Help each other. Love everyone. Every leaf. Every ray of light. Forgive.
11/30/12
#Zen advice from "The Tree of Life" movie
Quote of the day...by Wanda Sykes
"Republicans, they need a hug and a Xanax right now,"--Wanda Sykes
11/29/12
Today's smart comment from a Republican...the one man who could have beat Obama in '12
"We used to be the party that put out wars: Eisenhower, Korea; Nixon, Vietnam; Reagan, the Cold War. And here we talk about starting wars. That's all Republicans on the defense side seem to want to talk about -- not negotiating a way forward diplomatically, as we had under earlier Republican administrations, but always falling back on the war option as if we haven't had enough over the past 12 years,"
On this World AIDS day, Obama's declaration...and I am remembering my beloved deceased friend, Mikey
"Today, we reflect on the strides we have taken toward overcoming HIV/AIDS, honor those who have made our progress possible, and keep in our thoughts all those who have known the devastating consequences of this illness. The road toward an AIDS-free generation is long -- but as we mark this important observance, let us also remember that if we move forward every day with the same passion, persistence, and drive that has brought us this far, we can reach our goal. We can beat this disease. On World AIDS Day, in memory of those no longer with us and in solidarity with all who carry on the fight, let us pledge to make that vision a reality.
"NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States do hereby proclaim December 1, 2012, as World AIDS Day. I urge the Governors of the States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, officials of the other territories subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and the American people to join me in appropriate activities to remember those who have lost their lives to AIDS and to provide support and comfort to those living with this disease." - President Obama.
11/28/12
11/27/12
Buddhist lesson on the importance of opening your heart to yourself & others
Enlightened society is not an idealized environment. It's an environment that actually accepts the imperfections of humanity and encourages you to open your heart and mind and work with other people and situations as they are. Enlightened society is one in which, as you make friends with yourself, your communication with other people gets clearer, more direct, more honest.
--Pema Chödrön via Tricycle.com
The last refuge for bad boys the world over, the French Foreign Legion is deconstructed by Vanity Fair
You can escape your past in the French Foreign Legion, which, from the sound of it, makes service in the U.S. Marines look like day care. Call the "expendables" because of their lack of patriotism to a country (in this case, France) and difficult and dangerous assignments, this ultra-macho corp of soldiers is composed of men from around the world. According to one of its officers, men from the UK, France, and US are soft compared to Brazilian and Korean men. This is one way to learn French...move over Rosetta Stone.
Read more at Vanity Fair.
11/26/12
Today's moment of truth on the GOP's campaign to suppress minority voting
“The Republican Party, the strategists, the consultants, they firmly believe that early voting is bad for Republican Party candidates,” Greer told The Post. “It’s done for one reason and one reason only. … ‘We’ve got to cut down on early voting because early voting is not good for us,’ ” Greer said he was told by those staffers and consultants.
- Former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer
Zen lesson of the day
If there is to be any peace, it will come through being, not having.- Henry Miller
The UK's Guardian newspaper weighs in on the importance of California's 'ex-gay therapy' law
And this September, California became the first state in the nation to outlaw "conversion therapy" – basically, trying to make gay people straight – for children and teenagers. Jerry Brown, the governor, calls ex-gay therapy "quackery", but it's actually worse than that. The American Psychological Association, in a 2009 report, found that not only does conversion therapy have no effect on a patient's sexual orientation, but it can also lead to depression, if not suicide. And while it's harmful enough for adults, for more vulnerable teenagers the inculcation of inferiority and sinfulness that conversion therapy relies on can have lifelong effects.
Of all these victories, the prohibition of ex-gay therapy may be the sweetest. California's new law is quite literally a life-saver, and several other states, notably New Jersey, are working on similar statutes. And at a moment when the mainstream equality movement seems to care only about a privileged subset of gays, California has stepped in to protect those who are truly powerless.-Jason Farago, The Guardian
Gay guys threaten to marry the girlfriends of straight guys if don't support marriage equality. And straight guys respond...
