A Private Housewarming

Searching for a place in the shade to take a break from a bad or busy day? Then perhaps you've come to the right entry, if you're inclined to peek in on another human being's snapshot of a day in the life of his sister. It doesn't matter whose sister, or whose brother I'm talking about. Simply picture a younger brother who was so impressed with his sister's hard work placing her personal stamp on her new home, that he did what he always does for loved ones, friends and family alike. He wrote a personal piece tailored expressly for her and her alone. Call it a poem if you like. I call anything I write in verse that's not intended to be, or doesn't grow up to become a set of lyrics, a "discussion." A good example, if you're curious, is "The Show." But today's entry is a personal certificate of love and respect for an older sister, captured shortly after my first visit to her warm and inviting home. The personal details of our relationship are best considered unimportant to the reader. And there's nothing profound here. It's simply an invitation to draw from your own field of memories as you read on, in hopes that an interesting or heartfelt emotion comes your way before you head back to "meat space" (as the kidz say)...

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A Private Housewarming

I am a child
A child with gifts,
Gifts scorned and unrecognized
By both sides of the Coin
From which I was made.

Gifts
Spat upon
With vicious, eager accuracy,
Gifts
Ignored by a civil servant with tunnel vision.

These gifts have survived
And so have I.

Now,
As I wipe the spittle from my heart
And bellow inappropriately
So as not to be ignored by the Ignorant,

I remember

I rediscover

The living witness
Whose gifts too, went unnoticed.

And I rejoice
When she defends me.

And I remember singing ourselves to sleep.

I was not alone
My sister was there.
_____

She is here now.
She has a home in me,
And you are now in her home.
So please wipe your soles
Before entering my sister's home,
And check your hats and coats
With a civil tongue
And a hint of hilarity.

Brag and Gush
As she conducts The Grand Tour ~
(do this until she is ever so slightly embarrassed)

And as the wine loosens the spirit
Give her the gift
Of giving you
An evening to remember, fondly.

For she too was spat upon
And ignored.
And like me, her brother,
She and her gifts have also survived.

Remember

You were invited to this home
Not to invade her world,
But to celebrate her freedom
From the Curse of the Coin.
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Copyright 1994, Jackie (the brat). All rights reserved. Copyright assigned to The Human Trust, 2005.

Mr. Bush, Step Down!

(3rd draft - 2nd draft posted at AlterNet's Human Rights forum {HumanRights.169.21-}, Dec. 10, 2003, revised here, in part to reflect Ashcroft's resignation)

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CITIZEN'S PETITION: MR. BUSH, STEP DOWN, NOW. GIVE ME BACK MY COUNTRY!

Dear George W. Bush,

I am a citizen of the United States of America. However, it seems that America has been taken away from me. I feel that this Administration, this Congress, this Department of Justice, and this Supreme Court have betrayed America, and are now in the process of selling America off piece by piece.

As an American citizen, I hereby petition your administration to step down immediately. I demand that a caretaker administration be put in place by Congress, and that an impartial, impeccable Board of Civilian Review be created to examine your entire record, including the pathflow of your administration's correspondence, meetings and attendees, along with executive orders and directives created by the your administration, leaving no federal agencies exempt from scrutiny.

I call for the Senate to vote "No" on the confirmation vote for Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. Should Mr. Gonzales be confirmed, I demand that he tender his resignation immediately. I call for the full repeal of The Patriot Act, as well as any riders to any passed or pending Bills containing any provisions included in Mr. Ashcroft's "wishlist" known as "The Patriot Act II."

I call for the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the armed forces to order our military forces to stand down, world-wide.

I ask that the Supreme Court be precluded from handing down any new rulings if and until it can be shown that their decision concerning the election of 2000 was not a gross, impeachable offense on the Court's part.

I call for a moratorium on Capital Punishment. I call for an end to mandatory minimums for sentencing. I call for an end to overzealous prosecutions. I call for the return of federal judges' discretion.

I call for foolproof legislation to prevent any former elected federal official, as well as all family members of elected federal officials now holding office, from working on behalf of any registered lobbyist or other special interest group concerned with any issues on which said elected officials have cast a vote, whether in committee, by voice vote, or by roll call on the Floor of either branch of Congress.

I call for every federal ballot to include "none of the above" as a valid choice for every election of every pertinent federal official. I demand an end to any method of voting, electronic or otherwise, that does not include a verifiable paper trail open to full public scrutiny through straightforward recounting procedures for any questionable or contested federal races.

