Beck addresses the unwashed masses at his "Restoring Honor" Rally.
I haven't written about Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor Rally" up to now, because I usually don't like to shine a spotlight on the insanity that's taken hold of the country, especially among the dwindling numbers of desperate and terrified refugees of the Culture Wars. Seriously, these folks are pathetic. But now I'm thinking I should shine that spotlight and as often as possible.
These are the frightened, lost sheep who feel abandoned by the Republicans and who are turning to nut-jobs like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin to fuel their fear of the future. With neither the Democrats or Republicans showing strong leadership, the disillusioned masses are falling prey to Beck and Palin and their ilk and to the leaderless Tea Party.
We are at a cultural turning point in this country. Liberal/progressive causes have been kept at arms length for four decades, because the Democrats have failed to lead. With LGBT rights groups and other liberal orgs pressuring the president to move decisively forward on repealing DADT and DOMA and to pass ENDA, the Obama Administration has been overly-cautious, so as not to offend a deflated and leaderless Republican Party. A Republican president, as we have seen, would never have dragged his/her feet for nearly two years to get his/her agenda through.
The Neo-Con movement is dead and buried and as the Republicans struggle to redefine themselves, without the help of the religious right, whose political leadership died with Jerry Fallwell, those on the extreme far right, who are by and large undereducated, extremely conservative, extremely religious, blue-collar families, are easy prey for scheisters like Beck and Pailn, who have taken the snake oil medicine show to new heights for the gullible, pathetic masses.
The future is coming whether we like it or not. The Tea Baggers, the Evangelicals, Pentecostals, the all the other Fox "News" loyalists are simply reacting to their fear of the unknown and allowing themselves to be taken over by Mob Mentality and being led, blindly and deliberately by opportunistic charlatans who are only too happy to pass out the torches and pitch forks.
The video below is an interview segment done at the rally. These people are very scary. Notice how they all talk about taking back their country and "going back" to some imaginary point in time when they think things were so much better in this country. Fear of the future is what drives these people. It's a sign that we are finally poised to achieve our goals, if our leaders will only lead. Are these the people you want running your country again? With GOProud's HomoCon Convention scheduled for the end of September, dangerously close to the November mid-terms, LGBT Rights is quickly becoming a bi-partisan issue and the Democrats had better be worried.
When you are confronted by right-wing nut-jobs spewing their ignorance, stupidity and hate, let them rant. In fact, hand them a microphone and point your cam at them. The more they rant, the more they drive rational Americans to become more tolerant.
First issue of Hevjin, Turkey's first ever LGBT newsletter
After three years after planning in secret and fearing for their lives, two Turkish activists have launched the muslin nation's first ever LGBT publication.
The online news magazine EurasiaNet.org interviewed the fledgling publishers, who have been meeting in secret before releasing their premier issue this month. The pair did not allow even obscured photos of themselves to be shown in the article. EurasiaNet reports:
For all their fear, however, the pair embarked on a radical experiment, launching the first-ever magazine for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) Kurds this July. Called ‘Hevjin’, meaning ‘intercommunity’ in Kurdish, the first issue of the free publication is available online and in a few bookshops and cafés in Diyarbakir, a city with a large Kurdish population.
It took three years of patient work before Koya and Solin, both gay Kurds themselves, were ready to bring out the first issue. “There are 15 million Kurds in Turkey, and one in 10 people is gay, but where are the Kurdish gay people?” asked Solin. “That is the question that led to this. We wanted to find out how people express their sexuality in this culture.”
LGBT Turks have every reason to be fearful. Honor killing, the practice of killing a family member who has brought shame to the family is a very real possibility. From EurasiaNet:
In July 2008, a 26-year-old Kurdish man, Ahmet Yildiz, became the victim of what many believe to be Turkey’s first gay honor killing to be publicly exposed. Yildiz, who was openly homosexual and had even represented Turkey at an international gay gathering in San Francisco the previous year, had left his conservative Kurdish family in the southeast in order to live more openly in the West. He was shot dead as he left a café in the Uskudar district of Istanbul. His own father Yahya, who disappeared after his death and has still not been found, is currently being tried in absentia for his murder.
