Random Musings

Santana is rapidly becoming the most interesting character on Glee, though I could watch Darren Criss just dance for an hour every week.


Bill O'Reilly is a loudmouth; A boorish, one-note, bullying loudmouth. So, I just love to see him get shutdown, especially when he's peddling one of the books he "wrote".
I giggled a couple of years back when i read about the soldiers in Afghanistan, who gleefully burned his book, Pinheads and Patriots. Now, to be fair, they didn't burn the book because they disagreed with O'Reilly, they burned it because O'Reilly says he steadfastly supports our troops, and yet instead of sending them things they could use, like, say, food or soap, he sends them copies of his book. How.Useful. [source]
And now, it's Ford's Theatre, not burning, but banning, his latest book, Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever. Now, this isn't because O'Reilly is a douchenozzle, it's, as Rae Emerson, deputy superintendent of Ford's Theatre, "because of the lack of documentation and the factual errors within the publication."
Lack of documentation? Not a single footnote in O'Reilly's "history" book.
Factual error? Well, for one, the book talks of the many meetings Lincoln held in the Oval Office, even though the Oval Office did not exist until some 44 years after Lincoln's death.
Factual errors? O'Reilly wrote of generals U.S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, saying, "The two warriors will never meet again" when, in fact, Lee and Grant did meet again, in 1865, to discuss prisoners of war.
Oh, Billy Boy, who's the real pinhead? Um, yeah, it's you, because, if you;'re gonna write about history, you ought to have read about it first. [source]


Lotsa folks are grumbling about Billy Crystal replacing Eddie Murphy as host of the Oscars after Murphy stepped down. They're saying it's like a trip back in time.
I'm saying it's like a trip back to funny, and a really good show.


If the Bill O'Reilly story wasn't enough to make me laugh, this one did the trick.
There is a new building--well, it's a couple of years old--in the Bronx, that was funded by New York's Housing and Development Corporation, and backed by voracious homophobe, bigot, and anti-marriage equality politico, Ruben Diaz.
But, the LGBT community gets the last laugh, because this week Bronx Pride set up shop in what is now called the Ruben Diaz Gardens. A building named after a huge homophobe houses Bronx Pride.
Karma is a bitch, Rube. [source]


Top Chef: Texas.
Chris R. is hot, Beverly is wound too tight, Lindsay is tense, Sarah...I just don't like her...and Hugh Acheson's face is latex.
That's all.


Hermie Cain goin' all Rick Perry: "President Obama called for the removal of (Moammar) Gadhafi - just want to make sure we're talking about the same thing before I say yes I agree, or no I didn't agree. I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason - nope, that's a different one....I got to go back and see, I've got all this stuff twirling around in my head."
Like sexual harassment charges?
Oops.

I Didn't Say It.....

NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin on marriage equality and the black community:

"I don’t see how any African-American with any inkling of history can say that you don’t have the right to live your life how you want to live your life," says Irvin. "When we start talking about equality and everybody being treated equally, I don’t want to know an African-American who will say everybody doesn’t deserve equality.”

Equality is equality.
And anyone who has ever felt the sting of injustice, of being treated differently because of who you are, should stand up and fight for the rights of those who are being held down.
Nice to see another athlete, and a Black man, speak up about equality for all.
Sally Kern, on making homosexuality illegal:
"For years, gay activity, gay behavior was outlawed...I would rather it be back in the closet the way it used to be. The reasons they had law against it was because of the consequences that gay activity has...The way it used to be, people did it and it was secret it was in their bedroom and the rest of the world didn't know about it. Today they're pushing it. It's in your face...The more you put deviant sexual behavior in front of children, the more they engage in it."
You know what behavior needs to be put in a closet, Sal?
Hatred. Bigotry. Using God as a weapon.
Gay people aren't pushing what we do in the bedroom, which, like what you do in the bedroom--excuse my I vomit a little in my mouth--is no ones business.
And you can't make people gay, Sally, no matter how much you try and tell people that. You can't make people gay, and you can't make them ex-gay.
Ask your son.
Sally Kern [again!] writing a letter of support to New York bigot and homophobe, Ruben Diaz:
“Sen. Diaz, you are in my prayers. Three years ago I was the target of the homosexuals because of statements I made regarding the dangers of the homosexual agenda. So I know what you are going through. Continue to stand strong on God’s Word. What the homosexuals mean for evil toward you, God will use for His glory, your good, and the benefit of others. God bless you and your family.”

