So, while everyone is, uh, hmmm, "blogging" this summer...

Oh, what an adventure we're having this summer. You can see in the picture above how close I got to boardibg the train before I decided to just lay my inebriate bones down and enjoy the view from a bench. If I wasn't so hammered, who knows where I would have gone or if I'd ever return. Besides, I'd have missed being rolled and set afire by friendly local thugs (those compassionate urchins concerned I might catch my death from the chill summer night).

I may have been on my way to a job interview before stopping for a little relief (in oh, so many ways) but I'm not certain. Everything's so fuzzy. God knows I needed a drink. This entire application and interview process has been as demoralizing as it has been depressing. If I haven't been deemed qualified enough for a position, the determination is that I'm over-qualified; if they've haven't already filled the position, they're waiting to convene a committee to commiserate and consider and consume a platter of cheese squares and melon slices. The waiting and rejection and uncertainty is as painful as mastering a B-major on a steel string.

Another cup of coffee, some surfing for jobs and news and scribble in my political blog (thing's a-heatin' up with the 06' election), a walk in the woods; listen to the oh-so-yummy AKA Monty's generosity (2 hot mixes) while I shower. Time to get the kids again. As you see, not everything sucks.

The ring says it all

The tub I scrubbed last night now has a dark band of dirt - and it's only 2 in the afternoon. Ah, the joys of summer. Up and around 6 hours and they've managed to cover themselves in substantial Manitou acreage. With a few packets of seeds I could discard with the entire bath concept with them and have three little walking, talking planters.

With my employment situation (and subsequent bill situation), it's difficult to enjoy the joys of summer; too much on my mind, no money to spend and divert my attention from the situation. Summer is usually my favorite time of the year but it's been difficult to get into the spirit of the season. Not just because of this huge bummer but also because it's been relentlessly hot with little or no rain. Our usual afternoon thunderstorms have made plenty of noise but down little but stir up the dust.

Naturally, the state is under a complete fire ban. The kids aren't all that enthused about camping if we can't have a fire (for that matter, either am I) and so we haven't spent any nights out in a tent. I know that's a trite complaint considering these mountains (and thousands of homes) could blaze out like a matchbook but my favorite season is thus far a big bomb.

By proxy, the joy is in watching the kids stretching the day out into an extended dusk, rising with the birds, carefree days of nothing but play. It's enough to help me forget what's on my plate right now.

A day late and seven hundred and twenty-five dollars short

Another Father's Day gone and looking back on my yesterday, I'm still not certain why my mood was surly, bearish, beligerent.

Maybe it was my having to take my kids to the circus - I hate the circus, always have. For whatever reason, ever since I was knee high to a mutant grasshopper, I imagined that the gut wrenching stench beneath the bigtop was a combination of elephant shit, grease paint, kid puke, sweat, and some lurid B.O. residing beneath tights resulting from unspeakable (and vaguely criminal) act. About all I can recall from childhood circus memories is holding my breath for two hours. Well, that's not quite true; the last time I went to the circus when I was 11-years old, just come from getting a series of shots and innoculations for my dad's assignment to Taiwan, the typhus innoculation kicking in it's bug just in time for the show. Feverish hallucinations and projectile vomiting made my last sentence under the Big Top memorable enough to never get dragged there again.

The distance of thirty-some years didn't soften my opinion of the circus despite all the hi-tech geegaws The Greatest Show on Earth has integrated itself into today's modern a go-go circus (laser lights, giant screen projections, rock music - a Vegas-style extravaganza, of course) and reminders that all the animals are happy, healthy, and well-treated. Several reminders, constant reminders, reminders from start to finish and whenever they could fit it in between that they weren't abusing animals.

Yeh munchkins, nonetheless, loved what they saw, eyes sunk into the floor. Zeke loved motorcycles in a cage and the girls, of course, loved everyone in tights - and the lephants.

As far as my own shittiness: I was fired for reasons I won't discuss (although any of my former clients would bitch bitch bitch), it's all I can say to report that, short of this seven and hundred and twenty five dollars, my children and I will be living in a tent. Or a car, Until dad gets a real job, like picking up dirty plates or selling crap-ass time-shares on the phone, whatever it takes to keep them from camping along the stupid stream we all call, the homeless stream, the stream where I whack everyone for touching my kids.

Don'y wany anyone to to touch my kids but that's the place I've landed at. Happy Father's Day.

