In the Age of _____, Stand Strong and Tall and Firm For Equality

Everyone makes jokes about Thanksgiving dinner and the family feuds that erupt over a meal meant to be thankful and grateful I once read openly gay comedian Bob Smith’s book, Openly Bob, and loved how he said he’d come out to his family, over Thanksgiving dinner by quietly asking if, “Someone would please pass the mash potatoes to the homosexual.”

My family never had those uncomfortable holiday dinners; I don’t think we ever fought once, or argued, or disagreed, we were just happy to be together sharing a meal. But this isn’t about me or my family on Thanksgiving; it’s about a woman, a straight woman who is an LGBT ally and the request she received before ever leaving home to travel to her parent’s house for Thanksgiving.

See, her father texted her and asked, well, he actually kind of demanded, that she could either remove the bumpersticker from her car before arriving at their house, or maybe she could find some alternative transportation so the offending sticker wouldn’t be on view.

The sticker? The Human Rights Campaign [HRC] equality sticker.

But before making any decision, the woman, identified only as “Rachel” decided to share her story on the pro-Clinton Facebook group Pantsuit Nation, where it went viral and finally reached the HRC blog where they reported that Rachel had thought about covering the equal sign with an index card to avoid a confrontation:

“Ultimately, Rachel realized that removing the sticker was allowing discrimination to win, and she refused to back down from something she so strongly believed in. Unwilling to compromise her convictions, Rachel decided to leave the sticker on her car.”

Rachel saw her story on HRC and replied:

“Thank you for the outpouring of support and suggestions through comments and private messages. I truly did not anticipate this response. It’s comforting to know I’m not alone in this battle. Many of your comments have brought me to the realization that covering the sticker would be equivalent to removing it.

 I am an ally at all times, not just when it is convenient or easy. My father would win by forcing me to back down from something that I believe in, and it would validate his belief that he still has control over me and can bully me into submission. So there will be no compromise, as I am not willing to compromise my convictions anymore than he is willing to compromise his.

I have decided that I will be parking elsewhere and walking to their house, even though that will be a good little hike since they live down a country road in the middle of nowhere. I feel that this will send a far stronger message than if I were to refuse to remove the sticker and just cover it instead.”

Equality. Her father was offended by equality, but, in the Age of _____, such liberal ideals will face scrutiny; people will still stand up for those who can’t stand for themselves but it might get harder. That’s why we have to stand, strong and steadfast, to let those who would seek to deny equality ... equality for god's sake ... to anyone will not win.

For me, I would have parked the car in Dad’s driveway, with the bumpersticker facing the street; hell, I might have painted the car to look like the HRC emblem.

Whatever we do, we keep doing it.

LGBTQ Nation

Random Musings

Today marks the sixth annual Spirit Day to show support for LGBTQ youth and take a stand against bullying.

Go purple in support, if you can, and talk about bullying. Take it out of the closet and take the shame away from the victims and spotlight the bullies.

Go purple.

Oh, this is lovely; a new Donald bumper sticker featuring a Confederate Flag Man kicking a Rainbow Flag Man.

Apparently the decal and its opposite, a Rainbow Flag Man kicking a Confederate Flag Man, was available for purchase from FastDecals, but a quick Google search leads to the FastDecals page but finds no matching items; it appears they’ve stopped selling the offensive sticker.

You know, because one if a flag of Pride and acceptance and one is a flag of Hate and intolerance.

So, a couple of weeks back, Hurricane Matthew visited Casa Bob y Carlos, and the neighbors, and sent one of their trees crashing into our yard, taking down three, or four of our trees, and our fence, in the process.

That’s the bad news; the good news is that the neighbors came by once the weather cleared and the ground dried, and spent two days completely removing their tree and ours from our yard; they even offered to replace the trees we lost — we said no because there are roughly two hundred tree of all kinds on our lot and we really aren’t hurting for more trees. Next, they’re going to have our thirty feet of downed and damaged fence replaced and we’ll be good as new.

