The Political Half-Quit: Sarah Palin Couldn't Do Better Than GRACIE ALLEN

Attempts at publicity should always be followed through: too many people are watching.

 In the early spring of 1940, Gracie Allen was sitting calmly at home with her family in Beverly Hills. She thought for a moment and suddenly looked up. “You know, I’m tired of knitting this sweater, I think I‘ll run for president,” she said.

Sarah Palin could surely get out of jury duty, but it seems a convenient reason as to why her tour has been postponed: she can claim civic duty while regrouping and restructuring. And restructuring is obviously in order, because America has queried why she did her magical mystery bus tour in the first place: if it was purely for publicity, it was done so poorly and without any real planning, that public curiosity was the only thing fueling it. And the public quickly found out that the "tour" had no focus: was it to support candidates? Was it a prep to run in 2012? Was it to learn history? Was it to teach history? And what was the "We the People/Constitution" logo for?


Or was Palin just trading in on celebrity? 


The criticisms of the Barracuda being a diva and egocentric are magnified by the kind of "this sucks, I quit" situation AND THE ADDITIONAL CANCELLATION OF A VISIT TO SUDAN: she was supposed to attend an Independence day fest with pals Franklin Graham and Greta Van Sustern. Graham is still pushing on, perhaps because he is doggedly determined to keep a Christian Right stronghold in Africa, capitalizing on the Christian persecutions there. 


So even if Palin substituted "postphone" for "quit" in her tour lexicon, she's still looked upon as a person for whom "finishing the job" is not applicable.


GRACIE ALLEN DID IT BETTER


Looking back, Palin started being a political half-quit during the McCain-Palin candidacy when she separated from the campaign. She called it "Going Rogue" while the country could have called it "Going To Walk Out." It was the first sign that maturity wasn't part of Palin's makeup. It was also the first sign that she was going to use publicity - at whatever the cost, in whatever direction she chose fit. 


That sort of celebrity for celebrity's sake was used to great effect by people like Zsa Zsa Gabor who realized that she had a talent just for being ... famous. But Palin has barreled through fame with little talent, much less planning or thought or research. Much like her writing. 


But to give her her due, she has been entertaining. Now it's up to us to ask: was all that entertainment worth it? 


Another woman in history campaigned for President with the eye for publicity just as Palin has, but her sole purpose was publicity, everyone knew it, and everyone laughed with her: Gracie Allen.

Gracie's campaign for the Presidency was simply a publicity stunt for the Burns and Allen radio show so popular in the 30s and 40s. It was also simply brilliant: just out of the Depression, the country needed to take a look at politics with broad satire, benign lunacy, dizziness and twisted reasoning. Perhaps the best comparative statement to Palin's "quit-to-itive-ness" is this gem:

All the other candidates are making speeches about how much they have done for their country, which is ridiculous. I haven't done anything yet, and I think it's just common sense to send me to Washington and make me do my share. 

The strategies of Allen's campaign were comic gold: her party was the Surprise Party and when asked why, she explained that her mother was a Democrat, her father a Republican, and she had been born a Surprise. Her Party mascot was a Kangaroo because her slogan was "It's In the Bag!" One of her plans for government was to put Congress on a commission basis: whenever the country did well economically, Congress would get ten percent of the take (like a talent agent).* Another idea was to extend Civil Service to ALL branches of Government because "a little politeness goes a long way."**

Gracie also proved to have Presidential qualities:

HONESTY: As I look...at all these trusting and loving faces...tears come into my eyes...and if you must know why...it's because my girdle is killing me.

I stand before you tonight a simple, plain woman... which is not my fault, but the beautician can't take me till tomorrow.

STATESMANSHIP: Let's all put our shoulders to the wheel and push the Ship of State further into the mud. 

ON THE ECONOMY: (Today's Republicans would love her for this) This used to be a government of checks and balances. Now it's all checks and no balances.

and... We should be proud of our national debt! After all, It's the biggest in the world! 

SAGE ADVICE TO POLITICIANS: Keep up your morning exercises, because every politician must be able to keep both feet on the fence with his ear to the ground.

MISOGYNISTIC BUT TRUE: Everybody knows a woman is better than a man when it comes to introducing bills into the house. 

