Via Dan Savage over at SLOG…I find my way to this…

County commissioner Bruce Barclay resigns

Cumberland County Commissioner Bruce Barclay resigned this afternoon, hours after it became public that he is the focus of a state police investigation of an allegation of rape

County President Judge Edgar Bayley said he received the resignation of Barclay, 48, a Monroe Twp. Republican, around 3 p.m. The county’s five judges will choose a replacement, who must be a Republican, Bayley said

Well of course he Must Be A Republican.  You wouldn’t want one of those godless secular hedonistic democrats in government would you??? 

No charges have been filed against Barclay. His attorney, Matthew Gover, called the rape allegation "ludicrous."

Ludicrous did you say?  Well…yes…it’s not rape if the other person involved is an adult who consented to the act…er…for a fee…

Police: Barclay secretly videotaped “100 to 500” sexual encounters with hidden camera network

Former commissioner’s attorney: Footage shows rape charge unfounded

State police say former Cumberland County commissioner Bruce Barclay videotaped hundreds of sexual encounters — many with male escorts — using cameras hidden throughout his Monroe Township home.

Police say the sexual encounters were videotaped without the knowledge of the participants, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed Tuesday with Magisterial District Judge Susan Day. Court documents say cameras were installed in January of 2007.

Investigators are searching items seized from Barclay’s residence a second time in relation to a rape investigation.

Reading a prepared statement, Barclay’s attorney, Matthew Gover, said although he and Barclay do not agree with everything in the affidavit, “It is clear in my client’s private life he has made an error of judgment. What is striking is this very same lack of judgment exonerates him from a rape allegation that wasn’t going anywhere.”

…

According to court documents, Trooper Bryan R. Henneman said he “received information prior to the search warrant that Barclay had been involved in the hiring of prostitutes.”

During a subsequent interview, Henneman said Barclay admitted to hiring prostitutes on a weekly basis at his residence in Monroe Twp.”

The affidavit describes several such encounters with an Internet escort service known as “harrisburgfratboys.com.” Court documents indicate Barclay twice flew a 19-year-old man referred to as “W.M.” to his West Palm Beach home. During a trip last month, “W.M” told investigators that Barclay flew a male prostitute from Binghamton, N.Y., and paid that man $1,500.

Wow.  This is the second one and half grand escort I’ve read about in the past few weeks.  And you thought the price of gasoline was skyrocketing… 

Hidden camera network

The affidavit describes a hidden camera network that included cameras hidden in a bathroom, bedrooms and “indoor recreational areas.” Cameras were hidden inside AM/FM radios, motion detectors and intercom speaker systems, court documents say.

During an interview with Barclay, Henneman said he “admitted to using the cameras to record sexual encounters.” Police say Barclay saved between 100 and 500 encounters on his computer system.

According to court documents “Barclay stated that no one else was aware of the hidden cameras and also that no one else was aware that the sexual encounters were videotaped or gave him permission to videotape the encounters.”

Business camera

Henneman said Barclay also admitted to having a camera installed at his business along the 500 block of North York Street in Mechanicsburg. According to court documents, Barclay told Henneman that one sexual encounter was filmed on that camera, which also fed into his home computer network.

Barclay told Henneman that “at least” five additional males were filmed having sex “who were unaware that they were being filmed.”
 

How much you want to bet this jackass is completely onboard with the drive to write an anti-same sex marriage amendment into the Pennsylvania constitution?  Gotta defend those family values…

And in other news…

News 8 has obtained the complete search warrant request and affidavit of probable cause. You can read it in its entirety here, however, please note that some of it is graphic.

Now I know why people keep buying celebrity biographies…

Coldplay sleep aid

The Travelodge hotel chain have conducted a survey of 2,248 Brits to find out what helps them go to sleep.

According to Reuters Coldplay topped the list of music that acts as the perfect sleeping pill replacement. James Blunt, Snow Patrol, Take That and Norah Jones were also high on the list.

Sleep inducing music wasn’t the only topic polled. Reuters reports, "But those who prefer to be tucked in with a book at night judged celebrity autobiographies as the most effective sleep aid, with the life stories of glamour model Jordan, soccer star David Beckham and Sharon Osbourne ranking at the top."

White noise generally puts me to sleep.  No, that’s not the name of an Easy Listening orchestra.  At least I don’t think so.

This in my email box, from the Southern Poverty Law Center…

Last week, we asked you to take a stand against the growing number of white supremacist, neo-Nazi, anti-immigrant, anti-gay and other hate groups in our country — a staggering 48% increase since 2000.