The online edition can be viewed here, but is not yet available in English.
Out lesbian and all-around funny girl, Jane Lynch took home the Best Supporting Actress Emmy last night for her over-the-top role as Coach Sue Sylvester on the Fox breakaway hit Glee.
Here's her very funny acceptance speech where she does like everyone else and thanks everybody, including her wife and daughter. This is just one of those "So what?" moments that is remarkable only because it shouldn't be.
One other thing, Jane totally rocked the red carpet last night. She looked better than most of the hetero, fashionista bitches in the house. Bravo, Jane!
Starting my first official day of vacation today and inadvertently slept in until 9:30. How shameful! The ducks were not happy.
Been wrestling with Mozilla Firefox for the last half hour trying to get it up and running for my regular post. Sometimes Mozilla works well with the Blogger software and sometimes it doesn't. I've also used Google Chrome, but I have found that sometimes when I hit the enter key after a paragraph, nothing happens.
The main problem with Mozilla is that when I hit the enter key, the cursor appears on a completely different section of the page.
If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to it. I know, get a Mac. That's not feasible right now. Anyway, wanted to get a quick word out before the automated e-mail kicks in and sends out today's posts. Stop by for more updates throughout the day. Since I don't have to rush out the door, I can spend a little more time on my posts.
Then there are times, like right now, when you hit "publish post" and Mozilla locks up completely and gives you an error message.
Now that we've had a couple of days to think about former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman's coming out, maybe we can take a moment to look beyond his past sins against our community -- and they are many -- and think about what this means to our ongoing struggle for full equality.
Ken Mehlman said in his interview in The Atlantic that he wants to work for marriage equality now and it appears he is serious about it. The Huffington Post reports, "The impetus for Mehlman's coming-out was a Sept. 22 fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which is fighting for marriage equality in California. Mehlman will co-chair the event with Elmendorf and high-profile Republicans including Steve Schmidt, who managed John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, and Nicolle Wallace, who advised both McCain and President George W. Bush."
Andy Towle of Towleroad.com reports, "Ken Mehlman is chairing a major fundraiser in late September that has already raised over $1 million for the organization battling Prop 8. The fundraiser is co-chaired by prominent Republican donors Paul Singer and Peter Thiel and will be held at Singer's home."
Oscar Award winning director Dustin Lance Black (Milk), board member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights talked about that fundraiser, telling The Atlantic, "Ken represents an incredible coup for the American Foundation for Equal Rights. We believe that our mission of equal rights under the law is one that should resonate with every American. As a victorious former presidential campaign manager and head of the Republican Party, Ken has the proven experience and expertise to help us communicate with people across each of the 50 states."
The fact is, Ken Mehlman is still a very powerful and influential politico with some very powerful and influential contacts. If we're going to win full equality, we're going to need more than 50% of the voting public on our side and we've got to work with people we may not like. There is an old saying, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Our enemy is homophobia and we've got to work with anyone who can help us win the fight, regardless of their party affiliation. Let's face it, the do-nothing Democrats haven't been there for us.
Personally, I believe in the power of redemption and in the forgiveness of past sins. But redemption takes time and a great deal of sincere effort. You can't just announce one day that you've changed your ways and expect everyone to embrace you. You have to prove yourself through your actions. Forgiveness has to be asked for and earned. Ken Mehlman is off to a good start, but he's got a lot of work to do to prove himself to the community he offered up as sacrifice to achieve the power and wealth that he now enjoys. It's way too soon to forgive and we should never forget.
