School's OUT!!! So I think I'm going to have to get away for a bit. Sometime around my birfday I'm outta here for a few days. Me and a horse, and a trail and that's it for three or four days.
Recently I've been lazy and blogging pictures for HGf directly from flickr, (the world's best source of photography) and I'm learning my lesson the hard way. I have noticed holes in my blog.
SO! Starting today we're uploading directly. This missing photo thing is unacceptable. Sorry, I should have known the internet would do me dirty given the chance.
The Arizona legislature has outlawed Ethnic studies classes in public schools that "promote resentment" of other ethnic groups.
Who outlawed this kind of thing? Why the ethnic groups that were being resented that's who!
That kind of thing is reserved for the clubhouse at the golf course thank you very much.
Fat old Republican men with golf clubs in the back of their Navigators do not like being eyeballed by the wetbacks who cut the grass at the club. So how do they deal with it?
Why they change the rules, that's how.
It's how bullies have worked for centuries. They don't know that the truth will set them free.
Yes, I admit I am sitting here smack in the middle of white America exploiting my fat over-educatedness for everything it's worth, but I can't help but know in the back of my mind that that shit ain't right yo. BTW my whiteness ain't gettin' me much either anymore.
How long do you suppose it'll take someone to haul their asses into court and challenge that stupid law? Not long I think, unless of course they're pulled over on the way to the courthouse and profiled into the hoosegow.
Ethnic groups, (read Mexicans) forget that this is the land of the free and the home of the brave, especially if you're white, republican, and a member of the club.
The Constitution of the United states has been co-opted by rich white folks since it was written to be used to our advantage, and I hope I'm not around to see what happens when we get our comeuppance.
I'd move to Montreal but I know shit about Hockey and it seems necessary to survive there. Besides it's cold as fuck.
Then there's the strange case of Dr. George Rekers. Dr. Rekers has long been one of the most outspoken advocates of denying GLBT applicants the right to adopt. One of his many faulty contentions is that this environment would place undue stress on a child who already has many stressors. hmmm...
Well, as one of those children who was adopted into a heterosexual home I would like Georgy-boy to know that had I been adopted into a gay home where I was not only loved, but told the truth, I likely wouldn't have had any of the acting out behaviors I had as an adolescent. I likely wouldn't have stolen, lied, whored myself (which was kinda fun actually) attempted suicide, nor become a drug addict had I known the truth and not been driven by a nagging sense that my life somehow was a complete lie. In the end the truth set me free.
But George's faulty posits aside he's been exposed as a self-loathing mo who has an aversion of his own, mostly to himself. He apparently hired "Lucien" from the website rentboy.com to accompany him on a European trip to provide "meditation and massage" I assume. He asserts it was so Lucien could carry his luggage. Well I hear tell some men have bags that sag as they get older so maybe he wasn't far off the truth.
He resigned his position with the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) effective immediately after the news of "Lucien" broke. The truth will set you free George, trust me I know.
BTW My post yesterday regarding the mysterious Midnight Train to Georgia cover by House, Chase, and Foreman at a karaoke bar turned out to be prophetic in light of this story. Long story short, they treated a guy who had some affliction (as do all patients on House) that no one could decipher and in the investigation it was discovered that not only was the guy gay but he'd voluntarily undergone aversion therapy and hence lost both the girl and the guy who loved him. The truth shall set you free.
As if I needed further proof that were a third world country I heard an interview the other day regarding a couple trying to reach each other after the husband was rescued from the Deepwater Horizon.
She said in the interview that she took a taxi, (which she'd never been in) and then rode in an airplane (she was terrified but determined to reach her husband) on her journey. This is a woman who lives in the United States in the 21st Century, not a third world country! Well, admittedly she does live in Houston...but still. It's an apt demonstration of how backward most of the residents of most countries in the world are. Which means we have yet another poster child for my campaign against modern education.
I've been reading recently that there are legions of new teachers graduating this month who won't find jobs because most municipalities are slashing the budgets of their school districts in response to the ongoing economic crisis. And we're still going to graduate people who are terrified to ride in a taxi the first time as adults.
Yes, personally I want to eschew all the taxi riding and city livin', but I have the choice! I can take it or leave it. I've done it. How many will never go more than 50 miles from their home in their lives?
you'd think that someone who has moved as many times as I would know that poorly planned moves do not go well. Such is the case with the move of this blog. I may abandon the whole damn process.
The blog downloaded, but the sidebars didn't. The template didn't either, and then there's the matter of the layout. I'm having to reconstruct the whole damn thing and the only thing that gets moved apparently is the content.
