Yes, We Did Redecorate

Both the blog and the guest bedroom, which now match. :)

Maintaining Your Healthy Level of Insanity

Not that this is a problem for most of my readers, but for those of you who are new, here's a foolproof set of instructions on how to make people think that you're more than a bit crazy.

1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down

2. Page yourself over the intercom

3. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask, "Would you like fries with that?"

4. Put decaf in the coffee maker for three weeks; once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch it out for espresso.

5. In the memo field of all your checks, write "For Marijuana".

6. Skip down the hall instead of walking and see how many looks you get.

7. Order a "diet water" when you go out to eat.

8. Specify that your drive-through order is "to go".

9. Sing along at the opera.

10. Tell your friends that you can't attend their party because you have a headache -- five days in advance.

11. When the money comes out of the ATM, scream, "I won! I WON!"

12. When leaving the zoo, start running for your car yelling, "They're loose! They're loose!"

13. Tell your family over dinner, "Due to the economy, we're going to have to let one of you go".

Last, but certainly not least:

14. At the pharmacy, pick up a box of condoms, go to the counter, and ask them for the key to the fitting room.

All in all, though, should I be concerned that my father sent me this?

And The Obvious Answer Is....

because he's black.

UPDATE: Oh yes, it can get better. Much, MUCH better.

Give Me Some Serious Geek Cred

Your result for Which Star Trek Ship Should You Command? Test...

Galaxy Class!

20% Flight_Control, 30% Tactical, 20% Science and 90% Command!

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Take Which Star Trek Ship Should You Command? Test at HelloQuizzy

Today's Massive Bit of Self-Absorption

As expected, courtesy of Box Turtle Bulletin, which carries this pleasant little bit of narcissism concerning people who felt the need to block the major on-ramp off and onto the 101 for their fifteen minutes of fame.

Prepare to upchuck.

On Saturday, on a sunny day in San Francisco, 15 beautiful people were arrested for you, your neighbors, your friends, your family and the people you love. We did it for people you may not even know, we did it for people you may fear and we did it for people you may not understand. Most importantly, we did it for civil rights.

To the brighter side, at least this sounds better than the toddler at the grocery store testing out the maximum displacement of his lungs in an attempt to get Mommy to buy Fruity Pebbles rather than Cheerios.

But the net motivation and effect on passersby is exactly the same.

Supposedly this creature so desperate to "do something" for other people lives here in San Francisco. If that's the case, I know at least two organizations who would be more than happy to have him show up on their doorsteps right now and would have him hard at work actually helping people who need it within thirty seconds, without wasting the police's time, burning up thousands of taxpayer dollars, and producing the increased air pollution/wasted gasoline/unnecessary blood pressure spikes that his little tantrum did.

But since there's no TV cameras, I doubt he'd be interested.

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Some Morons?

One of the things about blogging that I've always taken very seriously is collateral damage, especially to people who are in no way associated with this blog. My opinions are my opinions; however, because there are more than a few gay (and non-gay) people in this universe who have demonstrated their willingness to attack others in an attempt to get at those who disagree with them, I've stuck with pseudonymous blogging pretty much since I started.

But what happens when coincidence turns up someone using the same pseudonym as you -- and the end result is that person's profile, hopes, and dreams being dragged through the mud and mocked on a nationally-read gay blog?

I mean, seriously. My profile says San Francisco. A simple search of my blog would indicate I'm in San Francisco. Heck, you don't exactly need to be a Mensa scholar to recognize that the picture that is the first friggin' thing you see on the blog is not the waterfront of downtown Dallas. They obviously are not without research capability, given that they located the guy's profile in the first place, so how did they miss things so obvious?

But all because of that, some guy who I don't know, who likely doesn't even know me, and has nothing to do with my opinions is having his personal information aired to the public, being accused of being a pedophile, being called all sorts of names, and having people laugh at him -- all because a blog full of bigoted fools couldn't be bothered to do the most basic research before they set off on their smear-fest.

I know the next response from Jim Burroway, Daniel Gonzales, and Timothy Kincaid: "Well, uh, we're not responsible for what our commenters post, and besides, we can't do anything about it."

I might believe that had it taken them more than a few minutes to find my offending comments, remove them, and ban me. But, since it didn't, I call bullshit.