Funny how that worked out, isn’t it?  The Bush republicans take over the Federal Government, and a majority of the statehouses, and what do you know…hate groups just start springing up everywhere…

Here’s the rest of the email…  Figured I’d pass it along in case any of you reading this wanted to join in…

Thousands of people of goodwill — just like you — responded by adding themselves to our map as a voice for tolerance.

It’s not too late for you to join all those who are standing strong against hate.

You’ve shown your commitment to ending injustice and racism. Now, I’m asking you to show your concern about this alarming increase in hate groups by taking a stand against hate.

We need people in every city, county and state to stand up and be counted and show that we are a nation that will not accept the hate, racism and intolerance infecting our communities, schools and political debate.

Please add yourself to our interactive map as a voice for tolerance — and find out which hate groups are active in your area.

I’m also asking that you send your friends this link and ask them to take a stand against hate.

www.StandStrongAgainstHate.org

And if they’re fortunate enough to be in an area with few hate groups, then tell them it’s important to take a stand now, before the seeds of hate take root in their communities.

Together we can make a difference.

Thank you for your commitment to ending injustice and racism.

Sincerely,
Morris Dees, Founder
 

When I was 16 I had a dark secret.  Something that embarrassed me deeply.  Something I knew I could never tell my friends about.  No…not my sexual orientation, although this secret of mine really should have spelled it out for me in neon lights.  But I was young, and naive, and full of all the myths, lies and superstitions about homosexuality that the adults in my life had fed me, so I was sure I wasn’t one.  I didn’t swish…I didn’t lisp…I enjoyed most of the typical boyhood pastimes and had little to no use for girl things.  Well…except one.  My private stash of Tiger Beat and 16 Magazines.  That was my embarrassing secret.

Every month when the new issues would come out, I would sweat blood walking to a drugstore miles away from the nearest ones to my apartment, to get my fix where hopefully none of my school mates would recognize me.  Once there I would load up on several other magazines and stuff the ones I really wanted in the middle of the stack and hope the checkout clerk wouldn’t notice too much that a teenage boy was buying teenage girl magazines.  Occasionally an eyebrow would arch in my direction, and I would lamely say I was buying them for a non-existent sister.  More often then not, the statement was greeted with smirking disbelief.  Checkout clerks probably know more about human nature then priests do.

I would take my swag home and immediately open the teen mags and go right to the pages with photos of my favorites on them…my teenage heart-throbs if I had enough courage back then to acknowledge it.  But I didn’t.  I’d been told all my life that homosexuals were dangerous psychopaths who killed and mutilated strangers while having horrible, perverse sex.  And I, being a bit of a late bloomer actually, was still too young to have all that much interest in sex.  But I knew I liked looking at beautiful guys.  I knew that something about them made my heart sigh.  I would lay awake some nights imagining how it would be to be their best friend.

Looking back on all of it, in a different world I could have had my own sweet little teenybopper adolescence.  It would have been nice to be able to grow up like most other kids without fear or shame of my own sexuality, and just grow into it naturally.  I picture myself sometimes at that age, sitting at my desk, pen or brush in hand, working on a cartoon for the school newspaper, or alternatively soldering iron in hand, circuit boards and a tray of components in front of me, working on a new Heathkit stereo, photos of my favorite funny cars on the wall in front of me, side by side with those of my current male teen heartthrob, the radio next to me playing bubblegum pop.  But for a change it’s something that isn’t afraid to speak to the gay teens in the audience too…

David Cassidy…man oh man…what a bitchin’ Fox!!!

I picture myself being open and cheerful about my developing romantic interests in guys.  At home and at school, among my friends, among my family.  Bruce is growing up…and, oh look, he’s discovered…boys.  Well, well…  His friendships always were a bit intense…  So different I would have been from the shy, quiet boy who kept himself slightly apart from the others, because he didn’t understand himself, and was so afraid how people would react to him if he let his guard down.  I would probably have been just another bubbly adolescent…a bit artistic, a bit of a techno geek, typically boyish but with a positively girlish streak in him whenever it came to boys I found too cute for words.

But I wasn’t allowed that adolescence.  Instead I hid my teen magazines under the bed, and listened to my bubblegum pop alone, never really realizing that I was on the threshold of one of this life’s most wonderful moments…the time we discover what love is all about.  I could have walked into it happily…joyfully even.  Instead I struggled, stumbled, and hid my heart fearfully.  My mom would remark with great sadness in her diaries (which I inherited after her death) how I had changed from a cheerful young boy into one of sullen moods, and a sudden angry temper.  It makes me cry to read those entries.

