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Deep Intellectual Thoughts For A Saturday Afternoon

So, I wholeheartedly declare I love Pandora.

I absolutely love the Little River Band…

And the two shall NEVER come together in my household!

Why????

Because I know it would only be a matter of time before they play a song by Air Supply!!!! 🙂

I Thought Only Conservatives Threatened Violence Against Their Political Enemies!

From the comments section of FireDogLake, lamenting the latest pols that show WI Governor Scott Walker will probably survive the upcoming recall effort against him:

If you really want to blame someone, blame Feingold and/or Kohl. Walker has millions in lie-filled ads pounding the airwaves 24:7 here. In contrast you see around 1 Barrett ad per day, if that. And to be honest, Barret’s ads are terrible. Falk’s ads were even worse and she would be losing right now by double digits if she had won the nomination.

The reality of the situation is that Feingold, Kohl, and Barret’s campaign could obviously give two shits whether or not Walker loses, and it shows.

Oh, and after we find out that the turnout for the 18-29 demographic is around 20% you can blame them too.

Elections are not the answer. We are just going to have to find other ways to enact “recalls”

Huh… Wonder what the writer of the comment means by that????

Fun With Binoculars And Solar Eclipses!

From the “Just Me, And My Shadow” Dept. After all these years, I finally  found my secret super power! My shadow becomes an anime figure during solar eclipses!!!!! 🙂

PS. I was helping my next door neighbors kids see the eclipse using the binocs and projecting the image onto the family Suburban. I noticed the image projected looked like eyes on an anime cartoon, and the idea was stuck in my head.

Oh, look!  It’s Wall-E!!!!

Does Opposition To Gay Marriage Automatically Equal Bigotry?

I have an awful lot of liberal friends who say absolutely yes – Anyone who is opposed to gay marriage, especially due to religious reasons, are bigots, period! In their world view, there is no middle ground. Either you are good and righteous and support same sex marriage, or you are evil and a bigot and an extreme homophobe!

Conversely, I have more than a few conservative friends who wouldn’t know bigotry from their own side of the isle if it hit them in the head with a hammer! Part of that might be a self defense mechanism trigger by liberals accusing them of bigotry for… Well… Even existing. Lets face it, it is always difficult to knowledge there are flawed rationals or motives nestled within the ideological imprint of your own group.

So, with that in mind, it’s nice to see a sane pro and con conversation on this issue. Here is a bloggingHeads that manages to capture a same discussion of this issue. Enjoy.

Here is my perspective on this issue. First, I don’t think that every person who does not favor or are opposed to the concept of gay marriage are bigots. The reasons are varied, and, even though I might not agree with the logic of the arguments against gay marriage, many are valid in their own right without the tinge of bigotry being attributed to them. This does not mean that there isn’t bigotry motivating the person who is opposed to the idea of SSM, but opposition to it does not automatically make you a bigot.

I am for gay marriage. Yes, it is for the selfish reason that I am gay and would benefit from being able to marry my mate, the person I love and am committed to. There are opponents of same sex marriage who would argue that many of those benefits you can get from marriage are obtainable through various legal contracts, such as property co-ownership and hospital visitation rights. This is true enough. But, there are never-the-less differences. The two situations are not equal. Marriage entails a myriad of legal changes and attachments. Getting every single one individually is prohibitive. And I’m sorry, you just can’t plan for and get legal protection everything. Marriage, on the other hand, is a one stop solution. Some of those legal documents are open to challenges from from third parties, where a marriage and all it entails is not.

PS. I am in a huge hurry to get out the door. If there are any errors, or something does not make sense…. I’ll fix it later. 🙂

The “Evolution” Of A Position

I wrote this yesterday on Facebook, in regards to President Obamas “evolution” on his position concerning gay marriage:

I’ve wrongly been called a denier and anti-science by some of my Global Alarmist friends. Well, in this specific case, I’m going fully on record as saying I don’t believe in “evolution”.

This is what he always believed, but as usual was too chicken to declare it.

Hardcore liberals are elated that he has finally come out in support of gay marriage. Those of us – “us” being gay Conservatives or Libertarians – who have been critical of this latest pivot (flip-flop, whatever you want to call it) have come under sharp fire for not throwing glitter parties and thanking the President for making this the best early Christmas present EVER! What we’re generally saying is that this “evolution” to accepting same-sex marriage is not so much about some incredible epiphany, but is, as usual, all about politics. And, on cue, the turn of events in the last 24 hour gives our criticism some weight. For example. The American Thinker notes:

If his fundraising had been lagging behind the pace of his 2008 campaign, it appears that Obama’s flip flop on gay marriage may have changed that.

[from BuzzFeed]

President Barack Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage carries a political cost, but it also means floods of cash from wealthy gay donors and disillusioned young people eager to be inspired by him again.

The “Obama the brave” narrative will continue for weeks despite the fact that the “political cost” of affirming what everyone knew in the first place is minimal to non-existent. People who oppose gay marriage weren’t supporting him anyway, and those in favor of gay marriage may have been discouraged but weren’t going to vote for Mitt Romney. The downside to his flip flop is small, but is being touted as evidence of political courage despite all evidence to the contrary.

Considering stories had been floating around for weeks, if not months, that Democratic donors were being stingy with their cash, is this move to mollify a very wealthy and prominent section of the base all that surprising?

So, yes, there are reasons for his critics to be a bit snarky.

But, I recognize that some of their criticism toward us is also justified.

