The Gay Ghost Speaks

I am the gay ghost.  You can't see me, but you feel my presence.
I haunt your every waking hour.  There are times when you toss, turn and thrash about in sleep trying to escape me.  Daylight hours find you screaming at my living brethren in a futile attempt to put me to rest.  You have been schooled in intolerance regarding my existence.
These lessons have manifested into self-loathing masked as morality.  There will never be an escape from me as long as you are unable to accept yourself.  I have no pity.  I am the gay ghost.

Really?

What is it about my conservative brethren that will allow them to vote into office a man who promises to lower his own taxes, demolish social services, raise prices at Walmart and Target, destroy the environment, increase cancer risk among women, deprive old folks of medical care and repeal any gay rights achievements.... Why? Come on, is it the black guy? You do know voting for the white guy is not going to make you rich. You do know you are going to have to learn to live with the wages you now earn with less benefits and fewer police, firemen and teachers. You do know that old bridge you drive over every day may collapse due to lack of maintenance or low bid contracts. You do know we will become Greece, not because of increased government spending, but because the wealthy refuse to pay taxes. If this is your idea of America, or Amercia in Mittenese, then do your thing. Then pray for forgiveness after you see the true consequences of being a Fox fed, low information sheep in voters guise.

Hunting season?

Stalking their prey, armed with nothing but blanks, they manage to persuade the innocent and the naive and the clueless that they are not the prey, but the victims of the prey. This is the modern Republican/Tea party. No lie, no innuendo, no skewing of the facts is out of bounds. The lack of political curiosity among the electorate plays right into their hand. Isn't Bristol Palin's continued assault on the art of dancing much more important than her mother's blithering inanities?
Camo? They don't need it, because, as the what-does-she-do-for-a-living candidate for Senate in Delaware says to them "I am you". Apparently, this sort of statement is enough qualification for low-info voters. Ms. O'Donnell is no different, in all reality, than the lot running in places such as Nevada, Alaska and Kentucky. She just happens to speak in tongues.

Conservative=Irrational?

Sen. Bunning (R.-KY) has been holding up the jobless benefits package long enough to negatively impact thousands of our citizens. He rants about the costs violating "pay go", a bill which he voted against, but a handy whipping boy when it is needed. Just like the Republican's sudden devotion to Medicare, it doesn't pass the smell test. Whatever his reason or lack of, it brings to the forefront the Republican Way of Handling Issues. They manage to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Mr. Bunning made his point days ago. Now he has hurt people. People like him are what causes opponents of abortion to think killing a doctor is just hunky dory. It's ok to invade a country like Iraq and kill thousands of innocents and call it "collateral damage". They will complain about "unions" and workers who get $30 an hour, yet not say one word about an executive who gets the equivalent of $115,000 an hour in bonus pay! They cringe in fear when the very idea of government run health care insurance is dangled in front of them while clinging to the skirts of the private insurance companies who are busy trying to devise ways to relieve them of their money and their insurance to boot. They scoff at the idea the government can effectively manage anything yet defend CEO's whom that very government had to bail out due to the reckless and poor management of their privately run businesses.
I just don't get it.

Say ahhh....

Pharmaceutical spokesperson, Max Baucus of Montana, prescribed another bitter pill for his fellow Americans to swallow. Senator Baucus, along with his band of Fox Democrats and the ever anti-populist Republicans pronounced a public option dead twice today.
Although the public pulse beats at a steady 65% for the public option, the lack of health insurance company support enabled the senators to overlook that bit of diagnostic data and justify euthanasia of the public option patient.
I will go out on a limb with my own prognosis for the political futures of these business servants, and that is a weak pulse and their own constituents will perform their own mercy killings come election time.
How long will we let a heartless ideology and spineless jellyfish deny us the same rights and priviliges as the rest of the civilized world in the name of "free enterprise"? How much is enough?

This and that....

