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Since all the other kids—as well as my Ben—are playing in traffic, I’d might as well rush out into it too…

1. How old were you when you knew you were gay?
9 or 10. I was in 4th Grade. It was the first year of formal P.E. classes, and one of the coaches always had facial scruff, eternally hard nipples, and a tuft of chest hair creeping out the collar of his T-shirt. To this day, the chest-hair-out-the-collar thing still elicits spontaneous sideways whiplash whenever I see it.

2. Have you ever had sex with the opposite sex?
Hell no. I’m gay, remember?

3. Who was the first person you came out to?
It was my second college roommate. Immediately thereafter he “came out” by telling me his uncle was Christine Jorgensen. “We don’t discuss Uncle George much any more.” (I had no reason to doubt him; while I’d heard of her, Christine Jorgensen was by no means a well-known name at the time.)

4. Are you out to your family?
Yes.

5. Do you want children?
Not at my age, no. If you’d asked me twenty years ago I might’ve answered differently. “The biological imperative,” and all that.

6. Do you have more gay friends or straight friends?
60-40 Gay to Straight.

7. Were you out in school?
Not until college.

8. Is your best friend the same sex as you?
Yes.

9. If your best friend is the same sex, have you ever had sex with them?
Yes.

10. Have you ever done crystal meth?
Not just no, but HELL no!  For the longest time all I attracted into my life were tweekers.

11. Have you ever been in a sling?
No. I think by this point I would’ve been if I’d had any desire to.

12. Have you ever done a 3-way?
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Fine for casual sex, but it can destroy relationships.

13. Have you ever dressed in drag?
Nope.

14. Would you date a drag queen?
It depends on who they are out of drag.

15. Are you ‘fixed in your ways’ as it were?
After living in San Francisco for 16 years, I think I’ve explored just about everything I was even remotely interested in exploring. At this point, I know what works for me and what doesn’t. So yeah, I guess the answer to that would be yes.

16. Cher or Bette?
I have 15 songs by Cher in iTunes. I have 100 by Bette.

17. Have you dated someone of a different ethnicity?
Yes.

18. Been to Fire Island?  Saugatuck? Key West?  Ft. Lauderdale?  Palm Springs?
No.  No. No.  No.  Yes.

19. How many Madonna CDs do you own?
What are these “CDs” of which you speak?  14 albums show up in iTunes.

20. Name of your first love?
Dennis.

21. Do you still talk to them?
See #42.

22. Does size matter?
Not at all.

23. Biggest turn on?
Enthusiasm and gusto. As for specific physical attributes, I think you can get that from the pictures I post.

24. Biggest turn off?
Willful ignorance and attitude.

25. Ever been harassed due to your orientation?
Not unless you count someone yelling from a passing vehicle, “Go back to the Castro!” as a boyfriend and I were walking hand-in-hand down Union Street in SF.

26. Worst gay stereotype that applies to you?
I have the required black and white photo of a dead female movie star in the apartment. Other than that, you’ll have to ask someone else. My friends describe me as “the straightest gay man they know.” Whatever that means.

27. Ever been to a pride rally?
Yes, but I lost all interest after attending my fifth or sixth.  I mean, how many half-naked men can you photograph?

28. Would you marry if you could?
Hell yes.

29. Would you rather be rich and smart or young and beautiful?
Rich and smart. Youth and beauty can be bought, starting at about $150 an hour…

30. Do you sculpt your eyebrows?
Sculpt, no. Trim, yes. When gentlemen reach a certain age, they have to. Otherwise they end up looking like Andy Rooney.

31. Do you trim your body hair?
No.

32. Ever had sex with more than one person in a day?
I lived in San Francisco for 16 years. Nuff said.

33. Ever been to an orgy?
Does a sex club count?

34. Which character in “The Women” best reflects you?
I think I’ve reflected all of them at one time or another.

35. Favorite gay expression ?
“Oh puleeze!”

36. How many “exes” do you have?
Depending on the definition, I would say three.

37. Do you believe in fairies? 
I lived in San Francisco for 16 years. Nuff said.

38. Do you have any tattoos?
Yes.

39. Do you have any piercings?
Not any more.

40. Would you date a smoker?
It’s a vile habit, but undeniably sexy (at least in photographs). That said, I’ve dated smokers, but probably wouldn’t do it again.

