sad news...

i was a bit shocked when i read this morning that Stephen Gately from the group Boyzone was found dead in his hotel room. he was only 33.

the group was the inspiration for the first half of the title of this blog. it's an Andrew Lloyd Webber song from the musical Whistle Down the Wind.

the first time i heard the song was in a performance by the group celebrating Webber's birthday at Royal Albert Hall. Stephen is the lead in the performance and the song instantly struck a chord in me, definitely because of personal struggles. it has meant a lot to me ever since.

as i said, it was the muse for the first half of the blog title - no matter what...

Paul Krugman's take on the obfuscated "stimulus bill"...

in very brief words -

The real question now is whether Obama will be able to come back for more once it’s clear that the plan is way inadequate. My guess is no. This is really, really bad. [emphasis added]

we will be living with the Tsar's mess for many, many years to come...


from the New York Times, February 7, 2009 - What the centrists have wrought. The entire article is very short - six paragraphs. You should read the entire thing.

seems like nothing going on...

the last couple of weeks it seems i've been doing more humor that anything else on the site.

post-election blahs? not really. i'm glad it's over.

too much Obama? no. it is to be expected. Tsar George has basically bowed out of everything, and people are looking forward to a change from the last eight years. i'm sure even the Busheviks are included in this. they probably are happy that the lead weight is going to be gone from around their necks.

holiday blues? not really. holidays have been great for me the last several years. i look forward to them and have a good time.

cabin fever? too early. the weather has just begun to change in Chicago and the sun is coming out every couple of days. besides, fall has always been my favorite season of the year.

idleness? no way. the Thanksgiving holiday. the HEDAC holiday donation mailer. a new startup charity i'm getting involved with called H.A.N.K. - Helping All Needy Kids based in the community my school was located. opera season. [i've already seen Les Pecheur des perles, Manon, and Lulu. Porgy & Bess is next.] the gym. doctors.

oh, there's a big part of it. i've been to see the neurosurgeon again, had a new MRI and also underwent a series of tests to determine nerve damage with my back. it's been a year since the original injury; i've had multiple interventions and one major surgery. looks like it may be another, even more complicated. i'll find out more on the 18th.

the economy? definitely. my portfolio is waaayyyyyyy down, but who's isn't. it's sad to see everyone struggling. being on a fixed income with retirement, i watch the prices of things going up and realize that it effects me also. i go by the local churches and see more people in line at the food pantries, and i don't live in a poor neighborhood. it's very middle class and established. it's kind of sad. no, it's very sad.

Propositon 8 in California? yes, that's a large part of it also. i've been watching so much of what has been happening as it's result. the LGBT community is at odds not only with the wingnutters but with itself also. the latest was an op-ed in the New York Times - Gay Marriage and a Moral Minority - by Charles M. Blow. there is a lot to the article but the effect it is having has at its heart that Civil Rights and rights for LGBT are not the same thing.

you see, i've always believed that a civil right is a civil right no matter what you gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, etc. that civil rights are the promises made by the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Rights of Man, Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen, etc. had no barrier to anyone who is a human being, in spite of the decades it took to complete it for women, African-Americans and others.

with the latter, i thought that when Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, though it was meant to specifically address the standing of the Black Community, it would be understood that no one should be left out of basic civil rights.

i suppose i could mention other things, but probably the ones above are the biggest and, add in my back problems, it sometimes seems overwhelming. i also understand that others are worse off, but i am only a speck. there is only so much any one of us can do.

we just have to make sure we do it...

the use of fear in the United States...

I would also add hatred, but it would be an oxymoron because hatred is being used to promote the fear.

It's taken me awhile to digest a report at Media Matters from November 13, 2008 -

Women, minorities, autistic children: Conservative radio's vitriol not reserved for Obama

by Eric Boehlert and Jamison Foser on their blog County Fair that is part of the broader Media Matters site.

Today, there was a follow-up to the report - Homophobic Hate Speech "More Than Offensive" - on County Fair that addresses the specific reaction to the LGBTQ venom that the conservative right-wing media spreads.

LGBTQ is only a part of the initial report. It includes smears against immigrants, sex & gender, race and ethnicity, the poor, "those with HIV/AIDS, people with autism, teachers, other radio hosts, comedians perceived as progressive, Democrats in the House and Senate, and the organizations that document their attacks."

Just one example cited in the article by ultra-conservative radio blatherer Michael Savage on his show The Savage Nation:

... Democratic Party's "membership is made up largely of minority blocs ... that are all against the white person..."

Racist, sexist, homophopic, anti-Latino, and all blatant and non-apologetic. All men, and women, are not created equal to these people. No matter what the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution of the United States say, even though these men quote and spout it at every turn as justification for what they say.

Every member of the right-wing media has one thing in common. They all profess to be christian.

Yet when you read the article, listen to these people talk and hear the quotes from not only Savage but others like G. Gordon Liddy, Mark Levin, or Bill Cunningham, you see the blatant blindness they have to the law set down by their Jesus in the gospel of Luke,10: 25–37. There is no love in their words; there is no acceptance in their thinking; nor is there any "Go and do likewise."

These people spread fear and hatred in order to maintain their false sense of power. They are losing hold on what they know, deep down in their psyches, is no longer applicable. We no longer live in a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant world. The christian nation they so highly tout has created a world that wants what they have, and they are fighting to keep it away from them. These radio personalities speak out of both sides of their mouths - at the same time.

I recommend that you click on the links to the Media Matters report and today's follow-up. It is long and at times difficult to read without getting angry, but it puts into one place the hypocrisy and an accurate description of these people as the pharisees of today's world.

These men, and they are all men, are not ignorant; they are not stupid; they are idiots. An idiot, according to a group of fourth graders I taught one year, is someone who is too stupid to know they are ignorant.

fourth graders! that would be nine & ten-year olds...

no matter what...

is the first half of this blog's title. it's from an Andrew Lloyd Webber play, Whistle Down the Wind. it was made famous by the British group Boyzone.

they have a new video out that is something special. it's called "Better".





originally, they had planned to use their actual spouses in the video, but decided to use actors instead. great lyrics...


thanks for the heads up Andy. i've always enjoyed the group's music and am glad to here they are performing again.