George Steinbrenner (1930-2010)

did anyone catch the shitstorm that blathering fool Aravosis started yesterday with his “the Pentagon is going to segregate gays” hysterical bullshit?

I really hate that asshole.

for the record

Pentagon: Gay Soldier Survey Won’t Lead to Segregation

@Capt Howdy:

Since the Obama Administration has repeatedly stonewalled, betrayed, lied,and treated us in the most juvenile, condescending manner possible, it’s hardly a leap of logic to expect the psychopaths and compulsive liars that run the Pentagon to propose segregated facilities based on the inherently gay-baiting and gay-hating questions on their “survey.”

Will it really be a total shock when the “results” show that 1,000% of the troops wanna shove every GLBT American into segregated showers that spray cyanide gas? The only surprise so far has been that they didn’t accidently release the “results” before the survey was sent out.

@Original Andrew:

well
I think that given the horrid history of segregation that BS from Arovosis yesterday was just BS to get web hits. its simply is not and never was going to happen. and the silly thing is that if you actually read what he quotes as the “source” of this its clear that is not what they mean at all.

now, as far as what the boneheads in the pentagon and the armed forces want, who knows. and I think that was exactly the point. as I was trying to explain to the hysterical yesterday at TL, it seems logical to me that if you are sending out a questionnaire to try to gauge the extent of bigotry and prejudice its not illogical to include some button pushing and baiting language.
its easy to say you know what they think. but you really dont and neither do they. I wouldnt be surprised if there is more acceptance than they expect along with the hate.
but it makes sense to find out what to expect from the rank and file.

@Capt Howdy:

It’s preposterous. The military has never been surveyed on how they feel about major changes in policy or strategy, like integrating African Americans and women. What do you think the results would have been if the military had been surveyed prior to desegregation? No, this was designed to humiliate gay and lesbian service members and whip up homophobia in the armed forces. Remember that Congress never voted to repeal DADT, they voted to give the military the power to end the policy on their own time table, which will be never, btw, and they’ll use the so-called “survey” results to prove that openly gay service members will utterly destroy “unit cohesion, morale and retention” as they’ve always falsely claimed.

@Original Andrew:

women and blacks are not gays. this is different. it involves religion for one thing.
DADT will be repealed.

This survey, it reminds me of Obama’s Deficit Advisory Committee.

The results are going to be that every single straight army man will feel so scared and paranoid and victimized by the proximity of teh gheys, that they will be utterly unable to fight, and the Nation will be overrun by the army of Montenegro within 2 days of allowing gays to serve openly.

Just like what happened with Israel’s army, we all say how letting in teh gheys allowed Syria and Lebanon to conquer Israel.

@Prommie:

Similar disasters were predicted for Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania (really, we’re behind Lithuania? Jesus fucking Christ), Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, the Philippines, Romania, Russia (!!), Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and U-R-uguay…

….which is why they’re all mooslem caliphates now.

@Prommie:

I noticed that we have zero total spending on wars and the military according to the Deficient Committee. That seems like a small omission from their mission.

@Prommie:
of course it will
DADT will still be repealed.

@Original Andrew: ” ….which is why they’re all mooslem caliphates now.” Actually, they’re working on that in the southern Phillipine islands now and have been for a number of years. I believe that US American advisors are present there.

Fun fact: the Colt 1911 .45 cal semiauto pistol was developed partly in response to inadequate stopping power of the .38 cal revolver that was the standard issue military side arm during the US efforts against the Moro insurgents in the Phillipines a hundred years ago. Additional fun fact: another cartridge that was developed due to the “inadequacy” of the .38 was the introduction of the .357 magnum by the FBI for use against bank robbers and their vehicles. I personally don’t own a .45 because I found it to hard for me to hold and shoot with my smallish hands.

http://www.m1911.org/full_history.htm

@Original Andrew:

Oh OA, always the Negative Nancy! Look at the bright side:

…

Well, ok, there’s got to be a bright side somewhere. Maybe Rush Limbaugh will complete the hat trick.