41. If you are male, do you know many lesbians?
Over the years, several have come and gone from my life. Loved them all. Hated their drama.

42. Do you know anyone who has died from HIV?
Far too many.

43. Are you part of a gay organization?
No.

44. Is your gym cruisy?
What is this “gym” thing of which you speak?

45. Grinder or Scruff?
Meat Market Mentality at its worst.

46. Are your best years behind or in front of you?
I have beautiful memories of years past that will never be matched, but I have to believe the best is still to come. Otherwise, why go on?

47. Got Porn?
You’ve been to my website, right?

48. Make out music?
I’m weird that way. No music required.

49. Ever been in love with a straight guy?
In high school, yes. It seemed I was crushing on someone different every year. But since that time, no—although verily I have lusted in my heart.

50. Did you ever have sex with him?
No.

51. Have you ever been to a nude beach?
Too many times to count. I had the tan and the legs to prove it (you had to traverse a 150-foot vertical trail to get there). Good times, indeed.

52. Have you ever been to a bath house?
Bath house, no. Sex Club? See #33.

53. Ever had sex in public?
Yes.

54. What gay gene did you miss out?
Shopping.

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Boring Description: This is a video simulation of how the Curiosity Rover (which was launched today) will get to and land on Mars.

Actual Description: A video simulation of the Curiosity Rover that will impress the shit out of you. Holy crud.

Think of what NASA could do if their budget was larger than .5% of the Federal budget.

Still, I will be amazed if NASA actually pulls this off.  So many moving parts that can break; so many things that can go wrong on the very ambitious descent.

Despite some truly amazing success stories, on the whole, Mars hasn’t exactly put out the welcome mat for our probes, but I’ll hope for the best!  Guess we’ll know in July…

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Ben and I got our Colorado driver licenses and registered to vote yesterday.

The only thing that remains to complete the transition from Arizona to Colorado is to get the car registered.  I have 90 days to do that.

I also finally got the aquarium back up and running yesterday.  No more staring at the empty tank, the constant remember that this place wasn’t yet “home.”

I bought gravel on the commute back from work on Wednesday. Thursday morning I set the tank up and then let it just sit—as recommended—for 24 hours.  Since it is for all intents, a new setup and the nitrogen cycle hasn’t yet been established, I had to be kind of conservative with my initial critter selection. Surprisingly, the fish recommended by the store owner were ones I would’ve wanted to get eventually anyway: 3 black skirts, 5 red-eyes, and 5 serape tetras.  I haven’t selected a bottom feeder yet; I’m hoping to find the same species of plecastomous that I had in Phoenix, but can’t remember what type it was:

Hopefully one of my aquarist readers can identify it, because its looking very unlikely that my sister is going to be willing to give him back. After about two and a half years he’d only grown to about three inches in length, the maximum size the store initially told me and perfect for this relatively small (29 gallon) aquarium.

Ultimately I’d like to get several Clown Loaches (my sister isn’t willing to part with them either), some Neons, maybe some Micky Mouse Platys, and a couple Glass Cats or Pearl Gouramis…

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The Wall Street Journal speculates:

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It’s called free speech. If you don’t like it, perhaps renouncing your American citizenship and accepting a position with the Chinese government might better suit you.

I’ll bet if you peeled its skin back you’d find one of these underneath.

Why is it always the fucking Republicans who have no concept of—and utter contempt for—the principles upon which this country was founded?!?

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“Can we just ask EVERY voter, “Do you watch Fox news?” If they say yes, have someone jangle a key ring in front of their face and lead them out the back door… they will think they’ve voted… no harm, no foul. Right?” – comment at Talking Points Memo

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I don’t have any idea. It’s getting so hard to tell these days.

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Reviewers at Amazon descend in mockery on the brand of pepper spray used on those students at UC Davis.

