The Monastery Of The Caves Complex

Bell Tower:

Entrance To The Monastery Of The Caves, Kiev Ukraine

Has anyone noticed?

Has anyone noticed that companies seem to be just laying people off? Not hiring? Has anyone noticed that only banks and lenders seems to be "bouncing back"? Isn't it time to notice that we don't have anymore manufacturing jobs in the United States?

Maybe we should start asking our elected officials some more difficult questions. Especially why we are building a country in Aghanistan when the pink slips are fluttering around the United States like butterflies with no end in sight?

I hope our children don't participate in the same kind of garbage we're caught up in.

M

A Cat With Many Lives

Our little Burmese, Nikko, is 18 years and five months old. He has had a great life, full of love and affection. But the ravages of age have caught up with him as they will with us all. Cats are prone to kidney failure as they age. Nikko has had some of the symptoms for quite a while now, but he is a tough little fighter and he is still hanging in there. Recently he seemed to begin to really fail so we took him to the vet for an evaluation. The vet offered to perform a lot of painful, stressful and invasive tests, but Dan and I decided that we would not put Nikko or ourselves through that. Instead, we changed his diet to a food for cats with renal failure, and we're giving him a crushed up medication that the vet prescribed. He has rallied and seems to be more than holding his own for now. We realize that eventually he will fail even with these measures and that when he does it will be time to finally say good bye, but for the time being we're enjoying him and he seems to be doing well enough to continue. He has always had a great appetite and he still does. I call him an eating machine!

Janis Ian "At Seventeen"

Inside St.Sophia, Kiev

Marcel Dupré - Poème Héroique, op. 33

A View Of St. Sophia, Kiev, Ukraine

Obama's Failed Strategy

With Obama's approval numbers low and falling, how he expects to hold on to majorities in Congress is a mystery. What went wrong with Obama's presidency? I just heard one good theory on TV: Obama demobilized the progressive base of the Democratic Party that was ready for real reforms in favor of pursuing an "inside the beltway" compromise agenda. It looks like that strategy didn't work out so well.

Federal Judge: DOMA Unconstitutional!

Yesterday a federal judge in Boston declared the Defense OF Marriage Act to be unconstitutional. No doubt Obama will appeal, fierce advocate for gay rights that he is!

Obama Does Something Right For A Change

Sueing Arizona for their hateful anti-immigrant law is the right thing to do.

Wall Street Money Drys Up For Dems

Yea, and you thought we have a democracy. With recent Supreme Court decisions allowing corporate money to once again flood our political system we are that much more a corporate and military controlled police state.

Former Senator Gary Hart - We;re Failing Ourselves

We're failing ourselves as a nation by engaging in foreign wars of choice while we're collapsing at home. Hart is correct. Click on the link above to read the article.

My Bill Of Particulars Against Obama

1. Fails to close GITMO.
2. Fails to end Iraq War.
3. Escalates the war in Afghanistan.
4. Backs lifting ban on commercial whaling.
5. Opposes marriage equality.
6. Refuses to sign on to international treaty banning land mines.
7. Excercises no leadership to end DADT.
8. Argues in favor of DOMA with hateful anti-gay DOJ brief.
9. Gives only partial spousal benefits to federal GLBT employees and no health care benefits.
10. Fails to nominate a strong liberal to the Supreme Court.
11. Fails to advocate for a strong enough stimulus to create jobs.
12. Fails to press for real energy independence with tough conservation.
13. Favors offshore drilling.
14. Continues biased policy of unconditional support for Israel.
15. Continues improper Bush policies on secrecy, wiretapping, etc.
16. Keeps Bush appointee Gates on as Defense Secretary.
17. Refuses to cut defense spending.
18. Maintains Reagan era ban on gay men donating blood.

New items:

19. Failed to fund worldwide anti-AIDS programs as promised.
20. Failed to push for real immigration reform as promised.

Obama, Gay Rights, And Congress

What, exactly, has Obama done to push gay rights legislation in the current congress? Little or nothing! We were told he has a full plate and to be patient. After the mid terms, when Dems will lose seats and perhaps one or both houses of Congress, then we'll be told, "well, we couldn't get Congress to pass our legislation." Let's wake up a bit here. The phony DADT "repeal" bill that is yet to be voted on was noved by Congress to be sure, and Obama only jumped on the bandwagon with it at the last minute. Gays and lesbians invited to White House schmooze sessions and who buy the crap they they hand out are doing a disservice to our community. We need to insist that this president exercise moral leadership on our issues.

What Should Obama Do For The Gays?

Obama could issue an executive “stop loss” order putting an end to discharges under DADT immediately. He could have done this on day one of his presidency. He would have done it if he were the “fierce advocate” for us that he claimed to be during the campaign. Secondly, he could use the bully pulpit of his office to advocate forcefully for justice for gays and lesbians. For example, he could have spoken out against anti gay ballot initiatives like the one on Maine. Thirdly, he could instruct his justice department to cease defending unconstitutional laws such as DADT and DOMA in court.
The next congress is likely to be much more Republican and much more hostile to any gay rights legislation. The best shot we had was this congress and we achieved precious little. Obama added insult to injury by doing just about nothing for us.

What To Gays Is The Fourth Of July?

We gays are second class citizens in America. Where is our Frederick Douglas?

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?

Frederick Douglass
July 5, 1852


What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?

I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.

Kiev City View