Listing of Prop 8 Protests and Rallies
If anyone is interested, a link with a list of planned rallies on NO on H8 across the state.
Category: society
Too Through
My happiness with our new President-elect is overshadowed today. With Prop 8 expected to pass here in CA, Prop 102 in AZ and Prop 2 in Florida passing, I have lost all respect for so called “Christian” hate-mongers. If you’ve been living under a rock, these 3 amendments write discrimination into their respective state constitutions.
I’ve always tried to respect peoples religious beliefs however, there comes a point where your hate, fear, and ignorance cloaked in faith is no longer acceptable. That time has come. After this election, you’ve made it very clear you hate me and hope to forever label me as a 2nd class citizen. Well I’m here to tell you, I am not going away no matter how hard you try. Nor will I blithely stand by when I hear you condemning me and mine in the name of scripture and then claiming faith as an excuse.
Of course, there are those who still claim to be “christians” who also believe in reason and human rights. It is you folks who are now faced with a difficult choice. You can continue to stand by and allow your religion (aka cult) to be corrupted by greed and hate or you can take a stand. You can stand for common decency, respect, and equal treatment of all people. You can put your fellow “christians” on notice their behavior is not acceptable and take back your faith. But, if you choose to stand idly by and do nothing while still identifying with those who hate me, you are no longer exempt from my scorn either. [1]I feel it is worth noting, some of the most horrific atrocities ever committed in human history were done in the name of faith.
No matter how hard you try to justify your actions using archaic scripts, you know deep down it is wrong. And it is you who is accountable for that.
And to be clear, I don’t hate you. But don’t expect me to ‘turn the other cheek’ any longer.
References
| ↑1 | I feel it is worth noting, some of the most horrific atrocities ever committed in human history were done in the name of faith. |
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Donate, Please
I rarely ask anything of my readers other than respect. This time I am asking a little more. Let me be clear, I am not above begging. The extremist wingnuts couldn’t win with the truth so they’ve taken to lying in their festering evil attempt to write discrimination into the California State constitution.
It is a sad day indeed when the “moral majority” has to resort to lying and deceit to win their case in the hearts & minds of everyday folk. This is one of the most important votes of the century. Whether you live in California or not, if you believe as I do, that two people regardless of their sex should be allowed to form stable, long-term LEGAL relationships under the law, then I urge you to help out.
Please, even if you can only donate $10, take a moment and hop over to
If 1 million people gave just $1.00 that would be one million in extra funds to fight the hate and lies being brought against us in the upcoming election.
I gave $400 of my own money today. I decided to forgo the shiny new riding jacket I wanted. Instead, I donated the money to the No to Prop. 8 campaign. I make this pledge. If enough people donate from this post to raise $1000.00, I will donate $400.00 more of my own money.
Please, I urge you, take a moment to donate whatever you can. Even if it is only a few dollars, every little bit helps when we act together.
All of these fine folks have also helped out. I’ll add every link I discover to this post.
roblog
Romach
Joe my God
Towleroad
Bear Schmear
Queeristan
Gooster
Mathias n Oz
SwimfinsSF
thisboyelroy
Hysterical
Does anyone else find it oddly amusing that the religious F&F’s [1]fundamentalists and fanatics selectively pick and choose disasters to blame on gays? Several of the crazy sites (of which I will never link to here) are blaming the current financial crisis and resulting company failures on gays. Wha-wha-what? Gays caused the financial meltdown in our country?
I particularly like how they liken our influence to total control yet we still don’t have basic rights in most of the Union. I mean if our control was that iron clad wouldn’t we already have equal protections? Oh right, God is keeping us in check. I get it, blame the deity of choice as to avoid rational thought and common sense.
*
I just finished watching the VP debate. So basically Palin is considered a success because she didn’t stick her foot in her mouth? Or at least that is what the political pundits on CNN think. The VP is second in line for the presidency and we rate her a success on making it thru a debate w/o a major blunder? My my, what high standards we have.
