Bobservations

Not a Carlos story, but a true story about my mouth. The other morning as I was getting ready for work my phone rang:

“May I speak to Robert Slatten?”

“This is he.”

“How are you today, Mr. Slatten?”

“What can I do for you?”

“I’m Christine ______ from _____ Life and I see by our records you have a birthday coming up soon.”

“No. I don’t.”

“Oh, our records show your date of birth as August 2nd.”

“That’s not my birthday, that’s my father’s birthday. His name is Robert Slatten Jr.”

“Oh. I see the mix up—”

And then she says it:

“Do you think your father would be interested in life insurance?”

“I’m not sure, but considering he’s been dead since February, it looks like a hard pass.”

And then she makes it worse:

“I’m so sorry, please accept our condolences.”

“Thank you.”

“Any chance you’re interested in life insurance?”

“Seriously? You tried to sell life insurance to my dead father and now you want to sell it to me?”

“Well, I—”

:::click:::

This is another in a long list of reasons why I don’t like people.

This Tuxedo Memory is from August 2018 …

We had a bit of a scare last Friday involving the Greatest Cat in the World, Tuxedo.

See, our cats do not go outside, at least unattended. Tuxedo is allowed to walk along the railing with me by his side, or sit in my lap and take a siesta, but because of the rural nature of Casa Bob y Carlos, and the wild-ish animals who roam nearby, it’s not a good thing to let cats wander.

That said, over the course of time we’ve lived here Tuxedo has escaped a handful of times and has always been lured back inside by the promise of treats.

Last Friday, Carlos got up, let the dog out, fed the cats and made the coffee; we had breakfast and chatted and then I got up from the table …

“Where’s Tuxedo?”

“I don’t know, He was here for breakfast.”

"Did he get out when you let the dog in?”

“I don’t know.”

We began the search; through the house, in all the bedrooms, the office, the laundry room, the sunroom; under couches or on tables; in closets where perhaps a door was closed on him; in the bathroom.

No Tuxedo. I head out back, treats in hand, shaking the bag…

“TUXEDO! TUXEDO! TUXEDO!”

No Tuxedo. I go into the front yard …

“TUXEDO! TUXEDO! TUXEDO!”

No Tuxedo. Now I am scared and getting annoyed because I think Carlos missed him when he ran outside and so all kinds of thoughts—of what happened to the cat and what I will do to Carlos—are racing through my head.

“TUXEDO! TUXEDO! TUXEDO!”

Back inside; no cat. I then check every single cupboard in the kitchen, the laundry room and all the bathrooms, shaking that damned bag of treats as I go …

“TUXEDO! TUXEDO! TUXEDO!”

In the master bathroom, I look into a cupboard; no cat. I turn … and there he is, sitting in the bathtub.

See, the night before we’d given all the cats a hit of Advantage because they were scratching a lot. You give Advantage at the base of their neck, so they can’t lick it off.

Tuxedo, because he is so smart, thought he’d wait until Mean Daddy—his name for Carlos—got out of the shower and then he would roll around on the bottom of the tub so see if he could rub the Advantage off.

He got yelled at for disappearing and big smooch from Nice Daddy—that’s what he calls me—for being safe.

In the car, later, driving Carlos to work, I said:

“Sorry for all those hateful things I said about you when we couldn’t find Tuxedo.”

“You didn’t say anything mean to me.”

“In my head, sweetheart in my head.”

“Oh, I expect it was especially vicious then.”

“Yes.”

And luckily, just in my head.

Premise: You have 5 minutes before you die. What are you going to do? Well, I am going to text to a friend saying if they don't send that text to 10 other people immediately, I'll die in 5 minutes.

I’m going out with a laugh!

In the two days since President Biden dropped out of the race for reelection, Vote.org saw more than 38,500 people register to vote, a nearly 700% spike.

Vote.org  hopes to register 8 million voters before November’s election and says that 500,000 have already registered so far, including a record number of 18-year-old new voters.

Onward into the Blue.

More good news … Michigan has become the 20th state to ban the Gay Panic Defense thanks to Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The “gay panic” or “trans panic” legal defense allows defendants to argue that discovering a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity justifies assault and even murder.

No, it doesn’t. Thanks Governor Whitmer.