Mehlman's coming out could signal a turning point in the way the GOP views the LGBT Community. The Meghan McCains out there have indicated that there is hope for the next generation of conservatives. Recent surveys show that young evangelicals are opting out of churches that are more focused on fighting gay rights and abortion rights than they are on spreading the message of loving thy neighbor and peaceful coexistence. Bill O'Rielly, Glenn Beck, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and even Ann Coulter have recently demonstrated a willingness to be, at the very least, less hostile toward LGBT Americans.
The world is changing because of the work we've done up to this point. Let's not be so focused on hating the haters that we fail to adapt to the very change we are seeking to create.
Image via WikipediaI'm sometimes asked by people "When did you first know you were gay?" While I didn't have my first boyfriend until my senior year in high school and didn't come out to my mother until the following year, I can't really remember a time when I wasn't a big old homo. I always thought that I was a late bloomer because I waited so long to come out. When I see kids coming out in their teens now and fighting for the right to bring their girlfriends and boyfriends to the prom, I can't believe their courage at such a young age. I could never have done that.
I remember having a crush on William Shatner as Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek series when I was about eight or nine years old. I was never any good at sports or other more traditionally male things, but if I had to pick a time when I could say I was definitely a queer kid, it would have to be when I was ten and had a huge crush on David Cassidy.
In the summer of 1970, ABC released the Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You" as a single to help promote the fall premiere of the now iconic TV show. Like preteens everywhere, I liked it a lot. But when the TV show, based on the real-life singing family The Cowsills, premiered and I got to actually see the dreamy Keith Partridge for myself, I hate to admit it, but I think I swooned a little.
Back then, The Partridge Family was a guilty pleasure for most of America. Nobody wanted to admit that they watched a show about a musical family that didn't actually sing their own songs, but the show was always in the top of the ratings every week, so somebody was watching it. Somebody was buying and listening to their music too, they just weren't talking about it publicly. So in a sense, that was the closet I really found myself in back in the day. Even David Cassidy, who had to convince the producers to let him do his own singing, was a little ashamed to be doing the bubble gum music the networks produced for the show and wanted to pursue a career as a serious rock musician.
I guess you could consider this my second coming out. Yes, my friends, at the age of 50, I am no longer ashamed (well, sort of) to admit that I like The Partridge Family and had a huge "boy crush" on David Cassidy.
Wow. I really had hoped I would feel better about getting that off my chest. Is there a support group I can join?
Yes, guys and gals, it's that time of year again. The annual Roanoke Pride Pageants are being held this Saturday night at the Jefferson Center. This year's event will be co-hosted by Roanoke's own Ashley Adams and Sean Avidano.
Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door. The pageant folks recommend that you buy your tickets ahead of time and save $5.00 a pop. You can pick them up a will-call. Go to www.roanokepride.com or www.jeffcenter.org. Come on out and support your local entertainers and the upcoming 21st Annual Roanoke Pride festival.
This is one of those stories that proves the long-standing belief in the LGBT community that the most hateful, homophobic, rabidly anti-gay politicians are in fact hiding in their own private hell of self-loathing.
On Wednesday, Ken Mehlman, the former Bush-Cheney Campaign Chief and former Chairman of the Republican National Committee, formally came out as gay in an article in The Atlantic. Mehlman says in the interview, "It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life."
Mehlman added, "Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I've told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they've been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that's made me a happier and better person. It's something I wish I had done years ago."
Yes, Ken, it's true that we all have our own path to travel, but most of us don't trample over the rights of our fellow human beings and scapegoat our own communities to in order to follow that path.
It was Mehlman who advocated the failed Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in order to rally the Republican base during the 2004 election season. It didn't matter that the amendment didn't stand any real chance of passing, it got the far right wing conservatives to the polls. That was its sole purpose.
It was Mehlman's actions that motivated the state Republican parties of Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia in '04 and '06 to push voter initiatives to amend their state constitutions to limit marriage to opposite sex couples.
