It's nice to feel included by the Democratic Party. I'm so happy that they are addressing our issues and trying to make sure that we are treated as equal citizens in this country!

BOSTON - (KRT) - Since May, gay and lesbian residents in Massachusetts have been able to marry their same-sex partners.

But gay marriage was barely whispered from the podium during the Democratic National Convention here this week. Party strategists and gay and lesbian delegates alike say the controversial fight for equal marriage rights must take a back seat - for now - to the more immediate goal of defeating President Bush.

Sen. John Kerry supports civil unions but opposes gay marriage at the federal level and in his home state of Massachusetts, a position that's angered some gay activists. (source)

(Cheyenne, Wyoming) The Wyoming Supreme Court Thursday rejected a final appeal by one of the killers of Matthew Shepard to have his sentence reduced.

The court refused to hear Russell Henderson's claim that his state-appointed lawyers failed to discuss potential appeals with him.

In a deal with prosecutors to void the death sentence Henderson pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping the gay college student in 1998. He is currently serving two life sentences.

Last month District Judge Jeffrey A. Donnell rejected Henderson's argument. (story) Today's decision by the Wyoming Supreme Court lets Donnell's decision stand.

A second man, Aaron McKinney, was also convicted in the murder that galvanized the nation's gays. McKinney, also is serving two life sentences for the killing.

During their trial the court heard that Henderson and McKinney, both 21 at the time, kidnapped, pistol-whipped, robbed and left Shepard tied to a fence outside Laramie in October 1998. The 21-year-old University of Wyoming student died five days later at a hospital from massive head injuries.

The trial was told that the pair targeted Shepard solely because he was gay. (source)

I've been sick the last few days. Monday morning, I awoke at 3:30 with a migraine. I then realized that I couldn't move my head from side to side. I sat up in bed and couldn't even bend my head down. I thought it was all connected to the migraine. I felt nauseated and clammy.

I didn't even try to go back to sleep because I knew it would be pointless. I was too miserable to sleep. I rested in bed for another 45 minutes, then decided to get in the shower thinking that the warm water would help. It didn't, but it did feel good. I got ready and went to work.

After 9:00, I called my doctor's office and asked when I could get in to see him. I was lucky. They asked if I could make it at 1:20pm that day.

I show up at his office, and I'm feeling very tired. I felt that was normal since I woke up at 3:30 and didn't get much sleep. After waiting for 10 minutes in the waiting room, they called me back. After taking notes on my symptoms, taking my blood pressure, etc., the assistant put me in this room and said the doctor would be in shortly. I was sitting on this padded examination table. It was hard to stay away, and I was in a fair amount of pain from not being able to move my neck. I caught myself half way dosing while sitting on the table. I eventually laid down on the table, waiting for the doctor.

He finally came in after twenty minutes of waiting. We talked for a bit while he reviewed the notes that she wrote down. He then tried to turn my head and asked if it hurt. I screamed out in pain. He said, "Wow, I guess you do hurt." He then called the nurse in and asked her for an injection of something. I asked what it was for. He said, "I'm going to give you something for the pain."

She returned with the syringe and he gave me the shot. He turned out the lights and said that he'd be back in 15 minutes after it had time to work. After a few minutes I could feel some relief in the pain. I found myself feeling like I was floating on a cloud. There was music coming from the speaker in the ceiling. It was Imagine, by John Lennon. I never actually thought much about the song, to tell you the truth. But, with nothing else to do while this drug did it's thing, I listened to the words. They made a lot of sense to me:

Imagine there's no countries,
It isn’t hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

It occurred to me, as I'm lying there on the table, suddenly feeling so much better, that religion is what is causing so much pain, intolerance, bigotry, death, isolation, suicide, and mayhem in the world today. Not only religious fanatics such as Osama bin Laden, but the Religious Right in general who, through their religious beliefs, somehow feel that that gives them a license to make others suffer because of what they believe.

I think of people like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart, Gary Bauer, and many others, and I wonder, are they any better than Osama bin Laden? That may seem outrageous to you. Osama bin Laden is killing people he feels are "infidels" based on his religion, to achieve his goals. The people I mention above are doing the same thing, in their fashion. They don't kill people directly, but they do kill their spirit. They dehumanize them and make it easier to devalue what contributions the "infidels" contribute to society.

They do this in a variety of different ways. In the most recent examples in the news on gay marriage, they make arguments that if we allow homosexuals equal access to marriage, before long we will have to grant marriage to someone who wants to marry his goat or his dog. That, my friends, is dehumanization. Suddenly, by making that statement, they are saying two things; 1) the marriage of a homosexual couple isn't worth as much or at the same standard as theirs, and 2) if homosexuals are allowed access to marriage, it's only a matter of time before they will want to have relationships with an animal. They call this the slippery slope theory.

But those are just words, and we are taught as children that words can never harm us, right? I suppose that is a good thought to tell children, but we all know that words can hurt more than anything else. Words are very powerful, as are actions.

The tools that Osama bin Laden uses are guns, planes, and bombs. The tools the Religious Right and various members of Congress use are words. It's hard to know which one is stronger. For example, just one week ago, the House of Representatives actually passed a bill called the Marriage Protection Act.

Marriage Protection Act of 2004 - Amends the Federal judicial code to deny Federal courts jurisdiction to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of: (1) the provision of the Defense of Marriage Act that provides that no State shall be required to give effect to any marriage between persons of the same sex under the laws of any other State; or (2) this Act.

That is the power of words. That short passage states that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is off limits to ANY court in the land, including the Supreme Court. And finally, let's look at the "or (2) this Act". What does that mean? It's the most dangerous of all, and the most unnoticeable.

The Act includes itself as being placed beyond the scrutiny of any court in this land. In other words, it can not be ruled unconstitutional since the courts do not have the authority to touch it.

Is that Constitutional? Many think not. The bill outwardly violates equal protection and access to the courts. It also singles out a specific group of people (in this particular case, gay people) for second-class status, also unconstitutional.

The danger here is not singling out the gay community. We are used to that and we will fight the bigotry the best we can. The greatest danger is the undermining of the Constitution itself. If the courts are conveniently denied access to rule a law unconstitutional, where does it end? Which group or cause will be in the cross hairs next?

If this is allowed to succeed, we will lose much more than our right to marry. America will have lost democracy itself.

A letter published today from fredericksburg.com:

For John Gianicco ["Gay marriage and other hot issues force us all to choose," July 26] and Shawn Smart ["Marriage? It is the government's business, Mr. Amrhine," July 26] and for other thinking people, I have a series of questions. When did you decide to be heterosexual? Have you ever decided to try to do something about your heterosexuality?

Why do we assert that gays cannot form lasting relationships (while we deplore "their" promiscuous behavior) and then deny the right to proclaim in any public way that "they" have formed such a relationship? Why do we even call gays "they" when the fact is that some of us are gay, by nature and not by choice?

After the not-uncommon seven years, my marriage unfortunately ended in divorce. My cousin, Susan, and her partner, Barbara, have been together for nearly 20 years, in a loving, mutually supportive, beautiful relationship. How is it a "defense" of marriage to deny the privileges and obligations of the institution to them? Why is it OK for any opposite-sex couple, no matter how unwise, to marry and not for them who have proved their fidelity and value to the community? What, will somebody please tell me, are we so afraid of?

And why are people who call themselves Christians sometimes so quick to foster hate and ignorance when our blessed Lord preached the opposite? Just wondering.

Constance Fletcher Smith
Fredericksburg

Photo taken on July 28, 2004 at 6:10pm. Camera: Nikon D70 using AF Zoom-Nikkor ED 70-300mm lens.

The text of the keynote address by Barack Obama, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate from Illinois, as prepared for delivery at the Democratic National Convention in Boston:

Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

(Boston) Delegates to the Democratic National Convention this week will be asked to endorse the party's most pro gay platform ever, but one which stops short of supporting gay marriage.

But, while it does not call for equal marriage rights, it does not oppose the idea either.

"We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families," the draft platform that was worked out earlier this month. (story)

The draft also condemns amending the US Constitution to ban gay marriage.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) The FBI has rescinded health benefits that had been provided to the same-sex partner of a special agent since just after the couple wed in Massachusetts in May.

Katy Gossman, a special agent with the FBI in New Haven, received an e-mail from the bureau informing her that her wife, Kristin, would be removed from her health plan. The Connecticut couple were married in Worcester, Mass. on May 20 and had been receiving spousal benefits since May 30, Katy Gossman said. [...]

The New Haven office called over to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. to give them a ''heads up'' about the situation, she said. She received a form back from the Human Resources Department in Washington approving the benefits.

FBI spokesman Bill Carter said Tuesday the approval had been a mistake and an oversight, and noted that the agency receives thousands of benefit requests each day.

The U.S. government does not allow same-sex spousal benefits, and only recognizes marriages between a man and a woman, Carter said.

''When the form was submitted, it had been granted, not realizing that it was this situation, but then after further determination, after rechecking it, it was determined that the person would not be eligible for the benefits based on OPM regulations,'' he said.

Kristin Gossman, 38, is a full-time student and had no health benefits before their marriage, Katy Gossman said.

I used to take Tylenol. I remember listening to the commercials that said something along the lines, "...the pain reliever of choice by most hospitals can't be wrong...".

Well, maybe they are wrong. A study now finds that prolonged use of Tylenol can permanently damage your kidneys. For some reason, I thought it was the liver that could be damaged. I had heard this before of Tylenol. In fact, I remember reading that when people took masive overdoses of Tylenol, they would die not from the overdose, but from the liver failure that would occur because of the massive dose of Tylenol. That's why I now take Aleve.

Of course, there's nothing to say that down the road, Aleve will be found to cause something equally bad.

I don't know. Maybe I should just stick with Demerol for my drug of choice for dealing with my pain.

Long-term, habitual use of the painkiller acetaminophen may cause a decline in kidney function in some people, a study of middle-aged women said Monday.

Overall, one in 10 of the 1,700 women studied over 11 years experienced a 30 percent decline in their kidney’s filtration function. (source)

We can expect more of this. One state on the Union has legalized same sex marriage. No where else in this nation, including the Federal Government, is it legal. We can expect a lot more legal issues and challenges surrounding this ranging from passports, divorces, and citizenship, all of which marriage protects.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - A man who married his partner of 23 years after gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts now is having trouble getting a new passport.

Donald Henneberger, formerly Donald Smith, recently received a letter from the National Passport Center in Portsmouth, N.H., denying his request for a name change on his passport. The center said it would not recognize a marriage license for a same-sex couple as proof of a name change.

The center addressed the letter to “Mr. Henneberger.”

Henneberger married his partner Arthur Henneberger in May, when same-sex marriages became legal in the Bay State. On the marriage license, the couple checked a box that automatically changes the last names of the partners to whatever they request.

The letter from the National Passport Center cites the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which states a marriage can only be between a man and a woman, and a spouse can only refer to a person of the opposite sex. (source)

Also see Gay Marriage Meaningless

Gay marriage ban makes November ballot

Oregon voters will join their counterparts in half a dozen other states to vote this fall on a state constitutional ban on marriage by same-sex couples.

The state Elections Division announced today that the proposed ban qualified for the Nov. 2 ballot. Advocates of the ban turned in 240,850 signatures, according to the official count, and officials used a sample to verify 204,160, more than twice the 100,840 required.

The placement sets up what is likely to be an expensive and contentious campaign between the Defense of Marriage Coalition, organized by the Oregon Family Council to promote the measure, and Basic Rights Oregon, which supports gay rights.

State DNC delegation favors gay marriage

Oregon's Democratic Party Chairman Jim Edmunson lives next door to a lesbian couple who wed last spring, when gay nuptials were legal in Portland and Oregon was abuzz with debate over same-sex marriages.

The firsthand experience, he said, has helped to shape his perceptions of gay matrimony.

"I see them out mowing their lawn. They plant the same type of flowers as I do," Edmunson said. "It's great to see them so happy."

Edmunson is not alone in his views. The Oregon delegation to the Democratic National Convention has one of the highest levels of support for gay marriage among those attending this year's gathering. [...]

For delegate Judy Sugnet, a retired state worker from Salem, support for gay marriage was simply a reflection of her support for her brother, who married his partner of 15 years.

"They're a great couple," Sugnet said. "They're picking us up from the airport when we get back" from the Boston convention.

Have you ever received any of those weird emails from Nigeria asking for your bank account information? I have received many. There are always the same scenario. Someone in Nigeria has lots of money and is willing to share it with you if you will help him/her get out of the country. They then ask for your bank account information so that they can give you the money. Of course, once you give then the information, you will find that your bank account has been drained and you are left with nothing.

I always just delete the emails, but apparently some people try to help and are the victim of these sorts of things. Well now, apparently the stakes are getting higher. Now, if you don't comply with the email, you will be killed. Nice huh?

I received this information from a news service I subscribe to:

By now, most of us are familiar with the "Nigerian scam," an e-mail message that purports to be from someone in Nigeria or another third-world country who has custody of a large amount of money, usually in the millions (either through an inheritance or some questionably legal process) and who offers to share the wealth with you if you will just help him/her get it out of the country. The catch? The scammer needs your bank account information to deposit the money in your account. If you give it, you soon find money withdrawn from, rather than deposited to, your account.

The original scams preyed on people's greed, but a new variety is emerging that takes a more sinister tactic, playing on their fears instead. These new messages inform you that if you don't deposit a specified amount into a Nigerian account (usually a sizable sum, but small enough so it's not completely unobtainable via loans, savings, cashing in your retirement fund or whatever - we've seen them ranging from $25,000 to $60,000), you will be executed.

Here's an example of what one looks like.

Be careful out there in cyberspace. Sometimes, many things look legitimate, but they are all fake. I don't respond to any inquiries about anything over the web from a bank I do business with. I call them or initiate the email to them. I never respond to an unsolicited email.

A great article about the happenings the last few weeks in Congress.

I don't mean to be heartless about this, but where was the concern when my friends were dieing of AIDS? I know, it all sounds so self-centered, but it's not. Long ago, I let go of the anger I had about the rest of this nation not giving a damn that young gay men were dieing left and right from AIDS. I dealt with it. I buried my friends and went on with life the best I could, along with many other gay people in the same boat. It didn't seem to be society's problem. I even remember a lady saying that she didn't want her tax dollars going to fight AIDS because she didn't care what happened to gay people.

At the time, I said to myself, "You will care when it's your son or daughter who has it. You will care when it's on your doorstep." Well, now it's on your doorstep, and the one million dollar question is, why should I care about your son or daughter since you never gave a damn about my brothers who died from AIDS?

Good question, isn't it? If I were an angry person, I would say that it's not my problem. AIDS used to be my problem, but it isn't any longer because the people I loved who had it are now gone to a better place. Now, it's YOUR problem to deal with it. And I can honestly say, I DO know how it feels.

But I'm not an angry person. I realize that everything is tied together. How we care about others is what defines us as human beings. If there's one thing I've learned about AIDS, it is that when you have AIDS, nothing else matters. Sexual orientation, citizenship, race. None of it matters.

So I do worry about their kids. It's too late though. Because everything is connected, if they would have cared about my friends back in the early 1980's along with the then President Reagan, perhaps this wouldn't be a concern now.

You think?

WASHINGTON - More than half of Americans are worried their children might become infected with the virus that causes AIDS (news - web sites), even though fewer people believe the overall threat is very serious, an Associated Press poll found. That decline in fears about AIDS comes at a time the disease is showing signs of making a comeback in this country.

