well, you're fat

My mother and her sister my Aunt Meercy were the best of sisters and friends. As they both became widowed and found themselves in their 70’s their friendship grew and grew. My aunt never had children and my mothers four kids became my aunts extended family. It was great to have two moms and all of my siblings felt the same way. My mother lived in Pittsburgh and my aunt lived in North Miami Beach. My mother would fly south in the winter and my aunt made sure she was in Pittsburgh for the Jewish holidays. Both ladies however were great travel companions and traveled together to visit me in the variety of cities I had called home. The two loved each other but perhaps sisters are sisters no matter what and somehow the sister rivalries of youth manage to hang on in an older age

My two moms were visiting me in Northern California. Because of course I was my mothers son through birth whenever the two ladies traveled in my car my mother sat up front and my aunt in the back. Both women somewhere in their early 70’s shared a loss of hearing. So having one in the front and one in the back was far from conducive to a normal conversation. Often times my mother would talk over my aunt or more often times I would have to translate in my BIG voice what one had said because both ladies would look at me and ask what did she say. I loved both of them and with all the wherewithal I could muster I would diligently act as the interpreter.  My mother was married twice in her life. The first time to a man who was the father of my two older sisters. He had passed before my birth and it seemed anyone who ever knew him had kind words for him. The second man was my dad, who by the time I moved to NoCal had also passed. He too was well liked. My aunt was also a widow, and living in NoCal had been a widow for 5 years. He too was a good soul.  My mother had sworn that once my dad died she was forgoing the company of men let alone another husband. My aunt never took that oath and in the fourth and fifth year of her widowhood began dating.

My aunt was a popular woman in her condo complex, a fact that made my mother smile but also seemed to churn in a part of her stomach attached to the jealous organ. So here we are in the car driving to some shopping mall when my aunt says to my mother, “Rena I had two men ask me out on a date for the same night. “What, my mother said, you’re dating two men, shame on you.” “No mom, I said, acting as the go-be-tween, two men asked her out on the same night.” Same thing she said shame on you for leading them on.” “Why are you angry with me, my aunt said, “ask her, Gerry if she is jealous of me.” “Are you jealous of her, I sheepishly said” “NEVER, said my mother. Jumping in on the word NEVER my aunt said, you are jealous because I want men in my life and you don’t!” My mother hearing this turned her head to toward the backseat and said, “ well   you’re fat!”

CNN's Don Lemon recently called Rush Limbaugh a "stunt king" for saying that LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling was in so much trouble because he hadn't donated enough money to President Obama. In response, Limbaugh randomly brought up the fact that Lemon is gay. Rush then added, Well, over at CNN, they interpreted [my comments about Sterling] to mean that I was defending Sterling!" "How did they get there? I don't know how they get there. Erin Burnett played the sound bite and then went to Mr. Black Hole himself, Don Lemon—who sleeps with men, proudly!

My mother and aunt were two grown adults, but somehow the inevitable found its way to make any conversation meaningless. At that stage of her life my aunt was fat, something my mother had experienced between her many diets also. Don Lemmon is gay Rush, came out of the closet, its a fact Rush. How silly you have become in your commentary, and how juvenile. Oh by the way Rush, as a matter of fact, well you’re fat!

Drowning in religion

It is Tuesday, and as I either read the Huffington Post, graze on the insane from FOX Noise, or hear tired tidbits from the T-Republicans I wonder aloud…I have noticed when  countrymen and women begin to praise the Fundamentalism of their religion more bigotry/racism/ homophobia crop up. It is as if the zeal for pure religion takes the form of manure dripping on the souls of the stupid. Suddenly demigods are elevated to the position of grand Pu-Bah and granules of gross human inadequacies flair up like sun spots and burn any fact from the fickle. Men like Mike Huckabee a Pastor and Presidential wannabe state without missing a beat that he and only he knows what Jesus meant when he was placed on the cross. Mr Huckabee insists that even if he wasn’t in the workroom when the Bible was created he above all others received the first memo and knows the exact meaning of that message. Huckabee, holding the US Constitution in one hand lets a bit of his disrespectful spit shimmy down its paragraphs and amendments and swears that this bit of Americana will NEVER be as lawful as the Bible that he crushes next to his heart. And as this happens Fox Noise gets a hard on, Evangelical’s grab their Second Amendment solutions and the voters in T-publican primaries are at the ready to elect this man to the highest office in the land. 

Paul Ryan, boyhood saint of the T-publicans speaks to a group of wealthy good ole boys saying "We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, a favorite mantra from Charles Murray a loud and proud Racist. When confronted with the origin of his speech and the lack of any real fact to back it up this Orthodox Catholic lad hems and haws stating the usual farcical reaction, I was misquoted, taken out of context. The man whose budget rips assistance to families who need food stamps, who believes the government is not as powerful as the Church when it comes to women’s parts, who calls the unemployed leeches (when he is not reciting Ayn Rand or Charles Murray) likes to refer to himself as an ex alter boy. He walks in the shoes of God, he professes.

