A frustrating weekend of tennis

I had to eat another Patty melt over the weekend.

What do you call it when someone is a set up, serving 40-0 at 6-5, and misses a backhand down the line into an open court? You call it choking, and for those of us who support Patty Schnyder, it was a bitter pill to swallow. Venus Wiliams was on the other side of the net in their Bank of the West semi-final, and she saved five match points to win the set. To be fair, one of those was what Schnyder was convinced was an ace, but the umpire called it out, just as she was preparing to go to the net to shake hands with her oppponent. On a hard court, there is no line in the clay or in the grass to help you prove your point.

Williams went on to win the third set handily--no surprise, considering the extent to which Schnyder had been demoralized-- which put her into the finals, where she was defeated by Kim Clijsters, who is tearing up the hard courts this year. It should have been Schnyder in the finals. Fortunately, Clijsters is another of my favorites.

Last year's champion, world number one Lindsay Davenport, had to retire in the second round because of a back injury she sustained in her Wimbledon final. Today, she withdrew from the Acura Classic, of which she was also the 2004 champion. Lindsay fans--and tennis fans in general--are hoping she will be okay for the JP Morgan Chase Open, which she also has to defend. No one on the tour has had the rotten luck Davenport has had in the last year and a half, and we can only hope she will be healthy for the U.S. Open.

As for Schnyder, she is a player of unusual and exceptional ability who shines on clay, but is also quite good on the hard courts. Her career had taken a dive until this year, in which she has been quite consistent, but she has yet to win a Tier I or Tier II tournament. Schnyder's game is one of cleverness and invention, and she is capable of beating the top players (she recently eliminated Maria Sharapova in the Italian Open and went on to reach the final), but she has yet to break through with a major win.

This is what happens to whistle-blowers and others who fight factory farming in America

And it has me outraged.

Get Bach, Satan!

If you stop a hundred reasonably educated people on the street and asked them to say the first name that comes to mind when you say "devotional music," 99 of them will say Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach's masses and church contatas have been performed by a wide variety of Christian church choirs and organists for hundreds of years, and are considered by many to be the standard for Christian devotional music.

Not so the gay-people-who-teach-other-people-not-to-be-gay at the Refuge camps run by Love in Action. According to Harper's, one of the rules goes like this:

No television viewing, going to movies, or reading/watching/listening to secular media of any kind, anywhere within the client's and the parent's/guardian's control. This includes listening to classical or instrumental music that is not expressively Christian (Beethoven, Bach, etc. are not considered Christian.)

That probably comes as a surprise to those who love the music of Beethoven, too. When he wrote the "Missa Solemnis," Beethoven said "My chief aim was to awaken and permanently instill religious feelings not only into the singers but also into the listeners." Likewise, Beethoven's "Mass in D Minor" is generally considered a masterpiece of Christian liturgical music.

Not listening to classical music may not be a hardship to most of the prisoners--I mean, campers--but some of the other rules may be a bit tough to follow. Like this one: "Clients may not wear Abecrombie & Fitch or Calvin Klein brand clothing, undergarments, or accessories."

And you thought nothing could come between you and your Calvins.

NOW can we cut Florida off and let it float away?

I have often thought that the lack of seasons makes people in Florida crazy. At any rate, they are as hateful a bunch as you'll find anywhere.

Just too much on his mind

The memory problems around Washington are getting worse each day.

Bolton probably doesn't recall the alleged sexual assaults against his former wife, either, but then--no one in Congress thinks that's important enough to investigate.

More "values"

Though Mr. Murdoch has long wanted one of his sons to succeed him, investors and analysts prefer Mr. Chernin, 51, with his greater experience and lack of family ties (italics mine).

From The New York Times

Hearty laugh of the day

The Vatican has declared that this is "an affront to the dignity of women."

Friday cat blogging--Twisted Sister edition

A good wait ruined

Chris Rock does a hilarious bit about women and hip-hop lyrics. In his sketch, the women are on the dance floor, grooving to a fare-thee-well to the most misogynistic lyrics imaginable, and when he asks them about it, they say something like "I don't know what he's sayin'--it's got a great beat."

