I Love The Fall

Decorating the house for Halloween...enjoying the fall foliage on my walks...what a lovely season!

Jim

What Is Really Wrong With Obama

From the New York Times:

“He knows this march is happening, and he can’t even acknowledge it?” said Robin McGehee, 36, a co-director of the march. Ms. McGehee took issue with people she believes are giving the president a pass.

Obama is oblivious to the real gay youth movement out there, that is not willing to accept his lip service or amorphous promises that something good will happen "eventually."

Two Friends, Cindy & Patrick Marry

Barbara (standing) pays tribute to her sister Cindy



Jim, Cindy, Dan, and Partick
photo taken by Allitia DiBernardo



Yesterday we observed our friend's Cindy's & Patrick's wedding, which started in a beautiful Baptist church, full of Byzantine gold arches and even a small dome. The marrying couple observed some of the traditional format, since there was a minister presiding and saying the usual vows. Yet they also were innovative. There were two musicians, a vocalist and pianist/organist from the famed Curtis Music School. The man played a Chopin nocturne and the soprano sang selections that included Mozart opera arias from "Marriage of Figaro" and Franck's sublime "Panis Angelicus." Friends and relatives read not only Biblical passages, but also a poem by Edna St-Vincent Millay and Delmore Schwarz. There were no bridesmaids, or best man, and Cindy wore a beautiful gold dress embroidered with countless sequins, a treasure she found on the web. Patrick wore a suit, not a tuxedo. On the ecological side, the audience of friends and relatives blew bubbles at the couple (instead of throwing rice) before they sped away in their classic Chevy 1956 car, painted a bright orange.

The reception at the restaurant Trio included a cocktails period and plentiful Asian type hors d'oeuvres (shumai, Beggar's pouches, etc.) Dinner was a choice of filet mignon, duck, shrimp or mahi-mahi. All the desserts were very good including the wedding cake. There was no dancing, but an Irish folk music trio of two fiddlers and a guitar played tunes from the Emerald Isle. Patrick encouraged others to make speeches before the dessert and coffee course. There was also a fellow who had studied Gaelic with Patrick many years ago (the groom had lived in Ireland) and that friend sang an eight-verse song in Irish for the assembled guests, who joined in on the choruses.

So it was a very unusual and enjoyable wedding.

Dan

Obama Disappoints...Again

The Barberini Palace in Rome

Blogger John Aravosis on Obama at last nights HRC soiree:

All in all, the evening was a disappointment, but not unexpected. President Obama doesn't do controversy, and we, my friends, are controversy. So, the bad blood between this administration and the gay community will remain, and continue to worsen. It's unfortunate, but at some point you have to have enough dignity to say enough is enough. The Obama administration doesn't respect our community, and doesn't respect the seriousness of our cause. It's our job to hold them accountable.

At some point the The HRC set has to stop being Obama's gay house niggers. The rest of us recognize what's going on...mere lip service from a president who has failed to keep his campaign promises to the gay community. The time for campaign sppeches is over. The time for action is here and past. Issue the stop-loss order to end discharges of gay and lesbian service members NOW. Provide a time frame and a legislative action plan for the repeal of DOMA NOW. Enough of the feel-good rhetoric. DO SOMETHING.

Obama Goes Before The "HRC Gays" On Saturday

One of the "Four Fountains" in Rome

I call them the "HRC Gays"...conservative clean cut types with money who think they can buy equality with schmoozing and contributions. But that strategy hasn't worked out well for them, or the rest of us. The only winner has been the Democratic Party's treasury.

Saturday evening, the day before the gay "Equality March" on Washington, Obama goes before the HRC gays once again. It will be a pretty speech, but will the sentiments be backed up by a firm timetable committment for action on ENDA, DADT, DOMA, etc?

I'm not optimistic.

Neither is gay activist Wayne Besen:

Let's hope that Obama does not mirror the usual banquet food at such events, looking great on the menu, while turning out to be a rubber chicken. A milquetoast presidency will likely mean he's toast when he runs for reelection. He can either be history by appeasing a far right that will never support him, or do what is morally right and make history with an unforgettable speech at the HRC dinner.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wayne-besen/-obamas-big-gay-speech_b_311964.html

The Fall Of The American Empire

San Carlo at the Four Fountains in Rome

Atlantic Monthly correspondent Robert D. Kaplan writes in today's New York Times:

Everyone keeps saying that America is not an empire, but our military finds itself in the sort of situation that was mighty familiar to empires like that of ancient Rome and 19th-century Britain: struggling in a far-off corner of the world to exact revenge, to put down the fires of rebellion, and to restore civilized order. Meanwhile, other rising and resurgent powers wait patiently in the wings, free-riding on the public good we offer. This is exactly how an empire declines, by allowing others to take advantage of its own exertions.

Kaplan believes that China and Russia get the real benefit as we continue our fruitless land war in Afghanistan. Nevertheless, he argues for an increase in troops because to do otherwise would demoralize our troops, show that we can't be counted on, and that we lack resolve. This is crazy. I think a few of our war mongering generals would be demoralized, but the troops would probably be glad as hell to get out of there. As for our resolve, we should have the resolve to do the right thing for ourselves rather than be trapped in another Vietnam-like land war. It is true that we can no longer be counted on to be the world's policeman and nation-builder extroadinaire. Our feckless president shold take command and get us out of Afghanistan as quickly as he can while shifting the focus to defeating terrorists and keeping America safe. Injecting further troops into a nine year old unwinable land war in Afghanistan is not the way to go.

Jim