Homodox

Depraved Indifference

I wonder how many New York prosecutors actually have ever argued a criminal case based on depraved indifference.  Probably few.  However, on Law & Order, they argue it every other week--it's one of their favorites and works well within the drama context.  However fiction and reality rarely imitate each other.

I really don't wish to add to the Jackson-mania of the last few weeks, but when you read headlines that his death may be treated as a criminal act, you just have to roll on your eyes.  And his father, of all people, saying that there was foul play.  Of course there was criminality.  However, the person who was ultimately responsible is now dead.  That would be Jackson himself.  

Exactly where to put blame on this?  The father who used a child, abused the child, and created a superstar with a hundred million dollar bank account and the emotional maturity of a 10-year old?  The doctors?  Every time one said no, Jackson found another.  And another, and another, etc.  Because when you're that rich the rules don't apply to you.  And for that, all of American society is to blame, since we laud wealth over integrity.  But ultimately with all his gifts, it was Jackson who couldn't come to terms with his life.  He wanted what he wanted when he wanted it.  

It's so sad to realize that he didn't have one true friend in his life.  Ironically, his memorial was in a sports arena.  There's never enough seats for sycophants. 

Penguin Hussy

Even in the animal kingdom this year, same sex couples are taking a beating.  That's some gold-digging conniving bitch penguin.

June Showers Bring July Flowers, Part III

It's Still 1939

In the last few weeks, we have had some famous people pass away.  Farrah Fawcett was pure 1970s.  Michael Jackson was the 1970s and 1980s.  Robert McNamara was the quintessential 1960s figure.  You would think that meant the 20th century was finally over.  Katharine Hepburn, Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Mickey Mantle, Pope John Paul II, all are gone.

Then I saw that Olivia de Havilland was celebrating her 93rd birthday.  Yes, someone who was in the movie Gone With The Wind (the #1 movie of all time), is still alive.  Go figure.

Rebellion v. Revolution

Gen. Bela Kiraly died yesterday.  In that N.Y. Times obit it stills refers to the 1956 Hungarian war against the Soviets as an uprising.  In history class I was taught it was a rebellion.  However, in 1983, I helped an older woman with her bags onto the train in Prague in what was then Czechoslovakia and also a communist country.  I was going to Budapest and so was she.  She had lived through 1956 and as we conversed in German (our common language), she called it a revolution.  She noted that when the Nazis occupied Budapest, they fled against the Soviets leaving the city.  However, the Soviets had to take Budapest back street by street in 1956.  She was very proud of that.  Hungary at that time had the most relaxed rules of any of the communist countries of the Warsaw Pact.   She allowed me to stay at her apartment and gave me tickets to her box at the opera that night.  It turns out her late husband had been a professor of medicine at the university.  One of her sons escaped to Germany during 1956 and she was returning from visiting him.  I've often wondered if my father, who was in the Army at that time in Germany, and who drove trucks of refugees back from the Hungarian/Austrian border, drove her son.  Wouldn't that be something if the world were really so small.

In any case, I always appreciated language.  In the west it was an uprising or rebellion because it did not succeed.  In their minds and hearts, it was a revolution--they had stood up to oppression.  I loved the nuances in the language I learned that year in Europe.  Germans referred to Hitler as the Austrian.  West Germans referred to East Germany as over there.  Reunification was a pipe dream in 1983, a reality today.  It was interesting.

As Ben Franklin once noted, rebellion in the first person is always legal, such as our rebellion.  It is only in the third person, their rebellion, that it is illegal.

June Showers Bring July Flowers, Part II

Better Respect Yourself

If you are a politician.  Otherwise, the media, liberal or conservative has it in for you.  Don't cry for Sarah Palin or Al Franken.

Sarah Says Goodbye

Towards the end of the movie, The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep playing Miranda Priestley says, "Oh, don't be ridiculous. Andrea. Everybody wants this. Everybody wants to be us" to the young Anne Hathaway character.  It is a matter of fact for the Priestley character.

In the same way during this long weekend, political pundits and journalists have been trying to figure out Sarah Palin's future in politics.  The FBI came out in an unprecedented move and said there were no ongoing investigations.  The liberal media had it easier falling back on the "she's a whacko" explanation.  The republicans have many convoluted explanations including how she can be a viable presidential candidate in 2020 (when she will only be 56).

Maybe she giving it all up.  Perhaps after a rough and disastrous ten months in the public eye, she's saying--no more.  Except that the media and politicians are all like Miranda Priestley.  They can't imagine a person turning it all down.  I have a feeling that Palin and I have something in common.  If that's what it's all about, thank you no.  I'll stay at home.

Six Months Later

Over two years ago, we decided to be adoptive and/or foster parents.  We went to an informational meeting in March of 2007 and took the required parenting classes in the fall of 2007.  Simultaneously we renovated our house to add a bedroom and full bath [and a new roof, several closets--blah, blah, blah].

