RNC: Goat Rodeo

gop.com

Savannah, Ga. The Republican National Committee, a cruft organization if ever there was, has 'had all it can stand, and it can't stands no more.' While Group Leader wannabes are gifting fellow goppers 7th grade study hall CD's about "magic negroes," current party bosses are fighting the Grand Cause of Relevancy in the dark times between presidential elections, that interval when their own elected pols relegate them to the children's table and go about doing what grownups do.

According to an "exclusive" in today's Moonie News, RNC Vice Chairman Jim Bopp, Jr., has penned a resolution opposing the Federal bailouts of Wall Street and Car Makers. Further, he breaks Great Leader Unca Ronnie's 1966 directive by trashing Congressional Republicans, and even Dubya, by invoking the "S" word: Socialism. These Quislings are using Big Government and Socialist Tactics to attack capitalism. We're just a hop, skip, and jump away from losing our individual liberties and freedoms.

Oh, those kids.

The Polite Bigotry of Peter LaBarbera

photo: Todd Winters

“I sincerely believe that nobody has to be ‘gay."

Savannah, Ga. Peter LaBarbera lives for conflict. For all of the neo-Puritans, there is always an ongoing battle in the cosmic war for Gideon against the forces of Satan and Hell. His crusade pour la vie is against the Leviathan Homosexual, homosexual activists, homosexual agenda, homosexual fanatics, and anything smacking of "normalizing homosexuality in the culture."

LaBarbera really puts himself out there as the go-to guy for All Things Considered Homosexual. From his website: "He has done over a thousand interviews on the [homosexual activist movement] and written extensively on most aspects of the homosexual, bisexual, and--(in quotes)--"transgender" agenda--with special focus on the inroads that the pro-homosexuality movement has made among America's youth." Further, his website states: "LaBarbera has debated the top[sic] homosexual advocates while appearing on hundreds of TV and radio news programs." Despite this veritable trove of exposure, LaBarbera politely demures that he is not in any way "obsessed" about homosexuality. Far from the fact. The site points out that "LaBarbera has been falsely accused of being a repressed homosexual more times than he can remember." Might this be selective memory loss? For a man who writes "thousands" of articles and appears on "hundreds" of on-air media programs all addressing a homosexual agenda, and at the same juncture claiming a non-fixation of the subject, then perhaps topic hobbyist would be a better choice of words, or homosexual dilettante a better turn of phrase. In any event, Peter the 'pro-family' activist spends quite a bit of time away from Le Mme et cinq enfants trying to pin scarlet Lambda's on homosexual chests in Op-Ed pages and TV/Radio studios across the land.

No "liberal caricature of the angry 'homophobe'" he, LaBarbera prides himself in damning homosexuals with civility. He's even dinged Fred Phelps for having an "unChristian message." Bully. Phelps is a bit too flamboyant, too red-meated, for the muted LaBarbera, who nonetheless believes that "homosexual practice is always wrong," "rejects the notion of inborn "gay" identity," denies the idea of transgender issues, and believes a radical, harmful, homosexual agenda is a force of evil to be engaged in holy struggle. Like the title of Bernard Henri-Levy's 1977 book, Barbarism with Human Face, the very mannerly and always civil Peter LaBarbera prefers to show all of us his affable facade. But mistake him not: LaBarbera is a barbarian, a modern Cromwell, who in the name of his god and the ego of his belief will force compliance, his order, and his radical religious agenda upon us all.

The battle is enjoined.

Great Balls O' Fire!

James Hartline and Prop.8

Savannah, Ga. There he goes again; Hartline's god likes to torch things in California. According to self-professed prophet Jimmy:

Today, people are running for their lives as 800 California homes have burned down and the firestorm is spreading like a nuclear holocaust. Yet, the radical homosexual anarchists rampage upon the streets of this state demanding the destruction of marriage and family, and the establishment of their socialistic dark vision for society.

This bluster is par for the course when it comes to the sybyl of San Diego. In October of 2007, the seer that Doth Protest Too Much breathlessly wrote:

Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law the heinous SB777 which bans the use of "mom" and "dad" in the text books and promotes homosexuality to all school children in California.

