Nothing New Here

This is nothing new...just another report providing evidence of the shocking anti-science mentality of the Bush administration, in particular, with regards to global warming. It's one thing to question a theory...it's another to block any scientific findings, regardless of the subject matter. This administration's attitude toward climate change has been to take a systematically negative response to any government scientists favoring the idea that humans play a key role in global warming.

Is this the U.S.A.?

Kiwi!

Winner of a YouTube Video Award.
Kiwis: shy, flightless birds with tiny wings the size of a peanut.
A cute video...but emotionally moving at the same time.
I think we all experience wanting to be like everyone else at some point in time.

Spring Cleaning

A beautiful day yesterday. Sunshine, with highs in the mid 60s.

Time to get out the bikes, and clean off all the funk from the winter.

Highs tomorrow in the lower 80s!

I think I feel a cold coming on ;-)

Those who get it...and those that don't

Leaders of the Episcopal Church spoke out...and spoke from the heart this past week. Evangelicals and Southern Baptists take note. You just might learn a thing or two.

"We proclaim the Gospel of what God has done and is doing in Christ, of the
dignity of every human being, and of justice, compassion, and peace. We proclaim
the Gospel that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave
or free. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God's children, including
women, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ's Church. We
proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God's children, including gay and lesbian
persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ's Church. We
proclaim the Gospel that stands against any violence, including violence done to
women and children as well as those who are persecuted because of their
differences, often in the name of God. The Dar es Salaam Communiqué is
distressingly silent on this subject. And, contrary to the way the Anglican
Communion Network and the American Anglican Council have represented us, we
proclaim a Gospel that welcomes diversity of thought and encourages free and
open theological debate as a way of seeking God's truth. If that means that
others reject us and communion with us, as some have already done, we must with
great regret and sorrow accept their decision."

Leaders for our military spoke out recently as well...while the American people spoke their minds and hearts in this poll. No doubt, the dumbest and most ridiculous policy our country has ever initiated. In 40-50 years people will shake their heads in disbelief at our mind numbing stupidity, fear and ignorance right now.

Some people get it...some people don't.

Where do you fit in?

Ready for "Hey Girl TV" (HGTV)

I did it.

One of my dreams has always been to purchase an older home, and restore it to its original condition. There's a sense of fulfillment seeing an older home, or building, that has been returned, deservedly so, to its architectural glory.

Stripping away the "modern" mistakes of the 50s, 60s and 70s, researching the history of the house, uncovering architectural elements that have been hidden for years and banished from view...I love it.

Living in D.C. has pretty much quelled any chance of doing that. With ghetto shells of homes going for ridiculous amounts, there was pretty much no way it would happen here.

Pete has always had the bug as well, and on a whim we found something in his hometown a few years ago. A beautiful 1912 craftsman home that we are restoring to its original condition.

The plan had always been to have a place in each of our hometowns. Places to work on, a place to get away for the weekend, and for future retirement (yikes). I had been looking for a while, but prices in my little hometown have also shot through the roof over the past few years.

Until...this 1910 gem popped up a few weeks ago, at a great bargain.

Offer accepted this past weekend.

It's perfect!

Hopefully watching all those episodes of HGTV, will pay off. Between the featured home-owners, and the hosts of the shows, are there ANY straight guys on that network?!

Perhaps this guy will come down and help us paint. Pete and I were fans of the competition/reality show "Design Star" when he was on it, and now he has his own show. Gay, out, proud, and an amazing creative talent.

No, the big place is not the house, but it is our view looking out across the street.

Come on down and sit on the porch with us, and enjoy the view...I'll get the ice tea ready.

Everyone invited!

Spring...a time for change and new beginnings

Happy Vernal Equinox!
Today (March 20th), Spring officially begins!
A time of rebirth and change. I experienced both while home in Georgia this past weekend.

Amazed, and emotional, watching my little niece blossom into something even more beautiful than she already was.

Following a dream...purchasing an old house with plans for restoration. No doubt about it...Spring is my favorite time of year!

