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April 2, 2008

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7-4-08: Well here I am back from the vacation that Keith and I took a little over two weeks ago. It’s funny as I write that as it already feels like almost a lifetime has passed. I could not write as soon as I got home because there was just too much to do in terms of getting settled back into the home life in addition to a grueling work schedule. Still, I’m back now and wish to share just a couple of things.

Some people had expressed a great concern about us taking a trip to Muskogee for a high school reunion. “You’re going back to Oklahoma as a gay couple for Keith’s 30th High School Reunion?” Well truth be told the entire vacation went beautifully well. We had a great time driving up and back (we drove along much of Route 66) and the reception that we both received was better than anything either one of us could have ever imagined. Keith had been posting on a special class reunion page and put both of our websites out there. Basically our lives were exposed for all to see. I’m not sure why he did it, but the response was great. Whenever we would run into former classmates or friend of his people would point and welcome me as if they had known me their entire lives. Some others would walk right up to me without any introduction whatsoever and state how extremely happy they were to meet me. As it turns out we ended up becoming one of the most popular couples at the reunion, only to be eclipsed by another couple where the husband was a female to male transgendered person who had most beautiful blond wife. They were clearly the favorite couple during the entire reunion weekend, but that’s not to take anything away with how much people loved me and Keith. The support, friendship and acceptance meant more to me than words can describe. It was almost as if I discovered a whole new branch of my “extended” family, and to know that literally brings tears to my eyes with pure joy, and all I can do is fall on my knees and thank God for such a glorious blessing.

This event has taught me a great deal about our society. We are bombarded by reports about how conservative citizens from all over this country despise us and would love to see us just disappear, as to how our very existence apparently threatens their lives and their very own beliefs. Well I’m here to say that those reports are GREATLY exaggerated! While I’m sure such things exist, my own personal experience has shown me that even in a tiny place like Muskogee Oklahoma there can be peace, acceptance, and even love between people from all walks of life. This has given me a greater hope than I could ever possibly imagined!!!

Now we did take quite a few pictures while we were on our little trip. Since this was part vacation/part road-trip Keith decided to take almost all of his good cameras and just went to town taking pictures of anything that we found to be of interest. He has a great love of black and white photography and many of the subjects along Route 66 make for great pictures. He used film cameras, but after the prints came back he scanned what he thought were the best ones, and you can see those pictures below. Just click on the thumbnails to see the full sized picture.

                                          

                              

6-12-08: I don’t know how coherent this entry might be, but I feel it is imperative that I write it tonight. My husband and I are going out of town Saturday morning on a relaxed drive to Tulsa, OK where we will be attending Keith’s 30th High School Reunion. We decided to take a long holiday (We haven’t had one since 2004) and really enjoy ourselves, but since I only have a few more days before we leave I knew that this had to be written tonight. I will be bringing my laptop along with me, but I do not intend to do much blogging unless something of great importance should happen.

What I had alluded to in my previous entry is something that has me downright pissed off. Now for several years I’ve really been harping on the hypocrisy of the neo-conservative Republican fascists that are in office, all the way from state government to the federal level. What I’m angry about is Democrat hypocrisy, however this is not aimed at any politicians in office, rather it is aimed at the voters.

If you remember I had posted not too long ago my thoughts about the split that has occurred among Democrat voters regarding Obama versus Clinton. I had made mention of the antagonism that has existed in each camp when it came to the other. It was for this reason that I privately wanted to see an end to this bitter campaigning as I truly believed that it was providing a disservice to our political party. Well as we all know Hillary did finally concede and Obama is the presumed Democratic candidate for the Presidency. This is where the real hypocrisy among the voters showed up.

I was listening very carefully to talk radio for several days following Hillary’s concession and I was bewildered at the number of people who maintained that they were going to vote for John McCain instead of Obama. Forget the fact that Hillary herself said that it was important for us to get a Democrat into the White House. People are apparently pissed off that Hillary did not win and are now acting like spoiled children, displaying blatant double standards when trying to make their point.

