Bobservations

Last week when we got pricked—by an incredibly beautiful military man—both Carlos and I wondered if it would hurt. Neither one of us could remember the last time we’d been pricked, medically speaking, and so we were slightly apprehensive.

But it was easy peasy and over before we knew it, and then we had to sit in another room and wait fifteen minutes to make sure there were no immediate side effects. We took a seat and I glanced at the clock; it was 11:30.Okay, 11:45 and we’d be on our way. Carlos was sitting in a chair the requisite six feet away and had his phone out:

“Hey Siri? Set a timer for fifteen minutes.”

Then he looked at me and said:

“Did you ask your Siri to set an alarm?”

“No. I’m gonna go wild and just look at the clock on the wall.”

Several people in the room chuckled and I almost got up and gave them a fifteen-minute set. But Carlos got most of the chuckles because every so often I’d hear:

“Twelve minutes, seven seconds.”

“Nine minutes, 33 seconds.”

“Seven minutes, 54seconds.”

“Three minutes, 45 seconds.”

Gosh, that man slays me.

We have no idea how old Tuxedo is. When we rescued him from an animal hospital Carlos managed in Miami, he was a grown-assed cat, so I’m thinking he was a year or more. We’ve lived in Smallville almost fifteen years, and had him for about a year before that, so he’s seventeen? Just a guess.

And he’s getting older. He has issues with his kidneys and is on a special diet, which he actually loves; and he’s so smart that he will not even bother with the “other cat’s” food but will wait for his meals. He’s also lost some muscle mass in his back legs and so he is no longer a jumper. That cat that used to jump to a high closet shelf, a bathroom counter, a high bed, now doesn’t jump at all, and when he wants to sit in my lap, he puts his front paws on my knee and I hoist him up.

However, he still loves sitting in a windowsill on a sunny morning, and the sills at Casa Bob y Carlos are about 14 inches off the ground but even that’s too high for him; and, because some vicious person declawed him before we saved him, he has no front claws to help him up. So, again, he’s very smart, he uses his paws to grab the sill and then stretches his legs out so that his, what I would call forearms, are on the sill, and he lifts himself onto the sill, and then naps.

Breaks my heart, but he makes do, and is still a loving sweet smart boy.

What do you get when you cross a moron with a sexual predator?

You get GQP wingnuts Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene who are teaming up to start an “America First Tour” of rallies around the country.

Lock up your teenage daughters and get out your Moron to English dictionaries America, the loons are on the loose.

Until recently, Ohio was one of two states that prohibited trans people from correcting the gender listed on their birth certificates but those days are nearly over.

In a few weeks, the Ohio Department of Health will unveil a process by which trans people can update their birth certificates to reflect their lived gender.

It’s about time, Ohio. Now, the only state left in the U.S. that refuses to allow trans people to apply for birth certificates that are authentic to their identities is, wait for it, you know it, Tennessee.

In other good news for trans Americans, down there in Texas … yes, Texas … Jace King is the first openly trans teen in their town, in Texas, in the entire country, to become an Eagle Scout.

Jace joined a BSA troop in 2019, after the group began allowing youth of all genders to join. That inclusion made possible King’s lifelong dream to become an Eagle Scout like their older brother. But they had to work fast to achieve it before turning 18, and so Jace  did so, earning the rank of Eagle Scout, which usually takes four to six year, in 25 months.

Bravo, Jace.

More good trans news? Yes, please. Pennsylvania Governor, and Democrat, Tom Wolf has told the GOP-majority legislature that if they pass a ban on trans girls and women in sports, it will be vetoed.

And while the GOP has a majority in both the state house and senate, it does not have a two-thirds majority in either chamber, the required amount to override a veto by the governor.

Thank you, Governor Wolf, for seeing hate and discrimination for what it is, and refusing to allow it.

I like me some HGTV. I like seeing new ideas for things to do in the house or the garden, and so I was kinda interested to see Inside Out, a new show where an interior designer and a landscape designer work together on both the inside and outside of the home.

