Gerry Buncher

since, however

2012-01-29T11:56:00.001-08:00

Thank goodness I have never been in a situation where I thought I might drown... however the few people I have spoken with who were saved from an almost drowning have made it very clear in their description just how miserable, fearful and dominating it was for them.

Thank goodness I have never been held at gun point or mugged or stopped on the street having someone with a weapon demand my valuables...however the few people I know who have had that experience have made it very clear that time stopped, their breath froze and a quiver of shock controlled their body. For them it still resonates and they find no reason to understand it.

Thank goodness I have never I have never had a life threatening disease being told by a doctor I might have only a few months left to live...however, sadly I have known some people who were given that news and then had to face the world with that knowledge. For them the emotions ran wild, their anger moved from rage to calm, from frantic to finally realizing the need to place closure in their life.

Thank goodness I have never been homeless. I think I understand the meaning of living on the street, seeking a shelter, begging for food. But do I? So many of us see people lying on ground with a dirty blanket and maybe a shopping cart of plastic bags filled with items discernible, and some foreign that seem to look like trash. Some of us mutter under our breath “druggie”, “bum”, “get a job”, “lazy”, “you must have deserved this”, and we quickly walk faster past them or immediately turn our eyes to the ground. The lucky of us who have not had to find our shelter under an overhang of some store front, on the metal bench of a bus stop, on the choppy concrete of a darkened parking lot never really know what those who seek shelter must be feeling what they fear and if they see hope ever happening.

There is so much in this world we have not experienced but have come in contact with those in our lives, whether close family or friends or strangers, who have or are currently entrenched in pain, fear, distrust, worry, or doom. We think we know their emotions and often times we try to act as caregivers for their ailments. We either talk about their conditions continuously as if we were on crack or we become silent hoping nothing said will remove us even further from recognizing our inability to help.

Throughout this primary year we hear the candidates running for president talk about things they know nothing of personally but love to pontificate from some glass tower as if they were experts. They hate the Gay but none of them are Gay and don’t know what denial of marriage, adoption, job security is all about. They shout about women having no rights to their own reproductive organs and none of them have been raped, have had an incestial relationship with their father or brother, or had to make a choice of deciding my life or the life of a fetus. They shout about unemployment and that only the lazy are unemployed, none of them ever once receiving a pink slip, working at a job one day only to find the gates locked, being downsized so the corporation could do the Capitalistic thing and outsource your job. They want to sign an order making Obamacare illegal, none of them ever once worrying about the type of coverage they have for themselves or their families. Never once having to prioritize food, rent or medical care.

I am not sure why it seems so easy to belittle others, eagerly denying them of the same rights, privileges and pleasures we enjoy, callously demanding that some don’t deserve the basic human existences we have. I am not sure how when we scapegoat, divide, remove the people establishing we versus they we claim we do this under the guise of God and religion. And somehow invoking God’s name or his Bible, justify our inhuman treatment of all God’ children as reasonable and ration-able. I am not sure how if we have never experienced the pain, suffering,fear, loneliness racism, homophobia, religious bigotry ourselves we can blindly permit laws to be made to isolate and restrict.

There is so much, thank God, I have not directly experienced, felt, been the victim of in my life. But in my life I have made every effort to understand sympathize, empathize, become educated in to see just how someone else lives, thrives and survives.

The scary thing for me is that people like Gingrich, Santorum, Paul, and Romney are still running for office on a platform that reads America for some, not all, America my way or no way at all. And the scarier thing for me is that there are millions of haters who still give their support for this sinister and un God like philosophy.

Has America always been this ugly? Has America kept this hate hidden until now? Have we begun to define America in terms of black and white, we vs. they, love it or leave it? We must find compassion, care and concern or eventually some of us will find ourselves as the next group being denied or basic rights. We don’t unless we experienced it, but we can educate ourselves and make decisions on truth instead of fiction and lies.

$950 a night

2012-01-26T17:01:00.000-08:00

When I was the Executive Director of a Northern California JCC I spent a lot of time with benefactors and donors of the agency many of whom were very wealthy individuals. One fund raising event took us to Napa and a day of both wine and food tasting. It was fun and my first time in Napa so it was also a chance for me to experience a part of the world beautiful and bountiful.

We were at our third vineyard and spending time at Julia's Kitchen a space designated as the official kitchen of Julia Child the television cooking queen. The ladies with whom I was sharing a bottle of Chablis, were a bit tipsy and discussing some of the places in which they spent their vacation. The conversation focused on a hotel spa located in Aspen. Three of the four ladies had spent a week at the spa and were effervescent and effusive regarding their week long sojourn at the hotel spa. They were trying to convince the fourth lady to book a reservation and told her that once there she would return often. Well, she said is it pricey? A look of shock fell across the three other ladies faces. A bargain the three shouted, rooms are $950 a night and actually better to book a whole week as they discount the price so all you pay is $6500. ( a savings of $150)

The fourth lady still did not look convinced of the bargain or the price when the other three ladies turned toward me and one of them said as the others starred at me, tell her how great the place is Gerry, we're sure you've been there.

(Now a bit of a note here: One... I have never been there, and I think I had never spent no more then $150 on a hotel room ever but if I had even spent that much money it had to be one of those times of my life where for the night I was delirious. Two... Vacations, were enjoyable but I had to budget for any or all vacations and perhaps the $950 a night for the hotel spa room would have been the total if I was lucky to have spent on the whole week of my vacation. Three...no one I had known until that conversation ever spent $6500 for just a hotel. Four... I was the Executive Director of a communal agency and no way no how would my salary permit me to spend $6500 a week to stay anywhere.)

Another lady interrupted the question with a comment saying Gerry we all respect your opinion so tell her how nice of a hotel it is.

There had been many occasions while as the Executive Director, my opinion came to be called upon, and many an occasion where being the boss was not all that fun because I had to be decisive and make a point. This was an extemporaneous moment and one where spontaneity was of the essence. There was an assumption I was in the same social strata as these wealthy ladies and with that financially I too could afford the same toys as they.

Honesty had to rise to the top and as it did I looked at each woman in the eye and said, I have never been to the spa hotel because I could never afford the fee. Before the three women turned to stone, I added but if cost is not the issue I am sure it would be a great place to vacation.

There was silence, awful silence for about 10 seconds (seemed and eternity), and one of the ladies as she took a swig of her Chablis said with a cheerful smile and chirpy tone oh makes sense, but I am sure when you can afford it, it will be fun.

Mitt Romney is not shy to state that he is proud to be of the 1% and eager to point out that he pays his taxes and there is nothing wrong in being wealthy. He had a Swiss bank account, as many wealthy people do who like secrecy, he has a tax address in the Caymans as do many a million, and billionaire, and since most of his income comes from investments he has no qualms in paying less then 14%. For Mr. Romney and his circle of friends there is nothing odd or obscure about paying less taxes to no taxes, finding locations for your money other than the US and like my wealthy ladies paying $950 a night for a hotel room.

I was not upset with my ladies or their assumption comparing my wealth as the same as theirs. My ladies live a life that can afford $950 a night hotel rooms and Mitt Romney lives a life of making $45 million a year. WHAT did surprise me was the assumption that everyone was just like my ladies, and that the commonalities of their lives were the same priorities of almost anyone else including an Executive Director.

Mr. Romney, immediately after the State of Union address, has lectured to the lemmings in attendance insisting that President Obama has lost touch with the American people and the American way. Mr. Romney who insists Corporations are people insists along with passing a law to lower his taxes he will speak to the needs of everyone else's concerns reasoning that if the rich remain rich the economy will thrive (just like it happened during the hey days of the Bush Tax Cuts). He is after all as he proudly states just like us.

I don't fault Mitt for being rich and living a life I cannot afford, but I am pissed as hell that he thinks that he should continue his lifestyle as I have to prioritize health care, food and rent for my lifestyle. I am angry at his arrogance in not admitting that not all of us have Swiss bank accounts or 5 homes. I am pissed that he assumes being poor or unemployed is a choice. And I am not forgiving that he has very little affinity with the average American who survives barely on an average of $40,000 while he laughs at making $375, 000 calling it chump change.

I want a president who at least if not speaking my language understands the translation of it. $950 for a hotel room... hmmmm hoping that when the next inauguration takes place Obama is placing his hand on the Bible you are spending that money at the spa hotel.

some grandma words

2012-01-25T18:09:00.000-08:00

My Grandma Braff always felt that the more quiet you were about your own life the better you were to ward off the evil eye as well go under the radar (not her words but the meaning of her words) and not be noticed. She would pooh/pooh gossip and she would complain it was a 'shunda', (a sin) to announce outside of the confines of your own household any not so nice deed you did or anticipating doing. She was the queen of rolling her eyes whenever she disagreed, and the gold medal winner of pursing her lips as a response to not responding at all.

In the 1950’s I remember knowing two gentlemen, my grandmother’s first cousins, who at the time were in their 40’s, who were known as bachelors. Neither one was married and neither had a significant woman in their life. They were men who traveled quite a bit and wore a lot of jewelry. Some of the family was upset that all that travel and jewelry purchasing was selfish. Some of the family members would snicker as they described the men as bachelors and I remember a kind of an up and down movement of the wrist as the word bachelor was said. And because these men WERE bachelors, most of the family were sure that was the main reason why they were selfish.

The times I was in the presence of my grandmother and her sisters and her family, and the issue of because they WERE bachelors they were selfish came up, my grandmother would clear her throat and looking at each and every member of her family say in a nonemotional monotone we know they are bachelors so what. They are from the same loins as us, we may not like what they do because we don’t know what they do, but they are family. Your harsh words suit no one but the desires of devil. If we don’t love our ‘mishpucha’’ (family), then we provide fodder for those who are jealous and enable them to eat our flesh. When they do that all WE have left of those we love is ash.

It was after my Bar Mitzvah (the Jewish religious traditional ceremony of coming of age of becoming a man), that I heard my grandmother use the word ‘fagelah’ for the first time as she spoke of her two bachelor cousins. My grandmother said to me you should know that cousins Herman and Jessie are ‘fagelahs’ you know men who like ‘schtooping’ (having sex) with other men she added. Now we know that there is nothing wrong with them being ‘fagelah’s, but that is because they are family. For some however who are jealous of our love for family they will try and tell others Herman and Jessie are bad people. All these scoundrels and ‘schmucks’ (dicks) want to do is cause trouble because there is nothing good about their own lives so they pick at our lives for satisfaction. As a man Gerry, you have to be able to defend your family against hate. Then she said almost in a whisper, (always a sign to listen even harder to her), don’t we all have secrets we wish we could share.

At 37 I revealed a secret about my own life as a ‘fagelah’ and for some it came as a shock and for others they said it was about time to stop with the not so secret secret. There were some who couldn’t wait to whisper and say did you hear about Gerry Buncher using that same accusatory voice as my grandmothers family when talking about the bachelors. At first I was ashamed, then angry and finally content that I finally was honest about me.

The biggest deal about being Gay it seems comes from those who would rather spend time reviewing the lives of Gays instead of living their own life. It seems those so negatively verbose about Gays are those who as my grandmother says know nothing about what we do so they assume they don’t like it or we do it so much better!

Gay is an issue in the Republican/Tea Party that will help elect a candidate. The more hate for Gays the more popular the man who if elected will deny ALL Americans free and equal.

It seems that if the issues and problems plaguing America were approached as a family, an American family, ‘mishpucha’ then as my Grandma Braff said we will will make no one an enemy and protect all those we love from scoundrels and ‘schmucks’ who love to eat the flesh of anyone but themselves.

Words of wisdom I still remember from my Grandma Braff.

all true is it

2012-01-24T17:28:00.000-08:00

Altruism: The belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others.

Behavior of an animal that benefits another at its own expense.

All True Is It: The belief that all the truth needs not be told. Behavior of a human to pretend that saying its the truth, makes it the truth.

In politics especially in the past few years, we have heard politicians preach from a very unstable soap box how what they do is purely done for the love of America, and in turn the respect for the citizens of the United States. We have heard pontification after pontification that hard decisions are being made. And then we hear that all of these choices in policy and law are done for all people of this country whether all people in this country realize the hard choices made for their well being.

In politics we are witnessing the coming to the Lord and purity tests to prove just how much of the coming to the Lord you are doing and how much the Lord wants you to be elected as president. There is no longer the quiet side of religion, the intimacy between you and your God, instead the louder you scream the Lords name the more blessed you must be. We are told that to surely love America we must first surely love the Lord.

In politics it seems that the lowest common denominator is the denominator calling the shots. Politicians cater to the bias, bigotry, anger and hatred of the American who loves to scapegoat, ridicule, divide and refuse to recognize the beauty of difference and lust after the ugly of indifference. Politicians tell us we are just like you and change their colors like a chameleon depending on just like who they are gyrating and gestating to.

In politics we have candidates who tell us that wealth is a good thing, while the majority of us are not wealthy. They tell us that capitalism is a good thing and if you are not as rich as some you are either lazy or jealous. Some tell us that marriage is only for opposite sex couples while they are on their third marriage. They seem to think that dictating to others on the ethics of marriage while splurging on the immoral aspects are reasonable. Some tell us that women are not capable of choices regarding their own bodies, while the women in their own life have decided to override the ignorance and take on their reproductive rights.

We have witnessed a snake oil salesmen version of altruistic behavior. The snake oil salesman comes into town and is savvy enough to observe the peculiar behavior of the citizenry. He notices they love to blame, never own, they love to whine about the outside variables making their life miserable. and always point to someone else as the cause of the problem. The snake oil salesmen calls the disgruntled citizens to the town square and amazes them that he somehow spewing the same hate, anger and annoyance sounds just like them. He must be one of them, they think and all he says he says for no other reason except of pure altruism. He must believe what he says and it must be true.

Instead, as is the case of ALL Snake Oil Salesmen what he is saying is not altruistic comments rather All True Is It. The Snake Oil Salesman is sinister in his intent, smart in his approach, and a shyster in telling the truth. He loves to keep the weak minded feeble, he thrives on keeping the ignorant uneducated on anything called the truth, he feeds on the frenzy of fear. He speaks a version of the truth, but avoiding the real truth, he speaks the truth that temps the haters to keep on hating, and the dumb even dumber. And when the sheriff comes to town or some poor stiff rants that the Snake Oil was no more then poison, the Snake Oil Salesmen only then packs his flimsy bag of tricks and flees to infect another town.

Altruism is wonderful but so hard to call your motive.All True Is It is so much much easier to acquire and it asks no more then lying or denying.

some kind of music

2012-01-22T12:28:00.001-08:00

I stand at your gate and the song that I sing is of moonlight
I stand and I wait for the touch of your hand in the June night
The roses are sighing a Moonlight Serenade.

The stars are aglow and tonight how their light sets me dreaming.
My love, do you know that your eyes are like stars brightly beaming?
I bring you and I sing you a Moonlight Serenade

Let us stray till break of day in love's valley of dreams.
Just you and I, a summer sky, a heavenly breeze kissin' the trees.

So don't let me wait, come to me tenderly in the June night.
I stand at your gate and I sing you a song in the moonlight
A love song, my darling, a Moonlight Serenade. (“Moonlight Serenade”, by Mitchell Parish and Glenn Miller)

It is a gray day in LA, not too many of them and sometimes not enough. The chill in the air the dark skies tempted me to maybe watch a bit of television before heading out for chores and activities. I had been inundated with the pundits and provocateurs regaling and recalling the bigoted votes for bogus candidates running in the primaries last night, so no politics today. The game between Baltimore and New England hasn’t started, and as a Steeler fan I am not too sure how guilty I would feel to watch it anyway so there is not much choice.

With well over three hundred channels of TV nothing really felt like the correct choice to cuddle on the sofa and just chill as the outside weather was chilled. Playing the remote control game I happened upon Turner Movie Classic and ‘The Glenn Miller’ story was playing. And as I happened upon this movie, the plot took us to the time when Glenn Miller was finessing the final version of his soon to be classic big band tune, ‘Moonlight Serenade’.

I was not even born when “Moonlight Serenade” became popular in 1937, and I was too young to have ever danced in one of those nightclubs glorified in the black and white movies where a 24 piece band played while the dancers swayed. I do remember my Aunt Meercy playing her 78LP on Saturdays as she cleaned her house and I also remember my aunt teaching me how to ask a lady to dance and then demonstrating to me how a gentleman leads and makes that same lady feel as light as a feather while the two of them fly across the dance floor.

I also remember something that seems unbelievable at least for me to even consider happening. When I hear many of the songs played by the big bands, and “Moonlight Serenade” in particular I stop, close my eyes and in a hazy woozy kind of backlit dreamy scene, I remember vaguely, being alive and listening to the music when it was new and fresh. Weird, but somehow for me any time and every time I hear ‘Moonlight Serenade’, I recall a time of my life mainly with shadow and hues of charcoal and grey but a time in which I lived. I never quite figure out where I am when the music comes alive in my memory, I am not sure who I am when the rhythm and the beat are sounded, and when my brain takes me back in time it is as if I am looking in a mirror while struck with terrible cataracts.

I know my partner Joe and I talk about wouldn’t it be great if, just like the movies, there could be mood music, theme music, background instrumentals playing as we went though our lives. Crescendos, violins, orchestral symphonies, big band soundtracks motivating, stimulating, persuading us as we traversed event to event, situation to situation, moment to moment. Music unique to us but shared for the world to hear. Music explaining to the world how even if we are like one instrument, when we play our music together we become whole and like a symphony or big band the harmonies blend beautifully.

I have been blessed to love creating music, dancing to music, tapping my feet to music and finding great meaning and measure with each note played. I also believe that some of that music is a road map for me to understand my past, enjoy my present and face the future. I still believe that maybe in a past life, if those do exist, listening closely to music I may find answers for questions I have no idea how to ask.

Whether or not as a young person listening to the radio channeling through the static to find a clear station, was in an army uniform waiting to fight WWII, a man about to launch my career, I somehow know when ‘Moonlight Serenade’ plays I stop and try hard to recall something that is just a milliliter away from remembering. It just seems so almost ready to be revealed to me.

I do believe that there is music being played as we struggle, thrive and live our lives. I do believe that all of us add our own notes and chords to the music played. And I do believe that when there is peace, accord, and respect demonstrated and delivered the sounds erupting, emitted are harmonious and heart stopping, that is when we sing together.

The skies outside are now turning from dull to sunny, ‘The Glenn Miller Story’ has finished and it is time to go on with my day. I smile as still playing in my head is “Moonlight Serenade”, and I secretly say goodbye to all those people with whom I am sure I had shared this tune sometime in my past.

in south carolina

2012-01-21T12:54:00.000-08:00

Today in the Palmetto State, South Carolina, a primary is taking place. Usually one should applaud the democracy that takes place in this great nation of ours, but today the democracy taking place has pitted people of greed, gluttony, bias, bigotry, adulterers, hypocrites and heretics against one another asking for the opportunity to be the next candidate for president representing the Republican/Tea Party. I am not sure there is much to applaud, but a whole lot more to worry about.

Today the Republican/Tea Party voters of the Palmetto State are casting a vote hoping to find the man who best represents their views on this nation and their prejudices regarding the people living in this United States. From the reactions of the many audience members it seems that family values, race relations, the institution of marriage, women’s reproductive rights, the wealth divide and the divide between church and state and any recognition of the meaning and content of the Constitution of this nation are not important and worse are able to be deleted and redefined based on hate and fear as interpreted from a Bible which seems to be less inclusive but a whole lot exclusive.

Today in South Carolina we will soon witness a selection of a man to run for the office of president whose credentials have been vetted by the likes of FOX news, Rush Limbaugh, Family Research Council, Defense of Marriage, Karl Rove and the slew of racist, homophobic, ministers and preachers who use religion as a weapon instead of peace. We will find someone the winner based not on his skill a a statesman but his will to inject the venom to divide and alienate. We will hail the conquering hero as the man who has said enough derogatory comments about they, them and those to lead the lemming to the cliff of hate watching as the the poor souls who thrive on ignorance get ready to jump.

Today in South Carolina we watch as negative ads, accusatory tone, lies, innuendo, fabrication and avoidance of truth will help rise to the top the person who is not the cream of the crop but the residue of waste left over from bile of the bottom. We will watch as one person brags about the baddest ass around when in reality he has acted the best as an ass.

It is not about Republicans being the bad guy, but about this group of Republicans honing in on the the bad behavior and bogus beliefs of people who love to hate. It is not about the millions of Americans who believe that the Republican philosophy on government is better than the Democratic view, but it is about the those Republicans who prefer separate than equal, my God or no God, and this nation is my America not yours. It IS about the monster and the people who create that monster. It IS about the intent to deny, diminish, and destroy a country of the people for the people and by the people.

Today in South Carolina we will witness a winner based on just how much hate he has mustered, how much fear he has managed and how much division he has mastered. Today in South Carolina we will witness how those who love to hate have honed in on the person who hates as much as they do. Some fine primary indeed!

it ain't me..babe

2012-01-20T16:50:00.000-08:00

You say you're lookin' for someone

Who's never weak but always strong

To protect you and defend you

Whether you are right or wrong

Someone to open each and every door

But it ain't me, babe

No, no, no, it ain't me, babe

It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe (“It ain’t me babe”, by Bob Dylan)

With the tenacity of a rat about to chew the peanut butter from the tip of a rat trap, with the sinister eyes of a person about to have an exorcism, with the hubris of a heretic caught in his own highlife of hypocrisy Newtie, (holier than thou and maybe holier than God) Gingrich chastised David Gregory for the outright indignity, audacity, and indignation of asking about the comments from Mrs Gingrich Number 2 regarding their now defunct marriage. Newtie called out Mr. Gregory for asking a question so un-presidential hopeful like, so above any respectable gentleman’s required response, so utterly true that to even acknowledge its circumstances might mean acknowledging a certain deviant behavior. And Newtie stood upon the mount in South Carolina before an audience who left their white robes at home with their ropes tar and feathers and lambasted the main stream press for having the pure unadulterated idea that anything that was the truth could even be presented during a Republican/Tea Party primary debate.

