Glitter Bombs and WTF

OK, I have been doing political activism sine the mid 1970's and I can tell you one thing.  Never do an act of civil disobedience unless there is a clear and obvious message to be sent by doing it.  Sit-ins at lunch counters during the Civil Rights struggle, made perfect sense.  Stonewall riots, made very clear what the point was.  Even the often misunderstood Occupy Wall Street movement has finally gotten a clear media talking point. 

Then there is glitter bombing.  I understand it because I have been privy to the gay media take on it, however to the mainstream media and most folks, it's just strange and silly.  This glitter bomb of Carl Rove makes my point.  I know what it is about, maybe, but the folks standing in line are just cofused and the whole thing is festive but pointless.

For Carl perhaps setting his pants on fire to emphasize the fact that he is a compulsive liar?  (just a joke homeland security)  Something that actually makes the point rather than just makes him sparkly.  And worse they used big metallic confetti not real glitter.  That stuff never comes out, but the confetti just brushes off.  Ah, kids these days!

Values Voter Summit - Industrial Strength Crazy

The immense amount of crazy pouring from the Values Voter Summit is astounding.  Though I don't have any transcripts from there yet, take a listen to this crap from one of the speakers as previously broadcast on the American Family Association radio program.

And please tell me how equal rights for all Americans is a "zero sum game"? These people are friggin' hate mongers plain and simple.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish - Steve Jobs Commencement Address at Stanford 2005

This speech is well worth listening to.  I suspect it will be taught in business schools in the future and perhaps we will have a culture that is a little more innovative and a lot less money hungry.  Jobs wasn't so much interested in taking the proscribed "path to success" rather he let life toss challenges at him and find his own path. Enjoy!

Meet The Enemy - Value Voters Summit Speakers - Compilation

People for the American Way compiled this video of the speaker line up for the "Value Voters Summit".  Give this a look and listen carefully to how these guys use rhetoric to make the screwy connections they do about LGBT people and Nazi's, Marxists, Socialists, etc.  Make no mistake, they are trying to demonize LGBT Americans, plain and simple.

Tennessee High School Principal Assaults Student for Wearing Pro-Gay T-Shirt

I guess this must be another example of good ol' family values in Tennessee. A 17 year old student was assaulted and verbally abused by his high school principal for wearing a shirt supporting the attempt to establish a Gay-Straight Alliance on campus.

Chris Sigler, a student at Sequoyah High School in Madisonville, Tennessee has enlisted the ACLU for help in the matter. Sigler wore a homemade T-shirt to school that said "GSA: We've Got Your Back".  According to a statement by the ACLU, the following assault was the result.

A teacher ordered Sigler to cover up the shirt in the future. Sigler, knowing he had a right to wear the shirt, wore it again Friday, and resisted an order to remove the shirt. Sigler says that Moser then ordered all students out of the classroom, except for Sigler’s sister Jessica, who refused to leave. According to both students, Moser then grabbed Sigler’s arm, shoved him, and chest-bumped him repeatedly while asking “Who’s the big man now?” Sigler’s mother reported that when she arrived at the school, she saw her son seated in a desk with Moser leaning over him and shouting in Sigler’s face. The Siglers filed a report about the incident that afternoon with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department.

 Guess Tennessee is still waiting for the "It Gets Better" campaign to have an effect?  I single out Tennessee, because my maternal roots are from that state and it seems that all states beginning with the letter "T" in this country are about as bigoted and backward as can be.  For the record, I live in Texas!

George Carlin - Speaking the Truth From Beyond the Grave

The Occupy Wall Street people would be well advised to watch this and adopt the very clear and simple argument of the late George Carlin.

Church Pastor and Deacons Assault Gay Couple

This is just about as ugly as it gets.  What the hell kind of Christianity are these people practicing?

Surviving another Beyond Vanilla

Beyond Vanilla, the yearly celebration of all things kinky in Dallas has been pat of our city's Leather community for 21 years. For many of those years I have been a part of the event, either as an attendee, presenter or organizer.  This year I served on the organizing committee as entertainment chair and figured I would be getting off easy.  Not so fast.

My chief duty was producing a show for Friday night entertainment and helping out with things during the Teeter Totter-a-thon, the fund-raising and fun event that benefits Bryan's House.  How hard could it be?

Well, considering the fact that I always bite off a bit more than I can chew, pretty hard, but fun.  The Friday night show was my chief concern.  Since it was our 21st year and we had adopted a Las Vegas theme (21 and all) I figured a Burlesque Review would be the kind of thing that would be perfect.

Enter my friend Lillith Grey.  Lillith is a very attractive woman, a Leather activist, a burlesque performer, a producer and PhD candidate. She generously offered a list of performers she thought would be suitable for our show.

Thanks to YouTube, I managed to view most of the performers acts and put together a roster of folks who would give the show the kid of pizazz I thought it deserved.  Now, all we needed was a stage, lights, sound and Las Vegas table games to round out the decor.

All day Friday, with the help of my friends Ron, Steven and Claire we assembled the stage, put up the lights and wired up the sound system, By 4:00pm everything actually worked and all that was left was performers, dealers for the Blackjack tables and our DJ for the evening.

After a last minute scare when one performer got lost on the freeway, we ran though the show and it came off flawlessly.

What I forgot was, taking everything down.  Surprise!  Forgot to schedule volunteers to help.  Today, I managed to rope Ty into assisting and we are loading the car this morning.

Now I know why I will never join the Circus.  It's all glitter and lights during the show, but mainly a lot of back breaking work before and after that nobody sees.  Ah the glamor of show business!