And I was especially happy to see the hosts, designer Carmine Sabatella and landscaper Mike Pyle, two beefy hot hunks of men. And my gaydar pinged a little though I couldn’t tell if it was for sweet talking Carmine or hunk with that smile Mike, so I went to my old buddy Google, who told me that Mike has a girlfriend—whatever—but Carmine has a husband—I knew it—the hottie below, Ryan Delair.

I was kinda hoping for Mike because, sheesh, that smile, but I could be the meat in a Carmine Ryan sammich, with a side of Mike.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, girlfriend of the twice-impeached, one-term loser’s son, Diaper Don, says that she  “knows” Vice President Kamala Harris is secretly in charge of the White House:

“It’s really sad, [Biden’s] way in over his skis. Kamala Harris is really the de facto commander-in-chief. She made it very clear. She’s calling the shots here, I know this, I’ve known her a long time.”

Yes, Botox Barbie, the stripper of the GQP, and perhaps Junior’s coke dealer, wants us to believe that not only does she know the Vice President, but that she knows the Veep is running things.

Hey Kimberly? Get off the pole. You’re a joke.

The adult children of the twice-impeached, one-term loser have cost taxpayers a lot of money over the years, and now we know from Secret Service records that in the first thirty days after Daddy fled DC, his children’s’ travel cost taxpayers over $140,000; that figure doesn’t include charges at family-owned properties where the demon spawn charged the US government to stay at their own hotels.

The reason these charges are different is that they all occurred after Biden’s inauguration, and, ordinarily, a former president’s children are no longer entitled to Secret Service protection. But the Grifter In Chief—who is one of the :::coughcough::: richest men in the world—extended the protection for his family members and three top appointees by six months, giving more time to funnel money to his own properties.

Grifters gonna grift.

Mitch McConnell said this week:

"100% of my focus is on stopping this new administration."

Which means he and the rest of the GQP will work to get nothing done about financial aid for struggling Americans, ending the pandemic, improving environmental protections, and updating our crumbling infrastructure, or anything at all.

Once again, they will do no work, but take their paychecks and ask you to vote them back into power.

Daniel Dexter is a model and an artist and an exercise physiologist.

I only know what some of those words mean, but I do know he is all kinds of dreamboat.

Just sayin’.

Bobservations

Yesterday I woke up and, because it was still dark outside, noticed a flashing light. I looked over and saw Carlos’ alarm clock flashing 12:00 because clearly the power had gone out sometime during the night. I nudged him.

“Charlie [that’s a name his Aunt Gloria calls him, and so do I from time to time] Charlie? The power went out.”

He mutters, Uh oh, and I doze off again. But I hear him get up, and hear the shower running and about a half-hour later, I wake up. I stumbled to the kitchen and he says:

“The power went off last night.”

I say:

“I know, I woke you up and told you.”

“No. Max woke me up by crawling on top of me.”

“Maybe Max began crawling on top of you because I woke you up to tell you the power had gone out and you moved and woke him up.”

“I think you were dreaming.”

Yes, I dreamed the power went out and dreamed that I woke up and told Carlos about it, and then, miraculously, my dream came true.

I’m that good.

I’m hoping that my dream where Carlos listens when I speak will come true, too.

Oy.

I follow a page on Facebook about ‘What’s Going On …’ in our local area. People post questions about looking for a contractor, or someone to do some work; they advertise yard sales; they recommend businesses; and then there are others.

Some posts, I hate to say, are so illiterate, I literally have to read them out loud in what I call my toothless cousin-f**ker voice just see make sense of it; that gives me a laugh. But this week a woman posted about buying truck parts at an Auto Zone and the nice young black man that helped her carry them to her truck. I didn’t see the point in mentioning he was black as it had nothing to do with the story until she added:

“It was nice, him showing me the respect I deserve.”

Seriously; but then another woman posted:

“I know him, he helped me at the Piggly Wiggly.”

