May 2005 Archives
Embryos Are Human Life.
That’s the opinion of columnist Mona Charen, a syndicated writer in Washington.
I read her opinion piece this morning in the Hartford Courant as I was having my bagel (with lox no less) this morning at Charley’s, in Vernon, Connecticut. Kent and I go there every Sunday morning for breakfast - somewhat of a ritual, I suppose. I’ve often thought that, if someone wanted to wipe us out, it would be easy, because Kent and I are creatures of habit and we definitely have our routines.
The Kansas City Star, editorializing about the president’s threat to veto the stem cell bill passed by the House, described human embryos as the “excess products of fertility procedures.” The Los Angeles Times, contemptuous of the president’s ethical misgivings, declared: “It’s not a choice between a human life and an embryo’s life. It’s a choice between real human lives and a symbolic statement about the value of an embryo.”
I agree with that. How can you really compare an embryo (one that was going to be discarded, by the way) with that of a human life? The research from this could lead to many medical breakthroughs for many people - people with Parkinson’s Disease, Diabetes, or Alzheimer’s Disease, to mention just a few.
If you really want to make an argument that human embryos (that were going to be discarded) are on equal par to someone who might benefit from stem cell research, then I think you could equally make the argument against those who self-pleasure themselves and discard unused sperm, or those who wear condoms during sex, only to throw the condom containing sperm into the garbage can. No, I’m not trying to be crude. I’m try to make a valid point.
If you can say that an embryo is human life and that stem cell research should not be done, then how can you say that the sperm from a male is not equally valid? After all, the sperm provides a genetic blueprint to make it possible for that embryo to develop into a person. Mona goes on to say:
The New York Times and others object that majorities in public opinion polls support this research. Is that how we should evaluate moral claims?
Mona, apparently so. You know what I find amusing in all of this? Mona Charen will make a statement like that, but when it comes to the “majority” of Americans opting to pass state constitutional amendments preventing gay couples from getting married, they are all for that - because it is what the majority wants.
Now, with a subject like embryonic research, suddenly they aren’t so interested in what the majority wants. Now, they are interested in the “moral” thing.
So where do you draw the line? I happen to believe that it is immoral to put basic, equal, civil rights up for a popular vote. I think that is immoral, when law abiding, tax-paying citizens like ourselves are openly placed into a second-class status. Kent and I will enter into that second-class status after October 1st, if we decide to enter into a Connecticut Civil Union. It’s second class because it is not called “marriage”, and the second we leave the state of Connecticut, it dissolves. I think that is wrong. But, that is what the “majority” of people in Connecticut want - for us to be second class.
I suppose I have to live with that. But what is good for the goose is good for the gander. If you are going to use that argument, BE CONSISTENT. You can’t use the argument that gay couples cannot get married because the majority of citizens don’t want that, then turn around and bitch because the majority of citizens favor stem cell research. It doesn’t work that way, and someone as smart as Mona Charen damn well knows it.
Mona, stop being a hypocrite.
And the Bible says that homosexual offenders should be put to death. ... So help eradicate homophobia now. Kill the Queer.
You Queers can vanish to volcanic ash, and reappear in hell with a can of gas and a match. I hate QUEERS and God hates QUEERS! And the Bible says that Homosexual Offenders should be put to Death!
That’s what a couple of the fliers said that has been littering the campus of Southern Oregon University, in Ashland, Oregon.
Kent and I have been there before. Ashland has a huge Shakespeare festival every year which is first rate. It’s sad to see this kind of stuff happening at a place that had so much going for it. (source)
Other related stories:
Alleged hate crime at SOU leads to police investigation
“Hate” victim speaks out
I’m sitting here listening to The Marriage of Figaro, by Mozart. I know, most of you don’t know opera. That’s not the point.
I come to this place when I feel overwhelmed by life. Today is the Sunday before Memorial Day. I’m wondering how many people really honor or understand Memorial Day. It’s kind of like Christmas, I suppose. Not everyone celebrates Christmas, which is fine. But many don’t even know what they are not celebrating.
I was going to point out some injustices in the world - where do I begin? But you know, sometimes you just have to overlook everything and realize that, there were injustices before my existence ever came to be. There will be injustices after I’m gone. It’s important to realize that our lives are only a slice in time on this planet. That’s important, because it points out just how fragile and short life is.
People say all the time, “Life’s too short for that...”. But do they really stop and think about what that means? I think it’s become cliché. I remember my sister used to say it all the time - when were were speaking to each other. The last time I talked with here was 1984, on the occasion of my Mother’s funeral.
God... now Maria Callas is singing Ah! Je Ris, from Faust (Gounod). WONDERFUL!
I’m very disconnected to my family. What is family? I know this is going to sound very very lame. But to those of you who have seen the Star Wars movies, indulge me...
There is a scene where Yoda talks about The Force. He talks about how everything is connected - how The Force is everywhere, “...yes, even the ground we walk on.” That is what life is to me. And, one of the things that has been most difficult for me to deal with in life is how we focus on everything that is different about ourselves at the expense of what we have in common. We let that tear us apart.
There is something inside me that wants to shake mankind into knowing that we are all one people. We are all the same, when you get down to the elements of what make us human beings. How much war, hatred, and bigotry must we put ourselves through before we realize that? That is the tragedy of life.
I think when people get to old age, there is a lot that they have come to accept and let go of. One is that people are petty. People care about everything that is unimportant. They put whatever that is important at any given time up on a pedestal (along with themselves) and say, “THIS is what is important!”
The seventy-year-old person will see through that and understand that it means nothing. They are brought back to the elements of their existence - the people they love – their humanity. Their sole and selfless message to all is, care for others. That’s what I want to say.
I enjoy my life. This is actually the best period of my life right now, but when I’m seventy or so years old, if I make it to that age, I think I will be ready to leave. By that time, I suppose no one will care about anyone else. But eventually, I suppose after civilization falls (and I don’t think we are that far off), we will all come back to what is important – humanity. Or, we will perish. It really is just that simple.
All the things we think are so damn important now, will disappear. I’ve put marriage way up at the top of my list because I believe that it is possibly one of the last things that can bring us closer together. It’s important to me. But, is it the real issue? Probably not. I love Kent. That is what is important. The fact that he may not be able to visit me in a hospital because we are “legal strangers” probably shouldn’t be the hot issue to me. But my insecurities win the day all the time it seems. I find myself wondering why people hate so much and are so threatened by Kent and myself - I probably won’t understand that until I am seventy or so.
Hopefully, by then, I will have an answer to share with all of you, if we are still here.
(Augusta, Maine) The Maine legislature is expected to debate a proposed amendment to the state constitution next week that would ban same-sex marriage.
But, if the reception the measure got in committee Friday is any indication, it will likely fail.
The Judiciary Committee split 7 - 5 along party lines with 7 of the eight Democrats voting against it and the 8th absent from the committee.
Even an attempt to “moderate” the amendment did not sway Democrats signaling its likely to be defeated in the Democratically controlled House. (source)
I’m actually very proud of Maine. Kent and I go to Maine at least once a year on vacation. We are scheduled to go an a week up to Ogunquit and then on up to Bath, Maine. We always have a great time there.
As in Connecticut, there are those who are trying to prevent gay couples from ever having marriage or civil unions. In Maine, some religious groups are gathering signatures to try to place the issue on the ballot. So when this came out, it gave me a good feeling about the state.
This is a sign of true progress. Maine is a state I have long worried about because I knew it would be very easy for the state to go either way on the issue of equality. It’s starting to look as though the majority of citizens in Maine favor fairness and equality.
I’m glad. It means that we won’t have to find a new vacation spot!
I guess I’m getting old. I shouldn’t admit this, but I remember when a gallon of gasoline cost 25 cents. I was just a kid and back then, we complained about it getting all the way up to 50 cents. It was horrible. Of course, everything is relative, I suppose. Yesterday, I paid $2.19 a gallon. I didn’t even think about it. I just did it because it’s now a way of life.