Then take the T-Publican majority state legislatures, the guys and gals who wear their hoods and sheets under their suits and skirts; claiming they are the true inheritors of everything red, white and blue. Amendments fly off the handle from these folk, proclaiming the Bible as the state book for Oklahoma, shutting down any clinic in Texas that might educate a female about health issues, permitting good Christians of Georgia to carry a god damn AK 44 to church, bars and airports.In Nevada supporting a selfish goon who really is on the government dole ever avoiding the paying of his fair share of taxes. Look closely at all the Christian fundamentalists who prefer laws that deny same-sex couples marriage equality, who feel that women were and always will be chattel, who want to deny long term unemployment payments, who consider poor people not worthy of quality health coverage, let alone any health care. Look closely at how they first say Gods name, then clutch a Bible till it bleeds poison then declare this nation is a Christian nation first.

It is Tuesday another Fundamentalist jihad and I just wonder how much God must be spilled before we all drown?

Palin Painfully, AGAIN!

"Come on. Enemies, who would utterly annihilate America, they who'd obviously have information on plots, to carry out Jihad. Oh, but you can't offend them, can't make them feel uncomfortable, not even a smidgen," she said. ”Well, if I were in charge, they would know that water boarding is how we’d baptize the terrorists” ( Sarah Palin, speaking Saturday at the National Rifle Association's “Stand and Fight”)

Dear Sarah, I have missed your very un-Christian and un-American rantings and ravings. I have also missed your sentence structure, speaking as if you had no idea how the English language works. But the one thing I will never miss is the fact that you might have been Vice President of a nation and dumbed it down even more so then it currently happens to be. You are such a strong confident woman when you speak in front of crowds who have never understand the Constitution and groups of people who think Jesus carried a gun, was a slave owner, was a general in the Revolutionary War or that this nation was founded as a Christian bastion. You are at the ready to shout out some cute little moronic phrases to individuals who never seek substance but love the sap. You never take a question from the ‘lame street press’ but insist that as long as what you is derogatory to self proclaimed demographics free speech lives.

I can’t imagine how a person whose husband belonged to an Alaskan secessionist organization, who had to leave an elected office because the amount of possible court actions for inappropriate behavior would sink the states budget, who can’t even have a normal discussion with her daughter about safe sex, who sees Russia from her back yard and considers that foreign policy is still an icon of sorts? But then again your minions consist of Racists, Bigots, Misogynists, Homophobes who prefer FOX News to real facts and Rush Limbaugh to normalcy. You love to support people like Ted Nugent a draft dodger, George Zimmerman a crazed gun owner who likes to murder beat up people, Ted Cruz, who believes poor Americans should die if they can’t afford health insurance and Christine O’Donnell a witch. And yet you have the audacity to say “liberals are “attacking gun rights" in addition to the United States' "foundational values and tradition.”

You scare me Sarah, not because of your intelligence or savvy or sophistication but because it seems Americans of a certain ilk love a circus and you are one mother of a clown. You scare me Sarah because you actually take yourself seriously as if the words written for you the thoughts put in your mouth do anything but create divide and turmoil. You scare me Sarah because somehow in America of 2014, the dumb out number the smart; and you Sarah are a ringleader of the stupid.

you made me do it

You made me love you

I didn't want to do it, I didn't want to do it

You made me love you

And all the time you knew it I guess you always knew it.

You made me happy sometimes, you made me glad

But there were times, Dear, you made me feel so bad(You made me love You, Lyricist, Joseph McCarthy/James Monaco) ‘You Made Me Love You’ first published in 1913 a song written about unrequited love sung by Al Jolson and then in 1973 Judy Garland. The lyrics of the song telling the listener that the charms, the beauty, the essence of another are so strong as to create a sense of longing, like-ability and of course love. 

In 2014, the lyrics of this song were revived once again by the right wing militia of pundents and politicians as they harmonized the lyrics toward such idols as The Duck Dynasty Grandpa bible thumping Phil Robertson, musician and draft dodger Ted Nugent and currently millionaire freeloader Cliven Bundy. However as the lyrics to “You Made Me Love You’ were sung in the 2014’s they are not words expressing unrequited love rather more of a duet with both the receiver and the crooner sharing their affections. They were a sung as a ballad of affection, affinity and affirmation that if you are a racist, a homophobe, a fascist, you deserve all the love and warm fuzzes a true blooded T-Publican can muster up in their theocratic/misogynist/hateful heart.

