How Many Gays Does God Have to Make?

State Representative Steve Simon raises a question before the legislative committee considering a Minnesota anti-gay constitutional amendment this week:  How many gays does God have to create before you accept that He wants them around?

On Second Thought

President Obama and advisors monitoring the Abottabad operation in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011.

About killing Osama bin Laden:  I am still not sorry the son of a bitch is dead. In fact, we have a saying down south here that applies richly to Bin Laden: killing is too good for him. At the very least, a long, slow rot in prison would have been even more deserved, from a certain point of view.   Rudolf Hess got such a punishment for doing a whole lot less.

However, as more details and circumstances have come to light, and I really hate to say this fellas, it is sounding more and more like a knuckle-headed Bush/Cheney operation than something I might have expected our very smart, very sharp President - and the also smart, sharp team around him, such as Hillary and Biden, etc. - to have countenanced.

Specifically, I find myself wondering now:

1. Was it really necessary to blow the bastard away in front of his wife wives and children? I mean, come on guys - is that the American way, really?

2. There are some mumbling efforts to justify the killing that turn on the testimony of our forces that Bin Laden was unarmed but somehow "resisting" when confronted. Um, but this strikes me as a silly misuse of language at best, and a dangerously Bush-Cheney-like manipulation at worst. I mean really, guys - if a screaming somebody with a weapon busted down your bedroom door at 1 a.m. on a moonless night, what would you do? Any human being, crook or straight, would have "resisted" - no? So that's not a justification for anything that might need justifying, but a propaganda trick. Typical of the last Administration, but not worthy of us, I don't think.

3. Was there really absolutely no freaking way to grab the son of a bitch alive and bring him before an international court of justice? Really? Well, he was undercover, holed up deep inside Pakistan . . . yeah, so we couldn't put the screws on the Pakis big time and extradite him?

4. It is a deep but persistent flaw in human nature to idolize dead criminals, no matter how many women and children they killed or how much they stole or who they hurt: e.g., Napoleon, Jesse James, D. B. Cooper, etc., etc., etc. Even without a body, now he becomes the stuff of legend - even among people (not Americans) who suffered on account of what all he did.

5. I know about the Muslim burial rules and all, but even so - in this one very, very special instance, instead of being so quick to observe the niceties of religion, couldn't we have held onto the body for a few days to allow an international team of doctors, diplomats, and journalists to thoroughly examine and verify that the corpse was indeed Bin Laden's? I just heard on the radio a few minutes ago that the White House has changed tack - again! - and has decided to release those gruesome photos of the dead Bin Laden.  (Must have heard wrong.)  But the myth, the legend has already started - the horse is already out of the barn.

So all in all, as strongly as I feel that justice was indeed served to a cold-blooded, merciless killer of thousands of innocents - still, who thought all this through? Did anyone?

Or is Dick Cheney still running the show, from an undisclosed location?  I'm just sayin'. . . .


P.S. - The President will visit Ground Zero this afternoon, meet survivors and responders, and lay a wreath.  Headlines are already referring to it as "milking" the assassination.   I don't think that's what he's doing but you see how it looks in certain quarters.

Jeezus, fellas, sometimes I just get really, really tired of thinking about the world and all the brutality and assininity of it, ya know what I mean?

Canadian Stunner

Source:  CBC.com


Well, the returns are in and Canada is waking up to the biggest political upheaval in twenty years, which has redrawn the political map of our neighbor to the north.  There's a big story about each of the five national parties represented in Parliament, which I'll summarize briefly here, with links to Canadian news sources for anyone who wants to learn more.

First, the Green Party has won its first-ever elected seat in North America, with leader Elizabeth May handily winning her Saanich-Gulf Islands riding, making her the first and only Green MP in Ottawa.

The Bloc Quebecois, for the last two decades something of a spoiler party dedicated to achieving the separation of Quebec from Canada and not much else, went down in flames to a near-total wipeout under the barrage of surging NDP support in that province.  Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe lost his own seat in Parliament, and has already announced his resignation as party leader in this historic switch that brings Quebec back to the national stage as a full player in federal politics.

