Why This Trans-Woman Supports Marriage Equality (in California)

One reason is that being a Wobbly I believe our old motto ‘A injury to one is a injury to all’. Solidarity is important even if it hasn’t really worked out so far.

Another reason is I think the conservatives are right; marriage equality will subvert traditional marriage. Of course I think subverting traditional marriage is a good thing. After a promising start subverting traditional marriage in the 1950’s and a very intensive period from the late 1960’s to the late 19700’s we haven’t made much progress in subverting traditional marriage lately. Marriage equality seems like a useful way to rev up the process again. I want to totally de-privilege marriage and see society value all forms of family.

Lastly I have the luck to be living in California. We already have fully inclusive state ENDA, hate crime and anti-bullying laws. In states without these protections I would say that a fully inclusive ENDA should be first priority. Our survival is far more important than marriage equality can ever be

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

An occasional series, which I hope, will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

The normal profits of a business concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes twelve percent. But war-time profits – ah! that is another matter – twenty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent – the sky is the limit. All that traffic will bear. Uncle Sam has the money. Let's get it.. - Major General Smedley D. Butler

True when written in 1935 and true now.

Yes I am an Anarchist.

We’ll Come Back For You Real Soon

That’s what Transgender people have heard time and again. We heard it when New York State passed SONDA with all gender identity protections striped out. That was in late 2002, they still haven’t come back for us.

That is why I am very leery of the argument that whatever problems the current Health Care reform bill has we should back it whole-heartedly. That it’s just the first step and it can always be improved latter. Not bloody likely say I. Medicare was supposed to be a first step too, senior citizens now everyone else latter. The latter still hasn’t come.

My guess is that if this bill works at all health care reform will be considered a done deal and the administration and congress will move on to other things. The only likely scenario for health care to be revisited will be if the bill fails completely and then the only ones wanting to revisit it will be the Republicans to kill it.

So maybe this is the best we can get now. But to expect it to be a first step rather than a dead end goes against historical ex rather than a dead end goes against historical experience.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

f I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.- Isaac Asimov,

A Brief Christmas Greeting

He’s dead
It’s been 2,000 years
He’s not coming back
Get over it

Doubling Down In The Graveyard Of Empires

Afghanistan is called the Graveyard of Empires for a reason. The British at the height of their power fought three wars before they finally gave up. The Soviet Union broke its self trying to control the Afghans. Now it’s our turn and we’ve dragged Europe into the grave with us via NATO. We’ve been at this for eight years and we’re losing ground. Even with the surge we will still have fewer troops then the Soviets had in their losing effort. The last empire that managed to hold on to Afghanistan was the Mongol Empire and they had to resort to a scorched earth campaign of near genocide. Even with that they never managed to control the whole country.

Obama has set himself up for failure with his surge. The Taliban will pull back were we put in more forces and strike elsewhere. Mostly the Taliban will just wait and watch as our economy and military slowly melt down. We can’t win; Karzai can’t even control his own capital city. The warlords who control the provinces will only stay loyal as long as they get paid off. The only real question is which will break first, our already crumbling economy or our badly overstretched military. Either way we are the latest empire to wreck its self trying to win a war in the Graveyard of Empires.

Late Nigh Journey Into The Shattered Fragments Of My Mind

So you say you want a revolution? Damn straight I want a revolution, a Gender Queer Revolution!. Let a thousand genders bloom, there is room for them all. I am fucking sick and tired of people daring to tell some one their gender expression is somehow ‘false’ or ‘delusional’. Just because we don’t fit your gender stereotype doesn’t mean we aren’t real or don’t exist. When gay activist Ronald Gold sounds just like “Porno” Pete La Barbera when attacking the very existence of transgender people you know that there are serious and systemic problems. Problems that are not going to be solved by reforms or incremental progress, nothing short of a through and complete revolution is going to solve these problems. So fuck the Democrats and fuck the gay establishment, they are just part of the status quo. Now is time to raise the Black & Red flag of revolution. Queers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains!

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes. - Thomas Jefferson,

More Fragments Of Myself

I don’t think I will ever have the chance to even partially transition, but that does not change Who I Am. I am still a stone femme gender queer trans-woman. What I am Not is a deluded gay man no matter what that flaming bag of puss Ron Gold thinks.

I am fucking furious that the assimilationist gays are yet again setting up the transgender community to be thrown under the bus so they can reinforce their middle class white privilege. I do not want to assimilate into this rotten society, I want to tear it down and create something better.

Viva La Revolución!

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

An occasional series, which I hope, will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

Who are these Swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush? ..... They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and viscious in the American character.... I piss down the throats of these Nazis. And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck Them. - Hunter S. Thompson

You are missed Dr. Thompson

Yes I am an Anarchist.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day. Give him a religion, and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish. - Timothy Jones

A Quick One Before My Head Explodes

Spent the night helping a friend put together a Ikea Book Shelf and otherwise move furniture. I like helping friends. We are social animals for the most part, even those of us who don’t have many friends or acquaintances. I am very lucky that my best friend is also gender queer and transgender. I know that I’m extremely fortunate to have transgender friends. Far too many of us are isolated with out any support or community. That is one reason for the high suicide rate among transgender and gender queer folk. So please don’t pull up the ladder after your self, extend a hand to your transgender siblings who are struggling against a hostile society.

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

An occasional series, which I hope, will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

A democracy cannot be both ignorant and free.. - Thomas Jefferson

Interesting in light of the decline in American education over the last 40 years.

Yes I am an Anarchist.

Fragments Of My Shattered Self

I have come undone; these are some of the fragments adrift in the abyss,

ENDA is te most important queer rights legislation imaginable and it’s on the slow track. Why are so many middle class gays and Lesbians pushing marriage when so many queers are on he streets because of raw bigotry . ENDA is a matter of life and death, marriage is not.

Obama has doubled down on the war in Afghanistan, the ‘Graveyard of Empires’. I wonder if the American empire’s implosion will be as sudden as the Soviet empire’s was?

One of the few good points about the economic melt down we are going trough, Marijuana prohibition may finally go the way of alcohol prohibition.

In my weariness I can hear ever more clearly the siren song of Oblivion.

My Inner Place Of Peace Revisited

A room in deep blue, dark red and purple, it is medium sized and softly lit. The room is dominated by large low bed on a raised platform. The bed is surrounded on three sides by draped by paisley patterned gauze and is composed of a very large Persian patterned cushion surrounded by similar pillows of many sizes. On each side of the bed by the headboard are tables of dark wood with drawers in them. On the tables are lamps for reading and soft illumination. The walls are painted in abstract patterns except for the wall behind the bed. On that wall is a painting of a gorgeous trans-gender angel. The ceiling is the night sky with the Milky Way going from one corner of he room to the other.

This room exists only in my imagination for now and is still not yet complete. It is the safe place I go to relax and renew.

Is There Anybody Out There?

I’ve been away a while. A major family emergency has come up and is ongoing and it has thrown me for a loop. But I need to get back to writing, it helps me and I hope interests you.

One thing that has come to my attention even in my despair is the nasty split between mainstream gays and the transgender community. It seems many gays pay at best lip service to transgender rights. They seem all to ready to throw us under the bus if it will give them any perceived advantage. The latest trend seems to be erasing the trans identities of hate crime victims. Anybody got any comments or perspective on this?

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

A occasional series which I hope will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

What, then, is patriotism? "Patriotism, sir, is the last resort of scoundrels," said Dr. Johnson. Leo Tolstoy, the greatest anti-patriot of our times, defines patriotism as the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers; a trade that requires better equipment for the exercise of man-killing than the making of such necessities of life as shoes, clothing, and houses; a trade that guarantees better returns and greater glory than that of the average workingman. - Emma Goldman' 1911

Yes I am an Anarchist.

More Of (my) Queer Theory

An important point to Queer theory is the right of a person to self define. To choose the terms that you feel best represent your sexuality, gender identity and philosophy. It menas being free to find your authentic self even if that is a utterly mainstream heterosexual gender binary conformist.