One gets what one pays for, I suppose.
I made the colossal mistake of questioning the IRS about my '09 return. All hell has broken loose. All I can say is it's a mess. They do manage to cash my checks in a timely fashion I will say that in their defense.
It appears to be a tech year in the educational jobs world. The only places hiring for people who do what I do are places I won't go. (there are like 3 in the whole country)
I could choose to get all down and dejected about all this, BUT it is after all out of my control. All I can really do is plug away at it all until it reaches some sort of a conclusion, satisfactory or otherwise.
Held my last acting class of the semester last night. They chose to do their final scenes in the class period so they didn't have to come back for the final on Monday. I have to be there in any case, and most of them should have rehearsed one more day at least. But there's not much likelihood they'd have improved. So I took what I got. We all lost so much momentum when I had to go teach the day classes in March that we never really recovered.
Alas, it's all blood under the bridge at this point.
I need a vacation.
My birthday is coming the end of the month, perhaps a getaway is in order. Nothing grand (can't afford it anymore) a camping trip with a horse perhaps.
I think I moved the blog. I think this because after all my years of fussing over needing and wanting to I figured out that it was possible.
SO!
let's give this a shot.
go here
http://morecoyotetales.blogspot.com/
and let's see what happens. I'll post on both blogs for a while to see how it goes, and hopefully eventually I'll get wileykyote.com to send everyone automatically to the other blog.
It appears to be tidbit day on coyote Tales.
Hate crime victim wins civil lawsuit (this, of course is in Canada)
May 05, 2010
Paul Morse
The Hamilton Spectator (May 5, 2010)
A Hamilton businessman who was severely injured in what police described as a hate crime has won a civil lawsuit against his attacker.
Ronn Mattai was slashed numerous times in the face with a broken bottle by 19-year-old Michael Cordeiro in a Hamilton bar on Feb. 21, 2004. The injuries were so extreme that surgeons had to put more than 200 stitches into Mattai's face to close the wounds. Cordeiro was sentenced to two years in jail for his attack on the gay businessman.
Yesterday, Superior Court Justice Richard Lococo ruled that Cordeiro must pay Mattai just over $73,000 in damages and legal costs for assaulting the former co-owner of the Junction Cafe.
Mattai's lawyer Devon Kinch said his client did not want to speak publicly about the lawsuit. Kinch said the judge awarded his assessment of damages after oral arguments and that Cordeiro had chosen not to contest the lawsuit.
Cordeiro pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in late 2004. Court at the time heard that Mattai had left his Junction Cafe that night and stopped off for a drink with friends at the Absinthe bar on King Street East.
According to prosecutors, Mattai was lured into a coat check room by someone crying for help. Cordeiro grabbed Mattai and slashed him repeatedly in the face with a broken drink glass.
The trial heard that Cordeiro made homophobic comments after the attack.
In a simple handwritten decision yesterday, Lococo wrote: "For oral reasons given today, judgment is entered in favour of Mr. Ronn Mattai against Mr. Michael Cordeiro in the amount of $65,117.73. Mr. Mattai's costs on a partial indemnity basis are fixed at $8,000 ... payable by Mr. Cordeiro forthwith."
Mattai had also sued the owners of Absinthe. Yesterday, the bar's lawyer Harvey Klein said his client had long ago resolved the matter.
ESPN polled MLB players for their reactions, on a scale of 1 to 10, about having an openly gay teammate: "The average was a right-down-the-middle 5.1, but the individual responses were not. Some were cool with it. 'there’d be a few outliers who would have a strong reaction, maybe a few homophobes,' one AL pitcher says. 'But overall, not a big deal — I’d say a 2 or a 3.' An AL outfielder agrees. “I wonder how much it would really change anything. There’s already a lot of funny stuff that goes on with some of my teammates in the clubhouse that makes you wonder.( I don't wonder, I just wish they'd win once in a while)
"I abhor the military's discriminatory recruitment policy." It is, she said, "a profound wrong -- a moral injustice of the first order."- SCOTUS nominee Kagan on DADT.-(there's some hope here, but still a conservative majority on the Supreme court)
And Lena Horne has died at 92. Talk about a life well lived. re-invented herself in her 60's. There is hope for a long time yet.
Thinking that the employment dilemma might be alleviated this summer if I made and sold $15-20 pots at farmers markets.
I'm a senior citizen I know, and I come from another era I know that too. And I try to understand the needs and intentions of people as they relate in our "new world" but sometimes I'm puzzled.
