Miscellaneous: August 2005 Archives

It amazes me how stupid some people are. It is 2005, and many people still think that being homosexual and being a pedophile are the same damn thing.

Personally, I can’t stand the Catholic Church. But I will tell you this, I’m personally getting just a little pissed off at being lumped in with pedophiles just because I’m gay. I don’t plan on being a priest and Lord knows, I have no plans of giving up sex. But it’s the principle of the thing.

I suppose if people really think that their adolescent boys are going to be safer excluding gay priests, then they can go ahead and exclude them. Just don’t complain when it doesn’t work. Gay priests and priests who are pedophiles are not the same thing.

Pope John Paul II called us “intrinsically disordered”. What is really “intrinsically disordered”? Is it being an openly gay person who is proud of ALL of his/her achievements, or, being a church who moves priests from one location to the next knowing full well that they are molesting children, in an effort to keep them from being caught and to keep their little secret? THEN, they turn around and try to point the finger at ALL GAY PRIESTS and say, “YOU!!! YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!” That sounds pretty disordered to me.

All of that being said, what is the attraction to staying with the Catholic Church if you are gay? It’s as if you are saying, “Yes, please bash me more so I can have even more self-loathing for myself and feel more worthless. Thank you Lord!”

Experts on sex offenders say there is no credible evidence that homosexuals are more likely than heterosexuals to abuse children, but several church leaders argued that gay clergy were to blame.

Those pushing for a ban on gay priests often cite two Vatican documents that make clear that homosexuals should not be ordained: One issued in 1961 says: “Advancement to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers.” (source)

This was in my email this morning. It came to me from a friend, who was basically forwarding it to me (spam). But I read it, because it was sent from a friend.

There are a lot of people in society who want to look back to the “good ole days”, as if they didn’t have problems. The problems were there, they were just different. A lot of people today are trying to right the wrongs done in the past. Of course, I suppose it all depends on how you feel about things.

If you were white and middle class, the “good ole days” were kind to you. If you were black, you were most likely poor and looked down upon. I still remember my friend Bobby, from the second grade. He was a black kid, and he was my best friend. My family told me not to play with “his kind”. I honestly had never noticed him being black until they told me, and then it didn’t matter to me. That was my first experience with prejudice. Shortly after that, the good people of Emmett burned down Bobby’s home. His parents left in a hurry in the middle of the night. And Bobby was not heard from again. I was told years later what happened to my friend. There’s nothing quite like burning down someone’s home and running them out of town to put them in their place. None of this made the papers and none if it was spoken of. Those were the “good ole days”.

If you were gay, you were meeting people like yourself in secret places because other public places (such as a bar) that we would meet at would most likely be raided by the police. It was only a matter of time. Your name would be put in the paper as being a pervert, and the harassment would begin, most likely with you losing your job and shaming your family. You either moved away or committed suicide. You would be remembered as someone who used to be a good person be fell prey to Satan and the evil lifestyle of homosexuality.

Those were the “good ole days” for me. Not so good. In my opinion, we’ve made a lot of progress. Many don’t like it because their “good ole days” are now becoming our “better days”, and things are looking up a bit more for Americans who have been left behind in the past.

THE GOOD OLE DAYS

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn’t seem to get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it raw sometimes. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag not in icepack coolers, but I can’t remember getting E-coli?

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.

COVENTRY -- Voters in a fourth referendum Tuesday rejected the $30.5 million proposed town budget, which would have cut some athletic and extracurricular activities at the high school and middle school.

The budget proposal failed by a vote of 1,309 to 1,054.

The board of education’s plan received its deepest cut prior to this referendum. The school budget was reduced by $192,750, including $4,000 eliminated from every school’s after-school activity funds.

With cuts that already have been made to textbooks and other supplies designed to provide differentiated instruction to students, parent Lisa Thomas said Tuesday she has been forced to find programs through Manchester Community College for her fifth-grade daughter.