There are numerous reasons why I’m disgusted with what some of these people are espousing as reasons for voting Republican, but I’m going to identify only one, and that is gay rights.

I would agree that I don’t think Obama did enough to court the “gay vote” during this primary season, and he did make a tragic mistake when an “ex-gay” Christian performer was to sing and a big rally some months back and did very little to correct it. HOWEVER, Obama has stated several things which we must realize are truly beneficial to our community. First, he wants to get rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” He knows what a travesty this policy has been and that it has only done more damage than the good it was supposed to provide. What has John McCain said about this? He has publicly stated that he sees no reason to get rid of this terrible policy. He has stated that the moral of the troops, and their ability to function as a unit, might very well be compromised if gays and lesbians were allowed to serve. Second, Obama wants to repeal ALL of the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA). It is true that he has not come out in full support of gay marriage, but does believe that gays and lesbians do deserve FULL and EQUAL rights and protections that married citizens are able to enjoy. Now with the news of same-sex marriages to be performed in California any day now the mere idea of DOMA being overturned is an even more important one. It is DOMA that has allowed various states (Arizona being one of them) to have the right to not recognize any marriage that has been performed out of state. We currently do not have an amendment to our Constitution defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman (though that may unfortunately change soon) so if DOMA was to be overturned then I could go to California with Keith, have an actual marriage ceremony (which we are planning on doing anyway) and then the Arizona government would be forced to recognize it here. Now John McCain had originally stated that he did not favor an amendment to the US Constitution rather it should be left up to the individual states. Well he has started to whistle a different tune after the California ruling. While he has not publicly stated that an amendment needs to be drafted, he has made it clear that he does not support this at all and would defend the more “traditional marriage,” which is stupid for him to say considering how he even treated his first wife, but that’s an issue for another time. The point here is that, while Obama has not been 100% supportive of the gay community, he has by no means been an enemy. McCain is clearly an enemy of the gay community which is where the hypocrisy comes in. How is it that our very own community can vote against their own self-interests? This man has voted against Hate Crimes legislation and even against ENDA. His record speaks for itself!!! I have even heard irrational nonsense such as, “I just don’t trust Obama and will NOT vote for him,” or “I don’t know what he stands for so I’ll vote for McCain instead because I know where he stands on the issues.” THIS IS RUBBISH!!!

For people who don’t know what Obama stands for all they need to do is go to his website at Barack Obama | Change We Can Believe In and do the research yourself. Not only will you find what he stands for, but you can learn what it is that he has done in his career thus far. To say that you’ll vote for McCain because you don’t know where he stands on the issues is tantamount to just burying your head in the sand because you don’t like what you see. As registered voters it is totally irresponsible for anyone to behave in this manner.

For those who will vote for McCain because they simply don’t trust Obama, let me give you this to chew on. McCain has already stated that he has no idea on how to handle the nation’s economy. He has also said that he feels the country is going in the right direction, both domestically and internationally, and has said that there is no reason to change what we are doing. Now I don’t know about you, but if we were to vote this idiot in it sounds like we would be getting a Bush impersonator. Now please people, think about this!!! Can any of you honestly believe that having Obama in office, who was voted to be the representative of the Democratic party, could actually be worse than having McCain, a man who has already proven to be an enemy of the gay community and feels that our country is going in the right direction??? WAKE UP PEOPLE!!! No matter how bad or inept Obama might ever turn out to be (which is something I personally do not believe), there is NO WAY that he could possibly be worse than McCain! In fact there is every indication that, in spite of any inexperience Obama might have, he would clearly be BETTER than McCain when it comes to being President of the United States!!! So, to all of you Democrats and members of the GLBT community, are any of you really willing to vote against your own community and vote against your own self-interests just because you have a bad feeling??? Are any of you so upset that just because Hillary lost you’re going to act like spoiled children and take all of your toys out of the sandbox and go home??? Are you people that deluded???