If you thought blogging was free, you might want to re-think that shit, quick

How many of you would continue blogging if you had to pay $5 per entry?

Considering the fact that I went through my blogroll earlier today and found several bloggers wouldn't blog for any price (including blogging for free), I doubt many of you would tolerate a "blogging fee" - you'd probably see my posts once a month AT BEST - and although a good argument could be made against "poopy diaper" posts, the point is that the blogosphere would be a much quieter (and much more boring) place.

Imagine having to pay a toll for every blog. Imagine that your ISP blocks my site from you because I talked shit about your ISP; imagine that your favorite band's downloads at shitmusic.com are much slower than downloads by Lame Ass Country Dorks because the latter paid to allow their downloads scream (and so, potentially, make you give up on your favorite band); imagine that your Google searches drag but searches on SuckAssSearches download immediately - even though SuckAssSearches loads its top 100 searches with paid searches.

Sucks, huh? Well, it's not sciencefuckingfiction but reality unless YOU (yes - YOU) get busy demanding that your Senators support the Net Neutrality amendment. The vote in committee is Thursday and although we in Colorado don't have a dog in that fight, it's important that ALL of you are watching to see who supports Big Business vs. Net Neutrality. Some of you may have heard that corporate shill Mike McCurry (on the anti-Net Neutrality side) had his ass handed to him Friday by Amazon.com's Paul Misener at a debate hosted by George Washington University. If you haven't watched the debate, you can see the entire video at Politics TV (or just watch the Q&A where McCurry really gets slaughtered). You can also read ">some the transcript at SaveTheInternet to see how the Telco's argument does it's counter-clockwise spiral down the bowl but the entertainment value of seeing McCurry get soundly spanked is worth watching.

If you're unsure about how the Net Neutrality goes, here's the down & dirty talking point. The big Telcos (AT&T, Bell South, Verizon, etc.) claim that unless they can run the internet their way, innovation is dead, and the internet will suck forever. The big Telcos are calling Net Neutrality "regulating the internet".

What a crock of shit. What the big Telcos want to do is create a monopoly for themselves, rake in money on services that are currently free (by setting up "toll booths" for those services - such as blogging, video streaming, etc.) and potentially determine which content will be provided to users. In order to argue this, McCurry and the Telcos have resorted to outright lies, claiming that Net Neutrality is an issue advocated by the far left and that if the Net Neutrality amendment passes, traffic on the internet will bog down in an increasingly overwhelmed network.

Both Big Business claims are nonsense, desperate words to cover fatcat asses. Net Neutrality is supported across the political spectrum, as Eli Parser points out,

Telecom companies also like to paper Congress with propaganda implying that Internet freedom is somehow a left-wing issue. Tell that to the Christian Coalition, Gun Owners of America, Instapundit, the business executives, and the many libertarians who are fighting right along with MoveOn, the inventors of the Internet, thousands of bloggers, and the SavetheInternet.com Coalition in support of Net Neutrality.

As Craig Fields of the Gun Owners says, when the left and right agree on an issue like Internet freedom, "it's been my experience that what Congress is getting ready to do is basically un-American." On the proposal to destroy Net Neutrality, most Americans would probably agree.

The canard that internet traffic will slow to a crawl (and will squelch innovation) is a laugh, pure and unadulterated bullshit. In fact, there is so much infrastructure in place, the companies decades away from using it all. As Fiber Optic Association (FOA) president Jim Hayes said to streamingmedia.com,

"The backbone was terribly overbuilt. Ninety-three percent of all the fiber that’s been installed is still unused."

However, you can decide for yourself and read S 2917 in its entirety.

Like I said, those of us in Colorado don't have dog in this fight. Those of you in other states just might. Via Firedoglake, you can contact your Senators and give them a piece of your mind:

Chairman Ted Stevens (AK): (202) 224-3004; (202) 224-2354 FAX
John McCain (AZ): (202) 224-2235; Fax: (202) 228-2862
Conrad Burns (MT): 202-224-2644; Fax: 202-224-8594
Trent Lott (MS): (202) 224-6253; Fax: (202) 224-2262
Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX): 202-224-5922; 202-224-0776 (FAX)
Olympia J. Snowe (ME): (202) 224-5344; FAX (202) 224-1946
Gordon H. Smith (OR): 202.224.3753; Fax: 202.228.3997
John Ensign (NV): (202) 224-6244; Fax: (202) 228-2193
George Allen (VA): (202) 224-4024; Fax: (202) 224-5432
John E. Sununu (NH): (202) 224-2841; FAX (202) 228-4131
Jim DeMint (SC): 202-224-6121; Fax: 202-228-5143
David Vitter (LA): (202) 224-4623; Fax: (202) 228-5061