The Atlantic's Mark Ambinder writes:
Mehlman's leadership positions in the GOP came at a time when the party was stepping up its anti-gay activities -- such as the distribution in West Virginia in 2006 of literature linking homosexuality to atheism, or the less-than-subtle, coded language in the party's platform ("Attempts to redefine marriage in a single state or city could have serious consequences throughout the country..."). Mehlman said at the time that he could not, as an individual Republican, go against the party consensus. He was aware that Karl Rove, President Bush's chief strategic adviser, had been working with Republicans to make sure that anti-gay initiatives and referenda would appear on November ballots in 2004 and 2006 to help Republicans.
Mehlman's sexual orientation has long been the subject of speculation. Both Mike Rogers of BlogActive and John Byrne, Editor of The Raw Story, have been working on this since 2004. At the time, no one in Washington would confirm what had been Mehlman's open secret.
The Atlantic only moved forward with the story after Rogers threatened to scoop them and publish his story first. Mike Rogers is the blogger who outed Sen. Larry Graig, (ID), Congressman Mark, Foley (FL) and many other closeted gay lawmakers who have promoted an anti-gay agenda. Rogers was profiled in the 2009 documentary Outrage, that blew open the GOP's closet door.
There is already chatter on the web about this event being a turning point in the GOP's approach to the gay community. I am sure that GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans are both pulling all-nighters trying to spin this to their own advantage. Could it be possible that in the coming election cycle, or the next one, we'll see the do-nothing-Dems and the Republicans fighting for the gay vote?
GLAAD is up in arms with mock outrage over a lesbian couple in Texas whose daughter was booted out of her church school. Jill and Tracy Harrison are kicking up a fuss because they enrolled their child in an Episcopal Church school only to have that child thrown out once the church realized on Parents' Night that the mom named Tracy was in fact a mom, not a dad.
St. Vincent's Church of Bedford, Tx. is one of those that split from the Episcopal mother ship in 2008 over the ordination of openly gay Bishop Eugene Robinson. Even the slightest bit of research would have turned this up. Now these women are subjecting their daughter to a media shit-storm over this case of highly predictable bigotry. Honestly folks, even Helen Keller would have seen this coming. This is so irresponsible that I just don't have the words to express my disgust with these two.
Image via WikipediaAll these years later it's hard to believe that rain forest activist Sting was ever this cool, but back in 1981, nobody had ever heard anything like the mix of Jamaican Ska, jazz and techno-pop that the Police were producing. The bass riffs alone in "Spirits in the Material World", from the 1981 album "Ghost in the Machine", made it an instant rock classic.
The trio of Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland only lasted from 1977-83 before pursuing solo careers, but they definitely left their mark with a string of hits, including this one that peaked at #11 in the US Hot 100.
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, "When Conservatives Eat Their Own", being a gay-basher isn't as lucrative as it used to be. Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, the "Pray-Away-The-Gay" folks, announced on their FaceBook page yesterday that they are having to lay off several employees due to lower than expected fund raising results. Poor bastards. (Click the image to enlarge.)
Roanoke Equality has received an invitation from the office of Senator Mark Warner inviting members to attend a meeting in the senator's Roanoke office on Salem Ave. to address our concerns. The invitation reads as follows:
Lou Kadiri
Constituent Services Director for Senator Mark Warner
Beatriz Ibarra, legislative counsel to Senator Warner, will be in Roanoke Friday, Sept. 3. We are hosting a meeting with Beatriz at the Senate office from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. that Friday and invite the local GLBT community to discuss any legislative concerns/issues they might have (including DADT).
We look forward to seeing you there.
Best,
Lou Arnatt Kadiri
Office of Senator Mark R. Warner
129B Salem Ave SW, Roanoke VA 24011
(PH: 540-857-2676 FX: 540-857-2800
http://warner.senate.gov/public/
Please do what you can to attend this meeting. This is a rare opportunity for Roanoke's LGBT community to air our concerns to someone who can do something about it. Visit the Roanoke Equality FaceBook event page to RSVP to this event. Tell Senator Warner that you want him to move forward on repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell and urge him to push for the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
September is Pride Month in Roanoke. Parties and festivals are great, but this is a chance for you to step up and make your voice heard. Support Roanoke Equality's efforts. Support your community. Show your true pride and attend this very important meeting.
