11/30/10

Andrew Sullivan on the difference between Obama's and the GOP's priorities

If Douthat is correct about his political premises, both parties had to choose between politics and policy. Democrats could have minimized their losses at the cost of sacrificing the health reform they wanted. Or Republicans could have minimized the scope of health care reform, at the cost of minimizing their potential wave. Democrats chose the best policy, and Republicans chose the best politics. I'm happy with the choice. Mitch McConnell won his election, and Democrats won health care reform. The latter is going to [be] around a lot longer than the former.

I supported Obama precisely because he was about policy more than politics. And his calm reason today was another reason. In the end, I believe policy achievement matters. And that the GOP's greatest problem right now is that they have lost interest in policy - hence their running on ideological abstractions rather than actual proposals. But if the American people reward this, it will keep on happening. And the Morris-Rove era will never end.

--Andrew Sullivan

Do something to repeal DADT instead of whining

Dan Savage on Colbert Report

Gaga over Lady Gaga's latest repeal DADT message

11/29/10

Gay pirate song by Cosmo Jarvis

From the first episode of Friday Night Lights...a most moving speech by Coach Eric Taylor

We will all at some time in our lives, fall. Life is so very fragile, we are all vulnerable and we will all at some point in our lives... fall. We will all fall. We must carry this in our hearts, that what we have is special, that it can be taken from us and that when it is taken from us, we will be tested. We will be tested to our very souls. We will all be tested. It is these times, it is this pain, that allows us to look inside ourselves.

--Fictional Coach Eric Taylor

A whole life

Practically speaking, a life that is vowed to simplicity, appropriate boldness, good humor, gratitude, unstinting work and play, and lots of walking bring us close to the actual existing world and its wholeness.

--Gary Snyder


via Zen Calendar

MSNBC news anchor tells how it gets better

11/25/10

Beautiful prose of thanks giving, from 1936

Time out of mind at this turn of the seasons when the hardy oak leaves rustle in the wind and the frost gives a tang to the air and the dusk falls early and the friendly evenings lengthen under the heel of Orion, it has seemed good to our people to join together in praising the Creator and Preserver, who has brought us by a way that we did not know to the end of another year.

In observance of this custom, I appoint Thursday, the twenty-sixth of November, as a day of Public Thanksgiving for the blessings that have been our common lot and have placed our beloved State with the favored regions of earth -- for all the creature comforts:

the yield of the soil that has fed us and the richer yield from labor of every kind that has sustained our lives -- and for all those things, as dear as breath to the body, that quicken man's faith in his manhood, that nourish and strengthen his spirit to do the great work still before him: for the brotherly word and act; for honor held above price; for steadfast courage and zeal in the long, long search after truth; for liberty and for justice freely granted by each to his fellow and so as freely enjoyed; and for the crowning glory and mercy of peace upon our land; -- that we may humbly take heart of these blessings as we gather once again with solemn and festive rites to keep our Harvest Home.

--Wilbur Cross


via Daily Dish

11/20/10

If you want to repeal DADT, call your senator now, especially if he or she is a Republican

Call your Senator on Monday at 1.202.224.3121. We got a good chance to repeal this unjust law. Read more here.

"How simple and frugal a thing is happiness"

How simple and frugal a thing is happiness:
a glass of wine, a roasted chestnut, a
wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea...
All that is required to feel that here and now
is a simple, frugal heart.

--Nikos Kazantzakis


via Zen Calendar

Neuro-political science differences: Dems believe in compromise & GOPers believe in sticking to their principles

More and more I am convinced that liberals and conservatives perceive the world differently, partially based on different brain chemistry. Check out this survey.

11/19/10

Conservative U.K. Prime Minister speaks out in favor of "It Gets Better." Take note GOP

The ignorant conservative forces defending DADT

Republican presidents' deficit problem

Lt. Dan Choi on the importance of LGBT veterans & repealing DADT

Every year on this day, military veterans are asked to "come home." As they march down our city streets, it is clear that this day honors the service and sacrifice of those who survived, those who were lucky enough to come home.