The other historic loss was suffered by the Liberal Party, long known as "the natural governing party of Canada," which ever since Confederation in 1867 has always been either the ruling party or the Offical Opposition.  But voters definitively put the Grits in a distant third place last night, with Michael Ignatieff losing his own riding to a Conservative challenger.  In his concession speech, Ignatieff said he would stay on as party leader as long as the party wants him to.  [Update, 9:30 a.m. Tuesday:  Ignatieff has announced he will resign and return to his academic career as soon as the party can settle on a successor.]

Smilin' Jack Layton triumphantly surfed the unexpected wave of support for the New Democratic Party in this election to become the leader of the Official Opposition, his party capturing 102 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons, including seats in 8 out of 10 provinces and almost all of the Quebec ridings, which will extend NDP influence and perspective from its former position as the perennial third-place "conscience of Canada."  Some pundits are already saying Jack should enjoy the election-night celebrations because the NDP has hit its zenith and will never reach such a high-water mark in a national election again; but that, of course, remains to be seen, depending on what Layton and Co. do with their newfound popularity and power.

But the story with the biggest and most immediate effect on Canadians is that after years of minority governments, they finally elected an unbeatable majority to power.  Conservative leader Stephen Harper was swept back to Ottawa with a resounding 167-seat majority by Canadian voters, so that his party now not only has more than a majority (155 votes) but outnumbers all other parties combined - which, in a Westminster-style parliament, means that his Government is now unstoppable in practical terms:  They can win any vote, so they can exert their will howsoever they please for the next four years, until constitutionally required to hold another election.  In his victory speech to the party faithful, Harper spoke graciously of his defeated opponents and pledged to govern on behalf of all Canadians, even those who did not vote Conservative.

Which was a nice thing to say, since his Government was brought down five weeks ago in a vote of no-confidence following its being the first and only Government ever found in Contempt of Parliament in any Commonwealth country.  Some Canadian observers have characterized Harper as being petty, vindictive, secretive, ruthless, and thoroughly undemocratic in the way he has rammed through whatever legislation he wanted, or even called upon the Governor-General to simply dissolve Parliament not once, but twice - in order to avoid critical votes.  A great trick, better than a filibuster, even.

Of course, I've never been to Canada - all I know is what I read in the papers.  But your Head Trucker notes that critics of the Harper regime have said that what the Prime Minister wants for kinder, gentler Canada is to become more like the United States, with Big Business given free rein, low taxes on corporations and the wealthy, fewer and smaller social programs, big, big spending on military equipment, and the introduction of socially conservative Bible-Belt policies on issues like abortion, gay rights, minorities, immigration, and women's issues.   In the last five years, his Conservatives have blown a budget surplus accumulated by the previous Liberal Government, and racked up an enormous multi-billion-dollar deficit - which somehow reminds me of another political party south of the border.  I'm just sayin'.

But as someone wiser than me observed long ago, people generally get the government they deserve.  So it will be very interesting to see what happens now with an unbridled majority Conservative Government tromping on the accelerator and the soft-shoe socialist New Democrats trying to apply the brakes from the Opposition benches.  Whatever happens, with Quebec back at the family dinner table, so to speak, and the centrist Liberals stuck way to hell out in the political wilderness, it's sure to be a fascinating new page in Canadian history, if I'm understanding all the news correctly.


Read all about it:

CTV

CBC

The Globe and Mail

JUSTICE SERVED: BIN LADEN DEAD

Mission finally accomplished. Thank you, Mr. President. Well done, U.S. forces.

Update:  Time is coming out this week with a special edition, the cover of which will recall a famous 1945 edition.  Fucking brilliant - you go, guys.

Sunday Drive: Jerusalem

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green & pleasant Land.

--William Blake, 1804

Sealed with a Kiss

Not once, not twice, but three times, hooray!

Of course I watched.  I saw his parents' wedding, so I wanted to see Diana's boy married off too.  And it was all very simple, almost low-key as these things go - but very lovely.  Of course, I smiled and laughed and wept; Diana would have been so proud.

Long life and much happiness to them.

God save the Queen.

P. S. - Who knew Kate had a brother? And James is quite a looker himself:

Marines Get Gay Training

Los Angeles Times:

WASHINGTON – Training for the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that prohibits gays from serving openly in the military is going better than expected, military leaders told Congress on Thursday.

Top officials from the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force testified before the House Armed Services Committee, with several telling committee members that training would be done as early as June.

"I'm looking specifically for issues that might arise coming out of the training, and the reality is that we've not seen them," said Gen. James Amos, the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. "I've asked for feedback . . . the clear majority of it is very positive."

