Colbert Rocks!

The Colbert Report last night was exceptional. Here’s my favorite clip:

Gay Demon on the Loose

Gay Couples Raising Kids Naturally

From the Associated Press:

“A German zoo says a pair of gay male penguins are raising a chick from an egg abandoned by its parents.

Bremerhaven zoo veterinarian Joachim Schoene says the egg was placed in the male penguins’ nest after its parents rejected it in late April. The males incubated it for some 30 days before it hatched and have continued to care for it.

Schoene said the male birds are one of three same-sex pairs among the zoo’s 20 penguins. ”

Of course, I don’t really think this is news, but a lot of people might thik it’s unusual. That’s why I posted it. Draw your own conclusions.

Driving Equality Hits the Road

A couple of weeks ago gay activist Chris Mason started out on his “Driving Equality” tour across America. If you haven’t heard of him, he’s the fellow who conducted Phelps-a-Thons and such to raise money for this cause. You can follow his progress on his website, Driving Equality, and even make a donation if so inclined.

At this moment, he is in Georgia. He’s already passed through West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and more. There’s a handy little GPS page on his blog to show where he is at all times. He’s also posting videos of interviews and such. All in all, a very interesting and entertaining trip.

Here’s a video from the Great Smoky Mountains. It was a pleasant way to start my Saturday morning.

Found on the Internet

I came across this image on the internet the other day and I liked it so much it is now my desktop wallpaper.

The irony, of course, is that it comes from an anti-Obama blog, the Shaved Ape. It’s meant to be insulting, but instead, it’s just humorous. I think Obama would get a chuckle out of it. So if this is the best the opposition can do, I guess America will probably be ruled by Democrats for decades to come.

A Filibuster-Proof Senate

This is the best news I have heard in some time. Arlen Specter, longtime GOP senator from Pennsylvania, has switched sides. Due to the right-wing extremism of the republican party, he realized that the Democrats make more sense. It could be others will follow, but once the fiasco in Minnesota is finalized and Franken gets his seat, the Democrats will have a filibuster-proof 60 seat majority in the Senate. Read more here: CNN.

Specter: Ex-Republican by rising_tide_tees
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Extreme Oklahoma: Wake Up, Now!

It’s no secret that the state legislature in Oklahoma is made up of a bunch of right-wing extremists. Sally Kern became famous last year for screeching about how homosexuals posed a bigger threat to our nation than terrorism. Mike Ritze, while not so well known, wants to put up a monument to the ten commandments at the state capitol despite the fact that the Supreme Court already ruled against this in McCreary County vs. ACLU. More recently, on Feb. 10th of this year to be exact, twenty of these right-wing nuts voted to strike a prayer from the official House Records because it had been given by a gay man. Fortunately, they lost because 64 legislators approved it, proving that not all Republicans in the Oklahoma House, while conservative, are necessarily nuts.

But just because they are not all the extreme right wing, plenty of conservative republicans and some democratic legislators vote with these core twenty people. That is why last week the senate was able to easily pass a bill making stem cell research illegal. The Daily Oklahoman, a conservative paper, is finally waking up to the fact of just how extreme Oklahoma’s rule making body has become with this editorial. But is anyone paying attention?

Now I don’t mind if Kern and her cohorts hate homosexuals and think it is unnatural, yada, yada, yada. What I do object to is the fact that her ultimate goal is to impose biblical law on society. If she thought she could get away with it, she would introduce a bill tomorrow calling for “stoning by death” of all known homosexuals. Next, would be return African-Americans to slavery and outlawing divorce and bank accounts for single women.

Banning stem cell research is just another way of saying ‘no’ to science and the modern age. It is another attempt to move Oklahoma in the direction of the stone age. Charles Key, with help from Randy Brogdon, recently passed a resolution, not a bill as World Net Daily proclaims, declaring Oklahoma a sovereign state. Is this what Oklahomans want? To leave the union and live in darkness?

It’s time to wake up, people. It’s time to take notice of what your elected representatives are doing. It’s time to quit drinking the Republican kool-aid and take action.

Call Gov. Brad Henry tomorrow and ask him to veto HB 1326. His phone number is : (405) 521-2342

Of course, if he does veto it, the veto could be overturned by the house and the senate, so then you will need to call your representatives and ask them to sustain the veto.

Click this link to find name and contact info for your representative: http://www.okhouse.gov/

Click this link to find name and contact info for your senator: http://www.oksenate.gov/

Do not take my word for it. Do your own research. Find out what your legislature is doing and let them know how you feel about it. Study the issues and make up your own mind.

My New Favorite Movie: Doubt

Every once in awhile, a film comes along that is perfect. Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley, is such a film. Originally a play that won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2005, it must have been written in 2004, probably after Bush was “re-elected”, and the fear and despair that reasonable people felt about suffering through another four years of his administration was at its height.

While the film tells the story of a power struggle between a priest and a nun at a Catholic school in 1964, the real struggle is ideological. It is about hope vs. fear, compassion vs. hatred, good vs. evil. The Harry Potter books offer the same theme, but in Doubt there is enough ambiguity to keep you on your toes and really make you think. Throw in some racism and homophobia and you have a film that speaks to our times even though it takes place 45 years ago.

