I'm loving the demise of the Republican party. I know, maybe I'm being optimistic, but come on! Enjoy yourself. The most recent debacle, Idaho Senator Craig. I love it. I'm just glad the gay scandal is surrounding a Republican. One day I will celebrate the day when these bathroom trists draw as little attention as the endless female prostitutes coming in and out of our elected officials hotel rooms. But for now, I get a thrill out of Republicans being accused of exactly what they profess to hate. The cartoons resulting from scandals like this are worth it.
I see two results that could come of these gay scandals. The best one is that the Republicans will realize it's too difficult to demonize gays when there are so many among their ranks. On the other hand, it could lead only the most religious zealots to be elected. (Secretly, I wouldn't mind if that happened cus you know there are some gay folk among them too.)
This is the last weekend of summer (not technically, but you know what I mean). Enjoy those last few iced lattes. I'm off to Berkeley Springs for a little R & R with my babe.
I read a pretty scary Op-Ed in the Baltimore Sun the other day which further convinced me that another four years of a Republican in the White House will be like a nuclear holocaust on our country. Cristina Page, the author of How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics and the War on Sex, wrote a piece about the subtle, quiet movement against contraception. She points out the code the Republican presidential candidates are using to let the Christian right know they are against all forms of contraception. How far back in time do these fanatics want to go?
I really don't understand the opposition to birth control. I suppose no one should have sex without the goal of creating life. I wonder if husbands refrain from having sex with their pregnant wives. No need for it, right?
It's really scary to think that another Republican president could bring us all the way back to 1950. One more term and Roe v. Wade would surely be overturned. States are already doing as much as they can to reduce access to family planning, birth control and abortions. This is truly our most basic fight. If women can't have sovereignty over their own bodies, then half the country will be second class citizens. That's the Republican agenda as we speak.
We cannot tolerate this agenda and we cannot allow this minority of fanatic Christians determine the rights of half the country. We have to make sure that a Democrat wins the presidential election. I think we will, as the country is getting pretty tired of the mess the Republican agenda has left our country, but we can't take it for granted.
Check out Birth Control Watch. It's slightly fanatical in its own right, but has useful information.
In Baltimore's September 11 Democratic primary, I'm writing in a new candidate for mayor - me. Even with nine candidates to choose from, there's no one I find inspiring, much less qualified. The front-runners are current Mayor Sheila Dixon and City Councilman Keiffer Mitchell. I started out supporting Mitchell, primarily because he was the best of the challengers. Sheila, as most people call her, has too many issues with her ethics. She's also never had an innovative idea in her entire career. What Sheila doesn't understand is that ethics is not just about what is legal or not, but what appears improper. She has disregarded the law on several occasions and claimed ignorance. Sheila has been acting like her sister's employment agency for years. It's a hard pill to swallow. But she put the cherry on top when she hired her sister to work her campaign. That's not illegal, but after several ethics investigations involving her behavior and her sister, you'd think she would know to avoid anything that could be perceived as improper. But that's typical Sheila.
Given Sheila's issues, I was ready to vote for Keiffer. However, Keiffer has just pushed my commitment too far. His campaign adds have been so negative and have exploited Baltimore's homicide problem. One of his ads goes so far as to feature a gun shot and an implied death of a youth. I was totally turned off by this. I was going to hold my nose and vote for him anyway, but then he really went south. He hired Julius Henson. Julius Henson has a checkered past in the campaign world. He's considered a "dirty" campaigner. He referred to a Bob Erhlich as a "nazi" in 2002. Now I don't like Erhlich, but that's just unnecessary. He plays the race card too freely, just to make noise. It's a sad turn of events in a campaign for a decent guy. It just goes to far and I can't hold my nose anymore.
Trouble is, I don't like any of the other candidates, so I'm turning to someone I can trust. Of course my one vote for me won't make much of a difference in the outcome of this race, but at least I won't feel bad when I leave the polls.
At least there is one candidate I am excited about. I'm voting for Michael Sarbanes for City Council President. He's a man who's spent most of his life in some sort of public service. I'm not going to give you his life story, you can check out his website for that. But when you compare him to the others, it's a clear choice. Anyway, Sarbanes has real ideas and experience to implement them. And he's not a typical politician. He believes in pushing the boundaries of his position to the limit to create positive change. I'm looking forward to his win.
I'm a self-waxer. I'm so proud of my latest accomplishment. For the last year, I have been getting my legs (among other things) waxed by a professional (on half-priced Tuesdays at Neal's). I'm completely addicted to it. Since I'm pretty hairy, I would have to shave daily or every other day. Now, I don't even think about it for weeks. No stubble, nothing. And now no cuts. It's very liberating.
But it's also a costly habit, so I've taken matters into my own hands. This weekend, I waxed my own legs. It was great! At first, I was a bit haphazard and messy - wax all over my hands, etc. But once I got into a groove, it was easy and fun. It's much cheaper than visits to Neal's. I wouldn't recommend home waxing for anyone who never had their legs waxed. I think it was easy for me because I'm used to it.
