Bobservations

You’d think after eighteen years together, I’d be able to understand Carlos; not so much. This is an actual conversation:

Carlos: “I remember when I was a kid and my mother wanted to take me to the boat show. She told my father he was taking us on Saturday, which was the night my father always saw his mistress, so he wasn’t happy. And he wasn’t happy wearing a suit and tie—”

Bob: “A suit and tie? At a boat show?”

Carlos: “Yes. And he really didn’t want to see the dancers at the boat show.”

Bob: “Dancers? What the hell kinda boat show is that?”

Carlos: “What boat show.”

Bob: “You said your mother wanted to take you to the boat show.”

Carlos: “Not the ‘boat show,’ the Bolshoi! The ballet.”

Bob: “Oy.”

Boat show, Bolshoi. Po-tay-to, Patata.

Sorry, not sorry.

Rider University, a private university in central New Jersey, asked students last spring which fast food franchise they would like to see on campus. The results showed a preference for Chick-fil-A, so in the fall, when the final survey was taken, the university removed the restaurant as an option because Chick-fil-A is “widely perceived to be in opposition to the LGBTQ+ community.”’

Yassssss.

In other great news, the NRA saw its income dip by $55 million last year, after a record-breaking 2016.

Again, sorry, not sorry,

Just to prove gays can be asshats just like straight folk, I give you Bill White and his husband, Bryan Eure. The two were former Clinton supporters who turned tail and ran to the _____ rally on election night when it was clear Hillary was losing. White says:

“I didn’t want to be part of that misery pie; I’m not a wallower in self-pity. I really believe that once that decision is made, you have to get behind your president.”’

The couple has other reasons for justifying their allegiance to _____; they got all kinds of pissy when Chelsea Clinton didn’t recognize them at Ralph Lauren’s Polo Bar in Midtown Manhattan but say Donnie Junior always takes their calls.

Seriously. These two can f**k off.

We haven’t had any snow yet this year in Smallville, but when we do, I’ll know how to measure it.

Just sayin’.

Iowa? Really?

Iowa is granting permits to allow people who are legally or completely blind to be able to buy or carry guns in public because state law does not allow sheriffs to deny an Iowan the right to carry a weapon based on physical ability.

Even better; while Iowa requires training for anyone who is issued a permit to carry a weapon in public, that requirement can be satisfied through an online course that does not include any hands-on instruction or a shooting test.

Seriously, Iowa?

It costs a lot to bed Melanie.

Apparently the bills for Melanie’s day trip—she did not stay the night—to Toronto last year cost the American people $174,000. Add that to the $95,000 it cost to get Melanie a room at the InterContinental Cairo Semiramis, where she stayed for less than half a day at the end of her tour of Africa last month and you can see she’s as bad as that husband of hers when it comes to spending our money.

Melanie’s spokes-tool implied that the “advance team” was responsible for some of the costs, BUT federal expense documents reported separate, additional costs for the advance team that added up to $18,000.

Melanie is a pampered little liar like her Fat Husband; just sayin’.

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you; this is an actual set of floating stairs in a private home. 

Gorgeous, but, yeah, a few glasses of wine later, I’d be falling down those stairs into the cellar and …wait, if it was a wine cellar?

Win win.

Take a good look at the photo. That is every single politician who voted to repeal Obamacare.

And every red X denotes a politician who was voted out of office in November.

See, voting matters.

An ISBL Public Service Announcement:

With the holiday season upon us, those red Salvation Army donation buckets are out again. And while I am only too happy to help when I can, I avoid giving to the Salvation Army because of their, voraciously denied by them, anti-LGBTQ stance.

For example: In 2008, trans woman Jennifer Gale was found dead outside a homeless shelter run by the Salvation Army. The reason she froze to death on the street? The Salvation Army refused to shelter her with the other women due to her genitalia.

In in 2016, the Salvation Army refused to back a Safe Schools initiative, which was meant to combat anti-LGBTI bullying.

Most recently, a gag order was put on Salvation Army employees forbidding them from talking about LGBTI issues.

So instead of donating money or old clothes to the Salvation Army this year, try one of these non-religious, pro-LGBTI charities.

Foundation Beyond Belief

The Ali Forney Center

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project

Housing Works

The Audre Lorde Project

TGI Justice

The Trevor Project

And thank you.

I am not usually attracted to the dirty blond, blue-eyed types, but then along came former football turned model Heath Hutchins and I became a convert. Heath dropped fifty pounds from his college football playing days to become a rather hot model with icy blue eyes.