@Prommie:
first i said, HUH? ah, sarcasm.
you are hard to find these days, proms, hope you’re AOK.

@Prommie: @baked: YAH, where is my Promnight lately? I miss the long comments, which I always read as they were thought provoking. I hope he is not too much in the shade, as the poet says…

@Tommmcat Still Gets Carly Confused With Meg:
and i worry about you too. get off the eliptical! you’re getting too thin, i don’t want you to disappear! eat a sandwich. xoxo

@Original Andrew:
let your funny out, and NO ONE is funnier than you. every little ting gonna be alright…we’re getting there. slowly maybe, but getting there.
kisses and hugs

@Tommmcat:

I’m not a pessimist–truly!–I’m a realist. I just can’t stand the gratingly obvious and crass political games that our rulers play with our lives. It cheeses me off even more that their idiotic deceptions are greeted with such totally guileless gullibility by the general public, even in this deeply cynical day and age. I’ve just gots to find some good news. Is happynews.com still 404ing? I go away now.

@Original Andrew: It’s called accounting fraud.

Update on the ABQ shooting WRITTEN BY my former band mate and law school buddy (until he dropped out) WHO WAS NOT THE SHOOTER:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-new-mexico-shooting-20100713,0,848560.story

My buddy Mike played guitar and sang, I played drums. I also leaned on him several years ago to hire Mrs RML as a fellow stringer for People magazine.

Repeal Of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Paves Way For Gay Sex Right On Battlefield, Opponents Fantasize

“Our men need to know they can count on each other in battle, and we can’t have them getting distracted by illicit romantic dalliances,” said Gen. James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps. “Especially if one’s a little blond Adonis farm boy and his buddy’s a real tough street kid straight out of Brooklyn. I mean, think about it: What if they lock eyes and abandon their post to start ripping each other’s fatigues off, revealing twin sets of glistening washboard abs and at last fulfilling their hidden passions?”

This May, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) promised voters he would do everything in his power to prevent gays from serving openly in the armed forces, and on Thursday, he told reporters that the role of the military is to defend American freedoms, not “the rights of, you know, those people some of us stay up all night thinking about as we toss and turn.”
“Imagine you’ve got a boat full of sailors out cruising the Gulf of Aden when all of a sudden they’re attacked. Some of the homosexuals lock themselves below deck and begin touching themselves,” said the 73-year-old senator and Vietnam War veteran, his breath quickening. “One of their names is Ricardo. Unbuttoning his pants, he throws his gunner’s mate down on the cot and penetrates him, his big, beautiful dick shimmering with power, his dog tags bouncing up and down as he’s pounding, and pounding, and pounding.”

@redmanlaw:

Sweet Jeebus, I’m sorry.

@Original Andrew: It’s all those damn Lady Gaga videos from the front lines. Guess they’re cheerier than “Disposable Heroes” by Metallica or “Foxhole” by Television.

Foxhole: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKgyjw478B8

Heroes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eehu5FNPWIw

ADD: Fucking THRASH, ese! m/
/head bangs at desk

@redmanlaw:

I can’t believe anyone enlisted in the 90s after the video for One went into heavy rotation.

@Original Andrew:
oh, ferchissake. isn’t israel and usamerica bff’s?
do these McIdiots take their head out there asses long enough to look around? or it’s a quick smoke then back up the ass?

” Follow Israel’s example on gays in the military, US study says.
California University study concludes America needs to learn from ‘tolerant Israeli model’ regarding homosexual soldiers, officers; ‘you can be a very brave, creative officer and be gay at the same time,’ former IDF officer quoted as saying

Itamar Eichner / Israel News

@Original Andrew: Obama-Gay relations as seen by gun blog commenters:

I am still amazed that they (the Dems) can pull this crap and throw the Gay folk under the bus again yet the next election most of them will back the Dems. . . . They don’t learn that it is all talk from the Dems and no action. . . .