So many things cost so much money today, and we don’t even think about it. And, as time goes on, it seems as though we just get used to it, and accept it. I remember that when you would take a trip and fly from one destination to the next, you would get lunch or dinner on the plane, if you were flying around lunch or dinner time. No more. Now, they don’t serve - not lunch or dinner at least. Now, they serve crackers or pretzels with soda. When they started doing that and eliminated meals, I thought to myself that it was like going from 25 cents to 50 cents a gallon for gasoline.
Well, in a few days from now, one airline will stop serving even pretzels. Beginning June 9, Northwest Airlines will charge for anything other than soda. They estimate that this will save the airline $2 million dollars a year. How can pretzels cost that much? I mean, has anyone actually counted how many pretzels you get in one of those little packages? Well, I did. I was bored and had nothing else to do, so I counted them. There were 22 little pretzels in my package. How much longer before the other airlines follow suit?
I suppose in the not so far future all airlines will follow this practice and offer nothing at all unless you pay extra - even for soda. It doesn’t bother me so much. The truth is, the meals were never that good, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s no great loss. It’s more of a concern to me that the airlines feel that they have no other choice to do this to save money. They are all about service, so if they feel they don’t have a choice, they are running very close to the edge of survival. This should be a wake up call to all of us and especially, our government.
Today they are sacrificing service and their offerings to customers. What will be sacrificed tomorrow, safety and short cuts in maintenance?
Three senior Boeing Co. employees have filed a lawsuit against the aircraft manufacturer claiming the company ignored numerous defective parts used to build airplanes. [...]
The lawsuit contends the parts did not pass minimum Federal Aviation Administration safety requirements and were used on 737s, 747s, 757s and 767s made in Wichita and delivered for sale from March 1998 through November 2004.
DENVER - Gov. Bill Owens vetoed a bill Friday that would have outlawed workplace discrimination against homosexuals, but he allowed another measure to become law adding gays and lesbians and the disabled to the list of people protected under the state's existing hate crimes statutes.
Owens said he vetoed the workplace discrimination bill because he considered it unnecessary and said it could force employers to spend large sums defending lawsuits. (source)
Owens said he vetoed the workplace discrimination bill because he considered it unnecessary and said it could force employers to spend large sums defending lawsuits.
Think about that for a second. If the legislation (had it not been vetoed) would have forced employers to spend a lot of money defending lawsuits, doesn’t that tell you that many people are being fired from their jobs for being gay?
Astonishing. The governor basically admitted that this is a problem, and decided to let it continue to happen.
I sent this letter to Justice Jonathan A. Katz of New Paltz today, at 8:28pm.
Dear Justice Katz:
I was reading today that Mayor Jason West will face 24 misdemeanor counts of violating the state's domestic relations law by marrying gay couples last year. I hear that he could face fines and up to a year in prison.
Your Honor, it is rare to see such courage in someone so young. Jason is a hero of mine. If he is charged, I beg you to allow me to serve the time he would serve. I know this is a strange request, and perhaps not possible, but I am sincere in this request. I am sane and of sound mind and body.
What Jason did was extraordinarily courageous. I would gladly serve his time, and I will try to do my part to pay his fines.
What he did was right and just. That can never be wrong. It would be my privilege to do this for Jason.
Sincerely,
... (my name and address omitted from original letter for Internet posting)
The village mayor who challenged New York law by attempting to marry gay couples will face trial, the state’s highest court ruled Friday.
New Paltz Village Mayor Jason West faces 24 misdemeanor counts of violating the state’s domestic relations law by marrying couples without marriage licenses last year. West’s defiance of a law that state officials say forbids gay marriage made the little Hudson Valley village a flashpoint in the national gay marriage debate. [...]
West was hit with the criminal charges shortly after marrying couples before a cheering crowd and dozens of reporters. He became the second public official in the nation to join same-sex couples, following San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, helping spread the debate over gay marriage.
West faces fines and up to a year in jail if convicted on the misdemeanor counts of solemnizing marriages for couples without a license. (source)
This is one of the biggest injustices of all. Mayor West will apparently face charges for marrying gay couples. He did this because he felt it was wrong to deny gay couples equality.
I will tell you this, and I’m totally sincere and honest in saying this. If he does get sentenced to a year in jail, I would be honored to take his place and do the time for him. That may sound crazy to you, but that’s how strongly I feel about this.
You see, I wouldn’t be doing the time. I would be taking the punishment for righting a wrong. That is never wasted. You are your principles! It is always honorable to stand up for those principles. There are times in life when you have to look an injustice in the eye and say, “I will expose your for what you are. Let’s do this.”
This is one of those times. When and if Jason is sentenced, I’m going to be there
(Washington) New hate crimes legislation introduced today in the House would amend existing hate crimes laws that cover crimes motivated by race, color, national origin and religion to include crimes based on actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, disability and gender identity.
If passed, the legislation would allow the Department of Justice to assist local authorities in investigating and prosecuting cases in which violence occurs because of the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
For more than a decade bills have been filed almost annually to include gays in hate crime laws and each time they have died.
The first attempt to pass a hate crime bill failed in 1994 and further attempts have died almost annually since then. (source)
So who wants to make bets that it’s going to pass this time?
Today, I will be calling Exxon/Mobil to cancel my Mobil/Exxon card as well as my Mobil/Exxon Speed Pass. I like the speed pass because it is convenient. But, I’m not about to buy gasoline at a company who doesn’t give a damn about all of it’s workers.
If they will not put in place job protection against their workers to guarantee they are not fired or demoted for being gay, I will not do business with them.
I urge you all to do the same. If you do, contact them to let them know. The number to call to cancel your account is 800-344-4355.
SUPPORT OUR COMMUNITY!
(Dallas, Texas) For the seventh consecutive year shareholders in ExxonMobil have rejected an attempt to include sexual orientation in the company’s non-discrimination policy.
At the oil company’s annual meeting Wednesday in Dallas, shareholders voted 29.4 percent in favor of giving LGBT workers protection. It was the highest support the measure has yet received.
ExxonMobil is the only U.S. company that has ever rescinded a non-discrimination policy covering sexual orientation. (source)
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. May 26, 2005 — The Marine Corps dropped murder charges Thursday against an officer accused of riddling two Iraqis with bullets and hanging a warning sign on their corpses as a grisly example to other suspected insurgents.
Autopsies conducted on the Iraqis’ exhumed bodies backed 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano’s assertion that he shot them in self-defense after the men disobeyed his instructions and made a menacing move toward him, Marine officials said. [...]
The two Iraqis were killed during an April 2004 search outside a suspected terrorist hideout in Mahmudiyah, Iraq.
Prosecutors said Pantano, 33, intended to make an example of the men by shooting them 60 times and hanging a sign over their bodies “No better friend, no worse enemy,” a Marine slogan. Pantano did not deny hanging the sign or shooting the men repeatedly. (source)
I’ve never been a soldier, so I suppose it’s valid to say that I don’t know what I’m talking about. I also was not there, thank God. But, how can you justify shooting someone 60 times if you were just defending yourself? And then, on top of that, you hang a sign on the bodies that says, “No better friend, no worse enemy,” a Marine slogan. What the hell is that about? Do you have to be a hard-ass marine to understand that? He sounds like a sadistic bastard to me.
It’s doesn’t seem quite right to me. And, this seems like the marines covering for their own. I suppose I’ll be accused of being “unpatriotic”, or some nonsense, but will the United States ever be accountable for any damn thing we do to these people?
I thought about it overnight, and decided that it was unfair of me to make reference to a comment that I wasn’t going to show.
The comment that I referenced in A State of Grace is given below. It is unedited including the IP Address, name, and email address. It was reformatted for the comment. The verbiage remains completely intact. Read if you’d like. It’s up to you.