But I’m wandering into existentialism at this point, the horror the horror.

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

A occasional series which I hope will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose — especially their lives. - Eugene Debs 1913

True then, true now

I Am Tired

Tired of posting about politics. I want to turn to queer theory, well my queer theories any way. The way I see queer is the concept that we are all unique in our own way and to a greater or lesser degree variable in our nature. Our senses of gender, sexuality and personality aren’t fixed but exist in a cloud like an electron. Most of us seem to have a rather small cloud that fits into the area of ‘normal’ sexual orientation and gender identity. The there are those of us whose diffuse clouds wander far from the main sequence.

We are the way we are because of a mixture of nature, nurture and environment.

And now I’m too tired to keep making sense but I will come back to this. I would rely love some discussion on this here or on Twitter.

I Hate Everything About You

A bunch of theocratic bigots calling themselves the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission are planning to ‘protest’ the Matthew Shepard Act’s ‘thought’ penalties by yelling out hate and incitements to violence in Washington D.C on the 16th of November in hope of being arested. One minor problem is there are no ‘thought’ penalties in the Matthew Shepard Act. It applies only when there has been a crime of violence against one of the protected groups motivated by hate and bigotry. So unless these asshats plan to physically attack some queer passersby they ain’t going to be arrested. Oh and another little point, one of the protected groups are the religious. So if one of these clowns ever gets bashed because he’s Christian he will be covered. This stupid stunt is being pulled because these egomaniacs desperately want to be martyrs. This best way to react to them this time is to ignore them and let them sink into a well-deserved obscurity.

Another Quick One

All the teabagging idiots are complaining about government functionary standing between them and their doctor but seem to have no problem with a corporate functionary doing the same thing. Basically they are saying that so long as some one is profiting off of their health problems rationing health care is just peachy keen. Sixty years of anti-communist propaganda has indoctrinated them well.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing. - H.L. Mencken

Reinforcing Failure

The Republican party of North Carolina has invited Doug Hoffman to speak at a fund raiser. This is the Doug Hoffman who handed New York’s 23rd congressional district to the Democrats for the first tiem in a century. Yep, that’s exactly the guy you want to help you ’reclaim our government’ as local party chairman Tom Fetzer said. You always want to take advice from the losing candidate on how to win elections.


Hat tip to Pam’s House Blend

Aftermath

Well that was a mixed bag to say the least. Main proved to be just like California in the percentage of people willing to vote for hate and bigotry. Nice to see the left and right coast agreeing on some thing for once. Meanwhile by the same 53% to 47% Referendum 71 was approved in Washington upholding the Domestic Partnership laws. There may be a lesson in there somewhere for us, do away with marriage and replace it with domestic partnerships.

There is also a lesson in Kalamazoo upholding by a 60%+ margin a fully gender inclusive local anti-discrimination ordinance. That lesson is pass a fully inclusive Federal ENDA now, the time is right.

Live Blogging The Election Results Of Interest To Queers

For what it’s worth I will be live blogging the election results that are of interest to queers. Snarky comments added at no extra charge. No results yet but soon(ish)

UPDATE: Well the Republican McDonnell is winning in Virginia 63.47% to 36..42%, what a fucking surprise

UPDATE Damn, good and very bad news. In Washington measure 71 has been approved 51.13% to 48.87% so the domestic partnership law stays in affect. The bad news is that with 69% of the vote counted Question 1 striping us of marriage rights is passing 52% to 48%. That’s pretty much the same margin that proposition 8 passed by here in California. So it looks like the religious bigots are going to win again,

UPDATE Some sort of good news, New York’s 23rd congressional looks like it is going Democratic. Owens is beating Hoffman 49% to 45% so the conservatives purge has handed the Democrats another seat in the house.

Why Voting On Civil Rights Is A Bad Idea

Well here we go again in three states, Maine, Michigan and Washington, queer rights are up to a vote tomorrow. Putting minority rights up to a vote is a really fucking terrible idea. Don’t believe me? Well maybe a little history will help persuade you.

Up until 1963 California, specially my hometown of Los Angeles, was one of the most rigidly segregated states in the union. This was not enforced by Jim Crow laws as in the South but by covenants and conditions on deeds. In the really racist wasp enclaves this not only precluded sales to Asians, Blacks and Latinos but Jews and sometimes Catholics. In 1963 the Rumford Fair Housing Act was passed that made it illegal for anyone selling, renting, or leasing a residence to discriminate based on race, creed, color or national origin. This was in fact very unpopular and in 1964 proposition 14 was placed on the ballot to repeal housing protections. It passed 65.39% to 34.61%. The U.S. Supreme Court struck it down. If not for the ‘judicial activism’ so loathed by conservatives California would still be one of the most segregated places in the world.

So while I hope we win tomorrow I still now that these issues should never be up for a vote. Until we get a fully inclusive ENDA and court cases upholding our rights we still live at the sufferance of a bigoted majority.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions - Blaise Pascal

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. - Seneca the Younger 4 b.c.- 65 CE

A towfer for tonight

Random Yet Again

Tired, weary and feeling my age. So lets free-associate and see what comes. I have a lot of new readers of this blog many from Vietnam. I am very curious as to why so if any of my Vietnamese readers would like to speak up I would appreciate it.

Here in the U.S. Vietnam is our own ‘November criminals stabbed in the back' myth. As usual those who thought the war was a bad idea in the first place are blamed rather then the bloodthirsty idiots who started the war.

Meanwhile as usual here queers and feminists are being blamed for everything that’s gone wrong in the last 40 years. The thing is we haven’t been running things, the conservatives have. Or they have except when they fuck things up so bad that a centrist Democrat gets in for a few years.

Defaming Christians

There is something called the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission who are whining about the Matthew Sheppard Hate Crimes Act. They some how think this will infringe on their vile hate speech. It won’t and they know it but their lying little sods. They need a good sold example of defaming their sort of christians and being a generous little queer I’ll give it to them.

Christ was a queer, probably bisexual maybe trans gender, rabbi preaching a radical message of peaceful resistance to the power structure. He was executed by the Romans because he threatened the status quo. After he was dead his movement was hijacked by a bitter, deeply closeted misogynist by the name of Saul who went by the alias of Paul. After Paul got through turning it into a intolerant little cult it was hijacked again, this time by the Roman Emperor Constantine. He turned Paul’s cult in to an instrument of Imperial power, a nice authoritarian ideology. Most organized christian churches are still run by power hungry men looking to ally with would be empires. The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission is merely one among many such power grubbing organizations calling themselves Christian.

Friday Random Thirteen

The Murder Mystery by The Velvet Undreground.
Kashmir by Led Zeppelin
La La La Lies by The Who
Operation: Mindcrime by Quensrÿche
Operation: Mindcrime by Quensrÿche
I Don’t Want Your Love (Big Mix) by Duran Duran
Hellrider by Judas Priest
Iron Maiden by Iron Maiden
Heading Out To The Highway by Judas Priest
Heart Of The Devil by Danzig
Hungry by Lita Ford
Return Of The Phantom Stranger by Rob Zombie
Armed And Dangerous by Anthrax

Yes Operation: Mindcrime is so good iTunes decided to play it twice

Socialism!

Big scare word in the U.S. is socialism. From the uses it has been put to it’s obvious most people don’t have a clue about what it really means. They just know it’s a bad thing, or so they’ve been told. So let’s start off with a dictionary definition shall we? From dictionary.reference.com;

1. a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.
2. procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.
3. (in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles

There not so scary now is it? Notice it does not necessarily government control of production and distribution though it practice that is usually true. Notice also that social welfare programs like national health insurance are not socialist by nature. In fact Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor, introduced the modern social welfare state programs in the German Empire during the Nineteenth Century. He did this both to forestall the rise of the Social Democrats and because he knew that the social welfare programs would benefit the state as a whole.

Now the U.S. Government having majority control of two of the three major Detroit auto companies that is incipient socialism. Not that it looks like the take over will be permanent. If Obama really were a socialist he would have nationalized Wall Street.

