Marry A Gay Today

That's the slogan to the new movement I'm starting. It's a grass roots movement that will rise up and overturn all of these ridiculous laws that do not allow consenting adults to legally make a commitment to one another.

Banning gay marriage is a direct violation of civil rights.

(Disclaimer: I have not marched yet for gay rights, although I've talked up and down about the issue. Maybe it's time I start.)

Barack, Barack, Barack Obama!

I just had to post this video in honor of Obama's visit to Ghana. Warning: it is the catchiest tune ever. It will wriggle its way into your ear and never leave. Still: pretty entertaining. He's really shakin' that cane, too.

Holy Smokes; this is Big!

Can you imagine if Obama had lost this past election? Worse, he won, but the election was stolen from him? Even worse: he ran against Bush (for a 3rd term), and Bush stole the election? Of course, that would never happen in our country. But if it had, we would be like Iran, right?

I was both highly anticipating and dreading the election last November, because I knew if Obama lost - even fair and square- there would be some mightily irate citizens on the streets. (Read: there would be riots. Like April 1968. Entire neighborhoods destroyed.) Thankfully, not only did he win, but there was, for the most part, joy in the land.

Which is why I am positively transfixed upon the news coming out of Iran the last few days. A revolution is being waged in a large and globally important country in the world. A thirty year-old institution of power is being threatened. The people - just regular citizens - are rising up and asking for their fair share. And, in an unprecedented fashion, information technology is playing a vital role.

The fate of the Middle East may ride on what happens next in Iran. History is unfolding, again! Are you paying attention?

As the Parents Turn

I received a happy surprise early last year when my father, who lives deep in the low country of South Carolina, informed me that he would be voting for Barak Obama in the Democratic primary. I almost dropped my phone, but I should have seen it coming. My dad had been conservative for a long time and in more ways that one, but he started to break from his Republican voting ways when Bush the Younger ran for president. However, a vote for Obama (and in the primary, no less) would be his first vote for a Democrat I think, ever.

The weirdness has not stopped here. Dear ol' Dad, former carnivore, is now a vegetarian. Technically, he is a vegan, because he is also avoiding dairy and eggs, but he hasn't yet owned up to this title. Sometime last year, (about the time he started voting democratic, coincidentally enough) his doctor informed him that he may need to get a heart valve replacement in a few years. He immediately began researching heart disease and diets, and he honed in on a diet recommendation developed by an actual heart doctor: a vegetarian diet. I won't link to it here because I don't remember the name of the book or the doctor, but the book is a best seller and the diet is being practiced by an entire fire station in Austin, Texas. (Manly men who fight fires can eat vegetarian!) What is shocking to me about my Dad's change of heart (!!), is my memory of eating vegetarian myself during my college days, and my dad silently thinking I was a freak for doing so. Ok, maybe that's not fair; maybe he just didn't completely understand, but that's what I was picking up on.

And NOW, my mother (my parents are divorced) has begun protesting. That is: she went to one of those "tea parties" on Tax Day. When I phoned her up late in the afternoon of April 15 to ask her an unrelated question, she informed me, in a tone of irony, that she had just been to a "tea party." I figured she had gone to one of her old-lady sorority gatherings, so I just said, "that's nice." She went on to describe the sign they made, and how there were many different kinds of people there, "democrats and republicans," and how the turn out was pretty good. "Oh. Oh! You went to one of those?!" And my immediate thought was, they watch too much Fox News. Which is true.

But hey, should I be more understanding? Open minded? Proud? After all, my parents are becoming me in college!

Get Your Gay On

Here's a thought: if you are against gay marriage, don't marry a gay person.

Have you seen that horrific video about the gay storm coming? (Stephen Colbert nicely mocked it on his show.) It deserves to be mocked. If these so-called "Christians" would stop using the bible to deny consenting adults their equal rights and focus on being actual, tolerant, compassionate Christians, they might brush the fog from their eyes (storm pun!) and see that the real threat to marriage - gay or straight - is domestic violence and irresponsible adults who raise irresponsible children.

Do you know why some believe that gay marriage "threatens" straight marriage? Because once gay marriage is legalized, some closeted people will realize their marriage is actually a sham. They'll think, oh, no! All this time, and I could have just married a man/woman!

Here's a stupid little parody I found:

A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

It's another installment of What's Annoying Me Lately!