About six in 10, 61 percent, said they feel AIDS is a "very serious" problem, according to the poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs. When people were asked in 1987 how serious AIDS was as a national health problem, almost nine in 10 said it was "very serious." (source)

I just woke up from a nightmare. Maxwell was there in short order to comfort me and assured me with his purr that he had control of any situation. That was comforting. I was wide awake. I looked at the clock hoping that it was at least 7:00am. No such luck. It said "05:32 AM". Yuck. So, I went to the bath room to "think". I often think that some of the world's deepest thoughts are conceived in the bath room.

I was so tired last night. I went to bed at 9:00. I know that's early, but why fight it if your body is telling you that it's tired? I had a migraine most of the day and was out of sorts. I stopped by Chili's on the way home for a bite to eat. It's not my favorite place, but it was just off the freeway and just about all I had energy for. I got home, fed the cats, and watched TV for awhile. But I still had this headache that I couldn't get rid of and I was tired.

I got into my usual night clothes (nothing), and went to bed. I turned on the TV to watch something, anything, until I got tired. Nothing of interest was on. It's funny, I have cable and get about 180 channels, and I was bored with it all. I turned the TV off and thought to myself that I'll never get to sleep. Before I knew it, I was having a dream about something that happened a long time ago. I was nine years old. The year was 1963. At that time, we were in the midst of the "Cold War" with Russia. Paranoia was high in our country. In fact, when I was born, the only thing they could give birthing mothers to calm them down and alleviate the pain was ether. It often made them nauseated. They gave ether to Mom to calm her down during the birth of me, and she recalled later that she thought the Russians were invading. Actually, I often have that effect on people, come to think of it. She also recalled that I was born during a big winter storm. I was born on December 31st. I was storming outside and lightening was everywhere. Just as I was born, according to Mom, the sky lit up with lightening with a huge clap of thunder and the electricity went out. All got quiet, except for my crying. She said it was eerie, and the people who took me away after birth she thought were Russians.

Later, when I was older, we would see a horror movie with the same sort of thing happening. The baby in the movie was born during a huge storm and as he was born there was lightening. His name was Damian, and he turned out to be the son of Satan. I assure you, we aren't brothers, although some in Emmett, Idaho have probably wondered about us from time to time. But I digress. Back to my dream...

I was nine years old. My brother and I went into town. We lived in a small town in Idaho called Emmett. It's somewhat isolated. It's 30 miles northwest of Boise, but in those days, 30 miles might as well have been another state over. We made it to Boise maybe once every two months. It was a big deal. Boise had around 70,000 people in it and was huge to us. Emmett only had around 3,000 people in it and we basically all knew each other, and each other's business.

My brother and I were always doing scientific experiments. We were sure that if we tried hard enough, we could invent something that would make the world a better place. So we went into Farber's Variety Store on Main Street. It was basically a 5-10 cent (damn, don't keyboards have the cent key anymore??!) store that had everything in it. We were fascinated at something new in the store that was the latest rave. It was an ant farm. We never did anything in moderation. We bought six of them! Each one was a complete kit. It included the ant farm, really fine sand, and the ants! You believe that? The ants even came with the kits. I don't remember how they kept them alive, but you never thought about things like that. We collected our kits and took them home.

We put the ants into their little containers, and we watched them start to make tunnels. I then started doing research on ants and found that in some ant communities, there were different "classes" of ant society. They seemed to be very ordered little creatures, with different individuals having different tasks to keep the society going. The ants we had were little tiny black things. We called them "piss ants" (don't ask my why - with so many other things in life during that era, it had no reason to it).

It was during my research of ants that I learned that many things have meaning to creatures, that we take for granted. For instance, scent is a big deal in much of the animal world. Eye contact in some species will say that you are making a challenge. If you don't believe me, go to a zoo and stare down a male leopard with an aggressive look. Just don't stand too close to the cage when you do it. Oh, and don't wear anything that doesn't wash well. You may have to put it through several washings to get the urine stains out. Coloring is another thing that can send clear signals to other species. A bright color can be a warning.

This is true with ants as well. I learned that different colorings could sometimes mean different aggressive behaviors in ants. For example, ants that were half black and half red were more aggressive than all black ants. And ants that were all red, were the most aggressive. This is not always the case, but in the ant species that we had access to in Emmett, it was the case. But alas, we just had little black "piss ants", and they were friendly to everyone. And, somewhat uninteresting. After a couple of weeks, we lost interest because they didn't do much. Everyone seemed to be pretty much equal and they went about their business.

We had the idea that it would be more interesting if we got the all red fire ants (we called them "war ants" - you have to remember, this was during the Cold War with Russia, and we were looking for a weapon that our country could use if we were invaded). This was no small feat. We knew of a fire ant colony a half mile from our home. Nothing went close to it and something instinctively told me to keep my distance as a kid, along with other animals. Nothing messed with them, until now. Of course, once we got there, I needed to test their aggression to make sure they were what we were looking for. I took a couple of them, and flicked them on my brother. They stung him, he started gasping for breath, and fell to the ground, saying, "I can't breathe!". I thought, "wow!", but then went back home to tell Mom that Mike needed medical attention. Once he was fixed up, he said, "They must have neurotoxin!!". We looked at each other and said, "WOW!". The test was a success. These ants had the aggressive nature required for our weapon testing. I suppose it's a good thing that cobras don't occur in Idaho.

We wrapped ourselves in saran wrap under our clothes to prevent ant stings (yes it was hot as hell), and went up to collect our ants. We collected thousands and ended up getting more ant farms for the ants. They were kept in our bedroom. We both slept in the same bedroom with our beds were separated by a divider. It had shelves on it and on each shelf was an ant farm. They built tunnels and each one had it's own little civilization. But then I got to thinking, for it to be complete, we need a queen to guide the colony. With much difficulty, we located a queen from the same colony. This was important. A queen from a different colony would have been rejected. So, one little ant farm was happy with their queen, but what about the other 15 farms that we had? They had no queen.

This is where the big breakthrough came. I came up with the world's first network! That's right! I had the idea that if we could some how connect the individual farms together, they could all function as one, and the queen would be in charge of all. We did this with soda straws, and a wood burner set. We would heat the hot iron of the wood burner, and melt a hole into each farm. We covered the hole with tape. When we got all the individual farms done, we started connecting each one to the other one with straws that connected to each hole in each farm. We did this slowly, so that the proper negotiations could take place. The ants had to recognize that the next farm introduced in the network was from the same colony so that everyone would "play nice". Eventually, they were all networked into this complex array of little farms making this huge ant metropolis. It was an beautiful thing. And, with these ants, you could definitely see the different hierarchy's of their work force.

All was well. We had a few bumps in the road. Mom kept harping at us that she didn't want insects in the house because the "freaked her out" and made her "uneasy". We assured her that we had containment and that all was well. Then one night, I woke up with a searing headache. It turned out that I had a red ant in my ear canal who was trying to dig a hole into my ear. Yes, it hurt like hell. Luckily he didn't sting me. When Mom looked in my ear, she place a cotton swab into my ear, and the ant crawled out on the swab. I told her, "Well, we have around 75,000 members of our ant community. Missing one of them was not so bad.

Then one day, it happened. Mike wanted me to play football with him. He would throw the ball to me, I would catch it. He would run back and I would throw it back to him. We were doing this in the house. Yes, we were told never to do that, but hell, we never listened. I remember it vividly. It was like it was all in slow motion. He threw the ball to me. I missed it. It was heading directly for the center colony in the ant metropolis that we created. I could stop it. The ball hit the center farm, and all of them fell. When they hit the floor, they fell apart. Suddenly, we had 75,000 pissed off red war ants looking for someone to kill!

Mom, came in after hearing the crash. My brother and I watched in horror, saying nothing. My Mom started to preach to us about why this is why she asked us not to play ball in the house. We both looked at her in horror. She stopped talking, seeing the look on our faces. We screamed at her at the same time, using the same words, "WE'VE LOST CONTAINMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". She didn't know what the hell that meant. She was doing laundry, after all. I started screaming, "Evacuate! Evacuate!". My brother and I started to running down the hallway to get out of the house. She dropped the laundry that was in her arms, and just stood there screaming. I yelled back to her from the end of the hallway, "If you want to LIVE, Evacuate NOW!!!". We all ran out of the house.

That was the end of the ant farm. We had to have the "county extension agent" (why would they call them that?) come out and fumigate the house. It took us forever to clean up our little dead ant soldiers.... very sad. It was a sad day for us, and our country that lost a powerful weapon.

A few weeks later, my brother came into our room and saw me reading a book. He asked what I was reading. I responded with a question, "Where can we get 'enriched uranium'?"

I saw this and got a kick out of it. In fact, I'm ordering one.

Other products they sell

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Florida's ban on adoptions by gays narrowly withstood another legal challenge, but some dissenting federal judges condemned the nation's only such blanket prohibition.

In a 6-6 vote, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia, declined Wednesday to reconsider the case of four gay men who had appealed an earlier adverse ruling by a three-judge panel of the court.

One dissenting judge said the law was "irrational" under the Constitution's equal protection clause because it singles out gays. Another said he would move to change the law if he were a Florida legislator. [...]

Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday the decision not to reconsider the case "validates Florida's conclusion that it's in the best interest of adopted children to be in homes anchored by both a father and a mother."

But in a sharply worded dissent, Judge Rosemary Barkett noted that no other groups, including child molesters and domestic abusers, are barred from adopting in Florida. (source)

You ever take notice at how out of sync priorities can be? I suppose it is because of people's irrational fear of the unknown.

Case is point... A federal court has upheld Florida's ban on adoptions by gays. I thought it was an excellent point by Judge Rosemary Barkett that no other group, including child molesters and domestic abusers were barred from adopting in Florida. Absolutely amazing.

I apply this rationale to gay marriage and I wonder if it's the same kind of fear at work. I'm always wondering, what are people so afraid of?

The last time such a "court-stripping" measure passed was in 1868, during the nation's reconstruction after the Civil War. Other such measures considered since then rarely made it out of committee because they were considered unconstitutional. (source)

How They Voted

It's a sad day.

Democracy was dealt a blow today. The Marriage Protection Act passed the House of Representatives on a vote of 233-194. The bill would strip the Supreme Court and other federal courts of their jurisdiction to rule on challenges to state bans on gay marriages under a provision of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act. That law defines marriage as between a man and a woman, and says states are not compelled to recognize gay marriages that take place in other states.

A companion MPA bill has not yet been introduced into the Senate.

Hopefully, it will die in the Senate. From the AP newswire:

Stung by a Senate setback on gay marriage, Republicans passed legislation in the House Thursday to prevent federal courts from ordering states to recognize same-sex unions sanctioned elsewhere.

Democrats called the bill an unconstitutional attack on gays and the federal judiciary, and said its passage was just a matter of election-year politics.

Surveillance footage from Washington's Dulles Airport on September 11, 2001 shows security personnel searching several of the hijackers who commandeered a plane and crashed it into the Pentagon later that day.

The newly-released video footage shows at least three of the five hijackers setting off metal detectors and being pulled aside and checked with hand-held detectors before being allowed to board the aircraft. (source)

I saw the photos this morning on TV and was wondering at the time, "Are we any better off today? Are we any safer?" I say this because I've read reports on airport security since 9/11, and it seems that what has happened over time is simply a change in the people who provide the security.

After 9/11 security was tight. I remember traveling from Hartford to Phoenix for Christmas with Kent's parents. This was in December of 2001. We were at the airport, and I remember big guys in camouflage clothes with really big guns. It was very intimidating and made me wonder if I really wanted to go to Yuma for Christmas.

The line was also long. I was freaking out a bit and talking to Kent non-stop. I tend to talk a lot when I get nervous. I was sure I was going to have a panic attack and was thinking about taking a Xanax before I got on the plane. I was really on edge.

Then, this lady was going up and down the line telling people what to do to get through security more quickly. It was December, so everyone was wearing coats. She said, "Continue around the corner to the left and put your coats on the table." For some reason, what I heard was, "Continue around the corner and take your clothes off." I blurted out very very loudly in a high pitched voice, "TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF?!!?" Everyone laughed, I mean everyone. This lady looked at me and said, "I thought she said that too."

I turned to Kent and said, "I don't know about this." He replied, "It will be fine," with a reassuring voice. We got up to the men in the camouflage. I guess I was noticeably nervous. He asked if I was ok. I told him that I was nervous about flying and how safe it was. He said, "That's why we are here." I felt safer.

Today, that has changed. The men in camouflage are not there anymore. They've been replaced by other people in uniforms. Everyone claims that security is still there, but I'm not sure anyone actually believes that. It's on my mind more now because we are traveling to Idaho in a couple of weeks.

Are we safer today? I don't think much has changed. And I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before something horrible happens again. Have we learned anything from 9/11?

Our country's marriage laws do allow homosexuals to marry--they can marry someone of the opposite sex. This is the same right given to everyone in society. - Regina Griggs, executive director of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays) - source

Good to know Regina that as a gay man, I can get married. The only catch is that it be a female that I don't honestly love with my heart and soul and don't want to have sexual relations with.

So much for protecting the sanctity of marriage. These people will stop at nothing and will use any angle they can to keep us from marriage, even to the point of allowing us to enter into a sham marriage. Anyone else sense desperation?

I knew we had our eyes on more than Iraq. It seems our next target may be Iran.

I guess the good news is that we are already over there (for what that's worth). It won't cost as much to mobilize a force. Or is this just another ploy to save the Bush Administration in November?

- First they cry wolf on the weapons of mass destruction, that turned out not to exist.

- Next they said that they need to save marriage from the gays.

- Now, it's Iran?

Nothing would surprise me at this point.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A revived debate in Washington over possible diplomatic engagement with Iran has been fueled by the growing fear that Tehran is determined to become a nuclear power and time is running out to stop it.

A quarter of a century of U.S. hostility and sanctions have not deterred Iran's nuclear ambitions and what Washington calls its support for terrorism. [...]

For two years, the Bush administration has accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons and some U.S. experts predict Tehran could have a bomb by the end of 2005. (source)

It's that time again folks. Last week, we saw the defeat of the Federal Marriage Amendment. With that defeat, attention is now shifting to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that was signed into law by President Clinton in 1996.

DOMA basically says that any state need not honor the marriage of a same sex couple who was married in a state that allows same sex couples to marry. For example, Iowa would not have to honor a marriage performed for a gay or lesbian couple who went to Massachusetts to get married.

Many are saying that DOMA is unconstitutional and would not withstand a challenge. Apparently, enough people in the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee agreed on July 14th by passing The Marriage Protection Act on a vote of 21-13. It's sponsor, Tom DeLay (R-Texas), says Article III, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to remove issues from federal courts' jurisdiction.

Noting that DOMA is vulnerable to court action on constitutional grounds, they are trying to remove the authority from any court from ruling against DOMA. Perhaps Tom DeLay should read the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution:

United States Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

It's pretty clear. I'm not sure what the outcome will be tomorrow but you know what? It doesn't matter! If it passes, it will be overturned because you can not pass laws singling out one group of people in this free nation for a citizenship that is second-class.

In a nutshell, the Marriage Protection Act is an attempt to prevent us from having access to the law and the courts. The Constitution will not tolerate that.

(Washington) Two leading LGBT civil rights groups warned Wednesday that The Marriage Protection Act is unconstitutional and if it is passed Thursday they will fight it to Supreme Court.

The bill would block federal courts, including the Supreme Court, from hearing cases challenging federal Defense of Marriage Act. [...]

But, Lambda Legal said that it was never intended to be used to prevent an identifiable group from being blocked from the judicial system.

"In attacking both gay people and the historic role of courts, this bill clearly violates our Constitution and will never be allowed to stand," said Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director of Lambda Legal.

"Just 13 months ago, I sat in the U.S. Supreme Court when the justices delivered their ruling striking down an antigay law in Texas. The Court made clear that laws cannot single out gay people to treat us as second-class citizens," Cathcart said.