Do Not Fear Dying, Fear Never Having Lived

What Is The Real Me? Part 2

I often ask myself that question. I mean how queer am I really? I do, after all, present as male and am married to a cis-gendered straight woman. What could be more normal? Than again I’m sexually attracted to men, trans-men, trans-women and several other gender queer people I know. I am also a pain slut and for the right person deeply submissive. So I think it’s fair to say I’m sexually queer.

On the gender front things are a bit more ambiguous. As I said I present as very male. Then again I have a number of feminine mannerisms and a fairly high voice. My internal sense of gender runs from a sissy male to a butch dyke, does that make any sense at all? Maybe it doesn’t and that may be the queerest thing of all

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

No man who ever lived knows any more about the hereafter ... than you and I; and all religion ... is simply evolved out of chicanery, fear, greed, imagination and poetry - Edgar Allan Poe

What Is The Real Me?

Kate Bornstien started a discussion on Twitter today on what areas of our lives do people consider us real and in what areas do they consider us fake. A very important question for trans-gender and gender queer people as our lives often depend on how other people see us. If we are perceived as fake or deceivers many people fell justified in attacking us. Just as important is how we see ourselves; I struggle with feelings of being some sort of fake all the time. That is the sort of thing that can lead to deep depression and even thoughts of suicide.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

The world holds two classes of men -- intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence. - Abu'l-Ala-Al-Ma'arri

Late Night Run Back To The Center Of My Mind

A little late night self-therapy while Dr. Cooper is out of town.

The center of my mind s a dark place filed with pain, my pain. You see I would willing solve the Lament Configuration and summon the Cenobite’s to take me to that extreme of experience where pain and pleasure are one. Sensations of the flesh are really all we have. Our intellectual achievements come from the electro chemical workings of our brains. There is no mind/body duality it is all one.

But that is not to say we are simple for even a ‘simple’ cell is incredibly complex. We are made up of trillions of cells. We are very complex beings crafted by nature and nurture the sum of our experiences.

My but this little journey has made an interesting little discursion hasn’t it?

My addiction to the flesh is one reason the Trans-Humanists leave me so cold. Too many of them seem positively eager to give up the flesh for the sterile world of electronic existence. Seems more like thantos than eros to me. Nothing lives forever and I would prefer the death of the flesh to the living death of machine life.

I believe that is enough to think about for the moment, Now to sleep the sleep of the dammed

The Sunday Edition Of A Friday Random Thirteen

Until It Sleeps by Metallica
Voodoo by Black Sabbath
Judas’ Death by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Rebel Yell by Billy Idol
Let Me Down Slow by The Rolling Stones
Show No Mercy by Slayer
I Can Never Be Your Woman by Whitetown
The Wizard by Black Sabbath
The Had That Feeds by Nine Inch Nails
The Fairy Queen by Clannad
Trust Me by Janis Joplin
Tracks Of My Tears by Linda Ronstadt
Trinidad by Puya

Time To Stop Ironing My Hands

I Harry Potter Dobby the house elf punishes himself for any disobedience to his master, one time he irons his hands. It is a literal embodiment of the way we all punish ourselves for perceived failures and transgressions. Dobby final escapes the compulsion to punish him self when he gets a piece of clothing, a old sock, from his master and is free.

Well I want to free myself from the self-punishment game to. Rather it is for some error I made at work or for transgressing society’s gender norms I want to move beyond a destructive round of self-flagellation. So I have decided to hold my own clothing gift ceremony. I’m going to find some piece of clothing, probably high femme, and gift to myself. I want to create a little ceremony for this, something to mark a change in my life.

I would be happy to take any suggestions on the ceremony and will report on how things are shaping up. Stay tuned….

A Roll Of The Queer Dice

Yes this is another of those random stream of consciousness screeds.

I live on many edges, the financial edge, the mental edge and the gender edge. The financial edge because I’ve taken two pay cuts since the beginning of the year to keep my job. My debt load was just manageable at my old salary, now it’s a scramble just to survive. All that pressure does not help my stress levels. The stress is pushing me to the edge of a major depressive episode. Having been over that edge I don’t want to go back. Pulling me along that edge is the gender edge as I try to live with a fluid sense of my own gender. I do my best to embrace uncertainty and ambiguity in regards to gender and sexual orientation. Maybe that’s why I like Aeon Flux so much after all she is the edge. Meanwhile I dance on the edge and sometimes long for the abyss.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing -- fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. – Bertrand Russell

Am I Trans Enough For You Baby?

That is a question I often ask myself, I didn’t go through many of the extreme examples of gender dysphoria that many trans people go through. I have never felt so much that I was a woman as that I was not a man. Some things I do are very femme, others more male or is that butch? Which is it, am I a mostly femme sometimes butch trans-woman or a gender queer man with a strong femme side? Maybe I’m something else entirely.

I just found this wonderful graphic that so totally explains my feelings written by a female bodied Gender Queer Trans Man.

So yes I am trans, transcending the gender binary because I don’t fit within it at all. I want to transgress societies gender rules completely. I want to transform gender so everyone can find a gender identity that is comfortable for them.

NOTE: Un fortunately the transcension graphic story has been deleted. I will try to track it down and post a new link.

The Real Reason For The Decline Of The Republic

At the founding of the United States of America, Americans drank more alcohol than at any time before or since: Five gallons of pure alcohol per person per year as opposed to two gallons today.

The founding fathers, the minutemen, the Continental Army hell the whole country where a bunch of alcoholics. Booze, it’s what made America great. So get to drinking if you want to restore the Republic to greatness.

Hat tip to Doggy Style

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. – Albert Einstien

A Long Nights Journey Into Incoherence

I am dead tired so don’t expect even the small amount of sense I occasionally can muster.

I am Queer and enjoy being a queer. Time and circumstances may leave me looking sort of straight, except for the light makeup and five ear piercing, but I’m not in the least. I’m a gender queer stone femme sissy who wants everyone to be free to be their real selves whatever that may be. I tried fitting in and it just led to a dark depression. I may have waited too long to discover my true self to present the way I truly want to but it’s all still here inside.

Too tired to continue right now, good night all.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Voltaire

A Long Nights Journey Into Flem

Why yes I am coughing my lungs out thank you, another random ramble this time fueled by being sick.

Being sick reminds me of how much I’ve depended on modern, evidence-based medicine to keep me alive. I had pneumonia when I was a kid and without modern medicine I probably would not have lived to see middle school. Which is why I am so pissed of at the anti-vaccination idiots. . These rambling loons are killing people.

To take up to a larger view it seems science and reason are under assault from the right and the left. You wouldn’t be reading these words without rational thinking and science, don’t let some religious nitwit tell you otherwise

Another Late Night Ramble

I have no idea where I’m going but going I am.

Yesterday was the First International Blasphemy day, so a day late some serious blasphemy. To quote Patti Smith, Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine. Muhammad was a third rate poet and there is no Allah or any other god. There are lot’s of gods and goddesses all claiming to be the true one all backed by some sacred text or other. They can’t all be true but they all can be false.

Well that was fun, sort of.

Tired, night all

Why Are You So Angry?

That is a question that dominant groups always seem to ask subordinate groups when the subordinate group question their subordination. It is a question that implies that the people fighting for their rights do not have a legitimate complaint, otherwise why the need to question the source of their anger. It is also the question one would ask of a child thus reducing the subordinate group to the level of petulant children. It is a question that comes from a place of unacknowledged power and privilege, a place that cannot understand why anybody would be unhappy with the status quo. That the status quo disproportionately favors the dominant group over all others is considered just the natural order of things.

Of course is isn’t the natural order, it is the result of human actions designed to favor their group over all others and that is why people outside of the dominate group are angry. They can see that the status quo is a artificial construction that can be changed to make things better for them. They came by their anger legitimately, I can by my anger legitimately, so don’t you dare question it.

I Can Write Again!

Well sort of, we’ll see how well this goes.

