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Friday, January 30, 2004
Quote of the Day "We need leaders who will tell the truth ... not fudge their answers." Retired General and Democratic Presidential Candidate Wesley Clark saying that frontrunner John Kerry misrepresented his own record on affirmative action. My response? Big words from the man who couldn't be consistent on whether or not he supported the decision to go to war in Iraq. Politics is rough, eh, Clark? | private feedback | (0) public comments Ridiculousness to the extreme Georgia is considering banning the word 'evolution.' The state's school superintendent proposed striking the word evolution from Georgia's curriculum and replacing it with the phrase "biological changes over time." Superintendent Kathy Cox said the concept of evolution would still be taught under the proposal, but the word would not be used. Cox repeatedly referred to evolution as a "buzzword" Thursday. Evolution... a buzzword? At least the conservatives think it's loony too... but mostly because they believe the entire concept should be struck as opposed to just the word. "If you're teaching the concept without the word, what's the point?" said Rep. Bobby Franklin, a Republican. "It's stupid. It's like teaching gravity without using the word gravity." | private feedback | (0) public comments Wednesday, January 28, 2004 Web Crawl Victims Friends Linnie and Charles write about an experience as the victim of unfortunate search engine crawling when Google picked up all the wrong words on their blog... and subsequently inserted some pretty unfortunate ads on their family site. You gotta read it, cause it's just too funny! | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, January 27, 2004 Thanks... ... to donut jelly for the link. | private feedback | (0) public comments Rediscovered In the chaos of changing computers and browsers (I use netscape now... how did I ever live without mulitple tabs?), it was inevitable that some links and favorites would get lost in the shuffle. I rediscovered Todd's Web Page Dot Com this morning. And am glad I did. | private feedback | (0) public comments Quote of the Day "This is the first election I've had since homeroom student council representative. This is a big step for me." Retired General and Presidential Candidate, Wesley Clark | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, January 26, 2004 Exactly... A great editorial about the media's influence on the presidential race... | private feedback | (0) public comments A campaign of bad puns...  If I read/hear one more sad pun by Joe Lieberman I'm going to vomit. Every morning, he has a "cup of Joe" with primary voters at diners and cafes... The "Joe-mobile" (a PT Cruiser with his mug on the side) is a frequent sight on the streets of Manchester... and he claims that the press is going to be shocked with their come-from-behind victory tomorrow because he has "Joe-mentum."
His web site has a "Dogs for Joe" link and information on how to help Lieberman find his "MoJoe,"... *eye roll* Best case scenario (and what the polls are predicting)... Lieberman gets beat by every single other presidential candidate except Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich... and drops out in a tearful exit speech on Wednesday. We can only hope. | private feedback | (0) public comments Thursday, January 22, 2004 Poor Howard From an article I read online today... Dean's campaign is lying on the table right now and the priest is coming in the door to administer the last rites," said American University political historian Allan Lichtman. Until Monday, when people spoke of "The Scream" they usually referred to the 1893 painting by Norwegian Edvard Munch showing an emaciated figure standing on a bridge against a lurid red-orange sunset, clutching his ears, with eyes bulging and mouth open wide in a shout of anguish. Behind him a couple, possibly his friends, are walking off in the opposite direction. That may be a suitable metaphor for what Dean is feeling right now. The media giveth and the media taketh away. The press is almost more excited to tear down the candidate as they were to hype him. What great headlines, right? Almost all New Hampshire polls have John Kerry an average of 10 points ahead of Dean (this was reversed just last week, how fast times change). It would seems that in Dean's descent, the only person with momentum enough to fill the void is John Kerry. Dean imploded at the precise time that John Kerry was gathering steam... Lucky for Kerry because if this had happened to Dean one week later, Wesley Clark would probably have been the beneficiary most likely coming off a good showing in New Hampshire where he had dedicated his time. This is going to be one hell of a weekend working for John Kerry in New Hampshire!! I can't wait!! | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, January 20, 2004 The State Of The Union In case anyone doubted... Dubbya still believes that marriage is between "one man and one woman". In fact (and I hope I'm not spoiling it for you) sources say he's going to use tonight's State of the Union Address to pronounce it yet again. From CNN.com: Aides said he will lay out his presidential legislative priorities and his international priorities. And the president will also tackle the controversial issue of gay marriage, declaring -- as he has before -- that marriage should be between one man and one woman. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said Bush will say that "if necessary, he'd be glad to support a constitutional change" to support that idea. Bush will also make the case that the United States faces a real threat of another terrorist attack. The president's political advisers are hoping an upbeat, uninterrupted address to the nation one night after Monday's Iowa caucuses will provide a contrast to Democrats competing for the chance to challenge Bush. Discrimination and fear. Hmmmm, sounds super upbeat to me... | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, January 19, 2004 Who will it be? [Note: This is a very stream of consciousness kind of post. Read with caution and patience...] Going into the caucus, John Kerry seemed to be leading in the polls. This excites Lauren and I because Kerry is her first choice and one of two that I'm considering to vote for (Clark being the other who is not competing in Iowa at all)... Of the four hosts on Crossfire, three had predicted that Kerry would win, and only Tucker Carlson predicted a Dean victory. Many folks are predicting that if Dick Gephardt loses, he'll be withdrawing from the race shortly. John Edwards who hasn't been considered much more than a blip previously has surged in the most recent polls, making it a statistical tie between four candidates. Anything can happen tonight... and it will shape the rest of the election season. Wolf Blitzer was describing how the process worked. It's definitely not like normal voting. You check in at a caucus site and move into groups based on which candidate you support. OR you can stand in a group of "uncommitted" voters. Groups that reach a 15% threshhold of the voters at any given caucus location are considered "viable." Voters in any groups that have less than 15% have an opportunity to move to the group of their second or even third-choice candidate. A lot of arm-twisting and vote trading occurs in order to help candidates win a larger percentage or meet the 15% thresshold. Most notably, Edwards and Kucinich have agreed to swap supporters should any of them not reach the necessary 15%. (The caucus is almost a human form of "Instant Runoff Voting" that many election reform proponents are pushing.) This is democracy in action folks! Results are coming in... its kind of fun to refresh CNN.com and watch the number of precincts reporting go up... (I'm such a political geek.) Right now, with 26% of precincts reporting, John Kerry is leading with John Edwards close behind. Dean and Gephardt are a distant third and fourth, respectively. Which brings me to my plans for the weekend. If things go as planned, Lauren and I will pile on a bus at 11:00 PM Friday night in Syracuse with about 70 other John Kerry supporters and head to New Hampshire to rally, make phone calls, and party before the state's first-in-the-nation primary. The energy and the cold is going to be intense. Just the thing to bust me out of my middle-of-the-winter doldrums... I'd better get some long underwear before the trip. Now, with nearly half of the precincts reporting... the results are staying about the same. 37% Kerry, 33% Edwards, 18% Dean, and 11% Gephardt... Oh yeah, and that Kucinich guy (the one that reminds me of a Keebler Elf) has 1%. Looks like it's going to be a good night for John Kerry. 78% reporting... and the numbers haven't budged. CNN just projected Kerry the winner and Edwards in second... Poor Howard Dean. I guess I don't need to torture you with this post anymore... | private feedback | (0) public comments The Triplets of Belleville  Yesterday, I saw one of the most creative and unique movies that I've seen in a long time... The Triplets of Belleville. Short on dialogue but long on imagination, this is definitely a must-see movie for anyone who loves animation. The plot is simple, a woman attempts to rescue her grandson, who was kidnapped while racing in the Tour De France, with only the help of her dog and some new friends (the triplets) that she meets along the way. The use of sound effects is amazing (pay special attention to how the filmmaker uses animal noises for certain characters)... and the music is infectious!
