Is she the greatest theatrical voice of our lifetimes? I love love this song because it reminds me of so many nights spent with dear “Old Friends.”
Archive for the ‘Hope’ category
A little night music: the always amazing Betty Buckley
March 14th, 2010So, what’s up with Chile?
March 3rd, 2010When the crisis hit Haitai, it was non-stop news. I know that they are our neighbors. I know thay are very poor. I know we screwed them over many times. But heck, the axis of the earth changed in Chile. People are strarving there. Yes they are a wealthy country, but man they need help. So tell me, what’s happening in the city that we can all do our thing and help them out? Do you want me to put something together. I could be ingnorant, point me that way!
Esquire’s wonderful talk with Roger Ebert.
February 17th, 2010
I was surprisingly touched and moved by the portrait given in this article in Esquire Magazine. The Pulitzer Prize winning film critic has not been able to talk or eat or drink for three years now. And yet, he seems to have found a deeper freedom in the power of the word. He’s become no less of an atheist or a liberal, but he seems to have taken on that wisdom that those for whom had a great deal of suffering, find. It reminds me of talks with both of my parents before they died. Not particular conversations, but the drum beat of what they hoped to leave behind for me. The real value of life. What loss is, what our responsibility is, and how to be content.
In his dreams, his voice has never left. In his dreams, he can get out everything he didn’t get out during his waking hours: the thoughts that get trapped in paperless corners, the jokes he wanted to tell, the nuanced stories he can’t quite relate. In his dreams, he yells and chatters and whispers and exclaims. In his dreams, he’s never had cancer. In his dreams, he is whole.
These things come to us, they don’t come from us, he writes about his cancer, about sickness, on another Post-it note. Dreams come from us.
Read the article. I think you’ll find it moving, too. And I’m reminded again that this is what illness teaches us, when it is our own, or another’s:
There’s not enough time to write down what he’s angry about
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/features/roger-ebert-0310-4#ixzz0fmj6uSmN
OK. I may have misjudged…
February 4th, 2010
I have been beyond frustrated with the President’s slow progress on the DADT and other LGBT issues. Frankly, a lot of what he has done is far too “center-right” in its policy tone for me. But that’s a different blog entry. For now, all credit is due the President. I believe he has handled a complicated management and policy problem (not to mention political problem) in a way I actually find I work myself. He has lined up as many ducks in a row as he can and has put the Republicans in a very tight place. Republican after republican have stated in the past that they would defer to the military’s opinion on DADT.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in October 2009 that for a reversal of DADT to be successful, there would have to be a “buy-in by the military.”
“They should be included in this,” said Graham. “I am open-minded to what the military may suggest, but I can tell you, I’m not going to make policy based on a campaign rally.”
Former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a November 2007 debate was asked if he looked forward to “a day when gays can serve openly in the military?”
“I look forward to hearing from the military exactly what they believe is the right way to have the right kind of cohesion and support in our troops and I listen to what they have to say,” he replied.
In another Republican presidential debate a month later, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee joined Romney in insisting that the country needed to hear first from military command.
“I probably would let the military make that decision,” he said, when pressed. “One thing I don’t think you need is a president who’s trying to tell the military how to run the military, other than set broad policy agenda. The Uniform Code of Military Conduct is the best way to handle that and I would leave it to — to those who run the military.”
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okl.) has insisted, as recently as 2009, that he would “defer in large part to our military leaders on matters of military readiness and code of conduct. This includes the impact changing the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy would have, especially since military leaders note that this issue is fundamentally about military readiness.”
In a 2008 interview, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) defended DADT as a sound military policy by arguing that he had not “sensed that the military is calling for a change.”
Any change to these sorts of comments will again show the blunt bigotry that truly lies behind these men.
I truly don’t believe that this can be done overnight. I think a year is reasonable. My fear was always that the President would not do anything on this at all. It now appears he may have been doing quite a lot. Recently joining in with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is now the former man that held that position; a man who helped to draft this policy: Collin Powell.