And then the wildfires of Southern California engulfed the land like a raging judgment against the radicalized anti-christian California rebels.

Eeek. Fire, fire, faggots cause fires and make a cranky desert god play with matches.

For the less belittling and more pure of heart among us wishing to engage the vociferating sooth-sayer in a dialectical discourse within ideology, wily James will likely say something like this:

I have taken a number of courses in Biblical studies at a well-respected Christian college.... you clearly have not had any systematic theology training from which you could form a trustworthy conclusion on these important matters. The Bible teaches believers that YOU CANNOT discern the teachings of God as He has conveyed in the Bible unless you have a divine encounter with His Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that the Word of God is foolishness to those who are devoid of His Spirit. You cannot put God's laws and teachings into their proper context unless you have been filled with the very Spirit of God who inspired men to write those matters God deemed important to communicate with mankind.

Fair enough. And fair is fair. To freely use his own reasoning--and some of his own words--James Hartline demonstrates time and time again that his particular spiritual education and knowledge regarding the construct of same-sex relationships is based on biblical reasoning, as well as being devoid of any real, current, correct same-sex partnership. He clearly lacks any present systematic, committed, loving, homosexual experience from which he could form a trustworthy conclusion on this important manner.

His problem is that he is working from a foundational place of seeking to discredit homosexuality so that his radical agenda of promoting and accepting his lifestyle choice of faith can occur without secular challenge. Hartline's sad sin in his endeavors is that he is eliminating the critical and eternal role that love provides mankind to help resolve the issues of ignorance, prejudice, bigotry, and hate.


via the always steamin' Pam's House Blend and the incomparable Towleroad

The American Experiment Reboots

For Future Generations: A Brave New World

Shall We Leave the Gods Out of it, for Chrissakes?

Crabby race-baiting HIV-denying hysteric vs. Nutbar witch-hunting self-proclaimed prophet

Savannah, GA One full day to go until this never-ending campaign finally turns into a pumpkin, and the Republicans in the fullness of time are at last running ads in Pennsylvania (at least) targeting Sen. Obama's decades-old association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. So it's officially fair game in the faith department. The Reverend Wright's rhetoric gives me the heebeegeebies, but the Rapture-tastic, Pentecostal, witch-hunter Thomas Muthee takes the whole Halloween cake.

For the less superstitious, there is very little time, and even less tolerance, to listen to believers debate the merits of cranky desert gods, but Sarah Palin--surprise!--has the gall to say,

"[Obama] sat in the pews for 20 years and heard Rev. Wright say some things that most people would find a bit concerning."

Gov. Palin may be correct in her assumption. But Sarah was raised a Pentecostal, and bathed in issues regarding the 'End of Times.' Care to wager even more Americans might be even more concerned to know her answers to these questions?

Gov. Palin:

1. Do you believe in the anti-Christ?
2. Do you believe we're living in the end times?
3. Do you believe that Jesus will return in your lifetime?
4. Do you believe that true Christians have to battle Satanic agents in the End Times?
5. Do you see yourself as a warrior for Christ as part of a new Apostolic movement?

via Talk To Action

Oh, and that distant beat you hear? Sen. McCain's 72 year-old heart...

A Minute on the Lips; Forever on your Hips

Sometimes these spots just write themselves

via Sullivan

Christian Drama Queens

Chicken Littles

Savannah, Ga. Holy jeebus. What is it with these Ichthysians? Something drives the Fundamentalists--American Christians in this case--to melodrama. Histrionics. Hyperbole. They are hammy, campy, overacting drama queens; the hyperactive children of all things spiritual. Click on the clip above to see for yourself.

Hell must be a theatre workshop run by these people.

P.S. Somebody give the V.O. talent in this spot a throat lozenge...

Tracy Kerlee: The antichrist?

Pray for the husband. Pray for all of us.

To Hell With Taffey Anderson

David Patton/Democrat-Herald

'Bad Book, BAD BOOK!'

Savannah, Ga. It must be genetic. There is a mutant variant of homo sapiens sapiens out and about in this land. They are crippled by the lack of an Irony Gene and infected with the 'I'll-Decide-What's-Best-For-Everybody' virus.

