New Issue of the Month is up:

PRIDE & SELF ESTEEM

A DEEPER LOVE
People let me tell you I work hard every day
I get up out of bed, I put on my clothes
'Cause I've got bills to pay
Now it ain't easy but I don't need no help
I've got a strong will to survive
I've got a deeper love, deeper love
Deeper love inside and I call it
Pride
It's the power that gives you
The strength to survive
And I wanna thank you for helping me see
There's a power that lives deep inside of me
Giving me the strength
To carry on, always be strong
Now I've got love in my heart, it gives me the strength
To make it through the day
Pride and love, oh respect for yourself
Pride, a deeper, deeper love
-- Robert Clivilles & David Cole (C+C Music Factory) (Lyrics rearranged a bit by me)

(P.S. Since I didn't get to do everything I wanted to do with last month's Issue, and since February is a short month, I will probably do a lot of revisiting of the Civil Liberties issue as well, while we explore March's Issue of the Month)

I feel guilty saying this, in light of recent events, but:

I LOVE MY CAT!

She's so funny and cute and sweet and she keeps running around the apartment playing with shadows and I think she finally really likes me after getting used to me over the short time I've had her.
But I still feel a little guilty.

Perfect. A perfect piece on rhetoric vs. reality. So why doesn't the media ever pick up on this? Oh, right, because they like shiny press conferences with catch-phrases and one-liners and they don't care about reality, unless of course it's reality cooked-up and staged for entertainment television. Ugh.

You might think that with the country gearing up for war this would be the wrong time — absolutely the worst time — to cut federal school aid for the children of men and women in the armed forces. Nobody would do that, right? Right?

...if we had intelligence on where he was now and we had a clear shot... We're talking about assissinating people now? Who are we as a nation? Who are we becoming? Bush is not fit to lead this country and needs to go. Impeachment anyone?

It's coming. Prepare yourself.

This is a lovely example of our indifference to the people of Iraq. It truly bespeaks a lack of serious thinking on the administration's part.

Guess who I got to have lunch with today? Why it was my old friend Gabriel. We met several years ago when I first moved to San Francisco at an NGLTF conference in Oakland. We've kept in touch sporadically over the years and today we had lunch. Very cool. He's a good guy with a strong head on his shoulders. Look for him to be the next master chef at some 5-star restaurant in the near future.

Reminds me of a Simpsons episode.

Why can't I find anyone to go see Dame Edna with me while she's here in San Francisco. I think she's hilarious.

I just love the way this critic writes about how horrid the new "Lone Ranger" television show supposedly is. Check out these excerpts:
There is a hot tub scene, with a pounding rock soundtrack, and it features the hunky Lone Ranger trying to get funky with Tonto's sister, who, by the way, is hot....
You knew that the Lone Ranger was going to get his shirt off almost immediately.... Tonto, who doffs his shirt pretty quickly as well, is very handy [and now] knows kung fu...
...the town's journalist is, and no one should be surprised here, hot. She manages, seconds after her introduction, to lose her top. For comparison's sake, this hasn't happened at The Chronicle in, say, seven or eight days.

It's about TIME! However, I do agree on the inability to enforce and such, but I would say that we should make it in the interest of the theaters, either through fines or incentives, to have ushers reminding people to turn off their phones or by escorting these rude people out of the theater. It's really in the interest of the theaters because the more people who have unhappy theater experiences, the more likely people are just going to start watching their movies out of their homes instead.

If Ridge truly wants to prepare the American people for disaster, he needs to heed the lesson of the Chicago tragedy. How about teaching people to respond calmly in an emergency? How about a national campaign calling on each of us to be personally responsible for knowing the exit routes when we're inside public places -- and for helping others out if the need arises? How about, instead of sowing fear, the government urging people to stubbornly resist it?

Pictures of a world-wide protest. (Thanks Julia for the link.)

CIVIL LIBERTIES

And this is supposed to help the airline industry? It makes me less interested in flying ever again.
...there is an equally bad project within the Department of Transportation that would officially label every person who rides a commercial airliner as a potential terrorist and a threat to national security. By doing this, the department can gather all sorts of information and conduct background investigations of airline passengers that otherwise would require court orders.

So they're fundraising now by giving out fake awards to businesspeople. They're trying to extort money. Shouldn't this be illegal?

CD rebate, anyone?

Jessie, Roman Polanski's still a wanted man.

