"I don't understand any of it. I never did."
In my mind, that is probably the most memorable quote from the 1970 film, Boys in the Band. It was spoken by the character Michael as he was relating his dying father's last words.
I first saw the film during my senior year in high school. I went with my then-"girlfriend," Jean. Not really having any media representations of gay life at the time, Boys in the Band—as bleak and depressing as it was—did offer a glimpse into at least some aspect of the life I was taking my first, tentative steps into—if only as a warning of what not to become. (I returned for a second screening on my own a week later, and Jean's response was, "Why?!")
But I digress.
As I've grown older, those words have rung more true with each passing year.
When I was in my 20s and 30s, I thought had it all figured out. I knew how life worked—even if it didn't always work out the way I intended. The cracks started appearing in that belief as I entered my 40s, and when cancer came out of nowhere and hit me up the side of the head mid-decade, I realized I didn't know shit.
When you're twenty-one, life is a roadmap. It's only when you get to be twenty-five or so that you begin to suspect you've been looking at the map upside down, and not until you're forty are you entirely sure. By the time you're sixty, take it from me, you're…lost." ~ Stephen King
Guess I'm not the only one…
Thought For The Day
Quote of the Day
Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress; working hard for something we love is called passion." ~ Simon Sinek
Quote of the Day
We live in the timeline God abandoned." ~ Anonymous
Quote of the Day
I don't mind that people wallow in ignorance, I just wish they wouldn't splash so much." ~ Anonymous
And This Government Is Failing Miserably
The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped." ~ Hubert H. Humphrey
Quote of the Day
The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." ~Albert Einstein
Quote of the Day
You don't always win your battles, but it's good to know you fought." ~ Lauren Bacall
Art Imitates Life
But America, too, can take issue with a woman of power. It finds ways of cutting her down. Of punishing her for her daring to be. And our girl, after a while, even she forgot there's a queen inside. And there is no end to the cruelty of men threatened by strong women." ~ Mr. Nancy, American Gods Season 1 Episode 8
Quote of the Day
For my Bubba…
I like you to be exactly the way that you are, because in all my experience, I have never known anyone like you." ~ Tennessee Williams
Quote of the Day
In no particular order, America has overcome a civil war, Adolf Hitler, a depression, and even disco. This illegitimate occupation of the White House by a confirmed traitor is a whole new kind of challenge for us. But we can, and we will, overcome this. In the end, the will of the people will propel the Constitution to propel Donald Trump out on his ass. When his degenerative brain disease finishes him off in a few years, he'll either die a lonely miserable broke man, or he'll die in a prison cell. We're in the fight of our lives. But Trump is going to lose this battle, and America is going to win. We always have, and we always will." ~ Bill Palmer, The Palmer Report
Quote of the Day
Trumpsters, are you tired of being played for fools yet?
Quote of the Day
Oh, there are a lot of lousy people in the world. Also, a lot of terrific people. You've gotta remember that, and you've got to move in the right circles. I have days where I just want everyone to go fuck themselves or walk off a cliff, but I only say that to myself, and I smile and I walk home and I have some tea, I talk to Garson [Kanin, her husband], I might take a nap. Then I wake up and I write, and in writing, I wipe away all the unpleasantness of the day, of the people, of the city, whatever. We have it in our power to overcome assholes, and I think we have them thrown into our path to see if we have the chops to handle them. Handle them." ~ Ruth Gordon, American Actress, 1984
Quote Of The Day
Always ahead of his time.