I’m experiencing a financial meltdown thanks to two pay cuts so far this year. I really am facing bankruptcy and foreclosure, but that’s not what I want to write about. A side effect of sudden onset poverty is that I cannot afford HRT or a new wardrobe. I am still going to be presenting as mostly male.

So how does that affect my sense of my gender? Not at all because guess what, we are not the things we do to present the gender we are. We use hormones and undergo surgical procedures to bring our bodies into line with our sense of self but that sense of self does not depend on anything external. It causes us considerable stress when we cannot present to the world as we are but we live with that as best we can.

So I will continue to be a Gender Queer Stone Femme. I will present myself to a hostile world as best I can. It does not matter how the world sees me, I am still me.

A Brief Meditation on 9/11

The attacks on September 11th, 2001 were planed and carried out by Egyptians and Saudis, the financing came mostly from Saudis. There is evidence that Ben Laden wasn’t in Afghanistan at the time of the attacks but in Pakistan. So why did we attack Afghanistan and Iraq?

Oh another rarely mentioned fact, the Taliban offered to extradite Ben Laden if we could just give them some evidence to support our request. Instead of evidence we gave then bombs and a raid by rangers, who missed their target as usual.

Just something to contemplate amid all the patriotic hoopla.

A Very Belated Apology

Way too little and way too late but the British Government has apologized for it’s inhuman treatment of Alan Turing . Of coarse this is the same country who drove him to suicide fifty-five years ago by chemically castrating him for the crime of being gay. This was the British Governments reward to a man who did more then any general to win the war for the allies. Still it’s something if not much. and maybe it will remind the theocratic fucktards that they owe the freedom they are abusing to a gay man.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Properly read, the bible is the most potent force for Atheism ever conceived. – Isaac Asimov

Another one from the good doctor

A Random End To A Random Week

The hart full of hate line I like to use was lifted from the late great Hunter S Thompson, one of my favorite writers. He was also a complete maniac, another fine quality I admired him for.

Speaking of favorite authors you should really read Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster by Mike Davis given the recent Los Angeles fires. You will find it explains a lot about why Los Angeles seems to be such a center of disaster.

Think all the people throwing around terms like fascist , communist and socialist should really look them up and see what they actually mean.

For myself I’m a anarchist and a proud member of the Industrial Workers of The World . o let’s smash the state with a song in our harts,

Saturday Night Hate Fest

I’m just an ageing Gender Queer with a hart full of hate and I intend to prove it tonight. Most of all I hate myself now with that out of the way on with the hate fest.

I hate religion, holly book are just cheap, badly written justifications for the way things were written buy and for the then ruling scumbags. The books are such badly edited hodgepodges that they can be used to justify anything mostly the beliefs, ego and prejudices of some low rent would be messiah. They’re Just another goddamn money stealer.



All those tea baggers who want ‘their’ America back the America you want is a colonial settler state founder on conquest, genocide and slavery, you are welcome to it.

I hate the privileged, entitled jerks who so love to victim blame. The jerks who say ‘she deserved it’ when anything happens to a woman who wasn’t married, barefoot, pregnant and afraid to leave the house, I want to fuck you in the ass with red hot poker.

I hate Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and all the other fat white boys who don’t give a rats ass for their followers. The greedy selfish slobs who don’t care what damage they do so long as they’ve got theirs.

Just How Incoherent Is Ze?

The following makes no more sense from this side believe me. This is born of frustration and despair; I’m at the end of my financial tether and have no idea what to do. I’m still locked in enough to the old gender stereotypes and some level that I feel as the ‘man’ of the house it’s my duty to provide for the two of us. I sometimes wonder if my gender journey is in some part fueled by my feeling of failure as a ‘man’. Or, perhaps, my feelings of failure are because I never really was a ‘man’. Who the fuck knows, I sure don’t.

I HATE the keyboard on this Alienware and long for my little MacBooks beautiful keyboard. Alas the MacBook is no more and I can’t afford a replacement.

Yes I’m jumping from topic to topic I said I was Incoherent.

White male privilege may yet bring the country to ruin. It was the arrogance and sense of entitlement of the white gay males that ran the No on 8 campaign that took us from a 54% lead to a 52% loss and then blamed that on a black community they had made no effort to reach out to. It is the adroit exploitation of the fear of loss of white male privilege that may yet bring the Republicans disastrously back to power. If the Republicans do succeed in regaining power I expect it to be somewhat less successful than the Bourbon restoration in France was.

Enough I must sleep now.

Yet Another Late Night Ramble Through My Mind

While marriage equality is very important, not the least as a symbolic issue, I know so many wonderful trans-gender and gender queer folk in a wide verity of families so I ask what about them? What about people and families that don’t fall into the neat divisions of man, woman, two people only? I know poly-amours families and many gender queers have chosen new families after our old ones disowned us. Again I have to recommend this book, Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law (Queer Ideas).

Los Angeles Is Burning

I grew up in Los Angeles, a true native son now daughter. One of my most vivid childhood memories is of a brush fire coming over the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains while at grade school. This was the day after the school had been closed because of the Bel Air fire then raging. I watched as water bombers forced the fire back. Since then I have seen far too many fires too fucking close up.

While I have never been given an evacuation order I have been put on stand by for one several times. Southern California is mostly a Mediterranean Chaparral ecology and large scale fires come with the territory. Those of us who live here have made peace with the idea that we could be burned out at any time with no notice.

Now Los Angeles is burning again. This looks to be one of the really bad ones where the combination of drought, heat and winds create a monster that can incinerate a neighborhood in seconds. Maybe it will continue to burn through the mountains and spare the cities along the mountains edge or maybe it will sweep down and wreck havoc in those cities. Now chaos rules, the smallest change in wind can save or doom a city. In Los Angeles the Lords of Entropy hold sway for now.

The Friday Random Thirteen

Got The Time by Anthrax
All My Life by Linda Ronstadt
Whip It by Devo
You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC
Spanish Bombs by The Clash
N.I.B. by Black Sabbath
Heavy Duty by Judas Priest
She Said by Robert Plant
Change It by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble
Skin Trade by Duran Duran
God by Duran Duran
Some Heads Are Gonna Roll by Judas Priest
Shakin’ All Over by The Who

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Faith means not wanting to know what is true. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Yet Another Quick One Before I Sleep

Yet another Trans person, a trans-man this time, murdered in D.C., the re-emergence yet again of the radical feminist trans-phobes and the gender panic over Caster Semenya’s physic and superb performance Not a good time to be trans gender or gender queer it would seem. But it’s always a bad time for us, we face hatred even from many in the lesbian and gay communities.

I have, however, a shining new example to help me move forward, Carla. I want to thank her for being there and her courage. I also want to thank Alexander for introducing us.

Now enough of this sloppy sentimentality, time for some rock and roll.

Terms

Kate Borstein and Chris Bartlett just had a wonderful discussion on terms used to describe people and how umbrella terms always seem to exclude groups. They were talking in particular about how MSM as an umbrella term makes invisible black gay culture but how using gay as an umbrella term makes ‘t invisible those people who identify as MSM or WSW. It isn’t just those terms that are problematical, transgender, transsexual and gender queer can all be used as umbrella terms and all are inadequate in one way or another.

I can see a few problems here; one is that umbrella terms always tend to homogenize the group the term is being used for hiding the diversity within the group. As an example take the term ‘White America’. Which White America, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Southwest, the west coast or the Northwest? Even that list overlooks the profound differences within those regions. Another problem is that our language is inadequate to describe the vast and subtle reality that is sexual orientation and gender identity. Look how recent most of the language used for this is, homosexual wasn’t used until 1869 and most of the rest of the terminology is considerably newer than that.

