Two Things I Learned This Christmas

1. Whether it be by the previous night's Chinese or a 24-hour bug, having your floodgates opened at both ends is not conducive to holiday cheer.

2. Understanding friends and Mamma Mia, however, are.

What Song Is This?

So here we are again at Christmas.

Growing up Lutheran, you realize early on that there are two tenets of the faith: one, Jesus died for our sins, and two, you had damn well better sing about it. Johann Sebastian Bach, perhaps the foremost of Lutheran choral composers, wrote over 300 cantatas in his lifetime, or roughly one for every Sunday, feast day, and holiday for five years (which explains on several levels his Coffee Cantata).

Of course, as a bright young lad with an above-average singing voice, Christmas meant one thing and one thing only for me: sing, boy, SING! Sunday school pageant (soloist). Adult church choir (never enough altos, right?). School vocal concert (again, soloist). Christmas Eve service cantor -- for not one, not two, but three different churches. It was like being Andrea Bocelli, only without the hair, groupies, and bumping into things.

Along the way, though, I picked up one song that has to me always symbolized at its deepest level what Christmas is and truly about.

What child is this who laid to rest
On Mary's lap is sleeping
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet
While shepherds watch are keeping
This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste to bring Him laud
The Babe, the Son of Mary

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh
Come peasant, King, to own Him
The King of Kings, salvation brings
Let loving hearts enthrone Him
Raise, raise the song on high
The Virgin sings her lullaby
Joy, joy for Christ is born
The Babe, the Son of Mary

Pretty straightforward, right? All that talk about joy and happiness and babies and shepherds and goodies and whatnot, how could that not be a favorite.

Truly, though, that isn't it at all. It's the second verse -- the one that most people leave out.

Why lies He in such mean estate
Where ox and ass are feeding
Good Christian fear for sinners here
The silent word is pleading
Nails, spears shall pierce Him through
The Cross be borne for me, for you
Hail, hail, the Word made flesh
The Babe, the Son of Mary

Talk about a buzz kill. This is Christmas, right? All that stuff is a good three months away! We should be rejoicing! We should be praising!

Well, yes we should. But to me, the miracle of Christ's birth has never been the fact that he WAS born....but that he was WILLING to be born at all.

Seriously. Which one of you would choose, if you could, to give up the sweetest gig in the universe -- Son of God -- to be popped out in a cattle barn and dropped into a cold manger, with the knowledge that, after thirty-three years of life, you would be ditched by your friends, unjustly accused, tortured, and executed?

Jesus knew all that. He knew in gory detail what was going to happen to Him. He knew He was giving everything up for nothing, that He was going to get no thanks for what He was doing, that there would be people that, after all He said and did, would not only refuse to believe Him, but would go so far as to kill Him in the most repulsive, demeaning, humiliating, and painful way possible.

And yet....despite all that....He did it. Not for Himself, but because He loved us.

It is that act of selfless, beautiful love that is truly "the reason for the season". Even on this most joyous night, the shadow of the cross is not far away....but were it not for that cross, that suffering, there would be no Christmas.

On this great and wonderful evening, I leave you with what is my favorite Christmas song of all.....the one that always brings tears to my eyes.....sung by one of my favorite artists.



Merry Christmas, everyone.

-- Dan

So Which Do You Choose?

As a kid growing up in the Midwest whose parents were both emergency medical technicians, there were two things engrained in my early childhood: wear seatbelts, and that the difference between life and death in an emergency is literally a matter of seconds. Do what you could to help someone, especially when the situation was quite obviously dangerous, because if you didn't, the likelihood of them dying went up exponentially.

Of course, that doesn't make any sense to the California Supreme Court.

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a young woman who pulled a co-worker from a crashed vehicle isn't immune from civil liability because the care she rendered wasn't medical.

All right, fine, we won't help them -- then wait for the court to rule that we can be sued for NOT helping them.

Hilary Rosen -- Liar and Hypocrite

The leftist gay blogosphere is all atwitter today over Hilary Rosen's ranting, Rosie-esque performance last night on AC360.

Of course, what they leave out is the fact that Rosen has a little bit of a credibility problem in her tantrums about people who support gay marriage bans, given her endorsement of said people.

Again, the problem is not what Rick Warren said or did; it's the fact that he's a) white, b) not a reliable Democrat voter, and c) doesn't worship Obama.

Anything else, is OK.

I Gotta Say It....

she should have seen this coming.

Next Revelation: Water is WET!

You really have to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Many borrowers who received help with mortgage modifications earlier this year tended to re-default on their payments, a top U.S. banking regulator said on Monday, citing recent data......

Dugan said recent data showed that after three months, nearly 36 percent of borrowers who received restructured mortgages in the first quarter re-defaulted.

The rate of re-default jumped to about 53 percent after six months and 58 percent after eight months, Dugan said, without providing an explanation for the trend.

Really? What a surprise! You mean people might be defaulting for reasons other than the bank being mean to them, like their having taken out loans that they had no f'ing chance of paying?

Nothing But The Finest Crap

Once upon a time, "AP" stood for "Associated Press".

With stories like this, it can now be formally changed to "All Propaganda".

The Nationals tickets were bargains for Freddie Mac, part of a well-orchestrated, multimillion-dollar campaign to preserve its largely regulatory-free environment, with particular pressure exerted on Republicans who controlled Congress at the time.

Internal Freddie Mac budget records show $11.7 million was paid to 52 outside lobbyists and consultants in 2006. Power brokers such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were recruited with six-figure contracts. Freddie Mac paid the following amounts to the firms of former Republican lawmakers or ex-GOP staffers in 2006:

But of course, not one word is whispered about a little thing like an actual person in Congress in 2006 who just happened to be a former director of Freddie Mac, or its largest recipients of actual largesse.

So I guess we can safely say it's not that Freddie Mac gave money to politicians and political staffers that's the problem; it's whether or not the fact that they did can be used to impugn Republicans. What was done is irrelevant; who did it is.

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.

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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?