So I had a wonderful time with my family while they were visiting here over the weekend. My sister and her boyfriend came up from Burbank along with my 9-year-old niece Mariah late Friday night and left Sunday morning. That basically gave us Saturday to enjoy and happily the weather was wonderful.

The only difficult thing about the weekend was that my cat did not like them at all and kept hissing and growling and even attacked. It was not a pretty scene, very terrible, and I had to close my cat off into the kitchen. We're thinking that she may have smelled my family's pet chinchillas on them and that may be why, since I've had many other guests over and it's never been an issue with the cat. I hope when Mariah visits again in a few weeks we can figure out a way to address this cat problem.

Again, the weekend was fun and Mariah and I had a great time playing at Nob Hill Park for most of the day. Can't wait til she comes up again.

Major peeve: So I'm on the bus this morning and this guy gets on his cellphone, and as usual talking really loudly, and starts saying to his caller that he has this "great" idea about how MUNI should start charging "fat" people double since they take up two seats, just like some airlines are starting to do. He's all in to this idea and thrilled and practically yelling this throughout the bus and then calls another person to tell them this idea as well. I mean, HOW RUDE can you get? Not only is he annoying everyone with his call, but he's also insulting most of the people on the bus as well as making everyone feel uncomfortable. HOW RUDE!

My niece is visiting!

So I'm sitting down with a straight male coworker of mine today and we're chatting about life. He ends up mentioning that his girlfriend is now under his health insurance. I said, but wait, you're not married. And he says, yep, but that his employer has started allowing for domestic partnership in benefits.

And I said, "Well, you can thank us Gays for that."

We've gone from the best of times to the worst of times. The Bush administration tells us that it is entirely because of Al Qaeda and now Saddam Hussein that we face these difficulties, but the dark clouds that hang over our country are largely the result of Bush administration policies... We are on a fast train to hell, and the question is when the American people are going to decide they want to get off.

What a surprise.

Our country's long history of fear, shame and silence surrounding sexuality damages the physical and mental health of Americans of all ages:

National Sexuality Resource Center

CIVIL LIBERTIES

Japanese Americans were not placed in concentration camps for their own safety, they were surrounded by barbed wire in the most desolate areas of the country. The guns of the guard pointed into the camps, not outside. And to imprison innocent people because they are threatened by criminals is utterly nonsensical....

"It’s interesting that nobody from the Republican leadership has said anything" to refute, discourage, or distance themselves from his comments. It says something about the way right-wing Republicans are thinking about who's fully American or not and what they may want to do about that in the future. Remember, history repeats itself all the time.

And here's a good article on the judicial aspects of the Internment camps, that they were unconsciously approved by the courts, and those rulings are still alive and considered precedent-- they've never been overturned. According to the Supreme Court decision regarding my race, being an American citizen was not enough. They say you have to look like one, otherwise they say you can't tell a difference between a loyal and a disloyal American.... any American citizen can be held in prison or concentration camps without a trial or a hearing. That is if they look like the enemy of our country.

And how is "enemy" defined? Who's the "enemy" yesterday, today or tomorrow? What's the "war" and is it just military or could it be a "enemy" in health, financial security, 'traditional values,' political speech/thoughts? It's all a slippery slope and very, very dangerous.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

This is something you have on the shelf. You wait for an opportune moment, like going to war, to introduce it. They call this a draft, but this bill is definitely close to final and gives a good road map of what the Justice Department wants.

The fact that the DOJ has secretly prepared legislation that would fundamentally alter the protections afforded Americans by the Constitution is, by any measure, a huge story. And yet, where is it in the media? Nowhere.

Will intimidation silence others who question the actions of our democracy?

Why I never eat Domino's pizza.

It's time to sell your car. This guy misses the point as to the reality for most Americans, but he's got something in theory and very workable in places like big cities. I myself haven't had a car since 1994, LOVE not having one, and encourage others to make the most of public transportation. But I recognize that it's a necessity for many people, especially in areas where there's a strong lack of public transportation. If I lived back home in Kansas City or even in Los Angeles with my family I would have to have a car, even though I would HATE it. More reasons to stay where I am.

You know it's gonna be a very weird day when one of the first things you see today is someone that looks exactly like your ex from many, many years ago--- so much so that you actually try to go up and say hi. Very weird.

Too bad my Mom and Grandma ain't gonna be in SF this weekend. They would absolutely love this. I do have family coming into town this weekend, but my sister and niece could care less about a flower show.

I have this recurring saying that I use in life often: 'you never know where you're gonna be.' Adhering to that theme, I found myself on my very first public ferry ride up to Larkspur today. That was fun and different and Larkspur has gorgeous views. Who woulda guessed I'd be in Larkspur today?