Now, the first women never mentioned the young man by name, which caused me to think that, if you took these people at their word, there is one, just one, nice young black man in Smallville who runs around helping white women—and you know they’re white women because of their FB profile photo—and giving them respect.

Oy. But then …

Lauren Elizabeth Cutshaw, a 32-year-old Bluffton, South Carolina was caught speeding through a stop sign at over 60 miles per hour.

When stopped by police, Cutshaw was slurring her words and a breathalyzer showed her blood-alcohol level at .18 percent –well above the .06 legal limit. But Cutshaw said she shouldn’t be arrested because she is a "very clean, thoroughbred, white girl” and a cheerleader and a sorority girl who graduated from a "high accredited university" and because her partner's "a cop."

When officers asked what being a "white, clean girl" had to do with anything Cushaw replied:

"You're a cop, you should know what that means."

Cutshaw was arrested and jailed on charges including drunken driving, speeding, disregarding a stop sign, possession of drug paraphernalia, and marijuana possession and being a self-entitled white privileged girl.

Sorry, hon, add criminal to your list of accomplishments.

If you need proof that Mike Pence is a lying hypocritical tool, look no further than an article he wrote back in the 90s demanding Clinton resign for having an extramarital affair.

But cut to 2017 and he has no problem licking the boots of a serial adulterer.

Element TV Company, a South Carolina television maker, is laying off 126 of its 134 workers because of _____’s tariffs on imports from China.

That skeleton crew of eight employees will stick around in the hopes that the plant can reopen in three to six months.

_____; making America great again by helping 126 people lose their jobs.

Boy band singer, and openly gay, Lance Bass said he’s “heartbroken” after placing a bid to buy Brady Bunch house, and thinking he’d been the highest bidder, only to find that he wasn’t.

“Super excited to announce they accepted my offer on the #BradyBunch house last night!!! This is going to be a fun project!”

Then came this:

“Marcia Marcia Marcia!  Im feeling heartbroken today. As many of you may have heard, we placed the winning bid on the iconic Brady Bunch house—at least that’s what we were told. The agent representing the estate informed us we made the winning bid (which was WAY over the asking price) after the final deadline for all offers had passed—even writing up the “winning bid” for my team after informing me of the good news. Isn’t a deadline a deadline? This was a dream come true for me and I spent the night celebrating amongst friends, family, and fans alike. The next day, due to “unforeseen circumstances” the same agent informed us that there’s another Corporate Buyer (Hollywood studio) who wants the house at any cost. We were prepared to go even higher but totally discouraged by the sellers agent, they will outperform any bid with unlimited resources. How is this fair or legal?? How can I compete with a billion dollar corporate entity? I truly believe I was used to drive up the price of the home knowing very well that this corporation intended on making their offer and it’s not a good feeling. I feel used but most importantly I’m hurt and saddened by this highly questionable outcome. I just hope it is not demolished. Thanks for all the love and support. #CrushedDream #ShadyAF #DouglasElliman #ShadyBrady”

Lance believes he “was used to drive up the price of the home” as a “Corporate buyer” did make a bigger bid, and that buyer is HGTV, who it has purchased the home and plans to “return it to its ‘1970s glory’.”

Right. I’m seeing gray everywhere … and shiplap.

Oy! Again!

Todd Kincannon, the former head of South Carolina's Republican Party, was arrested last week after he choked, stabbed, and mutilated his mother's 10-year-old beagle at her Greenville county home. Upon his arrest, Kincannon said he killed the dog because:

"I'm the second coming of Christ and I got a command from God to do it."

Officers who responded to the call say Kincannon came out of his parents' home in his underwear and covered in blood and dog hair and announced that “every 1,000 years there needs to be a sacrifice and blood must be spilt." He held up his arms to show what appeared to be dog bites and said:

"I have a sign. I'm about to get crucified in the media."

Yes, you are. And he will be charged with animal cruelty though there is no report that he will be taken in an evaluated for some sort of mental break.