Y’all heard that The Felon wants to eliminate taxes for tipped workers, right? Well, here’s the deal … 33% of tipped employees are too low wage to pay any income taxes so they would never see any tax cut. But since there is no cap on what counts as a ‘tip’ this plan creates a loophole for hedge fund managers, lawyers and other high-income professionals to take a huge tax cut by dubbing their massive bonuses as ‘tips.’

The rich get richer under The Felon while low-income workers suffer.

VOTE BLUE!!

And more good news ... Jim Kohlberg, chairman and co-founder of the private equity firm Kohlberg & Co., has pledged $30 million to launch a center to push for overhauling the corrupt SCOTUS. Maybe find a way to rid the court from the grifters and liars and cheats.

Let’s do this!

Anilton Cabral is a male model who lives on Praia, Cape Verde, a tiny island off the West coast of Africa, but that’s not what this is about: Would You Hit It?

Meme Dump ... From Before My Trip to Oregon so It's a Tad Late

Kennedy and Markey Push For End To "Gay Panic" Defense

We’ve heard it before, and we’ve shaken our collective heads that it can be used as a defense, but maybe now, with the help of Congressman Joseph Kennedy III and Senator Edward Markey, both Democrats, both from Massachusetts, the “Gay Panic Defense” might become a thing of the past.

Kennedy and Markey introduced new legislation this week—the Gay & Trans Panic Defense Prohibition Act—that would ban the use of anti-LGBT panic defense from being cited as a legal defense in federal court for murdering someone, or bashing someone, or beating someone.

Kennedy said an admission of committing a violent crime against someone because they’re LGBT “is not a defense, it is a hate crime” and added:

“Legal loopholes written into our laws that seek to justify violent attacks against our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender neighbors should never have existed in the first place.”

Markey agrees, saying a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity “cannot ever excuse violence, and our courtrooms should not be used as chambers of hate”:

“Gay and trans panic legal defenses reflect an irrational fear and bigotry toward the LGBTQ community and corrode the legitimacy of federal prosecutions. These defenses must be prohibited to ensure that all Americans are treated with dignity and humanity in our justice system.”

The “fear” of having a gay man hit on you or finding that the person you’re in a relationship with, or even just casually dating, is transgender, have been used as defenses for murder for decades. The first, well-known case, was that of the two men that murdered Matthew Shepard and used “gay panic” as a defense.

And even in 2018, it goes on; earlier this year, a former police officer in Austin received a ridiculously light sentence for stabbing his neighbor to death by playing the “He hit on me” card.

Now, I ain’t holding my breath for this bill to go through, not with the virulently homophobic, transphobic Congress and White House, but, you know, if even of us—and by that, I mean all of us—vote blue in November, maybe we can get this thing done and never again have to hear someone say they murdered a man because he tried to kiss them; or murdered a person because they found out they were trans. That’s hate, plain and simple, and murder, plain and simple, and this excuse needs to be stopped.

And, while the Gay & Trans Panic Defense Prohibition Act would ban the anti-LGBT panic defense in federal courts, it wouldn’t apply to charges brought in state courts.

And so that’s all the more reason to vote blue at the federal level, the state level, the country level and the city level, because we can never, never, count on the GOP or the Bastard-In-Chief to help our community.

We do it by electing those that will, and standing up for our rights, and marching for our rights, even after all these years.

The Washington Blade

The Gay Panic Defense Is Alive And Well In Texas ... and Forty-Seven Other States

James Miller was a police officer for the Austin Police Department, but then the 69-year-old man retired. He began playing guitar, playing at a local bar, and trying to put together a jazz band.  That’s when he met 32-year-old David Spencer, a recent transplant from LA, and a saxophone player also in search of a band.

The two men became friends, played music together and then, in September 2015, it went wrong. After a night of music and drinking at Spencer's house, Miller claims the younger man tried to kiss him:

“We were playing back and forth and everything, and I just let him know—Hey, I'm not gay. We been playing. We're musicians and all that kind of stuff, but I'm not a gay guy. Then it seemed like everything was all right, and everything was fine. When I got ready to go - it seemed like [expletive] just started happening."

James Miller, right, was eight inches shorter than Daniel Spencer; he weighed less than Daniel Spencer; he was a bit older than David Spencer. He claims Spencer became angry after Miller rejected his sexual advances and moved forward in an aggressive manner while holding a drinking glass.