The Chronicle writes a strong and useful editorial, 'Voices rise, does it matter?,' about whether it's useful to still protest the war when Bush doesn't listen to the protests. They make plain that government officials should not be swayed just by public opinion, but they also say that it is important to make those opinions heard regardless as they do have an effect in the overall sense of things. Good to read and remember.

The clear discordance between the jurors' beliefs and their verdict forces us to question the validity of the Rosenthal trial.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

I apologize I haven't written much on my Issue of the Month this month. I've actually been pretty busy in life and haven't been able to concentrate on it. And it's such an important issue too... I'll make up for my lack of writing on the issue shortly. Bare with me.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

Where are we going as a nation?
The parallels between the Japanese internment and the current registration policy are hard to ignore.... it is, without question, a very dangerous time to be an immigrant in America.

Dude, where's my umbrella?

So I quit my Spanish class for this semester. It's sad really. I want to take it, but I had to quit for two basic reasons.

1) Trying to take a class that is far away and involved a long commute on a workday night is too difficult for me; and
2) The class was simply too full of people. I didn't feel comfortable crammed into a tiny room with so many other students. It was supposed to thin out by now, but apparently it's not going to so I had to leave.

I will search for other opportunities this semester for teaching myself Spanish and look forward to future weekend classes again.

In a society that has witnessed extensive positive experiences with medicinal marijuana, as long as it is safe and not proven to be ineffective, why -shouldn't seriously ill patients have access to it? Why should an old woman be made to die a horrible death for a hollow political symbol?

Good commentary on the Sprint cell-phone commercial: Adults in a waiting room are climbing the walls and twisting their bodies into silly poses in desperate efforts to pass the time. What they need, the ad says, is a cell phone with cool video games built in. They'll never be forced to endure downtime again! The commercial captures a characterization of modern Americans that has become so generally accepted that we don't even question it. We are people that, the assumption goes, like lots of fast-moving, shiny things. We must be entertained and occupied at all times.....We are, if you believe the marketers, no longer a Prozac Nation but a Ritalin one.

An article on the new modern understanding of sex in the animal kingdom. Why should anyone be shocked?

Further proof that the world is going to hell.

You can thank Matt for my newfound abilities to name my links when you scroll over them. Here's to you Matt.

I'm so excited, Amaya let me scratch her belly today without grabbing my arm and tearing her claws into my skin! How sweet, she loves me. Or at least tolerates me now.

Why not give peace a chance?... No one can assert today that the path of war will be shorter than that of the inspections," de Villepin said. "No one can claim either that it might lead to a safer, more just and more stable world. -- French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin

And I absolutely never thought I would put a quote up here from Bush himself, but you gotta love the irony in this statement about our role among the world's nations that he made during the 2000 campaign: If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation but strong, they'll welcome us.

It's also PATHETIC AND IRRESPONSIBLE that the Bush Administration is scaring the bejezzuz out of everyone without any real work being done to protect them. If they truly cared about safety, they would be providing more needed funding for police and public safety personnel throughout the country (Democrats to Bush: ...[it is] indefensible that you have not made funding for homeland security your top priority.), providing necessary funding and management to the public health care system instead of privatizing everything, and working with local elected officials on hearing their needs for these necessities in order to actually fight against terrorist issues. They would NOT be telling everyone to just go out and buy duct tape!

But it's not about reality or care for the future; it's about politics, period.

In just a few clicks you can tell the Democratic Senators to keep standing strong against Bush's push for right-wing judges. You can also send a special thank-you message to the Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for doing just that.

Amaya and I are planning a romantic getaway for the valentine's weekend. We're off to the vet this morning to get her poop problems checked out. That's what love is all about.

Can we get this here and all throughout the country? It still amazes me that people think it's ok to talk on their cell-phone during a movie.

The press seems to be doing its best to scare people.

A terrific ode to the Simpsons on their weekend celebration of their 300th episode. Sunday night's gonna be fun. Sweet.

I'm not surprised that his records are still
getting played because there's money involved. ...
Radio is about money.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

Total Information Awareness: ...tell the White House to keep military snoops out of the personal affairs of innocent civilians.

Well, duh.