“Do you know how behind this town is?” said Thomas, who voted for the proposed town budget. “There’s not enough staff here to support the differentiation of curriculum.” (source)

Well, if I had children going to school, I suppose I would move to a town that valued education. People just don’t understand how very important it is. I don’t know what is going to happen now. We will have another budget, but at this point, I think it’s getting so routine that people just don’t care. I would guess that many people with school-age children at home will move out.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Coventry. It’s out in the middle of nowhere. We have a very small town feel, but don’t have to go far to be in the city. We are able to have a nice home here and even the small town is very aware with the fact that many gay people live here. And we’ve really had no hassles (only one incident in the nine years we’ve lived here). And that incident was quickly dealt with.

Now I’m left wondering about other services, such as snow removal, etc.

Related Article
August 29, 2005 - Kent and I at least care about your Children’s Education

COVENTRY -- Voters will head to the polls Tuesday to vote for the fourth time on a proposed town budget, this time a plan that cuts some athletic and extracurricular activities at the high school and middle school.

The new budget calls for the elimination of $4,000 in each school for the after-school activities, though school officials have not decided what will be cut.

“You’re probably looking at bus trips, after-school activities, choir,” said board of education Chairman Larry Pietrantonio. “We are going to try to keep as many programs as possible.”

Voters, who have rejected three budget proposals since May, will weigh in Tuesday on the fourth, a $30.5 million proposal that calls for a 4 percent increase in taxes. The budget would increase the tax rate one mill. [...]

Since the first budget referendum the school board has cut a total of $392,000 from educational spending, Pietrantonio said. (source)

We live in a cheap town. There’s no getting around that. I can understand being fiscally conservative in terms of summer programs and the like. But when it comes to the quality of education given to school children, I don’t think you should be stingy on that. The tools we give kids during their time of learning is their foundation that will support them throughout their life.

The odd thing is that Kent and I put the education of children in our town higher than the parents do. We always make it a point to get to the polls and vote “Yes” to approve the budget. It always seems to be defeated. This makes the fourth time this has happened. Last time, the town said that they are down to bear bones and that essential services would have to be cut, such as snow plowing. That budget also failed. Now, we are cutting after school programs and some jobs are being cut.

Kent and I have no real vested interest in this. We could sit back and vote “No” to the budgets. We don’t have children so it’s really no skin off our nose. We vote “yes” for other people’s children and are willing to pay higher town taxes to support those children’s education.

With parents themselves not taking an interest in their child’s education, why do we wonder that so many kids turn to crime and drugs?

Related Article
August 31, 2005 - Town Budget Lost... Again

The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist in Kansas, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. The church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, is made up mostly of Phelps’ children, grandchildren and in-laws.

The church members carried signs and shouted things such as “God hates fags” and “God hates you.” [...]

“My husband is over there, so I’m here to show my support,” 41-year-old Connie Ditmore said as she waved and American flag and as tears came to her eyes. “To do this at a funeral is disrespectful of a family, no matter what your beliefs are.” (source)

Fred Phelps and his group has been doing this for years at the funerals of gay men. I suppose there’s some perverse part of me that is glad they are doing this. Now, I don’t feel so singled out, I suppose, for what that’s worth. And now perhaps straight people who are faced with this kind of hatred will finally understand what it feels like to have someone picket a funeral of someone they love. Of course, we are still involved, indirectly. Phelps is saying that he’s picketing these funerals because America is suffering God’s vengeance because America “harbors gays”.

All I can say to people like Connie Ditmore is, welcome to my world.

Other writings on this
August 9, 2005 - Anti-gay rallies at funerals draw complaints
August 2, 2005 - GodHatesFags.com is Expanding

The new Pope faces his first controversy over the direction of the Catholic church after it was revealed that the Vatican has drawn up a religious instruction preventing gay men from being priests. (source)

But then who’s going to be priests? It’s more of the effort of the church to scapegoat gay men concerning the molestation of children. They will try to be careful how they say that, but it’s an attempt to pull attention away from the scandal.

Kent and I signed our wills yesterday. Actually, it was more than that. It was power of attorney, life and death decisions for hospital visitation, etc. In all, there were about ten documents we had to sign.

