Uncle Sal is at it again!

Well Uncle Sal has opened his mouth again and uttered a terrible condemnation of gay catholics telling the press and the world at a press conference in Oakland celebrating his soon moving on to greater and greater things in the Catholic Church. 

Sal is currently bishop of Oakland but is going to take the reins of the Church in San Francisco and all its subordinate 'suffragan' bishops and dioceses including that of Oakland. He has pronounced that the gay people in his flock if they are bound together in any kind of a relationship be it marriage or something 'lesser' are “too sinful” to be admitted to the Sacraments. Those comments were a major blow personally as a catholic and very personally as a gay man. Obviously it's a judgment of the first order. There can be no doubt that Uncle Sal is making a judgment when he used “too sinful” in the sentence uttered to the press. Not only was it a judgment but it was an ugly one at that. Didn't someone big in the Catholic Church once command people to 'judge not' unless they themselves relish being judged? Apparently in Uncle Sal's view it's okay to “be into” bondage and discipline or any other kind of 'kink' but you can't be gay—that's too sinful. It's too sinful for you to be part of our eucharistic community.

Uncle Sal's view of the sinfulness of acting on your human gay nature is certainly not based on science but neither was the heliocentric nature of creation as commonly held and taught by earlier generations of bishops and popes, successors of the apostles as they like to call themselves. It's based on several things ignorance, fear and an unfathomable need of some people to look down on and condemn other people. I guess we are back to judgments again.

Personally I think Uncle Sal might happier and a more effective christian if he were to resign his high office and retire to write books on spirituality in a nice quiet monastery somewhere after he does public penance on the steps of 'his' cathedral. Sack cloth and ashes would be a nice touch offset with a penitentially shaved head.

Todd Akin has gone into hiding

This morning I decided to while away some time. So I called Todd Akin's capitol hill office. Af first I misdialed and got into the office of one of the long suffering Democrats in DC. The phone was answered by a sweet voiced female staffer who told me very politiely and with an obvious smile that came through the phone line quite clearly that she was not employed by Akin. She then gave me his office number and transferred me.  Akin's capitol office was answered immediately by voicemail. It went through its normal speech about how important my call is to them and gave me several different options...everything seemingly designed so that congress critter and his staff won't actually have to deal real people. I elected to leave a voicemail in reply and was informed by 'The System" that the good critter's mail box was full. I then started calling his district offices and found that all his phones were answered by voice mail. There was no opportunity  to leave a message for him and I was abruptly cut off by the voice mail systems in both his district offices. They did however tell me how important my call was to them. That really made my day.
Next I sought help and assistance from Speaker Boehner's office and told the  young man who answered the phone in the Speaker's office that I had been making many phone calls this morning to Akin's offices and his voicemail boxes were full and I wondered if Speaker Boehner would take a message for him.  That young man  told me politiely and with the barest hint of a giggle in his voice that he imagined Akin was getting lots of phone calls this morning but sadly the Speaker couldn't take a message for him.
Perhaps my own congress critter, John Campbell,will be of help....."hello Congressman Campbell?  Could you take a message for Todd Akin for me..?"
Now of course I am having visions of darkened and barricaded congressional offices with the congress critter hiding behind his desk surrounded by his staff.

America's Dumbest Congress Critter

Congressman Todd Akin (R-MO) is the GOPer nominee for the US Senate seat currently held by the blue dog, Claire McCaskill. Apparenlty Todd took to  the campaign trail and was touting his position on choice. He seems to believe that women should have no choice in the matter of whether or not they should carry a particular pregnancy to term. A woman's sole choice in that regard seems to be whether she will allow entre to the man's  cock. Once she agrees to that  all is over for our lady fairest and if she conceives she has to carry to term. Simple right? 

Well Congressman Akin feels that is an entirely reasonable thing to say. When queried about pregnancies resulting from rape, he repled in such a way as to cause his hearer to believe that a rape and incest exception  is not needed because there are apparently few "legitmate rapes:"  as he called them and in those cases the mysterious female body has ways of preventing pregnancy. This claim completely ignores the fact that more than 35,000 children are born each year in the US  as the product of rape.

Mr Akin is my hands down choice for Congressional Dumbass of the week! In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the Akin were also the stupidest member of the House.

Good News! Old Gay Lawyer Ramblings Is Moving!

Good news!   The web server is restored to life with brand new parts and pieces and some used  parts and pieces cannibalized from older retired boxes!  it has a brand new 500gig hard drive to keep me happy for awhile.  I will be migrating this blog to http://oldgaylawer.com over the next several days and will be attempting to restore some of my old Ramblings that are still resident on the bricks that formerly were the hard drives in the new bigger and better server!  I am even planning a cyber server warming party.  I am going to try to convince Jay Brannan to perform!

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Law Enforcement.

    As everyone knows who has anything more than a very casual contact with me, I have been involved on the defense side of criminal law enforcement for almost forty years.  During my career I have handled all types of crimnal cases from serious felonies to ridiculous misdemeanors.  One of my earliest cases involved the defense of a misdemeanor citation issued in Huntington Beach for  a violation of a city ordinance that declared wall sitting on the city's pier to be a criminal offense.  My client, a young surfer, was ticketed for sitting on the pipe railing on the pier. That railing was not a wall under any definition of wall I could find and the city ordinance didn't define the term wall either. 
This clearly was a case of violating the "don't sweat the small stuff" rule of law enforcement. Not only did we file motions in the trial court but we also tried the case to the court and the court found my client guilty of sitting on the wall, even though only a railing was involved.  We appealed to the next higher court and that court reversed holding that a railing is clearly not a wall. The city spent probably $15,000 in attorney time, court time and other time, including  police overtime all over a $25 ticket. The City sweated the small stuff.