This video comes to us from Canada, where you'd expect a little more respect for diversity than here in the states. Members of Highfield Road Gospel Hall have been harassing gays and lesbians on this street for seven years, staging protests in front of their homes and shouting biblical verses and prayers at their houses. According to a post on Slog the Stranger, these people have even driven out a lesbian couple who couldn't stand the weekly harassment. Although the church is on this street, none of these members live there.
In a show of support and solidarity, these non-gay residents stand up to and drive away the sanctimonious street preachers, who claim to have the right to make life miserable for tax-paying, law-abiding citizens. I'm no expert on Canadian law, but that can't be right.
Here's what the videographer posted on his YouTube page:
"This is a group from a church at the end of my street. Apparently they have been grouping in front of a couple's house and reading their bible loudly for the past 7 years. They may have also driven another couple from the area as well by doing the same thing. Tonight most of our neighbours came out and were successful in getting them to leave. The people who go to that church don't even live in our area! Police came by shortly thereafter."
Like most bears, Rorik prides himself on his ability to grow a lot of facial hair. There's nothing shocking about that, but this is Rorik and more is always better. Sorry, no adult content this week.
Posted with the permission of the artist. Click the image to enlarge.
Image via WikipediaI've always maintained that if you don't believe in evolution, you don't evolve. Today's post indicates that there may just be a glimmer of hope for the right wing nut-jobs out there, as three highly visible conservatives show some tacit support for gay rights, or at the very least, are beginning to realize that being a homophobe isn't as lucrative as it used to be.
In the last two weeks, Ann "The Ice Queen" Coulter, Glenn "Cry Baby" Beck and Elisebeth "The F'ing Idiot" Hasselbeck have each indicated their support for varying degrees of gay rights and are catching holy hell from the holy rollers for being traitors in the culture wars.
First up in the holy cross hairs is ultra-conservative author, columnist and frequent talks show guest Ann Coulter, who famously referred to former presidential candidate John Edwards as a fag and to former VP Al Gore as a "total fag".
A couple of weeks ago Coulter, who proves that, like an appendix, you can get by just fine without a soul, agreed to speak at next month's HomoCon convention in New York. The event is sponsored by GOProud, the oxymoronic political action committee of conservative gay Republicans. Coulter's acceptance of the speaking gig cost her in invitation to speak at WorldNet Daily's Talking Back America Conference
This morning conference organizer and evangelical zealot Joseph Farah writes on the WorldNet Daily web site, "Coulter is a political activist, a pundit, a satirist. She is not Jesus. And she is not an evangelist. No one is likely to get saved at Homocon because Ann Coulter gives a conservative stump speech. I'm glad Farah understands that Coulter is not Jesus. It could get very messy at Christmas.
Farah continues his rant, "What will happen as a result of her appearance is that a compromise will be made with sin. Sin will be condoned or appeased. A conservative icon will find accommodation with a sin that would undermine the foundations of Western civilization, the Judeo-Christian ethic and the most basic biblical standards of sexual morality."
For her part, Coulter says, “giving a speech is not an endorsement of every position held by the people I'm speaking to.” She called Farah a "fame whore" and said on the Fox "News" show, Red Eye, “These are fake Christians trying to get publicity.” She oughtta know.
The American Family Association's Bryan Fischer has weighed in on Coulter's move as well as Glenn Beck's recent comments about gay marriage, saying, “Count Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck as the latest deserters in the culture war and in the battle for sexual normalcy.” He adds, “They have flinched at 'precisely that little point which the world and the devil … are attacking, and so have forfeited the right to consider themselves any longer culture warriors.”