"This bill tries to do exactly what the U.S. Supreme Court has just rejected -- and if it ever passes, it will take its place alongside the now-dead Texas law in the dustbin of discriminatory attempts to treat gay people as second-class citizens." (source)

We live in interesting times.

I've always been interested in astronomy ever since I did a paper on it in grade school. Over the years I've read various papers and findings from different scientists. For the most part, I understand much of what Einstein was talking about (mathematics aside). But much of what Stephen Hawking talks about frankly freaks me out a bit.

He talks about black holes and different dimensions, among other things. I still honestly don't understand what a "dimension" is. The last I heard, Hawking had come up with 12 different dimensions. I also heard that the number is growing. Which leads me to ask the question, if he can see these dimensions, why can't I? But then I ask myself another question to counter that one which is, do I really want to know?

Perhaps I should just be happy in my own little world where my main concern is living a happy life and playing "string ball" or "feather string" with my cats. I think my cats have the best answer to the universe which is, "If I can't see it, smell it, put my paws on it, or have it interrupt my sleep, it simply doesn't exist."

Stephen Hawking has put forward a new theory that changes the way scientists view black holes, saying he was wrong about them in the past.

The physicist told a conference on gravitation in Dublin that he has revised his belief that black holes destroy everything that falls on them.

He now believes that black holes may allow information to get out. [...]

A black hole is an object from which once inside it is not possible to escape. Its boundary is called its "event horizon".

But now Hawking believes that it might not be a one-way trip after all. [...]

Professor Hawking's new black holes never completely destroy everything that falls in. Instead, they continue to emit radiation for extended periods, and eventually open up to reveal the information within them.

"I have been thinking about this problem for 30 years, but I now have an answer to it," he explained.

"The black hole only appears to form but later opens up and releases information about what fell in, so we can be sure of the past and we can predict the future." (source)

I remember a time in America when people could agree to disagree on some issue without it being personal. Perhaps the reason I have that memory is because the issues being decided didn't directly effect me. It's easy to make decisions about other people if the decision you make doesn't affect you personally.

It's easy to sit back and say, "I don't favor black children going to the same school as white children." Never mind that the schools the black children were left with were inferior because of lack of funding on the part of others. And did the majority really care? After all, being well educated is power.

So today, we have the likes of U.S. Senator Rick Santorum trying to make the argument that “the future of our country hangs in the balance because the future of marriage hangs in the balance”, if we allow gays access to marriage. There are many like him. Senator Frist is the same way. And when I listen to them talk, I want to believe that they don't hear what they are saying, or that they don't understand just how dehumanizing it is.

I have stopped watching all debates on same sex marriage, because it simply drags me down too much. I realize that there is nothing I can do to change their minds. I am all I have and the truth of the matter is, they don't care about me or "my kind". It serves no purpose for me to listen to their debate on how evil I am and how I’m dragging my country down. It is personal because we are real people.

I listen to people say that our struggle is not the same as that of the black community. The argument is that they were "born that way", so it's wrong to discriminate against them. Well excuse me, but I was born gay also. But, there's no way for me to prove it to them, because they don't care and they've made up their minds. They really have no interest in what I have to say.

My country has a President now who values me less a citizen than straight people. That is how I feel. I want to ask, where did my country go? What happened to it? I didn't ask my President to make this statement:

What they do in the privacy of their house, consenting adults should be able to do. This is America. It's a free society. But it doesn't mean we have to redefine traditional marriage. - President George W. Bush

I love the way he says "they", as though I'm not a part of regular society. It makes me sick. So what do I do? I take pictures, I go to the movies, I compensate for all the shit that they say about me and people like me. I buy things for my home and for people I love, so that I won't have to listen to or buy into their bullshit that I'm less worthy of their acceptance.

Marriage is so messed up now, I honestly don't understand what their problem is. Over 50% end in divorce before their ten year anniversary.

Look at the biggest defender of the "sanctity of marriage in Indiana," former Republican gubernatorial candidate Eric Miller, who has publicly acknowledged a divorce in his past.

When Indiana House Republicans held up proceedings for several days on the floor last winter, I asked their media staff how many members of the GOP caucus had been divorced. I was told that it wasn't "relevant." *

It's not relevant to them because they don't want to put a spot light on their failed marriages. It's not relevant to them because the only relevant issue to them is to beat us down so we will never know what true equality feels like.

And here's the clincher. Most people in the black community will not support us on this. They know what it feels like to be treated like second class citizens. They know what it feels like to be beaten down all the time. They know what it feels like to fight for equal rights. But most will make the same arguments against gay marriage that I've stated above. I suppose it's no longer their problem to deal with, so why should they care about us?

Last night on television, there was an interview of one black minister who advocated that gay couples should be allowed to legally marry. He made the case that it was hypocritical for the black community to turn it's back on our desire for equality. "Here, we have gay people singing in our choirs, playing musical instruments for our services, and adding their many gifts to our congregation. We are more than willing to accept these gifts, but when it comes to allowing them full access to the joys of life, companionship, and what it takes to make a human being whole, we deny them this."

In an attempt to avoid the issue of giving us full equality, some who in the past didn't want to give us anything, are now deciding that "civil unions" are the way to go, to keep us from having full marriage.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a supporter of amending the Constitution, told the Senate that same-sex couples should be able to live together like married people, should have insurance and estate benefits like married people, and should be able to visit and care for each other in hospitals like married people. [...]

"We ought to be able to solve those inadequacies in the law without changing a 5,000-year-plus definition of marriage." (source)

The problem Senator is that all the years this was happening to gay couples you and people like you DID NOTHING. You knew that partners were being denied visitation rights to their sick partners in hospitals. You knew that partners were not even able to make final arrangements when one of the partners would die. You knew that people were losing what they had built up together as a couple after the death of one of the partners, and you did nothing.

None of this is news. All of you in congress knew this grim crap was happening to gay couples, AND YOU DID NOTHING. You didn't care. Now that it looks as if we have a chance at what you, Britney Spears, and the rest of society take for granted, now and only now are you willing to consider "civil unions"?

And next week, as though you haven't finished your gay bashing, there's round two...

Coming next week will be U.S. Rep. John Hostettler's "jurisdiction stripping" bill that would bar federal courts from hearing lawsuits related to gay sex and marriage.

Lost in all this "defense" of the institution of marriage are the real people out there. Gay men and women who are willing to make a commitment to each other. When they do, I don't see how it impacts me or my family. I don't care what they do in their bedrooms. The gay people I know, other than the sexual activities I never see, are so much like me and other people I know.

The sensible compromise here would be to give them "civil unions," that would afford folks property and other family rights involving benefits (as many of our Indiana corporations already do), power of attorney and latitude to make deathbed decisions on behalf of someone they love. *

There are a few obvious problems with civil unions. The first most obvious one is that they probably wouldn't even come near allowing all the protections of civil marriage. Are civil unions going to give me and my partner the over 1,000 federal rights and 655 state rights of marriage?

And, would the Federal Government stand behind and honor civil unions for gay couples? We all know the answer to that question. No one is being fooled here, and I’m tired of smoke screens and the insincere "civil union" bone being thrown our way. It is personal, and it hurts.

Source of entries marked with '*'

This is a picture of a public toilet in Switzerland that's made entirely out of one-way glass. No one can see you in there, but when you are inside, it looks like you're sitting in a clear glass box.

Would you use it?

I'm sure you all heard about Arnold Schwarzenegger calling lawmakers in California "girlie men". I heard about it on my way to work this morning. It was strange for me in a way. A few years ago it would have pissed me off. Today, I just laughed it off. I think as I grow older, I am changing.

There's an old saying that goes, "consider the source...". Well, look at the picture below and then ask yourself if he's worth the effort of getting upset over. He's an actor who is just appealing to the press, at our expense. Why? Because we are an easy target and nobody gives a damn.

Sure, he's the governor of California and he made an insensitive comment. Sure, he put down gay men with a stupid stereotype. I would personally just wish that he call us "fags" and be done with it. But, what really has happened is that he's shown how childish and immature he is. It was a stupid comment and really doesn't deserve any more energy than this.

On a more serious note, I think it's more important to emphasize the use of moisturizer. Ok, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, "Bill, that's not the hot issue." But, if I don't say it, who will? At some point, someone has got to do the right thing and speak up for malnourished skin cells. Just look at the picture below and you can see the hazards of not using moisturizer.

Most gay guys, or "girlie men" are used to using moisturizers. It's important to use it morning and night. And not just any moisturizer but a "balanced" moisturizer, but that will have to be covered in another entry as it’s too long and complex an issue for this one. Straight guys don't moisturize as well as they should generally speaking. Am I allowed to say that, or did I just insult straight men?

Maybe we all need to lighten up a bit and keep our eye on the ball a bit more. Arnold, you are the governor of California. Perhaps it would be in your best interest to listen to these words. You are a Republican. I don’t hold that against you. But stop being a stupid ass moron and join this century. You represent all the people of California and whether you like it or not, some of those people are "girlie men".

A spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Sunday that the governor would not apologize for calling lawmakers "girlie men," despite criticisms from Democrats that the remark was sexist and homophobic.

Schwarzenegger dished out the insult at a rally Saturday as he claimed Democrats were delaying the budget by catering to special interests.

"If they don't have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers ... if they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men," Schwarzenegger said to the cheering crowd at a mall food court in Ontario.

The governor lifted the term from a long-running "Saturday Night Live" skit in which two pompous, Schwarzenegger-worshipping weightlifters repeatedly use it to mock those who don't meet their standards of physical perfection.

Democrats said Schwarzenegger's remarks were insulting to women and gays and distracted from budget negotiations. State Sen. Sheila Kuehl said the governor had resorted to "blatant homophobia."

"It uses an image that is associated with gay men in an insulting way, and it was supposed to be an insult. That's very troubling that he would use such a homophobic way of trying to put down legislative leadership," said Kuehl, one of five members of the Legislature's five-member Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus. (source)

Something to ponder

Twenty-five states introduced legislation this year that sought to amend the state constitution to prohibit the performance and/or recognition of marriages between same-sex couples and in some cases more (civil unions, domestic partnerships, etc.)

Fifteen state legislatures staved off discriminatory amendments. Those were: Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Kansas, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Vermont and Washington.

Amendments (initiated by legislators or citizens) will appear on ballots in 11 states - Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma , Oregon and Utah. The proposed amendments will appear on the November ballot except in Missouri, which will appear in August, and Louisiana, which will appear in September.

Signatures continue to be gathered in Ohio and North Dakota to put amendments on the November ballot in those states.

Three state legislatures - Massachusetts, Tennessee and Wisconsin - must re-approve amendments that were passed in the 2004 legislative session in their upcoming legislative sessions. (source)

I read this valuable information about words that should be banned. I agree with much of it.

METROSEXUAL - An urban male who pays too much attention to his appearance. Bob Forrest of Tempe, Arizona, says it "sounds like someone who only has sex downtown or on the subway." Fred Bernardin of Arlington, Massachusetts, asks, "Aren't there enough words to describe men who spend too much time in front of the mirror?"

X - Last year it was 'extreme.' This year, 'X' follows in its footsteps. "Marketers have latched onto this letter to grab the 'Generation-X demographic. X-files, Xtreme, Windows XP and X-Box are all part of this PR-powered phenomenon," said John Casnig of Kingston, Ontario.

PUNKED - As in bamboozled, duped, flimflammed, hornswoggled. Nominated by the Frank and Johnnie Show, WGN, Chicago. An old noun given new life as a verb because of the television show. Kill it before it grows.

PLACE STAMP HERE - Dennis K. McDermott of Oneida, New York, says, "It appears on 99% of the return envelopes provided by creditors with monthly billings. It's especially annoying when enclosed in a rectangle drawn in the upper right corner. (What if you miss?) And then…they inform you that 'The Post Office will not deliver without postage.' Can we legitimately claim to be a superpower if we need to be reminded to put a stamp on an envelope?"

Eric Hooper of South Lyon, Michigan, agrees: "If I'm too stupid to figure out where to put the stamp, then paying the phone bill is probably the least of my worries."

COMPANION ANIMALS - "They're called PETS." Nick Leach, Bloomington, Indiana.

BLING or BLING-BLING or any of its variations - "Hate, hate. Grate, grate," says Steven Phipps of Pueblo, Colorado. Received many nominations from across the United States. "This once street slang for items of luxury has now become so overused and abused that (everyone) has incorporated it into their vocabularies. Yes, your mom might say it. Nothing could kill the mystique of a word faster." Todd Facklas, Chicago.

LOL and other abbreviated 'e-mail speak,' including the symbol '@' when used in advertising and elsewhere - Alex G. of Warsaw, Poland, says, "It's everywhere on the net! OMG! u r chattin to sum1 then…lol this and lol that….Get it away!" "I wonder if anyone really laughs out loud when they use this short-hand Instant Messenger slang?" Rachel Rose, Pickford, Michigan.

EMBEDDED JOURNALIST - Nominations for this Iraq War II phrase came from throughout the U.S., Canada and overseas. "I'm a journalist and until the war started, I'd never heard this term. In the interest of objectivity, journalists probably shouldn't be embedded with any organization they regularly cover." Ken Marten, Hamtramck, Michigan.

More...

Oh yeah, I also want to point out a new photo album that I posted of cute animal pictures that my friend Brandi sent me. You can see the album here.

And this is happening in Iowa!

Some Iowa school districts are changing their policies to protect openly gay students. About 17 school districts across the state including Ames, Des Moines, Urbandale and West Des Moines are protecting homosexual students by making changes to their anti-discrimination policies. Critics of the policy change say that all students should be protected against sexual harassment, but school officials say that gay students often get the brunt of the abuse. (source)

The Bahamas, yet another place that I won't be going for vacation.

Do homosexuals have the same right as regular tourists to spend their vacation in The Bahamas? And do homosexuals living in the country have a right to push their views on society? These were some of the questions being addressed by veteran journalist P. Anthony White and Cable Bahamas' Dr. Keith Wisdom on 102.9 Island Fm's radio talk show "Parliament Street" on Sunday.

The show's co-host, attorney Fayne Thompson, noted that there appears to be a section of society that is on a campaign to turn such visitors away from The Bahamas because of their lifestyles. He questioned how, in the context of freedom of speech, does one deal with the intractable difference between those foreigners who feel free to live such a lifestyle and those who feel that fundamentally, such a lifestyle is wrong. (source)

I took a few more pictures today and added them to my collection. But I couldn't resist this one. I apologize to all of you out there who have a phobia of spiders, but from a photo opportunity, I couldn't pass this one up. Click on the photo if you want to view the enlargement.

Kent just left for Boston. He will park in Boston, and catch a plane for Frankfurt, Germany. From there, he will fly to Faro, Portugal. It was very hard to see him go this time, and I shed a few tears over it. It used to bother me more when he would leave, but I have gotten used to it over time. I think this bothers me more because I worry about all the crazy people in the world, and he will be leaving the United States.

He's excited and I'm happy he has opportunities like this. I just worry is all. I'll be fine once I get my head into my work again. He'll call once he gets to Boston, and then when he checks into his hotel in Portugal, probably around 12 noon tomorrow. That's a lot of hours of travel.

We had a really nice dinner last night. We went to Costa Del Sol, a Spanish Restaurant in Hartford. It's one of our favorite places to go.

Tonight, I'll probably go to a movie after dinner. I know, it's doing things to keep my mind occupied, and it sucks, but that's the way it is.

It's 5:00 on a Saturday morning. I woke up from a bad dream and couldn't fall back to sleep. So, I got up, put on my most comfortable night shirt, went downstairs and brewed a nice hot cup of Earl Grey tea, with just the right about of honey, made from our own Coventry bees (we're very proud of our local bees here).

