There have been times in my life when I was in no condition to find my house, or even my car come to think of it, this latter probably a good thing. In 92, while back in Detroit to attend my father’s funeral, I made a trip to the old neighborhood and found that the house I grew up in had been torn down and hauled away, along with most of the rest of the neighborhood. Good old Detroit. I put my house in California on the market a tad too late and fell victim to the mortgage meltdown, nearly losing the place before selling it for far less than what I was asking for it, a price that barely covered what I owed on the place.

But I have to say I’m thankful that I always knew the number of houses I owned, or more likely rented, at any given time.

Poor John McCain. Must be a real bitch not knowing how many houses you own. I mean, imagine the confusion that could cause. And think of the number of keys you’d have to carry around. I wonder if he color codes them?

Unlike the news media, which has pretty much ignored this, Barack Obama has been all over it. Not that it matters. This ain’t a pitch for Obama, though I’ll probably vote for him. Lesser of two blahs and all that. If he wins, it’ll just be more of the same old shit. A different texture, maybe, a different smell, but shit nevertheless.

As you might have noticed, I’ve grown a bit cynical about politics in this country. Hell, truth be told, I’ve been cynical about politics in this country since Nixon was king and for the most part the political theater of the absurd has gone down hill since. How can you tell when a politician is lying? Their lips are moving.

Have you ever wondered why movies like Dave or TV shows like West Wing were so popular? I think it’s because such shows portrayed politicians as people with integrity and honor, people who actually gave a rat’s ass about the folks they represented, and not just the ones with money. And I believe we want that, really want that. Pity those shows were only fantasies.

Is there no one in this country with the balls, real or metaphorical, who will stand up and say what’s really going on? That the rich keep getting the gold mine while the shrinking middle class get the shaft and the poor get the toxic sludge? That our government is more than willing to spend billions, trillions even, to destroy another country and rebuild it again, lining the pockets of their cronies along the way, while our own infrastructure goes to hell? That the educational system in this country has become little more than a joke? That families have to pay more and more for the basic necessities while CEOs are paid in the millions regardless of whether their companies fail or make huge profits? That these same families are in a constant state of fear over the loss of their job, the house they live in, having to decide which meal to skip, which bill won’t get paid should they or one of their kids get sick and have to see a doctor?

Is there no one in this country with the balls, real or metaphorical, who will stand up and actually do something about it?

Why do I have my doubts?

It’s the same old same old. Empires rise and fall and this one sure seems to be in decline. But then, it’s always been that way, hasn’t it, and I see nothing that makes me think this election is going to change anything. Regardless of who wins, we the people lose.

Technorati Tags: Detroit, California, John McCain, Barack Obama, Dave, West Wing

Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits, George Carlin is dead.

I get up at 4:30 in the morning. On weekdays it’s work related. On the weekends it’s the cats. As any servant of the feline knows, cats don’t do weekends.

My usual routine at that hellish hour is to first plug in the IV bag of caffeine while groping about for a cigarette and trying not to trip over the cats in the process. Next comes the feline feeding frenzy, of course. Once the clamor has died down, I’m free to check; 1) Backspace, and 2) my email. This morning I wish I’d checked neither.

(continue reading…)

Technorati Tags: George Carlin

I don’t exactly have a positive history regarding long-term, marital type relationships. Been there, done that, three times, none of em worked. My first was open warfare, starting with the first salvo fired about an hour before we tied the proverbial knot and more or less ending with her stripping the house down to, and including, the dirty shag carpet five years later and carting it all off. She didn’t even leave me a pillowcase. Nor a pillow for that matter.

My second went a bit smoother. We lived together without benefit of legal formality for nearly two years, decided to do the nuptial thing and subsequently broke up less than a year later. I spent several months wearing out Bob Dylan’s If You See Her, Say Hello before she once again appeared on my doorstep. Looking back on it now, I think I was reluctant to start things up again. But I did. And it didn’t work. Less than four years later she was gone again.

My third? We never did the nuptial thing but the five years I spent with her, as chaotic as they were at times, were the best five years of my life. Losing her changed me in ways I could never have foreseen. I wish it would have worked out. But it didn’t. Life can be like that sometimes.

So why am I going on about this marriage thing? I’ve never been a big supporter of the institution of marriage nor have I been particularly opposed to it. I could say I’m not very good at it but would that be accurate? What I’m not very good at is a long-term relationship with a woman, with or without the formality of marriage, which has nothing to do with the actual institution of marriage. For me, living together or marrying are an either/or thing. If I lean in either direction, it would be more toward the living together side if only because there’s one less thing to deal with when the relationship comes apart.

Not everyone feels that way, of course.

83 year old Phyllis Lyon and 87 year old Del Martin don’t feel that way. They wanted to get married, have wanted to get married for a good number of years and did just that last week in my beloved San Francisco. I don’t know Phyllis or Del but their marriage brought a tear to my eye. I do know why it took them so long to get married. And I know why their first attempt at marriage four years ago failed. The law wouldn’t let them. You see, Phyllis is a woman and Del, well, she’s a woman too.

The institution of marriage has become something of a battleground of late and the battle heated up dramatically when, in a move that surprised more than a few folks, the California Supreme Court overturned the ban on same-sex marriages, opening the way for Phyllis and Del and thousands of other same-sex couples to finally have what I and the rest of the hetros so take for granted: a trip down the aisle or a few words before the judge and all the protections those actions afford.

The fundamentalists and the homophobes are going ballistic, of course. Oh me oh my these queers are gonna destroy the sanctity of marriage! Sanctity? What fucking sanctity? And what constitutes sanctity anyway? Love? Devotion? Read Paul Monette’s Borrowed Time and then come back and tell me it’s not possible for a man to love another man every bit as much and every bit as deeply as a man might love a woman.

Longevity then? Nah. Sure as hell can’t be that. ‘Divorced’ is as much a marital status today as ‘Single’ or ‘Married’. If longevity is part of what constitutes the sanctity of marriage, then Phyllis and Del have most hetros beat by a mile and a half. They’ve been partners for more than 50 years. Jim and Tammy, the ultimate evangelical, opposite-sex couple didn’t last that long before they divorced. And those 50 years of Phyllis’ and Del’s are 33 years longer than my three relationships combined.

The fundamentalists and the homophobes aren’t through yet. No such luck that the rapture will occur and rid us of their ilk. No, they’re gathering signatures to put a referendum on the next ballot, a referendum to amend the California constitution to ban gay marriage. I wish I could get enough signatures to put a referendum on the next ballot to ban them. As it is, all I can hope for is that the people of California do the right thing and shoot that referendum down in flames.

Technorati Tags: Phyllis Lyon, Del Martin, California Supreme Court, same-sex marriage, marriage, California, gay marriage