PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SPEECH TO CONGRESS ON HIS JOBS BILL

Well, well, well, 

Wasn’t THAT interesting? 

Did you see it?

Before the president began his speech I wondered if he was going to take his patented ‘kumbayah’ approach about working it out between political parties, yada, yada, yada. 

He didn’t. 

He took – what I thought – was a bold and at times impassioned and very direct “in-your-face” stance with those troublesome Republicans.  He basically challenged them to find fault with the bill – “The American Jobs Act” – that was crafted based on past proposals submitted by both Democrats AND Republicans.  He laid out the framework of the draft bill such as tax deductions for small businesses that hire persons unemployed for more than six months, and tax breaks for companies that increase their payroll by $50 million or more.  The bill also has provisions for extending unemployment benefits for those out of work, and funding for infrastructure building and renovation.  “Why should China outspend us in building new roads, railways and airports?” he asked.

The plan also calls for more breaks on the payroll tax for individuals and families making up to $50,000.

The president also took a very strong stance on the low tax rates on the rich, and closing loopholes for subsidizing the oil companies.  Her made a very clear point that congress should be working for the  American taxpayers and not the lobbyists for wealthy.  He reiterated a grumble that has been on the lips of the disenfranchised in America – that the wealthy should pay their fare share in taxes as much as the poor and middle class already does. 

This is a quite clever, almost sly speech. Under the guise of holding out a friendly hand to Republicans, and going some way to meet their concerns on red tape and the like, he is offering them a chalice which they can't possibly drink. But if they don't, they look unreasonable. Or so he hopes.

The Republican side of the House – of course – sat in stony silence most of the time.  To me it seem they knew that they were being challenged and chided.  I expected nothing less than unwillingness from them, and fully expect them to start putting up roadblocks to ensuring that this bill fails. 

Let’s see what the coming weeks bring. 

Watch the full speech here:  

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Usually Ray Williams Johnson irritates me....

...but for some reason his clip this week was actually funny!!!  For those of youse not int he know - Ray William Johnson is a comedian with the most subscribed channel on YouTube.  His "Equals Three" videos are the most watched around the globe, in which he reviews uploaded YouTube videos - using comedy to color his view of the video being reviewed.

ORIGINAL PERFORMANCE OF 'AND I AM TELLING YOU' BY JENNIFER HOLLIDAY

One of my favorite songs during my heydays of the 80s - I always wondered what it would be like to see this on Broadway during it's original run in the early 80s.  Never thought I would ever have a chance but thanx to the magic of the internet and YouTube I now can - and it was more of less what I always thought it would be.

Powerful performance by Ms. Holliday - you go gurl!!!

AMERICAN EVANGELICALS: THE NEW TERRORIST MOVEMENT

Hmmmm, I don't know why I had this article I wrote in Dec '09 archived under DRAFTS in my blog but it is well worth reading:

From the start of the Christian movement over 2000 years ago (so named for followers of the teachings of Jesus Christ) there has been conflict between members of Christian churches struggling to establish their cause, and members of other established religions of those times.  For example: those who worshiped the deities of Roman and Greek lore, pagan observation, and rituals in barbarian Europe, just to name a few.

After the acceptance of the Christian Church by Constantine the First that eventually led to widespread establishment of the Roman Catholic Church, Christians - despite their history of persecutions in the early days of their movement - declared 'holy wars' in the form of Crusades upon so-called infidels of the Middle East during the 1000s to the 1200s.

The need to fight these holy wars on other religions by Christians died down in the 16th to 19th centuries due to the splintering and fractions within the Christian movement itself, when other sub-churches such as Lutheranism and Anglicans broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and established their faiths in Europe. While still not accepted nor understood, other non-Christan religions were tolerated and even accepted; Judaism was eventually established in mainland Europe up until the 1930s.

However, in the last part of the 20th century there seemed to be a resurgence in acts of terror by 'the new Christians' or 'evangelicals' as they are commonly known, to get their Christian message across.

Born in Great Britain in the 1700s, evangelicalism was a Christian movement based on tenants that one had to be 'born again' to fully accept the teachings of their prophet Jesus Christ, have a high regard for biblical authority on how to lead their daily lives - among other things. While seen as a running joke during it's infancy in the USA in the mid-20th century, the evangelical movement saw a jump in their membership under conservative leaders such as President Ronald Reagan and President George 'Dubya' Bush of the 21 century.