I mean, this story, and the fact that in 2015, Kincannon was charged with criminal domestic violence after threatening to kill himself, his wife, and her family; in 2015, his law license was suspended following threatening emails he sent to people in connection with that arrest.

A grand jury indicted Kincannon on domestic violence and kidnapping charges last year but those charges are still pending.

Seriously? This man should have been locked a long time ago but, you know, Republican, South Carolina, domestic violence.

Now, for some fa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-bulous news … the fa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-bulous Jessica Lange is coming back American Horror Story: Apocalypse.

Makes perfect sense because this season is said to be a cross-over between Murder House and Coven, both of which starred Lange.

I.Am.Dying. Especially when it’s been confirmed the show had been renewed for two more seasons beyond Apocalypse.

Gosh, I love this … after Donald _____’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was vandalized—with a pick axe no less—the city of West Hollywood issued a resounding “Fuck You, Mr. President” and passed a unanimous resolution to remove the star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Sorry, not sorry.

We watched a couple of movies this weekend, the first being Trumbo, about the Hollywood blacklist of suspected Communists in the 40s and 50s. One of the people who helped to end the blacklist was actor Kirk Douglas who hired Dalton Trumbo to write the script for Spartacus and made sure he was given credit on screen.

The actor who played Douglas, Dean O’Gorman, top, just oozed sex appeal onscreen, especially in scenes as Spartacus in his little, er, not so little, leather jock strap.

We, or I, also watched Home Again, a tired Reese Witherspoon rom-com where she plays a forty-something woman who takes in three twenty-something young men and falls for one of them.

Sadly, she fell for the wrong one, because she didn’t fall the quirky, cute and sweet Jon Rudnitsky, bottom, who played George.

As Julie said in Pretty Woman, “Big mistake. Huge.”

Steaming hot or quirky cute ... I don't have a type.

Random Musings

Last week everyone, well, not everyone, was mourning the loss of David Bowie. I, personally, wasn’t a Bowie fan, but did admire the way he pushed social boundaries and ideas about sex and sexual orientation, as well as music.

This week we lost Glenn Frey; The Eagle’s Glenn Frey. Growing up in California, The Eagles were one of those bands I always listened to … and it didn’t hurt that they started out as The Stone Poneys, the backing band for Linda Ronstadt who I love.

The Eagles and Ronstadt were that mix of Country Rock that lived for a time Out West and I remember all those songs … I was less a fan of Frey’s non-Eagles work …as a part of my youth.

This song was particularly a favorite …

I smell desperation …

Jeb Bush now campaigning on Hillary Clinton’s win over Donald [t]Rump. He features a new ad that shows November 8, 2016 as the day Hillary Clinton beats Donald [t]Rump and the GOP loses the White House.

I call it the Feel Good Campaign Ad of the Year!

New BBC America show … starting tonight.

London Spy is the tale of a chance romance between two people from two different walks of life — one, a closeted gay man — is an investment banker, while the other is an openly gay man from a world of clubbing and excess.

Their love story unravels one night when the banker disappears under suspicious circumstances, exposing his real identity as a spy and forcing his lover to find out the truth.

Spectre cutie Ben Whishaw [right] is one half of the romance, while newcomer Edward Holcroft [left] plays the spy.

The show also stars the amazing Jim Broadbent and the fabulous Charlotte Rampling, but it’s those cute lead actors ….

Carlos: [couch cough sneeze throat clear sneeze cough] "You gabe me your code!"

Bob: "I know. That's how it works."

Carlos: [wheeze sneeze cough] "Whaddazat mean?"

Bob: [smiling] "We're married, sweetiepie. You get half of everything I have."

This made me Tweet: “Half-term endorses Half-Wit.”

And watching her — and, yes, for all of you, I watched — endorse [t]Rump for president in that variety show sequin jacket proved to me that all those old costumes that Cher wore on The Sonny and Cher Show are still around and that the Mama Grizzly Bore™ obviously bought some at auction.

A giant ISBL Bravo to Pure Pizza, up in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the note explaining their gender-neutral bathroom policy.