They are to be avoided whenever possible. Grim and determined, they are bent on making people see the world as the same pinched, humorless environment in which they live and breed. They are preternaturally drawn to libraries, making lists and checking them twice; all books fall into one of two categories: naughty or nice. Not content with sucking the satire out of their own lives they seek to spread the grey paste of righteousness throughout the community.

Taffey Anderson of Halsey, Oregon is so stricken. Her 13-year-old son checked out Andy Riley's black-humored 2003 book from the Central Linn High School Library. She took one look at it and decided it was not for her son. Fair enough. Mothers have every right to decide what's appropriate for their offspring in the home. But Taffey's not finished.

According to the Albany Democrat Herald:

“It is a comic book, but that’s not funny. Not at all,” Anderson said. “I don’t care if your kid is 16, 17, 18. It’s wrong. They’re not getting this book back. [if the library replaces it] I’ll have somebody else check it out and I’ll keep that one. I’m just disgusted by the whole ordeal.”

In fact, she plans to torch it.

If you'd like, consider having Amazon.com (or Powellsbooks.com, if you like to shop more locally) send them a replacement copy of the book Taffey's bent on burning:

Central Linn High School
32433 Highway 228
Halsey, OR 97348
T: 541-369-2811

Bibliophiles of the world will thank you. (So, too, will U.K. author Mr. Riley and his publishers.)

Trust, But Verify

Chuck Kennedy / McClatchy Newspapers

Meet the New Socialists: Bernanke, Bush, Paulson, Cox

Savannah, Ga. Trust, but verify. Although not coined by the man, it was a phrase used often by Ronald Reagan whenever he was discussing relations with the Soviet Union. It's time to re-use this locution with respect to the proposal made by the four men in the Kremlin Wall photo above.

Yesterday--September 19, 2008--these same individuals drove the final nail into the coffin of Free Market Capitalism in America. If it was a myth before, it is dead now. "Socialism for the bankers; capitalism for the taxpayers" is no longer the rhetoric of populist politics, it is the simple truth.

In the largest governmental intervention into the markets in over 80 years, the Bush administration asked taxpayers to pay for the greedy excesses of financial institutions to the tune of nearly THREE QUARTERS OF A TRILLION DOLLARS. Our neo-Soviet leadership hopes to have Congress rubber-stamp the proposal as early as next week.

Among the financial reforms created during the Great Depression 85 years ago were the two Glass-Steagall Acts of 1933. The FDIC was established, providing a degree of insurance for bank deposits; currency was allowed for use by the federal reserve; the surfeits of speculation were curbed by separating banks by their business type and model--commercial and investment. A large degree and measure of equity and stability returned, all part of FDR's First One Hundred Days. Conservatives have had their gun sights set on repealing Roosevelt's New Deal, in general, and this regulation of banking, specifically, since its inception. For election cycle after cycle they touted the wonders and marvels of Free Markets, lambasting this "socialist" or "communist" intrusion by the government. Cro-Magnons on the Right have used this strategy to beat up liberals ever since. Rightists won their battle against Glass-Steagall when the republican-controlled Congress passed the veto-proof Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, and these progressive banking reforms were finally removed. As they say in the Olympics, the quest for gold had begun.

Nine short years of unfettered avarice have brought us to the events of the past few days.

We are faced with a classic dilemma; Congress will likely channel the Politburo and quickly approve Bush's plan. America's money-grubbing problem is also the world's. What we do--or don't--profoundly affects other governments, other markets. Our meltdown would likely produce a global chain-reaction.

But because Wall Street has so nakedly revealed what ordinary taxpayers have so long suspected--that it has much more to do with entitlement, privilege, power, rapacity, than it does with Adam Smithsonian Free Markets--we need some assurances, along with our good cash, that regulations will return to the financial institutions to better check against a recurrence of this crisis again. As it presently stands, the Bush Administration bailout only pours our money into a gaping mouth; if we write Wall Street this check, we need some concrete insurance we're not being suckered more than we already are.

Trust, but verify.