On the bad side, an agent for our homeowner’s insurance came out and said they wouldn’t pay for the leaky skylight because it had been repaired in the past so, yeah, prior damage. He did try and see if we needed a new roof and maybe that would help in fixing the skylight leak, but unfortunately, or actually fortunately, our roof is in really good shape.

As for the snapped off tree in the front yard? Insurance won’t pay for it to be removed because even though it was damaged in the storm it didn’t fall down.

Gosh, if only it had hit the house … I kid.

Dayum; FLOTUS looked hot at a White House dinner honoring Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his wife, Agnese Landini.

I think she should be FL-FLOTUS … Fabulous Looking First Lady of the United States.

Pharma-douche Martin Shkreli had apparently planned a fan meetup — yes, this dick has fans … dicks who are fans — at the Henry St. Alehouse in Brooklyn Heights.

The good news is that it was shut down by the bar just hours before it began; rumor has it Shkreli picked Henry St. because it is close to the U.S. Federal Court building where he facing an ongoing securities fraud case.

Shkreli Tweeted:

“FAN MEETUP: 5pm Henry Street Ale House -- 62 Henry St, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Drinks are on your boy. I have court just before and nearby.”

And that caused the bar to respond:

“There is NO meet-up for @MartinShkreli at our place today. This is not happening.”

Then a spokesman for the bar said:

"We knew nothing of this beforehand nor can we accommodate large groups, let alone one from a controversial figure such as Shkreli. We are a low-key, small neighborhood bar/restaurant, not an event space.”

To his credit, Shkreli apologized to the bar for not notifying them ahead of time and began looking for a new bar prompting one, Brooklyn Public, to Tweet:

“Please be advised our drink prices just increased over 5000%.”

Snap.

So, this week there was a firebombing at a GOP headquarters in Hillsborough, North Carolina and here’s how both sides responded:

Tom Stevens, Hillsborough’s GOP mayor called it “political terrorism,” while GOP presidential nominee Donald No-Last-Name blamed it on, wait for it, it’s nothing new, Hillary Clinton and her animal’s, er, supporters.

The Democrats took a different tack, and created a GoFundMe page that raised more than $13,000 to pay the salaries of those Republicans out of work because of the fire.

One side blames the other, while the other side steps up to help those who lost their jobs.

Um, yeah, Vote Blue.

Carlos and I love Scandal, and because Kerry Washington had the nerve to get herself pregnant this year, the new season is postponed until early next year.

In its place a new show called Notorious — think of it as Scandal at a news show — is airing, and, well, yes, there’s Man Candy:

Daniel Sunjata, top left, plays a hot shot celebrity lawyer and he is just fine, from head-to-toe, and I know this because I saw him nude on Broadway in the play Take Me Out. It was real and it was fabulous.

Also hot is boy-toy Ryan Guzman, top right and, well, yeah, bottom, who plays the part of a beautiful but kinda dumb assistant on the show. Acting? I dunno, but a photo I found reminds me that he also has a fabulous ass.

Just sayin’.

Meanwhile, back at Donald … when he hosted Saturday Night Live last year he said that “part of the reason I’m here is that I know how to take a joke.”

Yeah, not so much. After last week’s lampooning of Donald at the second debate he called for the show to be canceled and said Alec Baldwin, who is a better Donald that the actual Donald, wasn’t even funny.

You decide; this is what Baldwin said in the skit:

“Tonight I’m going to do three things: I’m going to huff, I’m going to puff and I’m going to blow this whole thing.”

The sketch also touched on Donald the Racist, Donald the Stalker, Donald the Misogynist, Donald the Groper and his to turn the tables by bringing in Bill Clinton’s accusers:

“Martha, she is trying to silence these women but they need to be respected, they need their voices heard.”

“What about all the women accusing you of sexual assault?” asked Cecily Strong’s Martha Raddatz.

“They need to shut the hell up.”

Donald then Tweeted:

“Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me. Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!”

Funny that, his addition of media rigging election; it’s so random … I’ll have the soup. Media rigging election … and makes Donald sound like an old man who’s lost his mind.

True dat.

