Recently in Morning Reads Category

I heard this on the radio on my way into work this morning, and Kent forwarded me a link as well. It's an article warning of the dangers of cancer from the use of cell phones. Most of us use cell phones. I can't live without mine, but I'm not using it a lot. I figure next to the other dangers in life, like simply driving to work in the morning, cell phone usage is way down on the list of dangers.

Still, I do worry about some people. I know people who seem to live their lives on cell phones. When I visit the UCONN campus, students all over the place have a cell phone up to their ear. Many others have the phone up to their ear a lot. I also know people who go around the office all day long with a blue tooth ear set hooked to their ear. All day long, even when they don't have a call, or are in their car! I stopped using a blue tooth ear set because my new car simply has it all built in (I wonder what that's doing to me on my way to work?), so when I get a call, my car rings. I pick up the call with a button on my steering wheel, and the radio stops, and it puts the call through my car speakers.

But still, for those who wear a blue tooth ear set all day long, what does that do to you? It's pulsing every few seconds to stay online waiting for a call. And every time it pulses, what does that do to their brain?

Just something to think about. Personally, I view the cell phone as a great invention, kind of like the light bulb. I never go anywhere without it, but a lot of that is knowing that if I'm in an accident, or fall while out hiking, help is only a phone call away. But I use it with moderation, like every thing in life. I love martinis, but I don't have one every night and I don't use them to deal with stress in my life. I love chocolate and deserts, but I don't gorge myself on them. Once in a great while, maybe once every 2-3 months, I'll have a dessert and a cappuccino after a nice dinner.

And sometimes when I'm making a nice dinner for guests, I will use real butter in a sauce (some sauces will not work without it). If I'm making a Hollandaise or a Bearnaise sauce, they have butter and egg yolks for the consistency. How often do I make those? Maybe twice a year. How often to I eat steak? Maybe once a month.

The message here is, everything in moderation. Know what the risk is, and act accordingly.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The head of a prominent cancer research institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cellphone use because of the possible risk of cancer.

The warning from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is contrary to numerous studies that don't find a link between cancer and cellphone use, and a public lack of worry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. [...]

Adults should keep the phone away from the head and use the speaker phone or a wireless headset, he says. He even warns against using cellphones in public places like a bus because it exposes others to the phone's electromagnetic fields. (source)

We all get it. SPAM seems to be invading all of our INBOX's these days. Even with the best spam blocker out there, some will get through. I usually just delete them out. It's like a ritual of reading email anymore. You go into read your email, and as you are reading through, you will come upon a spam message, and almost like a reflex, just delete it without thinking. It would seem that spam has replaced those pesky phone calls from salesmen in the evenings.

But today, I read this one that came into my Inbox.

Hi Bill

I hope you don't mind the direct contact.

i have a question which always becomes nightmare for me
is it true that one day i will not be alive?

if it's true then why we are crazy to collect those things which will not go
with us

Please suggest me or will you forward this note along, or suggest to me who the
best person is to know this?

Thank you so much!

Rick Lombart

It even gave his mailing address. Which tells me that this man is crazy, or someone is playing a nasty trick on him. At any rate, the message gave me brief pause.

To answer Rick's question, yes, someday it is true that you will not be alive, although many people think that you have multiple lives. I, for example, clearly remember being Cleopatra. So I'm probably the last person you want to pose this question to.

Having said that, Rick's point about collecting things is a bit odd. Why do we do it? Why do I collect photos that I take almost on a daily basis, when they will probably be of little use in say, 30 years?

I think the answer is, it's not about longevity. It's about passion, and what brings pleasure to life. If you are always wondering why you collect things given that you won't be around forever, I think you are kind of missing the point.

Do things now, simply because you enjoy it.

This morning at breakfast, I read two letters to the editor in the Hartford Courant. They concerned a satirical article published in the CCSU campus newspaper, The Reporter, by writer John Petroski, who published a satirical piece called “Rape Only Hurts If You Fight It.” The full article can be read below.

After the piece was published, on February 8, this came out:

The editors of The Recorder, in another statement released Thursday, said they regretted the harm the article caused, adding they would not have published it if they had realized how people would react to it. Yet at the same time, the statement defended Petroski as a gifted satirist whose intended message “fell on deaf ears.”

