My mother and I have a good memory of her speaking at my college graduation on Staten Island, New York in 1993.
She was an interesting character with lots of inspirational words for the large graduating class. Her choice for the commencement speaker was a surprise to me since Staten Island is pretty conservative for being inside of New York City.
I don’t understand the details of the controversies over Palin and Obama with her, I’ll let her rest in peace and keep the fond memories I had of her.
A friend of mine was saying that a mutual acquaintance of ours who is very active in the gay community made some “decisions” that sometimes amazed him. Based on this acquaintance’s profile, he concluded that, like my friend’s step-mother, our acquaintance was a Sarah Palin supporter. Perplexed, I went to the acquaintance’s profile and clicked on the “Sarah Palin” link to discover that 37 of MY friends are supposedly “fans”. I looked carefully to make sure that it wasn’t a spoof page. After all, the woman is a caricature of herself, but it was indeed her official page. It was incredulous to me that some of these very outspoken, far left individuals, who make me look moderate, were supporters. Then I realized that without independently confirming the reason for their linking to this political page, it was not fair to assume that they were truly fans. Indeed, as a polisci major, I often watch FOX “News” to see what my enemies are formulating, even if it is very difficult to take seriously and stomach.
Looking through the 37 people I know (and I doubt I even know that many gay Republicans) and other friends of theirs who were linked to the page, I saw men with shirtless pictures and others with slutty, made-up sexual names, so I really doubt that these activist, extreme liberal individuals had anything but disdain for the woman, and probably just wanted to engage in watching the slow train wreck that is her life. One of them even publishes a smut magazine.
I agree in general that there are some unfortunate surprises when one discusses ideology even among gay men, but San Francisco resident, homosexually married, poly slores are generally not among them, to my relief.
I’m so proud of Alexandra!!!
Soon after her 18th birthday in April she had taken her written and behind the wheel driver’s tests and passed both with her first try.
In June she graduated from Castro Valley High School.
By the time she graduated, she had secured a summer job as a paid intern at Camp Galileo in Oakland. After acclimating to what a “real” commute was like, she probably appreciated me a bit more, and she ended up loving her job there, getting an extension for a few weeks to what her original work schedule was supposed to be. She loved working with the kids and the professional educators, who gave her glowing recommendations.
She registered for community college in Oakland and got her classes. She will be taking 14 credits, which is full time, and so she started looking for a permanent part-time job.
Last week she interviewed for a couple of jobs in San Francisco and Berkeley, but she had been hounding me and nagging about needing a car, even though I was not all that convinced she “needed” one and that it was not my fault that she had chosen a college that was harder to reach with public transportation. Understandably she was a little concerned about whether it would be safe for her to finish class at 9pm once a week and take public transportation home.
So on a whim Saturday, we went to a few of the places where she noticed there were cheaper cars off the main strip by our house. We found a “wholesale” place where none of the cars had any Carfax reports available, but we realized that what we were budgeting, there was probably no use in trying to find a top of the line used car, which is what I consider the one I have to be.
Sunday we went back to look at the car that had intrigued us the most, and the nice saleslady walked us through the steps.
I made some financial sacrifices to buy her something, even though she was between jobs and we had no assurance that she would have any income in the coming months. I was also worried that she was being too picky about the kind of jobs she wanted and wasn’t looking locally enough. After consulting with a few friends and family members, like my brother, we decided that the car was a worthwhile investment. So Alex is now the very happy owner of a 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer ES, a car which is actually newer than mine, even though it has more miles than mine does. It seems to be very safe and in pretty darn good condition and Alex is elated and feels quite grown up with this new responsibility.
One day later (today), Alex heard back and she actually got the job she wanted the most! She will be working as an activity leader Monday through Friday in the afternoons for the entire academic year at Rosa Parks Elementary School in Berkeley with kindergarteners. This is a shorter and cheaper commute than she would have into San Francisco, and she is making more than she would be at that job. She is also considering taking a weekend job with some of her subsequent interviews, since that won’t conflict with her classes or primary job.
Next summer she is also hoping that the summer camp that she worked at this summer will higher her back at a position with more responsibility, so for the foreseeable future, she is very well prepared for the future, and I can’t contain how proud I am of her, even if we are both paying through the nose for the convenience of having a two car household at the moment.