I demand that Congress call for new elections of the entire House and Senate at their earliest opportunity, and without delay, following the transition of power from the Bush administration to a caretaker administration.

Until these matters have been fully addressed, I hold the federal government, as it now composed, to be in violation of the Constitution.

-----

I refuse to either leave my country or give up my citizenship. Should your administration not step down, now that you have been elected to a second term of 4 years as my president, I pledge NOT to contribute any more monies to the coffers of what I now consider to be an illegal, thus unconstitutional "government." In the event any federal income tax policies and/or other salary restrictions preclude or prevent me from withholding my financial resources from your stupefyingly Un-American administration, I pledge to join other citizens in every effort to buy, barter, lobby at the grassroots level, demonstrate, and engage in other non-violent acts designed to undermine, and hopefully end or slow down the murderous meanderings of your Doctrine of pre-emptive war which masquerades as the "war on terror."

-----

Finally, I urge every American without children, without a life-threatening disease, without other critical life circumstances that could jeopardize their safety, to join me in this petition.

-----

Mr. Bush, you have taken my country away from me. I will give my very life, if necessary, in order to help bring about a return to the Spirit of the Principles this country was founded upon, and thoughtful re-engagement, through diplomacy, with the rest of the entire world. My actions, unlike yours, will remain entirely non-violent, but I will exercise every fundamental right I may have as an American citizen until my country's government has been returned to its own Citizenry.

Very truly yours,

__________________________ signed, ______________, 200_

I have signed and sent copies of the above Petition to:

______________________________, my Representative

______________________________, my senior Senator

______________________________, my junior Senator

______________________________, Attorney General

______________________________, Chief Justice Rehnquist

______________________________, my local newspaper

______________________________, my local TV stations

______________________________, my mayor

______________________________, my county's officials

______________________________, my state's governor

______________________________, other

______________________________, other

This Petition, while composed by The Heathen Monk is intended for the free use of any interested party. No standard copyright restrictions apply to its use, unless edited and published without written permission..

Let's Take The Big Top on the Road!

D.C. Inside the Beltway. Our nation's Capitol. We've all heard how insulated the culture is in Washington. How out of touch our own government is with the citizenry it claims to represent. How polarized our country is and how pitiful the liberal media, not to mention those pesky liberals, have become. How entrenched the whole system is, not to mention the power wielded by the boyz and girlz on K Street. What to do, what to do? By George Washington, I've got it!

Let's take our government on the road. Every four years. All three branches. Sound impossible? Too expensive? Hold on there, pardner, lemme explain. Here's how The Big Road Show could work:

While leaving all of the federal agencies safely ensconced in Washington, not to mention the lobbyists on K Street, why not create a rotating, four year temporary home for the president's administration, for both houses of Congress, and for the Supremes, along with any available federal judges who sit in each temporary home's district? Communication with their staff and home state offices has never been more flexible. Security has never been more sophisticated. And don't you think it's high time the Supreme Court justices held a few town hall meetings just to get a feel for how the living document they interpret is affecting all of the little people? Think of all the chambers of commerce salivating at the very thought of all the new "tourist" revenue their communities could count on. Think how much money could be made by turning the Big Top (excuse me, I meant The Capitol dome), the White House, and other symbols of our freedom into a kind of theme park, charging admission to visitors just like we do now at National Parks. Why, we could pay for the traveling road show without introducing a single Bill in Congress!

As for K Street, I'm afraid they'd have to stay home in D. C., and their contact with lawmakers would have to be restricted and made public to boot. And I'm so sorry, but we'd have to forbid any elected federal official and all of their family members from ever "serving" as paid lobbyists. It's just a little bit too cozy for my liking when I hear about mild-mannered men like Tom Daschle serving in the Senate while his family members are being paid handsomely by the folks on Special K St. Tom DeLay, "The Hummer," might not blink an eye, but Tom Daschle? Puhleeze!

So give it some thought. The actual interaction between our government and the citizenry it claims to represent. Mingling with the peasantry in a different region every four years. And all of it paid for by tourist dollars and theme park admission fees. It's hard to live on talking points and sound bites when you have living, breathing human beings in front of you whose lives are touched daily by the decisions you make. And guess what? Healthy debate (real debate), and venting (doctors sometimes call it externalizing) are good for a strong, vibrant democracy, especially when the InfoWhores in the media have decided to spit back the bullshit they've been spoonfed by our fearless leaders. Gosh, even dissent is claimed as a tool of freedom! And so, my fellow Americans, I ask you to consider making our government a "moveable feast" we can all taste and digest. It just might remind us all that the folks who live and work inside the Beltway serve under "the consent of the governed."