This film is about the current culture war. Meryl Streep’s portrayal of an embittered, cynical, old nun who only sees the worst in people reminds me of Maggie Gallagher at the National Institute of Marriage. They are the ones who recently put out that awful, fear-mongering ad about Teh Gays. But already YouTube is filled with videos countering that hateful message. To see a good selection, check out this post at The Gaytheist Agenda.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was great in Capote not so long ago, was excellent as the priest. As a child, I attended a Catholic church circa 1970 that had similar ideas to those that Hoffman’s character espouses. He reminded me so much of the priest that I knew that it was uncanny.

One other theme that really makes this film great is the idea of change vs. entrenchment. The priest wants to bring the school into the modern age. The nun is incapable of changing. She sees evil everywhere. Love and compassion are alien concepts too her. So the question remains: Are we moving toward a new era of acceptance or are we doomed to be ruled by our fear? And isn’t religion and its antiquated notions of heaven and hell part of the problem?

I gave up on Catholicism thirty years ago, but I would urge Catholics everywhere to watch this movie and really think about what it means. I suppose it is asking too much for the Pope to step into the modern age, but I can hope, can’t I?

A Picture is Worth 1,000 400 Words

It must be a depression if the price of pictures in words has been slashed. Still, I thought I’d post my latest t-shirt designs here anyway, even if they aren’t worth much. Having been laid off from my job last week, I now have lots of time to design t-shirts and really, isn’t that more important than wiring electrical control systems? I think so.

This first one with the graphic of a man in a business suit holding a gun seems apropos for the times. I thought of two different slogans and couldn’t decide which one I liked better, so I did them both.


I liked the type treatment so much that I went back and reworked a design that I’d done the day before: Catholics for Condoms. I like this one because it reminds me of that group Jews for Jesus which I always thought was a little strange.

Here’s one I did awhile ago but only posted recently. The sign originally said “will trade stocks for food”, but I like this slogan better. This guy is not some fancy executive, but a typical Wall Street worker who is now disillusioned by the capitalist system. I might have to order one of these shirts for myself.

And finally, a design inspired by the movie “Milk”. This one seemed a natural for a vintage look t-shirt. I’ll have to get one of these, too, and go to Edmond, Oklahoma. Maybe I’ll run into Anita Bryant there.

Why I Won’t Be Vacationing in California

My partner and I had been planning on taking a trip to San Francisco this spring. We were thinking of it as a honeymoon, even though we can’t get married. We’ve been together for 9 years and have never taken a vacation without the kids.

But after watching the arguments to overturn Prop 8, I get the feeling that they aren’t going to do it. So why should I go to a state and spend a bunch of money when they obviously don’t value their own LGBT citizens? Gosh, if I want to see bigots all I have to do is stick my head out the door. I don’t need to travel to California to do it.

In fact, I no longer recognize the state of California. It is New Oklahoma as far as I’m concerned. I’m going to save that money and in four years, I will have been cancer-free for five years. Then maybe I can immigrate Canada.

And to all you LGBTs out there in New Oklahoma, I suggest you boycott that state and leave. Hell, you can come to Oklahomo where housing is cheap. And we’ll turn the red state pink.

Lobbying at the Liquor Store with Lucky

I was sitting in the car today while my girlfriend went into the liquor store when who should pull up beside me but Lucky Lamons. Normally, I wouldn’t be so quick to recognize a member of the Oklahoma state legislature, but this is a figure who used to be featured quite often on the evening news back when he was a cop.

So while I sat in the car, I thought of all the things I could say to him. I could ask him about why House Joint Resolution 1003 was allowed to pass. That’s the one that declares Oklahoma as a sovereign state. I wasn’t sure offhand if this guy was a democrat or a republican, but somehow I felt like he was on our side or could, at least, be persuaded. Still, I figured he probably voted for it since the final vote was something like 83-13.

And I thought about how I could ask him why that bill by Ryan Kiesel was allowed to die in committee, the one that would fund a couple of scholarships for students who wanted to study geriatric medicine and commit to serving in rural areas.

But it was a Saturday. And there was a cold wind blowing. And I was only 95% sure it was him. But then, as he was stowing his beer and liquor into the hatch of his SUV, I glanced over at his car and saw a sticker that looked quite official. So I knew. This was a person who was a member of the Oklahoma Legislature.

I had to say something. I couldn’t pass up such a golden opportunity. As Lucky Lamons came around to the drivers seat, I rolled down my window and said. ” Hey , that Sally Kern is really insane, isn’t she?”

Lucky didn’t miss a beat. “Oh, Yeah, she’s insane. She’s a real nut”.

It was a great. I gave him the thumbs up and told him to keep up the good work. Later, I looked up the fact that he is a democrat and also a member of the NRA. And yes, he voted for the Oklahoma sovereignty bill.

But hey, I think he knows that I think that Sally Kern is insane. And I think that he thinks that, too.