Category Archives: observations

I guess this could also be called “opinion” since it’s thoughts on life or happenings where I feel like I want to “weigh in”.

Our recall election can go forward!

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I won’t go so far as to take back all the bad things I’ve ever said about the liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, but at least they got it right this time.

I just read on the internet that the full 11-judge panel of the 9th circuit overturned the 3-judge panel’s earlier election stay. Our recall can go forward on October 7th as planned and as everyone—even Gray Davis—has advocated. I suppose there’ll be a U.S. Supreme Court appeal by the ACLU, but everyone thinks they’ll turn them down like a bedspread. (LATE ADDITION: The ACLU has said they will not appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court—good move…)

This is just par for the course in our contentious, unreasonable, idiotic society today. Pretty much all thoughtful political discourse is gone, replaced by polemics, polarization and extremism. Politics—like law—has gone so far away from its original purposes and is now merely a “win or lose” contest for people with big egos. It doesn’t matter how they do it or what they’ll actually do in office, it’s only important that the candidate win. This, more than anything, is why politics is such a disreputable, dirty business in my opinion.

For my part, I’m voting for Arnold Schwarzenegger . I’ve always believed that the last person to ever vote for is a professional politician. Arnold is a naturalized citizen so he knows what it’s like to be from the outside. He’ll be someone who’s moderate on social issues to appeal to our liberal citizenry, but has enough fiscal conservatism and responsibility to hopefully inject some sanity into our budgetary and spending fiasco that Gray Davis caused. Hell—even the Log Cabin Republicans have endorsed him, not that I tend to listen to them very much.

More than anything, I—like the rest of California—can’t wait until it’s finally over…

Adventures of a major fan

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I’m going to Chicago to meet two of my “Big Three” favorite authors at a book signing. Hooray for frequent flyer miles…

In the world of coming-of-age/coming-out novels, I have three favorite writers: Ron Donaghe, Mark (no relation) Kendrick and Mark Roeder. Ron’s “Uncle Sean” trilogy is some absolutely amazing writing; Mark K.’s “Desert Sons” and “Into This World We’re Thrown” seriously changed my life; and Mark R.’s “Gay Youth Chronicles” have created an entire world filled with new friends, compelling stories and powerful teachings.

Turns out that both Marks are having a joint book signing sponsored by their publisher iUniverse in Chicago next weekend. I’d just finished proofing Mark R.’s latest novel (“Summer of My Discontent”, just sent to the publisher this week—and I’m honored to say that he selected one of my ideas for the title) and was musing with him about how cool it would be to come to the signing so that I could meet them both in person.

A few minutes on the internet and a couple phone calls later and I’ve got a free ticket on United, a cheap motel and a car rental and will be going out for the weekend. COOL! I’ll also have ample chance to visit the town of Oak Park, Illinois made famous, of course, by architect Frank Lloyd Wright who I’ve always been nuts about. His home and studio are there and open for tours, and the neighborhoods are filled with his houses.

For those of you interested in the particulars, the book signing will be held from 2:00–4:00 PM on Saturday, September 27, 2003 in Chicago at the Gerber/Hart Library located at 1127 W. Granville Av. Additionally, author Josh Thomas (whose books I’ve not yet read) will be there too.

Political football continues in California

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The notoriously liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has seen fit to disregard the will of the people on a politically expedient technicality.

I suppose we all should have seen it coming.

It’s bad enough that the recall election to oust our do-nothing, lying, worthless governor is such a circus, but now the Federal government feels the need to step in to prevent it being “unfair”. We supposedly are too stupid to figure out how punch-card ballots work, even though they seem to have been okay for the last 40 years we’ve been using them.

It’s so nice that Gray Davis has left-wing buddies in this court so that he can continue with his nasty, dirty campaigning, his obfuscation, his ruination of my home state. Partisan politics are so entrenched and blind in this state that I’m beginning to think that there will never, ever be consensus here ever again. Time to pack up and move, I think.

We have ourselves—and this myopic partisanship—to blame. How Davis was reelected is an absolute travesty: Democrats here will not vote for any Republican, ever , so they pulled the lever last fall for a man who took California from a multi-billion dollar budget surplus to a multi-billion dollar deficit in just over a year. His incredible inaction and lack of leadership drove one public utility to bankruptcy, led to the socialization of our power distribution infrastructure and left us with the lowest credit rating in the USA, unbelievable budget shortfalls and the specter of rising taxes and fees everywhere you look.