WAKE UP!!! Get over your bruised feelings and realize that there is much more at stake here! Study and do the research!!! Use logic and reason to dictate how you’re going to cast your vote in November instead of irrationality. Don’t be stupid!!! Be responsible voters. Having the right to vote is practically a sacred one. It needs to be treated with respect, not carelessly by a bunch of raving hypocrites who are also behaving like spoiled brats!!!

6-08-08: I will try to be brief… I have been sick. There has been a really nasty upper respiratory illness spreading throughout this country and I’ve been sick with it. It has laid me up with a cough that has brought me to the point of collapse accented by periods of mild, but still very unpleasant fever. Add to the fact that I made a decision not to take any time off because I was trying to build up my hours as Keith and I are taking a well-deserved vacation at the end of this week and will be gone for 10 days. I couldn’t afford to lose any of my vacation set aside for this due to illness so I had to work through the sickness at which point I would come home and completely collapse. It wasn’t until early last week that I finally started to see a real improvement in my condition, but then my mother took ill and had to go into the hospital to fight off an infection in her leg which had potentially serious ramifications. 3 years ago this month she took violently ill due to a bad case of “flesh-eating bacteria” in her right leg. After having 4 surgeries to remove the dead tissue (her leg still looks like it’s been through a meat grinder) and clear her blood of any bacterial infection (which literally had her very much near death) she was finally released and sent home after having been in the hospital for 7 weeks. Then, last Monday, her leg swelled up and turned a very ugly shade of red. After three years the infection had returned. Luckily we caught it early enough and she was able to receive the proper antibiotic treatments in the hospital to rid herself of the infection before it became too serious. This time she was only in the hospital for 7 days, but it was still a nightmare of a week. I spent all of my free time either with her or running errands for her. The only saving grace in all of this is that I had finally kicked the illness that had been plaguing me for the past 3 months. Perhaps my healing was from divine intervention. Perhaps it was just dumb luck. In any event, I am thankful to God that I could be well enough to take care of her and be there for her in this time of need.

Anyway, I do have much more to say regarding the political situation, but that will wait for another time. It’s late and I’m tired as my mom was discharged from the hospital today and I (along with Keith) was terribly busy taking care of her and making sure she was comfortable in her home. She’ll be fine, but I’m exhausted. This means that you’ll have to wait a few more days before I make my next posting here. I do have plenty more to say about what is going on regarding this election. I am spotting hypocrisy abound, and this time it’s not just coming from the Republicans, but I’m seeing it from our own registered Democrat voters, so expect my next blog entry to be “not so nice.”

4-19-08: Hello y’all…

Sorry I’ve been away, but as is the pattern my work has been keeping me busy. Add to that I got sick with a persistent respiratory problem which has me coughing to the point of collapse. On top of that is probably one of the worst allergy seasons I (along with my hubby) have had to contend with. In short, I either haven’t had the time or the energy to write, but my sense of “duty” has me sharing with all of you a few thoughts. First, let me briefly address the whole Sally Kern issue again. She had originally stated that homosexuals were more dangerous to our society than terrorists. However, when asked what she would do if she had a gay son (her own son has denied the gay rumors surrounding him) that she would love him unconditionally. Oh? What about the other mothers in this country? Does their love for their own gay sons (and daughters) count? What makes her hypothetical situation so better than any of the rest? Hey Sally, can you spell “hypocrite?”

I didn’t think so…

Now let me share with all of you something wonderful I read today. Lee Iacocca has just written a new book called “Where Have All The Leaders Gone?” and I was blessed to read an excerpt which really caught my attention.

A couple of years ago I posted a blog called “The 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism” written by Dr. Lawrence Britt. While his analysis clearly demonstrates what our current leadership is, the following excerpt from Iacocca’s book illustrates what our current leadership SHOULD be. It is called “The Test of a Leader.” It is reprinted here without permission.