Saturday I went to buy a new radio/cd/tape/etc. compilation-stereo since my big one I've had since 1992 finally went cabluey. I ended up at Circuit City and found the assistance terrible. Normally, I don't want to be bothered by salespeople. But I actually did have detailed questions I wanted to go over with someone and found the guys there useless. I asked for a listing of the amenities of each stereo and I was told to look at the price tag which gave very, very basic information. I wanted a full run-down of all the amenities cuz I was looking for specific things. They didn't know anything beyond what was on the tag and didn't have any idea of how to find out more. It was pathetic. And now, I read it's only going to get worse. Well, we're all gonna start buying from the internet from now on anyway.

Jesus is his chief counsel. Ok, whatever.

Not making this up. Read for yourself. The Bush Administration is pushing to allow for the care and management of our national forests by the timber industry. Isn't the timber industry the ones we're trying to protect the forests from? Amazingly bad logic, but goes to show how tied the Bush Administration is to special interests and against the interests of our environment and everyday people.

Nuclear weapons have different consequences," said Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C. , one of the co-sponsors of the original 1993 ban on developing the smaller weapons. "Once you've used them, you've crossed a threshold. It would remove the inhibition we've been able to preserve over the years. Where are we going as a world and nation?

Today's word from my daily "Vocabulary Builder" is lanuginous, meaning "covered with soft, short hair; downy." The weird thing is that when I look in the thesaurus, it points me to this. Weird, huh?

Shoot! The Barbra-blockage-system doesn't work. Now I have to call the vet. How sad.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

The Chronicle calls the new secret plans for further Ashcroft powers what it is:
Secret arrests? Expatriation because you belong to a suspicious political group? Unchecked surveillance? These are instruments of repression, used by totalitarian states. They are why American soldiers have fought -- and died -- in wars against fascism and communism.
We must fight this destruction of our liberties!

Does anyone else find it incredibly disturbing that the media and the military are getting so cozy with each other these days? And then they write trite propoganda stories about how they're supposedly distinct while their being cozy. It's almost as if war was something that could be all about ratings for the newsgroups and not have anything to do with the terror of war itself.

Here's my new glasses, although the webcam isn't the best at showing their fabulousness. The webcam kinda takes away from the deep dark frames. You must see me in person soon in order to get the best view:

And here's the new prescription sunglasses too:

Told ya to get prepared for something different.

what can one do when the economy is so bad?

I've had a terrible, terrible, terrible day..... but happily my new eyeglasses are ready and I'm off to pick them up soon. Be prepared. I'll have a webcam pic of them soon.

Wow, what an incredibly interesting lifestory.

My parents just sent some pictures of my brother, sister, niece, and me from Christmas. Here we are playing dead on Christmas morn:

And here we all are alive:

CIVIL LIBERTIES

Anyone else find it interesting that on the exact same day that the terror alert went up to "high" (leading as the top news of the day), information about new and broader domestic spying parameters Ashcroft is seeking came out also (further back in the paper)? This proposed law... “would radically expand law enforcement and intelligence gathering authorities, reduce or eliminate judicial oversight over surveillance, authorize secret arrests, create a DNA database based on unchecked executive ‘suspicion,’ create new death penalties, and even seek to take American citizenship away from persons who belong to or support disfavored political groups."

For those of you who are visual, here's a quick webcam pic of the new Barbra-blockage-system I mentioned in the last post. You can see Amaya wondering what to do in the picture too:

Barbra's back in style.

Back in 1992 I was driving around Kansas City and ran across a garage sale. I wasn't going to stop except that I could see from my car a giant picture of Barbra Streisand. What the hell?! So I stopped and walked over to see what this was. It turns out they were selling a giant, and I mean giant, painted, wooden wall-piece of one of Barbra's blown-up album covers from the 70's-- "Songbird" to be exact. It was FAB--U--LOUS! And I just had to have it. I paid the $10 (only 10!) and fit it into the back of my little CRX and drove home to my new house-- my very first home outside living with my parents. I put it up on my bedroom wall and had it hanging on various bedroom walls through my moves over the years.

However, upon moving to San Francisco, my interest in the wall-piece and, honestly, my interest in Barbra had waned and I didn't want to hang it. I also didn't want to throw it out since it still was so FAB--U--LOUS. So it's been hiding in my closet ever since I moved here 3 years ago.

Well, now it's back in style, of sorts. Amaya, my cat, has been pooping and peeing in my little entryway for a few weeks instead of using her litterbox and I've done everything I can to try to clean the area and stop her from doing it there. But she persists. Yesterday I closed her off in the kitchen while I went to work so she would have to use the litterbox. There seemed no way to stop her from going in the entryway since there's no door or anything to block off the area. Then, it hit me-- Barbra! It's such a huge piece that I could use it to block the entryway. How perfect. It even has a picture of a dog in Barbra's hands which is perfect to stop a cat. Well, anyway, today's the first test of the new Barbra blockage system and I'll let you know how it goes. Again, Barbra's back in style!