I'm sitting here writing this upstairs in our family room. We have a large window looking towards the east. The sun is just beginning to rise and I'm seeing the first signs of light and life -- my cat (Maxwell) just entered the room, yawned, stretched, scratched his butt, and look at me to say, "Why are you up so early?" It's so quiet here.

I dread today. Kent is leaving for another trip this afternoon. I hate it when he travels, especially overseas. I know it's just my irrational fear of what could happen, but it's real to me. There are so many evils in this world and so many unknowns. Don't get me wrong, I love traveling a lot. But, I like going with him, as though I could protect him if something should happen. At least, it would happen to the both of us. And with my Irish fighting spirit, who knows, I might be able to stop a war. He's leaving this afternoon for Boston, then he's off to Frankfurt, Germany. From there, off to his final destination of Faro, Portugal. He will come home next Saturday. I had talked about going with him, but can't be away that much. We are going to Idaho for two weeks August 7th, after all.

Me, I'm a person who, at least in our personal every day lives, likes predictability. I'm past the age of wanting something new in my life or the need to try something different. I like knowing that he's going to be there every morning when I wake up, that the lawn has to be mowed every weekend, and that we plan to go see a certain movie that just came out. That's not to say that we are the same. It is the difference between us that makes it all work. It is the fact that we can be having a conversation, and I will say something to him that will simply blow him away, just to prove a point. He will respond by saying, with a big smile on his face, "Where the hell did that come from?" I will explain and tie it all together for him. He will look at me with so much love in his eyes and say to me, "You have a very creative mind."

I've come to realize that I look at life a lot differently from most people. Your own life you can weave into what you want it to be. It can take years for you to understand what you want that to be, because we are ever changing. That's all for the good. I was miserable as a young man. I've grown into happiness. Knowledge of myself, and the situation around me has made me the person I am today. You can dwell on what could happen, you can only effect what is happening now. I'm reminded of when I took Taekwondo. I wasn't that good, but there were lessons learned that were very valuable to me. It turns out that the man I took Taekwondo from was Korea's national champion for six years running when he was younger. He was awesome to watch.

He would give us our lessons, then talk to us about life and philosophy. Then, he would show us the history of what he covered in the lessons. Some of the movements seems dumb to me, but in application, they became much different. With force and grace, the moves became deadly instruments of self defense.

I took Taekwondo because I was afraid of being beaten up again. I couldn't fight. I never knew how. I thought this would be something that would be useful for me. So, when Master Kim asked me why I was there, I told him, "I want to learn to defend myself so no one can ever hurt me again." He told me, "I can teach you Taekwondo, but nothing will stop others from hurting you. You will have to find the path to happiness yourself. It is a journey that only you can take." I thought at the time, "This guy's full of crap, but can he fight?" But I told him, "Ok. When can we start?"

After months of training, I began to feel something gradually change in me. I began to feel confident and powerful. I was teaching other beginning students the forms and techniques of Taekwondo. Then, I would be called into my regular class. What I hated was being called up to fight with Master Kim. It was alway a demonstration of some technique. On one occasion, he was holding these styrofoam bats. The exercise was one of blocking the bats so that they didn't hit vital parts of your body. Of course, I was awful. He beat the hell out of me with the bats. Had they been real bats, I would have been a bloody mess. Then, he provoked me. He came up to me as though he knew what had happened in my past, pulled back my hair, pointed to one of the scars on my head that was the result of being hit with a pipe when I was beaten in my youth, and said to me, "This will happen to you!". He then beat me again, and I could do nothing. All of this in front of the class. I was angry and getting more angry by the minute.

He then dropped the bats, came up to me, looked me right in the eye and said, "Let it go. Let all of it go. You and your body are nothing. They cannot be touched. Clear your mind. They are nothing. Look at me, in my eyes and you will know the truth." I know it makes no sense here and now, as I am writing about this. But, when you've been beaten twice by those bats and are worn down, everything changes. He picked up the bats again, and went into combat form. The attack was coming, and I was calm. I looked into his eyes, and as he charged towards me, I remained still and standing in the same spot. As he hit me with the bats, I blocked everything with both my arms and my legs. He could not touch me. He stepped back from me and said, "OHHHHHHH!!!!!!" He looked at the class who were somewhat in shock. He looked at me, and I was in a peaceful place. The combat was there, but I was not part of it. He taught me that day that the conflict and me, were not the same. That was the lesson that day. He said, "If the conflict and you become the same, the battle is already lost."

Another day, we paired up. We were always put with someone of equal size, except on this day. I was put with someone of higher rank and much bigger. I looked concerned. I said, "But Master Kim, he is so much bigger than I am". Master Kim snapped back with, "Size mean NOTHING! Judge me by my size do you"? He was a small man, I would say 5 foot 5 inches, if that. He then called all of his best students out on the mat who surrounded him in a large circle. He told us that size was irrelevant in the equation. What mattered was inner peace and balance - always balance. There must always be balance. I'm thinking to myself, "Ok, but the guy out weighs me by one hundred pounds and is ten inches taller than I am, and he out ranks me in technique."

Master Kim then looked at his black belts. There were about twelve of them. He then said to them, "Attack me!". They looked at each other not knowing exactly what to do. He repeated the demand with more force, "Attack me!!!". They all rushed in and piled on top of him in a big huddle. I actually thought he was hurt. Then, all the sudden, I heard a loud yell. He emerged from the center of the huddle. The black belts flew threw the air and away from him. He jump up I would say ten feet in the air, and when he came down he landed on one foot. The other leg was bent and his arms were extended like a crane. It was like a graceful bird who was about to take flight. When he landed on his foot, there was no struggle for balance. It was like a ton of bricks falling in absolutely one place. The black belts on the floor were seeing stars as they shook their head to try to steady themselves. Master Kim stood there for all of a minute at peace. We looked on in disbelief. He then turned to the class and said, "If you are balanced, nothing can touch you. This is true in all of life." That was the end of the lesson.

My final days of Taekwondo became personal for me. I did my warm ups, and prepared for class. I was paired up with a new guy in class. I had never seen him before. He was stocky and somewhat bigger than myself. We were doing non-contact sparring. You go through the motions of the different techniques that you have learned, but you can never touch your partner. The only times that was allowed was when you were wearing protective body armor. On this day, we were not, so contact was not allowed.

The guy I was paired with was a jock-type and very arrogant. He told me as we were sparring that he was doing this to see if there was anything to it. He said, that he was a boxer and loved street fighting. He told me as we were going through the moves, they he enjoyed going out and beating up guys who he thought were were sissies, just for sport.

I stopped fighting with him and asked Master Kim for a new partner. The request was denied. The guy then started teasing me about me being one of those guys that he would like to beat to a pulp. I concentrated on getting through the exercise and tried to ignore what he was saying. Then it happened. He came in with a full punch to my right shoulder. I fell to the ground. Master Kim immediately came over, looked at him and said, "No contact!". The guy nodded. I got up, looked at the guy and said, "What the hell's your problem? We can't touch. I want to just get through this." He looked at me and said, "Yeah well, to get through this you may have to come through me." I said nothing. He them lunged at me, and ran his fist into my stomach and knocked my legs our from under me. I hit the mat hard and the breath was knocked out of me. Again, Master Kim came over and told him that he must stop with the contact. Master Kim then offered his hand to help me up off the mat. When I was up on my feet, Master Kim looked at me and said, "You must defend yourself, of course." I looked at him puzzled. What did that mean. I took it to mean, that if my partner wasn't going to abide by the rules, why should I?

We sparred some more. Again my opponent charged at me. It was different though. This time, he was the one who had beaten me so many years ago. I felt rage and anger boil up. Old rage that I thought was gone came back. I was moving on my feet and was defending myself. But I suddenly felt the incredible rush of adrenaline hit. Suddenly my legs and arms felt hard and I felt weightless. It was an incredible feeling of power. And, mentally, I wanted to take this guy out. He swung at me. By the time his fist had reached it's target, the target had moved. But I had a target. I hit him hard in his sternum. He fell to the mat trying to gain his breath. I moved in for the kill. I put my right knee on his chest, drawing my right arm back and opening my hand. The full move was a full strike with the palm of my hand to his nose. It would have been a devastating blow that would probably have resulted in death. As I was coming down, I could see my actions, but I couldn't stop. A yell came out of my mouth and everyone in the room stopped their fighting. The yell was rage and hate. In the journey my hand took towards his face, it was interrupted by Master Kim. He grabbed my hand and pushed my balance off and I fell on the mat. I immediately came back up and went into fighting stance against Master Kim. It was as if I was saying, "This is mine! Don't stop me." Master Kim could read that, and gave me a warning to stop and to go to the corner. The corner was where you were sent for disobeying an order, or to cool off. I reluctantly went to the corner for the remainder of the class.

At the end of the class, as we were leaving, Master Kim looked at me and said he wanted to talk to me in his office. I was thinking I was in bad trouble. When I went in, he asked me to sit. I did. He looked at me, and took a deep breath. He then said, "Anger", shaking his head. "Anger is the worst of all enemies because it consumes everything. Your enemy today was your past." I said, "I would have won!" Master Kim said, "Yes, you would have won. But won what? A victory? If you would have won, you would have lost, because you would have become your enemy." I thought about that, and realized that there was so much I hadn't dealt with in myself. Tears started running down my cheeks but I tried not to cry. Master Kim looked at me and said, "Let it go. You are not in that place anymore." I composed myself, got up to leave, opened the door, and he said, "One more thing." I turned around and looked at him and he said with a big smile on his face, "Good punch!!". I smiled back, and went home.

The following was written last weekend while we were in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was never published.

It's official. I'm an internet junky. We went to Northampton, Massachusetts today. In fact, we are still there. We had a great dinner at La Casuela, our favorite Mexican restaurant. Afterwards, we spotted this coffee bar that had "WiFi Zone" in the window (I just happen to have my notebook with me - lucky me). Kent wanted to go look at used book stores. I said, "Why buy used books when you can buy new?" It's an old argument. He went shopping for used books and left me in the coffee bar.

Why go all this way to just surf, you ask? Well, it's not just surfing. There's more to it than that. First of all, it's a change of scenery. All around me there are people sitting at their little tables with there notebooks open who suffer from the same addiction that I do. Misery loves company. That alone is a good reason to be here.

I also hate the smell of old decaying books. I usually am not prone to allergies, but two minutes in a book store with old rotting books is enough to make me sneeze for hours.

Finally, where else can I do my thing and occasionally get up and make another trip to the coffee bar where three people are just waiting to serve me?

I notice a lot of young people here with me, all surfing away. To them, it's all a way of life though, having been raised on computers. I suppose a computer is the same to them as a coffee maker is to most of us. It's a good thing, I suppose. During dinner, Kent asked me, "Would you like to live here?" It's an interesting question. I like the idea of being able to not worry about what people think of you. Where being different isn't so different. For example, out on the sidewalk, I saw this girl walking down the street with her boyfriend trailing behind her. She had a dog collar on him and he was just as happy as he could be following behind her. I thought to myself, "Alrighty then!" If they are happy, who the hell cares?

This is the problem we have in this country now. There are too many people who can't mind their own damn business. It's as though they feel that they have some moral directive to tell others how to live. It gets so tiring. To Kent's question on if I'd like to live here, my response was, "We could get married."

Unfortunately, we would have to relocate, sell our home, get new jobs, etc. Pretty major tasks for us. I guess we'll stay where we are at and wait for our state to catch up to Massachusetts. Marriage is a big deal here. Everywhere I look I see articles on gay marriage. I see gay couples all over the place and wonder how many of them have gotten married. It's hard to understand what all the controversy is about. But then again, as we left our little town of Coventry, there were signs everywhere directing people to "Jesus Fest" (or "Jesus Fester" as I call it). People in general are just in the dark ages about our community.

Or perhaps it is the backlash we are seeing from the Massachusetts ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court. We all knew that something would happen when the shot was fired across their bow. Now, this week, the U.S. Senate is debating the Federal Marriage Amendment to keep the likes of me from ever being able to get married. It's pretty nasty. But, we have to see it for what it is. It's basically a bunch of older conservative people who make their living by sitting on their asses all day (enough to depress anyone), who see their world slowly slipping away to something new that they don't want anything to do with (we'll call this new way of life enlightenment).

It makes them feel better to beat up on a minority that has little voice in this country because it is something that they feel they can control. It keeps their mind off of issues they have no control over such as, what the hell is going to happen when the truth really hits the fan about the lies that were told that sent this country into a war. How will it look for those who voted to take this country into that war? They are scared to death of this because they know it's coming and they have zero control over it. The President knows it's coming so he's trying to rally support from his own party and the only thing in his weak pathetic arsenal is the "gay marriage" ticket. It's all he has left. If you listen to him talk and try to answer the questions put to him about the war, he stumbles and looks frantically for words. He will say that he acted on the best information he had. If that's the best our intelligence community can do, we are in deep shit.

Another thing that is bothering me is what the Republicans are saying about John Edwards. They are all over the guy because he "doesn't have the experience to be President". Let's examine this a bit. How much experience did our current President have when he became President? Not much. He was governor of Texas and he drove the finances of that state into the ground. In contrast, John Edwards has been in the Senate for years. Then we have Dan Quayle. Forget the fact that he couldn’t come up with the correct spelling for the different vegetables we eat for a second. The man is just plain stupid, and I'm so thankful that George Bush (senior) didn't croak while Quayle was his Vice President. Who knows what would have happened? Then there's Dick Cheney. When he's not more concerned about all the money he's making at the expense of US taxpayers, he would have loved for us to just keep going, as long as we are already in Iraq. Hell, why stop at Iraq? We are on a roll now. After Abu Gharib, it's not like we can go down hill as far as foreign relations are concerned.

Assuming Bush doesn't win another four years as President, the next president is going to have his hands full. Basically, the next President is going to be a failure. He will be so busy cleaning up George Bush's mess that he will have little time proposing or getting anything passed of substance. The national deficit is at an all time high, and the current President ran the deficit up more than any President in U.S. history. Think about that. It doesn't matter so much to me, because I am already taxed to death along with the rest of you. The people who will really get stuck with it is the next few generations. This will be George Bush's legacy. I don't get much comfort from that.

Kent's brother sent us this. I thought you'd get a kick out of it.

Crack Found on Governor's Daughter

Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers

Iraqi Head Seeks Arms

Prostitutes Appeal to Pope

Teacher Strikes Idle Kids

Miners Refuse to Work after Death

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant

War Dims Hope for Peace

If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile

Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures

Enfield (London) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges

Man Struck By Lightning Faces Battery Charge

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group

Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks

Chef Throws His Heart into Helping Feed Needy

Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half

Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors

Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

GAY MARRIAGE AMENDMENT GOES DOWN TO SMOKING DEFEAT....Today's "Whistling Past the Graveyard" award winner:

"Ultimately, we will win this fight," said Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas. "Marriage is the union of a man and a woman."

Sure, Sam. The gay marriage amendment failed 48-50, and since John Kerry and John Edwards would have voted against it if they hadn't been campaigning, the real vote was 48-52. FMA supporters couldn't even get a majority, let alone two-thirds.

What's more, this was their best shot. We all know that tolerance of gays increases steadily every year, which means that if FMA didn't pass this year, it's never going to pass. It's just plain dead.

Well, on this triumphant day when the U.S. Senate fell short of the necessary votes to pass a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage, I thought it was appropriate to post this photo. It was put together by my friend Jon who pointed it out to me. Thanks Jon! :-)

One of the things that I've talked little about on this site is my belief that we need to protect our wilderness areas in this country. When I lived in Idaho, it was always a battle between those who wanted to preserve forest land and those who wanted to log it for resources.