Co-Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (HI): 202-224-3934; Fax: 202-224-6747
John D. Rockefeller (WV): (202) 224-6472; (202) 224-7665 Fax
John F. Kerry (MA): (202) 224-2742 - Phone; (202) 224-8525 - Fax
Byron L. Dorgan (ND): 202-224-2551; Fax: 202-224-1193
Barbara Boxer (CA): 202-224-3553
Bill Nelson (FL): 202-224-5274; Fax: 202-228-2183
Maria Cantwell (WA): 202-224-3441; 202-228-0514 - FAX
Frank R. Lautenberg (NJ): (202) 224-3224; Fax: (202) 228-4054
E. Benjamin Nelson (NE): Tel: (202) 224-6551; Fax: (202) 228-0012
Mark Pryor (AR): (202) 224-2353; Fax: (202) 228-0908

I assume you are smart enough to either figure out how to call or email me in order to emial your Senator; if you're not smart enough to do either, are you smart enough to vote?!?

It's your internet - for now. If you don't call or email, you have no one to blame but yourself if you start getting charged "tolls" and find that you can't access your favorite site. You have the power but you have to fight to keep it.

August Mixmania! is Hot, hot, HAWT

Hereabouts, it's looking like it's going to be a long, hot summer. For the past two weeks we've been stuck firmly in the 90's and although the weather guy just said we'd get a couple days of chill 80's this weekend, it's just a quick dip and then back to hell. With those temperatures and no rain, there's a real fear of wildfires turning Colorado into one big ashpit.

So why would I want to make "Hot" the theme of a mixmania! that is going to greet an interminable August? Depends on how you look at "hot", it might be just the diversion we need to escape from damnable heat. Mix a CD of music that will make you so hot that you'll ravish the first poor victim who comes up on your horny ass. Maybe it's a mix about someone else being hot. Innocently enough, it could be about staying cool in the heat, in the heat of the moment, the heat of the season, or the heat of being in the presence of someone who makes you wet (perspiring or, um, otherwise).

However you wish to spin it - the theme is "hot".

A little of this to inspire me:


If you're unfamiliar with how this goes, here's how we play: you mix, you mail, you get a disk, everyone surfs around to figure out who sent them the disk. That's over-simplified but that's the gist. The official rules are:

1. You have until Independence Day to sign up; express your intentions in the comments AND email me your information (your URL and postal address - that includes you folks who have played before). You have to do BOTH - just commenting or just emailing me won't do it. I need you in the comments to let everyone know you're in and mixing, I need you to email me so I don't have to hunt down your info. My email is over on the left; if you can't find it, you're not smart enough to play - sorry.
   
   
2. On July 10th, I'll email you the postal address of the person you're to send your mix to; you'll use a postal address I provide to mask your identity.
   
   
3. On July 15th, mail your disk WITHOUT THE SONG LIST: leave your recipient guessing what the songs are on your mix.
   
   
4. On July 31st, I'll post the URLs of everyone participating.
   
   
5. Post your song list on your blog on the August 1st.
   
   
6. If you're going to comment on the mix you received, don't be a prick - focus on the fact that someone went to the trouble to send you a mix, be polite with your thanks and don't try to impress us with how much of an insufferable music snob you think you are. Play nice - no one likes an inconsiderate asshole, asshole, and no one cares how your delicate tastes were violated. Be gracious, for God's sake, and give us the impression that you weren't raised by feral dogs.
   
   
7. For those of you who don't have a blog but would still like to play,
   you may still participate; I or one of my friends will post your list (any volunteer bloggers for hosting lists? Help me out!).

Easy as that sounds, it's amazing that a few numbskulls can't be adults and will slink out with free music with no reciprocity. Sad. However, I assure everyone who plays that they will get a disk.

So grab a cold one and get thinking about what music is "hot" to you... have fun!!!

Defrosting my freezer and having random thoughts about anything BUT the task at hand

Errrr, hmmmmm, well...