IP Address: 199.80.109.227
Name: A. Friend
Email Address: !!!!@!!!.!!!
URL:Comment:
Gentlemen,Ladies?
Caught a glimpse of your writing in relation to gay marriage. Sounds like you really haven’t gotten it.
Most of us, even though we don’t always live up to it, consider marriage sacred. Yes, there are a few things, that as human beings (not necessarily right wing religious fanatics), we consider sacred.
We see that you obviously have no appreciation for that fact, however your perverted life and sexual style will never be acceptable to the vast majority of humans because it is unnatural and perverted. I don’t say this to insult you, but truth is truth; it’s not relative as your need for gratification would lead you to believe.
I hope you find another way to deal with the tendencies you possess--I know mental and physical urges are strong but you don’t have to be a slave to them. I could suggest approaches but I think it’s best if you come to them yourself.
Wishing you true peace and love.
Apparently, you don’t wish me a love that it true to my nature. An artificial love would suit you. Perhaps if I were to marry a woman and lie to her about being gay, you would sanctify that?
You don’t need to answer. I already know you would. And, the state and federal government would also sanction that lie and give us a marriage license.
This is the sanctity of marriage that you so disparately hold on to. How can a lie ever be sanctioned? How can that ever be “sacred”?
Kent and I are truth. I love Kent with everything I am. We already have a marriage. It’s not recognized by any government and it’s not recognized by most people. But it is recognized by our friends and us. It is real. It is not a lie.
At some level - at some time, someone, either in this world or the next, will recognize that.
I received a comment on my site today. Because the comment was entered on an old entry, it was being held for my approval. I read it, and was stunned. The gist of the message was that we (Kent and I) are sick and demented people because of what we are. And, that “normal people” who are not “perverted” and who believe in God will rule the world. We can never win, because we are evil.
I deleted the message. I found it strange that, even though I receive a lot of this type of email, this one effected me. I had a lot of feelings after I read the comment. I felt sad, angry, and an unshakable feeling of facing the enemy. I suppose if the commenter had left a valid email address, I would have given it a bit more credence, and may have published it.
Whoever left the comment, I want to say to them, that before you pass judgment against someone, perhaps you should open your heart enough to at least know who and what you are judging. You should know the passion of those you are so ready to condemn. You should know, before you dismiss us, that we love, we hurt, and we have a need to belong to humanity. You will of course dismiss this because you know what is right. You know the will of God, after all. I would remind you that the same judgment was made against Jesus. If you want to think in those terms, it’s risky business.
I am light. I tell of my truth. I talk about what it is like to be me; what my life is like, good and bad. Truth. That is what will expose those who leave hateful messages and hide behind an invalid email address. Truth.
There is good and evil in this world. Evil leaves a message telling me that I am going to hell and that our cause is unjust because we are less than others. Evil tells me that we are perverts deserving of death and eternal damnation.
I know better than that. I know me. I know our community. I have watched the amazing strength that all of us have inside of us, gay and straight, if we will just open ourselves up to the possibility of being true to ourselves and our passions. This scares some people. They want us to feel little and alone because they want their world order to remain the same; their vision of what a marriage is, their vision of what men and women are, their vision of love, their vision of America, and their vision of God.
I have seen God. I know the light. Where, you ask? In myself, as a child when I came to know myself as being different. In my friends who gave me strength as they were dying. They had amazing grace. At the time, I felt damned. I was losing my friends left and right and no one gave a damn. My dear friend Stanley said to me once, “We have every right to hate society for what they have done to us.” He’s right. We do.
But hate goes nowhere. I remember what President Richard Nixon said in is White House farewell statement. I never cared for Richard Nixon because I do think he was a crook and a liar. I noted the tone in his voice and his sincerity as he said this because, it was the only time that I heard him talk where I knew for sure that he wasn’t lying. He said, “Always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.” He was right. Hate is evil and, it is a dead end.
Today, the gift that my friends gave me as they left me, one by one, is strength. I have an amazing peace inside myself. It is from knowing that no matter what others say to me, they really can’t touch me.
05/26/2005 - The comment that was left
Recently, the FDA issued an edict advising sperm banks to bar as donors men who have had sex with other men within five years prior to donation. I have searched through the medical literature for a sound scientific basis for this directive, yet the only reasoning behind the recommendation is the fact that homosexual men are at high risk of HIV. If this were the rationale, though, it follows that the FDA should bar other high-risk donors such as men who have used IV drugs or have had sex with prostitutes. This, however, is not the case. Considering the (increasingly) stringent testing procedures employed by sperm banks, the glaring inconsistency suggests the FDA is influenced by ideology, concerned more with sexual preference than with risky behavior. Here’s why, using California Cryobank, the nation’s leading sperm bank, as a model:
All donated sperm, regardless of the sexual orientation of the donor, is frozen and quarantined, allowing for ample time to retest both donor and sample -- every three months -- for not only HIV but gonorrhea, syphilis, hepatitis, and a host of other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In addition, donors must pass a battery of tests for genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs, Thalassemia, canavan disease, Fanconi anemia, and various chromosome abnormalities to name a few. Also, each donor’s medical history is documented, as is that of his parents, grandparents, siblings, and cousins. The donor must have gone to a four-year college, commit to donating routinely for one to two years, and undergo blood tests and physical exams every three months. Interestingly, once all is said and done, less than 5% of hopeful sperm donors are accepted. [...]
The FDA always faces pressure from a variety of interest groups. Let us hope that the agency is not caving into pressure from homophobic moralists in its recommendation to bar sperm donations by gay men. That would truly be a disservice to the public from a supposedly science-based regulatory body.
Aubrey Stimola is the Assistant Director of Public Health at the American Council on Science and Health. (source)
You have to wonder in all of this... If being gay is genetic, which I believe it is, do you think that by banning gay men from donating sperm, that they are really trying to get rid of the “gay” trait from the gene pool? Just a comment from my paranoid self, for what it’s worth.
I don’t know how this is happening, but apparently, webmaster@billandkent.com is not an email account for Senator Bill Frist. I’m still looking into it, but people are sending their letters addressed to Senator Bill Frist, and they are being addressed to webmaster@billandkent.com. Weird!
Here are three of them. It’s always nice to know what the “other side” is thinking.
Subject: from dr. ben powell for dr. frisk
From: dr. ben powell (email address omitted from this posting)
To: webmaster@billandkent.comDr. Frisk,
Please don't give in to those moderates. They are controlling the senate you are not, if you give in. Go for an up and down vote anyway.
Thanks
Dr. Ben Powell (home address omitted from this posting)
South Carolina
Subject: Stop All Filibusters and Vote YES or NO!!!! Be BOLD and do what is Right!!!
From: Terry Vogel (email address omitted from this posting)
To: webmaster@billandkent.comAs your constituent, I ask you to vote to stop all filibusters of President Bush’s nominees to the federal courts. I ask specifically that you support the nominations of Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen. These two women deserve to serve on the federal bench.
Terry Vogel
Subject: THE RENEGADE SENATORS
From: Phyllis Stuart (email address omitted from this posting)
To: webmaster@billandkent.comDear Senator Frist,
Thank you for your solid support of President Bush.
I have been a frustrated Republican for about 40 years, and thought that finally we had an opportunity to see our values represented. So, now, I have to say that I feel extremely disappointed and even
somewhat betrayed. Please continue to do everything in your power to thwart those renegade, self-serving so-called "moderate" Republicans. I hope desperately that I have misunderstood the actions of these senators, but if my understanding is correct, I can only ask you:PLEASE DO NOT GIVE UP. PLEASE CONTINUE TO FIGHT FOR THE PRESIDENT, AND FOR THOSE OF US WHO BELIEVE THIS COUNTRY'S BEST DAYS COULD STILL BE AHEAD, IF THE RIGHT CHOICES ARE MADE NOW.
