McCain pulls a Moose out of his hat!

On occasion I will get a comment or e-mail asking "Who is it that tricked us". Well, the characters pulling the slight of hand change all the time, but I have to get the soapbox out on this trick in particular.

I think the best way for me to explain it is for you to imagine a huge stage filled with important & powerful characters, these characters decide the future course of the United States and therefore the world. In the spotlight are two men debating the direction this country will go in. Do we stay on the same path or do we decide it is time for a change. This is one of the most important moments in U.S. history. Deadly serious as in the background we see people losing their homes, people suffering because of no health care, foreign powers ratteling their sabers at us and a general mistrust of the U.S. by all the foreign players. One of these men tells us we cannot go on like this, that we must change the course we are on. That we can no longer be dependent on foreign oil, that we can no longer isolate ourselves on this world stage, that all Americans deserve and have a right to health care, that we are all equal and the rich and poweful will no longer decide the course of American history. The other guy looks around takes off his top hat and pulls out a Moose. It is a woman moose and it wears nice glasses. All of the sudden we stop talking about serious issues and want to know all about the moose. Who is the moose, does the moose have kids, wow the moose can read a speech that someone else wrote for her. Maybe the moose is a puppet? This moose is from Alaska, a state pretty much controlled by the Oil Industry, after all all the folks in Alaska get a big fat check each year from the oil they drill up. This moose will not talk to the press because basically she has no idea what to say. But boy does she get the attention. Moose is on the front page of the paper every day. The paper tells us what a good decision it was for Mr. McCain to pull this moose out of his hat, who would have ever expected him to do that. Well, I did. Because like one million times before when a certain group of people don't want to discuss the real issues, they trick us with a distraction. A DISTRACTION that is all it is!!

Have you been tricked? Do you discuss the Moose? Do you read about the Moose? Do you listen to others talk about the Moose? If so please stop it. Discuss the issues important to this campaign. Discuss the people we are voting on for President and what they have to say. Right now moose has nothing to add.

Where did all the Bumper Stickers Go?

My Brother and I were driving back to the office yesterday after lunch and I saw a truck with a bumper sticker on it. It said something like "Witches Heal", well ok, whatever ,and it had one of those fish things that folks like to put on their car that said "N' Chips" inside the fish. That did make me laugh, I guess that is why I noticed it. But I realized that rarely do you see bumper stickers anymore. I used to see them all the time, political ones, funny ones, W ones, rainbow ones, etc. Not anymore. I think we have gotten too scared to express our opinions publically. Someone might decide to run us off the road or pull a gun and start shooting or maybe just drag a key along the side of our car as it innocently sits in the parking lot.

I think people have gotten to this point because civil discourse is mostly a thing of the past. People form their opinions and will defend them to the death, no matter what contradicting evidence comes up. Maybe we as a nation learned this from old W, "I don't care what the evidence says I am sticking to the course". I learned long ago that if people can't defend their opinions with reasonable arguments then they just get mad at you and call you names or worse. Its too bad that this has happened, I miss the bumper stickers they were funny lots of times.

The Lady Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks!

I have always been a bit suspicious of those that go around complaining a bit too loudly about something that has no effect on their lives. It appears that my suspicions may be well founded. In what the media is framing as a scandel yet another man who spent way too much time complaining about "The Homosexual Agenda" has been caught with his pants down, so to speak. I don't expect everyone to always live up to the ideals that they expound, but please, if you are going to be a public figure and make some position the cornerstone of your life, try to model your actions on that position.

I am no more shocked by the Senator in the restroom than I would be if they caught the head of PETA with a cheeseburger hanging out of his mouth, but at least eating a cheeseburger in public is legal. For some reason the closeted Republicans can't manage to just have a homosexual encounter either, they have to twist it up with something slimy or illegal; propositioning underage pages, sex in public, smoking crack with your long time prostitute trick. I just don't get it. I have been out of the closet for a long time now and had to learn about the secret gay signals for bathroom sex from a conservative, republican, senior citizen, Senator with a wife and a few kids, something is really wrong with that. What makes it even worse is it gives the general public, who may not have met a nice middle class gay man, the impression that we are always up to something really gross. NOT TRUE!! I get up every morning and go about a pretty normal day. I don't hang out in public restrooms, I don't try to pick up children, I don't do drugs, hell I don't even smoke anymore! I live in the typical suburban home with my partner of 11 years and a couple of dogs and a cat.

What amazes me even more is that if in the last year so many homophobic public figures have been caught engaging in activeties that they publically denounce, how many of them are up to the same thing but have enough sense not to get caught? All of them? Are gay men really supposed to be conservative, republicans and I never got the memo? These family values folks really do protest too much!