Queer the Census!

Here's a video commercial for the census from George Takai and his partner, I won't bother to explain since it will be evident when you watch it:

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Beer Monster

The weirdest thing happened today, Bennet was sent an email from a movie studio with a picture of one of my old T-shirts done for STS Graphics in 1986. It’s for a TV pilot that takes place in the 80’s and they wanted to get some authentic clothes for that era. I don’t know how they found this one, doesn’t look like it’s ever been worn or washed.

To make it clear, I was working for STS back then as art director, that company went out of business in the early 90’s. One of the owners decided to re-open a screen printing shop about 5 years ago with the same name. Bennet is my step-son and also the production manager for this new STS Graphics. I work for them on a freelance basis.

What a blast from the past this was. You can see the copyright in the bottom right, which is how we know the date of the art. You can also see my signature just to the right of the beer keg running up the side. This was even done BC - Before Computers, which means all the art was done by hand.

Robert Culp

Image by Nevada Tumbleweed via Flickr

He died yesterday at the age of 79, collapsed on the street in front of his Hollywood home.

Most people probably don’t know who he is but he lives large in my memory because he starred in my favorite TV show when I was a kid, I Spy.

When the show first came on I wanted to see it because I was already a big fan of Bill Cosby, I’d been listening to his comedy albums for years and had them all memorized perfectly, even to the point of having all of Cosby’s voice inflection down perfectly. I was really curious to see how he did as an actor since my 12 year old self thought it strange for a comic to get work as an actor.

The big buzz at the time was the idea of a black man cast as an equal to a white man, but I was so naive about racism in those days I was completely unaware of this at the time and for many years afterwards. It never even occurred to me that something was strange about a black man in a starring role.

Culp played Kelly Robinson, tennis bum, while Cosby played Alexander Scott (Scotty). From the beginning it was Culp who drew my attention even though I watched it because of Cosby. Culp was the better actor and created a character with lots of depth who I found very interesting. No other TV show or movie has done the “buddy” theme as well. The show ran 3 seasons, 1965 to 1968. I managed to find reruns on cable a couple of years ago and found I loved them almost as much now as I did then. The chemistry between the two was still obvious and the stories were still good, for the most part. Parts of it were just pure camp because of the time when it was filmed, but that just added some comedy.

I always felt sorry for Culp because after the show he fell into obscurity while Cosby went on to make TV and comedy history, I thought that was very unfair. Cosby always spoke highly of Culp, saying that he took him under his wing and taught him the acting business and made him feel at home. In 1972 the two teamed up for a movie called Hickey and Boggs where they played 2 old and washed up private eyes, especially Culp who was the older of the two. Word was that Cosby put it together to help Culp out but I don’t know if that was true or not. Don’t know if they ever appeared together again or not.

Robert Culp will always have a special place in my memory and I Spy will always remain one of my favorite shows.

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Hell No You Can't!!

I love this video, it shows who the Republicans really are, evil, strident and negative.

Waterloo

Jim DeMint was right, the health care reform bill has been Obama’s Waterloo, Good Ole Boy Jim just didn’t realize that Obama was playing the part of Wellington and the GOP were Napoleon.

Heh, heh.

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Grammar

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and I thought it was funny enough to put here. I feel his frustration, in these days of email I communicate with most of my clients that way and am amazed at the mistakes. I'm no expert on grammar but at least I know which "there" to use when and the difference between lose and loose.

OK, folks. THEY'RE in THEIR yard over THERE. YOU'RE in YOUR yard. I'm going to go LIE down after I LAY my wallet on the table. If you have a LOOSE tooth, you may LOSE it. *** There, I'm finally got that off my chest.

Of course, it's pretty funny that he should have said "I've" in that last sentence.

When people correct my grammar and spelling I always appreciate it, we all (or most) have things we either missed or our brains twist around and can't remember. I've seen loose used wrongly so many times after 17 years on the web that there are times when I have to think about which one to use.

And I have Dan to thank for knowing when to use it's and its.