A "Quaint" Nightmare to Follow AssCraft's Soaring Eagle?

STOP

TERROR

STOP

TORTURE

STOP

GONZALES

 

 

Alberto Gonzales. A man who found a way to tip-toe around the Geneva Conventions' torture provisions in today's world of a volunteer army that outsources "independent contractors." A man who had opportunity after opportunity to simply say, "Yes, I'm against torture. Torture is bad...it's BAAAAD!" When he finally agreed that torture and other quaint provisions like the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" were wrong it was like pulling teeth - Dustin Hoffman's teeth in "Marathon Man." In light of last year's report on torture in Guantanamo by the International Red Cross, Molly Ivins had a few things to say in her piece, "Torture, American Style" from The Texas Observer:

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Yes, it’s true, we did sort of know this (the torture at Gitmo) already. It was clear when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke in Iraq that the infection had come from Guantanamo. The infamous memos by Alberto Gonzales, our next attorney general, and by John Ashcroft’s “Justice” Department pretty well laid it out.

---

Ms. Ivins went on to refer to one finding in the report that never got the media play it deserved:

---

The creepiest aspect of the Red Cross report is the involvement of doctors and psychiatrists in something called “Biscuit” teams. Get used to that acronym: It stands for Behavioral Science Consultation Team and will end up in the same category of national shame as Wounded Knee. According to The New York Times, Biscuit teams are “composed of psychologists and psychological workers who advise the interrogators.” Shades of Dr. Mengele.

_____

But let's look at Alberto's record while he served then Governor Bush in Texas. His creative thinking. His way of dealing with pending death penalty cases. His relationship with Enron. And so many other "quaint" tales from those tossed salad days. The list is so long, allow me to provide you with the headlines on Gonzales you'll find at The Center For American Progress:

---

As Texas Chief Legal Counsel

DEATH PENALTY MEMOS: GONZALES'S NEGLIGENT COUNSEL: [Atlantic Monthly, July/August, 2003] Relax, it's just a little ineffective counsel, or a minor conflict of interest, some flimsy mitigating evidence, and maybe a tiny bit of overlooked evidence of innocence. (paraphrasing the quote from Atlantic Monthly) See this review from The New York Review of Books too.

MEMORANDUM ON TERRY WASHINGTON*: A CASE STUDY IN INCOMPETENCE: [Atlantic Monthly, July/August, 2003]

*the 33 year-old retarded death row inmate Gonzales briefed BoyGeorge on prior to Washington's execution

GONZALES TOLD GOV. BUSH HE COULD IGNORE INTERNATIONAL LAW: [Slate, 6/15/04] Back in 1997, it was - sound familiar?

GONZALES GETS BUSH OUT OF JURY DUTY TO KEEP DUI SECRET: [USA Today, 3/18/02] Thank goodness for good friends in high places!

As Texas Supreme Court Justice

GONZALES DOES ENRON'S BIDDING: [New York Daily News, 2/2/02] (search Daily News archives for story) Yes, I can use your contributions, and I promise to help keep The Dick's Energy Task Force Meetings a secret.

ACCEPTING DONATIONS FROM LITIGANTS: [Texas for Public Justice] What's a little cash between friends when I'm passing judgement on them?

(note: links to the publications' stories listed above may be a little hit or miss, but the excerpts provided at The Center For American Progress will give you a good idea of each article's approach to their story, should you have any trouble accessing the original article online)

_______________

The DailyKos has a story today, "No on Gonzales," by Armando, that invites any bloggers who've written their own comments against Gonzales' nomination to add their names to the list of those opposed to his confirmation. I may be an obscure, BabyBlogger, but I'd be proud to have my name added to that list. (late night Tuesday: I see that my blog signature has been added at Kos - thumbs are now tucked under my suspenders)

Excerpts from The Texas Observer and The Center for American Progress are the copyrighted property of their respective owners, and are used here purely for contextual purposes.

Ah, Diplomacy! Rice Lies, Cheney Threatens

During her Senate confirmation hearings for Secretary of State, BoyGeorge's favorite confidante, Condi Rice, famous for her months of television appearances in which she linked September 11th to Saddam like a bad hypnotist, was caught in an outright contradiction of her own statements as to why the U.S. went to war with Iraq, again:

---

When Senator Boxer said: ..."I'm interested in the facts. So when I ask you these questions, I'm going to show you your words, not my words.