Like this for instance, it confuses me why this would be an issue:
Students Kicked Off Campus for Wearing American Flag Tees
KNTV Videos
By George Kiriyama
NBCBayArea.com
updated 36 minutes ago
On any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galli and his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo is not any typical day especially on a campus with a large Mexican American student population.
Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal's office.
"They said we could wear it on any other day," Daniel Galli said, "but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it's supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it today."
The boys said the administrators called their T-shirts "incendiary" that would lead to fights on campus.
"They said if we tried to go back to class with our shirts not taken off, they said it was defiance and we would get suspended," Dominic Maciel, Galli's friend, said.
The boys really had no choice, and went home to avoid suspension. They say they're angry they were not allowed to express their American pride. Their parents are just as upset, calling what happened to their children, "total nonsense."
"I think it's absolutely ridiculous," Julie Fagerstrom, Maciel's mom, said. "All they were doing was displaying their patriotic nature. They're expressing their individuality."
But to many Mexican-American students at Live Oak, this was a big deal. They say they were offended by the five boys and others for wearing American colors on a Mexican holiday.
"I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day," Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. "We don't deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn't do that on Fourth of July."
As for an apology, the boys and their families say, "fat chance."
"I'm not going to apologize. I did nothing wrong," Galli said. "I went along with my normal day. I might have worn an American flag, but I'm an American and I'm proud to be an American."
The five boys and their families met with a Morgan HillUnifiedSchool District official Wednesday night. The district released a statement saying it does not agree with how Live Oak High School administrators handled this incident.
The boys will not be suspended and they were told they can go back to school Thursday. They may even wear their red, white, and blue colors again, but this time, the day after Cinco de Mayo, there will be no controversy.
I don't get it, why problems yesterday and not today? I suppose there's the whole America/Mexico thing to consider, but this isn't Mexico, and I doubt they'd be very interested if I were to wear my American flag (not that I own one) t-shirt in Mexico on July4. So why should Mexican Americans care if someone wears their American Flag-wear on Cinco de mayo? Who's being insensitive here? Like I said, another era I guess.
Last night i was given a rare treat:
The evening Star has apparently come to visit this year. It was a lovely evening on my deck.
When I was a student we were encouraged to speak our minds, not become sheep to be herded about. Mind you beards and mustaches were discouraged, as was long hair, but it was a private school and we knew little else. And our parents were on the side of the administration so we shaved and cut our hair, stupid I know, but it's the reality we lived then.
But today no one is allowed to do or say anything that might upset others, they are to be completely considerate of each others sensibilities. We all know they're not, we know that this fosters ill-will and makes those who are perceived to be different more appealing targets than they were in the first place. You can't legislate behavior and anyone with any sense knows that.
During grade and high school I was the object of quite a bit of ridicule because I was (correctly) perceived as gay. (let's see, skinny, intelligent, uncircumcised, homosexual. not very well socialized, bad at sports, and a loner. yes I was an easy target) I was harassed for my lack of ability at sports, I was made fun of, in general grade school was quite a bit of misery. And at the time I'd have sided with the administration if they tried to legislate that behavior, but they couldn't and they knew it. In fact the grocery is in the very neighborhood where I grew up and one of the worst of my antagonists is still there. He's apparently living with his elderly mother and looking for work. He's also apparently not a very good guy. I told them that 40 years ago. Amusingly enough he's trying to be my friend when he comes in. I'm civil and I speak when he does, and several people have warned me about what a wretch he is. I laugh.
I very nearly got myself in a silly struggle with a student over that very issue a month or two ago. He's very immature and he acts out in ways I wouldn't expect a college student to. He is however in a community college, and some of that shit is to be expected. He did what he wanted and though there will be consequences from me he got what he wanted. I don't have to approve, and I don't have to give him more opportunity to do it to me again. But to get into some struggle over who did what to whom and how it felt is a complete waste of time. Let him be who he is, and move on without him. That's when he'll get the message.
Still very much in the get out of here mode. The other countries look better and better. Though the unemployment rates are scary right now.
Very little of these "things" need to be dragged around the world. Stuff'll show up in my experience. Furniture is everywhere. There's a laptop, a few keepsakes a mantel clock, a flat screen, a bike, and some art work. Other than clothes that's about it as far as I'm concerned. The rest can go. Maybe being more mobile will help my mental process of letting go of the here where I live.
On the other hand I have an income and a nice place to live and I get to look at the evening star when I come home.
And so it goes:
The other day I used the title "Miss Otis regrets..." and since then I've come to realize that one of the many stories about Cole Porter can't be easily found on the internet. This one regards the title of this particular song. it goes like this: One afternoon he was apparently making advances on one of the staff of the hotel where he was staying and the young man simply named denominations that it would cost Porter to perform a particular daliance. Porter became increasingly frustrated walked over to his desk wrote the young man a check for 5K dropped it in his lap and said "Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today."