Mr. Gingrich was applauded for giving that Yankee shylock moderator a bit of Southern “hey boy you is dealing with the master” talk. The audience many of whom identify as the morals, the values , Evangelical Christian voters, the true conscience of an America on the fringe of finding FOX a bunch of heretics booed the moderator and shouted from the rafters with great glee and delight as Newtie said he could not would not answer this kind of of got you question. This audience of self proclaimed Christian Conservative voters would hear nothing of demeaning a man who cheated on two wives, not while at the same time he profoundly insisted that he hated Gays, Abortion, the Uppity Blacks, Arabs, Unemployed and the Poor. If you hate the right people, almost anyone not like me, then a few affairs of the heart and and open marriage are easily overlooked. If you heart is full of racism, homophobia, Islam-phobia, what are a few infidelities. Makes it easy for a good Evangelical Christian to overlook adultery.

And has been the case with base of the Republican/Tea Party once you hate enough, disregard most minorities as less then, use Gods good name to promote your hate, your name suddenly once again gets lit in neon. And you are a star. And suddenly as if two affairs, an ethics charge as Speaker of the House, being kicked out of office for doing more for your own career then the good of the nation becomes moot. Your angry words toward the main stream press, your bigoted bouquets toward people of color, your rants about no romance for the Gays your vigilance against equal and fair for all Americans makes you famous, THE MAN the base of the Republican/Tea Party admire.

You say you're lookin' for someone

Who'll promise never to part

Someone to close his eyes for you

Someone to close his heart

Someone to die for you and more

But it ain't me, babe

No, no, no, it ain't me, babe

It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe (“It ain’t me babe”, by Bob Dylan)

I could care less if a person wants an open marriage, I could care less if the lady has an affair with a married marries him only to find that the same shit she committed has come her way with yet another woman. I could care less if a man denies he had any responsibility in his own adulterous affair. Usually that is not my business and the only thing I might feel is sadness for the people involved who seemed to be fooled by the definition of love and the definition of matrimony.

But when Newite constantly tells me as a Gay man that I can’t marry, I don’t know how to love and when I do love it is unnatural...and that MY behavior is what is wrecking the Institution of Marriage I suddenly care very much what HE does in his own marriages.

When this man acts and reacts and thinks that all he does is private, but all I do is HIS business, I sure as hell care. When this man insights religious bigots, phonies, hypocrites to smell his shit and call it flowery and sweet and insists that my shit is simply just shit I care. When this man is running for president and his values and morals are corrupt I care.

Shame on the South Carolinians who have not spoken out against this facade of man and shame on the South Carolinians who put hate and bigotry before truth and equality.

all is not every

2012-01-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

I was living in Houston when my daughter was about to enter middle school in Pittsburgh. It has been a time in my life of drama, distraught, and depression. I had come out as a Gay man but was so ashamed of being Gay at the time I felt it better to leave Pittsburgh and try my new life in a different city. But all along, even though I was not living in Pittsburgh, I still was vested in my kids lives, and albeit physically not available I was emotionally and mentally there for my kids.

The old adage of had I known now, blah, blah, blah now and then rings through my mind, but honestly, I didn’t know and I had to make the best I could the best way I thought I could.

I was not able to get to Pittsburgh the week of parent visitation but still wanted to enjoy the opportunity most parents living in Pittsburgh had to partake in orientation of Reizenstein Middle School. I was an involved parent in my kids lives and this newest of adventures for my pre teen daughter was one I felt important for me to experience. I wanted to be a part of the decision of where she would attend three very important years of her young life.

So I called the principal of Reizenstein Middle School explaining my situation that I could not book a flight during the week of parent orientation, but being an involved parent I would like the opportunity to visit at the school’s earliest convenience. The principal listened for about the first three minutes of my phone call and then abruptly said, sorry Mr. Buncher, one week for parents and that is all we can do, maybe next year you can visit. I then interrupted the principal and said, certainly if I lived in Pittsburgh I would find the time to visit during the week, but I am in Houston. Surely, I added you might consider this request as a. I am an involved parent and b. I am two time zones away. Sorry, rules are rules finished the principal.

This did not sit well with me and I immediately called the Pittsburgh School Board and spoke with two Board members told them my story and once again asked for permission to tour the school and meet with the principal. Both School Board members were shocked that the answer from the principal was no and that the principal said that rules are rules.

A week later I had an appointment to visit the school. I am a big believer that mistakes are made and holding a grudge longer than 5 minutes is not worth the time or energy. I was appreciative I could visit the school and did realize that in fact the principal was a busy woman. So I was ready to thank her for her time. Prior to my moving to Houston I had been the Assistant Executive Director at the Pittsburgh Jewish Community Center and because of the great work the JCC had done within the community I did have some name recognition. Upon meeting the principal the first thing out of her mouth was, oh so you are that Gerry Buncher. I was surprised and did not know how to respond. The principal continued, I want to apologize to you about not making an exception in visiting our school, but you and I being Jewish you certainly understand that once one person in the Jewish community finds out I did a favor or made an exception everyone else in the Jewish community will expect the same.

Needless to say I was appalled by the words of this self hating Jew who so easily categorized all Jews as the same person and pigeonholing all Jews as selfish and demanding. She went on to say, please don’t tell anyone you got to see the school a week after we closed visitations.

I won’t go on explaining my follow up to this ridiculous ridicule of ALL JEWS and the summation of character of ALL JEWS, and stereotyping of ALL JEWS, but I might add the principal did not have an easy life afterwards. Instead of rewarding my intent to be an involved parent, my eagerness to be a part of my daughters life, I was asked to not let anyone know a favor was provided me!

As we watch the candidates running for president trying to represent the Republican/Tea Party, we hear these men and women pleading for the hearts and souls of bigoted biased bogus people and in their zeal to be elected these candidates sum up ALL Gays as undermining the democracy of this nation, trying to destroy anything Christian, destroying the institution of marriage and the value of family. We hear the candidates labeling ALL GAYS as the same person with the same motive and ALL GAYS as evil. We hear the hue and cry of stereotyping, the slander of character, the determination that anyone GAY must be bad.

Among the things I happen to be I am a Jew. I am a Jew unlike any other Jew and very much the same as most Jews. I am a parent. I am a parent with my unique capabilities and share some very common factors with millions of other parents. I am a Gay man. I live and love in my own special way and I live my life participating in daily chores weekly activities very similar to any other Gay man living in Los Angeles. I am an American and I have a set of values and standards that fit my personality and I participate as a citizen like my fellow Americans. I am not always like anyone else and I am sometimes so similar it is scary.

My daughter is 31 and the incident at Reizenstein school is decades old, but I still remember how angry I was being told this is how Jews behave. I am 62 years old and I am so tired, angry pissed off, perturbed, how so many Americans are duped into believing how all Gays are the same. I know how I behave as a Jew,I know how I behave as a Gay man and I know how I behave as an American.

Whether the ignorance emanates from fearful religious leaders who secretly fear their God may not be all that powerful, from family members who put hate in front of love, from individuals who never look inward for truth but would rather point outward for blame, no matter from where it stems, it has to stop. The spread of lies is based on a baseless foundation.

If you dislike me, don’t trust me, hate me, do all of that because you know me. I am not like anyone else and I am so much the same at the same time. I am so tired of hearing all Jews...all Gays...all Poor...all Unemployed...all Rich.

It is time for a grip of reality, nope, not the kind we see on reality TV, but the kind we live,we participate we share with everyone else, Jew, Gay, Poor, Unemployed and Rich.

mr. romney

2012-01-18T17:37:00.001-08:00

Dear Mr. Romney: Enough is enough and now all you are and try to represent yourself as, has been an insult to me personally and your indulgence into my life has been more than I can take.

You are a phony, a flip flopper of the highest grade and a flimsy man with the truth,

Now I am of the income bracket where our two social strata will never come to gather and I am sure had I not been a professional in the social services you might even had known me as just another pain in the ass worker needed to be fired so you and your wealthy clan of men could make a profit while ending my ability to earn a living.

You once sounded like a man with common sense and had a passion for the poor the average man or woman. But that was all part of the script written for you while you ran for office in a state with more compassion for the average person and had less hate for the poor. Your flowery language and intent to make life better for those without affordable health care was admirable. Your once concern for women to continue to have control of their reproductive rights was a hefty movement of man keen on justice. And more amazing than that you even had less negative to say about homosexuals and almost made the Gay feel like he or she was a normal American.

But now, Mr. Romney without regard toward your own history, less regard for the rights and freedoms of American citizens, and disregard for anyone not a millionaire, you have changed colors and stripes. You have decided that to get the vote, you must be as evil as the most hateful Christian, as non caring for rights or freedoms as the lover of the Confederacy, and act like a charlatan when it comes to social issues or government social nets to protect anyone from homelessness, unemployment, or issues of health.

And as you deride the poor, the unemployed the minority you smile this obnoxious Cheshire Cat grin looking to the camera hoping the dumb who follow you will believe the rhetoric and never once try to question your reasoning. You chuckle that $350,000 in salary is chump change and you coyly say WHEN you release your income tax returns we will find you at the 15% level but then as you whisper that is because like most American’s your income is not based on salary but income from investment. There is nothing wrong in investing but when you also state as president you want to lower the rate of tax paid for investments sounds to me you are chomping at the bit to lower your taxes even more.

Mr. Romney you also get into this hissy fit when anyone questions how abusive Capitalism can be and how selective it has become during these past 10 years. You never want to discuss how Free Markets might need a bit of a makeover and shy away from any dialogue when many ask why with our current definition of Capitalism/Free Markets it seems the 1%, people like you and your contributors to your Super Pacs seem to benefit from. But then again Mr. Romney you never want to wonder to far from your scripted message as most of us might find out what an empty soul you own.

You have insulted me as a Gay man, you have insulted my daughter who is a woman, you have insulted some personal friends who are unemployed and need any morsel of government support, you have insulted anyone who can not afford health care, and you have given God a bad name by cuddling up to the most bigoted and biased of the so called religious who don’t know God but love to worship the Devil.

So far, Mr. Romney you have had the last laugh in regards to trying to win the nomination for president from the Republican/Tea Party. You sit back as the crazies battle it out to be the non-You, and you somehow seem to find your way to the top. I am not laughing at your lack of soul, lack of conscience, lack of backbone, lack of what it takes to be a true American looking out for the benefit and well being of all Americans. I am sad that in 2012 America has lapsed into the Twilight Zone seeking out a candidate like you whose only goal in life is to be king of the United States.

Enough is enough Mr. Romney you are not a serious man but it is time to take you seriously and worry about the future of this great nation as you creep closer to being president.

the blame game

2012-01-17T16:54:00.001-08:00

Newtie, Newtie bo bootie banana fanna fo footie Newtie, the blame game.

Seems in one of his insult first, wound deeply second then maybe say he never meant it that way, Newtie (do as I say never as I do) Gingrich, complained that President Obama was the President of food stamps. As always Newtie, (whatever I did was caused by someone else) Gingrich, implied that the black president was in favor of the blacks remaining lazy because the world according to Newt says only blacks use food stamps and they use food stamps because they don’t want to earn a living.

Newtie, (my past digressions all three dozen of them, should remain in the past) Gingrich loves to complain that the poor are poor because they like being poor and like to live off of food stamps, the unemployed like being unemployed because they hate to work and collecting up to $250 a month makes them live like kings, and anyone of color should stop complaining that the white folks who have been in power since the inception of this nation should just acquiesce and love their masters.

Your need for food stamps, your need for unemployment benefits, your need for equality are just demonstration of your lack of initiative and Newtie blames you for your misfortune.

Willard, Willard bo billard, banana fanna fo fillard Willard, the blame game.

Willard Mitt Romney says that maybe he does only pay 15% in taxes, but don’t blame him for not paying more. No he has not worked or earned a salary for over 10 years and if he had and been like the average non millionaire American who works for a living he might pay a higher percentage of his taxes. And seriously he adds he may have made about $350,000 in speaking fees but that is chump change and if your net worth is valued at $250 million who even notices $350,000.

Willard insists Capitalism is good and there is no greed or gluttony in being a Capitalist. Anyone can be a Capitalist and he insists there are no road blocks, unless he buys out your factory or business and lays you off, he ships your job to an overseas headquarter and replaces you with a worker happy to make $50 a month, or denies you the right to universal health insurance so all your earnings go to pay to stay healthy so you can work yourself to death.

You need to understand that there are rich people who need to be leaders and lead the poor people into the mines, factories and sweatshops. Capitalism survives because not everyone is capable of being king, and thank goodness for those who live upstairs cause they create jobs for those who live downstairs. Don’t blame me because I rich and want to keep you poor.

Ricky, Ricky bo bicky banana fanna fo ficky, Ricky, the blame game.

You don’t have to be Gay according to holier than thou Ricky Santorum. Nope nature has nothing to do with your homosexuality. Its like any other addiction if you drink too much stop drinking, if you eat too much diet, if you like the same sex stay home and masturbate the evil away.

And unless you are anyone but his wife having an affair out of wedlock she was innocent and young, you made a pact with the devil. Mrs. Ricky Santorum dated a man thirty years her senior had hanky panky with him but saw the potential of Ricky Santorum in becoming the son of God so dumped that man and became a virgin all over again. (I had no idea Catholics could be born again). In Ricky’s world he can call out Gays or women who act like whores and state that he knows what is best for them. In Ricky’s world it is okay to point the finger at others but the questions of his wife's abortion her affair and their spending Pennsylvania tax payer dollars to send the Santorum kids to school out of state is a low blow.

Ricky loves to blame everyone else for immoral and unethical and unGod like actions. He is like the Wicked Witch of the West however when any water is thrown back at him and asked to account for his own digressions he melts. He is shallow, insecure and inept and never admits to his own failings but loves to blame others for all that is wrong.

These three Bozo’s love to blame and never like taking the blame. Newtie, Newtie, Willard, Willard, Ricky, Ricky the blame game works well when you play it with losers who never like to admit their mistakes, bigotries, biases , and faults. The blame game plays well with an audience who always have their middle finger pointed toward others. The blame game seems to work well in the Republican/Tea Party Primaries where somehow those who vote think that Jesus hates like they do, the Constitution never mentions equal, free or choice and this is a Christian nation. The blame game works well when you Newtie, Newtie, Willard, Willard, Ricky, Ricky are men of no substance but a whole lot of bull shit.

The blame game...wait until one of these guys gets elected and see how much fun it will be to play it!

words with meaning

2012-01-16T12:02:00.000-08:00

“Like an unchecked cancer hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly the ugly as beautiful and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true”.(MKL Jr.)

Somehow along the way towards the nomination for the office of president, the candidates representing the Republican/Tea Party decided that the most important criteria to be used to elect them was to demonstrate just how much hate they could demonstrate. Like cowards they used a misinterpreted representation of the Bible and accused all of their actions as being done for God. They admitted to their being so close to God and even in some circumstances God had spoken to them asking them to run, that any words, deeds or actions they commit, are all done with God’s blessings. And in doing so they described the beautiful as ugly, the ugly as beautiful.

This band of hooligans, pretending to be everything red, white and blue has somehow intertwined their Bible as a form of the Constitution. They confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. They like to pigeonhole, scapegoat, and blame. They like to promote purity as a true sense of Americanism, and they like to avoid any of their own weaknesses buy shouting from the highest soapbox the perceived lameness of anyone they fear.

And for me the saddest or is it the scariest of things to appear throughout this Republican/Tea Party primary are the scores of bigots, racists, homophobes who can’t wait to vote for the man or woman who hates loud and proud. And so many of these haters say they do it for Jesus.

“Hate paralyzes; love releases it. Hatred confuses life: love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life: love illuminates it.” (MLK Jr.)

There are differences in this nation of ours. Just the mere fact that our founding fathers understood the division of church and state, the need for no monarchy, the chance for each man and woman to express themselves with no limitation of speech or belief helped maintain the beauty of fair and equal. Now with the arrival of wealthy corporations/individuals buying the candidates, the fact that a base of people with no need for equal of free and a sense of superiority, and a political landscape which would rather divide then find consensus, it seems the beauty of difference which created this nation are sinful and taboo.

It seems that movement forward toward understanding are paralyzed by hate. It seems that confusion left like traps foil those who want to find harmony. It seems hatred is the resounding force and the louder it is shouted the darker this nation becomes in spirit and sense. It seems, during this Republican/Tea Party primary the only sounds that resonate loud are those of denying rights, destroying freedoms and debunking purpose and replacing it with pitiful lies and innuendo.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends”. (MLK Jr.).

So often I lament about the loudness of those who hate Gays, Blacks, Poor, Unemployed,Muslims, Women and I grow so frustrated that those with the weakest argument seem to make the most noise. I am constantly writing about the power of the dumb, the religious zealot, those who deny any responsibility for their own failures, the lemming and I wonder where everyone else is, those who do not just shout that their morals and values are better but those who demonstrate morals and values.

I look around and the silence I hear is deafening, where are the really righteous people telling the blasphemous to stand down, shut up? Where are those who understand equal does equate to separate but equal? Where are those who see the harassment, the bullying, the demeaning by groups of insecure people led to the edge of normal by demigods whose only business is to pitch fear and loathing? Where is the outcry to stop this divide and instead replace it with compromise and compassion?

This whole primary period all we hear and sadly all remember are how potent the words of hate have been.

Six years ago I took a walk to the Civic Center in San Francisco and happened upon a park where the words of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech ‘I Have a Dream’ were written in marble in about a dozen large plaques. I thought I knew the speech but until I took the time looking at each word, each sentence, each paragraph I had no idea just how eloquent and relevant these words, this speech really were. I felt Reverend King was actually talking to me, that he knew my circumstance, that somehow he was privy to my private life. How utterly selfish was that, his speech created for me!!

I worry that hate, lies, innuendo, bigotry, and bias are taking precedent and that love, truth, understanding and fair are being sent to the hinterlands never again to b found. I worry the noise of the hater is louder then the sounds of those who love. I worry that we will move so far away from one another that finding the path back home will forever be gone and forgotten.

I appreciate the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and see meaning of those words in this very moment in which we live. I hope it is not too late to love.

just like wrestling

2012-01-13T21:16:00.001-08:00

I GOT IT...like a whack on the side of my head it came to me...I now understand the success of the candidates running for president wanting to represent the Republican/Tea Party. I GOT IT...now I know why the most villainous of men and women were popular one day and on the skids the next day...I now know how the schematics or should I say the schemes and charades of the Republican/Tea party candidates work and why they work. I GOT IT...the people who run the politics for the Republican/Tea Party primaries run it just like Vince McMahon runs his cadre of professional wrestling fantasy matches. AMAZING...just as Mr. McMahon convinces his audience of seeing is believing viewers, the Republican/Tea Party promoters convince the audience of show me don't tell me voters that anything they see is real. And no one questions the facts cause all the facts they receive are from the carnival barkers on FOX News.

I GOT IT... after racking my brain as to how the hell racists, bigots, religious hypocrites, haters of democracy for anyone but the rich could get such attention and adoration I GOT IT. Easy, if you watch WWE there are the good guys and bad guys. The good guys stand for kissing babies, the American flag, wearing military uniforms, and always doing what men do best loving the babes. Most of these good guys are white but every now and then as long as they pledge allegiance to the flag have enough white babes on their arms, denounce Gays, or other people of color, these non white guys gets cheers instead of boos. But, the audience that believes in fairy tales, not fairies, can turn on these people of color so they cannot remain the good guy for too long. After all in Vince McMahon's world of wrestling it usually comes down the white guy winning. And you can't have too many white men in the audience wondering about their own masculinity. But I digress.

There is always a story line with the WWE wrestlers. They are champions of the common man, these warriors of justice, or so we are told by the fiction writers for these characters. Just like the writers of fable and fiction for the Gingrich's Romney's Paul's and Perry's we are told that these me stand for the true red, white and blue. Never question the man behind the curtain we are told for in doing so you aren't Christian enough, Conservative enough, Values conscience enough, and if you question too much you might just be a Socialist, and their ain't nothin' worse.

Vince McMahon uses lots of publicity to announce his matches and promises at each and every match that a new world champion might be crowned so stay tuned. And like the Republican/Tea Party debates we see the wrestlers, I mean the politicians kicking biting, punching and lunging at one another, hoping to see someones faced bloodied or even better lying on the back calling "Uncle, Uncle". As with all matches on the WWE, a winner is announced in the primaries with new challengers in hoods (they won't wear white ones but some of them sound like Klansmen), with the flag tattooed on their ass, and the Bible clutched gently under their arm they take to the crowd and like Sally Field upon winning the Oscar say "You like me, you really like me". But alas alack the “you like me” only lasts till Vince McMahon or some SuperPac millionaire spreads rumors why the like you had is now so wrong.

We have the story lines professed and pontificated, we are told they are just like us or we want to be just like them, and elect them and they will be our voice. And they lie, read from the script and mean absolutely nothing they say. But the fans adore them because they say out loud the secret thoughts of hate, bias and bigotry so often in the empty hearts and soulless souls of people only looking for someone down one wrung on the ladder of success than they.

I GOT IT...the leaders of the Republican/Tea Party as they have demonstrated since the election of Barak Obama as president have never wanted to run the country for the good of the American people, no their only goal was to run this man out of town. So they had to script their sessions of Congress and their veto’s of anything that might alleviate unemployment, create a fair tax structure for all, insure social services. They had to create fictional characters just Vince McMahon does of the WWE. Let the dumb be fooled by the dumber. Never permit the smart to be seen but provide instead marionettes whose string is pulled by people who hate democracy, love a divide of wealth and poverty, and who use God as an agent of hate. And it works and is just as successful as the best WWE Smackdown on television.

I GOT IT...finally I found the lowest common denominator to help explain why the lowest set of common denominators to call themselves Americans are running for president from the Republican/Tea Party.

We are the champions...YEAH!

I don't know...or do I?

2012-01-13T17:03:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why it is considered the 11th commandment to argue that all free markets and Capitalism are not exactly Kosher? I'm not sure when wealthy men and women who have succeeded from free markets and Capitalism have hissy fits when those making minimum wage or less than a six digit salary ask but why not me? I'm not sure why free markets and capitalism must only be for those who love greed and gluttony? I'm not sure why we can't discuss the positives and negatives of free markets and Capitalism without evoking the New Testament or Jesus?

I'm not sure why one of the first things each and every Republican/Tea Party candidate for president says he will do is eliminate 'Obamacare'? I'm not sure why instead of eliminating at least a first attempt at some kind of affordable health care like 'Obamacare', the candidates have not offered anything but a free market response as their form of affordable health care? I'm not sure if we all ready have free market health care and it is too expensive or too restrictive for a large population of Americans anyone would even applaud the Republican/Tea Party candidates in wanting to continue the same old unfair crap? I'm not sure how fair and equal health care is a Progressive ploy to turn America into a den of Socialism?

