Random Musings

Earlier this week I went to bed relatively early. Carlos was back on the computer and as I do, I asked that he not stay up late because he gets up early, and then I went to bed.

I awoke at about 12:15 AM and he was not in the room, and, as my mind always goes to morbid places, I wondered if maybe he was dead in the house somewhere. I was about to get up to check but, well, I was tired and, yeah, I kinda fell back asleep.

But, just before drifting completely away, I heard him come into the bedroom, so I knew he wasn’t dead, and knew I wouldn’t find his body slumped over the office desk in the morning and then wonder who was going to make coffee, so it was all good.

Except … I dreamt that Carlos got into bed and began torturing me, poking, pinching, tickling, and I got so angry that I said I was sleeping in the guest room.

The next morning I was so angry at the way Dream Carlos treated me that I didn’t speak to Real Carlos.

I call that Rational Irrationality, and luckily I explained it to him so he could see my point of view … as he called the local psychiatric hospital and tried to have me placed on a 5150 hold.

Earlier this week Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie announced that he would call a special session of the state Legislature next month to consider marriage-equality legislation: 

"This is now the 20th year of discussion that has taken place on the issue and associated issues with it. I feel very, very strongly that the votes are there to pass this because it is time for marriage equity to take place."

The special session would likely last four to five days and Abercrombie said the bill, which includes a religious exemption, would pass both houses of the Legislature. Hawaii Attorney General David Louie said, if approved, the bill as proposed would allow for same-sex nuptials to begin as soon as November 18.

Do it Hawaii.

So, after we came back from vacation, I noticed that there was a small puddle of water underneath the sink in the master bathroom. I looked around for a leak, ran water in the sink, felt up the pipe — not nearly as fun as it might sounds … feeling up pipes — and found no drips. I cleaned up the water, cleaned up under the sink, and left it at that.

The next day, no water; same for the next day after that. But on Sunday, naturally, the leak was back and Carlos, who fancies himself a plumber without the butt crack, found that the leak was in the supply line from the hot water line; he felt it was beyond his area of expertise … I giggle ... expertise … and he began calling plumbers.

One wanted $115 for an emergency call plus $75 drive time, plus whatever the repair cost, so I figured this guy would get us for $300 or more. Another guy said $85 plus repair costs and labor, which I figured might be $200.

But it got me thinking … what if I advertised myself as a plumber, charged $115 emergency call fee, plus $75 drive? I could come out, say I couldn’t fix it, and pocket an easy $190 for nothing. A few calls like that per week and I’d be rolling in it.

I may have found a new career ….

PS We called a guy who’s done work on the house in the past to ask if he could recommend a plumber and he came out instantly, found the leak, bought the new parts, fixed the leak, and charged $80.

PPS That's not the actual plumber who came out to the house. I mean, if that was the guy, I'd gladly shell out the $300-plus!

This one just makes me smile.

The American Family Association [AFA] has been boycotting Home Depot for over three years because of the company’s support for LGBT groups and Pride celebrations, and this week the group announced that it would be ending the boycott, because according to Randy Sharp, the AFA director of special bigot projects, Home Depot has changed its behavior:

“We’re glad to report that we are suspending the boycott of The Home Depot. After monitoring the company for several months, we’re satisfied that the company has withdrawn its major financial contributions to gay activist groups and to their activities. … We certainly do expect The Home Depot to deny that they have turned back their contributions to gay activist groups, but AFA has monitored the company – and actions speak louder than words.”

Sharp has no specifics about how they “monitored” the Home Depot and offered no proof that they changed their evil ways, but I guess if he says it’s true then it’s …

Huh? What? Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes offered a response to Sharps statement and it goes something like this:

“We haven’t made any changes to our policies for inclusion and respect of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation. We have not directed our associates to discontinue participation in Pride or other community events, and have no intention of doing so.”

The AFA caught in another lie.

This one makes me giggle.

When formerly closeted, now openly gay tennis legend Billie Jean King was interviewed by Stephen Colbert, he asked all sorts of questions about her career, and her game, but the question, well, actually, the question and answer that I loved best was when Colbert asked her if, since she was in the closet while she played professionally, if she ever got upset when the line judge, yelled "Out!"

"Yes," she said.

Love.It.

The AFL-CIO [American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations] has added transgender employment protections to its constitution.

The decision to ban transgender discrimination at its 2013 convention followed the decision of several unions within the federation who have already adopted those changes.