Her 33-city whistlestop train tour (bus tours today are apparently more grueling) culminated in the Surprise Party's national convention in Omaha, NE. Thousands of "delegates" flocked to the convention where Gracie was unanimously nominated. There was no vice-presidential candidate on her ticket, however, because she said she would "tolerate no vice" in her administration. Later, at the request of Eleanor Roosevelt, she spoke at the Women's National Press Club in Washington. 

For all her campaign efforts, Gracie Allen - as a write-in candidate - garnered 43,000 votes against Roosevelt and Wendell Wilkie, bigger ratings for the Burns and Allen radio show and the endearing love of the entire country.  

Sarah Palin can't do better than that.

*Actually, not a bad idea.

** Republicanism not withstanding

June Has Busted Out All Over: With Sex, God, Love, Hate ... And Exploding Right Wing Brains

MARCH BE DAMNED! June is the month to lose your mind - and your soul - if you like fireworks!


















June: it used to be the month of grads, dads, brides, and the promises of summer vacations.  People could count on June because it was always the warm, dependable month, and although peppered with the unpredictable antics of Geminis, it gave us a feeling of lighthearted confidence.


Two thirds into 6/11, however,  the old concept of June has exploded and we may never see the likes of it again.


June was exposed to a Congressman's wiener  ... for weeks. It saw the Southern Baptist Convention's magnanimous outreach to the grandchildren of its slaves while still telling gays to go to hell.* In this month, the number of  GOP Presidential hopefuls grew exponentially (leading some to think they might form their own country). Newt Gingrich's staff, however, shrunk - to nothing. The elderly balked when told that they must starve for the sake of their grandchildren. The Family Research Council (almost) capitulated in the culture war after being blinded by rainbow flags for Gay Pride Month. Libya showed signs of morphing into Iraq. The UN resolution on gay rights made Africa vomit. And a celebrity politician toured a country she to knew very little about.


But what will be remembered as the most cataclysmic event of any June in history is that Right Wing brains exploded at a phenomenal rate. They exploded in righteousness and in frustration, in Tea Party angst and gay marriage capitulation. And they will pick up the pieces themselves, thank you very much. Or so they say.


Some of the explosions you might have heard:


BLAM! The first brain to explode was, of course, attached to Brian Fischer of the American Family Association: June 1st saw him apoplectic over gays as usual, telling everyone who would listen that they were the country's worst perpetrators of hate crimes and he seemed to mix up getting bashed in the head with a baseball bat to being criticized as a homophobe. The pieces of his brain are now trying to paint Southern Baptist as soft on immigration and gays. Unfortunately, Fischer's massive ego - quite separate from his brain - is intact, so he dismissed any cranial fallout and is now going after Mitt Romney as the true instigator of gay marriage.


BLAM! When Peter Sprigg of Family Research Council announced that the fight for traditional marriage may have been lost, Tony Perkins' brain exploded and immediately called for the nation to fall on its knees in repentence: his "Call2Fall" is scheduled for Sunday, July 3rd.


BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Parts of Africa looked like beautiful fireworks: the phenomena was brought about by an historic United Nations resolution affirming the rights of LGBT  communities and individuals around the globe and convening an investigation into human rights abuses.* The countries that lit up and strongly opposed the resolution: Angola, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Djibouti, Gabon, Ghana, Jordan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal and Uganda.

Nigeria claimed the proposal went against the wishes of most Africans. A diplomat from the northwest African state of Mauritania called the resolution "an attempt to replace the natural rights of a human being with an unnatural right."

Ironically, these are all countries "prophet" Lou Engle has had in his sites.


Of course, June has been slated as Gay Pride Month and even presented as such by President Obama, so we should have expected some explosions.


BLAM! But lest the reader think that Right Wing brain explosions have been about gays alone, read Chuck Norris' explosion about the horrible morality of today's left-wing media:

And if you think children are safe watching one of the more benign nature or history channels, consider that he or she might run into the History Channel's multiple-episode series, "The History of Sex" or even National Geographic's TV's adult-themed documentary series, "Taboo," which will test your boundaries and push beyond your comfort zone about issues like fantasy lives, strange love, nudity and the third sex.

BLAM! Not to be left out of the festivities, Michele Bachmann topped the month (so far) with a mind-blowingly stupid conspiracy theory:

Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, the latest candidate to join the Republican presidential campaign, suggested Friday that President Obama secretly wanted Medicare to go bankrupt so retirees would be forced to enroll in the new national health care law. 