I'm not sure why Jesus loves Tim Tebow and none of the other quarterbacks he has played against? I'm not sure how Jesus selects certain athletes over others when I thought Jesus was not a betting man? I'm not sure why those who call them selves conservatives with core values believe Jesus has anointed Tim Tebow as his prodigy on the football field? And I wonder how pissed at Jesus these same religious zealots will become if Tebow looses?

I'm not sure why there is so much money going to the SuperPacs buying and selling elections and most Americans are not going crazy over this? I'm not sure why there are millions and millions of dollars to spend on Super Pacs but the same millionaires don't have the same millions to pay a fair share of their taxes? I'm not sure how the activist Supreme Court Justices who voted for Citizens United can pledge allegiance to the flag, sing the national anthem without muttering SUCKER!?

I'm not sure why those who claim to be closer to God than thee, seem to use Gods words as the reason for their hate and bigotry? I'm not sure why God hates Gays or blacks or women who want the right to their reproductive rights or the unemployed, poor or elderly and seems to cozy up to men and women who do nothing but worship racism and homophobia? I'm not sure if it is really God who these uneducated hateful Americans really worship and I am thinking it sounds more like the Devil to me? I'm not sure why those of us who really do know God permit those who DON'T know shit to lay claim to him/her/it at all?

There is just so much I just don't know or understand...and somehow in the last year the list of questions has grown longer and longer? I just don't know!

penis envy

2012-01-12T21:52:00.001-08:00

Penis envy or how my life is not as big a Mitt Romney

Seems Mitt’s newest defense for his career as a venture capitalist is that those who are not and have some concern about what he did and how he did are just jealous of not being Mitt.

It makes me wonder, those men who served in the military during the Viet Nam War, the ones enlisted without a deferment, I assume they are jealous of Mitt because Mitt decided to not serve his country but instead spent time in Europe trying to proselytize those non Mormon Europeans. I wonder if they are jealous of Mitt because he put his religion first, country second, and in doing so the only trauma he experienced was some Parisian pushing his 10 speed bike to the ground.

It makes me wonder if all those working class men and women the ones who did not inherit their wealth from their father are jealous because the gains they made financially were created and established by their own effort and energy. I wonder if those Americans who earned their own wealth are jealous of Mitt because Mitt was lucky enough to have had his father born before Mitt?

It makes me wonder if all those men and women who are unemployed, the ones who already ran out of unemployment checks, the ones having to decide food, rent, health care which one can they afford, the ones who even lost their jobs to the fine work of Mitt Romney and Bain Industries, are jealous because Mitt who states at every pork chop coffee shop that he unemployed looks so good being unemployed. I wonder if those Americans are jealous of just how carefree a multi-millionaire looks as he struggles with onerous opportunity of finding himself unemployed?

Mr. Romney is all bent out of shape and so maligned that anyone, anyone who is not a bleeding Liberal, Socialist, true son or daughter of the greedy, seedy side of Capitalism can even call his actions as a venture capitalist anything but deeds done for Jesus. Mr. Ivory Tower, Let Them Eat Cake Romney states that what he did is as red, white and blue as the flag and that firing people is not the issue, no making profits is the reason.

I remember when I got to Taylor Allderdice High School and had my first PE class as a ninth grader. We had one open shower stall with at least a dozen shower heads attached. I had no idea how many different sizes a penis could grow. And after the shower I remember the guys with really large penis’s strutting around the locker area showing off their manhood. And I remember thinking should I be envious of them. I know a guy had to have a big dick to be cool, but these guys with big dicks were all BIG DICKS themselves. If that is all they think it takes to be a man then they certainly are missing out on something called real life.

Penis envy or how my life is not as big a Mitt Romney, and thank goodness for that. I may not be wealthy with millions or powerful enough to buy and sell corporations or people but I mean what I say, say what I mean and know the definition of honesty. I can define myself with the truth and don’t flip flop when the wind changes.

You are a fool Mr. Romney and anyone voting for you is foolish. Jealous of you Mr. Romney no just scared. Scared because you have no backbone and cower in the shadows hoping no one will notice who you really are.

its a word

2012-01-11T16:38:00.001-08:00

When my daughter was three, she approached me with a very concerned tone in her voice and asked why Nanu ( her word for Grandma) told her that her vagina was a wee wee. My son a five year old interrupted with his the very same thing happened to me voice and said Nanu told me to use the word pee pee for penis.

That night during my daily phone conversation with my mother, my mother asked me, in her I am asking you but really telling you voice, why do you teach your children to use such ‘dirty’ words. She went on to say the kids are too little to use language like that, language that some adults are even uncomfortable in using.

I tried to tell my mother that my wife and I wanted the kids to be comfortable with their own bodies and to know there is no shame in having a vagina or a penis. My mothers response was, well then they must know I have a vagina and their grandfather has a penis. (Now you must understand this was, perhaps the second time in my life and I was 33, that I ever heard my mother say vagina and penis and the first time I ever heard her refer to her having a vagina and my father having a penis) and isn't there something wrong with kind of knowledge she added!

Patience prevailing, and an attempt on my part to understand my mothers concerns, I listened to all the arguments against the use of the words vagina and penis. Her entire life, my mother was told there is appropriate and inappropriate behavior, language and actions and no one should ever question right from wrong when it comes to behavior, language and actions. For some reason black was black, white was white and in certain circumstances of life there may never be grey or better yet never a change in course.

My mother and I butted heads, she believed that the words vagina and penis were 'dirty' words, my wife and I considered those to be words describing a part of the anatomy and there was nothing 'dirty' when using those words in a sane and simple conversation.

It was difficult to argue my case with my mother, because in doing so it sounded as if I, this 33 year old pisher (Yiddish phrase for a kid trying to be an adult) knew more, new better then my own mother. But my wife and I did feel we knew more when it came to talking with our kids about their bodies.

I learned that words have specific meanings to people and there rises a problem in communication with these people if both of you have different definitions for the same words used. I also learned that respect for the origin of the definition is important, but to move forward you must educate those with which you speak as to how definitions can change and meanings become entirely different.

This was tenuous and touchy subject, the vagina and penis conspiracy, but after hearing my kids use those ‘dirty’ words in a purely innocent manner, my mother came around and realized both words were only natural and normal body parts of a female and male.

In today’s political arena, where hubris, histrionics and horror are used to excite the populace, certain words are still used as weapons, and meanings of those words are still culled from the early ages of defamation, doom and disaster. It is easy to call someone a name knowing that that name being used is to define the person as an enemy, the devil or someone other than us.

Whether it be Gay or homosexual, Muslim or Islam, Black or African American, unemployed or lazy, living off the dole or Socialist, the politicians much to the sheer joy and pleasure of their ignorant, head in the sand constituents love to shout out words using only their archaic meaning and never once trying to enlighten a group of lemmings who would rather hate then love, exclude then include divide then find consensus to a more neutral definition.

The Republican/Tea Party candidates love to accuse the Gays, the Blacks, the unemployed, the poor of being nothing but anti American. They love to use the demonizing words so often shouted from the pulpits of churches who idolize a God who hates, to disassociate themselves and the good people from anyone else not like them. They refuse to change their definitions because in doing so the fire and brimstone would be diminished and most of these politicians would have to talk about their personal records and achievements.

Vagina and penis were never bad words, but they were needed by those who feared sex. Gay, Black, Poor, Unemployed were never bad words but they had to be invented to help sustain and maintain the egos from insecure individual.

Isn’t it time those of us with sense with knowledge with a backbone insist the proper definition of words which left unchecked cause havoc and hate. Isn’t it time to recognize that women have vaginas, men have penis’s some people are born as homosexuals, some people are naturally black, some people are poor not of their own choosing and some people are unemployed due to circumstances beyond their control.

Use the words in proper context not as a proper excuse for your own insecurities.

mad world

2012-01-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

All around me are familiar faces

Worn out places, worn out faces

Bright and early for their daily races

Going nowhere, going nowhere

Their tears are filling up their glasses

No expression, no expression

Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow

No tomorrow, no tomorrow lyrics to “Mad World”, by Gary Jules

And why is it that we are promised by a group of primary contenders that if elected they will restrict the freedoms of some, limit the equality of a few, and invade our private lives of sexual pleasure and reproductive rights all the while considering themselves appropriate to lead a nation built on fair and equal? And why is it the more they want to deny some their equal rights, the more they share their bias and bigotry, the more they hate the more popular they become? Why is when Gays or blacks, or women are bashed by these primary presidential wanna be’s the media makes up excuses by saying that Santorum, or that Perry instead of saying that bigot should be charged with homophobia or racism?

And I find it kinda funny

I find it kinda sad

The dreams in which I'm dying

Are the best I've ever had

I find it hard to tell you

I find it hard to take

When people run in circles

It's a very, very mad world mad world “Mad World”

We have been told by the Supreme Court that corporations are people, just like you and me. People like Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newtie Gingrich insist that what makes America great is citizenry in the image of corporations. Yet many of these newly established citizens have decided that paying taxes is not a good thing and have found off shore addresses so they can buy an election but not pay their fair share in taxes. Many of these red, white and blue citizens have also decided that business is better when those employed are not Americans but people of other countries who require less pay and no benefits. It seems that being a corporate citizen has little to do with the welfare of any other citizen and more to do with the greed and gluttony of your own little turfdom.

Children waiting for the day they feel good

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday

And I feel the way that every child should

Sit and listen, sit and listen

Went to school and I was very nervous

No one knew me, no one knew me

Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson

Look right through me, look right through me “Mad World”

The Supreme Court is going to hear a case in which the FCC wants to fine any non cable television network if within their programming, permit swear words like the dreaded F word or words which have some kind of sexual act or body part to be said, pronounced or spoken. But at the same time this same Supreme Court does not want to tramp on the First Amendment rights of television networks to demonstrate mutilation, murder, rape or torture. The use of gun play, physical abuse, incest is okay however. It is just saying oh Fuck while being murdered, holy shit while being raped or describing a penis or a vagina while being tortured which is the problem. And of course it is to protect the children, because saying the ‘dirty’ words is much worse then witnessing any kind of mayhem on TV.

And I find it kinda funny

I find it kinda sad

The dreams in which I'm dying

Are the best I've ever had

I find it hard to tell you

I find it hard to take

When people run in circles

It's a very, very mad world ... mad world “Mad World”

What happens to the memories of Americans and how do we become ignorant of our history and immediate past? For 8 years during the Bush/Cheney/Republican dictatorship the rules and regulations on the Banking, Finance, Oil, and Pharmaceutical Cartels had diminished or been completely destroyed. In the wake of free market capitalism, the joy of American expansionism, the lack of any meaningful governmental intrusion, this nation realized one of the most disastrous moments in our lives leaving many unemployed, without health care, homeless, and on the edge of doom. And yet, the Republican primary candidates are eagerly running on a platform to lessen even more any rules or regulations for Wall Street, to deny Consumers any kind of protections, proposing to end social security and universal health care. And the scariest thing is these candidates who hate the average American have a chance to win the Republican nomination and become president. All of them repeating three times worse all of the selfish and self serving habits of the Bush.Cheney/Republican dictatorship which led so many of us to anguish and angst.

And I find it kinda funny

I find it kinda sad

The dreams in which I'm dying

Are the best I've ever had

I find it hard to tell you

I find it hard to take

When people run in circles

It's a very, very mad world ... mad world “Mad World”

Who have we become when we are proud to vote for a man or woman who hates Gays, Blacks belittles the unemployed, gets angry with the elderly wanting their fair share? Who have we become when the more hate you share on the campaign trial your ratings shoot higher and higher? Who are when we think being a good Christian is hating anyone we deem the enemy?

Who have we become when profits for a select few become the American way? Who have we become when medical care for all, decent retirement for all, equal opportunity for all, education for all is considered Un-American? Who have we become when earning equitable wages permitting us to pay our rent, our health insurance buying food without prioritizing which one we must do without that month is lazy or greedy?

Who have we become that murder, rape incest is okay for our children to learn about and view, but any healthy discussion about sex or our body parts will make our children burn in hell and is a Communist plot? Who have we become when shooting someone is fine and dandy but loving someone, whether they be opposite sex or same sex is teaching our kids unhealthy habits?

Who have we become when corporations can buy and sell politicians? Who have we become when PACs pour millions and millions of dollars into negative ads and reason or rhyme can not be heard because we didn’t pay enough to hear it? Who have we become when a small few in a democracy like ours have more power, weight and prestige?

Its a mad world indeed while we sit back ring our fingers and rub our necks and let the bad guy win.

And I find it kinda funny

I find it kinda sad

The dreams in which I'm dying

Are the best I've ever had... “Mad World”

you ain't right

2012-01-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

And now for the pleasure and enjoyment of religious bigots, Rick Santorum has announced that having a set of same sex parents is worse then having at least one opposite sex parent in jail. Yep, the man who caters to the unintelligent who love to use God as their reason to hate, has now added to his plate of poison the proposition that same sex parents are less then the common criminal, felon, or murderer.

And this man a homophobe, a bigot, a racist is still running for president hoping to gain the good graces from the voters of the Republican/Tea Party. He loves to speak for God, enjoys conjecturing up cock and bull from the pages of some insane Testament he calls a Bible, and he self stimulates over bias and bogus and wraps his own inadequacies in pathetic Orthodoxy Catholic venom that is so vile only evil men could even create it.

And this man is number two in popularity within the Republican/Tea Party voters who salivate at anything anti homosexual, abortion, universal medical coverage, or chastising the poor and the unemployed.

And there is a whole flock of self proclaimed prophets in hate land who encourage this man to speak Gods mind. They love that the God they worship has noting but disdain and disgust for the life they say he created in his own image. This group of malcontents so afraid that in reality their God is weak, fight the crusade to rid the world of their own self described enemies. If you 'ain't' one of us we will do one of two things convert you or kill you. If you 'ain't' understanding God the way we do then we will make sure the life you live is filled with inequality, freedom or rights.

The homosexuals have long been on the list of bad guys and gals for the Republican Party. Anyone, of the Republican Party who has not put his/her foot down and insisted just how wrong or how unfair or how much a lie it is to accuse the Gays of everything from providing the apple in the Garden of Eden to the election of the first black president of this nation is accountable and accused of the same shame and sham Rick Santorum freely espouses.

It seems so easy for the followers of Rick Santorum and those who keep silent regarding his vitriol and venom, to avoid any truth and like cowards they hide behind lies, innuendo and foolish fact. He and they being on the defensive feel secure that by attacking no one will really see the frailties in their own lives. They hope that all their own issues, unhappiness, inabilities and inadequacies will go unnoticed, for if they were discovered all that would be left is a useless, Godless shell.

Among many other qualities in my life I happen to be Gay. I believe in God, America, Family, Friends, Equality, Fair, and Freedom. I will not let the voices of Oppression, Ignorance, Fear, Hate, Bigotry go unchallenged. I would expect from the rest of us who Care, Love, Worship, Pray, Hope that they too will stop the madness of those who say they speak for God but only speak for their own failures to say ENOUGH ALREADY.

If we remain silent, turn away, ignore, we are part of the problem. Time to tell Rick Santorum and his might army of Christian Crusaders God is not on your side!

snake oil once again

2012-01-06T16:46:00.000-08:00

Today, at a meeting in New Hampshire, Rick Santorum heard from a mother whose child at the age of five was diagnosed with cancer. Mr. Santorum had just finished explaining to the audience that the market should be responsible for the price of health insurance, and many times it is the poor decisions by people with their life style who most need health insurance. And he continued if those people managed their lives better, they wouldn't need as much health insurance and demand the price be lowered to accommodate all their illnesses and poor decisions.

The mother a bit appalled by the curt and sharp response said, she had done everything right during her pregnancy, provided her child with the proper nutrition and yet at 5 her child has cancer. Mr. Jesus speaks to me Santorum and only I understand his values responded in his usual patronizing tone said, but so many people try to undermine the system who have the same disease as your child. It is unfortunate he has it but no way no how should the cost of health insurance be lowered unless the market demands it. And then Mr. Santorum dismissed the lady asking for more questions.

I am not a Christian, but in my life have had and currently have friends and a partner who are and is Christian. I have learned many lessons from my Christian friends and have looked at answers to life's questions through their eyes and with their philosophy. I taught in a Catholic school befriending the Mother Superior and many of the Sisters and learned why they love Jesus, and what his love can do. And to the person, I have never been told that Jesus does not like you if you are poor, sick, homeless, unemployed. I have never heard from any of the many people I know who believe in Christianity that Jesus is anything but hope and inspiration.

And now we have a candidate who is loud and proud about his belief in Jesus, yet the man he describes sound like he dwells in some kind of human conceived hell rather than heaven. Rick Santorum is a sad case of humanity who uses Jesus as a shill to try to impress others who think by the mere mention of the name of Jesus, somehow, someway Santorum has been called by God to run for president.

And somehow those who insist they are more God like or God loved are full of hate, bias, and bigotry. They say they are Christians but seem to be the furthest distance from what Christianity stands for. And sadder than all of that the gullible, the lemming, the loser, the ignorant let those who shout Gods name louder than the crowd rule the crowd.

When will the smart, the real, the hones inherit the world? Rick Santorum you are the worst of snake oil salesmen to walk this Earth, shame on you and shame on all of those who believe you know God.

hate by any other name

2012-01-05T17:23:00.001-08:00

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society.

The SPLC was founded to ensure that the promises of the civil rights movement became a reality for all. Since our founding in 1971, we’ve won numerous landmark legal victories on behalf of the exploited, the powerless and the forgotten.

Our lawsuits have toppled institutional racism in the South, bankrupted some of the nation’s most violent white supremacist groups and won justice for exploited workers, abused prison inmates, disabled children and other victims of discrimination.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has helped identify those Americans who disregard, ignore, bully, stereotype and victimize citizens of this nation for no other reason than hate for difference. And now I wonder when the SPLC will begin to recognize the racist, homophobic, bigotry and bias expressed by most to all of the candidates running for the office of president representing the Republican Tea Party.

To appease the ignorant haters of Iowa, Santorum, Gingrich, Romney, Bachmann, Paul have derided that anyone of the same sex demonstrating love for a partner of the same sex as pedophile, bestiality and the sweet perfume of everything antiChrist. They have pontificated how Gay maybe okay but doing anything Gay is dangerous, immoral and basically unAmerican. To appease the haters of South Carolina, Florida, Gingrich and Santorum have insisted that blacks like using food stamps, are lazy, love the whiteys money and really never have had any use for the American dream. Feeding into the hate frenzy of so called Christian voters many of the Republican/Tea Party candidates have stereotyped the blacks and have done so a bit more bravely than the KKK as none of the Republican/Tea Party candidates wear white hoods.

The so called Christian values candidates have derided anything Islam, have assured their Born Again supporters, that In God We Trust is not for all those made up Gods just the one that co wrote the Constitution as he sat next to Thomas Jefferson and his name is certainly not Mohammad. We are assured, if you listen to the Republican/Tea Party candidates, that terrorism is alive and well with any of those who go to a mosque to pay homage to a false God. And oh by the way Evangelicals are not quite sure that Mormonism is not a cult so once the Muslims are eliminated from voting might not the Mormons be next?

Then there are the poor, the elderly, and the disabled and their socialist selfishness and need for jobs, health care and housing. The Republican/Tea Party slew of sleuths seem to think these groups of people are suspicious and need more scrutiny as to what they really want, what is their goal, how much they are undermining the American dream. And by God, not any God but the God only they, and their legion of bigots and racists believe in, they will not vote for extended unemployment, universal health coverage or equal access. These groups take the promise out of some made up and hate filled America.

I have donated to the Southern Poverty Law Center knowing that the work they do directly and indirectly makes my living in this nation safer and sounder. I applaud their diligence in finding the truth and digging away the bullshit which so often is disguised as truth. I just wonder when the SPLC will look closer at the racist, homophobic, anti-Islamist, anti women, anti poor rhetoric vehemently spilled by the candidates of the Republican/Tea Party candidates and so well received by the hate mongers calling themselves Christians.

Hate is hate even when it is created by men and women in business suits and large sums of money in their political action committees. And haters are haters even when they say they are the sons and daughters of God.

today

2012-01-04T17:07:00.000-08:00

Today, Rat Robertson of the 700 Club and various other self serving charity churches, announced that God had spoken to him last night and told Mr. Robertson who will be the next president of the U.S. OMG, what the hell is God doing in speaking to Pat Robertson in the first place, what the hell kind of God would acknowledge Pat Robertson as no more than a charlatan, shyster, and snake oil sales man. And why is it that God somehow only speaks personally to self proclaimed prophets, all false, and votes Republican?

Today John McCain, the man who without vetting the credentials of Sarah Palin, who decided fuck the nation in selecting someone as his VP who had no brain, no idea and no conscience, today he flew to New Hampshire to throw his senile support to Mitt Romney. The man with no conviction other then his own career has given his support to a man who will change his mind to buy votes, who has no backbone in supporting any of his ideas, who believes that if you want to hear it he will promise it. Today one loser has given his support to a man who would rather flip and flop then tell the truth.

Today a homophobic, racist, corporate puppet full of hypocrisy and hate is now the angel of the conservative Christians who think they have any idea of core values. Today Rick Santorum who hates blacks, Gays and women is the darling of the Iowa voters who just love to hate in the name of God. Mr. Santorum one of the better bigots within the Republican Party is now the favorite non -Romney is also free to spew his ignorance of the life of Americans and his disdain for the American way.

Today in America we witnessed men and women rise to power and prominence while using Gods name, the Constitution, and the sanctity of family to lie their way to the top. Today we witnessed the ignorant who need role models to assure that their hate is okay permit those who are Godless, American-less, and without conscience or morals take lead in the headlines and vomit their vile and venomous rhetoric. And today, once more those who have a conscience, those who truly believe in God, those who care about fair and equal for all, watch silently without speaking loudly about the insane, inane nonsense bandied about by the bogus and bully.

Pretty soon it will be too late to turn back the clock which if it is full of Romney, Santorum, Robertson, McCain will tick tock us into oblivion and to an America that will only love to hate, love to deny and love to discriminate. The Gay movement has always warned that silence equals death. We watch silently as many who speak loud speak of a death of a nation, not just any nation our nation.