Beck told Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor recently that he doesn't discuss the "culture wars" on his TV and radio programs. Beck hasn't really endorsed same-sex marriage, so much as he said he doesn't have a problem with it. In essence, he's just washed his hands of it by calling marriage a religious issue, not something the government should be involved with. By embracing the Libertarian philosophy, he can avoid the issue altogether.
The View's token conservatroid, Elisebeth Hasslebeck is also being hassled by the religious right. "Porno Pete" LaBarbera, of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality took exception to Hasselbeck's statement a few days ago that she supports same-sex marriage and that, although she opposes abortion in principle, she supports a woman's right to choose.
LaBarbera wrote to the former reality show star saying, "I know you take a lot of grief on the show for NOT being a liberal (on most issues) — and I respect you for that. But caving on “same-sex marriage” only hurts your credibility as The View’s repesentative, as it were, for millions upon millions of conservative and pro-family Americans who resent the liberal media’s and Hollywood’s secular Left bias. Elizabeth, there are many EX-gay men and FORMER lesbians who have overcome homosexuality in their lives (most by becoming born-again Christians). You should be championing them instead of counterfeit 'gay marriage'!"
The circular firing squads are forming. Ready, aim, FIRE!
Okay, it's Sunday and I don't usually post on Sundays, but I want to take a moment to clear up a few things about me, our community and our need to lighten the fuck up about ourselves.
One of the things that Americans are best known for around the world is our ability to laugh at ourselves and nobody does that better than Queer Americans.
Where does it come from? Maybe it's a coping mechanism, like laughing so you won't cry. The bottom line for me is, who gives a rat's ass? Go with what works. I hate to over analyze comedy because it takes all the fun out of it. Making jokes is fun. That's why we do it. Humor can also be used as a weapon to take somebody down a peg or two when he's a little too full of himself or a little too serious about life in general.
One of the things I'm best known for is my sense of humor. Some people get it and some people don't. I don't worry too much about the ones that don't get it. The ones that laugh at my off the cuff remarks more than make up for the ones that don't. I was the smart-ass kid whose mother always said, "Don't laugh, you'll just encourage him." She was soooo right.
Laughter is its own reward. It's like a narcotic. Once you get that rush, you want more and you'll do anything to get it. Once I shaved my mustache and tended bar in drag in a straight bar just for a laugh. When an elderly, very drunk and very straight man started hitting on me, I said in my deepest, butchest voice, "Thanks, man." Everybody, except the old drunk guy, laughed their asses off.
Another time, at a different job, I took everything out of my boss's office and set it up in the company's warehouse, with everything exactly in place, as an April Fool's joke. The next year I staged a theft of my company car, knowing that my boss was the last one to drive it, then accused him of punking me. Both times everyone laughed... except my boss.
I will make jokes about myself, my friends, my family, my coworkers, my boss, celebrities, strangers, news makers, politicians and anyone who takes him/herself too seriously. Like I said, some people get it and some people don't. I find that the people who don't get my sense of humor probably aren't people I'd want to hang with anyway. If somebody gets the joke, that means they can probably tell a good joke too, so it's all good.
Then there are the people who catch the ball and run with it. In the late 90's I got a job as Education Coordinator for a debt counseling agency. On my first day, my boss took me with him to a lecture he was doing for a women's group. As we walked up to his pickup truck, I noticed the logo decal on the cap he had over the bed of the truck. It said "Leonard". So I immediately, and very conversationally, asked, "So what made you wanna name your truck Leonard?"
Without missing a beat he said, "I named it after my mother."Bah-dum-bump! We didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things. In fact, in many ways he was the worst boss I ever had. But I always knew that he and I shared a particular sense of humor and I used it many times to diffuse tense working situations.