She was a "target" because she called gay people a bigger threat than terrorists, and if you want to compare us to terrorists, or murderers, or pedophiles, we will target you for your bigotry and ignorance and homophobia and downright stupidity.
Now, be gone, Sally, before someone drops a house on you.
Laura Fortusky, town clerk of Barker, New York, announcing her resignation rather than issue same-sex marriage licenses:

"The Bible clearly teaches that God created marriage between male and female as a divine gift that preserves families and cultures. Since I love and follow Him, I cannot put my signature on something that is against God. Deuteronomy 10:12 says, 'What does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.’ I would be compromising my moral conscience if I participated in the licensing procedure. Therefore, I will be resigning as of July 21. I wanted you to know my position as I understand the marriage law goes into effect on July 24."

Sweetie, when God writes your paycheck you can do God's bidding.
When New York pays you, you do what the laws of New York state.
Or pound the pavement looking for work.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, in a letter sent to town and city clerks in her jurisdiction:

"Recently, a local clerk in upstate New York made headlines when she said she would not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The Marriage Equality Act provides that an application for a marriage license cannot be denied on the grounds that the applicant parties are of the same sex and the law affords no discretion to public officials charged with granting marriage licenses. Therefore, any such refusal may be subject to criminal prosecution. The religious exemptions in the Marriage Equality Act are inapplicable to town and city clerks serving in their license-granting roles, and a public official’s intentional refusal to issue marriage licenses to qualified same-sex couples may constitute Official Misconduct, a Class A misdemeanor defined in section 195.00 of the New York State Penal Law."

Perfect example of Separation Of Church and Sate.
This clerk can believe whatever she wants, worship however she wants,m but she cannot inflict her personal views on anyone else, and the expect the state of New York top pay her for it.
Hopefully, Jesus will find her a new job, or hold her hand in the unemployment line.

A spokesman for California governor, Jerry Brown, on the idea of separating California into two states:

"It's a supremely ridiculous waste of everybody's time. If you want to live in a Republican state with very conservative right-wing laws, then there's a place called Arizona.''

It's funny......cuz it's true.
I remember back when I was a little California kid, that this "splitting" of California was being talked about.
Back then San Francisco would have been part of Southern California because back then it was all about the small towns of the north wanting to be separate from the big cities.
Now it's about Conservatives and Liberals.
Didn't work then, won't work now.

GOP presidential candidate Gary Johnson, on that Iowa anti-gay pledge:

"While the Family Leader pledge covers just about every other so-called virtue they can think of, the one that is conspicuously missing is tolerance. In one concise document, they manage to condemn gays, single parents, single individuals, divorcees, Muslims, gays in the military, unmarried couples, women who choose to have abortions, and everyone else who doesn’t fit in a Norman Rockwell painting. The Republican Party cannot afford to have a Presidential candidate who condones intolerance, bigotry and the denial of liberty to the citizens of this country. If we nominate such a candidate, we will never capture the White House in 2012. If candidates who sign this pledge somehow think they are scoring some points with some core constituency of the Republican Party, they are doing so at the peril of writing off the vast majority of Americans who want no part of this."

Johnson is so right here.
As this ultra-conservative faction of the GOP continues to demean everyone who isn't white, Christian, male and Republican, they will distance themselves from the rest of society, until they are no more than an incessant, irritating chatter in the background that most people will choose to ignore.

Michael Reagan, the former president's oldest son, on California's pending law requiring that notable LGBT historical figures be included in state textbooks:

"It will prove instructive to see how the state's lawmakers go about the job of implementing this absurd legislation. Will they, for example, rule that textbooks must describe what the state classifies as acceptable behavior? Or exactly how? Should the state require textbooks used in its schools to provide play-by-play descriptions of the behavior they sanction? Just where does this stop? Should not the 'contributions' of convicted thieves be celebrated? Or those of serial killers? Or embezzlers? The matter of the content of school textbooks has long been a controversial subject, but until now it has never reached the point where specific parts of the population are singled out for preferential treatment, especially when the segment of the population is distinguished solely by their sexual preferences."