So, it’s no secret that Fox News’ Shep Smith is a big old homo, though he’s never officially come out, but this week he did open up about his sexuality after a reporter directly addressed it though he never said the words, “I’m gay.”

He was talking about former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes’ ALLEGED homophobic comments about him and other journalists and the rumor that that is the reason Smith never officially came out:

“That’s not true. He was as nice as he could be to me. I loved him like a father. I trusted him with my career and with ― I trusted him and trusts were betrayed. … He treated me with respect, just respect.”

Funny though, Shep, that it wasn’t until after Ailes was ousted that you, albeit in a sideways slant, came out as a gay man.

So, take a seat, please, and keep quiet.

Last May, when the Dodgers played the Cubs in Chicago, the team stayed at the Trump International Hotel and Tower -- except for first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, who made accommodations to stay elsewhere … presumably because the hotel is owned by Donald:

“I didn’t stay there. I had my reasons.”

It's assumed that Gonzalez's reasons include Donald’s anti-Mexican stance and his constant blathering about that great wall; Gonzalez is Mexican-American, and is involved in numerous charitable efforts in Mexico.

Good on him for taking a stand.

Ken Shupe Of Shupee Max Towing Is A Dick

Last week I talked about South Carolina being progressive and I knew it would be a hot minute before we took a step back in the Dark Ages of idiocy and hate. And here we are …

Ken Shupe owns Shupee Max Towing in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina, and one day he received a call from someone who was stranded and needed her car towed. And because Ken Shupe, like most of us, works because he needs to money to live, he jumped in his tow truck and sped off to help this woman.

Trouble was, when he arrived on the scene he discovered the woman had a bumpersticker on her car … a Bernie Sanders bumpersticker … and so he left her stranded because … wait for it, it’s good … God:

“Something came over me, I think the Lord came to me, and He just said get in the truck and leave. And when I got in my truck, you know, I was so proud, because I felt like I finally drew a line in the sand and stood up for what I believed.”

And with that Ken Shupe, owner of Shupee Max Towing in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina, left Cassy McWade sitting beside the road in her disabled car. Oh, and lest I forget, Cassie McWade is disabled herself; she suffers from psoriatic arthritis, fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and early-stage Crohns. She is legally disabled, and, when Ken Shupe, owner of Shupee Max Towing in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina, came upon her there was a handicapped placard hanging on her mirror.

But hey, Ken Shupe heard God’s voice say leave the disabled woman because she’s a Bernie supporter and go home because that’s how God rolls in Ken Shupe’s world. Except maybe God spoke to him again, because now Ken Shupe, owner of Shupee Max Towing in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina,  is now saying he left this woman stranded because it was about business and not politics.

Wait. What? Didn't you say God say walk away because of a Bernie sticker? What happened to God, Ken Shupe? I thought you said God told you not to help Cassy McWade, and now you’re saying it’s business? 

Yes, Ken Shupe says he’s tried to help other Bernie Sanders supporters before, but they caused problems over paying the bill. So, in Ken Shupe's ignorant addled brain — the one filled with voices he assumes are God … or Donald Trump — Sanders supporters don’t pay their bills. Perhaps he should tell that to the tow truck driver who did show up to help Cassie McWade because she paid him for helping her, for doing his job.

“I personally don’t believe that you have to agree on anything — just to be kind to one another. I was like, what did I do to you?” — Cassie McWade

But, Ken Shupe, owner of Shupee Max Towing in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina, disagrees and says he’s happy as can be that he left a disabled woman stranded on the side of the road:

“I stand by my decision, and I would do it again today if the opportunity presented itself.”

So, you own a business to help stranded motorists but then you decide not to help stranded motorists, first, because you say God came into you and spoke to you and told you to refuse to help; then you say it was business because some other schmuck stiffed you on a bill and you think Cassie McWade would do the same thing?

Oh, Ken Shupe, of Shupee Max Towing in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina,  it wasn’t God you heard in your head that day; it was a little something I’d call mental illness. And if that’s how you do your job, I hope more and more people hear about what you’ve done and run you out of business.

Bless your heart.

Patheos