When I was a kid, it was my bothers and sisters who had the best sense of humor. I guess it was a way for us to cope with my parents' divorce and the abusive environment we were living in, but it turned out to be a comedy training ground. During long family car trips, somebody would say something funny, then somebody else would say something to make the joke better. Then somebody else would add to it and so on, until one of us came up with something so funny that it couldn't be topped. I sometimes think of it like a game of volley ball, where team members set each other up by keeping the ball in the air, bouncing from one person to the next, so that the best player on the team can spike it over the net, right into somebody's face. Score!
However, if your joke bombed, you weren't allowed to speak for the rest of the trip. Since those days I have learned that there is comedy to be found in most everyday situations if you look at it from the right, twisted perspective.
Okay, where am I going with all of this? I shared the video below on my FaceBook status today with the following comment: "I love Scare Tactics, but every week they get some big old nelly queen on there that undoes 4 decades of progress. You gotta see this."
A good friend of mine accused me of being prejudiced against effeminate gay men. WTF!? He said something about me being a community leader and that people pay attention to what I write and say and that I should be more sensitive. Long story short, I actually had to publicly defend myself and my sense of humor on FaceBook.
For the record, I understand that it was a bunch of nelly queens that fought the cops at the Stonewall Inn and we owe them everything. However, those queens stood up for themselves and refused to act like scared little girls any more. That is what we respect and admire them for. It is their courage, not their cowardice, that we honor every June. They forever changed the stereotype of the effeminate gay man as a coward.
What I love about Scare Tactics, and shows like it that follow in the footsteps of the classic Candid Camera(that I grew up watching), is that they find the humor in everyday people caught in the act of being themselves. Scare Tactics takes it up several notches by placing ordinary people in extreme situations for our personal amusement. In this scenario, the guy thinks he's been hired to babysit a little girl. When he's confronted by strange voices from the TV and objects moving by themselves, then the ghost of the dead sister, he completely losses it, with hilarious results.
Did he try to protect the little girl in his care or try to get her to safety? No. Did he attempt to fight back or in any way stand up to the perceived threat? No. He screamed like a little girl. He lived up the the stereotype of gays as cowards. That is the motivation for my comment and I make no apology for it. This guy showed us what a pussy he really is and for millions of Americans, he reinforced a deplorable stereotype. But it was funny.
How would I have reacted in a situation like that? I don't know and I don't care. Chances are I will never be on a show like that, so we'll probably never know what my reaction would be. I do hope that if I ever find myself in a similar circumstance and end up on a show like this, that you and the rest of the world will laugh your asses off.
If it's true that I am a community leader and that people pay attention to what I write and say, then please pay attention to this:
Don't be a pussy like the guy in this video!
Have the balls to stand up for yourself and your point of view. Don't be a walking stereotype and never -- and I mean N-E-V-E-R -- let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn't say. Finally, Watch the following clip and laugh your ass off like I did.
Momma Duck decided yesterday that she has had enough of being cooped up with the kid all day, so instead of making just a few short trips out, she kept BD (Baby Duck) out all day. This was the scene at Morning Wood Acres this morning when I let the ducks out. As usual, the other three couldn't wait to get out and headed straight for the pond in their usual mad rush. Shy little BD, at just 3 1/2 weeks old, took some coaxing from Momma. (The video quality isn't great, but it's my first effort.) Oh, yeah. BD's broken leg appears to be completely healed.
This is just too good to be true. The Advocate is reporting that the dream team on David Boise and Ted Olson, who successfully overturned California's Prop 8 and plan to take it all the way to the Supreme Court, may seek legal fees, which are mounting by the second, from the pro-H8 side, once this is all over with.
In court filings this week, the attorneys requested extended time to consider fees and court costs but have also asked Prop. 8 supporters for an expedited response in the matter — which they opposed in a Wednesday filing.
"Plaintiffs seek to drastically shorten [our] time to respond to that motion so that they have more time to prepare an application for attorney’s fees in the event this Court does not grant their motion to enlarge time," Alliance Defense Fund attorney Brian Raum wrote. "Such a burden shift is unwarranted."