A Third Rail Touched

How Do You Spell Motivated Youth Vote? D-R-A-F-T

Savannah, Ga. Today at a Sen. McCain rally in Las Cruces, NM, at the end of a heart-felt and poignant statement made by a member of the audience concerning our Nation's disgraceful treatment of our Veterans, a raw nugget of political plutonium flared into life and entered the Presidential contest. Given the abusive treatment extended to our all-volunteer military vets in health care, housing and access to same, the attendee asked the Arizona Senator how we will fight in the future absent a draft? McCain's response:

"Let me say, [applause] I don't disagree with anything you said."

See for yourself:


I'm just barely old enough to have sweated the Vietnam draft. Few events focused a (then) young man's mind and motivations than the prospect of being sent to war. The generation subsequent--not to mention their parents--has never faced such an imperative or obligation. We are content to allow others--'volunteers'--to fulfill our national security military needs. Contentment will morph into resentment, protestation and civic disobedience dormant and unseen in America for 40 years. There is no single issue or precipitating event which carries with it the potential for societal upheaval as does a return to a military draft.

I wonder if John "Bomb, bomb Iran" McCain was really listening to what was being said.

Fairytales meet Reality

Idiots

Savannah, GA. Fundamentalist Christian soldiers within education just don't get it. Their bible may be the unerring word of god for themselves and their ilk, but for ordinary civilians, it is just one of many Good Books. This week that fact was never truer than when U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles rejected claims of religious discrimination, siding with the University of California's decision to deny certain high school credits from certain Christian schools whose textbooks reject the theory of evolution and declare the bible infallible.

Thanks be to Odin, Zeus, and Vishnu for some common sense.

Attorney Jennifer Monk of Advocates for Faith and Freedom huffed:

"It appears the UC is attempting to secularize private religious schools."

Actually, it appears the good lawyer and AFF expect their high school graduates to enter real-world secular college biology courses believing mankind walked amongst the dinosaurs. What next? Flat-Earthers demanding credit for UC geography classes? Fundamentalist xtian geology students claiming--with a straight face--the Grand Canyon was the result of Noah's Flood?

Called on their bullshit, Charles Robinson, the university's vice president for legal affairs, said the ruling:

"Confirms that UC may apply the same admissions standards to all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious affiliations. What the plaintiffs seek, is a religious exemption from regular admissions standards."

According to Judge Otero's ruling, one of the rejected texts, Biology for Christian Schools, states on the first page:

"if [scientific] conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong."

Welcome to the fundamentals of Science, Fundamentalists.

NSFW! WTF?

Get a clue

Savannah, GA. Casually viewing blog offerings out there in Web-log Land, I'm often surprised by the warning proviso: "NSFW" or the less emphatic: "caution--may be NSFW" before a particular YouTube video or .jpeg. This is usually a guarantee that after the break, something salacious is coming down the pike. The thing I love about this is the fact all the players are in on the game and know what's up. The poster knows; the reader knows--you are about to view something your boss (or Ms./Mr. Tight-Sphincter over in the next cubicle) ain't gonna find appropriate. It's something that's, well, Not Safe for Work.

This beggars the critical question: Why aren't these slackers, well, working? Why are they on company time (or company servers, for that matter) flitting about in the snarkosphere, when they presumably should be earning their pay? My favorite bit of delightful idleness is when some sluggard pitches a self-righteous fit in the comments section when one of these NSFW posts unzips itself unlabeled. "Dude, I could get fired!" One could only hope.

Facebook and MySpace? Shopping? Let's not even go there.

And, btw, regarding the computer I use at work--I haven't, don't and won't. That's why god made personal computers and personal smartphones.

Second Amendment Fetishism Con't...

Vitaly Alex Kovtun Doesn't like Mustard

Savannah, GA. One of the assurances we're given by people like GA State Rep. Tim Bearden, and John Monroe, Esq. (plaintiff and attorney in a lawsuit against Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for the right of Handgun Activists like themselves to walk packin' through the Terminal) and organizations such as--real name--GeorgiaPacking.org, and the NRA is that permitted, law-abiding, citizens are thoroughly vetted by their States, using tools such as the National Instant Check System (NICS) before granting a license. (The NICS process takes between a minute to 3 days to complete.) Although this process is certainly better than nothing, it does nothing to see if the applicant is a nutbar who is about to be a fruitcake with a concealed weapon permit.