I look at my record collection from back then…mostly the 45rpm singles I bought in my middle teen years because back then I wouldn’t spend the price of a whole album unless it was a band I really liked a lot, and I see almost nothing but love songs among them.  Granted, that’s mostly what rock has always been.  But there was a lot of it back then about life and politics, the war and the struggles our generation was going through.  Songs I loved like For What It’s Worth, and Incense and Peppermint…and interestingly enough in retrospect, Hold Your Head Up.  

I don’t think I need to analyze very much why I liked that one.  But the songs I turned to again and again alone in my bedroom were the love songs, and what is amazing to me about that in retrospect is that at that age I really didn’t care much for all that gushy love stuff.  I was going through my stacks of 45 rpms  the other day and it just floored me how much of it was surgery sweet love songs.  As I remember that part of my life, I didn’t have much interest in all that love stuff.  But then, nobody told me I could fall in love with a guy either.

I wasn’t paying much attention to the lyrics in those songs, but something in the music itself spoke to me, in a way that the lyrics, speaking only to the straight boys in the audience, never could.  I would connect with it instantly when I heard it on the radio, and like a flash I was down to the record store to by the single.  It would be years before I would find myself listening to the lyrics.  I had to grow into myself as a gay man first, and then learn the trick a lot of gay guys have to learn in this world, of mentally changing a pronoun as I listen…

I never really paid much attention to those lyrics at first.  Just the music, and the sultry sound of Morrison’s voice.

Something in the music spoke to me, in a way the lyrics just didn’t.  My record collection is full of these kinds of songs.  Bubblegum pop mostly, as they called it back then.  In another world, there would have been some that spoke directly to gay guys, or at least was gender neutral enough that I could have taken the lyrics to heart as much as I did the music.  But even back then, well before I came out to myself as a gay man, I had a soul for sweet love songs.  Perhaps…a tad too sweet. 

Which brings me to the one other thing that embarrassed me slightly back in those days, but not so much that I felt I had to go to great lengths to hide it from my friends.  That was my taste in music.  On the one hand, it was The Doors, and Airplane, and Led Zeppelin.  On the other, it was The Monkees, Buddha Records, and Crimson and Clover.  In retrospect I’m surprised more of my classmates hadn’t figured me out long before I’d figured out myself.  But as it turns out, even were I straight I’d have had to hide most of my record collection from my friends.  In another world, I would have been allowed to enjoy that music.  In this one only teenage girls are allowed to like those kinds of songs.  Because…well…they’re girls.

In most respects I was your usual adolescent male.  But there was this definite girlish streak in me that would just pop out at various times.  And well before I came understand myself as a gay man, I knew better then to let people see it.  I kept it to myself alone in my bedroom.  That knowledge had been driven into me in the usual way it is with boys like the one I was, on the school yards and in the hallways, and around corners where no one could see, I would get beaten…badly sometimes…by other boys who thought it was so much fund to beat the crap of out kids like me.  But let’s face it, they’d been given permission to by the adults in their lives, and by the culture they lived in.

Girly boy.  Consider that phrase for a moment.  The knuckle dragging morons who throw it around can be driven by homophobia at times…maybe even most times…but not always.  Even among gay males, you see the occasional contempt for those among us who are not 200 percent masculine.  There is more misogyny in that phrase, then homophobia.  I wouldn’t call myself effeminate.  I don’t think any of my friends would either.  A bit nerdish, yeah.  A bit wonkish.  I am no John Wayne by any means, but no Liberace either.  But there is this definite girlish streak in me and I have struggled for most of my life now to let it just be itself because I repressed it so deeply when I was a teenager, and then again as a young adult male.  Never mind being gay.  Gay or straight, guys are not supposed to be sweethearts.

Which brings me to a post a read just yesterday over at Pam’s House Blend…

The Ugly Homophobic Truth About the Rickroll

The writer gives an interesting history of Rickrolling, and then this rather poignant little personal story…

I was introducted to Rickrolling by my teenage nephew about a year or so ago. My nephew told me that he and his friends amuse themselves by sending music and video clips of Rick Astley via e-mail, and cellphone.

When my nephew showed me the video of Rick Astley singing Never gonna Give You Up on YouTube, he laughed out loud uncontrolably. Then, I asked him, "Why do you think this is so funny?"

Silence.

Uh, oh. I’d seen that silent response before. My nephew suddenly remembered that his favorite uncle is gay. He was at a loss for words as to how to explain why he finds Rick Astley to be funny.

I had to press him for the truth, "Is it because he looks gay?"

"Uh, it isn’t that he looks so gay, Uncle Fritz. It is because, uh, his voice doesn’t fit the way he looks."

"Gay?"

Silence.