Sincerely,
Phyllis Stuart
I thought this photo from AP was cool. It’s a female bear who wandered into the San Fernando Valley’s Porter Ranch area. It ended up taking a swim in a backyard pool.
The animal was tranquilised and released into the Santa Susana Mountains. (source)
(Spokane, Washington) Spokane Mayor Jim West returning from a leave of absence, following revelations he offered city jobs to men he met in a gay chat room, has apologized for what he calls “poor judgment in my private life.”
But, he dismissed a demand from local business leaders to resign amid allegations of abuse of power over the affair. [...]
West, a former sheriff’s deputy and Republican leader of the state Senate before he was elected mayor in 2003, built his political career on conservative issues including a condemnation of gay rights.
After Gov. Booth Gardner signed a surprise executive order banning discrimination in state jobs based on sexual orientation, West and 14 other Republicans introduced a bill in January 1986 to bar gays and lesbians from working in schools, day-care centers and some state agencies. The bill, which called for firing state workers whose sexual identities became known, failed.
In 1986, West voted to bar the state from distributing pamphlets telling people how to protect themselves from AIDS during sex.
West opposed gay rights bills introduced in 1985 and 1987.
In 1989, West opposed expanding a needle exchange program from Pierce County to the entire state.
In 1990, West proposed that teen sex be criminalized.
In 1998, West voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
In 2003, West, as Senate majority leader, bottled up a gay-rights bill in committee and it died.
As incoming mayor in November 2003, West opposed giving benefits to domestic partners of City Hall workers, citing cost. The Spokane City Council in April approved domestic partner benefits in a 5-2 vote, enough to withstand any mayoral veto. (source)
I like to think of myself as a very forgiving guy. I’m someone who would help anyone in trouble. I can understand how someone can be closeted and not wanting to let anyone know that he’s gay. I can understand how that person can be in office and perhaps not endorse a measure that his colleagues endorse that deals with gay rights. After all, you are living a secret and if you support a gay rights bill, what will people think?
What I don’t understand is how someone who is a closeted gay will go out of his way to make life for other gay citizens more difficult through his actions. This mayor has a lot of explaining to do to the gay community. I honestly don’t think there’s anything he can say that will make his actions excusable and forgivable.
I think it’s better for us that he resign in disgrace, and I think our community has every right to cheer that on. If any friend of mine did this, that friendship would be over in a heartbeat. Your actions define who and what you are. Mayor West is nothing more than a self-serving, self-loathing hypocrite.
I spotted this interesting tidbit on the Internet. There's more than a little truth to much of it.
DEMOCRATIC: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. Barbara Streisand sings for you.
REPUBLICANISM: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So?
SOCIALIST: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
COMMUNIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it. It is expensive and sour.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.
AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up.
FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. You go to lunch and drink wine. Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow school.
GERMAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows but you don't know where they are. While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman. You break for lunch. Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You have some vodka. You count them and learn you have five cows. You have some more vodka. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
TALIBAN CORPORATION: You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two. You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts. You get a $40 million grant from the US Government to find alternatives to milk production but use the money to buy weapons.
IRAQI CORPORATION: You have two cows. They go into hiding. They send radio tapes of their mooing.
POLISH CORPORATION: You have two bulls. Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.
BELGIAN CORPORATION: You have one cow. The cow is schizophrenic. Sometimes the cow thinks he's French, other times he's Flemish. The Flemish cow won't share with the French cow. The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk. The cow asks permission to be cut in half. The cow dies happy.
FLORIDA CORPORATION: You have a black cow and a brown cow. Everyone votes for the best looking one. Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one. Some people vote for both. Some people vote for neither. Some people can't figure out how to vote at all. Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best-looking cow.
CALIFORNIA CORPORATION: You have millions of cows. They make real California cheese. Only five speak English. Most are illegals. Arnold likes the ones with the big udders.
The hundreds of cards and letters, some written by schoolchildren, some signed by Arizona legislators, were tacked up along a wall in Lois Fraley’s home. They were physical evidence of the community’s support. They helped boost Fraley’s spirits, helped the corrections officer recover from being held hostage for 15 days in a prison tower.
The letters of support ended up in the home Fraley makes with her partner of five years, Tere Knight. But that home is not getting much support now. Fraley’s relationship is not recognized by her employer and might be under attack at the ballot box.
“It’s, uh, what is that called?” Fraley said, searching for words over a vanilla latte at the Starbucks at Park Central. “Someone, like, backstabbing. Where you can praise somebody face to face and...”
“Hypocritical,” offered Knight, who was seated next to her.
“Hypocritical,” Fraley said, nodding. “Either you like me or you don’t. But don’t sit there and say, well, that you like me as a person, but you don’t like me because I’m gay.”
Last week, a group called Protect Marriage Arizona announced the drive for a ballot initiative that would not only define marriage as being between a man and a woman, but also deny benefits to any couple that’s not married.
That would mean Fraley and her partner. Someone the state flooded with support and lauded for courage would have her unequal status enshrined in the constitution.
“That’s the shame of it, that people can’t understand who you are,” she said.(source)
That is the shame of it. People don’t understand us, and I don’t know what the solution to that is. My neighbor has made his opinion of us known. There’s really nothing I can do to change his mind, because he has made his mind up long before he ever met us. Gays are queers and bad for society. That is what I’m up against in having him know us for the people we are.
So what can I do? Not a hell of a lot. People want to know us, or they don’t. I suppose it’s easier to sit back and quote venomous quotes from the Bible than actually getting up off their collective asses and make an effort to see us as people.
And this is why so many of us are depressed and lose hope. Tonight was tough. I came home and somewhere in the middle of making dinner, I sat down on the couch, and just started crying. I think at times that there are so many things we are up against, and it all seems so overwhelming at times.
Tomorrow will be better. I’ll go to bed early, and try to arm myself with a good nights sleep. We have to keep our hope up.
I was at least gratified that the American Psychiatric Association has endorsed gay marriage for our community. Maybe that’s where we start. I don’t know.
Representatives of the nation’s top psychiatric group approved a statement Sunday urging legal recognition of same-sex marriage.
If approved by the association’s directors in July, the measure would make the American Psychiatric Association the first major medical group to take such a stance.
The statement supports same-sex marriage “in the interest of maintaining and promoting mental health.”
It follows a similar measure by the American Psychological Association last year, little more than three decades after that group removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.
Next week will decide the direction our country takes.
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. MAKE YOURSELF HEARD!
This from moveonpac.org. Sign the petition that they will be delivering to the Senate.
Senator Bill Frist has pulled the trigger on the “nuclear option.” We now have less than 72 hours to stop him from seizing absolute power to stack the courts - including the Supreme Court. The vote is still too close to call. If we raise our voice, we can win.
We’ve launched an emergency petition we’ll be delivering to congress every three hours, from Monday morning until the final vote is complete. Our allies will read your comments on the Senate floor, and every senator will know the American people are standing ready to hold them accountable. Please sign today!
There are many readers who come to my site to look around. In fact, last month, I received more than one million visitors to the site. This has created somewhat of an interesting problem for me, in a couple of ways. First, it has increased my bandwidth greatly. I have also lately been having some concerns about storage. This left me with two choices. I either upgrade my service plan with my Internet service provider for more space and bandwidth, or, I pull the site, which would mean that I’m done with blogging.
I decided to stick around for a bit longer. So, today, I called my service provider and increased both storage and bandwidth (they were overjoyed).
So, if you ever try to come to my site and find that I’ve been removed from Internet existence, it won’t be because I’ve decided to call it quits and disappear from the blogosphere. I mention all of this, because I am apparently being monitored by the Federal Government. At least, it’s fair to say that they are taking an interest in this site - and probably not in a good way.