I know, I know; someone on the web does this better than I, but she has her peeves, and I have mine.

Octo-Mom. You might be crazy if: your own parents go on Oprah to tell the world that you are crazy. Besides the hilarious moniker which sounds like a certain villain from a Spider Man comic, O.M. is no longer amusing. According to her dad, she would say at each of her pregnancies, "I promise, this is the last one!" Lady, they are not potato chips. I just wonder, if the doctors deem it acceptable to artificially knock her up time and time again, could they possibly bring her back to the hospital, drug her up, and close her uterus or something? Is that really so much worse than what has already been done?

Conservatives. They're planning a comeback, y'all! And there's nothing America loves more than a good comeback. Don't you love how they found the Republican version of Barak Obama in Gov. Jindal? Except, he looks like a tan Kenneth the Page and has absolutely nothing to say. He's like Bizarro Obama. (Again with the Superheroes...) And boy, they are really knocking it out of the park with the Governors. As long as Limbaugh and Romney (the Stormin' Mormon) are heading up this movement with slogans like "Conservatives Love People," then we could at least be in for a comedic comeback. Ah, but I do miss the days of rich comic material from Capitol Hill.

The ever swinging pendulum of inane food studies. I know this is not a recent trend, but just this last week on morning TV (I know), I heard about how moderate drinking can cause breast cancer in women, frozen vegetables are better for you than fresh vegetables, and calories are a more important factor in dieting than fat or carbs. I don't want to discount health studies, but they are not all created equal. I pine for a culture that is not so hyperactive about every item of food that goes into its mouth and can simply enjoy the normal, moderate pleasures of eating and drinking. It also doesn't help that on these morning shows they are yapping one minute about how organic peas can kill you, and then, after a commercial break, they're snarfing down Martha Stewart's chocolate cake or guacamole like there's no tomorrow.

Morning TV Shows. I'm still undecided about which major network has the least annoying morning news. Since I've cut the cable, I'm stuck with only a handful of channels, and while I don't really miss cable (maybe a little bit), I have a hard time stomaching Al Roker's mug mooning back at me every morning, or Ann Curry's self important journalist act, or even Diane Sawyer dressing like she's still 30. If I'm still puttering around by the time Regis and Kelly come on, I can tolerate them for a while. That is probably not a good sign.

We shall continue to overcome

This is a fascinating little video of an interview with MLK, Jr., in 1964, speaking about the possibility of a black president of the U.S. God bless the man whose faith in humanity made him one of the greatest civil rights leaders of all time. I know he will be looking down on all of us with a smile on Tuesday.

I will not be "blogging the 'Naug," as I plan to enjoy it from the warmth of my home. Since I missed the boat on buying tickets, I am not willing to sit for 6 to 10 hours in the freezing cold just to watch the show on a jumbotron. I feel bad about "missing history," but actually, I feel very much a part of it all. Even yesterday, Sunday, I sang in a special MLK/Inaugural church service downtown, and after singing a few spirituals, the choir processed down the aisle to close the service with the hymn, "We Shall Overcome." This hymn always makes me cry just to hear it, so singing it was a near impossibility for me. As I stood beside a pew during the last verse, a congregation member reached out and took my hand. A few seconds later, the preacher urged all of us to do the same, and within seconds, the whole church was holding hands and singing this spiritual anthem. It was beautiful.

Happy New Era, America!

Boy, that back massage is going to feel good.

Oh, hello! I didn't see you there. I was just thinking about the back massage that I will soon be receiving, by way of my winning a bet that Hilary Clinton will come back, like the unstoppable weeble-wobble she is, and take back the campaign.

After Obama's last tidal wave of primary election victory, Mr. P started throwing around words like "toast," "finished," and "history," in regard to our favorite female candidate. I, on the other hand, started to think: not so fast.

I could sense it. It was a negative round of fire on her opponent, but it was all she had. He remained unfurled - a quality that I have found appealing - as she chip, chip, chipped away at his cool exterior. At some point I felt the tides shift; I don't remember the particular moment, but I thought: she's actually going to pull this off.

That's when I made a bet with Mr. P.

Ha! Woman trumps man! Again.

I'm inspired by her resurgence; it reminds me that it's always worth fighting for something. Not that I'm super-pro-Hil (I'm really not, not yet), but she's improved my life already.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get myself to the Body Shop for some massage oil.