For Rosemary

Bluer skies whenever you're around...Sun shines, it's a new day.

Flight Cancelled. Surely you can't be serious.

I am serious...and don't call me Shirley.

Yep. Myself and hundreds of others all had their flights cancelled today, due to the weather.

No worries. Will be on another flight tomorrow afternoon.

Hard to believe it is 32 degrees outside, with heavy sleet falling from the sky, as I sit here and type this at 6:00 pm Friday night. Just yesterday we were basking in the mid 70s. Amazing.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will be cleared for take off.

Roger.

Huh?

Roger.

Huh?

Request vector, over.

What?

We have clearance, Clarence.

Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?

That's Clarence Oveur.

Over.

Roger.

Huh?

Roger, over.

What?

Huh?

Who?

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone.

March Madness

March...the month when Mother Nature goes through her change of life. It was absolutely beautiful here on Wednesday, with an official high of 81 degrees at Reagan National Airport.

Today (Thursday) the high was 75 degrees. Gorgeous.

But beware the ides of March!

Things are changing dramatically...Mama Nature is done with her hot flash, and is all confused now. The high on Friday will only be 40 degrees, St. Patrick's Day Saturday-39 degrees with the chance of seeing some SNOW on the clover!

Good timing to head south to warmer weather, and to things that really matter...like being there for my beautiful, little four-year-old niece, who will be having surgery on Monday.

For a four year old, who has already had two surgeries, she is as brave as an adult. I wouldn't think of being anywhere else this weekend.

Have fun in the cold and snow!

About face, Pace

General Pace...please, do us all a favor and don't turn back around.

I don't think I can stomach looking at your pathetic, miserable, ignorant, misinformed mug. Why would you want to even look at me anyways, as I am immoral according to you.

It just never ends nowadays.

Seriously, since this administration has come into power, the voice of ignorance has been amplified tenfold by the staff employed by this administration, the fundamentalist crackpots who advise him, and the leaders of our country's military.

I will say this, I don't care who is President in 2008, be it a Republiscum or a Democrat. They just better possess a sense of reality, understanding, and intelligence, when it comes to sexual orientation. The unnecessary pain that has been caused to hundreds of thousands of individuals, and their families, over the past six years is immeasureable. At least there are organizations like this one for civilian issues, and this one for miltary related issues to at least try to help right what is wrong.

General Pace, I guess you would prefer such "moral" individuals as these in your military:

I can have a criminal record, knock up a few bimbos, disown my parents, not believe in a higher power, drop out of school, get my GED, be borderline retarded, never held a steady job, be a physical mess, and still enlist in your military.

But because I was an honor graduate, interned for a United States Senator, have held several good jobs, never had a run-in with the law, have always tried to do what's right, been raised with values, possess a very high clearance, personally do work for the Secretary of Transportation, in-line for manager of the Department's Crisis Center...and because I have a boyfriend...you don't want me.

Screw you.

Don't get me wrong, I love my country, but I do not feel the same way as others may right now, and I think many others agree with me.

I'm not going to rehash my thoughts on the whole "don't ask, don't tell"thing. I already did that.

This will pass. The truth always wins out, no matter how long it takes. Shame on those who delay the inevitable.

14 Years Ago Today

When you're a weather geek, there are a few things that stick in your mind, or really get your adrenaline going.

• Chasing, or seeing, a tornado. (check)


• Experiencing the full power of a hurricane (check)


• The rush you feel from an approaching severe thunderstorm. Winds picking up, trees bending over, feeling the sudden blast of cold air from the outflow boundary, explosive thunder and lightning, as the storm prepares to let loose its fury. (check)

I have been fortunate enough (or unfortunate - depending on your take of things) to experience all of the above. But, on March 13, 1993 I experienced a truly once-in-a-lifetime event.

Just by chance, two months prior to this weekend, I had purchased an airline ticket to go home to Georgia to spend time with my parents. Little did I know, the weekend would turn out to be anything but normal.