The note provides five simple bullet points to let all their customers know why they don’t offer gender-specific toilets.

Single Dads with daughters

Single Moms with sons

Parents with disabled children

Those in the LGBTQ community

Adults with aging parents who may be mentally/physically disabled

Pure Pizza instituted the unisex bathroom policy in August and the owner, Juli Metcalf, says they haven’t had any issues with peeping toms or molesters or anything deviant going on in the bathroom. It’s been just a safe, neutral place for our customers to come ... and, well, you know, go.

Charlotte isn’t so far from here, and I do love a good pizza, especially at such an all-inclusive pizzeria ….

So, on HGTV there’s a new show, Ellen’s Design Challenge, where a group of furniture designers compete for cash and fame.

Some are way outside the box, and kinda crazy, while others are inventive. Some, though are kinda fine, as are the carpenters who assist them.

And so we have, clockwise from the top left, Sef Pinney — his real name and, no, apparently he isn’t gay; followed by beefy carpenter Matt Muenster and California Boy carpenter Stephen Zimpel, and lastly designer Bradley Bowers — quite gay — who made the winning bed last week.

So, it’s design and men, two of my favorite things …

Are we surprised? Not really, but “Fair and Balanced” Fox News devoted roughly three hours to promoting the release of Michael Bay’s 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, a movie about the 2012 attacks on diplomatic facilities in Libya, praising the film, repeatedly characterizing the movie as a threat to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and hyping several debunked myths about the Benghazi terror attacks. 

More than half of the network’s 32 segments focused on falsehoods about the State Department and Obama administration’s responses to the attacks, and nearly 60 percent of the segments linked the movie to Clinton’s 2016 bid for the White House.

And this is news??

Things Stupid People Say, Part 1: The Benham Twins: We’re Like ISIS Victims

David and Jason Benham are a couple of mildly attractive contractors, or house flippers, or do-it-yourselfers, who managed to attract the attention of HGTV over the summer. And when the network offered them a TV show, they leapt at the chance to share their expertise with America. Trouble was, they are also experts in the art of homophobia, bigotry, intolerance, and basic rightwing nuttery, and when word got out about all of the anti-gay, anti-women, anti-Muslim things they’ve said over the years, HGTV said, Um, no thanks and quickly canned the show before I ever aired.

Since then the Benham twins have become darlings of the Asshat Set, by basically whining about how they’ve been denied a chance to be HGTV hotties because of their religious beliefs. Not so much, boys; you were denied the chance to be on TV because of your hate speech about The Gays.

Get it queer, dears.

But they haven’t and they won’t and their latest foray into Crazy Talk occurred when they spoke at the Hate Summit, er, the Values Voter Summit, and compared themselves to victims of the terrorist group ISIS.

Oh, but they did.

Jason Benham, who seems to be the bigger, crazier, more asshatted twin, first announced that he and his brother are like Jesus Christ himself, and then David took over with this line, a direct quote out of the mouths of wingnuts:

“There is a radical agenda that has come in our nation. The weapon of choice for the agenda in the Middle East is a sword, but the weapon of choice for the agenda in America is silence. They demand silence.”

Yup, innocent people finding themselves captured by ISIS and then beheaded on live TV are the exact same thing as two delusional rightwingnutted, asshatted loons having their TV show taken away from them.

Out of the mouths of morons ….

via LGBTQ Nation

My Two-Cents: HGTV vs The Benham Brothers

Last week HGTV announced a new series for fall called Flip it Forward starring twins David and Jason Benham and quicker than you can say ‘queer idea’ the show was scrapped.

Why? Well, it doesn’t take long for people to do a quick Google search on anyone, and everyone, who suddenly appears in the limelight, and someone over at Right Wing Watch remembered hearing the name David Benham before and the search was on. 