I asked our attorney if it would be beneficial for us to do a civil union in October. In Connecticut, gay couples will be able to get “civil unions” after October 1st. It’s not marriage, and yes, it dissolves once we cross the state line, but it does give most of the rights and privileges of marriage, at the state level. Of course, it’s not recognized by the federal government.

She said, “Who knows? The law has not been tested so there is no case law based on it. I knew of a gay couple who traveled to Kansas, and one had to go into the hospital. They presented their civil union papers to the hospital, and were able to have visitation, but legally, the hospital was under no obligation to honor the civil union because Kansas doesn’t not allow civil unions.”

We have decided not to get a civil union because it’s too demeaning. We haven’t stayed with each other for thirty years to have the State of Connecticut tell us that we just aren’t quite good enough for marriage. So, we will take our chances with these documents. As long as we are in Connecticut, we think we will be ok. If we travel outside the state of Connecticut, our lawyer said that we should take the papers with us to show that, at least in Connecticut, we have legal papers trying to protect what we have as a relationship. In other words, the documents are trying to say that, in the absence of marriage, that we are not “legal strangers”. Kind of depressing, if you think about it enough. So, I’m not going to think about it. I’ve done all I can do. The rest, when it happens, will depend on the compassion of strangers, I suppose. Legally, they can probably tell us to screw off.

Other things.....

We have decided that it does indeed make us feel better to SPEND MONEY (it’s like a drug). So, instead of spending it on organizations that seem to only care about money, we decided to spend some money on us. We are going to Europe next year, but in the here and now, we have decided to put down hardwood floors in our home. I’m sure the cats will not be pleased. But hopefully, they will like the end results. Hopefully, we will too.

The banks are all excited about the buzz around “Maxwell Manor” (our home) and what improvements we plan. Of course, I’m looking for .00053% interest rate. Think I’ll find that? Hummm??

Interrogator Pleads Guilty in Afghan Case
Apologizing for embarrassing the Army, a military intelligence interrogator admitted he abused an Afghan detainee who later died. [...]

He admitted that he stood by in December 2002 as former Sgt. Selena M. Salcedo lifted a detainee known as Dilawar by his ear and former Spc. Joshua R. Claus made another detainee roll around on the floor and kiss Walls’ boots.

Walls also admitted pushing Dilawar against a wall during the interrogation in which Salcedo abused him. Dilawar’s death has led to charges against a number of service members.

“I’m sorry because ... it was my duty to stop it and by not doing so I’ve embarrassed my unit, I’ve embarrassed the Army,” Walls said in a soft voice. “It was humiliating. It was just wrong. I should have stopped it.”

He’s sorry because he embarrassed the Army and his unit? The man they killed, or should I say murdered, was a 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar, who was found after his death to be innocent. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As a New York Times article stated, “Most of the interrogators had believed Mr. Dilawar was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the American base at the wrong time.”

What was the punishment for Dilawar’s murder? Spc. Glendale Walls, a U.S. military intelligence interrogator from Ft. Bragg, N.C., was convicted of assault on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2005, at Fort Bliss, Texas, that let to Dilawar’s death. He was given a bad conduct discharge and two months in prison.

Two months in prison. Can we even imagine what the prisoner went through? He was found to be innocent. This is what we are...

Even as the young Afghan man was dying before them, his American jailers continued to torment him.

The prisoner, a slight, 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar, was hauled from his cell at the detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan, at around 2 a.m. to answer questions about a rocket attack on an American base. When he arrived in the interrogation room, an interpreter who was present said, his legs were bouncing uncontrollably in the plastic chair and his hands were numb. He had been chained by the wrists to the top of his cell for much of the previous four days.

Mr. Dilawar asked for a drink of water, and one of the two interrogators, Specialist Joshua R. Claus, 21, picked up a large plastic bottle. But first he punched a hole in the bottom, the interpreter said, so as the prisoner fumbled weakly with the cap, the water poured out over his orange prison scrubs. The soldier then grabbed the bottle back and began squirting the water forcefully into Mr. Dilawar’s face.

