Random Musings

Arizona Governor, Jan “Eva Braun” Brewer has signed an elections bill that basically wipes out Libertarian and other third-party candidates, because it requires that they collect a practically unattainable number of signatures to be placed on the ballot in Arizona. For example, Green Party candidates would actually have to collect more signatures than they have party members.

That’s Jan Brewer, effectively saying that certain people in Arizona do not have the right to run for office. Maybe she’s less Eva and more Adolf?

I think everyone has a doppelganger—German for look-alike—and some people try make themselves look like someone else. I mean, women have done the Farrah hairstyle, and then the Rachel; people dress like celebrities, change their makeup like celebrities, but for most of us, it’s just a thang.

Not so for one Nicholas Ryan, a 32-year-old aspiring actor from New Jersey, who has undergone extensive cosmetic procedures so he can look like Ryan Gosling. In a two hour surgery, he underwent $5,000 worth of Botox and filler injections to make his face look like Gosling. His temples were filled out, his brow was Botoxed; his cheeks were injected with fillers to make them less hollow; his laugh lines were filled, too. And his entire jaw was rebuilt. He hopes the procedures will help him hit the big time in Hollywood—as well as make him a hit with the ladies.

Um, Nicholas? One thing, hon? If a movie producer or director wants Ryan Gosling, wouldn’t they just hire Ryan Gosling? Especially given that even after the 5K you spent, you don’t even look like Ryan’s long lost cousin, Jaime Gosling.

I like this story.

The mayor of Vicco, Kentucky, Johnny Cummings, has won special recognition from the state's Commission on Human Rights.

The commission said it honored Cummings with the Kentucky Unbridled Spirit for Justice Award for his efforts to create local LGBT civil-rights protections in his community. Vicco gained national fame last winter for adopting an LGBT-rights ordinance. Vicco is the fourth Kentucky community to pass an LGBT-rights ordinance and the first rural town to do so.

Way to go, Vicco, and way to go Mayor Cummings.

James Gandolfini died yesterday and the whole world seems to have come to a stop.

Now, I have nothing against Gandolfini, and am sorry for his family having to endure the death of a husband and father, but this is the big news story this morning?

Wildfires are taking people’s homes out West and we’re gonna spend fifteen minutes on GMA sitting in a New Jersey diner talking about an actor who passed away?

If you’ve ever wondered why we get nothing done in this country, it’s because we come to a halt when a TV actor dies, but keep on moving when people lose their homes.

Just sayin’. And before anyone gets all pissy about me denigrating this actor, let me say again, I’m sorry to his family for their loss, but this is not, and should not be, the big news story of the day.

Proponents of marriage equality have a new victory to toast with more and more wineries coming out in support of the cause.

Stein Family Wines, for example, will donate $1 to the nonprofit Freedom to Marry for every purchase of its wonderfully named Same-Sex Meritage, a Bordeaux-style red that blends notes of advocacy with a witty title. 

Stand Tall Wine Co. donates 1% of its proceeds of the sales of its Generic Pinot Noir to the Napa LGBTQ Project, while one of the largest labels, Barefoot Wine & Bubble, has been donating to LGBT organizations for 25 years.

Biogio Cry & Estate Wines, a New York-based company, has created Égalité, a sparkling wine from Burgundy whose name translates to “Equality” and has pledged $1,000 donations  to groups like GLSEN [Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network], the Trevor Project, and the Ali Forney Center, and hopes that same-sex brides and grooms will raise a glass of their bubbly at their weddings.

And many wineries are also creating special weekend visits for the LGBT community. Out in the Vineyard, a company that curates wine events for LGBT travelers, is hosting the Gay Wine Weekend 2013 where visitors will have the opportunity to celebrate Pride Month with tastings and tours of 10 of the leading vineyards of the Sonoma Valley, with proceeds benefiting the Face-to-Face AIDS Project.

Wine and LGBT rights. It's a good blend.

I like me some Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

In addition to making some rather interesting movie choices--from 50/50 to Inception to Batman to Looper to Premium Rush--he is also quite a handsome lad.