So we have Right Wing brains exploding with self-righteousness, outrage, prurience, hypocrisy, bigotry and insanity. 


The month's not over and already it's far and away eclipsed the Fourth of July. 


Enjoy!

*Christian Post:

Terry Fox, senior pastor of Summit Church in Wichita, Kansas, tells One News Now that it’s gays and lesbians who owe religious people an apology for their “perversion.” “It shows [Get Equal] think[s] they have become an accepted organization in America, which I would beg to differ with them,” the pastor adds. “Any poll you would take from any region in America, including the more liberal parts of the country, they would find that they’re out of sync with all of society. So I’m embarrassed for them for even asking for an apology.”

**From the resolution:
1. Requests the High Commissioner to commission a study to be finalized by December 2011, to document discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, in all regions of the world, and how international human rights law can be used to end violence and related human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity;

"You Know They Do It In The Pool, Don't You?" When Gay Rights Become Civil Rights In Hazard, KY

"We have met the enemy and they are ours." 
- Admiral Oliver Hazard Perry, after which the town of Hazard, KY is named.

I remember when, back in the fifties, African Americans were not allowed in some public swimming pools. The reason: it was alleged that they defecated and urinated while in the water. True. People thought that back then. Of course, that was then and this now. 


But wait a minute ...

Activists in Kentucky are planning a peaceful response after two gay men with developmental and intellectual disabilities were kicked out of a public pool.

A maintenance technician reportedly cited the Bible while telling the two men they couldn't swim at The Pavilion, a government-funded recreational facility in Hazard, Kentucky.

"We own this place and can tell you to leave if we want to," the couple was told, according to the Kentucky Equality Foundation.

"We own this place" was perhaps the more egregious statement, the "we" presumably being the good Bible-believers of Hazard, KY. The Bible was also cited when the men and their attendant staff were forced to leave the premises.


Deja vu - it can strike in the strangest places, so I found myself thinking back to the fifties, thinking about African Americans being treated the same way. And treatment is really what civil rights are all about: thinking in bigoted terms is not the same as acting out your bigotry because it is when you act on your prejudices and fears that people are truly hurt. The Christian Right (especially the African American part) is insulted when gay rights and civil rights are equated.


The situation here, however, vividly conveys the parallel: whether you think someone is uncivilized or unbiblical, the results of discrimination are the same: hurt and a tragic feeling of alienation. 


Parallels and Ironies

For a town whose claim to fame is the Mother Goose House, you would think that a Fairy Tale theme would be predominant, but the demographics of Hazard, KY are more Brer Rabbit than Cinderella: 90% white, 7% African American and, well the other 3% - who cares? And it's set in a land where snake handlers still have churches and where the Dukes of Hazzard would look very comfortable (and yes, there is a connection*). 


wikipedia:

Although there has been a steady decline in Hazard's population since the 1950s, there have been numerous commercial and residential developments within the city. The city is also actively working on a downtown renaissance plan to rejuvenate its business district.

Of course, that was before "teh gays" started to make trouble. 

Kentucky Equality Federation:

My clients, whom already feel ridiculed and different, left the city owned facility crying and embarrassed for trying to participate in 'normal' activities that everyday 'normal' people do."

But they aren't normal, at least that was the point being made by the maintenance technician who told the two men to both go home "and read their Bibles": they aren't normal - in the eyes of God, that is. And according to the Mayor of Hazard, no PDA is allowed ever at the Pavilion:

Hazard Mayor Nan Gorman said it is her understanding that people are asked to leave fairly often due to the rule barring excessive public displays of affection, no matter their sexual orientation. She said the Pavilion should have a family atmosphere and displays of affections, whether they be from heterosexual couples or otherwise, shouldn’t take place there.

“People have little children up there, it’s a family [facility],” she said. “People don’t want to see it.”

Evidently, Hazard, KY is not the most romantically inclined place on earth. Now an investigation is underway in order to stave off any protest and unwanted publicity for the town. Up to 40 witnesses will be interviewed as to the extremity of hugging and kissing that went on between the two men. 


The effrontery!!


