Category: 1

Over on the Huffington Post, there’s been coverage of a Lesbian mother who–while making sure to have someone film the entire thing–had her eight year old son walk up to Michele Bachmann at a book signing and tell Bachmann he felt his gay mother “didn’t need fixing.” This, of course, put Bachmann on the spot, which was the point of the whole exercise.

If you watch the video, it is positively painful. This is not some aggressive, precocious lad who wants to make himself heard. The kid clearly doesn’t want to say his no doubt carefully rehearsed line. I don’t give a dámņ if he said it spontaneously to his mom two days earlier and she just wants him to repeat it. It is abundantly clear that he doesn’t want to go anywhere near Bachmann. I don’t blame him. The woman creeps me out and I’m 55. Nevertheless the child, so terrified that he can barely speak above a whisper, is forced to address Bachmann with this sentiment. Which, of course, results in the desired appalled look.

I hate to say it, because I think Bachmann’s a dangerous nut job, but I was also appalled. If the mother has a sentiment she wants Bachmann to hear, then freaking stand up and say it. Don’t send your child in to be your proxy or your prop in a Youtube video, especially when it’s clear to any viewer that the kid doesn’t want any part of this. If the child really had to be there, then fine. Say, “Would you care to explain to my son why you think I, his mother, need to be ‘fixed.’ Because he wants to know and I can’t explain it to him since I don’t understand either.” That, at least, doesn’t force your child to be pushed up right to the ear of the scary lady who, for all he knows, is going to become so angry that she’ll send her henchmen, Horace and Jasper, to kidnap him in the night, or perhaps just annihilate him right there with the laser beams from her eyes.

And yes, I get it, the outrage that gay parents must feel for a judgmental áššhølë like Bachmann. But you know what? If a renowned anti-Semite were doing a book signing, I wouldn’t force Caroline to ask him, “Why do you think my daddy deserves to die?” Just because you’re an outraged mother with a cause doesn’t mean you get to abrogate the first responsibility of a parent: putting your child before your own interests.

PAD

Is today. Nine years old. With the temperature as warm as it is, this will be the first time that it hasn’t snowed on her birthday (including the blizzard that hit on the actual day of her birth).

I wouldn’t say that our life would be empty without our little elf…but it would sure be a lot less full.

PAD

I was holding back while all the charges about sexual harassment were being made, but now that Cain is supposedly out of the running, there’s something fairly candid that I believe needs to be said:

Continue Reading “I Think This Needs to be said to Herman Cain” →

There are certain people on the Internet who are trying to blame this on me.

SOPA

PAD

For the first time, the original novel will be available as an eBook (trade paper will also be available) with a brand new cover by J.K. Woodward. And in VERY short order, the long-awaited sequel will be coming out as well.

PAD

Preamble: We, the fans and pros of www.peterdavid.net, in order to form a more perfect union of fan/pro interaction, wish to let it be known that: with conventions and the Internet providing extensive opportunities for fan/pro interaction and; with new fans not quite understanding the “rules” and social mores and expectations of conventions and thus feeling uncomfortable or uncertain of what is expected of them and; partly in response to some conventions where fans in general and female fans in particular were targeted for harassment and abuse, and; in order to fill what is perceived as a needed guide for fans and pros to know and/or understand what to expect of each other in order to minimize or eliminate misunderstandings or ill-will; it is hereby resolved that this document will serve as an attempt to fill that need by spelling out the specifics of these matters to the best of our abilities. This is being done unilaterally by an assortment of fans and pros, and all the matters addressed within this document are drawn from genuine, real-life experiences of the participants (as hard as that may be to believe in some cases.) The rights set forth herein are not intended to represent the opinions or policies of any conventions or organizations, and may be considered by some to be merely guidelines. Nevertheless, it is our intent to present a series of simple, common sense, basic rights to which all fans and pros should be entitled.

For the purpose of this document, “fan” will be taken to mean anyone not working professionally in the science fiction/fantasy industry, and “pro” will include writers, artists, actors, or anyone—particularly for the purpose of convention-going—who is an advertised guest and/or panelist and/or is scheduled for autographing sessions and/or is set up with a table at either artist’s alley or the dealer’s room or an exhibition hall. The male pronoun is uniformly used to refer to all pros and all fans, not to give short shrift to the female gender, but simply for convenience sake.

The order in which this list is presented is not intended to reflect on the relative priorities of each right, save for the first one, which we have decided to call:

The Prime Directive

Fans and Pros have the right to be treated by each other with the same courtesy that they themselves would expect to be treated.* Fans and Pros who act like jerks abrogate the right to complain when they themselves are treated like jerks.

*The expectations of masochists notwithstanding.

Continue Reading “The Fan/Pro Bill of Rights” →

Now people are bìŧçhìņg because Obama didn’t mention God in his Thanksgiving address?

Here’s a thought: How about people complain because he didn’t mention that we screwed over Native Americans? Certainly that’s certainly as relevant to the day, if not more so.

PAD