Something That Needs to be Said

The comments to the suicide story on the SF Chronicle’s site seem to be even worse, such as this one from what is obviously a hate-child that resulted from a tryst between Lou Sheldon and Alix Dobkin:

I am sorry for him, and I am sorry that our society urges politically correct acceptance of madness….

Madness such as religion?

It needed to be said – particularly in a time like this.

[UPDATE]

The comments at the Houston Chronicle look to be going in an ugly direction too:

 

 

 

I reiterate the aforementioned sentiment about religion.

A Holiday Suicide

From the LA Times:

Mike Penner, the veteran Los Angeles Times sportswriter who made international headlines in 2007 when he announced he was transsexual and began working under the byline “Christine Daniels,” has died.

Colleagues said today that Penner was found dead at his Los Angeles home and that suicide was the suspected cause of death.

I’ll refrain from comment or observation – except to note that most of the comments to that piece have been respectful; some not so much.

That Sound You Don’t Hear is the Pointing Out of Rank Hypocrisy

The John, commenting on an AP piece indicating that plenty of people just want the marriage-like legal protections that might well come with something not called marriage.

While I’m not a big fan of “separate but equal” – especially when you can get much more – settling for second best is an interesting interim proposition when it comes to marriage. A few years of civil unions or domestic partnerships on the books, and no locusts in sight, and it will become harder and harder for the Mormon and religious right anti-gay bigots, and the pedophile-enablers in the Catholic Church, to argue that gay unions somehow “hurt” straight couples.

The danger with this approach is when you choose separate but equal over full equality simply because you’re afraid to try for more.

Does The John mean like being willing in 2007 to extricate trans people from a gay rights bill when there’s a radical christianist ‘president’ who only the most meth-addled of conservative gay morons would, for even a second, believe would sign any gay rights bill of any variety?

Proof That Global Warming is Real

John Boehner’s tan.

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! 

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! 

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! 

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

A Ripple of Capitalism

I always find it interesting as to how the latter-day neo-con refuse of the 1960s gets away with making so much hay with demonizing the legitimacy of the 1960s.

I mean…

After all, I can’t think of much this side of Exxon and Blue Cross / Blue Shield that actually was so capitalistic.

Take the one Grateful Dead concert that I went to, for instance.

Yes, it wasn’t in the 1960s but, rather, it was smack dab in the middle of the Ramblin’ Reagan nightmare of the 1980s.  But, still…

As you can see from the ticket stub, getting in was $10.00 (plus parking; I’m guessing that parking at Astroworld at that point was either $3.00 or $4.00, but I don’t recall specifically.)  I also bought a Dead t-shirt at the concert: $15.00.  I think I had a beer as well (again, I don’t recall the price, but let’s say $5.00.)

Total cost?  Lets just round it off and say $35.00.

A few years ago I sold the t-shirt on Ebay for $75.00…

and I just sold the ticket stub for $8.99…

which, taking into account the necessary investment expenses (including the parking and, of course, the beer), makes a Grateful Dead concert one of the most capitalistic experiences of my life.

Happy holidaze!

Still More Generic-ness: Pugs and Sunsets

Yet another shot of my buddy Louise:

Now, sundown this evening – somewhere between Rock Island, Illinois, and Muscatine, Iowa:

And now…

We return you to your regularly scheduled battle against gay-orchestrated transphobia.

Queer Channel Mafia

Richard Rosendall on what led to the death of the Washington Blade, et. al.:

The Blade did not die because of the economic downturn, as some reported. It was pulled down by its corporate parent Window Media, which had used the Blade’s profits to support its unscrupulous, highly-leveraged business tactics in other cities, in what Bay Windows co-publishers Jeff Coakley and Sue O’Connell described as a “gay newspaper killing spree.”

Though former Window Media president William Waybourn did much of the damage, I dealt more with his co-founder Chris Crain, who edited the Blade for five years, ending in 2006. Slings and arrows from the press are an occupational hazard for an activist, but Crain’s bullying was in a category all its own. Upon arriving in D.C. in 2001, Citizen Crain (as he dubs himself without irony) quickly established himself as an imperious, sneering know-it-all. In 2004, when the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance (which I serve as political vice president) adopted a more cautious strategy on marriage than Crain favored, he proceeded to attack us regularly for months, describing GLAA as “a small group of grumpy old men that the movement has left behind.”

Apparently my referring to him as ‘Lame Crain’ was off the mark.

Perhaps ‘Game Crain’ would have been more accurate…

given that its becoming more and more evident what sort of game that he and his buds were running.

Sarah Palin: Liar Ex Officio

Do check out Crooks and Liars’ piecing together of the fakeness of the Mooseland Moron’s ‘bus tour.’

[I]t is proven that her big “bus roadshow” is just a fake. Sarah Palin is in fact being carried around with her family on a luxury plane. Sarah, why are we not surprised?

I’m not.

And the palindrones don’t care.

Neo-Con Chickenhawk: Its Whats for Dinner, er…, 2012

NOT from the Onion….

Really.

A new group wants former Vice President Dick Cheney back in the White House.The organization – “Draft Dick Cheney 2012″ – launched on Friday, and unveiled their new Web site. Their aim: To convince the former vice president to seek the Republican presidential nomination in the next race for the White House.

Why the Shock? Gay Men Thwart Trans Rights All the Time

Make no mistake – I do agree with Micheangelo Signorile’s indignation about this:

A report published on Time’s web site just before the holiday has an explosive bit of information: the chief judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a while back that a lesbian federal employee who reports to him be given federal marriage benefits, and it was actually going to happen until the White House, through the Office of Personnel Management — headed by openly gay appointee, John Berry — refused to comply and directed the health insurance carrier of the employee not to proceed

Mike has the details at The Gist, and I recommend taking a look.