It may go down in the annuls of Christian Right history as another instance of in-your-face, anti-Christian gay agenda politics, but Kentucky Equality Federation is demanding apologies from the maintenance technician  - on up! There is no word as yet what the local church reaction has been to the situation, but with a town like Hazard, righteousness should be in the air soon, and along with it, some of the country's religious heavy-hitters will be supporting the maintenance man and his staunch deference to the Bible. The reasoning might be specious and from left field, but a man's religion is an immovable object. 


So now we have it: a time when gay rights and civil rights have melded together with the love of two developmentally disabled men. What more do people want?


Separate drinking fountains, perhaps?

* The TV series actually used it as inspiration, but because of "legal problems" had to put in the extra "z".

The REAL Sissy Boys And What They're Doing To America

So will the SBC apologize? Gimme a break!

Four days ago, Anderson Cooper360 and CNN ran a series which focused on the tip of a proverbial iceberg: "The Sissy Boy Experiment" brought out the frustration and the compassion of America's psyche. It also brought out the hypocrisy of "reparative therapists" and their supporters in the Christian Right.


So why isn't anyone saying "we're sorry"?


Because the REAL "sissy boys" the ones so cowardly, so unmanly, if you will,  never apologize. Where some people see apology as a sign of strength/courage in admitting an error or sin, others look upon it as a weakness: e.g. why did it take the Southern Baptist Convention over 150 years to apologize for slavery? Why did it take the Catholic church 1700 years for a pope to cry at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall?


Over the last several days, we've viewed the ultimate in cowardice in George "rentboy" Rekers on CNN (The Sissy Boy Experiment): his reaction to news of the suicide of former patient Kirk Murphy was, at best, disingenuous, and his sloughing off of any responsibility was weak and unprofessional. And on the 15th, we'll witness the disdain of the Southern Baptist Convention in being asked to apologize for the persecution and suffering heaped upon the LGBTQ community.


I've already written on the Christian Right's refusal to admit its past errors (Christian Crime Line), but its more current misdeeds need further exploration: the establishment of ex-gay organizations and ministries, the support of Dominionist historians, pseudo-scientists and fear-mongering against any collective not within its small but powerful sphere threaten to undo the diversity for which our country is so celebrated.


It is as if the Christian Right has taken up shock talk host Michael Savage's call to battle: "Diversity Equals Perversity!" One can certainly see in Bryan Fischer's bombastic rants a lethal kind of homogenization (not assimilation) that will not only kill compassion for one another, but will surely lead to actual bloodshed. The last part of The Sissy Boy Experiment focused on Joseph Nicolosi and his group NARTH (National Association for Reparative Therapy of Homosexuals). CNN missed a particular salient point in its interview with Nicolosi: he is no longer a member of the American Psychological Association, since his ethics and theories were discredited by fellow members. In fact, Nicolosi and professional anti-gay Paul Cameron look as if they are in a contest to see how many professional organizations they can be expelled from!


Real Life Persecution


Besides sponsoring reparative therapy and ex-gay organizations, the Southern Baptist roots to LGBT oppression go back to the first decades of the AIDS crisis: many people were summarily kicked out of their homes while they were sick and dying. The situation, after all, called for righteousness and Southern Baptists wanted the world to know that they were the most righteous group of all. This show of righteousness came after President Bailey Smith's infamous statement "God Almighty does not hear the prayers of a Jew" and the dictum that women must still be subservient to their husbands.*


Among the most common of sins within (as well as without) the Christian Right is the blatant sin of demonizing, but who among the CR will acknowledge it? Will Lou Engle apologize for the death of Ugandan homosexual activist David Kato? Will Scott Lively do the same? Will Tony Perkins apologize for the rash of gay teen suicides last year? Will Bryan Fischer? Will Rev. Keenan Roberts apologize for psychological damage caused by Hell Houses? Will Terry Jones apologize for the death of U.N. volunteers after he burned the Q'uran?


One might posit the idea that they will never apologize, so why should we be concerned? The problem, as some see it, is that our recent religious-political system has been getting away with saying and doing anything it pleases. It never monitors itself: if, for example, Jones had not gotten the attention of the whole world, we would not have witnessed such an outcry from the Right - especially from the Christian Right. Proper chastisement is for the enemy. In any case, Jones was not really chastised since most of the churches with a Fundamentalist bent merely whispered "he's not one of us!"


