I am so tired of the Republican primary

Let's see. College education is bad. Religion in the public square is bad if it's Obama's or Romney's but good if it's Santorum's or Gingrich's. Gays should be outlawed or a constitutional amendment needs to be created to ensure lack of equal rights. Health reform has to go! The government is too involved in health care! Women! You need to have a vaginal ultrasound! Really?

Tell me about how you'll deal with conflicts cropping up all over the world. How you'll bring meaningful jobs to the masses who've lost their jobs as companies save money with overseas labor. Tell me, who the heck is going to buy what they're making when the jobs coming back pay so much less than the jobs that were lost?

And stop, just stop, not acknowledging ANYTHING the president has done. The Dow was at 6,000 (ish) in the final months of George Bush's term. It hit 13,000 yesterday. But Obama is a socialist or a fascist or a Muslim (and who the hell cares if he is. There's nothing in the Constitution that says only a Quaker or a Catholic or a pick something can be president), or some kind of Manchurian candidate.

Look. I'm not happy with a ton of what's happened under Obama's watch. But very little of it is about him. Republicans idea of compromise seems to be "my way or the highway". Letting people talk about "death panels" unchallenged ... letting people talk about his birth certificate UNCHALLENGED ... and so on says all I need to know about whether I'll vote for a Republican in the fall.

I was as junior delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1984. And today, I will no longer vote Republican.

Who changed? Me? or the Republican Party I knew and loved?

Why should I care about the Oscars anymore?

I used to watch the Oscars. I used to really care. I made a point of seeing every single picture up for Best Picture BEFORE the ceremony and ponder the odds any one picture would win.

I haven't watched the Oscars now in a few years.

Why you ask? There's no freakin point.

Most of the movies up for Best Picture didn't play anywhere near me. To wit: In order to even see Hugo (which I loved by the way) I had to make a 75 mile drive EACH WAY. Moneyball? Loved it, but had to wait for it to come out on DVD in order to see it. There are several local theaters much closer to me. None of them played The Artist or Tree of Life or Moneyball or several other top contenders. The theater 75 miles away didn't either.

How the heck am I supposed to care about anything other than the few movies I could see? And when I have no idea if they had a chance, there's no point caring about how they do because I have nothing with which to compare them. I've read that The Artist is very good. As soon as it's out on DVD/BluRay I'll see it - and I would have even if it hadn't won.

But when I can't see the "best" pictures of the year until months after awards season you've lost my loyalty Oscar.

Today in today's gay agenda

Watching the football combine. That us all. Don't feel like destroying heterosexual marriage today. Who knows maybe tomorrow.

Wow. I feel sorry for Orly Taitz.

Um. Wait. No I don't. She was totally and completely unprepared for today's ballot challenge in Indiana. Wow.

http://bleachandlight.blogspot.com/2012/02/orly-does-indiana.html

I know we live in a free country because people like Orly keeping saying we do, but at what point do we say "enough, you've lost 100 cases, you've been fined thousands of dollars, enough" Court and commission time costs taxpayers money.

If you don't like an elected official you have a really cool option. VOTE. But, remember, other people are voting, too, and, if more people vote for a candidate that you didn't vote for than the one you did, that candidate (the one you didn't vote for or don't like or think looks funny or whatever) wins. And, not liking a candidate's policies or philosophies or whatever doesn't make that candidate a usurper or socialist or communist or fascist or whatever. If the candidate does something ILLEGAl (illegal mind you, not just something you don't like/don't approve of/wouldn't do if you held that office) then, there are remedies. But making up stuff about birth certificates and SSN and so on doesn't cut it.

Today's gay agenda

Buy milk
Pay bills
Overthrow heterosexual marriage and require all heterosexuals to "gay" marry.

Wait.

I might not have time for that last one.

Maybe tomorrow.

Thinkin' bout Republicans and smaller govt. Sigh.

For years now I've totally and completely misunderstood the Republican call for smaller government. Silly me, I thought they were talking about individual liberties and responsibilities and the fact that Democrats wanted a big cumbersome government that would intrude into all corners of our lives.

As it turns out, they meant "small enough to fit up a woman's vaginal canal.

Really?

Republican governors, senators legislators, congresspeople railed against HPV vaccinations that prevent cancer because it represented big, bad government intruding on parental choice. More than a couple of Republicans have complianed bitterly and publicly about TSA screenings at airports.

And yet.

They think women need more - and more intrusive - tests before undergoing a legal abortion. Well, heck, she already agreed to be penetrated when she got pregnant. Does that really fucking mean what it implies? Because a woman has had sex once (or twice or 100 times) it can now be concluded that she's agreed to have sex anytime anywhere by anyone? Including the government?