____

Part of the problem is the way the religious reich got behind Bush and the Republican party in 2004 – and the way Bush and so many R’s embraced that support with their actively anti-gay campaigning. It indelibly cemented the image of the Republican party as the anti-gay party in many people’s minds.

The other problem is the Repub’s history of actively repressing gays – DADT and DOMA are just two examples that are very visible – while Dems are at least saying they’ll help. Yes, they’re lying, but even many who realize that just don’t see any viable alternative.

____

“Everybody hates the gays, no matter the party” at saysuncle.com

@Original Andrew:
the pathetic thing is I had to click on that to know it was from the onion.

it seems entirely plausible that they would say this.

@Original Andrew: I noticed that we have zero total spending on wars and the military according to the Deficient Committee.

My understanding of their point is that beyond Social Security, Medicare, and something else, everything’s being financed by China.

Unless yours is a different point.

@nojo:

No one in Power ever suggests cutting military spending–it’s sacrosanct. They’d rather plunge millions of elderly people into hunger and poverty than cut the war budget that gushes wasteful spending like an open oil well.

@Original Andrew: Speaking of which, there’s administration chatter about requiring IRAs. Because po’ folk don’t save enough.

No chatter about how why po’ folk don’t have the money they had in 1980, of course.

Broader point: Just like the simplest solution to healthcare is expanding Medicare, the simplest solution to Social Security is removing the income-taxation cap. Which is why nobody’s talking about it.

@nojo:

Verdad. All they have to do is lift the OASDI income cap and Social Security is solvent into perpetuity with no punitive changes to retirees–it’d take a one sentence bill. (crickets chirping)

Noje, your Aussie crush object strikes again.

“It’s a design thing. The cat is lost in the negative space.”

@Capt Howdy:

They’ll be screening Daisy Chain of Command and Saving Ryan’s Privates during the Senate “debate.”

@Original Andrew: Actually, it’s more likely to be children who are harmed by their wastefulness and disregard. The olds got their AARP lobby and they vote which means SS and Medicare can’t be touched. Children, however, have no voice, no lobby, no power, so we can cut WIC (all those lazy welfare queens getting rich by having kids), healthcare, and of course education to the fucking bone. Kids don’t need no education to be their cannon fodder.

@flippin eck: I probably should have run that when he posted it. I’ve been thinking about those posters for weeks.

@Original Andrew:
it should be fun to watch.
look, I have no more patients with them or trust in them than you do. I simply think that this is an idea whose time has come. for a whole bunch of reasons.

they cant stop this. I think they know this and I would guess that might be one of the reasons that used that silly questionnaire. to give the rubes the illusion of having some input into what is going to happen.

the really interesting part of this for me has been the reaction of some of the women, at TL for example, who I had thought were reasonably progressive.

heres a sample:

Men and women are “so called” usually segregated as far as living quarters go in the military. This is no different.

oh yeah
separate but equal. right?

and so it goes

@Capt Howdy:

What’s really interesting about segregation is how many people are totally in favor of it– while hiding behind the anonymity of online commenting, of course.

@Original Andrew: Here’s where I insert the obligatory comment that as a freelancer, I’m already paying 15 percent off the top for Social Security/Medicare. Plus another 10-15 percent for regular taxes.

Thus, my spreadsheet: Take net income, subtract 25-30 percent for taxes. And my net is not, how you say, anywhere near the high-fives.

IRA? Sorry. Already invested in my iPad. Plus whatever health insurance I eventually get saddled with.

@Original Andrew:
exactly. I was stunned

@redmanlaw:

I’ve really given this a lot of thought, and I just can’t figure it out. Obama started with a unique opportunity and potentially historic, positive relationship with the GLBT community, and he and his advisors have systematically annihilated it.