Our language for dealing with this is still evolving and will continue to evolve as our understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity grow. Language and descriptive terms do matter and we must have the right to define them for oursel

I Am What They Fear

Really I am, I am exactly what the Republicans, theocrats and the like fear. I do want to destroy traditional marriage because it sucks. You want reasons then read Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law (Queer Ideas). I don’t stop there I do want to subvert and eventually destroy the gender binary. Gender, sexual orientation and physical sex none of them are binaries. Read My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely to get some perspective on this. Oh and for the trifecta I am not all that fond of capitalism either. Go to The Industrial Workers og The World website to get some idea of the possible alternatives. So yes I am a radical and a revolutionary who does want to bring down their ‘America’. I figure it’s about time we got OUR America.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination. – Edward Abbey

Now Is The Time

Now is the time for blood
Now is the time to tear off my skin and drop this human guise
Now is the time to become the monster that they fear
Now is the time to drown their hopes and dreams in blood

A Quick One Before I Sleep

You may have noticed I identify as queer but not gay. Maybe it’s my 60’s upbringing but I identify with those who want to change society not those who want to accommodate and assimilate. Or maybe being the last tag end of LGBT and being told I don’t exist (being bi) or don’t deserve the same legal protections (non inclusive ENDA last year) has just made me bitter and twisted. Whatever the reason I’m a radical queer and damn proud of it.

I don’t presume to define others so define yourself and I’ll do my best to respect that definition. If I fuck up please call me on it, it’s the only way I’ll learn

Another Late Night Ramble

First welcome to my new readers, your kind comments have done much for my ego.

I want to get back to daily posting. As you may have noticed I use this blog for a lot of self-therapy.

Body image is a big issue for many trans-gender and gender queer people. We use hormones and surgeries to bring our bodies into line with our sense of gender self. So we tend to be sensitive to body image issues which is more than can be said for P.E.T.A. Their new billboard show just what a clueless bunch of gits they are. Their add is enough to make me eat more meat. This from a queer who just made hirself a baked tofu salad which ze uses to make lettuce wraps. I am sick and tired of this promotion of anorexia and heroin chick.

On the subject of body image I would like to recommend a new TV show on Lifetime, and online, Drop Dead Diva . The basic premise is a blond model dies and gets a second chance in the body of a full figured lawyer. It really is the best treatment body image I’ve seen, go watch a episode or three.

Sigh, I really need to sleep so good night all.

We Fight For Our Rights, But Which Rights?

We queers are fighting for our rights like never before and making good progress on several fronts. The question is which fronts should we prioritize? The major problem is there are 51 answers, one front for every state and one for the Federal level. In my home state of California we have good and inclusive hate crime, employment non-discrimination and anti bullying laws so it makes sense to fight for marriage equality*. On the Federal level the Matthew Sheppard act and a fully inclusive ENDA are the most urgent priorities. In other states other priorities, it is up to the people in each state to prioritize the fights in their state. In this battle one size defiantly does not fit all.

My personal feelings, for what their worth, is that the highest priority should always go to the most basic rights. A fully gender inclusive employment non-discrimination act, anti-bulling laws and a hate crimes law should be the highest priority. Everything else, as important as it may be, is a luxury compared to our basic survival.

* Or maybe not, read Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law (Queer Ideas) and decide for your self

Coming Out and ‘Real’ Names

I need to be more out that I am Gender Queer and Pansexual. Some people now and I don’t exactly hide it but neither am I ‘Out And Proud’. So let’s do a little coming out here shall we?

The name on my California Drivers License is Barry Scott Routh, that is also my legal name such as it is. The name I claim as my own is Natasha Yar-Routh and someday I hope to have THAT on my driver’s license.

I haven’t done a lot of transitioning because of my home situation and my mother. Those are the primary reasons I still use my old name. My situation with Lyne is complex but with my mother I’m worried of the impact on a 91-year-old woman of her son suddenly becoming her daughter. More to the truth I afraid of the consequences with Lyne and my mother.

On the other hand I’m coming out to my congressman, I have signed up to lobby him for the passage of a inclusive ENDA with United ENDA . I plan to be totally open with who and what I am.

It’s a slow process but I refuse to lie if asked about myself, I’m Natasha Yar-Routh, a Gender Queer Trans-woman.

Not Dead Yet

The Republican Party that is, lately many liberals have been gloating that the Republicans have managed to purge themselves down to frightened white racist vote. That is true but it’s also about 47% of the total vote and that is enough to put them back in power.

Remember that Obama only won because the economy tanked and there was the highest voter turnout in years. McCain and Obama were neck and neck until the economic meltdown became obvious in September of 2008. So again it’s the economy stupid. If the economy really has hit bottom than the recovery will kick in in the usual six months or so and the Republicans are toast. The republicans know this thus their obstructionist tactics. If they can block any substantial reforms that might put the economy back on a sound footing they have a chance.

Don’t think just because the Republicans are very probably in permanent minority status that they can’t take back control of the White House and Capitol Hill. The twentieth Century is littered with examples of a party with a loyal but minority following who managed to size power. You don’t need a majority of voters, just a majority of those that vote. Both parties throughout U.S. history have used voter suppression tactics and the Republicans have mastered all of them. Recently the Republicans have upped the ante with flying squads of thugs to intimidate political opponents rallies and meetings. It will be interesting if they continue to use these tactics and what success they find with them.

If the recession continues or the recover is weak enough the Republicans can beat their way back into power.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours - Stephen Roberts

Despair

When I called my therapist to cancel the next two weeks of therapy she caught the despair in my voice. I hadn’t realized it was that obvious. But even in the blackness I won’t give up. I would have before but not now. Therapy and friends like Alexander have given me the strength to continue. Thank You

A Not So Late Night Ramble

Sorry I’ve been away so long. Burned out and unable to function, feeling self destructive and mean. All self-pity of course, I hate that in myself. All the old insecurities are rising up that no one likes me, that I’m alone and always will be and that my life is a futile failure. Sometimes I feel that the only ones who love me are the Huskies and we all know what lousy judges of character they are. It doesn’t help that the media seems to be saturated with racist madness, the ‘birthers’ being the most prominent and loony examples. Yet one dare not dismiss this stupidity, repeat a lie often enough and a certain percent of the people will believe it. Mean while the cost of the empire and our imperial wars continue to bleed us dry. Yes I know there are good things in the world and I do have a few people who care about me and that I care about. Right now I just want someone I can hold and cuddle with. Tomorrow it will be time to indulge my meanness on the oh so many worthy targets.

Why Science Is Important

The introduction to a great video;



If you want to see the rest go to the website . You’ll be glad you did.

Late Night Musings Continued

Still tired after a very mixed day. Goldman Sachs had a huge profits of just over $13 billion with nearly half being earmarked for bonuses. This is the firm whose shoddy practices and unmitigated greed did more than any other single entity to cause the economic meltdown. When you’ve bought and paid for both political parties you don’t have to worry about things like accountability.

Speaking of accountability it seems you can run your own death squad, order people tortured and illegally spy on the whole country with impunity if you’re the Vice President. I know I’m being bad as there’s supposed to be no looking back.

Late Night Musings

Arioch but I’m tired. There is a down side to all this modern connectivity; you can wind up working almost 24/7. At the very least you can be on call all the time. On the real plus side with out the Internet and such like I couldn’t work from home. Also I wouldn’t have any contact with other queers at all. So all in all I’m glad of pervasive connectivity.

Appalling Ignorance

Another Trans-woman was murdered, LaTeisha Green, and now her trial is starting. Her family called for the passage of federal hate crimes protection for transgender people. This was reported on Syracuse.com. The comments on the story are the usual depressing mixture of ignorance, white male privilege and transphobia. It’s sad and depressing that her family now has to try and educate the public yet again to the reality of our lives. It’s frustrating that yet again we seem to be running into a wall of willful ignorance.

My deepest sympathy to her family, may justice be done.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing -- fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand - Bertrand Russell

The Meaning Of Life

There is none but what we give it. There is no grand design imposed from above as much as we might want one. The universe is blindly indifferent to us and Homo sapiens will go extinct eventually just like every other species. So let’s build a better world for us all. We can do this but we must do it ourselves and it won’t be easy. Because really what’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?