...You sent them (our soldiers) in there because of weapons of mass destruction. Later, the mission changed when there were none. I have your quotes on it. I have the president's quotes on it. And everybody admits it but you that that was the reason for the war."...

Ms. Rice came back with a "total picture" answer: ..."Saddam Hussein was a threat, yes, because he was trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction. And, yes, we thought that he had stockpiles which he did not have. We had problems with the intelligence. We are all, as a collective polity of the United States, trying to deal with ways to get better intelligence."

Unimpressed, Boxer reminded Rice: "Well, you should read what we voted on when we voted to support the war, which I did not, but most of my colleagues did. It was WMD, period."

Staying on point, Boxer added: ..."But, again, I just feel you quote President Bush when it suits you but you contradicted him when he said, 'Yes, Saddam could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year.' You go on television nine months later and said, 'Nobody ever said it was'" --

Obviously ruffled, Rice jumped in with: ..."Senator, that was just a question of pointing out to people that there was an uncertainty. No one was saying that he would have to have a weapon within a year for it to be worth it to go to war."

To which Boxer replied: "Well, if you can't admit to this mistake, I hope that you'll" --

Again, Rice interrupted Boxer with this: "Senator, we can have this discussion in any way that you would like. But I really hope that you will refrain from impugning my integrity."

Boxer came right to the point: "I'm not. I'm just quoting what you said. You contradicted the president and you contradicted yourself."

(full transcript here)

---

So Saddam could have had a nuclear weapon (hey, where are the missiles?) in a year, but even though BoyGeorge made the claim himself, nobody ever said Saddam could have a nuclear weapon within a year. I guess that makes BoyGeorge a nobody, and Condi Rice a wounded soldier who dared to stand up for her hero. And THIS is the person we're bound to have as our next Secretary of State? Diplomacy Shiplomacy!

__________

And on a dare, Don Imus invited both The Dick and Mrs. Cheney on his program during Inauguration Day. Guess what? They accepted! Emerging from the ever expanding bunker his neighbors have been complaining about for more than a year, The Dick chose the Imus forum to send a message to Iran:

"At some point, if the Iranians don't live up to their commitments, the next step will be to take it to the U.N. Security Council, and seek the imposition of
international sanctions to force them to live up to the commitments and
obligations they've signed up to under the non-proliferation treaty, and
it's-but it is a-you know, you look around the world at potential trouble spots, Iran is right at the top of the list."

Cheney also posed this rosy scenario:

''Given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards,''

With more than 100,000 American troops near their border, and rumors of secret incursions to assess their weapons status, I'm sure the Iranians felt all warm and fuzzy when word of Cheney's "friendly" suggestion reached their already paranoid ears. Perhaps it's time for us to impose democracy on yet another country full of NonBelievers.

Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Israel, North Korea, Indonesia, The Philippines, Venezuela, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and others. These are the countries most likely to "benefit" from Ms. Rice and Mr. Cheney's forms of diplomacy. Do ya feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

(links to more pre-war info available here)
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Excerpt from the Boxer/Rice transcript is assumed to be the copyrighted material of Federal News Service, from a Web page that is copyright 2005, San Francisco Chronicle, and used here for contextual purposes only. Excerpt from the Imus in The Morning Show is the copyrighted property of its rightful owner, and is used here purely for contextual purposes.

BabyDoc Powell to Step Down at FCC

(first appeared at dailykos.com)

Once he stood as an example of the Reagan approach to regulatory agency directors. Appoint someone friendly to the very corporations they are charged to regulate (remember Reagan's "drag your feet" approach to the EPA Superfund?). Powell even passed an increase in overall media ownership, only to have it blocked by federal appeals courts, and repealed by Congress. Besides increasing fines to unprecedented levels and protecting us from Janet Jackson's breast, BabyDoc's legacy won't soon be forgotten...

Like so many other Bush appointees* Powell demonstrated time and time again that he was willing to come down on the "coarseness" of today's broadcast programming while spreading his cheeks for NewsCorp, Clear Channel, and even Viacom, among others. His departure will certainly be welcome, and one of the leading contenders for his replacement, Kevin Martin, seems, at face value, to have a mind of his own, sort of:

Today's NYTimes says:

---

One is Kevin J. Martin, a Republican commissioner and former White House official who several times foiled Mr. Powell's attempts to deregulate broadcasters and telephone companies. The other is Becky A. Klein, a former Texas regulator appointed in the 1990's by the state's then-governor, George W. Bush. She lost a congressional bid two months ago after her campaign received a huge amount of financial support from executives at telecommunications companies who expected she would be a top contender for the F.C.C. job.