For example, last year’s registration for my car was $275.00. This year, it’s $663.00—nearly triple and for no other reason than the governor is attempting to cover his ass by pick-pocketing the citizens of California in any way he can. We’ll have a tax raise for sure, but it’ll be small (because tax hikes aren’t popular). But woe be to us all for these kinds of “hidden” taxes. It makes me absolutely sick.

The California constitution was amended to include the ability to recall elected officers as a result of the rampant corruption at the turn of the century when our state’s government was firmly in the back pocket of the Southern Pacific railroad. It is a safeguard and protection that allows us to remove corruption and incompetence when we see it. One Million Californians signed the petition to oust our idiot Governor, and now we’ll have to suffer through this uncertainty and political spectacle for potentially another six months.

I only hope and pray that the morons of the 9th Circuit can be overturned—either in the full Circuit or even the U.S. Supreme Court—so that we can get this over with.

If Gray Davis ever cared about this state at all, or had any leadership qualities, he’d accept responsibility for this tragedy and step down. Like that’s ever gonna happen…

Russia—the new frontier

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The last time I was in Russia, it was not really Russia—it was still the USSR. Returning now, some 13 years later, was an entirely different experience.

I just returned from a trip that I’ve been planning for two years. The chorus I sing with, Pacific Sound, was the official chorus representing SPEBSQSA at the Fourth International Barbershop Harmony festival in St. Petersburg.

My main observation is: WOW! The place is entirely different now that people aren’t living under the pall of communism. It was so refreshing to see the white-blue-red flag of the Russian Republic flying over buildings rather than the red hammer and sickle.

Here’s a photo:

It’s nice seeing the double-headed eagle and noting how the people here are beginning to understand and recover from 70 years of the worst repression you could think of. There’s still some lingering flavor of totalitarianism—like that fact that policemen stand on the sides of streets and when they point at a motorist with their baton, the car immediately pulls over and the driver gets out his wallet—but things are so much more pleasant. It’s hard for me to believe that about 15 years ago, we were set to blow each other to smithereens with nuclear weapons. I couldn’t imagine ever doing that now.

I know that there are still troubles there, like the incredible pressures and difficulties of converting to a market economy. A popular saying among Russians is that “Under communism, we had plenty of money but nothing to buy; now, there’s plenty to buy but no money”. For the western tourist, Russia can be an incredible bargain and there are some wonderful things to purchase as souvenirs. Sadly, many Russians can’t afford the basics leading to things like people leaving their children at state orphanages not because they don’t want or love them, but because they can’t afford to support and feed them. Our tour guides told us that a maid in a hotel might make around $50.00 per month—a medical doctor makes around $200.00 a month. It’s all relative, though (it costs about 20 cents to ride the subway anywhere in town and a liter of bottled water is about 35 cents) but it doesn’t necessarily make things immediately affordable.

Another thing that was surprising was how beautiful the people are. I don’t think I ever saw a Russian woman during two weeks that looked anything like the woman on the old Wendy’s TV commercial (and next—Sveem-vear…). It was obviously just propaganda—or clever marketing. As a demonstration, I give you a photo of a young sailor at the historic cruiser Aurora in St, Petersburg talking to his girlfriend:


You can decide for yourself which one you’d take—I’ve already made my choice…

We even went to—of all places—a gay bar in St. Petersburg. It was small, kind of dingy and really smoky, but it was there. The patrons were attractive and having a good time. It was awesome not for those facts, but for the realization that what they were doing was totally illegal under communism—these fun-loving, attractive patrons would have been earning themselves a one-way ticket to the nearest Siberian gulag.

With all the bickering and annoyance and infighting and haughty self-righteousness of people like the French and Germans, not to say all the “entangling alliances” and interventions we’ve made all over the world, I can’t help but wish we’d just forget about everyone else on the rest of the planet, ally ourselves with the Russian Federation and tell the rest of them to go to hell. There’d be no stopping us, and we’d make the best friends we could ever possibly have among the great Russian people.