The statement said television news coverage of the controversy has been one-sided.

“John has been grossly misrepresented,” the statement said. (source)

Later, facing increased criticism for the article, Mr. Petroski, a 23-year-old sophomore history major, was fired from his position as the newspaper’s opinion editor. He finally apologized.

“When I hear about girls crying or feeling suicidal over something I wrote, it doesn’t make me feel so good,” Petroski told the gathering of more than 100 students and faculty who had turned out to discuss the issue. “I’m concerned about you, and I want you to hang in there.”

Petroski then addressed the victims of sexual assault who had been most damaged by the article, which appeared in last Wednesday’s edition of the student newspaper The Recorder under the headline “Rape Only Hurts If You Fight It.”

“I apologize sincerely,” he said to the group of women who, in the days since the article was published, had publicly identified themselves as rape victims in a show of protest against the article and the paper.

One student, Nicki LaPorte, had won a rousing ovation from the audience after tearfully condemning the article earlier during the forum.

“I am not a victim of rape, I am a survivor of rape,” LaPorte said. (source)

The paper’s editor, Mark Rowan, also stated...

“It’s definitely going to make me more sensitive to this issue,” said Rowan, a 21-year-old senior who hopes to pursue a career in journalism after he graduates. “Up until now, I had always seen the world from the narrow vantage point of a 21-year-old white male, but now I see that it needs to be broadened.” (source)

This all prompted me to send the following letter to the editor of the Hartford Courant.

This morning, I read two Letters to the Editor in regards to the “rape controversy” surrounding the satirical piece on rape composed by John Petroski, the opinion editor of The Recorder, the paper at CCSU.

In the first letter, “Nothing Funny About Rape”, Evelyn Berg rehashes some of the article’s main points, where Mr. Petroski tries to enlighten us to the “benefits” that rape has given to society; that it can be a “magical experience”; that it is a blessing to “ugly women” because, “If it weren’t for rape, how would they ever know the joy of intercourse with a man who isn’t drunk?”

Evelyn’s letter is followed by a letter entitled “Overreaction To Satire”, by Kenneth Dimaggio, Assistant Professor of Humanities at Capital Comm. College in Hartford. In his letter, Professor Dimaggio calls us the “illiterate mediocre masses”, who have overreacted to the article and states that we, being mediocre and all, simply cannot, or do not, understand satire. He then goes on to say that Mr. Petroski could possibly have done a better job, and ends up turning his little letter into a critique on satirical writing technique.

What is missing in all of this is something so simple that it apparently has eluded both Mr. Petroski and Professor DiMaggio. Rape is not a crime of passion, that will show “ugly women” the “joy of intercourse”. Rape is a vicious crime of hate and power. Nothing more. It has absolutely nothing to do with sexual desire, and it should be seen as such. As an educated man, I appreciate satire, but this crossed the line.

If Mr. Petroski and Professor DiMaggio feel differently, I would be interested to hear their opinions after both of them have been raped. My bet is they would tell a much different story from their experience and would both agree that perhaps, from a literary point of view, that “joy” was really a poor choice to describe the experience, and that it wasn’t so “magical” after all.

As for Mr. Petroski, The Reporter, and CCSU, they still don’t get it. Action should result in the firing of Mr. Petroski, and CCSU should be held to a higher standard, because this isn’t education. And, if I were a victim of rape, and found this article forcing me to relive horrible memories of the “joy” of rape, I’d most be likely be filing a lawsuit for compensation against my added suffering.

Maybe then, they would see the point? Probably not. But what do I know? I’m just part of the “illiterate mediocre masses”.

Bill Cannon
Coventry

Two points:
1) Satire is extremely difficult. It takes a gifted writer to pull it off. As one observed,

Professor Russell Brown, supervisor of studies for English at University of Toronto Scarborough, remarked that Petroski’s article made it difficult to determine intent until the final paragraph, while many students would have stopped reading earlier in disgust or confusion over poor arguments and offensive remarks.