The challenge issued by gay guys:
The response by straight guys:
The response by straight guys:
One of the authors of DOMA, now a open lesbian and pro-marriage advocate, says she is indebted to gay advocates but has no guilt over her past
I am glad that Kathryn Lehman has joined the fight for marriage equality and appreciates all the rights she enjoys because of the LGBT activists and mostly Democratic leaders. However, like Ken Mehlman, she needs to fight for our rights in Congress and the GOP if she wants people to forget her past:
Today, Ms. Lehman, 53, no longer has a husband, and no longer identifies as straight. And she is a lobbyist for Freedom to Marry, which is devoted to overturning the very law she helped write, the Defense of Marriage Act. But Ms. Lehman is still a fervent Republican. “I’m trying to break the stereotype that all gays and lesbians, especially lesbians, are Democrats,” she said. [snip] Ms. Lehman said she felt no guilt over her role in the law banning federal recognition of same-sex marriage. Her motivation, she said, is her gratitude for those who fought for gay rights decades before she knew the cause was her own. If it were not for them, “I would not be living the wonderful life that I am right now with Julie,” Ms. Lehman said, referring to her partner, Julie Conway, a Republican fund-raiser, with whom she lives in Alexandria, Va.
11/25/12
11/23/12
This blog post is a sign of the times
By a reader from the Daily Dish:
My 81-year-old father, a retired Marine and lifelong straight-ticket Republican, has gone through an amazing shift over the last four years. When McCain had named Palin as his running mate, my dad defended the choice because she "was a fighter and everyone underestimates her". Four years ago he quaked in his boots and railed against Obama, who "was going to take everybody’s guns away" and was responsible for the shortage in ammunition (part of the plot to take away guns was his plan to remove ammo from the store shelves). Obama didn’t have the experience to end the wars. Obama wouldn’t be able to deal with the economy. Our country was going to hell in a handbasket with that man in charge.
This election? Straight-ticket Democratic voter and big contributor to both Obama’s campaign and Claire McCaskill’s senatorial campaign against Todd Akin. As we would drive by homes where Akin or Romney yard signs were displayed, he’d say, "There’s a lot of crazy people in this neighborhood". A month ago my mother called me, worried that my father had become too militantly Democratic and wished he would settle down just a little bit in his zeal. We can sit down as a family and intelligently discuss politics, and I can’t express how wonderful it is to share this with him for the first time in my life.
To what do we attribute this change? I believe it started with having multiple children, grandchildren and in-laws who didn’t have health insurance due to self-employment and the difficulty with getting an individual policy.
My father worked 40 years in the government and always had wonderful insurance and a lot of security in terms of retirement, and I believe he wanted the same for all of his children and grandchildren. He realized that the guns weren’t going away (he’s an avid skeet shooter), that the president was an intelligent man who approached the nation’s problems with calm, deliberate reasoning and an eye towards the greater good. Dad paid attention to the obstructionism within Congress and was disgusted by these supposed "patriots" who were focused on preventing recovery. Obama was bringing the soldiers back home, which was a huge deal to a man who saw far too much of the damage caused by war during his Vietnam stint.
It takes a lot to change a man’s position so enormously. I’m more proud of my father than I have ever been and see him as a lesson to the Republican party. If they are losing someone like him, how many more must there be?
11/22/12
Uganda tries to pass another "Kill the Gays" bill. Please sign this All Out petition ASAP
Uganda "Christianists" are at it again, showing their love for their fellow Ugandans by threatening to kill them.
Please sign this petition immediately!
Why being a straight ally is smart and sexy...Hudson Taylor leads the way
My fellow U. of MD alum is a leading straight advocate for LGBT rights, making make him a true humanitarian. Thank you!
11/21/12
Putting your residents first, not your party, turns out to be good politics & the right thing to do: Christie's approval soars
Christie is up for re-election in 2013 and knows what is best for New Jersey and him, not right-wing land. His approval surges 19 points. I may not like his veto of marriage equality in NJ, but I approve of him taking care of his storm-battered residents.
11/20/12
Sounds of the war in Gaza...by a New Yorker writer
I am not taking sides in this latest war between Hamas vs. Israel because both sides do stupid things to provoke the other and are blinded by a bitter history.
However, I do wonder what it must be like to live in Gaza, being shelled by the latest weapons. Not surprising, it is not pretty to live in a compact war zone. Read this article from The New Yorker.
Social conservatives vs. the GOP establishment, a preview of the civil war to come...
Social conservatives actually believe their own rhetoric:
Evangelical leaders and conservative activists have a simple message for establishment Republicans about Mitt Romney’s failed presidential bid: We told you so.
After nearly two weeks of listening to GOP officials pledge to assert greater control over the party and its most strident voices in the wake of Romney’s loss, grass-roots activists have begun to fight back, saying that they are not to blame for the party’s losses in November.