Just sayin'.

And this one kills me ….

Down there in Texas, Congressman, and rabidly anti-LGBT Republican—it kinda goes hand-in-hand in Texas—Ralph Hall showed up at an event last week, mingling with other guests, making small talk, enjoying the food and drink. But, apparently, Hall had no idea it was an LGBT event for the Victory Fund.

As Astro might say, Ruh roh.

Hall and his staffers were under the impression that they were attending an event for a fellow congressman, an event scheduled for that same day but in a different location. After being welcomed into the event and offered refreshments, Hall inquired about the congressman whom he was there to support and after being told it was a Big Old Queer Party, Hall quickly made his exit, presumably after using the men’s room to wash off The Gay.

Good news ….

Four-time Olympic gold medalist and LGBT activist Greg Louganis is getting married to Johnny Chaillot, his longtime partner.

"I finally met my soul mate – the more I fall in love with Johnny, the more I fall in love with myself. This is what the universe had in store for both of us."—Greg Louganis

Congrats to both of them!

Just because .....

Joe Manganiello on a raft, in a pool is what I would call a wet dream in every sense of the word.

Again .... Just sayin'.

Paula Deen is being sued by Lisa Jackson, a former manager of one of her restaurants, who claims Deen’s brother, Bubba—and I’m’a just leave that there—Hiers sexually assaulted her, but since the release of Deen’s deposition that case has become all about Deen’s use of the n-word.

Deen doesn’t deny these allegations at all, and was very open about her use of the n word and dressing waiters as slaves in plantation-themed restaurants. Here are some excerpts of her deposition from The Huffington Post:

Paula Deen on her use of the n-word:

Lawyer: Have you ever used the N-word yourself?

Deen: Yes, of course.

Lawyer: Okay. In what context?

Deen: Well, it was probably when a black man burst into the bank that I was working at and put a gun to my head.

Lawyer: Okay. Well, did you use the N-word to him as he pointed a gun in your head at your face?

Deen: Absolutely not.

Lawyer: Well, then, when did you use it?

Deen: Probably in telling my husband.

Lawyer: Okay. Have you used it since then?

Deen: I’m sure I have, but it’s been a very long time. Paula Deen on her brother sexually assaulting a woman:

Lawyer: Are you aware of Mr. Hiers admitting that he engaged in racially and sexually inappropriate behavior in the workplace?

Deen: I guess.

Lawyer: Okay. Well, have you done anything about what you heard him admit to doing?

Deen: My brother and I have had conversations. My brother is not a bad person. Do humans behave inappropriately? At times, yes. I don’t know one person that has not. My brother is a good man. Have we told jokes? Have we said things that we should not have said, that — yes, we all have. We all have done that, every one of us.

Paula Deen on a plantation-style wedding for her brother:

Lawyer: Do you recall using the words “really southern plantation wedding”?

Deen: Yes, I did say I would love for Bubba to experience a very southern style wedding, and we did that. We did that.

Lawyer: Okay. You would love for him to experience a southern style plantation wedding?

Deen: Yes.

Lawyer: That’s what you said?

Deen: Well, something like that, yes. And -–

Lawyer: Is there any possibility, in your mind, that you slipped and used the word “n—-r”?

Deen: No, because that’s not what these men were. They were professional black men doing a fabulous job.

Lawyer: Why did that make it a -– if you would have had servers like that, why would that have made it a really southern plantation wedding?

Deen: Well, it –- to me, of course I’m old but I ain’t that old, I didn’t live back in those days but I’ve seen the pictures, and the pictures that I’ve seen, that restaurant represented a certain era in America.

Lawyer: Okay. What era in America are you referring to?

Deen: Well, I don’t know. After the Civil War, during the Civil War, before the Civil War.

Lawyer: Right. Back in an era where there were middle-aged black men waiting on white people.

Deen: Well, it was not only black men, it was black women.

Lawyer: Sure. And before the Civil War –- before the Civil War, those black men and women who were waiting on white people were slaves, right?

