Deep Something

Enough is Enough – The Fallout From The Gay Marriage Vote

November 17, 2008 B. John 386 Views 0 Comments Civil Rights, Amendment 2, Proposition 8, Stop the H8, Undo 2, HRC, Equality Florida, Kevin Beckner, Linda Saul-Sena, Marriage

Maybe, finally gay people have decided that enough is enough when it comes to having second-class citizenship foisted upon us by krazy kristian kooks. Across the country Saturday were a series of rallies decrying the enactment of three marriage amendments on election day which enshrine discrimination in the Constitutions of Florida, Arizona and California. As angry as we may all be, we should not be surprised at the outcome. There is no leadership within the gay community, and practically no community left anyways. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has become a parody, and while I respect the work done by Equality Florida, they too have been totally ineffective. So let’s take a look at what happened, and think about what comes next.

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2008 Election Wrap-up

November 10, 2008September 29, 2018 B. John 370 Views 0 Comments Democrats, Democracy, Obama, Palin, Right Wingnuts, voting, voters, Campaigns, republicans, mccain

Last Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was certainly a bittersweet time. As I’ve said before, I’m not one of the millions of Obama-maniacs, but I was glad he won. I think America will soon be in far better hands than she is now. I was even more pleased to see a good number of hateful and bigoted Republicans kicked to curb, and their nasty campaign rhetoric repudiated. Obviously though, the passage of the three anti-marriage amendments was a great disappointment. In this post, I’ll provide my observations on where we are now relative to the election.

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Election Day 2008

November 4, 2008 B. John 351 Views 0 Comments supreme court, Election, North Carolina, Presidential Politics, Early Voting

Last week with work was a real bear, and I’m traveling for work this week, so expect posting to be lite. Hopefully there won’t be that much news, especially election news, to post about. I did want to make note of a few things that have been going on. We’ll talk about some experiences with early voting, voter involvement, and the eve of election day.

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Indocrination – BOO!

October 26, 2008September 29, 2018 B. John 412 Views 0 Comments indoctrination, homophobia, Election Law, bigotry, Attorneys, hate, Constitutional Amendments, Gay Rights, Insanity, Florida Constitution, Florida Amendment 2, John Stemberber, Dishonesty, Marriage

An article at the Florida Bilerico project points out the lengths to which the American Taliban will go in order to scare people. John Stemberger, lead proponent of Florida’s Amendment 2, is claiming that if Amendment 2 fails, the schools will have indoctrinate children to gay marriage. And to top it all off, despite being an attorney (or maybe because of it), Stemberger and Florida4Marriage.com are being accused of violations of campaign finance laws. Seems they may be trying to hide who their donors are, a violation of Florida Campaign laws.

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The McCain Hate Talk Express Barrels Through North Carolina

October 21, 2008 B. John 430 Views 0 Comments 2008 Election, Hate Speech, Robin Hayes, U.S. Representative, U.S. House of Representative, republicans, liar, lie, Lying, John McCain

The current political climate and the divisiveness of modern campaigns is an embarrassment to this country. The politicians have found they can just lie without remorse, because there seems to be no accountability. As someone once said, in a democracy, we get the government we deserve. We let this crap work, so it’s what we get. I for one, hereby today and forthwith take a stand to say NO…NO MORE…to this kind of bull shit. U.S. Representative Robin Hayes (R, NC) made the following statement at a rally a few days ago, “Folks, there’s a real America. Liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.” Then had temerity to blatantly lie and say he never said…the recording of his comments notwithstanding.

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Toronto Travel Travails

October 20, 2008September 29, 2018 B. John 447 Views 0 Comments Weather delays, United, Airlines, Toronto, Air Canada, Chicago

I know, I have not been posting much lately. Once again, work has been extremely busy with some travel thrown in for good measure. Since my work involves a lot of writing, by the time I have time to write here, I’m just too wrung out to carry on. I do have some things percolating in my mind that I want to get set down here, so I’ll to get more posted this evening, and I do owe you a few movie reviews. I guess the biggest story though is my first trip outside the U.S. You got it, I’m 49, and just now have crossed the border. I went to Toronto on business, and must say, I was impressed with the little I got to experience of the city. As is so often the case though, air travel chaos accompanied me as I headed home last Wednesday (and then into Thursday).

