Meme Dump

Why Is It ...

… that this Christmas many will hate refugees while they set up their Nativity Scene showing refugees desperately looking for shelter?

… that these days, if any group has the word "Liberty" or "Patriots" in its name, you can bet that they have little if anything to do with either.

… that Coca-Cola keeps trying to introduce these new flavors to their soft drinks but refuse to bring  the cocaine back?

… that some say aging gracefully is an art but I think aging disgracefully is a riot?

… that the only way to find out if your old is to fall down? If people laugh, you’re still young, but if people panic, you’re old.

… that a 72 hold in a  psych ward sounds intriguing as a potential vacation opportunity?

… that I am officially too old to know the slang of the youth? I mean, what the hell is ‘rizz’?

… that I’m not admitting to getting older, but I am saying that dinner time and bedtime are getting much closer?

… that as I put more thought into it, I just don’t think being an adult is going to work for me?

Bobservations

We have just the one computer in the house—well, at least until about a month ago when we bought  a laptop—and Carlos and I take turns using it for whatever we need. Trouble is, when I’m in the office on the computer, Carlos appears in the doorway about every seven minutes to tell me something …

 … Gloria called. She’s doing good.

… I think I’ll make chicken for dinner.

… _____ just said ….

And when he’s on the computer, I basically leave him alone.

Sunday afternoon I was on the computer and, like clockwork, seven minutes in, there he was at the door …

… I may take Ozzo for a walk.

He never did; but seven minutes later he was back at the door…

… Do you know where the mop is?

I told him where it was, and perhaps where he could put it, and then, yes, seven minutes later, the phone rings. It’s him, calling from the kitchen on his cell phone …

… I don’t want to bother you, but …

I may bury him under the rose bushes and see if we get better blooms.

The Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl on Sunday, and after the game _____ tweeted out congratulations to the team, saying the Chiefs represented the “Great State of Kansas” with the win.

Trouble is, the Chiefs play in Kansas City … Missouri. _____, or his team, deleted the tweet shortly after it went up, but plenty of people caught screenshots and commented:

Bruce Arthur:

“You can't make up how fucking dumb he is.”

Ana Marie Cox:

“Looking forward to the Sharpie-enhanced Kansas border!”

Tom Nichols:

“I hope the [_____] voters in both Kansas and Missouri have a little clearer picture now of how much [_____] doesn't give a shit about them. If Barack Obama had made that mistake, they'd have impeached him out of sheer hurt feelings.”

Judd Legum:

“Can’t believe the Deep State put Kansas City in MISSOURI just to embarrass [_____].”

Stephen Miller—no, not that Stephen Miller:

“[_____] is going to sign an executive order moving the state boundaries so Kansas City ends up in Kansas and therefore making his tweet correct.”

All good, but it boils down to that first response … you cannot make up how fucking dumb he is.

Up there to Brooklyn, East River State Park, a New York state park, will be renamed after the legendary activist, transgender pioneer and Stonewall hero, Marsha P. Johnson.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made the announcement at a Human Rights Campaign gala:

“This year we’re going to name the first state park after an LGBTQ person. We’re going to name it after Marsha Johnson, an icon of the community.”

They could rename Central Park after her and it still wouldn’t been enough for all she did for the movement.

Johnson and her friend Sylvia Rivera, who cofounded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, which advocated for homeless gay young people, will also be honored in a monument near the Stonewall Inn.

Great news.

Nikki van den Heever, a caucus precinct captain for former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, tried to talk down an Iowa woman who was incensed to find out on the day of the caucuses that Buttigieg is gay.

“Are you saying that he has the same-sex partner? Pete?”

“Yes.”

“Are you kidding? Then I don’t want anybody like that in the White House. So can I have my card back? He better read the bible.”

Seriously, this passes for someone who is part of the caucus? She gets to voice her opinion, her vote, and yet, after all these months, she had no idea Buttigieg is gay?

When Pete’s husband was on the campaign trail who did she think he was? When the photo appeared of Pete kissing Chasten at an event, what did she think that meant. When the thousands of articles appeared about Buttigieg the “openly gay” candidate, what did she think that meant.

And lastly, when she opted to vote for Pete because she liked what he stands for, why does it make a lick of difference if he’s gay?

Someone needs to take her vote away from her.

