Willie Style

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: carpenter, computer fixer-upper, IT consultant, insurance adjuster.

Four movies you could watch over and over: Star Trek IV, American Beauty, Napoleon Dynamite, anything Speilberg

Four places you’ve lived: Brownwood,TX; Petersburg,AK; Austin,TX; Ft.Lauderdale,FL

Four TV shows you love to watch: ER,Will&Grace,SixFeetUnder,Nip/Tuck

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Alaska (SE), Colorado (all), Big Bend (TX), Cape Cod

Four websites you visit daily: Eschaton, Statesman, DailyKos, Drudge

Four of your favorite foods: strawberries, salmon, vanilla Haagen-Dazs, anything Mom makes

Four places you’d rather be: see vacation spots above.

(from the Statesman:)

A West Texas school board, undeterred by the possibility of legal challenges, has approved teaching the King James version of the Bible in a high school elective course critics say will lead to Christian proselytizing instead of education.

The Ector County Independent School District board voted 4-2 Tuesday night to adopt the coursework for its three high schools, which are all in Odessa.

The Ector County Independent School District's decision to base an elective class on
the King James version of the Bible pleased demonstrators from Odessa's Life
Challenge Pentecostal Church.

The decision came the same day a federal judge barred the Dover school district in Pennsylvania from teaching "intelligent design," saying the concept is creationism in disguise and injects religious views into the classroom.

---

I have a friend who teaches out there so I am curious to ask for his comment.

Funny how this happens a day after we learn sanity is still alive in America. We all know it's NOT alive in the halls of Congress, but this ridiculous pseudo-science called Intelligent Design had no hope of being allowed.

Now though, a *public* high school wants to offer an elective course based around the King James Version of the Bible.

AGAIN, I will repeat what I said in an earlier post - THAT IS WHY YOU GO TO CHURCH!!

yes yes yes, Odessa, Texas is in the Bible Belt, so what, but I thought public school was for reality-based education. So why would kids want a quadruple dose of religion, assuming the zealots go to church Sunday AM, Sunday PM and Wednesday PM ?

I am just glad I went to school thru the 80s and 90s without all this bullshit going on.

(from Reuters:)

Senate Democrats succeeded on Wednesday in blocking, for now, a Republican
plan to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as part of a
massive $453 billion wartime military spending bill.

---
Dirty tricks. I am glad that people are standing up for the environment. It just floors me when these people try to quietly insert the ANWR drilling into just any bill, thinking no one will see it. And they think they are all the values party. Puh-leeze. I used to work with these kind of people. They're all the same. No ethics.

i DO have a job actually...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/12/20/intelligent.design/index.html

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A Pennsylvania school district cannot
teach in science classes a concept that says some aspects of science were created by a supernatural being, a federal judge has ruled.
In an opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Jones ruled that teaching "intelligent design" would violate the Constitutional separation of church and state.
"We have concluded that it is not [science], and moreover that ID cannot uncouple
itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents," Jones writes in
his 139-page opinion posted on the court's Web site.

no shit sherlock. finally a sensible ruling that is not activist. but wait, what is that I hear? O'Reilly, Dobson, Falwell, etc. shouting activist judge, activist judge?

this crap was not going to hold up. this is why we have CHURCH. school is where we teach science, and not the pseudo kind.

As Atrios blogs:

According to recent press reports, Pentagon officials have been spying on what they call "suspicious" meetings by civilian groups, including student groups opposed to the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual military personnel. The story, first reported by Lisa Myers and NBC News last week, noted that Pentagon investigators had records pertaining to April protests at the State University of New York at Albany and William Patterson College in New Jersey. A February protest at NYU was also listed, along with the law school's LGBT advocacy group OUTlaw, which was classified as "possibly violent" by the Pentagon. A UC-Santa Cruz "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" protest, which included a gay kiss-in, was labeled as a "credible threat" of terrorism.