How I wish I, too, could ignore lyrics. Earlier this evening, I went to a local restaurant to pick up some food, and Macy Gray was on the sound system. I really like Macy Gray. In a world where Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston are actually considered r&b vocalists, Macy Gray is a breath of fresh air. But there are those damned lyrics. "Why Didn't You Call me?" has a genuine r&b groove that I love, and Macy's vocals are are a lot of fun, but...

We had such a good time
Hey! Why didn't you call me?
I thought I'd see you again

Oh, please. Maybe in 1954. But no, here we were, on the cusp of the 21st Century, and Macy was powerless because he didn't call her. As much as I love the vocals and rhythms of this song, I'd much rather girls listened to Christina Aguilera's and Lil' Kim's "Can't Hold Us Down."

Listening to "Why Didn't You Call Me?" made me think about sexist lyrics in general, and you could fill a dictionary-sized book with them, but my nominee for the all-time worst (I'm not even dealing with hip-hop woman-hating violence here) is still Tom Jones' "She's a Lady." A disgusting song, line for line, "She's a Lady" was written by Paul Anka, who also graced us with the sickening "You're Having My Baby."

It would sure be nice if things had changed.

The summer garden

Though not as mysterious as the night-blooming cereus, the moonflower is nevertheless a peculiar summer wonder. A member of the morning glory family, the white flower opens at dusk and has a very pleasant scent. And like the night-blooming cereus, it lasts only one night.

The bud, just before it opens

The flower glows in the dim light

Speaking of outrage...

media girl asks one of the most important questions of the day.

John Roberts' memory not getting better

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...behold!

American idiot

Last night, I watched Fahrenheit 9/11 again, and was again struck by the same couple of facts that stood out the other times I have seen the film. These particular facts stand out for me--not because I think they are the most important ones, though one of them may be--but because they illustrate so dramatically the cognitive dissonance that characterizes the right wing and much of "moderate" America.

One of these facts is the existence of the Washington tea parties Bush had with the Taliban so that the pipeline in Afghanistan could be built according to White House expectations. Consider this: In the 2000 election, Bush did not know what the Taliban was when asked about it by a reporter. That alone should have been reason enough to realize he was an ignorant slacker who could never be elected to the presidency. However, once someone (and that someone would have been Kenneth Lay, whom Bush claimed to not know) clued him in about the pipeline deal, he became a gracious host to this powerful group of sadistic, murdering, misogynist organisms.

The other fact that stands out is that when 500 families of the victims of September 11 sued the Saudi government, the House of Saud retained James Baker as its attorney. Baker, of course, has been a key player in everything from the 2000 election recount to Enron to the Carlyle Group. He is also a former Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury.

Here are the facts, in simple language:

1.The supposed President of the United States was very thick with arguably the most savage group of people in the world, who not only tortured their own people, but who considered America as their greatest enemy, and one who must be crushed. ( Only Britain's press bothered to cover the Taliban's visits to Washington for the pipeline discussions.)

2, A former Cabinet member and major representative of the "values" party chose to represent the home of most of the September 11 killers against a suit brought by the victims of those killers.

Where was the outrage?

There has been silence from the media, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party. The treachery and amorality of the Bush administration is summed up so tidily in these two events that if you put them into a piece of cheap fiction, even lovers of cheap fiction would say your plot was too over the top to be believable. I cannot allow myself to think about this too much because I fear my head may explode.

All of this negativity is hard to handle

So here is some good American news.

Americans engage in euphoric recall

Around the Web, I see sad messages from people saying they no longer recognize America--that their country has been taken from them.

While it is true that the operations of the Bush White House constitute the biggest national crisis in my lifetime (I think, but Bush may be in a tie with Reagan for that), I do not share the view that the idea of America has suddenly vanished.

If you are a person of color, you have never fully experienced the idea of America.

If you are a woman, you have never fully experienced the idea of America.

If you are gay, you have never fully experienced the idea of America.

If you are disabled, you have never fully experienced the idea of America.

If you are poor, you have never fully experienced the idea of America.

If you are a child, America has never protected you. If you eat anything but organic food, America long ago abandoned concern for your health.