A real dreamboat, I must say; and now I have another ‘type.’

David Bromstad Pals Around With The Salvation Army

Although you’d never know it by watching any of his appearances on the network — they prefer to keep their star's sexual orientation on the Down Low  — but HGTV’s David Bromstad is a gay man. He’s also a rather idiotic man.

See, David Bromstad is hosting an event for the Salvation Army next month in Fort Lauderdale and many of his fans — and I’ll count myself as one, or at least I used to count myself as one — are angry.

See, we all know, and if you didn’t before you do now, that the Salvation Army is an in-your-face, blatantly anti-LGBT organization. The Salvation Army calls being gay an “unacceptable urge”, and the Salvation Army is working against same-sex marriage legislation in both the United Kingdom and Australia; the group has threatened to stop serving New York City if it had to obey an equal benefits ordinance, and just recently — see post HERE — Major Andrew Craibe, a Salvation Army Media Relations Director, said that gays should be put to death.

Yes. Death. But Bromstad is standing firm in his participation in the event, posting this on his Facebook page:

Dear fans, 

I've read your feedback on my participation with The Salvation Army USA, as an openly gay person whom just happens to also be a celebrity, I took the Salvation Army's request to participate in their fundraiser as one step in the right direction towards equality. If we simply separate ourselves from those that we assume appose us or our beliefs then we will never make strides in the right direction. I applaud the Salvation Army's symbolic handshake towards acceptance and would be foolish to not extend my hand in acceptance.

The Salvation Army wants you dead, David. They are not extending an olive branch or offering a handshake. You are unacceptable to them, and they have said so time and again, and as recently as last week.

You are a commodity to them — especially in Florida where you are quite popular— and a name that will attract crowds; they will overlook your blatant homosexuality because you’ll make them some cash and make them look good, and then the minute you step off the stage they’ll go back to saying that you should be put to death.

I think you’d better serve the rights of the LGBT and a charity organization by working with one that supports the LGBT community and doesn’t want us slaughtered for our unacceptable urges. But I’m guessing to you that it’s a nice paycheck, and maybe that’s all that matters to you.

I find that unacceptable.

Random Musings

So, in another pathetic, and yet sadly not a last ditch, effort to stop Obamacare the GOP has said it will shut down the government if they don’t get their way.

I say, Shut it down, vote the motherfuckers out. Tell the GOP that they are not there to process their racist agenda against the president they are there to work for us. And they haven’t done One.Single.Thing. since Obama took office because all they wanna do is stop him.

That’s the GOP. Vote.Them.Out.

Maybe marriage equality will come to New Jersey after all.

It seems that two Republicans, Holly Schepisi and Declan O’Scanlon, and two Democrats, Wayne DeAngelo and Gabriela Mosquera, have announced that they will vote to override Governor Chris Christie's 2012 veto of the marriage equality bill.

And O’Scanlon believes there might be more:

“The narrative that the governor strong-arms Republicans in the Legislature is false. I think you’ll see some other folks vote for it, but I don’t know exactly how many at this point. We’re some time away from that vote actually happening."

Hopefully the New Jersey GOP will not take a page from the Washington GOP and they’ll actually do something.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it half a billion times — no exaggeration — Grampa John McCain needs to retire already, head back to Arizona, park his wrinkled ass on the front porch and bark at the neighbor kids to get off his lawn.

Seriously, with everything happening in this country, and around the world, John McCain was most pissy about the night the LA Dodgers bested the Arizona Diamondbacks they celebrated by diving into the stadium pool. And this got McCain’s knickers — and you just know he’s wearin’ knickers — in a twist. He instantly Tweeted out:

Now, some politicos let their staffs do the Tweeting for them, but not Gramps McCain. This was all him and apparently it was the most pressing issue of the day for him.

The most unfortunate outcome is that the Dodgers players appeared to keep a more level head than the senior senator from Arizona, except on Twitter, though, where Dodger Brian Wilson Tweeted his response:

Suh-nap. Of course, McCain didn’t respond that day because they were serving applesauce in the Senate cafeteria and then it was time for his nap.

Dexter finished up it series run last Sunday night. I'm ambivalent about the ending — as happens every time a favorite series ends — feeling both glad and sad. He may have been a serial killer, but he was one of the good guys.

We also watched the finale of Devious Maids AKA Desperate Housewives If the Housewives Were Maids. Lifetime promised an OMG ending; seriously, they said I'd go OMG at the ending when all I said was Really? That's it? And the last episode of Broadchurch on BBCAmerica; I love a good British copper show and this one didn’t disappoint.