Today is more day, that of we don't say stop the madness, we will all go mad.

when will they rise up

2012-01-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

Recently I heard a few people talking about the candidates running for president representing the Republican/Tea Party and some of these people were stymied and pissed because, as they said too much time is being spent on the Gays and their issues. One woman went on to lament that after all how many Gays are there anyway, they are a minority and so if they don't get their way it is not the end of the world. And another man interrupted her adding that the Gays need to understand that there are other more important things in this country then their so called injustices. The group continued to tell one another that if the Gays don't watch out even their so called allies will turn against them because of the their selfish and self serving needs and desires.

I watched a 700 Club prayer service, the finely coiffed women and men leading the prayer service and also acting as hucksters for donations (so no matter how poor you are your dollars will go directly to the 700 Club coffers and their people will talk to Gods people to make sure you have a place in heaven) and they were quite distressed that the core values voters were being chastised and bullied. One man pressing his fingers to his sprayed hair never once moving a lock of hair, looked dismayed and as distressed as he could ( the Botox limited this emotion), said doing Gods work is hard and isn't it always the demons who battle the word of God. He was referring to all the bad press the Republican/Tea Party candidates received when they stood for Gods work and spoke loudly and proudly about limiting the rights and freedoms for the Gays, or the rights and freedoms for women and their bodies. His token female sidekick could not nod her head more in agreement, and said as a woman I am confident in Gods messengers telling me what is right and wrong. The life I bring forward is God and Gods only, creation.

Trying to hold down anything that might be dangerous in a projectile vomit fit I watched Fox and Friends, and listened as lies were being sold as truth and fiction as fact. The bevy of entertainers had invited an Iowan family, who aside from being proud of their Evangelical Christianity were also displayed as typical Iowans as who and what the typical American was. They were the every man family from Iowa and they were pissed. It seems that the main stream media is spending too much time on the so called racism, bigotry, and homophobia being supposedly spewed by the candidates of the Republican/Tea Party instead of spending anytime on why values, morals and conscience are key to how the average Iowan thinks and feels. Anyone can be an Evangelical Christian they went on to say, we don't discriminate, it it those who discriminate against God who are not welcome. The mother as she placed her arms around her son added that her sons rights should be as important as those Gay men who want spew their agenda on American youth. The dad added that the victim here is the American family and their rights and freedoms are being rallied for by the candidates with strong core values.

I am not sure what is happening to this nation, when the attack on freedoms and rights is considered Gods work, Gods way? I am not sure what America is turning into when the more a candidate shouts racist, homophobe, bigoted epitaphs, the higher his profile rises in popularity especially with people who say they are religious? I am not sure what is going on when the bad guy/gal is the person wanting fair and equal and the good guy are those who promise if elected that will never happen?

I am curious if the people who really have an honest connection with God will rise up and tell those who know not God but know only their human frailties to shut the fuck up?

tangerine tree

2011-12-31T11:27:00.000-08:00

This morning as I took our dog, Harley for a walk, I noticed one of the women who does cleaning services for a neighbor walk toward my apartment. She was an older woman perhaps in her late 60's carrying a small plastic bag which held what seemed to be rags, a large brush of some sorts, and a smaller bag which I later found out was her lunch.

I have seen this woman a few times and each time we pass one another we nod. She is one of those people I seldom think of or remember until our paths happen to cross.

The home next to my building has many fruited trees planted and this time of year the one with the most fruit ready to harvest is a tangerine tree. The orange round fruit shines bright and with winter beckoning bringing so much drab and grey it is a pleasure to view this huge mound of orange.

I had begun the walking of the dog and she had begun I supposed her journey to the home she was about to clean. Today's morning dog walk was briefer than usual and so Harley and I headed back to the entrance to my apartment quicker than expected. As we headed home I notice the lady who cleans other people's homes standing by the tangerine tree and in her hand was a metal hanger stretched and elongated. The lady could not have been taller then 5'4" and she was standing on her toes reaching rather high with the elongated hangar in her hand trying to pry lose some of the lower hanging tangerines.

She must have assumed that my walking the dog would be a bit longer as when I returned to enter my building she looked at me dropping the hangar and she said I wasn't doing anything.

I said those look like juicy tangerines, and I said last week my partner and I actually got a step stool so we could reach the tangerines and they taste delicious. She looked at me with a curious eye, hesitated a few seconds and said, well I was trying to reach just one of them. She said in a quiet voice, there are so many I thought that no one would miss just one.

I asked if I could help her reach just one and all I received was a short smile and a nod of the head. I picked up her elongated hangar, and being a tall 5'7" also stood on my toes and thank God was able to pry a few tangerines loose.

I handed her the three tangerines and as she reached to take them she took only one. She looked at me and said please take these two, all I need is one for my lunch. But there are so many I added take two more. She reluctantly took all three and then said, I have seen this tree and wondered what will the people who own this tree do with all these extra tangerines, do you think they are even aware of just how many may go to waste if they don't pick them all? She then said to me, I suppose for some people too many is not a problem at all.

She then took the three tangerines placed them in her bag, thanked me for my assistance and walked to her home ready to begin her job.

I then stopped, stared at the tree, the bounty of fruit was huge with so many tangerines ripe and ready to be plucked and picked. And then I thought, it is amazing that in this world there are some who never have to worry about too many, and then there are some who want just one. And then I thought why is that and how fair is that?

It is New Year Eve Day here in LA, a time when many of us are making resolutions, rewinding the events of the past year, and anticipating or wishing for good news for the upcoming year. And a time when many of us have found ourselves to have less then we ever had, fewer choices and chances then we remember, and wanting just one so we can make it to the next day when all we want is one more.

I looked at that tangerine tree with its abundance of fruit and did wonder why is there so much for some, almost too much and why is it so hard to share?

I wish for my friends and family on the eve of a new year that we all have enough, and when we do we find the passion and purpose to share what we have with those we face as friends, foe or family.

What a fine problem if all we had to worry about was too much.

Happy New Year!

some beat

2011-12-30T11:52:00.000-08:00

"The beat goes on, the beat goes on
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
La de da de de, la de da de da" (The Beat Goes on by Sonny and Cher)

The drums keep pounding in Iowa as the field of Republican/Tea Party candidates try to out hate, out homophobe, out racist, out deny women reproductive rights, out fight fair and justice for anyone underemployed, unemployed, or just plain poor...they are out to win the black hearts and cold consciences of individuals who mistake Christianity with anything but God like.

The Republican/Tea Party cohort of liars, fiction writers, no truth is a good truth, demonizers, and backstabbers are like moths to a flame in Iowa trying to get the bigoted, bogus Evangelical Christians, the ones who like to speak for God instead of speaking Gods word to vote for them. And to get that vote each and every man and woman running on the Republican/Tea Party slate has vowed to rid this country of any rights or freedoms for anyone Gay, anyone Non Christian, anyone with reason, anyone craving fair opportunity for health insurance, job assurance and equality in economics. The blabbering brigade of Republican/Tea Party primary candidates have found even slimier, slicker, sicker rhetoric to tickle the frenzy of the Evangelical voter who thrives on divide and conquer, we vs. they and my God is the one and only God of this here USA.

Good ole Ronnie Paul, the self proclaimed Libertarian, has cozied up with KKK leaders Nazi worshippers and he prides himself in stating that not having health insurance is your own fault so suffer the consequences. Rick, it is now my turn to be popular Santorum, aside from his usual Bible thumping crusade against gays has informed the group of Evangelical haters that if elected he will undo any and all same sex marriages ever performed by the devil worshipper judges of this nation. Michelle, my bell Bachmann is going around to the nook and crannies of hate in Iowa and saying she can be more prejudiced than any of her opponents and that even though she is a recipient of government health insurance, a pension and her husband receives government money for his clinics will rid this nation of the Satan called Socialism. Mr. no backbone or conscience or sense of anything but himself Mitt Romney is hating anyone or anything that the Evangelicals have on their top 20 hate list. He does not realize that those Christians also hate the Mormons. And the king of hypocrisy, Newt what I did for love Gingrich will revert back to Mccarthyism when it comes to judges who don't believe in his way of hate.

It is one day more for the carnival acts to showcase the ugliest, meanest, hateful, and negative talents they have for an audience of Evangelical Christians who for the man or woman would not even recognize Jesus if he stood before them. There is one more day for venom to spew, truth to be ignored, and God's name taken in vein. 24 more hours to deny freedoms for all, ignore equality for many and refuse to understand the protections of the Constitution for ALL Americans.

The Iowa Caucuses, are like a reality show gone terribly bad. The dialogue is sour full of lies, crap and fiction. The actors are scary and lack any character demonstrating only their talent for vile vitriol. The plot is tiresome, like me because I can hate just like you.

"The beat goes on, the beat goes on
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
La de da de de, la de da de da" (The Beat Goes on by Sonny and Cher)

The beat goes on, sadly and those who tap their toes are sad imitations of good Christians and good Americans. This is the first stop in a long year that has less promise and more fear.

how to serve man

2011-12-29T17:00:00.000-08:00

If you sit with a bunch of adults and play the game what was your favorite Twilight Zone, most likely everyone will offer a suggestion and as they salivate over just how scary or strange it was, they will smile and recollect just how wonderful it was watching the television show. From the spooky theme song to spooky Rod Serling standing staring at you the Twilight Zone kept the viewer frozen in his/her seats and we loved every single twist and turn.

Recently, on one of the cable channel's Chiller stations, I was able to catch a few Twilight Zone episodes I had either forgotten about or never ever had seen. There was one that caught my attention and one that seemed to resonate too well with me.

It was a clever episode titled to "To Serve People." It was simple in premise. Alien creatures landed on Earth and at first the people of Earth were a bit weary, after all what did these creatures want with earthlings? But the captain of the spaceship met with the people of Earth and quickly demonstrated to the earthlings, all the wondrous, marvelous, and special things he and his fellow aliens could provide all the people of the Earth. The captain made promises, pledges, and speeches explaining that he was one of us, but he could provide all of us with the things we thought we desired because he had the power to do so. His simple message to the earthlings was trust me, trust me and I can make all your dreams come true.

People became delirious with delight and trust the captain, they did. He told his new flock of followers that life on Earth was great due to all he could provide, but just for the hell of it the earthlings could also ride the alien spaceship, visit his planet and really be treated like kings and queens. And so all those who liked the lies, liked the promises, liked the subject without ever looking into the detail bought passage for the trip into space.

The alien captain had a book a kind of resource book, he carried with him every time he spoke to a crowd and by mistake being in a hurry to attend the next rally he left the book behind. Because not all earthlings were gullible and guilty of living off of promises and prose, a woman researcher decided to take the book and see if she could translate the alien language and find out if all the promise and prose was real.

The alien captain had told the earthlings that the book was called To Serve Man and he and his fellow aliens were doing just that by demonstrating how if all earthlings just followed his lead, the way forward would be perfect. Trust must be blind he surmised.

The earthlings were blinded by promise and lined up in the hundreds to board the spacecraft and visit the alien planet. Suddenly the female researcher deciphered the special book and much to her horror the real title of the book To Serve Man, translated into How To Serve Man. It seemed that all the promise and prose, the push toward blind allegiance resulted in nothing more than the gullible, those who wanted easy answers, meant no more than being recipe items for someone to eat and destroy. The earthlings were like cattle led to slaughter.

And as we watch the new Twilight Zone episode of 2011 titled the Republican Primary we also get to view aliens making all kinds of promises and prose as to how they will make America better, by denying rights to the LGBT community, dismantling social security, ending all restrictions on pollution and polluters, having the poor stay poor and stopping unemployment checks, permitting those who can't afford health insurance to, well suffer and die, remove the divide between church and state, and hate anyone who does not pray, work, look or think like a true American (as defined by the aliens).

All the Republican primary candidates say they are running To Serve Man. They have a plan or is it a recipe to shape America to look or is it to be cooked the way they wish, leaving out minorities, the poor, the union worker, the elderly, the Gay. They have a following of people who look no further than the hate, bigotry, and bias of the Republican primary candidates and as long as it is someone else who is the bad guy, the minions/lemmings permit the aliens to run roughshod.

In the end of the original Twilight Zone episode the aliens were found to be nothing more than phony. It was too late for those earthlings who boarded the spacecraft the ones who let the snake oil salesmen sell them baloney. The others still standing in line were saved by the bell not from their own intelligence but from the action of others who wanted more than promise and prose.

Wonder if, by the time the Republican primary is over how many people will not be saved and board that spacecraft to the planet Crazy/Hate/Bigot Ville? Wonder how many people will be on the menu of How To Serve Man?

the bruno's

2011-12-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

In the early 1950's Christmas was a rather social occasion for our family. My dad was a Sergeant with the Pittsburgh Police and one of at least 11 men on the force who among other things happened to be Jewish. In Pittsburgh, much like the entire country, during the early 1950's Christmas was considered a national holiday. We had creches in public schools, ornate Christmas pageants in public schools, and there was never any problem with everyone wishing you a Merry Christmas considering everyone thought that this was after all a Christian nation love it or leave it!

In the 1950's Christmas actually started about three weeks before the 25th of December and the holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving held their own. My dad was a good guy and most of the policemen he worked with held him in high esteem. My dad was a Jew, but since he was a good guy the Jew part could be overlooked and my dad and his family got invited to a slew of Christmas parties, dinners and get-togethers. Many invitations were from one friend to another and some were vehicles in which some Christian family tried in vein to convince my dad to convert. Nonetheless we managed in a span of about 5 years to enjoy an Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Irish, and German version of Christmas cheer and Christmas food. It was a most wonderful time in my life and a chance to really learn about family traditions.

We saw a cadre of Nativity scenes, some ornate made from ivory to jade (mostly Jesus, Mary and Joseph were white), we helped decorate 3 foot 4 foot 5 foot trees (never placing the angel on the trees unless we considered converting), and we tasted some recipes brought over to this country from generations of relatives who still yearned for the old country. We lived Christmas and my sisters and I loved every moment of it.

We received about 100 Christmas cards, displaying them on the mantel, the railing leading to the second floor and on every empty living room table top. My dad received 5 pound boxes of chocolate with almost a million different toppings ( it seemed like a million), and he was gifted enough booze to keep a dozen bars in stock.

We were Jewish but in the 1950's we enjoyed the Christmas season like the best of the Christians in this country. And my memories of that period of my life have always shone bright regarding Christmas, until now.

It seemed back in the 1950's I was more of an observer of everything Christmas, but I just returned home from a 5 day excursion with the love of my life Joe, as we spent Christmas with his family in Buffalo and I came home in LA as a full time participant.

Rose and John Bruno raised four wonderful kids, Francine, Ginny, Lisa and Joe. And this Christmas time (as has been the case for Joe's 44 years) the holiday is spent eating, laughing, loving and learning sharing the frailties, fancies, problems promise, insecurities sincerity's, singularities and hope that make each and every Bruno Christmas special.

And here I was a part of this family, no longer just an observer, but a participant, in a Christmas that has provided me with the warmest, most delightful, and exceptional memories ever. I saw the real purpose of Christmas, experienced its magic and discovered whom ever you call your family love them,love them, love them. I was in the middle of the most sincere Christmas card and carol and had the best time of my life. This was a true Christmas.

I used to rely on my 1950's version of Christmas to help me with this holiday season. But now I have something more relevant to ponder and wonder over. My Christmas with the Bruno's in Buffalo is a moment that now becomes a sweet memory. Tis the season!

the sum of us

2011-12-20T23:07:00.000-08:00

This is the first night of Chanukah for some, December 25 some will welcome the birth of Jesus and on the 21st of December all of us will be witness to the winters solstice. For some this is a season of miracles, for some just a season of mere survival, and for some a reason to take notice at what we have, what others may be missing, and the hope necessary for goodness and peace to prevail for all of us.

It is month of wanting, wishing and wonderment. For many it is time to...

CELEBRATE

For some... we wait for a joyful noise, a celebration heralding a savior...we wait for the light to glow, warming our homes for eight days...we wait for a solstice reminding us that soon the Earth will be reborn once again.

For some... it is serious, a time to celebrate a birth defining the strength of man..a miracle of oil which saw the tyrant succumb to those with faith... the fact that humans can be great even in the most dire of circumstances...for some it is the knowledge that for now we quietly endure the shortest of days as if to hibernate, rest, recount until the sun shines at its peak once again.

For some...there are tasks and chores duty and diligence...there are memories to be made, miracles to be performed... emotions, some spontaneous, some serendipitous, some succinct to share...there are days ahead in which we wish, wonder, and want.

For some this is Christmas... Chanukah...Winters Solstice...it is as big as our imaginations, as intimate as our souls, and as inviting as we permit our lives to interact and involve those around us...it is a time to say thank you for being a part of my life.

For some it is time to say Merry Christmas...Happy Chanukah...Peaceful Solstice.

For some it is time to share a love...

We hope you CELEBRATE, however large or small, and find hope, health and happiness!

gb/11

lump of coal

2011-12-19T15:57:00.001-08:00

After House Republicans over the weekend walked away from a tentative agreement to extend the payroll tax cut, Congress found itself locked in on a staring contest on Monday -- to see who would blink first.

And while that blinking first game is played, those of us who live paycheck to paycheck who count on every dollar of that paycheck, who are endlessly looking for more work are blinking with angst and anxiety. While the political posturing takes place by politicians who can pay their mortgages, have a job, enjoy beneficial health insurance, plan on lots of presents under the tree, the many of millions not as well off worry and wonder just how unimportant are we.

The plan as perceived by the Republican lawmakers is to fund the payroll tax cuts for an entire year, sounds sensible except to do so they require more cuts from any and all social services. (So cut back funding for money to the elderly, disabled, schools, health care etc, etc to pay for this and in doing so we pay Peter as we rob Paul.) The Republicans say this 2 month extension will stop the momentum by job creators who create jobs, what jobs? The Republicans say tax cuts for the wealthy are necessary to stimulate jobs, what jobs? The Republicans somehow seem to ignore the poor, the middle class, the underemployed, and the unemployed acting suddenly frugal when most people need help the most.

And as politics are played lives of the average American continue to be tortured. As the cocky, arrogant, reality removed politicians make a line in the sand the average American waits hoping even in the next two months they can pay their mortgage, their rent, their health insurance, and their utilities. And all of this so the one goal stated clearly and repeated over and over again by the Republicans, “to make Obama a one term president”, can come to fruition.

If we accept the one year arrangement for a payroll tax deduction, we then end up paying more to live, eat, stay healthy and retire. If we accept the premise that a two month only extension is bad for job creators, we once again wait for the next reason why those who can create jobs don’t. As we watch as this blinking game continues we also witness erosion in the belief that those we elect to office in this democracy of ours are working for us rather than them being as evil minded and selfish as any Fascist or Third World dictator.

The Democrats will cave in and leap at the lap of the Republicans for fear that the ignorant and uneducated will think the Dems love a good deficit. Those uneducated and ignorant will not take time to realize any cut backs in any social spending filters down to them. The Republicans will shout from the highest mount we are good for America and as they do so, less jobs will be created, and the so called job creators will not create new jobs, the lobby money from the wealthy will find its way into the Republican coffers and the gap between rich and poor will widen.

It is a matter of trying to equalize our lives in this country. It is a matter of caring that even a $100 more a month in a pay check is helpful. It is a matter of moving away from the partisanship of politics to the human side of governing. It is a matter of being honest as to why you are against the majority of Americans who live pay check to pay check and why you seem to enjoy keeping the rich rich. It is not about a one term president so you can keep us from them we from they.

Talk about a lump of coal in your stockings!

pissed off pie

2011-12-18T18:04:00.000-08:00

My mother had a first cousin, who, while my sisters and I were young, called Aunt Hannah. Aunt Hannah was a woman who had been married twice. She divorced her first husband, while having an affair with her soon to be second husband. This was the 1950’s and to even admit you were having an affair, then leave one husband for the second, and brag about how bad the first husband was as a husband was a taboo that brought shudders and many a pooh-pooh-pooh to the elderly women within my family.

Because my mother had a sister named Hannah and we also called her Aunt Hannah the Hannah on her second marriage was always referred to with three names, her maiden, first marriage and her current marriage- Hannah Katz-Turkle-Marcus.

Aunt Hannah Katz-Turkle-Marcus was not a shy person nor stood back from anyone rolling their eyes, or whispering about her marriages or suggesting it must have been her attitude that broke up the first marriage. When in the company of any rumor, gossip or tall story being shared about her, Hannah would interrupt and say “if your kaka (our families word for shit) smelled any less lousy then mine and you didn’t hide your secrets instead of being honest, I would let you finish putting me down, but your kaka smells as sour as mine and you are drowning in secrets, so shut up!

It did shut up the gossip until Hannah left the room and then the gossip continued but with more eye rolls and hand gestures and hushed words.

Hannah Katz-Turkle-Marcus was the rebel rouser within our family and she seemed to relish the fact that her actions might cause some consternation. I remember Hannah-Katz-Turkle-Marcus approaching me during my wedding reception. When she caught anyone in a one to one situation two things went through your mind, damn how much will she insult me and be crude or I wish I had a tape recorder because I can only imagine what she is going to say.

Being it was MY wedding reception and she had approved of my new wife, I was sure this one on one was only going be filled with a Mazol Tov and a kiss. But I was wrong. Aunt Hannah-Katz-Turkle-Marcus stood in front of me, placed her long thin arm on my shoulder, pulled me in closer (she was losing her hearing but always claimed people stood too far apart when they spoke), dug her fingers into my shoulder and said. “Sometimes you get stuck in a pissed off pie and are deep, deep in the recess of that pissed of pie so deep you no longer realize what is pissing you off. When that happens you need to take a big step away from that pie, use all your might to do so, and remove yourself so you can breathe fresh air. Sometimes, Gerry, being mired in what pisses you off takes away the joy in realizing just how pissed off you are.

She continued. I was with my first husband and actually the day we said I do I was pissed off at him, but thought things would change. They didn’t Gerry, she said, instead they grew worse. But until I could pull myself away from that pissed off pie I baked I had no idea how bad it really was and how to make it better. At this point she dug her nails a little deeper into what seemed to be my shoulder bone, moved closer to my face, so close I also knew she had been drinking lots of whiskey, and said, make sure nothing about this marriage pisses you off, and if it doesn’t celebrate. But if anything pisses you off when you start your marriage, step away from it or it will become like white noise it will sound deafening and you won’t hear what is really happening in your life and you will never be able to make it better. She then leaned in and kissed me on the lips. In those days in my family someone would kiss you on the lips as a blessing as if they got permission from God.

