Bobservations

A quick Carlos story …while we laugh and joke and have fun, we do have our arguments, and about once a year or so, we have a huge blow-up.

As in the fight we had a couple of weeks ago, over Carlos’ refusal to listen, and how, while at Walmart—where we shopped for ingredients for a cheesecake he was making for a party, and only because someone gave him a Walmart gift card—every time I found something he needed, and said:

Do you need this?

He’d say:

Huh?

Do.You.Need.This?

Every time; and so we got into an argument about that and it turned loud and foot-stomping, especially when he said to me:

I think because you don’t like Walmart [Sidenote: I hate Walmart] you deliberately lowered your voice.

And that’s when the top of my head blew off. On the upside, after getting it all out, we’re done with the fight; the good thing is neither one of us carries the anger longer than a few minutes. On a more fun side, I was telling that story to my Dad over the phone last week, and as we finished up, he said:

Give my best to your husband … when you can get his attention.

And that, my friends. Is where I get it from. Thanks Dad!

I first posted about Cyntoia Brown a few weeks back, but here’s a brief recap: Brown was convicted … as a teenager … of killing a man while she was a sex trafficking victim and sentenced to 51 years before being eligible for parole.

A lotta folks found this odd, since the same thing happens to white people and they get minimal, or no jail time … like Keeva Delaney, who murdered her husband during an argument and was given one year in jail, and nine years of probation. And Delaney will serve her sentence one month at a time for ten years so as not to ruin her life. Uh huh.

Well, there’s good news for Brown. Tennessee governor Bill Haslam has granted her a full commutation to parole and she will be eligible for release on August 7 after serving 15 years; she will remain on parole for 10 years.

It should be noted that Haslam is a Republican. Just sayin’.

The Fat Bastard, and his band of racist evangelicals, are all fired up about building a wall, but have absolutely no desire to fix our dangerously crumbling infrastructure.

Think on that.

A new bill, the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act ,cleared the US Senate last month in a rare unanimous vote. Under this new bill, lynchings will be charged as a federal hate crime.

Good news, though not for The Gays, if the Hate Group, the Liberty Counsel, gets its way. See, they are angry because a portion of the bill includes protections for the LGBT community, and Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver is lobbying Congressional lawmakers Representatives to have the LGBT language removed from the law:

“The old saying is once that camel gets the nose in the tent, you can’t stop them from coming the rest of the way in. And this would be the first time that you would have in federal law mentioning gender identity and sexual orientation, as part of this anti-lynching bill.”

Staver has his homophobia all twisted because he sees this new law as a kind of “slippery slope” that could :::gasp:::: further LGBT anti-discrimination laws, which have long been blocked by the GOP in Congress.

So, he’d like to make it clear, that if

 a mob were to attack and murder anyone in the LGBTQ community simply because they are an LGBTQ person, that should not be included as a Hate Crime.

Mat Staver can fuck off.

I also posted about Sara Cunningham last month; she’s the mother of a gay son who announced on Facebook that she would stand in for any mother who refused to attend their sons’ or daughters’ weddings because of their sexual orientation.

Well, Cunningham’s story will be made into a film starring LGBTQ ally Jamie Lee Curtis who posted this photo and statement after meeting Cunningham:

“Spent the day with my doppelgänger, inspirational mama bear, leader, author and social activist, Sara Cunningham, whose program @freemomhugs offers support to LGBTQ members whose families don’t.  As we say…. stay tuned #hero #freemomhugs.”

Good; Cunningham’s story is one that needs to be told.

Good news out of Texas recently; seriously good news. In Harris County 17 women were sworn in as new judges; even better, they were 17 black women.

The times are a’changing, even in Texas.

Neal McDonough, actor, and blue-eyed hottie,  says his Catholicism, and his love for his wife Ruve, are the reason he won’t kiss a woman onscreen, even if it costs him jobs:

“I won’t kiss any other woman because these lips are meant for one woman.”

McDonough admitted his stance has lost him work in the past , including a role on ABC’s “Scoundrels’’ after he chose not to perform a sex scene with actress Virginia Madsen:

“I was [surprised], and it was a horrible situation for me. After that, I couldn’t get a job because everybody thought I was this religious zealot. I am very religious. I put God and family first, and me second. That’s what I live by. It was hard for a few years. “But I was not going to lose the fight. And it worked. My career has been phenomenal.”

Not all show’s have had an issue with McDonough’s unusual stance. When he was offered the role of Nicollette Sheridan’s husband on “Desperate Housewives’’ he told creator Marc Cherry he wouldn’t kiss her, and Cherry simply said he’d have to write better scenes for him then.