And the secrecy lives on...

Steamrolling Judicial Nominees

Anyone want to be a mortician for the Navy? How very disturbing.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

Well, here's a slightly better rebuke of his statements legitimizing internment camps:
For the congressman to say it was justified for our own protection begs the question of how the laws in the United States work. When someone is threatened, you don't lock them up.
But I think Martin's comment, as a child of internment camp survivors, is the best I've read so far.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

The following quote is regarding the Republican congressman saying that the internment camps during World War II weren't so bad:
I'm disappointed that he really doesn't understand the impact of what he said. With his leadership position in Congress, that kind of lack of understanding can lead people down the wrong path.-- Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., a Japanese-American who spent his early childhood with his family in an internment camp during World War II.
Honestly, it needs a stronger rebuke than that, maybe later.

Until today, I never really personally understood, at least symbolically, the joy of union organizing.

For my mother, pictures from Jessie of Amaya:

Employees unite!

Jessie's been replaced by 5 Mexican immigrants.

So I've seen the new inhabitants of apt. #3 (Jessie's old apartment in my building until a few months ago when someone stole him away from me but I'm not bitter and I digress). I hadn't formally met them until last night when I ran into the mother on the steps. She and her husband and the two kids (I believe that's the grouping) live in Jessie's former tiny studio. And the mother was sitting on the steps talking in Spanish to a young girl who has just arrived from Oaxaca, Mexico and will be staying with them now too. Whew! That's a whole lotta people in a tiny studio. Anyway, I talked a little in Spanish to them and they kept talking to me in English so it was a little strange. I think they were trying to practice as I was trying to practice. The new arrival spoke no English at all and just kept smiling. Maybe soon I'll be down in their apartment in my pajamas watching bad rented movies just like before with Jessie. Or maybe not.... Either way, they seem really nice and happy to be there.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

Who's surprised by this? Is it any surprise? We're heading into another period of time where individual rights are denied, internment camps are discussed openly and given legitimacy, and the rights that we established over 200 years ago in the Bill of Rights are swept aside by those who would wrap themselves in the flag for supposedly protecting those rights and our freedom. Scary times indeed.

So I've developed a little cat bed, next to mine, that Amaya just loves. Actually, I should say that she really developed it since she started sleeping on that footstool a while back and now it's become her own comfy bed. I think she likes it most cuz it sags in the middle and ends up wrapping around her a bit. Either way, she's happy.

"AIDS Activists to Bush: Show Us the Money" Before we get dewy eyed about Bush’s pledge, let’s remember that what he’s proposed is not all that it seems in the glowing headlines.

Scary and well-thought-out piece on Karl Rove, the man behind Bush.

In case you missed it on last Sunday's continued-fantastic-season episode of the Simpsons, Bart writes on the chalkboard for his weekly punishment at the beginning of the show: "My school is not in need of a regime change." The show is just so right on the mark.

Jurors are writing an apology letter to a man they convicted as guilty. What does that say about the current state of our policy on medical marijuana? This whole case has been incredibly pathetic and incredulous in the way that the federal government is cracking down on the state-sanctioned use of medical marijuana.

I was stood up by a married man. What does that say about me and my likability?
Sadly, Aaron and I didn't get to have lunch yesterday. But, all in all, Sacramento has its own charms.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

Great editorial on the delimmas that librarians face in this day and age of the "Patriot Act" and increased government surveillance. The most worrisome part of the piece is that this is the librarians in the liberal enclaves of San Francisco and Berkeley responding; one wonders how others around the country are handling the situation. The right to privacy is less and less certain.

Bush's and the Republican's war on unions. Just remember, unions are the reason we have weekends, holidays, overtime, flex-hours, and basically developing the idea that employees have any rights at all. Unions made this country great.

David'll really appreciate this piece on photojournalistic ethics. Interesting read.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

New Issue of the Month is up:
BIG BROTHER IS NO LONGER A FICTION
It is seldom that any liberty is lost all at once.

Sorry I haven't posted. I've actually been enjoying my weekend, away from the computer. Yesterday I actually was only in front of the computer in the morning briefly and then didn't get into it again until today. How great that was. Anyway, I'll be putting up my Issue of the Month later today.