For anyone, and I hope it is a lot of anyones who has noticed, I have gone blog-less for a few weeks. It was an action I was cognizant in making come to fruition and an action I decided to attempt almost as a cleansing. I realized I had found myself in a pissed off pie and I was deep in its mire and muck. I grew anxious with any news about the Republican primary candidates wondering how come I am the only one worried about their lack of ethics, morals or values. I grew angry as people without health care, homes, inadequate unemployment benefits were still ill, homeless and poor and the politicians of both parties still debated the issue. I grew sarcastic and cynical as the rich remained rich never being asked to pay their fair share and the poor became scapegoats by the rich as if they wanted to be poor on purpose.

I was pissed off, and so pissed off I saw no way out no way to make it better. So I decided to stop blogging and pointing out what I saw as the obvious but millions of Americans did not. I sat back in that pissed off pie and pouted.

I pulled myself out of that pissed off pie a bit refreshed but refreshed with a sense that talking about the bad, the hypocrisy, the selfish and self serving needs to be done to try my best to make it better. I beleive the more of us who talk who are pissed off the more we can motivate and create change and consensus.

So Aunt Hannah-Katz-Turkle-Marcus I have stepped back from the pissed off pie realizing what DOES piss me off. I do have a joy, not in being pissed off, but in hoping to find others who are pissed off just enough to work together snd bake a whole new no reason to be pissed off pie.

Rest in Peace Aunt Hannah-Katz-Turkle-Marcus!

one more...

2011-12-12T16:48:00.000-08:00

One more debate. One more time for the candidates on the right to insist what is wrong with this country to lay blame, to accuse, to scapegoat to appease a mass of people who gloat in God’s graces but thrive with the devil’s deeds.

One more debate and everyone trying to be more mean, more belligerent, more anti anything with the word social, education fair equal or just related to it. More time declaring how great their God is but doing everything in his/her power to eliminate the glory of God if you are Gay, Muslim, foreign born, a woman who dare have an opinion, disabled or old.

One more debate and now the scratching of the eyes moves beyond the opposite party but digs deeper into how much adultery is cool, how Christian a Christian really is, how much money buys you power, how hip is hypocrisy, and whose flip flop is less of a lie.

One more debate and all those running for the highest office in this land of the free, at least free for the moment, all receive pay checks, all have at least 6 figure incomes, have glorious medical insurance, own their homes. And yet they demand that the unemployed are not working because they are lazy, that minimum wage will run us into ruin, if you can’t pay for a fair insurance policy then find a better job, and that you are a dead beat if you want to depend on the Government except on issues of marriage rights, reproductive rights, freedom of religion.

One more debate and the smell of blood oozing from the wounds of hate is rampant for the bigots, ignorant, uneducated who find bigotry, racism, homophobia elixirs, almost manna from some malevolent heaven. One more debate and the feeding frenzy of how much can you hate, how often can you deny, how many times will you recite separate but equal, will find anyone who does not think like you an enemy.

One more debate and instead of consensus, divide is relished. Instead of common ground, chaos is king. Instead of how can we, we will never is recited. One more debate and we seem to move further away from a unified America and seem to turn into my way or the highway.

It may be rhetoric, a scripted reality show but the venom and vitriol is like a virus and there seems to be little to no vaccination or serum to stop the spread. It may be a a game all about gamesmanship but the hate lingers long, and the evil incited is infectious.

One more debate and we watch spiteful men and women cajoled by self righteous self identified Christians who live anything but a Christian life, represent a time in American history that when first read would be assumed to be fiction. Is it the monster who is scary or the maker of the monster who is scarier?

One more debate...

no character, but a character

2011-12-09T16:29:00.000-08:00

A sense of character for some reason in the minds of those who identify as Republican core voters and as social conservatives, it is not so much the character of a person running for president that counts, rather how much that character can hate aloud, spew venom, and exclude more people then he or she can include. Those who add that not only are they social conservative core Republican voters but Christian/Family values conservatives seem to pay less heed to the character of the candidate but become enthusiastic and energetic if that character promotes scapegoating, dismissing, victimizing, and insulting anyone or anything that begs a question of difference.

For some reason those who proclaim they "are closer to God then thee", who know exactly God's intentions and act solely on them, who believe that God was the real general for the Revolutionary War somehow seem to back men and women with less character but prefer characters who can hate, demonstrate bias and bigotry, ignore the truth for its inconvenience and support men/women who luxuriate in hypocrisy. And for some reason those core Republican/Social/Religious/Family Values First Americans love to talk about the character of people but would rather support characters who use lies as truth, innuendo as fact and division as a means to make America great.

I am confused as to how or why men and women who publicly call for some citizens of this nation to be separate but equal, second class citizens, rant about God first and country second, who have been caught in lies only to try and backtrack the reason for their lies, who say they are religious but break many of the Ten Commandments are still high on the list to receive the nomination for the Republican/Tea Party primary for president? I am curious as to why it now longer matters about character but certainly matters more about just how much hate, venom and vitriol the future possible and future president can demonstrate to prove his/her qualifications for the job?

Wherever, whenever or however character to run for president stopped being a priority is a debate for the historians. But the fact that those running for the office of president from the Republican/Tea Party are more and more cartoon like characters is real. They climb to the top as if they are the pick of the month, they hate loudly for the core voters but then actually are found out by the media, the main stream and fall to the bottom of the litter. They blame someone else for their mistakes, miscues, meanderings, mishaps and begin the rise to the top again making sure to never own their faults.

Now we have Newt. He glows in the vapid disgust from anyone with a conscience, he grows in ego from the majority of those who refuse to acknowledge a mere beating of his heart, he galvanizes the haters who use God as their reason to hate and becomes a star.

His character is a sham, but somehow he is number one. The less he demonstrates character and instead becomes a character he rises in popularity. This country will be a sad place if he is elected as president, but this country will be a sadder place knowing that it was people who have no character who elected him.

too fat to fail

2011-12-08T13:06:00.001-08:00

Speaking in Le Mars, Iowa on Monday, Rick Santorum promised to significantly reduce federal funding for food stamps, arguing that the nation’s increasing obesity rates render the program unnecessary:(msnbc.com)

Rick Santorum, still running for the nomination of president from the Republican/Tea Party, proudly states he is a champion of the child. He believes that no matter the circumstance of the mother, if she is raped by a stranger, raped by her brother, uncle, father, if HER life is at risk while pregnant...no matter the silly reason for becoming pregnant or the consequences of carrying the baby full term... Mr. Santorum doing God’s work on Earth, demands the baby be born and to hell with the mother and having the baby thrive outside of the womb.

Mr. (God has asked me to speak for him, thus my religious shit does not stink) Santorum, who believes, no insists he knows what is better for a woman and her body, is all about bringing a fetus to full term. Yet with his newest harangue, Mr. Santorum cares very little on how you might sustain that life via feeding the baby or paying for the food he/she eats. So being nothing more than stupid, Mr. Santorum argues that if there is obesity then that must mean people are eating too well. And if people are eating too well then they certainly should be able to afford all that excess food, which of course must be purchased by Government money aka food stamps.

Living in some religious ivory tower, Mr. Santorum who just hates poor people, has made some warped connection that obesity equates to too much food. His small brain, overly filled with religious bigotry and bias, has no capacity or capability to reason that crappy cheap food, the kind that many poor people CAN afford, is full of calories and fat all of which contribute to obesity. Mr. Santorum doesn’t recognize the science behind nutrition (nutrition along with the dinosaurs were never mentioned in the Bible).

There are a slew of God’s creations, (the God Santorum swears told him to run for office, and fought with Washington during the Revolutionary War) Mr. Santorum has little stomach to tolerate. Mr. Santorum knows that his Jesus, hates the poor, the minority, the Gay, only likes the Jews because if you get all of them to Israel then God can stage his second coming, and that all Santorum is doing is stating the obvious and is a good Catholic in doing the dirty work.

So, if Rick Santorum is the president of the US one of his first acts will be to cut the Food Stamp program and make those fatties thin or maybe just have them die of malnutrition. (Even less Government money to waste on someone’s life).

Now, I know that Santorum’s poll numbers are low, but in the reality show called the Republican/Tea Party primary race, many a loser with low poll numbers has risen to the top. Apparently for the hard core idiot,imbecile identifying as the Republican/Tea Party core, being too dumb, too bigoted, too owned by lobbyists, too racist, too homophobic is a good thing and eventually you become popular.

Proudly in America no matter how inadequate, shallow, self serving or selfish you are you can run for president. Sadly for America in the 2011 primary race the Republican/Tea Party has showcased at least a dozen people who do nothing but tarnish the American spirit, and demonstrate the worst this country can offer.

Obesity is a growing problem, and like many growing problems which require discussion, communication, resolve, Mr. Santorum would rather place blame, state innuendo and find fiction as to why the problem exists. He would rather seek a scapegoat, vilify the victim or shout Biblical quotes to justify his own hatred.

And this man is still getting enough attention and for some is still considered someone to be president. What has happened to this country of ours?

dear gov perry

2011-12-07T15:57:00.000-08:00

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.
As President, I'll end Obama's war on religion. And I'll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage.
Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again...Governor Rick Perry (R) of Texas and still on the hunt to become president of the United States a country from which he still might consider having the state of Texas secede.

Dear Mr. Gov. I am not a Christian, but have a whole bunch of good friends who are. I am not one to pronounce the teachings of Christ, but many of my friends can and have. I have not been sitting in many Christian pews, but some of my friends and their families have, and none of them to the person seem to recognize, praise or worship Jesus in the same bizarre, mangled, maligned and miserable fashion as you. All of them cringe when you spew blasphemy, bull shit based on nothing but a contorted bias and bigotry not taught to you by Jesus but by ministers, pastors and hate mongers who instead of looking at the beauty of God relate to him as evil as the devil.

Dear Gov, and I repeat myself as it seems your ability to grasp anything new is limited, you are an embarrassment to any Christian who actually understands who and what Jesus stood for. You are an empty pathetic man who thinks that fear, scapegoating, vile and venomous vitriol is why Jesus died on the cross. I know this because the many Christian friends in my life, are tolerant, peaceful, caring and act in a way not to embarrass people of the Christian faith.

Now I know, dear Gov, that you are appealing to a very uneducated and ignorant group of people who have been described as the GOP base. You are appealing to the same crowd of people whose ancestors were told by their ministers and pastors that giving the colored man a vote, interracial marriage, women any form of suffrage was the not the intent of Jesus when he discovered America.You are appealing to a group of people who love to blame, act as victims and ridicule every and anything they don’t understand. You are appealing to a group of people who think the New Testament and the Constitution are the same document.

Dear Gov, you have said some stupid things in your hurry to try and rush to the top of the reality show called the Republican/Tea Bag primary of 2011. Some yes person or people filled your small brain with delusions of grandeur that someone as stupid as you could be president of this nation. The amazing thing about America is you are actually running and were actually taken seriously, the most abysmal thing about this country is that any ignoramus, unaware of how real democracy works, or why we even have a Constitution, can run for office. Facts mean little to you and you think, just like your sorority sister Michelle Bachmann, talking out of your ass makes people think better about you. Scare ‘em like the days before the Civil War, misinform them like the snake oil salesmen who said they were sent by God, lie to them because no where in your heart lies a seed of truth.

We have a separation between church and state Gov, and in this nation you are free to pray to your God in your home or the religious place of choice (that is unless you are Muslim and you and your God fearing Christians are trying their hardest to burn those mosques down). The same Constitution that permits no national religion, no government sponsored religion also demands equality for all of its citizens and that includes the ability to serve in the military.

I among other things Gov am not a Christian but I think it wonderful for those who are to say Merry Christmas, decorate a Christmas tree, send Christmas cards sing Christmas carols in their homes churches, have it blurted throughout malls and radio stations even in my home if they wish, but not in my public schools because Christianity believe it or not is not the religion of America.

Now we know your popularity has diminished, mainly because those with any intelligence looked past your bias and bigotry and saw just how empty you were as a politician. But people like you, losers, love to lash out and you love to try and take down anyone with you as you rot in the cesspool of your own inadequate life.

I am a Gay man, a Jew, an American and I have read my Constitution, and understand just how beautiful this country can be. You are everything that America does not stand for. But because this is America we tolerate you and because of the Constitution you have the right to free speech.

But Gov, why drag down the good name of real Christians, real Americans and shout and stammer the hate you love to share? Go away Gov, please for the good of this country just go away!

I like the religion that President Obama practices and if I were Christian I would follow the same God he believes in.

silence equals death

2011-12-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

As she rolled her eyes, pushed away, looked like a dear in headlights, Michelle Bachmann was told by a little boy whose mother among other things happens to be Gay, “...my mother doesn’t need to be fixed...” And Michelle Bachmann is still on the road running for President of the U.S. wanting to represent the Republican/Tea Party. No commentary, no response, no nothin’ except a rolling of the eyes a coiling away from the kid and a step back into the bigotry based on nothing but hate and ignorance.

Rick Santorum speaking at a college in Iowa was asked about his anti Gay rhetoric. Visibly shocked and angry Mr. Santorum said if we permit same sex marriage in this country then we would also have to teach that homosexual couples are equal to heterosexual couples. Imagine in the U.S. equality for all, how undemocratic, equality how unAmerican. Imagine this man is still running for President wanting to represent the Republican/Tea Party.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich expounded upon his views on same-sex marriage in September, calling it a “temporary aberration” that will one day go away because it defies convention. When asked about his own form of defying convention by cheating on two wives both ill Mr. (three times is a charm) Gingrich said it was his call to duty that made him divorce and had he not been doing Americas work he would have handled his adultery much better. And this man who thinks same sex marriage is a temporary aberration and infidelity and adultery main stream behavior is not only running for President of the U.S. representing the Republican/Tea Party but in the lead.

State Senator Rep. Phillip Hinkle (R.-IN) was busted looking for gay sex with a young man at a hotel. Shockingly Hinkle was openly anti-gay and opposed Gay marriage. Shockingly, really! Easy target, those damn Gays, the louder you yell the more you think you have convinced those around you that you actually believe in the bull shit you spew. Yet one more Republican/Tea Party politician who finds no difficulty in espousing the Gays as the evil while thinking he/she is a good Christian. Yet one more immoral character charading as a person of God while doing the devils deeds.

So, its the Gays...yep if you need to call upon anyone to make you feel closer to God, make you feel more American, make you feel warm and cozy in your own bigotry, bias and bogus use the Gays. It may have been the blacks but then somehow they got the vote, it may have been the illegals but we need them to do work most Americans would never think of, it may have been the women, but some of them are actually our wives and mothers, it may be the poor but without them we wouldn’t feel rich, so blame the Gays.

I always wonder how really brave people are when that bravery is only based on having a scapegoat. I wonder how much in God’s image those people are when it is always one of Gods creation they are stepping on. I wonder how human those people are when all they can do is insist on inhuman treatment of others. And I wonder how normal, smart, sensitive people whose political leaning is as a Republican can tolerate the cadre of cowards who seem to tarnish anything Republican.

Where are the millions (who know Michelle, Rick, Newt and the many others are homophobes bigots, idiots) telling them to shut up ALREADY. Where?

Shaking your head silently does nothing to stop the hate. A very old and wise statement from the Gay Movement was Silence equals death. Sure as hell does.

scary monsters

2011-12-05T16:18:00.001-08:00

In almost every creepy, spooky horror movie the creatures are either created by some mad scientist, some rogue self proclaimed savior of the world, or the remnants of a tormented bullied, confused childhood. They either try to reclaim their nasty childhood from perceived villains, they try to manifest more power than those who created them or they feed off of the negative energy in which they find themselves.

As the viewer we often times hear ourselves saying look what you have done, now are you happy, supplying evil with evil intent only leads to monsters, or didn’t you think this would happen!

Many times the creator of the monsters think they have done something with altruistic intent, only to find that altruistic is confused with ignorance or idiocy in their warped minds. There are double standards abound as the scientist or mad men say that what I am doing is evil but what you have done to me is more evil. Or the wrong I am doing by creating this monster justifies the wrong you have done to me.

Many times as the viewer, we watch the horror movie knowing that in the end the monster will die but often times in this very non creative culture in which we live, the monster is saved so it can cause havoc in parts two or three.

Within the cadre of candidates running for the opportunity to represent the Republican/Tea parties are people who if really scrutinized as to the type of platforms, biases, and bigotry they spew are like monsters we find in the movies, and created by people who seem to thrive on hypocrisy, hate, and small mindedness. Gingrich, Romney, Perry, Bachmann, Paul would wield little to no power if in fact those who have created them did not feed negative energy to this group of people who would rather divide then find consensus, who use religion as weapon rather than peace, and who flip flop depending on whose bigotry and bias they are embracing.

Whether its encouraging 13 year olds to work so they buy ice cream…explaining that poor people want to be poor because it is easier... placing an electrical fence on the Mexican boarder… telling Gays if you want to marry then marry a straight person… deciding a government at any size is too big, except if you are a woman… permitting the market to act as God and deny or accept your request for health insurance… refuse to buy into global warming because your lobbyists will not contribute to your campaign… telling kids that when they are 21 they can vote, or insisting the last 10 years of tax cuts for the wealthy have done anything but keep the rich richer…the creatures running for president of this nation only become scary because of those who created them and provide them with life.

Many times as we watch apocalypse movies, a comet shattering the Earth, aliens decimating the Earth, zombies running roughshod, we immediately realize that what is scarier then earthquakes, buildings collapsing or tsunami’s is the inhuman, selfish, angry behavior of humans to humans. Many times as we watch those movies we sometimes think it would have been easier to have perished with the first comet or the first laser blast or the first flood then watch insane men and women treating their fellow neighbors as animals and less then. Many times we watch as most selfish of intentions become the bet human emotion these lost souls can offer.

The presidential campaign for the nomination from the Republican/Tea parties is scary. Instead of reaching for a common denominator it seems that the people running for office are digging deeper and deeper for the ignorant, the angry, and the isolationist. It seems these men and women have been created in the image of those who want no compromise, no communication no consideration of anyone who is not 100% in their own mold. it seems that these monsters reflect and America without democracy a constitution, freedom and equality for all.

It seems counter-intuitive to be afraid of the creators of the monsters as we seem to think it is the monsters who will do the damage. But in this country the monsters are only strong because of the people who with malice, a malignant mind set, and mean spirit make them survive.

I am afraid of the Republican/Tea Party candidates but I am terrified of the infested, infected and insidious core of Republican/Tea Party primary voters. Be afraid, be very afraid.

demi/moore

2011-12-03T21:30:00.000-08:00

During the 10 year period 1989 to 1999 I had the misfortune of passing a kidney stone almost every October of each year. Yep, for some reason I produced kidney stones giving birth to them almost an exact year apart from the previous year.

I also had 10 separate lively experiences each time I rushed through the emergency doors of the hospital. Depending on the severity of my pain I was coherent, incoherent, comatose,belligerent, hostile, possessed but never placid or nice.

And depending on the the personal experiences of the attending nurses or doctors I was either approached with compassion, empathy, deep consternation, lack of pity or passion. And what I mean by the personal experiences of the hospital staff was, whether or not they or an immediate family had ever, ever, ever had experienced a kidney stone.

After my second trip to the hospital (to please dear God) pass my stone I learned that there were three protocols used at the discretion of the emergency room staff. The first protocol was to ask me to drink plenty of water and live through the pain.The second plan permitted a shot of demerol and plenty of water. The third (and thank God once again for chemistry), was to be given a shot of demerol closely monitored for things like my head spinning 360 degrees or green vile being projected from my mouth and when those bodily functions kicked in I was given morphine.

Yep, the pain from passing a kidney stone has been some of the worst I have ever experienced.

If the doctors or nurses ever, ever, ever had the splendid occasion to pass a stone or a very close loved one had,then the first two protocols would be immediately skipped and I would embrace what I lovingly referred to as my Demi/Moore, my cocktail of demerol and morphine. I knew who had experienced what, when those who knew my pain personally, would hold me, patiently wipe my brow, shake their heads solemnly and say I know what you are going through. And then there were those who never, never, never had any personal idea about how fucking awful passing a kidney stone could be. And they would tell oh it will pass!

Finally after a 10 year period of giving birth to kidney stones a rather insightful and intelligent urologist realized that all these baby stones must have had a mother. And with something as awful as a lithotrypsy I killed that mother fucker.

Beginning with the Bush/Cheney administration and their philosophy that the rich should remain rich, that keeping people wealthy could create jobs for everyone who wasn’t wealthy, and the American dream would trickle down, we have seen an imbalance of the have’s vs. the have nots. We currently have witnessed an even wider gap of wealth and have seen a growing divide in this nation of truly understanding both the merits and the consequences of Capitalism. And having said that we are also watching as a segment of our population, never without quality health insurance, never unemployed, never in need of government safety nets, never missing three meals a day, also having no idea what the hue and cry, the pain being expressed is all about. Shaking their heads not in understanding but rather in disgust and disdain.

Like the doctors and nurses who welcomed me with open hands and heart, who wanted me to rid myself of the pain as they had wished to be rid of the pain, we need to find politicians who understand the anguish, the angst the anger so they can help stop the suffering and offer some remedy.

By demanding that those who claim hardships, hunger, hopelessness are nothing more then lazy, socialist, hippy, dirty bums does nothing for the pain then increase the intensity of it. By suggesting that because I am doing well therefore you should be like me, pain free, is total bull shit. By denying their hurt because you have never felt the injury is sad, selfish and short sided.

Why has life become so full of people so full of themselves? When have become so blind as to not see past ourselves. Who are we when we refuse to understand?

To this day when I think of Demi/Moore and the easing of the pain I am comforted. And I so appreciate the doctors and the nurses who didn’t look at me as a problem they did not wish to deal with but tried in vain to find a solution.

how do you feel

2011-12-01T16:52:00.001-08:00

When I came out to my two older sisters (coming out just seems so demeaning anymore, coming out from what?) some 25 years ago, there was very little hoopla or discern. However, there was one question both of my older sisters wanted to ask, but neither knew how to express.

The strange thing was that when I had announced to my sisters, each separately from one another, that among other attributes in my life I was now recognizing that I was Gay, openly expressing my acceptance of it, they both had said to me, so how are you feeling? At first, the how was I feeling question made sense. I assumed they were asking me how was I feeling emotionally, or how was I feeling now that I had shared a secret of my life. When the first sister I told, Maxine asked me that question I said great. I said Maxine I am feeling great, how are you feeling? I was asking the how are you feeling question to her in regards to how are you feeling now that I have told you a deep dark secret I was so afraid of sharing.