Smaller government ought not mean government that intrudes into my private life. When smaller government means less regulation on business, fewer protections for the working poor, a smaller safety net (hey! it should be harder to get food stamps!) there's no way it should mean making a woman spread her legs for the government.

My BIG gay agenda for Wed. February 22, 2012

Go to work to earn money to pay taxes
Have lunch
Walk the dogs

Thinkin' 'bout birth control and the 2012 presidential election

Um. What? I'm doing what!?!

What part of "it's the economy, stupid" don't the Republicans get?

And how on earth can the Catholic Church claim that it's rights are being infringed unless it can infringe on the rights of others (hey! gays! go away. No marriage for you 'cause we don't believe in it! Hey! women! no birth control for you! 'cause we celibate men don't believe in it!). Um. are they railing against Viagra for men? Thought not. Are they making men go through humiliating tests before they impregnate a woman? No? Those tests are just for "slutty" women? Got it. Who the hell do they think the women are being impregnated by? Pomegranates? If I remember health class it takes a sperm and an egg and I can only think of one place to get the sperm.

Come to think of it, why are Republicans so consumed with private lives when they want government out of everything (except of course wars)? They want fewer regulations on business but they want to be able to do tansvaginal ultrasounds on women? What the hell century is this?

I decided the Bishops are right

Every religious person should get to impose their beliefs on everyone who works for them. So, if you work for a Catholics no freakin birth control. If you are a woman and work for a Muslim, I suppose you should wear traditional clothing and pray multiple times a day. If you work for a Muslim or a Jewish person, no pork. If you work for a Jewish person, no shellfish and make sure you keep Kosher. If you work for a Seventh Day Adventist I think you should be vegetarian but I'm really not sure. If you work for that one religion, I can't remember what they're called, but if you do, no medicine or surgery, you should pray when you get sick. If you work for a Mormon, I'm not sure if this is true but I've read that you have to wear some sort of special under garments.

Now that's freedom of religion. I'm gonna go buy me a business tomorrow and make all my employees observe my religious beliefs around the Flying Spagetti Monster on Tuesdays, Santa Claus every other Thursday and something random the other days of the week. Also, random Mondays are holy days and if my employees don't properly observe those days ... they're fired for violating my religious rights!

Awesome!

My big gay day!

Working on the Facebook pages of a couple local non-profits. Then, off to a committee meeting for another local non-profit. Then, on to work at a for-profit company. Then, lunch while I read U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton. I've read all her books to this point. This is my favorite so far.

Will probably spend some time on the Internet looking at stories about the Republican primary race. Michigan just got interesting. According to a PPP poll, Santorum is leading Romney. That's weird to me given that Romney's father was governor there and Romney has good name recognition.

Might check out my stock portfolio, too.

And, given that it's Valentine's, who knows, maybe flowers or something for my sweetie.

So, that last one was kind of gay. But, really, most of my day is taken up with stuff that straight folks do, too. Wait. Maybe straight folks get their sweeties flowers and such on Valentine's too. You think? No, that can't be. That would imply that I really am just like straight people. And that might make people like me less scary to folks when they step into a voting booth this fall.

Nah.

Oh this is rich. Hypocrites running the Church

So. Catholic bishops demand a compromise. And, in their minds, compromise is "my way or the highway." Um. Last I checked I didn't live in a Catholic country. Its ridiculous that what was first an issue for Catholic institutions like hospitals and schools is now an issue for any person of faith who has any kind of a business.

But is it really? Or is it really about any Catholic who wants not to pay for birth control in a health policy?

If a Muslim business owner wanted to require all female employees Muslim and not to wear Muslim religious garb, would that be o.k.? I thought not.

It is beyond hypocritical to demand that all women who happen to work for a Catholic be denied birth control.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2012/02/obama-catholic-bishops-contaception-abortion/1

"My way or the highway" the new compromise.

Another day in the life of a gay

Great. My cat caught a baby shrew (like a mouse only weirder and smaller). Sigh.

Then workout, checking out the news on the internet (Santorum won Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado. Want to learn more? Google him. hee hee). Then, off to a board meeting. We're arguing with a grantee, so it won't be fun. Then work. Then a board committee meeting for a second board. Then more work. Then, if the weather is nice, a walk with the dogs after work.

It's gonna be a gay day!

What am I going to do for humor when Orly isn't filing appeals anymore?

This'd be funny if it wasn't so sad. Orly lost again last week. She really thought she was going to win. She's already filed an "emergency" appeal.

Read it and weep tears of laughter.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/80486661/2012-02-04-Farrar-v-Obama-Emergency-Appeal-to-Secretary-of-State-Kemp#fullscreen:on

And then, for a moment, be sad that with all the real problems we have in this country courts all over are having time wasted litigating and relitigating and relitigating the relitigation on this issue.

