Look Back in Anger

Sorry I have seemed so angry lately. I don't mean to. I just get all worked up when I see what is happening in our country today. So many people who think God is on their side and that His love is only given out by their rules.

I don't dislike most straight folks. Just the ones who think they are somehow superior because they were born straight and I was not. To think that any kind of love between two (call me old-fashioned) consenting adults could be wrong is just beyond me. Love comes in so many flavors.

I really do believe that love is the most important thing we have here on earth. When you strip away all the bull that is life, love is the one thing that can hold us all together. Personally and as a group of human beings.

A simple act of kindness can be the most extraordinary thing. It can lift you up when you are at your lowest or most vulnerable. If only people would see how important compassion and kindness really are. Call me a bleeding heart, or any other term that you can come up with, I really don't care.

What I am really trying to say (and to bring this all down to the bumper sticker level) is that... Mean People Suck.

Weekend Pleasures

I just spent a long weekend in the Saugatuck/Holland area. We enjoyed ourselves and didn't spend too much time in any one place.

Holland is part of the more conservative west Michigan area that includes Grand Rapids. Lots of Dutch Reform types there. It is pretty ironic considering what today's Dutch are really like. Gay marriage, legalized prostitution, lax drug laws, etc. Everywhere we went in Holland, every one was blond and bland.

Saugatuck used to be a pretty gay friendly resort town. Now it is packed with families and other straight folks looking in the dozens of quaint shops there. The only gay folks left are the shop owners. We met quite a few of them. I just couldn't get over how packed the town was. It took us quite a while to find a place to park.

It seems that everytime the gays discover or create a great place to live/be the straight folks want to take over. They never have the guts to move into a distressed area or take a chance, but once the gays get everything nice and settled, then the straights come along and act like they just discovered a treasure.


We also stopped by Douglas Dunes - which is a huge gay resort in Douglas, just over the bridge from Saugatuck. That was nice. So many things going on there (inside the club). I still can't believe the things people do out in the woods though. I have never gotten into that. Those guys must be very short on self-respect. I guess I have always looked for love first and sex has always just been a part of that.

Straight Parents

Once again we hear of the superior parenting skills of those heterosexuals. Now a man has killed his three year old while trying to "toughen" him up because he thought he might be gay (see above link).

I can't begin to tell you how sick this makes me feel inside. Gays are abused, beaten and murdered all around the world every day. By governments and individuals alike. But to think that a parent would do this to his own child, all for fear he might be gay.

How do we protect gay youth? We thought we only had to start in high schools where gay kids are picked on every day. How could we possibly help a poor three year old boy who wouldn't even understand why his father hated him in the first place. Where are the right-wing Christianists now, the ones screaming about family values? A poor defenseless child, not safe in the bosom of his own family.

To make matters worse, the man's wife and friends all said the same thing. Oh, he was only trying to toughen him up so he wouldn't be gay. Like, of course that's what he should be doing. All in the best interest of the child. What a bunch of sick f..ks.

I only hope that the man, and his wife, get life in prison. They deserve nothing less.

What's Wrong With US

I have lived in Detroit and its suburbs all my life. We are just across the river by tunnel or bridge from Windsor, Ontario. How can it be that we have ended up so very different from our neighbors to the north?

Every time I go to Canada it feels like I am going back in time. To America maybe 25 years ago. A slower and more deliberate place. A place where violence is rare and people are still polite to each other (for the most part). A place where it's okay to be different from everyone else.

Judging by the poll I have linked at the top, you'd think our two countries were from very different parts of the world. Most Americans don't even think that gays deserve civil unions let alone equal marriage rights. How did the Canadians get to be so kind hearted and open, while we have turned ever more insular and closed minded?

I think it all goes back to the 80's, when Mr. Reagan and his ilk took over in Washington and began to turn the country back to a simpler time, a time when there was them and there was us. A time when everyone knew their place and you didn't act or think differently from the mainstream (without some type of sanction). Ah, the good old days are here again.

The promise of the 60's and 70's was crushed by the Rev. Falwell's of the world. The closed minded and frightened individuals who could not understand what was happening around them. Who believed that the bible was unchanging and to be taken literally. Funny how they only pulled out certain parts to take literally, the rest just seems to have become a quaint historical reference for them. Yes, you can work on Sunday without being put to death nowadays.

It's not that I think the whole country has gone their way. If you look at the election results from the last two presidential elections and compare them to the elections in the 80's, you'll see that the country is evenly divided. In the 80's the Democrats lost big time, winning maybe a handful of states.