Fuck It, Music Time

Lets start with Hanoi Rocks



And than some Faster Pussycat



Now for some New York Dolls



And we finish with Dead or Alive

Yet Another Quick One Before I Sleep

Arioch but I’m a disorganized wreck. I lieu of a real post here is this, class and race still rule the day here in the U.S. Palin’s appeal is class based, the working and lower middle classes who feel oppressed by the elites. That Palin would be a bought and paid for puppet of the economic elites is beside the point. As for racism just take a look at Fox News or closer to home how the white gay establishment leapt at the chance to blame blacks for the passage of proposition 8. What about queer rights? We have been a distraction and a scapegoat for the Republican party. We are one of the wedges they used to split socially conservative working class voters of from the Democratic coalition to help elect brain dead tools like Reagan and Bush. That we are fighting for our lives is irrelevant to the power politics both parties play.

Another Quick One Before I Sleep

Obama is being just what I thought he was, a centrist Democrat tending towards the right. Hell some of Nixon’s proposed domestic policies were to the left of Obama’s. Yet the Republicans attack him as a communist, the heir to Lenin and Mao. Arioch only knows what would happen if a real leftist, even a moderate social democrat, ever got into a high elected office. They would all probably fall over dead from apoplexy.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Jesus' last words on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" hardly seem like the words of a man who planned it that way. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure there is something wrong here. - Donald Morgan

A Quick One Before I Sleep

A quick thought, being gender queer can be confusing even to we who are gender queer. It is incredibly difficult for transsexual men and women but at least they have a fixed goal to work toward. We are not quite so… well lucky is not the right word but sort of conveys the idea. There are times I will suddenly find myself operating in boy mode it can be quite jarring. More time is spent in girl mode even tough I never look it. Most of the time my gender identity is a cloud of androgynous possibility. It’s a confusing life but it’s very much mine.

Late Night Journey Into My Head (Again)

If I was organized I could do real posts but as it is lets poke around in the swamp that is my mind.

I’m tired, beat down through every fault of my own, I should be asleep right now. The problem is I am really a creature of the night, you know stay awake\all night sleep all day. To bad the world is not setup to accommodate that life cycle. So here I am robbing myself of sleep.

What I want to do is explore the limits of sensation, the intersection of pain and pleasure. More I want to disorder my senses by practice and ingestion of drugs. Ah but that is a no no according our wise government. Also psychedelics tend to lead people to question authority and that must be avoided at all costs. I have always wondered if all the cuts in access to higher education that started in the late 60’s and continue to this day were a reaction to finding that educating large numbers of people can lead to them to independent thought and to the questioning of authority. That is why free thought is such a bugbear among the religious, free thought and critical thinking lead to questioning the underlying assumptions of the social structure and the religion that supports it. Free thinkers might question if existing social structures, like ‘traditional’ marriage are always the best environment to live, love and rise children in. They might question if an economic system that was enriching 20% of the population while impoverishing the other 80% was really the best we can do. And those are questions that the power elite don’t want asked much less have any answers attempted.

My we have wandered far a field haven’t we? Well past time for me to sleep so goodnight all.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined, and imprisoned, yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites. - Thomas Jefferson

In Honor of the writer of the Declaration of Independence.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Take from the church the miraculous, the supernatural, the incomprehensible, the unreasonable, the impossible, the unknowable, the absurd, and nothing but a vacuum remains - Robert G. Ingersoll

Cute Overload

Sheep and Alpacas


Find more videos like this on alpacasocial.com


I so understand these cats reactions to cameras

Thoughts On Being ‘Allowed To Exist’

By now you have probably heard slime ball Pennsylvania State Sen. John Eichelberger’s remark that ‘we are being allowed to exist’ when asked how gay men and women should be treated. We all know what he means, we should be grateful that we don’t face the death penalty for being who we are. Make no mistake there are theocrats out there that would love to impose the death penalty on us queers. Most, however, would be content to merely roll our rights back to before Stonewall where the worst we would face is prison and possible castration. Well to all those wonderful caring people like Sen. Eichelberger I say FUCK OFF AND DIE . A entirely natural death, no threats implied at all.

Men the like Eichelberger speak from a position of white male cis-gendered privilege. They are totally incapable of realizing that the only ‘special’ rights we want are the ones they take for granted.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

We must conduct research and then accept the results. If they don't stand up to experimentation, Buddha's own words must be rejected. - Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, 1988

Late Night Randomness Yet Again

Reading some more history of the Stonewall uprising I was struck yet again by how many people even among radical gays conflate sexual orientation and gender identity. The two are most defiantly NOT the same. Take say a Male to Female transsexual, if as a man she was attracted to women, and thus considered straight, she would as a woman still be sexual attracted to women and now be considered a lesbian, This simple fact seems to have eluded many supposedly deep thinkers who still think of all trans-women as confused effeminate gay men and all trans-men as confused butch lesbians when they thin k of trans-men at all. Cthulhu only knows what they would think of me, a gender queer pansexual, I’m all over the place.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support - John Buchan

We Return To Late Night Rambles And Head Trips

Well today is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. , yes I said uprising not riot. It was an uprising against a unjust system of legal repression spearheaded by transgender people but including all LGBTIQ people. It was not the first and will not be the last. It was a radical moment and gave rise to a radical movement . Yes it was soon co-opted by accommodationists but that does not diminish its impact.

But I don’t want to look back I want to look forward. Now is another potentially radical moment if we can stop expecting that any one will benevolently give us our rights. As long as we are polite and work with in the system we will get crumbs at best. Screw the Democratic Party; true democracy resides in the streets. If we truly believe in the Dallas Principles of No Delay No Excuses we need harness our anger and take to the streets. We need to harness our creativity to find new ways to put the pressure on and keep it on. Remember anger is an energy and we are outside of society.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist believes that deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanishe - Justin Brown

We Return To The Friday Random Thirteen

Rince Philib a’Cheoil by Clannad
Meet El Presidente by Duran Duran
Lady Jane by The Rolling Stones
Buttcracker Suite by Bob Rivers
Sadness by Donovan
If You Don’t Start Drinkin’ (I’m Gonna Leave) by George Thorgogood & The Destroyers
A Touch Of Evil by Judas Priest
Manger 6 by Bob Rivers
I’m Going Home by Tim Curry
A Tout Le Monde by Megadeth
I’m A Boy by The Who
Deserted Cities Of The Heart by Cream
It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (But I Like It) by The Rolling Stones

Time For Chaos, A Random Ramble

Phase shifts are interesting things, saturation builds up and suddenly a liquid solution can crystallize into a solid. We have seen two political phase shifts this month so far.

First here at home the queer community has finally had it with the democrats. It started with the passage of Proposition 8 in California and built up as the national Democratic party pushed queer rights to the back of the queue. It was brought to a head by the administrations stunningly stupid brief in defense of DOMA. Now not only are queers making a lot of noise but they are closing their wallets just when the Democratic party is trying to raise funds for the midterm elections. This should be interesting; already the Democrats are scrambling to cover their asses. We may get some good legislation out of this yet.

On a far more violent and possibly major front Iran is on the verge of another revolution. This is not sudden but has been building for a decade and more. There have been other large-scale demonstrations and clashes between the young and the ayatollahs. The tensions the people who want to live in the present and the theocrats who want them to live in a fantasy version of a non-existent past may have been covered over but have never stopped growing. What is different now is that there is a focal point, the election, which has brought together all the different groups that have demonstrated in the past, students, labor and women as one and sent them out into the streets. The ayatollahs could still win but with some clerics siding with the demonstrators the current regime could just as easily collapse. Remember how quickly the Soviet Union went from Evil Empire to non-existent.

There are other phase shifts that may soon show up, some may have already happened. Is Mexico now a failed state for instance? As many others have mentioned the post World War Two world system has collapsed and we still don’t know what, if anything, will take it’s place.

Open Letter To The LA Car Guy Dealerships

I just watched your vile little ad featuring a transgender woman being stranded in the desert. It smacked of the ‘trans panic’ defense so often used in the murder of transgender people. Far to many transgender people have been murdered by bigots who use the excuse that they were ‘deceived’ as to the transgender persons ‘true’ gender. For you to use this as the basis of your add is offensive in the extreme to this trans-woman. Having lost a car due to a dead engine I am in the market for a replacement but thanks to that ad I won’t be buying it from you or any other member of the L.A. Car Guy Dealerships.