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Courage In The Face of Hate

October 6, 2008 B. John 329 Views 0 Comments Courage, Catholic, California, Gay Marriage, Amendment 2, Florida Constitution, Proposition 8, Ballot Initiatives, Priest, Clarity

“What most Catholics hear about being gay or lesbian at their parish church is–silence. A numbing silence, which slowly and insidiously tells them, “You don’t belong here, this is not for you, and you are not welcome.” It is not the crude overt vulgarity of some churches. But rather, it is the coldness of a maitre d’ who simply won’t seat you, or the club which has put you on a waiting list with no intention of allowing you to join. And simply asks you to wait in polite almost, apologetic tones.”

Once in a rare while, in the political discourse of this country, there is a flash of courage and clarity of thinking. One such flash has happened in California. Father Geoffrey Farrow of the Saint Paul Newman Center on the campus of the University of California (Fresno) is courageous cleric. Here is a man who has spoken truth to power, and perhaps ended his career. Below is the entirity of his Homily from this past Sunday.

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Canned Goods and Ammo

September 29, 2008September 29, 2018 1189 Views 0 Comments De-regulation, jobs, Dow Jones, Stock Market, republicans, Credit Market, Bush, Bush Administration, John McCain, Economy, Recession, Wall Street

I’ve been joking with a co-worker this afternoon that, given what happened today with the economic bailout package, and Wall Street’s reaction, we need to get to the grocery store to buy canned goods and ammo. Unfortunately, that may not be too far from reality. Most of the Republicans, and enough Democrats voted against the bail out plan that it failed and the Dow Jones Industrial Average nose-dived over 777 points. That’s the largest one day drop ever.

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The Economic Crisis

September 26, 2008 B. John 406 Views 0 Comments Bush, cheney, Economy, Government Bailout, Paulson, Bailout, economic crisis

I know you can hardly wait for my take on the current economic crisis. I’ll be the first to admit, that like John McCain has said, I’m no expert on the economy. Certainly there are a lot of “financial products” out there I don’t have a clue about, but there are some things about the market and the politics around it I do understand. Any plan needs to come at this current economic problem from at least two directions. One direction must work on the consumer side to reduce the number of defaults and bad loans. This will help the economy and reduce the total cost of any bailout. On the other side, perhaps purchasing some percentage of an institutions bad debt is acceptable, but that institution has to absorb a portion of their bad decisions. This goes to trust and accountability.

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The Free Marketeers and Cardinal Richelieu

September 19, 2008September 29, 2018 B. John 397 Views 0 Comments AIG, Depression, Free Market, Government Bailout, Corporate America, Wall Street, Culture War, Karl Rove, Economy, Recession, Economics

Today, while running an errand, I passed a sight which gave me some pause. I’m not sure why I noticed, and I’m not sure why I am drawing the assumptions I’m drawing, but I’ll tell the story anyway. Some years back, to make ends meet, I worked a part time job for a lot of years. For several of those years, I sold shoes at a Florsheim shoe store right in the main corner of the largest mall in Greensboro, NC. To pass the time when we were slow, I would often pick out someone walking by, and just based on what I could see, I’d make up the person’s current life situation. If that person came in the store, and any sort of chat developed, I was often astounded by how accurate my story had been, and so, from that perspective, I tell another story. I have no clue how accurate it is, but it illustrates a point about the recent economic downturn.

We were driving up Dale Mabry Highway, the main north-south road here in Tampa. Walking north (going south would eventually run you into the water of the bay) was two men. One of them was maybe near my age in his late 40s or early 50s. The other person was a bit younger, probably in his late 20s. (I don’t think they were related.) They both had backpacks and were carrying more bags by hand. They had the look of people moving on to somewhere else taking along just what they could carry. I didn’t get the idea from their appearance they had been homeless.

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Closing and Layoffs-Fundamentals Are Fine

September 17, 2008September 29, 2018 B. John 512 Views 0 Comments Publix, mccain, Economy, Lay-off, Layoff, Phil Graham, Bennigans, Checkers, Sonic, Jabil, Albertson's

If, like John McCain, I had a wife worth $100 million dollars, I guess, like him, I too would probably think the economy was just fine. I don’t have a significant other that is worth that, in fact, he like me, probably has negative net worth. Based on what I’m seeing around here with a lot of closings, the evidence is pretty strong that we’re into a major slowdown.