum up volunteers in Michigan to help her save the frogs...

Saturday, August 14, 2004

what's not to love about this movie review? here's a few of my favorite moments: Take a wretched premise. Imagine the worst picture that could be made from it. Then imagine something even worse. That's "Alien vs. Predator." Don't think of it as a movie. Think of it under the more general category of something unfortunate on film. And don't think of this as a review, but as testimony from someone who greeted the closing credits like a cell door swinging open.... At a certain point, artistic barrenness becomes so complete as to escape disdain. We can only stand in amazement.

my own personal debate becomes, do i watch it now, as excitingly dreadful as it sounds? or do i wait for the dvd when i can watch all the extras, including the pointless deleted scenes and the director's commentary? ooh, and the 'how they did it' travelogues too... difficult decision, maybe i'll have to do both!

The ruling was only an early step in a civil rights tradition: a testing of a questionable law by a public official and citizens....

The San Francisco decision - which somehow drew no new conservative outcries against "activist judges" - should be seen as but a bump on the way to progress. Just as California was the first state to strike down its own laws against interracial marriage, we expect that it will ultimately find a constitutional basis for the human right to same-sex marriage.

Friday, August 13, 2004

i'm on a listserve for missourians who were fighting against amendment 2 before the election earlier this month and they still write each other about issues now and then since the defeat at the polls. i asked one of the respondents today if i could quote her from an email she sent around, as i liked it so much. and, as such, it's below:

"Back in the early 1960's, when the civil rights movement was really starting to achieve things, there was a segregationist backlash. Things got ugly for blacks in the South...uglier, in fact, than they had been for decades. But this backlash wasn't a sustainable thing; it was the death-throes of an institution of racism that was fighting a futile rear-guard action against inevitable change.

I believe that what we are seeing today -- in the proposed Federal Marriage Act, in the various anti-gay marriage amendments at the state level, in the vicious and hateful rhetoric that chokes the airwaves and is preached at the pulpits of this nation -- are the death-throes of another institution: the institution of homophobia. In ten years time, I believe that people will look back on the '00s the same way that we now look back on the '60s: a time when the hatemongers were pitched out kicking and screaming all the way.
" -- Jessica L. Orsini

"We all know how difficult it is to come out as openly gay, whether to family or other loved ones," Garden State Equality chairman Steven Goldstein said. "No one could imagine what it's like to come out to 300 million people -- this is totally unprecedented."

Thursday, August 12, 2004

and now for something completely different, watch this hilarious cartoon, and this one too

i understand the legal rationale and it was expected, but it doesn't mean that it's not a sad day in San Francisco... as one guy wonderfully said, "You can't invalidate what's in my heart"

i just hold to my faith that this is but a small setback in the long struggle that we will ultimately win very soon

and another major newspaper, the washington post, writes a lengthy apology-of-sorts for their lack of proper coverage during the lead-up to the iraq war.

and so it becomes another situation where the media and the public should wonder about the role of the media in relation to the government, the inherent biases therein, and the ability to ever trust the bush administration again.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

so the other day i tried this new 'energy' drink called rock star (party like a rock star) and

wow, whiz, bam, boom, i'm awake!
today i've been working like a madman and i even was working through lunch, and i never forget about lunch!

wow, whiz, bam, boom, i'm awake!
what day is it?

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

fascinating article on how one conservative suburban church in missouri has turned into a republican/bush/anti-gay campaign office

Sunday, August 08, 2004

cleaning up the house

i hate cleaning. it's always a last resort-- when all my usual 'ignore it and it will go away' logic fails me for the last time. regretably, i've had dishes pile up all over. i've thrown out pans that were weeks old solely because i wouldn't clean them. i've bought new dishes rather than wash them. i know, i know.

which is all rather ironic because when i was a kid i made my mother and grandmother proud by always being so neat and clean and desiring to take that old duster and a lysol bottle and cleaning their houses all the time.

so, the kitchen floor was getting really disgusting. it was definitely way past time. and believe me, i ignored it as long as humanly possible. ugh.

so i spent yesterday cleaning the kitchen. i got in the mood which means i went hogwild. i even turned the refrigerator off and opened it up, let the ice melt, drained all the excess water, and aired it out over night. today i cleaned the whole inside.

see, there's the problem. once i start cleaning i have to do everything and it never stops. so it becomes a big huge ordeal. and usually i'd just prefer to ignore the problems.

so, on a similarly strange note, i have this old church melody i sing when i clean the cat's litterbox. i don't mean it to be blasphemous, it's just a tune. and i hum and sing to random tunes all the time. so to the tune of 'bringing in the sheaves' (which my mother and chris jubilee will undoubtedly appreciate or consider blasphemous) i sing:

cleaning up the poop
cleaning up the poop
we shall come rejoicing
cleaning up the poop

anyhow, this weekend i was singing a similarly phrased, less blasphemous, version while cleaning the kitchen:

cleaning up the house
cleaning up the house
we shall come rejoicing
cleaning up the house

either way, my cat hid away all weekend and hated me for moving things and cleaning and making noise. and i kept saying to amaya, i hate this too....

Friday, August 06, 2004

sources tell me that my father caught a foul ball, sans glove, in the stands of royals stadium last night.

(w) ow

Thursday, August 05, 2004

jessie paraphrased: "you apartment looks like a teenage girl's bedroom what with all the stickers and posters and stuffed animals...."

my niece knew a package in the mail was from me recently because it had ladybug stickers on it

i'm not 34 yet

Thoughts from my daily calendar, "Moving Forward, Keeping Still: The Gateway to Eastern Wisdom":

"If you think you're free, there's no escape possible."-- Baba Ram Dass

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

While we are saddened by the vote, we are not surprised. Fundamental human rights should never be up for popular vote. Our founding fathers recognized this reality and enshrined our basic freedoms in the United States Constitution.

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

on a more positive note: the august edition of the newsletter i produce is out





It's a DARK DAY
in Missouri




TODAY TODAY TODAY
Missouri:
Vote NO on 2
TODAY! August 3rd

Spread the word and tell all your friends, family, community, and anyone you even remotely know in Missouri!

Monday, August 02, 2004

Missouri:
Vote NO on 2
Tomorrow! August 3rd

Spread the word and tell all your friends, family, community, and anyone you even remotely know in Missouri!