You know how sometimes you just see early on how a day is gonna go?
I've been up for 14 minutes. So far I've brewed coffee with the basket on the maker open. And I got fed up with the mouse not communicating well with the receiver and went to change the batteries. While I was putting the old ones in the charger I dropped one and it rolled under the stove.....sigh.
Looking at a new apartment in an hour. Mostly it's just out of curiosity. I saw the sign and thought "what the hell." it's closer to the college, and it's in a more bucolic setting than the current place. So I called, and they want me to come today and see it. I doubt it will meet my needs.
it already has one huge strike against it, no garage.
I ain't scraping windows.
I keep coming back to my dissatisfaction with blogger over the fact that i created this blog before I knew about my real name and had already chosen the name I thought I was going to use. But when i found out I created an email address in the correct new name and then discovered that I can't move the blog...ever. We've been round and round about this. I could lose that email address altogether if I could move the blog. But no.
So I'm thinking about looking into a new custom domain name and moving the blog on my own. Nothing is impossible, but it may be more difficult than I'd like. If I fall in love with this apartment and want to move in, what then? See, nothing is impossible. Unlikely that I'd take a place that has no garage, and no apparent place to set up my studio? Well, yes, but not impossible.
Turns out he upheaval at the college was nothing more than grumbles. Everyone was fine yesterday when I went there, except for the immature little boy who throws himself on the floor and holds his breath until he turns blue. Him I can handle.
Went to the studio yesterday and glazed a few pots so I can finish up the semester. I'd love to get my hands on a studio and really make pots this summer, but who knows. I'm not sure I can make a living selling $15 bowls, but nothing is impossible.
The 24 y/o skater boi (i spell it that way due to his age, he attempts to be more mature, it's amusing) has been emailing me. He wants to get together again. Nice to know I still got it. Who knew? nothing is impossible.
I'm surprised so far that BP nor the NYPD has invoked the mantra of our times, "It's a miracle." Cause everyone seems to thing that when something good happens it has to be a miracle anymore. Can't be just being in the right place at the right time, nor possibly have worked one's ass off to get what they got, nor, gods forbid, actual human accomplishment. Nope has to be a miracle. Nothing's impossible, but give humans a little credit please.
Lost/found my ipod, then realized the new media player software does not support ipod. tried to d/l winamp to update yesterday and it won't install, no time to figure that one out.
Thinking I need a trip for my birthday at the end of the month. K wants to go to Memphis. We're a bit at odds right now and i don't think it's a good idea so I'm putting him off. We do not travel well together. He's a bit of a princess, and if I'M saying that you gotta know he is one. I'd rather go to Chicago for a day or two. There's all kinds of things to do and I'd have fun. Besides maybe I could look into directing jobs while I was there. in Memphis we'd drink on beale street,and see graceland. oh boy.
BRUSSELS (The Borowitz Report) – In what many are hailing as a breakthrough solution to Greece’s crippling debt crisis, Greece today offered to repay loans from the European Union nations by giving them a gigantic horse.
Finance ministers from sixteen EU nations awoke in Brussels this morning to find that a huge wooden horse had been wheeled into the city center overnight.
The horse, measuring several stories in height, drew mixed responses from the finance ministers, many of whom said they would have preferred a cash repayment of the EU’s bailout.
But German Chancellor Andrea Merkel said she “welcomed the beautiful wooden horse,” adding, “What harm could it possibly do?”
I regret to inform you that I have decided to attempt to tinker with the layout of this blog...again.
I've noticed that the post titles have changed color all on their own and I can't seem to change them back. There are other issues as well, like I can't get a picture to load in the banner,so here we go, be patient with me, please.
This morning I was all set to be self-indulgent and ruminate over my condition. The fact that I still don't have a full-time job, and that a good friend is mistreating me, as well as the very people I went out of my way last month to help at work. But can I wallow in self-pity this morning? Hellz no! I have to be involved, I have to be outraged, I have to get a little blood pumping through these clogged arteries.
If the following doesn't make you love people even more than I already do then you're not very human.
May 3, 2010
President Barack H. Obama
The White House 1600 Pennsylvania AvenueNorthwest
Washington, DC20500
Dear Mr. President,
After the recent letter by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recommended the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” be delayed, this is my plea to you on the behalf of the soldiers serving in silence to end this law now:
I never wanted anything more in my life than to be a career officer. My entire childhood I was exposed to abuse, violence, and crime. I came out of it all with a simple, yet overwhelming desire to serve. When my first attempt at getting into the NavalAcademy failed, I waited restlessly until I turned eighteen. I enlisted on my birthday and set off to prove myself to the Academy. I was eager to leave the cruelty of my past and join a true family.