I have a couple of questions, though. Um, Neal, would you kiss a guy? And if you need to practice would you travel to Smallville? And, on a more serious note, if you won’t kiss another woman because it goes against your religious views, how come you have no problem being a drug dealer or murderer on screen? Just asking.

I love RuPaul’s Drag Race, I love the creativity and the art and the jokes and the rudeness and the tea and the shade of it all. But I guess there are times when even Ru thinks the show may go too far.

Case in point: during a recent episode of All-Stars. The runway challenge was a “Curves and Swerves” challenge. Manila Luzon chose to rock a quilted pink Louis XIV inspired ensemble, but it was not her first choice. Nope, her first option was a Tampon-inspired number, until it was vetoed by Ru Paul for being in “bad taste.”

You say bad taste, I say high-larious. Manila posted a photo of her in the outfit to Instagram, saying:

“Ru said my ORIGINAL Curves & Swerves Runway look was in “bad taste” and production told me to wear my back up. I was really looking forward to wearing this gown that I think celebrates a perfectly normal human experience! Many of my fans are young women who may feel pressured by society to be embarrassed by periods. It’s empowering to teach young women about their bodies, encourage them to celebrate them AND to question people who tell them not to! My goal with this look was to normalize menstruation by looking sick’ning even if I was on my period! Instead, I decided to wear the beautiful quilted dress you saw in the episode because it is not my show, it’s Ru’s. But because of Ru, I have my very own platform to speak for myself and show you all my interpretation! my Period Gown is by @theladyhyde”

When did Drag Race get so precious? That gown would have killed on the runway, in humor and styling and shock value.

Just sayin’, Ru,

Okay, so going back to the Golden Globes, I keep thinking about Timothee Chalamet and his glittering harness he wore. He was a little avantgarde hottie and, since I found out he was not a child, he can join my list of Hot Men, er, maybe Hot Much Younger Than Me Men.

And I will not hold it against him that he got to kiss My-Husband-In-My-Head, Armie Hammer, in Call Me By Your Name.

Carry on …

I Didn't Say It ...

Nathan Peterson, the actor in the ‘fourgy’ scene in the premiere episode of American Horror Story: Hotel, on that scene and his new crush, Matt Bomer:

"It was an intense scene. I was there completely naked, I was nervous as hell. I was kind of like intimidated at first. I’m sitting there, Ryan Murphy directing, Lady Gaga and Matt Bomer were right there. Everybody’s naked. I’m so nervous and all three of those people really, really made me feel so comfortable and so at ease. My nervousness really did go away. I have so much respect for Gaga, Ryan and Matt. [Matt’s] a very attractive guy – he’s my new man crush. He’s so cool, so sweet and down to Earth. Really personable."

Um, and Nathan? Lest you forget: Matt Bomer is my husband … in my head.

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Rand Paul, future failed presidential candidate, suggesting that gay folks should stay in the closet to avoid getting fired for being gay:

“I think really the things you do in your house, if you could just leave those in your house, they wouldn’t have to be part of the workplace, to tell you the truth. I don’t know that we need to keep adding to different classifications to say the government needs to be involved in hiring and firing. I think society is rapidly changing, and if you are gay, there are plenty of places that will hire you.”

So he says we should stay in the closet or just take jobs where gay people are valued and cannot be fired?

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Rand Paul, future failed presidential candidate, suggesting that he didn’t say gay folks should stay in the closet to avoid getting fired for being gay:

 “I don’t think anybody should be fired for being gay. I do also, though, believe that your personal life should be personal and shouldn’t affect anyone firing you. So, I don’t think the decision whether to hire or fire you should be based on things from your personal life. [But] I do worry about a workplace where, every sort of classification of person then becomes something where, 'Oh, I lost my job, maybe then I'll sue because I also happen to be gay.'" 

I wonder if he’d tell that to a Black man who was fired for being Black. Or a woman fired for her gender? A Muslim fired for their faith? Or is it just gay folks that shouldn’t be allowed to sue for wrongful termination.

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Jeb — no last name — seemingly laying the blame for 9/11 on both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, but never, ever, never on W:

“Two ways to look at Islamic terrorism: One is a threat that has to be taken out, as it relates to creating a strategy that calls it a war. Or we view it as a law enforcement operation, where people have rights. I think the Clinton administration made a mistake, of thinking bin Laden had to be viewed from a law enforcement perspective. Similarly, President Obama’s policies seem to be focused on that as well.”

So, Clinton blew, and W, who did nothing but take vacations, did the right thing, and then, Obama, the man who took bin Laden out—and remember this was after W said bin Laden was ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive,’ and then a few months later said he wasn’t worried about him—is somehow to blame.