Deen: Yes, I would say that they were slaves.

Lawyer: Okay.

Deen: But I did not mean anything derogatory by saying that I loved their look and their professionalism.

Lawyer: And when you described it [the restaurant] to Miss Jackson [...] Do you know what word you used to identify their race? [...] Black or African-American?

Deen: Black. I would use the word black. I don’t usually use African-Americans. I try to go along with whatever the black race is wanting to call themselves at each given time.

Wow. She just digs in deeper.

Now I get that times have changed, and they certainly have since Paula Deen was a child, but her use of the n-word today is quite upsetting. And her notion that the ‘black waiters doing a fabulous job’ don’t count as an n-word, is equally troubling.

And this last line of hers, “I try to go along with whatever the black race is wanting to call themselves at each given time” is the most troubling of all.

Now, does her use of the n-word, or her backwards, moronic, racially-tinged opinions have anything to do with the case? Not really. If Deen has used, and continues to use, racist epithets, it has no bearing on whether or not her brother sexually assaulted one of her managers, but it does give us a glimpse into the mind of Paula Deen, and that doesn’t look very pretty.

Y'all know I ain't no fan of Find-Em-Date-Em-Dump-Em-Write-A-Song-About-Em Taylor Swift, but I gotta give the old gal props for her Tweet this week after the birth of Reality Show Whore and Egotistical Rapper's spawn:

Read More

Lies Drive Mitch McConnell

Kentucky GOP Senator Mitch McConnell would be laughable, if he wasn’t so scary, and by that I mean scary stupid. And he’d be laughable if the good [?] people of Kentucky didn’t continue to send him back to Washington. I mean, after Obama was elected in 2008, didn’t McConnell say it was Job #1 for the GOP to ensure that Obama was a one-term president?

How’d that work out for him? Yeah, not so much. He gave himself one job and three-and-a-half years to do it and failed.

Still, while that in itself is laughable, it’s also endlessly fun to note that, despite his position of power in Washington, his ‘Red’ State home, and his nearly three decades of politicking, most recent polls show McConnell basically tied in his upcoming re-election bid with … wait for it … an unannounced, unannounced, Democrat.

So, what’s Mitchy to do? I mean, when it looked like he might have to run against actress Ashley Judd, McConnell the Turtles sent his Hellhounds after Judd, who subsequently announced she would not run; and then the desperation continued when McConnell, the incumbent, began running re-election ads a full 20 months before the election.

Then we’ll throw in that new video, hoping to exploit the IRS controversy into making Obama seem like this year’s Nixon. McConnell says, in the video:

"I think that the leader of the free world and his advisers have better things to do than to dig through other people's tax returns."

Of course, that never happened, There is no proof, nor any reliable allegations that Barack Obama dug through anyone’s tax information and doesn't appear to have had anything to do with the IRS's tax-exempt office in Cincinnati.

Still, it isn’t McConnell’s warped and untrue insinuations that are what’s wrong with McConnell. It’s his message at the end of the video where you see the words, "Intimidation. Retaliation. Secretive" and then hear President Obama say, "We're going to punish our enemies and reward our friends."

Sounds bad, no? Yes, it does, but the words in McConnell’s propaganda campaign ad are taken out of context.

The out-of-context quote is part of a comment made more than two years ago in an interview with Univision radio when Obama said this: "If Latinos sit out the election instead of, 'we're going to punish our enemies and we're going to reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us' -- if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's going to be harder."

McConnell's use of the quote is the height of desperation and dishonesty.

This is not a man who deserves to be re-elected. He’s spent the last four years working against the President in any, and every, way and yet has failed to do the one thing he said he’d do: limit him to one term.

This is not a man who deserves to be re-elected. He lies, plain and simple; he takes a person’s words and then inserts them into non-existent conversations, twisting what was said because it suits his need to be in office, collecting his salary, his future pension for life, and his lovely health care package.

This is not a man who deserves to be re-elected. He went after Ashley Judd on the rumor that she would run for office, and used some of her personal background and history in an attempt to make her seem unstable.