I knew I was gay, but it was irrelevant to me then. I was determined to join an elite team of handlers working with dogs trained to detect explosives. As I studied hard to pass exams and complete training, I was convinced that the current law would protect me. I knew that based on merit and achievement I would excel in the military.
I never told anyone I was gay. But a year and a half later while serving in the Middle East, I was tormented by my chief and fellow sailors, physically and emotionally, as they had their suspicions. The irony of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is that it protects bigots and punishes gays who comply.
Shop talk in the unit revolved around sex, either the prostitute-filled parties of days past or the escapades my comrades looked forward to. They interpreted my silence and total lack of interest as an admission of homosexuality. My higher-ups seemed to think that gave them the right to bind me to chairs, ridicule me, hose me down and lock me in a feces-filled dog kennel.
On one day in the Middle East, I was ordered by a superior to get down on my hands and knees and simulate oral sex on a person working in the kennel. We were supposed to pretend that we were in our bedroom and that the dogs were catching us in the act. Over and over, with each of the dogs in our unit, I was forced to endure this scenario.
I told no one about what I was living through. I feared that reporting the abuse would lead to an investigation into my sexuality. Frankly, as we continue to delay the repeal of this horrible law, I can’t help but wonder how many people find themselves in similar, despicable situations and remain silent. My anger today doesn’t come from the abuse, but rather from the inhumanity of a standing law that allowed for it.
Three and a half years later when the Navy started investigating claims of hazing, I had finally earned my place at the NavalAcademyPreparatory School. But instead of celebration, I began to question the life of persecution, degradation, and dishonor DADT had forced on me. I questioned the institution -- our great military -- that would condone and endorse this kind of treatment of its own members. The only thing I had ever done wrong was to want the same thing my straight counterparts wanted: a brotherhood and something to stand for.
At NAPS I realized that a career of service under DADT would be a forfeiture of my basic human rights. It would be a forfeiture of basic job security, peace of mind, and meaningful relationships, particularly with my fellow straight service members whom I was forced to deceive and betray.
After completing a six-week officer candidate boot camp, my commanders said they wanted to offer me a leadership role. But after what happened in the Middle East and even the suicide of my close friend, I was mentally and emotionally depleted. And so -- with my knees buckling -- I offered my statement of resignation in writing:
"I am a homosexual. I deeply regret that my personal feelings are not compatible with Naval regulations or policy. I am proud of my service and had hoped I would be able to serve the Navy and the country for my entire career. However, the principles of honor, courage and commitment mean I must be honest with myself, courageous in my beliefs, and committed in my action. I understand that this statement will be used to end my Naval career."
They say some people are just born designed for military service. It‘s the way we are wired, and the only thing that makes us happy. For too many of us, it‘s the only family we ever had. I am sure now, more than ever, after all the loss and hardship under DADT, that all I want to do is serve as a career military officer.
Mr. President, any delay in repeal is a clear signal to our troops that their gay brothers and sisters in arms are not equal to them. I plead that you take the lead -- fight for repeal -- and allow qualified men and women to serve their country.
Very respectfully,
Joseph Christopher Rocha
Former Petty Officer Third Class, U.S. Navy
-towleroad.com
Makes me want to embrace them all. I was thinking this weekend abou a woman I used to know who once told me she had lived in a small town in Canada and every afternoon at 2 the entire town would stop work and go to the bakery...because the bread was done.
A friend is still trying to get himself a job in another country. I so envy the idea yet can find no way to go about it. Personally, I have three countries I'd like to live and work in, at least for a while. One of the countries is very close, yet cold, I spent a few weeks there 17-18 years ago and loved it. AND it has everything I want, art culture, European sensibilities, gay marriage, health care, and a lot of it is seriously cool. Oh let's not forget it's huge...and mostly empty. What's not to like?
The other is actually in Europe and I've never been there, but it does call to me. I'm no ace at the language yet, but I intend to get better, and when I do...
It's neighbor, though much smaller has a seemingly impossible language yet appeals even more. I'd so love to just pack it all in and go. Unfortunately I read this morning that their unemployment rate just topped 20 %. I doubt they'll be embracing foreigners anytime soon.
Perhaps it's the residuals of the funk I've been in all week. But I love the idea.
This morning's rain is nixing the idea of riding the bike to work. I was assured by our local weather persons that this wouldn't happen until AFTER I got home this afternoon. Alas.