“Come on, drink!” the interpreter said Specialist Claus had shouted, as the prisoner gagged on the spray. “Drink!”

At the interrogators’ behest, a guard tried to force the young man to his knees. But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend. An interrogator told Mr. Dilawar that he could see a doctor after they finished with him. When he was finally sent back to his cell, though, the guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling.

“Leave him up,” one of the guards quoted Specialist Claus as saying.

Several hours passed before an emergency room doctor finally saw Mr. Dilawar. By then he was dead, his body beginning to stiffen. (source)

And it’s not just people like Dilawar. There are many many others like him. This entire incident could easily have been swept under the carpet and forgotten about, which makes me wonder how many others have we ignored in the past four years?

We talk about liberty, and justice, and democracy. If this is the kind of crap that we want to hold up to our standard of justice, I want no part of it. And we wonder why the rest of the world is getting its’ fill of America.

Any way you slice it, this is just wrong. I’m not really interested in the old adage, “These things happen in time of war.” Ask Dilawar’s family if that’s good enough for them.

As long as we are talking about democracy and freedom, let’s take a sneak peek at this new Iraqi Constitution that is going to free the Iraqi people from tyranny of us Saddam Hussein.

Key Points:
any new law must conform to Islam
women will be, in many cases, second-class citizens, especially in family matters
Islam is the official state religion, and it is the principal source of legislation
Article 2 declares: “It is forbidden to enact laws which contradict the principles of Islam.” What effect would the current Article 2 have in practice? In theory, it would entail that all legislation contrary to Islam would be anti-constitutional and therefore liable to be revoked.

So much for freedom and democracy.

Sources
A Vague Constitution
A Constitution or an Epitaph?
Iraq’s war on women

Some of the things that I was going to write about, but didn’t get around to it...

Gay lifestyle isn’t America’s to judge
Columnist Issac Bailey gave some great points to Evan Wolfson’s recent book; however, he prefaced them by prompting the reader to “judge” by what they read. (July 6, “Writer’s case for same-sex unions good.”) Mr. Bailey, thanks, but no thanks. Trust me when I say there has been far too much of that.

My stance as a gay person is that my choice of people to love and to spend my life with is not for your readers to judge, choose or concern themselves with. Like it or not, Americans, we are out there and always have been.

We are not going to start living to your expectations because you have no tolerance for difference. I have met lesbians who have been together since before I was born (1962). They have endured this “judgment” and lack of tolerance for many decades and yet their love and commitment are still so strong. American heterosexuals take love for granted so much that many are defending the very bond and union that they do not even appreciate.

Hillsborough County Pride is Back!
Busloads of gay men and lesbians from the Tampa, Fla., area are expected to head to Key West this weekend for the first-ever Hillsborough County Pride in Exile.

The series of events was organized to protest a resolution passed by the Hillsborough County Commission in June that prohibits the county from recognizing, promoting or participating in gay pride events. The new ordinance led to the removal of two gay pride exhibits from the county’s libraries.

When she introduced the ordinance, County Commissioner Rhonda Storm said tax-supported libraries “shouldn’t be used as a bully pulpit to introduce [gay] issues” to children. The commission passed the resolution 6-1. [...]

While the commission’s action did not actually ban gay pride events in Hillsborough County, the new ordinance has raised questions about whether or not gay groups will be able to get parade permits from the county, said Stratton Pollitzer, South Florida director for Equality Florida.

Being In The “IN” Group
Unmarried couples just can’t catch a break.

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson’s reasonable attempt to give unmarried couples, gay or straight, some recognition with a listing on a city registry is a lightning rod attracting opposition from those who are determined to prevent any legal standing for people who live together but are not married.

Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, believes that all legal benefits of being in a committed relationship are reserved for married folk and he has vowed to put a halt to the mayor’s proposal. He said Anderson’s idea is “tantamount to the San Francisco mayor standing on the steps [of city hall] and performing [gay] marriages.”