Maxine said in all earnest, but its your health I am worried about. This bit of repartee went on for about three minutes. She asked me and I asked her how are you feeling how am I feeling it was like watching an exciting tennis match with no one hitting the ball fowl. Then it dawned on me that the how was I feeling question had nothing to do with my mental health, but it was more of an indirect direct question as to how was my physical health.

Maxine, I said, now holding her hand. Why are you asking me about my physical health when I am proclaiming my independence from the closet and sounding proud to be admitting one more fact about my life. Maxine looked at me and said but if you are Gay doesn’t that mean, she paused looked away from me, doesn’t that mean and then she stopped.

Sometimes like a lightening bolt out of nowhere we all have a recognition of nonsense making some sense. As my sister dropped her eyes from my eyes as she lowered her voice as if she was expressing her condolences for some awful moment in my life, I realized my sister Maxine, who knew nothing about my sex life when I was dating or married or now as newly outed Gay man, was worried as a Gay man I must surely have AIDS.

Rumor runs rampant in my family and feelings get hurt very quickly if one sibling knows something and the rest do not. (I always have to manage to speed dial all of my siblings when wishing them a happy holiday for fear of one of saying have you heard from your brother). So after telling Maxine my news, I quickly drove the car and went to my second sister Bonnie. My timing was perfect as Bonnie had not yet received the have you heard from your brother phone call from Maxine yet.

Still burning a bit from Maxine’s question about my health and her assumption, I was a bit more direct with Bonnie, saying I am Gay, its still me and nothing else has changed except I am more open about something I was embarrassed to share.

Bonnie’s reaction was as I had anticipated with her saying I don’t care about that Gerry you are my brother and I loved you before you said you are Gay and I love you just the same now. And then she said to me in a quiet voice, the kind of voice you hear in the movies when it is three o’clock in the morning and someone is knocking at your door, the kind of voice that almost cracks and wishes it did not have to ask the question of who is there, how do you feel?

Not this sister I thought, how do I feel, Bonnie I retorted, I feel great, how do you feel. I mean how do YOU feel she said with a sense of urgency in her voice. How should I feel I decided to answer I just told you something I had been hiding from myself for along time, I feel great. Well that is great she replied but how else do you feel?

Like with my sister Maxine I played the how do you feel game for another three minutes. Like my sister Maxine, my sister Bonnie assumed that being Gay meant I have AIDS.

I was and am HIV negative. My lifestyle never included any risky sexual or social activity which might have may have made me vulnerable. And none of that even counted as my sisters asked me how do I feel, as they never knowing anyone personally who was Gay or perhaps out of the closet, had garnered their homosexual information from bigoted, biased, bogus people who had slandered and run rough shod on all homosexuals and had never taken the time to understand any or all facts on HIV/AIDS.

Twenty five years ago, Gay for many meant AIDS. It was a curse for being something other then straight. It was assumed by many who had no idea, along with dressing in drag, able to decorate a home, style hair that being Gay meant you had AIDS.

When I finally answered my two sisters questions about how I felt and said no, indeed I did not have HIV or AIDS, they sighed. And then I sat down with each of them and said I need to explain to you all the things you assume and then provide real facts. We had quite a conversation, the first time I had mentioned anything about sex with them in my entire life.

This is World AIDS Day. It is day to reflect, review and respond to the people who have died of AIDS, currently live with AIDS and to consider how we can educate others to never have to deal with this disease in the future. It is a day for me that reminds me how not knowing how to ask a question, not understanding why the question is asked, or just assuming the question needs to be asked is so important.

Prejudice is a disease, ignorance is the foundation for prejudice, learning the truth seems to be the only vaccine to cure the illness. My sisters meant no harm. Rather, I am sure they were scared and concerned for their baby brother. I am sad we have to hold World AIDS Day, but the benefits for me seem to be medicine for the soul.

I wish those who have lost loved ones from AIDS a moment of remembrance for the joy and value those who have deceased brought them and still provide them via memories. For those living with AIDS I wish you promise and encouragement and hope. For those who have little idea of the wrath of AIDS I wish for you knowledge and will and the ability to ask any and all questions but not settling until you receive correct answers.

some 'spalining Lucy

2011-11-29T20:33:00.000-08:00

Ricky Ricardo always seemed so frustrated with his wife Lucy during her many madcap meanderings. In almost every TV show, somewhere along the way Ricky, exasperated, would say "...you need some 'splaining Lucy..."

Today after hearing about a supposed affair between Herman Cain and his on going 13 year affair with girlfriend Ginger, the self proclaimed spokesperson for what truly is Christian and Christ like, Mike Huckabee, came forward to pronounce his God like revelations.

It seemed to Mr. (holier than thou) Huckabee that a supposed consensual relationship between two adults is more evil and worth dropping out of the race then a non consensual sexual abuse from one aggressive man to another submissive woman. Somehow in Mr. (closer to God then thee) Huckabee a woman experiencing abuse of any kind is no big deal, but a woman embracing the sexual advances of a man is a sin.

I as a man am confused, if I was a woman I would be furious. Mr. Huckabee, you need some ‘splaining.

Today, we hear that the Republicans are furious that they are being kept to their promises. It seems when the Super Duper, we will will fix the ills of this nation special committee was formed, the promise made was that if the brightest bulbs selected to sit on this extra special committee to deal with deficit reduction could not find consensus then some triggers would take place to begin the process of lowering our deficit. The triggers would include cut backs of the social net programs such as social security, medicare and military spending.

Thanksgiving Day has come and gone the deadline for the extra special, we will cure the common cold committee and now the triggers are expected to commence.

But wait, the Republican politicians want to renege on cutting anything that has to do with the military. They are happy to stop providing with adequate retirement money, they are pleased as punch to avoid paying for any medical needs of the public, and they sure as hell think its fine and dandy to stop feeding the hungry. The Republicans insist we must be able to protect this country from any foreign invasion. But I ask if we have poor, hungry, sick Americans what the hell use is saving our country from the enemy from afar when the enemy within will cause the downfall and destruction?

Republican lawmakers you have some ‘splaining to do insisting a bloated military budget takes priority from the bloated stomachs, bloated debt, and bloated future of the citizens of this nation.

The Republican/Tea Party voters, the anti Romney gang, the ones who once loved Michelle, then Rick and then Herman are now embracing Newt. These self proclaimed “values” voters want a true Conservative as their president, and look for the candidate who can hate better, fabricate more, and double talk like the best snake salesman around. (They somehow make a distinction between double talk being good but flip flopping being bad).

Now it seems that Newtie is the MAN... despite his two adulterous affairs while married,... despite his wheeling and dealing with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, making at least three million dollars off of the tax payer,... despite his linty of ethics charges as Speaker of the House,... despite his commercial with Nancy Pelosi stating climate change is mad made.

It seems Newtie is now mister popular with a block of voters who seem to lay claim to Christian values, Conservative ethics, and conclude that both the New Testament and the Constitution are the same document. All of Newties indiscretions are washed away as if he was baptized once again. All of Newties immoral, unethical mean and tempestuous behaviors are okay.

Well core Republicans you have some ‘splaining to do as to just how hypocritical and ignorant you must be to make Newt your first choice. Do you all really hate the rest of us that much that you now support this vile,lying, arrogant self serving individual?

At least when Ricky asked Lucy to ‘splain what just happened, the comedy writers on the show provided a few laugh lines for Lucy’s retort, and the director told Lucy to showcase her wide beautiful smile. The audience laughed and looked forward to the next episode knowing the trouble that would ensue, but somehow Ricky would save the day and it all would end happily ever after.

Somehow with each new episode of some ‘splaining to do in our current day life there are no laugh lines or happily ever after. Wouldn’t it be nice if the voters could begin to provide some of their own ‘spalining and change the dialogue to include less ‘splaining and more sense?

telling a story

2011-11-28T17:43:00.000-08:00

Today, hoping I would find something newsworthy that would not “piss” me off and maybe find some good news for the 99%, I found two stories. Both stories have the “piss” me off factor in common, each had a different purpose, but both had a common theme.

STORY ONE:

While the nation's largest banks were publicly reassuring nervous investors of their stability during the height of the financial crisis, they were also quietly approaching the Federal Reserve, hat in hand. The total price tag: $7.77 trillion, many times the amount of the better-known TARP bailout.

The magnitude of the government's assistance to struggling banks allowed them to grow even bigger and continue paying executives billions in compensation, a report in Bloomberg Markets January issue said Monday.

Fed defended its actions back then by contending that the biggest financial institutions in the country were too big to fail — a phrase that has become a bone of contention among lawmakers, some of whom argue that a "too big to fail" bank is one that's too big to exist. (msnbc.com)

STORY TWO:

Carol Johnston, Walmart’s senior vice president of store development, said that store managers have seen an “enormous spike” in the number of consumers shopping at midnight on the first of the month. That’s typically when those receiving federal food assistance have their accounts refilled each month.

Becca Reeder and her husband, T.J. Fowler, are one of the families shopping before the sun rises.

When NBC News visited their home six days before the first of the month, they had no milk in their refrigerator. Among the few things left were water, bacon grease for the dog’s food, a little bit of apple juice, cheese and tortillas.

The newlyweds are both certified nursing assistants but have been unable to find work in their field. Fowler is commuting an hour and a half round trip to a part-time job flipping burgers at a fast-food restaurant and Reeder is not working.

They never imagined they would need food stamps to get by. (msnbc.com)

Somehow, whether it be by secret vote, fabrication or out and out arrogance, the politicians of both parties have decided that if you are big you are better. They have decided if you are small you are both too minute to count or actually too invisible to be of importance.

Somehow too big too fail is a good thing and making you even bigger so your failure can really never take place is like American pie, motherhood and the bald eagle. Somehow corporate welfare is a good thing. Somehow too little to be noticed is the fault of the too small people hiding in the shadows. Somehow too small to count is unPatriotic, UnAmerican, socialism.Somehow welfare for the poor, the underemployed, the elderly, the unemployed is anti Capitalism. Somehow if you are not a Lobbyist, able to place dollars in a PAC, or a campaign, you have very little clout with our current crop of criminals calling themselves politicians. Somehow small is bad and big is good. Somehow once again as talk filters out of both sides of the mouths of Presidents, Legislators and Senators, and hypocrisy runs rampant, and truth is replaced with fiction and fabrication, the rich stay rich, powerful and greedy.

We hear the harangue from many Republican/ Tea Party and Blue Dog Democrats that the unemployed are lazy, the poor are selfish, and the elderly asking for more of their fair share then they deserve and any kind of welfare will be the ruination of this nation. We hear that corporations should be the rulers of their turf and any intervention by the government would tear down the pearly gates of democracy and be replaced by the fiery gates of socialism, communism and fascism. That is except when it comes to feeding the bottom line of those corporations with tax payer dollars, in that case welfare has its merits.

One story talks about greed and gluttony a cover up and government secrets. The other story talks about survival on a meager salary, fighting to feed your family and looking for the American dreams as tarnished as it currently seems. Both stories talk about an America that seems to be without morals, ethics and value.

All I want is a story with a happy ending for not just the 1% but the rest of the 99%. Isn’t it about time?

paying close attention

2011-11-27T19:51:00.000-08:00

US Senate To Vote On Bill That Will Allow The Military To Arrest Americans On American Soil And Hold them indefinitely (addicting info.com)

We were told that weapons of mass destruction were going to rid America of our red, white and blue, then we were told that the Patriot Act would keep our bald eagle flying, then we were told that the Occupy Movement was a bunch of anarchists, lazy folk and if they were not arrested or peppered sprayed by police we would no longer have apple pie. Now it seems that the military must arrest and detain our citizens as if this country was a dictatorship keeping the bad guys in power or else we will no longer have motherhood or baseball. Are the red, white and blue, the bald eagle, apple pie and motherhood worth anything at all without the one true identity of America...Freedom?

We are told that now is not the time to spend any additional government money on alternative fuels: (various and sundry news papers and news outlets especially conservative communication organizations)

During the the 1973 oil embargo by the Arab states, this country came to find out that dependence on foreign governments to supply us our unsustainable quench for oil, had more dips in the road and very little smooth sailing. We found out that as powerful of a player as the US was in the world, we were brought to our red, white and blue knees and had to beg borrow and steal just to feed our engines, fuel our houses, and light our nights.

We were told by the president, the Congress the auto makers that being beholden to any other nation to keep our economy pumped and primed would end here and now. We saw the rockets red glare, we were the land of the fruited plane, we were all Uncle Sam’s kids and he would lead us to alternative energy. And for about 36 months, leading into 1976, our bicentennial, we forged together, we tightened our belts. We were promised the sun, moon and earth and sworn to that this was like Custer’s Last Stand, the first shot at Fort Sumpter, the Blockade of Cuba, and we would never look back.

And the sad thing is we never did look back. In 2011 we are told that drill baby drill is what will keep America strong. We are told that the Progressives who want solar, water, wind energy are really anti Capitalists and in turn anti American. We are told today is not the time to begin to end our reliance on oil, that we need to drill more and some time down the line we can act like Hippies and rely less on oil.

We are played the National Anthem, recite the Lords Prayer, sing America the Beautiful as the lobbyists who run this government demand that their puppets in Congress, fool the people of this nation into thinking anything but OIL, OIL, OIL is evil, evil, evil. And we all as a nation pledge allegiance to their snake oil.

American’s are treated as if we are ignoramuses, unable to understand how our government is run, the healthy priorities of our lives, and that someone other than us is more capable of making decisions about freedom, health, environment, and personal choice. We are given rules and regulations as to what makes a GOOD AMERICAN. We are told just what our founding fathers really meant ( as if any of the current mavens was alive at the time) when they established this nation, and that anyone who questions, petitions for answers, or does not readily stand to attention and cow tow to corporations is a socialist, communist, anarchist. We are lectured to by hypocrites, liars, the greedy and the gluttonous.

Everything is based on words, terms, phrases all like a big marketing plan. If it is good it is red, white and blue, if it is right it is apple pie, motherhood, baseball. If you doubt you must not understand the roots of this nation and you are an enemy of the state.

I often wonder just how much freedom must be lost before it can never ever be found again. I often wonder just how gullible one can get before reason and rational never return. I often wonder how we define being American as being sedentary, senile, subdued?

Most countries run by dictators give the army a whole of freedom while restricting freedom for anyone else! We say it can not happen here, but have we paying close enough attention?

love, not war

2011-11-26T16:13:00.000-08:00

In the past many years I have heard complaints by some that there is a war on Christmas. The blame many times was heralded against the agnostic, the atheist, the non Christian American who still believed in a separation between church and state. Many conservative talk radio jerks blamed it on the fact that since Obama came into power it was a socialist plot to eliminate ALL Americans from celebrating the holiday. For some the mere insistence that government buildings should remain neutral and not showcase any religious icon was reason to scream war. And for some it was very simple, Christmas was and is both an American holiday as well as a religious celebration so don't mess with it.

In my own opinion I felt that Christmas decorations displayed on city streets the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas music being played in store after store, commercial radio stations making it a 24 hour parade of Christmas music, houses displaying Christmas lights, some right after Halloween, and commercials extolling the Christmas season proved that if there was a war on Christmas it must be those in favor of Christmas who are winning.

But that was then and this is now, and NOW I actually believe there is a war going on and it is giving Christmas a BAD name. For two weeks prior to BLACK FRIDAY we were warned that SALES, SALES, SALES, DISCOUNTS, DISCOUNTS, DISCOUNTS would take place and if you didn't BUY, BUY, BUY you did not understand what Christmas was about and more so you were rather unAmerican.

And to lull you into doing the correct thing, stores were going to be open Thanksgiving night. The hell with family values like eating turkey together, sitting around the table communicating with one another, having quality family time, actually giving thanks, none of that indeed. Nope the stores, you know the all American Christian value stores, like Walmart. Target, were going to be open at 9 pm. And if you really had to spend that time with your family, what would Jesus do, you could abandon your family and BUY, BUY, BUY at midnight (realizing that the juicy discounts would be over).

And in the midst of making Christmas bright, the shoppers stomped upon one another, pepper sprayed one another, shot one another in the parking lot, grabbed gifts out of the hands of one another, or ignored dead bodies on the ground to get that perfect Christmas gift. And as they did all of this Noel, Noel, White Christmas, What Child Is This played like hypnotic melodies through countless loud speakers.

So the corporations, knowing just how poor many Americans are decided to play a game called mouse in a maze. Place the cheese at the end of some confusing maze make the mice either eat their fellow mice, starve or fight to the finish and get the cheese, the cheese being a dozen flat screen TV's half a dozen XBOX games, a few video cameras and whole lot of crap in between. Make the desperate feel that pushing, shoving, leaving their family behind was a good thing and you the CEO, just think about the bottom line of your own corporation. And somehow all of that resonated in the minds and bodies of those who decided pushing, shoving, greed and gluttony was what this Christmas season was all about.

I am not a Christian, but I enjoy hearing about the beauty of Christmas, the birth of Jesus and the hope and promise his birth provided for humans on Earth. I am not Christian and being a religious minority I never questioned the need to celebrate this holiday or questioned the amount of space, momentum and energy in anticipation of this holiday. I am not a Christian but I enjoy participating with others as they celebrate this holiday with pious, joyful and emotional meaning.

But this year it seems to me the holiday season so far looks nothing like the spirit of Christmas at all. I believe, greedy corporations, needy people, selfish people, big business have declared a war on Christmas. I believe any hint of the birth of Jesus and his purpose and message are missing. And if this trend keeps up they will never be found again. It is not the agnostic, the atheist, the non Christian who have delivered a bloody blow to Christmas, but those who somehow think chaos, selfish, greed is a sign from God.

If we don't stop this newest trend it will be one more occasion that is nothing more than a Hallmark Card, a reason to shop, and just one more day to act like a lemming.

Make love, not war!

the day after Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T14:39:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving the day after... What makes this day best in not necessarily the left over turkey, the thank goodness I have the day off, the football games or The Sex in the City or Twilight Zone marathons but the ability to suddenly be infused with memories. There is a whole lot of planning for Thanksgiving, and during the hubris, hubbub and hurry the hours go astray, minutes wash away, and moments seemed blurred with a to do list sometimes longer then we wish. We seem to be caught up in the moment, or getting ready, getting there and getting settled. It is after all of that, that many of us suddenly remember how much fun, food, foolishness we just had and we weave those new memories into a tapestry titled my many Thanksgivings!

Thanksgiving when I was a kid was always at my parents home. There was some unwritten rule or maybe it was the 11th or 12th commandment, that surely stated, Rena Buncher would ALWAYS have Thanksgiving dinner. My mother would cook a turkey, make a brisket, prepare the salad, bake a kugel, prepare a green bean casserole, make a vegetable soup, and always a homemade cake, brownies, and pie.

She permitted jello molds to be brought in by her sisters, dips and chips by neighbors and perhaps bottles of pop (soda for those not from Pittsburgh), but everything else was prepared, cooked, or baked by my mother.

The memories I have include, at least one trip to the emergency room to stitch some deep cut to my mothers hand, a trip to the pharmacy to buy aloe for the burns on her hands from not using pot holders, kvetching from my mother that this would be the last Thanksgiving, and weird orders by my mother to clean parts of our house we were sure no one ever noticed like the baseboards, the shelves on which her holiday plates and glasses wee stored, and to remove all of our coats (four kids and two parents) from the living room closet so company could hang their coats when they arrived.

I remember going to the neighbors houses for card chairs and card tables, collecting extra silverware from the neighbor's for the 20 people sitting around the table, and finally going to the neighbors homes and providing them with left overs, probably enough to feed them for the next week.

I remember thinking that being a male was terrific, since only the women were stuck clearing the table doing the dishes and then placing them back in the various cabinets. I remember my three sisters complaining how unfair it was that they had to do this work and my mother saying your brother got all the card chairs and tables he deserves to rest now.

I remember dinner being finished the dishes done and everyone somehow fitting into our living room. I remember stories being shared of life in the old country, life when my relatives arrived in this country, and life of my aunts and uncles when they were not even parents. I remember the sweet smell of perfume , the stale odor of cigars, the pungent aroma of kosher dill pickles and green tomatoes, the amazing almost dizzying delights of chocolate cake, apple strudel, coconut icing, strawberries and banana. And I can still sniff the deep, rich fragrance of Romanian coffee, smelling so good but tasting so bitter.

Thanksgivings have changed for me as I moved away from Pittsburgh, as my relatives got older as my kids became young adults. I remember the old, and am grateful for the new. But no matter when or where or how much older I get, it is the day after Thanksgiving that I look back and reflect, remember and reminisce reminding myself of the moments and minutes that make me who I am.

I hope this day after Thanksgiving finds all my friends and family recalling one more memory, one more milestone. Happy day after Thanksgiving!

literature and life

2011-11-21T16:14:00.000-08:00

After Chicken Little causes widespread panic--when he mistakes a falling acorn for a piece of the sky--the young chicken is determined to restore his reputation. But just as things are starting to go his way, a real piece of the sky lands on his head. Chicken Little and his band of misfit friends, Abby Mallard (aka Ugly Duckling), Runt of the Litter and Fish Out of Water, attempt to save the world without sending the town into a whole new panic.(“Henny Penny” by Joseph Jacobs)

At The Family Leader's Thanksgiving Family Forum in Des Moines, Iowa, Newt Gingrich used his platform to once again attack Occupy Wall Street and dismiss concerns about economic inequality and corporate power in America. Gingrich said that the Occupy Wall Street movement proves "how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country, telling demonstrators "go get a job right after you take a bath."(right wing watch.)

And as Bill Clinton was being lectured to by Newt Gingrich on (Clinton’s) infidelity, Newtie was practicing his own adulterous affair. While Newtie was promising the taxpayers a stronger government on the side of the American taxpayers and that he was a champion of taxes, he took those same tax dollars to pay for his partisan PACS. Newtie swore as he he usually does when caught, they made me do it. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are evil he said. If president he (Newtie) will immediately 100% privatize both agencies. This while he recently has received 1.6 to 1.8 million dollars doing consulting work for the agencies.