America is more advanced than any country in the world in certain areas, but in others, we lag behind. No one can expect America to be perfect because it cannot be. But as terrible as things are right now, they did not become that way overnight. The bigots and corporate criminals have always been here. Reagan opened the door wide and invited them all to come in and strut their stuff in broad daylight, and now they are America. Hate and greed muliply like cancer cells until the entire organism is diseased.

The cancer is nothing new; it has simply been encouraged to spread.

Brain functions and inferiority of bigoted bureaucrats

If you think the administration's saying the Abu Gharib photos can't be released because to do so would violate the Geneva Conventions is an Alice-In-Wonderland twisted, fruitcake argument--wait until you hear the reason the Utah Department of Motor Vehicles told Elizabeth Solomon she couldn't put a GAYSROK license plate on her car:

The department declared that the proposed plates “relate to sexual functions and express superiority of gender.”

This is so screwed up, just about all you can do is stand in front of it with your mouth hanging open, which is probably also against Utah law. That old, deeply-rooted bigoted belief that being gay is about having sex just won't go away. I'm willing to bet my bank account that the state of Utah doesn't tow cars that have Just Married written on them because I'm sure they believe that heterosexual relationships are about more than "sexual functions."

As for the other argument--while I have always been irritated by the term "gays and lesbians" (as if lesbians aren't gay)--any person who has not been in a coma for fifty years knows that the word "gays" refers to all homosexual citizens.

Why birth control is important

A Stamford woman was arrested yesterday after she accidentally locked her 23-month-old son in her steaming hot Audi, then refused to let emergency workers break the window to free him.

From the Stamford Advocate.

The more we learn about Roberts, the more we understand

From The Heretik's "John Roberts Lovefest":

Roberts presented a defense of bills in Congress that would have stripped the Supreme Court of jurisdiction over abortion, busing, and school prayer cases; he argued for a narrow interpretation of Title IX, the landmakr law that bars sex discrimination in intercollegiate athletic programs; and he even counseled his boss on how to tell the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow tha the administration was cutting off federal funding for the Atlanta center that bears his name.

That pretty much says it all, but there is more than that, so do take a look.

What kind of culture gives nicknames to tragedies?

Though my list of pet peeves is now so long that it could wrap around the whole state of California several times, one that I have to deal with on a daily basis is the giving of cute names to tragic events and circumstances.

"9-11" drives me crazy. Especially since I know how it started, which is even more sickening than the nickname itself. I remember when, not long after the attacks, some talking head with the creative genius of a third grader referred to the tragedy as "9-1-1"--get it? A few others joined in, but it seems that even the hay-for-brains crash test dummies who report the "news" couldn't stomach such an idiotic perversion, so they shortened it to "9-11." My problem is that I pay attention, and I saw and heard this evolve with my own eyes and ears, and it made me ill.

I have considered referring to the Pearl Harbor attack as "12-7" and to D-Day as "6-6." How about "4-4" as our national day of independence, or let's just take this to its logical conclusion and celebrate "12-25." The uneducated among the Christians are already upset that Christ has been "taken out" of Christmas because they have no clue what the "X" means. We might as well reduce it to the numbers.

Then there is "Gitmo." What a perfectly ridiculous name, when it takes so little time to say "Guantanamo." And how adorable--to give a nickname to a torture chamber.

This seems to be the current American way. Through merchandising and nicknames, we can make anything really cute. Cute terrorism, cute war, cute prison. Cute nation.

Ginkgo biloba, please

John Roberts cannot recall joining the Federalist Society. Jeb Bush and his colleagues cannot recall Roberts' involvement in the 2000 election recount case, other than a half-hour meeting Bush had with him (Roberts, it turns out, was a major participant).

Bear in mind that the other Bush could not remember if he had ever met Kenneth Lay, whom he knew well enough to call by one of his nauseating nicknames.

But what about the lawn jockey pull

And the collard green toss?

From Aaron Brown's interview with Santorum

BROWN: Do you think there's a right to privacy in the Constitution?

SANTORUM: I think there's a right to unreasonable--to unreasonable search and seizure... (oh, Freudian slip!)