Media's "sissy boys" have also written/broadcast half-truths and misinformation with impunity: even though FOX News' credibility has slipped, it continues to advertise itself as "fair and balanced."** Watch the piece Think Progress put together about Bill O'Reilly and his demonization of immigrants. It's almost musical in its rhythm, picking its own "fair and balanced" way through O'Reilly's righteous indignation.


In politics, some of the biggest "sissy boys" are bullies:

Gov. Scott Walker abruptly reversed course today and demoted the son of a large campaign contributor [Jerry Deschane] to his former job with the state Department of Regulation and Licensing. The move comes one day after the Journal Sentinel reported that Brian Deschane, 27, had landed an $81,500-a-year job in Walker's administration overseeing environmental and regulatory matters and dozens of employees at the Department of Commerce. The promotion amounted to a raise of 26%. The younger Deschane has no college degree, little management experience and two drunken driving convictions.

No cure, but a push back!


So the country's REAL "sissy boys" are practically everywhere, getting away with bullying and demonizing minorities, women, gays, the poor, and anyone else not fitting into their narrow spectrum. But like all "sissy boys" they are extremely afraid of some things: the facts, experts, and activists armed with knowledge (and creativity). 


Once confronted with their sins, they will try to shirk accountability, but like kids fighting in a schoolyard, the bullies will quickly become sissies when pinned down by determined, constant, intelligent presentation of reality to the public. 


You have to make the "sissy boy" scream "Uncle!"


*Reiterated by Pat Robertson more than several times.
** Joe.My.God: "According to a former managing editor at Fox News, chairman Roger Ailes installed bullet-proof glass on his midtown Manhattan office windows because he feared assassination by gay activists." 

OMG! I Pulled A Weiner On This One!!

It was only after the recent post that I realized that during this particular picture (Gay Pride, '84) that you could see the outline of my d*ck. OMG! I was pulling a Weiner back then! After all, it was considered unfashionable to wear underwear at such an occasion. 

San Francisco Is Doomed!: Will the "Tales of the City" Bastion Of Love And Compassion Withstand The Coming Onslaught Of Righteousness?

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"If God doesn't destroy San Francisco, he should apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah"
"OK, so it won't burn down in the traditional sense, but where is that earthquake when you need it???"

"It's an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and possess all the attractions of the next world"

The first two quotes were from religion-based blogs. The third was from that classic reprobate,  Oscar Wilde.

"Your city is remarkable not only for its beauty. It is also, of all the cities in the United States, the one whose name, the world over, conjures up the most visions and more than any other, incites one to dream. " - Georges Pompidou

Understatement has its purpose I suppose, but when it comes to certain topics, understatement always eludes me. So when I saw the musical Tales Of The City at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, I knew that understatement would be impossible: after all, I actually LIVED through all of it. I even topped Michael Mouse in some respects.[1]

It's not a great musical by Broadway standards, but what makes it superlative to San Franciscans is that it is as true as it is heartfelt: it tears down barriers and replaces them with freedom, love and understanding. It's San Francisco at its best.

Of course, it will be reviled, boycotted, demonized, and deemed absolutely criminal by all the Bryan Fischers, James Dobsons, Beverly LaHayes, Lou Engles, Herman Cains and Tony Perkinses of the country. And since the musical's premier is in San Francisco during Gay Pride month and before San Francisco's million-in-attendance Gay Pride celebration, those people will be working feverishly to revile, boycott, demonize and deem absolutely criminal the city of San Francisco itself. 


Thankfully, every year the City has managed to rise above all the vitriol and deliver an astoundingly loud "FU!" to those who don't admire it for what it is: the country's most accepting and compassionate city. It rises above the vilification, above the overt attempts to "save" it. It rises above the hysterical preachers (Lou Engle has called gays in the Castro "Those people who embrace the darkness"). This year, however, might prove more difficult to be celebratory than in the past: the Christian Right is ramping up the vitriol with impunity. It realizes that an attack on San Francisco is a powerful punch against the current Obama administration, the MSM, Hollywood, and every single liberal on the planet. It will try desperately to counteract the reactions to the Gallup poll that discovered over 50% of Americans are in favor of same-sex marriage. It will revel in photos of the Pride parade showing "perverts" and it will fervently hope that last year's violence at the Pink Party will be repeated - in fact, escalate into chaos and even more bloodshed. [2]

Yes, that last statement was meant to alarm: the Christian Right is becoming more violent in its hate speech, comparing gays and lesbians to N*zis, linking them to pedophilia, incest and bestiality. Granted, they use archaic stereotypes and dismissed "research," but they are mobilizing the fringe as never before with videos, ads in newspapers, politicians and a string of radio hosts who use those same politicians brazenly to promote a neo-Reconstructionist agenda. And the fringe is reacting: hate crimes against the LGBT community are up. Violence is just around the corner: it just needs a verbal spark to set off one individual, one group.