The far right cannot discount the fact that sitting in their parlor is the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, every racist group in the United States and not a few of some Fascist orders that have scrambled their way up from the sewers to a position of new respectability." ~ Rod Serling, 1960
Quote Of The Day
Donald Trump's effect on the Republican party is like what would happen if cancer got cancer." ~ John Hartzell
Quote of the Day
Eventually soulmates meet, for they have the same hiding place." ~ Robert Brault
Quote of the Day
A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do." ~ Bob Dylan
Quote of the Day
Forget about the Presidency for a moment. Trump's behavior would get him fired from Applebee's." ~ Andy Borowitz
Quote of the Day
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." ~ Isaac Asimov
Quote of the Day
So now even Speaker Ryan and Senate Majority Leader McConnell are getting caught up in the Russian web. This is priceless—I'd like to see all of them frog marched out of office. It would correct one of the major blunders of the 21st century." ~ Truthspew
Quote of the Day
I'm very positive about California, but then again, the rest of the country, you have to realize that just under 50% of the population are very racist. They voted for their racism. That's why the polls were never accurate because no one wanted to admit their racism. Before the election, I said they would go into the voting booth and say 'Fuck Transgender bathrooms, Fuck Black Lives Matter, Fuck those Mexicans! I want mine!' And that's exactly what they did. And don't think gay marriage didn't have anything to do with it! That was the last gasp of the white, heterosexual male." ~ Zoey Tur
Quote of the Day
We are blessed with technology that would be indescribable to our forefathers. We have the wherewithal, the know-it-all, to feed everybody, clothe everybody, and give every human on Earth a chance. We know now what we could never have known before-that we now have the option for all humanity to make it successfully on this planet in this lifetime. Whether it is to be Utopia or Oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment." ~ Hanging Up My Spurs
Quote of the Day
Donald Trump, champion and avatar of the shallow state, has won power because his supporters are threatened by what they don't understand, and what they don't understand is almost everything. Indeed, from evolution to data about our economy to the science of vaccines to the the threats we face in the world, they reject vast subjects rooted in fact in order to have reality conform to their worldviews. They don't dig for truth; they skim the media for anything that makes them feel better about themselves. To many of them, knowledge is not a useful tool but a cunning barrier elites have created to keep power form the average man and woman." ~ David Rothkopf, Professor of International Relations and Political Science
Quote of the Day
Republicans need to learn the difference between being conservative and being a dick." ~ Bill Maher
Quote of the Day
For all who excused Mr. Trump's rhetoric in the campaign as just talk, the reckoning has come. I hope it isn't true, but I fear Mr. Trump is nearing or perhaps already beyond any hope of redemption. And now the question is will enough pressure be turned to all those who enable his antics with their tacit encouragement. There has been a wall of unbending support from virtually every Republican in Congress, and even some Democrats. Among many people, this will be seen as anything approaching acceptable. And mind you, talk is cheap. No one needs to hear how you don't agree with the President. What are you going to do about it? Do you maintain that an Administration that seeks to subvert the protections of our Constitution is fit to rule unchecked? Or fit to rule at all?" ~ Dan Rather
Quote Of The Day
This is the strange way of the world, that people who simply want to love are instead forced to become warriors." ~ Lauren Oliver
Quote Of The Day
These are not normal times. These are extraordinary times. And extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. When you have a spokesperson for the president of the United States wrap up a lie in the Orwellian phrase "alternative facts"…
When you have a press secretary in his first appearance before the White House reporters threaten, bully, lie, and then walk out of the briefing room without the cajones to answer a single question…
When you have a President stand before the stars of the fallen CIA agents and boast about the size of his crowds (lies) and how great his authoritarian inaugural speech was….
These are not normal times. The press has never seen anything like this before. The public has never seen anything like this before. And the political leaders of both parties have never seen anything like this before.
What can we do? We can all step up and say simply and without equivocation. "A lie, is a lie, is a lie!" And if someone won't say it, those of us who know that there is such a thing as the truth must do whatever is in our power to diminish the liar's malignant reach into our society.
There is one group of people who can do a lot – very quickly. And that is Republicans in Congress. Without their support, Donald Trump's presidency will falter. So here is what I think everyone in the press must do. If you are interviewing a Paul Ryan, a Mitch McConnell, or any other GOP elected official, the first question must be "what will you do to combat the lying from the White House?" If they dodge and weave, keep with the follow ups. And if they refuse to give a satisfactory answer, end the interview.
Facts and the truth are not partisan. They are the bedrock of our democracy. And you are either with them, with us, with our Constitution, our history, and the future of our nation, or you are against it. Everyone must answer that question." ~ Dan Rather
Quote Of The Day
I'm not saying that David Bowie was holding the fabric of the Universe together, but [gestures broadly at everything]…" ~ Katie Loewy
Quote Of The Day
Once again, life imitates art…
Humans fancy that there's something special about the way we perceive the world, and yet we live in loops, as tight and as closed as the Hosts do, seldom questioning our choices; content, and waiting to be told what to do next." ~ Doctor Robert Ford, Westworld