BROWN: For example, if you'd been a Supreme Court judge in Griswold versus Connecticut, the famous birth control case came up, which centered around whether there was a right to privacy. Do you believe that was correctly decided?

SANTORUM: No, I don't. I write about it in the book. I don't.

BROWN: The state of Connecticut had the right to ban birth control for a married couple.

SANTORUM: I think they were wrong. It was a bad law.

BROWN: But they had the right.

SANTORUM: They had the right. They had the right...

U.S. Open Series begins

Yesterday kicked off the beginning of the U.S. Open Series--ten hardcourt tournments that lead up to the Open. Of the five WTA events--Bank of the West (Stanford), Acura Classic (San Diego), JPMorgan Chase Open (Los Angeles), Rogers Cup (Toronto), Pilot Pen Tennis (New Haven)--the three California events are being defended by world number one Lindsay Davenport. Amelie Mauresmo defends the Rogers Cup, and Elena Bovina, Pilot Pen Tennis.

Davenport may find it a little more difficult to go on a hardcourt tear the way she did last year because Belgian Kim Clijsters is likely to get in her way. Clijsters, whose injuries have healed, has made an impressive return to the tour, and should shine on the "true bounce" hard courts. Davenport will also have to face her old nemesis, Venus Williams, who recently defeated her in the longest women's Wimbledon final in history, and a heartbreaker for those of us who want Lindsay to win another Grand Slam.

Some commentator recently said that Davenport has overachieved in her career in general, but has underachieved in the slams department. How true. She has won 47 WTA singles titles, 35 doubles titles, and an Olympic gold medal, and has been ranked number one for 79 non-consecutive weeks. Last year, she looked good to win Wimbledon, but after a rain break in her semi-final with Maria Sharapova, she slumped and was defeated. After her U.S. Open series hardcourt victories, she looked like a shoo-in to win the U.S. Open, but during her semi-final with Svetlana Kuznetsova (who went on to win the Open), she sustained a foot injury and lost. This year, she made it to the final of the Australian Open and appeared to be yet another victim of the heat as she gave out in the middle of the match, which Serena Williams then won handily. And just recently, of course, she lost the Wimbledon final in that thriller with Venus Williams. The defeat must have been especially hard to bear because she held a match point during the third set.

If Davenport does not win another Grand Slam, she will go down in Hall of Fame history as probably the most gifted player to not win multiple slams, though three slams is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Martina Hingis, in her brief but brilliant career, won five. Monica Seles, during her first five years of tour play--before the stabbing that would rob her of her major championship status--won nine.

Other players to watch in the hardcourt season are Mauresmo, Sharapova, Serena Williams, Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova (who has yet to win a title), and Justine Henin-Hardenne, arguably the best player on the tour. If you want to start watching women's tennis, now is a good time because most of the hardcourt season is played in the U.S., so you can see some of the matches in real time on ESPN and ESPN2.

Not to put too fine a point on it...

But if it weren't for the ACLU, there'd be no guarantee that you could wear this shirt.

Seattle gardens--part 3

The Japanese Garden

The garden is located in the Washington Park Arboretum

While I'm on the subject

Of repressed homosexuality, here are a few popular message board responses to this:

"Put 'em on the front lines."

"If they could just shut the heck up about their sex lives then they can join. Is that so difficult???"

"Let the able-bodied men stay home, and let the homos fight on the front lines (along with our mothers and daughters)! Equal rights and all, eh?"

This is pretty interesting rhetoric, considering that thousands of the "able-bodied" men are already too busy staying home, typing hate messages, harrassing protesters, and sticking ribbons on their SUV's. And if I were a woman in the U.S. military, I wouldn't care how many gay men talked about their sex lives (you know, really salacious things, like "I have a partner") as long as I could stay away from the straight men who cannot stop acting out their pathetic sex lives by raping and assaulting U.S. soliders.

"If that makes me sound superficial, shallow and sexist--well yes, I'm a man. "

These are the words of film critic Richard Roeper, who is none too pleased with what he considers the "chunky" women in the new Dove "Campaign for Real Beauty." Roeper wants billboards with "fantasy babes" on them.