Time can get away from you if you are not careful. I haven't posted for a while and I will try to be more diligent with my blogging in the future.
That said, let's begin with the beautiful Carrie Prejean, Miss California 2009. I want to set aside the controversy with Perez Hilton and address her contention during a press conference that she was a "strong woman". Carrie, Carrie, Carrie. Please. You participate in beauty pageants, for Christ's sake, and you had just let a world renowned womanizer, the Donald, give you permission to keep your crown as Miss California. You also let him fend off any "unfair" questions for you during the event. In reality, you dilute the meaning of "strong woman". Think about it.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, we have witnessed the emerging of Darth Cheney, heavy breathing and all, from some unknown location. Obviously he saw his shadow and liked it. Can someone give me an example of another unpopular public figure given so much air time to spout coldblooded analysis of why it is okay to torture and kill other human beings? Dick, take your blood money and STFU. What's next? Weekly wisdom from Charles Manson on Meet the Press?
One wonders why the President doesn't give the green light to go after Cheney and Co.. In the back of my mind is the niggling thought that the illegal wiretapping may have caught up more than terrorists. Obama's abandonment of the justice system in order to "move forward" just doesn't smell right. In fact, it smacks of "cover up". Isn't part of the President's job to enforce the laws of the land and isn't torture illegal? Just wondering there, Barack, old buddie. Also starting to reek is the president's avoidance of the "don't ask, don't tell" question. His surrogates are dancing around the issue and, in some instances, actually backing away from it. Are the Democrats going to use DADT like the Republicans use DOMA? As bait? Talk a lot, gin up emotions (and votes) and then put it on the back burner until the next campaign.
Time will tell.

The picture to the left is Jaheem Herrera. He killed himself to escape the bullying of his classmates. He was 11. Jaheem's suicide comes two weeks after the suicide of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, an 11-year-old Massachusetts boy who also suffered taunts that he was gay, feminine and "talked funny.".
I have a few words for those who like to bully their classmates into such a state of despair that the victim feels his/her only way out is suicide. The relentless teasing and physical abuse needs to stop. Fifty years ago, I was a victim of such bullies, fueled by rumors, who made hateful remarks, pushed, shoved and hit me and would not even let me stand on line for my junior high graduation ceremony. That's five decades past; this is the 21st century and this barbarism is still happening? If any of those who participate in or acquiesce to such terrorism on a classmate have any conscience, then you owe it to future generations to ensure such mind fucking does not happen to any children in your sphere of influence. Otherwise, you will answer to a higher authority who, right now, is holding tightly onto those two little boys.
I guess I was fortunate when the jackals chose to come after me, because if I had been eleven like Jaheem and Carl, I might not be here today to write these words. Being older (15) at the time, I was lucky to have a small reservoir of esteem which carried me through that following summer. Two new classmates, Shelia Baustian and Wade Walker helped save my life and they never knew it, until now. God bless them both. The trauma has affected my life in ways I still discover fifty years out. Can we stop this? Now?

A champion departs....

My current favorite thoroughbred, Tin Cup Chalice, was euthanized today after another horse bolted and collided with him. The other horse, Zany, was put down as well. Both jockeys were uninjured.

Tin Cup Chalice, who was named champion New York bred three year old on Monday and 2008 Horse of the Year at Finger Lakes was on the upstate New York track preparing for his 4 year old debut. In 2008, he was 6 0f 8 starts and over $825,000 after being undefeated at 2. He was the first horse to win the New York Triple Crown. Tin Cup Chalice is a half-brother to the current promising 3 year old, Mr. Fantasy. Both horses were named after songs by Jimmy Buffett.

Personally, I am just numb. I had been anticipating his imminent return to racing and now all we have are memories of a truly gutsy champion who died where he reigned, on the track.

"With a tin cup for a chalice, fill it up with good red wine".

Here's a toast to the horse who provided so much excitement and pleasure to so many. He was quite popular with horsemen of all stripes. R.I.P.