Krugman on Health Care

Image by Taekwonweirdo via Flickr

On his own blog Krugman has a post called Health Reform Myths. He addresses the myths and knocks them down - easily. It's easy to do because all of the complaints the right has raised are non-existant. In other words, they are lying.

All they want to do is have Obama fail and they don't want any kind of health care reform anyway, so they lie in order to get their ignorant base all riled up over things that doesn't exist. They think they have succeeded because the polls show a majority of Americans disapproving of the bill, but the fact is when parts of the bill are broken down and polled people like all the individual parts of it.

And a lot of those that don't like it are liberals who think it's a government give-away to health care insurance companies and is lacking a public option. But Krugman says this:

For a real piece of passable legislation, however, it looks very good. It wouldn’t transform our health care system; in fact, Americans whose jobs come with health coverage would see little effect. But it would make a huge difference to the less fortunate among us, even as it would do more to control costs than anything we’ve done before.

This is a reasonable, responsible plan. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

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A Great Caption

One of my regular blogs that I follow is Atheist Revolution. Yesterday he had a picture on his site that was great, the best part being the caption. Go here to read it. Made me laugh out loud.

The Chilean Earthquake

Image via Wikipedia

Of course we have all heard of the Earthquake in Chile. It was 8.8 in magnitude and was actually off shore of Chile, which means they also got a tsunami that did quite a lot of damage. It was the 7th strongest earthquake ever recorded.

The part that blows my mind is that it tilted the earth's axis by 3 more inches. It also increased the speed of the Earth's rotation so now our days are 1.26 milliseconds shorter. Set your alarm clock accordingly.

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Health Care Summit

Image by ~C4Chaos via Flickr

I thought this summit thing with the Republicans, Democrats and the President was going to be a farce and it pretty much was, but I was also pleasantly surprised. The one good thing about it was Obama’s performance. He was strong, decisive and in charge, it was clear he had - finally - taken over health care and was going to get it done, no more nonsense. We’ve only been waiting for a year for him to do that, with a lot of people saying he needed to grow a pair.

Well, today he did. He dominated the debate, clearly pushing the Republicans around. He called them all only by their first names, that was absolutely brilliant, McCain really didn't care for that at all. He let them know they were in the White House and he was the president and he trumps all of them. I’ve never seen him be so forceful and commanding before, good show.

And he would not let the Republicans get away with their usual talking points (lies). Every time they told their lies he corrected them, strongly. He was so strong he was barely being polite and made sure he got his point across that the Republican talking point was completely wrong. And he did it over and over again. I’ve been wanting the Democrats in general to do that for years, instead they always just let the Republicans win the propaganda war.

One part that really stood out was when one idiot Republican kept saying how Congress should have high deductible insurance plans along with Health Savings Accounts, that way they would have skin in the game and be more responsible in their health care choices, implying that it would work well for America, too. Obama said that’s easy for him to say because he makes $160,000 a year, but that idea just isn’t viable to the farmer making $40,000 a year. The IR (Idiot Republican) came back and tried to make the point again and Obama slapped him down again and did it several times. The IR came across as this rich guy completely out of touch with 95% of the American public (because he was) while, for the first time since his Inauguration, I saw Obama acting as a true, and impassioned, advocate for the working man, for the struggling middle class. Instead of a supporter of the corporations.

At the end Obama gave a little speech to the press, the gist of which was he appeared to realize that the Republicans were never going to support the health bill, that it wasn’t in their political self-interest to do so. It’s about time he gave up on his idea of bi-partisanship. I’m feeling more hopeful in regards to both Obama and health care reform than I have at any point up until now. It finally looked like he understood the situation and knew what he had to do to get things done.

Hope I’m right this time.

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DICK!

Image by futureatlas.com via Flickr

Cheney had his 5th heart attack a couple of days ago and survived it. I get the feeling that if he died no one would be able to tell the difference, he would look and sound the same.

