Bluedepth's Journal

Thoughts & Opinions

Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond Of Each Other

Posted on January 24, 2013 by bluedepth

I saw this news item from thinkprogress.org:

“Republican House Leader Vows To Use ‘Power Of Humiliation’ To Undermine LGBT Program”

My first reaction was a knee-jerk one of course. “What is it to you?” What is it about gay people that gets these particular people all worked up? I’ve always wanted to know that. My curiosity of course is somewhat rhetorical as it’s pretty much obvious that much of this comes straight (ouch, pun) out of the pulpit and is certainly reinforced by the mirror maze of political self-convincing talk.

What would these people do if they were faced with the reality of what they say? The subject of their ire is the Mental Health Services Administration’s book titled “Provider’s Introduction to Substance Abuse Treatment for Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender Individuals.” So, what about this document? The title is really quite plain and explanatory and being a gay man, and knowing my particular niche culture gives me a unique viewpoint on this particular issue. Is it important? Do you think that people who are sick should be cared for, that people who are despondent and without hope should be helped? What are your thoughts on suicide? This gets right to the heart of it. I bet a lot of these people are upright god-fearing Christian types, they hail from Oklahoma and there is a stereotype, lets face it, about that region being rather salt-to-the-earth and quite red when it comes to politics. Sit back and let’s think for a moment about what your self-professed lord and savior, Jesus Christ, would think about “Provider’s Introduction to Substance Abuse Treatment for Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender Individuals.” Your lord and savior wandered around healing the sick, he never asked anyone if they were gay, lesbian, or transgendered. It just didn’t matter to him. People who cared for the sick like he did, he said, would be favored in God’s sight because they cared. Care. That’s what it really gets down to, who cares and who does not? Who hides behind a carapace of bigoted ignorance and who really cares? For these people in this meeting, all of them who didn’t stand up, who didn’t stomp their foot on the ground and argue against this – all of them – how can you face your self-professed lord and savior who you see every Sunday, nailed to a crucifix? Yes, he died to absolve you on sin, but when he was alive, when he was teaching – what was that part? Did you all miss that part? In your haste to be absolved of your sins, perhaps you missed everything up until the climax and after it was all over, you just rolled over and fell asleep?

These are valid questions that I would love answers to. I would dearly enjoy facing these people after we all march through the stations of the cross together. Jesus healing the lepers, Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life, Jesus and the children. Then turn to me, turn to a younger me, turn to any gay man, lesbian, or transgendered person and spit out that vitriol about the “Gay Agenda”.

Ma’am, yes, we do have a Gay Agenda. You caught us red-handed. Our agenda is simple. We are in pursuit of ending suffering of the people who are like us. The kids who grow up bullied and turn to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain of being mocked for being different. Not the color of our skin, not anything patently obvious like that, but mocked for who we love. You mock us over love. How can you face Jesus Christ when you mock people for loving? Wasn’t Jesus all about Love? Isn’t that what he preached? Love each other, be good to each other, and for the love of god, stop killing each other! So, where’s the love? That’s what the agenda is. We want to save ourselves and people like us. We want to reduce the suffering, we want to catch the sad and hold them tight and tell them that they are not alone. We want to rescue people who are so alone and unhappy that all they want to do is hang, shoot themselves, or drink or take drugs until they die.

So, is this document that the Mental Health Services Administration is providing a good thing or a bad thing? What are your feelings on dead children? How about young men and women dying at their own hands? What about that? How does that stand up to your fear of some undefined pink menace coming for you and yours?

Jesus Christ My Ass.

Timon Throws Mud At Athens

Posted on October 1, 2012 by bluedepth

I wrote this on Facebook, but I think I should publicize it to a wider audience. This is my best argument for the election of 2012:

This is an excerpt from an email I wrote to my father after he told me about how awful socialists are. Enjoy.