I’ve never been Commander in Chief, but I’ve been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I’ve figured out nine points—not ten (I don’t want people accusing me of thinking I’m Moses). I call them the “Nine Cs of Leadership.” They’re not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let’s be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It’s up to us to choose wisely.

So, here’s my C list:

A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the “Yes, sir” crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. “I just scan the headlines,” he says. Am I hearing this right? He’s the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.” Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he’s ready to go. If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn’t put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he’s right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don’t care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn’t listen to the polls. Yeah, that’s what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a “thumping” on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn’t listening so much as he was calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.

A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There’s a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President—the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. “The President was serene,” Joe recalled. “He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well. ‘Mr. President,’ I finally said, ‘how can you be so sure when you don’t yet know all the facts?’” Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe’s shoulder. “My instincts,” he said. “My instincts.” Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush, “Mr. President, your instincts aren’t good enough.” Joe Biden sure didn’t think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn’t.

Leadership is all about managing change—whether you’re leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School.

A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I’m not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I’m talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don’t know if it’s denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it’s painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn’t cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we’ve stopped listening to him. A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, “If you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths—for what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his daddy he’s tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.

A leader must have COURAGE. I’m talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn’t courage. Tough talk isn’t courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn’t mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.

If you’re a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. Bush can’t even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.

To be a leader you’ve got to have CONVICTION—a fire in your belly. You’ve got to have passion. You’ve got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President—four hundred and counting. He’d rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake.

It’s no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only ninety-seven days in 2006. That’s eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that’s not leadership.

A leader should have CHARISMA. I’m not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It’s the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That’s my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn’t look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don’t go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.

A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn’t it? You’ve got to know what you’re doing. More important than that, you’ve got to surround yourself with people who know what they’re doing. Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let’s see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we’ve got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we’ve run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that’s just for starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.

You can’t be a leader if you don’t have COMMON SENSE. I call this Charlie Beacham’s rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford’s zone manager in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, “Remember, Lee, the only thing you’ve got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If you don’t know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream, you’ll never make it.” George Bush doesn’t have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know—Mr.they’ll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush.

Former President Bill Clinton once said, “I grew up in an alcoholic home. I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world—and I like it here.”

I think our current President should visit the real world once in a while.

The Biggest C is Crisis

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It’s easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else’s kids off to war when you’ve never seen a battlefield yourself. It’s another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It’s all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn’t safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day—and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero.

That was George Bush’s moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he’d regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq—a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn’t listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn’t scare the crap out of you, I don’t know what will.

What Lee has so eloquently shown is that not only does our current leadership fail to stand up and be the leaders we as a citizens “elected” them to be, but our country is currently being led by a group of radical fascists who clearly have their own agenda and they are willing to sacrifice anyone and anything to see it through. Is there anyone out there who is still not afraid of what is going on?

3-29-08:

I just want to share a small thought regarding our military.

I was reading an entry on some newsgroup and the moderator of the group posed a question regarding Gays plus the military, then and now. Now while his question did seem to focus only on the gay perception of men in the military, I had decided to broaden the scope in my reply. Below is the original question followed by my response.

There's a Love/Hate relationship between gays and the military. On the "Love" side there's the youthful, strong physical specimens; the courage and bravery; the alphamale attitudes; the "touch me" buzzcuts; the fetish gear and accessories...
On the "Hate" side of course is the institutionalized homophobia, racism, violence and killing.

I'm very interested in how the military was reflected in the mass media in the 40's-50's and how that's different from today. There were posters encouraging sacrifice for the troops, or even enlisting! There used to be soldiers in ads for towels and cigarrettes. You'd never see soldiers in any ad today.
I see this reflected in the gay content as well. Physique Pictorial, Tom of Finland, etc. all are full of the military as lust objects. Today's porn and gay illustrators seem to leave it out, opting instead for images of the leather scene that have adopted some of the military trappings.