Of course, ‘gay’ has been turned into an all-around put-down in schools these days…sort of like the way ‘Jewish’ used to be used as a synonym for someone who was cheap or stingy or selfish.  I was Rickrolled a few days ago…by a gay friend no less…and I picked up on what was going on immediately.  It’s not homophobia specifically.  The joke isn’t that Astley or his music is gay in the sense of…well…homosexual.  It’s gay in the general put-down sense.  It’s gay as in lame.  It’s gay as in wimpy.  It’s gay as in weak.  More to the point, it’s gay as in Sissy. 

Now people have been putting down each other’s music since humans were making tunes with drums and sticks, so I don’t think it’s all about gender bullying.  Music just reaches in to a place deep inside of us, past our logical rational parts, and strums our feelings directly.  Music that rubs our emotions the wrong way can be really, really annoying and it’s no more a rational distaste then seeing someone you find unattractive naked is.  I’m sure Never Going To Give You Up gets on a lot of people’s nerves.  But enough people liked it that it became an international hit.  How many songs do that?  Why the disrespect?  Simple:

Here’s the thing I want you to notice: it wasn’t Eltonrolling.  Say what you want about Elton John, but that he’s a large presence in the pop music world is undeniable.  He’s made millions, and that gives him a measure of power and respect.  Rick Astley is the too cute for his own good boy-next-door who likes to bring his girl flowers and write her pretty songs and gets the crap beaten out of him by the other kids on a regular basis.  That’s why it’s Rickrolling and not Eltonrolling.  It isn’t about gay.  It’s about wuss.

Sissy is in fact, a put-down applied to gay people out of contempt.  The stereotype is that we’re all limp-wristed, swishing lisping effeminates.  And yes, you meet some pretty girlish gay guys.  But then you also meet some pretty girlish straight ones too.  Sometimes those are called Effete Intellectuals.  Sometimes they are Bleeding-heart Liberals.  This chest thumping de-masculinization of the hated other is about as primitive as it gets, which is why you see a lot of it in school yards and hallways.  But more then that, it is a deeply perverse attack not just on the humanity of the target, but on humanity itself.  Cold hearted brutality does not build civilizations, it only and gleefully destroys them.  It is our ability to love and trust one another, cooperate and protect one another, that keeps the jungle from our streets.  The deeper, more ancient animal parts of us may be our bedrock, but it is our capacity to love and cherish that takes us out of the ancient wilderness and into civilization. 

But that’s a world the gutter cannot cope with.  A world where the smaller gentler boys aren’t afraid, are happy and carefree, is a world where the survival skills of thugs don’t get them anywhere, and that’s a world they will not endure the sight of.

It was more then a cheerful adolescence that was taken from me.  It was a part of me that I lost in those years.  So different I would have been from the shy, quiet boy who kept himself slightly apart from the others, because he didn’t understand himself, and was so afraid how people would react to him if he let his guard down.  Instead I struggled, stumbled, and hid my heart fearfully, and changed from a cheerful young boy into one of sullen moods, and a sudden angry temper.  This is how the gutter wins.  I’ve been trying to reclaim this part of myself ever since.  Maybe some day the human race will stop allowing its children to be abused. 

From Der Spiegel…   This photo, taken just after the Nato leaders had their picture taken together in Bucharest, says it all…

Never mind the Kyoto treaty.  Never mind the war.  Never mind he keeps treating them like they’re all his frat house boys.  What’s probably pissing them off is how he’s fucked their banks fifty times over with our bad loans. 

Via Box Turtle Bulletin…  Now what the hell was this supposed to accomplish…?

We commented earlier on how the mainstream media omitted all mention of Major Alan Rogers’ orientation or of his efforts to overturn the military’s ban on open gay servicemen. We told you how the Washington Post ombudsman wrote a column to repair that deliberate exclusion. Now there’s a new twist.

According to the Washington Blade, Rogers’ profile on Wikipedia has been modified

The user on Monday redacted details about Rogers that appeared on the online encyclopedia site. Information that was deleted included Rogers’ sexual orientation; the soldier’s participation in American Veterans for Equal Rights, a group that works to change military policy toward gays; and the fact that Rogers’ death helped bring the U.S. military’s casualty toll in Iraq to 4,000.

And while the individual responsible isn’t known,

The IP address attached to the deletion of the details and the posted comments is 141.116.168.135. The address belongs to a computer from the office of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence (G-2) at the Pentagon. The office is headed by Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, who was present at Rogers’ funeral and presented the flag from Rogers’ coffin to his cousin, *Cathy Long.

The factual information has been reinstated in the Wikipedia entry.