This is not a man who deserves to be re-elected. In fact, as I said earlier, recent polls show he tied with an unnamed, unannounced candidate.

Kentucky, when you know better, you do better, and you should know better.

source

Read More

America, Where A Five-year-old Can Own A Rifle And Accidentally Shoot and Kill His Baby Sister

First off, let me get this queer: a mother and father decided that the best gift they could give their five-year-0old son was a gun. You know, not a bicycle or a game, or a ball and glove, but a weapon, for a five-year-old.

So, naturally, you know where this story is headed. The five-year-old’s mother stepped outside their home for just a couple of minutes, but it was long enough for that young boy to shoot and kill his two-year-old sister with his birthday present.

In Kentucky, the shooting death of Caroline Sparks has been ruled an accident, according to Kentucky State Police Trooper Billy Gregory, who also said: "It's just one of those nightmares. A quick thing that happens when you turn your back."

On a five-year-old with a loaded rifle. But, you know, that’s okay, I guess, because, again according to Gregory, "In this part of the country, it's not uncommon for a 5-year-old to have a gun or for a parent to pass one down to their kid."

But a five-year-old. I mean, we don’t let parents give their five-year-olds cars because, well, that would be stupid, but it’s just A-OK to give a kid and gun and then step outside for a minute.

Now, the family did say that they kept the Crickett rifle—Yes, that’s the name of the gun because it’s marketed to children—in what they considered to be a safe spot, but then the young boy got his gun, began playing with it and now his sister’s dead.

The Crickett website features three .22-caliber rifle models for kids, with shoulder stock colors ranging from pink to red, white and blue swirls. "My first rifle" is the company's slogan.

“My first rifle that I got hold of and accidentally killed my sister.”

But, what galls me more than parents buying guns for five-year-olds and then leaving them unattended, and what galls me more than gun makers marketing weapons to children, is that the grandmother of that poor dead girl had the nerve to say, "He just picked (the gun) up before he realized it."

Just picked it up? From where? Where it was safely stored?

The grandmother—whose name I won’t mention because her 'Oh well' attitude disgusts me—then has the balls to say that, while she’s devastated, she is comforted knowing that her granddaughter is in a better place: "It was God's will. It was her time to go, I guess. I just know she's in heaven right now and I know she's in good hands with the Lord."

So, God wanted a two-year-old dead and he wanted her five-year-0old brother to be the one who killed her? Is that the God that these morons believe in? I’d prefer to believe in a God who’d come a’calling at their house the day they bought a child a gun and tell them that they might want to rethink their purchase. Maybe then we wouldn’t be mourning the death of a child, and mourning the lost innocence of her brother. Maybe then, rather than talk about these children, we can talk about the parents, and question their motives, and question their need to arm a child.

But, you know, the NRA will find someone to blame for this—probably Obama—and this will get shoved in a drawer alongside Newtown and Aurora and countless other places where guns shouldn’t have been, in hands they shouldn’t have been, taking the lives of people they shouldn’t have been taking.

So, again, let me get this queer: this young boy couldn’t drive a car because he wasn’t sixteen; and he couldn’t join the military because he’s not eighteen; and he can’t drink because he’s not twenty-one. But he was allowed to own a rifle at age five?

We have got this so backwards in this country, and we keep letting this happen and letting this happen and then mourning the deaths of the innocent, and the death of innocence, while our elected officials either sit on their hands doing nothing, or hold their hands out to the NRA asking for money to keep them in office.

When is it going to be enough?

source

Read More

Kentucky Legislators Want To Use Religion As An Excuse For Hate

Ah Kentuckians, how it must feel waking up this morning to the fact that your elected officials are trying to make discrimination legal, and fun, if you do it based on your religious beliefs.

Yesterday, the Today Kentucky House passed House Bill 279—AKA the Religious Freedom Bill—which is ostensibly designed to protect individuals' religious liberty from undue governmental interference. But, as it is currently written, the bill undermines existing civil rights protections in the State.