When Obama was running in the primaries in 2007and was asked about gay marriage, I was hoping he would give the same answer that he gave in 1996while running for the Illinois state Senate, that he supported gay marriage. He didn’t, opting instead to go with the “marriage is between a man and a woman” answer, even though that was not his former position. It ticked me off because he was running as the “change” candidate, and I thought that would have been the perfect way to signal change. I recognized at the time that if he would have been honest with the voting public on this issue, seeing that the majority of the public was very much against the idea of same sex marriage, he very well may have failed to win the ultimate political victory if he wasn’t political with this issue.

It is ironic that the same political pressures that made Obama disavow his first position on same sex marriage have brought him right back to his original position. But this has been a political mine field for Democrats for so long. Raise you hands if you thought that either Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or Hillary Clinton were being true to their actual heart-felt position on gay marriage when they disavowed it, also saying marriage was between a man and a woman.

Thought not. Hell, Bill Clinton got hammered for trying to liberate gays in the millitary. And he was never the same politically powerful figure afterward. The gay issue effectively neutered him…. Politically at least! 🙂

Face it, the issue of same sex marriage has been a very tough issue for Democrats to deal with. It’s been a political tightrope. Obama has changed that. In some ways this is comparable to political opposition to prohibition in the 1920’s. For the first part of that decade, unless you were running in a very safe district, a politician, even those who were known to be drinkers, could not publicly voice their desire to end prohibition at all. That was the political kiss of death. 1928 Democratic Presidential candidate Al Smith was the first Presidential candidate from either party to buck conventional wisdom, challenge the ruling dry lobby of the day, and vocally support the repeal of prohibition. Smith may have lost that election to wet / dry Herbert Hoover, due more to vile prejudice against his professed Catholic faith than his views on the drink, but his full throttled opposition to prohibition opened the gate for other politicians to “come out of the closet” as it were and not be afraid to state that previously unsafe position on the issue.

Back to President Obama. Yes, he almost certainly made this move in desperation to try and gain some support back from his ever withering base. He probably did not make this final switch for altruistic and honorable reasons. But then, history is rife with groundbreaking political decisions made for less than pure reasons (LBJ was not exactly known to be a civil rights champion before he signed the CRA in 65). In my opinion, the most important aspect of this change in position is this: It is more likely than not, in the long term, even if President Obama loses in the upcoming contest, that his cemented public support for same sex marriage will smash the wall that has kept many a Democrat, and a few Republicans for that matter, from voicing their true views and support of same sex marriage.

In the short term? Hard to say.

It does look as though this may heel some wounds Obama has created by trying to be a Conservative Democrat… Which no one really bought anyway. Also, he now has something for which there will be very clear and distinct separation from his competitor to point to during the campaign season. When the Republicans want to dominate the debate on economic terms, something which they believe is an issue that favors them, the Obama camp can now convincingly shift gears and lay claim to the once abandoned mantle of social issues. Social issues may not ultimately win the day for the Democrats, but this election season sure did suddenly get a lot more interesting!

So, Upon further reflection, I guess I can say my thoughts on this topic have… er…. “evolved”! :-).

Thank you, Mr. President, for opening this door.

PS. Now can you finish evolving your position on medical marijuana, and go back to the more liberal hands off policy you abandoned to try and win a few Conservative votes.

Writers Blah… Part 2

Yep, still can’t get motivated to write anything….  Although I did start something on the turmoil in Europe yesterday. I may finish that today given the time.

Politics???? Meh! Kind of boring right now.  I’m sure something wi,ll happen soon enough that peaks my interest. But, right now, it’s boring me to tears.

There are some things I could write about.  For instance, I finally got a road bike, a used Trek 420, and am in the process of cleaning / fixing it up. Hope to have it road worthy for a little ride this week-end.

Also, I am leaving the 80’s band OutaTime. I know I haven’t been in it very long, but, things are happening to make it impossible to stay. Two people in the band  have side projects, me and the guitarist Rik. My other two are starting to get more work.  Between Rik and I, there will be very limited time for OutaTime band to get any gigs at all. And since we recently got a new lead vocalist and he’s still learning the songs, I figured this is the perfect time for a new bass player to come in and also learn the songs. We do have a gig lined up for June 3rd. I’m sticking around for at least that gig. They should have a replacement lined up by then.

On acoustic Highway – After the loss of Steve and Nancy Kuykendhall,  I thought Acoustic highway was kind of going to die on the vine. Anyone who has been in bands knows the signs. But, a funny thing happened on the way to our demise. After flirting with adding another guitarist, we decided to stick around as a four-piece. This means I will have to learn a few more songs, and write a few specifically for this band too. Chris Flores, our drummer, will get the chance to move out from behind the kit and play some guitar. That’s way cool, because he is actually a better guitarist than drummer, and he’s a very good drummer!   We now have several gigs booked for the summer, including playing for radio station KJWL at Art hop next month. That’s a cool gig! And getting more. For the first time in a while, I’m really exited about the direction Acoustic Highway is going in. Taylor Martin, my duo project, with our connection to Roger Perry, is also unexpectedly seeing more work.

So that’s what’s going on.

Caption This Tuesday!

I think there was a serious misunderstanding when they told Ang Lee they wanted him to direct the remake of the “Pissidon Adventure”!

After a particularly vigorous work-out this morning, Wang was feeling pretty stiff.

Mie always was good at keeping a stiff upper lip.

Asian Super-Hero’s have the strangest super powers!!!!

Destination – San Francisco!

Kim Kardashian to her sister:   “Meh… Kind of small, don’cha think?”.

Dammit Kim…  I said come to the party dressed as a cauliflower….   A  Cauliflower!!!     That’s not even close!!!!