Perhaps the national experience of several unpopular wars and news reporting of war atrocities have diminished the troops in our cultures eyes. Perhaps back when there was a draft, they were more "Our Boys" rather than the boys of the lower middle class of america. Perhaps the "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" dialogue has made it un-PC to objectify the military in the gay culture.
Thoughts?

Here is my reply.

I realize that your question is totally based on the gay perception of the military. I wish to broaden that scope to general public perception in my reply.

There are no organizations on this Earth that are so good as to be beyond any form of reproach. While I have heard that the attitude regarding gay soldiers in the military is changing for the better in parts of the world (namely the Middle East), I have heard the opposite in other areas where there is no conflict (e.g. Germany, Japan, etc.) presently going on.

The media has presented us with very strong mixed signals regarding our military. In one story we'll hear about some terrible atrocities being committed to prisoners from the war over in Iraq and Afghanistan only to be followed up with the story of a fallen soldier who died while doing his/her duty to the best of his/her ability. Is it any wonder why civilians (both gay & straight) are confused when it comes to public perception of our military?

I once heard a wise man say, "I trust in individuals, not organizations." The military is an organization, whether we say so or not. While the branches each have their basic charter as to the duties they've been set aside to perform, it is in the individuals that public perception is defined. Unfortunately sometimes the acts of the individuals, whether they are good or bad, tend to be reflected on all of the troops serving at that time. For that the military then unfairly receives either public commendation or public condemnation.

When I look at the military as a whole, I do so with a blank slate. Any judgments that I may pass will come from observing the individual soldiers serving, regardless of the capacity in which they serve.

Again, these are just my thoughts regarding our military. I found it important to express this because my brother-in-law (who I think very highly of) is to be deployed to Baghdad. I have also corresponded with an openly gay soldier in Iraq, plus I am acquainted with another gay soldier currently in Korea. Am I out to change people’s minds regarding the war? No. Am I out to change the public perception of our military? No. I just want to remind people that the military is made up men and women, each of whom are completely unique in this Universe. When my brother-in-law goes to Iraq, he may be numbered among the hundreds of soldiers who are already there, but in this entire magnificent Universe that God created, there is only one Kurt Lane.

When each and every one of you sees a soldier, I ask that you do not view him or her as just a member of whichever military he or she is a part of, rather I ask that you look at the individual, the person, the soul that is wearing the uniform and to always remember that the person you’re looking at is just a much a child of God as you are.

I was also reviewing my website here to see if there were any changes that I needed to make in order to keep it current, and I reviewed an article I had written called The Republican Party and the Christian Right. Given the heated nature already seen this year for the upcoming Presidential Election, I would recommend that this essay be viewed yet again. Just because George W. Bush is about to step down from office doesn't mean that the threat from the neo-conservatives and christo-fascists will go away, or has even gone away! Please read it again, and remember that we started a movement for change during the mid-term elections. Let's see what we can do to keep that momentum going.

3-12-08: I just have a short blog entry to make here. It’s in regards to Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern. She was speaking to a Republican group in January and equated sexual orientation and religion (specifically Islam) with terrorism. Among the ridiculous claims she made in her speech she said:

1. “The Homosexual Agenda is destroying this nation.”

2. “No society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted for more than, you know, a few decades.”

3. “What’s happening now is they’re going after, in schools, two-year-olds.”

As insane as these comments are, she still refuses to apologize for any of it even after being called on the carpet by numerous groups and individuals.

The Homosexual Agenda is destroying this nation? Can someone tell me when this is happening??? Are we doing this while we all meet at Starbucks in the morning, or perhaps during the dinner parties that we hold? I realize I’m being facetious in saying that, but based on our collective activities I can’t seem to find any ulterior motive in our daily lives which suggests we’re trying to destroy our country.