It would have been one thing to experience this storm in Washington, D.C., but to be in Georgia during the first and only official "blizzard warning" ever issued for the state, was quite memorable.

It began with a forecast of snow...not too unusual for the northern half of the state, as it isn't uncommon to have one or two little snow or ice "storms" during the course of the winter. However as the days leading up to March 13th grew closer, the forecast began to change dramatically. What was supposed to have been just a moderate snow event, grew into the monster known as "The Storm of the Century".

The strongest storm to hit the east in the century, it produced at least 15 tornadoes that hit Florida killing 44. On the west side of the storm, heavy snowfall fell over Alabama. Birmingham set a 24 hour snow fall record picking up 13 inches of snow, and 20 inches fell in a 24 hour period in Chattanooga. Places as far south as Northern Florida, even saw measurable snowfall on this date 14 years ago.

I remember looking out the window early in the morning, and being disappointed. All I was seeing was rain. But by late morning, the rain had changed to snow. Snowfall amounts weren't that impressive...maybe 4 inches, but what was so incredible was the wind! I can remember going outside with my Dad and watching the tall pine trees in our back yard leaning, and straining, as they bent over in the hurricane force sustained winds. Some of them didn't make it. We stood there watching as one after another, they popped and crashed to the ground.

With the center of the low passing directly over us, the barometric pressure fell like a rock. Just to our South, the storm was causing low pressure records... similar to a category 3 hurricane. A reading of 28.73 inches was reported in Augusta. Blizzard conditions shut down every major airport from Atlanta to Boston something that has never happened.

With howling winds, and snow flying, we stayed inside for most of the day. Things were fine...until the power went out. By now it was around 7 p.m. and the snow was winding down. The winds were still howling, there were several inches of snow on the ground, huge pine trees lay all across the back yard, and the temperature outside was a cozy 18 degrees...just about what if felt like inside. Not exactly the relaxing weekend I had planned.

I spend that night on the living room floor, with my mom and dad. Each one of us wrapped up in a sleeping bag, trying to keep warm. It was my job to keep the fire going in the fireplace, so every hour or so, I would get out and put some more wood on the fire. You don't realize how much you miss the comforts of electricity until it is gone.

I don't think I slept at all that night, between the howling wind, the snapping of the trees, and having to get up and keep putting logs on the fire. It was a memory that I wouldn't trade for anything though.

The next day, we were able to get out on the road at least. I remember driving over to the hospital to see my grandfather at the time, and seeing drifts along the side of the road that were several feet high. I couldn't get over how much this looked like scenes from North Dakota, and not Georgia. Absolutely amazing.

We spent the day driving around, looking at the snow that was quickly becoming a memory. There were trees down everywhere, and power was still out, but we all sensed this was something unique..something that we would never see again. We took it all in. OK, maybe my Mom was miserable. But my Dad and I seemed to enjoy it all.

Two days later, the power was on, the snow had melted, and all that remained was the smell of pine sap in the air, and trees in the backyard waiting to be cleaned up. Somewhere, buried in the collection of photographs, and books, and other packed away items back home, there is a video of that day. My dad and I walking in the field behind their house...trees bowing down, screaming winds, and snow flying horizontally. Someone might find it one day, and wonder what we were doing, on a day like that, strolling along the plains in North Dakota.

A View from Above

I've always been fascinated with two types of photographs...historic and satellite.

Check out the satellite "before and after" shots of the Enterprise, Alabama tornado.

Glaciers "past and present"

I want a home here. Very cool.

Snow in the Midwest from a December snowstorm.

New Orleans flooding after Katrina.

One of Washington, D.C's lesser known memorials. Do you know what it is?

Back in the Saddle

A little rusty, but just like riding a bike.

This Sunday morning 8 a.m.

FOX 5

I be a good driver

Figured it was time to take a break from all the repugnant news of the past few days...so here's a video of me taking my driver's test.
Snowfall amounts from today's lame "snowstorm":

D.C. 1.8"
Rockville 1.2"
Arlington 2.6"
Falls Church 2.0"
Vienna 1.9"
Sterling 1.9"

Happy Driving!