But as proud as we may seem, reunited with our compatriots, celebrated by our neighbors who line the sidewalks in support, not all our journeys are reasons for joyful celebration. We returned home without friends, without limbs, without the blissful innocence that once shielded us from the punishing realities of war. Post-traumatic stress, depression, physical wounds and sexual trauma have inflicted permanent scars on a growing population of our generation's war veterans. The pain from these injuries of war only escalate as the combat deescalates.

Many of us get treatment and begin our long road to recovery the moment we step back onto American soil. But for some of us, the healing cannot begin until we enlist in another war at home. Since joining the ranks of gay veterans, I have publicly called this war a battle for equality, integrity, and many other powerful platitudes that resonate well throughout the airspace of a media war-zone. But at the heart of my struggle to end unjust discrimination in the military, these bold moral principles become mere words; the motivation to keep fighting in this war resembles the motivation we realized in Iraq. We did not fight for apple pie, the Constitution, or purple mountains' majesty. We fought for each other.

As we fight to repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell," we know that this fight can easily be more painful than physical combat, as the people we fought to protect subject us to the harsh bigotry of popularity polls and the soft bigotry of political inaction. Caught in this battlefield, it is easy to claim victimhood and suffocate in the sadness of national betrayal. Gay Americans, like all scapegoated and stigmatized minorities in America's history, know this feeling all too well. But just as all the patriots who had to come home to fight for equality, we cannot heal our injuries by permanent sorrow and self-pity. The only treatment that can heal the wounds of betrayal and hatred is a recommitment to fight for each other, to stand up for each other, to love one another.

As difficult as it might be, we find healing in the fight. We re-enlist as activists, thrust into public roles while mending private wounds. Like the Grand Army Republic, who camped outside the halls of power protesting in uniform after the Civil War for racial equality, or the Veterans for Peace who march and stand boldly to end the failed policies that subjected any of us to the killing fields in the first place, we are all called upon to serve again. For those whose careers were cut short, our new duty fulfills the true purpose of the uniform: defending our principles of freedom and justice. This is the kind of war that can never end.

As the military's suicide rate has reached historic levels, doubling that of the rest of society, it is easy to see the dangers of hopelessness and escapism among many of our veterans. Some of us come home and want a rare moment of privacy. We have certainly earned our moment to bask in the quietude of peace. But soon our training catches up to us as we see others suffering. We realize our true self-worth when we fight on behalf of others. Like Lieutenant Dan in "Forrest Gump," we cannot help but shout back at the howling winds in a lonely shrimp boat, tossed about in every direction by overpowering waves and despair, seeking out the battle we were meant to fight, yelling "Is that all you got?!" In so doing, we finally start finding our way home.

--Lt. Dan Choi

A gay Catholic teen talks how his church and the GOP discriminate against him

Try going through a day in the life of a gay teen. Every day you hear someone use your sexuality -- a part of you that, no matter how desperately you try, you cannot change -- as a negative adjective. That hurts.

You fear looking the wrong way in the locker room and offending someone. Politicians are allowed to debate your right to marry the person you love or your right to be protected from hate crimes under the law. Your faith preaches your exclusion -- or damnation. And no one does anything to stop it. Recently, the Archbishop used money donated by an anonymous source to denounce same-sex marriage.

That's right: a major religious leader used non-Church money from a questionable source to publicly condemn your right to express your love in a public and binding manner. A public school district nearby -- after a wake of suicides by kids much like yourself -- cannot bring itself to put your protection from bullying into its policies. Members of the district fear your kind and how you might brainwash their children into thinking that your behavior is appropriate or to join your kind.

A political party makes its position denying your right to marry one of its main voting points. And your nation voted this party in office.