After a nano-second, Google came back with the story of David Benham and his prayer protest outside the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte back in 2012:

“We don’t realize that, okay, if 87 percent of Americans are Christians and yet we have abortion on demand; we have no-fault divorce; we have pornography and perversion; we have a homosexuality and its agenda that is attacking the nation; we have adultery; we have all of the things; we even have allowed demonic ideologies to take our universities and our public school systems while the church sits silent and just builds big churches. We are so complacent, we are so apathetic and we are very hypocritical in the church, that’s why the Bible says judgment begins in the house of God. So when we prayed at 714 we asked God and our city to forgive us for allowing these things in the house of God.”

David Benham is active in the anti-choice — he he regularly leads protests outside of abortion clinics, condemning those who use the facilities to Hell; he is anti-Muslim — he claims that Muslims are “the enemy attacking” America; he's anti-gay — he protests at Pride celebrations and has said that marriage equality will “erode the moral fabric of society” while citing the biblical death penalty for homosexuality; he has even compared fighting against marriage rights for same-sex couples with the fight against Nazi Germany.

Gays. Death. Gays. Nazis. That's David Benham.

Well, once that shi — once that story broke, HGTV announced via its Facebook page that they had “decided not to move forward" with the Benham brothers' show.

Now, it would be safe to say that HGTV has a very large gay audience, and HGTV presents itself as an inclusive corporation with inclusive programming, so, yeah, they are within their rights not to air a show whose content, or hosts, might offend their viewers or their employees, or harm their image.

Naturally, though, the Christian wingnuts are now crying foil, calling the cancellation of the show a “smear campaign’ against any and all who disagree with The Homosexuality or are Pro-life; why its an attack on Christians and faith. But is it, really?

David and Jason Benham appeared on CNN to discuss the cancellation, saying they think HGTV was "bullied" into dumping them:

"We love all people. I love homosexuals. I love Islam, Muslims, and my brother and I would never discriminate. Never have we — never would we. Never have I ever spoken against homosexuals, as individuals, and gone against them. I speak about an agenda. And that's really what the point of this is — is that there is an agenda that is seeking to silence the voices of men and women of faith." — David Benham

David, I’ll speak to you as a gay man, one of The Homosexuals that you don’t speak against, even though you’ve done so repeatedly, and I will tell you my agenda: equality.

I would like to marry my partner and have it recognized anywhere I happen to move in this country.

I would like not to be fired for being gay.

I would like not to be denied housing for being gay.

I would like not to be bullied, bashed, or murdered for being gay.

I would like to watch into a bakery or a photography studio, or any business, and not be denied service for being gay.

I would like being equal.

That’s the agenda.

I don’t want to silence you, I simply want you to see that your faith, and I don’t know of a faith that seems as hell-bent — and that is the perfect word choice — on discriminating against people while calling themselves the injured party.

You talk about being discriminated against because a cable network doesn’t want your show on their LGBT-friendly channel? Well, go to a network that shares your views. Check with Pat Robertson; check with Tony Perkins or NOM and see if they’ll start up a channel for you.

And that might just happen. It seem the Benham brothers are working with Faith Driven Consumer, the advocacy group that played a big role in drumming up support for Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson after his own anti-gay remarks led to a (temporary) suspension from his A&E show, to broker a deal to air their show.

Good for them. This is America and we all have the right to say and do what we want to say and do; we can have our TV shows and preach anti-gay sentiment, and label all Muslims as evil, and condemn women to hell for their choice.

But when you have an inclusive employer — which is what HGTV would have been to the Benhams — then maybe they can choose not to have you and your opinions as part of their network. HGTV is considered to be one of the most progressive networks on cable, and I myself have seen many HGTV shows with same-sex couples looking for homes, families with two dads or two moms doing renovations and the idea of the Benhams and their stance on The Gays being on that network is unappealing to me, many others, and to HGTV.

But don’t fret, people, most folks who identify as Christian are nothing like David Benham; most folks who identify as Christian wouldn’t suggest death to homosexuals, wouldn’t compare a struggle for equality to what happened in Germany under Hitler.

Most Christians wouldn’t use fear as their argument, only those on the fringes.

Those who won’t be on my cable channel this fall.