FOX News and conservative talk radio puppets, all kind of right leaning politicians anticipating a run for the White House, good ole boys hoping to become Confederate state governors or senators harmonized gleefully the virtues of men who believe this IS a Christian nation, Gays and Women are second class citizens and the Negro would be much happier a slave. All of the Grand Wizards of the T-Publican party embraced this trio of anti government anti freedom from religion anti democracy classless clowns proudly and pretty darn regularly UNTIL… people with a true definition of democracy morals and values took notice. It was the Amerikan way for the right wing T-Publicans to bestow their blessings on bigots until true Americans said differently. 

You made me love you and I DID want to do it said Sean Hannity, Rand Paul, Rick Perry until smarter people reminded these fools just how much the men they loved to love were found to be nothing more then frauds and freaks. Now, like the cowards they are, the patronizing self serving bastards they have grown to be (Hannity, Paul, Perry) and the ilk of democracy/freedom/justice hating right wing terrorists and jihadists are singing a different tune. Suddenly it goes like the original lyrics of ‘…I didn’t want to do it, I didn’t want to do it. Simply said Bull Shit!

the pooh-pooh-pooh

I will not place a wager on this, but I believe I was about 5 when I remember hearing my first pooh-pooh-pooh being said. It was my Grandma Braff sitting at the dining room table in her official yet unofficial seat to the left of my mother at the part of the table next to the kitchen (this seating arrangement I later learned was the just in case seat, just in case my mother could not make one more schlep into the kitchen),who muttered a phrase which, who knew, would have a long lasting meaning to my life. Upon the muttering of the pooh-pooh-pooh I do remember my Grandma Braff taking a salt shaker and throwing the contents of it over her left shoulder then immediately her right shoulder.The pooh-pooh-pooh was usually said when the conversation was about the death of a friend or family member and during that conversation someone sneezed. It seemed that shouting the pooh-pooh-pooh no more then a split second after the utterance of the words death or dying was a sure fire way to ward off the evil spirits who might assume because you sneezed your health and life were at jeopardy also.When I was a bout 7 Grandma Braff and my mother explained that it is always a good thing to be proactive in worry. If you knew you had something to worry about then most likely knowing that is was worrisome made the worry a little bit less. Uh huh! Breathing, eating, sleeping going to the bathroom all natural occurrences and basic human needs, in our house to worry was just as important.

When I worked at the Houston Jewish Community Center I had the opportunity of meeting Rabbi Abraham Twerski (Dr. Abraham Twerski is a psychiatrist and founder of Gateway Rehabilitation Center in Pittsburgh, one of America’s leading facilities for addiction treatment.) His work with addiction/spirituality/and self esteem had always motivated me and  was honored to have had the chance to spend some time speaking with him. I picked him up at the airport in Houston upon his visit and due to extremely slow traffic I was able to spend about 2 hours schmoozing. I knew, if anyone might have insight on the impact of the pooh-pooh-pooh on my life it would be Rabbi Twerski. I shared with him the history of my pooh-pooh-pooh and how now as an adult I was still worried about worry. I explained how that if I did not worry I thought that the worst might happen. I explained to the Rabbi the origin of the pooh-pooh-pooh being handed down from my Grandmother to my mother to me. Rabbi Twerski listened intently to my stale of the pooh-pooh-pooh and when I finished placed his hand on my shoulder. He said you should not worry about worrying but be cautious  of where your worry is leading you. Lessons from your Grandmother or Mother have a purpose in your life, but be purposeful in how you use those lessons. He then said, Gerry, the question to ask is does the worry remove the aspect of fate or is it fate itself? he noticed the contortion of my face as he spoke, and with a little jingle in his voice, Oy, don’t worry about answering that question now.

As an older adult I have become very aware of politics/social issues/ and the men and women who can and do set the direction of this nation. As an older adult I have grown to worry more and more about the direction this nation is headed for. Discrimination/bigotry/ racism/homophobia/misogyny/ have become key ingredients for electability for the T-Publican party. the division between church and state is no longer considered an American attribute but more of an American annoyance. The poor are villains/ the unemployed are leeches/the elderly deadbeats and the louder some politicians shout their negative epithets the more popular they become. As an an older adult it seems all I do is worry that this nation I love and am a proud citizen of is going through a make-over into theocratic fascist demagogy. I worry that the future will be bleak and dismal. I worry that too many of us seem to be complacent with current events and thus stuck with a future not of their own making.  Today as I read more headlines about teaching creationism in schools, politicians insisting that public schools are discriminatory to good Christians the Supreme Court permits voting rights education opportunities for minorities to end women should be seen but nit heard all I want to do is find a salt shaker throw salt over my should shout pooh-pooh-pooh because all I have heard is the death of democracy and the death of a nation. I am worried!