What kind of morons would want her advice? Doesn’t anybody remember the outrageous and ridiculously out of date opinions this woman has? She’s worse than Rush Limbaugh in many respects because she’s actually formally educated (he is not) and she uses religion to tout her hatred. This scandal has gotten her name back in the news, so she got her way again.
Reportedly, after discussing and using the word “nigger” numerous times with a black woman who called her show distraught over racism in her own home, Laura told the woman that she should not be married to a white man inter-racially if she “didn’t have a sense of humor about race”! As a white man who was married to a black woman who I was with for 11 years, I don’t think flippantly using highly offensive words as jokes makes it easier. Would it be okay if Laura’s gentile friends and loved ones go around saying “kike this” or “Heeb that” to her or used “jew” as a verb? Words like “nigger” were not acceptable during the course of my relationship or at any time in my life, thankfully. I never even considered using it in any context. I don’t accept anyone else in my family using it, even if they are black or mixed-race like my daughter.
The only laughter that I ever had about race that I can recall was when I would ask my ex-wife to do something for me and she would look at me and say, “Do I look like a slave?” or when I was dating a black guy and I went to a 50’s diner with my daughter and him and joked that we shouldn’t be sitting in the same area (as per the MadTV skit).
Like a sad potatoe, Ben Quayle was raised “right” and thinks he’s speaking for the majority when he says that “Barack Obama is the worst president in history.” Did he not witness what happen with his father’s running mate’s son (not that his father’s running mate was anything to write home about)?
So Ben is going to Washington to kick some ass (my word, but he used the word “hell”). Is Arizona the new bastion of right wing nuttery that used to be Florida until all the liberals moved down there? This guy is a joke who had to distinguish himself among the many people vying for the same seat, and already scandal in the form of some kind of link to a hetero porn site, is biting as his heels. Nevertheless, Fox “News” (“news” being said with a grain of salt since they underwrite some of these lame, poorly-attended tea party events, rather than even attempting to be impartial) is “right” there promoting him, already.
So Arizona’s appointed governor is flanked very closely by people who are currently married to or formerly themselves lobbying for the private prison industry in that state, which would benefit greatly from the incarceration of people who cross the border from Mexico. Coincidence!?!? Now we know the impetus for the racist immigration law!
Bear with me a minute here. I’m getting flashbacks of Cheney and Haliburton.
These same private prisons in Arizona routinely and recently have had escapees, at least one of whom is still at large as of this writing!
I understand that the people who proposed this bill would say it applies to all foreigners, but what does a Canadian border crosser look like? How many Irishmen jump the border into Arizona? Do they really maintain that there is a perfect balance of ethnicities among the illegal immigrants in a border states? It’s racist and violates the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, as a federal judge recently found.I have never heard of a Canadian coming to this country illegally (let alone to a southwestern state bordering Mexico) to subject himself to pay for the medical care he would get for free in his own country, and which is actually higher quality in many instances than our own (lower child mortality rate to start with). The racial profile issue was controversial because Latino people would be targeted and more suspect, even if they were tenth generation Arizonan and even if their families were there before we stole the southwest from Mexico.
The governess specifically speaks about the border with another country and the supposed crime that it facilitates, when there has been nothing but a steady decrease in crime over the past several years in AZ and a decrease in border crossings because the demand has dissipated due to the crappy economy that the party of this governor has burdened us with. She is trying to claim that the feds are doing a worse job at their responsibility with border patrolling. There is no logical association between the urgency that she has to scare white people with this supposed invasion except to make her private prison-representing friends who detain (not repatriate) borders crossers richer. Just the fact that the ran from the reporter when confronted about this blatant conflict of interest that she failed to disclose speaks volumes.
Which old witch? The bigot’s wish! Sorry Judy, but the Mormon church and every other bigot (especially those adorning their hatred on front lawns and bumper stickers) can suck my Lolipop Guild. Oh happy day! The haters out of state and around the world have been put in their place by glorious jurisprudence.
I don’t even believe in hetero marriage, as I’ve said pretty much all along, but I’ll be damned if some people should be able to suffer while others cannot, and there truly are innumerable legal advantages to what marriage can bring (immigration alone). My daughter’s classmate keeps pointing out that gay people have the right to marry (people of the opposite sex) but I can’t believe that rhetoric would even be taken seriously by those who spent money and time trying to limit the rights of a vibrant part of the population.