Still hoping for a new job this fall, love the current one it's just not full time and I need benefits, so there's that.
But tonight is martini's and dinner with friends. Tomorrow obligatory attendance at the students annual play festival, then right back to it on Sunday.
Well, nothing hateful to report on the Catholics for the second time this week. Too bad too, I was spoiling for a fight.
And to a young friend in New Mexico who has just allowed himself to be cast as Romeo in a production directed by his Dad.
And no I'm not going to Chicago, wish I were. It's just ridiculously windy here today. Things getting blown over on the deck...must be spring in the Midwest.
Funk is still not over, but I'm hibernating today, so that should help. I'm staying home, throwing pots, working out and reading stuff I'm behind on. Perhaps no interaction with people will help this funk lift and be gone.
I should figure out a way to take a vacation though, THAT would REALLY lift my spirits.
Maybe a trip to Chicago would be the right thing to do...hmm.
Anyway BP says there might just be a liittle more oil leaking out of that hole in the ocean floor than they first led us to believe. Therefore the price of shrimp is going up, joy. John McCain isn't really a Maverick. (quelle surprise) California has the most polluted air in the nation. Tom Cruise's stink has rubbed off on his wife and now she'll be portraying our most beloved first lady Jackie Kennedy...on the History channel. Jesse James and Sandra Bullock's marital problems are still of immense interest to the American public.
Totally in a funk today, and yesterday for that matter. Trying desperately to want what I have. But the fact is that I want new everything. New locale, new life, new relationship, new job, new car, name it I'm dissatisfied with it.
In fact a facebook friend tagged me in the note "The ABC's of me" and I'm waiting to respond. Right now it'd be:
A-Anger
B-Bitterness
C-Contempt
D-Disdain
Well, you get the idea.
So, I'm thinking I need to sit down and make a pot or two. Something to take my mind off whatever's got me in this foul humor.
And I've pretty much convinced myself that I'm taking Thursday off. I may just stay in bed all day, but I need to NOT deal with ANYONE for a day.
Well it appears to be a slow news day no new Catholic Priests have been exposed as molesters, no acts of god have destroyed any part of the earth, at least not since midnight, the PM of Britain has made a really stupid gaffe on the telly.
People who are not from the midwest shouldn't be allowed to write about tornado weather. They absolutely never get it right. From that travesty Twister, in which people watched cows fly by the truck they were in, which got not one broken window from flying debris, to last nights embarrassment when John Corbett's character Max brings the gay neighbors some water "in case the pipes break"
ROFL
It's not a fucking earthquake you morons.
This is completely the fault of Diablo Cody. She's the writer, producer, executive producer and maybe the gofer as well on Showtime's United states of Tara. Cody hails from Chicago so this is doubly ridiculous, she knows better.
It was made all the funnier that they appeared to use an actual reporter from one of our,local stations to announce the Torando watch. The misspelling they made a big deal of several times, it was stupid. The Gregsons, you see live in the fictional/not fictional city of Overland Park, KS. Mind you I live right next to Overland Park, KS.
Do I recommend that John Corbett Diablo Cody et al descend on Overland Park and begin filming for several months a year? No NO A THOUSAND TIMES NO!
Do I recommend they stop insulting the populace of the city they've chosen for their locale? Well, yes, yes I do.
I've tried twice to watch this thing after a friend recommended it.
Can't do it.
Nurse Jackie yes, United states of Tara,no.
The Tudors and that overacting mess Jonathan Rhys-Myers? That's another matter altogether.
Showtime keeps my attention with Californication, the wonderful Weeds, Dexter, and now Nurse Jackie, but they're missing the boat with Tara and The Tudors.
Noticed yesterday that I'm gettin' itchy again about moving somewhere. And there's not one thing to keep me here this time. We'll see what comes up when I put it out there.
I don't know if it's me being burned out after March Madness on the job, or if the students are ready for this interminable semester to end, but they put,um, shall we say...not one scintilla of effort into last nights class. I finally gave up and let them go home half an hour early. I'm too old to do all the work here,it's their grade not mine.
As always any article tht has something bad to say about the Catholic Church i am totaly interested. and this one is terrific. Personallly I think Hitchens is a bit of a nut, but he hits the nail (ahem) on the head with this article. Maybe one day my dream of a Catholic Church with less political power and less influence will be a reality. Free the masses from its evil influence I say.
I can dream, can't I?
Bring the Pope to Justice
Detain or subpoena the pope for questioning in the child-rape scandal? You must be joking! All right then, try the only alternative formulation: declare the pope to be above and beyond all local and international laws, and immune when it comes to his personal and institutional responsibility for sheltering criminals. The joke there would be on us.