Jeb cannot even get his history straight so he shouldn’t try and rewrite it.

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Mat Staver, head of the Liberty Counsel, a hate group, on how Kim Davis did have a private meeting with the Pope because there’s no proof she didn’t:

“The meeting with Kim Davis was unlike the other meetings because it was a private meeting and that’s what we’ve said from the very beginning, and that’s in fact what happened. There are some people that speculated that it must have just been some large group that she was a part of, the Pope certainly may not have known who she was, she just came up and greeted him. And the fact of the matter is, these pictures unequivocally show that that is not true. Because all of meetings where he met with groups of people, on the 24th of September at the Vatican Embassy, are now published. 22 pages of pictures on the Vatican website, and Kim Davis is not in any of those group pictures.”

So, no pictures of Kim and the Pope mean Kim and the Pope met one another?

Give it up, Staver, your wingnut puppet is not a friend of Frankie’s.

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Chris Kluwe, former Minnesota Vikings and LGBT ally, writing to Houston Texans’ owner Bob McNair about his $10,000 donation to fight Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance [HERO]:

“WHY? Why does the idea of LBGT individuals enjoying the same rights and protections as everyone else fill you with such hatred, such loathing, that you would voluntarily choose to make their lives even more difficult than the prejudice they’ve faced for decades? Are you not aware that trans individuals are nine times more likely to try and kill themselves due to the odiously corrosive social views like the one you’ve just financially enabled? Have you no knowledge of the fact that LBGT youth are far more likely to experience harassment at school and home, leading to depression and ideations of self-harm  —  mostly due to the shortsighted wrongheadedness of privileged narcissists like yourself? I can only imagine you never bothered to research any of this, Bob.”

Bravo, Chris, bravo.

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I Didn't Say It....

Alan Grayson, former Congressman, on what the 'Occupy Wall Street' protests are about:
"They're complaining about the fact that Wall Street wrecked the economy three years ago and nobody's been held responsible for that. Not a single person has been indicted or convicted for destroying 20% of our national net worth accumulated over the course of two centuries. They're upset about the fact that Wall Street has iron control over the economic policies of this country, and that one part is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street and the other party caters to them as well!"


There you have it.
Plain and simple.
Leave it to Grayson to just spell it out without the rhetoric.

Michael Keegan, head of People For The American Way, on Mitt Romney's condemnation of Bryan Fischer--even while never mentioning Fischer by name:
"Mitt Romney clearly realized that his presidential campaign couldn’t ignore the bigotry of Bryan Fischer and the American Family Association. I’m glad that he saw fit to put at least a small distance between himself and the hate speech regularly pushed by Fischer, even if he couldn’t bring himself to call Fischer out by name. Since he began running for President, Mitt Romney has bent over backwards in a desperate attempt to make himself palatable to the extreme right. At least we’ve seen that there are some things he’s willing to speak out against, no matter how tepid his condemnation may be. It’s disappointing that none of the other candidates have been willing to go even that far."


Maybe Mittsy is finally realizing that hate is hate. I mean Bryan Fischer hates Mormons as much as he hates the Gays.
And the Jews.
And the Muslims.
And the Black community.

Andrew Sullivan, on MGB not running for president:
"So she's bowing out. Call it cowardice; call it a rare example of sanity; call it a bizarre end to an even weirder game of hide and seek for the past few months. But the bottom line is: we can stop worrying about the threat she posed to this country. That is all I really cared about: the insane gamble with the world that John McCain foisted on us, with no vetting and no reason but desperation and cynicism. It is hard to describe the relief of this awful person finally going away."


The sad fact, however, is that she won't ever really go away because she thinks some folks want to hear her asinine opinions, and watch her asinine shows, and follow her asinine family.
She quite because she can make more money being an ass, which is a sad commentary on our country.

Neil Patrick Harris, on how to survive in Hollywood:
"Actually, the secret to surviving Hollywood is fairly obvious. Costar in a major motion picture with Whoopi Goldberg, accept the leading role on a television at 16, disappear for a while, surfacing only for the occasional TV movie or animated children's series, send up your image in a cultish stoner movie, play a womanizing scoundrel on a hit TV show, come out of the closet to millions of people, become a father of twins, and then take over the world. Sounds pretty simple to me...."


And I think he's on the right track to total NPH domination.
Woo! Hoo!