an unearthly day

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) first purposed the theory that the earth was not the center of the universe in his monumental work, De Revolutionibus, Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres). Being lucky enough to die almost on the date of its publication, he did not suffer any punishment from the Catholic church, but his followers certainly did. Galileo Galilei (1546-1642) strongly supported the Copernican theory. Having the aid of telescope, Galileo managed to have visual support of the Copernican theory, in 1616 the Church condemned the Copernican theory and this almost forced Galileo into submission, the Church then put him under house arrest. (answer.com) Fox News has been known for their extensive climate change denial.A new study has found that the more time viewers spend consuming conservative media, the more skeptical they become of climate science. The paper, published in the journal "Public Understanding of Science," found that the key link between climate change denial and conservative outlets like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh was an inherent distrust of scientists. "Conservative media use decreases trust in scientists which, in turn, decreases certainty that global warming is happening," the study says. (Huff Post)

For many facts are too difficult to sort out and figure out for themselves. The why things happen are, for some, better left to those deemed the authority. If an Institution regales in their ability to speak for God and and promises fire and brimstone if you are not in agreement then perhaps it is better to let sleeping dogs lie. If an Institution pretends to be the interpreter of the Bible or the Constitution and bombards you with horror stories based on a flimsy bit of fact, then perhaps it is more American or even more Christian to go with the flow. Be it the Church of the 15th and 16th centuries or the current crop of Conservative head bangers of the 21st century it seems a large amount of the public is content to let false idols play God. We were told by the Church that God created Earth and Earth was his gift to mankind and we are lectured to by FOX and the Conservative pundents that Earth is Gods gift to mankind, yet then and now neither Institution seems to care how this gift is being treated. Fearful that Gods power might be questioned the ancient Church pretended that science was the work of the Devil. Even more fearful that the wealthy corporations and families of today may lose some earning power Fox and the Conservative Puppets refute any scientific claim claiming decline and decay of the Earth.  Facts are foolish, fiction is fabulous.

Today is Earth Day. The deniers are in full pretend mode. Science has been an enemy of the deniers. The same people who want to bring Creationism back as the study of science, the same people who prefer corporate profits over quality of life for the average person, the same people who say the Earth was created by God and bury their heads in the sand at the destruction of climate and environment are having a hissy fit today. Truth it seems in this modern day suddenly is subjective and not objective. As the Church refused to seek the facts for fear it might be considered less relevant so do the Conservative head bangers for fear that Capitalism might bring in less capital if we only stop doing business as usual. I often wonder if the Koch Brothers, Limbaugh, Hannity, the T-Publicans think that when the water dries up, the crops die, the Ice Caps melt that they somehow will survive while everyone else suffers? What have we learned from the deniers of the past, anything at all?

like rai-ai-ain

Always one step closer to God, always acting as a soldier at the ready to fight the religious wars, never one to decline a good bigoted remark, and of course the man who Jesus turns to to interpret the Good Book, the Disciple Pat Robertson, who for your personal check, credit or debit card will translate God’s wishes is once again ranting about the homosexuals. "You don't turn the light out just because you disagree with somebody," Robertson advised a listener on the "700 Club" television program… Specifying that a heterosexual Christian "can't indulge," he added, "There are some very, very creative homosexual people. They're in the fashion industry, they're in design, they're in various types of creative arts.” "You would almost need to leave the world not to associate with folks like that.”(Huff Post)

And as matter of fact, as smarmy and derogatory as is his lacking any fact just relying on homophobia tinged with some good old Christian cross burning the Disciple Pat Robertson has pigeonholed, slighted, demeaned and purposely told the fools of his flock that the Gays are only the creatives. It’s kind of like looking in the By-Laws of the KKK finding that its the Jews who are bankers and owners of television stations. Or reading the rantings of the Tea Party declaring that Mexicans have cantaloupe sized calves and only get pregnant so they can stay in the US. Its like listening to the T-publicans in the Congress insisting that the long term unemployed are lazy the seniors selfish and women the once removed rib from Adam. Its like Alanis Morissette said  rai-ai-n on your wedding day, none of it makes sense.

There is great danger when people (who know no more then their own fear and phobias) try to persuade other lemmings with (the zest to hate and bully) to find fact based on fiction. There is greater danger when God/his New or Old Testament/Koran/etc are added to the fake reasoning to cast aspersions. Many can chuckle when the Disciple Pat Robertson sounds more like a character on Loony Tunes, then a man of God, but there is nothing funny considering just how many pay for pray fundamentalists believe Robertson’s every word has been whispered to him by Jesus Christ. 

an easter egg

It took an assortment of 35 used and stained coffee cups and mugs…2 dozen dozen of eggs… 25 containers of PAAS dye…a serious collection of old rags…24 tablespoons…an old, old shcmutie on the dining room table…both extra leafs for the dining room table… lots of home made cupcakes…at least fourteen neighborhood kids…a few parents of those neighborhood kids…my Grandma Braff tsk tsking at the mess…assorted bottles of Duquesne Brewery Pop with straws…a list of those neighborhood kids who were too sick to join us…and the Buncher household in the 1950’s celebrated the non religious American cultural version of Easter.