Those who want to log the land will say that it can be replenished by simply replanting and harvesting more trees. But is it really that simple? When you log, you are doing more damage than just removing trees. You are displacing wildlife. In some cases, you are driving endangered species out of existence - both plant and animal.

Of course, there has to be a balance. I've always favored setting aside places that we can go to hang out in the "wilderness", such as camp grounds and the like. But this is not true wilderness. You will rarely see bears, wolves, coyotes, or other wild animals in these areas. For the most part, they live in the back country in very isolated areas, and for the most part, you and I will never see these areas and they have not been disturbed. But that may be about to change.

This week, the Bush administration signaled its intent to allow more roads to be built for resource extraction and other commercial development in national forest roadless areas. The decision overturns a Clinton-era rule preventing road-building on such federally managed land.

While these places may be pristine habitat for grizzly bears, mountain lions, and the occasional backpacker or hunter, they are not wilderness. Wilderness - which is strictly off-limits to any roads, development, or motor vehicles - is created by acts of Congress. For this reason, national forest roadless areas may have the potential to be designated as wilderness but they are much more open to the political inclinations of a particular administration or congressional majority.

The process of managing roadless parts of national forests began during the Carter administration with a complex inventory of such lands. While 39 states have some roadless national forest areas, 97 percent of the total - 57 million acres - is concentrated in 12 western states. (source)

The Bush Administration's plan would leave logging and bulldozing up to the Forest Service, with input from governors. This appeals to many of the governors from the states who have wilderness areas because it gives them more control over what will happen to this land and gives the federal government less control. Many of these states that rely on timber and minerals would realize a boost in jobs and state income.

But what about the wilderness? We are dealing with something here that simply cannot be replaced once it's gone. I know that people like Rush Limbaugh would characterize me as being an "environmentalist whacko", and perhaps I am.

"Good stewardship of our public lands must begin with a state partnership because the good people we represent depend on the careful balancing of access, use and preservation of our national forests," says Governor Kempthorne (Idaho).

The problem is, we have rarely exercised "good stewardship". Every time that we have had full access to the land, we have changed it to a place that cannot sustain life for many of the species who life there. And, in many cases, we simply raped the land for the resources we could gather, and left it. We don't have a good track record here.

I'll leave you with this thought.....

The current species living on this earth are disappearing at an accelerating rate. The Earth has always experienced extinction it has had half a billion species on it and of them only 30 million are present today. Statistics from 1990 show that the earth was losing 50 species a day to extinction and it is predicted that by the year 2000 that would be 10 species every hour. The is a huge increase, since the rate during the last 250 million years has only been 1 species per a year. This present phenomenon is caused by only one species - the same species that can stop it - that is humans. - Source

Additional Resources:
Bush outrages conservationists with plans for logging boom
What readers like you are saying
Bush offers new roadless rules

Very interesting reading!

Republicans think they have an advantage in the "mainstream" war on the issue of gay marriage. But they may have tossed it away this week. In proposing a constitutional amendment to define marriage only as "the union of a man and a woman," the GOP's goal was to put Democrats on the cultural defensive and to inspire religious conservatives who form the core of modern the party today. Instead, the White House and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist have exposed divisions among Republicans and, through a well-meaning procedural mistake, allowed the Democratic ticket to wriggle free of the need to cast a potentially harmful vote on the matter.

BOSTON – A judge will decide whether a 1913 state law being used to prevent out-of-state gay couples from getting married in Massachusetts is discriminatory and should be struck down.

An attorney for eight same-sex couples from other states asked Superior Court Judge Carol Ball Tuesday for an injunction blocking the state from enforcing the law, which prohibits marriages in Massachusetts that would be illegal in a couple's home state.

Massachusetts is the only state where same-sex marriages are recognized.

The attorney, Michele Granda, argued that the 1913 statute violates both the U.S. Constitution and state law.

"We're asking the court to tear down the fence of discrimination that's been erected around (the state's) borders," she said.

Assistant Attorney General Peter Sacks countered that the law protected other states' rights to define marriage as they see fit, a principle repeatedly cited by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in its landmark November ruling legalizing gay marriage.

Sacks said that ruling defines marriage as "two willing spouses and an approving state." Since no other state allows gay marriages, that standard is not met anywhere but in Massachusetts, he said.

Ball gave the state until Aug. 2 to file its response. She did not say when she would rule, but noted: "From what I've read so far, it appears the state is applying the law in a procedurally nondiscriminatory manner." (source)

It seems as though this is going practically unnoticed by most people, but this would be devastating if it were to pass. The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing today in an attempt to remove jurisdiction from the federal courts over the Defense of Marriage Act.

In other words, if they succeed, no federal court would be able to rule that DOMA was unconstitutional. And the scary part of this is, unlike a constitutional amendment, this could actually happen soon. It would only need a majority of the House and Senate and the president's signature to take effect!

Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing Wednesday on a measure that would strip federal courts of jurisdiction over the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

The DOMA, as it's called, passed Congress overwhelmingly and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. It defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman under federal law and exempts states from being forced to recognize gay marriages performed in other states.

Some senators argue that DOMA precludes the need for a constitutional ban on gay marriage. But supporters of the Federal Marriage Amendment say federal courts could soon strike down the 1996 law.

Article III, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to remove issues from federal courts' jurisdiction. Unlike a constitutional amendment, such a bill would only need a majority of the House and Senate and the president's signature to take effect. (source)

As the mother of a gay son, I've seen firsthand how cruel and misguided people can be.

Many letters have been sent to the Valley concerning the homosexual menace in California. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people.

I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood since my children were tiny.

My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.

He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called "fag" incessantly, starting when he was 6.

(Washington) The Federal Marriage Amendment will like never make it to a vote in the Senate Republican leaders admitted Tuesday. With the party deeply divided and Democrats almost unanimously opposed, the GOP leadership in the Senate acknowledged it does not have the 67 votes required for passage, nor does it have the 60 votes needed to prevent a threatened Democratic filibuster. [...]

The GOP leadership is now expected Wednesday to postpone indefinitely a vote on the proposed amendment and attempt a procedural vote called cloture, an effort to limit the debate on the issue in an attempt to curtail a threatened Democratic filibuster.

The move would give the leadership a strong induction of how much support they might expect if the amendment actually comes to a vote.

But, political observers on both sides of the issue counted heads in the Senate Tuesday morning and believe there is not even the 60 votes needed for a cloture vote. (source)

I am certainly not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. - Thomas Jefferson

The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men. Marriage is of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival. - Chief Justice Earl Warren, in delivering an opinion declaring Virginia's "tradition" of banning interracial marriage unconstitutional

A Suffolk County judge is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday on a lawsuit filed by eight out-of-state gay couples who are seeking a preliminary injunction against a 1913 law that prohibits marriages that would be unlawful in a couple's home state. (source)

I can understand that the Republicans wish that gays and lesbians would just go away with their wishes to be equal in this country. I can understand the deep seeded hatred they have for us. Most of us grew up with this so we understand these attitudes.

In Washington, it's all very civil. They won't say what they really think about us. They won't use terms such as dyke, faggot, queer, and the like. They will use terms such as sanctity, family, and children to mask what is really going on.

It's no different than beating a queer up behind the high school after a football game. It was all in the name of fun and they were only doing it as a favor for the greater good of society.

Now, the Senate is doing this for the greater good of marriage. I don't even think that many of them believe that. It's a way they can gay bash without calling us faggots. It's a way that they can try to sell to the American people that they are doing something for the greater good of American Society.

At the end of the day, all they have done is to denigrate a segment of society they care nothing about. Personally, I wish they would just come out in more honest terms like the good old days. Then at least, you knew the monster you were dealing with.

All of this aside, what really offends me is that they think gays are so foul that opening up the Constitution for ad hoc editing and revising seems to be no big deal to them, where we are concerned. I suppose they view it as the lesser of two evils. Or perhaps, they don't give a rats ass about the Constitution? As long as we are in there doing the editing, let's slip abortion and interracial marriage in the mix as well. Why not? Hell, let's cover the rest of what they would consider the social ills of America.

Senate Republicans prepared two versions of a constitutional amendment on marriage, unable to agree among themselves on how best to get a vote on a measure that President Bush made an election-year priority for Congress.

The likely outcome is that neither proposal will get a direct vote after Democrats just last week had agreed to allow one.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said there was "great interest" among Republicans for a simpler approach that would add only one line to the U.S. Constitution: "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman."

Democrats rejected Frist's request to hold votes on both it and the original version that included another sentence: "Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any state, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidence thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman."

Proponents of the amendment said they included the second sentence to clarify that state legislatures — but not courts — could still establish laws recognizing civil unions and domestic partnerships between two people of the same sex.

"There's been a considerable amount of debate and a lot of scholarly thought and a lot of constitutional experts that have been approached as far as what would be the best language," said Sen. Wayne Allard, a Colorado Republican, who authored the original version.

Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay political organization, said the last-minute effort to get votes on two different versions reflected a lack of care in drafting the amendment. (source)

This is the battle happening right now as I write this. The Republicans are forcing a vote this week on the Federal Marriage Amendment. It's pure politics and the "experts" are saying that it will not pass. But I don't think we should assume that.

I think the truly sad part of all of this is the realization that in this great country of ours where we boast of being equal to each other, there are many in our society and government who clearly don't want us all to be equal. Whether this amendment passes or not, those attitudes will still be part of the fabric of our democracy.

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday will resume debate on the hot-button election-year issue of gay marriage (search).

The chamber will try to come to an agreement on whether to write into the Constitution that "marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman." Although a vote is likely to take place Wednesday, it's not expected to get enough votes to pass. [...]

"If courts create their own arbitrary definition of marriage as a mere legal contract, and cut marriage off from its cultural, religious and natural roots, then the meaning of marriage is lost and the institution is weakened," the president said. [...]

The Bush campaign denies that it's pushing the issue to pressure Kerry and other Democrats into vote they'd just assume avoid.

Kerry and Edwards have said they will take a break from the campaign trail to return to Washington to vote against the amendment.

The gay-marriage ban's strongest proponents say a constitutional amendment is the only way to prevent federal courts from hearing cases that challenge a federal law disallowing same-sex unions. With such an amendment, they say, a court wouldn't be able to rule that gay marriage is legal. (story)

AIDS has been around for a long time. In this country, since 1980. Don't you think it's time that we stopped being scared about talking about condoms and clean needles?

It's a "rubber", "prophylactic", "condom", whatever you want to call it. It's not as if we are declaring a nuclear strike. It reminds me of when I was a counselor at AIDS Project Hartford. When you are in the field and seeing the effects of AIDS to real people, your tolerance for this kind of BS gets pretty thin. I remember talking to a mother and father about wanting to talk to their teenage daughter who they thought my be having sex, but they were too embarrassed to talk to her. I said, "Well, don't be embarrassed to death."

There's a time for embarrassment, but when you are talking about a way of preventing a disease that kills people, I think we have to put that aside because it's not the hot issue. They should have talked to their daughter immediately about condoms and make sure she is educated on how to protect herself, if she is in fact having sex. Then, later, they can talk to her about abstinence.

The same goes for IV drug users. They need to have clean needles. You can go up to an IV drug user and "just say 'no'" if you wish, but it isn't going to do a hell of a lot of good. You need to make sure that when (not if, because we are way past that point) they shoot up, at least they aren't doing it with a contaminated needle. Then, later, you can talk about how to get them off the drugs and turn their lives around.

We all need to get over talking about these delicate issues, because people are dying. Here's the latest numbers according to UNAIDS:

38 million people worldwide are infected with HIV (25 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa and 7.6 million in Asia)

A record 5 million people were infected last year.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The International AIDS Conference opened Sunday with U.N. chief Kofi Annan challenging world leaders to do more to combat the raging global epidemic and warning that women are increasingly the unwitting victims of the disease.

Three years after world leaders pledged at the United Nations to defeat the epidemic, there has been progress on many fronts, Annan said in a speech to nearly 20,000 policy makers, scientists, activists and celebrities.

"And yet, we are not doing nearly well enough," he said, in the first appearance by the U.N. secretary-general at an International AIDS Conference. [...]

Organizers criticized a U.S. decision to send a pared-down delegation that forced some researchers to cancel presentations, with delegates saying they believed it was a message that the conference wasn’t focused enough on abstinence.

The U.S. stance sends "a strange signal" from the largest donor nation to anti-AIDS efforts, conference co-chairman Joep Lange said. "These ideological games are very counterproductive," he said.

The United States says the reason is cost cutting: It spent $3.6 million on the Barcelona trip. The bill this time is $500,000.

The conference was expected to discuss how best to prevent infections -- with discussions on whether to focus primarily on condoms, as host country Thailand has done, or on abstinence, as favored by President Bush.

"Bush tells lies, condoms save lives," read a placard held by one of an estimated 1,000 activists, many of them HIV positive, who rallied outside the venue to demand increased access to drugs, condoms and clean needles. (source)

Michael: Ben proposed.

Brian: Proposed what?

Michael: Marriage. It's legal for us to get married here in Toronto.

Brian: I believe I read that somewhere. Well I hope while he was down on his knees, he did something useful.

Michael: It was beautiful and heartfelt.

Brian: I'm sure. But you declined of course because deep down, you still love me best.

Michael: Shut up. I didn't give him an answer yet.

Brian: Well what's stopping you? Besides the fact that it's the most pathetic idea I've ever heard.

Michael: It so happens that a lot of gay men want to get married.

Brian: Sorry, have you seen them? And since when did you ever have the least interest in getting married?

Michael: I didn't. But not because I didn't want to, but because I never thought I could. It wasn't a story I told myself like straight kids did you know that someday I'd meet that special person and we'd fall in love and have a big wedding. It was never real for me. And all the stuff started happening in Massachusetts and California and here....

Brian: All the sudden the whole wide world of wonderful opportunities just opened up. A thousand rice and registering at Pottery Barn. Not to mention an acrimonious divorce, an ugly settlement, and having your kid hate you. But listen to me. Are you listening?

Michael: I'm listening!

Brian: We're queer. We don't need marriage. We don't need the sanction of dickless politicians and pederast priests. We fuck who we want to, when we want to. That is our God given right.

Michael: But it's also our God given right to have everything that straight people have. Because we're every bit as much human as they are.

Brian: Well you're a writer. Rewrite the story.

They've lasted considerably longer than the 55 hours pop diva Britney Spears managed to stay married, but a same-sex couple who tied the knot in San Francisco three months ago already is seeking to dissolve their union.

The couple's breakup after more than 10 years together puts the spotlight for the first time on the flip side of same-sex marriage: divorce. [...]

Opponents of gay marriage last week seized on the breakup as a sign that same-sex marriage was doomed, while gay rights activists pointed out that about half of all heterosexual marriages also eventually fail. The breakup also highlights a tricky legal situation that all 3,955 same-sex couples who got married in San Francisco will face in the event they decide to sever ties or one person dies.

Hertz said the couple in question, whom he declined to identify for privacy reasons, own property together and aren't sure how to divide their assets. For married couples, the law is clear. But the rules and guidelines are far more vague and complex for non-married partners. (source)

This is the other side of equality. The fact is, since the marriages of the San Francisco couples are still not honored by the State of California or the Federal Government, they probably will face little difficulty in dissolving the relationship. After all, we are talking about terminating a legal relationship that legally was never honored to begin with. Honored in San Francisco, yes, but it is the State of California that dictates if a marriage is legal or not and will be honored. So far, they have not done that.