The biggest factor turning the country rightward is that they are much better organized. They have a machine in place. A mean-spirited, cold-hearted machine that holds the absolute truth up to all of us, waiting for us to believe.

The Democrats by their nature could never be as mean and manipulative as the Republicans. They believe in the future and in the innate goodness of mankind. Republicans fear the future and think that only by going back to the tried and true will this country become right again. Shades of 1984. We know what is best for you.

Sometimes I see the glass half full, sometimes I see it half empty, and sometimes I just want the glass to spill over. Maybe start a new America, without all the Puritanical baggage that we can never seem to get rid of.

The Spin We're In

Well, the Rove saga continues. He has not exactly gotten out from behind the eight ball, but he has muddied the water so much that no one can tell exactly who said what to whom and when they said it.

I sometimes feel that the Republican spin machine is the Borg. All powerful with no known weaknesses. Between talk radio and Fox News they spin like a top all day long. Then they head to the mainstream media and do it again. When will someone find their Achilles heel? The Press came close to standing up to them last week, but now they just look dazed and confused.

Then there is Ken Mehlman. Jewish and probably gay to boot. How does he end up as the mouthpiece for the Republican party? He must be plagued with internal conflicts, all the while feeling like a lapdog (rather like the mayor of Portland). Self-respect does not appear to be the strongest feature of closeted conservatives.

For some reason I never felt too conflicted about being gay. I figured if someone didn't like me because I'm gay then they probably weren't worth knowing in the first place. I guess it all depends on how you define yourself (or if you let others define you instead). I have always refused to be assimilated, although I hear...

Resistance is futile.

Darth Tater

Like many progressive thinkers I have loathed the type of politics practiced by Karl Rove for many years. The politics of innuendo and dirty tricks, even against fellow Republicans. The politics of smear and hide. The politics that the party of Watergate and Iran Contra has used for a some time now.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like Rove personally either. In every interview I have seen him in he reminds me of the snarky kid in every school who thinks they know everything but deep inside is an insecure mess. Just look at the man and you can see it written all over him.

So why did Rove decide to let Time magazine's reporter release his name? To me that is the big question. Rove must have known it would have leaked out anyway, so maybe he is just trying to protect himself.

Now Rove and the Repubs are down to saying he didn't release her name to the press, just said it was Joe Wilson's wife. No one could figure that one out. Just like if you said it George W's wife, who would know who it was. Do they really think the American people are that stupid?

The spin of the day (also known as Republican talking points) spouted from Fox and every right-wing talking head on TV is that Valerie Plame wasn't really a CIA covert operative. Even though the CIA has said she was since the story broke in 2003. A felony is a felony Mr. Rove, even if the President is your best bud.

Let us all wait and see how the all powerful White House spin machine handles this one. They have the press hopping mad because they see the hypocrisy in all this. I hope the press stays mad enough to get to the truth and get Rove out of the White House and into the jail house as soon as possible.

Tomorrow Started

The news this week has been both good and bad. First the good news, Spain and Canada! Starting today gay marriage is legal in Spain, and Canada's lower house passed a gay marriage bill last week and its upper house will do the same soon. Happy Dominion Day and thanks to our friends to the north. I've been looking at real estate in Spain on the internet, that would be a great place to retire (I need warmth).

Now the bad news, Sandra Day O'Connor and Luther Vandross. I was so hoping it would be only Rehnquist resigning this year, but now we have a pivotal centrist leaving. You know Bush will pick some right-wing kook like Scalia or Thomas. I do not look forward to the battle ahead. It will not be a good one for our country. Clinton knew how divisive this all could be so he chose moderates who he knew everyone could support. Bush doesn't have the guts for that, he must appeal to his base and leave the rest of the country out in the cold.

When I heard about Luther I was totally bummed. I went upstairs to one of my PC's and put one of his CD's on. When The Power of Love began I just started bawling, all the way through the song. It so embodied what he was all about. Luther was more than a beautiful voice (his voice was truly a gift from God), he was also a kind-hearted soul. Someone who lived for his family and all his friends. You could see his innate goodness in any interview or concert. The fact that he was probably gay and knew he could never tell his fans is kind of sad. He was a romantic crooner and knew that an openly gay man could not (yet) pull that off in the popular mindset. I love you Luther for all you were and all you could have been.

I believe in the power of love...