In those 40 years we’ve made progress. People at bars no longer get harassed by police, in many places in the northeast we have full or almost full protection under the law. Wait Wait, three’s an update. See here. Of course it would have to be in shithole Texas. I’ve been to Texas, if it were to sink to the bottom of the ocean tomorrow I wouldn’t miss it though I would miss a few people I know who live there.

But in 37 states we still have mean spirited DOMA laws in place, which forbids gay people from the right of civil marriage.

And here in RI, House Speaker William Murphy saw fit not to let a divorce equality bill come to a vote. I cannot believe he’s being this obstinate. He knows what the consequences of not changing the divorce law will bring. But I understand his thinking since he’s a good Catholic boy, kisses the Bishops ring et al. You see he’s thinking of the divorce equality bill as the camels nose in the tent flap for gay marriage. But what he has lost sight of is what will happen now that this bill is pretty much dead for this year.

I believe Cass Ormiston will push forward with a discrimination suit against the state. The crux of the argument will be that her Article 1 Section 2 rights under the RI Constitution (To name just one!) are being violated by her inability to obtain a divorce decree in the case of Ormiston v. Chambers.

If it does go forward the section of statute that precludes the equal rights under the law is the Family Court Act of 1967, particularly the section of Rhode Island General Law that has the husband/wife thing in § 8-10-3. It will be the linchpin of the entire suit.

If by chance the suit is successful it would destroy the Family Court Act. I don’t think Murphy is paying attention to that aspect.

And yes, we may have what is perceived to be a hostile judiciary. But when it comes to interpretation of rights under the Constitution I think this might be a slam dunk for the plaintiff.

But otherwise almost every Fortune 500 company has policy that covers LGBT people. And I know having worked for both Brown University and the State of Rhode Island that health care and insurance benefits are available to the partners of gay people.

But it isn’t enough. Until we all have the same rights the fight is never over.

Yesterday was an interesting day. We lost icons that originated in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

I’m talking about the death of Farrah Fawcett at age 62 from cancer, and the death of Michael Jackson from heart failure though more information is coming out at this point.

Interestingly it is 4 years and six months to the day that my paternal grandmother died. I hadn’t thought of that one initially but then the 25 in the date grabbed me, for grandma died December 25, 2005.

So this will be easy to remember.

In other news this week Johnny Carson’s sidekick Ed McMahon died.

And of course my WordPress theme won’t let the whole image show. Just click it go to the full view.

Doonesbury hits it one the head. I’m sorry but I disagree with President Obama’s stance on this. We need to see justice done to Bush and his cronies. What they authorized is criminal, it’s torture and against every convention of the United States. They really need to prosecute Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, hell the hole White House Iraq Group. I say this because I’m certain they all knew about the torture that was taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Even to this day photos have emerged that the Obama administration is suppressing because they’re so inflammatory. So tell me why those criminals in the Bush administration including Bush himself are still waking free?

Mr. President,

I know you have a lot on your plate at the moment, what with the economy cratering, North Korea threatening a nuclear strike against a U.S. target etc. But you’ve been disappointing me lately.

During your campaign you made promises to end Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, and to push gay rights forward. Thus far all we’ve seen is a Justice Department defense of DADT that was sickening. You also made promises to ‘fix’ the broken health care system we have here in the U.S.

So why now are you backpedaling and not being our champion for a public insurance program that competes with the insurance industry? Could it be you’re already starting to think about your chances for re-election? Put your mind at ease because I’m issuing not just you but the Democratic Party an ultimatum and I hope my blog followers heed my call.

The election of 2008 was the first time in my life that I gave a significant chunk of money to the primary and to the general race for president. If the demands of the people aren’t met, it will be the LAST year. Instead I’ll use the money to start a new political party. How about a party beholden only to the citizens, one where corporations don’t ride roughshod over our rights. Call it the Children of the Tea Party.

The Tea Party I reference has nothing to do with the Tea Party idiocy we’ve seen over the past few months. The main reason our predecessors burned the Gaspee and then the Boston Tea Party was because of a little thing called taxation without representation. We are in precisely that situation right now. The problem with the modern day Tea Party is that it is a thinly veiled ploy by neo-cons. Recall that neo-con Grover Norquist who famously said “I’d like to shrink the federal government down to a size where it can be drowned in a bathtub”.

Instead the Tea Party I propose is one where our tax dollars are used for the greater good of the citizens in the U.S., not for misadventure in Iraq, not for big arms manufacturers, or big contract firms. No, by greater good I mean life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To have those things health is one thing that cannot be ignored, nor can the rights of all of us. I’m talking about the Defense of Marriage Act and the Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell military compromise.

Other things that I consider the greater good, how about stewardship of the environment? How about we start building the infrastructure and cars for the remainder of the 21st century, cars that run on electricity, get anywhere from 200 to 300 miles per charge, and can be recharged withing 30 minutes. I’ve already written about how you could put the charging stations at supermarkets since everyone has to shop at some point. By doing this we reduce our total demand for fossil fuels while at the same time reducing the amount of pollutants we spew into the air. I know the naysayers would harp on the fact that it might overload the electrical grid, and other arguments. So use solar and wind to generate the electricity, here in the northeast we get plenty of both sunshine and wind.

Another public good, making sure that everyone receives a quality education. What is a quality education you ask? It isn’t the No Child Left Behind Act. That was a cruel joke. Instead revise curriculum to first address linguistic barriers, then teach the kids critical thinking skills. That alone would put the U.S back in its rightful place as the beacon for knowledge and peace.

Invest money in public transit. Not token amounts, instead I’m talking massive investment. Take the trillion plus we’re spending on the military every year and end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and use the difference to fund the creation of real public transportation (Hint, not buses!)

Invest some of the money in fixing crumbling infrastructure. I know here in RI you could rebuild I-95 from the Massachusetts border through Providence. That would be a good start. Maybe even drop I-95 underground from the RI line through the state. Wouldn’t that be fantastic. It’s only 35 or so miles.

As far as foreign policy, our foreign policy would be better served if we were in fact energy self sufficient as I’ve outlined above. Now that we own a good chunk of GM lets get them to produce solar panels and wind turbines since we know they don’t know fuck all about building cars.

In short, no more money to the Democratic or Republican parties. We’ve known for years that you’ve been bought and sold many times over. It’s time for your cushy life in congress or the White House to come to an end.

Watch this video and tell me that the U.S. insurance industry isn’t just using FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) to try to derail a universal health plan here.

Some parts from the video I think you’ll enjoy.

First you’ll see President Obama, who I’m not too pleased with at the moment, waffling away from answering a question on single payer aka universal health care.

Then we have psychiatrist David Gratzer being questioned by Congressman Dennis Kucinich. That part is absolutely priceless and we watch Gratzer try to be flippant and Kucinich pressing on with the questions.

Contrary to what you’ve seen on TV ads, wait times in Canada are NOT months for an MRI. When I had my MRI here in the U.S. it took over a month to get the appointment, then another month for the results. Had it been a cancerous tumor it would have probably grown to the point where treatment would be more difficult.

Took close to 3 months to get in to see my M.D. That’s with decent insurance.

So the Canadian system looks mighty attractive to me.