I have been extremely outspoken about my feelings on a variety of topics ranging from gay marriage, gay rights, domestic violence, the death penalty, taxes, government intrusion into our lives, and the injustice of the war in Iraq. I have talked at length about my feelings on this war, our current administration in Washington, our President, and how I feel about him running this country into the ground. I’ve been criticized by people I know for being “un-American” for not “supporting” our President and our country at a time when we need “unity”. I have been criticized by my family for “causing trouble” by being so outspoken.
Well, that’s propaganda, and it’s bullshit. I call it like I see it. I will not support this President, because he is a moron and has no clue on where or how to take this country into a future that will ensure the rights of all citizens. He won his last election not by bravely confronting the problems this nation faces - problems that effect all of us, but rather, by telling people that if he doesn’t win election, the very future of marriage is at stake. This drove large masses of religious conservatives to the polls. After the election, he wanted nothing to do with the amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage as “one man, one woman.”
In other words, this President has the integrity of a piss ant in a colony of ant eaters - he will do whatever it takes to survive. Screw integrity and screw beliefs. This is our leader. His integrity as a leader is matched only by his attitude towards other peoples of the world and his absolute contempt for anyone else (the United Nations) who might disagree with him. He is not my President. He is a President who was given the Presidency by the U.S. Supreme Court the first time around, and narrowly won election (and even that is still being disputed) for his second term.
This is what America is today - a nation that is too good for everyone else, a nation who looks down it’s nose at everyone else, a nation who is filled with hatred and bigotry tempered with a self-righteous attitude that the way we treat some of our citizens is justified based on religious doctrine.
Weekly, I check my site statistics on who is visiting my site, and, more importantly, where they are going. Over the last couple of months, I have seen a dramatic increase in traffic to this site from “.mil” domains (U.S. Military). And not just one branch. All branches have visited the site. And recently, the Pentagon has taken an interest in the site.
This urged me to take a closer look at where they were going. It’s hard for me to believe that they are here to read about gay marriage, so it was reasonable to assume that they were here for other reasons. Sure enough, each of their stops was to view the comments left in the Abu Ghraib photo album.
I posted the album some time ago. Actually, when the photos surfaced. Over the months, the rhetoric taking place in the comments left in the album have become increasingly hostile and anti-American. This was not my intention. I created the album because I feel what happened at Abu Ghraib was a terrible injustice. In fact, after the Abu Ghraib scandal, 90% of those held at the prison were released because they were falsely imprisoned. Many of these prisoners were the men who were abused in the photos.
I’ve always felt that those who were truly responsible for what happened there would never be punished. The people really responsible for letting this happen were too far up the chain of command. And sure enough, history has proved me right. Only the low-level soldiers who were there are the ones receiving the punishment for Abu Ghraib. That’s unfortunate, but expected. It echoes the Bush Administration’s ability to avoid all blame for anything that happens under it’s watch.
The administration, and indeed the United States does not need my help to make us look bad. We seem to be doing this just fine all by ourselves. The news around the world is buzzing about the photos just release of Saddam Hussein in his cell, in his underwear, no less. When I heard the news on TV and saw the photo, I just shook my head in disbelief and wondered how people could be so stupid. This was first released in a British newspaper but we were fast to pick up on it as well and publish it. Here we are at war, we’ve gone through the Abu Ghraib scandal, and now this. We just don’t learn. You don’t fight against a fire by throwing more gasoline on the fire. Stupid. It pissed me off, and I’m not even Iraqi.
I view free speech as being sacred. It is what our country is founded on. And believe me, if there’s one thing I do, it’s to exercise my right to free speech. But I don’t take it for granted. It’s possible that some day, you may try to come to billandkent.com, and we would no longer be here. If that happens, you will know what happened to the site. Call me paranoid, but I trust our current administration and our current government about as far as I can throw my house.
This is the world we live in folks. I’m a middle-aged gay man living way out in the country with my partner of 30 years. I live a private life, yet, on the Internet, I’m outspoken and direct. And, I am being monitored. For what? For my ideas? For calling things what they are?
I love my country. I don’t love what they are doing and I don’t love what we, as a nation, are becoming. And recently, it’s been difficult for me to say that I’m proud to be an American, for a lot of reasons. Some will say, “Well, if you don’t like America, get the hell out.” Believe me, we have thought long and hard about leaving. It’s hard to stay and be bashed by one state or another in this country day after day just because you want to marry your life partner, and still feel like “things will eventually get better.”
I don’t believe that there should be different tiers of rights for different groups of people in this country. We should be better than that.
I don’t believe that we have the right to militarily beat the hell out of another country because we are the bad ass United States. We should be better than that.
I don’t believe that we should tell the United Nations to go screw themselves because what they believe is inconvenient for us. We should be better than that.
I believe we should not use war as a first resort to solve our problems, at the expense of the lives of the young men and women serving our country in the military forces. We should be better than that.
I don’t believe that we should let a vocal minority in this country use selected passages from the Bible to beat down and demonize an unpopular minority in this country to justify legislation to further their means. If we allow that, we should also allow for the death of those who are adulterers. Divorce should be against the law and those who work on Sundays should be put to death, along with women who wear make up, for they are “harlots”. This is what the Bible calls for. You either carry out ALL the instructions of the Bible, if we want to go down that road, or we don’t. You shouldn’t get to pick and choose who or what group to condemn because it’s convenient to ignore some groups because they hit a little to close to home for you. We live in a democracy, not a theocracy - at least not yet. But if people like Senator Bill Frist gets his way, this democracy that we take for granted may soon be a thing of the past. We should be better than that.
I don’t believe that we should be spending like there is no tomorrow because “we are at war”. That excuse is getting pretty worn out and lame, and future generations of children are going to be left paying for the bill that this administration is racking up. WE SHOULD BE BETTER THAN THAT!
But we won’t be better than that unless people start speaking up and saying, “enough already!”. I don’t know what it will take for people to start doing that - to start caring about their country again - to take back the greatness of what America used to be, and should be. This is my way of doing that, for as long as I can, for as long as I am allowed.
07/06/2005 Update - Ex-Officer Gets Life Sentence for Death of MU Student
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- A former Columbia police officer was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole in the 2004 death of a University of Missouri-Columbia student with whom he had an affair.
Steven Rios, 28, also received a consecutive sentence of 10 years on a count of armed criminal action for the throat-slashing death of Jesse Valencia, 23. A Clay County jury, brought to Boone County because of intense media coverage of the case in Columbia, convicted Rios of first-degree murder in May.
Meet Jesse James Valencia. Jesse was murdered by a police office who was seeing him on the side. It sounds like a plot out of a soap opera. Unfortunately, it’s all true. As it turns out, he was killed by a man named Steven Rios, a police officer. Rios killed Jesse because he feared that Jesse would talk about the affair he was having with Jesse. Rios was married and had a child. He didn’t want that exposed. So one night, he went to Jesse’s home, and, after a heated argument, killed him.
Even with 27,000 other students in this leafy college town, Jesse James Valencia stood out. Outspoken, gay and blessed with the looks of an Abercrombie & Fitch model, the 23-year-old junior seemed to saunter through his busy life at the University of Missouri.
He carried a full load of history and political science courses, worked evenings as a hotel clerk, and packed his social calendar with parties, Internet dates and drag shows at Columbia’s only gay nightclub. He wrote editorials in the campus papers advocating same-sex marriage and had big plans for his future.
“He talked about going to law school and he even toyed around with running for president, the first homosexual,” a friend, Jennifer Witherspoon, recalled. (source)
Rios was prosecuted and was just sentenced to life in prison for the murder. His DNA was found under the Jesse’s fingernails.
One of the things that bothers me a bit about this story is the fact that Rios was going to come forward about the murder sooner, but felt that he couldn’t because of the “brutal” comments other officers were saying about Jesse, because he was gay.