Once that happens, it's not going to be all wine and roses for these couples once they separate. I happen to know that California is a community property state. That means that once a divorce is granted, property and assets are split 50% down the middle. They way things are now for gay couples, they can pretty much go their separate ways. Their only argument is with San Francisco which will not have a process of dissolving a marriage since it is the state that does that.

So where does that leave gay couples who married in San Francisco who want to get a divorce? Well, no where. There's no way for them to dissolve their marriage since it's not honored, but, that's not all bad. They can go their separate ways with no worries.

Is this equality? No, it's not. That's the thing about equality. Once we gain the rights and privileges of marriage, we will also gain the headaches and legal hassles of divorce. That's what we want. We want equality. It's a package deal. You didn't think it was all going to be a honeymoon, did you?

What I think is really galling is this:

Opponents of gay marriage last week seized on the breakup as a sign that same-sex marriage was doomed...

It just shows the desperation of the opponents of gay marriage. They know that 50% of all heterosexual marriages end in divorce. Now, we have one documented case of a gay couple wanting to separate, and they are trying to use this to show that this is the end of same sex marriage? Astonishing.

It's refreshing to read that some people can spot the hypocrisy out there among even our friends.

Many people claim to be on our side when it comes to giving us equality in our relationships, as long as it doesn't cost them politically. I see this all the time, even from so-called gay rights groups. They come out and say that we should go for gay marriage, yet they turn around and endorse individuals who are against gay marriage equality, but supports "civil unions". I point to the Human Rights Campaign. I figure I have a license to bitch about this since I give them money every month. They want equality in marriage for everyone. Then what do they do? They endorse the Kerry/Edwards ticket. Both of them have said that they DO NOT SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE.

I sent them a cross letter about this and of course, I got no reply back. That's a hell of way to treat someone who gives you money every month. I may have to re-think that.

You can't have it both ways. It's actually silly how simple this all is. Forget about "gay marriage". Forget about "civil unions". The ONLY question to answer is this:

Are you for EQUALITY or aren't you?

And yes, it is black and white.

For months, the editorial board of The Oregonian has been bending over backwards to foment anger over what we consider to be the "process distraction" here in Multnomah County. Anger which inevitably helped boost the fortunes of the local and state anti-gay forces in their efforts against both Multnomah County commissioners and same-sex marriage. In other words, the editorial board has been engaging in the politics of distraction.

At the same time, they vociferously argued in favor of the proposition that gays and lesbians are crossing some sort of uncrossable line in demanding actual equality, telling them in no uncertain terms that they should be happy enough with civil unions. In other words, the editorial board of The Oregonian has been rather insistently telling the state that same-sex marriage is a horrible thing. [...]

They decry same-sex marriage, lending support to those pushing to change constitutions to ban it. And then they turn around today and try to claim the mantle of enlightened people? Please. (source)

I hope everyone is having a great day. We are off to Northampton, Mass. to look through the shops and have dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

It's amazing how we can have so much snow during the winter and it is so yucky outside and then in summer, all of this is happening. These are a few pictures I took around our home an hour ago. From time to time, I like to poke my head out the door to see what's going on outside.

Below are the flowers I took. They all have their own personality. In fact, I'm going to associate each one with a person.

Reserved, yet dignified and classy. This flower is Jacqueline Kennedy.

There's nothing straight about this flower. In fact, the whole plant has about five of these sprigs covering a four foot square. It's "out there" and makes no apologies about it. This flower is named Elizabeth Taylor.

An ant pollinating Queen Anne's Lace. The ant is named Joan Crawford.

Queen Anne's Lace, delicate and uncomplicated. This flower is named Queen Anne.

Sophisticated, simple, and beautiful. This flower is named Diana, Princess of Wales.

Somewhat gaudy, yet always pleasing in scent, you always know when this flower is around and blooming! This flower is..... me!

I noticed a few interesting items today in the news.

Gay Marriage is dead in New Mexico
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a county clerk's request to issue more marriage licenses to gay couples.

The court, in a one-page order without comment, unanimously denied Victoria Dunlap's request to lift a temporary restraining order that blocks her from handing out same-sex marriage licenses.

No surprise to me here. This stems back a few months ago when New Mexico was handing out marriage licenses to gay couples. It was about the time San Francisco was doing the same. There was an order for the court clerk to stop issuing the marriage licenses. She pursued the issue in court. This was the result of this ruling. So, for the time being, gay marriage is dead in New Mexico.

Church displays controversial sign
Members of the Lighthouse Mexico Church of God gathered today to watch as their pastor hung a controversial sign warning against homosexuality.

It's the second such sign posted by the church; the first one was vandalized.

Reverend Ronald Russell maintains that he is not against homosexual people but is in fact trying to “help them.”

He believes they will be condemned to hell.

That is why he says that when his first sign was vandalized, he had a second one made up – one that he feels is less offensive.

His said if he did not display the sign, he would have failed as a religious educator.

Personally, I don't really care what they put up. I don't go to the church and I think they are just showing their ignorance. If it's what they believe, they can knock themselves out, as long as they don't incite violence against others.

Of course, there always seems to be a few nuts out there who will read "Gay is Not OK!" and think that it is a license to go out and do harm to gays. Then the church will turn around and say, "Oh no! We weren't suggesting that!" Or, they'll say something like, "...he wasn't even a member of our church", like that gets them off the hook. I've seen it happen time after time.

On a somewhat related note.... many of you know that I vacation in Ogunquit, Maine. Well, not too far from where I stay is a Church of Christ. This particular church is very conservative, although I'm not sure all are. At any rate, I went to Ogunquit off-season once, and found a very homophobic sign in front of their church saying that "gays are going to hell", etc.

I then went up a few months later when it was in-season. The sign had been taken down, I imagine so all the gay tourists wouldn't see it. It's amazing the power that money has.

I remember as a young man watching the movie Ordinary People. In the movie, towards the end, the boy's mother leaves his father. The boy's father looks at his son and says, "Don't put too much stock in people. They'll disappoint you." It's true. Most people I've come across in life have been a disappointment to me. The movie had a strong impression on me because at the time I saw it, I was going through a lot of the same feelings the boy in the movie was going through.

At the time I watched that movie, I had moved to San Mateo, California from Idaho, with Kent. Kent was attending Stanford University in Palo Alto. I got a job working for the College of Notre Dame in Belmont California.

It was a Catholic school. I was very closeted at the time and was therefore able to keep my job at the school. It also offered me some flexibility in the hours I worked. I was studying to be a musician at the time. It allowed me to practice during some mornings and not show up for work until 10:00am. In return for this, I had to do my job, of course, and when controversial subjects such as gay rights or abortion came up, I kept my mouth shut.

It was during this time that San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Supervisor Dan White. Harvey, being an openly gay man, came up in the course of discussion among the staff at the college. Most felt that it was terrible that the Mayor was killed, but others felt that Harvey's life was not worth so much because he was a homosexual. I said nothing. One woman that I worked with who was married with three kids said with disgust, "Well, I'm sure that both men wanted to keep their lives! What White did was wrong!" I was thankful that she had the courage to say what I could not say. She could get away with saying it because she was Catholic and obviously not a homosexual. I didn't want to loose my job because we both needed this job.

I was also deeply depressed at the time. My ego was non-existent. I was even wondering if there was a reason for going on. I couldn't be myself. I hated what I was. I remember going to the library at the college. All the books dealing with homosexuality were on the top shelves so you had to ask to see them, and judging from the titles that I could see, none of them painted homosexuality in a good light. Also, I noticed that just being in that section that people were looking at me in a funny way.

Finally, I left that section. I went to another section dealing with depression. I remember checking this book out and I remember the exact title, because the title described exactly how I was feeling. The title was "Hopelessness". I checked it out, and as I was leaving, the girl behind the counter who was a student looked at me and said, "I hope it gets better." I don't know why she said that to me, unless I was wearing the emotion on my face. I responded, "I don't think this is going to get better. She replied, "I'm sorry." I left.

I would sit in their garden which was very nice, for hours, wondering what my future would be, if I had one. I would meditate and tell myself that I had some purpose in the world and that despite being homosexual, my life was worth living, although, I didn't honestly believe that. That was the place I was in. Some student on campus once said, "Homosexuals are going to hell." I blurted out without thinking that I might give away my cover, as though I knew what I was talking about, "Perhaps they are already living in Hell on this earth."

That was what life was like then, not only for me, but many young gay people, and it wasn't that long ago. The suicide rate was high, and no one really cared because we were hated. But it was a different kind of hate. It's the kind that Oscar Wilde experienced. It was the "love that dare not speak it's name". Everyone despised it and in their silence and reluctance to talk about what "those people" were going through, it only added to the disgust that people felt for homosexuals. You think those days are gone? Have you looked lately at the political landscape in places like Georgia, Ohio, Kansas, Idaho, Missouri, Virginia, just to name a few places in this country?

We moved to San Francisco. I realized that the only way I could live was to feel better about myself. And, in San Francisco, I was around people like myself - outcasts from society. Many had been kicked out of their homes. Many fled to San Francisco for safety; safety from their families and society. Many just wanted to have people around who cared and were going through the same thing. It was the beginning of an awakening for me. I started to learn who and what I was. I started to learn that the true evil wasn't me. The true evil was ignorance and the lack of willingness to learn from others.

Today I tell young people who are depressed and wanting to give up that I do understand. I also understand that in the place they are at, my words do little for them. They are consumed with self-hatred and depression. I can only tell them, that if they will give life a chance, it can be very good. I'm glad I didn't give up. I would have missed so much.

Today, I still get depressed at times. The difference from today and when I was young, is that the depression isn't consuming. It is also a different kind of depression. I get depressed because people cannot see us for what we are. They still want to hold on to old beliefs about our community. You know, they used to say that homosexuals lacked the ability to form lasting relationships, as though it was a mental illness. Many still think it is a mental illness. But today, we are in a fight for gay marriage. Now, their arguments have changed. They no longer say that we are unable to form lasting relationships, they now say that the "sanctity of marriage" must be protected. If I were a preacher, I would say something along these lines:

It seems to me that we tell homosexuals that they are unable to form lasting relationships, and when they do, we tell them that they shouldn't form lasting relationships. It seems to me that homosexuals are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

So where are we at today? Today, we are claiming what is ours. We are claiming our slice of the pie. People are responding, "how dare they?". We dare to do this because people like me are sick and tired of being.... sick and tired. We are sick of the crap we have been fed all our lives to keep us down. We are sick of feeling like we are sick. We are sick of others making us feel like we are less for their own gain, morally and politically.

We are exposing the truth of what we are and what we want. We want equality. Absolutely nothing less will be adequate. Not just for marriage. We want to feel whole. We want to feel like this is our life too, this is our nation, this is our world. We love our friends, we are committed to our partners, we are committed to our families, and we are not only going to show the world what we are, but we are going to demand that the world honors that.

We do this for ourselves. But mainly, we do it so that the young, frightened people who come after us won't have to feel that suicide, depression, and self loathing is going to consume their lives. They need to know that they do not have to let their souls suffer at the hands of ignorant fools who care nothing for them.

There is so much more to life. It's time to seize what is rightfully ours! IT'S TIME TO LIVE!

The state-by-state push for constitutional bans on same-sex marriage is moving forward in Arkansas, Michigan, Montana and Oregon, where ballot initiative groups appear to have collected far more than enough signatures to place amendments before voters in November.

Despite legal challenges by gay rights supporters designed to delay signature-gathering efforts and invalidate petitions, same-sex marriage foes submitted record numbers of signatures in these states. If the petitions are validated by state election officials, it will bring to eleven the total number of states that will vote on constitutional gay marriage bans this fall.

Arkansas, Michigan and Oregon are considered battleground states in the upcoming presidential election, prompting charges that conservatives are using the gay marriage debate as a wedge issue to inflame their base and get out the vote in November. (source)

The Bush Republicans have made it clear they believe that God is on their side, blessing everything from the war in Iraq to the president's multitrillion-dollar tax cuts to the destruction of the environment. Edwards' central message of fairness and economic justice puts the question in play: Which is the true political morality? Opposing gay rights and abortion or heeding the Biblical admonition, "We shall be judged by what we do for the least among us"? (source)

I went to Subway for lunch today. Ordered my sandwich, and picked up the Hartford Advocate. The person making the sandwich looked at me and said, "I was thinking this a few days ago and never told you, but you have a very friendly face." I said, "Thank you. That's the nicest thing anyone has said to me all week." I then went to my table with an after thought of how strange that comment was. All I could think of was Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction!

I'm reading the Hartford Advocate, and I came across this letter about a man who was imprisoned for child molestation. I will never put myself in a position of being with a child alone.

When I was a child, I would baby sit my nephew occasionally when he was a baby. When I was in college, I visited my brother and his wife. By that time they had suspected that I was gay. The evening I stayed with them, my brother pulled me aside and asked me if I was a "homosexual". I told him I was. That was all fine, but when I stayed overnight with them, they put me in my nephew's room. He had a bunk bed and I slept on the bottom.

During the night, he rolled over and I heard this loud bell ring. I got up to see what it was. It turned out that he had a bell tied to his leg so that if there was any movement, it would be heard. He continued sleeping, but the door opened, and my brother's wife opened the door and asked, "What's going on in here?" I asked why he had a bell on his leg. She said nothing. Me, being naive as I was, didn't even think of what was really going on.

She was concerned about him being around me because of me being gay. My brother told me that was the reason. I never went back there again.

It's very unfortunate, but I did learn something from that incident. That is, never be around other people's kids, not even those related to you without others present, especially if you are gay. A lot of people still think we are child molesters. Yes, I know... it's very dated and stereotypical to say that. But, it's true. And is it worth the risk?

Look at this article. This man isn't even gay, and look at what happened to him. If you are accused, it will be your word against a child’s.

After 13 wrongful years in prison and five more detained as a "violent sexual predator," James Rodriguez, 43, finally realized last year that he would have to start lying and "confess" to molesting those two boys in the 1980s and seek "rehabilitation." Otherwise, California's Atascadero State Hospital would never release him. He told an Associated Press reporter that he sought advice from the hospital's pedophiles on what to say and how to act, and he finally convinced doctors that he was, indeed, so very remorseful for his "attraction to kids." Then, as he was set for a hearing in April, his two "victims" finally recanted, telling officials that they had made up the whole thing. (source)

I don't know what Mr. Rodriguez will do about this situation, but I know what I'd do. I would hire a good lawyer, and I would try to show the two "victims" the other side of the legal system.

Mr. Rodriguez is entitled to something for the 13 years of his life he gave up because of the lies of these two "victims". I don't want to dwell on it, but I hate to think of what else may have happened to Mr. Rodriguez in prison. Child molesters are at the bottom of the food chain there.

If there's one thing the internet has done for the world is to make it smaller. It's much easier for people to communicate now.

On June 28, 2004, I posted an article entitled "Seeing the Other Side of Discrimination".

The article concerns a straight couple who is suing to obtain a marriage license from Oregon's Benton County (more information). The country decided to stop issuing any marriage licenses at all, until there is a statewide resolution to the question of whether gay couples should be allowed to marry legally in Oregon.

The couple is Orin Nusbaum and Amanda Fanger. My argument in the article was that they could easily go somewhere else to get their marriage license, unlike gay couples. In the article, Orin Nusbaum said, "It's a matter of principle. We felt that somebody should step up to the plate."

Now that you have the background, this is what an anonymous user left on the forum:

I'm not sure if this is of any interest to anyone that might read this, but I'm certainly intrigued by it: I have known Amanda Fanger for 5 years. A few days ago I spoke to her about the issue of her and her fiancé suing Benton County. When I asked her about it, she spoke very nonchalantly. She told me that the only reason they're filing the lawsuit is because it's not their money (a group of people raised money for the lawsuit and asked Orin and Amanda to use their situation to file the lawsuit) and they "might even get a marriage out of it if [they're] lucky." They don't have strong feelings on the issue. Amanda said that they were simply willing to help those that do. I think that sheds a whole new light on this particular issue, and I thought it might be an important thing to share.