And here's the new language: 

“To encourage all workers without regard to race, creed, color, sex, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to share equally in the full benefits of union organization.”

Bravo, AFL-CIO.

The march goes on.

I caught the new season of The View this week and I am officially over the show unless they have a truly watch-worthy guest on.

Sherri Shepard is as dumb as a box of rocks, and Jenny McCarthy has just a few more active brain cells than that. Barbara Walters showed up on Monday with a new face that was pulled tighter than Star Jones in an Herve Leger bandage dress, which only leaves Whoopi as the rational one.

But, no matter how much I loves me some Whoopi, I cannot wade through the idiocy for her any longer.

Well, Sir Patrick Stewart is officially a taken man. The 73-year-old got married last weekend to his 35-year-old girlfriend, Sunny Ozell, and then took to Twitter to make the announcement with the most adorable wedding photo ever:

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Random Musings

Either the times are a'changing too fast, or, well, I might be slipping, mentally.

See, I rarely send regular mail. I email and talk to friends and family through Facebook. I pay bills online, read the paper online, and do all kinds of stuff online. But this week, as I readied a  birthday card to send to a very good friend through regular mail, I had to stop and think:

"Which corner does the stamp go on?"

I know.

And then there were seven.

Out there in New Mexico, Grant County Clerk Robert Zamarripa has said his office will comply with a judge's ruling issued Tuesday and will begin providing marriage licenses to same-sex couples next week: "We'll let the Legislature and courts decide after this what needs to be done."

His comments came shortly after District Judge J.C. Robinson issued an order requiring the clerk to issue marriage licenses "on a nondiscriminatory basis" to same-sex couples.

And, in a separate case, Los Alamos County Clerk Sharon Stover is fighting a similar court order and said she won't immediately change her policy of denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Stover is to appear in state district court next week to ask Judge Sheri Raphaelson to put a same-sex marriage lawsuit on hold until the issue is resolved by the state Supreme Court in another case.

But however you slice, as of today, 57.6% of New Mexicans live in marriage equality counties.

UPDATE: Los Alamos County has just become the eight county in the state to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The march goes on ....

John McCain. Prisoner of war; war hero; perpetual--at least until he lost to Obama--candidate for the White House; the Senator from Arizona. And, well, half-assed, barely there Senator, too.

See, as the hearings went on about what to do about Syria, Melina Mara, a photographer, says she saw the esteemed McCain “passing the time by playing poker on his iPhone during the hearing.”

Yes, while we elected him to office to represent us--or at least the people of Arizona did that--and while we ask that he make an informed decision on whether or not we should go into yet another war, McCain is playing games on his phone rather than listen to the discussion.

Bad enough, but he even admitted as much, sending out this ridiculous Tweet as some sort of an excuse:

Vote.Him.Out.

Grandpa needs to go sit on the porch now.

Speaking of McCain and his ill-fated yet desperate need to be president, we finally saw Game Change last week. We live in an HBO-free house so missed it the first go-round but caught it long enough to DVR it during a free HBO weekend.

And I'll say this, I felt a bit sorry for the MGB™.

Now, don't get me wrong, she's a loon, and completely inept and unfit for public office, but she was such a pawn in McCain's ego-driven campaign for the White House. She was wack-a-doo and stupid, turned arrogant and threatening when provoked, but I did feel bad that she was so alone, without her family, and so out of her element that she had to be shown a world map and then given the names of the countries in an effort to train her about Foreign policy.

Like I said, I felt bad, but I do know that we dodged a pretty incredible, and incredibly stupid, bullet when the McCain campaign lost ... big time.

Boy, do we grow 'em stupid down here; stupid and too horny to think straight.

Emily Craig and Shaun Bowden, right up there, were arrested last week for having sex inside a display shed at a Home Depot near Charleston. Officers were dispatched to the business “in reference to a male and female entering a display shed on the property, closing the door behind themselves and remaining inside.” 

Upon arrival, an inspection of the outdoor sheds turned up Craig and Bowden; Craig was "partially clothed; the top of her dress was untied, hanging at her waist” while Bowden was shirtless and “had his pants down near his knees; his penis was exposed.”

During questioning of the duo, “it became apparent that they were engaged in sexual intercourse within the shed.” During questioning it became apparent????

Craig and Bowden were each arrested for disorderly conduct, while Bowden was also hit with an indecent exposure count for “having his genitals within public view". Additionally, Craig was charged with providing false information for initially giving officers an incorrect name.

Stupid and horny, emphasis on the stupid.