First off, you douchebag, it's not a 'preference' it's an orientation.
It works like this: I'd prefer you shut your illiterate yap. My sexual orientation is gay.
Now, how is it absurd to teach anyone about the contributions that the gay community has made to the world in every single facet of life, from politics and art, to sports?
And please explain how you compare gay men and women to serial killers, you moronic fuck.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, on terminating state foster care contracts with Catholic Charities because of their refusal to accept civil union law:

“They made a choice. They have a law in Illinois. It’s the civil unions law. I signed it into law. We’re not going back. Any organization that decides that because of the civil unions law that they won’t participate voluntarily in a program, that’s their choice.”

Bravo, Governor Quinn, for not goosestepping with the Catholic Church and their bigotry.

Bravo, for putting the needs of children, and the rights of all men and women of Illinois, above the bigotry of the Catholic Church.

Bravo!

I Didn't Say It....

Morning!
Carlos and I are off to North Carolina for the day, where he will be speaking at an HIV seminar, so posting will be light. Actually, this is the post for today.
See you all tomorrow.
Now, what are people saying this week.......

MGB®, on her "canceled" bus tour:

"As I said myself at the end of the east coast leg of the tour, the summer is long, and I’m looking forward to hitting the open road again," she wrote on Wednesday. "The coming weeks are tight because civic duty calls (like most everyone else, even former governors get called up for jury duty) and I look forward to doing my part just like every other Alaskan."Command Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, Michael Barrett, on DADT:


This makes me giggle.
She announced the summer long bus tour and then stops not quite halfway though. Where ahs she done that before?
Then I giggle some more when she calls herself a former governor--see, I think you can't call yourself 'former' if you never finished the job--and says she's been called to jury duty.
'Cuz you know she ain't gonna be on no jury. It's just another attempt to keep herself in the spotlight, even though even she realizes that no one really cares about her anymore.
She just figured she'd crawl back to Alaska and whimper in private.
 
New York state Senator Ruben Diaz, again, on marriage equality:

"If gay marriage advocates honestly believe they have a super-majority of New Yorkers in their corner, they should join with us to agree to permit a referendum to decide this issue. If they do not, their claims to represent the majority will ring rather hollow. This gay-marriage bill is not in the best interests of New York, it is not the choice of New Yorkers, and it is decidedly against the interests of the Republican party. The last time the Republican party caved on a deeply important social issue — abortion — it destroyed the party’s prospects for years."
 
Um, Ruben? You douchenozzle?
In America we don't let the majority vote on the rights of the minority--or at least we try not to.
But g'head, have your little vote. Support for marriage eqwuality is on the rise, asshat, and you'll be left in the dust while the rest of us progress.
 

"Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution is pretty simple. It says, 'Raise an army.' It says absolutely nothing about race, color, creed, sexual orientation. You all joined for a reason: to serve. To protect our nation, right? How dare we, then, exclude a group of people who want to do the same thing you do right now, something that is honorable and noble? Right? Get over it. We’re magnificent, we’re going to continue to be. Let’s just move on, treat everybody with firmness, fairness, dignity, compassion and respect. Let’s be Marines."

Wow.
Talk about plain speaking.
Talk about doing what's right.
Get over it.
I.Love.It.

New Jersey Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney has apologized for his anti-marriage equality vote back in Ott-Ten:

"Seventeen months ago, I stood up here and made the biggest mistake of my legislative career. I made a decision based purely on political calculations not to vote in support of marriage equality. I failed in my responsibility as majority leader of this house of government to actually lead. I was wrong. To my fellow colleagues, to staff, and to those watching upstairs, let me tell you: never, ever again will I allow that to happen. The time for political calculations is over."

Very nicely put.
It isn't about politics or political parties or forming allegiances or making deals.
It's about equality.
Everyone, every single politician in every state house in the country, needs to read this and reassess their own politics.