Six months ago now, that dream came to an end.  Since then neither the state agency (Dept. of Children & Families) or the foster agency (Home for Little Wanderers) has contacted us.  Not one word.  Not by phone, letter or email.

When we took the parenting classes, I disliked or maybe better, misunderstood, the touchy-feely-crunchy-liberal-Massachusetts way of thinking about the task ahead.  I was a concrete person and the methodology failed to hit me.  The teachers were clearly on to me.  After the class everyone "passed" except us.  And the reason was me.  After several "remedial" meetings we did pass (or so we thought) and our social worker became none other than the teacher of the class who had recently retired from full time work.  It would be her last placement or so she told us (she too has failed to say word boo to us in over a year).

I am now convinced that the agency did not want us having a child.  I'm fairly sure I know the reason, but in the PC controlled environment, they couldn't tell us the truth.  Instead, they allowed us to be foster parents of a drug-taking, mentally unstable 15 year old.  Were we doomed for failure from the start.  Did we fail?  Oh yes.  And now six months later without a word from these agencies at all, despite the fact that we changed our lives completely for more than 18 months, I'm coming to grips with the reality.  They knew I couldn't be a parent.  They couldn't say that without risking a law suit.  So, they gave us a child no one in their right mind would want, and no one without a Ph.D. in clinical psychology could handle.  The entire situation took exactly three months to blow up and end.  And when I say end I mean end with my partner in an emergency room.

So, here's to all the state workers with their wretchedly poor educations who think they help.  You are to the masses what gym teachers are to education.  And to the social workers in the nonprofit world as well, who take your hard-earned donations and state-mandated grants [read: taxes], in order to pay their own mortgages, trying to do as little good as humanly possible.  If you ever wondered why people vote republican--don't.

Vive Roger

Roger Federer hits 15 majors and is the undisputed King of Tennis.  When will Tiger win #19?  2011? 2012?

Why Us?

Yesterday was our nation's 233rd birthday.  I've often wondered why the U.S. became the U.S.  I can easily see how some people see it as destiny.  I don't believe in destiny, I believe in a random and unforgiving universe, so I tend to see it as being shit-lucky.  A perfect time in the perfect place scenario.

Think about the number of revolutions and civil wars throughout history.  Why was our revolution the perfect storm?  The idea that freedom is good and self government the way forward seems common sense.  We achieved it and so many other countries haven't yet at this late date.  Why?  Even for contemporary countries such as France--can you imagine two more different revolutions than ours and the French?  Why didn't we spin into chaos emerging only with a strong tyrant.  Well, one reason would be that George Washington had no tyrannical plans.  That fact keeps in the pantheon of greatest presidents.  Greatest because he easily could have taken it all had he been a different sort of man.  

Every country that wants independence needs a Washington or a Gandhi.  Those figures are very rare these days.  The Palestinians got stuck with Arafat.  The Russians got Lenin the first time around and Yeltsin the second time.   Likewise, none of the Latin American countries who fought for their independence in the early 19th century succeeded.  They had Bolivar and Martin, but no continuity thereafter.   

Ingredients for the Perfect Storm (a non-P.C. list)

1. British influence.  The revolution works because we were part of the British tradition at the the time.  From Magna Carta, to the break with the Roman Catholic Church, the English Civil War, the execution of Charles I, and the Glorious Revolution, all those events instilled in the citizens of this country the real idea of self government.  By the time the framers and founders were born, one to two generations had been brought up past the writings of Locke and the Glorious Revolution.  It was their birthrights to assert their civil rights.
2. Distance.  Unlike today where we are a global society, the vast distance of England to North America helped us.  We could effectively prosecute a war on our terms and turf.
3. We were first.  There was no model to emulate, so no mistakes could be replicated.  Also, England let us go in the end, assuming we would fail.  The War of 1812 was the last gasp of the American Revolution.  
4. Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, etc.  Amazing men with an amazing idea.

June Showers Bring July Flowers

Former Gov. Sarah Palin

I'll never be a powerful person.  I have no idea what it would be like to be called by a presidential nominee to be his or her vice presidential designate.  However, I'd know that the national spotlight would be on me, so I would first check with my family to see if they would be OK with me and them, by proxy, to be under the glare of the limelight.

I think Gov. Palin failed in that area.  I think that having a baby of her own, and knowing that her teenage daughter was pregnant should have (and would have in my case) precluded accepting a place on the republican ticket.   Was the media mean to her?  Yes, but not any meaner than they are to any political candidate.  Did she really think she was going to get a pass?  Had she not been paying attention to what has been happening in the last twenty years on the national political stage?

Thirty years from now, it will be interesting to read a biography on her.  I'm not sure we know how she thinks, and it's easy to take pot shots.  On the other hand, you'd have to be quite naive not to think that having a child/grandchild/being governor/running for VP was a titanic strain on anyone.