"San Francisco has been wicked from the very beginning"

I stumbled upon an ironic video while googling "San Francisco Sodom and Gomorrah". It supposedly focuses on the firebombing of a church when anti-gay preacher Lou Sheldon was supposed to speak. Edited by an evangelical Christian, it sets out to tell people how absolutely horrible and sinful San Francisco and its gay community are. In the process, however, if you count the lies and distortions you come up with, you realize that the primary purpose was to make people totally fearful of homosexuals.[3] It reeks of  "This could happen to you!" In addition, it features Scott "Pink Swastika" Lively, one of the architects of the "kill the gays  bill" in Uganda. In their momentum focusing on gay political power, they forget the oppression gays had seen well into the 80s.

Perhaps this White Night Riots incident can put things into perspective:

wikipedia:

The second stage of the violence was a police raid/riot hours later in the predominantly gay Castro neighborhood, which vandalized the Elephant Walk bar and injured many of its occupants.^[34] After order was restored at City Hall, SFPD cars carrying dozens of officers headed into the Castro District.^[35] Officers entered a gay bar called the Elephant Walk, despite their orders not to do so. They shouted "dirty cocksuckers" and "sick faggots", shattered the large plate glass windows of the bar, and attacked patrons. After fifteen minutes police withdrew from the bar and joined other officers who were indiscriminately attacking gays on the street. The incident lasted nearly two hours.[4]

I was there, at both City Hall, then later in the Castro. You haven't lived until you've seen 50 riot-helmeted cops marching toward you, shields touching each other to form a wall of plexi-glass armor ready to throw tear gas. It was sooo much fun! 

"But the Christian Right didn't cause the riot!" Perhaps because, at the time, the big CR was not as powerful as it is today. Its rhetoric not only kills indiscriminately, it owns politicians: just look at some of the proposed draconian laws in Texas.

Besides linking the LGBT community to pedophilia, incest, Nazism, witchcraft and bestiality, it has now focused on the idea of "recruitment," especially in schools. It's really a non-issue, but Tony Perkins of the disingenuous Family Research Council has sounded the alarm of "recruitment" in schools if anti-bullying education is enacted. 

Mr. Perkins will doubtless take umbrage with this passage from Tales of The City:

[In a letter written to his mother, Michael (Mouse) Tolliver telling her that he is homosexual]. 


No, Mama, I wasn't "recruited." No seasoned homosexual ever served as my mentor. But you know what? I wish someone had. I wish someone older than me and wiser than the people in Orlando had taken me aside and said, "You're all right, kid. You can grow up to be a doctor or a teacher just like anyone else. You're not crazy or sick or evil. You can succeed and be happy and find peace with friends - all kinds of friends - who don't give a damn who you go to bed with. Most of all, though, you can love and be loved, without hating yourself for it."[5]

So will the beautiful, wicked City-by-the-Bay be able to prevent possible extreme attacks? No. Nothing can prevent hate crimes perpetrated by zealots spurred on by the Religious Right. Zealots have, in fact, become the new home-grown terrorists, oblivious to the parallels their preachers have to radical Islam's imams. And will it survive the amped-up volume of rotten rhetoric? Yes. The performance of a show like Tales of the City is certainly a testament to that: San Francisco will survive because basic humanity, love and compassion will always survive, despite the efforts of some to make the very soul of The City extinct.

Alright, this piece may go down as just another rant, so as to end it with a more PC tone I will force myself to understatement: the attackers  (he says with teeth gritted) against the glorious City of San Francisco are ... not … very…nice … people.

