The Hapless Gays

the Democratic Party, with solid majorities in House and Senate and a Democratic president in the White House refuses to end discrimination against gay servicemembers, who are risking their lives for this country at a time of war. The Human Rights Campaign has no ability to translate over 70 percent public support for a measure into votes (ending employment discrimination against gays has over 80 percent support but HRC is so irrelevant it hasn't been to get that passed for two decades). It's vital for the gay rights movement to understand that the Republicans are intent on discriminating against gay citizens at every opportunity in order to win votes from bigots. And the Democratic party's only interest in gay equality is getting gay money. - Andrew Sullivan

Sullivan is correct. Gays are a minority with no real pride in themselves, otherwise they would not continue to be allow themselves to be dumped upon like this. That's why I haven't voted for a Democrat Party candidate for president in the last several decades. This will not change until gays wake up and stop supporting the Obamas and the Clintons and the rest of the Democrats, who are not our friends. There are decent third party alternatives, or we can just stay home and keep our wallets closed until such time as we get results , not betrayals or lip service.

Police And The Police State

Have you ever been arrested? Have you ever been falsely charged with a crime due to corrupt police practices? I have, and I can tell you that when this happens to you, you realize that we live in a thinly veiled police state, where the police seem benevolent until you're the target of their actions. There is no police accountability. I know this first hand and I fear them. ...And I'm white!

Obama And Professor Gates

What Professor Gates did wrong: he went in your face with a cop.

What Obama did wrong: He weighed in, then came down on the wrong side of Gates vs. the cop.

We live in a thinly veiled police state. The police have unlimited power because they are rarely held accountable for their actions.

Rule: when you find yourself in a situation with a cop, play it cool. Trust me: I've been there.

Mansfield Frazier has it right:

While I doubt that the Harvard professor was ever in jeopardy of getting a cap busted off in his ass, one thing young inner-city blacks learn at an early age is that the police have guns, they are licensed and trained to use them, and are rarely, if ever, held accountable for their actions. The problem is, when all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail...Welcome to the real world, Professor Gates.

Gay Uncle Toms

In spite of the shoddy treatment that the gay community is getting from Obama, some prominent gays still flock to the white house at Obama's beckoning for photo ops. I suppose these events are designed to demonstrate that Obama is a friend to the gay community, even as we're getting screwed by Obama's policies toward us.

Well, friends don't dump on friends. Obama's actions in regard to gay rights are simply not in sync with his rhetoric. Obama's statements in favor of gay civil rights are nothing more than meaningless political rhetoric if he refuses to back them up with leadership, and if he defends clearly unconstitutional anti-gay statutes with briefs containing bigoted intimations. We're only fooling ourselves once again when we show up for hollow photo ops at the White House under these circumstances.

Daily Obama Rant

It's unfortunate that we have a president claiming to be a "fierce advocate" for gay rights, who opposes gay marriage, refuses to sign a stop loss executive order suspending discharges of gay and lesbian service personnel, and whose justice department recently filed a brief in support of the Defense Of Marriage Act that invoked the spectre of incest.

Obama has turned out to be a major disappointment, not only to the gay community, but to progressives across the board who had hoped that his administration would live up to the campaign promise of "Change You Can Believe In." Instead, we get Bush lite. Recently, Defense Secretary Gates announced 20,000 more troops will be added to the army. Meanwhile we struggle with how to pay for health care reform. Why is the defense budget sacrosanct?

The Quality-Adjusted Life Year

On Saturday I watched as rescuers pulled the body of a 22 year old young man from the ocean. It was a beautiful summer day, and the beach was full of visitors, many of whom had no inkling that the rough surf had undercurrents that could kill. I've been upset about this young man's death, mostly because at 22 he had really just begun to live as an adult and he had so much more of life ahead of him. His life, it seems to me, had so much value because of his young age. To me his loss of life is much more tragic than that of someone much older, particularly someone very much older nearing the end of life.

Philosopher Peter Singer, in arguing for health care rationing, comes to the same sort of conclusion about putting different values on different people's lives. Read his article in the New York Times magazine by clicking on the title of this post. One of Singer's topics is the concept of a quality-adjusted life year (QALY), which is a way of placing a value on medical treatments based upon what the they can reasonably accomplish for the patient. QALY can be used to draw the line on paying for treatments that are not cost effective, that don't improve the quality and quantity of life sufficiently considering the cost. Are we headed in this direction in the health care reform debate? I doubt it, at least not yet. But Singer makes some provocative arguments in favor of some form of health care rationing.

Mid-Summer On The Island

After a cold and wet June, we're finally enjoying real summertime. It's about time!

Photo: Bradley awakes after a nap

Obama Will Be A One Term President

...if he continues on the current track he is taking. Not only has he abandoned the gay community, but his half-way economic policies have failed to turn the economy around, and it now appears as though he will cave in on health care reform giving up on a public option that would guarantee coverage to all or most Americans.

Who is this man Barak Obama, who gave such inspirational campaign speeches but now seems to be more like Bush-lite than change we can believe in.

He is squandering his opportunity to be a great president by allowing his handlers to run his administration based upon political expediency. He is not leading. Rather he is following the advice of his political handlers.

How sad.

Jim