“Simply, it’s poorly done. With good satire like Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, there is at least an underlying feeling of being impossible in seriousness, and here there was none of that ’till far too late.” (source)

2) Do we have free speech in this country? Yes, we do. Can you write articles that will, intentionally or unintentionally emotionally harm others, or incite violence against certain groups? Yes, you can. But, that doesn’t mean that there will be no consequences to doing that. I think that John Petroski has learned that in a very hard way. Let us hope that his apology wasn’t just done for show, and that he truly grows from this experience.

Click below to read the original piece published by Mr. Petroski, which has since been pulled from The Reporter.

Public Officials and Civil Rights
The mayors of both Millville and Vineland said Monday they will no longer perform marriages of any kind in an effort to avoid the marriage of gay and lesbian couples. [...]

The mayors said their decision stems from religious beliefs.

“our refusal to perform these ceremonies is based on each of our individual beliefs, i.e., that marriage is intended to be a union between a man and a woman. At the same time, we recognize alternative lifestyles in our communities, we value the many contributions of those citizens to the community and we give every respect to their civil rights and privileges the same as for all citizens,” according to the mayors’ statement. (source)

I have mixed feelings on this. I can understand that the mayors have decided not to perform the civil unions for gay couples (recently allowed in New Jersey) because of their religious convictions. To get around civil rights violations, they have opted to perform no marriages for straight couples or civil unions for gay couples. However, they are public officials, and as public officials, shouldn’t they be required to discharge the duties of their office without religious bias? And, doesn’t this open up the possibility that all public officials could also decide to not to perform marriages or civil unions?

That would effectively kill civil unions in New Jersey. For those heterosexual couples who wanted to get married, they could still go to a church to get married.

So now, we have some mayors who have decided not to perform marriages or civil unions. And, the article states that, “The law empowers any number of public officials to perform these ceremonies and in fact, several officials have already gone on record with their willingness to do so.” That’s fine, but does that mean that gay couples now have to shop around the state to see what public servant will perform their civil union?

Doesn’t sound like equal treatment to me.

Grey’s Anatomy star to meet with “gay activists”
“Grey’s Anatomy” star Isaiah Washington, under fire for using a gay slur about a co-star, met Monday with gay rights activists who said he agreed to help educate the public about the cruelty of such language.

“He seemed very sincere in his interest in working with us in an ongoing basis,” Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. “We emphasized that this is not a one-shot deal, but an ongoing thing. He was very open to doing this.” (source)

Another Hollywood publicity stunt. What a waste of time. It’s working. This is all over the TV and the Internet. So dumb.

Other reads....
Bush will talk about our health care crisis in the State of the Union address tomorrow night. Or is that tonight? I forget (I won’t be watching as it conflicts with my As The World Turns episode time slot). He will talk only briefly I’m told about the war in Iraq. Isn’t that kind of like mopping your floors while the house is burning down around you?

Selenium Supplements Add Punch to HIV Fight
HIV patients now have a surprising and simple way to help keep their infection under control: daily doses of a mineral called selenium.

Daily selenium supplements seem to “tame” the HIV virus and strengthen the immune system, according to research published in today’s issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. [...]

Antioxidant Powers May Give Selenium Strength Against HIV. Scientists aren’t sure how selenium works to tame the virus. One theory is that selenium’s antioxidant powers enable it to repair damage to the immune system. A stronger immune system is better able to fight off viruses like HIV. (source)

I thought this was interesting. I’ve always heard that people should take Selenium for a variety of reasons. I think the problem is that Selenium can be deadly (so Kent tells me) in high doses, and many of the people pushing this don’t necessarily tell people that too much of it can be a bad thing (as in, death). Also, there are many foods that are extremely high in antioxidant, such as blueberries. Perhaps the best source of nutrients comes from everyday food, without popping pills.

Of course, HIV is a different monster all together, and if Selenium will boost the effects of medications, I would go for it, with your doctor’s approval.

Federal marriage ban is shelved
A proposed federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage nationwide has been shelved in light of the congressional takeover by the Democratic Party, Colorado’s Pueblo Chieftain newspaper reported.

The proposal’s sponsors, Sen. Wayne Allard and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, both Colorado Republicans, said last week they have no plans to reintroduce their anti-gay legislation in the new Congress.