Sgt. Stephen Monticelli, who supervises the department’s Major Crimes Unit, testified Rios came to his office June 8 to talk about a CrimeStoppers tip he’d heard that indicated Valencia had an affair with a married officer and that Rios thought the tip was about him.
Rios agreed to be interviewed by Short, Monticelli said. Both Short and Monticelli testified that Rios initially denied knowing Valencia beyond an official capacity in the April 18 arrest.
Eventually, Rios confessed in “bits and pieces” of the affair, Monticelli said. The suspect told them he wanted to tell someone about the relationship on the day the body was found but that he decided not to after hearing other officers at the crime scene make “brutal” comments about Valencia being gay. (source)
This is exactly why the gay community doesn’t trust the police. I would like to think that this police department would take a long hard look at itself and get some training in these areas. I don’t want to stereotype, but, that’s probably not going to happen, given that it’s the police department of Columbia, Missouri.
I visited the Columbia, Missouri Police department feedback page. This is the message I left for them:
I read this today in an on line news article concerning the sentencing of former police officer Rios:
Rios confessed in “bits and pieces” of the affair, Monticelli said. The suspect told them he wanted to tell someone about the relationship on the day the body was found but that he decided not to after hearing other officers at the crime scene make “brutal” comments about Valencia being gay.
I sincerely hope that you take action within your police department to deal with the root of these “brutal” comments made about Jesse Valencia. The boy was gay and when the comments were made, he was dead. I can only imagine what your officers said about him.
He deserved a bit more respect than that and the police department should serve and protect ALL THE CITIZENS you serve.
The “brutal” comments were undeserved. My hope is that you would learn something from this and maybe something good could come out of this terrible tragedy.
Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday that he might introduce a bill next year that would seek to accomplish some of the same aims as legislation he vetoed Friday that would have granted certain rights to unmarried partners, including gay couples.
“We may very well put in our own bill next year,” Ehrlich (R) said during a radio interview on Baltimore’s WBAL. (source)
Feeling the heat, Governor?
It would have been easy for you to pass the bill before you to give gay couples just twelve of the legal protections married couples have in your state. Just twelve out of all the protections your state offers. And you couldn’t even do that.
Now, does it really make sense for you to introduce a bill next year that would do exactly the same thing as the bill you just vetoed? Unless of course, you are playing politics with these gay couples, who want nothing more than to protect the lives they have built together.
Republicans playing politics... now there’s a new concept.
(Annapolis, Maryland) Maryland’s Republican governor announced Friday he will veto two bills which would have helped same-sex couples and gay families.
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich said that he will reject the Medical Decision Making Act and a bill that would have eliminated an unfair property tax levied only on unmarried couples.
The Medical Decision Making Act would have created a limited domestic partnership registry allowing unmarried couples to serve as each other’s next of kin for crucial healthcare and post-mortem decisions.
The Act contained 11 basic protections, seven of which could not be accomplished through advance directive, power of attorney, or will. (source)
And, he actually did veto the Medical Decision Making Act.
Governor Robert Ehrlich of Maryland vetoed a bill yesterday that would have granted rights to gay partners who register with the state, concluding after weeks of intense deliberations that the legislation threatened “the sanctity of traditional marriage.” [...]
Modeled after laws in California, Hawaii, and other states, the partners’ rights legislation would have granted nearly a dozen rights to unmarried couples who register with the state. Among those: the right to be treated as an immediate family member during hospital visits, to make healthcare decisions for incapacitated partners, and to have private visits in nursing homes.
Another measure sought by gay-rights activists that would have extended a property transfer tax exemption to domestic partners also was vetoed. (source)
I don’t know what to tell you folks. To the couples in Maryland, my thoughts are with you. My hope is that someday, somehow, those who have worked at and successfully denied our families basic human dignity will someday find themselves in a place or situation of knowing what this feels like. I will never understand how people such as the governor of Maryland can be such a narrow sited ignorant homophobe.
This bill had nothing to do with marriage. This bill would have protected real families and real people who, as things stand now, have no way of obtaining that protection.
Taxas has executed Richard Cartwight who, on August 1, 1996, killed Nick Moraida, a gay man, in a robbery attempt.
On August 1, 1996, Richard Cartwright and two male accomplices met Nick Moraida after he pulled up in a small black sports car. The trio invited Moraida to go drinking with them at seaside park. After Moraida, agreed, they drove to a secluded fishing area off a cul-de-sac on Ocean Way.
Once parked in the cul-de-sac, the four men went down a hill to the seawall area, and Cartwright pulled out a gun and said, “This is a robbery. Put your hands on the cement [wall].” At the same time, one of the accomplices held a knife to Moraida’s neck. Cartwright and his accomplices took Moraida’s watch, keys, wallet and an envelope containing cash, then an accomplice cut Moraida’s throat and Cartwright shot the victim. (source)
This from the Houston Chronicle:
HUNTSVILLE - A former mechanic from Chicago was executed Thursday for the robbery and fatal shooting of a Corpus Christi man.
In a brief final statement, Richard Cartwright thanked his friends and family for their support.
“I want to apologize to the victim’s family for any pain and suffering I caused them,” he said. Then he urged his fellow death row inmates to “just keep your heads up and stay strong.” [...]
There were no witnesses from the murder victim’s family.
Cartwright, 31, was the eighth Texas prisoner put to death this year and the second in as many days.
Cartwright was one of three men who duped Nick Moraida into thinking they were homosexuals offering to share beer with him at a beachfront park along Corpus Christi Bay in 1996.
Instead, Moraida was stabbed then shot to death while being robbed of his watch and wallet containing between $60 and $200.
His assailants hoped to use the money to buy drugs and alcohol.
Kelly Overstreet, 27, and Dennis Hagood, 28, are serving long prison terms. They agreed to plea bargains and testified against Cartwright.
Less than an hour before his scheduled lethal injection, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a late appeal in which Cartwright’s lawyers argued he was condemned by a Nueces County jury because of testimony Overstreet now insisted was false.
Overstreet originally placed much of the blame for the shooting on Cartwright, but in a written statement to Cartwright’s lawyers earlier this month, Overstreet said, “I intentionally made Cartwright out to be the bad guy out of spite when in fact I am the one who was at the forefront of all events.”
Newsweek apologized yesterday for an inaccurate report on the treatment of detainees that triggered several days of rioting in Afghanistan and other countries in which at least 15 people died.
Editor Mark Whitaker expressed regret over the item in the magazine’s “Periscope” section, saying it was based on a confidential source -- a “senior U.S. government official” -- who now says he is not sure whether the story is true.
The deadly consequences of the May 1 report, and its reliance on the unnamed source, have sparked considerable anger at the Pentagon. Spokesman Bryan Whitman called Newsweek’s report “irresponsible” and “demonstrably false,” saying the magazine “hid behind anonymous sources which by their own admission do not withstand scrutiny. Unfortunately, they cannot retract the damage that they have done to this nation or those who were viciously attacked by those false allegations.” (source)
George W. Bush took us into a war built on lies. He wanted this war to happen because he wanted Iraq to fall. They never were a threat to the United States, and he damn well knew it. As of yesterday, there have been 1,806 coalition troop deaths, 1,627 Americans, 88 Britons, 10 Bulgarians, one Dane, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Hungarian, 21 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq.
So now, we are all over Newsweek magazine because one of it’s sources turned out to be lying when he said that American interrogators at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet.
The Bush Administration was quick to label this as “irresponsible”, “demonstrably false”, and that Newsweek magazine “hid behind anonymous sources which by their own admission do not withstand scrutiny.”
Oh please! Why don’t we hold the Bush Administration up to the same scrutiny that we do Newsweek? Their mistake was to trust a source that turned out to be untrustworthy.
Our mistake was to trust a President who has no moral fiber what so ever and who blatantly lied to us, the American People. He should be impeached. Where is our outrage on this?