Saying so doesn’t make it so, of course; signing a registry is nothing like taking marriage vows. Still, it is possible that even this small recognition could lead - as, in fairness, it should - to the granting of hospital visitation rights, survivor rights and employee benefits for all city residents in committed relationships.

Why I No Longer Believe in the Death Penalty
A pardon is issued in Georgia to Lena Baker, a black woman who was convicted of the murder of a white man 61 years ago in a one-day trial in which she claimed self-defense.

Baker was sent to the electric chair in 1945 because of what the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles now calls “a grievous error.”

And now we will have to listen to all the opponents of capital punishment pick nits about the occasional person who every once in a while is put to death by mistake.

This is exactly why I no longer believe in the death penalty. The woman was murdered 60 years ago for simply defending herself. Her real crime, it turns out, was that she was a black woman defending herself from a white man.

---------------

That was what was in my list to write about, but I never got to it. I had thoughts on each on of those items, but those thoughts are lost and I’ve let them go. I don’t know if anyone actually cares to read about them.

I’ve had a difficult week. I have periods of depression, on the severe side. Not just depression really. It’s almost like I’m in a dream, where I have no energy or interest in anything. So, I usually channel my energy in to “positive” things that are not “emotionally loaded”. To me, that means work. It’s hard to be emotional about writing computer programs. It’s easy to lose yourself in that because you can spend hours analyzing how you want a program to behave.

In real life, things go on. Gas prices are out of control, we still have that damn war, although it’s in the news less and less, I suppose because the President is shortly going to go to Idaho as part of his vacation. At least he won’t have to deal with grieving mothers camped on his doorstep in Texas. And, by going to Idaho, he will be visiting one of only two states where his approval rating is above 50%. I believe the last approval rating taken for Idaho showed the President’s approval rating at 64%. You can’t lose there. I wonder if he actually cares about anyone or anything at this point. I would personally find it hard to go on vacation knowing that every single day, young men are dying under my watch for a war that I drug my country into. But, that’s just me. Apparently, he doesn’t have that problem. I guess it’s because of his faith or some other useless reason he has.

Kent is home now from Austin, Texas. Having him away last week made last week one of the longest weeks I’ve had in a long time. On Friday, I went to court to testify at a high profile case here in Connecticut, although I’m not at liberty to talk about it. Most of what I know will go to the grave with me.

And during all of this, I thought I was going to die of high blood pressure. I wasn’t feeling well during the first part of the week. So, I took my blood pressure and it was 169/111. That puts me in the Stage 2 high blood pressure area. Not good. I started taking my medication again (that the doctor took me off of), and it’s getting down to a manageable level again.

So, all in all, not a good week. But I’m back again, for now.

The president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, William Donohue, suggested a constitutional amendment to say that “unless a judicial vote is unanimous, you cannot overturn a law created by Congress.”

The court is trying to “take the hearts and souls of our culture,” he said. (source)

I say we take ’em out behind the barn and beat the crap out of ’em.

Seriously though... What about the system of checks and balances. The Judiciary has every right and OBLIGATION to strike down any law passed by Congress that does not stand up to Constitutional scrutiny. That is the system we live by.

The people from Focus on the Family should realize that they are losing the cultural war. America is no longer in the fifties. People are coming around to the notion that all Americans should be given equality an fairness. That absolutely drives these people crazy.

So now, by demanding a unanimous vote of the Supreme Court to overturn a law passed by Congress is to give much more power to Congress than they enjoy today. Focus on the Family understands where this is going. The Constitution is not friendly to their bigotry.

But there is another possibility that such findings, when and if they pinpoint exactly the mechanism that triggers homosexual development, will merely fuel pressure to then come up with a “cure” for homosexuality, leaving society with another ethical dilemma: If medicine could interrupt and reverse the development of same-sex preference, given that this has been a variable in human development for our entire history, should it be permitted? (source)

Will I someday cease to be? I’m not talking about “me” exactly. I’m talking about people like me. The emotional argument would be to use terms such as “extermination”, or “genocide” to describe this action, but that is not totally accurate. You can’t have extermination over something that never existed.