No society has totally embraced homosexuality that has lasted for more than a few decades. This very thought is stupid because while homosexuality has been around for thousands of years, it’s only been in the last couple of decades that any kind of acceptance started to show, so there is hardly any historical documentation which supports this idea.

As for going after two year olds in schools, is she referring to Nursery Schools??? Again, the fact that she even SAID that just goes to show how unbelievably STUPID SHE REALLY IS!!!

She made the original claim that sexual orientation is worse than terrorism. Is she aware of the poor 15 year old student who was gunned down by a 14 year old classmate because of his sexual orientation? He wasn’t hurting anyone, and yet this other kid comes up and kills him after having suffered taunting and bullying. After all of that, she dares to say that the 15 year old gunned down gay student was worse than a terrorist???

She really needs to take a close look in the mirror. People like her are the real social terrorists in this country.

3-9-08: I’ve been quietly observing what’s been going on with all of the political insanity going on. I’m sure that some of you have wondered why I’ve remained silent for so long with all that has happened and is happening. Well personal issues aside, I kept quiet because I’ve been trying to digest what has been going on with this extremely odd election cycle.

Let me start off by saying that I’m thrilled with the fact that the Democrats have finally put forth candidates that party members could actually get behind! For so long it’s been a case of us voting for our own candidate, not because he (or in some cases she) was so positive and great, but because we just couldn’t stand “the other guy.” For too long this is what we’ve been reduced to. Then we saw a crop of Democratic candidates for the Presidency come forward that actually excited this nation of ours. As always we had a large number of candidates who, after a period of time, dropped off one at a time until we were left with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. This is where things took a strange turn.

Throughout the course of debates that Clinton and Obama participated in I started to see a divide occur within the voting public. Instead of seeing people supporting the candidate of his or her choice, they started turning on their own candidate’s opponent. Clinton supporters weren’t pushing Hillary; rather they started engaging in trash talking Obama. I started hearing these same people venomously criticizing Obama for his lack of experience, for not having any accomplishments in Congress, for only spinning rhetoric about how this country needs change. Likewise I heard Clinton bashers (particularly members of the gay community) jump on her for not doing more for the GLBT community, for only wanting to repeal part of Defense Of Marriage, and voting for going into Iraq. What had started as an exciting campaign with candidates that we could fully support and get behind, has turned into heated and angry arguments about how each other’s candidate is worse than their own.

This country is teetering on the edge and about to fall headlong into the abyss. The Bush administration over the last 8 years has destroyed almost everything that this country truly stands for and has also diminished our standing in the global community. We are trapped in a Middle-East conflict that is a powder keg ready to explode, and we have an economy that is worse off than has been seen in over 30 years. It’s going to take many years of healthy administrative rule to undo the damage wrought by the neo-conservatives currently in power. Having a split Democratic Party isn’t going to help the situation. We desperately need to come together in support of our party. It’s good to have a candidate to get behind, but I fear that this continued fighting within our own party will spill over into the months leading into the general election. There is so much anti-Hillary sentiment from the Obama camp and followers, and vice-versa. Already I’m hearing Democrats claim that if the “other guy” gets the nod that they will either vote Republican, vote for a third-party candidate, or worse not even vote at all! Does anyone else see how terrible this is? Do I need to remind all of you what happened during the 2000 election? Because of personal issues between Gore and (Bill) Clinton, Gore wasn’t able to solidify the Democratic voting base. Ralph Nader was able to siphon just enough votes away from away from Gore making it easier for the Republicans to steal the election thus putting us in this socio-political quagmire we’re currently burdened with.

Again, we need to come together as a party if we want to not only reclaim our government, not just save our country, but potentially save this world we live on!!! It’s great to get excited over your choice of candidate, but let’s not do it at the expense of “the other guy.” As for me, I’ll be happy regardless of who gets the Democratic nomination because I feel that both of them have plenty to offer and can be good for our country.