It would’ve cost him very little politically to fully support gay rights in every respect–the wingtards would be screaming the same hysterical lies about him regardless of his true position–and yet, here we are, trapped in a totally dysfunctional relationship with our Farce Advocate, who tries to placate us with hot air while his government actively works to oppose gay equality on a fundamental level. And if you don’t believe that, just wait for the upcoming appeal of the recent anit-DOMA ruling that’s gonna hit our community like a Mack truck. Holder’s (In)Justice Department is gonna do everything they can to set us back thirty years, and they’ll likely defeat us in court. Obama and Holder are our frenemies at best, and I just wish more people would call them out on their hurricane of bullshit.

The only rationale that I can come up with is that the whole anti-gay rights circus perpetrated by both parties is designed to confuse and distract the proles from our far more drastically serious domestic and international problems.

To provide one memory of old King George, I’d like to recall Reggie Jackson’s comment about his manager (Billy Martin) and the Yankee’s owner:

“One’s a born liar and the other was convicted”.

@Original Andrew: Obama started with a unique opportunity and potentially historic… and he and his advisors have systematically annihilated it.

Edited for clarity.

@Original Andrew: Maybe we need to become a fully secular nation before the gays can have equal rights.

tj/ Tonight’s opera: Tales of Hoffman.

@Original Andrew:

my take from the beginning,
if he really wanted a positive relationship with the GLBT community he would not have shared the stage with a douchbag like Donnie McClurkin.

that was the first of several red flags. Obama was never the progressive he was painted and touted to be. never.

@redmanlaw:
bullshit
if the thumpers think they can stop us let them bring it.

@redmanlaw:

Honestly, religion itself doesn’t seem to have all that much to do with it.

Look at Spain, which has state-funded Catholicism, no separation of church and state, and mandatory religious education. Even the frakking cats are Catholic, and that wonderful nation has 100% full equality for gay men, lesbians and the transgendered. They’re truly one of the most progressive nations on the planet, passionate defenders of equality and social justice, and also one of the most steeped in religious traditions.

ADD: I am so stoked that they won the World Cup. They’ve had a terrible year, with both economic distress and separatist unrest, and they totally earned and deserved some world-wide recognition and national pride. ¡Viva España!

@Original Andrew:
well in truth Catholics are not the problem here. if everyone was Catholic we would all be boffing alter boys.
the problem is the southern right wing tea bag listening to the voice of Jay-sus assholes.

or I should say not the real problem.
they try to be a problem but no one takes them seriously on the subject any more.
not even nuns.

@Original Andrew: @Capt Howdy: Spain’s Catholicism is hardly the inquisition variety of a few centuries ago. Like the rest of Europe, they benefit from that super-chilled-out-doesn’t-affect-your-daily-choices-all-that-much variety of religion. As you said, Cap’n, it’s the newbies/fundies who are so dangerous. There’s no passion like that of the newly converted. Case in point: Uganda. So the good news is America only has a few centuries to go before we hit laid-back religious status wherein we will embrace all the gays! Yay!

@Original Andrew:

Hot.

@redmanlaw:

OMG, my favorite. The “Lovely Night” aria, so beautiful, listen for it. Recalls the best of Mozart, really.

@Tommmcat Still Gets Carly Confused With Meg: Apparently Natalie Dessay has kicked major ass in this opera, but she’s not here this year. We saw her last year in La Traviata, and I’ve read that she’s been awesome in Madame Butterfly.

What act is the aria in? Act 2 is the Doll’s Song, so Act 3?

ADD/CORRECTION: Doll’s Song is Act 1, and Act 2 takes place in Venice, which would be appropriate for the barcarolle. Got it, and thanks for the tip. And, like I say man, you could be out here grooving on it in person.

@flippin eck: That’s what I was sayin’.

@redmanlaw:

Barcarole, yes, that’s it. Exquisite.

ADD: I should be. I would be, if it were not for fucking Baby Einstein…

@redmanlaw:

Jesus, that’s terrible.