When You Build a House of Cards...

I didn't want to comment any more on the diarrhea of the mouth from Ann Coulter, but I read this today on Andrew's site and it was, of course, right on the money.
The photograph is of former U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant Eric Alva.
The man in the background is Representative Marty Meehan, D-MA. Meehan has re-introduced legislation to repeal the US Military "Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy. Alva was the first U.S. soldier wounded in Iraq, and has since come out as gay.
Let's see her say that word to him, or perhaps to my buds who play on this team. I think she might be a little more careful with her words if that were the case. I tend to believe anyway, that this whole Coulter affair will now fade away anyway. The Libby scandal has taken center stage. There is something rotten in this city, and some of us have known it for a long time. Just another card slowly being pulled out from the stack.

On to more enjoyable topics...the weather!
Snow in the forecast! A quick clipper system tonight could bring us a few inches. What was really no winter to speak of, through all of December and January, has been made up for during February and March.
Only about 13 days left until Spring.
Hand on the throttle, I can hear the engine now.

Heil Coulter

She defends her comments.

Beyond disturbing.

From the Hannity and Colmes Show transcript:

COULTER: The word I used has nothing to do with sexual preference. It is a schoolyard taunt, and unless you're going to announce here on national TV that John Edwards, married father of many children, is gay, it clearly had nothing to do with that. It's a schoolyard taunt.
COLMES: Ann, you are tap-dancing around my question. I asked you a very simple question...
COULTER: No, I'm not.
COLMES: I didn't ask about the N word. I simply said, you write this off and say, oh, it was only a joke...
COULTER: And I just said why I wouldn't.
COLMES: But you used a word that's very offensive to gays. Would you use a word offensive to another group of people and say, oh, it was only a joke? Where do you draw the line?
COULTER: It isn't offensive to gays. It has nothing to do with gays. It's a schoolyard taunt, meaning wuss. And unless you're telling me that John Edwards is gay, it was not applied to a gay person.

I bet my former coworker, who was attacked, and beaten so severely while attending college at Dartmouth, doesn't think so. His skull was crushed, and his stomach so damaged that half of it had to be removed. His attackers were calling him faggot while beating him.

And by the way Ms. Coulter, its "orientation" not "preference". You choose what you prefer, you don't chose an orientation.

It's your party, Republicans. Own it.

Republiscum Hate Conference 2007

In case you missed it, this is what took place at last year's Republiscum Values Voters Summit here in Washington, D.C.

Nice, huh?

Well, just last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference held here in Washington, D.C., this lovely little comment was made by the Queen of Mean herself.

Don't believe it?

You can watch the video here...and the audience applause.

Sweet, isn't it?

And people think I am exaggerating when I talk about the current state of the republican party.

Sickening.

In Like a Lion

(photo courtesy of AP)

Wow.

Humbling.

Too close to home.

Called my Pop and gave him a heads up.

In Georgia - Just one county away.

I still become entranced by their power.

Megachurch Megarant

What if you knew something.
What if, you knew "that something" was a
fact...because it was part of you.
What if others just had an opinion.
What if you had to listen to the people with opinions speak as if they had the facts.
How would you react?

Last night Pete and I watched some of this on HBO.
I watched as much as I could before I made him change the channel.

I honestly don't know where to begin. Too many thoughts, too many comments, too many things intertwined, all bound together in a web that continues to grow. A crackpot version of Christianity...a mindset...a President who is one...irrational fear...jaw-dropping ignorance...misinformation..and a level of hatred that frightens me. Horrifying and comical at the same time.

I am of course referring to Evangelicals, and their movement to influence this country.

When I was a kid I can remember hearing the word "evangelical" and thinking these were the real wackos...you know, the snake-handlers and the "speaking in tongues" kind of church-goers.
What it has evolved into nowadays is the mega-church set, who see see the bible as the word of God and only accept it in its literal word-for word translation. No exceptions.