“At this time, I haven’t discussed it with anyone,” Allard told the newspaper Thursday. “If we thought there was a decent chance to bring it to the floor for debate, I would, but with the new Congress, I’m not sure we will ever have that opportunity.” (source)

I am getting a lot of satisfaction from this one. Musgrave, with all due respect, you may now go crawl back under that rock you came out from under. And take your hateful, mean-spirited soul with you.

And I’ll leave you with these thoughts. Yes, I did watch the State of the Union Address.

“As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want.” - Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Thursday, December 9, 2004

“This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in.” - President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, Jan. 23, 2007

On the Passing of President Ford
“I want you to know how much I appreciated your selfless actions last Monday. The events were a shock to us all, but you acted quickly and without fear for your own safety. By doing so, you helped to avert danger to me and to others in the crowd. You have my heartfelt appreciation.” - President Gerald Ford in a letter of appreciation to Oliver Sipple

It’s a little known bit of history that I had also forgotten about. Ford survived two assassination attempts. The first one came from a follower of convicted killer Charles Manson. The second one from a woman named Sara Jane Moore in San Francisco. That attempt possibly failed because of Oliver Sipple, who grabbed the woman and failed the attempt. Ford congratulated Sipple with the letter above.

With the media attention that followed, it became known that Sipple, a former U.S. Marine who was wounded twice while serving in Vietnam, was openly gay, or so openly gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk thought when he told a reporter that Sipple was gay. Sipple had worked on Milk’s campaign.

Many people knew about Sipple being gay, except for his family. His mother disowned him. After a failed attempt to sue seven papers for damages and mental distress, he began drinking heavily. He was found dead in his apartment on February 2, 1989.

Source

Hate Crime in Arizona
SCOTTSDALE - Paradise Valley Town Councilman Brian Cooney is offering a $10,000 cash reward to urge witnesses to come forward with information about a recent gay assault outside of a Scottsdale restaurant, he said Wednesday.

Detectives continue to search for as many as seven men suspected in the Sunday beating of Jean Rolland, 28, and Andrew Frost, 19, as more people voiced their support for the victims of the hate crime.

The couple were leaving dinner at Frasher’s Steakhouse near McDowell and Scottsdale roads when they were assaulted by a group of men shouting an anti-gay slur, police said. (source)

Additional source

It’s a sad state of affairs. Hate crimes happen to gay citizens in this country every single day, and 98% of them are never reported because the victims of these crimes fear the police will do nothing.

The same thing happened to Kent and myself a few years ago. We went to a local restaurant called Papa Ginos. As we were having dinner, there were a couple of guys across the room from us. I thought they were probably talking about us, but I didn’t know for sure. One would say something, and they would both laugh loudly. Then, they got up to leave. As they passed by the isle that passed next to us, one of them stopped, looked at us, and said, “Fucking faggots.” Then he just starred at us, wondering if we would do anything. We just kept talking among ourselves, completely ignoring them. I mean, completely, as though they were never there.

Why? Because it’s hard to start a fight if you give them nothing to work with. They left. All the while, the restaurant owner heard and witnessed the whole thing. You know what he did? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

So in this story, where there were so many “witnesses” that watched these men get beaten, where are they now? The police could use the information and a description of at least one of the suspects, but no one will come forward. That makes them an accomplice to the crime. And at the very least, they tacitly approved of what happened by their inaction.

It was the same thing with our incident. The owner of the restaurant should have intervened, or called the cops, but he didn’t. And if this had happened in the parking lot on the way to our car, who knows what would have happened. People think these things are isolated. For me, I’m always on the alert for someone to try something like this.

N.J. governor signs civil unions law
“I believe very fundamentally in equal protection under the law and this legislation is about meeting that basic responsibility and honoring the commitments that individuals have made to each other,” said Corzine, a Democrat. (source)

“Equal protection under the law.” Right.

The New Jersey Civil Union law will give “gay couples all the rights and responsibilities - but not the title - of marriage.”

This is the equality that the New Jersey civil union bill will offer:

If Partner A adds Partner B to a home owner’s policy, you can do that with the NJ civil union law. But, if Partner A dies, Partner B can not keep the policy. A married “spouse” can keep the policy.

You will not be married in the eyes of federal law because of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Therefore, you will not be eligible for Social Security survivor benefits, sheltered from estate taxes upon the death of your partner, or any of the other federal benefits.