* Long is the cousin that was unaware of Rogers’ orientation and thought it should be left out of the Post article.

Alan Rogers’ was a soldier and a gay man.  He was dedicated to equal rights for gay soldiers.  He kept his sexual orientation at least partly in the closet, so he could continue to serve.  That is the devil’s bargan Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell demands of gay soldiers.  He could have easily avoided the FUBAR that George Bush made of Iraq by coming out of the closet and getting his discharge.  He didn’t.  Whatever you think of Bush’s splendid little war, Alan Rogers’ was obviously proud of his service to the United States.  While in uniform, bearing arms for the sake of his country, he made the ultimate sacrifice for his country.  The least his country could do, is be proud of him too.

And I think his country Is proud.  Even the piss ignorant jackasses who still believe in Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.  Some of them anyway.  Probably not James Dobson or Sally Kern.  But I think even louts like Charles Krauthammer would salute this man’s memory, just as he was.  Maybe.  However, as you can see, it is still far too much to ask of the stars and bars in their comfortable air conditioned pentagon offices, that they be proud of All their fallen heroes.  

This is really sad…

Position vacant: £7 an hour. Person to drink beer

To customers perusing the notice-board in the village post office, the job advertisement must have seemed too good to be true. For £7 an hour, with all expenses paid, a man was required to visit a local pub and drink beer.

The assignment was to be carried out at at least twice a week at the Compass Inn in Winsor, Hampshire, in the company of an elderly gentleman.

The advert is genuine, and the four men who have applied for the position so far are to undergo trial drinking sessions in the coming week, though their potential employer is open to applications from new candidates.

It is an appeal from a desperate man. Until recently, Jack Hammond, 88, would drink four times a week with a neighbour in Barton-on-Sea. Then he moved into a nursing home a few miles away to be closer to his family. Forest Edge Care Home boasts a garden and easy access to shops; what it cannot offer Mr Hammond is a suitable drinking partner. All but one of his fellow residents are women. Which is how the advertisement came to be placed in the nearby village of Cadnam.

For some it is a sign of the times that an elderly gentleman lacks a companion with whom to visit the local pub, although it is increasingly common.

Mr Hammond’s wife died 12 years ago, and the upheaval of moving into a care home has left him feeling isolated. “It was a bit upsetting when I had to leave as I left all my friends back home,” he said.

Jeeze…I’m only 54 and I can already relate.  I moved to Baltimore and left all my friends behind in Washington because up here was where i was getting work, and I could actually afford the rents.  But at least I’m healthy enough I can drive down to Washington to see my friends regularly.  The day is coming, when all I’ll have is what’s within a short distance from where I make my bed.  But maybe by that time I’ll have voices in my head to keep me company.

People have had to buy sex since before the written word.  Here’s what it’s come to in our age: people are having to buy friends.  Except you can’t.

Better to go down dignified

With boughten friendship at your side

Than none at all. Provide, provide!

So said Robert Frost.  He was wrong.  You can buy sex but you can’t buy love.  You can buy a companion but you can’t buy friendship.  Hopefully Mr. Hammond has had enough love and friendship in his life that he can find all he needs now in a bought companion.  But the rest of us need to look at this and worry about what we are becoming.  It shouldn’t have to be like this.  In an age where advertisers can track our every desire and feed us up products we’re likely to want, just by tracking our web browsing habits, we are loosing our humanity.  How is it, that this guy was moved away from his friends into a nursing home located where it is, simply to be closer to his family, and nobody seems to have given any thought to his need for companionship?

Chris Perry, director of Hampshire Age Concern, often sees elderly men who lack a companion for their regular pub visits. “It is easy to become socially isolated at this age due to bereavement or from people moving away,” he said. “But this man needs to be commended for using his initiative for putting an advert in the window.”

And you need to feel ashamed, very, very ashamed, that he had to.  So it’s easy for people to become socially isolated at that age is it?  So you often see elderly men who lack companionship do you?  Then what fucking use is your goddamned Hampshire Age Concern?

Via Newscoma… 

I suspect someone is pulling their neighbor’s legs. 

I’ll endure lectures on how offensive this is… 

…from a lot of people, but not from the drooling moron who put this…

…on the cover of one of his books.  I suppose he finds this offensive too…

Via Atrios…

Survey: Fla. Teens Believe Drinking Bleach Will Prevent HIV
Some Teens Also Believe Mountain Dew Will Stop Pregnancy

ORLANDO, Fla. — A recent survey that found some Florida teens believe drinking a cap of bleach will prevent HIV and a shot of Mountain Dew will stop pregnancy has prompted lawmakers to push for an overhaul of sex education in the state.