As a disclaimer, I should say that the person who left this chose to remain anonymous, which is totally allowed in the forums. As such, I have no way of verifying if this is true or not.

If it is true, it shows the extent some will go to just to prove a point at our expense. And what would be the motivation of Orin Nusbaum and Amanda Fanger in all of this? A free marriage license? That would cost what, $30? It wouldn't seem to be "a matter of principle", as Mr. Nusbaum stated in the story.

Orin Nusbaum and Amanda Fanger, if you read this and want to add your side of the story, feel free to.

Well, I guess this is one way to get out of paying the price of molesting children.

The archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, just as the civil trials of two priests accused of sexual abuse were set to begin, Archbishop John Vlazny announced. This will effectively put the trials on hold unless a federal bankruptcy judge decides to let them proceed.

It's unbelievable to me how crass this church can be. The Pope can say that gay people are "intrinsically evil", yet his church knowingly has priests who have and who are molesting children and they say nothing. They deal with this problem by shifting the priests around from parish to parish so it won't be noticed.

And even now, in an effort to put a stop to these trials, they declare bankruptcy. If you've ever visited the Vatican, you know that this is not a church without money.

James Devereaux -- the plaintiff in one of the lawsuits that had been set for trial Tuesday -- spoke to reporters outside the Portland courthouse Tuesday morning. His case involves the Rev. Maurice Grammond, who was accused of molesting more than 50 boys and who died two years ago.

"For me, it was like having sex with God," said Devereaux -- now a middle-aged adult. "I knew I had committed the ultimate sin and I was doomed. Many years later, I learned that many parents had warned the archdiocese through the years that this priest was raping and molesting boys throughout Oregon. The archdiocese did nothing to protect those children or warn their parents."

"Today, the archdiocese filed bankruptcy, but they have been morally bankrupt my entire life," Devereaux said. "We will continue our fight to finally get the archdiocese to accept the sin of their crimes."

Asked about the archbishop's claim that the church did not have the money to settle the cases, Slader, Devereaux's lawyer, said, "The bishop has not begun to touch his pot. He is lying." (source)

"We treat them as pariahs and push them outside our communities. We make them doubt that they too are children of God - and this must be nearly the ultimate blasphemy. We blame them for what they are."

"Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual monogamous relationship includes the physical, the touching, embracing, kissing, the genital act - the totality of our love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual?"

- Desmond Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town and a Nobel Peace Price winner

Story

Another hate crime has happened in Kentucky. Some feel that it has started because on Election Day citizens will vote on a constitutional amendment which would ban same sex marriages in the commonwealth.

At least it was reported as a hate crime and no one was killed. And, they have the bashers in custody and it sounds like the police are taking it seriously.

The terrible irony in all of this is that Matthew Ashcraft, the man he brutalized for being a "faggot", is a straight man who was there with some of his gay friends. Matthew saw the attack about to happen and tried to stop it.

A 38-year-old man, who Newport police say levied the city's second brutal hate-motivated beating this year outside a Monmouth Street gay bar, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Thursday in Campbell District Court on one count of first-degree assault.

Police say Steven Ard (pictured), of Dayton Street in Newport, attacked 19-year-old Matthew Ashcraft with a metal baseball bat just before 11 p.m. June 26 outside Woolly's on Monmouth.

Witnesses said Ashcraft, of Independence, was beaten when he tried to stop Ard from attacking another man leaving the bar that Saturday night.

Leon Hughes said he had just stepped out of Woolly's about 10:30 p.m. to take the bar's golden retriever, Maggie, for a walk, when two men came toward him after they exited Taylor's Landing Tavern next door.

"They said, 'Come here, faggot! Why don't you and your little faggot dog come here?'" Hughes recalled. "Then he started coming closer and charged me. He hit me in the ribs and the next thing you know, Matt and his friends were there. Matt was trying to get them off me basically." [...]

According to Ard's arrest citation, as a result of the attack Ashcraft suffered a fractured skull, cranial bleeding and a blood clot on his brain -- all classified as potentially "life-threatening" conditions. (source)

I've been a bit at a loss at times to understand why people aren't more logical. I've seen so many arguments from people who are intelligent and seem to talk logically, but they never quite complete their logical argument. It gets buried in emotional issues or stereotypes.

Take this example. This is from a February 20, 2004 entry from boortz.com concerning gay marriage. He actually makes some good points about the dangers of "federalism", but then he gets to this:

AND AS FOR YOU GAY-RIGHTS ADVOCATES.

You might have a variety of reasons for wanting to push this gay marriage concept, but equal protection under the law certainly isn't one of them. I, as a straight male, do not have one single right under the law that you don't also enjoy. Not one.

You are right. You don't have "one", you have well over 1,500 rights afforded to you by your state and federal government that I don't have, just by your ability to enter into a marriage that is honored by those governments. I could list many of them, but it would be a waste of my time, because you still wouldn't get it. Well, ok I will list a few.

You say that you aren't free to marry your gay lover? Well, guess what. I'm not free to marry another man either. Same rights. Equal protection. All single men are free to marry single women. All single women are free to marry single men. Men are not free to marry men .. ditto for women. Same rights. Equal protection.

No. This is where you miss the point. I am not able to marry my lover, as you pointed out. It just so happens that the person you married is a woman. That was very convenient for you, since that is the person you love and want to spend the rest of your life with. It would be equal protection and equal rights if I could marry the person I love and want to spend the rest of my life with, but I can't. Now, that's not so hard to understand, is it?

The gay community has spent years and frankly gone through a bit of hell trying to gain a measure of acceptance in American society. It's a shame to see this good will being expended on this ridiculous gay marriage controversy. You're not doing yourselves any favors here.

"Ridiculous gay marriage controversy"! I'll tell you what. Let's strip your marriage of all the rights and privileges you enjoy every day WITHOUT EVER THINKING ABOUT IT, and we'll call it even. Deal?

This is not a ridiculous controversy, as you put it. It is the only way for gay couples to move forward and establish our relationships with those who mean most to us in life. But more than that, we need this because I do not want to be a second class citizen for the rest of my life. I guess you have to be a second class citizen to conceptualize what it's like and to understand it, apparently.

For those of you who have wanted this recipe for the longest time, this post is for you! Now you can also make the award-winning "Kitty Litter Cake"! Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1 (18.25 ounce) package German chocolate cake mix
1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
1 (12 ounce) package vanilla sandwich cookies
3 drops green food coloring
1 (12 ounce) package tootsie rolls

Directions

1 Prepare cake mixes and bake according to package directions (any size pan).

2 Prepare pudding according to package directions and chill until ready to assemble.

3 Crumble sandwich cookies in small batches in a food processor, scraping often. Set aside all but 1/4 cup. To the 1/4 cup add a few drops of green food coloring and mix.

4 When cakes are cooled to room temperature, crumble them into a large bowl. Toss with 1/2 of the remaining cookie crumbs, and the chilled pudding. You probably won't need all of the pudding, you want the cake to be just moist, not soggy.

5 Line kitty litter box with the kitty litter liner. Put cake mixture into box.

6 Put half of the unwrapped tootsie rolls in a microwave safe dish and heat until softened. Shape the ends so that they are no longer blunt, and curve the tootsie rolls slightly. Bury tootsie rolls randomly in the cake and sprinkle with half of the remaining cookie crumbs. Sprinkle a small amount of the green colored cookie crumbs lightly over the top.

7 Heat 3 or 4 of the tootsie rolls in the microwave until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle lightly with some of the green cookie crumbs. Heat the remaining tootsie rolls until pliable and shape as before. Spread all but one randomly over top of cake mixture. Sprinkle with any remaining cookie crumbs. Hang the remaining tootsie roll over side of litter box and sprinkle with a few green cookie crumbs. Serve with the pooper scooper for a gross Halloween dessert.

I love my job, but I think I would love retirement even more. My job is ok, but a new one would be refreshing. It's strange. I took Friday off, to get a four day weekend over the fourth. I didn't really do much Friday. Slept in until 8:00am (my usual time is 5:30). I showered and spent a bit of time catching up on the world on the internet, then doing some yard work. Kent was at work. It was quiet.

Around noon, I decided to take off towards the mall. I stopped at Panera for a half sandwich and a bowl of soup. I finished lunch, and for the next two hours surfed the web with their FREE wireless internet. The manager came over and asked how I was able to surf on their network without their equipment to hook me up. I explained to him that my Sony Vaio has a wireless card and will jump on to any wireless network it can find. He seemed surprised, but I showed him some web pages and he went away in astonishment.

Then a strange thing happened. This middle-aged man came up to the table next to me and sat down. He kept looking over at me as a surfed away. Finally, he moved a bit closer to where I was. He asked, "What kind of computer is that?" I told him. He asked, "You are on the internet?" I said I was. He asked what I did for a living. I told him. He asked, "Are you available for work or happy where you are?" That got my attention.

I'm not unhappy where I am. I've been there for sixteen years, but I know I could do with a change. I also am fully aware that I am a middle aged man working in an industry that views "old age" as reaching forty. It's unfortunate, but in the technology industry, there is a lot of age discrimination. No one will say that and it's very hard to prove, but it's there in full force.

I'm comfortable where I am at. The weird thing is, he was only asking me if I was "available" for work, and I was threatened by that. I'm sure I looked a bit surprised. But, there was a little voice in me that said, "Keep your options open Bill....". So, he gave me his business card. He wants to meet and talk. I guess that couldn't hurt. He said I could work at home, since the work is internet based. I'm sure I wouldn't get paid as well. But, I don't know if that's such an issue with me. I had actually thought about retiring around age 55. I don't know if I will fully retire though. I can see doing a job on the internet part time after I retire, more for fun than anything else. And, to keep my mind sharp.

This afternoon, I go to get my crown put on my tooth. Hopefully, this will be the right one. Let's see, this will make the fifth time I've gone back to the dentist for this same crown. At what point to they start paying me, at least for my gas money?

Speaking of the medical profession (I guess that includes dentists), I read this bazaar and actually frightening incident that happened to this gay man. On February 16, 2003, Gregory Bradford was attacked outside a bar in Denver. His skull was cracked and he was taken by paramedics to the Denver Health emergency room, unconscious and delusional.

While transporting him to the hospital, paramedics discovered his small digital camera in his pocket. Bradford said, "I had just gotten it for Christmas. It was a little bitty pocket digital." The camera only contained photos of him with his family, some friends, and some photos taken at the bar.

After being home recovering from the incident, Bradford looked through the photos on his camera. What he saw was horrific. While he was unconscious, a hospital employee pushed Bradford's blanket aside and photographed Bradford's genitals with Bradford's digital camera.

"I was mortified," he wrote in the police report. And, he wondered, "what else did they do?"

"The picture reveals a lot to the imagination of what may have happened to me," Bradford wrote. "There are bloody latex gloves on me in the picture. My genitals were the center point of the picture and I was there for a head injury???"

Last summer, about five months after the incident, Denver Health fired two employees who allegedly used Bradford's camera, hospital officials said.

Bradford, who also reported the incident to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in July 2003, has hired attorney Dan Caplis.

Caplis has filed notice of intent to sue Denver Health, saying Bradford's civil rights were violated, he said Tuesday. [...]

A bedside nurse overheard medics saying they had viewed the private photos and were "adding another one to his album," according to a report issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. That report confirmed that the photo "appeared to be graphic and sexually explicit with no medical necessity." (source)

Related Story: EMTs duck radar

Now you know why I hate hospitals. Anything can happen. Gregory Bradford was bashed that night at the bar and he was violated once again by the people who he trusted with his life. What's the world coming to?

We spent the Fourth of July traveling around a bit. We went to the UCONN greenhouse to see if the Titan Arum was blooming. The plant if from Sumatra. It's also known as the corpse flower because when it blooms it has the aroma of rotting meat. This is to attract flies, beetles, and "sweat bees", that natively pollinate the flower. But, I'll have more pictured dedicated that that when it flowers, probably with it's own photo album.

After the greenhouse, we went to Penwood State Park (border between Bloomfield and Simsbury, Connecticut. The pictures below are just a few from these trips.

A Black-eye Susan in our front wildflower bed

Coriopsis in our front flower bed.

Clematis blossom climbing on our mailbox.

One of the many exotic flowering plants in the UCONN Greenhouse.

Close-up of flowering vine, above.

One of the many exotic flowering plants in the UCONN Greenhouse.

Mourning Cloak butterfly, taken in Penwood State Park, Connecticut

View over the Farmington River Valley at the overlook, Penwood State Park, Connecticut

We are on our way out for the day. We are taking a day hike to a state park, and will have lunch on the way. I'm sure I'll have some pictures I'll take to memorialize the day.

It's a quiet day here in Coventry and at our home. We went to breakfast, and just got home. We had discussed taking off for New York City for celebrations, museums, and the like. We would stay somewhere in the city and come home tomorrow. It takes a lot of energy to do New York City. We opted instead, to just take a quiet day, and go on a day hike.

I'm reminded of the troops we have in Iraq today, and the sacrifice they are making. I'm hoping for their safety on our Independence Day and that our enemies won't use this day for an attack upon them. I hope they know that a lot of Americans are thinking of them today.

I spotted this article and it just brought home to me what a dangerous job they have.

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq -- No one here wants fireworks this July Fourth. They've heard plenty.

"It sounded like 1,000 firecrackers going off in a can," said Jonathan Garrison, 29, describing a recent firefight between Marines and insurgents near Fallujah. "We weren't sure whether it was outgoing or incoming," added Garrison, an equipment operator first class in Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74 from Gulfport, Miss.

The noise of battle has lessened over the past 10 days, but U.S. troops wonder whether insurgents will choose America's Independence Day to launch an attack.

July Fourth will be much like any other Sunday in Camp Fallujah. Most troops have duties.

"I'll celebrate when I get home," said Staff Sgt. Clinton Plaster of Washington state. (source)

There's a place my family used to go when I was a kid. It's a place we went to be happy, as a family, my mother, my stepfather, and myself. We were so happy. We had each other.

This place we would go is called Sagehen Reservoir, in Idaho. We would leave on Friday, and come home Sunday. I don't remember much about the reservoir. I remember it taking what seemed like forever to get there. We would drive on a dirt road that went along farms, and valleys, and then a high cliff just before we got there. I remember that especially because I kept thinking about what would happen to us if we went off the road. At the bottom of the cliff, several hundred feet down, was a river, that I suppose flowed out of the reservoir. We didn't speak much getting there. We all wanted it to be a nice trip. We had a camper that we used. It was nothing special. It was on a pick up. It had two beds and could hold three to four people.

We got there safely, and set up camp. That consisted of not much really. I believe turning on the gas for the stove and heater was about it. My stepfather did all of that. This was up in the Idaho mountains and it did tend to get cold at night. He came in and we talked for awhile.

He would talk to me, but I could always tell that he didn't like me. He would make little comments here and there about how he didn't think I liked girls, in a joking way. I was a fifteen year old boy. I didn't process his insults too much, other than my knowing that he didn't like me. I remember knocking on their bedroom door once. He said, "Come in." I entered. They were in bed. I asked if I could have my allowance early because a friend of mine wanted to go to see a movie, and I needed it to buy my ticket. He gave me my allowance, which consisted of $2.50 a week. He was naked. It was actually the first time I saw him naked. I looked away and he said while looking down at his penis, "I suppose you want this, don't you?" I was embarrassed. I took my money from his hand and ran out of the room. I think it was actually the first time that I had seen a man naked. I didn't know what to make of it.