As Ms. Musings points out, a really disturbing aspect of Roeper's comment is that he is saying that it is acceptable to be sexist. Well, as a matter of fact, it is. But it's still sickening to hear someone brag about it.

More news on Gulf War consequences

According to a report in the American Journal of Public Health, Gulf War veterans exposed to chemical munitions at Khamisiyah, Iraq are nearly twice as likely as unexposed soldiers to die from brain cancer.

Just how gay is America?

Leaving lesbians and bisexual women out of the discussion (and that's leaving a whole lot of people out, I know), just how gay is America? I am leaving gay and bisexual women out of this discussion because most attacks on the existence of gays are attacks on the existence of gay men. (The operative word here is "most.") Though gay-haters hate all gays, the most active anti-gay spokespeople are men--quite obviously, they would be the most active spokespeople about anything in that crowd--and their homophobia appears to be greater than that of women.

Given the projected fears men have of becoming what they consider to be the worst possible thing--women (and yes, I meant exactly what I said)--they hide everything from a homosexual thought to a crush to their own homosexuality and bisexuality. But there are cracks in the wall, and, as I have pointed out before, none is as gaping as Chris Matthews' worship of George W. Bush's body in the famous flight suit. Matthews talked about how he liked to see Bush strut, and how the flight suit looked so good on him. This is about as homoerotic as you can get, though it doesn't make Matthews gay, of course.

When men feel superior to women, they may enjoy sexually dominating women or attaining sexual satisfaction via women, but they cannot feel genuinely "romantic" about women. Their romantic thoughts become attached to male heroes, whose supposed bravery and strength they admire. This makes the George W. Bush worship phenomenon, by both males and females, ludicrous, since--though he may have a good body--Bush is as big a coward as we have ever seen. But he is perceived as a warrior, and today, as in ancient Greece, male warriors are considered to be sexually valuable. In ancient Greece, male homosexuality among warriors was considered a way of strengthening the military. In America today, male homoeroticism, though well disguised, reflects that belief in the value of testosterone.

A few months ago, I referred to a wonderful essay by Jeff Sharlett, in which the author discusses--among other things--the Christian men's movement's obsession with Jesus as a homoerotic figure. "White hot brother love" sounds pretty steamy to me, and that's how these men describe their devotion to one another and to Christ.

The more America moves to the right, the more it becomes obsessed with homosexuality. That is a lot of fear, and it doesn't come from thin air. Alfred Kinsey found that 37% of all men experienced orgasm in a sexual activity with another man at some time in their lives, 60% of all men had some type of homosexual relationship before they were age 16, and 30% of all men had some type of homosexual relationship between the ages of 20 and 24. A perfect Kinsey "0" is rare. A "1" or a "2" is nothing to panic over, but when confronted with fake tight crotches and white hot brother love, some men start to sweat.

I'm liking Google right now

I was doing a search for some information on LDotters and accidentally put "idotters" into Google's search box. Not knowing I'd done this, I was really impressed when Google spat back "Did you mean idiots?"

Patty Schnyder wins her first U.S. title

One of my very favorite players, Switzerland's Patty Schnyder, won her 10th career WTA title today at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati. This was Schnyder's first U.S. title, and her second title of 2005; she won Uncle Toby's Australian Women's Hardcourt tournament on the Gold Coast.

Schnyder, an exceptionally talented clay court player, who I keep hoping will one day win the French Open, is no slouch on the hard courts, and is seeded third in this week's Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.

Patty Schnyder delivers her clever, topspin-loaded game to Klara Koukalova in her round of 16 match at the 2005 Family Circle Cup in Charleston

Condemnation of execution of gay adolescents

Here it is, just like the nonstop condemnation coming from Bush, Rice, Frist, Hastert, Reid, and Pelosi. I guess the government in Iran has been shamed into submission by now.

Some good news

Khalid Jarrar is out of prison.

And speaking of the violin...

The Light Of Reason has more to say about this, as well as the state of things that caused it to be an issue.

If I had a violin...

I'd play a sad song for Anton Polezhayev. While it is true that I do not have the evidence in front of me, I do know the history.

"...racially aggravated, not...Islamophobic"

Whatever.