I don’t like Mitt Romney, much, but today I will give him props for breaking with the GOP and voting to convict _____ for abuse of power. Romney is the first GOP senator to break from his party and the first senator in history to vote to convict a same-party president in an impeachment trial. He said:

“The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. Yes, he did. … The president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust. What he did was not perfect. No, it was a flagrant assault under electoral rights, our national security and our fundamental values. … I swore an oath before God to exercise impartial justice. I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.”

The rest of the GOP Cowards goose-stepped along with a traitor, and they will be remembered as such.

Thanks, Mitt, for proving you have a backbone.

Over there to Sweden, Coca-Cola bought out the front pages of several Swiss newspapers this week to make a statement in support of an upcoming referendum that would criminalize homophobia.

Criminalize homophobia. Yes, please.

The legislation approved by parliament last December extends anti-racism norms to encompass discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation: a legal modification that allows for homophobia to be prosecuted just like racism, or anti-Semitism.

Good on Sweden, good on Coke.

Dan Zsolt; a male model who can rock a bunch of different looks … from 70s Falcon porn star and the ‘stache … to male model tease …and brief wearing hunk.

And then there’s the cowboy in a jock strap. I’d swear, if I didn’t know better, that some was reading my diary.

Just sayin’.

Have A Coke ... Tener Un Coca Cola ... يكون للفحم الكوك ... 有一个可乐 ... Есть кокс ... Haben eine Coke ...

I sometimes think I’m the odd man out; not just for being gay, though there are some who think that makes me odd; not for being a snarky queen, though others disagree. I think I’m the odd man out because when I see someone who looks different than me — me, being a middle-aged … gosh that hurts … white man — I like what I see. If I pass a person on the street who is a different color than I am, I find it interesting; when someone speaks another language than the English I speak, I find it appealing; if someone dresses differently than the so-called norm, I find them charming.

Which was why I loved the Coke ad that played during the Superbowl; that one-minute commercial that featured children and adults, gay and straight, from all walks of life, from all across America, singing "America the Beautiful" in multiple languages. I loved the different ethnicities and genders and orientations and families and languages in the ad because it made me remember that, despite the fact we are all so different, we are all Americans, and I think that’s cool. I like living in a country where we don’t all look and act and think and speak and dress and love the same; I live for different.

And so I am the odd man out because that little Coke ad up there at the top seems to have really pissed some people off; it sent a great many into hysterical reactions, racist comments, and just plain idiotic responses.

At first people jumped on the idea of the two gay dads in the ad — and it was a kind of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it segment — because, I guess, in their America, two gay dads don’t exist. News flash: they do. Still, I expected a little outrage over those dads because we rarely see gay couples featured in mainstream ads on mainstream shows, much less the most watched Superbowl in history-ry-ry-ry-ry-ry. Echoing is mine.

Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart.com was not happy to see gay dads roller-skating, with children, and Coke:

"When the company used such an iconic song, one often sung in churches on the 4th of July that represents the old 'E Pluribus Unum' view of how American society is integrated, to push multiculturalism down our throats, it's no wonder conservatives were outraged."

Wait’ “America The Beautiful” is sung mostly in churches on 4th of July? So, that means no gays? How Leahy can talk about integrated society in the same breath as having multiculturalism shoved down his throat is the height of GOP and conservative pundit lunacy. See, try as we might, America is not yet fully integrated? Not for all of us, sir; many of us are still considered less than in this country. I know, because I’m one of them.

But then I heard people were going nuts because “America The Beautiful” was being sung in languages other than English even though we are not a solely English-speaking country no matter what anyone thinks. We don’t have an “official” language in this country, so stop thinking and acting as if we do.

Former GOP Congressman, and deluded asshat, Allen West was especially unnerved by having to hear a non-English commercial, and wrote on his blog:

"If we cannot be proud enough as a country to sing "American the Beautiful" in English in a commercial during the Super Bowl, by a company as American as they come -- doggone we are on the road to perdition."

But Allen, it was an American ad sung by American for an American company and aired during an American sports tradition, but if you want to hear the song sung in America’s “native” language then might I suggest that you pick a Native American group to sing it because everyone else in this country is an immigrant who brought their own language here.