Get over it, a brown guy with a funny name and big ears is the president. And, he has a better approval ratting than Bush did at this time in his presidency.

The PR of the Komen debacle

I've been following the Komen/Planned Parenthood debacle (kerfuffle?) since it broke on Tuesday. For several years I've been bothered by all the pink everywhere in October. I didn't understand how pink toaster really helped conquer breast cancer when it seemed obvious (to me) that only a very small portion of each toaster sale was going to Komen and that of that, some large portion must be going to marketing so that women everywhere would buy the toasters (and all the other pink stuff).

Frankly, I never supported Komen. I don't think there's a race anywhere near me (the nearest one I can think of is a little more than 70 miles away, and based on my family history, there were other diseases more important to me.

Then again, until Wednesday, I'd never supported Planned Parenthood either. I was lucky growing up and had access to health care. I've been lucky as a grown up with access to health care through my employer. If I didn't have health care through my employer, I'm not sure what I'd do as I'm not familiar with a local Planned Parenthood clinic either.

But I knew plenty of people who wore pink in October and I thought that I "got" why breast cancer awareness was such a big deal. And it seemed to me that it was a really easy thing for companies to support. But what company on this planet goes into a sponsorship thinking, "hmm, I'll piss off half my potential customers but make the other half thrilled. O.K. Let's do it!" I can't think of one. All sorts of private individuals make controversial choices, some support choice, some support lack of choice. But companies? They need customers.

And I sat, transfixed, in front of my computer reading the stories. Stories about people and organizations who were thrilled. Stories about people and organizations who were angry. And I wondered, what on earth was happening and why.

It made no sense to me that a benign (no pun intended) organization would stomp into the middle of an incredibly controversial issue and expect companies would be o.k. with it. For instance, I don't use a lot of batteries, but I tend to buy Duracell. I saw that Energizer with its cute pink bunny had a Facebook posting on their partnership with Komen (I think on both their site and the Komen site) and saw some postings from folks thrilled by the decision and tons of postings from people saying they'd boycott. I also read, somewhere, someone who posted anonymously on some article that if you were going to boycott all the Komen sponsors you'd be walking around hungry and naked because so many companies were sponsors. And I wondered how many people who said they'd boycott really would. But still, I didn't think any company would go into a Komen sponsorship thinking it'd be great to be in the middle of a controversy. The whole point in a Komen sponsorship is that it's so noncontroversial.

Well, not anymore.

I think it was on Thursday that I ran into a really interesting article on the PR aspect of the issue. If you've gotten this far, go to the link. The article is really interesting:

http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2012/02/01/the-accidental-rebranding-of-komen-for-the-cure/

Wow. Orly Taitz loses again

I know some were afraid that administrative judge Malihi in Georgia was going to side with the "birthers" especially after the President's legal team decided to boycott the proceedings (and really, how many times must anyone prove the same thing?)

But yesterday, the judge ruled that the arguments had no merit.

http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/judge-obama-eligible-to-1330300.html

Buy Girl Scout Cookies

Don't care if you don't need the calories.
Don't care if you don't like cookies.
Don't care if you're bothered that Girl Scouts get just a small amount of money on each box sold.

The f***ing right wing is going after Girl Scouts and calling for a boycott of their cookies.

And that's a good enough reason to buy them. Their intimidation of women's rights and girls rights and people making decisions for themselves on any number of issues has gone far enough.

Just made my first donation to Planned Parenthood

I was raised in a family that taught me the value of giving to others. My dad donated both time and money to several charitable organizations.

I work in the private sector, but sit on three charitable boards. I don't make a lot of money, I just care about some things and support them with my time and small donations.

I've known that Planned Parenthood exists for years. But I never really thought about them. They were just some big organization that did a bunch of stuff. I never needed their services. I've had health care coverage my whole life. I was lucky as a child and grew up in a home with access to health care and I've been fortunate thus far as an adult and have been able to afford anything I've needed including a major operation a little more than a decade ago.

I've seen more and more on Planned Parenthood in the last year or so. This morning I was appalled to see that Susan G. Komen defunded breast cancer screenings for poor women provided by Planned Parenthood. How the hell does a breast cancer organization help prevent breast cancer and its more awful consequences without actually using some of the money it gets for breast cancer? Idiotic.

Let's see, Susan G. Komen can plaster the entire grocery store with pink ribbons. You can't avoid the pink shit all October. But, because a small part of what Planned Parenthood does is anathema to social conservatives, poor women will have less access to an important cancer screening.

Great.

I've avoided the pink crap for years. I don't see how buying pink stuff helps cancer. But I do see how breast cancer screenings help.

So, I just made my first ever donation to Planned Parenthood.