---
Why does it have to come to this. That's right, I've plotted to threaten the federal government with a kiss-in. Puh-leeze.

"DISSENT is the highest form of patriotism" - Thomas Jefferson

Virgo: back away from people or conversations that are too intense.

This was all over the local news down here today in Miami. I caught up w/ the story an hour after it happened. A float plane barely made it up into the sky before crashing into the water near South Beach at the entrance to the cruise ship harbor. Plane from Chalks International Airlines was based here in Fort Lauderdale and en route to Bimini Islands. Freakishly, this is yet another plane crash in a series of plane incidents the last few weeks and months. We go from none to many. Like they're related.

...to secretly eavesdrop on Americans without a search warrant or not to secretly eavesdrop on Americans without a search warrant...that is the question.

Revelations in the news today - only after a NYT times piece came out after a year in hiding - that Dubya OK'ed the NSA to conduct eavesdropping, technically intelligence surveillance, on Americans after 9/11 and it possibly turns out mostly on Muslims.

Conundrum - is that ok or is that not ok...since they're Muslims. Does white bread America think it's ok for darker-skinned peoples to be spied on, considering the coincidence that most of our terrorist attacks were by these same people? Or do we remind ourselves that we're all citizens no matter the color and should not expect secret spying without our knowledge.

I guess if I knew I had nothing to hide, it doesn't matter, let them conduct their surveillance in hopes of routing the bad people, but then again, when you're dealing with the federal government and you don't know the intentions and you have this little thing called the Patriot Act, well, I'd just like to know what the hell is going on behind the scenes.

good news - coming home on Christmas Eve for week or two. can hardly contain myself.

(from the NYT):

Guy Padgett, the openly gay mayor here in Wyoming's second-largest city, had a tough time getting to his table for dinner at a restaurant the other night, interrupted and detained every few feet by a friend, a constituent or some other well-wisher who wanted to shake his hand.

"Brokeback Mountain," about gay cowboys in Wyoming, has not yet made it to Casper. Mayor Guy Padgett says little will change when it does. Though neither he nor many other people here have seen it yet, Mr. Padgett says he feels pretty sure that "Brokeback Mountain," the new movie about gay cowboys in Wyoming, will not change those old rhythms of glad-handing very much. People here, he thinks, have gotten past seeing him as gay; to most of them he is now just Guy.

---
Why should it be any different. This article explains to me that all the press is overexaggerating the reactions to this movie. It's just a movie. Others came, others will come ahead.

(from the Austinist):

initial lineup of bands for SXSW XX is online and includes well-knowns Dashboard Confessional, Nickel Creek among all the other unknowns and up-and-comings.

SXSW was a blast last year and I didn't even attend any events except for the afterparty for an Elijah Wood movie. Plan to spring for the Gold pass this years, which will be hundreds of dollars. I'd like to check out the Interactive panels, as some of the bloggers and media types I read tend to be there. But of course the music and film scene is the best part and draws out everyone in droves and makes Austin that much more alive.

Official SXSW site is linked here.
Looking forward to it..

(from Steve's Soapbox and originally the 12-10 WaPo)

The 48-year-old man turned down a job because he feared that a co-worker would be gay. He was upset that gay culture was becoming mainstream and blamed most of his personal, professional and emotional problems on the gay and lesbian movement.These fixations preoccupied him every day. Articles in magazines about gays made him agitated. He confessed that his fears had left him socially isolated and unemployed for years: A recovering alcoholic, the man even avoided 12-step meetings out of fear he might encounter a gay person.

The proposed guidelines that California psychologist Edward Dunbar created describe people whose daily functioning is paralyzed by persistent fears and worries about other groups. The guidelines have not been endorsed by the American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM); advocates are mostly seeking support for systematic study.Darrel A. Regier, director of research at the psychiatric association, said he supports research into whether pathological bias is a disorder. But he said the jury is out on whether a diagnostic classification would add anything useful, given that clinicians already know about disorders in which people rigidly hold onto false beliefs.