If we were lucky the snow had already melted and we could open our dining room window, the only window in the house that had an air conditioner (rule #54 in the Buncher home never put the air conditioner in the window before Memorial Day), Aunt Meercy brought some of her favorite 78’s with Bing, Ella, Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como singing festive Easter songs (rule #36 we were Jewish so no mention of the religious aspect of the holiday), the Buncher kids had to make at least1 dozen eggs for relatives unable or unwilling to attend (rule #89 dying of eggs was not just a selfish act), the big kids had to let the little kids have first crack at not only the dye but the cut out ornaments glued to the eggs( Denniston Avenue for some weird happening had families with kids at least 2.5 to 3 years older then their younger siblings thus the distinction between big kids and little kids) Aunt Ruthie (not a real Aunt but in the 50’s on Denniston the good neighbors were considered like family thus the title Aunt and Uncle) at the ready to run ‘Up the Street’(the shopping district of Squirrel Hill, of my neighborhood) in her car (she was the only Mom at the time that knew how to drive) should we run out of something, anything and no fighting for the 2 hours it took to dye the millions of eggs. 

Today is Easter Sunday and I read with great interest the meaning and memories this holiday has for many of my friends. At the Buncher house in the 1950’s we were fortunate enough to learn a little about occasions that not necessarily had a religious impact or even a moral impact on our Jewish lives. Be it St Patricks Day when my mother called herself Rena O’Buncher baking her best cookies and cake in green dye or Christmas when my mother and father graciously agreed to attend Irish, Italian, Polish, Hungarian Christmas dinners preparing all of us for the customs of those celebrations, or Easter we were ready to participate and enjoy. Some of the beauty in being human is to have had the opportunities to make magic and recall just how special that magic was. To reminisce, remember and recall makes growing older so much better. Happy Easter!

Between Passover and Easter

It was only a 30 block walk, perhaps in Los Angeles, a city where mass transit consist of one person per car times thousands of cars, it was a great distance; but for me it was just another day to place one foot in front of the other. It was my annual physical exam and all I had to do was walk from West Hollywood to the Mid Wilshire District. For those not familiar with LA/WEHO it was walking from one supposed middle class neighborhood  to another. Along the way were the amazing museums of LA, tons of boutiques, too many transplanted tall palm trees, and oh yeah average citizens from the city of angels. It was Good Friday, the almost last day of Passover and the beginning of the Easter weekend. I assumed (and you know what hey say about ass-u-me-ed) that the streets would be empty, the road one less traveled and my journey with my iPod tucked soundly in my ear easy, breezy.

Along this path to my doctors I noticed that LA does provide some metal lined benches for their  transit riders. Of course the benches are anything but comfortable but none the less the few scattered on every third bus stop were enthroned by people who apparently were preparing for the night ahead. Older men with bags of plastic, some paper, a nap sack or two with clothing popping out of the broken zippers lined the first few benches I had passed. There were some females scattered among the men and they clutched very tightly their CVS shopping carts rusted and some with three usable wheels instead of the usual four. The CVS carts held blankets used as suitcases, I assume,to hold the belongings that these women were lucky enough to still hold on to. One man was lying to the side of his seat holding a 16 oz Taco Bell cup, half awake, but alert enough to ask for some change. The entire Fairfax Boulevard promenade from Melrose to Olympic was filled with a combination of elderly men and women disheveled with expressionless eyes/ some young kids sitting on the few grassy patches with torn shirts and or pants/ a few people talking to someone invisible, a few very angry men at the ready to walk into the traffic. Perhaps because it was the last day of Passover, Good Friday or the Easter weekend, but all I saw was a population of Angelino’s who seemed lost, confused, hungry, empty, alone.