Fat chance. 

The survey showed that Florida teens also believe that smoking marijuana will prevent a person from getting pregnant.

If you think this sort of thing isn’t what the people who are pushing Abstinence Only sex education intended you aren’t paying attention.  This is exactly what they want.  Remember, these are the same people who don’t want young girls vaccinated against the virus that can cause cervical cancer because…well…because people who have sex without their permission deserve to die horribly.  They Want kids to get HIV.  They Want kids to get pregnant.  They Want their bodies to shrivel with disease that could have been easily prevented.  And not because it’ll serve as a warning to others about the dangers of sex.  No…no…no…  Not because it’ll serve as a warning to others about the dangers of sex.  Because they hate them.  Because they hate the joy of life they see in them.  Because they hate humanity.  If people can’t be taught to hate their bodies, if they can’t be taught to feel shame for being human, if they won’t beg god to forgive them simply for existing, then they have to die.  It really is that simple.  If you think that bottomless hatred of humanity only exists in radical Islam you are not paying attention.

This isn’t good…

Group Claims Near Required Signatures To Put Gay Marriage Ban On Calif. Ballot

The organization collecting signatures for a proposed amendment banning same-sex marriage in California says it is close to meeting the requirement.

Protect Marriage says it has collected 881,000 of the 1.1 million signatures needed. The deadline for turning in the petitions to county registrars is April 21.

Registrars are then required to take a random sample of signatures to verify.  If that sampling shows at least 10 percent more valid signatures than required the petitions will be certified and the measure will be placed on the November ballot.

"The numbers are good, solid," Ron Prentice, a spokesperson for Protect Marriage told The Christian Examiner, a conservative Christian publication.

"We are well toward our goal. There are thousands more yet to be counted with a steady stream still coming in."

Among the major donors to Protect Marriage are a group of San Diego County businessmen. Developer Doug Manchester alone has contributed $125,000 prompting gays to urge a boycott of his properties.  Manchester owns the Manchester Grand Hyatt and the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina.

Mission Valley developer Terry Caster has donated $162,500, Carlsbad car dealer Robert Hoehn gave $25,000, and La Jolla businessman Roger Benson has given $50,000, according to state records.

It would just break my heart if the land of my birth did that to me.  I’ve noted before that the only reason I can travel freely around the United States is that I’m single.  If I had a spouse, there are many states in this so-called union that we simply could not set foot in because if one of us had a sudden health problem, or there was an accident, it would become a nightmare for both of us.  Even with a so-called durable power of attorney, we could be denied the right to simply be with each other in a hospital…even with a medical directives document…we could be denied the power to make medical decisions for each other should one of us become suddenly incapacitated.  Some state constitutional amendments, like Virginia’s are so stringently and thoroughly crafted to ostracize same sex couples from the protections of the law, that they can even be read to deny same sex couples the right to hold a joint checking account.

There are simply not that many people in this country who hate us enough to want to do that to us.  The problem, like it was for another hated minority group over in Europe back in the 1920s and 30s, is that the rest of the nation doesn’t care enough to tell them to stop it.  So when these amendments are put up to a vote, they stay home and allow hate to have its way.  These are the people who say later, "We heard the rumors, but we didn’t believe them…"

Once upon a time I planned to move back to California after mom passed away.  Then I got the job I do now, and my little Baltimore rowhouse, and I stayed in Maryland.  But even now I think sometimes that when my time to retire comes, if it ever does, I’d like to spend the last years of my life back there where I was born.  It’s a lovely state.  It would break my heart if the day ever came that I couldn’t even visit California again.

I have a book on my desk waiting for me to read, titled, The Lavender Scare, about the persecution of gay government employees during the height of the cold war.  So this story, via Talking Points Memo, caught my attention…

DoJ Investigators Probing Whether Goodling Fired Lawyer Due to Gay Rumors

The Department of Justice’s inspector general continues to conduct its wide-ranging investigation of the U.S. attorney firings and the general politicization of the Department under Alberto Gonzales. And as we reported back in August of last year, one area of focus by investigators is allegedly political hiring practices by Monica Goodling. The inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility sent out a questionnaire to anyone who had interviewed for a job at the DoJ during Gonzo’s tenure. One thing investigators wanted to know about was whether the interviewer had asked about the applicant’s sexual orientation.

NPR today provides some more evidence that Goodling and her associates might have decided that being gay was a disqualifier. Leslie Hagen was the liaison between the Justice Department and the U.S. attorneys’ committee on Native American issues until her contract was suddenly discontinued in October of 2006.

And from NPR…

Justice Department e-mails obtained by NPR show that Gonzales’s senior counsel Monica Goodling had a particular interest in Hagen’s duties….

