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!

Transgender Attacks in DC - Troubling Trend

This morning I listened to a report on NPR that gave chilling details of the attacks on transgender DC residents in recent days.  The most abhorent of these was described in the article.

"On Aug. 26, an off-duty police officer stood on the hood of a car and shot through its windshield, hitting two transgender women and a male friend, wounding one critically. The officer is a 20-year veteran of the city's police force and is currently in jail, awaiting trial."

This is more than disturbing, and when coupled with the DC Police reluctance to call these attacks Hate Crimes it gives a picture of violence against transgender citizens that is pervasive. 

A study, conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality, surveyed nearly 6,500 transgender Americans.  In that study they found that 26 percent of people surveyed had been victims of physical assaults because they were transgender.

These assaults and this trend needs to be brought to a higher profile, perhaps if enough people are as horrified as I am by this something will be done to stem toe violence.

Rosh Hashanah In The House Tonight!

Actually tomorrow night, but enjoy anyway!

Lawrence O'Donnell Exposes NYPD Police Bruitality

Whether you agree or disagree with the Occupy Wall Street people this report is worth a view.  The NYPD is looking like a bunch of thugs and they are trying their best to cover it up.  They are attacking people with cameras and inncoent folks. Time for an investigation and specifically some changes made!

China's High-Speed Rail - Progress or Propaganda?

From the People's Republic of Chairman Mao to the current capitalist economic powerhouse, China has seemingly been a lesson in turnarounds.  The latest example of progress is the high-speed rail network that has been constructed at a breakneck pace to show the world how progressive and modern China is.

The reality is much less impressive.  Since the deadly crash on the new rail line in July that killed 40 people that progress is being exposed as an exercise in corruption and incompetence.  In a recent NPR report it was revealed that the blame for the crash keeps shifting, looking more like a political issue than a real investigation of the cause. 

Shoddy workmanship, substandard materials and poor engineering have led to the system slowdown from what promised to be 217mph trains are now limited to 186mph for safety reasons.  Worse still are indications that corners were cut to cash in on profits from construction across the system.  One example was the new terminal building at Nanjing.  The huge glass encased station developed leaks in the roof that resulted in parts of the building to sink into the ground. Outside the entire newly paved square had to be reconstructed due to shoddy materials.

Anyone who has bought goods manufactured in China has undoubtedly been aware of the quality control problems faced in a country where capitalism seems to have run amok.  Though the new high-speed rail system was intended to be a showcase for Chinese engineering and progress, it is tainted with the same cache as anything labeled "made in China". That label translates to, "let the buyer beware" in many cases and it seems from the smallest cheaply made Walmart products to the biggest projects in China, the problems of quality will persist.  God help Chinese astronauts in the future!

Occupy Wall Street - Frustration Without Focus

After trying to get a handle on the Occupy Wall Street protests I find I am at a loss to understand exactly what these people are protesting. I personally think the current state of Corporate America is badly broken and the folks on Wall Street are merely the super-wealthy making side-bets in the casino. The frustration the protesters feel, the being diss-empowered and cogs in a big machine they have no control over is palpable, but their message is so scattered it is not getting through to the media.

If they want to really have an effect they need to pick one big grievance that everyone can get behind and jettison the hangers on and distractions.  They need to look more like a popular revolt and less like a neo-hippy street fair.

I support the idea that we need to stop the kind of corporate looting of our economy that has gone on for the last 30+ years, but changing that will take more than buskers and students who can't express a clear concise vision for the protest.

Remember folks, America suffers from societal ADD, and unless you can encapsulate your message into a sound bite, it will be lost.

More Brutality by NYPD - Pepper Spray on Peaceful Protestor

This is getting way out of hand in NYC at the Occupy Wall Street protest.

A policeman walks up to a protestor who is corralled in a temporary fence and sprays her with pepper spray without provocation, then calmly turns and walks away.  Watch the slow motion video.

NYPD Using Excessive Violence Against Peaceful Protestors

The Occupy Wall Street protest is getting ugly, and it's the police that are becoming violent.  This video clearly shows a protestor being violently thrown to the grown for doing nothing.  His hands are raised in a gesture of surrender to the police and he is just talking when the officer wrenches his arm and throws him to the ground.

Though I think the protestors are really scattered in their message, they have a right to be there and the NYPD is doing itself no favors by abusing them. 

"Occupy Wall Street" Spreads to LA

A small group of protesters has started demonstrating in Los Angeles with the same message as the group on Wall Street.  A spokesperson for the group gave a much more succinct message than the group on Wall Street.

"Corporate interests seem to be controlling both parties,” one protester told laactivist.com. “The ‘little man,’ the ‘American every man,’ just isn’t getting their voice heard. When you need $35,000 to donate to a campaign to get your voice heard, to have a meeting, that’s not democracy.”

That is the kind of message that will resonate.

Tommy Wi Show? From the Man Who Brought You the Room!

Tommy Wiseau, the man who brought you the amazingly bad movie "The Room" now has a web series.  I guess he figures we just can't get enough of him.  Maybe he is right.  After struggling to watch the movie, to see him in this series, playing video games is more of the same pointless drivel, yet it is strangely compelling.  Maybe it is a Dada-esque take on new media, or maybe it is just a megalomaniac with too much money. 

Watch at your own peril.

Occupation of Wall Street - Haven't Heard of It? Not Surprised.

for the past several days a really grass roots effort to make a point has been going on and the media has been largely ignoring it.  A group of predominately young activists have set up camp at Liberty Square in the financial district of New York City.  Essentially they are occupying Wall Street.

Why?  Well these are the folks who stayed in school, got saddled with a load of school loans and debt and now emerge into a world where there is just not that much opportunity.  A place where the super-rich control the money and banking and the average American is just SOL.

There are people who have just awakened to the realization that our economic system is being perverted for the benefit of a few very powerful people who have gamed the system for their own purpose.  They have discovered that we are living in a 3rd world economy masquerading as the 1st world. 

Harsh assessment?  Well that is the assessment the people occupying the financial district have made and I tend to agree with them.  My fear is this is only going to get worse and I am amazed that more people haven't heard about it.  If you want to learn more and support the cause go here.

Due to media blackouts and police harassment of the media, this revolution is not being televised, so far.

Cure for Cancer? Might Just be A Virus!

Cancer research is of interest to me.  Not just because my mother died of the disease but because my father was a research scientist pursuing a cure for liver cancer.  Though his years of research did yield some interesting results, they were nothing like this.

Researchers at  Penn State College of Medicine have discovered a virus that seems to destroy cancers. Specifically they found that the virus, adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2) which is benign in humans is deadly to HPV a precursor to cervical cancer.  Additionally, they found that in the lab the virus destroys human breast cancer cells very efficiently.

More here on Raw Story.

Caught on Red Light Camera? CERN Finds Particle Traveling Faster than Speed of Light.

The theoretical speed limit for all things in the universe has apparently been broken.  CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research have clocked neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light.


According to an AP report:

"CERN says a neutrino beam fired from a particle accelerator near Geneva to a lab 454 miles (730 kilometers) away in Italy traveled 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. Scientists calculated the margin of error at just 10 nanoseconds, making the difference statistically significant. But given the enormous implications of the find, they still spent months checking and rechecking their results to make sure there was no flaws in the experiment."

If this can be verified it will change the way we understand physics and rethink the laws of nature. 

My hope is this leads to warp drive technology. Star Trek here I come!