It’s very difficult for me to throw stones at Newsweek. In the greater scheme of things, their offense doesn’t even show up on the map.
Well, I know that I shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover. And I know that I shouldn’t let my imagination run wild with me.
But tonight I received my neighbors mail in my mail box. You remember my neighbor? He’s the one who, when I went over to his yard with a bottle of wine to welcome him to the neighborhood, pulled his children in behind him as if he were protecting them from a child molester? Yeah, that neighbor.
Well we haven’t talked since. He gave me the creeps. His kids say hi to me occasionally, but that’s it. Today in my mailbox was a catalog addressed to him from Majesty Bibles and Books.
I guess that’s why he can’t stand us. I just remember something Mom said to me once. “You can’t make people more than what they are.” It’s sad, but true.
It amazes me. I consume on average 1000-1500 calories a day. That’s not much, so the kind of food I consume matters a lot. I concentrate on low fat and high protein. I don’t count calories per se, but I do watch the fat content. Since January, I have lost 30 pounds (and counting) and my energy levels have increased 200%. I also workout and exercise. There’s really no substitute for that.
The Wendy’s Classic Tipple (pictured below) is what a lot of people have every day in this country. I used to go to Burger King and McDonalds all the time. Believe me, this is what a lot of children eat. And guess what? Every one of them have weight problems. And, we wonder why people are having so many health problems and why so many people are obese.
If I ate this, I would be sick for hours. It’s just not what I’m used too.
My diet is simple. I eat whatever it is that I want to eat. I call it the “Cher diet”.
I was flipping channels one day, and came upon an info-mercial featuring Cher. They wanted to know her lifestyle, her diet, etc. When she talked of food, she talked about all the healthy things to eat, in the right proportions. I also thought she was a health nut. The interviewer said, “Well, I can see now why you are so skinny.” She looked at him and said, “You think this is easy for me? I’m in the gym two hours a day to look this way. There’s nothing easy about it, and every thing you eat matters.”
They interviewer said, “Well, what if I like chocolate cake and want to eat that. You make it sound like food such as that are never to be eaten.”
Her answer blew me away. She said, “There is absolutely nothing wrong with that piece of cake. It is every bit as valid as that low-fat salad. The difference is, I don’t have to run for 45 minutes on a treadmill to loose the calories if I have the salad over having the cake. The bottom line is, if you want that piece of cake, you should eat it, and enjoy every bite of it. Then, you should pay the price for it and work it off! So the real question you should be asking yourself is, ‘Is that piece of chocolate cake worth that 45 minutes on the treadmill?’ If it is, then have it!”
Her point was, everything in life has a price tag. If you eat fattening foods, and do nothing about it, the price tag will be weight gain. If you work out and pay that price, a piece of cake once in awhile is not a bad thing.
I took all of that to heart. She also mentioned that when you eat, you really need to know what you are eating. If you are eating pasta, you should substitute the word “pasta”, for “complex carbs”. They burn off slower than simple sugars (candy bar). That’s how I look at all food now. If I’m going to have a piece of chocolate cheese cake, I substitute the words “chocolate cheese cake” with “gratuitous fat”, because to the body, that’s actually what it is - simple sugars and saturated fat.
You are what you eat.
(Syracuse, New York) Syracuse University has banned a Boy Scouts of America activity from campus because of the organization’s prohibition of openly gay Scout leaders. (source)
I don’t actually have strong feelings about this... anymore. They are a private organization (according to the U.S. Supreme Court) and as such, have a right to their opinions and their policies (I’m going to get a lot of “bad” mail on this).
That being said, I think it is wrong to teach bigotry. Just because they have a “right” to it doesn’t mean that they “should” do it. I do have a big problem with parents who say that they do not support bigotry and have many gay friends, yet turn right around and place their son in the Boy Scouts. That’s hypocrisy.
Your beliefs should reflect your actions.
BOSTON — When the Legislature votes again this year on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and allow civil unions, it will be another dramatic step in what has been a long and often painful political fight. [...]
The amendment would overturn the Supreme Judicial Court’s 2003 ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that declared the state law banning gay marriage to be unconstitutional. That decision took effect May 17, 2004. [...]
The amendment — which was approved, 109-92, last year — is expected to pass again this year. If it does, it requires the approval of the majority of voters at the ballot box next year. (source)
My understanding is that, if the amendment does pass, it will go before the voters. If the majority of voters approve the amendment, it will become part of the state constitution. I believe that all the marriages performed for gay couples in Massachusetts would then be converted over to a “civil union”. I’m not clear is those “civil unions” would have fewer rights than marriage.
One thing is clear. If this were to happen, it would be more difficult to challenge this at the federal level. Today, these couples have full marriage. Those marriages are, in Massachusetts, no different than heterosexual marriages. Why aren’t married gay couples in Massachusetts allowed to file a joint federal tax return like their straight counterparts? Good question, and this is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
However, the federal government does not support or have a mechanism in place to honor a “civil union” and my bet is, even though we all know that everyone in Washington is striving to be fair and equitable, that they probably have no intention of ever honoring a civil union.
An interesting map showing the hate groups in the United States, broken down by Black Separatist, Christian Identity, Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Confederate, Neo-Nazi, Other, and Racist Skinhead.
A hate group may just be in your own back yard. I know I was surprised.
We set up the courts. We can unset the courts. We have the power of the purse. - Tom DeLay
And they have the power of the Constitution. I wonder who will win?
And they wonder why we want marriage...
This is one of the reasons.
For more than a decade, a focus of gay rights groups and other activists has been persuading employers to offer health insurance and other benefits to the domestic partners of unmarried employees. And Jessup was pleased that his employer was among those that did. [...]
Employer-provided group insurance “was a great plus for us because he is a self-employed writer and content developer,” Jessup, 39, said of partner Bob Chenoweth. J.P. Morgan’s coverage “was much cheaper than what he could get on his own.”
But there was shock in store.
“Something I didn’t understand at the time was how much the taxes would be. I was very surprised when I started doing my taxes” this spring, said Jessup, who is in Morgan’s commercial banking division in Indianapolis.
Under federal law, any portion of an employer-paid insurance premium that goes for coverage for a domestic partner is treated as taxable income to the employee. The employee also may not make any payments for partner coverage, such as premiums under a “cafeteria” benefit plan, with pretax dollars. [...]
“My taxes went up $150 a month. That’s something I hadn’t planned for,” he said of the reduction in his paycheck caused by additional withholding.
First, employer-paid health insurance is tax-free only for employees, their spouses and dependents. “A man and a woman who have not officially gotten married are in the same boat,” said Christopher Colwell of the accounting firm BDO Seidman LLP.
Heterosexual couples have the option of getting married; same-sex couples do not, except in Massachusetts. Even if they did, it wouldn’t help with the tax treatment.
The Defense of Marriage Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, defines marriage for the purposes of federal law as “a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife” and stipulates that “spouse” refers “only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.” It requires that both these definitions be used “in determining the meaning of any Act of Congress.”
Thus, same-sex couples, no matter what states do, will remain unable to get federal-tax-free health insurance for one partner through the other’s employer. A 1997 study by the General Accounting Office found 1,049 federal laws in which marital status is a factor. (source)
I may have to re-think closing my Wells Fargo Account.
A month or so ago, I received a call from Wells Fargo collection services. I’ve had a Wells Fargo account for years. I actually had an account with First Security Bank when I was in college. Later, First Security was bought by Wells Fargo. I kept the account all these years.
So, I’m in a management meeting at work, and I get this call from a rude collector (I think maybe all collectors are rude. They have that “I know you are trying to hack into our bank and take all our money and pull a fast one” attitude before you can even get a word out).
