Michael not Mike

Notice the name of the DJ listed at the bottom of the sign. I took this picture last Christmas in Paris, France.

Over on the right is another new page. This one is called “My Favorite Positions (on issues).” It shorthands where I stand on issues such as government-paid-for-heatlthcare, the Second Amendment, same sex marriage, term limits, taxes, etc. Twenty-two positions in all. Probably something for everyone. I may add more later.

Looking at that list, it’s funny to see how different my positions were 10 years ago.

Certain groups in the Christian community, including Concerned Women for America and The Catholic League are in high dungeon over a poster being used to advertise this weekend’s Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco. In case you are not one of those whipped up about this event, it is an annual street fair that caters to a certain segment of the GLBT (this is one time all 4 letters are appropriate) community who enjoy certain sexual fetishes, especially BDSM and leather. It is not for that faint of heart. (The FSF link above has a galleries section in case you need more detail about what sorts of things happen at this fair.) Anyway, here’s the poster:

Obviously, it’s meant to bear a striking resemblance to Leonardo De Vinci’s Last Supper.

Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues with CWA said his group wants California’s elected officials – including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer – to “publicly condemn this unprovoked attack against Christ and His followers.” How exactly is this an attack on Christ or his followers? While it is certainly a parody of a painting made 1500 years after the events it purports to depict, it in no way says anything negative about Jesus or Christians.

Gays are the boogeyman to these groups. Gays are ridiculed, attacked, mocked, lied about and rejected by these groups in order to raise money. Other “sins” committed by those inside the flock are not safe to attack. Divorce, domestic violence and gluttony, also named as sins, receive little or no attention from AFA, CWA of the Catholic League. Throughout my Pentecostal upbringing, I spent way to many Sunday nights after service sitting across the table at Shoney’s watching a 400 pound traveling evangelist shovel another hot fudge cake into his maw while gossiping about the last church he was at to take this manufactured outrage very seriously.

And the final irony for me is the fact that The Catholic League has contacted 200 other religious organizations to join them in a boycott of Miller Brewing Company, one of the event sponsors. Religious groups calling for a boycott of a beer company for sponsoring a gay event. Wow.

To have a real impact, they should ask their members to boycott Blow Buddies.

[Update:  For a different view on this, visit local blogger Mark Rose over at Right Minded.]

Here is a Reuters photo taken yesterday during the speech given by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Columbia University as part of it’s World Leaders Forum:

Here are others taken at speeches given by other world leaders as part of the same series:

President Kagame, Rwanda

President Halonen, Republic of Finland

President Yudhoyono, Indonesia

Funny how Columbia chose to have only a black backdrop and podium, with the name of the university covered, for Iran’s President. Flipping through the other photos on the Columbia website did not turn up other leaders given the same treatment.

Kathy Griffin is coming to TPAC this Saturday and I’m going. Orchestra level tickets are mine. I’ve been watching her show, “My Life on the D-List” since it first aired. At first I thought it was just okay. But over time, I’ve really come to love her humor and outlook on life. She works her ass off, deals with each crisis openly and doesn’t take herself too seriously.

Hopefully it won’t be an show full of BDS tainted liberal spew like Margaret Cho’s was. (I saw Cho on a cruise a year and a half after her show in Nashville and she was still telling the same jokes. They still weren’t funny. Get an act, girl.) And hopefully it won’t be a confusing montage of gross humor mixed with the same joke being repeated 3 times in the same show like Joan Rivers was the last time I saw her. Even reading from the cue cards taped to the front of the stage couldn’t save her from herself.

Kathy should be great. We’ll see if she can induce the pain in my sides from laughing too hard that Leslie Jordan’s did when he was here a year ago April. He went for two hours, off the cuff, telling stories of his life in a way that few comedians can match. (Disclosure: I am proud to say that I co-produced that show.)

Do the people who complain about wire tapping and warrantless searches by the federal government that might track their behavior also object to government surveillance cameras in public places that definitely track their behavior?  If public surveillance is acceptable because a person may have a choice whether or not to frequent surveilled places, is it okay for the government to condition the use of public roads, sidewalks or parks on everyone’s willingness to be watched?

Do people who complain about corrupt public officials, elected, appointed and civil service, really want those same people making decisions about intimate details of their lives, e.g. whether they should have health insurance, smoke or wear seatbelts?