Miller took out a knife and stabbed Spencer two times. A few hours later, hours later, he showed up at a police station, without so much as a scratch on him, and confessed:

“I think I killed someone … I stabbed him."

He was charged with murder, but three years later, at trial, James Miller claimed the killing was done in self-defense because he was in a "gay panic" after Spencer hit on him.

Yes, in 2018. The “gay panic” defense is still a legal defense in every single state in this country except California and Illinois. And in Miller's case it worked; he was found not guilty of murder or manslaughter—even though he stabbed a man to death—but was convicted of criminally negligent homicide.

Still, he will not spend a day in prison. He will spend six months in jail, complete 100 hours of community service, pay $11,000 in restitution to Spencer's family and use a portable alcohol monitoring service for at least a year. He will also be on probation for a decade.

And all because, he says, a gay man tried to kiss him. Sadly, we’ll never know if that was the case because David Spencer, left, is dead.

Spencer’s mother, Marsha Spencer told the jury:

“I have a huge hole in my heart. Something’s wrong in the world when you lose your child before you go. I’m tortured by the thought of how Daniel died and I’m tortured by the fact that he suffered and that he was alone when he died. It’s a loss that cuts deeply.”

But the jury didn’t care about Marsha Spencer, about the hole in her heart, about her murdered son, as much as they cared about the story of a gay man who may, may, have tried to kiss a straight man and was stabbed to death for it. To them, that’s deserving of death.

Here are some questions I would have asked had I been on that jury …

Why did a former police officer wait hours to report the crime?

And then why did he turn himself in to his former co-workers?

Why did Miller have a knife at a jam session with a friend?

Why, when a man hits on another man, is it okay to kill that man?

Lastly, if I, as a gay man, go out with a female friend and she makes a pass at me and tries to kiss me, can I stab her to death and then offer up a “straight panic” defense?

In America, in most of America, in 2018, you can still murder a gay man and get away with it simply by saying he tried to kiss you. And no one will question that or be able to question the victim.

Independent

Random Musings

Overheard at Work:

Me: CJ? Can you pass me that folder?

My Boss: His name is Clinton ...

Me: Funny, when he introduced himself to me he said his name was CJ so I'll call him CJ.

My Boss: Well, his name was Clinton.

Me: Well, If I were to call people by names that others suggest that I call them, you can only imagine what names I'd be hurling at you ... starts with an 'F' and ends with an 'r'.

It's a wonder I'm employed at all.

Remember when Tim Tebow would score a touchdown and drop to his knees and pray to God or thank God, or just settle for a moment, and people began selling the T-shirts.

Well, when Kansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah intercepted a Tom Brady pass and returned it for a touchdown he did the same thing: he stopped and thanked his God, too.

The difference? Abdullah was penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Oh yeah, he’s Muslim, so maybe that explains why. I guess in football, you can beat your wives and girlfriends, have drug problems, anger issues, but you can’t bow down to thanks your God unless you’re a Christian.

Uh huh.

Bette’s back!

Midler, that is; she is releasing a new album entitled “It’s The Girls!” produced by Mark Shaiman. It is said to be an album of covers, but only from girl groups, from the 1930s through to today.

Think Bette does The Andrews Sisters to The Supremes to En Vogue to Destiny’s Child.

It drops — look at me with the industry-speak — November 4th and should be fa-a-a-a-bulous!

Out there to California, Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law a bill outlawing the "gay panic" defense in court.

Yup, no more The gay guy asked me to dance so I shot him fifty times defense.

It makes California the first state in the nation to enact this kind of law, and it’s about time.

On TV last week we watched the premier of How To Get Away With Murder, starring the beautiful Viola Davis — quite possibly one of the greatest actresses ever — as a law professor and defense attorney.

It’s from Shonda “Scandal” Rimes so it has that same, WTF just happened feel to it.

It also has some nice eye candy, like Alfred Enoch as the naïve, yet quite hot, law student, Billy Brown — a personal hottie favorite of mine — as Viola’s cop boyfriend, and Jack Falahee, as the Is he gay or is he just having gay sex to close the case student.

A trifecta of hot men, with Viola Davis to boot!