So, by finding the cause of homosexuality, and “curing” it, I would never exist. Or, I should say, people like me would never exist.

And if I never existed, would there be anyone around to make the argument that I should have existed? But wait, they wouldn’t know to make that argument would they? Because I would never have existed.

In the movie, “I, Robot”, Sunny, the robot who is about to be killed (taken “off line”) says before the procedure is completed, “I hope that you can find out what is wrong with me. I think it would be better not to die, don’t you?”

While I’m still around, or, I should say, people like me are still around, I would like to say, while I still have the chance, “I think it would better to exist, don’t you?”

What a strange day.

Kent left at 4:30 this morning for Austin, Texas for a week. Why do airlines fly so damn early? I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I wrote a letter for a friend who is incarcerated (a long story that some day, I may tell to the world). I skipped breakfast - I just wasn’t hungry for some reason.

I had to go to the pharmacy. It was kind of a strange experience. I was standing in line. This lady in her early 20’s was standing at the register. The clerk asked her if she needed anything else. As she was reading this huge headline on People Magazine about the passing of Peter Jennings from lung cancer, she looked up and told the clerk, “Yes. I will take a couple of packs of Pall Mall’s please.” Kind of sad really. I guess the power of cigarettes is very strong, even when reading about cancer.

Later, I went into Hartford and got a hair cut. I stopped by my favorite restaurant on the way home for dinner.

It’s hot. According to my car, it’s 101 degrees, and very very humid. You would think I would be more bothered by it, but it doesn’t seem to bother me.

I’m just happy that last week is over with. It was an awful week for us. There are some memories that are awful to relive. Does it make me a bad person for not wanting to think of those that I have loved, and lost? Even that thought is hard to think about.

I ended a life today. On my way to my haircut, a bird flew into my car. I stopped. It was lodged in the front of my car. It was dead. It was apparent that it died on impact with my car. I lifted it out, and gently placed it in a grassy area away from the road, under a tree. I stopped everything for a moment to think about what had happened. I was sorry.

I think I’m having a problem with depression again. It’s hard for me to put two thoughts together. I’ll go to bed soon.

The Kansas Board of Education voted 6-4 to include greater criticism of evolution in its school science standards, but it decided to send the standards to an outside academic for review before taking a final vote. [...]

The belief, which many say is deeply tied to religious belief, holds that some features of the natural world are best explained by an unspecified intelligent cause. Evolution is a fundamental scientific theory that species evolved over millions of years through natural selection.

However, the latest version of the science standards says the board isn’t advocating intelligent design - which says some features of the natural world are best explained by an intelligent cause because they’re well-ordered and complex - as an alternative to the theory of evolution. But the language favored by the board comes from intelligent design advocates who challenge the theory of evolution. [...]

President Bush seems to believe the debate is a worthwhile. [...]

“I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought,” Mr. Bush said. “You’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes.” (source)

But... the difference is that evolution is a pretty well grounded theory (Kent can speak more on this). If the goal is to expose the children to “different ideas”, as the President suggests, why not just introduce the findings of the Star Trek series into the science books. That is as grounded in the truth as Intelligent Design, it seems to me.

Is our goal to teach children science, or science fiction? Cutting through the chase (which I love to do), this is just one more way, aside from the obvious goal of getting prayer back into public schools, for religion to find it’s way back into public schools. Notice that it doesn’t call itself “Creationism” anymore. Now, it’s the more benign term of “Intelligent Design”. Make no mistake about it, the two are joined at the hip.

Eventually, at a few of these dinnertime discussions, the subject of homosexuality was ever so timidly broached. “What do you think, Dad?”

I don’t remember who asked the question, but it wouldn’t have been Mark. It had to be one of the girls. They liked to challenge “Dad’s agenda.” While I’d have preferred to avoid anything relating to sexuality, my answer was fairly easy, and it came quickly. I knew the words of the magisterium: “An abomination. Sex is reserved for marriage. Love the sinner, hate the sin. Natural law. Et cetera.” Concluding with a short lecture on the virtue of chastity, I clearly conveyed, “End of discussion . . . next topic.”