1 Before the "Jockey Shorts Dance Contest" started, I was a go-go dancer in the infamous End Up's cage. I lasted more than three months. I was popular … as well as hungry.
2 I always seem to be close to crimes in The City: I was very near the Pink Saturday homicide (and I  was in a Castro bar during the White Night Riots), so I was able to ask police about it: it was gang-related and had nothing to do with the gay community or the Pink Saturday Party. The Christian Right, however, omits this fact, hoping that their profile of gays as violent will be proved correct.
3 FYI: Harry Hay did not intend to replace Judeo-Christian principles with his own ideologies. Furthermore, gay politics has never been as powerful as the video might leave you to believe. Gays have always been creative in their vociferousness, leading most to believe that they have enormous amounts of power. 
4 Police also shouted "sieg heil!" and "bonzai!" When they herded us all onto the intersection of 18th and Castro they were astounded at the number of patrons in the bars - approx. 1500. When we started to shout "Go Home! Go Home!" the 50 policemen reasoned that the crowd was unsustainable and ... went home. One bartender at the Elephant Walk couldn't go home: after having scalding hot water poured over him, he was clubbed viciously enough to lay in a coma for over six months. 
5 Interestingly enough, this is the same letter Maupin published in the San Francisco Chronicle, telling his own mother that he was homosexual.

Wrinkles Cost Money. What The Nation's Elderly Need Now: Facial Spackle And Fake IDs

"Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?"

In a couple of weeks, I'll be celebrating my 64th birthday. Oh, I'll be celebrating it, but my heart won't be in it: considering that I've been HIV+ for over 33 years,  I guess I should be celebrating the fact that I'm here at all, but while I should celebrate all the wonderful things and people I've experienced in my life, I don't feel like celebrating my future one bit. Why not?

I'm getting wrinkles and I can't afford them. You see, thanks to America's slash-everything conservatives, wrinkles cost money. Sure, face-lifts cost a lot, but the fierce Republican Congress, by threatening to eradicate Social Security and Medicare, have made wrinkles just as expensive. It won't be long until wrinkles will become a status symbol because anyone lasting long enough to have them will obviously be rich enough to afford them. 

And the nation's politicians have made it clear that Town Halls are filled with elderly demanding to know why their elected officials have come to consider them so ... expendable. They've met with some blunt and, frankly, cold-hearted answers.

Former Rep_ Tom Davis (R-VA) tells an elderly woman with diabetes "good luck" finding insurance*

Of course, the kinder ones have told the elderly that they should depend upon their families for support. The problem with that advice is that the "family values" people forget how some of them acted during the country's AIDS crisis.* *

Anyway, the poor elderly have no right to exist, even God says so:

According to Pastor Matt Trewhella:

3. Social Security violates God’s work ethic. The Bible has much to say against laziness. Sluggards and sloths are mentioned 15 times in the book of Proverbs alone. Proverbs 26:14 states, "As the door turns upon its hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed." The Bible extols the virtues of hard work, yet says nothing about retirement. God requires us to be honest and industrious and to help our neighbor in their need. Retirement is what Americans look forward to in order to pursue their own self-interests such as golf and fishing. Rarely is retirement used as an opportunity for further service to God.

And God-fearing Dominionists know that programs like Medicare are not God's economics.

Am I missing something here? Is the Right Wing (esp. the Christian Right Wing) conducting some kind of poor senior genocide? OK, I won't go into any stupid conspiracy theory,*** but open disdain for the poor and elderly has become alarming. 

Guilty To Die Too Soon

I'm a caregiver for my ex partner who is only 48 and has terminal liver cancer. The irony about his situation is that he feels guilty about dying too soon: he doesn't want to leave me or any one of our friends in the quagmire that will be the fate of  what he sees as a vicious, greedy and righteously arrogant society. And while I'm angry at becoming one amongst the ranks of expendables, I'm angrier that it worries him even more than it worries me. His concern makes me feel like going into a "senior closet": if the people in power want us to disappear, then I may have to get a fake ID, some facial spackle, a skate board and join Rick Warren's Saddleback Church (it has a skateboard park).

I may have to cancel my birthday party as well. Pity. I was going to have the DJ at the local bar play an upbeat tune:

"When I'm 64." 

*I would have provided the YouTube link, but the corresponding video has been pulled. I wonder why?
**Most of the people with AIDS who were evicted from their homes were God-fearing Southern Baptists. I know. Ask me about it.
*** Since I've succumbed to the Conspiracy Theory craze, I actually do have one, but you'll have to read about it later.