Newt has the sky falling over everyone else’s head thinking his lies, hypocrisy and double talk will shelter him from any falling objects he may have thrown in the air in the first place. And Newt is still embraced by Christian Conservative, Family Values first, Republican/Tea Bag Party Americans. It makes you wonder the morals, values and ethics of those supporters!

Christine Penmark seems to have it all: a lovely home, a loving husband and the most "perfect" daughter in the world. But since childhood, Christine has suffered from the most terrible recurring nightmare. And her "perfect" daughter's accomplishments include lying, theft and possibly much, much worse. Only Christine knows the truth about her daughter and only Christine's father knows the truth about her nightmare.(“The Bad Seed”, by A. L. Beneteau)

Michelle Bachmann, Minnesota congresswoman charged that Obama's beliefs run counter to a basic tenet of Christianity. "The 10th Commandment teaches those shall not covet thy neighbor's goods," she said. "It's time to act on this self-evident truth." (first read) And Michelle is outraged at the subsidies provided to people, communities demographics in tis nation by the current administration calling them “the worst kind of socialism”.

It seems that the Bachmann family owns farmland in Minnesota, and they receive farm subsidies to help balance their bottom line. It seems Michelle and her “we can cure the Gays” hubby, Marcus indulge in receiving government subsidies for their farmland because among other things it benefits their budget. Mr. Bachmann also runs a clinic and receives government money to offset some of the cost the patients might have to pay for among other things kick the gay out of his/her psyche. The subsidies the Bachmann clan receive is Capitalism at its best but anyone else wanting health care, social security unemployment checks is Socialism at its worst.

And Mrs. Bachmann is still sought after to speak at such venom and vitriol groups as Focus on the Family, Family Forum, Americans for Prosperity. It seems if you address your hate toward others, avoiding your own shortfalls, never owning up to your own infallibilities you become a hero. And Michelle is still in the running for president by those if she hates like I do I will pardon her on everything else wrong with her Republican/Tea Party, God discovered Americans.

Michelle seems to have it all at least seems to have all the answers and like most bad seeds once the fruit ripens the taste is not as good as it looks.

The Danger of Blindly Following Tradition

The village lottery culminates in a violent murder each year, a bizarre ritual that suggests how dangerous tradition can be when people follow it blindly. (“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson)

First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Joe Biden's wife, were booed by some NASCAR fans as they served as the grand marshals for the racing circuit's final event Sunday.

Obama and Biden were at the Homestead-Miami Speedway to promote Joining Forces an organization that promotes the hiring and training of veterans. (political hotsheet)

The House has voted to let the Pentagon continue using taxpayer dollars to sponsor NASCAR race teams.

By a 281-148 vote, lawmakers rejected an effort by Minnesota Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum that would have ended the practice. McCollum aides said the Army is spending $7 million on a sponsorship this year, and the Air Force and National Guard are spending additional money.(courant.com)

One of the most Americana culture icons of tis nation we are told is NASCAR. It is a sport, if you will, made from sweat, masculinity, the colors of both the confederacy and union, the blessing by God to America, and as red white and blue as baseball and apple pie. It is a place where rednecks and closets blue collared rednecks can coalesce and show off the power of the automobile,dependence on oil and the mechanics who in a matter of five minutes can patch, repair and set a race car in motion.

What better place then to herald the triumph of returning Veterans and to remind the nation of a key program chaired by the First Lady and the wife of the Vice president , Joining Forces.

We salute the flag, we know our rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, helped our flag still be there because of the dedication of the Troops, many of whom are now Veterans, and many of whom like the millions of other Americans, need employment.

And so this First Lady and the Vice President’s wife have joined forces with the military to encourage support for our Vets. But despite all of that, some in the crowd of NASCAR, a sport subsidized by our government, (when we are pulling back money from the Arts, education and health care) found it necessary to boo and to instead display their ignorance and tolerance. Somehow many of these FOX TV viewers, Rush Limbaugh lemmings, I like God because he hates the same as I do Americans had to boo instead of applauding the efforts and energy of these two public figures. There are traditions handed down from family to family, generation to generation it can be as simple as buying a ticket to NASCAR to as complex as believing the bigots, bastards and bogus who incite distrust, animosity and hate. For the people who found the red white and blue in cars racing around a track but failed to find it in a First Lady celebrating our Vets I have to wonder just how patriotic they are and how the tradition of being a patriot seemed to go asunder. Makes you wonder just what kind of information about America has been shared from generation to generation?

these times

2011-11-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

My Grandma Braff used to tell her grandkids never tell someone who has just eaten a three course meal that you are hungry. Never tell someone who in the cold winter days of Pittsburgh, is wearing a sweater, thermal underwear, and a warm coat you are cold with only your spring jacket. Never tell someone who has lost a loved one how sorry you are unless someone you loved has passed. She believed that those who have conveniently forgotten what it is like not to have will never understand the need of others. She believed that people are cruelest when their stomachs are full, their house is warm, and they can conveniently walk away from anyone else’s troubles because they really don’t have to relate.

And with the arrogance of a person so enmeshed in her Ivory Tower the Chancellor of UC Davis, Linda Katehi felt little remorse for the non violent students who by just expressing their first amendment rights were protesting in support of the Occupy Movement. Thinking she was safe in her wardrobe of arrogance and ignorance she had little to say regarding the Campus police as one of their officers walked down the line of seated protestors pepper spraying them. Some of whom took it directly to their faces. Chancellor Linda Katehi in fact defended the actions of her police and did not want to discuss any side of the issue but hers and her Campus police.

If it had not been for a video of this incident going viral, the Chancellor could have easily pooh poohed it and blamed the conflict on malcontents and hooligans. She could have ignored the root cause of the protest and wined and dined with her wealthy alumni raising money for future endowments wishing those pesky protestors would just wilt away. And yet the problem would still fester and the infection would continue to spread.

The few times I remember my Grandma Braff babysitting us, I do however remember her set of rules she would establish as she took the reigns of power at being the adult in charge. She would say do not come running to me blaming someone for hitting or pushing or yelling, just tell me what happened and why it happened. It is not about claiming she did it or he did it, if what they did is bad then I will deal with it. It is the action I will deal with then look at the person who did it.

Now in the aftermath of the horrible pedophilia actions of Jerry Sandusky the talking heads are no longer spending time discussing pedophilia, but burning the fires of indulgence and discourse to the edges by deciding what if it was not boys Mr. Sandusky had been showering with or touching of the legs but instead it was girls. Now it becomes about the sexuality of he matter for both the predator and the victim. And once again all the ‘mavens’ have decided to make this case agains Sandusky more about anything but the truth that pedophilia unchallenged, not addressed can and will grow more dangerous.

When a witch hunt goes after the witch rather than the action, there is something wrong. If pedophiles are straight or gay they are aggressors looking for prey. I am tired of hearing about the sexuality of the pedophile and tired of statistics claiming gay men or straight men are more prone to be pedophiles. We miss the point of the action when we speak like that. We suddenly pontificate about the issue rather then look at the dirty facts of that issue because in this current American culture it is so much easier to talk about it, place blame then to fix it.

So, now all the homophobes will feel self righteous enough to lay claim that anything from same sex marriage, same sex parenting, even Gays in the military are sure signs that once we condone all of those freedoms more and more boys will be sexually abused. The Gay community will find itself once again defending something that is not solely owned as an issue for just that demographic and we will rant and rave about the actor and not the action.

I loved my Grandma Braff, but the older I got I considered her commentary and communication difficult to understand. I thought she was an angry lady not able to embrace her current world and perhaps still angry about her immediacy of leaving Romania and coming to America. I pontificated about her comments that I perceived as negative, but now realize what I thought was negative was in fact practical.

I was looking at the world in those preverbal rose colored glasses thinking the better of people before even considering the worse. But now the words of wisdom my Grandmother spouted seem to make a whole lot of sense.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness...(quote from “A Tale of Two Cities”, by Charles Dickens)

What has happened to us as a nation where caring, consensus and concern used to be a priority. What happened to us as a land where the common good, the common cause, helped us help ourselves and those around us? What happened to us as a country where we sought to resolve the problem instead of so resolute to lay blame?

I wonder what my Grandma Braff would have to say about America 2011?

who are these people

2011-11-19T15:25:00.000-08:00

Now it seems that pepper spray no matter your passive, aggressive or neutral stance as a protester is the weapon du jour of American police departments to be used against any to all Americans using their First Amendment rights. It seems that any age, any color, and gender anyone who doesn't move fast, who doesn't make any motion to move, who has moved but not far enough away will receive a canister, a hose, a spray gun worth of pepper spray. It seems similar to those in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria who don't fit into the pattern of behavior their government leaders deem appropriate receive pepper spray. And like countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria, those politicians, dictators, monarchs justify their aggression and continue to do so without much of a whimper from anyone but the protesters.

So, I need to know why we heralded the revolutions of tyrannical governments during the Arab Spring, applauding the average citizens of those countries to yell loud and yell long for freedoms denied, but our own American citizens trying to protest the imbalance of wealth, the imbalance of power, the imbalance the haves vs the have-nots are met with disregard from Mayors to Police Chiefs and the only reward for equality is pepper spray?

Michelle Bachmann and most of her cohorts describing themselves as Christian Conservatives running for president from the Republican/Tea Bag party declare and deride that Obamacare is pure and true socialism. They cannot be more vocal more critical, more verbose on the horrible road America will ride if we let this demon of socialism come to fruition and provide health care to those in this country who cannot afford it. They know how to tell their constituents, many of whom also pride themselves in being Christian Conservatives how awful this Affordable Health Care Act will be, but they never seem to tell their Conservative Christians followers what they might place in law instead. They all brag that they know how terrible it would be for universal health care to happen, but none of them tell their Christian Conservatives what they would do help the masses.

I am curious as to just how Christian these candidates are and how Jesus might view their ability to deny all Americans the right to be healthy, stay healthy and live healthy. I wonder if Jesus would place his arm on their shoulders and say sure, let the market place decide the price of living and maintaining a healthy life style. I can hear him saying I agree with Michelle and your cronies, it is about corporate greed first and human life next. I am so tired of Christian Conservatives being anything but Christian.

So, we have a week left for the SUPER DUPER WE ARE MEN AND WOMEN OF STEEL COMMITTEE to try and lower our deficit. They had been handpicked from both parties to tackle the hard questions, to find common ground to SAVE AMERICA. They told us, no they swore that politics would not be on the agenda, that partisanship was not permitted, and that revenue and cuts would find fair play. We were told they are the elite, the men and women of the Congress who will find a way to make America better.

Now we see angry Senators and Congress people avoiding the press, telling the reporters who can place a microphone under their talking heads as they try to avoid saying anything incriminating, we will be here as long as it takes. Except it has already taken long and we don't have much more time for them not to do anything but pontificate and blame.

And all the while this SUPER DUPER WE ARE MEN AND WOMEN OF STEEL COMMITTEE pander to their corporate bosses, their wealthy lobbyists, millions of men and women are unemployed or running out of unemployment benefits, losing their homes, lacking health insurance and eking out an existence that fill many with depression and distress.

Where are the majority of Americans with heart, soul, brains a conscience? Why have we let Mayors permit their police departments to pepper spray away our First Amendment Rights? Why are good religious people, who actually practice the spirit of God, permitting so many people to shout blasphemies in the name of God? Why are we ignoring the influence the wealthy, the corporations, the greedy are demonstrating by paying our politicians to worry about their own careers rather then the lives of average Americans?

This time in our American history is puzzling, confusing, and unfair. When do we take back our country from phonies, partisan politicians, and people who live for the lie and fear the truth? How much longer does this divide thrive? When does a common goal revive? When?

about cockroaches

2011-11-18T12:12:00.001-08:00

Alan Keyes, Republican/Tea Party Congressman from Florida, today blamed increasing acceptance of homosexuality for the potential cover-up of child abuse at Penn State University. Writing for WorldNetDaily, whose editor Joseph Farah already blamed gay rights for the scandal. Keyes said that acceptance of homosexuality may have been the reason that claims of child molestation and rumors floated by sportswriter Mark Madden of child prostitution were not reported to the police.

Keyes suggests that the “almost religious promotion of homosexuality” created a culture of “political correctness” that prevented people from investigating Sandusky. Keyes said that people at Penn State were probably afraid of crossing “the zealous advocates of homosexual rights” who he accused of “pretending to draw the line at the sexual abuse of children”: (right wing watch.com)

And like most cockroaches when the lights are lit, they come out of the crevices the corners, the dark dank places they call home and infest our lives. Like most cockroaches they live to breed, they pray on the scraps, and they leave feces behind every step they take. And like most pests they are annoying and until we find the wherewithal to rid our homes of their nasty ways we feel overwhelmed and confused.

Congressman Keyes is an elected official who seems to think his own shit is made of a fragrance called American bigotry. He was elected at a time when throwing out the current crop of bums was popular and a time when hate, bias and bogus were palatable for political rhetoric. He considers homophobia to be the American way, incorrect innuendo the Constitutional means to govern, and equality a socialistic soliloquy established by anyone anti American. And HE IS IN CONGRESS ABLE TO MAKE OR BREAK LAWS.

One more moron who insights some evil religious ruminations, who quotes a God who must be the devil himself and who has a group of followers who refuse to insist on truth but love how fiction and fable have a resonating tome to them.

Now the rumor mill begins, once the game of telephone starts where you tell the person sitting next to you a lie he/she then embellishes that lie and spreads the cancer to the next person and soon fact no longer functions and the Gay agenda, the Gay religious dogma, the Gay apocalypse is upon us. In Salem they called it the witch trials, in the 50’s they called it Mccarthyism, in the 2010’s they call it blame everything on my own lack of knowledge or ability to glean the truth and my love to hate.

Pedophilia is a horrible plague among humans. It is a sickness that can and does destroy lives. It haunts innocents and creates monsters of men and women and hurts boys and girls. It has more to do with the inadequacies of a frail human and nothing to do with he or she being hetero or homo.

But for people like Congressman Keyes who got elected not because of the good he could do but more so for the accusations and accusatory comments he made, he grew in popularity because for the unintelligent it is easier to find and name a scapegoat then ever, ever try and solve a problem.

And as I have often said before in many other blogs, Congressman Alan Keyes can and will get away with this homophobic rant and ignorance as long as weaker people, those without conscience, who use God’s words to prop up their own bigotry and hate, who refuse to listen to truth will permit him to rise to the top.

When do the sane re-inherit this nation of ours? When?

worse, better

2011-11-17T16:27:00.000-08:00

If Newt Gingrich’s popularity in the polls has climbed in-spite of his do as I say never as I do mantra… if he can proclaim any indignities that he may have been accused of on all the intervening forces out to get him…if he can wash away the truth and embellish it with his made up facts…then congrats to this man because fame can only loom in ones life despite the flaws because those who want this man to be their president seem to have lower standards and ideals for the leader of this nation.

If Kim Kardashian’s rehearsed life is revered and she is a cultural Icon and all she does in life is vogue for the cameras…if her sham of a wedding is dissed and discussed and her lack of respect for anyone but Kim is applauded…if her extravagant gluttonous and greedy life style is glamorized and made glossy…then congrats to this lady because fame only happens when others striving for less in their own lives live vicariously through people with disregard for respectable behavior. They become a cartoon character.

If Herman Cain’s arrogance for women, ignorance of history, inability to understand foreign policy makes him a suitable candidate for president…if his goon of guards restrict the press to ask questions, deny free speech responses and he is still invited to speaking engagements…if his lack of respect for the average voter, his scorn for the unemployed or underemployed, his disregard for open access to presidential candidates is embraced by his followers…then congrats to this man because his 15 minutes of fame is now prancing toward and hour and he still takes himself seriously enough, encouraged by those whose own depth and honor are missing, to pursue more fiction, less truth and disregard for anyone who is not Herman Cain.

If Rush Limbaugh’s harangues, fabricated versions of truth, replacing facts with his fiction make him numero uno on talk radio…if he can bolster bigotry, rant racist tomes, and incite hate through innuendo creating division and divide…if he can provide enough fodder for the fools, enough rants for the ridiculous, enough crap for the compliant…then congrats to this man for selling so many bridges like the one in Brooklyn to so many finger pointing, its their fault not mine, lets stereotype so we can feel better about selves lemmings and losers.

Haven’t we learned throughout the history of civilization that tyrants, hypocrites, dictators, demigods, false prophets, and people who are no more than a façade became immortal not because of their wisdom or zeal but because people stopped thinking with their brains and instead took up their emotions and fears and like the lemming let themselves be led. Haven’t we seen the rise of mere mortals to become bigger and bolder only because humans didn’t ask questions didn’t stop to think before they acted, didn’t mind having someone else speak what was on their own minds when it comes to hate, bigotry and bias.

Whether it is dunces running for president, cultural quirks, or a drug addicted radio personality, none of these men and woman could be hero’s heralding millions of dollars and tons of importance if the everyman and everywoman did not permit these vagabonds, interlopers, empty shelled self serving to survive. Newt, Kim, Herman Rush would not be so scary if we all finally took of their masks and revealed them to be useless, users. Just simple people with simple minds.

So sad that we have the power for better but end up with worse.

not much we do

2011-11-16T19:44:00.000-08:00

I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be (“Greatest Love of All”, by Michael Masser, Linda Creed)

The president's efforts to make school lunches healthier has hit a roadblock in Congress, with some of its members attempting to unravel his plan. They're pushing back against Agriculture Department initiatives to limit french fries and pizzas, reduce sodium and boost whole grains on school lunch lines.

The changes had been requested by food companies that produce frozen pizzas, the salt industry and potato growers. Some conservatives in Congress have called the push for healthier foods an overreach, saying the government shouldn't be telling children what to eat. (Huffington Post)

So I need to digest this information. The same Republican/Tea Party politicians who… want to interfere in the reproductive rights of women insisting that rape or incest is no reason for an abortion… who insist that only opposite sex couples can raise and adopt children permitting some kids to stay in foster homes until they become an adult… who would rather make cuts to education than increase taxes from corporations… who don’t care how many kids might be living in an unemployed home wanting to cut back unemployment insurance…whose mantra is ITS FOR THE CHILDREN…these same group of self serving, serving their corporate masters now say the government has no rule in the nutrition of all the kids for which they claim to be advocates!!!

Smiling faces sometimes pretend to be your friend
Smiling faces show no traces of the evil that lurks within
Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes
They don't tell the truth uh
Smiling faces, smiling faces
Tell lies and I got proof (“Smiling Faces Sometimes”, the Undisputed Truth)

During the impeachment procedures trying to oust President Clinton from office, one of the more verbose and virulent voices heard among the crowd belonged to the Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. He stood upon a holier than thou Christian bully pulpit and proclaimed the sins of Clinton, a married man, who above all else was cheating on his wife. Newtie then went on to say not only was this wrong because Clinton was elected by good honest people, but God himself pontificated that the union of marriage is only sanctified because that union is made from one man and one one woman and will remain honest, sincere, and loving from the you say I do until the day you die.

He pronounced Bill Clinton and adulterer, a sinner, a sham as he himself was in the midst of a sexual affair with another woman while being married. Newtie’s excuse was that the pressure of politics made him do it. If in fact Newtie had not been such a dedicated public official he could have been a more dedicated husband. And Newtie knew that the God he prayed to understood the distinction between his acts and those of Bill Clinton.

In the past many months as Newt Gingrich has been running for the candidacy for President from the Republican/Tea Bag Party he has insisted that the Dodd/Frank Bill: A Bill to create a Sound Economic Foundation to Grow Jobs, Protect Consumers, Rein in Wall Street and Big Bonuses, End Bailouts and Too Big to Fail, Prevent Another Financial Crisis is a laughing stock and the creators Senator Dodd of Connecticut and Congressman Frank of Massachusetts be jailed for interfering with good ole’ capitalism of this nation. Newtie also insisted that the failure of Fannie Mae was not because the bankers or the businessmen were greedy or glutinous, but the politicians were the culprits for poor lending practices and too much oversight.

And today we find out that the Gingrich Group and Mr. Newt Gingrich in particular received 1.3 million dollars as a consultant from the leadership of Fannie Mae. And once again Newtie so full of himself and his do as I say never as I do Mojo, blamed others for his involvement. He is astonished that anyone would think his intention were anything more then doing right for the nation.

You've got to accentuate the positive

Eliminate the negative

Latch on to the affirmative

Don't mess with Mister In-Between (“Accentuate the Positive”, Bing crosby and Johnny Mercer)

All we hear is how a bunch of hippies, homeless, unemployed lazy bums, selfish college kids and God knows what other brand of hoodlums are creating uncalled for dissent in regards to the Occupy Movement. The billionaire mayor of New York City, is proud of over night raids on Zuccotti Park and having his Police Commissioner tell his soldiers of fortune to nab any of the press who might show pictures of the armed arrests and to knock down anyone in their way send them to jail and provide them with the unheard of no communication with loved ones or attorneys. The Mayor saying at a news conference he understands the first amendment freedoms and he understands when too much first amendment is not healthy. And the debate rages on focusing not on why the Occupy Movement is so important, or why conditions have erupted like open wounds in this nation to cause the Occupy movement but instead we are only discussing tents, no tents, hippies no hippies, anarchists or real citizens.

The horrific events surrounding the coaching staff, the league of Board members, the university officers, the police response, the Attorney Generals response or lack of response to the child abuse, chid endangerment, possible pedophile violations at Penn State saturate the news outlets. Shock and Awe are the responses of many to most of the journalists, neighbors students and friends of both the predators, those who looked the other way or for the victims themselves. How could this happen in America, how?

But then one has to wonder why something like this was even discovered given the lax response by the Catholic Church and the off again on again concern of the public to the thousands of allegations of chid abuse, child endangerment, and pedophilia by its employees, and the lack of any kind of enforcement to protect kids from this unreligious behavior.

We seem to look at the newest shiny object and squint our eyes, beat our chests and utter how in the world. Then those objects fade and we find a new dangling fruit and scream and holler and act amazed that something as heinous, hideous, horrendous as this could happen on our watch.

We bailed out the banks, we permitted corporations to be called people, we stiffed the poor and rewarded the wealthy, we permit Congress to be bought and sold so how come we are shocked that finally a movement of the 99% has erupted? We watch as one law suit after another is presented and millions of dollars paid by the Catholic Church never really stopping the abuse but trying to pay their way out of it. We watch as those on the top never own up to their responsibility but blame the workers for the indiscretions. And now we scratch our heads and say Oh My God how did this happen?