The Justice Department’s inspector general is looking into whether Hagen was dismissed after a rumor reached Goodling that Hagen is lesbian.

As one Republican source put it, "To some people, that’s even worse than being a Democrat."

Several people interviewed by the inspector general’s staff said investigators asked whether people drew a connection between the rumors and Hagen’s dismissal….

Someone who worked in Hagen’s office says that in a 2006 meeting, senior officials were told that Hagen’s contract would not be renewed because someone on the attorney general’s staff had a problem with Hagen. The problem, it was suggested during the conversation, was sexual orientation — or what was rumored to be Hagen’s sexual orientation.

One person at the meeting asked, "Is that really an issue?" But the decision had been made.

"To some people, that’s even worse than being a Democrat."  The party of hate.  It’s not always about cynical manipulation of people’s fears.  A lot of them really do hate us that much.

Picasso said, a poor artist copies…a great artist steals. 

A friend of mine, who owns a simply lovely Acura TL, (which simply lovely Acura TL motivated me to finally buy my own dream car) said somewhat bemusedly a few weeks ago that the TL had become the new "It" car…at least around our neck of the woods.  And it’s true in a way.  You see a more of them then you do the Lexus ES or the Infinity G, or any of the other "entry level" luxury cars.  There’s at least two of them living in my little Baltimore neighborhood.  Honda hit a really nice sweet spot with that car, price and feature wise.  And it’s a Honda, which means it’s reliability isn’t in question, unlike my Mercedes which has to prove itself.

But if my friend is bothered by not having such a unique dream car as he thought when he first bought it…he should count his blessings.  Here’s what I’m going to have to put up with in the not too distant future…

Oh…did you think that was a ‘C’ class?  I sure did when I first laid eyes on that photo.  But look at the bumper…it’s a goddamned Chevy.  And a Caprice at that.  Caprice.  Caprice.  That used to be American for River Barge On Four Wheels.  Here’s another view…

All that’s missing on that one is the hood ornament.  Just for comparison…here’s one of my shots of Traveler shortly after I bought it…

They even copied the wheel design, and the black plastic at the base of the sideview mirrors.  GM is currently selling it’s ‘C’ class Caprice in the Middle East.  But don’t worry…they’re marketing a Buick version in China right now, that should be coming to our shores real soon too…

…possibly to be sold by WalMart, along with all the other Chinese knock-offs coming into this country.  The Koreans apparently didn’t want to be left out of the new design paradigm either.  So here’s the new Daewoo…

Joe…at least all those other cars on the road that look like yours, really Are Acura TLs. 

Why complain?  Ford started doing this back in the 70s, when they came out with the Granada right around the time American consumers started getting fed up with Detroit’s lackadaisical interest in quality, and started looking more seriously at imports.  People started noticing that Mercedes’ tended to stay on the road a hell of a lot longer then Fords.  So in typical Detroit fashion, Ford brought out a car that looked (kinda) like one.  It even had a hood ornament.  GM later set its sights higher, and brought out the Cadillac Seville, which tried to look like a Rolls.  But the problem wasn’t one of style, but substance.  It still is.  Decades after the Japanese started kicking their asses on quality And Price they still don’t get it.

A poor artist copies…a great artist steals…  It’s not that beauty is only skin deep, it’s that to see only the skin is to miss the soul.  That applies to humans, and as it happens, it also applies to the things humans make.  It is all art.  If Detroit invested the effort in duplicating Mercedes passenger safety engineering that they’re investing in simply copying the appearance of their automobiles I might actually applaud.  But I don’t expect the same industry that dragged its feet putting seat belts in cars at the same time Mercedes was busy engineering crumble zones into theirs to do that, let alone the industry that has been selling people the same cars for decades with only different "skin jobs" applied, year after year after year.  I didn’t buy an empty status symbol.  No, your Caprice is not a Mercedes-Benz, and you’ll find that out, regrettably, if you’re ever in an accident.

You can tell a lot about the people in the boardroom by how well they treat the workers who are the public face of their business.  I think I just learned today everything I need to know about Starbucks: they steal tip money from their servers.

Starbucks won’t pay back barista tips

Thousands of Starbucks employees got a personal message from their upset boss, who said the company was being “grossly mischaracterized” in the media over a recent tip pool controversy that could cost the company more than $100 million.

Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Schultz, in a voice-mail message to employees Wednesday night, called last week’s ruling by a California judge "extremely unfair and beyond reason" and said he wanted employees to know the truth.

"I want to personally let you know that we would never condone any type of behavior that would lead anyone to conclude that we would take money from our people," he said.

