Onanists take note: I've got links to pix this time!
Yesterday, I hypothesized a tenuous link between naked bicyclists in a Seattle parade last month and political consciousness. I thought I was being off-the-wall and flip. It was supposed to be a puff piece about vicarious thrills. Links in comments to that diary entry showed me that nudity with a political message is a more well-established, world-wide phenomenon than I had thought.
If you haven't seen the video clip of McCain flaking out after being asked about insurance companies covering Viagra but not the Pill, you should check it out. I love the way he grumbles "I certainly do not want to discuss that" as though someone just asked him to describe his favorite sexual position (sorry to put that image in your head), instead of a simple question about health care that directly concerns half the population. Dude proved himself a fossil right then and there. And by fossil, I mean culturally old-school; Justice John Paul Stevens may be 88, but he's younger than McCain.
Welcome Home Netroots Nation attendees. You may recall, it began with a dream, an impossible hope for a future unforeseen. It was your wish, his want, her desire, and my aspiration. Together we were the inspiration. We imagined greatness would be if we worked together.
Apologies for the very short diary, but I have to run out and haven't seen this story anywhere:
Troy King, University of Alabama graduate and McCain campaign chair for the state has been caught in a gay sex scandal a la Larry Craig. Full story here at Pensito Review.
Are we at the point where all is fair in politics and you throw the kitchen sink at your opponent? Or are there certain lines we shouldn't cross when it comes to impugning your opponents character?
Let's cut to the chase:
McCain's personal life is garnering a share of the spotlight lately. If you are so inclined, you can read about it here.
So, here are the questions:
Do his personal peccadilloes directly effect his ability to serve in an elected capacity?
Or are they acceptable fodder for taking down an opponent?
Does it speak to character, or is it character assassination?
I am a gay white man. The focus of this diary is on HIV/AIDS in a minority population that although I am not a member of, it is a population that I interact with often. \
The topic of HIV and AIDS is of course so large one could write any number of diaries about it a day each year and not cover each and every topic. So please forgive me for not covering every topic it is not my intent.
I view the Reagan years as a horrible blight upon the history of this nation for his do nothing policies on HIV/AIDS. I have lost friends and partners to AIDS back in the 80s. Great people, old and young, of all races, of all demographics, well Ronnie sat back and did nothing.
1866 - Edison P. Clark of Northampton, MA patented his indelible pencil.
1962 - The Telstar communications satellite was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, FL.
COINCIDENCE? I think NOT!
[quote] "The kind of fraud which consists in daring to proclaim the truth while mixing it with a large share of lies that falsify it, is more widespread than is generally thought."
-- Marcel Proust, posthumously discussing the Bush Administration
The US Supreme Court, in a narrow decision, denied the applicability of the death penalty in cases of child rape. Both candidates for president and many others, including people on this site, have decried this ruling.
I would like to address only one aspect of this ruling, a decision which I wholeheartedly agree with, namely, whether the harm done to victims of this crime merits the death penalty. I should say that, while I almost always oppose the death penalty I am not an absolutist on the topic.
In my view, and it is based on teaching a course in the sociology of human sexuality for two decades and, as a sociologist and psychotherapist, being familiar with the extensive but typically ignored relevant social science and psychological research, the evidence for "lifetime harm", an inability to ever recover from the trauma of forcible rape, is extremely weak.
I’ve been watching the Republicans closely for the last several years and of all the areas in which they fail to execute this whole "normal sex" thing is the one that most often has me cringing. They seem fascinated by the topic, but unable to negotiate mutually agreeable activities with their committed partners, or they’re serial monogamists with disgraceful transition periods, or in more notable cases they’re downright deviant.
So, for the benefit of all Republicans everywhere I’m going to take a poke at a guide to normal sex so they’ll know it when they see it
California has now become the second American state to affirm that two men or two women can marry. Yet some organizations are planning to challenge this decision by referendum, and most of them cite as an explanation for their hostility verses in Leviticus 18 and 19, condemning a "male lying with a male as with a woman."
Is that the whole story -- or does the Bible look forward to its own transformation? Does
the Bible call on the human race to "grow up" into a new maturity, with a new sexual ethic?
Got your attention? Good. My research shows that the wives of intransigent, close-minded, die-hard Republican women are lying to their husbands about who they are going to vote for in November. They are cheating in their hearts, and may feel a little guilty about deceiving the true believer they consort with, but they are resolute about voting their conscience. I've met them. I've talked to them. This is a real phenomenon.
Misrepresenting one's politics beliefs to placate a reactionary spouse is as emotionally stressful as having an affair. Some of these women are not entirely sure that Jesus won't punish them for their errant ways. Let me share their angst with you.
I always found YouTube comment fights beneath me. The Blue Balled YouTube video horded enough trolls under the bridge that I couldn't resist.
The video is a short film about a woman who only sleeps with Democrats. Needless to say, the local elephants were none too pleased. Please follow me under the fold...
My wife and I were married March 3, 2007. At the time, I was taking five classes, working two volunteer positions and had a third position that paid $20/week.
My wife was still recovering from burning at both ends for three years in college (after doing something similar in high school) and then at her internship, and then while planning our wedding.
A child was far — FAR — from our to-do (heh) list at that point.
After the three jobs ended (with the school year), I was taking three classes, and my wife was resting her brain and keeping our apartment from looking like a storm could only improve it.
And in the six months between graduation and getting my current full-time job, we were functionally unemployed. I think I grossed $400 during that time, and my wife might have made that much. We lived with my parents, and if we hadn't done that or moved in with her parents, I think we actually would have been homeless. (You do not want either of us in a retail setting.)
Thank Og for Griswold v. Connecticut, or we would have had to be worrying about a kid all that time. Decided on June 7, 1965, Griswold held that no government got to tell married couples they couldn't use contraception.
The observation has been made that the most apt comparision of Sen. Barack Obama's leadership may not be to that of FDR, or JFK, or the Reagan Revolution, but toTeddy Roosevelt, at the dawn of the 20th Century.
Exactly. He's that Transformational; a Trans-generational figure that leads us from the 20th Century paradigm to that of the 21st. [Bill] Clinton was the culimination of the post-WWII political aspirations of 20th Century American society; George W. Bush was a retro "pushback", a 'last gasp' of the Traditional Establishment, the Rooted Culture, and the Old [New World] Order.
Its about how the integration of our parochial, sectarian, and tribal beliefs enable the transition into a true planetary culture. Here are some thoughts on how each of us might help ease our families, friends, and associates into this new reality, with as little wailing, flying of fur, and gnashing of teeth as possible...
Give me a little time and a couple of sentences, and I will tie this in to politics.
Oh, I got it.
I am a liberal, so I have no desire to follow traditional patterns of relationships. My new girlfriend, like my recently deceased wife, is more traditional than I. But overall, I am acting like an old hippie. No waiting any particular period of time for grieving. No promises, no moving in together. simply dating, one date at a time.