Do people understand that being hired by a governmental entity does nothing to boost a person’s I.Q, increase their wisdom or heighten their ability to understand the mundane?  Do people understand that government workers have no greater ability than they do to make decisions concerning their lives?

Have Americans lost sight of the principle encapsulated in this quote:

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”
Gerald Ford, Address to a Joint Session of Congress
August 12, 1974

Are people who want prayer back in schools willing to accept Muslim, Wiccan or Zoroastrian prayer?

About a year ago, I broke up with the most special guy I had ever dated. He was intelligent, charming and sexy as hell. To this day, I still miss him. After we broke it off, I was a bit down (read: depressed as hell). In my misery, I compiled a list of sad songs to listen to while sitting out on the deck, staring at the lights of the city with a drink in hand. Here’s my list.* I still listen to it, but rarely make it all the way through. At some point I usually decide to quit wallowing and listen to something much more up beat.

1. Emmylou Harris – A Love That Will Never Grow Old
2. Clint Black – A Bad Goodbye
3. Elton John – Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me
4. John Michael Montgomery – I Miss You A Little
5. The Judds – Love Can Build A Bridge
6. Kelly Clarkson – Beautiful Disaster
7. Michael Buble – How Can You Mend A Broken Heart
8. Patsy Cline – She’s Got You
9. Patsy Cline – Faded Love
10. Switcfoot – The Blues
11. Tracy Lawrence – Can`t Break It To My Heart
12. Do You Know Where You`re Going To
13. Westlife – Desperado
14. Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You
15. Willie Nelson – Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain
16. Willie Nelson – Always On My Mind

Okay. I left one off because it’s an old boy-band song and I don’t want to be made fun of too much. Anyone else have a list like this or know of songs that should be added?

A New Jersey school district has generated controversy by showing a film to third graders that depicts different types of families. In the film, one child talks about her divorced parents, another discusses being adopted. The interracial family didn’t cause controversy. But, when Daniel stepped up and said he had two dads and another child said:

“It’s really cool have to two gay dads, because they brought us into a home, and they adopted us, and they love us.”

that was enough to plunge the school and school district into controversy. After screening the film for concerned parents and a poll that showed the town almost evenly divided, the school district decided to ban the film. (I haven’t seen the film and can’t comment on it directly.   Update: Clips from the film, including the gay/lesbian clip, can be viewed here.)

This controversy highlights 2 questions. The first was touched on in the comments over at MCB to this post. What is a family? For a grouping to be a family, do the individuals have to be related by blood or law? Does it require at least two adults of opposite sex? Can people related by blood or law no longer be part of a family? What about pets? Should the government be the one to decide what is a family?

I know several gay people who have been kicked out of their own blood families and have created their own family groups, with whom they are closely bound and dependent for support. I’ve known straight couples married for 75 years and gay couples together for 20. Is the first a family and the second not?

As for the second question, when is it appropriate to tell children about same-sex couples who live together and see themselves as a family? Should schools/parents wait until the children encounter such a grouping or have a classmate living with two dads or two moms?

What makes a family? When is a child too young to be exposed to the different way some people define families?

Nashville Cares, one of the local organizations that provides services to those with HIV/AIDS in the Middle Tennessee area has a new campaign called “Nashville has AIDS.” The name is a jarring, but the statistics are too. For example, last year a person with HIV disease died on average every four days in Middle Tennessee. Thirteen percent of new cases are among people aged 15 to 24. While most people who test positive are gay or lesbian, unsafe heterosexual behavior accounts for 25 -27 percent of new cases

This issue really hits close to home with me. Several people I know, including one of my closest friends, are HIV positive. For a short time, I dated a guy who was positive. I would urge everyone to remember that this disease has not been cured and is still actively killing sons, daughters, fathers, aunts and friends on a daily basis. Nashville Cares and the Comprehensive Care Center are two outstanding organizations working to make life better for people affected by HIV/AIDS. Both organizations are worthy of support.

Recently, I was reading an article on people who makes list of things they want to accomplish before they die. Intrigued, I’ve decided to do just that. It now appears with the pages on the right side as “Things to do before I die.” At the same time, I wanted to appreciate some of the great experiences I’ve already had. So, there’s another page named “Great Life Experiences.” Both lists will grow over time as I formulate more goals and recall other terrific life moments.