@Tommmcat Still Gets Carly Confused With Meg: In other fucked up true crime from New Mexico, 16 year old steals gun from mom’s cop boyfriend and shoots rival for girl about 14 times in the chest at Santa Fe mall near my house. (Magazines for modern law enforcement/military service weapons usually carry at least 15 rounds, so I think Junior shot off 1 to check it out, and used the rest on Homes at the mall. Wonder if he was one of the three young guys I saw at the range when I was coming home from there on Saturday).

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Police–Fatal-teen-shooting-captured-on-mall-video

Also: LAS CRUCES — A 23-year-old man has been shot to death by a Las Cruces police officer after charging at police with a 4-foot samurai-type sword.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Las-Cruces-police-shoot-sword-wielding-man

@redmanlaw: I think you might need to clarify that your buddy wrote the LAT article, he wasn’t the victim of the shooter…

@SanFranLefty: Update on the ABQ shooting WRITTEN BY my former band mate and law school buddy (until he dropped out) WHO WAS NOT THE SHOOTER (NOR A VICTIM) AND IS NOW A JOURNALIST:

fixed

You people with your talk about DADT. Pffft.

We all know what’s going to happen — the GOP will nominate a kunckledragging ticket in 2012 whose position on the gheys is slightly more open-minded, by a hair, than Uganda’s. Barry/Plugz look a lot better by comparison. Wedge issue preserved to benefit of both parties, with gheys batted around like a tennis ball. Sad, but true. THE END.

You all are forgetting the important thing: STEINBRENNER IS DEAD.

(Mind you, I’m not a dance-on-grave guy. And I will not do so here. It’s not necessary, and he gave back and loved his kids etc. But I was raised to LOATHE this man. It’s a milestone for certain.)

@redmanlaw & @SanFranLefty:

Well that certainly changes things.

@Original Andrew: Well, *I* knew what I was talking about . . .

@redmanlaw: As did I, but I was wondering why you were getting so much sympathy for knowing reporters…

@SanFranLefty: Off to hear some Offenbach.

@chicago bureau: I liked the Onion’s tasteful take on his passing.

@chicago bureau: I’m not a dance-on-grave guy.

That’s wise. Best to wait for the rest of us to stop pissing on it.

@nojo: Gotta do something to keep down the flames of hell.

@Tommmcat Still Gets Carly Confused With Meg: “Tales of Hoffman”, Santa Fe Opera – I’m no expert, but I didn’t care for the set or the movement of performers within the huge wide open set. I actually hated the production more and more the longer I watched it.

The prologue was really, really slow. It was a like a wet blanket that killed the mo from the start. I was disappointed in the presentation of Act I, liked the end of Act II (Antonia’s death scene). Too tired and didn’t feel well, so we didn’t stay for Act III and left at the second intermission at 11:35 (they started at nightfall, or 9 pm since it’s an open air theater).

I was really looking forward to this one and left disappointed in the presentation although individual performances by Hoffmann, the villains, the scientist, the Muse and Stella were great, although the Muse in her grey cadet’s uniform posing as Hoffman’s friend reminded me of Rocky the Flying Squirrel in her earnestness and general hopping around. She could bring the snark in Act 2 when mocking the Doll from Act 1. Mrs RML and Son of RML liked it a lot, however.

@redmanlaw:
The plotline is a little funky for modern audiences, I think. How was the Barchorale? Did they do the ressucitive (sp?) version or the one with spoken lines?

@Tommmcat Still Gets Carly Confused With Meg: No problem with the plotline but the actual physical movement of the performers through the set was fucked. I really wanted to see the barchorale, but we just could not go past 11:35 last night. I’d like to see it in another production.

@redmanlaw:

Just download it. It is lovely.

@Tommmcat Still Gets Carly Confused With Meg: Watched about three versions on the Youtubes yesterday, plus an awesome Doll’s Song with Natalie Dessay.