Dick first got his government insurance back in 1967, before his first heart attack. Isn’t it funny how Republicans LOVE their own government-run insurance plans but it’s evil to give that to the rest of us? Hahaha! Fucking funny as hell.

If Dick was an average guy like you and me he would have died by his 3rd heart attack because by then his insurance company would have refused coverage because it’s a pre-existing condition. Or else Dick would have lost everything paying for the things insurance won’t cover to the point where he could no longer pay his insurance premiums so they would have dropped him.

I bet Dick never loses a single night’s sleep thinking about those of us out here in America for whom a heart attack is fatal because we can’t pay for it.

If only we had that evil, socialist, government-run health insurance that Dick has.

That is the god-damned death panel, Sarah Palin!

Keith Olbermann said that on his Special Comment last night. He did a brilliant one on health care once again about his dad. He speaks about it the way only one who has gone through it could and I was in tears by the end of it. It was all familiar to me, hell, I even understood most of the medical terminology and procedures he talked about. Anyone who thinks this is hyperbole simply hasn’t been through it, especially with a loved one that you know is going to die, you just don’t know when.

Keith’s theme this time was the death panels the Right has been going on and on about. He had long talks with his dad about what he wanted and with his dad’s doctors, so everyone knew Keith had final say and what his dad’s wishes were. This is what those so-called death panels are, a chance to pay the doctor for having these very necessary discussions. He called these Life Panels. Keith said having all this squared away was the only feeling of comfort he had in the whole thing and that the real death panels were already happening when the insurance companies deny coverage that will save someone’s life.

I know Darcy and I - and her doctor - had these discussions, and I had fully expected for the last 16 years that someday I’d have to step in and tell them to disconnect the breathing machine and pull the intubation tube. I saw my roll as coming in to rescue her from a medical profession that is unable to let someone die when that is the better choice. Darcy’s greatest fear was being on intubation in a nursing home indefinitely.

Keith said that his out of pocket expenses were higher for HIM than they were for his dad because Dad had Medicare. The same was true of Darcy, no treatment was ever denied to her because she was on Medicare, in fact, according to her email lung-buddies it was all the people with private insurance who had nothing but problems and had to fight with those companies constantly. Let me assure you that fighting with your insurance company when you’ve just been diagnosed with a fatal disease is horrible. This idea of “socialized medicine” being a big boogie man is pure bullshit and designed to push people’s buttons, to get irrational, emotional reactions from them. Most of the people crying about socialism don’t even know what it is.

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The Old Lady and the Thief

I love this video, it speaks for itself no need for me to say anything about it accept YOU GO, GIRL!!

Global Warming

I am so sick of all the Right Wingnuts ranting about how the storm in Washington DC disproves global warming. Most of the time I think those people know they are lying but do it anyway because all their fortunes and power are based on a specific set of lies, the truth is their enemy. But this time I think they really are ignorant of the facts and willfully maintain that ignorance.

If anything the worst storm in Washington in living memory is clear evidence in support of global warming. The warming refers to the ENTIRE globe, not little sections of it. Whatever “weather” is happening in any one section of the globe does not speak to global “climate.”

Note the phrases Local Weather and Global Climate, two very different things.

But a really bad storm would be caused by global warming. The extra warmth puts more energy into the weather systems and also causes more evaporation of water which makes the air more humid. So what do you get with increased energy to drive the weather and greater moisture? Record snow storms in places that get snow, exactly like what is happening now.

At some future date it’s entirely possible that all snow across the globe is gone but there will be a lot fewer people around to complain about it.

The wingnuts have doomed their own children and grandchildren to live in a world where things keep getting progressively worse, where droughts and blazing heat, vicious snow storms and massive hurricanes are all the norm, making life difficult for a lot of people. And why are they doing it? For money. They don’t give a damn about their own decedents or are incapable of projecting their imaginations that far ahead.