But perhaps the best description of BabyDoc's legacy can be found in the last paragraph of the same NYTimes article:

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"During his tenure, cable rates have risen almost three times faster than inflation, satellite prices are beginning to similarly rise, broadband prices have increased and there has been enormous consolidation in the wire line and wireless services," said Gene Kimmelman, a senior director of public policy at Consumers Union. "Powell was more concerned about preserving competition for wealthy people, people who already have broadband, people who have video service. The people who used to rely on the long-distance companies, who want more choices for their cell phone carrier, they were left out in the cold."

---

Mr. Powell, you brought in revenues from fines that used to add up to less than $50,000 a year, to more than a million dollars today. Congratulations! I feel so much more protected from sleaze because of you. And I never was a believer in changing the channel. It's just too much trouble for a lazy couch potato like me.

*actually, BabyDoc was appointed by Clinton in 1997. He became chairman under Bush. Who'd a thunk it?

Excerpt from the NYTimes article above is Copyright 2005, The New York Times Co., and is used here purely for contextual purposes.

In a World Where...

(first posted at dailykos.com)

In a world where one small group from one political party holds power following a second suspect election, this one filled with paperless ballots now cleared from their machines, we need the honest blogger.

In a world full of spineless Democrats who roll over time and time again, protecting inbcumbency at all costs, further empowering the ReThuglican wing of the Repuglican Party, we need the honest blogger.

In a world where the mainstream press, broadcast, and cable snews networks suckle on the rancid teat of the conglomerate that owns them, steering clear of the tough questions in favor of ratings and happy sponsors, we need the honest blogger.

A one-dimensional Party in power.

A rotten, impotent opposition Party.

A failed, corrupt, "Fourth Estate" acting in collusion with the Party in power.

The honest blogger has become one of the few tools left to challenge them all. Anyone who rides the Web long enough can find and test the opinions, sources, and news provided by bloggers. A few minutes of googling is all it takes to determine a blogger's reputation. A few visits to a blogger's site will reveal its bias, its passion for the truth (or lack thereof) concerning any issue, and its ability and/or willingness to check the pulse of today's MonsterPolitic, today's RobberBarons, and today's CluelessNews. Once you've found the bloggers you trust, it's up to you to decide whether or not you'll:

Take their word for it.

Check the facts for yourself.

Debate the issue with others.

Examine your own biases, your own knowledge base, your own need to know.

The Web is the least regulated avenue of information right now. Here's hoping it stays that way. The honest blogger doesn't claim to be a news service. Let's hope it stays that way. The PowersThatBe may be in charge, but in a world where the Web acts as a kind of global grapevine, it is literally impossible for them to "manage the truth." Let's hope it stays that way.

Just as Lenny Bruce claimed that "You need the deviant," we need the honest blogger. And if Bill Hicks were alive today, I'll bet he'd be reading and quoting from Kos and other honest bloggers as he strafed O'Reilly and Scarborough from a comedy club in AnyTown, USA.

In a world where ethics drown in a sea of sound bites, the honest bloggers are easy to spot. You found them, didn't you?

Dear Diary, January 12, 2005

(first posted at dailykos.com)

Dear Diary,

Well, it's 2005 already!  My fondest memory so far this year?  Of course it's the way all of the networks, both broadcast and cable/satellite, as well as the major newspapers, covered the first formal challenge to certification of the Electoral College ballot count in 130 years!  The "Boxer rebellion" they called it, but the jazzy catch phrase just never seemed to quite catch on.

Why, even the trusty old NYTimes spent a lot of ink on their first story, January 7th, covering the historic challenge, when they printed the words of wisdom from these two gentlemen:

---

"This is a travesty," said Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, a member of the Republican leadership, who forced a formal roll call vote in the Senate to spotlight lawmakers' positions. Of Democrats, he said, "They're still not over the 2000 election, let alone the 2004 election."

Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader, drew applause on the House floor when he denounced the Democrats' move as a "quadrennial crying wolf," while other House Republicans ridiculed stories of voter fraud in Ohio as "Hollywood inspired."

