For some reason we haven’t figured out yet, the right sidebar of this website has disappeared when viewed with Internet Explorer, Safari, or Opera.
It is perfectly viewable with Mozilla’s Firefox browser, however (which Betty and I highly recommend anyway, all the time).
In the meantime, here’s your link to the mHB message boards.
Gay Marriage in NY – Not a No-Brainer, Apparently
Congressman Anthony Weiner, a Brooklyn Democrat, said, “This must be the way people felt when the Dred Scott decision came down.â€
and
Out gay Senator Tom Duane, also a Chelsea Democrat, was perhaps the angriest speaker of all. “I guess the best legal minds in our community cannot go up against a bunch of Neanderthals,†referring to the court majority.
and
West Side Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler, said, “We must not vote to confirm any judge who does not support same-sex marriage,†a question that doesn’t seem to have been raised by anyone in the 12 years Republican Governor George Pataki has been packing the courts with right-wing judges.
(All courtesy of Gay City News, and thanks to Andrea for supplying the link.)
Study: Aeneas, Part 4
What cats find comfortable baffles me, though my boy is particularly fond of cardboard boxes, even moreso than the average cat. I call them his square cardboard wombs.
Do notice the Zappo’s box – they contained my birthday shoes, Megans by Dansko:
They're Not Just Surprised Women Can Count, Either
In response to my post of earlier today, a friend writes:
Just to let you know, black folks get this one all of the time. He is so “well spoken” and “eloquent” as if the assumption that you are black that you cannot be well spoken. Think about it, when was the last time you heard of a white male or female thought of as well spoken? There is a tacit assumption that all white folks, both male and female of a certain class are inherenlty able to use the english language. While it is of course the exception not the rule for black folks.
Melinda Gates
The good news: there’s an article in today’s NY Times about Melinda Gates, who largely runs the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The bad news: the tone of this article, which in talking about Ms. Gates’ accomplishments, seems to sound a little like, “look! we found a horse who can count up to 10 with his hoof!”
Why is this acceptable in this day and age? Why is it so astonishing that a woman with an MBA from Duke who married an equal is smart? Or that her husband respects her intelligence and engages her at a very high level?
But to portray Mr. Gates as the analytic strategist and Ms. Gates as the humanizing influence, the nurturing woman, would be a stereotypical distortion of their partnership, former foundation officials said.
Well then why bring it up at all?
And where’s the profile on the woman who just left the Foundation to run CARE instead? Do we only report on smart, successful women who happen to be married to famous guys?
Thanks to Joanne for the article. There’s a reason I can barely stand to read the papers some days.
"I'm your goddamned partner!"
A great interview with Karen Allen, who played Marion in Raiders of the Lost Ark:
But 25 years ago, there was a summer blockbuster whose female lead was anything but an afterthought. She was pretty, yes, and looked good in a slinky gown and could even run in heels when necessary. But she also knew how to hold a grudge. She had a mean right hook. And she could drink any man under the table — even the scarred brutes who frequented her gin joint in Nepal.
She sounds as cool in real life as the character she played in the movie, so our “summer movie” date night will be going to see Raiders on the big screen again, because a movie theatre in Manhattan is showing it on the big screen again. To hell with Hollywood if they can’t come up with good women characters.
Five Questions With… Cynthia & Linda Phillips
Cynthia & Linda Phillips were once a crossdresser & wife who started the famous Texas T Party. They have stayed together despite this crossdresser’s having discovered she was transsexual, and they make their life together as two women.
1) Why did you start the Texas T-Party? Why did the event get retired?
T
he Texas “T” Party was started by the Boulton & Park Society in the late ‘80s, as a form of outreach by several of the members who had been to other functions around the country. None of us ever dreamed it would be the huge success it turned out to be. Cynthia and I joined the club about the time the first “T” started. We had just retired and were looking for some way to help our community.
The reason we finally retired the “T”, after 10 years, was the stress had finally gotten to us. Most of the original organizers of B&P were gone, and we never had much help, in any case. Cynthia, because of her experience with group functions, did the majority of the work, with me tagging along behind. Her blood pressure became dangerously high from the stress of running the “T” and I had to pull her off the job of running the whole thing. It was just a matter of burning out.
Continue reading “Five Questions With… Cynthia & Linda Phillips”
Happy Independence
“Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny: they have only shifted it to another shoulder.” – George Bernard Shaw
We forget sometimes that July 4th is the celebration of a revolution, I think. It would be nice if our current government occasionally remembered what the point was, but I fear our president shares more than a namesake with the English king we shook off.
Happy Independence Day!
(& Please don’t drink & drive.)
Married to an Animal?
I was reading the news about the rape of that woman and the murder of her and her family by an American GI*, and happened upon another article about marriage by Amy Sutherland.
I don’t know if I’ve read Amy Sutherland before but I’m not planning to again.
This is the kind of stuff I used to read in my mother’s Reader’s Digest. I didn’t think it was funny, or accurate, and I didn’t relate. I guess some women think of their husbands (and themselves) as trainable animals. But even the twist at the end doesn’t justify wasting any reader’s time with crap like this.
__________________________________________________________
*(I hope the military gets to try the GI. I know rape and murder of civilians has been part of war for forever, no matter how much we like to pretend it hasn’t, but the fact that this was pre-meditated makes me especially sick.)
Ah, Long Island.
ABC news did a story not long ago about a Long Island real estate company that seems to be showing African-American folks where they’re “allowed” to live, and the reporter mentioned that Nassau County is the third most-segregated suburb in the country.
I used to amaze people from NYC that I went to high school with exactly one African-American, and that was in a class of 800. But as a woman they interviewed for the story said, “That’s Long Island. There are black towns and white towns. Everyone knows that.”