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The United Corporations of America

The UCA is here, the Supreme Court has removed all limits on corporate spending in politics, with the exception of actually giving money directly to a candidate. But other than that, no restrictions, as many organizations and commercials that billions of dollars can buy. In small districts it would be possible for one corporation to buy up ALL available time and block all opposing views. Half our government is already bought by the big corporations, now it will become complete. Obama cab raise millions from individuals? Doesn't matter, his Republican opponent could muster up billions because we all know the Republicans only represent the corps' and not the people.

Keith Olbermann gives a pretty strong Special Comment about it. Keith is known for going over the top, but this time I think he is right on, even though it sounds like he's over the top.

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Howard Fineman

This video is from the Rachel Maddow Show. It's notable because of the emotion from Fineman when discussing Obama. He clearly is angry and disappointed at Obama's shortcomings as a politician.

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Obama Gets Tough

I have been a major critic of Obama from before he was even elected, he's far too conservative for me. This video shows him trying to get tough with the banks we have bailed out. It's relatively minor action but at least it's something and at least it something where Obama isn't in the back pocket of Big Money. Let's hope he does more.

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Hooray for New Hampshire

Eugene Robinson

Is my favorite commentator who often appears on Countdown and Rachel Maddow and he says Jim DeMint, GOP senator from South Carolina, is 'Delusional, Crazy, Nuts, Insane' I couldn't agree more and thought so long before current events. Remember that it was DeMint who said if they can stop health care it will be Obama's Waterloo.

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Top Ten Creationist Arguments

Found this great video on YouTube thanks to Rick on Atheist Nexus. I thought it was an especially good one:

Simple Pleasures

Sometimes in life it's those simple things that mean a lot, for me, today, this meant a BISSELL - Little Green Compact Multipurpose Handheld Deep Cleaner - Green that I picked up at Best Buy for around $75. Best Buy is great, order something online and you can pick it up at one of their stores in a few hours, and I have one near work and another near my house.

This is a little spot cleaner, a good thing to have when you have pets. It started with a big brown spot under my computer table. Looked just like a leaf, which Aki had been bringing in the house just about every day lately. It's like she thinks they are prey that she has hunted down, she's not the sharpest cat in the kitty box. So because I thought it was a leaf I just left it for several days.

Turns out is was kitty yak (the grass in it is the dead giveaway), but because I thought it was a leaf I let it sit long enough to harden and become hard to clean. Then they did another one upstairs in the hall. Now, my place is half tile, the living room, kitchen and dining room are all tile, which I like a lot. The bedrooms and the hall are the only places with carpet. So where to the cats decide to yak? The carpet of course.

So now I'm feeling really annoyed and in no mood to clean this stuff up, so I started researching carpet cleaners, finally I settled on this little green machine for a number of reasons, being cheap was the main one. And as a cat owner I figure I'm going to need this thing for years.

So I pick it up this morning at Best Buy, bring it home and what happens? Sucker worked perfectly. How often does that happen??!! Now these annoying spots are gone and it makes me feel better about life in general, and I'm armed with a great weapon for the next time we get some kitty yak.

Yemen

Rachel Maddow and Richard Engel give a clear view of Yemen:

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Me and Darcy

This is from 1985 when we were first dating. We are walking up the stairs where we both worked at STS Graphics, I don't remember who took the photo. This has to be the earliest photo of us together.

A Hard Headed Woman

I'm sitting here listening to Cat Stevens and thinking about Darcy. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of her death. The songs make me cry.

I'm looking for a hard headed woman

One who will take me for myself,

And if I find my hard headed woman,

I will need nobody else, no, no.

I'm looking for a hard headed woman,

One who will make me do my best,

And if I find my hard headed woman

I know the rest of my life will be blessed -- yes, yes, yes.

Here are the lyrics to I Think I See The Light :

I used to trust nobody, trusting even less their words,

until I found somebody, there was no one I preferred,

my heart was made of stone, my eyes saw only misty grey,

Until you came into my life girl, I saw everyone that way.

Until I found the one I needed at my side,

I think I would have been a sad man all my life.