***

I honestly can’t say that I’m terribly upset by Quantitative Easing or that I harbor any fear of inflation. I find fear to be a worthless emotion. Fear and worry do nothing for anyone. It’s a lot like a rocking chair. Yes you shuffle about a lot but you don’t get anywhere. Plus fear is a kind of fog that sits on your mind and suppresses true joy and real happiness. I’m tired of the media telling me that I should be afraid or fear that or this or whatever. I get loads of it when I fly for work and it’s, to put it nicely, utter malarkey. The end isn’t coming, the politicians aren’t going to ruin the world. The globe will continue to spin day after day and people will continue to make a gamely try at it, doing what they always do. The color of the background may change, but life will go on.

As for Willard Romney, as I refuse to use his cutesy pet name, he’s got a lot of problems. He, and others in the Republican party seem to have fallen off the rightmost edge of existence. Even beyond you and your friends. That’s quite something! The GOP killed a paid-for-and-ready-to-go jobs bill for **VETERANS**. Dad, I know you look in the mirror to shave. I know you were in the Marine Corps and I also know that once you are a marine, you are one for life. So, that on some deep private level in your mind should bother you. That your party nailed a perfectly good bill just because they are racist and can’t stand to see a bunch of old white men subservient to a younger black man. I know you aren’t a racist, and I forgive you for being so incredibly conservative, but you have to admit that deep down, your inner Marine has got to smart at least a little to know that a jobs bill that was supposed to benefit vets got shot down for absolutely no good reason. Well, it bothers me. More than that though, is the entire GOP party being so intransigent. They started congress with the single aim of denying progress to our President beyond rational thought. They have killed and voted down every single effort, efforts that are meant to benefit the middle class. Middle class people like you, Theresa, and uh, THE REST OF US. Including me. I can’t say that I have a problem with taxing the rich, not really. I learned a little bit of history a few weeks ago that I will share with you. Trickle-Down Economics, that economic policy that if you cut the taxes on the very rich that everyone benefits because the rich will donate, they’ll start new businesses, and hire people and all of that. It sounds wonderful, but the rich really haven’t done anything they were supposed to do for the rest of us. They, especially Willard Romney, moved their money to Switzerland or the Cayman Islands. So, back to Trickle-Down, it used to be known by another more colorful name. It used to be called Horse and Sparrow Economics. The mental image was that you force fed a horse (the rich) with oats until it started to run oats in it’s droppings, and the droppings were for the Sparrows (the rest of us). I find that to be more accurate a representation of the economic policy of the GOP. Feed the rich until they start dropping food out of their ass for the rest of us to eat. It’s a delightfully filthy image, but that’s how a lot of us in the middle class feel. That the rich get richer and the rest of us could die for all they care – yet we’re doing ALL OF THE WORK. Then I learned that the rich do not create jobs. It is the Middle Class that creates jobs. The Middle Class makes enough money to buy en-masse, which encourages those who want to make money to cater to us and then they hire people to suit that need. The rich will not just create jobs because somehow they feel put-upon to do so! It’s the Middle Class that does the hard work and it’s the Middle Class that creates the need. So, really, when you get down to it, the rich are parasites. It’s diametrically opposite to how conservatives think – that the poor are the parasites. It hasn’t worked out in 200 years, perhaps you have it wrong.

Another thing that I’ve learned is the hot emotional core of old white man anger. There is a problem in your ranks, with the Republican party and it’s been happening for many many years. The GOP has switched in it’s leadership. It used to be run by Yankee power, by the Andrew Carnegies and Rockefellers . Now it’s run by Southern power. It’s got nothing to do with getting rich and leaving a lasting positive legacy behind. That’s a Yankee extract from the Puritan style of thinking. That if you make a lot of money you owe it to leave something behind that benefits everyone else. Compare that with how the GOP is currently structured – especially the Tea Party people, whom you are directly responsible for as a party member. It’s a Southern way. It’s all about fear, loathing, racism and hierarchy. There is a pecking order and that rules over everything else. Where does this come from? Not from the Puritans, but rather from English aristocracy running slavery plantations in Barbados. They brought their structure into the deep south and for at least 150 years the Yankees had power and the Southerners resented it. Now the tables have turned. All the things you remember and treasure about your dear conservatism have been perverted by Southern wretches who refuse to acknowledge your aspirations about what conservatism can do. You want Trickle-Down, or Horse-and-Sparrow to work, and I know it’s precious and dear to you. But it’s not being driven by the men you thought it was. It’s driven by men who are only concerned with the structure of hierarchy and maintaining the status quo. In many ways, the rank and file of the GOP are field slaves to your new Southern masters. The Southern Republican wants it only his way and no other. No room for anything else. And no room for someone as backwards as Andrew Carnegie or a Rockefeller to leave anything but a smoking husk behind.