As it turns out, he was calling me because I had a 30-day past due amount of $29.00 on my account. My reply was, “You called me out of a management meeting for $29.00?” He said, “Yes, and we want to know when it’s going to be paid.” I don’t run past due amounts. I talked to Kent, who pays the bills, and he had us as being current. I had words with the bank. It wasn’t the stupid $29.00 I was bothered by. To me, that’s nothing. What bothered me was the absolute lack of consideration they had for me, having been a customer since 1976. All they had to do was to look at my payment record. Just amazing.
I was so pissed that I told them I would be closing my account. I’m cooled off now. I suppose since they are supportive of my community, I will overlook their lack of judgment on this.
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) and Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC - News), announced that Howard Buford, founder and president of multicultural advertising agency Prime Access, Inc., was honored as the first recipient of the NGLCC/Wells Fargo Excellence in Small Business Award. The award was presented Saturday, May 14th at the Excellence in Business Awards Luncheon during the 2005 NGLCC International Business and Leadership Conference in San Francisco. [...]
“Small business is big business at Wells Fargo, and we believe in the strength, diversity, and potential of the fast-growing LGBT segment,” said Michelle Scales, Director of Diverse Growth Segments for Wells Fargo. “Our ongoing alliance with the NGLCC, and our recognition of business owners like Howard Buford, reaffirm our commitment to support and partner with LGBT business owners, and help them succeed financially, in business and personally.”
The LGBT community will account for over $600 billion in consumer spending power this year alone. The NGLCC estimates the number of LGBT-owned small businesses nationwide to be approximately to one million strong. (source)
Related Entry on Wells Fargo
December 5, 2005 - Way to Go Wells Fargo
BOSTON -- Matt Laderer figured it was the kind of stuff straight people talk about with their moms and dads: When is the right time to get married? How do you pop the question?
“I realized, I don’t know that information,” the 24-year-old mechanical engineer said on a recent night out with his boyfriend at Club Cafe, a gay bar in Boston’s South End. “I don’t know when to buy the ring.”
When Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage one year ago, it was hailed by gays and lesbians as a milestone in their struggle for acceptance. But it also added a new dimension to the gay dating scene -- the pressure to get married. (source)
This is something new to think about. I also realize that I never really gave much thought to how this would change the dating scene for gay and lesbian people. Questions like, “Should I propose?”, “What’s the right time?”, were never an option for Kent and myself. We just kind of... happened, over time. Part of that angers me greatly. We overcame all kinds of bad stuff to be where we are today because we had zero support, and that didn’t have to happen. Are we stronger because of it? I think we probably are. We know that, no matter what happens, we can rely on each other, because on so many occasions in our adult lives, we’ve had to do just that.
But for a lot of gay and lesbian people who are dating, this adds a new dimension to the scene - commitment. And not only commitment, but societal commitment - it’s marriage. We’ve never had that before or had access to that. This is new for the couples in Massachusetts. For the first time, but only in one state in this nation, we actually belong and are part of society.
(Austin, Texas) The Texas lawmaker behind a bill that would ban gays and lesbians from being foster parents in the state says he was called on by God. (source)
This is why we need more middle-of-the-road people in our legislatures. People who claim that God is telling them how to rule are unfit for the job at hand. And, it’s a bit scary, if you think about it.
Finally some good news! Nebraska’s state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage (passed by the voters) has been struck down by a federal judge, citing that the ban “goes far beyond merely defining marriage as between a man and a woman.”
I expect to see more of this in the future as these amendments are tested. This is a big step forward.
Here in Connecticut, starting October 1st, gay couples will be able to enter into a Civil Union, which will effectively give gay couples most of the rights of heterosexual marriage in the state. I expect the Civil Union arrangement also to be challenged (a case is pending) as being separate and unequal.
Nebraska’s ban on gay marriage was struck down by a federal judge who ruled the measure interferes with the rights of gay couples and people in a host of other living arrangements, including foster parents and adopted children. The constitutional amendment, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, was passed overwhelmingly by the voters in November 2000.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon ruled Thursday the ban “imposes significant burdens on both the expressive and intimate associational rights” of gays “and creates a significant barrier to the plaintiffs’ right to petition or to participate in the political process.”
Bataillon said the ban “goes far beyond merely defining marriage as between a man and a woman.” [...]
The judge said the “broad proscriptions could also interfere with or prevent arrangements between potential adoptive or foster parents and children, related persons living together, and people sharing custody of children as well as gay individuals.”
Forty states have laws barring same-sex marriages, but Nebraska’s ban went further, prohibiting same-sex couples from enjoying many of the legal protections that heterosexual couples enjoy. Gays and lesbians who work for the state or the University of Nebraska system, for example, were banned from sharing health insurance and other benefits with their partners. (source)
With friends like Spokane Mayor Jim West, who needs enemies?
I’ve not written anything about Mayor West, because I hate to kick someone while he’s down. And down he is - big time. Not only is his political career ruined (that’s unfortunately, a good thing for the gay community), but he may also be spending some time in prison, if allegation of child molestation are proven to be true. He denies that this happened. I’m not going to judge that here. It will be ironed out in the court room. The allegations of molestation of two boys happened decades ago. He is accused of using the trappings of his office to try to court a young man on a gay Web site.
What I will talk about is his absolute hypocrisy on the issue of gay rights. Here, we have a man, who now claims to be gay, who has worked for years against equal rights for gay. Here’s a run down:
James West’s votes on gay rights issues as a state legislator and as mayor
Yet, he wants to claim that his private and public life are two different things. Wrong. If you are a public servant, how you live your personal life is up for public scrutiny. This is especially so if the mayor was making decisions making life more difficult for gay people while being a gay man himself.
A lifelong Republican and former state Senate majority leader, West was best known in Olympia as a fiscal conservative. He rarely led on social issues.
Still, he opposed extending protected-class status to gays during his two decades in the state Legislature, and last week threatened to veto a city ordinance giving benefits to the gay partners of city employees.
In 1986, he supported legislation barring gays and lesbians from working in schools and day-care centers. At the time, he was actively involved in the Boy Scouts.
“He acknowledged he compartmentalized, building a wall between his public and private selves,” said Blaine Garvin, a political-science professor at Gonzaga University in Spokane. “When you do that, you’re not being honest with yourself. I think it’s appropriately called hypocrisy.”
State Rep. Bob McCaslin , a Spokane Valley Republican who served with West, disagrees.
“If you talk about [gay] rights, and his philosophy, I don’t see any hypocrisy,” he said. “I’m sure some people will, if in fact he’s gay.”
West told The Spokesman-Review newspaper that his opposition to gay-rights legislation doesn’t mean he supports discrimination. “I have never been outspoken against gays, I have never discriminated against gays,” he said. “It’s dicey to vote for those bills I consider an extension of a benefit that didn’t exist, need to exist.” (source)
Bullshit. When you prevent bills from becoming laws that would protect gay workers from being fired for being gay, you are supporting discrimination. He did this in 1985 and 1987.
In 1986, West, along with 14 other state House Republicans introduced a bill to bar gays and lesbians from working in schools, daycare centers and some state agencies. Think about that. Yet, this mayor sits there and says, “I have never been outspoken against gays, I have never discriminated against gays.”
This is a man with a deep seeded hatred for people like... himself. He has to deal with these demons as we all have. With all the negative information about gay people that has been thrown at me in my lifetime, it has been very difficult for me to come out on top and feel genuinely good about myself as a person. What has made that happen is my own personal integrity.
I don’t even have to think, “If I were in his position, I would like to think that I would be better.” I simply know that I would be. I wouldn’t put down others to make myself look better. Not ever. Not one time. That is called integrity and it is also why I would not make a good politician. I don’t play the game of politics. If I look someone in the eye and make a statement, they can assume it’s true.
That is what we need in politics today. That is what is missing in Mayor Jim West, our Congress, our Vice President, and our President. None of them - NOT ONE OF THEM - gives a damn about people. None of them can see beyond the issue of how it will make them look in their current office or