What is more likely is that, since they've spent years teaching these commenters that people who criticize the behavior of other gays are lower than pond scum and should be treated accordingly, their ability to correct the behavior of their drooling hordes is sharply limited by their fear of being stomped. Besides, they're gay liberals; they're not about to admit that they're wrong, and more likely they're going to blame me or this guy for having the same pseudonyms.

So there's the problem. This guy is probably going to keep receiving undeserved sh*t from gay liberals and other assorted halfwits, and the people who precipitated it are too intransigent and too cowardly to stop it.

Seriously, I wonder if it's time for a name change on my part. I have no desire to undo four years of history, multiple email routings, and God-only-knows-how-many weblinks, but the simple fact of the matter is that I either do it or leave someone else in the situation where a bunch of moronic gay liberals are going around trying to ruin his life because they're too stupid to realize he's not me.

What do you think?

Responsibility Is Dead

Just read it.

Prepare yourself before this portion:

The streamlined process looks only at income, not assets. If you refinanced your home to buy a Mercedes or own another home, you won't be expected to sell them to pay your mortgage.

Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital, predicts that many homeowners who have little or no equity will stop paying their mortgage and then reduce their income to get the biggest payment cut possible. They could stop working overtime or, if two spouses work, one could quit. After the modification, they could try to boost their income again.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Schiff says. "People are going to feel like complete morons if they don't participate. The people getting punished are the ones who never made an irresponsible decision to buy a house they couldn't afford."

But it will reward the the people politicians pander to, won't it?

Blind Hatred Makes You Miss Targets

The best example so far: the discussion that ensued over at Box Turtle Bulletin upon my banning.

In short order, the people there:

-- Accused me of being a pedophile

I hope nobody is ever stupid enough to leave their little boys alone with him.

But no, I wouldn’t leave my nephews around him either.

-- Questioned my sexual orientation

If he’s really gay, then he has serious emotional problems, and I feel bad for him.

ND30, along with other kooks like former gay porn actor turned flop wannabe-FOX pundit Matt Sanchez, and a “michigan matt” all come from the “Gay Patriot” blog - aka the deranged sisters of Log Cabin Republicans.

The guys from that particular website has some issues - nothing more than walking Paul Cameron advertisements, and believing your average gay person is inferior to them.

Confused me with someone else entirely -- and then proceeded to publish that person's profile and information

You can’t get any gayer than gay.com! LOL:

Now consider Box Turtle Bulletin's "comment policy".

While we value a range of opinions, we may delete comments and/or ban or moderate commenters who engage in:

-- Threats, direct or implied. This can include implied threats through the posting of phone numbers, addresses, or places of business or employment.

-- The use of derogatory terms. Prohibited terms include (but are not limited to):

-- Terms which demean one’s personal appearance or mannerisms

In addition, commenters may be moderated or banned for persisting in any of following behavior:

-- Defamation against entire categories of people. This includes members of religious groups and political parties.

-- Unsubstantiated claims, for example, claims which are not backed by direct quotes, links, or bibliographic references from independent sources

-- Unsubstantiated rumors or speculations, particularly where sexuality or sexual behavior is concerned

What makes this really funny is that a simple thirty-second check of my blogsite would have made it clear that, if that's my Gay.com profile, it's in the wrong city, wrong physical description, wrong age, and totally unaware of the partner I already have. But why be accurate, when you know that you'll never be held accountable for such behavior by Jim Burroway, Daniel Gonzales, and Timothy Kincaid? It's all about the smearing, and these blog owners are more than willing to aid and abet such things when it's their ideological allies that are doing it.

As I said yesterday, gee, it's almost like they care less about content and what a person actually does than who that person is.....

UPDATE: Grabbed the Google Cache of the comments in question.

Second Update: Not surprisingly, Jim Burroway tried erasing the comments (which is why I grabbed the Google Cache).

Not good enough. As I pointed out above, their idiot commenters not only made all sorts of nasty remarks about me, but, in their attempts to do so, directly smeared someone who is in no way connected with me AND everyone over at GayPatriot. There needs to be a public retraction and an apology made to that person and the GayPatriot blog.

The Most Amusing Part About Being Banned.....

is watching the people who did it let slide posts that contain exactly what they claimed they were banning you for doing.