I came away feeling that Palin has good memorization skills and looks good on camera. As a VP she would pretty much be a figurehead that does what she is told. Not necessarily a bad thing for a VP however, the though of her stepping into the presidency makes me shudder. And while Biden didn’t particularly wow me, I felt he had a firmer grasp on reality and is much more qualified to be the VP. I particularly liked his phrasing on gay rights. While he said he didn’t support gay marriage, his phrasing clearly indicates he was referring to it in a religious sense not a civil rights sense. Very well said in my opinion.
References
| ↑1 | fundamentalists and fanatics |
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Blog On Betches
And now for something not completely about me…
I’ve weighed in lately on several sights about the future/fate of blogging. Some still think blogging is the next best thing since sliced bread. Others think blogging has reached its peak and is slowly dying a painful agonizing death.
For my .02, I don’t really agree 100% with either camp. I do think like any medium, blogging is evolving and will continue to do so. The new blogs popping up every day have declined dramatically. No argument there. But, I don’t necessarily contribute that to a slow death. I think it has more to do with market saturation and the natural evolution of the medium. Blogging is not the “new thing” anymore. [1]One might argue micro-blogging is the new/old “thing” That said, it has managed to cross social, political, cultural, informative, and even entertainment boundaries to become an almost universal form of interaction. Even the traditional news/media outlets woke up and realized blogging was changing the very way we disseminate and gather news in general. And like any medium, I think in time blogging will settle into it’s niche market and continue to thrive and prosper. Whether it be for purely personal or profit, I absolutely think blogging is here to stay.
I don’t really care to delve into the political or profitable side of blogging. I think living in a capitalistic culture that speaks for itself. From the social side, we’ve seen blogs come and go. I’ll be the first to admit it is sad to see a favorite blog end. But if you think about it, how is that any different from life? People come and go in our lives every day. From the mundane and random to the profound and life-changing, we get a birds-eye view of the true characteristics of humanity, good and bad. We’ve also seen our share of fakes, flakes, and flashes. To me, the latter group (and the fallout surrounding) shows us how much we still need to grow as a species in general.
I firmly believe, like anything in life, you get out of blogging what you put into it. If you just randomly post or interact then you should probably expect the same in return. I often hear from many of my own commenters they are afraid to start blogging because they don’t feel their own lives are engaging or exciting enough. To that I say, who cares? If you find comfort or solace in being able to share your life and experiences however mundane, then I say go for it. You don’t need permission. You don’t need a rabid following. You don’t have to be a prolific writer or linguist. [2]Good lord, look at the mosh pit of grammatical errors my own blog represents. heehee From a purely social aspect, all you really need is an opinion, conviction to follow thru, and the ability to type. It really is that simple.
My own venture into blogging was originally a mechanism to deal with a painful breakup. Afterwards, it became an avenue of therapy and self-exploration. Having chronicled such a significant part of my life has been richly rewarding. I’ve always said I blog first and foremost for me. That is still true today. Yes, I know people read and comment and I appreciate that. [3]Being from the South and always having an opinion on practically everything has helped. lol Looking back over my own blog entries has shown me how much I have and am growing as a man. The very act of blogging has given me a sense of belonging that I never had before.
Will I always blog? I can’t really say. The future is a devious and every changing beast. I will say I have no immediate plans to stop, that is for sure. Do I think blogging in general will be around for years to come? Absolutely.
Random Pic
Da Omna Santis
Originally uploaded by ibod8x5
I’m fast becoming addicted to flickr. I swore off of it for quite some time however, the site is just so damn convenient it is too hard to say no. I regretted actually paying for a premium account but, being a control freak, the yearly $25.00 won’t kill me.
I decided I would randomly post pics from flickr just for shits and grins. I took this one a while back at the old Sutro baths here. I have no idea what the latin inscription means or even if it is real.
California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban
California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban
History in the making folks! I’m sure it will get appealed but I am in tears right now. When I was younger, I never thought I’d see this type of equality in my lifetime.