Recently, I've been moved by the tragedy of the trapped miners in Utah. It's such a terrible situation. Something isn't right about the owner of the mine. He's so adamant about the earthquake being the cause of the cave-in despite experts providing another option - the cave-in caused the earthquake. Now the rescue has been suspended and their families are left in limbo. It's just a sad situation all around.
I've been listening to the news this afternoon, and apparently the only news worthy event is when people die. I hope that I don't die in some bizarre way that ends up in the news. That's my newest goal.
It's cool today, so I'm enjoying a hot cup of coffee. Very comforting on an overcast day.
Okay, so in my quest for real news, I've turned to my favorite magazine, In These Times. I love this magazine and I highly recommend reading it. Kurt Vonnegut is associated with its origins. He's one of my heroes and I'm sure he's partly responsible for the thinker I am today (read God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and Breakfast of Champions).
Anyway, this magazine has wonderfully written articles about very current issues. When I went to the website the other day, an article about my great state of Maryland was featured. Unfortunately, it's not the kind of news I like reading. The title is "Equating Stillbirths with Murders." It's about Maryland's Viable Fetus Act. Apparently, our lawmakers thought they were doing a noble thing by making the death of a fetus a crime equal to murder. The lawmakers were hopefully thinking of pregnant women who are abused, or worse, murdered and the abuse results in the death of the unborn baby. But right-to-lifers are using it to punish women whose fetuses die for one reason or another.
A woman in Ocean City was arrested because her child was delivered stillborn, which happens for any variety of reasons. In Maryland, mothers are supposed to be exempt from prosecution under this law, but other states include mothers. I'm sure you can imagine the consequences to these laws combined with the irrationality of right-to-lifers. How far will they go to punish women whose babies aren't carried to term? Will every miscarriage be considered a crime scene? The last seven years of unchecked Republican rule has created a creepy society that is reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. We really have to be vigilant with our local politicians because they really affect the law of the land.
Something has just occurred to me. I'm watching The View, post Rosie, and their guest host is a gay man, Ross "The Intern" Matthews. Last week, they had another gay male guest host, Mario Cantone. It would appear that Barbara Walters believes gay men are equal substitutes for women. Just a thought.
Here's a suggestion for those who can't stomach a full blown iced latte in this heat. Try iced espresso with a splash of half and half.
An historic moment occurred the other night when HRC and Logo got the Democratic Presidential candidates together to question them on their positions on a host of gay rights issues. This has never happened before in a presidential race, and the outcome was very enlightening. Be sure to check out the video of the candidates here. The reason this debate is so important to me, is that somehow, I will have to distinguish between these candidates that are all basically the same. And these are the issues that are incredibly personal to me, so it's a good start.
I heard about the forum the next morning on NPR. My alarm woke me up to Barack Obama explaining why he supports civil unions, but not civil marriage (a position almost all the candidates have). Barack Obama supports full civil rights for gays and lesbians. He believes civil unions will be equal to civil marriage. But for him “marriage” can have religious connotations. For him, it's just a matter of semantics. He says semantics may be important to some, why not say it’s important to him? Because if it is just semantics, then why would it hurt to give us marriage instead of unions? Listen to yourself, Barack. Another little thing that pissed me off, was that he believes this isn't the time to fight for marriage rights. We should be focused on other more concrete civil rights issues like ending discrimination in the workplace, etc. The real issues with day to day consequences as he sees it. He doesn't believe our inability to marry one another and have the over 1,000 rights associated with marriage has day to day consequences. What's wrong with this picture?
Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton did no better, which is a shame. Frankly, I'm leaning toward voting for her, but sometimes she makes it hard for me. Her position is much less eloquent and frankly, misguided.
What she says here is that the states should continue to decide for themselves if they will allow gay marriage. Any idiot can see this is NOT in the best interests of gays and lesbians. Basically, she's saying it's okay that gays and lesbians won't know from state to state what level of rights they have. One state can have marriage, like Massachusetts. The next could have civil unions, like Vermont, and the next after that could have the klan, like any state in the south. Give me a break. She actually points out that many states outlawed any type of union for gays and lesbians, but then overlooks that fact by saying some states have taken a different position. How can this be okay? What is she smoking? Also, she doesn't suggest repealing DOMA altogether, but just the part that says states may not acknowledge the rights of other states.
This is a huge set back in my support of Hillary. While Barack talked in circles about semantics, he's at least consistent in his support that gays and lesbians need full equal rights in our society, not just state by state. If the country were completely (or more so than right now) in favor of gay marriage, you'd see all these politicians change their tunes.
Let me leave you with words from my favorite candidate who, sadly, will never get elected, Senator Mike Gravel who seems truly sincere in his support for gay marriage.
At least I get to hear these words of wisdom during the campaign. I'll be sad when we don't hear from him any longer after the first primaries are held and he drops out. Stay strong Mike!
