I think yiddish has a word for this...

So, I realize that it's been a long while since I've graced you all with my presence.  And that's just going to have to be okay.  I've been having to put up with the most obnoxious breed of human being imaginable.  Yes, I'm talking about the car thief.

Just to make sure that you're all on the same page: since I was last here I have 1) had some sort of bronchitis-like illness (which I can't go to the doctor for because I lack insurance coverage and the money to pay for drugs), 2) Had my 95(93) (we were never really quite sure of the year of my car) Buick Century (yes, a Buick Century) stolen, and not recovered, 3) Bought a new car (which caused me to swallow yet more pride, mmm tasty), 4) Accrued about 9k in debt 6 months after filing for bankruptcy. (Just what I wanted to do), and last but not least 5) I haven't managed to piss anyone at my current job off yet, and made it past the 3 month mark.  Which garners me a $0.25 raise, and PTO (Paid time off).  Which is something I've never had before.  The PTO I mean.

So needless to say, I'm kinda [insert appropriate melancholy adjective feeling here].  I also think that car thieves should be shot in the knees and run over.

And before you ask if the police (gigglesnort) have found my vehicle, don't.  It's sort of a sore point in all of this.  Because, the police response to this has been...well...practically nonexistent.  Don't get me wrong, I understand that I live in a metro/urban area and there are murders and drug deals and other crimes that happen and take precedence.

But it seems to me that in this economy, when people are downsizing their budgets and such that automobile theft would be taken more seriously because people are becoming 1 car families.  Especially families with limited income.  While I did get a new car, thanks primarily to J (my roommate, landlord, and current incarnate guardian angel) that doesn't solve the bigger problem of police attention to grand theft auto (a felony might I add).

I also learned something interesting about the current Milwaukee Police Chief's policy regarding theft is that they don't even bother sending a squad unless the value of the stolen objects exceeds $3000.  I have 2 problems with this currently.  First, who keeps a record of the price of their valuables handy.  I know I do.  So if our place got robbed, I'd be able to give the police the exact price of every object that was stolen and its current depreciated value.  [/sarcasm] Second, a car that costs less than 3000 dollars could be 1 families only source of transportation to and from employment and other places.  So perhaps a little policy revision is in order, methinks.

So I came across this song/video in my pro-homosexuality searches.  Be warned that it's a touch vulgar so probably not work appropriate. 






I've had this song in my head for the last 4 days.  It's a catchy little ditty.  And because it's apparently from the UK, their censors are a little more lax.  The name of the song is probably what you think it is.  But it has another name that it goes by "Guess Who Batman" by British artist Lily Allen.

Drought continues

Not that I'm talking about actual lack of rain, but the lack of inspiration/motivation.  It always seems to strike me at this time of the year.  I think it's the weather.  Which is not to say that I don't have anything to say or that I'm not thinking about anything, but rather that I lack the motivation to organize my thoughts/musings into any sort of a coherent form.

Also, can I just say that catching some sort of illness in the warm weather of summer absolutely sucks (and not in the good fun way).  I've been battling some sort of a throat/sinus drainage thing for a couple days now and I have to say that I think it's completely ill timed.

So, without much more to say (and at the risk of already sounding rather "babble-ish") I'll end here and hope for the inspiration/motivation storm to come soon.  Because I'm sick and tired of writing blogs that do nothing but say that I have nothing to write about.  Blah.

Does anyone know where my muse has gone?

There are a lot of things to blog about, and even more things for me to comment on, but apparently every summer my muse decides to take a vacation and leaves me bereft of inspiration and motivation.  Thus I don't blog, and when I do it's simply to give excuses as to why I'm not blogging.

I don't deal with heat well, and it's been humid and hot here the last couple days.  So much so that I felt well into "the dog days of summer" which we haven't even hit yet, technically.

So while the whole world goes to pot (or crude depending on where you are and what news you listen to) I'm just going to sit back and watch it.

Have fun!

Le Sigh

So I had hoped that yesterday would be the blog day, but alas I was mistaken.  Don't worry, the blog is there, percolating in my head, and it's taking awhile to get to the point where it's more than just a jumble of incoherent thoughts that have something in common.  Which is my problem.  But let me tell you, it'll be good. 

Hrm, I did find something interesting though, the other day by listening to the Progressive Talk Radio on Green 960 out of San Fransisco.  Link here.  Apparently there was a raid on a Texas gay bar, last year.  IN 2009!  This is the freaking new millennium people, why are we still standing for this.  But I guess it could only happen in the south.  (see previous posts for various and sundry opinions regarding the south).  Not only did they raid the bar, they did it on the 40th anniversary of the raid on the Stonewall Inn in NYC, and you'll notice a lack of media coverage, even a year later.  And all I can ask is why?

For links to the story:

Seattle Gay News

Georgia Liberal (they have those there?)

Huffington Post

Dallas/Fort Worth local news

So that's all I've got for you today, as laundry needs to be done before I head off to work.  Being an adult stinks.  I have no idea why children want to grow up so fast.  Oh wait...yeah I do.

I'm playing hooky/ey/ie

So today was not the prolific blogging day that I had hoped it would be.  I don't know.  Usually my weekends are sort of fulfilling, but today/this weekend, I've just felt that my me-time hasn't been as revitalizing as it should be.  Ergo, no huge blog about politics and religious issues today, but don't fret, the issues that I want to write about are still there.

