POLITICAL CARTOONS

What's wrong with being a 'liberal'?

You hear about them on the news all the time. You hear the term used in the movies, about those “damn liberals!” who are running around trying to change things…rallying against the ‘establishment’. You hear the reference used in political discussions to describe areas of the country that vote ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’. It’s seen by some as a bad thing to be – liberalism will lead to marijuana smoking, hemp loving hippies who will lead the world in fornication and other impure acts.

So what exactly is a liberal? According to the Princeton Online Dictionary a liberal is a person who has:

• broad: showing or characterized by broad-mindedness; "a broad political stance"; "generous and broad sympathies"; "a liberal newspaper"; "tolerant ...

• having political or social views favoring reform and progress

• tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition

• a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties

• a person who favors an economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets

And what is wrong with that? I’d rather live a life of progress that embraces change – or evolve. I think by doing this we will enable mankind to be more…human.

As a society or species we HAVE to evolve in order to ensure the survival of our species. Without change we would NOT have progressed as far as we did; we left the Dark Ages due to liberal enlightenment that lead to the Renaissance. The Dark Ages – we learned – was a period where liberal thought languished after the fall of the Roman Empire – a free spirited and progressive society. The Dark Ages was a result of not only the Huns and Barbarian Rule, but also due to the strict conservative principles of the Holy Roman Empire of the time that discouraged education and learning because it was a way to keep control of the unwashed masses (literally). Without liberals such as Michelangelo, Leonardo de Vinci and Cristobal Columbus life today would have been dismal.

In the last century forward thinkers such as Steve Jobs of Apple, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek fame, and those pioneering scientists who invented the internet in the 1960s, we would not have the vision or ability to communicate the way we do today; our life would have been a lot more complicated.

(Okay, who here can honestly remember how we got things done without fax machines, email or a computer? How on EARTH did we manage without cell phones?!)

To me, being a progressive liberal is a good thing and not something to be ashamed of.

Now, what does it mean to be a conservative?

• resistant to change

• having social or political views favoring conservatism

• cautious: avoiding excess; "a conservative estimate"

• a person who is reluctant to accept changes and new ideas

• button-down: unimaginatively conventional; "the dull-grey world of business"- Newsweek

• bourgeois: conforming to the standards and conventions of the middle class; "a bourgeois mentality"

Ugh.

How predictable and boring. We just as well might have stopped after we switched from black & white to color television, and kept white gloves in fashion. Left to conservatives we’d still be using fountain pens and the Guttenberg Press to get things done.

I AM A PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL. And proud of it.

What are you?

Women are from Venus; Gay men are from still from Mars

It seems that there is a terrible misconception out there amongst the public about gay men: because we are sexually attracted to men we must think and act like prissy women.

So wrong.

The majority of this misconception – believe it or not – is commonly found among women. They perceive gay men as ‘safe’ and reason that because men are attracted to men they are not a threat to their individual person or sexuality. This leads to a mental neutering of the gay men in the minds of women who expect them to act – and think – as kin women. Heterosexually men are not so much misunderstanding of gay men as much as they feel threatened, but they perceive gay men as wanting to be and act as women.

Boy is that every so wrong!

Gay men like to be one thing first and foremost: MEN. Second to that is our desire to sleep with other men.

That’s it. Nothing more.

Let me just clear up a few errors taken for granted:

GAY MEN ALL HAVE FASHION SENSE. Really? News to me and the rest of the gay world. Some gay men are colorblind or live in a world of tan and white. We’re not all on top of the latest trends or music, are born with an instinct for colors, know the latest craze or artiste on the billboards. We just a little more apt to express our appreciation of the finer things that life has to offer. And NO, we do not like frills and flounces. Gay men come in all shapes, sizes and careers; they’re in construction as much as retail, in home remodeling as much as offices; in maintenance or on oil drills as much as in the army. And they blend in because they are…….men.

ALL GAY MEN ARE EITHER DEMURE OR REALLY GIRLY. No, we like noise. And lots of it. Ever been to a gay club in your life? We like then packed, hung and NOISY! And we are just as lecherous and lewd with the male strippers as hetero men are with female strippers. We’re LOUD. We’re CRUDE. We like making insensitive jokes and comments to each other. And boy do we like to muthafucking cuss like there is no tomorrow. And just as much as straight men like to boast to their fellow mates about how they “banged that chick last night!”, gay men also like to boast about how got to ‘suck that..”….well, you get the idea.

ALL GAY MEN ARE NEAT. God, I wish! The majority are slobs: mounds of dirty laundry thrown around the bedroom, on the furniture, using the old scratch ‘n’ sniff test to determine wear- ability….and the pee stains around the toilet!!!! Ugh. Trust me, I’ve done the research.