Well, today and yesterday have been over 100 degrees here in mobtown. So hot I wouldn't let my cats out to nap on the porch. At the same time, this morning there was some crazy storm in New York which effectively shut down the mass transportation system in one of the most crowded cities in the world. I don't know about you, but I think something fishy is going on here.
Not to mention that Maryland is experiencing one of its worst droughts in history and the governor seeking a drought disaster designation. When I go outside in heat like this, I have to suspect a culprit. Global warming can't be denied! And we are a part of creating this disaster. For example, I work downtown where the heat is at least 5 degrees higher than the rest of the city and the suburbs. The reason is all the freaking cars! And trucks and buses and so on and so forth. It's foul the pollution we all dump into this world.
I've been thinking about this more and more. Especially about what I can do to reduce all the CO2 I'm emitting. Partly because my BGE bill requires me to, and partly because I realize that I can have an effect on the environment, I've been reducing and reusing like crazy. Definitely the reducing part because it saves money. But when I also realized how I could reduce my personal CO2 emissions, I felt even more strongly about turning out the lights and turning off the AC. If we all worked to reduce our CO2, and I mean all, it could really make the difference. There are websites that you can check out to learn all about going green. But remember, you don't have to do it all. Any little change can make a big difference.
It's funny, I was watching a rerun of Oprah yesterday (I know, don't say it) and Al Gore was on giving his slide show. He was doing that part when he goes into the Loews and shows us what to buy to reduce our CO2, and pointing out how cheap it is. Of course it's all relative. For example, he picked up an AC filter which was environmentally friendly and said it costs less than ten bucks. What he doesn't say is that your everyday filter only costs about 50 cents. That's a big difference! Over time we'll save more than we spend, especially if we succeed in keeping the earth habitable, but let's not lie and say these things are completely easy. They're not. But it is worth it and I'm urging everyone to get a little greener.
In the sizzling heat, stay clear of the iced lattes and stick with iced coffee. You don't want dairy in your stomach in 100 degree temps.
Let me lament again about my abscence from this blog. Once I think things have settled down, something unsettles again. That's life.
The familial visits are over for now. They went pretty well. I didn't snap at my mother until the last day of her visit. That's a real accomplishment for me. Usually I start snapping right away. I discovered a great activity to do with her. Cards. She remembers how to play canasta, so the three of us, my mom, me and Caroline, spent many hours doing that. I also had my brother, Stuart, stay with me one night. This, too, was a great accomplishment because he's disabled. I wasn't sure how he would do with the change in his routine, but he was great. I'll definitely do that again. And my mom appreciated having more time with him. So all worked out well.
I'm glad for the break, though. It's nice to just be me and Caroline again. And the cats, of course. And it's my favorite time of day again - Monday morning, with my cup of coffee.
I thought I'd revisit some of my previous posts. Specifically the one about where to get your news. Newspapers change their online formats every once in a while, trying to keep up with what's trendy and make a more user-friendly website. However, I find that at times, they make their sites too trendy and it no longer seems newspaperish. I'm referring right now to the Washington Post. (Although the most recent website to undergo such a change is the Baltimore Sun.)
Remember how I said that I liked the little gossipy quality about the Post? Well, they've taken it to a whole new level, and I have to put my foot down. The post has a section covering the presidential race called The Trail, and it's written like a blog. All articles covering the campaigns are placed in this section. It has really dumbed down the discussion to nothing but gossip. There's very little analysis, which is what I'm looking for. I think they've added this "blog" to their website to appeal to a younger audience, or something like that, but they've reduced their reporting so much, I can't read it anymore. Take, for example, the much criticized article about Hillary Clinton's cleavage. Why would the Post spend any ink on this? How is it at all relevant? And where are the corrosponding articles about the male candidates' asses and penis buldges?
I'm surprised there isn't an article discussing Barack Obama's anatomy. I mean, isn't that what everyone wonders about with African American men? How big is it really??? Of course, after the noise made about the article, the Post gets to do what all newspapers love to do ... write a story about itself. The Baltimore Sun is a regular culprit of this tactic. They love the attention. And so does the Post. It's news, right? Nope.
Anyway, this has all been really disappointing, especially since I regularly enjoyed my political news from the Post. I will click on a news title and hope it was originally published in the print version, but that's becoming increasingly rare. And The Trail is nothing but a waste of time, in my opinion. I'll be searching elsewhere for the good political stories and get back to you.
This weekend I enjoyed two great t.v. programs - the X Games, and beach volleyball. Girls in bikinis playing volleyball. Of course, as Caroline pointed out, they don't have any boobies. That's true, but easily overlooked as the rest of the package is nice. I have to assume that men love to watch this sport too, which makes me feel a little less proud of myself. I love the X Games. I love watching sports like skateboarding. I can't believe what these guys and gals do on a little board with wheels. It's been good entertainment.