Sweet.

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I have a theory, and may the FSM help us all if it turns out to be right.

Pretty much everyone you speak to agrees that every member of the current crop of Republican wannabe Presidential contenders is unelectable, if not certifiably insane.

The GOP base may be dumber than a box of rocks, but let’s face it: the Republican leadership is anything but. They’re shrewd, underhanded, and as we have seen time and again, downright fucking evil.  They hate Obama and the ideals of our democracy with a burning passion, and aren’t going to put anyone up against him who doesn’t have a reasonable chance of winning the presidency in 2012, and none of members of the Republican Clown Car has a chance in hell of pulling that off.

My theory is that they’re going to pull an “August Surprise” next year. They’re going to roll out their true anointed one during the national convention, someone as ignorant and as malleable as their base, but with an outwardly agreeable personality that will appeal to the masses; someone  guaranteed of giving Obama a real run for his money.

Two names immediately come to mind, and both scare the living crap out of me: Sarah Palin and Jeb Bush. Yeah, yeah, neither one is supposedly interested in the job, but that doesn’t mean shit. Remember Republicans lie. That’s all they know how to do. So you can safely ignore what we’re seeing now. It’s nothing more than a diversion, a freak-filled circus sideshow existing only to make the chosen one all the more appealing to “mainstream” Republican and Independent voters when the time comes.

I hope I’m not right about this, because if it happens, our nation—already teetering on the edge of the the corporate/fascist abyss—will go right over. Hitler didn’t have the technology or resources to succeed at this and Orwell’s 1984 was 30 years premature. If we end up with another Republican president and Congress, you can kiss everything this country has supposedly stood for over the last 200 years goodbye.

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Orion’s Belt overlaid on the Giza Plateau. Admittedly not a perfect alignment, but still…

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There is a HEINOUS bill, House bill H.R. 3035—aka the “Mobile Informational Call Act Of 2011″—making its way through Congress right now, and it’s going to affect every cell phone user in this country.  The bill aims to give telemarketers, bill collectors, and similar douchebags complete, unfettered access to your cell phone number.  If you aren’t on an unlimited cell phone plan, this means that YOU will be charged for every minute these scum suckers can waste when calling you.

More importantly to the Congressional Vermin Hordes, passage of this bill will allow them to robocall us with “information” about why we should vote for them! How convenient! Hey, forget taxing the pigs on Wall Street a half of a percent more. Forget keeping the air and water in a non-poisonous state. Forget about the economy! To these “people” it’s all about finding “new and innovative” ways to destroy the quality of our lives.

The bill was introduced by Republican Congresscretin Lee Terry of Nebraska, and all but one of the nine co-sponsors are also Republicans.  Quelle Surprise! So who, besides our “elected representatives” think this bill is a good idea?  The usual 1% suspects, of course: the Mortgage Bankers Association, the American Banking Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

But there is a new way of letting Congress know we’ve had enough: Reverse Robocall. If these Koch-suckers think that receiving robocalls is so great, perhaps it’s time to turn the tables on them.

Tell ya what Mr./Ms. Congresscretin…how about you publish your cell phone numbers so your constituents (you know, the people who elected you to serve as their representative) can call you day and all night with some messages of their own? I know I’ve got some good ones for you and there’s plenty more where those come from. I can’t wait until some enterprising individual actually does start doing blast emails of the cell phone numbers of the members of The Amalgamated Asswipes Of Our Government Union, and providing daily updates for those numbers. The twisted morons in Washington would need to have their staffers devoted all their time to little more than providing them with a new cell phone number or a temporary cell phone every day. Probably nothing would bring Washington’s incessant attacks on us to a screeching halt faster.

What do you think?

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If there are no atheists in foxholes, wouldn’t there be no war without religion?

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…that we do not live in a fascist police state, one where corporations are “persons” and living, breathing humans are a viewed as a threat:

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UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi thinks this is the appropriate response to a peaceful sit-in.