Footprint
roblog was discussing energy waste on his blog the other day and it got me to thinking about my own carbon footprint. I decided to do a test to see how much my daily life impacts the planet. [1]I took several as none of the free tests were really 100% related to me. I knew I’d get dinged for all the electricity I use to power my plethora of gadgets. What I didn’t know was how much of an offset I’d get from recycling and my lack of yearly transportation costs.
My househould usage was the highest. No brainer there. I factored in my roommate here as well. We don’t have a choice in some areas like types of appliances, insulation, etc. However, we do use energy saving lightbulbs vs the plain old power mongers. We turn off lights and appliances not in use. We also recycle quite a bit. Being in SF, it tends to be easier to heat/cool our apartment so we save there too. Even with all my power hungry gadgets, we were below the national average.
Neither of us own cars however, I do own a motorcycle. Even rounding up to 50 gallons a year, I’m way way below the national average. Hell 50 gallons is one month for most folks with cars. I don’t fly much so my impact here was also very low. My roomie tends to fly a lot more than I do but that doesn’t translate to communal costs so I didn’t include his flight time. I usually take 3-4 trips a year max.
All in all, I’m less than half the national average. I have to admit I’m happy about that. I know it tends to be easier here so I can’t take all the credit. I discovered there is still room for improvement. I never considered how much effort was spent removing food/scraps from drinking water. Decomposing food breeds all kinds of nasty micro-beasties and that takes energy to clean. Growing up in the country, I never even considered the impact discarded food would have on my waste water. I guess it is time to start recycling our food waste as well. We have bins for it so it’s not even an inconvenience.
What is your footprint? Maybe it’s time to look at how you can improve that.
References
| ↑1 | I took several as none of the free tests were really 100% related to me. |
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Super Platter
If you are a football fan, you might wanna skip this rant.
It’s no secret I’m not a football fan. However, if I hear another fag rant about the superbowl today, I think I might start screaming. I enjoy sports as much as they next guy but we have some fucked up priorities in this country. Have we forgotten the rampant homophobia in professional football? Call me weird but I don’t think I’ll follow any sport where most of the players would just as soon spit on me as to look at me. I’ll skip the laundry list of other issues related to the players. I find it hilarious that we can’t be bothered to get out and vote but we can gather in massive numbers to support a sport that consistently tells us they hate us.
No, I won’t be watching the superbowl today. I’ll stick to my freak-accepting scifi shows.
High Priced Soda
I happen to overhear recently that SF is proposing a tax on businesses that carry and sell sodas. More precisely, Mayor Newsom has proposed the tax and hoping the Board of Sups. will run with it.
On the surface, I don’t really agree with it but after further thought, I’m not so sure. Soda (made w/corn syrup, the high fructose kind) is one of the top contributors to obesity in this country. I challenge you to find a person severely obese who doesn’t drink sugared sodas. [1]I know I’ve never found one High Fructose Corn Syrup or HFCS as a simple sugar that is absorbed very easily by the body. What many people don’t know is that it actually reduces the insulin receptors response. Translated, it means a person is more prone to developing diabetes. HFCS has also been shown to interfere with the hearts ability to process vital minerals. I could go on and on but you get the point. [2]I actually stopped drinking sugared sodas during my EMT training. We got the full laundry list of damages. The irony is HFCS is much more expensive to make however, because of government contracts and subsidies on corn in the US it becomes more profitable than regular cane sugar.
Soda is also NOT a necessity. It is a luxury item. I have no problem with SF taxing luxury items to help offset the growing medical burdens of society. I can’t really see equating corn syrup to carcinogens in cigarettes however, the mounting evidence against HFCS doesn’t lie. I guess here I’d fall back on the old adage, "everything in moderation." The problem is we have become a society of excess. We do almost nothing in moderation.
I don’t really know if Newsom’s idea will succeed or not. I applaud him for attempting to do something rather than nothing. However, his measure is a tiny band-aid on a sore the size of Texas. Until we educate our children on the value of good nutrition, [3]when was the last time you saw a school curriculum that included more than a passing stab at nutrition? and the dangers of sugared sodas, the problem will continue to grow. (pun intended)