Gee, it's almost like they care less about content and what a person actually does than who that person is.....

It Doesn't Even Surprise You Any More

Another nugget of interestingness from Time:

Karger says a "soft boycott" they started against Bolthouse Farms, which gave $100,000 to Proposition 8, was dropped after he reached a settlement with the company. Bolthouse Farms was to give an equal amount of money to gay political causes. The amount ultimately equaled $110,000.

Remember that these gay and lesbian groups were the ones that said threatening boycotts unless someone donated an equivalent amount of money to them was blackmail and extortion?

Of course, expect a condemnation by gays of said behavior committed by gay and lesbian groups about the same time there's a run on mukluks in Hades.

Odd Question #1 For Saturday

Does this qualify as a hate crime, given her recent revelations?

That's Right, Pull Back Into Your Shell

Since Jim Burroway and Box Turtle Bulletin apparently have issues with their tactics being criticized, here's my response to Burroway's latest attempt to justify why the tactics of flagrant antireligious bigotry and attempting to get people fired for exercising their religious and political beliefs that he endorses are all right.


And so are you saying that I have no legal right to express my freedom of speech in encouraging others to participate in a boycott?

Here's a better example of the expression of that "freedom of speech".

But the anger was apparent as the few customers of the evening walked in, including a lesbian couple. They were met with angry chanting of "Shame on you, shame on you, shame on you!"

Funny, last time I looked, yelling "Shame, shame, shame" at a lesbian couple qualified as harassment and hate speech in the eyes of Burroway and his cohorts, and thus did not qualify as "freedom of speech".

The other example, on the other hand, is that of a private employee who merely had a conversation with a co-worker — the same sort of conversations which take place around water coolers all across America. This is not even close to being in the same category. This employee was in no way the public face of of the company. In fact, her identity remains publicly unknown still.

Meanwhile, this woman's donation is only public because she followed the law and put her correct name, address, and occupation on it, which was then propagated by websites that were specifically set up and looking for "dirt" to harass and attack Mormons prior to the vote.

Nothing exists to show that she publicized the fact; the law and gay and lesbian people did it. Why, then, are they calling for her to be fired?

Hey, hey, ho, ho, Marjorie has got to go!

The entertaining part about this is that California law explicitly forbids firing someone as a result of their involvement in a political campaign or making donations. In other words, the gay and lesbian liberals like Burroway who are endorsing this are demanding that businesses make a choice: violate the law, or have your customers hassled and harassed with hateful remarks.

Good Thing She Can Sing.....Oh, Wait

Here we have noted celebrity something-or-another Melissa Etheridge throwing a snit fit over the passage of Proposition 8 and, in retaliation, saying she will no longer pay California state taxes.

Three questions:

Doesn't that make her selfish?

Doesn't that make her unpatriotic?

And, since California law grants all the state tax benefits of marriage to registered domestic partners, doesn't that make her really stupid?

We Get Letters

And in several cases, they're more than entertaining.

As a gay man, as an American, as an HIV physician and academician at one of the more conservative medical institutions in the U.S, I can say without hesitation that your views remind me of the sad duplicity that arises in gay men who grow up in the Bible Belt. I was born and raised in Dallas, and still reside here, and I face constant personal and professional challenges due to the indoctrinated bigotry, Red State "values" and religious and cultural philistinism that plagues this town. You seem to cling to those philistine principles, but hypocritically deny the aspects that aren't compatible with your sexuality or your chosen family. As I kept reading your blog, I felt like I was being enclosed in a progressive, suffocating hysteria that was like being trapped in a housefire with the smoke rising to my nose. I was crawling on the ceiling, desperately looking for the chimney. Your repressed shame and self-doubt was so obvious beneath the grandstanding and stident lectures that you made Mary Tyler Moore in "Ordinary People" look like Robert Mapplethorpe.

What staggers me is that you abandoned the struggle for progress here in the South in favor of the tolerant comforts of San Francisco--a city whose inhabitants bled for the acceptance you enjoy there--and with staggering condescension and arrogance, you trash and condemn those who still fight for your freedom. It must be intensely empowering to write your judgmental blog--which is essentially a courtroom with a jury of one--with the city without a priori rejections right at your doorstep. You, sir, are guilty of the worst form of Uncle Tomism, and belong to a small, infuriating sect of gay men who make life exponentially harder for the rest of us.