Paybacks are a bitch, especially when the payback is $242,000.

This week a federal court yesterday ordered former GOP Senator  Larry Craig — AKA The Airport Bathroom Toe-Tapper — to pay the government back the $242,000 in campaign funds he used to pay lawyers after being busted trying to hook-up with a dude in a Minneapolis airport restroom.

Craig, a complete and utter homophobe, bigot and all-around tool, says he was entitled to use the funds because was traveling on official Senate business.

Official Senate business is looking for a blow job in an airport john? Sorry, Larry, I ain’t buying that any more than I was buying your story about having a wide-stance.

You’re queer, dear.

After the highly successful ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, the organization Check One Two has created the Crotch Grab Challenge hoping to raise awareness about testicular cancer and encourage men to self-examine down below.

One of the first men to cop a feel, so to speak, was Hugh Jackman, who Tweeted out that photo and challenged Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Strahan and Ricky Gervais.

It sounds like a good challenge, but it annoys me because I have been begging to grab Huge Ackman’s crotch for years.

PS He's really packing!

What the hell is wrong with the Secret Service these days? An intruder hops the fence at the White House and they’re too busy placing a Starbucks order to notice? He races across the lawn and they’re taking selfies? He enters the White House — enters.the.White.House — and they’re challenging one another to the Crotch Grab?

Or, howsabout the time they let an armed man onto an elevator with the President?

It’s ridiculous, unacceptable, and all kinds of wrong, and now Julia Pierson, the boss of the Secret Service, has stepped down. Good; here’s hoping they put someone in charge who realizes that they have ONE JOB: protect the President and the First family.

If they can’t do that, get rid of ‘em.

Filed under: I Don’t Know What To Make Of This

In Ohio, a white lesbian is suing a local sperm bank, charging that they mistakenly sent her sperm from an African-American male and not from a white guy.

Now, this women and her partner adore their mixed race baby, but say they are having difficulty raising her in an all-white community. The suit further states that the plaintiff fears the child will not be accepted by her "all white and unconsciously insensitive family."

Hmmm, is it the mixed race baby, or the fact that you’re a lesbian couple that has your neighbors are twisted.

Either way, who gives a f**k?

You Say Panic, I Say Murder

I remember it as clearly as if it happened yesterday. There was a woman in our town that had come out as straight, and she was quite open about it. Well, she and I struck up a friendship, even though she knew I was gay, and she would often stop by my house for a visit. One night, after a visit, she was giving me a ride in her car and, well, while it sickens me to say it, she made sexual advances towards me, and I panicked. She tried to assault me so I choked her, and then I beat her to death, and burned her body, then dragged to the side of a river, and dumped it there in the tall grass.

Thank god for the Straight Panic defense. I didn’t do any jail time.

Sounds pretty ridiculous, right? But that’s exactly what’s happening regarding the murder, and let’s be clear, it was a murder, of openly gay mayoral candidate, Marcus McMillian.

Lawrence Reed, the man who is accused of beating McMillian to death, burning his body, and then dumping alongside the Mississippi River says he did it because he Gay Panicked when McMillian made sexual advances towards him.

And, well, Reed may get away with murder, especially since the case is in the hands of Mississippi prosecutors, who cannot even try Reed for a Hate Crime because there is no hate crime statute in the state. And Reed’s defense of Gay Panic-slash-Self Defense, just may get him off.

McMillian [l] and Reed [r]

Reed and his family are telling the story that Lawrence Reed was “forced” to murder Marco McMillian in self-defense after the mayoral candidate made sexual advances and refused to take no for an answer. Reed’s sister is claiming that Reed showed up at her house moments after making a panicked phone call, covered in injuries suggestive of a fight, and that Reed strangled McMillian with the chain on his wallet because he panicked.

I’m not sure how panicked he was when, after murdering McMillian, he beat him, and burned him, and dumped his body like garbage. That doesn’t sound like someone who panicked, that sounds like someone who thought about what to do and how to do it.

But this whole Gay Panic thing isn’t a new defense, it’s been used before. The trial of the killers of transgendered Gwen Arujo ended in jury deadlock on multiple occasions because of a so-called “Trans Panic Defense.” And let’s not forget the murderers of Matthew Shepard who claimed they panicked when he came on to them and were forced to beat him nearly to death and then tie his body to a fence in Wyoming. Fifteen-year-old Lawrence King was murdered by a classmate for professing his love to the other boy.