These people need serious help. Article goes on to say it includes racism, anti-semitism, anything that is a bias or prejudice that basically is so ingrained in your mind that it disrupts life.

Fascinating.

Got up a bit early this morning, like 7:30 early, and managed to surf out of my normal reading to a blog from the "other side", yeah the wingnut side.

Read this passage in the comments to this post and see if it doesn't make you want to dry heave with disgust and disbelief.

"As a saved Christian, I have no problem with the death penalty for convicted murderers. I have an enormous problem with unlaterally condemning to death infants in violation of the Fifth Ammendment of our Constitution. God warned us about a time when man would call good evil and evil good. We need to pay closer attention."

Someone please tell me what this means. It was in response to Tookie Williams being executed and how all liberals want to save him but also want to kill all unborn fetuses. Yes, yes, make an over-generalization and rally the troops.

I long ago stopped believing that Xtians truly practice what they believe. I've always thought in my own warped mind that the need to hang on to religious precept in order to *get thru* life and to make decisions based on what they believe was a sign of a weak mind or a dependent mind.

But that's a whole other conversation for another post another time.

(from the UK paper The Independent and posted on dailykos now)
$204.4 billion: The cost to the U.S of the war so far.
2,339: Allied troops killed
15,955: US troops wounded in action
98: U.K troops killed
30,000 : Estimated Iraqi civilian deaths
0: Number of WMDs found
66: Journalists killed in Iraq.
63: Journalists killed during Vietnam war
8: per cent of Iraqi children suffering acute malnutrition
53,470: Iraqi insurgents killed
67: per cent Iraqis who feel less secure because of occupation
$343: Average monthly salary for an Iraqi soldier. Average monthly salary for an American soldier in Iraq: $4,160.75
5: foreign civilians kidnapped per month
47: per cent Iraqis who never have enough electricity
20: casualties per month from unexploded mines
25-40: per cent Estimated unemployment rate, Nov 2005
251: Foreigners kidnapped
70: per cent of Iraqi's whose sewage system rarely works
183,000: British and American troops are still in action in Iraq.
13,000: from other nations
90: Daily attacks by insurgents in Nov '05. In Jun '03: 8
60-80: per cent Iraqis who are "strongly opposed" to presence of coalition troops

also read something this morning on Drudge about 2005 being Year of the Gay, is that like the Chinese Year of the Dragon or some shit like that? HA! it was a reference to Hollywood producing all these gay-themed movies, and contrasting to last year when gay issues were used as political discourse.

All i can say is that recognition isn't bad. I'm sure eventually we will all be to the point when a movie like "B.M." is no different than anything else and does not have to be referred to as the gay cowboy movie. Puh-leeze.

Str8 dudes need to just accept that way back when, in the days B.C. that the Roman and Greek dudes were gettin' it on with each other and that's what they did and it was normal and they LIKED it.

only in these A.D. days and with the influence of the Vatican all these centuries, is it such a BAD, EVIL, DEMONIC thing that self-professed str8 guys get a hard-on thinking of gettin' with another self-professed str8 guy, let alone just see it on screen. i cannot *wait* to go to see it in a big theater and hear the men verbalize their uncomfortable state during "B.M."

ever browsed the Craigslist M4M? plenty of "str8/str8acting/bicurious" guys want hookups, as long as they're only other "str8/str8acting/bicurious" guys.

ppl need to get over themselves...

have NOT seen this yet, don't even know if I can see it down in SoFlo, but really reeeeeally want to. guess i need to check the listings. i'm sure all the gays here know the 411.

here is the definitive guide to the movie as compiled by Andy of Towleroad, plenty of links, reviews, photos, you name it.

prolly wait until i get back to Austin to see it w/ the S.O.
that's only fair.

could be coming home soon, well most likely the last week of Xmas.
i have to move from one apartment to a storage for 2 weeks (yeah i know, storage rooms are so cold and damp and no kitchen) and then back into an apartment for 5 months.
when will the cycle end...