Plot Summary for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing: As the title of this play suggests, there’s a lot of fuss over nothing! Claudio and Hero fall in love and plan to get married, but the villainous Don John slanders Hero with false evidence. The wedding is ruined and Hero faints. Her family soon suspect slander and decide to pretend that Hero died from shock. Don John’s evil plan is soon revealed and Claudio mourns Hero’s death. Eventually, Hero is revealed to be alive and the marriage goes ahead as planned. In the play’s closing moments, it is reported that Don John has been captured for his crime. (about.com)

Sadly we have become a nation revved up on ridicule, motivated by the moment, and boasting to blame. We have become a country whose memories are short, indifference paramount until it affects us directly, and reaction just that after the fact. Sadly crisis’s only lead to possible corrections, circumstances become potholes, and nothing gets done until we believe we have no other choice. Sadly we much ado about nothing, and do nothing at all about the real.

take it or leave

2011-11-15T17:48:00.000-08:00

Today we have seen the Occupy movements throughout the country become managed by the Mayors and Police Commissioners and redirected according to their interpretation of the First Amendment. We have been told that public safety was the main reason for the dismantling of tents and overnight accommodations, and that the concern of the protesters physical health was weighing heavily on the minds and souls of the Mayors and their Police Commissioners. We have been told via briefings and talking heads from the various Mayors that the protest can continue but with new rules. Rules by the way decided upon by the Mayors and Police Commissioners. And we were told take it or leave it!

We were told by Governors in the early 60's in the South, that in their state segregation of public schools and state owned universities was the rule. We were told by those same Governors and many Mayors that the police, the police under their jurisdiction would insure that no new rules or regulations would become the law. We were told that those Negro's and their Liberal out of state carpetbaggers were dirty, UnAmerican, communists, and anarchists. We were told that those people knew nothing of the wants and desires of the "real citizens" and it was the job of the Mayors and Governors to maintain the status quo, the right way to be an American. And we saw beatings, jailing, violence and mayhem. We were told take it or leave it.

Whether you consider yourself the 99%, the 1% or somewhere in the middle, the one thing you hopefully consider is that so far in this great nation of ours you still have protection of free speech. You still can protest, make your voice heard and seen and you can still insist there is another side to the situation. You can argue the situation, you can promote your side, you can find a soap box and preach your gospel or you can grab a seat in the audience and listen. You had to believe it was not a matter of take it or leave it. Until now...

We have had bullies try and make us take it or leave in the past. We had Joe McCarthy define for us what an artist could produce and if we didn't take it we could be blacklisted. We had presidents tell us Viet Nam was a necessary war because if we didn't take it the 'domino' theory of one nation after another nation falling to Communism would take place and soon we all would be speaking Chinese. After 9/11 we have had personal liberties taken away from us because if we didn't take it and permit the US Government to find terrorists in every nook and cranny we all would be kneeling in a Mosque and reading the Koran.

Today Mayors, Quan of Oakland Bloomberg of New York City, Adams of Portland among a half dozen other politicians, civil servants, have redefined the meaning of the First Amendment. Today they have given new definition to how we can express our First Amendment, how we can protest, where and when we can protest. Today none of these Mayors have tried to solve the problem but instead have infected the wound and made it more painful. Today these people who were elected to power because of the power of the Constitution have made parts of the Constitution powerless. And along with doing so have made many more Americans less American.

Democracy is dangerous especially because thank goodness it inspires dissent and discussion. Democracy becomes even more dangerous when we no longer have the right to decide or discuss our own fate. Democracy can die a dangerous death if we no longer permit to be expressed.

sinkholes

2011-11-14T18:48:00.001-08:00

If you’re down and confused, and you don’t remember who you’re talkin’ to. Concentration slip away, ‘cause your baby is so far away.

Well there’s a rose in the fisted glove and the eagle flies with the dove, and if you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with, love the one you’re with, love the one you’re with, love the one you’re with. (“Love the One You’re With”Stephen Stills)

Today the newest polls now show Newt, (I can cheat on my wife but had better not cheat on yours) Gingrich as the baby doll of the Republican/Tea Party voters. Falling from grace so far have been Michelle ( born in the USA socialism is good when it helps me but bad for anyone else)Bachmann, Rick (if you have enough cronyism you can buy that stairway to heaven)Perry, Herman(womanizer, womanizer, you’re a womanizer, but I can’t be a sexual predator because I am a married man) Cain. Seems those who talk loudly about values and morals love to pick and choose their leading lady or leading man based on anything but values and morals. Why do the so called Conservatives with Christian values always rally behind the liar, the faker, the fool? Each month they seem to love the one they are with and never really know the one they want.

O-ver there, o-ver there, send the word, send the word, o-ver there,

That the Yanks are com-ing, the Yanks are com-ing,

The drums rum-tum-ming ev'-ry where

So pre-pare, say a prayer, send the word, send the word to be-ware

We'll be o-ver, we're com-ing o-ver,

And we won't come back 'til it's o-ver O-ver There! (“Over There”, George M. Cohan)

Seems the drums are ready to rum tum once again if any of the Republican/Tea Party boys and girls with maybe the exception of Ron Paul become our President. Seems the Yanks will be calling a a GI Joe or GI Jane to hit the fields in Iraq and bring democracy (whether they like it or not because that has a proven track record in history to work) to the land once called Persia if any of the candidates for office from the Republican/Tea Party get elected. Seems the same men and women who have never served in the military, the same men and women who are not quite sure how to fund the Veterans Administration, the same men and women who are so far removed from the American families serving as Troops, want to make war without even trying for some kind of peace. Seems the hawks are flying wildly and squawking about our red white and blue without worrying about those who they will send far away to defend it. Why do most of the Republican/Tea Party candidates fail to understand that America can be strong without always sending our Troops first?

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye

I leave and heave a sigh and say goodbye -- Goodbye!

I'm glad to go, I cannot tell a lie

I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly

The sun has gone to bed and so must I

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye (“So Long Farewell”Rodgers and Hammerstein)

Much like the public squares in countries like China, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain trying to dissuade protestors from making change in their government hierarchy and the imbalance of the have’s and the have not’s the Mayors of such cities as Oakland, Denver Chapel Hill, Portland and Salt Lake have decided free speech is no longer free while on their watch. Many mayors with the help of their Police Commissioners, Chamber of Commerces, and people with either their head in the sand or up their asses have become creative blaming unsanitary conditions, health hazards, or mob violence as the reason to say goodbye to the Occupy protestors in their city. It seems that free speech when speaking frankly and honestly about our own treatment of Americans is intolerable, and like the storm troopers, presidential elite guards, goons with assault weapons of dictatorships, monarchies, or Communist governments the Mayors of American cities self righteously proclaim they are doing it for the people. Never has been a good way to find consensus without conversation. Bullets and bullying always prevail, at least temporarily.

We are faced with fear, greed, intolerance and it seems all we want to do is draw lines in the sand. We are faced with division and all we hear to cure this is more divisiveness. When we are pushed we want to push harder. We want answers in black and white when all around us is grey.

When an irresistible force such as you

Meets an old immovable object like me

You can bet just as sure as you live

Somethin's gotta give

Somethin's gotta give (“Somethings Gotta Give”, Johnny Mercer)

So far we have been lucky that the differences in this country have been manageable, but looking the way, calling names, ignoring facts only make a teeny tiny sinkhole grow large enough to swallow whole towns, and maybe in this case whole countries.

seeing clearly

2011-11-13T21:08:00.000-08:00

I can see clearly now the rain is gone

I can see all obstacles in my way

Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind

It's gonna be a bright, bright sunshinin' day

(“I Can See Clearly Now”, Johnny Nash)

My Dad, was a very humble and proud man. He was a man of the 50’s and thought that any emotion he had should be kept to himself and any expression of fear, or trepidation was a weakness and certainly never openly shared. His dreams of becoming a basketball or football coach were squelched many years ago in his life by his parents both Orthodox Jews very set in their ways who felt that Jewish men should own their own business, become a doctor or an attorney. My grandparents, his mother and father believed that success was a simple as three choices and if you were neither a businessman, doctor or an attorney you made the wrong choices and had to suffer the consequences.

My Dad rebelled and joined the Army, then the Navy and after his service to America he became a policeman for the city of Pittsburgh. He kept his many secrets about his success and failures but always encouraged his kids to be the best at what it is they thought they loved. When I was 17 years old I won an award from the Jewish Community Center of Pittsburgh called the Latterman Teen High Achievement Award. It was an award that honored teens for service to the JCC and acknowledged the efforts and energy of being a volunteer. The night I received that award my Dad came over to me and said whatever you do in life do not, no he added never be invisible. Never give anyone the permission to diminish your dreams or block your road to find your goals. Dreams can only triumph when they become real.

My Dad above most anything feared being invisible. He did not want to be ghost like in what he did but wished to be noticed, acknowledged, made real. He told his kids to not permit anyone from stopping them, but sadly was better in giving us confidence then learning how to bestow that gift to himself.

Being invisible I have learned is a lot easier then NOT. It seems that letting the status quo evolve is a lot more comfortable then trying to make change. It seems that permitting others to walk past you without saying wait here I am is often times more comfortable.

I try and I look at those on the street with signs stating they are hungry, homeless, lost and lonely, I may not have the aid they wish, but I want them to know they exist. I try and I nod at those who I see every day but pretend I am someone new or someone they have never seen, even though their insecurity reeks of rude and selfishness. I try and never let anyone feel invisible. How hard is it to say I see you?

In America of 2011, we seem to have those who find themselves invisible and those who glow like neon signs with spotlights focused on them 24/7. We have homeless, unemployed, under insured all in plain sight but some how disparaged as wanting something they don’t deserve. We have same sex couples in love wanting the legality and respect of marriage seen as disciples of Satan. We have elderly fearful of no income, no ability for medical attention seen as selfish. We have college students wanting the American dream seen as lazy. We have Veterans returning home with medical conditions caused by wars only seen as useless now that their tour of duty is over. We have middle class working families only wanting fair and equal being told that they must wait. We have all of those demographics and more who seem to be invisible.

I am grateful for the demonstrations, the noise, the chaos created by Occupy Wall Street. For me they represent so many invisible people who are only asking to be heard and more importantly seen. This is or at least was a country of dreams, dreams with the best chance in the world to come true. It is about time we stop being told what we cannot afford, cannot become cannot dream. Why are some people seen while the rest walk around like ghosts?

I think I can make it now, the pain has gone

All of the bad feelings have disappeared

Here is that rainbow I've been praying for

It's gonna be a bright, bright sun-shining day. (“I Can See Clearly Now”, Johnny Nash)

We have to be visible for others to see us, but most importantly so we can all of what we should and will become.

Veteran's day

2011-11-11T17:55:00.000-08:00

LeRoy Bloom, believed with his heart and soul that Veterans, all Veterans became heros because they permitted country to come first, honor was to serve, and freedom was precious enough to fight for even if it meant in that fight you placed your life at risk. He served in the Second World War, and was proud enough to talk about it if you asked, and quiet enough to know that what he and his fellow Veterans sometimes needed no discussion because after all this is the land of the free.

Leroy Bloom was my father-in-law, my children’s grandfather and a man who when he walked into the room immediately made friends and when he left, people saying only the nicest things about him. He told me to always buy American, even when American cars seemed to rust or go bust three days after you purchased them. When a flag was raised at any ceremony he would tear up, and his hand was alway placed tightly to his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem.

I learned about the cost of war, fighting it or the consequences of letting the bad guy win. I learned about the armed services the good the bad and the inevitable. I learned about victories and how defeat can teach a lesson, one you should, if wise enough, never forget or repeat. I learned that loving your country was something you earned not because you were born here, but you believed the dreams and desires it could provide. I learned that all America did or does is not necessarily good, but fighting for better is worth the fight.

I have known very few Veterans and know very few stories about life in a war zone, holding the hand of a comrade as he is wounded, fighting the memories of nightmares, coming home to no job, coming home disabled, coming home to a life which at one time was my reality but now seems foggy and distant. I listen as Veterans are interviewed on television, watch with sobs and tears as a small child runs into the arms of his mommy or daddy, squirm as I hear the tough decisions made to defend their lives while having to take the lives of others.

LeRoy Bloom put a heart and soul on the random faces of men and women who came home from military service. He quietly, but proudly put names and reason on the faces of the men and women who fought, who enlisted who served. He redefined for me who and what a veteran is and is not.

As with all Veteran’s Days past and present I celebrate those who have participated in something I will never know first hand. And as with all Veteran Days I immediately think about how lucky I was to have known and loved LeRoy Bloom.

ramble on

2011-11-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

“President Obama applauds today’s vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve the Respect for Marriage Act, which would provide a legislative repeal of the so-called ‘Defense of Marriage Act.’ The President has long believed that DOMA is discriminatory and has called for its repeal.

If you hate me because among other things I happen to be a homosexual, too bad. Yep it is America and free speech entitles you to say you hate me, protest my homosexuality, even demonstrate against the fact that I like among other things having sex with people of the same sex. But who the fuck are you to tell me I can not marry because I am Gay.

If you hate me because your form of religion declares that the God you prefer to worship is also a bigot, cool. If your church, or temple or mosque is filled with reasons why I may go to hell, or burn in hell or just be one more person dismissed from the Garden of Eden,okie dookey. But who the fuck are you or your priest or rabbi or preacher or Iman to tell me I can not marry because I am Gay?

If you hate me due to my homosexuality because your parents placed bias and bigotry in your morning cereal, or your father was a self loathing male or your mother feared anything she couldn’t understand, fine and dandy. If you hate my gayness because you think what I do is freer then the restrictions placed in your life by overbearing parents, or bloated lies from friends or siblings, its your choice. But who the fuck are you or your spouse or your mother or father to tell me I can not marry, because I am Gay?

If you are stuck understanding how that the majority of people who act as adulterers, or perform acts of infidelity are straight and every time they say I do, and then don’t you need to sit in front of someone other then yourself with a brain and realize the Institution of Marriage is crumbling and decaying not because of the homo’s but due to the hetero’s. And who the fuck are you to tell me I can not marry?

If you refuse to even know who I am but love to stereotype me because it makes you feel more powerful fine. And due to your lack of depth foresight, or intelligence you want live your life as an imbecile following the principles of other idiots who say God said so, go ahead. But who the fuck are you to tell me I can not marry because I am Gay?

Here I go again reading posts from people urging me to write my elected officials, reading how the President thinks hate is wrong, reading requests to call my politicians just because like all of the heterosexual men and women who cheat, wed for anything but love, divorce one, two or three times all I want to do is marry. And I have to beg, borrow and steal and demand my rights to fight against some bigoted, biased, bogus law based on nothing but HATE!

I am so tired of this game, I am so tired of permitting anyone who believes separate but equal is the same as equal of making decisions about me. I am so tired of waiting my turn for something called freedom. So fuck you for standing in my way saying I can not marry because I am Gay. I don’t want favors, I don’t want conditions, I don’t want speeches on a political soap box, I want what IS written in the Preamble to the Constitution: We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

music, music, music

2011-11-09T16:44:00.000-08:00

Put another nickel in
In the nickelodeon
All I want is having you
And music, music, music. ("Music, Music, Music", Stephan Weiss and Bernie Baum)

Seems that music makes the world of Republican/Tea Party presidential candidates dance, gyrate, and move. Each man or woman who wants to be the next president, reminds me of a song and some sad lyrics describing how non of us will be singing anything but the blues if they get elected.

If loving you is wrong I don't wanna be right
If being right means being without you
I'd rather live a wrong doing life ("If Loving You Is Wrong"

(Banks, Hampton and Jackson)

So, Republican/Tea Party candidate Michelle Bachmann is once again hitting the Bingo Halls, the Elks, the church bizarres telling America that socialism is bad, unAmerican, and most likely the devil's doing. She insists that the market should regulate the cost of health care and that not everyone should have equal access to it as the great socialist Obama proposes. She of course has no problem receiving her own socialist benefits of government control on farm prices (the Bachmann's own farm land and receive government regulated subsidies). She is against Obama care and never really offers an opinion on how all Americans should or could receive the best health insurance around. Well, Michelle as the song goes is socialism for health care is wrong I don't want to be right.

Watch out here I come!
You spin me right round baby, right round.
Like a record baby, right round.
Round, round. ("You spin me right round" by Boy George)

First he is for something, then he is against it. He speaks proudly of his ideals but once those he speaks to those who don't like what he says he feels threatened and he changes his mind and swears to God he was misquoted the first time. He spins more then a top on a flat surface, Willard Mitt Romney candidate for the office of President from the Republican/Tea Party is for then against then for and continues to change his mind. Mitt Romney wants the middle class to think his millions equal the same salary those still with jobs bring home. He thinks corporations are people but doesn't ask the corporations to make the same sacrifices he asks any one of the 99%to make. And his core values seem valueless as he changes his mind on almost every topic. You spin me round, round Mitt, watch out here you come.

Liar, liar, pants on fire
Liar, liar, stop your soul from catching
Fire, fire, god and maker
Liar, liar, pants on fire ("Liar, Liar"by The Castaways)

He refers to himself in the third person. He knows nothing, then he knows something, then he knows more but continues to say he is dumbfounded. He has his band of bullies try and chastise not only the women who accuse him of sexual misbehavior, but also lie about their children. He says he shoots from the hip and follows no certain expected path. He is married for at least 4 decades and assumes that makes any accuser a money grubbing female whose own life is filled with prostitution and impropriety. He is Herman Cain, candidate for President from the Republican/Tea Party ticket and since the accusations against him about sexual harassment started he has not once given a non liar answer.

(What they do)
(They smile in your face)
All the time they want to take your place
The back stabbers (back stabbers)
(They smile in your face)
All the time they want to take your place
The back stabbers (back stabbers) ("Back Stabbers", The O'Jays)

Back from obscurity, almost out of the race all together, but when one fool falls from the good graces of the only we know God, Christian Conservatives calling themselves Republican/Tea Party faithful new fools or used to be fools suddenly make the grade. All of the sudden the man who married three times and insists its the Gays who will bring the downfall of the Institution of Marriage, who runs up a bill at Tiffany's and insists the poor are poor because they want to be poor and the rich deserve to be better, who loves to throw out facts only to be found as fiction but have enough friction to worry the lemming and the uneducated bigots is giving Herman Cain advice on how to handle the Liberal Press. Suddenly, Newtie Gingrich candidate for the Republican/tea Party nomination for President is finding favor with those who love to hate, love to love a hater, and love to linger on losers.

So, put another nickel in
In the nickelodeon
All I want is lovin' you
And music, music, music. ("Music, Music, Music", Stephan Weiss and Bernie Baum)

class

2011-11-08T17:22:00.000-08:00

Whatever happened to fair dealing And pure ethics And nice manners? Why is it everyone now is a pain in the Ass? Whatever happened to class? ("Class", from Chicago)

You can't make this stuff up. Joe Walsh, deadbeat dad, who owes over $100,000 in back child support and lies to avoid paying it is given a "family values" blessing by the haters over at the Family Research Council? “We thank Cong. Walsh who has voted consistently to defend faith, family and freedom,” said FRCA President Tony Perkins. (crooks and liars).

Mr. Tony Perkins who sermonizes, dictates, preaches, and presents himself as a disciple of Jesus, has stated clearly that he and his organization the Family Research Council, knows best who should be a parent, how parents should raise their children, and that no matter the homosexual, he/she can and never should be a parent. Mr. Perkins approval has been sought out by Conservative politicians who insist they are more Christian then Christ, and by politicians who love hyperbole and hype but languish more so in the world of hypocrisy.

And Mr. Perkins and his Family Research Council have honored a dead beat dad, a man who has lied about his wife, saying she never requested child support, a man who would rather live his life without any financial responsibility toward his kids, a man who loves to tell others how to be a parent, Congressman Joe Walsh who has been given the True Blue Award. The True Blue award which honors Members of Congress who have exhibited extraordinary leadership and commitment to the defense of family, faith, and freedom.

Whatever happened to Please may I And Yes thank you And How charming? Now every son of a bitch Is a snake in the grass Whatever happened to class?("Class", from Chicago)

First Mr. Cain said it ain't so, then he said he couldn't remember if it was so, then he said, he kind of sort of remembers that something may have happened, then he said well maybe two things happened but he was not sure of who, or what or when. Then he said it is easy to come forward when you permit yourself to be anonymous. Then when names were provided he said they are liars and all want some kind of retribution for just being angry women. Then he said how the hell could he do anything like sexual abuse if he was a happily married man with the same woman for 45 years. And before he said all of that he said VERY LOUD and CLEAR, If elected I will push for an amendment prohibiting same sex marriage!

Most to many Christian Conservative Republican/ Tea Partiers say they still want Herman as president. For many or most of those voters Gay marriage is an issue that will destroy the Institution of Marriage, but adultery and infidelity of one of their own is just a liberal slur and a bunch of phooey and nonsense. No need to investigate the legitimacy of the claims because no Republican/Tea party candidate takes opposite sex marriage as anything but serious. And having Herman change his own story, his own memory, his own accounting for his behavior almost every hour is of no concern to the Christian Conservatives who love to hate homo's.

Whatever happened to old values And fine morals And good breeding? Now no-one even says oops When they're passing their gas Whatever happened to class?("Class", from Chicago)

I have a wonderful partner, Joe. Meeting him, knowing him, living with him has made the most magical difference in my life. One day I would like to marry him, one day soon because after all I am 62. I don't want to just have a religious ceremony, or travel to Massachusetts or the other 5 states which permit homosexuals to be treated as equals to heterosexuals, be married by their laws just to return to California with some useless piece of paper. I don't want to find an attorney who will write a bunch of papers telling doctors, hospitals, law officers that my wishes are Joe's wishes or Joe's wishes are my wishes. I don't want to do all of that when in fact people like Congressman Joe Walsh Herman Cain and all of the other hypocrite, homophobes only have to say I do.

I don't want to wait for it to get better. I don't want to wait for equal instead of separate but equal, I don't want to wait for bigoted religious leaders to stop being bigoted. I don't want to WAIT when as I WAIT idiots, lemmings, losers, can enjoy freedoms of this nation I have worked for, contributed to and created.

Oh, There ain't no gentelmen that's fit for any use, And any girl will touch your privates for a deuce And even kids'll kick your shins and give ya sass Nobody's got no class! All you read about today is rape and theft Jesus Christ, ain't there no decency left? Nobody's got no class! ("Class", from Chicago)