A gay couple who gets a NJ civil union will be able to file a joint state tax return, however, to do so, they will still need to fill out the joint federal forms and send them to New Jersey along with their state tax return. They would still have to file separate tax returns with the federal government.

The civil unions bill requires companies that offer health insurance to spouses of their employees also offer it to civil union partners of workers. But for the civil union partner - unlike a spouse - those benefits would have to be reported as income to the IRS and would be subject to taxes.

Surviving partners may not be able to collect deceased partners’ pensions, which fall under federal regulation.

Under federal law, alimony is not taxed. But support paid from one partner to another when civil unions are dissolved would likely be subject to federal gift taxes.

Additional source information

Well, the list goes on and on. I think it’s also very telling that David S. Buckel, a Lambda Legal lawyer, stated that gay couples are planning their vacations in states like Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, and Vermont, in hopes that if something should happen while on vacation, they would have more protections.

This is the United States of America, not some third world country. You would honestly think we could do a bit better than this. I’m disgusted.

Was Jesus gay?
At a time when the church is having increasing difficulty in dealing with the concept of homosexuality, a lesbian author has published a book featuring an erotic love story between Jesus Christ and his disciple John. (source)

Well, if Jesus was gay, and there have been many others who thought he might be gay, a lot of “Christians” are going to have a lot of explaining to do someday on the way they have treated their gay brethren. That’s all I can say about it. I don’t even want to think of where that puts people like Fred Phelps and his ilk.

U.S. Not Winning War in Iraq, Bush Says for 1st Time
President Bush acknowledged for the first time yesterday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and said he plans to expand the overall size of the “stressed” U.S. armed forces to meet the challenges of a long-term global struggle against terrorists.

As he searches for a new strategy for Iraq, Bush has now adopted the formula advanced by his top military adviser to describe the situation. “We’re not winning, we’re not losing,” Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. The assessment was a striking reversal for a president who, days before the November elections, declared, “Absolutely, we’re winning.” [...]

“We need to reset our military,” said Bush, whose administration had opposed increasing force levels as recently as this summer. (source)

Well, I think the one who needs to be “reset”, is the President.

On a dimly brighter side, he is coming a bit closer to reality. Is this not a good thing?

The reality is that we hardly have the troop strength to send in the 20,000-30,000 troops that are being talked about. Also, everyone, with the exception of the President, agrees that these numbers could not be maintained for a long duration. In my opinion, we are sending 30,000 more targets to Iraq. It’s simply not enough to make a difference.

Pentagon mulling show of force to Iran
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is considering a buildup of Navy forces in the Persian Gulf as a show of force against Iran, a senior defense official said Tuesday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because the idea has not been approved, the official said one proposal is to send a second aircraft carrier to the region amid increasing tensions with Iran, blamed for encouraging sectarian violence in neighboring Iraq as well as allegedly pursuing a nuclear weapons program. [...]

In Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that U.N. sanctions would not stop Iran from pursuing its uranium enrichment program, which he has said is for peaceful development of energy.

Bush administration officials have repeatedly declined to rule out the use of force against Iran, though they have also said their first choice is to rely on diplomacy. (source)

Perhaps I was too hasty in suggesting that the President is coming closer to reality.

We are now talking about taking on Iran as well? And this after we just told India to develop nuclear weapons at will? I can actually understand Iran’s reasoning here.

Before diplomacy can work, as the Bush Administration claims to be their “first choice,” the United States must be willing to TALK TO IRAQ. If our ego has grown so big that we are unable unwilling to do that, then there will be no diplomacy.

But aside from all of this, Iranian President Ahmadinejad is not doing so well himself politically in his own country. He may not be President much longer, and he has little say on what will happen with nuclear development within Iran. He talks big, and he talks with force, but internally, the Iranian government is becoming unsettled and irritated by many of his hard line conservative stances.