Although most anything--state regulated or no--can be turned into a weapon used in a felonious assault, hammers, screwdrivers, knives, automobiles do not have as their sole design and function a fatal purpose. The same claim is not an easy sell when it comes to semiautomatic handguns. Inner rage translates into deadly force so quickly, so easily, so readily, when there is a handgun handy. Which brings us to the vetted and formerly law-abiding gentleman above.

Last month, three teenagers cruising about in the 'burbs of Salt Lake City, pulled up next to a vehicle at a stoplight and one of the passengers, Stephen Cox, thought he'd joke around, and straight out of Wayne's World, straight from a well-known series of TV ads in the late '80's, asked, "Excuse me, sir... do you have any Grey Poupon?" In response, 22-year old Kovtun pulled a handgun from the glove compartment, cocked it, pointed it at the passengers in the other vehicle and said, "Here's your Grey Poupon. Roll your fucking windows up." Later caught and arrested, Mr. Kovtun has been charged with aggravated assault--a third-degree felony--in violation of Utah Code 76-5-102. According to court documents, Vitaly admitted to pulling the semiautomatic weapon, cocking the slide and pointing it at the people in the other vehicle.

Now common sense would dictate this man has forfeited any right to continue holding any concealed weapons permit. Obsessed, fixated, Guns Rights Activists will be happy to learn that the State of Utah has merely suspended--not canceled--his permit for the present.

So-called law-abiding citizens, legally armed with a concealed weapons permit is no guarantee of anything except wishful thinking and the hope that these strangers, granted the right to carry concealed deadly force won't have a bad day and a handy pistol to make it all better.

I feel safer, don't you?

Unintended Circumstances: Malaria vs. HIV

HIV virus

Savannah, GA. A gene evolved to specifically protect Africans and their descendants against an ancient form of malaria has been revealed to convey a vulnerability to HIV infection by as much as 40 per cent.

The University of Texas Health Science Center led the research, published in the July 17th issue of Cell Host and Microbe.

For HIV, considered by my some to be everything from a punishment by a punishing deity to a CIA racist plot, a genetic reason may finally explain why the virus is so insidiously present among certain populations. The gene variant is found only in individuals of African descent, and within those descendants, present in nearly 90 per cent of the population.

"It's well-known that individuals vary in their susceptibility to HIV and that after infection occurs, the disease progresses at variable rates," said co-author Sunil Ahuja of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System.

"The mystery of variable infection and progression was originally thought to be mainly the result of viral characteristics, but in recent years it has become evident that there is a strong host genetic component."

Science: 1; Religious opinion: 0

South Carolina Continues to Bat 1000

Sparing the Rod and Spoiling the Child

Savannah, GA. Just days after S.C. Rep. Dave Thomas became hysterical over "gays," some 49-year old father in Anderson, S.C. apparently took after his 18-year old son after the young man returned home from a gay pride parade. As reported in the Independent Mail and the blog Towleroad, daddy went batshit crazy and "tried to cast the demon of homosexuality out [of his son.]" Cussin' and screamin,' this poor excuse for a mature adult allegedly assaulted his son with a Louisville Slugger. According to Deputy S.C. Weymouth, the teenager told deputies his father--let's use the term lightly--"has a problem with him being gay and that is why he hit him with the baseball bat." Really? A problem?

As usual, the comments section of the story in the online version of the paper carry some real nuggets of enlightenment. Someone using the handle 'Mom2Shelties' [sic] referred to parts of the story as "sensationalism" and a "so-called crime." I'll wager ole Mom has those Shelties well in line. My favorite was "scmom" [sic] posting, "how do you know his son hadn't done anything before that? how do you know he wasn't defending himself? you don't." Well, that may be technically true, but we've a pretty good idea that, along with the teenager's father, you're a horse's ass.

South Carolina: The Hits Just Keep on Coming

Eeek! Gay Beaches in South Carolina?