"Huck Finn Day" tomorrow, something sponsored by the local Kiwanis Club in which "fishing safety" lessons are taught by handing out cane-poles to 3-to-14-year olds while cranky old guys walk around with snips to remove hooks from eye-lids and ear-lobes. Of course my brood will be there because I figure they're going to get pierced eventually, and well, we might as well do it on the Kiwanis' dime.

If I can get my hands on a digi-cam, you'll see carnage in full techno-gore. My own digi-cam seems to have evaporated into the ether as if Karma determined it was never mine to begin with but there you have it.

OK, what else? Movies I really want to see. I still haven't seen "The Da Vinci Code," but I'm sort of "so what" on it. I read the book and it was an OK beach read; my problem was that I kept solving the riddles about 10 pages before the so-called "experts" could figure them out and found myself screaming (in my head), "WTF, ya' numbskulls, get a goddamn clue!". To be fair, I'd read Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" several years before, a much superior novel (if a little prolix at times) and so a lot of what Dan Brown was getting at was old news to me (I'd also read Robert Anton Wilson's hilarious "Illuminatus!" trilogy many years before so, yeah, I had both arms filled up with wacky conspiracy crapola).

Not "wacky conspiracy crapola" (despite what the Dunce Confederacy at Faux News says - notice how they attack Gore and not his facts?!?), my dance card is checked when it comes to "An Inconvenient Truth". Unfortunately, I have to wait until June 30 before it opens here and then, judging by per-screen tallies, I'll have to camp out for a ticket but I'll be there. I have to be there beacause, as Roger Ebert said in his review,

In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.

"An Inconvenient Truth" opens (here) the same day as "Superman Returns" and although Zeke is HUGE into Superman (I showed him the trailers online which has resulted in daily encores, ad nauseum), he's still only 3 and can wait until well past the madness of opening night. Besides, we can satisfy him and his sisters with a trips to see "Cars" and "Over the Hedge" - heh, wisdom comes with age, dontchaknow.

I'm also dying to see "A Prairie Home Companion", somewhat because I love to listen to it on NPR (which, BTW, GOP scum want to do away with - along with PBS - while they hand BILLIONS back to people who don't need that money, anyway; I tell my kids, "Bush and the Rethugs want to KILL Elmo and Big Bird!") but mostly because I *love* Robert Altman and I'm certain he's done another "Nashville" with this movie.

The Fridge? Came home from a long weekend of playing handyman for The Babe and found the milk spoilt, no cold at all (and I needed that after a long weekend with The Babe!). Tweaking the thermostat a bit didn't help; a can of coke was luke warm and the mayo went into the trash (along with several other items that had turned ugly in the heat). I turned the dial to "freeze? we got yer freeze right here" and that did cool things, somewhat, yet not enough to feel like I'd be safe holding onto milk a couple weeks past its 'sell by' date. At that point, there was nowhere else to turn but to my friends at Google.

Considering that the freezer was still working and I could hear the compressor humming, the site I landed on advised I defrost the fucker and clean the coils beneath the refrigerator. As I type, everything's packed into a couple of Coleman ice-chests while pans of hot water simmer in the freezer compartment. I went out and bought a coil brush (who knew that a brush was invented just for cleaning the dust of your coils?) and cleaned tons of dust from beneath the fridge. I'm not exagerating - TONS. Dust balls bigger than my fist, big-ass grenades of dust. Ugh.

Then again, the pile of magnet-letters, crayons, and kid's artwork that got blown beneath the fridge could have also have been at work at killing the cool. We'll see. The ice is out of the freezer, everything's wiped down, the fridge is plugged back in and hopefully, the big white box in my kitchen is something more than some big stupid, metallic coffin.

That's a sincere hope. My landlady is - oh, Christ, that's a whole other post - in no position to replace my fridge. She's in no position to change a tire but as I said...

But who am I to talk? I'm still not ready to give a "theme" for mixmania! (which should culminate in August) but I'm thinking "Dog Days" or "Beach Music" - any input here? I plan to make the announcement Monday or Tuesday so get busy with the comments. Let me know what you think and hope my fridge gets chill.

To all the girls I've flood

I don't know what's up with Des Moines, Iowa but apparently there's something in the water. Recently, aerial photographs of the city's flood water detention basin revealed an interesting design:



I'm not saying that mid-western notions of the anti-choice and anti-gay agenda are in play here but, as the Church Lady used to say, "How conveeeeeeeenient!"