Mom snapped a pic of me, with North Beach behind me and Miami Beach proper way behind that. Beautiful, beautiful place.

posted on my other blog some links about Wal-Mart in the news. the discussion is heating up again. they are corporate whores, 'nuf said.

i was this close, this close to coming home (you really need to see how close).
we have not been offered additional work in Flah-ri-duh and so what to do?

at this point, the neighbor has graciously allowed us to work with him and take the profit on the claims we do. sweet!

just wish i was already home...

i'm an OCD news person, whether it's MSM or blogs or whatever.
i know what's going on anywhere, everywhere, back home, away from home, hometown, you name it.
for you people, there is no reason aside from work and being self-absorbed, that you don't know what's going on in our country.

today is 1 December 2005. our country is being run by imbeciles. have not had the benefit (or detriment however you look at it) of having a tube to gaze at and so i'm just relying on print these last few months to fill me in on the (mis)information always being spread.

i think people are much much too complacent. perhaps it's the uh-merican way.
we take it laying down like a bitch in heat in soft grass on a warm spring day or - depending on which way you swing - like a hungry bottom from craigslist m4m.
we just accept what's out there, what we voted for, how leads us, and the list goes on.

my favorite excuse is the people who don't do their research and just accept what they hear and read.
don't know about you, but *i* was always brought up learning the Benji Franklin quote "Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see."

it is truly sickening in a moral sense the amount of corruption and bribing and money-dealing in politics that is being reported these days.
what good is the money? do they all need Cadillac SUVs and Hummers? do they all need perfect suburban "Desperate Housewives-lookalike" streets and homes?

they all say respect your elders. and i guess if you're an old, white rich guy who goes to the corner Baptist church every Sunday, i'm supposed to respect you more. but it just sours me. anyone can be a crook, a soundrel, a money-grubber, a backstabber.

i just wish a little of my addiction to know what's-going-on-right-now would be contagious and that everyone would be more aware and maybe get involved. someone out there i know might get the itch to do something about it. me perhaps? but i like my life the way it is and not programmed to fight. any takers?

thanks to Coop

(from MediaMatters)
>>>
O'Reilly sweep: Olbermann gives O'Reilly bronze, silver, and gold medals for "Worst Person in the World"

From the November 30 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
KEITH OLBERMANN (host): But first, time for Countdown's list of today's three nominees for the coveted title of "Worst Person in the World."

The bronze goes to Bill O'Reilly. He has solidified in his status as this generation's Joe McCarthy. Just like the "Red Baiter," he now has his own list. His website reads: "The following media operations have regularly helped distribute defamation and false information supplied by far left Web sites." The list: the New York Daily News, the St. Petersburg Times, and MSNBC! You call it defamation, Bill. We call it precise quotes from your show.

The runner-up: Bill O'Reilly. On the Today show, no less. Now how the hell did that happen? Says, quote, "These pinheads running around going, 'Get out of Iraq now,' don't know what they're talking about. These are the same people before Hitler invaded in World War II that were saying, 'Ah, he's not such a bad guy.' " Watch. That will turn up tomorrow on his list of defamations.

But tonight's winner: Bill O'Reilly! You know this whole attack on Christmas nonsense that he made up? Some sort of fantasy in which the liberals are coming to your town to force you and your family to not call it Christmas anymore? The fantasy that we can't say "Merry Christmas," but you can only say "Happy Holidays"? The thing designed to stir up religious hatred and paranoia in this country? Guess what they're selling over at the Fox News online store? The Fox News "Holiday" ornament! And the O'Reilly Factor "Holiday" ornament. Who is trying to change "Merry Christmas" into "Happy Holidays"? Bill O'Reilly, that's who. Today's worst person in the world!
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Was there ever any doubt? C'mon...