Bad for David Thomas

Savannah, GA. "Somebody has to be responsible for this, and we'll demand responsibility." So said a breathless S.C. Republican State Senator David Thomas regarding the ad campaign shown above. "This is absolutely a subject matter that adheres to a social position and it's simply improper for the state to be going after one social position." Right. This from a state that peddles "In God We Trust" and "Shag" auto license plates. "From my own perspective, it's bad for the state to make such statements about the state, to assert that South Carolina has gay beaches." Nope. Just a state with more than its fair share of politicians in the closet. Oops.

As mentioned on Pam's House Blend and Towleroad, it turns out some hapless advertising agency manager in contract contact with the South Carolina Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department signed off on the campaign, which was tied to London's gay pride festivities. Besides shrieking--shrinking--away from the whole affair, South Carolina will also stiff the Amro Worldwide London Travel Agency's $5,000 fee to participate in the ad campaign.

South Carolina: Homophobic and classy, all at the same time.

Sign Your Real Name

Savannah, GA. Anonymity on the internet in comments sections tends to be the refuge of the Dark Side: the fearful, the snarky, the grammar and syntax-challenged, the cruel. It lowers the standards of discourse and plays into a lower denominator. It should be said that anonymous sources are not created equally. Anonymity definitely serves a purpose--it is useful, even vital at times, in law enforcement or in news reporting. But the opinions/comments/editorials of strangers on the web on any given subject are something much, much less. Anonymous posting in comments sections--be they blogs or online periodicals--are the equivalent of gossip tacked to a utility pole three blocks down the street. Is this written by committee or an individual? A bureaucratic hack with an agenda, the neighborhood Mr. Crabbyappleton, or a precociously bright 14-year old? An actual name or moniker leaves a trail. One may use a search engine and possibly see if this individual actually exists, and if the seeming reasonableness of their message is routine or a fluke. Am I reading the thoughts of a fellow traveler or the agenda of a political/corporate scheme filtered through an anonymous mouthpiece? There are no guarantees here, but it certainly helps.

Search with an actual, real name and the result is potentially far more specific, revealing and conclusive. It most certainly does not speciously boost the importance of any idea I may share in any manner, but it does allow any interested reader to know there's a better chance I truly stand behind the words I write. It also affords individuals (supporters of my ideas, or no) a clearer pathway to continue the discussion, even dialogue, off-site, privately and anonymously to others.

Two Clowns

Rep. Tim Bearden and John Monroe, esq.?

Savannah, GA. One day into Georgia's new rootin' tootin' gun law, the Second Amendment Fetishists are shocked, shocked they may not bring their permitted handguns into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Ben DeCosta, airport general manager and advocate of common sense said, "My message is simple: Leave your firearms at home." With their tighty whiteys in a pinch and their feelings in a lather, gun rights attorney Mr. John Monroe has filed a lawsuit to allow the gun-fixated to stride the Terminal with a holstered weapon--something the law doesn't permit in the airport parking lot. The newly enacted law allows people to carry guns on public transit, in state parks and into restaurants. Monroe argues the Atlanta airport is just the type of public transportation for which the law provides. As everyone knows, there are also restaurants within the terminal, so by Monroe's reckoning.... you get the picture.

A man with a fellow fascination with firearms in public spaces, Rep. Tim Bearden--a state legislator and sponsor of the new law--is named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Apparently this brainiac called a newspaper to inform everyone he would be carrying a concealed weapon to the airport on Tuesday when he went to pick up his family. Perhaps the public servant could have the courtesy to inform us all when and wherever he ventures out into public?

Second Amendment Fetishists

Savannah, GA. Today, it will be legal for Georgians with carry permits to take their firearms aboard buses, light rail, within state parks and into liquor-serving restaurants.

I feel safer; don't you?

A bunch of nutbar state legislators thought this would be a good idea and an even better regulation. Somehow we're supposed to be reassured that the 300,000 permitted gun owners who will soon be packing where they couldn't before will have undergone a criminal background check. Wonderful. Hospitalized as an inpatient in a mental hospital or alcohol or drug treatment center as little as six years ago? No problem--Georgia's only concerned about the last five. How about a drug test for current unlawful use of a controlled substance? Nope; we'll take your word on that. Schizophrenic off your meds? Beats me. Mature enough to pack a pistol into the local steak house and keep it holstered after a third cocktail in the midst of a heated argument? Well, that's none of your business, partner.