On idealizing presidents

No president has been as idealized as much as Ronald Reagan, though his policies were evil through and through. He is idealized because (a) a lot of Americans really liked his evil policies, and (b) he talked about God this and God that. George W. Bush is pretty much Son of Reagan, but without the glibness or the fake wisdom. Like Reagan, he supports the oppression of women, gays, people of color, and the poor. Like Reagan, he never met a corporation that did anything wrong. And like Reagan, he is willing to murder countless people on behalf of an imperialistic goal.

Now that he is out of office and has been replaced by the worst president in history, Clinton is idealized by a lot of people, too. There is no doubt that Clinton did a lot of good things when he was president, and unfortunately, many of them are considered insignificant because they were done on behalf of women, consumers, and families, the people the Republican Party pretends to defend, but actually holds in contempt.

On the other hand, Clinton littered his presidency with disruptions and disturbances because of his undisciplined personal life. He betrayed the gay community with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," betrayed his old friend Lani Guenier, betrayed Joycelyn Elders, and betrayed all women in his failure to defend Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood when they were held to a standard different from the standard for male candidates for the Cabinet. His reversal on the landmine ban and his failure to help prevent the genocide in Rwanda disappointed and enraged those who care about human rights. Clinton's better-than-average effort against the increase of terrorism, however, has been hidden by the shadow of the scandals that surrounded him.

Though there was undoubedly a vast, right-wing conspiracy against Clinton, he brought much of his scandal-ridden reputation upon himself.

Then there is Jimmy Carter, whom most people think of as an ineffective president, though he accomplished many things for which he is never given credit: the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal treaties, the Egypt-Israel treaty, the Salt II treaty, the establishment of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. Carter also championed human rights, increased environmental protection and created a comprehensive energy program.

Carter's civil rights black mark comes for his betrayal of the women's movement. Though he appeared to be an enthusiastic supporter of feminism and the ERA, he backed away from the movement when he thought it could cause him political problems. In a particularly nasty and self-serving turn, Carter removed Bella Abzug from her post as chair of the National Advisory Committee on Women when she pointed out that his administration had cut funding for women's programs. As Gloria Steinem said in the documentary about Shirley Chisholm, "Everyone thinks of Carter as being benign; he wasn't so benign back then." There is no doubt in my mind that Carter's failure to utilize his bully pulpit is one of the main reasons the ERA was not ratified.

History does not necessarily right the misperceptions we have of presidents. Carter will probably always be known as "weak" and as a supporter of women's rights, though, ultimately, he was neither. Clinton will perhaps never be acknowledged for the things he did to help people survive the ravages of health care, insurance, child custody disputes, and pension tampering. And both Reagan and W. Bush will live on in history as men with "big ideas" who defined their respective eras.

American soldiers bring smiles to Iraqi citizens

Remember this? Here are our soldiers wearing them in Iraq. The camp even has a new name.

When will we see the vigil?

A Florida man, John Laughon, who is serving time for possession of marijuana, is in a persistent vegetative state after a fight with prison guards on a trip to the hospital. The man received a blow on the head, nine broken ribs, and collapsed lungs. The inmate had a history of violent seizures, and his mother is wondering whether one was triggered by his not receiving his medication.

One hopes that Laughon recovers soon. But if he remains in a vegetative state, will the Christians with duct-taped mouths (oh, if only they taped their mouths up more often) have a protest outside his hospital? Will Jeb Bush criminally investigate Laughon's mother if she doesn't want him to linger for years with no functional brain? Will Bill Frist turn on the TV and diagnose him?

Did you even know about this until you read it here?

Abu Ghraib pictures still hidden from view

Is the ACLU the only entity working to get the photos and videos released? It was over a year ago that Sen. Lindsey Graham did his hand-wringing routine about them, but I haven't seen him demand that his government stop covering up what has been described as rape and child sodomy. A year ago, there were a few weak demands for Rumsfeld's resignation, but for the most part, it has been business as ussual.

The sad thing is that if the photos and videos were shown on primetime news tomorrow, I doubt if anything would change. Because everyone knows that war is hell. And they are all terrorists in that prison. And how can we feel sorry for the children when those people cut off Nick Berg's head? And shut up! Shut up! Shut up!