Romney against bias to gays despite opposition to gay marriage
“I’m not in favor of discrimination of any kind including people who have a different sexual preference than myself. At the same time I’m very committed to traditional marriage between one man and one woman and believe that marriage should be preserved in that way. I don’t think there’s any conflict between feeling that all people deserve respect and tolerance and that discrimination is wrong and a belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.” - Massachusetts Governor and Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney (source)

I feel for Mitt Romney. I really do. Back in 1994 he was a different kind of candidate. He was much more moderate (or, maybe he was lying then). So today, are we to believe that he has become this ultra right winger that is against gay marriage? He’s such an easy target. He claims to be against “discrimination of any kind including people who have a different sexual preference” from himself, which we are to assume is heterosexual. At the same time, he is against allowing gay couples access to marriage; an institution which would grant them 1,039 federal legal rights, along with countless legal rights at the state level.

I don’t know, call my naive. But that sounds like discrimination to me.

Double Standard?
Plans to develop condominium complexes marketed to older gay and lesbian couples are drawing howls of protest from some people in Massachusetts who say local government is guilty of having a double standard.

State representative Brian Wallace of south Boston tells The Boston Herald city officials up to now have refused to allow developers to build seniors-only facilities because of fair housing laws. And the head of a Boston real estate group says the idea of marketing exclusively to gays is “a bit much” — and points to the uproar that would result if the condos were “just for heterosexual people, or Muslims, or Jews or Catholics.” (source)

I can always count on Fox News for unbiased reporting. That’s why I go there so often.

Is building condos for the gay and lesbian community a double standard? I don’t know, to be honest. But I do know that their analogy is somewhat flawed (happens a lot to Fox News, it seems). The nuance that they seem to overlook is that unlike housing for the elderly, or Jews, or Catholics, I doubt that those groups are targeted so heavily for violence and verbal epithets. Think about it. How often do you hear someone drive by and yell out their window, “You are soooooo old!”, or “I hate Catholics”, accompanied by the car stopping and 4 guys with a baseball bat stepping out of the car to follow through with their hate.

It happens a lot for the gay community. I don’t expect Fox News to take my word for it because I’m sure they would feel that if they did, they would somehow be seen as “endorsing the gay lifestyle”, which they would never do, but I’m telling you from experiences in my life, it is very true that gay people face these fears every single day.

When people get older, or even people who just want their home to be safe, who the hell needs to worry about thugs coming to your home to do you harm? I think the building of these condos is a great idea for those in our community who can afford them (they aren’t inexpensive) who want that peace of mind. In a perfect world where we could all get along and put aside our personal biases, we wouldn’t need them. But when you are in one of the most hated minorities in the country, why not do this? I would also argue that the Muslim community might benefit from this.

Bush Signs India Nuclear Bill
U.S. President George Bush signed the nuclear agreement between the United States and India Monday at a White House ceremony.

The U.S.-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act effectively recognizes India as a nuclear power and allows the United States to supply technology for peaceful purposes. In return, India agreed to inspections by the U.N. nuclear agency.

“The United States and India are natural partners,” Bush said. “The rivalries that once kept our nations apart are no more -- and today, America and India are united by deeply held values.” (source)

You know, we used to get along with Iran also at one time. Some people’s memories are very short.

Romney Runs Into Trouble On Gay Rights
Governor Romney’s reversal of his decade-old stance in favor of federal gay rights legislation is angering gay Republicans and being met with skepticism from some conservatives who could be important to the Massachusetts politician’s prospects as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

“I don’t see the need for new or special legislation,” Mr. Romney said last week in response to a question about a bill first introduced in Congress in 1994, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. “My experience over the past several years as governor has convinced me that Enda would be an overly broad law that would open a litigation floodgate and unfairly penalize employers at the hands of activist judges,” the governor said in an interview posted on the Web site of a conservative magazine, National Review. (source)

Romney doesn’t feel “the need for new or special legislation” because he doesn’t feel that it’s a bad thing to be able to fire someone simply because they are gay. That is exactly what this is about. He is against adding “sexual orientation” to the protected categories of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Are things getting better for gay citizens in regards to employment and housing issues? I suppose they are, in some areas. But in other areas of the country, it’s still very difficult for folks who can’t pass for straight. I wonder how Romney would feel if he were told that he couldn’t obtain a job he wanted because they don’t hire Mormons? But he would say that was different, of course.

Gay retirement community is a first
SANTA FE, N.M. - Jan Gaynor and Barbara Cohn have decided to spend their retirement years in this city of art and culture, not just because it’s steeped in 400 years of history, but also because it offers something new.