Idiocy.

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down

(Diane Olson, l; Robin Tyler, r.)

Savannah, GA. We announced the lawsuit on Feb. 12, 2004, at 9 AM in front of the Beverly Hills Courthouse. -- Robin Tyler, plaintiff (along with partner Diane Olson) in the case that has led to legal same-sex marriage in California. They met decades ago, and were friends for over a quarter century before becoming a couple. In 1979 they were active in the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

Today, at 5:01pm PDT, by order of the California Supreme Court, same-sex couples were legally entitled to all of the rights and privileges afforded opposite-sex married couples. Contrary to the fears (and hopes--let's be honest) of some Xtians, the sky is still intact, the rivers do not run with blood, and sulfur emissions in California have actually declined.

There are a few bureaucratic changes, naturally. There will be one marriage certificate form for everyone, and secular--not religious--civil ceremonies conducted by the State will be gender-neutral. The wording recommended from the County Clerks Assn. of California goes thusly: "By virtue of the authority vested in me, as a Deputy Commissioner of Marriages for the County of XXX, I now pronounce this couple united in marriage under the laws of the state of California."

Ms. Tyler and Ms. Olson became legal spouses early this evening. Congratulations.

Somewhere my friends Jean and Marilyn are very, very happy...

African Vampire

Savannah, GA.  We are not going to give up our country for a mere 'X' on a ballot. How can a ball point pen fight with a gun? With those words, President-apparently-for-life Robert Mugabe today officially shut the door on any pretense of representative democracy in Zimbabwe. The Jesuit-trained racist homophobe has not finished his murderous blood meal of fellow countrymen, especially the Ndebele. Clearly, there are more opposition members to be shot, more printing presses to bomb, more journalists to be tortured.

The West (when not actively pouring accolades on his shoulders--this means you Edinburgh University, University of Massachusetts, Michigan State University--and all during the time when people were being raped, beaten, 'disappeared,' publicly executed, or burned alive in their huts.) will do its usual cluck and twitter, look askance, look away, and go back to worrying about $150 barrels of oil

Another Murderous African Clown

Shortly after the Coup

Savannah, GA. Yahya Jammeh's brain is the size of a goober. So Is it surprising the chief export of his so-called Republic is peanuts? He is yet another extreme example of the nutbars that make up so many of the planet's religious extremists.

He goes by the official title "President Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh, Commander In Chief of The Armed Forces and the Chief Custodian of the Sacred Constitution of The Gambia." He also holds the title of "Secretary of State for Defense and holds responsibility over several Departments..." Departments such as the Cabinet, Legislature, Auditor General, Constitutional Matters--you get the idea. Dictatorship 101. He came power in a military putsch in 1994, returning Gambia to constitutional rule--his constitution--two years later and winning that presidential election. Surprise!

Unfortunately his Excellency's policies are anything but peanuts: When not "disappearing" members of the press or opposition, this dog of a man traipses about in white civilian drag, concocts personal herbal cures for HIV, and sidles up to the pig-trough for a tasty share of U.S. Foreign Aid ($100 million since the takeover alone.) Now this 21st Century despot has decided to go all religiously medieval on LGBT folks saying he will, "cut off the head" of any homosexual caught in his country. All homosexuals have been ordered to leave his plantation further stating that legislation "stricter than those in Iran" concerning homosexuality would be introduced soon. He should know; the Gambian Legislature is listed on his c.v.

"Excuse me" *UPDATE*

http://view.break.com/513310 - Watch more free videos

Savannah, Ga. This didn't happen locally, but nevertheless could have taken place in just about any office setting, anywhere. The tinder: one too many assessments; one too many helpful suggestions; one too many forms to fill out; one too many papers to post; one too many deadlines placed on top of deadlines by managements more accustomed to delegating than doing. The precipitating event: an accidental knocking of a paper to the floor. T + PE = TNT.