So the rest of us, pretty much having to land behind the horse and eat whatever seeds might be dropping out of the rear of that animal see nothing but rigid structure and absolutely no progress. There aren’t jobs being made, the recovery is stultified and the men and women who are supposed to make things easier for us all are so racist that they’ve become nearly crystallized in their intransigence. Things aren’t getting better and then we hear about how the rich have $21 Trillion dollars stored overseas and how none of the rich are helping anyone else. There isn’t anymore bird seed for us Sparrows! The rich are sending their droppings off to Switzerland! So, we’re between a rock and a hard place. Nobody wants to help us, the conservatives don’t give a flying rip and the Republicans think we’re just a batch of worthless moochers, the 47% that Willard Romney spoke of. The 47% like YOUR MOTHER for all the time that I knew her when she was still alive, one of those 47%! So, the Middle Class, with nothing from the conservatives at all have to turn to anything else. So the liberals and democrats say that some socialization may help. You chafe at the word socialism yet you feed off of it. It’s a strange relationship, you know. The silent generation and the baby boomers are both entitled and you are reaping the benefits while castigating anyone else who might even show an interest in what you are taking advantage of. Socialism. Like your auto insurance and your homeowners insurance, which is socialized. Your Fire Departments and the public schools that educated… people you love… again, socialism. Medicare that pays for your trips to see the doctor. Socialism. Social Security, which has SOCIAL in it’s !@#$ name! Regular checks… on the backs of the rest of us. And we smile gamely and nod and wish you happiness, and what do we get in return? Sour grapes and angry yammerings about marxism and socialism. My tin ear aches.

So yes, socialism Dad. Wonderful glorious socialism. The poor and middle class are tired of eating horse shit. We are weary of the rich and their excesses and their rudeness and their stupid capering behaviors! They aren’t respectable. The rich are tapeworms that eat everything and leave nothing for anyone else. They contribute nothing but nasty snide comments and thanks to a disgustingly eroded public education system, they use fear to control the great unwashed masses.

And so, we come back to fear. Fear is what’s at the heart of the problem. The majority of Americans are too stupid and too fearful to engage in any rational thought. If they knew what the rich and the conservatives did to the rest of us, while they waddled off fat and happy there would be hell to pay. Thankfully we are an easily cowed lot. Obedient and silent and hard-working.

So, in a way, screw the rich. And frankly my dear, I don’t want to be rich. I want to be happy. Perhaps capitalism isn’t such a grand to-do after all. Maybe it’s something else. Maybe socialism isn’t oh-so-terrible! Maybe if the Sparrows are given fresh bird seed they might be able to fly again. I think that’s worth looking into.

So as a member of the Middle Class, I have no choice but to be deaf to the Republican party. The members of your party did their level best to hurt the rest of us through glorious inaction. We see the GOP’s intransigence and we’ll throw our chips in when it comes time to vote. The question will be simple for us: Select someone who has hurt us all or someone who offers at least a workable claim to want to move forward. Willard Romney or Barack Obama. At least for me, there is no real choice. The GOP are anti-American racist hypocritical ignorant bigots.

An empty chair would be better. Or maybe, a chair with Barack Obama actually sitting in it, leading. DOING SOMETHING. DOING ANYTHING.