---

I remember how well the snewz channels covered all the domestic and international protests going into the war in Iraq - right, the second recent war in Iraq - the one that prevented us from being blown up by a urine cake mushroom cloud.  I can't tell you, dear diary, how much I'm looking forward to the intense coverage the networks will provide for all the protests and demonstrations on Inaugural Day, come January 20th!  I'd sure hate to think that I might have to go all retro and tune my little Grundig to KUT, or a shortwave broadcast from overseas in order to listen to NPR, BBC, or some other puny news service just to find out how people in my own country express their dissent and disgust with BoyGeorge & The Dick. Not to mention all those heathen bloggers and alternative news sources on the Web!  Ugh, and those email activists? Not Brent Blowswell, but the tens of thousands of individuals actually concerned about our future. Who needs 'em!  We've got a free press!  I mean, just look at the way Ari used that cute lil' cutthroat smile of his when Helen Thomas, having earned her way to the front row, dared to ask him a  couple of tough questions.  He banished her to the back seat of the bus at press conferences.  You don't think that sent a message to all of the other reporters do ya?  You don't think they all got that familiar glazed look on their lazy, cocksucking faces, and when coming up for air asked Ari, "Wellsir, what other questions wouldya like me to ask ya, sir?  I'd love to be a shill for ya like that fat little fucker from the Washington Times!"  Yes, it's all clear sailing from here, diary.  God is in BoyGeorge's Heaven, all's right with His world.  The Unbelievers?  They're all goin' to Hell, can't you see?!  You're either with us (born again Rethugs) or you're a heathen.  How could anything be more clear?  The NFidels might as well shut up, diary, cuz they're all doomed anyway.  Now, where did I put my ticket?  I remember my number...143,999.  Hmmm...

Excerpt from NYTimes article above is assumed to be Copyright 2005, The New York Times Co. All rights reserved. Used here for contextual purposes only.

Gay Marriage: Equal Rights or Special Interest Lobbying?

(first appeared in a forum discussion at AlterNet)

I've dropped out of this debate due to my own exasperation. But if you don't mind, allow me to posit a broad outlook concerning the potential acceptance of gay, lesbian, and transgendered human beings.

I sense that, unlike many historical attitudes towards homosexuality, civilization today (especially here in America) is in a state of collective adolescence, and it may be possible that the image of gay marriage is a perceived threat that springs from a kind of growing pain that will likely work its way through most western cultures in spite of the broad firewall attempting to stem this tide.

To me, this is not a linear world we live in. This is not an either/or world we live in. The spectrum of individual human development is not constrained by any grid or system of fairness that one might wish to cling to or superimpose onto others in order to make sense of things. Certainly we are all trying to find order with every action we take, whether known or unknown to our own rational minds. And the search for acceptance beyond oneself is a well-traveled path to a kind of life management that allows one to expend more energy on and attention to productive work best suited to their own inner passions, talents, and abiding curiosities.

America's grand experiment is based on the trust in the possibility, the ability of the individual to create a new and unique perspective within a dynamic, diverse society is it not? And throughout our history have we not demonstrated to ourselves and to the world that by reducing or eliminating constraints on individuals that once were accepted, and naturally so, by any given period's cultural code of acceptable behavior, we became more enlightened, more powerful through inclusion?

So it seems to me that both the yearning for and the resistance to gay marriage are part of this adolescent culture's growing pains. That conflict requires friction until certain watershed moments shake us, both individually and collectively, out of what may be our fading, rigid, and yet dangerously cornered assumptions of what "true" order is. Fear of change, along with both poorly-formed and well-reasoned arguments against change have always been a part of the cycles of life haven't they? The intensity of these arguments generally points, like a signpost, to an impending rotation into the next cycle, if my understanding of the work of Erich Fromm comes close to being accurate ~

Bold self examination and exploration are what may be called for in order to grow beyond this particular impasse, and move closer to inclusion concerning equal protection for gay, lesbian, and transgendered human beings. Polarized factions will certainly define the debate, but the wilting, the implosion of current concepts that may be ready for the dustbin should allow the friction to eventually subside and new growth to begin taking root.

I invite anyone visiting here to evaluate the validity or flawed nature of my thinking. I remain confident that by utilizing authentic reflection on the matter at hand, we can see our way to a new and manageable model of co-existence.

Blast From the Past!

Long before today's climate of fear and intimidation Ken Starr proved himself to be worthy of the infamous "Joe McCarthy" award, in my opinion, during his investigations prior to Clinton's impeachment hearings. Back then I uploaded an issue of my satirical rag "The SPM Harold" that featured an imaginary interview with someone who "claimed" to have had a special relationship with Judge Starr. In case you missed it, here it is again:





Image files from The SPM Harold above are Copyright 1998, The SPM Harold Gazzette. All rights reserved.