I had my share of dollars to pass out thinking that one dollar would or even could make a difference. But then I wondered when and how should I try to help? I did not want to assume the folks I saw along the way wanted something from me. (Who was I to even think the people along the way wanted something from me, anyway) But here I was feeling as if I needed to make a difference. My mind raced on to Paul Ryan and his budget cuts to the poor the elderly. It moved to the callousness of the T-Republicans in Congress who have such disdain for the unemployed the mentally ill.It then raced to this particular week that found me walking to my doctors you know the week between Passover and Easter. My heart and brain were at war with each other. Isn’t Passover supposed be a celebration of renewal of courage of hope? Isn’t Easter a time of resurrection when the travesty of the past become the ideal for the future? Both holidays speak of the glory of God and yet on my journey from WEHO to Mid Wilshire all I could see was the delusion of Man. I am sad today, perhaps frustrated; maybe discouraged. As I face the Jewish Sabbath I want to ask why it is so difficult for all people to start on an even basis seeking hope and happy. Why is fair so damn difficult? On this day during this week surrounded by supposed peace and prosperity, how come I saw none?

i am woman...hear me purr

Days after Senate Republicans unanimously blocked a vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act,he conservative activist Phyliss Schlafly also noted that women do not deserve equal pay because they "work fewer hours per day, per week, per year” and “place a much higher value on pleasant working conditions: a clean, comfortable, air-conditioned office with congenial co-workers.” Schlafly concluded “that the best way to empower women"is to improve job prospects for the men in their lives, even if that means increasing the so-called pay gap.”(Huff Post) Republican congresswoman Marsha Blackburn said on Sunday that women "don't want" equal pay laws. "I think that more important than that is making certain that women are recognized by those companies. You know, I’ve always said that I didn’t want to be given a job because I was a female, I wanted it because I was the most well-qualified person for the job. (Huff Post)

I am a father of a daughter, (a young woman), the brother of three sisters all women in their 60’s and 70’s) friends and compatriots with women aged 20 something to mid 80’s. My mother was a woman and when I was the Executive Director of Jewish Community Centers I supervised quite a few women. I am not a woman but all those people in my life are! Yet listening to two women loud and proud who discourage fairness, equality, justice disparaging any attempt by women to be more then subservient pawns or worse chattel for men makes me sick. I am not a woman but an American who believes that all people (no matter their gender, their sexuality, their color of skin, their religious affiliation or non affiliation, wealthy or drowning in poverty) do not deserve the rantings and outright bias to these women who are so removed from the real world that it is scary. These two women happy to encourage a divide in fair and just.

Mrs Phyliss Schlafly uses the Bible to guide her hatred for equity of women sighting the words and deeds of a hierarchy of men to decide the welfare of women and Mrs Marsha Blackburn is most likely receiving a hefty political contribution from the boys in Board room for insisting that the market place (which as yet to prove it cares for the welfare of women) will create an equal playing field for females. The arrogance of ignorance by both women to promote a second class citizenship for women is appalling. Both Mrs Schlafly, and Blackburn seem to surround themselves with ideas not based on any ideals. Women it seems, in their world should be happy knowing that Big Daddy may bestow a little kindness and feed, feather, marry and manage them. I am not a woman and amaze however that women of America after hearing just these sampling of remarks demeaning women have not demanded an apology.  I am an American and I find these statements very un what this nation is supposed to represent toward its citizenry. for Mrs Schlafly and Blackburn the lyrics of their song shout, “…I am woman hear me purr…”

Happy Pesach

Most Passover holidays while growing up in Pittsburgh we had very little snow and relatively speaking spring like temperatures; reminding us of hope and renewal and freedom from the hell of winter. Our house was Seder Central, and most times we had a collection of at least 14 relatives, four neighbors and a friend or two who had no where else to go. Of course there was the main dining room table with its two additional boards placed in the middle to expand it to seat 12 people cramped and not cozy, the metal steel card table always hidden in the most remote part of the basement until the next Passover, and in many circumstances a borrowed card table with one loose leg from the neighbors. Adults in the dining room, older cousins and friends on the metal table and children and mess on the card table. I had always thought that there was a hidden portion of the Haggadah ( the ceremonial book explaining the Seder) that insisted that not only should the house be super clean, but kids bedrooms, baseboards no one ever knew existed, linen closets and areas behind the living room furniture had to be vaporized and sanitized. We loved having the food and company and celebrating the holiday, but it was a two hellish days for the Buncher kids prior to all of that.

Even the times when snow was still on the ground as we hid the Matzoh, the coming of Passover held with it the promise of freedom, immediately the freedom from cold and ice, but secondarily the sense that with the the buds of crocus or the spurt of tulips, the first robin or two that nature knew it was time to move forward. When I was older and investigated the purpose of this holiday I also realized that it brought with it hope. The sense that rights choice expression had a chance and a chance to make change when necessary but maintain the past when appropriate. Passover seemed to me to be the true new year, the time when questions should be asked, some answers found but room to discover more questions with more answers. Each year we celebrated those who attended this current Seder and in the sad occasions of family and friends who had passed a sincere discussion of how they impacted our lives. There was a spirit in our house that things are the same bit not always.