The legal team led by Ted Olson and David Boies has not disclosed how much the litigation has cost, though the organization charged with funding the suit, the American Foundation for Equal Rights, has in recent weeks reached out to the public for donations as the case proceeds to the U.S. court of appeals for the ninth circuit.
Oral arguments are scheduled for the week of December 6.
If you're of a certain age (well, my age) you've seen actor Steven Collins in a variety of rolls over the years on TV and in movies. I personally fell in lust with the TV dad from the long-running series, "Seventh Heaven" when I first saw him as Commander Decker in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" back in 1979 (I told you I was old).
Well it seems one of my dreams is almost about to come true, as Collins returns to series TV playing the love interest of Uncle Saul (played by Ron Rifkin) on ABC's "Brothers and Sisters". I say "almost" because, after all, it's only acting. Collins is not actually gay, so far.
To be truthful, I gave up on watching BS in it's second season. I also come from a large annoying family that is constantly looking for reasons to fight with each other and I found the show just too unrealistic. While it's true that big families are always in each others' business and have no personal boundaries, they never -- and I mean N-E-V-E-R -- apologize for it. There are no heartfelt, teary-eyed scenes where one family member tells the other, "I'm sorry. I should have minded my own business." It just doesn't happen.
On the other hand, BS is to be commended for taking on the subject of gays coming out later in life through Uncle Saul. Most shows with gay characters are so PC about it that they don't really dig down deep enough to come up with a decent, original or realistic story line. There is even talk that Uncle Saul will find out he's HIV positive this season. So kudos to the show's writers and/or producers for bringing one of my favorite silver daddies back to TV. Now if they could just work on making Sally Field a little less whiny and let the characters hold long, nasty, self-destructive grudges that eat away at their souls for years on end, I might watch the show again.
Well boys and girls, nothing Earth shattering to report today. So I figured I'd just start writing and see what comes out. What the hell, Larry King has made a career out of it.
Perennial idiot Elisabeth Hasselbeck of "The View" says in a recent interview that she's actually in favor of same-sex marriage. I feel so much better now that we have her blessing.
The US military is ending its combat mission in Iraq today and troops are finally withdrawing from the country we had no business invading in the first place. Meanwhile dismissals under Don't Ask, Don't Tell are still legal.
The city of New York is still embroiled in the controversy surrounding the proposed building of a Muslim community center near the Ground Zero site. Yeah, let's make things worse. One attack based on religious bigotry deserves another. An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. In the words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?" In my own words, "Apparently not". Jesus must be spinning in his grave over this one.
The Pentagon Working Group is sending out a survey to 150,000 spouses and family members of U.S. service men and women to find out how they feel about DADT repeal. I can just imagine how this one's gonna go:
"If your husband was forced to share shower facilities with a known homosexual while serving in Afghanistan and subsequently left you for said homosexual, would you:
a. Seek the advice of clergy
b. Speak with his commending officer.
c. Request separate housing.
I just had breakfast with my gorgeous niece, Christina, which is why today's post is a little late. Chrissie stopped by the Star City on her way to Nashville to move in with her boyfriend. (Aren't there any eligible bachelors left in northern Virginia?) We met at Starbucks for coffee and breakfast and had a great time catching up. She's a little nervous about making such a big move, but as I told her this morning, do it while you're young. It if doesn't work, there's still plenty of time to start over. Here's wishing her all the happiness in the world. If that S.O.B. does anything to hurt her, he'll have one angry old queen to answer to.
As I wrap up this morning's post, let me leave you with this. Don't let your fear of the unknown keep you from living life to the fullest. You don't have to go skydiving or swimming with sharks to feel like you've lived. Life is extreme enough without jumping off a bridge with a rubber band tied around your ankles. Dare to dream big, and to chase those dreams. Never let someone else dictate the terms by which you live your life. Go for it.