So congratulations to my home state, my father’s home state and the home of my grandparents and great-grandparents (to which I returned to live for the fifth time in 2007), for agreeing with almost half the voters (not that decisions of this magnitude should be made by propositions in the first place). California realizes that we cannot remain in Draconian times by making endemic minorities systematically inferior. I’m already embarrassed enough by our European neighbors who don’t have to think twice about these things.
My hope is that the case is indeed appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which generally does not put its fingers on domestic relations cases of any kind (although one could argue this is a civil rights case). Most cases that are brought to the US Supreme Court are not heard, and so the ruling of the federal Judges, such as this one, remain as law in good standing. There is only a need to hear it if the Court feels like there was an error in interpreting the law, which in the federal arena, includes most importantly, the US Constitution. On that basis, this decision is sound, and agreeing to hear the case could easily create a mandate that all states allow gay marriage, which is why the supporters of Proposition 8 had better be damn careful they don’t open up that Pandora’s box. Still, I think it’s ridiculous to have a hodge-podge of gay marriage rights in one country. Canada had that for a little while and it was seen as ridiculous, so they made gay marriage completely legal in every province. Let’s have some common sense like they did. Our grandchildren will be wondering what all the damn fuss was about.
I am also confident that no legislature in California would ever get the support it needed to overturn such a ruling and because of the Supremecy Clause of the US Constitution, it would be moot. The haters should look at the bright side — the financial windfall that legalizing gay marriage necessarily brings to a jurisdiction should be welcome, especially by the party that touts fiscal responsbility and libertarian ideals of keeping the government out of our lives and by extension bedrooms. Besides, California’s budget can use all the help it can these days, which is why even Republican Schwarzenegger wouldn’t have thwarted the gay marriage rights if it had crossed his desk and he had little to say in opposition to it. Indeed, if it wasn’t for gay men, he may never have achieved the status that he had in his Hollywood career, which we all know was based almost exclusively on his physique and not his “talent” for acting.
The important line of the decision today was that there was “no rational basis” why one group would need to subject the other group to a position of inferiority. Brace yourself for the backlash, my friends. Gay Judge or not, the fight for righteous equality is not over.
There was no commotion on the BART on the way home the day of the verdict for my daughter and me, despite the marginally disappointing verdict. I still think it was historic that a white “officer” (I don’t understand why BART police need guns in the first place) was charged with at least involuntary manslaughter for killing a black (unarmed, no less) man who had never been in any serious trouble with the law. I still think the idea of him thinking he was reaching for a taser, which does not have a holster lock nor a safety log or a finger trigger, have nothing to do with what prompted him to shoot the obviously struggling young man who was on the ground with another cop’s knee into him. It was something that I do believe his lawyer had suggested several days later that they issue to the press to excuse the homicide. I think it was tantamount to gay panic by this rookie white security guard having “black panic” when there really was no reasonable cause for belief that Oscar Grant was armed.
I’m so reveling in the PERFECT HYPOCRITE squirming like a maggot: “Rentboy.com Rekers” testified against gay parents because of neurotic suppression of his own gayness! Wake up people!
I can’t find anything online yet re Rekers’ wife; was she at home during this ten day trip to Europe with rentboy? What about all of his other “assisted” vacations? UPDATE: So now it is clear what Rekers was trying to protect in part: he has a wife and sons (presumably grown) and he has finally admitted to some weaknesses and getting spiritual help that he needs, even though he’s clinging on to the claim that he was able to “counsel” his rentboy on being saved (presumably while he was enjoying the mandated naked massages that he insisted on paying for daily).
The lawyer in me cannot fathom how Rekers could be SO DUMB as to put his “contract” expecting intimacy in writing! I believe they showed the document, with Rekers’ real name no less, in the CNN interview video with the waif, who was probably the one who provided it to them. I guess Rekers needed it in writing because was concerned he wouldn’t get his $75 worth every single day of his trip! I do not believe it required a happy ending!
At least SOME of the fortune Florida paid Rekers for his bigotry&self-loathing streams back to the community through his string of rented twinks, right?
I hope I have enough documentation to cross the border into the Draconian state of Arizona for the first time in my life next week.
As a 15/16ths Caucasian-American, if I get arrested for looking too ethnic in AZ, can I pay my fine in Sue Lowden chickens, or do I go right to directly to jail without passing go?