--Sean Simonson

via The Daily Dish

A zen approach to work

Make your work your play
and your play your work

--Phil Jackson


via Zen Calendar

Senators come out strongly for the repeal of DADT

11/11/10

Wake up gay voters! If the Democrats are spineless about your rights, the GOP is "just not into you"

"Consumer Culture and Spiritual Practice"

Consumer culture is modeled on instant gratification. We say we want a close relationship with a spiritual mentor, but when that mentor’s guidance challenges our desires or pushes our ego’s buttons too much, we stop seeking it. At the beginning of our practice, we profess to be earnest spiritual seekers, aiming for enlightenment. But after the practice has remedied our immediate problem—the emotional fallout of a divorce, grief at the loss of a loved one, or life’s myriad setbacks—our spiritual interest fades, and we once again seek happiness in possessions, romantic relationships, technology, and career.

--Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, "Shopping the Dharma"


via Tricycle

Pentagon study finds minimal risk to ending DADT & letting LGBT soldiers serve during this time of war

From today's article in the Washington Post:

More than 70 percent of respondents to a survey sent to active-duty and reserve troops over the summer said the effect of repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy would be positive, mixed or nonexistent, said two sources familiar with the document. The survey results led the report's authors to conclude that objections to openly gay colleagues would drop once troops were able to live and serve alongside them.

On this Veteran's Day, another perspective on Obama using an executive order to end DADT

During the Bush years, liberals complained about his "imperial presidency," and so the idea that Obama should simply end the policy by fiat would seem hypocritical. But the use of an executive order to end a policy a majority of Americans, including conservatives, want to end, is no more undemocratic than Republicans' use of procedural maneuvers to thwart an up or down vote. Republicans holding the legislative process, and the fundamental rights of gay and lesbian servicemembers, hostage to their own homophobic prejudices, would still be the greater act of tyranny.

--Adam Serwer


via The Daily Dish

Our LGBT veterans fought for us & we fight for them and those to come. We will never give up

11/10/10

A hot video for a hot new Lotus car

Why our expectations hurt us

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.

--William James

Not a great man or president, this W, no matter how many books he writes

Seeing George W. out there hawking his book is sad given his level of denial and intellectual dishonesty.

He lied about Iraq and WMD to the world, to his nation and to me. He pressured the U.S. intelligence agencies to give him the evidence he wanted in order to go to war.

This man squandered all the good will of the world and nation after 9/11, pursuing a my-way-or-the-highway foreign policy and a divisive political approach at home.

He drove the US economy into the ditch and created a yawning government deficit.

Great leaders are uniters, not dividers.

Why last night's episode of Glee is important to achieving full rights for LGBT people

Spoiler Alert. The most popular TV show in America went deep, very deep last night, preaching dignity and respect for every person -- including those who are gay and perceived to be gay. While the theme of respecting those who are different from us is not new on network TV, the idea that many of the most violent homophobes are repressed homosexuals is new, and was surprisingly played out last night.

Bottom line: this show and story line had so many moments of grace and empathy for LGBT students that it will surely result in greater social acceptance of gay people -- more powerfully than any paid advertising campaign could do. And it will help the self-image of millions of gay Americans, especially those teens who are struggling to accept themselves and to be accepted.

With deep bow to the show's producers and Fox for helping to change America for the better.

11/9/10

White House is losing on repealing DADT because they lack the POLITICAL WILL to change it

People may be able to fake an orgasm, but this White House can't fake the political will that is needed to really overturn DADT. If Obama can't find a way to end this unjust ban, the LGBT community, in 2012, will add Don't Vote to the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. So far, I am disappointed with Obama on LGBT issues

The practice of treating angry thoughts like they are a guest in your mind, not identifying them as you

We can look at it like this: our mind is like a house, and our mindfulness is like the tenant of that house. Because we don't want any intruders or unwelcome guests, we lock all the doors and windows of our house. Now no one can get in unless we let them in. No one can enter unannounced. That's the function of mindfulness—to be watchful of what's trying to enter our mind. If an angry thought tries to enter our mind, it can't come in until we open the door. Our purpose is not to shut everything out; it's to remain conscious of our environment and what's happening in it. Then we can deal with it appropriately. We can open the door to our angry thought, listen to it, and then ask it to leave. We recognize it as a thought and don't mistake it for who we are. That's the point. It shifts the experience. Instead of thinking, "I'm really angry right now," we think, "Oh, look, an angry thought has entered my mind." It's easy to let go of a thought that's a guest in your mind; it's harder when you take on the identity of the guest. Who are you going to ask to leave?