Ben Stein, Teabagger and hasbeen actor, on Occupy Wall Street:
"The next step, I am sure, by the way, for the Occupy Wall Street crowd is for Anderson Cooper, Bill Maher, and Jon Stewart, the trifecta of conventional wisdom's failed liberalism, to come down to Wall Street and join the masses in demanding more of our tax money so they can all be supported as novelists and movie directors. You poor kids. You are basically asking to be supported and taken care of by Mommy and Daddy. Wake up, kids. Wall Street is you, with all of your wants and needs and wishes, only they have the balls to go out and work for it. Sometimes they are crooks and sometimes they are fools -- but you know what? So are all of us. Listen to Mr. Cain. Shut up and get to work."


Blame the havenots for not having, while banks and brokers become multi-billionaires on their backs.
I guess it's okay to steal and rob from the poor because you, um, worked at it.
You're an asshat, Mister Stein.

R. Clark Cooper, head of the Log Cabin Republicans, responding to Herman Cain's assertion that homosexuality is a choice:
"If Herman Cain truly wants to see the science proving that sexual orientation is not a choice, Log Cabin Republicans would be happy to show it to him. The claim that a person chooses to be gay or lesbian has been discredited by every major professional medical organization, starting with the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association. An individual’s orientation is no more a choice than the color of his skin or whether he is left-handed, and too many people have been hurt because of failed attempts to change the way they were born."


Herman Cain is that typical Republican, like Bachmann and Perry before him, and the asshats that will surely follow, who won't believe anything that doesn't suit their political agenda and aspirations, even with evidence right under their nose.
You cannot teach an old stupid GOP dog a new trick.

Rachel Maddow, on gay marriage:

"I feel that gay people not being able to get married for generations, forever, meant that we came up with alternative ways of recognizing relationships. And I worry that if everybody has access to the same institutions that we lose the creativity of subcultures having to make it on their own. And I like gay culture."


I kind of disagree with Maddow here.
i don't think fighting for the right to be married means we must all get married. It simply means we have the same rights as everyone else.
To form some sort of traditional marital bond, or do as Maddow has done, find a new way to have her relationship recognized.
We don't have to get married, but we do have the right to do so if we choose.

Courtney Love, on how she might react if Kurt Cobain came back to life:
"Mad? Ya think?! If he came back right now I’d have to kill him, for what he did to us. I’d f–king kill him. I’d f–k him, and then I’d kill him...He tried to kill himself three times!...He OD’d at least five times. I was the fucking E.M.S. I was always sticking pins in his balls. I carried around Narcan!”


She's quite the victim of Cobain's addictions, and the hero of them as well.
Love likes to rewrite history.
The sad thing is that even after she rewrites it, she rewrites it again and again so you'll never know what she actually means.

Mat Staver, head of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty University’s law school, on the "gay threat":
"We are facing the survival of western values, western civilization. And I think those survival, whether they win or lose, what will the future of America be will be determined in our lifetime…. One of the most significant threats to our freedom is in the area of sexual anarchy with the agenda of the homosexual movement, the so-called LGBT movement. It does several things, first of all it undermines family and the very first building block of our society, but secondly, it’s a zero sum game as well and it’s a direct assault on our religious freedom and freedom of speech."


So, in order to protect your freedoms, Mat, you work to denigrate, demoralize, and humiliate the LGBT community?
You work to deny us our freedoms in order to, in your words, protect yours?
STFU asshat.

Barney Frank, firing back at Newt "Serial Adulterer" Gingrich, after Gingrich said he should be jailed:
"I wish I knew that he was willing to listen to my advice, I would have given him some: I would have told him not to impeach Clinton, I would have told his successors not to go to war with Iraq, and I would have told DeLay not to go on the dance show. He’s been having a bad year, you know — this self-styled intellectual leader of the free world struggling to stay ahead of Michele Bachmann in the polls is unsettling him so he talks even sillier than he sometimes does."


Poor Newt, nothing going for him, no chancre at ever being elected to public office again, a possible divorce in his future--let's face it, he's a three-time loser at marriage--so he has to make idiotic statements just to get noticed.
Must be hard for Newty, realizing a pizza-maker, a Minnesota wingnut, and a Texas Bush 3, get more press.

Anita Perry, saying that her husband is being targeted for his devout faith:
"It’s been a rough month. We have been brutalized and beaten up and chewed up in the press to where I need this today. We are being brutalized by our opponents, and our own party. So much of that is, I think they look at him, because of his faith. He is the only true conservative – well, there are some true conservatives. And they’re there for good reasons. And they may feel like God called them too. But I truly feel like we are here for that purpose."


Oh Anita, you think it'd get any easier if your idiot husband was prewsident.
Delsuional? Meet Anita.
And, um, Anita, nealry all the recent front-runners of the GOP presidential field say that God called them to be president, so either God can't make up her mind or she's playing a coloosal joke on y'all.