I used to walk alone, every step seemed the same.

This world was not my home, so there was nothing much to gain.

Look up and see the clouds, look down and see the cold floor.

Until you came into my life girl, I saw nothing, nothing more.

Until I found the one I needed at my side,

I think I would have been a sad man all my life.

What happens when you've already found your hard headed woman and she died?

The New Car

Ever notice that when you buy a new car you suddenly start seeing all other cars like yours? I really saw this happen when I bought my 1996 Camry, it was the top selling car in America at the time and when I bought mine suddenly they were everywhere!

But with this new Elantra I didn’t see another one for 3 weeks. Actually kind of worried me a little, but I figure that’s why I got such a good deal on it. But now after 5 weeks of ownership I’ve seen 5 Elantras! There is even one on the same street where I work so I pass it every day.

Haven’t seen one in my color, though. I really like the color, a medium metallic gray, darker than the silver color that is so popular on cars that I REALLY can’t stand because it’s so boring. But it’s lighter than most dark gray cars you would see, and has a little hint of blue in the gray. I find it the perfect color, it’s light enough that my car doesn’t get that hot - WAY better than my black Camry. And it’s very hard to see any dirt on my car too. I’ve only had it washed once in the past 5 weeks and I couldn’t tell the difference before or after. On my Camry it would look dirty by the next day - black cars look cool but I don’t ever want one again.

I enjoy my Elantra every day, fun to drive and very comfortable. the gas mileage isn’t as good as I would like, around 21.5 mpg with about 85% street and 15% freeway driving. Still a lot better than my Camry which got just a little over 16 mpg with the same driving. With the Camry I filled up it’s 18 gallon tank every 2 weeks, with the Elantra I’ve only filled up once so far but I’m getting close to a second fill-up. So we are talking 2.5 to 3 weeks to fill up what is only a 13 gallon tank, substantial savings.

And then there is is’t most important feature - a cup holder that takes a really big cup! Back when I bought the Camry the drinks hadn’t even gotten that large yet and it wasn’t a problem for a couple of years, but it’s drink cup was just the right size for an average 12 oz can, way too small. Even medium drinks would not fit in it, so I’d have to put the drink on the seat next to me and hold it with my right hand while driving, very annoying. Good thing I had an automatic, although it was a little tricky sometimes when I was smoking. Now I have a cup holder that can handle the largest drink with no problem at all.

Life is good, almost. We are approaching the first anniversary of Darcy’s death but we won’t talk about that now.

Copenhagen

Obama got totally dissed by the Chinese today in Copenhagen, to a degree that would never have happened in the pre-Bushian world. But good ole George lowered the bar so far world leaders think they can fuck with us now. It really makes my blood boil to see an American president treated that way, how far we have fallen. On the plus side Obama seemed to have rallied a bit and got a conversation going, but afterwards he looked visibly shaken. Rachel and Andrea Mitchell report:

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And then there is Senator Inhofe. He wanted to go there and talk about global warming being a hoax. No one wanted to listen to him and one reporter called him ridiculous. Man, that's all we need, more embarrassing Americans abroad:

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A Better World

Just found the perfect cartoon that sums up global warming deniers perfectly, found it here:

Tis the Season

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

And let's all remember the reason for the season - The Winter's Solstice! This year the solstice happens at 9:47 a.m. on Monday, December 21, 2009. That will be the local time here in California. That means it's the shortest day of the year also called the Yule and the Saturnalia. So remember your pagan rituals, burn a Yule log and drink mead, set up a tree and decorate it, etc.

Christian Billboard

One blog I frequent is The Gaytheist Agenda. the most recent post has me laughing and laughing. Go look at it first them come back here:

“Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow”.

What a weird billboard to put up. It makes me start fantasizing about God's sex life. Hey, he ought to be able to do all kinds of amazing stuff, I wonder if he has an infinite penis?

Keith and Health care

Keith Olbermann did another Special Comment, really laying it on the line about the anemic health care bill as it currently stands.

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