ALL GAY MEN ARE METICULOUS ABOUT THEIR APPEARANCE. Grooming tips can be lost on men in general – gay or straight. So can hygiene practices. And just because a man takes care of his appearance does not mean he’s automatically gay – that’s an insult to conscientious and groomed men around the world.

5. GAY MEN CAN NOT FIGHT OR DEFEND THEMSELVES. Okay – you need to watch gay porn to get rid of that conception; all the men are buffed beyond belief and can kick ass if needed, and that’s a body type we strive for by going to the gym regularly. Gay men are just as much to get into bar fights as straight men. Why? We’ve been defending ourselves since kindergarten……and we ain’t taking shit from anyone – capice?

GAY MEN DO NOT MIND IF WOMEN CHANGE IN FRONT OF THEM. Yes – WE DO! If we wanted to see you breastesses and couchies we’d be STRAIGHT men, okay? Seeing….um…those things (gag) is slightly traumatic to a gay man, just as straight men do NOT like staring at another man’s junk while he changes – okay? And YES, you do look fat in that……..

GAY MEN ARE HOPLESS WITH MECHANICAL ITEMS OR HOW TO FIX THINGS. Really. See item number 1. Also, we are the ones responsible for the trend of buying houses, FIXING ‘EM UP OURSELVES, and selling them for a profit. It’s called flipping. Kinda what we want to do to persons who think we’re mechanically challenged

GAY MEN ARE SENSITIVE AND CARING. Again – really? Tell that to my last ex- and numerous cads who think it nothing to sleep around despite their partners feelings. Wait – isn’t that similar to hetero men sleeping around too? Strange, this and many similarities that just keep popping up when comparing straight and gay men.

GAY MEN SEE WOMEN AS GIRL FRIENDS TO BE CHUMMY WITH. No, we don’t – you’re the enemy. And yes, we do want to sleep with your cute boyfriend. Sometimes we look at him and wonder “what the hell does this cutie see in her fat arse?!”

The bottom line is – men are men, gay or straight. We dogs, we’re assholes, we’re loving, we’re caring, we’re sensitive, we’re clueless, we’re smart and we’re clueless.

We’re men.

Period.

Do not make assumptions based on poor stereotypes, or men could use the same approach and would just go around thinking that all women are crazy, hormonal, domineering, controlling bitches that just want to get knocked up to trap you into marriage and screw you out of your hard earned money………

…oh, wait……

GAY REMAKE OF TAYLOR SWIFT'S "YOU BELONG WITH ME"

...but it's so cute!!!!

This was made by students of University of Rochester - very cute forward thinking and just right!

FIREFLIES - Owl City

Love this song and video!!!

Owl City - New Music - More Music Videos

FASHION TV

One of my favorite TV channels to watch when I have spare time is Fashion TV, or known simply as FTV.

Fashion TV is an international television channel devoted to fashion and modelling.

Founded in France in 1997 by its Polish-born president Michel Adam Lisowski, Fashion TV is the only 24/7 international TV network exclusively dedicated to fashion, beauty, glamour and style and has become one of the most widely-distributed satellite channels in the world: 31 satellite and 2,000 cable systems, with a total of 500 million households in 193 countries across the five continents.

Today, Fashion TV is a multi-media platform offering the most comprehensive and fastest review of global fashion is independently owned and operated from the headquarters in Paris, London and Vienna.

This is a great place to keep updated on the collections of such great couture houses such as Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Givenchy, Christian LaCroix - just to name a few. (Personally, I worship the House of Dior....but I digress...). It is also the place to watch the fresh and known faces of the modelling world such as Chanel Iman.

I like watching Fashion TV for the beautiful clothes and art, but I also like to have the channel on in the background as they play the most interesting and eclectic music and club mixes!

Great shows, great clothes, great music - check out Fashion TV at www.ftv.com !

CHATROULETTE: an adventure in vouyerism?

Recently I was introduced to the website 'Chatroulette' while watching a program on TV.

The concept of the website is simple: if you have a webcam and the time - you can randomly talk to strangers selected for you by the web server - no prerequisites, no logins, no passwords.

There are no 'screen names'.

There's no 'friend-ing'.

There's no 'friend request'.

It's just you and.....anyone.

From fellow college students to exhibitionists to young children, Internet lurkers of all types can be found on Chat Roulette — except, of course, attractive females, despite being the reason why 99.99 percent of users frequent the site.

You just go to the website, click on 'new game' and in seconds you are introduced to a world of lonely men, giggling teenage girls, honey teenage boys with hormones raging, or just the innocent.

Is it safe? Probably not.

Is it interesting? Hysterical at times.

To see what all the fuss is about go to www.chatroulette.com and see for yourself!