[View the trailer @ apple.com] | private feedback | (0) public comments Thursday, January 15, 2004  The emails have been flooding in. Thanks to all my friends, family, and blog readers who wanted to be the first to check-in on me since my favorite Democratic candidate for president dropped out. It's kind of funny actually, people that I hadn't heard from in ages sent me emails... I guess I was pretty outspoken about my support for her, huh? Where was I when I first heard? I was getting coffee at Wownet... in previous conversations I had talked one of the owners there into liking her and following her in the news. This morning he told me she dropped out and I said, "Yeah, right, whatever." And he said, "Shane, I'm serious." I didn't believe him until I got to the office, got online, and went to CNN.com. There it was in digital letters... undeniable. I watched the press conference today in which Carol officially asked her supporters to throw their votes to Howard Dean. The rumor is that Carol defended Howard Dean in Sunday's debate... and then the next day talked to him about dropping out and endorsing him. She's the first of this year's candidates to do so. (When Bob Graham dropped out, he didn't endorse anyone... leaving himself wide open as a favored pick for VP.) Its unfortunate that an african-american woman couldn't get more traction than she did. How many times have I said that in all my posts... like a million? Anyway, the good news for those of you that don't like reading about politics on my site, is that I won't be posting as much about the Dem race until I figure out who to support. My second choice right now is between John Kerry and Wesley Clark. I suppose I should give Dean another look, just out of respect for Carol... Feel free to lobby for my vote. | private feedback | (0) public comments Bad News Carol Moseley Braun... the only Democratic Candidate for President that I liked... is dropping out of the race... More later. | private feedback | (0) public comments Wednesday, January 14, 2004 Third of Four Carol Moseley Braun, competing in a primary in Washington, D.C., ranked third of four candidates. Howard Dean, Al Sharpton, Braun, and Dennis Kucinich were the only candidates on the ballot. The rest of the "major" candidates had opted out of the primary because the DNC frowned upon usurping Iowa's "first-in-the-nation" caucus status. Primary results as of this posting... Howard Dean 42% Al Sharpton 35% Carol Moseley Braun 12% Dennis Kucinich 8% | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, January 13, 2004 Compassion in a box... Sunday, Lori and Darlene gave me my christmas gift... I know they had long, into-the-wee-hours-of-the-morning debates about whether to get me this particular gift or a hat, scarf and gloves, but I'm glad that this won out. My gift was a box that has a pocket version of Pema's Start Where You Are, a CD on which Pema guides you through a short meditation, a set of cards that have buddhist slogans on one side with commentary from Pema on the back, and a little cardboard easel to display the card that you've chosen as your lesson for the day. It couldn't have been more perfect timing, I am literally in the home stretch of finishing Start Where You Are... I've been reading with highlighter in hand, highlighting all of the slogans and common-sense guidance Pema provides in the book for putting the slogans into action. The first slogan, proudly displayed on my desk throughout the entire day yesterday, was "Whichever of two occurs, be patient". (...And my day yesterday definitely required patience.) Thanks for the gift, Lori and Darlene... what a wonderful surprise! | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, January 12, 2004 I'm sorry I missed it... From the New York Times coverage of last night's democratic presidential candidate debate... Carol Moseley Braun, unfailingly cool and cordial in past debates, seemed roused by the bickering over race. Ms. Braun pivoted off Mr. Sharpton's exchange with Howard Dean to ask why Mr. Gephardt, as House Democratic leader, had not pressed harder to protect affirmative action programs. And she demanded to know how Mr. Edwards could vote regularly with President Bush in Congress, yet attack Dr. Dean so readily. "You voted for the Patriot Act," she said. "You voted to deploy the missile defense system. And yet you stand up here and call Howard a hypocrite. This is not right." Ms. Braun was just as blunt with Mr. Sharpton, with whom she has long had a tense relationship, suggesting that he was stirring racial divisions before a national television audience. "It's time for us to talk about what are you going to do to bring people together because people cannot afford a racial screaming match," she said. "We have to come together. We have to come together as one nation to get past these problems." Mr. Edwards disputed the details of Ms. Braun's charge, saying, "Well, Carol, that was a great speech, but what you just said is not right." And Mr. Sharpton defended his decision to assail Dr. Dean's record on civil rights, declaring: "I want him to be accountable, since he brought up race. That's not racial hysteria. That is accountability." People (and other candidates) are finally paying attention to Carol Moseley Braun, and rightfully so. I just fear that it might be a little too late. | private