For more information, the actual ad and the contact list for the LA Car Guy Dealership list go to Pam’s House Blend

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Man must learn to rely upon himself. Reading bibles will not protect him from the blasts of winter, but houses, fires and clothing will. To prevent famine, one plow is worth a million sermons, and even patent medicines will cure more diseases than all the prayers uttered since the beginning of the world. - Robert Green Ingersoll

Why I’m Still Glad Obama Won

Obama has been a major disappointment lately, not merely for the vile DOJ brief defending DOMA but for signing on to the truly evil idea of indefinite dentition . BUT, as Monica Roberts pointed out there is the VERY imporatnat matter of the Supreme Court. With Obama we will get more moderate slightly left of center nominees which is vastly better than the sort of theocratic thugs we could have expected from McCain as a payoff to the Religious Reich if he had gotten elected. So as disappointing as Obama has sometimes been and even though I didn’t vote for him I’m still glad he won.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

By the time the pope finished riding around Africa in his bullet-proof car wearing his gold-braided robes and telling AIDS victims not to use condoms, how many more African babies had starved to death? - Gareth Hunt

More Late Night Ramblings To The Center Of My Mind

So a bit of a let down last week wasn’t it? What with Obama’s Department Of Justice filing a legal brief in defense of DOMA you would think we Queers have been given the shaft again and you would be right. Hell we Gender Queer’s even got the finger from the house journal of the Gay establishment The Advocate who couldn’t be bothered to get a story about a trans woman getting married right. It is enough to really piss one off isn’t it?

It’s certainly enough to make me turn my eyes inward to meditate on what I’ve done or not done. I certainly am no great activist or leader and just as certainly have not done enough to advance the cause of legal equality for queers. We all haven’t done enough. I know I’m a coward for not being fully out to everyone I know. If we ALL came out we would shock and move a great many people. But that’s easy to say and hard, if not potentially fatal, to do. Maybe it’s because I’m a child of the 60’s but I’m coming around to the belief that only a revolution can change things. The system seems so hopelessly corrupt, so completely bought off by the big money interests that nothing short of revolution will be able to make any difference. But are we all too apathetic and scared to make a difference?

So do you have an answer for that?

A Day Late And A Dollar Short Random Thirteen

Big Cat by Afro Celt Sound System
Black Velveteen by Lenny Kravitz
Shout At The Devil by Mötley Crüe
She Creatures Of The Hollywood Hills by The Stooges
I’m Coming Home by The Deviants
Surfin’ U.S.A. by The Beach Boys
John Ninteen:Forty-One by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere by The Who
Flight Of Icarus by Iron Maiden
Every Day Is Exactly The Same by Nine Inch Nails
Back To The House That Love Built by Tito & Tarantula
Anarchy In The U.K. by Sex Pistols
I’m The Man (Def Uncensored Radio Version) by Anthrax

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

The usual Christian argument is that the suffering in the world is a purification for sin and is therefore a good thing. This argument is, or course, only a rationalization of sadism; but in any case it is a very poor argument. I would invite any Christian to accompany me to the children's ward of a hospital, to watch the suffering that is there being endured, and then to persist in the assertion that those children are so morally abandoned as to deserve what they are suffering. In order to bring himself all feelings of mercy and c compassion. He must, in short, make himself as cruel as the God in whom he believes - Bertrand Russell

Late Night Ramblings

So the right is still on about Obama the ‘socialist’ , do these people have NO idea of the meaning of the term? Obama is so relentlessly centrist it hurts this old wobblies head. His health care plan is basically tax incentives to business and buy insurance or else mandate to everyone else. If he were a socialist he would be going for a true national single payer plan.

But then the right aren’t really free marketers, they are crony capitalists at best. It’s the old public risk private profit scam.

Just remember kids, Direct Action Gets The Goods!

Tomorrow back to What Must Be Done.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously -Douglas Adams

What Must Be Done, Opening Thoughts

This is a critical time for Queer rights in this country. We have had great victories and defeats, often in the same state. New Hampshire where marriage rights were won but employment and housing protections for gender identity did not even get out of committee. Here we run into one of the major dilemmas, whether to fight at the state level or throw more of our resources to the federal level. The answer to that question in turn depends on which fight you’re talking about. If you’re focusing on a inclusive hate crimes bill the federal level looks very promising given that the Mathew Sheppard Act has already passed the house. If, on the other hand, you’re fighting for marriage equality the state level looks more promising at the moment. Then there is the question of tactics, should we focus on lobbying, legal fights in the courts or direct action? These debates are exacerbated by the fractures within the queer community.

Assuming I can maintain focus I want to offer my thoughts on these issues and invite discussion over the next few days.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

The world holds two classes of men - intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence - Abu Ala Al-Ma'arri

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist believes that deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanishe - Justin Brown

Gender Is A State Of Mind

At least it is for me. Given my circumstances I may never be able to do even the mild transition I want to. That does not effect how I feel however which is neither male nor female. I may never look it but I’m an androgynous being who wants to be an ever-shifting blend of ‘male’ and ‘female’ traits. I hate the dirty looks I get when I pick some femme piece of clothing to ware, this society is way to hung up on gender presentation issues. At least in my mind I can peacefully explore the labyrinth of gender.

It’s Friday Time For A Random Thirteen From iTunes

Éireann by Afro Celt Sound System
Baba O’Riley by The Who
Children Of The Sun by The Misunderstood
Problem by The Sex Pistols
Walk Away by Black Sabbath
Winner Takes All by Sammy Hagar
Temptation by Halford
Summertime by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Rapid Fire by Judas Priest
Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin
Bed Of Nails by Alice Cooper
Iron Head by Rob Zombie
Whatsername by Green Day

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep-seated need to believe. - Carl Sagan

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Pray: To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy - Ambrose Bierce

A Poll To Crash

Over at One News Now, a theocrat propaganda site, they are running a poll of Obama’s declaration of June as ‘LGBT Pride Month’ as is to be expected things are not going our way.

What's your reaction to Barack Obama's proclamation designating this month as 'LGBT Pride Month'?
It is a well-deserved celebration - 2.37%
[2.37%]
No big surprise from this administration - 21.45%
[21.45%]
Sin gets a whole month - National Day of Prayer barely gets a presidential nod - 55.75%
[55.75%]
What next? Adultery Adoration Week? - 20.43%
[20.43%]

Let’s get over there and change those numbers. It’s not going to be easy as they already have 20,444 responses but I know we can do it.

Support a fully inclusive ENDA

Off to the right and down the page a bit there is a new widget. Dr. Jillian T. Weiss has started a campaign via AskYourLawmaker.org, an organization of journalists that brings questions to Members of Congress and then posts the answers on the internet. The campaign is to ask all members of congress if they would support a fully inclusive ENDA if if not why not. If we can get enough votes they will ask the question and post the answers. This let’s us contact and educate the members of congress who are not supportive.

Marriage is good and we queers deserve that right but the right to earn a living is even more important. Far too many of our siblings are on the street struggling to survive, go vote now. Make our congresspeople put themselves on the record. Then we can educate them on why this s a matter of life our death for us.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Age - Richard Lederer.

Bill Donohue Is A Vile Human Being

Another fat white boy with no morals what so ever. Listen to this interview with Bill Donohue a self proclaimed ‘defender’ of the Catholic Church. Listen to this fat flabby self serving thug be taken apart by the Irish interviewers. Notice Donohue trying to make a sectarian issue of it. Notice his attempts to bully the interviewers, attempts that completely fail. Why anybody would take this scum seriously on anything is a complete mystery to me.

My Inner Place Of Peace

A room in deep blue, dark red and purple, it is medium sized and softly lit. The room is dominated by large low bed on a raised platform. The bed is surrounded on three sides by draped by paisley patterned gauze and is composed of a very large Persian patterned cushion surrounded by similar pillows of many sizes. The walls are painted in abstract patterns except for the wall behind the bed. On that wall is a painting of a gorgeous trans-gender angel.