Panic? Not so much.

This kind of defense makes it ‘okay’ to kill gay people, trans people, and get away with it. Just say the gay guy came on to you; just say the trans guy or girl made an unwanted advance. Then just say you had to kill them, because you had no other choice.

My story at the top of the is post was a great big fabrication, but Lawrence Reed wants us to believe that he panicked when Marco McMillian, a gay man, a friend of his with whom he had been socializing for a few weeks, made a pass at him and he had no choice but to strangle, beat, burn and dump his body. 

That’s some panic.

And it’s all a lie.

More Gay Panic Tales from ISBL:

This Is What Happens When People Pick And Choose Which Parts Of The Bible To Follow

Mucinex Is Deadly

Interesting News From The Land Of Lou

It's A Panic

Sixty-One Stab Wounds When A Simple No Thank You Would Have Sufficed

First Rant of '09

It's Not Gay Panic, It's Murder, It's A Hate Crime

Marco McMillian

Marco McMillian, an openly gay candidate for mayor in the small Mississippi town of Clarksdale, was beaten and burned, and his body dragged under a fence and left alongside a Mississippi River levee. The cause of death has not been released. An autopsy was performed, but toxicology tests are pending, and authorities say it could take two weeks to get those results.

McMillian's godfather, Carter Womack, says the family received the information from the Coahoma County coroner, though coroner Scotty Meredith has yet to publicly comment, and a spokesman for the Coahoma County Sheriff's Department is also staying quiet for now.

A statement released by McMillan’s campaign says, "We feel that this was not a random act of violence based on the condition of the body when it was found."

Lawrence Reed, twenty-two, has been charged in the case. He was arrested last month after he was found driving McMillan’s SUV after it crashed into another vehicle on U.S. Highway 49. McMillan was not in the car; his body was found the next day.

Police have ruled out a hate crime—something McMillian’s friends and family members want reconsidered due to the brutal nature of the homicide—because, sadly, Mississippi does not have a state hate crimes law, meaning that federal charges would be required.

Lawrence Reed

Apparently Reed and McMillian had known each other for about two weeks, and may have had an intimate relationship during that time. But, it is also being reported that Reed, who identifies as straight, may have “snapped” as a result of sexual advances on the part of McMillian. He may, in fact, use the Gay Panic defense.

Gay Panic. I’ve talked a lot about gay panic on this blog, especially after ALLEGEDLY straight men murder gay men with whom they were intimate. And I’ll say it again: there is no such thing as Gay Panic in defense of murdering someone, beating them to death, burning parts of their body, and then dropping the corpse off in the weeds like a load of garbage.

That took planning; that took preparation. That is not panic.

And, if we are to continue hearing of Gay Panic defenses, when will we hear the first Straight Panic case? I mean, say I, as a gay man, met a woman at a bar and we hit it off. If she made some kind of sexual advance toward me would I be allowed to beat her, burn her, drag her body to the river and dump it, and the say I did it because I felt a Straight Panic?

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Well, that's how Gay Panic sounds to me. 

source

This Is What Happens When People Pick And Choose Which Parts Of The Bible To Follow

Up in Pennsylvania, a 28-year-old man has been charged with murder by stoning. Yes, stoning. Welcome to the Dark Ages.



John Joe Thomas



Murray Seidman

John Joe Thomas told police he stoned 70-year-old Murray Seidman to death when, Thomas alleges, Murray made sexual advances toward him. It's the Gay Panic! Everyone run.

Trouble is, John Joe Thomas and Murray Seidman were friends, so did Thomas know Seidman was gay? It seems so since they apparently spent every single day together in Seidman's home.

But that didn't stop John Joe Thomas from telling authorities that, after Murray Seidman's alleged sexual advances--which apparently went on for some time--he received a message in his prayers telling him to end Seidman’s life. So he beat the older man to death with a sock filled with rocks.

I guess Thomas was too traumatized to remember the part of the Bible about 'Thou shall not kill'. He did, however, know how much money Murray Seidman had in the bank, because John Joe Thomas was also the sole executor of Seidman's will.

Gay panic. Murder for money.


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