feedback | (0) public comments Sunday, January 11, 2004 What changed his mind? Dick Cheney is quoted frequently (by Democratic presidential candidates) as having the same position on gay marriage as they do... All marriage laws are best left to individual states... It would seem he has made a flip-flop and now supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. (I wonder how his lesbian daugther feels about that?) It seems the party that gives lip service to states' rights and less federal government intervention is once again making a hypocritical exception. | private feedback | (0) public comments I had a dream... ... that I qualified to participate in a debate with the nine Democratic presidential candidates... and that when I tried to get to the podium someone was trying to stop me for the lame reason that I was not on the ballot and I wasn't even eligible to run. What nerve! They reluctantly let me participate and I spent the entire debate talking up Carol Moseley Braun hoping to get picked as her running mate. And then I awoke to find that my blog was linked off BlogForCarol.us. Coincidence? I think not. | private feedback | (0) public comments Thursday, January 08, 2004 Picture it... I couldn't get this New Yorker cartoon image on my page so I'll have to describe it... Two men standing on the deck of the Ark, surrounded by animals paired in twos. One says to the other, "Bad News -- The unicorns are gay." ... I guess you had to see it. | private feedback | (0) public comments Wednesday, January 07, 2004 Breaking up is hard to do... You remember a while back I blogged about how I wanted to develop that super-personal relationship with a hairdresser. Someone that was as invested in my having a good hair day as I was. Someone that I trusted, didn't judge me... a confidante of sorts... A person to have that coveted type of relationship with that I have been deprived of my entire life... the gay man/hairdresser relationship. And I thought I had found her... I was walking up the street near my house and we struck up a conversation... I started going to her... she had a vision for my hair. She had big ideas. But something is going awry, the ideas aren't panning out... and we're just not communicating anymore and when I try to talk she doesn't listen... I mean really listen. I guess our problems started that time she stood me up for my appointment... or maybe it was the time I asked if I could play with my hair when she was done with it (I think that really hurt her feelings). Or maybe her vision and my vision... our goals... just don't match up. Every single time I walk out she has got me in a pompador (sp). My hair is so fluffed up I feel like a poodle. And it's not like I haven't tried. The first time I was gentle... I said that I was wondering if maybe we shouldn't try something new. Nothing changed. The second time I asked if I could use her bathroom to play with it a little and maybe that would show her what I liked. Today I just took a deep breath, said, "You know, I'm really not all about the volume," and started messing with it while she was finishing up. I think I really made her upset. In a sort of fragile voice, this woman, who has to be in her 50's said, "I never do it right! I just want to make you look as cute as I can and you always have to fix what I've done." It almost brought me to tears, it was so messy. I didn't even want to go to this appointment. I had tried calling to cancel... to give the classic bad hairdresser/bad first date brush off. The conversation went something like this... Me: Hey, I'm really sorry I can't make my appointment today. Her: Oh no, what's up? Me: Something came up. Her: Well we could reschedule for later in the week. Me: I think it's going to be a busy week. Her: Maybe next week? I've got time next week. Me: I think I'm going to be busy for a while... [Awkward Pause] Her: Well... how about this Wednesday? I can move a few things around. I'd really like to see you before your hair gets out of control. You know you hate it when you get angel wings. [Angel wings are what she calls those little tufts of hair that you can't control as it grows out... the stubborn ones...] Me: Yeah, you're right. You know me too well. Her: So what do you say? Wednesday at 3? You can make the time. Me: Sure. *deep sigh* It hurts to relive that conversation. Then, just as I was walking out the door today she says... "Shane, can you give me just two more minutes?" I said, "Sure." hoping that she would say something that I wanted to hear. The magic words that could rescue our flailing relationship. And then she did... "Shane, I think I met someone this week you might like." A little lightbulb went off in my head... a hairdresser AND a yenta! Jackpot! She went on to tell me about this guy who she isn't 100% sure of his orientation ("but he asked about a manicure AND he's a florist!" she assured me)... I listened and thought... THIS is what I wanted... my friends don't even do this for me! So I'll give her another month... | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, January 06, 2004 My Ideal Candidate Vs. Who I Can Vote For On March 2nd, 2004, at least one candidate's name will NOT appear on New York's Primary ballot. Unfortunately, its the candidate that I desperately want to cast a vote for, Carol Moseley Braun. In New York, Democratic candidates are required to collect the signatures of at least 5,000 party members statewide to be in the primary. The deadline for filing petitions in New York was Friday. Braun's money strapped campaign couldn't meet the requirements and I'm super disappointed. So now, I'm faced with the reality of having to vote for my second choice... and figuring out just who exactly that will be... | private feedback | (0) public comments The Frontrunner and My Candidate... I just thought this was a cool picture from today's debate broadcast on NPR...  