Former NY Giant David Tyree is still talking about how anti-marriage equality he is, and how he'd give up his Super Bowl win to stop same sex marriage:

"Honestly, I probably would. Nothing means more to me than that my God would be honored. Being the fact that I firmly believe that God created and ordained marriage between a man and a woman, I believe that that's something that should be fought for at all costs. So I'll lay down everything I am to preserve the honor and integrity of the God that I serve."

David, honey, you're kinda hot, but the stupid makes you look real homely.
God did not create marriage between one man and one woman. Back in olden times, dear, a man could marry as many women as he wanted. Or a man took a woman, usually against her will because she had none, so that he could gain land, money, or power.
Used to be one didn't marry outside one's faith. That's changed.
Used to be one didn't marry outside one's race. That's changed.
Since the first couple said 'I do' marriage has been evolving, and if you wanna live in the Dark Ages, go for.
And snuggle up to that Super Bowl ring that means almost as much to you as your god.
Wingnut.

Family Research Council spoksebigot Robert Morrison, on how marriage equality is going to ruin absolutely everything:

"There is a lot of talk about bullying these days. We have a massive outlay in federal funds to address the issue of bullying. Growing up on Long Island, I had a sure defense against bullying–my Pop. So did most of the boys I knew. Divorce was rare then and out-of-wedlock birth rarer still. Abortion was against the law. We kids grew up feeling safe, protected in our tender years. One of George Washington’s great contemporaries, Edmund Burke, wrote of something called 'the cheap defense of nations.' Fathers in the home were surely a part of that cheap defense. Without fathers in the home, there won’t be enough money in the U.S. treasury or all the treasuries in the world to guard the young against bullying. New York State, my home state, is on the verge of abolishing fathers in the home. They say they are only 're-defining' marriage. They’re not. They are ending it. And with the end of marriage, will come the dissolution of the state. Gone will be the cheap defense of nations. And no one will know what it means 'to sleep with my fathers.'"

WTF??!??!!
Um, Fucktard? May I call you fucktard?
Please to explain how, allowing gay couples to marry, will decrease the numbers of fathers in homes?
And, while you're at it, please explain how allowing gay couples to say 'I do' will end marriage?
All you right-wing goosesteppers, hate-filled homophobes use fear to state your issue, and yet you back up none of it.
You just say the words and strike fear into people who don't know better.
Well, following your lead, gay marriage will end global warming.
It isn't true, but I said it.
Just like you do.

Chris Brown, giving the crowds a free rant on homophobia and bigotry--to the paparazzi--after he talked a meter maid out of giving him a ticket:

"Y'all n----- is weak. Did you all call them to try and film me? Y'ALL N----- IS GAY."

Color me shocked.
Actually don't.
This is the kind of behavior I'd expect from a man who beats women, from a man who tosses a chair at a window because he didn't like the question he was asked.
I expect Brown to strap on his baby blue bowtie and go on another Apology Tour.
I'm sick to death of these overpaid, over-pampered celebrities and athletes calling people names and then asking us to believe they didn't mean it.
You meant it, you fucking douchebag.
Just like I meant  that.
It's started:

Total respect for the gay community?
Nice try asshat, but I ain't buying it.
You're a dick, but I have total respect for the dick community.

Asshat Of The Week

Me thinks he doth protest too much.

Ruben Diaz, New York state Senator, spends an awful lot of time talking about how he is not a homophobe, telling anyone and everyone who will listen, that they, and by that I mean the LGBT community, doesn't deserve equality. And all this from a man who fought to keep the Gay Games out of New York because it would "spread AIDS" and then sued the city to have its LGBT high school closed. No, he's no homophobe.

"I love them. I love them. But I don’t believe in what they are doing. They are my brothers. They are my family. So how could I be a homophobe? The people of the nation don’t want gay marriage. They didn’t want it in California; they didn’t want it in Maine. And the people of upstate New York, after what happened to the candidate in the 23rd Congressional District, they sent a message they don’t want gay marriage. Forget about it. People don’t want it."

Lemme tell you something, Ruben, you are a homphobe, because you seek to keep us as second class citizens simply because of who we are; it's no different than a white man in the 60s saying he loved the Black community, all the while he was slipping into his white sheet and getting ready to burn a cross on a lawn somewhere.

You're a liar, and a disgrace to politics. And a homophobe.