It moves on to the Senate where, I hope, smarter heads prevail. But, if the Senate chooses to keep the bill's current language, and not amend it to include specific protections for civil rights laws, a religious individual could claim an exemption from any law or policy that prohibits discrimination—leaving racial minorities, women, LGBT people and others without adequate protections.

See, in Kentucky you’d be able to legally discriminate against Blacks, and Latinos, and woman or any race or color, and LGBT people, if you say something like ‘God made me do it.’ And, if this bill passes, with the current language intact, it could undermine existing LGBT Fairness protections in local statutes in places Louisville, Lexington, Covington and Vicco, Kentucky.

And if you don’t think folks will use their so-called religion as an excuse to discriminate, well, they have in the past, and here’s how and where:

Against African-Americans: In 1966, three African-American customers brought a suit against Piggie Park restaurants, and their owner, Maurice Bessinger, for refusal to serve them. Bessinger argued that enforcement of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits that type of discrimination, violated his religious freedom "since his religious beliefs compel[ed] him to oppose any integration of the races whatever."

Against women: In 1976, Roanoke Valley Christian Schools added a "head of household" supplement to their teachers' salaries – which according to their beliefs meant married men, and not women.When sued under the Equal Pay Act, Roanoke Valley claimed a right to an exemption. According to the church pastor affiliated with the school, "[w]hen we turned to the Scriptures to determine head of household, by scriptural basis, we found that the Bible clearly teaches that the husband is the head of the house, head of the wife, head of the family."

Against interracial marriages: In the 1980's, Bob Jones University, a religiously-affiliated school in South Carolina, wanted an exemption from a rule denying tax-exempt status to schools that practice racial discrimination. The "sponsors of the University genuinely believe[d] that the Bible forbids interracial dating and marriage," and it was school policy that students engaged in interracial relationships, or advocacy thereof, would be expelled.

As I said, hopefully the Kentucky Senate has more active brain cells in it than does the House. If not, any religion, and we all know they are some legitimate ones out there, but there are also some crazy ones, too, would be able to legally discriminate against minorities, women and the LGBT community.

In the 21^st century.

via the ACLU

Read More

Random Musings

GOProud, that Gay conservative group which has never officially backed marriage equality, did so last week.

GOProud.

Always late to the party.

Vicco, a small Appalachian town in Kentucky, has just become the smallest municipality in the entire country to approve an LGBT nondiscrimination law.

Vicco city attorney Eric Ashley: "Vicco is a community that believes all folks should be treated fairly. We believe everyone deserves the opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Fairness is a Kentucky value, a Vicco value, and one of our most American values."

All of Vicco's 334 residents will be protected under the fairness ordinance, which prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Vicco becomes Kentucky's fourth municipality to pass such an ordinance, following Lexington, Louisville, and Covington, but, again, it's the smallest municipality in the United States of America to do so.

Small town, big pride.

So, we'd made plans to go see Lincoln on Monday, but then that whole inauguration thing came along and I was glued to the set watching history repeat itself.

And listening to Carlos' take on pop culture, about which he knows nothing.

For example: As Kelly Clarkson was introduced--she sang a gorgeous rendition of 'My Country Tis Of Thee'--Carlos looked at her and asked, "Lindsay Lohan?"

"Yes," I said, "Lindsay Lohan, drug addict, drunk, and jewel thief awaiting trials on both coasts has been asked to sing at the inauguration."

::::sigh::::

Out New Mexico way, state representative Brian Egolf has introduced a bill to put in place a constitutional amendment to legalize same-sex marriage on an upcoming public ballot. 

Brian Egolf:

“It’s time to recognize all the families in New Mexico who are headed by same-sex couples.”

To be fair, and honest, his proposal probably won’t have an easy time in the Legislature. Lawmakers in New Mexico can't even agree on passage of legislation calling for state-recognized domestic partnership agreements. 

Still, Egolf’s resolution, which says: “The issuance of a marriage license shall not be denied on the basis that the sex of both applicants is the same. No church or religious institution shall be required to perform a marriage ceremony or recognize a marriage for religious purposes that conflicts with the church’s or religious institution’s beliefs,” will first be heard in the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee.