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, "Rebel Buddha"


via Tricycle.com

Jon Stewart civilly deconstructs Gov. Rick Perry's hollow rhetoric on the Constitution & progressivism

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I just felt I was lectured about the nature of our democracy by a not-so-bright high school football coach who is long on anecdotes and short on substance. Jon Stewart wasn't having any of it, and when challenged, Rick folded his case and cards pretty quickly.

11/8/10

The universality of "It gets better" experience is amazing: watch these LGBT people from Finland

"If Democrats can't repeal a policy more than two thirds of the American people want gone... then they can't expect people to vote for them"

In December the Defense Department is reportedly set to release a study showing that, like the American people, most servicemembers aren't opposed to gays and lesbians openly serving. That's in contrast to the vast opposition of most servicemembers to racial integration in the 1940s; if Truman had insisted on staying his hand until a political climate as favorable as this one had come along, integrating the military might not have happened until decades later.

Truman ended segregation in the military because it was the right thing to do, despite the fact that it was unpopular. Ending DADT happens to be both popular and the right thing to do, and Democrats today still can't get it done.

--Adam Serwer

The Democrats could learn a thing or two about repealing DADT from this junior high football team

Come on Democrats, show some fricking imagination in delivering to me my full and equal rights.

That special feeling of joy and community in San Francisco after the Giants' World Series win

If you want to know how the last week has been for many San Francisco residents, read Bruce Jenkin's piece from the SF Chronicle.

Sounds like the Democrats are NOT going to push the repeal of DADT through the lame duck session of Congress. I am furious

President Obama and Senate Democrats please find some balls. Read this report and contact your Democratic "leaders." I am not sure if the President is just spineless on this issue or is employing the best "rope-a-dope" political strategy, but it sure looks like the former right now.

Okay not knowing

Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem.

--Krishnamurti


via Zen Calendar

11/6/10

Open

The path of meditation leads us into a universe that is largely unknown to us. As we begin to practice, and particularly when we begin to work with the body in the Tibetan style, which I am going to do with you, we begin to discover that the person we are is vast in its extent. In particular, we begin to discover that there is a depth of being and a brightness of mind that surpasses all boundaries. We begin to find that the person we are is ultimately vast, open, and boundless.

Reginald A. Ray, "Touching Enlightenment, Part 1."


via Tricycle.com

"Mostly straight, most of the time"

Check out this thought-provoking article from the Good Men Project on mostly straight guys who occasionally have crushes and/or sex with men. And, they don't identify with the traditional bisexual term...could you blame them, given how that term has been so badly maligned by gays and straights alike.

Seeing things as they are: MSNBC vs Fox News

I don't like MSNBC's news coverage of the elections because it is too biased. But biased is one thing; Fox's political farm team or way station for neocons is a different thing all together. MSNBC has some ethics, Fox doesn't (which isn't surprising given that it is the fiefdom of Roger Ailes, a man who by comparison makes Karl Rove seem like a boy scout.)

There are multiple people being paid by Fox News to essentially run for office as Republican candidates. If you count not just their hosts but their contributors, you're looking at a significant portion of the entire Republican lineup of potential contenders for 2012. They can do that because there's no rule against that at Fox. Their network is run as a political operation. Ours isn't. Yeah, Keith's a liberal, and so am I. But we're not a political operation -- Fox is. We're a news operation. The rules around here are part of how you know that.