The cause of the Catholic clergy's sex-abuse scandal is no mystery: insular groups of men often do bad things. So why not break up the all-male club?
The case for bringing the head of the Catholic hierarchy within the orbit of law is easily enough made. All it involves is the ability to look at a naked emperor and ask the question "Why?" Mentally remove his papal vestments and imagine him in a suit, and Joseph Ratzinger becomes just a Bavarian bureaucrat who has failed in the only task he was ever set—that of damage control. The question started small. In 2002, I happened to be on Hardball With Chris Matthews, discussing what the then attorney general of Massachusetts, Thomas Reilly, had termed a massive cover-up by the church of crimes against children by more than a thousand priests. I asked, why is the man who is prima facie responsible, Cardinal Bernard Law, not being questioned by the forces of law and order? Why is the church allowed to be judge in its own case and enabled in effect to run private courts where gross and evil offenders end up being "forgiven"? This point must have hung in the air a bit, and perhaps lodged in Cardinal Law's own mind, because in December of that year he left Boston just hours before state troopers arrived with a subpoena seeking his grand-jury testimony. Where did he go? To Rome, where he later voted in the election of Pope Benedict XVI and now presides over the beautiful church of Santa Maria Maggiore, as well as several Vatican subcommittees.
In my submission, the current scandal passed the point of no return when the Vatican officially became a hideout for a man who was little better than a fugitive from justice. By sheltering such a salient offender at its very heart, the Vatican had invited the metastasis of the horror into its bosom and thence to its very head. It is obvious that Cardinal Law could not have made his escape or been given asylum without the approval of the then pontiff and of his most trusted deputy in the matter of child-rape damage control, then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Developments since that time have appalled even the most diehard papal apologists by their rapidity and scale. Not only do we have the letter that Cardinal Ratzinger sent to all Catholic bishops, enjoining them sternly to refer rape and molestation cases exclusively to his office. That would be bad enough in itself, since any person having knowledge of such a crime is legally obliged to report it to the police. But now, from Munich and Madison, Wis., and Oakland, come reports of the protection or indulgence of pederasts occurring on the pope's own watch, either during his period as bishop or his time as chief Vatican official for the defusing of the crisis. His apologists have done their best, but their Holy Father seems consistently to have been lenient or negligent with the criminals while reserving his severity only for those who complained about them.
As this became horribly obvious, I telephoned a distinguished human-rights counsel in London, Geoffrey Robertson, and asked him if the law was powerless to intervene. Not at all, was his calm reply. If His Holiness tries to travel outside his own territory—as he proposes to travel to Britain in the fall—there is no more reason for him to feel safe than there was for the once magnificently uniformed General Pinochet, who had passed a Chilean law that he thought would guarantee his own immunity, but who was visited by British bobbies all the same. As I am writing this, plaintiffs are coming forward and strategies being readied (on both sides, since the Vatican itself scents the danger). In Kentucky, a suit is before the courts seeking the testimony of the pope himself. In Britain, it is being proposed that any one of the numberless possible plaintiffs might privately serve the pope with a writ if he shows his face. Also being considered are two international approaches, one to the European Court of Human Rights and another to the International Criminal Court. The ICC—which has already this year overruled immunity and indicted the gruesome president of Sudan—can be asked to rule on "crimes against humanity"; a legal definition that happens to include any consistent pattern of rape, or exploitation of children, that has been endorsed by any government.
In Kentucky, the pope's lawyers have already signaled their intention to contest any such initiative by invoking "sovereign immunity," since His Holiness is also an alleged head of state. One wonders if sincere Catholics really desire to take refuge in this formulation. The so-called Vatican City, a political nonentity covering about 0.17 square miles of Rome, was created by Benito Mussolini in 1929 as part of his sweetheart deal between fascism and the papacy. It is the last survival of the political architecture of the Axis powers. Its bogus claim to statehood is now being used to give asylum to men like Cardinal Law.
In this instance the church damns itself both ways. It invites our challenge—this is where the appeal to the European Court of Human Rights becomes relevant—to its standing as a state. And it calls attention to the repellent origins of that same state. Currently the Holy See has it both ways. For example, it is exempt from the annual State Department Human Rights Report precisely because it is not considered a state. (It maintains only observer status at the United Nations.) So, if it now does want to claim full statehood, it follows that it should receive the full attention of the State Department for its "lay" policies, and, for that matter, the full attention of the Justice Department as well. (First order of business—why on earth are we not demanding the extradition of Cardinal Law? And why is this grave matter being left to private individuals to pursue?)