West Site Story

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Hat Tip: Joe. My. God.

Nine, The Movie

I'm not sure there's ever been a movie where all five female leads already have Oscars:  Marion Cotillard (the wife); Penelope Cruz (the former lover); Judi Dench (the producer); Nicole Kidman (the actress); and Sophia Loren (the mother).  And of course, these women revolve around the male lead, Guido Contini played by Daniel Day-Lewis who has two Oscars himself.  You can see the trailer here.  This is the same group that did the musical Chicago.

OK.  I'm the only one who didn't like Chicago, the movie.  However, that's because I've seen these musicals on stage first.  Chicago with no Fosse choreography?  Why not have Gone With The Wind set in Brooklyn?  I'm likely not to like this movie too much either despite the insanely talented cast.  Maury Yeston who wrote the music is one of the hidden treasures of Broadway.  I can sing the entire scores of Nine, Grand Hotel, and Titanic.  Can you?  Most  people if they didn't know Kander and Ebb wrote Chicago, certainly knew the songs All That Jazz, or at least, Cabaret and New York, New York.  Yeston and perhaps Jason Robert Brown are two composers where you can separate the wheat from the chaff and know who really is and who really ain't a Broadway  junkie.  I'm glad that Yeston will get some national attention. He deserves it (along with the two Tony Awards he already has).  

Old Age Ain't for Sissies

Two things about his story.  One, Virginia won't let Medicare be used for assisted living--write your Virginia legislator and get this changed now.  Second, why doesn't this facility just let the man stay?  Don't you think he's shown good faith in paying for five years?  If they are so worried about him and are "his family" why kick in him just because he can no longer pay?  Is he really costing the facility $3,500/month?

Mollie Sugden 1922-2009

The Cost of Common Sense

It seems human nature that it takes a great loss of life in order for common sense to prevail.  If you said there should be enough seats in lifeboats for each passenger on board, that's common sense.  Yet, it took the Titanic disaster for it to be made so.  If you said that all public entertainment buildings should have doors that open out with push bars for quick escape, you'd that was a good idea.  But it took the Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston to get that done.  And so and so forth from the Triangle Shirt Factory Fire to seat belts.

Yet we never learn this lesson.  When it comes to private businesses or the government spending money in the short run to prevent tragedy in the long run, we need that loss of life to prove necessity.  It's unbelievable.  This underscores the debate on Waxman-Markey, the bill on preserving the environment and health care reform.  In the blogosphere there are charts and maps of how much each of us will have to spend more per year to save the environment.   It sounds like $150 to $250 per person per year, sound like a bargain to me, to save the planet.   Ask one of the dead Titanic passengers if a $5 fare increase in order to have enough lifeboats would have been OK (in 1912 dollars).

Sadly, the truth is that for me, my generation, and all people older than forty, we will not live to see the catastrophic changes our inaction will create.  We will give that to our children and grandchildren.  When enough people die*** then maybe we'll pay attention.

****People being defined as western hemisphere people.  Sadly, if the third world dies in mass numbers such as the tsunami or Burmese typhoon, that doesn't count in the eyes of the powerful in this country.

Please No World Cup Champs

I was relieved that Brazil won the confederation cup of soccer against the U.S. in the finals.  Actually the U.S.  blew it big time (up 2-0 in the half! and lost 3-2).  If the wingnuts of the right think we are becoming socialists like Western Europe, imagine what will happen if we start winning soccer (that's football to you) championships.  That would be proof positive of the end of the U.S.

On a lighter note, Ezra Klein discussed this and revealed he was half Brazilian.  With a name like Ezra Klein, one can only guess it's his mother's half.  So that means he can read right to left; when he flushes the water goes down counter clockwise, and if he learned to drive in England, he's hit the trifecta! 

It's Time to Trust Obama

This week Obama hosted GLBT movers and shakers to the White House.  Not me.  He is also still trying to bridge the gap between the GLBT community and the religious right in this country.  Queerty asks why?  I'll tell you why.  Because if you can convince a certain percentage of the religious right even to tolerate us, we can move forward to a much greater degree.  Has anyone been paying attention to what happens in this country?  A court says we have equal rights and in no time at all, a publicly-voted referendum takes those rights away.  Wouldn't it be great if a court decision or a legislative act stayed in place?  The way that happens is if someone like Pres. Obama keeps talking about us and how we deserve respect and civil rights.  Marching and protesting only get you so far.  If a state like California and do a 180 on us, how can GLBTers in the rocky mountain and deep southern states get ahead?

It's time to take a deep breath and trust Pres. Obama.  He's made his priorities clear.  2009 is about health care reform and climate/environment reform.  There's also the economy and two wars to think about.  Our turn is coming.