This room exists only in my imagination for now and is not yet complete. It is the safe place I go to relax and renew.

The Friday Random Thirteen

Echoplex by Nine Inch Nails
Illegal I Song by Velvet Revolver
I Looked At You The Doors
Like An Angel by Duran Duran
Dangerous Beauty by The Rolling Stones
Let’s Work Together (Live) by George Thorogood & The Destroyers
Working Class Hero by Ozzy Osbourne
Faith In The Colour by Duran Duran
Just Begin Again by Spinal Tap
Untitled Instrumental 1 by Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix
Speed King by Deep Purple
Break It Up by Patti Smith
Fight Till Death by Slayer

Which Pope Am I?

Well since you ask,

Seek help now!

You are a giddy combo of the weirder Popes, Stephen VI, Benedict XVI and St Peter

I like that, more weirdness in the church I say!

The Daily Hate

Sometimes I really hate this country. It seems owning certain comic books can get you up to fifteen years in jail . This while a school project on Harvey Milk is just controversial for our poor delicate children. Meanwhile we let people who are guilty of the crimes that got Göring hanged at Nuremberg go free because we don’t want to ‘look backward’. Hate mongers like Dobson and Warren are considered respected public figures. Like I say sometimes I hate this country.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction – Blaise Pascal.

Having recently been trolled I find this post from Pharyngula very amusing. Another whinny insecure religious twit spewing her projection all over the page.

A Friday Thirteen On A Sunday

Let’s see what iTunes will spit up shall we?

Ordinary World by Duran Duran
Sister Ray by The Velvet Underground
This Place Is Empty by The Rolling Stones
Lovers Of Light by Afro Celt Sound System
Onwards by Afro Celt Sound System
Steeler by Judas Priest
Two Minutes To Midnight by Iron Maiden
Oh Come All Ye Faithful by Twisted Sister
Trash by New York Dolls
Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys
Electric Requiem by Queensrÿche
I Want You Right Now by MC5
Flaming Youth by Kiss

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise. – James Madison

A Bit Of Late Night Rambling

When will we stop looking for a leader to save us? Obama is not going to lead the way in repealing DADT or DOMA and we were fools to expect him to. The victory’s we are seeing such as marriage equality in main and the passage of the Mathew Shepard act have come for grass roots organizing and lobbying. That is where ALL civil rights victories have come from. Here in California we forgot that and depended on one organization to defeat Proposition 8 and got screwed as a result. Now there are several grass roots organizations planning to take the battle back to the ballot box next year. This time we will win.

ANARCHY NOW!

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours – Stephen Roberts

Another Friday Of Random Music

Ramblin’ Man by The Allman Brothers Band
Hold Me Back by AC/DC
Fame by Duran Duran
The Reflex by Duran Duran
Tan Dun: The Eternal Vow by Tan Dun & Yo-Yo Ma
Me And You by Poco
Life At Last (Beef) by Ray Kennedy
Close My Eyes Forever by Lita Ford
Revelations by Iron Maiden
Wearing And Tearing by Led Zeppelin
Hey Grandma by Moby Grape
Walk In The Shadows (Live) by Queensrÿche
Symphony Of Destruction by Megadeth

The Basic Reason I’m An Atheist

There are many claimants to being a god or goddess. They evidence for their claims is all anecdotal, usually contained in various holy books. This evidence is all of roughly equal value, which is to say not much. They can’t all be right, but they can all be wrong. Apply Occam’s Razor and Atheism is the most likely possibility.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Every fact is an enemy of the church. Every fact is a heretic. Every demonstration is an infidel. Everything that ever really happened testifies against the supernatural – Robert Green Ingersoll

A Day Late And A Dollar Short Friday Random Thirteen

Make Me Laugh by Anthrax
After Hours by The Velvet Underground
The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil by Jefferson Airplane
Starship by MC5
Big Cat by Afro Celt Sound System
Riot In Cell Block #9 by Mick Farren
Safe European Home by The Clash
Too Long A Time by Heart
One Good Man by Janis Joplin
Detroit Rock City by Kiss
I’m Gonna Crawl by Led Zeppelin
Dessert Capriccio by Tan Dun & Yo-Yo Ma
Charles Atlas Song (Reprise) by Tim Curry

May Day!

`Workers of the world unite! This is the last line of the Communist Manifesto and seems an appropriate way to start a post on May Day. The political connotation of the day goes back to the Haymarket Affair which the Second International thought would be a good thing to commemorate as International Workers Day.

Of course May 1st has other older connotations such as the Celtic festival of Beltane and the German Walpurgisnacht . So lite a bonfire and fuck your brains out.

Yet More Late Night Thoughts

A bit of randomness, as an atheist I’m always hearing the argument that we are amoral at best because you need GOD to have a sense of morality. Yeah right which is why church goers are more likely to approve of torture . This does make sense given that their god hardened Pharos hart so he could have more sadistic fun inflicting plagues on Egypt.

The gender tides that were flowing to the Goth femme shores also seem to be lapping on the more high femme shores of late. I find myself lusting after some southwest style dress and blouse combinations, yummy stuff.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

I do not believe that any type of religion should ever be introduced into the public schools of the United States. – Thomas Edison

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours – Stephen Roberts

More Late Night Thoughts

Something @laffingbuddha said on twitter triggered some thinking on just how much this country is ruled by fear. It was fear that created a nation of scared sheep who could be panicked into attacking Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11. It is fear of queers that the theocrats use to maintain their following It is racist fear of Black’s Latinos and Asian’s that the Republican party is using to maintain it’s base. It is fear of Communisim/Socialisim that the Insurance industry uses to defeat any attempt at universal health care. Fear of one sort or another has always been the basis of social control. Fear of the wrath of the gods has been the basis of every theocracy down through the ages. On the other hand throwing off your personal fears is the basis for all freedom.

Now if I can just take my own advice and work through my personal fears I may yet have a life.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures have become clearer and stronger with advancing years, and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them. – Abraham Lincoln

My how the Republican party has changed for the worse since their first elected president.

Why Yes I Am An Anarchist

And no anarchism is NOT libertarianism. While both anarchists and libertarians oppose government power libertarians do not oppose private power. They are just fine with corporations having near unlimited power. Anarchists on the other hand distrust any power concentration; we believe power should come from the bottom up, not the top down and always be revocable. Consider we anarchists the political equivalents of peer to peer networking.

Friday Random Thirteen

Treat Me Well by Heart
North by Afro Celt Sound System
Cradle Of Love by Billy Idol
Parachute Woman by The Rolling Stones
Be My Lover by Alice Cooper
Sweet Pain by Kiss
The Wild Boys (Wilder Than Wild Boys) by Duran Duran
Eirigh Suas A Stoirn by Clannad
Electric Eye by Judas Priest
She Creatures Of The Hollywood Hills by The Stooges
Venus In Furs by The Velvet Underground
Nightingale by Eagles
Newgrange by Clannad

A Blog Analysis

The Blogalyser reveals...

Your blog/web page text has an overall readability index of 13.

This suggests that your writing style is conventional
(to communicate well you should aim for a figure between 10 and 20).Your blog has 5 sentences per entry, which suggests your general message is distinguished by clarity
(writing for the web should be concise).

CHARACTER MATRIX

male		female
self		world
past		future

Your text shows characteristics which are 58% male and 42% female
(for more information see the Gender Genie).
Looking at pronoun indicators, you write mainly about yourself, then the world in general and finally your social circle. Also, your writing focuses primarily on the present, next the future and lastly the past.

Find out what your blogging style is like!

What to say about this, I come off as a bit more male than I would like but I am still happy to be about midpoint ( Gender Genie rates me as more female than male). It fits my sense of gender fluidity. It seems I am self centered if not necessarily shallow. It seems I care most about the present which fits with a reply I made to @harveymilk on twitter recently. I think I’m going to do this every month or so to see how my writing changes over time.