No excuses here for this behavior; just observation... And the additional comment that when adults behave in this manner--in the office, on the road, even in their own homes, it shouldn't be called 'rage;' it should be called what it is: the temper-tantrum of a child. Monkey Madness.

UPDATE --"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." 43rd President of these United States.

Oops. Seems like this is a viral video stunt for an upcoming film... Clever dogs, they.

Real Change

Savannah, GA. No, it wasn't sexism and misogyny that ended Senator Clinton's attempt at securing the Democratic Presidential nomination--she made choices establishing that on her own--but if people wish to be brutally honest about the discussion, then gender bias, chauvinism, and the hatred of women played a very, very, large role in her defeat. Racism remains America's open wound, but gender prejudice is the raging sepsis beneath our skin. As a society we are so quick to hold contemptuousness toward the feminine. One of the most damning accusations that can be made to a boy is to accuse him of being a girl. When some male sports coaches want to completely shame their teams, they denounce them as female. If they need fortitude on the field, they don't need 'guts' or a 'spine'--they need to 'grow a pair.' They must be men. (Homophobia is the ugly sibling to this execration and enmity.) When women do wrong or make mistakes they are witches, bitches, whores; skanks, twats, cunts, sluts. The comments sections of most political blogs are rife with such sneering descriptions of the junior Senator from N.Y.

I celebrate the fact that 43 years after the signing of the Voting Rights Act we now have a national presidential candidate who is Black. I also celebrate the fact that 88 years after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution we came very close to having a Woman do the same. 

Our Story Thus Far...

Savannah, GA.  Senator Obama has the support of this voter in the General - should he be the Dem's nominee. For someone who wrote in Mo Udall on my November '76 ballot, when everyone else was all moist, heated and crossing their legs over a peanut farmer from my newly adopted State, that is saying a lot. I have never viewed my vote as a bet on a horse race.  My candidate on this visit of the Circus will soon be bowing out - the one candidate who really strikes fear in the hearts of GOP planners when they close the door at night and tuck their pointed heads into bed: John Edwards. His blue-collar, populist roots are genuine; his rise to wealthy trial attorney built on the strength of courtroom skills which struck deimos and phobos into the heart of every prosecuting attorney who ever faced him. These are the strengths we need after the Ragnarok of W and the decadal dominance of the repugs in the national legislature. We're still dealing with excrement Unca Ronnie set up and left for us all; Bill Clinton only succeeded - despite the destructive nature of his personal angels - by emulating Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower, in terms of governance and approach. (Speaking of and to the Former President in this Presidential Primary Season:  Mr. Clinton - the time has come for you to respectfully shut the fuck up.)  For all of you good people tired of the partisan battles of D.C., wishing for hope to replace cynicism - I say 'saddle up;' the ride is just beginning.  H.L. Mencken said it best: "Cynicism is merely an ugly way of telling the truth."  In 2008, the Dem's need a Spartan warrior, not an Athenian philosopher.  This Republic needs an active colonic, not the soaring rhetoric of a black Adlai Stevenson. (A favorite quote - after a rousing speech in '52 a supporter called out, "Governor Stevenson, all thinking people are for you!" Stevenson replied, "That's not enough; I need a majority.")

In my fifties, I'm very pleased and proud we've matured as Americans to point where we're seriously considering a Senator Who Happens to be a White Woman, and a Senator Who Happens to be a Black Man as Chief Executive material.  So I'm not surprised the good Sen. from Illinois won the S. Carolina Primary. Over 50% of registered Dem voters are Black. Neither am I surprised that most Southern White males couldn't stomach a vote for the good carpetbagging Sen. from New York. If McCain - gods help us - is the GOP nominee, I'm afraid he'll blow Obama out of the water over security and military issues alone, if nothing else. Especially so if he really thinks about it and chooses for his running mate an evangelical female. The old fart is a cagey survivor, if nothing else. I also predict that the instant Obama gets the nomination, the press and pundits will turn on him. The same national media already hates Hillary; you can only accuse her of fucking and killing Vince Foster while rafting with lesbian friends down Whitewater thinking about socialized medicine a limited number of times before bloviator/pundit fatigue sets in... In a Clinton/McCain fight, I"m counting on a gender war.