Now for some new shows:

Loved The Blacklist. James Spader is oily. That's all. Hated Mom. I should have known it would suck when I saw it was created by Chuck '2.5 Men' Lorre. Cheese from start to finish.

I liked Trophy Wife because at least the premiere had some irreverent humor. I loathed Lucky 7 which is about a bunch of stereotypes — though thankfully not one gay stereotype in the bunch — who with the Lottery. Yawnery.

Revolution is back. Loved it. Law & Order: SVU; I'm a huuuge fan. Modern Family — let’s just say Cam and Mitchell changing the tire was sweet ... in case you haven't yet seen it. Nashville? Hunks. Yes.

What are you watching?

Okay, for a long time now I have refused to donate used goods to the Salvation Army or drop any loose change into one of their holiday buckets because of their anti-gay stance, but this is just over the line.

While the Salvation Army has expressed their, um, distaste for the LGBT community in the past, citing their Christian beliefs — because it is impossible to be Christian and gay, you know — but recently Major Andrew Craibe, a Salvation Army Media Relations Director, went on public radio to discuss a call by LGBT parents for a boycott them for their anti-gay policies and beliefs. He said that LGBTQ parents should be put to death as the bible instructs and when radio host Serena Ryan continued the questioning it went like this:

Ryan: According to the Salvation Army, gay parents deserve death. How do you respond to that, as part of your doctrine?”

Craibe: Well, that’s a part of our belief system.”

Ryan: So they should die.”

Craibe: You know, we have an alignment to the Scriptures, but that’s our belief.

So, um, yeah, think about that the next time you have old clothes to donate or the next time one of their obnoxious bell-ringers is outside the grocery store asking for money.

Let ‘em know how you feel about their stance that gay parents deserve to be murdered.

I don't like Elton John saying he'll go to Russia because The Gays want to hear him. I think he likes the attention he's getting, he has a new album to promote, and he likes the dough.

It';s like when he sang at one of Rush Limbaugh's weddings and said maybe it might change Limbaugh's mind about marriage equality; all it turned out to be was  payday for Elton.

Take a note from a real gay man, Cher, and Just say No!

Good news, bad news.

The Berkeley City Council is set to vote on a proposal to close their domestic partner registry, now that same-sex marriage is allowed in California.

Gay District 2 Councilman Darryl Moore has placed a resolution on the council's October 1 agenda that would direct the city manager to close the registry October 11, twenty-two years after the registry was first launched:

"I am happy to say that the City of Berkeley's domestic partnership registry is obsolete. With the adoption of marriage equality in the state of California, we no longer need it, and on the 22nd anniversary of the registry being established, we are now able to officially close it in celebration of Marriage Equality Day."

Moore is also proposing that the October 11 celebration be marked by marriages conducted at Berkeley City Hall from 6 to 8 p.m.

It’s sad that the people who worked there might be out of a job, but it’s nice to see this relic of the olden times when inequality existed in California be shut down.

To Give or Not To Give....Or To Whom Do You Give

The Salvation Army is taking a hit this season, and most of that hit is coming straight [pardon the pun] from the LGBT community. There is a huge network of FaceBookers and Twitterers and websites and gay blogs [Hi there!] that are protesting against the Salvation Army.

See, the Salvation is very anti-gay, and blatantly so. The Army's official same-sex statement suggests that, while homosexuals are not blameworthy, "Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex." The Salvation Army in Australia has even gone as far as calling homosexuality a "rebellion against God,"and you can forget about same-sex benefits for Army employees. Not gonna happen.

And, of course, we can't forget that it was just last month that the Salvation Army in Houston was asking for prove of citizenship before doling out goods and services to the needy. Now, to be fair, they did stop this practice when the story broke, but do we seriously think they would have continued on if no one spoke up?

So, should we give to the Salvation Army or not? Look at this way, they do help folks in need; they do provide goods and services to people who need them. The Army raises some $2 billion a year and spends 89 percent of that on services, from food, shelter, foster care and, yes, HIV programs.

But what of their homophobic policies? Should we, as a community and those who support us, deny our donations to the Salvation Army because of their policies? Or should we look beyond the group and be grateful for the services they do provide? It's a question each of us must answer as we walk out of stores and malls this season and hear that clang-clang-clang in the back ground.

To give or not to give. That isn't the question. The question is to whom do you give. And I have my answer. What's yours? Do you, have you, will you, give to the Salvation Army this year?