The cops say they feared for their lives because of the crowd that was gathering around them. Seriously? Look at that photo. Look at this one:

What do you see? A dozen students on the ground looking at their feet, and some onlookers all holding up cameras at a respectable distance – you’ll note the other cops aren’t looking terribly worried. The cop casually saunters over and pepper sprays the people sitting down, which is odd since supposedly they were afraid of the people who were standing up.

It’s obvious they weren’t afraid of the crowd.  I mean, look at them!

But for the sake of their argument, let’s say they were deathly afraid of all the cell phone cameras behind them, recording this brutality from 20 feet away. If they feared for their safety from the crowd surrounding them, then why didn’t you pepper spray the crowd? Why would they turn around and spray a bunch of kids sitting on the ground, doing nothing except looking at their feet?

Here’s another shot, taken right before the kids get pepper-sprayed. Notice how the cops are in fear for their lives from the very dangerous children sitting down quietly on the cement, doing absolutely nothing.

And here’s another photo. These are the same kids who are being pepper sprayed in the photos above. Look at these kids. This is the scene that caused the police to “fear for their lives” and attack these kids. (Not the terrorist fist jabs.)

These are cops. They’re trained in how to use their weapon with precision, and only when necessary. And we’re to believe that these cops, in the heat of what appears to not be a very scary moment, accidentally attacked the people who weren’t even threatening them? They used their weapon on the wrong crowd of people. This could have been their guns they were using. We’ve got cops who don’t even know how to pick the right crowd of people to fire at. If they’re this bad as cops, they should all be fired on the spot.

“If you look at the video you are going to see that there were 200 people in that quad,” said UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza. “Hindsight is 20-20 and based on the situation we were sitting in, ultimately that was the decision that was made.”

Spicuzza is a liar and should be fired. And 20/20 is just hindsight, it’s about fifteen multi-million dollar lawsuits. And her job.

It is not a happy day at the UC Davis Facebook page.

The cop doing the pepper spraying has been identified:
Lieutenant John Pike
530-752-3989
japikeiii@ucdavis.edu

Feel free to let this neanderthal know how you feel. Twitter is alight with it.

There is clearly no justification for that this uniformed thug did. I wonder how the parents of those students feel after seeing this? Their children were holding a peaceful sit-in and they got pepper-sprayed. How do alumni feel? He’s a university cop. UC Davis owns Pike’s actions.

I’m sorry, but this has gone too far. This has happened in police department after police department across this country without repercussion. Our police look like the goons in Russia, China, and countries throughout the middle east—you know, the ones we’re so intent on bringing democracy capitalism to.

UC Davis staff and administrators reportedly watched and did nothing while the police attacked. They didn’t even offer to get medical help for the students afterwards. Take note kids, when you’re trying to decide which school to attend, UC Davis probably isn’t a good choice. And it’s probably not a good place for alumni to donate money to, since money (or the withholding of same) seems to be the only thing that effects change in the world.

UCD paramedics later treated with saline the eyes of 11 protesters; two were taken to Sutter Davis Hospital. Nearby, one young woman sat on her knees, crying with her eyes shut and pink streaks of Pepto-Bismol and water running down her cheeks.

Kristin Koster, a post-doctoral lecturer, used a scarf dipped in another home remedy, Maalox and water, to help Dominic Gutierrez, who was barely able to open his eyes.

He was sprayed, he said, when he tried to shield others with his jacket.

Koster said that she was “horrified” by both the actions of police and the inaction of staff and administrators standing nearby who did not seek medical assistance for those hurt until asked.

UC Davis faculty members are now calling on university Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi to resign. Here’s a brief except of the letter (read the entire thing here) that was submitted to the Chancellor by Nathan Brown, Associate Professor of English at UC Davis:

Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.

What happened next?

Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.

This is what happened, Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi and Police Chief Annette Spicuzza. You are responsible for it. Lt. John Pike should be summarily fired and you should resign immediately.

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From Ted Rall:

Anti-Occupy Crackdowns Highlight Lack of Services

Governments are supposed to fulfill the basic needs of their citizens. Ours doesn’t pretend to try.