In a separate statement, the company also said, "Contrary to some reports, Starbucks has not taken money from any of its partners, and nor is there money to be refunded or returned from Starbucks." A spokeswoman said Thursday that Starbucks Corp. has no intention of ending the practice of sharing tips among baristas and shift supervisors in California while it seeks an injunction.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett, in her ruling last week, said there was "uncontroverted testimony that Starbucks continues to utilize the distribution of tips from the tip pool to compensate shift supervisors as well as baristas." Cowett ordered Starbucks to pay thousands of California baristas $86.7 million plus interest for breaking the law.

Now…read that again, particularly that second to last paragraph.  Starbucks is saying that "contrary to some reports" they don’t take money from their "partners"…and then in the next breath they insist they’ll keep on doing it.  The weasel word there is "partners".  Starbucks doesn’t take any money from its "partners".  But "partners" isn’t the issue, however Starbucks chooses to define who is and who is not a "partner".  The issue is, are they taking tip money from their servers.  And…yes as a matter of fact, they are.  That’s what, specifically, they were found guilty of doing, and that’s what, specifically, they’re insisting they’ll keep right on doing.

The tips belong to the servers.  Customers aren’t tipping the business, they’re tipping their servers.  In most cases, the tips are what the servers depend on for a decent income.  Taking their tip money is not only immoral, it also happens to be illegal in many states, including California.  Now…it’s one thing to insist you weren’t breaking the law.  It’s another to insist that the law is unconstitutional and you’ll fight it all the way to the supreme court.  And it’s another still to insist that you didn’t do it, in the same breath as you assert that you’re going to keep right on doing it.  Starbucks isn’t just giving the finger to it’s servers and customers here, it’s laughing in the face of anyone who can read plan English.

A dear friend of mine works as a waiter, but that’s not the only reason this behavior makes me angry.  I never worked for tips in my life…I’m just not outgoing enough to make a go of that kind of work.  You have to have a bit of the stage in you I think to be good at that and I am more stage crew then stage.  But I know very well what it’s like to work in the service sector and it’s many hours of of hard, thankless work for mostly uncaring, rude and overbearing bosses, usually for not enough money to make ends meet.  From what I hear, most folks who work service sector jobs these days need two jobs to earn a bare bones living.  And a lot of those businesses nowadays do their damndest to avoid having to pay their service people a decent wage…from limiting their hours so they don’t qualify for full time benefits (and federal protections), to creatively placing them into pseudo-management positions so they don’t have to pay them overtime. 

I guess stealing your employee’s tip money is just another way of lining your pockets being a successful businessman in Republican Party Of Moral Values America.  How Howard Schultz can live as well as he does and take his servers’ tip money and still look at himself in a mirror every morning and think he sees a decent man looking back at him and not a slimeball is beyond me.  Thankfully.

I noticed it the day after I got Traveler Back from its service ‘A’.  When I shut down the car after a brief drive, the central speedometer display flashed a warning message that the tire pressure was low.  So I took my gauge out of the glove compartment and checked and it wasn’t and I wrote it off to a random spurious signal that must have happened when I turned the car off.  Some voltage spike that sent a signal down the wire that the car’s central computer misinterpreted.  But the next day it was back.  And the next.  And then this morning, while I was driving to the hardware store the warning flashed red on the display just as I was pulling out onto the highway.  I pulled over and checked and everything was fine.  None of the tires were low at all.

The problem with the legendary Mercedes reliability, is that from the mid-1990s to about 2005 it was anything but.  The company had a reliability problem…a bad one…mostly with the electrical systems…and owners and fans of the brand were getting royally pissed off.  But the company fessed up to it, and promised to make changes and do better, and from everything I’ve heard, the cars built from 2005 onward are much, Much better.  But I just know that every time something like this happens I’m going to stress that it’s a defect.

I’m assuming for now that something was done in the shop during the ‘A’ service that made the tire pressure monitoring system forget its baseline values and so it started complaining that the tire pressure wasn’t right. You’re supposed to reset the tire pressure warning system every time you adjust the tire pressure.  There’s a routine you perform…you let the tires cool down for at least three hours after driving, then check and adjust the pressure as necessary, then you tell the system to accept the current values as the baseline.  This morning I took my air compressor out to the car and, as a matter of fact, one tire was about 2 psi low.  But I doubt that’s low enough to set off the warning system.  In any case, I set all the tires to their correct pressure and then reset the warning system and then took Traveler out for a long drive and so far the warning hasn’t reappeared. If it doesn’t again then I think I can safely assume that it was a result of something the shop did during the ‘A’ service.