-- Rachel Maddow

11/5/10

What a great way to end the work week, with love in the air on Glee! Looks like Kurt will soon meet another boy who is like him

True grit: Nancy Pelosi is a person I admire

She doesn't need the money or power and could retire in a very comfortable way back in San Francisco. But in the same way Tip O'Neal tirelessly helped our democracy, Nancy is standing her ground and coming back to lead the fight for the common good -- cleaning up from the GOP's financial collapse, creating more jobs, and protecting health care reform. She's got some of the biggest balls in Congress. This is one of the main reasons GOP partisans hate her so much -- unlike most Democrats, Nancy can be as tough and ruthless as her conservative opponents. (The Clintons are personally disliked by the right for the same reasons.) All I have to say is "mirror, mirror!!!"

Today is a good day for liberty and our democracy.

The energy in the stillness

Sixty-six times these eyes behold the changing scenes of Autumn.
I have said enough about moonlight, ask me no more.
Only listen to the voice of pines and cedars, when no wind stirs.

--Ryonen


Via Zen Calendar

11/4/10

Gay twin brothers who are jugglers

The way I see things...

Given the Giants' World Series win on Monday and the disappointing election results on Tuesday, I have been on an emotional see-saw for the past few days, with many strong feelings to watch and process.

But here's a few things that I have been thinking about:

1. Obama, an ever introspective individual, is learning to be a stronger communicator and leader. Some fault him for his cool exterior, but in the long run, I think it is going to be a strength. He's got to communicate with the same level of skill and strength that he campaigned in 2008. I think it is important that he is touring Asia with a bunch of American businessmen, to clear his head and get a fresh perspective.

2. I can get angry all I want at the GOP about their homophobic policies, but their stance won't change until more of their large socially-conservative base ages and dies off (this Tea Party victory has shifted the party further to the extreme on gay issues). This may take 10-20 years, when younger and more homo-friendly people take over the party. But eventually it will happen. Most GOP and conservative leaders aren't bad people, they just don't have a strong moral or Constitutional compass inside. Instead, they pander to deep-seated fears and prejudices about gay people. Yep, the GOP is really hurting themselves in the long-term with Latino and LGBT voters, but that is the Faustian bargain they have made. We will keep pushing for full equality, at every turn, and relentlessly.

3. Millions of Americans are suffering from real economic hardship right now. This is our economic day of reckoning when we re-discover there is a real economic cost to gaming our financial markets, deregulating our banks to the point of self-destruction, creating a housing bubble, and encouraging consumers to go on a credit-spree. Dumb, with blame on both parties. Now, we all have create something of value, work hard and more smartly, and learn to find happiness in ourselves and in relations with others -- in addition to buying material things. Given today's historically low Federal tax rates and record-level defense and entitlement budgets, there is no silver tax cut bullet to ignite growth as there was during Reagan's time. We must do many wise and good things in concert, including better educating and retraining the workforce, investing in alternative energy and infrastructure, and finding ways to boost overall economic confidence.

We have a good future in this country. We need to be optimistic and act wisely. We need to treat all people equally under the Constitution, including the LGBT ones.

A lesson I keep having to learn over & over again


Open your mouth and you're wrong.

--Soen Sa Nim

One of the greatest days in San Francisco history, the City celebrates its World Series win in its unique way




A friend of mine (who is college teacher with lots of foreign students) sent me this email that captures the spirit of the city yesterday:

Yes, today was a very special day. I had to be at work around 10 AM so I worked until 11:15 and then walked the two blocks to Market Street and Montgomery. There were so many people I couldn't get anywhere near Market Street. I climbed up on a large planter in front of the Palace Hotel and I could just see the top half of the motorized cable cars carrying the players as they rode by. But I was a half block from Market so I couldn't make out any individual players. I could read the names of the players on the top of the cable cars so I knew who was inside and let go of the branch of the tree I was holding on to for dear life just long enough to cheer and applaud when my favorite players, Posey, Sanchez, Madison Brumgardner, etc rode by. It was fun and the crowd was so together in their joy and admiration of the team. I loved the confetti floating down in the air from the tall buildings at Montgomery and Market. A great day! Then I had to teach for three hours. My students all straggled in late for their class, all excited and with stories to tell about how they made it (or not) across Market Street in the middle of the parade to get to 180 New Montgomery and our class. I explained to them that they had just taken part in history. I explained baseball to them and tried to answer the inevitable question about why it's called the World Series if the competition only takes place in the US. They also needed to know the meaning of ticker tape and didn't understand why it's still called that if the machines that make it no longer exist. We had a fun class and the good mood of the city and all the fans carried over to the class.

A long overdue day for one special city. San Francisco, home of GIANTS!

11/3/10

There are good people in this world: watch this

Today the President on the repeal of DADT

I will hold Obama to his word and help him pass this legislation through the Senate. If he can't find a way to repeal DADT, the LGBT community will sit out the 2012 election. It is simple as that.

The incredible things people to do (not to mention our SF Giants)

The clear lesson from Reagan's rebound in 1982: focus on economic growth

After enacting important but controversial legislation, Obama needs to steer toward the center and do everything he can (with the GOP) to grow the economy. It is the right and moral thing to do. Read this excellent piece from the WSJ that compares Obama's situation to Reagan's.

This enchanted moment

I watched the trees gradually withdraw, waving their despairing arms, seeming to say to me: "What you fail to learn from us today, you will never know. If you allow us to drop back into the hollow of this road from which we sought to raise ourselves up to you, a whole part of yourself which we were bringing to you will fall forever into the abyss."

--Marcel Proust


via Zen Calendar

11/2/10

What political ads might have looked like for our founding fathers using the actual poltical attacks of those days

If you are LGBT, it is very important to VOTE today

We may be rightfully angry and impatient with President Obama over the slow progress on the repeal of DADT and DOMA. But make no mistake, he and most other Democrats are fighting for our cause -- maybe not as fiercely and urgently as we would like -- but the other party is actively voting against and denying us our rights. There is no comparison. And the many of the Tea Party candidates are social conservatives with wildly homophobic views. PLEASE VOTE TODAY!

Shameful: rightwing group intends to scare white voters by claiming Obama is a "secret Muslim plant" and "socialist Commie terrorist." It works

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

"It gets better" from a gay flag football team

Clinton on the Tea Party: “I’m Their Poster Boy”

Clinton touts balanced budgets, more jobs and smaller government during rally for Dems in CT Sunday. Former president says the conservative movement "should be for us."

Via the Page

Zen thought: when any kind of form appears, then suffering appears

Before thinking, there is no mind. When thinking appears, mind appears. When mind appears, dharma appears. When dharma appears, form appears. And when any kind of form appears, then suffering appears: life and death, happiness and unhappiness, good and bad, like and dislike, coming and going. Mind disappears, dharma disappears. Dharma disappears, form disappears. Form disappears, then life and death, good and bad, happy and unhappy, coming and going—everything disappears.
So don’t make mind, okay?

--Seung Sahn


Via Zen Calendar

11/1/10

Jon Stewart asks Obama tough questions

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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Why this President and the 111th Congress will be remembered for visionary policy achievements. I am so grateful to Obama & Pelosi

Hooray: Keith Olbermann suspends 'Worst Person' segment in wake of Jon Stewart's Sanity Rally

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Ted Olson, the fierce and conservative advocate for LGBT rights. We love him

We love our GIANTS! This world-class city has a World Champion baseball team



Dear Mr. President: The GOP is our opposition, but not "our enemies"

NBC Nightly News reported that President Obama, in an interview with Univision Radio last Monday, October 25, encouraged Hispanic voters to not sit out the election, but say “we’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us.”

Not cool, Mr. President. They are our political opposition, not our enemies. A bad slip of the tongue that is more characteristic of Rove, Atwater, and Ailes. You are bigger than that.