Deep Something

Rick Warren and The Obama Inauguration

December 29, 2008September 29, 2018 B. John 507 Views 1 Comment Saddleback Church, Inaugration, bigotry, hate, Obama, Rick Warren

For those of you living under a rock, President Elect Obama has invited Rick Warren, from the Saddleback Mega-Church, to deliver the invocation at Obama’s inauguration. Gay rights and other activists groups have strenuously objected, and Obama and his aides have made any number of statements defending the choice with the tired old line of how the Obama campaign has always been about “uniting people” and showing how “we can disagree without being disagreeable.” So let me be clear in my response. In the case of claims by the Warren supporters (including you Obama), they are correct. I am being intolerant and am applying the standard applied by Warren and his supporters to love the sinner and hate the sin. I believe that the sin of hate and bigotry, most especially when used for monetary gain, should never ever be tolerated. I guess that fits the definition of intolerance, so I am guilty as charged.

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Doubt – A Movie Review

December 29, 2008 B. John 485 Views 2 Comments Viola Davis, John Patrick Shanley, Drama, Religion, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams

It’s 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A vibrant, charismatic priest, Father Flynn, is trying to upend the school’s strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the iron-gloved Principal who believes in the power of fear and discipline. The winds of political change are sweeping through the country, and, indeed, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James, a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius is galvanized to begin a crusade to both unearth the truth and expunge Flynn from the school. Now, without a shred of proof or evidence except her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn, a battle that threatens to tear apart the Church and school with devastating consequences. This is an excellent must-see movie.

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Milk – A Movie Review

December 27, 2008 B. John 496 Views 2 Comments Drama, James Franco, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Harvey Milk, Milk, Gus Van Sant, Biopic, Allison Pill, Emile Hirsch

His life changed history. His courage changed lives. In 1977, Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in America. His victory was not just a victory for gay rights; he forged coalitions across the political spectrum. From senior citizens to union workers, Harvey Milk changed the very nature of what it means to be a fighter for human rights and became, before his untimely death in 1978, a hero for all Americans. Milk charts the last eight years of Harvey Milk’s life. This is an important story.

Society

A Last Wish

November 24, 2008 B. John 409 Views 0 Comments death, dying, giving, Homeless, Caring

But that we all cared this much about one another.

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Enough is Enough – The Fallout From The Gay Marriage Vote

November 17, 2008 B. John 417 Views 0 Comments Amendment 2, Proposition 8, Stop the H8, Undo 2, HRC, Equality Florida, Kevin Beckner, Linda Saul-Sena, Marriage, Civil Rights

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 397 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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Indocrination – BOO!

October 26, 2008September 29, 2018 B. John 445 Views 0 Comments Constitutional Amendments, Gay Rights, Insanity, Florida Constitution, Florida Amendment 2, John Stemberber, Dishonesty, Marriage, indoctrination, homophobia, Election Law, bigotry, Attorneys, hate

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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Clean Team Supervisor Charged With Littering

October 22, 2008September 29, 2018 B. John 265 Views 0 Comments Downtown Tampa Partnership, Clean Team, Littering, TBO.com

Harry Blivins, at 37, is an industrious guy. Harry is a supervisor with Tampa Downtown Partnership’s Clean team. This is Tampa initiative to keep the downtown clean. Harry also has a lawn service he operates on the side. Unfortunately, he got a little over-ambitious in his efforts to keep Tampa clean.

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Courage In The Face of Hate

October 6, 2008 B. John 347 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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Just So You Know-I Brought Down Wall Street

September 29, 2008September 29, 2018 B. John 404 Views 0 Comments Financial Crisis, Christian Civil League of Main, Michael Heath, Center for Immigration Studies, Mark Krikorian, National Review, Krazy Kristian Kooks, Economy

Why am I not surprised to learn that the krazy kristian kooks are now blaming gay people for the financial crisis affecting America. Never mind that their usual rant is that Gay’s don’t need job protections because we have all the disposable income. We used it, I guess, to wreck havoc in the world financial markets.

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The Free Marketeers and Cardinal Richelieu

September 19, 2008September 29, 2018 B. John 433 Views 0 Comments Culture War, Karl Rove, Economy, Recession, Economics, AIG, Depression, Free Market, Government Bailout, Corporate America, Wall Street

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.