I have some unfortunate news for you: your political party only approves of you until the election is over--after that they're embarrassed by you. Your church may "hate the sin and love the sinner", but most of them think you represent the sickest form of pathology and evil, and if it were socially-acceptable and legal, you and your partner would be hanging from a tree. Meanwhile, those idiot liberals you so hatefully condemn elected a mayor who is fighting for your right to have the love between you and your partner recognized in the eyes of society, the government, and God. There is true spirituality in that fight--if Jesus is your thing, he'd be standing by your mayor, not by the privileged polish and sanctimony of Sarah Palin.

I can only theorize that you're wearing Republicanism and Christianity and Conservatism as a facade to convince yourself that you can be gay and "normal" at the same time--and honestly, I think that's why the majority of Republicans cling to that party. For men at least, it's a form a hormone replacement therapy--it's all about guns and Biblical patriarchy and the expensive suit that hides the paunch. For both sexes, having that Bush '08 sticker on the minivan is an excuse to behave with reprehensible hypocrisy and still keep the membership in the country club. I know one thing--if Palin had won (McCain won't be around much longer, so let's dispense with the fiction), my partner of four years, who is from Germany and working to get a green card, would be sent home in a rowboat, and you and I would be tattooed and sweeping floors in a concentration camp. She's the political equivalent of Nurse Ratched, and when you're dealing with the company woman incarnate, the only way to keep order in the commune is to silence those that don't play by the rules. This means you, no matter how many quaint homilies you post on your blog. There's no room for gay couples on the Ark, big guy. You can try to outsmart them with the khakis and top siders and the short haircut, but they know how to smell a fox.

Of course you're entitled to your views. The liberals out there will make sure you always will be.

Which is, of course, why they keep sending these letters telling us how they know exactly why we do what we do and how wrong our views are, how very awful of persons we are, how no one else cares about, respects, or loves us, how anyone else who says they do is just lying, and how our only hope is to do exactly what they say and be grateful that they're still willing to forgive scum like us.

Please. I've seen too many Lifetime Original Movies to fall for that one.

How Do You Spell "Aravosis"? H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E

It seems noted gay media whore and bigot John Aravosis is at it again, this time calling for a boycott of the state of Utah in retaliation for the fact that numerous Mormons donated to the campaign that successfully pushed for passage of California's Proposition 8.

In response, I would state the following:

It seems odd that Aravosis is only attacking the Mormons, rather than going after Democrat Party-trending groups like blacks and Catholics who voted in equal or larger percentages for Proposition 8 and contributed millions of dollars as well.

It seems even more odd that Aravosis is attacking anyone at all for supporting state constitutional amendments, given his gushing support for those who brag about how they would vote for them.

So what we have here is an antireligious lunatic who is not only going after people for exercising their right to vote and contribute to political campaigns, but is doing so in a fashion that makes it obvious that he doesn't care if the "right" people do the same thing as those he's attacking.

And remember, it's all because he's gay and that's what gay folks do.

Word Xanax

This has been a tough week in far more respects than an election loss, and frankly, I've been more than a bit down even before today.

Help for these funks sometimes comes from unexpected places, and in this case, it was from Turner Classic Movies -- or, more precisely, their showing of The Mortal Storm. Not for the movie itself, which is more than a bit disquieting on numerous levels, but for the poem with which it ends, "The Gate of the Year" by Minnie Louise Haskins.

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."

And he replied, "Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!"

So I went forth and finding the Hand of God
Trod gladly into the night
He led me towards the hills
And the breaking of day in the lone east.

So heart be still!
What need our human life to know
If God hath comprehension?

In all the dizzy strife of things
Both high and low,
God hideth His intention.

Amen.

Not Quite What I Preferred.....

but so it goes.

DelD over at Ace of Spades expresses my feelings nicely.

And on the bright side, my partner got who he wanted. :)

And So It Begins....

Here I am, sitting in bed on a rainy San Francisco afternoon, watching Ina....and it happened.

The first ad of the "holiday season" -- for this.



That is what is known as an inscrutable omen.