Month: September 2008

Just to make it clear: I have no problem that people have been discussing the political aspects and issues of gay marriage below. I take my cue from the happy couple themselves. Barely 72 hours after the wedding, George and Brad were on a local Los Angeles radio talk program discussing the issue. Why? Because of their concern that CA voters will overturn the ruling of the California state supreme court.

Food for thought: If in 1957, Arkansas residents could have voted on the issue of desegregation and whether to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling declaring schools could no longer be separated by race…

…how do you think that vote would have gone?

I’m reminded of the exchange between Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in “Men in Black” in which Smith’s character wonders why word of aliens isn’t made public, because “People are smart. They could handle it.” The response: “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.”

A group of learned individuals look at the Constitution and say, “This is wrong,” which is what they’re trained to do their whole lives. And the response of people is to be dumb and panicky because it threatens their narrow view of the way Life Should Be. And such narrowness of attitude, and such determination to destroy the rights of others to individual happiness, is inherently dangerous.

PAD

THAT was an amazing experience. IGeorge standing at the front of the makeshift chapel, marrying Brad, with Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols on either side as best man and matron of honor respectively.

Continue Reading “George and Brad’s wedding” →

He is just traveling right now and, for the most part, is off line.

But to hold you over, here is a picture of us at George and Brad’s wedding with Brad and George.

I want to remind everyone to play nice. So far y’all have been good while we have been away but some are starting to skirt the line.

Was in Texas on business and was supposed to leave this morning. But with the hurricane coming in, I had to get while the getting was good. So I managed to change my ticket at the last minute and head out to LA a day early.

Now I’m in LA waiting for Kathleen’s plane to get in. After that we’ll be heading to the hotel where we’ll be staying Saturday night, and tomorrow we attend George and Brad’s wedding. Should be interesting. It’s the only wedding I’ve been to where there might be protesters.

PAD

Apparently John McCain’s campaign manager is contending that Palin is being shielded from the media, not because she can’t handle an interview, but because they’re gonna be mean to her:

“Why would we want to throw Sarah Palin into a cycle of piranhas called the news media that have nothing better to ask questions about than her personal life and her children?” he asked. “So until at which point in time we feel like the news media is going to treat her with some level of respect and deference, I think it would be foolhardy to put her out into that kind of environment,” he said.

Three things occur to me:

1) If McCain’s people were taking this position with a male candidate, the perception would be that he’s weak and inept. So McCain’s people are banking on the concept that her being a woman will preclude that criticism, because anyone who says that will be tagged as being insulting and anti-feminist.

2) This sounds unbelievably patronizing to her and monumentally arrogant to the media. They’re saying she can’t handle tough questions, or at least shouldn’t have to, and they are endeavoring to dictate terms as to how the media has to treat her in order to rate an interview.

3) Someone who needs this much handling and protection doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in contemplating her being toe-to-toe with various foreign dictators and strong men, particularly if a stilled heartbeat thrusts her into the presidency anytime after January 2009. Golda Meir didn’t need insulation. Neither did Margaret Thatcher, to whom Palin has ludicrously been compared. Well…NOW Thatcher needs insulation, because she has dementia. So basically Sarah Palin needs as much protection as a former world leader who has trouble recalling her husband is dead. Make of that what you will.

PAD

It’s been a little while since I got caught up with my various published work. So I thought I’d provide a thread for you folks to comment.

“Election Day,” in case you’re wondering, is a newly released novel from Pocket Books that’s gotten pretty much no publicity, so don’t feel badly if you haven’t heard of it.

Whad’ja think?

PAD

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Continue Reading “Blogging the McCain Speech” →