And that’s what’s good about this country; that America welcomes everyone and respects their differences; we are, as that old saying goes, a melting pot of multiculturalism and we are every language and creed and religion and gender and orientation and for Coke to feature that in an ad makes me wanna shout, I’ll have a Coke please. But, while West’s condemnation of the ad was somewhat tame — if also somewhat stupid — conservative columnist and Fox News Radio host Todd Starnes could not contain his rage or his Twitter fingers:

This is the typical right-wingnut, conservative zealot GOP response: America, love it, and speak English, or leave it. Starnes only speaks English so then English should be the only language he hears. How American is that? How welcoming is that? How delusional is that?

And then we have Glenn Beck, who recently began speaking a little more intelligently about the LGBT community, especially in light of the Russian anti-gay laws, but now he’s reverted back to form:

“So somebody tweeted last night and said, ‘Glenn, what did you think of the Coke ad?’ And I said, ‘Why did you need that to divide us politically?’ Because that’s all this ad is. It’s in your face, and if you don’t like it, if you’re offended by it, you’re a racist. If you do like it, you’re for immigration. You’re for progress. That’s all this is: To divide people. Remember when Coke used to do the thing on the top and they would all hold hands? Now it’s, have a Coke and we’ll divide you.”

It’s funny, and sad, to me, that Beck thinks this ad is divisive because I think when you include everyone, all nationalities and genders and orientations who live in this country and call America home, you’re being inclusive, but then Beck probably only wants to include the white right people.

As I’ve said, we are a country made up of many different peoples; we don’t all look alike, think alike, speak alike, love alike, worship alike, but if we can’t agree on one simple fact … that we are all Americans … then we’re sunk. Why can’t we celebrate the differences? Why can’t people who speak Spanish be American? Why can’t two men raise a family together as a loving couple? Why can’t we wear certain clothes, and preach certain things, and sing in our native tongue?

I say embrace the differences; learn something new. Or sit back in your easy chair and grow more and more angry.

Oh yeah, and let’s not forget that Katharine Lee Bates, who wrote “America The Beautiful”, was a Lesbian.

Snap.

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Coke Goes Green

A couple of weeks back, I showed y'all some green art. As in environmentally green art. A rendition of a Van Gogh classic 'painted' with plants and flowers on the side of a museum in London. See that post HERE. Now, however, I have some new green art for you, though this time it is art of the commercial variety. Coca-Cola, in conjunction with the World Wildlife Federation [WWF], unveiled a new billboard in the Philippines that is actually good for the environment.

The 60 x 60 square foot "living" billboard in Manila is made up of thousands of Fukien tea plants surrounding the iconic curvy shape of a silver Coke bottle. The project, with the CO2-eating plants was created in conjunction with Coca-Cola Philippines’ Live Positively sustainability program.

Pots made from recycled bottles contain the 3,600 trees, which live off a mixture of organic fertilizers, and although the plants are in the first stages of growth, they are expected to grow quickly, completely taking over the billboard surface, absorbing a total of 46,800 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Now that's green art.
And why can't we have that here?

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BREAKING: Two New Biblical Commandments Uncovered!!

The Eleventh Commandment:

Thou Shalt Not Drink Pepsi.

A church in Florida is not just battling for your soul, they're battling for your beverage. And they'd prefer it not be Pepsi.

The Bell Shoals Baptist Church is organizing a boycott of Pepsi. They are so angry at Pepsi that they have actually removed their 10 Pepsi machines and replaced them with Coke because, they believe, Pepsi advocates "acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle."

"We would like to send them a message," said Terry Kemple, President of the Community Issues Council that is organizing the boycott. He said that Pepsi donated more than a million dollars to organizations that fought California's gay marriage-banning Proposition 8. He also says the company has sponsored gay pride parades and commercials that accept cross-dressing and homosexuality.

What? Pepsi is for marriage equality and equal rights for all?

How dare they!

"They (have) begun to utilize the money we've helped them build up to trample on what we consider family values," Kemple says, and the church released a report that says that "Pepsi also forces its employees to attend sexual orientation and gender identity diversity training, where they are taught to accept homosexuality."

Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida: "The irony is that - in moving from Pepsi products to Coke products - they actually switched from one company that supports full-equality to another company that supports full-equality."

See, Baptists, Coke really is like Pepsi, and so, to that end, I offer my own commandment to the Bell Shoals Baptist Church. I'm calling it Commandment 12:

Have a Coke and a smile, and shut up.