Liz Cheney, daughter of W's Hellhound, Dick "If I Only Had A Heart [and Brain]" Cheney, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Wyoming, reacted yesterday to charges by her opponent that she "aggressively promotes" same-sex marriage by saying it's all a damn lie.

Cheney is challenging fellow Republican Senator Mike Enzi for the seat, and in a statement she accused the Enzi campaign of conducting a “push poll” in the state, which asks “Are you aware that Liz Cheney supports abortion and aggressively promotes gay marriage?”

The Enzi campaign categorically denied it conducted the poll and Cheney clarified her position:

“I am strongly pro-life and I am not pro-gay marriage. [T]he issue of marriage must be decided by the states, and by the people in the states, not by judges and not even by legislators, but by the people themselves.”

Yes, people should vote on the rights of a minority, is what Liz Cheney is saying, and that always works, eh?

And Cheney's stance varies widely from that of her own family, including her openly gay sister Mary, and her equality supporting parents, the aforementioned Dick, and wife Lynne. Mary Cheney, in fact, had her own statement about her sister: 

"For the record, I love my sister, but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage. Freedom means freedom for everyone. That means that all families — regardless of how they look or how they are made — all families are entitled to the same rights, privileges and protections as every other. It’s not something to be decided by a show of hands. Please like and share if you agree."

Infighting is fun, even within a family.

I love BBC America because the shows are a bit ore edgy, less pandering, and feature some very attractive men.

Like Jonathan Bailey, seen as young eager cub reporter Olli on Broadchurch, and then the absolutely delicious Idris Elba--who many hope will be the first Black Bond--on Luther.

Man Candy from across the pond.

That picture of the sign outside an Anglican church in Niagara Falls which sends a message of inclusivity when it comes to homosexuality has gone viral.

The billboard outside St. John’s Anglican Church reads: “Jesus had two dads and he turned out just fine!”

An image of the sign caught worldwide attention this week after it was posted on the social-media website Reddit. The post gained hundreds of thousands of views and received more than 15,900 positive votes and more than 14,300 negative votes.

“I don’t find it offensive in any way,” said St. John’s rector Lynne Marchant. “We have people in our congregation who are homosexual. We are an all-inclusive church, a family. No one cares what your sexuality is. Come on in, we don’t see any difference.”

That's what church should be about, for those of you who think otherwise.

Last week the Big Brother racist--well, one of them--Aaryn Gries was finally voted out of the house and had a  sit-down with host Julie Chen, who questioned some of her more, to put it mildly, off-color remarks.

Like, "Be careful what you say in the dark, you might not be able to see the b-tch." She said that about African-American contestant Candice Stewart

Like: "Shut up, go make some rice." Gries said that about Asian player Helen Kim

Like: "Nobody is going to vote for whoever that queer puts up." She said about openly gay contestant Andy Herren.

Her excuse? Well, first she said she didn't remember saying any of those things and then she blamed it on being Southern in a non-apology-apology:

"Being Southern, it is a stereotype and I have said some things that have been taken completely out of context and wrong. I do not mean to ever come off racist. That is not me and I apologize to anyone I have offended for that."

Then Chen called her a cracker, bitch-slapped her, and sent her off to the Jury House and the story would have died--until the reunion show--except that Gries' mother, Elizabeth Owens penned a letter to the LA Times where she said that CBS and Julie Chen used her daughter’s racism to get ratings:

“While I love and continue to support my daughter Aaryn, words cannot describe my disappointment in some of her comments made on ‘Big Brother.’ These inappropriate comments certainly do not represent the value system under which her father and I have raised her. Aaryn is a young 22-year-old college student that has spent 70 days living in a fish bowl and making mistakes for America to see.

“It appears that it was beneficial for ‘Big Brother’ to focus on the negative comments made by Aaryn to boost ratings. Again, I DO NOT condone those inappropriate comments, but I — and I am sure the entire ‘Big Brother’ audience — would have appreciated the show’s producers also airing her complete statement acknowledging the mistakes she made and more of her apologies to the Houseguests while still ‘in the house.’ I am disappointed that a woman of Julie Chen’s stature would choose to attack Aaryn and influence America to judge the fallacies she [Chen] seems to have about Aaryn.”