How inconvenient, though, that the religious right can't seem to pull together a coherent argument for the legislation they hold so dear (they ought to just declare "We're ignorant bigots - there," and be done with it). Our local wingtard, Wayne Allard (a cretin most Coloradans would agree has all the charm of gum on your shoe with half the intellect), manages to illustrate why FMA not only failed but failed to get only one more vote in the Senate than when the piece of shit was introduced back in 2004:

[Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.)] held a news conference Monday at which the speakers said they wanted to reduce the "epidemic level of fatherlessness in America."

"How would outlawing gay marriage encourage heterosexual fathers to stick around?" was the first question. Allard skirted the question by saying that "laws send a message to our children."

The moderator, Matt Daniels of the Alliance for Marriage, tried to find a question on another subject. But when reporters continued to press Allard on the link between same-sex marriage and deadbeat dads, Daniels blurted out: "All right, you know what? We're going to call this press conference to a close."

Pinhead Allard represents my own district (also home to Daddy Dobson's Focus on the Family) and it's well known the Senator kneels and plays felatrix to Dobson whenever Daddy clucks. One would think Allard would have paid attention to the print ads FotF had been running across the country, "Why doesn't Senator [fill in the blank] believe every child needs a mother and a father?" Continuing their lack of logic, FotF's ads went on to explain:

"It is a painful but very real truth. Homosexual marriages intentionally create motherless families or fatherless families. But a compassionate society would not deliberately deny a child a mother or father."

Well, that makes about as much sense as a huge landscaped cock in downtown Des Moines. Maybe I drink too much but I can't recall a single instance when the thought of hot man-on-man sex made me consider dropping the kids off with their mom to prance off to Key West or wherever (not that I spend much time thinking about hot man-on-man sex). In fact, my marriage ending was due mostly to heterosexual sex on the sly. No gays or lesbians involved at all.

Watch out, Des Moines - I suspect marriage is in trouble, there. That's a capital 'T' which rhymes with 'G' and that means "Gay".

Six (sic) six (sic) six (sic)

Yes, I am sick but you all knew that, already.

It's surfin' time, folks - check out these links and see who mixed your disks:

Chuck
Sarah - Anon Y. Mass
Monty
SaraLiz
Maddy
alala
Kelly
Samirah
Wuji
Byakko
Beancounter
Sterfish
EvilMommy
A World of Chaos
Betsy
Nat
Mamacita
Grace

If you go to a link and they haven't posted their list yet, you have my permission to give them shit.

I've been listening to my matches mix (the gorgeous Samirah) and love love love them, both disks. I put them on again to get inspired to post my gawd-awful playlist:

1. Walter Wanderly - Summer Samba: if you don't know why this is evil, you need to check for bodies in the trunk;
   
2. Armand van Helden - Necessary Evil: after checking for bodies in the trunk, you'll see a slimy pool that reflects 'Fatboy Slim' but you'll still have to dispose of the Armand van Helden stench;
   
3. Liars - The Pillars Were Hollow and Filled With Candy, So We Tore Them Down: while digging the big hole, you'll both love & hate that this song is playing - just what you need to hear and what you DO NOT want to hear; the sounds of your guts being torn out, bit by bit, chunk per chunk, because if you have any sense of morality, you'll be losing your lunch as you drag the body to the pit and hope it all goes awy;
   
4. Rabbit in the Moon - Strangeways: driving away from dumping a body, you need some Catholic guilt, so HEAR it is, huh; trying to shake what you've just done, you can't escape the shallow grave behind you;
   
5. Mouse on Mars - Doit: as you drive into the night, some small part of you is still stuck in your old morality, "...hangs a little while, but the string
   is wearing-- silently..."
   
6. Daft Punk - The Primetime of Your Life: get over it or you're screwed... hmmmm...;
   
7. And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead - Richter Scale Madenss: just so you know that you're not alone in murder, mayhem, and much, much more....
   
8. The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog: and still, you're beyond repair, so you have to give in to whatever it is you think is 'guilt', right?
   
9. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Whatever Happened To My Rock 'N' Roll (Punk Song):
   if nothing is working for you, you have to ask, "Why not?" because, otherwise, you are FUCKED;
   
10. Mogwai - Haunted By a Freak: dude, you just can't get away from the all the hand washing and horror, can you?
    
11. The Residents - Flying: the fact that you can't anything but 'listener reviews' on Amazon should tell you that this is a dangerous band; X refers to them as 'dead people's music' and The Babe found them "creepy", so I've done my job (as far as driving you from your shallow grave towards your insanity);
    
12. Devo - I'm a Potato: these guys should do the rest, especially with this song;
    
13. The Normal - Warm Leatherette: why they recorded this and nothing else is beyond me... ok, maybe not; 20 years before "Crash" won Best Picture, another "Crash" grossed a lot of people out, the film based on the book that also led to this song;
    
14. Emotional Joystich - Eight: if you've seen the so-bad-it's-art video, this cut makes total sense, here;
    
15. !!! - Hammerhead: a good follow up to the last cut and.... well, my own evil is to quit writing about all these songs and so, screw it....
    
16. Lou Reed - Oh Jim!
    
17. The Gourds - Gin & Juice
    
18. The White Stripes - There's No Home For You Here
    
19. Wilco - Casino Queen
    

In closing, I have to say that I believe no Evil Mix is complete without a bluegrass version of Snoop Dogg.

Thankee Jeebus - Operation: “GAAAAAH!!! FAAAAAAGS!!!" rolls on and we can ignore more trivial issues

Lilly's best friend is an adoptee from China. A beautiful little girl, bright and funny, a typical 7-year old into Disney princesses and soccer, her prospects are certainly better in the US than if she had been left in an orphanage in China. Some might say she is "blessed".

Then again, those who say she is "blessed" might reconsider. Lilly's friend has two moms, lesbians who have been commited in a relationship for over 15 years. Both moms are respected members of our community, one a Doctor and the other a successful Real Estate agent, both involved in PTA and instrumental in getting out local Farmer's Market going every Wednesday.

So what am I going to tell Lilly when her friend's moms can't get benefits that us straight folk take for granted (when we can get those benefits), how do I explain that one mom can't visit the other mom in the hospital? How do I make sense to Lilly other than people in this country are full of hate?

My 7-year old has no concept of hate; it makes no sense to her. To her young mind, no one should hate, kill, or harbour anger beyond the 5-minute problems of the schoolyard. Indeed, she's a bit jealous that her best friend has parents who are loving and commited while her own parents are divorced. The hate of Daddy Dobson et al makes no sense to her.

She knows gay partners had nothing to do with her parents ending a bad marriage. As such, my 7-year old daughter has much more wisdom than the twits feeding into fishist stupidity.

As I write this, I'm out another $50. Not for a concert ticket or a sack of weed or a family night out at Red Lobster, not for new shoes or dishes, not for CDs or books to enrich myself and my family nor a half-decent date with The Babe but merely to fill my gas tank. Fiftyfuckingdollars, folks. Last year at this time, I thought $30 a tank was too much and now I'm spending $150 - $200 more a month on driving to work, ferrying kids here and there and just going to the grocery store. Not driving to the mountains to camp (not when it runs $50 just to get there) or taking the kids anywhere fun - not on this budget.

Yet, I'm told that queer marriage is the biggest threat to my family, more than no healthcare, more than not being able to afford vacation and time in the woods, more than Osama Bin Laden still on the loose. More than the $200 a month that I'm paying for gas that I haven't been compensated for in wages.

Preznit Pissypants and his Gooper fellow-travellers know that families can't make ends meet and that Osama is still at large so all they have is to throw some hate at gays. Considering how well throwing hate at brown people went over, it's all they got. Hate is the gas in the tank of the GOP. Even though they know they can't make an amendment work, they'll raise the spectre of less-than-human to energize their base (the basest of their base). Pathetic, yes, but if you haven't been paying attention, the GOP has lowered the bar on all kinfs of shit.

For those of you reading me who take humbrage to being associated with Hate - accept it, get over youselves - you're a bigot. Christ wouldn't be howling about same-sex marriage, Christ would be standing on the side of the least of our brothers (and sisters), wondering why a society as enriched as ours can't provide for all of Go'd children. Read your bible, you nitwits, Christ had plenty to say about the downtrodden and the poor and NOTHING to say about queers.

It's an unfortunate irony that Lilly's friend had to come all this way to find out that our country is chock-full of stone-age thinkers no better than despots in China. My hope for her - and Lilly - is that a new generation evolves and learns that the stupidity of their elders does nothing to make this planet a better place to live.