Angels on wheels

One of the basic tenets of the United States is the First Amendment - freedom of speech. That doesn't mean that you can say WHATEVER you want, WHEREVER you want, WHENEVER you want, but for the most part, it means that you can say things that are offensive and objectionable and hurtful and despicable. Awww, the First Amendment is the proverbial double-edged sword. It protects not just your right to free speech, but it also protects the free speech rights of those who are the polar opposite of you in any kind of thinking.

Polar opposite of good taste, decency, humanity - that's a good description for the so-called Westboro "church", who find it appropriate to protest against homosexuality at the funerals of military personnel killed in the line of duty, as well as other high-profile funerals. They're pretty much media whores. Which is fine in itself - there are lots of media whores in our society. But I can't imagine how hurtful their signs and chantings and disruptions are to the families of soldiers who are having a hard enough time saying goodbye to sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, comrades, good friends.

The courts recently upheld their right to do such protests. While my heart breaks at the thought of them being given the right to spew their hate and rub salt in the wounds of those already mourning the loss of a loved one, my head understands that it's the correct decision, that EVERYONE's right to free speech must be protected.


Today, a friend posted a link to a video of a group called the Patriot Guard Riders who have taken it upon themselves to do something about these protests. They are invited to military funerals and set themselves up as a curtain to protect the families from seeing and hearing the hate being spewed by the protesters. God bless these people for what they're doing.

You might need a tissue, or two, or a box. Don't say I didn't warn you.


I don't have the ability to embed the video, so here's the link to click to watch the video.

I'm just saying

And I'm not going to be saying much more. I'm just going to link to this story about alleged voter fraud. I could say a lot about it. A WHOLE LOT. But I think the story speaks for itself.

And in case the article becomes unreadable unless you register, I'm duplicating the story below.

Veteran Latino-rights advocate charged with voter fraud
7:09 AM | June 25, 2009
Felony charges have been filed and an arrest warrant issued for a well-known Orange County political activist suspected of committing election and voter registration fraud, the California secretary of State's office announced Wednesday.

Investigators in the agency's election-fraud unit said Nativo V. Lopez, 57, of Santa Ana leased office space in Boyle Heights and registered to vote using that address although he lived with his family in Orange County. They also say Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Assn., cast an illegal ballot in L.A. in the 2008 presidential primary.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which is working with the secretary of State, charged Lopez with four felonies: fraudulent voter registration, fraudulent document filing, perjury and fraudulent voting. A warrant was issued for his arrest and bail was set at $10,000. The offenses carry penalties of up to three years in prison.

Lopez is a longtime Latino political-rights advocate in Orange County who served on the Santa Ana school board. Lopez has been a vocal advocate for Latino voting rights and supported immigrant amnesty and allowing undocumented workers to have driver's licenses. He could not immediately be reached for comment.

In 1997, the Orange County district attorney opened a criminal investigation into allegations that a group in which Lopez was a leader registered some clients to vote before they took the oath of citizenship. No criminal charges were brought, and Lopez demanded an apology from critics.

-- Dan Weikel and Shelby Grad

I'm surprised this information didn't come out before the election

There was a lot said about both presidential candidates before the November 4, 2008 election, but one bit of personal news about the President-Elect was surprisingly kept under wraps. Only one reporter knew. But no one would listen to him.





Now, why didn't the No on Prop. 8 people use this in their ads? :)

magical memories - helping my "girlfriend" move

This is a bit of a different kind of "magical memory" than I've done previously, but it's a situation that's come up in my mind because of recent events.

About 15+ years ago, I was very good friends with a particular person. We met at work and discovered that we had some similar interests, so we started hanging out together a lot. She and I would get together after work on Friday and then go have dinner, and then I might drive out to her place on the weekend, and we'd hang out and just have fun. At one point, she was moving into a house, and she would be occupying one of the two rooms that the homeowner was renting out. I'm not a fan of moving, but I had a car whereas she didn't, so I agreed to help her.

We made a couple of trips moving her stuff into the house, and I met her landlord/roommate (the other room hadn't been rented out yet), and she was really nice. We took a couple of hours that afternoon moving her stuff, and it happened to be on New Year's Eve, I think. We had a party to go to that night, and we were also going to a 10am screening the next morning of Kenneth Branagh's "Hamlet". Since both the party and screening were out her way on the Westside, and I lived in the San Gabriel Valley, I had decided to just stay at her place to avoid the whole driving back and forth that night, especially on New Year's Eve.

After moving all her stuff and getting most of her room organized, we took turns taking a shower to get ready for the party. I think I went first, and then when I was done, she took her turn. While I was sitting around waiting for her and letting my hair dry, her landlord came into the room, and we were just chatting about random things. At the end of it, she said that she thought I was really nice and that she hoped she'd be seeing a lot of me. When my friend came out of the shower, I told her that I thought her landlord thought the two of us were lesbian lovers, and her landlord wanted to make it clear that I was welcome there.

