2004 Blog: 15 February

This week's theme was LOVE.

"Continue to love each other with true Christian love. Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers for some who have done this have entertained angels without even realizing it."
~Hebrews 13:1

Valentine's Day

I thought about holding another Valentine's Day contest as I did a few years ago, but decided against it. I'm still missing that year's winner, Moo.

Queer Marriage "legal" in SF

Opponents of gay marriage went to court Friday to stop an extraordinary act of ongoing civil disobedience in which San Francisco has issued nearly 100 marriage licenses to gay couples. New Mayor, Gavin Newsom allowed the city's registrar to issue the liscences because of his interpretation of California's equal rights protections in the state's constitution...

IBR: The Bears Come To Town

President's Day Weekend means it's again time for the International Bear Rendezvous in San Francisco. Legions of overweight, hairy gay men inundated the city for a week of revelry. Last year, my pal Marc and his crew from LA were in town and we went to the bear-da-bingo. This year, I skipped it and went down to the Lone Star and hung out with the 'Bears Gone Wild' guys.

Atkins Victim Of His Own Diet

"The Atkins Diet" hype has gained a tonne of momentum in the last year. If you're not familiar with it, you haven't been paying attention. Subway, Quiznos, McDonald's, Budweiser and other corporate conglomerates have jumped on the Atkins craze by offering low or no carb food. It was revealed this week however that Dr. Atkins, the main proponent of eating only meat and cheese with little or no carbohydrates died an obese man with many heart problems that led to a heart attack among other conditions...

Election '04

Kerry kicks Clark OUT
John Kerry won 2 southern primaries this week and Wesley Clark dropped out of the race. He was basically the anti-Howard Dean candidate and now that Dean is an also ran, Clark has no place in the race. He did his best to position himself as the guy to carry the south, but Kerry proved he can do it. Edwards was trying to put forth a similar argument, but has so far only managed to win his home state of South Carolina. Pundits claim he's the front-runner for VP, but there's still way too much time between now and then and politics is ever changing.

Bush Makes The Rounds
President Bush went on "Meet The Press" last weekend and spent a great deal of time talking at the media this week. He never really answered the questions about his military service or more accurately his lack of military service. He hasn't back-tracked from his "We will find WMDs" mantra and everytime he says it I feel like he's just digging himself in deeper.

The Age of Imperialism

Death Toll Higher Than Ever
This is starting to feel like such a broken record as more Americans died because Bush lied. I heard it mentioned that the death toll is now over 500 Americans. For every one soldier killed at least three are injured. Bush's Republican party continues to gut the veteran's administration's funding. I guess it's their way of showing their true support of our troops.

Iraqi's Are Dieing to Work
A car bomb went off and killed a tonne of people queueing up for work in Iraq. The American "security" forces that were the targets also suffered loss of life, but to die in the line of duty is part of their job description. How tragic for the families left behind by the murdered job-seekers. My heart goes out to them.

Priorities
Republicans are far more interested in fixing schools, roads and infrastructure in Iraq instead of fixing schools, roads, and infrastructure in America. They talk a good game, but when it comes down to spending any real money to address the needs of American veterans, elderly, working people or job-seekers, the Republicans gut adequate funding of vital services to help out corporations and the hyper-rich.