Buoyed by growing support in the public opinion in the 1980s American conservative evangelicals began a slow but steady path towards extremism. They garnered influence on elected officials on one of their main concerns - abortion - and noisily objected to what they saw as invasion on other areas of life that they deemed unfit or un-Christian in their biblical eyes such as gay rights, teaching or acceptance of religions other than Christianity in public schools or at gatherings of congress, global warming, evolution or 'Darwinism' - just to name a few. They also favored promoting the teaching of abstinence as a form of birth control rather than accede to conventional birth control methods and sound sex education.

Then came September 11, 2001. The events of that day not only changed the face of the world stage, but also seem to have push American evangelicals over the edge. Anyone practicing any religion other than Christianity were seen as 'an enemy of the Union', and alternate lifestyles were used as an example of the coming Apocalypse to further political agenda (eg. the issue of gay rights as its' impact on the 2004 presidential election between George Bush and John Kerry). Evangelicals and right wing conservatives - now barely distinguishable from each other - saw an explosion on the airwaves with radio icons such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck leading the charges, and the Fox News Channel promoting their causes and anything other being deemed as a threat to national security.

The terrorism aspect came can be evidenced by attacks and bombing of abortion clinics around the nation, accompanied with proud assassinations of baby killers, a term used for doctors who performed abortions, the most recent being the murder of Dr George Tiller in Kansas by Scott Roeder in the name of Jesus Christ.

Others fighting the unofficial holy war for Christianity include Erik Prince - founder and head of the infamous Blackwater Security Group - or Xe as they like to be now called during a re-branding exercise to remove themselves from the controversy that the Blackwater name has brought out in the past. According to sources inside the company Prince - a devout Christian - has declared a war against Islam, and is using his company's precense in Iraq and Afghanistan to eradicate Moslems in mass murders as such revealed during as recent drone strikes in Pakistan. (Full story by The Nation here.)

These recent tactics are not much different from the jihads - or holy war in Islam - being declared by Moslms extremists against Western civilizations. However, for whatever reason, Christian extremism is not being veiwed as acts of terrorism, nor are they being compared - in their accurate categoru - as a holy jihad, or to use the correct terminology - holy crusade.

Could this be due to the de-demonization of the word 'crusade' to mean tent revivals by evangelicals? Whatever the reason, until this subtefuge christian war is treated as such, we will never have any semblance of world harmony.

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross....." Sinclair Lewis.

POLITICAL CARTOONS

NEW BEGINNINGS?

It's been over a year since my last post about my thoughts, likes, dislikes, political commentary and the such.  I am hoping to discipline myself to go back to regular postings that will actually involve active participation of gray matter, personal creativity and a feeling of contribution to interplanetary discourse.

I will also be updating you on GLBT news and events when they occur.

Not to worry - being the crowd pleaser I am there will still be lots of pics of beautiful men scattered amongst my ideological rants and comedy satire....along with the further adventures of me and my faithful mutt Phelix in the land of Chicago.

Onward and forward - let this adventure begin!!!!

POLITICAL CARTOONS

STYLISTICS - Stone in Love With You

MAIN INGREDIENT - Just Don't Wanna Be Lonely

ONE HOT RUGBY PLAYER

This is one of the best bodies I've seen in a long, LONG time. It's Aussie rugby player David Williams, and boy is he fine! Fondly referred to as 'the Wolfman' due to his propensity to play with a long beard and shaggy locks, he is a member of the Australian Manly-Warringah Rugby Team.

LOGORAMA

Logorama is a 17-minute animated film written and directed by H5/ François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain, and produced by Autour de Minuit. The film depicts events in a stylized Los Angeles, and is told entirely through the use of more than 2,500 contemporary and historical logos and mascots.

The film won the Prix Kodak at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 82nd Academy Awards.

It's an amazing piece of work and should be watched to appreciate the talents creativity can take us to.

See how many of the logos you can recognize - enjoy! (NSFW)

Logorama from Marc Altshuler - Human Music on Vimeo.

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!