Inappropriate? Hardly. Racist, rude, homophobic and disgusting, and since she said all those things and more, they are far from inappropriate. Then of course, as racists are apt to do, Mama Owens listed all of the, um, ethnic friends that Aaryn has as proof she's no racist:

• Aaryn apparently attended her senior prom with an African American man, “one of her closest friends through high school.”
• And how Aryan’s Aaryn’s first love was a "Cuban American, and she has cousins of Japanese descent who she truly loves. She has never discriminated against anyone for their sexual orientation whether within our family or not. Aaryn truly loves all people equally.”
• She ended with the news that Gries recently sponsored a little girl in the Philippines through the Save the Children program.

Well, there you have it: she danced with a Black guy, dated a Cuban, has Asian relatives and sponsors a girl from the Philippines. She can't be a racist.

Except she played one on TV.

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So, Miley Cyrus at the VMAs. I missed it, but caught the endless run of videos posted online. Was it The Worst Thing Ever? Nope, it was just Plain Awful. The dancing; the flat-assed twerking; the inability to carry a tune; the tongue.

But Miley perseveres and says she rocked more Tweets than the Superbowl, though she fails to realize most of the Tweets regarding her “performance” were of the WTF variety.

My fave Tweet? Kelly Clarkson, who didn’t mention Cyrus by name, but hashtagged her Tweets with #pitchystrippers.

Thanks Kelly!

Ted Cruz was born of one American parent and one Canadian parent, and this raised the questions about his dual citizenship, and Is he American enough to be President — and don't get me started on the question of is he qualified, because he isn't — which had all of Teabagistan a'twitterin' and all the Twitterstan a'teabaggin' last week.

Then Cruz, heckled for his dual citizenship, announced he would renounce his Canadian citizenship and the whole of Canada breathed a sigh of relief, and muttered, He's all yours now, eh?

I’ve often marveled at the ignorance of people on the Right; and don’t get all pissy, I know some folks on the left are playing hockey with a warped puck … have splinters in the windmills of their minds … but it always seems that the Right has the market cornered on stupidity.

Birthers. ‘Nuff said.

But now there’s this: a recent poll by Public Policy Polling found that 29% of respondents in Louisiana blamed President Obama for the poor response following Hurricane Katrina. And just 28% blamed President Bush.

That’s right; more Louisianans think Obama was to blame for what happened after Katrina, apparently failing to realize the hurricane hit a full three years before Obama took office.

And possibly just as stupid: 44% said they weren’t sure who to blame.

Louisiana, you need to sit down.

Taos County, New Mexico began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples this week, making it the sixth county in the state to do so following Doña Ana, Santa Fe, Bernalillo, San Miguel, and Valencia.

That means that more than half of New Mexicans — 56.2% to be exact — now live in marriage equality counties.

The march goes on ….

So, before we left on vacation Carlos and I watched What’s Your Number with Ana Faris on the DVR. Funny, kinda raunchy; we liked it. 

Of course, we also loved that Chris Evans appears either nude, in his underwear, or without a shirt quite a bit in the film. But he wasn’t the only Man Candy.

Anthony Mackie and Oliver Jackson-Cohen were also in the film, raising the heat Index a couple of notches.

Just sayin’.

Former Illinois Republican Party Chair Pat Brady, who resigned last May after being targeted by his own party for supporting marriage equality, has a new gig.

He’s been hired by the ACLU of Illinois to lobby state lawmakers — "Republicans and other like-minded folks, but primarily Republicans" —to back the bill.

Brady, who said this earlier this year, "Giving gay and lesbian couples the freedom to get married honors the best conservative principles. It strengthens families and reinforces a key Republican value - that the law should treat all citizens equally," admits it’s an uphill fight because some republicans face reelection next year.

Yeah, more concerned about their own reelection than about equality.

Way to go GOP.

And, speaking of the GOP and Marriage Equality — nice segue, eh? — there is a proposed amendment to the bylaws of the Alabama Republican Party would remove from the Party’s steering committee any member who publicly supports a position contrary to the most recent GOP platform, which was adopted during the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Yes, in Alabama, if you disagree with the party platform, you’re out.

Party insiders say the proposed amendment was written as a direct result of comments made by current Alabama College Republicans Chairwoman Stephanie Petelos around the time the Supreme Court ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. Petelos posted this to her Facebook page, “We just [love] freedom and fun. That’s all. Don’t hate.” And then encouraged her friends to “Like” a page for a pro-same-sex marriage group called “Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry.”

Petelos joined the group because she believes “all people deserve to be treated equally under the law.”

And now the Alabama GOP wants her out.

That darn GOP! So inclusive!