For many Jewish families tonight is the enjoyment of the first Seder. The aromas of food, grandmother’s perfume, will mingle with the scent of story telling, blessings, and perhaps Passover traditions unique to the personality of that family.  The Haggadah will be read retelling the story of hope, inspiration, spirituality, perseverance and the quest for freedom. For some this will resonate large for others it will slowly seep into their conscience and for others it will be a blur at the moment but a memory worth remembering in the near future. I am blessed to have a family and a family of friends with whom I can move forward with love and passion for the freedoms, liberties and justice we enjoy. Have the kind of Pesach that makes you the happiest!

50 years

50 years ago, I was in the ninth grade of high school more worried about being popular and hopefully not picked on then most anything else. I had made it to the big time (high school) and knew that this was my chance to become cool or most likely end up as a fool. I had left the cozy comfort of my elementary school (K- thru 8th grade) and found my self in a huge monstrosity of a building filled with kids many similar to me, but many not so much the same. My goal was to acclimate as best I could at first, and then hopefully if I actually made it through my first semester in one piece accentuate the pieces of my life that permitted me to be unique. It was a struggle I thought I knew, but a battle taking insight and energy I was never quite sure I knew where to find. At the time I only knew of my struggle and was unaware of the world outside  of my own.

50 years ago the Civil Rights Act became law. There were populations of people who were referred to as Colored. They found themselves in cities and towns, rural and urban areas where the only thing that defined them was the color of their skin. It mattered not that these Colored people had similar human traits as the White folk, nor that these Colored people strove to live, love, laugh and learn like the White folk, or even that these Colored folk were American citizens just like the White folk; what mattered mainly was that due to the color of their skin an assumption was made that this group was inferior and thus must be treated differently.  The Constitution at the time was discarded and in place the law of the land depended on the selected words of a preferred Bible. 

It is 50 years later and I made it through high school with grit, gumption and a great deal of slight of hand. I found along those 50 years that no matter how I wanted to define myself others felt more comfortable in doing it for me. I often times had to fight back thinking that what I found to be the norm needed defense and defended. I often times was amazed that something like my religion caused consternation and my choice of whom to love and how to love a matter of national crisis. It is 50 years later and unlike my concern in high school focusing only on me, I realized that my actions or inactions my permission for others to set an agenda or define the culture have dire consequences. 50 years later and I see just how important the Civil Rights Act was not for just the Colored people but for all of us in America.

It is 50 years later and with the passing of decades of attempts to create fair and equal, freedom and justice it seems this nation has slipped backwards. 50 years later it is staggering to imagine that we are arguing about equal pay for equal work for women…equality in marriage for Lesbians and Gay…restrictions on health care and reproductive rights for the poor and females…undermining access to citizenship…limiting access to education, housing and jobs for people of color… creating a caste system between the have’s and the have nots. 50 years ago this nation looked in the mirror and said aloud and proud our reflection does not showcase the beauty but the ugly, we must change that image. 50 years later it seems we have found an old mirror and once again prefer to dwell upon some of its distortions. 50 years later and it seems that the Civil Rights Act is meaningless and instead a mean spirited malaise has taken hold. 50 years later and suddenly our achievements and successes  are becoming diminished and destroyed. 50 years later and we are still arguing about civil and human rights…unimaginable!

some kind of joke

Mom guilty of beating her son to death, fearing he was gay Prosecutors said 25-year-old Jessica Dutro abused, tortured and ultimately killed her son Zachary in August 2012 while living with her boyfriend, Brian Canady, and three other kids at a shelter in Tigard.(KATU.com)… Lorraine Mae Rafferty, a Republican candidate for governor in Oregon, equated same-sex marriage with murder during an interview with The Oregonian on Tuesday. “I would have to say, I definitely believe that that is wrong,” Rafferty said when confronted with the possibility of a ballot initiative that would legalize gay marriage in Oregon. “I believe it’s a sin, just the same as murder’s a sin.”… In just the first 60 seconds of this interview with Franklin Graham, the son of charismatic preacher Billy Graham, viewers are treated to his condemnation of gay adoption as "recruitment," fear-mongering about a political gay agenda, as well as a strong endorsement of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s harsh polices toward the LGBT individuals (Charlotte Observer)

A heterosexual female with the ability to physically have kids, a potential politician with the ability to get elected, a supposed man of God with the ability to preach and with the words they utter, the deeds they do resulting in homophobia with rancid, ruinous, deep divide and destruction. All three so deeply flawed yet able to live their life without any concern for those around them. All three sad shells of humans thinking that God has spoken to them insisting they hate misrepresenting any semblance of holy or hallowed. All three thinking that just being a heterosexual is the only necessary virtue to cast aspersions on others.