It was a well-intentioned automatic response, but one that avoided open dialogue of a difficult topic. Little did I realize the struggle my son was undergoing at the time. My brilliant pontificating was stifling his attempts to communicate and secretly causing him to question the worth of his very existence. Read more...

Maybe Judge John Roberts won’t be so bad if confirmed for the U.S. Supreme Court. Maybe he should be viewed as a more moderate member of the court like, say, Sandra Day O’Connor?

We are not going to get a nominee from the current President who will be “pro-gay” or “pro-choice”. It’s just not going to happen. What we should all be looking for is a nominee who will be fair minded and open minded and see the side of other arguments and not be guided by some ideology that overrides that reasoning. That’s the best we can hope for.

Maybe he won’t be so bad. And certainly, without a lot of past decisions on his part to pull from, we have no evidence that he would lean to the extreme right on his decisions.

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. worked behind the scenes for a coalition of gay-rights activists, and his legal expertise helped them persuade the Supreme Court to issue a landmark 1996 ruling protecting people against discrimination because of their sexual orientation.

Then a lawyer specializing in appellate work, the conservative Roberts helped represent the gay activists as part of his law firm’s pro bono work. While he did not write the legal briefs or argue the case before the Supreme Court, he was instrumental in reviewing the filings and preparing oral arguments, according to several lawyers intimately involved in the case.

The coalition won its case, 6 to 3, in what gay activists described at the time as the movement’s most important legal victory. The three dissenting justices were those to whom Roberts is frequently likened for their conservative ideology -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. [...]

The lawyer who asked for his help on the case, Walter A. Smith Jr., then-head of the pro bono department at Hogan & Hartson, said Roberts did not hesitate.

“He said, ‘Let’s do it.’ And it’s illustrative of his open-mindedness, his fair-mindedness. He did a brilliant job,” Smith said. (source)

A fringe Kansas church that claims Americans soldiers deserve to die in Iraq because the church was the target of a bombing attempt plans to demonstrate at the funeral of a Moorhead soldier.

Sgt. Bryan Opskar was killed on July 23 when a roadside bomb exploded. A military spokesman says the 32-year-old Marine was conducting combat operations near Ar Rutbah, Iraq.

Ten members of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) of Topeka, Kansas, plan to picket for 30 minutes before Opskar’s funeral in Moorhead on Tuesday, said Shirley Phelps-Roper, church attorney and daughter of church minister Fred Phelps.

The church operates at least two Web sites - godHatesAmerica.com and GodHatesFags.com - and links soldiers’ deaths in Iraq to a bomb that exploded on its compound in 1995. (source)

There will always be crazy people in the world. This is about crazy, deranged people. The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, is run by Fred Phelps and his congregation, which is made up mostly of his family members. They have made a habit of protesting at the funerals of gay men in the past, including the funeral of Matthew Shepard. On their website, godhatesfags.com, they even have a counter showing how many days Matthew has “been in Hell”. Nice huh?

More recently, they have tried to put up monuments around various states, such as Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming with Matthew’s picture on it saying that he and all homosexuals will be damned to Hell. Of course, he somehow gets around all the other “sins” specifically spelled out in the Bible, but I suppose what ever works...

But now, the group seems to be getting bored (less press?) with gays and are expanding their interests. Now, they are picketing the funerals of service men killed in Iraq. It’s a bit confusing, but apparently they picketed this soldiers funeral because he was killed by an improvised explosive devices (IED), just like one they claimed was used against their church to stop their anti-gay preaching.

This is their position on the war:

Thank God for IEDs killing American soldiers in strange lands every day.

WBC rejoices every time the Lord God in His vengeance kills or maims an American soldier with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). “The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked” (Ps. 58:10).

This nation bombed and raided the Westboro Baptist Church, and now the Holy God that Inhabits Eternity is repaying those heinous acts with His retaliatory wrath; “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom. 12:19).

To most effectively cause America to know her abominations (Ez. 16:2), WBC will picket the funerals of these Godless, fag army American soldiers when their pieces return home. WBC will also picket their landing spot, in Dover, Delaware early and often.