Ben Affleck as Batman? Oh hell-to-the-No.

Christian Bale is Batman; Affleck will take away the darker, brooding Batman, and make him more the comic cut-up Batman of the Keaton-Kilmer-Clooney years.

Seriously? Ben Affleck?

Y’all remember Daniel Hernandez Jr.? The former intern to Gabby Giffords who is credited with helping save her life when she was shot in 2011?

Now, Hernandez, an elected member of a Tucson-area school board, is facing a nasty recall election in which anonymous opponents are attacking him because he’s gay and because he works on behalf of gun violence prevention. But the tactics being used against Hernandez are sick and stupid, even for Arizona.

Apparently there are two flyers that Hernandez’s opponents are, ahem, ALLEGEDLY handing out to parents when they’re dropping their children off at schools in the district. The first attacks Hernandez for being openly gay, imploring, “Put a REAL Man on the Sunnyside Board...Daniel Hernandez is LGBT...We need someone who will support Sports and cares about our kids. We don’t need someone who hates our values.”

Yes. He’s gay so he’s not a real man; he’s gay so he knows nothing of sports.

Grow the eff up Arizona.

This one makes me giggle.

Fundamentalist Preacher Doug Seahorne wrote a book about child-rearing called Bible Principles of Child Discipline (from the book of Proverbs). In the pre-publication stage of his book, he looked for an image of that so-called wholesome American family to grace the cover and he Googled his search, finding what he deemed the perfect picture to embody the Biblical principles of disciplining one's child: a picture of a loving husband and wife with their two beautiful daughters and one adorable son.

Trouble is that Seahorne chose Modern Family's dysfunctional Dunphy family, who in addition to being the intellectual property of Disney, are probably not the Bible-thumping, praise Jesus, discipline your kids a la God family he intended.

And, when Seahorne learned of his error, he took to Facebook say he didn’t know the picture was from a “wicked TV show involving a gay couple!"

Wicked funny, Rev, wicked funny.

Then he excused himself because he hasn’t watched TV in 35 years and because he assumed results on Google Image Search were not copyrighted.

Perhaps the Pastor should join the rest of us in the 21st century?

Note to readers:

If you try to take that little piece of stonework on a plane with you, the TSA will stop you and search your bags.

Don’t believe me? Ask the still-trembling-as-his-bag-was-searched Carlos.

This past Tuesday on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s 700 Club bigot, homophobe, idiot and dumbass Pat Robertson said that gay men in cities like San Francisco attempt to spread HIV/AIDS to others by cutting them with a special ring when shaking hands.

It all started with a question from a woman who wondered if her church should inform her that a man she was driving to worship services is “dying of AIDS.” 

Robertson, who apparently hasn’t read anything on the topic in some 30 years, admitted that he “used to think it was transmitted by saliva and other things, now they say it may be sexual contact.” Then he added, and rightly so, “unless there’s a cut or some bodily fluid transmission, I think you’re not going to catch it.”

But he didn’t stop there: “There are laws now, I think the homosexual community has put these draconian laws on the books that prohibit people from discussing this particular affliction, you can tell somebody you had a heart attack, you can tell them they’ve got high blood pressure, but you can’t tell anybody you’ve got AIDS.”

His co-host Terry Meeuwsen tried to steer the conversation away from Robertson’s anti-gay paranoia, but then Pat Robertson began talking about the “special rings” that gay people use to spread HIV: “You know what they do in San Francisco, some in the gay community there they want to get people so if they got the stuff they’ll have a ring, you shake hands, and the ring’s got a little thing where you cut your finger. Really. It’s that kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder.”

Yes, Christian Broadcasting Network employee Pat “Conspiracy theory” Robertson said that, and then CBN got to work, not reprimanding their paid Lunatic In Chief, but in removing any sign of the video from YouTube.

Robertson issued a non-apology, saying he “regret(s) that my remarks had been misunderstood, but this often happens because people do not listen to the context of remarks which are being said.” But, um, yeah, here is exactly what he said:

“I was asked by a viewer whether she had a right to leave her church because she had been asked to transport an elderly man who had AIDS and about whose condition she had not been informed. My advice was that the risk of contagion in those circumstances was quite low and that she should continue to attend the church and not worry about the incident.

In my own experience, our organization sponsored a meeting years ago in San Francisco where trained security officers warned me about shaking hands because, in those days, certain AIDS-infected activists were deliberately trying to infect people like me by virtue of rings which would cut fingers and transfer blood.”

Right in context.

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