Camp was set up, and as the sun was setting, Mom was getting dinner ready. She asked me to get something out of one of the cupboards. I got up and reached for the handle on the cupboard. My stepfather was standing in front of it. I tried to open it but it was stuck. Suddenly, it did open and it nicked my stepfather's glasses. With that, he retracted his arm, he swung at me. The back of his hand struck my face. I fell backwards, hitting the door to the camper. It swung open and I fell out onto the ground, knocking the breath out of my body. He came to the door and screamed at me, "And don't come back in!" I was shaking and in shock. I'll I could say was, "I'm sorry." It all happened so fast. I never saw any of them coming. Not this one, and not the others. And there were so many others. They were all the same pattern. I would do something to set it off. I didn't mean to, but it was mostly my fault. I would later apologize to him and would say, "I'll try to be better. I promise I'll try to be a better son." It was never good enough.

As I lay there on the ground, I realized that I had just missed a pine tree that I landed next to. I was thinking that I was lucky that I missed the tree. Then, I felt the taste of blood in my mouth. I hate that taste. It tastes like iron. I realized that one of my teeth was knocked loose and the blood was from my lip being cut by the tooth. I remember being upset that I would have to go in to see the dentist when I got home. Would I have enough money from my allowance for the dentist, or maybe I could just pull the tooth out myself? My brother and sister had such expenses covered for them. That was before he came along. He had a thing about making sure I paid for all of my expenses myself. Kind of Joan Crawford-ish, I suppose. But I was only 15 years old. I'm not complaining, mind you. It made me tough to face what I had to endure later; things that I would never be able to imagine at my young age. It wasn't that I didn't have money. My father died with I was six years old. I received around $100 a month from his Social Security check, but I always had to sign it over to my stepfather. He would put it into his account, along with his other money for safe keeping for me and Mom. I would get $2.50 a week from it.

I got up off the ground after he slammed the door to the camper. There was no dinner for me that night. They continued to fight throughout the evening, then it got quiet. Mom threw a blanket out on the ground, I'm sure without his knowledge. I think she was afraid of him getting angry again. I understood. I tried to get into the cab of the pickup, but he had locked the doors. Night came. I had no matches to start a fire. I could smell the propane gas burning from the furnace inside. I never thought about what spent propane gas smelled like until that time. When your mind has time to think on different things, it will take a lot of time and energy devoting itself to analysis of just about anything. My mind went from thinking about the smell of the expended propane to wondering what animals would be wondering around at night in the woods. I could hear things moving as night set in. Then, it was quiet. It was very very quiet.

After awhile I could hear them getting ready to go to bed. I waited until it was quiet, and I went to the door, quietly, to open it. It was locked. When I thought things were as bad as they were going to get, it started raining. We had a thunderstorm and a rained heavily. I crawled underneath the truck for shelter and wrapped the blanket around me. It was cold. It was so cold. It was a good thing I didn't know about hypothermia then because it would have just been one more thing on my mind.

It stopped raining mid-morning, around two in the morning I would guess. Perhaps later. I lost track of time. I remember seeing the first signs of sunlight through the trees and being relieved that soon it would be warmer. The air smelled so clean. An hour or so later, I could hear activity in the camper. They were getting up. I wondered if I would be invited in for breakfast. I was so hungry.

Breakfast didn't happen. They got up. My stepfather gathered everything up quickly. He was mad again. I didn't know if he was still mad at me, or if this was new. I stayed out of his way. I said nothing. I asked my Mom what was going on. She told me, "We are going home." He took a Percodan. He took them often throughout the day for back pain. I always welcomed seeing him take them because it made things better for us. I would sneak some from time to time. It made me feel better inside about my world, about my existence. It made it so I could be in a nice place, at least for awhile, even if it wasn't real.

After everything was packed up, we got in the pickup, again not saying anything. As we left Sagehen, he drove like a madman. When we got to the canyon where the cliff was, I thought that we may go off the edge because the truck was skidding around the corners. My mom turned to him and said, "If you are going to drive like this, stop the car and let Bill and me out." With that, he stepped on the brake bringing the car to a halt. He looked at her and said, "Get out." The look on my mother's face was disbelief. I could see her weighing the risk of staying in the picking, or waiting for someone to come by who could help us. There was no one else. It was off-season. We had been the only people in the campground all night long. We were alone. We stayed in the pickup, because we both knew he would leave us behind, and say nothing to anyone on where we were.

We got home a couple of hours later. I went to my room and shut the door, only coming out for meals, and only spoke when spoken to. I took one of his pills. Life was back to normal. We were happy again.

I have to give the military credit for one thing. They seem to be willing to prosecute soldiers who have committed crimes against Iraqi citizens, and not sweep it unter the carpet.

I'm sure a lot of horrible things happen in war. And, truth be known, there are probably a lot of things that we would consider to be autrocities that we did against the Iraqi people that we will never hear about.

This incident involves U.S. soldiers forcing two Iraqis into the Tigris River in the Iraqi city of Samarra. Their crime; breaking curfew. One of the Iraqis paid with his life when he drowned in the river because he could not swim.

WASHINGTON -- The Army charged three soldiers with manslaughter and a fourth with assault, alleging that they forced two Iraqi detainees to jump into the Tigris River last January.

Lieutenant Jack M. Saville, Sergeant First Class Tracy E. Perkins, and Sergeant Reggie Martinez of the Fourth Infantry Division were charged with manslaughter, assault, and making false statements. The fourth soldier, Specialist Terry Bowman, was charged with assault. Saville and Perkins also face charges of conspiracy, making false statements, and obstruction of justice.

Documents released by the Army name several superior officers, including the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Nate Sassaman, as unindicted coconspirators. Sassaman has been one of the highest-profile young officers in the Army for years because he quarterbacked West Point's football team to its first bowl game, the 1984 Cherry Bowl against Michigan State University.

It marks the first time Army troops who served in Iraq have been charged with manslaughter or murder in connection with the handling of detainees. But other charges have previously been brought against other soldiers and reservists involving the treatment of Iraqi detainees.

According to the Army, Saville, a West Point graduate from Virginia, ordered his subordinates on the night of Jan. 3 to drive two Iraqi detainees to a bridge over the Tigris River in the Iraqi city of Samarra, in the Sunni Triangle. Saville, 24, then ordered his men to push the two detainees into the river as punishment for breaking curfew. One of the Iraqis drowned, the Army said.

The Independent newspaper of Britain interviewed the surviving detainee, identified as Marwan Fadhil. He said the soldiers were laughing when they forced them into the river. He said his cousin, Zeidun Fadhil, drowned because he could not swim. [...]

Saville faces up to 26 years in prison. Perkins, a veteran of 13 years in the Army from Scott City, Mo., faces an equal amount. Martinez, a five-year veteran from New York City, faces up to 15 years. The fourth soldier, Bowman, could get a maximum of five years. (source)

In my opinion, gays and lesbians should be put in some type of mental institute instead of having a law like this passed for them. - George County (Mississippi) Judge Connie Glenn Wilkerson

Wilkerson, 65, has served as justice court judge for seven years. In 2002, the Mississippi Supreme Court amended the state's Code of Judicial Conduct to specifically call on judges to avoid "expressions of bias or prejudice,'' including demeaning remarks based on "sexual orientation.''

Wilkerson, who has served as a justice court judge for eight years, said in 2002 the letter was in response to a news story about the killing in San Francisco of Dianne Whipple by two dogs.

Whipple's lesbian partner was suing the dog's owners and Wilkerson said he was expressing his opinion about a California law that grants partners the same right to sue as spouses or family members.

Lambda Legal filed an ethics complaint with the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance. Following an investigation the commission charged Wilkerson with willful misconduct and breaching the canons of the Code of Judicial Conduct of Mississippi. The commission asked the state Supreme Court to sanction Wilkerson for his statements.

But, in a 5-2 decision, the high court chose not to sanction said Wilkerson was only exercising his First Amendment rights. (source)

Everyone is entitled to their personal opinion, even judges. But, if you were going before this judge on a legal matter, and you happened to be a gay couple, do you think he could be impartial? That's the real question.

Below is the full text of Judge Wilkerson’s letter in the George County Times back in 2002:

Dear Editor:

I got sick on my stomach today as I read the (AP) news story on the Dog attack on the front page of THE MISSISSIPPI PRESS and had to respond! AMERICA IS IN TROUBLE!

I never thought that we would see the day when such would be here in AMERICA.

The last verse of chapter one of the book of Romans in our HOLY BIBLE is my reason for responding and sounding the alarm to this. You need to know as I know that God in Heaven is not pleased with this, and I am sounding the alarm that I, for one, am against it and want our LORD to see and hear me say I am against it.

I am sorry that the California Legislature enacted a law granting gay partners the same right to sue as spouses or family members. Also, that Hawaii and Vermont have enacted such a law, too. In my opinion, gays and lesbians should be put in some type of a mental institute instead of having a law like this passed for them.

I don’t know, but I believe if we vote for folks that are for this we have to stand in the judgment of GOD the same as them. I am thankful for our Legislators and pray for wisdom for them, on such unbelievable legislation as this. May GOD bless each one of them in JESUS CHRIST’s name I pray!

Thank you for printing this.
Connie Glenn Wilkerson

Other sources

In the last five years the military has fired around 1,000 gay service members with skills sorely needed in Iraq, according to a UPI analysis.

The military next week will recall from their civilian lives some 5,600 soldiers to fill out the ranks of 141,000 soldiers serving in Iraq. The service is calling in those former soldiers who have very specific skills tailor made for the Iraq conflict -- food service, truck driving, auto repair, combat engineers, administration specialist, paralegal, healthcare and infantry. It is the largest mobilization of the Individual Ready Reserve in two decades.

However, according to numbers provided by the Army and by the Defense Department, at least 948 gay former service members with the very same specialties have been forced out of the military under the don't ask-don't tell policy that bars homosexuals from serving. Not all of the 948 are from the Army.

For instance, the Army is seeking 790 motor transport operators -- truck drivers -- to pull a year's duty in Iraq. At least 113 military truck drivers were forced to leave the armed forces between 1998 and 2003. (source)

Related blog entries

Acting legend Marlon Brando has passed away at the age of 80.

Network broadcast reports indicate the veteran actor's lawyer has confirmed he died Thursday in a Los Angeles hospital. The cause of death is unknown.

The thespian won two Oscars in his career for his portrayal of mob boss Vito Corleon in 'Godfather' and his role in the movie 'On the Waterfront.'

Many consider Marlon Brando to be the "greatest actor of all time."

Marlon Brando was quite simply one of the most celebrated and influential screen and stage actors of the postwar era; he rewrote the rules of performing, and nothing was ever the same again. Brooding, lusty, and intense, his greatest contribution was popularizing Method acting, a highly interpretive performance style which brought unforeseen dimensions of power and depth to the craft; in comparison, most other screen icons appeared shallow, even a little silly. A combative and often contradictory man, Brando refused to play by the rules of the Hollywood game, openly expressing his loathing for the film industry and for the very nature of celebrity, yet often exploiting his fame to bring attention to political causes and later accepting any role offered him as long as the price was right. He is one of the screen's greatest enigmas, and there will never be another quite like him. (source)

Starting today, House Bill 751 is now law in the State of Virginia. Below is an except from the law.

For more information, visit Stand Up for Equality (http://standupforequality.org/).

Some of you know that I grew up in Idaho. I'll never live there again. It's just too conservative for my blood, but it's nice to see that some Idahoans think as I do. This is happening in states across the nation. More often than not, topics like prohibiting gay marriage is being discussed to death, while the state doesn't even address the issue of poverty and schools in the state.

It's like having your home burn down around you, and you stay in the kitchen talking about what to do about the milk you have in the refrigerator that just soured. It makes no sense.

This letter is from a concerned citizen of Idaho.

Sitting here a few days after the Idaho State Republican Convention and a few days before the Idaho State Democratic Convention, we should give some thought to what our political parties are saying to us about what they think is important. The fact is that, too often, both parties let themselves get caught up in issues that will do little to improve the lives of most voters.

Running for office—State Representative in Idaho’s 17th District—I’ve visited around 2,000 doors so far and not one single person has asked me about gay marriage, the Ten Commandments, or any of the other so-called “hot button issues” that so fascinate too many party loyalists.

Do you know what they want to discuss? By far, the greatest number wants to talk about the sorry state of our education system. Others want to talk about economic development, healthcare, taxes or other issues that affect all Idahoans.

Unfortunately, the Idaho Republican Party gathered recently and spent their time debating such things as gay marriage, the Ten Commandments, and whether or not to make voters declare their party before voting in a primary. Where was the hot debate about schools and how to help our kids succeed? Where was a statewide strategy for creating a business environment that helps our companies grow and attracts new ones? Or what about making healthcare affordable or controlling the rise of property taxes? [...](source)

This was a letter to the editor on boston.com:

July 1, 2004

GOVERNOR ROMNEY'S statement "until we understand the implications for human development of a different definition of marriage, I believe we should preserve that which has endured for thousands of years" is outrageous and unhistoric ("Romney urges federal ban on gay-marriage `experiment,' " Page A1, June 23).

The practice of polygamy by Mormons certainly constitutes a different definition of marriage and would persist today if it had not been outlawed by Congress in the 19th century as a condition for admitting the state of Utah to the union. In fact, polygamy persists in small pockets of fundamentalist Mormons.

A cursory search on Google for "The Bible and polygamy" produces a large number of references to the Old Testament laying down the obligation of a man toward his wives (plural) and their offspring.

So much for "that which has endured for thousands of years."

Or is Romney proposing that we return to polygamy?

JOHN FIGUERAS
Orleans

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Gay activists rallied in major cities statewide to protest a new law that critics said could nullify legal contracts between same-sex couples.

The state law, which goes into effect Thursday, prohibits civil unions, partnership contracts or other arrangements "purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage."

Critics said it could be used to nullify medical directives, wills, joint bank accounts and other agreements between gay couples.

"(The law) clearly states that gay and lesbian people in this state should not feel welcome," said Dyana Mason, executive director of Equality Virginia, the state's largest gay rights organization. "It seeks to strip the only tool that gay and lesbian couples have to protect their families." (source)

I've never been to Virginia. But, it goes without saying that I won't be going there, ever. In fact, if I'm traveling and my plane happens to have a layover there, I will choose another route. I won't even set foot in the damn state. If they want to be that way, let them have it. And, if I lived there, I'd seriously looking into moving, because I wouldn't want to pay taxes to them.

This law isn't simply saying that we don't want gay unions, it's also saying that gay people cannot form any legal relationships what so ever. We can't enter into any contract to tie each other together, be it a "domestic partnership", a "civil union", or a "marriage". Many legal experts are also saying that the wording of the law could also prevent other social contracts as well.

When I read about things like this, it really brings home to me how easily people are scared about what they don't understand and how easily threatened they are. It doesn't give me much hope for our race. What is something really bad were to happen? We seem to need someone to blame and we always need a scapegoat. Now, that scapegoat is our community, at least in the state of Virginia.

I think there is also something to be said for doing a bit of research to find the companies who have headquarters in Virginia. Why support them? This is something

When I hear things like this, it really brings home to me that the only thing that speaks louder than the rhetoric of these kinds of bills, is MONEY! Don't support discrimination against yourself. If some company is giving you grief, boycott them, as in the case of the Foot Locker. That's the best way to fight it.

Finally, here's a thought for you if you live in Virginia. A will is a legal contract between you and another person. If you are gay, it's highly doubtful with this new law in place that the will is going to be valid. If you live in Virginia, have a will with your partner, be aware that there may be a problem with enforcing the will.