Every Sperm Is Sacred

Posted on August 30, 2012 by bluedepth

So I was wandering Facebook, as I do, and I found a great image – but I can’t really link to where I found it because Facebook is a PITA. So, here’s the image:

And then of course on Facebook I left some comments, as only I could:

Technically life begins at spermatogenesis. If body temperature kills sperm, and men who wear clothing usually keep their body temperature high in the region where these cells are being grown, then any man who is currently wearing pants is a mass murderer?

If so, then the world will suddenly get much funnier and more awkward, especially for places of business that will have to extend their “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service” to also include the phrase “No Pants”. Plus we’ll have to rewrite public indecency laws. And then we’ll need to talk about what we’re supposed to do in the winter – because if those parts get too cold, then we’re back to killing babies again. So, do we outlaw any place colder than say USDA Zone 10? In that case we should start all moving to the southern tip of Florida and as far south in Texas as possible – because that’s really the safest place… for… babies. The rest of the country? Little more than killing fields of dead children. Either baked or frozen to death.

DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN. 🙂

I suspect I may anger some people at my flip comments, but, that’s the problem with statements like these. If you go that far, why not keep going? Why artificially limit yourselves to stopping at the urethra? I mean, as a Republican there isn’t any problem with a transvaginal probe, which arguably would be much like a catheter or sounding rod used on a man. If you expect women to give up their privacy to their own internal organs so the government can protect the blessed unborn, then why not spelunk into the penis? I mean, yes, it’s unpleasant and uncomfortable, but what is good for Jill is good for Jack, am I right or am I right?

If the government is going to get all bent about ovaries and vaginas then I say it’s high time we men put our testicles and penises on the line with the women. It’s fair is it not? I mean, it’s certainly equal!

Yeah. And that may be all I need to assert that as a Democrat I believe in equality, AKA the Golden Rule. I do not want anyone intruding on my urethra so ladies, you can keep your vaginas nice and private and I won’t seek out laws so the government can intrude on your internal organs as I would not want them intruding on mine.

And that’s just another hypocrisy of the Republican party. Fine with invading vaginas but leave the penises alone! Republicans, filthy gonad hypocrites! Genital Bigots!

🙂

Pure Michigan

Posted on December 8, 2011 by bluedepth

“Michigan Legislature Moves To Ban Domestic Partner Benefits”

I live in Michigan. I am a gay man. This bill is proof that the state in which I live in regards me as unequal under the law. Everyone else can be married and share benefits but this will not be the case for me and my partner of FOURTEEN years. We are excluded from equality with everyone else in this state.

If this bill passes and becomes law, I know that I for one will never forgive any born-and-bred Michigan resident for their inaction on this heinously bad bill. It will become a statement of fact that people like me are less than other Michigan residents. Who I am, what I am, and who I love will be the basis on which the state agrees that my rights do not matter.

I am not personally seeking to share “Domestic Partner Benefits” with my partner, but this bill, if it becomes law, sets a precedent that gay people are second-class citizens within the borders of Michigan. If this bill passes and becomes law then I will have no choice but to begin looking at migration away from Michigan. This is of course not really a threat as I have for a very long time been considering leaving this state for good and returning to New York.

Funny that my birth state respects my rights and my equality more than my adopted state does. It’s clear to me now, even without this bill being passed into law, just what the surrounding Michiganders feel when it comes to people like me. I am not seeking your permission to lead my life how I see fit to lead it, the only thing I really ask for is to honor equality under the law. With a vote of 27 to 9, it is clear to me that the people of this state, through their state representatives behavior and choices think of me as unequal.

You are free to take this bill, if it becomes law and use it to look down upon my kind, it is a free country after all. But know this, that people like me have measured you as classless hateful bigots. What we say when we refer to you all will not be pleasant or complimentary. That is the nature of discrimination, the majority that suppresses the minority are on display as the slovenly bigots that they truly are. I can only hope that when you look into the mirror that you can stand what you see staring back at you. We will see you for what you are. It’s not pretty.