Where does hate originate? How does hate thrive? Do we learn it from Mom and Dad and just repairing a car or baking the best bread make it easy to emulate? Do we learn it from our Churches/Temples/Mosques reciting the devious prayers from men and women who are in the business of acting like God? Do we learn it from the media where if it is printed the source or background is not necessary? Do we then take the hate we learned so well and murder, chastise, discriminate, eliminate? Here is a joke:  A Mother a Politician a Clergy Man all walk into a bar and no one who is homosexual walks out.

beats me

The Republican activist Supreme Court Justices one again demonstrated their disdain for a fair democracy where one person one vote used to matter. Indeed with their newest politicizing of the Republican mantra if you got money you count if you don’t your vote does not count the 5 Republican appointed Justices of theSupreme Court struck down limits Wednesday in federal law on the overall campaign contributions the biggest individual donors may make to candidates, political parties and political action committees. Sighting the value of wealth as a sign of a purer strain of democracy the Justices felt it was their obligation to permit money and more money to buy elections. The American way is for corporations to become citizens, pay fewer taxes, set agendas for the nation and to encourage monied donors to bribe potential candidates toward promoting the priorities for a very select few.

The Tea-Publican activist majority led state legislatures, realizing that one person one vote usually does not bode well for a party who hates people of color, the LGBT community, most women, the poor and unemployed have discovered ways to lessen the democratic process of fair elections and instead have limited voting days, polling places, invented fraudulent voter fraud stories and set impossible standards for those who do wish to vote. Gerrymandering alone did not do the trick to trick their constituents into thinking elections were fair and honest so tampering with the essence of democracy of fair and equal elections the activist Republican state legislators have created impossible road blocks to maneuver for those deemed unfriendly to a party of bias, bigotry, and religious Jihad. The Republican Party mantra is democracy when not in the favor of electing Republicans is useless and not really American enough.

Republican propagandists and Fox News pundits Bill O'Reilly and Charles Krauthammer along with Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) are now insisting that that the 7.1 million Americans to participate in the Affordable Health Care law are either erroneous numbers or similar to the news presented on FOX a figment of some bizarro imagination. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) is presenting yet another budget minus the Affordable Health Care Act. Speaker of the House John Boehner insists that there still will be more action taken in his House to stymie, or cut completely the Affordable Health Care Act. Rick Perry Governor of Texas would rather see his citizens stay sick, be in pain or die at an early age then provide any possible relief to the cost or access of affordable health care. All Tea-Publicans, more concerned with how the wealthy live in this nation and all resentful that in America all people should be created equal.

And still I hear that there is an above average bet that during the 2014 mid term elections the Tea-Publicans have a chance to maintain their majority in the House and retake the majority in the Senate. How in the world could anyone who cares about quality of life of not only the rich, not only the white Evangelical, who has even an inking of the pursuit of happiness and the liberties of minority vote to permit men and women into office whose only agenda is to deny, destroy and redefine democracy? 

puppet money

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) apologized Saturday for using the term "occupied territories" at an event hosted by billionaire GOP donor Sheldon Adelson, CNN and Politico report. Andy Abboud, the senior vice president of Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Corp., told CNN that Christie later apologized for using the controversial term during a private meeting with the megadonor.

Hey Amerika, and youse red white and blue Amerikans get ready for a country based on the billionaires bogus wishes and demands, and of course them millionaires biases and bigotries, becoming the law of the land. Ever since the Republican activists Supreme Court Justices defined corporations as people and Citizens United dirty money as clean and wholesome this US of A is facing a new voting block of puppet masters.

The issue with potential presidential contender Christie isn’t his view on the Middle East rather it is the discomfort Christie’s view on the Middle East holds with a man who wants to buy him the presidency. Mr Adelson wants to pay the way to be president and only those who will prostitute themselves will win his favor. The Koch Brothers have demonstrated the same uncompromising attitude by drowning their potential politicians with slush money to deny climate change, defy ObamaCare, and of course not pay workers a decent livable wage. Politicians don’t make the laws they believe in rather they make the laws their donors wish and want and believe by doing so they can become elected. The Republicans have tried gerrymandering/ cutting back voting hours/inventing voter fraud to destroy democracy and now with the power of the purse are buying  the agendas and priorities of their lackey but very eager to be bought politicians. 

Not afraid yet, then you are living with your head in the sand or just never read the part of Amerikan history about one man ( and then finally women) one vote not one billionaire a billion votes. Look closely at the headless members of Congress and just how stupid, stubborn they seem. Most are just hanging from a string controlled by men with money. All they have to do is ask their Godfathers to kiss the ring, drink the cool aid, and of course disguise democracy for a bribe or two. Chis Christie is a jerk of sorts but today with his abrupt apology for thinking on his own two feet instead of the pricy shoes owned by Sheldon Adelson. Christie did demonstrate how he plans to run for the president of this here Amerika, as a puppet for the wealthy.