Lesbian couple assaulted by bat-swinging woman in Kansas City

From Pam's House Blend comes the news of a violent attack on a lesbian couple in Kansas City, perpetrated by a crazy woman with a baseball bat, and unsolved at this time.

What is interesting about this, to me, is that everyone involved was female. We are accustomed to hearing about male-on-male gay-bashing, and male-on-male lesbian-hassling and lesbian-bashing, but I am wondering how many female-on-female gay hate crimes have gone unreported. It seems to be open season on gays in America, at a time when the right wing is screaming about how we have to blow up the world to protect "our freedoms."

Friday cat blogging--equal access edition

I can play this condo mouse game as well as my sister--just give me a moment

This is the hard part

Voila!

43 Democrats vote to extend the Patriot Act

Here are the Democratic Party's enemies of civil liberties:

Andrews
Baca
Barrow
Bean
Bishop (GA)
Boren
Boswell
Butterfield
Cardin
Carnahan
Case
Chandler
Clyburn
Cooper
Cox
Cramer
Davis (AL)
Davis (FL)
Davis (TN)
Edwards
Emanuel
Etheridge
Gordon
Green, Gene
Harman
Herseth
Higgins
Holden
Hoyer
Lipinski
Marshall
McIntyre
Melancon
Menendez
Miller (NC)
Ortiz
Pomeroy
Reyes
Ross
Ruppersberger
Schwartz (PA)
Scott (GA)
Skelton
Spratt

Your input is urgently needed

According to the ACLU, the Senate is only one or two votes away from passing the atrocious flag desecration amendment. Please take action now. Do not wait.

You can't handle the truth

A few days ago, I had a discussion with a reasonably intelligent man who told me he thought the main reason the U.S. invaded Iraq was oil.

I asked him what the other reasons were, and he remained silent.

He then said he was glad about the invasion because it got rid of Saddam Hussein's government.

I asked him if he favored our invading Cuba, Iran and Liberia, and by the way, why haven't we done so?

He shrugged in a "god, no!" kind of way and then was silent.

I asked him to name one government with a successful democracy that had been thrust upon them.

He could not do so.

When the people who actually pay attention to what is going on and who even think we are there for the oil still don't get it, what can be done?

Hate groups are not lovers of geography

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Ohio has the most Ku Klux Klan groups of any state in the United States. Ohio and North Carolina tie for the second-highest number of Neo-Nazi groups in the country; Pennsylvania has the most. Pennsylvania far and away has the most skinhead groups, Georgia has the most black separist groups, Arkansas has the most Christian Identity groups (3), and South Carolina is the clear leader in the category of Neo-Confederate groups. In the category of "Other," the leader is Mississippi, with Florida close behind.

And though they are not official "hate groups," it is always worth mentioning that the headquarters of several dangerous right-wing Christian groups is Colorado.

Chicago Republicans openly hostile toward Gay Games

The five Republican members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners have withdrawn their names from a proclamation welcoming the Gay Games to Chicago in 2006 because, says Commissioner Peter LaBarbera, "There's a big difference between tolerating and celebrating homosexuality."

The Democrats on the commission are being pressured by the Illinois Family Institute to withdraw their names, also.

Call me silly, but I have an idea that the Republican gay-haters in Chicago will be very happy to take the money of Gay Games visitors who frequent their restaurants, shops, and museums.

Seattle gardens--part 2

The Dahlia Garden at Volunteer Park

A dahlia in the garden

Christian takeover, climate for rape, anti-Semitism--Southeastern Louisiana University has it all

I have written several times about the student teacher at Southeastern Louisiana University who was harrassed for trying to stop a teacher from forcing Christianity on her students.

Today comes news that SLU has settled a suit in which a former dean claimed that university administrators brushed aside sexual assault complaints on campus and eliminated her job when she tried to investigate a campus rape. Apparently, the administrators did not want to go to court.

The lawsuit also goes into detail about how the former dean was treated with scorn because she is Jewish.

Gentle reader, if you are so inclined, feel free to email this post to everyone you can think of who might have the slightest link to the Louisiana higher education system, especially