Today Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the Department of Justice will no longer sweat the small stuff and has ordered U S Attorneys nationwide to not bother with prosecuting people and clinics who are  using marijuana in strict compliance with state laws concerning medicinal pot.  Good job, General Holder, it took you long enough. If federal and local prosecutors would use some of the  prosecutorial discretion we have invested them with and not file crappy low worth cases which achieve no serious public good or remedy serious social problems, life could be a lot better and simpler for John Q Public and the expenditure of public funds on all levels less than it is now when money, public and private, is very scarce.

Food, Processed Food, and Other Poisons

This morning as I was mourning my awakening by my 'roommate', Rupert over a first cup of very good coffee and wandering through Google News I stumbled upon this article in the Denver Post.  I read it and thought about it and had another cup of coffee and then decided that I would send it around to various people I know, most of whom have been collected over the last half century.  When I was  preparing to send it on, I wondered what the hell is going on?  I wondered what on earth the 'zoning issues' mentioned in the article could possibly be in areas of the Nation and its urban cancer-cores unserved by traditional (as of the mid to late 20th century) paradigm of food distribution.  I am still wondering about the political question.  I didn't know much, in fact I know practically nothing,  about this process of 'aquaponics' but apparently it's a very simple self contained process for growing high quality fresh unmodified (hopefully) fruits and veggies and other good stuff l in places starved for fruits, veggies and fresh fish (read protein)  e.g., damn-near everywhere in America and particularly in America's marginalized and poverty-stricken inner cities.    The area in Denver where this abandoned green house (pictured in the article) is located does not have food outlets other than are found in convenience  stores and liquor stores and the like, where the chief items of sale are beer, wine, booze and cigarettes, those narcotizing and anesthetizing drugs sold to Americans 'living' on the underside of the pile of humanity in order  to keep them quiet.  I wondered how many fast food franchises are found in that area of Denver and similar areas of our cities.  I don't know the answer but  I am going to snoop and look around and see what Doctor Google  and his applications like Google Earth can tel lme.  I will report back.  People on my email list to whom I sent the  Denver Post link responded in droves (for me) and spoke of the historical destruction of American cities, the destruction of fresh, healthful food outlets in the inner cities and with more links to articles on aquaponics (and at least one offer to let me help).  You grow fresh fruits and vegetables and fish. The fish eat, defecate, breed and their waste feeds your veggies and share the aqueous environment with your growing produce and fruits. I bet you can even use the water to irrigate root veggies that are hard to grow hydroponically.You eat the fish and fruits and veggies which have grown strong and healthily and everything replenishes itself and hopefully you  and your children grow strong and healthy and not obese and diabetic 'living' off poisoned and mercury laden fish (available locally at your nearest Corporate Grocer) and genetically altered fruits and veggies and  grease burgers and grease-fried potato-products and cheese food found in fast food joints across America, all while watching the dumb-downed shows on that Great Wasteland referred to by Newton Minnow in the early days of the Kennedy Administration.  You can read more here, here, and here.  If I were to do this, and I am seriously considering doing it and I end up with a surplus of fruits and veggies and fish, I bet I could trade some for chickens (hopefully pre-butchered) and eggs and maybe even home-baked bread (or tortillas). Just think of the great salsa that can be made from this stuff!
The late Speaker of the House of Representative, Tip O'Neill, himself from the central core of one of America's great but rotting cities, Boston, said that all politics is local.  He was right.  He would also agree, I am sure, with the current mantra to think locally and act globally.

There's a Time Machine in Louisiana.

I find this hard to believe.  This sounds something like out of 1939.  A Louisiana Justice of the Peace has denied a marriage license to an interracial couple.  I like to attach pictures of people who are the subject of my rants but I just cant find one of Justice Keith Bardwell. So this one  of a neanderthalian from the Encyclopedia Brittanica will have to do until I find one of this man who claims to treat everyone equally. I love his comment about him not being a racist, he just doesn't believe in mixing the races that way.  I wonder what he would have done had this couple promised him not to make babies.  You can read the AP news story here
Mr. Bardwell is more than just a neanderthal, he is an endangered species...all by himself.  Apparently he doesn't believe in the principal of equal justice under the law. I wonder what Governor Jindal will say.  Especially since our biracial President saved his bacon today in New Orleans.
  UPDATE:
 Finally I have located a picture that may be Keith Bardwell.  This is the picture that accompanies an article  on this whole sordid affair. You can read the Inquisitr article here  Here is the picture that accompanies the article. I wonder which of these gentlemen pictured here is Mr. Bardwell.  One could not have asked for a better picture to display on a rant like mine.  I am not entirely convinced that this (or one of these) is actually Mr. Bardwell but we can hope.  Hope we can believe in!
NEW UPDATE:
Finally CNN.com has done something worthwhile instead of chasing Fixed News' tail and trying to out-whacko them.  It has published the first found picture of Keith Bardwell.  This picture should hang in a Jim Crow museum somewhere.

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