“The moderates have had their candidate in 2008 and they had their candidate in 2012. And they got crushed in both elections. Now they tell us we have to keep moderating. If we do that, will we win?” said Bob Vander Plaats, president of the Family Leader. Vander Plaats is an influential Christian conservative who opposed Romney in the Iowa caucuses 10 months ago and opposed Sen. John McCain’s candidacy four years ago.from the Washington Post
Zen lesson for today: "unconventional gratitude"
We should be especially grateful for having to deal with annoying people and difficult situations, because without them we would have nothing to work with. Without them, how could we practice patience, exertion, mindfulness, loving-kindness or compassion? It is by dealing with such challenges that we grow and develop.
Judy Lief via Tricycle.com
No illusions here: GOP's rising Latino star is anti-gay
This fall, Senator Rubio recorded anti-gay marriage robocall messages for the National Organization for Marriage.
And then he answered with the following to a question by a GQ reporter:
GQ: You talk a lot to young Republicans. Recently I met a Republican who said, my kids are in high school and there's a prom. There's straight kids, gay kids. It's no big deal to them. And he says, my party, the Republican party, has to stop putting these social issues out there and talking more about stuff that effects people.
Marco Rubio: I think that's unfair. A significant percentage of Americans feel very strongly about this issue. What I'm hearing is that it's ok for one side to express their view and the other side needs to be quiet. There are a very significant number of Americans that feel very strongly about the issue of life, about the issue of marriage and are we saying that they should be silenced or not allowed to speak or voice their opinion? There's a way to do that that is respectful and productive. There are things we'll always disagree on, but it doesn't mean we go to war over them or divide our country over them. We agree to disagree, but we continue to work together on the things we all know that we have to do.My translation: be nice gays as we legislate your constitutional rights away and translate our fearful religious beliefs into anti-gay laws that all Americans must abide by.
Read more at Towleroad.
Great article on how marriage equality proponents won in November
Researchers found amongst undecided voters:
- commitment trumps rights,
- kids move voters,
- "kids will be kids" and they are not much interested in marriage equality,
- parents must be seen teaching values,
- those who changed their minds are the most persuasive spokespeople.
These insights resulted in ads like the one above.
Quote of the day on why so many conservatives choose to live in blue states, including Mitt Romney and homocons
So what gives? If you are the Romneys, then why not settle in a red state where people love you? What's wrong with Alabama, Mississippi or even Utah? Simply put, when it comes down to it, Mitt and Ann Romney seem to want the same things that so many others seek in California living: a tolerant, open, environmentally beautiful place to live that we're not afraid to pay for.
--Hank Plante for SF Gate
Simply put, many conservative pundits and politicians live in diverse, tolerant cities and enjoy blue-state policies while their audiences or followers toil away in places like Tulsa, Pensacola, or Huntsville. This is especially true of gay Republicans leaders at GOProud and LCR. Homocons, if you like conservative red state policies so much, why don't you live in those places?
This reminds me of hawkish conservatives (with no military service) saying "I am in favor of these wars but I don't want to serve in them", which is exactly what W. and Romney said during the Vietnam War.
11/19/12
War sucks! Check out the mood in Israel...
Via The Daily Dish:
You want to hear about what it’s like here? It’s fucking sad. Everyone I know is sad. My kids don’t care who started it and the little boys in Issawiya, the Arab village I see out my window, don’t care much either. I haven’t met a single Israeli who is happy about this. They know this fixes nothing. The one thing we learned this week is how quickly humans can come to normalize anything. But the hopelessness seeps right into your bones as well.
--Dahlia Lithwick relays it:
A gay Republican parody that is too harsh and mean-spirited for me. It doesn't show the brave Fred Kargers of the GOP
I have no stomach for gay Republicans who support candidates in favor of passing anti-gay laws or appointing anti-gay judges. But not all gay GOPers are self-loathing. Look at Fred Karger, an openly gay man who ran for president as a Republican in 2012, who has done much to fight homophobia in his party as well as oppose the National Organization for Marriage.
Progressive gay guys, we can do better than this video...
11/18/12
11/17/12
11/16/12
11/15/12
11/14/12
Photo of the day
Warren and Baldwin at the orientation for new senators. We all helped make this happen.
Zen lesson on deconstruction of the ego & unconscious habits
The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed--it is the process of elimination.--Elbert Hubbard
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