Sick? Too bad.

Can’t find a job? Tough.

Broke? Can’t afford rent? We don’t give a crap.

Forget “e pluribus unum.” We need a more accurate motto.

We live under a fuck you system.

Got a problem? The U.S. government has an all-purpose response to whatever ails you: fuck you.

During the ’80s I drove a yellow taxi in New York. Then, as now, there were no public restrooms in the city. At 4 in the morning, with few restaurants or bars open, the coffee I drank to stay awake posed a significant challenge.

It was—it is—insane. People pee. People poop. As basic needs go, toilets are as basic as it gets. Yet the City of New York, with the biggest tax base of any municipality in the United States, didn’t provide any.

So I did what all taxi drivers did. What they still do. I found a side street and a spot between two parked cars. It went OK until a cop caught me peeing under the old elevated West Side Highway, which later collapsed due to lack of maintenance. Perhaps decades of taxi driver urine corroded the support beams.

“You can’t do that here,” said the policeman.

“Where am I supposed to go?” I asked him. “There’s aren’t any restrooms anywhere in town.”

“I know,” he replied before going to get his summons book from his cruiser.

The old “fuck you.” We create the problem, then blame you for the results.

I ran away.

In recent days American mayors have been ordering heavily armed riot police to attack and rob peaceful members of encampments allied with Occupy Wall Street.

Like NYC, which won’t provide public restrooms but arrests public urinators, government officials and their media allies use their own refusal to provide basic public services to justify raids against Occupations.

In the middle of the night on November 15th NYPD goons stormed into Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan. They beat and pepper-sprayed members of Occupy Wall Street and destroyed the books in their library. Citing “unsanitary conditions,” New York’s billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, then told reporters: “I have become increasingly concerned…that the occupation was coming to pose a health and fire safety hazard to the protesters and to the surrounding community.”

Four days before the police attack The New York Times had quoted a city health department statement worrying about the possible spread of norovirus, vomiting, diarrhea and tuberculosis: “It should go without saying that lots of people sleeping outside in a park as we head toward winter is not an ideal situation for anyone’s health.”

So why don’t they give the homeless some of the thousands of abandoned apartment units in New York?

Anyway, according to the Times: “Damp laundry and cardboard signs, left in the rain, have provided fertile ground for mold. Some protesters urinate in bottles, or occasionally a water-cooler jug, to avoid the lines at [the few] public restrooms.”

Of course, there’s an obvious solution: provide adequate bathroom facilities—not just for Occupy but for all New Yorkers. But that’s off the table under New York’s Fuck you system of government.

Doctors noted a new phenomenon called “Zuccotti cough.” Symptoms are similar to those of “Ground Zero cough” suffered by 9/11 first responders.

Zuccotti is 450 feet away from Ground Zero.

Which brings to mind the fact that the collapse of the World Trade Center towers released 400 tons of asbestos into the air. It was never cleaned up properly. Could Occupiers be suffering the results of sleeping in a should-have-been-Superfund site for two months?

We’ll never know. As under Bush, Obama’s EPA still won’t conduct a 9/11 environmental impact study.

Sick? Wanna know why? Fuck you.

One of the authorities’ most ironic complaints about the Occupations is that they attract the mentally ill, drug users and habitually homeless.

To listen to the mayors of Portland, Denver and New York, you’d think the Occupiers beamed in bums and nutcases from outer space.

When mentally disabled people seek help from their government, they get the usual answer: Fuck you.

When people addicted to drugs—drugs imported into the U.S. under the watchful eyes of corrupt border enforcement officers—ask their government for help, they are turned away. Fuck you again.

When people who lost their homes because their government said “fuck you” to them rather than help turn to the same government to look for safe shelter, again they are told: “Fuck you.”

And then, after days and years and decades of shirking their responsibility to provide us with such staples of human survival as places to urinate and defecate and sleep, and food, and medical care, our “fuck you” government has the amazing audacity to blame us, victims of their negligence and corruption and violence, for messing things up.

Which is why we are finally, at long last, starting to say “fuck you” to them.

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