Rochester could become battleground for gay marriage in New York State Rochester, New York, is questioning whether it can legally deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples. At the urging of openly gay city councilman Tim Mains, the city clerk's department has begun a review of both state marriage law and civil rights legislation. So far no same-sex couples have attempted to obtain a marriage license in Rochester, but Mains and City Clerk Carolee Conklin say they want to be ready. “I’m assuming that’s going to happen and I’m assuming it’s going to happen here,” Conklin told the paper. “I want to know if I can legally give a marriage license or not. If I could, I certainly would.” Rochester is viewed as one of the most gay-friendly cities in the state, and many gay activists said they would like to see the state fight over same-sex marriage begin there. Rochester was one of the first municipalities in New York to offer domestic partnership certificates. | private feedback | (0) public comments iPod Mini Not sure how I feel about Apple's new iPod Mini... I think it's the colors that are throwing me off... they must be trying to duplicate their iMac success. | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, January 05, 2004 Quote of the Day "The Lord has just blessed him. I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him." Pat Robertson, religious broadcaster, speaking about Dubbya. | private feedback | (0) public comments Saturday, January 03, 2004  My new Love/Hate relationship with IKEA
Yesterday my business partners and I took a road trip to IKEA to buy furniture for our new office. They picked up the rented mini-van and I brought the snacks (goldfish crackers of varying flavors, some of those pepperidge farm soft-baked cookies and a bunch of snapples). The ride was relatively short, just about 3 hours and 45 minutes to the IKEA north of Philly. (Some folks had been warning me that it would take 5, so I'm relieved that it didn't...). This put us at the store at 12:30... Eight-and-a-half hours later, when the store was closing, we were finally checking out. I was grumpy, I was tired, I had the headache from hell... we were furnishing an office for three on a tight budget, we had to buy everything by consensus, and we'd find out they were out of things as we got to the checkout which meant that we'd have to go back and pick out new items. We did alright, considering that the only thing we left without was desk chairs, figuring that for the immediate term we could use the conference room chairs. Thank god for the restaurant built-into the store. I was famished about 2 o'clock and had to eat. We took that time to review plans and make some decisions away from some of the coolest desks, chairs, shelves, computer tables, lighting, and accessories in the world. This was my first real shopping experience at IKEA, and its work! It's not like going to Kmart (or Target even) and walking down an aisle and every fourth or fifth thing you see is cool and you have to linger over it. Everything at IKEA is cool so you're lucky to get out of an area or a showroom in an hour. What was really funny was watching how much time we spent in each showroom at the beginning versus the breeze-through treatment they got as it was hitting 7 in the evening... Somewhere in all the madness, I even managed to grab myself a butcher block table (on winter sale) for the kitchen, a neat-o votive candle holder, and the cutest bendable teddy bear for a friend who's trying to have a baby. (When I first moved into my apartment I was resigned to living a spartan existence and not filling up the space, but now I think I want to make it more cozy and livable...) After shopping, we hit Pizzeria UNO for some dinner. I was so tired I could barely lift the fork to eat. And then we got on the road back to Ithaca... I fell asleep somewhere in the UNO parking lot so when I got up we were pulling into town and I felt like the trip back took somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes. (Since I don't have a driver's license I can't really help in the drive...) Then, since the mini-van was rented, we had to return it by 7:30 AM... so in the name of sleeping in this morning, we bit the bullet and just unloaded everything into the new office at 1:30 in the morning so we could leave the car back at the AVIS lot overnight. I was in bed by 2:30 AM. I'm going to hate IKEA as long as it takes to put everything we got together... but I'm sure I'll love it again tomorrow. *big cute grin* | private feedback | (0) public comments |
Hey! I'm Shane... a proud gay progressive Democrat who has recently relocated to New York City from Ithaca, NY. As I am no longer in Ithaca, I haven't quite decided the fate of this blog. Drop me a line!
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