1-13-08: A few days ago I heard an interview with a man named Scott Hall who had founded an organization called the “Gay American Heroes Foundation.” Its purpose is to remember the many members of the GLBT community who have been taken from us through the hateful actions of others.

We all remember Matthew Shepherd (and we should!), but there have been many more victims that we are not aware of and the purpose of this foundation is to remember them and to stop the hate.

Please click on the banner below, visit their website and see what they have to say. If you’re moved as much as I was then please do what you can, not just for the sake of the surviving families and friends, but for our own community and possibly even the world.

1-10-08: Two quick announcements. First, as you can see from looking below I have removed all of the news items and announcements from 2007 and placed them in the "2007 Archived Announcements" page.

Second, I just realized that my page of links was not available. Not only did I put it online, but it gave me an opportunity to update it a bit and make sure that all of the links were properly working.

1-3-08: [I wrote this blog while I was at work today, so if it seems a bit rushed and strangely composed you’ll know why!]

While listening to Howard Stern today I heard an interview with Stephen Baldwin. For those who don’t know who he is he is (I believe) the youngest of the famous Baldwin Brothers whose most famous member is brother Alec. Stephen has done several B films and raunchy comedies, but recently did something of an about face and became and born-again Christian. This phone interview was the first time Stephen had talked to Howard since his conversion and Howard (who professes to be something of an Athiest) really wanted to figure out what was going on in Stephen’s head. It was during this phone conversation when the subject of gay marriage came up. What was astonishing is that Stephen said that the Bible speaks out against gay marriage therefore he opposed it. Why this was astonishing is that really the only perceived anti-homosexual passages are in the Old Testament (it actually doesn't, but that's where the majority of anti-homosexual sentiment stems from) while the New Testament really doesn't speak out against it whatsoever (I'll challenge anyone who doesn't believe me). When the subject of masturbation came up it was mentioned that "spilling one's seed" was considered a sin. Stephen responded that it didn't count because it's not in the New Testament. Howard final analysis on this interview was that Stephen really didn't believe any of these things that he was saying.

I'm also sure that there are people who also feel that Stephen, and others like him, are hypocritical. I'll go so far as to say that he really does believe what he's saying, but he's caught up in a situation where "the blind is leading the blind," basically being spoon fed religious nonsense and accepting it all at face value. I have said on many occasions that when it comes to studying the Bible that it must be done with a completely open mind, that if you want to fully understand the text it is necessary to understand the culture of that time. Only then will people start to understand why Biblical passages were written in the manner that they were. Just because the Bible is a God-inspired book doesn't mean that everyone suddenly wrote in with God's voice.  All of the authors spoke with their own voices and in their own styles. All one must do is look at the different ways each book of the Bible is written, not just in the grammatical structure, but in the use of words and verbal imagery. This only proves that each person wrote on what he (or she) saw and how everything around them was perceived. The Gospel according to John doesn't read like any of the other three gospels. Titus doesn't read Isaiah. Hebrews doesn't read like 1st and 2nd Peter. Romans doesn't read like Acts, and Revelations doesn't read like anything else in the Bible! The passages are inspired, but each author revealed the truth in his or her own words, and such writings are colored by the culture and understanding of the time.

God gave us a brain and intellect. God also gave us an inquiring mind so that we can search out truths for ourselves. The people who believe much of this fundamentalist nonsense aren't evil people. They are slaves to a lie that has been passed down over the last 50+ years, and when a lie is repeated enough times it becomes truth to the minds of anyone who is willing to listen. Such people who believe these falsehoods are not to be rebuked, but rather we should show compassion and understanding. I believe that is what Christ would want us to do. Then we'll be in a position to help point them towards the truth. It will then be up to those individuals to decide to either walk towards the truth and learn for themselves, or to turn away from it and to hold on to the lies that they have been told by others. The choice is theirs.

"Let your [the] light [of Christ] so shine before all that they may see your good works and glorify God who is in heaven."

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