I was around the house a lot on weekends, since that was in the midst of when my friend and I spent a lot of time together. I think at some point, the landlord figured out that we were just friends - I have no idea if she still thought we were both lesbians and just not in a relationship with each other. I do have to say that I was surprised she thought we were in a relationship because I don't remember doing anything to give that impression, and I don't think just helping someone move would do that. Yeah, two females were doing all the heavy lifting and moving of stuff, and we each took a shower, but it wasn't like we took a shower together, and after a day of moving stuff, yeah, we were going to want to clean up before going to a New Year's Eve party. There are some friends with whom I'm a bit more touchy-feely than I am with others, but I don't think this friend was someone that I was really touchy-feely with. But then, there have been other occasions in the intervening years when people have thought a female friend and I were lesbian lovers, so maybe I put out a lesbian vibe that I'm not aware of. Doesn't bother me. I do notice that I will refer to a close female friend as a "girlfriend" when I'm talking to someone else, so it has occurred to me that someone who doesn't really know me might think I really was referring to a girlfriend. Not sure if the fact that I have a ring now adds to or detracts from that misconception.

This is a story I've told many times because I think it's funny. The misconception never bothered me - I didn't care if she thought I was a lesbian. It doesn't offend me if someone thinks that about me any more than someone thinking I'm a doctor or a grocery store clerk - it's just factually wrong. What I do remember thinking at the time was that the landlord went out of her way to sit and talk to me for a little while and to make sure I knew that even if I was her new tenant's lesbian lover, that she didn't have a problem with that and that I should have no qualms about coming around. And this was 15 years ago.

15 years into the future, I guess I thought everyone else had caught up to the kind of thinking where what gender you prefer in a relationship isn't an issue. But I found out that I do apparently [sic] live a very insulated life where gay or straight means nothing in what I think of a person. Not all gay people are nice people either - heck, I could name a few that I have had serious problems with. If someone is an ass, they're an ass whether they're gay or straight or blonde or dark-haired or tall or short.

So I guess I'm just going to continue to live in my little bubble of a world where people are welcoming no matter what your sexual orientation might be.

Google votes

I forgot to check Google earlier today - of course they'd have a spiffy logo for election day!

time for the Peeps to vote

Unless you've been living under a rock or have been reading misleading flyers, you know that today is election day. And it's not just any old election day when there might be one semi-important proposition on the ballot and not much else. This time around, it's a presidential election. And not just a rubber-stamp presidential election like we've had for quite some time now, when the outcome of the election is not known before election day even starts. In this presidential election, one candidate seems to be ahead of the other, but it's going to come down to the final count before anyone will be able to be declared a winner.

There are also a few very important propositions on the ballot, props that have very strong advocates on both sides. Please read each proposition carefully so that you understand how it's worded so that you know exactly what a yes vote or a no vote actually means and that you don't accidentally vote the wrong way from what you really want because the wording is different than you thought.

For what it's worth, I'm voting no on everything except 9.


Click here if you want to see live coverage of Peeps voting. Peeps vote - and so should you!

Paris for President (that's just a subject title, not a show of support on my part)

I heard the story on the radio the other day that John McCain had made some kind of political ad claiming that Barack Obama was more of a celebrity than a candidate for president, and there were comparisons made between Obama and celebrities like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Here's the ad.





Well, even though Paris Hilton's mother Kathy is a McCain supporter, Paris apparently didn't appreciate her image being used in this manner. The folks at funnyordie.com approached her about making a rebuttal ad, and she readily agreed. Here's more information about how that all came about.

Now, I normally don't much care what Paris Hilton is doing. I don't idolize her, like some do, and I don't hate her, like some do. She's had a very privileged life, and I wish she'd use/used that position to do more good, but that's a personal choice. She behaves in ways I don't condone and does things I don't agree with, but I can certainly see how pretty she is and what a great body she has (the two things she seems to be most known for), and I actually liked her Burger King ad - it was fun and sexy - what's not to like?





But at least she seems to have some semblance of humour about herself, because the rebuttal ad is damn funny. Here's her declaration of candidacy.


Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad
An ad for The Paris Hilton Presidential Campaign. Paid for by Funny Or Die.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

And in case the embedded video doesn't work, here's the link to the video.

I think the ad is very cleverly written, and she pulls it off perfectly. Of course, it probably doesn't hurt that I'm not a fan of McCain's (the thought of a McCain presidency actually concerns/scares me), so I figure, if she takes him down a notch, that's fine. His ad depicting Obama as just some kind of shallow celebrity was uncalled for. As far as I could see from the shots in the ad, it just shows how popular Obama is, and if he's not just some stodgy politician, all the better. Heck, Bill Clinton was hob-nobbing with celebs, and no one seemed to hold that against him. I'm not a cheerleader for Obama either, but if we're going to decide on the next president of the United States, let's base it on issues and positions, not which celebrities they might or might not be hanging out with.