See, I knew that would clarify it for you. These people are absolutely crazy.

Now gay men in Australia are challenging the ban on gay men donating blood. I went through exactly the same feelings of humiliation when told by the Red Cross that I was banned for life from giving blood, just because I’m a gay man. No other group has been universally banned, except for IV drug users, and their ban is not one of life.

I know exactly how he feels; humiliated, worth less than others, damaged goods. But you get through it. You pick your ego back up, brush it off, and go on. You know the kind of person you are. If they don’t want the blood, you can have the slight satisfaction of saying to yourself, “Too damn bad,” every time they come around crying for blood because the supply is low.

The screening is in place. All blood gets screened for a multitude of diseases - HIV is just one of them. If they would rather let people die than take the blood of gay men, even though the blood will be thoroughly tested, then so be it. The deaths of the people at risk for lack of blood is on their hands, not mine.

That’s how I’ve dealt with it. I no longer really care if the American Red Cross allows me to give blood. They’ve shown what they are all about. I want nothing to do with them.

ELEANOR HALL: To Tasmania now, where a homosexual man is today seeking to overturn rules which prevent him and other gay men from donating to Australia’s blood supply.

Michael Cain says he felt humiliated when he was told by a Red Cross worker last year that he couldn’t give blood because of his sexuality.

He’s now taking his case to the Tasmanian Anti Discrimination Tribunal, as Tim Jeanes reports from Hobart.

TIM JEANES: Michael Cain’s complaint, to be lodged this afternoon, says his treatment by the Red Cross left him humiliated.

MICHAEL CAIN: Incredibly shocked and taken aback. Then I started to feel feelings of anger, frustration, dirtiness, a little bit useless in a way. I mean I came in here to donate my blood to help other people, and I don’t think anyone should be told they shouldn’t be allowed to do that. I mean, it was an incredible feeling and I started to feel the wrongness of it. And I thought, “Look, this has to change.” (source)

Other writings on this
Red Cross Gay Blood Ban Back in the News

There are two groups of people that, at the moment, I can’t stand; Al Qaeda, and Internet Service Providers - also knowns as ISP’s).

When an Internet Service Provider (ISP) says that they offer 24/7 support, that’s not necessarily so. Granted, someone is always there to answer the phone, but that doesn’t mean they know squat.

My site went down Friday evening. It was strange. It simple started refusing to talk to anyone. You would get the message “...your connection has been refused...”. I called tech support. They couldn’t figure it out, but they did finally come to the conclusion that it had to be “escalated” to the next higher group of technicians (who supposedly have a higher sense of what’s going on. No luck. They didn’t know either, and told me that it may have to wait until Monday until the very very very highest and brightest people of all are “in”.

Apparently, when you get to the very very very highest and brightest level of being, you don’t have to be available 24/7. I want to be in that group of people!!

So now, I’ve put in my request for a credit for the down time (which they are probably laughing at), and I’m wondering if I should change ISP’s. They are generally good, unless something happens. Then, it is hit or miss. I also try to support local ISP’s in Connecticut (my current ISP is located in Trumbull, Connecticut). I know they do not discriminated in their hiring practices because in Connecticut, that is illegal.

I did a bit of research, and there are a couple of other ISP’s that look promising, but they are located in Tennessee; not exactly the center of enlightened thought in terms of equality for all folks. But, they swore (and probably would swear on a stack of Bibles if I asked them to) that they do not discriminate, etc.

But somehow, in the way the letter was worded, I got the distinct impression that they didn’t have the slightest idea what the hell I was talking about when I asked them for their hiring policies in terms of fairness. After saying, “Oh yes, we have a non-discrimination policy.”, they directed me to their “Terms of Service”, which spoke nowhere about their policies in hiring. Instead, the Terms of Service went into great detail about not allowing “PORN” anywhere on your site (“art” is exempt from this policy, although I assume that they are the critics on what constitutes “art” - I wonder if they would allow it if I posted one of the more.... revealing photos of Robert Mapplethorpe?).