Baby steps. It's worked elsewhere and it may well work in New Mexico.
Given time.

So, Beyoncé may have lip-synched the National Anthem at the inauguration on Monday.

Am I surprised? Not one bit, I think Beyoncé's Goal #1 is to make Beyoncé look as good as possible and sound as good as possible.
Kelly sang live; James Taylor, too. But Beyoncé wanted it to be perfect, in the perfect gown, with the perfect hair and just the right amount of wind in the hair.
So, again, I don't care if she lip-synched, but I am sickened by her Diana Ross-esque arm flailing at the end.
That was too much.

On the other side of equality, Terry Lee, owner of Terry Lee Forensics, a Cedar City, Utah digital forensics company, has fired two employees because they supported President Barack Obama.

Oh, but he did, and he's quite happy about it.

Terry Lee: “They were Obama supporters. We just knew they were."

Lee first mentioned the firings in the comments section of another story in the Tribune about a Vernal, Utah, smoothie shop owner charging "liberals" a higher price than "conservatives" for drinks. That shop owner said "liberal programs" are costing his business more, so it’s only fair that left-leaning customers should pay more.

Lee showed his support for the tactic by writing: "Love it. We had to let two employees go to cover new Obongocare [sic] costs and increased taxes. Found two Obongo supporters and gave them the news yesterday. They wanted the idiot in the Whitehouse [sic], they reap the benefits.”

The comment was later deleted by the author possibly because Terry Lee doesn't know how to spell 'White House.'

Way back in the gay Dark Ages, in 1972 to be exact, Mary Ellen Cunha and Peggy Forster opened the Twin Peaks Tavern in San Francisco, at the corner of Castro and Market Streets. And, in addition to opening the doors, the two women also uncovered the windows at the bar so that the people inside could see out, and, more importantly, people outside could see in.

Twin Peaks Tavern is believed to be the first gay bar in the nation to feature full-length, open plate glass windows that let its patrons look out and the public look in. The lesbian friends, known to most regulars as "the girls," opened the bar to the world at a time when many gays still feared losing their jobs or being socially ostracized if their sexual orientation was revealed.

It has survived for 40 years as one of the Castro district's most memorable and welcoming establishments and, just last week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to give it landmark status. Twin Peaks becomes the second bar in San Francisco to have that designation; Sam Jordan's bar, named for its founder--the first African American man to run for city mayor--was the first.

This is Good News mixed in with Bad News.

The Association of Bragg Officers' Spouses—which has been in the news for denying membership to the lesbian wife of an Army officer stationed at Fort Bragg—has decided to offer that spouse, Ashley Broadway, a "guest membership" in the group.

Not a member, mind you, like she was married to a man or something, but she can be considered a guest, even though she's the legal spouse of a military member.

Less than. Back of the bus.

In a letter from the Fort Bragg spouses group's president, Mary Ring, to Broadway, Ring wrote that the guest membership was being extended "[w]hile our bylaws are being reviewed."

Uh huh.

How about just changing the by-laws and making this spouse feel just like any other spouse, and not a guest?

So, I've already poked fun at Carlos for his complete ignorance about pop culture, so let's have another go at him, shall we?

One day last week I was watching a Food Network show, with Giada De Laurentiis and Carlos came in to watch, too. But, he was less interested in what she was making and more interested in commenting on how her cleavage seemed to be the star of her show.

Yes. Carlos couldn't stop looking at her cleavage.

Later on that same day, I found him watching some TV show about girls in bikinis and a water slide.

Hmmmmm.

Then, in the car the other day Patti Labelle's 'Lady Marmalade' came on the radio and I cranked the volume and began "Mocca chocolata ya ya-ing" all over the place. I asked Carlos to sing along and he said...he said......he said.....

"I've never heard this song before."

I.Know.

Then I began thinking....never a good sign....you know all those women who marry men and then find out their husbands are gay? Maybe.....maybe.....my Carlos is.......straight?

Tweet Of The Week:

Read More