So Mr. President, when I’m wrong, I’m wrong. So far on this, I am feeling a lot better. Now about that other stuff…oh, just let well enough alone, Lynch.
Pre-SOTU thoughts
January 27th, 2010
I have been an enthusiastic supporter of the President while he was campaigning. My problem with him since then is that he doesn’t appear to be the same person. We as progressives deal in a media environment in which the assumption is that we are a conservative country. This despite much evidence to the contrary. And there is some evidence that the GOP is misreading the public in this way again. Mike Lillis via Andrew Sullivan:
But while Republicans are hoping Brown’s victory foreshadows a GOP landslide, a number of political experts are warning that the country’s restless anxiety — as evidenced not only in Massachusetts, but in Virginia, New Jersey, and now Florida as well — is less a backlash against Democrats in particular than a rebuke of the business-as-usual politics of Capitol Hill in general. Even as unemployment soared and housing markets tanked, voters have watched lawmakers bicker endlessly over a stimulus bill that proved too small and a health reform proposal that remains unfinished. Meanwhile, the banks have bounced back on the wings of a taxpayer bailout, paying out billions of dollars in employee bonuses this month while the jobs crisis outside Wall Street only worsens. In such an environment, some experts caution, incumbents on both sides of the aisle could find themselves surprisingly vulnerable in November.
I have no doubt that he will give a stemwinder of a speech. I’m just not sure what he really stands for anymore. I want to see him fight. He will bring up again a call to end DADT, but we’ve heard this before. He will announce some spending freezes. He is beginning to play more and more on the conservative side of the field. I hope we see a change in this. Not just from the speech, but from his actions.
I’m still bewildered by the Democratic Party’s inability to pass anything progressive or within a fairly centrist Democratic Party agenda. We shouldn’t go Bill Clinton’s way. No small ball. The country needs more.
As an aside, can anyone tell me the last major piece of progressive/liberal legislation that has been passed in the country.
A little night music: I just wanna f**king dance
January 25th, 2010Quiet weekend. Rough news from some quarters. Tough week. So right now, here’s a golden oldie and a favorite of the thom blog:
The Song is from “Jerry Springer: the Opera”
A little night music: Caledonia for my mom
January 19th, 2010
the Lion Rampant is the only tattoo I have
I’ve been thinking of my Mom a lot over the last few days. I’m not sure why, she passed away almost 15 years ago now. She always wanted to return home to Scotland for one last time, but never could. We were quite poor and that dream never came to pass. So this year I do plan on going to Greenoch, her hometown near Glascow and visit for her. As you grow older, you think more about the dreams that may not have come true for you, and what you can accomplish in your life. I’m the longest living male in my direct family’s history, so perhaps I think of this to often. but you must still have dreams, and leave something behind. And sometimes, you have the chance to finish the dreams of those who never had the chance. So, Mom, this is for you and Scotland the Brave:
A little night music… Mary J Blige at the Grammies.
January 18th, 2010This is a woman who can sing.
Enrique at G.A.Y. in London
January 17th, 2010I really wish I could explain to people how comfortable and open Spaniards have become about LGBT people, especially in the cities. The influence that Spain could and does have on the Spanish speaking world is immense. And the countries to our south are bit by bit going beyond us in the US. I would love to work on a way to strengthen this amazing connection.
I’m sure I’ve posted this before probably, but it always moves me.
Excellent Site to follow the day to day coverage of the Prop 8 coverage.
January 11th, 2010I’ve deeply moved by the strength, intelligence and passion of our former opponent on the conservative side, Mr Olson. It helps me to remember that not all conservatives are anti-human rights. And that in this case, at least one is bringing all he can for truth. I have hope at least that a cogent argument is being made. And though we may lose, the courts are not our friends, today, I cry in the joy of hearing our lives described in the mundane and common Americanism that we all represent.
via http://prop8trialtracker.com/2010/01/11/liveblogging-day-1-daily-summary/.