Woke up Wednesday to discover that one of my email accounts had been hacked.  Needless to say that I'm very upset with hackers and think they need to be dealt with in a painful and time consuming manner.


Apparently there are multiple ways to spell the phrase used in the title of the blog for today.  And whilst searching for the correct way to spell the phrase I happened across this (which English-y people should like).  Homophone.com which is a supposedly complete list of all homophones.

So there, vittles for you all.  Have a good rest of your weekend.

See what happens when I miss a post

I awoke this morning to find that the email associated with my blog had been hacked and disabled, and the email was associated with my blog, so that was disabled too.  Needless to say that it was not a good morning for me.

I've been reading The Cost of Discipleship (see link in previous post) and there's some pretty thought provoking things in there (really, thought provoking things in a religious text, shocking, I know!) which I was going to blog about yesterday, but my day was consumed with laundry, food, reading up on a new RPG that I'm going to be running, getting the ballpark figure of the new computer, and a little gaming. 

Kinda like an actual day off.  Which I kinda needed.  Anyway, I'm not really doing anything on Saturday, so look for the new blog then.  See ya!

Making ones way through the quagmire

Well, it certainly is a week for issues that have no clear answers.

Firstly, lets see.  Well the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) has (since abolishing it's anti-gay policies) begun an attempt at healing.  Now, I reiterate, that I'm not sure this is the way to go about mending the ties between religious institutions and the gay community.  I'm not professing to have any answers to a problem that is as old, deep, and complicated as that, but I'm not sure if asking a religious institution to completely change it's outlook (and thus sort of give up some of it's identity) is the right way to go about it.  Especially when we [the gay community] can't seem to practice what we preach when we talk about acceptance and tolerance.  One simply needs to visit a gay bar and watch some of the patrons to see an example of this.  (Oh, and don't try to argue because we all know it happens).  Can you imagine the backlash that would happen were the gay community asked to give up something the we consider community defining?

Then there's the Boy Scouts.  This article goes on to say that the reason they lost the appeal and were not allowed to lease some land for camping purposes was due to the fact that they are considered a "religious organization".  As an Eagle Scout, I have to say that I'm supportive of the organization as a whole.  As a gay man, I disagree with their discriminatory policies.  All that being said, I can't figure out a good answer to the problem, mostly for the reasons described above.  But of course, I have a question.  What is to stop anyone from creating a similar organization, with similar goals and activities, that would not have a policy of discrimination? 

In what I think is a victory for the secular world as a statement that they will not stand for religious hatred and bigotry to be spewed in a public forum, this article gave me hope.  While I agree that there is freedom of religion in this country (to a degree, see the religious right for more details) I also think that it is the responsibility of religious institutions and leaders to present their views in a manner that is in line with what they are preaching.  Also to have the proper permits and such in order to be able to spread their messages in a public forum.  They should also have the decency to acknowledge when they are being disruptive. 

However, I will say that much like the previous two issues, this one is an issues that extends into freedom of speech and freedom of religion.  Again, I will say that the mixture of church and state in any form, whether it's an issue of protecting religious freedom or allowing religion to dictate political policy, is a complicated issue with no clear answers.

There's a problem with reporting, or more importantly the issue of headlines.  I clicked on the link to this story because the headline read that the teens were charged in the murder of a gay principal.  If you'll read the blurb on Advocate you'll notice that the blurb does mention that they met him on a sex chat.  But nowhere in the blurb is it mentioned that the principal is gay.  I also skimmed the story that is found on the Washington Post website and there's no mention that the man was gay that I could see.  Simply that they met him off a phone sex line.  Now, my question is, what sort of journalistic integrity does it take (or not take) to say that a man was gay, put it in a headline, and not support the fact that you're saying the man was gay.  If the only reason that you posit that he is gay is that he was on a phone sex line, well there's lots of those for heteros too.  I'm challenging Advocate to retract that story and issue an apology, or give evidence that the man was indeed homosexual, and thereby attempt to keep their journalistic integrity.

I've thought for a long time that the law is not up to speed with what technology is capable of.  This story which is just another in a long list of social networking sites leading the horrible murders, really makes me wonder about a couple things.  Firstly, I think it's interesting to note that the social networking sites that lead to this (the many that there are) are all created to get people to have anonymous sex.  Which just goes to show you that there's really only one thing that the average person really wants.  Secondly, the law is vastly behind in being able to deal with issues that have to do with technology.  Cyber bullying which leads to suicide of [pre]teens is very prevalent and someone needs to be held responsible.  But the only way to do that is to stretch existing laws to cover it.  Perhaps there needs to be laws that cover crimes that happen purely in the virtual realm.

Speaking of issues regarding law, this story brings to light something I think we should all attempt to remember when dealing with crimes.  The fact that it was made a hate crime and therefore a felony was not that they were actually shooting at gay men (although I'm sure they were) but that they were targeting guys who looked like they were gay (by American standards of homosexuality/masculinity) and that is the reason that it was upgraded to a hate crime.  Because of intent.  I also think that they should have the book thrown at them because shooting anybody (whether it's with BBs or not) shouldn't be tolerated, and if your intent is to harass people based on your perception of their orientation (or anything else for that matter) you need to have the book thrown at you. (In my opinion)

Well that's it for this weeks quagmire presentation.  Next week, we'll see.  Oh, last weeks Savage Love had a link to the Savage Love Merchandise.  Since I really like Dan, I figured I'd give him shameless plugs on stuff.

Happy week!