The setting and the individuals may have changed, but the drama that plays out is still pretty much the same. Raising the hands, running down the aisles, MTV style presentations with smoke machines...no different than the drama of snake handling and speaking in tongues in a small country church years ago.
I just don't get it.

I see it as people who have such a desperate need to be approved by others that they must in essence "perform".
This is not a personal relationship with God, it's a weekly play put on for others to see you as a dedicated servant to God, worthy of an academy award. It fills their personal void to be accepted. It is repulsive.

The evangelicals offend me, of course, as a gay man.
Make no mistake about it...they hate us. If I hear "hate the sin but love the sinner" one more time I will smash someone's skull.
They are so wound up in their own imaginary gay fantasy world, and twisted misinformation, that it is pointless to even confront them.
There are no gay people in their world...just straight men who have gone astray. There is no understanding of orientation, or what it's like to grow up knowing you are gay...and they have no interest in even learning the truth.
Their opinion IS the truth.

This is the hard part. Having to listen to garbage...and I mean venomous, filthy, ignorant bile being spewed from their mouths, while not being able to convince them otherwise. If you are straight, turn the tables and imagine having to do that for every year of your life...even back as a child...."having to convince someone you are straight in a gay world, and that you've always known that".

What else I find astonishing from their viewpoint is their "literal" interpretation of the bible.
Don't tell me what it says about being gay...tell me why other verses aren't interpreted literally. Tell me why you still eat shellfish...why do you have a tattoo...why do you wear mixed fabrics in your clothing...why do you shave your sideburns...why you haven't stoned your neighbor...why have you touched your wife while she's having her period...why do you eat pork or touch a football....and others.
All these are abominations according to Leviticus. I guess they just don't matter.
I have yet to hear an answer from anyone when I ask that.

I know my orientation is part of me, and that I was aware of it even before I knew anything at all about sex. I did nothing to chose it.
Do you think evangelicals even want to hear something like that? Of course not, if blows their theory out of the water!
Of course some of them know the truth, but that would admit having to admit it to others, and thereby that would mean stop advancing a lie while living a lie yourself.

Aside from the obvious reason stated above, I am also deeply offended by documentaries like this one, because I consider myself to be a Christian...but in a true spiritual sense. I do believe in some sort of higher power, but also know that things can not be taken literally in the bible. My very existence is proof of that.

I also know the world is not flat, and I know physical proof can override religious belief. Science does not have to be at odds with religion. But if you are an evangelical, along with all they believe, everything is either one way or the other (again, except for the passages they chose to ignore). I also know that there are things I can't understand, and it would be awfully bold of anyone to say with certainty that THEY know all the answers.

All I need is this one bible verse, and to live my life treating others the way I would like to be treated, and by living it honestly. That's the best I can do.

In their twisted world, evangelicals are what a Christian is.
So many times in this documentary, they kept saying things like "We as Christians believe this..." or "Being a Christian, you can only do this..."
NO!
Evangelicals and Christian are not one in the same!
You are a warped, fundamentalist version of what Christianity is, at the heart, a religion that teaches love and acceptance.

Sure, every denomination has its issues, but the the ones I am familiar with...Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Unitarian... they promote the overall general message of Christianity, not a fire and brimstone, literal interpretation of it.

Having been raised in the Methodist Church I was instilled with "true" Christian values by my parents and my church. Nobody, and I repeat...NOBODY can tell me otherwise, or challenge my relationship with God based on who I am...because I did not chose that.
And that's what religion should be....a personal relationship with God.

To these crackpots, I can't have a relationship with God and with Pete. Sure, I could leave Pete, live alone, and then die...knowing I never was able to love someone, which I'm sure the evangelicals would be more than happy to see. But that will not happen.
Pete doesn't know how to cook ;-)

I think I've rambled enough.
It's not easy.
Straight men wouldn't last five minutes in our shoes.

Can't wait for Jesus Camp to come out on DVD. I might need a Valium.