The sixtysomething couple wanted to live in the nation’s first full-fledged retirement community for gays and lesbians. They sold their house in California and moved into a condominium at Rainbow Vision Santa Fe this summer. (source)

I don’t think it’s exactly the first of it’s kind for retirement. It seems to me that I’ve heard of others in the past. It is most certainly true that gays who live in cities tend to live together, for safety primarily. It’s not always a guarantee of safety though. When we lived in San Francisco, we lived in The Castro, and there were many gay bashings happening all the time. When gays live together, it can become a target for violence. But, I see the allure of living within these communities. You can be yourself. You don’t have to hide or tell lies. But isn’t this what we are trying to get away from? I mean, with marriage and all, it seems to me that we are trying to be a part of society. If we live in gay ghettos, how can that happen? Or do we really want to be fully incorporated into all of society?

Gay civil unions may be legal in N.J., but who will perform them?
Same-sex couples looking to enter into civil unions in Cumberland County are better off going elsewhere if they’re thinking of tying the knot at city hall.

That’s because most local mayors said last week they would not perform a civil union ceremony if asked. [...]

The number one reason officials said they would refuse to perform the ceremonies is that homosexuality and same-sex unions run contrary to their Christian values.

“I don’t think anybody’s going to ask me,” Hopewell Township Mayor Hal Bickings Jr. said. “I’m a Christian. The Bible specifically says marriage is between one man and one woman.” (source)

There’s an easy answer to this problem. The legislature of the State of New Jersey has voted on allowing civil unions in the state. If any public official is unable to fulfill the obligations of his/her public office, they must step down. If they are unable to honor the separation of church and state and fulfill the obligations of his/her public office because of their religious convictions, they must step down.

If they refuse to step down, they are breaking the law, and legal authorities should act accordingly.

8 Virginia Episcopal flocks break away
Eight Northern Virginia churches announced yesterday they will leave the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia after their congregations voted overwhelmingly to depart because of liberal trends in the 2.2-million-member Episcopal Church. [...]

The departing congregations comprise about 10 percent of the diocese’s 90,000 members and about 17 percent of the 32,000 people in the pew on an average Sunday. Virginia Episcopalians have been in an ecclesiastical civil war since the 2003 consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, an active homosexual, with the support of Virginia Bishop Peter J. Lee.

“I wasn’t at all surprised,” said Kim Cooke, a former vestry member. “This church has always made a point of being faithful to the Scriptures and God. When faced with a choice between man and God, it was an easy choice.” (source)

It’s funny in a way. Kent and I used to belong to St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco. It was quite a welcoming church. And even back then, circa 1983, the church (at least in San Francisco) was talking about ways to honor the “special friendships” of gay couples. They had a committee formed to discuss all of this. Kent and I were part of that. We ended up with a report that was comprised of all of our recommendations. It was submitted to the bishop. And what do you know? It mysteriously, was lost, never to be heard from again.

I’m sure they were hoping that the committee wouldn’t form or stay together long enough to come up with anything. Just another reason we left the church...

Pentagon: 18 released from Guantánamo this weekend
The U.S. military says it has sent 18 captives away from the Guantánamo Bay detention center -- a big weekend transfer to five different nations -- downsizing the detainee population at the remote Navy base in southeast Cuba.

Seven captives were sent Afghanistan, six to Yemen, three to Kazakhstan, and one each to Libya and Bangladesh.

’’These detainees were recommended for transfer or release by multiple review board processes conducted at Guantánamo Bay,’’ according to a Pentagon statement this morning. (source)

...where they will be tortured or killed. But, at least the United States won’t be torturing or killing people. We don’t do that. Right....

Bush signs U.S.-India nuclear deal
President George W. Bush hailed a new era of strategic cooperation with India on Monday as he signed a new law that is a major step toward allowing New Delhi to buy U.S. nuclear reactors and fuel for the first time in 30 years. (source)

And how does this give us leverage, or any credibility to tell Korea, Iran, or any other country that they should not develop nuclear weapons? In addition to policing the world with our military, are we now the nuclear police, with the power to issue a nuclear license to any country that is (currently) in our favor? We play a very dangerous game.