This attitude is a turnaround for several of the generals who vocally opposed the repeal when it was being debated during last year's lame-duck session. Last November, Amos said he was concerned about a possible loss of unit cohesion and combat readiness in the case of a repeal. . . .

The repeal will take effect 60 days after President Obama, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify that it will not be harmful to military operations to reverse the ban.

"Orange Crush" Making Big Waves in Canada

Today's latest chart of election polling, from CTV.com

Your Head Trucker admires a great many things about Canada, not the least of which is their public healthcare system, as well as their legalization of same-sex marriage back in 2005.  So I take a friendly interest in the political happenings of our neighbor to the north; and this week, the rather placid (by American standards) political waters are rising fast in what might turn out to be an unexpected tsunami that will reshape the landscape for some time to come. 

It appears that the New Democratic Party (softcore Socialists, shhhh!), led by Jack Layton, hitherto always in third place, is riding a wave of disgust with politics-as-usual that might put them into office as the official Opposition for the first time ever at the national level.  Experienced pundits say there's slim-to-no chance of Layton becoming Prime Minister - but there is a chance that Conservative leader Stephen Harper might lose his grip on the office somehow, and the Liberals could be reduced to third-party status for the first time since Confederation in 1867, a major upset - all depending on just how the election returns shape up on Monday, May 2.

Speaking of which, they've only been campaigning since the end of March up there:  Canadian elections last only about 5 or 6 weeks.  OMG, isn't that a blessed thought?

Anyway, here's a clip of the Canadian leader's debate that was held a couple of weeks ago.  Your Head Trucker watched the whole thing on youtube, and this short video montage is a fair representation of the tone of the whole.  One Canadian journalist described it as something like "Jack Layton, a smiling, postive guy surrounded by three angry men," which is about right. 



Harper, as you'll see, tries to smile angelically and play the abused-but-saintly leader, but don't be fooled:  he came into office five years ago pledging to revoke the marriage-equality law.  Some people up there call him the George W. Bush of Canada, for that and other reasons.  But fortunately, when he tried to reopen the issue, Parliament voted down his nasty plan, 175-123, a moment your Head Trucker watched on live television and will never forget:  imagine a nation's elected representatives resoundingly approving, for the third time in three years, under three different prime ministers, equality and justice for all.

What a concept.  Imagine!

The NDP was solidly in favor of gay rights on that and all other occasions.  I like Jack; he's a politician, but he seems very sincere, very down to earth, and clear on what's the right thing to do.  Give him a try, google up the NDP platform, see what you think. 

Below, Layton in an iconic picture saluting his supporters at a rally in Winnipeg yesterday, brandishing his cane.  He's recovering from both prostate surgery as a well as a busted leg, but he's a scappy guy.  Good luck to him.  Maybe Canada, at least, will find some Change they can believe in.

Tired Old Queen at the Movies: Funny Face

Steve Hayes reviews the 1957 classic:

It's delightful, it's delicious, it's de-lovely, when Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn and Kay Thompson hit the streets of Paris singing Gershwin in Stanley Donen's classic FUNNY FACE. Audrey plays a seemingly ugly duckling transformed into a swan when she becomes a fashion model who's taken under the wing of fashion photographer Astaire. Playing a character based on Richard Avedon, who oversaw the production and filled it with his classic images, he teams up with Thompson, in her screen debut as a powerful fashion editor, based on Diana Vreeland. Shot in Technicolor, on location in New York and Paris, it's a glorious, music-filled eyeful. Hepburn more than keeps up with Astaire. Thompson commits grand larceny by stealing the film from under both their noses. You'll be swept away with the singing, the dancing, and the magic of April in Paris when you see FUNNY FACE.

Easter Day: Exsultet

A friend writes:

My Exsultet blessing for you.  You know how, especially this excerpt, it seems to still renew me again every year since I was a teen. And it makes me want everyone to feel the same blessed way.

Of this night scripture says:
"The night will be as clear as day:
it will become my light, my joy."

The power of this holy night dispels all evil,
washes guilt away, restores lost innocence,
brings mourners joy;
it casts out hatred, brings us peace,
and humbles earthly pride.

Night truly blessed when heaven is wedded to earth
and man is reconciled with God!

Good Friday: He Was Despised