It is very difficult to resist the conclusion that this pope does not call for a serious investigation, or demand the removal of those responsible for a consistent pattern of child rape and its concealment, because to do so would be to imply the call for his own indictment. But meanwhile why are we expected to watch passively or wonder idly why the church does not clean its own filthy stable? A case in point: in 2001 Cardinal Castrillón of Colombia wrote from the Vatican to congratulate a French bishop who had risked jail rather than report an especially vicious rapist priest. Castrillón was invited this week to conduct a lavish Latin mass in Washington. The invitation was rightly withdrawn after a storm of outrage, but nobody asked why the cardinal could not be held as an accessory to an official Vatican policy that has exposed thousands of American children to rapists and sadists.
Only this past March did the church shamefacedly and reluctantly agree that all child rapists should now be handed over to the civil authorities. Thanks a lot. That was a clear admission that gross illegality, and of the nastiest kind, has been its practice up until now. Euphemisms about sin and repentance are useless. This is a question of crime—organized crime, by the way—and therefore of punishment. Or perhaps you would rather see the shade of Mussolini thrown protectively over the Vicar of Christ? The ancient Roman symbol of the fish is rotting—and rotting from the head. Hitchens, a NEWSWEEK contributor, is a columnist for Vanity Fair and the author of God Is Not Great.
Yesterday the planets were aligned against communication of any kind for me. I couldn't blog, the post simply would not publish. I couldn't get anything constructive done, i.e. I was trying to mail off something I needed to get out, and one thing went wrong after another. THEN i went and tried to teach. oy!
They were obtuse, obstinate and simply obnoxious. I had a group that I assigned a scene to. To make the scene more fair to all participants I added a page. ONE FUCKING PAGE! Instead of starting on Page 101 they were to start on page 100. After I explained it FOUR TIMES while I was trying to do something else, I took the book, went ACROSS THE FUCKING CAMPUS and made copies of THE ONE EXTRA FUCKING PAGE!!!! At the same time I assigned a scene to another group. They were told at the outset that two of the three people in the scene didn't get a copy of the last page on which there were three lines, and that they'd have to share the one copy of that page until the break and then I'd go make copies. THREE TIMES I explained this. When I went to make copies I asked the one student who actually had the page to give it to me.
He gave me the wrong page. Imagine how amused I was on the other side of campus trying to make copies a few minutes later.
They did not have a good class after that.
Luckily the planets did a 180 for me a couple of hours later and I...well, shall we say that there is now a 24 year old skater boi to whom I am deeply grateful. Such a grand end to such a crappy day.
I've whined enough. Turning our attention to more important matters.
None of our struggles and none of our victories could prevent the following story from happening in 2010?
Greene v. County of Sonoma et al.
Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place—wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health.
One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold’s care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes.
Ignoring Clay’s significant role in Harold’s life, the county continued to treat Harold like he had no family and went to court seeking the power to make financial decisions on his behalf. Outrageously, the county represented to the judge that Clay was merely Harold’s “roommate.” The court denied their efforts, but did grant the county limited access to one of Harold’s bank accounts to pay for his care.
What happened next is even more chilling: without authority, without determining the value of Clay and Harold’s possessions accumulated over the course of their 20 years together or making any effort to determine which items belonged to whom, the county took everything Harold and Clay owned and auctioned off all of their belongings. Adding further insult to grave injury, the county removed Clay from his home and confined him to a nursing home against his will. The county workers then terminated Clay and Harold's lease and surrendered the home they had shared for many years to the landlord.
Three months after he was hospitalized, Harold died in the nursing home. Because of the county’s actions, Clay missed the final months he should have had with his partner of 20 years. Compounding this tragedy, Clay has literally nothing left of the home he had shared with Harold or the life he was living up until the day that Harold fell, because he has been unable to recover any of his property. The only memento Clay has is a photo album that Harold painstakingly put together for Clay during the last three months of his life.
With the help of a dedicated and persistent court-appointed attorney, Anne Dennis of Santa Rosa, Clay was finally released from the nursing home. Ms. Dennis, along with Stephen O'Neill and Margaret Flynn of Tarkington, O'Neill, Barrack & Chong, now represent Clay in a lawsuit against the county, the auction company, and the nursing home, with technical assistance from NCLR. A trial date has been set for July 16, 2010 in the Superior Court for the County of Sonoma.
Ed note- this isn’t a 20 year old story, it’s happening right now. I’m constantly amazed at the apathy people exhibit when marriage and/or equal rights come up. Apparently these kinds of things take them by complete surprise…how sad.
.jpg)
