Piggies at the Trough

I can't help but think that this $700 billion bail out will benefit no one but the rich. I am also concerned about the proposed lack of oversight the administration is asking for. It's just another power grab and a way to ensure that the rich get richer. Listening to Bush's language in describing why we need to take action quickly sounds ominously familiar. I wouldn't put it past him if Obama gets elected to declare a national emergency. I sure hope people won't be fooled this time, but I'm not hopeful. And McCain canceling the debate?? C'mon, what a wuss. 

Letter to the editor

There was a letter to the editor in the San Francisco Chronicle that was so absurd, I had to reply:
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is not a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without either the peanut butter or the jelly. It does not take a law license or a religious preference or a high IQ to understand this. In fact, even a child can recognize basic reality, often better than we adults. In the same way, a "marriage" that lacks a husband or wife is not a marriage.

Whatever it may be, it is not a marriage. And calling it so does not make it so, unless we are willing to delude ourselves. Let's not delude ourselves and others - it hurts both of us. Vote "yes" on Proposition 8.

My response:

Just when you think opponents of same-sex marriage have run out of arguments for their stand, they come up with... sandwiches? Yes, everyone knows what a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is, but there are a variety of sandwiches that should be acknowledged and celebrated. Should everyone be limited to just peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because a segment of society only recognizes that as a sandwich? No, other sandwiches must be included, because not everyone likes peanut butter and jelly. So, celebrate diversity, have a egg salad or a roast beef sandwich (or even peanut butter and banana if you're daring), and vote "no" on Proposition 8.

Treasure Island Music Festival and Harrison Street

Read my article on the Treasure Island Music Festival: http://www.edgesanfrancisco.com/index.php?ch=entertainment&sc=culture&sc2=features&sc3=&id=80468
See my pictures of the Harrison Street Festival, as published in IN Los Angeles magazine: http://www.inlamagazine.com/1116/social_whirl/sw.html

Latest Articles

Read my latest article about Bnai Mitzvahs:

http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/35962/format/html/displaystory.html

See my photo spread from the Dore Alley Festival:

http://www.inlamagazine.com/1114/social_whirl/sw.html

Two More and the Hypocrisy of the Religious Right

Two more look-alikes for Gov. Palin have been brought to my attention: Tina Fey and Peggy Hill.
While we're on the subject, if it had been anyone else's daughter (except a darling of the religious right), the fundies would have been all over it. The girl is a fornicator, look it it in the Bible.

Separated at Birth?

Am I the only one to notice the resemblance between Vice Presidential Nominee Gov. Palin and Karen from Will and Grace?

Very Old Stories

I recently went through a lot of old discs (only five of 50 survived), and found some of my essays and articles when I first started writing. They sure have a different feel and tone from what I do now. I suppose the difference then was that I was writing for pure enjoyment.
Here are two from 1993 and 1994:

2/13/93
We spent the day in San Juan Capistrano. As we were getting ready to leave we came across a VFW rally. There was a politician speaking, we believe it was Ron Packard. He said that he was introducing a bill that would make the ban on gays in the military permanent. The crowd applauded. I felt like a nigger.

STONEWALL: THE JUDY CONNECTION OR HOW I LOST MY VIRGINITY
I remember it clearly. I was thirteen years old that summer. My boy scout troop was camping out at the entrance to Anaheim Bay in Huntington Beach. The car radio was set to a news station and the announcer said that Judy Garland was dead.
For some reason, this news affected me, but I didn't know why. I didn't really care that much about Judy Garland. My only memories about her from that period were that she was in The Wizard Of OZ. Suddenly she was dead and for reasons unknown to me, I felt the loss.
I don't remember hearing anything about the riots in New York just after Judy's funeral. Riots were becoming fairly common in the late 1960's. I don't think it was even reported in The Los Angeles Times. I certainly didn't know the riots could possibly be connected to Judy Garlands death. I wouldn't know that until many years later. I also had no idea how those riots would affect the rest of my life.
What I do remember from that summer was losing my virginity to another member of my scout troop. For years I told people I lost my virginity to a woman when I was sixteen. At the time what we had done in the summer of '69 seemed like no big deal. As my mother said years later, "lots of boys do that sort of thing at that age," which is true, but they don't spend the next seven years obsessing over it, hoping it would happen again.
To paraphrase Theodore White: one never realizes history when one is experiencing it. It's odd looking back on that summer, how it all fits together: Judy Garland's death, the stonewall riots and a hot summer day in my best friends bedroom.