Dancing with Myself

The Face of Hate

This is 14-year-old Brian McInerney of Oxnard, California.  On Tuesday he walked into a classroom and shot and killed 15-year-old Lawrence King, a flamboyant young man who recently had announced that he was Gay.  Brian is going to be charged with premeditated murder with a hate-crime enhancement, and will be tried as an adult due to recent changes in California law which allow someone over the age of 14 to be tried as adults.

This breaks my heart.

We have failed as a society when children have access to guns and have no sense of self-restraint.  Brian's parents failed him miserably by not being involved enough in his life to have civilized him.  This child has not been taught right from wrong.  I hae two compelling questions:  Where did he get the gun, and where did he learn to hate Gays? 

My Political Fantasy

If I have to endure another month, never mind seven or eight months--I'll have to be committed.  These past seven years have been a nightmare.  The Republicans have plundered the national treasury.  We have wasted hundreds of billion dollars on an unnecessary colonial expedition so poorly conceived as to have given no thought to what happens after we win a brilliant military victory?  We tortured anyone who fell into our claws regardless of guilt or innocence.  On the home front, they eviscerated environmental protection laws and sold our resources.  They have turned the  Federal court system, including the Supreme Court  itself, into  a rubber stamp that is ready to totally capitulate all of our individual rights at the slightest whim of the government in the name of National Security.  That's a topic unto itself.  National Security. 

If John McCain were to be elected in November, I will probably become a serious alcoholic.  So much is at stake in this election.  Look how well we did in recruiting candidates.  The first woman and the first African-American, both of whom are incredibly smart and prepared to lead the country from this morass. 

Instead of having a serious discourse on the problems and challenges we face in this country, our two candidates fight with an intensity that frightens the huge number of Democrats in this country who would be happy with either of them as candidates and would be even more thrilled with both of them on the ticket in either order.  Fat chance that.  By now their two egos have grown to the size of a medium sized state.  Each of them wants desperately to be President, much more than they just want us to recover from the past seven years.  And that's a fucking shame.

So here's my fantasy:  For the next seven months, each of the candidate assumes they have the nomination locked, and now they must unify their two bases by courting the other candidate to be his or her Vice President.  S/he must tell the American people just how great his/her opponent is and how well served would be the United States and all of the world by having that person working next to you as your partner.  Yes We Can would mean more than just you.  There would be a natural winner in such a contest.  That would be US, the people of this country who are hungry to believe in the possibility of fixing as much of the mess as we can.

Winning back the country in November is much more important than either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama's need to be President.  If only they could see that and take personal responsibility for keeping the next seven months positive.  The two sides should spend their time confronting the twin evils of racism and misogyny instead of practicing them. 

It's be nice to end this present nightmare with a pleasant dream.

Question for Barack Obama

Today's San Francisco Chronicle has a story about Obama not wanting to have his picture taken with Gavin Newsom, the Mayor of San Francisco.  According to the story, Obama didn't want to get cozy with the Mayor because of Gavin's decision to allow same-sex couples to get married.  Talk about chicken-shit! 

You call that BOLD leadership, Mr. Obama?  Screw you.  Our mayor made a very brave decision and forged ahead because he believed that to continue to deny same-sex couples the right to solemnize their relationships was an egregious wrong. 

We need a president who is bold and has vision.  Obama is not that person. 

UPDATE:  Do read the article and stay long enough to read the Comments.  The Little Obamatards sure have learned to play dirty politics quickly enough.  They're going crazy over there sliming Gavin Newsom.  None of the little fuckers have bothered to explain Obama's take on it, they just know that anyone who doesn't suck up to Kumbaya are evil and must be destroyed.

Can't you just see Obama as President, learning on Day Two that just because Democrats have a majority in both houses of Congress, it doesn't mean that HE has a majority in either house.  Anyone remember Sam Nunn shooting Clinton in the foot as Commander in Chief even before he was sworn in?  And how about Hillary's healthcare plan?  Was is JUST Republicans who shot it down?  No-o-o.  They had plenty of Democratic support.  And Obama thinks he's smarter than Bill Clinton?  Oh please.

It's nice to see people excited about the presidential contest.  I started as undecided.  I even voted undecided, in that I voted for Edwards (absentee).  I've never been real fond of Clinton (either of them), and I didn't know much about Obama.  The more I watch this campaign, the more I prefer Clinton.

Laissez les bontemps roulez!

Dear lord Jesus, it's Mardi Gras already!?

This has to be the earliest it's been in a hundred years.  A week earlier and it would have been in January, for chrissake!  That would be too rude.  I'm sure there's a Catholic rule somewheres that says No to Madi Gras in January.  If there's not there should be.

OH-MY-GOD!  Super Bowl, Super Tuesday, Mardi Gras --  all that energy focused at the same time on the same week-end!  I may short circuit.  Except.  Except I don't give a fuck about the Super Bowl. 

Nor do I care that much about Super Tuesday.  I've already voted.  Voted for John Edwards, yes I did, but then, the s.o.b. dropped out.  That leaves me Mardi Gras.

For the fun of it, here's a collection of my Mardi Gras personnas over the years.

This was 1977.  What you can't see in this picture is my broken heart.  I had just been dumped by a lover, and dumped for the most shallow of reasons.  Sugahs, I hurted something fierce.  [Note from editor:  The subject of this photograph would like it known that this was not an "outfit."  This is what he wore when he worked on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Project in 1976.  Obviously jr didn't think 29 was too old to be cute.]

This is obviously better times.  I've always had a thing for Hawaiian shirts, purple, beads and cowboy hats.

This is Mardi Gras 1991. 

Oh, I've got  lots more.  This is just where we start.